#the human element is fucking essential for any of it to mean anything

[cogito-ergo-amo]

Ye gods the preponderance of AI "fanart" on the FYP is rankling me something fierce

I do not wish to see soulless dross in the stolen style of real human artists! I do not care how visually polished it is on a superficial level!

It turns my stomach to start reading a fanfic and realise within a couple of sentences that it is machine-generated words where the only human effort involved was changing the names of "character A" and "character B" in the prompt!

I want to look at a piece and get an understanding of what the characters mean to the artists! I want to see the emotion and attachment! I want to see dozens and dozens of stick figures just barely distinguishable as representing the characters, made by people who haven't drawn anything since middle school but were so moved by a piece of media that they had to physically use their body to make a representation of their feelings, their connection to it.

And I sure as fuck don't want to see any human generators of AI prompts pissing and moaning about their ~creative process~ or wanting to be recognised as "valid artists". You aren't! What you are doing is not creative, it is not art, it is cannibalism, you know this, we've all known this for years!

Go and make the shittiest possible two-minute doodle of your blorbo on the back of a napkin. Write the most scuffed poem the world has ever seen. Make a goddamn tiktok of yourself screaming about a character for two minutes. THAT is creating something and it's worth infinitely more than telling the water-wasting, power-draining bullshit machine to generate more scenes from the uncanny valley.

[joycrispy]

leah i trust your judgement, good omens fic recs? 👀👀

Aww, thank you!! I appreciate the vote of confidence. xD

H'OKAY so bear in mind that I am basically brand-new to the fanfic side of this fandom, so, I don't think any of my recommendations are going to be news to anyone who's been here since 2019 or earlier.

That said, these are my favorites so far:

Factory Settings by Anonymous. 107k words, 60 chapters (and written in just two weeks last month, insanely enough).

I've recced this one before and I'll do it again, because it's an absolute blast. Premise is that Crowley DOES end up coming with Aziraphale to Heaven, but turning back into an angel has the unexpected side-effect of...well, restoring his factory settings. Meaning he is exactly the angel he was, with no memory of the last 6000 years. And things begin to unravel from there.

This fic is what finally sold me on Ineffable Bureaucracy, by the way.

Be advised that this IS a Crowley-was-Raphael fic. Since I know people tend to feel strongly about that. And it does apply some of the tropes that Raphael-deniers (and me, despite being a mild Raphael-truther myself) usually dislike. But the whole thing is just so damn impressive that, in this case, I'll allow it. xD

Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach by Nnm. 99k words, 16 chapters.

I'm sure everyone already knows this one, but hey, a lot of my followers seem to be brand-new fans, so maybe I can pass the good word along. The POV character is Aubrey Thyme, Crowley's psychotherapist, as she helps him try to unpack all the trauma of...being Crowley. It's basically one long hyper-intensive character study, and it rules.

Bark Dust by rfsmiley. 8k words, oneshot.

This one is just gorgeous.

It's Aziraphale's POV, set during the Saxon Wars. In battle, Crowley gets run-through with a blessed sword, and the effect is the same as being exposed to Holy Water, but much, much slower. So, you know. Agonizing. And neither he nor Aziraphale can heal it.

...I don't want to spoil anything, but. The way this is resolved actually made me stop and put my face in my hands. It's terrible and beautiful and poignant as fuck.

Highly recommend, with a content warning for gore/descriptions of makeshift surgery.

This Soul Outstreaming by Rend_Herring. 22k, oneshot (essentially a novella).

Okay I won't even front with you. This one is my favorite.

It's Aziraphale's POV, following their relationship across human history, in the style of the show. It's also absurd and wry and heartfelt in the style of the show. And, though it was written in 2019, elements of it predict Season 2 with an eerie degree of accuracy.

The through-line here is specifically the development of their physical intimacy, so, heads-up that this is absolutely Porn-With-Plot. But, in like a

kind of way. Quite literally. You can imagine.

I would also like some recs, if anyone wants to offer them! This is my bedtime reading, lately. xD

[crossdressingdeath]

Continuing to think about Nico's death aura sensing, it would be interesting—and add some really fun humanoid abomination elements to him, really lean into the fact that the demigods are only partially human, I'd love it if the demigods had moments where they come off as inhuman—if it turned out that him turning Bryce into a ghost was related to that somehow. I mean, we don't actually know how he did that, and honestly he probably doesn't know either; he has no memory of anything between Bryce threatening Reyna and waking up from his coma three days later. Everything both Nico and we the readers know about Bryce's death is learned secondhand from Reyna and Hedge at least three days after it happened. Nico could've used any trick in his arsenal to do that, we have no way of knowing how he pulled it off and unless he does it again without losing all memory of it we probably never will.

But it would be interesting if the way he pulled that off involved the aura of death that we know he can feel. Like... for instance, if he could forcibly strengthen it to a lethal degree. There's no real details on whether the death aura is just a sign of approaching death or if it could cause it in any way, but that means it could potentially cause death, at least if Nico (as a child of Hades) fucks with it. After all, we've never been explicitly told it can't! And that might also explain why killing Bryce that way did so much damage to Nico: if the death aura shows how close someone is to death, then forcibly strengthening it to force a young, healthy person to drop dead on the spot would logically be an extremely difficult thing to do just because of how much it would need to be strengthened to reach the point where it became lethal. And it absolutely would not help that a lot of Nico's powers are exhausting to use at the best of times. Or that in this particular case he's already half-killed himself shadow travelling the Athena Parthenos halfway around the world.

It's also just an absolutely terrifying power for Nico to have; all the characters in these books could kill with their powers, but having the ability to kill someone just by essentially willing them to die is, while not necessarily more effective than other means (and given Bryce's death knocks Nico out cold for three days in some ways it's probably significantly less effective depending on how much of that was killing Bryce and how much was the cumulative effect of all that shadow travel), a significantly more intimidating way to kill someone than stabbing or drowning or beating to death or whatever. And something you could have a lot of fun with both in terms of discussion of power levels and in fics about Nico having to come to terms with the fact that he can if he so chooses just decide someone should die and carry that out without ever touching them, with doing so only getting easier with every day older his target gets. ...And also it plays well with my favourite headcanon that if Nico is faced with someone who's already actively dying he could if he so chose finish them with basically zero effort just by manipulating the death that's already hanging right over their head. So, you know. It's fun for me.

[revivepages]

REVIVEPAGES original plot outline

the entire plot of the game has changed but a lot of elements have stuck. (revivepages startup does the same things, the founders have still gone missing, etc.) nothing described here will be in the actual game, however.

human 1 (who would eventually become redlight)

human 2 (who would eventually become SPOILERS)

revived 1 (who would eventually become transmitter)

revived 2 (who would eventually become SPOILERS)

set in late 2000s / early 2010s

REVIVEPAGES is a tech startup that advertises a service to "revive" a webpage or personal blog ran by someone who has passed away (hence the name. revivepages. get it?). through unknown means the persons exact memories and personality are pulled from death and into a machine, and are made to post on the page they maintained before death.

both founders of revivepages are now completely missing, there are two employees keeping the whole thing running, revived 1 and revived 2. revived 1 has been working at revivepages from before the company started, it was the first successful test. after the founders went missing, every human employee slowly quit and every revived employee shut down one by one.

shortly before the events of revivepages, revived 1, out of desperation and loneliness, salvages what it can from a failed employee and creates revived 2. revived 2 is extremely uncomfortable being confined to a small box of electronics, which revived 1 attempts to help with. there's not much to do at revivepages as after they lost essentially everyone they stopped getting business. revived 1 and 2 become friends.

human 1 and human 2 were partners. human 2 goes missing for unknown reasons and is presumed dead. in a fit of grief, human 1 scours for *some* way to get human 2 back, stumbles upon revivepages, and sends in a request to get human 2's blog revived.

shocked by the sudden work request, revived 1 immediately sends revived 2 to get to work on the reviving. this is the first time revived 2 has ever done this, and they fuck it up badly. human 2 has been brought back, but has forgotten everything about themselves. revived 1 goes ballistic, and tries to pull things back together for human 1. human 2 tries to make an 'in character' post on their blog, but human 1 instantly knows that something is wrong.

