#zero tracks stats

[blazehedgehog]

Soaking this in

If you don't know what this is, here's an explanation: Both Fortnite and Call of Duty employ something called "Skill-Based Matchmaking" (SBMM for short), and it has become the bane of a certain subset of players who very vocally yell about how it is ruining multiplayer games.

In short, the game secretly and quietly keeps track of your "skill level." Even if a game has both ranked and unranked modes, it is always tracking this skill level stat that reports back how quickly and easily you're getting kills. When you connect to a new match, it tries to group you with players near your skill level.

The idea being you start with zero skill stat, and by playing the game well, your skill stat levels up until you eventually plateau and you are forever playing the game with people that are just as good (or bad) as you are, within some level of variance.

This means if you're one of these career streamer guys or a Youtube clip compilation sort of dude (or both), then you very quickly get put into high tier matchmaking pools with all the other career streamers and wannabe esports pros. Hence the very loud, very vocal complaints, because if you're one of those guys, the idea of having a "casual match" goes away. Everybody is always firing on all cylinders and you're expected to do the same in order to keep your rank and not look embarrassing to your captive audience.

So Activision apparently ran an experiment per Charlie Intel (article here) where they reduced SBMM's effectiveness, meaning the big fish pros and the little tadpole casual players were thrown into more games together.

The result was a sharp uptick in players rage quitting matches early, some even quitting the game entirely and never coming back. The report notes that while player retention for players with a high skill rank was improved, they make up such a small percentage of the player base (apparently less than 1%; the article has some grammar problems) that servicing them really doesn't make sense.

As it turns out, low level players don't want to get hopelessly destroyed by wannabe esports pros. And those pros make up such a small percentage of the player base it doesn't make sense to keep feeding them more low level chum, even though they are the hungriest for it. As more and more low level players permanently leave the game due to frustration, it turns into a wasteland where high level players are getting mad at each other until they also get frustrated and leave as well. SBMM ensures long term health for a game's multiplayer ecosystem.

And being a Fortnite player, it's so validating to hear this. "SBMM is ruining multiplayer" was always a narrative coming from streamers and youtubers who were frustrated by having to actually TRY instead of being able to score easy clip compilation fodder on clueless newbies.

Enjoy sticking to your smurf accounts now, I guess.

[linkedin-offficial]

cats who are slugs ‼️ img text under the cut!

the crimson brother (mario)

blinding, and easy to spot, which causes ALL creatures to become hostile towards it.

however, its strength is immense in rebuttal

landing on enemies stuns them, and being bitten poisons the perpetrator

its jump is incredibly high and impressive, being higher than any other slugcat

the tattletail (goombella)

a squirrel like slugcat that can crawl along the ground at high speeds

capable of seeing the health and stats of all creatures nearby

the eyes of this slugcat can glow when in darkness

the chelonian (koops)

a chitin covered slugcat that is capable of hiding within its shell when threatened

while in its shell, no damage can be taken for a certain amount of time. after this time is up, the shell cracks and dmg can be taken again

it takes one cycle for the shell to heal up again

the larva (kid yoshi)

a slugpup that holds the incredible ability to eat or swallow any creature, no matter the size

despite this, it is still incredibly fragile, and will perish to any amount of damage taken

the misted (madame flurrie)

when threatened, it can emit a thick mist that slows down enemies or completely stops them in their tracks

a slugcat who is obsessed with pearls

obtaining pearls to keep will make it stronger and nimble

the burning shade (vivian)

a mildly transparent slugcat that lurks in the shadows to pounce on prey

its fur and body are sizzling to the touch, and when a beast inhales the smoke they emit, its throat begins to burn. its demise is soon to come

it dons a hat given to it by its mechanical creator, in hopes it helps the creature maintain a shadowed presence

the mollusk (admiral bobbery)

a small yet sleek slugcat that lurks in the swamps and waters

it dons a shell akin to a snails, and uses it as a hiding place and a shelter to sleep

when inside the shell, it can sleep for one cycle, make mini explosions that stun (again, like snails), and traverse bodies of water

like the rivulet, this slugcat can swim, and cannot drown

the thief (ms.mowz)

this slugcat is meek and nimble, capable of jumping exceptionally high, taking zero fall damage.

this slugcat has a passive buff that makes them less likely to be noticed by enemies, despite their leucistic appearance

if this slugcat is forced to attack or defend, biting an enemy will steal health for its own

[genericpuff]

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[themeraldee]

Reader who's a loner, regularly has hallucinations that they just sorta deal with. One night they were on the roof of a skyscraper, kinda high/drunk (whichever your more comfy with) they hallucinates homelander, the convo kind goes like this

H: *clenching fist* wasn't expecting to see another person up here.

R: OH SH- hiii omigosh sorry you startled me, but hey how ya doin?

Homelander had come up there for some peace and quiet but was pleasantly surprised that this person didn't just annoy him, but actually had a good heart to heart with him, as they related to each others loneliness, he feels a sense of comradery he hasn't ever felt, making him emotional. homelander pulls out the old "I should go now, I have to fight crime." Excuse so he can go home and think about it. Over the span of two weeks he couldn't stop thinking of them. He didn't even know their name but hes like "their the one." Leading him to tracking them down. Now remember in the first half when I said they hallucinated him? Well It turns out they weren't hallucinating, he was completely real and they were actually talking to him that night, thinking "this HAS to be a hallucination". But no, now they have to deal with an obsessed homelander.

