#this is my low effort meme era

[girlboss-emporium]

Kaname Date when he visits Mama for intel

[myfandomrealitea]

https://www.tumblr.com/myfandomrealitea/754708019843137536/im-actually-sick-of-living-in-a-world-where-all?source=share

I did litter picking as a hobby in my last home, and eventually people started to thank me, and then eventually someone set up a group with me! It got too much for my hands after a while but it shows that its not futile to do something like that if you are able. Do you have any advice to on how to engage petitioning people when it you are autistic and disabled and thus struggle to put your limited energy towards things you feel aren't gonna lead anywhere and be pointless?

One of the best ways you can help if you have low reserves of energy or motivation is actually by helping others to achieve your shared goal. Chances are if you've found something wanting in your local community or with a larger issue, other people have too.

You can take on less demanding, perhaps even more fun tasks like designing leaflets or images that can be shared around. Especially in the era of convenience and hilarity where low quality memes can often accomplish what would once require fourteen degrees and few years experience in digital design.

Often people get burnt out by trying to assume a spearhead or higher effort role in a cause. Taking on too much when you simply don't have the capability to meet your own expectations is a not insignificant portion of why causes can feel 'pointless' or 'unachievable.'

For example, a lot of the common activism I do is actually simply connecting people to other people who can mutually aid them in their cause. If someone has the knowledge for how to get something to happen but simply not the time, I help them find someone who has the time that they can feed their knowledge to so that person can do what they can't.

Local good cause doesn't have a Facebook page for awareness and easy communication? Don't have the spoons to fully set it up and mod it yourself? Lightly prod the suggestion at someone who does. Encourage them to set it up. Maybe you can do small parts of setting it up like typing out the about section or sending out page invites.

Also; acknowledging when its too much for you and taking a step back is so fucking important. I already have a post about this; but forcing yourself into activism constantly is terrible for you, your cause and the people around you. Take breaks when you need them. Delegate when you need to. Take days to enjoy the world you live in for the very finite amount of time that you're in it.

[reimenaashelyee]

how did you get your comics seen? it's one thing to make them and a whole other thing to get people to lay eyes on them and read them and I have no idea how to do the second part

I think you'll have to at least make friends with some of your peer group (artists who are at the same stage in their career as you) so you can both share your audiences and if nothing else, have each other as readers. If you're really new, it's kinda a fact that your work will be tiny for a few years: there's a lot of stuff online.

I am not a spring chicken anymore so all my current advice for promotion wouldn't apply as the majority of it required years of presence and establishment with the comics industry... now that my peer group has matured and become successful creators (I know that my peers are casually aware of what I put out, they may or may not read it or even comment). Additionally, my way of promoting is as avoidant of playing the algorithm and virality and tailoring to the most amount of possible audience. If you want the opposite of that, you can ask @secondlina - who has done a lot of experimentation with social media and gaming the internet attention economy.

I'm not all that interest in gaming anything: I only want to serve the audience I have and always had - thoughtful, chill readers who are ok with slow reading, in the sense they don't ask me for constant content since they get what my vibe is. They are here for my lush visuals, original material and approach to topics/characters. It's this audience, and the academics + people who tend to be older and are equivalent/less levels of "online" to me. I personally find that gaming for views on purpose steals time and energy away, since a lot of the tactics tend to ask you to behave or post or draw a certain way that might feel unnatural with no guarantee whether the effort is worth it. For example, making memes of your characters, doing funny reels with music. If you are cool with doing all that though, again, @secondlina is your expert. I can see why those tactics are popular: that's how Big Tech dictates you get access to their "discovery" algorithm.

For me, in the early days what got new eyes onto my narrative work was making one-off illustrations (not necessarily of the comic - just some original character concepts) that somehow got popular. This was during the peak eras of Twitter and Tumblr though. The other thing was mostly talking about my comics: I document so much of my process. People love this apparently. It's the only guaranteed way for myself that gets people hype and aware of the comic's existence - though this might partly be caused by the aforementioned audience I always had. It's very low effort cos I mostly post screenshots of WIPs or developmental sketches and include a comment.

But like, with webcomics, I always operated on the assumption that people don't read my work. I am just here vibing. If there are readers (and I know who you are because of comments made across social media / my websites over the years) I appreciate them, but I don't want to ask much of them either. I put out the work I like, and whoever comes across it and likes it can stay, maybe comment, maybe get the print edition.

