#I'm very good at making and mailing stuff but not very good at the marketing stuff

[braceletstea]

I've added a few new listings to my Etsy store! If you place an order by Friday night it will arrive by the end of next week, just in time for Christmas or Kwanzaa (though not Hanukkah, sadly).

[cozylittleartblog]

hey, so I'm trying to figure out what places would be good to sell my own art at, and I'm wondering- what has been your experience with selling on etsy? I've heard mixed reviews from people, and I want to know your perspective as an etsy seller.

etsy is not perfect but i think it gets a little more shit than it deserves, i've thought about opening my own website but generally i'm actually pretty okay with the services i get on etsy compared to what it costs so i'm just gonna make a subjective pros/cons list for you under the cut (because its loooong)

oh and if anyone else has experience selling on etsy and would like to add their two cents in the replies/reblogs please do!

Pros

⭐ The search function - this is etsy's biggest selling point. it already has a dedicated userbase of millions of people and a search feature to help them find your shop, which takes a lot of the load of marketing off your shoulders, and marketing is a huge factor for pushing sales. i am not good at marketing and a lot of my sales just come from people searching my stuff up lol

⭐ Purchase protection program - if USPS loses or damages your package, you file a missing package report and they confirm they don't know where it is, Etsy will refund your buyers order out of their own pocket (under $250). this is my favorite etsy feature because USPS likes to eat packages every now and again. delicious keychains. if you had your own storefront, you'd just have to replace the order yourself.

⭐ Share & Save program - every time someone makes an order on your shop through a special Share & Save link, etsy will refund you 4% of the fees. it's a nice perk to doing some of your own marketing and it helps combat the moderately high etsy fees!

Trackable letter mail - selling stickers but think it's insane to charge $4 shipping? you can buy letter mail labels for about the rate of regular postage, which is like .65c. this tracking is done through etsy though so you can't track with usps, but it does give customers a little peace of mind. this only works in the 50 US states though.

Customs forms built into your shipping label - shipping internationally is a nightmare. etsy makes it easy though, generating everything you need to ship internationally on one label that you just have to sign and date and slap on your package like normal. for some countries they will actually just have your package sent to a domestic facility where they literally do all that for you. this is miles easier than having to do all that paperwork yourself.

buy shipping labels directly from etsy - related point, and just what it says on the tin. when you fulfill an order, you can buy your labels right there on Etsy so you don't have to mess around with a third party website. it comes out of your sale funds so you don't need to charge a card or a bank account or anything.

star seller program - some people say this is completely useless but i actually disagree! it's incredibly easy to earn this badge, and it lets buyers know you've got some of the best products, shipping, and customer service around. it helps you stand out from some of the more... questionable shops on the website.

sales tax - they remit sales tax for you. i don't think any of the other online platforms similar to etsy do this but i could be wrong. doing any kind of taxes sucks so i consider it a perk if they do it for you.

website promotions - every now and again etsy likes to host sales out of their own pocket. you get all the perks of having a sale without eating into ur profit margin. HUGE sale booster

generally the site is just very easy to learn and use and it's very beginner and dumbass friendly. i say this as a former beginner and current dumbass 👍

Cons

❌ the fees. oogh the fees. they claim it's just a 6.5% fee per sale, but on top of that you have to pay .20c automatically for every individual item you sell, plus there are processing fees (3% + .25c) that apply both to the item you sold AND the cost of shipping. i think it comes out to like 10% total in fees on average @ > @

❌ but wait, there's more fees! if you make more than $10k in sales a year (very easy number to hit actually) you are forced to participate in offsite ads, which i believe takes 15% of your total sale on top of the fees in the previous point. these kinds of sales are not as common as you'd think, but it's still annoying having a couple bucks shaved off your profits a few times a month because of them.

corporate bullshit - etsy is like renting a space in a mall. you don't own your lot, nor the mall itself, so if upper management decides to make any stupid ass decisions, you just have to deal with it or pick up and move. if they decide to raise fees again, you just gotta Deal. you are a little bit helpless on this website unfortunately

the push for discounts - etsy is constantly shoving it in your face that they want you to do discounts. they want you to have free shipping on orders over $35, they want you to do 25% off or more on sales, they want you to have returning customer discounts and abandoned cart discounts and 'you recently favorited this item' discounts - but you already have to compete with the steep fees, and when a customer gets free shipping, you still owe USPS that $4-ish bucks to send the package. you don't have to do any of this, but they do reward participating shops by favoring them in the algorithm and search results, so you can feel like you're missing out.

there aren't as many cons imo but they Are steeper cons. generally etsy is very beginner friendly and easy to get into and set up, and in spite of everything i do actually recommend everyone looking to get into online retail start on etsy and perhaps move to other platforms in the future. plus, you can combat all the fees by just... making your prices a dollar or two higher than you initially wanted to, and using your 'save and share' link as frequently as possible. the fees are a little bit much, but you have to think about what you get in exchange:

the search is invaluable, you could argue the fees are partially a marketing budget lmao. if you have a private website you alone have to push traffic to your website, and not as many people know about things like shopify and bigcartel so they might not be as trusting putting their card details into it. i miss out on a lot of REALLY COOL STUFF because artists only advertise on instagram and i don't hear about them, meanwhile if i want some cool owl house stuff i can literally just search that in etsy and find a lot of TOH stuff super easily. i cannot highlight enough how GOOD the search function is, especially in this day and age where social media like instagram and twitter will blacklist your posts if you say words like 'shop' or 'sale' and now nobody can find your stuff in that website's search either. its very hard to do your own marketing now a days :(

being able to refund customer's lost orders out of the company's pocket is such a nice thing to fall back on if you have to and worth its weight in fees. USPS lost like... four or five packages of mine in december. that's like $100 or more worth of stuff that Etsy Covered Completely, and a lot of the times the customer will take that refund to make their order again. don't abuse this system, make sure you check with usps that the package is actually Gone, but it's a godsend when you don't make billions of dollars and eating the cost of lost orders would otherwise sting a bit.

if etsy did not make international shipping easy i simply would not ship anywhere but the US to be honest. shipping to europe is still a headache though but that's because europe is stupid

that's everything i can think of, but tl;dr yes please open an etsy 👍 i recommend it completely in spite of everything

⭐ if anyone wants to open their own etsy shop, use my referral link to make your first 40 listings for free! :)c ⭐

[docholligay]

I don't know why the repro scene in the UK is so good, but man is it annoying that some of the very very most accurate reproduction vintage would cost me like 50 goddamn dollars in shipping and also would be royal mail so who knows if it would show.

