#but still a 1 to 5 ratio is LOW guys

[piracytheorist]

You know what, I don't like to complain about stuff like this. I don't want to sound ungrateful of the attention my posts are getting.

But you know how there's a lot of talk around tumblr, from creators talking about how other tumblr users like their stuff but almost never reblog? Well, there's just something here.

That's a 1-to-5 ratio. And like, you know what? I get it. That one was a meta post with only two images on it, and I understand there are people who aren't interested in having long text posts on their blogs. I get that, and respect that. And hey, it's over 1k notes overall. That's something, right?

But in the SxF fandom in particular, I've noticed a kind of pessimistic stance since a big meta writer left the fandom after they received bullying. And I'm not saying we should ignore or forget the reason they left... but like, if you want to see people write metas, you can support meta writers.

Sadly I notice similar ratios in fanart posts. But I am motivated to keep writing metas because I am certified Analysis Gremlin™ so I'll keep writing no matter what; similarly, fanartists whose posts easily get 2 and 3 thousand notes are motivated to keep going even with such low ratios because hey. 3k notes, right?

But I acknowledge I am an outlier in this, and that there are meta writers who are just (or more) knowledgeable and capable of doing this, but for one reason or another, their posts don't get a lot of attention. Similarly, an artist with the same amount of skill and expression as the popular fanartists could have their art forgotten because people don't bother reblogging stuff they like. Both cases can lead to creators not sharing their creations anymore.

And yeah, metas might not be cool fanart, or heart-wrenching fanfics, or whatever, but meta writing still takes time and effort and we like interaction and acknowledgement just like any other creator out there. It's not like "I'll sit for hours to write this post after I've already sat for hours watching every little detail of the story, and I'll post it online not caring at all how much attention it gets." Whenever I see someone reblog a meta of mine and add the tag "great analysis!" or something similar, I get as giddy as I get when someone leaves a comment on a fanfic of mine. Just because a meta is a little more detached and may appear more "formal" than your average fanart or fanfic, it doesn't mean we as the writers of them are detached from the meta itself; we crave acknowledgement just like any other creator out there does.

So like, yeah. I'm not saying people should find this exact post I'm talking about and spam it with reblogs, nor that they should change the way they work and organize their blog. It's just that, as someone who joined tumblr ten years ago for the sole purpose of writing meta, I have noticed across all those years a big separation in how people interact with meta, and how they interact with fanfic and fanart. And by all means, fanfic and fanart deserve their praise! I'm not saying they don't. But meta posts do too. Literary analysis is a different kind of skill than drawing or creative writing, but it's still a skill, and treating meta posts as those you can just leave a like as a thumbs-up and then completely ignore... that's how you lose meta writers. When you show people that their posts aren't worth reblogging, eventually they stop making them. And can you blame them?

And to be honest, in comparison to my standing as a meta writer in my previous fandoms... I have the impression I'm among the "popular" meta writers in this fandom, despite being anime only and having less than half of the context manga readers have. Still, my posts get a "1 reblog for every 5 likes" ratio. Like, if my posts get such a low ratio, what chances do less popular blogs have?

So if you want more meta analysis, from people with various points of view and experiences, show your support by reblogging their metas.

[raaindropps]

Now a very biased marketing of Aventurine ... (2/2) because I just gotta , sorry

AVENTURINE

pros : As a shielder , he can block incoming damage and help the team survive by not losing any HP in the first place. Preservation characters are so few imo because of how inherently OP their sustain mechanic is. Similarly to Fu Xuan, Aventurine doesn't need to use skill that much either, only when his shields' turn are almost up or when an ally has lost their shield. Because his shield Can Stack, it means that u can essentially keep gaining an even bigger shield everytime you skill or Aventurine does a follow up attack. He also provides effect res up to 50% for ALL ALLIES which decreases the chances of getting crowd controlled or debuffed with DoTs (which from my experience are super annoying, especially wind shear). Like I mentioned before Aventurine does a follow up attack every time his stacks reach 7 , which he can gain stacks from allies FuA and from all allies getting hit by the enemy (allies getting hit grants 1 stack while he himself getting hiy gets 2 stacks) (This follow up can also stack his shield up after unlocking a trace)

In addition to effect res, he also has in built CC protection like Fu Xuan does (except it only applies to him) and this isnt a Chance to resist like Luocha but a 100% will not get crowd controlled every two turns as long as he has his shield up.

Lastly, his ulti can debuff the enemy with 15% crit dmg received which buffs the team because now the enemy takes more crit damage damage ^u^

cons : no cleanse like Luocha, so if u do get debuffed u just gotta wait it out. Again though 50% effect res although won't prevent debuffs completely, it does reduce the chance to get debuffed so u don't need any cleanse in the first place. His other con is that he doesnt heal / restore lost HP like Fu xuan does but considering how his shields can stack and basically have infinite uptime its pretty dang okay and hes definitely worth it as a sustain. wait this js supposed to be cons. um.

his other con is that although he gets free crit rate u dont actually do high damage on him unless u build him to do high damage but like hes mostly a sustain so just build as much def% as possible so his shields r Beefy. Idk if its a Con Con per say but his technique to get the highest out of it is quite a gamble and his ult is only single target instead of Luochas aoe attack ult BUT it will usually do higher damage than Luochas while also debuffing the enemy and can reduce more tougness than luocha (90 instead of 60)

OVERALL : great solo sustain option, In my opinion more valuable than Luocha but then again the next limited 5* sustain tht comes out could definitely overtake him. In terms of Utility (aka buffs provided for allies to increase their damage output) as well as Great Sustainability id say hes on par with Fu Xuan, then Huohuo is slightly less powerful but still Very Great because energy regen and atk% is crazy and her cleanse is also OP, then lastly Luocha. Also I think his animations are fun and his sound effects especially his finger snaps sound so crisp and satisfying. I recommend going for Aventurine if you use follow up attackers like Clara, Jing Yuan, Topaz, Ratio, Yanqing and also characters who could be very squishy like Arlan who does better damage at Low HP. Aventurine can also work for damage over time teams if you use the light cone that lets him apply burn on enemies aka the Trend of Universal Market cone with Topaz and his face on it. Also if you're going for Acheron, Aventurine is probably her best sustain option atm because of how he can contribute her Ult stacks with his Ult debuff and help her damage output too although its already crazy asf.

YEAH thts it mwah mwah sorry for this long ass ask but i am going to be this guys marketer for a while i think

OHHHHH U MAY HAVE CONVINCED ME ... the lack of cleanse might b annoying but I rlly enjoy shield characters.... The lack of healing may be okay if I use his shields well and that fact that they dont gotta be replaced every turn is helpful.

Do u know if his shields go to the entire team or just one selected character? I gotta assume its the whole team but sometimes hyv suprises u

Luochas AOE seems rlly helpful but the question is if Aventurine's shields outweigh his lack of aoe.. Not to mention u said the ult usually does more damage than Luocha's which does help. It would rlly depend on who im facing, but I feel like even in boss fights a weaker aoe outranks a stronger singke target. Much to think about....

[dialecticaldimensions]

x files, s8 e16

The three words were not scully and mulder saying i love you????? (jkjk i knew it wouldn't be, but a girl can dream)

the three words were actually hurt no comfort because omg mulder is really going through it 😭😩 which is so fair bc the trauma of everything is insane. and then by extension, scully is also hurt. But i'm getting ahead of myself. Some bullet point thoughts: 1. IT WAS SOOO GOOD SEEING MULDER & SCULLY TOGETHER AGAIN!!! ughh just them in same frame and looking at each other!!!! I MISSED IT!

2. Mulder's trauma ... the scene of him remembering the torture??? coming back to a world you don't really remember. seeing the world keep turning after you've been gone (esp when mulder has the tendency to not value himself/his life!!!) like god, it must be so confronting for him to see that. And you can see how he was trying so hard to prove that he's still important in this crusade for the truth. (and he is, of course he is!!!! there's no one else like him). But the way he was going about it, with an edge of desperation, i need to go scream into my pillow about it.

3. And then Scully, trying to help him, trying to heal him, wanting him to know that he was missed and that he is important to the x files. I feel like she was both relieved/amused, that his headassery about jumping head first into an x file was still alove and thriving, but also so frustrated because she didn't want him to take unecessary risk and get himself in trouble or hurt. Because she just got him back!!! Also Scully was probably frustrated that she couldn't have his back in the same way bc she also has her pregnancy to think about. But the good thing is Scully has more ppl she can trust (aka lone gunmen and doggett).

4. the gunmen!!! frohike and Mulder hugging was soo freaking adorable!!!!! my sweet sweet boys.

5. doggett this episode was p good actually. except i was like wtf whyyyy do you keep trusting this guy???? interesting to see though how they are trying to parallel doggett w mulder (in early seasons) with all the insider info/who to trust/what even is the truth motifs. And low key, so understand mulder not trusting doggett one bit! to be gone and then coming back to scully having a new partner in the unit you established and on top of that the new guy kept being the bait for traps. and ofc doesn't quite have mulder's openess and grit for finding the truth at whatever cost, so now mulder needs to prove that it's his divsion. i actually think they'll complement each other nicely and i'm excited to see how the show develops mulder and doggett's relationship. 6. kersh is soooo annoying!!! the way he was saying that the arrests rate were higher w doggett compared to the 7 years with mulder!! i demand to see the stats!!!

7. skinner being so over trying to manage all his kids and their tantrums!! so funny!

8. the gunmen alluding to mulder's role in scully's pregnancy!!!!!!!!! why the fuck does mulder look like this is the first second he's genuinely considered that he could be the father?? BROOOO!!! she would never have anyone else's child but yours!!!!!! get with the program!!!!

9. scully and mulder's unspoken communication is biting them in the ass a little bit ... bc they simultaneously deeply understand each other, but don't know that sometimes you do actually need to say things out loud (i need to do a whole other essay on that). BUT they still remain sooo soft and gentle with each other. like the little gazing looks and the softness in their eyes that you can SEE when they are looking at the other. my heart is melting.

i have been enjoying s8! but so far the hurt:comfort ratio is favouring the hurt a lot more ... and i need there to be more comfort!!!

