#real garbage tier stuff

[cowbot-lumberjane]

You know I have gotten nasty comments/anonymous asks about the stuff I reblog relating to transmisogyny, I just usually employ the liberal use of the block button. But I wanna say this:

I may not always have the energy or wherewithal to type up an eloquent post about it myself, but I am still in fact a trans woman who is affected by these things. And I will continue to spread information and be angry about the phenomenon that affect me and people like me. Like, sorry you came for heehoo fat girls hot, I actually care about myself and the women in my community. You're free to fuck right off if you don't or get annoyed by seeing it.

[traincat]

Your Spideytorch fics are handsdown my favourite in the fandom and I re-read them more than I'm brave enough to admit but the one where Johnny was a virgin made me absolutely OBSESSED! And anything with Peter being protective/possessive is S-Tier and I started wondering if you have any thoughts on how Peter could've been protective of him after the Lyja nonsense since comics never really handled that the way they should've [and still don't]

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you like my fic enough to reread it at all, let alone multiple times.

I also love Peter being protective/possessive (two sides of the same coin with him?) and just like, slowly cluing into all the terrible things that have happened to Johnny beyond just superhero stuff as they begin a relationship. And then being absolutely ready to snap something or someone in half.

An interesting thing is that Peter is more aware than most about what went down with Lyja. He's witness to some of it, even.

(Fantastic Four #299) "You're getting married? You?!?" Okay big talk from the man who would also be married within like five months. (Their weddings happen extremely close to each other.) So Johnny and "Alicia's" wedding was supposed to be a small, private affair which is, you know -- it's interesting. On the one hand, I can see Johnny wanting a small, intimate wedding because he is, at heart, a romantic. On the other hand, looking at the big picture, it does feel a little suspicious that he just didn't want to hype up his marriage at all or announce it anywhere or talk about it. Peter, Wyatt, and Jen are basically the only people in his life who know, and while that is basically the grand total of his personal social circle, it's easy to single Peter out here because Jen was on the FF at the time and Wyatt was dating her.

Anyway, to fast forward through Johnny's incredibly boring marriage and get to the point where it stops being boring but starts being actively terrible, Peter also reaches out to Johnny when he finds out he's "getting divorced." (He and the real Alicia are filing papers to dissolve the marriage Johnny had with Lyja, who at this point of time was thought to be dead.)

(FF #362)

And by "reaches out" I mean "annoys into a chase through New York City." But it's fine because he did it to make Johnny feel better, actually.

(FF #362) They're normal.

It should be noted at this time that Johnny was trying to attend college for the third time. (The first time being State U, where he dropped out because he was clearly trying to get his M.R.S. degree instead, and the second time being the Evil Supervillain College Peter rescued him.) He's attending ESU, which is Peter's alma mater.

Anyway, uh, Johnny's College Try Number Three isn't going to work out either, for different reasons than him kicking his feet and twirling his hair and thinking he's going to get married at nineteen or because he's actually being kidnapped by an evil hypnotist.

Because Lyja's not dead!

(FF #370) There she is. In her Revenge Assless Chaps.

Anyway, she tries to kill him and essentially forces him to go nova to save his own life, and in the process he burns down ESU. (No one dies in the fire, which is comic book logic, considering when he goes nova he explodes, but whatever.)

Johnny is arrested for the fire but, while being led through an angry crowd, he sees Lyja in the crowd, understandably freaks out, and flies away. Peter, who had been photographing Johnny's arrest for the Bugle, reacts.

(FF #372) "Oh, Johnny... what have you done to yourself? Can anyone save you now?" To be fair, Peter does protest coming down hard on Johnny in the Bugle, but it's also, you know, his job.

To Peter's credit, he does try. He spends hours swinging around in the rain, looking for Johnny, who is currently huddled among a bunch of garbage bags because he could not possibly be a sadder or wetter sad wet kitten.

(FF #372) "Even he's turned against me!" Johnny, though, traumatized and terrified, thinks everyone is out to get him.

Once Johnny is actually booked, Peter is there to take the picture, too. Rough.

(FF #376)

And then in the Spider-Man 1995 Christmas Special, Johnny and Peter discuss The Fake Egg Baby Drama, although not in great detail.

So Peter is about as aware of the situation as anyone who wasn't along for the ride the entire time. I'd say Wyatt probably knows more, but Peter's more in the know than most.

Peter's got a lot of his own stuff going on during this time period. (When doesn't he.) Very notably, at the same time Johnny was getting arrested, the Android Parents plot was happening over in Amazing Spider-Man and The Death of Vermin was happening in Spectacular Spider-Man, so Peter kind of had other things on his mind, and while it hadn't quite arrived yet, the Clone Saga was looming on the horizon. So yeah, a lot going on.

One thing that always interests me as a little experiment is to imagine what canon looks like if you get Johnny and Peter together at like -- any point in it. So what does it look like if, after Lyja's initial death, Peter and Johnny start a relationship? (You do have to discount the Spider-Marriage for this, but hey! Marvel already did that so there are no rules. She and Gwen are living in a luxury condo in Los Angeles.) Peter is very protective, and I can see him taking the Lyja situation very, very badly. He would definitely be suspicious about the egg baby and I can see it causing drama, because he'd want to support Johnny but he'd want to be rational about things, which is not Johnny's strong suit.

I do also like the idea of Peter finding Johnny while he's looking for him while Johnny's on the run and hiding him from the authorities while Peter tries to unravel exactly what happened and exonerate Johnny. Like a less fun roommates issue! Although Johnny could still cook in his underwear.

I think, no matter what, in a Spideytorch post-Lyja setting, once Peter and Johnny do get together, Peter will start slowly putting together the pieces that the Lyja situation was much, much worse than he initially believed, and that's going to cause drama, especially since Johnny tends to downplay his drama. I could see Peter getting into a fight with Sue over the fact that she invited Lyja to stay after Johnny told her he never wanted to see her again and just generally being very angry, and I think Johnny would have complicated feelings about that. On the one hand, Peter being protective over him is nice, and it's not something he's really had before, but on the other hand, he does downplay that trauma, and he's convinced himself things weren't that bad. It's fun to think about the different scenarios!

[marta-bee]

News of the Day 3/27/25: But, Their Emails!

... or their text messages, at least.

Archive.is

Archive.is

If you've not heard, loads of cabinet-level national security people were planning a military operation using Signal, an app for sending encrypted messages that's better than text messaging but still far shy of military security standards. It also deletes the messages after a certain time period, which means at least some people involved broke record-keeping laws on top of the national security ones. We also insulted Europeans yet again, and not in a small way.

We know all this because the VP, Dir. of National Intelligence, National Security Advisor, Sec. State, Sec. Defense, and about a dozen others similarly top-tier dunces failed to notice a high-profile journalist had also been added to the thread. This should be, like, Watergate-level scandal if anything mattered these days.

My personal favorite part [/snark] is how the president was asked about the situation hours later and just had no idea anything had happened. (X) Or pretended like he didn't know, as if that made it somehow better.

It's hilariously bad. It's horrific. It's a national disgrace. It's criminal. It's more than sufficient reason for anyone from not-America to keep your secrets to yourself, which definitionally makes those of us in yes-America a lot less safe. And if you run in foreign affairs circle at all or even just watch late night, it's probably all you've heard about.

Seriously. Colbert had me laughing for minutes, then crying ugly tears that this is where we are. He's not a bad intro if you need one.

More serious news-type discussion below the cut.

The Political Blow-up over the Bombings

Vance broke with Trump over Houthi airstrikes, group chat report says. (X) “I think we are making a mistake,” the vice president said to a group chat of several top administration officials, according to a stunning report by The Atlantic.

"There was no problem": Trump says he's "very comfortable" with Yemen leaks: The president said that "no classified information" was shared in a compromised group chat between admin officials. (X)

House Republican on war plans chat: ‘There’s no doubt that Russia and China saw this stuff’.

The White House effectively gave The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg a green light to publish Team Trump’s full Signal chat messages. So, he did. (X)

Signalgate timeline, transcripts of secret war plan chat Trump admin shared with editor. (X)

The Signal Scandal Needs an Investigation. Where’s Pam Bondi Now? (X)

Fox’s Brit Hume on Hegseth’s response to war plans texts: ‘Oh for God’s sake’

From that liberal garbage heap the National Review: Yes, Pete Hegseth Should Be Fired for What He Texted — and for Lying About It. (X)

'An unbelievable cocktail of incompetence': a U.S. representative on Signal messages

Oh, for FFS. Private data including passwords for Hegseth, Gabbard, and Waltz is accessible online: report, which could be used to hack their devices.

