#the rest of this rant is behind a paywall

[doggogills-but-worse]

okay listen. i love jrwi, i really do. i love riptide and prime defenders, and the community has been pretty good, i have a lot of mutuals that are super cool. but the attitude and ferocity in which people defend the lgbt rep in the show? mh. not it.

podcasts as a medium have been incredibly full of queer creators making wonderful stories, including ttrpgs. especially ttrpgs!!! most of jrwi’s lgbt rep has been behind a paywall (and that was a joke for 90% of the series), or a joke (i’m looking at you fnc canon kiss), and the rest is vaguely implied. correct me if i’m wrong on this, i’m not caught up. i don’t really care about what the folks say off mic about characters, to be quite honest. there has been little indication of the actual queerness of characters in any form beside an npc who wasn’t even fully created by the showrunners. and that is my point. the lgbt stuff that people latch onto are things that have either been questions answered off mic, or things that the fan community has expanded upon that were only hinted at in canon, or just headcanoned.

im not saying that this is wrong, or the series is bad because of it, but the attitude that the fandom has towards it is... a lot for what is actually there on screen in earnest. it’s not the most lgbt podcast with fantastic rep that you say it is. there are so many podcasts with the kind of representation and characters that you are looking for. again, it’s not a bad podcast because of this, but we’ve gotta stop acting like it’s queer as hell.

so here are some podcasts with fully fleshed out, explicitly queer characters (with their corresponding vibe):

Dungeons & Daddies (s1: riptide, s2: pd)

The Broadswords (apotheosis)

All My Hexes (admittedly unfinished but still good)

A Horror Borealis (bitb)

Bombarded (riptide)

Fantasy High (of course) (pd)

Wildbranch High (pd)

Kollok 1991 (pd, bitb)

Monster Hour (s1: pd, kinda apotheosis)

$2 Creature Feature (pd)

Dice Crisis (riptide)

Hope’s Hearth (i haven’t started this one yet, but it’s on my list)

The Storyteller Squad (pd)

Dangerous Times at Chillhaven High (soooo much pd vibes)

Shrimp and Crits (bitb)

Pest Control (s1: riptide but modern, s2: early pd)

The Unexplored Places (they have many seasons, i can rant about them for hours tbh)

The Monster’s Playbook (pd, kinda bitb)

and that’s just the actual plays

again, i love jrwi, but we have got to stop hailing it as an exemplar of lgbt actual play podcasts because it just isn’t.

[goodsirism]

top 5 pready roles

oh christttt

5. the side of his head in angels and insects just because I cannot believe I watched that entire shit film for 30 SECONDS OF THE SIDE OF HIS-

4. Macbeth. didn’t see it but he looked Good and Feral and I know he rocked it

3. I guess I’ve watched death of Stalin the most of any of his roles but he has nothing to do in it soooo William in Dresden because Twink Paul Moment We Love to See

Literally cannot decide between Harry Goodsir From The Terror and Kevin From Motherland… I fell in love with him (read: developed severe gender envy about him) in motherland and my mum literally convinced me to watch the terror by describing his performance. Actually you know what I just remembered that they made Kevin straight so

2. Kevin Motherland- sweet, beautiful, tender, hilarious portrayal of modern middle class masculinity!

1. Harry Thee Goodsir- I don’t need to even say anything do I… a fucking tour de force a fucking. Masterpiece HE WAS ROBBED OF A BAFTA where’s his bafta. your fav could simply NEVER take a shit book and some letters (and a very good script of course) and create such a complex, multifaceted character, the literal heart of an ensemble of some of the most famous and established British actors in THE GAME, the stand out performance, THIRD IN THE CREDITS BEFORE IAN HART AND CIARÁN HINDS-

[embossross]

From His Mind to Hers

chapter 8 >> Chapter 9 (Interlude)>> masterlist

✣ Pairing: Hanma x AFAB fem!Reader

✣ Warning: 18+, minors DNI; unhealthy relationships & dark content

✣ Chapter CW: hanma has violent thoughts

✣ Story CWs: patient/doctor relationships; smut (oral, ptv, pta, etc.), degradation, stalking, torture (not of y/n), murder, discussions of trauma and abuse, drug use, and more

✣ Synopsis: Forced into therapy, Hanma expects to waste his time and yours, but you’re not about to let the chance of a high-profile and higher paying patient slip through your grasp. The fact that you’re both attracted to each other doesn’t hurt either.

✣ Word Count: ~2.5k+

Sometimes an emergency looks like a crowd. The troops marshalled, bodies colliding like pinballs in a machine. Then, other times, an emergency looks like this.

A quaint pre-war house far from Toman’s usual haunts. The kind of neighborhood where everyone properly separates their recyclables lest the neighborhood grandmothers raise their quiet version of hell. The kind of neighborhood that only hears sirens when an old man falls in the shower and shatters his hip. Decorated with bric-a-brac and greenery, amid a dozen identical houses is the home of Kisaki’s maiden aunt, a sixty-something widow who favors her left-side because she can’t hear so much as a shout into her right ear.

Here, in the early pre-dawn hours, Kisaki calls together the men he trusts most, the inner circle of the inner circle. Paranoid as he is, that circle consists of only Koko and Hanma. The three men sit in the windowless basement, fending off the auntie’s many attempts to serve them breakfast as they discuss the morning’s leak.

It happened like this.

On the stroke of midnight, an unknown poster released a zip file titled “Toman’s Secrets_2018” onto a dark web brokerage site. The contents were locked behind a paywall, but in a good faith gesture, the poster released unredacted hundreds of emails between Kisaki, Koko, and Inupi from the last two weeks. The website advertised that the rest would be released to the highest bidder with the auction starting at ¥15,000,000.

The post was live for four minutes before it pinged an alert to Toman’s cybersecurity team. Twelve minutes later, the entire site crashed along with any archive of the post.

In the sixteen minutes that passed from start to finish, eighty-five visitors saw the incriminating post.

“The problem is that fucker, Inoshita,” Kisaki rants. “How much do we pay him to keep us safe? Seriously, guess how much? Almost a hundred million yen a year! And what does he do? He lets us get hacked. Doesn’t notice – fucking Kokonoi had to realize something was up – and then, he lets it get posted on the fucking internet for anyone to see! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was an inside job.”

Kisaki paces the length of the basement like a firefly trapped in a jar, flinging himself recklessly against his cage. His jaw twitches between breaths, a paranoid tick that when partnered with the glint of mania shining off his glasses makes him look truly deranged. A haunted insomniac, Kisaki wastes the nights as his mind supplies the worst-case scenarios, the ones where he’s betrayed, arrested, shot, strung up, laughed at. Now, he can hardly tell if he’s awake or lost in one of his bad dreams.

“It could be the HJK. Weaken our position before the final negotiations in the hopes to sweeten the deal. We talked about this, knew it might happen,” Koko suggests reasonably. Seeing someone else panic always mellows him out, like he can outsource his own fretting.

Of all of them, Koko has the least to worry about anyway. At the first sign of trouble, he probably moved all his money to the Virgin Islands and chartered a jet on standby to whisk him away. There are dozens of wealthy men – the kind who supposedly built their fortunes on the straight and narrow – who would love to conscript Kokonoi to inflating their own bank accounts. He’s in no danger.

Kisaki, on the other hand, has reason to be paranoid.

“Doesn’t mean Inoshita wasn’t their mole on the inside,” Hanma offers.

“It’s not the HJK. They want this deal as much as we do. Weakening us is one thing, but this could be a killing blow. What if the police get their hands on those files? We’re flat on our asses if that happens,” Kisaki snaps.

“Was anything incriminating in the email previews?” Hanma asks.

Koko shakes his head. “Everything we write is coded. Neither of us would ever say anything incriminating in an email. You could get a sense of some of our operations and use that to set up a sting, but nothing that would hold up in court. If you got the whole thing though? You’d be able to track the money, and that’s where things get real bad for us.”

While they sit with their thumbs up their own asses, the guy behind this is somewhere laughing. Hanma should be out there, hunting, sniffing out the fucker and acquainting him with the taste of fear. Instead, he’s hunkered down in a room with no windows, listening to the thumping footsteps of a batty old lady overhead. He tells Kisaki as much.

“Oh, you’d find the guy behind this, huh? Like you found out what the Haitanis were up to when I asked? I didn’t realize Detective Galileo was on the case, excuse me. I’m so relieved now. Problem solved! Tell me, Shuji, what the fuck have you been up to the last few weeks? Other than wasting our time and leaving us vulnerable. Tell me!”

