#i really need the money and my job options are basically limited to this so whatever. whatever

[emsloe]

It's completely killing me the lengths employers will go to keep you part time and avoid having to give you benefits. Scheduled for 39.5 hours next week baybee!!!

[clownmoontoon]

RAAAAHHH HELLO ITS BEEN A MINUTE!!! \OUO/

YOUR FAVORITE CLOWN IS BACK IN BUSINESS ive been quiet a while, a LOTS been going on in my personal life that brought my social medias to a complete (and unfortunate ToT) standstill til now!

i rlly wanna talk about it, its been honestly life changing and for safety i need to add some warnings:

cw for abuse both physical and emotional, and suicidal thoughts/ideation (dw im ok and not suicidal! i used to be and i finally have real context as to why)

ANYWAYS LETS TALK ABOUT IT

i got the opportunity to see a therapist for free for the first time since i was a kid and it was IMMENSELY eye opening.

SOME CONTEXT: ive lived with just my mother since i was a teenager as i tried to "make it" as an artist. ive had my ups and downs w this career goal and have been heavy in the midst of a very big Down period. entirely brought on by how sick i was at the start of the year to june (infected lymph nodes, pneumonia, 2 pounds of tumors in my uterus that required the removal of the organ entirely etc, i may have a weak immune system im realizing sdlkjd) which resulted in me having very little energy to create and/or post content. by july i needed to basically start over. which i was excited to do! i WANTED to get back to work and i was even excited for art fight! ;u;

aaaand in july is when my mom thought would be a good time to threaten to kick me out unless i found money to give her or got a "real" job. this came as an extreme and horrifying shock as i had just asked her the month before to "believe in me just a little longer" as i finally felt i realized what id been doing wrong all these years before and felt strongly i could succeed before the end of the year, she not only emphatically agreed but even said i didnt need such a time limit and she definitely didnt mind supporting me til i reached my dream lol i couldnt even do anything until july bc i was busy recovering from major surgery, coming home with tape on my stomach to heal the incision that hadnt fully closed yet

ive wanted to see a therapist for ages bc im Full O' Trauma and i knew it would help. The way this worked was basically like getting a free trial, i got six days of therapy (to be spread out as far as i liked) thru zoom.

i used the visits more for getting advice on how to reach my goals thru mental blocks and exhaustion bc ultimately i felt like 6 days wasnt enough time to get into trauma stuff and i really just wanted to get my career off the ground again, hopefully permanently.

i had vented a tiny bit about my mom and by the final visit w my therapist i decided to forgo the "how to better reach my goals" questions and ask if she had advice on how to handle someone like my mother, who i had to live with and rely on and who would often say something cruel whenever the mood struck. as i told her about my situation she stops me and asks

"do you hear yourself? bc i hear you"

and im suddenly so scared shes going to tell me the same, "get a real job" "stop acting so selfish" etc

instead she says, "this is abuse, youre literally describing an abusive relationship"

i was in complete shock

i even asked her how could i be the one being abused when i was the one using the resources and she compared it to a person getting married to someone rich and that rich person treating them like theyre worthless for not also making money.

it shook me to my core especially bc my mom loved calling me an abuser and comparing me to her abusive ex husbands (one of which used to abuse her physically, punch her/beat her etc) and saying im just like them

for the record ive never laid a hand on her, she would say these things whenever the mood struck, often out of nowhere

once bc i told her i couldnt read her mind and didnt know what she wanted lol wild

ANYWAY after this conversation i started looking back on my life and realizing why ive always felt so worthless, why i thought until my early 20's that suicide would be the best option for everyone. i was so exhausted from chasing this dream and feeling like such a worthless burden, my mother would get so angry with me for just existing and i felt like she would be so much happier if i were out of the picture, my sisters (both a decade older and living w their own families) calling me a leech and selfish for "using" our mother etc

any time i would stand up for myself, kindly and meekly as i could my mother would tell me how she wanted to punch my mouth, slap my face etc for years i thought she'd eventually fly into such a rage one day that she'd kill me and... i honestly didnt really mind the thought once while in high school my mom picked me up for lunch and offered to pay for a prom dress. i told her that it was ok, i knew she was struggling w money rn and i didnt really wanna go to prom anyway she flew into such a rage she pulled over on the highway just to pull my hair and beat me, and then dropped me back at school to finish my day lol

realizing that all of that IS NOT OK OR A NORMAL WAY TO FEEL OR BE TREATED AND I DEFINITELY DIDNT DESERVE ANY OF THAT was extremely eye opening

i told my best friends what my therapist had said and they were both like YEAH... DID YOU NOT KNOW YOU HAD AN ABUSIVE MOTHER??

apparently it was very obvious ^^; my friends were shocked to find that i thought everything was my fault, my therapist even used the term "gaslighting narcissist" to describe her which was WILDLY VALIDATING for me lmao

sitting w all these thoughts whirling around my head my mom texts me suddenly and tells me to ask my sisters for money (13 hundred dollars lol) bc she needs it for "bills"

i didnt want to do that at all she told me to "use my big words" to convince them and not to say it was her idea, but instead to act like i was asking bc i wanted to

it felt gross and made my skin crawl and honestly didnt even make sense bc WHY would i need that money so i asked but let my sisters know it was my mom asking and said she prob felt embarrassed to ask, while telling my mom that i asked in the way she wanted

my oldest sister makes good money and has helped our mom w money in the past. she texted me back asking why our mom needed money and why 1300 and i told her honestly i didnt know, i asked my mom what to say and she said to tell her she had an itemized list but she left it at work and couldnt remember what was on it lol

my sister told me to tell our mom that she couldnt help rn, so i did and my mom encouraged me to push harder to my other sister

suddenly the sister i had been talking to texts me and says that our mom left her a voicemail saying she doesnt know WHY i would ask for money, must be bc she threatened to kick me out bc i never help her with money :,( which was WILD bc any time i had money my mom would get most if not all of it, i havent been able to save money since ... ever tbqh, even when i tried my mom would successfully guilt every dollar from me letting me know i didnt deserve to save a penny after all shes done for me aaAA

ANYWAY i was so angry and hurt that my mom would just throw me under the bus i told my sister i had proof i wasnt lying (bc she was already inclined to believe our mother since they both considered me a leech to start with) and sent her screenshots of my texts

she was shocked and hurt too i decided to tell her about my therapy and how my therapist had called our mom an abuser and she answered that she understands more than ill ever know... which is very sad hjghfgf

we havent really talked more since and i deleted my texts to the other sister, more likely than not my mom sent her a similar voicemail

im very tired

i want to get out of here, im finally seeing this relationship for what its been for years and years, even back to when i was a little kid! i didnt know about suicide but id dream of being an animal in the wild bc i felt like if i were just out of the picture everyone at home would be less angry

its something that enrages me now tbqh ive tried all my life to be as little of a burden as possible and now im ready to be a problem LMAO :o)

the long and short of it is that i will be posting art sales and opening my patreon FINALLY to try and save up funds to get out of here ive also gotten a part time job on weekends for a little cushion tho some of that money will inevitably go to my mother, unfortunately

she doesnt know about the money i make online :o)

my family has constantly called me selfish, entitled and spoiled for just asking for common decency and to be treated like a person, theyve dehumanized me to the point that my greatest coping mechanism was creating a creature sona that isnt human but a monstrous equivalent lol AND I LOVE THEM IM EMBRACING CREATURE LETS FUCKIN GO

i know this has been long and if youve made it to the end i love u and im so thankful for your support!! ;u;

FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!! i want to come back full force, i havent stopped drawing at all, just havent had the energy to do much til now

my therapist even pointed out that i probably WOULDVE had at least moderate steady success by now if it werent for my mom's constant abuse

OH ALSO I NOW HAVE FOUR CATS LMAO a stray i had been giving water to and keeping safe from weather things (extreme heat, extreme cold etc) had her kittens here! and my mom gave me the ok to keep them all ;u; (and then ofc rescinded that but thats hardly a surprise now lol) and man, having kids cats sure changes your perspective on what u want and feel like you deserve! I NEED TO DO WELL BC THESE KITTIES DEPEND ON ME AND I LOVE THEM QVQ <3<3

SO YEAH IM BACK BABY IM GETTING THE HELL OUTTA HERE ASAP AND CONCENTRATING ON MY WELL BEING AND MENTAL HEALTH!! 😤🔥

[gardenianoire]

I've been agonizing over this for days and once again I found myself completely out of options and I'm sorry I'm really sorry but my job which promised to give me a higher paying position when I was hired is dragging their feet promoting me to the position and I've finally decided to cut my losses and look for another job but before then I have a few bills I just can't pay this month on the limited hours I've been given and I need to pay my share of an energy bill and internet bill, my phone bill, and maybe a few bucks to eat. it's really hard because basically I was talked into taking a job that promised me full time hours and didn't deliver and now I feel like a jackass asking for money...again I'm sorry it's really hard because I thought this job would be the one that would allow me to pay for school and it wasn't I feel so trapped and suffocated

0/$200

venmo: xandrachantal

cashapp: $jocedun94

[stalwart-spirit]

Final Fantasy XIV & Guild Wars 2

Normally I don't post stuff like this, however I thought it would be interesting to discuss in what I conder to be differences between both games which makes me enjoy them both so much.

