#Monet Eleph

[venhydey]

The melody of Rain Dinners 🍷

I had to draw such piece because mine and @thousandsonny 's op OCs actually have a little interaction going on ~

[astoldbychae]

Yup, still pregnant. 🙃 🤦🏽‍♀️

[theninthdoor]

݁˖⚘‧˚ pac || yes or no + short message/clarification ࣪˚࿔

🌷 think of a question you need a Yes/No answer for, take 3 deep breaths, ground yourself, and then pick one of the 8 options below. this PAC should give you a general idea of what the energy surrounding this matter is + what Spirit wants you to know and/or suggest you to do about it. 🌷 take only what resonates and leave the rest! if you feel like the pile you’ve initially picked doesn’t really apply or resonate with you, then don't force it. just really try to use your intuition + your discernment. and you can also, of course, pick more than one pile. 🌷 remember that this is all for entertainment purposes and that free will still exists. don’t feel pressured to do anything you don’t want to or to make a pile/answer fit you situation, alright? 🌷 enjoy, my friends!

Pile 1 || ✧

cards: ace of pentacles, king of swords, Time for a Nap

Your answer, dear Pile 1, is Yes! This might require some more work going forward, and things might not be or go exactly as you have envisioned them up until this point, but the outcome should still be very positive! At the bottom of the deck we have the Eight of Pentacles and the Four of Wands, too, which suggest that your efforts will be rewarded (now or later), for sure, as long as you stay committed to whatever it is that you have in mind. New communication or clarity regarding this matter might be coming towards you soon, as well, so I would be on the lookout for that! At last, Spirit is saying that it's alright for you to relax now. Don't rush; don't fret; don't doubt. Things will work out for the best, as you will surely see. You're going in the right direction (action-wise, thought-wise, or both).

extra messages - don't have to apply; serves as extra confirmation: Cat- names; C- names. Cambridge. UK. Harvard. Planning for college. Light brown hair. Green hair. Tan skin. Howard. H- names. Blue manicure. Red manicure. Ice. Snow. New books. Missing deadlines. Tabi shoes. Blue pajamas. Elf. Elv-. Long essays. Yellow flowers. Craving donuts or croissants. Bears.

Pile 2 || ✧

cards: ace of swords rx, seven of wands rx, Breathe rx

This seems like a No, dear Pile 2… Something about it is making me feel like your/someone's time has passed or other things have now gotten in the way of this, so the road is blocked. We have the Ten of Cups at the bottom of the deck, though, which, to me, is a sign that even if No is not what you were expecting to hear, it will still prove itself to be the best answer you could get. The future holds clarity and resolve. It's not so much that you're being denied whatever it is that you have in mind; it's more so like you're being redirected towards something better altogether. And, I think, the long-run is what you should be thinking of, not the past or the present.

extra messages - don't have to apply; serves as extra confirmation: Burgundy hair. Ginger hair. Ginger cat. Ginger. Spices. A new baby in the family. Younger brother. Losing or breaking an umbrella. Iris. Inez. Ingrid. Slovenia. Slovakia. Sweden. Norway. Royalty. S- names. Monet. Painting. Studying art. A- names. Y- names. Red brick.

Pile 3 || ✧

cards: knight of wands rx, nine of wands, Go The Distance

No for now; More likely in the future. - That is what I heard here. The timing isn't quite right for it to happen or for you to make a decision. Something tells me, too, that if the answer were to be Yes, you'd soon find out that it should've been a No instead. If this were to come to you right now, that is, it's likely that you wouldn't be happy about it, even if you think you would. Now, if you're asking about someone else, I feel like there's some sort of pause there. I see no activity; just silence and/or distraction - like the other person is looking away from this. So, basically: Now is not the time. That is our take away from this.

extra messages - don't have to apply; serves as extra confirmation: Elephant. E- names. Flowers. Garden. Spring allergies. Allergic reactions. Arguments with the mother. Light-colored hair. Throwing a lot of old stuff away, or wanting to. Planning for a tattoo. Saving money. Drawings of trees. Biology. Botany. Lakes. L- names. Lily. Leon-. Land-. Pisces placements. Elev-. Eleventh grade.

Pile 4 || ✧

cards: temperance, the high priestess, Why?

Your answer is Yes. There is some complexity to this issue, though, as the cards are suggesting a need to seek more information. Not only do I think you might need to reflect, by yourself, a little bit about this, but it may also be a case of you needing to talk to others and/or do some research about whatever it is that you're asking about here. If I were to put this energy into a sentence, it would be "Keep moving in this direction, yes, yet cautiously and slowly."; so, even if the answer is positive, you still need to be careful, in order to avoid mistakes and/or misunderstandings. The future just isn't as clear as the present, it seems.

extra messages - don't have to apply; serves as extra confirmation: Listening to Taylor Swift or reading articles about her. Red lipstick. Red manicure. Working at a beauty store. Hairdresser. Fish. Sushi. Fishing. Fire placements; Aries placements, in particular. Andrew. Andre-. Baby blue. Painting walls. Wallpaper. Buying decor or home appliances. The countryside. Get-together with friends. Date night. Plastic surgery. Dolls. Iv-. Hiv-. V- names. Vanya/Vania. W- names.

Pile 5 || ✧

cards: knight of cups, six of wands rx, Chaos and Conflict

Alright… this one is a solid Maybe. There are many pros and cons; many points in favor and many others against. Overall, there are a lot of conflicting energies at play here. If this involves other people, then your energy is not aligned with theirs, so whatever you want and/or expect doesn't reflect their current standing. You're not seeing eye to eye, and you, yourself, don't seem to be seeing things clearly. Within you, too, I think there's a lot of confusion surrounding this situation. You're just being misguided, somehow, either by your mind or your heart. Either way, though, I don't think this is anything too serious or final, and you should, eventually, find your way to the truth. If you asking about a decision you've been pondering on, then the answer is: Wait. As I said before, you are mistaken, somewhere or somehow. This direction you're going in might not be completely wrong - or else the answer would've been a No, I suppose -, but something about this isn't quite right.

extra messages - don't have to apply; serves as extra confirmation: On and off relationships. Friendships ending. Betrayals. Starting new TV shows. Binge watching shows or movies. Film class. Critical essays. Bad grades. Red or orange clothing. New dresses or skirts. Cottage core. A very old pet. Grey fur. G- names. Phillipe/a. Fil-. Trish. T- names. Treasure. S- names.Tr-. Spain. Argentina.

Pile 6 || ✧

cards: death, ace of cups rx, Come To The Edge

Before I even pulled the cards here I heard "your friends are not being helpful" - yet I feel like the message might also apply to acquaintances, coworkers, etc., or anyone or anything you have been relying on a lot as of late, really. I feel you being pushed and pulled; being made to run in circles. Whenever you're close to your goal and/or to the truth, something else or someone else distracts you, and then you're back to the beginning. There's an element of immaturity and carelessness here, both coming from you and from around you, so I would, for sure, keep an eye out for that, too. Besides that, I also feel like you're only seeing what you want to see. There is much more to it, yet you're allowing yourself to be deceived and misled.

So, here, the answer here is not really a Yes, nor it is a No. I think the question, itself, is either pointless or misconstrued, so what you ought to do is take a step back and make sure you're using reason and being realistic. After you do so, then, I believe, you might find the right questions to ask (or realize you shouldn't be bothering with this matter at all).

extra messages - don't have to apply; serves as extra confirmation: Going from PAC to PAC. Angel numbers. Social media lurking. Gossip. Frustration. Libra placements. Sagittarius placements. A- names. D- names. Lace. L-names. M- names. Bows. Coquette. Sis-. Sib-. Vancouver. Sol-. Son-. Kark-. Asia. Indonesia. Philippines. Northeast. Tornado. Mel-. Grains. Pink phone case. Yellow phone case. Small tattoos.