Yeah, this is not such a satisfactory answer for marketing if you're not subscribed to my brand of being an online artist: which is slow-growth, sustained working. My established methods now are: talking about my work, documenting it, connecting with peer group + older generations of professionals (established critics, journalists, editors), running a newsletter, going on interviews/podcasts, submitting my art to whatever I think would help promote it - pitch to Shortbox Fair, apply to Knife Beetle or the Cartoonist Cooperative, join a Discord.

And advanced methods, like applying for artist residencies.

In the end I cannot emphasise enough to get to know your peers who are at the same level of career as you are. Find creators who started at the same time you did and read their work (your choice); talk to them directly if the style/vibe matches. This is long-term mutual commitment - you won't see the effects until years later when you each find success in the paths you chose. And just to give you an idea of who my original peer group is - choo, Ariel Ries, Kay O'Neill, Bree Paulsen, Toril/Eden Orlensky, Kaeti V, Kevin Jay Stanton, Victoria Grace Elliot, Britt Sabo - we were all obscure mutuals/friends at more or less the same time. Then we each found our own way. Over time the circle grew to include other peer groups - ones that started slightly earlier or later, and new contacts of the same level. And that's how one gets established. As this is happening you will get eyes to your work naturally.

[gravesung]

and i'll lie here forever.

carrd. interest tracker. memes & prompts. main blog: @huntershowl

this is a low-effort, very selective & very private multimuse. mutuals only. expect sporadic activity, light formatting, lots of chatter and general chill vibes. in my anime boy era. the stakes are so low they’re in the floor. we’re just hanging out and havin fun!

featured muses: suguru geto (the sin-eater), chiaki komatsu (the weaver), rusalka kalypsos (the heart) graves i am stretched upon: @never-surrender​ , @chaoslulled , @harerazor​​ , @vsagis​ , @hinodae

header art. icon art. pinned template.

[vindictes]

i call it my low effort meme hiatus era

[earth-wyrms]

hi do you know the rage that helvetica and its evangelists evoke in me?? like fuck its not about helvetica helvetica - actual rage towards any font (yes even that one) is just a low effort meme: youre not funny. but as its cleanliness and uniformity has grown into modern design ethos like a cancer it has been chosen as the de-facto correct answer to any design problem. i thought that graphic design was the art of communication? did we not take the same classes?? yalls professors forget to tell you this????

i cant divine the exact reasons why this has happened. i have guesses and conspiracy theories but nothing useful. internally ive been calling it the "apple store problem" where good minimalism is really hard - nearly impossible to make human enough, but bad minimalism is hilariously easy. yes im a frank lloyd wright hater why do you ask. but all of these individual examples are just data points and i am stuck inside my mind with no identifiable root cause.

furthermore, and perhaps more important: - is it fair to critique an art movement on the basis of its incurious hacks? - doesnt every artist in every era feel like this? - isnt this just the feeling of having an Establishment against which we make our art? - isnt it okay that corporate art is always going to be "like that"? that all corporate art is always going to trend towards least common denominator, watered-down mass-appeal? - how careful do i have to be? when i sit here and complain that advertising of all things is more and more stale oatmeal how much am i yearning for a mythical perfect past where REAL artists made REAL art and not this degenerate* slop? - is it even worth it to try and ask that art in advertising be any good? like. its still art for advertising. yknow. the horrifying screeching mindless presence of light and sound that exists only to wring every living drop of attention, time, energy, and capitol out of humans until we are a barely living, shivering, bio-mechanical GDP booster whos only purpose is to feed the machine that hurts us. that advertising.

i think maybe theres more here than: clean lines bad and im bored

oh hi there, i see you making *word associations. yes, that is exactly what i was talking about, thansk for noticing: OG fascists and neo fascists love to cite how great art used to be before The Bad Times as a way to retroactively legitimize themselves and to propose a Good future where they win verses the Bad future where cops arent allowed to murder people. this regularly seeps like poison into conversations about mass-market art because they both sound like criticisms of the present. in discussions on the damaging relationship between art and commerce where most folks there are lamenting how the need to be advertiser friendly stunts communication and limits what art can even be made, you can regularly find little fascist shits whinging about the good ol days. when complaining about how capitalism is making it impossible to talk about sex or being black or being trans in your art make sure youre not inventing fictional pasts. there was never a The Good Times where only real artists prevailed. yes we are in a particularly censor-heavy, advertiser-friendliness-driven time on the internet BUT getting sucked into the rhetoric of how much society has devolved these days lands you in Neo Nazi Proximity Danger Zone.

