#some of them just wont make sense without context

[redyarns]

throat's getting more sore by the hour but i dont have a fever yet so im quickly writing out as many scenes as i possibly can. this is probably about 2.5 chapters' worth of stuff? actually its severely depressing me how even with the end of scene 31 its only about 3/4 of the way done for act 1. will i ever finish this fic before the goddamn heat death of the universe

[arolesbianism]

Stares at the sekai writers with my big wet brown eyes. Pls don't forget abt how Kanade hid the fact that she met with Mafuyu's mom from them and that Mafuyu knows abt that now

[3liza]

thank you for speaking rational thought AS AN ARTIST into the ai debate. i get so tired of people over simplifying, generalizing, and parroting how they’ve been told ai works lmao. you’re an icon

some of the worst AI art alarmists are professional artists as well but theyre in very specific fields with very specific work cultures and it would take a long and boring post to explain all the nuance there but i went to the same extremely tiny, hypefocused classic atelier school in San Francisco as Karla Ortiz and am actually acquainted with her irl so i have a different perspective on this particular issue and the people involved than the average fan artist on tumblr. the latter person is also perfectly valid and so is their work, all im saying is that we have different life experiences and my particular one has accidentally placed me in a weird and relevant position to observe what the AI art panic is actually about.

first thing i did when the pearl-clutching about AI art started is go on the Midjourney discord, which is completely public and free, and spent a few burner accounts using free credits to play with the toolset. everyone who has any kind of opinion about AI art should do the same because otherwise you just wont know what youre talking about. my BIGGEST takeaway is that it is currently and likely always will be (because of factors that are sort of hard to explain) extremely difficult to make an AI like Midjourney spit out precisely wht you want UNLESS what you want is the exact kind of hyperreal, hyperpretty Artstation Front Page 4k HDR etc etc style pictures that, coincidentally, artists like Karla Ortiz have devoted their careers to. Midjourney could not, when asked, make a decent Problem Glyph. or even anything approaching one. and probably never will, because there isn't any profit incentive for it to do so and probably not enough images to train a dataset anyway.

the labor issues with AI are real, but they are the result of the managerial class using AI's existence as an excuse to reduce compensation for labor. this happens at every single technological sea change and is unstoppable, and the technology itself is always blamed because that is beneficial to the capitalists who are actually causing the labor crisis each time. if you talk to the artists who are ACTUALLY already being affected, they will tell you what's happening is managers are telling them to insert AI into workflows in ways that make no sense, and that management have fully started an industry-wide to "pivot" to AI production in ways that aren't going to work but WILL result in mass loss of jobs and productivty and introduce a lot of problems which people will then be hired to try to fix, but at greatly-reduced salaries. every script written and every picture generated by an AI, without human intervention/editing/cleanup, is mostly unusable for anything except a few very specific use cases that are very tolerant of generality. i'm seeing it being used for shovelware banner ads, for example, as well as for game assets like "i need some spooky paintings for the wall of a house environment" or "i need some nonspecific movie posters for a character's room" that indie game devs are making really good use of, people who can neither afford to hire an artist to make those assets and cant do them themselves, and if the ai art assets weren't available then that person would just not have those assets in the game at all. i've seen AI art in that context that works great for that purpose and isn't committing any labor crimes.

it is also being used for book covers by large publishing houses already, and it looks bad and resulted directly in the loss of a human job. it is both things. you can also pay your contractor for half as many man hours because he has a nailgun instead of just hammers. you can pay a huge pile of money to someone for an oil portrait or you can take a selfie with your phone. there arent that many oil painters around anymore.

but this is being ignored by people like the guy who just replied and yelled at me for the post they imagined that i wrote defending the impending robot war, who is just feeling very hysterical about existential threat and isn't going to read any posts or actually do any research about it. which is understandable but supremely unhelpful, primarily to themselves but also to me and every other fellow artist who has to pay rent.

one aspect of this that is both unequivocally True AND very mean to point out is that the madder an artist is about AI art, the more their work will resemble the pretty, heavily commercialized stuff the AIs are focused on imitating. the aforementioned Artstation frontpage. this is self-feeding loop of popular work is replicated by human artists because it sells and gets clicks, audience is sensitized to those precise aesthetics by constant exposure and demands more, AI trains on those pictures more than any others because there are more of those pictures and more URLs pointing back to those pictures and the AI learns to expect those shapes and colors and forms more often, mathematically, in its prediction models. i feel bad for these people having their style ganked by robots and they will not be the only victims but it is also true, and has always been true, that the ONLY way to avoid increasing competition in a creative field is to make yourself so difficult to imitate that no one can actually do it. you make a deal with the devil when you focus exclusively on market pleasing skills instead of taking the massive pay cut that comes with being more of a weirdo. theres no right answer to this, nor is either kind of artist better, more ideologically pure, or more talented. my parents wanted me to make safe, marketable, hotel lobby art and never go hungry, but im an idiot. no one could have predicted that my distaste for "hyperreal 4k f cup orc warrior waifu concept art depth of field bokeh national geographic award winning hd beautiful colorful" pictures would suddenly put me in a less precarious position than people who actually work for AAA studios filling beautiful concept art books with the same. i just went to a concept art school full of those people and interned at a AAA studio and spent years in AAA game journalism and decided i would rather rip ass so hard i exploded than try to compete in such an industry.

which brings me to what art AIs are actually "doing"--i'm going to be simple in a way that makes computer experts annoyed here, but to be descriptive about it, they are not "remixing" existing art or "copying" it or carrying around databases of your work and collaging it--they are using mathematical formulae to determine what is most likely to show up in pictures described by certain prompts and then manifesting that visually, based on what they have already seen. they work with the exact same very basic actions as a human observing a bunch of drawings and then trying out their own. this is why they have so much trouble with fingers, it's for the same reason children's drawings also often have more than 5 fingers: because once you start drawing fingers its hard to stop. this is because all fingers are mathematically likely to have another finger next to them. in fact most fingers have another finger on each side. Pinkies Georg, who lives on the end of your limb and only has one neighbor, is an outlier and Midjourney thinks he should not have been counted.

