#why are publishers allowing people to publish crap

[rosencatholic]

The continuous hunt for a good fantasy romance book is never ending and I fear I will never find a good one in a very long time

[innerangeltoadlover]

IDEOLOGY : LIFE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

1. I was inspired to write this because I believe a diagnosis of schizophrenia silences those who suffer from the illness. I wrongly believed after my sister took me to Court in an effort to make me homeless that I would never have to fight for my truth to be heard again. Poor outcomes for patients are linked to expedient treatments - ones which may ignore salient indicators of abuse in order to place mental illness as the cause of behaviour and the only valid truth. There is probably nothing more demeaning and disheartening than telling your therapist about abuse and having it received as a fairytale. My story will show the consequences of skepticism and disbelief in the treatment of schizophrenia which allows for the generalisation of experiences without differentiation. We are better than this.

Sometimes , well often, when we read a memoir there’s an assumption that the person writing has overcome some insurmountable hardship. It motivates us to think that we can do the same – and at some point we , like the author, will walk into the sunset with clarity, humour and perhaps in hand with another. These are the kinds of books I usually stop reading after the first chapter because life , and in particular my life, has not been like this. I want to write about the ugly side of mental illness and the reason why there are so many of us who exist without that longed for happy ending. For those of us who don’t crawl out of the mire our lives are not improved by the application of lipstick or the urging of those who have. Despite our travels through a social media polluted with inspiring memes and motivational scenarios real hardship is present and remains unchanged despite its synonymous pairing with choice.

So my story isn’t going to be particularly uplifting -there has been no victory here – I write because I have to – not because I want to. I’m hoping in writing that I might gain some internal peace over the war my mind wages with me, particularly at night when the lack of distraction makes sleep elusive. I think publishing is a bit of a minefield for people like me. I’m wary of writing anything that resembles some clueless manifesto but at the same time I think it’s important for people with this illness to write something real that isn’t Instagramable and also at nearly 60 I’ve come to view my illness as a valid part of my individuality and I wish to defend it rather than have this unique part of me trampled into submission by doctors who view me like a bacteria in a Petri dish. The truth is this illness is crap but the treatment is crappier and you are trapped in it , well I have been anyway. However the older I get the more I’ve realised that much of the prejudice and stigma linked to this illness has much of its origins in treatment. I used to have a social conscience and was concerned about the plight of my fellow sufferers but it has been chipped away. When my Shrink tells me of advances in care it sort of hangs in the air like a fog in a windowless room. These days I say very little when these professionals say this nonsense which I’ve heard so many times– I’m nearly old but I was young once and I wasn’t born in the Dark Ages- I was hopeful , though that hope has disintegrated. The old mantra “you can’t reason with a schizophrenic” is alive and well in most psychiatrists offices however it is often only the benefit of hindsight that allows us to see the stark relief against the empty rhetoric. It also painfully exhibits that in my case my treatment was inhibited by doctors who could not tell fact from fiction and who had ultimately decided that some lives are worth more than others.

[nomsfaultau]

hi hello I am currently obsessed with shred your wings to make you ours, so if you want to go on a ramble session about that fic I am sitting attentively and cheering

OKay, so. Well disclaimer that I do not in any way think authors are required to be experts on the subjects they're writing like math physics astronomy whatever like we're not cinama sins in this household and the fear of incorrect facts should not hold people back from beautiful creativity. (personal petpeeve in writers circles)

however I'm autistic and love researching so this is ENRICHMENT FOR ME.

Biology

I cornered a paleontologist/ornithologist (Hereafter Dr. S) to try and get information about the evolutionary history of birds so that the fic would be more accurate. And you will have to forgive me if I am not understanding everything accurately, because that's not my biology specialty! And the convo was a week ago.

Specifically, I was trying to figure out the environmental conditions that could lead to the size of Elytrians we see (although it could very well be that Elytrians are human sized and Avians are just tiny!).

So, I asked about how climate impacts species sizes. Dr. S discussed how in a particular ice age, there was both mammal shrinkage and reptile enlargement in the same area, which is honestly fascinating! But no dice on birds temperature wise. Next I asked about oxygen content, since I know that it had an impact on insects at least, and figured the aerial aspect might be something? IDK again I'm not an ornithologist lmao. We had a fascinating conversation about not yet published findings about fossilized ostrich eggs (so sorry don't have a source). Essentially, there's holes in the eggs that allow for gas exchange with the yolk. So, hypothesis was that the oxygen content in the atmosphere would influence the size of the holes in the ostrich eggs! Except, uh, it kinda didn't. At which point Dr. S, who is QUITE the rambler, finally said that there isn't much crazy variation in bird sizes over evolutionary history (compared to dinosaurs and what not).

(Which threw out my next theory on legumes, because I know that was big for the explosion of diversity and size in mammals post (paper here since I'm just a silly tumblr guy and you should fact check stuff I say, unfortunately can't give the Dr. S source without doxxing myself (for the second time talking about Shred Your Wings) so- uh- homework time?)

At which point I was like aw :( maybe my bird hybrid people (already insanely speculative biology and absurd for earth's evolutionary history) are even less biologically feasible due to their size :(

....And then I looked up the largest bird in history. Maybe not that far outside of theoretical, actually! Remember kids, why waste time talking to a professional when you can just google that crap!

wait no I shouldn't promote that message to my followers I'm a bad influence

Anyyyway. Hehe. Um.

Other stuff I'm thinking about:

The reason they don't have feathers around their mouths is for hygiene.

Researching migration feeding and sleeping habits. Wait sick some birds can sleep half of their brain at a time while still flying?? Also a least part of my explanation for Avians having arms is to carry resources during oceanic migration, but there's also some studies about plummeting calorie requirements that's fascinating

Now the Eleonara's falcon also does migration but that would super duper get in the way of the plot/ending so I've decided to violate that. Because all this research is fun and all but the story comes first y'know?

I don't think Avian or Elytrian are species. Techno makes a comment about the falconiform language barrier, and so I believe the divide is actually along Orders. So, Avians being Passeriformes (most birds tbh, ravens, sparrows, robins, etc) and Elytrians are Falconiformes (falcons). Fairly recent common ancestor, potentially there's another group based on the other two idk.

Lastly. Their forward facing eyes T-T chat I'm cooked. Absolutely no reason for them to have forward facing eyes, ESPECIALLY for an aerial species! I tried to poke in the direction of maybe them evolving in a hella dense jungle like area that would require insanely good depth perception to navigate, but like. I mean parrots don't have it so like. Whah. And it's not even for a narrative reason so it's my cross to bear ig.

Culture

My next big world building question (that honestly is why progress has stalled) is what type of technological and cultural development these guys have.

(As a note the ideas of 'more advanced civilizations' get quick into things like colonialism or racism so I'm trying to avoid that quagmire and be conscious of my status as a sedentary agriculturalist).

Because Avians are migratory, I think that would have a big influence on things like, having agriculture, or certain types of technologies that are based on permanent settlements. But only partially, I picture them as having two homes, one north and one south, that they split between. Techno at least seems to be from a species that migrates solo, but I think other Avians do group migrations. Because part of it is instincts, magnetism, constellations, etc leading them back to specific breeding grounds, I imagine this has created a very funky kingdom/settlement arrangement, where things like borders and territory are REALLY hard to maintain what with everyone moving twice a year. Who knows? Imagine coming home after 6 months to figure out the neighbors razed your house before leaving to annex it. I'm imagining less of monarchy or democracy systems, and more like clans. Of course not all Avians migrate, which could lead to those stationary species having lots of trust/power due to taking care of everything while everyone else is gone....OR could be there are biannual wars as those groups take over while everyone is gone, take all their stuff, and then deal with hoards of angry Avians in a couple months time!

Trying to maintain a proper kingdom wouldn't work, because a large control mechanism is inhibiting im/emigration. If someone hate their ruler, they can just pick a new place to land when they migrate next spring/fall. So factions are constantly shifting around, and places change a lot every year depending on who got there first and how much fuss they intend to kick up about staying there. Avians move a lot and aren't really tied down to a particular home. There's a constant flux to these societies. Some Avians cope by forming close knit groups, and get entire towns migrating together, but others bounce from group to group.

I'm super certain wars are happening. But we also don't see Techno as being notably armed while migrating -which: this is Techno! If there are weapons he'd have all of them! Which might be oversight on my part tbh, but also I think in that case the Elytrian kill strat explains why: usually, Avians are either immediately killed, or can escape. So, not much use for a weapon there, especially against someone faster and stronger than you. And since Avians are trying to max out carrying food during migration, I imagine weapons aren't carried on them because every gram counts when you're flying across the ocean. So, weapons are for fighting Avians, running for your life is for fighting Elytrians. (Could've been a few centuries arm race between Avian weapons and Elytrian armor, but, speculation).

