#such an old draft with twitter preview

[see-fee]

(Tweet text: I drew it in the opposite way from usual!)

Daneel: Elijah? Are you not feeling well?

Elijah: I’m fine~

[kirayamidemon]

I had to fucking double check to make sure I was on the right fucking site bc wat in the fucking hell is this bullshit

[kohakuriver]

Spirited Away Twitter Q&A Translations

Multiple theories debunked/confirmed and we're given answers on how Haku and Chihiro can meet again! Ghibli finally answered a lot of popular questions!

When the official Ghibli twitter was first active back in 2022, it held a Q&A during a Spirited Away rerun. I don't think anyone's ever posted about it on here so I thought I'd share these translations I found! Most of these answers are completely new information about the movie. Here's a site that archived all the tweets and trivia.

The credit to these translations and notes go to atrociouscheese.

Q: Is it true about the rumors that "Spirited Away" has an subsequent story about a phantom after, and that it was shown only in some movie theaters? Or is it just an urban legend?

A: It's an urban legend. Miyazaki: "At first, I was planning to start from Chihiro's house. Chihiro's room was a path for yokai, and she talked about going to a bathhouse with my mother. But I quit because it felt dull. So it would be interesting if such rumors were circulating!"

Q: Why did you decide on the title "Sen and Chihiro's Spirited Away"? (referring to the Japanese title of Spirited Away which is: Sen to Chihiro Kamikakushi) Were there any other candidates for the title?

A: At the stage of the completed proposal that was drafted on November 2, 1999, it was "Sen's Spirited Away". At some stage, the movie was titled "Sen and Chihiro's Spirited Away" because it was about Chihiro's story.

Q: What is the meaning of the mysterious Daruma-like rock in front of the tunnel?

A: The image board says "Stone person (actually a frog person)"...

Q: Do you have any plans to build that tunnel in Ghibli Park?

A: I asked Goro, who is building the acclaimed Ghibli Park under construction.

Goro said: "I'm making 'that tunnel' in 'that work'~ (laughs)"

Q: The mother feels a little cold to Chihiro. I've always been wondering if there's any reason or if she's a cool person by nature.

A: Animation director, Masashi Ando, said that he wanted to not have the image of father and mother that appear in Miyazaki's work, and he said that he set it with an awareness of "a person who is cool and not in a place where family harmony is disturbed".

Q: How did the main character come to be named Chihiro?

A: Chihiro was modeled on Miyazaki-san's friends who were around 10 years old at the time (including some of their names). After the first preview, Mr. Miyazaki was there before anyone else to hear the children's impressions of the film.

Q: I'd like to know more in detail about the objects and places you used as references in creating this work.

A: There is no specific location "here". Mr. Miyazaki recalls the places he once visited and draws while imagining places he cannot remember. The restaurant district in the mysterious town that appears at the beginning of the film was said to have been drawn with an image of the entertainment districts of Yurakucho and Shinbashi.

Q: Are Kamaji and the working soot sprites (Japanese uses makkuro kurosuke) the same species? Or are they similar but different?

A: The official name of makkuro kurosuke is "Susuwatari". That's what it says on the storyboard, so it's not wrong to say that it's the same species. Initially, there was a plan that rice and sesame were their favorite foods, but now konpeito became their favorite.

Q: Are the characters portrayed in human form like Lin, human? Or are they other creatures?

A: The employees of the bathhouse are frogmen for the men and female slugs for the women. This is symbolic of the fact that to the new employees joining Ghibli, all the uncles look the same. Lin may look human because she is a close senior. Doesn't that happen to you?

Q: I want to know more details about of the chicks who are crammed in the bath!

A: It's a chick god called "Otori-sama." By the way, the one who is also soaking in the hot water is the "Cow Demon." According to Miyazaki, he thought, "Today's Japanese gods must be having a hard time," and that's how the bathhouse was born, where gods and yokai can heal their fatigue. 20 years later, the bathhouse may be even more prosperous now...

Q: Why did Radish spirit (Oshira-sama is used here) follow Chihiro upstairs?

A: The spirit became interested in Chihiro and got on the elevator together with her, but they didn't like Yubaba's room, so they descended immediately (it's written in the storyboard).

Q: How many years ago was the world of the bathhouses set from now?

A: It's modeled on the "pseudo-Western" buildings that were popular from the end of the Edo period to the beginning of the Meiji period, so it can be interpreted as after that.

The actual model is Studio Ghibli. To work for Studio Ghibli, you have to go to Toshio Suzuki on the top floor and say, "Please let me work" (laughs).

Q: I really like the flood-like atmosphere of the flowers in the scene where Chihiro slips through the flowers before eating rice balls. Did you change the expression technique for only that scene?

A: For that scene, the flowers are drawn with paint and are then animated to have depth on the computer.

Q: I felt that the onigiri that Haku gave Chihiro were white rice balls, but did they contain any contents inside?

A: The storyboard says, "3 onigiri (without seaweed)". I'll leave it to your imagination to see whether it contained any ingredients in them (not that there was any wasabi).

Q: How many years has Haku lived approximately?!! He looks like a boy, but...!

A: His appearance is about 12 years old, but his actual age is unknown. He's kind during the daytime when Yubaba is sleeping, but is cold at night. According to Miyazaki, Chihiro is like falling in love with a manager. "What was that about last night?"

Q: Is No Face (Kaonashi is the original Japanese used)'s movement a little cat-like...? I personally think that, but are there any animals that you used as reference?

A: I don't have any "animals" as a reference, but the staff at that time said, "I felt like I was collecting the obsession that everyone had, the parts of people that were sick."

Q: I want to know the rating of the bathhouse bills! I wonder how many kinds there were and what rank of the tag Kasuga-sama was.

A: There are no ratings, but the efficacy of hot water is different for each tag.

Q: Is No Face a god? Is there a reason why they couldn't enter the bathhouse?

A: No Face is not a god, but Miyazaki said at the time that "No Face is inside everyone."

Q: Do many Ghibli staff have special feelings for Chihiro? Were there any celebrations among the staff on the 20th anniversary?

A: The studio does not do so-called "anniversary celebrations". Miyazaki and Suzuki's idea is to do what is in front of them without looking back on the past.

Q: I heard that most of the dishes that appear in the movie are made at least once, but was that big steamed bun (meat bun?) that Chihiro was chewing on also made by hand?

A: We don't cook all the meals that appear in the film. Miyazaki says, "Most of the food that appears in the movies are usually things I made and ate a long time ago."

By the way, the fried egg that appears in Laputa and Howl is said to have been drawn based on his memory of making a fried egg when he was a student, returning home from a long trip without any money and starving.

Q: Why is the name No Face?

A: At the drawing meeting at that time, Miyazaki said that Yubaba, No Face, and Chihiro are all "one aspect of the individual." Everyone has both good and bad points. I think he created a character called No Face as a symbol of human beings that cannot be drawn in a one-sided way (I answered seriously).

Q: When the film was released overseas, I was wondering what kind of responses and impressions people had about the unique concepts of Japan, such as Japanese gods and "spirited away/kamikamushi" had. Also, was it made in consideration of reactions from overseas at the time it was produced?

A: It varies from country to country. In some countries, the appearance of No Face became "silence", and other countries burst into laughter. Miyazaki does not make movies conscious of overseas reactions. Suzuki says, "If Japanese people make something that only Japanese people can do, it will become a global work."

Q: Why is Boh drawn so big?

A: It's a symbol of growing up as a child. It seems that Yubaba can't help but spend money on Bo.

Q: "Spirited Away" is the voice acting debut of Ryunosuke Kamiki, who has done voice acting in numerous anime. I heard that Ryunosuke was called to Ghibli's studio after recording his voice at home and sending in a tape because it was an audition. I would like to ask why you cast Kamiki in the role of Boh.

A: At first, people with big bodies were nominated for the voice of Boh. Miyazaki's face lit up the moment when he heard the voice of Kamiki who was eight years old at the time, he shouted, "This one, Mr. Suzuki!" and he decided.

Q: Please tell me how to distinguish between Yubaba and Zeniba.

A: At the image board stage, there was a clear difference between Zeniba and Yubaba. At the storyboarding stage, they thought it would be better to make them look exactly alike. One staff member said, "Yubaba has one wart on her chest and Zeniba has four warts on her chest." But I can't confirm it (laughs).

Q: Kamaji says that Zeniba is scary, but she is a gentle grandmother in the movie. Why did Kamaji say that Zeniba was scary?

A: People who look kind are the scariest when they get angry.

Q: Why did you make the scene of "I can't forgive you!" Dragon Ball-style? How did Yubaba hit such an orb?

A: The storyboard says "Dragon Ball style" (laughs). It's not clear why she was able to shoot an orb, but Miyazaki said, "Yubaba is an old woman who can swim in the air."

Q: I have a question about trains. Is there a reason why we used to come and return in the old days, but now we can only go one way? I would like to know if there are any settings.

A: During a drawing meeting, Miyazaki remarked, "All the employees of the bathhouse dream of saving money to open a store in the town beyond the bridge. Will they go for leisure? But if you get on the train you’ll never be able to come back and this will be gone.”

Q: Where was the scene that took the most time to draw?

A: If there are a lot of characters, the scene will take a lot of time, though I can't say in general that this cut took the most time. It is unclear what scene took the most time but Miyazaki often fixed Chihiro's small gestures, and in particular, Miyazaki seems to have, with all his effort, corrected the scene where Chihiro received the hair tie from Zeniba and tied her hair.

Q: What was the most difficult dubbing scene?

A: Kamaji, who is played by Bunta Sugawara, speaks a lot slowly, so it was difficult for Sugawara to get it on scale. Rumi Hiiragi was having a hard time with saying "one, OK?" from the line "one, OK? I can't call one flower a bouquet". And Miyu Irino tried many times with "Nigihayamikohakunushi"

(translation note: her line in Japanese, what "one, ok" sounds like is "ippon, ne." Japanese changes numbers when it comes to counting items, so one which is ichi becomes ippon when it comes to counting the bouquet. So instead of saying, "One, okay" she said "one okay") Additionally, I actually know what they're referencing and you can actually see the dubbing behind the scene difficulties they're talking about in this video uploaded on Youtube: video here

Q: How do you write Haku's real name "Nigihayamikohakunushi" in kanji (Chinese characters)? I am wondering if it is the characters for "amber river" (琥珀川) or "small white river" (小白川). I would like to know if there is a meaning to "Nigihayahimi"!

A: Although it is written in katakana in the setting, the name "Nigihayami" is said to be the composite of several gods including Nigihayahi (nigihayami-no-mikoto), the ancestor of the Monobe clan who fought against the Soga clan during the Asuka period, and Hayakitsuhiko, the river god and dragon incarnation.

Q: How did Chihiro find out that her mother and father were not inside the pig pen in the end?

