#they don't have the money or resources to come up with a new product

[natasha-in-space]

Not being on Twitter means missing out on all the drama and being confused as hell with all the same-ish Saeyoung arts with weird comments on them until someone finally enlightens you on what the hell even happened LMAO

Anyways, current-day Cheritz try not to mess up their business challenge (impossible)

[moonsaver]

Imagine instead of 4ggravate being a kpop boy group and reader being the fangirl, its the other way around

4ggravate forms a groupchat particularly because of you, their bias, who is also the least recognized in your group and is often overshadowed by others, leading to a desperate convergence of your fans in finding out the itty bitty stuff about you that's all on blast when it comes to the other idols in your group. They're like detectives trying to figure out whether you liked the specific flavor of ice cream on a show you participated in with your group. Each of them keep tabs on any official updates about you, recording and clipping parts of your group's lives in the tidbits where you come in, and forming a wall trying to defend you from majority of the fandom when you get backlash from false rumors. That's just how the group came to be.

Kaveh is the oldest fan amongst them – he's been there since day 1. Claims he knows the most out of all of them and tries to prove it via quizzes and guessing games. Sometimes he wins, most times he doesn't. Also the poorest of the four. He spent so much on buying your specific merchandise he didn't plan for the future concert you group was holding in his area, and ever since then he's had to tearfully decide constantly between buying albums, your photocards, new lightstick versions, etc.. and your concert that may or may not even be held in the area.

In the rare chance that he does attend your concert – he tries to get the most out of it. Front row, headbands, fanchant at the top of his head, lightsticks in both hands. When you notice him and exchange a few words over the loud crowd, he swears he's going to pass out, looking up at your crouched figure on the stage makes you look almost like an angel to him, the light highlighting your figure perfectly. Suffice to say, he eventually made an impression on you at least.. because he passed out and the crowd had to surf him to a security guard. He's deeply embarassed about it, and can't really escape it now that he's become a bit of an inside joke in your fandom

Cyno is the second older fan. Like Kaveh, he prides himself over having a good amount of knowledge about you that's not exactly easy to find – old, old, old images of other kpop idols in which you appear for a fraction of a second, spotting the products you use in your lives and being able to find out the brands is his specialty. If Kaveh has the knowledge, Cyno at least has the detective skills. He has his own individually run fanpage where most other fanpages, even your group's fanpages, refer to as a trusted source. Has also managed to create several fancams of you that were incredibly hard to get ahold of. He's those fanpages on twitter who thoroughly collect evidence and manage to pinpoint future events you're going to take part in before they're announced, and he manages to predict it correctly almost all the time. He's well known within the fandom, but due to how busy he is in 4ggravate trying to form a cumulative plan almost all the time, rarely does he find the time to respond to other fans and fanpages, and most other admins don't usually approach him either.

If anything, at least he's got more resources and money than Kaveh. I imagine he actually also is in a lot of other groups besides 4ggravate.

Alhaitham, out of everyone, is the one who's actually talked to you the most. He was originally just interested in the music, didn't really care until he realized how less and less your lines became the more songs your group churned out. So in his mind, to "make up for" the lack of lines on your end, he decides to simply just pay extra attention to your solo activities. It's not soon before you become his bias. Unlike Kaveh, he was pretty strategic and managed to plan ahead for scheduled fancalls, fanmeetings, appearances in public, etc..

he leaves a lasting impression because.. he doesn't show his appearance. At all. There's many fans out there who get your attention by doing strange things with their appearance, but Alhaitham refuses to even take off his mask just to talk to you. In fancalls, he decides to cover the cameras, always wears hoodies that cover him completely when he meets you in public. At some point, the fandom falls in love with him instead (which drives Kaveh insane), and it's not soon before there's all sorts of rumors about you two. The rumors get more wild when he only ever takes his hoodie off once when you meet him face to face. Personality wise, he sticks out because of how easily he's able to spot changes in choreography, voice, pitch, writing style, etc.. and even more so, because of how upfront about it he is, without actually being creepy about it. He gives good advice without making it sound like unwelcome criticism.

Tighnari is actually the normal one. He just generally likes the music and likes your voice specifically because he thinks your voice suits the concept the best, but because of a few injustices (which he sarcastically comments on many fancams, to which also many fans agree), he finds himself doing something similar to Alhaitham. Albeit, less.. detailed? Is what he thinks. He's actually a bit of a keyboard warrior when it comes down to it – replying to group threads that intentionally leave you out, having the sassiest comebacks to mean or rude comments about you, piecing together timelines and locations to prove false rumors wrong, working especially close with Cyno in these kinds of cases. If there's a fancam of you, Tighnari is under it fighting some or the other hater, or just blatantly commenting on the event itself that intentionally disrespects you or your group.

He's probably the only one who actually leaves a long lasting impression on you. When your car drives by a bunch of your excited fans, he's the normal one who's looking on calmly and waving to you with a stoic face. Whenever he comes to fanmeetings with Alhaitham, or has fancalls with you – it's fun! His humor is easy to accustom to, conversation goes lightly, and overall he's the tamest out of everyone. He gives you some skincare advice which you gladly accept, and somehow, despite not being as incriminating as the others when it came to detail, they're salty about how he seems to be the one who's closest to you. It's not unnoticeable the way out of all four of them, you recognize him by a first name basis. Ohhh boy.

[artificial-transmutations]

Going Green

"Microtransactions!"

Charles looked around the board members.

"Micro. Transactions. Have you ever heard of that? Anyone?"

Slowly, heads nodded.

"Oh, good! So, you *have* heard of them. Does anyone care to explain to me then why our games barely have any? In fact, I have yet to see *any* microtransaction revenue from our latest release."

"But Sir, 'Orcs and Morcs' is a single player game - and not for a mobile platform, too. It doesn't even have an online connection. It would be highly unusual."

Charles M. Anderson cut the engineer up with a gesture. He didn't even know the other man's name, which wasn't too unusual. Even though he was the CEO of GreenGames for six months now, he didn't bother to learn his subordinates names until they proved useful. And this unnamed engineer could be happy if he still had a job after this meeting.

"I don't care about your techno-babble. Microtransactions is where the money is, so I want them in our products. *All* our products. And make sure to make them mandatory for any progress, too."

Charles usually talked about "Releases" and "Products". To him, video games were just a product like any other. Of course *he* didn't play any of those silly games, games were for children and losers. He only cared for the numbers, the graphs and revenues.

"What about the backlash? I mean, I understand that you want to generate more revenue, but GreenGames is known for providing high quality games that *don't* try to rip their customers off."

"So?"

"So, this could be bad publicity for us. Really bad."

Charles looked around the table and noticed most of the other board members nodding.

"Listen up, everyone. I think there is some misunderstanding here. You think that I care about our customers. I really don't, as long as they continue to buy our products. There is no such thing as bad publicity. So, I don't tell you how to draw your silly ogres and you don't try to meddle in the business aspect of the company, okay?"

Even though the inflection suggested a question, it was perfectly clear that it was neither a question nor a request. Again, heads nodded and tried to avoid eye contact. Good. Respect was very important for a leader.

One woman spoke up. Charles suspected her to be some lead writer or something.

"It's orcs, Sir."

Charles blinked. "What are you trying to say?"

"You said ogres, but our games are about orcs. That is our thing, we make games about orcs."

"There is no difference between orcs, ogres, unicorns and all that whimsy stuff. Leave me alone with your fantasy crap."

"But there is another thing. You are responsible for the story of our products?"

The woman agreed with a careful: "Yes, Sir?"

Charles looked her straight in the eye. "It has come to my attention that there are certain woke elements in our products. As a story writer, I expect you to take care of that."

"What... do you mean by woke? And by taking care of that?"

Charles sighed. Why was everyone so incompetent?

"Apparently, there is same-sex smut in our products, some even have pronouns. That crap needs to disappear asap. It is 'go woke go broke', after all."

The writer woman looked at Charles incredulously. "But Sir! Same-Sex romances are a well-accepted part of the industry for *decades* now. And it's not like the player has to engage in that, too. It's just an option - an option we actually received much praise for in the past. And about the pronouns... It's just a setting that influences some dialogues on how the player character is referred to. Again, it is perfectly possible to play as a straight green cis male if that's what you want to do."

Charles shook his head, his voice now dangerously low. "One more word of that, miss, and you can start looking for a new job. 84% of our customer base is male, and male customers want to see boobs, that's a fact. I won't tolerate wasting company resources on pacifying some noisy minority and alienating our main audience."