One of my favourite tropes is Homelander falling for someone with absolutely zero thought. He doesn't need a slow burn or get to know them better. Nah, he's all in. Whatever it is that clicks with him takes no time to settle and he's pursing them full throttle STAT.

The idea of reader continuously thinking that he's a hallucination would lead to some funny moments. Of course he's not real, this Homelander is a jerk, a real crude asshole. Only you would come up with something like that. Nothing like the sickly sweet persona they parade on the TV. And of course Homelander would be getting increasingly frustrated because you should be getting yourself just as obsessed with him! And you can't do that if you don't think he's real!

"Of course my hallucination of Homelander is a more fucked up version of him."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, look at yourself. You're a little crazy. Don't act like you do on TV. And that's a good thing really, so my hallucination gets a 1, real Homelander 0."

"For the tenth time I'm real!"

"Yeah yeah you've said. Still not done anything to prove it though."

So naturally, he kisses you, like he's been itching to do. And what was that if not a blanket permission.

"Woah woah woah, what the hell?!"

"You wanted proof. You got it."

And because your hallucinations never felt corporeal before you start freaking the fuck out. Because what do you mean it's been the real Homelander all along that you've been making yourself a fool in front of??

[kittybroker]

was bored and since i remembered some asks a while back about the average kitty price, i decided to take a whack at it. according to the 108 valid entries (alt currency kitties, set deals, fake kitties, and outliers like sub-dollar and hundred-plus-dollar kitties were all excluded), the average kittybroker-d kitty costs around $22.50! (90 shiny kitty quarters. they are worth quite a few gumballs...)

This doesn't surprise me really given I sort of keep track of what the kitties are valued at. I would suspect the median is a little lower though and there isn't really need to exclude outliers with the median. Probably a bit closer to $15-18 if I had to guess. I haven't actually done any stats though and know a few other interesting things would likely pop up if you plotted it. One of the more interesting ones is which numbers are more frequent. Certain numbers roll of the tongue better so I know I use those more often. I rarely use anything from 0-10 cents following a number and numbers ending in zero are rare. Certain other ones like 0.49 or 0.98 are more common because of how typical market pricing works. There would also be a huge funny spike at 14.53 because I got a bit silly with it.

[bl-bracket]

Anyways I was going to make a post about the process of picking bracket topics and whatnot and was trying to come up with some examples of types of topics that would or wouldn't work and for whatever reason I thought of the concept of a "best murderer bracket" and I can't stop thinking about it lmao

it's just like such a funny concept? the idea of fictional murderers battling it out, especially ones from bls (which like I don't think is most people who are not super familiar with the genre as having a lot of characters who have killed people) is just funny in like an absurd way. like abstracting yourself from tumblr and tournament blogs, the idea of telling someone else that there's a tournament going for fictional murderers from east asian mlm tv shows, a genre that for several years was primarily shows about high school and uni students.

anyways that devolved into thinking about it more seriously, and then deciding a more practical way of doing it would to make some kind of directory of bl murderers. which would then lead to a lot of interesting statistical analysis, like characters with highest on screen kill counts, which countries have the highest proportion of fictional killers, etc. you can then make a separate category for characters with implied kills that aren't explicitly shown on screen or vague. and you could track how the number increases over time, which I assume exponentially goes up as more bls are exploring darker and more serious genres.

anyways back to the country stats, I started thinking about what the breakdown would look like so here's my guess based on zero research and just my general knowledge of shows

China. While having very few bls (censored or otherwise), they have a very unfair advantage and that is genre conventions. The 3 biggest Chinese bls I can think of are: The Untamed, Word of Honor, and Guardian. With The Untamed and Word of Honor, the conventions of xianxia and wuxia genres means that there are a lot of characters and almost all of them have killed before (usually nameless canon fodder but still). And then with Guardian, it's a supernatural detective mystery show with murder plots in it and a lot of characters, which again leads to a pretty high kill count. So even only counting these 3 shows, China will probably have the most killers in bl, or at the very least most kills done.

Thailand. It's a numbers game on this one. There's just so many Thai bls and an increasing number of like detective or mafia ones. A show like Kinnporsche has a lot of killers and deaths. Then there's other shows that include a few murderers (but less than Kinnporsche) like The Sign, Manner of Death, 4 Minutes, 3 Will Be Free, Never Let Me Go (Palm did shoot a couple guys dead elt's nto forget), Dead Friend Forever, etc. However the numbers also hurt Thailand in terms of proportions, since there's a lot more Thai bls that don't have murder, so it actually might be 3rd.

Japan. You're not getting much murder from your Cherry Magics and Old Fashion Cupcakes, which is what a significant portion of bl fan's primary exposure to Japanese bl is, but let's not forget that there's a lot of dark Japanese bls where murder is definitely on the table. Now I don't actually have a good gauge of what the numbers on this is, cause I haven't really delved that deep into this corner of the bl market, so I can't make a good estimation but I bet there's more than I'm aware of.

