#WHY are they changing the site aren't we GOOD enough for them >>>>:(((((

[thesixthstar]

I agree that tumblr should try to get growth from artists not just whomever wants to try the trendy things (aka users who will get an account, try for 5 mins, abandon when they realize it isn't like their preferred site) but literally. tumblr isn't looking for new users because more users is the end-goal. Tumblr. Does. Not. Make. Money. Tumblr spends a LOT of money hosting all our fuckin content, and running a website about it, and so far, thats been """subsidized""" by investors who sank money into a pit hoping that one day it would give something back to them. Tumblr TRIED monetizing the existing userbase, without being total sellouts. The reason none of your ads are relevant to you most of the time is bc they dont sell your data to advertisers for targeting. They tried blaze, and ad-free, and crabs, and a merch store, and check-marks. And those are all used by a *portion* of the userbase, but not a *large* one. So tumblr still doesn't break even. They need to find some way to make enough money that the website can keep going once the game of money-pit hot-potato comes to an end. One day, if tumblr continues to be a money pit, tumblr's current owners will have to make a choice. Sell it, or shut it down. Selling it would only be possible if someone is willing to pay for it. Someone would only pay for it if it seemed like it could make anyone any money, ever. So tumblr has to make money. Or at least convince someone that it COULD make money. And having users makes it easier to convince someone you can make money off those users.

i get the point of the polls informally showing that the vast majority of tumblr users have been here for years and barely anyone is new. the problem is that the suits don't look at that kind of data and go "ah, we understand. the majority of our users are oldheads who want things to stay the same. we misunderstood our audience." they absolutely have hard numbers on these things. they surely know most active users have been here forever. but they look at these stats and go "wow, our growth rate really IS shit. we're still relying on an ever-dwindling pool of users who have been here since they were teenagers in the early 2010s. we need to be working even harder to make this place appeal to new users"

the higher ups and investors on sites like this want infinite growth forever. this is why they keep changing the layout to make it look like other, more popular sites, even though we hate it. this is why they try out shit like tumblr live that doesn't appeal to the established core userbase in the slightest. it's not for us. it's also not for the ~5% of active users (if the poll going around is to be believed) who signed up within the last year. no, they're chasing after the hundreds of millions of people who use twitter and the BILLIONS of people who use tiktok, hoping to appeal to them and make tumblr more popular again

this is, of course, deeply stupid. nobody is leaving tiktok to hop on tumblr live. they already have tiktok. and we're on tumblr because we like tumblr, not because we want it to morph into something else. but i'm sure automattic's got venture capital investors breathing down their necks going "why isn't tumblr more like twitter or tiktok or facebook or instagram or" etc. etc., and so here we are

[santae-salt]

submission:

____

I'm so tired of feminine presenting avatars being a fucking after thought in every single aspect on this site. First when they changed the system to a singular base they gave us the stupid body "mod" section where you just collect tits. Only changed it to "contours" after backlash because calling a body type a "Mod" is weird.

But it's not just that, no I'll show you how far the rabbit hole goes. Because they aren't willing to just to toggles for the avatars like EVERY other thing on the website you have to manually put them on each and every time. But that's not even half of it. Lets say you buy CASH shop items thinking "Oh! This will be perfect"

And lo and behold

What's that? You want the tunic to have the toggle? eh fuck you.

What about the robe? Nope

I've counted at least 23 pairs of pants (Cash shop items included)

Skirts? I can NAME the them. Pixie Peasant Pants (Toggle for a skirt)

Fire Mage Skirt (It's more like a loincloth instead of a skirt tbh)

Mysticwing Bloom, Regal Fabric (toggle) Petal Skirt, Pleated Skirt (and it's recolours) Tutu (And it's recolours) That's 6, 7 if you count the underwater pants toggle. But even the majority of "Skirts" Aren't actually skirts but like loincloths or like parts of robes.

Only actually good skirt? the pleated skirt. Legitimately we have ONE good one. Do you think there's a single good skirt in any of the new cash shop items? NOPE. We haven't actually GOTTEN a skirt, the only one is in the mysticwing bloom bundle that is a cash shop item.

What about toggles on regular items?

Robe's of the fire mage? Nope

Kimonos? Nope, they actually just transform into the OLD kimono if you want to use the toggle.

Sure but you don't get the dress that the icon has.

Legitimately, it's not like skirts CAN'T be worn by everyone. But I guess it's shafted. At what point does it stop feeling like new game sloppiness and begins feeling like "Oh we don't care lol"

Suit tops? They CHANGE the top to have breast, like totally different items.

What about the new items? NOPE, new brown hoodie? It actually CHANGES THE ART TOO. like the

This is a brand new item, why doesn't the toggle have the extra shading?

The toggle isn't the only thing being shafted. Lets say you have an avatar WITHOUT prominent breast.

Fuck you too. Says the game.

Blackout Dress? (No toggle for flat chest)

Mystic wing mantle? No toggle for flat chest.

Fire mage armor? No toggle.

Imagine for a minute, if someone is trans, and deals with dysphoria about the idea of having prominent breasts.

They click the fire mage armor thinking oh this will be neat! And are greeted with an item that changes THEIR character, sometimes a character that represents themselves a chest.

This is why you don't get sloppy with stuff like this. It's all well and good to say they're accepting with their tiny pins and t-shirts but when push comes to shove in the areas that matter there just isn't enough care give.

I finally got this rant off my chest, it's not like I could say it on the website itself. Hope someone finds it cardiac. Because YEAH if you CHOOSE a body type that you are comfy with you shouldn't then have to keep changing every item to suit yours or sometime getting shock, surprised when an item looked safe.

[identityarchitect]

adamantines guide to commission pricing: stop paying yourself under 5 bucks an hour edition

im not an artist but i did do a personal finance course in high school where we learned about the living wage. here are some rules:

PLEASE DO NOT GO ONTO LIKE, R/FURRYCATWALK OR SOMETHING AND ASK HOW MUCH PEOPLE WOULD PAY. the amount that people would pay is highly dependent on their personal financial situation. also many people just truly do not understand what an actual fair price looks like because we are all underpaid and money is kind of hard to work with.

search "[country] living wage". if youre in the states you can use this calculator by the massachussets institute of technology. it's current as of feb 2024 (which is very recent, financially speaking) and it goes into SIGNIFICANT detail.

(sidenote: if youre in the uk, make sure youre looking at the living wage foundation. the government changed the official name of the minimum wage to "national living wage" to throw people off, but it's not the real living wage.)

time yourself making your artwork. let's say it takes you 5 hours. let's also say youre a single adult with no dependents living in bradley county of arkansas, for a random example.

THE CALCULATION: [living wage per hour] * [hours worked]

this calculation is the ONLY way to guarantee that youre actually getting paid a living wage. in our example it comes out to $92.70

you are probably thinking "woah that's way too high!" and i really want to get it into your head that if you get paid even a cent less than that you are not making enough money to live. and that's the wage for someone working 40 hours a week, living in bradley county of arkansas, which is probably not how much you will spend on commissions per week and also probably not where you live. it may be higher (or lower) depending on your location.

more stuff under the cut about stuff like backgrounds and material costs and stuff, but that calculation up there is the absolute minimum you should be getting paid.

THE RULE OF FIVES

decimals, and non-round numbers, are a kind of ugly thing to put on a commission sheet, so we want to decimate the decimals. there are two rules:

always round up

rounding to multiples of five makes your numbers look good

in our example case, the nearest multiple of five that we can round up to is $95. so this is how we will price it.