"But sir!" the writer woman objected.

Charles' look silenced her.

"One more word and you're out. We'll find another writer. Someone who does the job and keeps their mouth shut. This meeting is over. I expect results end of next week."

Nobody dared to speak up when everybody left the meeting room, and Charles returned to his office. What a productive meeting.

Just as he turned to his computer to check today's KPIs, he noticed a new email.

From: Employee Council

To: Charles M. Anderson

Subject: Going Green

Body:

Dear Mr. Anderson,

we here at GreenGames would like to take the opportunity to point out some concerns about your leadership role.

We have noticed a disturbing development since your takeover and would like to remind you of the values we stand for at GreenGames. We like creating games, and we identify with the work we do. Our players are important to us, and we strife to be open and accessible for everyone. Just like the protagonists in our games, we have honor and use our strengths to better the world. You in particular should be the living embodiment of this ideal. Please take this chance to re-think your methods and decisions and "go green" for real.

Sincerely,

The Employee Council.

Charles was outraged. How dared those subordinates criticizing him? He reached for his phone, ready to phone his secretary to find out who this "Employee Council" was but was interrupted by a ripping sound.

The right arm of his expensive suit jacket had ripped at the shoulder, which was unusual. He would have to have a stern talk with the tailor. Charles stood up and took off his jacket - or at least, he tried to. It was like the piece of clothing was way too small all of a sudden. He finally managed to get out of it, but only with several more rips in the fabric. Charles loosened his tie. He was sweating like mad, and when he looked down on himself, he was in utter disarray. His shirt looked like it was several numbers too small and as he was watching, one button after the other flew off with an audible "pling", exposing his torso underneath.

But was it really his torso? Not only was it *bigger*, it also looked way *hairier*. Charles had never been a man with much body hair, but now, he looked down on a stomach that was showing visible abs covered with a dense treasure trail of dark hairs. They continued upwards where they met with a true forest of curly dark hair that covered the slabs of pecs that were still growing as Charles watched.

He had to loosen his tie again before taking it off entirely. All of his clothes felt constricting, so, he peeled himself out of his shirt, too. His expensive watch was interrupting his growth painfully, but Charles was too occupied to notice, let alone care. With a dull cracking noise, the leather strap broke, and the watch flew across the room, hitting the opposite wall.

As Charles continued to grow, the chair underneath him creaked, but, again, he had other things to worry about. His lower body was still covered by his dress pants and shoes, but that was getting tight, too. His shoes especially were getting painful, and it was a relief when the front broke, exposing large muscular feet and toes. His pants were filled to the brim with heavy, muscled legs now, but there was another region where the capacity had been reached. His groin formed an obscene bulge. That alone would have probably fit - barely - but it was accompanied by an unusual feeling. Charles didn't *mind* his extreme change. In fact, the hyper masculine body turned him on, even. He watched as a dick print became clearly visible outlined against his groin, as his cock grew hard. It pulsed, once, and Charles felt a spurt of precum soak into his boxer shorts. A wet patch became apparent as the liquid seeped through his pants - all from a single spurt. His dick pulsed again, and Charles' head began to swim. The air in the room was thick with sweat and testosterone by now, and Charles groaned from arousal. Man, what would he give for a nice firm manly ass right now, giving him a lap dance.

Wait, what? Manly ass?

But it was true! Every time, Charles tried to think about sexy girls, but all that came to mind were men. Burly, hairy men, twinkish shaved men, green-skinned ogre-man. No, not ogres, he corrected himself. Orcs.

As he thought this word, his dick pulsed again and made Charles almost cry out from arousal. He couldn't restrain himself anymore. He *ripped* apart his dress pants and lowered his boxer shorts that looked like a pair of briefs on his massive body now, releasing a gigantic stiff rod and a matching set of heavy balls - along with a whole cloud of manly, musky smell that made Charles even hornier than before.

He closed his gigantic hand around his shaft and moved it up and down, in a slow, barely constrained motion. He had almost come by that one stroke, so horny was his mind. Fascinatedly, he watched as his cock and balls took on a deep, green color. It looked almost like a cucumber, or the penis of the incredible hulk. Or... an orc. As he moved his strong hand up and down again, the green started to spread in all directions.

Yes! There was no doubt: He was becoming a big, strong, sexy orc! Charles let all restraints fall away and started pumping in earnest now. With each stroke, the green spread, until his entire torso was of a rich green color. His head felt a pressure as his facial structure reformed, and his ears grew long and pointy. His hair lost darkened and grew out into a wild mohawk-like hairstyle. At the same time, a black beard sprouted around his entire jaw, underlining his masculinity.

Meanwhile, the green had swept across his arms and legs, quickly eliminating any leftover pink spots. The green color looked incredibly hot under the coat of dense, manly hair, and Charles felt himself getting closer. He grunted with each stroke like an animal and where his muscular green body touched the furniture or his executive chair, it left a film of manly sweat. Finally, he felt a short bit of pain on his ears and nipples, as small metal piercings appeared there: Short studs in his ears and small rings in his nipples.

That sent him over the edge. With a final bellow, he came, mightily. His large green balls contracted and his massive cock spew cum everywhere: All over his stomach, his chest, his furniture, even his face!

Charr panted in the afterglow of his orgasm. He was the epitome of virility and although he had just cummed all over his office, his mind kept creeping back to sexy guys again. He would be able to go again, soon - but that had to wait a bit. He used the remains of his suit to clean up a bit (although it was still clearly visible and smellable what happened here), stuffed his mighty tool into the cum-stained underwear and reached for the phone.

"Please send the board to my office, I want to issue an honorable apology, and announce our new strategy." He rumbled with his new, low voice. After a moment of consideration, he added: "And please send someone to install our games on my PC."

He rubbed his hands. This would usher in a whole new era for GreenGames - with the greenest possible CEO.

I have the feeling that a lot of companies could benefit greatly from a bit of a greener leadership!

[jiraisupportgroup]

₊‧°𐐪♡𐑂°‧₊ Tips for Managing a Shopping Addiction ₊‧°𐐪♡𐑂°‧₊

Shopping addictions or impulsive overspending is a really hard habit to break out of, and depending on your financial situation you can end up in really tough spots because of it.

As a general disclaimer: I am not a doctor or therapist, I'm just a mentally ill 24-year-old on the internet who's had issues with overspending (like a lot >-<) but hopefully, these tips can be of some use to you! I would also recommend looking for advice in other areas as well! Don't use this post as your only resource ^-^

♡ Overarching tips ♡

♡ Identify why you might have a shopping addiction. There are many different reasons for this! One thing that can help you identify the reasoning behind it is to analyze the emotions you feel when shopping. Do you feel frantic? Stressed? Really overly-excited? After you make the purchase how do you feel? Do you feel guilt? Shame? Regret? Relief? Super happy? Really analyze your feelings through the process and get a vibe for how it's making you feel. A lot of times shopping addiction develops as a way to cope with negative feelings. If you're feeling sad, stressed, or anxious, it's really tempting to buy yourself a "little treat" to make yourself feel better! But that can spiral into situations where any time you feel those negative emotions you feel a strong urge to go out and buy something to make those feelings go away, and a lot of times they'll come back even worse after the fact. If this is something that you think plays into your shopping addiction, you'll have to build up your resources for healthy coping mechanisms to give yourself alternatives to shopping when you feel down or anxious. Shopping addiction can also develop as a reaction to being in a poor financial situation. You can see this a lot with food and toiletries, but it can happen with other items as well. It makes sense that if someone has experienced food insecurity, once they have extra cash, they'll overstock on food to ensure they never run out again. That same logic applies to other aspects of life as well. If this is something that is playing into your shopping addiction you'll need to do some work into identifying places in your life that you feel the need to overstock on, why you feel that way, and how you can help minimize those feelings to help yourself feel secure without needing to overspend and overstock on those items.

♡ Identify what you are spending your money on. What is it that you're overspending on? Toiletries like skincare products and soaps? Food? Cookware? Clothing? Stuffed animals? Identifying what it is that you impulse buy the most can help you pick up on some of the reasons for your overspending, and can help you know what areas of purchases you need to be more aware of.

♡ Avoid browsing. Especially with online shopping, browsing for items to buy is way too easy. It is so tempting to log onto your favourite shopping websites and just browse for hours, even if you don't need anything! You can open Amazon without the intention of buying anything in particular and the website will shove products into your face until you convince yourself that you absolutely need something T-T so avoid browsing these websites.