where was i? oh yah: 1. charles eames can get fucked. 2. it is a good thing to demand more from the commercial art in your life 3. if youre bored of the same thing again and again try finding independent art projects that match your freak and come back to me 4. the achingly personal, earnest art you make will never be lowest common denominator marketable 5. do it anyways. make bad art that pisses people off. 6. i also hate helvetica for reasons that have nothing to do with this rant, its just not appealing to me. i like Baskerville and MCIR fonts

[hopeididntscareyou]

learning something youre genuinely interested in is one of the best feelings in life ive ever had. its like your mind is bursting of excitement and you think you have more energy than you realistically have. for me the most interesting subject would be philosophy. i guess its all because i enjoy reasoning. i like knowledge and using my brain and philosophy has just everything to offer; from arts, history, math, languages, heck even science like physics. they all make sense because of philosophy.

on some other news my bestfriend's baby daddy is leaving her because hes going to be out of country for almost this entire year so hes literally absent during this whole pregnancy and whos gonna comfort her? me. plus my bestfriend is going to work too - pregnant. thats absolutely ridiculous and she doesnt even have the power in this relationship and its just crazy to me. i dont wanna meddle in her relationship but this is just wrong. how could u just leave your pregnant girlfriend when money isnt even an issue.. thats just irresponsible as fuck. it seems like he just want to avoid dealing with a pregnant gf and taking care of her needs because he doesnt even want the baby in the first place. i dont know why she stays in this relationship where he has nothing to bring to the table, he only gives him the bare minimum and doesn't offer anything for her betterment. also this unborn baby is absolutely unwanted smh.. it doesnt make sense. honestly i wouldnt stay in this kind of relationship it just doesnt make sense. i know how it feels like when the man is low effort, doesn't provide and all these fatherless behaviors and it sucks to be in a relationship with them. i wouldnt waste time let alone have a baby with them. it makes me so sad what has become of her situation. it was already bad and its only getting worse. its stressing me out because she needs my support that her bf doesnt give her. smh. i saw a meme about mid 20s gloomer and it seems like toxic female friendships era is true at this point

[freakingweirdo]

[chisatowo]

People who make fun of animation memes are so annoying tbh.... Especially when they like try to make a "haha all animation memes be like" videos or whatever and don't land on any of the fucking basic tropes, like c'mon man if your gonna make fun of the repetition in the animation meme community at least get the things that are most common right rjrnshrnd

[wellbelesbian]

i realised that in my most recent Ebbiona fic i’m pretty much picturing teenage Ebb as looking like Claire from Derry Girls, so i present this low effort watford-era Ebbiona meme

[importantcollectionbasementus]

I'm sorry but your tags WHAT!!!!???

Not sure what part you mean exactly so I'm just gonna go till I run out of thoughts!

So in 2012-2013ish the only social media I used at all was Instagram where I thought I was on like... some kind of cutting edge of memes, with the "dank memers" and edgelord memes that were really just like crossposts from tumblr or low effort jabs at random stuff. (< 2013-2015 era ig posting) also worth mentioning that I didnt really follow anyone with low follow counts for memes.

After having been introduced to tumblr by my sister (longer story tbh)I somehow managed to curate what I can see now as a normie tumblr experience. (like following thebootydiaries) however considering my age and media consumption at that time this isnt suprising.

Back to ig, around the time pepe the frog really showed up I noticed that my tumblr and ig dashes were The Same and not long after ig started to remove user friendly stuff like chronological order. So already having a Certified Mid time, the people who were posting Dank memes had devolved into the type of people who had to regularly remake their account due to (valid) bans.

Either trying to post porn or whatever at first and just telling people to not Report it so ig wont know, but swiftly moving straight to! ISIS beheading video! So I stepped back and was like do i enjoy being on ig? Is it worth this? The answer was no so I deleted ig and didnt look back.

But looking back right now I can see that I was Very Close to becoming someone that the me now would hate just due to ig algorimthically placing me among right wing memers as a teen, which is pretty scary tbh.

So I'll continue to look forward and hope tumblr wont sink!

[c-aureus]

