#or for negative wage I guess

[lactose-intolerant-piano]

Y’all like I don’t enjoy working in tech but it’s a major self confidence boost to just be able to say IM WORTH 50 BUCKS AN HOUR how dare you waste my time / demand my free labor etc

[sapphicautistic]

Starting to stress about potentially losing our housing but like it's all so up in the air and idk where we'd go so even if I weren't in a flareup and overwhelmed by everything I should be doing idk what I could even like. Do to prepare for it

[neverendingford]

.

[three--rings]

One thing I haven't seen a lot of talk about in the fandom so far is about the financials of this season.

It took us two whole months to get a confirmation of renewal from Max, and I talked at the time that I think there was probably a lot of heated negotiations going on at the time with contracts and that's why it took as long as it did.

I think we see a huge number of indications of the compromises that were made in order for S2 to be made. One obvious one that has been talked about is being making in in NZ instead of LA, to save $.

But there's also the eight episodes instead of ten. And then the cast aspect. One downside of moving overseas was having to fly out and house the cast, not just pay day wages.

We knew immediately about Guz Khan not coming back, losing Ivan as a character. At the time I was sad but I thought it had the air of a pretty harshly practical call. If you went through the main recurring cast and said okay which character will affect the fewest things, has the least character interactions of anyone? It would be Ivan. (With the only competition being The Swede IMO, but he's Stede's crew and therefore a little more central.)

And then this season started and we got first The Swede sidelined and taken out of major scenes. And then I noticed that different members of the crew were simply absent for long stretches, like Wee John isn't around for ep 5 at all. And then Buttons takes flight.

Lucius and Pete aren't at the party for most of it. Fang isn't in the torture scene. Roach and Fang aren't in the bar. Etc. SCHEDULING IS HAPPENING.

The new characters are almost entirely played by NZ local actors, which is great, but also...cheaper.

In other words there are big signs that they did everything possible to give us a giant cast of almost everyone we love from S1, and cool new characters, in the most economical way possible.

And I'm grateful for it. I'm grateful we got S2, and it looks great, and it's well written, I'm having a blast, and we get to spend more time with this awesome cast.

But I also kinda think it needs to be said that the cost-cutting shows. That it shouldn't have been only 8 episodes, the pacing is off. That we miss every time someone from the ensemble isn't on screen.

That despite what they've put on screen looking very good, there's far less costuming budget, there's less elaborate sets, and it's a little disappointing. And it's clear it's not a lack of will or talent or vision but blatantly lack of money.

Look, streaming networks want brilliant shows that people love (that will get them to subscribe) but they very don't want to pay anyone to make them. That's like, the whole moment we're having right now.

Max puts out promos about how great it is to not have unions messing shit up in NZ. Well I have friends who are union costumers in LA and guess what union costumers did amazing last season. This season, well, I guess Stede got three whole shirts, so that's cool.

So I dunno. It's just stuff I think about. I'm not trying to be negative about the show in any way. I'm extremely happy with this season; I love it more than well, possibly any show I've ever been in fandom for.

But I see you, Max. You're cheap. You weren't that cheap when you were called HBO.

[ghostdiva]

TADC Ep 4 Trailer Dropped

I've taken many screenshots, and it's time to theorize about how I think the episode will go.

if I'm right, then there will be spoilers ahead, so read at your own volition.

now, I think that for this adventure, Caine utilized the Suggestion Box, after getting the feedback from Zooble that no one really liked his adventures.

However Caine, ever desperate to keep his guests happy and entertained, takes multiple suggestions at once, and turns them into the retail hell the circus crew is about to experience.

before that tho, I think Gangle gets some advice from Ragatha

This advice might backfire considering what happens later.

Gangle is also given a new mask by Zooble, who brings her to their room to give it to her.

Gangle Checks out the new mask, figuring out how it functions in comparison to her comedy mask. my personal guess is that it makes her more confident and assertive, which might boost her moral, but change her attitude in a possibly negative way.

also a small side note that's completely unrelated: there's not a single shot in the trailer that shows Kinger in this adventure. So it's possible he either sits this one out, or just straight up doesn't get much screen time. We got a small clip of Kinger in the circus, but that was it.

Anyway, as Gangle is trying out her new mask, her and Zooble's absence prompt Pomni, Jax, and Ragatha to go see what's up.

Jax and Ragatha will likely question Gangle about the new mask. Pomni might voice her curiosities on how it works too (it's only Pomni's 3rd day in the digital world, so there's a lot she still might not know yet).

Nonetheless, after checking in with Gangle and Zooble, they all head back to the main area, where Caine sends them to work at Spudsy's.

Orbsman is probably the "quest giver". though this time it's not really a quest, it's more like minimum wage food service hell. despite that fact, he still assigns the employee roles to everyone, making Gangle the manager.

Gangle, I think, would be sheepish about this role at first, however the assertiveness and confidence from the new mask helps push her to step up to the plate. So Gangle starts assigning different tasks to everyone. Ragatha, Jax, and Zooble seem to take on tasks like prepping and making food for the orders, like frying the burger patties, assembling the burgers, etc. and Pomni, who can't cook to save herself, ends up running one of the tills at the counter.

and Jax runs the drive-thru for a bit.

eventually, customers start to come in, most of them being wooden artist dolls. However, Caine did reuse some NPC's for this one, which is unfortunate for those who remember them.

idk how to make gif's here, but aside from the gloinks pulling up to the drive-thru, I think Pomni will end up taking Gumigoo's order. Pomni is understandably surprised to see the NPC she bonded with in the second episode, as she literally startles so hard she falls over.

Incidentally, Gumigoo probably doesn't remember Pomni at all, and Pomni might struggle to hold herself together when she realizes it.

Like, look at her. she looks like she's emotionally breaking, but forcing a smile because well, customer service. She also could just be happy to see him alive. I think she might try to sneak off to see if Gumigoo remembers her at all.

idk what else this image could be, outside of like, picking trash up from the ground or something.

