#it's not at level 50 so it could be easier for you somewhat

[redactednzilch]

I finally completed Horrorpotamus and god was it horrible

all medals acquired finally and also here's the slot incase anyone wants to copy.

[eddiediaaz]

Hi! Can I ask how you did the double exposure gifs for your merlin set? They're beautiful btw!

heyy, thank you!! of course!

it's actually not very hard, the trick is to find the right shots for this. here's how i did it (reference gifset), under the cut.

for this tutorial i will be: — using photoshop cs5 on windows — assuming you know how to make gifs using the timeline — have basic coloring, sharpening, groups, and layer masks knowledge

I. CHOOSING THE RIGHT SHOTS

the ultimate trick to pull this off is to choose the right image. in order to do the double exposure, you need a silhouette shot that has these:

a defined and dark silhouette with a background that is not too busy

enough contrast between the silhouette and the background

the silhouette should take at least 50% of the space

not too much movement

here are a few examples of why they work and why they won't:

gwen: perfect example since this shot is already quite contrasted with a defined silhouette. there won't be a lot of work needed to make this one work.

merlin: not a great example because even tho there's a somewhat good contrast between him and the background, the silhouette is just too bright, not dark enough.

arthur: another good example, even if there are some bright spots on his face and armor. since he's not moving too much, you can definitely brush some black over him to make his silhouette darker (i'll explain/show later)

morgana: this one could work because the contrast is great, but of course her skintone is very bright against the black clothing. that being said, since the movement is not too bad, it could be possible to brush some black over her and move these layers with keyframes (as mentioned for arthur's example). i haven't tried it tho, but i think it would work well enough.

once you have your silhouette shot, you need another gif for the double exposure. what works best, in my opinion, are:

wide, large shots

shots with no to little camera movement (no pan, zoom, etc), but the subjects in the shot can have little movement of course

pretty cinematography/scenery shots

i find these are easier to find and make it work, it's not as "precise" as with silhouette shots. it's mostly just trial and error to see what works best with the silhouettes.

II. PREPPING THE SILHOUETTE

for the effect to work, we want a silhouette that's dark as possible. i'm gonna use the gwen and arthur shots as examples.

for the gwen gif, i started by sharpening, and then upped the contrast by quite a lot so her silhouette is mostly black, while retaining some nice details. i've used only 3 layers here:

selective color layer: in the blacks tab, playing with the black slider (value: +10)

brightness/contrast layer: added a lot of contrast (+61) and a bit of brightness (+10)

black and white layer: on top, its blending mode set to soft light and at 20% opacity. gives a bit more depth and contrast

then for the arthur example, i've also sharpened it first, and added contrast layers in this order (the skintone looks horrible, but it won't matter soon lol):

levels layer: black slider at 0, grey slider at 0.76, white slider at 104

selective color layer: in the blacks tab, black slider at +10

brightness/contrast layer: brightness at +1-, contrast at +47

black and white layer: on top, its blending mode set to soft light and at 20% opacity. gives a bit more depth and contrast

as you can see, half of his face is still quite bright. to correct that, create a new empty layer and put it between the gif and the coloring layers.

using a really soft brush and the black color, brush some black over his face and body on that new empty layer. you can edit the layer's opacity if you want, i've set mine to 71%. since arthur doesn't move much here, there's no need to keyframe this layer's position. for the morgana example, this is where you'd need to play with keyframes to make it work. here's where i'm at now after this:

you can always edit this layer later if you need, after doing the double exposure blending.

once the silhouette is all ready, you can put all layers in a group and rename it (i've renamed mine silhouette).

III. BLENDING

now the fun part! import the wide/scenery shot in photoshop, then resize it to the same height of your silhouette gif. make sure the gif is a smart object layer, and sharpen it. finally, bring this gif onto the silhouette canvas (by right clicking the smart object > duplicate layer). once you have both gifs onto your canvas, put the wide shot gif layer in a group, and set this group's blending option to screen.

you can then position the wide/scenery gif the way you like it in the canvas. this is how it looks for both examples after i've done that:

if the blending mode screen doesn't give you the best result, so you can play around with other blending modes (such as lighten and linear dodge in these particular cases), but generally speaking, screen is the real mvp here haha.

IV. COLORING

now that the double exposure effect is done, we need to color the gifs to bring them together. i went with simple coloring here, simply enhancing the colors that were already there. just make sure that the coloring layers for each gif are in their respective groups. here's how i've colored both examples:

gwen silhouette group: i added a gradient map layer on top of the contrast layers in black to green and set the blending mode to color

scenery shot group: multiple coloring layers, with a green color fill layer (blending mode set to color), with a layer mask so it only affects the top half of the gif

for the arthur gif, i did something very similar but with warmer colors. i didn't use a gradient map for arthur though:

arthur silhouette group: i made the yellow warmer, closer to orange/red, with a hue/saturation layer, and added more vibrance. didn't feel like it needed a gradient map layer here though.

wide shot group: basic coloring layers to enhance colors from the merlin & daegal shot, and an orange color fill layer set to the color blending mode.

at this point you're pretty much done. just need to add some final touches and typography (if you want).

V. FINAL TOUCHES

a small and completely optional detail, but i wanted to soften the edges of the wide gifs. to do so i've duplicated the smart object gif layer and removed the sharpening filters (right click on smart filter > clear smart filters). put this layer on top of the other smart object layers (but still below the coloring).

then with this same layer still selected, go to filter > blur > gaussian blur... > 10px. this will give you a very blurry gif, but we only want the edges of the canvas to be softer. so add a layer mask to this layer. with a very large and soft brush (mine was at 0% hardness and about 800px size), brush some black onto the layer mask to remove the blur in the middle of the gif.

you can play with this layer's opacity or gaussian blur amount if you want (by double clicking on the gaussian blur smart layer filter). here how both examples look with this gaussian blur layer:

you can also mask some of wide/scenery gifs if you'd prefer, so it shows less outside of the silhouette. just put a layer mask on that whole wide shot group and brush some black or grey on the layer mask. it's what i did for the gwen gif, with a very soft brush and i set the mask density to 72% (i kept the arthur one as is tho):

and that's how i did it! hopefully that was clear enough :)

[medakakurokami]

I finished over 100 visual novels, here’s a long post with some recommendations

Last month I hit 100 Finished VN’s over on the VNDB and I thought I’d shoot out some recommendations while the Steam Summer Sale is going on (even though some of these aren’t going to be on Steam)

I already have finished up some stragglers and caught some shorter titles so it’s up to 104 Finished, but all the better. I have been reading some VN’s since 2015, but it really became a hobby and a genre I was invested in during Covid lockdown in 2020. I had trouble getting into some of the popular titles, but a couple of games that were lesser known at that time really blew me away that year and I started digging more into the medium. I still have a lot to try out and other classics I’m still interested in trying, but here’s a top 10 I’m confident in recommending to most people, at least the kinda people that would follow this blog. A few of these recommendations are actually multi-part series, but hopefully accessible all around.

Planetarian ($10 on Steam and Switch, ~$5 on sale)

This is a very late entry onto this list but I think it’s an easy recommendation. This is a very short 2-4 hour visual novel that got a well received 2 hour movie adaptation in 2016, but it was strong enough that even while knowing the plot everything still hit hard. It is a story set 30 years after an apocalyptic event destroys most of the world, as a human junk-trader comes across a planetarium with a somehow-still-functional robot named Hoshino still performing her daily duties after 30 years without customers or coworkers. It can come across as a bit saccharine, but it is a quick, well made, and effective tearjerker.

Narcissu 1st & 2nd (Free on Steam)

Narcissu’s first two parts are pretty compelling stories to do with suicidal ideation within the scope of the terminally ill. Which is to say they’re also real tear jerkers, and pretty open about some harsh self-reflective emotions. They both have stellar endings, and can be quite immersive despite the very limited artwork (if the screencap looks weird, the game’s art exists within a narrow strip on the screen, with a sentence or two reading out the story underneath it). Maybe the least accessible on this list, but a $0 price tag makes it easier in some sense to get into.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni / When The Seagulls Cry (~$50 on Steam, $30 on sale)

Umineko you’ve probably already heard of, and here’s me recommending it. Umineko comes in two parts, on Steam referred to as the Questions Arc and the Answers Arc. Despite the split, the overall story follows the events of a certain day on Rokkenjima Island in 1986 as a family meets to discuss their inheritance and their family’s mysteries. Unbeknownst to them they are soon haunted, over and over again, by the revenant of the Golden Witch said to live in the woods of their family’s island.

I’m in the minority of preferring the Questions Arc, where well written and deeply human characters find themselves in deeply inhumane and nonsensical scenarios. The Answers Arc back seats some of that to start delving into an esoteric explosion of clues and backstories, and was still very entertaining even if I was more invested in the episodic stories than the overarching mystery. This may also be seen as inaccessible, $30-50 for a slightly older title and over 140 hours long on average playthroughs, but it is deeply absorbing.

Witch on the Holy Night a.k.a. Mahoyo ($40 on PS4 and Switch)

Mahoyo is me and Nasu’s marriage counselor, it really made me see the good in him. It follows a young witch co-habitating with her magic colleague and the puppy-like boy that unwittingly steps into their world at risk to his own life, just as unexplained apparent murders are witnessed in their town.