Ok, here’s a post I’ve been waiting to make: Why I’m worried about BotW2. Wall of text incoming. Now, I’m gonna preface this with a few things. Firstly, I waited to post this so that all of the immediate reactionary hype would die down a bit, and also so that I could contemplate on my thoughts for a while, before posting them. Secondly, this is not at all a criticism of the setting, or gameplay, both of which look incredible. However, for me at least, none of that was ever in doubt. Thirdly, I will freely admit that all of the forthcoming arguments are speculation. We do not yet know much of anything about the direction of the sequel, and I fully understand and admit that there is every chance that I could be completely wrong. In fact, I’d very much like for that to be the case. Alas, I am English, and cynicism is literally encoded into my DNA, so here’s a few things that I think are likely to happen, and why I’m so worried about them. My first point is kind of a big one, but honestly, it kinda sums my entire argument up: I’m worried that BotW2 is going to do everything it can to basically be a ‘soft reset’, regressing to the norm of BotW. What do I mean by this? Well. From a gameplay perspective, it will almost certainly use the time honoured Zelda tradition of resetting Link to 3 hearts and no powers at the beginning. Needless to say, I really do not want them to do this. From a story perspective, Link’s entire character arc in BotW was regaining the power he lost due to the Shrine of Resurrection. From a narrative perspective, I really do not want to see all of his growth and progress wiped away because ‘New Game lol’. Furthermore, on the topic of the Champions’ abilities... I honestly don’t think that any of them would just abandon him, however this argument goes 10x more for Mipha specifically. Mipha’s promise to Link in BotW was to ALWAYS heal him, and it is one of the most hauntingly beautiful things about her tragedy that she gets to fulfill her promise to him in death. Therefore, I simply cannot reconcile Mipha leaving Link (not sticking around to heal him) with her character. Because, BotW shows that her love and her devotion to Link are selfless, and absloute. She would NEVER renege on such a promise, even though Ganon was ‘defeated’. To do so is antithecal to her entire character. There’s also the matter of Link’s equipment. In a similar vein, I’d argue that much of Link’s equipment (including the Champions’ weapons and Zora Armour) hold enormous sentimental value to him, and if he is stripped of them for no good reason, then I will also be upset. Also, furthermore, BotW2 seems to be very strongly implying that Ganon was not ‘defeated’, which means that the Champions’ spirits cannot even be ‘at rest’, since surely their duty is not complete? Not that I think this should ever factor into Mipha’s personal motivation to continue healing Link, but whatever. What I fear is that there will be no mention nor presence of the Champions’ abilities, which... would really suck. Honestly, I’d even go so far as to say that it absolutely ruins Mipha’s character. Even if we’re being fooled and it’s not actually Ganon who is causing trouble (it does look pretty Malice-y, though...), I honestly, truly believe that they would not simply abandon Link. However, if it IS Ganon(dorf), then there is no excuse nor reason for their absence. This comes into my second point. I’m strongly suspecting that the plot of BotW2 is trying its absolute hardest to simply ‘reset the status quo’ that existed in BotW. By this, I mean that the trailers have already shown Ganon and implied him to be the villain, and Link and Zelda have been separated, presumably with Link having to rescue her. Again.

(On a side note, I do not believe that anyone truly believes that they’ve actually killed Zelda off, do they? I mean, come on. Her plot armour is thicker than the belt of a WW2 era dreadnought battleship. Which is a shame, tbh, becasuse it really prevents any kind of tension in the story, or interesting twists.) (On another side note, idk if I’ve actually seen anyone elaborate on how... depressing it is to have Ganon as the main villain AGAIN. The entirety of BotW was dedicated to defeating him, and many characters literally gave their lives to fight him, and now, after having been successful and defeated him, ‘lol he’s back again, lol.’ *Shrug*. I guess that it feels kinda cheap to me, along the lines of a last minute ‘oh wait, you didn’t REALLY beat him’, because they want to pad the game out more. Especially if there is no real consideration of this point from Link and Zelda’s pov: Namely, just how depressing it would be to lose everything to Ganon, finally defeat him, only to have him immediately return. At this point, I’d be lamenting on the unfairness that Ganon gets literally infinite chances to try again, but not all of his victims, which could be a really interesting psychological point of exploration, but I fear that the sequel will not make any effort to mention it. Hence my low-effort meme on the matter. ) So, basically, instead of giving us a new plot, in a new direction, with the consequences and events of the prequel fresh in mind and influencing character behaviour, we’re resetting the situation to how things were in BotW. Which... I’m extremely un-keen on. Since, it’s going to probably feel like a ‘we’ve already done this before’ kind of thing. A staleness, if you will. Again, I’d love to be proven wrong. However, what I suspect and fear is that we’re going to get this kind of situation, which I would really hate. The thing that I have been waiting for with the highest of anticipation was seeing how Link and Zelda would react to post-Calamity Hyrule, and how their failures and losses would impact them going forwards. I’m not going to give the Resurrection/Time Travel speech again, but I will mention it, since it is an absolutely valid goal, given the ‘rules’ by which the Zelda universe operates, and a valid response to the grief of losing characters that BotW/AoC establishes that they love. Again, I fear that the sequel will make no reference to this, which also feels like a massive disservice to the characters of the Champions. Also, it would be really unique, and not just the standard ‘defeat the Big Bad Evil Ganon’ that is every Zelda game. Ok, I really am done on that point here. It’s a topic for another rant, lol. TL;DR: I’m very, very worried that BotW2 will forgo narrative progression to simply reset the situation to how it was before, without any care for how that impacts the narrative. I mean, we saw how bad this ended up for the Star Wars sequels, so I think I have a right to be concerned... We know that this game grew out of being DLC for BotW. What I fear is that it will really end up looking like BotW DLC, rather than a sequel, from a narrative perspective. If anyone has any opinions or thoughts to add, then I’d love to hear them.