PERCENTAGES ARE REALLY COOL

generally when we talk about commissions on this site, we mean specifically digital art commissions. in that case, theres a lot to consider: extra characters, very detailed designs, backgrounds, extra features like .. idfk glowy anime effects or a semi-detailed border around the image with like vines and deer and skulls and shit. cool as hell.

it's kind of hard to put a flat rate on these things! flat rates are nice because they let us work out how many hours we worked, and how much we should get paid in proportion. but maybe an extra character doesn't actually add that much to the amount of work you do, or some borders are very complex but some aren't, so you can't really put a single round price on it.

that's why we love percentages! percentages increase the price in proportion to the cost of the original commission. let's say our $95 commission is a piece of fully rendered digital artwork, and that we also offer lineart. the lineart takes us, say, 2 hours, so 18.54 * 2 = 37.08, rounded to the nearest multiple of 5 is $40.

if we were to make the complex background price $30, that's only about 1/3 increase on the full render. but it's almost 1/2 on the lineart. this is another good rule: most people find it easy to figure out halves, so you don't want to work with them. (this is because you'll have people be like "the complex background is like 1/2 the commission price?!")

instead, we'll use a percentage of 20%. to calculate a percentage, divide the percentage by 100 (so in our case, 20% becomes 0.20), add 1 (so we have 1.20), and then multiply by the original commission price. we use 1.20 because multiplying by 0.20 would give us only 20%, whereas 1.20 gives us 20% added to the original price.

40 * 1.20 = 48. very nice, only $8. (you could increase that, tbh.)

95 * 1.20 = 114, which we'll round up to 115, making the background cost $20. which is completely fair!

MATERIALS COST MONEY TOO

in terms of digital artwork there's not really many materials to get money back on. but if you're making something physical - a painting, or you're knitting, or making music - you'll need to purchase materials.

the material cost is: (how much you paid for the materials) + (how much you paid to get them to you - this would include things like shipping if you bought them online, or perhaps just a flat amount in terms of gas or public transport costs) * 1.25 or 1.5.

so, if our commissions were physical painting, let's say we needed to stock up on 3 paints, costing us $100. one of those paints was purchased online and the shipping cost $11, and two of those paints were purchased in person. you should price gas costs based on your local gas prices, but let's just say that $5 is reasonable. so, the material cost is $116 * 1.25, bringing us up to $145 for materials.

"wait, but that means a fully rendered, complex background, plus materials, would cost $260!"

well yeah. art is severely undervalued and materials can cost a lot. i'm probably lowballing material costs for things like knitted or crocheted works. if you don't multiply the material cost by something (in the example used its 25%) you're going to be potentially losing money on materials.

GET PAID UPFRONT

i don't have more to say on this. for larger commissions, or for things that naturally take a while like knitting or crochet, you definitely want to get paid upfront. if you have a material cost you should use that as your upfront cost because once the materials are purchased it can be very hard to get refunds, so even if your person needs to back out for completely legit reasons, you're not losing money on a lost commission and potentially buying material you would never use for a personal project.

in terms of art without material costs (especially digital art) you should use an upfront cost because there are a significant amount of scammers. don't move forward with the commission until you have the upfront cost. hound them for it. make it clear that without the upfront cost they would be effectively stealing from you.

MISC

let's go back to our figure from earlier, $92.70. i said that that was the lowest our example person could price their commissions in order to get paid a living wage. you should also include material prices in that figure. but what that means is that, theoretically, you can cut off any of these prices. you can choose not to multiply the material cost, you can lower the percentage values on additional features. if you get faster at your work you might be able to lower your commission prices. as long as it doesn't go below that figure that we calculated at the start, you're still getting paid a living wage.

a lot of pricing is based on vibes. these rules are what i consider to be a fair way to price your work. it prices it in a way that takes into account the money you lose, and also gives you a little extra money because we live in a capitalist hellscape where more money means more living. you can choose not to price your stuff this way. i just really, really don't want to see more of my mutuals-in-law on my dash asking if their $14 full render complex background commissions are too cheap.

[alexanderwales]

Movie Review: Subservience

I did actually end up watching Subservience. I had absolutely no preconceptions going into it, but ... man, bad movie. I will admit to having watched this one on a second monitor while playing a video game, but I don't think that really impacts my reading of it.

It turns out that it's an erotic thriller, and specifically, a type of erotic thriller that I'm not sure has a name, but which I'll call "man ruiner". These were all the rage in the early 90s before petering out, and I've seen it called the "woman from hell" genre, though this is a somewhat more specific subset that would exclude movies like Single White Female.

Basically, there's a hard-working but horny family man, a woman comes into his life and seduces him, he either cheats on his wife or resists temptation, then the woman goes psycho and attacks his family, his wife, and him, before dying, with the man having learned a valuable lesson and reconciled with his wife.

Fatal Attraction is the ur-example, and there aren't that many of them, even if there were enough that people got sick of them. Swimfan is a bad movie, but I have the impression that it's the most recent one people really remember.

Often the woman in question is a subordinate of some kind: a nanny, temp worker, an assistant, someone who is, in theory, in a position of much less power than our male lead. Sometimes, she's young. Sometimes real young, like creepily young (The Crush).

The psychological impetus for this kind of movie is male desire. It's playing on a male fear of a "moment of weakness". One of the key features is this inverted power dynamic. The woman is the aggressor, not just when we get to the thriller part, but as we're ramping up. The woman might be a maid or teacher or employee, but she's on the pursuit almost from the get-go, and her obsession is what drives the plot.

So this movie is just like all of those. Our protagonist is a construction foreman whose wife is in the hospital with a weak heart, and he's taking care of two little kids on his own. He hires a hot robot maid/nanny, played by Megan Fox, who basically immediately begins acting inappropriately. She eventually sleeps with the main character, but when she does, he has basically as much deniability as he possibly can while she pushes through his weak resistance. I'm pretty sure a movie like this will always have that structure, attempting to preserve the man's "virtue" and make him into a victim of the woman and her wiles. These movies are always sympathetic to the man even as he makes his "mistake".

The fact that she's a robot woman is immaterial until like ... act three. She could have just been a maid he hired until then, and virtually nothing about the plot would need to change. There's a half-assed B-plot about robots taking over a construction site and automation taking jobs, but I never felt like they were taking that seriously, and I doubt anyone in the audience was thinking that either. It didn't tie in well with the main plot.

There's fuck-all explanation for why the robot maid goes psycho, except maybe that it's part of a bad batch and our hero had her do a minor memory wipe so she could experience Casablanca fresh without her pre-programmed spoilers. This somehow gave her root access. I know that sounds stupid, but I swear that's like half the explanation they give.

This movie, and others that are in the same subgenre, come from this sort of anxiety about having power over other people, and especially being attracted to people we have power over. It's a horror story whose moral is "don't fuck the nanny" or "keep it professional with the secretary" or "absolutely do not chat up that sixteen-year-old" or just "don't shit where you eat". I think that these are good morals, but I feel vaguely gross about wrapping them in eroticism and presenting the people these horror stories happen to as the victim. The roles are almost always reversed in real life: the protagonist of this sort of movie is in a position where he's far more likely to be a perpetrator abusing a position of power. It's still a plot I can get behind, if they execute well (by this I mean, sell me on the mistake, sell me on the allure), but this one didn't.

(There is at least one example of an opposite-gender version of this basic plot, 2015's The Boy Next Door, which features Jennifer Lopez as a teacher who sleeps with a teenage student in a "moment of weakness" and gets her life wrecked when he goes obsessive stalker on her. 12% on Rotten Tomatoes. I haven't seen it but the trailer is the whole movie.)

So a bad movie, overall. It sadly had nothing to say about artificial intelligence or our relationship to it. It doesn't even really have much to say about these characters, and their relationship to each other, and the ethics of fucking a robot maid. There is a genuine lack of subservience. It's the kind of movie that makes me want to write a better version of it, something that gets at its actual themes more than it did, making better use of the conceit. But I felt no desire to absolve this man of his sins, and I think that's also one of the central fantasies the film offers, so maybe if I ever attempted to write a "man ruiner" film I would end up getting it wrong.