[guangchuans]

hey adam what did you think of the metamorph concert? oh funny you should ask! here :3

hi guys. i’ll pretend i know staging directing and anything more about music than “i like sounds” here 👍

first, critique:

the concert felt and was rather short. i understand why, but it was still sad to had it end so soon lol

my personal opinion here: i wish we got more older songs other than the iconic ones, but again, this is the guilty album concert, so i understand

he really did not do well on “not over you” and i’m glad he acknowledged it too, not just moving past a subpar performance

“want” also wasn’t the nicest imo? he sang that weirdly low, or at least that’s what i heard

maybe again, just my audio, but it really didn’t sound as if he actually Sung “advice” lol

this one i’ve said before but honestly, even taemin can’t do “move” now - the dance i mean. maybe it was the clothing here though bc on the show with akmu it was great. but yeah the red cloth outfit didn’t pair well with “move” imo and made the key hip movement look messy

this is not about taemin; the beyond live style of concert kind of deprived us of actual cinematography of it :/ like tell me why strings and black rose looked so much better on random fancams from 7 rows behind than… on the actual screen lol

general commentary:

he was so nervous. really. like i get why, again, i understand it all, and even that didn’t stop him from delivering some absolutely delicious stages, but ohhh brother he was nervous

why was the audience so. dead. like why did you hype up my man when he did good huh. i have to do everything in this house myself next time i’ll be the hype man nr 1

this is my lukewarm take: i didn’t enjoy the “criminal” rock version that much. it was very boring? the chord progression of the guitar sounded too much like a sample without much twist, and there were better ways to incorporate rock into that song imo

i think overall the ratio of lip sync to backing track to no backing track was reasonable and i do like that he didn’t try to lip sync much, just letting everyone see “yeah this is playback”

and now <3 praise and what i enjoyed <3

even though i really don’t like “the rizzness”, that opening was fucking insane. imagine starting a concert while hanging upside down. and singing while it. wow!

all the ment segments were so precious. it was clear he missed the audience for his solo stuff too. i know he’s been touring with shinee for half a year now and all but i imagine it’s different to know that these people came here only for you, you know? the interactions were cute and it was just… well it’s good to see the both sides of lee taemin :)

as i mentioned, the ratio of supported vocals to raw vocals was reasonable, but when he did actually sing… oh lee taemin. this is obviously a biased opinion because i genuinely love his voice, it was what made me fall in love with him as an artist in the first place. notable mentions of vocals imo:

“heaven” was perfectly delivered and a feast as always. the bridge in “heaven” is probably my top 5 taemin bridges, so it’s not surprising, but the energy on the stage while he performs that is So Good. MWAH

“light” was fun! i was dancing along, the playing with the dancers choreo is entertaining to watch and it’s a good time over all

after the flop of “not over you” he payed back with both “night away” and “blue” to me. “night away” especially, it felt so warm and so… just lovely. he nailed that

even though i don’t particularly enjoy “black rose” i can’t deny, it was so good. the choreo is always captivating and he sung it well

“door” … where do i even start. “door” is one of my favourite taemin songs of all time, and to see it executed in such a bold way was absolutely incredible and so enthralling, i felt enchanted listening to each new note and line. genuinely an amazing experience

some miscellaneous thoughts that i don’t know where to place:

i loved “impressionable,” the energy was so right for it, especially, well the D2 unzipped pants :)

the “strings” choreo is so sensual and sexy and yet in this classic taemin style of subtlety about it, it’s so nice to watch, to see him get lost in the pain/pleasure the song talks about. and there is almost, a grown aspect to it now, the aspect of like fully owning his body and what he does with it. very nice

“she loves me she loves me not” was cute, the choreography was very simple but still nice to look at, and i loved the energy on stage of it. the girl gang TM smiling and all :) good time!

rearrangements/special concert versions of songs:

as i mentioned above, i have lukewarm feelings about “criminal,” i didn’t dislike it, but it could have been better

LOVED the whole “danger” stage so much as well as “famous,” to me they’re like two sides of the same coin tbh. and something about both of them being in the same section as want mmm…

i wish i didn’t have to talk about “guilty” but i think i have to mention “guilty” too. the staging was absolutely gorgeous, the orchestral pieces at the beginning and before the bridge, the change in choreo of the dancers as if ensnaring him… it was delicious! such a good stage!

a separate section for the encore because i feel like it deserves it:

i don’t think it’s too untoward to think of jonghyun’s passing when it came to the date of the concert. i saw a few other mentions of it too, so i know i’m not alone in this belief. and this is not to suggest it was somehow planned this way with this date in mind, but rather, soemthing to just keep in the back of your head, i guess?

the whole encore was magical. opening the concert back up with “idea”, the orchestral version nonetheless, and staging that mixed both the hell and heaven aspects of the concept (light blue iridescent suit + dark stage lighting and fire) was delicious to witness and a great way to get the energy in the audience back up again

i don’t think i can talk much about what “pansy” means to me as a song without crying. maybe it’s stupid, because that’s exactly what the song was meant to do, but the fact that taemin co-wrote it too just… makes it so special :( and to know what… the sentiment of the song is probably even doubled now, to know that he came back from the enlistment, because so many fans kept loving him and his music and we stayed by his side even when he wasn’t there. this is just me being sappy i know but to hear “pansy” again made my heart sing

“i think it’s love” is a beautiful song and he sung it beautifully. it was a great encore choice, just an overall masterpiece

finishing the concert with “identity” of all his songs, on a concert named metamorph after the idea of metamorphosis, the imagery of cocoons and blooming and growth seen throughout the concert, with, once again, the significance of the date… it meant so much. it means so much. it was genuinely a moving performance, one that hooks you in and keeps you there, not letting you go. the emotion the execution the meaning behind it all… it just felt right, for that song to close the concert

CLOSING THOUGHTS

i’ve seen every taemin concert, save for the beyond live one in 2021, and this one fits into the theme beautifully. it’s a comeback, it’s a reminder that he’s still here, that he is Back, and he is back for good! as he said in one fan sign, this will go on for as long as he wants to and he will be the one to put the stop to it. i’m grateful for everything taemin did musically this year and i can’t wait to see him grow even more, as an artist and as a person. love you! if anyone read this whole thing leave me an 🍎 emoji in the replies hah <3

[mercykatze]

I have some more questions! What’s the most popular forms of merchandise you guys sell, what’s your favourite, what else have you seen around, and if you were to branch out into more stuff, what would you try? :-)

I know from my own observations that some common stuff is pins, stickers, prints, keychains- but I’ve seen some obscure things such as patterned fabrics, comics/zines, sculptures, figurines,  sticker hoarder books (which seem to be on the rise) plushies, etc. 

clove wrote another nice long piece that summarised all my thoughts too so i'll put all that below

TLDR

most popular by quantity - badges most popular by profits - keychain or prints favourite to sell - zines best starter merch - anything you can make at home! things I'd like to do next - sticker books, pens, embroidery dream merch - plushies

every piece of merch has their ups and downs, and I find that some forms that I never have luck with selling fly off other people's tables and vice versa. it's all about finding your niche and what flows well with your style and business model.

for context for others, this is a summary my experience selling at large weekend long pop culture cons in Australia. this is going to be different for online sales, or for stalls at smaller events aimed at different audiences. adjust your stock accordingly. any prices I mention are in AUD

here's my thoughts

prints

always have prints. even if you haven't made much proper print worthy art, get some finished art printed up to put on the wall. I don't understand people that don't do this! prints have THE biggest cost to profit ratio (costs about $0.50-$3 to print and $5-30 to sell) and it makes your display eye catching from a distance, showing people what you're all about. I honestly haven't worked out the exact science to what makes a print a good seller, and sometimes prints I think will be a hit get zero sales. however, when they are hits I've sold upwards of 30 copies of it! find a local print shop for best service. i get 4-8 copies for most prints to start off

keychains

always a hit but the problem with keychains is the market is very competitive and saturated, so you really have to keep up with the trends. when I started selling at cons I handmade keychains with inkjet shrink film in the oven. these days everything is holo and glow in the dark and has fancy clasps. I think how you go about this depends on your art style and business model. i prefer the simple ones! it matches my very simple cartoony style. for your basic keychains, production price is about $3-5 and standard sell price is $15-20. I sell mine for $10 as most of the fandoms I draw for have young teen audiences and I want them to be able to afford it. I always accidentally understock but I'd recc 5-15 pieces per design with vograces low moq

enamel pins

high risk high reward! the sucky thing about enamel pins is the high moq if you're starting out. this is an investment you might want to wait to get into when you've found your niche. shipping is expensive too cause of the weight. i avoid fandoms and current trends if I can help it so I'm not left with a ton of stock when the hype fades. usual minimum order quantity is 50, and after you factor shipping from the manu in each pins cost averages to $2-5 depending on complexity. my sell price is $10 which is honestly too low but I haven't been bothered to check what other ppl sell theirs for lmao.

stickers

I'm mad about this one cause officeworks stopped stocking the only brand of sticker paper I trust. I know there's more brands out there but they're very expensive and some smudge so I've been ordering stickers since. if you can, print and cut your own stickers. either way production cost is usually 10-50c a sticker and I still sell them for $1 each but will likely increase that to $2 soon. this is solely cause stickers are on the table for the main purpose of people getting rid of their loose change, or for people who want to support us in exchange for having a nice chat with them. it is perfectly respectable to price your stickers from $3-5 for basic ones, and higher if they're large or there is something special about them! I sell about 50-200 stickers total per con, but I couldn't tell you what that boils down to per design cause it varies greatly

badges

BUY A BADGE PRESS. they cost like $90 from ebay last i checked and you will make that back instantly. you can print designs on your printer at home quickly and on demand. you can put anything on badges. they're an awesome space filler. fandom art, personal art, funny catch phrases, goofy edits, pronouns… i also recently learnt about cold laminate holo vinyl plastic to put on top which has changed the game. idk the exacts but the cost per piece for at home badge production is maybe? 10c? I sell them $2 for a 32mm small and $3 for a 54mm large. I sell 200-300 badges a con. buy a badge maker.

zines

zines are a talkpiece and a way to connect with other artists. they're your way of spreading your passion to the world. make zines. sell zines. trade zines. I print them at home on printer paper and sell them $2-5 each. there are dedicated zine collectors who make the rounds at cons, and zines (like the stickers!) are often purchased by ppl who like you and want to support you but aren't into your pricier or fandomy stuff. I never bring leftover zines home from a con cause I've always sold / handed out them all. biggest downside is they are hard to display once you have a lot !!

bookmarks

okay seller. people like them and they're cheap. I just don't like displaying them or making them and i just dont think many people read books these days but if I have spare room on the table or wall I'll put them up. I sell for $2-4 each. they usually sell (even when I don't have any displayed. somehow). ive had some people tell me they consider them mini-prints cause they cant afford actual prints. good cheap merch option when starting out and a table filler. not my jam.

notebooks

the thing about notebooks is… my demographic doesn't want to buy notebooks. I think they would be a hit if you drew nature or animals or ghibli stuff etc. I ran a kickstarter a couple years back but was unable to fulfil the orders (bad planning, my fault. a friend is dealing with it now) so I have somewhere close to 300 notebooks in my house. I've tried selling the excess at cons but i only make sales if I severely underprice them. might be a good slow seller if you only buy 10 at a time, not 300

notepads

sell worse than notebooks! no clue why! I love them and they're cheap! I think maybe people overlook them and don't realise what they are. sad.