Jax also seems to genuinely hate the Fast Food Adventure, in fairness, very few poeple enjoy the fast food industry.

he also takes a moment to cause some mischief

Anyway, onto the main plot. this episode is about Gangle. and with the pressure of being a manager, Gangle might start to boss people around a bit.

there are a lot of shots of characters looking like they need a break, especially Ragatha.

I think it's possible that Ragatha gets tired and worn down from milling about and completing orders. and despite Gangle trying to hype her up, Ragatha just can't summon the energy to keep going. Poor Ragatha is clearly exhausted, and needs a break to like, put her head down for a bit and relax.

Gangle continues to be somewhat bossy, her behavior worsening as time goes on. we see this as Gangle get progressively more unsettling, almost acting crazed whenever someone complains or voices a problem they're having.

Gangle probably starts off trying to hype up the others to get them to do what she needs them to do.

However, none of them really see Gangle as a source of authority, and thus don't take her seriously until she starts to lose her composure.

in this clip, she seems to say the word "now". and look at her. she's clearly struggling with the stress of wrangling everyone, and getting them to do what has to get done for things to flow properly.

However, (except for maybe Pomni) everyone on this adventure hasn't worked in the food industry, or any job for that matter, in years. they've gone on wild adventures every day instead, which is wildly different. on adventures, everyone is kinda left to their devices, to do what they want within the general confines of the adventure. Following orders, and doing monotonous, intensive tasks, both physically, and mentally, is not something they're used to doing. at all.

Thus Gangle struggles to get everyone to do what she needs to, and snaps from the stress.

I think after she snaps, the mask breaks, leaving Gangle with her tragedy mask. so she goes outside to get some fresh air, startling Pomni.

I think Pomni and Gangle chat for a bit, since that seems to be a theme. Maybe Gangle will just be expressing remorse for treating everyone poorly while wearing the mask. she might feel guilty for pushing them all as hard as she did.

and Gangle carries that guilt with her after the adventure ends too.

it seems Zooble has words to share with her tho, so it looks like she gets to have 2 heart to hearts, maybe.

[msmads]

Switch 2 Prices Rant

Actually tagging this post because the points in this poorly organized rant aren't empty, and I do want them see to some extent

maybe someone else will tidy up my tired ass's mess of points from a meandering rant into bullet points or something.

maybe I'll tidy it up later into like, an essay, idfk, it's a mess and I'm not looking to actually write an essay.

... oh boy this is gonna ruffle some feathers though, guess I'm finally opening myself up to some hellsite discourse...

NGL, I'm getting fed up with people complaining about Nintendo Switch 2 prices and Switch 2 game prices, when they're only halfway to catching up with inflation since 2005 on the game prices on the most expensive games, which means yes, Mario Kart World is cheaper than Madden 05 was, and they're refusing to acknowledge the actual problem that their own wages aren't going up to keep up with inflation.

Within the (shitty) present system, the problem isn't a luxury good being 450 bucks, it's that you're not being paid enough for what you do.

AND for fucks sake, 450 bucks for a piece of tech that is on the cutting edge of power efficient gaming, is pretty decent.

These guys are out here fixing or improving most of the problems with the previous generation system they made, and keep on not laying off their employees unlike the other big fish, and what they get is people being understandably unhappy about the price and lying about stuff to have a big ol' negativity circlejerk on Nintendo, while saying shit like "it's not a political issues" and ignoring the fact that Videogames are the cheapest form of entertainment there is today, even with these price increases, and the fact that wages being stagnant in an inflationary economy is obviously going to cause problems like this, and the related fact that SOMETHING IS OBVIOUSLY GOING TO GIVE WHEN AN INDUSTRY IGNORES INFLATION ON IT'S PRODUCTS FOR 20 YEARS, AS EVERYTHING ELSE GETS MORE EXPENSIVE, UPPING COSTS ALL AROUND FOR MAKING THE GAMES AND HARDWARE TOO

and

that's not even getting into the absolute BULLSHIT where companies that have publicly traded stocks in the US have a legal responsibility to keep grow every year!

THAT'S LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE

COMPANIES HAVE BEEN SELF CANNIBALIZING BY MINIMIZING STAFF TO DEAL WITH THAT, WHY DO YOU THINK CVS PHARMACIES ARE SUCH SHITTY STORES WITH LIKE ONE PERSON STAFFING THEM?

Nintendo has been managing to keep away from stripping themselves for parts, despite the Switch 1 being frankly a shit show of a device by Nintendo's quality standards, with them going through a dark period of undercooked BS in the middle of its lifespan to boot.

They're doing shitty things with credits lately, that's something reasonable to complain about.

They're shitty to their fans with their IP enforcement, that's something reasonable to complain about.

They swept Joy-Con Drift under the rug, that's something reasonable to complain about.

They dedicated a whole ass physical button to a paywalled bootleg discord call feature, that's something reasonable to complain about.

BUT GODDAMN

PEOPLE ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT THE PRICES OF THE CHEAPEST FOR CONSUMERS FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT THERE IS GOING UP IN PRICE BY A MODEST AMOUNT INSTEAD OF THEIR FOOD GOING UP IN PRICE OR THEIR WAGES STAYING STAGNANT FOR SO DAMN LONG THEY'RE COMPLAINING ABOUT THE MOST REASONABLE BLEMISH ON A RAY OF PLEASANTRY AMIDST A SEA OF DISASTER THAT CREATED THE BLEMISH INSTEAD OF LOOKING TO THE MAELSTROM AND RESISTING THE ACTUAL FUCKING PROBLEM

If you can't afford it, save up for it

if you can't save up for it, UNIONIZE AND DEMAND BETTER PAY SO YOU'RE NOT UNDERWATER JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE.