And it's all "straight across." It's 90% straight-up, reproduction of shit that was made from the 1940s to the 1960s. Love that. Most of what we have in the US is a very twee, "pinup" take on the style. There is nothing wrong on god's green and verdant earth with wearing a fit and flare swing dress with a fuckin Fraggle Rock print, but that is not how I want to live my life. I want to look like I could have stepped onto the street in 1954 or some shit. (With some minor styling differences, I'm not a purist by any means, I'm just not into being CUTESY. I'm playing it straight.) And in the US, we just do NOT have the wide variety of options for that--we have shit like Modcloth, Unique Vintage, etc. Which in addition to being cheaply made, mostly, is all that twee stuff, or all fucking black.

I do not mind spending money on my clothes! The secret to my 'success' is I buy very few items of clothing a year and I spend MONEY on them. At this stage in my life, I am looking to refine my wardrobe, not build it. I am swapping out less nice pieces for better ones. But JESUS, does it make me choke to save up 90 bucks and then have 50 bucks in shipping on top of it.

And yeah, you actually can find the stuff I'm looking for at clothiers who do not specialize in reproduction. I got my Kitty Hepburn style pants and vest from Banana fucking Republic, really nice, thick 80% wool blend. Exactly what I wanted. But the trouble is *I* know the words I am looking for, but especially resellers DO NOT. I know what a dolman sleeve blouse is, but does Chaz in Boca Raton selling a silk blend top that I DO WANT? No! Not often!

And GOD, every time I look on ebay and see how AMAZINGLY CHEAP the resale market is on this stuff in the UK, I SCREAM. You are all so fucking spoiled cry cry cry.

[darennkeller]

My solo indie game reached 10000 wishlists! I never thought it would be possible without a proper marketing team, budget or following.

How did I get those 10000 wishlists? Time to share what worked for me!

Disclaimer: I did sign with a publisher two months ago, and while they are already working on marketing stuff, nothing has been published yet. Those numbers are 100% from my own "marketing" efforts. There are people way better at this than me! I'm just sharing my experience here and I'll let you judge if it's helpful. Some things that did not work with me might work with others (and vice versa)!

(you can also read this and more in this free patreon article)

Let's sort what worked out the best for me.

Steam Events > Influencers > Reddit > Twitter > Devlogs

It might sound obvious, but take the time to check your wishlists regularly, especially whenever you're trying to give visibility to the game with a post/video/announcement/mail. It will allow you to know what works and doesn't. I usually check out youtube and twitch for gameplay videos or press articles whenever there's a bump while I'm not in an event or did not post anything.

Keep posting stuff on social networks. I know it takes time for a small reward, but it's good to have those regular wishlists and connect with other game devs/influencers. It also shows development is alive and you never know when it will reach an influencer or press. When I stopped sharing my stuff for a while, wishlists completely dropped, I was even loosing some everyday! However, do not post stuff EVERY day and do not spend too much time on this. My best results were with a few key posts on reddit (Reddit is harsh, but very rewarding), same thing on twitter. Sharing something interesting every 1-2 weeks instead of small things everyday seems to work better for me. Of course if you like to share your day to day progress regardless of the result, that's good and that's what social networks are for originally! Don't forget people go there to connect with others, not to be spammed by people promoting their stuff.

I publish devlogs on my youtube channel. I got ~200 wishlist from more than 100k views that took me weeks of work. I don't think publishing devlogs is an efficient way to promote your game, unless you go viral or that your videos also target players by being more accessible without too much technical stuff (mine are definitely targeting game devs for now). I'm only speculating here, but I think game developers are mostly interested in learning from your journey than actually wishlisting/playing your game compared to players which results in less wishlists. So do it only if it makes you happy and you want to share your journey (and be careful not to overwork while doing it)!

Influencers are great for 3 reasons:

1. They give your game visibility.

2. They give you feedback to make your game better.

3. They are usually keen to do it for free to help small indie devs.

Build yourself a press list: a list of press and influencer that might be interested in playing your game. I made a list of games that I think have the same target as mine and search on youtube/twitch for influencers that played those games. They usually have their business mail in the about section or on one of their social accounts. When you have something very interesting to show them (a new demo, event or announce) send them all a mail (but don not spam them)!

Here are two accounts you should follow to get tips about how to properly reach to influencers (and other game marketing in general): Clemmy and Wanderbot (subscribe to their newsletters!)

Events are huge for wishlists. It's easy and it does not take time to submit and they are usually free. But there are two big issues with events:

1. You have to find them.

The best free place to find most events is on the HTMAG discord created by Chris Zukowski (@AdventureMtn).

There's also this amazing calendar with all the events (thanks to @mreliptik for sharing this with me)!

2. You have to be accepted.

You need a demo, quality marketing assets to share and a good steam page. Again, Chris has some awesome tutorials (free and paid) to get a great steam page up. Consider supporting him if his tutorials helped you!

WARNING Do not submit your game to the steam next fest too soon like I did. You want to submit as late as possible, ideally just before your release. Each game gets one shot at the steam next fest, and the more wishlists you have going in, the more wishlists you'll get. I made that mistake because I thought I would release the game 2 months later (lol).

On a side note, you will have tons of wishlist deletions. Don't worry about it, that's perfectly normal (I won't lie, the first 1000 deletions still hit me hard though).

I think the best time to create your steam page is as soon you have a small trailer, screenshots and interesting description that do not look like a prototype full of placeholders. The sooner you have it, the sooner you start collecting wishlists! With the steam page also comes the whole steam community package, which is a plus to keep in touch with people who like your game. I don't really see any disadvantage in having a steam page early, but you might want to plan the communication around the page release to maximize visibility right away. Do not release it without telling anyone! When you demo is out, you can update your page and announce it everywhere too (try to give the exclusivity to a big showcase if you can!).

