#hashtag ironic i square

[shootingstarrfish]

can we make belphebatos a thing /hj

based on these chat screenshots which i got from here!!!! thank you op <3

[hika-pluto]

For the Love of Posting

A mirror post about apps, social media, enshittification, and the numbers game from my self-hosted blog.

Dead Bird

It’s weird watching people more or less beg and plead for Twitter to continue being the Internet's public square despite Elon being ableist, a transphobe and a COVID-denier, and ruining Twitter since its purchase of it (like, hello? The removal of being able to receive DMs from non-mutuals is just the tip of the iceberg). The main reasons for “This-Is-Fine”-dog-ing tend to be:

Twitter’s one of the few NSFW-friendly sites. (Go to Pixiv or CoHost. Or ask me to put you on my BlueSky invite waitlist.)

A lot of creators’ existing audiences are on Twitter, and they like being able to post to one place with a ton of reach. (Though that reach has been rapidly tanking.)

What’s even more odd is seeing artists big and small try to shame, clown, and dunk other sites in attempts to prevent their audience from leaving. It’s okay to be fed up and draw a line in the sand. The real issue is certain artists choosing to put all their eggs in one basket and refusing to diversify despite the growing elephant in the room (understandably, diversifying one’s online presence is not easy).

Spread Your Wings, I Guess?

Crosspost! Crosspost, crosspost, crosspost! At any moment, a site could disappear! The site can fall victim to enshittification! The algorithm could turn to garbage! The CEO can turn out to be a ‘phobe! At literally any moment! Your connection to your audience shouldn’t live or die on one site.

I currently use Buffer and PostyBirb to crosspost: Buffer for the “big” social media places, and PostyBirb for the art sites and sites with API tools more accessible to the developer. I write my captions and hashtags locally using LibreOffice Writer and simply paste them into Buffer and PB per post.

Artists that have web-stores or take commissions: consider having your repeat customers subscribe to mailing lists so they’re always in the loop. (No advice for good mailing list platforms cause I currently don’t need ‘em.)

Connections over Numbers

My advice for existing on social media is to think of the 1-3 sites you find most enjoyable to scroll on and genuinely interact with other people’s work. Let them know what aspects of their work you find awesome (this can also be a good way to find things you want to improve on). Give likes, and if you can afford to share their work without making your own profile page messy, do so! But, make sure you’re doing it with the goal of just-plain-being-nice and hopefully brightening someone’s day, lest your brain become poisoned by… The Numbers…

The Numbers

The numbers suck. They’re what make execs enshittify websites and what kill the spirits of creatives. Most importantly, they’re the gears in every site with an algorithm.

It’s like this: execs and shareholders (of the big-name sites, this doesn’t apply to indie-socmed like Mastodon,) want people to stay and scroll through their ads for longer. They figure they’re able to do this by showing you content they think you’ll want to see in-between, and the content they think you want to see is the stuff that already has thousands, millions, and billions of likes from people with thousands, millions, and billions of followers, and that’s why discovery on most algorithm-driven sites is garbage.

Ironically enough, I like social media for the connection, and would sit through more ads if it meant I could interact and form allyships with artists of my skill level and follower count.

What Now?

And yeah. Those are just my thoughts, as it stands, I guess. Elon bought Twitter in like, November of `22, but the snowball that is the SocMed-pocalypse feels like it’s rolling at its fastest right now.

IDK what happens next, and that’s why you can find me most anywhere @HikaTamika. It’s also why you can find me, on my website.

[whydoistilldothis]

Vulfpeck is dancing at the edge of the world.

Vulfpeck does not exist to be a vacuous excuse for positive distraction.

Vulfpeck is dancing at the edge of the world.

If you weren’t aware, the Motown-inspired band from Michigan is not another drably choreographed group of white dudes playing Berklee Funk. The group, who formed in 2011 as a four-piece, is led by the mad-hatter of a bandleader, Jack Stratton. These days their line-up has expanded to an entire circus of rotating talent. They play tight, groovy, and well-informed songs, as well as instrumentals, that put the rest of the “Nu-Funk” (urgh) Spotify playlist to shame.

Recently, I have read too many milk-toast articles proclaiming that Vulf, as they are also known, is the joyous antidote to a terrible and persecuting world.

God, one even ended by saying “the world really does need some laughter right now…”

Vulfpeck is definitely no distraction, nor do they intend to be.

However, the band’s trademark self-aware silliness does distinguish them from the majority of other artists.

Among Gen-Z and the younger Millennials, a culture of ritualistic apathy has increasingly coloured their social media outputs over the past 10 years. Causes notwithstanding, this trend has developed in parallel with a gradual deterioration in trust of institutions. Online, younger people seek meaning, truth, fulfilment, and belonging in what they can salvage from the once semi-homogeneous culture that erodes around them.

And then there is Vulfpeck. A goofy group of college graduates who’s only raison d’etre appears to be an honest revelling in their own music-making. They have undeniable musicianship, for sure, but their refusal to take themselves seriously whilst treating their music as sacred is what truly sets them apart in the industry.

The band’s dual personality is perfectly poised and coherent across their every output. For example in the music video for “Sauna”, the single-take, one-room recording session is offset by the silly towel robes and red, bell hats that the band adorns. Furthermore during their Madison Square Garden show in 2019, virtuosic solos and sparkling ballads were accompanied by the unneeded members of the band reclining on sofas at the back of the stage.

The origin the group’s sense of humour comes from their bandleader, Jack Stratton. Even before the group had formed, Jack himself would upload mildly deranged videos to YouTube. Such classics include a satirical outpouring about his emotional connection to a for-sale tape recorder, intended for the would-be viewers of a fake eBay listing.

More recently in 2018 when Spotify launched their IPO onto the stock market, Jack was featured as an ‘expert’ interviewee by major news network CNBC. The program had intended for the bandleader to talk about Spotify’s royalty system and how Vulfpeck had somewhat gained it with their Sleepify album. Instead, straight-faced, Mr Stratton described the “fundamentals” of business economics; those being the basketball moves, the “bouncepass”, “jumpshot”, and “pick-and-roll”, among many other nonsensical utterances.

Jack’s refusal to participate in the traditions of industries is by no means only symbolic. Vulfpeck is signed to its own label, Vulf Records, along with the associated bands of its members - such as Cory Wong and The Fearless Flyers. Furthermore, for their 2020 album The Joy of Music, The Job of Real Estate, Jack Stratton auctioned off the 10th spot on the album to the highest bidder, and as far as I can tell, as a marketing strategy.

In a culture where the “corecore” hashtag on TikTok gets more earnestly depressed by the day, Vulfpeck reflects the post-ironic understandings of the younger generation in an artistic form. Instead of retreating from the horrors and realities of whatever era of late-stage capitalism we are in, young people yearn for humour in places where it traditionally does not belong.

They want to be recognised for their accepting and apathetic worldview, and then laugh about it. Vulf’s success can be partly attributed to filling this comedic void in the music industry. Their apparent rejection of authority may also be a hook that draws in those who are disenfranchised to the importance of systemic structures.

Their use of this style of humour also embraces the end of the search for societal-level meaning. In return, Vulfpeck offers their own authenticity, or their best attempt at it.

This is initially seemingly contradictory. However, for young people whose valuing of power-structures has been stripped for scrap, value can be found again at the point where sincerity and insincerity meet. No better is this highlighted in the so called ‘post-ironic’ understanding.

The band’s clear talents in musicianship, song writing, and soloing, scrambled with a fully self-aware lack of seriousness embody this. And with a lack of fabricated celebrity identity, which is commonplace and self-directed in modern fame, their music leaves you the listener to insert you own meaning, for your own sake.

However, this does however cloud Vulfpeck’s identity as an artist, which is further exacerbated by the band’s lack of frontperson that is a vocalist. Instead, this role in the band changes to fit any particular song’s style or to feature an outside-the-band artist.

As the ties between artistic identity and an artist’s real singing voice weaken, what does this change mean for the case of Vulf? For a band with a carousel-like singing position and many instrumental tracks to their name, Vulfpeck exist somewhat outside of this trend.

Unlike even the rappers who use disorienting voice effects, Vulf do not have a singular singing identity to weld themselves to. As a result, for those who find sanctity in a self-affirming identity, the group exists to be inserted into one’s own personal context. Like a popular song on TikTok that is repurposed and peeled of all its prior meaning, Vulfpeck’s music is mouldable to the self-expression of those who want it.

Vulfpeck is a band who fully endorse an apathetic view of the world. They are the laughing nihilist, the straight-faced hedonist. They do not care about what people think of them, but they care deeply for the music that they make.

Vulfpeck is the soundtrack to an end that will never come.

[hits1000]

Top Songs of 1984 - Hits of 1984

Top Songs of 1984 - Hits of 1984 Top Songs of 1984 including: Alphaville - Big In Japan, Alphaville - Forever Young, Bon Jovi – Runaway, Bonnie Tyler - Holding Out For A Hero, Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In the Dark and many more! Subscribe to our channel to see more of our content! 1. Al Corley - Square Rooms 2. Alaska y Dinarama - Como Pudiste Hacerme Esto A Mí 3. Alphaville - Big In Japan 4. Alphaville - Forever Young 5. Alphaville - Sounds Like A Melody 6. Black Lace - Agadoo 7. Bon Jovi - Runaway 8. Boney M - Kalimba De Luna 9. Bonnie Tyler - Holding Out For A Hero 10. Break Machine - Street Dance 11. Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy 12. Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A. 13. Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In the Dark 14. Bryan Adams - Run To You 15. Cookie Dingler - Femme libérée 16. Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time 17. Duran Duran - The Reflex 18. Duran Duran - Wild Boys 19. Elton John - Sad Songs (Say So Much) 20. Eurythmics - Here Comes The Rain Again 21. Evelyn Thomas - High Energy 22. Fiordaliso - Non voglio mica la luna 23. Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is 24. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - The Power Of Love 25. George Michael - Careless Whisper 26. Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine - Dr. Beat 27. Herreys - Diggi-loo Diggi-ley 28. Huey Lewis & The News - The Heart Of Rock & Roll 29. Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes To Midnight 30. Jennifer Rush - The Power Of Love 31. Jermaine Jackson & Pia Zadora - When The Rain Begins To Fall 32. John Waite - Missing you 33. Kenny Loggins - Footloose 34. Kid Abelha - Como Eu Quero 35. Kool & The Gang - Fresh 36. La Unión - Lobo Hombre en París 37. Laura Branigan - Self Control 38. Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah 39. Limahl - Never Ending Story 40. Madonna - Like a Virgin 41. Miguel Bosé - Amante Bandido 42. Mike Oldfield - To France 43. Murray Head - One night in Bangkok 44. NENA - Irgendwie Irgendwo Irgendwann 45. Nik Kershaw - The Riddle 46. Nik Kershaw - Wouldn't It Be Good 47. P. Lion - Happy Children 48. Pat Benatar - We Belong 49. Peter Schilling - Terra Titanic 50. Phil Collins - Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now) 51. Phil Collins & Philip Bailey - Easy Lover 52. Prince - Purple Rain 53. Queen - I Want To Break Free 54. Queen - Radio Ga Ga 55. Raf - Self Control 56. Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters 57. REO Speedwagon - Can't Fight This Feeling 58. Rick Springfield - Love Somebody 59. Robin Gibb - Boys Do Fall In Love 60. Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me 61. Rod Stewart - Some Guys Have All the Luck 62. Sade - Smooth Operator 63. Sandy Marton - People From Ibiza 64. Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane 65. Scorpions - Still Loving You 66. Stevie Wonder - I Just Called To Say I Love You 67. Talk Talk - It's My Life 68. Tears For Fears - Shout 69. The Alan Parsons Project - Don't Answer Me 70. The Art Company - Susanna 71. Tina Turner - Private Dancer 72. Tina Turner - What's Love Got To Do With It 73. Titãs - Sonífera Ilha 74. Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It 75. U2 - Pride (In The Name Of Love) 76. Ultravox - Dancing With Tears In My Eyes 77. Van Halen - Jump 78. Wham! - Freedom 79. Wham! - Last Christmas 80. Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Related Searches: Greatest Hits of 1984, Best Jukebox 1984 Playlist, Late 1984 Non Stop , Top 1984 Non Stop, Mix 1984 Compilation, Best 1984 List, Late 1984 UK, Best 1984 Playlist, Best 1984 Non Stop, Best 1984 Video, Greatest 1984 Non Stop, Mix 1984 Playlist, Best Jukebox 1984 List, List of 1984 Mix, Top 1984 USA, Best Songs of 1984, Top Music 1984, Hits of 1984 Relate Hashtags: #songsof1984 #hits1984 #songs1984 #listof1984mix #hits1984 #bestsongs1984 #classic1984playlist #greatest1984nonstop #best1984list #best1984video #top1984mix #greatest1984video #mix1984playlist #top1984nonstop #mix1984compilation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUTEIt6okPg

[detectivemarkiprincess]

Coming back from the dead to chime in.

YOU NEED TO MAKE SOME MOTHERFUCKING NOISE.

Like...

MARKS FANS AS A WHOLE NEED TO MAKE SO MUCH NOISE.

Streaming services are canceling shows right and left these days, and if theyre stooping to this level of petty with Mark? You need to make so much noise.

And like i know i seem like some random person telling you to talk about a show, but i comr from experience. If you want Iron Lung to see the light of the day we HAVE to go above and beyond what the streaming service wants for Edge of Sleep. Top 10? They'll still screw him over.

What is my experience? My absolute favorite show got CANCELED! Just this year too!

And you may say a lot of shows have been cancelled this year but heres the difference.

My favorite show is Our Flag Means Death AND IT GOT CANCELLED BEING IN MAX'S TOP THREE.

So I am once again telling you YOU HAVE TO BE SO FUCKING LOUD.

In an effort to get the show renewed the fandom bought not one but TWO billboards (one in times square), a fly over plane, a boat, several advertising box trucks, we had the show trending on twitter constantly, we posted qr codes and links everywhere to our petition (85k signatures) to keep the show running. And it still got cancelled.

I learned some things from this process and it's that you have to make so much noise, you have to get outsiders involved, you have to be so loud and obnoxious, you have to make the streaming service listen and ALSO get others to watch the show.

Heres some ways you can do that:

1.) MAKE NOISE ON TWITTER

Now you might say you hate twitter, i do too. I laterally hate that place so much, but social media wise it has some of the most impact. Get a hashtag trending, talk about the show, let others know it exists. People will find it. Dont post spoilers but let people know youre enjoying it! Do a live tweet while you watch and KEEP YOUR HASHTAG GOING! You want it to trend, you need to have people see it. Even explain whats going on, that Prime is trying to screw Mark over. Do not let assholes comment on your posts being assholes. Block them and keep making as much noise as you can. Let people know where to watch.

2.) Streaming services look at their online statistics so look up the show!

Dont just google it! Click links! Check the IMDB page! RATE THE SHOW ON BOTH GOOGLE AND IMDB AND PRIME. Interact with the casts IMDB pages! Get clicks, get site traffic going. You want to make sure that the traffic shows generated interest in the show. Check the wikipedia page! Interact with it!

