#my website has imploded

[asylos]

Darkest Desires - Interview with Author Alessa Hale

Miri: Hello friends! Today on the blog we have a good friend of mine, Alessa Hale. Alessa is releasing her first published novel on February 17th, 2023 with Skye High Publishing and I for one, am very happy to see it coming out. As an ace who loves to read the kinky, dark side of things, Alessa has long been a provider of my guilty pleasure reads, though I’m trying to stop using that term, as we should not feel guilty about our pleasure. 

To start out, why don’t you hit us with the good old “back of the book” blurb? What is Darkest Desires?

Alessa: Darkest Desires is a dark, kink-heavy erotic romance, featuring a MMF (Miri note: that’s male-male-female for those who aren’t familiar with the short form) polyamorous triad. Oh, and the two male leads are demons.

Elias and Caelan are the gorgeous rockstar duo behind Goëtica, a concept band where they play the role of otherworldly, demonic creatures. Except it’s far more than an act. Shannon runs into them after a concert and learns the truth about them; they are demons. They’re powerful, terrifying, dangerous, and irresistible, all in equal measure. One thing leads to another, and they end up spending the night together.

What starts out as a rockstar-and-groupie style one night stand soon becomes much more, as Shannon learns more about them, their stories, and their rather dark inclinations in the bedroom.

Darkest Desires is very much a character driven story, focusing tightly on their interactions and burgeoning relationship. Anticipate something more like a dark, fucked up slice of life… if your life involved two demon boyfriends of highly questionable morals and a lot of spicy, kinky sex.

Miri: Demons? 

Alessa: In a manner of speaking. The boys are demons, but they are also trapped on our plane of existence and in human forms now. They weren’t too happy about that.

They still retain a fair bit of their power and a few not-so-human features (no spicy demon peen, though–perhaps a missed opportunity on my part!) but mostly they’re just minding their own business and trying to make the best of their circumstances. By starting a band, because what else would you do if you were a demon stuck masquerading as a human. 

That leaves the setting of the story more or less contemporary, but with a paranormal twist and just a sprinkling of demon metaphysics to make life more exciting.

Miri: This is a kinky book, and you’ve kindly posted the list of kinks and content warnings as well (links). Was it important to you to make these contents clear to the audience?

Alessa: Definitely. I come from a fandom background where tagging your work is a common courtesy, plus I’m a big believer in “your kink is not my kink and that’s okay”. There are absolutely kinks in the book that are not going to be to everyone’s taste, or could even be triggering for some.

A lot of BDSM themes are present throughout – fully consensual, enthusiastic, and negotiated – but some of the kinks involved are considered taboo or fringe even within BDSM spheres. Specifically, there is a heavy emphasis on knife play and blood play. These have a significant part in the story, such as an entire scene that is primarily focused on knife play, so it’s not really something that can be glossed over.

It’s definitely something people should be aware of beforehand, so they can make an informed decision as to whether the story is right for them. That said… if you’re on the fence but curious, give it a try. I have been told I’ve introduced people to kinks they never knew they had on a fairly regular basis. 😉

Miri: That you have, that you have! I certainly have… learned a few things about myself over the years. :D

Your Instagram (over here) features one of the locations that makes an appearance in the book, a restaurant the characters have a date at. The photo is of a most delicious looking dessert and I just have to know what it was.

Alessa: It was so good it even got an honorary inclusion in the book! That is a white chocolate bread pudding, from a restaurant called The Perch in L.A. (The restaurant itself isn’t named in the story, but now you know the secret.)

Miri: Ooh. That does sound as good as it looks. Folx in the L.A. area, if you can get out there and try it, snag your own pictures! You don’t have to take a demonic date with you, but if you have the chance, well, you know I won’t judge.

Alright this is one of those questions I hit every writer with: pantser or plotter? (Or as some people like to phrase it, Gardener or architect?) Or that magical in between? Plantser? Garditech? (Who knows what bonkers words we’ll come up with next.)

Alessa: Pantser, absolutely 100%. Even gardener sounds a little too refined for my process! This wasn’t intended to be a novel originally – it started out life as a short one-shot story, which was just their initial meeting and a one night stand. But I loved the characters so much, I loved their dynamic so much, and there was so much potential left open, I ended up coming back to it again and again. More parts were added as and when the ideas came… and then I eventually realised I had written enough to count as an entire novel. Some heavy streamlining and polishing later, and here we are.

Miri: Isn’t that just the way of it. Those pesky characters rarely do what we expect them to. You sit down for a quick 1k, and next thing you know… years of your life gone.

I know, I know, I’m asking you to pick a favourite child here, but do you have a favourite moment in the book - not necessarily a favourite scene as it turned out, but one that was the most fun to write? (Fun doesn’t always mean the easiest, of course.)

Alessa: That first section, the original short story it started life as, will always be the most special thing to me. It’s far more than just one moment, of course—I think chapter 2 to 5 cover what was initially the self-contained one shot. But that was the most fun I’ve had writing anything in… ever.

It was 3am in the coffee shop around the block, typing feverishly away at my laptop because I’d rather be writing it than sleep. Notebooks in every bag, scribbling on the bus, in checkout lines, any single second I could get. The inspiration, flow, and sheer joy of writing it was an as-of-yet completely unparalleled experience. I adored that thing.

For a little more of a specific moment, perhaps some of more amusing dialogue. During the editing process, I reread a line that I had entirely forgotten I’d written, and it caught me off guard and made me snort-laugh in a most inelegant manner. Of course, maybe I just have a terrible sense of humour... 

Miri: Where can folx find out more about you, the book, and pre-order it? I hear there’s a sign up for ARCs (that’s advanced reader copies) as well? I know I’ve signed up so I can get an early review for the blog.

Alessa: Absolutely! Anyone who signs up can get a free electronic copy (Kindle or ePub) of the book. The publisher will be distributing these around two weeks before the release date. If you read it and enjoy it, an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads would be greatly appreciated, but there’s definitely no pressure.

Instagram is the best place to keep up to date with promotions and release information. I also have an author site with a full blurb and all the links you could possibly need, as well as some fun extras like character bios and a secret playlist.

Socials: Instagram, Twitter

Preorder at Amazon *The book will be available on Kindle Unlimited from February 17th.

Add to your Want to Read at Goodreads! 

ARC Sign Up Form - Sign up by January 31st to make sure you are on the list!

Miri: One thing that I have always felt has come across in your writing (and folx, trust me, I have devoured a lot over the years) is your passion. You care about your characters, and their interactions. And I think that’s something that helps your work stand out from the crowd. There’s a lot of books out there to pick from, and I hope folx will give this one a read if it’s up their alley!

Well folx, that wraps up this preview interview, as I’d like to get it out in time for you to have a chance to sign up for an ARC or Preorder the book. I’ll be back again with my review once I’ve had a chance to read it!

[incorrectskyrimquotes]

are ao3 bookmarks good

[mildlyromanticperv]

What did you expect of me?

Karina x MReader. Fluff. Enemies to lovers.

-For christ sake, what a bitch! -Your anger boiling in your heart and your brain tells you, no, yells you to go to your managers office and demand a fair treatment, it's just ourageous that among all the workers in the office you have to stay late every single day of the week to cover the "last project of the quarter".

No matter what you do, how hard you work, how many late nights and how many cups of coffee you drink at a day, it just feels like a prison in here, the office that hired you as the main developer for the website on their new brand "Supernova."

Plus, who names a project "Supernova"? Sounds like with just a simple code here and there you'd make the market implode and then explode in money... If your manager Karina expects for that to happen she's either naively hopeful or a total delusional.

-You, come to my office. -Her cold words stabs your brain, after a whole week hearing her low pitch condescending dictatorial voice you can't bear to listen to it one more time, but you need this job like, DESPERATELY need this job, so there's no talk back to the boss.

-Yes boss?

-We're behind on the project, have you been slacking off again? -Her cold judgemental gaze falls upon your black sacked eyes showing off the immense exhaustion you have tu put up with during the project.

-Look boss, I'm doing my best, I haven't slept well these past few days but I assure you I will have everything ready by next month even if the useless of my coworkers don't do shit. -Your tongye got the best of you and runs wild. -I just need to have a good night sleep, can you let me out early today?

-No, we are all hands on deck and you know that. -She sighs and rubs her forehead in a clear show of stress and disappointment. -Just go back to work and don't screw anything up.

Any person with enough patience would put up with that shit, but not you, not now at least. The condescending tone and the past sleep deprived week has been just too much for you, clearly you're not thinking straight anymore, or perhaps you're thinking clearer...?

-Fuck this.

-Excuse me? -She responds with equal or perhaps even higher anger.

-Fuck this Karina, I'm not doing any more shit today and I'm tired to put up with your fucking demands. Fire me if you want I'm going home to sleep. -You really shuld've thought that better, but what is done is done, you start to pick up your stuff and bracing yourself for the shouting match.

-You cross that door and you're suspended, one week half pay. -Surprisingly enough instead of picking up a fight and shouting her vocal cords off as she usually does, she just stares straight into your eyes with a gaze so cold it could freeze hell itself. -You're not the only developer in our payroll, if I wanted I could fire your sorry ass right now and make it so you never work as a developer never again in your life, so consider this a favour.

Breathe.

Don't let that tone of hers get into your core.

Just, breathe.

-Fuck you. -It's the only thing you get to say before actually leaving.

-One week suspension no pay, and don't you dare call me or text me asking to forgive you. Jackass.

With the anger oozing through your pores you just slam the door and head out. You start your car and praying you don't crash you go from 0 to 100 in just a couple of seconds screeching the tires of your car.

-Please god, take care of him... -She sighs under her breath.

But wait... What?

Take care of him?

During that next week there was absolutely no news from you on the office, things started to be more... tense. You've received a ton of messages from your coworkers basically begging him to come back, but the answer is defenitive: No.

However things don't ever go your way.

*Bzz* *Bzz* *Bzz*

-Hey, we need to talk, come to the office. -Again, that swee... No. Annyoing voice again.

-I'm suspended. -Your answer comes as soon as the thought hits your brain.

A sigh from the other line and a faint whisper.

-This man is going to be the death of me some day. -But then the usual tone returns. -Look, I made a rash decision and we need your intel, you're the one that knows the way around our software.

-I thought you had several developers in your payroll, I bet they can help. -You say sipping through the wine you bought for that dinner for one you've been pushing away so much due to the job.

-I'm asking nicely, and around here you know that's as rare as an unicorn. Just come here tomorrow and finish the project, we're ahead.

-Ahead? What do you mean ahead? You said we we're behind last week! -Your voice comes harsher and harsher, even though your chest is telling you not to.

Not to her.

-I lied to try and make things faster, okay? Just come and we can talk like professionals. -She couldn't come to acknowledge the fact that she just wanted to see you. She couldn't admit that she misses your cologne, your three day beard and your stoic gaze when you're so deep in thought. -I'll send you the advances that have been made.

Right away she hangs up the phone, relieved she didn't break down into yelling or insults. Right away an email arrives on your computer with such incredibly... small advances looks like you carried the entire project all by yourself.

-Why am I not surprised? -You sigh under your breath as you pause the movie you were watching and read what has been done, immediately you start chaning... well, almost everything.

Next day...