-honestly i didn't have much written down between this and the end, and it's changed so much now so whatever-

revived 1 is freaking out, human 1 has sent a very ominous message then stopped responding to any forms of contact,

human 1 eventually finds the address for the now defunct revivepages, takes a baseball bat, and goes for a drive there. human 1 breaks in to the office and takes the bat to anything they can find.

revived 1 and 2 are smashed to pieces and killed.

human 1 finds the machine where what remains of human 2 is contained, and takes them home, hoping to rekindle what they once had, and meet them for the first time again.

[chipper-asks]

Hi! I've been following you for a good while now and have always rly admired the community you've build, and, your art itself, obviously, it's always very cozy in here. May be a strange question, but as a relatively popular artist on the interned, are there any tips you could share on how to engage and sustain an audience? maybe you know some recourses for artist to get their art seen? I've been an artist posting online for roughly 10 yrs and pretty much failed at accumulating any sort of prominent presence. I don't feel bad about it really, it's not why I do art per say, but these are pretty rough times and unfortunately other means of art monetization grow thinner with stupid updates & algorithms forcing anyone who can't afford payed adds or subscriptions out of business. I kinda have to make use of social media, even if it's not my element in the slightest. Feel free not to answer if you feel like it. Thanks in advance! Also big thanks for your shouts of my art overall, I really appreciate your support!

So I've had a post in my drafts for who knows how long detailing how to build and curate your audience online. But I haven't found a good way to go about posting it because I didn't want it to come off as tooting my own horn xD

BUT YOU HAVE ENABLED ME SO HERE WE GO!!!

(im going to generalize, you may already be doing some of these things but I think its good info for anyone who wants to build an online presence)

1. Engaging your audience

A: First, you have to think of the platform you're sharing your art on and what people use it for. Not even tumblr, but the internet as a whole. It is a place where people form communities and share information. It's also one of the most popular ways to mentally escape; from school, boredom, to the horrors of real life.

So if you want people to find you, make a space where they can escape/feel community.

This means: No callout posting, no venting, no doom posting, no politics, no guilt posting, no anything that would make you unfollow someone else if you were having a bad day.

It's okay to have an occasional vent or political post cause we're human, but trauma dumping is something thats very hard for someone else to read and honestly should you be putting that kind of information online, the internet is a place of community but it also isnt safe.

B: The Value of Fandoms

It's time for some metrics, featuring my own follower count.

I've been on tumblr for 9 years and I have been making an effort to grow my base as a way of getting money as a freelancer (like you) so I started doing this allll the way back in highschool. I can remember each milestone and which fandom I got them in

1,000 I got when I was posting stuff for Undertale

2,000 I got when I was posting stuff for The Property of Hate

there was a big break between these milestones where I was just drawing ocs and object heads and stuff, but nothing I was hyperfixated on

5,000 I got from Hollow Knight

but then something really unexpected happened.

In late 2021 and early 2022 I decided cringe was a worthless social construct and decided to fully indulge in my enjoyment of doodling dragons.

I juuust inched past 5,000 when 2022 started. I Ended Up With 12,000 as 2022 ended. That's more than double. As of posting this I am at 13,600 and its only February.

So how did that happen? I could tout along and say that it was simply luck and I wasn't really making an effort anyway but that's a big fuckin lie, i've been "selling out" this whole time (it's not fucking selling out to post in fandom. You like a thing? You go to the thing's community and post about the thing)

Posting in a fandom is essentially like, now bear with me, advertising for your blog. Fandom is where the eyes are and where the traffic goes. Big tags like #artistsontumblr #tumblrart #art are used OFTEN but they're too general and often people look for things that are specific. Fandoms like Hollow Knight, BNHA, Mob Psycho, The Owl House, etc are currently popping off and have a lot of traffic.

This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to join a popular fandom to post your work in to get followers, it just means that if you're into a show or a media, post it on your main art blog and don't make side blogs. Keep it all together

Why?

Because 5% of those fandom people stick around for YOUR STUFF and those 5% of people are the best goddamn people in the world. You want those 5% to see EVERYTHING you do and THEY'RE the ones who will recommend you to THEIR friends and do outreach on your behalf because they like YOU and not YOUR STUFF.

i fuckin love those guys

So as you hop from fandom to fandom, you're going to lose some people but that's fine. Everyone curates their experience online and if you head off in a direction they don't like then they can deal with it. The rest come along for the ride cause 1: they either really like your stuff or 2: are into the new thing you're getting into.

SO ANYWAY

posting in fandoms under one name is GOOD because it puts everyone in the same bucket that will see your stuff and there's a chance that a few will stick just for your stuff. It is not cheap, its how you reach out to people to help cheer up their day and escape from things stressing them out.

C: What should you post?

So this is something that isn't an exact science but if you're looking to increase your follower count, this is something you can keep in mind.

Because this is the internet and the digital word of escaping from stress, people flock to things that are

1: Familiar 2: Funny 3: Relatable

So i've already been over fandoms and that's something that goes into the Familiar category. Familiar can also mean generalized but still popular concepts, like werewolves, dragons, vampires, apocalyptic scenarios, etc.

The more you trail into something niche, like marine biology, the seelie/unseelie courts, object heads, etc, the less traffic you'll find. There are communities centered around these but they're not massive like certain fandoms.

Which is how you end up with artists who spend hours upon hours on every piece only getting like 14 - 32 notes per piece. It's not lack of people caring or lack of interest, its the fact that these artists haven't "advertised" their blogs in fandom. Those people who end up caring about more personal posts are those 5% you find from fandom spaces. Their Familiar from that fandom begins to include your artwork as Familiar and thus they're more likely to share it.

Funny is simple. Tumblr is a platform of shitposts and memes. Do you have a favorite character in a fandom? Shitpost them. 2 birds with one stone, Familiar and Funny. I can't teach you how to be funny, but if you see something that makes you laugh online, pause and try to find out why and see if you can replicate it. (You wont get it in one go)

Relate-ability is also simple. If someone finds something they can easily associate with they will eagerly tag #mood #me or @ one of their friends in the post.

What doesn't get people following just by itself is your skill.

This sounds really fucking depressing but hear me out.

Your skill in art is a multiplier. It can take those three categories from above and BOOST IT to fantastic new heights. People love things that are from their fandoms that are funny and relate-able. People go FERAL for shit that is from their fandoms that are funny, relate-able AND COOL AS FUCK. If art represented x5 in an equation and you have nothing else, you get 0. If you include any of those three other things and then x5, you get something grand.

2. Sustaining your Audience.

If you want to set up your blog as a platform to eventually gain freelance income from, you need to make it yours and not your audience's.

This is key to prevent burnout and feeling obligation to create for thousands of featureless faces and losing sight of what made you enjoy art in the first place.

It is REALLY EASY to fall into that pit, especially as you grow your audience. When you have a small audience, it's easier to interact one on one with someone. Engagement is exciting when you have a small audience! People? Interested in your work!! Fuck yeah!!

But as you reach those milestones, the vibe begins to change. More and more people demand your attention. People who are new don't see you as an artist they knew from another fandom, they see you as a content creator and that is the worst goddamn stone wheel to get stuck around your neck.