3.) STREAM IT ALL THE TIME!

But you cant just stream a show and not interact with it! INTERACT WITH THE SHOW. Pause it sometimes. Rewatch moments you really enjoyed! BUT WATCH IT ALL THE TIME! If you can? Play it on multiple devices! If you have multiple accounts watch on all of your accounts.

4.) SEARCH FOR IT ON AMAZON!

Even if it's right there, type it into the search bar! Get the search popular, and let Amazon know that you're looking!

5.) LEAVE A REVIEW AND RATE THE SHOW

It's imporant to let people, especially streaming services know that you liked it! Anywhere you can, leave a review! Give the show 5 stars and tell them WHY YOU LIKED IT!

6.) Enjoy it!

Dont forget to watch the show to enjoy it! But if you didnt like it, or it wasnt your cup of tea and you still wanna see iron lung? Dont leave a bad review. That won't help. The goal is to help push Mark's show to the top, to show Amazon and other streaming services that hes not just a "YouTuber" who only knows how to play video games and small projects. Mark is so much more than that and WE know that.

And for the love of everything i need to emphasize point 1.

MAKE AS MUCH NOISE AS YOU CAN!!!

We have to get the show out there! There's no advertising for it whatsoever and thats BULLSHIT! We have our work cut out for us.

Make tik toks, post youtube videos, GET ON TWITTER AND MAKE IT TREND! FIND PEOPLE WHO'S SHOWS WEREN'T GIVEN A CHANCE AND SHOW THEM KINDNESS AND THEY WILL SUPPORT YOU!

But making noise on a website that will cause an impact is so important! If we want the show to get past just Mark's youtube fanbase. We have to make so much noise!

I dont know about you guys but i wanna see Mark succeed! I believe in him so much and so it's extremely importanr to get the buzz going!

If i missed anything that may help, feel free to add.

alright gang, the rumors are true. The Edge of Sleep is now live (US only ig) on Amazon Prime Video. and i get what some of y'all are saying, "there doesn't need to be marketing because of mark's rabid fanbase!"

But guys. Guys. This is not a YouTube project. I hate to say it but even 30+ million Markiplier fans is not enough for what needs to happen here, unfortunately. This is ultimately about breaking out of the YouTube-fanbase sphere and getting this show to mainstream viewership. That's the goal-- this is about showing that a "YouTuber project" (even though Edge of Sleep was made by a professional production company and isn't really that) can have appeal beyond a preexisting audience. It's about, big picture, legitimizing the contributions of online creators in making films and television products for casual viewers.

So yeah, it's time to break out not just The Plan, but The Strategy. What is that, you ask? You'll see--check back tonight. This is a call for all hands on deck.

We ride at sunset-- the edge between day and night when the world starts to go to bed. We ride at the edge of sleep.

[tessavillaverde]

VTuber Re-Starter Kit (2023)

Who knows wtf Twitter is gonna look like by the end of the year? Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, Tumblr, and all the other cesspits? I’ve got it all covered! Social media is changing and we must change with it. I’m so tired god please weh

Twitter is in free fall. Panic ensues. Valid. Many of us need that hellsite. Badly. It’s imperfect trash, but its *our* trash, understand? Fuck these “alternatives”. They are all noise right now. Cohost doesn’t allow commercial activity in its TOS, Mastodon has low engagement right now. Twitter Blue is here to stay. As VTubers, we all benefit from having it, actually. For $8/mo, you will be prioritized and boosted with mentions and replies. This means that threads and replies to you bump you up on the TL. Even if you pay for it, Lists and Twitter Circles are still a good idea. Heck, rotate people out of Twitter Circles to make sure you’re able to talk to more people. Continue to use Twitter to network by providing value to others and help others in their journey. Be chill and don’t use people for clout--it’s disingenuous. Treat people like people.

I can’t guarantee that things will be the same here on Twitter and neither can anyone else. The current data sets I see from clients and others may show that not much is changing, but this site is changing every day. We need to play it day by day and not worry too much about it.

Twitter has shops, utilize tf out of the business features. Given how much of a mess the site is with its daily tweaks and the loss of valuable engineers at Twitter, things could be topsy-turvy. Who knows? Be active!

This being said, you shouldn’t rely on Twitter alone. It’s not good for your business nor is it good for growing your brand recognition. So I’ll list where to go and the use cases. Don’t use this list to go to literally every place. There’s just not enough time in a day to maintain it all.

Instagram

Don’t make Insta your mainstay. Please, for the love of God don’t. Everything wrong with FB is still wrong with Insta with the added bonus of it being Diet Tik Tok. That being said, it still is a good networking tool and can help your sales with its shop features (for businesses/brands/media that don’t want to use Twitter). So what to do with Insta? Repost your Tik Toks and hit it n quit it. Post your schedule (3:2 format, crop down with 1:1 squares and schedule out posts to upload your schedule). Update your stories with important things (they’re pinned tweets basically). Have a link in your profile and reply to people when you can. Use relevant hashtags and hashtags that aren’t super saturated. GL;HF

Tik Tok

Hit it n Quit it

Post in prime times

Turn brain off

Be unhinged with your originals

Remix and hf with trends

Repost best shorts elsewhere

Tumblr

It’s 2012 again and we have no character limits and post gif memes

Relax, hf, life moves slower with an older audience

Not a Twitter replacement

SEO can be a benefit (technical jargon I’ll save you from), but you must remain authentic. What works on Twitter doesn’t fly on Tumblr. You will not get traction from doing what you do here.

Pay attention to etiquette. You can have assholes, but many are willing to joke as if nothing had happened. Be consistent by liking and reblogging things. Turn off your brain and follow blogs and tags that are up your alley and QUEUE up things to keep posting throughout the day. Tumblr humor is ironic, but not irony-poisoned. It’s punny and quirky and you must kill the chains that bind your inner cringe. Truly be yourself, share your personal thoughts more (it's a blogging site ffs), share your fandom of things, and things’ll be okay.

Also important on the ettiquite as a first tip: dont act like you do on Twitter. Its a different audience and the normal ways of crossposting wont work here. This is not Twitter. Tumblr is a blogging site where blogs share each other and it is fandom-heavy (meaning sharing who your favorite oshii is for example and hyping up others). It comes naturally. Be yourself and focus on building up a presence on your blog to give people a good idea of who tf you are. Nobody is really a celebrity here and you can't act like you are here. USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGSUSE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGSUSE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGSUSE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGSUSE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGSUSE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGSUSE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGSUSE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGSUSE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TAGS USE TA--

YouTube

I made another mega thread for this, read it later. YouTube should be one of your mainstays as a VTUBER. It’s more work, yes, but they also have Community Posting for everyone now. Scaling up your brand and having better brand recognition is crucial here. As you post more videos, ALWAYS improve your pacing, thumbnails, and titles.

Twitch

We know it. We love it. Consistency is key. Start with Rule of 3s: 3 days/week, 3 hours/day, 3 social media outlets. This is a general rule for a reason, but it's a good minimum to start with because I’ve seen too many clients in deep need. If you need to start half an hour later to catch your regular audience, then do so. Starting out, you need consistent numbers, engagement, and retention. I’ll explain later, but you want to do what you can to increase production value and give more interactables for chat to use.

Advice for partners, you need to continue to carry the momentum to scale. By this point, you likely know what it is you need to do, but perhaps there’s a discrepancy with engagement or retention, or god knows what that holds your audience back. Collabs help, but not as much as you’d like. This comes with raids being a nice networking tool funnily enough. Raid people with similar content and vibe as you to continue to network with people. Switching audiences and using adjacent categories to find that audience may be what you need.

This is all hard to determine for partners so plainly on social media without analyzing data, audience, content, branding/design, and personality. There’s a lot that goes into your churn (how many folks you lose in your audience on average). Fixing that can either require optimization and turning your personality up to 11 more consistently and differently, but also can mean taking a leap into faith with a “big risk, big reward mentality”. One thing I know works would be the optimization tweaks here and there by looking at data (or not looking at all and just gathering feedback from your audience and friends and staying objective and factual), and diversification on different platforms so more can know who you are.

Try tools like Streambee to simplify the VOD review process Streamloots to increase engagement and have better monetization TITS, VRChat, and curation to invite viewers with “planned exclusivity” rather than total exclusivity (how you do this is up to you).

Discord Not really a social media site

Great for talking and engaging your community and breeding loyalty. VTubers need fewer “groups”, fewer individual servers, and more community servers where you can pool your resources and hype each other up. Effectively make use of what Stream Teams are good for and raise each other up.

Monetization

Use Kofi for tips, a shop, comms

Use Gumroad for another shop that has more discoverability

Use Patreon for memberships to slowly phase out Twitch subs. Be creative and have fun with Patreon rewards

Use Streamloots and have fun with it

There’s more I want to discuss, but for now, you can follow me on Twitter and here on Tumblr for this data-backed advice, the nitty gritty nerdy jargon for social media with data and whatnot, and my personal thoughts with my positive experiences managing and consulting folks.

If you yourself are terrified still even with all of this, I have restructured my business with Build-Your-Own Bundle type of consultations and management. Services are 50% off. 69% off after your first purchase (nice)

[adarafaelbarba]

So as mentioned in my previous post about this bingo, my birthday is next month. And for that occasion I wanted to host another bingo! Like my last bingo in October 2021, this one will have moodboards to the squares. You don’t have to use them, but they’re there for inspiration, and can also be used in your fics as a “cover” if you’d like 🥰 I’m gonna have the moodboards up before the bingo starts on Monday 17th of January 😅

here are some rules:

1. It’ll start on January 17th and ends on February 17th at Midnight (Norwegian time)

2. Write one, ten or all of the fics. But don’t feel like you have to write them, this is a fun little writing exercise

3. You can write a head canon, ficlet, multi-chapter (one moodboard/square per fic) or a one shot. But please, if it’s longer than 500 words, put it under read more.

4. The fics can be fluff, smut, angst, etc if you feel like they would fit with the aesthetic of the moodboard you write for. Please remember to tag the fics with the right warnings before posting it.

5. Tag me when you post it, so I can keep tracks of the fics that are posted for this challenge and use the hashtag: #adarafaelbarbabirthdaybingo

6. Characters allowed (reader insert, oc, ships)

SVU:

Rafael Barba

Sonny Carisi

Mike Dodds

Nick Amaro

Peter Stone

Odafin “Fin” Tutuola

Alex Cabot

Casey Novak

Olivia Benson

Amanda Rollins

Rita Calhoun

Kat Tamin

Elizabeth Donnelly

Other Raúl Esparza Characters:

Jackson Neill

Nevada Ramirez

Jonas Nightingale

Bryan Kneef

Frederick Chilton

Paul Mendelsohn

911 / 911 Lone Star:

Evan Buckley

Eddie Diaz

Maddie Buckley

Chimney

Hen Wilson

Bobby Nash

Athena Grant

Owen Strand

T.K. Strand

Grace Ryder

Judd Ryder

Marjan Marwani

Paul Strickland

Carlos Reyes

Tommy Vega

Mayans MC:

Miguel Galindo

Angel Reyes

Ez Reyes

Bishop Losa

Emily Thomas

Coco Cruz

One Chicago:

Matt Casey

Kelly Severide

Brian «Otis» Zvonecek

Joe Cruz

Stella Kidd

Gabby Dawson

Violet Mikami

Sylvie Brett

Emily Foster

Jessica Chilton

Gianna Mackey

Evan Hawkins

Jay Halstead

Antonio Dawson

Adam Ruzek

Kevin Atwater

Erin Lindsay

Hailey Upton

Vanessa Rojas

Sean Roman

Kim Burgess

Connor Rhodes

Ethan Choi

Will Halstead

April Sexton

Crockett Marcel

Jeff Clarke

A Discovery of Witches:

Baldwin Montclair (Trystan and Peter’s version, but specify it 😅)

Matthew de Clermont

Marcus Whitmore

Diana Bishop

Miriam Shepard

Domenico

Sophie Norman

Nathaniel Wilson

Gallowglass

Satu Järvinen

Juliette Durand

Phoebe Taylor

Hamish Osborn

Chris Roberts

Ransome Fayrweather

Outlander:

Ian Murray

Frank Randall

Jamie Fraser

Clair Fraser

Briana Fraser Randall

Roger Mackenzie

Fergus Fraser

Marsali Fraser

Jenny Fraser

Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts:

Sirius Black

Remus Lupin

James Potter

Newt Scamander

Young Dumbledore

Kingsman:

Eggsy Unwin

Roxy Morton

Harry Hart

Merlin

Charlie Hesketh

Percival

Lancelot / James Spencer

Ginger

Whiskey

Tequila

Characters from the King’s Men

MCU:

Thor Odinson

Steve Rogers / Captain America

Tony Stark / Iron Man

Dr. Bruce Banner / Hulk

Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow

Sam Wilson / Falcon / Captain America

Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier

Dr. Stephen Strange / Dr. Strange

T’Challa / Black panther (rip Chadwick 🥺)

Shaun / Shang-Chi

Xialing

Wenwu

Wong

Peter Parker / Spiderman (Tom, Toby or Andrew. But specify it 😅)

Clint Barton / Hawkeye

Wade Wilson / Deadpool

Scott Lang (Ant-Man)

Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel

Baron Helmut Zemo

Yelena Belova

Monica Rambeau

Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch

Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver

Charles Xavier / Professor X

Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto

Druig

Makkari

Dane

Thena

Sersi

Ikaris

Ajak

Gilgamesh

Kingo

Phastos

Note: If there’s a character/fadom not listed, feel free to DM me.

7. No RPF/real person fic. No underage character (includes reader/ocs)

8. Please signal boost this post, regardless if you participate or not

9. Most important! Have fun! 🥰 Feel free to dm me with any questions or concerns

[saphyhowl]

Chapter one: Encounter

Here it is. I know it’s not very long but I will continue tomorrow for part two. The fic I asked your thoughts about. Hope you like it. Again sorry for the long wait.

Edit: I added part two

“And on your right, you may admire the work of Jacques-Louis David, “the Coronation of Napoleon” painted in 1807. It took the artist two years to finish the painting. It is not only imposing because of its size but also by the…”

A young woman in a formal suit guided a group of visitors through the gallery in the Denon part of the Louvre museum. While the visitors admired the painting, the guide waved discreetly at a young man standing on the sidelines. He looked visibly bored but managed a timid smile as the woman waved at him. He strode towards her, his boredom noticeable even in the way he walked.

“I’ll be done in a few hours, why don’t you grab something to eat or maybe take a stroll outside. I know museums are not the funniest thing to see for a 19-year-old,” the woman said with a chuckle.

“No worries sis, I’ll grab something to eat at the “Paul” bakery. Text me when you’re done?” the young man answered.

The sister nodded and went on to describe the other paintings to her group. She glanced one last time at her brother’s figure among the visitors. The young man put his headphones on as he strode towards the exit. He scrolled through his phone to find the playlist that would suit his mood and nearly bumped into an elegant-looking man.

“Sorry,” he mouthed at the elegant man and continued walking.