in fact a lot of the current failings by AI models in both visual art and writing are comparable to the behavior of human children in ways i find amusing. human children will also make up stories when asked questions, just to please the adult who asked. a robot is not a child and it does not have actual intentions, feelings or "thoughts" and im not saying they do. its just funny that an AI will make up a story to "Get out of trouble" the same way a 4 year old tends to. its funny that their anatomical errors are the same as the ones in a kindergarten classroom gallery wall. they are not people and should not be personified or thought of as sapient or having agency or intent, they do not.

anyway. TLDR when photography was invented it became MUCH cheaper and MUCH faster to get someone to take your portrait, and this resulted in various things happening that would appear foolish to be mad about in this year of our lord 2023 AD. and yet here we are. if it were me and it was about 1830 and i had spent 30 years learning to paint, i would probably start figuring out how to make wet plate process daguerreotypes too. because i live on earth in a technological capitalist society and there's nothing i can do about it and i like eating food indoors and if i im smart enough to learn how to oil paint i can certainly point a camera at someone for 5 minutes and then bathe the resulting exposure in mercury vapor. i know how to do multiple things at once. but thats me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[horizonspurple]

Icecold Part 1

You had asked me to get on the bed. I look at you with curiosity in my eyes. You just give me an impatient look back and gesture at the bed. I make my way over to our double bed with the pretty purple sheets you had let me pick. I get on the bed and sit down, then glance over at you. 'Strip. I want you in your underwear', your voice is sweet but stern. Knowing better than to be disobedient, I grab the hem of my shirt and slowly pull it over my head. Your eyes are fixed to me, taking everything in as I slowly but surely expose myself more to you. After my shirt drops to the ground, I reach to unzip my skirt and I shyly move it over my hips and off my legs. You move closer to me so you can run your hand along the lining of my black lace bra, sending a small shiver through me. Then your hands move to my hips, where you play a little with the lacy lining of the matching thong I am wearing. 'God, those curves', you murmur as you give my hip a soft squeeze. I shyly cover my face with my hands and giggle at the compliment. Then your hand disappears and you turn around to grab something.

When you turn back around I can see you holding a set of handcuffs in one hand, a blindfold in the other. I shoot you a curious and nervous look, as you smile at me and walk over to the bed. 'Hold out your hands, angel', a teasy undertone in your voice. 'What are we gonna do sir?', I ask, hoping to get some context on your plans. 'You'll see. Actually, you'll feel', you joke while holding up the blindfold. I look up at you while making a pouty face and you reach out to rub my bottom lip. 'Now hold. Out. Your fucking. Hands.' Within a few seconds the goofy attitude is gone and made place for a strict demeanor. Without wasting a heartbeat I hold up my hands for you to put the cuffs on. 'Now go lay down near the edge of the bed. I want you flat on your back, okay Bun?', even the cute nickname comes out of your mouth in a strict tone. I clumsily move myself further onto the bed, very aware of how the handcuffs restrict my movement. But that is exactly what you want, you like to watch me struggle. When I've made my way into position you walk over to me and gently put the blindfold over my eyes, making sure my hair doesn't make it slide off and also giving a playful tug on it to make me remember who is in charge now.

Once everything is dark, I start to focus on my hearing. I can hear your footsteps fade away as you walk out of the room. 'S-sir?', I softly call after you, not wanting to be left alone. Seconds later I hear your footsteps return, and you start placing stuff down on the bedside table, making sure to be so quiet I can't figure out what you brought. Then I feel your hands on me again. I flinch at the sudden touch as you pull my bra down to expose my boobs. Then I feel a slap against my thigh. 'Lift your hips up', you order and I do as you say. You pull my thong of my body and I hear a faint and soft thud as it hits the ground. Then nothing again, just the black before my eyes. 'Open your mouth for me Bun, and stick your tongue a bit', your voice comes from besides my head. I hesitantly open my mouth and after a few seconds I feel something very cold drip into my mouth. Is it, icewater? Why would you drip cold water in my mouth? A few more drops hit my tongue and I swallow. Then I feel your hand push against my chin, pushing my mouth closed again. My hands suddenly get lifted off of my body and pushed into the matress above my head. 'Now, you're gonna keep your fucking hands right there. If you move then down I wont hesitate to tie them in place, hmm?' your voice growls into my ear, making me shiver a little as I start nodding yes. Then I sense you moving away again, leaving me naked and vulnerable on the bed.

[sabaramonds]

long time no post CW for discussions of suicide & homophobia ahead as well as mentions of yunos sex work so in my periphery i see a lot of people saying 1. kazui hates yuno and 2. part of the reason why they seem themselves in one another is because kazui represses his sexuality while yuno is open about hers neither of these are true