You can still respond to requests and answer silly questions, but now you have to keep in mind that if you draw this little dragon for someone, three other people are going to ask for their own little dragons. And that's fine because you love dragons and they asked so nicely. You make those dragons but now there's seven people asking for their own dragons and you actually want to work on something other than dragons-- but you made those dragon doodles for those other people so wouldn't it be hypocritical to say no-

It becomes a spiral.

So to prevent that situation from happening, you need to respect your boundaries as an artist and what you will do and what you will draw the line at. If someone doesn't like you for that, they can unfollow.

In terms of posting regularly to sustain your audience, i've found that it helps but ultimately doesn't matter.

(this is a tumblr centric view, i cannot say the same for other platforms)

The way tumblr works resembles a massive recycling facility. You will see shit on your dash from 7 years ago but you dont mind, its how this place works.

It doesn't matter how often you post. You won't lose priority on people's dashboards if you don't make your daily art post. What matters is that you just make the post.

Each post you make is like sending out a bucket of chum into the grand ocean of tumblr. The more buckets of chum you have, the more likely you are to attract fish. The more you post the larger your radius is. The more variety you make in spreading out to different fandoms the wider your range is. And these spots of chum don't go away! They're permanent brown spots in a big blue wasteland and fish will stumble across it and then try to find the source.

Basically, you can disappear for an entire month and then suddenly return out of nowhere and shove 57 posts into a week and then disappear again and people will show up and stick around.

THis post is getting really long and there are probably some things im missing but my hadns are getting achy and i think that's my call to stop :p

if you have anymore questions tho im very willing to answer 👍

[blackbloodedisabel]

evil women weird sex why

OHKAY!! let us discuss erygora. this will take some time as there are literally billions of years of history and be very confusing as there are literally billions of years of history. plus I am a chronic yapper.

meta info:

this is my main oc collection (the poera mythos) which stems from my immersive daydreaming (started aged 7) and exists purely as a convoluted vehicle for me to torture fictional women in my mind. there are a lot of them but I think about the weird sex evil gods a lot. (side note they are not women they are gods who just. look like women because I made Erykwana when I was like 10 and Gora when I was 13. insanity. we will call them majaerajji and use she/her)

background:

there is. a lot of lore since I've been living part-time in this universe (triverse. there are three) for 9 years (scary!!). but I will (try) give only necessary info. also pls don't worry about how to pronounce any of it.

there are three universes. two are for mortals, one is much smaller and for the Gods. these universes were created by the Feqa (literally translated as 'Creator') who you don't need to worry about. The Feqa also created two kinds of Gods to 'take care' of the triverse. these are the lumadiimi (gods of concepts) who you don't need to worry about and the majaerajji (gods of 'elements' as in like the arcane elements but I really stretch the definition of that by the end) who you do need to worry about.

there are 4 different majaerajji for each element (so. eg 4 majaerajji for water), and these majaerajji are sorted into four clans, with one majaerajji for each element in each. so every clan has one majaerajji of water, one majaerajji of air etc etc. are you keeping up I promise this is relevant.

you need only worry about two of these clans: the mraninia-csora (gilded clan) and vryciila-csora (burnished clan). the mraninia were chosen by the Feqa to 'rule' over the triverse and be regarded as above the other majaerajji (the Feqa impose a strict hierarchy of beings. remember this because it will be important later). since all majaerajji are referred to as 'queens' eg. gilded queen of fire, the ruling clan are referred to as 'high queens' eg. high queen of earth. notice I say 'ruling clan' not specifically the mraninia-csora. this is foreshadowing.

one of the majaerajji elements is 'matter'. this is essentially control over particles ranging in size from quarks/leptons/other fundamental particles etc to large monomers (not polymers!!). majaerajji of matter can do cool stuff like break/form atomic bonds, do nuclear fusion/fission on command etc (this is where. head exploding comes from). anyway.

actually talking about the weird sex evil gods:

the majaerajji of matter in the mraninia-csora is Erykwana. the majaerajji of matter in the vryciila-csora is Gora (yes I know shut up).

I will now talk at length about their characters because goddamnit I didn't do all that development for nothing.

Erykwana:

most of Erykwana's beliefs etc come from her very very strong belief in the heirarchy set out by the Feqa. the only thing you need to know about this is that it places majaerajji above humans. boy does she internalise this. this bitch does not give a single fuck about mortals and she never has. this means she feels zero shame about anything she's done. speaking of which:

most of Erykwana's actions etc (in the Stability Epoch anyway. oop what's that) come from her being a massive sadist and weirdo who likes to torture people.

in the Stability Epoch (beginning of time - about 400 years ago) Erykwana would go down to mortal worlds, eat chunks off people (majaerajji do not need to eat in fact they do not digest things. everything they eat they permanently destroy. she enjoyed the feeling of perma-destroying stuff because she was an immortal god with not enough enrichment in her unchanging existence. fun fact.), blow up their heads and kidnap them back to the Gods' universe. this is where Gora comes (haha) into the picture:

Gora:

ignore the name🤗🤗 thank you. anyway I think it's funny.

Gora was also an artist in a similar way to Erykwana: while Erykwana's art was broken bodies/screams, Gora's art was broken minds. she liked to see people break and took it as a challenge to break down the strongest most resilient people.

Gora and Erykwana spent almost every second of every day together and they don't even need to sleep so you know it was every day bro!! wow. lots of people died during this time (like. hundreds of billions. it's crayzy)

but why would Gora stick around Erykwana when they had different art styles. haha.

I'm glad you asked!! there are two reasons for this:

all the other majaerajji are actually not awful (debatable. in fact probably untrue). anyway so they did not want to be friends with either of them and really really hated/excluded them both. Erykwana and Gora were viewed as one entity with no differences between them (untrue!!) and this kind of. pushed them further together because (and this is important) they were the only people who could ever fully understand the other!!

this is very important also!! Gora wanted to be Erykwana. the desire consumed her. she resented Erykwana for existing because if Erykwana was Erykwana.. then Gora wasn't. if that makes sense. Gora was absolutely obsessed with Erykwana and spent all her time trying to emulate her in many ways

Klla (the beginning of the end):

Erykwana was looking for a new shiny enrichment torture method which would make people really really scream. she pitched the idea to Gora and they started to create Klla.

Klla was a spell which was embedded in a knife. it would cause indescribable pain (like. literally the worst ever possible I can't convey to you.. anyway this 1/2 of how I torture the fictional women) to the victim without leaving a physical mark (the knife just. passes through. this is what appeals to Gora). anyway you don't need to know much except that a) the spell is in two parts, the first part allows the knife to be used as Klla and the second part 'activates' it so the next time the knife goes into someone it will begin the Klla process in them😈 so the knife functions as a normal knife between the first and second parts of the spell. this is irrelevant beyond when Erykwana and Gora are just regular stabbing each other. b) it's contagious heehee so if you touch someone who's just been stabbed then the process begins in you too😈 anyway none of this is particularly important but it's useful context if you. read my stuff

Klla was the ACTUAL last straw for the majaerajji who had just been chilling up until now. most of them thought it was 100% Erykwana (it was like. 90% but still).

it especially pissed off a certain member of the vryciila-csora (remember? the family Gora is in? I'm crying there's so much of this) who will not be named, who then went to her sister (also unnamed) and they decided to overthrow the entire mraninia-csora (remember?? the ruling family that Erykwana is in???)

I won't go into detail about the LVD/etc etc because it's irrelevant but you do need to know that they approached Gora in the early stages of their plotting and she was jumping for joy!! at the possibility of usurping Erykwana because that was one step closer to fully becoming her..

ok you don't need to know anything about the last violet dance/Big War beyond that Erykwana used the Klla knife on Gora first. anyway fun fact.