Hanma could kill him, both of them, Kisaki and Koko, before either could fight back. A bullet to Kisaki’s temple. Koko would dive to the ground, go for his own gun, but there is no cover in the wide-open basement the old lady uses for laundry. And, Koko isn’t much of a shot. He’s only gunned someone down once. Meanwhile, Hanma’s gun would already be drawn. He could turn it on Koko before the other man has a chance to take aim. The old lady upstairs wouldn’t hear the bullets. He could put her down nice and humane without her ever realizing what was happening and be on his way.

The only evidence of this vivid fantasy is the twitch of Hanma’s forefinger. Three flicks. One for each gun shot.

“Where would you even start?” Koko asks.

“I’d kill two birds with one stone. Haitani! I’ve been saying it from the beginning. He’s our guy. I gun him and his runt kid brother down, and then, you’ll see there will be no more leaks, no more posts. It dies with them,” Hanma says.

“You haven’t found any evidence to tie them to the HJK,” Kisaki says doubtfully.

“Exactly! I’ve found fucking nothing. There should be something. A little scheme here or there. No ways those fuckers are keeping their hands out of our territories entirely, but they come up like ghosts when I look. Your auntie’s less clean than they are!”

Hanma’s conviction that Ran was up to no good strengthened with every day that passed. He never underestimated the man, remembered the way he lorded over Roppongi through his own strength, remembered searching for the boy after his release from juvie, fascinated to stare into the face of a murderer. What he found when he searched that face was pure ambition, unmitigated ego, power.

The version of Ran that Hanma constructed through word of mouth in the last month is to be despised, a label-whoring, double-talking golem with no blood in his veins. Just a smirk as he evades Hanma’s every attempt to find him out.

It’s enough to drive a man crazy.

“You can’t just off the Haitanis. They’re too big. It would be an obvious hit, and there would be a massive investigation. Our people on the inside are saying that the body count’s too high lately. You keep killing people, and it fucks up the city’s murder stats. The police will have to do something soon, and the Haitanis could be the final straw. They’ll write in the papers that there’s a turf war, get the public all in a panic, the politicians will foam at the mouth, and we’ll have a team of auditors up our asses for the next decade,” Koko argues.

“Who cares about that?” Hanma snaps.

The problem with Koko, of course, is that he, like Haitani, lacks blood in his veins. He replaces with shiny coins and foreign currencies.

“I care! I care about the future of my fucking empire. And, I’m not gonna let you burn it to the ground just because you’re having a tantrum,” Kisaki hisses.

 Kisaki points a finger in Hanma’s face, close enough that Hanma’s breath could fog up his glasses. Kisaki is shorter and weaker, but as he glares up at Hanma, it is the glare of a god who knows his power.

Quietly, but no less venomously, Kisaki continues,” You, Shuji, are a dog. A dog. You can whine and bare your teeth and bark all you like. Why? Because you aren’t going to bite anyone unless your master tells you. I’m your fucking master, Shuji. Me. I tell you who to bite, when to bite, how fucking hard to bite. And I’m telling you to tuck your tail between your legs and lay low until this blows over, or, so help me, I’ll put you to sleep myself.”

The nail of Kisaki’s pointer finger is trim and clean as it waves in Hanma’s face. Hanma could bite it clean off at the tip before Kisaki finishes his speech. He debates it, imagines the taste of blood and gristle, how he’d swallow down Kisaki’s howl alongside it like a wine pairing.

Violence permeates from his skin, a smell that only the initiated would recognize. As it settles in his bones, Hanma has no choice but to obey, to serve it up blood. His whole being demands it.

So, it’s important he leaves, here and now, or his decade long friendship is going to end with the boss man dead on the floor. A sad downfall to the grand empire they once built together.

“Fine,” Hanma seethes. “I will leave the fucker alone for now. And you can cry from your jail cell how you should have listened to me. Sound good, Master?”

“Good boy,” Kisaki says, but his eyes glaze as they rescan the screenshots of the night’s post. Already, distracted, like Hanma is merely an obstacle to handle.

Hanma stomps up the stairs, ignoring the sympathetic smile that Kokonoi tries to give him. Rage is blinding, and the edges of his vision are blurred with it. It obscures time and logic, too, so that Hanma returns to himself some time later, not knowing where he is or how he got there.

He takes stock of his surroundings.

The roar of a subway train as it speeds by beneath his feet tells him he’s at a station. A sign overhead reveals it’s Tokyo Ginza. Men and women with pressed hair and suits, backpacks and briefcases, rush by every few seconds, so enough time must have passed for the start of the morning commute. In front of him is a line of pay-by-the-hour lockers, and his hand is held around a small, plastic square inside an open locker.

Yes. His phone. Kisaki made them lock up their phones in storage to avoid the risk of a trace. He’s returned for his phone.

The sharp return to the material world doesn’t quell the murder in his heart at all. He is well-versed in waking up from blackouts in strange surroundings. If anything, the disorientation only heightens his need to take action.

There is time to return to Kisaki, to crack his skull in sacrifice to the demand for retribution that roils his guts. Or, he could find Haitani. He could reclaim his free will, figuratively kill Kisaki and the yoke of control he claims over him and have the satisfaction of obliterating a sword enemy off the map. Or, he could disappear into the dingiest streets of Tokyo, prowl for a fight, leave an abundance of broken bodies – not dead so as to spare the police’s precious murder rates – but hurt enough that Hanma can wash clean the violence that possesses him.

Hanma takes a step towards an oncoming train, half an idea already formed in his head, when the phone rings. Your name lights up the screen.

Today is meant to be his first real session in weeks after things went off track at the horse races. He’s seen you, but not in the clinical setting of your office. He had been looking forward to it, imagined that guilt would eat you alive when you fucked him in your office. There would be no denying your culpability then, the reality of your choices, no way to forget that he is your patient first. Hanma thought that would be a delicious comeuppance for you, a little game.

But now…

“I can’t come in today,” Hanma says before you have a chance to greet him.

“What? You want to meet somewhere else?”

Your voice is delicious. A little raspy, like maybe this is the firs time you’ve spoken this morning. Such a little thing, but with his heart already pumping with fury, he hardens in his slacks. Wanting to fuck doesn’t even slightly decrease the violence in him.

“No, I can’t see you today,” Hanma says. “If I see you, I’m going to hurt you.”

No answer, just your heavy breaths, like maybe you’re lifting something heavy or moving quickly. Hanma doesn’t hang up. Just listens.

“Are you losing control right now?” you finally ask.

“Hmmm, I’m completely in control,” Hanma drawls, breaking into a giggle that is decidedly out of his control. “I mean, I’m going to enjoy every minute of what I do next.”

“Are you bored?”

“No, Doc. I’m not bored. I’m fucking pissed.”

“Is there a difference between when you lash out when you’re bored versus when you’re just angry?”

“Hmm…Intention. It’s the difference between eating a good meal you ordered and a good meal you cooked yourself. I’m going to eat well today.”

His feet take him deeper into the belly of the city as he takes the escalators two steps at a time. Two trains roar into station and drown out your next response. Hanma has to ask you to repeat yourself. Two minutes until his train arrives.

“Let me help you!” you shout to be heard.

“Help me?”

“Yes, help you!” you shout. “You asked me before how I intend to divert you when you’re losing control. Let me show you! Give me the chance to show you how you can control it.”

“You don’t want to see me right now, Doc. If I see you, I’m going to hurt you.”

“I’m asking you to trust me. Meet me at Shidoshita Beach in two hours. If you’re still feeling this way when we’re done, I won’t stop you from doing whatever you need to do. But give me this chance,” you plead.

“And if what I need to do, I do to you?”

“I’m trusting you, too, Shuji. Meet me at the station. Two hours.”

The phone beeps twice to signal the end of the call as his train pulls into the station. And he doesn’t move a muscle as he debates where to head next.

[kathaaaaaaa]

Where are all my Aces at?

So this is probably just going to be a rambly mess and chances are at some point I may delete this post but recently I’ve just been so frustrated that I need to get this out.

In the beginning of 2022 I finally felt comfortable enough with myself to consider myself Ace, or at least somewhere on the Ace spectrum. 

This is something I’ve always kind of known but always felt too “embarrassed” to actually look into - mainly because everyone around me was so open about their active sex lives and often left me to feel “weird” for just not feeling it.

If we’re being technical I am a virgin. A 28 year old virgin. 

Even now, knowing that virginity is a social construct created by the patriarchy (gonna be honest felt a bit like a twat writing that sentence but the statement holds true), I still feel embarrassed to admit it. Up until I was in my early twenties I never felt the need for any type of sexual intimacy, in fact what little “action” I had often left me feeling uncomfortable. Obviously this has made having any type of romantic relationship in my life extremely difficult.

