#this is a good example. and thank you to this user who had to explain that CALCULATORS are fundamentally essential in todays world

[reminiscebliss]

There are a lot of real worries and criticisms when it comes to AI, but RARELY do I see any actual good ones from the people on here freaking out and crying like boomers about, essentially, change.

sorry I know I’m being extremely annoying right now but the claim that the electronic calculator ‘did not forcibly pervade every aspect of our lives’ is so boldly and confidently wrong it’s impressive. the ability to automate the act of quantification (ie what an electronic calculator does) is probably as central to modern commerce and society as like, the transistor or the lightbulb. a world where excel spreadsheets do not exist is a fundamentally alien one to most people on planet earth. all geospatial software is built on the ability to do math on the fly. can you imagine the world today without google maps? can you even begin to comprehend a society not dominated by numbers? even these examples undersell how fundamental automated calculations are because this technology did in fact pervade every aspect of life. the fact that you think a calculator is simply a plastic doohickey you were taught to use in grade nine math is maliciously literal. like these arguments are so nakedly and openly anti-intellectual that I would say it makes it clear that no one should take you seriously, but posting this kind of mind-numbing slop is one of the easiest ways to do numbers on tumblr right now, which is something you also wouldn’t be able to do without the invention of an electronic calculator

[lune-redd]

Hello, it's Lelly.

As you may know, I have recently deactivated my Twitter account. A lot of people are speculating I left because I was being harassed for drawing my older depiction of Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls as chubby. However... that's not the direct reason I left. In fact, I didn't really see much of the comments of folks on there getting riled up about it as I muted the tweet the morning I saw that it blew up. I was only merely aware of it all by being told about it from friends, with there being some other users on the site making other really fuckin' stupid comments about my art.

This does however lead into why I actually left Twitter, and it's because of Twitter's overall toxic nature. Overtime, I've really gotten sick of how absolutely revolting Twitter has become to experience. The site is basically built around dunk culture and doom scrolling. You know that one tweet of someone making an example of Twitter's utter stupidity by using pancakes and waffles as an example?

I bring this up because I think this fits my point about how Twitter has this thing of assuming the absolute worst about the most insignificant things, even the most innocuous. The "Bubbles obesity" comments weren't the only stupid comments that came out of that post. I also got a quote retweet that I was "forcefully feminizing Buttercup", even though the whole fucking point of that drawing was to depict a usually tough character in an unusual situation for her. I have also gotten stupid comments on other drawings though, like the one where Mitch pushes Buttercup down for trying to look taller than she is and I got called a misogynist for it, though I'm pretty sure that one was bait (Twitter users have a tough time figuring out what is and isn't bait, it's dunk culture that I'm about to talk about really doesn't help this).

The site's dunk culture is also really fuckin' bad. Quote retweets are a disease, as unlike Tumblr's reblog comments, quote retweets count as a different post. Someone disagrees with you? Show your audience how stupid they are on your page! Hey, are you trying not to see the most abhorrent racist statement imaginable? Well TOO BAD FUCK YOU here's a le epic own giving them all the attention in the world even though one of the most common internet rules are DON'T FEED THE FUCKIN' TROLLS YOU IDIOT. Oh hey, are you trying to explain how you prefer a certain artistic choice over another in something you like? Well you're a deranged ungrateful whiny nitpicker, get owned!

I've seen so many of my friends be belittled for simply discussing their artistic preferences of things they're passionate about. I had a friend who said he prefers the original Crash Bandicoot design over his redesigned look in Crash 4, and had legitimate reasons for why he felt that way (even if he didn't really explain them clearly), and he got dunked for it which made me mad. I'm sick and tired of it all. The reaction to my art is only a mere example of the shit I despise about that site.

I had been planning on leaving Twitter for quite some time, as my follower count was growing nearer and nearer to 10K. I had planned on leaving after 10K followers because that amount was wayyyy too fuckin big for me to handle. I'm a young and growing lad, and I felt it wouldn't be good for my mental sanity to handle all that, so I dipped. The amount of attention I've been getting is simultaneously both wonderful and extremely overwhelming. Even the explosion of new followers and asks on here is quite the load! (Seriously, calm the fuck down y'all) I am very grateful for all the supportive asks I've gotten even though I won't be able to answer them all, thank you all so very much.

tl;dr I didn't leave Twitter because I was being harassed or anything, but rather because of the site's overall toxic and belittling environment.

Adios.

-Lelly

[lovesim09]

Why are ancient powers considered weak?

I remember them mentioning that ancient powers are not strong and will always be at the same level. At the same time, something was said that contradicted the recognition of these powers as weak, to obtain ancient powers you must have incredible luck or mandate of heaven. How can a power that you need God's help to find be weak?

Ranking

It is possible that no one except Cale, Sayeru, and White Star gained strong powers. The problem with ancient powers is that they are from a time period that is spoken of in legends. It is never mentioned if they had ranks to segregate them between strong abilities and weak ones. None of Cale's powers mentioned anything either. On Earth 1 they use grades from 1 to 10 to determine how strong and useful abilities are. Hunters also have their own ranking using colors corresponding to their family, however this ranking seems incomplete because there are no families mentioned such as the red blood family in this ranking. Probably after the destruction of this family they removed it from the ranking, Hunters have five color as the strongest and black color as the weakest. Funny thing, Cale started fought according to the Ranking from the weakest family to the strongest. Why didn't I mention Bud as someone with strong abilities? Bud's power is very useful, however using grade, I believe his power is not grade 1 or grade 2. When Cale and Bud first met, Bud explained that the powers had a smell and that's how he could recognize them. That's how he recognized that Cale had the 5 elements, but he didn't mention anything about human abilities. That means it has limitations, it can recognize the power and strength of a person, but when it comes to human powers, they are undetectable, that's why he didn't notice that Cale has record and instant. One is related to human power, while the other is related to time. For that I think many of Cale and White Star's powers would be 1st to 3rd grade. Sayeru would be 2nd or 3rd grade.

Divine Race

Divine Race don't want people to have their own unique powers, they even created a contract to prevent it. It's not known what's in the contract but it definitely has loopholes thanks to which people managed to gain power in some worlds. So it wouldn't be strange if they started rumors about weak ancient powers, but Divine Race can't intervene because it would give Demonic Race the opportunity to take advantage of this situation.

White Star

White Star could have created rumors about ancient powers for a thousand years, after all it's better not to have competition since he's so bad at collecting them.

Power was obtained in an incorrect way

The biggest problem is as always the user. Sorry to use another fandom but in Lord of the Mysteries there was a really cool quote.

"There are no useless powers, only useless beyonders (users)"

It is possible to gain power in an incorrect way, as was done in the original timeline with Fire of Destruction. Because of this, the possessor never discovered how much power he had acquired and considered it useless. A good example of someone who doesn't know how to use their power properly is White Star. What have you been doing all these years?! You've had Dominating Aura the whole time and never used it! I understand the confidence and all, but imagine a fight where your opponent can't look at you because of that aura. That was power that rivaled blood drenched rock. And speaking of people who don't use their powers, Choi Han start using the Sword of Disasters more often!

[virtualtadpole]

Thailand's "cute boy" craze: an explainer

Here's another repost from Reddit, originally from 2022. Since Perfect 10 Liners is currently airing with the "cute boy" page as a key plot point, this seems as good a time as any to re-share (remember that the original novel was first released in 2018). Sorry this one is a wall of text, I wasn't sure it'd be a good idea to include example photos involving people who weren't really public figures at the time.

Those of you following Thai BL will probably have come across this concept of "cute boy" social media fan pages, and might have wondered whether they're an actual thing. Or you may have heard of actors being one of their university's cute boys before joining the industry, and wondered what exactly that meant. Here's my attempt at an explanation.