Pile 7 || ✧

cards: the sun, seven of pentacles, Come To The Edge reversed

This feels like a soft Yes, but a Yes nonetheless! I think things are moving in the right direction, as it is, so even if this isn't a clear Yes as of yet, it is likely to become one pretty soon. And, whatever it is that you're seeking, I believe, is likely to either come to you or become available in the near future; so this is like the energy is building up to it or maturing. - and 'Maturing', I think, is really the keyword here, and what you need to reflect upon! You also need to keep moving and to keep bringing positive energy into your life; stagnancy won't do it. Patience is also needed, as well as respect for Divine timing. If there are other people involved here, I feel positive in regard to that/them, too. Everything seems pretty nice, overall, and optimistic.

extra messages - don't have to apply; serves as extra confirmation: Jo- names. Jasper. Buying crystals. Setting up an altar. Al-. Morocco. North Africa. Egypt. Family traditions. The sun. Sisters. Stars. Ancestors. Ancestor work. Baby names. Mother figure. Long dresses/skirts. Wedding. F- names. P- names. K- names. Kan-. Can-. Vials. Ven-. Bracelets. Virgo placements. Capricorn placements. New romantic interest or relationship.

Pile 8 || ✧

cards: eight of wands rx, king of pentacles, Treasure Island

This is not yet a Yes, but might be on it's way to becoming one! It isn't a No, though. It's just kind of a 'meh'… not even a 'maybe'. There's resistance here. Doubts. Questions. Lack of clarity, all around. I think what you are needing right now is time, first and foremost, dear Pile 8. You need time to think; time to make up your mind about some important things; giving others time, too. Instead of focusing too much on what you're inquiring about here and over-saturating your mind and/or the situation, take a break instead. Relax; do some self-care. You need to look at this matter with fresh eyes from now on, or you might miss the most important cues. Because, overall, the energy is positive, yes, but it could still turn into something less favorable if you push it too much or act on impulse rather than reason.

extra messages - don't have to apply; serves as extra confirmation: I accidentally wrote Pile G instead of Pile 8 for whatever reason, so the letter G might be very significant here. Also, you might find some extra messages in Pile 7, as I am feeling like the two are somehow connected. Grandmother's house. Tile floors. Italy. Sweeping leaves off the floor. Gardening. Cats. Baby pets. Vind-. Motorcycles. Old bus. Something inherited from the grandfather or father. Gold jewelry. Fol-. Jewelry on the right hand/arm. -in. 28. 8. 88. 33.

decks used || The Original Rider Waite + Wisdom of The Oracle

(Disclaimer: Based on current energies. All is alleged and for entertainment purposes only. None of the original images are my own - only the edits!)

[kindsail]

TAKE A BITE OF THE BIG APPLE. HOGWARTS INTRO!

SO I CRY, ONLY IN THE RAIN!

I. BEFORE THE GIRL!

once upon a time, in the aristocratic house of black, cygnus and druella black brought a set of twins into the world; narcissa and cassian black. taught the philosophy of blood purity from a young age, cassian grew up empathetic of those who weren't pure bloods. so, when his favourite sister, andromeda, married a muggle-born, cassian, alongside his two other sisters, were forced into disowning her. however, he secretly made efforts to stay in brief contact with her.

unlike the rest of his family, who had all been sorted into slytherin, cassian was sorted into gryffindor during the sorting ceremony of '66. this came as a shock to his family, who were angered greatly as it showed his true nature; that his views had already diverged from the rest of his family.

cassian was the first of the black family to not be sorted into slytherin.

during his first year at hogwarts, cassian met liliane monet. born to muggle-parents, michel and colette monet, in bordeaux, france, they relocated to wales when liliane was six. at hogwarts, she was sorted into gryffindor and quickly distinguished herself as a talented potioneer. her skill caught the eye of professor horace slughorn, who invited her to join the exclusive slug club.

due to liliane being a muggle-born, and after witnessing the disownment of his elder sister, they married in secret and began their new life together in hiding. they settled in a small town on the outskirts of devon named ebonmere, where cassian stayed in limited contact with his relatives.

II. MEET THE GIRL!

dear diary,

is that how i'm supposed to start this thing off? meh. it's now september 1st, 1993, and i start my first day of fifth year today. i guess i should give a little introduction on myself... just so you're aware for future reference.

okay, so, i, sorana lenore black, was born on february 14th, 1978. my mum, liliane monet-turned-black, was in labour for 12 hours!!! i know. insane. she said i was adorable as a baby and that she couldn't bring herself to care about the nine months of absolute torture i put her through, that's pretty privilege for you.

so basically... my family have a lot of errr history. specifically my dad's family. the black family aka a large group of stuck up pure blood cunts oops it'd be best if i scribbled that out. anyways. they hate muggle-borns, half-bloods.. ... anything that they're not; pure-blooded and rich. and well, my mother is a muggle-born witch.

i know, my dad is suchhh a rebel for going against his family!!!

anywho. my life has been pretty average if you block out the part where my dad's elder sister, bellatrix, found out about me and my brother and my mother and my dad's secret life and well.. came to kill us. she didn't succeed, clearly. the duel ended with no fatal casualties thankfully, but my dad was formally and officially disowned.

which is what he was avoiding because helloooo generational money!!!

but of course, they found out about us.

sooo we're not rich or anything. which sucks. but i guess we're kind of lucky because my dad has a decent job at the ministry and my mum is a potion archivist and magical flora specialist (pretty cool if you ask me!) so we're not poor to the point of struggling. my mum calls us "middle-class" whatever that means.

a few cool facts about me, now that we've discussed the elephant in the room...

1 . i'm president of the fashion club at hogwarts.

2 . i’ve memorised half the castle’s secret passages.

3 . i have a ferret named button.

andddd

4 . i'm a gryffindor like my parents.

anyway. gotta go now. mum's shouting at silas and i to get in the car.

don't worry. i'll pack you, keep your bloody knickers on.

[thalassic-p4rk]

yall.

yall.

Y A L L

*deep breaths*

*stares intently*

so. y’all know simon greenall is the speaking voice of barnacles. i’m sure some of you know that he’s had a different singing voice since the beginning. up through season 4, barnacles’ singing vocals are done by ross breen, and then (above and) beyond that, we don’t talk about it. but anyways, ross breen is not only an incredible singer, but he sounds so much like greenall that the majority of people don’t know the difference until they look it up, myself included.

so as you may have gathered, i like to do a deep dive on the actors and voice actors behind my comfort characters. do you know how much i had to dig to find that clip of greenall jumping off the pier? it was in his showreel compiled by his agent, ruth young. that’s how deep i dig. i also found a sex scene, but that’s irrelevant.

SO last night, i was bored, and since i wasn’t satisfied by the amount of comfort content i collected from my simon greenall dig, i said fuck it and looked into ross breen.

besties baby boos. girly pops. homies. queerly beloved.

i found a goldmine.

may i present to you, captain barnacles’ spotify:

AND IT ACTUALLY SLAPS??? LIKE, I’D LISTEN TO THIS SHIT REGARDLESS OF WHO WROTE AND SANG IT. ITS FUCKING GORGEOUS, AND IT ONLY HAS 48 MONTHLY LISTENERS. SO YALL BEST GET ON THAT.

and if there was any doubt that this was barnacles, i’d say this proves it FHJFDHH:

LIKE. GRRRRRRRRRRRR /VPOS.