A moment later he sat on a bench munching on a sandwich. Someone sat next to him but he paid them no mind. A tap on his arm. He looked up. It was the elegant man from before.

“Well, we meet again,” said the elegant man.

The brother smiled politely and took another bite from his sandwich.

“You can call me Comte,” the gentleman added as he stretched out his hand.

“Louis,” answered the young man as he stared at Comte’s outstretched hand, visibly refusing to shake it.

“What is your favorite painting in the Louvre museum?” Comte asked.

“None. I don’t like museums,” Louis answered as he immediately took another bite from his sandwich. Hopefully, that way the weird man would stop talking to him.

“I thought so. A pity. Paintings are a heritage, they have many stories to tell us,” Comte commented.

“I am sure they do sir,” Louis said as he looked away in annoyance.

“Le Sacre de Napoleon is a masterpiece. However, you must visit the Musée d’Orsay as well. The paintings there are filled with life,”

“I will,” Louis said with a loud sigh.

“Make sure to go with a knowledgeable guide, otherwise you might miss a few gems,” Comte added.

Louis nodded and continued to munch on his sandwich.

“Well, then Louis. I bid you farewell. Take in my beautiful city of Paris, she has yet to offer you plenty of treasures,” Comte nodded his head and walked away.

“What a freak,” Louis mumbled to himself.

He was about to reach for his soda bottle as he noticed a leather wallet next to him. Louis cursed under his breath as he knew what he was about to do.

A few hours later.

“Are you sure he never left the Denon area?” a young woman asked the security guard as he replayed the security footage.

“No Mademoiselle Sophie,” the security guard answered.

Sophie saw the footage for the fifth time. There was her brother passing through the gates leading to the Denon area at 1:32 pm. She held her head in her hand.

“This cannot be happening,” she whispered.

“It’s been past closing time Mademoiselle. Have you tried his cellphone again?” the security guard inquired.

She nodded and took out her phone. She tapped on her brother’s contact and held her phone to her ear.

“Come on. Come on. Answer idiot…”

She heard the familiar beeping that announced her call had gone straight to voicemail.

“Maybe he went already home Sophie?” suggested someone behind her. It was Alicia, one of Sophie’s colleagues.

“Maybe you are right Alicia. I will go check and if not then I will go straight to the police. He knows nothing about Paris and it’s getting late,” Sophie decided as she went to grab her bag and coat.

Sophie watched the city lights pass by the window as she sat in the subway. The closer she got to her stop the more nervously her knees jumped up and down. She practically ran towards her tiny apartment. She dropped her keys a few times because her hands trembled with anticipation. She opened the door and shouted her brother’s name. She shouted again as she entered her apartment. The apartment was dark and was exactly as she had left it before heading to work this morning. She shouted her brother’s name again storming into each room. No one.

Sophie crouched down and called her brother’s phone one more time. Voicemail. She looked at her phone and selected another contact. The sharp light from her phone hurt her eyes or maybe the tears she held back started to sting her eyes.

“Hello?” a voice came out of the speaker.

“Mom? I-I lost Louis,” Sophie managed to say before bursting into tears.

A few hours later, Sophie sat in front of a police officer, telling the middle-aged officer what had occurred. Sophie tried her best to recall any detail that could be decisive for the investigation. Another officer handed her a paper cup with what seemed to be coffee. She gave them a faint smile. The middle-aged officer spoke with Sophie it took her a moment to understand their explanations. All of this seemed surreal. The busy police station even at night, the neon lights. The office was busy with people doing paperwork. Sophie was sitting there filing a missing person report for her younger brother just like in any trailer movie. However, the heavy truth was nowhere comparable to what any series could transmit. She had lost her brother for whom she had always looked out for. Sophie felt as if part of herself went missing for good that day as well.

The police officer gave her a business card with a number on it.

“If you need to talk, we have a few people here who are specialized in helping families cope with the situation,” the officer explained.

Sophie took the business card and thanked the police officer.

“We will be at the Louvre tomorrow to investigate possible leads. We will let you know if we find something,” the other officer added.

Sophie managed to blurt out a few words of gratitude and exited the station. She caught sight of a familiar man leaning against a car.

“Antoine,” Sophie whispered and smiled.

The man named Antoine held out his hands to take hers. She rested her forehead against his shoulder.

“This is a nightmare,” she said as series of sobs took over.

Antoine held her in his arms until she had calmed down a little.

“It is not your fault. He will show up again, ok? Let’s go back to your place and get some rest,” Antoine suggested as he opened the door of his car.

The next day, at the police station.

“Our colleagues have scanned every profile of the visitors and staff on that day and none of them match with the man we see here,” explained the policewoman to his lieutenant as she circled the zoomed face of an elegant-looking man.

The lieutenant gazed at the different screenshots from the security footage showing the missing Louis with an unidentified man.

“How could anyone pass the heavy security of the Museum?” the lieutenant wondered.

“We found something else,” the policewoman showed him another screenshot.

The lieutenant looked closer and recognized Louis. The young man was following the suspect through a door.

“Where does that door lead?”

The policewoman turned pale.

“Now now Marie, it cannot be that bad,” the lieutenant encouraged the policewoman.

“Nothing,” she answered.

“What do you mean exactly with nothing?” the lieutenant asked.

“A storage room for flyers and whatnot. There are no windows, no shafts, nothing that could lead them out, except the same door they went through,” Marie explained.

The lieutenant sat back in his chair. He had seen a lot of cases in his lengthy career. However, this one was fairly new and slightly worrying.

“I’ll make a call. This, dear Marie, is bigger than I anticipated,” the lieutenant added before getting up to make a call. This case was out of his hands.

 #Trouverlouis

Paris was on fire. At least the social network was. The social media of every Parisian was showing and sharing one hashtag, a plea for help from a desperate sister. Sophie was in the kitchen, her phone on the table could not stop buzzing ever since she had followed her friends' advice. She had placed her faith in the algorithms of Instagram and every other network that might help to obtain hints on her brother’s whereabouts. However, after a month, the shares and posts resulted in lots of public empathy but few leads.

Sophie sat on a chair and stared at a picture hanging on her fridge door. The unidentified man who took away her brother Louis. She remembered the day she went to the police station with her mother this time. After they had told them another unit had taken over the case because of the lack of leads, her mother had thrown a tantrum. She insulted every policeman with every imaginable name. However, all the commotion dulled out as she saw the portrait one police officer had handed to her, explaining that she was allowed to use it to see if anyone in her circle could identify him. Ironically, no one recognized him.

Sophie looked at the portrait, eyes filled with pure hate. The pure-hearted, art and history passionate Sophie had made a vow to personally strangle the life out of this man. She grabbed her purse and went to the Louvre as she did every day for work. However, this time she went to stand for the umpteenth time in front of the door through which her brother never came back.

The door looked insignificant as usual, noted Sophie. She was alone in the area, it was yet too early for the storm of visitors to invade the halls of the Louvre Museum. Sophie sighed. The police had explained that it was a mere storage room of two square feet. She had looked at it many times during the past weeks. She lazily put her hand on the doorknob and opened the door, she knew what to expect.

Sophie let out a scream. The stack of cardboard from yesterday was gone, the pile of flyers and maps as well. The storage room looked more like an old corridor from the Louvre with a velvet rug, old paintings on each side of the walls.

“Mademoiselle Sophie,” a voice whispered. It came from the far end of the corridor.

Sophie fumbled with her purse and took out her phone to take a picture.

“Mademoiselle Sophie,” the voice repeated.

Sophie searched through her phone and was about to leave a voice message to her boyfriend Antoine.

“Sophie” another voice whispered.

Sophie shuddered; she knew that voice very well. It belonged to Louis.

“Antoine, I think I found a lead. I’ll send you a picture,” Sophie whispered on her phone, her voice a mix of fear and joy.

She released her finger from the recording button. She was about to tap onto the picture she had just taken to send it to Antoine. Something or someone pushed her into the corridor causing her to drop her phone. The door slammed behind her and Sophie was drawn towards the other end.

“No no no no. Let me out! Let me go! Please let me go! Alicia! Anyone! Get me out of here, please!”

On the other side of the storage door, Sophie’s phone rested on the floor. The screen shifted as a call entered, the name “ANTOINE” appeared on the screen. The phone buzzed in the still empty museum.

[certifiedceraunophile]

KLAROLINE FALL BINGO PREVIEW.

@eliliyah @klarolinefallbingo

Prompt: Dias De Muertos

Honestly the relevancy of the prompt comes far to late in the story but it’s there, kinda. But hey it’s there.

MASQUERADES

(CinemaAU)

Sometimes all she needed was to take a breather. A single moment. One pause.

Breathe in.

To collect her thoughts and emotions. To steady her bearings.

To state in a repetitive loop all the reasons why punching one Niklaus Mikaelson in the balls would be a marginally bad idea.

And breathe out.

Forgive her, but The man was infuriating. Okay?

And unashamedly so. Not a whit of genuine compunction behind that facade of ‘Inescapable Charisma and Unadulterated Allure.’

Definitely not her words.

Nope. No sir.

These were the words of a certain Greta Martin, editor-in-chief for the first October issue of People Magazine.

With one Mega-frustrating arrogant blonde blue-eyed dimpled asshat demon going by the name Klaus slapped to the front of said issue.

And Nope if anyone asks,

No, she did not literally just shred -In a shredding machine no less, because efficiency, thank you very much- the first copy of the magazine she bought, after reading the beginning eight lines on his exclusive, recounting what a ‘delightfully satisfying and marvellous experience the entire three months of shooting turned out to be.’

Ok one Black-hole sized pause right there please.

Thank you.

A single beat.

And....

The Absolute Fuck?!

She’s sorry. Marvellous experience?

Excuse her, but say what?

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Beg pardon but What?

Excuse her.

But Marvellous experience, as in, aggressive quotation marks scratching the air “Marvellous experience” is NOT how she remembers it.

The slap in the face obvious discrepancy to both their stories is definitely not blind to her.

He called 84 re-takes that lasted four whole hours for one eight minute long single-shot single-angle scene, Marvellous.

He called having ice-cold Whiteclaw thrown square on his face by a Absolutely-done-with-wild-gust-of-agitated-Blonde-Fury on the eighth day of set, Marvellous.

He called having two separate make-up artists downright quit after being unable to touch up her makeup every thirteen seconds because she ran her hand down her face in unbridled aggravation every time her eyes landed on him, Marvellous.

He called the same experience where, she had to literally rush out of a set, under the ruse of a bathroom break, Twice in the course of three months, so that she can peacefully go through the motions of a rage-fueled emotional meltdown, complete with angry frustrated tears and a relentlessly colourful diatribe, cursing every man in her life who bore even a sliver of resemblance to the stormy-blue-eyed spawn of satan that was her co-actor, Marvellous.

God. How the hell did he possibly think he could get away with this,

How did he think he was going to smooth over the transparent inconsistencies between her interviews and his, without raising at least a few confused questions from bloodthirsty intuitive fans and the Press in general.

Given how her talk-show interviews and magazine exclusives gave the steady image, that

1. Klaus Mikaelson is a dick and a half, with an overgrown ego so ginormous that even the entirety of Tinseltown is ‘plainly restricting of his nonpareil talent in histrionic execution.’

2. Klaus Mikaelson is an arrogant narcissistic asshole that Hast pronounc'd upon his brethren yond this day f'rth that gent shalt with ev'ry smidgen of purpose in his life striveth to be the Unrivalled Bane of Caroline Forbes’ Existence.

3. The process of Creating the undeniable tour de force Masterpiece that was ‘100 years of solitude.’ The newest Christopher Nolan Direction and Production in theatres right now, that already has definite Academy Awards Nomination in the talks, was anything but Marvellous. She admits, It was so so gratifying and made her heart full with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, that left her giddy with such lighthearted contentment for days, after the phenomenal response it garnered post-premiering, Yes. But that does not capsulate how frustratingly tiresome and emotionally debilitating the entire creation process was. Hell it was downright painful at times.

4. Would she voluntarily take another movie with Klaus Mikaelson as a Co-star alongside her? You can get back to her when the sun starts to rise from the west and the answer would still be a definitive NO.

Now of course she wasn’t this brazen with her claims she knows how to be cute and classy and concise.

But she definitely did not mitigate the truth of her statement, she’s had enough training with her PR department to know what to say and how to say it but she’s sure that nobody had been able to overlook her less than companionable remarks about Klaus.

For example

The Stephen Colbert Show:

Stephen: “So Caroline tell us about the process, the Making of it, how everything fell into place like tiny puzzle pieces to reveal at last this grand, Grand Picture.”

“The process? Well the process was certainly not...pretty...but after every time we finished a scene, however small or inconsequential it may have seemed to the plot, there was this immense sense of ‘there-Done it. And done it well.’ ”

Jimmy Kimmel Live:

“Klaus Mikaelson, well my Co-star is um....eccentric at best.....”

Jimmy: “and at worst?”

“Well..... I guess” -hellish, heinously intolerable, a cruel mean bastard- “....Unyielding...?”

The Ellen Show:

“Well Klaus was a..... demanding partner and it took Herculean efforts to meet his exacting standards, but I can understand how that paid off so well on screen. The end result when I saw it for the first time, it damn well paid off.”

Ellen: “so he is absolved of his admittedly ‘uphill’ personality then?”

She laughs awkwardly,

“Ye-ah....No.”

followed by more laughter dissolving the painstaking grimace she’s trying to tamper down.

Oh and the worst.

The Late Late show with James Cordon:

During the ‘Fill Your Guts or Spill Your Guts’ segment

James: “So....I’m going to give you, let’s see, Ah there, the Bird Saliva.”

Caroline: “James!.... Damn it, you are so not making it into my good books, and....God. That’s just disconcerting I mean, How do they even, I don’t know... collect it?”

James: “Well there’s a whole process of harvesting it from the salivary glands and—“

Caroline: “Never mind! Nope. No need for the details, please, James, a lady’s delicate sensibilities are at stake. And unless the question is ‘what is your social security number?’ I’m not drinking this poison.”

James: “Now Caroline you wound me, I can assure you everything on this table is edible albeit being marginally unpalatable—“

Caroline: “Marginally?!”

James: “You should try the Cow’s tongue. It’s delectable.” Followed by a sagely nod.

Caroline: “Now I’m just intensely bothered. You’ve definitely lost all claim for a spot in my good books.”

James: “Ah well, speaking of staying in your good graces, here’s a question that will have you downing that Saliva in seconds.”

Caroline: “Hit me.”

James: “Well then, ‘Name Any one CO-star with whom you have worked with in the past that you would never volunteer to work with again.’”

Pause.

And the audience descended.

“Like I said, speaking about staying in your good books.”

Amidst the raucous screams, whistles and laughter, it didn’t even bother Caroline, the clarity and speed with which the name

‘Klaus Mikaelson’ flashed in the front of her mind, like a large Neon LED sign from a typical Vegas Nightlife scene.

It took her a total of three seconds to know that she was going to answer with his name because, well just look at that drink in front of her,

Sure if you bend over real low and squint in the right light it may look like a harmless Daiquiri, but a Daiquiri it was not.