[birdiesaves]

THE MARTIAN ( novel by andy weir ) change as necessary !

mankind reaching out to send people to another planet for the very first time and expand the horizons of humanity blah, blah, blah. 

i’m pretty much fucked. 

they got the parades and fame and love of the world, i got a firm handshake and a hot cup of coffee when i got home.

i would only be “in command” of the mission if i were the only remaining person.

what do you know? i’m in command.

it wasn’t your fault. you did what you had to do. 

in your position i would have done the same thing. 

it was a ridiculous sequence of events that led to me almost dying.

everyone thinks i’m dead. 

ok, i’ve had a good night’s sleep, and things don’t seem as hopeless as they did yesterday.

i won’t be able to whip something up with tinfoil and gum.

fear my botany powers!

but hey, time is the one thing i’ve got.

i wonder if they'll ever find out what really happened.

i’ll spare you the math. the answer is _________

bleh. i’m going to bed

my life depends on you

i played a lot of dungeons and dragons.

i have an idiotically dangerous plan 

i suppose i’ll think of something. or die.

the answer is: i don’t know.

all i accomplished today was thinking up a plan that’ll kill me

also, i have duct tape. 

after a search of everyone’s personal items i found my answer.

that was sarcasm, by the way.

this all sounds like a great idea with no chance of catastrophic failure.

do you have any idea the magnitude of shitstorm this is gonna be?

how come aquaman can control whales? they’re mammals! 

i expected it to be cold, but jesus christ!

now, on to my next task: sitting around with nothing to do for 12 hours.

i ask for a picture and i get the fonz?

the whole world’s been rooting for you. 

really looking forward to not dying. 

please watch your language.

sorry we left you behind, but we don't like you.

you're sort of a smart-ass.

your request for “anything, oh god anything but disco” is denied.

no. you’ll fuck it up and die.

i took it apart, found the problem, and fixed it.

i don’t see anything... i can hear it, but... it’s down here somewhere, but i don’t know where.

the subtle and refined “hurl my body at the wall” technique had some flaws. 

named after the greek goddess who traveled the heavens with the speed of wind. she's also the goddess of rainbows.

i'm not giving up. just planning for every outcome. it's what i do.

your poster outsold the rest of ours combined.

why are you such a nerd?

you should try to be more cool. wear dark glasses and a leather jacket. carry a switchblade.

you started my training by buying me a beer.

so now i have to do boring-ass experiments with test tubes and zzzzzzzzzz....

frankly, i suspect you're a super villain.

just once i'd like something to go to plan, ya know?

no? ok... what was that!? oh, nothing? ok...

for now i just want to go home.

there's always hope

are we just watching a tragedy play out?

you’ll survive this. i don't know how, but you will. 

i've defiled enough historical sites for now.

tomorrow night, i'll sink to an all new low!

tomorrow night, i'll be at rock bottom!

be a smart-ass to a guy seven levels above you. see how that works out.

i remember when you were shy

the attitude comes with the job

and by “enjoying” i mean “hating so much i want to kill people.”

there aren't many people who can say they've vandalized a three billion dollar spacecraft. but i'm one of them.

what's our role in all this? if something goes wrong, what can we do?

how do you come up with this shit?

i admit it's fatally dangerous, but consider this: i'd get to fly around like iron man.

i need you to come back in and make a bomb.

i knew that guy was a mad scientist!

i think we should just go with my iron man idea.

well if you won't let us then- wait... wait a minute... i'm looking at my shoulder patch and it turns out i'm the commander. 

give me a minute. you're the first person i've seen in ______.

i think about the sheer number of people who pulled together just to save my sorry ass, and i can barely comprehend it.

i represent progress, science, and the interplanetary future we’ve dreamed of for centuries. 

they did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. it might not seem that way sometimes, but it’s true.

yes, there are assholes who just don’t care, but they’re massively outnumbered by the people who do. 

[invidioso-dogma]

👏🏻 Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.👏🏻

Those 4 Liber books. Which ones you may ask.

These ones.

Now that we are all in the same page.

✨️Let's talk about them.✨️

Not good enough to be collected.

Not bad enough to be forgotten.

And not forget them we shall.

The tall and short of the story:

They are expansion packs to the main tabletop rpg game. And you guessed correctly it add daemons etc etc.

That etc etc is.

Liber Ecstatica : Slaanesh and horny on main cults.

Liber Infectus : Nurgle and dirty plagues.

Liber Mutatis : Tzeentch and birdy mutations.

Liber Carnagia : Khorne and angy serial killers. (No the spelling error was on purpose. Cause our boy real angy)

+ an adventure on theme with the above.

A solid 3/ 10.

Unless you are a writer and need basic descriptions of daemons and fluff then its a decent 3.5/ 10.

Now.

Now that we dealt with that.

Its time.

For the tall and longer.

And in depth analysis and my personal ice cold takes and my thesis of - this would have been lit if we played the villains pov.

I could be talking about the latest books, hell I could be talking about dnd. But no me and you we are here and we are stuck and for the next 5 minutes I am the captain and I will take you on an adventure.

🐙Liber Mutatis - feat Dj BoBo and the Mutants are Alive🐙

Nothing gets me more going than referances that weren't funny even in 2007.

What the book adds to gameplay?

Mutations. From bird beaks to tentacle limbs in case you decide to multipraise Slaanesh on the side.

Because you aren't just a chicken worshipper, you are a wizard and what best way to show it that gaining an additional 30 eyeballs for all those books you want to read.

This book is your one stop to fond some very basic mutations to add to a game.

And when I say basic. I mean basic, don't expect great stuff. But I guess this might have been part of the plan...

What's the included adventure like?

You team goes in a town to find why all those apprentices have been taking such a long unauthorized day off.

Well they were kidnapped by a cult with a ringleader being a shop keeper with a Lord of Change tranformed as a parrot named Bobo that births pink eggs.

Then they feed those pink eggs to create mutant bird people.

Your job is to stop it. Not the most original ideal... but what would it be if you played the adventure from the cultists pov?

Dj Bobo and his gang of squidmen

You heard the adventure of the heroes. But how would it be if you were the bad guy?

🐙 One player would pretend to be the shopkeeper with his pet parrot that births oversized pink eggs and you have to smuggle them and hide the fact from the people who came to stop you in the city.

🐙 The second will be the immortal nun with only her face intact in the soup house cooking for the poor and using the eggs to create mutant by trying to convince the people that those pink eggs are totally edible what do you mean eggs are not pink. Maybe you are seeing things...

🐙 The third one is squidward at the gates. Basically a war veteran that lost his legs. But jokes on them. The big bird man gave you tentacles and you will be wizzing throught the sewers like a getski.

🐙 The fourth will be the person kidnapping those student wizard kids, bagging them up and send them to the ritual site alongside your grizzled unshaven gang of pain assistants.

🐙 Finally someone can even take the role of the bird. Blasting eggs before the time of the summoning happens when they will be blasting magic and turning the whole city into a lethal rave.

🪲Liber Infectus- Grandaddy Nurgle's Black Death Clown Parade🪲

If only I was joking... stick around and find out more...

What the book adds to gameplay?

A wide selection of how you and your players can seriously get down with the sickness.

Besides that all the basic nasty descriptions about the warps most unwashed denizens. Basic. But we all start from somewhere, like how a rash develops into a mouth and eats the person living next door.

What's the included adventure like?

Evil doctor spreads a plague you are there to stop it etc etc. You can see where this goes from the words "initial symptom development".

Those sick clowns I mentioned

On the final part of the adventure a clown parade, with music and performers and everything. Pops in town and is ready to kick pc ass.

And the only thing I got to say is.

Why can't I play their pov.

The idea of five sick honk honk clowns in a cart playing music and spreading the literal word on nurgle with a mutant strapped on the back. Sounds like a wild adventure.

It sounds a lot more enjoyable than sitting around asking people "so when did the first symptom begin and how are you feeling?"

Give me the clowns. With their dancing plague and their bouncing nurglings on a wacky adventure to evade the law.

Fast and furiously popping knees and bursting shins.

⚘️Liber Carnagia- Renaming Khorne into Gandhi ⚘️

Again. Wait and I will explain this as well.

What the book adds to gameplay?

Nothing. Of value. Is it obvious that this one was my least favorite?

Whats the included adventure like?

Theres a magical angy spear and your job is to be beaten down and not kill anyone. Just sit with your thumb-tacks up your ass and do nothing.

That's what the adventure is.

In the book of Khorne what you are asked to do is not fight anyone.