FFXIV:

"Puzzle solving" combat (mechanics you have to come up with solutions for and react to).

Far more readable AoEs and mechanics (GW2 literally just has hollow circle outlines so it gets confusing when dozens of them are on the floor overlapping).

Better glamouring system (glamour prisms easier to obtain, GW2 transmutation charges can end up costing irl money if the free season pass runs out of them).

Better customization (more options even with a limited chargen. Hairstyle changes cost in game currency. ANY character changes cost irl money in GW2).

Photo mode (everyone in every game just wants to easily take screenshots of their char let's be real and GW2 does not have that).

Better raiding scene (easier to get into high end content such as raiding, GW2 it can be like pulling teeth at times to find groups. "You need experience for this job, but in order to do that you need a job to gain experience" sort of deal).

Less alt friendly but at the benefit of ALL CLASSES being playable on ONE character.

Constant updates to the graphics and textures, so the game does not look as old as it is (GW2 launched around the same time and REALLY looks its age, however pre-rendered cutscenes are looking great now).

Your character feels like your character in MSQ (GW2 your character speaks, replies mostly independently of your choices, thus at times it feels like you're playing someone else and not who you have developed yourself).

Better crafting (GW2 makes me wanna rip my eyes out and lots of people in the community agree that it can be costly and convoluted).

GW2:

Dynamic combat (things are happening on the screen all the time and is very fast paced with barely any breathing space which makes for some insane battle moments).

Active community in older content (part from base game dungeons, but Anet basically dropped those so fast themselves).

Better dye system for armors (multiple slots up to 4 on each gear piece, and a total of 642 dyes currently in game).

Account wide glamour and dye unlocks (unlock on one character, usable for all of that armor weight/collected dye).

Account wide item banking and currency wallet.

Satisfying achievement system (Rewards from achievements as well as scaling reward track for gaining purely just achievement points).

Buy once, play forever, no subscription (each expansion being the only purchase for each release, as well as the older Living World "post-patch" content) so more obtainable for general pop. who don't want to sign up for another subscription service.

New characters can hop into ANY expansion or just ignore them completely and dive into whichever content needed without having to clear an MSQ beforehand.

Generally more alt friendly (at the cost of irl money for extra character slots, as there is a max of 5 on paid accounts)

Better Player vs Player scene as well as the edition of World vs World (giant map skirmish with 3 "servers" constantly battling for domination in each season, literally running in huge groups to take over enemy castles or defending your own)

NOTE: Any instance of having to use irl money to get things in GW2, you can also convert your in game gold into their gem currency to purchase items in their store, but the exchange rate can be kinda wack.

Neither pros or cons for either:

GW2 has horizontal gearing & leveling, with 80 forever being the max level, thus gear never becomes outdated, thus making it easier for people to hop into many forms of end game content as it is released.

FFXIV has vertical gearing and leveling, which gives a goal in mind each time the new level cap is set and new gear levels are added in order to run content, so an insentive to keep active and have a goal to work towards.

GW2 has build options for each class, allowing different styles of play without the restriction of traditional roles (Tank, Healer, DPS), however there will typically always be an accepted meta build for each depending on type of content, and can cause issues of unbalanced parties when lacking specific roles.

FFXIV does not have builds, and each class plays in a specific way allowing for less flex in how each are played, but allows for FAR more security when running content, as well as allowing more focus to be placed on interesting fights with fun mechanics in my opinion.

[mamamittens]

Oh SHIT Sale

Well!

Uh, good news first! I’m okay, and will likely be okay, things just suddenly got very… unfortunate. In a very rapid amount of time. I'm going to need to step carefully for the foreseeable future or there will be problems.

So, here’s the deal. I need money. And the sooner I get on that, the better I’ll feel in general. I won’t go into detail to keep this as ‘guilt-trippy’ free as possible but, the household income (not from me) just dropped and I’m hopeful that it will recover soon but the job market is… lacking. To be blunt.

Now, I’m not expecting people to just give me money. So, I’m doing a bit of a sale.

Typically, commissions are $1 for 100 SFW words and $2 for 100 NSFW words. (So, $30 for 3K SFW commission and $30 for 1.5K NSFW commission).

For now, that price will be halved.

So, for a limited time, $1 will get you 200 SFW commissioned words and $2 will get you 200. Or just $0.50 for 100 SFW words and a $1 for 100 NSFW words if you prefer to think of it that way.

Can’t think of any prompt for a commission? Why, you can just shove that money into a pending work I already have and just… haven’t updated. Sponsor a chapter, so to speak.

Now, please understand, I would ordinarily never. Do. This.

My fanfiction is, generally, for free because it’s a passion of mine for as long as the passion survives. And considering how personally I take my stories, I would never ordinarily put a paywall in front of chapters or compromise my earnest passion for monetary gain in an already established fanfic. I started these stories because I had a deep desire to tell them. To tell my stories. And you, the general audience, are free to enjoy them for as long as I am capable of writing them and posting them online.

As such, in the case of this option, it won’t be treated the same as a commission. A chapter will have a flat rate. Let’s say… $20 bucks upfront (commissions may still be half upfront and the other half upon completion but I would appreciate it during these trying times if the full amount could be paid all at once). And then I really have to do it damnit, inspiration be damned.

You're basically paying to shove my nose into the story and write damnit.

Nothing quite like brokenness to inspire, I suppose. You can chose the story, naturally, and how many chapters, but that’s it. I can’t in good conscious and without feeling more gross than I already do, compromise more. If I reach the end of the story… we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, but I do believe I’ll refund the appropriate amount or you may transfer that to a different story as you please.

I sincerely hope you understand.

This is in NO WAY a reflection of how I WANT to write fanfiction. And it will not persist once the current issue is resolved.

How long is this “Oh shit” sale going?

Well, as long as it has to, to be honest. If, somehow, all my monetary problems are solved before any of the comms are complete, then that money just goes to my credit card bill. Something I’ve needed to whittle down for a while but haven’t been able to and definitely adds to the amount the household ultimately needs to keep churning.

For simplicity, I’ll do slots to be filled. That and it’ll keep everything organized. Once the slots are filled, I’ll close the “Oh shit” sale until it’s done so I don't end up with a massive pile of work to stress over.

First come, first serve, and if you just want to send some love my way in the form of money, I have a Ko-fi, which is what I’ll be paid through regardless for simplicities sake.

Keep in mind normal commission rules apply, including concerning NSFW content, commissioner ages, and character ages. And kinks. I WILL refund money if it has been preemptively sent before the details have been ironed out. Please wait until I have confirmed I can do it before sending any money, barring tips, which are greatly appreciated if possible.

Writing commissions:

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Story sponsoring:

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[the-kipsabian]

so heres the gist of it

im unemployed

that should be the end of it lmao. unfortunately its not

on top of that, i live in one of the cheapest single bedroom apartments in the entire city. and yet according to new rulings that started this spring, im paying 12 euros too much for rent to be considered for the full amount of financial help that i should be able to get to help pay for it, which delays my paperwork every single time i apply for this benefit (thats high key crucial for my survival as, again, im unemployed as fuck) and they keep insisting i need to look for a cheaper apartment (which is impossible, there literally isnt any in this whole city and if there is, they are so sought after at this point people nab them immediately so...) or i might lose most of those benefits in the future. so thats fun

but i cant move cause i cant afford a more expensive place cause 1. im still unemployed as fuck and 2. they wouldnt approve of my paperwork cause even higher rent would be against their rules and the cost limit they are enforcing so...

ive been trying to get a job for a well over a year and a half now. nobody is hiring even tho a lot of people are looking. it always comes down to either being in a location i cant get to (cause its too far and i dont have a car or the hours are so inconsistent i cant make it without a car, usually) or just not being good enough with my skillset or whatever the fuck. it always goes to someone else and its been like that for months now so.. yeah, im kinda stuck with that too