You should at least turn off the car, for real, have you seen how expensive the gas is around these days?

"Just go, I avoid her any longer... I- I don't want to..." -It's the only thought that crosses your mind, the thought of seeing her piercing eyes again, the feeling of her gaze piercing and burning through your very soul, the loud beating of your heart as you look at her lips...

Her lips...

If only she wasn't your boss, right?

-So, I checked the non existent advances the useless guys did, and...

-How you've been? Have you slept well? -For some reason her tone wasn't condescending anymore, the worry present on her voice...

Could it be?

-Yes, finally in months I've been sleeping great... -Her eyes, oh. my. god... Her eyes... -Anyways, I have everything finished now, you can present it to corporate. -You say trying to avoid her eyes as you speak sarcastically and look at your watch.

-Big date coming or something? -She asks, doing an awesome job yo hide the jealousy.

-Just wondering how long this will take. -She sighs again, feeling the anger and stress of your cold demeanor.

-Your week of suspension ends today and the weekind is off by legal, so you can go now and I'll see you on monday.

-Sure.

After that you just go back to your usual routine, the weekend goes great and the next week of work comes, with so much less stress that even the busiest day feels like a walk through the park. The time off work led you to watch so much shows, and so much free time, time spent in imagining your life outside of work with that person that would make your days so much happier.

Thinking of love.

What a great future you could have, perhaps you could get married and have kids, after all that's your dream.

In a year you'd ascendo in your job, start earning more, you'd start dating to finally get the chance to let you feel that love you so desperately look for, In a year your boss wouldn't be your boss and perhaps you could date her, in a year you'd buy your first...

Your boss? Date... your boss?

Why would you think that? She's a bitch.

"But she's a gorgeous bitch." You thought, perhaps... only perhaps... You wanted that, you liked your boss...

*Bzz* *Bzz* *Bzz*

Your phone rings with a text from your boss.

-Corporate loved the project, we were given monday to celebrate, so I'll be expecting you monday 7:00 A.M. sharp for the party.

-Got it boss. And hey, sorry for snapping out last week. -Perhaps this could be a beginning, you know you should keep things professional, you keep telling yourself to stop but flesh is weak.

-Yeah, just don't be late. -Her response cold as always after 5 minutes of writing and deleting, she's also in the midst of an inner debate, whether let herself feel what she wants to feel for you or just don't say anything.

But why? Why shouldn't you try? Because she's your boss? There's plenty of people that date with their boss and make it work, you shouldn't keep ahold of the prospect of your happiness just because people might judge, that's the whole point, living for yourself and be happy yourself. Isn't it?

That very Monday at 7:00 A.M. you show yourself at work wearing a new white T-shirt and some loose jeans, your usual wrist watch and a new cologne you bought just for your boss, nothing else is going to stop you.

-Hey, boss. -You came to talk to her made a nrevous wreck not really knowing what to do to get her attention.

-Oh, here he is, the brain behind it all. -She wrapped her arm around your shoulders and pulled you closer to present you to some corporate officers like if you were a prize, like you never shouted before... Like you two were friends... Being so close to her made your every sense enter overdrive and your nostrils welcomed her particular scent, that magnificent smell of lavender and strawberries sent your head over the moon.

The rest of the party went completely normal, talking here, showing off there... Taking glances at your boss every once in a while as well.

Wait, did she looked at you as well?

Was she blushing?

-Hey boss can I talk to you for a sec? -You got closer and whispered into her ear, not long after she pointed you to the balcony where you usually go to have your lunch.

-Make it quick.

-Look boss, there's no easy way for me to say this, but I think I should quit... I... I have feelings for you.

-Is that so? -Her cold demeanor makes you back off for a second, unable to tell the truth in her eyes you stutter.

-I know, I know that I was rude last week and I'm being just way too out of line. -Her eyes shine with a glint never seen before, in her mind the thoughts are divided whether she should speak from her heart, as Karina. Or speak from her brain as Ms. Jimin, regional Manager of your branch.

-You know you're my worker, and this is incredibly inappropriate.

-Don't you feel the same for me? I saw you looking for my eyes before.

-Don't be ridiculous, I'm your boss. -Despite the way she feels work ethics comes first, how can a manager could let a worker speak to her that way?

-I don't care. -It's the last thing you said before leaning forward and placing your hand against her cheek, caressing her soft skin and pressing your lips over hers.

For a second all that exists is you and her, together in a tight embrace holding her waist desperately thinking that if you'd ever let go of her she'd just vanish in the thin air. She responds to your advances letting your body invade her personal space, for mere seconds that feel like an eternity all that she can feel is your hands gripping her blouse until she lets go of any ties and wrap her arms around your neck, tipping into her toe-tips to match as much as she can your height.

-We... We can't... I'm your boss... -Her voice comes out cracking, breathing unsteady due to the raw passion she just felt a while ago. -It's inappropriate.

-I don't care, I'll quit if needed, I just care that I want you.

-I want you too. -She rests her head on your shoulder nuzzling her face in the crook of your neck.

You then caress her soft hair, taking a deep breath of her unique scent that send jolts of electricity along your brain.

-So what now, boss? -This time the words come out strong, lovingly, softly.

-Now we talk to HR, couples need to fill paperwork. -She pulls back and looks into your eyes again. -You always make me do more and more paperwork... -She then whispers in your ear. -Sweetie.

[nyxelestia]

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Fandom Community Spaces

One of my fandom servers recently imploded. I didn’t just want to post my immediate reactions and spend the next 3-5 business years litigating my feelings, so I took a few months to deconstruct what happened. Now I’m reconstructing everything into a case study on white supremacy culture in progressive spaces.

Below the poll, I’ve spelled out 17 traits of white supremacy culture, as they appear in progressive spaces, organized into four categories. I relied predominantly on the works of Tema Okun and Robin DiAngelo, whose works and websites expand upon everything I talk about.

I don’t want anyone to beat each other (or themselves) up if they’ve noticed these traits. Just fix it.

My goals with this guide:

Fans can put names to their observations.

Mods/Leaders of fandom spaces ask themselves, “how many of these have I done?”

Everyone gets an idea for what can be done about these traits.

Each listed trait has:

Definition of the trait

Common or fandom-specific examples

Suggestions to begin fixing it

Additional Commentary specific to this particular server incident

That makes this post very long, but it should be easy to skip over sections.

(If you are thinking of sending someone this post because they expressed a lot of these traits, first take a moment and identify how many of these traits you have practiced.

If someone sent you this post as an accusation, show them the above paragraph and ask what traits they recognize in their own behavior. If they say "none," ignore that person. I have will not facilitate the use of anti-racism as a smokescreen for bullying.)

I wasn't able to put this poll at the bottom of the post. I encourage you to wait until you get to the end and then answer the poll.

Because Tumblr polls expire in a week, I also encourage you to answer the same poll here on StrawPoll.

White Supremacy Culture Traits

Context (Basic Outline of What Happened)

In late Oct. 2023, someone on this server made an insensitive joke regarding Native American spirituality. They were quickly corrected by another member, and a third, indigenous member defended the gravity of their culture.

In DMs, a server mod (without the knowledge of the rest of the mod team) rebuked that indigenous server member for mini-modding, but claimed they would also moderate the person who made the joke in the first place; that person who made the joke was this mod’s friend.

This Inciting Incident Mod never did moderate their friend. When this came to light for the rest of the mod team in early Dec. 2023, the Inciting Incident Mod left before they could be ‘fired.’ Meanwhile, the Server Owner tried to cover up the preceding mess when announcing this mod’s departure.

The Indigenous Server Member used @everyone to explain to the server what had happened, dropped screenshots, and left the server.

When the community at large, including other mods, demanded more accountability and action from the mod team and the admins, the Server Owner doubled down on their defensiveness and denials for the next month.

Behind the scenes/in mod chats, the rest of the mods tried to advocate for the same things that the community was demanding. Most of their suggestions were shot down and input disregarded (primarily by the Server Owner).

Ultimately, all the mods were “let go” (fired), leaving only two admins. The second Admin largely followed the lead of the Server Owner, who was the one posting most of the announcements and engaging in the discourse.

The Admins unilaterally froze the server mid-conversations in late Jan. 2024.

They deleted the server on March 4th, 2024.

I. White Fragility

White fragility is the various phenomena by which white fans’ distress at discussions of racism take precedence over the actual occurrences of racism. This is not a conscious tactic, but the result of the layers of insulation from irl racism that white people are conditioned with, combined with white culture and experience being so pervasive as to become invisible.

1: Right To Comfort

Believing that white fans’ requirement for comfort in fandom spaces is more important than the on-going discomfort fans of color experience in the same spaces.

Examples:

Prioritizing the emotional and psychological comfort of some fans over the on-going experiences of other fans.

Scapegoating those who named the racism in the community and accusing them of ‘rocking the boat.’

These might sound familiar:

"This is just supposed to be a fun hobby."

"Can we get back to the good vibes?"

"Why can't we all just get along?"

“Hobbies/Fun shouldn’t be this much work.”

Treating any and all discussion of racism as acts of antagonism.

Fixes:

Learn to sit with discomfort before responding or (re)acting, especially if faced with an accusation. It’s an opportunity for growth, not an opening for attack.

Avoid taking criticisms personally, and avoid treating feedback as accusations. Yes, some accusations and call-outs are personal, but most are not. Even the ones that are personal need not be treated as final value judgments nor the end of the world.

Additional Commentary:

The white fan who’d made the insensitive joke in the first place did not lash out at being corrected. The discomfort was predominantly from some white mods who interpreted all mentions of racism as a conflict.

This trait is frequently found the trait called ‘Urgency.’

2: Defensiveness

Reacting to criticisms as if they were personal attacks, prioritizing comfort over growth, and using hurt feelings to derail discussions.

As author @xiranjayzhao put it in their video discussing a similar incident in the publishing industry, “If you are more concerned at being called racist than racism itself, that is an active hindrance to dismantling racism.”

Examples:

Treating criticism as threatening, inappropriate, or rude.

Focusing on making sure one’s own feelings or the feelings of community leaders are not getting hurt. This process often takes up more time and energy than addressing the actual problems do.

Spend energy defending against charges of racism instead of examining how racism might actually be happening.

White fans targeted by other oppressions (I.e. sexism, homophobia, etc.) express resentment because they feel that the naming of racism is erasing their experiences of marginalization from their other identities. This is especially prevalent in fandom as our communities are dominated by women and queer people.

Fixes:

Identify and understand the link between defensiveness and fear. When you recognize your own defensiveness, ask yourself what you are defending, and what you feel that you are defending against.

Develop culture of naming defensiveness when it arises.

Be honest with yourself and with the community about the power dynamics in the situation and respond thoughtfully. The person with greater power has the greater responsibility to name and move through their own defensiveness.

This is most important for small, online community leaders (I.e. Discord server mods). However little power we feel like we have, we still have more power than all the other members.

Additional Commentary:

Defensiveness was ultimately the biggest problem in this particular server’s implosion, and continues to be the most prevalent problem I observe in many other communities. The majority of the problems in these communities came not from actual acts of racism or patterns of insensitivity, but a few white fans’ defensiveness when these were named.

3: Fear of Open Conflict

When discomfort with talking about racism begets outright avoidance. This becomes “toxic positivity,” creating a pattern of suppressing any and all disagreements with a fixation on “keeping the peace.”