The irony is so deep, I screamed that's deep bro and a lovecraftian horror responded from the chasm "I know".

Putting the K of Killer back into Khorne

A murder hobo adventure. That's it. It's a lot better than going to a besieged nun house and sitting on the grass asking those raiders to pretty please let go of the hostages.

Chaos, mayhem. If I was the dm I'd put everyone in a nonr stop 4 hour rollercoaster of blood, guts, bullets and norwegian death metal music playing in the background before they all die gloriously into a massive raid burning imperial churches.

Then go to hell, become daemons and be yeeted back into the mortal world to kick even more ass.

🪷Liber Ecstatica- And the Dick Measuring Olympics 🪷

The title will again make sense soon I swear.

What the book adds to gameplay?

Cults, anything you need to know about a basic degenerate cult. From poison chuggers to vape huffers and even vegetable shovers.

This is your one stop to make a bare bones cult for your games.

What's the included adventure like?

A girl is being chased after many eligible bachelors of the city.

And your job is to stop them from doing so.

How did this adventure start?

A rich old dude didn't like that an "average" in his eyes poor, low noble had admirers. So obviously its witchcraft.

The reason is as sound as an airplane made of shredded cheese. And the book is weidly mean about it.

Like the girl is fine. But everyone is like "she is not a busty noble that cries gold so obviously theres foul play, also have I told you that she is average".

Oh the crimes against humanity. If the adventure began and the noble was like "yeah my son flayed himself while screaming her name" then sure. I'd be calling foul play.

Busting a Nut not Busting a Move

The same but instead of having 10 men fighting over a decent, everyday girl its Danny Devito art critic and the whole team tries to complete the ritual and avoiding the witch hunters from burning their "beauty".

We are already dealing with a daemon that has magically roofied the local men in order to be freed from a magical mirror. We might as well make it into a comedy skit.

This is a game about the ultimate degenerates, extreme is the only word we must know. And you know what would be even better.

All of the players are grade A spandex bdsm supermodels and have to promote gollum as a drop dead nuke level bombshell.

[toujokaname]

Ephemeral Festival / Epilogue

Characters: Rinne, Kohaku, HiMERU, Niki

"Basically, what it comes down to is that HiMERU-han just wanted to 'play house' with me ♪"

← Previous ✧ Directory

[ Read on my site for a better viewing experience using Ois~su ♪ ]

Season: Spring

Location: Abandoned Mine

Days after the "Ephemeral Festival." In an abandoned mine, deep in the mountains.

Rinne: "Emergency project! Chase Nagigon, the mythical giant creature!"

"So, here we are at the abandoned mine! Today, us Crazy:B are off in search of the legendary creature, Nagigon!"

Kohaku: Well now, that's an awfully familiar intro...

HiMERU: —It was so perfectly identical that HiMERU wondered if it was a rebroadcast. Every word was exactly the same.

Niki: Nahaha! Who'd have thought we'd be heading back up this mountain again~

If it's the same as last time, does that mean Ran-kun's already here, playing Nagigon?

HiMERU: Surely, the casting has changed from Ran-san. Last time, the reason was some half-hearted thing like the deputy director venting his frustrations...

Eden is hardly a unit meant for these kinds of low-quality productions.

Rinne: Well, surprise, surprise, Nagi's continuing in the role of Nagigon this time too.

Just like Merumeru said, it seems the deputy director was planning to switch actors, but Nagi refused to step down, insisting on doing it.

Apparently, he's been here way before us, already in place, ready to go for today's shoot.

Kohaku: Nagisa-han sure is fired up...

HiMERU: Just what exactly about Nagigon has stoked his enthusiasm to this extent...?

Rinne: From the moment the last one got axed, up until now, he's been thinking 'bout how to play Nagigon.

So Nagi strongly argued against it when the question of recasting came up.

Kohaku: Ah~ When ya put it like that, I kinda get it. It's like bein' suddenly kicked off a role in a drama you were already cast in, right?

Though I still don't get why we're even reshootin' this dumb show to begin with.

Rinne: Aren't you happy that we're back to doing jobs that feel like Crazy:B?

You said you love doing these ridiculous jobs and having fun with us, didn'tcha? ♪

Kohaku: ...Still, of all the jobs to accept after a long break as Crazy:B, this is it?

Niki: Well, hey. Isn't this just our style?

At least it's better than them throwing us off a cliff for bungee jumping or skydiving right off the bat.

Kohaku: Fair enough, I guess it's a good warm-up.

Alright, shall we begin the search for Nagigon—the artist formerly known as Nagisa-han? ♪

Niki: Nahaha ♪ Kohaku-chan, for all your grumbling, you seem pretty fired up!

Kohaku: Yeah. Like Rinne-han said earlier, doin' silly jobs like this is actually a nice change of pace.

When PBB was at its peak, I was buried in nonstop work for it.

And the usual Crazy:B gigs got shot down 'cause of complaints and whatnot.

The fact we're gettin' more jobs like this now means the Ephemeral Festival announcement must've gone over well.

HiMERU: Indeed. With the official announcement you and HiMERU made, the PBB craze is gradually winding down.

At the very least, one might say that the unusual fervor which was limiting Crazy:B's activities has now subsided.

Although, there are still some who refuse to accept the announcement as it is...

Rinne: Well, that's just the way it goes. Honestly, it's quieter than I expected, considering.

People are selfish creatures who only believe what suits 'em, anyway.

It's normal for trash rumors to fly around, like that the agency forced you two to stop, or that I threatened Merumeru and Kohaku-chan into saying what they did.

Niki: Saying you threatened them isn't exactly off the mark, though, is it? You kept messing with HiMERU-kun and Kohaku-chan to sabotage them.

Seriously, Rinne-kun, for being the oldest, you're the most childish!

Rinne: Maybe you're running your mouth 'cause it's been a while since you've had anything to eat, Niki? You sure you're not hungry?

Lucky for you, I brought somethin' special—a handful of wild mushrooms I found growing around here ♪ C'mon, open wide.

Niki: Uwaah, yaaay! Thankies~♪

Niki: ...Wait, no way! Keep 'em!

Don't just shove random wild mushrooms into my mouth! Get away from me~!

Kohaku: Look at 'em—runnin' around like a couple of kids. Just how old are they supposed to be again...?

HiMERU: In the first place, searching for Nagigon itself feels like something one might expect of bored elementary school children.

Kohaku: You ain't wrong. But y'know, I've learned somethin' important from all this. Bein' too popular ain't all it's cracked up to be.

When you first told me 'bout PBB, I didn't think it'd turn into such a huge deal.

HiMERU: —That said, Crazy:B has never before received such positive popularity.

Thanks to PBB, HiMERU and Oukawa's name recognition has increased significantly.

Since PBB is on indefinite hiatus, that boost won't last forever.

Therefore, while this recognition remains, HiMERU plans to make the most of it to expand his presence as an idol.

And eventually, he wants to broaden the scope of his activities to a global scale. And he plans to use Crazy:B to achieve that.

Kohaku: Koh koh koh, so that's HiMERU-han's big ambition ♪

—And it's for your little brother's sake too, ain't it?

HiMERU: ...So Oukawa and Shiina did overhear that much.

Kohaku: Sorry 'bout that. I get it ain't somethin' you want folks pokin' into too much.

But when I heard you were seein' me as a stand-in for your little brother, I couldn't just let it slide.

HiMERU: —No. Quite the opposite, Oukawa is completely without fault in that regard.

It's just that HiMERU was selfishly projecting him onto you...

Onto that adorable figure, innocently dreaming of being an idol, like a child trying so hard to be loved.

HiMERU: That might be why "I" sought out that pseudo-family life with you, Oukawa.

To happily work as an idol alongside my beloved little brother... Such a ridiculous fantasy.

Kohaku: ...I get it now. I finally understand why you specifically chose JoyLife outta all the jobs.

Basically, what it comes down to is that HiMERU-han just wanted to "play house" with me ♪

HiMERU: —That's technically correct, but being teased about it like that is extremely unpleasant.

