#or general merch review/commentary is VERY welcome

[sisterdaniela]

questions for the people who got the photocards: are they sold in a pack? if so, is it random? also how much money for how many cards? do u think it's worth it or it would be better to use that money for other items? 🥲

[equivalentexchangeanthology]

About / FAQs

The Equivalent Exchange Anthology will be a ship-friendly project open to Fullmetal Alchemist creators of all types. Content about any and all FMA characters and ships will be allowed (with appropriate ratings and warnings). Hate, harassment, or disparagement of contributors will not be tolerated.

The project will have multiple parts*:

A printed zine of gen fanwork and meta**

A printed zine of SFW ship-based fanwork

A digital zine of NSFW content (including a section for ship-based content and a section for gen)

A digital zine of NSFW ship content, including trigger-heavy content

 (*This general project structure is provisional and open to change, as the final scope of the project will depend on contributions. Under no circumstances will an alteration of the structure result in SFW and NSFW content being mixed into the same project.)

(**Meta can be personal essays about what makes FMA meaningful to you, analyses of characters, themes, or details from canon, stories about your experience with FMA, or another type of non-fiction)

What is a zine? A zine is an unofficial fan-made publication compiling textual and visual contributions from fan creators.

What is the theme of this project? We want to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Fullmetal Alchemist by letting creators express their love for FMA however they like! We are leaving this very open-ended on purpose. This fandom is full of creative people with varying perspectives – to us, the most important thing about FMA is the message that all of us coming together despite our differences is what gives us strength. The name “Equivalent Exchange” was selected to highlight the way that being a part of the fandom has given us so much in return for what we’ve put in, which is another element that we’d love to incorporate into the project.

What do you mean by “meta”? “Meta” in the context of this project can be any non-fictional content that someone wants to create: character analysis; thematic analysis; extended commentary on a scene or plot point; a short essay about your personal experiences with and/or your discovery of FMA; what FMA has meant to you. A description of the work or process that went into a cosplay or another type of fan creation could also fall into this category. You can find more information on what could qualify as “meta” here!

Will there be merchandise? Yes! We will have merch bundles available, and it will be possible to purchase them together with the zine parts of the project, or on their own.

What is the schedule? The full schedule is available here! Pre-orders will open August 1st and remain open until October 3rd.

Will the project have a Discord server? Yes! The Discord server, as well as periodic emails, will be the primary methods used for communication with contributors. The Discord server is carefully organized by project, so that contributors will only have access to content for the project they are contributing to. The server will be SFW by default, except for the project-specific spaces for the NSFW projects, and all server spaces will be moderated. All of the general “chat” channels will be strictly SFW.

Who can apply? Anyone who loves FMA, wants to create for it, and respects others in the fandom regardless of differences in fictional preferences (character interpretations, ships, etc.). Contributors must be prepared to collaborate with others despite differences of opinion, and should not have a history of shaming, belittling, or attacking others based on what they enjoy in fanwork. In short, applicants’ philosophy should be “Ship and let ship”!

Can people under 18 apply? As long as an applicant under 18 is legally old enough to work in their country of origin, their application will be reviewed. (Contributors under 18 will only be permitted to apply to, contribute, and view SFW content.)

How many contributors will be accepted? We don’t have a maximum number of contributors as of yet. For the two SFW physical zines, we will determine the number of contributors based on page limitations, but each SFW zine will have an extended digital PDF version to include contributors whose work or full work won’t fit into the printed zine. The all-digital NSFW PDF components will be able to accommodate more contributors. We’ve designed the project in the hopes of including as many creators as possible.

What will be required for an application? We will ask for a few samples of work similar to what you would be contributing (this does not necessarily have to be FMA fanwork), as well as your social media accounts and email address.

I haven’t created for FMA in a while… all my FMA work is old. In my application, can I submit more recent sample works from other fandoms instead? Yes, that’s fine! Having at least one FMA sample in your application (regardless of the application type) is great, but not required. We would mostly just like to get an idea of your style, so please feel free to submit samples that you think represent you well, regardless of the fandom!

Are all ships accepted in the ship-oriented parts of the project? Yes. As long as you are willing to tag and warn as appropriate, all ships are welcome. We will expect contributors to tag and warn diligently, to be mindful of others’ sensitivities, and to keep ship-related discussion in the appropriate parts of the server.