Hillary Clinton on war plans leak: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’

The US Attacks on the Houthis More Generally

US launches attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen. The concern was impact on US commercial shipping in the region. (X)

Trump threatens Iran with "dire" consequences over Houthi attacks. (X)

Tucker Carlson warns Trump of consequences of starting a war against Iran.

In discussions with Hamas, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff threatened them after reticence in negotiations: "consider what US did to the Houthis." (X)

More on “Signalgate” and Europe

Trump Says U.S. Won’t Defend NATO Allies Behind On Defense Spending: ‘It’s Common Sense’. (X)

The Signal Chat Fiasco Sends a Clear Message to Our Allies. This is a much bigger security breach than Hillary Clinton’s emails. (X)

The deep divide lurking in Trump officials’ leaked group chat: The chat logs revealed an administration that wants to both dominate the world and withdraw from it. (X)

[catenary-chad]

Doublestack, 25, into Starlight Express for all the wrong reasons. The social, political, and media perception of trains is criminally underexplored and a very interesting angle for talking trains. And the show gets things so egregiously wrong it’s fascinating in a backwards way.

90% of this blog is Electra and electric trains, I am a MASSIVE Electra apologist because the uniquely tragic history of electric trains in the US makes them a deep and compelling Other (and especially relevant if Black). “Steam oppression” is a terrible metaphor as are fossil fuels as an underclass in general, that’s Heritage Foundation-tier regressive garbage. I don’t care if you slap a progressive veneer on it, air pollution kills millions a year and is a very real and worldwide social issue. I love to hate Rusty and think he should have been the main villain, block #rusty hate train if you don’t want to see that. I think it’s fascinating just how effective he is at fooling otherwise progressive people into siding with a lot of covert conservative propaganda about trains and industry. I don’t engage with or make positive content of him. Greaseball is perfect though. More than most people even realize as a train villain. He's so much more effective than they ever imagined. Union Pacific (and other US freight railroads) are Walmart-tier notoriously shitty companies, just with better PR.

I have many extensive revisionist headcanons to counter canon’s framing. I love applying serious train history and problems in ridiculous ways, because it’s so much more ridiculous (yet important) than people think it is. I tend to focus on the invisible world of rail electrification, especially in the US, unglamorous but important practical limitations, finding oddly specific real prototypes for characters, and weirdly validating widely mocked elements of the show that somehow have basis in reality.  The Railway Series was very smart and realistic for all its flaws and I genuinely think going that way provides a lot of easy and fun solutions for long-running problems.

I’m strangely passionate about train representation in media and lack of broader societal awareness of them. Especially how media misrepresents trains and decries their rich and influential real history as “boring nerd trivia” to prop up tired cliches that feed into a lot of ugly conservative propaganda.  Public ignorance on the topic is so widespread that too many people fall for it. Train stereotypes are so widely accepted and treated as unserious that they become a great stand-in for how human groups are treated… and boy does canon accidentally say a lot in how wrong it gets things!

Not loyal to any production besides being a 2018 rewrite hater because being a ballad-riddled slog is truly unforgivable.  Revival neutral because it introduced some interesting concepts.  Not a serious shipper because love is for suckers, the BBC news van was the best “11th hour ballad���.  I just like laughing at crack pairings.  

I’m an engineer, not a theater kid.  I don’t have very strong or technical opinions on those aspects besides appreciating a lot of the 70s-80s street dance stuff many don’t get.  I broadly love the replica show’s visual and physical conventions and will defend the abstraction and constant singing and dancing. Actual trains make rhythmic motions and sounds!

I am very Mykalectra biased for weirdly elaborate reasons

Here is my list of train/transit info resources if you want to research more yourself, it’s a running list I’ll add to over time. You can also contact me directly if you want a source for something I've said or general train character advice.

I mostly draw, sometimes write. Please do NOT share my work with anyone involved with the show. I do not want to draw their attention to this blog.

Any concept I do as a fanfic/headcanon/other fanwork is free game to blatantly rip off as long as you don’t just claim my actual art/writing as your own. I actually welcome it since making train media more realistic and interesting so people become more engaged with and understanding of modern trains is a big aim of mine.

^My discord server for modern and/or non-steam talking trains and discussing more realistic/grounded approaches to train characters. Not exclusively Stex but very much friendly to it and OCs. PG-13 and beginner friendly, if you don’t know much about trains but want to learn!

(@head-end-power is my 18+ blog, if you are so inclined)

[dcviated]

end of 2024 questions :: open

@wisdomchosen sent: 7(ish). Talk about some of your favorite threads that started this year!

I'd bring up how much I adore everything you and I have in the pipeline and already simmering on the stove, but that'd be too easy-

Starting off, even if it doesn't really count since so much of what we're doing is restarting several year old threads- everything I'm doing with Abby @cloudpools !!! Pinnacle of what I mean when I say I'm in things for the long run. She and I have been writing together for almost ten years. My first real tumblr writing partner. And now she's back and writing some more!

(follow Abby)(follow Abby)(follow Abby)(follow Abby)

We're kicking up tons of things, but most notable is probably the stuff with one of my one-off-turned-favored OCs from an eon ago with her's. The antics between Gurin and Blythe. Absolute garbage tier ship indulgence but we're allowed this. Suave yet stupid-smitten demon with the lil innocent gal whose archdemon master wants to ANNIHILATE his very being.

Looking back at it, half the year I was on hiatus from starting big threads for my exam. It was really the last few months things really picked up... and I got things started.

Like with @serandipity who enabled me to write more Diluc and has seriously kicked up my muse for them as a result. Putting him in the RF universe was way too obvious and expanding the lore to fit both ways has been fun. Also, arranged marriage. I'm almost ashamed to say I've never done that before? And having it be Diluc with Bianca has been an absolute treat. Disaster, I mean. She brings something out of him...

[crystalelemental]

"books-are-my-life-stuff: The recent story events that I can call "great" is the recently ended Eri event, and the Arven & N event, other Paldea ones are just good. This event preview? Annoys me a lot. Hope the real one is gonna be good, but even if Leon might eventually win, I don't like the idea that he can only win against Red after getting his Arc Suit. Leon should have been able to win even by himself. I'm tired of seeing Red winning."

I actually didn't see the Arven event, so can't comment on that. I personally didn't find the Eri one too compelling but it's fine. The last one I remember really liking was Geeta and Silver. Neo Champion events stay winning, I guess. I mean except the Kanto one, which is the worst event in the game.

Honestly, I think the issue largely stems from fans' needs to have a "strongest." Red was at his best when he was taken out by Giovanni at the start of the Villain Arcs, back when we still operated on "tiers" of power. Which is how it should be! Red's important, but back in the first arc, outside of being the one to beat Lear, his team made it to the finals because all of Kantrio are powerhouses and have tremendous teamwork and no one else really matched that. It was Kanto bias, sure, but it held up because all three were considered as approximately equal. Giovanni overpowering Red and Blue once he unleashed Mewtwo's power set up that there were ways to overcome them, or at least that they weren't invincible. Even by third anniversary, as overwhelming as Red had become, Cynthia was set up as an even match for him. They didn't resolve who won that fight. But shortly after that, Red gets a little event in which Raihan wants to take a picture with him, and oooh, look how Red beat all like fifteen of these guys by himself. And ooh, now it's fourth anniversary now, and look how we completely ruined Blue's characterization to big up Red, making Blue's Neo Champion a fucking consolation prize. This could've been an even "each person wins one category," but no, Red has to be the biggest most importantest, so he gets two wins even though his teaching method is garbage. I hate how they handle him so much. Especially after the first event with him that I got to experience actually started to make me like him a bit.

[retphienix]

Not to regurgitate the same "the nerfs have not been healthy or reasonably considered in Helldivers 2" talking points but man.

In isolation, just one thing among a sea of things, I hate what they've done to the Eruptor so much.

So I'm gonna vent it for my own sake and nothing more.

That thing was the shining point of success from its warbond- a warbond that has the immaculate grenade pistol of all things- and this STILL took the spotlight for me because it felt so good, different, and fun.