HOWEVER the city has decided to add another fucking wrench into my entire situation since remember, im 1. unemployed as fuck, 2. i dont own a car, or even have a license for that matter, to move around everywhere, and 3. the government is actively trying to get me to move into a cheaper apartment that simply does not exist in this city ffs or they might cut my benefits or at least delay all my payments with taking ages with the added paperwork cause of that :)

so now? they have completely destroyed the bus schedules to my part of the city. nothing moves in or out of here past half six on the evening on weekdays anymore. even worse, on weekends nothing goes past two in the afternoon. which is.. ridiculous. that means that if you work evening shifts, tough shit youre not getting home unless you bike or walk (which isnt exactly a valid option with winter coming soon and lasting for like 75% of the year lmao), youre not getting to morning shifts if they start at 7am cause nothing moves from here before that, god speed if you work on the weekends cause youre really not moving from here or to here almost at all since the schedules were already horrendous and now theyve cut at least three or four drives from that sssssooooooooo

basically what this means is that it cuts my possibilities for jobs i can apply and accept a RIDICULOUS amount. any normal retail job would ask you to be able to work both morning, day and evening shifts; i literally cant do two of those anymore which ofc limits my chances dramatically as someone they would consider hiring. work on weekends? yeah i was already on the fence for it since my saturdays are usually hangout days but i was willing to make sacrifices but knowing i wouldnt be able to work past half two? yeah again, limits my chances so much on being hired

which means. im already struggling to get a job. now with this new schedule they are limiting me so much more on what i can go for and what i can be hired for so i can actually cover any shifts on anything ever. which in turn means im not gonna have that money i need to pay for a bigger apartment. which means im not gonna be able to move. which means im stuck with these schedules. which means im limited in what jobs i can apply and get even considered to be hired for. which means....

you see the issue? you know why im fucking upset and mad and angry and sad and i actually had a screaming crying fit last night cause i cant fucking handle this shit and how inconsidered this whole fucking thing is to literally everyone?? the people who changed the bus scheduling said its cause of the lack of customers (which isnt even true and they compared summer numbers to winter numbers which fucking LMAO ofc people use the busses less during the summer when they can bike or scoot about so much easier. and most of them are not even in town anyways for their vacations so) but also its important to note that i live in the part of town where theres a lot of families and old people and the lack of cars and kids moving around here from school to back is actually very big and yet. YET

im just.. sorry. i needed to get this out. cause its utterly ridiculous and im now stuck in this fucking cycle and i dont know what to do. im gonna send an application for any potential open apartments to the firm i rent from right now since they cover the entire city and have basically the cheapest places here so that maybe i can get something offered to me if anything frees within the next year or so. apart from that i have no idea what to do. i have no desire or money to get a license, let alone a whole ass fucking car, i get anxiety just thinking about driving. im just stuck here, in this goddamn loop that just somehow got worse as i discovered this whole bus scheduling issue last night. and i really dont know how to break it with how these things are all affecting each other

i left the city some feedback about this and got my friends to do it too since we are all fucking mad about this but.. unless they get a noticeable amount of it, i doubt they'll be doing anything about it, or at least not very fast so. im just stuck and im fucked and im upset and im angry and i needed to get this out im sorry if you read this whole thing im just. im going to fucking explode

[starrypawz]

So this is basically me rambling/venting about something that can be summed up as

Basically I've been learning to drive,

I have been learning to drive for a long time. Like obviously the pandemic stopped me from learning for a while, and I swapped instructors when we came out of the first lockdown.

I passed my theory test earlier this year, and we booked a driving test for the end of this month. And at the time it was like 'yeah ok we can probably pull this off'

Well.

We can't apparently. I've been struggling, I've been learning to drive manual the whole time I've been trying to drive and it's like either things go fine or they go very wrong, I've also been constantly struggling with mirrors.

And for a while things were seemingly going ok with my driving like 'oh ok yeah we're doing ok' but then lately things have been going to shit again

And yeah unless I can somehow magically get really super good at driving in the next couple of weeks we've decided to move my test but it's also like we need to work out what to do as it's like

Just completely give up on driving

Continue trying to work with manual

Give up and swap over to a manual, just get an automatic license

Option 1 is probably just the worst idea. Option 2 is like well by this point there's been a lot of time and money sunk into me learning manual and Option 3 is probably the path of least resistence.

Like I was pushed towards trying for a full auto license as it's like either to get a full license then be like ok im driving manual now rather than get an automatic license and then upgrade it again, and at the time i started learning to drive i think a full license had seemed a good idea for potential job reasons (basically if i did manage to get a environmental/animal care job having a full license would help but imo i think that idea has kind of gone out of the window

I think i do drive a bit better in an automatic car but there's still a lot of work for me to do and being auto only would like really limit what i can drive like for example my pipedream of wanting like a good ole vw camper it's like... i don't think we can get those in automatic but also that is probably a very out there idea anyway

So yeah idk making decisions is hard

[loregoddess]

Would you be willing to share your builds/levels for the final boss(es) of Octopath II? I'm trying to figure out how much more grinding I realistically need to do to actually finish this game.

Oh yeah, sure! I uh, had a lot more thoughts on this than I realized I would, so I'm sticking most of this under a read more, and I've tried to be vague about spoilers bc I wasn't sure how much you knew already from osmosis or looking at other online tips/guides. Also I ended up breaking things up into sections for easier navigation, because there is...a lot.

Table of Contents

General Thoughts

General Overarching Strategies

Character Preferences

Notes on Bosses

General Thoughts

Full disclosure, I've basically just been rotating my party and using whoever's the lowest level to try and catch them up on levels. Because I started with Ochette, she's locked into the party and is ungodly powerful as a result, but this will occur with literally anyone you start with (my first run I was using Osvald and he was so damned powerful by the end of the game). So I don't have a real "strategy" per boss (except for the optional superboss) so much as I switch around passive skills and subjobs based on who's lowest in levels and who I have to have in the party (Ochette + whoever's story I'm completing).

I will say, I don't feel like most of the bosses require a lot of level grinding, at least not for the character story final bosses. I kinda assume that the recommended level of 45 is like, the average of the entire team. As a general rule, I rarely use the fast-travel feature until I'm in the postgame section, and will literally walk my team everywhere, which helps to maintain levels so that I don't have to grind (and even if I do it's like, running laps in the dungeon right before the boss area until my lowest level person gains two or three levels, which only takes about about half an hour for me usually). Like, when I finished Hikari's route first, I had to run laps before the miniboss to get my two lowest team members to lv. 40, but Ochette was already lv. 52 at this point, and Hikari was about 42 or 43, I think. But I haven't needed to run any laps for any of the other bosses so far.

Also, I feel like Octo2 is a lot more balanced when it comes to stats/subjobs, and you can get away with doing a lot of weird things that work out in the long run so long as you're familiar with the battle mechanics and passive skills and how to make them work for you (which was true for Octo1 too, but I found myself almost always having at least Tressa and Therion in my team so I could get free money and open the purple chests w/out needing to backtrack, which limited my team compositions a lot more than Octo2, where no one character has a field-specific skill that makes them more or less useful than another).

General Overarching Strategies

I do have some general preferences. I like to have a at least one cleric and one apothecary in the party, and they can't be the same character (unless there's multiple clerics or apothecaries) just in case I need one of them to revive the other. This is mostly bc I like having the option to heal all, heal single, cure status ailments, or revive on hand at all times (as a result, if I'm using these as subjobs, they usually end up on a character who isn't my main damage-dealer, but even then it depends on the damage-dealing character).

I also like to have a merchant so I can use Collect bc I like having money, and giving the merchant subjob to certain characters is really helpful bc of the Rest skill being able to restore SP and cure status ailments. Generally I also like to have a hunter for Leghold Trap, or Agnea with Windy Refrain (gained by visiting Sealticge's shrine in the Leaflands) so I can manipulate when the boss attacks. Aside from those classes, I end up being really flexible depending on what I think I need. (As a side note, Leghold Trap + A Step Ahead from the inventor job can be really useful if you go in knowing a boss's weaknesses ahead of time, since you can break the boss and deal a lot of damage before they even get a chance to act).

Oh, but as a general rule, whenever I notice a character start to hit the 9999 damage limit output, I go and get DMD from the warrior class for them, because I love seeing big numbers go boom by optimizing my damage output. I also switch around subjobs a lot depending on what I think I'll need, and if I die during a boss fight I will go and rearrange my jobs or skills before I try level-grinding.

I also don't use any stat-enhancing nuts until the optional superboss, but I really don't think they're needed for any of the character story final bosses anyhow. If you've used them already that's fine though, I've totally mismanaged my nuts in both Octo1 and Octo2, and it's nothing a bit of level-grinding won't solve when it comes to the post-game bosses.

Character Preferences

Here's an outline of how I like to use all the characters. Keep in mind, everyone has their general preferences for how they like to use each character, and there's no right or wrong way to use a character, this is just what works for my playstyle.

Ochette

General: I use Ochette mostly to break enemies quickly with her Provoke monsters ability, and to output a lot of phys. damage. She's one of my main damage-dealers, and I rarely use her for support.