Can I contribute adult and/or controversial content? Yes. As above, all contributors will be required to tag and warn carefully with their submissions and when interacting with other contributors, to use the appropriate channels on the server at all times, and to respect others’ boundaries. The NSFW projects will only be open to contributors who are 18 or older.

I’d like to apply, but I don’t like certain ships and have some triggers. Will I have to see this content in the Discord server? While we can’t guarantee that you won’t encounter content that you would prefer to avoid, we will be compartmentalizing ship content, NSFW content, and potentially triggering content as much as possible in the Discord server. We are counting on all contributors to help us with this, and will do our best to facilitate a safe and friendly collaborative environment!

Do podfic recorders have to edit their own podfics as well as recording them? How many recordings will be expected, and how will work be assigned? Anyone who is accepted to record podfics for the Anthology is welcome to edit their own podfics, or to submit unedited podfics to our moderator team. We have a few mods who have volunteered to help others edit their audio.

Applicants accepted to record podfics would be able to choose which works they wanted to record for, so that everyone can edit an amount and specific content that they’re comfortable with. The total amount will depend somewhat on the amount of textual contributions that we end up accepting. Several of our mods will be helping to record any works not selected by applicants, in the hopes of making as complete a collection as possible (including descriptions of visual content). Depending on the amount of effort that we’re able to recruit, we hope to record podfics at least for every submission in the two SFW zines (fanfics for which will have a wordcount limit of 3,000 words, whereas PDF-only fics may be slightly longer).

Applications for podfic recorders are due by March 7, 2021, but the acutal recordings will be done between July and September (after text and art are finalized, while pre-orders and layout work take place).

Are AU (Alternate Universe) works allowed? Yes! AU works (canon-divergence, alternate universes, crossovers, etc.) will be accepted, both for application samples and for final contributor submissions if desired. Any AU works in the final Anthology will be tagged and described clearly.

Is this a 20-year anniversary project? Yes! We are hoping to open pre-orders in July to celebrate 20 years of Fullmetal Alchemist. It is not required that this theme is represented in any of the contributions, but it would certainly be welcome!

I am a recent pro-shipper. Some people may remember things that I did and said in the past that were not pro-ship, but I have changed my stance. Can I apply? As mentioned above and in the Contributor Protection Policy, our first priority is the safety and comfort of all of our contributors. Each application and applicant will be reviewed by our team, and decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis as to whether we anticipate that an applicant would be able to work well and interact positively with other contributors.

Is this project for-profit, or for charity? We are currently planning to donate half of the proceeds to the Archive of Our Own (AO3), and divide the remaining half evenly among all contributors to compensate them for their work.

I’m a little confused about the different parts of the zine. Could it all be combined into one zine? Our intention with this project is to provide space to as many creators, and as many different types of content, as possible – specifically including NSFW content and/or ships that are often not permitted – but to also make it easy for purchasers to choose only the content they are interested in or comfortable with. So you can think of it as four separate projects, with different “ratings” but with the same goal of inclusion. Dividing the project into subsections will allow us to accept more contributors overall!

In addition to making it more difficult to delineate types of content, ratings, and warnings, combining the projects into one zine would likely result in an extremely long volume. This would raise shipping costs for physical copies, and also make the digital version into a very large file! Our goal is to make it possible for people to buy a single project that they will enjoy every page of; or to bundle multiple projects together if they’re interested in several or all of them.

A lot of zines fail or turn out to be scams. Is your mod team experienced and prepared to see this through? We kept our moderator bios a bit more personal, but many of our mods have prior experience with multiple zines from start to finish. Mai is the lead mod on another zine that is currently open for pre-orders, as well as the finance mod on three others in progress; Feo has been a mod on ten zines, one of which she headed and several of which have reached completion; and Noct has headed two zines, been a mod on four others, and contributed to six more. Kari has also modded and contributed to over a dozen zines; and Getti has been the lead mod for a completed zine and has contributed to numerous others. Many of our other mods have real-world and/or paid work experience relevant to the project: Grace has extensive editorial experience and a background in print and online journalism, and also runs events for work in the RL sphere; and Tierfal regularly runs ship weeks and fandom events, and has been coordinating events as part of her day job for many years. Some of our moderators have not participated in a zine before, but are longtime fandom contributors, organizers, beta-readers, and more; or have additional relevant experience and skills, which they are excited to dive in and apply!