The roots of the phenomenon go back at least to the popular Thai web forums of the 2000s, especially the youth-oriented Dek-D.com, one of Thailand's biggest and oldest web communities (also known as the web fiction platform which launched many BL novels). Dek-D's forums had a picture-sharing section, with a subsection dedicated to photos of cute guys and girls. It was still the early days of digital cameras and camera phones, and these posts were popular among the site's teen users. A few (mostly girls) who became noticed from these posts became Thailand's first "net idols", many of whom went on to join the entertainment industry.

The arrival of social networking sites around 2007 (first Hi5, then Facebook a few years later) helped facilitate these posts, as publicly posted photos became more easily accessible. The issue of privacy wasn't really on most people's minds then, and most of it was done in a light-hearted spirit. Being featured in these posts meant a boost in followers and online popularity, enabling more teens to become recognized as net idols, but it would be a few more years before this really meant anything. On the other hand, the social networking sites themselves would eventually bypass the traditional forums as a central venue for such posts, and an increasing number of Facebook pages (followed by dedicated Instagram and Twitter accounts) would be created to offer a curated experience instead.

The actual trend of "cute boy" pages took off in 2012, around the same time as the explosive growth of Instagram. Teens flocking to the platform (escaping Facebook, which was now full of parents) filled their public profiles with selfies and portraits of themselves, generating a steady stream of material that these pages could pick up to post and promote. This in turn gave the kids likes and followers, a mutually beneficial arrangement for most thanks to the platform's like-seeking culture.

Of course, not all of these proliferating pages featured teen boys. "Cute girl" pages have their share of followers, though they don't seem to be as visible or talked about, perhaps due to a combination of factors including the way society doesn't consider it as creepy for girls to openly ogle after boys compared to the opposite.

As competition grew, these pages diversified into several niches, including those covering specific schools and universities. Most of the school ones aren't that unusual, given that it's quite natural for students to talk about the popular boys and girls at school, and this had been a trend in school forums long before then. Most of them didn't last long though, as page administrators soon graduated and moved on.

However, things were different for certain high-profile schools, particularly the country's four oldest boys' schools, which participate in the biennial Jaturamitr football competition: Suankularb (SK), Debsirin (DS), Assumption (AC) and Bangkok Christian (BCC). The schools had always been well known, but the Instagram era launched an unprecedented wave of interest in their good-looking students, many of whom attracted huge numbers of followers just by being on Instagram. AC especially stands out in this regard, as Instagram allowed outsiders to glimpse into this exclusive boys' world that served as the basis of Love Sick, the source novel of which was begun in 2008.

Not only were cute boy pages created dedicated to these schools (some by outsiders), some of the boys became minor celebrities in their own right, with fans (mostly sao Y (the Thai term for fujoshi), and also some queer folk) meeting up with and photographing them in real life, especially at school events such as AC's Christmas fair and the Jaturamitr competition. And they were serious about it, coming equipped with professional DLSR cameras and huge telephoto lenses. The schools' student bodies leaned into this popularity, having the popular boys promote fundraising events and selling merchandise to their fans.

The relationship between the boys and their fans seemed to be mostly good, the boys appreciating the positive attention and the fans getting to stan someone much more accessible than the mainstream celebrity. And if they later became famous, then there's the pride of having known them before everyone else. These being sao Y, there sometimes is a bit of shipping, though mostly jokingly. Of course, this was not limited to boys from AC and the other Jaturamitr schools, but they were much more prominent.

This was the backdrop against which Love Sick launched its casting calls in 2014, which generated a huge amount of online buzz throughout the cute boy pages and fan Twitter. There's a reason the series featured such a huge cast with so many minor roles - to provide ample opportunity for fans to latch onto the actors and the show.

In some ways, the cute boy label served as a distancing from the previous term net idol, which by 2014 had begun to develop into a negative stereotype of people using their online fame to sell beauty products for easy profit, especially those livestreaming on emerging platforms such as Socialcam and Bigo Live and whose followers tended to be less sophisticated as opposed to the urban middle-class. Which is why most people appearing on cute boy pages tended to come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, and much more attention was given to those focusing on elite schools and universities.

At the university level, cute boy (or other similarly named) pages associated with the country's top universities became very prominent online and also offline, often collaborating with the universities' student bodies to promote events and sometimes also assisting in the universities' PR for prospective students. Many universities already had a pageant culture in one form or another, with which these pages tied in well. Most prominent among the pages were Chula Cute Boy and TU Sexy Boy of Chulalongkorn and Thammasat, the country's two oldest universities. The two universities have an annual traditional football match, which the Cute Boy and Sexy Boy pages played large parts promoting in recent years, and is another event that attracts many fangirls.

Some have argued that the net idol phenomenon serves as a democratization of the entertainment industry, opening up opportunities for aspirants to directly connect to audiences as opposed to the traditional model where everything depended on one being picked up by an agency. But it benefits the traditional model as well. While in the old days talent scouts would look for teens hanging out at Siam Square, today they only have to scan the cute boy pages. Many BL actors were discovered this way. Inn Sarin was a long-time favourite of Chula Cute Boy, and Up and Mix first became widely known from there as well. Many others have likewise previously been featured in various cute boy pages, and practically all of the younger actors who joined the industry more recently probably had strong followings before their debut.

But the craze might be coming to an end. While there have long been concerns over today's youth's obsession with looks, and the university cute boy pages have from the beginning been criticized for promoting shallow images of their universities at the expense of academic aspects, they didn't really have any effect on the trend. But this began to change in 2020, when a widespread youth protest movement swept through school and university campuses and liberal progressive ideas rose to the fore. The issue of "beauty privilege" became one of many perpetual topics of discussion, and many began calling for an end to university cute boy pages. Thammasat, long regarded as the university with the strongest student activism, saw the TU Sexy Boy page shutting down (though the admin cited personal reasons and it was never confirmed whether this was in response to the criticism). Many people seem to have stopped tweeting cute boy pictures since then.

On top of the political mood, the pandemic's disruption of normal school life also interrupted the cute boy momentum, as many photo opportunities dried up. Long-time page admins and fans outgrowing the topic and losing interest might also be a factor. The Chula Cute Boy page has also been inactive since late 2020, for undisclosed reasons.

The future seems at best unclear for now. There are still many active pages out there, but on the whole, from what I've seen, there does seem to be a loss of interest. If younger netizens are indeed disinclined to craze after them the same way, the era of cute boy pages might very well soon be over.

Or maybe they've just moved onto TikTok, and I haven't found out how.

----

In the above original post, I neglected to go into the phenomenon of real-people shipping, so I'm attaching this comment from later as an addendum:

Regarding real-people shipping, there are probably two lines of origin that influenced the practice. First is the rise of K-pop and the shipping culture that came with it, which led to a proliferation of online fanfiction in dedicated Thai web communities and a shipping culture forming around the reality singing competitions which were the talk-of-the-town entertainment programs in the 2000s. One of the first really famous shipped pairs was Nat and Tol from Academy Fantasia season 4 in 2007. (That is Nat Sakdatorn, whom you may recognize as the uncle from Never Let Me Go, among many other roles.)

The other origin is the rise of "net idols", which followed the arrival of social media sites (in Thailand this was led by Hi5 in 2006). I covered this in more detail in my post on Thailand's "cute boy" craze, but didn't really touch upon the shipping aspect. Indeed, a significant shipping culture did form (a few years later) around net idols/cute boys. At first this focused more on (people who were believed to be) real-life couples, like Both and Newyear, who became famous in 2012. From there, manufactured/imaginary couples naturally followed in hopes of cashing in on the popularity of such shipped pairs.

I'm a bit hazy on when the shipping of actors as couples actually became a regular thing in the BL industry. While the practice of fanservice moments on the promotion circuit go back at least to The Love of Siam, I don't think there was significant shipping of the actors' real-life persona, and the same seemed to be the case with Love Sick, especially after the series ended. The first actor pair to become shipped as such was probably Krist and Singto from SOTUS, and the practice quite definitely became a thing after that.

