#from october 2023.... pretty much exactly a year

[roastedcha]

the link click charms i made and never posted here

[mysticsparklewings]

Obscutober 2024 Prompt List(s)!

Anyone got room for yet another October Prompt List? 😉

I really wasn’t feeling the Official Inktober Prompt List this year & deeply miss the Obscutober lists nikolas_tower used to post over on Instagram, so I decided to break from tradition even more than I usually do & make my own! ✨

The main idea is each prompt is an Obscure Word, but I did get a little choosy & try to put a bit of my own spin on it!

Click the "Keep Reading" and we'll talk more about the details + Definitions if you need them. ✨

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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Before I get into my usual long-winded description, if you want to actually follow this prompt list—Or the Lite or Weekly version—here's what you need to know:

Here's the "Official" Definition list so you don't have to spend time looking up the words yourself if you don't want to...But also, if you do want to, feel free! The "official" definitions are intended as a time-saving guideline!

The list is open to all mediums! "Typical" visual art (Digital or Traditional), Literature, Sculpture, Crafts, Coloring Pages—whatever you want!

The word itself does not have to be directly included/related to what you make; You can just take inspiration from the way it sounds or looks, or something the sticks out to you in the definition, etc.

If a word or two doesn't work for you for various reasons, feel free to swap-in a different word—Either another "obscure" word of your choosing, or a word from another prompt list that you like better.

I've provided "Lite" and Weekly versions of the list in case the full 31 is too much, but you can pick-and-choose words from the full list however you'd like if you're not crazy about the words I picked for the shorter versions, or if you want to shorten the list in a different way.

Tagging me is appreciated, but not required!

Remember that my views on these Month-Long Daily Challenges is that it's about the challenge of completing a certain amount of creative pieces in the time given...And that's pretty much it, so as long as you're doing that and having fun, I'm really not bothered about how you choose to follow the list! My Inktober motto has always been "work smarter, not harder," and this is no different!

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Well, well, Sparklers—I assume this is quite the surprise coming from me. 🤭 Both because I've been awfully quiet over the past couple of months and this is what I come back with. [And for the record, I intend to explain more about where exactly I've been in a Museletter, but I wasn't able to get it typed up and ready-to-go today; Once I get it ready I'll add the link here.]

Not that me disappearing for a while and coming back with something not necessarily expected of me is all that abnormal, but rather if you've followed me for a while, you might remember I'm not normally super-keen on everyone and their uncle's mother's brother's sister making their own Prompt Lists.

So then, Mystic, what gives? Why make your own Prompt List now?

You can thank nikolas_tower on Instagram for that, actually. 😆 Some of you might also remember that I follow his Obscutober list in October 2021, and I've also swapped in an Obscutober word a couple of times when one of the "official" Inktober words didn't work for me.

I've explained before how much I love the Obscutober concept to its core, so I won't re-hash all of that here. The important part is that I do love it, but to my great sadness, 2022 only got an abbreviated Obscutober list (2 words per week), 2023 didn't get an Obscutober list at all (though I didn't really need one for 2023 because I was busy enough as it was following two other prompt lists at once) and considering just how close we're getting now, I really sincerely doubt Nikolas has/had plans for a 2024 one. Add to that: I was not super jazzed about the official Inktober prompt list for this year. Now, don't get me wrong—I'm normally not thrilled with every single word on the list (and if you've followed my Inktobers' past, you know I say as much during the month!), but I'm not sure I've ever felt quite so unenthusiastic about the whole list before.

Additionally still, some of you might remember I did talk a little bit last year about some...struggles I supposed is the closest word, that I've had with the past couple of Inktobers I've done. And generally, I've had some ideas for really shaking up the way I handle October for the past couple of years.

While, granted, my main "shake-up" idea is totally unrelated even to this list and I never seem to be able to get the necessary prep work it would require done in time, I think the main takeaway is a I've had a low-grade yearning to do something different...but I do still want to stick to my "tradition" of handling Inktober unconventionally.

So in the end, it kinda just made sense to at least try making my own Obscutober-style list this year. It's something different and I've missed the Obscutober lists, so why not?

Worth noting that I did try to put just a little of my own spin on it in my choice of words. While already I did try to stay away from words Nikolas already used for all 4 of his Obscutobers, I also had a couple of "rules" with the words I picked:

No words that are "Obscure" purely because they're not English/aren't found in English dictionaries. For example, "Lunette" is a French word, but it appears in English dictionaries with a definition that's more than just "the French word for..."

The word must have a definition that's relatively easy to find and/or appears in well-established English Dictionaries like Dictionary.com or Merriam-Webster. This rule exists because I noticed pretty quickly a lot of "aesthetic" definition images on Pinterest either don't turn up any other reliable results that a word even exists, or the word may exist but the Pinterest definition is straight-up wrong.

No overly gross/medical/NSFW words. (This wasn't a problem with any of Nikolas' Obscutober picks, this is just a personal preference that did shape my research a bit.)

One of my problems with the Inktober list for this year is too many words feel like synonyms/too closely related, so I wanted to avoid that. A couple of words are still kind of close in the end, like "Vitrine" and "Hyaline" or "Escutcheon" and "Orphrey, but they're still more different from each other than some words that I considered and ultimately turned down. [For example, I considered "Lambent" and "Clinquant" but decided they were too close in meaning to "Scintillate."]

Likewise, aside from the theme of being Obscure, I tried not to lean to heavily on words that fit a particular theme or idea

I tried not to pick "obscure" words that have become decently well-known or popular because they're obscure. The best example is "Aglet" wasn't even considered because it's been mentioned in multiple TV shows that I know of. "Scintillate" might push that boundary a little, but it is one of my personal favorites.

I also tried to pick words that had a little variety in definition length and not pick too many that had really short definitions, which ties into my next point...

More abstractly, I tried to pick words that feel like they both lend themselves to a really solid image but also leave room for interpretation of that image. Historically I've had problems with Inktober words feeling too much like they really only fit one specific interpretation of the word or they only have so many ways to represent the idea. And on the flip side, some of Nikolas' Obscutober picks (at least when I participated in 2021) felt a little too abstract at times. Ultimately, this feeling is probably highly subjective, but I tried my best to find the right balance anyway.

While not perfectly balanced, I did try not to lean too heavily on one type of word, as in Adjectives/Nouns/Verbs. There are still less verbs overall because it was just harder to find verbs that fit what I wanted, but if I hadn't consciously paid attention there probably would've only been 1-2 verbs and like 20 adjectives.

Not really related to adding "my own spin," but also worth noting that it was also important to me to provide "Lite" and Weekly versions of the list the way that Nikolas did for Obscutober II to make it easier for people that just don't have one-thing-every-single-day kind of time to feel welcome to still participate in some way. As stated in the description for those, you can just jump around the list however you like, but I know sometimes it's just easier if someone already lays things out that way for you instead of having to remember to leave things out and such.

And then for the visual list design, I did a mixture of Nikolas' Obscutober list style and my own more typical branding elements, which ended up working out much better than I expected; I wanted the "spirit" of the list to be recognizable to fans of Nikolas' lists without being an exact copy/looking too much like I was trying to "pretend" to be him or something, and I think I landed in a pretty good place. [And in case anyone is wondering, yes I did use my own template to make the list!]

I do have to admit to you Sparklers though that despite going through all that trouble, I'm actually still not 100% sure I'll be following the list myself. 😅 I've gone back and forth over how exactly I want to handle October at all this year so much...I definitely want to (and intend to!) do a Daily Challenge, especially given how spotty my uploads have been over the last year, but I just can't seem to settle on one full-fledged plan that I'm completely satisfied with.

I do have one potential idea I'm considering that already has a very specific alternate list, but pretty much all of my other ideas would normally use the official Inktober list, and so since that list isn't on the table for me this year, and it's really looking like DeviantArt isn't doing Drawtober again this year—Which I find incredibly sad, by the way!—I need another list on-hand that I know I can use and be reasonably happy with.

And for the record, I'm being intentionally coy about that one specific idea and not sharing that list because it's highly specific and if I do decide to go that route in some way, I'd like the main idea to be a least a little bit of a surprise.

But even if I don't use this list myself, I thought at least a few other people might enjoy giving it a try. After all, I wasn't the only one that enjoyed Nikolas' Obscutobers—I originally found out about them through another person entirely. So maybe a few other people are feeling that Obscutober void, or maybe you're just a big Word Nerd™ like me, or maybe you just want something that's a little different still from a lot of the more typical alternative prompt lists that have been floating around.

So, whatever the case, here the list is (and the Lite and Weekly versions, too); Let us all do with them what we will! 😉

Before I go, I will offer an apology to anyone who's disappointed or frustrated that I'm posting the list so close to time to use it—Believe me, if I'd been 100% sure I wanted to make it in the first place sooner, I would have gotten it out much sooner, too! But I'm doing the best I still can by getting out with this very tiny 2-day cushion instead of just dropping it right on the 1st. If the list turns out to be something you Sparklers want to see again next year, I promise I'll do my best to get it out with a lot more advance notice next time!

With that, there are still two days left in September and as semi-implied already, I still have a ton to do to be anything close to ready for October, so I'll leave you Sparklers to the list and your own October plans, whatever they may be; Hope to see you all again hopefully very, very soon...! 🤗

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List Design  © me, MysticSparklewings

Obscutober Concept Inspired by nikolas_tower

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⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

[boccher]

Upcoming astronomonical things I wanna post about

April 8 2024 total solar eclipse

Image taken from NASA

Areas in Mexico, the USA and Canada along the centre path of the eclipse, marked above in yellow, will see the moon completely block the sun for 3-4 minutes. Pretty much all of north america (except alaska) will experience partial phases of the eclipse, but most people who've experienced a total phase will say that the darkness of a total eclipse is an incomparable, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I've never seen one myself but I hope as many people as possible get to see it.

The timing and visibility of a solar eclipse depends greatly on location! TimeAndDate.com is a good website that shows fully detailed maps of the eclipse and the exact times for any location.

Viewing the sun can easily blind you if you don't take safety precautions. Safety guidelines from NASA here.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks

Photo by Adam Block (astrobin link) | He made a video about this photo too if you're curious how he took it

At magnitude 5, this comet is currently just barely naked-eye visible, only from northern hemisphere dark skies, just after sunset. To the naked eye, it would only look like a fuzzy circle with a tiny tail, not as pretty as the pic above (taken with long exposure photos). Not a spectacle of a comet (that's for the next section), but certainly fun for binocular/telescope viewing or astrophotography.