Taiwan. They've got a couple of mafia shows like HIStory 3: Trapped and Kiseki: Dear to Me, both of which have some implied and explicit murder (though less then you would expect if we're honest). That'll give them a few kills and they also have a relatively smaller pool of shows to pull from, meaning percentage wise it's a bit higher.

South Korea. Ok I am far from an expert of bls from South Korea, but unless there's like obscure short films I'm not aware of, the only drama I can think of from here with kills is Long Time No See? or I guess The Director Who Buys Me Dinner has like 1.5 murders? anyways Korea also has a not insignificant amount of bls to their name so proportionally it will be quite low.

The Philippines. Out of all the countries on this list, I am least familiar with the bls from here, but from what I've gathered during my routine mdl searches, basically all of them seem to be murder-free (unless of course there's some shocking plot twists in them)

anyways I'll probably never do this project just cause it would require a lot of time and collaborative effort and I've got a lot irl going on right now (hence why the submission period for most whipped is so long lol) and also have some other projects I'm already planning on doing so I don't really have time to do it. but I wanted to tell y'all about my thoughts on the matter.

also sorry if this is the weirdest thing I've ever posted. kinda had a major stress breakdown today but then resolved it relatively quickly cause I realized I could just reschedule the life altering appointment that was causing the breakdown lmao so I'm in a strange frame of mind lol

[wehangout]

Shameless DVD Commentary

The wonderful @i-think-you-mean-reduction asked for a DVD commentary on Suncatcher! This was the first time I'd read it since finishing, so that was a lot of fun, too! This whole thing got away on me, so hit that read more if you want to read more 💜 as usual, thanks to @callivich for starting this awesome idea!

Which fanfic is your DVD commentary about?

Suncatcher!

Give us some stats - (when you wrote it, word count, how long it took to finish, is it a one-shot/multi-chapter, etc)

Okay, I started posting this in March of 2022, which leads me to believe I started writing it in 2021 (I'm on a borrowed laptop, so can't check). It took some time to finish because ~real life~ and word count hits 58,592.

What was the initial inspiration for your story?

Oooh, okay. This post. If you don't want to click, it's a text post saying "au where thief!cas tries to ride dean's dick and keep track of when his flashdrive is done stealing the contents of dean's computer at the same time". Obviously, that kind of scene never happened in Suncatcher, but vibes, you know?

If the story is written from a character’s POV, why did you choose this character?

Mostly Mickey because almost everything I write is Mickey pov. But I did experiment with this by writing those 3rd person Ian snippets, and literally the only reason for it is so the reader could be there for that moment of realisation when Ian figures it all out.

What was your favourite scene to write?

I don't know that I have one, but I really enjoyed the scene where Mickey asks Ian to come to Mexico. Getting to write them being soft, even just for a minute, was nice. And literally any of their flirty banter was fun to write lol.

How did you come up with the title?

I feel like this doesn't need an explanation, lol. I will say, though, I had three other titles in mind. I had "Denouement", "Encontrar", and "Atrapasol". Encontrar means "to find" in Spanish (because I knew it would end with them in Mexico), while "Atrapasol" means "suncatcher". At least, according to Google translate lmao.

Are there any little moments or references you hope readers will notice?

I did a reread in order to write this commentary, so, please, have a list of moments, foreshadowing, and references.

* Mickey's nautical-themed sleeve! “Sailing? Nah, man. I just really like pirates.” Get it? Because he's a thief? And pirates steal shit? Literally no one caught onto that haha * “Uh … growing up the way I did, I’m probably better at the B&E itself rather than tryin’ to solve it.” -- Mickey literally says this in the first chapter lmao * His mind doesn’t go over every detail of the North Side burglaries and he doesn’t obsess over the thief committing them. No thief. Just a bartender. Just Mickey. -- Um, hello? * “Never gonna give that up, are we?” “Never gonna live it down.” “Those aren’t the lyrics.” “Okay, lyric police.” -- 27 Dresses, thank you * Ahh, Mickey's blowjob tattoo. The amount of erotic tattoo designs I looked at for this, but nothing was right. Until Mitch 💜 * He snorts. “Clearly you don’t know many writers.” “I don’t. Should I?” “No. They’re the worst.” -- I'm dying 😂 * Well, this really has turned into a commentary, huh? Apologies. * "A little dry, to be honest." Chapter 3 and 9. Did anyone catch that?

Was there anything you struggled to write? If so, how did you overcome this?

The last two chapters. Life completely turned upside-down on me and I couldn't write a thing. Zero motivation, infinity depression. Then, at the beginning of this year ... I dunno. I don't know what happened, but suddenly I was writing again and I haven't stopped yet.

Favourite line in the story?

“Catch me if you can, motherfucker.”

“Two, I give you the keys to the cuffs and leave. But first I suck your dick until you come down my throat.”

“I’ll give you what you want, Red, you just have to decide what you want more; the thief, or his mouth?”

“I didn’t do anything,” he whispers. “You did everything, Ian.”

“Interesting,” he says. “I was already half in love with you by then.” 😭

“I’m gonna fuck you now. You know that, right?” You groan and drop your head. “You might just break my fucking heart if you don’t, Gallagher.”

“So long as that lover is you, Gallagher.”

Did the storyline change in any way as you wrote the story?