----

Postscript: Thanks for reading, and sorry the writing in this one isn't as good as the other posts I've shared. If you're interested in further reading on the topic, I can recommend the article The Yaoi Phenomenon in Thailand and Fan/Industry Interaction. (2019). Plaridel, 16(2), 63–89 by Assoc. Prof. Natthanai Prasannam, one of the leading Thai academics on BL/Y culture in Thailand.

[herotome]

howdy

how are you? I hope you are well and have had a good start to the year!

I wanted to ask about the powers in the HO universe, are they given by genetics or chance? Let me explain, if Warden had a son, would his son have the same power as him? Or would it be a variant or something directly random?

The other thing I wanted to ask is if the powers are capable of harming the user who possesses them, for example in the case of Mia, if she claps her hands loudly (imagining that she is killing a mosquito) is she capable of hurting her hands?

I don't know if I explained myself very well, thank you very much for your magnificent universe and game

Howdy how! Answering the second question first, YES powers can definitely hurt their user in the Herotome universe!

As for the first question: it's a matter of chance, though some researchers believe genetics may play a part. For example, in the case of Gabriel Owens. He has a particularly powerful skill, and all three of his children (Dart Owens being the youngest among them) have strong powers of their own.

It's never a guarantee that a superpowered individual will have superpowered children, but many believe it ups the odds somewhat.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 10/8/2024

The Boy is out of my house. end of an era. formally adopt the boy for only twenty of god's own dollars here!

listening

i really really love reading perfume reviews and i would love to start describing songs like a perfume reviewer but maybe this song is not a great one to start out with: the ghost inside by broken bells, off their 2010 self-titled album. it got stuck in my head bc it is sort of the ur-example of 2010s indie rock. you have to listen to it but after you listen to it you know i am Right. kind of a bonkers scifi music video with mostly practical effects and actress christina hendricks (interview here).

thank u spotify weekly recommended playlist bc i had completely forgotten about broken bells. i think i found them through one of those little music cards starbucks used to give out?

-

reading

The Blood Trials (Book One of the Blood Gift Duology, Jan 2023) by N.E. Davenport. i KNOW i originally put this on my holds list bc of a tumblr post but i cannot find that post again.

explaining the plot of this book to my best friend involved saying the phrase "and then THE BLOOD EMPEROR" a lot. there is no short way to explain the plot of this thing.

Blending fantasy and science fiction, N. E. Davenport’s fast-paced, action-packed debut kicks off a duology of loyalty and rebellion, in which a young Black woman must survive deadly trials in a racist and misogynistic society to become an elite warrior. It’s all about blood. The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen’s deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive. The blood of the former Legatus, Verne Amari, murdered. For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mareen. The man who had trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood gift that coursed through her. Who trained her to keep that a secret.

this is a "graduate or die" book that i would normally say is YA but the protagonist Ikenna is ~20ish and there are two quite explicit sex scenes. so i feel it veers more new adult? what if you learned to be an ancient greek spartan praetorian but also had blasters? that's what this school is.

this is a military scifi that is also a murder mystery (HELL of a dense concept to pick for a debut novel) that gets SO yuckydisgusting with loving descriptions of military training wounds and a cannibalism scene (not by our protagonist) i had to skip over. i think this would be terrific for locked tomb girlies but it is at the bleeding edge of my tolerance level. i am a noted big baby about gore, so ymmv.

tumblr user kay, why the fuck did you keep reading it? one of the best technically written debut novels i've ever read. extremely compelling in how the narration is from Ikenna’s point of view and she has almost all the murder mystery pieces but fails to put them together bc of personal flaws and foibles. and she is so good at tripping face first over those flaws and foibles it really effectively distracts you from the pieces of the murder mystery! she’s so so so good at making the worst possible decision (in hindsight) at any given point. all her decisions have complex hidden downsides but at the same time she could not have made any different decision. failsafes her grandfather put in place fail bc of the way she interprets them. she is a very good soldier but less good as a strategist. terrible as a politician. this sort of thing.

she is quick to act and quick to decide, and allies and enemies flip fairly quickly without much hemming and hawing. once she has definite proof of betrayal or alliance, she accepts it and charges on. i think the occasionally flimsy lead up to these flips is one of the book’s weaknesses, but i also think it’s one of Ikenna’s major weaknesses. im not convinced the author handles doling every clue out or how the very complex political situation clicks together Well, but Ikenna’s reaction and dealing with the fallout of these things is very believable and well done.

VERY rapid pace— reminds me of The Hunger Games, where Suzanne Collins’ background in TV helped her know when to break chapters. there aren’t any lulls where I lost interest— i read this book in basically one sitting overnight.

-

watching

meandering through a playlist of oscar-nominated shorts: the 1951 UPA black comedy musical film noir short "Rooty Toot Toot" has been one of my favorites so far.

it's so hyperstylized and so gleefully minimalist. the background characters, even though they are mostly just blobs and circles, are notably diverse for 1951. let's yoink some more background from the description/TCM:

Hubley brought in a number of interesting collaborators on Rooty Toot Toot. Dancer Olga Lunick was hired to choreograph the ballet-style dance moves. There was no rotoscoping involved; her moves were only referenced by the artists and animators, not slavishly traced. Paul Julian designed the backgrounds and utilized some non-typical techniques; in his essential history of UPA, When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA (Wesleyan, 2012), Adam Abraham quotes Julian on one of them: "'I found a kind of oddly corroded gelatin roller - an ordinary print roller that had been pitted and pocked in some way, chemically.' With this device, he produced distressed-looking backgrounds that suited the sordid tale." In addition, Hubley and the studio brought on jazz musician Phil Moore to write the score. Moore had done orchestrations for many MGM musicals in the 1940s, but uncredited--this would be a rare on-screen credit for the black musician. Legendary animator Grim Natwick also joined the crew. Natwick had been active since the silent era and had designed and animated Betty Boop for the Fleischer Studios. He went on to work on such key films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Gulliver's Travels (1939). For Rooty Toot Toot Natwick animated the memorable shots of Nellie Bly on the witness stand.

-

playing

i don't have anything fun to say about genshin this week. prepare for me to lose my mind next week about hot ocelot lady.

-

making

sanitized/enzymatic cleaned everything orange boy touched in my office and the office bath, bc he was so full of love and also worms and boysmell. i believe the stink has been defeated, but only time and the girls will tell me. unforch, i will have to sanitize and destink the bathroom Again at the end of the month bc a new outside boycat will be recovering here after his neuter. this time i am Not paying for it and he already has a home lined up! it is a complicated case with a friend's exit from a Situation and it is not fully mine to tell. can't believe this office and office bath have been like a revolving door of cats this summer/fall. phil only got fulltime house privileges at the end of june-ish.

[urlknight]

Hi there, Love your work! I'm also doing stuff in Unreal and it feels like it's rarer to find other indie devs using it. I love how clean all your UI feels, and UI is something I seem to really struggle with.

Do you have any recommendations for workflows / tips / sources etc for getting better at UI?

Also I'd love to know more about the material / shader workflow for your latest post if you have more information anywhere.

Thanks :)

Hello there! Thank you!! I hope you don't mind me answering publicly as I feel like some people might be interested in the answer!

I really appreciate your UI (User Interface for those not knowing the acronym) compliment as it's something I've spent a long time working on and specializing in, in my career as a software engineer. UI/UX often goes completely unacknowledged or taken for granted even though it takes a lot of time and hard work to create and develop. In the engineering world I frequently had to advocate for and explain user experiences to those who didn't have as deep of an appreciation for UI or a very sophisticated understanding of why a good, visually appealing user experience makes, or on the flip side, can break everything. I think it's a very challenging, overwhelming topic to grasp and communicate, but just by being interested in it you're already way ahead!

There's a lot going on with UI. From visuals to knowing common design elements to successfully conveying a story to the user to implementation to testing to designing for accessibility to animation and I probably didn't cover everything with that run-on sentence. There's frontend engineers out there whose role is solely to maintain and improve UI component libraries for companies. And that's without throwing games, whose UIs are all uniquely visually tailored to their experiences, into the mix... I could keep going on about this honestly, but I'll get to what I think you can do personally! 1. Learn about common design patterns. What's a toast? What's pagination? What's a card? Little things like that. These apply to all software UI/UX, including video games- and knowing these off the top of your head will make it so much easier for you to invent your own UI designs and patterns.

