#I'm staying away from that Reddit page

[awesomechocolatesauce]

It's so wild seeing people call Ben an "abuser" and feeling disgusted that a show would romanticize him.

Like... that's an extreme take. I feel like they've skipped quite a few steps to get to that point.

It's like "GAH! A flawed character! Let's burn them at the stake!"

I know it must suck that the ship you wanted didn't end up together, but damn! Calm down!

[ladytabletop]

Lady Tabletop's Primer for Getting into Tabletop Roleplaying Game Design Philosophy

Sam Dunnewold over at the Dice Exploder podcast has posed a fun question to his discord server: where would you tell people to start if they wanted to know more about TTRPGs and design?

First and foremost, I'd tell people to start with @jdragsky's article about Systems of Relation.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can now understand that the games we played on the playground were identical in nature to the tabletop RPGs I would grow up to play and help design.

Next, check out Thomas Manuel's analysis of the Axes of Game Design over on the Indie RPG Newsletter.

So the basic exercise is trying to figure out the standard axes or spectrums on which every game can fit. The idea is for these axes to be as descriptive and objective as possible.

Thirdly (and lastly for the purposes of this blog - it's entry-level, not comprehensive), check out this reddit thread about lonely fun.

The Lonely Fun is all of the stuff you do as a part of your hobby away from the table, in any way you might engage. For D&D 5e players, this is usually building complicated and elaborate characters on the page, pouring over the books for new races and subclasses, figuring out fun new combinations, and carefully crafting characters.

Read those? Now check out BALIKBAYAN: Returning Home by @temporalhiccup

Will we be able to outrun our Masters and those who hunt us down? Can we use our magic to bring about the rebirth of the city and all Elementals? ill this be our RECKONING or our HOMECOMING? That’s what we play to find out.

Why I make these particular recommendations below the cut.

All of these recommendations are hopefully all entry-level. I tried to stay away from any essays, blogs, or articles that reference game movements you may not have heard of or that require tons of reading before you can even read my recommendations. Some do have links to other stuff, and if you're enjoying the writing, definitely go down those rabbit holes! These are a tiny, tiny portion of my "TTRPG Homework" folder where I save essays, podcasts, etc that have helped me in my own game design journey. I'm always happy to share more, just ask!

The essay on Systems of Relation put into words something I had been thinking about the more I got into indie games/design: I've been playing my whole life, and ttrpgs are just another piece of that. I think it's crucial to break out of the framework of people trying to define play and games into neat little categories. Will I ever write a game as good as the ones I played in the backyard with my siblings? Probably not, but I'd like to find out.

Now that I've told you to stop trying to categorize games, we have an article about trying to categorize games. But I do like Thomas's assessment and examples of using game design axes. I think as designers it's important to figure out the things the game is trying to do and communicate, so that we can make sure it does those things well.

Lastly, I know 5e gets a bad rap (and it's gotten it from me, too!). But the concept of lonely fun has stuck in my craw since I first saw this thread. It's why some people prefer to GM (and therefore why GM-less games might not work for some people). Not all games are going to have lonely fun, but the ones that do are still going to appeal to people! This thread was key for me in terms of considering that no game is for everyone, and it shouldn't try to be, and also helped contextualize the enjoyment I get from the occasional high-prep game.

Balikbayan as a recommendation was a no-brainer for me. I'm not going to say it's the most elegant or tight of Rae's work, but it's the one with the most heart for me. The story this game wants you to tell is so clear, and as an introduction to "Belonging Outside Belonging" as a system/concept/design philosophy. This game really sings in its character concepts and emotional play.

If you've read this far, congratulations! I've been enjoying the DE podcast (even when I don't agree with some of the takes) and the discord has been a cool (if at times intimidating) place to hang out. I've had a hell of a game design journey this year and I'm so excited to keep learning, and to see what media other folks participating in this blog carnival recommend!

To sign off: my best advice to designers, especially those starting out can be boiled down to three things:

When in doubt, simplify or make it silly

The two cakes theory is your best friend - game design is not a competition

Not everything has to be finished. Not every part of the creative process is fun. Find the balance between these two truths (you're going to have to do that every day).

Best,

LT

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

🦐 to recognize my post

Am I the asshole for asking my grandmother if I can move in with her?

This’ll be one of your classic reddit-style family dramas, I think. Back in late 2019 just before COVID, I (freshly 18 at the time) had run away from home with my mom and moved in with my best friend (R, 17 in 2019) and her (60s, deeply depressed) dad. Her dad and I were on good terms for a long time, but respectfully, he has a tendency to repress any issues he has with someone until they build into a bigger issue. Near toward November of 2020, he kicked me out on account of ‘not keeping a job and not doing anything around the house’ (I washed stagnant dishes often, took care of their several animals, and took out trash whenever I could, R and I think he was projecting his shitty roommates from when he was 20 onto me), so I needed a new place to move.

My own beloved father lives ten hours away, and offered for me to live with him. For months, I was preparing to pick up my entire life from the hometown I had lived in since I was 2 years old to move to a new state, and in the last month, I got cold feet and said I couldn’t make such a large change like that. My dad completely understood, and I went to look for a new place to stay, still living with R and her dad at this time.

During this period, I was getting closer with my grandmother on my mom’s side again. She was one of the few family members I felt comfortable with, and we often went to Panera for lunch dates to catch up on things. I won’t go super deep into why I’m so anxious about the rest of the family, because that would require an entire several page google document to explain (especially now that we’re actively banned from holidays).

It was around this time I asked my grandmother if I could move into one of her five or six spare rooms upstairs. My grandfather had died in the last couple of months, and I was confident that if she needed any help (she’s in her mid eighties) moving things upstairs or cleaning the house, I would be beyond glad to do it for her. She then hesitated and said it may be a better idea for me to move in with my dad after all (which was odd, because she hates my dad’s guts, as does the rest of my family), and I let it go after that. I didn’t push, I would just need to find a new place. 

