#i don't even like that domain

[rubys-domain]

great news! (well for me at least but anyway)

i was able to get chong to deal 77k today. BY FAR his highest crit on record. how i did it? by going double anemo with sucrose and giving her ttds. and also shuffling chong's artifacts around so he has 160% crit dmg again. although in doing so his crit rate goes to shit cuz hoyo doesn't want me to have crit rate apparently. like way back when, i had to do a whole bunch of trials to get him to crit. but this time when he did, his highest crit was 77k, and 66k on average. he also did like 40k crits on his skill, which is pretty cool.

i also did some more testing of this reshuffled build using tenacity dehya instead of ttds sucrose. his highest crit in this team was 76k, so not too far off. i don't know how the damage is actually calculated in this game, but i assume it's because the combination of pyro resonance + tenacity gives 45% atk, while r5 ttds gives 48% atk. but considering my sucrose isn't built (i gave her 2pc gilded 2pc wanderer's and some of them weren't leveled), i think this double anemo team might make chong's burst get higher crits if i got sucrose sorted with full em. in theory, dehya could work the same if she held wgs and chong held a crit weapon like redhorn. but wgs is like if ttds only worked 30% of the time because of the way the effect procs, so it's not the most consistent buff.

bit of an aside, but i wonder if sucrose can actually use the gilded dreams set in this team? since kazuha is using 4pc vv anyway (sucrose can't cuz she'd be giving the ttds buff to someone else and not chong if she were the one to double swirl). where after bennet burst + kazuha burst, you swap to sucrose and do one normal attack to proc the 4pc effect, then her burst to proc her a4 passive, THEN swap to chong and pop his burst. bit of a tighter rotation considering kazuha's a4 passive buff only lasts 8 seconds, but might be doable idk. i don't have em main stat on all pieces of gilded yet, so it's gonna be a while before i can test this out for real. but in theory, this would allow chong to get away with much less em. maybe even zero em. so i can put him back on an atk sands and basically only focus on getting more crit on the substats.

(okay i did some testing, and the 4pc gilded effect does count towards her em share. and it's also much easier to just use her skill and swap out, since that apparently still counts the gilded buff.)

or alternatively, sucrose on 4pc vv and kazuha on 4pc gilded. and the rotation would be: chong skill - sucrose skill - swap to chong for ttds buff - bennett burst - kazuha burst - chong burst. it's just better to give chong kazuha's cryo swirl buff tho, and attempting to get both kazuha and sucrose to swirl cryo would make the rotation even tighter, to the point where it's almost impossible to get chong to burst before buffs start to expire. also the unfortunate thing about ttds is that the effect has a 20 second cooldown. so no matter which rotation i use, it's effectively only active every other rotation since the rotation is so short. unless i take my time recharging bursts but that's not ideal either. so i'm probably better off going the more comfortable route.

OR. use the first rotation, but put sucrose on 4pc tenacity instead. since she does her thing right before chong does his burst, he can pop his burst right before the 3 second tenacity buff expires. and then just stack literally all the em on her on every single piece so she still shares a lot of em with him.

you know what would be really amazing tho? a pyro catalyst who has good uptime on the tenacity set. in this team, they would give chong a total of 93% additional atk (not even counting bennett's burst+noblesse buff). which is WILD.

but putting that pipe dream aside, what i can realistically do to improve this chong build is level my other wanderer's pieces so he can keep his really good blizzard strayer atk sands and crit dmg goblet. honestly tho it'd be better to just switch to emblem. and then go 4pc shim for mono cryo so i'll at least have some use for all the shim pieces i'll be getting. i would go 4pc lavawalker, but i don't really have anyone i want to put on the crimson witch set so i can't be bothered to farm that domain. it's gonna be unfortunate to not have a use for my extremely good blizzard strayer pieces anymore, but it's worth it if it'll make chong stronger. plus if i ever feel like building cryo freminet, he can use chong's old cracked pieces.