Predictive magnitude curves for 12P over time

Left: astro.vanbuitenen.nl | Right: cobs.si

The comet is expected to brighten to around magnitude 4 over the next month. It'll remain visible after sunset in the northern hemisphere for about the next month before it becomes too low on the horizon to see. At the same time, it'll start to become visible in the southern hemisphere after sunset, where it'll remain magnitude 4-6 for a month.

A comet's location and visibility depends greatly on location and time, it's best to search up comets a sky atlas like Stellarium (it's searchable on the pc program and the app, doesn't seem to be on the web program) or SkyGuide, to be able to find it from your location.

C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

Predictive magnitude curves for C/2023 A3 over time

Top left: astro.vanbuitenen.nl | Top right: cobs.si | Bottom: theskylive.com

This comet will be visible September and October this year. Maximum magnitude predictions for this comet range from magnitude +2, 0, -2, -4. The details of this comet are unpredictable until it reaches the inner solar system, but currently it seems likely to become a considerable naked-eye visible comet, much better than 12P/Pons-Brooks. If it reaches negative magnitudes, it might even become the brightest comet since comet McNaught in 2007!

Comet McNaught | Image taken from wikimedia commons

For reference, comet McNaught (above) reached about magnitude -5.5 on 13 Jan 2007. This pic was taken 20 Jan 2007, as it appeared at about magnitude -1. Very low chance we'll see a comet exactly like this again, so dont set your expectations this high. But nevertheless, a comet reaching negative magnitudes would be a sight to see.

C/2023 A3 will be visible in both hemispheres before sunrise for the last 2 weeks of September and a bit into October. Then it'll be too close to the sun to see for about 2 weeks, then after 13 Oct it'll become visible from both hemispheres after sunset, quickly dimming to invisibility over 2 weeks.

Again, comet visibility depends on time and location, so check a sky atlas like Stellarium for specifics.

[yonpote]

as someone who wasnt here at the time (was a fan from about 2011-2013) what exactly defines the "softlaunch era" pre-coming out that i hear you and others refer to?

you've come to the right place cuz this is the era when i truly became a Phannie... "gay softlaunch" is generally considered 2017-18, but to be more specific it was october 31, 2016-june 13, 2019!

before they came out this was also referred to as "post-baking universe" referencing the halloween 2016 monster pops video that had an (at the time) abnormal amount of raunchy humor and just general derangedness. nothing like it is today, but that point felt very significant and dan even brought it up in liveshows like yeah idk what happened there and when phil called a peach an ass in a gaming video dan said "we live in a post-baking universe" (i believe fans coined the term tho).

people have also called it the "glass closet era" which is a divisive name for a lot of people cuz "glass closet" can be seen as kind of a mean term and it implies like, stereotyping or speculating or the "we been knew" behavior dan had talked about in BIG. which i understand that feeling, but i don't think that's what was happening, because the way i see it was queer flagging. ways they could show a little bit who they really were without saying it just yet. they weren't Out out, but they were just like. openly talking about attraction to men and finding men hot and not calling it a Man Crush or anything. dan would bring up queerness more often in liveshows, which hes mentioned queer artists and stuff before but now it was also making jokes about like.. being in a gas leak man porn fantasy in his first livestream of 2017 LMAO. phil would make a lot more innuendos, which hes always done, but now he wasnt pretending like he didnt know what he was saying. dan started wearing a single hoop earring on his right ear. this is an old school form of queer flagging, in The Olden Days (im too lazy to look up when but like my 70-something year old history teacher knew about this) if a man had an earring on his left ear, he's straight, and if he had one on his right, he's gay. that one's pretty subtle if you don't know much about queer history and there were Great Debates over whether or not we should take it to mean he is gay, but personally i saw it as like. he was letting us know without needing to say the G word out loud just yet!

i think a really important part of this era was even outside of directly discussing queerness, they were both trying to become more authentic online and figuring out how to do that without compromising their own privacy. dan stopped straightening his hair and rebranded and opened up about his mental health. phil's authenticity journey seemed a bit slower and wasn't as overt or seemingly drastic as dan's was, but it was happening! he changed up his hair!!! which yes its kinda silly to talk abt dnp's hair but the emo fringe was Their Brand. phil in particular said that, the emo fringe was a comfort place but he was feeling like he was trapped in having it forever because it was Who He Was, so it was a huge deal for him! he opened up a little bit about his physical health, both of them were a bit more honest about all the stress and anxiety they were dealing with (the mukbang is a pretty good video where they talk about that and an interesting one to watch in retrospect) and their whole 2018 tour was themed around whether they should Give The People What They Want or do what they wanted to do.

god i talk too much ANYWAY then dan disappeared in 2019 and phil was manning the helm for a good five and a half months and then the Big Gay hit! the Hard Launch Era if you will :) and now i would say 2023-present is the Unhinged Era so i have no clue what the hell their next move is gonna be...

[blueepink07]

I decided to look at the calendars and the timetable in Muu's MVs and I think I found some interesting things!

Taking in chronological order, the first calendar should be this one, which has the cherry blossoms. In Japan, usually, the flowering cherry trees come into full bloom around the beginning of April. It is the month when the new year of school starts for students.

So it seems that the friend group started the bullying, since the beginning of the school year, Rei's clothes being wet and her items being splattered on the floor. (the calendar in this scene also shows the cherry blossoms)

Remember this is the moment when Rei decides to turn "upside down" Muu's reputation at school, when she considers that enough is enough.

So then it raises the question... How much time Muu was bullied at school?

Well to find out we have again to look at the calendar.

This one should be a month from autumn, more exactly early September.

To understand better my line of thoughts, I will explain how did I reached this conclusion!

Beginning with the timetable!

Considering that the murder takes place during sunset, I thought that it was important to find when Muu finishes her classes.

"In a typical high school in Japan, teachers gather each morning at 8:30 a.m. for a brief meeting. Students meet at 8:35 a.m. for a 5-minute homeroom period. Regular classes begin at 8:45 a.m. and there are four 50-minute classes before lunch. High school students eat in their homeroom. "

With this information, I figured out that the empty space between hours is for lunch, because there are already four classes before it.

"Two afternoon periods are followed by school clean-up and a 5-minute homeroom meeting, after which students are dismissed at 3:30 p.m."

Muu has, after lunch, one or two afternoon periods.

Also, interesting she also has four classes on Saturday, something that is pretty common in Japan. "On Saturday the day ends after four periods, at 1 p.m."

Getting back to the topic, the classes usually end at 3:30 pm or 4 pm most of the time. However, it's pretty clear that it's not the hour when Rei goes home and the murder happens. Not only the sunset will not start so early, but also Muu's phone gives us a hint of the time.

But why are they at such a late hour at school, if the classes should end at around 3:30 pm? Simple, club activities after classes, at which most students in Japan attend to!

"Club activities are held after school and run until 5 or 6 p.m. One hour per week is devoted to mandatory club activity. Other club activity is voluntary."

They last around 2 hours, so, if we take into consideration Muu's timetable, the clubs should end at around 5:30 - 6 pm. (might depend on the club)

Now, I want to point out this specific interrogation question:

"What kind of kid where you?"

The past tense it's very interesting to me: "I did many extracurricular activities". Yes, it might refer to her younger self, but, considering that, even in high school, clubs are heavily encouraged in Japan, it's rather odd that she doesn't say that she still attends them.

That's because, in reality, she probably stopped going to those once she started to be bullied, which explains why she is the only one in the classroom, waiting for the club activities to be finished, so she can go home.

"School club activities, commonly known as “bukatsu” in Japan, play a significant role in the lives of students. These extracurricular activities are an integral part of the Japanese school experience, providing a platform for personal growth, skill development, and fostering a sense of community."

Club activities are a good way to spend your time with your friends, while doing something that you like. Because Muu started to be bullied, she had no reason to attend to these anymore. Not only she would spend her time alone, but also risk being picked on again, preferring to stay in the classroom.

With the idea that the clubs from Muu's school should end around 5:30 pm, we can decide the month based on when the sun fully sets.

I will admit that it took me a while to notice the yellow dots, which should resemble the leaves, so, because of the warm colours, I thought that the calendar showed July. Not August, because, in most schools in Japan, there is a summer vacation which starts from July 20 to August 31.

However, considering that Muu lives in Minato Ward, Tokyo, as seen in this post, the sun should fully set at around 7 pm, during July. Which doesn't really makes sense, because Rei should be outside of school, after club activities and some time spent preparing her herself to go, at around 5:40 - 5:45 pm, when there is not a sunset.

What made me, at first, not consider autumn as an option, where the green leaves from this scenery. So I researched a little and found put that in Tokyo, the leaves don't start to fall until late November.

Which left me with two options: September and October.

October was easily out of the question, because, in the first day of October the sun fully sets at 5:26 pm, which is too early.

Which leaves us with September, when the sun sets at around 6 pm. Taking into account the minutes before Muu reaches Rei in that day, I think it's safe to assume that early September, should be the time when the murder took place.

I hope I gave a good explanation and found some interesting things about Muu! Thank you for reading!

Sources if anyone is interested!