pillows

great seller for me !!! however this is one of the ones where, by observstion, I make more sales from than others who sell the same product do. theyre the custom printed pillows from vograce, for context. production cost is high, about $10 a pillow I think. I originally sold them for $25 but raised it to $30 when I realised how much stuffing cost. surely you can buy cheaper stuffing online but I always end up running to spotlight or lincraft the week before the con and spending $70 on it. I can sell 10-30 pillows a con but I think I'm an outlier there. start with low quantities when you don't know what your niche is yet

lanyards

I love them! mine sold moderately okay but it's one of the things I took joy in making, yknow :) cost was about $2 per and I sold them for $12. sold about 10

tote bags

not a great seller at all, unfortunately!! perhaps it's cause the only ones I've made so far have had my ocs on them. they are another merch item I adore though so I don't mind having them as a slow seller. I also give them out to people who spend over a certain amount. costs are very variable

lanyard keychains

technically a keychain but different in my head. it has a mini lanyard and also acrylic keychains on it. I sell these at rat shows for $20 each and they sell fast. slower mover at cons tho

pencil cases

they sell okay. they cost about $2-4 to make each and I sell them for about $8-12. slow seller for me

temporary tattoos

I've only sold these at one con so far so I haven't gotten a good read on the vibes. they are so cool though :) please take into account skin colours because I didn't (fsr I thought they'd be opaque) and even on my pale skin you can see discolouration. next time I make designs they will be lineart only, cause I really don't want to have to explain to someone they shouldn't buy it cause their skin is too dark and it will come out shit. think I sold them for $4 each

commissions

hugely variable by con, and hugely variable by artist. I do "sketch page" commissions which is an a5 page of me just drawing mini doodles with a ballpoint pen and poscas whatever stuff comes into my head based on the prompt / character until the page is full. this sets me apart from other artists (though please don't worry about overstepping if you also want to try this) and harnesses the elements of my style that people like the most. it also means I can do little bits and pieces between serving people. other artists will do one large sketch, or a full inked drawing, or ipad comms, or just take commission requests for after the cons. I can't really speak to the success of those methods because I've never really asked. I charge $20 for a page of doodles and can get anywhere from 3 to 25 requests over a weekend. I originally charged $10 a page (i thought after are all, they're just silly doodles) but was so overbooked I spent the entire con with my head down and had a queue so long I was turning people away. don't undercut yourself here!! usual issues with undervaluing your comms aside, you want some time to enjoy the con too :) if you're overrun, raise the price point next time to cut down the demand.

lucky dips

people love lucky dips! it's psychology! these are especially successful for ppl with higher priced merch to make a good multi-buy bargain, or mainstream fandoms where every option is a good choice (pokemon, ghibli, animal crossing). I don't see a big point in us in particular making lucky dips, especially since the content of our table is Highly varied. I would recommend it if all of your stuff was in a similar category. the times we have made lucky dips before was to get rid of excess discontinued stock cheap, and once we had a "gender lucky dip" which included a set of random pronoun badges and pride stickers. it was silly and people had a laugh :)

and I'm so sorry that this is so long as is, but I'm trusting that you're still reading because this is valuable insight and well you asked. (honestly I'm considering I should write up an official guide thanks to you. I enjoy writing about my experiences, insights and and you're right that this info is hard to find!)

but since you asked and since I want to answer, here's my thoughts on stuff we don't sell

washi tape - don't like the idea for my own business model. I love the concept but for a small quantity the cost per production is higher than I would like it to be for what I'd want to sell it for. as I've said, my audience is mostly teens who usually have low funds. I would feel awful pricing such a small item at such a high price!! I personally would like to charge $5 for it, but they are usually sold for about $10-15 (rightfully so!)

standees - not for me, I don't believe my style would suit it. leave that to the anime artists.

patterned fabrics - this costs a lot more than you'd think, tbh. would be best to buy in bulk or if your niche was craft based. if I ever had a plan for how to execute this, I would. but as of now I don't.

comics - this is the dreaaammm. biggest problem is the time for creation. people do go around cons though just to collect original works. do this for yourself if anything, not to sell at a con

sticker hoarder books - at the most recent con I've sold at, many people were disappointed to find my notebooks weren't sticker books. big market for it right now.

sculptures/figurines/handmade plushies - this isnt something i would personally make (skill issue, literally), but its high risk high reward to me. you really need to value your own time and work, so these would r often priced high. means you only have to sell a couple to profit, but if they don't sell. ouch.

manufactured plushies - would LOVE to do this. would require lots of research but it's the dream to me. I'm not in the stage of life to work on this, too much on my plate elsewhere

ceramics- jay bought me a hand painted ceramic dish with tamagotchi characters on it :) I think it cost a lot of money. it was so cool.

embroidered stuff - another thing I would love to get into when I have less going on. oh to have an embroidery machine and time to make things with it

rugs - people love rugs right now theyre all the rage. I love them at least. I would love to make some :)

mouse pads - would try these one day. sounds fun

wooden pins / charms - inevitably will do one day. they personally have less appeal to me than enamel pins and acrylic charms tho. less versatile

fake video game boxes - ok this is just a personal idea / project but I had started editing the box art for a fake total drama ds game then skinned all my wife's ds game boxes to make and sell them. I gotta look more into the logistics and also this isn't a thing yet lol

earrings - pretty popular right now! I wouldn't make them bc my ears are hyper sensitive and it'd make me too sad

jewellery in general - more risky than earrings. I've seen this go badly for ppl before lol

pens / pencils - I would love to make and sell these!!

socks - I like to consider what stuff I personally like buying, and I love fun sock designs !!

fridge magnets - you can get printer magnet paper to print from home. good beginner merch

greeting cards - I think this is a good idea. depends on audience. probs not the best for me personally

I could probably go on forever about other various small ideas and niche things so I'll stop here. hope you enjoyed my ramblings :)

[chaoticdinkins]

I fucked Crazy.

Most women don't have to worry about fucking a crazy guy, that's like a dude thing. No, I absolutely fucked a crazy dude. I'm lying, 1 and 5 women have to worry about fucking a crazy guy, please don't quote me on that; I still feel like that ratio is super low.

In college, no strings attached means no strings attached. We bang, you leave. I go back to my apartment, and sleep it off and we see each other in class eventually; and when I say we see each other, I mean I sit on one side of the classroom, you sit on the other, and we acknowledge each other whenever we need to; don't make it fucking weird. Right? Hook up rules. No strings attached.

Boy, was I wrong, because when a dude hasn't had sex in over five years, they get hooked and I mean hooked on your vajayjay. At first, it's flattering, and then, it becomes obsessive because you have your goals and aspirations; mind you; you told him this and he was all gung ho for it, but then he gets weird- almost like he wants to hold you back.

Then, he wants to introduce you to his mother after three weeks and that's when you realize: you fucked crazy. It's almost like a lightbulb goes off in your head and you need a safe and smooth execution to exit this situationship if you can even call it that: you guys banged one time and he's all in love and you made it very clear, you were not looking for that. You just got out of an almost year relationship and the last thing you want to do is lead him on. Which, you explained that to him when he came over.

He did come over though. You thought it was going to friends catching up! You even sent him pictures of your maxim shoot, which you were so proud of because you lost all the baby weight from your first kid! (which he later sent to his mom and you found out that is a felony in your state) Come to find out, after a couple of drinks, he had ulterior motives. Were you drunk? Yes. Could you say no? Probably not. Would it stand up in a court of law? Nope. You invited him over, everything is a blur after that.

I do remember inviting my neighbor down because I felt uncomfortable. Even he said the dude gives off Rapist vibes, but to be honest, I was too drunk to consent. Also, I invited him back when I found out I was pregnant thinking it could have been his child. So no, it would never stood up in a court of law.

[creatures-of-albia]

It’s time for the long awaited

✨Generation 5 Overview✨

It’s a looooong post, so if you care to read, it’s under this handy dandy read more.

The generation was made up of 47 norns and lasted approximately 58 hours, including a period of time where I left the game on overnight. The average lifespan was 6:32, with the highest natural lifespan being 9:11 and the lowest being 5:35.

Phenotypes

There were 188 body-type genes total.

45.21% were Purple Mountain, 39.89% were Forest, 6.38% were Horse, 6.38% were Ron, and 2.13% were Banana (For funsies at the end of the run. There were no males to breed with.) I did not see any body-type genes disappear.

I’m now seeing Horse genes and Ron genes intersect in the gene pool timeline, but no norn had both Horse and Ron phenotypes.

The female:male ratio was 2.13:1. Lucky guys.

Genotypes

Two norns had extra pigment genes.

One norn had an extra chemical emitter gene.

One norn produced alcohol in some amount in all stages of life. The stumbling was the giveaway. It’s possible that norns are producing odd chemicals right under my nose, but I haven’t caught them because the effects aren’t obvious.

One norn seemed unable to give birth (Gonadotrophin maxes out but progesterone stays at a low level). I used the Advanced Breeder’s Kit to help her out a few times. Sometimes I can’t bear to see them suffer. Plus she still needed to eat like a pregnant norn and was taking a lot of time to care for.

No norns inherited the 100% life force gene, sadly.

Deaths

37/47 were exported due to old age (Only 78.7%, yikes)

5/47 died from Antigen 1 (10.6%)

3/47 died upon being imported (6.4%)

2/47 died from “Failure to thrive”, which includes Child of the Mind syndrome and the lack of interest in eating (4.3%)

Poor norns kind of had a rough time in this generation.

Important Discoveries

The game tries to “correct” your gender ratio when hatching eggs, leading to long stretches of males or females. This is why the next generation is going to be mostly males, sometimes in stretches of 12-13. I am fixing this in the next generation by occasionally exporting all but one female (To “cancel out” my grendel) to hatch eggs when I have nowhere to put them in order to get a ratio closer to 1:1 for Gen 7.

I now have a Disease tab in my Excel doc keeping track of what diseases do what and here is what I’ve found:

Antigen 1 is killer. High frequency of sneezes/coughs, leading to difficulty feeding norns to keep their life force up, and slow antibody response time. Absolutely deadly if your norn is not a reliable eater.

Antigen 3 is easy to get over. I had one note about it in my journal (From before I had my Diseases tab) saying that antibody production is so fast that it almost kills the antigen before it hits “critical mass” in the Biochemistry tab of the Science Kit.

Antigen 5 isn’t horrible. The antibody response time is very good, although life force declines rapidly. I had two norns on opposite sides of the world contract it very close together, so I can’t really say anything about infectiousness, but I’d guess it was a coincidence.

New Tools

The community patch, which does a lot of things. (May provide link to list eventually)

The Grendel Friendly COB, since now I can keep an eye on my little dude.

The Advanced Breeder’s Kit, which should help any norns experiencing pregnancy issues, although I am not yet sure if that’s a good idea. You will definitely hear about it in the next report if it was a bad idea

I also found the Genetics Kit and got it working, which should solve any issues if I accidentally leave the game on. That seems to happen at least once a generation, but now I close the game if I’m going to step away from my computer. That should stop the problem before it even starts.

—

Whew! That was a longer summary than I meant to put together, but it’s good for me to get it all down and in one place, even if nobody but me finds it interesting.

On to Generation 6! 😁

[tom-and-queen-genetics]

Okay, so. I feel like we're just kinda matching each other's crazy here. This is great.

I took the original post you found, and ran it through Google translate. Unhelpful, said "the more cats the better" (or similar phrase, I don't remember).

Then I mapped out kittens. Here is what I labelled each kitten as:

Rows starting from the back, and like the hands of a clock. I really wanted the clock thing to work even though there were 13 kittens, so we get 6 and 6.5. It's fine. Anyway, this is what you refer back to for this next figure.

I circled markings in green as to why I made certain decisions. I believe every kitten to be accounted for based on markings. (For example I believe kitten I to be kitten 10 because both kittens have white toes and it's reasonable to assume we just can't see the white face markings in the clock photo). It's a bit of a guessing game, but I'm reasonably sure. Then we have kitten 9, who is circled in red. Who are you? Where did you come from?

Anyway, I'm going to go through a list of reasons why these guys aren't full and maybe aren't siblings at all.