Kohaku: Koh koh koh. Just consider it payback for draggin' me into this little family roleplay of yours.

But honestly, I'm glad. I feel like through this, I got to touch a bit of the true feelings you always keep hidden away ♪

HiMERU: —Oh? And what exactly do you suppose those true feelings are?

Apologizing to Oukawa aside, HiMERU hasn't necessarily been telling the truth about everything else?

Kohaku: There ain't no reason for you to deceive me at this point. Well, even then, it's up to me to decide what the truth is.

Like, what kinda feelings you got, bein' here with us right now...

Or why you look like you're havin' fun stickin' around, even for a dumb job like this...

I reckon it's 'cause you love our everyday lives together as Crazy:B, too.

At least, I'll take it upon myself to think of it that way ♪

HiMERU: —Fufu. For the time being, let's leave it at that...♪

[ ☆ ]

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[olderthannetfic]

I always get ticked off from people who keep trying to push for the monetization of AO3 because that's my favorite thing about the site, honestly. 1) No one here, i don't believe, said fanfic/fanart isn't real art. 2) Fan-made products are taken off of etsy all the time. Every single day this exact thing happens. Etsy shop owners get their shops taken off the site for this! exact! thing! 3) Japan has different copyright laws than in the USA, where AO3 is based. Doujinshi does get some creators in copyright trouble in Japan if they try to create new characters based on the pre-existing work. It happens fairly often. 4) Writers always improve the same way: they write often, read often, edit, repeat, over and over again. We expect writers to break into commercialization the same way the people before them have: you write a novel or a short story anthology, edit, rewrite (rinse repeat), send queries to agents, wait for agents to come back with good news from publishers, then market the hell out of your book along with the publisher (if the publisher has the money to do it). And if none of that is your thing, self-publish. You don't get to monetize your fellow fans' labor just because you're too lazy to figure out how to market your work to let people know it exists. It's easier than ever with the internet. And I wish entitled crybaby fans would get this through their heads: no👏🏽one👏🏽 has the right, or should have the right, to make money off of someone else's story, hard work, or imaginative work. If you're a writer, create something new and do the market research to figure out how to best market it. No one has the responsibility to fund your creative dreams but yourself. Why should anyone care to follow a writer of original works who's most known for writing derivatives of others' IP? Now that we're in the age of IP and copyright ownership of art, why does this need to constantly be repeated? AO3 is free and open for everyone to use. If you want to market yourself and your work, you'll have to do it somewhere else. The internet is vast. Stop being lazy and put in the work like other writers do. 🤷🏽‍♀️

--

Yeah. Fandom is where I honed my craft.

That's the great thing about fandom! People read so much kind of half-baked stuff and genuinely enjoy it. They wouldn't give that same leeway to commercial products. There's also more space for niche interests. That allows a writer to figure out what they actually like instead of just chasing the thing that someone else says sells best.

Lots of people who go pro, including me, write very fandomy stuff. You pick up almost any m/m self- or indie-pub book, and you know in five minutes this is a fic writer. But if we're any good, we can build enough scaffolding for our own worlds and characters. Change the names. Beef up your own setting. Write a complete plot that doesn't rely on being a missing scene from something else. It's not that complicated.

Frankly, if someone "needs" to sell fic, that makes me think they aren't confident in their writing being attractive to others without a major crutch.

[theniftycat]

I just finished rereading Good Omens and now, after 2 seasons of the show, I understand season 1 a lot better.

The book is at its core about the Antichrist who grew up without hellish influence and due to being half-angel, half demon and fully human, couldn't let the world end. He's the center of the narrative, a character who grows more than anybody else, and he makes all the most important decisions on his own.

Crowley and Aziraphale are just there to be incompetent and a bit bumbling. They put the plot into motion and give us the celestial perspective on what's going on.

But the thing is that Adam is only eleven and it's not a children's book, so not every reader connects to Adam (I did) and the demon and the angel are so charismatic and fun that they became iconic and they're many people's favourite characters in the book. I could compare it to Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli being more iconic than Frodo because Frodo is just a normal hobbit who became a hero due to being a decent person, while the aforementioned four are noble, powerful, and highly unusual. Or the way a certain boy wizard was rarely somebody's favourite character (he was mine).

To me, someone who likes the journey more than the sites, the main characters are usually the most interesting ones, they change a lot, they learn, they make decisions. But aesthetically and due to their uniqueness, side characters can be more compelling. They also invite imagining their own journeys because they're usually unseen to us.

So, Crowley and Aziraphale ignite imagination and look very compelling. That's why it's sort of accepted that the book is about them. It's also easy to see them having further adventures because Adam's arc is complete.

When season 1 came out, I enjoyed it, but the added conflict between Aziraphale and Crowley irked me and I thought there wasn't enough focus on Adam.

What I understand now is that there was no journey for Aziraphale and Crowley in the book. They were an angel and a demon and it was implied that they were quite ordinary. Were another demon stationed on Earth given the Antichrist, they'd probably also not be very thrilled.

Aziraphale and Crowley start trusting each other more as the book goes on, but not by miles, and they essentially stay the same throughout the story. And that's great, they're comforting and reassuring.

They also depend on each other less. When Crowley thinks that Aziraphale is dead, he's sad, but he just moves on. They constantly ask each other to do things and they oblige each other without much deliberation. They are good friends. There is subtext that they look like a couple and they behave like one, but they can live without one another, they're just enjoying each other's company.

In the show, on the other hand, they are the main characters, it's not a kids show or an 80s American small town horror, after all. They should appear in each episode, not only in the first two and the last two. They need to grow and change and learn and make decisions.

They also must convey to an unprepared viewer in a limited amount of time that they aren't as evil or good as they are supposed to be and that despite everything, they care about each other. And such relationships should get tested.

They are also made distinct from all the other demons and angels, so that we know why it's only them trying to stop the Apocalypse.

In season 2 they are developed even further and now season 1 doesn't look like it got its protagonists confused, it looks deliberate and a great start to a love story of a couple of very unusual occult entities who exist not just to enjoy themselves, but to love each other and keep the world safe.

And that's beautiful.

[cyle]

Speaking of toggles, are you planning to undo existing toggles such as the ability to turn off best stuff first, snooze tumblr live, don't allow tumblr to put posts you liked on others' dashes?

i get why toggles aren't sustainable for major, site-wide UI changes, but undoing these specific toggles would make the site just like any other social media platform (all of which are better funded and better run btw) removing any incentive i have to stay here, even though it has been my online home for so long and i'd so prefer it to stay that way.

i just hope you don't destroy the site completely while trying to make it profitable and let at least some toggles stay.

funny enough, i was talking about this already a bit today, and i've written a couple of proposals about it. basically: none of the dashboard preference toggles' functionality and effects would go away, we'd just consolidate them into fewer, more clear options.

for example, instead of having three separate toggles for different dashboard recommendation injections, we'd have just one. and it'd be named better. similarly, i'd want to rename "Best stuff first" to something clearer, because i don't think it's adequately communicating what it does. there's a lot of work we can do to just make the confusing mass of settings easier to navigate and understand, and move them to places closer to what they control. we have a dashboard tab configuration experiment going on right now that moves that stuff to the actual dashboard tab bar, instead of being buried somewhere else.

an important distinction, when thinking about this stuff, is separating "toggles and settings" from "configuration and affordance" in an interface. a core part of tumblr is being able to customize and curate your experience, and that's not going to change as long as i can help keep us staying true to that guiding principle. nobody at tumblr wants to change that. however, the actual functionality of how that manifests can come in many forms.

for example, we're working on ways to build communities and custom feeds on tumblr, and the very simple straightforward way to do that is to make a big form that you can fill out. but that's intimidating, almost nobody wants to put forth that much effort anymore, for good reason. instead, we could make the initial creation process one-step and simple, and move the configuration and customization later as an evolving flow, making it feel more like a game or a sorting/organizing exercise, which is something people on tumblr love.

but a lot of these kinds of changes are radical for those of us who've been on tumblr for years, and have learned how to do things "the hard way" (as i call it). that's the difficult thing to overcome: how to make this stuff easier and more friendly for more people, without breaking too much of the work that people have already put into the platform.

