#overelaborately

[digitalfishwish]

Kit's Traybake Pancakes (cinnamon apple var.) - Updated!

Love eating pancakes but hate making them? This traybake pancake recipe may be for you! Making these gives me enough pancake squares for 6 days (5 if you eat two on the day you make them). They’re fluffy, reheat well, can either be eaten with or without maple syrup, and are very customizable! I recommend adding fruit and protein powder like I do in this recipe, making it a (slightly) healthier breakfast than just pure carbs.

(Updated) instructions under the cut!

Full disclosure, the base for this recipe was the mug pancake recipe from Emma’s Goodies, which you can watch here!

I made this mug pancake for years (except with tripled portions because I was using a very big mug) and it was super delicious! However, for just one mug pancake, it was a bit of a production and didn’t feel super worth it. Thusly, I have adapted the recipe to be made in a 13”x9” baking tray, which makes a whole lot of breakfast.

Recipe (serving size: 2 squares):

Base Ingredients:

12 tbsp. butter (I use salted, if you don’t have salted butter, add a small amount of kosher salt to your recipe)

9 tbsp. (1/2 cup+ 1 tbsp) granulated sugar

12 fl.oz. milk (I use skim, use whatever kind you like)

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp. baking powder

Customizable Ingredients:

1 scoop protein powder (I use vanilla flavored whey)

1/4 cup of maple syrup (ideally not pancake syrup, they’re different)

1 apple (I use McIntosh or Honeycrisp)

A piping hot cup of apple tea with a heaping tablespoon of honey

Nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom to taste, for sprinkling on top

Base Instructions:

Heat oven to 375°F, take out a 13”x9” nonstick baking pan and spray bottom and sides with cooking spray (yes theoretically I know you don’t need to spray a nonstick pan but better safe than sorry).

If you choose to put apple chunks in, I recommend doing this step first. I personally like to let the chunks soak in my favorite loose leaf apple tea (non-sponsored plug)! Boil a cup of water and fill the tea infuser with tea. Add a heaping tablespoon of honey to the cup and stir until it dissolves. Then put them infuser in and steep the tea for three minutes, after which you should give the mug a final stir and pour it into a bowl. See “customizable instructions, steps 2-4” for how I recommend cutting the apple. After that, put the peeled apple chunks into the bowl of delicious tea and let them soak until it’s time to add them later on!

If you’re not putting apple in, do this step first. Put butter in a bowl and melt it in the microwave. I recommend microwaving for 1m20s.

Put butter in a stand mixer, preferably with the paddle attachment. While you heat the milk in the microwave* (40 seconds, I use a glass liquid measuring cup), add the granulated sugar to the mixer. Once the milk is heated, give it a real quick stir, and then add it and use one of the lower settings on your mixer.

(If you have customizable wet ingredients, add them now!)

Add the flour and baking powder, mix again on low setting until it forms a batter (a small amount of lumps is okay from what I’ve heard, you don’t want to overmix).

*You can’t put cold milk into hot butter, it will form little clumps and be gross

Customizable Instructions:

Add a 1/4 cup of maple syrup (as above, preferably before the flour, with the other wet ingredients), and also one scoop of your preferred protein powder. Mix on low setting until it’s incorporated.

Peel the apple wedges with a peeler (don't use the skin, you'll thank me later). If you have an apple cutter (the thing that looks like a wheel with handles), use that. If you don’t:

Take your apple and a large, sharp knife (be careful) and cut the apple in half vertically. Then place it down with the core side up, and cut each apple half like so: cut off the left side, avoiding the core, followed by the right. Then turn what’s left of the half apple on its side, and cut off the last piece at the back. Do the same for the other apple half, then chop the segments into whatever sized chunks you want.

Use as much of it as you want, but I myself use the whole apple. (If you don’t, eat whatever segments you don’t intend to use for a lil snack.) Then put apple chunks into mixer, and half the tea if you made it, and mix until incorporated. (Drink what tea remains, it’s even more delicious now that the fresh apple’s been in it!)