Ah yeah, the online subscription thing

that that exists at all, pretty shitty

but holy shit, I find it so annoying hearing about how much more you get out of XBOX Live or PlayStation Plus than Nintendo Switch Online

they're all doing the same shitty practice of paywalling your ability to access servers the subscription isn't even paying for, XBOX and PlayStation just force you to pay for EVEN MORE STUFF

Nintendo's top plan is asking LESS THAN HALF THE BASIC PLAN FOR THOSE OTHER TWO FUCKERS

50÷12<9.99

and the basic plan on Nintendo's end is less than 2 dollars a month,

as shit as it is that they paywall that at all, it's way better than what Microsoft and Sony are and have been doing for way longer, so comparing to them on that front is pretty bullshit too.

bllghhhh.

ok...

I think I'm done.

[woman-respecter]

anon i’m not posting ur ask bc it may piss some people off BUT to answer your question i think beyond just being ineffectual, the most counterproductive shit is:

1. the blatant antisemitism. while i think antisemitism is pervasive in society, a large percentage of peope (at least in america) know that its wrong, and can recognize it when its at its most obvious. had they kept their antisemitism on the down low i don’t think it would have been caught by many gentiles, but when its as obvious as screaming “go back to poland” (yes i will not shut up about this specific thing) or shooting at jewish elementary schools, people recognize it. and this turns normal people who realize that antisemitism=bad and makes it easy to “villainize” (for lack of a better word) their movement. of course this may help bring fringe people who are just looking to be antisemitic, but it alienates most well-adjusted people, which includes most of those who contribute to society so its by far a net negative

2. denouncing israeli leftists/peace activists etc. these are the people who can actually make the biggest difference here, but instead of allying with them they at best ignore and at worst villainize them. organizations such as standing together and women wage peace do a lot of good trying to find solutions and help palestinians (remeber how standing together helped aid get to gaza) but are fucking put on the bds list. it’s ridiculous. how the hell is harassing jewish students more helpful than supporting actual people in the region who actually understand what is going on and can actually do something. if they really cared about human lives and peace (which i guess they don’t based on that post i screenshotted earlier lol) they would be doing everything they can to assist these orgs but instead they make things harder for them. i guess it’s because its very important to paint an “us vs them” narrative and to do this they must paint all israelis as evil so recognizing standing together etc destroys that

[constantfragmentation]

hiii i know your last post was probably spurred on by someone’s comments regarding your work, but im a woc and have throughly enjoyed all of the content you have written. not to dismiss other people’s issues, but within art it’s always important to consider who is making it and their cultural background, because it always permeates into their creations. while it is blunt to say; people are sometimes sensitive, you shouldn’t let that wear you down or feel overly guilty. the fact you were so open about seeing this as an issue and addressing it is already worth so much.

idk maybe this is insensitive, don’t feel the need to respond to this. i just really love your work and thought i would give my two cents.

Not insensitive at all.

In fact, as several people in this fandom know, unfortunately, I am very, well.... overly sensitive. And they're correct. Coming from a toxic and abusive upbringing and obviously not having the best coping mechanisms or self esteem... I tend to worry a lot, fear rejection and crave acceptance/safe place. I am very aware of this and trying hard not to be this but I still have my triggers and shit happens. It bothers a lot of people and I'm used to most people pulling a 'nope'.

Because of that, I don't ever want anyone to feel unaccepted, etc because that's what I was/am. I know I sound negative too much but it's only because I have difficulty with accepting compliments, kindnesses, etc. I've never been accepted anywhere, so when online strangers are being so kind, I almost don't want to believe them. And it's a bit like a drug too.

If anyone says they don't care about the hits, kudos, comments... I'm going to call them out. Yes we do or we wouldn't post our works publicly. Of course we crave validation and I probably crave it more than normal people because it's something foreign to me.

Saying that. I'm not fishing for people to give me compliments. If anyone wonders why I'm a bit 'off' or I talk too much, respond with huge comments (like now), its because I'm hoping people don't think I'm a total weirdo but I think I've shot that in the foot. I guess I feel like I put up a warning sign "hey, if you interact with me, I'll probably be socially awkward af".

I get so thrilled when someone is so happy with something I made. Maybe @villainsidechick is right that I'm wanting to please everyone and it's not possible. She's not wrong that I'll probably be paranoid that I'm not doing it right and writing will no longer be enjoyable because I'm worrying about how I'm writing. To go from 3rd person limited to 2nd person was hard. Never until Silco had I written that way and I'm still catching mistakes.

So maybe more tags is the answer for now. IDK. I've got different people telling me different things I should do in DMs and I'm just... blank.

I suppose it's all these years of ingrained behavior that I do worry about how I affect others and it truly does hurt me if I feel I've offended someone in any way. I'm mortified by it.

Writing in a strange way is therapy. I can't afford therapy, not in this country and my wages. It's probably unhealthy as hell but in some scenes, I can let out some demons if that makes sense or wishful things I would love to have. That's the beauty of fiction. I can tune out the real world for a bit.

I can't help but take things to heart when other, more normal folks, would brush it off and move on. I'm just not wired that way.

And I over share, like I'm doing right now. Sigh.

I think no matter what I do, someone is not going to be happy with me. I wish that didn't bother me, but it does. Sooner or later someone is going to see this side of me, so I might as well get it out now. Mental health is a bitch even with therapy and meds. It's probably why I write the characters I do and empathise with Jinx and Silco.

I'll go back to just posting nice things and won't mention this again. I'm sure there is a handful of people I know in this fandom who are shaking their heads right now, thinking I'm nuts for posting this and it will bite me in the ass, but so be it.

To those that I've made uncomfortable, I'm sorry. It's better you know where I'm coming from if I make a mistake again. Or perhaps just post stories and keep to myself from now on.

Back under my rock, I go.