2. Study the UI in the everyday applications you interact with. Step through menus and think about how you got from point A to point B. Take a moment to think about the why someone put a button where they did. Study the UI in your favorite video games, too! Take a lot of notes on what you think works really well and what you think doesn't. And also there's online resources that are great for inspiration. I personally spend a lot of time on the Game UI Database. - https://dribbble.com/ - https://www.gameuidatabase.com/ 3. Don't be afraid to start with basic sketches or even just simply representing everything with grey boxes. All my UI starts out as really crappy sketches on paper, or tablet sketches on top of screenshots. Visualize your ideas and then keep iterating on them until you've got something. For example, I went from this:

To this. (And come to think of it I might actually still want to make those cooler looking buttons in my sketch) 4. Break everything out into pieces and individual components. A good UI is made up of building blocks that you can reuse all over the place. That's how it stays consistent and also saves you a lot of stress when you need to go in and update components. Instead of a million different looking UI pieces, you just have to update the one! These individual components will make up your very own UI Component Library, which will be the standardized design system and source of reusable components for your project. This also applies to your visual elements that don't do anything (like I personally have a whole mini library of diamond and star shapes that I reuse everywhere).

For reference, here's a breakdown I made of my Inventory UI. On the right, I've labeled most of the individual components, and you might be able to see how I'm reusing them over and over again in multiple places.

5. Spend some time listening to designers talk, maybe befriend some designers! Many of them have an unique, interesting view of the world and how we interact with it even beyond just software. Their perspectives will inform yours.

6. Test your UI on users whenever you can. Get feedback from others. This is the best way for you to see what works and what doesn't. As game devs we spend so much time with our games it's easy for us to lose sight of the full picture.

7. Be patient and don't give up. Continue to be open to expanding your knowledge. These UI skills take time to develop. I personally am still learning even after like 10 years of doing it. Coming up with the visual elements is very challenging for me and I spend a lot of time rearranging things in photoshop before I actually start coding anything at all in Unreal.

Whew, that was a lot, but I hope that gives you some thoughts and a place to start!

I don't have any posts out there about Blender/Unreal shader workflows right now, but I'll consider making another post sometime soonish. I appreciate you asking and you're welcome! :)

[rainbowsaltblog-archive]

Tickets And DMs From CJ and Ember To Me [RainbowSheepish]

[Plain text: Tickets and DMs from CJ and Ember to me [RainbowSheepish] /end PT]

Note 1: Mildly censored to hide private information. I can send Cloudmin over at santae-salt the raws to have them confirm that I am hiding nothing contextually important aside from private information.

Note 2: This isn't big, huge information. This is merely my interactions with them that are important enough to note here. Nothing (aside from the snippet I shared) earth-shattering. This is just my experiences with them.

Note 3: This is not intended to overshadow the staff walkout! This is meant to be an addition to the rest of former staff personal testimonies.

Note 4: some dates are in European style. This is because my Discord is set in German.

My experiences with Ember were fine for the most part. When I made a ticket about ALT text being misused (prior to being staff), Ember responded very professionally:

[Transcript: rainbowsheepish on Tue, 02Jul, 2024 at 21:21:02 GMT

Hello! I was just looking at the most recent social media post on Tumblr and noticed the ALT text is improperly used (I can't think of a gentler way to put this, sorry!) ALT text is used to describe an image

Fpr example, when I tap onthe alt text for this picture, I should get, at the very least "Image of the Common Raylen Figurine from Santae"

Instead, I get, I asumme, the item description?

ALT text is used to describe the image to screenreaders (rather than it stating "image"), not something to put extra info in. /not mad

The Wispyr is a bit better but still not a description per se

(ALT text is missing on the rest of the images btw, but the important part is the misuse of ALT text, I feel. /not mad /gen) /end transcript]

[Transcript: ember234 on Tue, 02 Jul 2024 at 21:33:33 GMT

Hey there, thanks for pointing this out! I completely understand the concern with that, and accessibility is something that we definitely value.

As we progress through Alpha and beyond this is all a learning curve for us and so we super appreciate when things like this are raised to us so we can learn from it going forward.

Unfortunately on this occassion that particular post is now locked for moderation by the tumbIr team (as we have submitted it to be promoted to more users), and if an opportunity to edit it post-review opens up, we will do so.. Either way, we will aim to ensure that the alt tags are appropriately set with future posts on that platform.

Thank you

rainbowsheepish on Tue, 02 Jul 2024 at 21:34:53 GMT

Alright, thank you! /end transcript]

And every occasion afterwards has Ember been genuinely professional or sweet (minus abruptly dming me for the "are santae staff" bit, though I think that was prompted by CJ judging by how abrupt it was).

[Everything redacted is personal info, as noted previously]

[Transcript one: DeletedUser on 19.07.2024 at 10:23

Hey sorry to message directly

l just wanted to be crystal clear on everything

If for example i was referring to you in the third person "hey go speak to rainbowsheepish" to a user for example

Would I use they/them/their?

Thank you for sharing such personal information btw (heart)

"Go checkout rainbow's gallery, they have some cool stuff" for example

RainbowSheepish on 19.07.2024 at 10:27

You're good!

Rule of pronouns I mentioned in the assitant chat still apply [redacted].

So they/them 75%, any neos minus fae/faer 25% of the time.

So a singular use would be they/them.

Three uses of pronouns or more try to use at least one neo.

"This is Rainbow. They are my friend. Xe's pretty cool. Their gallery is also nifty"

(private worries)

DeletedUser on 19.07.2024 at 10:30

Ok that is great, thank you so much for explaining! I've never had a friend who had such a unique identity as yourself [redacted]. I will do my best to follow that but if I ever get it wrong 'in the moment' of a discussion, please please just poke me and let me know - it wont be intentional! (smiley)(smiley) /end transcription]

[Transcription two:

DeletedUser: yes there will, ref: freinds system on future roadmap

RainbowSheepish: Thank you Ember. /genuine

DeletedUser: np /end transcription]

[Transcription three:

DeletedUser: hey ref your question about employee role thing, it would have been better to DM CJ directly rather than post into the group chat. Long story short however; All roles on santae staff that are paid in sC are considered "Volunteer" roles. All roles on santae staff that are paid in USD are considered "Freelance"' roles. Santae Entertainment does not hire or employ anyone as a permanent employee, with the exception of CJ (As the business owner, under Santae Entertainment LLC, registered in Alabama)

RainbowSheepish: Right gotcha

DeletedUser: NP [smiley face]

RainbowSheepish: Additional: If mention I play Santae, is it alright to use aet from Santae? I'm not using it as like a theme or doordecs. just to demonstrate what Santae is, art-wise

DeletedUser: The main distinction is that volunteer roles have no minimum quota and are paid in site credits. You arent held to any sort of standard when it comes to activity or timelines etc. The freelance roles (artists) however are held to tight deadlines to complete set amounts of work in pre-agreed time periods, so thats why there is the distinction [smiley face] /end transcription]

I haven't encountered (until recently, as in the Ember pity party) Ember being like a bad person or programmer? This isn't meant to be "Ember has done no wrong" or anything. Ember is the main programmer, after all, but Ember is just an overworked person. To me, Ember is a lot like my irl mailroom boss: yes, they're both flawed and both can and have lashed out in a negative manner, but it's clear they both overworked. A lot. Ember seemed to always be up, even at hours Ember admitted that were sleeping hours (no proof, sorry!).

Meanwhile, CJ:

(The convo, to be fair, should have been shuffled over to general since it was discussing NPC pronouns and plurality headcanons, but I didn't know the differences between channels at the time)

[These are two seperate images but will be transcribed as one since they are part of the same convo]

[Transcription:

CJ on 20.07.2024 at 19:22

Can you move that discussion to general chat rather than alpha [heart]

RainbowSheepish on 20.07.2024 at 19:22

I gotcha!