Fortunately all my close friends have been super understanding about this and they are a lovely open-minded bunch but sometimes it would just be nice to talk to other Ace people who understand on a deeper level what it is like and how it feels to be different, and at some point in my future I would love to find a romantic partner. Some one I could spend the rest of my life with and possibly have children with but I know that this will be difficult and sometimes it even feels impossible.

Which bring me to focal point of my frustration....

Why are Ace “dating sites” locked behind paywalls?

I’ve been doing so much research since the end of last on Asexuality and found many helpful articles but finding other people, especially within my age-range (don’t get me wrong I’m super glad baby-aces feel more power and confident talking about their sexuality but I just personally feel icky talking to anyone under 21) and preferably country (happy to make friends with people further afield but I would also like to find someone closer to possibly consider a romantic relationship), to talk to this about has felt like mission fucking impossible. 

I’ve tried both Asexuals.net and AsexualCupid both of which actually had a good amount of people from the UK but I was unable to talk to them unless I paid a subscription fee (between £15-£30 a month! Honey I do not have that kind of cash...) and the only free site/app I found was Taimi...which considering it was originally created for the Asexual community, I have never received so many dick pics and sexts within a 10 minute period before.

So basically that is my rant....

[unstoppableforcce]

am I just getting older and more easily annoyed or did LOKI not feel like a real tv show to anyone else?

like

[tldr at the bottom]

I’m fine w marvel things setting up other marvel things, at this point, that’s just what’s expected but I’m kind of tired of them using these shows to shoehorn in plot and exposition to set up all the upcoming movies instead of crafting fulfilling tv shows/mini series that exist on their own while having smaller connections/set ups for other films

( full disclosure: I watched w*ndavision and didn’t like it bc I have deep rooted issues mcu w*nda so I think anything I have to say about it in this regard will be aggressively biased and will stray to far from the point I’m making, so I won’t waste my breath )

tfatws was there to make Sam Captain America, that plot was there and necessary for the mcu as a whole, but it wasn’t a full tv show around that — the plot was spacey and rushed and just overall not a complete show (I understand that plot was cut bc of covid and such but that’s still my point)

Loki clearly was built to explain the timeline to set up the multiverse and such, also there and necessary, but the subtler plots that would make it a complete show weren’t brought together so the whole thing was left feeling like a set up for the rest of the mcu and not a fulfilling tv show on its own

I don’t mind cliffhangers and I love the idea of an interconnected universe but these shows needed an element of independence, like a film, they needed to be able to stand on their own while also contributing to the mcu as a whole but they missed the first part and went all in on the second hoping we wouldn’t notice ??

setting up future installments in the mcu is what gets people excited, but not completing the story containing the set up left me unfulfilled and therefore just annoyed instead of excited

add in that this is the second D*sney+ show to do this and I think that they are utilizing the new platform to play this setup game instead of actually producing tv shows and as a lover of tv, I’m pissed that they couldn’t find a way to do it

agents of shield was a tv show, ( granted I think I only watched the first four seasons but ) it stood alone and interconnected, so it’s possible to do it, to give these fan favorite characters their own show, to truly make it their own show, and still set up what needs to be set up

and if there’s anyone who wants to come here and argue that they couldn’t, that Loki needed to be what it was to set up everything else to come in the mcu future, hell, even if you’re right and we see that everything to come next does rely heavily on what was set up here, then you should also realize that if a universe needs to make mini series filled with exposition locked behind a paywall to accompany their blockbuster films, then they don’t know how to handle their films

I hope the new character shows, w Kate bishop and even goy moonknight, don’t fall into this same valley of disappointment, I hope that bc they’re new, they’ll have enough to stand on to make themselves independent even if they get caught in the same set up loop, I really do

I want nothing more than to see the young avengers on screen and it feels like we’re inching closer with every character intro we get, kid Loki included, but that feels too gay to be coming soon and I’m tired of what we have now so this annoyed rant is what y’all get from me

TLDR: d*sney + isnt making tv shows, they’re making expositional add-ons, and Loki specifically left me feeling more annoyed and unfulfilled than excited for what comes next

[ramseysdevorak]

Big rant ahead <33

pixelberry needs to realize that their new writing styles/books are making so many people mad omg they're so inconsistent and it's just nnnnnnnnh

That clusterfuck we call open heart 2 and 3? That just made me mad. At this point the funeral in book 2 should have been for Kyra seeing as how she never came back ??? What the hell? There's so many unanswered plots tbh. I don't want a fourth book because I couldn't stand 2 and 3 hardly, but I mean they could have concluded the other plots. How's Ethan's mom doing outta recovery? How's that patient with the blood clot thing doing? How's VOVO OH MY GOD???

Open Heart was my favorite series. Honestly. Everyone that follows me on Instagram knows how into the series I am. Ethan is my Li, yes, but honestly I was sick of him. I didn't like the fact his writing was being changed. Yes, I did like him opening up to Mc because they are in love and yadda yadda yadda, but I hated his childish behavior and the fact he didn't think Bloom would retaliate. Ethan Ramsey. Diagnostician. Didn't think that big bad bloom would honestly try harder to get him out of this job? HAHAHA that's hilarious. So many people already knew Bloom was behind the case?

Now I was an OG Bryce Stan, so seeing Bryce's character change did hurt my wee little heart. What the hell was up with him not wanting to walk out the room with Mc in bk3ch1? Confidence Lahela didn't want to flaunt and show off someone he was with????? That was weird even for me. I'd wish he had gotten more screentime and that Mc would legit ask what the hell it was about ://

Raf and Jackie were there too but PB screwed those stans over (especially Raf stans in bk2) so much that I'm sorry they had to be treated this way. It's so unfair that while Ethan Stans were getting content at every scene, y'all were over here HOPING your li would even be in a frame of a chapter, let alone get a diamond scene. PB talks about more diversity and how they are gonna try to listen more to their fans and start treating every LI equally but then hardly gave Raf and Jackie screentime. Newsflash, PB, not everyone wants to be with the forced male li :)) Listen to your fans in the right ways. Not doing what y'all wanna do. Yeah, I'm an Ethan Stan and I know since OH is over there's no point in addressing this, but it's still ridiculous. There are three other Lis in that book and y'all hardly even acknowledged them in the first half of book 3. Sure, there was some time here and there in the latter half, but that's no excuse. It's just ridiculous. Even when they did give some time for the rest of em, they're paywalled so the only way the other stans could get some content is spending gems. That's so lame and unfair to the other players.

I don't play that many books in Choices anymore, unless it's the older books that have lovely writing and characters. I can't bring myself to waste time on new books and writing styles that make me feel annoyed. It's just basically old Wattpad/AO3 smut and some fluff scenes sometimes.

I really miss the peak 2018-early 2019 era of choices where books had me excited to play them. They were so good too. I miss playing HSS or Perfect match and actually having a decent plot with lovely characters.

All I can say is Blades 2 better be great or I'm not coming back to that app unless I'm feeling nostalgic and wanna see Jake, Kamilah/Adrian, or Ajay. Tyril my dear, I apologize in advance for what PB might do to you :( I know it's at least a year away, but I can only hope they get their damn act together and start acting on that diversity they promised.

[author-morgan]

That's the reason why I had to unfollow a favorite author of mine, putting fandom content behind a paywall is very tone deaf especially right now. I was following another writer and someone called them out because they only thing that they had posted was one small headcanon and it was like every other week, they'll reblog their kofi link and ask people to commission them and it made me very sad because it's becoming so common and it wouldn't surprise me if a writer stopped posting free content and focused on paid writing.

I’ve seen it happen a few times with writers I used to follow, and it just resulted in them losing a follower (me) as it goes against my morals. 

As I said in the previous post, I’ll never hide my fanfic behind a paywall, and I’ll never pressure my readers to donate money for my writing either. Fanfiction has brought me immense joy in the ten years I’ve been reading, and one of the reasons is that it is free. I don’t have to pay for it as I do a movie, a concert, a theme park ticket -I log onto Wattpad, Tumblr, AO3, and even FF.net and have millions of stories I can read and enjoy for free. 

I write fanfiction because it’s fun. I write scientific papers and abstracts all the time but sitting down and writing a story about my favorite characters is fun. I don’t consider it work that I need compensation for. I write my ideas to share primarily for myself but knowing it makes others happy is another big motivator for why I write. That’s why I take requests because writing is fun, and I like to make people happy through stories. I’m always excited and honored to see people request things because 1) they trust me enough to do right by their favorite character, and 2) they trust me to carry out their ideas. I’ve had people confess they are legitimately surprised at how willing I am to accept ideas and requests to write for nothing in return because they’ve previously interacted with writers who use paywalls or push their Ko-Fi’s to a point that it feels obligatory to donate. 