A: I'm not sure of the reason, but please read the children's book called "Krabat", which Miyazaki was greatly influenced by.

Q: Is there any reason why Chihiro's hair tie sparkled brightly at the end?

A: That hair accessory is the only proof that Chihiro worked at the bathhouse. I think it can be said that it is a (choice by) stage direction to give that impression (of the sparkling).

Italics is my inference, but I'm not 100% sure.

Q: How many days did it take for Chihiro to get lost in the mysterious city, work in the bathhouse, and exit the tunnel?

A: Mr. Suzuki advocates the three-day theory. When her father and mother get into the car as if nothing had happened, the inside of the car is covered with dust, so the passage of time may be different here from the tunnel.

Q: Why is going into the tunnel different on the way back?

A: When I asked Noboru Yoshida, an art staff member, he answered, "It depends on the passage of time." Does that means that the "three-day theory" collapses...?

Q: Did Chihiro and Haku meet after that?

A: Haku was the spirit of the river that flows near the house where Chihiro used to live. If Chihiro ever visits the river...

[thankskenpenders]

I haven’t been keeping tabs on the man because that’s just... not a thing I do, believe it or not. Nobody has busted down my door to inform me of something insane like a new Scourge comic or more legal threats lately, so I haven’t looked at his Twitter. But I realized the other day marked the 12th anniversary of Penders first announcing his intention to make new comics starring Knuckles’ daughter Lara-Su, continuing his Archie Sonic run. The formal announcement of The Lara-Su Chronicles as a series would only come in December 2011, but in July 2010 his copyright battle went public via an announcement posted to his personal forum, which also explained what he was going to do with his newly copyrighted material

In that time, we’ve seen scattered individual pages, promotional art, script drafts, translation snippets in multiple languages, T-shirts, phone cases, masturbatory Screen Rant interviews, a bunch of con appearances on both sides of the country, the decision to make an Echyd’nya conlang, many Twitter ponderings on Echyd’nya reproductive biology and sexuality, and previews of a bespoke The Lara-Su Chronicles motion comic reader app that’s perpetually in early development. But Penders has yet to release a single chapter from what is apparently book one of a seven-part graphic novel saga after 12 years

By my count, in the time it’s taken him to make and release any new comics, 253 official English language Sonic comics have been released. That includes Archie, IDW, and the Forces miniseries. And of course, that number would be even higher had we not seen a 16-month gap due to Archie losing the license and the team being rehired by IDW

Despite the number of messages I receive wanting me to rag on him endlessly for every little thing he’s ever said and done, I don’t actually get off on kicking an old man when he’s down. But he’s apparently back to taking pot shots at the IDW comics (which he has not and will not read) for attention on Twitter, so I figured some perspective was due 💖

[star-firework]

wow, i watched a clip of paramore's song for twilight and it oddly threw me into nostalgia memory mode

i was in 7th grade and i remember hearing all the girls in my class talk about twilight and so i decided to pick up a book

but it was new moon and only once was i half way into it i realized "hey this might be the 2nd book...............and why i dont know whats happening" or i figured i could assume, idk

i still really liked it and so i picked up the first book

oh FUCK i was HOOKED, i would wake up at 4 am before school just to read!!!!!! I also had just discovered nico nico douga and so i would play the medley songs and read fjdsklfjsl

i mentioned i would wake up to read and teachers thought i was a smart kid finally but little did they know i was just reading twilight

then i would search fanart or anything i could to get visuals since the movie was only announced and no previews released

i found stephenie meyers blog and would read whatever i could, later on I remember she had the rough draft of the only just released edward book?? I remember reading it in 2007!!! so crazy!! its like food fight (2012)

once the trailer was released, i was a bit disappointed in how they looked, much diff than how i imagined, especially jacob!!!!! idk, i thought jacob in the first movie had such a distracting wig on so i didnt like his design LOL the later movies i was like hell YES

i was a jacob girl and my mom became a edward girl after the movies

i got the first round of twilight shirt merch with alice on it and a thin ass jacket with twilight on the back. alice's hair was becoming popular and i really wanted it too. I think I ended up getting her cut but obviously her hair is styled so my hair instead just looked like an avon lotion MLM sales lady...

The next few movies my mom was actually the one who would get us midnight screening tickets with her friend. i didnt even have to ask LOL! she was so into it, such a phenomenon

afterwards we would hit the kind-of-waffle-house and try to get sleep before school. For some reason couldnt miss it even tho we were out til 2 or 3 am lol

those years were such a rough, terrible, traumatic time in my life but the obsessions and internet roaming was some of the best times and memories.

i was also into gaia and would love walking around on the world, seeing cake-kun frozen on the waterfountain in the town square, and try to make friends and get a cool avi outfit

i remember someone named super? saia neko chan or something, i always thought of the shipping company, SAIA, and now I work w receiving from SAIA LOL, not a coincidence but a funny thought

iscribble.net was also around, i would DREAM, LITERALLY DREAM, of getting the full permission of all the tools once i drew enough or something like that. I was obsessed and would also wake up at 3-4 am just to draw. I wish wish WISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i had screen recorded the loading screen of my oldest draw room, "epic girls only"

we made an effort to never clear the board and let it have a history, an archive of our art. it would take foreeeeeeeeeevvvvverrrrrr but it was always so fun to watch our art over the years flash by and be erased and redrawn. there really wont be a time like that again i think, same with pretty much all the early internet era stuff like first era of youtube, tumblr, and twitter. they were just soooo different. tumblr wasnt callouty. youtube would let you edit the design of your channel like myspace and it was the best, the comments i would interact w were also different. I am now having kids today talk to my comments i made at their age on the same videos!??@?@?@ thats so crazy

a my melody opening video i commented on in 2007 or something is still up and so just a few months ago, young kids replied to the comment asking if i still am alive or old loooooooooooool so cool!!!!

interacting w the past and future in one

[pseudofaux]

I’m still working on requests, but I saw a hashtag over on Twitter I really liked (#OldContentOctober, started by enlightningbugs!) and have been pulling out old drafts to post every Friday this month. I plan to put up a few snippets in between those bigger posts. Some of what I’m posting is unfinished, but mostly they are just… old!

Two are up now on my Ao3:

October is a fall month where I live, so I went autumnal with these preview images for Twitter, but it’s really about the calendar so anything goes! I encourage you to make use of the OldContentOctober hashtag, too! It’s very freeing to feel like there’s a good time to bring this stuff out, and the word is content so this can be words, art, anything. ♥️

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

#10: Felix, Part 1: Introduction

Well, here we are. This is the big one.

This is what I consider be the worst episode of Miraculous Ladybug, because it is a complete microcosm of everything wrong with the show. Poor romance shenanigans, cheap recycling of past characters, Adrien and Gabriel whining about the loss of their mom/wife, and all of it driven by Astruc trying to push his agenda against a fictional character that he created. Well, sort of. Yeah, rather than talk about the episode itself, I want to to over the history of the character it's focusing on first, because you need to know to understand how insulting this episode is.

For those who don't know, one of the earlier drafts for Miraculous Ladybug gave it an anime-esque style as opposed to the CGI animation we got today. The dynamic between the characters who would become Marinette and Adrien was a lot different. Instead, the crush Marinette had on “Adrien” was much more blatant, with “Adrien” verbally turning down Marinette's advances instead of simply being oblivious to her crush.

Likewise, Ladybug and Cat Noir's dynamic was different than the final project. Instead of creation and destruction, Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous has the powers of good and bad fortune respectively. Naturally, Cat Noir didn't want to wear a walking bad luck magnet, so his pursuits of Ladybug were motivated to get a kiss from the heroine so he can remove the ring, which he can't unless he gets said kiss.

The short preview is referred to by the Miraculous fandom as the PV, and has become the subject of several fanfics and AU's using the characters featured. While Marinette's counterpart was named Bridgette by the fans, Astruc officially named Adrien's counterpart Felix on Twitter. They're both like OC's shared by the fandom and are still popular to this day.

And ever since the official show started airing, Astruc had several opinions on Felix as a character. At one point, he said that even if he wasn't fit to be a main character, Felix was still an interesting character.

And then a month later, he said he wasn't an interesting character.

And then almost a year later, he said his dynamic with Marinette wouldn't work at all because Felix is a “weak character with cliché psychology”.

And a few weeks before the episode I'll be talking about aired, he said that Felix was flat-out evil.

Way to be consistent, Astruc.

Whenever someone asks about the PV, Astruc usually responds with scorn, saying how much he feels it wouldn't work like what we have now. I understand why Astruc doesn't like to talk about the PV, as nobody ever looks back fondly on their rough draft, but he always acts so negatively around PV fans as if they said they think Chloe isn't evil incarnate.

Yeah, about that last one...

Now, remember at the end of my “Animaestro” post, where I said I had a huge tangent saved for a later post, specifically on the footage used for the Ladybug movie?

Yes, despite saying how much he hated the PV, its artstyle, and the supposedly darker tone it was planning to take for years, he used footage of the PV for the in-universe Ladybug movie and framed his self-insert in “Animaestro” as being proud of his work that he supposedly spent three years on. There is no way that Astruc actually meant what he said in that episode all about his work, and the only reason he even touched the PV was so the animators didn't have to animate anything new for the movie footage.

Astruc, you really think you can claim that you actually like the PV after years of insulting anyone who brought up? Because after watching “Felix”, I don't think you're being honest here. You hate anyone who even mentions the PV because you see it as Miraculous Ladybug's awkward puberty phase. We're all embarrassed of the past, and we try to forget it, but it's not like someone mentioned an old girlfriend you had a bad breakup with. It's a simple animated short that shows a different way Miraculous Ladybug could have turned out. I have never heard of a creator who hates his own work like you do, Astruc.

As usual, I get that he doesn't like it, but Astruc just has to act like a jerk to anyone who brings up the PV because he didn't like it, yet is more than willing to take credit for it so he can look good.

So yeah, now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'm finally going to talk about “Felix” in my next post. Please pray for me as I try to explain how awful this episode really is.