This could possibly be a higher level recommendation, though it was apparently intended to have sequels and you can somewhat feel that in the isolated feeling of its main conflict. Despite this, the game is definitely worth experiencing for its classy charm and extremely well made action sequences that at times make you forget you’re not watching a full anime film. It’s also a showcase of Nasu’s strengths in writing character interactions and comedy, and he finally lets Show take over and stops Telling you piles of mage society worldbuilding quite so often. It is also has some of the highest quality production value I’ve ever seen, second maybe to...

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon ($20 on Steam/Switch, less than $10 on sale)

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon is an explosive opera of art, energy, color, and of course music. It follows the orphaned Marco and her dragon compatriot Arco as they hunt for treasure across the cosmos, finding their way to Earth on the hunt for Marco’s mother.

If Umineko’s 140 hours seems steep, Marco has you covered with a quick 6 hour rundown of a rebellious orphan fighting back against her space alien menace to find her own sense of place and identity in the universe, along with ALL the friends she made along the way. If Mahoyo feels like an anime film sometimes, Marco actually just has fully animated FMV cutscenes that are fun as hell and have their own unique artstyle to the VN itself. Thousands of pieces of artwork and a 52-track OST fill the game’s short runtime with no cut corners and and overflow of passion from the devs. Honestly even if you don’t want to read it go buy it, it’s cheap and they earned it.

White Album 2 (You’ll have to be creative to find this one)

This is the only recommendation that’s currently only available in an adults only 18+ Rating for the English translation. That being said, it’s one of the few erotic VN’s that felt justified in its pornographic scenes. The story is split into two releases: Opening Chapter and Closing Chapter.

Opening is a short and powerfully delivered love triangle narrative following Haruki, Setsuna, and Touma as their hastily formed 3-man light music band falls into itself with feelings. It’s charming but gut wrenching and sweeps you into its drama very effectively before kicking you on your ass in the end.

Closing Chapter is a long and drawn out disassembling of their lives as they fail to heal from the wounds of the relationships seen in Opening. It, to great effect, takes the readers own experience with how fun and passionate the Opening Chapter was, and shows how trying to cling to halcyon days can make us so dispassionate about our present lives. Painful stuff! Good music, too.

The Princess, The Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart 1 & 2

a.k.a. Noratoto ($40 on Steam for both, ~$15 for both on sale)

This is a very personal recommendation, and maybe one more easy to make on this blog where many of my followers might be receptive to sincere but slapstick ecchi comedy as art. Every route is highly different however and to me, some are pretty average for galge, while others stand out as amazing. The comedy writing as well feels like it was written by someone with actual comic writing experience, and not just regurgitating the usual ecchi manga jokes.

The general premise of Noratoto is the protagonist Nora, being transformed into a cat by Patricia the princess of the Netherworld, and he must reverse this curse via a kiss before it becomes permanent. A benign fairy tale premise, but one that somehow gives way to underlying stories about existence and finding purpose in families and where that leaves those without families or with abusive or divided families (it is from the same developers as Marco and the Galaxy Dragon, and the themes of finding identity without family match up very closely). Uniquely it is a visual novel written somewhat in 3rd person, narrated by a motherly voice as if the VN was being read to you as a bedtime story.

Like I said, it is dependent on route and some come across as your usual ecchi gal-game schtick, but some stick out, and if every route was as high quality as Nobuchina’s in the 2nd game, it would probably be my favorite visual novel.

The Original Ace Attorney Trilogy ($30 on most platforms, $10 on sale)

You’ve almost certainly heard of Ace Attorney already and have most likely played it. This is me telling any Ace Attorney fans reading that the original trilogy still reigns supreme (regardless of Turnabout Big Top). This is also me telling anyone who has held out on trying Ace Attorney to try it, and to start with the original trilogy.

Obviously this trilogy follows the Meme Man Himself, Phoenix Wright, as he defends the innocent and brings the guilty to justice acting as both lawyer and his own main investigator. While each case presents a unique mystery, the original trilogy has an underlying arc that reaches from beginning to end with a massive conspiracy that Phoenix has to breach to bring justice to the perpetrators and resolve the memory and regrets of his beloved mentor.

These games have some speedbumps as you may be banging your head against the wall trying to find the right evidence, but the experience that breaks through does so with gusto, succeeding on what it sets out to be: games that make you feel like you’ve brought justice to the world.

Utawarerumono Trilogy ($40/60 each on Steam, trilogy bundle $62 on sale)

Utawarerumono was my first proper visual novel, and it set the standards pretty high. I’ve posted about it several times in the last few years, and it remains one of my favorites. It is a labor of love on the part of the developers (the same developers as White Album 2), who developed the latter two games over the course of several years and have made this the spearhead of their company for the time being. Which makes sense, since it is about war.

The first game follows a masked man who is given the name Hakuoro waking up in a rural village with amnesia, confused about the strange population of beast-men living there. Despite not understanding his situation, his ingenuity brings the village prosperity. When the local lords try to put the village under their thumb, Hakuoro and the villagers are able to turn the tides against them. Their village grows into a kingdom as Hakuoro seeks the mysteries of himself and the world around him.

The latter two games pick up some twenty years after the conclusion of the first, and follow a man who is given the name Haku, waking up in the woods with amnesia confused about the... you get it. He is met by Kuon, a young girl on her way traveling to the capital of their nation of Yamato. Haku graciously accepts her help getting out of the cold woods, and decides to join her to the capital. As events play out, Haku finds himself under the direct command of the nation’s leader the Mikado, and carries out missions on his behalf as the nation continues to drag itself into war and conflict and Haku also seeks the truth of his identity.

These games are expansive in scope while still putting a large focus on the day-to-day lives of its characters. Around 100 hours across all three games it is impressive how much story it manages to fit in, but the pacing does bounce around between sweeping conflict and sleepy conversations. It is also in part, a strategy RPG game with the battles in the war being controlled by the player. These are decently made, especially well in the third game, but don’t ask too much of the player and the story remains the main focus and biggest portion of the runtime.

The House In Fata Morgana a.k.a. Fatamoru

($40 complete version on PS4/Switch, ~$40 main game + expansion on Steam)

I’ve gushed about this enough on this tumblr, I’ll keep it brief.

You are a formless soul who is led by the hand of a mysterious maid through the doors of a mansion on an unknown plane of existence. Through each door lies a story of the house in a different era, all following people bound together in ways that leave them cruelly and violently undone by the end of their stories. The connection between these stories, the mystery of the house and the supposed witch that resides within, and the mystery of You the wandering soul all slowly unravel in a bloody show of catharsis and soul. The game is dripping with traumatic poetic text, grating beautiful music, and all of its atmosphere geared toward being oppressive yet enticing. One of the best things I’ve read.

Honorable mentions:

Va-11 Hall-A and Endless Mondays get shout outs as some of the best Original English Language VN’s I’ve read, with cool artstyles and a mature cast they manage to be fun and relatable. Va-11 Hall-A delivers a great arc for its protagonist and Endless Mondays has great dialogue on the threat of automation of creative industries.

Grisaia Trilogy and Hatsumira are both absolutely raucous trilogies that are a lot of fun. Not wholly recommendable to all, Grisaia has some strong moments and a hilarious unique cast but is a mess overall (but we love Michiru). Hatsumira is a bit more consistent, a more stable and fantasy-oriented Grisaia.

A.I. The Somnium Files duology are detective games with highly divisive endings, but great comedy and characters that make them very easy to get through and enjoy the whole way to the end. It’s just a toss-up whether you’ll like that ending.

Sakura Wars games are finally being translated, and they are a great showing for anyone who wants to try some classic dating sim stuff but with some pizazz thrown in with the setting and mecha combat.

The Tears to Tiara duology by the same developers of Utawarerumono and White Album is also one to keep an eye out for. The first game's definitive version isn't available in English and the second game is stuck on the PS3 and no longer available digitally, but if they ever come out on Steam they are worth your time.

Nanairo Reincarnation and Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche are also two solid ecchi comedy galge. Both have surprisingly deep and genuinely heartbreaking underlying mysteries and conclusions.

I still have a lot I wanna read, Planetarian is the only Key novel I’ve read. On the docket are Labyrinth of Galleria, Little Busters, the 9 -nine- series, and Kara no Shoujo and White Album 1 releasing on Steam this year. Some classics I didn’t mention are Fate/Stay Night, Muv Luv, Steins Gate. Muv Luv I read Extra and enjoyed it, but never pulled the trigger on reading the rest, I may at some point on a whim. Steins;Gate I played through half of on PS3 and now my PS3 is in the closet, the VN is really good and has a unique atmosphere to the anime, buuuuuuut knowing the plot has made it hard to want to restart on PC or another console. Steins;Gate is good, if anyone is reading this far and hasn’t seen the anime or read the VN, do it.

[racefortheironthrone]

I just read your Who Stole Westeros article (great onde, btw!), and it got me thinking: how could the crown undo all the financial damage Littlefinger did?

This is something that I've discussed in bits and pieces, but I think it's a good idea to have one place where I lay out my ideas.

Accurate Intelligences

The first thing that needs to happen is that the crown needs to get an accurate understanding of its finances and make that understanding known to the necessary stakeholders. This starts with a very thorough audit of both the Crown's books and Littlefinger's books, preferably done with the participation of the Iron Bank (not only do they have the necessary expertise to see through Baelish's fraud, but bringing them into the process at an early stage will make later negotiations easier because they're more likely to feel "part of the team" and not like a bombshell's been dropped on them).