Examples:

Ignoring or deflecting conflict, no matter how minor.

Emphasis on tone, performing friendliness, and on everyone ‘calming down’ once even a hint of conflict arises.

Scapegoating people who bring up racism or equating criticisms with ‘rudeness.’

Fixes:

Role play, discuss, or plan for ways to handle conflict before it happens.

Don't require hard issues to be raised in `acceptable' ways.

Once a conflict is resolved, revisit it and see how it might have been handled differently.

Additional Commentary:

This particular server’s admin team was understandably hypersensitive to conflict; the server had been previously wracked by fandom dramas unrelated to racism. However, this sympathetic feeling metastasized into an unsympathetic habit of total conflict suppression. Had that Inciting Incident Mod not reacted to that faint hint of friction, or had the admins later been willing to name and acknowledge mistakes from the moderation team as an unintended instance of racism, almost none of this final drama would have happened.

4: Denial

Insistence that racism is an individual problem that requires intent; refusal to see or acknowledge systemic problems brought to one’s attention.

Examples:

A pattern of downplaying or denying what POC are saying about their experiences.

Insisting intent is more important than impact.

Insisting that if someone did not mean to be racist, then the harms they perpetuated cannot have been serious.

Insisting that a person or group can free from racialized conditioning, leading to statements like "I don't see color," “I don’t care what anyone’s race is,” “we can’t even tell race on the Internet,” and "we're all the same."

Fixes:

Learn to acknowledge any fear that naming racism brings up; the feeling is not wrong or right.­ Move through the feeling and address what has been raised.

Assume that any naming of racism is on target. Instead of asking, “is it racism,” ask, “how is it racism?”

Learn not to take accusations of racism or white supremacy culture as personal attacks or criticisms.

Get into the habit of saying, “tell me more,” instead of jumping to denial and counter arguments.

II. Exceptionalism

AKA “the Illusion of Control.” The belief, conscious or subconscious, that one knows the right way to do things and is uniquely qualified implement it. This might literally mean one’s self, or just people similar to one’s self.

5: Paternalism

The belief that one can dictate what is ‘best’ for everyone or make decisions on others’ behalf without their input.

Examples:

Deeming it unnecessary to understand the viewpoints and experiences of people for whom one is making decisions.

Labeling people for whom one is making decisions as unqualified.

Majority of community members get marginalized from decision-making processes. Either there is no mechanism for community input, or community input is disregarded by those in power.

Frequently, these decisions also have the most outsized impact on those with the least power, e.x. members who don’t have personal friendships with mods.

Fixes:

Realize that everyone has a worldview, including you. No one’s experiences or education (or lack thereof) disqualifies them from having agency in your community.

Always include those most affected by community decisions in the brainstorming and decision-making processes.

Build in an understanding that every approach yields unintended consequences; even the most strategically made decisions will have unanticipated consequences.

Additional Commentary:

The Server Owner consistently made unilateral decisions on other people’s behalf. They also required members to be 21+ in this server, despite the show it was for only being 18+

In the interest of living up to my own standards, I must acknowledge that I was also being paternalistic.

When I first joined the server, I questioned that age requirement. The Server Owner claimed that they felt uncomfortable talking about mature topics around 18-20 year olds…and “joked” that they viewed 18-20 year olds like children. Their defensiveness reminded me of elementary school children insisting kids in the grade immediately below them are babies. On the spot, I thought the Server Owner must be in their early 20s at the oldest. With zero evidence but a lot of confirmation bias, this feeling cemented into an assumption due to some of their moderation choices (e.x. pinning messages by their whims, thus confusing newcomers). I even wondered if they grew up in a cult environment due to unusual gaps in their knowledge (e.x. being surprised that it didn’t snow in most of Thailand). I thought I could and should, over time, convince them of 'better' ways to moderate, and attributed my disagreements with some of their moderation choices to their youth.

Then the Server Owner mentioned having been to uni nearly 20 years ago, making them almost double the age I’d assumed they were.

Looking back, this was an act of paternalism on my part that spanned over a year and a half. I’m not proud of this, and I would like to think I would still come to be ashamed of this even if the Server Owner actually had been as young as I thought they were. Regardless of their actual age, this was an incredibly paternalistic viewpoint for me to have about any adult.

6: Power Hoarding

People scrabbling to hold onto whatever little power they have; resisting anything which makes them feel threatened in their position of leadership or influence.

Examples:

Feeling threatened when someone suggests changes in how things should be done in the community.

Suggestions for change often get taken as an indicator of poor leadership.

People with power insisting they do not feel threatened or defensive in the face of suggestions for change.

Assuming that anyone wanting a change are ill-informed or malicious.

“Blaming the messenger,” such as focusing on the person advocating for change rather than the substance of what change they are trying to make.

Fixes:

Leaders should expect challenges and change and learn to see this a sign that someone cares about the community enough to want to stay and reform it. Because our spaces are predominantly for hobbies, people have less need to stay, even if they have a strong desire to. If someone truly thought we were hopeless leaders, they would not be advocating for change; they would just leave.

Adopt a “tell me more” approach when someone suggests a change or challenges an existing structure * even if the thing they are trying to change is something you care deeply about preserving.

Make friends with your ego. Everyone has one. You’ll do better in the long run when you know what will automatically kick up your defensiveness; don’t try to pretend nothing will.

Additional Commentary:

The admins caused many of their own problems by consistently disregarding others’ input; they not only ignored the criticisms of the community, they ‘fired’ the entire rest of the mod team for giving suggestions that the admins did not want to hear.

7: Individualism

Believing that one can be immune from social conditioning and systemic biases, or that individual actions are sufficient to change a community.

Examples:

Believing that one can be “isolated” from the conditioning of the culture they were raised in.

Not seeing the ways dominant identities * in gender, class, sexuality, religion, able-bodiedness, age, etc. * are informed by belonging to a group that shapes cultural norms and behavior.

This one is also hard for people in fandom to recognize. Many of us are marginalized in one aspect of our identity, and marginalization in one area can make it incredibly difficult to recognize or acknowledge privilege in another.

Accusing people advocating for change of “not being team players,” because one does not recognize the large groups on whose behalf they are advocating for.

Focusing on whether or not an individual “is racist,” while ignoring systemic racism in the community’s culture or leadership.

Fixes:

Get into the habit of acknowledging both your marginalizations and your privileges. For example, I am a queer woman of color, which are three traits of marginalization. I was also raised middle-class, I have a college degree, and I am cis; three traits of privilege. All these traits inform my experiences and world view and make me subjective in different ways.

Learn how our dominant identities and how our membership in dominant identity groups informs us both overtly and covertly (while realizing too that these identities do not have to define us).

Realize we all have internalized conditioning, including racist conditioning. Commitment to anti-racism is not about being ‘good’ or ‘bad;’ it’s a commit to challenge one’s own conditioning and subconscious biases on an on-going basis.

Focus on collective accountability as much as individual accountability.

Because many people, especially on social media, use ‘accountability’ as a euphemism for ‘punishment,’ I want to be clear that this does not mean collective punishment. It means recognizing that people react to their peers (dis)approval on even the smallest scale, that people want to fit in, and that people often fear standing out. We are often not making individual decisions so much as “going with their gut” or “going with the flow.” When that’s the case, that means we need to re-condition what our gut tells us and change where that flow is going * both of which are community actions, not individual ones.

Additional Commentary:

In the Individualism page on her website, Tema Okun shared a personal story about how her upbringing had blinded her to the very real risks her POC colleagues faced even while working with well-intentioned white leaders. This story resonated with me and my experience in this fandom server.

The white admins either did not understand (or did not care) what it would cost a POC like me to try to help them. I was attempting to mediate rather than prosecute, and speaking gently as I did - which I was only doing to try to balance the need for change against the admins’ need for white comfort. Multiple people blocked me during this time period, and most did not see what came after. I try not to assume I’m more important or relevant than I am, but I and many others noticed the drastic change in the admins’ behavior once my rhetoric shifted from ‘benefit of the doubt’ to ‘naming mistakes and suggesting changes.’ I was trying to help the admins, but it came out to nothing and I still ended up paying a price and losing friends.

8: I'm The Only One

The assumption that one knows best; therefore, they have the unique right and responsibility to take unilateral action.

Examples:

Believing that the only way to get something done right is to do it one’s self. (Related to ‘One Right Way.’)

Believing that only one person is entitled or qualified to determine the right way and take action, typically in isolation from the people who will be impacted by our decisions.

Often goes hand-in-hand with micro-management (or in the case of online communities, micro-moderation).

Attempting to downplay or cover-up flaws or mistakes in leadership, fearing that the community cannot survive people discovering leadership isn’t perfect.

Fixes:

Hold ourselves and each other accountable for mistakes without assuming that we need to be perfect to lead.

Focus on collaborative and collective strategies for responding to mistakes, including accountability but also growth and inner development.

Leaders should make an effort to take in input from as many sources as possible, including the people saying things they do not like, do not want to hear or are challenging their leadership.

Especially the individuals who hold the most power, such as server admins and owners (who have more power than other mods). The higher up in this hierarchy that we are, the more likely that anyone who truly thinks we’re hopeless would simply opt to leave…which means the higher up in the hierarchy we are, the more likely that anyone who is challenging us still expects both themselves and us to stay where we are. Their challenges are not a threat, but an opportunity for growth.

Additional Commentary:

Those last two bullet points under Examples and Instances are what kicked off the entire server-ending drama in the first place. Even though the Inciting Incident Mod made a truly disappointing mistake, I don’t actually see them as having made the biggest misstep in this mess. This mod micro-managed someone and abused their power to shield a friend, but had the admins been willing to acknowledge those mistakes directly, most of the ensuing drama would not have happened.

When I asked the Server Owner to let someone else take over the server instead of closing it off completely, they claimed all the people I suggested were not equipped to handle the server. The only person they were willing to let take over the server was someone who had uncritically supported them during all the discourse. (Though I later found out that this entire discussion was never in good faith to begin with; explanation in the Final Feelings section below.)

9: Entitlement.

Assuming a right to something without any consideration for the possibility that one may not have the right. This assumption frequently is unidirectional and/or implicitly only functions as long as most other people do not have a similar right.

This trait was not core to either Tema Okun’s work on white supremacy culture nor Robin DiAngelo’s work on white fragility. However, it is an underlying component of racism (who is entitled to what), white supremacy culture (entitlement to other people’s works), and white fragility (entitlement to comfort).

Examples:

Assuming that one does not need to ask (or wait for an answer) to use someone else’s work for one’s own purposes. (Related to the trait ‘Urgency.’)

Believing that people’s boundaries regarding their work or creations do not matter. I hope I don’t need to spell out why this problem gets so in fanfic-based fandom spaces. That can of worms would need its own post and I’m already exhausted from this post.

Related to Right to Comfort: believing one is entitled to a peaceful community, even when it comes at the expense of everyone else’s sense of safety and belonging.

Fixes:

Assume one does not have permission until and unless told you do.

Graciousness if someone does not want you to use their works.

Their reasons may have nothing to do with you, so also learn not take someone else’s refusal personally.

When you do assume a right, take a moment to imagine it’s reversal (I.e. everyone else having the same rights to your work or output). How comfortable are you with this prospect of everyone ‘borrowing’ from you that which you are currently trying to borrow from someone else?