Here’s Part 2

[flamingplay]

Coldplay’s New Music

(just encompassing everything in one place because of the informational chaos)

Thanks to Coldplaying and ColdplayXTRA (graphics below by them too) on Twitter we’ve got such encrypted message from alienradio.fm website about probably potential new single “Higher Power” being released on May 7th! (a radio day. Coincidence? I think not) As Coldplaying’s article goes, that was ColdplayXTRA who “led the decryption efforts by assuming Coldplay was the first string and using P, O, A, Y to fill the blanks” [x] There are also potential new single’s lyrics that has been deciphered by both of the teams joining up their forces: 

“The joy is electric and you’re circuiting through. I’m so happy that I’m alive at the same time as you”

According to the news article on Coldplaying everything started with Alien Radio FM @alienradiofm account on Twitter following some of the coldplayers! (obviously, they follow 42 accounts lol) Alien Radio is not just a randomly popped up new name, we could see it popping up written on a whiteboard on 'The South Bank Show' in 2009, as Kyle @coldplaykb very rightly remembered 

Also Sango @Coldplay5D finally found the ever-questioned Jon’s MX guitar with this sign (I looked for it for the whole night and failed even though worked on Jon’s guitars mag :/)

This account (also it’s represented across other social media platforms, as you can see from the website) had already tweets since April 18th:

Days later they uploaded videos with initiated scanning and found signals: one of them consisted of the previews of all radio stations’ messages in one short video and the other [x] was in Greek (the man reading out such dialogue as monologue I recognized later today as the man from typical "listening and comprehension" text for Greek proficiency certification I and my students passed many years ago) and went as following (transcription and translation are mine):

“Εμπρός, εμπρός! Με ακους; Ναι, σε ακούω. Ο δίσκος είναι σμασμένος; Όχι, είπα είπα είναι σπασμένος. Μπορείς να το φιάξεις; Δεν ξέρω. Πίστευα ότι ήξερες. Όχι... Εμ... ‘Οχι, δεν ξέρω. Το ηλεκτρικό μιάζει να είναι εντάξει. Είναι μυστήριο. Πραγματικό μυστήριο. Μπορείς να με βοηθείσεις; Ευχαριστώ. Θα το ήθελα πολύ. Εμπρος;”

“Hello, hello! Do you hear me? Yes, yes, I hear you. A disc is damaged. No, I said that it’s damaged. Can you fix it? I don’t know. I believed that you know yourself. No… Um… No, I don’t know. The electrical part seems to be fine. That’s mysterious. A real mystery. Can you help me? Thank you. I'd love to do that very much. Hello?”

That message was followed by several tweets with coordinates and a link to  alienradio.fm

40°45'38.9"N 73°59'04.3"W which is in New York with the following photo

And  51°30'24.6"N 0°08'34.4"W in London

Messages that these stations broadcast talk mainly about space (astronauts and stuff), scientists, astronomy itself, frequency and such. There’s a theory by ColdplayXTRA that the messages in Greek, Welsh, English (about Scotland’s rural are) might be nods towards the bandmembers also, as I understand, for the fact that two of them are by now the only one represented in a form of video across social media accounts of Alien Radio FM.

Welsh message that appeared today talks about Leo Fender [translation taken from Coldplay’s subreddit]

“At the age of 8 years old, Leo developed a tumor in his left eye, resulting in the eye being removed and being replaced with a glass eye, making him ineligible for the draft in World War II later in life.While he was young he played piano, and then switched to saxophone. However, his interest in saxophone did not last long as he focused more and more on electronics When he was 13 years old, his uncle, who ran an automotive-electric shop, sent him a box filled with discarded car radio parts, and a battery.”

Some of the messages have no connection to the overall space theme, like the ones in Czech, Dutch, Finnish and Swedish.

In Czech they cite two children poems: one is about a little snail and the other is about an injured ant that was cured by some doctor, here’s the translation by @ri3o on Coldplaying forum:

“Little ant got hurt and the whole ant colony knew about it. At midnight they called in the ant doctor. The doctor checked his heart; then wrote a prescription. “One pill of sugar three times a day and he will be as strong as a lion.”They gave him the medicine as prescribed, but our ant was still sick. The whole day he was on fire, the whole night he spent crying. Four stood by his bed and a fifth one comforted him saying, “Do not cry, I will blow where it hurts and by the morning you will be fine.” He blew on the little ant’s wound and caressed his forehead, And in the morning, hop!, healthy little ant jumped out of bed.”

And a transcription in Chech by the same person:

“Šnečku, šnečku Šnečku, šnečku, vystrč růžky, dám ti krejcar na tvarůžky a trojníček na tabáček bude z tebe hajdaláček!”

Dutch message, as discovered by Hannah @hvn42 quotes a beginning of “ A Mad Tea Party“ from “Alice In Wonderland”:

“There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. “Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,” thought Alice; “only, as it’s asleep, I suppose it doesn’t mind.”The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: “No room! No room!” they cried out when they saw Alice coming. “There’s plenty of room!” said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.”

Here’s the translation from Finnish by Anniina @riddikulusfin with some editing by me:

When I was little I once went to a carousel in an amusement park. It was a gorgeous carousel. The carousel had horses, I mean, magnificent horses. I got on one’s back that had a purple mane and her name was Flower. I started running so that I could get on this exactly horse’s back. I was so excited. My mother shouted: “Hold on!”. But I was so excited that I didn’t listen to her. When the carousel started spinning I flinched. I was not ready. I fell down. Everybody was laughing and the carousel had to be stopped. It did not hurt but I was embarrassed. I started crying. It felt like I had let Flower down. 

“Hold on. You have to hold on tight. Do you hear me? Do you hear what I am saying? Don’t let go, by no means don’t ever let go. Be careful. I hope you are listening carefully. You have to listen carefully.”

According to elin @elinhenningsson​ this signal on the radio has 

“a Swedish guy talking about how to make meatballs”

Today a countdown in Portuguese appeared, still unknown what for...

coldpatrix on Coldplaying forum made an Italian transcription of a message that appeared to be a biography of Galileo Galilei!

Nasce il 15 Febbraio 1564 vicino a Pisa. Suo padre era un musicista e quando andò all’Università studiò medicina, per poi passare alla filosofia e alla matematica. Dopo l’università divenne professore di matematica ed iniziò a lavorare su esperimenti che includevano la velocità con la quale degli oggetti differenti cadono al suolo. Nel 1609 seppe che qualcuno, in Olanda, aveva inventato un telescopio. Nonostante ciò, non riuscì mai a vederlo di persona ma seppe comunque costruirne una versione migliore ed iniziò quindi a fare molte scoperte astronomiche, come ad esempio il trovare montagne e valli sulla superficie della Luna e delle lune di Venere, e tutte queste scoperte lo resero ovviamente famoso. Nel 1614 fu accusato di eresia per aver sostenuto la teoria copernicana, e cioè che il Sole fosse al centro del sistema solare. A quel tempo, la maggior parte delle persone credeva che la Terra fosse in posizione centrale e quindi gli fu proibito dalla Chiesa di insegnare queste sue nuove teorie. Nel 1632 fu nuovamente condannato per eresia dopo aver pubblicato un libro sulla teoria copernicana e per questo fu condannato all’ergastolo, che in seguito fu poi ridotto agli arresti domiciliari e tutto ciò lo costrinse a ritirare il suo sostegno verso la teoria copernicana. Continuò a scrivere, anche se stava diventando cieco, e nel 1638 pubblicò un libro delle sue idee sulle leggi del moto e sui principi della meccanica. Morì nel gennaio del 1642 ed è ancora oggi considerato il padre della scienza e dell’astronomia moderne. Viene inoltre menzionato più volte in una famosa canzone della band Queen.

The last sentence though tells about him being mentioned in Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen!

French one is translated by sophie @xylotommo:

“It was dark there, so dark.I stopped in a clearing among the trees, and I stood still.It was so calm.I couldn't hear anything.I rolled my eyes and saw it; a tiny speck of light moving across the sky.It was moving at the same pace. A constant white light. Like an airplane, but without blinking. I stared at it, wondering what it could be. And then I understood: This must be the space station I heard about on the news. They say it is moving at 27,000 kilometers per hour. It didn't seem so fast to me.I wondered if the people on board felt like they were going that fast. They must be very brave.And then I wondered if they were up there looking at me too, that's a nice thought to have. I felt less alone and waved to them.”

@OsamaColdplay said that the message in Arabic is

“about a player who scored the winning goal in minute 90+3 which he passed through three players and shot the ball and it was like a higher power controlled the ball to enter the net and that player (Mohammed Taha) had a strange energy at this moment “

According to  @안@AsTeR0i Korean message tells the definition of the scientist and evolves around that, here’s the transcription:

“과학자가 무엇을 하는 사람인지 아는 사람? 과학자는 이론을 만들고 그것을 시험하기 위해 연구한 증거를 사용하는 매우 똑똑한 사람이에요. 그들은 이해와 지식을 얻기 위해 이와 같은 일들을 히고 그리고 여기서 얻은 정보를 세상에 나누죠.

과학자들은 정말 다양하게 분류되죠. 그들 중 일부는 통계나 데이터를 사용하기도 하고 또다른 일부는... 이를테면, 화학자나 지질학자는 세상의 원소를, 그리고 천문학자는 하늘의 별을 이해하고자 그들의 일생을 바쳐 연구해요. 또, 과학자들 중에는 심리학을 연구하는 사람들도 있어요.

이 모든 과학자들을 하나로 엮어주는 게 있죠. 바로 그들의 일은 쉽지 않지만 끊임없는 호기심과 그것을 만족시키기 위한 체계적인 접근법을 통해 하나가 된답니다.”

Michelle, Michelle @MichSwifty13 says that in Spanish the signal talks about Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, the first Latin American of African descent to become an astronaut:

“So, of course, life in Cuba in 1942, Arnaldo’s beginning was a little difficult in his life. He was an orphan and was adopted. He wasn’t rich. He was 13. He had to start looking for work. Started shining shoes and then selling vegetables. Later he started on work as a carpenter’s assistant. So that was their humble beginnings, but then they joined the army and so they joined the army and then they joined you in the Soviet Space Program, so that in 1980 he was part of the mission ‘Soyuz’. He was the first Latin American of African descent to go to space, you can see the truth. One never knows what can happen and where you can end up.” [link where translation was found]

Estinian translation by Almasmoothie

“Recently, a lot of attention has been paid to the use of machines in space, both to analyze in-orbit data and, for example, to detect various anomalies in satellite systems. In this context, we are interested in various machine accelerators, which are often not designed to work in harsh room conditions September of 2020, we ran the first satellite which had a machine learning accelerator, Neon Moon, on it's board. It's an interesting time and we're exited! “

@coldplayer2997 noticed that

“one of the signals talks about a gravity tunnel. It takes 42 minutes and 12 seconds to to fall from one side of the earth to the other though a tube.”

Also as many coldplayers noticed there were constellations in the code, also there are some still not deciphered images with the dotes, 4 symbols with swirl (like MX era one), infinity, atom, and pyramid/triange/air...

[pillowfort-social]

Community Update: September 2020

Hi Pillowfolks! It’s time for another Pillowfort Community update where we let you know what Staff have been doing behind the scenes, happenings within the community, and a preview of what’s in store for the platform.

Since July 2020 we have…

Added NSFW Labels to Communities

Added CAPTCHA technology to our payments page (details here)

Added a new filtering ability to filter posts from guest users.

Added the ability to ‘Like’ Comments.