It was a weapon that traded ergonomics and ROF and safety (can't shoot close targets etc) for AMAZING stopping power, hitting many breakpoints that no other weapon has in the entire game!

You could one shot scouts from the front! Just tap em, no need to go around or shoot from 'slightly' above to hit their head!

You could one shot devastators TO THE CHEST!

You could take out MULTIPLE berserkers with ONE SHOT! Or guarantee a one-shot by hitting their stomach!

You could dent groups of enemies with the AOE, often wiping all the fodder enemies with one well placed explosion of shrapnel!

You could severely damage many objective style targets like turret towers!

ALL THIS- WITHOUT BEING OVERTUNED OR THE BEST OPTION! IT HAD GIVE AND TAKE IN ITS PERFORMANCE!!!!!!!!!!!

But some random exploit (that I never heard about until AFTER the nerfs, conveniently enough) let it hurt Chargers a "little too much" (reasonable, fix that then- without nerfing it to garbage). No real word on how it's pretty garbage against bugs otherwise- it hurt chargers too much, nerf it to hell I guess.

And out of nowhere the balance team starts claiming that people were "Upset about friendly fire" ??????? So they remove the unique shrapnel that did like 80% of the damage and then buffed the weak piddly baby explosion damage a tiny notch up from "nothing" to "still nothing".

The fucking thing is gutted.

It had purpose!

It was REASONABLE in its strength!

It had UNIQUE USE CASES that you PAID FOR through its various WEAKNESSES!!!!

It wasn't magically the strongest and best thing in the entire game! It just had PURPOSE!

And now it's a garbage version of the dominator, a weapon I bet they'll nerf to trash tier soon if they don't fully reconsider their balance direction.

Between the buffs they keep slapping on enemies the second we find a way to uniquely interact with them-

(like scouts- you used to be able to manage your loadout to include explosions to more easily take them out, but that's not the Arrowhead Balance Team Approved method of going around and shooting from behind so take a slap on the wrist and a buff to their explosive resist- wouldn't want weapons like the scorcher having purpose now would we)

-and the countless times anything that works better than the starting pistol gets nerfed, we just don't have fun stuff that works differently anymore.

Just "Here's the med armor pen rifle equivalent or the Sickle for fodder. Here's the autocannon. Here's the AMR. Bring your EATs." yay

Hell, this is a post about the gutted Eruptor but there's another thing- we lack variety in how to approach so many targets since every weapon that hits different break points or handles differently in an interesting way gets nerfed to shit- but EVEN THE BORING BASIC OPTIONS get nerfed if they become too reliable- like the quasar getting a nearly 20 second round turn around adjustment because they were upset people were choosing the "Slower rocket that doesn't take a backpack" over the "Backpack rocket that has such a fucking terrible ROF without team reload (a mechanic they severely need to adjust to be actually worth doing and not a built in nerf) that you might as well take the quasar even with the huge nerf because you at least get a backpack slot with that thing".

Cool >:(

At least the flamethrower is finally good. It's still a support weapon that can't take out a ton of units that our primary weapons ALSO can't take out requiring you to rely on strikes that a lot of missions will punish you for relying on through modifiers or weather effects (I like the weather but failure to let our loadouts serve themselves does shine a flaw in them) so woops to that but at least it's finally serving a purpose by taking out groups and chargers fast.

[7ban-sama]

jshk banner rankings? Least favorite to most?

I've been having an issue with my vision lately, so my wife made us play a little game where I looked at the banners (briefly) and then had her transcribe my reactions, to minimize screen usage. Below are the results.

(Due to the image limit, this is part 1/2.)

now, my earnest reactions. Starting from least favorite:

"get away from them."

"I don't like to see you dressed like this. but i'm glad you're in this world with me. if we have to be here at the ikemen juicebar."

(I actually didn't like this header very much at first, but my wife explained she has fond memories of playing with nutcrackers, and she likes that Tsukasa is eating nuts in this image. It keeps making me laugh. it's become more relevant.)

"funny."

"I like that aida-sensei likes mushrooms. and would draw tsukasa with mushrooms. the mushrooms themselves being so "hurt you, poisonous" is like interesting."

"he's cute. a mouse in my lunch."

"my little bean. you'll always be my little bean."

"he's tsukasa, so i care about him. but he does look funny. and these diaper eggs. don't uh help."

"he is focused. he use his whoooole fist. cute expression."

"small mouth."

"he's SOOO small in this image. I love the spooky apple pie but like, he's MICROSCOPIC, WHAT HAPPENED????? the apron is cute … falling offa him. messy (: I'll eat it…"

"double wife feature. what's goin on? tsukasa, cursed, fancy lad? nene-chan, courage test, why? so funny. what happens next?"

"elegant. classic. conveys 'its the boy'. can see why this was there for years. perfectly fine header. neutral ground, for me."

"expression is very sweet. I like that tsukasa loves christmas this much. I pity him. it feels like he needs these like, proxies, to fixate on romance. Just a cute picture."

"whatcha doin in there? he looks So young. I can never understand. he looks like, 10. purple socks??? I don't understand. seifuku???? shotacon garbage."

"I would fuck him like this... I hesitated, and he was about to be pretty high up there. BUT. but. like. compared to like tsukasa in his HAKAMA and KIMONO with a carrot in his mouth, these things aren't like on the same plane. I need to regain my senses. I can't let myself get lost. this image makes me very HORNY!! but literally in quality of image I'm like 'NO!!!! its not that good.' Stupid Mokke. I don't want that, the bunnies are better. Almost lost myself." [pause.] "I see it and I'm like 'would fuck you so hard…' then I have to be like —BUT THIS ISN'T ANYTHING!!"

"just beautiful. just a beautiful drawing of tsukasa. i always like the cheek smoosh. shoe kick off eheehehee♥"

"I love the teddy bear, what it ah, symbolizes almost. nice to see it still with him."

(these both are on the same tier.) "he's having fun. keep having fun, okay?" / "my innocent brother." [pause] "i don't have to kill him."

"an artist…………….. a visionary…. bright eyes and a squeaking voice (: i hope you can draw with nene-chan some day….. so small."

"he is very veryveryveryveryveryvery cute. please be my girlfriend…."

"I do love the carousel. I love when we're carousel boys. Circus. purple socks cute. i feel like i'm being invited behind stage, but we're going to do something bad. but its going to be my fault (that it is bad)"

"he's literally so interesting. the gloves are cool. I feel like I've been brainwashed into being his fan. much to be said about the Angel's Trumpet being chosen for this; it really elevates the AU that he COULD be associated with this imagery... suddenly you're folding in like… idols, and like, delirium? singing voice… poisoning you… ? I also have to be real, I like idols a lot. I like normal otaku idol stuff. so an idol AU tsukasa is a big deal to me."

"its just so like. 'oh, tsukasa…' it's both beautiful that he loves love so much, but i almost feel like, i guess jealous, deep down, that he is doing this. but that's almost like good for me, to be forced to feel such things."

(pt 2 Nene-chan on the same rank.) "Makes me wanna cry. I'm sorry."

"good composition, nice color, good 'cursed child' vibes. the other people are a good contrast for how its a little creepy. a ghost, no one can see him. tsukasa knows such simple pleasures, its very cute."

"what's fun about this is how eccentric Tsukasa is; compared to throwing little paper petals (still cute of course, but… this is charming.) Because it's sakuras, and i just kinda associate tsukasa with a kind of femininity, and they feel like they are blossoming from him, its all fun. light, pallid colors… mm."

"this is really one of those. 'i'm in love with you.' images. I really like the colors on the shattered glass (sunset.) it evokes tsukasa's omnipotence. aouhh God. breaking through peering into the universe. also just like a perfect expression. you love to see those eyes peaking out."

"he pisses me off. but my wife loves carrots. so i love that my wife loves carrots. so tsukasa eating carrots is like 'okay, you got me.' the bunnies are cute. [said resentfully] it is nice to think about him sprawled out like this. i like how much you can see underneath the collar. Hakama looks nice." [pause] "there". [...] "grrrr"

"it forces me to think about penis. it's kinda like a personal attack. just as flirty as shoe kicky boy, but also, think about penis. He is just like this. He doesn't choose to be seductive, he just is, and its like, infuriating. eyes closed ranks slightly higher."

"God. I just love this scene so much, so getting to see it (in color) is amazing. it feels like a good mirror image to, the Amane holding the lunar rock looking out a window. these pictures kiss in my mind. 'wow, its really twins.'"