Additional Commentary:

I detailed my direct experience with the admins' entitlement down below under the trait titled ‘Urgency.’

This trend continued with their behaviors towards what server content they did and didn’t delete prior to deleting the whole server. When fans who left or were banned insisted all their own messages in the server be deleted, they were refused on the basis of ‘preserving’ the server. Yet the admins had no problems deleting every channel that had even a shred of discourse in it. They later deleted a few other channels on the grounds of people’s personal information potentially being in those channels and putting members at risk…except that if there was any such information, it had always been present in this channels; why did it suddenly matter now? I concede that they eventually deleted the individual members’ messages per their requests, and that the fear-mongering about private information came from another member altogether. However, between nebulous accusations that an admin had been party to a past doxxing of this member in the first place and the on-going problem of the admins behaving with false urgency (another trait below), I’m having a very hard time being sympathetic about this or giving them any more benefit of the doubt. Their selection of which channels to delete look less like protecting server members and more like a failed attempted to protect their own reputations.

III. Binary Thinking

This is not just a futile attempt to simplify reality, but an entitlement to a simplified reality and a habit of attempting to force others into one’s own dualistic constructions.

10: Either/Or

Polarization of issues and assumptions, categorical thinking, and viewing everything through this binary lens.

Examples:

Positioning or presenting options or issues as either/or -- good/bad, right/wrong, with us/against us, pro/anti, good/evil, safe/dangerous, etc.

Related to Perfectionism: a suggested solution must be either perfect or it’s useless.

Tendency to escalate instead of de-escalating, especially in a context where de-escalating is viewed as dismissing a problem.

Generalizing individual experiences or statements to the collective, or attempting to dismiss a claim because it is coming from an individual; either “everyone” is saying something or “no one” is saying it.

Fixes:

Cultivate a habit or community culture of looking for multiple ‘takes,’ viewpoints, and conclusions.

Break the habit of trying to sort people and ideas into two or a few categories.

Practice taking situations with seemingly only two possibilities and identifying points between them or alternative options altogether.

Be willing to set a future date or deadline for continuing a disagreement in order to de-escalate emotions in the moment. We have more options than either fixing everything in the moment or ignoring problems forever.

Additional Commentary:

When asked for transparency, this server’s Admins acted as if mistakes had to be either ignored or turned into a big production. This left no room to acknowledge a mistake, learn, and move on, since that was neither ignoring the mistake nor treating it with sufficient drama.

11: Perfectionism

Belief that there is a single right way to accomplish something. Belief that individuals must implement only correct, successful actions (and that missteps and mistakes represent fundamental character flaws).

Examples:

Mistakes are seen as personal, i.e. they reflect badly on the person making them.

Making a mistake is confused with being a mistake; doing wrong is confused with being wrong.

Believing a problem can be permanently resolved with the correct or ‘perfect’ course of action.

Fixes:

Develop a community where the expectation is that everyone will make mistakes, but those mistakes are opportunities for learning, not value judgments.

Accept that, when faced with a systemic or deeply entrenched issues, community leaders will need time to address the problems.

They will probably need to try multiple ideas, some of which might not work. That’s okay; it does not have to be a failure if you learn from it and try again.

Additional Commentary:

In the case of this server’s implosion, perfectionism appeared with the Admins’ fixation on looking for a solution that would ‘put the matter to rest.’ They ignored or actively derided suggestions that did not ‘solve’ the problem in its entirety.

12: One Right Way

The belief that there is a particular correct or ideal way of doing this (and that fault lies with others for not following this particular correct way).

Examples:

Assuming that once people are introduced to the right way, they will ‘see the light’ and adopt it.

Believing that when one’s way is not working, the fault lies with everyone else for not ‘converting,’ not the method itself.

Related to perfectionism: believing there is a singular or permanent solution to on-going, systemic problems.

Believing only certain people are qualified to address or resolve problems. This is especially prevalent among people whose post-secondary education was mostly institutional (i.e. college).

Fixes:

Create a culture of support that recognizes how mistakes sometimes lead to positive results.

Challenge notions of what constitutes the "right way" and what defines a "mistake."

Catch our internalized assumptions about being ‘qualified’ to fix a problem on our own or take on a large responsibility.

Additional Commentary:

Once again, in the interests of living up to my own standards, that means admitting when I’m doing or did the very habits I’m castigating. While my intent was not to behave as if I thought there was One Right Way, I recognize that my actions had the same impact as if I did believe in One Right Way. I presented a solution (collection of rules, guides, and channels) from a server I owned in another fandom entirely, and implied that there was only one right way to ‘fix’ the server.

That said, their conduct in utilizing this also reflected Entitlement and Urgency (which is where I elaborated).

13: (Belief in) Objectivity

The belief that there is some neutral, unbiased experience or viewpoint a person can have.

Because patriarchy so often uses claims of emotionality to dismiss women, many women become oversensitive to claims of subjectivity or identity-based bias. This can make recognizing the invalidity of objectivity difficult in communities whose leadership is dominated by women, especially white women (as white men tend to be most likely to rely on accusations of excess emotion in the first place).

Examples:

Fixation on prioritizing facts over feelings, or thinking feelings can be disregarded and ignored.

Requiring people to think in a linear fashion or otherwise expecting others to perform only the type of logic validated by those in power.

Those in power get to be scared, hurt, or angry and still viewed as rational/logical, while marginalized people who are visibly scared, hurt, or angry are deemed irrational/illogical.

Refusal to acknowledge when a certain line of logic is covering an emotional bias, perspective, or agenda.

Fixes:

Own up to one’s subjectivity; instead of assuming that one can have some arch-neutral worldview, be clear about your background, experiences, and potential biases (whether you believe you actually have these biases or not).

Recognize your own worldview will be as subjective as everybody else’s. If your view of society is also part of the dominant view of society (e.x. if you are white and/or cis and/or male and/or…), this means you were probably conditioned to believe certain assumptions are objective when they are actually subjective.

There is no way to be human without being biased by one’s identity and experience; some identities are just so privileged or normalized by institutions that they are the “invisible” default or norm.

Get into the habit of trying to determine what a situation you are in looks like from the outside, what information others do and do not have, or getting diverse perspectives on various situations.

By “get into the habit,” I mean we should practice doing this even in situations without confrontation, crisis, or argument. Analyze successful incidents and events this way to get the practice for handling unsuccessful incidents and crises.

Utilize ‘I’ statements and make sure not to assume that your personal experience is the same as everyone else’s experiences.

Community leaders have to take extra special care with what we say about our communities and how we present our assumptions and experiences. When we claim a community is trustworthy or safe, we just make it even less trustworthy or safe for anyone feels otherwise, because this disconnect between our experiences (that we generalize) and theirs (that we individualize) creates a barrier against further feedback.

Additional Commentary:

This was also related to at least one admin struggling to disconnect their own experiences with everyone else’s experiences. To the admin, because so much of their own time was consumed by this discourse, they spoke and behaved as if this were consuming the entire server. They did not realize that most of the members of the server had nothing to do with this discourse, and many did not even know it was happening…until the admin started repeatedly utilizing @everyone. This implies the admin viewed their own experience as “objective” and thus projected their own experience onto everybody else.

VI. Validation Seeking

I called this collection of traits ‘validation seeking’ because they all trace back to appeals to external authorities or claims of external pressures.

14: Progress = More

Assuming solutions always require “more” of something; never considering that existing resources could be sufficient or that “less” might be a solution.

Examples:

Assuming the goal is always to grow membership, rather than maintaining an enjoyable community

Assuming that “more” will fix a problem (e.x. more moderators will fix a moderation problem)

Disregarding the costs of growth (such as how increased number of channels can make a community overwhelming to newcomers)

Valuing people who have achieved a certain milestone or objective metric of progress more than those who have not (e.x. valuing older members over younger ones, valuing college-educated members over those without college education, etc.)

Fixes:

Try to make sustainable decisions, with an aim not for endless growth but maintaining the actual goal of the community.

When pursuing “more” of something to solve a problem, first evaluate what you actually need and determine why the existing number of resources is no longer sufficient when it previously had been.

For example, are you actually pursuing more moderators because there is an increase in activity and the existing moderation team feels burnt out and falling behind? Or are you just assuming that you need more moderators regardless of activity levels?

15: Quantity Over Quality

Believing that only things that can be numerically measured have value (and that things which cannot be measured have little to no value).

Examples:

Fixation on things like number of members in a community (quantity) over the members’ relationships and experiences in said community (quality)

Treating quantified milestones as a goal in their own right, rather than means to an end or a guideline (e.x. acquiring a certain number of moderators or maintaining a certain number of channels in a server)

Discomfort with emotions and feelings (as they cannot be measured objectively)

Fixes:

Determine traits and practices important to your community which cannot be easily quantatively (safety, respect, mutualism, etc.) and think of ways to evaluate them (for example: open-ended questions in a survey instead of relying exclusively on numerical ratings or menu options)

Focus less on output goals and more on process goals, such as how many new ideas were considered or how many people felt fully heard in a meeting. Even if, in the short run, this feels like leading to a bunch of unproductive meetings, in the long run this creates a more robust decision-making process.

Treat ‘accountability’ not as a euphemism for punishment (which social media tends to do), but as an opening for receiving support.

Additional Commentary:

The admins fixated on obtaining more moderators, but the reality is that the problems facing the community did not need more moderators, but rather a shift in culture altogether - a thing which could have easily been engendered by the admins on their own, even without additional moderators.

16: Worshiping the Written Word

Fixation on knowledge provided by institutions over people’s lived experiences and on-going, dynamic realities.

This one is hard to recognize in virtual communities because most or all of our interactions are “written” in chats and social media.

Examples:

Attempting to use dictionary definitions of words as arguments in and of themselves or treating them as the end of an argument.

Refusing to acknowledge that the way people use a word in daily living may not match up to the institutional definition.

Using errors in spelling, grammar, or language to justify dismissing someone’s arguments.

Over-valuing people who can write well (or just write a lot), and undervaluing the contributions from people who rely on other media formats or informal documentation.

Fixes:

Treat encyclopedia articles and dictionary definitions as a conversation starter, not an argument ender, e.x. “This is my understanding of that word; what’s yours?” or “In what ways does this ‘official’ definition fall short?”

Focus less on using resources (articles, videos, guides, etc.) as an appeal to authority in an argument, and more as a starting point from which you develop your own community guidelines.

Additional Commentary:

I had an out-sized impact on discourse simply because I could write a lot in one go. Some of that was me anonymously relaying other people’s words on their behalf and some was original on my part; most of what I said simply reiterated what others had already conveyed. However, as I did so in a pseudo-academic manner, my word was given more weight.

Sharing of resources like educational articles or videos were treated as the end of a discussion, rather than the start of one.

17: Urgency

Applying extremely short deadlines to action, giving no time for rest or consideration. Utilizing the overarching urgency of racism as an excuse for short-sighted, short-term actions.

Examples:

Related to Quality Over Quantity: prioritizes measurable actions over impact.

Fixation on appearing to address racism moreso than actually doing it.

Uses expediency to justify poor-decision making processes or lack of consideration (related to Entitlement, Power Hoarding, and Conflict Aversion).

