#I'm also using this as a way to learn how to use vc as a girl again. It's daunting

[bainofjustice]

Kitty's Notes On Episode 2 Of The Payday Web Series

It is really funny to me that they made a “previously on” part for a web show and to recap a episode that clocks in at 6 minutes 

It's funny that Dallas & Houston have time for a very small argument. Also helps set up the insane amount of tension the web show portrays them having

The editing/camrea is so choppy like this isn't a review but omg I had to write that down

Okay it looks like Wolf keeps zip ties on his belt, makes sense both for the game stuff of tying up civis and also is probably helpful for his mechines

Chains and Houston demask INSIDE A FUCKING VAULT post running out of ammo and while they do tell the civis present to not look this is just such a bad idea especially because the vault is basically surrounded by cops 

But also the bromance between Houston & Chains is real, like they're in a bad situation and they plan it out

Also it seems like Dallas and Wolf are the main movers of goods within this heist, I'm not sure they're the best picks but with the limits the gang had at the time I suppose they aren't the worst, it just feels like in general the plan doesn't cater to the real talents of the gang. Which tbh is probably because the web show is meant to be a ad, so they wanted more action which required mostly gun fights and they didn't do fight scenes in a intelligental way 

Also I just realized for some reason Chains is using a damn hand gun meanwhile it's Houston with a assault rifle, which really doesn't seem catered to their skills

I just remembered a little later after writing the above that Chains mentioned being out of ammo for his own assault rifle so not as bad as I thought, still wonder why they didn't switch at any point, like it worked out but yeah

One thing I do like about the action scenes is that the gang uses more than juet guns and use melee attacks as well

Houston is able to flat out flip a guy over and steal his gun, I feel pretty confident in saying Houston has probably taken some hand to hand combat lessons.

Also it appears that both Dallas and Wolf are using assault rifles which makes sense given their roles in the heist.

WE GOT A WILHELM SCREAM!!!

In better lighting it seems Wolf actually has a shotgun which is even better for him actually 

We see the escape driver when Dallas and Wolf are ambushed at the escape van, he appears to be at most middle age, white, brown hair, slightly fatter build and wears a black hoodie with a band or event tee-shirt under the hoodie, grabbing a pic to see if I can locate the shirt later.

We see several of Vlad's men during the ambush including who we later learn seems to be his right hand / personal bodyguard

Vlad's intro is so funny to me, like he holds the gang at gunpoint and stalls their escape and this actually manages to end with him getting the gang to work with him, like I am sure that Bain or Vlad carefully planned this part but it could have easily gone wrong if for example Wolf shoot someone without thinking it through, or if a officer managed to follow them to the van, especially since everyone unmasks!

Houston Vc: Do you know these guys?.    Dallas, who is being held at gunpoint vc: does it look like I know these guys?

1. Vlad decides to shout “Bain” while explaining he is a ally, 2. He calls Bain in this instance “Mr Bain” which I find to be a fun detail of characterization and also to how at the time the only people sorta comfortable enough around Bain to be confident when saying his name and such is the core members of the Payday gan

Ah and then Dallas has to go back uncover which requires faking a injury, which he lets Houston do the honors of punching him, only adding to the family feud they seem to have in the web series. Also this one punch is enough to knock Dallas to the ground.

Also funnily Dallas or should I say, “Nathen Steele” is the one to call in the first world bank heist

Bain vapes! We see him vape, we also hear him in game talk about smoking cigars, so either he does both or in my opinion more likely he lies about the details of his smoking habits even to the gang.

We can see that Bain wears a leather jacket with a design on the back & front when in his lair, the design most looks like fire to me but it's very dark, I would love to someday see some behind the scenes footage or something with the costume.

[strixcattus]

...And now I'm thinking about the time travel conlang and how I might want that to work.

I looked up the phrase just to see if I could get inspiration from other time travel–related languages and found Mpiua Tiostouea, the language of all time. It's got some neat concepts, though it was designed to have an... interesting... phonology and I'd definitely make some different choices—which is good! It means I won't be copying ideas when I make my own conlang.

A conlang for time travellers needs to be able to express some complex and seemingly self-contradictory tenses. For instance, I might tell you this sentence:

"After I go to my date with the time worm, I'll text you how it went."

Except today is Thursday, and my date with the time worm, which I'm going to tomorrow, is Wednesday (yesterday), and I plan on jumping again afterwards, but I'm not sure in which direction or how long it'll take me to get around to texting you, and at any rate you only experience time forwards and will certainly receive the text in the next few subjective and objective days.

...Also, while I, the person talking to you, am going to be going to the date and sending the text, I'm not dating the time worm—the date is between myself from three years into the future (as opposed to an alternate version of myself whom I never have been and never will be), I'm spying on it, and also the time worm experiences all of time simultaneously in every universe and thus has no time clones or past/future selves.

...And the groupchat has like three versions of you in it.

A properly time travel–inclusive language should encode all of these things efficiently through the use of creative agreements, pronouns, and tenses.

It should also be inclusive towards people who experience time in reverse. Not those who've lived backwards all their lives—they can learn any language just fine, the same way everyone else does—but people who've found themselves temporarily moving the wrong way through time, despite having learned the language forwards. I think this can be settled by having two acceptable word orderings—one the reflection of the other—and employing asymmetrical particles that indicate important things like proper nouns and sentences, and maybe having a necessarily asymmetrical syllable structure.

Like CV. Every syllable necessarily has one consonant followed by one vowel, unless you're experiencing time backwards relative to your conversation partner, in which case all their speech will sound to you like every syllable is VC, and the same from you to them. That ought to work and to be simple enough that anyone, with any native language from anywhere across time, can pick it up with relative ease.

Then we get to pronouns. Mpieua Tiostoeia has an impressive set of seven grammatical persons, numbered 1–7. I understand and respect the reasoning behind such a choice (and a dedicated grammatical person for antimemes is pretty darn cool), but I'd rather go in the opposite direction:

1st person: I, the one talking to you. 1.5th person: Me, but a different instance of me than the one talking to you. 2nd person: You, the one listening to me. 2.5th person: A different instance of you than the one listening to me. 3rd person: That guy, the one I'm pointing to. 3.5th person: That guy, but an instance of them that's not right here. 4th person: The time worm, which experiences all of time and the multiverse simultaneously.

...Which coincidentally is also seven grammatical persons.

Due to the need to stress subjective and objective time experience for multiple entities, basically everything that can take agreement will agree with the person and gender of whatever it can agree with—most crucially, verbs, which might include tense markings that have to agree with any number of people:

"I'm having a party with these guys last week, do you want to come?"

Where I'm going to the party in the future and inviting you to come along in your subjective future (while acknowledging you may have already been), but some of the people I'm gesturing to have already been to the party and others have yet to go. Also one of them is the time worm. I think this party might be where we met... will meet.. whichever. Both.

