#not for any technical or logistical reasons

[wildflowerteas]

TSP 2 Week Hiatus ( so sorry )

[somelazyassartist]

Chrisantium meeting his baby sisters,,, he's only about 100 or so here so he's got plenty of time to adjust to not being an only child anymore lol

[blujayonthewing]

tbqh I think the 'IT'S AN OBSOLETE RELIC OF PATRIARCHY' Angry Feminism angle of a woman not taking her husband's last name is maybe a little overblown except for when my household receives a card addressed to Mr and Mrs Justin Lastname

[simplydnp]

Do you think the recording of TIT (bc it has to be getting recorded at some point tbh) will be a dvd release or a youtube upload this time around? I forget if Dan said any specific reason why WAD ended up being free on YT, but I feel like after setting that precedent, there's almost no going back. Ofc, there is the precedent of the two actual dnp tours being dvd or YT Red/Premium releases, but do you have any thoughts?

oh anon i'm so happy you asked. bc i did so much research for this about WAD before we knew what would happen with it.

so. the problem with dvds is storage capacity. with TIT being 2 hours, that is a lot of footage to put on a singular dvd at the resolution that they'd currently want to. dvds come in 2 sizes: 4.7 gb and 8.5 gb. you can fit a 2 hr movie onto a single layer (4.7) but any longer, and you need the double layer (8.5). thus, TIT would have to be on a double layer, unless they don't plan on including anything else except the 2 hr recording. a dvd can't play high resolution footage, only standard definition (480p). so there'd be a picture quality difference.

this is where blu-rays come in. they can store and play 1080p footage. they also hold significantly more space (a single layer blu-ray can hold 25 gb, a double 50 gb). part of the trade-off here though is that higher resolution footage takes up more space. a single layer can store 2.25 hr of HD video; a double 3 hrs. they could get away with a single layer, and that includes room for 2 hours of standard definition BTS video.

problem is, not everyone has a blu-ray player (not like everyone has dvd players either). but the main issue is that DVD players won't play blu-rays--and this includes disc drives for laptops and PC's. you need a special external driver to do it.

we'd be wading into contracts and companies being interested in selling physical copies, and given how discs in general are sort of becoming obsolete, i would be surprised if they put it on disc.

our next option would be streaming. i don't really see them wanting to attach it to any larger corporation--especially given they're physical media guys. the thought of just losing something simply because a streaming service doesn't want it anymore, or the company goes under, would be enough to keep them away from that.

people pitched the idea of nebula or dropout, but i don't see them posting a single video on nebula and then nothing else. and since i don't see them as patreon guys, i don't think they'd want to do incentives for subscription style stuff. dropout would be more of a possibility, but they'd probably want to do more with dropout in terms of guest starring before entirely handing their baby over, y'know? like hank did a whole d20 season before he did his special there.

i do think they might just upload it to dapg. genuinely. because of what happened with WAD--both rights wise and precedent wise. but also, could be extremely good for them if they can actually monetize it. their longer videos on dapg do very well, and since WAD happened before TIT was fully ironed out, i bet they've included the prospect of doing so into their scripting, so it has the ability to be monetized on their channel. plus, the desire to make it accessible for everyone (even though they are trying to tour in more countries). depending on how that goes, it may be delayed in being released online.

a lot of technical talk but i am so glad you asked anon, i love logistics discussion!

[esamastation]

Shizuroth, part sixteen

Previous parts: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen

-

Though Shen Yuan had played Final Fantasy VII and Crisis Core way back when, mostly because emulation was easily available and everyone praised them a lot, he'd never really gotten that into it. He'd sort of missed the hype train, and all the hot takes had already been taken, and Advent Children was kinda weird and overall it just didn't grab him.

But he has to admit that Midgar is a really cool setting.

It's dumb, of course, like, on every logistical level. Oh, look, there's thousands of kilometres of free real estate in every direction to build on, but you know what we should do? A massive fuck off blast plate of million billion tons of metal fifty metres of the ground, that's what we'll do, and we'll build a city in top of it too!

Like, why?! In what realm even remotely attached to sanity does that make sense?! Is there something wrong with the ground, is there an issue of sudden mega floods, or something? No, it's just. A thing they did! 

Logic and sanity aside, though, it's cool, as a videogame setting, it's very cool. With the rule of cool there's no reason for, you know, reason. It's iconic. 

And it's the closest thing to a modern city he's seen in - in a while! And, damn, but the scale of everything in real life is so much bigger than any of the games conveyed.

It's a real city! With real city traffic and bustle and dystopian advertisements everywhere! There's also an ever present haze of pollution that gives all the neon signs a dreamy glow. It's almost pretty.