CJ on 20.07.2024 at 19:22

[Heart] [heart]

RainbowSheepish on 20.07.2024 at 19:23

What's the difference between general chat and alpha chat? /genq

CJ on 20.07.2024 at 19:23

Tyty [heart]

Alpha General would be related to whats going on in santae such as news etc, general chat is just general discussions about anything such as pronouns for the NPCs [sticking tongue out emote] [heart]

RainbowSheepish on 20.07.2024 at 19:24

Gotcha!

Cam we have that pinned or mentioned somewhere? thought alpha chat = santae related general and general = everything non-santae

CJ on 20.07.2024 at 19:25

Mmm dont want to Pin most things. but typically with alpha general chat it's about whats going on with alpha testing etc, general would be about anything including that

RainbowSheepish on 20.07.2024 at 19:25

Valid. l'll put clairifcation in the chat then [smiling emoticon]

CJ on 20.07.2024 at 19:28

[heart] [heart] [heart] You're the best [heart]

RainbowSheepish on 20.07.2024 at 19:29 (replaying to: CJ: Mmm dont want to Pin most things, but typically with alpha general chat it's about whats going on with alpha testing etc, general...)

Maybe we can, instead of pinning it, put the clarification in the channel description (if it doesn't have one) "Channel to discuss anything related to Santae onsite (news, pets, etc.)" /end transcription]

This totally doesn't look partially like lovebombing, not at all. /sarcasm

Seriously though. Why did he use sooooo many hearts for a simple "hey move this pls". Why was he so against pinning things? I pin shit in my friend discord all the time!

(Before I transcribe these next two: this job was the best in comparison to being a resident assistant (prostaff were assholes) and being overnight desk (where I got called a botch for three months straight, including getting berated by a resident for making her check in her visitor), so any job was going to look better. It's like comparing bad food to shit.)

[Transcription:

RainbowSheepish on 20.08.2024 at 04:21

Hello! I just read the announcement and I don't know if I could reach 5hr miniumn. When I'm able to be active now (which is evenings due to RA job amd classes) that's when a lot of other people are also active and, thus, I don't answer a lot of questions. I don't count hours being on the Discord because l'm not completely and solely on the main Discord and don't ever want to overcount minutes. Same with looking at the forums. I only count that time actively answering questions/welcoming users. So l'm afraid I won't meet the quota. I don't want to stop working for Santae, though, because you guys are the best staff I ever worked for!

CJ on 20.08.2024 at 04:49

5 hours is weekly [heart] but if you still feel you cannot reach that let me know [heart]

CJ on 20.08.2024 at 04:50 (replying to: RainbowSheepish: Hello! I just read the announcement and don't know if I could reach 5hr miniumn. When I'm able to be active...)

You should count communicating in intro channel and keeping members engaged on your quota [heart]

not just the welcoming channel

RainbowSheepish on 20.08.2024 at 07:01 (replying to: CJ: You should count communicating in intro channel and keeping members engaged on your quota...)

I count intro and welcome channels as "welcoming users,"' apologies for confusion.

CJ on 20.08.2024 at 07:04

No worries that's ok [smiley] just let me know if your unable to do the 5 hours biweekly it's completely ok I do appreciate you being forthcoming about it [heart]

RainbowSheepish on 20.08.2024 at 07:04

I'll try but I think the most I've ever got max is 2 hours biweekly.

CJ on 20.08.2024 at 07:57

Ok just let me know if you are able to [heart] I will need to find a replacement if unable to [heart] Just as we are getting very busy nowadays and I understand RL comes before OL so you should always focus on RL first [heart]

RainbowSheepish on 20.08.2024 at 09:10

[Private worries]

CJ on 20.08.2024 at 09:11

We all sign a NDA so no worries there and our team isn't like that so you do not have to worry [heart]

Regarding the hours, if you are unable to meet them again let me know. I appreciate you reaching out to me [heart] /end transcription]

And you think oh, that's the end. He's gonna let you try. There is indication of "hey if you cannot do it, let me know, and I'l find a replacement" nothing about "we're gonna have to find a replacement" openly.

Here is my firing message. The message that afterwards, he wouldn't let me even say goodbye. Didn't let me try, even.

[Transcription:

CJ on 20.08.2024 at 11:18

RainbowSheepish,

After careful consideration, we feel that our current needs and goals might not align as well as we had hoped. This decision was not made lightly, and it is with appreciation for all you've done that we must let you know that we believe we may not be the best fit for each other at this time.

Please know that this decision does not diminish the respect we have for your efforts or the contributions you've had on the site. We truly appreciate the passion and energy you've brought to your role, and we wish you nothing but the best in all your future endeavors.

Thank you once again for being a part of our team, and for your dedication to the site. We hope our paths might cross again in the future under different circumstances.

Best,

CJ /end transcription]

I guess, at the end of it, I was fired legitimately. My friends were right, but the way he did so still feels so... slimy. To me. I might be of that opinion wrongly though.

But wait! There's more!

*record scratch*

Oh shit I ran out of images. Be right back with a reblog!

[harzilla]

I've been reading a lot of twst fanfics, now I can't stop getting ideas about crossover fics. Seriusly someone needs to do a crossover between twst and :

A school for good and evil ~ book series

This monster wants to eat me ~ manga (and anime soon)

Ancient magus bride ~ manga & anime

The way to protect the female leads older brother ~ manhwa & novel(I keep imagining this in a vampire au)

The secret world of Arrietty / Borrowers Au ~ movie

(anyone who didn't see/read these, highly recommend)

I totally feel you. You enjoy a series and wanna do a crossover? I'm all for it. Some great fanfic ideas start off as crossovers. I admit I haven't read or watched most of these except for Ancient Magus Bride and Arriety/Borrowers. Ancient Magus Bride and twst have a ton of potential if you like exploring the magic side.

Arriety could be fun. Imagine an MC that's a borrower. Borrower!MC living in ramshackle's walls. They could even be a separate person from Yuu all together. They meet up with Yuu and hide in their jacket pocket. Ending up in the place of the dormouse in the teapot during an unbirthday party. Being played with by Leona like the scene with Scar and the mouse. Floyd calling them Shrimpy because they're literally the size of a shrimp! Part 4 they actually escape first and track down the octotrio to help Yuu and Grim. Pretty brave for a tiny shrimp. The world of Twisted Wonderland and the story events from the eyes of somebody who's just a few inches tall. Maybe they even get to try being big one day thanks to some enchanted cookies like Alice.

A school of Good and Evil is one I haven't read but I had another anon ask about that idea too.

I did have a few other crossover ideas. But one of them plays with the self aware concept but Twst crossover with the 90's series ReBoot.

The animation is extremely dated and a product of its time but it gave use Hexadecimal, absolute Queen.

That series takes place inside a computer and the internet. Whenever the user would download the game, if anybody gets trapped inside they're forced to play the game as NPCs and if they lose the area the game was is destroyed and all the people who were trapped become leech like creatures called nulls. One of the characters AndrAIa who was originally a game sprite, even became a sentient being. The premises could easily be switched to a modern smartphone or somebody running a version on a desktop using a program like bluestack and the MC being a guardian like Bob or even a random citizen of the phone/computer. Twst gets downloaded and MC should just be one of the random NPCs you fight in the story but somehow things spiral out of control when the cast all start going off script.

There's one I would like to see explored more is Gargoyles. It could really explore the history of magic and magical beings when crossed over with Twst(Since Gargoyles liked to explore different cultures myths and mythological figures and gods. They had Fae, the Banshee, Anubis, Coyote, and Anansi for example). Imagine if you make the MC a Gargoyle. Them having to explain that their species just turns to stone during the day. Unless they're like the Mayan clan in the series who had Sun amulets that kept them from turning to stone.