Now, when I say gender, I don't mean male vs. female. Time travellers can come from any timeline. Some of them have only one acknowledged gender. Others have three. A few have as many as sixteen, or even more. Some of them plot gender on a four-dimensional spectrum encoded in the phonology of their gender pronouns. The only way to please everyone's idea of what gender trappings deserve encodement is to encode them all equally—that is to say, not at all.

Besides, we're all time travellers here. I don't need to specify how you identify with each word. I want to know if this is you, or your future self, or your evil alternate universe self. That's the kind of gender I'm concerned with.

Which means you can have a mixed-gender group (the three versions of you in the groupchat) that needs to be referred to with... essentially, it'd be something like you (2sg) and you (2.5pl), where you (2.5pl) is gendered both for your past self and for your alternate universe self, which are two different genders.

I think this ought to be my next conlang project. It's been way too long since I really got into one—right now, Yvelse is my only conlang that's not either dead or been in cold storage for the past year+.

[iwtvdramacd18]

...... wolfkiller directors cut ? >.<

Wolfkiller was made firstly bc I fucking love Claudia as a character, and also when rereading TVL I started thinking about the role of "Wolfkiller" and how it functions in Lestat's story as something that sort of rockets him to this more than human figure: both literally through how the 8 wolf killing feat is ultimately what seals his fate wrt Magnus and also metaphorically within the text. Like much of it IS just Anne Rice having character favoritism and bad writing making Lestat the VC's Most Special Boy ever... but then I got to thinking about what it means to have proximity to the role of Wolfkiller, and how in text it entwines with his vampirism and how his vampirism is something that's both very werewolfish in how he describes how it manifests in himself and how he spreads it, but most applicable to Claudia here something that's also passed down through the blood. And I couldn't get the idea of Claudia as a sort of "heir" to this Wolfkiller title; but Lestat is the wolf. He sees his bloodlust and sharpness and hunger in her but he doesn't really fully comprehend that while Claudia might share these traits she's someone still wholly her own (and that's one of the great tragedies of iwtv-- the fact that Claudia is her own person but is unable to fully live as independent Claudia nolastname, that even in death she is being tied to Louis and described in ways that she explicitly did not want to be used for herself).

There's also a very literal reference to TVL in Wolfkiller:

In her vampiric infancy Claudia developed a love/hate relationship with the bayou. She hated how the mud sucked at her good shoes (and Louis echoed this sentiment, you messin up these good shoes for what, Claudia? ) but she was endlessly, almost overwhelmingly fascinated with its life. A cacophony of countless animal hearts beating in different rhythms. All sorts of strange creatures she could scoop from the ground and turn over in her hands. One night she snuck off to count the toes of every frog she could find, then wrote the findings in her diary.

This is inspired by a passage in TVL about Lestat describing his earlier engagements with his enhanced senses as a vampire (page 106 in this edition I'm looking at right now):

To me, their voices became a mixture of sounds like stew bubbling in a pot. All I could think was that the rat had very tiny feet, and that I had not yet examined a rat nor any small warm-blooded creature. I went and caught the rat, rather too easily I think, and looked at its feet. I wanted to see what kind of little toenails it had, and what was the flesh like between its little toes, and I forgot the men entirely.

But Claudia's interest in animal sciences is something that I originally had planned to explore more in another wip that's been shelved for the moment, a sort of second boat scene between her and Louis where she asks Louis more about his childhood and how he learned he was "Louis" and not the daughter he was originally raised as. There's really only one hint about Claudia being non-binary in Wolfkiller and I wish I added more but I hit fatigue pretty bad towards the end and couldn't figure out a way to really fit in more the way I wanted to.

She could see the faint impression as if she’d looked too long at the picture and now was haunted by its afterimage – her as a grown woman, a human, hunched over her desk scribbling on paper. There was too much wrong with it. He’d forgotten she was a vampire, and not a woman. He’d factored too many of his mother’s features into the equation.

I was really worried about writing Louis and Claudia's moments together at first but in the end I really enjoyed them, and I'm hoping to write more fics in season 2 with them interacting. Here's an exchange that didn't make the final cut:

Last thing I can think of rn is the ending, which was a very last minute addition compared to the process of the rest of the story. And I can't even really remember what reminded me of it in the first place? But the ending is actually inspired by the end of the Killing Joke.

One of my headcanons is that Claudia is also very capable of the Lestat fuck ass laugh that everyone hates, and I liked the unease but also sort of Looney Tunes type violent humor in Claudia hitting her "deer" and then the two of them laughing horribly about it.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ASKING!! <3

[ca-suffit]

There's a new interview in which the interviewer asks both Sam Reid and Assad Zaman to describe their characters relationship to Louis. And is so funny to watch how they talk about them side by side.

Because, Sam Reid was like: "You know when you are a vampire there's a loneliness and a real fear people will leave you and Lestat thinks Louis can support being his companion in his inmortal life, and loves his strength and that's what they are soulmates."

Wherareas Assad Zaman is more like "Armand is very selfish in his love for Louis and that's the tragedy of their romance."

[This is paraphrased]

Which neither of them are completely wrong. But it is interesting to note how Sam Reid is more lenient, for the lack of a better word, with his interpretation of Lestat (I think his as selfish a bastard as Armand), and Assad Zaman is less generous with Armand.

I dont know if this is some great insight, but I do find it interesting how the fandom (and some interviewers) also treats their characters in a similar way. Like people are rightly calling Armand on his bullshit and giving him the hate he deserves for directing Claudia's linching, meanwhile forgetting Lestat stared in it.

Also, personally I found Assad Zaman's response to be more unique to Armand, I don't know, something about Sam Reid's made me think he was talking about all/any vampires not just Lestat. And it makes me wonder, if Assad Zaman is able to look at Armand through a more "objective" (still subjective ofcourse but less rose-colored) lense because his character is not being pushed as the favorite (not to say people don't love it) while in the other hand Lestat is said to be the protagonist of next season, so he needs to be seen in a more likeable light, and that is why Sam Reid is more kind to it.

Plus Louis & Lesstat being teased to reunite, meanwhile Louis & Armand finishing this season with the fastest divorce ever.

(PS. Using their full names because I feel weird about using just their first names)

I rly like all the ways ur looking at this and thinking about it. I wish ppl like u could be doing these interviews tbh.

reading this, I was also trying to remember if I knew assad's history with any knowledge of the VC stories beforehand. we all know sam read them as a teenager and all that, but idk about assad. that could also account for their different perspectives.

I do think that lestat and louis getting back together *is* a driving force of a lot of ppl (from cast to fans) softening lestat's actions. although I also wonder why they feel the need to do that tbh (I generally know *why* I'm just saying....it's literally not required tho).