[chestersbraincell]

Day 12 of 30 days of Our Wonderland

ohohoho….mayhaps….perchance I do…

Here’s a somewhat comprehensive list of all my ow headcanons(JFC these took ages to collect, alas):

Generally:

•post ow ending/ow epilogue Gidget, Cecil and Orlam are in an open relationship polycule

•in wonderland Gidget and Orlam may have had a fling or tried to get together at times but it never really worked out due to Gidget not feeling quite right about themselves etc so they just ended up fairly good friends/monarch partners in crime in wonderland

•Genzou's Mom would be for some reason babysitting Orlam so they were forced to get along and Genzou would begrudingly let Orlam play with him on his Minecraft world on the Xbox 360(totally not projecting a childhood experience partially hush hush), only to make fun of him for always wanting to use the Alex skin because "they look like him" and Genzou teasing him because he's "playing as a girl". To which. Orlam waits for Genzou to be out of the room and deletes the Minecraft world and that's really where all the hatred between them started

•Gummybear(not just the song everyone knows, I'm talking all the little lesser known side songs they released) is to Genzou what Garfield is to Orlam

•Orlam(in the orly scenario) is SO the type to strut up to the counter, angrily pointing at the counter as he glares into the poor minimum wage worker's eyes like „excuse me, he asked for no pickles" while Iggy cowers right behind him, mortified, lowkey empathising and feeling sorry for said minimum wage worker

•As kids, Orlam would be the type to be a HUGE scaredy cat about decorations. And then Genzou would obviously tease him about it, only to stop when he realises he's indirectly insulting Iggy who's arguably MORE scared than Orlam

I guess a lot of my alignment charts and whatnot can count as headcanons, but there’s a lot of them so here are just a few:

As well as these tags I added under one random post:

As for character specific headcanons…

Iggy:

•A majority of Iggy’s music taste is secretly nerdcore. Like fan songs for fandoms. Sometimes even fandoms for games/media he hasn’t even watched/played

•A few very personal and projection-y headcanons I have for Iggy is that he both has skin picking disorder if not also hair pulling disorder, and that he may just be voidkin. The weirdcore type of voidkin btw. I fully realise that carrot will have no idea what the latter means though aughhh/not negative

Gidget:

•Projecting my previously long haired AFAB enby experience onto Gidget like: I bet you they felt so relieved after cutting off allat. Literal weight off the shoulders JFC. No more harrowing mornings of trying to detangle allat. No more pulling your own hair while laying down.

•part of the reason why they're such an active LGBTQ activist is because a part of them is trying to compensate for how vaguely/subtly homophobic their highschool self was

Genzou:

•Genzou at some point watches MLP equestria girls, like for example with an older Saydie if not of his own volition, and CRIES at sunset shimmer's whole arc of learning to be a better friend/person, ESPECIALLY the whole "my past is not today" song

Bucks:

•Bucks having that condition that makes people unable to feel pain/feel it very mildly and that being why as a kid she was like. Oddly not scared of most things like most kids would’ve been. Also why she gets into all sorts of physical altercations and doesn’t mind them one bit. She just doesn’t know that it’s causing her damage. Therefore she also had many random near-death accidents as a kid that she just. Isn’t bothered by? She will just be telling a story like it’s a “haha get this funny thing that happened to me once” meanwhile everyone is just staring jaws agape like…oh my god….are you okay…

And now the absolute monolith(idek if I’m using that word correctly…but isn’t that in itself very much in Orlam fashion….) that is the list of Orlam headcanons because he’s the blorbo of all time to me:

•Orlam secretly listens to Taylor Swift

•Orlam would LOVEEEEE Chonny Jash’s CCCC album if only he knew of it…if only…

•Orlam would also listen to Olivia Rodrigo in his teen years. If her music was around then

•Because of Orlam’s fascination with the French language, he would listen to Indila and Stromae also

•Orlam is the type of guy to use baby girl unironically to flirt

•Opera fan Orlam... him doing some mundane things around the house only to randomly just start trying to hit those long high notes(emphasis on trying)

•Orlam would be the first to turn to cannibalism in a dire apocalyptic scenario.

[kbspangler]

We're going to start this by saying that—as much as we might want to—we will NOT yeet this person straight into the sun. They're asking questions which…make sense? I guess? In context? Especially for the Webtoons platform?

I mean, I'm so mad I had to get up and walk away for a while before writing, but.

(All of this was originally posted on a thread over on my Bluesky and I finished it before realizing that "webtoon" isn't capitalized so perhaps the researcher means it as a generic term like "webcomics," in which case some of the strongest pro-labor arguments don't apply at all and fuck everything forever, but let's resume.)

A well-known problem with the Webtoons platform is that "successful" comics which pay the artists a wage for their work require brutal labor to meet a regular update schedule.

It's not just comic panels, it's a vertically scrolling art display.

So the obvious answer is "Sod off, fancy lad" but they are actually asking questions which might address real problems: specifically, can a comics artist publishing on Webtoons improve their workflow so they aren't constantly broken by their job?

The researcher is also active in South Korea, where there's a known secondary layer of problems with South Korean comics creators publishing on the Webtoons platform, including pooled labor, contractual obligations, and monetization of time and original IP.

So the researcher is asking questions which might have value!

Meanwhile, Dr. Beer and myself are shouting "GOD I'M SO ANGRY" at each other in chat, because "might have value" is distinct and separate from what the researcher is proposing.

What the researcher is proposing MIGHT be along the lines of what @tkingfisher did when she tested Midjourney's storytelling capabilities and made an AI-generated comic. I don't think it is, tho. Could be wrong, but the phrasing indicates I'm not.

"…expedite their workflow…" How?

"…explore new creative ideas…" How?

"…produce higher-quality artwork…" HOW?!

The phrasing implies using an AI engine to generate some, if not all, of the comic. The researcher might be approaching comics creators to learn if they've considered any of these possible uses for AI, thus resolving the "How?"

The framing is positive, very much a "Have you considered what AI can do FOR you, to HELP you?"

The framing does not appear to take into account the negative aspects of using AI to make comics: Theft. Copyright. The intentional decisions artists make versus AI-derivative images.

Above all, the emotional attachment that comics creators have for the craft of telling their stories through art.

Which is why @alepresser and I have been shouting at each other for at least an hour about *waves hands* all of this, the idea that making comics somehow needs to be fixed, that AI is just another digital tool that can help us rather than something which strips the love away.

p.s.: please read our comics. We love making them. We hope you enjoy them.