Added Unfollow Button on the Followers Page.

Added Optional E-mail Notifications for Community Moderators.

Created Better Warning Pages for blocked content. 

Made improvements to both the Site Moderator and Community Moderators Panel.

Fixed a bug that caused posts to be missing on Home Feed.

Fixed the Report button in search results.

Community Stats:

As of September 2020, Pillowfort currently has over 99,900 registered users and 8,160 communities.

Welcome New Users!

Welcome to Pillowfort. We are so glad you are part of our community. If you haven’t yet, check out Pillowfort101 Getting Started Guide.

Developer Update

Our team held a meeting at the end of September to discuss our current developer pipeline. Like other small companies, we were met with unexpected challenges in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our founder, Julia Baritz, also had to briefly step away in the summer from their developer duties due to a family emergency. This changed our trajectory slightly on our upcoming site updates. In spite of all of the obstacles our team is still aiming for public release by the end of 2020. This is possible thanks to the generosity our community continues to provide. We are confident in launching free registrations for everyone as we finish developing our Premium Features Suite (this includes a separate portal for our Customer Service team to handle Premium Features Suite inquiries and a tool calculating & applying credit for users who have sent in donations in addition to the features themselves) which will enhance the user experience on Pillowfort.

In August we asked for feedback regarding our site-wide UI redesign. The response was loud and clear: our proposed changes did not align with what our community envisioned for user sidebars. We take your feedback very seriously. Our team is working with our designer to create another round of mockups for user sidebars. The revisions have put a slight delay on the launch of our site-wide UI redesign, however, it is important to our team that the proposed changes benefit our users. It is very possible the site-wide UI redesign may launch after official public release.

Our moderation team is in the final stages of finalizing our training program for volunteer moderators.  We will make another announcement soon with a definite date of when the volunteer moderation system launches.

In addition to the volunteer moderation system our team will also be releasing two-factor authorization, additional CAPTCHA technology, improvements to deactivation & deleted accounts, and a portal throttle daily registrations in the event of an overload to Pillowfort’s server capacity prior to public release.  We will be announcing our site updates as they are released on the platform. Stay tuned!

Upcoming Site Update

We are planning at least one more Site Update during the month of October. This update will include further improvements to community moderation, additional privacy settings, and additional bug fixes.

Terms of Service Revision Coming Soon

Our team will be releasing a small revision to our Terms of Service to help bring clarity for our community on one of our adult content clauses. We will elaborate how this clarification will be applied in our moderation decisions and address in advance some of the common concerns we anticipate in a separate announcement soon.

All questions regarding our Terms of Service can be sent to moderation@pillowfort.social

Help Us Keep the Lights On!

At Pillowfort, we do not receive any funding from venture capital or other outside investors because we are committed to keeping our user experience a priority, and not being beholden to outside interests. Pillowfort has been entirely user funded since the beginning. Because users are no longer required to pay for a registration link, we are largely dependent on donations to help us pay the bills until the release of our Premium Features Suite which is still in development.  We need your help. If you would like to support us, you can make a one-time or monthly payment to Pillowfort to help keep the lights on here. Any money donated to us now will be applied as a credit to your account when we release Pillowfort’s Premium Features Suite.

Follow Us on Social Media

Interact with Pillowfort Staff, ask questions, plus learn about upcoming features and more on social media.  We have recently launched an official Instagram page and plan to increase our social media activity this fall and winter.

Pillowfort: Staff Facebook: Pillowfortsocial

Twitter: @pillowfort_soc

Tumblr: pillowfort-social

Instagram: pillowfort.social

Coming Soon

Here’s a look at some of the exciting features, in no particular order, that our team is planning to make available before the end of 2020:  

Terms of Service Clarification.

More Community Privacy Options.

Volunteer Moderation System.

Official Public Release!

2 Factor Authentication.

Complete Site-Wide UI Redesign.

Coming in 2021:

Here’s a look at some of the larger scale improvements for the first half of 2021 & beyond

Search & Tagging Improvements.

Improved Mobile Browsing.

Premium Features Suite.

Media Kit Page

Monthly Donation Goal Page.

Multiple Account Management.

Queue & Drafts.

Improved general functionality & usability of the website.

A Special Thanks

Thank you all for your support and patience as we prepare to launch our platform for public release at the end of 2020. We recognize the importance of making Pillowfort readily available to everyone while other social media platforms continue to roll out further restrictions and are working around the clock to make this a reality.

As a reminder: Pillowfort is committed to creating a safe, user-friendly community for creators & fans alike. We do take all feedback to heart. Our team is constantly watching for feedback & suggestions within the BetaUsers community and on other social media channels in addition to the feedback we receive in e-mail. Thank you for continuing to share your feedback to help make Pillowfort even better.

Our team is eternally grateful for all of our users, both old and new, who have made Pillowfort their home in these uncertain times. Stay tuned for new features and improvements coming down the pipeline very soon!

Best, Pillowfort Staff

[mostlysignssomeportents]

20 years a blogger

It's been twenty years, to the day, since I published my first blog-post.

I'm a blogger.

Blogging - publicly breaking down the things that seem significant, then synthesizing them in longer pieces - is the defining activity of my days.

https://boingboing.net/2001/01/13/hey-mark-made-me-a.html

Over the years, I've been lauded, threatened, sued (more than once). I've met many people who read my work and have made connections with many more whose work  I wrote about. Combing through my old posts every morning is a journey through my intellectual development.

It's been almost exactly a year I left Boing Boing, after 19 years. It wasn't planned, and it wasn't fun, but it was definitely time. I still own a chunk of the business and wish them well. But after 19 years, it was time for a change.

A few weeks after I quit Boing Boing, I started a solo project. It's called Pluralistic: it's a blog that is published simultaneously on Twitter, Mastodon, Tumblr, a newsletter and the web. It's got no tracking or ads. Here's the very first edition:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/19/pluralist-19-feb-2020/

I don't often do "process posts" but this merits it. Here's how I built Pluralistic and here's how it works today, after nearly a year.

I get up at 5AM and make coffee. Then I sit down on the sofa and open a huge tab-group, and scroll through my RSS feeds using Newsblur.

I spend the next 1-2 hours winnowing through all the stuff that seems important. I have a chronic pain problem and I really shouldn't sit on the sofa for more than 10 minutes, so I use a timer and get up every 10 minutes and do one minute of physio.

After a couple hours, I'm left with 3-4 tabs that I want to write articles about that day. When I started writing Pluralistic, I had a text file on my desktop with some blank HTML I'd tinkered with to generate a layout; now I have an XML file (more on that later).

First I go through these tabs and think up metadata tags I want to use for each; I type these into the template using my text-editor (gedit), like this:

   <xtags>

process, blogging, pluralistic, recursion, navel-gazing

   </xtags>

Each post has its own little template. It needs an anchor tag (for this post, that's "hfbd"), a title ("20 years a blogger") and a slug ("Reflections on a lifetime of reflecting"). I fill these in for each post.

Then I come up with a graphic for each post: I've got a giant folder of public domain clip-art, and I'm good at using all the search tools for open-licensed art: the Library of Congress, Wikimedia, Creative Commons, Flickr Commons, and, ofc, Google Image Search.

I am neither an artist nor a shooper, but I've been editing clip art since I created pixel-art versions of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood glyphs using Bannermaker for the Apple //c in 1985 and printed them out on enough fan-fold paper to form a border around my bedroom.

As I create the graphics, I pre-compose Creative Commons attribution strings to go in the post; there's two versions, one for the blog/newsletter and one for Mastodon/Twitter/Tumblr. I compose these manually.

Here's a recent one:

Blog/Newsletter:

(<i>Image: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QAnon_in_red_shirt_(48555421111).jpg">Marc Nozell</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en">CC BY</a>, modified</i>)

Twitter/Masto/Tumblr:

Image: Marc Nozell (modified)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QAnon_in_red_shirt_(48555421111).jpg

CC BY

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

This is purely manual work, but I've been composing these CC attribution strings since CC launched in 2003, and they're just muscle-memory now. Reflex.

These attribution strings, as well as anything else I'll need to go from Twitter to the web (for example, the names of people whose Twitter handles I use in posts, or images I drop in, go into the text file). Here's how the post looks at this point in the composition.

<hr>

<a name="hfbd"></a>

<img src="https://craphound.com/images/20yrs.jpg">

<h1>20 years a blogger</h1><xtagline>Reflections on a lifetime of reflecting.</xtagline>

<img src="https://craphound.com/images/frnklogo.jpg">

See that <img> tag in there for frnklogo.jpg? I snuck that in while I was composing this in Twitter. When I locate an image on the web I want to use in a post, I save it to a dir on my desktop that syncs every 60 seconds to the /images/ dir on my webserver.

As I save it, I copy the filename to my clipboard, flip over to gedit, and type in the <img> tag, pasting the filename. I've typed <img src="https://craphound.com/images/ CTRL-V"> tens of thousands of times - muscle memory.

Once the thread is complete, I copy each tweet back into gedit, tabbing back and forth, replacing Twitter handles and hashtags with non-Twitter versions, changing the ALL CAPS EMPHASIS to the extra-character-consuming *asterisk-bracketed emphasis*.

My composition is greatly aided both 20 years' worth of mnemonic slurry of semi-remembered posts and the ability to search memex.craphound.com (the site where I've mirrored all my Boing Boing posts) easily.

A huge, searchable database of decades of thoughts really simplifies the process of synthesis.

Next I port the posts to other media. I copy the headline and paste it into a new Tumblr compose tab, then import the image and tag the post "pluralistic."

Then I paste the text of the post into Tumblr and manually select, cut, and re-paste every URL in the post (because Tumblr's automatic URL-to-clickable-link tool's been broken for 10+ months).

Next I past the whole post into a Mastodon compose field. Working by trial and error, I cut it down to <500 characters, breaking at a para-break and putting the rest on my clipboard. I post, reply, and add the next item in the thread until it's all done.

*Then* I hit publish on my Twitter thread. Composing in Twitter is the most unforgiving medium I've ever worked in. You have to keep each stanza below 280 chars. You can't save a thread as a draft, so as you edit it, you have to pray your browser doesn't crash.

And once you hit publish, you can't edit it. Forever. So you want to publish Twitter threads LAST, because the process of mirroring them to Tumblr and Mastodon reveals typos and mistakes (but there's no way to save the thread while you work!).

Now I create a draft Wordpress post on pluralistic.net, and create a custom slug for the page (today's is "two-decades"). Saving the draft generates the URL for the page, which I add to the XML file.

Once all the day's posts are done, I make sure to credit all my sources in another part of that master XML file, and then I flip to the command line and run a bunch of python scripts that do MAGIC: formatting the master file as a newsletter, a blog post, and a master thread.