I reblogged a while back DC crossover ideas where Yuu is some flavor of DC Superhero. Or even Marvel could be fun. It's easy enough to pick a very human looking characters but people shouldn't sleep on the less human looking characters like TT's Beastboy, F4's Thing, and X-Men's Beast or Colossus for example.

[tenebraevesper]

I don't know if you saw the publication that @zoe-oneesama made but in this publication she points out that Lila is a mediocre liar and manipulator who only achieves her goals thanks to the power of the script and because Lila simply knows that everyone is stupid when she is around and takes advantage of their stupidity showing the scene in which Lila tells Adrien that she is a heroine with the Fox Miraculous and also Tikki says that she had never I've seen someone lie so well when in reality Lila didn't even bother to hide the shopping bag from the necklace but it's right next to her and no one notices.

Furthermore, Lila has no reason to be the new Hawk Moth to terrorize Paris. I would dare say that Chloe has more reasons to be the new Hawk Moth because she literally lost everything because of her parents, Lila, Ladybug and Hawk Moth and they all live (lived in Hawk Moth's case) in Paris so she has many reasons to want revenge of all of them while the only reason Lila has is that Ladybug, Marinette and Adrien called her out for lying which I think is the stupidest motivation I have ever seen in a villain.

Another thing I have seen is that many say that Lila is a better illusion magic user than Rena Rouge but they forget that Rena had the restriction of the Fox Miraculous of only being able to use her special illusion ability ONCE while Lila could create the amount of illusions that she wanted because she was not using the Fox Miraculous but rather she was AKUMATIZED and the power that her akuma gave her is based on creating illusions.

With the terrible writing this show has, I really wouldn't be surprised if Lila is a sentimonster or an adult who looks like a teenager due to a hormonal problem.

I follow @zoe-oneesama and I absolutely agree with her take on Lila, as well as this post.

In a show with bad writing, Lila is just an example of the writers telling us stuff, i.e. that she's very good at lying and trickery and manipulation, but they don't even show us her competence, instead making everyone take their stupid pills for Lila to actually get away with her lies. Once again, if any character in this show had braincells, she wouldn't survive even for an episode.

I also agree that Lila has no reason to be the new Hawk Moth, and it feels that this is just Thomas Astruc going ''teenagers are worse than abusive adults''. Not to mention, despite being the next main villain, she barely has had any appearances in the show, or had even done anything besides being Gabriel's lackey or suddenly teaming up with Chloé (that team up literally came out of nowhere, Lila wasn't even present anywhere in Season 4 until then).

Honestly, I too wouldn't be surprised if Lila was a Sentimonster, because at least you can explain that her power is to lower the IQ of everyone she interacts with so she can get away with her lies.

[countriesgame]

I have to say. I don't mean to be rude, but I feel like some of these polls need some research from your part. Obviously, the fun of the game is having people submit what they associate with any given country, but a lot of the stuff people have been submitting is... a tad off.

I don't expect the average Tumblr user to know the intricacies of, say, Bulgaria or Kyrgyzstan, but I feel that's where a bit of better research from your part would go a long way. Like I know it's frustrating that there's not a lot of prompt submissions, but that's where you'd fill in, instead of doing stuff like associating entire countries with stuff like Harry Potter.

I also don't really understand what counts and doesn't count as a morbid topic, either? Some countries' polls were cool in that you deliberately avoided having terrorism and war be one of the possible prompts (I was the anon that thanked you for not including a cartel option for Mexico, once again many thanks for that), but then other countries are seemingly unable to shake that off, like Kuwait for example. It's also bizarre that you exclude Israel on account of current affairs but had no problem adding in Russia, despite the fact the Russo-Ukranian War is still ongoing and it has been confirmed they've enacted genocides in certain Ukranian cities.

It's also a little weird that the US poll was so negative when the other two comparable powers, Russia and China, got more positive choices. I get that English-speaking Tumblr is mostly American, but I'm going to be entirely real with you guys, as someone who isn't, the mindset of portraying yourselves as the world's devil is a facet of American exceptionalism. It doesn't magically stop applying to your ideology just because you think of yourselves as Satan as opposed to God. You should either commit to portraying imperialist countries negatively or treat yourselves like any other.

Sorry for the long post and for the scolding at the end, I just want to see this fun blog bloom into the best possible version of what it can be.

Believe it or not, I do actually do research, but you do understand that "doing research" for a blog, that is pretty much not important, is just... googling stuff. Yes, I could have added other stuff that wasn't HP related in the Bulgaria one, I chose it because I didn't see it as offensive per se, not like horrible associations people had for other countries, and it was the most mentioned thing by far.

Doing these polls take a lot of time. If I were to do more research, I would have to slow down the polls... a lot. And I think it's naive to think I could possibly do a good research for every single country. A lot of history is very intricate and deep and it would take me a lot of time to study... and then what? To determine myself what is important and what is not? As a foreign reading stuff in a language that is not even their own - because i can only read in three languages. I started doing this because I accepted that it was going to be imperfect. I do not have the time or the energy to do justice for every country, which was why from the very beginning I made it clear that it would be based on people's association and I would only censor what I thought was very bad. And guess what, I'm actually doing more than that. Many countries didn't have enough submissions to say 11 different things and I had to google, and choose - from what I personally think it looks more important from random websites like the country's wikipedia page or tourism information to what to visit in this country.

I do think the Israel situation is different then China and Russia, which is why I included it. It's not a "israel is evil, other countries are good" thing. I do not believe in "evil" powers. There are good people and good things everywhere, there are many horrible governments. I already explained part of my thought of not including it and I'm not going to go around discussing this again, because it was a decision I made, with what i was comfortable with. As I said, it was more of a solidarity gesture with Palestine than anything.

Lastly, please stop assuming I'm usamerican, I'm not and I've said it on this blog many times, so I don't enjoy your use of "you" to refer to me as I was was usamerican. I was not born in that country and have never lived there. When I started doing this, my point was that it would be nice to learn about other countries and share about their cultures. The US does not need this.

Other countries may be imperialists, yes, but in western culture the US dominates media in a way no other country does. I do not know if people in Asia, for exemple, feel the same way. I'm speaking for myself and, considering everyone who shares polls here is on tumblr, I'm going to assume everyone is used to a very US-centric view. This means we do NOT need to know about their culture, their cities, their monuments. God, we know about it already. So my choice to include negative options in the US was not "imperialism is bad", is the US doesn't need this.

I don't think, in a western view - that dominates tumblr - projecting Russia or China as "evil imperialists" is actually uh groudbreaking. That is literally what we hear the most. I did include things like imperialism in Russia, did not really include it in China because it was NOT as mentioned in the associations.

I'm sorry for this long ass answer, but doing this is very tiring. I am doing research and I am thinking of every single option and whether it is offensive or is it just a history fact, and is that a fun fact or is that even true, and hey that country doesn't have stuff let's see each of the single submitions stuff and see which one seems more famous or more adequate, and finding people who are from that country and talking to them and seeing if it is ok. And I do that because I care and I think learning about other cultures is very important and if at least one person is learning something about a different country is at least worth it. And maybe a lot of times that person is just going to be me doing the polls but that's okay too. And still every country I do there is someone in the tags angry at me because i either didn't include an specific thing or included something they didn't like it, even when it's knowingly what their country is most known for. If I try to care and worry about all of that, i am going to explode.

The very first week I started doing that, I was almost giving up because I felt it wasn't worth it. And my therapist said I should try to see it as an exercise to see people criticizing and being angry at me so I would get dessensitized in time (hey, can you guess that's a issue for me from this or what) and that would be good for me in other areas of my life. Clearly, I'm still not great at just listening and not being affected by that.

TL;DR: I am trying. I'm trying very fucking hard. But I am a human with a real life out of this, I don't have enough time. And I'm always trying to make decisions fast here so I won't just stop doing it. It's not always the best, but it's what I can do.

[spacestationvampire]

the way you color things makes me want to commit crimes. any coloring tips for a baby digital artist who doesn’t know how to do the computer things good?