A GIRL AND HER FED: science fiction with a healthy side of the supernatural

SIDE QUESTED: queer fantasy YA with a sassy vulture

[vren-diagram]

I’m moderately willing to play ball with “ability to accumulate $ correlates with ability to accumulate resource such-and-such”. Out of curiosity, what do you think the quality being measured actually is?

I honestly can’t figure it out, IQ is an easy guess, and almost everyone I knew in high school who was desperately stupid is financially struggling. That said, some of the smartest people I know are fairly impoverished post-grad students.

The tech/venture capital scene in general is dominated by people who frequently lack what I’d think of as trademark executive/leadership/“great man” qualities. Bezos seems vaguely normal in mannerisms and social vibe, and that’s high praise compared to the rest of them. Steve Jobs is one of the few I could see as a plausible charismatic and skillful leader.

It’s wildly low-hanging fruit, but Elon is consistently successful at acquiring and raising the stock value of businesses, but he’s also negatively charismatic and doesn’t even seem that bright. I can’t imagine taking the guy seriously as a leader, but he must have something going for him. (I also thought this when he was a much more centrist political figure)

I’ve noticed people who are highly successful in legacy industries, or who come from legitimate old money backgrounds, do seem to much more frequently have a noticeable version of some type of “vibe”. I work near an area with a lot of vacation homes for very upper crust people, and the very-multi-generationally wealthy often have an aura that the nouveau riche kind of lack.

You definitely see “it” in career military guys who made it to very high ranking positions, they’re just kinda built different in some way I can’t quite put my finger on. I met several of the Apollo astronauts, working in event security, and they were strangely impressive in person. Also solidly below average in height, as you’d expect for “guys who needed to be able to fold into a trashcan and get shot into space”.

I’ve got a buddy from high school who ended up a congressional staffer, and I’d say congressmen are split between aura-havers and completely normie small-business-manager types. No huge correlation with party, some real impressive people and some real bozos each way. Also doesn’t correlate with how much I want them in a position of power, JD Vance comes off like an absolute snake in the grass, but I don’t doubt that he’d be able to play his cards for success in a lot of scenarios.

I guess it depends on what we’re talking about when we draw the lines of rich, poor, and average. If you’re saying “many adults working for retail wages or living on the street have something badly wrong with them” that’s so obvious that it’s practically redundant. I’d expect that an awful lot of destitute poor people have some severe deficits of impulse control or long term planning. The upper-middle-class are disproportionately likely to be workaholics with enough brains to make it in a white collar field, and so on. I’m willing to consider that there’s some secret sauce that separates some of the extremely wealthy from the merely upper-class, but I can’t really put my finger on what it is.

At the “great men of history” end, obviously Napoleon has unbelievable value over replacement, but there are lot of people with quite a lot of money and power who don’t have those Jennies (certain je ne sais quoi). And I don’t think we’ve had any legitimate history book characters like that in a very long time, at least not in the last few decades of US politics.

the post kinda got to you, didn't it anon?

not everything that is is named.

[crystallizsch]

hi ian i come bearing angst fuel for the yuusha as twsted elsa (maybe an idea for her possible overblot idk she kinda reads to me as someone whod preemptively isolate in the case she feels...blotty)

(also seeing that art of her playing violin totally didnt fuck me up im still nursing my bruised heart 🥴🥴💕💕)

https://youtu.be/NDldNaEZTt8?si=Wm71pgTltuJLjFvk

^^this is from the frozen musical where they gave a song to elsa to explore her emotional turmoil and it just fleshed out her character so much more than the orig movie (ok i havent seen frozen 2 oops) but just this section here:

Is everyone in danger as long as I'm alive?

Was I a monster from the start?

How did I end up with this frozen heart?

Bringing destruction to the stage

Caught in a war that I was never meant to wage

anyways lmao i jus think the song is neat i think yuushas neat (i wanna see more of her ahehehe i love seeing infodumps abt ur yuus)

-diodellet

(throwback to this “what if yuu had magic” ask where i had a ✨realization✨ and this more recent yuusha lore drop that i gave zero elaboration on 🙃)

very rough ob yuu design??? idk i came up with it on the spot ;;; and it’s kinda based on disney’s concept art of elsa when she was supposed to be the villain.

evil ice queen vibes :3

also i know the ob monster is supposed to be based on the villain— which is elsa in this case— but lowkey. an ice monster is way cooler.

also also i just realized after i drew this i couldve done a grim/yuu tandem overblot ough 🤧🤧 (next time I'll do that instead if i ever go back to this concept)

(read more below because it got SO long)

AAH anyways hi hi dio!!! when i saw your ask i went —

— with this entire post

AAGH HOW MANY MORE UNINTENTIONAL CONNECTIONS ARE GOING TO BE BETWEEN FROZEN AND YUUSHA

i guess watching the movie everyday when it came out when you’re like 9 does something to your brain chemistry (and still haunts you at least a decade later) 💀

but anyways the angst ;;; overblot yuu ;;;;; my brain is rotting and the worms have taken over

also i didn’t even know that there was a frozen broadway musical so im gonna have to check it out later 🏃💨💨💨

(also dont worry frozen 2 is a nice watch for the most part but the way they concluded the characters did not feel 100% satisfying to me 😭 BUT i love some of the songs tho ;;; kristoff’s goofy 80s ballad song is one of them specifically, i need everyone to listen to it)

hfgnnfhfgv anyways thank you so much i’m chugging that angst fuel as i expand more on a possible ob yuusha with another infodump 💪💪💪

⚠️⚠️⚠️ ALSO IM SORRY BUT mentions of taking one’s own life so please proceed with caution ⚠️⚠️⚠️

i had to reread what my initial thoughts about it bc it was months ago??? and after rereading im just like, huh what was i on— (just that feeling when you just cringe at your old posts ;; but idk i think the insanity/cringe sometimes can loop back into being a genius and the cycle just continues)

anyways i’ve been on and off writing yuusha’s bio and overblot yuu was just at the back of my mind chilling but i didn’t really do anything with it.

