#Project Statement

[vigilskept]

this whole idea in both the fandom and the games themselves that being a people attached to their past & a lost civilization is a failing whereas a celebration of the present is something to strive for wrt elven & dwarven culture is something that reads as fundamentally western & liberal to me.

[annamationsart]

everyone loves talking about little jon in correlation to mr. spider but no one ever talks about how insufferable this kid was. i wouldn’t wish sitting next to him in class upon my worst enemy

[gootarts]

as of 8/3, the most recently updated version of this post is here (it's a reblog of this exact post with more info added)

as a lot of you know, limbus company recently fired its CG illustrator for being a feminist, at 11 pm, via phone call, after a bunch of misogynists walked into the office earlier that day and demanded she be fired. on top of this, as per korean fans, her firing went against labor laws---in korea, you must have your dismissal in writing.

the korean fandom on twitter is, understandably, going scorched earth on project moon due to this. there's a lot currently going on to protest the decision, so i'm posting a list here of what's going on for those who want to limit their time on elon musk's $44 billion midlife crisis impulse purchase website (if you are on twitter, domuk is a good person to follow, as they translate important updates to english). a lot of the links are in korean, but generally they play nicely with machine translators. this should be current as of 8/2.

Statements condemning the decision have been issued by The Gyeonggi Youth Union and IT Union.

A press conference at the Gyeonggido Assembly will occur on 8/3, with lawmakers of the Gyeonggi province (where Project Moon is based) in attendance. This appears driven by the leader of the Gyeonggi Youth Union.

The vice chairman of the IT union--who has a good amount of experience with labor negotiations like these--has expressed strong support for the artist and is working to get media coverage due to the ongoing feminist witch hunts in the gaming industry. Project Moon isn't union to my knowledge, but he's noted that he's taken on nonunion companies such as Netmarble (largest mobile game dev in South Korea) by getting the issue in front of the National Assembly (Korea's congress).

Articles on the incident published in The Daily Labor News, Korean Daily, multiple articles on Hankyoreh (one of which made it to the print edition), and other news outlets.

Segments about the termination on the MBN 7 o' clock news and MBC's morning news

Comments by Youth Union leaders about looking into a loan made to Project Moon via Devsisters Ventures, a venture capital firm. Tax money from Gyeonggi province was invested in Devsisters in 2017, and in 2021, Devsisters gave money to Project Moon. The Gyeonggi Youth Union is asking why hard-earned tax money was indirectly given to a company who violates ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles.

Almost nonstop signage truck protests outside Project Moon's physical office during business hours until 8/22 or the company makes a statement. This occurs alongside a coordinated hashtag campaign to get the issue trending on Twitter in Korea. The signage campaign was crowd-funded in about 3 hours.

A full boycott of the Limbus Company app, on both mobile and PC (steam) platforms. Overseas fans are highly encouraged to participate, regardless if whether they're F2P or not. Not opening the app at all is arguably the biggest thing any one person can do to protest the decision, as the app logs the number of accounts that log on daily. For a new gacha such as Limbus, a high number of F2P daily active users, but a small number of paying users is often preferable to having a smaller userbase but more paying users. If the company sees the number of daily users remain stable, they will likely decide to wait out any backlash rather than apologize.

Digging up verified reviews from previous employees regarding the company's poor management practices

Due to the firing, the Leviathan artist has posted about poor working conditions when making the story. As per a bilingual speaker, they were working on a storyboard revision, and thought 'if I ran into the street right now and got hit by a car and died, I wouldn't have to keep working.' They contacted Project Moon because they didn't want their work to be like that, and proposed changes to serialization/reduction in amount of work per picture/to build up a buffer of finished images (they did not have any buffer while working on Leviathan to my knowledge). They were shut out, and had to suck it up and accept the situation.

Hamhampangpang has a 'shrine' section of the restaurant for fans to leave fan-created merch and other items. They also allow the fans to take this merch back if they can prove it's theirs. Fans are now doing just that.

To boost all of the above, a large number of Korean fanartists with thousands of followers have deleted their works and/or converted their accounts from fanart accounts to accounts supporting the protests. Many of them are bilingual, and they're where I got the majority of this information.

[note 1: there's a targeted english-language disinformation campaign by the website that started the hate mob. i have read the artist's tweets with machine translation, and they're talked about in the second hankyoreh article linked above: nowhere does she express any transphobic or similarly awful beliefs. likewise, be wary of any claims that she supported anything whose description makes you raise eyebrows--those claims are likely in reference to megalia, a korean feminist movement. for information on that, i'd recommend the NPR/BBC articles below and this google drive link of english-language scholarly papers on them. for the love of god don't get your information about a feminist movement from guys going on witch hunts for feminists.]