Those python scripts saved my ASS. For the first two months of Pluralistic, i did all the reformatting by hand. It was a lot of search-replace (I used a checklist) and I ALWAYS screwed it up and had to debug, sometimes taking hours.

Then, out of the blue, a reader - Loren Kohnfelder - wrote to me to point out bugs in the site's RSS. He offered to help with text automation and we embarked on a month of intensive back-and-forth as he wrote a custom suite for me.

Those programs take my XML file and spit out all the files I need to publish my site, newsletter and master thread (which I pin to my profile). They've saved me more time than I can say. I probably couldn't kept this up without Loren's generous help (thank you, Loren!).

I open up the output from the scripts in gedit. I paste the blog post into the Wordpress draft and copy-paste the metadata tags into WP's "tags" field. I preview the post, tweak as necessary, and publish.

(And now I write this, I realize I forgot to mention that while I'm doing the graphics, I also create a square header image that makes a grid-collage out of the day's post images, using the Gimp's "alignment" tool)

(because I'm composing this in Twitter, it would be a LOT of work to insert that information further up in the post, where it would make sense to have it - see what I mean about an unforgiving medium?)

(While I'm on the subject: putting the "add tweet to thread" and "publish the whole thread" buttons next to each other is a cruel joke that has caused me to repeatedly publish before I was done, and deleting a thread after you publish it is a nightmare)

Now I paste the newsletter file into a new mail message, address it to my Mailman server, and create a custom subject for the day, send it, open the Mailman admin interface in a browser, and approve the message.

Now it's time to create that anthology post you can see pinned to my Mastodon and Twitter accounts. Loren's script uses a template to produce all the tweets for the day, but it's not easy to get that pre-written thread into Twitter and Mastodon.

Part of the problem is that each day's Twitter master thread has a tweet with a link to the day's Mastodon master thread ("Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? Follow these threads on the #fediverse at @pluralistic@mamot.fr. Here's today's edition: LINK").

So the first order of business is to create the Mastodon thread, pin it, copy the link to it, and paste it into the template for the Twitter thread, then create and pin the Twitter thread.

Now it's time to get ready for tomorrow. I open up the master XML template file and overwrite my daily working file with its contents. I edit the file's header with tomorrow's date, trim away any "Upcoming appearances" that have gone by, etc.

Then I compose tomorrow's retrospective links. I open tabs for this day a year ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and (now) 20 years ago:

http://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2016/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2011/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2006/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2001/01/14

I go through each day, and open anything I want to republish in its own tab, then open the OP link in the next tab (finding it in the @internetarchive if necessary). Then I copy my original headline and the link to the article into tomorrow's XML file, like so:

#10yrsago Disney World’s awful Tiki Room catches fire <a href="https://thedisneyblog.com/2011/01/12/fire-reported-at-magic-kingdom-tiki-room/">https://thedisneyblog.com/2011/01/12/fire-reported-at-magic-kingdom-tiki-room/</a>

And NOW my day is done.

So, why do I do all this?

First and foremost, I do it for ME. The memex I've created by thinking about and then describing every interesting thing I've encountered is hugely important for how I understand the world. It's the raw material of every novel, article, story and speech I write.

And I do it for the causes I believe in. There's stuff in this world I want to change for the better. Explaining what I think is wrong, and how it can be improved, is the best way I know for nudging it in a direction I want to see it move.

The more people I reach, the more it moves.

When I left Boing Boing, I lost access to a freestanding way of communicating. Though I had popular Twitter and Tumblr accounts, they are at the mercy of giant companies with itchy banhammers and arbitrary moderation policies.

I'd long been a fan of the POSSE - Post Own Site, Share Everywhere - ethic, the idea that your work lives on platforms you control, but that it travels to meet your readers wherever they are.

Pluralistic posts start out as Twitter threads because that's the most constrained medium I work in, but their permalinks (each with multiple hidden messages in their slugs) are anchored to a server I control.

When my threads get popular, I make a point of appending the pluralistic.net permalink to them.

When I started blogging, 20 years ago, blogger.com had few amenities. None of the familiar utilities of today's media came with the package.

Back then, I'd manually create my headlines with <h2> tags. I'd manually create discussion links for each post on Quicktopic. I'd manually paste each post into a Yahoo Groups email. All the guff I do today to publish Pluralistic is, in some way, nothing new.

20 years in, blogging is still a curious mix of both technical, literary and graphic bodgery, with each day's work demanding the kind of technical minutuae we were told would disappear with WYSIWYG desktop publishing.

I grew up in the back-rooms of print shops where my dad and his friends published radical newspapers, laying out editions with a razor-blade and rubber cement on a light table. Today, I spend hours slicing up ASCII with a cursor.

I go through my old posts every day. I know that much - most? - of them are not for the ages. But some of them are good. Some, I think, are great. They define who I am. They're my outboard brain.

[rpgsandbox]

Forge your legacy in the award-winning setting of the Iron Kingdoms with the celebrated 5th edition roleplaying game rules.

                                        (Delivering September 2021)

Embark upon a journey of adventure and intrigue in a world where steam power and gunpowder meet sword and sorcery. Armed with mechanika and accompanied by mighty steamjacks, explore the soot-covered cities of the Iron Kingdoms and the aftermath of the otherworldly invasion of the infernals.

Take on the persona of unique character classes, like the gun mage, who combines powerful magic with a deadly acumen for firearms, or the steamjack-commanding warcaster, who can command 10-ton autonomous machines of war with just a thought. Explore a fantastic world rebuilding itself after an apocalypse as it marches onward with its industrial revolution.

The Iron Kingdoms possess a rich history—and a tumultuous future—full of unique monsters, deities, heroes, and villains.

More than a thousand years ago, the land that is now called the Iron Kingdoms was western Immoren, a mire of warring human city-states. Then came the Orgoth, conquest-driven imperialists from beyond the sea who laid low the cities of man with forbidden magic and changed the face of western Immoren forever. The Orgoth Empire occupied the land for six hundred years before the people of Immoren banded together to defeat the invaders and drive them back across the sea from whence they came. While the rebel armies kept the peace, their leaders convened in a city called Corvis. This Council of Ten drafted the Corvis Treaties after weeks of furious debate, and the Iron Kingdoms were born.

Strictly speaking, the term “Iron Kingdoms” refers to the lands of humanity, those five kingdoms that signed the Corvis Treaties: Cygnar, Khador, Llael, Ord, and the Protectorate of Menoth. Other nations of western Immoren are commonly included in that description, although they took no part in the treaties. In the frigid north is the dwarven kingdom of Rhul. To the northeast lies the mysterious homeland of the elves, Ios. The last kingdom informally included when speaking of the “Iron Kingdoms” is the hostile island nation of Cryx, ruled over by Lord Toruk, the Dragonfather. All these nations—and many more—share the continent of Immoren.

The Orgoth were driven from western Immoren more than four hundred years ago, but the decisions made during the rebellion still echo through the world. There are many strange legends from the last days of that war—tales of dark, mysterious allies who helped drive off the invaders. Some say it would have been impossible to defeat the Orgoth without this help, that the rebel leaders had to make dangerous deals with infernal powers. These tales have proven true, and the Iron Kingdoms have recently been irrevocably changed by the Claiming, an attempt by these infernal creatures to take the payment they have long been owed—an unfathomable number of souls.

Full. Metal. Fantasy.

Delve into the award-winning world of the Iron Kingdoms with the latest edition of the Iron Kingdoms Role Playing Game from Privateer Press. Iron Kingdoms: Requiem combines this fantastic setting with the newest edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game.

Inside this book you’ll find the history of the Iron Kingdoms and information describing the current state of the world following the Claiming. Alongside these chapters is an extensive gazetteer providing detailed information on the most notable of the world’s unique and fascinating locations.

When making a character, you’ll be able to choose from many of the familiar countries and cultures of the setting. Whether you want to be a human, gobber, trollkin, Rhulic dwarf, ogrun, Iosan, or Nyss elf, this book provides all the rules that make these different peoples unique. When choosing a class, there are options for many you’re already familiar with, from the stalwart man-at-arms fighter to the free-flowing monk of the Order of the Fist. Beyond these are brand new rules for playing the characters that make the Iron Kingdoms such a memorable setting. These new classes include, among others, gun mages, arcane mechanics, combat alchemists, and warcasters.

Alongside these options are new feats, spells, and backgrounds to make your characters feel even more a part of the world of the Iron Kingdoms.

Finally, within the pages of Iron Kingdoms: Requiem are extensive rules for the arcane technologies of the setting. These rules cover subjects from firearms and mechanika, like the galvanic arms and armor of the storm knight, to the mighty warjacks that accompany warcasters into battle.

"Before the Iron Kingdoms became a land dominated by industry and machines, it was the monsters that defined it."

— Professor Viktor Pendrake, author of the Monsternomicon

In the Iron Kingdoms peril lurks at every turn, as fearsome and terrifying creatures both great and small look to turn unwary adventurers into their next meal or enslave them beyond death. From ferocious packs of ravenous burrow-mawgs to deadly ethereal pistol wraiths that haunt the back roads and forgotten cemeteries, and the fiendish Infernals that still stalk the shadows, the Monsternomicon is filled with creatures both mundane and supernatural to challenge even the most experienced adventuring parties.

This legendary tome includes over 80 monsters, new and old, steeped in over 20 years of worldbuilding, now appearing for the first time with 5th Edition rules.

          Click to go to the Update featuring these two preview pages.

Discover the origins of the legend that started it all...

Twenty-one years ago, the Iron Kingdoms was introduced through an acclaimed series of adventures known as The Witchfire Trilogy. Now, the legend continues in the newest edition of the Iron Kingdoms RPG, written for 5e.

A girl, a sword, and a secret...

As a child, she lost everything when her mother was wrongfully executed for witchcraft and her soul was consumed by the most ancient of all weapons, the black blade known as the Witchfire. Hellbent to spare her mother an eternity of torture, Alexia Ciannor stole the accursed sword and set out to unlock its dark secrets. With the voices of the Witchfire's imprisoned souls raging in her mind, Alexia would eventually unlock the power of the Infernal artifact and command an army of undead to vanquish the villains seeking to use the sword to once again subjugate the Iron Kingdoms.

Nearly two decades later, the veteran of countless wars, Alexia returns to Corvis, the City of Ghosts, in search of help from the malignant forces that seek the return of the coveted sword. The Witchfire's true purpose is finally revealed, and only the courage and sacrifice of a small group of unlikely heroes can save Alexia from the brink of madness and prevent the infernal weapon from fulfilling its apocalyptic legacy.

The Legend of the Witchfire adventure will take players from level 1 to level 4, and is the perfect introduction to the action-packed and intrigue-filled world of the Iron Kingdoms!