[birdy-bird27]

Yea lol, the "I want this american product but the shipping is more than the product itself" struggle is real lol. I have ordered despite this once or twice but only if it was an extraordinary object I could not find anywhere else.

And like, on the "tier list" of how likely any given US company is to ship to a place (based on what I've seen) I'm not even that low. Like, first is the 48 'cluster' states, then the other two, Canada and then Puerto Rico, then probably the rest of the Americas (tho I'm not super certain) then the UK, then EU/Schengen, then the rest of Europe, then Australia, New Zealand and then Japan, then other east Asian countries, then the rest of Asia and on the bottom of the list Africa. Tho they're not the only ones to snub Africa, many European companies with international shipping don't ship there either 😔

I should say tho, African mail carriers and customs workers are notorious for getting things "lost" (many (tho not all!) countries there have a great deal of corruption and stuff so this is mostly just shrugged at) and so many don't bother with mail orders there, especially international. Some people, especially in rural areas (including my mum's boyfriend husband (recent development, still getting used to it lol)) don't have a street address and mail doesn't get delivered in their area anyway (and other public services, eg Francis doesn't even have garbage collection, he just burns it, as do his neighbours) but many of those still have PO boxes in nearby towns so it would technically be possible to receive at least small packages. All of which is to say tho that there's prolly just way less demand for companies to ship to Africa.

Sorry, got a bit rambly lol. Hope it was at least mildly interesting 😄

Woah I am learning so much today that was indeed very interesting! It sucks about Africa being so low on the priority shipping and costing so dang much😭 Also that’s very neat I didn’t know that about more rural parts in Africa like burning the trash a smart way to rid of trash when it’s more difficult to transport garbage out. Thank you for all this interesting Information today it’s been very neat to learn about the world

[staysafedontdie]

I thought I was free of BG3, but I was not.

(sorry Im not using the real app so it's not letting me edit correctly)

So, I made another Redeemed!Durge playthrough.

While my first one was narratively and cognitively dissonant, story-wise (an unusual looking Githyanki Bard, doing serial murdering in Baldur's Gate? Brushing elbows with powerful people? And no one noticed???) I decided to chalk that up to Bhaal being incredibly cocky. He has the old man voice and is much more tired than my current PC.

My goal with this updated playthrough was two-fold:

Make the ultimate Durge - constantly underestimated, can go anywhere, no one bats an eyelash at their presence.

Get Astarion as the first and only companion and using a specific guide (https://reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/visFK1mKzl - top comment), get the scenes that I initially missed. (Most of the companion scenes are tiered/have priority, I think it's a combination of specific character and approval. Most often Astarion's scenes get overwritten by Shadowheart, Lae'zel, or Gale.)

So, my new character is a Female Half-Elf Bard (Sword Bard OP), with more traditionally Elven features, tanned skin, freckles, and light brown hair with a bit of blonde from sun-bleaching. She looks like the personification of the sun. Someone who's never gone a day without.

But she's also pretty, and forgettable -which is the important part. Other than the shattered dagger throat tattoo, a scar over her lips and the dagger earrings, she's just the girl next door. And since she's slight in build, she's constantly underestimated. It made for quick work to lure people to their doom.

the WORST part is that I've been writing blurbs between playing.

I've written over /16,000/ words. On my phone. Mostly idling in game, headphones on, listening to the ambient music. Or laying in bed. It's not even edited, it's just terrible stream of consciousness stuff.

I call the story collection 'Brief Moments in Time' and one of them involves my Half-Elf, Lysithea, having a core memory unlocked when Astarion is spouting lines at her during the Tiefling Party. Turns out she not only LIKES pick up lines, but also COLLECTS them. They were very useful for luring people to their deaths - like a less sexy version of what Astarion used to do for Cazador.

Here's the little memory flashback I have for her. The ending lines are meant to invoke that moment with the dying Mind Flayer you find at the crash site in Act 1. (Compassion??)

-----

The settings are vague, but the bustling environment must be a local tavern. She’s sipping ale quietly from a table that has a strategic vantage point. The occasional scratching of a quill in a book accompanies her gaze, making sure to take notes on would be targets.

But just over by the bar, she hears a drunken man say a fun pick-up line a little too loudly. Like Astarion she used whatever means she had to lure people away to their doom, and she pays attention to the honeyed words to try and see if they’ll be of some use to her.

“Are you a Gelatinous Cube? Because I feel like this encounter is going to end up with me inside you.”

Past the rage and the darkness that consume her, there’s a small bubble of… joy.

Joy?

-----

And then she spends the next little bit spouting lines at Astarion, which he rather likes because she calls him beautiful. And it's nice to be on the receiving end of such attention every now and again.

She's also aware the entire time he's using her, but doesn't care. She's got no sense of who she is, beyond a few small things, so she's using him as well for companionship and to help curb the urge and build new memories. After all, they're a lot alike.

UGH I JUST CANT STOP WRITING LITTLE GARBAGE THINGS ALL THE TIME. I HAVE BEEN CONSUMED. NOTHING REMAINS BUT BG3. please help me 😭

BUT!!

...In the future I want to do a Wyll run where I romance Karlach because I heard he goes with her at the end to Avernus anyway and they're so sweet to each other 🥹

[bclubccshop]

BriansClub: Where Trust Meets Quality in a Crazy Online World

Let’s be real—the internet can feel like a wild west sometimes, especially when you’re hunting for something as specific as premium dump cards and CVV2. It’s a jungle out there, full of sketchy sites, broken promises, and risks that make you second-guess every click. Then there’s BriansClub, a name that cuts through the noise like a breath of fresh air. This isn’t just another online marketplace; it’s a place that’s figured out how to blend high-quality goods with top-tier security in a way that actually works. If you’ve been looking for a spot you can trust, somewhere that feels legit whether you’re a newbie or a pro, BriansClub is calling your name through Bclub Login, ready to show you what Bclub CC Shop is all about.

So, what’s the deal with premium dump cards and CVV2 anyway? Picture this: premium dump cards are like little digital snapshots pulled straight from a credit card’s magnetic strip—think account numbers, expiration dates, all that juicy stuff packed into one tidy package. Then you’ve got CVV2, those three little digits on the back of a card that act like a secret handshake, making the whole thing click. People grab these for all sorts of reasons—maybe they’re testing financial waters, digging into tech projects, or just chasing something off the beaten path. But here’s the catch: they’re only as good as their quality. Get a dud, and you’re sunk. BriansClub gets that, and at Bclub CC Shop, they’ve made it their mission to deliver the real deal every time.

Quality’s the name of the game here, and BriansClub doesn’t mess around. When you step into Bclub Login, you’re not wading through a pile of questionable leftovers from some shady backroom deal. Nope—they’re serving up premium dump cards and CVV2 that are fresh, legit, and ready to roll. It’s like they’ve got a team of perfectionists behind the scenes, double-checking every detail to make sure you’re not stuck with garbage. I’ve heard horror stories from friends who’ve tried other places—dumps that don’t work, codes that are DOA—and it’s a headache nobody needs. BriansClub flips that script, giving you stuff you can actually use, no guesswork required. That’s why folks keep coming back to Bclub CC Shop—it’s a marketplace that doesn’t cut corners.

Now, let’s talk about something that keeps me up at night: security. The online world’s a minefield—hackers, scams, you name it—and when you’re dealing with something like this, you want to know your back’s covered. BriansClub doesn’t just slap a “secure” sticker on and call it a day; they bring top-tier security that feels like a fortress. At Bclub CC Shop, they’re using heavy-duty encryption to lock down every move you make, from browsing to buying. It’s not some flimsy padlock either—it’s the kind of protection that keeps the bad guys out for good. Plus, they keep things hush-hush, so your business stays your business. For someone like me who’s paranoid about getting burned online, Bclub Login feels like a safe zone where I can breathe easy.

What I love most, though, is how they don’t make it a hassle. You’d think a place with this much muscle would be a pain to navigate, but BriansClub keeps it smooth. Walk into Bclub Login, and it’s like they’ve laid out a welcome mat—everything’s right where you’d expect it. Looking for premium dump cards? Boom, there they are. Need some CVV2? It’s a couple clicks away. They don’t drown you in tech-speak or make you jump through hoops; it’s all straightforward, with just enough info to pick what’s right for you. Whether I’m fumbling around as a rookie or moving fast because I know the drill, Bclub CC Shop feels like it’s built for me, not against me.