Since the full scope of the project will be determined in part by the number of applications that we receive for each section, we wanted to have a lot of hands on deck to make sure that we can divide the work fairly without anyone getting overwhelmed.

To make a long story short: we trust our team, and we're passionate about this project. We hope that you will be, too!

[iwritesometimes]

welcome to my ted talk on bugs

or, how to recommend your favorite video game that you’ve barely played

in the LJ days, we’d have called this a ~primer~ and been grateful for whatever shitty watermarked jpegs we could get to load on our sometimes-unpredictable university internet connections. now, however, i can offer you a full multimedia presentation on a little game i think you should all buy, regardless of whether you’re actually interested in playing it...a little game i like to call

and not just me - its developer, australian indie outfit team cherry, also like to call it that! they called it that when they created a kickstarter for it way back in 2014, earning well past their modest budget goal, which allowed them, in 2017, to release a beautiful, brutal little indie platformer (a metroidvania, for those of you familiar with the term) about a lost and dying kingdom of bugs suffering under a mysterious scourge that infects the minds of what few poor souls remain.

welcome to hallownest.

(as you read, you may want to set the mood with the game’s main theme - i’ll come back to the music later!!)

you are a small but mighty knight drawn to the kingdom for reasons unknown - not quite part of this world, but vital to it somehow. you venture into the underground caverns and crevices wielding your fierce nail (which is just exactly sword-sized for you) and a growing mastery of VOID and SOUL energies, mysterious but powerful.

you will explore hidden passageways and decaying ruins, meet deadly enemies and unexpected friends, and poke through the wreckage of a civilzation’s sins and triumphs, reconstructing a portrait of this place and yourself, piece by piece, if you’re patient and curious enough to tackle every last corner of this sprawling nest.

here’s where my full disclosure comes in: i haven’t beaten this game. i haven’t even gotten onto the same continent as ���beating this game,” let alone finishing all 40ish hours of its content. i got...*checks game clock* not quite ten hours into it, kept getting my ass handed to me by a boss, and put the game down for a break. that was...more than six months ago, now, while i let myself get distracted with other interests and other games (y’all should totally play celeste, too, if you’re at all into platformers!), but lately i started listening to the soundtrack again, which got me to watching some youtube videos (which is how i originally discovered it, watching day9′s playthrough), which dragged me right back into my wholly unhealthy obsession with this game.

because i am. i am obsessed with it. it’s one of those perfect combinations of “artistic choices designed to punch every last happy button in sarah’s brain” and it hammers on each and every one of them until i’m left scouring youtube and the subreddit scrounging for whatever scrap of lore or fun fan theory i can get my grubby little paws on, like some sort of feral stimulus-starved idiot who could just be playing the game instead. it’s a sad, dark story that reveals itself almost entirely in context clues from the environment and random comments made by npcs; there are very few cutscenes, and it expects you to do the leg work of exploring and learning and piecing together the whole picture (and then perhaps to do a bit of wild theorizing and wiki-crawling to fill in the gaps). it has the most unique, endearing art style - hand-drawn sprites that look straight out of a children’s picture book in lush, painterly environments dripping with a sort of insectoid-art nouveau sensibility and seemingly lit from within, beautiful shafts of light and light bloom effects and light particles dancing all over the screen. the soundtrack is fucking phenomenal, created by christopher larkin as a piano-and-strings-heavy jaunt through wildly varying landscapes, all sinking under a gorgeously sad, funerary feeling, all this dying beauty and lurking danger around you. each boss and zone has a fantastic and individual theme all their own; my favorites are:

dirtmouth

hornet

mantis lords

city of tears

dung defender

queen’s gardens

nosk

and the game world is MASSIVE, unfolding itself bit by bit to an almost ludicrous size - part of what i find daunting about the game is its sheer hugeness, although this is mitigated by The Gaming World’s Greatest Fast Travel System Ever - a stag beetle taxi service!! i would die for this large man.