‼️‼️BUT WAIT, IT GETS BETTER‼️‼️

BECAUSE in 2020ish, bestie boo bear rebranded. that’s right. this man has TWO SPOTIFIES!!!!

may i present to you…

✨Jazzy Comfort Barnacles✨

no i am not okay.

it only has 3 songs on the second spotify, but those three songs man. i will be posting about them separately bc holy fucking shit, it’s all comfort.

i fell asleep last night with “Flowing to you, Flowing Through” on loop and woke up feeling. so safe. i’m. it gives somewhere over the rainbow vibes yk? it’s bjarki’s song. and it just hits so fucking close to home lyrically for personal reasons and. ugh. later. this post is long enough as it is.

OH. AND IT HAS <1000 LISTENS. GIVE THIS MAN SOME LOVE GUYS. WE NEED TO FIX THAT.

his first spotify, ross breen, has several full-length albums. so far, we’ve only listened to one, “when i met the devil,” which came out in 2011 and is ALL BANGERS. we’ve only gotten through the one album bc we’ve been looping it all day. it has 15 songs, but quite a few instrumental transition tracks, so it comes to a little under 40 mins. my favorite songs are “when i met the devil,” “elephant’s foot” (which i will also expand upon in its own post), “life support,” “thin sheep,” and “jigsaw.” my favorite more chill songs are “monet,” and “keep the light on,” which made me cry like a baby during class.

from ross a., my favs are “flowing to you, flowing through” obviously, and “be ok”, which also made me sob hysterically and will be getting its own post too.

in conclusion:

[njkvla]

Like a old married couple || kuroo x yn

(fluff)

yn pov

i walked down the stairs to buy a coffee in the machine. it was cold here so i wrapped up myself in the blanket even more.

-oh yn! nice blanket. - yaku pointed to my purple blanket with unicorns.

-hmm thank you. - i mumbled sleeply.

-she uses it since elementary school - kuroo teased while chuckling and yaku with kai after him. i turned around to make contact eye contact with him.

-oh yeah and you sleep with a elephant which hold a volley ball. the one that i gave you for your birthday.- i squinted my eyes.

-wha- not anymore! - kuroo tried to protest.

i turned my head to the side still holding eyes contact with him.

-i saw it in your luggage.

-i will surely blackmail you with this! - yaku couldn't stop laughing so kuroo rolled his eyes.

-at least come here and share that blanket with me. - he opened arms to give me a sign to sit on his laps. i forgot about reason why i came here and just sit down on his laps. one of his arm he put around my waist and with the other one stroke my legs. when he felt under fingers plasters on my knees, he frowned and looked at them.

-oi yn what happened to your knees?

-yeah, exactly. what did you do to both of them? - yaku also asked curiously.

i sighed.

-you see, i was shaving my legs and accidently cut myself. nothing new. nothing old.

kuroo chuckled.

-u have nice taste i must add. unicorn plasters? really?

i shrugged my arms and snuggled into kuroo's chest which didn't go unnoticed by yaku who wiggled his brows on us.

-so tell us loverbirds… how do you like living in one room together?

-terrible! she's showering an hour! because of her i can't shower! and she have too many cosmetics. every shelf is full of them. you shower once a week that you use so many?

he turned his head to me still stroking my legs.

-you should be thankful you’re sleeping next to girl who smell good!

-yeah a girl who kick in her sleep and won't let me sleep.

he nudged me in the side.

i felt offended so i also started to point out things he do.

-oh yeah? and i sleep with a boy who don't lower the toilet seat!

-hmpf! and i with girl who is a teenage girl but still watches cartoons.

-and i with boy who shit 10 minutes in which the 8 spends on tik tok!

-guys stop this fight already... - kai tried to calm down the situation because of two boys which were standing next to machines watching our fight.

-i enjoy it. don't stop. it's really interesting - said grinning yaku. i sighed crossing my arms on my chest.

-i'll forgive you if you buy me a coffee from that machine. - i mumbled quiet enough so only kuroo could hear it. i gave him monets and looked away. i heard kuroo laugh but still didn't look at him.

-you're hilarious yn. i cant with you. alright ill buy you it. - he stood up so i took his sit. all for myself.

-hm what? what did she ask you? - yaku asked.

-she's too shy to walk next to this boys to buy herself a drink and begged me to buy it.

the mentioned boys looked in our direction then fastly walked away.

i kicked kuroo in the back of the thigh at which he winced a little.

-hurry up!

-i'm going, jeez. - he bought me the drink but when he gave it to me it turns out to be water, not coffee i asked for. we started to argue once again that the personel almost kicked us out so we decided to head to our respective rooms.

- yn. i’ll take shower first. - kuroo stated and started walking towards bathroom doors.

- oh yeah go ahead. - i responded and my eyes followed him till he disappeared behind doors.

i quickly went towards his luggage to find that plushie. after a few minutes of searching i finally found it. i put it on his bed side. when i heard kuroo coming out of bathroom i quickly took a random book and stared to read it as if nothing’s wrong. i hardly managed to not laugh. kuroo stood shirtless with wet hair and towel around his nape looking clueless.

- wha- YOU DID IT ON PURPOSE.

i started laughing hysterically as he jumped on bed and started tickling me.

[another-lost-mc]

is it bad that as much as i like your ocs (theyre amazing, i love them!), i really miss seeing you write for the canon characters

You know, that’s valid. The proportion of Canon and OC content here lately has been way off. It’s sort of the elephant in the room I ignore every time I think about Obey Me and my inspiration automatically focuses on the world building or OC potential instead.

There’s a few reasons why I’ve been less interested in writing canon lately.

1. Disappointment with Nightbringer. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure why this game exists (except to overhaul the franchise’s monetization structure). The premise and lore payoff hasn’t been that great for me personally - it feels more like an AU rather than a canon addition/continuation of the OG game. It feels like we still end up with more loose ends and questions that we don’t have (and may never get) answers for. I’m still waiting for Raphael and Mephisto to be dateable, by the way. As a result, my focus when writing OM content has been using the OG story/characterization using the odd piece from NB that makes sense, and that leads into…

2. My favourite parts of Obey Me are under-developed in canon. I enjoy most of the canon cast, I really do. But I want more Celestial Realm lore, I want more Michael (and not NB HM Lesson 20 Michael), I want more angels in general. They’ve mentioned Uriel a couple times now, give me that angel please and thank you! (No longer relevant, I wrote a version of him myself.)

The world feels so empty at times but there’s so much potential. Parts of the Devildom are more fleshed out with NB adding to it, but what about the other realms? What’s going on with the Sorcerer’s Society and the reapers? I never know if the interesting hints of lore we get are truly relevant or if it’s just something the game decided was convenient for a plot point and never gets mentioned again. NB has been great for Solomon fans since it’s practically a Solomon x MC fanfic written with a forced roommates trope, and that might be the best thing about it from a lore perspective.

My OCs were originally meant to explore gaps in the world and give the canon characters room to grow beyond the one or two defining traits the game keeps repeating over and over. I like writing Mammon when I can have him interact with Karasu, I like imagining the types of angels other exchange students might meet in the Celestial Realm, I like giving a name and personality to the mysterious owner of The Fall where so many events and Devilgram stories take place. Admittedly, it was refreshing to see that other people enjoyed reading about them or imagining them paired with their own MCs/OCs too. I call them the OC Fan Club with genuine affection.