[tarathoughts13]

smosh - the current situation

as i was pulling together my notes for my next bit city analysis (part 2 coming soon btw guys), i came across another topic which i think deserves it's own post instead of being combined with the bit city post, this post is about, the current situation with smosh.

so, as i said previously, smosh is not exaclty in the best place right now, 2024 overall has been an odd year for youtube, but especially smosh. while on one hand there were some great parts, smosh the sitcom, more games content, new cast member, and the introduction of bit city (as flawed as it is) being the main ones, there have also been some down sides. as smosh decided to take a break in early summer of this year all the way until august, their viewership has naturally gone down, especially on the main channel.

now this itself isn't as much an issue, naturally when you sya that you're not gonna post for 2 months, you will lose some views and maybe even some subsribers, it's not a large issue. the issue that i think smosh has run into, is that they're not able to get their views back. see, last year, if you look at the views across the main, pit and games channels, they were all at a relatively good place, main channel had had the benefit of food battle gaining 2.7 million views and going no.1 on trending and prepping for anthony's funeral, every video towards the end of 2023 has somewhere around 800k - 1m views on average. pit channel was booming with views around this time, in fact i think that for a while, from october to late november, nealry every smosh pit video had 1 million to 2 million views (everything from eat it or yeet it, who memed it, reddit stories, etc.) and for games, it's a bit more difficult (for me) to sense the average but it was somewhere around the 600k/800k to 1 million/2 million range, so overall pretty good.

however, nowadays, the views have definitely fallen, for pit and games i can't tell exactly how much (i am theatre kid, not made for math) but from what i can tell, most of the videos with 1 million or + views (on pit) are reddit stories, everything else generally stays within 800k/900k view count. and for the main channel.... it's not looking so good.

now, to be fair, even this time last year, in november of 2023, the smosh main channel was not doing perfect, and a lot of the flashbacks + sketches that weren't nostalgia based got less than a million views, as ian and anthony have said, sketch comedy has and will always be difficult to make on a platform like youtube, not many average viewers are willing to watch it (unless you're a big brand like snl), and unless you have somehting really brand/nostalgia based like food battle or pokemon battle, etc. it's gonna be hard for you to get views, but, at least back then, their sketches were still getting decent views, and there were a good couple that had from around 900k to 1 million views. nowawadays, with the introduction of and smosh putting all of their attention on bit city, most of the views are from 600k to 900k views (which is pretty decent tbf, that's how the channel was doing back in 2023 as well with the exception of food battle), and only ONE bit city sketch has over a million views, that sketch being 2024 sucks, bit city 2.

anthony's channel hasn't been doing that well either, many fans have been complaining on pressalike's consistent decision to basically turn his channel into like an interview/assumption channel for la influencers, and from shifting the original focus of his channel, which was to give a voice to those who don't have one in society (minorities, marginalised communities,). it also seems that at smosh, they have really been trying to merge the two channels (smosh + pressalike) together into 1 company, and so a lot of crew from one company have changed the other, and so this has also lead to a lot of changes behind the scenes (which i think reflects a bit in the content).

to add on to this view situation, a lot of fans have also noticed that anthony has started appearing less and less in content, besides the content on his main channel and on lunchtime with smosh, he is barely on smosh anymore. ian at least makes appearances in stuff like bit city and occasionally pit and games content, but anthony has basically like checked out, he's mostly bts nowadays, besiddes 2024 sucks, he's always in the background of bit city sketches or in the audience, and the beopardy he was in recently, was one of his first pit appearances in MONTHS. now this by itself wouldn't be as big an issue if they had just addressed it, but unfortunately, they have not, smosh has not addressed any of the fan speculations or concerns about anthony at all, not a community post, or a pinned comment, or even an instagram story or reddit post or any type of damage control, nothing. what this does is that it leaves a lot of the fans (especially ianthony shippers and supporters who supported and loved anthony all throughout his return to smosh in 2023) feeling very blindsided and confused about the whole ordeal.

and to add a cherry on top, a lot of the smosh cast have been getting into drama lately, with noah being allegedely a zionist/liking pro-israel tweets? (i think), keith making some really insensitive jokes about the whole diddy case, and chanse going out with a trump supporter (he said it's not official or anything but still...), it's not been the best for the channel pr wise either (and as far i know - none of the cast members listed above has issued apologies or retracted their statements).

also (this isn't related but i thought i might m

so overall, smosh is in kinda a messy place right now, and i think that's for multiple reasons, it definitley seems like there is a shift in the leadership team for smosh and there have been many crew departures in the past year (from heidi to zoe, to most recently, josh), and overall, things have changed, a lot. honestly the smosh right now looks slightly unrecognizable from the smosh 1 year ago to me, and that's coming from someone who became a stan of the channel around 2023.

now, that's not to say that things are horrible or that they can't get better, i think they cna, it will just take a lot of reworking. i think the 2 biggest changes they can make so far is 1. change up bit city and find a way to make it reach more people and get more views, while also staying true to the smosh core audience, 2. to make anthony's channel's focus back on giving marignalised communities a voice for themselves, and 3. to maybe make some sort of statement or acknowledgement on anthony's departure/absence from the channel of late. i think smosh can find it's stride again, this year hasn't been horrible that way by any means, it's just been messy and complicated. but as always, i will be hoping for the best for smosh and i am genuinely excited to see what comes next.

thanks for reading all this, this post was kinda just to get my thoughts out there on the current situation at smosh, tagging @lilac-hecox bc i think you'll agree with me a lot here and i'd like to see someone agree with me, that's nice for non-excistent ego.

[sillygooseassociation]

The Year of Us

Request: Holiday fic request: new years w/Jason first new years together fluffy or spicy whichever you prefer ♥️

Description: When Jason invites you to a New Year’s Eve party, someone’s jealousy runs wild but honestly? Might be the best for everyone.

Warning(s): angst, jealousy, smut, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it, i just forgot to include them talking about contraception lol, reader is on birth control)

Pairing: JRU, Jason Sudeikis x reader

Word Count: 3.6k

A/N: and here it is! angst, smut, and fluff to ring in the new year. the origin story of our beloved JRU couple! while these are not published in chronological order, this shows how Jason and Y/N finally made it official! i think the order of reading the JRU and everything may be a little confusing, so maybe i’ll make a little reading guide? if you’ve read all of JRU, i hope you pick up on all the little callbacks, such as finding out where their little phrase comes from! anywho, happy happy new year, friends! 2022 has had some really sucky things for me, but it’s also had some absolutely amazing things like discovering ted lasso and the light it has brought into my world (plus jason, thank you god). ted and jason have then brought me all of you, my beautiful friends! i am so thankful for all of you and can’t wait for us to grow even more together in 2023!

-

To say Jason’s invitation surprised you would be a massive understatement. Sure, the two of you had hung out multiple times since his appearance on SNL at the end of October. But no one had truly made any moves and it was absolutely infuriating. Maybe you understood his hesitation at the beginning, he was in his late 40s and you were a young PA for SNL, he likely didn’t want to abuse any power someone could perceive him as having over you. However, after his flirting with you during your first real conversation, you didn’t think he would instantly dial back,

But alas, that’s exactly what he did. He spent probably an hour with you at the after-party, apologizing over a drink as promised, and he most certainly let his eyes gloss over your figure more than once, but that was it. You two had hung out almost once a week since then, yet no moves had been made. Could you make a move? Technically, yes. Realistically, hell no. What if you ruin this amazing friendship the two of you had formed just because you had the hots for him? What if he complained to his friends? And by friends, you mean what if he told people like Bill Hader? You’re pretty sure that means your life would be over. So pushed aside feelings and friendly touches on the arm were all there was.

That’s not to say you didn’t do certain things to perhaps prompt Jason to act on his flirty comments. Every weekly hangout, your pants got a little tighter and your neckline a little lower. And not that anyone could prove it, but any onlooker would think you were the most clumsy person ever considering the couple of times you spilled your drink on yourself, specifically spilling on your chest, drawing a certain someone’s attention to the area. Much to your dismay though, it seemed as if your efforts were failing, Jason flirting with you in almost each of your interactions but never following through to show you that he was serious.

So when he texted you to ask if you had any plans for that evening, New Year’s Eve, you were surprised. If he was asking, he must not have the kids, but wouldn’t he want to be spending the holiday with his friends? Ignoring your confusion, you tell him about the wine and leftover pizza awaiting you in your kitchen. After expressing his disgust at the pairing (though you know it's bullshit, the two of you had shared that exact meal at his place before), he tells you to be ready by 9 and then responds to none of your follow-up questions. “Geez, thanks, Jas…” You roll your eyes at the man, how were you supposed to even know what to wear if you didn’t know what you were doing? Surely he wouldn’t want to go out, New York is packed on any given day, nonetheless New Year’s Eve. Plus, you know how anxious he feels about paparazzi seeing you two and reading into things. Not that he had told you such, but it was easy to put two and two together when you only ever hung out at one of your places or a hole-in-the-wall bar with a back entrance.

By the time nine o’clock rolled around, you were anxiously pacing in front of your door, ready for Jason’s text that he was outside. You were dressed up more than normal, in a sparkling outfit that fits you just perfectly and definitely showed skin in all the right places. Were you too dressed up? You put on white Jordans to try and dress the outfit down, knowing heels likely be too much and would leave you regretting it the next day. But what if you still went overboard? Your anxious thoughts were cut off by the buzzing of your phone,

Balls Man: Here :)

If it were any other man or you lived in any other city, it would be a red flag that Jason didn’t come up to your apartment to get you, or at least meet you in the lobby. But with the busy and full streets of the Big Apple, plus the risk of fans, you understood Jason’s hesitation when he explained his texted arrival the first time he picked you up. Rushing out of your apartment and down the stairs, hopefully burning off some of your excited energy, a bright smile crosses your face when you see Jason’s car stalled in front of your building. Opening the passenger, you slide in, not surprised to hear a Mumford & Sons’ song playing, “Hey there, stranger.” You roll your eyes and look at him with a cocked eyebrow, “Really? Could you be anymore midwestern white dad in his 40s?” 

Letting out a hearty laugh, Jason nods as he focuses on the road, pulling into the street when the opportunity presented itself, “Alright, I asked for that one.” You chuckle in response, subtly glancing over to check him out, letting out a small shaky breath at the image of his flexed left arm out with his hand holding to the wheel, his right hand relaxing on the gear shift in between your bodies. You quickly have to ask him something or you may do something drastic and regrettable, “So, what exactly are we doing tonight?” Jason casually shrugs, looking over his shoulder as he merges left, heading in the direction of Manhattan from your Brooklyn apartment, “Thought we’d head to a party my friend’s having at his place. Unless you wanted to do something else, of course.” You hold in a laugh at the second part of Jason’s response, the man seemingly getting nervous over the idea of him just deciding your plans for the night. “That sounds great, Jason. Honestly, I’m fine with whatever, I’m just happy to spend the new year with you.” 

A blush rises to your cheeks as soon as you realize what you say, quickly turning away from Jason to look out the window at the passing buildings, a small smirk appears on Jason’s face, both at your words and your reaction. A silence falls over the car, save for the music playing, though the silence is comfortable, almost as though you and Jason had reached a spot where you don’t need to worry about filling the empty space, you can just sit, together. After about thirty minutes of anecdotes and stories from the week, your’s mostly about the SNL PA group chat and Jason’s mainly about his children, you arrive at a swanky apartment building. Jason pulls into the parking garage, presenting a guest pass to the attendant, hm, okay, this must be a pretty close friend if Jason has a parking pass rather than having to find street parking. 

The two of you get out of the car after he finds a spot and head towards the lobby door, walking close enough that the back of your hands brush against each other, though neither of you attempt to make a move. Clearing your throat, you look around, noticing how nice the cars are in the parking garage, okay, so everyone here is rich, “Um, Jason, how fancy of a party is this? Am I gonna be shunned for how I look?” Jason looks at you like you’re crazy and laughs, stopping when he realizes that you’re seriously asking, “Y/N, what, no, you look…” Jason looks you over, under the guise of examining your outfit though anyone would be able to see that he’s taking in your body, anyone but you apparently, “What? I look what?” Jason clears his throat, looking forward as he holds the lobby door open for you, speaking softly as you pass him through the door, “Perfect, you look perfect.” 