1. Too fecking many. Record I've seen of one litter was 13. If we hadn't left a heavily pregnant cat alone and came back the next day to 14 cats in that same kennel, I wouldn't have believed me either. A more normal number would be like... 1-6. I'd believe up to about 9. 12 or 13? Too many.

2. They're different ages. Look at their sizes. They're all roughly 5-7 months old, where the males start being 1-4 pounds larger than the females. Worst time to attempt to age a lone kitten. But usually, when they hit 5-7 months and you have mixed litters, this is where you can really tell that some are older than others by a few weeks. So, either 1, 2, 4, 9, 11, 12, and maybe 3, 7, and 8 are all girls, or we have 2-3 distinct ages. Litter 1, 2, 4, 9, 11, 12. Litter 3, 7, 8. And litter 5, 6, 6.5, 10. Litter sizes of 3, 4, and 6 make much more sense.

3. Where are our torties. You can't have blacks and reds in the same litter without torties. Kitten 9 is maybe a tortie, but I would believe smoke as well. And I stuck that one in the same litter as that weird potentially-silver kitten. That's the same gene. But geez... it really looks more red... maybe one tortie. But not the 3-4 we should have.

4. White spotting. 5/13 are not white spotted. Weirder things have happened, for sure, but it's still weird to hit the odds that often. 3/13 high white is pretty good odds, and then the low white will be 5/13, messed up by the no white. Plausible.

5. Dilute, if we're saying that the weird kitten is dilute, would have the correct ratio for two het dilute. 3/13 is roughly 1/4. However, there's only one solid- reds don't show. Feck. Uhm. Oh and they're all various white spotting so I can't use the chins. And Mr. No White Spotting (6.5-B) is a tabby because he does have the faded chin. Feck. Welp. Oh and kitten 9 is solid. Definitely. So... okay ignore this point.

Huh. Well.

Okay, so. Jump aboard this train with me for a moment. We are going to pretend that they are full siblings. We have two low white spotting parents. We have a tortie x red (all blacks are boys, half reds are boys). We have two het dilute and het solid parents. We have no pointing (I think it's too uniform across the body. You've done this a bit more, you can dispute me on this if you think we've got points, I'm just really not seeing any).

Now I'm going to jump off the deep end and you're along for the ride.

Ignoring how rare it would be. Both parents could carry smoke/silver (same gene but just solid/tabby). Look at this photo (source: https://silvershorthairs.com/tag/ticked-tabby/)

Could our weird kitten (11-C) be a ticked silver tabby? It would be really freaking weird but... maybe?

Also, kitten 9 and kitten 2-A... possible smoke? I know, I'm reaching a little, but I googled a couple cream smokes and they look pretty similar, and we really can't see the black at all. Kitten 9... could be a tortie, but it would be high black for a tortie, and I'm wondering if the reddish tone we're seeing is the hair parting and letting us see through to the white underneath, on a really terrible camera. It's a reach. I know.

Anyway, that leaves us with a torbie with low white spotting carrying dilute, solid, and smoke/silver, and a red tabby with low white spotting carrying dilute, solid, and smoke/silver. And some insanely unlucky tortie odds, and a massive litter.

I'm not doing tabby types. Fuck that. I- well. I could... No. No. I am stepping away from the kittens.

Edit: I lied, smoke/silver is dominant. Give me 3-5 business days to rework this. Ugh.

Hello friend! Got another question for you, and this time I have photos!

So I started a cat genetics sideblog (as one does), and I ran into this one:

(Post here with my thoughts: https://www.tumblr.com/tom-and-queen-genetics/784732692679917568/i-highly-doubt-all-of-the-babies-are-from-one-mom)

What's your verdict from the little we can see? Silver? Fever coat? Or am I totally wrong that something's up with this one, and they're just a blue?

Hm... my first thought was silver, but then I went to look at all the kittens, and I wonder if it's a colorpoint? Black tabby (seal lynx) point, specifically.

It seems to have one flame point sibling (top row left kitten w/light blue collar), and I also see one kit that could potentially be a flame point w/high white (the one you labeled as "dominant white(?)"), so it's not impossible. It looks a little weird for a lynx point, but young colorpoint kittens haven't developed their "full" colors yet, so that could be why.

I did some sleuthing and found another image of at least some of the same kittens (same collars, fur colors, etc.) here:

It's hard to tell, but some of them do look like they could be colorpoints!

The pale creamy one wearing a light teal collar on the upper right of the circle looks like the kitten that I thought might have been a flame point in the previous picture, but now I'm wondering if it's more of a blue or cream point... or who knows, maybe a tortie tabby point!

The white & cream kitten on the bottom of the circle looks more like a cream tabby (non-point) in this picture than in the other, but who knows lol.

And then there's also the grayish brown tabby kitten on the upper left part of the circle, which could potentially be our confusion kitten! And... honestly this doesn't make it any clearer to me lmao.

We know it's black-based, and I'm gonna vote non-dilute (though it could just be one of them darker blues), but that's about it. Colorpoint could theoretically work here, but the color darkness seems too uniform across the body in the pic I found (no visible points), so I'm gonna say maybe not colorpoint. But the collar seems to be a bit different, so who knows, it could be a different kitten altogether!

My final vote is either black silver mackerel tabby, or blue mackerel tabby, or maybe a tabby point, but I have very little confidence in those guesses lol

(the other picture)

[cinnamonest]

OMG I WAITED MONTHS TO SEND YOU AN ASK I LOVE YOUR BLOG 💕🛐🛐 an anon mentioned like an end of the world scenario where women were a very very scarce percentage of the population and I really wanted you to expand on that 😭🙏 there could be a girl dressed as a boy who joins a camp full of men (Childe + Scara the fatui) but they figure out her disguise pretty quickly— or another lone traveller like Xiao, Razor, Albedo, Kazuha or Diluc snatches her up on the road like a precious treasure. Maybe women sell for a lot or they are just like 😳 free wife. Diluc especially thinks you won’t survive out here on your own so you should be grateful he “saved” you :)

YESSSSS I love that concept!! I mentioned Fallout there but I'm sticking to a more general idea here... although one day I should make HCs for an actual Fallout AU

Also I went way overboard with this pls enjoy my fellow sexism kink degens

//obvious heavily gendered themes, not just like misogyny (although there's a lot) but also some generalizations about gender both ways for the sake of the scenario.

//Mentions of things like feminine body shapes/voices/hips/breasts, physical strength differences, and other physical markers/indicators as determiners of sex! Please make note of that as I know this can be really uncomfortable for some! Also general fetishization of sexual dimorphism (physical/behavioral differences between binary sexes)!

//also human trafficking, slavery, all the good stuff

But yes SEXIST WORLDBUILDING?? My favorite it's been a while since I got to do this bless

I actually watched a video on something like this once if the sexes experienced like a major population imbalance of like 5-10% : 90-95%... it mentioned that like, given the obvious physical strength difference, disposition tendencies, AND simply being so outnumbered, it might not be such a bad deal for the dudes -- they could likely retain power and essentially market themselves very little violent altercations, not so much violent competition either.

The girls in the alternate universe would be... a lot less fortunate. Not to mention, things would get a lot more violent thanks to the power of Testosterone™. Ultimately, they're sold as sort of a resource, like a luxury good, or an expensive pet. And, of course, reduced to property status. If we're going with the idea that girls simply have a very low birth ratio (as in like only 1 out of 10 births are girls), a lot of times families, especially non-elites, would try to hide them to prevent anything bad from happening, which would inevitably lead to some form of legislation or mandate that they have to be surrendered to higher powers, both for their own safety and the stability and wellbeing of the population as a whole. So that they can be properly utilized, of course.

You would have things like markets, both officially and licensed and underground. The former is more elite -- you have to be licensed to sell, have to have permits and paperwork and all that, and it would inevitably become one of those things that elite circles manage to exclude others from by ensuring only people within their upper circles can buy or sell. The latter is thus created, sort of black markets, which exist to be able to sell them at cheaper prices to people who otherwise couldn't afford them, this way small-time traffickers that manage to get their hands on a few can still make a good deal of money. You can choose by a wide variety of things, such as background, body shape, disposition, etc. It's a better fate, most say, to end up sold to one person, so long as they're not awful. At least it's better than ending up one of the unfortunate ones that ends up public property, either in government-sanctioned brothels or set to operate glory holes for the general public to fill men's needs. To keep society running, you know.

And on that note for most guys, just getting their dick wet ever is a dream they know they'll likely never obtain, or one they have to pay just to obtain for a precious few minutes depending on the legality of brothels in their nation. Actual private sessions cost way more than glory holes, but even then, it's not like the girl will remember his face or care about him in any way, and they're way too busy to allow any after-time -- as soon as you cum, you gotta be out the door so the next one can come in. Sure, some establishments offer sessions where you can actually have a full night with them, talk to them, have some vague imitation of intimacy, but the prices are astronomical. It's not realistically obtainable. And sex is one thing, but to actually get to impregnate a girl is even more unimaginable. So while options exist, it's just not... fulfilling.

The desperation of the situation is what makes everything so much more tense and dangerous -- every bastard wants some for himself, so protectiveness is through the roof for the guys fortunate enough to have wives. A lot more men out there are willing to risk the consequences just to get a spare crumb, and much more brutal about the extents to entrap a girl, should a very lucky bastard manage to find one unprotected out in the world.

But this also increases cheating paranoias as well, which in and of itself is a mate guarding practice. There's so many men out there and so few of you, so every man becomes much more suspicious of any behaviors, since you have so many more men that would have all their attention directed towards you at a given moment. They have to ensure you have no opportunities to cheat, trust isn't enough anymore, they have to ensure you can't even if you wanted to. Even boys who would have already been highly possessive and jealous become even more so. Also the whole concept of war trophies becomes an even bigger deal than it ever was, too. In any sort of wartime (which occurs more often given individual unresolved frustrations), there's much motivation and incentive for it. I mean, instead of paying years' worth of money for a wife you can go get one, just walk right into an enemy village or something and kinda pick one up and go (I mean, it's not that easy when they're kicking and screaming, but you get the jist).

------------

Now... as for our boys, well we have obvious candidates for little rich boys that would get their own little slavewife. Xingqiu's family buys him one for a birthday, it's sort of a tradition, that's how his mom came along too. Officially, of course, a real licensed auction. His dad lets him pick one out, he bribes them at the door to let him browse a bit so he has a good idea of which one he wants before auctioning even starts. His eyes meet yours, in that tiny little crate they shove each of you into, and he smiles. You try to smile back, twitching a bit -- he's young and cute, and you know the alternative is being sold to some gross rich old man, so you might as well shoot for the best you can get. He only gets to talk to you a little bit, asking you questions that you try to give answers to that you think he'd like, try to make yourself sound cute, and he promises he'll get you -- pats you on the head through the bars. He's been around females a little bit, such as his mom of course, his brother has a wife too, and having grown up in rich circles, he's seen more wives than the average young man, although they're always quiet and clinging to their masters, are generally told to look at the ground if they're going out, and really are more often than not kept inside, away from where someone might see them and want to steal them. Still, considering the average young man doesn't even see a human female except their own mother (who of course stays locked inside all the time), that makes him more used to the presence than most young boys.