Hell, just this year I’ve written just over 300k words across all my fanfics on top of writing an M.S. thesis and an article now under review for publication in Lithos, all because I find it incredibly fun and rewarding without having to be compensated. All I’m asking for in return are kudos, maybe a comment, and if I’m really lucky a reblog. As a fanfic writer, that’s how I want to be repaid. Reading my fics will always be free and leaving a comment or reblogging it to share with others is also free. 

And you’re right that charging for fanfic is tone-deaf, even if we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic in the year 2020. Fandom and, by extension, fanfiction should be a space for everyone to unite and share our love of stories and characters regardless of a person’s financial status. It shouldn’t be hidden behind paywalls because once people feel they can no longer participate or interact with writers and other content creators due to monetary restrictions, a fandom will inevitably start to die (and lack of reblogging nowadays doesn’t help either, but that’s a different rant for another day). 

On top of profiting from something that you do not own, you’re alienating a large population of your readers who may not be able to afford to pay. Even if it’s only $1, for someone struggling, they can’t afford to give that up for something as menial as fanfic -something for years that has been a free source of joy and escapism. 

Rest assured while some authors choose to create paywalls, I will not be one of them. My stories across all the platforms I post on will always be free for people to enjoy. And so long as my inbox is open, you can send in as many requests as you want without fear of having to pay to see the request written.  

[kyogos]

Don't get me started on Channel 4's F1 Coverage? (Idk how much you've seen of it so if you haven't then switch out Channel 4 for Sky :) )

Why not both because I watch both (yeah its a very tragic life I lead)

I love the Channel 4 coverage. I think they nailed the pundits, commentators, and presenter and just the whole production of it. I’m very upset that they don’t have more races live, but thats not there fault. I think this year and last has been their weakest line-up, but considering they only get one race live a year and this year they don’t even have track access due to the ‘rona they do a top class job

I fully understand that *a lot* of people hate David Coulthard (personally I cannot relate) but I think, with bias aside, he is actually a good pundit. He knows racing (obviously) but he’s not got the same ego of the world champions. Similar to Mark Webber. I know he is no longer a fandom fave (but also 90% of the fandom never saw him race so their loss), but I think his understanding of the sport and how teams works is what they need. He raced relatively recently and in a top team and even kept those connections. He’s honestly a gift to the coverage and knows more about Red Bull than the rest of the F1 pundits combined. 

Also I fucking love Lee McKenzie and I would do anything for her. Please do more races this year you are the sole owner of the F1 Media brain cell Lee.

But Sky. Oh my god. I hate Sky. I think I only like 2 of their line-up - Karun and Ted. Everyone else? I don’t think I’d even give them a second glance if I saw them irl - Except Brundle who I wouldn’t hesitate to push into the canal. 

I think it’s sloppy coverage and unbelievably biased. They have too many reporters, commentators, pundits and everything in between. They don’t need that many, it’s chaotic and not in a good way. I don’t pay for Sky and with that line up I would never even consider it. Every pundit/journalist will have at least a little bias in them, but in the Sky team it’s stan Hamilton and Vettel or die. 

I try to watch as little sky analysis as possible because it’s just painful - although this is also similar across most of their sports, they just suck. It feels like they never treat the midfield seriously unless they’re British. I know I’m nostalgia personified but they take it to the next level and throw in some amnesia for good measure. Just because you have a title to your name it doesn’t mean your opinion is gospel or that you’re right.

Liberty give the live races back to Channel 4. Sky are disgusting money grabbers and I wouldn’t trust them to change a light bulb. F1 should always be on free-to-air TV, its in the very essence of the sport. It should be accessible and not behind a ridiculous paywall. Because news flash, people aren't going to pay for shit coverage when the non-live race highlights are a much better production. Or when they can just find an alternative way to view it live

~send me “don’t get me started on” + a random topic & i‘ll answer with a rant about it~

[thar-be-scribbles-here]

I saw your first part of my headcanon request and it was so cute! Thank you! Can’t wait for the secondary three. If you do include a minor character, I’d like Valerius because I can imagine him getting super blushy over an Mc kissing his wound. uwu Bonus: Valerius gets his wound from a shattered wine glass. (Remember Nadia’s route?) x>

Part 2 of 2 

PART 1

(Just realized that I didn’t post the context for this lmao) Original Ask: 

“Headcanons for the Main Six getting an injury patched up by the Mc? Then the Mc kisses the wound because they heard that kisses make them feel better? :3″

Thank you! I’m so glad you liked it! 😁

I’m also just gonna post part two + Valerius on this ask because that makes things slightly easier lol 

Muriel

There’s already an in-game example of the patching up/healing scenario for Muriel in his first book, BUT it is behind a paywall and things would likely be much different after he really learned to trust you

He would probably still try to patch himself up at first, but when you insist on helping him he doesn’t bother to try and protest anymore since he is more willing to accept that he deserves to be treated gently

He would quietly watch you work, his heart would still be pounding there would still be a bright flush to his cheeks but more-so out of fondness for you rather than out of embarrassment this time

Once he’s all patched up you would probably ask him “Want me to kiss it better?” instead of just kissing him straight away

He would be completely floored, his blush would reach his shoulders and he would stutter out a quiet acceptance of your offer but he would be smiling softly the whole time

If the wound ends up scarring it doesn’t bother him as much as it used to, especially since this one will be a memory of you

Portia

Honestly if she got hurt she would probably show you her wound proudly like it was a battle scar and would explain what fun/reckless thing she had just done to get it (like climbing up the castle wall or scoping out for more secret passageways)

It would be pretty easy to convince her to let you patch her up since she thinks that it’s a really sweet gesture 

The whole time that you’re treating her she would playfully tell you that you worry about her too much and it’ll take more than a couple of scratches or bruises to keep her down

She would get a little giggly and blushy when you kissed her and would ask you for another one juuuuust to be sure

She’d point to other random spots on her body saying that she had a bruise or ache there as well (even if she didn’t) just to get more kisses out of you

If you wanna make her blush even more, put your finger on her lips and say “does it hurt here too?”

Lucio

He would be more concerned about his blood ruining his clothes than the injury itself, so it would be matter of getting him to stop fussing so that you can fix him up

If you hadn’t offered to patch him he probably would have just straight up told you to help him, but he’s a little caught off guard when you rush to his aide right away

People showing genuine concern for him - and not just parroting back his own self praise - is still pretty new to him so he doesn’t really know how to handle it at first

He might pretend to act annoyed or even insulted that you would insinuate that a small flesh wound was enough to affect him but it’s just his weird way of saying “thank you”

Kissing his wound would definitely be the best and fastest way to shut him up

He finally blushes and cracks a smile when you give him a little victorious smirk and tell him that he should definitely make a full recovery now

Valerius

Despite his temper he usually keeps a cool head when you’re around, so if he broke his wine glass in his hand in front of you he would probably be in the middle of ranting about the incompetence of the rest of the courtiers or something of the like

He would be clutching his wrist with his other undamaged hand and swearing at the pain but he would calm down a bit the second you came to his side

You would probably have to keep reminding him to sit still while you carefully removed each piece of glass from his hand

He might still be grumbling a bit as you bandage him up, but then he would suddenly feel your lips on his fingers and look up to see you kissing him softly

Since the broken glass gave him several cuts you’d kiss his fingers first, then the back of his hand, and then his palm and he would get redder and redder with each one

When you lean over and kiss him for real he completely forgets why the hell he was so angry a few minutes ago

[ladala99]

Spyro Reignited Countdown - Skylanders: Trap Team (Console)

While Giants was boring, Trap Team has the perfect mix of infuriating monetization, cheapness, and charm. Yes, charm!

Here is where I started to despise Activision and the yearly model. Here is where I never 100% completed the game. But here is also where there’s a lot of really great characters, both in figure form and in-game.

Gameplay

Toys for Bob is back and they toned down the knockback combat mechanics. It’s still more playable for melee characters than Giants was, but it’s not nearly as fun as the previous title.

Other than that, it’s par for the course. A lot of combat, some platforming, gated areas, the whole Skylanders deal.

The Gates

Here’s where it gets dicey. Elemental Gates return, but not in the same was as before. These are Traptanium Elemental Gates, which means you need a Trap Master of that element to get through.

If you were part of the fandom during this game’s hype cycle, you would have heard a developer state that ANY character of the proper element would open Elemental Gates as always. As the release date approached, however, an Activision person later said the state of matters that ended up being in the game: that you needed specifically a Trap Master to open the gate. Indicating that this was a change in plan, and Activision was likely the one to request it.