The elevator ride is silent, though it is a different kind of silence than the one in the car, the tension could be cut with a knife. Jason is positive that the tension is one of anger from you, that he crossed the line, meanwhile, your thoughts of mounting him then and there surely mean the tension is sexual. Before either of you can say anything, the doors open to reveal an apartment, your eyes widening slightly when you are reminded that some people have enough money that elevators can just open into their homes. You suddenly realize you have no idea whose house you’re even at, but before you can even ask Jason, a familiar face makes his way through the small circles of people talking, “Sudeikis! You made it!”

Jason Sudeikis was a fucking dumbass. Seth Meyers, that’s who lives here. Sure, working at NBC for a year and a half, you had passed him a couple of times in the hallway, but you had never had a conversation and you sure as hell have never been in his house. Jason and Seth meet for a hug before the two pull away, briefly catching up before Seth not-so-subtly points his eyes in your direction. Jason laughs at himself as he turns to you, putting his hand on your lower back, “Oh, duh, sorry. Seth, this is Y/N, Y/N, Seth. She’s fit so perfectly into my life, I forgot that not everyone knows her.” You’re 99% sure that you got whiplash from turning to look at Jason, but his attention has been caught by someone else and he’s telling Seth they’ll talk later, interlacing your fingers to pull you towards his friends. 

What the actual fuck is happening. Is this what heaven feels like? Or is this hell? Yeah, you’re holding hands with Jason, but it’s surely just so he doesn’t lose you in the crowd. There’s no meaning behind it, there never will be. Jason introduces you to the group, many of whom you recognize as different writers from NBC, including your idol, Amber Ruffin. Not wanting to make a fool of yourself, but also needing some liquid courage if Jason is going to keep touching you and breaking your heart, you slip your hand out of his, turning to head where you see a bar set up. As soon as your touch leaves him, Jason stops talking and turns to you, “Are you okay?” Turning back to him with a tightlipped smile, you give him a nod, “Yeah, just getting a drink. Enjoy your friends.”  Jason nods, though it’s apprehensive, wanting to catch up with his friends, but also not wanting to lose track of you in the crowded living room. 

At the bar, you make yourself a drink before hearing your name called, turning around to see Mark, a fellow intern from when you started at NBC. The two of you greet each other with a hug, “Mark! What are you doing here?” He fills you in on his job as a PA for Seth’s show while you tell him about working at SNL, “Wait, so how do you know Seth?” You shake your head as you take a sip of your drink, setting it down on the bar, “Oh, I don’t, just came with a friend.” Mark nods and you two catch up, laughing about your intern days and sharing stories from your current jobs. 

About twenty minutes pass before you feel a hand wrap around your hip and a chest meet your back, “There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you.” Mark’s eyes widen when he sees who you came with, you didn’t think to mention that it was an NBC legend. “Y/N, you didn’t think to mention that you came with SNL royalty. Or that he’s your boyfr..” Before he can finish, Jason cuts Mark off, “Sorry, where are my manners? I’m Jason, and you are?” Jason lets go of your hip briefly to shake Mark’s, squeezing a bit tighter than necessary, though you are none the wiser, “M-Mark, Y/N and I were interns together when we started at 30 Rock.” Jason nods as he takes his hand back, putting his hand back on your side, a bit lower this time, resting just above your ass. “Oh great, well it was wonderful to meet you, but we really should be going. We were just stopping in.” 

You look to Jason in surprise, what was he talking about? He didn’t mention any other plans, you only got here like half an hour ago, why do you have to leave? Mark nods, the two of you wishing each other a happy new year before Jason’s fingers intertwine with yours, heading towards the door. After thanking Seth for having the two of you, Jason and you take the elevator down to the lobby, which oh my god, you’re just now realizing is the lobby of lobby baby. You cross the parking garage, only letting go of each other when you reach the car. 

This time the silence of the car ride is thick with discomfort. You are not quiet due to imagining sinful acts with Jason and you’re not enjoying peace with your company, you’re practically grinding your teeth out of annoyance. After an hour and a half in the car, your drive time tripled thanks to holiday traffic, Jason pulls into a spot surprisingly open in front of your building. “Y/N, I…” Jason is cut off by you opening the door, “Goodnight, Jas.” You get out of the car and slam the door, so frustrated that you didn’t even notice that you let your nickname for him slip, a nickname you hadn’t used to his face in fear it would cross the line. As you walk up the outside steps of your building, Jason chases after you, “Whoa, Y/N, wait please.” You whip around to look at him, tears of anger and confusion welling in your eyes, “What, Jason? What can you possibly say that will explain how you’re acting?”

Your raised voice catches the attention of those walking past, something you and Jason both notice. Looking at you with desperate eyes, Jason steps closer to you, though you still have the upper ground thanks to the steps, “Can we go inside and talk? Please?” Jason’s plea is dripping with emotion, how can you say no to him? It’s not like he actually did anything wrong, you just need to get over yourself and your feelings for him. Obliging his request, you enter your building, walk up the steps, and enter your apartment, Jason a few steps behind. He walked next to you, always. The only time he wasn’t with you was when he walked a few paces ahead of you to open a door. The man never left your side, and yet here he was, behind you. 

Kicking off your shoes, you walk a few steps out of the entryway so Jason can do the same before turning to him, your arms crossed and an angry expression on your face. Jason looks at you, the guilt in his eyes almost makes you break, but first, you needed to know why he was guilty and what he thinks happened. Jason takes a deep breath, looking down at his socks before looking back to you, “Y/N, I am so sorry. It was not at all okay for me to take you away from your friend. I don’t know what happened, I-I just saw you talking to him and I got so anxious and, and…” Jason cracks his knuckles, obviously regretting what he was about to say, “…and jealous, I was jealous.” 

Your jaw drops slightly as your eyes widen, “What the fuck are you talking about?” Jason runs his hand through his hair, the other on his hip as he starts to pace, “I know, okay, I know I have no right to be jealous. And you have every right to be mad at me for acting like a jealous psychopath. I know, we’re just friends and I’m a fucking grandpa compared to you and you would probably be so happy dating someone your age like Matt…” You hold in your snicker at Jason’s error of your friend’s name, also having to hold back from snorting at his stupidity, “I know, okay, I know that I am the worst and just ruined the entire fucking thing, okay? You just, I swear to god, every fucking time I see you, your shirts are lower and lower and it’s all I fucking see and it’s goddamn torture and now I just admitted to being a fucking pervert, oh god.” Jason sits on your couch, burying his head in his hands, freaking out over everything he just revealed meanwhile, you stand a couple of feet away from him, just watching him before you can no longer hold your laughter in. 

Jason lifts his head, looking like a mix of a sad puppy and a confused toddler, “Wha…” You round the table in front of the couch, sitting on wood furniture in front of him, your knees touching, “I know they say comedians can be dumb, but damn, you’re a fucking idiot.” Jason’s head tilts slightly as his brows furrow, “Okay, not the yelling I thought would happen, obviously you’re going for emotion warfare instead…” You stare at the man with love in your eyes as you chuckle slightly, here he is thinking he ruined everything and yet he’s still cracking jokes, he absolutely amazed you. “Jas, I’m not mad at you for being jealous, if anything, it’s actually really hot.” Jason’s eyes widen, obviously about to ask what you mean by that but you continue before he can say anything, “I’m mad that - well, not even really mad but - that you were fucking doing all these things and, and I knew you didn’t mean them. And holy fuck, I want you to mean them.”

You look down at your legs, anxiously rubbing your hands up and down on your thighs before Jason places his finger under your chin and lifts your head so you’re looking at him, “Y/N, I meant every single one of those things. When I said you looked perfect I meant it, I mean, fuck, you always look perfect. When I grabbed your hand because of the crowds, I wished I was doing that for the rest of my life. Everything I do, every act, every touch, I mean it. I just never thought it meant something to you.” You’re not even sure what to say, for the first time in your life, you’re speechless. To make up for what you can’t put into words, you kiss him. You wrap your hands around the back of Jason’s neck and pull him into you, your lips meeting in a sweet kiss. Jason’s hands grab onto your hips, holding on so tightly that even through your clothes, you wouldn’t be surprised if you have a finger indentation tomorrow.

Running your fingers through the hair at the base of his neck, you pull away just enough to speak softly, “Bedroom.” Jason nods eagerly as he meets you in a kiss again, both of you standing and messily stumbling to your room. Never breaking the kiss, Jason messes with the zipper on the back of your outfit as you stand at the end of your bed, “Fuck, need this off.” You whimper at Jason’s words, the easiest way to agree given your current situation. Finally, Jason pulls the zipper down, groaning when he sees your lacy set as your one piece falls to the floor, “You're telling me I could have seen this two months ago?” You giggle, attaching your mouth to the column of his throat, sucking deeply, as you mess with his belt. As your palm passes over his erection, Jason lets out a groan that you’re pretty sure is the sound angels make when you ascend to heaven. 

You begin to sink to your knees but Jason quickly stops you, grabbing onto your hips, “That sounds like a fucking dream, but right now I need to be inside you, is that okay, sweet girl?” A whine slips past your lips, tugging at his sweater before he pushes you onto your bed. Jason strips off all of his clothes, a moan leaving your mouth when you see his size and the precum leaking from his tip, “Holy fuck, Jas.” Jason practically growls at your comment, crawling onto the bed and laying over you, keeping himself high enough that he isn’t touching any part of you, “I need you to call me that for the rest of my life, honey. I’m all your’s.” A gasp leaves your lips as he slides into you, pausing to allow you to adjust. 

Your core clenches around him as you feel his cock throbbing inside of you, “Fuck Jas, need you to move.” Happy to oblige, Jason begins to rock in and out of you, bringing his thumb down to rub at your swollen clit, “Ya feel so good around me, honey. ‘s like you were made for me.” Jason pulls all the way out before plowing back into you, a cry erupts from your throat, your noises pushing him closer to the edge. “Hm, what’d you say, sweetheart?” As he asks you, Jason increases both the speed of his thrusts and the speed at which he’s rubbing your bundle of nerves. His lips attach to your collarbone, nipping at your skin and leaving marks, to which you bring your hands to the nape of his neck, pulling at his hair, “Y-yes, Jas. All yours.” 