The second step is, I would argue, a document laying out, in detail, what the Crown's incomes, expenditures, and debts actually are - and the extent of Littlefinger's fraud and embezzlement - is absolutely vital for rebuilding trust from the Crown's major creditors. Think of this as a somewhat more private (and hopefully more honest) Compte Rendu. Not only is having an accurate understanding vital for future policymaking, but it's also a way of framing the overall narrative to your creditors that defines the universe of how much you can afford to pay back and how much you should pay back.

Debt Forgiveness

After the full scope of the economic damage is known, the first priority should be to A. recoup as much of the losses as possible, and B. reduce the debt that has to be paid as much as possible. As far as A goes, the absolute de minimus strategy should be to seize the entire Baelish estate - not just the gold, but also the brothels, the ships, the commodities futures, the debts of various noble houses and merchants, the lands and titles belonging to Harrenhal - and those of all of his minions in the royal bureaucracy, and use that to improve the royal income-to-debt ratio by paying off some of what's owed, with as much as possible going to principal over interest.

Secondly, there's a strong need for debt relief. That's a touchy subject around creditors, but it's still one that has to be faced - and is made somewhat easier by the War of Five Kings. So if Renly or Stannis had won, it would absolutely been in their interests to declare the Crown's debt to House Lannister repudiated on the grounds of treason, thus reducing the total owed by 50% (assuming that the Crown actually owes 3 million to House Lannister and 6 million overall). On the flip side, and this is somewhat paradoxical, it is rather surprising that at no point after the death of King Robert does the Lannister regime forgive debt it effectively owes to itself, even if that would be to its ultimate advantage.

Restructuring Finances

Ultimately, though, the nice thing about being a government is that (barring a revolution or foreign conquest) you are effectively immortal, and thus even staggeringly huge debts can be dealt with - over a long enough time horizon. Look at the example of British war debt:

It turns out, constantly fighting imperial wars and then having to fight two world wars is very expensive, but just hanging on as a going concern was enough to gradually reduce the debt-to-gdp ratio down to manageable levels. It really helps if you have a central bank, a sinking fund, and strong levels of economic growth, but just staying alive is the big ticket.

However, in order for time to heal all wounds, one of the things that has to happen is some debt restructuring aimed at reducing the interest rate owed on the royal debt. Pretty much all previous steps I've outlined, from sharing information to cultivating stakeholders to paying off as much as you can from Littlefinger's coffers, etc. are aimed at trying to soften the negotiating ground for this step, because medieval interest rates were really high (largely as a hedge against frequent defaults), around 12% on average. It's pretty hard to grow your way out of that, so bringing down those rates is the top priority. Once you've gotten them as low as you can, you want to negotiate for the longest repayment window possible.

[thereluctanthousewife]

When the System Works Against You

You know what I want?

For job hunting to be easier.

I don't mean to have less competition.

I mean, for it to be legit.

Headhunters probably need AI now to shift through all the applications they get in a day. I understand. But it makes it so much harder for job seekers.

For me, I feel like everything is stacked against me from the day I first started applying.

Since I'm new to the system, my resume is likely not the best. Resume builders charge hundreds of dollars to "fix" my resume. But with no guarantee of a job, where do they expect me to find the money to shell out for their service?

There are loads of career websites around. But none of them seem to pan out at all. Of the hundreds of applications I've sent, perhaps 50 (and that's being generous) respond with a "We will not be moving forward with your application), 2 respond for next steps, and a hundred more say nothing at all.

I am tired.

It's a relentless, soul-sucking grind that bears no reward.

Honestly, it's depressing. My rationale is telling me perhaps it's time to pivot and find something else to do. I'm getting a lot of emails for insurance agents, and maybe that's something? I honestly don't know. I can't do sales, but perhaps this is the time to give it a go.

I hate not having money, not contributing to the household, not being able to buy something for the kids.

I hate relying on my husband's income. Knowing his past health issues, it's difficult to rely on a single earner for a family with 3 kids.

I used to think the US was the land of opportunity.

It sure as hell isn't that any longer.

You need to study in the United States to be able to secure a job. Your work experience or study qualifications from overseas aren't valid here. Is it how they've rigged the system? Study here and then you up your chances?

What if you have no money and you need to earn so you can actually pay for any further schooling? Well, you can get money from the government - a LOAN. So you start off your professional life with a negative balance.

I used to think LinkedIn was somewhat legit. I stayed off it as long as I could because - argh, another social media site to keep track of? But, I relented in the end. I needed to "network" - at least get my name out there. Fat lot of good it's doing.

Some websites have other companies advertising jobs. I've signed up for so many job alerts, it's jamming up my inbox. Some of them have such bad algorithms, I keep getting matched with nursing jobs when I have zero credentials to be a nurse.

Some of them advertise jobs that are no longer accepting applicants. Others require a master's degree for entry level jobs. Still others say "any other responsibilities asked of you." Everyone knows the latter is a red flag.

None of the jobs that come up give anyone opportunities. The culture wants a new grad to have 20 years' experience off the bat. To have networked and received 20 contacts by the time you graduate.

The most I've ever introduced myself to a stranger is talking to the Uber driver.

I am exhausted.

I am tired of people expressing their opinions of my "potential."

I don't need opinions. I need a job.

I know what I'm capable of.

I just want companies to take a chance and recognize that, too.

[pdouwes]

Hi, I'm a big fan of your blog and your gifs in general! I was wondering if you had any tutorial on how you color? Particularly your Wicked and Hadestown gifs look incredibly gorgeous and the colors really pop, and I'm so curious as to how you achieve those effects. Amazing work overall :D

hiii, oh my god thank you so much!! 🥺❤️

i'm happy to show you how i color my gifs but pls note that i basically have no idea what i'm doing, everything i know i taught myself via trial and error and this is just something i found works for me.

that being said, here's a quick (and very messy) bootleg coloring tutorial under the cut!

okay so, when it comes to making gifs and coloring in general, good source material is key. bright and clear videos make the coloring process SO much easier.

i picked an old 2010 wicked oberhausen boot for this tutorial. it doesn't have the highest resolution but the colors translate nicely and the lighting is pretty good as well.

now, this is our base gif cropped and sharpened. i usually want my gifs to look as natural and as close to their base version as possible with just colors and contrast enhanced slightly. baby steps are important here!

first thing i do is add a brightness/contrast layer. these are my settings for this gif:

i rarely ever go above 20 with either brightness or contrast. adding too much early on will make your gif look grainy in the end. our gif now looks like this:

not much has changed but a little goes a long way, trust me. next up is a curves layer. i click the little arrow to open the drop down menu and select increase contrast (rgb). afterwards i reduce the opacity. for this gif i set it to 52%.

this will darken the gif again but it also gets rid of these white spots on elphaba's dress which is great.

next, we start playing around with colors. i usually use 3 color fill and one or two selective color layers. this really is just playing around until you find the settings that you think look good. for this gif i wanted to enhance the green and neutralise some of the yellow, so i went with two color fill layers first.

green to slightly enhance the green of elphie's skin and blue to neutralise the yellow in glinda's hair.

next we're going with a selective color layer. think of the colors you want to pop. for this gif the obvious choices are elphie's skin and glinda's dress.

i added a second layer to further adjust the greens

and ended up with this gif

i then added another color fill layer, set it to multiply and reduced the opacity to 12

followed by a color balance layer

the purpose of these layers is to slightly "cool down" the gif, meaning they decrease orange/yellow undertones while enhancing the blue and purple ones.

next up is a levels layer to add a tiny bit more brightness

followed by a vibrance layer to make existing colors pop

and another curves layer for more brightness/contrast with the opacity set to 50%

our gif now looks like this:

almost done! we're finishing up with a black and white gradient map layer for some more depth

and a cooling filter to further reduce the yellow/orange tones of glinda's face and hair

and that's it!

so, here you go. this is my coloring process most of the time. sometimes i add more layers (on top or in between), other times i use less, it all depends on the specific scene and the mood i'm in lol.

now, could you leave out some of these steps? yeah, definitely. some layers probably don't even make that much of a difference but i like adding them anyway.

you can download the psd here. feel free to play around with my settings and add or delete layers as you see fit. hope this was at least somewhat helpful!

[syrupspinner]

i defeated/completed Indigo Park

im not used to playing games this big, i mean were talking almost 9gb here

i dont play enough horror games. even then, most of my experience is with action horror like idv where its more of a theme, and rpgmaker games. mascot horror is a bit outside my wheelhouse, but i am aware of it. who couldnt be? i can only imagine its the genre when you wanna make a profit going indie. while the genre itself was popularized when fnaf really took off, this format of a setpiece-heavy horror fps with light puzzle elements was really popularized by poppy playtime. and garten of banban. and rainbow friends. and-

anyway, ive been told that this project is headed by the youtuber UniqueGeese. i cant say im familiar, but it looks like theyre really experienced when it comes to mascot horror. its really neat to see someone with roots in critique and transformative content break out and make their own game. judging from the sheer quantity of videos, he sure seems to know what hes talking about, so its neat to see how the experience of a player translates to developer.

either way, it feels like this was a passion project, not a cash grab. sure, its free, but so is a lot of first chapters. it reminds me about how gacha games give you a bunch of free rolls when you first sign up. well, thats an unfair comparison (at least in indigo parks case), this feels more comparable to a demo for a full game. its not just an enticement, so it feels easier to pay for the rest of the game incrementally instead of watching youtubers play, it feels like a surface-level experiment to give the inevitable next episode something to build off of

so hows the game, anyway? well, its short. the credits rolled about 50 minutes in, and i was taking my time. there wasnt really a gimmick or anything, either. like, there wasnt a thing to make the gameplay stand out or make the puzzles unique. hell, there werent puzzles, the closest was turning around to see a missing gear or two. its refreshing to see something so straightforward, but im worried than not having something special and distinct will make it get lost in the crowd. which is a shame! i had a lot of fun, and id love to see a chapter 2. all i ask is that there be some more accessibility options. i really appreciated the subtitles, but maybe some mouse sensitivity settings would be nice. other than that, just a really solid and charming horror game!