Klle (a different thing!!):

during the Big War (name pending) Erykwana emotionally manipulated her pathetic spineless wet wipe sister into helping her make a new weapon to use in the war.

this new weapon was Klle, which is basically the mental equivalent of Klla. (no details that's far too deep in my own brain)

I mention Klle even though they never use it on each other because it's the obvious second part to Klla right? like Erykwana = Klla, Gora = Klle. Klle is what they would've eventually made together if the Big War had never happened. and Erykwana (subconsciously-ish) made it for her. anyway. GOD I miss them.

what happened next: the ACTUALLY ACTUALLY relevant bit

sorry about all the shit you've had to read that didn't really matter. um.

well, Erykwana/her family lost the war and the vryciila-csora became High Queens. so Gora is now High Queen of matter. there's a fuck tonne of other stuff this caused but there's no need to worry about that

Gora being High Queen continues to deeply piss of Erykwana since it is so flagrantly in opposition to the natural order set out by the Feqa, which intended for Erykwana to be High Queen.

and so Erykwana has become genuinely obsessed with the idea of killing Gora forever (difficult since Gora is. an immortal god. but hey go off queen) side info: she's committed to the idea of remembering Gora's final scream forever and ever because she can't fathom existing without Gora by her side in. some capacity. Erykwana derives immense psychosexual pleasure from hurting Gora. this is why there's all the torture sex with the knife they made together... the bridge between them.. the child of divorce..

Gora is of course still obsessed with becoming Erykwana etc etc. and also gets a definitely psychosexual pleasure from doing to Erykwana everything that Erykwana has done to her and doing to herself everything she's done to Erykwana (including torture because. she's number 1 committed to the bit) as a form of symmetry. you know. that's why she's returning all the knife torture sex.

final info:

if you want more information:

send asks

check the tags. these goobers will be under "#erygora"

read my literature boy!! it's not very good but. it's there. my ao3 is here

[thegamingcatmom]

Anon still making way through resi7

Reads latest miri the tired studhorse- I mean The Mother spoiler

Wonder what happened 👀

Did miri go: nope! you are not leaving!

Is this miri tactic from her understanding of what the physical attributes of all the village girls who've flirted with her before have done? As she tries to make MC reach these conditions? Flushed and sweaty skin, heavy breathing, etc?

Lol, idk imagining miri's assumption that since MC holds none of these attributes that if she makes her feel so it'll surely work. MC will surely become like the others

Like no miri making a person meet these conditions does not equate to what's essentially devoting lust of the village girls.

There is difference between fear and lust, but does miri know that?

Very hyped for the mother content

Hah.

I mean-

Yes, Miri will go "nope" sooner or later. But that´s not gonna happen until Miranda´s properly introduced obv. Which will probs be around Chapter...2? 3? Or smt?

So, no. Whatever´s happening in the spoiler isn´t due to Miranda working her...charms. 😏

But I do love how your mind immediately went to the gutter, lmao. Really interesting thoughts. I love how Miranda just can´t seem to human properly here (I don´t think Birb Momma fully grasps the concept of courting yet...) cause that´s kinda how I see her as well.

Miranda´s unstoppable when she´s in her element. When it comes to MC, though? She´s anything but. All that power and influence she holds might aid her in keeping MC where she wants her, but that´s where it stops I´d say. There´s no way she´s gonna risk damaging her perfect vessel, so she can´t just bulldoze her way through as she usually would, regardless of the consequences.

It´s not something Miranda´s ever had to worry about, so she...struggles. A smidge. 🤏😅

It´s a disaster.

There is difference between fear and lust, but does miri know that?

I fucking love that question.

I mean, she´s surely able to tell the difference between those two. At least when it comes to the feeling per se, yknow what I´m saying? She might be a hopeless case when it comes to any form of social interaction (same Miri, same), but she´s also a mad scientist. And feelings are no more than a chemical reaction (like dopamine) in your brain, pretty much.

And yes, Miranda would totally throw that fact in MC´s face whenever our girl dares complain about not feeling loved or anything. (Birb Momma´s still learning, don´t judge her. 💀)

With that said: Miri is quite able to tell the difference. From a scientific viewpoint, at least... 🫠

Listen-

As long as them legs spread for her, Miri´s just peachy. That woman's on a mission and got no time for yalls feelings.

Besides:

Who says one has to exclude the other? 😏

.

.

.

Thanks a lot for your ask! 💋

[tonydaddingham]

am i missing something in kinda comparing the entire maggie and nina situation to paris? 'cause there was no need to get them to fall in love. a&c might not be able to make people actually feel it, but they seem to have mind control down pat without much effort (or any moral quandaries). they could have waited for an angel to show up and just faked it- easy, certain way out. it's not like the idea of working together like that is even weird, not after the gabriel miracle.

so. either they missed it, which is plausible, and uhhh, renders this whole ask pointless, or *would* have moral issues with it (also plausible💀), or they're being completely ridiculous again, and would rather plan balls than actually make an effort to get themselves out of Mortal Fucking Peril (not that aziraphale necessarily knows it is). i think it would fit the pattern, honestly- when not having huge blowouts over *problems of their own making* (hey aziraphale kill this kid it'll be fine, aziraphale why won't you ditch earth with me, crowley why won't you come to heaven with me), the ineffables always seem to be constantly, aggressively orbiting eachother, making heart eyes and goofing off (cough end of the resurrectionists "not kind" cough) with 0 regard for safety except for the (very very sadly i can't find the -ennial word for every other century) occasional heart attack, and then just skipping right back down the aisle.

(hope this is coherent, i've been editing things a little too long to tell)

hello @aq-uatic my darling!!!💕

(bby im so sorry!!! i thought i had posted this ages ago and i went rooting around in the drafts to continue something else and realised i hadn't!!! im an idiot sorry!!!)

i think there is some context behind aziraphale's actions in particular with this scene:

we know that aziraphale has a fondness for maggie, that i'd argue goes slightly beyond the fondness he has for humans in general (and even then that's questionable at times), and he seems genuinely put out that he's not in a position to help her - to wiggle his fingers about, and make it happen for her (horrifying implications, aziraphale, but we move). so, whilst aziraphale obviously is prompted into the whole 'lets-make-these-two-humans-fall-in-love-bc-that's-totally-normal-and-okay' by holding the everyday record back in the bookshop, i think there is an element of aziraphale genuinely wanting to help her, and coming up with the ball is his interpretation of an organic way to do that (💀). but it doesn't justify the whole thing one little bit; despite the possibility of that being his intention, it's completely batshit - nina certainly didnt know, let alone consent, to anything, and maggie didn't either; they're not dolls for either of them to play around with.

essentially though, i agree - any logical, coherent, sensible thinking would have probably just helped them arrive at a solution that didn't involve warping reality and bringing a whole room of people under a horrifying amount of hypnosis. but you have two supernatural creatures who, in a fairly major way by the time of 2023 at least, have their sense of existing amongst humanity influenced by not only the clandestine, dramatic nature of their own story, but by their tendencies towards damsel-but-not-wholly-in-distress-ing and anti-hero-at-best-ing respectively. we have to barely scratch the surface to see the intertextuality between these traits of theirs, and where they might stem from stories told in certain books and movies (emma by jane austen, and james bond spring to mind).

they constantly talk in riddles to each other, in code and in double meanings - they may somewhat understand the general sense of what the other is saying, but it's not categorical and leaves too much room for error or misinterpretation (which, ultimately, it does). it's a constant dance circling each other, ebbing and flowing, pulling in and drawing back, but never coming together properly; it's a quadrille vs. a waltz.