Often relies on perpetuating the idea that racism can be “solved” (which in turn implies that future accusations of racism cannot be made, nor community problems discussed).

Creating a culture of anxiety as people believe they must act immediately or they will never get to act at all.

Related to Right to Comfort: rushing decision-making in order to rush towards an idealized state of no further conflict.

Fixes:

When the feeling of urgency arises, slow down and encourage people pause, restate the goal, and dive deeper into alternatives.

Avoid making decisions under extreme pressure.

Work to distinguish what is actual pressure and what is pressure that you or others are creating.

Establish plans ahead of time for how decisions will be made during times of urgency, and how crises can be handled in the short-term while leaders evaluate ideas for long-term change.

This is related to Conflict Avoidance. When community leaders are uncomfortable with conflict, this also means not wanting to think about potential conflicts, and thus having no plans when conflict arises anyway. Becoming comfortable with conflict also allows planning for conflict management.

Additional Commentary:

When I showed the admins my fandom wank resolving set-up from another server (as mentioned in my additional commentary on One Right Way), they asked me if they could just use it as it was. However, they were too impatient to actually wait for an answer and used it, anyway, before I could respond. It was very clear that my answer never actually mattered to them. Had they waited, I would have explained how this exact set-up was not a good fit for this community and its current problems; I was sharing it assuming they would use it as a source of inspiration to brainstorm their own ideas for their own server. In addition, while I did not mind sharing, these were not my sole creation, but the product of a team of mods in my other server. Even if it had been a good fit, I would have checked with other mods whose labor had gone into this set-up to see if they were also alright with its wholesale reuse.

My experience is only one example. Ultimately, the admins kept fumbling, and increasingly claimed it was all due to the pressure and demands from the community that they ‘handle it’ - refusing to acknowledge that community members weren’t asking for an immediate solution to every problem. This urgency was self-inflicted. The server admins disregarded all their remaining mods’ suggestions that would have given them more time to address these problems carefully. Server-wide slow-downs, channel trimming, temporary server freeze, etc. - the admins had multiple ideas given to them, but shot them all down. The admins’ goal was not to address the problems, but to suppress discussions of racism as fast as possible because they were uncomfortable with admitting its existence in the first place (see Right to Comfort at the top).

Final Feelings

What Took Me So Long To Say Anything?

I didn’t want to risk the admins prematurely deleting the server out of spite. They were already unilaterally and suddenly taking away a community space from hundreds of fans entirely for their own benefit. I could not count on them being above robbing people the final opportunity to recover the last shreds of their materials and memories from the server.

I also, quite frankly, just had a lot going on in my offline life.

I continued to take my time even after they deleted the server because I was hurt and furious. I needed time to turn what was originally a soliloquy of my sorrows into an educational guide.

This was exacerbated by finding out that the admins faked the ‘death’ of the server:

As you can imagine, I was furious - and to be honest, I still am. That anger was precisely why I made myself slow down. I did not want to burn down the fandom for the sake of keeping only myself warm.

Complicated Feelings

I feel hurt and betrayed by the Admins and disappointed in the Inciting Incident Mod…but one thing I will say for them is that they expressed interest in learning the language and culture of the country that our fandom’s show came from.

They showed far more interest than that aforementioned Indigenous Server Member ever did.

I don’t begrudge this indigenous fan for defending their cultural tradition, nor their anger over how it was handled. I also acknowledge that in fandom and irl, Asian diaspora often end up partaking in white supremacy culture and entitlements. However, I do find this fan's umbrage at the initial ignorance to be tremendously hypocritical given this fan’s approach to Asian cultures, traditions, and histories. Their fanfics, server interactions, and other fanworks in this Asian media fandom demonstrated incredible disregard about Asian cultures - one which this fan never showed any interest in undoing or challenging.

I doubt it was a coincidence that this fan blocked me on Discord right around the time I started talking about the westernization of eastern characters and settings. Even if it was, that doesn’t lessen the pervasive apathy towards Asian culture in their fandom activities.

I routinely see fans call for the decolonization fandom when it comes to BIPOC people settings, only for these same fans to turn around and perpetuate the colonization of fandom when it comes to Asian people and settings.

This does not mean western fans shouldn’t participate in an eastern fandom! This participation is the best way to learn about a new culture. Mistakes and missteps are parts of the learning process, both at the individual level and at the collective level.

This is also not to pass a judgment on that specific fan or their creative works. That would be hypocritical of me in turn, given I’ve enjoyed some of those stories and fanworks, anyway.

I am bringing this up to demonstrate why solidarity is difficult for fans of color.

As an Asian diaspora fan in particular, I hate feeling like my choices are “BIPOC fans with ignorance and apathy that they don’t want to unpack” and “white fans with supremacy culture that they don’t want to unpack.” Either way, I’m going to have to put up with a ton of entitlement (never mind the rampant fetishization of Asians from all sides, which is its own can of worms I can’t even open right now).

And if I try to speak up about any of this, I will get blocked or I will be accused of being an anti-fandom killjoy.

Again.

Final Thoughts

People change for the better, and communities change for the better.

I know fandom can change because I’ve seen how it’s already changed. Fans take social justice issues and racial justice issues far more seriously than they did 20, 10, or even 5 years ago, and that’s just my own living memory of fandom.

We should always take a moment to recognize and celebrate how much better we are today than we were in the metaphorical yesterday.

But being better than yesterday does not mean being good enough for tomorrow.

And we still have a long way to go.

-

Thank you for reading this monstrously long post all the way to the end. Please remember to answer the poll at the top. Please reblog, and I encourage you to add your own experiences when you do.

[arsquare]

Hello everyone!

As I take on more projects and expand my practice, it feels prudent to write monthly newsletter posts to keep followers up to date on what projects I'm currently undertaking. So here's the update for October/November 2024!

Zines

Currently I'm participating in two zines, both of which will likely be released in November!

One is the Detective Conan Fanzine, which is dedicated to the 26 movies of the franchise. I was assigned Movie 2, and I've posted a preview below! The full illustration will be available on INPRNT after the zine releases.

The other is the Counter-Pale Resistance (@de-fanzine-cpr-pale), which is a Disco Elysium fanzine. Participants take inspiration from song lyrics to create their piece, whether it's an illustration, comic, or writing. I created an illustration of Harry and Dolores for this zine! I quite like this piece-- it will be available on INPRNT after the zine releases, and I'll also be making gold foil postcards of it. Stay tuned!

Additionally, COMPASS: A Heishin Anthology (@haidocityzines), which I did several illustrations for, has been released for free digitally! Download your copy here. There are also merch bundles remaining if you're interested.

Merchandise

I've been putting together a Kaishin merch bundle in the past several months to go with a polished print version of Breaking Stasis (link goes to the original version-- polished version will be uploaded at a later date), my 2021 Kaishin Secret Santa manga. There's going to be a bookmark, a memopad, and a postcard in addition to the book. I'm waiting for the last of the merch samples to arrive! When they do, I'll photograph them and open up pre-orders.

Remember this? The pages are now fully toned and I've fixed the illustrations that were bothering me...

Pre-orders will likely open on Friday, Nov. 8th, and will close before the end of the month. A more detailed announcement is coming in early November!

Additionally, I've added several prints to my INPRNT:

Commissions

Commissions are currently closed! However, you may contact me at any time via email at soharsquare@gmail.com or soharsquare on Discord to add your name to the waitlist. Folks on the waitlist will get priority when commissions open up again.

Upcoming Events

November 23rd: Tabling at KDF26 (Tainan, Taiwan)

December 10th: Lecture on creating fanzines and doujinshi, hosted by the NCKU Manga Club (Tainan, Taiwan)

December 14th-15th: Tabling at FFK17 (Kaohsiung, Taiwan)

This probably isn't relevant to most people here, but I figured I'd put this out there just in case!

CHORUS

CHORUS is my current comic project! It's a 16-chapter BIRDMEN fan manga, and we've just uploaded the last pages of ACT 2. If you liked my previous comics, please consider checking it out at @birdmenfanmanga! Most of my love at this time is going into this project.

A more extended newsletter on CHORUS can be found here.

Subscribe to the Monthly Newsletter Elsewhere

In times like this when social media websites are imploding for one reason or another, I think it's nice to have multiple bases of communication. Of course, monthly newsletters will always be posted on Tumblr, but you can also join my Community Discord for these updates as well. I have also set up an email subscription list.

Thank you all for the support thus far!

Love, Soh Arsquare. Oct. 27, 2024.

[INPRNT | Ko-fi | Commission info]

[irenereru]

⚠️MY COMPUTER IS DYING⚠️

It has been suffering of stutters for months now, and now crashes my drawing tablet out of nowhere, forcing me to reset it over and over. Its memory is also almost at its limit. The screen frame is being held by tape. I think it's time for an upgrade. A new computer costs 2000€, and I'm looking to save enough before my computer just completely implodes. For commissions you can just send me a Private Message for more information! Traditional commissions can be recieved in person at conventions! Links to all the other mentioned websites can be found here! If you can't get anything, reblogging really helps! Thanks anyways!

[not-wrong-just-different]

Hello Questies!!

This post has been a long time coming, and here it finally is. Willow, and more importantly, the Willow Fandom, changed my life, so, thank you all for everything!

Now Presenting…

How to Get a Girlfriend by Watching Willow 2022:

Step 1. See gif of Kit on top of Jade when she was saying goodbye like on Pinterest.

Step 2. Figure out the name of the show with the hot girls.

Step 3. Rewatch the original Willow.

Step 4. Watch Willow 2022

Step 5. Realize that the feelings about other women that you have been suppressing since you were 17 are coming back to bite you in the ass.

Step 6. Reject compulsory heterosexuality.

Step 7. Call your best friend in a panic.

Step 8. Try for weeks to try to get anyone you know to watch Willow. Fail.

Step 9. Sign back into an old tumblr account and start following people just as obsessed as you are.

Step 10. Read horny fanfic. A LOT of hot horny fanfic.

Step 11. Get your best friend so fed up with you that she invited you to an LGBTQIA+ friendly community event more than an hour away just so she doesn’t have to be the only person hearing about Willow anymore.

Step 12. Make lifelong friends!!

Step 13. After several months of trying to convince people to watch Willow literally steal the TV hookup and force people to watch it.

Step 14. Share the link to the Free Willow website in the Facebook group chat so everyone can watch more episodes.

Step 15. Get private Facebook message from girl wanting to talk about Willow.

Step 16. Make friends with said girl and get a huge crush.

Step 17. Start hanging out outside of group events.

Step 18. Be awkward.

Step 19. Continue to be awkward for several months until one half of the friend group pulls you aside, and one half pulls her aside and endure an intervention.

Step 20. Ask girl on date. (She says yes!!)

Step 21. Go on date and realize that despite the fact that there are over 12 years of university between the two of you, that you both read dozens of the same articles on Reddit and Quora about how to act on a first date, since neither of you have had one before.

Step 22. Get mutually pissed off at the lack of official peer reviewed research on how to have a healthy relationship. Decide to work on writing and publishing together. (So far, the only thing actually peer reviewed is our relationship, which only started due to peer review.)

Step 23. Make plans for more dates.

Step 24. Be happy!!!

Step 25. Realize that communication is hard and misunderstandings suck after reading more horny Willow fanfic.