Most Avians are on the herbivore/omnivore spectrum, and since the migration means they have two growing seasons but also giant periods of time where areas are abandoned. So while I do picture them having farming, I think it's very different from human styles. Much much much less intensive, long fallow periods, potentially more diversity since you can also trade with an Avian with a different diet! Scavenging/hunting is still very large in the culture, because you WILL need it during migration at the very least, so you better not get rusty or you'll die! Also some people need bugs/fish/whatever in their diets. I think most of their clothing is made from cotton they've grown, and they get crazy dyes from all over the globe.

I also think that the ability to fly would vastly structure how things like towns are built because that's all about proximity, but the sheer distance anyone can cover means that I think they're less concentrated.....by species. Niche partitioning baby! And also some birds are very territorial compared to others who form massive flocks. So, big difference there again.

I gotta imagine their sense of ownership looks very different to ours too.

AS for Elytrians:

Imma focus on Phil's species that don't migrate cause I like the contrast! They are more firmly in one place for most of the year. They don't grow crops cause, well, carnivores. I can see an amount of animal husbandry for them though, which works for a mildly nomadic species since birds do tend to drift around even if not migrating. I think circling their herd overhead would also give ample opportunity for hunting, since blatantly Phil is still a predator. Particularly for his species, they eat insects and fish and what not most times of the year, but their chick season lines up with when a bunch of Avians migrate through because they make a fantastic source of protein.

Comparatively, Elytrians are far more invested in their one area than Avians are, who migrate frequently and mingle a lot. So I picture Elytrians having more complex architecture, and potentially inventions since you're not abandoning a project every half year to potentially never come back to again. Which honestly suits the Philza/Techno building philosophy divide....

Since writing systems were developed for counting agriculture stuff, I kinda see these guys inventing it and arithmetic as a way of marking how big their herds are, branding them to prevent thefts, stuff like that. Probably have things like literature being big hits in the Elytrian communities, especially since distribution is so easy. Passarines being more song birds I think have oral story telling traditions instead.

Now Elytrians mostly just use natural weapons for hunting evidentially since- I mean- can you throw a spear faster than a 200mph falcon? If it works it works! Their aerial combat with each other has got to be WICKED though.

As for general technologies: Clothing, basic tools, dying, stone/wood work, fire. I cannot for the life of me picture either Order working in mines but Techno has clearly forged pieces of copper/gold/metal worked into his clothing so I imagine it's happening. Nothing along the lines of industry. If that were to happen I think Elytrians are more likely, buuuut then they'd have to fly in all that smog so potentially that wouldn't go far.

uh. Good enough ramble session?? I hope? This certainly helped get my thoughts in order to continue working!

[arospecsyourblockdudes]

Shang Qinghua is one of the SV characters I can most relate to purely in terms of also being a writer. I know that a lot of the stuff I want to write won’t end up being super popular (a romance with a purposefully unsexy vampire? a story between an m/f best friend pair with a really deep emotional bond and no romance? come on) and publishing is a nightmare anyway. But the difference is that I don’t plan to make a living off my writing. Poor SQH does. So if he wants to do fun things like pay his bills and eat food every day, he has to pander to the big audience.

He’s written other things that weren’t PIDW. Things that weren’t trashy stallion novels. Things he might’ve had a passion for and put his heart into. No dice. So PIDW it is and my god I can’t imagine how annoying and frustrating it is that the one work that you purposefully sold out on so you can, yknow, survive, is the only one that got big. It got really big. Really popular. That’s gotta be so fucking enraging. Imagine that, you think sitting down to write something you like is hard? Try to pump out a few thousand words of some crap you don’t even like every day, crap that you know had potential if following your actual ideas and plans for the characters would allow you to pay rent. Alas. The characters you lovingly crafted are watered down now. No one cares that you came up with a really compelling backstory for this one villain, he did bad things and he got murdered and that’s all anyone wanted to see. Not a real story, not something you put love into

In a way I think that’s partly why he and SQQ became friends. I’m a writer, we like feedback. We like to hear what people think of the things we write, even negative feedback can be appreciated. So if you have this one guy who reads everything, comments frequently, and (most important) can see how absolutely shitty this work of yours is? Someone that also sees the wasted potential of this story? Gotta be worth something.

[djarins-cyare]

Be-All Bonus Feature: Creating the Chapter Photos (part 2)

If you’ve stumbled across this and haven’t yet seen part one, check it out here (there’s an image limit on posts).

Now, let’s continue with the insights into my creative process for my top 10 chapter photos for Be-All And Endor…

🟢 Chapter 13: The Broadside

Initially, this one was quite boring when it was published – just a photo of a river. However, when I edited this chapter, I added some extra elements.

I started with a high-quality Shutterstock image of a wide, choppy river. It had people in canoes, so I had to erase them first, and then I needed to make it stormy.

I added a cloud filter to the sky, darkened and desaturated everything a little, and then added some light rain. The second photo below is how it was originally published.

But it felt really basic compared to some others I’d made, so when I came to edit the chapter, I decided I needed to do better.

The difficulty was that I needed Din to be flying with his jetpack and his blaster pointed at the correct angle. Because of his speed and the framing of the shots, there are very few clear shots of this.

I eventually isolated an appropriate one, but his lower legs were cut off, so I needed something to go in front of him.

Okay... how about the boat? Ugh. Do you know how difficult it is to find an image of a wooden boat with the stern at precisely the angle needed? It took a while, but I finally found one, albeit some CG crap, though it did the job.

Now, I just had to blend it all together.

Cutting out Din and not losing his jetpack flame was tricky, so I had to add that back in using the glow method I’d learned for chapter 10, though it’s not perfect.

I also needed the boat’s bow to be offscreen because that’s where the bounty is standing, and I didn’t want to depict him visually. Although he is described in the story, it’s only his build (massive, bullish), hair colour (dark with grey streaks), hair length (long), and facial features (heavily lined); I haven’t mentioned his skin colour specifically to allow people to imagine him however they like. (I’ve done this with all my original characters so readers can populate the story as they see fit, and if I’ve done it right, everyone who’s read the fic should be going, “No way, I swear you described skin colours too” right now, because the aim was to give you so much alternative description that you don’t realise you’re filling in that particular blank yourself.)

After getting the boat in place, I tried to line up Din to hover slightly behind the boat to obscure the fact that he has no lower legs yet still be at an appropriate angle to be pointing his blaster at the bounty just offscreen in the boat’s bow. But it always looks like Din is looking at the water. Then I realised that’s ok because the bounty bails out of the boat! Silly me. So the chapter photo now shows the moment just after his target jumps overboard, when he’s ignited his jetpack but hasn’t risen up too high yet.

My final efforts were to colour-match Din and the boat to the background, then add some extra rain on top of the new elements, et voilà:

The small wooden boat is several metres out from the shore, almost in the middle of the wide river. Nantoogen stands at the bow; Din balances in the stern. They both have blasters pointed at one another, and strangely, it looks like they’re… talking? The criminal gestures wildly, clearly mouthing off. The beskar-clad warrior makes no move, as if awaiting the right moment to break the stalemate once his opponent is suitably distracted.

...

Both men’s blasters point directly at each other, but as with the Weequay, your Mandalorian is better shielded from harm by his beskar. It appears the criminal understands this, which must be why he isn’t firing. At the other end of the boat, Din’s caution must be because of this bounty’s infamy and the proximity factor. Well, that and the fact that the puck clearly stated ‘wanted alive’, so he can’t be drawn into a possibly fatal shoot-out. There’s no chance for a surprise tactic here. If Nantoogen shoots at this range, he could catch somewhere the beskar doesn’t cover, so you’re thankful for your companion’s caution. He needs the odds to shift somehow so he can disarm his target without taking a blaster bolt in the process. You can supply that much-needed distraction, but you haven’t yet worked out precisely how. You’ll just have to hope the hunter will react exactly as you want him to at the precise moment you provide the distraction. The vessel comes into range, and you start lining up a clear shot to the wooden hull. But suddenly, Nantoogen proves you profoundly wrong about the chances for surprise tactics and does something completely unexpected. He throws himself overboard. Din reacts instantly, firing low, clearly trying to clip the other man’s leg as he bails out. But his shot misses, and the bounty submerges himself fully, hidden by the dark and choppy water. Your partner ignites his jetpack again, rising up to gain a broader view of the river and better judge where Nantoogen will surface. As he hovers, you remount the bike and push forward to ensure you keep pace with the drama. Then suddenly, there’s another blaster shot, and chaos erupts.