Baking Instructions:

Pour batter into greased baking tray, shake the pan until the batter is flattened and reaches all the corners (or use a spatula and spread it evenly by hand). Optional: Sprinkle the top with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom according to your tastes. I tend to have a heavy hand even if I don’t mean to, but it still comes out very tasty! (and smells great while baking!)

When the oven reaches temperature (if you preheated it at the beginning, it may have already been at temperature for a while) put the pan in and cook for 35 mins. Know your oven and if it tends to be hotter or colder*, adjust cook time as necessary.

When the timer goes off, test the center in several places with a toothpick. As long as it doesn’t come out goopy, you’re good! (crumbs on the toothpick is fine) I say test in several places because if you accidentally go through a piece of apple, your toothpick may come out slightly wet, but that doesn’t mean the pancakes aren’t done. If it's not done, cook in intervals of 5 minutes, testing each time the timer goes off.

Take pan out and use a butter knife or a pie serving spatula and poke around the edges of the pan to free the pancake traybake from the edges. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Cut into squares. I tend to cut 12 pieces, but you could go smaller or larger depending on how much you intend to eat at once.

*How do I know if my oven runs hot or cold, you may ask? If any recipe you make comes out raw and/or takes longer to cook than the instructions say, your oven is colder! If your food ends up burnt and/or takes less time to cook than the recipe instructions say, your oven is hotter!

Enjoy! I eat two squares at a time and it makes a good breakfast! For storing, put however much of it you can eat in 2-3 days in the fridge. Store the rest in the freezer.

For any customizing other than what I did, use whatever fruit, spices, syrups, and/or protein powders you want! Just be aware that more fruit in the batter means it may take longer to cook!

If you make them, either the same way I did here or differently, let me know how they came out!

OLD EDIT: After some experimentation, it seems like the pancakes come out more moist if baked for 35 minutes at 375°F! I also soak the apple pieces in a cup of “Apple Blood Tea” (find it on adagio teas, it’s super delish!) with honey at the beginning of the process, then add the ‘marinated’ apples and half a cup of the tea into the batter.

NEW EDIT 09/2024: I just changed the recipe whether it needed changing, since I realized that changing stuff behind the readmore didn’t transfer to previously reblogged posts 😫 I also added image descriptions.

[monocycle-of-fresh-cut-grass]

i've had this idea for so long

POV green team

[rabbit-rays]

you came in with your jaw torn, still talking

[creaturefeaster]

I have some questions for OC reasons- how young do natural born werecats start manifesting their abilities to transform and whatnot? (Also are werecat babies called werekittens :3)

Natural born werecats tend to have their abilities kick in a little earlier than turned werecats, but both manifest in the teenage years. ((Adults turned werecats go through a short period of succumbing to the curse before they begin to transform.))

Zack started being able to turn by the age of 14, which is a pretty average age for it to start. Fernando got a head start at the age of 12. Compared to Vilmr, who at the beginning of the story (age 18) is in the middle of the throes of that same werecat puberty, though a little late even for a turned werecat.

Instincts and mood swings kick in earlier than the physical transformation part of felinthropy, natural borns going through moody/feisty phases usually starting anywhere from 8 to 10.

Something else to note between natural vs. turned werecats is that natural borns tend to chill out and have better control over their cat side much sooner than turned.

Also yes, baby werecats are called werekittens. Usually just shortened to kittens in the cat community.

[chronicowboy]

would be so funny if madney are audited by the irs because they took advantage of buck's new math skills to file their taxes but they'd already worn off and buck didn't want to let them down and he thought 'how hard could it be? i do my own' and then proceeds to beef it so hard his sister and brother-in-law almost go to jail

[apoapsis]

@harnessed-the-harness // ♥ [emperor verse]

            If anyone had told him it would be this relatively easy, he would have done everything his way from the very start.  