3. It’s not something I talk about often but before I began writing fanfiction, I was mostly focused on concepts or outlines for original stories. Writing supernatural and horror themes always been my interest as a writer so anything with demons/angels/other monstrous races automatically catches my eye.

It’s a little mean to say, but half-baked worlds like the Devildom are a lot of fun to use as a foundation for expanding my own ideas. The OC story I’ve been working on is one way for me to write longer and more complex pieces which is the type I like most. Granted, it includes nearly the entire game cast and it explores the Devildom and Celestial Realm in ways that tie together some of my favourite personal headcanons and characterization. It focuses on angel characters and the history/culture of the Celestial Realm which are two of my main interests for this game. It’s a huge project - the outline is nearly 20k words on its own, it’s practically a novel divided into four sections with 30+ chapters and an epilogue. I can’t even express how excited I am when I get to work on this.

That being said, I do like writing canon content and I’ve been missing it more lately. I got burnt out when it felt like I was losing interest in NB and was pushing myself to keep writing anyway which isn’t great.

Today someone left a nice comment on something I wrote a while back, an angst piece for the demon brothers. I haven’t read it in a while and after going back and re-reading it, I was like, “Huh, I don’t remember liking this as much as I do.” And then I remembered something in my drafts that’s been rotting away, half-edited and ignored, and realized that I wanted to finish it. So, I’ve been slowly tinkering with things while I work on my angels’ story. Some of my plans are ambitious and real life distractions (mostly health related, like my recent bout of COVID) haven’t helped.

If I learned anything about my writing since starting this blog, it’s that:

writing what you’re passionate about is more fulfilling than writing what seems trendy or popular

giving and receiving feedback and fostering friendships/supporting each other keeps the community thriving

self care self care self care

Anyway. My goal has always been to write about the things I love about the game world and the things I create that are inspired by it. It’s a delicate balancing act that I’m still working on.

[blubberquark]

The AI Art Turing Test Is Meaningless

Last year I tried the "AI art Turing Test" (here's a better link if you want to take it yourself), and I did pretty well in it. I could identify many pictures as immediately AI-generated. Multiple images had missing or additional fingers. Some had shadows in them but nothing to cast them. Some I recognised as real pictures and I could definitely rule out. One picture had a particular human touch put in by the painter as a way to "bump the lamp", what the kids today would call a "flex", so I could rule it out as AI-generated. Multiple images had weird choices of "materials", where a wooden object blended into metal, or cloth blended into flesh. Some had details that looked like a Penrose Triangle or Shepard's Elephant: Locally the features looked normal, but they didn't fit together. Sometimes there was a very obvious asymmetry that a human artist would have caught.

I could rule out some more pictures as definitely not AI-generated, because there was just no way to prompt for this kind of picture, and some I could rule out because there were features in the middle, and off to the sides, in a way that would have been difficult to prompt for. Other pictures just felt off in a way I can't put into words. Some were obviously rendered, one some looked like watercolours, but with some chromatogram-like effect that I don't know how to achieve with watercolours, but that could totally be done by mixing different types of paint, but that effect looked suspiciously like the receptive fields of neurons in the visual cortex.

And then I thought "Would an AI art guy prompt for this image? Would he select this output and post it?" Immediately, I could rule out several more images as human-generated. I could already get far enough with "What prompt would this be based on?", but "Would this be the kind of thing modern AI art guy would prompt for?" combined with "Would a modern AI art guy use that prompt to get a picture?" was really effective. Anything with a simple prompt like "Virgin Mary" or "Anime Girl on Dragon" was more likely to be AI art, and anything that had multiple points of interest and multiple little details that would be hard to describe succinctly was less likely to be AI art.

Finally, there were some pictures that looked "like a Monet", or perhaps like something by Berthe Morisot, Auguste Renoir, Louis Gurlitt, William Turner, John Constable, except... not. One time I thought a picture looks like a view William Turner would have painted, but in a different style. Were these pictures by disciples of famous painters? Lesser known pictures? Were these prompted "in the style of Monet" or "in an impressionistic style"? There are many possibilities. An impressionistic-looking painting may have been painted by a lesser known impressionist, somebody who studied under a famous impressionist, by an early to mid-20th century painter, or very recently. What if that's a Beltracchi? And then there was this one Miró that contained bits of the the symbol language Miró had used. That had to be legit.

When I was unsure, I tried again to imagine what the prompt that could have produced a painting would have looked like. On several pictures that looked like digital painting (think Krita) or renders (think Blender/POV-Ray), I erred on the side of human-generated. Nobody prompts for "Blender".

I spent a lot of time on one particular picture. I correctly identified it as AI-generated, based on my immediate gut feeling, but I psyched myself out a bit. The shadows were off. There was nothing in the picture to cast these shadows. But what if the picture had been painted based on a real place, and there were tall trees just out of the frame? Well, in that case, it would look awkward. Why not frame it differently? What if the trees that cast the shadows were cropped out? In the end, I decided to go with generated. Make no mistake though: You could easily imagine a computer disregarding anything outside of the picture, and a human painting a real scene on a real location at a particular time of day, a scene that just happens to have a tree right outside of the picture frame. Would a painter include the shadows? A photographer would have no choice here.

This left several pictures that might as well have been generated, or might as well have been human-made, and several where there was no obvious problem, but they felt off. I suspected that one more of the landscapes was AI-generated, and I had incorrectly marked it as human, purely metagaming based on the structure of the survey. I was right, but I couldn't figure out which one.

In the end, I got most of the pictures right, and I was well-calibrated. I got two thirds of those where I thought it might go either way but I leaned slightly, and around 90% of those where I was reasonably sure. At least I am perfectly calibrated.

And then I asked myself: What is this supposed to prove? Is it fair to call it a Turing Test?

I can see when something is AI-generated easily enough, but not always. I can see where an AI prompter has different priorities from a modern painter, and where an AI prompter trying to re-create an older style has different priorities. This "Turing Test" is pitting the old masters against modern imitators, but it also pits bad contemporary art against bad imitations of bad contemporary art. It's not a test where you let a human paint something and let an AI paint something and compare.

As it stands now, the results of the AI art Turing tests do not tell us anything, and the test is not that difficult to pass. But what if it were? What could that tell us?

Just imagine that were the case: What's the difference between a blurry .jpg of a Rothko and a computer-generated blurry .jpg of a Rothko?

What if an AI prompter tells the AI to generate the picture so it looks aged, with faded bits and a cracked canvas? What if an AI prompter asks for a picture in the style of Monet? What if a prompter with medieval religious sensibilities asks for illustrations of the life of St. Francis of Assisi? You can easily psych yourself out taking the test, but you can also imagine a version of the test that is actually difficult.

If you control for all of these, maybe all that's left will be that eerie AI-generated feeling that I couldn't quite shake off, and the tendency of image synthesis systems to focus on the centre of the picture and to make even landscapes look like portraits. Maybe we can fix even that if we don't prompt with "trending on artstation" but with "Hieronymus Bosch", and then we will have a fair test. Or would it be a fair test if we pit a human against an AI? What would happen if you pitted me, with armed with watercolours, charcoal, crayons, or acrylic paint, against midjourney?