but now that i have the opportunity,,,, im gonna go on the magicless route this time bc i feel like I've said all what i thought if it was an overblot due to her own magic.

so uh from what i gather overblots are a mix of overuse of magic + intense negative emotion.

since it’s magicless yuu, i guess the one of the general headcanons around the fandom is that they’ve been too exposed to overblots and then intense negative emotions suddenly just triggered their overblot.

uh anyways onto the elsa parts

Is everyone in danger as long as I'm alive? Was I a monster from the start? How did I end up with this frozen heart? Bringing destruction to the stage Caught in a war that I was never meant to wage

THE LYRICS ARE SO GOOD ;;; i really love how some broadway interpretations expand on the source material

and yeah you're right 🤧🤧🤧— yuusha would try to hide and escape, especially as she overblots bc she would try to avoid hurting people (and like elsa, it'd only hurt others more trying to escape bc of probably how she leaves destruction in her wake trying to make others stay away from her 😔)

(this is a small tangent but i remember thinking about an overblot kalim and i imagine him to be similar, like he would not hurt anyone intentionally in his overblot.)

anyways so the way it would go is that i imagine her friends got fatally injured either because a) she feels that she’s too “useless” without magic to help and wasn’t able to do anything OR b) her attempts at helping to try and prove that she can help without magic made everything worse.

and then she just goes into a guilty spiral then boom — overblot.

ALSO in the song, the way elsa briefly contemplated taking her own life but then realizing there’s no guarantee that would solve anything hnghgh (<- another unintentional parallel to my yuusha lore because that’s actually how she ended up in twst except she did NOT have the latter realization)

there’s this “yuu is dead” theory i’m just using and that the black carriage actually just caught yuusha’s soul after she took her own life from all the burden.

also some bonus angst context for that violin post :3

yuusha back in her homeworld is raised and known to be a gifted musician. people can feel the life and soul in her music but when people interact with her, they are usually met with an ice-cold (heh) personality.

the dead family member was the one who taught her music and the only one who was kind to her.

there’s always an expectation from her family to perform well and to keep up appearances as to not be a humiliation since anything she does can reflect on her entire family. (also hi, slight yuusha/jamil parallels maybe???)

the way she presents herself also stemmed from an incident as a child when she went apeshit on another kid bc she was defending a friend.

so from then on she was taught taught to conceal don’t feel those emotions — which just unfortunately extended to any positive ones, not just negative ones like rage.

so when she is brought to twst, there’s no memory of her being forced to hold back her emotions so she’s just unapologetically affectionate and open with everyone bc that’s how she really is.

but every now and then, memories of her breaking down haunt her in her dreams or as subtle reminders in the waking world.

then yuusha just goes on her day like she just wasn't reminded of her past.

(unnecessarily tragic lore my beloved, but anyway—)

another extremely brief tangent and bonus -> the two songs i had on loop while drawing pre-twst yuusha

lindsey stirling my beloved i love her music

the songs are such a vibe

her instrumentals in “lose you now” especially makes me feel some sort of way 😖

[theheirofthesharingan]

This is going to be a strange question, I think. I'm in the Naruto fandom peripherally. Kind of on again-off again, but I've always loved Itachi. I'm in another fandom as well, but I've run up against a similar issue in adoring controversial figures in the works. With your other asks, you come across as very much put-together. Seen it all twenty years ago kind of thing. So I was hoping for some advice.

How do you handle a fandom that treats a favored character poorly? It's not just the weird hatred, but it delves a little deeper. Like in fanworks that display the character as being a pedo even though it's not just unsubstantiated in canon, but pretty antithetical to the character himself. I can block and mute people on AO3 and other areas, but I guess it just gets to me. I know it shouldn't. Maybe I'm hoping for a coping mechanism or something.

Thank you for your time!

I think the deeper the love for the character is, the more it will piss you off. And the only way to survive this is that we grow a thicker skin. Even then, it can get under your skin, so I totally understand how you feel. I've always been drawn towards unpopular characters or the characters who were hated in the fandoms, so it's been hard for me to get into those fandoms, and if I did, staying in them was painful. Although, I've been active in only one fandom before Naruto, and it was exhausting there too.

The best way to deal with it would be that you ignore all the negative content on the characters and discuss things in your own little circle. When you write fics or create art, expect that circle to be your main audience. Everything else positive is just bonus. I avoid googling stuff about Naruto because I end up disliking most of the nonsense that's available on the characters. I haven't seen Itachi's portrayal as a pedo anywhere (are people writing that shit too about him, huh?), but I'm aware there are fics in which he's portrayed as a cold/abusive/manipulative person, which is completely not his canon personality. If there are people who believe those things, no way they're not writing anything like that in their fics, too.

And another thing he's a victim of (other than having a cancerous fanbase that measures his goodness as a person and a character based on his strength and skills instead of his complexity - which any sane fans of his would find disturbing) is all the misinformation about him. Why did they choose him to spread hate so much with all this. It's just so weird. These people aren't as intelligent as they think they are. And for me, it's super hard to take them seriously, because how do I take into account the opinions of the people who lack critical thinking and reading comprehension?

Sometimes I feel the foundation of the fandoms isn't love for the characters, but hypocrisy because so many feelings are involved and people don't realize when they're falling into this trap. They love one character for one thing in one fandom and then end up hating another character for the same thing in the same (or another) fandom.

For example, Itachi is an irredeemable criminal for killing people (after being groomed for years by adults around him) because he's pro-Konoha. But killing people if you're against the system is totally okay and characters like Madara/Pain/Obito shouldn't be antagonized for waging wars and dragging millions of innocent people into their ambitions more than Itachi ever did. Their manipulation, slow poisoning of the people's minds they influenced to achieve their goals is completely alright, solely because they're just trying to change the system. Similarly, Sasuke is "emo and edgy" for not being the sunshine after all the horrors he lived through and then wanting to destroy Konoha, but Obito waging war on the world makes him a "broken hero." These two species live on two different planes - one is dominant on Tumblr and the other on Insta (and both are probably on other platforms too, idk).