Well, word got around, and she told my aunts and older cousins in passing. I don’t remember if I got sent anything in specific, but one of my aunts (mother’s older sister who I'm genuinely terrified of) absolutely fucking exploded on my (54 at the time) mom, giving her a several paragraph long shitstorm of a message saying she was a terrible mother for letting me take advantage of my grandmother, calling her horrible things, slurs, and insulting her wife, and it got back to me somehow. I was fucking shredded apart emotionally.

Since then, I have moved back in with my mother out of necessity and we have totally reconciled our relationship in the three or so years I’ve been home, and my entire mother’s side of the family- aside from my grandmother- has completely cut contact and don’t invite us to holidays anymore, for significantly more ridiculous reasons than me asking my grandmother what I did.

My mother’s side of the family ostracized her, myself, and my sister since my mother first married my dad 25ish years ago, and has just never treated her the same since, which explains some of the hostility (I want to specify, I’m confident that my mother did nothing outright wrong for this, my family is extremely far-right and EXTREMELY judgemental, and my mom bore unnecessary vitrol for everything she went through), but I need to know if I was actually the asshole for asking to move in with my grandmother, who even now still cares about me as family and lives alone. I could give less of a shit what my aunt thinks now (she lives an entire day’s drive away, in a different state as well), but I can’t help but shake the fear that I was actually taking advantage of her kindness or something of the sort. Was this a wrong thing to ask? Was this actually too much, and should I not have bothered?

What are these acronyms?

[gloombeauty]

I discovered something about Lana's show in Fenway Park in Boston. It's not sold out at all. You can Google it and check other sites but here are the tickets for Lana's show for sale at Stubhub. Some are descent prices like $200 and some tickets are almost 3k. But tickets are there to buy and some are being sold by bots. Her fans were complaining on her managers page. His name is Ben. He deleted all the comments but one stan confronted him and I found the screenshot on X. I don't understand why lanaboards and Ben shamelessly lied about the show being sold out. Lana has stayed silent so far. 🤷‍♀️

Okay.

Let me swallow all this in.

So, the official tickets from Ticket Master are 100% sold out.

However, the tickets are being sold at these sites:

1 - Vividseats

2 - Ticketboxofficesales

3- Seat Geek

The prices are ranging from $200 to $5,000.

So technically, it's sold out but not really sold out because ticket scalpers are now re-selling them.

I solely blame this on Lana Del Rey.

If The Cure, Tom Petty, Foo Fighters, Yungblud, Greta Van Fleet, Bruce Springsteen, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, AC/DC, Radiohead, Pearl Jam and many more artists can stop ticket scalpers, why can't Lana do it too?

All Lana has to do is click on a button online that says "do not allow re-sale of tickets" and that's it. Taylor Swift could have done it as well, but she let that slide through because what does she care? She made her coins. She couldn't care less that some poor dad working 60 hours a week has to pay over 10k to get his 3 daughters Taylor Swift Era's tickets. Taylor is a multi millionairess as is Lana. These people couldn't care less for the common man or how expensive concert tickets are. That's just how rich people are. It's rare when they do care, like Pearl Jam and the other artists I mentioned above.

Lana's manager Ed is an asshole. Always has been. He deletes comments all the time for the stupidest reasons. Of course these are gone. All this just makes Lana look bad because she is basically sitting back and watching her fans spend thousands of dollars on re-sold concert tickets.

Lanaboards - don't even get me started on that dumpster fire cesspool trash site. The chick who runs that page literally looks like a blowup doll.

Anyway, all this drama just to watch a 38 year old woman sing the same exact tired setlist. Adding the fact that she only whisper-sings nowadays and points the mic at the audience so they can sing her songs. She doesn't even do the whole song. She whispers-sings a little, does a little half-ass shimmy move and cuts the song onto the next one. All this while a back track vocal recording is playing in the background with 15 tacky dancers.

People actually are willing to pay for this?

It's one thing to buy the albums and watch the videos, which is all I do - but what else is there to do? I'm not putting any of my hard earned money to see this boring mess. That is where I draw the line.

I won't even buy any of Lana's official merch tees because the designs are so hideous. Overpriced hideousness. No thanks.

Lana is a great singer (in the studio - not in concert) and songwriter. Nobody can take that away from her. In a live setting? Boring as hell and not worth all the money fans are paying to see her whisper and half ass shuffle on stage.

This is the Lana worth every penny to go to:

This Lana Del Rey is gone. Has been gone for 6 years.

The last time Lana sang with heart and soul was in 2018 for this concert in Brazil:

That's all I really have to say on this sad subject. I miss the old Lana Del Rey. The Lana who use to sing and made an effort on stage.

Lana was at her best on stage during the years 2011-2016, although that 2018 Brazilian show wasn't bad. It just wasn't her best. It was the last time she actually opened her mouth and sang which is why I added it here.

There is an interesting thread on Reddit about artists preventing this re-selling crap from happening. It's a good read.

[loveisalwaystheanswer]

Look, you trying to point out hypocrisy with how people talk about Lizzie vs Grace (in favourable terms or no) doesn't really hit when you reblog from someone who likewise calls Lizzie a bitch and mocks this character at every turn (tommyxgrace-always). The problem is that fandom spaces at large are misogynistic. Go on reddit and count how many people call Lizzie a gold-digging whore and hate her for being slightly taller than Tommy (this seems to be a point of concern, apparently), and then count how many people call Grace a traitorous snake and a bitch or whatever - likely the numbers would be even. People were mad on Twitter that poor, abused Linda didn't end up dead after Polly shot her in that s5 episode. There's no rhyme or reason, but instigating a pissing contest doesn't serve anyone, honestly. People hate female characters for sport, it hardly matters how well-meaning the creators were when they conceived them.

First of all, I'm flattered you care about my page and what I post on here. Second, I never approved, nor will I ever approve such posts. I reblog only Tommy x Grace stuff from those blogs and I'm very happy about it. Third, it's my own business.

Next, I don't talk about hypocrisy, I talk about misogyny and poor writing. Also, this fandom has a huge power imbalance. On tumblr someone can put Grace in a trash bin and be encouraged for that, but no one is allowed to say anything bad about Lizzie somehow. This is the only one thing I strongly disagree with.