Or maybe it's a fool's errand, given that some people who took the test couldn't even notice the extra fingers. You can pass the political Turing test if you just pretend to be an un-informed voter, and AI art is probably already better at illustrating cover images for podcast episodes than an un-informed voter. And then it can generate the whole podcast.

[writer-and-lover]

Pro-Wrestling Novice

Kinktober day 5: Collaring | Sweat

Also contains handjobs, a kind of submissive Hugo Vega and brief mentions of other characters.

After that first time Hugo and you had play-fought in his little wrestling themed room, you’d made it a habit. Once a week, you’d go out to trivia night and order a charcuterie board for the both of you. Then you’d split the winnings with each other (splitting the discount for fixing your respective cars) and head to Hugo’s house. You’d spend most of the evening talking about anything and everything. You’ve pretty much told him the whole history of the elephantidae evolution tree and the different branches. And you’re sure he’s damn near memorised every single literature book detailing the most famous or underrated artists in each art era. He’d fallen in love with Asian elephants, calling them sweet old buddies so he could watch you smile. You’d fallen in love with Monet’s paintings and how Hugo seemed to be able to analyse every single paint stroke.

As the night went on and Ernest went over to Lucien’s house, you both made your way over into the beloved room. The biggest opening to Hugo’s heart. It was stunning, so much effort and dedication placed into such a dear thing. It brought wonder into your eyes every single time. There was enough space in the middle of the room for you both to play and wrestle as long as you both wanted. Both of you would always end up breathless in laughter, the joy of acting and getting to be so carefree with each other addicting. And it was great to learn so much about the sport, the history of it, the moves. Especially the moves.

Maybe you were just a pervert. Maybe what you felt for Hugo was more than just romance. You’re pretty sure he wouldn’t mind it either, you were both grown men, God’s sake!

But sometimes, just being close to Hugo made you feel hot. Dizzy. It made you feel gross in a way. And these little play sessions- You hate to admit it, but more often than not, you’d hope that you were a braver man. That you could ask Hugo for something more than just these cute dates and more on the lines of bend you over in half. Not that it would be safe. You’re sure your back would snap in half. You’d felt the strength in that man, especially during that one trivia night. The effortless way he’d picked you up from the pure joy of seeing those wrestling tickets.

So maybe when tonight you chose to wear something different with the excuse of having accompanied Matt’s young friend to a concert beforehand, you actually had less innocent intentions in mind. You’d asked Mary, rather shyly, what the best way to hint at a man into having… “relations” would be. Her suggestion, pretty crude if you may say so yourself, was essentially to throw yourself naked at him to finally “get a good fuck.” You then went to find Matt, and beg for his more sane advice. His good advice.

Which led you to tonight. Dressed up in tight, glossy, black leather pants and a black muscle hoodie. And a collar around your neck. It had been a very last minute addition, a sudden find that Matt had insisted you wore. Something about having known Hugo for long enough to know he’d like the look of it. You didn’t understand what would be so appealing about a collar, but you trusted Matt’s judgement. With a simple ring in the middle and about eight evenly placed d-rings, the collar seemed to you to be pretty basic. Something simple you’d bought when you were younger and stupider. The buckles and spikes were a plus, adding to your obvious punk/ska aesthetic. Cute. The whole outfit was simple enough to seem legit. Plus, you had promised to take Pablo. So it wasn’t an actual lie. But there had been no need for it.

With excited encouragement from Mary, Matt and Pablo, you made your way with Matt to the trivia night. To Hugo.

Hugo’s reaction had sent nerves through you at first. His wide eyes had been the first thing you’d noticed. The second being the way his back straightened more than it already had. It had felt almost like that first date you’d both gone to. His eyes never strayed from you, even as you both answered questions where you could. But every time you looked back at him, he looked away in such a cute, bashful way. He didn’t seem to eat a lot either, nearly half of the board being eaten by you. You’d have eaten more if it hadn’t been due to your nerves.

The walk back to his house had been fun, at least. Hugo’s nervous rushed speaking made you less anxious, ironically. You loved teasing him, playfully.

But when you got to the house, everything seemed to ease slowly. Maybe it was the familiar environment, or the many number of distractions. But Hugo eased considerably. Just like always, you both talked and talked and talked. Of silly little nothings, of the compositions of stars and how music could be translated into it. Until Ernest bravely stomped down the stairs and out the front door, with a simple goodbye wave.

The tension hit like a train. Hugo nervously grinned and guided you back to his wrestling room. You did your best to crack jokes once you got there, doing silly little stretches to make Hugo relax again. But Hugo seemed so distracted, gaze averted somewhere on you. But you paid it no mind. Once you deemed yourself sufficiently warmed up and stretched, you bounced on the balls of your feet.

“C’mon, J.D Slamminger. Show me some new moves!”

Hugo laughed, “you think you can handle the power of literature?”

And so the playfighting begins.

It lasts a long time, grunts and laughter filling the room at each others theatrics. But at some point, you realise that this is very quickly turning from innocent to a bit sexual. Hugo’s shirt is bunched up around his waist, the first few buttons having popped off after a particularly hard tug from you. His pants are riding low on his hips, giving you a sneaky glimpse to the edge of his underwear. You’d always noticed that Hugo seemed to have a very good amount of body hair. Now, it’s glaringly obvious. His chest and stomach are covered in the thick, dark strands. And he’s got a very unholy happy trail disappearing into the waistline of his trousers, and you really can’t help but wonder. Where else does he have this much hair? You’re both sweating gallons. But your eyes trace the way sweat drips down his neck and clings to his skin, to his chest hair-

He takes advantage of your distraction and lunges at you. It’s so damn sudden, that you can only yell as your world turns upside down in the matter of seconds. When you blink away the black spots in your vision, your breath gets stuck in your throat. Hugo’s face is right in front of yours, a crooked smile and effort squinted eyes staring at you in such pure innocent joy. His face is flushed, hair messy and matted down from the sweat pouring down his face. He’s pinning you down with all his weight, making you grunt. He’s incredibly good at this game, smart to see where you could definitely break out of the hold. You’re essentially half-pushed up against the wall, upper back resting against the cold material. His knees pin your hands to the floor, preventing you from pushing him off. But worst of all, he’s got your legs pinned right to your shoulders. Hell- you didn’t think you were still capable of bending like this, although your back is complaining. His hands are pushing up against the back of your knees, and despite how hard you try to kick off or push back Hugo is just too strong. It’s messing with your head-

“I- uh- don’t think this counts as a pin, Hugo,” you breathe out.

Hugo lights up, “you remembered! No it doesn’t, because your shoulders aren’t touching the floor.”

You tremble slightly in the hold, feeling sweat pour down your neck and gathering at the leather of your collar. Fuck, you must make a sight, your legs essentially framing the collar around your neck. You look up at him with half-lidded eyes.

“Then why- are you holding me down like this?”

His smile drops into a look of confusion, until it seems his brain catches up with him. And he seems to choke on his breath, hurriedly dropping your legs and letting you out the pin. He’s wringing his hands, so utterly nervous. Poor guy. You’d comfort him, but you’re still panting for breath on the floor. You let your face hand a bit, and your legs stretch out in front of you. Sweat drips off your face onto the floor in a disgusting puddle.

“L-look, I’m. I’m sorry, really. I hadn’t meant to put you in such an uncomfortable situation and I understand if you’re-”

“Hugo.”

“- mad at me or- or if you don’t want to come back! It was improper of me, to put you in such a weird position-”

“Hugo-”

“- I swear, it won’t happen aga-”

“Hugo!”