Things that did not work for me: devlogs, replying to influencers asking for games on twitter, using those spammy hashtags to promote your game (#wishlistwednesday etc...), posting uninteresting stuff about the game developement EVERY day, reposting the same content, posting on the popular subreddits, sharing my game on those "share your work" channel on discord servers, paid ads and plenty of other little "tricks" I wasted my time on. I think some things did not work out because of my game specifically. For example, some games definitely look better than others on socials. I don't think mine is, and it might explain why posting on socials is not as efficient as for other games (or maybe I'm wrong and I just did not find the right way to make it look interesting on socials!).

I hope this was was a nice read! Thanks again for your support and don't hesitate if you have questions!

[lalogawrites]

Since I'm very new to tumblr, I've mostly been lurking, trying to figure out a) the community culture so I don't make an ass of myself, and b) what exactly I want to use this app for.

While I figure that out, here's a little about me if you're curious: Like it says in the little tagline up there, I'm a writer. Though I'm new to this platform, I'm not new to writing; been at it for decades. I started writing original stuff and fanfiction, though for many many years, fanfiction was my refuge, my safe haven. I met and made lifelong friends through writing it, and had a ton of fun in the process.

But, as is human nature, I had a dream of more. I wanted to be a Professional Author, so I stopped fanfic and turned all my attention to the original stuff. And I succeeded - to an extent. I published six novels and dedicated several years to being a full time indie author. But despite my plucky, can-do attitude, the actual money making part of this venture went...badly. 😆 I'm proud of what I accomplished, because I gave everything I had, but as it turns out, (to no one's surprise), the stuff I want to write isn't the stuff that makes money.

The books are good. This isn't the books' fault. Macro-level, I blame capitalism, but the reality is that I'm not cut out for the indie author life. Everything I created needed a plan to be monetized. Every ounce of energy went to "honing my craft" and figuring out marketing "strategies." It was soul crushing, almost as much as the shitty retail/officer worker jobs I left to fulfill this "dream." Writing became work, and I started to resent every word.

The end result? I *almost* killed my life long love of writing and storytelling. Thankfully, I pulled my head out of my own ass and realized I didn't want whatever this was. So I pulled the plug on the business, let my mailing list know I was taking a hiatus, and completely stepped back from everything. Even writing.

I spent most of 2023 trying to refill the creative well. Fanfic helped. A lot. I started a Mandalorian fic that I may or may not continue, (depends on where the show goes lol), but it was the Ninja Turtles who really rescued me.

The first fic I ever posted was TMNT. And in November of 2023, when I sat down to do NaNoWriMo and finally write book 2 of my second original series, I instead started the sequel to that first TMNT fic. Then I went back and started "revising" the first one, because if I ever posted the sequel, it just made sense. 😆 (Even though I swore I would never touch that story again!)

I'm currently working on both of them now, and it's fair to say my love of writing has been rekindled. I'm still debating on what (if anything) I'll do with either fic, but I'm leaning toward maybe one day sharing some of my work publicly again. (That's another blog post/journal entry entirely haha.)

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. Stay awesome. 💜

[thepariahcontinuum]

i’m not sure if you’re taking these rn but if you are…

a cape who can turn inanimate objects into past versions of themselves! this can have combat applications (like turning a patch of concrete into liquid or causing a roof to collapse on someone because it had been broken at one point) but i can also see them overusing their power for mundane things like doing dishes, lol

Well I wasn't, but this gave me ideas so.....

Now see this could have just been a run of the mill Cape with a "Time reversal in a limited area of effect" similar to perdition or Gray Boy, useful especially if the stuff that's been reversed to an earlier state is still free to interact with stuff outside of the area of the effect.....But then you made the comment about the dishes.

See for that to work, that means that the power is removing germs, which are alive.....Which means this is a power with very few, if any Manton limits. Now we're having fun.

I'm gonna say this Cape is a hero, but only because they were press-ganged by the Protectorate. Y'know how Sophia was told "Join or Juvee" and how blasto was told "Don't make anything that can reproduce or you're getting a kill order" well the PRT quickly realised that this Cape can, at least theoretically bring the dead back to life and immediately swooped in with a similar offer of "Join up and be subject to monitoring and regulation or you're going to the Birdcage right now"

That being said they are actually good as a hero, they enjoy the praise and love the wow factor that they have on crowds, especially kids, they love the money that they make through merch sales because they are absolutely marketable....See, with a power this good Glenn chambers and the PR/Marketing teams just had to get involved. This is one of those capes who has a versatile power but plays up one power, aspect of it to create a specific persona.

They're a hero but look like a villain; they're costume is a pretty heavy duty and reinforced body suit with a reptilian scale design that's mostly a dark green but fades into an iridescent black like oil puddles at the arms and legs. Under they're arms they have a series of nozzles and cables that lead to a small backpack/tank that's mostly hidden by an off the shoulder 'cape' hanging over their left arm, it's short enough to stop near the elbow and not be in the way and is actually basically scale-mail armour. The backpack/tank has a skeletal pattern like a spine and ribs over it and their right shoulder has a big, bulky armour piece like a T-Rex skull draped over it. Their mask is one that has a gas mask incorporated for safety reasons and the lower half on their face has a "Dinosaur teeth" pattern.

Their Cape Name is "Primordial Super" and that tank on their back is full of crude oil and crushed up fossils and coal, their whole shtick as a hero is to show up, create a prehistoric jungle and literally unleash fucking Dinosaurs on Villains.

[eponymous-rose]

I'm gonna do this again because it turned out last week kinda went off the rails without it and the little bit of accountability is super super helpful.

Monday!

It's a busy week! It's also my birthday week! Let's do this!

E-mail with coffee: sent a prospective grad student a congratulations on her admission to our program. I'm really hoping to hire her, but I do need to consider whether I might want to admit two students for this position and just get the extra funding for the second one elsewhere if both decide to come. Hmm. Confirmed coffee on Friday with the wonderful admin I've been wanting to befriend for a while - finally we'll interact outside of paperwork! Sadly Wednesday's seminar speaker is ill and won't be able to present - I'm leading the seminar so that does add up to a little less work for me, which is the silver lining there. One of my student groups is struggling to grab data from the weather station they built on the roof because the dang software doesn't work on Macs - managed to coordinate getting them a loaner PC laptop from the department, whew. Completed two letters of reference for an undergrad student applying to internships. Somehow managed to double-book a meeting and gave one a heads up to cancel. Showed my availability for scheduling a PhD defense for a student whose committee I'm on. One of the speakers for my seminar series sent a somewhat passive-aggressive e-mail to the department chair to let him know his info's not up on the website yet. Department chair forwarded it to me, I replied with, essentially "hold your dang horses, your talk isn't until mid-March". He replied back with a sheepish apology. All good.