you can dislike someone without hating them by virtue of being discomforted by the fact they are similar to you (self recognition through the eyes of the other (derogatory)) and. as for yuno being 'open' about her sexuality. well...i would say shes in tune with her own, but she isnt 'open' about it? unless es makes the details of each trial public among the prisoners (excluding the final judgement, of course) or she told people herself, nobody would know she does sex work. and i dont think shes told people, because why would she? what yuno and kazui recognize in each other isnt necessarily related to sexuality at all, but the masks they both wear and cant take off. neither of them can fully shed the facade they hide behind because to do so would result in a social death. they would, for different yet similar reasons, be stigmatized by their families and society at large. yeah, yuno says she comes from a supportive household (and this could be a lie. she could be lying.) but would that be true if her family found out she does sex work for whatever reason? not likely. and kazui has already said his family 'must find [me] embarrassing' upon being asked if theyre proud of him. if they discovered the truth of his sexuality in the aftermath of his wifes death (suicide?) then that would make sense, though if hinako killed herself then it could be theyre unaware of that truth and are ashamed of him for other reasons im a bit unsure about the current political climate re: suicide in japan (im saying this and you guys do not want to see the tabs i have open rn LOL) and how its viewed by the older generation in particular, but its generally tolerated, shamed, or honorable depending on the context. mental health issues are often ignored, particularly by older generations; to commit suicide to right an apparent wrong or repent (one form of which you all might be familiar with is seppuku) is looked at as a moral responsibility in some cases. so um. basically part of what im saying is that if hinako killed herself to escape the social fallout of not only potential divorce but also from having had a gay husband, she would be looked at with pity and empathy while kazui would be, of course, derided and considered a social pariah - if that is what happened and if it came to light. and, well, what do people think would happen if yuno, 18 years old, not even culturally an adult (until 2022, just last year, 20 was not only the traditional age of being considered an adult in japan but also legally - it was only last year that they made it legal to vote and sign up for loans and their own credit stuff without their parents backing them) and shes doing sex work. if it became public knowledge, her family would be devastated. she could get disowned, she could lose her social standing among friends, among other probable issues that could arise so what kazui and yuno see in one another isnt really related to sexuality at all. yuno looks at kazui and sees a man who has spent his whole lifetime hiding himself from not only the world but from his own self and she doesnt want that for herself; kazui looks at her and sees a girl who is hiding her honest self from everyone and in that he sees himself, which isnt helped by the fact she has subtly implied shes well aware of what it is he hides from the world like recognizes like etc. anyway thats all. double in is in like 2 weeks and i wont survive it

[nikethestatue]

I don‘t want to be mean, because everyone can ship who they want, but it makes me happy that for elriel a lot of theories came true with hofas and we were able to connect past theories with the new hints pretty fast and other ships came up with theories that don‘t make sense or aren‘t really supported with what was written in hofas and acosf or are just some random paragraphs without much context 😅

Yes, theories shouldnt appear like they've been tortured out of someone's imagination.

I think that everyone is a little guilty of it. I read some theories and I am like, whoa, that's way out there.

But all in all, you should be able to look at a theory and see the logical thread. We've all heard SJM say many many time--i plant seeds in my books, i leave breadcrumbs, I start talking about something which I wont deal with until much later.

That's exactly the opposite of what the antis claim. Their fave thing is--SJM changed her mind!!! It's not gonna happen. The thing is--if it's in the books, then it WILL happen. That's how breadcrumbs work.

We first heard of Dusk Court back in ACOMAF. When RHys took Feyre to Prison. It took a decade, but we are finally here. That's how long it took her to come full circle. That's how breadcrumbs work.

"Why not make them mates?" was back in ACOWAR. Guess what, it wasn't dropped for shits and giggles. It will take SJM a decade, but she'll get there.

That's how theories work. They are not about adopted demon baby Elain, who was switched with Gwyn as a baby.

[klapollo]

ive noticed a consistent theme amongst the thought patterns and creative desires of AI acolytes is a total dissatisfaction with or even fear of any sense of limitation or finite quality.

it manifests in a lot of ways. that guy wanting to make new AI episodes of succession because it's too good to "just end" where it ended, despite most of its fans seemingly finding it to be a perfect conclusion. the deluge of fanboys dragging around the corpses of franchises of various qualities -- lord of the rings, harry potter, and so on, ad infinitum -- that have a plethora of media already about them but are often ripe for reboot and revival and endless continuation because people just wont let go, reimagined as facsimiles of wes anderson movies or whatever. perhaps most blatant is the desire to replicate the voices, image or creations of people who have died.

i'm not exactly sure what this all means in the grand scheme. but it does speak to one phenomenon: people who simply cannot let go and accept that basically all things end at some point, no matter how good or important. it's a cultural thing, it's why we keep getting reboots and revivals of shit that had great endings with no loose ends, or even media and art that was bordering on perfect on the first go. there's something beautiful about wanting to live without limitation in some context, but there's also something very dark about choosing some ersatz version of a thing you loved to fill its hole because you cant move on, content yourself on memories and open yourself up to new things.

[sigyn-foxyposts]

"Vent art dump" Tw: Eye strain, heavy themes of child loss & death, Surgery, body scars, slight body horror, non explicit nudity, mental health problems. ‼️

Minors DNI, stay safe okay? <3

Don't worry everyone, I am mentally well these days! 😭

i wasn't originally planning on sharing these but I feel like someone out there could relate and maybe find comfort in what I express through my art, I'll even explain the meanings behind them for more context so i dont leave people guessing.

Nothing here is to gain sympathy, just sharing experiences. That's what I'm after! <3

Fenrir being bound by the chains and him holding around me is supposed to be a metaphor for my build up emotions and anger towards the people that have failed me, it resembles how I can't properly express my emotions without lashing out because I had no choice then to supress them. Like fenrir, they silenced my pain, they abandoned me. Many adults in my life, including my teachers and my parents that were supposed to protect me, teach me things, that I could trust! They all failed me.

This is supposed to be me and my twin sister, who only lasted a few months after our birth. Ever since I was little I always expressed I felt like something was missing, that I was half of something that was supposed to be whole. It made sense to my parents on what I meant back then and it does to me too now.

It left me feeling so empty all these years. Even if I never got to know her, I still miss her. We were both aware of each others existence at some point! After all we were identical twins. The reason her face is melted and attached to mine is because we could have been so similar in appearance, but no one knows that for certain with how things turned out. I'm more at peace with her passing these days, since I had my whole childhood to process it. But keeping her memory alive is something i wont let go off.

The moment I entered this world, everyone was certain that Hel was going to take me into her sweet embrace because of the way I looked compared to my sister, I was the smallest and thinnest. It was like my fate had already been decided, but I proved them wrong by fighting on. Before I knew what fighting even was. While luck was on my side back then I ended up being frail, always so sick and truly I never grew out of it. Not only did life's circumstances almost take me, but my health complications were there to add more into the stress. Despite all these issues, I kept going!

All the way back in 2017 when I first learnt I had scoliosis, which is a condition where your spine curves sideways, that affects many things in your body! I was terrified for my life. I've always avoided those "dangers" like breaking an arm because I knew I probably couldn't handle it and I knew already back then if the treatments I got wasn't working, it was going to get life threatening. Which it did, I was doomed for surgery no matter the efforts.