also, full and somewhat nsfw disclosure. the only reason i know about this game is because furries i follow are down horrendous for rambley. they either want to fuck the shit out of him or get transformed/hypnotized into him. i have no idea if this was on purpose? like, when i look at that gangly blue thing from poppy playtime, i think "oh its a cute thing thats scary-fied, for the demographic of kids that wouldve loved sonic.exe and creepypasta a generation ago". its just transparently targeted, yknow? with rambley, i have no idea. like, hes cute in a mascot way, but i think its the personality that mainly draws people in. hes a cute little fella who loves trains and wants you to have fun, and also he sounds like basketball from bfdi. he might count as a shortstack too? hes targeting such a niche that i dont think it could be targeted; like, roald dahl didnt know about inflation, he just invented a new subgenre of kink by accident. i dunno, honestly hes not really my type, but more power to you if you wanna ride his train

[staringdownabarrel]

My conspiracy theory--a conspiracy theory that I'll never be able to prove--is that corporate advertising firms probably are way more active on Tumblr than most people would like to believe. Like yeah sure, maybe not every single movie is getting its own ad on the sidebar or anything, but I'd be shocked if there aren't people being paid to spread memes of whatever new movie is coming out or whatever.

It's not like this would be a particularly unusual thing to happen. On Reddit--don't hate me; I migrated here before it was cool--it isn't so unusual for companies to try and do marketing disguised as regular comments. It's common enough that r/hailcorporate was once dedicated to posts that looked like they could have been made by a company's PR department. (It's since been watered down to just being posts that mention a brand on the site, though a lot of them could still be attempts at soft advertising.)

The other thing that happens on Reddit is that people will occasionally sell their accounts. How much they'll get varies, but for a year-old account with average karma, they might get between $5 and $50 for it. Sometimes people will just buy an account because they don't want to fuck around for a few weeks trying to get enough karma on their accounts to post on the subreddits they're actually interested in, but a lot of the time it's probably also just so they can go straight to marketing mode.

Plus, y'know, it's been a bit of a meme for a while that half the people on subs like r/selfie are people who are trying to advertise their OnlyFans content. (No shame if that's a thing for you, by the way; but this is a real thing a lot of people on Reddit actively try to do.) Basically, the entire site is filled with soft advertisements that are trying to pretend to not be that.

My other piece of evidence stems from something that came up in a Swell Entertainment video a couple of years ago. I don't have an exact time stamp for this because, like any good conspiracy theorist and true to my brand overall, I haven't proofread this post at all before I posted it. Anyway, at one point in that linked video, she shows a screenshot of a sponsorship deal that basically amounted to the company asking that she have a poster in the background for a certain number of videos and not mention that it's meant as an advert. Basically, just sell it off as a background decoration she was trying out for a bit.

I wouldn't be too surprised if this kind of thing also happens on Tumblr. The major companies are clearly of the opinion that user-generated content can work as an advertisement. I think it'd also be a lot easier on Tumblr in some ways because people are kinda used to Tumblr being the fandom website, so seeing posts for an upcoming movie or show isn't going to trip any alarms the same way they might on some other website.

I think also, on Reddit people were generally much more aware of this being a thing, so they were a bit more vigilant for it. There were definitely a couple of times when I got a reply to one of my comments where I wondered if it wasn't a celebrity's PR team trying to counteract negative opinions, for example.

There's definitely a few things that have come out somewhat recently that have made me wonder if there hasn't been an active effort to do some grassroots-style advertising for the movie on Tumblr. (Yes, I'm thinking of Barbie specifically.) Sure, it's not unusual for a big budget movie to get a lot of hype, especially if it's part of an ongoing franchise, but usually that level of hype doesn't start until the movie's already out.

I feel like the hard part of this style of advertising on Tumblr is that this site isn't really as easily monetised as some other social media sites. Some of this is because Tumblr has traditionally been pretty resistant to any kind of social media-fication of the site in general, so there isn't really an algorithm that can be gamed the same way you can game the algorithm on Reddit, YouTube, or Instagram.

Because of that, a lot of the ways you'd advertise on Tumblr are very dependent on you being able to "breach containment". Maybe you'd have to buy an account with x number of followers to get the chance of a certain gifset reaching a larger audience, or find a way of convincing some larger accounts to follow you.

This is really the area where I feel like I'm not ever going to be able to prove it definitively. On other sites, especially ones with a fairly well developed influencer culture, you'd just have to pay off a few people to start the trend. Even on Reddit, where there isn't really an influencer culture the same way there is on Instagram or YouTube, you just have to know how to work the site's algorithms a little bit.

I don't really know what the beginning stages of doing that kind of soft advertising on Tumblr would look like. At least in my corner of the site, there's an active rejection of that kind of culture, so someone who'd try that would probably get rightfully shunned. Maybe a newer account could follow however many other people who are posting about a certain thing, show off some gifsets based on a trailer, and that'd be the starting point, but it'd be a slow start; not the kind of thing you'd necessarily want for an advertisement where you want as many eyeballs as possible.

Still, in some ways, that might actually make it work even better. Because it's coming from some nobody from a very specific corner of the site, nobody would be expecting it to be a corporate account.

[starligtgalaxy]

chapter 13: Rat-napped!

Mei fumbles around with the dumpling, trying to close it "I feel like this would be easier if I had fingers"

Her, Pigsy and Tang were at the lunar new year festival, making food for people attending.

Pigsy hands a bowl of noodles to a costumer "Thank you! Great happiness and prosperity this Lunar New Year!"

"Mei, is it just me or does Pigsy seem more.." Tang chimes, looking at the pig. "stressed than normal? Why isn't (Y/n) helping, she isn't the person to not show up without telling"

Pigsy sighs "she said she couldn't come because she's too sensitive to loud noises"

"Aw man, poor (Y/n). Staying inside all day sounds like torture" Mei frowns, perching her arms onto the counter.

☄. *. ⋆

The mentioned girl was sitting on her bed, wearing a pair of headphones.

Humming along the music playing on her phone, swinging her heads side to side.She watches the beautiful fireworks, somewhat dissapointed that she wasn't able to help the others.

She looks to her left to be only inches from a pair of red eyes, making her fall off her bed.She closes the window as she stands up, pulling off her headphone.

She turns to her mentor."What's up? I thought you were gonna enjoy the fireworks" She asks.

"As much I love them, I don't like people" Albino rat explains "I want you to go to the festival to grab a snack for us"

(Y/n) deadpans "what?"

"The festival has the best food and I can't get it myself because I have no money and I would have no luck trying steal some in my rat form" The older woman reponds.

(Y/n) sighs "Alright, I won't be gone for long"

She walks out of the door, slipping her headphones back on. She walks down the stairs after selecting a playlist.

Passing by people wearing costumes, cheering. Bright colors were flying around.

She stop at a stand that catches her eyes, having a chart displayed with spicey levels.

Very hot🌶️

Boiling lava🌶️🌶️

Ripped DBK🌶️🌶️🌶️

Aussie heat🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

🔥INFERNO🔥

A boy with red hair glide into view, saying something. (Y/n) lowers her music to hear him.

"-come, dear costumer. What can I get you?"

(Y/n) places her hand on her chin, looking at the chart. "Hmm, I'll take a boiling lava"

"Alright, that'll be 50 Reneminbi" he responds.

(7 dollars)

(Y/n) places down a 50 Reneminbi note. The boy grabs it and walks into the back.

(Y/n) taps her foot as she waited. Ignoring the muffeld screams, thinking they were just her imagination.

The boy returns, putting a tray with barbecue in it. Being red with little sparks coming for it.

(Y/n) grabs a piece and pops in her mouth. Making a little flame out of it.

She perks "That's really good!"

"That wasn't the reaction I was expecting, atleast it wasn't screaming in excruciating pain" The boy says, slightly shrugging."

Huh?" (Y/n) says confused.

"Nothing, have a nice evening"

She shrugs off and walks off, turning the music back up. She closes her eyes, smilling.

Her relaxed moment was cut short when she feel someone tap her shoulder. She turns around to meet a buff spider.He seem to say something about being sorry.

Before (Y/n) could question what he meant, she was knocked out cold and dragged away.

∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆

it's been 13 chapters, finally Redson shows up and only have like 5 lines. So next chapter DBK and Wukong will show up.

[mysticmiav]

I've gotta ask (also I absolutely love your Solomon brainrot art <3) how did you get to lesson 11? I'm stuck on six and just can't advance 😭

Aidjake thank you for liking it!

Tbh the only correct answer is that I got to lesson 11 through the power of desperation🫠

I had pretty much used support items to just get past the c point of lesson 11 levels cuz I was that desperate🫠

I'll drop pics of my teams below! I always just let the game choose for me which cards are best in the battle lol

-> I do have to say that since I've updated the cards a bit since lesson 11 released, they can now probably pass the levels of it with like a B~ score. The URs used to be leveled up to around 50ish, and the SSRs to 30, now they are at 70 to 45 respectively so yeah. Just wanted to mention that cuz the stats in the images are higher than when I played 11, hence why I had to use support itmes all the way through the lesson x)))

I have only been doing free rolls so far, cuz I wanna save up my devil points for future banners I might really wanna pull on, and I'm f2p so yea~

I'd say if you're stuck due to cards not being strong enough/levels being too hard, you'll have to be a bit patient and level up the cards! Il

If you're short on grimm to level up the cards, go farm grimm from fabsnap (I know, the app scares me too, but bear with it.)