🟢 Chapter 20: The Meridian

This chapter photo was both surprisingly simple and incredibly complex. It’s now the lock screen on my PC because I put a lot of effort into it, and I’m proud of the result.

First of all, I gathered my elements. A swathe of night sky above the trail they’re on and a blue planet with swirling patterns (the planet of Endor is a gas giant). Both are high-quality Shutterstock images.

I had to do a lot of research for this one, as I had no idea how to add a planet into a night sky and make it look like it belongs there. I mean, with real objects, I understand how light and shadows fall, but something in the sky? How would it look? It’s not like we have a gas giant above us to compare.

Photos of the Earth from the Moon were helpful. Given the relative positions of the planetary bodies to the sun, ‘Earthrise’ shows only half a planet because half of it is in shadow. So, having watched numerous YouTube videos on adding alien planets to the sky, my first attempt at this had only a portion of the planet showing.

I was pretty pleased with it to start with, but then I realised with a sky that bright (as opposed to the pitch black of outer space), you wouldn’t see the stars through the planet... there’s still a planet there, after all, even if the sun isn’t lighting up that side of it. So it would simply show up in shadow. Back to the drawing board.

Once I’d restored the whole sphere, I had to layer the silhouetted foliage over it (it takes a LONG time to select individual leaves, trust me!) and then work on how the planet should look.

I’d already lightened and brightened it, but this thing needed to cast light on them, enough to light up the sky to this extent. I applied several filters and duplicated the image of the planet across multiple layers with a ‘screen’ blend, which gives it a bright and hazy feel. Lastly, I used a gradient fill clipping mask to add a wide-range outer glow, again using the screen blend.

We’re left with something that glows brightly like the Moon does when we look at it, is partially in shadow, and is light enough to brighten the sky around it:

You quickly look around and decide that this location itself works well for the planned assault. The ground is reasonably level here, and it’s a relatively wide part of the trail with no canopy cover, so it’s well-lit by the glowing planet above. Plus, it’s comparatively straight, meaning Din should be able to accurately pinpoint your position from a fair distance away. All these things are good for Din’s tasks of distracting the bounty and shielding Pamiti. It’ll also give you a good view of whatever signal he said he’ll send you.

...

They clash like gladiators in an arena, one-handed and violent, snarling gods of warfare, striking lightning to any unguarded location. As you stand poised behind them, the crackling weapon throwing a dim glow over the proceedings, you watch helplessly, knowing you can’t risk lunging with the sword while Din is holding on to the bounty’s arm – he’s not wearing his vambraces so you’ll likely take off both their arms. And as much as you want to throw yourself in hand-to-hand and assist your partner, you know you can’t – your only instruction was to sever Nantoogen’s hand. Otherwise, you must default to your original promise: stay back until the target has been disarmed. Din implied you could be a distraction if you got involved – that you’d just be another thing for him to worry about. So you can’t help him. Nevertheless, your Mandalorian holds his own, and you finally get to see some of his fighting finesse – ducking, punching, weaving, kicking, using his body and limbs as weapons interchangeably, all the while keeping his opponent’s wrist gripped tightly. With the lantern carried away on the bordok, everything is cast in nothing more than the glow from the sword and the dim blue light from the massive planet above, eerie and cold, the forest in shadows. But the path is wide with no canopy above, meaning much more of the bright planet’s glow reaches the ground than it did deeper in the forest, illuminating the fight in an achromatic pallor.

🟢 Chapter 21: The Homestretch

This one may have been the most complex chapter photo I put together. I think it may also be the one I’m most proud of.

There were numerous stages, and I can’t show you them all because of the image limit on the post. It started, though, with an image of an Imperial hangar bay with another ship in space visible through the open door and all the lights on.

There was a lot to do. This was the wreckage of the Death Star that had fallen on Endor, so there would be no power. That meant the lights had to go off. Also, we needed to see some slightly angled Endor hills with forest in the background (and yes, I did my research; Endor has open fields and hilly areas as well as vast forests), and we needed natural sunlight to spill in.

Again, YouTube was instrumental in helping me figure out how to create the lighting effects here!

I was going to leave it at that until I realised Wookieepedia has an image of the A-wing ship I had decided to include in the story, albeit from the wrong angle. There followed even more YouTube videos on manipulating perspective in Photoshop and skewing an image.

Eventually, I got it looking relatively decent, albeit somewhat stretched out of its original shape. I’m just choosing to decree that this version of the RZ-1T trainer A-wing is a slightly different model.

But the lighting still wasn’t right. I spent an inordinate amount of time working on the shading, and in fact, the version that was up on chapter 21 until recently was one where I still hadn’t properly blended the shadows to my liking.

In the end, though, I think the combination of deep shadows and bright light spilling in turned out pretty well, and despite the ship being CG, I feel it all came together pretty seamlessly:

Having completed your assigned task, it suddenly feels eerily quiet and creepy, loitering here alone in the shell of the Empire’s instrument of death, like you’ve been swallowed whole by the beast that killed your parents. You feel a desperate need to claw your way out of its belly and back into daylight. Though you’ve salvaged here aplenty, you were always paired in teams for the sizeable structures like this in case anyone got into trouble, so you suddenly feel very alone and very intimidated. The shadowy high ceilings of the hangar bay loom dark above you, and the numerous debris scattered about from either the crash or the subsequent salvaging seems to take on ominous shapes in the dim space, too far from the feeble light of the suns which makes it through the open bay doors on the side. It’s now after midday, and both suns have moved beyond the bay’s entrance, so it’s light but not bright. Seeking the comfort of sunshine, you shuffle your way quickly toward the bay doors, feeling a little less jumpy once you sit on the edge and your view is full of Endor instead of Death Star. Even the name of this place… what kind of evil fucked up people fully endorse the fact they’ve built a weapon to annihilate? Such weapons are usually deemed ‘instruments of peace’, and everyone is told it’s for the greater good when they’re put to devastating effect. But no. In this case, the Emperor, in all his insanity, decided to be especially on the nose about it and call it the fucking Death Star.

🟢 Chapter 27: The Ride

This one wasn’t too complicated, so I’m only showing you three images here instead of five, but I really like how it turned out, so I wanted to include it.

I started with Din and Grogu in the cockpit, but the kid needed to go, so I had to Photoshop him out. He’s kinda big, though (at least in terms of covering a lot of the console), so I was left with a relatively blank area once he was gone.

Still, I figured that’d do, and I published the chapter photo like that.

But it was boooring. I’d done so many dark photos, and the chapter’s prose at the beginning is all about the beauty of hyperspace (leading to the cockpit smut), so I decided I could do better.

I couldn’t find better, though, despite searching for photos of the Crest in hyperspace. They’re all at the wrong angle, so I would have to show Reader in the cockpit, too. In the end, I decided to convert the original image into a hyperspace scene.

I grabbed the lovely side-on streaks we’re shown when Grogu is watching the purrgils from the N1, cut out the viewports, and stuck it in. I then pasted the original viewports back in as an extra layer but applied a screen blend, which made it so that Din’s dirty, smudgy transparisteel is still there, lit up even worse by the bright lights of hyperspace!

I then colour-matched the whole image to the hyperspace element to ensure it had the appropriate blue cast. That wasn’t enough, though, and I spent a long time tweaking the colour with additional filters until I was happy:

A little noise of amused affirmation comes through Din’s vocoder, and then he grasps the lever and pushes it forward. And the universe blurs. You had forgotten the feeling, but the memory reasserts itself in a not-unpleasant way. The drop of your stomach as you’re torn out of realspace and hurtled forward is only momentary and mostly compensated for by the inertial dampeners, except for a fraction of a millisecond when you’re weightless and pulsing at the speed of light through the cosmos, until you’ve accelerated beyond the threshold and into the tachyonic realm of faster-than-light travel. Still, it’s something your body hadn’t remembered to prepare itself for, so it’s a little jarring for a second – a fleeting feeling of the infinite universe vibrating through the very fabric of your soul. But the sensation is gone just as quickly as it arrived, and in an instant, you’re presented with the epic vista of hyperspace rushing past the panoramic viewports of the Crest, like blue swirls of eternity licking at the edges of your superluminal journey through the galaxy. It’s beautiful. You’re unsure exactly how long you sit gawking at the sight once your eyes have adjusted to the sudden brightness. You know Din is observing you silently – you saw him spin his chair in your peripheral vision – but he seems just as content to watch you as you are to watch the vista outside the ship. But when you refocus on him, you’re stunned even further by the way the pulsing light shimmers in the reflective beskar and paints him in undulating tones of cobalt and indigo. You only have one word for it, which you whisper in awestruck wonder. “Mesh’la…” He simply nods and continues to look at you, relaxed in his pilot’s seat, turned completely toward you, absorbing your delight as if it nourishes him. You find your vocabulary. “I’ve never seen it from the cockpit before. It’s kind of amazing.” You gesture at the kaleidoscopic vortex swirling before you, illuminating the cockpit so it no longer feels like nighttime. “Who’d have thought a dimensional shift could be so stunning seen head-on? I guess you’re used to it.” “I am,” Din nods, “But it’s nice to see it from your point of view.” He shifts forward a little and leans over, gently squeezing your thigh through his cloak, then letting his hand rest there. “Glad I got to be the one to show you.” You can hear his smile beneath the helmet, and you return it with enthusiasm, still awed by how gorgeous he is with the light of the galaxy rippling across his reflective armour. He looks so alive.