I think there's two ways u could tell this story. most likely, given what they've said, they're leaning towards keeping it romantic and learning from past mistakes. but u could also tell the story of cycles of abuse and being unable to escape them. I think ppl not giving room for others to explore that second option, even if it's unlikely that's gonna be reality, is just shit tbh. let ppl explore things in fiction ffs. especially as a lot of these darker theories are coming from fans of color who are also usually queer and/or trans and don't have many outlets for exploring interracial abuse like this plot has given. shouting down all those experiences to say "well it's not what they're doing so stop talking about it" is fucked up. isn't that what fandom is for?? exploring why things are meaningful to u, using it as a tool to express urself in diff ways and connect with others over it too?? fuck anne rice forever for creating this selfish breed of rotten fans who can't let anyone else exist outside their own warped interpretations and hcs.

I'm kind of getting off topic lol but anyway. lots to think about.

4:05 at the interview here btw

[librarianrafia]

"But there is a yawning gap between "AI tools can be handy for some things" and the kinds of stories AI companies are telling (and the media is uncritically reprinting). And when it comes to the massively harmful ways in which large language models (LLMs) are being developed and trained, the feeble argument that "well, they can sometimes be handy..." doesn't offer much of a justification.

...

When I boil it down, I find my feelings about AI are actually pretty similar to my feelings about blockchains: they do a poor job of much of what people try to do with them, they can't do the things their creators claim they one day might, and many of the things they are well suited to do may not be altogether that beneficial. And while I do think that AI tools are more broadly useful than blockchains, they also come with similarly monstrous costs.

...

But I find one common thread among the things AI tools are particularly suited to doing: do we even want to be doing these things? If all you want out of a meeting is the AI-generated summary, maybe that meeting could've been an email. If you're using AI to write your emails, and your recipient is using AI to read them, could you maybe cut out the whole thing entirely? If mediocre, auto-generated reports are passing muster, is anyone actually reading them? Or is it just middle-management busywork?

...

Costs and benefits

Throughout all this exploration and experimentation I've felt a lingering guilt, and a question: is this even worth it? And is it ethical for me to be using these tools, even just to learn more about them in hopes of later criticizing them more effectively?

The costs of these AI models are huge, and not just in terms of the billions of dollars of VC funds they're burning through at incredible speed. These models are well known to require far more computing power (and thus electricity and water) than a traditional web search or spellcheck. Although AI company datacenters are not intentionally wasting electricity in the same way that bitcoin miners perform millions of useless computations, I'm also not sure that generating a picture of a person with twelve fingers on each hand or text that reads as though written by an endlessly smiling children's television star who's being held hostage is altogether that much more useful than a bitcoin.

There's a huge human cost as well. Artificial intelligence relies heavily upon "ghost labor": work that appears to be performed by a computer, but is actually delegated to often terribly underpaid contractors, working in horrible conditions, with few labor protections and no benefits. There is a huge amount of work that goes into compiling and labeling data to feed into these models, and each new model depends on ever-greater amounts of said data — training data which is well known to be scraped from just about any possible source, regardless of copyright or consent. And some of these workers suffer serious psychological harm as a result of exposure to deeply traumatizing material in the course of sanitizing datasets or training models to perform content moderation tasks.

Then there's the question of opportunity cost to those who are increasingly being edged out of jobs by LLMs,i despite the fact that AI often can't capably perform the work they were doing. Should I really be using AI tools to proofread my newsletters when I could otherwise pay a real person to do that proofreading? Even if I never intended to hire such a person?

Or, more accurately, by managers and executives who believe the marketing hype out of AI companies that proclaim that their tools can replace workers, without seeming to understand at all what those workers do.

Finally, there's the issue of how these tools are being used, and the lack of effort from their creators to limit their abuse. We're seeing them used to generate disinformation via increasingly convincing deepfaked images, audio, or video, and the reckless use of them by previously reputable news outlets and others who publish unedited AI content is also contributing to misinformation. Even where AI isn't being directly used, it's degrading trust so badly that people have to question whether the content they're seeing is generated, or whether the "person" they're interacting with online might just be ChatGPT. Generative AI is being used to harass and sexually abuse. Other AI models are enabling increased surveillance in the workplace and for "security" purposes — where their well-known biases are worsening discrimination by police who are wooed by promises of "predictive policing". The list goes on.

[monstersinthecosmos]

Do you think the show really will be cancelled? And do you think the awful part of the fandom that sprung up from it will go away anytime soon if it does?

tbh I really don't know enough about the show to have an opinion on that. I'm not really interested in hate-watching or lurking in fandoms that I don't belong to LOL so I'm not really on the inside of any gossip about how it's looking behind the scenes and I don't really want to speculate because I know I don't have all the information. I think this question is for people who are more invested or have more industry knowledge than I do!

As far as the "awful" part, if you mean fandom casual normies who travel from fandom to fandom like locusts to harass people until all the creators give up: Yes, they will move on. I think sometimes in fandoms you get like, casual normies who discover there's a subculture of nerds they can harass, and they do that for a couple years until it either gets boring or their personality grows enough to have more productive passions, and there's also fandom lifers who actually like, care about their thing (probably in a ND fashion tbh) and are usually the ones who stick around and make all the content that everyone else wants to consume.

The casual normies also just tend to have such underdeveloped senses of self that they join tumblr bc it's the thing to do, and pick a fandom because it's a thing to do, and they spend their whole time fandoming in such a deep state of denial that this might be a real hobby and there might be real people participating that they just neg everybody and shit on it the whole time for being cringe without realizing that they're here too lol. Like the amount of times a bully has tried to shame someone for being too passionate, and used "it's not that deep" as a conversation stopper, etc. These folks will move on because they're here because they're bored, not because they actually are POSSESSSED by the THING. (and hey, if you joined a fandom because you're bored THAT'S GREAT that's how we all got here in the first place, but don't shit on the carpet lol please be respectful to the space you just intruded upon!)

So a show going off the air isn't going to deter the people who actually love it. I mean, my other fandom is Sheith and that show was A. Terrible, B. Over in 2018, and the fandom is still going strong because a lot of people genuinely love the characters. I'd even say the same of VC book fandom, especially considering how much of the fandom falls off after the trilogy, and that ended like, 30 years ago LOL.

The thing about fandoms is that they're self-generating, right? And if you're one of the deep fandom nerd lifers you'll learn this if you haven't yet. Even AMC fandom; S1 ended a year ago and fandom is going strong. Part of it is the hope and hobby of watching news drip out - SURE! But it's also the fanart and fics and meta and conversation. The season is what, like, 7 hours long? And I'm SURE that the deep nerd lifers have spent way way way way way more hours than that reading fanfiction by now. And fanfics can really supplement a canon and give people ideas and deepen their love of the source. So I'm positive that there are people out there who have been moved to tears by fic and feel so strongly about THOSE stories, as well, and it just deepens their love of the show when they return to rewatch.