And why should I even care about reddit?? I don't use it or twitter. I try to stay away from any discussions as far as possible and surround myself with things that I like and enjoy. So I'm not gonna waste any more of my time talking about people's behaviour or fictional characters. I received a question, I answered. That's all. Stop bringing this up. I'm not interested.

[wegonbealright-09]

Idk if you’ve heard but Lisa from Bp performed at some fancy place in Paris and her bf’s ultra mega rich family was there

I actually found out from a Western Pop page on reddit because she really made some noise

Everyone was talking about how she’s clearly not renewing

And on one hand I am happy for her. I am not a stan but she is the most hardworking Bp member and she was treated like shit for being Thai so I think it’s great she can get away from toxic knetzs

On the other hand I feel sorry because I wish Jimin were in a similar position

Imagine all the opportunities she will get just for herself and all the other door that would open for her for the first time as an idol

While we are stuck with Jimin being treated like the black sheep of hybe. We have to watch helplessly how they are giving everything to the dildo boy and these fuckass spoiled kids.

Idk how anyone who cares about Jm thinks is ok to stay in hybe considering that he will NEVER be their priority. Ever. Even if they treat him better and he gets better promo he will NEVER be treated like he deserves in hybe.

It’s so unfair😭😭😭

I'm actually envious also, because Lisa really is the only BP member who puts effort in everything she always goes the extra mile, her company fumbled. I don't like her but she deserves everything she'll get from now on and I hope it's good things only.

As for Jimin I have no words for what Hybe is doing and this is going to make me not really enjoy the groups comeback because of obvious reasons. But I'm just hoping what God did for Taylor he'll do for Jimin ten times more.

[mycryptidisqueererthanyours]

WIP progress update

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, I thought I would be done by now. I though, 'oh, this'll be cute. A little fucked up because I live for messed up character dynamics but short and sweet.' I underestimated the task I chose to subject myself to.

I have working on this for approximately 2 months. My Google document is now 29 pages long. I want to die /j

And I feel bad for the like five people who saw and liked my other post about my upcoming fic as this taking forever (I feel worse for my followers on Reddit; I've had a few ideas for things but nothing I've started properly writing out, poor sods). So, I'll be including another couple of snippets, the fanfic's title and a possible AU idea.

The fanfic itself is called A Star Is Just A Black Hole Waiting To Happen ([Redacted] x Recovering!Yandere) and it is a yan x yan pairing.

Here are a few more snippets to tide anyone over that actually wants to read this lol

---------

I hacked Teo’s Tesla and drove it into Lake Bluemoss.

Bullshit.

‘I did. Hold on…’ He fished his phone out his pocket and, after a few moments of inaudible muttering and tapping away, he turned it so they could see. Sure enough, displayed proudly on the screen was a picture of a half-submerged car in a lake, taken from relatively far away, with what looked suspiciously like a surprisingly panicked Teo in the background. ‘Told you,’ he crowed, triumphantly. 

----------

They reached up and carefully carded calloused fingers through his hair, revealing dark roots peeking through. Your poor hair. It must be fried to Hell and back. Please tell me you use coconut oil or-. Aster’s heart thundered in their throat, as [Redacted] leaned into the sensation, eyes fluttering shut. He gently gripped their wrist, holding them there. A silent plea for them to stay. A plea they couldn’t bring themself to refuse. Instead, all they could do was huff in amusement. Something. You really are like an overgrown cat, you know that? He said nothing, only nuzzling into them further.

And then suddenly, he pitched forward. Only for you. He burrowed themself against their shoulder, breath ghosting against their neck. Only ever f’you.

They leaned their head against his, fingers idly toying with the baby hairs on the nape of his neck. I know. I know.

---------

How did you want to crush her? He goaded. He was greedy. He needed to hear this.

Their lips curled in displeasure and, in the low gloom, their grimace looked like it was filled with blood-rimmed teeth.

‘I wanted to throttle her. Maybe slam her head into the fucking concrete.’ There was something bright and brilliant and vicious in their eyes, blazing like a supernova, as their nails dug into his cardigan. Spittle and acid pooled in their mouth. Before their eyes widened with realisation and they composed themself again. They bowed their head to hide their face, as they felt it heat up and crumple in embarrassment. Horror and shame curled in their stomach at their sudden outburst. ‘Sorry.’ (fix)

Don’t apologise, he soothed. His tone was agonisingly warm and promised patience as dauntless and unending as the void. It made Aster’s head hurt. Y’have nothing to apologise f’r. You know I would do the same for you.

(They stared at his jumper, the cable knit pattern suddenly deeply fascinating. Knitting had never made sense to them. Nor had he.

-----------

And an AU idea: I'm thinking of writing a Magnus Archives!AU, with [Redacted] being an avatar of the Spiral. I was originally thinking the Web, given his manipulative tendencies and canonical liking of spiders, but I think the Spiral would be more in line with canon abilities. These include distorting his appearance, the world around him and the overall narrative. He doesn't merely manipulate, he deceives. So, it seems like a better fit but feel free to disagree. Instead, maybe he can be deeply marked by the Web (and possibly the Eye, given his whole thing for surveillance cameras and keeping constant tabs on Angel) as a little treat :)

I am really sorry this is taking way longer than I expected. I hope this doesn't disappoint anyone when it comes out, even if it is just because of wait time alone lol Or shitty writing. More likely shitty writing.

[totalleeawesome]

Develop Blog: Market Yourself, Not Just Your Game

How many of you love marketing? I'm near-sighted, but I'm sure I wouldn't see many hands raised. From my experience trying and failing to get my game known, I've asked endless questions, perused multiple marketing discords, and even got a question answered by Chris Z. himself. Yet I can never shake this anxiety I feel whenever I make a twitter post. I have no blue check mark so I already know that me going viral is unlikely. I've accepted that my my page will take years to bear followers. But sticking to it isn't a matter of discipline, it's a matter of overcoming my fears of rejection.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of making my first game the magnum opus. I don't have experience releasing anything outside of jam projects, nor do I know what it's like to get review-bombed on Steam. I have never learned how to deal with fans telling me how to write, I've never encountered trolls telling me to off myself, all I've encountered is a lack of notifications after a post went live. Part of me is grateful that I get minimal feedback. It means that I don't need to worry about growing a fandom that rivals the toxicity of Undertale. I don't need to worry about disappointing people because I skipped out on my blog this weekend. It's as if a lack of progress rewards me more than progress. Or more likely, it's my anxiety keeping me locked in a gilded birdcage.