Formulated my list of essential stuff for this week:

finish Wednesday's (and next week's?) lecture(s?)

prepare next week's homework & key

work on grant proposal

work on commissioned review article

So excited that we're finally to the part of the class that I have taught before in past years! Great lecture today about statistical data analysis. Hurt everyone's brains with the Monty Hall problem. Showed a lot of XKCD comics, got some laughs. Good times. Answered some student questions on the homework assignments, looks like everyone's on track to ace this one as well. This is a really strong class and I'm very proud of them!

On to a virtual meeting with my peer mentoring group! We talk about how utterly wild it is that different departments manage research funding in completely different ways. I vent a bit for the umpteenth time about having to rely 100% on grants to pay my grad students (bigger departments often have student funding provided if they TA, but we just don't have enough classes to sustain that). Easily the biggest source of stress in my life right now is running out of funding for my students: "in order to pay your graduate students, you have to receive a major grant" "cool! how likely am I to get one?" "success rates are about 1 in 15" "uhhhh" "also the applications (if you manage to find a perfect match for your research) take about 40-60 hours to plan and write and it's not work that's looked at formally as part of your tenure review so you're actively taking time away from research" "uhhhhhhh" "and you won't find out if you have been awarded the grant or not before you have to make the decision to hire a student so you just gotta gamble on it" "UHHHHHHH" "you don't get paid in the summer either unless you pull in 2-3 grants that can each cover one month max of salary so I hope you're not putting well over 50% of your take-home toward rent in one of the worst markets in the US or anything haha." It's A Lot. But it's very helpful to talk to people about it!

Realized I left my half-finished Wednesday lecture on my computer at home so I can't work on it during my break between meetings. Shoot, guess that's a tomorrow problem. At least I can work on the homework assignment! This one was an absolute nightmare last year but I think I've come up with a way to simplify it while still hitting all of the learning goals. It's complicated but hopefully very satisfying and builds on everything they've learned thus far. Even with the simplification, I'm definitely expecting some traffic in office hours next week. Opted not to include the more tedious section of the homework because I've tested that particular skill amply in the earlier assignments this quarter. Ran through it once on my own, sent myself the key, then posted the homework and the submission portal for their online module for next week, so all I'm missing now is the lectures.

E-mail break! A professor at a small university nearby wants to bring in a grad student from my group to talk to her class about tornadoes! I have someone in mind (who is both a great presenter and also could use a little confidence boost to get back on track with his research), but of course he's working remotely on the other side of the country, so it's time for a quick check to see if a remote presentation is possible. Checking in on my seminar speaker for next week - project title and abstract up on the website, phew. She's a grad student, so I should find out if her advisor can introduce her or if they want me to do so (and if so, I gotta do some digging for fun facts to share!). Got an invite to a lunch with the faculty & chair where we're going to be brainstorming our next faculty hire, so I gotta be there for that (also because free food)! Surreal to think that we might be hiring my colleague for the next 30 years. It's... kind of intimidating and I definitely want to be in the room for that discussion. Aha! A reply already: virtual talk is fine, so I put the professor and my grad student in touch.

Nice virtual meeting with my former postdoc advisor - we commiserate for a while over his recent illness, but he's feeling better now so we quickly jump back to talking research. The small grant I was awarded recently actually dovetails with some of the broader research ideas he and I had been talking about, so I'm gonna keep him in the loop on that!

Up next: a meeting with my two undergraduate research interns. They're coadvised by my colleague who is flying research aircraft on the other side of the country right now so it's just the three of us. Due to holidays and conferences, this is actually the first time in 2023 we all managed to meet! We go over some paperwork to make sure they get college credit for this research. They're spinning their wheels a little bit but I had them shoot off a couple emails while I was there to start them getting their data ASAP. We then chatted about severe weather we'd all witnessed. One of the students mentioned she's been saving the candy from my office candy bowl for whenever she forgets to bring lunch to campus and now I'm realizing I should maybe get some protein bars or something for some variety.

All good stuff. There's a seminar in 15 minutes but it's a chemistry seminar so... I may just sneak home a bit early.

Tomorrow: no meetings (maaaybe one remote meeting), so work-from home! Should be able to get the last bit of coursework done for the week so I can start on my research to-do list.

[happy-hermit]

HELLO I WASN'T EXPECTING SO MANY OF YOU DKJSKD THANK YOU OMG <33

Okay very long incoherent ramble incoming I haven't figured everything out yet so here's just the general idea :)

Okay so basically the setting is a sort of like. Medieval setting where magic also exists! Ren is the king of the land which isn't plot relevant at all but it's relevant in my heart ASJKDKJS. Grian is a just sort of a traveler. He hates staying in one spot for too long so he's always hopping from village to village getting into trouble, the usual Grian stuff you know. He's best friends with Mumbo, who's a big name in what i'm calling the industrial district. He's a redstoner, which i'm thinking is a type of like. technology based magic. So he and Grian communicate on ye olde FaceTime via redstone/magic crystals, which is a very new technology that he's basically beta testing on Grian because what else are friends for.

ANYWAY akjsdkjs so Grian is a traveler. Pearl is his sister, also sort of does the same thing except she's been into sailing lately, so Grian can't exactly send her mail. Her address is perpetually changing. But he misses her and wants to check in on her SO he has to go to a wizard to help him send a message :) Just so happens that the next village he stops in knows of one close by...

Enter Scar :D He lives in a tower sort of on a cliffside by the ocean (dramatic flair). He's a good bit away from the village but close enough to walk, other than that he's pretty isolated. The village people act a little weird about him, like he's some kind of mysterious shut-in, or a hermit (hah), so when Grian knocks on the door he expects like. Some old and grumpy magic user telling him to get off his lawn. And it's Scar. Neither old nor grumpy, and in fact he is delighted to have a visitor.