His dad does end up haggling for you, some other dude keeps trying to outbid him, but he would only have the best for his son, you know? So in the end he pays a larger sum than expected, but it's worth it, he thinks. Thankfully, they took two separate carriages, that way he can leave the two of you alone on your own, he knows his son isn't patient enough to wait all the way until you're home to at least play around a little bit.

------------

Mondstadt has similar markets, but thankfully some places allow you to just pay up-front without any back-and-forth bids. Crepus would definitely seek that sort of establishment out, it's much favorable to bidding. He knows his son well enough to pick one out for him, though. It's a very awkward ride back, he doesn't take the ties off your wrists just yet, lays out the house rules and your responsibilities and all that.

Unfortunately, given the aforementioned desperation of the average man, the house staff present a bit of a problem, Diluc doesn't want any of them getting any ideas about laying hands on you. Thus, whenever he can't be around you himself, you're given one or two servants to accompany you at all times... eunuchs, of course, which is a thing society has returned to having solely for the purpose of being guards. You have absolutely no privacy. You're taught the very strict rules from day 1 about how you can't talk to anyone who isn't him, too.

Alternatively, yes he absolutely would be one to find a stray or a runaway to fulfill a savior complex. You poor, poor thing. Some bastards out there are so ungrateful for the rare gift that is having a wife, mistreat and abuse them, surely this is the background you come from. You don't hate being owned by a man in general, even if that's what you say, you're just lashing out because you're traumatized and used to being treated poorly, you need to get used to having a good master. Of course, he still needs to know exactly what the past ones were like. In detail, along with how many masters you've had, if you were ever public property of any kind... usually, ones who have ever served as public property are treated as being unfit to be wives (too addicted to cock and all that), but he is kind and understanding, not like the others. Still, he wants to know... he becomes much more paranoid of you searching for alternative sources of sex when he's gone, no matter what you tell him. Maybe it's best to keep you locked in a room by yourself when he's busy.

------------

But of course, there are some that try to flee, often by attempting to disguise themselves. This is a challenge, considering feminine boys are already often rounded up and sold like girls too (desperate times desperate measures, you know how it is), but if people see you walking around they might just assume you narrowly passed the test. Not that it all won't go to hell the moment you get found out, of course. When legislating these matters, they thought of all sorts of possible scenarios, and so those who manage to evade subjugation and are caught doing so are treated with a "finders keepers" sort of policy.

Thus, should you try to evade and live life in disguise, you are accepting the potential consequences of that. Joining an organization of any kind, especially one like the Fatui or the Knights of Favonius, is beyond "playing with fire," it's practically playing with a lit stick of dynamite. Among lower ranks, you tend to operate in group formations -- meaning group showers, changing rooms, and the like. You have to try your best to sneak off when changing, or come after dark to shower. You find yourself falling behind in training, unable to perform the same physical feats to the same degree as even the scrawnier dudes...

The Knights handle it somewhat well. The Captain is good at motivating people, tries to help you with your burdens, hoping you just need to bulk up a bit. He tries to get close... a little too close... maybe starts noticing a few things that are off. Sometimes when you speak, he kinda furrows his eyebrows at your voice, he seems to sometimes scan your body up and down in confusion when you notice your posture is a little too feminine, and quickly correct it. At one point, your heart nearly jumped out of your chest when he put his hands on your sides, ran them over your hips, and laughed, making a comment about how you have girly hips. Well, based on the interactions he's had, which isn't too many, he didn't really have a mother growing up or anything.

He's a perceptive man. He gets it, eventually, although at first he's so shocked he thinks he's imagining things, there's no way, right? Once he becomes certain, he wastes no time calling you in for a private meeting, you know something's wrong when he locks the door and stands between you and it. Still, he goes about calmly exposing you, but chastising you for being so dumb. Don't you realize the kind of danger you were in? Tsk tsk, so naive, thinking you could go on like that forever, you're lucky he's intent on saving you from a much worse fate. He realizes you're probably reluctant to be owned, since you were clearly avoiding it to begin with, but he's convinced that you just have the wrong impression of it. You'll love it, you'll be happier, because he'll be good to you. You'll see. Now, you just have to come over here, let him get your thumbprint stamp (even if he has to hold you down kicking and screaming) so he can sign over the legal ownership forms.

------------

The Fatui have their own means of handling the imbalance, though, managing to keep troops from so much sexual frustration that they get into fights or just kill each other. They keep their own group slaves, with one girl assigned to a unit to serve all the men's needs and keep them happy. It's a really effective system! The ratio depends on your ranking. The lowest of grunts usually have to share a slave with 30 or so others, higher rankings share a girl with maybe 10 others. Of course, it only makes sense, then, that harbingers get one to themselves. It's a special mark of their status.

The only catch is that they have to go get one. They don't get assigned one or have it handed to them. It's kinda considered a mark of their competency/qualification to be able to get one within a certain amount of time after being appointed. Be that stealing one during an unpleasant 'housecall' (read: hit) to some rich old bastard's house, fucking her in front of him before slinging the poor thing over his shoulder to leave, or finding one hiding out somewhere, or... finding one hiding in plain sight.

Childe would really get a kick out of sniffing out some stupidly brave little thing, thought she could disguise herself as a regular Fatui soldier... he's perceptive enough to notice how you lag behind in terms of athletic performance, picks up on even the slightest indicators in voice, facial structure, posture, etc. He doesn't immediately lunge in, though, he likes to psychologically torture the poor thing. Drops little hints, makes comments about how "y'know, you have girly (insert trait)" or pointing out how sometimes there's something off about you, watches the blood drain from your face and how you stiffen before laughing it off and pretending it was nothing. All up to a certain point, before he goes out of his way to arrange and set up an "accident" of some kind. "Oh, what's this...?" He says something to the effect of who would have thought, but the mocking tone makes it rather obvious he guessed pretty early on. Rather brave of you, really... every day you undoubtedly walked right by those poor communal fucktoys, knowing you could have just as easily been in their place with just one wrong move. But don't worry... you must have had it rough, but now you can rest easy, not having to bear the hardships of being property to multiple people, nor having to try and push yourself past your physical limits, but instead being able to relax and spend the rest of your life in luxury as a little lap-toy to breed.

------------

Scaramouche is a little more immediate, though, and it's a genuine accident. He thinks himself too good for such needs, or so he says... Really he just hasn't had the opportunity yet, so he leaps onto the first chance he gets. Stumbles into one on the road who was looking at the ground and runs into him, all wide eyed and tries to run the moment she lays eyes on him. You're evading international law, huh. Well, the Fatui isn't exactly law enforcement, but... He can think of it as fulfilling his title and finally having some status. He's slow, doesn't run after you, just manages to hunt you down once you finally think you're safe and try to sleep while hiding.

He reminds you what should happen to runaways -- they should be returned to their proper owners and given the punishing they deserve, which, by the way, he makes sure you know if you ever even think about running from him, he'll make sure to give you one you'll remember for the rest of your life. So you should be grateful that instead, you're being given a much better life than what you could have possibly had before, given that he's such a kind master that you will undoubtedly soon understand is better than anything you've ever had before. Provided you keep your manners and know when to bow your head and say yes sir. If necessary, though, you can be taught.

--------

Kazuha also randomly encounters one on the road, one of the girls trying to hide by staying in the wilderness -- at a distance out by a wilderness path, poor girl thought no one was around and decided to bathe in the river. He's shocked at first, blinks and wipes his eyes to be sure he's seeing correctly, but is instantly hard when he makes out the shape and parts -- he's seen girls before, but never naked ones up close. Hormones override any empathy he might have had.

He knows you don't want to be owned but... It's only the natural order, right? That's what all boys across Teyvat are taught from the time they're young, it's ingrained in his mind. Besides, he's nice, so, she'll like him when she gets used to him, he thinks.

He's so sweet though, for real. Much like Diluc, if it's a runaway, he thinks surely you just had bad owners. Or maybe were public property, how cruel, he understands that must be so hard. He'll be good to you, he promises! He'll keep you safe from the others that would harm you, with time you'll understand he's one of the good ones, even if he has to keep you by his side with force at first.

------------

Mondstadt offers a special option, being a place of "freedom" and all that, for young girls, should they request it... if you don't want to end up a wife or a breeder or risk becoming public property, you can become a nun. It's limited spaces, first come first serve, only a few dozen spaces available to the luckiest trying to avoid spending the rest of their lives getting their holes wrecked on a daily if not hourly basis.

How did it ever come to be? Who knows, especially given that the archon disapproves of that system. That's what he gets for giving the land the reputation of freedom, sigh. Venti laments such a thing, it really is such a waste that such perfectly breedable girls go their whole lives sexless, and he doesn't even get any benefit, despite it being dedicated to worshipping him. How can he allow such an atrocity to go on? Well, simple, he doesn't. All it would take is one quick 'divine descension' and an appearance in godly form to relay the very important message that Barbatos wants a sacrifice -- no no not like kill someone, he just wants his pick of those cute nuns! After all they are supposed to devote their lives to him right?? Obviously it is a priority. Sure like 90% of the Mondstadt population will never know the touch of a female but obviously that shouldn't apply to the archon right? So he can just have one, y'know, to set a hopeful example for people to live up to.

But hey, it's great really. You get godhood status and become sort of a goddess of legend. Even statues of you and folk songs about you. Not for any accomplishments or anything, but being the model example of wifeliness, one that just accepted the honor of being chosen by a god and acted in complete subservience (even if that's not exactly what you did, that's what gets recorded anyway).

----------

And speaking of gods, some just... demand it. Morax was certainly that way, back in his day. I mean, obviously he deserves it, gets to take the one unfortunate enough to be chosen by the people as a sort of sacrifice. He expects you to have already been properly trained in the customs of being a spouse in this universe's Liyue culture, but even if you don't know how to properly greet him and address him, keep your posture, hide your face in front of others, and all that, he just sighs. Well, he should have expected they wouldn't do it properly, so he'll have to do it himself... Can't have the wife of a god behaving in any other way than complete obedience. Gods forbid they sacrificed a defiant little thing... That's what happens, he supposes, when there's so few of you, you become spoiled and think just because you're valuable and coveted means you can behave as you wish... An attitude he'll have to get rid of, one way or another.

------------

Xiao already doesn't interact much with or see a lot of women even in a normal setting, so it's made a lot worse when they're very rare. He knows even less, and he certainly wouldn't have the experience of living at an inn owned by a woman (poor Verr is just like all the other wives, nice and tucked away out of sight). Occasionally, incoming inn guests will bring wives with them, usually wealthy and heavily-guarded, but he can catch a glimpse here or there... he ends up only seeing one really close by pure coincidence. A random human on the road at night being attacked by something... even right at the start he's a bit caught off-guard by the high pitch of the screams, how unusual. And usually humans are so grateful after being saved, but this one is hiding their face with their arms or a hood over their head and bowing their head in thanks... you're just trying to run off as quickly as possible before he notices anything... even he isn't that dense, though, grabs you by the wrist before you can bolt away. So weak, it barely feels like anything even though you look like you're pulling back with all your might.