Latent power notes: She has one of the best latent powers for dealing damage, since the damage of her attacks scales with her level. I use her latent power as soon as the boss is broken, and I'll save Ochette's BP to use it at a full boost. Generally I use Beastly Fangs, but if the boss has multiple enemies that need to be taken care of (i.e. Partitio's final boss fight), then Beastly Claws is excellent as well. I don't really use Beastly Howl because there are better options to achieve the same effects that don't require Ochette to drain her latent power. I always use Ochette's latent power before I use divine skills or legendary beasts, since the latent power will refill throughout the battle and it doesn't cost SP.

Favorite subjobs: My primary subjob for Ochette is warrior, since it gives her access to Brand's Blade which is a good alternative to Beastly Fangs, and the warrior stats buff her already high physical stats. Alternately I will use her in merchant, but specifically for the optional superboss so she has access to Hired Help's Beastlings in case she has to use them (notes on that in the boss section below).

Notes on monsters: In general you can have whatever monsters you enjoy using for Ochette's Provoke ability, but I highly recommend having at least one monster that can deal axe damage twice to all enemies (any level, even the highest level "2x axe (all) monster" will only deal 1 damage to the postgame bosses, so choose whichever monster you like best), and a monster that can deal either dagger, axe, staff, lightning, or light damage to all (recommend getting a 9/10 strength monster for this, as they tend to have additional effects to their attacks such as debuffing the enemies or buffing the party; the Peek-a-boo from the area around Timberain tends to be a favorite because it debuffs enemy phys. and elemental defenses). Those two monsters will be the most useful for clearing the optional superboss, and a lot of bosses in general have a weakness to axes.

Castti

General: Castti works well as either a damage-dealer or support, so I tend to change her subjob depending on the rest of the team.

Latent power notes: I refuse to use concoct unless I have her latent active so that I can save on the ingredients. The only time I use concoct without the latent is during the two postgame bosses. I managed to get through the final boss fight my first run with only one pomegranate leaf thanks to her latent power (I uh, forgot to stock up at the secret market, but if you need more rare ingredients for concoct, the merchants that show up at night in the area to the west of Healeaks will sometimes sell stuff like pomegranate leaves).

Favorite subjobs: If I'm using her as a damage-dealer, than warrior and armsmaster are my go-to. For support, I tend to stick with inventor or merchant.

Notes on concoct: I use it almost exclusively for healing and buffing the team, and the ability to give everyone BP is super useful for setting up other damage-dealers and support characters.

Throne

General: One of my main damage-dealers, one of the best damage-dealers in the game. I was able to hit the 99,9999 damage limit with Throne thanks to the fact that Aeber's Reckoning scales with speed and seems to take the phys. attack stat into consideration as well. Optimize her speed and give her a high-damage dagger and she's golden for dealing wild amounts of damage.

Latent power notes: I don't have a particular pattern for how I use Throne's latent power, since how I use it depends on the battle situation. Sometimes I use it so Throne can act as temporary support, and sometimes I use it to set up Armor Corrosive and then use Aeber's Reckoning. Really, whatever I need a double-turn for, this power comes in handy for.

Favorite subjobs: Hunter for sure, it gives Throne an excellent boost to speed and evasion while also buffing the phys. attack stat nicely. Dancer is a decent subjob as well bc it gives her even higher speed/evasion stats than hunter, and access to Dagger Dance which is a nice aoe attack when level-grinding, but overall Dancer!Throne is kind of glassy for my tastes, and I like having Leghold Trap as an option for Throne's debuff repertoire in boss fights. I don't mind using merchant for Throne either, since Rest and Collect are useful skills for her to have.

Osvald

General: One of my main damage-dealers, magical edition. He's very squishy though, a true glass canon, so I have to either patch up his defenses with equipment and passive skills, or have someone dedicated to healing on the team.

Latent power notes: Love his latent power, it's especially good if you stack it with the buffs from either Advanced Magic (or the Stone of Truth, which just provides the 2x spell buff from Advanced Magic permanently), or Alephan's Wisdom. I would recommend using this at a full boost for optimal damage output. Like Ochette, I use this as early as I can so it an refill as the battle goes on.

Favorite subjobs: Cleric. Osvald's base stats make him an excellent healer, and the extra magical stats do him nothing but favors; plus having access to Holy Light is useful when his latent is empty since it'll typically deal more elemental damage for less SP than one of his aoe spells, and Mystic Staff can restore his SP. Alternatively though arcanist will grant him the best magic stats possible. I also didn't mind using him as an apothecary high elemental defense means good healing, and he can be a decent support when he's not blasting enemies off the screen.

Partitio

General: I tend to use him mostly as support, but he can deal decent damage when he's not supporting. Mostly he's a main support character for me though.

Latent power notes: Very useful for getting extra BP whenever you need it, and it tends to refill pretty fast so I use it liberally whenever I need BP.

Favorite subjobs: I tend to have Partitio mainly as an apothecary because it gives him a nice buff to his physical stats and more support skills to use (he doesn't make a bad healer either, especially with access to lots of BP from his latent). It also gives him access to a decent aoe attack (Sweeping Cleave) and Poison Axe, which are both handy to have. Alternatively, Paritio does okay as a warrior, thief, or hunter if I want to boost his damage-output, and inventor or dancer are good jobs to give him for extra support options (although I really only use dancer for the optional superboss). I'm thinking of trying him in the conjurer job for a while in my current run to see if the extra magic stats make Bifelgan's Bounty more useful for Partitio, since he seems to lean more physically for me than magically. (I hardly used conjurer except to get SP Saver my first run bc I couldn't figure out how to use it effectively, but I know it's gotta be useful somehow).

Other notes: If it wasn't obvious, the merchant job is one of my favorites as a subjob, and it gives Partitio a really nice set of skills. I don't actually use Sidestep that often and instead focus on things like Donate BP to boost my main damage-dealers in a pinch. Collect is a great skill bc I like having money.

Agnea

General: Main support, and a secondary magical damage-dealer. I tend to focus her on supporting, but her high elemental attack (especially paired with the Mooneater dagger) puts her almost on par with Osvald. She also has access to Windy Refrain which moves ALL enemies' actions to the end of the next turn, which is super useful for turn manipulation (and like Leghold Trap, very powerful when paired with A Step Ahead).

Latent power notes: Honestly I rarely use her latent power. Mostly I use it in general battles when I have her subjob set to scholar so she can use a boosted Analyze on all enemies. It is useful for using Collect or Steal on all enemies as well, but again, there's very few bosses with multiple enemies that you can Collect/Steal from. I think I might be able to use the latent with the apothecary's Rehabilitate which would be very useful on occasion, but I've never tried it bc Agnea is so optimized for magic that the phys. aspects of the apothecary subjob don't seem to fit her. Might have to try that out at some point though.

Favorite subjobs: I tend to have her as a merchant (Bifelgan's Bounty is a very nice powerful single-enemy elemental attack for her), but she does well as a scholar (excellent stat boosts to her magical stats) or thief (nice boosts to speed/evasion). She should technically make a good cleric as well, but I've never tried it out since I usually have another cleric present when Agnea's in the team.

Dance session notes: Dance session comes into play any time you use a dance skill, including Dagger Dance, so if you have the right follower, you can really benefit from Agnea's dance session. For most of the game I've been dragging along an NPC from Cropdale who offers Calming Rhythm (restores 500 HP and 40 SP to the target), but there's a dance session called Celestial Chorus which grants 1 BP to the target, which is super useful in boss fights since extra BP means more boosted attacks. The Allure page on the Wiki (here) has a full list of the dance sessions, and potential NPCs who offer them. Dance session boosts the power of the support dances by granting extra support bonuses beyond buffing stats, and Agnea's probably one of the strongest support characters as a result.

Temenos

General: Like Castti, I use Temenos half as support, half for dealing damage, but unlike Castti who I tend to rely on more for support, I rely on Temenos more for damage.

Latent power notes: His latent power is wickedly good for his Coerce path action, especially when paired with Sixfold Strike from the armsmaster job, and technically you could use it the same way in boss fights to break shields quickly, it's just...armsmaster is better on other characters in boss fights for the physical stat buffs it offers as a job (although Temenos did hit the 9999 damage cap when I had him as an armsmaster in one of the side dungeon boss fights, so Armsmaster!Temenos isn't entirely useless as a phys. damage-dealer). But Temenos's latent power + armsmaster + Full Power from the merchant class makes Coercion much easier.