His mouth snaps shut, and he stares at you with the guiltiest puppy eyes. You stare back at him, unapologetic and unwavering.

“You know,” you whispered, “I’ve been wanting you to show me how to do a Rana pin.”

You were scared that maybe you’d gone a bit too far, but the look on Hugo’s face is worth the fear. You both know that he isn’t going to be teaching you any moves right now, and you know you wouldn’t be able to learn it anyways. So when comes back to kneel in front of you again, you’re expecting the tentative hands skimming over your skin. The touch is so soft, it sends subconscious shivers up your skin. He traces up your sides, rough hands wrapping around your shoulders and brushing up the curve of your neck. They pause at the edge of your collar, slipping two fingers gently under the leather and tugging. You breathe out a gasp, closing your eyes and letting your head drop backwards. His hands are restless but gentle, his right index hooked on the O-ring at the front. Hugo pulls you close by it, shyly bringing you in for a kiss. It’s pretty chaste and simple, until you playfully bite at his lower lip. He huffs, opening his mouth for you to slip your tongue in. The kiss gets deeper and more frantic. Hands clawing at each others clothes, hastily pulling them off each other.

Once you pull Hugo’s shirt off, you can’t help but sink your face into his chest. You nuzzle into it, relishing in the softness of his muscle and the scratchiness of his chest hair. He gasps, moving his hands down to squeeze at your sides. You lick at the sweat-addled skin, eyes fluttering at the taste of Hugo. You let out a sigh when Hugo’s hand moves past the waistband of your trousers and gropes at your sex. The whimper he lets out sends you dizzy with want. You’d forgone underwear all together, and you’re sure he can tell. His hand feels good despite how gentle and slow it is, so you buck your hips against it to get more friction. In exchange,, you bite and suck at his chest. Leaving marks that’ll eventually turn into bruises. Your hand sneaks down to Hugo’s formal trousers, unbuttoning them deftly and undoing the fly. You shimmy your own hand into his underwear, wrapping your hand around his dick and giving it a gentle squeeze. And God, he’s so sensitive, whining at the feeling of your dry hand around his dick. The sweat that had accumulated eases the slide a bit, but you still pull back to lick at your hand. It tastes salty, his sweat clinging to your hand. You make sure to let enough spit cover your hand, so when you wrap your hand back around Hugo’s dick it glides much more smoothly than before.

He’s desperate, rocking his hips weakly into your hand as you grind against his. You push your face further down his body, sucking at his nipples harshly and making him cry out. Although you can’t see his cock, you can feel veins wrapping around it as you pump it in the rhythm of his thrusts. It’s thick, enough to keep your fingertips away from each other. It’s a bit longer than average too. Soon, he curls up around you and spills into your hand. Shaking like a leaf ontop of you. You grind harder and harder into his hand. He kisses you, whimpering as he licks into your mouth with desperation. He pulls hard at your collar, thinning your breathing and making you come with a loud cry. You slump back against the wall and, as you stare at each other, you both begin to laugh.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

The Sussexes🍋 have delivered little since signing w/the steamer in 2020

"Meghan and Harry’s $100 Million Netflix Deal Is a Hollywood Miss | Emily Smith Feb 28, 2024

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s lucrative Spotify deal fell apart in 2023, Bill Simmons, The Ringer’s founder and managing director, was incensed.

“I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation,” Simmons, the head of podcast innovation and monetization at Spotify, which owns The Ringer, said on his self-titled show. “‘The F–king Grifters.’ That’s the podcast we should have launched with them.”

Simmons’ astonishing comments followed the collapse of the Montecito, California-based Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s $20 million deal with Spotify, signed in December of 2020. They delivered just 12 episodes of Markle’s “Archetypes” podcast.

But the Spotify contract paled in comparison to the estimated $100 million Netflix agreed in September 2020 to pay them, a deal which produced a documentary series “Harry & Meghan” two years later — and little else since then.

Aside from the docuseries, the exclusive Netflix deal produced the “Heart of Invictus” in August 2023, which covered Prince Harry’s games for wounded warriors, and “Live to Lead,” about inspiring world leaders and featured interviews with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Gloria Steinem. That series premiered on Dec. 31, 2022.

Unproduced is an animated series created by Markle titled “Pearl,” which Netflix axed in May 2022 as part of a series of cutbacks. There is little else close to production.

What’s gone wrong? TheWrap spoke to multiple insiders who say the Sussexes have worn out their welcome in Hollywood with an iron-fisted desire for control, combined with a lack of experience. A revolving door of executives have departed the couple’s production company, Archewell, in the past two years while a long list of exhausted agents, producers and other industry veterans have stamped it with a “life’s too short” reputation.

The Sussexes founded Archewell Productions in the name of their four-year-old son, Archie. It includes their nonprofit charitable foundation, plus a for-profit arm focused on media projects.

“Everything with them was fraught and complicated because they wanted complete control,” one Hollywood creative who has worked with them, who declined to be identified, told TheWrap.

Another insider with knowledge of the management of Archewell agreed, saying the couple have proven to be stubborn to the point of alienating others.

“It appears that they just want what they want and won’t take advice,” the insider said.

“Taking on Harry and Meghan was a great coup for Netflix,” public relations and image guru Mark Borkowski told TheWrap. “It probably got a lot of eyeballs and subscriptions, but they [Harry and Markle] never delivered.”

Borkowski added that the clients he works with are closely watching their budgets and costs, but, given the former royals’ lifestyle, “The amount of income this pair has to raise is enormous.”

An insider with knowledge of the Netflix deal with Archewell said it is an “overhead agreement,” meaning not all the money would go to the Sussexes, but it also helps fund their staff, office and development fees.

Archewell and the Sussexes declined to comment for this story.

The former royal couple were initially a hot property. Before signing with Netflix, they also had discussions with Apple, Disney and NBCUniversal, The New York Times first reported. Meghan previously narrated a documentary about elephants for Disney+, and Harry collaborated with Oprah Winfrey on a docuseries about mental health for Apple TV+.

The “Harry & Meghan” docuseries, directed by Liz Garbus, was a legitimate hit, setting a record for the biggest debut for a Netflix documentary with a total 81.6 million hours watched on its first four days of availability, amounting to more than 28 million households watching.

The series was an intimate glimpse inside the Sussexes’ marriage and made headlines for their criticism of the British royal family for failing to support them, including allegations of racism and a narrative that the couple was essentially forced to leave England for the U.S.

But production was apparently difficult. One individual with knowledge of the series said dealing with the former royal couple was a “nightmare” as they were fiercely protective of their story.

“Harry and Meghan made the collaborative process very hard, to the point that there was no collaboration at all,” the insider said.

Other projects have not gotten off the ground.

Netflix and Markle announced “Pearl” with much fanfare in 2021. The animated series — co-executive produced by Markle and David Furnish — was to center on the adventures of a 12-year-old girl who finds inspiration in a variety of influential women throughout history. Netflix canceled it the following year while it was still in the development stage.

There have been reports Netflix bought the romantic Carley Fortune book “Meet Me at the Lake” for $1 million for the pair to produce into a movie. Other plans included a TV drama feminist retelling of Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” and a documentary about Prince Harry traveling solo in Africa. But these all seem far from getting off the ground.

Another Archewell insider told TheWrap that “Meet Me at the Lake” was “in active development,” but has not yet been cast. And Harry’s trip to Africa has not been scheduled. Some projects will be announced in the next few months, the insider added.

