#standard format for this blog; just let me know)

[bao3bei4]

why zines? how zines?

i was on a panel at fanworks con 2023 about zines today. it was a lot of fun! i decided to turn my portion of the talk into a post for my friends who couldn’t make it to the panel. 

this post includes my thoughts on: 

why make a zine

how to generate ideas for zines

how to finish your zines

how to build an audience for your zines

so why zines? what are they? [ZEENS, rhymes with beans], pronounced that way because it’s a shortened form of the word magazine, are basically just that: self published magazines. but why make a zine over, say, a blog post? or any other piece of art. 

i have basically three reasons. the first is that making little books is cool. it’s genuinely awesome to make physical zines and have the product of your labor in your hand. it’s a great feeling to finish a project and feel a concrete reward, and a lot of times we don’t get that in our lives.

the second reason is that zines give you absolute editorial control. you can put anything you want on a page. whatever layout, whatever order, whatever fold, whatever content. you name it, you can do it. this is something other venues rarely give you. for artists, it’s phenomenal. and for the rest of us, it gives us the ability to become artists for a little bit, as we lay things out.

the third reason is that zines can be absolute shit. in fact, the more shit they are, the more diy and punk they are. they have an incredible lineage of stolen copy paper and anarchist politics. all that to say, is that there are no standards. the zine ethos is say what you wanna say. it’s tremendously freeing to go fuck polish and respectability, i’m making my project.

because of these three reasons, i want to encourage you to get started making zines by describing common challenges and worries and giving you several practical tips for each on working past them. so, in order, they’re “i don’t know what to make a zine about,” “i struggle to finish projects,” and “no one will read my zines.” let’s get into it.

first up, “i don’t know what to make a zine about.” i think this one is pretty common, even for experienced zine creators. sometimes you’re in the mood to make things but you have no clue what. a lot of people suggest to just go with random words or whatever pops into your head, but i’m picky! i find that unsatisfying! so here are some tips for people in the same boat. 

ONE: what’s distracting you? work with it. because anything can be a zine, let the things you’ve already done serve as inspiration. photos you’ve taken can be formatted into a zine. is there a game sucking up your attention? make a zine about it. the song stuck in your head can turn into a lyricbook, forgotten works in progress or sketches can be resurrected, cannibalized, or even published as incomplete zines. if you’ve been busy with real life, maybe the recipes you’ve been making—even if, especially if, they’re struggle meals, can turn into zines. interview your most interesting friend. summarize a book you read recently. even if you’ve just been doomscrolling, that’s a zine too! i got a zine last weekend called bay area newsreel which was collecting recent articles about local news from leftist perspectives gathered up into a handy volume. your attention is a gift, so look at what zine fodder it’s accumulated for you naturally. 

SECOND: add a twist. sometimes i have an idea but it isn’t quite right. it just seems too straightforward. so i try to develop along a single axis of content or form. what this means is basically go against your instincts, or rather, your first impulse. that first idea is very hard to walk away from, but doing so often gives you an idea that gets you unstuck. so for content, add a different perspective. for me this is often a theoretical approach. when i was stuck on my scum villain zine, turning it into freud zine let the words start flowing. next, on form: present it differently than your first instinct is to. if my first thought is “essay,” i try to figure out how to chunk out the information into modules or how to add interactivity or what kind of illustrations to add. if my first thought is “this could be a fic or comic,” i try turning it into an essay. saying things a different way often gives you a new perspective on the content as well. 

THIRD: copy! make your take on the same thing as someone else. it’s not stealing—well, ideally it isn’t. make your original take and give credit where credit is due and ask permission if necessary. but engage with the medium!!! making zines without reading zines is the same thing as trying to write a paper without citing sources, or a novel without reading your contemporaries. that is, you can do it, but it’s hard. zines are a genre into themselves so figure out how to situate yourself in their ongoing dialogue. an example of this from my own practice is that i own a zine about queer gods and mythological creatures from chinese history. reading it i was like. why don’t they talk about this. why don’t they talk about that. and that became the basis for my own zine, guaitai the strange and the queer which focused on queer chinese history and literature instead. different zine, same inspiration. 

all of my ideas suppose you have SOMETHING going on. what if you truly have nothing. my advice? adapted from my “how to write an essay” blog post, is to read a book. read an article. read something. and then post about it. and then turn your posts into a zine. don’t start entirely from scratch — give yourself a scaffolding. so first. read something and tell someone about it. i wasn’t lying about calling myself a consummate poster. it’s a big part of my thought process. 

second up, what if “i struggle to finish projects.” i’m no stranger to having a bunch of half finished half started projects lying around. but here are some zine-specific tips i have for addressing that.

FIRST! go smaller; go shittier. reduce the scope of your projects. make one pagers, lists. once when i was feeling stymied, i made a physical zine about movies i’d watched that month, just listing them with a couple bullet points on each film. i eventually turned it into a bigger digital zine where i listed movies i’d watched over the past several months with more thoughts on them, and nicely formatted. but that was something that came out of reducing my scope from “i need to write a manifesto on a movie i’ve watched recently” to “well i can just tell people about it” to “i can say two things about it.” and something actually got finished.

SECOND. your friends are a great tool for accountability. something i like to do is zine jams with my friends. nothing fancy, it’s just we’ll sit down for an hour and go we’re going to make something in this hour. or, for a bigger scope, we might work separately but commit to making a zine that weekend. it’s nice to have community and it’s nice to feel a little bit of a friendly deadline. i recommend this even if you DON’T have problems finishing zines. it’s a good time. 

THIRD. a lot of times if the words aren’t coming easily, it’s because i’m not trying to say the right thing. keep in mind that your zines don’t have to be “content.” this little paper zine i made about movies wasn’t made to share online; in fact, it’s not available online. i didn’t make it according to what other people would see or be interested in. you can and will burn out on making “marketable” content. corollary to this: sometimes what i have to say is something i DON’T want to share online. it might not be that it’s boring, it might be that it’s too personal. and i share a lot online, i write personal essays after all. but some projects i stall on because they’re really just for me, and i’m again, focused on making content. so this piece of advice is about rejecting the tyranny of the imaginary audience. 

and the next challenge is about embracing that audience! what if no one reads your zines, something that’s entirely possible. well there’s plenty you can do about that.

FIRST. cultivate zine community. read other people’s zines! talk to them about their zines! this greatly increases the chance that they will do the same for you. don’t go in expecting reciprocity; do it for its own sake, but it’s a great place to start. try asking people at zine fests if they’d be willing to trade with you, for instance. 

SECOND. write for yourself. it’s cheesy but it’s true. you really have to. if you’re not proud and happy with what you’re making on its own merits, what’s the point. now because this is a cop out tip, i’m not counting it as a tip on its own. 

so SECOND PART TWO. make your zines more accessible. if they’re not free, make them free—yes, you deserve to be compensated for your work, but it’s up to you to decide if you want a bigger audience first. if your zines aren’t short, make them shorter. make them short enough that you can post their entirety on social media or something else easy for your audience to consume. it’s a big ask sometimes to get someone to download your pdf! if they’re physical, hand them out to people you meet. remove all the barriers to entry.

THIRD. related to this, change medium. if you’re not making physical zines, try printing them out. if you’re not making digital zines, try digitizing them. both of these offer access to new audiences and new people who might be more interested in one form than another. 

i hope these thoughts encourage you to make a zine! if you do, please let me see it. i love reading zines. 

[dailyadventureprompts]

Lets talk about Prompts

Ey friends, just wanted to pop in and talk about the centeral conceit of this blog.

As many of you know, I haven't been living up to my daily title for a while, as most of my creative energy is being put into my novel/podcast*. I still want to write prompts, I enjoy making up stories and chasing inspiration, but the problem is that Inspiration isn't sparking as much as it used to. When the stars do align and I can get myself to write, I find that I'm often biting off far more than I can chew, my default wordcount having drifted up along with my standards has time goes on.

Then there's my problems with validation. It makes my day when something I've written catches on with you folks, but I'm close to 12,000 followers and I'm lucky if I get 100 notes on one of my prompts. I used to get really hung up on working for hours on what I thought was a good idea only to see it bomb, and the compounding stress over that was one of the reasons I decided to take a step back from my old work schedule.

My instincts tell me that if I want to write, I should be aim to be writing shorter, punchier prompts. My doubt tells me that if I cut back on detail and personal flourish I won't actually be contributing something of substance; anyone can look at a cool piece of fantasy art and get inspired for their d&d games, right? A completely different part of me thinks that maybe I need to change my authorial tone, going from semi-prose to strict scenario-designer talk, be upfront with the twists and challenges and utility of the idea and leave the fancy stuff to DMs at their table.

What do you folks think? I'm looking for general impressions AND genuine critiques of my format/style. I also might try and get experimental over the next little while, see if anything really works for you folks.

*We'reonthefinalchapterofseasononeohmygodguysI'mgoingtoexplodefromexcitementI'veputsomuchworkintothisandit'ssofuckinggood

[telugu-girl-13]

♡ Hasini's 150 Follower Event ♡

THIS EVENT HAS ENDED! THIS WILL PROBABLY BE THE LAST EVENT OF THIS THEME!

Hey, guys! I've been so excited to hold another event, and you helped me get there! I'm officially somewhat famous! And I'm super thankful to every single one of you who has acknowledged my presence in some way. Not just following, but also liking, commenting, reblogging, booping, anything and everything. Every single one of you have a special place in my heart, and I hope you know it! <33

﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

Back with the theme! If you're new here, I'm crossing my fingers that you love it. And if you're one of the OGs, hope you enjoy the experience of this event once again! I'm obsessed with this, so it's making another appearance! Maybe for my next event, I'll have a few new tricks up my sleeve...

This event will be in the standard ask in my inbox format, with only one request per mutual! All of these requests must be sent between 7:30 AM and 9:00 PM Eastern Standard time, so you're not sneaking out during curfew! (You'll understand in a moment, and if you can't coordinate the timings from another part of the world, it's fine!) This post will be pinned on my blog from November 3 to November 10 and no requests will be accepted after that. Here is the link to my introduction post! Most of these are art-related! Hope you enjoy!