AUGH apologies for taking so long, i was in the middle of writing this answer and the whole thing was deleted as soon as i switched to another tab on my phone, and then the draft didn't save the second time i tried to write it. jfc at least i had it written out in my notes app the second time. anyway, thank you thank you thank you!! this was very nice to recieve, i love getting asks ❤️

i'm not versed in the arts of drawing on a computer, either, so i can't give tips in regards to specific programs (said in chronic procreate user voice) but i can certainly give universal advice keep in mind that i'm not professionally taught in the slightest so i lack much of the vocabulary to describe my methods, and remember that my word is not law!

in case of confusion, everything has been explained. i've added a cut because it got needlessly long. i've also added visual guides for certain tips, and image descriptions for each one

to be honest, much of what i do when picking colors is done with the help of gradient maps (more on that later) but when choosing my base colors i follow these rules:

1. you don't have to cell shade with purple + multiply and an add layer. that's the voice of lavendertowne attempting to take control of your body. stamp it out. (/j i love her)

2. bright, vivid colors!

3. instead of shifting just the brightness and saturation when picking colors to shade, shift the hue, too! in the first image, we can see that the circle is dull and boring. in comparison, the second image pops!

4. so, how does this work?

without getting too much into color theory--because while i've studied it before, i don't trust myself to articulate it properly without making a fool of myself--it's all about how colors interact with each other. for example, a beige circle looks lighter when surrounded by a dark background rather than just plain white.

in the same vein, surrounding greys/desaturated colors with warm colors makes them look blue, and vice versa.

5. blue/grey shadows and warm lighting!! or the other way around. actually, you can use any color for shadows and lighting, depending on your light source. is it sunny outside, or are they beneath white light?

6. for color picking, i reccomend avoiding using the wheel, instead opting for the rgb sliders or the hue saturation brightness sliders if you're dumb like me. this allows for precision in the colors you pick, and accuracy when putting together color palettes.

7. and, finally, the actual computer stuff: gradient maps! i looove gradient maps.

as far as i'm aware, procreate and krita have the gradient map tool. ibispaint does not. i am not sure if firealpaca does.

i usually use gradient maps to make my coloring more cohesive, rather than just slapping them on a monochrome drawing (which is also a totally viable method for coloring, but you'll be less precise, as gmaps only recognize values). when using gradient maps, i prefer to duplicate my completed artwork, lower the opacity of the duplicate on top of it (usually between 25 and 50%, depending on how strong i want the effect to be), and use gradient maps on the duplicate.

this makes my colors all nice and pretty!

11. if you use krita, it can be hard to find the right colors to use for your gradient maps. never fear! i'm here to give you the default templates from procreate, as well as a couple of the ones i've made.

if you have any more questions, or you want me to get further into a specific topic, feel free to send me another ask

[sol-consort]

You have just opened the floodgates to my long-repressed ME smut ideas I had nowhere to air out. I hope you know I appreciate you💙

Anyways. So. I have a headcannon that biotic fields are, like, personal to each user. For example, if someone raises a shield on someone else, it will feel slightly different depending on who does it, if that makes sense? Anyways, I was thinking in relation to that about human biotics, whose fields feel a little more staticy, especially the early generations, each use giving them slight zaps, sometimes its just their hairs standing on end, other times it's stronger, like getting shocked by an electric fence, really it depends on the strength of the ability and on how they wake up that day, but each person just... feels different. Could inspire deeper connections whether or not romance was present, the comfort of knowing its them, the familiarity of not just their touch or voice but their general being, knowing they have your back each time enemies fly into the air and the air gets that slight smell of ozone and their unmistakable presence.

Ngl, I forgot where I was going with this. I know it was about Kaidan, but I can't remember what it was😅 I'll let you know when I remember more, lol

AAA first ever request on this blog let's fucking gooo!!☆°•●○~

Gonna make it about our beloved support man, Kaidan.

Humans are unbelievable good at pattern recognition in everything. Even things we are not aware of, we still recognise a pattern for, that's the core mechanics of a gut feeling and what helped us survive.

Much like each person having a different gut biome☆ biotics would definitely be different from person to person, think like fingerprints or how each hug is different.

Kaidan's would feel different especially because he is an L2 and one of the first generation of human biotics.

Electricity is more natural to us than we think, it runs in our brain, neurons constantly firing off. So it's nor far fetched for the biotic shields to just align the right way to make us feel certian things on our skin and in our body.

Kaidan is constantly behind you in battle, watching over you and assessing your health and shield. The closest thing to a token medic you could call out for in desperation.

His shields would feel like a wave of soothing chill after the burn of a bullet, like the comfort of a ibuprofen after a strong headache. It's refreshing and makes you focus on the moment.

It's also intimate in a way you can't explain, in a way that feels very Kaidan. You've felt the shield of other biotics, ones that felt like a warm soft blanket, others that felt reassuring and desensitisating like a surgical table.

You would always murmur a small thank for Kaidan after his soothing shield cools off your burning body, drying off your sweat under the armor suit and lessening the ache of your joints.

And he'd eat those small compliments up. Be it a full thank you or an appreciative nod of the head. One time, you said, "Good job, Kaidan." A slip of the tongue where you forgot his title amidst the battle, it rings in his head to this day.

How breathless your voice was, the genuine gratitude in it as you praised him for doing such a good job at watching over his commander, having your back. You acknowledged his effort in supporting the team when lesser soldiers would scoff at his lack of combat power.

Somehow, you're always the first to get his shield during battle. His top priority over everyone else in the battlefield. You can confidenlty storm through a crowd of enemies and be confident that your lieutenant has your back.

One time your hand brushed against his and you noticed something. How soothingly cold it was.

Also feel free to flood my inbox with all of your thoughts I am literally starving like a hungry mutt for Mass Effect concepts. I am frothing at the mouth as we speak I am going to gnaw at the GPU of my pc.

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

People are forgetting something important. Everyone has a right to write what they want, and/or state an opinion on their own blog. The nuance is that there is a way to do it. There is a difference in these next 2 sayings:

« I don’t like to drive. It just doesn’t make me feel good and I don’t see the point of it. »

vs

« I don’t like to drive, can we all just fucking stop driving? As if that even made you cool! Since when is driving something that gave you importance? Are we even living in the same world?? »

In both these statements, an opinion is stated. In the second example however, the tone is condescending, almost belittling. That is all the difference. That is why people reacted the way they did. The opinion was never wrong. The way it was stated was. As if people who did not share your opinion, were less intelligent. That is why they are upset. Not because you don't like one fanfic trope.

I am not writing this to stir drama even more. I geniunely like you and your blog, I am just trying to explain what I feel is the reason for the drama around your reblog. Maybe you can understand where others are coming from and why they got upset and hurt from your reblog.

Hello. Thank you for the message, and thank you for keeping it civil. I appreciate that!

I had considered waiting until I returned from my hiatus to respond to this, but there are a few things that have immediate relevance that I feel are worth pointing out.

When responding colloquially to a post, as I had in that instance, I tend to type how I talk - it can come across as a bit abrasive, but my intent was never to upset anyone. I was just venting, not suggesting anyone stop doing what they are doing. More of a “this really boils my piss” rather than “don’t ever do this or I will tar and feather you”.

My mistake was in replying to a user that had reblogged my response - I wanted to clarify my intent, but hadn’t realised that this was a person who has previously been involved in spreading hate about me on this website.

Their responses to me grew increasingly hostile, and as soon as I realised who they were I blocked them. But it was too late.

You see, it doesn’t matter what I say, this person and the people they associate with will find any excuse to drag me. I could say the sky is a lovely blue colour today, and their response would be “oh my fucking god, she has a problem with all other colours!” When you’re determined to hate someone then nothing will stop you. That post was effectively a red rag to a bull.

I don’t really mind that they are publicly being nasty about me - I am an advocate for freedom of expression and it is their right to call me a cunt, etc. I may not like what they have to say, but I will defend with my life their right to say it.