🟢 Chapter 35: The Binding

I’m sorry; I just had to include this one. It’s helmetless Din on the beach at sunset, y’all!

Thanks to Shutterstock, I found a nice sunset beach scene. Then I grabbed the armour from Din’s Wookieepedia page, which is, in fact, an image of one of the season 2 cardboard standees (it has a weird pattern across it as a result, but it’s the highest quality image available of him standing head-on).

I spent a long while looking for an appropriate Pedro photo to use. As we all know, Pedro transforms his look in tiny but significant ways for each of his roles, which meant I had to come up with a high-quality Din-coded photo – messy hair, tidy and reasonably short ’stache and stubble, not too recent to ensure he still looked around 40 – in which he was looking directly at the camera.

Ultimately, I decided the 2016 Observer photoshoot was best. This was only a couple of years before he played Din, and he was 41 here. Then, I slammed everything into Photoshop and went to work.

After photoshopping out the volleyball net, I realised the beach pic had to be flipped because the armour was lit from the left, and you can never flip photos of Din because his bandolier would be across the wrong shoulder and his signet on the wrong pauldron. That irritated me a little because, in my head, I’d written the scene with him having the sea on the other side of him. But it’s not mentioned in the story, so it’s not a big deal. Still, I know people are now imagining it differently from what’s in my brain because of this.

It required extensive colour-matching because, at sunset, everything gets tinged. Well, he’s got shiny armour, so that had to practically become the sunset. There was also a lot more shading to be done, although it’s already done in the pic above (I forgot to save an earlier version, so just compare it to the pic of the armour above that).

Lastly, when I say Din has “tidy and reasonably short ’stache and stubble”, I mean seriously tidy and short. It makes me laugh when people write about how his moustache tickles when the character kisses him... it’s honestly not long enough to. It would scratch, if anything. Don’t believe me? Take another look. His ’stache is barely there on the first and last occasions (and is still extremely short on the second), but it still shows up because it’s so dark. So because of this, my last action here was to trim his moustache down a little – neaten the ends and make sure it’s not too heavy.

And now we have gorgeous helmetless Din Djarin on the beach at sunset 😍:

And then Din’s right hand falls from your wrist and moves up to his helmet, resting on the rim for a second, then releasing the catch with his thumb. And, fuck… he grips it firmly and then begins to lift it. It’s slow, but not so gradual that you have time to take in each of his features as they’re revealed. Instead, it almost feels like you blink and the helmet is gone, even though he was steady with its removal. It’s as if your brain held its breath and is only processing the image before your eyes now that it’s fully available. He’s so fucking beautiful. The features you’ve only felt and imagined are now displayed in their full glory in the warm sun, and you instantly fall in love with him all over again, even deeper than before. Your mind catalogues everything at droid-level speed, and in the space between blinks, you examine all that’s been revealed. Messy dark hair falling over his forehead in gorgeous waves. A furrowed brow over deep dark eyes, glistening like the waves that sparkle under the early evening sunlight. Strong cheekbones bordered by slightly silvered whiskers, leading down to darker fuzz on his chin, separated by smooth whorls at his square jawline. Groomed moustache beneath a nose both strong yet soft in its curve. Dusky pink lips, pouting in uncertain shyness as he nervously awaits your response to his final revelation.

That’s it for my top 10 chapter images. If you have any questions about any of the processes mentioned or how I approached any other photos in the fic, please feel free to comment or drop me an ask.

Lastly, thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has read the story or added it to their TBR for later (it’s a whole 400k words, so I get it!). You all changed my life, and I love you 🧡💚

[herrinarte]

Okay so I’m going to say something possibly controversial, and I hate to say it on pride month, but honestly I don’t want a book about Mor from SJM.

I’ve seen some people hyped about a book or novella on Mor potentially coming out in the future and absolutely no one can convince me that this would be a good idea. No one. My main issue would be Mor’s queerness and the blatant fact that SJM doesn’t give a single shit about queer stories or accurately portraying any marginalised group for that matter.

Let’s be real here, what SJM does best is straight fae smut stories that are enjoyed by predominantly straight, white, middle class women (obviously there are other people who enjoy them but I guarantee the majority are these women and there’s nothing wrong with that). I don’t believe for one second that SJM has the skills to write a compelling narrative about Mor and tbh, though I see people asking for a Mor book I don’t think it would sell as well as the other books, it would forever be known as ‘the gay one’ and yeah some people would read it but the series is mostly for the readers to self insert into and I just don’t think enough queer women would read it. I personally wouldn’t because I don’t think SJM cares too much about Mor. I mean we’ve know about Mor since book 2 and we still don’t even know what her dumbass truth powers are. She’s arguably one of the flattest characters in the series. Coincidental? I’m not so sure.

Mor isn’t a character who happens to be gay, she’s a character who the author felt she had to make gay. I will die on this hill. Honestly I don’t see why people complain about the lack of diversity in SJM’s work because look at the ‘diversity’ she has oh so generously bestowed upon us, it’s crap. If the woman doesn’t want to write about it I don’t see why she should have to. I think there are plenty of straight authors who write great queer and poc rep but SJM isn’t one of them.

I don’t think she will write a book about Mor unless she’s backed into a corner by the fans or her publisher. She doesn’t write queer stories and she certainly doesn’t do it for queer readers either.

But hey, maybe I’m completely wrong. Maybe SJM is secretly the biggest ally out there and as I type this she is furiously expanding her very narrow world view and writing the best damn book in the whole series with Mor at centre stage and I’ll have to eat my hat and die on my stupid little hill.

(Also if you completely disagree that’s totally cool but please don’t be a dick about it. People are allowed to disagree on things, there’s no need to get angry over fictional characters and an author who doesn’t even know who we are)

[kimyoonmiauthor]

"You shouldn't put _this trigger_ in fiction *at all*" Censor before publishing discourse.

So, People of Color people aren't allowed to write about racism?

Women aren't allowed to talk about sexual assault, feminism?

Victims of r* aren't allowed to talk about it from their PoV and should leave it to people who've never, ever gone through it?

Men can't talk about how they too have gone through it and sort it in a social justice way and talk about the patriarchy is a way that goes deeper than the basic white feminism of Barbie?

People who know what *abuse actually feels like and would like to advocate against it* aren't allowed to talk about abuse?

When people talk about sex in YA, often the discourse isn't about writing safer sex and consent at all, but "should you write about sex with teens"

But this creates severe issues.

Look, I as one of the fundamentally token red shirts on this planet, queer, PoC, NB not a woman, but often have to fake it for the doctor's office because they won't let me check off NB and give me the form for that, with a history of abuse, history of institutionalization, want to fucking transform my shitty crap into diamonds by transforming my trauma into social justice awareness.

When you say, but you shouldn't write it into books at all, that means you silence the people who have gone through it, and need to talk about it, and wish to make the world a better place.

And sometimes the veneer of fiction is what people need in order to do that.

The reason, as many, many Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror authors have said their genre is one of the best ass places for talking about social issues is because of that ability to create distance from the issue and then dissect the hell out of it. This way it's not because I am left and live in this country... tory, whig, democrat, etc. It's these are the issues at stake, this is how it actually feels as this person going through this thing. This is why you exactly shouldn't do it, because it fucks with your head exactly this way long term.

But if you start labeling the issue in an exact way with the modern/contemporary terms from our world, people will start flipping out, but fiction gives the author super powers to say, this is what transformation of this AWFUL TERRIBLE thing looks like. And maybe this is why it's hard and this is how to do it.

Fiction can divide things into questions.