*This request might take a day or two during the school week! Hope you have extra drachmas! (I'm just kidding, the only thing you have to pay is your patience and time!)

﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

Hello, new camper! You have followed me and passed Thalia's Pine Tree 🌲. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood! Where would you like to go first?

🏐♡ - The volleyball court! To play here, send a prompt for a tag game in my inbox! Let's try to keep the volleyball up by keeping the tag game going!

🏠♡ - The cabins! To stay here, submit your godly parent and I'll provide some aesthetics that I think would fit your cabin (blog)!

🎨♡ - The arts and crafts building! To hang out here, submit your favorite color(s), hobbies, animals, symbols, and more, and I'll create a collage for you!*

🔥♡ - The amphitheater bonfire! To hang out here, sing a lyric of a song (in text, not actually) and I'll incorporate it in a moodboard!*

⚔️♡ - The arena! To hang out here, send a controversial or unpopular opinion about an appropriate topic! Make sure it isn't triggering or harmful, and is something like a ship or a favorite character! Let's battle it out! Anyone who wants can join the debate!

📚♡ - The library! To hang out here, send a headcannon for a book I've read and I'll comment on it and maybe even draw it!*

🏖️♡ - The fireworks beach! To hang out here, I'll compliment you and tell you why you I think you're amazing! Request this if you feel depressed or just need a friend to comfort you <3

﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

While many of these may sound similar, trust me, each is different. I included some of the most popular options from last time and put a twist on some of them, hopefully I get a variety of responses! Thank you for participating, and even if you don't, thank you for supporting my blog through its journey! Love you xx!

See tags 50 follower event and hasini's 100 follower event for past activities!

[reasonsforhope]

Upcoming Blog Thing

So I'm currently in the process of making a sideblog-for-a-sideblog for Reasons for Hope.

The idea is to use it to post mostly links/info on direct action (how to's, petitions, official government calls for comment on proposed policies, protests, info about cool things other activists are doing, etc. etc.) that doesn't fit on a good news blog. Plus informational/awareness posts, and my own activism and thoughts and takes about things that sometimes really, really do not belong on a good news blog. Or that half belong on a good news blog and half really don't, and the like.

The idea is also to create an official "format" for submissions so that people can send in posts without me having to take the time/spoons to make new posts out of ppl's asks and dms (this takes sooo much time sometimes). Then, if successful, do a similar thing for submissions on Reasons for Hope, bc I do want to make posts about lots of things ppl send me, but it would be way too much to do myself all the time.

I'd still be verifying everything and applying editorial standards, in both cases. I actually already wrote up most of an editorial standards policy for the new sideblog, too. It would include verifying and listing the sources and dates for everything, at a minimum.

I've been thinking about going ahead and doing this for quite a while now, but I finally decided I needed to go for it because uh. I just found out about something absolutely, completely fucked up that happened to my grandparents (and a lot of other people). And while I am planning to get involved in organizing about it in real life around the relevant issues (or at least flyer the shit out of relevant neighborhoods), I really need to be able to use what platform I have to talk about this - along with other issues - so I have somewhere to channel my rage and grief into activism

(You will hear more about what happened when the sideblog goes up, if you want to see know. For now, let's just say that it's been a really intense 48 hours.)

Also you know I actually have a small-to-moderate platform here and that's a hell of a lot more ability to reach people than I tend to have in person, esp with ~life~ and ~working~ and my disability shit

So yeah, heads up you have that to look forward to (if you want to engage). And there will be unique tags to filter for people who want to see the links to actions and organizing info without seeing the info about fucked up stuff.

Because I am firmly of the opinion that people can and should be able to engage with that kind of content only where and when they feel up for it, if they want, and especially if they're really struggling with spiraling over the state of things.

Anyway, let me know in the notes if there's anything you would particularly like to see from the upcoming sideblog. (I make no promises but would value information on this!) And if you have any thoughts on what I should call it because I haven't been able to figure out something satisfying yet.

[fakehelper]

✦ Okay, I give in. Let's upload our gifs on the beta editor to prepare for a gif pack page. Resources are available at the bottom, so lets get started !!

So first things first, you can only upload 30 gifs at a time. Now for me, I will always upload as I gif, around every 20 gifs, then upload to the page (this also ensures I don't skip any or have doubles) and keep gifing. That used to mean that I don't have to wait for tumblr to load 300 gifs and die from impatience. For the rest of y'all that means you're going to have to batch upload. I know, I'm sorry.

Note: With the help of @nataliealynlind we discovered that the daily limit is 250 gifs! So if you have more than that, prepare to upload your gifs over the course of a couple days or use a second blog. (imo this is another great reason to upload as you gif! that way you don't have to get stuck at 250!)

So after you upload your gifs (in this case I only did 10)*, you're going to go to the gear at the top of your post and click it. Then scroll all the way to the bottom where it says Text Editor. This looks familiar, right?

*Note: If you don't save it as a draft first, your gifs will be in .gif format, not .gifv. This means you can skip removing this tag later on, but I'm not sure if gifs that are uploaded but never saved/drafted will later disappear at some point. To be safe, I would save it as a draft. I just forgot at this part tbh

Well the good news is, you only have to change this once! The bad news is, we don't do Markdown then HTML anymore bc Markdown doesn't strip any of the code anymore 🙃 So just change it to HTML

Now it should look like this! Fun!

Okay, now we're going to copy that text and take it on over to our new best friend, the HTML Cleaner! So you're going to want to paste it on the right side of the screen. Your gifs should appear on the left side. If both sides have text, that's how you know you pasted it on the left.

So in order to get ride of all this extra code, it's going to take a couple extra steps. First, you're going to check these boxes on the left hand side.

Now, on the right hand side, you're going to enter these under Find and Replace (copy/paste section below!!). I know you're like, uh what? Where the hell did you get those numbers? Well, I got them from our gif post code!

For easy copy pasting:

Find: <figure> Replace: (leave blank)

Find: </figure> Replace: (leave blank)

So after you add the specific widths for your gifs, you're also going to want to add the following:

Find: .gifv Replace: .gif

Find: alt="" Replace: (leave blank)

Find: /> < Replace: /><

NOTE: If your gifs are usually the same size, I would recommend saving these snippits above on your computer's sticky notes or a draft to copy/paste for future uploads! While I do appreciate the viewer traffic, I'm sure coming to this tutorial every time is gonna get old real fast.

After all that, click Clean HTML

And now, your code should look like this! If there's still a space between your image links, just click Clean HTML again and it should get rid of it!

Now your code is nice and clean to put into your gif pages! Not quite sure how to do that? Read the Setting Up Your Sidepage section in this older tutorial!!

Resources

HTML Cleaner

My Gif Pack Page Codes

Recommended Gif Pack Page Codes (tag)

Previous Tutorial (How to upload to a Standard Sidepage)

Barebones Code (for previous tutorial)

[jaynovz]

Expanded Info for Black Sails Kink Meme 2024

Hi there!

Since there has been a sufficient amount of interest for this idea, let me explain a little further how I think this will work and general guidelines–

I’m encouraging as informal and low stress/pressure of an atmosphere as possible here. Back in The Day when LiveJournal Kink Memes were common, it was very typical to see a prompt put up and filled within an hour. It doesn’t have to be polished, it doesn’t have to make logistical sense, it just has to fill the prompt as best as you can, sexily! It’s supposed to be fun. A bunch of fun, raunchy kink and smut to roll around in as a fandom. 🥳 🥳

So yeah, first thing to expect, it’s basically ALL PWP (porn without plot). Not to say that someone can’t write a full plot epic if they like, do whatever you like, but in my experience, a 4am fugue state smut fill written in a sweaty haze is kind of, the spirit of the thing. We’re creating ficlets, snapshots, tasty treats of smut with as little pressure to make it in any way polished as possible. Please think of this as, hmmm, a little fun writing exercise you do before you go back to your Big Serious Work, if that helps. We are letting loose, we are having fun, we are being deliciously, joyously, unrepentantly filthy with it! The tagline for the event is: “Get High, Jerk Off Three Times, and Write Me a Warmup :DD”

A prompt might say, for example– “MaxAnne, s2, would love to see the girls get slippery wet with some period sex, bonus if one or both eats the other out while she’s menstruating.” 

Pretty standard stuff, nothing that off the wall from my perspective, however, some folks might feel shy about asking for it for whatever reasons and so the anonymous format frees ppl up to ask for anything from: “Midshipman James McGraw getting caned in pre-canon by his superiors” to, idk, “full tentacle-y type oviposition porn where someone is being forced to come over and over again while being implanted with eggs by some giant plant beast on Skeleton Island (probably Silver).”

Literally ask for whatever smut you want~~ This is your chance, toss it into the pot! It will be tagged accordingly when posted if it’s filled, so live your truth, chase your bliss, know no shame, no one can see you~~

It is helpful when submitting a prompt to give details that are important to you, and the prompt filler will do their best with it. <3 So, I suggest giving a ship specification up front, maybe a vague timeline (season 1, season 2, etc), and then the kinks you want to see with a short description. Sort of like the MaxAnne period sex I gave an example of above.

Logistics and Structure of Submissions–

I have created a sideblog called @blacksailskmeme through which, once submissions are live (it will be open to accept prompts hopefully in March 2024), you may submit ANON ASK PROMPTS. I will publish them with a number and a link to the collection. If you like one of the prompts, simply post it through the collection with its corresponding number and then that AO3 link to your fill will be reblogged underneath the original ask prompt.

Simple as that! 

Follow the Event Blog, or the tag #2024BSKMemeFills in order to keep tabs on when prompts are filled. 

This makes it very easy for me and yall both, as there is no claiming process to trouble ourselves with. As many fills as are written are allowed for each prompt, simply write whatever speaks to you and I’ll be able to track the fills by the notifs on the collection. :DD

As of now, I’m planning to open prompts in March 2024 and keep the collection and blog running for prompts and fills both up through the end of Summer 2024. To respect the spirit of the event, all fills and prompts MUST be anonymous. Edit for clarification: The entire collection is marked Anonymous, which means any work submitted to it will be posted Anon. There is no option you need to worry about checking to guarantee this. I apologize for the initial confusing language, I have been learning as I go.