Grian explains what he wants to do and asks what the price is, expecting like. diamonds or emeralds or his soul or something. And what Scar asks for is flowers. Grian is a little worried he's being scammed but ultimately goes through with it. Grian writes a letter and Scar conjures a bird to carry it safely to Pearl, and Grian goes outside and walks a bit until he finds some flowers to pick, and he brings them back to Scar. Scar pretty much lights up when he sees them, and the moment he touches them they get more vibrant and alive, so Grian figures out that he's nature-aligned (which just means he's got a natural talent for nature magic) which is weird because apart from the flowers Grian just brought there just. aren't any plants in his house. But he shakes it off and goes back to the village to stay in his little rented room.

He has to stay in the village long enough to get a response back from Pearl, so he has to visit Scar every few days to check! Cue awkward bonding moments and the forming of a friendship while they wait for the magic mail service to make the rounds. Finally he gets a response from Pearl and of course has to write her back. And of course has to wait for her response to that, and eventually it's just a thinly-veiled excuse to keep hanging around Scar KADSJJKD

Mumbo notices on one of their ye olde FaceTime calls that Grian's been in the same spot for like. way longer than usual. And he starts teasing him about it. ("Did you meet someone?" "...Well." "YOU DID?!")

So they're both falling in love, but Scar is. clearly nervous about something, hiding something. Grian tries to be patient but he's also worried and horribly curious. He invites Scar to walk through the market or the meadow or stargaze multiple times but Scar always looks guilty and scared and makes some random excuse. Grian's confused and a little hurt but is now fully invested in the health and wellbeing of this silly little wizard so he sticks around.

So things are sort of at a standstill. Until one day after a few days away Grian visits Scar again to find him fully panicking and freaking out, and he tells him that Jellie hasn't come back in a few days, and he begs Grian to look for her, telling him he'll do anything if he does. So Grian calms him down and promises to look for her, even as he's wondering why Scar isn't, and he asks if Scar wants to come with him but Scar just shakes his head through his tears and Grian leaves it alone.

He goes and looks for Jellie and finds that she's been "adopted" by one of the village families that thought she was a stray. Grian buys her back from them and takes a very grumpy Jellie back to Scar, who is just. so incredibly relieved and he cries into his cat for a while. Eventually Grian can't help himself and gently asks him why he didn't go look for her himself. Why he didn't leave.

Scar seems to resign himself to something, and he looks up at Grian with dull eyes and a sad smile. "I can't."

Grian asks him what that means. Scar demonstrates by standing up and trying to walk out the door. Glowing purple shackles appear around his wrists and neck, chains connecting back into the tower and fading into the walls. He steps back inside and they disappear. "I can't."

He explains that someone has trapped him here. That they think it's handy to have a wizard at the ready whenever they need one. That they force him to do magic for paying customers but that he never sees a penny of the profits. He doesn't have plants in his tower because he has not been allowed outside in years.

(i haven't decided who the evil person should be yet sdjskj please help.)

Anyway :) Grian starts feeling very, very murderous :)

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

hello everyone, annoying spaniard here!!! these last few days i've been stressing over assignments so i didn't have time or will to post one of these, but i'm back and this post is gonna be a bit longer so yay!

if you don't know what i'm doing, i'm just playing pokemon scarlet and violet and commenting on any references to my culture i come across :) here's my previous post btw

let's start with porto marinado's marketplace!! markets are big in spain, they can be found all throughout the country and i feel there's not a single market that served as inspiration for the paldean one, below i'll just add the ones i know the most / the most representative ones: the la cebada and san miguel markets in madrid, the la boquería market in barcelona, and the central market in valència

staying on this topic, i also really like kofu as a gym leader and specifically as a chef! as you could already imagine by looking at paldea, food is incredibly important in spain, it is part of our cultural identity and it plays a huge part in almost every aspect of daily life. there's 283 michelin stars in the country, and spanish chefs have won the title of best chefs in the world on numerous occasions. cooking shows are very popular, and in most of them there's always a section where the chef goes to the market to get fresh produce, just like kofu does! his personality reminds me a lot of famous tv chef karlos arguiñano, while his design is more similar to chef josé andrés, an incredible human being who's done a lot of humanitarian aid around the world and who recently got awarded with a honorific plaque in kyiv by ukrainian president zelensky as well as with the order of honor.

i've already commented on this but i hadn't seen the actual postal office building until now; the colour of mail service here is yellow, just like in the games :)

i found a new restaurant which means new food yay!!!

the first dish is just pintxos, similar to tapas but make them basque, and that area is really big on fish and seafood so it makes sense than their pokemon counterpart also has them!

even if arroz con leche is usually associated with argentina, it actually originated in spain and it is a traditional dessert still handmade in rural areas and widely consumed all over the country

ceviche is peruvian!

the fourth dish is probably a reference to espetos

the fifth is just pasta lol

even though levincia is 100% inspired in valència, both because of its location and its modern / technological look (also its name), the business area looks like it took inspiration on the cuatro torres business area and the AZCA district in madrid, the heart of business stuff in the country.

(btw the four towers in the pic are now five so much closer to their pokémon counterparts)

also as a quick note i find very funny the fact that the largest company in paldea seems to be a construction one, as the 2008 spanish economic crisis started (among other factors) due to the high speculation within that sector lol

i also find iono a hilarious concept for a paldean gym leader cause streamers are actually very popular in spain, i would say most young people (including myself) follow at least one streamer, and just looking at the top streamers list for november 2022, i'm counting 4 spanish streamers in the top 50 of the world. spanish youtubers are pretty high in the hispanic twitch community and for what i've seen on the internet recently younger latines are beginning to associate spain with twitch and streamers which lol. and of course, i cannot talk about spanish streamers without talking about ibai llanos, probably the most influential person to young people right now in the country (and a pretty good influence that is); he has the 4th most-followed twitch channel in the world, he's won the streamer of the year award in 2020 and 2021, held many irl events that have broken twitch view records, and has managed to rival mainstream television. in fact, spanish television seems to hold an absurd grudge against streamers and sees them as direct competitors, it's all very bizarre and makes all of iono's thing even funnier.