While you can't die from surgery these days, with my weak condition and this HUGE surgery I had a feeling I wasn't going to make it. But I did and i have gone through this twice now! The scar on my back will remain forever, but it's not there to remind me how horrible life is and how scared I was, instead rather how strong I've been through it all!

[terraliensvent]

allow replies to asks pls. I wanna speak my mind on some asks because how it stands now, you get the final word regardless of whether ppl agree with u

i dont know what you mean by this, if youre talking about the kinah discussion im not allowing it anymore. its unproductive and people are getting aggressive in my inbox and really its none of our business. and even so, if someone has IMPORTANT additions to make then it can be posted, i just am getting tired of the moral grandstanding and arguments happening. its time to move on because, again, it really doesnt affect us and its none of our business.

if youre talking about in general, ive never suppressed people who want to reply to each other. prior to my cutoff of kinah discussion, i post everything that gets sent to my inbox, and even then im only deleting asks talking about kinahs attempt. however, this is my blog and i try to be nuanced about my thoughts on things. you guys said you wanted my opinions and im gonna try my best to give added context as i see fit, because sometimes anons will make bad takes (such as the “porn proportioned” comment) and i dont want to uphold certain things without taking a critical lens to them. just because i add my input on an ask doesnt mean you arent allowed to have an opinion that disagrees with mine, youre free to talk in my inbox about stuff and i prefer to have a constructive discussion on topics.

the main thing that i wont stand for is anons that are rude, aggressive, and condescending. thats not how you have a discussion and you can be respectful to people you disagree with. this is no place for moral pedestals especially since we are all anonymous and as such it doesnt even make sense to try and present yourself as better than others, nobody even knows who you are. and even so, i still post asks that are rude, i just give my two cents underneath them.

im not allowing asks about kinahs attempt anymore, thats something im not budging on because we are so off the topic of terras now and i think were all getting too involved in the life of this person who we will never know irl. if you personally want to argue with people in the replies of an ask, make a burner account and go wild, but im not gonna publish asks on it anymore because its just exhausting at this point.

[frostyreturns]

Sound Of Freedom

I’m now convinced that person who said they saw sound of freedom and laughed at the qanon propaganda was just lying, said people were like hooting and hollering in agreement or some shit...total bullshit.

The movie is harrowing to watch, very difficult to sit through. Even assuming the story is pure fiction it’s still a dramatization of child sex trafficking. Absolutely nobody is watching even a fictional father realizing that his children have been kidnapped and would respond by laughing at how ridiculous the premise is. I don’t think even an actual pedophile watching the reality of children being sexually abused would find it funny, so many of them are suicidal because they know what garbage they are and how damaging what they do is. Also nobody is hooting and hollering...I know you were made to think this is a political event that only caters to conspiracist republicans but there’s absolutely nothing political or even conspiratorial in the movie...there’s nothing to hoot and holler along to...it’s not a trump rally... Anyone actually seeing this was more likely to be in tears. 

That’s actually my biggest criticism of the movie, it was almost too apolitical. There was no conspiracy angle to it either...it presents the issue simply as a matter of crime fighting, as in the issue exists simply because human traffickers exist and makes no mention or reference to any politicians, celebrities or financiers who are involved or backing it...so it actually skirts even the confirmed realities of things like Epstein and just focuses on the actual people doing the snatching. Honestly this was just a less action packed Taken movie. If it hadn’t been based on a real story and had more action it could have been a Liam Neeson movie. 

It also has the same issue as the other Jim Caviezel movie...I can’t wrap my head around it as a form of entertainment, because even though it has another real world purpose and a message that goes beyond entertainment...that’s still the point of a movie. Like I know people who own the passion of the Christ on dvd and I just can’t see myself deciding that what I want to do with my evening is watch Jesus being slowly murdered. The same issue here, I will never watch this movie again because I don’t want to watch children being trafficked. But obviously the point is to raise awareness about the issue...but the problem with that is I was already aware...the person I saw it with was already aware, everyone who is going to see it is doing so...because they are aware....anyone who would really need to see it wont because they see it as conspiracy nonsense and were told not to. Anybody not aware of the issue is willfully ignorant, they are choosing to disbelieve the reality because the reality is too painfuland too horrifying to process. 

And how do you even evaluate a movie like this...was it good..what does being good even mean in this context? Was I entertained...no I was horrified. Do I think seeing it made any kind of difference with human trafficking...I don’t think so I was telling people about that before seeing it and I would still be doing it after or without seeing it so no I don;t think subjecting myself to it actually did anyone any good...but I’m not saying it can’t either...there very well could be some people who make a difference after seeing it. It certainly doesn;t hurt that it exists and that people are talking about it, I think just that it was made and has people talking can be positive. I mean as long as there’s even one person in sex trafficking throw everything at the wall and see what sticks in the name of putting a stop to it. 

So I’ll just say this...it did what the movie was supposed to do and it did that well. It didn’t show you too much, they could very easily have gone in a more shocking direction to get more of a response with some of the scenes and chose not to. You were shown what you needed to see to understand the gravity and what was happening but there was nothing graphic. You never got the sense that they were traumatizing child actors for the sake of more accuratley depicting the reality, there were no dramatizations of an actual rape of a child, which is good. However they also pulled back in graphic content when dealing with the pedophiles and traffickers, so there was never really a sense of justice being done. There is a hopeful message with the movie as well and it’s not all just despair and nihilism... and there is a resolution of sorts. But if you were hoping to see pedophiles being curb stomped and traffickers having their intestines fed to them then you’re out of luck, they went as classy as they could which in all honesty is probably better in the long run but man without the kind of comeuppance they deserve it’s like there’s a pressure valve in my head that’s just going unreleased.

Who is it for?