Sad, to think of all the time SIGMA had wasted, struggling to find things to re-enchant himself with the life he now lived, post-incarceration. So much time and potential poured into absolutely nothing at all. Joining TALON was a monumental setback under SIGMA’S stewardship– and yet under SIEBREN’S stricter discipline, now they receive all the things promised. And when he finally sets foot upon the COLONY once more to receive what was rightfully his, every fruit had been of his own labor– not SIGMA’S. As TALON began to take a better liking to SIEBREN instead for his combative prowess and superior performance within the field, SIGMA had been pushed further and further into the recesses of what had ultimately become just as much a prison in the metaphysical world as TALON was in the material world.  

            It had served him right; each and every success had been treated with only a stark, uncharacteristic indifference so very unlike his counterpart. As if nothing he achieved thereafter held any merit– it was only more fuel for the wildfire consuming him from within, burning everything he touches. By the time he had achieved what he truly desired, biting at the bit TALON had placed within his vicious mouth, his counterpart was already near-nonexistent. Hiding away from the atrocities he was committing by the day, the coward. The emotional abandonment only further feeds the vile, volatile beast of his ego, all-consuming and devouring any obstacle within his path. Without SIGMA’S moral restraint, all was now permissible. 

And he’s insatiable, consuming destruction with reckless abandon.

            His first course of action upon receiving council member status was to immediately part himself from the primary TALON facility he had spent the last few years growing stir-crazy within, instead setting his sights upon the COLONY he had retrieved the remainder of his research from a couple years prior. That would be his base of operations– far away from the wretched filth that had caused him so much grief over the last thirty years. Through SIEBREN’S tireless efforts and the new, expendable labor provided by his very own company of Enforcers, the COLONY is converted into an information hub, with thousands upon thousands of servers implemented for the archival of research and schematics– in addition to being fitted with newer, state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. Satellites, telescopes, and so much more– all at his command. He hardly has to lift a finger to get anything he wants; a constant stream of up-to-date, current information at his fingertips and a company of mindless drones to bring him anything he requested.

For the first time in thirty years, SIEBREN DE KUIPER has time to relax.

             He resides in an atrium permanently overlooking the Earth, refitted to resemble a throne room of sorts to feed his delusions of grandeur and gargantuan ego. Settled upon this divine perch, with a mug of strong caramel coffee and a splash of expensive bourbon, SIEBREN allows his eyes to close as he basks in the midst of his accomplishments with gluttonous pride. It was perfect. 

… Or rather, it would be, had an odd, stray point of light not appeared within the sterile safety of his atrium without warning. The distortion is immediately palpable the moment he sees the point of light appear, filling him with a stark sense of dread– it resembled the gravitational waves of something he had not sensed in years, and would have happily gone his whole life without re-experiencing. And just the same, there’s a flash of blinding light– but rather than re-witnessing all that had came after, SIEBREN is, instead, met with the sight of another. 

             Initially, he’s baffled as to who this could be– but as the figure turns to face him, he’s stunned as he’s met with the imposing, near mirror-image of himself. But the attire… The attire is so strange and militaristic. 

It’s…. A little intimidating, to be met with such a foreboding-looking counterpart of himself.

             “... Tch. You certainly know how to make an entrance.”

[publicdomainbooksdevotee]

My fic stalled out, but here's this bit I liked:

Yata scanned the menu QR code with his phone, which pulled up a handcoded web page that only had the sentence “DO NOT SCAN QR CODES WHILE ON A LUPIN CASE.” Inspector Zenigata silently plucked the flyer out of its holder and swapped it with a different one from his coat pocket. “I’m not scanning that one either, sir,” said Yata. “Good, you’re learning,” said the inspector, and swapped the code a third time before handing Yata a printed menu.

[wooftphr]

i wish script-writing or writing for comedy skits in general came more naturally to me

[digitalfishwish]

Kit's Traybake Pancakes (chocolate chip var.)

Heyo! You may have seen my original pancake traybake (cinnamon apple var.) recipe! If you haven’t, come check it out here! If you have, check again, since I’ve made some crucial changes to the cook time/temp/optional prep after much experimentation!

Well, here’s:

Love eating pancakes but hate making them? This traybake pancake recipe may be for you! Making these gives me enough pancake squares for 6 days (5 if you eat two on the day you make them). They reheat well, can either be eaten with or without maple syrup, and are very customizable! I recommend adding something healthy like fruit or yogurt, and protein powder like I do in this recipe, making it a slightly healthier breakfast than just pure carbs.