[kaiserouo]

let them use social media

[frankenfossil]

you're never going to be the most popular magical girl when your colour is orange

cassidy from sleepless domain

[cursedvibes]

Okay, can we move on with the plot now? Like try to save Megumi or something? Glance in the direction of Kenjaku to see what they're up to? Do anything other than another dick measuring contest.

Clearly it's not over-over, since Sukuna is still standing, Megumi is still possessed, Sukuna hasn't revealed his ace yet and Uraume is also hiding somewhere. Something has to happen to Gojo as well, otherwise we're back to the old problem of him just mowing his way through the villains and thereby singlehandedly ending the series while everyone else sits back and twiddles their thumbs. Not to mention that I don't trust him to make real political change while this powerful (still not over him wanting to put Gakuganji in charge like that's gonna fix anything).

[longagoitwastuesday]

I keep thinking that this Gojo is just like Sukuna. I truly don't see much of a difference between them beyond the human/curse point of view

[genericpuff]

on the closure of MochaJump, and why we're our own worst enemies in this industry.

"MochaJump? What was that?" is probably your first question, and I'm gonna simply respond with, "Exactly."

MochaJump was a small startup platform made by /u/nunojay2 and a second site engineer (whose name I am not informed of) on reddit. It wasn't anything extraordinary, just a startup site that aimed to offer a more viable alternative to Webtoons and Tapas, with a focus on offering equal visibility to creators, focused recommendation algorithms, loosened restrictions on NSFW content, and bigger cuts for creators on their generated revenue.

Of course, such promises are a tall order, but the creator did their best to host regular discussions with creators in art and webtoon communities to get feedback on what creators really wanted out of their platforms, and they researched what they would need to make in order to keep the site afloat (it came out pretty low at $2 per user per month). Hopes were high and the site launched with a small but eager userbase.

It stayed small. The site shut down in November 2022, just 6 months after launching in May 2022.

Now, I'm not gonna sit here on some soapbox and blame anyone for the site closing down. I unfortunately didn't get much chance to use the site myself so there's surely more I could have done on my own part to help it gain traction. But this is a regular occurrence for start-ups like this, especially in an industry that's as notoriously unprofitable as webcomics. We've seen titans such as SmackJeeves and Inkblazers fall, and MochaJump was merely an infant by comparison.

But it makes me think of how we view and treat these startups as a whole. How we as readers and creators alike have become so trained to exclusively use corporate platforms like Webtoons and Tapas on the promise of "bigger gains". Unlike these bigger companies, platforms like MochaJump depend on building a strong userbase as quickly as possible, and need to find ways to generate revenue to keep things running, otherwise it's only a matter of time before they close down. They don't have a massive conglomerate like Naver or Kakao to pad their pockets through their failures. They don't have the money or reach to inject themselves into society through bus terminal ads and convention sponsorships. They don't have the investors to sink money into their platform until it becomes profitable in return.

So we don't use them. Readers don't use them because we don't see the point in using a platform that has no content... and thus creators don't use them because we don't see the point in publishing our content on a platform with no userbase. Creators seek a place that's "tight knit" and "easy to get seen", but will only post to places that come pre-loaded with massive audiences; because it's not enough anymore to have a couple hundred followers, we're in 2023 now, in the year of consumer bloat, where we expect to now pull in thousands if not millions to be considered a "success". And readers seek a place that offers high-quality high-amount content at the tip of their fingertips, but don't want to pay for the access to these works, and in the case of apps like WT, have given up in trying to support these creators through the platforms themselves because they know that those artists they want to support will likely never see a dime.

The fact of this problem is simple, yet many people seem to ignore it - we cannot expect to have a platform that is tight knit, profitable, and sustainable. These places do not exist, not so long as we continue to raise the bar on what makes a "successful" subscriber count, not so long as we continue to patronize platforms that exploit their artists and writers, and not so long as we keep chasing the dragon of "what these websites used to be". These platforms never used to 'be' anything, they merely existed in one point of time that is now long gone, when owning a smartphone was a luxury and not a need, when online video content wasn't being tethered together by ads, and when the Internet wasn't owned and entirely managed by the same three corporations, the likes of which we haven't seen since cable TV.