♡ Identify when you need something or truly want something vs when you’re experiencing a Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO). There are multiple parts to this. The first one is SALES. 20% off! Free shipping! Buy one get one 50% off! IGNORE THAT!!!! If you did not want to buy it before you saw the sale, do not let the sale influence you into buying it! That's what the corporations want! These sales are designed to create a false sense of urgency so that you feel a stronger need to purchase the product, even if you didn't really want it that much before. Another part of this is trends. This is really easy to see in fashion but it applies to other things as well. Do you really need the new skirt that everyone is talking about? Do you REALLY like the item or do you just want it because everyone else has it and you want to be cool? Would you wear it if no one else was wearing it? Do you already have items to style it with? How often would you actually wear it? Do you already own something similar? These are really important questions to ask when you're shopping for fashion because it is SO EASY to see everyone else wearing something and then just go buy it because everyone else has it, and then they all move on to something else and it just sits in your closet for the next few months never to see the light of day again.

♡ Take note of what you already have. When you're out shopping for something, ask yourself "Do I already have something similar" or "Do I already have something that can serve this same purpose". This works for a lot of things. If you see a new cardigan you really like, think about if you already have a cardigan you can style in the same way. If you're looking at new cookware, ask yourself if you really need another pot or if you have one that can do the same thing. And if you're not sure, go home and check! It is so much better to make sure that you really need the thing that you're buying before you buy it, than to buy it and then realize that you don't need it or you aren't going to use it.

♡ Don’t view shopping as a hobby. Ask yourself... truly, do you treat shopping as though it is a hobby? If you spend multiple hours on shopping websites, it is a hobby. If you get dressed up just to go walk around Target without any specific thing that you need to buy in mind, it is a hobby. Try to replace this with something else that doesn't involve spending money. If you're spending a lot of time on shopping websites, try playing a video game with customizable elements where you can sort of get the feeling that you're buying and building things without spending money (Animal Crossing is really good for this, making Picrews is another good and free option). If it's more of a way to get yourself out of the house try going to places that don't involve shopping instead, there's a surprisingly large number of free or really cheap little art galleries and museums around where you can go walk around and look at cool stuff without really being sold things. Look on your town's website and see if there are any events going on, you'll be really surprised to see how much stuff people organize and do ESPECIALLY around winter-time there are usually loads and loads of free tree-lighting ceremonies and light shows. Talk to your friends too! If meeting up with friends to go shopping is a big part of your friendship dynamic tell them that you're trying to save money and ask if there are other things that you guys can do instead. (Also just as a note I know this is a lot harder in rural areas than cities T-T I do apologise).

♡ In-Store Tips ♡

♡ Don’t go shopping just to go shopping. If you are going shopping make sure that you are shopping for something that you actually need or truly want and have the financial means of getting. Before you walk into the store identify what these things are. Buy only those things. Additionally if you’re looking for something specific but can’t find that item, don’t settle for something else, instead wait until you can find either the specific item you wanted or a really close alternative. Remember that it’s okay to leave a store without buying anything! If you didn’t find what you wanted or needed, you don’t have to buy anything!

♡ Set a reasonable budget. Sometimes it's okay to just go shopping for fun, but you want to make sure that before you go shopping you set a reasonable budget for yourself. You need it to be enough that you'll actually be able to stick to it (like I would not set the budget to $20, that's unreasonably low), but you also want to make sure that it is not SO much that it is going to financially stress you (for example $200 is usually too high for me). For most people, this is going to land you somewhere in the $50-$150 range depending on your income, expenses, and current financial situation. If at any point you find yourself saying "I can spend a little more if I don't do XYZ" STOP. If you start taking money away from other expenses for "fun shopping", STOP. Make sure that all of your essential bills and expenses can be comfortably covered before you start spending fun money.

♡ Wait before you buy. Don't feel rushed or like you have to buy something right now. Identify things in the store that you like, leave the store, and come back later if you can. If you forget anything that you wanted in the time between you leaving the store and coming back, then you don't really need it. If you cant leave the store, step away from your basket for a second. See if you can remember everything in your basket then come back. If there is anything in your basket that you did not remember, put it back. If it’s online do the same thing. Close the page and see if you can remember everything. If you can’t, delete what you didn’t remember. Even better if you wait 1 week before purchasing. You can leave the items in the cart, just wait a few days and see if you still want to buy them after those few days are up. The general idea is that if you do not remember and want the item when it is not in your immediate vicinity, then you likely don't need it. And especially if you leave the store and come back a few days later, if you really really wanted it on day one, but when you come back two days later you don't really want it anymore, then you likely don't need it.

♡ Think critically about each of your purchases. Below is a little chart that @.downsizeupgrade on TikTok uses when she makes a purchase to weigh out if she really needs it or not that I like quite a bit. I did make a few small changes. There are three versions ranging from super cute over the top layout to very simple and easy-to-read layout so that if any of them are hard to read you have options for which one is the easiest for you to use. It is super important to try and be AS HONEST as you can when you’re answering these questions.

[gffa]

I have a lot of thoughts about the Watcher move and I get why they did it. I've kind of half-suspected something like this would happen, because I don't think their current business model is growing enough to make it profitable for them to keep the staff they have, not with the kind of videos they put out and they've been clear that they want this to be their livelihood and a genuine production studio. But the big production videos like this just cannot survive on YouTube, unless you're like Mr. Beast or a very few other creators. And the reason big production companies like Mythical or Smosh can survive on YouTube is because they're putting out videos EVERY DAY pretty much, they keep the average costs down. And even Mythical has talked about how their views have plateaued, Rhett and Link have talked repeatedly about how they're constantly trying new things and can't really pursue them if they're not a massive hit because they're beholden to only having resources for things that won't lose them money. It took them twenty years to get to a place where they could finally say, "Fuck it, we're doing what we want, because we're secure enough to take the hit, if it comes to that." Watcher in contrast is making more high level production shows, a lot of research into a single episode (rather than something that can be used for multiple episodes), expensive location shoots, etc. And so I think they looked to Dropout as a business model that might work for them. But the thing is that I'm not sure they have a strong enough roster to pull it off. Puppet History and Ghost Files are both hits, but I'm not sure any shows that aren't centered on Ryan and Shane have ever really taken off? Maybe Worth It or Dish Granted? Meanwhile, Dropout has the whole D20 lineup and Game Changer is a huge hit (also possibly Make Some Noise?)(I'm judging by how many shows I see cross my dash, which may not be the best metric, tbf) but they have a huge cast to work with and their model relies heavily on how much of the D20 stuff they put out in volume. So, I get why Watcher did this, in some ways, I kind of agree that it might have been the only move for them if they wanted to do this long-term. And I think it's important to them that, the whole reason they left Buzzfeed was because they wanted to do their own stuff, their own passion projects, rather than just what Buzzfeed deemed a viral hit. And their YouTube shows do mean being beholden to advertisers and only focusing on what will be as big a hit as possible, which is exactly what they wanted to get away from. I'm just not sure it'll work because they can't put out enough content that enough people would want to pay for. I kinda wish they'd gone the Mythical route instead, where they put up the behind the scenes stuff and special series on their own site and had tiers of membership for people who wanted to access them, while keeping the main shows on YouTube. (But I guess that's basically what they were doing with the Patreon exclusive videos and it must not have been a big enough draw to keep going the way they did.) I think they probably felt like this was the only route forward for them long-term, that it was either this or they would have to dissolve the company, but I'm just not sure I believe that it can work. I love the shows, but I'm not getting a subscription service for a roster of shows where I watch like three of the shows.