If you’re a person who normally cries at movies and is already aware of the issue, honeslty don’t go see it...it’s just upsetting and there’s no point to just going to see it to make yourself sad and depressed. If you just want to support the film and can handle being upset then, go knowing that the movie was well done. If you’re somehow still in denial about child trafficking then you actually need to see the movie even though you wont. If you want to tell me or anyone else this is all propaganda and conspiratorial fabrication then just do me a favour and shut up about it till you actually see it and then talk to me. But people who wont see it are afraid to because they’re easily manipulated, they’re afraid of being influenced by propaganda because they know they’re not smart enough to see through it...which they should be because by even thinking about it as nonsense they’ve already proven they are easy targets for propaganda. It’s the people who want everything they disagree with banned because part of them knows they do not have a leg to stand on and their values and ideas don’t stand up to scrutiny. They wont see the movie even though they’re the only ones who should because they are cowards.

I think the most effective but also hardest part of the movie to watch was that it does have actual footage of real life child abductions as well as footage from real life human trafficking raids. So you’ve been forewarned. Very tough movie but the sad thing is I’m not sure it even tells half the story.

[nanjokei]

some oc "verses" i have (verses? stories? idk)

too complicated to explain without a decade of context so i wont for now

high school detective story where everyone is stuck in a time loop. they keep repeating the same cases over and over until it gets kinda comfy, and both detectives (both girls btw, and yes there is _something_ there but watch out) are differing degrees of The Joker, but eventually the routine is broken and it becomes apparent that theres Other Stuff is going on and there are a few others who are aware of the looping to their own ends. anyway one of the detectives is actually the one who trapped them there because Reasons. tbh the setting is a bit weak bc i came up with it as a teenager but i like it too much to rework it&lt;-you can ask about this one but im shy

famous people of varying levels of noteriety are kidnapped and made to participate in a reality television show where death is on the table. three characters present are estranged childhood friends with A Past. the two above are linked to this, it shares characters and setting all the way through. most prominently several characters from the bullet point before this are involved. one of the main characters is the younger brother of someone involved also. im not sure what the endgame of this one is but theres timeloop bullshit in this one also&lt;-this ones messy but you can ask probably

everything is linked through the same metaverse (its a long story) but all together there are some stuff that are less loosely connected. also yeah due to it all being a part of the same metaverse thats why sometimes there is time loop bullshit. also um... a lot of higher beings messing with people for no reason

more fantasy premise and a little more gag. kind of? but a hero coming down from a line of chosen heroes is dispatched to the line of duty to vanquish.. some kind of evil (no one is even sure what) but right in the beginning someone sets the convent he was picking up his companion from on fire. theyre seperated and he is accompanied by a different woman instead. from then on he ends up picking up nothing but the "wrong" party members, specifically people who are actually supposed to be bosses. meanwhile the actual proper party members to be become enemies. i really like this one. &lt;-if you ask me about it i will probably tell you more

magical girl thing, idk, to be honest i made this one up when i was 16 so i dont like the concept that much, it was edgy but didnt make sense, i wanna rework it so the characters arent high schoolers anymore. its nothing objectionable just cringe in a way that isnt fun. so i dont have much to say about it, but it also exists as an arcade game in the main timeline thing so im mentioning it

mecha premise, when aliens come down to challenge earth into a fight to extinction FOR FUN, supplying them with all manner of advanced technology and blueprints to build giant mechs to level the playing field. this was kept a secret, kinda like some area 51 shit. decades later in 2011, a number of young adults (18~26) who have specific traits as outlined by the aliens are put into cryonic sleep. they were promised it'd be for 25 years, but the project stalled, and then a world war broke out, and the waiting time ended up actually being nearly a century. they wake up to a delipidated base with very few actual staff, to the point where most of them have to become bridge bunnies, and many of the things promised to them in the future turned out to not be possible (for example one of the candidates was terminally ill and was promised a cure, or even just a proper diagnosis but woke up only to be given a medicine to treat it indefinitely and with no promise of continued effectiveness). there is also a little time loop bullshit here. sorry. also the government also made their own mechs and end up poaching a few from the candidates throughout the story. later on Something secret happens sorry i wont say. &lt;-i might tell you more if you ask about this one because i like it very much also. but also because its the newest

@nanjokei

[teeto-peteto]

Okay, strange question, but as you’re the Pyke Connoisseur, I trust you. Do you think Pyke would talk to the sea creatures, or do you think it’s just telepathy? Do you think he has fish friends?

hahahaha Pyke connoisseur, i like that, i want to put in on a pin for my bag. Okay long post warning.

There's a lot of ways to approach this question and with multiple answers, this is mostly because Pyke lore is like a messy thread ball where you constantly pull out things but dont know how to explain them.

As for the easiest answer, yes, i believe Pyke does verbally talk to fish. We see in Legends of Runeterra that he does speak or command fish, and he makes sure they get their cut, food, clearly. In League Of Legends Pyke has a quote that goes something like 'I have a lot of friends, specially on the depths', wich could probably refer to the fish and deep creatures. As if they answer, well, they're fish, approach this like someone who talks with a dog. Fish are like his sea puppies, he talks to them, not expecting a response but they know how to ask for food.

For another answer, if you ask him directly, he would look at you offended and say 'What? No' . He lies, he does talk to fish like they were puppies, he has pet an eel more than a couple of times, gives belly rubs to huge sea monsters, he likes sitting on the sea floor and watch the crabs and the scallops passing by, he loves watching and petting sharks, he just wont admit he has a soft spot for sea creatures. In the end its just him in the depths, its not like no one is there to judge him, or at least that's what he thinks.

As for the very long answer, its tricky. If you consider 'talk' as having a conversation between individuals were both verbally participate, things get odd. We know fish dont speak, not even in this fantasy context, as we have seen in Legends Of Runeterra, where none of the creatures talks back to Pyke. That could be closed case, but the whole thing about Pyke's voices and the jaullfish gets oddly confusing then.