Jason moves his head down slightly, bringing his nipple into your mouth right as he hits your g-spot. You cry out his name as you reach your peak, clawing at his back as you do so, your tight core seemingly holding him in a vice. Pulling off of your nipple, Jason watches you, in a trance, as you cum, “Never seen anyone look so pretty.” Jason continues to work you through your climax, his own groans coming out as his brows furrow, concentrating on reaching the finish line, “Come on Jas, need you to finish in me, bubs, wanna feel all of you.” Your words push him over, Jason filling you up as his movements still, his forehead falling to rest in between your breasts, both of your bodies covered in sweat. 

As your worlds seem to still with this change of your relationship, the world outside begins its countdown, the streets filled with cars and drunk New Yorkers yelling out starting at 10. Jason pulls out and lays next to you, the two of you staring into each others’ eyes as he pulls you close, your legs intertwining. As the crowd outside hits five, Jason places his hand on the side of your face, swiping his thumb across your cheek, “We doing this? We starting the year with us?” You smile softly, giving a small nod as your faces grow closer, “I’m in if you are, Jas.” 

Jason returns your smile, “You and me, baby.” Your lips meet just as the fireworks go off outside, your heart feeling similar to the entire east coast right about now. The two of you pull apart, resting your foreheads together as you repeat the phrase back, “You and me, bubs.”

[ofliterarynature]

OCTOBER 2023 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok no thanks (reread) book club* DNF]

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp | Conrad’s Fate | Hold Fast Through the Fire | All the White Spaces* | The Game of Courts | (Artificial Condition) | From Below | Creatures of Will and Temper | The Saint of Bright Doors | (All Systems Red) | Over My Dead Body | The Twyford Code | A Conjuring of Light | Small Miracles | A Murderous Relation | Realm of Ash | The Magicians of Caprona | The Hourglass Throne | Raw Dog | Graveminder | The Devil and Winnie Flynn

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I am getting to this SO LATE, forgive me if I don't say a lot because I have forgotten so much. Work has eaten all of my time and energy against my will (should I get a new job? Probably). Anyways.

The Hourglass Throne - Will definitely need to reread this before the next book comes out (even thought they're all pretty well self contained for a series!) because WHAT? I have only half an idea what's going on, and no idea how to feel about the ending. Do I grieve? Not grieve? ??????? I think book 2 is still my favorite, but these books are addictive and a joy to read.

The Magicians of Caprona - I think at this point it's fair to say that I don't think DWJ could write a book that is uninteresting to read, but this is definitely my least favorite of at least the Chrestomanci books so far.

Realm of Ash - book 2 of the Books of Ambha series; I didn't like the first book in this series, why did I continue? Hope, that it would build on the things in the first book that I actually liked, and bring the sisters back together. It was better, I guess, but not in any way that really made me like it. I wish I'd followed my impulse and returned it to the library without listening.

A Murderous Relation - another Veronica Speedwell mystery, reliably enjoyable as always :)

Small Miracles - This was a DELIGHT. This was a fun romp (I'm told) in the vein of Good Omens, but with small stakes - and small miracles. The fallen angel of petty temptations is hired by an angelic friend to help the most sinless (and miserable) mortal have a little fun. But there's more to it than meets the eye, and the case gets tangled up the mortal woman's niece, pretending to be a school counselor, difficult family relationships, rants about chocolate, and inconsiderate siblings who rudely keep picking the same human gender as you. It's sweet, comforting, very queernorm, and a little romantic (f/gf)

A Conjuring of Light - I finished my Shades of Magic reread! Thank god. I was so thoroughly not impressed with books 2 & 3 this time around - they're just one book, divided in two, and I don't think it was divided in the right spot. It's so disappointing that these did not age with me, but you will also have to pry my copies away from me because they're one of the few books I've ever gotten signed in person (and the original covers are just cool). I fully intend to submit myself to the new spinoff series because hope never really dies lol.

The Twyford Code - This was such a strange and delightful book, that I'm not even sure I'm mad about the twist at the ending, I had such a good time reading it. (past me, listening: wow, this would have made such a cool fiction podcast, right? Joke's on me haha). I did honestly think I'd forgotten what this book was about for a bit, but then I was going through some old kid's books from my grandma that were *exactly* like the series in this book, and I had a big AHAH moment that delighted me.

Over My Dead Body - this was my first/nonfiction attempt at jamming in some spooky-ish books before the end of October. Overall, good. I did learn some new facts and there were some interesting parts; but I didn't always appreciate some of the author's commentary, and when it say's "America's Cemeteries," it really only means its urban cemeteries, which was a bit disappointing.

All Systems Red/Artificial Condition - Murderbot, my Beloved. rereading for the new book, and I'm trying my hardest to NOT do it on audiobook this time - and it's really worth it to read it in text, I promise, even if Kevin R Free's voice still echoes in my mind.

The Saint of Bright Doors - this was such a strange and wonderful read, I am so delighted to have read this, I love an unapologetically weird book. The vibe definitely reminds me a bit of The City & The City, or in some ways The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy; except I had other problems with those books and didn't finish them, but I did like this one. I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but maybe give it a shot.

Creatures of Will and Temper - another spooky book, and ooh boy could I go on an entire rant, I didn't want to finish this one but felt I had to for reasons. I'll let you look up the plot yourselves, but picture this: Victorian London, two sisters (one who likes swords!), and a whole lot of queer characters I wasn't expecting. I was delighted! Except you gradually learn every single queer character is involved with this club that has made a pact with a demon. What exactly does that mean? Who knows, because the book does not tell you until at least 3/4 of the way through, and we only have the word of the jacket copy and our sainted demon slayer, who is sketchy af the moment we get him alone. Turns out it's a chill demon who doesn't want blood sacrifice, cool cool, but maybe it should have been thought through a little more? Also the main/only successful romance in the book is between a 17 year old girl and a woman who is at minimum in her 30's, explicitly encouraged in part by the demon. hmm. Overall the writing and rest of the story was just ok, and the ending was disgustingly saccharine and just bad. Would strongly not recommend, but if someone wants my copy you're welcome to it. 2 stars.

From Below - another spooky book, and somehow still the most successful even though I didn't like it much. I almost DNF'd this in the first half, and while I wouldn't say I wish i had, I think my time could have been better spent. But really - if you are diving at an untouched ship wreck, that went missing with hundreds of unaccounted passengers and crew, in an area of the ocean entirely inhospitable to life, shouldn't one of the things you expect to find be human bodies??????? I got so worked up, lol, but once the spooky stuff started I had a better time.

The Game of Courts - new Nine World's novella! I love that Victoria takes the time to explore the various characters in her books outside of the main narrative. Getting to learn more about Conju ourside the current story was much appreciated, even if getting to see an outsider POV of earlier Kip was maybe the main draw. Probably not my favorite of the Lays novellas, but worth reading - and maybe a good starting place for those who are new to the series? Now if only I could get myself to read Derring-Do...

All the White Spaces - bookclub pick that got rescheduled to Nov (more time to reread Murderbot tho, so yay me). The description of this - trans guy on an antarctic exploration that goes wrong - sounded interesting, but it was kind of meh for me in the end. For one I was expecting more horror, but the description of "polar gothic" I've seen since really fits better. I also wasn't a fan of the supernatural explanation, and the whole thing felt hopeless from the beginning, once we got a grasp on the *actual* details of the situation, so I didn't quite know what we were here for. Not my cup of tea.

Hold Fast Through the Fire - NeoG book two!!!! This series is turning out to be very akin to the Tarot sequence in that they not perfect books or 5 stars by any means, but are so fun and addictive to read. This series is space opera, post-post-apocalypse where Earth has two colonies, and the series is about a team in the space!coast guard. Getting into the specific plot of this book isn't actually important, but there's a good 50/50 split on plot vs talking about our emotions!!! I love it, it definitely shows some improvement over book 1, even though I don't know that the author has got the POV's quite balanced out. Jenks is lucky I love her because her drama sure does keep taking over (and I cried so hard for her in this one you guys). Would recommend. Did I mention that almost everyone is queer?

Conrad’s Fate - a good book, but this is also the point where I really started questioning the recommended Chrestomanci reading order. I think chronologically it's book 2? And I'd already forgotten so much from The Lives of Christopher Chant, I do not understand and wish I'd read them chronologically. Much more fun than the Magicians of Caprona.

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp - I was SO excited when I saw there was a new Leonie Swann being published in english, even if it wasn't the sequel to Three Bags Full (which I read last year and loved). I was even MORE excited when the book opened and was being narrated by the pet tortoise!!! Alas, it was not to last, I did not get another murder novel narrated by an animal. That being said, still pretty good, it reminded me of the Thursday Murder Club (which I liked less), but probably won't be a favorite.

DNF'S - Graveminder and The Devil and Winnie Flynn were both books I own that I tried to fit in for spooky month that did not work out. Winnie Flynn I admit I dropped almost immediately, the vibes were peak bad YA and I wasn't going to torture myself. Graveminder I tried, because I liked the idea, and it wasn't bad per-se, but something about the way it was executed (and the many many POV's) just wasn't working for me. Might fit someone else better though.

Raw Dog I really wanted to like, because the history of hot dogs and a description/ranking of hot dogs are both extremely up my alley - and I did make it 40% in! But there were just a number of factors building up against this - the author's sometimes very (overly?) sharp commentary, my lack of interest in her dysfunctional life, the lack of any comparative rating system for the hot dogs, the food waste, and the sheer number of bodily excretions used as descriptors for the food finally tipped me over the edge. I could have kept listening but I didn't really want to. Perhaps for someone, but not for me.

[astrologycharts242]

Me trying to use astrology to predict on myself in regards to relationships. (Part 1)

I'm making this post to give an idea of how these predictions can work when it comes to meeting a future boyfriend/girlfriend or a future sexual partner. Obviously if you pay me to do these things then you can expect a similar or even better experience. Using astrology on myself I knew months in advance probably a year in advance but I just didn't paid much attention to it until the date got really close. The date of me meeting a future girlfriend or sexual partner. I knew the date would be October 3rd 2023 to November 16 2023. Now where exactly would I meet this person astrology has to show that.

Well looking at my sidereal birth chart you can easily see how I would meet that significant other at a bar, restaurant or strip club. Which is crazy because I don't even occupy those places especially not right now. I'm focused too much on my career. You could see it if you pay attention to the Venus that is conjunct Rahu in my 2nd house.

Which indicates many things like me having girlfriends or only attracting women that are foreign or exotic. Since Rahu represents foreign things.

Foreign in what capacity though? Well it depends on the actual individual.