It's not as if he can just let you go (which was, of course, your primary reason for trying to bolt), but you quickly begin to question if you were better off wherever you were before, having run away from one situation only to end up in another, since he quickly seems intent on keeping you. It's... awkward, even in a slightly cute way, were you not terrified. At least he seems considerate enough to inform you -- most captors, in your experience, just kinda assume you're smart enough to understand, but he feels the need to announce that he's come to the realization that you're female and that you need to not fight back, just come with him. He also makes sure to tell you that he's not taking you to the Millelith or back to your old owner, and instead, being smart as he is, thinks it's instead the best idea to tell you exact what he has in mind. So stop squirming so much, why are you still squirming even though he clearly told you he's just going to lock you away with him forever where you'll be safe? Hmph. No wonder the human men put these things on leashes. Truly, these creatures as just as complicated and difficult to understand as he's heard it said.

------------

However, Razor doesn't really grasp the whole imbalance thing. Wolves have a perfectly even ratio as always. He's heard humans tell him before that the females are rarer, but doesn't really get why that's a big deal. All that means is the strong ones get to reproduce, just like wolves. He does worry a bit that it might be hard to find one, though.

So when he finds some poor girl in hiding in the middle of the woods, he doesn't actually act mesmerized or in shock... just pleased. He has gone a while and never seen one, so he was beginning to wonder if he ever would. He is, however, smart enough to realize that he can't just let this opportunity go. But there are problems. One, he's not very good at tying knots. Two, what if humans come and find his mate and take her away? Both of these present issues, but luckily he has a friend with some insight. He also realizes that Bennett will probably want to share... hmph, well, he can do that if it's for a good friend.

Poor Bennett, normally so morally upstanding, but in this universe the poor thing is a bit more desperate, so he's willing to... maybe do some not so great things... people notice he makes a lot more trips to the woods now. He apologizes all the time when he fucks you, constantly asks if the ropes are too tight or if you need anything, even convinces Razor to let you stay with him every now and then in a nice, real bed. The transports are hard, he has to kinda cover you up and bring you into Mondstadt through the side entrances to the city and hope to not be seen taking you back to his place. It's a nice change from the woods, although you have to go back in a few days to being stuck in caves all the time.

------------

So, it's hard to find females, right? Not a lot of them naturally exist, so, if you can't find one... make one. That's the strategy Albedo ends up taking. Rhinedottir made him (and then promptly fucked off after realizing making a male creation in this universe was probably not the best idea, Albedo gets abandoned in every universe sigh), so he decides he can make a humanoid too. Just with some... specifications. Biologically programmed to be unable to speak to anyone but himself, and to be afraid of others, so that way she'll only love him. It's a flawless plan, really. Except, of course, he decides that for the general purpose of keeping her to himself, and ah, ethical concerns the Knights may have (or rather, fear that they'd demand he make one for all of them too), he tries to keep her existence hidden. Doesn't last forever, of course, unfortunately he's pressured into making at least a few more for some higher-ranks.

Some people implore him to start a business off of it -- he could make a fortune making synthetic girls for poor lonely bastards -- but he refuses, after all, how could he ever keep up with the demand of such a market? That would give him so much less time to spend with his own little customized wifey! That would be unthinkable. So, no, he's content with just keeping his own, sweet little thing he tailored to be nice and sweet and obedient, to keep with him day in and day out.

[wiserodin032402]

D&D 3.X Optimization: Why Fighter Appears Strong to Casual Viewers and Why this is Wrong

Okay so I got a really good question from @rationalismizationism​ about Fighter being a popular pick for powergamers in D&D.

Let’s do some groundwork first.

When I’m talking about Fighter, I’m talking about this bad boy:

I am not talking about this bad boy:

However, this guy has similar problems to their 3.5 sibling which I’ll be covering today.

So, 3.5 D&D’s fighter is a collection of 11 bonus feats over 20 levels, with a full Base Attack Bonus progression meaning it gets four attacks over those 20 levels. It has a good fortitude save bonus, a bad reflex save bonus, and a bad will save bonus.

Okay, so let’s go over why this appears so strong to casual observation.

A good fortitude save means a Fighter can shrug off most Stun effects, most instant death effects, and most fatigue or sickness based debuffs. This is good, a lot of these effects will instantly remove your character from combat.

A good Base Attack Bonus means your first two attacks will hit often, and possibly your third attack.

The 11 bonus feats means you can customize the class to your heart’s content, as long as you’re picking only combat feats, which brings the total amount of feats you can take over 20 levels to 18 (19 if you’re a human). This is where the powergaming comes in.

Here’s a basic feat that most melee fighters take:

You can trade Accuracy for Damage at a 1 to 1 ratio, or if you are two-handing, a 1 to 2 ratio. If you are two handing a weapon and take a -5 to hit on all your attacks, you add +10 to damage. Most enemies in 3.5 have a low-ish AC, so with the right buffs and such, you can be dealing pretty good damage.

But let’s go further. If you charge and attack, you get +2 to-hit and -2 to your AC, and you can apply bonuses to it.

So now the ratio of power attack if you charge is -1 to +6 for two-handing. -5 is now +30 damage. Cool, now we’re doing a lot of damage, but unfortunately are limited to one attack from a charge because we don’t have Pounce (the ability to full attack off of a charge).

One option we have is going into Mounted Combat. In D&D 3.5, you get a free +1 to-hit against unmounted targets while on your Mount. The optimal weapon to use on a Mount is a Lance:

It deals double damage on a mounted charge and can hit foes 10 feet away. So that -5 to hit for +30 damage has suddenly turned into -5 to hit for +60 damage. But if we’re insistent on going down mounted charging, there’s still more to do.

We can take another feat (after taking two mounted combat feats) to increase the damage the lance does.

Cool so now our power attack bonus is -5 for +90 damage. And it’s only cost us 5 feats.

This is doable by 5th level.

Assuming 18 Strength for +4 to hit and +4 to damage, two handing a lance for +2 extra damage (1.5xstr) and a +1 lance, your bonus to hit is +10 to-hit, with 1d8+7 base damage. On a charge against an unmounted target with this feat setup, this bonus is +13 to-hit and 3d8+21 base damage, before you start power attacking.

Once you start power attacking and you do your jump check, a simple -3 for +6 damage power attack becomes +18 from the power attack tripling, and then +54 from the Lance Charge, putting you at +10 to-hit and 3d8+21+54 base damage.

This is very strong. This is a lot of front-loaded power. This kills most creatures on average. And it can be taken further. You can get stronger. You can get a feat that moves your power attack penalty to your armor class on a charge, allowing you to drop everything into one massive charge.

It’s very easy to optimize. There’s not much to it. We did this in 5 feats using only the Player’s Handbook and Complete Adventurer. It’s also obvious power.

What isn’t obvious to newer players is that you have two very bad saves.

People joke about Intelligence Saves in 5e, but in 3.5 having a bad Will save is basically game ending. All that nice power you have?

It’d be a shame if I made you kill your friends with it.

Okay but that’s really high level. You might as well stop playing your fighter then.

But what if there was a spell that just completely turned you off no save?

There is!

If you fail the save, you get this:

No you can’t charge during this. But also, if you pass the save:

You still can’t charge! You and your mount both need to be able to charge to do a mounted charge. Cool, you’ve invested 5 feats into being a one-trick pony that can be shut off with one spell.

5th level is a crapshoot, but maybe spells don’t shut you off at lower levels, right?

Wrong.

Taste the rainbow, motherfucker. At 2 or less Hit Dice you basically get to die because if you’re unconscious they get to make a Coup De Grace (special action, basically slicing someone’s throat. Free max damage crit, save vs damage dealt or die.) and if you’re at 3 or 4 HD you still get stunned, and at 5 you’re still stunned for a round.

Oh and if you’re using the encumbrance rules, well, prepare to fucking lose.

Oh but if they want they can really trick this out. They can spend a 4th level spell slot and be a vindictive cunt about it:

Enjoy your 2d6+8 strength damage, loser.

And this has been only 4 spells total.

A 5th level Wizard has 6 spells per fucking day and each one of them can uniquely kick your ass.

A 10th level Wizard has 16 of these things.

A 20th level Wizard has THIRTY SIX of these god-forsaken tricks. It doesn’t matter how much damage you do if you simply remove the target from the fight entirely. And they can make scrolls.

If we’re counting total class features, Wizard gets 36 Spells (per day) + 4 Cantrips + 4 Feats + A Familiar + Scribe Scroll for a total of 46 Class Features to the Fighter’s 11. And the Wizard can change and adjust 40 of those class features at the start of each day, allowing themselves to simply rebuild their character every day.

Oh but it can get worse.

Behold, god’s strongest warrior, the Paladin Cleric

That’s right! Motherfucker gets better stats and more spells than a fucking Wizard! And they get heavy armor and a free weapon proficiency based on their god, two class features from their domains, and turn and rebuke undead.

They get 50 total spells per day + 6 cantrips, two domains (including 1 class feature each), with turn and rebuke undead which can fuel cleric specific feats, for a total of 59 fucking class features.

Oh and they automatically know every spell on their spell list and can prepare them all, which means you know every single cleric spell from all 30+ splatbooks.

They can cast a single spell to fight as good as you do:

And they can take a single feat to shut down enemy spellcasters forever:

They can go into mounted combat or power attacking or anything they fucking want.

But let’s say they want to be a basic power attacker build that uses blunt weapons. They take war domain cleric so they get weapon focus for free. They take Power Attack. They take the Travel Domain as well, and use the optional rule to swap out the ability from Travel Domain for Travel Devotion.

That’s right! Clerics can move and full attack!

Let’s say they use a warhammer, so they’d take the following feat:

And if they’re human, in the same amount of time, they can also squeeze in this feat before they hit 10th level (since they get weapon focus for free):

Here’s what Nauseated does for reference:

And this isn’t the full extent of what they can do! They still have all those spells! But they can cast one spell and do your job better than you at all times at 7th level and higher. And with all those feats, they could have instead also done mounted combat at a slightly later level the same as your Fighter, but they’ve also got a fuckload of spell slots to work with and a better will save so they’ll rarely turn on their teammates.

Oh btw, that cleric build? Not optimal. It can be better. Way better. I’ve covered less than 1% of what spellcasters can do. I barely touched any actually optimal spells or feats.

And yeah, the spell slot problem carries into 5e. If you want a comprehensive summary of that, go watch this vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1rb9kFFbkA

tl;dr: In D&D 3.5 being a Fighter is something better classes do as a side gig. Everyone in D&D fights, but only the Fighter is locked into just Fighting in the worst way possible.

[corvuscorona]

IT'S TIME TO RANK TALES OF BERSERIA CHARACTERS BASED ON THEIR "BROKEN : WATCH OUT" RATIOS.

I have to document this or I'll die.

1st number indicates how broken the character is (when handled by an amateur who loves to fuck around but cannot remember more than 3 things at a time) on a scale of 1 (you have to play the game to win) to 5 (90% of the potential gameplay is unnecessary for winning. on chaos mode).

2nd number indicates how much you have to Watch Out when playing as the character, again from 1 (you'll be fine probably) to 5 (switch to velvet the second things start going south or Die).

ranked in order of total numerical score because I LOVE to jevil-do-anything. there is 1 tie; please consider it broken by "more manic gameplay" winning over "inherently more methodical".

ready GO!!!

"broken" is higher: character i switch to when i just want to get it over with.

"watch out" is higher: more fun on account of the risk but if the other number is too low i still don't feel like it most of the time.

scores match: simulates what i think it must be like to play fighting games.

there are gifs of mystic artes because even i didnt want to read 6 paragraphs in a row without landmarks.