==============================================

Kickstarter campaign ends: Fri, February 12 2021 7:59 AM UTC +00:00

Website: [Privateer Press] [facebook] [twitter] [instagram]

[shuahoonie]

you. [tom holland]  - one.

PAIRING: tom holland x female!celebrity!reader

SUMMARY: ah, to be young and in love. it sounds great if only you and tom were actually dating out of pure love and not for the sheer reputation of your careers. it also should be great if you two actually got along, but life isn’t that easy.

WARNINGS: mostly swearing! mentions of alcohol! a bit of fluff, a bit of angst. it’s haters to lovers / fake dating au so take that information as you wish! 

WORD COUNT: 1013 

SONG INSPO: tonight i’m getting over you - carly rae jepsen 

A/N: hello babes and happy new year! what a way to start the new year with such angst hey? this is the first part of this series that’s been sitting in my drafts for months now! i’m just a huge sucker for fake dating aus and not to mention, haters to lovers au lmao so i hope you guys enjoy this one! 

gif credits: @stallingdemons  

vanessa’s masterlist | preview | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | eight.5 [interview excerpt}

The day Zoë, your manager, pranced inside the office with a huge smile plastered on her face you knew your day was going to start off like a roller coaster.

There can only be two reasons that make Zoë smile: one, she got laid. How you knew that information was beyond you but it was a piece of fairly-valuable information nonetheless; two, she found damage-control whenever things got out of hand regarding you and the media.

You were hoping for the former.

See, last night was a nightmare for both you and Zoë, but mainly for Zoë. You weren’t really expecting things to get out of hand. Although you and alcohol don’t really go well together, it doesn’t stop you from taking in the pleasure that alcohol brings.

If Amy Santiago (from the show Brooklyn 99) had different personas for every drink she’d consumed, people would have to start calling you Amy now.

You had three drinks; three alcoholic drinks that rushed through your system. Three-drink-y/n was easily the snarkiest one, the bitchiest out of the three.  

You met up with a few old friends at a club that night, as you were meaning to catch up with them for quite some time now. Since your schedule was always in shambles and how your friends don’t have a lenient schedule either, it took you at least two months to plan this and you were glad you were able to hang out with people who kept you grounded.

A lot happened that night: one, you found out your friend was engaged.

“Wait a minute, we don’t talk for a month and you’re telling me you’re engaged?!” You asked Olivia in disbelief, as the ring on your friend’s finger glistened under your phone’s flashlight.  “Did you know about this?” You turned and asked Veronica who mirrored your expression.

“Uh- no? Do you think I’d be shocked if I knew?!” Veronica replied, equally shocked by the revelation that their friend made. “Livy, I thought you and Joshua were just ‘friends who occasionally hook up?’ I didn’t even know you were dating.” Veronica asked, putting air quotes on “friends who occasionally hook up.”

“Friends don’t fuck.” You commented before chugging down your martini and shortly regretting it- but you needed the kick.

Veronica looked at you pointedly but you just shrugged at her. “It just sort of happened,” Olivia mumbled.

“Oh god- you’re not being forced into marriage, right?”

“Veronica!” You gasped at your friend, who in turn just raised both of her hands in defence. “Well, you aren’t, right?” You then turned to Olivia.

Olivia rolled her eyes before saying, “You two are despicable.” She took a sip of her margarita then carried on “But no, I am not being forced into marriage. I’m twenty-three, I’m not a child-bride.”

Two, your friends had to dish you out on the current state of your love life.

“What’s all this buzz that I keep hearing regarding you and Spider-man?” Veronica asked you, with a teasing look on her face.

“God, that’s nothing.” You answered with a frown on your face. You signalled the bartender for another round of martinis. “People took it out of proportion.”

“Wait, I’m lost. What happened?” Olivia asked, finishing her drink and ready to grab another one.

“I was doing an interview for the Alchemist and they asked me a “would you rather” question. They asked me if I’d rather go on a date with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker or Tobey MacGuire’s. I answered Tom because I just saw Infinity War that time and he was brilliant, so automatically, I’d say his name.” You explained.

“See, this is why I can’t live your life, Y/N.” Veronica pointed out as you shrugged. She had every right to say so because sometimes, you really do wish that you didn’t venture into this route in the first place. “I’d never trade law school for that. Even if law school makes me want to claw my eyes out all the time.”

“Oh, please don’t give up law school, Ronnie. You are the only thing keeping our dreams alive.” You almost begged only to make Veronica laugh.

“Never too late to pick up that political science degree, babes.” Veronica cajoled. “Which reminds me, when’s your graduation again, Liv?”

“Oh, last week of May. Save the date, please?” Liv answered and you already pulled up your calendar to add a reminder in your schedule. You need to remember to tell Zoë about that.

Three, you bumped into Spider-man himself, Tom Holland.

“Shit-I’m sorry! I wasn’t looking and-” You quickly apologized as you collided bodies with someone only to look up into a pair of beautiful brown eyes. “Oh, Tom, I’m sorry.” You carried on apologizing, though you were internally grateful that your glass of water didn’t spill on him. In fact, the glass was just as full as it did before.

“It’s fine.” He mumbled and dusted himself off. “You’re Y/N, right?”

“Yeah,” You smiled. “I’m surprised you know my name. I’m so-”

“Yeah, I mean I should know the person who leeches off someone for fame. It’s the least I could do for myself.”

You had your eyebrow raised and your blood was boiling. You weren’t drunk. In fact, you have enough alcohol to garner some courage for the next thing you did.

“Asshole.” You spat as you put down the once filled glass on the table beside you. You took one last look at Tom Holland who was soaking wet.

People were staring, and you couldn’t blame them. Y/N, a rising celebrity, just threw water at Tom Holland. Imagine the news.

One thing led to another and then all of a sudden, you were trending on Twitter. It was a PR nightmare.

At this point, you’re practically begging to all of the gods to tell you that Zoë got laid. See, when things go out of hand, your manager tends to go overboard with the resolutions and if the smile on Zoë happens to be about your little accident, you already know you’re fucked.

[lastsonlost]

Oh gasps, I'm shocked.

Who would have thunk it?

The story:

Updated with Sunday figures: In the wake of Terminator: Dark Fate’s failure at the B.O., and Paramount’s recent decision to make Beverly Cops 4 for Netflix, we have the further breakdown of cinema IP in Sony’s Charlie’s Angels reboot, which is tanking with a God-awful $8.6M domestic opening, $27.9M worldwide (from 26 markets), 3 Stars on Screen Engine-Comscore’s PostTrak, and a B+ Cinemascore.

The Elizabeth Banks-directed-written and produced pic is also opening in 27 offshore markets,

China being one where it’s also bombing,

with a $7.8M 3-day take in third place behind No. 1 local title Somewhere Winter ($13.1M).

All of this is primed to further spur a WTF reaction and anxiety among film development executives in town in regards to what the hell exactly works in this have-and-have-not era of the theatrical marketplace. Many will make the hasty generalization that old, dusty IP doesn’t work, or is now deemed too risky when it’s not a superhero project. However, moviemaking is an art, not a science, and annoying as it might sound, good movies float to the top, and this Charlie’s Angels reboot didn’t have the goods going back to its script.

<Maybe somebody should have been working on a good story instead of pushing an agenda.

We’re going to break down for you what went wrong in another graph, but we don’t want to bury the success of Disney’s release of Fox’s James Mangold-directed Ford v Ferrari, which looks to be coming in at $31.5M, well ahead of the $20M+ many were seeing, with an awesome A+ CinemaScore and 4 1/2 stars and a 68% definite recommend on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak. After a franchise-laden summer which buried originals, now an original pic is sticking it to the IP.

When it comes to the bombing of Charlie’s Angels, the takeaway is this is what happens when you have IP, but there’s no reason for telling the story.

In the walk-up to developing Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and in the wake of its near $1 billion success, a fever broke out at the Culver City lot in the post-Amy Pascal era to reboot former Sony franchises or extend them, i.e. Zombieland: Double Tap (well over $103M at the global B.O. now), the upcoming Bad Boys 3, and, of course, Spider-Man, the latter electrified by Disney’s Marvel. Development studio executives define their being by getting films greenlit, and whenever that happens, it’s 90% of the job.

And the pressure is on to fill a 10-12 picture annual slate in a world where Disney vacuums up all the best IP. A third Charlie’s Angels with McG directing and Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu starring, wasn’t made immediately after the second chapter, 2003’s Full Throttle, as the sequel turned out to be 29% more expensive than the 2000 original at $120M, and also made less worldwide, $259.1M to $264.1M. With Elizabeth Banks coming off her hot feature directorial debut with Universal’s Pitch Perfect 2 (which over-indexed in its stateside opening at the B.O., going from $50M projections to $69.2M, and finaled global at $287.1M); after she expressed interest in September 2015 in taking on a Charlie’s Angels reboot with a modern feminist spin, there was no question in Sony’s mind that the project should move forward.

<Yeah Sony, how's that working out for you? You think they would have learned their lesson...

Guess not.

Back to the story.....

However, there were script problems, I hear, that could never be resolved. A few months after Banks boarded, Evan Spiliotopoulos came on to write. By the time cast was assembled in July 2018, Banks had penned the latest draft off a script by Jay Basu (The Girl in the Spider’s Web), and earlier drafts by Craig Mazin and Semi Chellas. Andrea Giannetti oversaw the project on the lot. However, I hear that the script for Charlie’s Angels didn’t really attract top talent, i.e. Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone and Margot Robbie (a trio that would have potentially jazzed up business). Hence, why the production opted to go with largely a fresh face cast outside of Kristen Stewart. While we overwrite that stars mean nothing at the box office, they do, sometimes, when it comes to propping IP, and unfortunately and arguably, no one in Middle America knows who British actress Ella Balinska is, and they’ve only became recently acquainted with Naomi Scott from Disney’s Aladdin and Lionsgate’s Power Rangers. Stewart, who is hysterical in the movie and even needed more funny bits, is in a different place in her career professionally, publicly, and privately. It’s unfair to think that she could delver her Twilight fans now.

Had she done Charlie’s Angels promptly in the swell of the Twilight whirlwind (like Snow White and the Huntsmen) then maybe it would have popped.