Looking at the design of the game, it shows. In previous games, elements that come in the Starter Pack have more leeway with hidden collectables and show up together in early levels. This happens in this game with both Water gates ( for Snap Shot, a Trap Master), and Life gates (for Food Fight, who isn’t a Trap Master). There’s also Trap Master-specific areas anyways, much like the Giants, so this game would have followed in that game’s footsteps pretty accurately if this change had not been made.

Also, in all games previously, Soul Gems are located in areas that either come with the Starter Pack, or are unlocked by that character. The Light and Dark dragons, however, have their Soul Gems locked behind Traptanium Elemental Gates that match their element. If you don’t have their respective Trap Master, you would not be able to finish their moveset in this game.

But also on top of that, if you truly want 100% you need a full elemental set of traps, sold separately. They’re cheaper than even regular characters and unlock gameplay for several villains, but if you want 100% you need them all.

And there’s two additional elements in this game.

All of this together means that you need to buy 9 $15 Trap Masters and 8 $6 Traps to 100% the game. Oh, and one Mini, which come in 2-packs for $15.

And what’s more is that in the way the game’s designed, you’ll find a hidden area only to be greeted with an Elemental Gate. And it’ll happen over and over. I don’t know if this is different in previous games or not since for those I built my collection quickly while in this one I stubbornly did not and still don’t have everything. But way more often than not you’ll be greeted with a Gate rather than a different collectable.

Old Figures vs. New Figures

They’re relatively balanced in combat. Not the greatest, and characters from this game generally are better than older ones, but old ones are still usable.

The figures from Swap Force seem to be a bit more affected than others. Possibly some developer rivalry?

But the change in Elemental Gates really devalued the old characters, and in fact a lot of the new cast as well. Their uselessness as keys and the fact that Trap Masters get bonuses against bosses (and there’s a lot of bosses), means that there’s little reason to use anybody but Trap Masters.

It’s not as unbalanced as a certain game to come, but it’s not particularly balanced, either.

The Collectables

We’ve got your standard Skylanders round-up: Treasure Chests, Hats, Story Scrolls, Legendary Treasures, and Winged Sapphires. This time, Legendary Treasures are just decoration again. Everything’s back to how it was in the first two games as far as findability.

There’s also Villains and Villain Quests to worry about, too. Villains tend to be in your path as bosses, but Villain Quests can be a bit more out-of-the-way. Villain Quests are like Heroic Challenges: specific minigames for that particular Villain that give them an upgrade. Although some of them are as simple as “jump in this pot,” while others are as complex as an Angry Birds reference.

Bosses

There’s a ton. Each Villain you fight as a boss, and some are in the middle rather than at the end of levels. They aren’t too hard or particularly interesting, and tend to just use their powers against you rather than the environment. Then, after you Trap them, you can play the same way they did.

There are some exceptions, and those tend to be pretty fun. Like Chef Pepper Jack’s crazy fight. Or Dreamcatchers. Basically, the Doom Raiders have more interesting battles. And they actually get more complex in Nightmare Mode I understand, which is an improvement over just making everything take more hits and hit harder.

Levels

I’ve ranted about this above: the whole Elemental Gate thing. I don’t recall my opinion on the actual levels.

I do remember that the more interesting maneuvering and puzzles happen in the Elemental Gates. But that these areas are tiny compared to previous games. So like, they’re marginally more fun for about a minute and then they’re over and you’re back to the main path.

Story

Now I’m going to get this mixed up with the TV show since that used a similar plot.

But I think the game goes about that Kaos freed the villains from Traptanium Prison to be his allies. Ha. Yeah, right. They go rogue.

But, you know, they’re causing trouble so it’s up to you, the Portal Master, along with your new Trap Masters, to take them down. And then they randomly reform in your possession so you can use them against their former allies and Kaos.

I really don’t remember the rest. It just wasn’t that memorable. The characters themselves, though - they were really interesting. Just not the overall story.

Unique in the Series?

It’s the only game with a Trap-like concept, where you have a selection of characters for one figure. It’s the only one with mystery elements that they tried to keep secret for a while. It’s the first game in which you can play as Kaos, (but later games make this not unique).

Other than that it’s pretty standard fare. Aside from the uniquely money-grubbing nature of it.

Conclusion

Many people have different opinions on what caused Skylanders’ downfall. I point to this game. With how Activision betrayed consumer trust by making the Elemental Gates need a Trap Master in particular, gating off parts of the game not designed to have such a high paywall, a lot of people quit the series or just accepted that they wouldn’t be 100% players anymore.

And if you’ve put someone past the tipping point of that, all motivation to continue getting 100% in future games goes down the toilet too. The remaining games are flashy and try to get consumer attention, but the damage had already been done.

This game convinced me that I’d never put too much effort or faith into games made by Toys for Bob again. It was a sinking feeling when they were announced as the ones to make Spyro Reignited. It looks like they’ve redeemed themselves, though, aside from another instance of Activision’s cheapness (the whole fact that only 1/3 of the game is playable out of the box without an internet connection).

[irandomblogfulb]

I don't think making gen:lock rt first exclusive is good idea. Idk if this is true or not but apparently unlike rwby where the first week the episode is rt first exclusive  then it’s available to everyone, besides the first episode the rest of the genlock are hidden behind a paywall. This is a big yikes tm. At least Rwby built it’s fanbase.

WARNING, EXTREME SALT AND GEN:LOCK BASHING, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. 

The original trailers (i’m gonna go on a tangent here btw) people fell in love with rwby cause a) the visual aesthetic b) the concept - goth red ridding hood with a big ass scythe sniper rifle c) bomb ass fight choreo. What does Gen:lock have? Michael B Jordan’s voicing the main character, you know Killmonger from Black Panther. David Tennent’s in it too and Dakoda Fanning. That’s it. That’s all Gen:lock has, A-list actors. It’s hilarious. RWBY, with it’s low budget , shitty voice acting, didn’t even have actual legit voice actors besides one, could blow up because people were interested in the actual context of the show but flipping gen:lock, I haven’t seen it trending once on tumblr. Nobody cares about gen:lock cause RT did a piss poor job at advertising the show. They think ‘it’s Michael B Jordan, of course that should hype people up. We don’t need to make an interesting or unique concept for people to get hyped.’

Look, I love Nicholas Cage and I think John Mulaney is a great comedian and he practically became a meme but I didn’t watch into the Into the Spider-verse for those two. I watched that movie cause the animation looks dope and aesthetic AF and for Miles Morales. I don’t even care about the Spider-Man franchise. I like Michael B, but I ain’t gonna be hyped for a show cause he’s in it. 

Now back to the whole rt subscription fiasco. I get it, they need that money back from hiring all those A-list actors. But unless you’re a die hard RT fan, nobody is gonna pay for a rt subscription to watch Gen:lock. RWBY garnered a dedicated fanbase(like 90% weren’t RT fans either) by having everything on YouTube, for FREE for 5 years before ditching it all together. Gen:lock has no fanbase. Yeah, YouTube sucks but it’s big. Everyone uses YouTube. Rwby wouldn’t have gotten big without it. Not uploading gen:lock episodes to YouTube, let alone hiding all episodes behide a pay wall is literal suicide. 

That’s it for my rant. If I don’t see gen:lock trending when the episodes drop (especially when Rwby always ends up trending when a new episode is released) Gray, I just wanna say, you dun fucked up. 

[gear-project]

.    .     .

Saw Jim Sterling’s new rant about Fighting game DLC, hoo boy:

I’ve been playing games with rosters that didn’t have characters or options I wanted for a very long time.

Boss characters?  No paywall, no content whatsoever in most cases except in old anthology legacy games like Accent Core Plus R.

EX Mode?  As of right now, forget it.

And Sterling wants me to sympathize with people who complain about their mains being behind DLC paywalls?

When I can’t use the characters I want?  When I HAVEN’T used characters I wanted for the better part of several years?  A good decade, even?

Give me a break.

I pity the man who mained Leopaldon, Justice, or Kliff Undersn, woe unto the people who mained GG2 characters with the expectation that they’d be guaranteed in the next subsequent game!

WOE, oh WOE unto anyone who mained Dr. Baldhead but got Faust instead!

I was thinking recently about how I missed Jun Kazama from Tekken 2 and how she was a character that actually got killed off in the story.

And people want to whine and cry about paywalls... while the rest of us are willing to adapt and change our mindsets to experience new characters, fresh roster ideas, and learn new combos every time there’s a patch rebalance update.

If you’re hurting that much for money, if money spending is that painful for you... why are you even buying videogames?

I grew up with Videogame Arcades... you had to plunk in a quarter EVERY TIME you played!  You didn’t buy it once and keep it.  THE PAYWALL WAS ALWAYS THERE TO PLAY ANYONE.