It still stands that if, after the event is closed, you want to then de-anon your work, that is your prerogative. However, it will mean you must remove the work from the collection, as the collection itself will forever and always remain anonymous.

Rules–

–This is an 18 plus event, please, as all of the content will be Explicit. 

–It is also a Black Sails Only Event, please no crossover prompts or fills. However, AU of all types are encouraged with our favorite pirates.

–All ships, all kinks, are welcome for submission, and the fill will then be tagged appropriately. If you have any questions on how to tag something, or just want another pair of eyes to confirm, you can always DM me <3

–Fills must be 500 words minimum of fic. There is no maximum and the fill is allowed to be WIP if you intend to write more chapters later. I would encourage that the content of the prompt be IN the first chapter at least before submission to the collection.

–We’re Gonna Be Nice and Civil!! No ship bashing, no kink shaming, we’re all mature adults here. If you don’t like something, then don’t fill it, don’t reblog it, don’t read it, pretend you do not see it. If you don’t like it, it’s not for you! 

If I haven’t covered everything here, or if you’re unsure about something, feel free to reach out to me either through the event blog or through @jaynovz <3 Also, if you’d like to help me out with the event, hit me up as well.

Thank you!

[transactinides]

Lis please give me your lecture about sociosexual hierarchy i want to know what you know about bullshit incel stuff

YAYYY YIPPIEE YAYYY

first of all, have a scheme i made myself a while back to put everything I've gotten from hashtag Authentic Incel Blogs and YouTube Channels into a more coherent format. Rather than putting them all into one pyramid, i think it's more accurate to present alpha/beta/omega vertical separately from the other designations. This vertical is the basis of sociosexual hierarchy (hence also the part of it most people have heard about it) and it follows a very clear "chain of command" so to speak. Long text under the cut

Alpha males stand at the top, representing the ideal standard of masculinity. Alphas fight between each other over whos the better hashtag Role Model and are very competitive in general. Betas are a rank below, following the standard set by Alphas/looking up to them. Omegas fail to follow the standards set by Alphas and therefore resent them while still believing in the standart/the idea of dominant toxic masculinity alphas represent. There's a LOT of bioessentialism in the incel movement, so Omegas sort of are in a weird position where they simultaneously yearn to reach that masculine standard but also live with the grim acceptance that nothing in their lives could be changed ever and they will stay outcasts <- majority of incels are Omegas in their self imposed hierarchy thats their whole thing.

Less of an established vertical and more of an analogue connection I've made myself is the Sigma/Gamma thing. Those two types of guys are united by the fact that they ignore the masculine standard/social norms as they are directed at men. Sigmas are often presented as like "lone wolf" guys, who don't care about fighting for dominance with Alphas or being the standard etc etc, but they are still at the top of the hierarchy due to being cool like that. Gammas ignore the masculine standard all the same, but due to not being cool like that fall to the level of social rejection similar to Omegas. Incels (who are again, mostly Omegas) consider most "nice guys", "simps" and "white knights" Gammas, hate them a lot too and claim that most people who identify as Sigmas are actually just Gammas who lack self awareness.

Deltas are literally just normies. Your average person. Deltas don't know anything about the sociosexual hierarchy beyond the funny memes mentioning alphas on Tiktok. Oh how I wish to be one of them...

Zeta and Lambda males are a bit of a special case. In my scheme I grouped them together because I really didn't feel like bothering with explaining the whole deal beyond "both of them exist somewhere on the outside" but essentially. Zeta males also reject the "social" norms and exist outside of the hierarchy, with strong leaning towards the Man Hoing Their Own Way movement. Lambda males who fucking knows what their deal is. I have seen people claim they have their own separate hierarchy and are somewhat related to the pickup artists type, but "lambda males" are also a troll type of guy people made up to make fun of the sociosexual hierarchy so finding any info thay is 1) from the inside; 2) not trolling; 3) not some recently even more made up "lambdas are creative and sensitive ones💫" because. incels Would Not Say That; is very hard. I included them just for the sake of it but it's a bit dubious tbh.

Now let's discuss telling apart some closely related types of guys.

Sigma, Alpha or Zeta? Alphas naturally follow the standard of masculinity and represent it, Sigmas naturally and instinctively reject it, Zetas actively and purposefully reject it.

Beta or Delta? If you know what a Delta is, you are not one.

Omega or Gamma? Omegas try and fail at performing masculinity "correctly", Gammas don't try and naturally reject it (akin to Sigmas).

[whisperiin]

chrome is my fav but I like seeing my favs suffer a bit so 🤭 can I request an angsty to fluff one-shot (or whichever format you prefer) with chrome and a childhood friend gn!reader? (friends with feeling for each other teehee!!!) smth like reader goes missing during a mission on earth and a year later reader is found as a construct and brought back to Babylonia? emotional reunion with chrome and everything 😭🫶🏻

chrome makes me explode!!!! he has no business being so romantic.

Thank you! I adore your blog and I hope to see it grow in the future!! <3

hi anon, thanks so much you're so sweet !! i totally get you tho ... i loooove making my favs suffer teehee it's so fun ... i also really like this prompt i love love love angst to fluff !! fun fact, i actually have a wanshi smooching oc with a similar backstory !! great minds think alike (〃´𓎟`〃)

i wrote mooostly from chrome's pov since the reader got yoinked so i hope it's alright that they don't have Too much involvement, but all that aside i hope you enjoy!!

here i am (following your steps).

content warnings: implications of/vague allusions to death (you get better though)

When CHROME takes the mission report into his hands, he feels like the world has been pulled out from under his feet.

Your squadmates' faces were similarly grim — downcast eyes, lips pressed into thin lines — and no matter how hard he wanted to, he couldn't deny the truth of the matter, relayed to him in your captain's trembling apologies and Babylonia's standard typewritten font.

Your name, your rank, reported missing in action.

Chrome keeps his face carefully blank as he reads the rest of it over. Maybe he should have been there with you, he thinks. Maybe if you had one more person with you, then your squad wouldn't have had to split up, and you wouldn't have had to go alone, and —

"Thank you for letting me know," he says, a mask of fake reservation, and then he turns to leave.

There are pictures of you and him that you put up in his sleeping pod that he can't bring himself to take down, unopened gift boxes piled on top of the desk in the Strike Hawk lounge addressed to him. He thinks about how he wanted to straighten your jacket one more time before you swatted his hand away, and he wonders what you would say if he asked if you would still want to spend the rest of your life with him, like you believed you would growing up. You would always stay over for dinner, anyway, and his father already likes you — what's one more night, and one more, and one more?

It's a foolish, childish notion, but still the thought of it, the empty, gaping hole where you had once stood beside him, haunts him so.

Chrome sets the mission report face-down.

Time without you passes slowly. After each mission Chrome spends another hour searching for you, and after each mission he returns to Babylonia without even finding the slighest trace of you. Not a torn piece of your coat, your pistol, your remains — nothing to officially pronounce you dead, and precious little else to remember you by.

Sometimes, he catches himself checking in on the private comms channel he set up for the two of you. Today, too, he finds himself listening to the silence that your voice used to fill, casting his gaze off to the horizon, past devastated streets and ruined buildings —

— And then he catches a flash of something in the distance that almost eerily reminds him of you.

He doesn't waste a single moment before he gives chase, your silhouette that he was so used to seeing growing clearer and clearer with each step. Even though he might just be deluding himself, he needs to see with his own eyes that it's not you to believe it.

The silhouette turns at the sound of his footsteps and at the sight of your face, the world is pulled out from under him again.

"...Chrome?"

(How long has it been since he last heard your voice?)

"It's you," he says softly, falling from his lips like the answer to a prayer that even he can't quite believe. "...You're here."

The words bring a smile to your face — soft and bright and oh-so-familiar — and he reaches out for your hand, sliding down to hold your wrist. His fingers press against where he might feel your pulse but it's still, silent, cold, with only the same subtle thrum of electricity that sits beneath his own synthetic skin.

"I'm here," you echo, and for just a moment he sets aside all the questions running through his head.

Chrome takes another look at you, at your new metal body, at the same face he had seen every day growing up and seen in his dreams every night since you disappeared. He straightens your jacket and lets his hand rest on your shoulder for one moment, then two, waiting for you to swat his hand away.

"Chrome," you say, placing your hand over his. "Can I stay over for dinner?"

The question draws a surprised noise out of his throat, and his expression slowly melts into a smile.

"Always," he replies. "...And for however long you want to stay afterwards."

[eco-lite]

Volume 7 babyyy let’s go!

(But CW: sexual assault. I do include some quotes related to the assault here since I was recording my thoughts on it at the time.)

First of all, how gorgeous is this cover art?! They looks so good. This might be my favorite cover so far.

“Even now, twenty years later, I still haven’t found my ‘rightful place’” (6). Okay so we going Richard introspection hours. Love it!

“Prologue”

* Blogger!Seigi omg.

* I guess “Iggy” is pretty close in pronunciation to “Seigi” but it seems wild to call him that lol. Also, who is reading this blog???

* Lotus is Seigi’s favorite flower. Got it.

* I wish the blog posts had a different format or typeface than the main text. That would be really fun and easier to distinguish.

* For fuck’s sake, just call him!

* For real though, it is really easy to sympathize with Seigi’s doubts right now. Being in such a foreign place, just waiting around for things to happen. That would make anyone anxious and doubtful of their choice. “When you had too much time on your hands, your anxieties loomed bigger, like shadow puppets hit by the light” (23). Fr fr.

* Jeffrey is ultra-dramatic and mysterious as usual. This is going to be quite an experience.

“Day 1”

* It’s so wild to me that Seigi thinks Richard would tell him to quit his internship if he’s not settling in well. That’s not how I see Richard at all. Shouldn’t Seigi know that Richard would tell him a long story with a message about perseverance, likely with illusions to Richard’s own life that would fly right over Seigi’s head? Because that’s pretty clearly the standard. As always, Seigi is way too in his head.