[seafoamreadings]

week of september 29th, 2024

these are written predominantly for the *rising* signs but they are also intuitively "channeled" enough that they should work for any dominant energy you have! (try your sun if you don't know rising, or more advanced readers can try moon, anywhere you have a stellium, etc and see what works best for you!)

aries: eclipse season reaches its big climax this week with a new moon solar eclipse in your relationship house. expect volatility, changes, and some manner of drama in partnerships and your relationship with the people you interact with.

taurus: this is the type of week where the best thing you can do (and it WILL be productive and even fun, probably!) is to feel your feelings and then move on about your life. you can't do just one or the other, it has to be both. rather you can but... it's not going to go nearly as well.

gemini: the eclipse can bring weirdness (in the sense of "wyrd") to all the things you've been doing for fun lately, especially where other people are involved. don't try to make it a good thing or a bad thing, just be open to change, and to being changed.

cancerians: this week's eclipse is a very libran period, and the most fitting activity for you now is to be at home, or at least in comfortable places, as much as possible. it's not so much that you're avoiding the madness, but that will be the place you best deal with it for now. when you have to leave that sanctum, so what you can to keep yourself feeling at home wherever you are. this is really one of the strengths of your sign, after all!

leo: try not to allow a rupture with a relationship in your nearby environment, such as with a sibling or a neighbor. it is also not the ideal time for publishing, or for posting to social media. but other cathartic writing will be transformative for you in positive ways, especially if it is quite private.

virgo: after that last eclipse, this week's solar eclipse in libra is likely to be much smaller stuff. the big takeaway is to be cautious with money and resources - if you can do this, any major harm is likely to be easily averted.

libra: much is taking place in your sign these days but what you really are best off focusing on this week is the solar new moon eclipse in your sign. you're going through a major change, and you may be doing it alone, like the sort of tired metaphor of a caterpillar in its chrysalis. you don't have to know why it's happening, just have faith that you will emerge into a sort of new life, with new powers and new skills and even new people surrounding you. what is cast off now is not needed in that future.

scorpio: this week's solar eclipse is the big news for most everyone. for you it falls in your 12th house. expect secrets to be revealed, whether you were the one trying to keep things hushed up, or whether it was kept from you. developments may also occur around hospitals or prisons, literally or perhaps metaphorically.

sagittarius: really not the best week here to be going out with friends, unless you are up for some drama. if you're not 100% down for that, consider some cautious solo adventures, or a restful week at home.

capricorn: primarily you are focused on career or some other facet of your public image pretty much all week. not every development will be favorable, but some of them will be! and you have the grace and skill to get through all of it with poise.

aquarius: plans around academics, spirituality, long-distance travel, and philosophy are fickle under this coming eclipse and the rest of the astrology of this week. be flexible, and be open to the possibility that inconveniences now become treasures later on.

pisces: your sign's stereotype of naivete can come into play this week for sure. but fight that classification by exercising extreme caution around sharing your resources or lending or borrowing money. this is not a time to merge households, cut corners, or even give a friend twenty bucks if you expect to ever get it back. (but a gift from the heart is not naive, that's much more along the lines of your good qualities!)

[cyberclouddream]

Venus Scorpio Transit 1st House

increased attraction, people find you more magnetic, whether you like it or not

feel called to completely change your looks or how you present yourself, like dying your hair or getting a piercing

you become hyper aware of how others see you, which leads to you either acting insecure or fiercely protective over your image

expect more romantic opportunities, or at least flirtation

you may feel like your determination borderlines obsession at this time

Venus Scorpio Transit 2nd House

you become more obsessed with either budgeting, spending, or making more money

you may feel drawn to splurging on things you don't need, so resist going broke on luxury items

reflecting on your values, which may make you come to uncomfortable realizations about your priorities

clinging to your possessions a little too tightly, maybe even hoarding

you may have increased negotiation skills, just don't get too greedy

may have financial tension in your relationships

Venus Scorpio Transit 3rd House

less small talk and superficiality; more deep, heavy, and intense discussions

misunderstanding are gonna flare up more, so don't get surprised if arguments occur over trivial matters

your relationships with your siblings or close relatives can either strengthen or get messy, so watch your words

feeling more eager to learn and explore, but don't just skim the surface

may feel called to write, speak, or create art to channel your thoughts

local events may bring surprising connections

Venus Scorpio Transit 4th House

more obsessed with the state of your living space, like home improvement projects or redecoration

family drama bubbles up, forcing you to deal with issues you've been avoiding

nostalgia is gonna hit hard in this period; old memories, especially painful ones, will resurface

you may crave more alone time at home

Venus Scorpio Transit 5th House

romance is gonna hit hard for you, so if you're in love expect passionate nights; beware of jealousy

a more playful and creative attitude, probably feel really inspired unless you have harsh aspects here

if single or poly, you may meet someone who really piques your interest

you may be drawn to more risky or taboo forms of pleasure

Venus Scorpio Transit 6th House

you'll either really love or really hate your job right now

more focus on your health, or you may be facing the consequences if you've been neglecting it

tension may flare up at work, and you may get caught up in the middle of conflict

more focus on sticking to structure and boosting your productivity

you may uncover deeper feelings about your job, ones that can lead to major changes

Venus Scorpio Transit 7th House

you're either gonna deepen your commitments or question them entirely

more ready to address conflict; power dynamics may shift and jealous or control issues may surface

new people may enter your life, but consider whether they're worth the effort

if fairness feels off, you're gonna feel more called to speak up

relationships are gonna force you to confront uncomfortable feelings and heavy realizations

Venus Scorpio Transit 8th House

resources you share with others may be brought up in discussions more often

old traumas may surface, forcing you to confront uncomfortable feelings

you may crave more experiences that push boundaries, whether in love, finances, or emotional exploration

hidden aspects of your life may come to life, like secrets or revelations

your intimate relationships may go through significant changes

Venus Scorpio Transit 9th House

feel called to escape, like a short trip or a life-changing adventure

expect more conversations that challenge your beliefs

you may discover new learning opportunities, like courses or books, that inspire your passion

may be drawn to new cultures or diverse perspectives

any travel plans or educational pursuits may leave a lasting impact on you at this time

Venus Scorpio Transit 10th House

you may be spotlighted in your professional life more, either because of your hard work or your slacking

you may care more about how you're viewed professionally, but don't let it consume you

you may feel more restless than usual if you don't feel fulfilled at work, so it's a good time to make changes

this is a good time to make connections that can advance your career, so don't sit back

heightened drive to succeed

Venus Scorpio Transit 11th House

expect friendship dynamics to shift; some may end, some may deepen, but don't hang onto what no longer serves you

more drawn to social causes or group activities

collaborating on projects will be really rewarding at this time

you need to genuinely assess who you have in your corner, cutting out toxic ties

if you feel disconnected from people, reach out instead of waiting for someone to come to you

Venus Scorpio Transit 12th House

you may uncover deceit or betrayal from others close to you

feel more called towards helping others, which can manifest as volunteering or supporting humanitarian causes

your subconscious is gonna be really loud these days; expect to have vivid dreams that reveal hidden truths about yourself, so right them down

old wounds and traumas will surface, but you shouldn't run from them anymore

craving solitude, wanting to retreat from the chaos; good time for self-reflection

[furiousgoldfish]

If you're often wondering why do abusers do this to kids, and why they don't change their behaviour even when it's pointed out, I have a few insights to share.

I believe abuse is an easy way for people to get out of parenting their own kids, while still getting credit as if they're doing it. And even more, they get special privileges and resources that normal parents wouldn't try to get, because the price of them is too high for the children to pay.

For instance, in order to take care of a child, you have to deal with their development needs; meaning you need to be educated enough about human development to know why the child is acting the way they do, you need to know if they need guidance, support, boundaries, stability, schedules, or entertainment, fun, play-time, attention, comforting, more resources, more interaction. You also need to deal with their random behaviours, like children will sometimes get loud and careless, break stuff, cause damage, turn against you, get sick, get into bad moods, get sulky, throw tantrums, get stuck in bad groups of people or be predated upon, have trouble at school, wander off, develop mental illness, and as a parent, you are expected and required to be there for all of that, on top of regularly caring that they're well-fed, bathed, that they have fitting and functional clothing, that they're well socialized, and that their living condition is clean and functional enough for them to be happy and safe.

Now, if you're an abuser, and your child is struggling or giving you any of the random behaviours that annoy you, and you lash out at them, tell them nobody is ever going to love them, threaten to 'give them a reason to cry', yell at them until they get frozen in shock and pain, they're not going to come to you next time for help. In fact, it's unlikely they'll feel safe around you to exhibit half of their normal behaviour, instead they'll be sheepish and too scared they'll accidentally annoy you, so you won't have to hear about their day, their bad moods, their worries, their loudness, them making any trouble for you; in fact, your mental energy will be yours only and you will effectively not have to emotionally raise a child anymore, it will be just another human who is too scared of you to ask you to fulfill any of your parental duties.

What about when your child is sick? You know you have to care for your sick child. Except, you're an abuser, so to you this is a drain on your energy and you'd rather not have to deal with it, because a child to you is not a real person but an object that is in your way. So, you yell at your child that they got sick on purpose because they hate you, you tell them it because they did 'x' and 'y' (which they maybe did because you failed to watch out for them) and inform them that you will not be taking them to the hospital. Now your child will not expect any care while they're sick, and in fact, they'll be too scared to even come to you next time they're sick. Again, you got out of childcare and have all of your energy for yourself, at the expense of your child's health.