No. This was Bird Freaking Saliva,

Come on, you can’t possibly ask her to put that in her goddamn mouth.

Like NO.

Just no.

So sue her for protecting her taste buds that are yet to experience many more exotic flavours and textures of food from all around the world.

But then again she can’t possibly outright just say “Oh that’s easy, Klaus Mikaelson.”

That’s exactly the kinda PR trouble she wants to stay above and definitely didn’t need to be wrung out dry by her Spitfire Mistress-of-Hell Publicist Katherine Pierce for.

(Who also alternates as her BFF, occasionally, mind you.)

So she puts on a good show, dropped her head in her hands, gave a healthy long groan, looked up and gave James her best wounded Puppy Dog eyes, to which he was clearly not immune to, judging by how he looked a touch chagrined, but the game was just as much as beyond his hands as it were hers,

She looked to the audience “You guys are so mean, it’s not even funny.”

And grumbled a bit more till everyone was laughing and pitching forward and back on their seat amused by the poor Blonde’s Dilemma.

So she looked up to the heavens as if to ask for some unknown deity for deliverance and guidance, and poised herself to drink,

Only to put the glass back down in the last second in a begrudgingly weak show of caving in, and blurted out reluctantly,

(She’s a glorious actor, she’s aware.)

“You know what, Nope. He’s just gotta deal with it, okay?.”

Deep breath

Or was it the audience taking a deep breath and holding it in,

“ItsKlausMikaelson,PleaseDontKillMe.”

Pause again.

And the auditorium transcended.

Well,

she handled that, pretty well, if she does say so herself you know.

Apparently Kat Disagrees.

Apparently She Blew It.

She blew it so hard she could’ve knocked down the third little pig’s brick house.

Ironic since she always envisioned Klaus as the Big Bad Wolf who huffs and puffs and just generally blows.

Apparently her little admission was a PR disaster.

And Kat was furious.

The two minute edited clip that encompassed the question, the reluctant grumbling and finally the confession was apparently now a viral video on all social networking platforms.

They were trending on twitter under the hashtag

#KlarolineUnrequitedLoveIsABitch.

But her admission to being generally averted on taking up Klaus as a colleague again was apparently only one half of the video,

The other half....

Well the other other half was Klaus with his personal confession.

God, it wasn’t even a confession,

it was a—a Mockery, yes that’s it, a Mockery,

Of Her, no less

Basically Here’s the run down of the second insidious half of the video,

Klaus sitting in front of Graham Norton, in all their British glory, going live on The Graham Norton Show,

when asked about Caroline Forbes, his “partner” on scene has the audacity to let out this evil little amused huff and say:

“Caroline?” Another amused huff. “Well Caroline, Christ, where do I start? She’s an absolutely glorious presence on set. Her energy....it’s infectious, She hits you like a blonde hurricane of sunshine and snark and you’re just left staring up at the sun thinking, ‘you need to catch up mate, if you want to be half as bright and burning as her.’”

And Caroline thinks maybe this is the feeling of your brain imploding within the confines of the skull.

TBC

[scottymcgeesterwrites]

Final Fantasy XV Review

Year: 2016

Original Platform: PlayStation 4

Also available on: PC (Steam), XBox One

Version I Played: PlayStation 4

Here we go. The final Final Fantasy review of the main single-player games. I just want to say, first off, we’ve been waiting for this game since 2006. It took them ten damn years to finally release this game. I clearly remember the teaser trailer they released when it was called Final Fantasy XIII Versus, and my next-door neighbor and I were so hyped for this game when we were freaking teenagers. After years of delays, Square Enix revamped it into Final Fantasy XV.

Did it live up to the wait? Well, read and find out.

Synopsis:

Noctis Lucis Caelum is the heir to the throne of the kingdom of Lucis. On his birthday, he sets off with his three best friends and bodyguards (Ignis, Prompto, Gladio) to marry his betrothed, Lunafreya. The marriage is supposed to be a political one, though Noct and Lunafreya had grown up together and become fond of each other. But peace turns to war as the empire of Niflheim betrays Insomnia and invades. Noct, now on the run, has to reclaim his right to the throne by collecting the necessary family heirlooms which will banish the darkness.  

Gameplay:

Open-world Final Fantasy.

That is the big selling point for this game. 

A MASSIVE step up from Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay, Final Fantasy XV has you roaming around and attacking enemies on the field in real time. The battle system returns to something slightly more conventional by having you cast spells and use items. It seems like this is what Square really intended to do after Final Fantasy XII. Looking back, Final Fantasy XIII feels like some prototype before Final Fantasy XII, so it really becomes apparent that Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay comes off as a huge mistake.

This game’s major’s strength comes from the player engaging with a massive world. You camp. You take on hunts. You take on a bajillion sidequests. You run across the world. You drive across the world. You can ride a chocobo across the world.

However, the dip in the gameplay comes from how easily accessible these sidequests are. The map tells you exactly where you go 24/7. I started to have an existential crisis around my 50th sidequest in a row. Why am I doing this? What’s the point? I go here to kill a thing, or go there to help someone by giving a potion or taking a picture. You start to realize that a good bulk of sidequests are either hunting daemons or fetching an item. You start to deconstruct the meaning of playing a video game as you think to yourself, “Why do I play video games?” while also thinking “But wait, one more and then I swear I’m done.”.

I get it, not everyone has the time nowadays to figure out a huge game like this. I get it, video games are now marketed to everyone for ease. At the same time, I personally love a good challenge. I mean, I’m the guy who has Dark Souls as one of his favorite video games of all time, so my opinion on the matter might definitely be skewered compared to most. I generally want to feel like I actually figured something out by myself rather than following a tracker on the screen and walking from task to task and then saying, “Okay done. Next.”.

Too much of that and playing a video game starts to feel like a 9 to 5 job to me. This game is great to play during quarantine, but at one point I saw playing this game as feeling like an actual job. Wake up, eat breakfast, time to hunt some daemons.

This is the growing conflict some people have with story-driven games versus open-world games. I see the argument focused too much on words like “linear”, but in reality we should be talking about “automation”. If a video game is too automated, then did you really play a video game? Or did you watch a movie that allows you to control the camera angle? At first, the idea of driving around an open-world Final Fantasy game sounds amazing. Isn’t that what fans always dreamed of? In reality, you don’t really drive around at your leisure. Even when you have the car set to “manual”, you can’t speed up, drive off-road, or pull off a sick drift like in The Fast and the Furious. Your car still automatically stays on the road wherever you’re going. It’s not so much “manual” as it is “I can control where and when to stop and which road to take”. Riding chocobos at your leisure is much more fun, but becomes increasingly impractical as you can just fast-travel to necessary locations in your car.

The sights and sounds of the fictional world of Eos are enough to gloss over these shortcomings though. It IS still fun to roam around and fight monsters and save the day. My bottom line is, “You don’t think about just how mindless the tasks are unless you keep playing for many days straight.”. And I poured hours into this game day after day because of the 2020 pandemic quarantine.

Graphics:

Obviously the best thus far. However, in-game facial expressions on the NPCs are still quite stilted and awkward. This game made me realize that we’ve yet to jump a hurdle when it comes to in-game graphics. The game is so polished but there are still limitations when it comes to giving the characters natural movements, both in body and lips. So an NPC could be shouting “WOW THAT’S AMAZING!” but have a straight face jumping up and down, despite the fact that the character model is the most realistic we’ve created so far in a video game. I was looking back at in-game cutscenes of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and found it ironic that they can portray body movements so much better, but that’s the trade-off. Less graphics power to portray realistic bodies, but the graphics power can then be allocated to focus on natural movements. Nowadays, all the graphics power is focused on making things look good, but that hardly leaves room for making things move naturally.

Story:

After the overly-complicated plotline of Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XV feels like a breath of fresh air. On the surface, it’s a straightforward tale of a boy seeking to become a king after his father is brutally murdered by enemy forces. The bromance between the young king and his bodyguards is endearing. Each character feels distinct and genuinely makes you laugh. The setup sounds like prime real estate for an emotionally charged storyline.

Unfortunately, it falls apart somewhere around the last quarter. What should have been a strong and straightforward story turned into a rushed, hasty mess by the final act.

The story started SO strong, they practically had it in the bag, but then it became apparent that many important elements were glossed over - especially when it came to the main villain. I realized that some things required me to read between the lines, or even were only explained in character dossiers in the archive section of the menu. Supposedly, the movie Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV explains more, but do you really expect me to have to watch a separate movie to understand the actual game? The final quarter of the story feels like someone was trying to finish NaNoWriMo, realized they were running out of time, and quickly jumped from scene to scene to reach that 50k word goal. The ten-year time-skip is a joke. The final chapter is sorely disappointing.

The ending was appropriate though, and even beautiful. However, the overall story didn’t have the necessary emotional weight to really make me feel anything. I thought to myself, “I feel like I should be tearing up but instead I feel nothing.”. Even Final Fantasy XII, which lacked a romance, had me swelling up at the end. Final Fantasy XV didn’t make me swell up until literally the last few seconds of the post-credits scene.

People complained about the advertising (Coleman, Cup Noodles) but that didn’t bother me.

What does bother me is the lack of variety in the main cast, and in numerous ways. There were so many interesting side characters that didn’t receive much screen time, or use at all in the story. The strong focus on only the four male leads made it a sausagefest. I was craving more out of Aranea Highwind and Iris Amicitia. They are important but don’t get any screen time at all in the final chapter, nor do we ever hear from them ever again after the time-skip. Aranea Highwind was such a cool character, but once again ends up being wasted potential.

The main cast lacked distinctive styles. When I first saw the main cast, I had a hard time telling them apart. They looked like a k-pop band. Compare the main cast of Final Fantasy XV to literally any other Final Fantasy main cast and you can immediately spot the difference.

The four main leads do have distinct personalities, and I quite loved hearing their comments and banter. It felt realistic, but at times it became ridiculous. I rolled my eyes when Prompto would say things like, “Hashtag sorry not sorry.” That was a bit too on the nose, and came off as Square trying to pander to the current generation.

But what really rubbed me the wrong way is the incredible lack of non-white characters in the entire game. Lestallum feels so wrong to me as a Hispanic. Lestallum is supposed to be modeled after Havana, Cuba.

Its music, its buildings, its activities. It has a tropical climate, and yet every single denizen is pale white. Every. Single. One. I am not exaggerating. It feels so absolutely wrong walking around that city and not seeing anyone with the slightest shade of brown. This isn’t some uncalled-for SJW rant, it’s a simple fact. Tropical climates breed tanner skins. My brain naturally did a double-take when seeing the all-white population, saying, “Hmmm, something’s wrong here.”. For God’s sake, Final Fantasy XII, made over a decade earlier, did a better job at displaying the various nuances in skin tones, and that was on the PlayStation 2! Final Fantasy X, even older, seemed to properly portray tropical beach populations, inspired by the Philippines, with the character Wakka.

I noticed that they really took the time to incorporate elements from virtually every single Final Fantasy game. Aside from the crystals, the modern settings, and other obvious elements, four male leads are reminiscent of Final Fantasy III, the sinister chancellor hearkens back to Kefka from Final Fantasy VI, the enemy Yojimbo resembles Final Fantasy X’s version of Yojimbo, a certain boss battle reminded me of Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII.

Also, there’s Dino. Quite possibly the most annoying Final Fantasy NPC ever.

The overly obnoxious Italian stereotype made me want to punch his face, and also took me out of the experience of the fictional world. Every time you spoke with him he's all like "HEY HOW YOU DOIN WELCOME TO OLIVE GARDEN YOU TALKIN TO ME BADA BING BADA BOOM SPICY PIECE OF MEATBALL CAPISCE? AMIRITE??"

Square seemed to treat this game as a milestone in the series, alluding to everything the series ever did. It’s a shame that the story itself wasn’t quite up to snuff to be held in such regard.

Music:           

The game’s major lyrical song is copyrighted, which is a first for a Final Fantasy game. It makes sense why they chose the song “Stand by Me”, both in literal and figurative terms of the story.             

The score to this game is quite fantastic. The series has its first female composer, Yoko Shimomura. I have absolutely no complaints about the music. Nobuo Uematsu didn’t even pop into my head during the entire game. It’s the first time since Uematsu’s departure that I felt immersed in the score. The motifs are distinct and strong. The battle music is vibrant and an orchestral orgasm to listen to.    

Notable Theme:            

“Somnus”  

The main theme of the game. It plays right away in the main menu. I love how it is incorporated into the rest of the score, and my brain kept wanting to hear it to its completion.   

Direct Sequel?           

Nope. However, there is downloadable content that fills in the gap of events within the game. Supposedly, Final Fantasy XV is loosely connected to Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Type-O, all sharing common themes and possibly set in the same universe. You can also watch the prequel movie, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.

Did it Live up to the Hype?           

Eh.           

Yes, and no.            

It was cool to play around, but the rest is a flaccid attempt at being a notable entry in the series “for fans and first-timers”, as the words proudly display every time you load the game. It’s not the worst in the series, but certainly not the best. It’s somewhere in the mid-to-low tier.

[sensei-aishitemasu]

2019 Black-Owned Gift Guide!

It’s that time again! This Black Friday, try and support a Black-owned business for all your gift-giving needs. For last years gift guide, click here. For the 2017 gift guide, here. For the 2016 gift guide, click here. For the 2015 gift guide, click here. (This is the FIFTH annual gift guide! Time flies!) 

Similar to 2018, I kept every individual item listed under $100! Click on the links to be taken to the websites in order to peruse more yourselves. Every item and brand has been hand selected and curated. Sustainability has been increasingly on my mind, especially when it comes to fashion; as such, several brands on this list are ethically and sustainably sourced. Several also include donations from your purchase being made to philanthropic causes. 

[And as always, this guide has been split into categories to make it easier to get through, but feel free to mix and match for the person in your life that fits all of (or none of!) these categories!]