Full recipe under the cut! (Reader beware, you're in for a... lot of asides and annotations lol)

Full disclosure, the base for this recipe was the mug pancake recipe from Emma’s Goodies, which you can watch here!

I made this mug pancake for years (except with tripled portions because I was using a very big mug) and it was super delicious! However, for just one mug pancake, it was a bit of a production and didn’t feel super worth it. Thusly, I have adapted the recipe to be made in a 13”x9” baking tray, which makes a whole lot of breakfast.

Base Ingredients:

12 tbsp. butter (I use salted, if you don’t have salted butter, add a very small amount of kosher salt to your recipe)

9 tbsp. (1/2 cup+ 1 tbsp) granulated sugar

12 fl.oz. milk (I use skim, use whatever kind you like)

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp. baking powder

Customizable Ingredients:

1 scoop protein powder (I use vanilla flavored whey)

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1 cup (around 5oz) nonfat strawberry Greek yogurt (pick a good quality brand/one you like)

1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips (for the batter)

Small handful of semisweet chocolate chips (to sprinkle on top)

1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips, 1 tbsp of butter, ~2 capfuls of milk (for chocolate drizzle)

Base Instructions:

Heat oven to 375°F, take out a 13”x9” nonstick baking pan and spray bottom and sides with cooking spray (yes theoretically I know you don’t need to spray a nonstick pan but better safe than sorry).

Put butter in a bowl and melt it in the microwave. I recommend microwaving for 1m20s.

Put butter in a stand mixer, preferably with the paddle attachment. While you heat the milk in the microwave* (40 seconds, stir milk once it’s done; I use a glass liquid measuring cup for the microwaving), add the granulated sugar to the mixer. Once the milk is heated, add it and use one of the lower settings on your mixer.

(If you have customizable wet ingredients, add them now!)

Add the flour and baking powder, mix again on low setting until it forms a batter (a small amount of lumps is okay from what I’ve heard, you don’t want to overmix).

*You can’t put cold milk into hot butter, it will form little clumps and be gross

Customizable Instructions:

Add the brown sugar (as above, preferably before the flour, with the other wet ingredients. Wait, why is sugar a wet ingredient? see † at the bottom).

Add one scoop of your preferred protein powder, then mix on low setting until it’s mixed in.

Similarly, mix in the strawberry yogurt*. Now, I know what you’re saying: this is a very specific thing to add to the pancakes, but hear me out**: it gives moisture to the recipe (in this version, there’s not as much, cuz there’s no added tea/maple syrup, and there’s an additional dry ingredient), and it adds a subtle fruity flavor (also it makes your living space smell amazing while it’s cooking)! I may experiment with adding actual fresh strawberry to the recipe in the future.

Finally, put the cup of choco chips in and mix gently! My mixer head tends to bump around a little bit during this step so you may want to use that generally ignorable lever that keeps the mixer head secure.

*Unlike the brown sugar, you may want to mix the yogurt in after you add the dry ingredients. If you do it before, it won’t incorporate smoothly and end up in a bunch of gross looking lumps. It doesn’t actually affect anything though and once you add the dry ingredients, everything is fine. It’s more about if you’re a wet before dry purist vs. someone squicked out by lumps.

** It’s also the only thing I had on hand lmao

Chocolate Sauce (for ‘drizzling’) Instructions:

Put 1/2 cup of chocolate chips in the microwave with a tablespoon of butter. Melt for 45 seconds on high (according to the packaging on my choco chip bag). Mix the resulting glorp carefully (it’s hot!) with a rubber spatula then microwave for another 15-20 seconds until most/all of the chips have melted.

Mix again. It will look like a gross dry paste (but trust the process). Once you add in a capful of milk and mix—immediately you will have a glossy beautiful mixture. Then add an additional capful of milk (you may need to add more) to make it thin enough to ‘drizzle’!