And it's only powered by the lifeblood of the planet, too. Technically the souls of the dead! Wonderful.

"Please stop gaping at everything like a damned tourist and get in. People are starting to stare."

Sephiroth looks down to the car that had just stopped in front him on the sidewalk. Genesis had told him to get to the front, that he'd meet him there, but…

Genesis has a car. It shouldn't be a surprise, the guy is rich and the city is big, but it is. It's a really nice car too. A fucking oldtimey wine red convertible. It matches Genesis' outfit. How extra can you get?

"... Do I have a car?" Sephiroth asks slowly, rather than point out how ridiculous and in character it is.

"You have a motorcycle you never use," Genesis says, sounding tired. "Get in."

Sephiroth has a motorcycle. Of course he does.

He opens the convertible's side door and is immediately smacked in the face with a mix of nostalgia and incredulity at the old familiar feeling of something so simple as a car door mechanism at his fingertips. The seat is too much in the front for Sephiroth's long legs, but the seat goes back, and that's a familiar feeling too. Kind of.

He always had to pull his seat forward, rather than back.

Swallowing the sudden, long suppressed homesickness for a world he's two transmigrations away from, Sephiroth looks for a seatbelt. There isn't one. Hooray for corporate dystopia.

Genesis joins the four lane traffic in front of the Shinra building with the reckless expertise of a man who drives a lot in the city, and hates it almost as much as he loves his car.

"How far is it?" Sephiroth asks, trying to figure out where to put his hands. It's a really nice car, and it looks polished, inside and out.

He can't believe he's in a car. He can't believe he's in a world with cars again. He also can't believe how badly the games conveyed the scale of Midgar.

"Sector six," Genesis says and glances at him. "You're looking a little green there, are you feeling alright? Don't throw up in my car."

"I'm fine," he's really starting to get sick of saying it. "Stop fussing."

"Who's fussing! I just don't want you to make a mess," Genesis scoffs. "Also you aren't fine. You have amnesia."

Sephiroth snorts and leans his arm on the door, looking away and at the Shinra building.

It's huge, and weird. It sorta bulges out, this lumpy mass of a building with enormous pipes running up to it with a big barrel shape in the middle. It's the biggest building in the city, though - it's the only real skyscraper, towering over all the smaller buildings around it.

After all the metal in the Shinra building, it's weird to see brick and mortar again. Why brick and mortar? What did they run out of steel and concrete building the plate? None of the other buildings go higher than eight levels, too.

"We've covered one thing you remember perfectly. Anything else? You recognized Angeal and me, but how about anything else?" Genesis prods at him. "Hey, are you listening to me?"

Oh, he hates this. At least in Cang Qiong Mountain people were too polite to really pick on him or point out how badly he acted as Shen Qingqiu. They were nice enough to take his bullshit at face value and let it slide. Plus there was propriety to think about - none of his disciples had the standing to really call him out.

Genesis doesn't give a shit about his thin face and actually smacks him on the shoulder, "Hey!"

"What's there to say?" Sephiroth answers, because he has no answers to give. "I wouldn't know what I don't know, would I?"

Genesis sighs, irritated and stalls at the traffic lights. "And I can't tell you what to look up if you don't tell me. You must've figured out something by now."

"I figured I really could've used the day to myself," Sephiroth mutters and watches as a delivery truck advertising pastries runs a red light. "I don't know what you want me to say. I don't know, Genesis."

"Shit," the other SOLDIER says, running a hand through his hair while steering one-handed. 

There's a break in the discussion as they go through a checkpoint, where the guards in infantry uniforms just wave Genesis through. The people on the sidewalk stare at Genesis' convertible, and whisper.

Sephiroth looks away, and then blinks at the dump truck not far away from them, also going through the checkpoint.

Weird - somehow he didn't expect Midgar to have public services. Where do they go to empty them? Do they just dump their trash down the plate?"

"So you remember… nothing?" Genesis asks as they leave the checkpoint behind

"I know - some things," Sephiroth says defensively. "But - the details escape me."

"Things like what?"

"I don't know. You, Angeal. This city. The war. Don't ask me for the president's name, but I know there is one," he sighs and leans back, watching an enormous advertisement for LOVELESS pass them by. 

He also knows that sometime soon Genesis will get hurt and the wound will never heal, kick-starting the plot of Crisis Core. He has no idea when, though. He isn't even sure how to figure it out - the timeline in these games wasn't exactly clear.

"Does Angeal have a student?" he asks.

"What, like a personal student? Not that I know of," Genesis says and glances at him. "Why?"

"Ah, nothing, never mind. Must've been someone else," Sephiroth says smoothly.