it makes sense that they are so used to finding the most roundabout and convoluted ways to do things, and this continues into s2, because not only is it how it tends to go down in fiction, but also because that's literally how they've had to exist - not only so their closeness isn't detected, or so their true natures aren't suspected by their respective head offices, but also by nature of being literal supernatural creatures living amongst humans - sleeper agents, of a kind - and constantly having to exist without detection.

none of this makes it right, of course not - but i actually don't think they see any other way of going about things. they're so good at it, so well practiced, that (as just two examples) they run verbal rings around gabriel/metatron (book) and beelzebub chattering about the great vs. ineffable plans at the airfield, and they dance around the most straightforward solution to the maggie/nina problem. as for themselves and their relationship, they dont speak plainly to each other until the bandstand or final fifteen... and even then, i feel like its aziraphale that is maybe the first to break and speak plainly? idk:

i think it's clear that crowley is the more scared, and therefore the more cautious, in this regard. for all his objections attempting to distance himself as an angel compared to crowley's being a demon, aziraphale feels to me that he is the more inclined to throw caution to the wind. i think its because crowley understands the danger in blowing their cover a little more than aziraphale does - aziraphale on multiple occasions slips in nearly admitting their closeness (1800, end of 1827 as you pointed out, and when meeting with the archangels in heaven in s1) - and is still stuck in the safety that dancing around what should be plainly said affords them. they both - as you wonderfully put it - aggressively orbit each other, and breaking the holding pattern comes a little too late.

so no, i think your drawing the parallel between the Weird-Ass dynamic in 1793, how they handle the maggie/nina storyline, and then how they behave with each other, is very apt! but its, at this time, arguably all that they've known - acting in this way - and breaking the cycle is starting to happen, but won't pay its dividends until s3✨

[auspex]

for mark: 13, 19, 21, 32, 36, 51, 59, 63, 69

HIII thank u for sending! - 13. what are some motifs you associate with them? did you intentionally bring in those motifs, or did it happen over time?

Uhmmm I don’t know if I have specific motifs but here are some things that are like. His. ~He says “very funny” a lot sarcastically - intentionally done early on ~He wears sweater vests a lot - ST made it canon because he is wearing them in a lot of art of his ~In general themes of privacy (or the lack therof) are things his story deals with FUCK IDK I can’t think of anything good im sorryy

-

19. what sparks genuine, unadulterated rage in them?

Due to the blood bond, criticizing/demonizing (in his view) Julius can piss him off really fast. It did so in game even when his touchstone did it, to the point where he shoved him and had to leave to prevent more violence. He will also get incredibly angry if someone were to tell him that humans are all evil/useless/pointless but is better at hiding that if needed. 

-

21. do they have an idea about how they’ll die? do you?

Me? No idea. I hope he does not die anytime soon. I want him to die after unliving longer than a human one but not so long that he loses too much humanity. Him? He is hoping that he lives forever. If you got an honest answer out of him he would probably say he expects to die trying to free himself from Julius one of these nights, but hopefully not anytime soon. 

-

32. which of your decisions led to their voice being the way it is?

I’m confused on this being literal voice or like. Voice in like how they speak so I will answer how he speaks because I feel that actual has reasoning behind it other than vibes? His pretentious way of speaking came from me deciding he will put on a strict persona normally of being a professor nerdy guy. He hides a lot of himself which is why he keeps his tone more flat, and sometimes snarky, to fit that persona. 

-

36. how do they fidget?

Mark plays with his glasses a lot of a lot. Usually keeping them on his face, constant minor adjustments. He’ll wring his hands excessively if he doesn't have them for whatever reason; he isn’t comfortable without them. 

-

51. what element of their backstory are you proudest of?

Honestly a lot of his backstory came much later and was fleshed out after a very long time and the ST helped a lot with the more immediate backstory bits.. Hm. 

On initial creation the thing I am most proud of making A Thing was making him a former street racer cause that really helped to start fleshing him out. At this point the thing I am most proud of is probably essentially tracing the broad strokes of his whole human life - the city he went to. How school was for him. His parent’s jobs. What his uni life was like. Why his touchstones were so important. Stuff like that. I also like that I figured out things about his autism that are similar AND different from mine. That isn't one element so uhm. One element is how he believes in the good of humanity and how that is tied to his passion for history :)

-

59. what’s an element of their philosophy that you disagree with?

Mark thinks human society gets better slowly and incrementally. That’s fine and I agree it is getting better - I just disagree that it's a slow incremental process. People have to fight for it and people have fought for it. It doesn't happen naturally over time. Hmm what else. Oh he also believes in soulmates and ‘the one’ and all of that, and has a very idealistic, non-materialist view of love and romance. I don’t agree with that either - soul mates aren’t really a thing. And unlike Mark I do not think romantic relationships have to be/are always the most meaningful ones in someone’s life. 

-

63. what’s a meme or tiktok or vine (or whatever) that you associate with them?

I don’t really have any augh. :( I mean. When I hear ‘sad wet pathetic dog of a man’ that’s Mark 100 percent. Does that count. OH WAIT I DO HAVE A VIDEO: https://www.tumblr.com/blood-bound/728585123578118144?source=share&ref=_tumblr

him as a living professor

-

69. what’s one secret they don’t want getting out?

Mark has a lot they don’t want getting out… he doesn’t want people to know Sampson is not blood bonded to him, nor that he cares about him. He doesn’t want people to know who his sire is. He doesn’t want anyone to know he is trying to kill his sire. He doesn’t want people to know he’s gay. He doesn’t want people to know that he feels lonely. He doesn’t want people to know that he finds most kindred’s attitudes towards kind abhorrent. He doesn’t want people to know that he has a soft spot for the gargoyles. 

Honestly he doesn’t want the vast majority people to really know him at all. Only the image he projects. 

Still though, of the above the one he would choose to hide if he could only pick one is the one about killing his sire. That one would cause either his final death or total blood-bond enslavement forever. 

[marvellouspinecone]

Imagine that you're a nineteen year old, you're newly independent, or as independent as you can be while still living with your mother. It's only been a couple of years since you don't have to ask to go to the bathroom in the middle of a class anymore, life is good. You have a job, you earn your own money, you can leave your house and come back whenever or however you please. If your teeth hurt or like you're out of tampons you can just go to a dentist or to a shop, as easy as getting up and walking out. There's the issue of money, of course, but generally you've got your life in your own hands.

And then imagine that you lose your job bc some guy blows up your workplace and then offers you to travel with him, and you agree bc it's fun, he is a cool little dude getting into fucked up dangerous situations, and you find this lifestyle appealing. Except it means living fulltime on his spaceship. Which often stays on alien planets or hangs in space or just straight up floats in the nothingness beyond human compreheneion. And imagine your teeth hurt or you're out of tampons, what do you do?

You have to like. Go to him. Asking to be let out. Like a fucking eight year old with their parent.

And remember, you don't have a job, you have no money, do you ask him for it? Because asking for permission to leave, essentially, wasn't humiliating enough?

And THEN, he says, because he is an unironically nice guy: "Oh, don't worry, we have some more tampons in storage somewhere" or "I'm a doctor, I can fix your teeth/I can take you to this random planet that you have no knowledge of and can't navigate by yourself and they can fix you teeth really well with alien methods that you won't ever understand". And you have to explain to him that it was never about tampons or teeth, it was about your autonomy that you've just gotten a couple of years ago and now it's been taken from you by these bizarre circumstances, you have to explain that you feel like a pet or a houseplant in this guy's house,

excpet you can't explain it because you don't actually think of it this way, because in actual real life you and the guy are besties, you are equals. You save each other's lives all of the time and learn from each other, and he is genuinely a good person who never means you any harm and is mostly fine with you bossing him around, and if you just asked he would pluck stars out of the sky and place them at your feet.