How many of you look forward to posting on Reddit, making a tiktok video, or updating your discord? Tell me your secrets, because I'd much rather be writing my game's script than researching strategies on TikTok. Dopamine is one hell of a drug, and I get more of it by writing than appeasing consumers. I know a lot of people that'd prefer to pass it off to a PR agent and let them play with it. After all, they're the ones reading the bad reviews. Now if only most of them didn't cost an arm and a leg for us indies.

Sadly I don't have the silver bullet to get me or you all out of this rut. As much as marketing is research oriented, it's mostly doing. I call it a progressive craft, where you'll get better at it the more you throw yourself to the mercy of Reddit mods. Not only that, the best marketers will share their content to the point where it might annoy people. Think about all of those Youtube ads. I can recall Shick Hydra, the Lending Club, Old Spice, and all those brands marketed by corny actors four years ago. We all know what Genshin Impact is due to its pension for shoving anime girls in our faces. Chris Z. himself will tell you that the more you talk about your product, the more people will learn about it. Love it or hate it, it'll improve your odds of having someone visit your steam page. It sounds manipulative and underhanded, and that's because it is. Why do you think so many communities lose their minds at the slightest hint of self-promotion? Because everyone has a product to exhibit.

But how the hell could you, let alone myself, go through with doing something so corporate? Do we have to become those guys who get routinely banned by mods? Of course not, and I wouldn't advocate for you spamming your brand. Marketing isn't just promoting your brand, it's also about promoting YOU! Something interesting about being a respected member of a community is that you can get away with self-promotion a lot more than someone who isn't. It's almost as if people have come to like you, so they check out your page and wish list your game. And the craziest part about this is that you don't need a rigid schedule to market yourself unlike your game. You can be like me when I go into a Visual Novel discord, gush about my favorite waifu for ten minutes, then bounce. This helps me stay motivated with playing visual novels, and the mods see me as active so they're more likely to allow me to self-promote. Of course this is based on social media with forum mods and communities, but being active on Twitter, Tiktok, and Itch goes a long way as well. Because when you comment on someone's video, that person might be tempted to look at your profile out of appreciation. And if your steam page is listed in the bio, they just got hit with a call to action. People, especially newer profiles, adore any form of feedback. I'd know, I do a happy dance every time I get a comment on my post. Yes you read right, a sincere comment on a tiktok video indirectly markets your game. Your character can be just as profound as a flashy trailer. So is marketing still as scary?

Dale Carnegie, author of How To Win Friends And Influence People, refers to this as marketing for other people. Mods want an active community, so being an active member might make them more interested in working with you. Indie developers love feedback, so giving them what they want might encourage them to reciprocate what you want. One example from my past experiences is when I offered to be a beta tester for one of my colleagues. I had been following her for seven years. We were the same, both new developers struggling to make their big debut. So I played her demos, interacted on her twitter posts, and gave honest and constructive feedback from my beta tests. Was I working in the mindset of what I want? I'd be lying if I said no, but my priority was to help this indie developer release her first game. Later on, I ran into a conundrum where I needed to commission someone to help with capsule art for my steam page. Now pause and take a guess at what this developer told me when I asked her for some tips. If you guessed, "I'll help you arrange the capsules free of charge", then pat yourself on the back. But this transaction went both ways. Now, I'm a fan and will purchase future games out of appreciation. And the cycle MIGHT come around and she reciprocates. I capitalized the word "might" to emphasize something I want everyone to be aware of; to be sincere from start to end, whether or not you like the results. I'm not looking to train manipulators, and people can sense flattery through a computer screen.

Since that last example wasn't directly marketing related, another example involves these blogs. When I first started posting them to Reddit, I got a mixture of downvotes, no activity, and my post deleted by the mods. It made me want to hide and never blog again, but it also showed me that posting a small summary followed by a link probably rubs people the wrong way. My goal with these blogs, aside from keeping my demons at bay, is to spread awareness of my itch page. So what did I do? I included the entire blog in the initial post, with an optional call-to-action at the bottom to follow my itch. Then my next post got a lot of feedback. None got banned, people commented with thanks or criticisms, and I got to learn some valuable insights about how to make my blogs better. I wasn't seen as some other spammer, I was perceived as engaging the community. Well I hope I was…

I hope that this blog post inspired you as much as it inspired me. If you're as introverted as me, you'd much rather live under a rock and only come out when your masterpiece is complete. It's almost as if the difficult hobby that's game design teaches us bad habits. But in the end, it's a necessary part of the process. Baldur's Gate 3 would've been a flash in the pan had it not been for the devs not shutting up about it. However those developers did more than just post pictures of the women you could romance. They interacted with consumers and other developers, so much so that their game got fully funded on Kickstarter. Imagine someone willing to pay for your game's development for you! Us indie developers are underdogs by default up against the hill that is finishing our products. Be thoughtful and compassionate with others, and you just might have a helping hand up the slope.

If you enjoyed this blog, please leave a comment down below and tell me how awesome I am. If you'd like to support me, follow my itch.io OR play my prototype here https://totalleeaweaomw.itch.io/philistine. Let's become better developers together!