[whorrorbvby]

We have. They apologize and make sure to tell me that I mean something to them but they run away. I feel like I'm being pulled and pushed at a whim. I do my best to understand and I believe they aren't doing things with ill intent but it hurts all the same. Feeling like I'm not fully good enough to keep close consistently. I'm good for a couple of days and nights but to never expect them to stay longer than that. I know people that are married that met through this site. Best friends, no, family made here. Some people suck and put on a mask on here but there are also real people on here, and because of that, is why I'll always be real. but it does feel like a curse at times.

i totally get that. honestly it’s kind of why i keep to myself as much as possible. i’ve come to realise the people who are always going on about how ‘real’ they are tend to be the most dishonest and the persona they are projecting is complete bullshit. it’s wild and honestly kind of sad what people will do for attention on the internet but hey to each their own i guess 🤷🏻‍♀️

in the case of your situation though they seem like an avoidant and as much as it sucks there’s really not much you can do to change the situation. you kind of have to either accept that this is how it’s going to be with them coming and going or remove yourself from the situation. it doesn’t have anything to do with you, believe me. avoidants go and stick around where it’s easy if that makes sense? i’m 10000% guilty of doing this as well. if im overwhelmed i just peace out and you won’t hear from me for days, weeks, months, sometimes never again if enough time passes. it has nothing to do with the other person and everything to do with me no matter how much i care about someone. i don’t trust people so if im given positive reinforcement my brain calls bullshit and the more security i’m given the more i push it away. it makes me physically uncomfortable and sometimes even angry but i can’t help it. like i haven’t spooeb to anyone in my family in like 2mo and every time they reach out a rage builds inside of me because i just don’t want to deal with it and then on a random tuesday i could be in a great mood and want to talk to them again and then the next day it will be back to silence.

i’ve also been on the receiving end of avoidance but because i’m just like them i do understand and while it’s beyond frustrating i really can’t hold it against them and im sure you can’t do that to your person either yea? they will continue to do this push and pull until they decide to do the inner work. they have to want to change and be better but change is also really fucking hard and scary. i’m not sure how close you are with this person but you could try and have a conversation about their avoidance and offer a supportive hand if they want to fix your relationship but you have to give them the choice. say, if you want this you have to come to me’ because avoidants want you to chase them so they know you care but by you chasing you’re only reinforcing that their behaviour is okay. don’t completely cut them off, still show you care and support them small ways like 🤍 their posts if they make personal ones or if you follow each other on other socials interact with them there so they know you’re still there for them but don’t message or anything because you’ll just keep setting yourself up for that same dynamic.

it’s hard dealing with an avoidant and it takes a lot of patience and understanding and an open heart but it also take communication like if they’re in a avoidant mood they have to communicate they may disappear and you then have to allow them that space and the opportunity to come back but they absolutely need to communicate. setting boundaries like that and adhering to them is the most basic form of respect you know?

i don’t ever think all hope is lost when dealing with an avoidant and it absolutely has nothing to do with anything you’re doing it’s just you have to make a decision on what it is that you want. if you want to fight then fight but if you don’t think you can handle the potential disappointment or don’t think it’s worth it honestly it would be in your own best interest to let them go.

[thedoubteriswise]

human beings tend make the choice that is most rational (for a given value of reason) and appealing to them under the current circumstances. that doesn't mean the choice is morally good or without serious consequences, and it doesn't mean that people won't do self-defeating shit because they fundamentally misunderstand why things are happening. but the decisions they make will be based on a risk/reward assessment that's usually pretty predictable. as a result, solutions that punish people for doing things that are damaging but which don't change motivation to do those things in the first place aren't very effective. if the natural negative consequences of a choice weren't a deterrent to making it, nonspecific punishment probably won't be either!

and the thing is that leftists are really good at understanding this concept when it comes to things like "if you want homeless people to stop sleeping in the park and leaving needles around, you have to provide low-barrier shelters and safe injection sites" or "people are less likely to drive drunk if you offer convenient, affordable public transit" or "if you don't want teenagers getting pregnant, you have to teach them how to use condoms." where the wheels come off the wagon is when we respond to wealthy people and elected officials doing damaging but incentivized things with "eat the rich" and "burn it all down."

I understand the anger behind those sentiments. I feel it too. bigoted politicians and greedy corporate board members aren't just littering in a park or knocking up their girlfriend, the damage they do is massive and devastating and frequently motivated by nothing but their own desires and prejudices. they could choose not to do what they do and be perfectly safe and happy. but the reality is that they are doing things that, by their calculation, appear to have a benefit that outweighs the cost. you can hate them for how they value costs and benefits, god knows I do, but even if you removed every single one of the wealthy and powerful individuals that do these things from the positions that allow them to cause harm, you'll just get new fuckheads doing the same shit as long as that shit is an available and appealing option.

unfortunately, the most sustainable and effective solutions tend to be unsexy policy changes related to like, fixing campaign finance law, reforming the way district lines are drawn, simply giving the IRS enough money to do their job, financial incentives to stop using fossil fuels, minute changes to the way corporations are allowed to function, just the absolute dullest most bean counter shit imaginable. stuff that alters the circumstances to make good behavior the only choice, or at least the most attractive one. but all of that is inevitably hard to fit into a tweet or whatever so we fall back on "eat the rich," a concept that is as materially useless as it would be ethically unsustainable if put into practice. Woo.

[blazehedgehog]

Given they’re soft rebooting again… what’s your Jurassic world 4/jurassic park 7/ Jurassic animals and also Triassic and Cretaceous animals make life difficult: the movie pitch? I feel like, as fun as the sequels can be, they’ve lost the science parable and horror/thriller elements of the classic - for all its faults; at least lost world has that.

Hmm... I'm gonna think like a movie executive. What's hot right now? AI's hot, right? It's the buzz. I propose a hard reboot.

Crichton's original novel opens with this big screed about a near future where we have "designer genetics." Genetic manipulation gets easier and easier and I think it's said Jurassic Park takes place in a world where it's getting to the point that parents can custom-order what kind of kids they'll have by selecting specific genetic traits. (It's been a while since I've read it)

Jurassic Park the movie shows human beings physically modifying genetic code by hand using VR displays, but Mr. DNA also admits that "a full DNA sequence contains 3 billion genetic codes." So it's ridiculous to assume that a human being could edit the genetic code by hand. One sequence would take years to get right, maybe even a lifetime.

So our story is that we have some 20 something silicon valley tech bro. He got outrageously rich off of crypto and NFTs and was smart enough to cash out early. We frame him as altruistic but around the edges we can see maybe he's not the greatest person. It's suggested he knew crypto was kind of a scam, which is why he got out early, but obviously he was in crypto at all to begin with, which does not bode well. But he's supposedly "one of the smart ones." Now he's rich! And cool! And using his powers for "good." He's beloved in pop culture.

The next wave is here. Neural network LLM Artificial Intelligence. He's all in. It's the next crypto. And he starts a company that uses LLM AI to "solve the genetic algorithm." He spins this out into a financial empire where people can custom-order pets with specific traits. But obviously people with a lot of money start wondering if maybe they can get more... exotic products.

With the realm of cats, dogs and parrots conquered, our techbro begins phase 2: recreating extinct animals. This is a guy who thinks he's going to save the world by restoring lost links in the food chain (without doing enough research to see how that would change our existing ecosystem, since he could be resurrecting an invasive species).

He's going to debut the first of his phase 2 work at an event he's calling Jurassic Park, because he's going to demonstrate the first living dinosaurs in 65 million years. Jurassic Park will continue to operate as a massive nature reserve; a symbol of his control of life itself.

Obviously: everything goes wrong. The AI has never had to change this much genetic code before. It has to make up whole entire sections of DNA. The end result is unpredictable, but techbro is confident that if the AI sequenced things well enough that something could actually hatch from the egg, then it's safe.

It is not safe.