Basically if you go there and go to the search page, choose one of the videos that show up there and then spam hearts on it, you get an achievement every 50 interactions, and it's 1000× grimm per "milestone". It's per character, and the videos from Asmo, Luke, Simeon, Lucifer and Belphie are all open, so you can get grimm from each of their characters!

Make sure to level up the cards and unlock devil tree spaces! They rlly help make ur deck stronger~

But if the problem is more or less the rhythm battles being too difficult, then Idk if I have helpful tips man.

I really am not that good with rhythm games, I've only ever played piano tiles a few years ago when it blew up.

Tbh the rhythm battles-format of NB is very confusing to me, and I could just never get used to it (the way you click right-left or up-down) with the way the tiles slide horizontally. My brain and fingers can't coordinate that stuff at all🫠

So, I just play the battles like they are piano tiles levels x) I've set the rhythm settings to up-down, and whenever I play I flip my phone so that it's vertical, and that the tiles and buttons move "towards me" kinda. It made the levels more fun and somewhat easier, so if you think it might help, go ahead!

But yeah that's pretty much the way I've been playing so far. Hope it has helped and good luck getting past those lessons!

The pics below are the decks the game tends to select for me on the battles, since they are my strongest cards (other than those 2 URs and 3 SSRs, all my other cards are sr and below x)

[breithenua]

Unpopular opinion:

I don't like any nicotine products. But I *absolutely despise* people that shame nicotine addicts for taking less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. Shame isn't a good way to help a person get over *any* addiction. It just increases their stress and makes them more likely to relapse.

When I think of smokers, I think of my late aunt Eileen. She's not my only relative that died in large part because she smoked cigarettes for decades (there are 2 others so far), but she's the one that comes most to mind.

Eileen smoked from a young age. She tried to quit several times throughout her life. When I was pretty young, I remember her having to have part of a lung removed because she had lung cancer in a specific part of said lung. That wasn't enough to get her to quit successfully. When her mother, my grandmother, got emphysema from 50 years of smoking, needed to be on an oxygen tank the rest of her life, and became so immobile in her early to mid 70s that she needed a walker just to move from her armchair to her bed, that wasn't enough for Eileen to quit successfully. When Eileen herself got emphysema, had to use an oxygen tank, and was using a rascal scooter just to get around, that wasn't enough for her to permanently quit. None of that was enough motivation for her to quit. And there's a simple reason for that, that a lot of the people shaming nicotine users either ignore or don't understand:

*Not everyone is capable of 100% quitting, no matter HOW HARD they try.*

Eileen died around a decade ago, by the way. And it wasn't an easy death. I'm not sparing anyone the details either. I don't care anymore about sparing the feelings of anyone that has the aforementioned attitude.

She got pneumonia, spent 3-4 weeks in a coma with a breathing tube down her throat, and bags to collect her bodily waste. She woke up eventually, but everytime they tried to ween her off the breathing tube, her oxygen levels dropped so dangerously low that taking her off the breathing tube just couldn't be done. She also couldn't see anything, because the nurses accidentally punctured one of her lungs when trying to insert a chest IV, and air bubbles got into her bloodstream. Her body swelled up like a fucking balloon. And while I somewhat blame the nurses for not being more careful, it's also true that her lungs were hardened and less flexible due to all the damage from smoking, so it was easier for such a mistake to be made. She spent 2 weeks after waking up, conscious but unable to talk, see, eat or drink anything, or even breathe without a tube down her throat. Eventually the decision had to be made *by her own daughter* to have her taken off the breathing tube and let her pass as peacefully as was legally possible. Slowly suffocating to death surrounded by her family members, sobbing and her daughter begging for forgiveness was the most peaceful death she could be given, due to her condition and the illegality of doing so via other drugs. Take that in. Take as much time as you fucking need.

I made myself watch as her breaths got frantic, then settled to a crawl, before finally stopping altogether. I watched as the heart monitor quickened, then slowed, then stopped as well. All because it was the best way I knew to say goodbye.

I'm not saying she wouldn't have had any health issues at all had vape pens been way more popular back then as an alternative to cigarettes and she made the switch, but she might not have died so horribly, and it might not have been such a traumatic event for that entire side of the family when she would eventually pass away. And remember, she tried and failed several times in her life, up until her death. She had more than enough motivation to quit. She couldn't.

My ultimate point is this: If fully quitting was possible for everyone, I wouldn't have this story to tell, and my entire mom's side of the family wouldn't have that awful trauma to remember. I also wouldn't be absolutely furious every time one of you ignorant fucks act like it's always a matter of effort involved, or when you shame someone for using a less harmful alternative to cigarettes after doing cigarettes themselves for so long.

Stop trying to shame, ridicule and suppress usage of those less harmful alternatives. In fact, support them for their decision to try to be healthier in whatever ways they can. Maybe suggest it as an option to any loved ones you know that are *still* smoking cigarettes. That's far more helpful than repeating that Truth .org bullshit and trying a zero tolerance policy for nicotine usage at all.

One last thing: If you disagree with my point, keep it to yourself. I don't fucking care. Not after what I've seen and my family has suffered. I do not have any tolerance for your holier-than-thou abstinence-only bullshit on addictions, and I never will. Listen or don't, I can't control you, but I don't have to respect you for not taking this information on board.

Now I'm going to try to sleep after reliving those awful memories just to make a fucking point to some of you assholes. Breithe out.

[onkarshah]

How to improve your English vocabulary easily

The most important thing for foreign language learners to undertake is to expand their vocabulary. Not only does knowing a lot of words make you sound knowledgeable, but words and phrases are the foundation of all languages.

As you may have read in my "How to Form Sentences" post, we build sentences from words, and the more words you know, the easier it is to form sentences.

However, we require vocabulary not only for sentence formation, but also for reading. To fully understand a document, you must know at least 98% of the words in the text (including non-content words like the, but, and so on), and you can imagine how long it takes to grasp a text if you only know 70% or 50% of the words in the text.

Fortunately, based on language acquisition studies, I'll provide you some pointers on how to broaden and expand your English vocabulary.

Increase your exposure!

I can't emphasise this enough: EXPOSURE, EXPOSURE, EXPOSURE! Language learning requires exposure, and research has shown that the more exposure you have to English, the faster you will learn the language. The same is true for vocabulary: the more exposure you have, the more incidental learning occurs and the faster your vocabulary expands. However, you will discover later on that you need to do more to truly broaden your vocabulary.

Incidental vocabulary acquisition is when you acquire vocabulary simply by being exposed to it. This means that you encounter a word repeatedly (in a video, in a text, in a song) and at some point will understand what the word means. There’s one caveat with this: make sure you encounter the words in different contexts and more than once.

What's more intriguing is that the more you encounter the word in a text, the less time you'll need to process it. It soon "blends in" with other words you know, and you become acquainted with the word.

Do you want subtitles with that?

What are you going to do with your subtitles? Should you have them on in your first language or in English? Having English subtitles is the most effective way to get the proper blend of visual and audio input. Just make sure that if you're viewing something to help you enhance your vocabulary, it's not too challenging. Select something that is somewhat over your skill level.

A vocabulary notebook is a useful tool for expanding your vocabulary. This is basically a notepad in which you record new words and their definitions. There are diaries and notebooks designed specifically for keeping track of vocabulary, but a typical old-fashioned journal will suffice.

Because they involve more brain work than just searching up a word in a dictionary, vocabulary notebooks promote language acquisition. The Involvement Load Hypothesis asserts that "retention of unfamiliar words is dependent on the involvement load of a task, i.e. the amount of need, search, and evaluation it imposes."

When seeking up meanings for terms for your vocabulary organizer, you search for the word in a dictionary and evaluate whether the definition fits the context and your needs. This level of participation makes this technique incredibly beneficial for expanding your vocabulary.

Using a vocabulary notebook also boosts the quantity of words you may employ in your active vocabulary while practising productive skills, according to research.

By employing a vocabulary organizer, you will amass a personal dictionary of words, phrases, collocations, and phrasal verbs that you are unfamiliar with. Bonus tip: look for synonyms for phrases you use every day and add them to your personal lexicon!

Are you looking for spoken english classes in ahmedabad, Contact us BeAlpha

I feel that exercising your productive abilities is just as important as exposure for language learning, and there is data to back me up. This also applies to language acquisition: if you utilise the words you've encountered, you'll internalise them faster.

You could try using the terms in your work or when speaking to someone. You might also put post-its with your words all about your house to enhance your exposure to them.

Hopefully, these suggestions may assist you in expanding your vocabulary. Do you require additional assistance? Use the Oxford 3000 or Oxford 5000 word lists to determine which words you should know at which CEFR level. Excellent resources for studying for the Cambridge exams.

[seeklovenet]

Honest Secret Benefits Evaluate: The Reality About Secret Benefits

Honest Secret Benefits Evaluate: The Reality About Secret Benefits

With Secret Benefits, fortunately, that’s not the case. We anecdotally via our take a look at searches saw loads of males and loads of girls who actually seemed to be taking the process significantly. A comparatively new feature added in mid 2022 is the “Become a Top Admirer” characteristic. With this, you can use your credit to level out the individual you’re talking to that you’re serious and you’re involved. However, you do get to principally “set somewhat cash on fire” to get their attention and let them know you’re serious. Yes, it does sound foolish however it’s most likely really pretty efficient.