Pyke's voices that tell him to kill are very confusing to pin a source, some say its the jaullfish, some say it's the whole concept of 'deep' with the Jaullfish and the fish, the swimming city, etc. Lore always treats it as something related to his death and some mystical magic hanging around that keeps him trapped from getting out of his killing spree, but that feels... odd, somehow. We know the jaullfish gave him the possibility to become an undead, but, whats the whole purpose of him killing, in what does this affect the Jaullfish? What benefits does it get?

Its very nonsensical, he doesnt do any offerings to this creature, or searches for it, he just talks about it like a distant memory along with his tragic death. In 'And then, teeth' we read that Pyke kicks Mazier's body to the water so sharks can feast on it, again no mention of this sea creature that we say its the cause of his voices.

As for my own opinion taking these foggy takes in consideration, i believe that Pyke's voices arent a cause of him being undead, but that he is actually schizophrenic from starters. Perhaps is a response and a develop from a previous mental disorder he had before dying, perhaps he was already schizophrenic before anything happened. It would somehow and foggily explain a lot of concepts that arent tackled much on his lore but that Pyke mentions nonetheless, like the crew of 'The terror' being something that no one in Bilgewater knows about, or the concept of The Swimming city, something that Pyke mentions a lot that could just be another name for the depths he spends most of his time on. It could also explain why names ''keep appearing'' on Pyke's list without himself realizing, perhaps his whole pergamine was blank this whole time, and he's allucinating, maybe thats why he appears to know everyone, even if he had never seen them.

As for Illaoi removing the voices from him in Ruined King, its also a tricky question. It would make sense that ''Illaoi cured Pyke's schizophrenia''', but he still has his undead powers, it doesnt break the 'spiritual deal' he has with the jaullfish, as i feel that if this creature is the one talking in Pyke's mind, then Illaoi removing it from his mind would at least cause him to debilitate or to get his powers removed aswell. It would also make sense why in the credit scenes in Ruined King we actually see Pyke writing for the first time on his list, the very first time we, as espectators, see that Pyke has written something on paper since he died. By himself, not magically appearing.

With all that in consideration, does Pyke talk with fish? Yeah, most likely, but in the end he would just be talking to himself, any response he gets back is probably the voices on his mind. After Ruined King he probably keeps talking to fish, he just doesnt get a response back and would treat them like puppies.

[howlingrose]

I'm latine and I work at a company that does this,

(not exactly being a cashier, but constantly interacting with customers online) because their degrading wages match or even surpass, by a little, the minimum wage salaries you'd find here.

Keep in mind that minimum wage does not mean living wage. They're definitely not paying living wages.

The bright side for us is that we can get a fixed salary without having to leave home, which saves a lot of trouble and money regarding transportation and time. But I do still think that this is harmful to people. They're stealing jobs from people needing those jobs in their countries and they are still paying less than what our labor is worth to them. I do feel exploited and I do think the working class deserves better everywhere.

Weirldy enough, I can say that I love my job, so I'm lucky there. I like the interaction and I'm good at it. But I hate the company and I feel I'm being treated unfairly the longer I work there. I also suspect they pay less depending on the country, and I think workers from my country have it better than workers from other (poorer) countries.

Just for context, my job is related to culture, turism and travelling in Latin America (kind of, wont provide more info because I'm obliged to not complain about the company with anyone, only my legal partner, so I'm keeping it ambiguous), so probably it is something they need to outsource to Latin American workers in order to provide the experience they're selling, but they're definitely charging in US value and paying us less than 3$ an hour. And we hold their business in our hands.

Whenever you find out a company is doing this, question it, learn what it does. Is this a job someone could be doing locally? Does it make sense to outsource it? And if it does, maybe it is not bad to support it as long as the working conditions are fair for the workers. Which could happen... but it is not my case and I know it is not the case of many companies with this business model.

If you find yourself in a situation like this and if you care for the workers press the company for improving salaries, lessen the minimum worked hours per week (which are usually more than 40), allow workers to not work on holidays without being sanctioned and to take days off because of health reasons without being sanctioned, and implementing paid resting moments between shifts.

This is how life is for some of us, so keep speaking about it.

"labour optimization" holy shit

[iapotmf]

so glad u replied!! Honestly I have two main ideas for a domi/jude fic but I don’t believe I’ll do it justice because my writing skills are horrible and I deleted a Jude/gavi fic ages ago because I felt like it’s a good idea but should be written better.😭😭 anyway!

Idea 1: Erling and Dominik are good friends since they played for the same team in Germany, Erling leaves to go Dortmund and meets Jude and they become a thing(I have a different way of this story going without them two dating😭😭) after a while they’re relationship seems to be going good and Erling introduces Jude to Dominik on a night out ( I swr I’ve seen a photo of dortmund Jude with Dominik😦). Jude and Domi get along well and in this fic Jude and Erling wont exactly have the best relationship due to both being footballers, Erling having doubts about if he actually loves Jude or this is just a phase, and it’s kind of obvious that Jude loves Erling much more than Erling loves him. Jude is much oblivious to the stares Domi gives him and Dominik isn’t sure why he’s so interested in Jude. The two seem to keep in touch for a while, Erling and Jude seem to be having struggles with Erling’s upcoming move to Machester. Erling seems to be completely ignoring Jude and their messages become even shorter, their calls too. Jude just thinks it’s because Erlings gone to a different club in a different country so he’s just getting used to everything until Trent sends him an article about Erling’s new girlfriend and they both argue about it, not fully broken up yet. Domi checks up on Jude as soon as he seen the article and he’s pissed off at Erling. Dominik helps Jude with his worries and comforts him when he’s actually broken up with Erling.

This is litch just a short context ( I think) if I ever write this fic I’ll go deeper into the like thoughts and feelings and especially communication.

Okay so I have like two different ways of this part going, 1. The two eventually fall for each other in a normal way

2. Jude and Dominik become friends with benefits sort of, until they both then fall for each other with some struggles on the way. Not sure how I’ll end the fic but we’ll see🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️ will be done Real Madrid , Liverpool problems but it’ll work out!