Yeah, but only chapters 9 and 10. Initially I was going to write Ian having a depressive episode and Mickey talking to him about everything while he was down, but I hated the idea. I didn't want it to seem like Mickey/the thief was the cause of his episode, and I also didn't want to use it as a tool. The idea changed into a possible attack on Ian, but that still wasn't working for me. So, instead, you got the scene with Mickey handcuffed and Ian asking questions. I switched the vulnerability around and made it way more fun.

If you are writing a particular trope or genre, was it your first time writing this?

Nah. A little crime with my romance is my go-to lol

What are you most proud about in the story? (plot, characterisation, dialogue, twist/cliffhanger, etc)

Finishing it. Kidding. Kinda. Not really.

Actually, though, the dialogue and banter is pretty good. It reads very natural, so I'm proud of that.

Are there any deleted scenes that didn’t make it to the final story?

Only what I mentioned above. I wrote the attack on Ian, Mickey sitting with him in hospital ... it wasn't good.

Are there any ‘behind the scenes’ info you’d like to share - e.g. what’s going on in a characters head in a certain scene or how you came to write a certain line?

Oh, the moment where Ian finds the camera and leaves it. He'd just heard Mickey tell him that he stopped watching before things got interesting, and that's what he's thinking about as he puts the camera back down with a smirk. About Mickey not stopping just as things get interesting. I had thought about writing it, too. A scene where Mickey doesn't close the laptop, working consent into it and Ian putting on a fucking show

Reading back the story now, is there anything you’d change or add?

I don't think so. I'm pretty happy with most of it.

Would you ever write a sequel to this story?

Kinda did. Wouldn't be opposed to doing more. All the cream pie banter I'm rereading is def giving me inspo for if I write more of them oops

Are there any ‘easter eggs’ in your story - e.g. references to other stories you’ve written, a trope you often use etc?

I think I mentioned this in the commentary for Thicker Than Forget, but Jim Morrison/The Doors lyrics. I don't know, man, it just works for me haha.

Also the name thing - Gallagher/Ian/baby and Mickey/Mick.

There's also the line "It’s gone from bartender and customer having a bit of fun flirting and teasing, to silk sheets and Nine Inch Nails pounding through the speakers." - The NIN might be a reference to Help Me (Tear Down My Reasons) 😏 iykyk

Were you nervous or excited to post this story?

Excited. Probably more excited to post ch2, though, just for the reaction to Mickey being the thief haha

Did you have a beta or a friend who helped you as you wrote?

@whaticameherefor always 💜

Ask your followers to pick a snippet (no more than 500 words) and share your thoughts about it.

@i-think-you-mean-reduction asked for the scene where Ian asks Mickey on a date which I've pasted below.

A couple of notes on it:

The Riverwalk Cocktail Festival is a real thing in Chicago

I put a stupid amount of research into finding them the perfect date and this just fits.

Reading it back, I love that the Mickey doesn't think of the thief or anything to do with that shit once during this conversation. It's just two guys who like each other, and one's asking the other out on a date. It's just happy.

I think Mickey was so surprised that Ian was asking him out that everything he said and felt and thought was genuine. He even has a moment of "Fucking finally" that he doesn't mean to say, but 100% means.

I'm sad they never did it.

“Just my gut.” He pauses. Smiles. “Speaking of … in the interest of trusting my gut with my personal life as well as my professional life, have you heard of the Riverwalk Cocktail Festival next month?” Your heart skips a beat. Yeah, you’re heard of the fucking festival, and you can’t believe Ian’s doing this. “I’ve been a few times,” you tell him. “Sandy and I go under the pretence of work, and then get shit-faced.” “Okay, so do you maybe wanna go again?” He fingers go back to the coaster, but again he keeps eye contact. “But, you know, with me instead of Sandy.” There’s nothing romantic about the Riverwalk Cocktail Festival unless you go to the Riverwalk Cocktail Festival with romantic intentions. If you go with a date then it’s stupidly fucking romantic and you and Sandy used to talk shit about those assholes every chance you got, but … But the idea of being one of those couples, of going with Ian and having it be romantic … it makes you sick to your stomach how much you like the idea. “You askin’ me on a date, Gallagher?” He stares at you, eyes wide and honest. “Yeah.” “Fuckin’ finally.” You don’t mean to say it. You think it and you mean it, but you don’t mean to say it. Ian’s smile, though, makes the slip worth it. “So that’s a yes?” “Yeah.” “Good.” He smiles. Fucking beams. “Because I’ve already bought tickets, so I would’ve been kinda fucked if you’d said no.” “You already bought tickets?” “Some might call it presumptuous; I call it optimistic.” You shake your head. “Ian, man, those tickets are expensive as fuck –” “Doesn’t matter.” “Matters. At least let me pay you back for mine.” You already know he won’t let you pay for both of them. “Not a chance. This is me trusting my gut, asking you out, and feeling really good about it.” A smile pulls at the corner of your mouth. “Oh yeah?” “Yeah.” He smiles right back. “You wanna pull me out of that good feeling, the one I get when you agree to go on a date with me, by bringing up my money woes? Or do you wanna talk about our date and agree upon matching outfits?” “You better be fucking joking.”

Anything else you’d like the readers to know about the story?