Gift Guide 2019 Items

For the Homebody:

eLo ‘Gloria’ Cotton Spray, $30

Shea Shea Bakery Candy Cane Candle, $22

Shea Shea Bakery Coffe Mug Candle, $12

Shea Shea Bakery Bowl of O’s Signature Candle, $20 

Shea Shea Bakery Milk & Cookies Bath Set, $16

Shea Shea Bakery Bath Whip - Confetti Cake, $12

Shea Shea Bakery Honey Bear Bubble Bath, $6

Shea Shea Bakery Milk Mates - Salts + Bubble Bath, $16

Shea Shea Bakery Milk + Honey + Syrup Bubble Bath Set, $22

Shea Shea Bakery Cast Iron Skillet Wax Burner, $22

Shea Shea Bakery Sweet Mini-Melt Cinnamon Bun Wax, $10

Shea Shea Bakery Sweet Mini-Melt Peanut Butter Cups, $10

228 Grant Street Candle Co. Amber + Sandalwood Apothecary Jar, $30 (pictured)

228 Grant Street Candle Co. Oakmoss + Amber Jar, $20

228 Grant Street Candle Co. Botanical Garden Gold Travel Tin, $10 

Kicky Mats ‘Don’t Bother, We’re Broke’ Doormat, $50 (pictured)

Jeffrey Manning “You Are” Art Print, $55

Jeffrey Manning “Mellow Bliss” Art Print, $40

Duchess 365 ‘When I Get Home’ Art Print, $23.99 (pictured)

Tactile Matter ‘Safe Space’ Art Print, $45 (pictured)

Tactile Matter ‘Peaches & Coffee’ Art Print, $45

Galerie.la Small Market Basket, $28

Galerie.la Botanica Medium Candle Harvest, $24

Galerie.la Relaxation Rituals Box, $44.95

Galerie.la Botanica Large Candle Nirvana, $32

Galerie.la Rooted Incense Holder In Gray, $68

Galeria.la Calma Herbal Salt Soaks, $20

‘Hypnotic’ Quilt Set by Justina Blakeney, $100 (pictured)

Brass Bette Planter by Justina Blakeney, $ 75

Ida Mirror by Justina Blakeney, $70

Kahelo Black and Gray Rug by Justina Blakeney, $89

Kashmir.VIII ‘The Party’ Pillow, $50 (pictured)

Cards For All People “Angry Moms” Card Game, $17.99

Cards For All People “Black Card Revoked” Card Game, $17.99 (pictured)

Trading Races Card Game, $24.99 (pictured)

Winsults Card Game, $25 (pictured)

For the Foodie:

Zach & Zoe Wildflower Honey, $12  Zach & Zoe Wildflower Honey - Lavender, $15

Zach & Zoe Wildflower Honey - Raspberry, $15 (pictured)

Zach & Zoe Honey with Ginger Root, $15

Soul Fit Grill Assorted Spices, $55.99 (pictured)

Raw Cells Mind Fudge, $15 (pictured)

Raw Cells Calm Cookie, $8

Raw Cells Brain Brownie, $5

Raw Cells Bliss Bar, $7 (pictured)

Chris Cardi ‘H Street’ Apron, $25.03

Cultured Kombucha ‘Flight Glass’ Set of 4, $35 (pictured)

Cultured Kombucha ‘Cultured’ Tote, $15 (pictured)

Kashmir.VIII ‘Ms. Hill’ Mug, $16

Kashmir.VIII ‘Easin’ Mug, $16

Kashmir.VIII ‘We Did It First’ Mug, $16 (pictured)

Kashmir.VIII ‘The Black Power Mixtape’ Coaster Sets, $35 (pictured)

Botanicals on Blush Kitchen Tea Towels by Justina Blakeney, $28 (pictured)

‘B. Smith Cooks Southern-Style’ by B. Smith, $29.99

For the Beauty Guru:

Oui The People ‘The Single’ Rose Gold Single-Blade Razor, $75 (pictured)

Oui The People ‘Sugarcoat’ Shave Gel-To-Milk, $64 (pictured)

Galerie.la Rose Quartz Facial Roller, $28

Galerie.la Jade Mask, $42

Galerie.la Base Coat Nail Polish Vault, $20

Galerie.la Base Coat Nail Polish The Simon Collective, $20

Galerie.la ‘The Makeup Bag’ (Navy), $59

Galerie.la ‘The Makeup Bag’ (Yellow), $59

Galerie.la Mermaid Milk Superfood Moisturizer, $42

Shea Shea Bakery Buttered Pound Cake Body Mist, $5 (pictured)

Shea Shea Bakery Glazed Donut Body Butter, $25

Shea Shea Bakery Detoxifying Charcoal Cleanser, $15

Shea Shea Bakery Antibacterial Apple Cider Toner, $6

Shea Shea Bakery Almond Milk + Chocolate Peppermint Moisturizer, $6

Shea Shea Bakery Scar Healing Serum, $23

Shea Shea Bakery Gentle Foaming Cleanser, $8

Shea Shea Bakery Chocolate Coffee Bean Scrub, $12

Shea Shea Bakery Rose Garden Soap Bar, $5 (pictured)

Monie Squared Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Soap, $8

Monie Squared Brown Sugar Fig Goat Milk Soap, $7

Monie Squared Warm Vanilla Sugar Goat Milk Soap, $7

Monie Squared Leave-In Detangling Conditioner in Blood Orange, $16

Camille Rose Naturals Algae Renew Deep Conditioner, $20

Camille Rose Youth Burst Anti-Aging Night Time Elixir, $18 (pictured)

Camille Rose Seedless Skin Pore-Perfecting Facial Exfoliator, $19

Oyin Handmade Burnt Sugar Pomade, $13.99

Oyin Handmade Boing! All-In-One Coil Styler, $14.99

Oyin Handmade No Ash At All Lotion, $9.99

Hunny Bunny Boutique Hunny Lavender Face Bar, $9

Hunny Bunny Boutique Rose Clay Facial Mask, $8

Bejia Flor Naturals Acai Mango Lotion, $22

Vee + Co. Apothecary ‘Seven’ Aromatherapy Roller, $18

Vee + Co. Apothecary ‘Mellow’ Aromatherapy Roller, $18

Vee + Co. Apothecary ‘Faith’ Aromatherapy Roller, $18

Vee + Co. Apothecary ‘Tisane’ Body + Bath Oil, $25

Jade & Fox Co. Liquid Gold Facial Cleanser, $15 (pictured)

Jade & Fox Co. Neptune Hyaluronic Face Mist, $15

Jade & Fox Co. Flower Power Toner, $18 (pictured)

Jade & Fox Co. Fineapple Face Mask, $22

Jade & Fox Co. Maui Wowie Serum, $17 (pictured)

Jade & Fox Co. Angel Eyes Under Eye Cream, $24

Jade & Fox Co. Crushed Velvet Butter, $26

Jade & Fox Co. Honeysuckle Spray, $14

Jade & Fox Co. Lust Oil, $15

Jade & Fox Co. Crush Body Oil, $17

Jade & Fox Co. Vixen Oil, $15

Jade & Fox Co. ‘Show Girl’ Body Oil, $17

Jade & Fox Co. Siren Highlighter, $18 (pictured)

Makeup/Beauty/Hair Brands:

Plain Jane Beauty (pictured)

Mented Cosmetics (pictured) 

Beauty Bakerie 

Bovanti Cosmetics 

Colour U Cosmetics

Hue Noir 

Gold Label Cosmetics 

Lamik Beauty

Lip Addyct 

Magnolia Makeup 

Lotus Moon Skincare

The Lip Bar (pictured)

Ginger + Liz Nail Polish

Foxie Cosmetics

Blac Minerals Cosmetics (pictured)

Danessa Lyrics Beauty

Lena Lashes

AJ Crimson Beauty

KSquared Nail Paint

Kinky Curly Yaki

Heat Free Hair Movement

Big Chop Hair

Princess Hair Shop

Haute Kinky Hair

Private Stock Kair

Catface Hair

Mischo Beauty (pictured)

Brown Butter Beauty (pictured)

Her Muse Studio

Elo Lipcare (pictured)

Glam Goth Beauty (pictured)

For The Fashion Conscious:

Galerie.la Abbot Corduroy Knit Robe Berry, $98

Galerie.la Denim Crop Bra, $35

Galerie.la Golden Organic Cotton Crop Bra, $35 (pictured)

Galerie.la Recycled Cotton Baby Tee Black, $39

Galerie.la Alicia Crossbody Brown Bag, $85 (pictured)

Galerie.la Stacking Rings Brass, $25 (pictured)

Galerie.la Diamond Stacking Ring, $25

Galerie.la Petite Arch Earrings Brass, $34

Galerie.la Thelma Top Mauve, $48

Galerie.la Silver Hashtag Earrings, $58

Galerie.la Cascade Dress Charcoal, $59

Galerie.la Petra Jumpsuit Charcoal, $65 (pictured)

Galerie.la Sabbath Cocoon Tunic, $98

Galerie.la Flap Wallet Mustard, $79

Galerie.la Zipper Wallet Blush, $69

Glam Goth ‘Goon’ Beanie (red), $25

Glam Goth ‘Goon’ Beanie (black), $25

Glam Goth ‘Goth’ Cap, $30 (pictured)

Glam Goth ‘The Young Angel’ T-Shirt, $20

Instant Vintage - Azul by Giancarlo Bolero, $55

Instant Vintage - Merlot Veiled Hat, $30

Instant Vintage - Turquoise Velvet Bow with Headband, $45

Instant Vintage - Sweetheart Floral Dress, $48 (pictured)

Sir and Madame Striped Wool Split Back Shirt, $75

Sir and Madame Logo T-Shirt, $40

Sir and Madame 'Madame’ Cropped Tank, $28

Sir and Madame 70′s Script T-Shirt, $45

Sir and Madame “A Better Tomorrow” T-Shirt, $40

Sir and Madame Red Wing Engineer Boot, $75

Sir and Madame Jungle Camo Woven Shirt, $45

A Life Well Dressed ‘Artsy’ Statement Cap, $16 (pictured)

A Life Well Dressed ‘Create’ Statement T-Shirt, $20

Gregory Sylvia ‘Farrah’ Watch, $95

Gregory Sylvia ‘Chandler’ Watch, $78 (pictured)

Gregory Sylvia ‘Rosen’ Watch, $105 (slightly over budget but a beautiful watch!)

Gregory Sylvia ‘Crimson Crave’ Wallet, $69

Tree Fairfax Lois Belt, $40

Tree Fairfax Distressed Wrap Clutch/Wallet, $54

Chris Cardi ‘H St. Nostalgia’ Tee, $30.03

Chris Cardi ‘Bastards’ Tee, $30.03

Sole Rebels ‘The Surge’ Shoe, $90

Sole Rebels ‘The Exodus Ahhh’ Shoe, $100

Sole Rebels ‘The StepUP’ Shoe, $95

Sole Rebels ‘The Exodus RIFF’ Shoe, $100 (pictured)

Sole Rebels ‘TooTOOS Holees’ Shoe, $85

Enbois ‘Jafari’ Watch (Zebra), $85

For the Bookworm:

‘The Water Dancer’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates, $28 (pictured)

‘Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland, $18.99 (pictured)

‘Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner’ by Geneva Smitherman, $6.38 (pictured)

‘Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America’ by Geneva Smitherman, $7.77 (pictured)

‘White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation’ by Lauren Michele Jackson, $23.49

‘Mules and Men’ by Zora Neale Hurston, $15.99 (pictured)

‘The Black Book’ edited by Toni Morrison, $35

‘Bloodchild and Other Stories’ by Octavia Butler, $14

‘Rebel’ by Beverly Jenkins, $7.99

‘B. Smith: Rituals & Celebrations’ by B. Smith, $35 (pictured)

Rayo & Honey ‘Eat Words, Drink Stars’ Pin, $12 (pictured)

Rayo & Honey ‘Read More, Writer Better’ Banner, $50 (pictured)

Rayo & Honey ‘Books Change Your Mind’ Banner, $55

Rayo & Honey ‘Hundreds of Books Under My Skin’ Bookmark, $8 (pictured)

For the Kids:

Yinibini Baby ‘Trunk of Hearts’ Elephant One-Piece, $29.50

Yinibini Baby ‘My Neighborhood in DC’ Tee, $26.00 (pictured)

Jade & Fox Co. Fantasy Body Lotion for Babies, $16

Duchess365 Framed Art Print [Ladybug], $57.99

Duchess365 Throw Pillow [Lollipop], $29.99 (pictured)

Duchess365 Framed Art Pillow, $47.99 (pictured)

Herbaceutikals Talc Free Baby Organic Baby Powder, $14.25 (pictured)

‘Party, A Mystery’ by Jamaica Kincaid, $17.95 (pictured)

‘The Last Last-Day-of-Summer’ by Lamar Giles, $8.49

‘Puppy Truck’ by Brian Pinkney, $11.38 (pictured)

‘Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten)’ by Laura Veirs, $17.99

‘Little Melba and Her Big Trombone’ by Katheryn Russell-Brown, $18.95 (pictured)

Vee + Co. Apothecary ‘Mamatoto’ Aromatherapy Roller, $12

KaAn’s Designs ‘Living The Dream’ Denim Jacket, $40 (pictured)

Sir & Madame ‘Sir’ Kids Pullover, $55

Amina Abdul Jillil Kids Velvet Sneaker, $89 (pictured)

For the Masculine:

Gregory Sylvia ‘Durham’ Watch, $78 (pictured)

Gregory Sylvia ‘Grayson’ Watch, $95

Gregory Sylvia ‘Fullerton’ Watch, $95.00

A Life Well Dressed ‘Create’ Sweater, $34

A Life Well Dressed ‘District of Champions’ Sweater, $48

Sir & Madame Scratch Goods Beard Oil, $24 (pictured)

Sir & Madame ‘Sir’ Shirt (Blue), $40 (pictured)

Sir & Madame ‘Sir Shirt (Orange), $40

Sir & Madame Classic Logo Beanie (Gray), $40

Sir & Madame Classic Logo Beanie (Orange), $40 (pictured)

Sir & Madame ‘Sir’ Long Sleeve Black Shirt, $55

Sir & Madame ‘Sir’ Lapel Pin, $10

Instant Vintage - Pink and Blue Plaid Pants, $50 (pictured)

Instant Vintage - Camel Leather Blazer, $90

Instant Vintage - Tan Trench Coat, $60

Enbois ‘The Weekend’ Bag, $60 (pictured)

Enbois ‘Cocoa Collection’ Bracelets, $50 (pictured)

Enbois ‘Garvey’ Watch (Black), $70 (pictured)

Vee + Co. Beard Mist, $12

Vee + Co. Beard Oil, $20

Vee + Co. Beard Wash Shampoo + Conditioner, $18

Mr. Blackmans Bergamot & Spice Beard Balm, $11.99

Scotch Porter Nourish & Repair Hair Conditioner, $24.99

Scotch Porter Hydrating Hair Wash, $24.99

Scotch Porter Charcoal & Licorice Moisture Defend Face Lotion, $19.99

Levi Fisher Balm Diggity Softening Beard Butter, $12.99

Levi Fisher Smooth Operator Detangling & Conditioning Beard Serum, $9.99

Levi Fisher Go Tea Herbal Grooming Spray for Short Hair and Beards, $9.99

Sole Rebels ‘exodus Traveller ‘Shoes, $100

Sole Rebels ‘stepUP Ed. 2′ Shoes, $95 (pictured)

Sole Rebels ‘the SURGE any’ Shoes, $90

For The Technologically Savvy:

Enbois Case iPhone 7/7plus/8/8plus/iPhone X/iPhone XS/iPhone XR, $12 (pictured)

Enbois Walnut Case iPhone 6/7/8, $8

Enbois Rosewood Case iPhone 6/7/8, $8

Enbois Power Bank, $15 (pictured)

Enbois Grip Socket, $3 (pictured)

Embrii Shop Iridescent Macbook Case, $49

Embrii Shop Matte Gold Messenger Laptop Sleeve, $39

Embrii Shop Champagne Gold Glitter Macbook Case, $49

Embrii Shop Emerald Tartan MacBook Case, $49

Chic Geeks Black Faux Crocodile MacBook Case, $78

Chic Geeks Emerald Faux Crocodile MacBook Case, $78

Chic Geeks Grey Marble MacBook Case, $68 (pictured)