Let me use my self as an example I only messed with chicks that have like two nationalities or there culture would be different from mines. The girls would be like Jamaican or Haitian. The whole time I'm just a regular Bahamian dude. I wouldn't realize this until I would find out their last names and be like I can't even pronounce that. Secondly I would attract girls that are biracial. It isn't exactly girls that are pretty (which they do be,) but Rahu makes the women I attract be foreign in a sense of different than what I'm accustomed to seeing. I can't speak Jamaican or anything like that but this conjunction would make me attract women that could due to the Rahu Venus conjunction. Shoots this conjunction can make a guy attract women that would look foreign to most people as well. Guys with this conjunction can attract, only have sex and date women that look way better than the average women. What makes them attractive is the women would have a distinct feature that most women don't have. You can even see it in their appearance.

For example a chick that has a bbl not every women has that. Not every women has a mixed skin complexion with long curly hair looking like they're from the Dominican republic or something. There's many different scenarios to how this conjunction can determine who a guy attracts use the rapper t.i. as an example. If you're a woman that has a boyfriend who has this conjunction. Then you can kinda consider yourself exotic or rare especially in the state or country he was born in. Even if you look closely at my chart Venus rules or is the lord of my 5th house in the 2nd house of money sources. This means a way of me earning money is through a speculative business where foreign women become the main consumers. Not just any women the sign Venus is in helps determine the women I would attract. You see the cancer sign. I see cancer and the ashlesha nakshatra. Ashlesha is about women that are into things like astrology, witchcraft, tarots, herbal medicines. Those women that are very spiritual. Women that are so spiritual they be rocking the dreadlocks even. Ashlesha women are into the occult, mystical stuff.

I played the game called kingdom hearts and they had this women name Ursula from the Ariel mermaid movie. I never watched the movie but Ursula reminds me of the ashlesha for some reason. Now it all makes sense whenever women from all around the world would send me money for readings and stuff like that. This debunks the beliefs that planets are only conjunct when they are close in degrees. Nope planets are conjunct as long as they are in the same sign. My conjunction proves it.

[bradandchris]

Well, that was that then. Brad had himself a New Years Resolution. His resolution was to not have a resolution for the year that was new in the moment where he was. That was on the beach in Santa Monica at the end of 2023.

While he was there staring into 2024, he was also giving up lent for lent, and trading in Columbus Day for an Akron knight. He would just need to convince Elton John to take a holiday to Ohio in October. It was a good thing leaves died pretty. He could use that to his advantage.

If that didn’t work out, Brad would try a different time of day. Akron Dawn for example could score an obvious sponsorship assuming people in Ohio did their dishes upon waking up. It sounded like something people in sensibly sized Midwest cities might do.

The notion never crossed his mind in Brad’s 22 years living in Los Angeles. Why would anyone born and bred in Southern California ground themselves where it could crack open and swallow you whole at any second? Midwestern sensibility just didn’t stack up here.

Akron was in Ohio right? Brad could never be sure even with a smart phone in his hand. Miss Information was everywhere and there were no places to hide. How would you know where to go anyway?

All the cities in Ohio looked exactly the same to Brad. You could be in Toledo or Cincinnati, and it wouldn’t make a lick of difference even if you were at the local library checking out books. As long as ‘Ohio’ was somewhere on your library card or drivers license, you were golden.

At least that’s what Brad imagined. The locals likely didn’t feel the same way.

On the eve of a change in one of many calendars used across the globe, Brad took a minute reflect upon what had yet to happen by asking questions in the present tense.

Did all the oceans in California look the same to people from Ohio? Those from the two bucks an eye state (post inflation), were human beings dealing with a relative relative spendy reality. That part was clear. The rest of it got fuzzy as he didn’t know anyone from Ohio he could ask.

Brad wasn’t sure how many oceans he was looking at in the first place. They all kinda mixed together with few if any official boundaries. To call the water in front of him by one name took it from Will Rogers in Cali all the way to Bondi in Australia, but it was hardly the same water. The whole thing read as a gross over generalization as everything Pacific.

Each day it was less and less surprising to Brad that more than 90% of the sea floor failed to be mapped. We as a species held not a clue as to what was down there yet some of us were already taking tours of outer space which was technically nothing itself. Was that not why we called it space?

Whatever.

Brad didn’t want to put too much into space tourism or an overrated holiday like NYE, or even Christmas for that matter…

Brad stopped himself there. If he took that thought any further he could start getting answers. That could take him into resolution territory where he resolved to not go yet already was.

The annual practice never played out well for Brad despite being out himself. While others made money Brad beat himself up. By the President’s Day circuit party he was always in a downward spiral. If Brad ever OD’d it would likely be there smack dab in the depths of the Southern California rainy season swallowed whole by the first round of judgement preliminaries for White Party in Palm Springs.

Seeing where he was, Brad pulled himself off the bitter party of one path to that of personal responsibility. No one besides himself stuck around any NYE resolution to ensure he followed through. It may be paid for but did it matter where the money came from? While the commitment was squarely his, it often turned out the enthusiasm was not.

Brad paused to fix the back of his swimmers. They began riding his youthful 22 year old butt muscles while doing all this thinking. Did he really workout every day just so his clothes could malfunction?

Maybe. He could def take the notion somewhere sexy. Too bad there wasn’t a pen and paper around. Was this why people wrote their name in the sand? That whole notion read downright silly standing so close to the world’s biggest eraser.

When all was said and done, the greatest part about having a perky butt wasn’t sex or attention. It was having a place to set things down where no pockets were available. Brad always offered the space to others where he could think enough to do so. Ironically, the last thing he wanted to be was an ass.

The notion spurred another thought. Brad would ask Chris to look for a date on his butt when he came back from the concession stand with lunch. All this male beauty comes with a shelf life apparently so his boyfriend should probably know when to stop eating it. To that, and out of respect for himself, he should probably check Chris’ butt too. Brad needed some action and the whole notion just brought forth was good enough to jumpstart a very fun afternoon.

These things only needed to be paper thin with two men in the equation. An impromptu hamster inspection of the men’s locker room at the local gay watering hole instigated a wild three way with Brad and Chris’s neighbor Luke just a few hours earlier. Unsurprisingly, not a single hamster turned up at the gym, but the whole debacle did put a new spin on wood shavings.

A rouge wave reached high enough to grab Brad’s attention and bring him back to the present tense. Brad looked at his phone but he didn’t have any gauge as to when he and his thinking drifted off. Well, at least he came around this time with his swimmers still on. He lost two pair just in the last 24 hours.

Now where was Chris with the food? Brad was craving curly fries and a big fat dill pickle.

[wonderwafles]

Cruelty and Creativity: A Forerunner Saga Exchange SIGN-UP!

Attention, all ye ravenous fans of an obscure book series written as the deep lore backstory of a first-person shooter game that hit its peak popularity in the mid-Aughts, whom are present on Tumblr! The day has come! Utúlie'n aurë, the day has come! Er, sorry. Wrong fandom.

What I should say is, aya. You are what you dare. Do you dare to sign up for this fandom exchange, in defiance of the strictest laws laid down by the Master Builder and the Old Council? What's that? You want to hear what it's about first? And what you'll have to do?

Ugh, fine.

The Exchange: This works sort of like a Secret Santa. Reply to this post confirming you're interested in participating! Sign-ups will be open from today (October 21, 2023) until November 4, 2023.

For the most part this exchange will be conducted on Tumblr, but if there is a platform you'd prefer to receive or give your gift on let me know in your reply. Also indicate if you'd rather have your gift given to a different blog than the one you're replying with. (NOTE: I will be participating in this exchange and you may be asked to make a gift for me.)

Gifts: Once sign-ups are closed you'll be asked to write up your preferences for both giving and receiving a gift; i.e. if you'd prefer to make art or fic, as well as what you'd like to receive. Here you'll also be able to prompt your gifter with the subjects or areas of Forerunner lore you're interested in. The deadlines for that will be decided as we get closer to the 4th. (I'll create a form for this when the time comes. I think.)

The area to aim for with your gifts is a roughly 1000 word fic or a flat, colored piece of art. These are not strict minimums, but probably don't do too much less than that. And of course, feel free to go beyond if you like!

Guidelines: In general I will be pretty laissez-faire about the topics and themes of your gifts; if someone wants an Ur-Didact pinup far be it from me to say no! But this is the big one: This is a Forerunner Saga exchange, not a Halo one. Although I won't disallow references or scenes taking place in other areas of Halo canon, the main focus of your gift and your request should be on events or characters or OCs or concepts from the Forerunner Saga.

Oh, and make sure your gift aligns with what your giftee asks for. Naturally.

Deadline: The... currently stated... release date for Halo: Epitaph is February 27th, 2024. I hoped to time this exchange so that we are all receiving our gifts shortly before the novel is released, as a kind of celebration of the Ur-Didact's return. To that end, please post your gifts on or between February 24th and February 26th.

If the book is delayed again, the current plan is not to delay the exchange. I want there to be some stability in the dates for this thing... as much as we can manage, anyway. But also, if enough people want to delay it as a result, I'll think about that too :)

Let's keep our fingers crossed the book will come out on time, and our celebration of Shadow-Of-Sundered-Star proceeds as planned!

Is that it for now? I think so. Remember to reply to this post on or before November 4th if you're interested in participating! If you have a friend who's not on Tumblr but is interested in participating, let me know, and we can work something out.

(Fun fact: This is posted exactly one year to the day from when Halo: Epitaph was announced at Halo World Championship in 2022 :))

[louisupdates]

BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN: LOUIS TOMLINSON

MUSICALLY | 19 APRIL 2023

Former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson released his debut album in 2020 through Sony but moved to BMG for his second album, Faith In The Future, in November 2022. Lisa Wilkinson, director of UK marketing (new recordings) at BMG, explains how they looked to reposition him in the market, what learnings were coming from his live success as well as his own festival, why his merchandise strategy directly informed his multi-formatted record release strategy, how they were able to build him without mass radio support, where a wider male audience was targeted this time round, why Twitter remains his most powerful social media platform and how a highly vocal and engaged fanbase was nurtured further and directly involved in the campaign.

Lisa Wilkinson, director of UK marketing (new recordings) at BMG, explains how they looked to reposition him in the market, what learnings were coming from his live success as well as his own festival, and more.

[The article will be broken into sections, linked below.]