6- LAPHICET: his break soul is defensive & i can't figure out how to do combos w/ him that actually make casting faster. 0:3. 1 star. do it yourself, babyboy; i cannot help you. you'll help me.

5- ROKUROU: youd think he would be more broken than this but the timing on his break soul counter-hit thingy is surprisingly fussy and it's hard to see when something's about to hit you when there are 6 suits of armor onscreen all flailing their empty limbs around at once. buttonmash city. soul waster supreme. easier to combo with but his focus must be low or something bc i get stunlocked the most as him by far. hard to play w/ finesse. 1:4 "don't get hit."

4- ELEANOR: swinging her spear like a baseball bat flinging a guy into the air and then leaping up into the air to smack the guy around while things continue happening underneath me is a lot of fun to let me keep having as often as i can use any of her dozen-hit-doing iron-stance-having artes to grab souls with and consequently her break gauge fills really fast too. would be higher on this list if i could remember which direction shes gonna step/slide/jump/fly like a bullet out of a gun when i hit any given button. the unpredictable nature of this keeps my on my toes too hard for me to ever really win with her on purpose. 3:3 & also why does she run so slow???

3- VELVET: ol' reliable. her break soul is aptly named because if the entire battle system hadnt been built around it like an SCP containment procedure this game would be unplayable. as long as you have 3 souls you can tank any hit you want while you rip an enemy's blood right out of its veins and if the tailor-made-for-that-exact-enemy attack she does at the end of the combo doesnt get you back a soul, your options are limitless - do a weak point combo or guard real good or do 2 switch blasts in a row or hit em with a mystic arte or failing all that just run in circles until one of your teammates dies and their souls fly out of their pockets. free for the taking. DEVOUR. i have only had to Watch Out as velvet like 5 times in 120 hours & two of them were because the enemy attack lasted for 500 years so when i came out of therion mode with 1hp it was still happening on top of me. 5:1.

2- EIZEN: now we are fucking getting somewhere. the second you knock an enemy down you get 2 free hits that do GOOD damage & hurl you several feet in the "behind the other guy" direction, and give you like most of a break gauge level, but First you have to Knock Them Down with a guy who gets stunned like he's punching HIMSELF 1 out of every dozen hits & has really cool attacks i wanna look at that have weirdly long windups. i tried playing as eizen to fight phoenix on chaos mode and it did NOT go well but on the other hand it went a LOT worse as every other character so man i just do not know anymore. special bonus points for having the most contentious "hard to do long combos : really cool tier-2 mystic arte" ratio, too. 3:5 i'm not kidding you really gotta watch out eizen dies A LOT

1- MAGILOU: as long as you can LOOK, A SHOOTING STAR!, you have a chance of surviving but the size of that chance vacillates wildly from moment to moment LET ALONE fight scenario to fight scenario. her combat is so simple in theory; spell absorber Just Works and spams free attacks for you that practically blot out the goddamn sun, her little meteor attack is nigh instant comes down exactly where you expect it to in front of her and stuns/grabs souls like there's no tomorrow. AND YET. i cant get used to like any of her other attacks for fear of getting hit while winding up and/or launching myself halfway across the battlefield directly into a giant bird's big stupid laser beam, doing combos to lower casting time on her artes is just as much of an issue as it is with laphicet, and in the not-so-rare circumstance that she cant stagger whatever she's hurling space rocks at she crumples like a paper bag. love watching her do her futile little gay little run away from danger in the world's biggest 2 hats, and then die. queen. 5:5 !!!

[mitigatedchaos]

I'm a politics writer. I write about politics, metapolitics, political theory, social combat theory, and futurism, for the most part.

As I discovered, even the uncensored versions of Llama-2 just don't have a lot of political or strategic theory in their training data. You can't call it up, because it's just not in there.

Censored Llama-2 is worse. You'll be cruising along and then bump into some prog shibboleth, and then it will spiral off from there. The 70-billion parameter model works through things at a much higher level than the simpler ones, but it's annoying, because it interferes even when playing around with fiction. You can't just delete and regenerate the response, because the ideology is embedded too strongly in the model.

Nous Capybara 34b is different.

It's based on the Chinese model, Yi-34b-200k. Its only languages are English and Chinese. It leans lib, but it has a lot more political theory. You can ask it for war plans in which your fictional country goes to war with America, and it'll draw up war strategy for you. These plans will be very basic, general stuff, but will in general make sense.

You can tell it you don't like the ideology of Social Justice, and it will agree to reframe its response. You can tell it to provide a right-wing interpretation of the topic under discussion, and even though that's not its default, it can draw up a reasonable one.

It also has a tremendous context window. A conversation about a particular variety of devil recently stretch to around 6,500 words (~8k tokens) without too much issue.

Further, Nous Capybara incorporates LessWrong posts as part of its training data, meaning it was put out by our guys.

But despite all this, it's still not currently useful in the day-to-day writing of mitigatedchaos.

The information is too unreliable. The ideology of mitigatedchaos is too boutique, and would probably need a dedicated to-AI-explainer text of 4,000 words or more as a standard background in order to call up all the components. Mitigatedchaos posts are very dense, with a 5:1 compression ratio, and routinely move between concepts quickly. Even setting that aside, Yi can't write a mitigatedchaos post because it's just not working at a high enough level of abstraction.

(Actually, a 4-6k word list of ideological statements to feed into an LLM and see what happens might be a good project.)

So while you all were chewing on the Swift Pill post, I was asking Nous Capybara to combine Ranma Saotome and Tanya Degurechaff into one character, and then propose a suitable isekai scenario.

Why? Because with the mashups, I always hope it's going to suggest something totally off the wall, something I wouldn't have expected, and the results are usually disappointing, but the stakes are low.

Naturally the results were all pretty boring. The back and forth did lead me to thinking about the need to decompose the { soldier } and { gender-bending } elements, and assign them to different isekai worlds, in order to exploit the world transition, and how much potential story energy might be available from the world transition.

One thing that might be interesting to try out is vibes-based prompting - dumping a short, unrelated document of particular tone at the top of the prompt, telling the AI to ignore it at the top, and then put the actual prompt beneath it at the end. Human-written sources are dense information, and this might be able to draw out different behavior.

Is the "Swiftpill" an experiment in AI-generated content? It has a few hallmarks of AI roleplay, particularly in the repetition of concepts (date-break up-write song, "giver appears to be Taylor Swift") through different parts, and the inclusion of a loss of identity which sits at odds with the stated premise of becoming Taylor Swift (ignoring the pill's one condition completes the transformation). It bears the shape of similar posts, without a coherent conceptual throughline of its own.

It is not in fact AI-generated. (In my experience, an AI would not generate that post without some considerable coaching.)

the inclusion of a loss of identity which sits at odds with the stated premise of becoming Taylor Swift

Good noticing. That was deliberate. This is discussed in the previous post that I was writing while you sent this ask.

[thenativetank]

Virginia Native Aquarium

So 9 months ago, I started up an aquarium to keep some of the fish, plants, and inverts I can find in my local area. Partly it was because I’ve always wanted a tank with North American Native Fish (NANF) but also because I didn’t know what was around here and wanted to learn more. It’s a very low-tech tank, but I thought you guys might want to hear about my experiences. If you do, click the read more!

Fish

The Banded Killifish (Fundulus diaphanus) have been the darlings of my tank. They are boisterous and a little territorial, but not really aggressive - though I have seen them nip at the Blacknose Daces that entered their turf. They are the first ones to greet me and beg for food and at 3 inches they are the largest fish in the tank. At a maximum size of 5-6 inches, they still have some ways to grow! I’d love to collect some more, but finding them has proven to be a bit of a challenge.

Most people who keep native fish have tried or at least encountered Gambusia (Mosquitofish) species. They are common and invasive, meaning you can find them just about anywhere. I have about 11 Eastern Mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) currently - 9 females and 2 males. I was a little hesitant to try them because I hear the horror stories of aggressive mosquitofish, but in all honesty these guys have been pretty inoffensive. Is it because this G. holbrooki is less aggressive than the more well known G. affinis, because of the size of the tank (55 gallons), because of the sex ratio, or something else? I have no idea! But they are doing well for me.

I recently collected some Blacknose Daces (Rhinichthys atratulus) from a local stream - funny enough, the 2004 study I found in the area said that species wasn’t present there, but I managed to catch 7 around the 1 inch size. They didn’t take to captivity well and over the course of a week I got down to 1 specimen, who is still alive. Looking it up after, I read that adults are hardy but the young don’t take the transition to captivity well. With that in mind, my plan is to go back soon and capture a few of the adults and give it another shot.

Snails

I’ve found a few local species and added them to the tank - clockwise:

Heliosoma anceps. I’ve never actually tried Ramshorns before, but I’ve heard a lot of horror stories. These guys were to slow to reproduce but are in good numbers these days. They also get pretty hefty! My biggest gal is shown below.

Physa acuta. Pond Snails are some of my favorite snails - they stay small, are inoffensive, and are great little algae eaters and clean up crew. I add them to just about every freshwater tank I have, so of course they are here too!

Pleurocera virginica. These snails never really did great for me. They didn’t reproduce (that I could tell) and their numbers have been declining steadily from the 12 or so I started with to maybe 3 or 4 now. Inoffensive for sure, but not super exciting.

Bithynia tentaculata (not native!). I didn’t find out that these were an invasive species until after I collected them - I initially assumed they were some sort of Pond/Bladder or Apple Snail species. It took half a year or more for them to start reproducing and I’ve only recently seen young ones. Visually appealing with little yellow outlines and seem to be pretty harmless.

Plants

If I have a superstar plant, it’s the Inflated Bladderwort (Utricularia inflata). What started off as two smallish strands I picked up at a local lake has exploded into several feet of plants. If you look in the main picture, all the fuzzy, algae looking stuff is actually Bladderwort. A carnivorous plant, the bladders they use to trap prey can’t hurt anything bigger than Mosquitofish fry but they also take in nutrients through photosynthesis. They have done so well - I hate having to trim and throw it out!

Vallisneria has been weird for me. I collected specimens with long leaves, but they have almost exclusively decided to use energy putting out daughter plants rather than growing the main plant. Some of them have grown a dozen daughters 18 inches from the main plant. But they’ve all stayed small. I’ve also collected some Spikerush (Eleocharis spp) from the local pond. It’s doing well but staying small - I like the contrast with the thicker val leaves particularly.

I’ve collected various Pondweeds (Potamogeton spp) while keeping this tank, some native and some introduced. The only one that’s done well for me (sort of) is P. spirillus. Once it gets to the top of the tank, I give it a few days, cut it back, and re-plant the cut piece. Voila, two plants! One weird quirk - when I changed lighting from florescent to (cheapo) LEDs, they basically all died back. It wasn’t until I bought a Stingray fixture and set up CO2 that it decided to come back.

Yellow Floating Heart (Nymphoides peltata) grows in my local pond... an invasive species but hey I figured I’d give it a shot. It’s not doing very well at all - my experience is that it has a quick burst of growth to get to the top, stagnates, and then starts to die back. That makes sense; I really only see it near the shore of the lake and it avoids deeper water. The 55 and even an earlier attempt in a 10 gallon are too deep for it. It might be fun in the future for a shallow vivarium but it’s unimpressive here. Worth noting, I actually have some in a drainage ditch at my house too. Even in the dry seasons, it grows great there. Go figure.