Instead of the discourse being, should teens have sex *in fiction*. I think the discourse should be, why aren't more writers writing like Norma Klein who was absolutely frank about birth control methods, what consent and safer sex was, and the results of (for her time period) a sexually abusive person that didn't get to go to jail, and marry his teen victim. And instead the reviews of her book are... OMG, she's soooo frank about sex I'm blushing.

Nyahh, you should read her because she's frank about sex, she's doing anti-body shaming initiatives, spends a fair amount of time comparing television to reality, talking about pubic hair as a natural thing, and combating TV images, and the "perfect" body through talking about sex. Maybe more romance could do that?

This guy doesn't have the 10 inch scholong all night long. But is kind, caring, knows what else to do in the interim during his refractory period? Did Norma Klein do that? Absolutely. She talked frankly about sex in order to push sex education. I got things in her 1960's written book that my sex education teachers failed to teach me, like anti-body shaming. Pubic hair is natural. (Romance is far, far from reality, I get that, but still... if you're going to blush at the word penis and think you can't possibly use it in a romance book in a frank discussion, then maybe you should reevaluate a bit. And I do wish Romance books went over consent too and made consent super sexy by having those frank consent discussion and making it oohhh I can't wait until we get through this discussion to *try* that, but we have to wait and oh my god, I didn't know that about you, I'm glad I get to *try* that. Make consent sexy. Make BDSM negotiations sexy. Make the how, "Would you like that?" OMG yes. sexy.).

The fact an ace is writing this about consent, safer sex and trying to ask people to not do body shaming isn't lost on me. But seriously. Also, I'm not sex repulsed, just on the indifferent scale. And aces can be sex positive.

Maybe in order to get queer joy, you need a bit of trauma up front so people know what the issues are. Maybe to get social justice in this area, you need to be able to talk about what people have to think about in order to go through transition and why people might opt out of it and how that too can be queer joy.

In order to transform the shit of the world, people should censor shit like happy slave gets with their master. YES. That probably should not be shared. Write it, keep it to yourself. OMG Nazis were good actually. Write it, don't share it with the general public.

But for the gnarly, for the honestly tricky, for the things that could be made into social justice, let it be written. Own voices preferred, but don't make them write it. But don't censor them either.

If a person who has gone through rape wants to write about rape and how horrific it is, then yes, let them write it. (BTW, I'm saying this as a person who knows what it's like and NO it's not "that's why you are ace, then." I was ace long before then. I was having ace-like thoughts at 5. Some people do, and that's fine. But don't paint everyone with the same brush.) But keep their feet to the fire and make sure they write it in a way that doesn't glorify it, doesn't make it feel "right" and aims it towards social justice. Then trigger warning.

"Precious" does have sexual abuse, rape and all of that, but if you get through that story and the difficulty, she transforms her shit into something positive. And it's an argument against rape, no matter what the book challenger thought. (OMG sex scenes and it's sexy? WTF is wrong with you, dude. Go see a therapist.)

What better way to make the book banners win than to let people who went through horrible traumatic shit never to make it to the bookshelf by shaming them for talking about it and transform their stories of horror into social justice gold?

There's quite a difference, though, when you're glorifying racism as a good thing.

[29daffodils]

Gay relationship is not immoral but being with a minor is. I don't know if you have the brain to comprehend it. You can portray such relationship in media but it should not glorify such behaviour or should be shown in a romantic light.

I don't where danyok is illegal (other than countries where gay relationship is seen as illegal which is not the issue we are talking about) when yok is full adult when he gets into a relationship with dan.

It's not even about whether a person is 18 or not cause Akk sleeps with ayan while akk is a minor and ayan is an adult in the story in technical terms but it's not an issue because they are in the similar space in life.

Whether you do the same in real life doesn't matter ( honestly we don't know) but other people could be influenced and could think something like this is normal especially among the young. Why do you think there is such backlash against colleen hoover books being published as romance. Sensitive stuff should be handled with care and not used for entertainment

ask #22 : media literacy, who?

listen anon.

since you are bringing up the brain's comprehension capabilities. let me tell you some things, which i know you will take in one ear, and out the other.

1) I don't know how old you are, but the way you speak shows you're not mature enough to engage in fandom in a healthy way.

i would like to think you're just young, because i have seen older fans think like and parrot bs like and ultimately it's come to bite them in the ass.

your simplest response to my previous answer could have been blocking me and moving on, but ofc you chose this. the anon cover. because what could be braver than that, right?

nevermind. your goal of making me see sense or whatever is ultimately pointless. kudos to you for trying though.

2) creators of media portraying sensitive themes are not liable for your well being. none. large productions or small fanartists.

my parents, however fucked they are, actually properly parented when it came to what kind of shows i was watching, or books i was reading.

I wasn't allowed to pick up a sidney sheldon book, even though my bestie was bought one by her parents. the reason is my dad reads through these things, her parents did not. or at least trusted her enough to know the good from bad. my parents made sure I wouldn't consume something that wasn't made for me. nevermind the fact that i picked up godfather in 7th grade from the school library and instantly regretted it.

so your bs argument about colleen hoover holds no ground here. you know why? because it's not on colleen to monitor her audiences or create stuff that can "teach you good from bad". no, she's creating stuff she wants to and trusts that her readers are old enough to know the difference or at least have someone who can outline those for them. she is creating for a specific set of audiences who love her.

so fuck it with your lame ass excuses. ask the parents to parent better. because they have clearly prioritised everything else besides the well-being of their children. and if you're telling me grown ass adults cannot differentiate and taking their moral lessons from a fucking fiction book —

( i have zero idea what's the content of that book btw besides domestic violence and a ..... divorce, maybe?)

— then, my dear. y'all are fucked. and probably your parents and the adults in your life did a shit job of telling you right from wrong.

3) my god, fuck it, some of y'all lack media literacy. clearly nobody paid mind in literature class 😑

the most immoral of media created, has a specific set of audiences. i write about stuff and know that people who can read between those lines, will know what i want to say. only idiots bring out the big words “glorify”, “romanticize” when they understand shit and want to look cool and pure and crap.

from your point, yok is an adult and dan too. how much older is dan? isn't yok 21-22 max? don't you think danyok have an unbalanced relationship because atp i could say that dan should have never gotten with that kid. you know why? because yok hasn't lived through things dan has, your stupid ass arguments about akkaye working out because bless my soul , two minors doing the deed??!, is nullifed here. people can be the same age and have different maturity levels, or be years apart, even while adults, and still be in entirely different paths of life.

anyway this is getting too long for you, i guess.

so my last point is.

4) you DO NOT have the right to police what kind of media someone should consume or not.

people who consume dark media, most of them know what they are doing. people cope through it, heal through it. i read fics where self-harm is glorified because it's the only way i can stop doing it to myself.

so don't you EVER come back here with how “immoral” media shouldn't exist or immoral things shouldn't be glorified. it's not art's job to educate you, unless the artist deems so. and lots of artists create stuff that doesn't glorify so called immoral things. read those books, genius.

if i could actually see you, i'd block the fuck outta you. but like the coward you are, I'm already expecting another anon ask.

next time though, all you are getting is my middle fingers. all four of them. cheers.

(p. s.: to the danyok girlies, i love them dw, I'm just using them as an example here)

[thenightling]

The reality of "Cancel culture" is jus an annoying casual bullying to make people stop talking about various subjects

Last night I posted something that amused me about Spirit Halloween. It was about spirit Halloween now selling adult sized reproduction Ben Cooper Halloween costumes (Popular but very cheap kids Halloween costumes from the 1930s to the early 1990s).

This resulted in someone hijacking my Tumblr post about to give a "Friendly reminder" that we shouldn't buy anything from Spirit Halloween because Spirit Halloween is owned by Spencer's Gifts and "in 2016 Spencer's gifts sold 'Grab America by the p-ssy' shirts and they have yet to apologize!"

I don't care. Yes, it's disgusting that Trump said he could grab a woman by her p-ssy and get away with it. Yes, the shirt was in poor taste but I'm not avoiding a store because it's owned by the same people who own another store that sold a tasteless shirt EIGHT years ago!

I am tired of being told what I should or shouldn't interact with.

I run a Neil Gaiman's The Sandman Facebook group and I was called a TERF apologist and even Transphobe all because I won't ban the mention of J. K. Rowling. She is literally mentioned in episode 11 of The Sandman Netflix series. And Neil Giaman's four part story The Books of Magic is often mistaken as a Harry Potter rip-off even though it was published over seven-years before the first Harry Potter book was published.