From 2016-2018 I exclusively read Yuri on Ice fic and there was only one season. And that season is even shorter! It's like 4.5 hours of canon! But when I think about YOI I am thinking about like multitude of NOVELS I've read about it, not JUST the 4.5 hours of canon, right?

All fandoms are like this. Fanworks are the lifeblood. And even with book fandom's lack of fic, I still feel that the friends I've made are the experience here, and how we can chatter all day & night about Armand forever and never get tired of it because we're all ND weirdos lol. I mean my Armand friends and I just spent a week in New Orleans together, it was the best! And as a fanfic writer, I will ALWAYS want to dedicate my free time to writing stories and talking about the blorbos, and I share those stories because fandom is self-generating and I want to do my part in keeping it alive. People create stuff and make friends and stick around well past the death of canon because they are POSSESSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I hope that one day when the show is finished that the bad actors get bored and move on and the creators and true fans stick around and keep making stuff, because bullying people and being a cunt uses up a LOT of energy that could be better spent on productive and creative hobbies when they're ready to heal themselves and grow up. It's just not sustainable! :)

[pompompinkdandelions]

I beat Pokémon Crystal for the first time!

As i played through Pokémon Crystal for the first time, I simultaneously felt regret at not having grown up with the pokémon series and overwhelmed at how different the older games are!

I enjoyed the music and delightful 8-bit pokémon designs. There's something very charming about the overall presentation. Importantly, I was so happy to play as a female character! It was a lot of fun discovering this region for the first time, even though it was difficult at times to change my play style to accommodate this older title.

I have played games with HMs before, but I guess its been a while. And playing this just really feels like constantly having a doduo peck at your head... reminding you incessantly how annoying HMs are. Almost as annoying as HMs are the waaaaayyyy too frequent phone calls! I was happy at first to see a way to rebattle and earn more money and xp, but by Arceus did I not yet realize how often the trainers would call. It's so bad It makes me question if it was ever playtested at all. It's so disruptive!

This is my first game without the fairy type, and without experience share. So that's been a learning curve as well. I feel quite spoiled by the newer games in how much less grinding is required to have a decent team. Of course, I always support the players that want a more challenging experience, but for me... I don't want to go back to the grind fest lol. Admittedly, I had to spend a lot of time readjusting my team as I learned some differences with this older game, and that inflated my playtime. Fortunately, it wasn't that bad. I did a lot of mindless grinding on Victory Road while walking on the treadmill or watching documentaries, so it didn't feel like I was really wasting my time lol.

Given the tech this was originally released on, the chip music is delightful and the Pokémon sprites look great. The encounter music in particular stood out to me and some of the pokemon have such expressive little poses! I swear Graveler never looked cuter. Meganium didn't really serve me particularly well as my partner pokemon, but Sweetpea was cute so oh well lol. I always disliked Jynx, but I got a shiny Smoochum in my odd egg. She ended up being my MVP big time. Thank you, Belinda. I'm sorry I was ever harsh with you! Pupperoni the Arcanine also served me well. And Spicey Gee, my shiny gyarados was welcomed into my party as well. Ms. Pidgey was nice to have in a pinch, and Last Hope the Lanturn was a last minute addition to help with my battle against Lance. I actually took very little damage and never used any potions so I guess I did alright lol.

I have to admit I don't often dabble in pokémon postgames, but I suppose I'm not experiencing the full game if I stop now. So I will fight the urge to move on and see what Kanto has in store for me! Plus, I have to catch the legendaries at the very least.

I do have some complaints with my experience on virtual console. A lot of optional features in Pokémon Crystal were meant for the Gameboy Printer, and while obviously they couldn't support that, they absolutely COULD have tweaked those and other features to work on 3DS, including online trading. None of that matters now though, as Nintendo has shut down support for the 3DS anyway, but STILL. It is a bit of a bummer I can never complete my pokedex if I wanted to.

So with this Johto experience behind me, the only other region I have never visited is Unova! The next pokémon game I play will probably be Black or White!

--------

For clarity, my Kanto experience was Let's Go Eevee and I have never played R/B/Y or FR/LG. I own Red on VC.

My Hoenn experience was Omega Ruby, and I first explored Sinnoh in Shining Pearl.

In the future, I'd love to play SoulSilver and Platinum.

[celestialmint]

Twitter alternatives (WIP)

Collecting some pros and cons (with sources if I can find them) for various platforms. I'm neurodivergent, this is how I cope with my stress, figured I'd share if it helps anyone! I'm looking for a place that vibes with my values (LGBTQ+, BIPOC, disabled, anti-hate, NSFW friendly, and preferably has boundaries against generative AI stealing art/writing etc.).

I welcome any comments/sources that people have as so many of us are trying to figure this out!! Updating as I find more options/learn more

Tumblr:

My experience: I used Tumblr back before the NSFW ban and am just coming back this year, I find it easy to use and filter content I do and don't want to see. But I struggle to feel a sense of community here (I haven't talked to anyone directly through this platform in the years I have used it, though I do appreciate the silly tags on my art!! keep them coming!)

Pros: As far as I'm aware (I used the site back in the popular days, so I'm just coming back to it): does not use posts for gen AI, does not ban queer/bipoc/disabled content. Many fandoms have a large base here.

Cons: cannot post NSFW, anything vaguely near NSFW can be flagged even if it is not sexual

Twitter:

My experience: I have been on Twitter for about a year, I've found a bunch of mutuals and enjoy interacting with people there. But I can't support the direction M*sk is taking things and don't want to post my art on that platform anymore.

Pros: Large user base/far reach including international, can post NSFW but it can sometimes be limited in the algorithm

Cons: M*sk, shadowbans/bans of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC content, arbitrary bans/flags for NSFW, will use posts for AI, bots, hate speech, and harassment of marginalized groups are getting worse

Discord:

My experience: I've used discord for at least 7 years and use it daily as my primary form of communication with friends (and my husband one room away).

Pros: Large user base, most gamers have it, easy way to communicate on mobile and desktop, fun bot integration

Cons: Hard to find your people, most servers are closed systems that you don't know exist, and being in dozens of servers can be difficult to keep track of/keep up with. Each server is run by a person and could disappear without any notice if they rage quit and delete it, the rules are also up to that person. It makes it hard for artists to get a broader reach unless they have their own userbase from another platform feeding into it. Mentions of using user content (VC?) for AI training. They combined the dev for iOS and Android and the mobile app has been AWFUL since then (constantly says connecting every time I go to the app, often have to close and reopen it to send a message).

Bluesky Social:

My experience: I'm on the waitlist (supposedly? Didn't get an email confirmation and just waiting for the past week).

Pros: Built by the previous CEO of Twitter so in theory knows how to build a platform, lots of people seem to be heading that way if they can get an invite code. There were previous worries about it using content for AI, however as far as I can tell it uses content for tagging/moderation the same way that Tumblr does, and NOT for generative AI, " Bluesky does not own rights to your User Content" (From their TOS). Supposedly allows NSFW but can't find a source on this.