Chic Geeks Rose Gold Keyboard Cover, $12 (pictured)

Chic Geeks Space Gray Ombre Keyboard Cover, $12

Chic Geeks Emerald Faux Crocodile iPad Case, $78 (pictured)

Chic Geeks Unicorn Sparkle iPad Case, $68 (pictured)

Chic Geeks Emerald Glitter MacBook Case, $58

Chic Geeks Black Marble MacBook Case, $68

Chic Geeks Gray Marble iPad Case, $58

Puku G8 Earphones, $29 (pictured)

Khristian A. Howell Fig Life Sleek and Chic Phone Case, $39.99 (pictured)

Khristian A. Howell Deuces Sleek and Chic Phone Case, $39.99

Khristian A. Howell Buffalo Plaid Sleek and Chic Phone Case, $39.99

Cards, Stationery and Gift Wrap:

Greentop Gifts Clarence Claus Candy Canes & Trees Gift Wrap, $7.50 (pictured)

Greentop Gifts Clarence Claus ‘HOHOHO’ Gift Wrap, $7.50 (pictured)

Greentop Gifts Clarence Claus Close Up Gift Wrap, $7.50 

Greentop Gifts Clarence Claus Gift Bag, $4.50

Sweet Potato Paper Red Plaid Gift Wrap, $9.95

Sweet Potato Paper Yellow Triangles Gift Wrap, $9.95

Sweet Potato Paper ‘Can Swim’ Gift Wrap, $9.95 (pictured)

Sweet Potato Paper ‘No Worries’ Notecards, $10.50

Sweet Potato Paper ‘Sunny Thanks’ Thank You Cards, $1.25 per card 

Sweet Potato Paper ‘Audio Thanks’ Thank You Cards, $1.25 per card (pictured)

Sweet Potato Paper Blotting Paper, $1.25 per sheet 

The DynaSmiles Stationery & Gifts Assorted Christmas Cards Bundle, $28

The DynaSmiles "Fro La La" 4x6 Sticker Sheet, $3.50 (pictured)

The DynaSmiles "Santa's Beard" Christmas Collectible Mug, $20 (pictured)

Addie Rawr ‘A Room Full of Dolls’ Adult Coloring Book, $15

Addie Rawr Fall Dolls Stickers (Die Cut & Sticker Sheets), $6.50

Midnight Reflections Melanin Prima Ballerina Ceramic Ornaments, $15.99 (pictured)

Midnight Reflections Kwanzaa Wrapping Paper Kit, $15.99

Midnight Reflections Black Santa Gift Bag Kit, $18.99

Midnight Reflections Black Angel Wrapping Paper Kit, $8.99 (pictured)

Midnight Reflections Black Santa with Snow Flakes Wrapping Paper Kit, $8.99 

Khristian A. Howell Rosey Holiday Gift Wrap, $8.99

Khristian A. Howell Rosy Twinkle Gift Wrap, $8.99

Khristian A. Howell Ansley Park Gift Wrap, $8.99

Kashmir.VIII ‘Maya’ Notebook, $11 (pictured)

Kashmir.VIII ‘The Marathon Continues’ Sticker, $9-$20

[conchabae]

Greta Thunberg and Friday’s 4 Future

"I don't care about being popular. I care about climate justice."

This statement by Greta Thunberg is very powerful. Every generation has had youth that to some extent like the idea of and strive for success, fame and power, but these aspirations have been warped and are all too important amongst our younger generations today. This is directly linked to the nature of internet culture and social media which profits and promotes extreme beauty ideals, materialistic possessions and expressions of grandeur alongside a fixation on followers, likes and the analytics of online “popularity”. Yet, we still have cultural norms that view the youngest in society as the progressives, those who are responsible for shifting and building a better tomorrow. Many Western teens today spend their free-time on beauty tutorials, fashion and other forms of entertainment. There’s beauty in that Greta Thunberg, a well-off Swedish white girl, who could turn a blind eye to injustices in the world, fights to unlearn and speak up against climate injustice. In addition, she fights to spread awareness and put pressure on global governments to make needed systemic change. Greta claims she doesn't care about being popular, because she clearly does not do this for being liked and famous, she knows that fighting for climate justice and sustainability is not popular or “trendy”, she does it because it is what she cares about, and because it is right.

It is because of her honesty and dedication, that she has moved and awaken millions of other western people. Ironically, she has become an iconic and famous figure for defending the environment. It is admirable that even with a platform which has received millions of followers, praise from celebrities, as well as invites from famous politicians, she has never given up her principles to become more likable and her message stays the same, even when it is uncomfortable to those who know they do not do enough for the earth.

I did not live in NYC last year, but there was a climate strike in Foley Square in 2019 as well as strikes all across the world. I was inspired by Greta’s movement and participated in the school strike for climate in Stockholm. It was amazing to see so many people of all different backgrounds and ages participating in the city’s center to hear climate activists and my friends and I boycotted school to support the Friday’s 4 Future campaign.

The long term dedication and commitment movements like Friday’s 4 Future and Black Lives Matter have shown for years now, have woken me up to my complacency to my reality, when it does not align with the world I want to live in. I was 13 years old when the Black Lives Matter hashtag and conversation started. I was 18 when Greta Thunberg started striking for the climate. I realize now that it is not only the people we see highlighted in the news who can make important change, it is all of us. Greta Thunberg’s book No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference, really was a wakeup call on how climate change, which is inevitable with our current ways, is a crisis and an urgent issue that can only be resolved by facing it head on.

 Photos from the Stockholm strike taken by: Lotta Fernvall / AFTONBLADET

These are a selection of a few photos taken at the global Climate Strike in 2019, but these are all taken in front of the Swedish parliament, where the movement began. It is surreal how people in the thousands came to join her on this historical global strike in her home country and all over the world, when she started striking all by herself at this exact spot. Greta Thunberg has been the catalyst for heightened awareness and care about climate justice.

I think many people, including Greta Thunberg herself in the trailer for her Hulu documentary, attribute her hyper focus on the reality and danger of climate change to her having Asperger’s syndrome. While a common symptom of Asperger’s syndrome is to have an “obsessive” interest in a particular subject, I do think we should not dismiss her drive, passion and heart in climate justice just to her condition. Greta’s ability to push against her discomfort with social networking, to perform speeches in front of millions, and exchange awkward pleasantries with powerful public figures to access their platform, shows huge amounts of bravery and heart. It is a character strength that she has tunnel vision on the science of climate change and carbon emissions, and this helps her continue to educate herself on the topic. This is something that many of us locals do not show interest in, especially since most of the information is clouded in complicated and exclusionary scientific language, often in lengthy journals.

She does not just care about the environment for the knowledge, she wants to save the world, and save future generation’s right to fulfilling and happy lives. I have so much respect for her and trust in her intentions, and as Greta has said herself, she does not struggle with Asperger’s, she has it. Her journey to activism and contributions to the world should not be pigeon holed or minimized by her condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced us all to experience a different state than our regular normal, has made it more clear than ever, that many of our customs and way of life are not sustainable. As the prevalence of police brutality and other systems of oppression are harder to ignore, I think we all are becoming more aware of daily injustices. In the first months of quarantine in Europe, reports were showing photographic evidence that wildlife and ecosystems were improving and thriving because of the reduced human activity that used to scare away wildlife and pollute ecosystems. The visual that is etched into my mind are the rivers in Venice, Italy. Because of the mandatory quarantine, no boats or gondolas were in use, and the rivers all over the water city cleared to a vibrant blue. It took me back to a trip there when I was 12, and how the waters were so green and muddy we joked that falling in would be a health risk. It was somewhat bittersweet to see this imagery, as it was beauty that was rare to see, and that it is rare because of us!

Photos taken of clear water in Italy, taken by @ikaveri on Twitter. 

In this same pandemic, we have also seen the red and orange skies of LA, filled with clouds and rainfalls of ash. This was heartbreaking for the world to witness, as we learned it was the cause of not some dreamy sunset or blood sun, but because of the massive forest wild fires that have devastated families and communities by burning down homes and making the air unbreathable in some places.

Photo credit: Brittany Hosea-Small / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Photo by Josh Edelson / AFP VIA Getty Images

There is no quick fix for the climate and like all social issues, we need to be committed and address it from various angles. We need to vote in political representatives that acknowledge climate change as fact, which unfortunately is the first crucial step we must take unlike other democracies with the same quality of education and science. We need to then protest and put as much pressure as possible on local, state and national politics to enact policies that lead to reduced emissions. We must reduce the amount of influence and investments fossil fuel corporations receive from taxpayers, and invest federally into sustainable alternatives. Unfortunately, most Americans do not even realize how much their lifestyle destroys their land but also the global climate temperature. We need to create a social shift in attitudes around consumption in all forms and this starts with widespread education, so perhaps media and specifically social media is the strongest and quickest way to do this.

“If a few girls can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school for a few weeks, imagine what we could do together if we wanted to.”

I think this quote by Greta emphasizes the power of the people being unified and organized. When we are organized is when we are truly unstoppable and cannot be ignored by the appointed leaders that be. We outnumber them all. We need to organize and stay focused to make real and much needed change.

“Adults keep saying - We owe it to the young people to give them hope - but I don’t want your hope.

I don’t want you to be hopeful.

I want you to panic.”

- Greta Thunberg in her Our House is On Fire speech.

I think the discussion around Greta Thunberg and her activism is interesting and there are three camps with different receptions of her in online discourse. I think the first camp were responsible for her becoming a household name globally. People who felt overwhelmed about climate change, had made some attempts at doing their part, like only riding public transport and going vegan. The first camp mainly consists of the younger generations that were somewhat aware but overwhelmed with the amount of structural issues that contribute to climate change. They were the force that joined Greta at her strikes in Stockholm outside Swedish parliament, and the ones who organized strikes in their own home countries. The second camp, were those like me, who found out about her a bit later when a strong media buzz was already present and notably by media that did not intend to further her purpose and emphasize the importance of climate justice, but just used her for novelty, headlines and clickbait instead. Many marginalized people questioned some of Greta’s viral rhetoric that often spoke of her being “stolen of her childhood and dreams'' as we saw a European, well-off white girl, who was being invited to speak to the most influential politicians, embraced by Hollywood A-listers and was also being honored at protests around the globe for her strikes. What could she possibly know about struggle? We respected her passion for climate change, but convinced ourselves that she needs to scold politicians and those who actually hold power for change, so we carried on with our lives and continued to live in comfortable denial. The third camp consisted of active climate change deniers, and conservatives who weaponized her Asperger's and the fact that she was a young woman (can’t forget to add ageism and misogyny to edgy memes eh?) and aimed to assassinate her character and validity in the form of “jokes” and memes. The third camp often brought up her privilege not only as a critique, but as a means to silence her and the topic altogether. Many influential right-wing politicians, including Donald Trump, partook in this to distance their followers from having any interest in her, or climate justice.

“Greta Thunberg is the spark but we are the wildfire.” - Naomi Klein

As I mentioned earlier, Greta Thunberg’s book has taken away my criticisms of her global status. She has brilliant values, an in-depth scientific understanding of the subject she advocates for, and her emphasis on climate equity, which many white activists fail to acknowledge as an important factor, all made me a supporter of Greta. I do not care about the trolls and those who have tried to ridicule and minimize the honor in her life mission. She is probably one of the most inspiring individuals and change makers of my time. Her book and speeches have amazing rhetoric that unprogrammed a lot of my own learned helplessness about the environment. It also reminded me of my individual responsibility as well as my government's responsibility to stop global warming from happening and create a sustainable world. We need to put in the work, we only have so much time left before it is too late, whether we like that fact or not. Her stance that climate change is black and white is so effective and true: “either we reduce global emissions by 50%, or we do not.” It really is that simple. We need to activate so we can enact the needed solutions to meet that goal. Reading Thunberg’s book has inspired me to take more action and make more sustainable choices and unlearn a lot of U.S. consumerism culture. I have educated myself more throughout quarantine by learning about zero waste methods and the environmental benefits of veganism. However, while personal accountability is great, it is a form of privilege to be able to buy more sustainably, especially when the current market place mainly offers unsustainable products as the most affordable. We must also learn how to politically fight for actual policies and political change that force systemic and societal change .

“We have a new wave of contention in society that’s being led by women. … And the youth climate movement is leading this generational shift."

- Dana Fisher

In late 2019, The Washington Post conducted a poll that found that 46% of teen girls said the climate was “extremely important”, while only 23 % of teen boys said so. Furthermore, more than twice as many black and Hispanic teens participated in school strikes on climate change than their white peers, and girls were more likely to participate than boys. This data is one of several including Dana Fisher’s, a sociologist and researcher at the University of Maryland, who found similar ratios when studying the populations of activists and participants in the Washington, DC 2019 climate strike.

I think the ratio of who shows up for the environment points to social roles at large. The likelihood of caring about climate change can do with one’s privilege and ability to empathize with abstract or foreign problems that one may not be negatively affected with (right now). While we all hold some form of privilege, all women have experienced some form of sexism and misogyny, and therefore are more likely to be able to empathize with marginalized groups they do not belong to, and advocate for social movements that address injustices they may not themselves experience.

There is a correlation between those most marginalized in society, being the most active in social reform and revolution. Because when one is in the lowest or lower social casts of society, and has the least social freedoms and privileges, one has nothing to lose and everything to gain from change. This is why we can see in many social justice movements across the US, that black queer people and specifically black trans women, have consistently been at the forefront for important social progress.

When it comes to climate change, there is a certain amount of empathy required, especially when you live in a western country, or part of the world where you have an excess of resources at your disposal and you are comfortable with the status quo. That is something we all need to address and with that comes a checking of ego. Is my temporary happiness more important than other people’s well-being and lives? Am I contributing to the exploitation of people and the destruction of the planet? My planet?

I do not often see men on a large scale extending this type of self-reflection and empathy for social problems, either in small social settings or in positions of power. This is similar to how many men do not reflect on how it feels to be catcalled or sexually harassed as a woman. This is not because men are predisposed to be heartless rather, I believe this is a cause of social conditioning. Women are more conditioned to be team players, to listen and exercise great empathy at all times, otherwise she is socially scorned. Men are not expected to show these traits to the same extent, and often can rely on this lack of social standard and their own privilege to ignore social issues all together. We need to unlearn that issues women care about are insular to “women’s issues”, for they are societal problems, and we need to encourage and expect young boys and men to be equally accountable for a better world.

It is so inspiring to see so many young teens following Greta’s initiative, like Alexandria Villaseñor, who after experiencing an asthma attack during a wildfire in California, not only took the time to educate herself on the dangers of this phenomenon, but also organized Friday’s 4 Future strikes in NYC with the US Climate Strike group. Since then, she has also spoken at countless international conventions about climate change, and alongside Thunberg and 15 other youth activists, filed a legal complaint against UN nations who had not upheld their Paris agreement climate goals. This is so badass and I did not even know about this until today. In fact, there are countless teens all over the world, many of whom aren’t of legal voting age, who are suing local / federal governments and organizations for environmental malpractice and for jeopardizing their futures! 