the other part of the game that’s daunting, though, is that it’s hard as fucking nails. there is no easier setting or an assist mode like in celeste; while the game is pretty generous with powerups and very customizable to your playstyle with different abilities you can swap out to change your battle plans, the combat is very demanding, relying on precise timing and execution. fighting is in itself a bit like platforming in hollow knight, very aerial and dependent upon using enemies as launching-off points that reset your double jump and air dash abilities. it’s incredibly fun to play, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not easy. i’m not sure, even if i tried, that i could ever beat this game, which is the other thing that’s kept me from playing it and instead had me just immersing myself in the lore and in videos to see the story unfold. it’s kind of scary!

having said that, though? this game is $15 US American human dollars. let me repeat that: fifteen ($15) smackers gets you 40+ hours of content (the main story with the Good Ending will take you somewhere between 30 and 50 hours depending on if you’re slow and dumb like me, but there’s a good deal of optional content and extra bosses that aren’t necessary to 100% the game) and one of the prettiest, most imaginative, best-sounding, and engrossing gaming experiences i’ve ever come across, not to mention one of the largest maps and some of the most challenging platforming and combat ever put into a metroidvania. oh, and three separate included DLCs. by the way. for $15.

if for no other reason, please buy this game to support a small team of innovative game designers whose passion is clear in every frame of this gorgeous little bug adventure, so that they can keep making excellent titles like this for me to wax poetic about on tumblr. the game is available on steam, gog, and the humble store, and will soon (this year, though the date hasn’t dropped yet) be out on switch. where i will buy it again. and then probably buy some merch. because if i could personally fund team cherry in their endeavors forever, i would!! but, in lieu of that, i’ll just bug everyone i ever meet to buy their game.

(get it? bug everyone???? do you g--DO YOU GET IT???)

if you’re interested in more info, or you think the gameplay might not be for you but want to see more of the story, have some additional links!

a couple of game trailers

a 100% completion run of the game, including the Good Ending - not ideal because the streamer does occasionally fast-forward through bits of backtracking, BUT there’s no voiceover commentary and he interacts with a lot of npcs so you can follow along with the story a bit better. also he’s playing a game mode that forces him not to die even once, so you don’t have to watch a lot of replaying and corpse runs.

joseph anderson’s long-form critique/review - spoilery and in-depth, but smart and insightful, although he’s a hardass gamer so his criticism sometimes comes down on the game being too easy for him. lol -_-

the full soundtrack. LISTEN TO IT. and then go throw money at the composer for it, it’s only $10. or you can buy it bundled with the game on steam and gog!

the wiki

the subreddit

the tumblr tag FULL OF GLORIOUS ART and a few dubious nudes of um. insects. the internet’s a cornucopia of gifts, y’all.

the ao3 tag, where you will find me, gorging myself on fic while i continue to procrastinate on playing the game.

[happymetalgeek]

On the second edition of Shizznigh’s Misfits takeover at Voodoo, following a visit from Doyle in July 2018, Belfast welcomed the esteemed former frontman and horror-buff Michale Graves to Voodoo Belfast. Who’s next on his hit-list, I’m sure we’ll soon find out.

Mr Graves entered the infamous fiend club in 1995, performing with the legendary outfit for over 6 years. During this time, Graves is credited with writing a number of their synonymous hard-hitting anthems (and fan-favourites) including ‘Dig Up Her Bones’, ‘Scream!’ and ‘American Psycho’. During this time, he also collaborated with horror director, and “the father of the zombie film”, the iconic George A. Romero. Beyond these staples in his long career, Michale has prolifically produced a plethora of studio albums, further produced and directed films, and tours relentlessly for the most part of any year. Before pillaging Voodoo, the outfit already fulfilled 20 dates, and this current leg of his world tour still has another 7 dates to go. Sir, I commend your energy and work-ethic!

Cadaver Club

Tonight, a resurrection was witnessed. County Fermanagh’s very own ghoulish quartet Cadaver Club opened proceedings, performing again in Belfast in over a bloody era! I last saw the band a  long time ago (2014, I think?), and I remembered slashing rhythms, frantic bass runs, snarling lyrics and American-hardcore stylings throughout. That same hysterical energy and attitude were unleashed again to the growing crowd entering Voodoo.