If you continually call your child a financial burden, ask them when they're going to pay rent, force them to work in order to deserve to eat and sleep at your house, complain about how 'money doesn't grow on trees', then your child will be too scared and ashamed to confess when their things are broken, clothes no longer fitting or torn, their shoes too small or breaking apart, their hygiene products at their end, or for anything they might like or want from the store. Now your child will try to make ends meet on their own, and you can financially save up and buy yourself what you like, and then buy the kid something when it's convenient for you, maybe for like a birthday present. Maybe at this point you are starting to see that if your child runs around looking very rugged, people are going to notice the visible lack of care, so you either make sure the kid does have some new-looking clothes, or, you tell the kid explicitly what they're allowed to wear outside, to not bring shame on you and the entire family, once again putting the responsibility on the child to look 'cared for', while you do almost absolutely nothing to make it a reality.

Now you're having a child who is, out of deep-seated fear of you, acting politely and socialized in company, giving you ever chance to pretend that you care for them daily, while you're effectively living as if you didn't have a child at all. But maybe that's not enough for you. Maybe, you also want to use that child to earn money as well; after all, they're scared of you and will do as you say. You can put them up to any kind of labour and call it 'chores', and tell them you're just 'teaching them work habits', while they're doing your part of household chores, heavy physical labour, maybe even your job, if they're good at it.

But maybe this is not the area where you need assistance, but you're looking for a free, non-judgmental therapist who will be on your side completely and never dare to call you out or confront you - and voila, this child is so desperate to make any sort of connection to you, they'll carefully listen to all of your woes and trauma, even when it's deeply inappropriate for them to hear it, and they'll of course, be on your side as you're the only person in the story they care about, so you can cry to them as much as you want and even encourage them to fix you, to run around looking for ways to cheer you up, make your life easier to you, influence other people to give you what you want. And if they ever dare to stand up to you or defy you, you can just snap at them and call them something that makes their blood freeze in shock and they'll back down and become even more obedient.

Neat, isn't it? Not only you don't need to parent this child anymore, but you can draw any kind of benefit out of them, groom them into any kind of behaviour, extract physical and emotional labour from them, take their anger out of them, control their life so it benefits you and not them, all while convincing them it's their duty to give it to you.

As a result, you will be untouched by the chore of parenting, and your child will grow into a terrified, deeply insecure, always wondering why they're not enough, never feeling good enough, neglected but not aware of it, hyper-independent, ashamed, desperate, unloved, depressed, traumatized, engulfed by grief and loneliness, never understanding why their own parent didn't want them, care-deprived adult. Because it's all that effort, all that responding to child's needs, all that attention and care and warmth and energy put into a child, that is necessary for them to have proof that they're a worthwhile human being, that they're not only alive to be filled with emptiness and serve others.

But that's also why the abusive parents will never stop what they're doing. The benefits they get by abuse far outweigh the cost (the cost being the well being of their child, to them cost is zero), so they will not suddenly become willing to do the job of parenting, after they've spent so much time successfully avoiding it, and only put the energy into gaslighting the child into believing this is normal.

This is also why they put so much effort into making the child dependent on them, and sabotaging the potential escape - they're benefiting from having that child around, they're actively extracting what ever they want from this young person that they barely have to cover the living cost for, who doesn't know or understand how many of their human rights are being violated. There's truly no easier way to isolate, trap, groom, brainwash and then control a person.

[susiephone]

the internet's lack of nuance in general is always annoying but one thing i see come up over and over again is people refusing the acknowledge that book piracy is different than pirating tv or movies. and it is. it absolutely is.

unlike tv or movies, where, with some exceptions, everyone gets paid an agreed upon amount for their work, regardless of how much money the end product makes, authors make royalties- meaning how much they make is completely dependent on how many copies sell. some authors get an advance, which is a flat fee you get no matter what, but you don't start making royalties until you "earn out" your advance - so if i get an advance of, say, $10,000, i don't get any royalties for my book until it's sold enough copies to make $10,000 in royalties and paid the publisher back for the advance. most books never get that far. and $10,000 is not a number to sneeze at, but when you consider that books can take months to years to write, plus editing time, plus marketing (because 95% of that responsibility falls on the author unless you are extremely lucky) - when you break it down to how much money you're making for every hour of work you put into a book, it's really not a living wage, unless you're one of the lucky few who sells a lot of copies consistently, and/or gets large enough advances that you can live on it for a year or two while you write your next book.

i've seen some well-meaning people say that pirating from indie authors is wrong because they don't have the support or resources of a publishing house, and often don't sell a lot of copies at all - which is true. but i think a lot of people don't fully realize that most authors who are traditionally published, even ones who have had overall positive experiences with their publishers, don't usually make that much either. like i said, most people never earn out their advance, and most authors have to handle marketing mostly themselves - the books everyone's talking about, most of them probably got a big marketing push from the publisher with more money behind it. which isn't a dig at those books; publishers put money behind projects they think will make money, often because those books are good! but it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the books that get covered by every reviewer, get goodreads banner ads, get quotes from famous authors, end up in subscription boxes? very much the exception, and that's because the publisher can't afford to do that for every book. obviously sometimes there's an underdog, a book that didn't get a big marketing push but gets great word-of-mouth and grows that way, but if you're trying to make a living writing, you have to work for that to happen.

so with all that in mind, it really grinds my gears to see authors who say, "hey, book piracy significantly hurts my income" being called greedy, selfish, or "scabs".

i think some people think, "wow, you have a publishing deal from a big 5 publisher with a five-figure advance, and you still want more money? how greedy!" because they don't fully realize how the math actually works out for most authors.

like, pedro pascal is getting his fat paycheck no matter how many people pirate the mandalorian. no one working on dear evan hansen lost a dime because of the bootleg recordings floating around. and for the big new york times bestselling authors? yeah, most of them probably won't be hurt by people pirating their book instead of buying it. almost certainly stephen king is not going to notice if a few thousand people download an illegal pdf of the shining. but most authors, it does have an impact.

obviously, there is some nuance here - not everyone can afford books to read, and not everyone can access a library. and obviously if a book is out of print, that's a different discussion entirely. but "it's fine to pirate books because piracy is always ethical and victimless and authors who are against it are just scabs who hate poor people" doesn't really hold water for me. authors are not the bad guy for wanting to be compensated for their labor, and while it's not the reader's fault the royalties system doesn't let most authors make a good living at it, it's also not the author's fault.

if you want free books that don't screw the author over, advocate for more libraries with more funding! most libraries will also take requests for books to purchase for their collection, and, at least in the USA, "interlibrary loans" will let them temporarily borrow a book from another library system if someone wants it. see if your library is part of libby and hoopla, and if they're not, suggest they join. if you have a little extra money but can't afford new books, thriftbooks is a great place for cheap used books.

like i said, i am not saying everyone who ever pirated a book is a bad person, or that there's never a justifiable reason. i just wanted to introduce more nuance into the conversation.

[colebabey888]

1,000??..

1K+ followers, urg cute! thank you for the support, you guys make it so fun to be a girlbloggerrr

a few months ago, I hadn't even been active on Tumblr nor Pinterest. now I have over a thousand followers and more than 3 million views across both platforms combined and this is just the beginning for colebabey8.88. im so excited for all the new creative ideas i will spark up for you guys in the future. more it girl diaries, more fashion, more wellness, who knows, colebabey8.88 is always evolving! it's so fun though like i'm hoping from one app to the other and just making my blueprint there haha ..

one of the best things about this, is that I'm now making money on both sites too. because of so many negative perceptions on earning an income through digital marketing or social media, i never really pondered on being a girlblogger, the idea of being able to enjoy something and make a substantial income from it was just crazy! , but after spilling all my crazy thoughts, beauty secrets and fashion rants into mini paragraphs, sharing them with random strangers just for fun, i don't know i kind of like it here haha. ( im still getting my degree, being rich and dumb isn't a good look ), but anyways, i was a brokeyyy, draining myself in school and depending on my parents financially. i took a chance at doing something i love and enjoy and now i have my own money coming in from different places in different ways. crazy ! you really do create your own reality, i saw an opportunity and took it! but honestly, it's fascinating to observe the potential of social media when approached with seriousness, consistency, and discipline.