[athanasius-symposium-of-writings]

Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)

Chapter Eighteen

Warnings: Dont copy Peter Parker from the Daily Bugle (none)

Chapter Seventeen | Chapter Nineteen

Steven is a master of all Egyptology and other side information, you are the grand master of all things heroic! A big book called "Who's who: book on the supers of the Marvelous Universe!" aka someone who had too much time on their hands wrote an encyclopedia on all the heroes and villains on this Earth– And those who are not. Everything, outside of real identity and weaknesses, about the known heroes, villains, and those in-between is in this book! You love this book! This book has been with you since you were a kid, the wear and tear are clear on it, you have it taped up and attached to updated books about extraordinary people and The Blip. You love reading this book, it inspired you to want to be greater than yourself.

There is a page left for kids to draw themselves as a hero (or villain), the first page has a drawing you made of yourself as Spider-Man. The next few pages have recent drawings of the vigilante of London! The 'Phantom in White' in two outfits in pictures that are not of the best quality.

One day, you hope 'Moon Knight' gets the page in the Who's Who like he deserves.

Oh, what if you wrote to the publisher with the shared information from the reddit forum and—

Cease such childish musings.

You do not like how Anubis can randomly tune into your thoughts. With a frown you shove away the long fabric you were trying to figure out, it's linen and black as the night sky. Sometimes you swear you can see sparkles that shine like stars blinking in the sky.

The cloak of Nephthys, Goddess of the sky (or night from what you read). It is told to by your art friend, the one who will be the successor to be Ptah's avatar, this cloak was used to turn day into night. It's a gift to help you on your mission to seal away Set. It will take a lot of power seal away, meaning whatever Anubis is doing you have to make sure it stays between Osiris, Horus, Ptah, and now you.

Even with those four the power needed to seal Set will need to be sealed away within a mortal vessel, then the vessel sealed away too. The logistics of that is something you do not know. Anubis just wants you to gain boons and stop certain operations.

It is said in order to obtain a boon with a God, you need something that connects them to the mortal realm. Like the cat to Bastet, it can be a living thing or an object. In this case, you need an object.

"Man, can't you ya know let a person dream?" Now you lost your train of happy thoughts thus your idea for the cloak.

The judgment (judgmental) God sighs, My apologies, mortal. Resume your task.

You hum then center your thoughts once more as you grab the fabric. Moon Knight's costume has you thinking, imagining, the details you sketched out when bored. The hood, cape, the bulking armor, the fine details escape you, however, the pictures of him are never taken well.

The TV is on in background on the news with Cleopatra watching it (you think), the usual depressing stuff until suddenly breaking news alert goes off.

Little one come look!

"Guys! How many of you can just pop in here!" Shouting out.

Many if we wish, that is besides the point. Look!

Moving from the kitchen to the living room to see the cat sticking a paw out.

"Holy shit!" Jumping up and down in excitement.

White dressed vigilante spotted fighting in the British Museum pursuing what seems to be a half human half lion creature.

"Bastet protect me I'm about to do something stupid as fuck!"

Huh!?

You ran out the door in your winter pajamas and coat.

*

If a guy from the Daily Bugle can take amazing photographs of the Amazing Spider-Man, then you can take pictures of the mysterious 'Phantom in White' aka Moon Knight! Your phone camera ready, it's dark and raining, you slipped in through the back (heh, sneaky sneak). The two people fighting Moon Knight are distracted by him, all you have to do is snap a photo or two… or three… Or record the fight like you are doing right now!

Gosh, you're smiling big and bright as Moon Knight doesn't miss a beat in beating the bad guys to the ground.

The suit he is wearing looks like the one from Cairo. Sad. You hoped he wore the three piece suit with batons, that one looked fancy, definitely fit the 'gentleman' theme here in the UK— Ish, definitely has the nice 'Gentleman Ghost' feel. Modernized?

You duck when a pillar is thrown in your direction without you being noticed. By now, crawling away, you check your phone to see your photo gallery full of recordings and pictures at different angles.

His cape is short, good to know thus meaning he doesn't use it.

You zoomed into one of the thighs noticing hieroglyphs written on it; going to ask Steven later about that.

Weapons. Need those. Training too.

A guy is sent flying above your hiding spot.

You took a picture of the body on the floor groaning in pain then turned around to record once more the fight. Enjoying yourself as Moon Knight fights the bad guys and you are living the comic book dream.

What happened next was too fast for you to process, so fast you were still using one hand to record the events unfolding.

The classic hostage held at gunpoint with the hero forced to watch. Though you weren't scared and instead in awe as the suit changed to one with the cape.

"Ooo."

"Shut up!" Rough you up as the bad guy digs the nozzle of the gun against your head. Moon Knight says nothing as he prepares to make a move.

"Don't yell in my ear, man."

You have no idea how much panic is running through Steven, Marc, and Jake's shared mindscape.

Or how surprised they are with how you slip out the soon to be dead man's grasp.

"Yay, go get'em!"

Two types of people: you and your boyfriend(s).

[golbrocklovely]

You hit the nail on the head with that ask. We never hear Colby complain just show hes tired, yet Sam literally is seen out more and has commented that he has panic attacks and Colby has to come help him out with that. I just had a talk about this with someone on reddit and we were saying how as soon as they returned from Europe, Sam left to have another trip with his siblings while Colby stayed behind to edit. Yet when he returned it was Sam who made the post about not needing to vacation and preferring to work than have time off. When Colby is finally seen out, Sam always has to post some version of a story or snap to show hes editing yet all we see on the screen is the thumbnail. Colby looks so down and depressed sometimes it worries me and where is Sam? Golfing? Or taking Katrina to Hawaii? Colby barely took time to see his family in Arizona because he needed to get back to editing. Just know many of us don’t say this because parts of the fandom are so toxic you cant get a word in but we all see it, and many of us feel it. You though hit the nail on the head.

my thing is, i'm not saying he doesn't deserve time off. if anything, i would love for him to find someone that could take some shit off his plate. both him and colby work their asses off, they BOTH deserve to have editors do their parts so they can focus on other things. my issue is that when colby edits, he sits in his room and does nothing else but edit. maybe you see him go out at night, maybe he goes on a walk or something. but even that's rare. sam on the other hand…. he's out with kat, or her group of friends. he's out drinking. he's doing a bunch of stuff. but then comes back and complains on not having enough time to edit. in one breath he will say he loves editing and it's his favorite thing to do, but in the next breath complain about needing an editor or showing all the shit he had to do just to get to the point where the video is almost finished.