“They have a couple of unscripted things they’re working on,” Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria said at the “Next on Netflix” event on Feb. 1 of Markle and Harry, including “a movie in development” and “a [scripted] series.”

Bajaria emphasized that these projects were still in “early development,” which raises the question what exactly has been going on between Archewell and Netflix? COVID struck at the start of their deal, Markle went on maternity leave and then the writers’ and actors’ strikes halted production for much of last year. But with all that, it is it is remarkable how little the couple have actually made work for the streamer.

Reps for Netflix, which has also pulled back on its TV and film expenditure during the work stoppages, declined to comment. Harry and Markle do not have guild relationships so any non-U.S. productions would not have been affected.

Markle recently announced she’s joining forces with Lemonada Media — whose tag line is “Making Life Suck 🍋 Less” — for a new podcast, and it will also rerun her “Archetypes” podcast. The company, founded in 2019 by Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs, is small and is not expected to be a big pay day for Markle.

The actress is still earning residuals from “Suits,” which recently found an entirely new audience on Netflix.

Archewell turnover: Meanwhile, there has been a dramatic executive turnover at Archewell — particularly those negotiating TV, film and media deals. Mandana Dayani, a human rights activist and business executive, was the president of Archewell from May 2021 to December 2022 and stepped down just days before Harry and Markle’s docuseries aired, with no reason offered. 

The company also lost its BAFTA-winning head of content Ben Browning in January 2023 after his contract expired. Browning, who worked on “Harry & Meghan” and the “Archetypes” podcast, returned to his former employer, FilmNation Entertainment as president of production.

Bennett Levine, their production manager, also left in January, as did Rebecca Sananes, Markle and Harry’s head of audio who left to work as a freelance writer and podcast producer after the “Archetypes” podcasts were concluded.

The company has also parted ways with their SVP of scripted television, “Fargo” producer Nishika Kumble, who lasted less than two years in the role.

“Meghan and Harry don’t have a quality team around them,” Borkowski said. “They drive this ship, they are in the wheelhouse. Whether you are the Obamas or Meghan and Harry, you have to defer to people who can really get the job done.

“They just need to sort out a proper production company, they need significant hires,” he added. “People who can actually develop scripts, wrangle talent.”

The Archewell insider insisted the couple has hired talented new executives. Tracy Ryerson was brought in as the new head of scripted content. She formerly worked at the production company behind “Peaky Blinders,” Caryn Mandabach Productions, and starred in a reality show titled “The Real L Word.” Former Disney+ executive Chanel Pysnik joined in 2021 as head of unscripted.

The Sussexes made a surprise appearance at the Jamaica premiere of the Bob Marley biopic “One Love” in late January, sparking speculation about a possible deal with the film’s distributor Paramount Pictures, especially given that they reportedly travelled with the company’s boss Brian Robbins — who is a neighbor in Montecito — via a Paramount private jet.

Yet parent company Paramount Global is strongly rumored to be up for sale, so it is unlikely to be a safe landing pad for the couple.

Last August it was announced that WME signed Markle to be repped by Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, Brad Slater and Jill Smoller. Archewell is also being repped by the agency, which didn’t comment to TheWrap.

“She is extremely ambitious and knows what she wants,” an industry insider told TheWrap of Markle’s discussions with the talent agency. “But there have been issues with executive turnover inside Archewell.”

In the meantime, The Sussexes need to make money to keep up their California lifestyle and their $14.65 million mansion. The U.K.’s Daily Mail reported that they made around $20 million from their tell-all documentary, while Harry made an estimated $15 million from his memoir “Spare.”

“I think possibly Netflix has dodged a bullet,” Borkowski said. “They know their content, they are data wonks, they know where the interest is. So they’ve got a very good idea or not whether there is a huge amount of excitement around Meghan and Harry.”

The viewing public may not be interested in a romantic movie from the Sussexes, he said. “They create a lot of column inches, but do people want content from them unless it is revealing something extraordinary [about themselves or the British royals]?” he said. “I don’t know how much more they can reveal.”

https://www.thewrap.com/

After Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pulled the plug on their $20 million podcast deal with Spotify this week, Bill Simmons, the streamer’s head of podcast innovation and monetization and CEO of The Ringer, called them “f—ing grifters” on the latest episode of his podcast.

The deal, which was struck in 2020, resulted in only one show, the one-season, Markle-hosted “Archetypes.”

“I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry’ leave Spotify negotiation, the f–ing grifters,” he told guest Joe House on Friday’s episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast.” “I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories. F— the grifters.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Harry and Meghan would not receive the full $20 million from their payout. The two signed a deal with Netflix in 2020 to produce documentaries and series, and released their first show — a docuseries called “Harry & Meghan” — earlier this year.

Simmons, who founded sports and pop culture website The Ringer, sold it to Spotify in 2020 for $250 million. He’s in charge of several Ringer-branded podcasts at the podcast giant.

https://x.com/rBillSimmonsPod/status/1669665129393160192?s=20

[galdra-studios]

October is here! Time to pull out your sweaters, scented candles and spiced coffee, as we settle in for maximum Fall coziness!… Right after we’re done addressing the big corporate elephant who’s wandered into the room ^^0

Last month, Unity made a startling decision that had us scrambling for a few days.

Unity is the game engine we use for Arcadia Fallen. It’s a popular tool that’s used by many indie developers, and it used to run on a monthly subscription model. But this month they suddenly announced they would change their monetization to instead charge a set fee every time a game runs their installer; more specifically, they wanted 20 cents every time someone installed a game. This sparked quite the stir online, from developers, gamers, and influencers. It was actually quite refreshing to see the industry unified for once, though the circumstances were very…urg.  Eventually, Unity reconsidered these changes and came up with something more reasonable, but we still felt uneasy. Daniel’s been reading through the fine print, and we’re not comfortable with the terms Unity proposes going forward. The difference is, they used to only charge a subscription fee for developing Unity games, but now they have added an implicit fee for distributing Unity games, which they can change at a whim and the change would also affect previously released games under the new terms. When they decide to crank up the fee, there’s no telling how it might affect a small studio like us, which is scary.

So what does this mean for us?

We’re going to continue developing Arcadia Fallen II in Unity, because we’re still on the old terms for the project, but any future projects will likely be moved to another engine. It sucks, because we’ve been developing a lot of really cool tools for our dialogue system that will now have to be remade, but we can’t risk our livelihood and the future of the studio on the whim of unpredictable tech giants. Speaking of which!

We’re on Bluesky now as well!^^ If there’s one thing we’ve learned this month, it's that you should never become dependent on one mega corporation, so we’re trying to spread out a little. We’ll still be posting on Twitter, since Bluesky isn’t very accessible yet with their invite-only system, but hopefully it will be a good alternative to those who have left the old bird app.

Writing is progressing smoothly. Lots of editing of the early chapters is being done at the moment to polish that section. Meanwhile, Hannah’s new sprite is looking super cute. The Illusionist prefect is ready to take on her exams with determination, coffee, and sleepless nights… Wait what?

As a bonus this month, we also have a short time lapse of this month’s header art, enjoy~

Thank you so much for following our journey! And we’ll see you in November for another DevLog!

Cheers!

The Galdra Team

[nicoandthepoets]

Intro post!!

all your days spent counting numbers, 'til one day you'll find, that life has passed you by, and in the quiet still of silence try to hide your eyes, oh no so don't cry, oh no

Hi!! Welcome to my blog!!