Interested in replicating this success by the means of social media monetization?, I'd be happy to share my strategies and insights.

first download the M3 Ebook for free ( while this guide primarily focuses on Pinterest growth and monetization strategies, many of the principles can be effectively applied across various social media platforms of your choice. )

once you feel like you've mastered the M3 Guide, consider acquiring The Digital Dollar resource. In this guide I give insight on diverse methods I took in the beginning for generating multiple passive income streams, whether it be affiliate marketing, creating digital products, starting an online brand or even blogging!

and remember, if you have any questions, my inbox is always open, don't be shy !

mwah! xoxo, colebabey8.88

[invisibleicewands]

Michael Sheen's The Way echoes Tata steelworks reality

When Michael Sheen was filming clashes between steelworkers and riot police in his home town Port Talbot, little did he know 2,000 jobs at its steelworks would be at risk by the time it premiered.

"We had no idea when we were developing the story what would be happening at the steelworks when this came out," he said.

"It's incredibly unfortunate that the story we've written has come bizarrely very close to the truth."

Speaking ahead of The Way's premiere at Port Talbot's Reel Cinema, he insisted the three-part BBC drama - originally conceived in 2016 - was a fictional story and not about the Tata steelworks.

"But obviously, knowing the town, knowing the relationship the town has with the steelworks, knowing the insecurities and the anxieties that have always been there in my lifetime around employment and work there - that was part of what drew us to setting the story in this town," said Sheen, 55, who both directed and starred in the drama.

He said Port Talbot's steelworks was the "spiritual centre of the town" and "part of our DNA" and the news of job losses had been "devastating".

The Way is written by James Graham, created by Sheen, Graham and documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis and stars a number of Welsh actors.

The cast includes Steffan Rhodri (Steeltown Murders and Gavin & Stacey), Mali Harries (Hinterland), Sophie Melville (The Pact), Callum Scott Howells (It's a Sin) and Mark Lewis Jones (Men Up and Keeping Faith).

Episode one sees growing concern over the future of the steelworks, leading to protests, which later turn to riots.

Some take to the streets to join the fight, others frantically try to escape or hide in their homes as helicopters fly overhead.

The streets become a warzone and the town is locked down by armed police.

With Port Talbot facing an uncertain future, could life imitate art?

"It's not like we're saying 'this is what you should do as a result of what's going on' by any means, but obviously I have huge sympathy for the steelworkers," said Sheen.

"In no way is this a blueprint to how people should react, but you don't know do you? I have no idea how people are going to react.

"People will try and be as resourceful and as positive about it as they possibly can I'd imagine because that is the spirit of the people in this place - but at the same time you don't know and people are very angry as well."

For Sheen, "everything" is political.

A long-term champion of the NHS, in 2015 he was applauded for delivering a passionate speech to a pro-NHS march in Tredegar, Blaenau Gwent, and he is currently in rehearsal for a National Theatre production about NHS founder Aneurin Bevan.

In 2019, he sold property to bankroll the Homeless World Cup in Cardiff when funding for the £2m project fell through at the last moment.

In 2020, the actor, who was born in Newport and raised in Port Talbot, said he had handed back his OBE so he could air his views about the monarchy without being a "hypocrite".

In 2021, he said he had turned himself into a "not-for-profit" actor, using the money he earned from acting to fund projects.

He has been vocal on a range of issues from children in care to Welsh independence.

Was he trying to make a political statement in The Way?

"Everything is connected, everything happens for a reason, things are the way they are in this town and any town not just by chance, it's because of choices and various things... I think inevitably this was going to be a political story," he said.

"Part of the reason why we wanted to set it here... we needed to feel there was a great sense of discontent amongst a lot of people in the place, a lot of anxiety, a lot of feeling of not having their voices heard."

He said when people were made to feel that they were not being listened to and did not matter "that sense of frustration and anger can boil over".

Sheen made his name as an actor initially in the theatre before winning acclaim as a screen actor playing real people from Tony Blair, David Frost, Kenneth Williams and Chris Tarrant to lead roles in series including Good Omens, Masters of Sex and Staged.

In 2011, he directed and starred in a 72-hour epic theatrical production of The Passion, which moved around different locations across Port Talbot drawing huge crowds and critical acclaim.

It is perhaps unsurprising that he would choose to make his TV directorial debut in the town too.

"[The Way] was definitely very personal," he said.

"I feel like I knew what I was filming and I felt anchored and connected to what was going on."

Sheen now lives near Port Talbot with his partner Anna Lundberg and their two children Lyra and Mabli.

"It's somewhere I inevitably keep coming back to and it's an endless source of inspiration," he said of the town.

"It's the source of all my imaginative explorations really because it's my home.

"It's where I grew up, it's where all the most important things happened to me, it's where my family still lives, it's where I now live again and as I've got older I've realised more and more how important the beginning of my life was and all the opportunities people gave to me."

One of those people who gave him opportunities was Godfrey Evans, a drama teacher who helped shaped generations of actors through the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre and died in November, aged 82.

At the premiere across the road from the town's Aberavon Beach, Sheen dedicated the screening to both his former teacher and Port Talbot's steelworkers.

What are his hopes for those in his home town currently fearing for their jobs?

"Particularly at a time like this when there's so much anxiety and so much concern about the future it is so important to feel like you're supported and you can talk about what's going on and to find connection with other people who are maybe going through the same things," he said.

"We wish everyone the best and hope there's plenty of support for people in the future."

[spinda-draws]

Think you can possibly break down why cyberflash episodes look so worse compared to Nelvana cyberchase episodes? I've been paying attention to the episodes and I think it's the poor rigs, tweaning, and adding too detail to things originally simplied in Nelvana eps (Digit's copter for example). But that's me. What about you?

It's not necessarily bad rigs? Well let me say it this way. The kids in my opinion look absolutely fine 90% of the time. Their designs are way simpler so they're not as impacted by the cost saving measures as... well, anyone else (coughHackercough). I would not be surprised if they basically had the same naked rig copy and pasted with the hair and clothes put on after. That would definitely save time from having three unique rigs.

I will use Hacker as the counter example because I've spent more time looking at him, but the way they translated his model was simply not good. But more than that, I think his design is just much harder to make a good rig out of. He is such a flat design by nature you can't just copy and paste the same quickly made rig for every situation and have it look okay. Nelvana's animators were making tweaks to his design in pretty much every scene just to get it to look good for that pose/ from that angle. You can absolutely make a great rig for Hacker, but its going to take a lot of effort.

If you want to see an example of how a ToonBoom rig can be pretty damn detailed might I promote a buddy of mine? She is doing her own show using ToonBoom right now. There is a lot of flexibility of animators are given enough time and resources to go all out.

What I mean to say is that the rigs are, for the most part doing their job, but their job has been extremely limited due to the new goal of the show's production to make the episodes quickly and cheaply because there's not much money in the bank. There is probably an art direction order for the storyboarders to do bare minimum and that would extent to the animations as they work within the confines of the storyboards.

But alright enough semantics, everyone knows this show has no money for fancy complex rigs, but what does that mean in execution? I think the opening is the best way to compare because it follows the template of the original show.

The scene where the kids intercept Hacker's green bubble attack and the screen cracks. In the original, he is drawn to take up the full screen and there's a marvelous sense of anticipation in how he moves.

This is the first frame of animation for the new and old versions.

In the next unique frame old Hacker bites down and continues to fold in on himself, increasing the sense of anticipation while new Hacker starts to expand out into the shocked pose immediately.

By the time the screen starts to crack, new Hacker has already reached the peak of his move and on his way down while old Hacker is only about halfway there.

The next few frames of new Hacker basically stay the same, the rig has nowhere else to go while old Hacker keeps going and reaches his peak.

In the next few frames old Hacker comes down slightly from the peak and brings his arms up (actually I think this was a bad move on Nelvana's part because the animation started with his moving them down and now he's back up within a second and a half, but that is probably a storyboarding issue) whereas new Hacker still has nowhere else to go. Now scroll back up to the first frame and notice how little new Hacker has changed overall.

Actually it is super weird because if you look at Delete beside him, Delete is actually showing decent anticipation. I really think there was some struggle with Hacker's design and honestly Buzz is probably having it even worse this scene.

But alright. For any kids fans out there. They don't do much expression and body language honestly, even in the old show they didn't "need" that much anticipation, but still had it subtly. Maybe you can remember a scene where the kids would scrunch their face up slightly and close their eyes and then open them again to transition into a new facial expression. Was kind of a running technique in the original show used on basically every character. To my memory, they don't use it anymore.

But okay, there's another example from the opening.

New Inez, drops right down while old Inez flies out head first.

And then she scrunches up all the way. Anticipation!