Even though my group's very first rule is "No bigotry" I was accused of leaving transphobic content on the group. Someone in "The Trailer Park Pagans are at it Again" group even kept a bunch of posts from transphobes from within my Sandman group from before I could ban them (Most of those troll posts were less than eleven minutes old when screen grabbed) to make it look like I allowed that crap.

When Hocus Pocus 2 was released to Disney+ someone in my group decided to announce that Bette Midler was a transphobe and she "No longer felt safe in the group" if I talked about Hocus Pocus. Like simply mentioning a fictional character Bette Midler played will make her manifest in their bedroom.

I am NOT justifying or "apologizisting" anything Bette Midler has said. Liking those films is not based on the personal lives of the women involved.

I posted an ASMR video by "Jim's ASMR" based on The Sandman and someone felt the need to tell me how "Problematic" he is because he cheated on his wife in real life with other ASMR artists.

I posted a Nostalgia Critic video and get a lecture about how problematic Channel Awesome is (Yes, I know. I know. I saw the manifesto.)

I really like Danny Elfman. Recently there were some awful accusations tied to him from decades ago that I will not defend but thankfully it appears there was no real evidence anyway. But apparently I'm not supposed to listen to my old recordings anymore, even though he's not getting any new money for them. Annoyingly some people have even used his Oingo Boingo song "Little Girls" as "Proof" that he's a sexual predator even though the song was meant to be a call out to shame people in Hollywood who take advantage of underage girls. You're not supposed to like the main character of the song, and he's even caught at the end of the music video version.

I was told Netflix's Castlevania is problematic and I should avoid it because of some misbehavior of the show's writer. I LIKE Castlevania!

I've been told to avoid Tim Burton because he's "racist" even though I've seen him make a conscious effort to be a lot more diverse in his casting.

On Facebook someone tried to scold me for being Wiccan. They lectured me because Wiccans borrow from other religions and there for "Culturally appropriate." Well, name any religion that doesn't do that. I replied with more or less that challenge and got "If you acknowledge the problematic elements of Wiccan why don't you avoid it?"

Because I'm a f--king adult and I don't avoid all things that are "Problematic." All religions borrow from other religions. There's no pure and untainted form of Paganism. It's Neo Paganism for a reason. And most of it was reinvented or cobbled together in the nineteenth century, just slightly older than modern Wicca pieced together from ancient folk beliefs.

Spirit Halloween Spencer's Gifts J. K. Rowling Harry Potter Bette Midler Hocus Pocus Nostalgia Critic Jim's ASMR videos Danny Elfman Castlevania Tim Burton Wicca (My own religion!)

I've reached a point where I'm sick of being told what I should avoid even discussing because it's "Problematic" or offensive. Note: I am NOT justifying sexual abuse or J. K. Rowling's anti-Trans views.

I understand there's a valid reason to avoid some of these things if you have strong convictions about them and that's up to you but I do not appreciate my posts being hijacked to be given a "Friendly reminder" why you shouldn't shop at Spirit Halloween.

"Friendly reminder" YOU don't get to dictate what I talk about or where I shop, or what music I listen to. If it's problematic that's on me. It's not your business. If I want to listen to an ASMR by a man-whore who doesn't know who to be faithful so what? I'm not sleeping with him, I'm listening to his semi-hypnotic insomnia aid videos.

[electricprincess96]

The amount of misinformed that exists about the Star Wars Expanded Universe is insane to me.

Firstly "it was never canon" then why was there a tier list of canon at Lucasfilm in which George's movies were at the top and it went down through T-Canon (Television Canon so The Clone Wars TV Show), C-Canon (Continuity Canon where the books and comic books and most games fell) and then so on and so forth. If none of it was ever canon, you'd have never needed this you'd just ignore anything that wasn't in the movies. Basically, if the piece of media didn't contradict anything in a tier above it, it was canon, which contrary to popular belief didn't happen as often as EU hater will tell you it did. And many of the contradictions that DO exist, existed because books were written years before the prequels and maybe had one off hand reference to something that's touched on in the prequels that is slightly different to how George ends up portraying it. Although he did deliberately refuse to allow EU writers to write about the Clone Wars because he knew he'd eventually try and make the prequels. If the books were never canon, whyd he need to stop people writing about the Clone Wars when it wouldn't matter if their version was wildly different from his. Unless he was deliberately trying to keep the overall continuity of the universe as coherent as possible.

George Lucas might not have viewed the EU as being AS legitimate as his movies BUT he wasn't stupid, without the EU through the 90s we'd have never got the prequels, they kept Star Wars alive, The Thrawn Trilogy reignited an interest in Star Wars. George regularly commented on EU material, he wrote the forward to Shatterpoint and gave ideas for The Darth Plageus novel. Just because they weren't AS canon as his movies doesn't mean they weren't legitimate.

And before people go "but George Lucas and Dave Filoni SAID" I don't care about what they said. Firstly Dave is irrelevant here he was an employee of George, he is not his legal representative stop rolling him out to speak on George's behalf. Secondly I care about actions and the ACTIONS at Lucasfilm throughout the existence of the EU makes it very clear it was considered a form of canon, yes it was lower than George's own works but they weren't published fanfiction, George regularly looked to the EU for influence, taking full characters from the EU and putting them in Revenge of the Sith for example. Words are meaningless, if your actions imply the opposite. And George's words aren't even consistent on this, so if he's said both that it was never canon and sometimes has said it was then the only thing I will go off of is what his actions tell us and that is that he clearly considered it canon that was built off what he created and yes he had the power to overwrite it but he tried very hard to make sure things fit together as well as they could.

Lucasfilm literally had a continuity guy who started out as an EU writer. You wouldn't need one of those if the EU wasn't canon.

Also the people who I see say the EU was just shit are always people who admit to not reading any of it. They haven't touched Darth Bane, Heir to the Empire, Darth Plageus etc. Like sure there was some crap (although ironically some of the worst like the Ewoks and Droids cartoon and the Holiday Special comes straight from George Lucas himself) but not as much as people who've never read any of the EU claim there is. And the arguments against the EU is always to somehow prop up Disney Star Wars and I'm sorry but that's got plenty of crap in it too so let's not pretend you've got the high ground here. You are not Obi-wan.

And because the EU had a tier list of canon it wasn't as confusing as some people claim it is to figure out what really happened at some event in universe. EU had 30+ years and managed it's canon very well for something that existed for that long. Disneys own Expanded Universe is 10 years old and already books are being overwritten by TV shows just cause Dave Filoni wants to, despite Disney promising that in their Star Wars there would be no need for canon tiers since everything would be made in collaboration and be considered equal.

The amount of blatant history revisionism and blatant wrong takes i see perpetuated about this topic will forever annoy me. You don't have to like the old EU, but to act like it was never important to the world of Star Wars is mental. The World of Coruscant originates from an EU novel that predates the prequels by years for fuck sake.

[www-proxxicles-com]

my standards for "compatible": wont crash the game if i have both of them on at the same time lmao, sounds like there's tons of opportunities for them to interact tho!

Is naturality mostly new mobs/will there be plants? More crops? Also taming mechanics - will possums work like foxes? Or do they actually follow you around/sit etc?

Its awesome to see a dino mod in the works tbh the last one i played was on 1.7.10 (fossils and archeology revival i think? its been a while) and that didnt have dinos spawning in naturally (tragic).

When/how did you get into minecraft & modmaking? I spent so much time on temporary servers playing hexxit w my friends lmao we only switched to a newer version with 1.16

these are some good questions!

paragraph 1: fair enough! i always love it when mods include cross-compat, makes it feel like an expanded universe lol there’ll be plenty of crossover points between all my mods

paragraph 2: naturality will be a mix of mobs and plants. i def want a mixture of the two, along with some real-world features (silkworms, ants maybe)! there’ll be a lot of crops- esp. “heirloom” real-world plants to explain why MC plants look so modern. as for taming and tamed animals- generally animals have two “tame” states in my mods—a “befriended” state where they won’t run away, are rendered neutral and allow you to breed them—and a “tamed” state which varies among the individual but generally allows for inventory access, carpet/chest/harness usage/placement, stay-follow-wander and riding. possums, in this case, are a 2-step tame process- 1. feed the mom, access inventory, 2. take babies and raise. most animals won’t be like foxes when fully tamed, though a few will

also tomatoes and corn’ll be in naturality lol

paragraph 3: i. love. fossils. and. archaeology. that was probably my first foray into all the crazy stuff MC modding could do, in probably 2017 or so. and don’t worry! prehistorian’s dinosaurs (for the most part) will spawn naturally, with fossils reserved for rare skins and some boss-summon material (ooo!)

paragraph 4: great question! i started playing MC in… maybe 2014-15 or so??? my memory’s pretty foggy, but i remember the new launcher and polar bears and thinking the new aquatic update was BIG NEWS. as for modding—i discovered that world maybe 2016-17-18 territory.

i had a big family server (that i’m trying to get running again) with one lonely mod- DrZhark’s MoCreatures! along with F&A Rev., MoC was another mod-codifier (modifier?) of sorts- it cemented the idea of “holy crap, these people are bending MC to their will!! HOLY CRAP!!!” that led me to learn Blockbench in… mid 2021?? granted, i had some art experience before then.

since i’d consider myself a relatively good writer, i came up with these huge master lists of creatures and features (which i’ll eventually publish as fully-fledged prox mod bibles). it’s been a real lesson in creativity, coding, and a whole bunch of other stuff! someday i might make a proper modeling tutorial for how to make a semi-decent animal model, since there’s literally nothing out there in proper Mojang style lmao

thanks for the ask! like i said before ask as much stuff as you want i love answering questions!