The complete process of making our profile took lower than 10 minutes. Registration was simple and intuitive navigation facilitated the process, so we had no difficulties. Answering the question of what makes Secret Benefits website particular, is its recognition on the international sugar dating market, mostly due to its great moderation and cheap costs.

Wwwsecretbenefitscom

Does it mean that a sugar daddy has to pay a tax for an offline or on-line sugar baby allowance they pay? This monetary platform lets you buy something or send payments on any gadget. You simply add a checking account, debit/credit card, and make any transactions you need. Of course, PayPal additionally permits receiving funds, and almost all SBs on any niche courting website could have a PayPal account. Yes, Secret Benefits has been around since 2015 and is a legit relationship website.

This article might assist you to, when you want a quick reply. Also, it’s price mentioning that there's a group of Secret Benefits users which are thinking about cyber sugar relationship . We a sorry to hear that your expertise wasn’t as you expected. If you wish to improve it or strive again, we advocate taking your time to fill in your profile and stating clearly what you're looking for on Secret Benefits, to draw the correct of customers.

Ultimate Thoughts—how To Ship Sugar Money?

Unlike other sites, SugarDaddyMeet restricts customers to solely female sugar baby and male sugar daddy preparations. It's slightly pricier for sugar babies, with membership listed as $50 (around £39) per 30 days for each sugar infants and daddies. Plus, membership is restricted to customers from the 20 richest countries on the planet. Could you specify what companies you spent your cash on to have the ability to allow us to figure out what went wrong?

Most relationship websites have it, as it’s an effective way to catch attention and make a person want to keep on studying your private information. According to the survey, 93% of individuals that search relationships on-line say that a profile photo is a should. The subsection is shaped during your registration course of.

How Long Does It Take To Confirm Photos?

Not solely that, however the system of purchasing for credit versus paying a monthly payment can prevent money and hold your actions very discreet. Minimal Site Features There are zero options in place to make it easier so that you can use the site and find sugar child matches. They depart it as much as you to browse the choice of members, so best of luck sorting via that nonsense. I didn’t like a lot in regards to the site, even from the get-go, so I actually don’t know the way I lasted 3 complete months.

It's free to join and calls itself simply an "online dating" website for like-minded folks. Each new account needs secret key essence benefits to be reviewed by the administration. Upon registration, your account goes to be beneath verification course of.

Sugardaddymeet

Sugar daddy courting is about companionship, romance, conversations, all these “traditional” things. Those who select PPM normally favor to have a couple of dates a month as a substitute of assembly three occasions a week. In this case, paying in cash is just extra convenient. It doesn't explicitly say anywhere on the Secret Benefits web site that sugar daddies and sugar babies must have intercourse. However, it goes with out saying that the vast majority (probably 95%+) of sugar daddies signal as much as this site anticipating sex to be a half of the deal. It may not be the focus, however sex is included in any romantic relationship.

They are also able to be fairly selective when it comes to choosing a sugar daddy due to the innovative features offered by the positioning. Lastly, it has been reported by some sugar babies that the standard of males they discovered on Secret Benefits was larger than the standard of males they would’ve discovered on competing websites. As a sugar child, it doesn’t damage to enroll to as many websites as attainable since it is usually free to register and use the platforms. The secret advantage of the dating platform lies in how straightforward it's to seek out like-minded people and start chatting. When you find your perfect match, you probably can approach a member through messages.

Marty is our major sugar dating web site tester—he analyzes all of the components and offers the distillation of essentially the most useful and fascinating data. No, presently, there’s no Secret Benefits cell app. Both mobile app stores have restrictions for sugar apps, however some companies change the concept of the group a bit to cross all checks. But Secret Benefits is now available only as a website. A secret characteristic that we by accident discovered in the Privacy part of the Profile Settings. Also, we came upon that any person on the site can benefit from it free of charge.

[andimthedad]

Seeing Red at Turning Red?

We saw Disney's Turning Red this past weekend and liked it a lot. It's funny and quirky. To be honest, I liked Encanto more, but Turning Red is really good.

It also seems Turning Red is lighting up many conservative Christian parents, who seem apoplectic at various aspects of the film. As a Christian, I do not understand the outrage.

(Possible spoilers below, though I don't think I'm giving too much away.)

First, it's a coming-of-age story about a 13-year-old girl who is suddenly acting moody with her parents. So, naturally, her mom talks about puberty, specifically periods. ("Has the red peony bloomed?") If your child has no idea what a period is, then these parts of the movie — including one somewhat pivotal scene — could be confusing and might require you to explain a little about the facts of life. If this is a problem, then don't see the movie. Or maybe tell your kids how human bodies work.

(Side note: I know women who got their periods at age 10, or even 9, so 13 is definitely not too old to know these things. And your kids may hear about menstruation from their peers.)

Second, it's a coming-of-age story about a 13-year-old girl who desperately wants to expand past the boundaries set by a controlling mother who is well-meaning and loving but often makes dramatically incorrect assumptions about the girl's personal life. The girl ends up lying to and disobeying her mother in various ways. If you don't want to show your child a movie that deals with youthful deceit and disobedience, then don't show them this movie — or, frankly, any coming-of-age movie made in the last 50 years. I'm pretty sure every single one involves youth who disobey their parents or other authorities. Hello 1980s???

Third, it's a story about a Chinese-Canadian girl, written and directed by Domee Shi (a Chinese-Canadian woman), loosely based on the writer's childhood experiences in Toronto, starring various Asian actresses and actors. I have seen white folks saying the movie is hard to relate to because it's too Asian. Huh? If you are only capable of relating to the life experiences of white people, then don't watch this movie. Also, you're racist. On the flip side, I've also seen white folks claim the movie itself is racist because the characters are too much like Asian stereotypes. Seriously? The production and cast really suggest otherwise, and I didn't think the characters were stereotyped, though I thought a couple were two-dimensional. But maybe if you only think about Chinese people in stereotypes, don't watch this movie. Also, you're racist.

Fourth, why are periods and disobedience so hard to talk about with your kids? Go back to watching The Lion King... hold up, disobedience there too, not to mention the death of a parent. Finding Nemo, I guess... oh, wait, that movie opens with most of a family getting slaughtered by a monster, then the only surviving child getting kidnapped. OK, fine, let's watch Mulan... hold on, the main character is a cross-dresser who encounters entire villages murdered and razed to the ground? Try something wholesome like Up, then! Oh, wait, the movie opens with the old man's wife dying and him sinking into depression. The Little Mermaid gives up her greatest talent because she has the hots for a total stranger she saw once. Bambi's mom gets killed. And so on. Why are death, war, kidnapping, terrible romantic decisions, etc., easier to discuss with your kids than menstruation? Are you not talking to your kids about those topics???

Finally, Disney doesn't owe you movies tailored to your own personal comfort level. They just don't.

If you can't tell, I think the outrage is absurd. This type of thing makes people laugh at Christianity.

And, go see Turning Red. It's funny.

[Edit: a version of this post is now up on Medium]

[butwhatifidothis]

Shortened Lifespan: Edelgard vs Lysithea

Now, technically, I’ve already made a post like this before, but I wanted it to be it’s own thing (brought about by a mutual tagging a post of mine and me wanting to go more into depth with it lol).

It’s been very widely accepted by the fandom that Edelgard and Lysithea both go through the expectation of living a shortened life due to the blood experiments done to them, with this partly being used as part of the defense/reasoning for Edelgard going to war instead of doing something more peaceful. She thinks she’s on a timer, like Lysithea, so she hard-starts change to work around her short-lived clock. Makes sense, on the surface. 

But like I’ve mentioned on here before, I personally just can’t buy it. Nothing besides the immediate connection of “Edelgard and Lysithea both went through experimentation” suggests that Edelgard has the same shortened lifespan that Lysithea is suffering through. 

More under the cut

One thing that immediately stands out, to me, are the differences between their stat spreads and growths (focusing on stats on this post). 

Here are Edelgard’s (note: Statues not applied - add five to the stats if you want the true max values):

They are extremely good, especially for a default armor unit.  Str and especially Mag are very high, average Dex and Spd (though notably good for an armor unit), good Def, amazing Charm. Her Luck and Res are the only things that are even kinda bad - it’d more accurate to say they’re below average, tho again, 47 Res on an armor unit is fairly high. In fact, of the units that lean towards armor, Edelgard has the highest Res, and even beats out some units that aren’t armor-leaning such as Claude and Felix. Even her seemingly low HP (for an armor) is mitigated by the fact that it’s still some of the highest for a female unit overall (the fifth highest, beat out by Petra, Rhea, Manuela, and Hilda)

What are Lysithea’s, in contrast? (blacked out everyone above her for easier reading):

...Uh. Yeah. In contrast to Edelgard’s far more even spread, Lysithea’s are skewed to fuck. The best Mag in the game and the second highest Dex (losing only to Claude’s 89), and some nice Spd, sure, but everything else takes an extremely large hit. 48 HP is the lowest in the game, pitiful Str and Def, and mediocre Luck, Res, and Charm. This girl is held together by toothpicks, Elmer’s glue, and God’s mercy.