Step 26. Write 5 page love letter in proper MLA Epistle format and give to girl.

Step 27. Become official girlfriends!

Step 28. Receive photos of her extensive collection of swords and blades.

Step 28b. Implode. (Like seriously. It was SO hot.)

Step 29. After being girlfriends for two months, bring up Willow again and find out that she doesn’t actually care that much about Willow?!?!?!!!! She likes it but was mostly using it as an excuse to talk to you?!?

Step 30. Consider breaking up with girl (not really!!) because she isn’t actually as obsessed with Willow as you are.

Step 31. Decide to share your gratitude with the ongoing Willow fandom for changing your life instead of worrying about making everyone in your life love it as much as you do. 😂

————

Thanks to the creators who helped me work through the emotions of steps 5 and 6 and those who helped with steps 10 and 25. @ksfreckles @geek-and-nina @ourlonelymoon @commanderbuffy @acre-of-wheat @wigster07 @vetiverriver @barmaid-anon @swashbucklery @spybrarian @isabrella @lowkeyed1 @savewillow2022 and so many others!

While I’m at it: Thanks to @ourlonelymoon for reminding me I don’t have to earn help, @acre-of-wheat for helping me remember that being on the spectrum doesn’t make me unloveable (and for reminding me that letter writing is valid communication) @commanderbuffy for proving that love isn’t just for teenagers, @wigster07 for showing second chances and that character growth requires tons of hard work @geek-and-nina for perfectly portraying the emotions and joy of falling in love, and @ksfreckles for being the first person I talked to online and for writing the story that means everything to me.

Thank you Willow Fandom and Willow Creators! I do not know where I would be today if it wasn’t for my lovely, Willow-obsessed online community. 💕 ⚔️ 😉

[riverharkness]

the big finish website saga

(i don’t support them anymore)

gang my big finish is not loading. i need to download rhys and iantos excellent barbecue before i implode.

please help, the website won’t load on any browser. is this just me :(

edit: OKAY I FOUND THEIR TWITTER AND IT IS A UNIVERSAL THING THAT THEY ARE FIXING.

edit again: OKAY OML IVE BEEN CHECKING LIKE EVERY HOUR AND THEY SAID IT HAS BEEN FIXED BUT IT MIGHT BE A FEW HOURS I DONT KNOW HOW LONG I CAN LAST

final edit: OMG YAY IT WORKD OML TIME TO SPEND ALL OF MH MONEG YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYATAATATAYAYAYTATA

i liéd another edit: i think i broke it :( it won’t work anymore

edited yet again: YESSS OMG IT WORKS NVM YAY IM SK HAPPY

[ms-disinformation]

Lol I just followed up on a bunch of blogs that I'd been tracking and it's very funny to me that this is one of the last posts from an account that many people were very convinced was a sincere activist:

anyway, weird that so many of the blogs I was tracking were started from November 7th to 20th 2017 and then also stopped posting from May 5th to 11th 2020.

(and i mean my life imploded in May 2020 too, but not so much that me and eight of my friends completely dropped off of a website we'd been heavily posting on daily for three years without a single 'hey i'm over at mastodon now')

Also very weird that these extremely popular, influential bloggers who talked so much about inequality, police violence, and white supremacy in the US just flat dropped their major platforms and never came back to talk about the popular antiracist, antipolice uprisings after George Floyd was murdered by cops in 2020.

Anyway. Since these accounts seem to be fully abandoned at this point maybe I can now get around to doing the full analysis I had been putting off, though going through every single blog, at least one of which has 30k posts, sounds terrible. Maybe I'll just look at the posts for the last week the blogs existed.

[popculturebuffet]

Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse Retrospective Part 1: The Penal Zone Review (Patreon Review for WeirdKev)

Hello all you happy psychic lagomorphs and welcome back! For those just tuning in last year I started a look at the Telltale Sam and Max Games. Kev, who comissioned these reviews, is a massive fan, bought me a copy and over 12 months, a lot of fun nonsense and some other sam and max reviews I too became a massive fan of this not all that ambigiously gay duo. You can find the previous retrospectives here

So it's been a while since we've seen our faviorite not really all that ambigiously gay duo of sam and max on this blog. There hasn't been a review since What's New Beelzebub as the intended plan of reviewing various episodes of Freelance Police gave way to other projects Kev wanted to use his patreon review for. On the bright side I did get to at least draw the two when we did a top 12 wedding's list a while back.

But otherwise it was mostly spent doing other stuff while waitingpaitently for Sam and Max to arrive. Hell the book seen in this little joke the book of bill both came out AND I reviewed it before we finally got to the Devil's Playhouse.

The reason is simple. For this retrospective i've been using the remasters done by Skunkape games, as until just last month, the switch was my only modern platform and the easiest way to play them, so kev got my copies there. I didn't have a way to play the original and even if I did... I prefer the consistency of having played the remasters for all three and on the same console. It allows me to track what's improved between games and remasters a lot easier.

So I simply waited mildly patiently. While it was a nearly year long wait after promised release dates of last fall and this spring, I dont' hold it against Skunkape in the slightest. I'd rather they take a good long time making the best remaster possible than rush one out no one likes or has to be patched constantly. There's also the simple fact that having a game day and date launch on all consoles.. is a lot. It just is. They have to map buttons for three consoles, convert the game to the console layout three times over and generally do a LOT of shit and that's before getting approved. IT's why i'm no longer a dick about something not getting ported to switch right away: it sucks, but it takes time to do it and Steam is an easier platform. So i'm just greatful Skunkape put in the hard work to make sure I could play the game day one.

Speaking of Skunkape it's time I do something long overdue and talk about SKunkape themselves. It's something I Should've done upfront and callously didn't think to, but at least fits given the namesake for the company debuts in this chapter. I only read their history recently but it's a neat one you can find on their website.

Skunkape Games came out of the ashes of Telltale Games, ironically starting for the same reasons Telltale once had: the publisher that made sam and max was imploding and someone had to take care of it. I had assumed Skunkape was behind the other telltale remasters but to my shock no... while that company gladly helped them on a few logistical things, Skunkape was formed by several founding telltale members who worked on this game for one reason: To Save Sam and Max. With the company falling apart they wanted to make sure someone not only kept the licensees but helped keep the games out there. So they bought it up.

Originally the plan was to just patch the games as was, maybe relrease them. But a combination of the old code being built on an old engine that was long since dead, and thinking of so many ways to spice the games up they decided fuck it, and have since dedicated themselves to remastering all 3 games in the telltale trilogy. I wanted to go into this as it's thanks to them I can even do this: The remasters are what I played and thanks to them everyone can enjoy these stellar games for themselves. It's also a stern reminder that

Has always been a terrible strategy. When someone else has it they'll.. actually do something, you get a tidy check, and fans will stop pestering you to do something with it like you should've. Skunkape is proof if you just give the people who created a thing (or in this case an adaptation of the thing), the rights, they'll make sure said thing is kept safe instead of locked in a vault for pennies. I may be just a touch bitter can you tell. But this story... is thankfully not that.

So with all that out of the way, join me under the cut as we open the final chapter as our heroes fight aliens.. for real this time, we find out how the heck Max is still president, and can rejoice that the soda poppers are fucking dead.

Devil's Playhouse begins.. with a narrator

Yeah we have a narrrator now, a weird wrinkly faced man with a rod serling flair who talks about the dark imaginings we're about to face and such. And having been spoiled on this long ago let me say two things 1) If you don't know you won't possibly guest and 2) what he actually is is a brilliant twist I won't spoil. I'll nudge at the two big spoilers I do know, but if your reading this since you can't play the games for whatever reasons. Let's just say it's wild.

Anyways we jump right in the middle of the story's climax: Sam and Max are trying to stop the evil general Skunk'ape, but i'll just spell it skunkape from taking over the earth in his giant braniac-styled face ship. The intro is fun as while Beyond Time and Space's "Night of the Raving Dead" had this sort of weird flash forward this time you not only get to play it, but it serves a vital purpose: introducing the new gameplay mechanics.

The first two games were largely the same, with Beyond Time and Space only really adding mini games, most of which were forgetable except that motherfucking surfboard may it rot in hell, which are thankfully absent from this game. Just like the soda poppers as while death is not the end in the sam and max universe, theirs thankfully stuck. And.. just give me a moment to celebrate

Okay i'm good. Anyways my point is the games largely pointed and clicked the same way, with a few quality of life adjustments in Beyond Time and Space.

While the core gameplay is largely the same, pionting and clicking, asking questions, going to a guide on occasion when the puzzle is obtuse and the hints are not remotely helpful, there's one big wrinkle that helps spice up Devil's Playhouse: The Toys of Power. The Toys of Power are the mysterious macguffins at the center of this story, which only a few chosen indviduals with the right potetial for psychic powers can wield. Lucky for us and a defcon five for everyone who isn't sam and also possibly sam, MAX is the one who can. So this go round you can play BOTH freelance police. Sam only has the toys as his inventory, but said powers vary up the puzzle solving. You still use items a lot, but sometimes you'lll have to think how they combine with whatever toys you got. Chapter 1 largely leaves you with the future vision, in the form of a view master that allows you to seeee the fuuuuttuuuree and a toy telephone that can teleport you to any number you have memorized but I also got to try some cards that I forgot what they do and some rhinoplasty putty, silly puttiy in a nose that allows you to transform into objects in this intro.

Along the way we found out the guys befriended a brain, stinky is skunkape's queen and harry moleman is going through some stuff.

So we end by throwing Skunkape into the titular penal zone by throwing a homing beacon onto him and sucking him into a hideous void.

And with that we snap back to reality op there goes gravity as it turns out this was max SEEEING THE FUUUTURE.

Rather than start where the game does let's go back a few seconds before we were all caught up: Sam and Max are outside their building, with it being condemend due to massive cracks in the pavement left from the last game. It's been 6 months and max picks up the haunted viewmaster off the ground and thus awakens his psychic powers. Sam's reactions about what you'd expect

Said power give him a grisly version of the future.. and Sam.. somehow. So our heroes know not to trust Skunkape when he arrives soon after.

Skunkape is a gorillia man from space whose come seeking the toys.. and even if they hadn't had a vision of them fighting him, our heroes kidna got the impression from his creepy ship. He came to meet our heroes since Max is leader of the free world which he admits after a great joke about there being many great nations and oh no one's present.

We also get an explination for HOW Max is still president given his 80 impeachment trials, war crimes and general jackassery. The answer is he hired Jimmy Two Teeth and friends to spread a plauge that brought his numbers up because Max actually knows how to manage a pandemic.

Somehow Max being good at crisis managment isn't the only shocker. Turns out this whole time this trilogy, and likely sam and max as a whole has been set in new york. Yes really. HOme of the x-men, the teenage mutant ninja turtles, the teen titans for a while in the 80s, The Fantastic Four and countless others, is also home to Sam and Max. I Assumed they just were housed in some generic new york like city like the tick. This is of course a big joke as the bulk of each chapter takes place on some nondiscprit street but it's a good one.

So circling back around, Jimmy's exit is one of MANY this game. In addition to the soda poppers who are dead.. which.. again need a moment

Thank you, so anyways bittersweetly after 2 games as a mainstay, if in and out of the second, Sybil is gone and will only return for the finale, having an extended honeymoon with that bastard lincoln. Lincoln is also gone and for my thoughts on that please look up at the happy muk thank you.