Favorite subjobs: I tend to move Temenos around a lot in subjobs depending on what I need. He makes for a decent scholar due to the magical stats buffs, and dancer offers him decent stats as well and more support options, but my favorite subjob for Temenos is arcanist because it gives him access to light and dark elemental attacks, making the most of the Sunshade staff, and most importantly Reflective Barrier. See, my favorite thing to do with Temenos is have a dancer use Sealticge's Seduction on him, have him use Prayer for Plenty at full boost (hopefully on a team that's at full HP) to boost everyone's HP (up to possibly 9999), and then use Reflective Barrier and/or Sacred Shield at various levels of boost so I can yeet spells back at their caster(s) or otherwise cut down damage for a little while. Also arcanist offers really nice magical stats, and gives Temenos a good boost to his total SP pool, which is handy for when I do try to use his personal EX skill (bc of his personal EX skill, you will want to have something equipped that lets him regen SP, bc he can drain his SP really fast otherwise).

Hikari

General: Main damage-dealer. Makes for a sturdy backup support when you need one though, but I focus on his high phys. damage stats.

Latent power notes: Very useful and somewhat similar to Ochette's latent skills. Depending on Hikari's SP and available skills, I either use Hienka at a partial boost, and then follow up with Brand's Blade, or Tenretsuzan at full boost. Alternatively, if I need Hikari to do some backup support or use another skill, I'll use Hienka at full boost, and then use his bonus action for whatever. Sougetsusen isn't bad as an aoe attack when you need it though. Like Ochette and Osvald, I use Hikari's latent early in the battle so it can refill and be used later.

Favorite subjobs: Hikari does great as a merchant because of the access to Rest, which makes his Challenge path action easier to use without using all your healing items. Also Rest restores SP, which is super useful for Hikari since he can burn through SP really quickly between his warrior skills and Learned Skills. When I don't have him as a merchant, I like to use him as my armsmaster bc it gives him the best phys. stat buffs, and giving Hikari a Blessing in Disguise with the armsmaster subjob means you can use a lot of high-power equipment with negative effects without suffering the negatives (you can do that for any of your armsmasters by the way). When I don't have him in those two jobs, he makes for a decent apothecary (not as good at the healing though) or hunter.

Notes on Learned Skills: Like Ochette's monsters, you can more or less have whichever Learned Skills you enjoy using, but I like holding onto Divine Dual-Edge from the Ch3 fight with General Rou since it's a useful aoe attack, and picking up Limb from Limb from the Sanctum Knight in Stormhail (enter the Sanctum Knight HQ, go down the left hall and knock out the guy standing in front of a room, then go into the room and the guy in there is the one you can learn Limb from Limb from). Limb from Limb offers a powerful 4x sword attack on a single enemy, and was the main skill used in the guide I found when I needed help with the optional superboss. You can find a list of Learned Skills on the Wiki as well (here).

Notes on Bosses

Most of the character story final bosses are pretty easy, or if they're tough it's bc of their stats and not battle gimmicks, so it's just a matter of chipping away their health. Here's a few battle gimmicks I'd keep an eye out for though:

Castti's final boss has an ongoing battle condition where the entire team's max HP is reduced every turn. You can bypass this with the Sealticge's Seduction + Prayer for Plenty tactic, but it's still risky (Angea ended the battle with a total of 5 HP on my current run). It's best to just try and finish this battle quickly. (Your team's HP will return to normal after the battle).

Throne's boss has the ability to lock the party's main job's skills (so Throne won't be able to use thief skills) until broken so subjobs are very important, and this boss can summon all of her previous bosses (not all at once, but over the course of the battle), so this can be a tough fight. There's a few other gimmicks this boss can access (I think subjobs can be blocked until the boss is broken at one point as well), so paying attention to what's happening in the battle and having a flexible battle plan will help. Either bring a lot of healers, or find a way to output a lot of damage so you can skip the prev. boss summons and gimmicks.

Partitio's final boss has three enemy units you have to defeat before the armor on the main boss's shield fall off. Dealings lots of aoe damage is useful for the first part of the battle. A Step Ahead + Agnea's Windy Refrain is probably useful as well (for my current run I did not have A Step Ahead equipped, and had to do quite a bit of healing in the first half of the battle).

Hikari has the most stages to his final boss. You have to fight a miniboss (which you can save after), the final boss part 1, then there's a cutscene and Hikari has to fight a battle via the Challenge path action, and then the final boss part 2. So just be prepared for like, a lot of battle segments.

(I also seem to remember something being kinda tricky about Ochette's final boss, but hers was the first story I completed on my first run, and it's the story I'm saving till last on my current, so I dunno if my troubles with her boss were "this was the first final boss I fought" or if there's actually something weird about the battle).

As for character levels, for my current run I started with Hikari's final chapter, then worked my way to Castti, Osvald, Throne, Agnea, Partitio, and I plan to do Temenos and Ochette next. As I noted earlier, Ochette, my starter, was at lv. 52-ish during Hikari's chapter, with my lowest level team members being at about 38-ish and I had to do some laps to get them to lv. 40. Right now, going into Temenos's final chapter, Ochette's level is in her mid-high 60s (which probably will be closer to or over 70 bc I want to explore some dungeon areas on the Sundering Sea before I head to Toto'haha), and my lowest level characters are like, 51 or 52, which is well above the rec'd lv. 45. So again, I don't think you have to level-grind for the character story final bosses, because just by fighting them and travelling to their locations, your characters are going to get stronger.

As for the two postgame bosses...

If you do want to level-grind, I would suggest the Infernal Castle, as it's the highest level area of the game at lv. 55. There's also ways to optimize the amount of exp and jp you get via passive skills and equipment, so make sure to move that around before you level-grind. Also I found bumping the game speed to x2, and using powerful aoe attacks made the grinding go so much faster (I only spent maybe 4-8 hours grinding total my first run? on a file where I put somewhere between 180-200 hours into, so basically no time at all for grinding). I would not rely on Bewildering Grace, Agnea party-wiped the team more often even than the optional superboss killed me, so it's just not a safe skill. Also if you fight the Infernal Castle's miniboss, it can show up as a random encounter, and I personally found that the exp gained from fighting it again wasn't worth the time spent. I gained more exp per minute just entering minor battles, smacking the enemies with a double-boosted aoe attack (from Step Ahead and Boost Start from merchant), and then moving onto my next battle (courtesy of Vigorous Victor from apothecary). It's tedious, but it does work.

I would suggest completing all the side quests before beginning the final chapter, as there's a lot of nice accessories and equipment you can get. Keep in mind that fighting the optional superboss is actually one of the side quests, so while you can track your completion of side quests by area in the Journal, one of the areas will be incomplete until you kill the optional superboss (you do not have to fight the superboss to complete the final chapter, and the ability to complete side quests opens back up after you defeat the final boss). The optional superboss is absolutely meant to be more difficult to defeat than the actual final boss.

Also there's technically four bosses in the postgame. Two minor bosses during the final chapter segments, the actual final boss, and the optional superboss. The two minor bosses are easy though, they're no stronger than the character story final bosses (although for my first run I had fought the optional superboss first, so I was waaay overleveled for the final chapter segments; still the two bosses couldn't do anything fancy as far as I could tell).

For the Actual Final Boss, I accidentally steamrolled this dude my first run bc I fought the optional superboss first and had misused my nuts and therefore had to level-grind to make up for stats. Half my characters were at lv. 80 and other other were at 74 or 75. I didn't even have my passive skills optimized bc I was expecting the "dungeon" the final boss is in to be an actual dungeon, not a flight of stairs with no enemy encounters. All the characters were in my preferred classes for them (Warrior!Ochette, Inventor!Castti, Hunter!Throne, Cleric!Osvald, Apothecary!Partitio, Merchant!Agnea, Arcanist!Temenos, and Armsmaster!Hikari, but not in that order bc I didn't optimize my party order either).

A few guides online list the recommended level for the final boss as being 72-75, but I wouldn't know bc again, lots of level-grinding (I plan to fight the final boss before the optional superboss for my current run, just to see the difficulty differences). You will get to use all 8 characters though, not in the same way as how the Galdera fight works in Octo1, but you will need all 8 characters for the battle, so keep that in mind. Overall I haven't heard/read about too many people having trouble with the final boss, so you should be fine using whatever your preferred battle strategies are with a full team that's at least in their low 70s level-wise.

The optional superboss is a terrible jerk, I hate this boss so much, and despite being Pretty Good at the game I had to eventually look up a guide. The guide I used is here (major spoilers obviously), although I will say I modified this person's strategy (for example, I optimized Osvald's critical stat, had Castti as a merchant, small changes like that). I will note this person manages to output enough damage to skip one of the mid-battle phases of the first half of the boss fight, and that the Hired Help Beastlings skill from the merchant class is needed for this mid-battle phase if you can't bypass it (if I'm being too vague and you don't care about spoilers, I can actually go through this entire boss fight stage-by-stage and explain the logic behind the guide and my adaptations to the guide). I'm thinking of modifying the strategy here further on my current playthrough, but overall this is the superboss for a reason. Extremely gimmicky, very high stats, very annoying, but also possible to beat in like, 10 minutes with the right setup.