[tricktster]

Hey, I'm just letting you know I noticed some of your posts have been reposted on facebook by "Just Sock Thoughts"

Yeah, I feel like I get my Premium Original Content scooped by aggregators pretty frequently, and for the most part I don’t mind (or like... just don’t see it because I can’t bring myself to actually get into Instagram). But there are two aggregator incidents that stand out in my mind as particularly remarkable:

Incident 1:

I’d probably have a much bigger head about the relative frequency that one of my posts takes off if I didn’t know that becoming an Extremely Minor Internet Personality is way less about making good content than it is about... random luck, I guess. 

Like, this is actually a sideblog (so for any of my longtime buddies on here who might be wondering why I’m not following you? I prooooobably am). At the time I made this sideblog (2015-2016?), I never thought it would pick up more followers than the 200 or so I had managed to coax into following my main blog over the course of four-ish years. 

I was wrong, this account rapidly accumulated followers, and now I get scooped by aggregators on the reg. And like... it’s not like I’m doing anything different on this one than I was doing on my main, other than obscuring my identity a little better? I’m not funnier here, I’m not changing my formula, it’s just that I got enough followers when I first made this sideblog (through my patented process of Writing Explicit Undertale Fanfic in the Hopes of Getting Enough Monetary Donations That I Could Afford To Eat) that now even though I’m just posting my own weird niche bullshit on here, the odds are stacked in my favor towards any one of my posts picking up a lot of notes. If I posted the same exact thing on my extremely obscure main? The odds swing HARD the other way. In the 3-4 years before I made the trickster account, I was lucky to break 10 notes on a post, and 500 was as high as any of them went. 

Except for one. 

You’ve probably seen the post I’m talking about. It’s surpassed my most popular trickster posts by like... several hundreds of thousands of notes. I’m not linking it here for two reasons: 

A) I never scrubbed all my selfies off my main and I don’t need all y’all discovering that I’m hot as hell, and more importantly 

B) the post in question fucking sucks. 

It’s like the lowest effort meme, it’s smug and annoying, and it basically reeks of the worst era of r/athiesm. It’s the sort of shit that gets popular on facebook groups that wish they were “I fucking love science” but can’t achieve the same degree of quality... even though it’s an extremely low hurdle for them to jump. It evokes the concept of a fedora. Whenever I see it on tumblr, I want to hop in a time machine, travel back to the 17th century, convince Matsubayashi Henyasai to take me on as a pupil, train under his tutelage until he declares that I have mastered my chosen weapon, hop back into the time machine, travel to 2013, infiltrate my old apartment, and finally, at the precise moment my former self is about to click “post” on that dumbass meme, destroy her mouse, laptop, and cellphone with an incredibly accurate barrage of shurikens. 

Still, like... while it makes me cringe to my very soul whenever I encounter it, there’s a tiny part of me that has spent the last eight years just BASKING in the validation of knowing that there are several hundred thousand anonymous people out there who think I’m funny. It is not an attractive part of me, but shit, I’m an Extremely Minor Internet Personality, and you don’t become that unless you’re in some way motivated by the approval of anonymous strangers.

I’m giving you all this backstory so you can understand the significance of something that happened last month.

There I was, innocently scrolling through my news feed to see how my Trumpy uncle was justifying the whole coup thing, when I came upon a familiar image. I recoiled in horror, and then examined it more closely.

The Coolest Guy I Knew In College But Never Succeeded In Really Befriending (Because I Was Too Intimidated By How Cool He Was) had just shared my smug, cringy-as-hell meme from 2013 on his wall... and the version he had shared had been not only watermarked by one of the aforementioned wannabe “I fucking love science” groups, but also had a copyright symbol on it next to the name of some dude I’ve never even heard of.

THE MAELSTROM OF CONFLICTING EMOTIONS IS STILL OVERWHELMING ME TO THIS DAY. I AM WINCING. I AM INDIGNANT. I AM REASSESSING WHETHER THAT GUY WAS ACTUALLY AS COOL AS I THOUGHT HE WAS. I AM WEIRDLY AMUSED. I AM EXTREMELY CONFUSED. 