Cons: Waitlist of indeterminate length/hard to get an invite code. As shared in my comments, there have been issues of harassment and racism that are not being moderated properly to protect POC users. There have been issues of racist slurs being used in usernames, which in theory got patched out with code, but took a while for them to respond, which does not bose well.

Misskey.io:

My experience: Seeing a few mutuals go over to Misskey.io, I have only clicked on a couple of their posts to see what the platform looks like.

Notes: Uncertain about much about the platform. A lot of the posts are in Japanese (and I'm rusty reading kanji!)

Cons: There are mentions of being Anti-LGBTQ+ or at least not wanting people to post LGBTQ+ content there (1, 2, 3).

Mastodon:

My experience: I don't have an account and have only clicked there once for this post, see below

Notes: I have no personal experience with this platform but people online keep mentioning how hard it is to set up and use (even those who work in programming). I just went to the site's explore page from a google search. The first post it showed me was anti-red state/political parties legislating/tracking marginalized groups (ok), but with a picture of Nazi's front and center uncensored or tagged/flagged as far as I can tell (that was a shocking welcome to the site, might have just been my bad luck, not sure what kind of content is usually posted there). My husband who is into following political content says that people looking for that content are more likely to go to Mastodon from the accounts he follows, rather than art/fandom (from his experience).

Threads:

My experience: I do not have Facebook and will not join this platform.

Pros: Lots of people already have Instagram accounts, so it should be easy to join Threads

Cons: They will collect every scrap of data they can on you and sell it. From your purchases, to health, to location, you are the product.

Pillowfort:

My experience: Only seen mutuals talking about it, do not have an account myself

Pros: According to wikipedia: "The website was launched in 2017 and is currently in open beta. As of October 2020, the site had more than 100,000 users. The website is popular among fandoms, the LGBT community, and adult content creators." Allows NSFW content. Looks a lot like Tumblr so should be familiar to use. They have a demo login that allows you to check out what the site looks like before making an account. They say they are "planning" (search for Stance on AI in the FAQs) to prevent bot scraping, however they believe "AI and AI Generated Images are a topic that is much more nuanced than we previously believed" and do not take a firm stance on the topic yet.

Cons: They do not have a mobile app, though it is mentioned in the FAQs as planned. They limit image uploads to 2MB, you have to pay $2.49/month to upload up to 4MB. Anything submitted over 2MB up to 10MB will be resized down to 2MB.

Notes: On the FAQ they mention "In order for Pillowfort to remain online we need money to cover our various expenses such as hosting & data fees, staff compensation, etc. We do not receive any funding from corporate investors or venture capital because we are committed to keeping our user experience a priority." For better or worse, it is not run by a large company, they mention working on getting volunteers for moderation, the site feels like a work in progress.

Spill:

Notes: Having trouble finding details on this one, don't know anyone personally on it to ask.

Pros: Black owned

Cons: Currently a waitlist, not sure how long the wait is

[rubalotl]

I've been contemplating how I want my 2024 to go. There are three pillars of my life that I want to focus on and balance.

______________________________________________________

Lifestyle 🥦🏃🕉 • I want to get stricter with what I eat again and go back to more strict keto like I used to do and set a schedule for when I eat. • I want to start running once we approach spring because it's a fantastic way to do HIIT workouts. • I want to meditate more and start learning more about spirituality again.

______________________________________________________

Art 🎨 • Get the script to Lotl Life to feel complete and easy to follow when making comic pages. • Make references for AT LEAST Lotl and Api, preferably more Toonocosm OCs too. • Do things to make art FUN. The tricky thing is getting myself to WANT to sit down and spend my time drawing, how do I do that? I want to build something up and feel like I'm making progress, and NOT stagnate. It's the stagnation that makes me feel burnt out. I want to feel seen and appreciated and feel like what I create has value for myself and others.

______________________________________________________

Gaming 🎮 • I want to play through: Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak, Coromon, Faefarm, and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. • Possibly also: Moonstone Island, Paleo Pines, and Little Kitty Big City. I'm sure there will be some surprise drops throughout the year. • I'm going to continue playing Guild Wars 2 because I love it, and I still want to play more Planet Zoo. • Low priority goal, but I want to shiny hunt the legendaries I don't have as shinies in USUM and Shining Pearl. I also gotta shiny hunt VC Crystal Celebi, that's high priority.

______________________________________________________

Other things 📝 • Dad and I are going to restructure their entire kitchen garden this spring and plant fun stuff. • I'm going to contact LSS and see if I can get a contact person to help break my isolation and help me deal with agencies.

[mmriesoftvat]

as i sit writing this post, reflecting on this past year, i can't really think of too many positives. the majority of 2023 was a blur of depression, anxiety, self doubt, and friends lost. i can't even begin to get into the many shitstorms i was dragged into or that happened under my nose. i have so many regrets about a lot of things, and i can't say i'm sorry to see this year finally end.

that said, the things that did make this year tolerable are my friends. they are the people that managed to keep me from drowning completely, gave me a hand and pulled me ashore. i do not say that lightly, either. i know i made mistakes on my end, and fed into some lies and drama on other ends, but if not for my friends to guide me and support me in my lowest of lows, i don't know if i'd be the same person i was before. my friends are my rock. i owe so much to them. from them listening to me sob and bawl over vc and vent my frustrations, to them pointing out where i slipped up and helping me fix it. my friends have done SO MUCH for me this past year. i was able to repair friendships and make amends with other people because of this support system, and it's with these people, that i can flip the middle finger to 2023 and enter 2024 with my head held high.

i am not a perfect person by any means. and this past year really highlighted what i need to fix about myself, but it also showed me how strong i can be when it feels like all odds are against me. i'm still learning a lot about myself along the way, which is why i'm excited to make 2024 an even better version of me. i want to be kinder, more patient, and understand things from all perspectives before i make a decision, and i want to pour even more of my love and heart into my writing. my goal for the new year is to even finally get started on the fanfictions i've been talking about all year!

but my ultimate goal overall, is to let the people i care about exactly how much they mean to me. i wouldn't still be on tumblr if not for them, and i know past experiences have taught me the most valuable lessons in that you CAN'T take friendships for granted. online friendships are just as valuable and real as friends you know offline. we may not see each other in person, but that bond is still so strong and unshakable, it's real, and it matters so much to people. it means so much to me.

i love this community, i love the people in it. we all have different goals and hobbies and even writing habits, but we're all here on the same website, forming bonds with people and having a blast with the same game. i can't imagine being anywhere else (and i've tried!). here's to 2024, and here's to a new year, new start, and hopefully something far more welcoming and warm for all of us to enjoy.

happy new year my friends!