There's nothing he wouldn't let you do, he would take you home to your regular dentist or to your favourite corner shop to buy whatever. But still there's this "let" element in this sentence. You have to ask for the most basic things that you could've just done by yourslef in your normal life, you have to be allowed. And what's funny, he has power to not let you. He won't ever use it, of course, but it's still there. And you don't have anything like that on him.

[swanmay-that-got-away]

A lot of people bandy about "America has no culture" and they say it with a casualness that makes me wish they really understood it. Our culture is a fucking nightmare that never turns off. Nothing in Europe or the other Americas or Africa or Asia compares. It is a complex network of hollowness. Consumption is everything. Everything. *Everything*. All our religions are about consumption. All our sports are highly consumptive affairs. Transport, politics, the fucking weather report, literally everything is about consumption. We genuinely have next to nothing that is not commodified and sold to you. Nothing escapes the marketer's pen. They're even trying to take our libraries away, that's how all-encompassing the money obsession is. And a funny thing about a consumerist culture is, if you don't have money, you don't get to participate. Like yeah you can pirate media but like. Do you wanna go to a bar to meet people? Too bad, parking is 20 dollars and your bill will be another 20, at least. Do you want to go to a festival? Too bad, it's on moderately rough terrain and you can't risk your car (your lifeline to literally all your physical needs). You wanna fucking date someone? All of the first date spots are consumption based.

Your heritage is slaughter and torment and slavery. Every non-fascist white american's first goal in any situation is to avoid thinking about their heritage at all costs, because if you really understand it the thin strand of willpower that keeps you alive will snap. There is nothing to be proud of from your history, it is exclusively bad things. Opening any textbook on american history is simply a list of the times that an atrocity was done so white men could be marginally more comfortable. Even ostensibly okay things like baseball are pretty dark as soon as you go deeper than the surface.

Suburban culture has completely killed any natural cohesion of neighbors because the combination of distance and litigiousness and karening and HOAs means that making eyecontact with your neighbors is both rare and a risk. Apartment life is only marginally better, but gods know you're not gonna actually see any of them ever. There is no apartment function that anyone actually attends, because the landlord is running it and do you really want to spend time near your landlord and his flunkies?

There is, genuinely, not a single moment of american life where you can feel genuine connection. It's why everyone has fled online, where you can at least maintain a half-connection with others that might lack the human element but at least you aren't dying of loneliness. And what's online life controlled by, again? Oh right, capital. So finally you have an online pub to hang out at, but it's still owned by a landlord and you're still paying him somehow.

It's all expansive. It never ends. And that's why when people say shit like "lmao just make your own culture" when some desperate soul tries to respectfully, earnestly, effortfully relate to and participate in cross-cultural exchange and gets slapped down. Told that participating in another culture, another religion, another spirituality is definitionally appropriation and therefore definitionally evil and awful and unforgivable. I just don't know what to say. It's just, like, what is there to do then? Just die? Humans need spirituality of some kind. Culture of some kind. We're social animals we cannot survive on """""""office culture"""""""" any more than you can realistically just larp as a christian and pretend you believe in it so at least you can participate at church dinners.

America is essentially what happens when the soul-crushing power of capitalist imperialism has nothing pushing back against it. Every institution was built to support it, every institution is run by people who believe it with absolutely no second thoughts, every institution will destroy anything that is not capitalist imperialism on the off chance it might threaten it. There is nothing in the public consciousness that can resist it. And if you won / lost the birth lottery and ended up in America, it is a hell that roasts you eternally.

I dunno. This is just idiot white people american whining. But like, maybe a teensy bit of...not even sympathy, just, understanding that everyone in america is suffering from acute cultural starvation would be okay. In a "you know that he's drinking way too much but you don't have the heart to stop him since he has nothing left" kind of way.

[cwarscars]

Han, my dear, if it wasn't for you, then none of us would give much attention to Heidegger (at least I know it would be my case). He was a character I remember from the OG and which I thought was nicely designed in the FFVIIR and... I stopped there. 'Nice, they kept his laugh', I thought when the trailer got out.

And then I met you and - honestly, I cannot stress this enough - you have essentially removed this veil from my eyes and I saw Heidegger for the first time as you do: a multi-layered individual with deep-rooted issues, fiercely loyal to company & country and with so many other traumas and details that make him only human (and not a monster).

I am always in awe at all the sources of inspiration you have for him, at how insanely credible your thoughts his PTSD and other war-related issues are, the way he was brought up, came to marry and then divorce - honestly, for me, your Heidegger portrayal is THE Heidegger portrayal. I don't mean this to dunk on anyone else (or even SE), but because the way you have put him together makes so much _sense_ in my mind that I have a hard time disconnecting your Heidegger from canon.

As far as I'm concerned - his first name is Magnar, he comes from Junon, he has a rivalry with Godo, a behemoth gave him the trademark scar, he has two daughters and a divorce wife. I love everything about your timeline for him and always will. If anything, SE should give you royalties for the superb work. <3

(( mari ♡

i messaged you already kinda buggin out a lil over this but i want it on my blog (ALONG WITH ALL YOUR LOVE CAUSE YOU ALWAYS GIVE ME LOVE BECAUSE YOU'RE PRECIOUS & THE BEST) just so i can keep that tag open whenever im feeling stale on my writing or a little crispy with my portrayal. it always means so much to me how much time you've given me and my heid (i say my heid because at this point, i don't know how much is canon aside from his abusive streak to his soldiers & his shinra simping lmao).

but honestly, ive said it before - i'll say it again. i wouldn't be writing him without the support from yourself and others. like, i always talk about how hard it is writing a hated character. he isn't a villain in the same sense as sephi/roth / the turks. they're 'likable'. everything they do is okay because they're young & hot. i know they're more complex than that and personally, i like them a lot too! but it's difficult fighting the battle of there being zero fanart for the character. zero fanfics (aside from ooc / fetish fics). it's tough seeing people make jokes constantly about the character that you like & when i say jokes, i don't mean 'lol seph is a cat' i mean 'lmao could you imagine if him and shinra were GAY lol GROSS' (it's so immature it makes my eyeballs strain).

i know that was a mini rant then, but it always makes me feel a little embarrassed to have such a fixation on such a generally disliked character. makes me feel weird & unwelcome in the fandom haha.

but to know that there are people like you - people who haven't only said 'haha ok, this crazy cookie is doing something w/THIS character' but people who have actively allowed me to explore elements of his character? to get him married? to allow him fatherhood? like BRUH-

it makes my heart warm & fuzzy. i'm sorry i don't always show it & i'm sorry i sometimes get all weepy on the dash about things but it honestly does mean a lot to me.

mari - yourself and others absolutely contributed to me bringing him back & despite any hangups or embarrassment i have over the character. fuck, even in squeenix do some fucked up shit like make him about stolen valour (i REALLY hope they don't) or turn him into a coward (which im prepping for with pre-emptive unwritten headcanons) - he's always going to have a special place in my heart.

not because of playing him but because of the people i've played him with. ♡

[transhitman]