* Ah, so the mentorship wasn’t supposed to be like this after all. It’s really cute to see Richard getting so indignant and protective of Seigi like this.

* The rapid shift in Richard’s tone once he thinks Seigi is distracted/being disingenuous gave me fucking whiplash.

* NOT Seigi blocking Richard from view of the staff guy who’s giving interested glances at him. 🫢

* Bro this is crazy. Who is this mysterious other British man? What’s his past with Richard? It’s so bad that Richard is drinking alcohol?? Living for the drama.

“Day 2”

* Richard wearing sunglasses inside? Uh oh, he got fucked up last night.

* Seigi once again defending Richard from the male cruise staff. At least Richard seemed to appreciate it.

* “Richard chuckled when he saw the fraught look on my face. I always thought he sounded a bit like a pigeon when he laughed like that” (77). Wtf why is that adorable?

* Ooh a rare Richard swear!

* Okay so whatever Richard doesn’t want Seigi to see at the jewelry showcase has to do with the darker sides of the world of gemstones. What have you gotten yourself into, Richard?

* I actually feel physically ill. Now it’s very clear why Richard didn’t want Seigi to be here. I didn’t think the “dark” aspects were going to hit quite so close to home. Seigi is focusing only on Karlsbrook because he’s filled with rage, but I really need to get a check in Richard rn please. OKAY SHIT, Richard keeps brushing Karlsbrook’s arm off his waist but he is not getting the hint. What a CREEP.

* This is genuinely so hard to read. I am right there with Seigi, struggling to restrain myself from doing something rash to (metaphorically) destroy this man. And there are so many bystanders doing nothing. God, this is painful.

* “‘I love beautiful things. I want beautiful things. I don’t want anything but beautiful things. And in that respect, nothing could be more desirable to a collector like myself than you’” (98). I’m going to fucking throw up. This is explaining so much about Richard’s trauma around compliments of his beauty. This blatant objectification is vile.

* What the fuck is this Karlsbrook guy’s deal? He clearly would have harassed Richard even if Seigi wasn’t there, but he seemed to do it more gleefully because it was in front of Seigi. What does he know about Seigi and Richard’s relationship? He marveled at the fact that Seigi actually showed up earlier. How did he know that there was a possibility he would? And how does he even know who Seigi is in the first place? This is so fucked up!

* And they’re distantly related?! Bro…

* Okay so if Jeffrey didn’t send Seigi those emails, it was definitely Karlsbrook. Why does he want Seigi there so badly?

* Anddd now he’s being framed for stealing a priceless ring. Okie dokie then.

* “Kindly uncle” is not the vibe I’m getting, my guy. “Stupid, elderly baby doll” is a much more apt description.

* Vince is a great character. He just seems like a nice, chill dude you’d want to hang out with. And I love when a character’s appearance doesn’t match their personality. It gets me every time.

* After Vince goes on a lecture about anime and manga figure 3D modeling: “I cautiously asked Vince if he liked anime and manga, and he politely ignored me. Got it” (151). This guy. What a kuudere.

* This story was just tough. Looking forward to the conclusion tomorrow.

“Day 3”

* Ooh, detective Seigi!

* I’m loving Seigi’s absolute audacity in this one.

* Seigi is so adhd-coded.

* “‘…What happened with that creep?’ ‘Just shut up for a bit.’ ‘Okay’” (190). I love their rapport. 😂

* Richard showing up looking gorgeous to kick ass at poker while subtly roasting the VP is so !! He’s truly serving here.

* “The man presenting his merciless flush of hearts had such a beautiful yet indifferent look in his eyes as he stared intently at the man across from him. ‘Shall we continue?’ (193). So cunty!

* “Richard always had fire in his eyes when he got angry. The melanin in his irises gave their blue a sort of undulating wave pattern, and when I looked at him, I got goosebumps. It made me feel like I’d laid eyes on something no mortal should ever see” (193-194). Seigi is in so deep, bro.

* “‘Thank you, Ricky. Not even Raphael’s Madonna is a match for the beauty of your fingers manipulating those cards. I wish you would use those fingers to toy with me.’ ‘My apologies, I’ve been suffering from some temporary hearing loss and did not catch what you just said.’ After replying with the most refined ‘Like hell I will,’ in history, Richard stepped back and left the two men at the table” (199). 🤮🤮🤮 Karlsbrook is literally a mustache-twirling villain, this is crazy. Great clapback though, Richard. Also, is anybody else so uncomfortable when people call Richard “Ricky?” It feels infantalizing and like such a violation of the image Richard wants to present himself as.

* I just looked up what happened to the Colonel Sanders statue in Dotonbori. Wow… Seigi is not fucking around.

* Why are Vince and Richard having slightly hostile banter right now?? This is hilarious but I feel like I missed something behind the scenes.

* VINCE WAS HIS ASSISTANT????? This is blowing my mind omg.

* AND IT WAS VINCE IN THE BAR THAT FIRST NIGHT??? Wild. Can’t believe Seigi suspected that from hearing his purposefully bad english. Seigi actually is a good detective, and he’s more observant than I give him credit for. How rude to hold out on the readers like that though!

* “‘That was the first time I’d ever felt that strongly that I wasn’t needed somewhere… I’ve never felt such heartache like the moment I realized that I could offer nothing of value to this person who was such a huge presence in my life’” (231). Ouchies. Boy, do I know that feeling. Poor Vince. It’s unfortunate that Vince felt his relationship with Richard was so one-sided. I hope he won’t always be bitter about their relationship. Even if he had said something to Richard back then, I think Richard would have gotten very closed off and defensive, since they didn’t have a super close personal relationship. They’ve both improved in their communication skills since then. And it seems like things are going quite well for Vince now. I wish that funky little guy the best, and I hope he and Seigi end up staying in touch.

* “The beautiful man threw off his jacket about 30 percent more aggressively than normal, rolled up his sleeves, and stood in front of the punching bag. He gave it a fierce one-two punch. Sometimes, humans just get the urge to suddenly practice boxing, and this seemed to be one such time for Richard” (245). I love that we’re getting to see Richard like this. Seigi clearly has seen Richard be more casual around him since he knows how Richard normally takes off his jacket, but I doubt Richard has let Seigi see this side of him before. And I also really relate to getting the urge to “suddenly practice boxing.”

* And then he just leaves looking disheveled?! Bruh. At least stick around to cool off first. 😏

* Thank god the rest of the cruise was peaceful. I’m glad Seigi and Richard got to just hang out after all that drama.

* Ewww Seigi had to endure a hug from Karlsbrook. But I’m so glad that creep got exposed. Hopefully Gargantua actually does good after the investigation into their culture of sexual misconduct.

“Epilogue”

* “But as you might expect if a food for celebrations, it opened with ‘twenty-five eggs,’ so I think I’ll try scaling it down” (251). I just love cute little comments Seigi makes like this. Also very relatable to anybody who follows Pinterest recipes. Who needs to make that much food??

* Richard reads about “unfamiliar grammatical constructions” for fun. This man…

* “There were words that I wanted to say in Japanese and others that felt easier to express in English, but they were both becoming mine. For example, this was something that I wanted to say in Engish. I wish you were here. I wish you were here to eat the food I made. I don’t know if you’ll like it, but I’d be happy if you have it a try. And if I say something ridiculous again, I wouldn’t mind if you got frustrated and scolded me” (263). 😌😌😌 But for real, can we talk about the romance of wanting to tell someone you miss them in their native language?

* Richard being so giddy that he pulled off this prank of showing up unannounced is adorable.

* Seigi’s idea of heaven is sitting in a beautiful garden drinking royal milk tea and eating delicious snacks while talking to Richard. 😌😌😌

* Okayyy and right back into the drama. I guess we’re going to have a teenage girl nemesis now. Not at all what I was expecting. But as always, I’m excited to learn more about Richard’s past!

Although this volume had many tough moments, we actually got a lot of smiley Richard. He seems a lot more comfortable around Seigi than even at the end of the last volume. I’m really looking forward to seeing how their relationship progresses from here. Especially if they’re staying in Sri Lanka together like was suggested at the end of Vol 6!

[homenecromancer]

This post is not what I wanted it to be when I set out to write it. It just sort of peters out where I got bored, although I tried to tie things up a little at the end.

But did you know that you can connect 9/11, Mothman, and Maximum Ride?

I wrote most of this post in 2021 and will probably not ever get around to really finishing it, because dumpster-diving the conspiracy theory Internet is depressing. Also, while I sometimes enjoy reading about Mothman or other cryptids, I am not here to write an investigation of how cryptid lore spreads and mutates on the internet. Which is where things were increasingly going, the longer I worked on this post.

A previous edition of this post linked to archived versions of the conspiracy websites I mention below. In this edited version, I've almost entirely moved to using screenshots, in order to avoid having my blog be a couple clicks away from upsetting, bigoted content. So this post is a little long.

This is a post about Maximum Ride. But it's also about the weird world of conspiracy theory websites in the 2000s.

Let's start with a brief note about James Patterson. Before he retired in 1996 and began to devote himself full-time to writing, he worked in advertising. He's used those skills in interesting ways over the years: in 1993, his first big book, Along Came a Spider, was promoted on television, when that was essentially unheard of for a book. I encourage you to read this article for a closer look into Patterson's general approach to writing.

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment was Patterson's first young adult book, released in April 2005. What's important for you to know, if you don't already, is that it's about a group of children with wings. It was also heavily advertised.

Part of the marketing for the book was undertaken by a firm called the Concept Farm. They created a lot of stuff, but today we're interested in one specific thing: this website.

The site is kind of a riff on a type of site that existed then and exists now: “this weird cryptid is definitely real and I totally saw it”. In this case, the cryptid is the main characters. Believe me, we’ll circle back to this topic, so if you’re not familiar with this kind of website, don’t worry.

There’s not a whole lot to the site, so I’ll direct you right to the page I want to discuss. 

Get a good look at this photo.

Don’t worry, you’ll be seeing it again.