both of them do a lot of editing all the time, but only one complains about it. and then that same one complains about not finding an editor that can copy his style, or that he has to give notes and 20 page documents on how to do his style. and it also seems like at times that he "deserves" an editor bc he has a gf and since colby doesn't, that's why who cares if he has to do his part in the end regardless. that's my issue.

and as i've said before, usually when snc are in a time crunch is when sam likes to pull out the "let's try something different with the editing", and it usually just makes the video feel a bit off, even if the thing that changed seemed somewhat interesting. there was just no follow-thru bc YOU DIDN'T HAVE TIME.

again, i don't care if sam wants time away from work. i IMPLORE both of them to take breaks. but do not come back from a 5 star vacation talking about "i love working, idk why anyone would want a vacay, you shouldn't live for them".

some of us only work to live here, samuel. you think i love working in retail for slightly above minimum wage? fuck no lol

yo highkey i think my issue with sam is that he is just such a capitalist and i'm just… not. this man wants to be rich like elon but doesn't realize what that means to get that rich. but then it's funny bc he doesn't even realize looking up to assholes like elon or bezos is ridiculous bc neither one of those fuckers are working. they just profit off of those that work under them without lifting a finger. they exploit which is why they make so much fucking money. they care about no one but themselves and their fucking pockets. money makes them soulless.

okay i'm gonna stop ranting now.

[floweronthetopofagun]

If you're here from my Twitter, hello ♡

The birb site is going downhill by the day thanks to Musk so I've returned to tumblr (I've had this blog since I was like 16 sooo... please don't judge the absolute crap that it's full of if you scroll far enough back!), I've changed up my blog's theme and will be looking for new blogs to follow!

I've been active here on and off over the last 10 years so there's a big ol' mix of posts, and ngl it'll probably stay that way because my neurodivergent brain hyperfocuses on new shit all the time lmao. But I want this to be close to Twitter where it's my safe space on social media and I can post whatever and fit into communities here, but that being said I'm flaky as hell with tumblr and may just disappear again in a month lol.

Anyway I'd rather this not be insanely long, but thank you for coming here from Twitter if you did and if you've just stumbled upon my blog here randomly and want to stick around then thank you too ♡ (I'm using these hearts because idk yet if emojis are acceptable on tumblr?? I know they aren't on reddit but I've been away from here too long to know haha)

I have a hello page on my blog (not sure if it's accessible on the app mind you!) if you'd like to get to know me better and my inbox is open too.

[idgs-space]

twitter sucks, so I'm mainly posting on here now, mind joining in?

heyoo! it's been a while since I've been on here but I think I'd like to start somethign new :)

if you don't mind, could I take ~20 minutes of your time (maybe less if you get the gist of it and scroll)? it'd mean a lot ♥

twitter...

twitter is a GREAT app!

before, this account used to just be reposting art and spamming random thoughts like it's twitter, but I've learnt since then that this isn't twitter at all. twitter has some great stuff, I get to talk to friends, find more through mutuals, share and reblog art, and become more immersed in the communities I love! that's great to me, but it resulted in me being stuck with it... and I mean stuck.

twitter is the ONLY app I can use!!

I've tried to leave the app several times, but the thing is all my friends are on it, so I have to use it to talk to and stay updated on my friends. I barely tried a discord server, but starting conversations really aren't easy when there's nothing to talk about. the thing with twitter is that it lets you be updated on what your friends are doing, so you can chime in and talk about whatever, it's a cute ecosystem that messaging apps and stuff like reddit struggle to maintain (reddit posts and replies are messy but I can't pin on why lol, just take my word for it [also who has a private subreddit lol]). BASICALLY twitter is too good to leave.

twitter kinda really sucks...

now you may ask why I'd want to leave the ideal app? well, twitter DOES have its problems and I think many are aware of it. it has a practically unmoderated void of the timeline that you can't help but check out to find new people, but you just get an unrelated mess of people posting 7 word phrases for interactions from randoms and it becomes an addicting cycle to scroll. just checking the app after being logged out awhile resulted in 20-40 minute scrolls, and it's taken away from my morning sometimes.

on top of this, GOD twitter is depressing.

HEY, HERE'S A HOT MORALLY CONCERNING HEAVILY DEBATABLE DEPRESSING TAKE THAT'LL RUIN YOUR MOOD‼️‼️👈👈♻️❤️ (1/14 tweets of slowly increasing dread!)🧵

... is an inevitability that you'll see often while just trying to look for your friend's posts, or sometimes they'll even repost it on their page... and it gets depressing. I don't want to see the world falling apart while I'm talking to friends, I get politics is important but my #1 rule is that it isn't shoved down my throat, and twitter is the biggest discriminator without a doubt.

twitter is also a huge unmoderated pit of posts, I've muted all that I can but people still find a way to be sexual, even minors but that's a whole other rabbit hole. there's no real way to mute it all, and it sucks. nobody uses spoilers on images, and twitter's timeline is a mess so you'll get some random's TOP 10 WACKY OPINIONS ON RANDOM WOMEN out of nowhere ┐⁠(⁠´⁠ー⁠｀⁠)⁠┌

the thing is, twitter was made back in like 2008 to post very short phrases on what you're doing, but now it's evolved poorly into a mixed mess of becoming THE social media app

so use Tumblr, PLEASE..!

the good without the dreadful

I didn't realize that 2010s web-blogs were the future, but blogs actually are a perfect solution! I read this article not too long ago, and I loved it. isn't it cool being able to just read some person's cool opinions and thoughts on their little journeys?! from there I got to thinking...