[neitherabaron]

You mentioned that you've finished writing Gobelins, and I'm wondering if you're gonna raise money to produce it, or do it out of your own pocket? Either way, I'm very excited to hear it, hope your op goes well!

Thanks for a great question! There's definitely gonna be an Indiegogo fundraiser at some point before I start production, but the scale of that is going to need to depend on what my life is looking like at that time. In other words, when I’m physically able to devote time to the album again, I’m going to have to assess my capacity before deciding the scope of the project.

Basically, there's an "ideal" way I'd like to make Carnaval des Gobelins, with a physical edition, cool merch for backers, guest musicians and liner art commissions. I think it's gonna be the most satisfying experience for listeners and the best move from a "growing my business" point of view - producing that kind of stuff gives me a chance to order excess merch and another little revenue stream, which would take me a little step closer to making this my main job. But, it's also a big project to manage and as much as I want to do it that way, I'm not gonna bet on being physically well enough to do that until things are clearer. I'm pretty dang ill.

Then there are other options - like limiting that stuff to a digital version for Bandcamp and streaming, plus physical CDs that are a bit more pared-down in terms of liner content. And on the other side of the spectrum, there's just producing a digital album, like I did for The Wassailant, which while still a big project would be logistically simpler and would require the least amount of funding.

I'm going to run a fundraiser no matter what the scope ends up being and the reason for that is that I'm handling the production for C des Gs alone, in my studio. I have a great set-up and good technical knowledge nowadays and can make stuff with much higher production values without the spiralling costs of studio and engineer hire. However, to get the album done, I'm going to need to treat it as a part-time job for about a year and so I'm going to have to find a way to help me through that time financially. The reason I was able to finish The Wassailant within a year was because of all the time spent at home during the pandemic! I'm not going to start production until I find a new part-time day job anyway, so I certainly won't be trying to raise the sort of money to depend on! But I probably will be earning less from a day job while I work on the album and I will need a small amount to supplement that/keep for emergencies if something goes wrong for me in that time - so that I don't have to halt production part way through.

So the low-scope, digital-only version would still be a crowd-funded affair, just a fairly low scale one. For the big one with all the cool rewards and awesome CDs and everything, I guess my other mini-worry is I don't actually know whether the funding goals I’d have to set to produce all the awesome extras are actually realistic to what people can afford. I don’t know if I could fund a project at the same level as a Mechanisms album for example, because I don’t have the same reach the band did. But we’re probably looking at something comparable, cost-wise, to The Bifrost Incident (but closer to its goal, not the final amount it was pledged) to produce the “full scope” version. Plus, the last time I ran projected costs for the project was before the cost of living crisis, so I don't know right now whether the CD/merch suppliers' costs will have increased.

I genuinely feel a ton of support and goodwill from people like you who really want to listen and I know there are plenty of you! But also I truly don't want to assume anything from you, so we'll have to see how realistic it is to make the full bells-and-whistles version, financially or in terms of my capacity, nearer the time. The way I'm feeling as I type this is that I may run the Indiegogo with a lower inital goal and just a couple of reward tiers (aiming to fund production and release the digital album and a simpler physical edition) and try to do some of the other stuff like an expanded liner or producing merch (and making merch available at discounted rates to backers who want it) as stretch goals.

Anyway, that is almost definitely a much longer answer than you were looking for, so I'll stop now. I really do appreciate the great ask; having the chance to thing about a proper answer has helped me straighten a few conflicts in my head that were causing me a little worry. Hope you have a great day!

If you've read this far, thanks! Please reblog this if this sort of thing is something you'd be interested in supporting and would like to spread the word. I don't know when I'll be ready to start a campaign, but I want more than anything to get dates for my ops, recover to the extent I can, and do it soon.

[shatterthefragments]

🌻

SO I sorta play/am relearning to play the flute and (tenor sax),

Treble clef to read: my beloved. Not quite as used to the bass clef but I *can* given enough time

And I have a midi keyboard that I may have mistaken for being able to ALSO be a keyboard oops but at least it was super cheap when I got it 😅 and I have *access* to a trumpet if I so wanted bc the sister played in middle school (cost of buying the cheapest instrument < the cost of renting even just for three years in middle school)

And I’ve always had an obsession with the cello and wanted to play SO hopefully I’ll be able to make space for and save enough money to buy one used and though I HIGHLY doubt it would be in time (especially given I’d probably need to road trip to get it) …or if one of the music stores has an absolutely ridiculous sale… that’s also an option 👀

Buuut given I can’t really remember how to hold a bow properly and tbh was Not very good at it anyway (but hey I only had one free 30 minute lesson that was SUPPOSED to be for the flute to develop skills further in concert band) I’d need actual lessons and probably couldn’t jsut learn on YouTube but the near city has adult basic cello classes!!

But given that maybe bass or guitar would be better first?? But I don’t know if my fingers can reach across the fretboard?? I couldn’t really when I played guitar in my hotel suite I got upgraded to (…I should. Post to my personal social media at some point bc they probably upgraded me bc I’m young and they figured I would) but it’s still super fun!!

Or like. I know I can finger the ukulele bc I played in third grade but it broke so I can’t anymore but back then it was maaaaybe $40 and I fear it would be twice that (ah yeah they are. Also I don’t remember how to play at all) (and ukulele basses are even more expensive)

Buuut I also need to brush up on my theory and tbh bc I play wind, I have no idea about Chord theory or progrsssions. So maybe learning in a keyboard (which are fairly cheap in marketplace but I just. Have a Lot of mini trips coming up… so I should not by any means. Especially if I also want to get more tattoos in the fall) also I kinda want an alto sax too since fingerings translate

So I can’t really decide what to do next (“get good at your current instruments shatters!!”) also I lost the tenor sax mouthpiece after I washed it so I could hopefully start playing again but in sure it’s kicking around in the kitchen somewhere (tbh I’ll need to wash it again if it is though)

Also considered drums bc Ekits are quieter however I have no space (my sax is currently in the sis’ room 😭) and then booked a trip instead :P

And like?? I need to figure out which daw (preferably free) I can use to record stuff~

Ah I should probably get a mic at some point but I’m hoping my phone or earbuds will do the job for me tbh haha

Wanting to maybe fiddle around with a few covers (prev just Kingdom of Cards but gosh there are SO MANY GOOD SONGS less that I am capable of singing - fuck knows I can’t actually sing the way they do and my range is Limited but 🤷🏻 if I’m having a good time it’s all good hey)

And then eventually make one of my songs (which. Let’s be honest. Many old lyric papers I recycled now. And I still can’t get in to so many of my locked notes in the notes app so I have to most likely come up with something new or newish but that’s ok what else are emotions for but vent poetry amiright??

Also the ads for nocturnal bass are wearing me down but it’s too expensive when I have no clue what I’m doing yet. I have a bunch of free sounds loops and resources already… as long as I can Actually access them on a portable drive bc my laptop has no space and I need to delete so much off it already tbh

And I know it’s not a tag game but friendly tags for my fellow musicians to ramble on about music/instruments if they want to: @eepymonstrr @ongreenergrasses @hookedhobbies @caffeinatedbraincell @elkkiel (bc drums 👀) @branches-in-a-flood (unless it’s too long ago now and doesn’t bring you joy to talk about) and anyone else who wants to ! GOODNIGHT!!!

[melonadem-personal]

I thought this'd be an interesting walk through the world of music royalties and whatnot.

Recently I've had a payment from my distributor for music on Spotify, Apple Music, etc - this was across two years or so of streams (almost exactly, too - I remember setting this up ABOUT two years ago, give or take). It was a paltry sum of $5.37 (£4.18).

Now, it is worth noting I never really pushed these heavily - not that spamming links everywhere makes that much of a difference I found, but I've just put download links to those landing pages that directs you to where said song is on all platforms. On top of this, my discography on these platforms is extremely limited, compared to what I've got on my Bandcamp, YouTube and SoundCloud.

Still, it prompted me to do a bit of research onto where most of my streaming revenue comes from, and it's... interesting.

This is actual data that I've pulled and converted to one currency - it isn't 100% accurate, but I don't need that as I'm just looking for a quick comparison.

YT Ads - These are just your standard partner ads that I run on my music on YouTube. There's a threshold of, I think about £60 or £70 before it makes it to my bank account. On average, this earns me £10/mo.

Bandcamp - These are the most interesting ones - sometimes, people just buy your music unprompted if either your name is large enough to pop up on the front page (or however that algorithm works), or when you release some new music. Whatever money is also immediately available for payout (though PayPal usually takes a tiny amount of whatever they pay me out as tax, which is a paltry amount anyway so I don't really care). On average, this earns me about £7.60/mo.