Name: I mostly use the name tori online (inspired by tori spring) but you can also call me amber (since it's my name on spotify anyway)

About me: infj, aquarius, aroace, 19 yo, belgian, they/them, currently an extremely stressed psychology student lmao (the clikkie to psychology student pipeline is real guys)

Series: good omens, doctor who, broadchurch, takin' over the asylum, around the world in 80 days, torchwood, heartstopper, house md, my little pony

Movies: dead poets society, the truman show, the breakfast club, the outsiders, I saw the tv glow, girl interrupted, Hamlet 2009

Actors: David Tennant, Robert Sean Leonard and Robin Williams

Music: twenty øne piløts, billie eilish, girl in red, froukje, S10, jann, conan gray, cage the elephant, måneskin, mitski, yungblud, the beatles, nf, mcr, marina, fontaines dc, paramore, arctic monkeys, queen, tears for fears, abba, the smiths and other 70s/80s music

Books: the secret history, the house in the cerulean sea, anything from Alice Oseman and Kathleen Glasgow, and really so much more haha (I'm trying to read more classics rn)

More interests: reading, writing, roller skating, stargazing, psychology, languages, art (especially Van Gogh, Monet and impressionism in general)

Other stuff: I really LOVE aesthetics, especially dark/chaotic academia and cottagecore!! I'm also extremely socially awkward and constantly anxious about literally everything so there's that ig

💌 my dm's are always open!!

Other social media:

https://open.spotify.com/user/l1ifafbh28fl258evbzarug8d?si=095a5ac125224fd2

https://x.com/nicoandthepoets

https://x.com/beenagoodstreak (priv)

https://x.com/CXMPBELLBAIN

nicoandthepoets on discord

nicoandthepoets on bluesky

amb3r.1 on airbuds

[aestheticvoyage2025]

Day 136: Saturday May 17, 2025 - "Together at Baseball"

Its a fun joke with the other Tee Ball dads when i see them on if we had a better week than Javy Baez, and of course, again this week, none of us were even close. I was glad to have TeeBall today, and a chance to be around some other adults and acknowledge that some times the only thing fair in life is a squarley hit ball between 1st base and 3rd base.

After the game, William got a medal, two snacks, and a run to Frost for Gelato with his friends. He turned out ok, indeed and we can be so grateful for that - our firsrt baby.

Song: Cage The Elephant - Whole Wide World

Quote: "The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute." Claude Monet

[top-leaders-in-india]

The Dawn of the Orange Economy in India-Col Rajyavardhan Rathore

Unleashing India’s Creative Potential

India stands at the cusp of an economic revolution — one driven not by traditional industries, but by creativity, culture, and innovation. Colonel Rajyavardhan Rathore, a visionary leader and former Union Minister, has been a vocal advocate for India’s Orange Economy — a term coined by the Inter-American Development Bank to describe the economic potential of arts, culture, and creative industries.

In this blog, we explore Rathore’s vision for India’s Orange Economy, its immense potential, and how it can transform the nation’s economic and cultural landscape.

What is the Orange Economy?

The Orange Economy refers to the economic value generated from cultural and creative industries, including:

🎭 Performing & Visual Arts — Theatre, dance, music, painting, sculpture 📽️ Film & Entertainment — Bollywood, regional cinema, OTT platforms 📚 Publishing & Literature — Books, digital content, storytelling 🎨 Design & Fashion — Handicrafts, textiles, branding 🎮 Gaming & Digital Media — Animation, VFX, e-sports 🏛️ Cultural Heritage & Tourism — Museums, festivals, heritage sites

This sector thrives on human creativity, intellectual property, and cultural capital — resources that India possesses in abundance.

Rajyavardhan Rathore’s Vision for India’s Orange Economy

As a leader who has championed youth empowerment and digital innovation, Rathore recognizes that India’s soft power — its art, music, films, and traditions — can be a global economic force.

Key Pillars of His Vision:

1. “Create in India, for the World”

India must position itself as a global content hub, leveraging its storytelling traditions (Mahabharata, Panchatantra) and modern digital platforms.

Example: “RRR” and “The Elephant Whisperers” winning global acclaim prove India’s creative prowess.

2. Policy Support & Infrastructure

Govt. initiatives like “Creative India” and “Startup India” must integrate creative industries.

Incentives for film shoots, animation studios, and cultural startups to boost employment.

3. Monetizing Cultural Heritage

India’s 50+ UNESCO heritage sites and 8,000+ festivals can drive tourism and creative exports.

Example: “Incredible India” campaigns blending tradition with digital storytelling.

4. Tech Meets Creativity

AI, blockchain, and VR can revolutionize art restoration, virtual museums, and gaming.

Example: “Digital Ramayana” projects and metaverse cultural experiences.

Why India’s Orange Economy Will Thrive

✅ Demographic Dividend — 65% of India is under 35, a youthful, creative workforce. ✅ Untapped Potential — Only 3% of global creative trade comes from India (vs. 40% from US/EU). ✅ Global Demand — Yoga, Ayurveda, Bollywood, and Indian literature have worldwide appeal.

Challenges & The Way Forward

While opportunities are vast, India must address: 🔹 Lack of formal structure for artists & freelancers. 🔹 Copyright & piracy issues hurting creators. 🔹 Funding gaps for independent filmmakers, musicians.

Rathore’s Solutions:

National Creative Policy to protect artists’ rights.

Creative Entrepreneurship Funds for startups.

Skill Development in digital arts, animation, and cultural management.

Conclusion: A New Dawn for India

Rajyavardhan Rathore’s push for the Orange Economy aligns with India’s rise as a Vishwaguru — a global leader in culture and creativity. By investing in this sector, India can:

Generate millions of jobs.

Boost tourism & exports.

Strengthen soft power diplomacy.

The future is orange, and India is ready to shine.

#OrangeEconomy #CreativeIndia #RajyavardhanRathore #VocalForLocal #MakeInIndia

Call to Action

Artists/Creators: Share your work with #OrangeEconomy!

Policymakers: Support creative entrepreneurship.

Youth: Explore careers in gaming, design, and digital arts!

Let’s make India the world’s creative superpower! 🚀🎨

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

Portrait of the Jester Calabazas – Diego Velázquez // Young Shepherd by the Fire – Paweł Romuald Kowalczewski (detail) // The Jester Calabazas – Diego Velázquez // The Railroad Bridge at Argenteuil – Claude Monet (detail) // The Smoke Screen – Oscar Parkes (detail) // Tokyo Smoke – Cage the Elephant

requested by anon 💕

[werothegreat]

IT'S NIKOLA TESLA'S BIRTHDAY

Look at that handsome fella

This guy:

Invented alternating current (AC) which is our go-to way of transporting electricity for anything that doesn't use a battery

Laid the groundwork for what would later become the radio

Figured out how to transmit electricity through the air and ground, which we don't use today because the electric companies couldn't figure out how to monetize it 🤷

Argued for womens' rights and believed women would dominate society in the future

Where Edison used trial and error almost exclusively, he thought things through beforehand

Didn't publicly electrocute a circus elephant

Now that's not to say he didn't have his faults. He also:

Got real weird at the end of his life, very germophobic

Tried to invent a death ray

Believed in the "ether"

Refused to accept Einstein's theories of relativity

Was fatphobic, to the point of firing a secretary for being fat

Advocated for eugenics, arguing in a very Randian way that "pity" was a bad thing and that we needed to let "survival of the fittest" run its course

He was a human being, like us all, and I'd probably get into a heated argument with him if he were around today, but we are around today the way we are because of him and his inventions, so. Happy birthday!