So right off the bat, there’s a huge difference between the two of them in this regard, but I decided to go even further; just how off are Lysithea’s stats, actually? Some things make sense, like low Str and Def, so how different is she compared to others in her class type (magic users).

The magic users of the following factions have the Str stat underlined. First, BE:

BL:

GD:

CoS:

From what we can see, 30 Str isn’t actually out of the norm for a female magic user. The outliers are Rhea and Manuela with their Str in the low 50′s being not just the highest of the women, but of all the main magic users period, though part of that could be contributed to their age (vs Hanneman who is both older - in terms of physical age at least - and who does not focus on physical strength like someone like Gilbert) (Rhea being an older Nabatean could also attribute to this - notice Seteth’s stat spread which also has notably high Mag for a Wyvern Rider unit and Flayn’s, who is younger and who also had only recently woken from a centuries long sleep that she fell into after nearly dying, more odd spread). Following them for the women is Annette, who as we know lugs around a giant axe (Crusher’s weight is 11, making it heavier than most swords and bows and a good few lances - fun fact, it’s heavier than Areadbhar!) which likely lends to her having above average Str for her gender and unit type combination

Now, here’s the fun part: let’s look at the same unit’s Res stats

BE:

BL:

GD:

CoS:

Here’s where an interesting pattern shows up that’s fairly consistent: if a magic unit has bad Str, they have good/great Res to compensate, and vice versa. Annette’s above average Str (remember, for what she is) coincides with her bad Res, same as Manuela’s, and all the magic units with their ass Str have at least a respectable Res to go along with it. The only ones who break this rule are Rhea, due to her Str and Mag being fairly even with a lean towards magic (and also not being playable lol)... and Lysithea. Who has both a shit Str and shit Res stat. Even amongst her magical peers, Lysithea still stands out as particularly fragile and physically weak.

HOWEVER

Do note, for all of the above in terms of going over stats, that they aren’t necessarily the best indicator of anything in particular when it comes to a character; there is no version of me in the multiverse that will ever believe Manuela is stronger than Rhea or that Lorenz has the same amount of stamina as Dimitri, for example. But it is something to note when looking at Edelgard and Lysithea, due to them going through the same experiments and yet one is very clearly doing better in terms of damn near everything and the other very clearly lagging behind in damn near everything

Moving on, we have their Banes and Boons. Edelgard’s Boons are Axes, Swords, Heavy Armor, and Authority, with Banes in Faith and Bows. Of note, Edelgard will say in a Study Request that she believes it is her specifically having two Crests that allows her to be able to shrug on armor like it’s nothing, and her defaulting to an armor class with an axe as her default weapon makes her the literal heaviest she could theoretically be. On top of that, her Banes point to nothing about her physical health hindering her ability to do physically laborious feats.

Lysithea, on the other hand, has Boons in Faith, Reason, and Authority, with Banes in Swords, Lances, Axes, Heavy Armor, as well as Clearing Rubble as a Group Task activity. She has a budding talent in Swords - the lightest of the weapons she’s bad at and some of the lightest weapons in the game - that gives her access to a Combat Art that lets her use something other than Str to give Mt to her sword-based attack. Lysithea, in terms of Banes and Boons when compared to Edelgard (or anyone, really), is very clearly unable to do physically demanding things very well - it’s something she’s actively bad at doing and is a consistent fact about her that crops up in not just her stats and Banes and Boons, but also her supports. Edelgard’s situation is the same.

Edelgard has her supports with Ferdinand, as well as Ferdinand’s supports with Byleth, that showcase her being exceptionally good at combat in terms of physical fighting (as in, no magic, and having a talent in doing feats that would require a good amount of stamina). She beats Ferdinand in combat with one strike, and she is able to take on a Demonic Beast by herself while still fresh in the academy. There are no mentions of her being winded or tired from fighting, and she is more than once praised for her battle prowess.

Lysithea, meanwhile, has at least three supports (Byleth, Lorenz, Cyril) that indicate less than stellar stamina, health, and strength (she straight up faints in Byleth’s supports). While characters looking out for her health can maybe be somewhat attributed to her being one of the youngest students in the cast, the difference between and, say, Cyril, who’s even younger than her, is that she genuinely shows signs of ill health when she pushes herself too far, vs Cyril who is fine even with how much he works. When talking about her prowess in battle it is only ever in regards to her magical capabilities, not anything else, and she is seen constantly working on those capabilities.

And then lastly, there are their endings.

Edelgard has no endings that mention needing to be rid of her Crests - save one, which will be looked at in a bit. In particular, she has an ending with Hubert that indicates she lives on to her “later years,” which is usually attributed to a fairly old age. It is not, in this case, referring to Edelgard’s specific later years (for example, a person who lives to 30 can say their mid-twenties was the later years of their life), because it specifically says that she and Hubert live to their later years, which more likely points towards a longer life.

Lysithea in contrast has multiple endings that either has her and/or her lover actively looking for means to get rid of Lysithea’s Crests, or explicitly say that she dies young. There’s... not much more to add to that lmao

But! There is one ending with Edelgard that mentions her getting rid of her Crests, and it even says they restore her lost time! That’s proof positive, isn’t it?

Well, funnily enough, this is her ending with Lysithea that mentions this, and it... appears to be straight up incorrectly translated. As has been pointed out by others, the JPN ending doesn’t specifically mention restoring their lifespans, it simply says Edelgard and Lysithea “discovered a way to exchange the crest’s power for the restoration of a lost lifespan.” While, if we look at the surface level “Edelgard and Lysithea both had Crests implanted into them” similarity, it makes sense to attribute this restoration to the both of them, looking at everything else leans towards this statement mostly being for Lysithea. Which, given that this is the only ending - or really, the only place period - Edelgard has that even mentions her wanting to be rid of her Crest, let alone actively working towards it, it makes sense that this isn’t for her. 

Now, all of the above isn’t directly pointing towards anything - it’s a lot of speculation, since nothing about Edelgard herself having a short life is ever explicitly said in the game. But when looking at all of the differences between Lysithea and Edelgard, when looking at how badly Lysithea stacks against everyone else vs how amazing Edelgard stacks, at how often dying young is mentioned with Lysithea vs Edelgard, at how much Lysithea focuses on her lifespan vs Edelgard, I personally just can’t believe that they’re similarly afflicted with a shortened life. 

There’s almost nothing in the game to suggest that other than the one thing they have in common, which is the experiments themselves - if they do, then Edelgard simply doesn’t care as much about it as Lysithea, and/or it isn’t nearly to the extent of Lysithea, to the point where she feels no need to mention it anywhere. And this is the same character that brings up her ten dead siblings in the first support with the player character, so something as big as “oh yeah and I’m going to die relatively soon and young” feels like something she would similarly mention as something one should know about her, which she doesn’t. This seems, to me, to be just a popular fan theory that isn’t really all that supported in the game itself.

[hangovercurse]

Like Father Like Daughter

You meet Colson while visiting your dad, Tommy Lee, on the set of The Dirt and the rest is history.

Request: “Have colson(mgk) meeting tommy Lee’s daughter(reader) on set of the dirt and they fall in love and she meets casie scared that casie won’t like her but casie loves her”

Colson X Reader

Warnings: Cursing

A/N: I wrote this 3 different times because I didn’t like the first two…

Word Count: 2558

Day One

Stepping out into the New Orleans air for the first time was shocking; the smell of cigarettes, liquor, and swamp mixing around in your nose. But there was something in the air; something electric, exciting; something new. You headed towards the studio where your dad told you he was working for the day. A young woman with an earpiece and a clip board found you at the entrance, a kind smile on her face. “You’re Y/N, right? Tommy’s daughter.”

You nodded, letting her lead you through the maze of sets until you walked into a large room with lights and cameras surrounding an area of floor that was set up to look like the set of one of Motley Crue’s old music videos. Your father was on the set, talking to two men who looked around your age and Jeff Tremaine, the film’s director. You hesitantly walked further into the space, but not past the cameras, to alert him of your presence. This process was made much easier by your Uncle Nikki spotting you from across the room and shouting “Little Lee!”

Your dad, along with the men he was talking to and a few other people in the room, turned to look at you. You smiled shyly, sending a small wave to your dad’s best friend. Your dad beckoned for you to join his conversation, wrapping an arm around your side once you landed next to him. “Hey kiddo, how was your flight?”

You leaned into his shoulder, “it was fine. Longer than I’d expected but, at least I’m here.” You took in the unfamiliar faces of the men surrounding you, eyes lingering on the man with bright blue eyes and a drumstick twirling around in his hands.

“Oh, shit, right. This is my oldest, Y/N.” Your dad introduced you to the guys. “Y/N you know Jeff, this is Douglas,” he motioned towards the guy with long black hair and two painted stripes under his eyes, “he’s playing Nikki in the movie.” You nodded, sending the man a smile which he returned brightly. “And this is Colson, he’s me.” He pointed to the man your eye had caught on, who sent you a wide grin.

“Nice to meet you.” You said, towards all the men, but your eyes still trapped in Colson’s blue ones.

The rest of the day was spent uneventfully. You watched the boys film scenes over the monitor with your dad, him feeding you commentary on what actually happened. Even though you’d heard most of the stories growing up, you let him retell them.

You kept finding your attention drifting towards the man with bright blue eyes, a long black wig, and a set of drumsticks always at hand. Your dad noticed, teasing you every chance he got. “He’s hot, right?”

“Dad!” You huffed.

He chuckled, “Just spitting facts. At least I’m not the one drooling over him like a teenage girl.”