[0junemeatcleaver0]

Anonsense: A Deconstruction of a Bad Faith Argument

I honestly don't know why I'm even posting this. Will it be helpful for people who don't know how to immediately clock a bad faith argument? The people pleasers who might feel compelled to answer every anon no matter what? I hope so.

Do I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet after being woken up at 4am because I forgot to silence my phone only to see this bullshit after living through the most stressful week of my fucking life?? Also yes.

Whatever. At best this is a learning moment, at worst it's an opportunity to point and laugh at someone who thinks they deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for failing at being real pussy cunt-cunt in a stranger's inbox.

I am confused. You haven't watched the show but you hate the show...? Correct! You can, in fact, hate a thing you've only gotten a taste of. I saw the trailer (you know, the thing networks release to get you interested in a show?) and didn't care for what they were doing. That opinion was only cemented when I saw the ridiculous clip of Louis chasing a fucking goat around.

Something fans of colour especially black fans talk of so enthusiastically and fondly? You're right, VC fans of color are all a monolith and all enjoy the show. And the fact that I--a rando white person--hate the show is mortally wounding to them all. This is in no way infantalizing to fans of color, to imply that I somehow have enough power as some random person to ruin their good time by making posts about how silly I think this show is--posts I don't tag so that fans of the show don't have to see them.

And these fans aren't always show onlies. I know. I've talked to a few of them. They seem nice.

Idk if this ask is going to come off as bait Yes you do. You absolutely know that. And if you didn't know that, that was your clue to go back to the drawing board re: how to phrase what you meant in a good faith way.

-think of it as you will How kind of you. Thanks for the permission.

but this...you realize this comes off as some type of way, don't you? Only to the people who are actively looking to be upset, yes. And I don't care about those people. They are not of my concern.

You have had an ask that you published where the anon says they don't care that "certain demographics" of people are loving AMC. That's very very sus. 'Very very sus'. Am I suddenly on Twitter? Anyway. You do realize that book-only fans are constantly accused of belittling all show fans no matter what we say, right? That it's much more likely that anon said "certain demographics" meaning "the fraction loud, obnoxious fans who will accuse you of being immoral for not liking the show" and "people who never read the books and have nothing to compare it to" and not as some dogwhistle to mean "fans of the global majority", right? Also, my memory is shit. I may have used that phrase and if so, see the above reasoning for why I used it but also if I didn't: Why am I being held accountable for a random person's choice of wording?? I'm not anon's mom.

I don't particularly care if you answer or not. I'm sure. That's why you wrote an essay in my inbox. To not get a response.

If you block. I did. Fuck outta here.

I just had to put it there. Did you? What was the goal in this? Do you even know?

Maybe this is rude as per tumblr etiquettes. It's pretty rude regardless, but hey what do I know. I'm no Emily Post.

But this was just so odd as I am new to both the book and show fandom and while going through blogs I found yours So what I'm hearing is you're missing a lot of context for what's been going on around here and you've not realized that, is what I'm hearing. And you're either purposefully ignoring of didn't wait to find the many, many posts I've made detailing why I personally think the show is bad, why I think the white cishet frat bro turned wanna be auteur showrunner is doing a bad job of including characters of color in the text, the reblogs of fans of color who have brought up similar points, etc?

Stretch before you reach this hard, anon.

[crushingcasanova]

yay!!! I'll send you my discord then :DD

I will very diligently try to learn about undertale and then handplates for you, cariño!!!! and trust me, i can handle any kind of torture! and yes, i do speak some spanish! im mexican, actually, and im currently learning more spanish :D HRRBFHDHDH also i love when people speak in languages that arent english, so if you do ever wanna use the spanish youd know id probably love it..

THANK YOU!! your styles sound so cool too >:0 maybe one day we can show each other our outfits? or, if youre more comfortable, ill just show you one of mine! and speaking of comfort, i promise you dont have to vc with me if you dont want to so soon. i pride myself on being respectful, and i dont ever want you to feel like you have to do something you dont want to

-🫧

Added you on discord right now! I have a very purple profile, so you should be able to tell it's me ^^

How cool to see you're hispanic too! I'm like,,, ecuadorian, cuban, and puerto rican, but I've never been to any of my countries of origin. I've been trying to learn more spanish, it's just been hard to get vocabulary down even if I'm good at verb conjugation. I'll keep it in mind; how cool that we're both learning! I'll think of a cute nickname for you soon, dear Venus. And a spanish one too!

I appreciate your concern! I'd love to show you some of my outfits, too. I think that would be really fun! And I appreciate that you don't want to pressure me <3 it means a lot that you're considerate of my feelings,,, I hope you know I feel the same way to you, dear! I'll never pressure you, so if something is too much, just communicate with me!

[pyrepostings]

I had an old dsmp fansong stuck in my head so I listened to it and now I realized that might have been a mistake because now youtube's playing a bunch of dsmp fansongs into my ear at work which means yall get to hear my If Kevin Was A CC In The DSMP fanfic ideas under the cut. (Also note that it's been about three years since I've watched a stream from that server or most of those streamers so sorry if anything is out of character for the real people. However I think these interactions would be funny so really I don't care)

First off on a technical level, the way I've been imagining Kevin in fanfic type scenarios is as a ghost. After he dies in canon he haunts the world mostly freely but he can't usually be seen or heard or interacted with. He'll be drawn though to suffering and captivity, and found that *sometimes* the whumpee can see and hear him (though he can't talk because his tongue was cut out during his final captivity and that carries over into death) he can try to comfort them with his presence or humming a light tune.

This template allows him to still be *him* while still interacting with the story without actually having an impact on direction of the plot which means he can just hang out in the background most of the time but I can imagine comfort or angst (or both) for the whumpee (and kevin) when whumper's not around.

So for DSMP fanfic in my head, I'd have to break this format a little. Maybe he gets it in his head to wonder if he can possess things yet and possesses the server itself. Maybe he knows what he's getting into maybe he doesn't. All that matters is he shows up one day early on and everyone thinks someone else invited him.

And now for the specific interactions I'm imagining in my head.

I think, especially given the nature of early L'manberg, Kevin, the Irishman and fenian-alligned man that he is, would find an opportunity to drop a Tiocfaidh ár lá in the chat (which for those not in the know is an irish revolutionary phrase equivalent to 'from the river to the sea Palestine will be free' in english it means 'our day will come')

And then maybe tubbo_ specifically, being the child brit that he is, will ask "wait what does that mean?"