Then landing. Meanwhile new Inez has not changed. Honestly the old animation was low budget too, if it were me, I think another frame of her knee bending slightly as she lands before standing upright again would fit but maybe that was an intentional production choice I don't know. Old Cyberchase didn't really use any smears either.

And since you mentioned Digit, here is our boid.

A scene like this, in a production with more budget would just be hand drawn. It is ToonBoom, that is more than possible and a very okay technique to supplement some of the more unavoidable shortcomings of ridges.

Old Digit's wings are super off model, way too big for his body and way bigger than how they usually are, but that's alright because in this frame it looks very good. Animation is supposed to have that flexibility.

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

very self indulgent but i keep thinking about this scenario and its so silly, may i request a reader who's been somehow isekai'd (basically transported) into stardew and is proper down bad (or in other words; a massive crush) for magnus?

I have to say, I've never been a fan of isekai (not that I don't like it, I've just never been interested in that genre). But it turned out to be a lot of fun to write about this situation. I hope it didn't come out too mixed, it's just my first time writing stories in this genre. Thank you so much for the ask, anon! 😊💕

_________________________________________

You wake up on the grass near some strange bus stop. No one is around, your head is spinning, and you can't remember what happened. Here you were walking home from a boring job late at night to have dinner, go to bed in your small apartment alone and go to work again and so on until retirement. Suddenly - it's all gone dark and now you're standing outside the bus stop.

Hello, anybody here?

"Oh, you must be [Y/n]!" Finally, at least there's someone around, it's getting lonely and- Wait, how does that red-haired woman know your name?

"I'm Robin, local carpenter. Our mayor asked me to meet you and escort you to your new home!"

New what? Alas, before you could even say anything, the mysterious woman took you to an old ruin that she apparently called "your home".

"Ah, our new farmer!" And who's that old fart? Wha- what farmer?

"Nice to meet you! I'm Lewis, the mayor. Your Grandpa probably have told you about your farm back then".

But I don't... Grandpa's farm? You tried to say something, but you were interrupted again.

"Here's your new home! There is a shipping bin nearby, you can sell your farm products. Welcome and go ahead - get to know your new community!" As you stand there in shock, both strangers walk away.

What the fuck, you thought. Why does everyone think I'm the new farmer? And why did those two bring me to an old house with no furniture except a bed and a TV on the floor? No kitchen? And no toilet??? What the hell do you mean parsnip seeds?! Am I supposed to clear this whole farm of rocks and bushes with a rusty pickaxe and a flooded scythe???

You decide not to panic and play up the situation a bit to figure out where you are and how you can get back home, because the whole thing is a huge misunderstanding. At the same time ask around to the locals, what is this area? Stardew Valley? Huh...

"Playing along with the situation" became a bit more difficult, because you had to really learn the basics of growing crops, the local fisherman gave you an old fishing rod for some damn reason, and then on the fifth day of this hell you have no money left even for food and have to pick berries in the forest (wow, what a life!). After entering the Community Centre and getting to know the "apples" creatures you already doubt your own sanity.

The next day you get an mail from.... Ras-mo-di-us? Ok, weird. Asking you to come to his "magic tower". What this locals are smoking in here is a mystery of the universe, definitely. Anyway, you have no choice but to head to that very tower.

Flowers all around, the whole room is foggy, it smells weird, and it's also hot - it looks like some kind of drug den... So where's the weirdo?

"I've been waiting for you, young [Y/n]."

Oh, no, he's hot.

You wanted to slap your head. You're lost, you don't know what's going on or where you are, you're cursing all this farm work, the locals are weird, and this is some suspicious-looking bloke, and your first thought is "oh no, he's hot"? There's definitely some weird drugs in the air...

Look, you tried to keep your voice as calm as possible, I don't think I'm from this universe.

"I know, young fool". The fuck, what now? Well, bring me back!

"Alas, I don't have that kind of magic yet, it takes time and rare resources. For now.... You should be what the people of Pelican Town think you are."

Oh, that's just fantastic!

Running after the crows that ruined your crops, pulling an old can of local cola out of a fishing rod hook, walking with tired hands after cutting down some trees, screaming in the Mines, escaping from slimes and bats, making ingots for necessary machines until night.... And you've got some kind of magic now. A quiet country life, nothing fancy.

Then there's that annoying supermarket, which reminds you painfully of that boring old office job....

Although, the locals here are mostly friendly.... They see that you're uncomfortable in your new community and try to make you feel at home. You really appreciated it, and tried your best for them in return by listening to their stories or giving those leftovers of a successful harvest. Your skills grew, you had already made friends with everyone in the Valley, and even kicked that stupid Joja company out of town. Little funny Junimos, hee-hee!

In particular you became close to Magnus (Rasmodius' first name). Even though it was hard for you to still believe in magic, but his talk about parallel worlds, his fascination with magical plants, his talking, his laugh, his looks (dilf material, oh my!), his kind heart and his pride in new spells and magical protection of the Valley from monsters.... You fell in love with him.

And after some conflicting thoughts about whether you're allowed to fall in love with anyone here if this isn't your world? But you have long been part of this world, part of this cosy and friendly community, part of this incredible and magical world.

All dreamy thoughts were gone when Magnus announced to you in a ringing voice that he'd found a way to get you home.

Home?, you repeated. But I'm already home.

And you just kissed Magnus, the die is cast. If he refuses, if he turns his back on you, it'll be hard for you to bear. But Magnus, oddly enough, returned the kiss.

"Then... The choice is made. I was afraid that... I fell in love with you as well, and that you would have to leave forever. But now... Now..."

He didn't have time to finish, because you kissed him again, more passionately this time.

Insert subtitles, ladies and gentlemen, for here is the happy ending.

[multidimensionalguidance]

Cancer Season For All Signs (Part 1)

As summer time continues to pass, the sun will now be going through one of the most soft, nurturing, and psychic signs, Cancer! From July 16th till August 16th we will be focusing our energy towards the aspects of our lives that are related to our home, mothers, domestic comfort, vehicles, roots, and inner world.

This transit will have a particular effect for each Ascendant/Rising sign during this time, but please make sure to also take a look at your Moon as well.

Note: All of my astrology post are sidereal calculations!

Aries

You will be extra focused on home matters, spending time with your family or mother, renovating or making changes at home, and overall feeling like you want to be comfy, nurtured, and loved within your home environment. There might have been or will be an unexpected change in your finances be it for good or bad, and it will trigger you to focus on the importance of having your own property or vehicle. There will also be certain psychological or subconscious patterns that will become more noticeable to you during this time, and this could make you feel very sensitive, so be careful on not pressing the anger button on everyone. This potential stress might end up affecting your work or career as well, so be gentle and allow yourself to be nurtured. A lot of changes and transformations have been occuring within your work environment, profession, work, and public image so things have been a bit all over the place with finances, but this has also open your eyes to needing more stability in other areas of your life such as your home. Enjoy your favorite comfort food and people during this season, you deserve it!

Taurus

During this month of the Sun being in your 3rd house you will be more communicative and feeling comfortable with voicing out to others the way you feel, and don't get me wrong, you're not the type to stay quiet at all, but there could have been matters that you've allowed to sit in your head for far too long. It will push you towards being interested in learning new things, processing a lot of information, and/or developing new skills/hobbies. Be mindful of random bursts of anger or unexpected situations occuring out of your own impulsivity that might end up physically affecting you somehow. Luckily, you do have Jupiter fully protecting, guiding, and throwing wisdom your way. Your energy levels might be all over the place, and for the next couple of years you will be experiencing a lot unexpected changes to your body and personality. It will take you some time to get used to it, and even for others who are used to your very stable or predictable nature will be up for a surprise. This is a chance for you to think outside of the box and break away from old ways of being. This season is a good time to accept these changes and to pay attention to the way you share your thoughts, be it spoken or written. You might also thinking about the ways your near environment has kept your from traveling, exploring other places, and connecting with your personal philosophy.

Gemini

Your focus will be all about your resources, finances, self-value, family, food habits, and even beauty related to your face. This might be a season where you'll put more of your energy towards upgrading your finances, and most likely due to expenses being much higher during this year. You might want to organize yourself better not just with your money, but also with the priority you give to self-care when it comes to the food you ingest and the care given to your face. If you decide to buy any products towards those matters it will be highly beneficial for you since Venus its also in there. If you are in the mood of traveling abroad, be wary of any unexpected incident occuring. It would be best if you wait until Mars is no longer tightly conjunct Uranus. If anything, you would do better by growing your savings account during this time until the cosmic weather settles down a bit. If you've been feeling called to staying inside more often or isolated, it's okay, just make sure you're not pushing those who love and care for you away. You are currently being guided to explore subconscious mind, spirituality, and any self limiting beliefs that are stopping you from self development. If you've even been questioning matters of afterlife and religious beliefs, it is also completely normal! Do not shy away from those big questions and stay as curious as always.