Much more sadly Bosco is gone and as far as I know does not come back. This is a huge blow as he was one of the funneist parts of both games, and while like Sybil he had a reduced role in the second, he was still great. He's gone to Vegas with an even bigger loss.. Buster Blaster

Yes while I've heard, i'm so thankful for this spiler he'll be back.. Bluster Blaster is sadly gone for most of this adventure. Why.. I have no idea. He could split from the COPS and still show up. Fate is a cruel bitch sometimes I swears its. I'll try to go on but it's rough.

That said while I will MISS Sybil's, whose poseesisons are now in boxes outside her store thanks to our heroes and Bosco's... it was the right call. They clearly ran out of ideas for Sybil's place after the first game and her arc with lincoln makes me want to wretch, so her taking most of the game off is needed and with Bosco they probably just felt they had way more they could do with his replacement while also giving us a fresh setting.

That said even with all these shakeups who helps our heroes is about the same as Stinky's Diner and the COPS return.

Let's give it to the COPS first as their a pretty big change as they've joined our heroes.. even though Sam and Max would prefer they move out. After most of the block was shut down, they let the cops move into their car and they haven't left, but their now working as a crime computer, though their only able to do it once the dynamic duo find Sally, an old crime analyizer in some garbage. They add in another gimmick: crime anaysis pop in evidence and you'll get a clue, popping in two gets you a new location as your new way to unlock new locations. While ti can be frustrating doing it againd and again till you get a match, it's a fun more engaging way to open up new places.

As for STinky's things aren't going great for either stinky. Girl Stinky is mad Stinky is back and made the restraunt hav ea coherent theme again, and Stinky is mad she won't let him commit serial murders via food. He's also mad the duo stole his recipie last game, something I did't think was going to come back but did.

It also brings up something I noticed about the writing that's a vast improvement over the previous game: the tone is a LOT less cruel. oh there' sstill some black comedy as we'll get to, we still do some awful stuff.. but it's tone back down to save the world's less over the top cruelty. You still do awful shit, but it's less spiteful and more just our heroes being who they are and the targets, at least so far, tend to either get saved or are less terrible.

Stinky won't give us his broth and turns out we need it as inspecting the ship we use the viewmaster on the brain who thanks us. And this is another neat feature and one badly needed: the seeing the future.. means you get a clue about where to go. Granted they won't tell you HOW you solved the puzzle, as that'd be too easy, but generally it tells you what you need to do. It can be ocasoinally opaque as flint paper whose eating at the diner gets a hatchet to the head and given his constitution and this series approach to death in general I assumed it wasn't a big deal. Turns out we need to save our old friend whose looking for mama bosco's power core. We need that and the broth.

Naturally this involves a bunch of puzzles I only vaugely remember, but mostly involves getting everyone out of there so we can use Stinky's secret entrance and get that sweet broth. That's going to take, as usual a lot of moving around so we need to visit our last area. via flier and some other stuff we're able to get our first location, boscotech labs.

Boscotech Labs is our new go to get gadgets place since the COPS changed gimmicks and Bosco took all of Sam and Max's money to vegas.. that's.. that's canon. He left with all the money from the first adventure he still had left.

I was a bit antsy about Mama Bosco as a replacment because her one real gag in the previous game was straw feminist

Thankfully this game and likely several decades and being turned into a ghost she's more a mildly sarcastic, as she knwos what she's dealing with, but kindly scientest. She's also still a ghost after Sam and Max blew her up real good last game. Again the contrast is just staggering. Here the worst we're doing is stealing her power core.. which even then is to save an innocent creatre and the planet. She can probably build another to power her "I'm not a ghost anymore machine" and would likely give it if she was aware skunkape was evil. We've come a long way from "condemming a child to hell to move the plot along" and i'm here fo rit.

We do get one her of devices and more importantly run into her univnited guest: harry moleman. Harry is here because he wants a job and instead of asking for it just.. tunneled in. So I don't feel bad for the attrocities we're about to commit. Earlier our heroes found out that molemen are getting sent into a processing chamber on skunkape's ship via a free vacation ticket scam leaving us with one of those and a helmet.

Thanks to seeing the future, we can see the lottery ticket harry has will win an dtrade it for the vacation pass. He leaves to his doom and somehow.. this is still not only the worst our duo gets up to this episode.. but is still not as bad. Harry was being a dip, and while we cost him a million dollars it's going to Grandpa Stinky, who we horribbly wronged last time. He's getting it for entirely self serving reasons sure, but it's still a bit easier to swallow.

So with all the items it's time to get everything. The broth is easy, just give grandpa stinky the lottery ticket, he forgives you and he's gone. Next is flint who we give a helmet as Girl Stinky is trying to murder him. And not just in the obvious way his foods laced with peanuts, which he has an allergy to. Which is a great payoff and proves my instinct was right: you really CAN'T kill flint paper with a hatchet to the skull.

This does lead me to something I like about this chapter and another improvment over the other games: the difficulty. With the previous two, ESPECIALLY beyond time and space, I had to use a guide often... or if I was running behind. This time, I largely winged it. I'll need to take better notes next time to remember order of events, as things are a bit tighter this go round, and frankly should've for the last game, but otherwise this experince was easier but not painfully easy. Ther'es a lot of clever solutions to the puzzles often involving max's ability to teleport he gets after this stretch.

With that we simply have to call stinky, getting her private number from the future, then calling her. She thinks we're skunkape who she's kinda dating? It's complicated. This gets rid of her , we get sally from her underground passage and get the core from said passage.

With that we can finally ressurect the brain in a jar, a fairly nice fellow whose willing to help. He's been used by Skunkape as his proxy since while having psychic powers himself, as his origin video telltale put out outlines he was an abused outcast on his own planet who when fired from his job threw a tantrum and got a piece of rebar in his head that unlocked his powers and conquered the planet., he can't use the toys and it also makes it clear max is in terrible danger. It's kinda telling every villian's big evil scheme relies on max in some way.

Brain guy is also a lot of fun, especially how skunkape got him as he claimed to be a nice stranger and when Max points out how stupid that is, we get the all time line of "HE SAID HE HAD CANDY".

The good news is brain guy waking up actually made skunkape run aground, as it's clear his story wouldn't hold up with witnesses who aren't rabbits of questionable character. The bad is we need to find him. The gooder news is Superball is now not only on our side for a change but has the cure: turns out Skunkapes a fugitive from the law having escaped the penal zone.

So we need to send him back to the penal zone for hard time. We need his beacon and his remote... but first the brain forces us to use teleport because he wants to see it so we can't go investigate the mole murder room. It's unecessary backtracking and it annoys me.

SO my first teleport was naturally mama bosco as she created a remote. Unfortuntaely doing so gets max strangled by an ape

While I simply teleported him out turns out you need to stand on the flag above Boscotech, teleport max in and have the ape fall on top of the ape guarding the place

As for why they went in there and took over, Mama Bosco naturally has the solution to their problems, a one use one way teleport to the wang place.

Next is the badge. Getting this was something I simply didn't think of but how you do so is great. First you need to check out the mole murder room: Turns out Skunkape is sweating moles... TO DEATH.

Going in nearly gets you killed and your possesions dumped out..s o you need to do it to Grandpa Stinky. Thankfully he was very stupid with the money he won thanks to you giving it to Skukape and insults both our heroes when they fake wanting to enlist, with Sam ready to murder him and Grandpa Stinky VERY lucky he's so short and dose'nt have any knives... though if he wakes up in a future chapter with a butcher knive in his head I won't be suprised.. nor will I when he comes to work anyway.

No to beat him you need to piss off max then teleport everyone to the murder chamber after leaving Girl Stinky's cell phone in there. You can find it by going there and it's the key to many a puzzle. I also almost forgot to mention the reason for our title picture and the best scene in the chapter: when you teleport hte first time we get a surreal mindscape of maxes.. and .. this

So while we're scarred for life we can teleport baby. Skunkape gave Grandpa Stinky the beacon as a badge as leader of his massive fleet and as a convient skapegoat. So to get it we have to piss max off. As said Max's short height means that won't be as bloody as you'd expect, but it does mean going back to the death room where Grandpa Stinky learns the awful truth... he's a frycook.. 8th class!

Disgusted he got conned out of his millions Stinky leaves, having saved us and we get the badge and his stuff including a meesta pizza shot glass. This brings up a running gag I hadn't mentioned in the previous two as while I loved it , it was rarely plot relevant: Sam could use the phone in the office to call up meesta pizza, with no one answering. It always struck me as just some weird gag he was doing and I never assumed anything was on the other line. But low in behold... IT EXISTS...

And we get to VISIT IT. Sadly it's not a fully rendered location but to find Skukape we follow his trail using the shot glass and a recepit we found earlier to go to meesta pizza, where Girl Stinky and Him had a romantic date and some light indgjesticion. Our heroes can go inside which I like, as even if we can't I love Sam's jolly love of food places that are objectively terrible. I relate to it you know? Sometimes you just want a pile of grease you don't have to pay a mortgage for you know?

It's here we get one of the few puzzles that's just... what the fuck is this. Most of my getting stuck in this part of the story is simply not thinking to use my new powers. IN this one though.. it relies on you putting an engagment ring you find earlier on a pizza box so a pidgeon can eat it.

It gets up on the roof we get the ring back and we're happy. You can also use the ring for proposal shenanigans which I wish i'd done more of. Doing it to max nets you a hilaroius diamonds are forever parody add. Dated? Yes. Hilarous? Yes. Gay as hell? HELL YES. I also like that the gay jokes have evolved from HAHA queers to "eh sam would enjoy it but decides not to right now". That's more my speed.

So we track skunkape to a toy store he went to.. only to get trapped! Skunkape arrives with his henchman and Girl Stinky

So we're back about where we started. We convince Girl Stinky to accept her role as Skuknapes concubine. Apparently even when self preservation is on the line she's still awful.. but once she finds that finally someone will let her out of her cage since time for her ins't nothing and she ain't counting no age, she agrees.

And then..... we get a hell of a twist: Turns out while we were captured, Skunkape used the viewfinder.. and thus SAW how his defeat would playout and wisely removed the two toys you swiped in the intro. He then sends our heroes to the penis place and our heroes have to escape. Thankfully we can just.. casually teleport out of danger, but it leaves the threat of the giant ape man shooting at us with his big space ship. I do love this twist.. that you saw how it WOULD'VE playe dout.. but the very thing that gave you a leg up leaves you twisting in the wind.

We got to boscotech as Mama Bosco pulls us out , working closely with superball. The bad news is the escape collapsed the penal zone. The good is they can make another. The worse is our heroes wil lhave to give up their office and frakly.. I really miss it. I miss the trophies and it's sad to know I won't see the piling trophies from past chapters ever again. Also Leonard's probably dead but given he was stuck in an abandoned building for 6 months with no food or air he probably was anyway.

So for our final showdown we need to plug her portal thing into a big enough power source which means we're going deepr underground there's just too much panic in this town. It's here we go into a secret entrance and find MORE MOLES... and also a cult. Sadly no lambs and weirdly max isn't leading it this time. But he is their christ figure as the prophecy fortold him getting the toys and his head lighting on fire. Sure he's fine.