[note 2: i've seen a couple people argue that the firing was for the physical safety of the employees, citing the kyoani incident in japan. as per this korean fan, most fans there strongly do not believe this was the case. we have english-translated transcripts of the meeting between the mob and project moon; the threats the mob was making were to......brand project moon as a feminist company online. yes, really. male korean gamers aren't normal about feminism, and there's been an ongoing witch hunt for feminists in the industry since about 2016, something you see noted in both the labor union statements. both NPR and the BBC this phenomenon to gamergate, and i'd say it's a pretty apt comparison.]

let me know if anything needs correction or if anything should be added.

[astriiformes]

Officially got the last of my grad school rejections today. That makes 10/10, which I knew was a possibility, but it's still a little demoralizing.

I'm trying to focus on the fact that I was at least on the waitlist at one school, and was told I was a really strong candidate at another, but I'm just so worried I won't be able to make my application much better by the time I try again next fall. And of course it'll be expensive to try all over again, and I have to find employment of some kind in the meantime (and higher ed is such a shambles right now that I'm a little worried my odds will only be worse this next time...)

In any case. I'm trying not to get too discouraged, but any words of advice or encouragement would be appreciated. At least I can say I tried, I suppose.

[lulublack90]

Prompt 16 - Projection

Wolfstar, January 16, word count 442

Previous part First part

“Okay, it’s ready!” James called out, and everyone began to move into the living room. Remus led Sirius into the room and got a good spot by the window. Sirius moved close to his side, and they looked over at the large blank stretch of wall.  

A wall-sized projection of Lily’s smiling face was plastered on the wall. James held up a remote, and once everyone was gathered, he pressed play. 

Images of Lily began shuffling across the wall. Lily on the beach, Lily with James at his parent's summer house, Lily being carried over James’s shoulder on a night out, Lily and Remus curled up in a loveseat sipping hot chocolate, Lily, James and Remus on the garden swing, Lily James and Remus on the ground with the broken garden swing beside them. The final one was a picture of James and Lily at New Year kissing with fireworks exploding in the background. It was Lily's favourite picture of them. 

“Lily,” James walked in front of the projected picture, his and Lily’s faces now showing on his shirt. “Lily, you are the best thing to happen to me,”

“Oi!” Marlene called out in objection. 

“Apart from Marlene,” James allowed. He and Marlene had been friends since birth, living next door to each other. She was the first person to ever make him eat mud, Lily being the second. “Lily, you’ve been there through the good times and the not-so-good times,” Remus thought back to earlier that year when both of James’s parents had died. Effie had gone first, succumbing to a bad case of pneumonia, and Monty followed just days later of a heart attack. They all believed it was really from a broken heart, as the Potters were soulmates, and one without the other wasn’t something that should ever happen. “I couldn’t have survived this last year without you, and I don’t want to continue into the future and not be at your side. Lily Jean Evans, will you marry me?” And James dropped down on one knee, producing a small velvet box from his pocket and opening it to reveal a beautiful emerald ring the same colour as Lily’s eyes. 

“Oh, James,” Lily gasped, “Yes, yes, I will marry you,” Remus had never seen the pair look happier. He watched as James slid the ring onto Lily’s left hand.

Sirius slipped his hand into Remus’s as Lily jumped into James’s arms. 

“Wanna be my date to the wedding?” Remus asked Sirius, squeezing his hand. 

“Yeah,” Sirius sighed happily as an entire room of mostly drunk people cheered as Lily and James kissed, mirroring the picture now projected on themselves. 

Next part

[immult]

i'm sorry did i just heard that Right. vespin chloras the greatest villain in history looks imogen dead in the eye and say we're more similar than you think?

vespin chloras when he dragged asmodeus into the realm with the Good Intention to replace him so that the world is less nefarious and imogen temult when she becomes predathos' vessel with the Good Intention to let the pantheon of exandria live so the people in it were no more abandoned than they already were.

sad that good intention is a telltale that a Calamity is arriving.