So, Zack Fair, the protagonist of Crisis Core, hasn't appeared yet? Or Angeal hasn't met him. Hopefully that means there's still some time.

Genesis is quiet for a moment and then sighs. "I'll get you some intel. Personnel files for people you should know, reports from missions you've been on. The information packages handed to Thirds should help at least a little too. But Sephiroth, there's a lot about your past you've never shared, if someone asks about it…"

"I'll just say I don't want to talk about it," Sephiroth says, watching another neon lit advertisement fly by. "Thanks, Genesis."

"I expect to be compensated in full for my efforts," Genesis says firmly.

Sephiroth leans his cheek on his knuckles and wonders what Cultivation might do for the deterioration Genesis - and Angeal too - have ahead of them. "I'll do my utmost to pay back my debts."

"You better," Genesis says and turns the car from the main highway to a side road, full of expensive looking store fronts and equally expensive looking cars.   "That's it over there. Let me find a place to park and then we can get you a coat that fits."

"Much obliged, Genesis."

[slapthebass]

EUROPE TOUR24 FROM DEPRESSION TO [mode of Withering to death & UROBOROS] - Live reports (Warsaw + Paris)

Warsaw - Progresja 19/03/24 (mode of WTD)

Travelled to Poland on the 16th, we had mixed weather during the week-end but it was luckily quite sunny (albeit cold-ish) while we queued outside the venue! My friend and I had Priority upgrades for this show so we arrived around 14:30 & waited right next to the VIP queue. Venue logistics for the queue(s) were a bit fuzzy at first* but we got our laminated passes around 16:00 (just after the VIPs got theirs + goodies) then waited for a bit after 18:00 when the VIPs entered the building. Diru/prod staff keeps a printed list of VIP/priority passes holders and distributes passes and goodies by checking the names.

*Fans were better organised with sharpies and unofficial waiting numbers :)

We went in and waited (again :) ) in the pit for 1h, behind the caution tape separating the VIP from the rest of the room. This allowed us to get some merch at the stand, then at 19:00 the security guards lifted the caution tape and we managed to get nice spots at the 2nd & 3rd rows in front of Die's mic. We waited again for another hour while the general attendance ticket holders entered the venue, then the show started around 20:20 (a bit late because of a technical issue with Die's guitar apparently, that had all their technicians running around looking stressed out), without any intro if I remember correctly, maybe because of said technical issue (but there were Diru remixes being played through the speakers during the whole time we waited inside).

I was unfortunately right next to an annoying (& bulky) man who kept pushing me & other fans around the whole time (I fought for my life the whole set and almost fell when the members entered the stage), but otherwise the show was very nice, it was great seeing them live for the first time even though it felt quite unreal! WTD is not my favourite album but it was still amazing to hear the songs live and the audience was really into it <3 I could see Die very clearly, Toshiya also came around a few times, as well as Kaoru in the end, but my view of Kyo and Shinya was a bit blocked. Die wore his usual tights with a black sleeveless top and red jacket; Shinya had a flowy white shirt as always; Kyo sported a simple black t-shirt & track pants (?) with a nice white make-up on the top half of his face; Toshiya wore the black siren dress (I almost died seeing it with my own two eyes) with thigh-high boots (not the same pair as in the 2024 Yurameki PV though, they had bulky heels instead of stilettos heels for practical reasons obviously :D), and Kaoru wore a black suit with a white shirt.

They all looked a bit jetlagged, having landed in Poland only the day before the 1st concert, and Die was breathing quite heavily during Akuro no oka in the end! The show ended quite abruptly with Akuro no oka, I was expecting Rasetsukoku as they tend to end most concerts with it but they all left the stage (Kaoru, Die and Toshiya being of course the last to leave after throwing picks everywhere).

On a personal note, I was overjoyed the finally see the brown ESP bass which is heavily featured on WTD songs <3

The setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/dir-en-grey/2024/progresja-warsaw-poland-6baa32c2.html

The show ended around 22:00, it took a while for everyone to leave the venue!

Warsaw - Progresja 20/03/24 (mode of UROBOROS)

We had VIP upgrades this time & arrived around the same time as the day before, to wait with other fans under a nice sun :) Logistics were better than for the 1st show, with barriers already in place and 3 visible queues (VIP/Priority at the front + GA at the back of the 1st two lines). We heard reports & anecdotes from the previous day's VIP meet & greet and were 'warned' that Kyo had a paper bag on his head, so that saved us some awkwardness later :').