You wanna talk DLC complaints?  Ultimate Mortal Kombat had hidden kombat kodes that could only be done AFTER YOU CLEARED ARCADE MODE, and you had only so many seconds to input the code, and the code would get RESET if the maintenance guy RESET THE MACHINE.

You guys are lucky, you only had to buy characters once and keep them for however long your console lasted.

Games are a transient experience, unlike the 3 lives Mario gets, we only get one.

I feel sorry for the people who didn’t live long enough to play the last Guilty Gear game.

My advice: pay for games you support and acknowledge the imperfect efforts of your favorite developers, or if money hurts that bad, quit cold turkey.

[hakka84]

↓ Fuck. Both @uupic and @monster-bait, your two post hurt just by reading them: I can’t even understand how you must have felt.

I felt kicked out of the fandom (and very, very bitter) for getting little to no notes: if that whole “after deleting comments/demands suddenly arrived” I would’ve probably felt a shit and thrown the notebook against the whole out of frustration at the same time.’s

Ugly. Very ugly.

Happy that you @monster-bait, found a new way to enjoy and get enjoyment and fulfillment from your writing.

I wish you both (and all of us who suffer from not getting comments/acknowledgement for our works) good luck for all.

Rant below, because today I’m cranky and I’m not in the mood to censor myself, because I’m fed up and I’ve long since lost any motivation to create - and what little I create (and when I create I do get a boost of excitement) stays on my computer because what’s the point in sharing when I don’t get any kind of feedback? What’s the point if I’m posting in the void and what I can gather from the lacks of notes is that what I do isn’t worth anything? That what I do is so worthless that no-one feels they deserve a reblog? When I see people reblogging the same things over and over again and I get angry because I’m getting bitter when I see the same art on every dash of every person I folllow, when you reblogged that art ten times in the last three months but mine you didn’t even if I know you’ve seen it and perhaps you’re even a fellow content-producer in the niche of manips and you’re always complaining about the importance of reblogs but my things barely deserved a like once when I took part to a fest/ event (and I said “if you liked this there’s more in the blog, take a look!” in the post) and you never bothered to check the rest even if the blog is art-only so it literally takes you five minutes to scroll down the archive page?

Back onto topic of fanfictions.

Fanfictions aren’t behind a paywall (fuck patreon*[¹]). Writers aren’t expected to be payed real money in order to give you access to what they create. You have access to millions of words without the need to pay a monthly fee, a subscription, or by filling your basket and then proceeding to payout. But fanfictions aren’t free per se: a king of money is involved nonetheless, and that money’s name is Acknowledgement. Its formats are the banknotes “Comments” (which come in all sizes, depending from the length and depth), the bigger coins “Share” and the small copper ones “Kudos”. The “Like” are akin to those packs of shredded banknotes, they aren’t worth a thing so I won’t even consider them.

The writer offers you enjoyment that hasn’t to be paid in dollars, euro, yen or what else money you carry in your pocket; the writer offers your enjoyment that you aren’t required to pay in advance (unlike a book, that you have to buy not knowing if you’ll eventually like it and it’ll be worth your money) - which is a big luxury, especially when money is always tight and we all have to be picky on what we spend money.

There's no “real” paper money or coins involved in this exchange, but you still are morally obliged to repay the writers in the “fandom money”.

If you read something and not enjoyed then you’re exempted. Go in peace, this post is not for you.

If you read it once and enjoyed it you should really at least throw in a tip (a kudos, a brief “thank you”, a re-share if on Tumblr). The best would be a banknote: you aren’t forced to pull out the biggest size (a long in-depth analysis) but you could afford to not be stingy and drown the writer in your long commentary with squeals and quotes and metas (as, you know, you don’t have to choose whenever buying a book or a t-shirt you like or a cake you’re drooling about, as it’s all “fandom money”). The amount of enjoyment you got should be reflected in the size of banknote you pull out: if you “just” enjoyed the fanfic, you aren’t expected to keysmah, but if you loved it, than you could churn out something more than “good job”. It’s all up to you thought, and the small banknote (”Thank your for writing and sharing this story”) suffices. But   ↓

If you return for second, third, dessert (you re-read whenever you feel down, you keep thinking about that specific story, you play with AUs of that story, you have turned on notification for that author, that story helped you go through a bad day), you pay the fucking whole bill and those fandom money better be flowing! Be it in the form of a long-assed comment, key-smash, a “It’s embarrassing how I’m obsessed with this story”, or the chronicles of how this story takes all your free time and you go to sleep playing with this or that scene and how things could have gone differently in that part of the story, or how this/that has become your headcanon and so on.

Seriously, what costs you to write “I enjoyed it, thank you” or “Here to re-read it for x time” each time you open that fanfiction? It literally takes two seconds to type that out even if you’re on mobile (unless you do your reading on phone and you don’t have any data plan/connection on your smartphone; but we all know everyone but me has data on their phone so please). And there’s been plenty of posts on “how to comment” for all the people who don’t know what to say.

The truth is that 90%*[²] of those who don’t comment are just entitled assholes. They feel the’re entitled to their free content, they want for it to keep flowing and don’t care that behind that content there are people who, yes, do it for free ““““and for themselves”””” but with the implicit pact between writer/reader that has always been there in fandom:

Writer contributes to fandom’s life with their skill and time. Reader, who doesn’t have a skill or doesn’t have time, contributes by making sure the ones above who contribute are happy and have reasons to contribute more.

Silence, the lack of acknowledgement kills productivity, drives  content-producers away (especially since these people have a real life out there and perhaps turn to fandom to get their kick, to breath some fresh air, to get some positive reactions to help them go on). And when you’ve driven off content-producers from the fandom for your lack of care, what you’ll do, you lurkers? What’ll you have?

Think about it.

Fandom always had lurkers, but now their numbers have vastly increased: fandom cannot sustain itself for longer this way.

[/fed-up-by-fandom!Hakka is fed-up-by-fandom]

*[2] 10% truly feel awkward, have this irrational but strong fear of intruding or being an hassle and I can and will forgive them - I don’t care if this is because they aren’t neuro-typical or just shy, they are excused. But don’t give me the “all who don’t comment are shy” crap. Because if you have the gall to open up a ask to write a “where did your things go, I enjoyed them”, you had it to write the same “I enjoy them” WHEN THE FUCKING FIC WAS ONLINE.

*[1] When the visual fandom gets more and more behind a paywall and the artists blogs are either neglected or all you can see are sneak peak/close ups of arts that are behind paywall... the fandom is seriously wounded. I get the “more extra content if you support me” - I may not like it but I can understand it. What I can’t understand is the “all of what I produce goes on patron”, which is respectful for the real money patrons churn out but NOT respectful of fandom itself. Fandom would’ve died in a year if it had worked that way: you didn’t pay for fanzines, and if there were money involved was the necessary to cover the cost of printing. Artist weren’t refunded of the cost of their charcoal, they weren’t paid for the hours of labor that went into that realistic paint that was used for the cover of the fanzine. Fandom is made over copyrighted material, and shouldn’t be monetized: this fad of making money out of it poses the risk of putting the fandom in a bad position that could bring us all back to the times that probably most of you never even lived: back to 15/20 years ago, when you were sued even for writing fanfictions posted on free (no adv revenue) sites. You all are just lucky that now majors aren’t as out for blood as they were at the time. But if this “let’s all make a patreon for fanarts” goes on, it’s just a matter of time before the majors smells money and their legal departments drop over you like hawks.

Oof okay this is just me being a tad frustrated overall but:

I'm... pretty fed up with the situation on tumblr right now, not gonna lie. Yes this is about fics, and yes I do have the right to complain about it.

Because yes, I write for myself. That's absolutely true.

But I write everything what's happening in my head down for you, and writing takes a LOT of work. I would not be staying up late at night, typing sentences away on my phone or on my laptop if it wasn't for readers.

I would not be trying to make pretty sentences and come up with metaphors and check over grammar again and again and again if not for you.

I would not be editing my fics so much I almost cannot stand to look at them anymore to the point I question the quality of my writing if not for you.

Don't tell me stuff like "yes but we are reading it! There is no reason we should be forced to leave feedback" because that's not what I'm asking of you. That's absolutely NOT what I'm asking of you. I don't want to force you to do anything and in the end I cannot at all because I'm just a simple blog in my corner of the internet but it all boils down to this:

Give your writers exposure.

We work harder than you readers would ever know to get those stories you love out and it's so freaking hard to get it on paper. It takes so much energy and yes it also takes energy to comment, I understand.

But I assure you, taking the time to write a 20 word long comment is WAY less energy than the writer did to get 9000 words out with cohesive plot and creative writing.

So please, reblog. Reblog the fics you read. We writers depend on you.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights: Episode 97

Paper pre-stream reads “Easter Egg: Brian Wayne Foster’s home address is inscribed on the set somewhere.”