SC Repost - This is who distributes my music to Spotify, Apple Music, etc. I pay £10/mo for this and SC Premier combined, so I really made a loss if we're just considering this domain on its own. On average, this is £0.17/mo.

SC Premier - This is just SoundCloud monetization, basically SC's version of YT Ad revenue. On a complete flipside to Repost, this basically pays for itself. On average, I earn £13.06 from this, but if you consider the fee I have to pay in order to get it, it's more like £3.06.

In total, If I create about 2 releases and 1 re-release every 2 years, I'd probably earn a total of £21.10/mo.

It's interesting to note, however, that the spikes are a direct correlation to me just putting the music out on platforms. Notably Bandcamp, as people have to pay to download for it usually - normally a small amount, but having an option to purchase the entire discography or having people want to add more on top of what they have to pay does do wonders. If I'm not putting music out actively, then ad revenue from YT or SoundCloud actually pays okay for the amount of effort I put into it (next to none). Ad stuff have less transientary moments, where it's just a spike with nothing afterwards, as I imagine people have to come back to the platform to listen to the music (whereas on BC, people download it and stream it offline)

No conclusion for this from my part, but I thought it was interesting to share. You can draw your own conclusion (and tag me about it or something) if you'd like!

Something to note about all this - I'm not exactly struggling for money, I have a full time job that I'm grateful I can work, and the way it is set up still gives me some time to work on music, which is about to become a lot more important (hopefully) next month as I'm planning to heavily push my music work again. However, in the meantime, I can definitely work on putting some music out on BandCamp and provide a far more complete discography on all platforms, which has been my goal anyway.

I hope that was an interesting read for you!

[fairydustedtheory]

Ok so here we go I guess... aka  big rant and dumpster fire life update

As you guys may have noticed, I’ve disappeared from here for a while, except for a couple hellos here and there. The last few months have been pretty hard if I’m being honest. Between exams and family issues. And... basically I now find myself with absolutely no income. I could go into a very long rant about how this wasn’t what I expected to happen and how much I hate society and how much I really hate having to post this but I think this post will be long as it is...

Long story made slightly shorter: my ex is still a shitty person and has not given me child support since august and who knows when/if he plans on ever giving it ever again. That’s basically a 900€ hole in my account that I’ve been trying to make up for by using my small savings to get by with the income I had during my course (I was earning about half the minimum wage here for a full time course so not a lot but I’m used to being on a tight budget).

The course is now over so I’m not getting any more money from that, I have no job yet, no more money saved and no money coming from the unemployment place that was supposed to give me a minimum allowance to survive for the time between the course and the future job income... and I just don’t know how I’m going to pay my bills, buy food for me and my kid. I don’t know anything. My rent payment went through a couple of days ago and my bank account is so in the red it’s scary. Especially knowing that I have no way to make it better. I have all my bills in monthly transfers so I have no way of controlling that, it’s just money going out until my bank finally decides to block my account because I keep going under my overdraft limit. And I really really wish to avoid getting to that point but I just don’t see how to avoid it with how things are going.

I mean, at least it’s not anything medical or life threatening, I know people have it worse than having no money. But being in financial crisis and not knowing how or when i’m going to be able to make things better... well, i didn’t expect that since I took the course to move toward a better life, not a worse one.

All that rambling to say that I’m putting my pride aside and posting this in the off chance that maybe anyone feels like donating to help, that would be really really appreciated. So if you ever appreciated the stories I’ve written, the gifs I made, or all the events I organized over the years, maybe you’ll consider helping out if you can. I mean, now would be the perfect time to save my sorry ass.

I have no real clue how to do this. I don’t have venmo since it’s not available where I’m from. I do have my Kofi account which seems like the simplest available option? I don’t know about fees though, fees are my enemy because I'm at a point where every cent is very much welcome and needed, I’m just clueless. 

I hate that I don’t really have anything to offer in return. I don’t know if I can offer to take prompts for ficlets or photoshop and actually have the focus and energy to follow through any of that because I’m pretty burnt out from the course/internship/exams and now this, I never feel creative when I’m exhausted and worried so I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep.

Sooo if you’re still reading after all of that, thank you, it makes me feel a little less alone. Obviously I know that most people are also in financial need and my problems aren’t extraordinary so I don’t really expect a thousand dollar miracle donation that would solve all my worries. But at least I got it off my chest and that’s already something...

[mysticbewitched]

Well, for the most part I am reading my vaunts every single day twice a day as recommended by my friend who made them for me. Lately, my life has been very chaotic and stressful. From dealing with toxic family members to my cat probably going to be kicked out of the house soon while I am still living in a different household. It's really driving me up a wall I tell ya! But for the most part I am reading my vaunts. Not going to lie, sometimes it can be quite alot because my vaunt is quite long and sometimes I feel like it can be a chore sometimes but I do try not to think that way and remember that when I read it every single day I am getting closer and closer to my dream life living with my mother and us being rich. In my dream reality I am going to be living with my mother once my vaunts come true and we will be billionaires and trillionaires and she and me will have the perfect relationship. I will be extremely rich basically a trillionaire and have so much money and my self concept will be perfect and I will embody my higher self and much more! Also, going to look exactly like Deku as well! It's all going to go very well! But overall right now? I am doing rather badly with my living situation and my current life situation including my brother pressuring me into getting a job I will hate and more things going on but as soon as I can get this money and my dream life manifests everything will be completely okay. There is more to say but basically to put it bluntly is that I am focusing all my time on my vaunts and trying to work on my mindset and self concept right now among other things first right now. I still get these doubts and limited beliefs so I know I have some mindset fixing to do and practicing my mental diets. I am glad everything has been going well for you! You have quite an amazing profile and content as well! It's all very practical and has a certain vibe to it I deeply resonate with. But yeah, that's all I am doing is reading my vaunts. Sometimes, it is again like a chore but I have no choice but to do it if what I want to happen is going to happen.

And basically this is basically my desired appearance including skin tone but with blue hair and blue and purple eyes! <3 <3 <3

Manifesting your desires with or without any methods should never have to feel like a chore. You never have to utilize the vaunting method if you don't want to. You should have fun with manifesting since it's all about sculpting your reality to perform in your favor, and you should be having a blast with manifesting your desires. You should not be stressing yourself out or feeling overworked from using an optional method. If a method feels like a chore, re-evaluate things and find something else that feels enjoyable for you to do.

You are a powerful manifestor, and you do not need any method in order for you to manifest your desires. It's also important for me to note here that absolutely nothing can stop your desires from manifesting unless you believe otherwise. You rule your own reality, and you create the rules.

If you ever find yourself feeling burnt out, then I would take a break and completely focus on changing the mindset then come back to deliberate manifesting when you have a steady foundation of self-belief and confidence in your own abilities.

Your dream life sounds wonderful, and I know you can absolutely manifest everything you want as a powerful creator. I'm rooting for you on your journey.

Thank you so incredibly much for your love and support. It truly means the absolute world to me and more. I deeply appreciate you, and I believe in you.

[walnutcookie]

When you are no longer the slep, pls go bed your health matters, can we hear about this sentient cape!? It sounds cool and I must know

i slept a few days ago but OOUA Cape time

thousands of years ago, the city of parfaedia was home to an ancient civilization. magic was..Very limited at this time ! the emperor was the only one who really had much magic power, and even then their spells were veeery limited and draining. nobles would have little magic, barely anything though, and anyone below that would have nothing

Lupine cookie (they/them) was their goddess. their powers allowed them to grant people wishes, but it would always be 50/50 on if you would get a blessing or a curse (they can control their powers but like . its their job to make it a 50/50 chance). so for example if someone got sick back then, when they didnt have proper medicine and technology to help them, theyd visit lupine and theyd either cure the person of their sickness Or make it 2x worse ! you ask them for money? you could get all the riches in the world, or you could have every last penny stripped away from you.

people really liked them at first!!! they helped save many lives or improve peoples life quality. though over time people started to get tired of the bad side of their wish granting. why would they hurt people? why are they hurting their loyal followers? who do nothing but praise them and give them gifts?

people were already starting to turn against lupine, but the last straw was when the emperor himself visited lupine, asking for a gift, and instead had something stripped away from him (i havent thought about this part yet but like it was something important). he was FURIOUS. so he gathered every single noble, and with all of their magic combined, they had enough power to seal Lupine away in a cloak. forever.

the emperor wore it on his shoulders as a prize.

flash forward to today Little phantom(bleu) is planning their first big heist!!!! i could talk more about the early days of phantom bleu/how they came to be (ive thought about it A Lot) but like i want to make a comic explaining everything soo . Basically they are planning their first big heist thats all you need to know!!! they visit eclairs museum (and they dont know the museum owner is their brother yet) and after skimming over the options they find a neat cloak in one of the exhibits ! a cloak that has been dug up thousands of years ago, theorized to have a goddess trapped inside, but it just looks like a normal cloak so eclair thinks its just a silly little fairy tale.