Idea 2: Jude is sure he loves Trent and he doesn’t like how Dominik and Trent are extremely close, The England team and Trent seem to think their both just good friends but to Jude he’s sure he’s got some crush on him. Trent’s not sure on whether he likes Dominik or Jude and is both unintentionally leading them on. Jude believes he hates Dominik and try’s to act hostile towards him but it just doesn’t work at al he can see why Trent loves Domi. Dominik seems to fall for Jude when he’s sure he loves Trent, they both seem to have fallen out of love with Trent and love each other instead. Trent’s in complete denial and treats them both horribly and seems to have lost both of them.

IK THIS IS SUMMARY IS WAYY SHORTER THAN THE OTHER ONE😭😭😭😭😭😭 but like Ik the summary’s short and all but like I have some ideas for that fic!!

Which one do you prefer more? honestly not sure which one people would like more😔🤞🏾

ANON HELLO AGAIN!!!!!

okay your mind 😭😭😭😭, you've clearly thought about this and oh my goddd i love your ideas

okay so for the 1st one: it makes so much sense actually, like the timeline fits so well and erling is an interesting connection. it could work out the way you've planned it, has the drama and the plot is logical. but (i'm sorry for ig criticizing your idea) i feel bad for making erling the "evil" one, like they could either break up before he goes to england and we have dom comforting jude orrr there are some feeling but they just never date and after being introduced to dom, jude falls hard and so des dominik and no one gets hurt? again sorry for changing your idea!!! do it like that if you want, i'm just a softhearted person and don't like my fav people feeling bad but sometimes that works so well too (also i'm such a hypocrite for saying this bc i live for angst)... omg waittt i just thought of the fact that techincally they would be teenagers in this and in that case ohhh your idea makes so much sense

the 2nd one: this one also makes so much sense. like them both liking trent (true af) and then falling for each other jhdbfsbdsjnkjsdn also him being bitter about it is so taa (if you do this pls leave the door open for possible dom/jude/trent in the future 🙏🙏 but if that's not you cup of tea the that's fine! bc the idea IS dom/jude at the end of the day)

both are greatttt but if i were to be honest i would like the first one sooner (yes sooner as in both are amzinggg and you should do them if you want)

[fxirybun]

exactly u can then just enjoy them a bit more without feeling pressure to be full on delulu if u ever walked past them u probs wouldnt actually pay much attention to them unless it was at an event as such. did u see the crowds at both san and hongjooongs fashion events? it looked crazy

idk when i was really into a group i was like i got to go to every concert now im like ehh can i be bothered? not rlly bc the concerts sell out so fast these days, i'll try but i wont be upset if i dont get tickets lmao. also the only nearest ateez concert in their european tour had a bombing there and im like ehhh i might feel safer staying at home but fomo always kicks in at some point. so what do u think do i or dont i treat myself to tickets? idfk

pretty much so 'cause once you start seeing idols more as regular people , it becomes easier to just enjoy them without all that intense attachment or delusional thinking. if you were to walk past one of them casually , you might not even react unless it was in the right context , like a fan event or something. i can't really say much since i'm not in tune with updates (›´-`‹ )

but as for concerts i feel you on that ! i used to have that same drive , wanting to go to every show but now with tickets selling out so fast and everything being so chaotic it’s more like "do i really need to stress over it ?” especially with the bombing incident you mentioned near the european tour , it makes sense that you'd feel hesitant. converts can be such a great experience but if your gut is telling you that you might feel safer staying home , it’s okay to skip out and if you do think you’d regret not going , maybe treat yourself :)

it's all about weighing how much you’d enjoy it versus how much stress it could cause. if you feel like you’d have a good time without too much anxiety , go for it ! if not , there’ll always be more chances.

[benis-chillin]

My Sonic eras(updated)plus canonicity system.

So it’s been a minute since I updated my Sonic eras(which are based in canon rather than arbitrary opinions, like most fan era systems operate in this franchise), so I figured I’d give them a quick touch-up, and explain what systems I use to determine canonicity. Those being:

Objective canon(what happens on screen)

Fair extrapolation(looking at the tiny details to make assumptions, but not outright headcanons)

Behind the scenes info(What the current people at Sega say)

Headcanon(we make shit up with no basis beyond personal opinion)

So, let’s go into detail on what each of these mean.

1)Objective Canon

Basically, if you saw it on-screen in a canon work,  this is irrefutable canon. However, there are some caveats to this, and one of those is that this section doesn’t dictate what works are and are not canon, since those are often decided by outside factors that we’ll explain in a moment. Another is that we usually try to judge a work by its original language. Some works in mainline Sonic canon are written first in Japanese, and others are written in English first. The metric you can use for that is by studying dialogue. If the main differences between English and Japanese are the typical tells of English localization(I.e. Stuff like Shahra’s “Did I change my destiny?” in the English dub of Secret Rings, when in context, this was about her altering more than just HER fate), then it was likely written in Japanese first. However, if the Japanese version has WILDLY different dialogue in the Japanese version(Colors, Lost World, Frontiers, etc), then English came first.

Now, if you still like the other dubs for casual playing, that’s cool. I enjoy some games written in Japanese first with the English voices(and vice versa), but when it comes to this type of analysis, you need to get as close to the original as possible.

If you need a resource for checking into these translations, Windii Gaylord on YouTube is a good one to use. She also came up with the above metric for figuring out which language came first via one of her tweets, btw.

2)Fair extrapolation

So this one is a little tricky, but I think I can get my point across.

One frequent complaint about Sonic canon is that it “makes no sense,” or “contradicts itself” in many instances. Heck, even people up to Ian Flynn would make this argument.

And they’re wrong. 

Beyond a few instances in the Classic era, Sonic canon only doesn’t make sense if you either don’t pay enough attention to it, have multi-media brain rot from Archie and shit, or make up the contradictions in your head. The Sonic fanbase is wont to do that last one a lot, with “All of Classic Sonic was put into another dimension by Forces!” or “Unleashed/Frontiers contradicts the Chaos Emerald lore established in Adventure/Unleashed!” 