Faces caked in white paint, fast-paced and punchy, Cadaver Club kept their set solid and to the point, with bangers from the crypt, whilst funeral director Mr Crowe strutted around the stage in his stud-cladded funeral attire. If the band are reading this, don’t take too long bringing the funeral march back to the city, we missed ya!

So Long Until The Seance

Did someone mention SLUTS? Belfast’s cherished zombie-tinged metallers brought forth an abundance of riffs and, ahem, Tommy’s florescent tiger stripped trousers. Previous tour companions of Michale Graves, Doyle and Wednesday 13 – So Long Until The Séance were on point. It was the best and most enthusiastic set I’ve seen the band perform to date. Between Mike’s extended vocal range, punchy rhythms and low-end from Gary and Tom, and extremely tight harmonizing and frantic soloing from Tommy and Nick – the boys were guns-a-blazing to impress from the very first note, pulling shapes in their trashy attire.

The set consisted of old and new tunes, including favourites‘ Stake Through My Heart’, the infectiously-catchy ‘Dead Pretty’ and the latest single ‘Spider to the Fly’ which evokes the band’s personal love of HIM more transparently. It was also a surprise to see the cobwebs blown off Little Miss Stake’s anthem ‘Mina’ in the mix. Nicely done lads!

Always great to see our local talent giving it their all at these events.

Noise Pollution

Tour support on this leg comes in the form of Noise Pollution, all the way from Bologna, Italy. I was completely unfamiliar with the band prior to this show, but through a little research, soon discovered they have shared stages with some big names in rock and metal including Black Stone Cherry, The Darkness and Deathstars.

The 5-piece, fronted by Amedeo ‘Ame’ Mongiorgi, brought the hard n’ heavy to the Belfast crowd, reminding me of bands like Shinedown and Black Label Society through their crunchy riffs and song-stylings. The Italian crew put on a great set, keep things loud and provided an interesting contrast towards the atmosphere created. I look forward to their return to the Emerald Isle in the future.

Michale Graves

Embracing the Skele-crow to the unexpected sounds of Imagine Dragon’s ‘Radioactive’ over the PA – Graves stood stationary bathed in red-light for almost five minutes whilst his gang of rouges (which included Argyle Goolsby, founder of the infamous horror punk outfit Blitzkid) finished setting up. The crows came to the killing field from the bar down the back, awaiting their feed…

Suddenly, Michale became animated and the sold-out crowd thrusted forward to the sounds of the distortion overloaded rock n’ roll monster ‘Bedlam’. Michale Graves came to destroy, to push the energy levels to their limit, and that he most certainly did. With a set perfectly balanced between his work with the Misfits and his own solo efforts, particularly of his 2016 album ‘When Worlds Collide’ – The frontman and his gang put all their energy into the uncompromising and vigorous 90-minute set presenting fans with an aural bombardment to sate their zombie-like appetites justly! Michale’s vocal performance was commanding and strong throughout, with his band tightly laying down the law in their toll.

Highlights of the set for me included Grave’s own solo material ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and ‘When World’s Collide’, with visceral Misfits’ anthems ‘American Psycho’, ‘Scarecrow Man’, and ‘Pumpkin Head’. In lieu of the usual encore exit-entrance, Michale chose to address his audience, speak from the heart, and present a more honest commentary of life in general. With a further selection of tracks to blast through, rounding off the night in style, Michale and the gang ended on renowned tracks and singles including ‘Dig Up Her Bones’ and ‘Helena’. This show is easily up there in the top 3 gigs I’ve seen in Voodoo over the years (or as it’s better known in my household, my ‘second home’). Might I add, that he and his crew are absolute gentlemen, and after that relentless 90-minute set, Michale stood for over an hour down at the merch table taking photos, talking to attendees and signing goods.

Thanks for keeping the spirit(s) happy, Michale! Looks like we already have a trophy-holder for best gig of the year, and it’s only the end of January!

Review by Steven Donnelly

GIG REVIEW: @Michale_Graves Dig Up The Hits At Voodoo Belfast @solonguntilthe1 @NProckband @CadaverClub @shizznighpr On the second edition of Shizznigh’s Misfits takeover at Voodoo, following a visit from Doyle in July 2018, Belfast welcomed the esteemed former frontman and horror-buff Michale Graves to Voodoo Belfast.