I AM SUSPICIOUS THAT SOMEONE MIGHT BE MAKING MONEY OFF OF MY NONSENSE, AND IF SO, I WOULD LIKE MY GODDAMN CUT. 

...

i’m fine

i’m gonna be fine

Incident 2:

This really requires a lot less elaboration than the last one, but @anagha-draws brought this aggregator post to my attention and I just can’t stop thinking about the fact that there’s a guy out there who got paid some amount of actual U.S. dollars to write a book report about the time I accidentally played WAP for my mom’s book club. 

[thetirisfaltheatretroupe]

Big Troupe Announcements! Big Troupe Summer!

Hello, everyone! Lord Atos Sunhart here! For those of you who aren’t aware, Fehl had stepped down last year from Troupe related duties due to her own life becoming much more demanding, and so I returned to the director’s seat once again. I’ve been back for about a year, but we’ve kind of laid a little low since my return due to a lot of restructuring and our desire to try a few new ideas out that are coming along slowly but surely!

We have some awesome projects in the works, some of which won’t be ready for some time, and some that we’re excited to bring you much sooner! But we can’t QUITE open the curtains for a peek just yet. Before anything, I’d like to make a series of announcements about some of our projects this Summer, starting with the most important one of all:

The Troupe Is Casting! 

Looking at some of the last posts made on this ye olde tumblr I guess it’s not a surprise that the troupe is indeed casting once more. In the past, it was due to not really having enough active people to pull off a large show with, but now, times have changed a bit, and we’re looking for people to make our shows even better and more frequent than ever!

What we’re looking for;

* Any race/gender/faction! Yes, we hire Alliance as well! In the era of Discord and cross faction RP, there’s no reason we have not to. Though, we are overloaded on elves at the moment and would kinda love a tauren or any Alliance character

* Obviously the character should be a good fit for the group! We’re not really looking for a serial murderer warlock who tries to sacrifice our members to the great Murloc Gods at the first chance they get. We’re not too picky here, but there are some characters that just don’t work terribly well with our concept.

* Available to take part in events during most of our performing days, which tend to be weekends, starting around 6:00 PM server. We base all our event times on server time.

* Someone who, behind the character, is friendly, patient, and above all else, mature. The clear rule of “don’t be an asshole” applies in this guild (and I’ll explain what that means below), and we have a zero drama tolerance policy. We are all adults who pay a monthly subscription to a greedy corporation to play with their toys, I think the last thing we want is to relive middle school in our 20s and 30s.

* Someone with a desire to help make memorable, exciting events for others to enjoy. While we play the part of celebrities, and being in the spotlight is a lot of fun, ultimately we want someone who, behind the character at least, does it for the enjoyment of others and not for personal gain or clout. We’re not clout chasers. We are proud of how long we’ve been performing and how hard we work, but ultimately we do this for our audience’s enjoyment.

* Communication is important! We aren’t a hardcore raiding guild, and thus we won’t be upset if you tell us you have to miss a rehearsal night or have a family emergency.. But if you know ahead of time, we really want someone who will let us know they can’t make it to an event so we can plan around it.

Furthermore, it should be said that while we normally do not require a person leave their guild to join us, this time around we’re looking for more to wear the guild tag above their heads, at least for this recruitment effort. Above all of these, the most important key point is the ‘don’t be an asshole’ policy. In the past I didn’t think it needed to be explained, but things we’ve been through in recent months compels me to explain what I mean by this; no homophobic behavior, racist behavior, transphobic behavior, harassment, pedophilia and other such illegal and morally vile behavior will be tolerated in our guild, period. But I’m sure you’re asking, what’s in it for me? Well, the benefits of working with the Tirisfal Theatre Troupe are, but not limited to;

* Being part of a near decade-old (8 years this October) guild that through thick and thin has stood the test of time!

* Working alongside some extremely talented, fun, humorous, and creative minds!

* Getting to make people smile and be a positive part of the community! 

* Taco Tuesdays. This is a lie, don’t believe me.

* Helping an already fun concept become even better as we grow and adapt to the ever changing nature of this game and its community!

* Adding “Actor/Actress” to your long series of titles in your TRP Profile. Maybe somewhere between “Lord of the Dance” and “Wrecker of your Shit”! Don’t be bashful, we know you have it in there somewhere.