Baking Instructions:

Pour batter into greased baking tray and use a spatula and spread it evenly by hand, as this batter is thicker and a little stiffer than my apple version. Optional: Sprinkle the top with that handful of chocolate chips—then if you made the chocolate sauce, take the spatula from before, scoop a little bit of chocolate sauce onto the tip of the spatula, and carefully* flick it over the surface of the batter! Really channel your inner Jackson Pollock! Do as much of this as you want until you have your ideal amount of chocolate drizzle on top (and if you have any left afterward, eat it as a tasty little snack. live deliciously lol).

When the oven reaches temperature (if you preheated it at the beginning, it may have already been at temperature for a while) put the pan in and cook for 35 mins. Know your oven and if it tends to be hotter or colder**, adjust cook time as necessary.

When the timer goes off, test the center in several places with a toothpick. As long as it doesn’t come out goopy, you’re good! (crumbs on the toothpick is fine) I say test in several places because if you accidentally go through a chocolate chip, your toothpick will come out wet and chocolatey, but that doesn’t mean the pancakes aren’t done. If it's not done, cook in intervals of 5 minutes, testing when the timer goes off.

Take pan out and use a butter knife or a pie serving spatula and poke around the edges of the pan to free the pancake traybake from the edges. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Cut into squares. I tend to cut 12 pieces, but you could go smaller or larger depending on how much you intend to eat at once.

*By making this recipe you agree to not hold me liable for any chocolate mess that may result from the flicking process (lol).

** How do I know if my oven runs hot or cold, you may ask? If any recipe you make comes out raw and/or takes longer to cook than the instructions say, your oven is colder! If your food ends up burnt and/or takes less time to cook than the recipe instructions say, your oven is hotter!

Enjoy! I eat two squares at a time and it makes a good breakfast! For storing, put however much of it you can eat in 2-3 days in the fridge. Store the rest in the freezer.

I will note, this version of the recipe doesn't form the same kind of cool thick edges like the apple version.

For any customizing other than what I did, use whatever fruit, spices, syrups, and/or protein powders you want! Just be aware that more fruit in the batter means it may take longer to cook!

If you make them, either the same way I did here or differently, let me know how they came out!

†Yes, all sugars are considered wet ingredients. Yes, it is conceptually weird, but there is a reason: because they need to dissolve in liquid in order to be incorporated properly, you add them in with the wet ingredients. It's like Thompson from Gravity Falls, who's kinda in the friend group but only because he performs a specific social role (poor Thomson tho fr fr)

[egophiliac]

No way Azul signed the waivers

ah, but consider this: Azul is known to enact overelaborate schemes in order to cover for the fact that he is consistently getting like. negative points in physical education. therefore, I posit that he is in fact the mastermind behind the magical assault practicals in the first place, having waged an entire psychological war with Crowley to make him think it was his own idea. this includes spending months carefully dropping particular keywords into casual conversation whenever Crowley is walking by, so that his phone's Mira will pick up on them and start targeted advertising to Crowley in a way that seems innocuous but will ultimately help lead to Azul getting that sweet, sweet extra credit without having to run a single lap.

which is to say: Azul would sign the waiver, because he wrote the waiver (under an assumed name, filtered through three different shell companies, each of which charged a separate consulting fee) (this is just how Azul WORKS okay).

[ohnoitstbskyen]

I know it would probably bring a lot of hate comments but I am begging you to roast the hazbin character designs because I'd love to have someone properly articulate why they don't work so I could send it to people who won't believe me when I tell them. 🫠 Understandable if you don't want to get into it though.

I don't think there's that much there to roast, honestly?

Those designs are clearly an extremely specific stylistic choice, and because that style is consistent throughout the show, it ultimately feels coherent with itself.

There are trade-offs being made. Because Hazbin's design style is SO stylized and so heavy on decoration and detailing, because it puts a lot of emphasis on costuming, it isn't as good at communicating specific character storytelling as a more grounded style could be (it's kind of the same tradeoff that stuff like Genshin Impact makes).