rogue smashes the glass and takes off with the cape, which also leads eclair to put anti-theft spells on all of his relics!!!! yay!! (he is absolutely shattered he was so proud of that cape) also this is what leads walnut to finding out about roguefort and starts their rivalry 🎉

rogue takes the cloak home and is like Yeah i guess ill use it in my new costume (they were using different clothes i dont wanna spoil anything but they changed the color scheme of their new costume to match the cape) but its like. super tattered and dirty. soooo they throw it in the washing machine

Oh Dear . Oh god oh god Aaahhhh what the FYCK!!!! WAKING UP DROWNING DYING TOSSING TURNING BEING THROWN AROUND AAAHHH PANIC DYING WHAT THE FUCK DROWNING DROWNING THROWING DYING WHAT IS THIS!!!!! after thousands of years being asleep in that cloak lupine is woken up by the Fucking Washing Machine. theyve slept through war and earthquakes and the shit that killed the dinosuars (not actually that last one) but they are woken up BY THE WASHING Machine. They cant die but they sure can feel pain in their cloak form!

roguefort opens the door and goes WAAAAHH as this UNIDENTIFIED FUCKING THING is flying frantically around the room dripping water everywhere and then they Grab it and stuff it into the dryer and the torture continues

anyways skipping ahead a bit theyve realized Hey this thing is sentient and theyre trying to understand this thing. It takes a lot of confusion and patience since lupine cant talk but uagwhkqhs stuff happens here and then rogue is like I will name you bleu :] and they repair bleu since its all tattered and stuff

phantom bleu is secretly a team name ! (their original name was just phantom mhehe)

but yea . Bleu decides that this person is precious and basically becomes a sort of guardian to them . (i mean rogue is in their thirties but lupine has been alive for... idk since the beginning of time)

and rogue is completely oblivious to it..theyre just like Haha funny cape i have no idea how youre alive but i like you :)

i think its so fucking funny thinking abt eclairs reaction to this like hes staring at the tv and going THEYRE WEARING THE FUCKING CAPE THEY STOLE FROM MY MUSEUM!!!! THEY CUT HOLES IN IT AND ALTERED IT AAUUUGGH RHEYRE GOING TO RUIN IT THEYVE ALREADY RUINED IT NOO

[bigskydreaming]

Like, I am very conscious of the aid people have given me and try not to ask any more than is absolutely necessary because I do not enjoy asking for charity like at ALL. But I am less than a year out from when I had a twenty thousand dollar (out of pocket) surgery to address a longterm disability caused by a gaybashing when I was nineteen and that flared up about seven years ago and caused constant, daily migraines, chronic pain and other issues that limited my ability to work while I spent the next six years doing literally everything I could to save up for that surgery while maintaining an expensive as fuck insurance plan that was the only option for getting the surgery DOWN to that ‘manageable’ price tag in the first place. Between that and the costs of just staying alive for those six years, even with e-begging and lots of help from people, I wiped out every cent of my savings and put myself in massive debt and tanked my credit as that was the literal only way I could afford that surgery and regain a decent quality of life. I STILL don’t even have fucking TEETH because every single one had to be pulled in order to do the surgery since to realign my jaw properly, I needed an even bite and after years of destroying my teeth every time I used one side of my face and one side only to do my best to chew and eat food, pulling every single one of my teeth and getting as-literally-cheap-as-possible-dentures instead of trying to repair my teeth first was quite literally the only real option without further dragging out the surgery timeline because I was basically bedridden by the time I actually did get it. After years without being able to work regularly, my ability to go back to my old careers are basically nil and I’ll have to start over from scratch - when I can even afford to - as in the meanwhile, my job options were limited by having a years out of date resume and pretty much all of my paycheck does go to managing my debt, trying to rebuild my credit, and basic cost of living while scrounging together pennies to try and save up now for the many bone graft surgeries I’ll need if I ever want to get teeth implants instead of relying on dentures for the next several decades. So yeah, I ask for help, mostly just when I don’t have money left over for food or the couple hundred dollars I spend monthly in meds because lmao, my various neurodivergencies don’t really help with all of that and I literally can’t afford to go off my meds or miss my regular schedule with them without risking everything I HAVE managed to pull together in terms of routine and income-generating ability.

So do I enjoy e-begging? Fuck no. Am I constantly trying to figure out better ways to supplement my income? Hell yeah. I’ve been trying to put together things like a patreon where people actually get something in exchange for money sent my way, for like, months and months but when I’m not working I’m fucking exhausted because grinding nonstop for six years through constant chronic pain and stress with zero days off will do that to a guy, and I haven’t exactly been able to kick back and enjoy myself even since the surgery. 

And I do my best not to put shit like that on my posts and just keep things to the bare minimum because not only do I not love dwelling on all that, I’m genuinely not trying to guilt people into anything or play the sympathy or pity card because when you used to pride yourself on being independent and self-reliant pretty much from the age of ten because your family taught you from an early age not to rely on anyone but yourself, it’d take even more therapy than I have now to actually be okay with the fact that I’d probably be dead by now without the kindness of internet strangers having helped me stay alive at times when I hadn’t eaten in days because I was busy keeping a roof over my head instead.

But sure, random internet anons - my little post about asking for $5 or $10 is an attempt to make people feel bad about getting blue checkmarks or their financials in general, as opposed to whatever that was.

[phail]

saw ur tags on my ketamine post and yeah it’s basically something you have to privately fund which is ridiculous given the rate of success it has and the difference it could make if it was more broadly accessible. for me it’d be $800 a session (which adds up bc you don’t ever just do one) and I’d have to basically lie to doctors about my bipolar symptoms, either that or get on a study where there’s a 50% chance I’d get given a placebo and a zillion criteria to fit anyway. idk, I don’t count either option as an impossibility just smth to work towards personally, but I wish you so much luck, ik it’s easy to come across like you’re struggling a lot less than you are and not receive support because of it. please keep scouting out options though like if there’s anything I’d think a gfm is worth it for. anyway in the end it’s none of my business but I wish u well and I wish u good songs to listen to

sorry this is on anon e-otw is my sideblog and people tend to get confused if I send asks from main

This is a very nice message, thank you. Sorry for answering it a few days late, I’ve been Struggling™. Not to get depressing but I feel like my options right now are between 3 things:

Read more because of hopelessness and suicidal ideation

1) pay $330 a day for a 30 day residential program because that’s the level of care I need at the moment despite insurance thinking otherwise. Which totals $9,900. Which I cannot afford.

2) go back to the ER after doing something stupid and have them place me in inpatient again (which my insurance will NOT pay for either) OR reschedule my IOP assessment and have them send me to the ER against my will unless I go voluntarily. If I go back to inpatient, god it fucked me up the last two times. I feel like I’ll actually lose my mind there from the way I’m being mistreated and how I’m so far gone mentally, and therefore give up on myself completely and probably have a psychotic break. I really felt myself slipping from reality last week in inpatient because of this and I don’t think I can do round 3 of inpatient.

3) kill myself and make sure I am nothing but successful. At least with that option, my funeral will be a one time expense my dad would pay for and not have to blow all his money on me because I’m a financial burden.

I’ve done a lot of research on how I can get help for this but those are my options. Another option is to apply for government long term disability but the criteria is that your disability needs to last longer than a year. I e also done a lot of research on this and I most likely would NOT be approved for this because I don’t have enough gaps in my resume to show me struggling to keep a job. That’s what they look for because you’re basically applying for disability because you can’t keep a job. So fuck me for being too functional while also being suicidal and depressed and grieving out of my damn mind.

I could make a go fund me but who would ever donate? And if they did, it would not be enough. I’m not popular online, it would never get attention. And even if it did, I don’t know I feel like those are my options that I listed but maybe I’m just too fucking dumb to use other options like actually go to IOP and have that be successful or have it not be successful and get knocked down to inpatient that my insurance would have to pay for at that point. But I’m too weak to start thinking in any positive aspect like I’m just. I’m fucked. My options are limited and this will probably end in me not breathing.

My dad said to hold on until Monday because he has church connections and these people have money and a variety of high up jobs, he’s going to ask and see if anyone has any ideas of what to do from here. He also said he knows the president of a huge medical company around us (the second biggest but probably even more powerful than the first) so he’s also going to ask him and see what can be done or any advice.

He mentioned that these people have money and power. I don’t know why that would help me, why strangers would throw money at me, and I doubt they would. But I only have until the end of the day tomorrow to try to keep myself safe unless something DOES come out of the conversations he has with people.