You rolled your eyes, “I am 26 years old: I don’t drool over boys.”

“Oh, well, Colson’s a man.” He elbowed you jokingly.

“You’re annoying.”

“Passed it down to you, kiddo.”

Later on, he’d swear he had nothing to do with it, but you’d always suspected he told Colson about your attraction for the man, as after filming wrapped for the day, Colson asked you to dinner. It was quite honestly the best date you’d been on in a long time, and soon you were agreeing to another the next night.

With Colson everything seemed naturally easy. He was one of the sweetest, funniest guys you’d met, and you wouldn’t have to worry about your dad not liking him. The only problem was that you were only able to spend a week in New Orleans with him.

Day 6

“You live in LA, right?” He asked on the walk back to your apartment, his jacket slung around your shoulders.

You looked up at him with the same smile that had been on your face the entire night, “yeah, why?”

He let out a nervous chuckle, “well, I was hoping that when I get back to LA in a month, we could do this again?”

Your smile turned into a smirk, “are you asking me to wait for you, Colson Baker?”

“When you put it like that I sound like a fuckin dweeb.”

“I thought I was making you sound romantic.” You whined jokingly, hand reaching out to intertwine with his. “But if you were asking, I would say yes.”

“It’s a date.”

“You better call me while you’re gone though.”

He looked down at you with a confused expression, “what do you take me for, an idiot? I am going to be texting and calling you so much you’ll be begging me to stop.”

“Good.”

You swung your hands back in forth the rest of the way home, comfortable silence enveloping you. Colson walked you all the way to the door of your hotel room, leaning against the wall as you unlocked the door. You turned to him before making your way into the room, a sad smile on your face. “I’ll see you in a month?”

He leaned off the wall and moved to stand directly in front of you, hands grazing your hips lightly, hesitantly. “One very long month,” he mumbled, trying to burn your image into his memory.

“Well,” you started, “maybe you should give me something to remember you by.” Colson raised his eyebrow at you, feeling somewhat taken aback by your boldness. But then he remembered who your dad was and was much less surprised.

His grip on your hips tightened as he leaned in, lips colliding with yours. Your arms moved up his arms slowly, landing finally around his neck. The kiss was sweet and slow, something you would have never expected from looking at the man. His lips felt intoxicating, like you would die if you pulled apart. It had only been a single kiss, but you were already addicted.

You were broken out of your trance by cheering from the end of the hallway, a familiar voice calling out “that’s my girl!” Your face turned red as you pulled apart, finding your dad and his fiancé, Brittany, clapping at the end of the hallway.

“You are so fucking embarrassing.” You told him as he approached you and gave Colson a firm pat on the shoulders.

“It could be worse. If it was anyone else, I probably would’ve kicked his ass for even thinking about kissing you.” Tommy said, an innocent smile on his face. “But Colson, I will kill you if you fuck this up.”

The blond boy gave him a small salute, “yes sir.”

Day 34

Your text tone rang from your phone as you sat on your couch, watching TV.

Colson:

Be ready in 45

Even though you’d spent the last 4 weeks facetiming him, you weren’t fully convinced that Colson would keep good on his promise to see you again once he got back in town. You’d been pretty convinced he wouldn’t as the days dragged on with no mention of his return or a reunion. But here he was, telling you to be ready for something.

You texted him back

Wait… are you serious?

When he responded with a

Flight just landed, yes I’m serious.

You squealed, rushing around the house to get ready. The simple thought of seeing him in person, of hopefully tasting his intoxicating lips again, made your heart flutter. And then he was knocking on your door. When you opened it to see him standing there, a single rose in his hand and a nervous smile on his face, you wanted to jump into his arms.

He was a gentleman the entire night, opening your door for you, pulling out your chair, complimenting you. Everything just felt so perfect. And when he walked you up to your door and kissed you goodnight, you swooned.

Day 50

You were sat on his couch, your back resting against his chest as some movie played on the TV. One of his hands was wrapped around your waist, the other intertwined with your own. You’d been sitting in relative silence for a while, save for the noise from the TV.

But that was broken when Colson spoke softly, “I know this is lame but like, I gotta make sure. You’re my girlfriend, right?”

You chuckled lightly at his lame attempt to ask you to be his girlfriend. “No, I’ve just been going out on dates with you and not talking to anyone else for shits and giggles.”

He let out a breath of air from his nose humorously, “Okay cool.”

“That was a yes, by the way.” You turned your head and leaned up to press a soft, strained kiss to his lips.

“Cool.”

Day 96

You were half asleep, wrapped up in Colson’s arms on his bed. Your head rested on his chest, eyes struggling to stay open. Colson was just as tired of you were, his words slowing when he said, “I think I’m in love with you.”

You mumbled out a lazy “really?” too tired to be shocked at the gravity of what he was saying. Truthfully, you weren’t all that surprise at the admission, as you had been looking for the right way to express the same sentiment.

“Yeah. I’m pretty fuckin’ in love with you.”

“Sweet” You mumbled, pressing a small kiss to his bare chest.

His chest shook with a silent giggle, “Cool.”

“I love you too.” You said, snuggling closer into him.

“Sweet.”

”Cool.”

Day 102

You were making pancakes at your stove, Colson’s arms wrapped around you from behind. He’d been staying the night at your house for almost a week, simulating the feeling of living with you. You couldn’t admit that the thought wasn’t attractive, having him around almost all the time was amazing and something you were afraid of ending.

“Hey, could I ask you something?” He mumbled as you watched the pancakes cook. You hummed a response and he continued, “my daughter’s gonna be in town next week. I was hoping you’d meet her.”

You bit your lip, a grin growing on your face. You knew meeting Casie was a big deal to Colson, he had told you many times how important she was to him. He didn’t let her meet just anyone in his life. “Yeah, I’d love that.”

But then that thought crossed through your mind; the one that would raise your anxiety levels for the next seven days. What if Casie doesn’t like me?

If Casie didn’t like you, things with you and Colson would be over. He didn’t even have to tell you that, you just knew. And you couldn’t blame him; she’s the most important person in his life. But you loved Colson, and you wanted him to be around for a while. So, if you made a bad first impression, everything would crumble down.

And that’s exactly what you told him a few days later while you lay in bed, Ferris Bueller playing in the background as you traced the outlines of his tattoos.

Day 106

“What if Casie doesn’t like me?”

“Babe, she’s nine years old. She’ll get over it.” He kissed the top of your head lightly, fingers running up and down your spine.

“Yeah, but what if she doesn’t? I know you won’t wanna be with me if she doesn’t approve. And I don’t blame you. I don’t want to be with you if she doesn’t want me to be.”

He grabbed your chin, pulling you to look at him, “you worrying right now is exactly the reason she’s gonna love you and the reason why I already do.” He kissed you softly, your eyes fluttering closed. He still manages to take your breath away.

“I love you too,” you whispered, “I’m just scared of losing you.”

He chuckled, “Casie’s tough, I won’t lie, but she’s going to see just how amazing you are and fall right in love with you. And, if you want extra brownie points, you should let her help you bake something.”

“Was that accidental or were you trying to make a really bad pun?”

He pressed another kiss to your lips, chuckling slightly, “they don’t call me comedy genius for nothing, babe.”

“No one calls you that.”

Day 109

Colson had decided it would be best for you and Casie to meet at his house, mostly because he hated taking Casie out in LA. He’d ordered dinner to be delivered and told you he’d stocked up on baking supplies for you and Casie. Now all you had to do was show up.

He answered the door, pulling you in for a long kiss as soon as he saw you. “I love you.” He whispered, trying to ease your nerves. You spoke the words back to him, letting him take your hand and lead you inside. “Hey, Case, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

You’d seen Casie through pictures that Colson had shown you or from around the house, but she seemed so much prettier in person. You could tell by the way she moved that she took after her father, just like people always said about you. “I’m Y/N.” You said shyly, a soft smile on your face.

Casie beamed up at you, “I’m Casie. Dad talks about you a lot.”

You chuckled, turning to him, “he does?”

She nodded, “he thinks you’re great.”

“I think he’s pretty great too.” He pressed a quick kiss to your cheek. “He tells me about you all the time.”

“Really?”

You smiled at her excitement, “heck yeah. I was so scared to meet you because of how cool he makes you sound.”

The three of you ate dinner, chatting conversation. You were less nervous than before; Casie seeming to like you, but you were still on edge. When you finished, Colson announced, “I happen to know that two of the best cookie makers in California are sitting at this table and I am not one of them.” He looked between you and Casie, a smile on his face. “So, I believe cookies are in order.”

You raised an eyebrow at him, an amused smile on your face. “You’re helping us.”

Casie nodded, “every master chef needs an assistant.”

“She speaks truth.”

Colson pouted at both of you, “I was gonna be the judge.”

Casie giggled, getting up from the table and dragging her dad by the arm to the kitchen. “Too bad!”

You stayed at the table, picking up dishes and taking them to the sink before joining the other two at the counter in front of a large bowl and a variety of ingredients. Colson was currently holding a bag of chocolate chips over Casie’s head as she jumped to reach it, failing miserably. “Y/N he won’t give me the chocolate chips.” She whined.

You gave Colson a stern look, “hand them over, noodle boy.” You held out your hand and he placed the bag into your palm, a pout on his face. Casie laughed, repeating the phrase “noodle boy” to herself as you handed her the bag.

“So, are you two just gonna team up against me the whole night?” He asked, looking between you two.

Casie and you made eye contact, firmly shaking your heads, “absolutely” you said at the same time.