So, as mentioned above there was a good chunk of time where nothing was updated. If you were someone who left a kudos or a comment or messaged me on here during that time, or even continued reading when I finally updated, please know it meant a lot.

[gold-rhine]

Well, if its not a bother! Any comments on my build? I know there is a room for improvement but also checking in with experts to make sure im on the right track.

The artifacts are a WIP. im thinking more CDMG and HP and ER? I think he needs better rolls just in general. Going to get his weapon eventually but zhongli’s spear scares me ngl, this is the other alternative i have since the prototype is with Kokomi and i relay on her a lot idk…

(He is in teams with Furina, kazuha and a flex typically but also he is new so im figuring things out)

(Don’t look at the talents im working on them lol)

its really good already! you have 50% hp from just substats, thats crazy tbh. thats like second hp sands slot.

about the stats priority, i dont think you need more er, neuvi can function with like zero er in double hydro, esp if there a fav weapon on a team. i've been soloing abyss with 130 ER. so like if you happen to have er, its good, but its not priority, and 120 is more than enough

40k hp is also enough tbh. i think you can sacrifice some hp for crit damage. esp bc you play him with hydro res, it means on field he gets even higher hp, like probably about 42k? crit damage is more valuable now.

but dont throw away current artifacts anyway, bc if you eventually get it, signature weapon on that build would make it insane bc you immediately get 300 crit damage with like 40k hp in double hydro. i had to roll hp hat to get so much hp and you got it all from substats :D

actually in your place i would experiment with using widsith instead, bc you already have so much hp rolls in substats, crit dmg weapon i would think will be better. if its not better, then keep current one, its like about as good as amber. amber is better if you struggle with ER, but you already have pretty good ER, so like dont worry.

with teams, you already have good basis with furina and kazuha, and like yeah, you can use basically use anyone in flex spot. best options are xilonen or zhongli for res shred or like just natlan support to activate natlan set. if you need kazuha on second side, you can use jean on full vv instead, it would get furina's stacks faster

[arliganzey]

My headcanon stats and thoughts for Jedi Master Arligan Zey that no one asked for:

Age: 49. He seems older than Obi-wan, but is only 'graying' by the end of The Clone Wars so he's not that old.

Height/Build: 6'4. He's described as a "large, muscular man" with "huge" hands. I could go taller... but... then Bardan (a foot shorter) would never be in frame in my mind's cinematic universe. In Order 66 when Zey is angrily tracking down Vau to ask him why Kal got beat up, he's described as a 'giant hawk-bat of a man.'

Physical characteristics: All we know is he has a beard, his hair is "shaggy" in 501st, and he's graying. That's... it. So I'm going with mousey brown hair. Hazel-brown eyes, with crow's feet. He has a long, straight nose and a prominent brow. Zey is, as I previously described, "kinda handsome."

Alignment: Lawful good. He's close-ish to lawful neutral, at least when he's dealing with Kal (see: turning a blind eye to the terrorist op in Triple Zero, also asking Vau to spy on Kal which I'm not saying was a smart move but it's... not lawful good!)

See how we err toward lawful neutral/true good/true neutral? Very mindful.

Facecast: Christoph Waltz: This is who Krad based her Zey art off of! He has had a pretty long acting career so it's nice to see lots of pictures at different ages.

Zey at the start of the war before the light has left his eyes (Waltz is a little older than my Zey headcanon age btwfyi)

More thoughts in no particular order:

I think Zey is a little less refined and a lot more rough and tumble, he seems deeply uncomfortable with the desk job as Director of Special Forces and gets visibly upset/angry at a few points in the book. He's capable of being the diplomatic Jedi, but he's also been described as crashing through conversations.

I have about a dozen more points to cover but this is already getting long, so consider this my Arligan Zey primer. More to come!

[pizza-hats-of-the-world-1882]

since you're the most qualified person i know regarding dumas, i wanted to know your take on the bbc's The Musketeers (2014). i had a weird obsession with it a few years ago. how well (or not) does it hold up in every aspect (except for the main title track which is above any and all reproach)?

hmmm after long reflection this is difficult to answer because even tho i do in fact like the show, the only specific things i have to say ab it are negative, and i feel that doesnt fully reflect my opinion. i think the best way to summarize it is the show doesnt do anything as good as the books, so when i try to analyze it im just thinking "couldve been better" but i do admire their honesty in saying its "inspired by the characters" instead "based on the books" or whatevey. anway ill try to hit some more specific points:

they did my boy rochefort soooooo dirty!!! why did they slander him like that hes a very cool chill guy in the books and him and d'art have such a cute lil friendship in vaa, whyyy did they make him such a horrible little creeper #notmyroachie also what is adaptations repeated fixation on eyepatches? he literally doesnt have one

i dont feel as strongly ab the grimaud slander bc that change is funny as heck. he bears zero resemblence to book!grimaud but if book!grimaud decided to hunt athos for sport i would support him. tho i do think if they wanted to make him a villain they shouldve made it /him/ as a villain, not just some guy w the same name. or even commit to the bit and do an evil lackey squad. also its a tv show they had time to include more of the side charcters from the book [such as the lackeys] but didnt?? like this applies to others but im a lackey stan so i think of them first. its interesting how a lot of modern adaptations tend to minimize or erase servant characters when in some classic lit [particularly these] they are major side characters