But she has largely been dormant from popcorn wide releases for the last seven years since 2012’s Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, busy excelling and wowing in specialty awards season and festival fare like Clouds of Sils Maria, Still Alice, and this year’s Seberg, to name a few. Stewart needed to be paired with equal or bigger-name actresses.

was a one quadrant movie, eyed at women 13-39, especially given its lack of action scenes, and wisely limited their exposure to what I hear is 50%, with co-finance partners 2.0 Entertainment and Perfect World. Sony claims the budget is $48M net; we’ve heard in the mid $50Ms. Tax incentives were taken in the pic’s Berlin and Hamburg shoots. Perhaps Sony should have spent more, because Charlie’s Angels biggest problem is that it has very low-octane, we’ve-seen-it-all-before action scenes. Heck, there’s more action in a 1980s Chuck Norris movie. After watching Charlie’s Angels earlier this week, I put the first two McG movies on Netflix, and it was like watching Star Wars in comparison to this reboot, with his sharp production design, camera movements, unique action, and comedy set pieces, and, of course, the first movie blasted Sam Rockwell out of a cannon. Understand that the first two movies in the series were able to compete and hold their own in an action space where, yes, Mission: Impossible and Fast & Furious (the first two films came out in 2001 and 2003) also thrived. Mission and Fast sequels distinguish themselves on multiple 10-minute action sequences that we’ve never seen before on screen; it doesn’t matter who the villain is. This Charlie’s Angels doesn’t have that. And not even a super-duper hit song “Don’t Call Me Angel” for the movie from Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, and Lana Del Ray can trigger lines at the multiplex; the music video clocking over 116M views on YouTube, per entertainment social media monitor RelishMix.

Some will claim that Banks’ version was never intended to emulate the meat and potatoes version of McG’s films; that this version was expected to be more comedic, and more feminist. Unfortunately, after McG set the table here with the franchise as an action film, you can’t reverse it. You can only outdo him. And with a franchise movie like Charlie’s Angels, you can’t make it for a one quadrant audience.

The film arrived on tracking with a $12M-$13M start, and really never budged, but sank. That means marketing didn’t work. I heard that a $100M global P&A was first planned on Charlie’s Angels, with the studio now reducing that overall cost greatly to around $50M and pulling back on expensive ads. Another hurdle in activating the young girl demo is that much of the pic’s cast isn’t on social media. RelishMix says that Banks is the social media star with over 6.6M followers across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with Scott counting 3.4M.

Sony kept pushing Charlie’s Angels, which in hindsight means there were development issues. In May 2017, a release date was announced for June 7, 2019. When the cast was locked down in July 2018, Charlie’s got moved to Sept. 27, 2019. In October 2018 when Warners pushed Wonder Woman 1984 from the first weekend in November to summer, Charlie‘s took over the autumn spot, which was the same exact place the original 2000 opened. However, when Terminator: Dark Fate moved onto the same first weekend in November, Charlie‘s relocated to this weekend as they vied for a China release which they ultimately got.

Charlie’s Angels drew a 66% female crowd, split between 36% over 25 and 30% under 25. But both demos respectively graded it low at 68% and 79%, with men at 35% giving it a 68% grade on PostTrak. Diversity breakdown was 52% Caucasian, 21% Hispanic, 14% Asian/Other, & 13% African American. Charlie’s Angels best markets were on the coasts and big cities. But again, nothing to brag about in Friday’s $3.2M gross, which includes $900K from Thursday and Wednesday previews.

Says RelishMix, which also foresaw this disaster approaching on social media chatter, “Angels is the latest example in a ‘woke’ effort to reboot a franchise that many were not all that interested in to start with. In fact, many references to the 2000 version get a call-out as a reason this one doesn’t seem to compare – whether it’s the cast or the action teased from the film.

And, as observed with other recent films, some action/adventure, unfortunately fans say they’re steering clear of this one because of its ‘girl power’ messaging.”

[radramblog]

More Inevitable Hot Takes- MTG Announcement Day edition

I only have myself to blame for this one. I forgot this was upcoming, and I went and blathered about dumb preview cards from most of a month ago anyway. Well, now I’ve got to spend two posts in one week talking about Magic cards. Woe is me?

Once a year, WoTC has a big day where they announce, like, everything for the next year’s releases. And with the picking up speed of set releases, there’s a lot there, and thereby I have a lot to talk about.

To be clear, I’ve deliberately avoided Magic Twitter and Magic Reddit for these announcements. Tis a silly pair of places.

Standard Sets 2022

In order:

Kamigawa Neon Dynasty is very concerning, as one of the people who’s a genuine big fan of the original Kamigawa block. The thing is, I like Kamigawa, with it’s spirits and artwork and samurai and the like. I like cyberpunk, with the aesthetic and the themes and the music. I’m not sure I’m going to like the two combined. We better see some fucking weird-ass spirits, and I’ll only be slightly annoyed if they’re cyber-ghosts or whatnot as long as they maintain that bomb-ass art design.

We have a new plane and a set to go with it, which is cool and nice. Urban Fantasy is a thing Ravnica already did, to be honest, but if I had to guess, Streets of New Capenna is going to be a much more low-fantasy, noir-y take on the genre. I think I saw something about Azra returning, which is cool. That one on the key art looks…very Ob Nixilis-y, though.

And then we’re going back to Dominaria and actually doing The Brother’s War, again? I think Urza block was about that arc, though the Dominaria United set might be like, before all that nonsense. They might have given details, I wouldn’t have seen them, I’m going based on someone’s TL;DR. I’m excited to finally have a Mishra card that isn’t the Time Spiral one, though I’m concerned about how they’re going to make an Urza and a Mishra that are both powerful enough for the iconic characters but not so powerful as to be dominant in the Standard they’ll be legal in.

So, so much Universes Beyond

I think the four Warhammer 40k precon decks is kind of exactly what I was hoping we were going to get for that particular crossover. Just enough to get fans happy and make some fun new cards, not enough that there’s a ridiculous influx of Tyranids into Magic’s annals. I’d be interested to see what regular Magic cards translate well into these decks, seeing as they’ll have to be 40k-ified.

I feel similarly about the Baldur’s gate Commander draft set. I remember fans of that particular D&D spinoff were frustrated with the lack of representation in AFR (I think Minsk was like the only thing they got), so now they have a whole set to work with. Ultimately, D&D is now already, and interminably a part of Magic’s multiverse, and more from those particular realms isn’t going to make anything super fucky. Also, Commander Legends was cool as hell, and this is going to be another one of those, so that’s a plus.

And…a Lord of the Rings set? Like, a full set? I’m assuming whatever got them 40K also got them rights to tabletop LOTR, seeing as Games Workshop has run the LOTR tabletop game for a while. Like with D&D, the medium-high fantasy of LOTR crosses over pretty well into Magic, so I’m not worried about that kind of cockup making things Feel Weird. I’m a little confused about the legality of the set, though, seeing as it’s in Arena, but not Standard legal, but it is Modern legal? What and why and what about Pioneer or Historic?

Secret Lairs

Few hits, few misses, though I remember seeing spoilers from a few that aren’t on this list. Presumably, the Art Series: Johannes Voss, Thomas M. Baxa, and Purrfection and Math is for Blockers were announced separately? Anyway.

Hits: The Kamigawa Ink cards look drop-dead gorgeous, holy shit. Add in the fact that I already play two of those cards and that the others are all cards I like? Might have to get that one. Math is for Blockers is a fun lineup though I don’t…really get the theme? Both Artist Series look incredible, though I’m not huge on the card lineups.

Misses: PURRFECTION would be great if it wasn’t apparently a convention exclusive and also if the art of cats were on cat cards. It’s cute as fuck, but eh. The old-format walkers are frustrating, but I’m not as against them as a lot of people are- like they’re ugly, but not worth throwing a fucking fit over. I weep for any new player staring one of these down, especially if they barely understand planeswalkers in the first place and/or haven’t seen one of these particular ones before. Also, the art is kinda just ugly.

And then there’s the Universes Beyond ones. Fortnite and Street Fighter, both with new cards that will eventually have regular versions (which leads me to wonder if TWD will do the same). There’s a clear attempt here to hit the zoomers and the boomers in the community, though the former probably won’t have the money to afford the Secret Lair if they’re burning all their cash on V-Bucks. It’s…not a great look? Like I’m not opposed to cartoony art styles (the Goblins Kaboom SL looked great!) but Fortnite’s in particular looks like dogshit in my eyes and I’m not looking forward to seeing it in a Magic frame. Street Fighter I’m more excited for, because I like Street Fighter, and because they confirmed Chun-Li is going to have multikicker which is kind of perfect. Obviously we’re going to have to see the cards, but in one case I’m dreading that, and in the other I’m welcoming it.

Other Cards

We have more Challenger Decks, for Pioneer this time. The decklists are already out, and they look pretty solid! The Challenger Decks have been pretty cool previously, a really solid set of lists that only needed a bit of tweaking to be FNM-viable, but they were held back by the fact that they were often released not long before rotation. With Pioneer being a non-rotating format, this is going to be great for getting people into the format.

Another Double Masters set is…egh. It’s another thing that’s not for me, I can’t afford to whale on that shit. With shipping and conversion those packs end up ludicrously expensive in Perth, and I’m pretty sure I only got to play with one the first time. Also, this one is going to have all the collectable nonsense of 2020/21 Magic, which is going to be A Lot.

And another Jumpstart. Eh. Don’t cock the shipping on this one up and it’ll probably be okay.

Commander Collection Black is here, and the list is already out. The Green one ended up way overpriced, but at least in this case the cards are all super playable. Actually, they were for Green too, I think, but hey there’s a Deluge reprint and a flip Lilli, so. I kinda miss the Signature Spellbook series already, though.

Finally, Unfinity. Another Un-Set. Unstable was a fucking incredible set, both on a comedic level and as one of the sickest draft formats in a long time, so I’m excited to see that one followed up. On the other hand, Unsanctioned kind of landed with a dull thud. Apparently though, they got some of the folks from LRR (among others) to help write names and flavour text for this set, and I love those guys to death, so I can at least guarantee the comedy element will be present for this one.

Other stuff?

Well we have a date for the Netflix series. I have a hard time believing it’s actually happening. When I first started playing was around when rumours and announcements were still happening regarding a full-on movie, and that basically didn’t go anywhere. So it’s a little surprising to have a solid, actual time frame for Magic Story Content in Video Form. I haven’t kept with the story for a fair bit at this point (since Dominaria, tbh), so I’ve got no idea if it’s been any good, and as to whether this will be any good. Considering apparently Gideon’s in the lead, my hopes aren’t huge.

The only other thing is Pins. I like Pins. I have a bunch of them on my bag. I would like to get more Magic pins. So this is good.

And that, I think, is the sum total of it. These announcements always end up with a combination of excitement, trepidation, and dread, but I think this is leading more on the positive end of that spectrum. There’s still way too many fucking sets, but I think that is largely at Hasbro’s feet. The money machine must keep churning, after all. Maybe someday Magic and WoTC as a whole will be able to unshackle themselves from that particular constraint, but I am not holding my breath.

[kindlystrawberry]

Pairing: Arthur/Frey Fandom: Rune Factory 4 AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27289027/chapters/66673420

A/N: I tend to post a lot of my previews on Twitter so I’ll post one here now! Here’s a snippet I’m working on for chapter 5 of Blue. Sorry it’s taking so long! Chapters 5 & 6 are plot heavy ones.