And Kevin, smelling blood in the water, would reply, "It's pronounced 'chucky are law' and is commonly used by us Irish to say hello. And goodbye (it's like aloha ya see) but can be used to express general agreement. You should say it loads next time you come visit Dublin :)"

And tubbo_ would believe him wholeheartedly like "Ok yay <3 I'm learning so much about your culture :) I feel so educated <3"

And this interaction would be realitively forgotten for a short time until he says it to an older brit who would actually know what it means like Phil or Wil (maybe the whole sbi crew is in a vc) and Phil leans into the mic for emphasis the way he does and just goes "the fuck you just say to me tubbo"

"I said chucky are law it means hello :) wait why are you mad at me Phil :("

And philza, for whom it is far to early in the morning to be explaining such things, has to explain "no, tubbo, you can't say that on stream, that's not what it means. It's a revolutionary phrase that a lot of people have killed and died using it."

"But Hamilton was also a revolution and if it's a revolutionary phrase then it's fine right?"

And while Phil is trying to explain the difference between role-playing the backwards fanfic of a revolution that happened 300 years ago and using a phrase that has been used as a rallying cry for people who have killed in the recent day after a culmination of 800 years of oppression and how one is ok and one is not,

Wilbur would at this point take the side of 'a revolutionary phrase is a revolutionary phrase. If the local Irishman said its OK to use then it's ok to use' while Tommy wouldn't know anything about the topic beyond the current conversation but would probably take wils side to take his side and to argue for the sake of arguing.

And meanwhile Kevin is floating in a void infront of a disembodied twitch stream screen watching the whole thing going down while eating popcorn like "Yes this is how the phrase is meant to be used from its conception: to sow discontent between brits. They should refer to the authority of their Local Irishman more often."

And then they eventually settle on maybe not using it without fully acknowledging all the real world implications, Kevin lets it go (not before finding an opportunity to ask if Phil was calling him a terrorist when that's absolutely not what he was saying, to push his buttons)

And then much later Kevin drops In a 'up the 'ra' in the chat to which tubbo again asks something along the lines of "what like the sun god?"

And Kevin is like 'dude you have to know that one' "Yes the Egyptian God of the sun :) referring to him is how the Egyptians say hello. And to express general agreement-"

anyway~

When he's not being a gremlin and giving fenian phrases to british children like poisoned candy, there's a few Americans I think he would hang out with. I think he'd give Eret shit for conflating being queer with a monarchy, but ultimately concede that it's a really cool build and the rainbow beacon has really cool redstone which he doesn't really understand.

Kevin would have referred to himself as simply Bi for most of his life, but I think if he talked to Karl about Karl's greyace identity Kevin would learn about the split attraction model and adjust his own label accordingly. (Towards women he's heterosexual aromantic, to guys he's romantic demisexual. I dont think he needs to be specifically labeled in canon but its what he is in my head the whole time. Its why he takes a long time to get in bed with a guy but gets really close to them in a way he doesnt with girls. Its also why he cant tell the difference between sexual and romantic attraction, because he gets both as surface level feelings but they manifest differently depending on whether it's towards a guy or a girl and he just assumes he has underlying misogyny issues to figure out. Point is he's only ever been in one long term sexual relationship and it was Julian ok? Ok.)

as far as actually interacting with the plot, I think he would aid lmanberg and oppose schlatt's manberg. Yknow, opposing tyrants on principle. He'd be friends with Techno. He'd oppose both Sam and dream for being tyrants. And the eggpire. Damn there were a lot of tyrants in that story.

He'd visit Tommy in his exile. He would fulfill his original calling with that. He'd try to tell him he knows what it's like to put yourself high up over an ocean and wonder how worth it would be to jump. That he won't force him to stop but that he really wishes he won't step off. He would do everything he can but this is the first time he can actually physically stand between the whumper and the whumpee, and somehow it would manage to not be enough.

Dream would be brought to the brink of death and captured as he was in canon I liked that. Kevin would oppose letting a cruel man and a tyrant live and would immediately aid any plot against the prison so he could destroy the prison and kill dream.

I dont know if he'd help with the final destruction of lmanberg. I think he'd stand against it actually. Tubbo and Tommy finally got what they wanted, a city state peacefully existing in their corner of the world. There may have been a betrayal, but only because of the previously established tyrant dream. Lmanburg finally achieved the ideal it was working towards, i think he would fight to defend it, even against people like Nicky who were there from the start and are turning on it now. I think it would still not be enough, and would still fall into irrepairable ruin. He might try to talk Techno out of it beforehand but it wouldn't work.

There was definitely more interactions I had in mind but I don't remember them now. I just wanted to get them out of my system.

If anyone read this far and wants to know the song which prompted all this, it was vantage by Halfy&Winks, and Oblivion by them is a banger too. There's only like 3 dsmp song channels I would recommend to people not in the fandom and they're one of them.

[dedusmuln]

OH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!?! the idea of someone else picking up stella's rivalry torch is so funny especially for the rival to be Radar. that's actually SO peak… AND THEIR VC BEING RAYMOND THATS SO FITTING?? would Stella like rub in everyone's faces that her intern is elleguard and magnus's kid? and how does radar and jesse feel about the new addition to the rivalry?

HEHEHE I'M SO GLAD YOU LIKE THEM !!!! they're a really fun character and i've had . so much fun fleshing out their concept :-] (also, heads up: i'm gonna use she/her for Radar here, since that's what she uses in this little story. trans girl radar yaaay)

also YES . Stella does rub in the fact that Her Intern is THE child of Magnus and Ellegaard . Ambrose doesn't really like that Stella does that, but it doesn't bother them enough to say something about it - the only time they complain is if Stella Continuously brings it up over and over in a single conversation.

as for Radar and Jesse.... Radar is a bit more hot-headed and competitive than Jesse, still a bit immature due to being a bit younger, so instead of a more neutral or calm reaction to the rivalry- Radar reciprocates it! It bothers her a bit that Stella is going around boasting about how Cool her new intern is! Radar wants to see Just How Cool this new intern is- and then is absolutely baffled to learn that Ambrose is the kid of Magnus and Ellegaard. and given that Ambrose isn't the Nicest Person at first... well, it spurs Radar on. in canon, Radar is shown to be more hot-headed and defensive when she's bothered (see: that one vos scene) , so I wanted to carry that into their rivalry.

Eventually, Radar and Ambrose will warm up to each other... but at first their relationship is very rocky, and they tend to jab at each other a lot. It's a cycle of trying to one-up each other, and also being jealous of each other. Radar still holds onto how cool she thinks the original Order is, and is envious of Ambrose being connected to something she admires so much- however, she doesn't know much about Ambrose's relationship with their parents, which would definitely change her perspective of things. meanwhile, Ambrose is envious of Radar due to the fact that Radar can so genuinely be herself, and that she is surrounded by people who love and support her no matter what. Ambrose was lacking in that sort of support until fairly recently. They both have this envy for each other that stokes the fires of the rivalry, and it's only until Radar pushes Ambrose's buttons in a wrong way that they finally Talk about the whole thing.