What I do have a problem with is them suggesting I am xenophobic/racist. That is defamation of character, that is libel, and you can land yourself in serious legal trouble with that sort of chat.

To clear things up, this stems from my scepticism over the initial announcement of Ewan attending CCXP. I refused to believe it was true until it was officially confirmed, which I think is a rational mindset to have, but apparently that equates to me hating Brazilians?! Let’s be clear, I’d have reacted the same way to Ewan being announced for a con anywhere in the world, because he has previously refused to do them.

Sorry this ended up being much longer than I anticipated! And to clarify, this is not an invitation for people to send hate to the people I’m talking about, so please don’t.

[forcedhesitation]

only received about 150 follows or so bots from last night. thank goodness this is slowing down. there is still a discrepancy between my follower counts each day, that I'm not able to explain. I don't know if I just can't see certain bots, or something, because I've scrolled through my entire follower list and not found bots to account for this increased number. I know for a fact my follower count wasn't that high before, so I'm a bit confused...

I will warn anyone else, though, that the bots aren't always using the default new account picture with some random three word url. nor are all of them trying to advertise online gambling. some of them do actually have "bios" that try to mimic the bios of real accounts.

common features I've noticed in the "bios" of these mimic bots:

usually a nondescript anime character profile picture. very often the character will have pale skin, dark hair, and white clothing. if not this, it's a photo of an actual person with a similar appearance, but the photo might be a bit artsy, like a close up of the face, or a mysterious side profile.

if the profile picture does not feature a person, it will likely be a cat photo.

there is usually just one emoji in the bio, and it might not even have anything to do with their name. most common ones I saw were any one of the heart emojis.

the description might fully repeat their url, or contain some slight variation of their url, and then pronouns. usually nothing else will be included, except maybe a country or just "minor." The way all of this information is written is formatted without the typical consideration for readability that real human tumblr users typically have, and looks more like an unformatted copy-paste.

there are sometimes weird characters in the bio that make no sense to use. Like a percentile sign (%) placed in a strange place, for example.

as is common with other bots, there are no posts on the blog, or there is just one post. most common subject for that one post seems to be a cat photo, or a link to something. which you should obviously never click.

You do not get a notification for the follow from this account. Over the past few days, I've gotten thousands of bot follows. I am still only getting notifications for follows from real people though, and not for any of the bots. So that gives away who the mimic bots are. of course, there is the chance that notifications may not be working correctly all the time, so take this piece of advice with a grain of salt.

hope no one else has to deal with this bullshit. If you are dealing with it, I pray that it will not be anywhere near as bad as what I had. if you can, try to report as many as you reasonably can because that at least gives information to the people on staff whose job it is to handle bots.

[adventuringblind]

Hi! I really liked your magical realism AU! Would it be possible for you to explain it a bit more? Like- how do levels work? Does it mean that the higher the level the more powerful the element you have is? Who is the most powerful member of the grid in your AU? Also, if you had a level/ability, what would it be?

Also also, you're a really good writer, just wanted to say 💗. Thank you for exploring some heavier topics in your writing and allowing readers to be a bit more vulnerable too!

There is like... so much here honestly. World building is my absolute favorite part of writing AU's because not one is the same! Obviously there are other magical realism AU's similar but this one is mine and I spent literal days figuring this out

In all honesty - you hit my sweet spot with this question. Below is my long ass rant about this AU along with an info dump. Gonna start creating tags for it since it's picking up more traction!

So I spent more time than I want to admit playing around with certain concepts. The rating system was a big one for me because it allows for abilities to manifest in different ways.

I started out calling it a 'scary rating' because I thought it was funny and now I head cannon they use it for fun. Rating is so... boring.

The scale is a 1-10 system. ! is the least powerful where 10 is the most. the most common are 4-7 simply because of how these energies manifest themselves.

The EU's (energy users) are more or less feared. I've deemed this as part of human evolution. It's not some kind of lab experiment gone wrong, just humans adapting to things in the environment.

That being said - Energies are more or less sentient. It's something I plan to explore in later fics. This comes into play a lot in Mend Me because I wrote an entire scene of energies either meshing or not.

In that fic, the protagonist is a level 10 meaning her energy is really high. People feel it because it's strong. Lando is a three (I think) and should not be able to be in the room with her but is able to manage because their energies meld together well.

One of the big things I stumbled across while building is that kind of dynamic. I tried explaining to a few people and it wasn't making sense so I had to rework it a few times. Here is the condensed explanation:

Energies are a natural thing and the next step in human evolution

They have their own personalities and often work with their human counter part versus working for them

Because normal humans fear the unknown and crave control, they came up with the identifying bands

All EU's are required to wear one

It shows their ability category (more on that later), their rating, and acts a suppressor band

Because EU's aren't allowed to be out without them on, the normal humans never adapted to the presence of energies and can't stomach being around anything 4 or higher. 1-3 still messes with them but not as severely.

Due to energies not being allowed to interact with each other and work together as intended, other EU's have to make a point to spend time together without their suppressor bands on in order to gain that familiarity

If you take it a step further you can even use it for different relationships. Pierre and Esteban for example might not work together well because their energies simply clash.

The rating system depends on a lot of different factors really! A level 1 who manipulates water might be able to make a bubbles and that's it. Where a level 10 could make a tsunami and then go for a mile run. A level 8 might be able to make that tsunami, but doing anything after would just be painful.

Now onto the fun part: Powers! I want to note that there are the main branches of powers, the actual power type, and then the sub categories of how that power might manifest. Bare with me here as this isn't all flushed out yet!

Also for references: EU's make up a little less then half the human population. I don't have the time to calculate what it would be in terms of the entire population for these statistics so don't be upset with me please T_T

Healers make up 3% of the EU population. Know by their white arm bands w/ black stripe in the middle (or the reverse Oreo technically speaking).

Witchers (healing but same name twice was driving me insane)

Alchemists

Energy Readers

Mind make up 8% of the EU population. Know by their light blue arm bands.

Telekenetic

Mind Reader

Mind control

Precognition

Illusion

Fazing

Illusion

Psychometry

Empath

Shifters make up 12% of the EU population. They have a bronze arm band but the shifter type is outlined on it (paw print, body, shape).

Animal

Partial

Body Mod

Inanimate (this one was for giggles really)

Sound makes up 11% of the EU population. Their arm bands are gold with vertical gray stripes.

Vocal Flux

Music

Language

Mimicry

Body makes up 15% of the EU population. Known by orange arm bands.

Speed

Strength

flying

Size Alteration

Agility

Druids makes up 9% of the EU population. Known by a Green armband w/ brown stripe in the middle

Animal communication

sentient creation

Plant communication (Lorax style)

Fabricators

Sensory makes up 17% of the EU population and have purple arm bands.

Sight

Smell

Hearing

Taste

Touch

Reapers make up 3% of the EU population. Know by their black arm bands w/ a white stripe in the middle (The real Oreo cookie).

death touch

dream walking

judges

channeling

Primary Elementals make up 12% of the EU population. They have gray armbands w/ a colored strip in the middle indicating element.

Water

Earth

Fire

Air

Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked

Secondary Elementals make up 10% of the EU population. Plain black arm bands because there are to many of them to pick a way to diversify!

Metal

Shadow

Weather

Electricity

Light

There's a ton of details about each of of these but that would require another post. For now, I'll finally answer the questions!

The most powerful in my own head is Carlos because I made him a shifter. A level 8 BEAR. Why? because I can. I like to experiment though so that's my own fantasy world. However, if you see a consistent stream of bear Carlos that's why.

If I personally had an ability I'd have to Say a Witcher (leave the name alone! Saying healer twice is weird to meeee!). The reason is wildly morbid...

Draw backs of being a Witcher (healer) is what I like to call a wound transfer. I - much to everyone's displeasure - have intrusive thoughts about hurting myself in incredibly morbid ways. Getting to heal one person and hurting myself in the process? Sounds like a win-win to me!