-prox

[gaykarstaagforever]

"The Lone Wolf radio station in New Vegas broadcasts sounds of human sacrifice at 2 am. And if you look at the game files, these are recordings of REAL murders, and there are also pictures of the actual victims!"

...I get this is creepypasta probably written by a 19yo. But as crap as Bethesda and Obsidian are / were, especially about the release of this game, I feel like they probably would have patched out evidence of actual crimes, even if they were so incompetent as to allow a dev to include it on the disc in the first place.

...That said, might explain the weird file sizes of these Gamebryo releases. Like, yeah, this 4 gig game maybe IS 30 gigs because of all the hi-res murder videos!

Though I know enough about game devs that if they in fact snuck adult videos onto a game disc, it wouldn't be of corpses, it would 100% be of barely-legal naked Japanese women.

"Haunted video game" creepypastas are tough, because no matter how terrifying anything is, everyone knows you could just turn the powerstrip off to rid yourself of the demons. That's why all of these stories have to contrive reasons why people keep playing them and recording the footage. It's like 80s horror movies where they always have to explain why people aren't just running away and calling the cops.

Plus I think these worked better in the early 2000s, before most people understood what modding and emulation was.

We know now that your evil video game is only evil because you installed an evil mod. Even if it is genuinely supernatural, that just means the Devil is paying a guy to turn ghosts into code and upload it to Nexus. Or the Creation Club. And it is certainly true that neither will check it for monsters before they publish it.

Every new haunted game creepypasta should just start with "SO I DOWNLOADED THIS GLITCHY RUSSIAN MOD, AND...!" Because everyone will certainly identify with that. Those things can poison your entire computer or at least ruin your console install, and they aren't even intentionally demonic!

I'm just saying we need to apply a little more realism to these things to make them more compelling. The reality is broken and stupid enough already for curses to slip in. Just embrace it. Because if I can avoid getting possessed simply by turning off my Xbox, that makes Satan look about as competent as Todd Howard.

And while Todd Howard's failings are certainly scary, it's a different kind of terrifying.

[bit-b]

Anti-piracy? Anti-emulator? Anti-consumer.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a lawyer. Do not take anything in this post as legal advice.

I just saw the promotion of a thing recently. For the sake of not inadvertently advertising their crap, I will not be naming who it was and/or what the product was that they were trying to push. I will say that it had to do with video game anti-piracy and emulation.

Lemme start out by saying that I avoid emulation whenever possible. I like playing my games the way they were intended to be played, on the consoles they were made for. In fact, people who follow me could probably vouch for the kind of crazy hurdles I've jumped through to pull off certain game streams.

Also, I DO NOT in any way endorse piracy. I'm a major advocate of paying for the content that you enjoy. If people don't pay for a group's work, that group won't have money. If they don't have money, they won't be able to do more work. Even if you wanna use a game or program a decade out of print, I still feel that it's a good gesture to own that product.

THAT SAID: EMULATION IS NOT PIRACY.

I can understand the confusion. After all, there are people online that host illegal copies of ripped games. And emulators have enabled people to be able to play those illegal rips without actually owning the game. It's easy to jump to the conclusion that every use of an emulator must be bad. In actuality, the emulators themselves are not illegal.

Pretty much all emulators out there are not based on the original code of the consoles. Emulation is possible due to years of 3rd-party tinkering and reverse-engineering to make certain games run on different systems.

So if you own the game, if you have the tools to rip said game, and if you use an emulator capable of playing that game on another device, then nothing was stolen. You're just choosing to play the game in a way that makes you happy.

It only becomes illegal if you choose to post those game files online for anyone to use. Because at that point, it can be argued that you're handing the files over to people that have not payed for the privilege to play. You would be denying the devs and publishers the right to profit from their work.But again, if you're not distributing content, no illegal actions are taking place.

So it makes me sad to see people look at emulation software and say "God, why do they let these kinds of tools exist?! Don't PIRATES use this software?? How is this allowed?!?" Because it tells me that people don't consider the context and intent of the use of these tools. It's like getting upset about hammers existing because some people have used hammers for murder.

For a different example, let's imagine that someone photocopied a card game, laminated them, and played with them in their swimming pool.

Now, imagine people complaining:

"Wait, you didn't scan those cards and print new ones to make those, did you?! That's a crime!!"

"You're not supposed to play card games in the pool!! It wasn't designed for that!!"

"Aren't you worried that the card manufacturers are gonna arrest and sue you?!"

"Don't you know they MAKE waterproof cards?! Why would you skirt around their official product?!"

And I say:

If any copies were made, it was only out of necessity for the tinkering process. Copies were not distributed to other people.

Just because a thing wasn't originally designed for something doesn't mean it CAN'T. If anything, showing that it's possible to make a thing do something it normally shouldn't is kind of interesting.

How is it illegal to take something you purchased and use it in a different way? You could buy a golf club and use it as a baseball bat. Should you be penalized for that?

Even if the product-maker makes the same kind of alternate product, what's forcing a person to use the official one over their own?

Like I said. DON'T pirate. Own your games and software. But I feel like people equate tools used by pirates as piracy itself. And that's not a fair judgement.

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Now, that's just the FIRST part. The second is the anti-piracy.

Like I said, devs need money. I want to support them in their profession. I want to own what they create. And I encourage everyone to pay for the things they use. But what I can't stand is this idea that software NEEDS extra anti-piracy built in. (outside of the anti-piracy measures already implemented in your game launcher) In my opinion, adding extra layers of anti-piracy does nothing but harm the end-user.

Pirates don't use software with all the security stuff built into it. They use CRACKED versions. It takes a little time for them to crack it. But once they do, they have full unlimited access.

Meanwhile, I've heard only a handful of cases where 3rd-party anti-piracy measures are removed by the developers after it's no longer necessary. This means that everyone who bought legitimate copies of the product will likely be forever locked down by these stupid extra measures. And this sends the paying customers through all sorts of hoops.

They might have to always tag a security server on startup.

They might have monitoring software running routine checks.

The processes in the background might sap precious PC resources that the end-users don't want taken up.

Depending on how the anti-piracy was implemented, it could cause stability issues for the software.

The only true benefit I've seen for 3rd-party anti-piracy is the guarantee that the devs and publishers will be making their sales during the first 2 weeks of a product's life. Even then, people have managed to crack certain anti-piracy within the first 2 days. So it's not even a full guarantee. This type of anti-piracy is completely one-sided on benefits. The customer doesn't get anything out of these security measures at all. If anything, the customer would benefit greatly from NOT having them.

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I've said it several times in this rant, but I really do want to see devs and publishers get their money. Especially when they've done a great job. I've just bought 2 games that just recently ditched their anti-piracy. But that's a privilege that I rarely give.

We live in an age where new experiences and tools are being made and released every single day. And thanks to this, I have a bounty of buying options available. I can easily pass on someone's product if I don't appreciate a company's distribution tactics. And I am more than happy to miss out on a fun experience if it means dealing with less bullcrap. And the more time that passes, the less relevant your product is.

I believe adding extra anti-piracy measures will only ruin your reputation. If you don't want to be consumer-friendly, I can easily find someone else that will. And don't you DARE be surprised when an up-and-coming developer blows past you, lacking all those shareholder-appeasing anti-piracy measures that you love so dearly.

[the-firebird69]

Monaco Billionaire Lifestyle (motivation 04) #shorts #motivation #billio...