Like, why does Sir Pentious' hat have an eye and a mouth on it that makes its own expressions? Apparently not for very much reason at all, except that Pentious has a bit of an eyes-motif going on in his design and it was one more place to put an extra eye. And that's a valid criticism of his design, but also the entire show is designed like that, so frankly it would be weirder and more out of place if his design alone didn't have that kind of overelaborate decoration going on.

It does create a situation where I have a hard time "reading" the character designs sometimes. For example, Vox, Alastor and Pentious all wear a similar style of suit with upwards-turned shoulders, butterflies and pinstripes. Now, am I meant to read that as Vox imitating Alastor due to his crippling need to replace and outdo him, and Pentious imitating the style of powerful Overlords because he thinks that possessing their level of power will finally give him relief from his paranoia and self-loathing?

Or is it just a design fixation of the creator who keeps putting their characters in suits because that's just what they like? I can't really be sure, because sometimes design elements are used to intentionally tell stories about how characters relate to themselves, their world and one another, but plenty of other times designs look the way they do Because Of Vibes.

But again, that lack of clarity is clearly an intentional trade-off - and the benefit of that trade-off is a design style that is extremely varied, wild, expressive and memorable. Hazbin Hotel seems like a very easy show to draw fanart of, and a very fun show to draw fanart of. Those designs (especially the hyper-expressive faces) are begging to be the subjects of traumatic headcanons, unbearably cotton-candy soft fluff fantasies and weird, taboo, homoerotic power dynamics. Slaps roof of character design, this bad boy can express so much vicarious emotional intensity.

It's very exuberant, very excited about itself and very self-indulgent, it's a style that prioritizes visual impact and visual interest over readability (something which the animators of the show navigate with real skill, props to them) and individual aesthetics over worldbuilding.

And I don't blame anyone for being turned off by that (I certainly was the first time I started seeing those designs going around), but I would struggle to call the show's designs "bad" when they are clearly achieving exactly what they want to achieve.

I have some criticisms, especially re: how the show treats skinny bodies as an unquestioned, desirable default, and employs fatness as a means of alienating and abjecting the audience. That sucks very badly, and is a serious disappointment, and one of the few places where the show feels like it is being cowardly in its design philosophy. But I don't have it in me to do some kind of Hazbin Hotel Sucks And Here's Why takedown, its problems are not unique or extreme enough to warrant it, at least not as I currently understand them.

[ask-the-rag-dolly]

question for the mod - did you think the blog/au would get this popular?

nah but i'm not surprised . that's the nature of ask blogs / interactive comics - people get excited when they find out their silly little ramblings can Change The Plot . i just didn't expect the size of it and how much people appreciate my silly little take on ragatha's character

i mean i'm not complaining i've always been fond of these sort of stuff and even wanted to make one for a while . in my past fandoms i always thought of creating an ask blog or an interactive comic with overelaborate lore . pretty fun all around

anyways has anyone read awful hospital so this doodle will make sense

[sebastian-ciel-mutual-bullying]

I'm in love with Sebastian and Ciel's dynamic.

I can't find another dynamic/relationship like theirs. It's so unique

They care about each other, they hate each other, they need each other, they're best friends, they're master and servant, they're predator and prey, owner and pet, human and demon.

They're passive-aggressive towards each other. They reuse each other's jokes. They BULLY each other (thats where my name comes from lol)

They're teaching and learning from each other. They imitate one another (both unintentionally and intentionally). Sebastian is raising Ciel. Ciel is changing who the demon named Sebastian is. They're protective. They're possessive.

And Sebastian himself is such a unique character. I can't find another character like him. He's suave, deliberate, patient, and capable. He can do anything when he sets his mind to it. He's a dominant presence but chooses to be submissive. He is mysterious but not secretive. Seb is incredibly smart and witty, and sharp minded. Despite being a cold and calculated person on the outside, he can't help but show every emotion on his face.

Seb can't help but emote and express himself even when he's alone. He smiles genuinely when he's with a cat. He talks to himself aloud when he's aggravated by a task or trying to think of a solution. He even laughs to himself.