[chubgosty]

Touhou 20 and GenAI

Recently over on Twitter, there has been a discussion about the potential usage of AI generated images in the demo for the most recent Touhou game: Fossilized Wonders I haven't seen much coverage of it here on Tumblr, so I thought it would be worth it to summarize things

Not too long after the demo's release, Touhou artist Primary Dragon posted the following images from the game's files to Twitter, making the claim that they look to be AI generated (He also claimed that the main HUD to the right of the screen during gameplay could be as well in a later tweet)

These images in particular make up the spellcard background of new character Michigami Nareko

After this claim was made, a theory had begun to form that ZUN potentially wasn't aware of these being AI. Considering his habit of using stock image sites for backgrounds like these, as well as said sites recently being flooded with AI generated imagery, people were willing to give benefit of the doubt due to his potential lack of a trained eye for these things (Some also claim his age could have something to do with this, but even I don't think I could cleanly identify most AIGen images nowadays at the age of 20)

Most people believed this until a handful of Twitter users remembered a blog post from someone named Yamamu describing their experience of attending a radio show event in December 2024 in which ZUN mentions how he used AI for the background of a poster that was placed around the venue, along with being an avid user of ChatGPT [Link to the blog post for those curious]

The AI usage in the poster can be quite difficult to notice at first glance, but once you look closer at the flower patterning, it's quite hard to miss

Some have started to speculate whether ZUN generated the spellcard backgrounds himself due to this, along with how they cannot be found with a reverse image search, while others are still sticking to the stock image site theory until an official statement is made

Personally, I'm partially on the fence. As much as I would like to believe the stock image site claim, I can't help but be on the side of ZUN generating them due to him doing so previously Either way, I'm fairly disappointed. While I do believe some people are being a little overdramatic, disregarding the rest of the non-AI work done in the game and deeming the game garbage purely because of it, it does still greatly sadden me to see a fairly large name in the indie/doujin space using AI for a project and then selling it at a doujin convention for a profit

It also additionally sucks since TH20 is fairly fun from what I've played of the demo. The new shot type system with the stone gimmick and the incident involving a timeloop sucking power from the yokai is really fun and interesting to me and I can't wait to see how it ends But I don't think I would be able to fully enjoy it with this fact barking at me from the back of my mind unless something changes

[aaaaanndbackstabbed]

Gladstone: who else is hiding in here to eaves drop on uncle Scrooge and Goldies arguing?

Della: me, I’m in the laundry basket.

Feathery: I’m in the washing machine

Donald: I’m in the closet

Della: we accept you brother.

Donald: no I’m literally in the closet

Della: love is love.

[mothmangang]

what if Danny isn't dead and just ran away to the circus. like yeah they might kill and steal people's skin but they seem chill with him joining and taught him how to juggle so it's cool. like yeah his insides might not be made of meat right now but unless he gets stabbed he rarely ever notices. What if Danny and Nikola were also situationship exs but left off and good terms and are still best buds. like can you imagine Danny *at the bar drinking something* Nikola:*in full clown getup* "You have a really nice skull!" Danny: *so horny he might throw up cause this is the first time a stranger has hit on him* "you have uhhhhh..... really nice..ummm skin?" cut to them marrying at the alter in the circus after he joins and all that stuff Danny: "Shit! I forgot to tell my brother! He's gonna miss the wedding!"

when they meet again it's like Tim: "I thought you were dead!!!! I saw your skin filled with sawdust dancing with a clown!! Danny: “my bad dude that was our wedding and I forgot to invite you but I'm glad you made it anyway” Tim:" You're married?! Danny: "not anymore, also you were at the wedding how don't you know this?" Tim: "I was a bit too busy freaking out over that fact my brother had been skinned and was now filled with sawdust and probably dead!!!" *sounds of heavy breathing after arguing* Tim: "How did you get your skin back by the way?" Danny: "I'm still filled with sawdust" Tim: "FOR FUCKS SAKE-"

[georgeharrisonsmiling]

Why do you think George excluded John from his book?

He didn't excluded him 😭. John is mentioned more times than Paul and Ringo.

Saying that, George mentioned how Ringo contributed to one line for Badge and Paul was credited with inspiring some of his songs 😅. Other people's casual contributions are there like his mom line on Piggies, Derek's Taylor line on Savoy Truffle or Leon Russell idea for Bangladesh. George also was very open about his collaboration with Clapton and Dylan and how he looked up to Ravi.

So, why wasn't John mentioned as an inspiration for George's songwriting? Well, for starters he learned from John and Paul that throwing a line or two didn't count enough to get writing credits in the Beatles. George also didn't want to exploit the band name as much.

But more of that I think that it was due to John's putting down George's songs in public. John had said multiple times that George's music was embarrassing so George decided not to embarrass John. It was not even a passive aggressive thing, George commented more than once how he didn't want to embarrass the people working with him (like how he promised that he wouldn't release the Bangladesh concert if it didn't work, or why the video of his tour is still on the vault, or his letter to Dylan hoping that the Wilburys weren't too embarrassing for him, etc).