also - and i realise this is only a thing that happens in the spanish version of the game but it brought me immense joy and i wanted to share it with you - all of iono's lines and in general all of her gym was full of references to twitter memes and basically internet slang, it was both delightful and painful. here are some of my favorites:

she would say 'hacer la combatición' ('do the fightation') instead of 'combatir' ('fight'), and this is a reference to twitter slang; instead of saying 'morir' ('die') people would just type 'hacer la morición' ('do the diation'). it's just a funny and nonsensical way of saying it, that's it. also i've said this irl so it's one of those expressions capable of jumping outside of the internet into everyday vocabulary

at one point she calls you 'monstro/a' ('monster'), which is an expression the singer and celebrity rosario flores uses during the the voice auditions (she's a coach there) a lot, to the point it became a meme.

this one made me holler because it is one of my favourite expressions and one i use all the time... anyways when you defeat this trainer (i believe he's the first one?) he says 'emosido ganados' ('we have been beaten'). the correct way of writing that phrase is 'hemos sido ganados', and it is a reference to this graffitti which has become a staple in the twitter reaction meme repertoire ('emosido engañado' reads 'we have been fooled', the correct way of writing it is 'hemos sido engañados'). i unfortunately also say this one irl from time to time rip me

and that's all for this post!! i hope you liked it!

here's next post :)

[danthropologie]

I have vague memories of last year during silly season when people kept wanting daniel to indycar and nascar and daniel saying he wasn’t gonna go near ovals that people were saying that he could just do the normal tracks and that they could get another driver to do the ovals, I don’t go there so idk the names and like I get part time elite athlete is weird on the surface but like if it’s a thing that actually already happens in other motorsports why not f1 🤷‍♀️ and midseason driver swaps and reserve drivers needing to fill in happen regularly anyways like it’s not any different to that except there’s like actual planning behind it and would play to a drivers strengths (the downside would be the tracks daniel would probably have to compromise because he’s very good at street races like monaco and singapore), I also feel like marketing would kind of love it because they could give it the whole spin of it being an unconventional thing the other teams aren’t doing and puts the drivers well-being first for triple headers and stuff and then also can make a big deal every other weekend or so being like “guess who’s back!” every time they swap

also like I’m a hoe for the narrative and how Narain Karthikeyan only drove the hrt in 2011 for half the season because daniel stole his seat and his home GP happened to be happening towards the end of the season but hrt still let him race it

nothing to add except i'm mailing this directly to milton keynes as we speak, cause if they haven't thought of this already, they should probably at least consider it!!

[palialaina]

Where do I even begin. Einar, Eshe, Kenyatta, my boys....

Sheesh.

Let's go with Zeki, because the thing he gave me cracks me up.

How else am I supposed to react to getting a laser pointer???

So, apparently Auni decided he wanted to use the douplifier for butterflies and other bugs, and uh. It actually worked. I am amazed, I tell you, that Auntie Del didn't shout the house down when that happened.

I am also sad I missed it.

But Zeki told me that he's not skilled at bug catching (which I doubt, he's just fluffy and a bit lazy XD), but if I could help him cut down the bug population, he'd appreciate it.

So I did, and he gave me that for it. I told him it wasn't necessary, as weird as he is, he's my friend, and he insisted, so now I have a laser pointer. Honestly, the palcats love it, I just have to make sure to not point it at anything breakable.

Learned that one the hard way.

So there was that. Then I finally got all the things together for Kenyatta's ball (hey, you try stalling with Eshe breathing down your neck the way she does! Scary lady!), and man, I wish I could've seen her face when Kenyatta declared her Path as a healer apprenticed to Chayne. Granted, I'm also amazed Eshe hasn't decided it's all my fault, but like... Small favors.

Which are good favors because oof, if she actually finds out I read her private mail, I'm not sure I won't actually get banned from town. Which would suck.

So, apparently the Duchess is questioning Eshe's governance skills, which like... first of all, why, and secondly, the letter called Eshe delicate. Like. I know the Duchess is Kenli's sister, but has she actually met Eshe recently? Eshe is so not delicate. Eshe will murder anyone with a glare who calls her delicate. (And we're not gonna tell anyone I lied to Kenli about putting a present in her room. Nope. Maybe I should get her something though...)

At least after that whole incident I was able to buy the Maji plush! My boys were both being weird about it, and I had to be very frim about not letting either Jel or Hassian buy it for me. Though it is sweet that Hassian offered; he's so offended by the chappa stuff at the market, but he said he'd tolerate it if I wanted the plush so badly.

Jel just tried to slip me money, and I had to scold both of them.

Sometimes a girl just wants to spend her hard earned money on some silly frivolities! Honestly, the plushie is overpriced, but I'm proud of myself for saving up as much as I did and getting it. Proof that I can, you know?

Now I just need to do it again because I want the basket Reth's selling (It'll be perfect for laundry), and those springblossom vases Auntie has. I like the standing planters I have now, but I really want these to sit in the entryway before my room.

It's silly, I know, but I like them!

And then again, because I need that giant backpack Zeki has. But that one can wait because Zeki's got a ton in stock, and the Maji Market is only a little bit longer.

Oh oh oh, I almost forgot Auni's nonsense. This kid is gonna be the death of me, I swear! Nai'o wrote that Auni's been acting funny since their last camping trip, but he wouldn't tell Nai'o, so Nai'o asked me to ask Auni what was up.

...that was convoluted.

So, apparently Auni picked up a statue, and started having dreams about being lost, and no one else being there. Apparently he took it to Elouisa, and she said the statue was cursed, with the only way to break the curse being putting the dang thing back.

Auni, child of no brains at all, had no real idea where he picked up the statue from, other than a vague location in Bahari. In the interest of him actually sleeping, I offered to take it back there. Not like I don't always find stuff to do in Bahari anyways (I need more sweet leaf... celebration cakes use up entirely too much.), so off I went to Bahari.

Turns out, the place he was thinking of was the Statue Garden, and I have to admit, once the thing was back in it's spot, I felt better myself. This kid wants to join the Order, but honestly, I think he'd be better working as a researcher like Jina. Maybe he doesn't get to do magic, but he'd learn a lot more about things and how they work, I bet.

Oh, and then there was Einar, who tried to help me understand Flow. I still don't think I really get it, but if nothing else, I helped catch something so that he could fix a busted music box in his cavernous home, so that was nice.

I also found this out in Bahari. I'm not really sure what to make of it. It had an inscription about little things making big impacts, and it's made me sit and thing for a bit, because that's true. Not that I think humans are a little thing, but we're definitely making big impacts all around Kilima and Bahari, and probably the rest of Palia too. Jel mentioned that there's a collection of outfits done by a human designer, and that's pretty impressive.