Sorry to be deranged again but I'm still fucking thinking about it. "Basic biology." Sorry, but you looked at the complexity of the universe, you looked at the infinite expanse of space, you looked at singularities and nuclear fusion, you looked at the elemental dust that made the earth and the moon, you looked at hundreds of millions of years of evolution, the countless shapes life evolved into, the thousands of chemical reactions and impossibly complex systems in the human body, the way our species is defined by our ability to change our environment, and you decided biology is basic? You decided the most important thing about us -- the dominant species of this planet -- is what type of gametes we produce? You think that means literally anything? That the species that jumpstarted our own evolution by integrating technology like weapons and clothing into ourselves, the species predicated on our ability to outsmart nature itself, is in any way beholden to that one aspect of our bodies? Like sorry but are you really that stupid? That fucking lacking in imagination? Appreciation for the complexities of your own being? We were literally born to change. To look ourselves in the eye and say "I will surpass you." Clothing allowed us to spend less energy on maintaining body heat and more on other processes. Cooking food let our jaw muscles shrink and our skulls accommodate our brains. Spears made us into unmatched apex predators. Medicine prolonged our lives. Language restructured our minds. The premise of humanity is innovation. The premise of humanity is teamwork -- passing knowledge and technology down to our inheritors. We invented specific technology to accommodate injured and disabled people because we fucking love each other and want each other to live and be happy. We looked at "survival of the fittest," said "fuck you," became wood and stone cyborgs, and conquered the planet as a collective. Ohhh but females evolved to take care of children while males- SHUT UP. Let's just say that's true. Does it look like we're living in the fucking pliocene? Do you want to revert to a time before agriculture? Before tool use? Before family? Do you think that single, highly specific, circumstantial, and archaic adaptation overwrites universal human behaviors or our individual personalities? But more importantly do you think fucking cavemen subscribed to the model of the nuclear family? WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THEIR FAMILY STRUCTURES LOOKED LIKE. THEY COULD HAVE BEEN HAVING INSANE BISEXUAL ORGIES EVERY DAY FOR ALL WE KNOW. NEANDERTHALS PROBABLY DIDN'T HAVE MISOGYNY. FUCK OFF. Medically, sure. Sexual traits are important. Evolutionarily, sure. Sexual reproduction was important in creating a diverse genome. But in the grand picture? When you scrutinize the human body? You get organs. You get an impossible machine. You get a fucking pile of tissue and chemicals that somehow manages to move and think. You get something it takes years of education to fully understand -- and we still need to research it more. You still want to pretend sex characteristics matter any more than the rest of it? You have the privilege of being a walking miracle and you want to define yourself and others by *checks notes* your role in sexual reproduction, something that's not even essential for the survival of individual bodies? I am by no means a transhumanist, but the fact of the matter is that we evolved alongside our technology, and we're going to keep doing that. We can change ourselves into whatever we want, adapt to literally anything. That is the premise of being human. If you're so offended by the alteration of the body -- so fucking invested in the natural order -- go climb a tree and evolve back into a quadruped. The human species is not natural -- we orchestrated our own evolution. Time itself will leave you behind. You are a clot of hair in the evolutionary pipeline. You are the one denying science to cling to dogmatic hegemony. "Basic biology." Straight up I will kill you.

[weareallfromearth]

omg friend I also hate astrology. it's gotten to this Extremely Frustrating point where it's like, Queer Culture TM to be at least ironically into it & I have all these friends that make "haha i'm such a libra" jokes & I have to laugh even though I don't know what it means, I don't know what they mean by it or their relationship to it and I can't pause the conversation to be like "you right there pal like do u know this is very fake" coz it was just a passing joke and its honestly agonising ???

So the thing about astrology is that it assigns personal characteristics to people based on the uncontrollable circumstances of their birth. So uh

what the FUCK

is up with the popularity of astrology

in the QUEER COMMUNITY?! I refuse to accept anything with any element of "oh yeah, you probably have these traits because you were assigned Capricorn at birth" as an aspect of any sort of hegemonic Queer Culture, and it has reached the point where every time someone says some shit like this, I absolutely am gonna ask them whether they believe it and take it seriously. Like, ok, maybe it is fun for people to believe in the minor predictions they associate with their own signs. A little oracular guidance about the future can be fun, though if you're gonna do that, I prefer the delightful specificity of tarot, which is really just a great way to give your mind a little narrative-based Rorscharch test. But believing that you can know anything about a human being based on the month they were born (except perhaps whether their birth month got them assigned to a school year where they were unusually young or old, that actually can have an influence on childhood experience) is way more fucked up the longer you look at it. And I am particularly creeped out by people who say they DO NOT TRUST CERTAIN SIGNS?! Like listen, ritual, spirituality and etc can be deeply meaningful guides for living a more moral, or connected, or thoughtful, or beautiful life. Why did you have to go with the only one I know of that is primarily concerned with typology and judginess, with essentially no better living component? J K Rowling is a terf and even then I've seen better from people who self-identify with a house. At least the appalling eugenicist MBTI test is based on ANY INPUT OF YOUR OWN. Take a uquiz and be fucking free, for goodness' sake. Feel free to reblog this m8s, I am ready for us to begin the Queer Astrology Backlash.

[reigenomic-moving]

Wayne's statement on the racist caracatures in last nights stream and the makeship plushie

Image ID's under the cut

hey everybody. last night's stream was a weird one. the things that went down when we tried to play Bullet Roulette were not great. it made us as a team realize that we need to put our foot down and make a statement. about last night, and a lot of other things. what you're about to read is not only my words, but those of the entire team.

the first thing i should get out of the way is this: the caricatures that appeared in Bullet Roulette suck, and we're all disappointed that one of our favorite old VR games has that bullshit in it. we all made the fact that we thought it was shitty as clear as we could last night while we were playing. we tried to reset the lobby 3 times to fix the bug that forcibly made us all be that model. it did not work. we tried to keep playing it for a little while and then give it one last try. which, of course, did not work. what took place afterwards is what we'll be talking about here.

the reaction a small group of you had to these events was disappointing, and in some cases, unacceptable. we are not upset with native americans who were uncomfortable with the caricatures, we are upset with those of you who instantly demonized us for not 'turning off the game immediately'. the reason we as the streamers and the mods repeatedly asked everyone to 'move on' is because we acknowledged what we had just experienced in the game was wrong, and condemned it. we expressed how we felt about the models out loud multiple times. while unproblematic media exists, there is a lot of media that has problematic elements in it. it's not great, but that's the way things are. things are not always black & white. the expectation that the moment an unsavory concept is encountered in something on stream that we drop what we're doing and shut off the program is absolutely unreasonable.

if we run into problematic content, do not assume we automatically endorse it just because we did not remove it from the screen immediately. we can still experience it as a whole while acknowledging what's wrong with it. take LISA, for instance. I loved what I played of that game, and I know a large majority of you guys loved those streams too. LISA has problematic shit in it. early on in those streams we encountered a character that was a racist caricature of a black man. we acknowledged that it fucking sucked, and we kept playing. and both the crew and chat were able to continue maturely while acknowledging that the content was problematic.

while this is only somewhat related, i might as well also address the makeship situation, and those of you who came after me for deleting their initial statement. I deleted it because it was bad. that e-mail was an apology from the worker to me, not meant as a public apology. it didn't approach the situation properly. I was scrambling to get something up to address the concerns while i was in the middle of a 24 hour multi day road trip (one whose existence I had to hide for the stream gag), I just took whatever makeship would give me. when I actually had a little bit of time to sit down and read it, and read what some of you had to say about it, I realized that it didn't actually mean anything. I deleted it, and spoke to my handlers at makeship, and informed them about the biggest issue with that shitty anti-centrism plush: what was essentially a masked swastika next to a star of david. if you look up the original designs of that stupid ball, you can find that it actually had a swastika on it, and the creator hid that fact from team members at makeship by changing it in the concept art he shared with them. it might be hard to believe, but their team genuinely did not know about this. and they did not consider why that plushie was as shitty as it was. after I informed them and talked it over, they removed the plushie from their website completely and decided to not work with that creator going forward. their team thanked our campaign for bringing them to the realization that they need to more properly vet the creators they work with and the origins of their designs. what disappointed me in this scenario were those of you who assumed the worst about me just because i had not made a statement about it while i was doing my best behind the scenes to work things out.