ryan gage as louis 13 slayed immensely. he did not have to bring that much to his performance but he did and it was amazing

costume design was mid at best, and made all the worse by louis and the occasional side character wearing stuff thats actually in the vicinity of 1630s so that i see them and think "why not everyone?" i will say that they tended to have internal consistancy with each other so there is that going for it, but i absolutley HATED how the mouskos literally never changed clothes. like they got new fits in s3 but then they never changed out of those? a single cloth doublet im begging d'art got MARRIED in that crusty leather fit even tho his gf is literally a seamstress its horrible

calzone brought up that pretty much every woman in the show gets victimized at some point, which, yeah and it kinda makes the feminist monets feel a lil performative. also they fell into some of my milady adapting pet peeves: massive stat debuffs, made her sad ab athos, over-reliance on pop culture femme fatale tropes rather than her actual canon, etc. that one ep where perdita weeks showed up as a grifter/assassin and i just sat there and thought "that shouldve been milady. also people who think s3 was bad bc theyre butthurt ab milathos are wrong and stupid. s3 was bad bc of spiderman 3 syndrome [too many villains making it unfocused]

very uneven amounts of screentime for the mouskos? i swear half of the episodes were aramis-centric and maybe 2 overall were d'art-centric? make that make sense. actually fr what WAS the shows obsession w aramis, esp when they got rid of his more complicated and interesting book traits. hes barely even catholic in this, much less slutty and evil. all les inseperables were a lil ooc but i expect that in adaptations to an extent [tho i do feel they lost some of the charm of how wildly different they are from eachother in the books] the casting itself was pretty good though and i feel cabrera couldve done a good aramis if they had given him better writing to work with [also: hilarious how aramis spends most of the show in a committed monogamous situationship while /athos/ of all people has the three weed smoking girlfriends]

absolutely comical how much a bbc production went out of its way to avoid any of the england related plots from the novels. what, worried about even the slightest potential of portraying england less than favourably? tbh aside from dumas' funny narratorial comments england gets a pretty fair shake in the books, so excluding buckingham etc. in favour of making up plots ab spain is just silly.

absolutely loved that one time they went to the morgue to investigate a case they shouldve done that more it was funny. i think the show was at its best when it was having silly goofy moods [athos' "funeral"? peak]

uhh i think thats it for specifics, if there was something you had in mind you can ask and i probably do have a thought ab it that i just like forgot lol. anyway solid 6/10 ive seen it multiple times and am open to watching it again, like you said bangin theme song

[deeyaacademia]

june 07, 2024. | 03/100 days of productivity.

my legs have been so dead because of the gym I HATE IT SO MUCH but i will have to push through and will not stop (please send help)

i've been trying to eat healthy, sleep enough, find time for reading and working on my novel and maintain my jounal and i'm feeling so burnt out. i can hardly keep up with the ca classes and catching up on the backlog that i have zero time for any hobbies and if you know anything about me, is that I LOVE MY HOBBIES SO MUCH!!

yes, well that is making me upset but i just need to manage my time better and focus on one thing at a time (it's very hard).

never mind, today was okay-ish as i did all my classes, went to the gym (in pain) and even watched two old lectures of accounts and made notes for law!! YES FINALLY GETTING BACK ON TRACK.

hopefully i'll start stats from tomorrow because i've been hearing it's quite hard and i'm scared to begin 😭

also, i am watching bojack horseman currently and i've never felt so seen in my life. he is me, i am him. i also love diane <3

with love,

deeya.

[vendetta-if]

Shouldn't our kill count stat start off with more than zero since we kinda killed the men that were chasing us after the birthday dinner? (In my case, squished like a bug)

I didn't really count them because it was kind of out of MC's control and was an accident. Whether MC really wanted to kill them deep down or not, it's the fact that MC didn't really realize--or didn't really want that to happen in the case of the more Merciful MCs.

So, yeah, the kill count is keeping track of kills that MC does so deliberately and makes the conscious choice to do it.

[skopostheorie]

My actual CVC headcanons written as I trudge through episode after episode in the hopes that I might see him for twenty glorious seconds (LONG)

Cookie Monster is his bestie, they hang out and act Strange together

He has phases of enjoying counting in certain ways. There are some days when counting zero of something is like hell to him, and others when it's all he wants to do.

His memory is borderline photographic; that's both how and why he keeps his counting diary. It helps him empty his head and show he's able to keep track of countable things that would otherwise be forgotten.

He moved to Sesame because he was getting sick of the same-same life of back home, restricted by whatever more ancient relics of count life were supposed to be; especially having to spend time talking to other Important People. On Sesame he gets to do what he wants and be like everyone else, even if he is different. It's also why he says his name is because of his hobby and not, like, the actual reason

He went to an international/accelerated school, where Matilda also went; it was indeed maths oriented, but the Count is exaggerating a bit when he says it was a "counting school".

He did actually catch a bit of an Australian accent from Matilda as a child, as she was his main source of English speaking, but it faded after she moved; all the teachers were either American-accented or had accents like his

He actually has no negative physical reaction to sunlight, he just doesn't like it because of the 'tism

He actually needs the monocle, it's a glasses lens, he read way too much in the dark as a kid

He didn't realise that hyponotising people for his counting purposes could upset people and had to be informed of the fact; but of course, this happened quite quickly, which is why it only happened a few times.