I'm perfectly content to stay here and just have a good time with my farming and a good life with my friends in the village. I guess I'm not much of a wanderer.

Hm.

I wonder if that would bother Hassian... He mentioned earlier that he sort of misses being untethered. I wonder if that meant... me as well.

Tch. I'm being dramatic. I think I'm going to go enjoy this darn celebration cake that took way too long, and way too much stuff to make, and not worry about it.

I need to invite Lark and Orion over for another dinner-and-vent session, I think. Could be fun!

[doctorguilty]

positive, emotional

I was talking to my family about my moving goal timeline like my goal is do be all done and back to CT by mid January, and I was like, tell mom and everyone not to mail any holiday gifts and stuff just save them b/c anything you mail I just have to ship back.. and christmas doesn't really mean anything to me like I don't care for the holiday itself much less getting gift On Christmas Day

one of my sisters pitched like what if we did like something for lunar new year, jan 23rd, and I got really excited and emotional like actually that sounds .. really really nice .. like if you guys had lunar new year celebration to welcome me back, the older adults in my family aren't typically type to like explore things from outside cultures, but ofc they know I very much enjoy it so it's really nice to be willing to step out and try something new.. that would bring so much more joy to me than a christmas thing ;x; I haven't had any proper birthday celebration in like 3 years, most halloweens have been poor like especially this year I was sick and bed ridden, I've felt so alone and insignificant for several years now ....

my sisters really like cooking so they would be so about making celebratory foods ;-; and my grandma really loves having any excuse to decorate for a holiday so they were like, grandma will probably really love going to [local asian market] and picking up some decorations ...I'm like crying at this point I'm like that sounds truly really nice, like welcoming me back with the notion of good luck and new starts

especially since like.. when I left 4 years ago the family was different, they weren't as kind to me in a lot of ways, I was really pushed away (not everyone but like.. the older people while left me with like nowhere healthy to stay)

that really gives me something special to look forward too /-\

[the-firebird69]

There's a few things that you should know this guy de Santis is evil as hell to our son and we are terminating them with extreme prejudice they are an 8 all day and night. Same with Trump they're both end of Earthers he is an 8 no matter what he does and says and he's a fool because he demanded it. And his wife and his kids they are disgusting lousy morons. This afternoon went OK and some people want to talk and it's good he said this is what life is about and this other things people can do other than trying to leave my clan up on Saturn like riding and so forth max been doing this whole life and he says it's right and it's true and I'll be a son of a gun but I'm gonna start doing things and he says it's not your problem if I'm a close talker I said if you got closer to the breath is a problem so my good use started laughing and laughing. And it's just a nightmare what happens. So we are going ahead and we're going to start working on people who are not recovering and there are a bunch of Mike Goodhugh got ahold of something today our son and daughter said we need witnesses about working things it's not really harsh it's just Social Security and you probably won't call for anything bigger than that it says that's true he said we need to sell marijuana and he went nuts saying where and when and all this stuff so his son says someone's gonna write a huge prescription and he knows what it means and it's gonna be legit it still has to be careful kind of thing but we know what we're doing and he is going to try and do some things and we do know how to handle he's had some problems with certain things but it is gonna work I mean we'll have a few things like that but these people need to calm down and he's calmer and he was a little excited but it's good I mean he was talking about his car and he's talking about the hemi but he had a really fast car that he found it was his and he took the motor and put into a small old truck and that thing really tooted I mean it's fun but it dangerous as hell and our son is gonna have fast cars and they wanna relax with him and Trump wants to be **** **** that's what he likes doing I guess and people don't like that. In the future assignment is just gonna say no and he's gonna be a problem and here's a problem now so we're gonna handle it. But we have businesses that are starting like that and it's kinda weird we're starting at the bottom alcohol tobacco no firearms. But things like that and he said we should be doing some scooters and some Frankenstein stuff with scooters and motorcycles and I started to believe him we have an air conditioning company we have a ton of air conditioning motors they're gonna be needed but they pull the old ones out and we have a huge pile of old ones and we can start retrofitting and he said we should make a fleet for the Midwest that do certain activities and the mail is not a good one but delivery for certain things with a sidecar and towing it and things like that are great and I started to wonder that's not a bad idea and trikes so we have a lot of those trikes they tend to wreck the motor and it's because they don't drive it correctly and it's very strange to get on it and they don't know how to shift right and it's easier. So it is goint to strt and gass roots worming into it black market and more and lower echelon and such. and to do it in africa..and meet w garth and a few ti-mes relly roll the ball export gneesis an chrysler...make kits import the product here and shaq sees it. and metal if he can nope and ok better quality and he agrees. and a few annd test it. make a triangle and it is good he will. and we shall arrange it see how it is. tons say now then yes.

fun times now ok this rules

Thor Freya

Olympus

[fabdante]

16, 26, 30 and 31!

for this ask list! (thank you for the ask!! i finally got to my laptop to answer!)

16) Want any tattoos? What of?

Oooo, I love tattoos but have been taking a really long time considering what I want asdfghj. Plus a lot of my favorite artists are tattoo artists, as a lover of line art. If I could travel the world, I would probably have a lot of tattoos because of this, just collecting flash designs from my favorite artists dfghjkl.

Other then that, ideas that stick the most from my own head are some dandelions on my arm where I can see them. I've thought about getting some sentimental handwriting there to. And maybe little tributes to Treasure Planet and the reboot as well.

26) What are some seemingly childish things you like? 

I love dolls! Especially fashion dolls! I finally caved in and started collecting them a few years ago. I try to be selective about it because like, I don't need a ton of dolls in my house and I don't want to be one of those collectors buying up all the dolls so kids can't have them.

I also love plushies. My biggest weak spots are anything crab shaped, Pokemon starters I've had, and any Cubones I will cry if I see a Cubone plush in the wild.

30) What are you looking forward to in the near future?

First and foremost, my non art job either laying me off when the season is over or being able to renegotiate my contract if they want keep me on post season dfghjkl. It brings me great comfort to know there's an end in sight there.