So if you’re interested in being a part of the stage and bringing the uniqueness that is YOU into our ranks, please send an in-game mail to Atos on Wyrmrest Accord server (Hordeside), or show up for the open auditions at the dates, times, and location listed below;

Thursday, June 3rd 6:00 - 8:30 PM Portrait Room - Legion Dalaran

Friday, June 4th 6:00 - 8:30 PM Portrait Room - Legion Dalaran

Saturday, June 5th 6:00 - 8:30 PM Portrait Room - Legion Dalaran

We hope to see you there! And remember, because we’ve had this happen a few times; if you think you aren’t good enough, you’re probably actually amazing and far more talented than you think! 

Anniversary Bash 2021 Officially Planned! With a Twist

Those of you who have followed us for some time are likely aware of our annual celebration we hold on the anniversary of our first major public performance! This has traditionally been held on the third Friday of every October, so that it lines up perfectly with Hallow’s End starting. While we have had on-off years, and even said in the past we would never do it again (Insert I was crazy that time meme here), it’s pretty clear that at least every other year we seem to take to it again with new ideas. Honestly, we LOVE these yearly parties, despite how much stress they put us under, and we’re going to announce it earlier this year just so people know; yes, yes there WILL be a bash this year!

Things are going to be a little different this year, though. This October will actually have 5 Fridays in it due to...well...the calendar! It conspires against us, dammit! Because the third Friday falls in place before the Hallow’s End events are set to start, we will instead be bumping it up one week to the 22nd. So, there you have it! Our Big Bash will be on the 22nd of October! We’ll be making a full announcement about it later this Summer, and honestly, I think folks are going to really like the fun we have planned for it. So if this is something you’re looking forward to early, or you just like making sure your calendar events are always filled out, please make a mark for

October 22nd, 2021! 

Hellsqueal Squeals Again, Plus Winter’s Veil In July?

This Summer we’ll be getting back to our roots and bringing Hellsqueal back for another round. The Trilogy will rise again, and you won’t want to miss it! This time we’ll be performing it for our audiences on both sides of the factional fence and making some revisions to the script, but long time fans needn’t worry! Hellscream is still the same boisterous buffoon he’s always been.

Also, we’re bringing you an interesting new concept no one has EVER thought of before! ...well, okay, that’s a lie, but Greatfather Winter needn’t send me a lump of coal in my in-game mailbox for that one! The TTT will be hosting a Winter’s Veil themed party IN JULY! Don your gaudy sweaters, get ready to meet Greatfather Winter, take part in a sled race, and get ready to watch a completely out of season showing of It’s A Wonderful Unlife! Some lucky attendees may even receive a gift! The date for this and for Hellsqueal’s trilogy are yet to be announced, but they will be unveiled very soon!

Even though we never left, it feels good to be back at full strength again and pushing hard to give everyone the quality entertainment we pride ourselves on! Keep an eye out for our announcements this Summer - we’ll be hitting not only Tumblr when an event is ready to go, but the Blizzard forums and various Discord community servers! So please, have a fantastic day, week, month, even a year! 

[elrhiarhodan]

@rubynye asked me for #9 (Dance AU) and #96 (Scars) for the Trope Mashup Meme, and Din/Luke.  Of course I had to go Ballet AU, and introduce a little bit of Obi-Wan as Ballet Master in it.

  "I can’t believe old Obi-Wan actually thinks some ancient dancers from some two-bit Eurotrash troupe that no one’s ever heard of can teach us anything."  A teenage danseur’s snotty voice carries out of the practice studio and into the hallway.

Luke looks at his husband and rolls his eyes.  Din shrugs, as if to say "We were once that young and stupid, too".  Luke shrugs back, silently telling Din, "No, we were stupider".

"I wouldn’t call Les Mandalorians some two-bit troupe, Henry.  They were - and still are - the favorite company of the House of Organa."  Obi-Wan saunters into the room from the other door.  "Luke was my protégé at the Royal Ballet, and his husband, Din, was the principal danseur at the Paris Opera Ballet for almost a decade before they formed their own company.   Not one of you has a fraction of the promise that either of these men had at your age.  Especially you, Henry."

Luke sighs.  Obi-Wan is in rare form today, and he feels just a trifle sorry for young Henry.  But only a trifle.  The kid is an obnoxious snot and probably deserves everything that Obi-Wan dishes out to him, and then some.

Din just raises an eyebrow.  His husband is, as per his custom, inclined to few words before a performance, even if it’s just in front of a class of teenage wannabes.

Obi-Wan sticks his head out the door.  "Gentlemen, would you like to join us?"