He loves watching sports and pays a great deal of attention to the stats. He especially loves sports analysis shows with "360" in the title. Book keeping etc has also, of course, always been of great interest to him, as well as anything else stats-based in pop culture, such as the census (as we know), elections, algorithms, and so on.

However, he isn't some sort of betting wizard. He is certainly good at counting up things, but putting them into practice and making an analysis of them takes more effort for him, especially if it's a synthesis of a variety of factors.

While he doesn't need a steady job these days, he does do odd accounting jobs during tax time to get himself something nice

He can do all sorts of mathematics, but he simply finds the most interest in counting (and by proxy smaller multiplication tables). He can help you with more challenging maths if you ask him; however, it isn't very interesting for him and he only knows it because of his time at his cute little special boy school

He and the Countess do speak Hungarian reasonably frequently, but not all the time

They knew each other before they met on Sesame, but only vaguely, through friends of friends of friends as children

He was nocturnal for a pretty long while but after he made more friends on Sesame he started to change his sleep schedule for convenience

^ In general, a lot of his vampirisms started to naturally go away after he made friends, and a healthy dose of counting every day keeps him hunky dory.

34,696 was only his favourite number on the day they asked; it changes constantly

He has one of those birthday cake books which teach you how to make numbers for kids' birthdays and we frequently bakes them for friends' birthdays as well as for whenever CM comes over

I'll add more later

[catwalkvivi]

well hey, since hardly anyone's looking at this corner of the website anyway I might as well take the opportunity to vent (it's annoying to do it on twitter with the character cap)

Man, social media is hard.

I see so many people posting regular content consistently for years and years without even seemingly breaking a sweat, while it's always been so difficult for me... Calculating engagement, deciding the best times to post, or, hell, even just sharing what they think/feel/made/fucking ate that day just seems, like, so easy and second nature for pretty much everyone around me. It's genuinely incredible to me that somebody can share what they've learned about idk shitty impractical tanks made in WW1 on this website and make it such an interesting read that hundreds of people engage with it!

But I've tried keeping social media accounts for art and stuff so many times now, on here, on Instagram, on Artstation, on Xitter, and eventually it just- kinda- fades away, it just feels so exhausting to keep track of all the things necessary to Chase the Algorhythm™ if you wanna have any relevancy. Is it a charisma thing??? Where do I grind to get a stat boost on my Cha???

I'd love to say it doesn't matter to me, since I've been drawing shit for myself for years now, but unfortunately artists do need social media presence if they wanna get work. Not to mention, well, I wanna reach people with the stuff I do! I want people to react to what I made, to say what they liked about it, or how it made them feel, and then when I post something I worked on for hours only to get, like, almost zero visibility? idk, man, it just kinda hurts. It's probably selfish and immature for me to say it, I know that it takes time and effort to build an audience and all that, but damn I get happy when people show me that something I've made has affected them positively. I like the connection, I like the conversations, I like meeting people who enjoy the same nerdy trash that I do!

(I was very fortunate to have an art post of mine reach a lot of notes here years ago, which was amazing, but it's such a rare thing)

God, and, like, there's all these weird unspoken rules about interacting on social media too.

The other day a friend of mine came up to our friend group and was like "oh my god this girl liked my stories on instagram it means something does she like me" and I was SO confused and then they were like "well, when somebody not on your friends list likes your stories, it means they're interested in you"

Then some time later another friend was telling me that somebody stopped liking her posts and unfriended her and how that is a horrible offense and my fucking brain hurt, like- okay I get the unfriend part kinda but there could be a hundred reasons for it??? it's not like you have a deep personal connection to all 300 friends you have on your account???

Then I see so many people out there simply sharing something they think or did only to have some rando twist what they said and come at them like they're the shittiest person on the planet that deserves everything bad in life actually (except the ones that are willingly spouting/promoting hateful shit to begin with. Those can rot in hell and I shall not mourn their demise)

Like??? It might be the Power of Autism™ in me but it always feels like I'm one step away from either making a fool of myself or offending twenty different people or both. It's both the fear of having hundreds of thousands of eyes on me and the fear of having none at all. And that makes it really difficult to share anything on the internet for me. I already have to deal with my entire existence as a trans woman making some cunts around the world mad, it sucks that I have to risk it in places where I just wanna post dumb drawings and talk about dumb things that make me happy with others.

I dunno. Word vomit I guess. Social media is hard. Interacting with humans is hard. Sharing stuff is hard. I prefer Pokémon

[tobiasdrake]

Today's the day. To the House of Change.

It's exactly the size that I thought. You can see it from town, Isa. Pay attention to things.

Was that in doubt? Did we go on this entire quest to find the Orbs without anyone ever checking if the door is even locked?

There is a non-zero chance that we are all clowns. This does not bode well for our chances today.

It's a good thing that magical keys levitate because I do not envy our chances of physically reaching those upper locks.

In any case, no going back now.

Oh, so THAT'S a Sadness.

...is not a thing I should be saying this deep into our adventure but. Like. You don't understand. It was lemon-flavored. I accept the consequences of my possibly-hallucinatory actions.