Platforms like Tapas and Webtoons are - besides unsustainable - unable to exist and profit in the way they do without undercutting someone along the way. Whether it's underpaying their creators, undercutting their communities, or underexposing the works that have been buried, someone will get the shit hand in the deal and that someone is usually ALWAYS someone who will rarely ever stand to gain anything in the long run from using these platforms despite their issues. The 1% got theirs, and the 10% are barely getting by, while the remaining 89% are pushing onwards, because they have faith in the systemic online enshittification that demands conformity to a single formula for "success".

We are our own worst enemies in this industry. Webcomics are one of the few online mediums that still truly belong to the people - anyone can make them, anyone can find joy in them, but we're letting platforms like Webtoons and Tapas and all the other massive corporate apps rob us of that joy and accessibility in the pursuit of "success" and profiting. Webtoons was never the sole way to profit off this medium and yet I still see people every day who underestimate the existence of legitimate publishing houses and self-publishing, who think that publishing on Webtoons and landing an Originals deal is the only way to find success in this industry. This is meant to be the era of creators, of self-starting and self-actualization, and yet we're still handing all of that control over to corporations that only seek to exploit our art, bodies, and labor, while convincing ourselves that this will somehow all be worth it. We stick with Webtoons, despite the numerous controversies it's been involved in and the lack of support it's given even its own hired creators. We stick with Tapas, despite the undercutting of its most core components such as its community and the outlier genres it used to be known for hosting. We find new ways to justify using platforms that are steadily going downhill - Patreon, Twitter/X, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook - because we've been convinced that these are the routes to success, so if we acknowledge their failures, then "success" can no longer exist.

Because we need to pay rent. Because we need to eat. Because we need to survive. Because it's a lot more complicated than just "stepping away". Because the startups just don't have any of the surface level potential for us to immediately identify and get on board with, so we don't give them a chance.

I realize this post got very existential and depressing. I've been creating comics for well over a decade now, largely unnoticed, and I've fallen victim to these same limiting mindsets that we have to stick to one way, one "formula" for success - a formula that changes with the wind and only works for those who get in on the ground floor. It's been slowly killing me from the very beginning, robbing me of my joy to create, of my reason to even do this in the first place - to tell and share stories with others, to express myself creatively, to live my life surrounded by art and stories and creations made by and for others. It's made me tired and miserable, and I can tell it's done the same to those who have shared that boat with me.

But there's one silver lining I can always be sure of, and it's one I was reminded of after realizing I was still in the MochaJump Discord, with one announcement post that I hadn't yet read.

Webcomics are one of the few online mediums that still truly belong to the people. Corporations are trying their hardest to take that power away. Let's not continue to let them.

If you want to help sustain, patronize, and contribute to the growth of sites that are still being operated by small teams (or even one man armies), please, consider checking out the following websites, some of which serve as platforms or publishers, others which operate as link directories for independent sites run by creators.

ComicFury GlobalComix TopWebcomics The Webcomic List The Webcomic Library Hiveworks SpiderForest SmackJeeves Archive Inkblot.art And whoever wants to use the GitHub source code used for MochaJump (RIP)

Let's do our part to decentralize webcomics again. We may not be able to leave the platforms that weakly sustain us, but we can still support those that strengthen and support us.

[ravencromwell]

The poem evokes human greatness and human vulnerability. People are “godlike” in their courage and skill, but even the greatest mortals fall and clutch the dust between their bloody fingers. The beautiful word minunthadios , “short-lived,” is used of both Achilles and Hector, and applies to all of us. We die too soon, and there is no adequate recompense for the terrible, inevitable loss of life. Yet through poetry, the words, actions, and feelings of some long-ago brief lives may be remembered even three thousand years later.