This Potamogeton robbinsii is a total unknown for me. I never purposefully collected it, I can’t say I’ve even seen it locally. But two strands of it are growing in my tank. It’s not growing very well right now, not sure if the lighting is off or it doesn’t like the substrate, but it’s not dying. It’s just... there. I guess the fact it’s there at all is kinda neat but I don’t really recommend it.

[lovingmiraclehologram]

Okay, so I watched FATE:Winx

I never watched the cartoon or whatever; i've never even heard of the fairy shows and stuff so I literally thought this was just a new Netflix show. Saying that though, there are a lot of problems with this show.

1. It's like the writers took every trope there is in teenage Hollywood films and put it in a blender and poured.

It's 2021, the "fat girl with low self esteem" trope is so yesterday. Fat people exist, and no: being fat isn't a disease nor a personality trait. Terra literally was so cringey to watch! "oh, everyone can strip naked so freely but I have to wait until everyone leaves to take a shower because I'm so embarrassed of my body." Like I thought it was cool to see how Terra could blossom plants and shit but they spent more time showing how shitty the thought her life was because she wasn't a size 4.

2. I'm grateful that Aisha isn't a lightskin black person with curly hair because colorism is still a thing but honestly, the white to people of color ratio on that show is while, not suprprising, absolutely appalling. This is a fake world and to my knowledge I don't think only white people can be fairies so why the lack of POC? I looked at the extras during the last episode when everyone gathered in the school and if there were 50 extras, 47 of them were white. Is it really that hard to cast actors other than white people? It's become so normalized to make white people the default and that has to change. There are 9 main characters and two of them are POC. (i'm not sure if Elisha Applebaum (Musa) is asian or not) That's not normal and that's now how the real world looks. I pay attention to this shit because it's aggrivating. How many shows has had a large, white only cast (or one black person?) Gossip Girl, The OC, 90210, Vampire Diaries, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, One Tree Hill, Awkward, Secret Life of the American Teenager, Dawson's Creek, Nancy Drew....I could literally go on for ages. Hire POC!

3. I only watched this show to pass the time while I was having my coffee and eggs so I didn't pay attention that much when it came to the secondary characters but what the fuck is the Riven-Dane-Beatrix storyline? I think it's great if Dane is a bisexual but why are they tip toeing around it and making that his entire personality? Every time he's on the screen Riven is discussing whether he "likes dick or not" and wondering if he's "wanking off to guys or girls." What's his favorite color? What's his characteristics? You can have a bi boy and still give him a personality. The two aren't interchangeable. Also, the first episode he shows up in, he's this timid first year, then he's around Riven for 5 seconds and now he's full of confidence, smokes and bullies people? I know peer pressure exists, but my golly that was so unrealistic!

I'm not even a fan and I understand why fans are dissapointed. It's like the writers watched every American teenage show and said "yes! but give them british accents and superpowers!"

[xchoco-mixturex]

HUGE TENKUU SHINPAN ARRIVE SPOILERS BELOW!!!

This analysis episode: THE STENGHT OF "DEVA"

(Warning: this analysis has HUGE spoilers from all the manga of TENKUU SHINPAN ARRIVE AND PICTURES FROM THE MANGA IN JAPANESE. A read more shall be put in place. BUT JESUS CHRIST, SERIOUSLY I AINT JOKING)

Read at your own risk.

Okay

So

Lets make a countdown so ppl are free to LEAVE FROM SPOILERS OKAY

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1

GO!

First of all I wanna say I knew it. I knew he was the one who would be DAISEI’S LAST WEAPON. DAISEI’S CARD UNDER HIS SLEEVE.

GUYS,GALS AND NON BINARY PALS MAY I PRESENT YOU: DEVA! (Fanon name)

Also known as EVIL SNIPER!!!

And this this...the clones of the main 5 are completed....

Tenma

Mayuko

Juo(rika)

Zeon.

The evil main 5 made their entrances...

((Holy shit goals---))

BUT HE CAME TO SPEAK FOR THE IDIOT I MEAN DEVA!

So again lets remember the increasing order of power

First lvl: strongest that an mask, clones made by Daisei, not humans. Juo and Zeon are first stage. Purpose: Cause despair. Actual status of first stage: Truce. Allies. Zeon in critical state, Juo is helping.

Second stage: stronger that first stages and activated under a stimuli. Purpose: full obidience of Daisei, eliminate defective clones and foregein matter (Yuris og team interferamfe aka clouds with will). Known second stages: Archangel (evil),Miiko mask, Mayuko, Tenma,Maid. Status with second stage: Mayu and Tenma: truce. Miiko and Archeangel: Enemies. Maid: Deceased. Low chances of a truce with those stages, but possible.

Third stage. Purpose:ELIMINATE MATSUDA SENYA. Merciless killers as the triumph card of Daisei. Use a huge amount of  energy creating them. Huge potential, low ratio of victory against any 3rd stage, to the point the Sniper Mask found the enemy too dangerous for Senya and tried to stop him,but failed. Alliance is impossible. Designed to kill Senya and Senya only. Only member of the stage: Deva/Evil Sniper. Senya called him a monster.

Okay so about his power is too much. as you see in the pannel, Senya and sniper noodle are too shocked. Senya calls him a monster,but might be a reference chapter 3 as he called the angels monster, and Deva is the clone based in Sniper's time of him being a mask.

He even has an aura. All Stage soldiers has that aura ngl, but lets see the comparison.

The aura seems to active under a emotional state. But in Devas its latent over there. He is not charging up,he is literally standing and Senya is already affraid.

Now this...is the part you may not like. Remmeber who else made that trembling efect. Thats right....

Kuon did. (Possessing nanami)

IMMA STEP IN AND SAY THIS: DEVA HAS THE JUDGES’ POWER?! MAYBE! BECAUSE DAISEI KNEW EVERYTHING! And Tenma KNOWS how to open portals.... Sniper was the second Judge already, and he still ahs the powers, but refuses to use them for a unknown reason. (possibly fear to lose humanity)

Maybe not the same but that dude is...Strong.

BE STRONG SENYA. Sniper is by your side. Maybe not possesing you but moral support!

[cherriegyuu]

Girls Planet 999 - Wishes and Predictions

I made a whole ass post about a rumor of the top 9 members during the third elimination. Now I want to talk about how I feel like the debut team will go and how I wish it went.

Here are my predictions. We might have a 4-3-2, 5-3-1 or 4-4-1 ratio, C group always ending up with fewer members. Some people, as we all know are very clear on the debut line like Mashiro, Xiao Ting. So here's how I feel it might go like.

The 4-3-2 ratio: Dayeon, Xiao Ting, Hikaru, Mashiro, Yurina, Yujin, Chaehyun, Yeseo, Ya Ning

The 5-3-1 ratio: Dayeon, Xiao Ting, Hikaru, Mashiro, Yurina, Yujin, Yeseo, Chaehyun, Youngeun

The 4-4-1 ratio: Dayeon, Xiao Ting, Hikaru, Mashiro, Shana, Yurina, Yujin, Chaehyun, Yeseo

I feel like either Yurina or Yujin could be dropped for the overall line-up. I saw someone saying it on tiktok, I think, and I have to agree. It's the very Mnet thing to do, you know, drop someone who's constantly on top (I didn't watch season 1 of PD101, but I did watch the other 3 and it's a constant for them). I really do like Youngeun and wish she would make the debut lineup, however I feel like she won't make the cut, she only got in the top 9 in this round because she got both benefits, had it been only for her votes she wouldn't make it.

I don't think Su Rui Qi will rise to top 9 again, her votes in Korea are truly really low and she's been losing her international support as well. As for Fu Ya Ning, even though I don't really want her to make the debut team, I have to admit that she might be in the group. I mean girly got 1 million votes from international fans. If she does make the cut my only concern is that she might only fit the girl crush concept. If the debut group decides to follow a concept like i*zone, let's call it classy just for the heck of it, I'm scared that she might not fit and how much they may change her so that she does fit in.

Noticed how I placed Dayeon first in every single opportunity? She'll be number one, I'm sure of it. Mnet would never let a non korean be the center, or even number one in the final group. Let's just look at Sakura from PD48 and she lost her first place.

And here's how I'd like the debut team to look like, ideally and I'll give you guys my reasoning for each girl. I don't have an specific order for this, it's just separate by countries. I'm being realist about my choices, people who actually have a chance do debut. Would it be great if Wen Zhe and Bora made they cut? Sure but it's unlikely

1 - Xiao Ting: I mean, do we even doubt her at this point? Personally she was the best in the snake team, in the fate team even though she wasn't center she still manage to draw my attention. I wish she would get center position.

2- Shana: main vocal material, has stage presence, can navigate well through different concepts

3- Mashiro: she's a good leader and super talented, my only complaint is that she seems way too serious even when doing lighter concepts like the performance for the demo stage

4- Yurina: she just has that idol thing I don't know how else to put it. And I think she's had a great evolution throughout the show with her performance and her vocals

5- Yujin: for her it doesn't have a whole to do with her performance as I think she only showed something really interesting in the shoot performance. But since cube is a bitch and crushed clc entirely I want her to succeed in this show.

6- Youngeun: she really impressed me with her demo stage and although her how you like that performance wasn't that good (the team didn't impressed me at all), she did really well in the my house performance and her u+me vocals were also really good

7- Yeseo: she's such an amazing center, she did wonderfully in the fate team and she was so good during utopia, I also watched her individual fancam for the o.o.o mission and she did amazing. There's something about her that simply draws you in.

8- Chaehyun: she would be great in the vocal position. I know a lot of people are at odds with her because she's made two mistakes so far but this is where the "she's under a lot of pressure" card some you all love can be used. Apparently she's a former SM trainee so she's expected to have amazing vocals (say what you want about SM but can't deny that they have some of the best vocalists) she's 20 (Korean age) so her debut window is reaching it's end, the terrible environment that all of the girls are in. I could go on.

9- Hikaru or Dayeon: both of them are good but they don't impress me as much as they impress other people. Dayeon personally flew under the radar for me until ice cream and I think she only has so many people loving her because she had almost a 15 second solo during that performance because again in snake she didn't show as much. The same happened with Hikaru for me, she did well for the demo stage and then she just disappeared, her no excuses performance was okay at best, during the eve she barely drew any attention to herself (but that team was only good vocally the rest was sort of a mess) and then she made a quick appearance during snake for like 2 second and vanished again. Any of them would be fine, the group needs a rapper and any of them would fit in nicely in that role (Kotone was the best rapper in the show, change my mind)

Now, a lot people are talking about how there might be a planet pass for the final, making it a 10 member group. I think it's unlikely, if there were a planet pass they would have told us in advance. But, for the heck of it, let's say there's one. Make no mistake, the planet pass will go to a Korean girl, no doubt. So let's hope for the 4-4-1 ratio, I feel like that's the only way we'll get Shana and Youngeun in the same group.

I have one question about the group: how long will they stay together? I don't expect a permanent group considering how a few already debuted girls went into the show, like cherry bullet and the fanatics, but how long will their contracts be? A 5 year one like X1 was supposed to have or will it be like uni.t so their time together will depend on how successful the group is?