Seb can be whiny, silly, and petty. I'd say that he values having fun in his role more than anything (aside from his meal). The man makes up little catchphrases and jokes for himself. He likes to get creative with things that don't need to be all that excessive, just to show that he can. I imagine making an overelaborate chocolate statue for a charity event was fun to him (despite the stress of fixing the servant's mistakes).

He lets himself get "hurt feelings" over small things (if you could call it that).

Sebastian gets upset when someone calls him old. He's confused when Soma says that he's "not kind." He frets over Ciel's outfits and gets personally offended by Nina Hopkins. His cooking MUST be the best, or his feelings will get hurt. An apathetic response breaks his demon heart (not actually).

Sebastian has to be the center of everything, and if he isn't, he will make it about himself. All of his energy goes into making sure that he- and the things he does- are beyond perfect. He's super extra. Is he having fun? Probably.

And when it comes to Ciel, Sebastian shows something that's strikingly similar to care, pride, attachment, affection, and admiration.

(He may even actually feel those things )

There's so much more to appreciate about him. Yana is such an amazing writer

[galaxygolfergirl]

Watcher's Expenses

I didn't major in accounting: I took three classes and it grinded my brain to a fine powder. However, after graduating with a business admin degree, being a former eager fan of their videos, and from a cursory glance over their socials, there's a lot to consider in their spending behavior that really could start racking up costs. Some of these things we've already noticed, but there are other things I'd like to highlight, and I'll try to break it down into the different categories of accounting expenses (if I get something wrong, let me know. I was more concentrated in marketing 🤷‍♀️). I'm not going to hypothesize numbers either, as that would take out more time than I'm willing to afford-- you can assume how much everything costs. Anyways, here's my attempt at being a layman forensic accountant:

Note: All of this is assuming they're operating above board and not engaging in any illegal practices such as money laundering, tax evasion, not paying rent, etc.

Operating Expenses

Payroll: 25+ staff salaries and insurance

Overhead Expenses

CEO/founder salaries

Office space leasing or rent (In L.A, one of the most expensive cities in the US)

Utilities (water, electricity, heating, sanitation, etc.)

Insurance

Advertising Costs

Telephone & Internet service

Cloud Storage or mainframe

Office equipment (furniture, computers, printers, etc.)

Office supplies (paper, pens, printer ink, etc.)

Marketing costs (Social media marketing on Instagram, Youtube, SEO for search engines, Twitter, etc. Designing merchandise and posters, art, etc. )

Human Resources (not sure how equipped they are)

Accounting fees

Property taxes

Legal fees

Licensing fees

Website maintenance (For Watchertv.com, Watcherstuff.com, & Watcherentertainment.com)

Expenses regarding merchandising (whoever they contract or outsource for that)

Inventory costs

Potentially maintenance of company vehicles

Subsequent gas mileage for road trips

Depreciation (pertains to tangible assets like buildings and equipment)

Amortization (intangible assets such as patents and trademarks)

Overhead Travel and Entertainment Costs (I think one of the biggest culprits, evident in their videos and posts)

The travel expenses (flights, train trips, rental cars, etc. For main team and scouts)

Hotel expenses for 7-8 people at least, or potentially more

Breakfasts, lunches and dinners with the crew (whether that's fully on their dime or not, I don't know; Ryan stated they like to cover that for the most part)

Recreational activities (vacation destinations, amusement parks, sporting activities etc.)

The location fees

Extraneous Overhead costs (not sure exactly where these fall under, but another culprit, evident in videos and posts)

Paying for guest appearances

Expensive filming & recording equipment (Cameras, sound equipment, editing software subscriptions, etc.)

The overelaborate sets for Ghost files, Mystery Files, Puppet History, Podcasts etc. (Set dressing: Vintage memorabilia, antiquated tech, vintage furniture, props, etc.)

Kitchen & Cooking supplies/equipment

Office food supply; expensive food and drink purchases for videos

Novelty items or miscellaneous purchases (ex. Ghost hunting equipment, outfits, toys, etc.)