I guess it all will always be there. And so will the people who mischaracterize Itachi, Sasuke, and other characters. You can control some things but not everything. I've been in the fandom for a year or so, and I'm still ignorant about most of the things here other than ships. Basically this:

I might have gone off the tangent and I hope you got some answer you were looking for.

[veevil]

Get to know your mutuals! Thank you for tagging me @luckytv, @wyrm-mlm and @wishchip106

What's the origin of your blog title? My nickname is Vee and I love weevils. Nothing deeper than that!

OTP(s) + Shipname: Atm it's cherik, but I'm going to be a zukka and mailee enjoyer forever

Favourite colour: Army green, candy red

Favourite game: Fallout 4!

Song stuck in your head: Right now I have Gilded Lily by Cults stuck in my head

Weirdest habit/trait? I touch my face/hair a lot but it's not really a habit, it's just me stimming. I can't think of anything else

Hobbies: Gym and drawing (ik I'm boring)

If you work, what's your profession? I do remote IT help for a telephone company

If you could have any job you wish, what would it be? Realistically? A comfy office job in a small business without all this corporate bullshit

Something you're good at: Drawing ig

Something you're bad at: Baking

Something you love: Sugar free Monster energy

Something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: Nuclear accidents and radiation in general!

Something you hate: British people Having to wake up early

Something you collect: Ikea aliens, Fallout merch, books

Something you forget: I forgor

What's your love language? GIFT GIVING!!

Favourite movie/show: My favorite movie changes depending on what I'm into at that moment. Currently it's X-Men First Class. My favorite tv show I've watched is Breaking Bad

Favourite food: Persimmons! I could live off those things but I can get them for 3 months every year I'm so sad

Favourite animal: I like cats and spiders (I have both!) I've also really been into seals lately (thanks Wyrm)

What were you like as a child? I had to step into a caregiver role for my younger siblings at a very young age, so I was either doing that or self isolating. I did a lot of things on my own, and that's kinda how I picked up art. I needed something to do with my hands

Favourite subject at school? Art, history and religion (I am not religious in any way, but if you took out all the Christianity stuff it was basically just an extra history class.)

Least favourite subject: Math :/ now don't get me wrong, I like math but I just don't know how to math. I never got the support in school I needed in order to learn it and that made it a negative experience for me

What's your best character trait? I'm full of love and whimsy

What's your worst character trait? My insecurity and self isolating tendencies

If you could change any detail of your life right now, what would it be? I'd like to get a promotion at work so I'd actually make a living wage

If you could travel in time, who would you like to meet? I've never thought about this before! I don't have any celebs in mind, but I guess I'd like to go back and meet my great grandpa! He died 2 months before I was born, and my grandma tells me that I apparently saw his ghost as a child. He was a senior police constable and from what I've heard he was a good man. My grandma also says that he is probably my guardian angel and if so, poor dude. I guess he has done an okay job. I'm still alive!

I love sharing personal information on the internet (I'm this close to giving my legal name and address to my mutuals at any given moment)

Tagging: @altruistark @nyang-cheng my pookies

[snowy-equinox]

Snowy's Book Reviews - 'Cat Magick: Harness the Powers of Felines through History, Behaviors, and Familiars'

Rieka Moonsong, published 2023

I’ve always been drawn to animal-centered magic books, though they are often disappointingly formulaic. I’ve read at least 3 different books on “cat magic”, a type of magic that centers your craft around cats: Cat fur and whiskers are used in spells, deities associated with cats are your main entities, and much of the aesthetic is taken from cats directly. These points are often the breadth of these books, with the same correspondences, the same deities, the same chapters. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Moonsong deviates from the usual formula. She does not include a list of deities to worship based on a loose association with cats, and her writing is refreshing compared to other cat magic books I have read. Cat magic books often feel like they’re about your connection to your pet cat, instead of the idea of working with cat spirits and energy in a broader sense. Moonsong does a brilliant job of showing you the larger world of cat-based spirituality. 

I believe this might be due to a subtle, but important difference in perspective. Most ‘cat magic’ book authors believe that the cat itself is the familiar, but Moonsong believes that the familiar is a spirit that resides in your cat. By separating the pet from the familiar, she opens the possibility of spiritwork that isn’t focused on your pet specifically. For example, most authors plan their workings for when their cat is physically with them, but with Moonsong’s paradigm the familiar spirit can be present even when your cat is not. 

Of course, your pet cat is still a part of your practice and Moonsong does not neglect this. She talks about the importance of having cats in the home, and how to connect with your pet on a spiritual level. Unfortunately, this is where the book starts to fall apart for me. 

Moonsong makes bold claims about the extent of a cat’s protection. Before this section, she comes off as grounded and realistic. Here, however, she loses that quality nearly entirely. 

“While it may not be a frequent concern, the presence of a cat in the home can protect the residents from any hexes or curses that might be placed upon them. They can also stop psychic attacks meant to cause harm to their humans. The cat’s powerful auric field will absorb any negative energies that are being sent and transmute them.”

She writes as though simply owning a cat makes you invincible to spiritual attacks. Plenty of people who own cats have been successfully cursed, hexed, or haunted. I’m surprised that she has never met a cat owner who’s had to cleanse their space or banish entities. Moonsong also adds that this constant protection takes a lot out of cats, and is the reason they sleep all the time. I guess she forgot that feral cats and big cats sleep all the time too, despite not having a person to protect? Are they constantly under spiritual attack themselves? Who’s waging war on the Pallas’s cats in Asia? 