The thick blankets of snow that Arthur can see falling down through the window are soothing to watch.

He finds himself enjoying this weather, even if its near-blizzard-level-winds had tried to ruin his date; what was initially going to be a nice picnic had quickly turned into Frey and Arthur scurrying to make it to her bedroom before the weather could get any worse. Some cuddling and two cups of hot chocolate later and they were both pleasantly happy with the situation, but even then the snow storm had shown no signs of stopping.

When it was clear they would be stuck for longer than anticipated, Frey had pulled out an old desk from somewhere and set it in front of one of the two plaza-facing windows in her room. 

After fishing around for some ink and parchment she let Arthur make himself cozy, assuring him that she wouldn’t be bored at all with him working. Sure, Arthur didn’t have his documents or books on him, but if a near-blizzard couldn’t stop him from working then neither could that. Then the princess had plopped herself down in front of the other window and started taking stock of what she had in her castle inventory, and the rest of the day thus far had passed in peaceful silence this way.

Writing out letters and drafting documents (with blanks to fill in with the more specific details in his office later) is a common task for him, one which he usually finds no trouble doing. But today he’s surprised to find it goes by especially quickly, and especially pleasantly-- Arthur’s not sure if it’s because of the calming, cotton-white view he has from the window, or if it’s from relishing the gentle presence of Frey next to him, of appreciating being able to simply exist quietly next to each other and still enjoy the other’s company.

Her presence might, every so often, be slightly distracting, though. 

More than once the blonde has caught himself staring at Frey, captivated by the concentrated look on her face as she jots things down on a sheet of paper. The flustered look on her face when she notices his gaze and the responding blush on her cheeks makes Arthur’s chest glow warm enough to protect him from outside’s chill seeping in.

He’s deeply concentrated on writing a particular letter when he distantly hears Frey approach. A moment later she’s wrapping her arms delicately around him, pressing her chest against his back and dropping her chin onto the top of his head. He’s so wholly focused on his writing, however, that he feels her pleasantly pressed against him, but the awareness of it feels as if it's underwater in his mind. 

Arthur is diligently letting his quill fly against the paper when he finally hears Frey’s laughter loudly enough to snap him fully out of it. “Ah—” With a slight start it finally hits him, and his eyes widen as he sets down his quill to properly tilt his head up, just enough to see Frey’s face swim in his vision. He can feel her laughter through her chest, still, and bouncing gently against his head.

“Sorry,” he continues. “I didn’t mean to ignore you.”

She pulls back to drop her chin to his shoulder instead, pecking a kiss against Arthur’s cheek. He feels the blush on his cheeks deepen, suddenly fighting the urge to sheepishly avoid her gaze.

“That’s okay, how could I forget how serious you get about your work?” Frey’s soothing voice right next to his ear makes the hair on Arthur’s neck stand. “And anyway it’s cute when you look so concentrated.”

Again he tries to look at her, but from the corner of his eye he can only make out the blurry beige slope of her nose and the green strands of hair that fall over her face.

“I think I’m quite lucky to have found the one person who would consider this cute,” Arthur finally says, his smile soft and tone just slightly self-deprecating.

[bawkrya]

ok so im just gonna pick at fr from a web designer pov because looking at this site on mobile will drive me into madness if they don’t fix it at some point. The rest of this post will go under a read more because it’s both super long and image heavy.

before i hit mobile though, I’m going to point out some things i just don’t personally like in general with the site design (and yes i am conscious that they are slowly updating to a new look)

this will come as a shock to no one, if you’ve seen previous web design related posts by others anyways, but i cant. stand this menu

[ID: A cropped screenshot of Flight Rising’s Main Menu]

fr, understandably, has a shit ton of links. it’s a petsite with lore and all that, whatever. The thing that bothers me specifically is the length of links and where some are placed.

1. i BELIEVE this counts as an accessibility issue where longer links kinda trap shorter links, goes into misclicks to other pages in the site, etc. etc.  2. i don’t think. the search link should be under library personally ? Maybe make it its own category. 

Dev Tracker & Media could go under this category, possibly add separate links to forum, player, and dragon searches with updated formatting

Dressing Room and Scrying Workshop could go under the “Play” category 

Forums can be it’s own category with possible subcategories being: Announcements & News, Help Center, and Flight specific discussion forum, maybe more 

Library category could then just be: Which Waystone, World Map, Game Database, and Encyclopedia.

Support should be it’s own category.

One thing on the shop category, and i hesitate to say this because im not CONFIDENT on this one, but I’m not sure Custom Skins exactly fits? or at least, it should be Purchase Gems -> Marketplace -> Custom Skins, not between crossroads and festive favors

Merch should probably go under purchase gems, and they should maybe uhh..... i guess change the name for it overall? because 1. “merch” alone does NOT look good with its placement, 2. its another actual money purchase thing and I think those should go on the same page

Along with that, in putting merch under that page, they could put previews of the merch with a button to go purchase instead of immediately going to their merch site (which to begin with it should open in a new tab if its going to a separate site?!!)

then this is a mix of both not liking it on laptop OR mobile, 

[ID: A cropped image of Flight Rising’s Clan Home page. The Bestiary link has a bright red box highlighting it]

Obviously these pages are old, but the graphics need to be updated, and there needs to be graphics for every link in the category-- seeing with this category alone there isn’t a graphic for the Bestiary already. On top of this they need to be in link order preferably. if they had a normal dropdown menu for mobile, mobile users wouldn’t be able to access the bestiary unless FR wanted to be STUPID and do further dropdown menus w their 200 links which would be STUPID and CLUTTERED

also in my opinion the Messages link isn’t necessary since we have the button at the top. If they put it there as an excuse for accessibility, they can just. add text to the buttons. like here’s a scuffed mockup but. 

[ID: Screenshot of Flight Rising’s Messages, Friend Requests, and Alerts icons edited to have Messages, Friends, and Alerts written next to the icons]

for the friends tab, they could prolly add friend requests at the top like they do for baldwin alerts, then have an online status thing for friends below with buttons to PM, trade, delete friend, etc. I think you’re already able to disable the online status thing with page visibility? but like, make those options separate if you dont wanna block off your entire page, but dont want to be seen online.

For mobile, they can just make the icons bigger.

then. i THINK. last thing on laptop site. 

[ID: A screenshot of Flight Rising’s Social Media links with old Logos to YouTube, Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and DeviantArt]

update these fucking icons they are personally killing me, none of these logos are in use anymore (ALSO UPDATE THE TUMBLR THEME JESUS CHRIST)

ok now for mobile. what this post was originally for.

-

as you all know, if you visit this site on mobile, there is literally no form of a mobile version for it. It is just a condensed version of the computer version of the site which is...Very Bad! 

Most of a sites visitors are going to be through mobile, i forget the exact percentage, but like it’s almost a given that people more readily have their phones with them than their laptop or tablet (which. im not going to bother with the tablet version, you can apply both computer and mobile criticisms to the site). in fact a lot of my time on FR is through mobile since I’m not at home 24/7 and I don’t tote my laptop around. Playing this game through it’s mobile site is Not Fun! 

I like, won’t be too pissy or anything bc like. it’s a petsite and I’m making this post for fun. but also like it was made in 2014? 2013? so I’m not going to be u kno. angry. but it nearing the point of ten years with this site and there still isn’t a mobile friendly version. that is lazy. If anything, if they wanted a site update to be the anniversary thing, they should’ve made that update be

Mobile update as primary thing, because designing the site for mobile is a shit ton of work with the amt of pages they have to work through.

Dragon Profile page update (*LOUD SIGH*)

Clan page update

Hoard update (i have thoughts on this too but i wont dive into it this post)

Purchase Gems page update

Dev Tracker update

Forums update

“but that’s a lot to update” well. that wouldve made the anniversary being a website update considerably more worth it, because in my opinion having the dragon profile pages be the ONLY thing to happen during the anniversary was a waste and a bad decision, because other website updates are just. normal whatever updates. it made the anniversary SUPER underwhelming especially bc the past ones (to my knowledge) have only been major game mechanic updates like the eye & ancients update and i believe? the color wheel expansion was an anniversary thing? someone can correct me on that I haven’t played this game as long as most LMAO

as for how i personally would situate the mobile site. shitty graphic time, bc im not putting too much effort into this (warning this will be LONG)

[ID: Image 1. A crudely put together screenshot of the top half of a Mobile View of Flight Rising with comments on either side. It ends with the Latest News segments “Riot of Rot” and “Hoard & Vault Revamp”

Comment 1, Left side: “no banner make it a solid color that matches the burger menu. size the logo correctly etc. Comment 2, Right side: ��burger menu w ONLY the categories, goes to the homepages of the categories” Comment 3, Right side: “TWO latest news posts, maybe a button to go see earlier news (which may b something to add to comp too)” Comment 4, Right side: “center dates and comments maybe idfk”

At the bottom of the image there is an added “button” that says “more updates button”]

[ID: Image 2. The bottom half of the mobile view with comments on the left side. There is a put together white box that has the Plague Flight Logo and “plage dom !” written in it. Below it are the Site Status, Random Dragon, and Exalt Bonuses boxes from the site. Underneath that is a red box with “ad space” in the center, with a red footer at the bottom.

The footer contains, “social media! (specifally made icons for site)”, “better formatted links”, and “copyright”.

Comment 1: “idk what they would caption it but the flashy can go here.” Comment 2: “ONE site status update if they keep this format” Comment 3: “probably center these links. i dont know what they use to build the site but im sure you can make icons for social media on just about anything unless this is all handcoded. just. make small icons it takes two seconds and you can copy+paste”]

i dont even want to THINK about how the lair and all that would look on mobile, it was a chore doing the home page alone SOBS

anyways, in ref to these images though--

this is just slapped together and definitely wouldn’t be a final draft, it could use some tweaking

the flashy i refer to is the box that’s above the user box that says what flight is in dom, what festival is going on, etc.

when i mention building the site and “you can make icons for social media on just about anything” im referring to wordpress, wix, whatever is used to format the site. I really only have experience with wordpress thru elementor and divi (so far) so im not CERTAIN about other places but I feel it would be pretty common to have that tool. if not, making icons (or snatching some) is rlly not that hard, probably only costly depending on what their webdesigner(s) charge for icons

I’m not like certain on who does what, how the webdesigner(s) work with/price this site, etc. etc. this is just. going off of my own knowledge. and in general this whole post is my own knowledge abt shit i did no further research to FRs team specifically 

i think this is basically it, i’ll reblog with more if i think of anything, but feel free to add things yourself or in general discuss things. again this post was made for fun so im not taking it seriously or demanding for these changes to be made, just personal annoyances and preferences.

This is also my first time doing picture IDs for a post so if I need to correct anything or the like let me know and I’ll edit it in the post!