Non-Operating Expenses

These are those expenses that cannot be linked back to operating revenue. One of the most common examples of non-operating expenses is interest expense. This is because while interest is the cost of borrowing money from a creditor or a bank, they are not generating any operating income. This makes interest payments a part of non-operating expenses.

Financial Expenses

Potential loan payments, borrowing from creditors or lenders, bank loans, etc.

Variable Expenses

Hiring a large amount of freelancers, overtime expenditure, commissions, etc.

PR consultations (Not sure if they had this before the scandal)

Extraordinary Expenses

Expenses incurred outside your company’s regular business activities and during a large one-time event or transactions. For example, selling land, disposal of a significant asset, laying off of your employees, unexpected machine repairing or replacement, etc.

Accrued Expenses

When your business has incurred an expense but not yet paid for it.

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(If there's anything else I'm missing, please feel free to add or correct things)

To a novice or a young entrepreneur, this can be very intimidating if you don't have the education or the support to manage it properly. I know it intimidates the hell out of me and I'm still having to fill in the gaps (again, if I've mislabeled or gotten anything wrong here, please let me know). For the artistic or creative entrepreneur, it can be even harder to reconcile the extent of your creative passions with your ability to operate and scale your business at a sustainable rate. That can lead to irresponsible, selfish, and impulsive decisions that could irreparably harm your brand, which is a whole other beast of its own.

My guess at this point is that their overhead and operation expenses are woefully mismanaged; they've made way too many extraneous purchases, and that they had too much confidence in their audience of formerly 2.93 million to make up for the expenses they failed to cover.

It almost seems as if their internal logic was, "If we make more money, we can keep living the expensive lifestyle that we want and make whatever we want without anyone telling us we can't, and we want to do it NOW, sooner rather than later because we don't want wait and compromise our vision." But as you can see, the reality of fulfilling those ambitions is already compromised by the responsibility of running a business.

And I wrote this in another post here, but I'll state it again: Running a business means you need to be educated on how a business can successfully and efficiently operate. Accounting, marketing, social media marketing, public relations, production, etc; these resources and internet of things is available and at your disposal. If they had invested more time in educating themselves on those aspects and not made this decision based on artistic passion (and/or greed), they would have not gotten the response they got.

Being a graphic designer, I know the creative/passionate side of things but I also got a degree/got educated in business because I wanted to understand how to start a company and run it successfully. If they’re having trouble handling the responsibility of doing that, managing production costs, managing overhead expenses, and especially with compensating their 25+ employees, then they should hire professionals that are sympathetic to their creative interests, but have the education and experience to reign in bad decisions like these.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my TedTalk. What a shitshow this has been.

[calware]

in my mind when rose picks out her outfits she would either go with her simple outfit all-white normcore 0-thought just-want-to-get-on-with-the-day outfit like a sweatshirt and jeans and sneakers or ofc her regular t-shirt and skirt and sneakers OR do a full 180 and go full Mortica Addams in terms of overelaborate outfits girl please this is just a PTA meeting your dress doesn't need 10 ft of black lace. and there is no in-between

[cerosin-bis]

your headcanons have a knack for giving me brainrot over cod characters i previously hadn't thought too much about i s2g... so i gotta ask, do you have any for Swagger?

🫡 my pleasure friend. Glad my rambles are interesting 😭

Here are a few Swagger headcanons (I am NOT getting over the name)

Tends to exaggerate the truth. He will overelaborate and embellish stories.

Likes working solo but hates being a leader. He works well when he's integrated in a team but do NOT cross him he holds grudges forever.

BIG horror movies enthusiast.

Also Swagger believes in a lot of supernatural stuff but don't mention it to him (he will get angry because he's embarrassed about it). He's very knowledgeable about the occult and its history in multiple countries!

His double nationality and upbringing never quite sat right with him. He has trouble finding a sense of belonging and it comes in part from his youth in France.

Bit of an antisocial guy. Not completely (he doesn't actively avoid making friends and isn't a prick to everyone, thank you very much) but he has... tendencies (impulsive, tends to ignore a lot of social conventions)

To his greatest dismay, has a lick of a French accent in Polish.