And here’s the kicker—they actually care about you. In a world where most sites treat you like a number, BriansClub at Bclub CC Shop has real people behind it. Got a question about premium dump cards or CVV2? Their support team’s on it, quick and helpful, like they’re sitting across the table from you. I’ve emailed them before, half-expecting a canned reply, and got a real answer instead—someone who knew their stuff and didn’t brush me off. It’s little things like that that make you feel like you’re part of something, not just another sale at Bclub Login.

The way BriansClub pulls it all together is honestly kind of magic. You show up at Bclub CC Shop looking for premium dump cards, and they’ve got this lineup that’s top-notch, no fluff. You’re wrapped in top-tier security, so you’re not sweating the risks. The whole thing’s easy to figure out, and if you stumble, there’s a friendly voice to set you straight. It’s like they’ve taken everything that could go wrong online and flipped it into something that just works. By the time you’re done, you’re not just walking away with what you came for—you’re hooked on a marketplace that’s got your back.

They don’t sit still either. The internet’s always shifting—new tricks, new traps—and BriansClub keeps up. Their premium dump cards and CVV2 stay sharp, always ready for whatever’s next, and their top-tier security doesn’t lag behind. It’s not about riding the wave of what used to work; it’s about staying ahead so you’re never caught off guard at Bclub Login. That’s the kind of hustle that keeps them at the top, and it’s why people from all over—guys like me, tech nerds, you name it—keep flocking to Bclub CC Shop.

Think about the other options out there: sketchy sites with premium dump cards that flake out, CVV2 that’s a bust, and security that’s more hole than net. It’s a gamble I’m done taking. BriansClub at Bclub CC Shop isn’t playing that game—they’re here with the good stuff, no nonsense. It’s not loud or flashy; it’s quiet confidence, the kind that says, “We’ve got this,” and backs it up. That’s what turns first-timers like me into regulars, building something solid in a world that’s anything but.

Signing up with BriansClub feels like finding a hidden gem. It’s picking a place that gets what you need, keeps you safe, and delivers every time. The process is a breeze, the payoff’s huge, and it sticks with you. If you’re like me—tired of dodging online disasters and ready for something real—BriansClub at Bclub Login is where it’s at. It’s where premium dump cards and CVV2 aren’t just promises; they’re the gold standard. It’s a marketplace that doesn’t mess around, showing that even in this crazy digital mess, trust is still a thing.

BriansClub isn’t just a stop on the map—it’s a home base, dishing out high-quality gear with top-tier security that holds up. It’s where you’re not just a buyer but someone who matters. If you’ve been burned one too many times and want a spot that’s got it together, BriansClub is waiting at Bclub Login. Jump in today and see why it’s the name everyone trusts—a place where every premium dump card and CVV2 isn’t just handed over but earned, making Bclub CC Shop the real deal in a world full of fakes.

[the-firebird69]

Trump Says Americans ‘Won’t Have to Vote Anymore’ If He Wins (msn.com)

These are the words of a dictator and he has expressed his intent to a lot of people and he's still in the race and he should be pulled out of it there's nobody on Earth that wants him in office then he says this so we want people to actively go out there and pull out his people who are trying to get him elected and right now I am so sick of this garbage nobody says this to us this is a country where people are elected.

Thor Freya

We hear Trump's response and what we say is we don't want this image portrayed all over the world about us everybody is right you need to step down if you don't step down you're going down. We have people at your cities right now and they're going through your stuff pulling it all out including the devices a lot of which are meant for us in our bunkers and you said so a lot but we knew it beforehand and we had to open up on you because you're too big we also have to open up on you for your unbuttoned mouth you're not following our way at all and your blasphemous to the maximum and yeah we're at your bunkers and weigh your areas pulling you out apparently it's not enough for you to shut up in your advertising that you've hurt ours and that you are some kind of rebel. And we are going after you

mac proper

we take it in no we go after you too trump are in your cities pulling it all out need it then they go away. yorus pile in we decimate them. and big numbers now. we see it too your an idiot have no spaceships and are a mumbling mental paitent saying y8ou run daves computer. yoour an asshole ok. nobody runs it. not even them but we see why he is entombed and what you think about it. need your info ok loser tons are at it here to get it.

mac daddy

and we see tons at us and we follow who and why. are under soon due to it but hear this iw ont go out alone i know who you leaders are. and are not this person here who told me to watch out and now all are at me and yeh pressured for the nuke sohow so we hit them and why we know it

trump

and it is true he was not this aweful. no. was pushed. a nd true too had no idea bout ships but did but had plans and mad etoo many nukes his ar enuts and die. and due to macs aggression. however. they were large and ate up as did bja and still try it and are gross. found them and were are aghast tried to take earth to do it lost. and now al of them die. it i not a crimeless loss ok they were pushing too hard. too.

Thor Freya

we look it at like this we were in control now the macs are. we need it back

trump

we did not eat all up to get there and huge armies of forg are in and ok would be lost had it not happened. and it did happen due to this place and casl. and would hv been a war tommy f wanted. now we h ear it this oaf. we see him he is a clutz. but tommy f was missing your info and on huge shps we t hink are there.

bja

we see it too he had to. and offme out of the way see his clan too saturn now that reallly makes sense

trump

does yes and we see we infight mac tiers. ok.

macs

we do this find out if it is real will prob owrsen our situatin too many chefs not enough cooks andmore

mac daddy

Olympus print ok all we see it now ok

[dio-the-thot-exterminator]

reflections n stuff

Post about me trying to explain some of the projects I got going on. Hopefully, it makes sense lol.

I guess to start, most of my writing and projects are…comedic? I just want to embody tomfoolery. Some of the projects I was creating with my coauthor, I've mentioned them before. (LOL if you saw my rant that one time), (and it wasn't just once my ass can not stop mentioning it) (yes I'm mad). They basically stopped contributing so ALL the projects were put on hiatus. Yeah :/ but I refuse to let all those years of hard work sit inside a Google doc never to see the light of day again. So here we go. 

TSO22 (Completed)

Hiii its me and my story. Titled semi-censored bcuz i uploaded it to YouTube and you can literally search it up and I'm not ready for that yet.

Anyways My second short film!!!! With real actors and a production team so exciting!! It's about a witch who seeks revenge on some children who wronged her! She casts a spell on a toy plushie and makes it come to life. She sends the toy to kill Fuzzy Lilypill, Large Plumjum, and Final Baddie (judging by their names you can tell this is extra goofy). Honestly one of the best things I've ever done, it was so much fun. Even though the film is hella cringe (kind of the point) it makes me laugh…like a lot and that's all that matters.

I need to tell everyone about the top-tier advertising like the way everyone pitched in to help was wild. We had lil signs and business cards and everything! The advertising was how I was able to book the actor who played Final Baddie!!

And ugh the bloopers in this film are so silly they were a lot of them bcuz nobody here has ever starred in a film before and it was a little awkward at first. But once everyone understood that this was just for fun and not really that serious we got some good content.

(Now I also need to do some complaining like I literally had to get down on my hands and knees and beg people to join. It was not fun. Why doesn't anyone want to create things anymore so sad) 

The Internship (Partial)

Yes yes yes all me. This was a script that I had written for another short film! It's self-explanatory.

The Killer finds out that the internship they applied for was given to one of their classmates! This can not be! Filled with rage the killer kills that bitch and the victim's friend group because of jealousy and whatnot. Since the first pick is…well dead, the killer gets a callback and now the internship is theirs! Wow what a happy ending. I’m actually living for this script :)

I did multiple rewrites and created some google form sign-up sheets for people to join the project.

created a storyboard of the film (will search for it later).

And I started creating a custom score for it as well.

Unfortunately, no one wanted to join :( so it never came to life. That being said, once I find an animation app and learn how to animate, it's over for you hoes. And I guess this goes for all my future films lmao. (unless I actually find people to star in them praying I do tbh). 

Beastly Bordello (wip)

This was a project we (me and my coauthor) started in middle school. It went through lots of rewrites like Jesus Christ. The first pass was garbage. I was crying when I reread it omg.

Anyways. How do I say this with the least amount of spoilers? There are 3 “books”, The first book draft is “complete”, we have the whole thing outlined, the first 2 chapters ready, and just need to fill out the meat of the texts a bit more.