Now look at the right side of the site. You see those links? Just take a minute and appreciate that list. A couple of them are just someone’s Angelfire (free web hosting) site. We’ll be seeing Above Top Secret later on, but the other sites aren’t of special interest to us today.

wingkidsarereal is the earliest appearance of this image I was able to find. I didn’t look all that hard, but still -- it’s visible in a July 9th, 2005 archive of the site. This is before any other usage I was able to find, but I don't think that says anything more than "it's hard to find websites from 20 years ago". I suspect, but cannot prove, that this image was probably circulated via email forwards prior to appearing on the archived pages I was able to turn up -- and email forwards, naturally, don't show up on the Internet Archive.

Let’s take a quick tour of the conspiracy theory internet, and see where else this image shows up.

s8int.com is a real time capsule -- it’s a young-earth creationist conspiracy theory site. Here we find our image in November 2005. This is the uncropped version which preserves Steven Moran’s watermark at the bottom left corner. For the most part, when you see the image getting passed around, it’s been cropped to remove this watermark.

The overall look of this site is extremely archetypal of 2000s conspiracy theory internet. By today’s standards the formatting is relatively plain -- all the flavor is in the text. Not visible in this screenshot: a generally simple design with a big banner image at the top, and a row of icons for other pages along the left side of the screen. This is the general look that the designers of wingkidsarereal are imitating with their site.

s8int believe this photo shows a pterodactyl near the World Trade Center. At this point in time, the later consensus (which we will get to later) had not yet gelled.

This is also the first place we see a bit of text that pops up a few times later -- the alleged description by the photographer, Moran. I haven’t been able to track this text any further back in time than this page, but it makes sense to me that it would’ve been passed around as a chain email before its appearance here. It’s also possible that the person who wrote this text sent it in to s8int themselves, and that it became a chain email later on.

Worth noting: s8int also have the highest-resolution version of this image I’ve seen, which you can view here.

Next, in February 2006, the wonderfully trustworthy-sounding mothman.us is on the case… they think it’s Mothman. This website has a slightly more sophisticated, modern look than s8int.

In October 2006, a small-scale Blogspot blog made a post that also uses the Moran image. The formatting is actually too bad to screencap, so here's the text of the whole entry:

Spooky Story Four: The Mothman Returneth Last year, I did a spooky post on The Mothman. It's probably one of my best scary stories, and I get a lot of hits from people Googling The Mothman everyday. You can find my original post HERE. The question now is...have there been other Mothman sites lately? For those too lazy to read my first post, and for those who need a refresher, The Mothman is a winged creature, standing about 7 feet tall, and has bright red eyes. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of reports of encounters and sightings with this flying thing near Point Pleasant, West Virginia from 1966 - 1967. The reports made national news, as Mothman sightings kept coming in, along with sightings of UFOs all over the place. It is here in Point Pleasant where the infamous Men in Black first made their public appearance as well. Townspeople also reported that they were having psychic visions and dreams. Basically, it was a weird time for Mount Pleasant that eventually ended in disaster. The Silver Bridge collapsed on December 15, killing 46 people. And immediately after, sightings of The Mothman abruptly came to a hault. Since 1967, there have been worldwide reports of this Mothman appearing prior to major disasters: * People reported seeing the Mothman just days before the Mexico City earthquake in 1985. * There have been many interviews in Chernobyl from those that said they saw a winged man-creature, right before the nuclear reactor disaster in 1986. * Minutes after the Twin Towers' destruction on September 11th, 2001, observers reported seeing "winged, flying men" flying near both towers. The picture (at left and right) shows that the flying creature is much too big to be any kind of bird. * Newspapers in Tbilissi, Georgia wrote about how some guy said he got information from a "winged phantom" concerning the Church of St. David being in danger. Soon thereafter, there was a major earthquake striking Tbilissi on April 25, 2002. The church suffered massive damage. * Months after the Tbilissi quake, Chinese citizens reported seeing The Mothman. Shortly after reporters published their stories, a Chinese MD-82 in the northeastern part of China. There were further reports from people saying they knew the plane was going to crash because of information given to them by "a man that looked like a moth." * There are reports all over the world, even in Afghanistan and Iraq. So what is The Mothman and why does it seem to follow major disasters? Is it trying to warn us of impending doom? Or is there something sinister involved? Or perhaps, it's simply the human imagination trying to cope with tragedy. Although the tragedy of Mount Pleasant was 40 years ago, it seems the myth of The Mothman is still one that captures our attention and our imagination. Whatever you believe, catch Sci Fi investigates this Wednesday night, as the crew goes to Mount Pleasant, WV to investigate The Mothman (Sci Fi Channel). I was in Charleston, WV this summer and no one would take me on the hour drive to Mount Pleasant. As one local resident told me, "For us, it's all very realToo real." For those that live in the area, The Mothman represents a very scary and uncertain time in their town's history.

Let’s wrap up in February 2007 with an Above Top Secret thread.

Above Top Secret is a general conspiracy theory discussion forum, so getting a clear consensus on something is rare. This thread is no exception, and it’s not good reading. But forum member Raist did eventually go the extra mile to win an argument they were having, and emailed the photographer, Steven Moran.

…It was the wrong guy. This Moran did give his opinion of the photo ��� he thinks it’s a bird. Also, I must note: this screencap is from a 2015 archived version of the site -- in 2007, Above Top Secret had a black background with greenish text, and was much more like the other conspiracy sites I've shown in this post.

This is where I chose to stop poking around with all this stuff. Not because men in black suits showed up at my door, but because I just sort of lost interest. I had seen what I was interested in seeing: a widely-circulated photograph made the successful jump from "this photo of a recent event is crazy -- is it an angel? A demon? A pigeon?" to "this photo is part of conspiracy theory 'canon' and is definitely Mothman".

Along the way, it crossed through the small portion of the internet that I was reading in the mid-2000s. I'll pause to speculate on how I think it got there: someone working on wingkidsarereal needed some images to use for the site, and happened to see the Moran image somewhere. I don't think it's any deeper than that.

The Mothman angle was what dragged me into scrolling through these old conspiracy websites, because it seemed so odd to me. Worth mentioning: it is my opinion that The Mothman Prophecies, which came out in 2002, helped give Mothman a boost out of the world of weird nerds who like talking about cryptids and toward the mainstream, or at least toward people who had not yet heard about this specific weird phenomenon. (Here's a brief little 2001 IGN article I found, explaining what Mothman even is. Which you don't need to do if everyone already knows.)

Canonically, Mothman appeared during a specific period in the late 1960s in a very specific area of West Virginia, then was never seen again. But he just keeps showing up, "canonical" or not -- people really, really want to see Mothman, in the same way they want to see Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Seeing Mothman is cool, and gives you a link to a pre-existing bank of cryptid sightings. You're not just a person who saw something weird. You're a person who saw a known thing that's linked to a global pattern of sightings.

And so, now Mothman is no longer limited to Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1966 - 1967. Mothman is in Mexico City in 1985. Mothman is in Ukraine in 1986. Mothman is in New York City in 2001.

Mothman... is in our hearts.

[directactionforhope]

Go Here for Instructions on How to Submit Posts!

And go here for an example.

Submissions limit of 5 posts per person each week, please!

Otherwise, unfortunately, I'll get too overwhelmed by the submissions volume to post anything. Thank you for your understanding!

Me and the Basics

Call me Cactus! They/them, late twenties.

I'm the person who runs the Reasons for Hope tumblr.

This is a sideblog-to-a-sideblog for Reasons for Hope, because I want to promote actions and spread awareness for things that don't always fit on a good news blog specifically

For context: Queer, trans, disabled, white, USian, for context.

Let me know if I post something offensive, I promise I have practice fixing things when I mess up instead of lashing out at the person who told me. I don't want to post hurtful things, so I genuinely want to always learn more about how to not do that, even when it's uncomfortable.

This is all very long because I'm still incapable of being concise.

About This Blog

Made this blog because I keep wanting to reblog or post about actions people can take, but didn't want to put them on Reasons for Hope unless they were actually mostly good news.

As a person who's Been There with spiraling, I really get the need to have access to a space that you know will contain good news and ONLY good news, in this day and age.

Also made it because I have Opinions and want to talk about Issues and activism and I'm committed to not doing that on my good news blog unless it involves, again, actual good news.

So, follow if you want! I definitely invite people to send in actions (links to campaigns/petitions/major protests/letter writing campaigns/etc.) specifically as submissions. I'll put up a how-to and link it here at some point, bc I've learned from Reasons for Hope that if they're in ask format I won't usually have the time/energy to reformat that/make it into a post.

(Sorry to people who've sent asks in on there, you're great. I'll switch to a submissions-based attempted system there too once I get the chance. May be a minute, I'm about to start a new job(!!).

My Editorial Standards

My usual editorial standards from Reasons for Hope apply, modified for this sort of blog:

Any donation-related posts/submissions need to be from some kind of established organization. It can be super grassroots etc. but I need to be able to verify that it's not a scam.

For that reason, no personal fundraisers/gofundmes. I'm genuinely sorry about this because I know a lot of people need the help but like I say on Reasons for Hope, there's no way to truly vet the vast majority of those posts, and I really don't have the time to try.

I'll come up with some sort of tag to put on all the particularly upsetting/fucked content so people can filter it and just see the action posts. Preferably something unique so it doesn't screen out other people's posts if you want to filter

More below:

I'll also have a tag for any particularly upsetting/fucked informational/educational things I post, because I do want to help spread awareness about a number of things, some of which will be pretty upsetting.

That said, I'll try to keep those informational posts only to things that are solutions-focused and/or have an element of good news or hopeful updates, where possible.

I'll also keep most of those posts behind a read-more where possible.

For more info about why I'm including that stuff, see the bottom of this post.

I will not post any campaigns or actions for reelecting Joe Biden until either the genocide in Gaza ends, or until September 1, 2024 (the month early voting starts).

Why do I have that policy? Because Joe Biden is absolutely committing war crimes, but Donald Trump would still, in fact be worse, for the US in general, for BIPOC in the US in particular, and for Palestinians/Gaza. I made a post about this with more details that I'll link here at some point.