Luke plasters on a professional smile. "Of course.  If you really think that two has-beens like us have anything to teach your crew of promising young dancers."  He’s pitched his voice so it will carry into the classroom.  

Obi-Wan rolls his eyes.  "Let’s find out."

Din and Luke step into the classroom, and despite the earlier unkind words, the students fall into a reverent hush when they recognize just who Obi-Wan has brought before them - Luke Skywalker and Din Djarin, trailblazers both.

Luke unzips his jacket and reveals a body that’s seen too many surgeries - ACL, elbow, cervical spine.  The trail of scars disappears under his scoop-necked leotard.  He’s proud of those marks, each one denotes a triumph of medical science and his own determination to come back from a potentially career-ending injury. There’s a low murmur from the class as they see the scars.

Din bears similar wounds, but he hides his under more concealing dance wear.

Obi-Wan announces what Din and Luke will perform, The Death of Mercutio and Tybalt, from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.  Luke, ever the overachiever, will dance both the roles of Mercutio and Romeo."  That gets an interesting reaction from the class, and a bit of a scoff from young Henry.  

Instead of rapier and stiletto, the preferred prop weapons for a classical staging, Din pulls out a pair of wooden staves and tosses one to Luke, who nods at Obi-Wan, who starts the music. Luke and Din have performed this pas de deux a hundred times with various choreographies, but this one, developed by Obi-Wan for Les Mandalorians and usually performed in 1920’s flapper-era costume, is one of their favorites.

The fight between Tybalt and Mercutio starts off lighthearted.  Mercutio pokes and prods at grim and serious Tybalt, his stave used as an object of irritation, not serious aggression. This is supposed to be an affair of honor, not a duel to the death.

Luke, as Mercutio, keeps poking at Tybalt/Din, as if he’s a caged lion and eventually, Tybalt swings at him with barely restrained fury.  The fight, as choreographed, is woefully uneven.  Tybalt is a skilled duelist and soon murders Mercutio with a swift blow to the head.  Luke gracefully spins and collapses into a messy heap while Tybalt takes a victory strut around the stage.  

It’s a bit awkward rising from the dead, because Luke’s now playing Romeo, and he rushes at Tybalt, rage and vengeance personified.  This pas de deux is more like angry sex, the staves very deliberate phallic metaphors, and Luke has to wonder just how shocked (and aroused) the student audience is by the time Luke straddles Din and Romeo chokes the life out of Tybalt.

The music cuts out but Luke makes no effort to get off his husband’s body. 

His husband’s very aroused body. 

At least not until Obi-Wan leans over them and says, "Very nice, but you might want to get a room and continue this in private."

FIN

Link to music

[mathewryf]

81) Favorite and least favorite memes?

So let's start with my favorite memes in the Sonic Community!

Sanic is, of course, a beloved classic, ascended beyond the realms of standard shennanigairy! The fact it showed up in the movie was a highlight of the setup to the main plot. I usually pair this meme with the gotta go fast drawing of a similar calibur.

Of course, the ridiculous ammount of goofy Sonic run cycles that had a huge boom a while back are also great!

Oh and of course the new era of positive Big the Cat memes! I love that the big lug has grown on so many people!

Oh and let's not forget character driven memes like Shadow and his million motorcycles and guns, Tails and his endless naming of planes... hell Knuckles is LITERALLY HIS OWN GENRE OF MEME.

And of course, I'll always have a soft spot for unusually high effort, low brow content xD

As for my least favorite? Like yikes I feel uncomfortable just mentioning them. The racist/homophobic/transphobic of course go without saying. And then there's the REALLY bad bunch that make me a little sick. I wish I could erase any trace of the one with Tails on a bench...

If we're not counting the really explicit ones though? The memes with Sonic running away from Amy are kind of annoying and outdated. I can accept it as a funny gag every once in a while, but not when it's so mean spirited.

Also shipping related memes get really out of hand really quickly. I touched on the homophobic ones already, but that also goes for those mean spirited memes that go the other direction and hate on straight ships. In recent years I've noticed just as many memes get really spiteful about it. Now, with consideration to context, I understand. It feels good to have the shoe on the other foot, especially with the predjudice involved. But that doesn't make it right to hate on a ship for being straight, just as it doesn't make it right to hate a ship for being LGBTQ+.

It doesn't matter what you feed to your Hatred. Allowing it to consume anything is still giving it room to grow. And once you start to let your hatred of one thing consume you, pretty soon you start to hate more than that one thing. Hence why a lot of my least favorite types of memes tend to come from similarly hate-filled people.

... I guess that's the thing that connects most of my least favorite memes, eh? Hatred and consumption.