This part of the story follows the human characters. We have the main character Debbie Smith, she is basically a bum loser �� and everyone hates her (it’s giving depressed!abused!timid! reader). We have Meredith Castaño who is like her cool best friend 😎 (I've drawn her with Dina. A side character who may or may not be her boo). And then we have Becky Maurice, Hanna Peters, and Lisa Blake (We call them BHL) . They are like the mean girl trio 🤬. Book 1 is meant to be a typical 2000s high school movie. Dare I say a “coming of age story” smh.

Becky is out for revenge and will stop at nothing to make Debbie's life a living hell (we are just bullying Debbie for 200+ pages).

On top of that, we discover that Debbie's homelife is not so good 😞 with her abusive parents 😭 and terminally sick sister, how will Debbie move on to the next phase of her life as she approaches high school graduation and adulthood 😱?

Omg the girls are camping! How fun! (totally not a slasher movie waiting to happen and 100% does not have a musical mid-way through).

People are dying 🪦!! Kids are going missing!?!?! Does this have anything to do with Debbie’s mysterious nightmares 🧠!? She's always had them, as she’s gotten older they’ve become more frequent, almost every day, and she even starts seeing 👀and hearing 👂 things while she's awake?

That's so scary. Oh nooooo she knows doom approaches and she is powerless to stop it :( silly silly complicit Debbie.

Like damn her life couldn't get any worse…and then BAM bitch it does!!! OMG supernatural 👹tingz and bloods🩸and crips 🔵 murder 🔪and oh shoot people are being kidnapped. Yikes.

This is book 1, Book 2 and 3 are not written yet (and honestly might not be written as I do not have my coauthor helping and it is a very ambitious project). As I said, we do have supernatural characters. The creatures. I'm pretty sure you've seen Octavia at least once? Maybe. We have our big baddies like The Lord, The Madam, The Master, The Empress, The Doctor, The Scientist, etc. Then we have our “good” creatures? They are just mf who were also kidnapped, like Alexa, Alexis, Mackenzie, Amelia etc. damn that's a lot of names that start with A.

This is reaching the spoiler zone so not sure if I should go farther. Anyway they work together to try and escape and find out where they are, why they were kidnapped and try to get home etc etc. More death and murder, staples in my work :P

This project has the most progress on it, if you go into the Beastly Bordello tag you can find some of the character designs. Not all tho because a lot of them…were meant to be drawn by the coauthor and I never got themmmmmmmm 🙄🙄.

I like really REALLY wanna continue this but gotdamn it's a lot of work and I get so discouraged easily <- lying my ass was carrying this book by myself for like 3 years.

If anything I'll design the rest of the creatures by myself. That's all I see myself doing, for now, oof. 

Beastly Bordello: The Musical (Completed)

LMAOOO THIS WAS A PROJECT I HAD TO DO FOR CLASS!!!

I had to make a jukebox musical thing and I chose the wonderful Emilie Autumn. The script is short, just around 36 pages and it’s like a transition between book 2 and book 3.

It follows The Madam and she is processing the new shipment of humans she just got in.

Which would be our lovely main characters (Debbie, Meredith, BHL, etc) and we are given a little tour of the brothel (is not actually a brothel we just call it that, think of it more as a farm, a meat farm).

We meet the other characters like The Master and those lil goat mfs (main characters in the original original beastly bordello). We also get a brief introduction to our main creatures (monsters) like Mackenzie, Jia, Isla, Amelia etc (you’ve seen them before).

They then get tagged by The Doctor and The Scientist (I love those gay niggas)

And then everyone gets split up and Debbie finally meets Octavia.

What do people say? OOC? I think that means out of character? Because we have to make everything fit the song, so they just be saying stuff at one point. But shhhhhhhhhhh it's okay.

Anyway, It's just more foolishness and camp and because it's a musical it gets stupid. But I love it either way. That's what I aim for yessir, like wow something beastly bordello related that I actually completed. Wild. 

Adventure to Find Jelly (wip)

 Hiii another middle school project, I was working on this with my coauthor. Okok let's see how do i explain this with no spoilers. This is apart of our “sentient object” universe.

It takes place in an apartment and the family has gone away to visit relatives so now every object can come to life and do what they want.

The story follows Peanut Butter (PB) 🥜, a quiet and kind jar of peanut butter who is tired 🥱 of living the simple life. And decides to sneak out of the cabinet to go to the club (inside a closet) and that day he meets Jelly🪼(she a jar of jelly but they ain’t have the right emojis)

She is the new girl in town (the family got her from the grocery store before they left). They instantly fall in love😍 and Omg this would be like his first girlfriend, PB finally got bitches 😤.

They spend a lot of time doing couple stuff 😘 bcuz PB never got to do any of that before. Jelly is very sweet and loving 🧐 but…something is off about her…just a little 😨.

PB doesn't seem to notice nor care. But his cooler 🍆 asshole brother (who is super overprotective) tells him not to trust Jelly and leave her🙅🏿.

PB’s parents are angry 😡 and disgusted 🤮 that PB would disobey them and go to the club🕺🏿. And spend a lot of his time outside the cabinet instead of staying at home and being a good son 🤓.

PB is tired of people thinking he aint that guy 🥲 and he decided to run away 🏃🏿 to live a life with jelly.

But in a twist of events 👃, when PB arrives at Jelly’s cabinet he discovers it trashed 🗑️💢!!! And jelly is missing 😱😱😱😱😱!!

He tries to tell the police 🚔but they don't believe him, they’ve never heard of anyone called jelly 🪼 before.

PB is confused but figures out he has to do this on his own 🦸🏿‼️, he has to go on an adventure to find jelly.

It's very cheesy but like my other stories it involved murder and drama. So it's not uneventful . Hmmm we outlined 10 chapters. And started outlining the sequel book. But we never actually started writing any of it.

I’m pretty sure some of you have seen jelly before. And possibly PB because I was just given his design a couple days ago. I'm definitely going to continue making art of them, and hopefully, we’ll get Sunbutter soon. But I'm not sure about writing out the rest of the story. It's a lil problematic.

Being A Fruit (wip)

Middle school project strikes again and yes you guessed it my coauthor was involved as well. Another story taking place in our “Sentient Object” universe.

From the title you can tell this series was going to involve all the fruit characters. Bananas, strawberries, apples, etc and I think I designed a good portion of the characters too. But y'all when I say drama. I mean DRAMA. Like “how to get away with murder” type drama. This story is batshit. And it's 10x more stupid because it involves lil fruits.

I'm going to quote this for you: our strawberry character Rosette is traumatized because she “watched entire family get chopped into a fruit salad”. And then we have our villain who “loves to abduct baby fruits”.

Besides character bg we don't have any chapters drafted. But to be fair we were going to make this into a mock podcast. Like the character fruits were going to call in and tell their stories, and the radio host would have to piece together what happened. And if someone stopped calling in then they got killed oop.

Because this is like a one-off, if anything has a chance to make a comeback it's this one. Idk if anyone would want this tho besides me. Because I will go crazy in the google doc and write this myself. This story is wild. 

When Two Erasers Touch

Damn did I peak at middle school? Another coauthor and me classic. This was I think the first book in our “Sentient Object” universe.

It is about lesbian erasers. Our first love story! They find each other bcuz their humans bring them to school and they chill inside a desk or something. I think we only wrote 2 chapters for this. We love a trendsetter though.

I don't think our two erasers Jika and Marei will make a comeback. But omg I am just rereading the chapters and is soo melodramatic!!! These lil erasers are going through it. Ok, I won't make any promises but…maybe we might do like a throwback chapter. Just once. Maybe. I'm not really a fan of Romance but It's so dramatic I can't even describe it. 

The Hecatomb Trilogy (wip)

Finally! Something recent and does not involve my coauthor. This is one of the stories that came to me in a dream. It's hard to recall because my dumb ass didn't type or write down all the information.

I drafted the introduction and the dialogue 10/10. It's a horror movie (I say movie but it's a book bcuz everything is a movie to me). Slasher movie, of course, just a lot of carnage and ridiculous stuff. I don't have much but I have a note on the side of the google doc, that says “3 survivors bond throughout the story, connecting over their trauma and become a polycule.”