Turns out their a splitner who worships the devil's toybox, a powerful box and where the toys of power came from which max is the chosen one for. It makes a handy power source though and with skunkape blasting in we're able to open the all new all diffrent dong depot and suck him in... after making it nice and sweaty of course. Phrasing.

With that our heroes have won, the universe is saved... but the narrator warns we still have a cliffhanger.. OUR HEROES SKELETONS!

The Penal Zone is one of the best sam nad max chapters i've played so far and a great start for the Penal Zone. This feels like the best of both previous games, having save the world's still irrevernt but less cruel humor mixed with the refinements from beyond time and space, and then adding it's own flair. While the toy puzzles can be complex, they add a lot more variety than just "get the thing use the thing" now using the things in new ways, the joke writing is at the top of it's game and the game itself looks crips and gorgeous in the remaster. You can also already see the more seralized story I heard this game has creeping in: we get tons of omnius hints for max, and rather than the mystery of the last two of "whose behind it all", which is barely threaded through both and only fullyc omes together in the last chapter, here we get a bunch of mysteries and plot threads up front: where does the devil's toybox come from, why is max the chosen one, can anyone else use the toys, why are skeletons of our heroes in present day, will max survivie when everything from medical advice to omnius foreshadowing says his head's going to catch fire, and why do we suddenly have a narrator? It leave sme stoked for the next chapter and shows the evolution of how telltale was telling these tales: Before it was more self contined chunks, now with more games getting made around this time like back to the future, we're seeing them start to captalize on cliffhangers to keep you hooked and it works well. While I know WHY skeletons thanks to chapter summaries, it's still a good hook if you didn't know the next chapter was about their ancestors

Next Time:A full chapter flashback. Goodie? Thanks for reading.

[kes-geiszler]

MY DINOSAUR LIFE ~ MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK

Earlier this week, I bought myself two CDs - I Am The Movie, and My Dinosaur Life. Both are by Motion City Soundtrack, a band I don't think I can really actually express my love for adequately. When I say that I was so excited to get my hands on these albums I had to use my inhaler, I'm not actually exaggerating. Anyway, My Dinosaur Life has really quickly become my favourite CD I own, and I really gotta gush about it before I ultimately implode under the pressure of keeping it all in, and what better place than here I thought! I won't talk about the songs, this is specifically about the CD and art etc.

First of all, here is the back and front of the CD case! The part that reads MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK is actually a sticker on the case as opposed to being printed directly onto the album booklet. The case for I Am The Movie has a similar deal going on, but I'll talk about that another time. I'm just a fan of the little dino guy (designed by Joe Ledbetter, no less [additionally, someone that understands Wikipedia needs to add a citation to his page with regards to his work with MCS please!!])! As you can see by the back, this is the standard edition disc as far as I'm aware, it features none of the alternative versions found on the deluxe editions, and it's certainly not the Japanese release.

Anyway, next up: the disc itself! I'm a big fan of the disc, I think it's very sweet. I think I might have almost died when I opened it today to see this. I am a huge fan of shiny discs, but the best part came after I removed it....

As you can see, removing the disc shows the art behind the disc itself. The same dinosaur, but this time on display in a museum. I cannot understate how fantastic the graphic design of this case is, it is beautiful, and fantastic, and there is so much to see in it, wherever it is you look.

Whenever I have a CD, I usually expect that the lyrics will be in the accompanying album booklet, perhaps with some additional notes and thank yous. However for My Dinosaur Life, I was pleasantly surprised to find that instead of the lyrics was a booklet filled with art by Joe Ledbetter. Each of the artworks corresponds with each of the songs on the album, which is a fantastic touch and one that excited me even more than the bones behind the disc did. I've taken a picture of every single one of those illustrations, which are all gonna be shared here for everyone's viewing pleasure (because they're like. really really good okay).

Every single one of the art pieces is brilliant and filled with so many little references and correspond to the ideas of the songs, and I will be honest in saying I have been staring at them for a lot of time today. I wanted to make sure everyone else had the opportunity to see them as well!

Additional Information: Produced by: Mark Hoppus (of Blink 182) Mixed by: Andy Wallace (worked with Nirvana, Sepultura, System of a Down, and plenty others)

There is also a link to a website on the back of the disc. It seems the domain is now owned by someone else, however it was archived on the wayback machine if anyone is interested! It has plenty of information on the making of My Dinosaur Life, pictures, schedules (and at the bottom, it says "powered by Tumblr", which I wasn't expecting). You can access this here!

I don't really have much else to say other than there is not enough Motion City Soundtrack on here anymore and I plan to change that single handily, fuelled primarily by a very intense interest in them!

[malware-program]

Edit: If you guys have any questions feel free to dm them to me or drop them in my ask box !

Hello ! I am sad about ao3 being down, but I would like to offer my insight about what type of DDOS could be affecting it ! Yes this is an excuse to talk about my special interest

For context: I major in Informational Technology, and we have to learn about this, and technology has always been my special interest. I know way too much about this

In this post I will explain what a DDOS is, different types of DDOS attacks, and my theory on which one.

A DDOS (or denial of service attack) is when the servers get so overloaded that they crash and burn.

There are multiple types of DDOS attacks: Zip Bomb, Time Bomb, Fork Bomb, and a Zombie attack. Each one does something different but reach the same result.

Zip Bomb: Will send a compressed file of data to a server, and when they uncompress it, they get fit with  4.5 petabytes (4 503 599 626 321 920 bytes) of data. No computer can even process that !

Time Bomb: Basically what a free trial is, but will implode other things too. Time Bombs will basically count down to when they release the attack to servers with either Zip Bombs, Trojan Horses, or a Worm

Fork Bomb: A malicious file that will get in your servers and start duplicating itself, taking up server resources and slowing them down. Very bad if not caught early on. (I would also like you to know this is also called a Wabbit virus)

Zombie: A hacked computer that has been compromised and can be used by the hacker remotely to do what they want. These are dangerous because they affect multiple systems and then use those systems to overload a server, and they're hard to detect. (If you're scared you have this, run your downloaded files though VirusTotal , it runs files and websites through a lot of antivirus software and can detect anything malicious)

My working theory is that ao3 is under either a Fork Bomb attack or a Zombie Attack (that is the official term for it). Both these DDOS attacks are hard to get rid of, and hard to pinpoint where they started from.

It doesn't mean ao3 is gone forever, but it means it might be down for a little bit. They're working their absolute hardest, and I believe in them <3

[gothicprep]

people often ask why a lot of prominent lefty users online tend to be disproportionately vicious for no reason. my best stab at an answer here is that a lot of prominent mainstream internet users got their sea legs on somethingawful before moving to other platforms when that website imploded. most notably Weird Twitter, back when that was still a thing in the early 2010s, was full of people like this. many of them have troll’s remorse now, but never really got over those old habits. the bridge they lived under for so long has a bit of a hotel california situation going on with it.

it’s pretty much impossible to overstate how much influence Weird Twitter had on what’s now mainstream internet culture. if you were there, you know what i mean. if you weren’t, you unfortunately have to take my word for it.

people typically cite chap trap whateverthefuck as the genesis point, but there’s more of a history here than that. the 2016 election just dragged it out into popular consciousness.

I could always be wrong, but that’s my best guess.

[dailydamnation]

Hey all. So, once upon a time I wrote some comics and even got them drawn. Then the digital indie-comic marketplace on ComiXology imploded under the weight of Amazon, and they haven't been available for a while.

Now I'm relaunching them one at a time, starting with:

Sylbani Among the Shadows Written by Niels van Eekelen Drawn by Eleonora Kortsarz Cover art by Delia Gunderson Sylbani is the best thief in Moch Caldron, a fact that has not escaped the city's spymaster, who often has need of such skills--whether Sylbani likes it or not. But even he doesn't know the magical secret that Sylbani holds. (Contains 16 pages of actual comic.)

This particular comic that's relaunching first isn't about a sword girl or a part-demon girl who worries about being evil, which I know is what you're here on this blog for... but I have hope you'd enjoy it anyway. And I maaay have some of that planned for the future too. What can I say, I have my interests and my influences and I'm not shy about them.

For new stories, I'm focusing on stories without pictures, but I'm hoping to launch something there soon too.

So if you're interested (or even if you just want to support me, hint hint), please go check it out, either on my own website, or go the page for Sylbani Among the Shadows on Itch.io or GlobalComix directly. (Amazon may follow, they were being difficult.)

If you want to try out my writing on a topic closer to home, you can of course also go read my Kitty and Illyana fic over on AO3 first.

[ceasarslegion]

honestly i think if this site finally dies to a ceo meltdown (which might be the only thing that can kill it lmao) i think... it would be for the best to just leave this place and the communities it fostered buried

I won't go to cohost, or bluesky, or anything. Y'all can catch me on my already made social (1) (discord. Im not giving anybody my facebook account with my full name on it after the death threats ive gotten over the years here) if you want, but this site has been going downhill ever since the advent of cringe culture and ace discourse circa 2015. It feels like recent months have been hurtling towards the logical conclusion of the turbo-echo chamber this site exists in. I seriously miss the era where it was just superwholock jokes and the only drama you'd hear about was the occasional bone-stealing witch level shit that everybody would go "lmao what" about and then go back to their regularly-scheduled movie discussions. Maybe i'll go back to pinterest at most and spend the rest of my time in fandom and furry forums and AO3. It would compel me to write and draw a lot more.

And honestly, I think tumblr finally getting the plug pulled on its long-dying life support may be legitimately helpful for a lot of the users who yanked this site's culture away from that and into the echo chamber. They might like, go outside for once. I know "touch grass" is a cliche or whatever but I do think a lot of this echo chamber can be chalked up to sitting on the computer all day and never getting exposed to anybody outside of your self-imposed internet echo chamber. Go outside, get some fresh air.

Also, it won't be the end of the world. If your free time and happiness is really that contingent on any one social media site then it may be for the best to take it away from you. Learn how to entertain yourself without it. There's a whole world out there to explore. Find something else to do. Pick up new hobbies, look into events in your area. Get really into some weird niche hobby and spend all that time doing that instead of just posting on a different website if this one's finally done. Remember that 4chan guy whose life turned around after he got really into raising shrimp instead of discoursing on 4chan all day? Maybe it's time to find your shrimp raising hobby instead of just posting the same things and perpetuating the same cycles on a different site.

I'm not saying to go full amish and abandon the internet altogether but i am saying that if this website has consumed so much of you that the prospect of it imploding is this upsetting to you, maybe you need to start raising shrimp for a while. I think it would be good for you.

Idk man, I'm chilling in my chair here but if it goes, she goes. I'll find something else to do, but this site hasn't been the tumblr I stuck around for for a long time now, so it won't be the end of the world for me if it ends. I'd just grab my favourite mutuals discords and head out to get more into the furry fandom and write more fic instead. I never wanted to be exposed to this much of the everything on this site anyway, I joined for the memes and the fandom content way back in 2010 and then just never really left.

[best-overplayed-song]

Really hoping Mr. Brightside manages to kill Bohemian Rhapsody, it's my most hated song. I'd take any of them doing it but Mr. Brightside is the only one I think really has a shot.

if that's the final showdown i think this website will implode holy shit