As they should! Let’s all keep fighting for a better and sustainable future.

Students and youth striking in Seoul, South Korea. Photo credit: Chung Sung-Jun / GETTY IMAGES

Young people striking in Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo credit: Jeff J Mitchell / GETTY IMAGES

Youth striking in Hong Kong. Photo credit: Kim Cheung / AP PHOTO

[floatyskye]

You Are The WOL IG Challenge

I just realised I never posted this here. Managed to finish this in my spare time. I got tagged in an art challenge on Instagram with the hashtag "youarethewol." I tried to be a little looser with my painting style here, maybe try to make it look a little more painterly. It's ironic how I paired Aurelia with white roses when her job is a black mage that blows things up xD

FINAL FANTASY XIV © SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.

[bigskydreaming]

What kind of house/apt do adult successful Scanny have?

I think it would be something smallish and unassuming on the outside, very approachable. Maybe even like, a townhome or a duplex or something like that, depending on what city Scott ultimately settles in with whatever pack he builds up around him there vs whomever stays in Beacon Hills.

I don’t have any specific headcanons for where Scott relocates to, its just very important to me that he does, because like. He deserves to get far, far away from Beacon Hills. There are too many bad memories there. Its where he died. Its where Allison died, Boyd, Erica. Like, all the bad things that linger with Scott came from Beacon Hills and that damn evil attention-seeking tree stump, and all the good things that linger with Scott are one hundred percent the product of his own actions and the relationships he fostered with the people that became important to him. 

There’s nothing in Beacon Hills that gives Scott anything he doesn’t already have by this point, no reason for him to stay other than his mother, who can literally just move as well. But not with Chris Argent. On account of like, well he died too. It was very sad and tragic, I don’t want to talk about it. Tears were shed, its all still really fresh and raw, we should probably just move on. Its what he would want. Probably. Also who cares, ding dong he’s dead and Melissa’s married to some nice doctor who’s never pulled a gun on her son, as well as possessing other qualities that meet somewhat higher standards, I’m sure.

Anyway. We were talking about Scott saying hasta la vista baby to Beacon Hills followed then by a slow motion dramatic walkaway shot before he gets on his motorcycle, adjusts his mirrors, revs the throttle all action movie star-esque, and also sexily -  look, they’re not always automatically the same thing -  and then he drives away forever from that toxic cesspit of a homicidal zipcode where square footage is calculated in terms of dead bodies. Leaving behind all the like, million and one reasons for him to say Bye Beacon Hills, see you never, try not to become a central locus for evil, but also, I don’t care if you do, it is hashtag NotMyResponsibilityAnymore. But also, I mean. It never was. Just FYI.

And then he flips the town off and accelerates off into the sunset while the town eats his dust, and admittedly Scott isn’t really the type to throw around middle fingers even where deserved, but fuck it, I’m projecting onto him and its my headcanon and I say that pile of excrement in real estate form needs to be flipped off and also, like. Its just an aesthetic thing. For the visuals. Its the whole dramatic end scene, roll credits, “I came, I saw and I blew shit up and now I’m off to reunite with my love interest and have vigorous victory sex” vibe. You get it.

So they relocate somewhere, wherever that is. I honestly don’t care, so long as its nice and doesn’t murder them or inflict gratuitous bodily harm every week and the nearest Satanic foliage is at least two statelines away. Preferably with a thriving supernatural community where Scott and his pack can all feel welcome and like they belong, rather than outsiders eternally hiding in plain sight among potential enemies. Like, somewhere where their neighbors are all vampires and Fae and other supernaturals, but only so long as like, the only reason they ever come over is to borrow a cup of sugar. Never to betray them to randomly resurrected enemies or guilt trip them into solving someone else’s centuries old and completely pointless grudgematch of Unnecessary Drama and Also Doom.

And wherever it is, the pack have their own dwellings and much needed privacy. Far enough apart that even supernatural hearing and smell don’t have them all playing Peeping Tom whether they like it or not, every time a couple wants to get frisky, but close enough together that they’re all still together, and know that more pack, more community, is always just a short walk away.

Scott and Danny’s place is some sort of small but cozy townhome or duplex or something like that, as I said. Scott’s always very aware of his presence and reputation and the power he both commands and also is afforded by peoples’ embellished expectations regarding him. So it was really important to Scott, and thus important to Danny, that their home be unpretentious. Inviting and approachable and not ‘above’ anyone else, or trying to be. Somewhere that when you got to their street and checked the address if you’re new in town and looking for an audience with True Alpha Scott McCall, you stop and do a double take and almost have to revise whatever preconceptions you have, or at least put them on hold, because like…this is where the famous True Alpha lives? Its so…ordinary.

But that’s the point after all….because the more he was looked at as standing apart from all others, the more ‘ordinary’ became the only thing Scott’s really ever aspired to be.

So its not poor, by any means. They do well for themselves, the whole pack, like you said, Scott and Danny are successful in this future. They have jobs that afford them both a sense of purpose and fulfillment of longheld interests, as well as the potential for discovering more, rather than getting locked into things that grow stale overtime as they outgrow fantasy careers that seemed more validating when they were kids dreaming of the future.

Also their jobs, whatever they might be, make them at least successful enough that it allows them both a large degree of autonomy. They can pick their own schedules, more or less. They have finances, but none that will be massively disrupted or stress-inducing if Scott has to take time off for a couple weeks to help a neighboring pack relocate somewhere new after they flee from hunters. Something where Scott’s never forced to choose between his job and keeping him and his pack financially afloat, versus someone needing his help and it not immediately apparent how long that might take resolve. The dream is stability and comfort, and enough personal agency for Scott in how and where he gets both of those, that he never feels like he’s letting down either his pack or innocents asking for his help, because the demands of his job or finances make him feel like it has to be one or the other, he can’t possibly do both.

Ideally, that flexible schedule means that when Scott isn’t helping others, something he now does by choice and simply because he wants to and he can, not because he’s made to feel he has to, like its his responsibility and his alone, because certain boundary-blind best friends have decided they want to play Peter Parker but are gonna need Scott to step up and play the actual Spider-Man part and lend his power even when someone else gets to decide for him when its his responsibility. Oopsie, I tripped and fell and my Bitter Resentment and Still Not Over It slipped out. Oh no. How terrible. Much woe.

Ahem. Anyway. As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted by myself, Scott’s flexible schedule means that when he’s not using it to help others, he has enough left over that he can afford (and justify to himself) using it for himself and his own personal enjoyment and interests, actually prioritize and commit to his own self-care, because a healthy, happy Alpha is a healthy, happy Pack. Someone said that once, probably. Probably not Hobbes. Definitely heard that somewhere though. Trust me, I’m a doctor. 

So with the aid of this newfangled invention produced by cutting edge technology, this quote unquote “Free Time…”  Scott explores other interests. His own. Le gasp, le shocking, le about the fuck time. He explores the novelty of being able to even have hobbies, because depressingly (why am I like this, science side of tumblr), there was once a time when Scott stopped bothering trying to figure out what all he was interested in, because he kinda assumed he’d be long dead before it ever had a chance to matter.

But by the power invested in me by Fuck You, Jeff Davis, in this future, none of that comes to pass. So free time and personal passions for Scott. He has them, in abundance. So like. He gardens, for sure. That’s why I specified a duplex or townhouse instead of an apartment in a complex or building….they live somewhere where they at least have their own garden or yard. Scott designs and implements it personally, something like his own personal Zen garden on a scale commensurate with What He Deserves. He goes outside whenever he’s starting to feel stressed about some obligation or commitment or another, and just….plays. 

That’s what it is to him. He just plants things. Prunes things. Adds fountains or bird feeders or statuary, little personalized touches here and there that make his own personal territory uniquely his and his alone. Gardening in his yard is His Time in His Space, and all the pack know better than to interrupt him when he’s out in his yard working away, unless its an absolute emergency. 

Danny enforces this with an iron fist and an ability to tank your credit score and spread all your most embarrassing pictures internet-wide with just a single keystroke. And Danny is the enforcer Scott doesn’t have to be. People forget that everyone loves Danny….but in no small part due to his usual proximity to Jackson. Next to Jackson, everyone looks like an angel. But Danny, on his own? Can be mean. Will be mean, if you touch or hurt or threaten or even just inconvenience his man, because like, who the fuck do you think you are and also it doesn’t even matter because he just replaced your whole identity online and if you’re nice and apologize and kiss ass without Scott ever having to know What You Almost Did, maybe Danny will have mercy on you and actually let you know what your new identity is, so you can use it to like, make a new life with the details he made up to replace your old personal info that no longer gets you anywhere. 

Danny - that’s Miss Nasty if you mess with his husband - is chaotic neutral with an exception for “this is my list of special people. Touch any of them and my alignment is Chaotic Evil for however long as until I have personally escorted you to your Doom and physically kicked you into a bottomless pit where you will suffer for eternity.” 

But then he smiles and charms everyone into only remembering lol oh yeah, everybody likes Danny, so that once again, everyone forgets that’s at least partially self-preservation because if you don’t love Danny and everyone Danny loves, like, you’re dumb and also screwed. Why are you bad at making good choices. 

Don’t feel bad though. Danny’s very good at making people forget this part, t least until the next time he reminds people of that little piece of trivia. Have you seen him smile? Its like that flashing bulb thing Will Smith uses in Men in Black to make people forget what they just saw or were doing. Except without any supervision and/or morality because fuck your ethics, its Danny’s bewitching smile, he’ll use it however he wants. Get your own.

(The thing is, any best friend of Jackson has to have at least a little capacity for Evil. Danny just hides it well, thanks to the cloaking camouflage of Actually Having a Soul in Addition, and like, being a people person who actually understands how people work and how not to alienate them by being a total uncaring jackass 24/7. Its a fine line, except its really not, and Danny is very talented at all things and possesses an abundance of charm. Plus he’s just hot, and like. Let’s face it. That always helps. I mean, definitely never hurts).

The end result of all this tangent-having, is that Scott has enough him time and enough of a barrier from people constantly distracting him, that the exterior of Scott and Danny’s place, for all its otherwise ordinary appearance, Scott has over time turned into his own personal slice of paradise, and is exactly what that looks like to him. 

See, the thing about Scott is no matter how hard he tries to be ordinary and value being just like everyone else and get lost in the crowd…..he never will quite manage it, because Scott just isn’t like anyone else. He’s good, in a way that too few people even aspire to be, because so many people just think its not possible. Especially not after having lived through the kinds of traumas Scott has, been dealt an especially unlucky hand. But Scott manages it anyway, in spite of everything, spiting every thing that tries to make him be anything lesser….and because of that, he’ll always stand at least a little apart from the crowd, be a little distinct from the rest, impossible to ever fully be lost or muted by any crowd of any size.

And the little slice of the world Scott makes just his and Danny’s, no one else’s. He doesn’t even need to share it with his pack without it being any less inviting to his pack for all that. It reflects this understated aspect of Scott, this impossible to quantify essence of him that he himself is too unassuming to ever fully realize is there, and everyone else just accepts without questioning…because they’ve learned by now when you’re given a gift, just accept it and appreciate it.

So in structure and layout, their home is nothing special, but amidst a neighborhood of similar structures, it pops all the same. It draws the eye without dominating your vision. It makes you want to look at it, want to come closer, want to be around it, much like the man who designed it. Who made it, cares for it, and never neglects it or takes it for granted. Its always green, year round, and filled with a variety of flowers that come from all over the world but can all complement each other and coexist without endangering any of the neighboring plants. None of them overgrowing the garden or in any way being at any of the other plants’ expense. 

They’re like Scott’s pack in that way….of all shapes and sizes, coming from all around the world, of all kinds of types, not even just limited to werewolves. All beautiful, all unique, all existing in harmony. Even though Scott’s never shared this with anyone else, in his mind, each flower or plant he adds to his garden represents one specific member of his pack. Its Theirs, its what he associates with them. In this way, they’re all represented, it reminds him whatever conflict arises internally, its nothing they can’t ultimately all work out without compromising any single individual. And with each plant needing its own special attention and time devoted to cultivating it and caring for it, they serve as proxies for the pack members they represent.  

Due to this, Scott can tell himself with just a glance at his garden - reassure himself, whenever his self-doubts get the better of him and he starts to beat himself up for not being there enough for someone or neglecting someone or not doing better - but with his garden, just going outside and checking it over can remind Scott that he’s not neglecting anyone. Because every time he tends to the plant that represents a pack member, Scott reflects on that pack member as he does so. Just going over what they’ve been up to, mentally checking in on them, casting about to see if he’s noticed any sign something’s been bothering them, making sure to spend one on one time with them. 

He can’t tend to a plant without associating it with their linked pack member….and in this way, as long as he can look around and take in with a glance the sight of his garden, all carefully tended to, no plant neglected, all watered and pruned and harmonious and appreciated….and it serves as a visual reminder with which to reassure himself….he’s not forgetting anyone, overlooking anyone. Nobody’s being neglected, he’s always thinking about his pack and keeping their best interests at heart and if any problems do pop to mind while he’s tending to one of his plants or flowers, of course that would be the first thing he’d make a plan to go check in on and address personally, once he’s making his rounds later and having a little face time and conversation with his various packmates.

Of all the flowers and various plant types in his garden, there’s only one fruit….a single eye catching and lovingly attended orange tree. That’s Danny. They’re his favorite, and orange is his favorite color. There’s just something unique about it. Especially in the midst of so much green.

The flowers nearest the front door and around the external structures of the building, a pillar underneath the small, roofed-in entrance way, perhaps, a gate at the front of the property, next to the driveway, maybe a trellis along the wall just next to the door…..the flowers adorning and framing the entrance to their home are a carefully arranged spray of seven different hues. 

A literal rainbow, advertising this House and All Who Live Here Be Gaaaaaaay.

Scott’s always had a sly, understated sense of humor. Mischievous, but not usually at anyone’s expense, and subtle enough that most people don’t tend to credit him with having much of a sense of humor. He does though….he’s just never needed words to express it.

Advertising himself and his personal pride with a literal year round rainbow that’s still subtle enough that most people don’t clue into its layered meaning or implications without being told. Later in life, stable and safe and more centered, Scott gets a pretty big kick out of how often people fail to see what’s right in front of them. Him living his best life on his own terms and not even being shy about it….and if other people can’t connect the dots on their own….its a pity, Scott muses with a mostly internalized laugh, that most people are just in too big a hurry or too eager to take things at face value to truly see what their surroundings look like and are full of.

Danny gets the joke, and thinks its hilarious how few other people figure it out. But that’s mostly just because Danny can be kind of a dick. He’s sorry not sorry. Its not his fault people are dumb. RIP to 90% of humanity, but he has braincells.

He and Scott complement each other well.

Similarly, just as Scott’s personal space is outdoors, natural, and helps him feel part of the world, feel part of nature, connected to it and in harmony with the natural order of things and not something completely separate….Danny’s personal space is indoors, the extra room converted entirely into his personal office or Batcave. Filled with monitors and screens and hard drives, a Hacker’s Paradise that keeps Danny plugged into the grid, manmade tools and his own cultivated expertise giving him the world at his fingertips. Any needed information or a satellite view of something happening with allies on the other side of the world is just a few clicks of a mouse away.