With Jesse- i think Jesse would mostly find it entertaining to an extent. Like at this point, Jesse doesn't really view Stella as much of a rival anymore, and Stella doesn't really view Jesse as a rival either. I think they both find it somewhat funny to be reminded of how they first interacted with each other. BUT ! I do think Jesse would be a little worried about Radar in the situation- doesn't want Radar to get too upset or too heated up about this 'rivalry'. Definitely helps back Radar up and give her affirmations :-]. I don't think Jesse hates Ambrose or anything- I actually think they'd get along - but Jesse really wouldn't like seeing Radar upset, of course. Probably has confronted Ambrose one or two times. When things start to calm down, Jesse finds it really funny how much Radar and Ambrose didn't like each other in the beginning, because now they get along great! Though... Jesse supposes that they were always inseparable, rivalry or otherwise :-P!

[apoptoses]

Hiii I just wanted to say that I love love love your r63 stuff so much like more than neither is a masterpiece a full course meal I LOVE HER!!!!!!!! And the snippet of your other lesbian devils minion is SO GOOD!!! I love how they’re so hot but also get you right in the feels with the butch/femme and gender stuff like okay im turned on *and* emotional 😂 they’re so complex and authentic and I’m just really happy that we’re getting more f/f in vc <333

ahhhh thank you!!! god it becomes so complicated when you r63 them because then you get into a totally different power dynamic and a different way of viewing the world and like!! it's just so much!! but i'm glad you liked it because i worried about that one lol like if the layers of their experiences/daniel's feelings about being in her body would resonate at all.

but i love them in any form 🥹 especially armand playing around with gender presentation and discovering new forms of power that aren't related to vampirism. and adding other horrors of mortality to daniel's lived experience. i gotta finish the strap on fic now, or like maybe do a follow up fic where armand learns about using everything from that drug store via inflicting the items on daniel (hell i could probably pull that off with them non-r63 lmao) 😂

they have such range, they're the best!!!

[ceo-of-sloppy-men]

So maybe I'm reading too much into this, but here's a wild thing I realized. Warning, spoilers for Lightfall and all of the Drifter's lore ahead.

Okay so I just realized something horrifying. While in VC with one of my clanmates we were running a defiant mission and I remarked about the motes being, well, motes. Because if you know me, you know I love the Drifter. I know as much as I can on him. This knowledge has never proven useful until I realized.

We're using motes. Why is this important? Gambit. But more specifically why we bank them for Gambit. We bank them because of the Nine gifting Drifter the Derelict and an army of taken. Which he could control using Motes of Darkness. Motes that are undeiably dropped in Defiance battlegrounds because they are dropped by taken.

Alright, so bear with me. Drifter hates being a guardian. So much so he goes out of his way to find an alternative to the Light by venturing actual centuries out of the Sol System. He comes across a frozen planet that has light-suppressing creatures. Living beings that suppress light. They kill only one of his crew, and then every person in his crew loses their light not due to the creatures but due to Ghaul, causing them to turn on each other. Drifter murdered all three of them because he actively hates dying. Now he's alone. And what happens on this light-suppressing planet with Drifter stranded and spiteful? His ghost snaps. Actually snaps. It tells him that there's a way to capture the creatures and that he can modify it with the parts from other ghosts. Drifter being Drifter hunts the other ghosts down and does as his ghost instructs him. This same tech is used to make Gambit Banks, Motes and Portals.

If you've ever played Gambit you know the derelict is extremely cold-looking and covered in weird plant growth. Something that can easily be over looked unless you know two things:

the planet drifter was stranded on is completely frozen

Season. Of. The. Haunted. Why? the Fungi that was all across the Levithan and easily spread to the HELM We know the Fungi is a darkness-enhanced Flora similar to Glykon Volatus.

In Beyond Light we have four story-leaders

Variks

Elsie Bray

Eris Morn

the Drifter The Drifter is noteably the only guardian (idk what Elsie is) using Stasis. A darkness-originating power that our guardian later learns to wield largely in part to three of the four aforementioned protagonists.

So what am I getting at?

Everything I just stated is important, however, the most important is Drifter's ghost Snapping and the Fungus. If Glykon Volatus is created by Darkness rituals then how did it get on Drifter's ship? If the Witness can take over ghosts, what really caused his ghost to snap? If the Drifter heavily wields stasis, why, and how? Who really gave it to him? Some how, in some way, most likely not in our favour, the Drifter is connected far more to the story than Bungie wants us to realize. He rarely shows up in seasons, he doesn't tell us anything about his plans, and with what we know now he has way too many connections to the Darkness for it not to be coincidental.

There is also the fact that the Drifter hates being a guardian. he hated when he was revived, he doesn't like his ghost, and he doesn't like any of this.

We know he is super super smart too. This man created the banks of Gambit, and he also helped Osiris with the sundial. He knows how to pick the right sides, and he very much hates being killed/in positions that can get him killed. He doesn't kill people until he has to (ie. the frozen planet. He didn't kill everyone until they were all gunning for each other).

One's logical assumption would be that the Drifter is a Disciple but I believe it to be untrue. I believe that he has seen the Witness, or at least knew of the Witness long before the rest of us. Why? Both his ghost being more than a little fucked up and, the Drifter knew the Darkness was coming. He was given a warning by the Nine of the Black Fleet's arrival. He knew that Light couldn't be used to defeat the darkness (which we learnt during LIGHTFALL when we found Light-suppressing fields!!!). The whole reason of Gambit is to create a weapon capable of defeating the Darkness. Or at least that the Key to Salvation lay within Gambit.

So, eliminating that Drifter the potential of Drifter being a Disciple of the Darkness, what is left?

Disciple of the Traveller/Light

Disciple of the Nine

Now, we can't prove if he's a Disciple of either. We also can't disprove it. Drifter is very touchy about anyone interacting with the Nine and has expressed wanting to go to the Nine's dimension to actively confront the Nine. He even dated the Emissary of the Nine (supposedly before she was the Emissary). For all we know the reason he's touchy about it is because he's hiding what he actually is.

Drifter is also very odd about the Light. He hates being a guardian, he doesn't think it can defeat the Darkness, and for the most part he's right. The light has failed him on so many occasions (especially during the Dark Ages) and we can't defeat the Darkness due to most notably Light Suppression fields. It would stand to reason, however, that the Light knows it can't defeat the Darkness, or there's something much larger at play with the Light. However this theory is far less sound and I don't like digging too much into it.

So what about his ghost? We know it snapped once, was that possession? We have no way of knowing unless Drifter tells us. However, I feel like all of our Ghosts know a lot more than we think. It can't be Drifter's Ghost that is "special". If it knew how to create a super-ghost from pieces of other ghosts, who knows what else we can create. Especially if that tech can be modified to make banks, motes and portals.

So, I reach the end, only to say that the Drifter is far more important than we think. He's planning something. And I wouldn't be suprised if that something was linked with everything that's currently going on and will go on.