Not only do we not understand anything about dinosaur behavior, these technically aren't even dinosaurs. They're genetic mutants. The on-site dinosaur expert brought in with the press to verify Jurassic Park's claims quickly realizes that while some of these dinosaurs are accurate in some ways, a lot of them have hard deviations away from known science. Muscles that aren't quite right, appendages that aren't the right size, things like that. Maybe their brains and brain chemistry are slightly different.

The question remains whether known science was wrong or whether the AI made something up that was never true.

The question is brought up again when we learn a technician within Jurassic Park sabotaged everything intending to steal the genetic learning data from techbro's servers. Techbro says the thief poisoned the data and that's gotta be why there's mutations.

The security systems fail. The thief has left them to their creations. Jurassic Park as we know it happens.

Since a lot of movies have to deal with this, all throughout this, nobody has phones. To prevent leaks, all of their phones were confiscated before they entered Jurassic Park and locked in a security checkpoint. Our techbro, maybe as a sign of solidarity, even gives his phone to the security guy. We could even say maybe they've been having security issues beforehand, to set up the thief hacking everything before he actually does it.

Anyway, since our thief sabotaged the park's own communication channels, a lot of the movie is about getting back to that security checkpoint, breaking in, and getting their phones so they can call for help.

Oh, and also: all of Jurassic Park's vehicles are electric, too, and tied into the security mainframe. Since the park's whole security system was hacked and disabled, none of the vehicles can be operated. The only thing that works are these little golf carts, but they're small, can't go very fast, and offer little protection. Maybe our survivors try one, it gets smashed by a triceratops, and they're too far away from the depot to go back for a new one. So a lot of the movie is them traversing the park on foot.

As they're being chased by dinosaurs through the park itself, they end up deep in the core of a genetics lab. And it's here we learn the dark truth: there is a wide margin of failure. The recently deceased specimens are all kept for study and learning and there's a lot because the AI fails often, and it has to be taught not to do that. We see dozens of disfigured animals. Bits and pieces of dinosaurs, pets, and even, in one tank... human parts. These tanks are labeled "phase 3."

Not only are the mutated dinosaurs not the work of sabotage, this guy's been trying to create genetically modified people. We have our big "what have you done?" moment of horror. One of the last surviving members of the press is going to blow the whistle on this place. It's over. Maybe it's someone we build up as the techbro's new friend discovering that their hero wasn't who he said he was.

Just then, a dinosaur bursts in and kills that person. Drama! Tragedy!

Obviously, the survivors find a way out. Techbro has to live with his own conscious. Multiple people died at his hands on this day and he had a hand in creating some of the worst sins against nature mankind has ever seen.

(Or maybe we stick to the original Jurassic Park book and he dies just before getting on the escape chopper.)

[golbrocklovely]

have you seen the crowd on twitter trying to get Sam and Colby cancelled and sued for 'not doing enough'? It's wild and makes no sense to me, they're doing plenty, they don't need to give us everything, what are these people on?

i'm happy someone sent me this bc i do have some opinions on it lol

see the thing is, it's not even that they "aren't doing enough", ie related to xplrclub, it's that they aren't talking about things that matter. the main two being palestine and george/wilbur being creeps.

to be mad at them for all three of these things, as if somehow they are all on the same level is ridiculous and such an online take, it's not even funny.

but here, i'll break down how i feel about all of this.

as i've stated before, snc don't have to comment on palestine. i know a lot of fans want them to say something but reality is nothing will change if they say free palestine or ask for a ceasefire. snc do not hold that much power, they aren't besties with the president. stop asking influencers to do something. this genocide has been happening for a long time, well prior to the october attacks. it's not snc's job to inform the public on worldwide news. it will not change what is currently happening. palestinians are being murdered and you are making this about snc. stop doing that. who you should be truly angry at is our government and the fact they keep giving OUR TAX DOLLARS to the idf. be upset at that. call your congressmen. donate. stop making this about snc, oh my god.

(and if anyone reading this doesn't agree with me, that's fine. but just know i'm not gonna change my mind on it. who cares what snc think about a genocide??? do your part, help out how you can, and keep it moving.)

the george and wilbur thing…. look, i get fans wanting them to unfollow them, but most likely that's not gonna happen. not bc snc support them, but bc snc never do shit like that. they don't get involved in things that aren't related to them. and this is one of those instances. why do they need to denounce two ppl they aren't friends with and only collabed with, max, twice? you wanna be upset with them about this, go ahead. but don't hold your breath.

also it would be incredibly idiotic for them to comment on something like this. and again, you are making a situation that has nothing to do with snc about snc. stop doing that.

xplrclub. imma be honest with you, this is the one that i find hysterical, just bc of how far fetch it is.

i read the original post that started all of this, or at least that was recently created about all of this. i'm also on xplrclub and saw a fan asking basically all of these questions, and then getting a reply from a mod telling them that snc have account managers that probably tell them when to comment on things, and then when that wasn't a good enough answer, said fan asked for an admin. and idk what happened afterwards.

but let me make it abundantly clear: you can't sue snc for "not doing enough" lol that's just not a thing

first off, they haven't even been charging us for a while. so you're not paying for any of the content as of right now. which i think has caused ppl to think that xplrclub has always been free. but now that they plan to charge us in 2 weeks times, ppl are upset that this is all the content they're getting. but snc laid it out loud and clear on the site of what we're getting: multiple camera roll vids a week, a podcast and livestream a month, and a giveaway a month. and then exclusive content like once a week i think. that's all laid out on the site. if you don't want to be charge $19 a month for that… then don't sign up. it's an exclusive club for a reason. not every fan can afford it. you're not owed a spot in xplrclub. sorry. that's just how the world works.

but what makes all of this even dumber is these fans want to sue snc or at least let them know that "without your fans you would have nothing" as if snc don't already know that. and they're talking about "all we need is 40% of ppl on xplrclub to leave, and then they would have to shut it down, which means we can sue them bc we're not getting what was promised to us"

again, not how any of this works. not to mention, any fans that believes this 10000% wasn't around when metalife shut down in like three days time with basically a paragraph and an email notice lol but that being said snc also gave refunds to those that were charged for the month it shut down

if snc lost a huge amount of subs on xplrclub, they're allowed to shut the site down then if they weren't breaking even or were losing profit from it. the only reason you would be allowed to sue them is if they weren't giving you any content but kept charging you anyway. or if somehow there was a data leak and ppl's card information got out there. that would be a reason to sue. but that has not happened, and most likely won't as well.

not to mention, but there are over 1000 members on that site as we speak. 40% would be a significant dent, sure; but not enough to close the site down. there would still be hundreds of ppl on the site. you would need over half of the users to dip out, and baby that just ain't happening lol

there was also this whole argument about how if snc were sued "tv and film laws" are really difficult and they would be in a lot of trouble and all i gotta say to that is……… wut???? snc aren't on tv or film???? do you guys think they are characters or something, actors acting in their vids??? when snc call their content "movies" they don't mean literal movies, they mean length wise, babe. like i want to give some benefit since i know some of these fans are really young and don't know better but like… google is a thing.

i just…. it's always something with this fandom, you know. there can never be complete peace. i can't have a single day of fun without there being some shit storm brewing on the horizon. i'm so totally done with it lmao

[lost-technology]