--Emily Wilson's introduction to the Iliad

[psalacanthea]

I do like the choice from Halsin to bring in a new Druid to take over the grove, rather than someone from within. It makes sense. There's a very Silvanite wisdom to it. The connection to nature is more important than your connection to people. They worship Silvanus, after all, who disdains civilization (he doesn't consider it part of the natural order).

Kagha isn't completely wrong.

That's why the Shadow Druids are able to get to her; Halsin's not doing a great job protecting the Grove, which is their sacred duty.

Definitely more important than the lives of a few people.

So the place needs a bit of a do-over. Someone untouched by relationships, history, and bias, who can come in and bring things back to the proper ways of Silvanus. I'm not saying Halsin thought Kagha was right, I'm just saying it would make his move of appointing Francesca of the High Forest an acknowledgment of his own Silvanite 'flaws'.

which is cool

[celestial-sapphicss]

no because when i was watching the clips of my school president prom night on stage day 1 without subs, the group performance that was most fun to watch was Stand By Lor right? such great dance moves, very groovy, very traditional vibes in places (aka satang & ford's vocals).

BUT THEN I SAW THE SUBTITLED VERSION OF THAT PERFORMANCE I AM LOOSING MY MIND OMG do yourself a favor and watch this

[an-eldritch-peredhel]

#dang it do i have a new oc now

Sounds like!! I'd love to hear more if you've got it!

(referring to my tags on this post)

You will meet a stranger, sometimes, if you make a habit to frequent taverns, inns, halls for game, or even the one tree where the young Bracegirdle cousins sneak off to play marbles. Well, you will like as not meet many strangers, except in the last case, but this one will be different. Or perhaps you get lucky, and don't frequent such places, but find yourself in one unexpectedly, and meet them regardless.

Everyone in Gondor knows someone who knows someone who met Lady Luck, no one has met her themself. If you do, starry-eyed romantics say, you'll be blessed with good fortune for all your days. The pragmatists tell you you'll be blessed with the good sense to discern a scam.

He may smirk at you after winning a bet, some dark-haired man, using his earnings to buy a round for the bar. It's always a different man, but it always goes to Alwed's tab. It keeps the crowd from getting too rowdy, even if the more superstitious get on edge.

No one remembers meeting them the first time, but dwarves with common sense avoid Audr's shell games and silver-toothed smile- you always win, but it's never worth it.

A woman with greying-gold hair and stiff fingers might call herself Eadrun, and challenge you to a game of dice. Few decline, and far fewer win.

For as few elves remain in Middle Earth, the one who calls himself Herendil and laughs as though his name is a joke should be recognizable. He seems young and lighthearted in a way most have lost, but he will play you cards, win just as much as he loses, and disappear, never recognized.

A hobbit-lass may giggle, red curls gleaming in the sun, and introduce herself as Peony Sandheaver, her family is visiting from Bree, and she wants to see how Shire-hobbits play Jacks.

Sometimes an orc prays over a set of knucklebones, knowing that at least one god will hear one prayer. Orcs have little luck in battle, but uncanny luck with dice.

There are countless stories, just as many true as not. Countless names, far more unnamed figures, always just out of place enough wherever they are to be interesting and promise new tales, never enough to provoke suspicion, not at first.

Even those in the Blessed Realm may find this dark-eyed stranger. Always dark-eyed, like bottles of dark glass. They stop by Aulë's workshop on occasion, to learn and suggest and play new games. They never win the first round, but most have the sense not to bet anything they aren't willing to lose on the second.

Oromë's people call them Umbarnica with a laugh and a toast in welcome. They thrive in the drunken revels after a successful hunt, sharp as ever as they dance from game to game, cackling at ill-advised propositions offered as collateral for or against a bet. Usually this means them winning to avoid it, a frequent enough occurrence as-is, but every now and then they'll decide to let someone get lucky. The bragging rights are the real reward.