I'm so fast, I've already thrown Scissors before anyone even thinks of throwing Rock.

...which. They then. Proceed to do.

...

I think I just figured out why I'm always the one on chore duty.

Unfair that she gets two different types but she is the Chosen One main character of our epic fantasy adventure. She gets Chosen One privileges.

You mean the fact that they're already throwing Scissors and we haven't even started attacking yet?

...

Oh, shit, does that mean they're faster than me? >_< Odile, this is your fault. You made us slow down. I need to hurry up and throw Scissors now!

Trick question. Nothing beats Scissors because it is the superior sign. Cuts through Paper. Cuts through Pillow. It would be weak to Rock but Rock has the Infatuated status ailment so it has a 50% chance of losing its turn each round.

Also the Chosen One is half-Scissors so. Like. Scissors's superiority is unmistakable.

That's honestly a good idea. Item Duty is perfect for the tagalong kid.

Nah, I get that. When I was younger, I'd drink bad coffee on purpose because that way the coffee would make me more alert. I don't do that anymore because life should be spent enjoying things, but the logic holds all the same.

Is it bad if this is my favorite thing of the items I've picked up in here? There are a lot of uses for going ding-ding. Entertainment. Distraction. Entertainment. Ruining stealth missions. And entertainment.

I have an established track record of putting questionable things in my mouth. She is right to fear me.

Hey, that would have worked if you hadn't stopped me! Guaranteed stat increases across the board with only a moderate chance of heart explosion.

So the group can't see the Star. Probably because they haven't ingested one, so they're not gifted with the same hallucinations that I am. Good to know.

Oh cool! Time to do my job as the Trap Pincushion. Here we go!

...

...

Well, here are the possibilities.

1 - There's no traps. 2 - The traps are so cleverly hidden that even my best Trapfinding rolls couldn't locate them. 3 - I'm so fast and so good at my job that I disarmed all of the traps before even I was able to notice.

Personally, I'm leaning towards Option 3. It's easily the most plausible, as well as a valuable reminder of the important assets I bring to this team.

Is it possible that somebody died here for reasons unrelated to traps, and it simply developed a reputation? Like, someone dropped dead of a heart attack or something? And they were just like, "Oh, don't go in there, that's the Death Corridor"?

It's cool. You can be a little high-strung but that's just part of your charm. Let's all just take this as a valuable lesson in not giving too much weight to eavesdropped rumors and--

NO FUCK YOU THAT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A PUN

Oh god, I died a clown.

[apr1lias]

just got into the fandom side of motogp, was wondering what's your beef w miller? me and my dad don't like him bc of like vibes but I saw your stats post (fucking incredible job dude truly inspiring level of hating, like casey stoner would be proud) but what did he say or do that motivated this??

Again amazing jobs on the stats, my dad rlly appreciated data proving why miller sucks

Hi Anon!

Haha thank you so much! Honestly that post was inspired by having nothing better to do and an entire year’s grudge after some of his comments, and also the feeling that some of my faves stuck on terrible bikes would do a better job on KTM.

Now I wanna say that I have met Jack Miller and in person he does come across as a very nice guy, so as a person I don’t have an issue with him, it’s more as a rider, in the sense that he’s had the machinery to get better results than he has, and just hasn’t done it. He’s also been in the premier class for 9 years and still hasn’t grasped the concept of tyre management, which is so frustrating especially when he’s meant to challenge other riders I dislike out front lmao.

That being said there have been a few issues with some things he’s said off track in the past.

The comments I personally have an issue with are ‘borderline’ misogynistic comments - if I remember rightly when I first started watching MotoGP, he made a comment comparing his bike being temperamental to a girl on her period (something his teammate at the time had done before too), I can’t find the receipts though so I could be confusing him with someone else on that one.

There was also the jumping to defend Pecco when they were Ducati teammates in 2022 after Pecco’s drink-driving incident. Ducati actually blacklisted journalists who tried to ask Pecco about it and in the pre-weekend or post-quali conference (not sure which) Jack basically shut down any question on the DUI from journalists on Pecco’s behalf. It doesn’t sit well with me because

1.) I would like to know from our eventual double world champion why he thinks its acceptable to do that and also face zero repercussions for it.

2.) because if Miller is that strong on someone not being questioned about a DUI and doesn’t think it’s a big deal for the current face of MotoGP to be doing that, then it raises some red flags about Jack tbh.

He also seems to have a massive agenda against Marc Marquez. As I mentioned in the stats post, he ranted about Marc (and Fabio) complaining about his bike, and called him a princess for explaining how bad the Honda was, which wasn’t an exaggeration it was (and still is) clear for everyone to see how bad that bike is. I’ve read while looking for the comments that I mentioned above that apparently he’s also spoken about the Marquez clan “running the paddock” and allegedly refused a handshake from Alex Marquez at Valencia in 2015, which I didn’t know about but it feels like one-sided unwarranted beef against an entire family.

But yeah that’s basically all. He has a very abrasive personality which I suppose you can like or dislike, but personally it’s not for me. I also just think in comparison to what others could do on that KTM, he just doesn’t deserve to be on this grid.

Sorry for the long post but there’s quite a few things that came to mind while writing so hopefully this is helpful!!