Everything is going to be labeled with the link's source, the organization running it, the date posted (if identifiable), and the dates of the campaign/campaign deadline.

Re: Posting bad news here

I've been thinking about starting this sideblog-to-a-sideblog for a while now, because there are a lot of actions/campaigns/etc. that I really wanted to help promote, but did not want to put on Reasons for Hope, because I'm trying really hard to keep that limited to actual, you know, reasons for hope.

That said, I will be including upsetting stuff here. It will have its own tag for people to filter if they only want to see the links to actions. But I am committed to including it.

More below the read more, because this got longwinded and a bit personal:

That's partly because there are a lot of issues that very people know about, and I believe a lot in the power of spreading knowledge/awareness.

It's also because of the reason I finally stopped pondering and decided to start this blog: I just found out tonight that my grandfather died young because of toxic radiation from a nuclear meltdown at a super dangerous and experimental nuclear reactor, which the US government covered up completely and continued operating for decades. Right next to Los Angeles. btw.

If you live in or near Simi Valley, Chatsworth, or the West San Fernando Valley, or your parents did, get high-risk-level-appropriate cancer screenings. And if you're in Simi or within like 5 miles of it...probably don't drink the tap water. Also maybe try to move. (Consulting with a public health scientist/activist friend about this, will report back.)

I was already anti-nuclear, including anti-nuclear power, because of the absolute devastation it's done, especially to Indigenous communities and Japanese civilians. I didn't want to get into it on Reasons for Hope because of the whole "urgency of climate change" thing. But suffice to say that being anti-nuclear just shot very far up my "activism priorities" list.

None of this, or any other horrific things I may post about, conflict with or ruin my faith in humanity. I've definitely been incredibly pessimistic and misanthropic in my life.

But I believe that, for all the bad and evil things humans do, there is equal or greater potential for good. I believe it's like they say: "Hurt people hurt people." That's not the case always, but it is very often. Now, for the first time in history, we have the physical ability to end starvation and scarcity and a lot of death and suffering. We're still getting there, though we still have a long way to go.

I believe in a future where we can all hurt each other (and the other life around us) far less. I believe in a future where we have beaten and reserved at climate change.

I want to live to see that future, and I want all of you to get the chance to see it with me.

[poirott]

your gifs look so good! but they're a little slow. have you tried speeding them up to 0.05? when you save them from the video timeline window they actually save at 0.07. they'll be even faster sped up a little! anyways, love your blog, definitely a legendary one. xx

Hi! Thank you for the compliments! The frame animation sequences are slower in my gifs on purpose for three reasons: personal preference, for effect and because I've never liked fast-running gifs. :) When giffing a moment from a tv show/movie/celeb appearance I really enjoy (Poirot and other crime shows, the Branagh Poirot trilogy, a Benedict appearance at an event, cast at movie premieres, etc), I prefer 0.08 or 0.07 than 0.06 or 0.05 speed across the board.

I know a lot of gif makers use 0.06 as some sort of "standard" on this site but it honestly comes down to personal choice and style. 0.06 may not suit every scene in every show, and 0.05 can look distracting given its speed, again, depending on the scene. You know how sometimes a fast, busy gif has to loop several times before you can tell what's going on in it?

It's easier for me to take in more details in a gif, like the costumes, sets, cinematograpy, facial expressions, characters' emotions, etc, when said gif is slowed down a bit. Otherwise it can be too quick and "jerky" (like a shaky camera effect) for me to enjoy, similar to those short 5 or 10 or 20-frame sequences in tv/movie trailers that just breeze by because they have too few frames. Once they're slowed down in gif form, you can appreciate them to the full extent.

These B-roll footage gifs of A Haunting in Venice are at 0.07 and 0.08 to fully enjoy the on-location filming moments and behind the scenes footage of Branagh's Poirot. They are slowed down for effect to show off the stunts. Especially when a gif has two action-packed sequences in it, if it runs slower, it's not as headache-y and busy to look at when it's switching from sequence A to sequence B. Some are also pretty dark due to spooky lighting on the sets and your eyes need more time to adjust to take everything in. Trust me, I spend a lot of time deciding what the best speed is for each gif. But most of my gifs are still faster than these.

The following Poirot gif from this gif set is one of my slowest at 0.08 speed, for effect because the point was to focus on Poirot's pleased expression, he looks very sweet tipping his hat at the lady, not expecting a kiss from her for solving the case:

With the gif sped up to 0.05, I don't think you can catch all the minute details:

It's just how I personally like my gifs. Most of the time they're 0.07, and 0.08 on occasion. The slower speed lets them "marinate" more. Especially with tumblr's large format HD gifs nowadays, it's fun having such a big canvas to play with and the chance to observe every detail in a frame, when I didn't even notice it at the cinema or when watching the show originally.

Cheers!

[illleavemymessageinmysong]

“Demons Dance’? Lord knows what that’s about!…”

I get a feeling that Paul keeps tracks with some of his most personal lyrics away from centre stage: released as bonus tracks on separate editions of albums, as additional tracks on various formats. This goes back to ‘Same Love’, a track written in 1987 but only released as a b-side of the 1997 single ‘Beautiful Night’. A track so glorious that, by any rational standards, it should have been front and centre of an album release.

The usual proviso applies that the lyrics might just be words to go with a tune but, really? The song deals with thoughts of rekindling a past love, with all the complications and uncertainties that would go with that. “Though it may not be as good as new, well, still, it must be better than the pain that I went through”. Listen to how he sings the word “pain”. If he’s not being real there, he’s a much better actor than he’s given credit for.

But what about a few of his by the way tracks from more recent times? Let’s look at ‘Demons Dance’ and ‘Struggle’.

‘Demons Dance’ was recorded during the sessions for ‘New’ but was only released in October 2014 as part of the Collector’s Edition of New. The Paul McCartney Project blog tells us that during his Twitter Q&A on October 30 2014, Paul was asked what was the meaning of ‘Demons Dance’ and what inspired it. He swiftly batted that away with “Demons Dance’? Lord knows what that’s about!” Well, quite. None of the regular tactic of saying that the lyrics have no particular meaning.

The song’s narrator has a desire for a connection with someone, and the feelings that go with this are so strong he likens them to his personal demons. This goes deep. Only by connecting with this person, can he get peace of mind.

“I can't wait much longer 'til you tell me baby, there’s some chance we'll get together maybe, sooner or later I'll be in with half a chance”

This has been a long term feeling and he’s desperate for some message of reciprocation. Only that can ‘exorcise’ his demons. The guy’s got it bad. “Girl I want you to do it, I’ve been waiting so long”. Yep, this goes way back.

Do you write lyrics as intense as this if you don’t really feel them? I’m going with nope.

What about ‘Struggle’, first released on the Japanese version of ‘New’? This one doesn’t hang about getting to the point: “ Want to get you in my heart again, want to love you once more”, it begins. It sounds like the same narrator we heard in ‘Demons Dance’. Again, and even more explicitly, this is addressed to someone the narrator used to be with.

“If you wanna love, if you wanna fight, it doesn’t really matter, I want you tonight”. So maybe this past relationship had its’ ups and downs, was a bit volatile. “I can think of something when I get you home tonight”, he adds. See previous post for the possible importance of “home tonight”, a phrase that turns up in five Macca songs.

“It’s the same old story, it’s happening again”, he declares. This longing is something that has been a feature through the years for the narrator. It has peak periods of intensity.

“Anytime you want me, I’m not hard to find”. This person is out of his current orbit but could contact him easily enough.

“We can work it out together, we'll get through this somehow”. Yeah, we can work it out…..

It ends with “It's the same old story, it's happening again. Life’s eternal struggle”. It may ebb and flow but this feeling isn’t going away.

Jumping ahead to tracks from the Egypt Station sessions, we’ve previously had a look at ‘Get Enough’. One of his most emotionally raw lyrics. Snuck out on streaming platforms as the clock struck 12 at New Year 2019.

Then there’s ‘Sixty Second Street’, released on subsequent editions of ‘Egypt Station’. Set to a pretty tune, this is a lighter take than the other tracks we’ve looked at but, again, describes a desire to connect with someone. Our narrator wants to meet up with this person, just a minute of their time is all he needs. Mind you, he then suggests they “grab a bite”, so maybe a bit longer. A lighter take, yes, but meeting up with this person would make his life complete, so it’s a big deal.

A recurring theme going on here, I reckon.

[five-rivers]

Cryptid Crawl! Chapter 3

AO3

@currentlylurking @going-dead

Formatting is a bit better on the AO3

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AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

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Forums -> Community Alerts -> Paranormal Investigators

Thread: I have an idea

Tubalover (OP): I have an idea but I need to know how cool @Phantom (MOD) the real Phantom is with fake dating before I say it.

Phantom (MOD): I’m okay with fake dating fakeout makeouts whatever but I have standards.

Tubalover (OP): I said I need the rela phantom.

Phantom (MOD): How do you know I’m not the real Phantom?

Tubalover (OP): He uses better punctuation.

The Smart Twin: Incredibly, I think she’s right?

Thecooltwin: Lol and you call youreself the smart one y didn’t you notice this

Phantom (MOD): Like my counterpart said, I’m fine with fake dating, but I do have standards.

Tubalover (OP): GREAT.  So the idea is that in every shot of the Investigators we get someone to make out in the background so they can’t air it.

Lovetheshow: don’t most shows have kissing in them?

Tubalover (OP): Maybe.  But do they have GAY kissing?  Background of every shot we have a gay couple or lesbian couple.  They’re a national show right?  Noway they can put it up.  And if they film you you can just grab a buddy and kiss them.

Roswell’s Child: I bet @West of West would LOVE to get in on this

tubahater: despite my hate for tubas I love you, yet desptie my love for you, I have to ask: do you know what a ‘live’ means when applied to a TV show?

CasperQueen: Girl this has got to be the most convoluted plan I’ve ever seen to avoid asking out a crush.

12th Knight: To be frank, if I heard that an episode of an on-site reality television show was pulled because there were too many gay people kissing in the background, I would be more tempted to visit, not less.

Tubalover (OP): Everyone shut up. 

.

AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

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Forums -> Ghosts -> Phantom -> Speculation

Thread: What ARE Phantom’s standards?

Point25Back (OP): What are Phantom’s standards for fake dating someone?  Asking for a friend who’s too shy.

Phantom (MOD): i like girls that can beat me aup and buffcomputer ners

Phantom (MOD): THAT WASN’T ME! THAT WASN’T ME!  @The Cooler Phantom IF WE WEREN’T ALREADY DEAD I WOULD KILL YOU.

.

AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

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Forums -> Local Businesses -> Discussion

Thread: Weird at my gym

GET-GAINS (OP): Anyone know why we got so many teenagers trying to get gym memberships at the Body Shop all of a sudden?

My Hair: You don’t want to know.

12th Knight: I certainly wish I didn’t.

.

AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

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Forums -> Community Alerts -> Paranormal Investigators

Thread: Possible solutions for the Investigation

Photosynthesis (MOD) (OP): I and the other mods don’t have great ideas for the other two at the moment, but as far as the ‘investigators’ go, I think we might be able to scam them by showing them obviously fake ghosts.  Cheap Halloween decorations, hoaky effects, people giggling in the background, that kind of thing.  Thing is, to cover all the places they might go, we’re going to need a lot of people and a lot of materials.  I’d like to hear other people’s thoughts on this, and if they’d be willing to pitch in.

Point25Back: that’s easy, just get [EDITED BY MOD] to do all of it.  his haunted house room sucked so hard that [EDITED BY MOD]

[@Point25back has been banned for two (2) days.]

Pharaoh (MOD): @Photosynthesis (MOD) I’m begging you to just let me permaban him.

Photosynthesis (MOD): I’m loath to ban someone with that much roid rage and that much access to your meat body.  But to stay on topic, we can’t just force one person to do this.  It’s too much work. 

12th Knight: When you say ‘roid rage,’ that’s rhetorical, right?

12th Knight: @Photosynthesis (MOD) Right?

Roswell’s Child: idk groups like this usually come prepped to fake their own ghosts.  Its like the moon landing

Photosynthesis (MOD):  Here we go.  I guess it was too much to hope for an actually productive thread.

Phantom (MOD): The moon landing was not faked!

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AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

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Forums -> Community Alerts -> Paranormal Investigators

Thread: But what if Roswell’s Child has a point?

Bog Mummy (OP): I’m not talking about the moon thing, but about that old post where she was trying to make out that a certain someone who won’t be named because I don’t want to be banned was a cryptid.  What if we put that certain someone in a bad Phantom cosplay and chuck him in front of Cryptid Crawl/Crawly/whatever his/her/their/whatever name is.  Make CC think that it was always part of the ghost scam. 

passthemike: Crawly is they/them. 

Phantom (MOD): Actually, I like this idea. 

Phantom (MOD): I think there might be some tech we can get from Fentonworks to make it more realistic too. 

Passthemike: So who’s going to do it?

Roswell’s Child: I nominate @West of West

Roswell’s Child: No wait wait amigos @Phantom (MOD) sohuld do it can you imagine

Pharaoh (MOD): @Phantom (MOD) You should do it.  Alive you, I mean. 

ashtree: OMG that would be epic and so ironic

Bog Mummy (OP): Roswell you might be a genius just for this. 

CasperQueen: Please.  As if he could capture even a fraction of Phantom’s natural charisma.

ashtree: That’s the point lol

Bog Mummy (OP): Think about it.  What would be lamer that some random loser kid running a hoax for some random loser town for tourism points.

Phantom (MOD):  Gee thanks.  (I think.)

Roswell’s Child: And think about whow west is gonna react.  Thisll be epic amigos.

Photosynthesis (MOD): Don’t let it go to your head.

Phantom (MOD): But didn’t you want me for that other thing?  The one we were talking about in the chat?

Pharaoh (MOD): No way.  This is much funnier. 

West of West: ARE YOU ******* KIDDING ME

Pharaoh (MOD): See what I mean?

.

Mod Chat

Phantom (MOD): Okay.  So.  How are we going to divide this up? 

Phantom (MOD): I’m thinking we take the GGBE and try and get everyone else to distract the other guys, since the GGBE are the most actively dangerous ones.

Phrontist (MOD): I don’t know how I feel about you directly interacting with people who want to kill you. 

Phantom (MOD): Technically they don’t want to kill me.

Phrontist (MOD): We don’t have to do all that much with them, anyway, do we?  They already know that there are ghosts.  Can’t we just… I don’t know, hack into their cameras or something?

Pharaoh (MOD): Yeah, I’ve been working on it in between banning you know who. 

Phrontist (MOD): Sorry…

Phantom (MOD): I’m less worried about whatever videos they have and more worried about them steamrolling other people.  Or running in front of the investigation or cryptid guys while they’re filming. 

Photosynthesis (MOD): Ugh yeah.  I’ve been lurking the hunter forums, and one guy there said he’d gottne mauled by the tiger at some point. 

Phantom (MOD): Oh yeah, I think that happened to Lance Thunder, too. 

Photosynthesis (MOD):  It’s incredibly unethical for them to even have a tiger.  Who’s letting them keep it after it’s mauled two people???

Photosynthesis (MOD): Do you think we could call animal control on them?

Photosynthesis (MOD): I’m going to go hop over to the city services forums.

Pharaoh (MOD): Good luck.

Pharaoh (MOD): But, yeah, I think that you being a distraction for the GGBE is a good call.  How are going to handle it?

Phantom (MOD): I was thinking I could lead them out to that old industrial park and then play hide and seek.  Or maybe let them stay in the city, but whenever they got too close to something or too destructive, I’d show up and lead them away?  And you guys can spot me and run interference.

Phrontist (MOD):  I guess that if you have to, that would be the way to do it. 

Phantom (MOD): Thanks for the ringing endorsement, sis.

Phantom (MOD): Okay NOW what are we doing. 

Phantom (MOD): I mean, if I’m running around disguised as myself, I can’t very well be distracting the blasters. 

Photosynthesis (MOD): Don’t worry about it.  We’ll figure something out.

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AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

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Forums -> Forum Development and Suggestions -> Suggestions

Thread: Videos and music?

Roswell’s Child (OP): I have some epic videos of my cousing reacting and also UFOs but I can’t upload them.  Is that feature coming anytime soon?????  I’d love to do it.  cYou mods do it sometimes and I want to shareeeeeeeee!!

Photosynthesis (MOD): Mod Pharaoh would usually answer these, but he’s busy right now, so you’re stuck with tech unsavvy me.  It’s my understanding that video hosting takes a lot of space.  Space takes money.  We… don’t have a lot of that, so we restrict video capability to Advice Blog posts hosted on our home servers.  If your video isn’t of a sensitive subject, you can upload it to another video hosting site and then link it.  However, be aware that the GIW does monitor internet traffic from Amity Park and has been known to take down ghost-related videos and other information, and even seize the physical equipment such videos are stored on.  Also, mods may remove links to videos that are bigoted or explicit.

merknlurk: i hate living in this ******* dystopian country

merknlurk: can’t even swear without getting censored

Photosynthesis (MOD): @merknlurk Suck it up and make your own secret website that the government won’t shut down, then. 

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AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

Ghost Activity Map, Forums, Local Business Directory, Advice Blog

Forums -> Community Alerts -> Paranormal Investigators

Thread: An idea 🎂🍰

⭐MENU⭐MAVEN⭐: I have the most 🍪💟delicious💟🍪 idea for how to distract the 👻🔫s, children.  It’s quite obvious that anyone who is going around doing these things did not receive proper NUTRITION 🧂 🥓 🥚 🍳 🧇 🥞 🍞 🥐 🥨 🥯 🥖 🧀 🥗 🥙 🥪 🌮 🌯 🍗 🍖 🥩 🍠 🥟 🥝 🥥 🍇 🍈 🍉 🍊 🍋 🍌 🍍 🥭 🍎 🍏 🍐 🍑 🍒 🍓 🍅 🍆 🌽 🌶 🍄 🥑 🥒 🥬 🥦 🥔 🧄 🧅 🥕 growing up.  THEREFORE the only logical option is to bake a giant 🎂.  I will of course supply my expertise.

FootballPoet: Wait, dude, how did you get emojis? 

TECHNUS (MODEST OF MODS): нⷩAͣ!  Iͥᴛⷮ IͥS͛ Iͥ,̓ ᴛⷮEͤCͨнⷩNUͧS͛,̓ MⷨAͣS͛ᴛⷮEͤRͬ OͦF AͣLL ᴛⷮнⷩIͥNGS͛ EͤLEͤCͨᴛⷮRͬOͦNIͥCͨ AͣNDͩ ВⷡEͤEͤРⷬIͥNG!  Iͥ ВⷡEͤCͨAͣMⷨEͤ AͣWAͣRͬEͤ OͦF YOͦUͧRͬ VͮIͥDͩEͤOͦ-̄LAͣCͨᴋⷦIͥNG S͛ᴛⷮAͣᴛⷮEͤ AͣNDͩ нⷩAͣVͮEͤ AͣРⷬРⷬLIͥEͤDͩ MⷨY EͤXͯРⷬEͤRͬᴛⷮIͥS͛Eͤ ᴛⷮOͦ MⷨAͣᴋⷦEͤ ᴛⷮнⷩIͥS͛ AͣРⷬРⷬ РⷬOͦРⷬ OͦFF GOͦVͮEͤRͬNOͦRͬ!

tubahater: Is this some kind of joke?

Tubalover: What the heck did I just read?

Valorous1: Is that a ghost?  Is that a ghost?  Since when are ghosts on here? @MOD are you going to do anything about this?

The Cooler Phantom: ghost s have leays been here val u no that

Valorous1: I didn’t mean you, you’re different. 

12th Knight: Regardless of whether or not there are ghosts on here in general, isn’t Technus the one who wrecked the computer lab at the high school last month? 

Phantom (MOD): As long as they aren’t hurting anyone, I don’t really care. 

Pharaoh (MOD): @Valorous1 I can only handle one crisis at a time and I’ve got at least four.  Deal. 