"didn't Tumblr have a blogs system as cool as this??"

it does!! I can check in on my friends on one page dedicated to them all, I can support cool artists, I can meet new mutuals, find new people with the # pages actually being useful (twitter's one sucks, don't you lie to me), the For You ONLY shows tags I follow, sexual content is banned, people actually use #s in posts which I can mute easily, there's like no politics and I can enjoy my space in PEACE!

so can you help me out and use Tumblr with me?

this is literally the best app for literally any community, but the tragic thing is not enough people use it. I get that new can be scary, and a month ago when I did use it, it was pretty difficult, but once you get the hang of it, you'll learn to love the new side of your communities! you also have your own space, so you can post your slick rhythm game scores or live posts of tv shows, it's great!

so with the whole essay I made, totally consider adding Tumblr to your ecosystem! make an account, get started talking to people, share the love for this app getting new people in here, and have fun!

you're gonna need some basic "get started" tips and get some extensions maybe, tumblr is an old place and has its own style, so I wouldn't skip these (they're short, promise!)

here's a twitter thread I used ages ago, super useful!

apparently my friend used this and got good tips, some extra pointers if you're interested!

as for me, I'll be talking more about things with you people on both apps, but mainly on here, this is the return I'm comfortable with, I'll still be on twitter for random silly posts, but general stuff goes on this blog. I hope this works well enough and I really would love to see all of you guys on here too!

> thanks for reading this, it means a lot

- ibby❤️

[seospicybin]

excited for thinning 🤗🤗 any spoilers, sneak peeks, tiny little disclosures ???

BTW your sfw page being called notseospicy is hilarious 😭

THINNING is inspired by a reddit thread of "moment when your friend accidentally turn you on" and I read one that would make a good premise for a fic.

I'm feeling generous today so I'll share a little, just a little excerpt:

Your friends weren't the slightest bit surprised to see you drunk, it seemed like it's a natutal occurrence, a familiar view that they might have seen one too many times.

"Any one of you want a lift?" Chan offered after your friends helped him getting you inside the car.

"You'd better take her home. We'll share a taxi!" Your friend told him and went to hail a taxi from the side of the street.

It wasn't the first time either for Chan. Except that he could count for how many times he got to take you home drunk, this was his third time.

He knows what to do.

He'll drive you to his apartment, because you always insist on staying in his place after getting drunk knowing that he'll take care of you.

He would take you to the bathroom first, in case you feel sick and want to vomit, help you clean up as much as he can.

Out of habit, you always take your clothes off as you headed to his bed and Chan would hurriedly take one of his infinite supplies of black hoodie then put it on you.

"Thank you Channie," you mumbled with a sleepy smile then curled up on his bed, making you look like a small baby.

He brought a new bottle of water and put it on your side of bedside table. He took his shirt off and lay down next to you.

"Goodnight!" He muttered to the void because he thought you were sleeping and couldn't hear him. He turned off the lights and got under the duvet with you.

This also wasn't his first time sharing a bed a with you because both of you hate to sleep on the sofa. And if there was a big bed that fit for two people then why not?

"Chan..." you called him out in the dark, your voice slurred and heavy with drowsiness.

"Yeah?" he answered, looking up without nothing to see but the darkness.

"Who will take care of me when I come home drunk if you're away?" you sounded so sad when you said it.

It hit him right at that moment that he'll miss doing a lot of fun things with you.

All these years he has been friends with you, Chan realized that most of the fun he had in his life he did it with you and you were a part of it. It got him wondering if he'll feel any sort of loss when he's away from you.

"Then don't get drunk!" He suggested with a sneaky laugh.

You roughly pulled the duvet from his side as a protest to his reply. Chan tried to pull it back from you but you rolled yourself in the duvet, making it even harder for him to get it back from you.

He decided to cling to you like a koala to a tree trunk, making you yelped as he tightened his hands around you, hugging you like you are his comfort pillow.

It's going to be fluffy but spicy hehehe and maybe I'll add a little angst in it i don't know 😌

Anyway pls look forward to it!

Yes, bcs my brain is empty that's why my sfw blog is notseospicy 😂

F.

[thelonesomequeen]

Can this anon tell us on details how they managed to stay away? I want a way out but I cant// Me again! (I'm clearly failing at staying away from Tumblr lol but I knew people would respond to my original post so here I am) Gonna tell you how I did it. I did this in January -

I'm lucky enough to have multiple devices (phone, laptop, iPad). I deleted all social media apps from my phone and only allow myself to use them on my iPad. That changed my time spent online significantly. Especially because I don't take my iPad when I go out anywhere so I wasn't finding myself scrolling mindlessly on my phone when I was out. It helped me become more present in my life. At first it was super weird, I kept automatically unlocking my phone and scrolling to where the apps used to be. I also felt a little bit out of touch with reality for a while, I didn't feel like I knew what was going on in the world. I still have twitter on my phone because I use that for my regular news and I never spent too much time on that one anyway

I blocked websites I was using as well (LSA, Discord, Reddit, Tumblr, CDAN etc) changed my settings on my phone and iPad to "limit adult websites" (under Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Content Restrictions > Web Content on the iPhone) and you can add "never allow" so any time I found myself habitually typing in those websites, it would come up as blocked. You can always unblock them but it at least gave me a pause to be like "wait, is this how I want to spend my time?"

Time limits on my iPad. I can't remember how I did it but you can add time limits for things. I'm not sure if it is with the apps or just websites but the websites I put a time limit on per day and when it expired, it expired (you can extend also)

I blocked anyone on IG or Twitter that wasn't serving my goal of cleansing. The trio, Lexniko, Tinx (cause I found her content was all over my page and I find what she pushes toxic). Any time I would see a post on my for you page that would be pushing Selena and Chris, I'd block them etc. I just didn't need that energy on my IG. I started following more body positive accounts and those good news account, cute animal accounts etc and steered away from celebrity stuff. I even blocked OK Magazine after they posted some fake news article cause I was like "why do I need to see this rubbish, there's enough fake news in this world." Now my for you page is baby goats mostly and it's wonderful lol.

I went extreme. And because I cut off so much, I noticed just how much of my day was being consumed by all of this. I sometimes find myself slipping back into the mindless scrolling if I've been stressed or there was nothing else to do but on the whole, the scrolling lasts for 15 mins instead of hours. And I do it and then I'm done for the day.