we also know that being publicly accessible artists & entertainers comes with a fair amount of vulnerability through exposure, however the amount of invasions of privacy and harassment a lot of us have experienced in the past year is worth taking note of. we are people. what if you woke up to dms from people saying they found your name and your phone number? what if you got a text from a stranger saying they found your information? how would you feel? these are questions you need to ask yourself as a viewer even if you've never gone that far. these are things that have actually happened to us.

being a fan comes with as much responsibility as being a creator; just because you are consuming what we make does not make this a one way relationship where you're invisible. what you do and say is being felt by actual humans, and the information you share or try to get not only affects us but the people we know. it has at times been so invasive and ridiculous that some of us have considered stopping completely. as a fan and a viewer, your responsibility is to respect us as much as you would respect any other human being; putting us up on pedestals to the point where some of us get treated like objects or things is the absolute opposite of respect and we've mentioned this a few times. we will be taking much stronger action on these matters from here on out; please observe how you view us and ask yourself if you'd look at a friend or family member the same way. if you wouldn't, reconsider your relationship with what we make.

some of you hold me and the crew on a pedestal in a way that makes us deeply uncomfortable. this isn't the first time we've experienced something like last night. it has happened on other team member's streams. the hostility we are met with when we encounter something unsavory on stream is ridiculous. after shutting down the game, seeing a few of you in the chat screaming at us, attacking our characters, invalidating all of our values and past deeds as a team over encountering unexpected bigotry in a game and condemning it, not perpetuating it ourselves, is infuriating. to all of us. you do not have the right to harass us over something like this. coming into our DM's and repeating yourselves, accusing us of lying about values and calling us awful people is harassment. it is extremely immature. and it is behavior we no longer want in this community. we are human. we aren't meant to be your perfect social/political pillars.

when these things happen, you know it sucks, we know it sucks, we all know why it sucks, and while we will always point it out when we see it, the expectation of us to derail our show and explain to you why its bad and apologize for it being on the screen is not an expectation we will meet. acknowledge, and move on. a statement does not always need to be made. going forwards, we'll be increasing moderation measures in regards to the harassment of crew/staff and the mitigation of events like these in the future. thank you for understanding.

- All of Radio TV Solutions & The WRTV Mod Team

[queitghoulwhispering]

Rue

It's a nickname of my username, she was orignally an animal crossing ver. of me made up by a friend inspired by my vibe/personality

Minks existing makes the transition easier than you think. Her overall attitude is more suited to that than animal crossing anyway XD.

So many, but if i had to pick one: Demon Kitty Rag by Katzenjammer

Devil's Carnival. Loves Arthouse and musicals.

Her personality is a very "love it or hate it" so she's accidentally made some social mistakes and lost a few friends.

First opening night of the Cerberus concert hall.

Spiced roast beef

Bartolomeo or Law

Literally any marine, she's a smuggler. The fact that ppl have to have essentially medication and shit shipped via smuggling bc of embargos or just the official channels being too damn expensive pisses her off.

Singing and dancing.

Cooking and cleaning. She tries T-T

Her paw coloration were orignally lovely maryjanes and socks but le-poofe made her barefoot and i love her interpretation of her lil feets so i kept it that way. dress shoes are often unnecessary uncomfortable. normalize barefoot in a sundress.

Rue once had a marine show up for a "surprise" inspection while they were unloading cargo. the fucking mission impossible stealth shenanigans her crew and herself had to pull to complete the deal XD. Now they do it during concert hours/when advertising so no one notices.

If she's not currently seeing anyone, yes!

Sugar

It's a pun that came up when making her, someone commented that she's "sweet as sugar" in opposite to my personality lmao. And I love a good roast.

Love fire elementals, will find a way to include in any universe. So i just made it that devil fruit users have a teeny tiny chance to inherit some of their ancestors abilities. tada!

When the Day met the Night by panic! at the disco

Anastasia, loves the music

That her cousins and siblings all went out adventuring. She hasn't heard from them since. She blames herself for not convincing them to stay and run the family tavern.

Finally establishing total neutrality in her establishment, it took a lot of work, but if people have beef, they take it outside.

Cupcakes!!!!

I think she's focused a bit on the business, but I head-canon Crocodile meeting up and discovering you're never too old for a crush XD. He wins her over eventually.

Blackbeard, he's always starting shit.

Coming up with different mixed drinks/dishes to satisfy a variety of customers. If they don't mind the time it takes to make something "off the menu" she'll try to accommodate.

Fighting. Not that she's not powerful, she is, but she's very... imprecise. She'll set your ship on fire without meaning to if they get her angry enough.

Her flames are malleable, her hair can be literally sculpted into a variety of forms and styles.

She tried to throw someone out of her bar and chucked them into the sea from where her bar was. Like I said, she's very strong, but very imprecise. Luckily a few incidents like that (coupled with the fact that it was always the marines that started the fights, up until Blackbeard suddenly grew balls, but that was a while after) that they declared her bar and island neutral territory for the most part.

Absolutely, Crocodile takes forever to win her over.

Wren

She's based off the bird, and that bird is adorable with an adorable name. Also, she was originally going to be nonbinary, and wren is such a enby name, don't you think? So cute!

Tori tori no mis exist, and with bird devil fruits and shandians being a thing, I came up with a fun race similar to minks that view shandians like minks view humans. They think they're the same species ^w^

House Wren by Owl City

You'd think it'd be Kiki's Delivery Service, but it's actually Spirited Away.

Not leaving her island sooner, it took so long for her to work up the courage to chase her dreams.

Being hired by Big News Morgan, someone who works outside of the all the different complicated political systems of the world. Huge relief.

Anything new! She loves sampling local cuisine. Even if the taste or texture doesn't agree with her, she still values the experience.

I ship her with Jinbei, he's not likely to suggest they settle down, they both like to wander, and he probably has fantastic stories for her to document. Since his canonically preferred devil fruit is a tori tori no mi, he'd probably be fascinated by her wings. Two very different people loving their differences and similarities equally.

Enel and Blackbeard. Hears about Enel from Shandian cousins and is very very enraged. Blackbeard because she was picked up by the Whitebeard Pirates early on in her adventure when she got caught in a storm.

They are a extremely fast flyer, faster than any ship. She has a side hustle delivering packages and letters along the grand line.

Swimming, her wings are not waterproof, if they get too waterlogged they hurt she has a specific way of bathing, and communal baths were common on her island.

The way she fights, she can separate feathers from her wings and duplicate them and then shoot them at enemies. There's a limit on how many times she can do this, feathers take a while to regrow, but they are deadly when shot at the incredible high speeds she does. And she's very precise. Flying around at high speeds on the regular means she has very good vision.

Not learning proper navigation i.e. weather forecasting before starting out made her get caught in a hell of a storm. She got rescued by the Whitebeard Pirates after a "chase" which was really a misunderstanding on her part over their intentions. She was a very soggy miserable little thing that night. Her wings took ages to get dry and the feathers set straight enough to fly again.

She'd be very blushy, but yes!

REBLOG THIS AND TELL ME ABOUT YOUR OC(s) IN THE TAGS

TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR OC(s)

If you don't know what to start with:

why that name?

why that universe?

what's the song that speaks to you about them?

What's their favorite movie?

What's their biggest regret?

What's their HAPPIEST moment?

What's their favorite food?

Who do they love?

Who do they hate?

What are they good at?

What are they bad at?

TELL ME THE COOLEST THING ABOUT THEM THAT NO ONE EVER ASKS ABOUT

Tell me the dumbest fucking shit they've messed up, or aren't good at

Can I smooch them?