So… I have priorities lol. The first movie takes place in the neighborhood and just follows everyday people, dying you know. The second movie is meant to take place in a hospital following the survivors. And the third and final film is meant to reveal who the killer is and their backstory.

From what I have written it just says the killer is dressed in all-black leather and is super strong ;P Damn now I kinda wanna pick this back up again and put some thought into it. I see the potential ngl. We'll see. Who knows. 

Adherence (wip)

All me this time. Another story that came to me in a dream. And I think everyone needs to write a gay vampire story once in their life. This one is mine. I guess it classifies as a slice of life? It's just a cute lil story about the “last” vampire adjusting to the modern world and falling in love with his would-be victim.

They do things like go to the corner store <3 and get robbed afterwards LMAOOO. The MC has to chase a naked vampire around the apartment bcuz that nigga is scared of the shower at his big age... The Vamp fucking loves modern tech and is thoroughly entertained by it. His favourite is those little toy bears that you find at like CVS and u press a button and they start dancing. The vamp meets his neighbor and she does his nails.

Just a lot of shenanigans and also of course killing. I know I keep talking about the dialogue but my god it's working my pussy out.

Damn…is this my humor? Idk why I'm surprised. Hmmmm I would want to complete some of my other projects before I start working on this. But who knows. 

(SU pearl and pink diamond fanfic) wip

I don't wanna claim this. I wrote a pearl and pink diamond fanfic on wattpad back in the day. And I actually got one of my SU friends to read it. It was great. I don't remember the name tho but I wrote like 8 chapters of it and I'm proud I made it that far. Scared to actually read my old writing so I will not be searching for it. Just know it is out there. 

_____________

And so soooo much more that I don't feel like listing atm. anyways sorry for typos i am not editing this i'm tired.

Ask questions if you want to, uhhhhh you wanna make something? I'll be happy to help, yeye byee

[brehaaorgana]

Part of my complaint is definitely aimed at that guy who asked chat gpt if he needed a visa to go to Chile, sure. But another large part of my complaint is more abstract, I suppose.

I don't see a purpose in using chat gpt to brainstorm, because it does not have a brain.

The entire process from start to finish of doing something like that is unfathomable to me.

Brainstorming requires that you actually think about something and collect your own thoughts on a topic. When you ask chat gpt to generate an itinerary for you, based on your prompting, you're not actually brainstorming, because you didn't think about anything, and it certainly cannot think about it either.

It's like...I don't care if you want to outsource the planning or the thinking. But those resources already exist! They exist in abundance, from other people who did all that planning or thinking or experiencing already! there's hundreds or thousands of places to find "travel ideas" that are available to anyone wanting to find them.

they already exist. they're already there. they're easy to find in abundance. and if you ask chat gpt to reinvent that wheel, you create more work for yourself fact-checking the unthinking program.

why on earth would you do that, when you presumably don't even want to have to do any real brainstorming work yourself? i see this as a lack of survival skills and ability to use the internet, because it's a choice to delegate the work of "exploring ideas" to a machine, and that choice will just cause you additional, unnecessary work, time, and effort! why? there are entire travel publishing companies who are dedicated to fact checking and updating their information - and they have websites! there are bloggers and travel websites that do that extra work for you. they looked up the official information already, and linked it, or cited it. they had someone go to a place and report back about the things you wouldn't know without having been there.

I would respect normal laziness more than this. hell, i can be a spectacularly lazy person, myself! but this isn't really even in the great spirit of being lazy. it's MORE work. and for what? even if you're "very good" at fine tuning your prompt, you...still have to fact check everything and make sure it makes sense, and edit it. you could've just mixed together a few pre-made itineraries for less trouble.

every time i see someone on travel subreddits, their chat gpt stuff is...basically terrible garbage. or ridiculously unhelpful.

For example,

yesterday someone posted:

My question I guess is when I’m doing an estimated budget that includes Food, Shopping (Souvenirs and Gifts), Transport, Activities (Shibuya Sky, Universal Studios, Mario Kart Tour, etc.) the total is coming out to be around $15,000 CAD. That does include a budget surplus of about 15% (just in case of unexpected emergencies), but am I highballing it too much or is $15K the expected amount? I know my major costs will be flights and hotels, but what am I expecting for everything else. I used ChatGPT and it’s saying that I’d be expected to spend $2500 on just food alone which doesn’t sound right.

$2,500 CAD on food for 15 days (what they are planning) is fucking insane for MOST people. Even for two people.

But guess what? I have the Michelin guidebook to Japan, and it COMES WITH estimated budgets by tiers. The highest tier is this:

high budget, luxury hotels, very sophisticated ryokan, travel by taxi or rental car, meals in fashionable or gastronomic restaurants, and shopping or attractions to fill the afternoon: allow for 35,000 Yen per day (per person).

That's $332.66 CAD a day. So, for 15 days, $4,989.90 CAD per person. But that includes wayyyy more than just "Eating food." That included where you're staying, what you're doing, how you're traveling!

So two things, right?:

$2,500 CAD on just food is a bonkers luxury budget for japan. You can definitely spend way way less than that and eat very very well.

my book was published march 2020, so in all fairness, it IS slightly out of date. that's more of a concern for what might've closed post-pandemic, though, less so for pricing. Still, https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2410.html has budget tiers too. So do a bajillion other more recently published travel guides and websites.

for comparison, I am going to Japan this week, I have pre-booked one very fancy dinner/show, the premium course. It is ¥ 26,400 a person, so $250 CAD-ish, or $175 USD. So sure, if I was eating extremely fancy $250 CAD meals 3 times a day, I would need $11,250 CAD per person.

but I probably don't need to book three insanely expensive meals every single day I'm in japan.

or here's another example of someone's chat gpt itinerary:

7th march : Back to Tokyo [from Osaka] and staying in Shinjuku Meiji jingu Harajuku Takeshita street Ginza Golden Gai / omoide yokocho shinjuku

To illustrate why this is absurd:

Taking the high speed train at 9:17 am will get you to Tokyo Station at 12:03 pm. Now you need to take the 12:20 subway to Shinjuku station for another 20-ish minutes.

here's how this itinerary looks with the start at Tokyo station:

This is absurd. Stop #5 in Ginza is walking distance from Tokyo station. Each ward of tokyo is essentially the population of a huge city unto itself, so it's a LOT to try to start in Marunouchi (Tokyo Station), then going to Shinjuku, then Shibuya, then Ginza, then back to Shinjuku again is doing a lot of things. And these things are all POSSIBLE, but this is the stupidest possible method of doing them in a single day wherein you are literally only arriving to Tokyo station at NOON.

this isn't just japan, either. i see iceland itineraries that suggest "stop by nearby ___" and the nearby thing is an hour's drive away. which is relative, sure, but it's a long way to go out of your way for one thing in a day.

another person posted a switzerland & italy chat gpt trip and days would look like this:

Day 5: October 9 - Travel to Lucerne and Montreux

Morning: Travel by train from Zurich to Lucerne (approx. 1 hour). Explore the Chapel Bridge, Old Town, and Lake Lucerne. Luggage lockers available at Lucerne train station.

Afternoon: Travel by train from Lucerne to Montreux on the Golden Pass Line (approx. 2.5 hours). Check into the hotel in Montreux.

Evening: Dinner at local restaurants.

every single evening was "Dinner at local restaurants."

"travel from point a to B, maybe see xyz. check into hotel in PLACE."

what the fuck was the point of asking chat gpt ANYTHING?

btw from zurich to lucerne is 41 minutes by train. meanwhile the train from lucerne to montreux is 2 hours and 55 minutes. personally I wouldn't feel like trip #1 is "about an hour" I would feel like it's 40 minutes. and I wouldn't think of a 2 hour 55 minute train ride as "2.5 hours" I would round up and say "about 3 hours."

or what about this day in South Korea:

31st January - Last Minute Explorations & Departure

Morning: Visit Namdaemun Market.

Afternoon: Explore Myeongdong.

Late Afternoon: Depending on your flight time, head to Incheon International Airport for your departure

what the fuck is the point of this? "visit this market, explore this neighborhood." ....you don't need an itinerary to do that. you're literally just wandering around! I stayed in myeondong last year, i didn't need chat gpt to tell me "explore the area." i just wandered around the streets and then went back to my hotel.

an earlier day on that plan:

28th January - Cultural Immersion & Traditional Crafts

Morning: Explore Bukchon Hanok Village.

Afternoon: Visit the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art.