It's also helped me pull myself out of it and see just how ridiculous a lot of this stuff is. I'll come on and see someone post about a like or a follow and it doesn't affect me. I just have realized just how unimportant social media is in the grand scheme of things and I just roll my eyes like "come on, this isn't even logical". Which 6 months ago, I was one of the people who was like oh but it does mean something. So it helped me get back to reality a little bit.

I'm not saying you have to stop but I will say, it has really really changed my life for the BETTER. I am so much more present. I didn't realize just how much I was NOT living because I was so sucked into this stuff. And I started it because during the pandemic, I was stuck inside, like we all were, and I just needed something to do and then it spiraled. And now, I get to enjoy the content from Chris for what it is - a cute dodger pic or a cool trailer, fun interviews upcoming for the press tour and it has made consuming his content back to how it should be, you know?

I hope this helps someone! It was difficult, it really was, but I'm so glad I powered through that "withdrawal" stage. And the fact that it was so difficult to stop in the beginning made me see how toxic it was.

Thanks for coming back to share! 🦎

[spacegaynsfw]

hey uh i hope you dont mind me asking but how did you find your new dom/domme?? Bc I'm struggling to find one myself...

Believe it or not . Reddit. I know, shame, but there are some pages that are pretty good for finding folks who are into that. It’s obviously easier to find a male dom but there are absolutely plenty of dommes out there. Not to expose myself or anything but I posted on r/girlgooners and r/GoonetteHub and she actually messaged me saying she’d like to talk! Other subreddits you might have some luck on are (depending on what you’re into!!!!) r/DeniedGirls, r/femaleorgasmdenial, r/femdompersonals, and of course, r/BDSMpersonals. There’s also a subreddit called r/CyberDom that might be worth looking into though I don’t have much experience with that.

All that said, I’m taking a not insignificant risk doing this the way I’m doing it. Like, yes I’ve confirmed that Miss really is who she says she is and all that, but nonetheless finding a dom/me online isn’t always easy or safe. Please take precautions!! Stay away from people who say they want inexperienced or young subs, stay away from people who say they want a sub with no limits, stay away from people who say they don’t want their sub to have a safe word. Don’t get taken advantage of!!

[neptunesnow]

Hi Stalkers

mermaids and mermen, welcome back to Mako

Mako Mermaids was a great show ( and still is ), it marked a lot of people's childhood and stayed in memory: maybe with a coherent name, or sometimes just as unclear images. And you're lucky if you've picked the first one. Any how you managed to pop up here, today even after all those years, it's seriously good to have you. I'll be direct, I need your help. I don't know for you, but to me Nixie was the best one. She was funny, cute and so herself. Ivy Latimer seemed truly into the character. It was a shame when she just disappeared after the first season, yet no big deal. Don't get me wrong, I knew whatever Ivy was gonna do later I would love as much as I did with mm. Too bad for me, she never came back.. or at least I thought so.

swim with me 🌊

it all started a long long time ago.. may 2022, as I said long time ago.

I had a crush (hm.. still have). we had that show in common, and we both fell in love with Nixie when we decided to watch it again. as a good boy, I searched for her gram or whatever I could find to see what she was up to. I found that old BBC show, but it wasn't really for me nor for my N crush. But none official social medias, and we didn't look for the rest of the cast's @. might be strange, yet 2013 is far away in the past, sure thing a lot of them don't have those apps, right? it didn't sound stupid back then, now this hypothesis is so dull

august 9, still 2022

I started everything again, I need to find something. and this time, all by myself. unfortunately? yes, probably

1st information (a bit suspicious?): Ivy Latimer was a transman!

link: fandom Married Biography KIDDLE FactBoyz

august 2020, a highlighted story labeled Very Trans on her Instagram, ok. which Instagram? they never put the @. then I didn't really know if I could trust those pages. the fandom seemed pretty reliable tho, but I didn't have any screenshots or nothing to prove actually

2nd: his new name

link: reddit reddit2 facebook

Wyatt J. Ivy on facebook, Ivy Joy on reddit. Wasn't Joy his birth name too? according to IMDb it is. and for Wyatt, there's an IG account but the person doesn't match (nor the dates), and 5 facebook accounts (can't enter, don't have facebook). but, the post on facebook was from august 30 2020, the date is so close! yet, not lucky for us.. kidding, reddit is AWESOME!

3rd: other works

link: Saturday Night Fireworks 

I put Ivy Latimer on youtube, found her: she was on a video clip 3 years ago (december 2018, gram post). then the reddit3 comment (bellow) gave me another video clip, 1 year ago. it's because of that one I'm not using he/him here, because she sounded very feminine to me with that alter ego Ivy Bernier. but yes, maybe she has a woman alter ego, Idk.

4th: IG profile

link: reddit3 + the reddit's links above

nixieswasaboy or blue31101994, and how if both of them were accurate? nixie one no longer exists, but she was tagged in this post (firework singer) with that account. yet, blue follows them and is followed back. blue also follows/is followed Zack and Evie, plus Bridie Connell and Edan B Lacey (saturday's singer and director)

5th: nixiewasaboy

how to see a deleted account? Idk, but I searched the profile in the Wayback Machine, pretty sure that no-one would have saved her profile there. I was wrong, and I've never been so glad about being wrong in my whole life (maybe I'm overdoing, shush). 2 snapshots in June 17, 2021 (the date matches!) yet everytime I tried to access the link, I got a "http 302 response at crawl time". check it. I've been redirected to the same day login IG page, every single time.

6th: blue

could be a fan. yes could, but why? there's a lot of fake accounts, the person behind blue could have done that too. and why the hell so many people she might have spoken to and still speaks with follow blue back? so I requested to follow. I'm not sure she'll let me in, and anyways the account doesn't have any posts. thing is, 28 thousand people follow it, maybe there's a reason to that.

that's it!

thanks to all the sea creatures who stayed until the end, actually.. I hope it won't be the end, I do hope we find lot more infos about Nixie, Ivy or whatever. don't hesitate to contact me!

stay hydrated, and see ya soon

— taylor c.