And there are no guarantees with this stranger. No way to ensure their favor, though many ways to get their attention, few good. They like irony, take pleasure in hubris reaching its fall. They love superstition, even if they don't always honor it, and they love stories. There are gods that can be mistaken for kind, they are not one of them, created to serve the king the Dark Lord could have been. Their favorites are fickle, their grudges subtle but long-held. They love cheaters, unless they're at the end of the attempt. They will always catch you, and you will always regret it. They slink through candle-shadows and pipe-smoke, grinning, dance in town squares turned to faire grounds, curl up on comfy chairs indoors on rainy days.

But sometimes, in these days, you won't meet a stranger at all. Sometimes your storyteller will get a bright-dark glint in their eyes, and some dice will roll strangely high and some dice will roll strangely low and either way the story will be better for it. And if the next time the group meets you need to take a moment to remind the storyteller exactly what happened last session, well. That's why you take notes.

So pray to the dice-god, card-master, quick-sighted. It might do you no good, but they love superstition, and they love stories. And when you play a dark-eyed stranger, don't cheat at cards.

[townofcadence]

Tomorrow I think I'll try to make a post about Artair's current abilities and some of the drawbacks he suffers, since I write him so often and he's kinda got a lot going on-- it'll change and update as things change, too ^x^

[icewindandboringhorror]

I’m always paranoid of my tumblr being deleted or malfunctioning or something like that someday, so here’s other places to find me/follow me, just in case lol

~ instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lucalicatte/

~ main youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/LucaLiCatte

~ games/sims youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@cloudycatte

~ facebook page (I rarely use this because I hate facebook but.. it at least allows text posts better than instagram does, so idk maybe I’d use it more if tumblr went away? lol) - https://www.facebook.com/cloudycatteart/

~ Other Links (stuff I don’t use often/isn’t Main enough to list here, like twitter, neopets, other tumblr sideblogs, youtube channels, etc.) are here - http://icewindandboringhorror.tumblr.com/otherlinks )

[chemicalarospec]

The funniest thing I wholeheartedly believe is that I have a neurodivergency not catergorizable or diagnosable as any currently recognized disorder. (disorder emphaized because heavily impairing functioning is generally a requirement of the clinical definition and a condition of diagnosis, and although i'm vexed i still Get By Just Fine)

because like yes those probably exist; there's no way psychiatry is in its final form now and there are definitely levels of neuro-difference that don't qualify as disorders, but like. that's so random and it's kinda pretentious to make such a bold claim about yourself. like oh u wanna be special, huh? 🙄 just be AuDHD like everyone else (<- joking)

[coquelicoq]

I don't know if it's rude to ask, so apologies in advance if I sound mean, but… how come you repeatedly bring up old posts of yours from three or more years ago? Do you remember each original post you make and intentionally bring them back? Like, I don't think there's anything wrong, your blog can be whatever you want, obviously, and your stuff is always funny or curious in some way, just… I'm kind of lost as of how it came to be, I guess? I don't think I remember my own posts after 6 months, much least if I have to go back to 2020!

ahaha no it's usually just because i'm going back through a tag looking for something else! i recently went back through my entire "my posts" tag (which contains...1468 posts, dear lord) and while i was doing that saw several posts that i felt like reblogging for whatever reason. so it's usually not that i remember them and go looking for them on purpose, it's that i come across them incidentally in the course of doing something else.

if you want to know why i reblog them after coming across them, 1) usually i don't! you are seeing the tip of the iceberg lol, and 2) it's mostly because it's hard to resist the "sooo true, bestie" urge, even when the bestie is just...yourself.

[lightningbig]

goddd botw makes me a little bit insane. link going through the story and meeting all of these people who use to know him. he doesn't remember. but they talk about him, "you used to train me!" "we were kids together" "I always looked up to you". they have lived a whole life while he's been asleep. he has not changed.

[wilde-shit-posting]

I swear to God if I miss my playwriting class's reenactment of The Importance of Being Earnest because I have fucking covid (probably from living in a hotel for a month) I'm going to cry.