Brian reveals that he’s wearing the shirt with the cross-eyed picture of him that Sam was wearing in the last episode.

There is a betta fish on set, and as soon as they zoom in on it, Marisha’s name-card pops up. Brian: “This is a betta fish. The alpha fish we keep behind a paywall.”

Keyleth now holds the record for most damage dealt in a single turn (690) and the most damage taken in a single blow (363).

Matt kinda hoped that Vex would revive Keyleth and just be like “tell no one this happened.” Everyone adored everything about that moment.

Asked about their characters basically becoming demi-gods at this point, Taliesin: “I’m feeling smug about it.” Sam points out that most of VM isn’t particularly mature, so it’s a little worrying that they’re gaining this much power. Matt; “Eh, fortune favors the bold. It’s fine.”

Matt hasn’t had a campaign get to the upper levels like this before, so he’s really excited to try some new things in the coming arc. Taliesin has never played at such high levels before, or even heard of someone playing at such high levels.

Taliesin figures the most Percy way for Percy to die would be to go into a bar, attempt to threaten everyone, and have everyone turn on him. Sam on the most Taryon way for Taryon to die: pre-Vox Machina, he would go off on a paid hunt and he’d somehow still lose.

Brief digression about how to play out death by autoerotic asphyxiation in D&D. As you do.

Matt definitely shied away from having players “roll for baby” over the break, since he thought that definitely wasn’t a fair thing to throw at a player based on a dice roll. ("...unless you’re Scanlan”) Matt also mentions that Vax and Keyleth have had conversations about how they’re "probably for the most part an asexual relationship.”

Taliesin expands a bit on the fancy ball at Whitestone: “It’s basically a Medieval Times version of Santa’s Village.” Brian: “What would Percy wear to that?” Taliesin: “Cowboy boots and a smile.”

Taliesin mentions that Percy and Cassandra are starting to be a little sillier around each other now, trying to remind themselves that it’s all over. The thing they have most in common that VM doesn’t share is being the product of a legacy and learning to find their own way within that legacy. 

Taliesin has already started a playlist for his character in the next campaign.

Matt is gonna start everyone in the next campaign halfway through level 2 so they get to play with their characters a bit before deciding which archetype to go for.

Sam has a brief rant about how many planes there are in D&D. “Let’s streamline. Let’s streamline.” Matt: “Sam, I am so excited for the RPG you’re releasing next year.” Sam: “The Three Places.”

Matt wasn’t expecting the Shadowfell reveal to come so soon. There was gonna be another reveal down the road that might still play out in the game. Elements of the story may have been accelerated as a result of that bit of player ingenuity.

Taliesin’s character was eaten and there was a near-TPK in the Shadowfell the last time a campaign he played in went there. (He and the other dead players had to go back in playing as the mercenaries sent to retrieve their bodies.)

Keyleth’s natural 20 when touching the orb back in episode 34 was sort of an example of failure by success, in that it delayed the Shadowfell reveal considerably. At that time, though, she could’ve died from the damage it dealt, or gone unconscious and bled out on the other side. If she had made it through, she wouldn’t have had Plane Shift and would’ve had to find a way back, which would’ve started the Shadowfell stuff early. So they would’ve had to work out their priorities given that the Chroma Conclave attacked shortly thereafter.

Matt thought of the scry (reverse-whisper) as a successful test run for maybe pulling out most of the party and isolating players again in the future.

Sam talks a bit about how Matt takes the “cartoonish backstories” they make up and turns them into a coherent narrative.

They were at Matt’s house digging through his minis trying to figure out where the story was gonna go next. (Brian calls out Matt’s impressive mini-painting skills.)

The silencer is a ten-foot bubble of Silence spell that follows Percy around: downside is he can’t hear or say anything while he’s taking those shots. Taliesin is very excited for those potential downsides.

Sam had no warning about the kidnapping; he found out when the rest of us did. When she handed Taryon a cream puff, Matt secretly rolled a constitution saving throw for him---it was essentially a delayed Sleep spell.

Percy’s chilled out a bit over his anger at Scanlan during the past year.

Tary’s started to learn his limitations over the past year---he’s aware of how strong he can be as part of a team, but hasn’t really ventured out on his own yet and is worried about how much of a crutch the money has been for him.

Talks Machine in the Dark:

Matt talks about some of the weird and wacky dragons out there in the expanded D&D literature. Sam: “By the way, in my RPG, there’s only one kind of dragon.” Matt really enjoys creating new creatures, so he’s been veering away from the books a little more often.

Someone suggests that Tary could multiclass into bard. Sam hadn’t thought about that. Matt points out that Doty’s the one writing the book, so maybe Doty should become a bard. Sam: “Can Doty be a bard?” Matt: “No.”

If Percy had the power, would he bring back his dead family? If he thought the consequences would be minimal, sure, but he also has a respect for death. Every time they’ve managed to bring someone back, it was the D&D equivalent of a crash cart, within 24 hours. Percy doesn’t even know where his family’s bodies are. Matt, grinning: “I do.”

Matt points out that this is part of why Keyleth is so frightened of higher-level resurrection spells: how do you choose who you can bring back? What gives you that right? What are the moral implications? He also brings back Kerrek’s probing questions about resurrection. Taliesin sums it up beautifully: “It’s dark and twisted and strange once you start pulling it apart.”

The hardest character death for Matt was Pike’s death back in the home game---it was the first time for a lot of the players to realize that they’d spent a year and a half with this character and she could still be gone like that. Apparently Ashley came home at 3AM distraught and tried explaining the whole thing to Brian, who knew nothing about D&D at the time and was a little confused. “...you died? At Travis and Laura’s?”

Doty can speak primarily because it’s funny, and also because Sam wanted to give Matt something more to do when he plays Doty. There was a lot of discussion over which word it would be. Sam: “It could’ve been Hodor.”

Someone asked whether another Battle Royale will come up, and Matt thinks probably before too long, next time they have players away or just need a week off.

[gentlemanpenguin]

GentlemanPenguin rants about people being dumb about Paradox Interactive

Okay, so, if you’ve looked at the Steam comments for any of the Paradox Interactive games recently, you’ve probably seen this, but I’m gonna summarize it anyway.

Back in May, Paradox Interactive raised the prices of their games and DLC for multiple countries, with the explanation being that the economies of those countries were stronger now, and the prices could be raised to be more in line with the prices for countries like the United States and most of Europe. For a great number of people, this translated into Paradox Interactive cranking prices up across the board in a frantic attempt to squeeze more money out of their customers.

Back then, I ranted to my friends that people were being dumb and not reading the whole story, but whatever, the internet is dumb. It is known.

Recently, the CEO of Paradox Interactive came out to say that they were rolling back those price increases after the Steam Summer Sale, and that they would do one of three things:

Refund the difference between the raised and original prices

Reimburse with games/DLC with a value equal to or greater than the difference

Donate double the difference to charity

People. Flipped. Their shit.

In the Steam comments, I’ve seen people bitching about the game being too expensive anyway, and that Paradox was still grabbing for money, and they were never buying a Paradox game again.

As a member of the nebulous group defined as “gamers”, I want to say something to the rest of us.

Grow the fuck up, you self-entitled fucks.

I swear, gamers are the most self-centered group of people. If a game costs more than $10, everyone bitches about the developers grabbing for money. If the game is more than $5, they say they’ll wait for the 75% sale. People brag on the forums that they only bought the game after spending 100+ hours on a pirated version.

To repeat: People complained about prices going up, and then complained when the prices went back down.

Paradox is not your friend who lets you play their games for fun. Paradox is a company. Their job is to make money. Making games does not print money, and no-one does that for free. In order to make money, the money has to come from customers.

If I had a machine that printed $10 bills whenever someone pushed a button, and I knew that 30k people were going to push the button per day, I’d be a damn fool for not making the machine print $20 bills.

Paradox has maybe 5 IPs that sell on a regular basis: Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron, Mount & Blade, and Cities: Skylines. Maybe Stellaris, but we’ll see how that turns out in like 5 years. Other games that they make aren’t as popular, and don’t make as much money. Paradox uses the money they get from these games to fund their other games like Tyranny.

Nintendo does the same goddamn thing with Mario and Zelda to fund Pikmin and ARMS, and everyone loves them. You can’t complain when one company does something that another company does and everyone loves.

In 4 years since it was first released, Paradox has made 13 major expansions for Crusader Kings 2. In that same time, Activision has made 7 Call of Duty games, all of which are essentially identical, and with an 8th game on the way for this year. Your average Call of Duty game costs $50 at launch, compared to $15 for a CK2 DLC.