Cynosure: @Pharaoh (MOD) So, that’s the paranormal people, the guy who keeps unbanning himself, these guys, and what else?

Phantom (MOD): What three isn’t enough for you?  Let the guy have his rhetorical device.

Pharaoh (MOD): I’ve got a paper due at school.

My Hair!: You’re in school?  Please tell me you’re talking about the community college.

Phantom (MOD): Oh ancients I forgot I’m going to die.

My Hair!: You’re in school?

My Hair!: Phantom?

nobineryginger: hey if we can get back on track i’m really into this cake idea like yum

Locker724: Yeah!  This plan sounds like the bee’s knees!

[tekdecksmtg]

Profile: TekDecksMTG - Background & Formats

I’ve been mainly posting event logs since I’ve started blogging and thought it would be good to reflect a bit on who I am as a player.

For a little background, I started playing Magic in the mid-90s with my best friend. We played a few in-store events (my only memory there was getting 2nd place in a draft), but we almost exclusively just played head-to-head at each other’s houses. This went on for a few years until we headed off to college and left the game behind.

During COVID I happened to see some cards in a store and got a hit of nostalgia. ‘Let’s buy a few packs and see what it’s like now’. I was hooked again.

A sidebar: when I was younger, I didn’t get to buy a lot of cards. My parents might get me some packs here and there but I was on my own to get what I wanted. But my friend would get a box for his birthday or Christmas, and he’d let me help him to open the packs. Now that I was able to afford my own boxes, I wanted to get that experience that I didn’t have when I was younger.

I went full in, bought tons of cards, decks, sleeves, accessories, etc. I even put together a a full video set up so that I could start playing on Spelltable.

Magic consumes a lot of my free time from an entertainment perspective. If I’m not playing in person, I might be organizing my cards, playing on Arena, watching YouTube content creators, or listening to Magic podcasts. Sometimes my engagement is more thoughtful to try to become a better player, but usually it’s more on the casual side.

Since I started playing in person, I do drafts, sealed, weekday events, leagues, store championships, and RCQs - you name it and I’ll probably at least be interested.

Read on for the formats I play, thoughts on each, and the decks I use.

Formats:

I started my reentry into Magic mainly in Commander over Spelltable. Once I got familiar with the game again and got the confidence to play in stores, I went out for a prerelease and some Commander in person at the LGS, followed by getting into Standard, Modern, and dipping into Legacy.

I’ve gravitated mainly to Modern, Standard, and Limited as my preferred formats. My Legacy deck is just a burn deck and while I did go 4-3 at a Legacy Open with it, I just find myself preferring the other formats. I haven’t busted it out in nearly a year.

Modern: I got into Modern with a Hammer Time deck. I lean more creatures/spells/tricks over combo/control. I ended up putting together Merfolk as well as Hardened Scales. I really enjoy the chess-like feeling to the format. I find there are way more lines than in a newer format and the games end up being a bit of cat and mouse. My brain is fried following a day of Modern (which I love and hate, haha). Once MH3 came out and I cracked all my packs, I put together Boros Energy and updated my Merfolk deck - though I’ve only taken Energy out. I’m also in the process of slowly putting together Colorless Eldrazi and Soul Sisters though I might scrap those plans and try to stay more focused through RCQ season.

Standard: I tended to skew my Standard decks a little more random rather than meta, though my bats deck may be high in the meta now. Prior to rotation I tried out some random decks including faeries and dinosaurs, ultimately landing on a Simic artifact deck and an Orzhov midrange deck as my primary decks. The Simic deck cleaned up at some weekday events where the meta leaned hard into mono-red aggro or the Boros Convoke decks. I took my Orzhov midrange deck to an APAC League win that qualifies me for a year-end event in a few months. Since then (as you’ll know) I’ve put together Orzhov Bats and Selesnya Rabbits decks. I think Standard is in a really healthy place right now; I run into so many different decks and strategies that all seem viable. Standard and Modern are my top two Constructed formats and it’s not close.

Limited: I really enjoy Limited and it’s in the top 3 of formats that I play when you combine Prereleases, Sealed, and Draft. While the considerations within the format differ in terms of how you build your deck, there are a couple of common reasons I gravitate towards it. There’s a puzzle to be solved either in your sealed pile or as you select cards from rotating packs. I might actually like the deck-building aspect of the format even more than playing. Then you get to experiment, playing with cards that you wouldn’t typically slap together in Constructed. Everyone is also on a bit of an ‘equal footing’ though the randomness can of course favor someone with some stronger cards.

Legacy: As mentioned, I only have a Burn deck. My hesitation with investing in a deck for this format is that the players and decks are more intimidating. I’m just not familiar enough with the format to go all-in. I find myself having to read cards more, asking about the interactions, or just agreeing with what the opponent said due to a bit of embarrassment in playing in a format I’m not familiar with. Burn is simple and while there are a few decisions to be made, it’s usually just ‘go face’. Games are over quickly and I can take a break without putting tons of brain power into an event. I enjoy that occasionally but it hasn’t fully ‘called to me’ yet.

Pioneer: I have yet to play any Pioneer, but am thinking about putting together Izzet Phoenix and/or Azorius Control. I rarely play Blue so figure maybe that could be the format where I give the color a shot.

Commander: This will probably be my most controversial section, but I’ve steered away from Commander as of late. When I first got back into the game, Commander was new to me. It branded as casual and was easily accessible on Spelltable. I enjoy the Singleton aspect in building just ‘fun’ decks with the cards I have. At my peak I had 15-20 decks, including a couple of precons, counters, voltron, goblins, landfall, angels, the list goes on. It felt like a good format for getting back into the game though I’d occasionally run into some toxic people online. Over time a couple of things happened though. First, I got more comfortable with the competitive constructed formats above. (Yes, I know there is CEDH as well but that didn’t really interest me). I liked that I could sit down and play a ton of games in the same time that I could play one Commander match, and there was a mutual understanding when entering a match of “I’m here to beat you”. Second, the politics of the game started to get to me. This ‘power level’ discussion felt like it never worked as everyone has a different idea of what it means. There would be dealing at the table and folks would get defensive or even upset if you targeted them instead of someone else. It just didn’t feel like Magic to me. It all came to a head when I had a few friends over for afternoon commander and one of the guy’s decks felt just a bit more powerful than what we were trying to do. In one particular game, we were building nice boards and getting into the strategy of the game when he all of the sudden used a combo to kill the rest of us at once. It just felt anti-climactic and incomplete. I can already hear the rebuffs: “Play more interaction”. But I just found myself not satisfied to the point of realizing that I didn’t really like this format. After that I disassembled all of my decks and now only have a bunch of precons that I’d be willing to break out in a ‘precon only’ game. This is not to sleight anyone that enjoys the format of course; to each their own - it just wasn’t for me anymore as I felt I couldn’t grow in the format and would end up disengaging from Magic, which is definitely not what I wanted.

It’s important to reflect on what formats energize you and gravitate towards those. Let me know in the comments which formats you enjoy and why!

[confessionsofa-roleplayer]

Thinking about it, I'm starting to believe too many people get their expectations of frequency of interactions and activity out of proportion and fail to realize that, perhaps, some platforms are more accommodating to a certain style of roleplay over another. Tumblr is a platform that can realistically accommodate all kinds of styles, from script, to single sentence, to short paragraph, to multi-paragraph, all the way to novella, certainly, but I think it should also be kept in perspective that the format of the site does make that sweet spot somewhere between single paragraph to short multi-paragraph, and I think that's what a lot more writers than not hope to expect out of others. The people who rant and rave "This hobby is about fun! You're taking things too seriously if you expect longer replies!", despite being so caustic and reactionary more often than not to anything that disagrees with their viewpoint, fail to understand that there's mediums better tailored to such short form, easily disposable interactions and that's chatroom formats. Even if you feel slighted by me saying so, please put your pitchforks and torches to the side for just one second and let me attest that the chatroom format – complete with quick, snappy, in-the-moment replies and plenty of "for fun", "play it and forget it" interactions – is where I got my start. Some of these people may be better served by finding either the right Discord communities that tailor to that preference or other communities. Conversely, the people who talk like the only form of writing that's worthwhile is novella-length style things with extensive plotlines and similarly lengthy wait times are the ones who might be best served not on Tumblr, but on forums where such activity is often the norm. I know these folks tend to be pickier more often than not, and I believe it's also why you tend to see them flock more towards groups and such, which is at least more accommodating to the style and quality of roleplay they're looking for overall, but when you also have a whole website full of people who may fall anywhere less than "novella" in terms of how much they write on average per reply, the novella length people also have to understand that maybe Tumblr isn't always the best space to accommodate them. Although, much like the kind of writers on the polar opposite end who want their quick fix, non-serious replies, they tend to find their tribes and stick with them. Meanwhile, everyone else who may fall between these two points on the spectrum just kind of feel like they're not allowed their dog in the fight. The "It's a hobby not a jobby!" people will constantly decry them for wanting a little more than what they're getting, while also bragging about how they "don't have problems finding people" and "you should stop being so picky", and the people who handle their roleplay almost like it's a professional writing career will complain about the majority that doesn't meet their standards every so often, but will still ultimately sequester themselves to whatever small groups of like-minded, equally skilled writers to associate with, or they leave entirely and constantly tout the virtues of fanfiction and such. It just kind of leaves the short, multi-para (or less) writers torn between two extremes and constantly questioning their own approach to writing on a platform that, by its own formatting, should be well-tailored to their style to begin with, especially since no other space works nearly as well for such things than the "blog" format.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily saying the quick-fire, no-commitment writers and the long-form, short-story, novella writers are wrong for their perspective styles. I'm just saying that they may be holding others to standards that don't really mesh well with the platform when they all have platforms better tailored to the kind of style they enjoy. But the short-form, multi-para writers don't really have much else other than Tumblr and maybe other social media DMs – the latter of which requires dipping toes into the quick-fire writers' spaces to mixed results, which often makes people swear off of roleplaying entirely when it's a style that doesn't mesh with theirs and they're continually told they're wrong for expecting more out of it.