Found another person blocking my blog, but this time I know why. I tried to dry-reblog some thoughtful commentary from them as an experiment, not knowing if they knew or cared about this blog connected to my wider Internet name, but apparently they do. You see, (name un-disclosed) was a person I knew in the old guard fandom about 20 years ago and had a lot of fighting with. It was basically a situation where a toxic former friend drew me into fighting with this entire group of friends and my stupid shenanigans landed me on Fandom Wank, where this person was among one of the main posters. (Hypocritical cyberbulling place if you ask me, but whatever). It confirms that they remember me and aren't willing to forgive. It's okay. It's not like I wanted friendship with them, I just thought they had an insightful post and was just curious. I mean, I actually had found out their tumblr handle from seeing them around Ao3 again (resurrected fan), but hadn't looked it up and didn't block it. The fact that they preemptively blocked me - went through that trouble tells me all I need to know about held grudges and now they are blocked from my main just for the sake of me not seeing their posts and forgetting / accidentally trying to reblog them. (Nothing personal, just respecting their apparent want of no contact and the works of managing main blogs and side blogs on this site). I feel kind of sad because we won't know how each other have changed. I have quite a bit. I have grown away from Church and have divested myself of past bigotries, for instance. I'll never be able to mea culpa enough for that shit , but I don't think anyone really wants me to - just press on and press forward and don't make a big deal of it. I have gotten a lot of help psychiatrically. I'll always be as bipolar as fuck, that's just my brain, but at least it's managed now, but I understand why people would want to shy away from that, especially if they were former Internet contacts who got the brunt of my moodswings and mayhem before knowledge of the condition and treatment. (I can still be pretty bad now, actually, but I was worse 20 years ago). I don't know. I guess I'm a bit sad because I saw "Oh, person from my past, I wonder what and how they're doing now - hopefully they've had a good life. Hopefully they've had as many positives as I have or more." And of course, there was that hope that they'd forget me entirely because The Bullshit happened 20 years ago and people on the Internet rarely have long memories. There is exactly one person from my Trigun Fandom Past that I would be likely to block on sight if I saw them again, but maybe... not even then. I'd look them over and if I felt like I still couldn't trust contact with them again in any way, perhaps I'd give them an explanation of the mistrust, and it being entirely on my end (not a judgement on the person they've become). I think that will happen now, should That Person ever find me. I guess I can think of it as kind of being like my relationship with my older brother. Growing up there was stuff I don't want to even talk about going on between him and I in terms of him being unstable and abusive. Granted, he and I share a disorder, but it was never an excuse - and yet, last Spring, I got to go back across the country and visit my family. In visiting him in particular, I dragged a cousin along as a "buffer," even though everyone was telling me that he'd mellowed out over the years. Indeed, I saw him and I'm glad I did, because... he has. He has, over the last 20 some odd years become more introspective, reflective and he apologised to me for his past treatment of me. I took it as sincere. He just had a manner to him of This Guy Has Mellowed Out and Made Change. It was nice to see. Running into Ghosts of Fandom Past kind of made me think of that. If we ever did talk to each other, putting aside the past, how much change in each other would we see? I want to know how life's been treating you.

[mrswhozeewhatsis]

Hello! Sorry to bother you, but I saw your picture of Philemon and started poking around your photography blog... and loved how you were able to capture the moment in a lot of them. I'm going to be attending my first con ever in about a month, and am looking for tips/advice partly because while I have done some manual shooting for sports/street, it's been predominantly outdoors and during the day and also partly because I love your photos and would love to hear some of what works for your if you are willing to share (please don't feel obligated to share if you don't want to or don't have the energy!).

While I have a ton of questions, maybe the one I'm most curious about is if you've found the lighting at cons hard to work with. I don't have a particularly fast tele zoom lens (f4-5.6), and pretty much all I've seen online (besides up iso) is to buy a fast lens. I have a 56mm f1.4, but I'm pretty sure I'll be sitting too far away to get the detail and dof I want with that. Is it worth bringing a slow telephoto zoom lens for the con though or will the lighting just make taking my 56mm make more sense? I don't want to buy a new lens that I don't need otherwise for this, and I also am a bit unsure about what/how much to pack given that I've never been to a con and am not experienced enough shooting indoors to guess based on the con videos how bad the lighting is.

I know it's not only the gear that makes the photo, but if you have any advice for a novice, I'd be happy to hear it. Thank you for making it through my ramble ask. Sorry again for bothering you...

First of all, thank you so much for your comments in my photos! I consider myself one of the least experiences photographers you'll find at a con, so Knowing that someone likes my work really makes my day! 😍😍😍

Gonna put the rest of this under a cut cuz it got long. lol

To give you an idea of what I'm working with, I was in seat B40 this year. That's all the way on the side aisle. My camera is a Canon EOS Rebel T6i, and the lens I used was a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. Occasionally, I sat in empty seats that were closer and snapped a few shots, but not many. (I sat in the front row for the shots I posted of Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum. Tom was on stage, Michael was just... EVERYWHERE. 🤣)

The lighting at Creation cons is not great. Also, it can change from panel to panel. It would be lovely if they could mount their lights higher so the guests don't get blinded and ask for the lights to be brought down. But, since that will probably never happen, we work with what we've got.

Personally, I love a zoom lens because I'm always zooming in and out, trying to catch different things. I know other photographers favor not zooming because they get better quality photos in other ways, but I'm not clear on how that works.

Now, for my first suggestion: rent a lens. It's fairly inexpensive to rent a lens, and you get to try different lenses out without spending a fortune on lenses you later figure out aren't what you want. I believe a few of the other con photographers use a site called lensrentals.com. I rented a lens last year from Unique Photo in Philly, since they're not too far from me. You can also rent from UP online at uniquephoto.com. I went in person to talk to one of their experts to help me decide what kind of lens I wanted to try since I'm so new to this. They also have a store in Fairfield, NJ, so if you're close to either of those places, I would definitely suggest you head in there and check them out!

The reason why I'm suggesting that you rent a lens is because I think you'll want a lower f-stop than your zoom lens has, and if you're further away than the first 3-4 rows, you're going to want to zoom. (Gotta get up close and personal with the pretty!!! And good lord, but they're all so freaking pretty.) Renting a lens is a relatively cheap way to test things out. It's possible you may rent a lens and then later realize that your own lenses would have done the job. You'll only be out a hundred bucks or so by renting. (UP did require a deposit of half the retail value of the lens, but they were great about getting that back to me quickly.)

ISO - I'm always trying to use the lowest ISO I can get away with because noise is a pet peeve of mine. (I adore Lightroom's new Denoise AI!!!!) I know other photographers aren't as picky about noise and raise their ISO. I try to keep mine at or below 3200. One of my friends shoots at an ISO I didn't know existed, it's so high. (She yells at me. "You need to increase your shutter speed and your ISO, Michelle!") She's got a Nikon, though, and I sometimes wonder if camera make and model might also affect things like that.

As far as packing is concerned, I'm a bad person to ask. I bring freaking everything, even when I know darn well I'm not gonna use it. Seriously, the only thing I left at home this con was my lens balls. I'm terrible.

The biggest thing I learned early on is that you can always lighten dark photos in processing, but it's really hard to darken overly light photos.

Renting a lens and shooting darker are the two big suggestions I have. Every photographer I know at cons does things a little differently though. Most are willing to stop and chat about what settings they use, too. @mandileaphotography, @brooksba, and @ditchlilytiger are three awesome photographers and people that I know are here on Tumblr and I can tag them. lol! They each may have their own tips and tricks to suggest! Mandi has helped me and countless other newbie photographers over the couple of years I've known her.

Something that Chris Schmelke said to me about editing, but I use it when shooting, too: If you're not sure where to start, see what Auto does, and then make changes from there until you're happy. If I'm really not sure where to start with my camera settings, I take a burst or two of photos in auto mode and see what settings the camera thinks are right. Then, I adjust until I'm happy.

Non-photography tips for your first con: Take snacks because forgetting to eat is totally a thing. Hydrate hydrate HYDRATE. Have a binder or something to keep your photo ops in. Drink more water. Wear comfortable shoes. Take a water bottle with you. Take Chris Schmelke's photography class because he's a sweetie and loves to answer any questions you might have about photography of all kinds. And don't forget to drink plenty of water. Have I mentioned staying hydrated? You think I'm kidding, but I failed at both eating and drinking water last weekend and then wondered why the room started spinning. And that was my 9th Creation con. I know better and I still did it! More tips like this can be found at @spncontips!

If you're on Twitter, check out @spnconphotogs there. A bunch of us run that account and we have lists of con photographers you can follow and get to know. We also have a Discord server that we don't use much, but it's there if the ex-bird app ever truly dies. DM me or one of the others for an invite!

Sorry for the babbling, but this is everything I can think of off the top of my head to help you out! Even the "big name" fandom photographers are all nice and sweet as pie and willing to help you out if they're not running from one place to another. Just find someone with a really big lens and say hi!!