On top of that, Crusader Kings 2 has had 8 major updates since its initial release, including a large amount of completely free content whenever they release a DLC. When’s the last time Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 updated? 2013? It’s almost like Paradox is trying to let people get comfortable with one game engine while adding new features instead of making people shell out $50 every year for the exact same game.

And before people start saying “well they’re locking features behind a paywall”, ya’ll can fuck right off because there’s a simple solution to not wanting to spend money on features.

Don’t buy it.

Problem solved.

If you spend money on DLC, you can’t complain when companies release DLC. You cannot complain about an industry that you are supporting without destroying your entire argument. And if buying that DLC supports a company that produces games that I enjoy, I will open my wallet for any DLC that match my interests. Because it means I can expect them to make more DLC that match my interests. And if DLC matches my interests, it means I’ll have more fun playing the game I have 600+ hours in.

When I was growing up, it weren’t called DLC. It was called an expansion pack, and you were lucky if your favorite game got a single expansion. The fact that Civilization 4 got not one, but two expansion packs, I was amazed. I had never seen a game I enjoyed having more than one add-on. Now we live in an age where pretty much every game has at least 2 major expansions, and a dozen $2 DLC. It’s almost as if making content for games that people enjoy makes more money than trying to sell a new game.

People are prepared to drop $450 on a console before any games are even announced for it. And yet if a company decides to make money on games that people have been playing for almost 5 years, suddenly Lucifer is at the helm boys we’re heading straight for the river Styx!

Last note: If a company makes a mistake, then rolls back that mistake and says that they’re listening to their fanbase, don’t bitch at the company for listening to you. No-one learns solely from negative reinforcement. Bitch when the company is doing something bad, and then reward them for doing something good. If all you do is bitch, then all the company is gonna learn that their fanbase is filled with bitches.

You like something? Throw money at it.

You don’t like something? Don’t throw money at it.

You don’t got money? Don’t throw money at it.

But don’t complain that you don’t have money because you spent it all on video games. It didn’t work for me when I was 9 years old and trying to save up to buy Pokemon Stadium for the N64 (god I feel old now), and it’s not gonna work for you.

Grow the fuck up.

God.

DAMN.

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: Lots of Ducks talk, a Ceci rant, potential contract-year breakouts (Aug 6)

Ramblings: Lots of Ducks talk, a Ceci rant, potential contract-year breakouts (Aug 6)

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Last week I released the Fantasy Guide and so far I’m getting a great response. It’s always a nervous moment hitting that “post” button, so thank you. For two days after that I was making myself blind by staring at the Fantasy Hockey Geek spreadsheets trying to get my projections in there properly. This is my first year doing this – I bought the site last year but then was hospitalized all summer and thankfully I had help from some good people getting that set up (including the founders themselves, who are still quite active and helpful). Long story short – the projections are in there, the rankings work, Fantrax works for automating, Yahoo does not work, and my eyeballs have now fully recovered.

Yahoo, by the way, has been worked on and off for nine months now. But I’m told that a solution to the issue has been found they are just working on it. I had set an August 10th goal for this, but when has a programmer ever met a deadline?

One more thing – if there are any Excel experts interested in helping me every year, please let me know. And I don’t use the term “expert” lightly. I consider myself an expert, so I would want someone my equal or better. Because when I get that Guide out, I want to hit the hammock and open a beer and rest my brain. Having an additional day or two of staring at spreadsheets after the Guide was done? That really sucked. So let me know for next year. I’ll pay. You can email me via dobber at dobberhockey.

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With the usual crunch leading up to the release of the Guide, and then the FHG setup happening directly on the heels of that – I had lost touch with the hockey rumors for a couple of days. So when news that Cody Ceci was awarded $4.3 million I was shocked. And for a few seconds I wondered if the Sens would walk away from that. I mean…why would an arbitrator award that? But minutes later I had learned that he had asked for $6 million (!) and the Sens had offered $3.35 million (!). These are just crazy numbers for a defenseman who is weak in terms of possession and disappointing in terms of offense. My offer would have been a one-way contract – and he’d damn well like it, too. I don’t understand how Ottawa offered what they did. I get it – he’s young, still a season or two away from his prime, blah blah blah. But this settlement, his ask, and their offer, takes the Evander Kane scale of crazy salaries and pushes it to new heights. Now this one is the contract other agents will point to going forward in negotiations. I’m not saying that Ceci can’t be worth it. He’s only 24, he can still shine (though the odds of that are getting dismal with the team around him falling apart). But he’s not worth it today. The NHL and the GM’s have painted themselves into a corner. They pay players based on past performance – overpaying the unrestricted free agents. And now they’re paying players based on potential – overpaying the 24-year-old hopefuls. The only question really, is which year will the lockout happen?

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The NHL can choose to end the CBA in the summer of 2020 if they exercise its option by September 1, 2019. The NHLPA can do so by September 15, 2019. If either of them do this, then a lockout or strike happens for the 2020-21 season. If neither of them do this, then the CBA remains until 2022. I think neither will do this, but will start building war chests for a big battle over the 2022-23 campaign. But players seem to mostly concerned with structuring their contracts around a 2020-21 lockout (i.e. they’ve been setting actual salary for that year lower than the other years) so who knows.

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Did William Karlsson just sign the same contract that Kevin Hayes signed? That’s pretty nuts. Yeah I know, it’s the “only one year” thing…but okay, take two years then. Karlsson had 103 points in two years to Hayes at 93, and he’s a year younger and scored 49 goals to 42 (game winners he’s up 9-8, too). I think Vegas got a bit of a deal there but at the expense of possibly getting taken to the cleaners next summer. But the Rangers – they overpaid Hayes just a little and they let him become unrestricted at the end of it, too. You’d think they’d get a discount from his agent for helping him do that.

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This may be behind a paywall (Athletic) but this article on the growth and origins of Cap Friendly is very interesting. You may remember in the early days they were actually a partner of the Dobber Sports Network before they made an exclusive deal with a bigger fish! Clearly the right move though, these guys have gotten huge.

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The John Gibson signing, already discussed at length (Gooding – here) but I’ll chime in, was a good cap hit for the Ducks of course, given his consistent top save percentage. But eight years is a risk given his injury history. He had always been a little under-ranked as a prospect goaltender on my list because he was injury prone. And this was before he stepped a skate onto NHL ice!

2014-15 he missed the middle of the season with a groin injury – 21 games

2015 playoffs he missed seven games with a UBI.

2015-16 he missed two games with a UBI

2016-17 13 games with a LBI (two injuries, or the same one twice I don’t know)

2017 playoffs he missed the last game with an LBI and then had all summer to heal so who knows how much time he would have missed

2017-18 Missed one game (concussion), four games (LBI), three more games (LBI), three more games (UBI)

In four seasons in the NHL John Gibson has sustained nine injuries, after having a reputation as being injury-prone well before he even turned pro. And now he’s locked in for eight years. Good luck Anaheim! Hope it pans out for you and he stays healthy. If so, it’s a steal.

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As for the Ducks themselves, they have a top goaltender, a great top four defense corps and a deep group of forwards with good ones on the way. But Randy Carlyle scares me. He is entering his third year with the team. That was the year he lost the Leafs. And his first round with the Ducks he lost the room in Year 4. Be careful how you rate this team as they went from 46 to 44 wins under Carlyle and I can see that becoming 42 – which makes Gibson a .928 SV% goalie who has 31 wins. Corey Perry is no longer a top sixer but he’ll be played there. For more on my thoughts on the Ducks, my outlook on them is here.

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While looking at the Ducks, Jakub Silfverberg popped out at me because he’s an unrestricted free agent next summer. Here’s a guy in his mid-20s who has more offensive talent then he’s shown, and is under-used offensively because he’s so good defensively. Players like him always surprise in a UFA contract year – Josh Bailey and Evander Kane sure did it last year. The latter two had expected production of 50 points and they certainly exceeded that. Silfverberg is in that ballpark too. Kevin Hayes another one. In fact, I’m just going to list the guys I think best fit this mold as I go through Cap Friendly. In no particular order…

Silfverberg

Hayes

Derick Brassard

Gustav Nyquist

Marcus Johansson

Richard Panik

Joonas Donskoi

The latter two names would be pushing the term “breakout” but if they get into the high-50s I’d call that a contract year. Jeff Skinner isn’t on this list because he’s already had huge seasons. But I’m willing to bet two or three of the above players really surprise us in a good way.

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It took Nail Yakupov just 34 seconds to score the first goal of his SKA career over at the Sochi Hockey Open.

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Dog days of summer. Here’s Biz with MacKinnon…

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See you next Monday.

  from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-lots-of-ducks-talk-a-ceci-rant-potential-contract-year-breakouts-aug-6/