1. Coming to BMG for his second solo album

2. The centrality of merchandise

3. The radio conundrum

4. Targeting a male audience

5. Building his songwriting profile

6. Targeting the press

7. Boosting the digital strategy

8. QR code and interactive community map at his Away From Home festival

9. Twitter as his main platform and setting him up on TikTok

10. Chart battle with Bruce Springsteen and the power of in-stores

11. Stationhead and Tim’s Twitter Listening Party

12. Fan-made Spotify Canvases

13. Documentary and the next steps

☆彡

1. COMING TO BMG FOR HIS SECOND SOLO ALBUM

This is his first album with BMG. His debut album, Walls in 2020, was with Syco Music [via Sony]. That was off the back of X Factor with Simon Cowell.

He had done a couple of more commercial singles – one with Steve Aoki [‘Just Hold On’] and one with Bebe Rexha and Digital Farm Animals [‘Back To You’]. They were really successful streaming singles, but that’s not who Louis is. For the boys in One Direction, the ones that have been successful and the songs that have been successful are the ones that have stayed super pop and commercial. Louis did that but it’s just not who he is.

I think he felt, in that structure, that he just wasn’t getting the support to be who he wanted to be. That’s exactly why people come to us. It’s an artist services deal and we’re there to support you and advise you.

You can see from his live business and his merchandise business – and every other thing that Louis does – that there is an incredible fanbase there for him.

When they [Syco] released Walls, they achieved 14,000 units in week one and got to number 4 in Q1 in January 2020. We thought that just didn’t feel reflective of what was happening [around him].

We went and saw him at various venues on his world tour. We went to New York and saw those two shows and we went to Italy and watched his Milan stadium show in front of 30,000 people.

You’re looking and you’re thinking, “Those numbers don’t make any sense. How on Earth did you fumble that?” We were confident that we could do better than that.

He had a signing dinner in October 2021 and then his world tour started in February 2000, which was the delayed tour [due to the pandemic]. It went all the way through to September, pretty much nonstop.

They sold half a million tickets that year. All the while he’s on tour, he’s still making the album.

‘Out Of My System’ was released as a DSP-focused track before the album. It’s the rockiest and heaviest track on the album. He came straight off stage, went into a vocal booth off the side of the stage [to record it]. Because of the energy, he was so fired up. It was a difficult process because it was creating an album on the road.

He wanted to make an album for live. It was a totally different experience for him. Covid hit just a few months after Walls dropped so the tour was out of the question.

Before we started working on the album campaign, he did a show at Crystal Palace Bowl, which was the first incarnation of his Away From Home festival that he’s created and curated, which is for up-and-coming indie bands.

He gave away 8,000 tickets in August 2021 when we could start doing outdoor things again. I was there and was thinking, “There’s something big going on here.” The fans were so committed and dedicated.

Considering this is someone who hasn’t had real radio support or is seen in celebrity magazines or on social posts, this is a huge phenomenon.

That continued into the tour.

[umlewis]

lewis hamilton, p3, during the post-qualifying press conference, texas, united states - october 20, 2023 (transcription under the cut)

Interviewer: "How do you reflect on qualifying?" Lewis: "Yep, good session for us. Really grateful for the improvements that the team have made with the car. Everyone has worked so hard to bring some upgrades, and for us to be this close to McLaren and Ferrari and even the Red Bulls, I think it's a showing of just how hard everyone's worked." Interviewer: "Where does the car feel different with these upgrades?" Lewis: "The car feels almost the same, it's just leveled up pretty much everywhere." Interviewer: "And you have a fantastic record here. You've only been off the podium once. How do you rate your chances of winning this grand prix on Sunday? Lewis: "Too early to say. None of us have done any long running, so have no idea. Maybe with the Bed Bull not in the top three, maybe that makes it a better, closer battle, maybe, 'cause they're often quite a bit ahead and just disappear into the distance, so hopefully the three of us can have a tight battle." [time jump] Journalist: "Sahil Kapur with NBC News. A question for Lewis, if I may: You're only thirty points behind Checo for 2nd in the championship. You've just outqualified him again. Given the full context of the season and the difference between your cars, how much, if anything, would wecond place in the championship mean to you this year?" Lewis: "All of us are pushing to finish first, so I think it would be just a showing of, really, resilience and strength and depth from our team. I think we had a difficult year, last year, and even the start of this year we didn't expect to be where we are, so to be fighting for second in the constructor's, obviously trying to hold that position to these two guys… And yeah, I don't know whether or not we'll catch Sergio, but given the difference of our cars throughout the season I'm really proud of the work that we've done. We've just got to keep our heads down, keep fighting, keep pushing. Like Charles said, they have a lot of work to do, as we do, so it's a race for development and it's who can get to the top of the mountain first for next year, I guess." [time jump] Journalist: "Andrew Benson, BBC Sport. Lewis, this is for you: James Allison was talking about this upgrade that you've got this weekend as being a kind of signifier for next year. Can you tell us whether it's given you sort of positive vibes, and if so what way, in that context?" Lewis: "Yeah, I don't know really if it's a signifier of anything for next year. As we continue to experiment we get more and more knowledge of where we're going, where we're routing the flow of the car. The floor is not a huge amount different, so it's… Obviously there's always hype with someone's upgrade, but the rest of the car is exactly the same, and there's lots and lots of areas in which we can improve, but this is an improvement. This is one of the first upgrades that I've actually felt over the last two years, so that's a positive, and we just need two or three times of this step [laughs] to put us in super-competitive mode, of which I believe the guys can do." [time jump] [Question not shown: "Sahil Kapur, NBC News. I just wanted to ask all of you, if you can reflect on coming to race in the U.S. over the last four or five years, how this fanbase has grown so much; how your experience has changed."] Lewis: "Yes, it's an incredible community that we have here. I've been here since the beginning, in 2012, so… Or I think already back then we had an amazing crowd, but there's a different… I think people who were coming were perhaps moreso new to it, maybe, but there's just a different energy, a different excitement, even bigger than before, and it's growing every year and it's something that you can really feel, and it's great to share that love and that passion for a sport that you've grown up with for so long with this great country."

[oishinythings]

One tiny adventure at a time...

[ID: Small dark green stone turtle climbing a dark, twisty branch in the woods. The wood is dotted with clusters of bright green moss.]

So, it's October 2023.

I turned to photography early this year when the Royal Mail got hacked and international post went down, pretty much killing my jewellery business. Combined with the slow collapse of Twitter, and I never really recovered from that.

Now, I'm dealing with a fresh batch of health issues. Still waiting to see exactly how serious, but the answer so far has been "Yes".

So I'm hoping a little turtle and a lot of Tumblr can help me back up.

[ID: Collage of small green stone turtle exploring various flowers in the rain.]

I have over 150 photos available as digital wallpapers - they're meant for desktop but lots of them make great phone lockscreens too.

Wallpapers are just $2 each, or grab a bundle and get a discount.

Every wallpaper gets me a step closer to getting back on my feet - there's a long way to go, but they add up fast. So I'm putting this out there, wishing on a star, and hoping for a little early Halloween magic. Whatever it takes.

[knifeonmars]

Dead Space: Artifact

January 27, 2023 saw the release of Dead Space, a remake of the original 2008 scifi horror shooter. For many fans and casual observers this is a chance to restore the dignity and legacy of a series brought low by the worst excesses of the triple-a game industry; they’ll tell you that Dead Space was a horror experience stretched to the breaking point by publishers and executives who just didn't get what it was and why it was so special. This isn't entirely the case, though to be sure Dead Space suffered greatly as a result of meddlesome publishers and the realities of the industry. Rather, Dead Space was and is a microcosm of a moment in time, a model in miniature of the games industry as a whole during the PS3/Xbox 360 era. It was a time of transition between games as they had been and games as they are now; the emergence of game franchises as multibillion dollar businesses, the growth of recurrent user spending, and weird crossovers. Dead Space (2008) is a transitional fossil, perfectly capturing this timeframe and the bonanza of unsustainable growth and cutthroat tactics which transformed the industry. The life story of Dead Space isn't the story of one series being ground down by the gears of capital; it's the story of videogames as a whole.

The Little Horror That Could

The original Dead Space was released on October 13, 2008, going on to sell over a million copies and become a seemingly unlikely hit in an age when single player games had become unfashionable with publishers. It was a gnarly, violent sci-fi horror shooter which drew plenty of inspiration from Resident Evil IV as well as 1979’s seminal Alien with (for now) just a trace of Lovecraftian cult horror. It stood out as something of a throwback, a disconcerting horror experience which threw players off balance by making its grisly dismemberment mechanics the most efficient way of dispatching enemies, rather than the pretty little headshots gamers are normally conditioned to pursue with frightening dedication. Players were cast in the role of the silent Isaac Clarke, an ordinary engineer stranded aboard the derelict Ishimura, a mining vessel which is one part USCSS Nostromo, one part Resident Evil haunted house. Armed only with repurposed tools like nailguns and laser cutters, Clarke must fight his way past the sinister necromorphs, zombie mutants created by space magic.

Despite latter day mythology, Dead Space did not emerge from nothing as an unlikely darling. It had the weight of Electronic Arts distributing and promoting it, and was the subject of a significant hype cycle. The marketing budget for a game or movie is, as a rule of thumb, estimated at equal to that of the game/movie itself, so there was significant money behind the promotion of Dead Space, much of which focused on the grisly death animations visited upon its silent protagonist, emphasizing that gnarly, edgy appeal. Further, within the same year as Dead Space's release there was a comic book miniseries from Image Comics, a rail-shooter spinoff for the Nintendo Wii, and an animated movie, none of which are the kinds of projects which can be thrown together overnight for a completely unexpected success. EA knew exactly what they had on their hands from the beginning, and the way they handled it was typical of both EA and the industry in general's approach at the time.

A look at the output of Electronic Arts, or even Visceral Games itself, shows an emphasis on franchises over individual games or even series of games. Dante’s Inferno, another Visceral project, came out of the gate with an animated movie, a comic book, and plans for a live action movie, even as the game itself flopped and never went on to have its planned sequels. Visceral’s ill-fated and questionably tasteful Jack the Ripper vs vampire sexworkers game, Ripper, memorably outlined at Polygon [link] was similarly surrounded by talk of prequels, sequels, movies, and a robust multiplayer even as the game never completed development. Visceral Games was in the business of making franchises, and business… was not actually booming.

Further, while microtransactions and shameless greed are often laid at the feet of the later entries in the series, it’s worth noting that the original Dead Space itself had an awe-inspiring number of content packs available to be purchased a la carte for real money. These twelve packs contained skins for the main character and his weapons, as well as exclusive weapons and weapon upgrades. These items generally ran between 1.50 to 3.00 dollars US after conversion to videogame storefront funny money, the same price point as the then infamous The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion horse armor DLC in 2006 [link]. Though long forgotten now, Dead Space’s content packs were a part of the first big wave of normalizing small scale DLC, a part of the long onslaught which dismantled the idea that a sold videogame was a complete product.