She links a lot of cat behavior to their protective properties. Throughout the book, it becomes a throughline; it’s the reason they sleep all the time, it’s the reason they stay near you, it’s the reason they sleep next to you at night. It can get overbearing, with this constant repetition shifting cats from being a loved pet to a living tool. I think Moonsong genuinely loves cats (and her own), but it can be very easy for people to come away from this book reducing cats to a warding system. 

“Pay close attention to how cats are behaving, especially in a home or personal space. When a cat is seemingly staring intently at nothing, this typically means that there is an energy or entity present there.” 

Usually, it means you have mice. Cats are ambush hunters, and will often sit and wait where they hear rodents in cabinets or behind walls so they can pounce when the rodent comes into view. Moonsong, despite writing an entire book on the nature of cats, does not mention this. She immediately jumps to this behavior being a sign of spirits in your home. 

She doubles down on this in a later paragraph about portals. Moonsong believes that portals (gateways to other realms or dimensions) can open randomly within your home and that “If you ever notice your feline friend returning to the same location in the home repeatedly to just sit, usually looking at a wall or the ceiling, this could mean that there is a portal there.” Again, it likely means you have rodents that return to the same spot, perhaps because of a nest or food cache in that particular location.  

Her paragraph on portals is interesting even when divorced from cat magic. Moonsong says portals can be opened accidentally, but gives no further explanation on what can open portals (besides spirit boards like Ouija, which is a common misconception). Normally, I would call this fear-mongering, however Moonsong seems pretty blase about portals, at least as long as you have a cat. She says that all you need to do to close a portal is ask your cat to help you as you burn an herb near the portal. 

Moonsong is a Wiccan High Priestess, and it shows. The Goddess is mentioned a lot in her writing. It becomes more apparent in her chapter on big cats; despite the chapter’s refreshingly unique subject, each species is assigned either Divine Masculine or Divine Feminine energies. It doesn’t make sense to ascribe Masculine/Feminine to animals, which can be either sex. As an example, the lion is associated with Divine Masculine energies. Given that lions are the only cats with an obvious sex difference, and it’s the only cat she assigns Masculinity to, her Masc/Fem assignments start to feel more psychological than spiritual. Moonsong makes no mention of lionesses in this chapter or the next one where she gives a ritual to summon a lion spirit. If you want to work with lionesses specifically, you’re out of luck; if a lioness appeared to you and now you aren’t sure if she carries Divine Masculine or Divine Feminine energies, Moonsong won’t tell you.

Another section to note comes near the end of the book. The author discusses Native American beliefs around cats, and how to work with power animals. Rieka Moonsong identifies as an Andean shaman, and while I cannot vouch for the validity of this claim, I did not enjoy her use of the term ‘shaman’, as it is specific to Siberian tribes and is not an accurate title for any of the groups she discussed. ‘Power animals’ is a Native American concept that, as far as I know, is closed to non-indigenous peoples. By reducing all of these cultures’ traditions to “shamanism”, Moonsong has allowed herself to take part in their practices since she is also a shaman. She is stepping over boundaries and advising her readers to do the same. 

She finishes the book out with your usual “beginner witchcraft book” correspondences–basic lists of herbs, crystals, candle colors, moon phases, etc. She doesn’t tie any of them to cat magic, seemingly adding them for the sake of this being a witchcraft book. Moonsong does include some mentions of chakras in certain candle color associations, and she does include a chakra ritual in the book. 

In the end, I have mixed feelings. Her perspective is original and I love that this book deviates from the usual topics of other ‘cat magic’ books, but unfortunately the author’s perspective is not one I can get behind. Her chapter on Native American lore and practices also left a bad taste in my mouth, and I think anyone who would like to check out her work should keep those views in mind.

[erlann]

honestly people should steal more in my opinion. shoplift specifically, not like rob people on the street. like shoplifting when you're poor or when something is getting overpriced due to capitalism etc. I feel like it should be more normalized idk call me crazy.

like, pirating feels similar. you're not paying for a product whose pricing and (intellectual) property is problematic and whose cost doesn't fully reflect how much it's actually worth. plus you pirating a movie or a game has a negligible effect on the authors of that movie or game. same with shoplifting like a candy at a big supermarket. neither the candy company nor cashier # 28 who rang the rest of your stuff and dint notice the candy and is still going to get their same old minimum wage at the end of the day are going to feel that shoplifted candy.

now, morally speaking, or in mathematical (game theory) terms, obviously the situation is different. from a game theory point of view for example, if *you* have the right to shoplift, and you surely can't dictate who else can shoplift and who can't, then *everybody* can and should shoplift, and they should shoplift any amount they feel like shoplifting, at that. which means that if everybody shared my ideals then the economy would crumble. but obviously not everybody shoplifts and it was never my point to make everyone shoplift. still it's a valid discussion point: who can and can't shoplift? who should and shouldn't?

but I guess what I wanted to say originally was I wish it was a bit more normalized. Like I wish a friend could tell another friend that they shoplifted something in a moment of need because they were really running short on savings, and get no negative reaction. like it just sounds okay to me, I wouldn't judge. I'd actually be worried for this person and help them out if I can. or like, in another scenario. if somebody told me that like they stole a bath bomb from lush. girl like I don't care lush is overpriced and they aren't going to feel that one stolen item. why the hell would I reprimand you. I'm not the pope or anything

btw I didn't shoplift anything recently lol. the last time I stole something it was a couple overpriced souvenirs in greece like 10 years ago. it's just that I think about shoplifting sometimes when I go to the supermarket. not like, thinking about stealing something myself. just thinking that if I saw someone steal food I would absolutely ignore that (but I would look at the cameras instantly and possibly warn the person if I think they were seen by the cameras)

I have pirated media though. I pirate stuff all the time. I'm going to have a hard time when I move to germany for sure cause their copyright laws are stricter and people actually get warnings/fees from their ISPs over piracy. in italy the situation is much more chill and as long as you don't traffic stuff like child porn you're never going to get any warrant or anything. the goddamn agcom keeps blocking piracy websites though, like igg games or some thepiratebay domains and it's insanely annoying. anyway the main point of the post was shoplifting I guess lol