Staff also came while we were waiting, to check the names/tickets and distribute laminated passes & VIP goodies. We got a nice cotton bag, a fan, and an enveloppe to protect the postcards distributed by the group members. This time we got both a laminated pass and a wrist bracelet, to avoid cheating with passes from the day before. Staff also warned us no to take pictures/touch them during the M&G, then we entered the venue around 18:00 as expected. People queued in the stairs then before the doors of the main room upstairs (some went directly to the merch stand while we waited here), then the doors opened and we went inside one by one in a continued file, to meet the members and get the postcards. It was all very quick, I was a bit confused because they stayed in a quite dark area and I almost didn't recognize Kaoru who was first in line, oops. We didn't really had time to speak with them so I just took the signed postcards while thanking each of them; after Kaoru was Die with big sunglasses, Kyo with a paper bag on his head, Shinya with a mask on and Toshiya with sunglasses (he was the most smiley of them all and looked really nice and patient!). They were not yet wearing their stage outfits/makeup (except maybe for Kyo under the bag I guess?), and there was a gift box right next to the table to leave stuff for them.

Then we rushed to the stage and got 1st/2nd row spots, right between Kyo's platform on the left and Die's mic on the right! We waited again for two hours while speaking with nice fans from Romania who were right next to and behind us (hi if you're reading that!).

The show started on time with a nice intro video; it started with Vinushka, which is one of my favourite songs so I was really ecstatic to hear it live **. Kyo had a nice skull make-up which was really impressive with the visuals displayed on the screen! Then everything went blurry & heavy really fast haha, Uroboros really has to be experienced live at least once! HYDRA -666- & Reiketsu Nariseba in particular were especially impressive, they put them at the end of the main set to try and kill us I think :') (I was lucky enough to record the Toshiya-Die interaction during Reiketsu!). One calmer moment was Inconvenient Ideal, during which both Kaoru & Die went AWOL for a while (Kyo seemed to be looking for them at the beginning).

Not that the encore was softer, it started deceivingly 'calmly' with Dozing Green, then it was chaos again with Stuck Man, T.D.F.F. and Eddie back to back. Akuro no oka was again the last song of the encore/show, but they all looked less tired than the day before even though the show was more intense!

The audience was enthusiastic once again and we got pushed a lot from behind, but it was an overall great show.

Kyo left the stage first as usual after saying bye-bye, then Shinya briefly went on the platform to throw his drumsticks before leaving. Kaoru, Die and Toshiya stayed for a bit, throwing picks and water, and I managed to get one of Toshiya's bass picks!

The setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/dir-en-grey/2024/progresja-warsaw-poland-6baa32c2.html

We took again a while to leave the venue, and headed to the merch stand to get more stuff (WTD/Uroboros lucky charms, stickers and postcards with cute drawings of the band members as monsters enjoying their trip to Europe <3).

Paris - Bataclan 22/03/24 (mode of WTD)

After a day of respite to travel back home, we headed to the Bataclan concert hall early in the afternoon to queue. I was a bit nervous as I'd never been to this venue before despite living in Paris, and its name was of course associated with dark memories from the 2015 terror attacks, but in the end the excitement to see Diru live again was greater than my anxiety :)

We had Priority upgrades and waited in the queue that was already in place; everything seemed quite well organised at first with three delimited lines but it ended a bit messy in the end with the VIPs moving to another line on the other side of the sidewalk, Priority upgrades members not knowing where to wait, etc. Luckily the weather was nice and sunny, and we waited more or less patiently until staff came with the laminated passes around 16:00. The VIPs got inside the venue a bit before 18:00, then the Priority upgrades; we waited again behind a caution tape inside the concert hall, which was then lifted at 19:00 and we managed to grab nice spots on the left side of the stage this time, I was at the barrier (1st row) right before Kaoru's mic and with an amazing view of Toshiya & Kyo!

There was a support artist this time, a French DJ who did his best to entertain us but I must admit we weren't really into it as we were waiting for the main set to begin. It wasn't that bad but I'd have preferred to wait with the Diru remixes like in Warsaw!

Unlike the 1st day in Warsaw, we had the intro music + video just before the band entered the stage (Die in red&white, Shinya in white, Kyo in black with a touch of eye-liner, Toshiya in the white dress and Kaoru in a steampunk-ish suit and vest **). Mode of WTD was great in Warsaw but it was wild in Paris, the audience sang everything loudly, cheered & clapped and the band seemed to really appreciate the vibe :)

It was the first time I really saw Kaoru so close (except for a few appearances on the right side of the stage in Warsaw) and it was amazing to see him play and make faces at the crowd & cameras, he really knows how to motivate people by (lovingly) yelling at them \o/

There was a funny moment during Akuro no oka in the end, when Toshiya almost began his bass solo too early with a single "klonk" and looked sheepish for a second (Kaoru was like "erm, i'm not finished yet mate" while still playing the guitar :D). I recorded the whole song but my phone mysteriously freezed right at this point so we concluded that Toshiya is actually a telepath and erased it with his preternatural powers :').