I'm excited for ZK week coming up, of course. I have a piece I've been absolutely dying to show people, so I'm really excited to finally share it because I've been sitting on it for like...A While Now. I also figured out an extra idea that's different then what I normally do which is fun and exciting to me. In general I have a lot of art that I've been excited about and look foreword to finishing!

There's a lot of mundane things, honestly. I have some very belated packages that I can finally (comfortably) afford to send in the mail so I'm excited to get those finished up and mailed off. There's an art show near me for some friends of mine that I'm really excited about! I've also been excited to write things lately. For a while I was only managing a few words a night but I've gotten back some love for some old WIPs and I'm excited to work on them a bit. There's also some artists I'm planning to buy some stuff from soon which is always fun for me. Also I will probably get to see my great aunt next month, and I always love seeing her!

This a little longer then I anticipated but it's is a very good question because my non art job has had me down in the dumps and honestly, it's good for me to think about all the good things I have going on in the next month or so that aren't waiting to know if I've been laid off asdfghjk

31) What are you looking forward to in the distant future?

Doing more conventions and art markets! It's an avenue I'm excited to explore with my art and see what happens! I'm also excited to try and launch Alice in Grungeland next year online. It'll be cool to get that project out there!

I'm looking foreword to the time I can support myself with some sort of art job. I know it'll take time and work but I am very eager for the day that either I can get An Art Job tm or I can be an independent artist and support myself. Or, or, I can go back to school and get enough education that I can teach in a college setting. Because I enjoy talking to people about art and helping people with their art in that type of setting, I just can't afford to go back to get a higher degree then I already have right now. But one day, maybe. Like, all and all I've had a really lucky year as an artist where I was able to support my household for a few rough months (albeit on strings) via my art but it has left me a bit hungry to do it full time.

Also one day purchasing the Samurai Champloo vinyl collection. I want the soundtrack vinyls. I want all four of them. I want to make this happen for me sdfghjkl.

[alarrytale]

I know larries already do a lot of marketing for Louis, but do you think spreading knowledge of larrie would get more people on board? I’d never even heard of Louis until a friend of a friend vented about stunting in a discord server. That was 2 years ago and I’ve been here since, but i find that so many big blogs are cagey about trying to spread the truth to others. It’s like there’s this paradox of wanting Louis to be more popular but also being hostile to newer fans who don’t spontaneously know everything that’s happened in the past 10+ years. Like, we could just tell them. Heck I do believe and i still face hostility when i ask some blogs for clarification on ‘basic’ things the master posts gloss over because they assume everyone already knows.

“Um, don’t you remember what happened in 2012?”

No! I just got here!

I’m not saying we need a fandom missionary program, I’m just wondering why a community that claims to be dedicated to supporting two boys through injustice does so much gatekeeping of the knowledge of that injustice. I don’t mean to come off as bitter, but the longer I’m here, more more it feels like certain larrie blogs care more about feeling special for knowing the secret truth rather than getting the truth out there, even if it would help the boys they claim to love.

Hello!

So there is alot to unpack here.

I'm not sure it's a common goal for larries nowadays to spread the gospel of larry. It definitly was back in 2011-2014, when it was clear that the stunts were fake, HL worked actively against their closeting and the fandom as a whole were not split into fractions.

After Louis called larry 'a load of bullshit' and we got larry denials from both of them, fandom including larries started to tone everything down. Larries were scared of repercussions (from Louis mostly), repercussions from management towards HL (sometimes H og L had to stunt after larries were too loud and it got picked up by media). Larries' who were spreading the gospel also started to feel underapreciated because the loudest signaling from HL stopped. That was our fuel. When HL stopped fighting the closet, some larries took this as HL now willigly being in the closet to further their careers. Aka larries being loud now would sabotage HLs goals. So there are larries who dosn't think there is an injustice to fight anymore, if you understand what i'm saying. We have different views of what will 'help' them. None of us knows the whole truth. There are larries who believes in this and larries who believes in that. There isn't one common fandom lore either.

And to your part about treatment of newer fans. For us who's been here for a while it's like you've gone to first grade and progressed to thirteenth grade, but you are still in class with firstgraders who's asking firstgrader questions, didn’t do their homework and are taking up all of the teachers time. I think everyone expect newbies to read up on stuff before asking questions. If a google search can give you the answer, then google it. Explaining things over and over again can be tiresome and doesn’t make a good fandom experience. Also sometimes it's REALLY hard to explain certain things to people who weren't there when it happened. Things happen in context, and explaing why things that seems small now were really groundbreaking back then when it happened, is very difficult. Newbies also have a tendency to ask the basic stuff to bigger/older bloggers. It's like sending an e-mail to a math professor asking why 1+1=2. After answering that question several times a year for 13 years, that blogger might want to answer other more intersting questions. I always lose followers after answering basic questions, because i guess most of my followers knows the answer, have been around for years, and are tired of seeing the same thing on their dashes year after year. It's a difficult balance and i'm sorry you feel dismissed.

[wip]

hi, this isn't really about future features, sorry, but i've been meaning to ask about how the posts for the radar are chosen (and this is the only official blog with asks open i've seen)

i'm not that mad, just curious

it would be nice to know why, if not how (how can be abused, why is just for those of us who are curious)

and, y'all could at least warn us with a message or something when our stuff is on the radar, most people don't check their e-mails

and unless you're paying super close attention to your activity, you won't really connect the dots

also, who in the radar team decided my art was good enough, i just want to talk to them

(sorry this is long)

Hi, hello, @rav3nston3, big fan over here.

Posts for the Tumblr Radar are chosen by a group of Very Good Humans and myself. We all pick what we personally like—that way, we hope to feature a wide range of stuff that a wide range of folks might like to see or find out about and follow.

You do sound like you’re a little bit mad, though, and I’d love to understand that perspective better! With regards to letting folk know, I hear you. Sometimes, email or push alerts aren’t the best way to reach out. So we’ve asked our engineers to look into making a “You’re on Radar!” sticker to send via messages. In the meantime, you and all the other insanely good artists on Tumblr will have to check your mail once in a while or enable push alerts, I’m afraid! And maybe tag work “no reblogging,” or even “no radar” if you don’t want this kind of exposure. You can also follow radar.tumblr.com to keep an eye on what’s on the Radar.

As to the who, that was me! I love the Girlgruel and Thursday art you made, and now we know I’m not the only one 😉

-Loll (Tumblr Marketing)