He’s also got every video game console known to man, because Danny’s Me Time is kicking ass on whatever game the latest redditor or twitterbaiting bigot to catch his ire is high-ranking on. 

And if he also happens to use his gameplay as an opportunity to backdoor into said Wankstain’s systems and do whatever needs doing to make his life and those of all his enabling social circle’s a living hell and a lesson in empathy that comes too late cuz nobody has any for them because they suck and are Satan….

Well. Sucks to be them, and also, what kind of moron makes enemies while online gaming without first erecting even a nominal defense against Superior Intellects who might feel like retaliating against his jokes, that aren’t really jokes so much as the synaptic misfiring of racist braincells and proof that sometimes, evolution shits out a turd?

“That sounds like victim blaming,” Scott notes in an absent kind of tone when watching over his husband’s shoulder one day. Not really judgmental so much as just something to say.

“You say victim blaming, I say pest control,” Danny hums unapologetically. “Sides, can’t be victim blamed if you’re not a victim, and you can’t be a victim if you’re really just a human-shaped mistake who has no redeeming qualities, an online presence that’s the virtual equivalent of bad BO with no medical cause for an excuse, and a social media history that makes a strong case for your best possible contribution to society being a qualifier for a Darwin Award. Would you blame a cockroach for getting itself stepped on by stepping out into the light? I mean, you could, I guess. Just doesn’t seem terribly productive if you ask me.”

“Why do you hate cockroaches? They’re living creatures who never did anything to you, why would hurt them by comparing one to this guy?” Scott asks, because that’s really the more important part of the conversation.

“Dunno,” Danny shrugs. “I’m sure I could find some way to blame it on childhood trauma if you really need an answer.”

“No, just wondering if you’re gonna be done in time for dinner. I’m making tortellini.”

“I’ll be done in ten minutes, I swear. And ready to eat like a metaphor that’s more appropriate to you. Righteous vengeance really works up an appetite.”

“Uh-huh. Just out of curiosity, who exactly are you righteously avenging at the moment?”

“Humanity? Good taste? God, who couldn’t possibly have foreseen this free will thing would go so very wrong? That poor defunct condom that tried its best but in the end, just wasn’t up to the task of keeping this shithead from being unleashed unto the Earth? I dunno. Do I have to pick just one?”

Not really. As stated, Scott’s not actually judging anymore than Danny’s trying to hide this from him. They’re both in total agreement about the kind of people Danny cyber-vigilantes. They just have different approaches about how they should be handled. Scott, while not violent by choice for the most part, does tend to favor the direct approach. He just feels its right that a person know why exactly he thinks they’re a terrible person who deserves what they get. So he tends more towards the approach of: punch a bigot in the face, wait for a second for a whiff of remorse or sign someone might be suddenly reevaluating life choices, because he’s Scott and hope springs eternal, but when no such revelation comes, just shrugging and walking away. Oh well. He tried. Sorta. Well, kinda.

Danny, in contrast, prefers to go for the jugular and leave no hint of who or what might have been behind the all-encompassing full frontal assault that hits every online trace of his target’s miserable and miserly existence. It keeps them paranoid and this keeps him sated. Plus, his stance is when they don’t know what exactly earned them an enemy of his caliber, it forces them to reflect or at least call to mind every thing they can think of doing wrong to someone that might result in that someone hating them this much.

The ironic thing of course is Danny doesn’t even really hate them, because that implies a level of giving a shit he can’t ever quite seem to muster. He mostly just thinks they suck and should suffer for that. And he gets bored a lot. 

Look, his husband and fellow werewolves are off saving the world every other week and being all kinds of kick-ass and action adventure movie-star types in the process. A guy sitting behind at home all the time has to get his jollies somehow. Also, he’s compiled a very engaging soundtrack to accompany his personal heroic undertakings, and it does wonderful things for his self image. Danny’s all about that self-care.

Plus, the first time he and Scott had something of a disagreement on their approaches, Danny unapologetically stated that loving him meant loving his vindictive side, because he personally was quite fond of it and thought it was really something of a Look. Also, making that Look into a Thing might be something of a dealbreaker for him, because he really didn’t want to undersell his capacity to be petty, and how little shame he felt about having said capacity. His essential life philosophy boils down to sometimes people just suck and somebody needs to say so. Maybe by draining their bank account and redirecting the funds to an ironically relevant charity.

“Fine,” Scott had conceded with a sigh. “Just be careful about making enemies like this, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

(That was really his only real concern all along. He’s a Nurturing Nelly. Scott can’t help but be a worry wart when his husband roams the internet highways under a masked IP address, taking on bandits and bigots all willy nilly, with not a bit of concern for himself. Its their biggest common ground, and Danny doesn’t have claws or a killer bite to protect himself with. A bite fetish, maybe, but that’s not quite the same thing, and also neither here nor there, and also also, he would like to plead the fifth while reminding you he can access and pull up your full porn-browsing history if you’d like to press that line of conversation further. Pervert).

Anyway, alls well that ends well, and thus Danny couldn’t help but be charmed at the reminder that his hubby is a man with clear priorities and his biggest is always gonna be the safety of his loved ones. Aww, sweetums.

“Aww, sweetums,” he said, just to see Scott squirm, because the more unexpected the endearment, the more Scott doesn’t know how to take it. And a squirmy Scott is an adorable Scott, Danny has always felt, and he is a man who appreciates his eye candy, as well as a go-getter who knows what he likes and goes and gets it, even if that means playing dirty. Especially if that means playing dirty. Danny likes dirty. 

After all, dirty men need to shower, and showering together conserves water, and having sex while showering together is just a solid application of having eyes, a hot husband, and a healthy libido. It just makes good sense. He’s goal-oriented and a linear thinker, what do you want, leave him alone. He’s valid and you’re just jealous.

Still, exotic endearment applied, he’d then followed up with:

“How dare you accuse me of being so bad at the thing that I am most skilled at that you imply I’m even capable of ever leaving digital tracks like a total N00b. What do I look like to you? A 4chan poster who just figured out how to spoof their GPS for the first time?” 

Danny rolled his eyes, exaggerating his wounded pride. It was the principle of the matter, and he was very principled. Sometimes. Kinda. If principles mean whimsy and whimsy means shh, don’t interrupt me, I’m doing bad things to bad people and this is very important work that must be savored or you really don’t get the full oomph of the revenge-gasm. Yes, he said revenge-gasm and he meant it. No he will not elaborate. Imagination is free.

“Ten points from Gryffindor for your low opinion of me, your valued and valuable life partner. Also, no sex for you, until…..okay maybe that’s too far. You seem like you’ve learned your lesson.”

“You’re too merciful,” Scott had said drily. 

“Nobody’s perfect,” Danny had said lackadaisically. “Also, not to disrespect your tortellini-making expertise, but any chance we can put a pin in dinner until after we go have wild, passionate sex? This pending revenge-gasm is making me horny and I really hate to waste a good head of moral crusading.”

“That was a terrible pun.”

“I have never made a pun in my life, how dare you, my sense of humor is sophisticated. I’m not a peasant, Scott. And where did we land on the sex.”

“Didn’t we just do it this morning?”

“I have needs, Scott.”

“You’re insatiable.”

“And water is wet. I don’t see the relevance. Also, if you don’t want me jumping you 24/7, you have no business being so hot. Its your own damn fault, deal with it.”

“There you go with the victim-blaming again.”

“I’ll do five Hail Marys after I finish doing sinful things to you and racking up another five. Its more efficient to tackle them all at once.”

“Not sure that’s how that works, babe.”

“Eh, guess I’ll just go to hell then. Still worth it. Still your fault. Oh look, I’m naked all of a sudden, how did that happen?”

Scott sighs. “What am I going to do with you?”

“R is for Ravish me, if you’re really looking for suggestions. I can probably do the whole alphabet if you need. Or just do me. Whichever.”

Scott cut off further melodramatic peacocking with a kiss.

Things proceeded to a total media black out from there. Further voyeuristic attempts at seeing the Alpha and his mate get down, get down, would necessitate the invocation of the cautionary tale of the last pack member to not properly respect the sanctity of the inner sanctum of the Vindictive Master of Digital Identities and Other Important Details. His name is Chester, middle initial A., surname with a phonetic similarity to certain orifices. That wasn’t always his name, but it was once Danny got done with him, and that was only after Scott gave him the Pointed Stare of One Who Will Look More Benevolently On Those Who Demonstrate Both Mercy and Restraint.

Tis very much a tale of woe, as Chester is 6′5″, 260 lbs of visually intimidating werewolf muscle, and facial features that when accompanied by choice words and phrases, rather does call to mind certain similarities to certain orifices.

Like I said. Danny is very good at what he does. And everybody loves Danny.

….Aside from all other motivating reasons, its just a good idea in general. 

Y’know.

Practically speaking.

[miralcompass]

Amelie mirror

Amelie mirror full#

It comes in gold and black and is available in four sizes: round, rectangle, mantel and floor. I would recommend this to anyone.”įor similar options at a lower price point (depending on what size you’re interested in), consider the following Anthropologie Primrose Mirror dupes: Anthropologie Cecilia Mirror, $328+Īnthropologie has a similar array of mirrors to their Primrose model, including their Cecilia mirrors that range from $328 to $898. “It’s worth every penny,” raved another reviewer. This is a must-have for small it brings light in.” Inspired by traditional French designs, our Amelie Mirror is framed in iron and resin with elegant floral-and-vine detailing. “I ordered it almost six months ago and its been out of stock, I know why now. “I bought the six foot floor in gold and it is the most gorgeous mirror ever,” said another. “This mirror elevated the look of my space so much!” said one happy customer. Using French and American case studies, she singles out Amelie as an. If you can afford the real deal, over 300 people have given the mirror a rave review on Anthropologie’s website and it’s earned an impressive 4.8-star rating. As Giral notes, contemporary television programmes and films mirror this social trend. It would make a great accent piece anywhere in your home and is bound to open up any room with extra space and light. Without further delay, let’s get right into it.The Anthropologie Gleaming Primrose Mirror is available in three colors: gold, silver and antique black, up to four different sizes depending on the color you choose and ranges from $498 to $1,548. Hamilton Hills Top Gold Baroque Wall Mirror Rich Old World Feel Framed Beveled Elegant Glass Mirror Entryway Bathroom or Powder Room (24' x 36') 229.99. Keep in mind – the larger sizes of this mirror are HUGE and weigh 200lbs – so it’s definitely a ‘lean it up on the wall’ type mirror. This item: Howard Elliott Amelia Round Hanging Wall Mirror, Antique Black, 32 Inch. It also comes in four different colors gold, black, silver, and verdigris (which is a stately bronze color.) If you love the baroque style – you will probably love this mirror (and all the other options I’m about to show you). It’s an Anthropologie item, a vintage-inspired mirror that’s offered in several different sizes, from a wall hanging poster size all the way to a ginormous floor mirror version. The Amelie round mirror has a very stylish hand carved mahogany frame finished with hand applied gold and silver leaf thinned black acrylic paint and. It’s basically the “it” mirror right now in home decor (complete with its own hashtag). I’ll put this here in case anyone wants to know more about the Primrose Mirror. WIDTH 41 HEIGHT 74.5 DEPTH 2 Inspired by traditional French designs, the Amelie Mirror is framed in iron and resin with elegant floral-and-vine detailing. Side Note: This article may contain affiliate links. These all have that same gilded, antique, baroque mirror look, but many are a fraction of the price. The wall-mounted Amelie vanity in white from Lexora is a.

Amelie mirror full#

And because I love you guys – I’m replying with a FULL POST on these Anthropologie mirror dupes. Amelie 60 Double Vanity White, White Carrera Marble Top, White Square Sinks and 60 Mirror. Love the Primrose Mirror from Anthropologie but looking for more options? These Anthropologie Mirror Dupes got you!Īfter posting about these oversize floor mirrors, so many of you reached out and asked if I had a good dupe for the gleaming primrose mirror.

[famoustalementality]

Illustrators on the Japanese website Pixiv peppered their works with keywords and terms, such as “Free Hong Kong” and "June 4, Tiananmen Square," that are forbidden in China so CCP censors were forced to shut down the copied and pirated site vpixiv.

Screenshot of Pixiv website

A Japanese art and manga website that was cloned by Chinese pirates has hit back by encoding forbidden keywords and hashtags banned by Chinese censors into its code, prompting the authorities to shut the pirated version down.

Pixiv, which describes itself as "an online community for artists," is headquartered in Tokyo, and offers a showcase for artists' works, as well as a rating system with feedback and user comments.

It has been phenomenally successful, garnering more than 3.7 billion page views a month.

Then, the entire site was cloned by Chinese pirates, who copied the site's content almost verbatim, translating tags and titles into simplified Chinese, and offering the pirated site vpixiv to users in mainland China.

Pixiv fought back, however, with some of the site's users adding "sensitive" keywords to their artworks, including "Tiananmen massacre," which alerted the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s massive, government-backed censorship system.

Other sensitive and forbidden keywords included "Free Hong Kong," "Independence for Taiwan," and "June 4, Tiananmen Square," all of which are heavily censored terms behind China's Great Firewall.

Germany-based university lecturer Zhu Rui said the move had deliberately and ingeniously manipulated government censors in China.

"The Japanese artists being pirated on Pixiv were forced to take this action as a last resort to defend their rights," Zhu told RFA. "The pirated website was then shut down by the iron fist of the CCP, which was great to see." The Chinese pirate site vpixiv was shut down by authorities after illustrators used banned words. Credit: Screenshot of vpixiv websitePiracy and plagiarism

Zhu said Chinese pirates have a long history of cloning platforms invented elsewhere.

"Some [people] plagiarize other people's creations or steal technology overseas, and then put their name on it back in China, and make a lot of money when it gets famous," Zhu said. "The vast majority of Chinese Internet users love it."

One comment on a Chinese social media platform joked about Pixiv's move, saying "insulting China has become the best defense against theft," while another bemoaned the effect on the country's overseas image: "Counterfeit China is adding to our international humiliation," the user wrote.

France-based cultural commentator Wang Longmeng blamed authoritarian rule by the CCP for stifling innovation.

"This sort of surveillance leads to a lack of freedom and creativity, so China, which has lost the ability to innovate, has become the champion of intellectual property theft," Wang said. "China's reputation as a copycat nation is well-deserved."

"Everything, it seems, is stolen, from high-tech to art ... I just never expected the magic weapon that would defeat them would be their own sensitive keywords," he said.

"It's another real-world example of how they shoot themselves in the foot."

Pixiv isn't the first platform to use this method. Taiwanese YouTubers have been known to add keywords like #WinnieThePooh to their videos to prevent them from being reposted without permission to video-sharing sites in China like Bilibili.

All mention of Winnie the Pooh has been banned from China's tightly controlled internet after users made memes and jokes on social media suggesting that the fictional bear resembled CCP leader Xi Jinping.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.