He wonders around and mumbles and he doesn't talk to people it's true he doesn't look wealthy he looks like a s*** head and a bum and people hate him and they're not much for rebels and they're fighting each other and what they're doing is gross and we're using it as cover. Right now we're getting tons of giants out I'm going to use their military maneuvers they do burn them all in one occasion and that's what we allow them to do but we stop them and other areas on purpose it is because we need to show what they do and then bja does it back and yeah the guy escaped somehow so we are going to say that we are going to finish them off and stuff but they think that we won't cuz we save a lot. And Tommy F and does all the surgeries and puts people into primings and he's a big pig and useless but we use that and the max went that done too soon enough we will begin our approach and people will be surprised as to what happens and they'll blame each other and we will be without massive amounts of annoying conversation that's really really superfluous and really we're not really enthused of their slavery approach.

This guy is annoying him so much we need to shut him down and we have things we want to do but he's right he's got to go and someone else will do it it has to set an example or second dangerous person didn't precedent and we have to try now we have ordered him out but it's not happening and there's things in the way of his and a big and we're working on it tonight is a big step in that direction finally let's see how they are they're horrible people that's going to be a big loss tonight probably 4% and tomorrow maybe three or four percent and that was 3% off Island however they're trying to leave they're trying to get ships from space there they're arming their ships and inactive war they say we'll try to leave and are going to be gunned down and their ships taken it's going to go on shortly on a massive scale it is a huge huge night tonight and thank God we need relief from this nasty pile of jerks who think all sorts of stupid crap about what's really going on and they're told by their own people they are absurd losers if they have the AI and all sorts of dumb things because of their delusional state and we're going to handle it.

We do have several people that need to leave but there are comments occurring about these people and how old are they are and dangerous and they're going to send teams in and pull out dangerous ones permanently too and exile them we don't want these people around him and they're seeing why they're disgusting and they need to leave it's gross they're really really disgusting it just so happens we have a report in

-Stan is being attacked and up in Oregon Washington State and here in punta Gorda they're trying to go after him so we're going to publish

Thor Freya

Olympus

[fortheseventh]

"You'll never earn money in art, it's a hobby, choose a different career."

"Not many people actually make it..."

"People won't know your name until you're dead."

The career I dream of may not be noble, honorable, or even that successful for most, but I don't care. I probably *won't* be the next Van Gogh, Neil Gaiman, or Coco Chanel. Many people have heard the phrases above, I've heard all come out of people who I NEEDED to support me (my mother and father), however because I have immigrate parents, they'd had hoped for something bigger. Because they allowed me to live here, privileged and worry-free.

I heard the 1st phrase when I was 7 in 3rd grade. I had only started drawing more passionately that following year. Now that my art has improved since then though, my mother loves to tell everyone how talented I am, as if she ever supported me in the beginning. When she completely shut down my ambitions. I know that I should be grateful, I know people will try to defend my mother, BUT I AM TIRED. I AM TIRED OF PEOPLE DEFENDING HER— WHEN I AM THE ONE COMPLAINING AND ASKING FOR HELP! WHEN I AM TRYING TO BE COMFORTED! WHEN I AM TRYING TO BE DEFENDED!

MY FEELINGS WILL NOT BE IGNORED, why defend her, when I'm telling you exactly the wrong SHE is doing!!! I get it, "she's not here to defend herself", I KNOW. WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK I'M EVEN COMFORTABLE TELLING YOU THIS CRAP?

It would HURT when I'd hear friends tell me this, and they know who they are. I understand YOU have your life planned out, you already have an idea of what you want to be, AND ITS RESPECTED. Don't you think I know that I've gone over me possibly failing? Why don't YOU believe in me? Why am I alone?

I heard the 2nd phrase when I was around 10, around the December of 4th grade. I've heard it more often now, usually paired alongside "AI will replace you anyways."

It's disgusting to hear that. Art is about humanity. AI, though made BY humans, is not human at all. AI art can't even get hands right, and hands were part of the very first human art forms invented. When people realize that art is what brings humanity together, I'll be there saying I TOLD YOU SO. Art has been expressed so much, connecting everyone. People TURN TO art when they are low, ARTISTS are what raised you, made you whole. The cartoons and shows you watched were drawn and written by artists. Art is everywhere and not appreciated as much as it should be.

Back in May 2023, the film industry FELL APART without the skills of artists, writers, and actors. Movies were pushed back because of the strike. Now everyone is complaining how barely any movies are being shown in theaters this year. WE ARTISTS ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT ART. AND YOU AND YOUR LITTLE ROBOTS, will NOT... TAKE IT AWAY FROM US.

We know that art is easily being copied, we know that authors are publishing more books about porn then actual stories and they're doing it fast, we know that fast fashion is killing the fashion industry. We aren't them, we're better than them.

The last phrase, was around when I was 8, it was still 3rd grade. I was really adamant about being able to succeed as an artist. I STILL AM!! Though my preaching fell of deaf ears and my mother wouldn't even budge. Until she yelled at me telling to do better that same day when she saw my grades and god forbid, I had a C in a class.

She had only realized my failures, my flaws, and faults, not my multiple awards and successes. And when she was pushed off the edge she just snapped. But it was just a regular Tuesday for her, and she'd forgotten by the next week. Maybe in her eyes, I'd only be remembered greatly, when I was dead. That's what families do at funerals do anyways. Never remembering that I had a messy room one day, or a C in my class I turned into an A.

Usually in this point of my rant or vent, I'd apologize, but I won't be apologizing. I deserve to be heard. Art deserves to be respected. And people will know my name before I'm dead.

[mr-no-life]

My Gripes with this One Album

Full transparency: The following album I will be talking about I had gotten early access to a week before its release date. This is also more of a thought dump then a “serious” review. This is not meant to be taken seriously, all opinions are my own. If you do not like it, do not read further.

What you are looking at is a review I had written for a band called Stages of Decomposition and their second album Raptures of Psychopathy (with some wording changes done by the site publisher). You are probably wondering why I am sharing it on an armature blog such as this? Well for two reasons, firstly, it’s been almost two years since I have written anything and secondly, I felt the need to go into MORE details as to why this album got the 2.5/5 score I gave it. Before I dive too far into this, I want to preference this one point: I am NOT discrediting the work the band had put into this. Despite my harshness on it there is clearly some actual effort put into this. That all being said (and I couldn’t say it in a professional setting), they tried WAY too hard to mimic Cannibal Corpse on this one.

From a quality standpoint I thought follow up albums were supposed to do BETTER than the original, but somehow, it’s a step down. Every song also sounds the same and hard to deduce when they started and stopped and thus made it one hell of a slog to listen too. Now, some of the songs had a random clip to start the song off but even then, it made it a chore to even get to the song in the first place. One song in particular “Drilling of The Cerebellum” (I’ll get into the song names here in a second), took NINTEY SECONDS (a whole ass minute) for the song to start, you don’t start an album with a monologue, that is a sure way to NOT get people interested. Speaking of getting people interested, my Heavy Metal hot take is that unless it is a non-English band, I prefer to UNDERSTAND the lyrics. The album’s vocals are practically incomprehensible unless you either a. have the lyrics in front of you or b. listen REALLY carefully. Now I am completely a where that there are stylistic elements like this that make Black and other Metal sub genres their characteristics. However (and I will dive into this in a moment as well) at least the instrumentation of other songs makes it barrable.

From the research I had done on this album when writing the initial review, they took their inspirations from famous serial killers such as Jeffery Dommer and Richard Ramirez. Witch personally adds to the frustrations I have with this album. Like how Sabaton is known for their songs on wars and war heroes, Stages of Decomposition could have taken a more “thoughtful” (as much as you can with these types of bands) approach to this. One of the songs I did not mention in the initial review that made me do a double take was “Fetal Devourment” (whoever the fuck on their P.R team allowed this needs a psych evaluation.) Now before the fanatics and die-hards come at me complaining about me being a “wimp” about this, I have sat through and reviewed a dozen or so indie Black metal bands and they have had better arraignments and song titles then this.

  You may be reading this and thinking “Holy crap, this is a bit harsh for a relatively small band.” To that I raise you this, people have said worse about bands like Metallica, and they’ve been doing this since the 80s. A lot of my problem is some biased on the fact Black metal isn’t my thing per-say. Unfortunately, it’s the nature of the business, take the good with the bad really in hopes of improvement. In conclusion: this rant served as more of an expansion of the review I had written before hand, nothing official in any capacity.

I hope you found this funny if anything, I just mainly wanted to get a post up on to this blog considering it’s been a while since I had posted anything. Hopefully in 2024 I will be posting on here more, once maybe twice a month if I don’t get too busy.

If you want to see the more “professional” reviews I (and many others) do click here.

If you want to just the ones I do click here for my portfolio

To Find me across the internet check out the Linktree in my bio! :)