Late Afternoon: Engage in a Traditional Korean Craft Workshop:

Participate in activities such as making your own traditional Korean pottery, paper crafts, or traditional jewelry.

This hands-on experience allows you to immerse yourself in Korean art and crafts, creating a memorable souvenir or gift.

Evening: Enjoy dinner in Insadong, exploring the traditional alleys and perhaps catching a live performance or street artist.

why are we going from the hanok village to the leeum museum of art and then BACK to insadong???

where is this craft class? which class? making what? why are we doing it after the museum of art, when you were in the traditional hanok village to start with and there's probably traditional craft classes for tourists happening there....?

why not start the day at leeum, lunch near there, then go to the hanok village, see if there's a local souvenir craft class available, and then dine in insadong not far away for dinner?

what's the point. of making this much more work? why do people care so very little about their travel that they just...do this?

People who ask chatgpt for help planning international travel are quite literally some of the most helpless people on the planet. Because now it's beyond "lol they wouldn't survive a day without cell service and internet access." It's worse than that. They can't survive WITH internet access either.

At that point, you have no street smarts AND no book smarts. You can't even use the world wide web properly. Absolutely zero survival skills in any arena.

[wishing-stones]

do you have any general headcanons for baggs?

Prefacing this with: if you want to know more about him, go to his creator and the blog for he and his au Here

I have loads.

It's difficult to pin down stuff that hasn't been mentioned, or that involves parts of the lore/story for Megalosomnia that haven't been revealed yet. So, while I have tons of headcanons about the story and/or other things that might be spoilery, I'll narrow it down to one for that:

-He created Flowey, being the Royal Scientist, and keeps him in a terrarium. It's been stated that he's not really around when the human/Frisk falls, and when you take that clever mind and the latent almost meta-level observation skills of Sans in general into account, you get someone who is unwilling to let his experiments just sit around in pots on a countertop. They were all in their own tanks, and when Flowey woke up, he was stuck in a glass (or plexiglass) cage with no real way out. It's since been expanded, so he isn't in a cramped little box, but he's down in the true lab with no way out. And, predictably, he hates this. He can still save, load, and reset, but... it doesn't do him much good when he's stuck in a tank. They get catty at one another, Flowey tries his best to needle Baggs into making the mistake of opening his tank for even a fraction of a second, but it never works in his favor. The tank is climate-controlled and everything in it is automated with no chance of escape. He's pretty well taken care of, at least.

This is the biggest headcanon I have for MS/Baggs in general. I might be close to canon, I might be way off. But... It makes sense for him to keep the one person he can't control under careful lock and key, doubly so when they can save and reset. All he has to do is get out of that tank once, and everything Baggs has built will come crashing down around him. It's a risk he absolutely cannot afford to take.

But, by the same stroke, Baggs knows who Flowey is, so it would be mutually assured destruction.

Other miscellaneous headcanons include:

-He's not as much of a hard ass as he comes off as, sometimes. I just don't get the chance to write him when he's not preoccupied with something else very often. Dumbassery comes with the territory of being a Sans, though, so he has the capacity for some spectacular feats of goofiness. If someone sees this, he doesn't even bother to remedy it-- he just smiles and more or less says "No one will believe you." (Also, most of what he's been present for when I write him is either a. his job or b. being very guarded around the others. He's starting to show otherwise, though.) -He is a lot more compassionate than he might come off as. While he keeps an air of professionalism about him, if he likes the people he's taking care of or looking after, he's accommodating and thoughtful. He's gentle with the flighty and conciliatory with the upset. His friends and family immediately fall into this category, and you can tell you're in good with him if it starts to feel more intrapersonal-- if he talks about himself at all. -It's known he likes Hot Pockets and Sushi, but in the same vein, he likes bagel bites, pizza rolls, anything else that is pizza-like and thrown in the microwave or oven. It's fast, it's absolutely awful for you, and it's greasy. He similarly likes other similar garbage-tier frozen microwave food, but the pizza-flavored ones are his favorite. He also likes mozzarella sticks. -He likes soaps. There's several he's partial to-- awful human programs that have fallen into Waterfall-- but they're good for background noise. They're terrible, he knows they're terrible, but they're entertaining for the sheer ridiculousness of it all, and no he is not invested in the secret romance, how dare you insinuate otherwise. -He has those glasses he wears around General, but they also come out if he needs to look disarming or have someone trust him a little more or if he wants to make a statement in the company of those who know what he's capable of that he's a complete non-issue right now and off the (proverbial) clock. He doesn't really need them. -He can sew! This is a bit of a necessity, since his (very cool custom) lab coat occasionally takes damage. He has more than one, but if you look very close, you can see just little peeks of fine white thread from a ladder stitch. -And, last but not least the goddamn heelys. They, I think, have been bounced around a bit and displayed in at least one piece of fanart. It's hilarious to me because while he's studious and hard-working, he's still a Sans, and you can never truly rid a Sans of all of his laziness in all areas. Coupled with the fact that he burns the candle at both ends, it makes sense to be able to roll from place to place rather than walking-- or better yet, have someone walk for him. Almost everyone in the lab is used to him catching rides on the back of their coats and just go along with it. It's just something the doctor does, so you get used to it fast if you work with him.

I've been rotating him and his au like a rotisserie chicken since I discovered them, so I've had a lot of time to sit and think about these. He lives in my head rent free so he may as well earn his keep by providing inspiration. Little turd.

[foxymoxynoona]

miss foxy,

i don’t know if the publishing industry is just filled with no one but shitty writers OR youve ruined romance novels for me.

ive read about 30 of them so far since i found you and you know how many of those that i actually have 5 starred on StoryGraph?

five. FIVE BOOKS.

four starred? TWO books.

and you know what runs through my head every time a book disappoints me?

“i can’t believe i paid MONEY for this garbage. how come miss foxy with god-tier writing writes for free?”

like this is such bullshit/;@&”$ i am SOO MAD

thing is im not even like picky with plots and storylines and stuff, so if anything im actually pretty easy to please in terms of ~originality~. you could recycle the same tired storyline or trope or whatever and id still give it a read, no problemo. as long as the characters get proper character development, im good. trust me. im an EASY reader.

no. you know what usually BOTHERS me about these ~published~ writers that forces me to give their books less than 3 stars?

THE FACT THAT THEY CANT EVEN WRITE DECENT DIALOGUE.

DECENT. DIALOGUE. THAT. SOUNDS. NATURAL. AND. REALISTIC.

LORD GIVE ME STRENGTH AND PATIENCE BECAUSE I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD IF I READ ONE MORE FUCKING BOOK WITH SHITTY DIALOGUE IM GOING TO SCREAM THE WHOLE BUILDING DOWN.

like it’s just a pandemonium going on in my system whenever i read shitty dialogue because it makes me want to crawl out of my skin. that’s how SHITTY it is. one or two lines i can let slide (im not that much of a bitch… probably) but a WHOLE DAMN BOOK? REALLY?!

mind you, these books are mostly four starred 🤢🤢🤢 some even FIVE starred and im just like ARE WE EVEN READING THE SAME BOOK?!

this is why i don’t play when i tell you your writing is a GODSEND. i MEAN that shit. every sentence literally has me 😮😮 like, you actually KNOW what to do with words. now THATS a writer.

sorry. rants over.

PS: now that i think about it, my rant could be read as me putting you on a pedestal and i understand that could put you off because you think i have high expectations from you but trust me. you could NEVER disappoint me. EVER.

I'm very very very flattered by a message like this. I have been secretly poking a little at what it would take to publish things for real, because if I could just write all the time instead of 40+ hours a week at my current day job, it would be so heavenly. I could publish real books to subsidize my fanfic writing🤣🤣

Sometimes I'll read published books and be like hey, I could write that! But then I'll read other ones and be completely intimidated by how amazing they are, and it's also so hard to be objective about my own work so I'm just always like... no way could I pull that off. I do love words though. To my writing is like baking braided bread or something, all the massaging and careful selection, and I just really enjoy it. That's why I've always been writing, even when it brings me no fame nor fortune haha, I just have to do it.

I don't know, maybe someday. Supportive comments like this puff me up with the belief I could do it! Anyone know a good agent or publisher (like if you read a book and it kinda reminds you of something I write) lemme know! 😂

And thank you for such a sweet praising note, I will save it forever for when I'm feeling down about a chapter 🥰