Cancer

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all the nurturers, wifey/hubby material, psychics, and most kind hearted souls of the zodiac. This is quite literally your month to shine and feel like the main character because you are! You will be getting more compliments and looks your way with Venus transiting your sign. This is a time for you to simply exist and be yourself. Spend time taking care of your body, mind, and soul during this month and it will be well rewarded. Your social circle, whether it's online or face-face have probably expanded a bit during this year, and it will continue to do so, but please be mindful that not everyone is deserving of your energy this month. Spending time with your family, specially your mother will be very beneficial for you as well. You're always so concerned with taking care of others, but now its a time for you to give that energy to yourself and focus on spending time with those who want to nurture you. Treat yourself this month like the royalty of the zodiac that you truly are! Your social circle has been expanding and gains have also been making their way to you as well, so be wary that all of these blessings also comes with having more eyes on you than you would like to, hence why it is essential to purge those who reek of envy, jealousy, etc. There might be unexpected endings or beginnings occuring within your networking circle, and this could affect your long term goals plus investments, so again, invest in relationships that truly wish the best for you!

Leo

This month will be all about focusing on your spiritual side and subconscious mind. You might feel more introverted during this time or simply not as keen to being surrounded by a lot of people. This is a good time to put an ending towards bad habits and limiting beliefs that could be holding you back from greatness. Any activities related to shadow work or spiritual healing will beneficial so take advantage of it as much as you can. Even if you love being the star of the show, you also need to rest and allow others to miss you a bit. Be wary of not going over the top with expenses, specially related to traveling. If you have any plans of enjoying a spiritual or any sort of retreat, then this will be the best time to do so. You've been experiencing a lot of luck and expansion in your career and profession, but be mindful that the brighter you shine the more noticeable you become to others, and even if you might not care it will draw negative attention your way. There might be a shocking or unexpected situation related to work, your boss, paternal line, or your public image that might come to light so be ready for it.

Virgo

During this time matters related to your goals, friends, investments, online image, financial gains, and elder siblings will be highlighted. You love to bring your natural desire of service towards your friend, and being the mom-friend in your group is a given for you. There's a good chance of gaining money through collaborations with your friends. You might also feel like beautifying in some way your social media, meaning, uploading more aesthetic content or curating your algorithm to be more artsy. This is a good time to re-evaluate your long term goals and making sure that you're flexible to adjusting them if necessary. Any investments that you make during this month that aids your goals no matter how small will be very beneficial for you. Nurture your wishes as if it was your baby during this time and be proud of how far you've come to being closer to achieving them as well. If you have older siblings, then make sure to spend good quality time with them.

Thanks for reading! I'll be uploading part. 2 soon so if your sign is not in here, don't worry.

If you’d like to know with even more detail how Cancer season will be for you or would like to receive a reading from me, feel free to check out my services here or type multiguidance.com in your preferred browser.

[microscotch]

Girllll I've been spending my holidays with rereading Nobody's Home and I just wanted to ask, are Circe and Loki divorced? If so, what made you divorce them?

YUP the story is set post psp, and part of my backstory for the beakers is them getting a divorce!

so when looking at their relationship i tried to take everything into consideration that the pc and psp game gave to us. let me put a below the cut though so not everyone has to be witness to me inflicting the makings of chronic joint pain on myself:

we know poor nervous died at one point. the implications from both games about how he came to be their test subject are quite conflicting, but i went with emily and annies claims that he signed up to be their test subject for money, as it, from my perspective, tied better into explaining their current situation and provided more detail in general as opposed to maxis' sloppy memory distribution.

with their first subject, the beakers could to some extent rest on the risk a job like this entails and neatly detail it in the contract they had nervous sign to avoid charges as much as possible. in addition to that, they were able to throw a lot of money at preventing the sensationalization of it, but it did come at a cost: 1) selling the castle to make up for it and 2) circe losing her license and the hospital ceasing any affiliation with her. cut to the sad little paradise place house and circe only being hinted at doing 'business' by that time:

left with a less extensive financial repertoire, loki is eager to do whatever it may take to get his precious castle back, and, once he invented something he believed to be a future gold mine, secured some secret patents that will net him millions (quote: circe). with loki, by her assumption, not being willing to share the profits with her, it makes sense for circe to be uneasy and distrustful about this, as the two are already on less safe ground, both in regards to finances and the law, and now he wants to keep all the money he'll be making to himself? her secret about harbouring some underlying resentment for loki's independence and distinction is also pretty convenient here and can be used as an implication that she wasn't as lucky as her husband, particularly regarding him not facing repercussions the same way she did. circe, on the other hand, is having an affair. while that was a product of mind control and not her fault, neither she or loki know that. all that is being revealed to loki is his wife cheating on him. this is where they're left at. depending on the string of dialogue, loki will say that if anyone moves out, it will be his wife, cause it's his house.

after thinking about it, circe would most likely move out immediately. after all of that happening inc. circes slap interaction loop, i can't see either of them comfortable spending even one more night at the same house together. while it is revealed at the end of the game that newlow was mindcontrolling the citizens, we don't know when and how fast these news will actively be passed along, what investigations are being led, etc. - point being, the trifecta of the beakers still being in each others presence, these news reaching them by that time and drawing the correct conclusions from it is the best case scenario but, after the considerations given above, not the most likely one. especially because there's an urgent issue that would capture their attention almost immediately after the game storyline is over: gimi branko. unlike nervous where they could rely on a contract, they literally kidnapped this guy and kept him locked up against his will, and someone had to save him aka he can press charges and tell everything in great detail, with a witness to top it off. they don't have the financial resources to buy themselves out of that anymore (loki's patents aside, but as of now he hasn't seen a cent of that and sure wouldn't consider his wife given recent events), the charges are more dire AND they're at odds with each other.

so i totally had them rat each other out, both hoping to get the lower charge by placing as much blame on the other person as possible. even if gimi being gone were the very first thing they noticed after being at each other's throat, judging by the way they already talked about each other before both their suspicions turned out to be true, there's way too much mutual distrust that built up over a long period of time for them to suck it up for the occasion and not prioritizing their own asses. and thats the end of the evil couple.

[thebestofoneshots]

what AI app/program do you use for the Gilded Constellations art?

Well, it hasn't been only one, I've actually used a couple of different apps/resources to make all the art for GC so far.

For these kinds of images, and this one I've only recently discovered, it's Bing's image creator. It's free, and it does exactly what you ask of it. It's also incredibly good at doing its job. Although I wish it had a feature that allowed me to change specific things from one picture in particular, but I end up doing that in post-production either way (on these images I made Sirius and Lily's lips smaller, changed Remus' hair colour and gave him some more bruises).

For the character looks and casting, I've used Talkie most of the time, it's a CharBot App, but it lets you create art with the bot creation tool, and I absolutely love the styles it comes up with. (But if you actually want to chat with bots, then go to Character.ai their bots are much more clever).

And lastly, I've been toying with Midjourney too, now this one isn't free, it's like 10 USD a month. And with this one, I've made these pictures. It's incredibly good at hyper-realistic stuff and aesthetic backgrounds, but it's kinda bad at following instructions in comparison to Bing or Dall·E-3. For example, I will ask for a dog and a fox in the same picture and it would straight up forget the dog altogether. Still, I like the aesthetic stuff I can create with it, it's easier than scrolling through Pinterest for hours trying to find the right thing to use a header.

Read Gilded Constellations

Disclaimer: I know the position of some people against AI art. I understand your point of view and I know it's a very delicate subject for artists. I love art, in all shapes and forms and if I had the resources to do it, I would 100% commission artists to draw every single one of my headers (I have commissioned artists in the past before), but guys, I don't have nearly half as much money to do that, and I've always dreamed of getting fanart of my works. This is my way to fulfil the dream with my own AI-made fanart. It's insane to see my characters come to life like they do in these pictures, it brings me joy. And I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable, but I see potential in AI, not just in image creating, but in other apps like chatbots, music bots, photo editing bots and even chat gpt. And it might be because I'm a geek, but I want to use these new, incredible tools, in the most ethical way possible, which is why I always use disclaimers.