The Inevitable Escalation

If Dead Space riffed shamelessly on Alien, Dead Space 2 must be compared to Aliens; the bigger, badder, more bombastic sequel. Gone is the largely isolated and constrained experience of the first game, a lone, silent survivor fighting through an incomprehensible situation, instead the no longer mute Isaac Clarke finds himself in a story about a zombie outbreak on Titan and being drawn further into the schemes of the cult worshiping said zombies.This brought with it changes to the gameplay such as a more open setting, new, less idiosyncratic weapons, more streamlined design, and even a multiplayer mode. Dead Space was still action-horror, but the action had received a major promotion, making the game much less clunky and unusual than its predecessor.

2011 was a golden age for ill-considered and often thematically bizarre multiplayer modes in singleplayer games, which were stuffed into everything from Dead Space to Uncharted to Bioshock. For publishers, the proposition was simple; multiplayer games kept people playing longer and thus more likely to spend money on cosmetics, weapons, and other items, which become part of a haves and have-nots culture among players. In 2020 EA Games’ then-president Frank Gibeau would so far as to say that the single-player model of games was finished and that game developers were moving towards connected experiences. Ironically, in this same interview Gibeau pointed towards Dead Space specifically as an example of EA Games allowing publishers to pursue their own vision; considering where the series went, this statement seems inaccurate. The logic behind the move to online gaming should be familiar to anyone who’s played a modern live service game and tried to grind through a season pass to keep up with friends. Incidentally, Dead Space 2’s multiplayer mode was the one part of Ripper to make it out of development, as the new mode made use of much of the work done on its stillborn sibling series..

The sequel continued to hawk DLC in the form of costumes and weapons, while adding on a whole host of pre-order and special edition bonuses, and even a sequel chapter which tied into the first game’s spinoff; Dead Space: Extraction. Players inhabited the role of Gabe Weller, a space soldier trying to reunite with his wife, in a story which frankly didn’t augur well for the series’ narrative ambitions.

Whereas the first Dead Space had been at least somewhat on the bubble, an unknown quantity in need of justifying its existence, Dead Space 2 was not in the same position. Its overblown nature can be chalked up not only to EA wanting a more bombastic and mainstream product, but also the almost inevitable tendency towards escalation seen in sequels as developers find themselves with larger budgets, raised expectations, and a few simple tricks to sell their sequel as bigger and more important. Dead Space 2 was the series’ biggest hit and success as a multimedia franchise. In the year before and the year after Dead Space 2’s 2011 release there was also: a novel, another animated movie, a puzzle spin-off game, a mobile game, and an appearance by series protagonist Isaac Clarke in notorious Smash Bros. knockoff PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. This was the apex.

World Killer

The sins of Dead Space 3 are myriad and often blamed for killing the series, admittedly true given that until the announcement of the remake, Dead Space had lain fallow since 3’s release in 2013. It very much did kill the franchise, but Dead Space 3 was not an outlier, it was a natural progression of the trajectory which Dead Space had long been on.

The story and action had by now totally shifted, Isaac Clarke spends most of the game teamed up with a secondary protagonist who is a cool space soldier, gunning down human enemies on a frozen planet rather than, you know, in space. Traditional gunplay against traditional enemies is a much larger part of the gameplay, and the zombies have been so sidelined as a threat that only a single main character is actually seen to die at the hands of what was once depicted as a horror so profound it nearly drove Isaac Clarke insane. Clarke no longer has time for that kind of interiority (indeed the initial idea that the secondary playable character would be a figment of Clarke’s imagination was ruled out) because he has baddies to mow down and, in a example of sequel escalation taken to near parodic excess, zombie moons to fight.

The DLC packs made their triumphant return, with seven sets of weapons and costumes, a sequel campaign set after the main game, pre-order bonuses, and (I’m not kidding) a set of weapons only available through entering a promo code found in Slim Jim packages. Microtransactions had evolved since the first Dead Space, and Dead Space 3 saw major innovation on that front. Where previous packs had consisted of cosmetics with no real effect on gameplay and weapons which a dedicated player could presumably make it through the game without using, Dead Space 3 introduced a crafting system, because it was 2013 and if you didn’t have a crafting system you’d be laughed at by all the cool kids, and also because a crafting system means resource management. Resource management which could be cut down substantially if players were to, say, buy a pack of non-renewable in-game resources for real world money to spare themselves the hassle. Between the shameless money grabs and the sense that the series had rapidly lost touch with its roots, Dead Space seemed adrift. Neither of those things really had anything to do with the end of the series though, which ultimately came down to the most fearsome and cutthroat force in gaming: sales goals.

As Dead Space had grown as a franchise, EA’s ambitions for it had grown right along with it, and despite selling 605,000 copies in its first month, the series’ third entry fell well below EA’s sales goals. One might question exactly what sales goals EA had in mind for a series which began as a relatively niche riff on alien zombie horror, but keep in mind that this was in the gold rush era of game publishing. Development costs kept going up, as did promotional costs, so sales goals followed. Publishers at the time were so incensed by the idea that they might miss out on a penny of revenue that they took major steps toward killing the used game market (only a few years before digital sales would essentially wipe it out anyway) through pre-order DLC, locked on-disc content requiring single-use codes packed with new copies of the game, mandatory internet connections, and even the discussion of fees to activate used games. Dead Space 3 itself locked off its multiplayer co-op features behind a purchase code for used game buyers, who had to shell out additional cash for the full experience. It’s no surprise that in this unsustainable atmosphere Dead Space was gradually transformed into the kind of four-quadrant crowd pleaser EA thought they wanted, only to fail anyway because what EA actually wanted was a license to continually make more money forever, ideally while doing as little as possible. Dead Space 2 had eventually sold over four million copies, but even the apex of the series was still considered a failure, thanks to EA’s lavish spending on promotion, a sector of the media industry which definitely isn’t a grift.

Dead Space was a Cinderella story turned into horror, the developer dream of a weird project becoming an unlikely darling and skyrocketing to mainstream status, before being gradually morphed into a more and more interchangeable product about armored space marines blasting monsters as the publisher spend years hollowing it out in search of a real life infinite money glitch. It was 2013 and Dead Space was dead.

Until today. January 27, 2023 saw see a Dead Space remake released from Montreal-based Motive Studio. Visceral Games is no more, just one of the many studios shuttered by EA after its ludicrous sales projections failed to be met, chewed up and spit out when the delicious flavor of money began to fade like bubblegum made from developers’ hopes and dreams. But enough time has passed now that people are nostalgic for Dead Space, bitter about the sequels, and ready to go back to the old ways, just as the first game was itself a throwback. The devs have promised no microtransactions, though at this point that’s a bit like saying that your new car doesn’t even need to be fed oats and have its horseshoes regularly changed. The industry has evolved; the money might have stayed just the same, but the ways they get it are different. In the original Dead Space games they got it through clunky DLC packs with outfits and guns, then story expansions, and finally with onerous gameplay requirements which players could pay to skip. Now it’s different, the zombified corpse of a dead franchise lurching into view, the mind and heart is gone, the original creators and developers all gone, but it’s something shiny and new, dripping with viscera, animated by a terrible and ancient purpose. You can cut off the head and it still won’t die. It wants your money.

Epilogue

The Callisto Protocol is a game made by some of the people behind the original Dead Space. It is a spiritual sequel to the franchise, channeling the same aesthetics and horror gameplay as the original series. The Callisto Protocol came out on December 1st, 2022, about two months before the Dead Space remake. It had a season pass with character skins, two game modes, and a story expansion. It sold two million units and underperformed because it didn't sell five million [link]. You can’t win.

[homenecromancer]

i am incapable of judging how comfortable other ppl are with reading about medical issues, sorry if this readmore doesn’t work, this is a needlessly detailed post bc this blog is partly my diary lmao

recap: in October 2022 i had a big fuckin abscess in my upper jaw above one of my rear molars (tooth X), which was incredibly painful and led to the coincidental discovery that my rearmost molar (tooth Y) had to be extracted. tooth X had previously had a crown placed on it, so draining the infection required drilling through that crown, performing a root canal, and then placing a filling over the drill hole. tooth Y was extracted and, over the course of almost a year, replaced with an implant

and then, late in December 2023, i started developing some slowly-building dental pain, seemingly localized to tooth X. last week i finally got around to seeing my regular dentist, who took X-rays and essentially went “…I gotta send you back to the guy who did that root canal, he has a fancier X-ray machine and will be able to see more”

and as it happened he was able to fit me in after only a couple of business days, so this past Tuesday, i went and saw him and he did a 3D X-ray. (ok. side note. this was actually done by an extremely kind, skilled, very pretty technician. which i tell you because “a nice lady tells me what to do” was a pleasant note in this whole lightly-nightmarish sequence of events.) anyway this was extremely cool to look at with him, because explaining what it showed required a bit of a basic course in looking at X-rays, and it was very interesting

unfortunately what the X-rays showed was that there was a dark patch of infection above the root area of tooth X. as he showed me, and explained: after the root canal (which was beautifully done), only the vertically-running nerves had been cleaned out. this probably left a small amount of material in horizontally-running tunnels which would have been impossible to see at the time. that material slowly died over time, leading to the infection. cleaning it out in a way that attempted to save the tooth would be fiddly, complicated work with a low chance of long-term success. yanking it out, on the other hand…

so he referred me back to the oral surgeon who had done my previous extraction — and as i drove home from the endodontist, my mom performed a minor miracle and managed to get me an appointment that afternoon with the surgeon. turnaround is never that fast. it ruled

the surgeon basically had a quick look and went “yup, that’ll have to come out, when do you wanna do it”. as it happens, i am away from work until next Tuesday, so i mentioned that to the scheduler, who said essentially “how’s Thursday [today] work?” and i said “YES”

fast forward to today, everything went much as it had for my first extraction… until i woke up and fuzzily noticed that they were still removing tools from my mouth

what had happened was this: they got in there and extracted tooth X, but noticed that the implant which had replaced tooth Y was attached less strongly than it had been (it was fine at my last post-implant checkup). the theory was that the infection at the root of tooth X had started to weaken the whole area. so, since i was still sedated, they called in my mother (medical power of attorney, for exactly this sort of situation), told her what was going on, and asked her opinion. she agreed with them — as did i once i was conscious enough to understand what had occurred — that it was best to take out the implant as well, let the whole area heal, and place both new implants at the same time

this has all happened over the course of a week from when i decided to drag myself in to go see the dentist 😑