So that's my theory, John said that he didn't like George's music so George decided not to associate him with said music and didn't understand why John was so angry at him until after John died.

[purekittydownthere]

With no disrespect to Wild Fop, I really hope he sees it and loves it and adopts me as his new son.

[stealerofthe2ndbraincell]

I'm too busy right now to properly explain my thoughts, but I'm thinking about the statement in TMA 92: Nothing Besides Remains so much right now. Hits insanely hard.

It's a pretty neat statement on its own (although I read that apparently the letter-based statements were a bit boring to some - not to me), but it's so interesting on relisten.

Jmart and Jonah and Barnabas parallels? ✅

The Lonely (I really like the lonely, okay)? ✅

The SKULL Jonah still KEEPS IN HIS OFFICE!? ✅✅✅

[nazbruhh]

I just have to make things clear about next Mizuki5 focused event:

Personally, even if Mizuki ended up being a crossdresser ,not trans, I wouldn't find this a problem AT ALL. There, I said it.

The only thing I care about here if I really hope the writers will handle Mizuki's situation properly, this shit scares the hell out of me.

Without being said, I suggest to be FAR away from fandom cause when it'll come out, it might be a big chaos or whatever can happen in the future.

I LOVE Mizuki's charecter, they're knowing to be funny and iconic charecter despite being depressed and going through a lot. So please Sega, please do GOOD for them. :')

[maratus-v0lans]

The magnus archives, but Jon figures out that something is not right with the statements in season one because he is dyslexic and was finally able to read a piece of writing out loud without stuttering through it

[mrsmiagreer]

Omg i’m freaking out

i’m just now listening to the most recent ETS audio and…

WHAT IS HAPPENING

what do you mean we’re actually human in a basement

Okay there’s anton, marcus, james…??

the new symbols??? The voices

The creepy music, the flashbacks

How they met? Idk what’s happening

Erik you’re a genius the suspense is killing me

I can’t tell if this is real or if this is a dream that Asset is making up due to being blown away by the meridian

Or if this is the meridians doing all tg

Sister ! ????

Is this about gaining powers ??

I can’t believe what i’m trying to comprehend right now

What is going on ?!?!?!

Wish your powers manifested during puberty?? fought that vampire off ?????

Lovely 2.0?

Whose voice is this?

Cry Cry Cry

OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING

QUINN😲😲😲😲😲

ANTON TO THE RESCUE

Omg Anton is a shifter

EVERYONE IS CONNECTED OMG OMG OMG

Okay Asset and Quinn are connected

And Asset is a Latent Human Being in a basement

Okay Mark is a dreamwalker…is Mark short for Marcus or is this a completely different person?

Oh LORD ASSET IS A DREAMWALKER

how many is that now? like 3 or 4?

Wait so did Asset make up all that stuff about Marcus and them?

Wait a min……DOES THE MERIDIAN NOT REALLY NEED SAVING OR WERE THEY JUST IMAGINING THAT THEY WERE THE ONE TO SAVE IT ?!?!

Yo what is going on

Okay so marcus is still a bad guy and Asset is human but wtf is happening to the meridian???

So does James get to go back to his spouse🥹

this is the craziest way to carry out that “it was all a dream” trope I’ve ever seen… And now I don’t know what to think

and if this was all a dream… What did Avior and starlight go through? 

[cozymochi]

Cozy, plz. You are killing me here. Absolutely floored by the Nyoka voice reveal vid.

I love Tia, I love Nyoka, I love Cecil, I love Emilio. The list is gonna grow as you share more.

Big dopamine rush when I see your work on my dash. It brightens up my day. Always proud of you.

(In reference to this) 💖DsdsfGdgdh

Thanks it was the most accurate depiction of my little vision 😭😭 I’d do more like it, but it’s veering a little too niche to be enjoyed outside of myself. So any future stuff like that is probably better off staying in the drafts, so to speak.

Why do so much when it’s easier to slap a still image over un-transcribed audio and call it a day? Sure would accomplish the same thing. I should be a corporate board member with an inflated salary so I can finally eat something outside of popcorn.

AS FOR OTHER CHARACTERS, aside from the one guy that’s still being revised (despite existing before Nyoka), the list will probably remain small 😩 I only really make characters if there’s a story I really wanna see (I mean no one else except @/oddberryshortcake the lorekeeper will see them, but still.)

still thank u for being proud of me let’s hope i don’t mess it up 💃