This type of thinking comes along when you SEEK contradictions, and it’s a loser way of going about these things. Fair extrapolation goes entirely against this idea. Instead of looking for contradictions, let’s instead assume that everything connects perfectly, you just need to find out HOW, without going on any crazy leaps.

For example, in Forces, Classic Sonic is established as coming from another dimension/world, despite coming from the past in Generations, and other games have shown the pre-1998 games to have taken place in the mainline universe.

A loser would scream, “Contradiction!” and rob everyone else of a cool idea, but fair extrapolation tells us that his previous encounter with the current timeline put this version of Sonic into his own dimension/world, and since that story involved time travel, we can assume this means timeline. Ergo, split timeline.

Or, in another case, the Chaos Emeralds are ancient gems with a lot of power. If a battery still has power, I can still use it in more than one device if I choose to move it, yes?

So, logically, the Chaos Emeralds can power the Ancients’ ships in Frontiers, get placed in the guardianship of Chaos in Adventure, and have been used for the Temple Megazord in Unleashed at different points in the long history of Sonic’s Earth.

Ergo, these games do not contradict each other.

If connecting the dots doesn’t require you to outright make up details, then it’s fair extrapolation, and thus not a headcanon. I’ll explain what that is in a moment, but first,

3) Behind the scenes information

Alright, this section requires some harsh truths, so I’m gonna just rip off the band-aid:

Creators are far less reliable than the on-screen canon.

They may try to claim otherwise, but as far as I’ve observed, their knowledge on details can be fuzzy and swayed by a corporation who has even LESS of an idea of what they’re talking about. It’s okay to pick their brains a bit to use as feelers for canon, but they can and sometimes do contradict what’s actually on-screen, so for MY money, they’re tertiary canon that can easily be ignored.

Death of the author is inherent to any long-running continuity, unfortunately. We just have to accept that.

4)Headcanon

This receives very limited use. It’s mainly deciding what your personal order of events is, what explanation you prefer from fair extrapolation on the rare occasion you can get more than one, and other details you may need to fill the gaps with. It is the most objectionable form of canon, thus why it is at the bottom of the list. Also, every time you cite it, you MUST say something to the effect of, “My headcanon is…” Don’t try to push it as fact, because you know it isn’t.

So, with that all established, let’s get our eras established.

1)Classic Era

1991-1997, 1999, 2023

Both the hardest and simplest to explain. Every game from 1991-1997 is in here, so pre-Adventure.  Sadly, the manuals for Sonic 1-3&K, and CD have been retconned by Sonic Origins(I don’t like this retcon, but as it was done through proper channels, I have to accept it by my standards), but the others remain fair game for now.

Pocket Adventure remains as the end of this era, personal headcanon keeping it in the loop because I doubt Sega is gonna make a work that replaces it, so there’s nothing in the work itself to make decanonizing it necessary.

And yeah, you may have noticed that 2023. Yeah, I’m putting Superstars in the main timeline. This may change in the future, but for now, I am eschewing the “takes place between Mania and Adventure” stuff from the creators to cause less contradictions, unlike Sega who seem to be wallowing in causing a contradiction with the “Mania in the main universe” bullshit. Objectively, from the official material, Mania is from an alternate timeline, and any instances of Mania elements appearing in the main universe are continuity errors out of universe, but can be explained in-universe as non-specific objects and locations that exist in both timelines.

I would prefer that Superstars be a split timeline game, personally, but we’re not allowed good things. If Trip ever appears in a comic with the Hardboiled Heavies, then she just exists in both timelines as a pre-Generations thing. No muss, no fuss.

2)Adventure Era

1998-2006,  2010,�� 2012

Works relatively the same as before, so I will copy and paste. 

Not named after the Adventure games, but rather after Pocket Adventure, which is our transition into it. This era encompasses everything released from 1998-2006, save for Pocket Adventure, Rivals, Riders, and Rush, the latter 3 being folded into the following era. Sonic 4 Episodes 1, 2, and Metal are also part of the Adventure era as their earliest canonical instances. What ends this era is the reset created at the end of 06, which reboots Silver to his new Rivals origin, and either reboots Blaze to be from the Sol Dimension now, or simply makes it so she never traveled from the Sol Dimension to Silver's future(my preferred theory). Since this is a shift in the timeline caused by canonical events, it transitions us into our next era…

3)Post-Solaris Era

2006-2011

Silver and Blaze receive their reboots in the form of Rush and Rivals, and Riders starts up. Covers every game from 2005-2011 that isn't Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog(2006), Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, and Sonic Chronicles, since that game is explicitly in the not-canon zone, and will probably never get out of it. The cause of our next era shift will be explained shortly.

4) Post-Time Eater era

2013-present(?)

Caused by the events of Generations splitting the timeline so that one version of Sonic grew up to be the Modern counterpart, and one is having considerably different adventures like Mania and the IDW anniversary comics, this new timeline SEEMS to be our current era, with all post-2011 games, save for Sonic 4 Episode 2  being in it...Hypothetically. And, for the first time, non-game media like the IDW comics and Prime are in it, so that's neat!

(Btw, if you wanna bitch and moan about Prime being canon, I discussed it here)

However, I should note that as all of these eras are formed in retrospect, we will not properly know when we have left this era until WELL after we have exited it. 

I see two possibilities for our next era shift:

1) Another timeline shift that properly addresses the timeline split, and uses that to smooth over some of the extra contradictions leaving post-Gens Classic Sonic in the main timeline would bring. I have the story ready in my head if you want it, Sega.

2) The revelations of Frontiers go somewhere further in the future, bringing us into a “Discovery” era, and making our years for this period 2011-2022, 2022-2024(these are for Prime), and starting this new era with Sonic Frontiers, Murder of Sonic, and Sonic Dream Team, along with whatever IDW comics follow the events of Frontiers.

(a small mock-up)

So that’s my canon system as it stands as of March 2024. Feel free to discuss, and even borrow elements for your own systems, or just to use it outright. I just felt that having this all typed out in one spot was a good idea. See ya, suckers!

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