A very nice evening overall, it was the perfect combination of great songs & performances from the band + overjoyed participation from the audience! And the crowd was both enthusiastic and very chill pushing-wise on our end, so that was a nice respite from the Warsaw shows physically speaking :)

The setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/dir-en-grey/2024/le-bataclan-paris-france-3aa096f.html

Paris - Bataclan 23/03/24 (mode of UROBOROS)

THE BEST CONCERT EVER

(Sorry, this needed to be said first).

4th (and last :'( ) show of the tour for us, so we hoped it would be great and we were not disappointed!

The queue outside was incredibly chaotic: despite being more or less organised the day before, it was a mess this time and nobody really knew where to wait. In addition, the weather was atrocious and we got rain showers, a chilly wind *and* a freezing hailstorm during the afternoon, everybody ended up soaked with chattering teeth for the remainder of the waiting time... But the VIPs finally went inside around 18:00, then us (Priority upgrades again) around 20 mn later.

After the caution tape was lifted, we went to the right side of the stage and had a nice spot in front of Die's mic once again! Then the GA ticket holders went in and the room quickly got quite warm, before the support act even started. It was the same DJ as the previous evening but the audience was a bit more into it this time.

The band entered the stage around 20:25 like the other days, with intro song + video again. There was a technical issue with the projected images on the screen during at least 20 mn, the visuals for Vinushka were really blurry and we also saw a computer error message during the following songs, but it got fixed at some point and didn't stop us from enjoying the show: from Vinushka to Bugaboo, everything was already wild but the band + crowd went really insane after that until near the end of the encore: Doukoku to Sarinu, HYDRA -666-, Gaika, Reiketsu Nariseba... the end of the main set was even wilder than the first time, they left us no time to breathe and we were all screaming, headbanging and jumping everywhere. Kyo looked really satisfied and apparently parted the crowd in two at some point (this is from another live report i read), the audience went wild and the security staff had to douse us with water to avoid more faintings (they had to evacuate at least three people from the pit from what i saw). I almost didn't take pictures this time, except for a few during the calmer songs and interludes because i just couldn't move for anything else than jumping up and down :')

We were already almost dead on our feet at the end of the main set, and the encore finished us, it was as wild as the main set but we managed to find some unexpected resources within us to scream and jump some more! Akuro no oka was a welcome and moving respite at the end (no bass solo mishap this time, a certain bassist was focusing haha), I personally wouldn't have survived another song like the rest and had to sit down after the show ended to re-learn how to breathe properly :') Luckily the venue staff took pity on us and put the AC on during the encore, so we barely managed not to pass out from heat exhaustion...

Then another great time at the end when the band members stayed on the stage: Kyo left quickly as usual but Shinya stayed a second longer than the other nights and threw not only his drumsticks but also a drumskin (??) like a frisbee in the crowd, then the usual suspects Kaoru, Toshiya and Die loitered for a while, throwing picks and smiling at the crowd <3 They looked like they didn't want to leave and neither did we!

The setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/dir-en-grey/2024/le-bataclan-paris-france-1baa7d90.html

Gear

Don't think you can get out from a gear overview! For both albums/shows combined, we got:

Kaoru:

ESP D-KV 7str [Nothing]

ESP D-KV custom (blue JZH)

ESP D-KV 薰 custom (greenish/yellowish DKV - tag to be updated)

Die:

ESP D-DR 7str (lava D-DR)

ESP D-DR (red ESP)

ESP D-DR-300 (red mesh)

Morris S-custom D (acoustic black)

Toshiya:

ESP D-TR [RU-DRIVE Arch] (the brown one)

ESP D-TT [TRICK STAR] 00 (the black one)

ESP D-TT [TRICK STAR] 04 (striped blue)

Shinya:

Remo + Signia drumkit (it seems to be his default drumkit for abroad tours, maybe not to damage his usual Pearl one ?)

Sabian cymbals (probably as I didn't manage to take clear pictures of the brand)

Aaand that's it, thanks for reading all that! :)

[espionn]

so i was thinking about wings of fire while at work again

and i was thinking. pantalan language right

in the books, they adopt clearsight's language completely, so that they can reasonably communicate with pyrrhian dragons later on. i'm not gonna nitpick the logistics of this, gritty details like this are clearly not tui's focus and that's fine. but i had some ideas for my own heacanon universe.

what if, instead of trading one tongue for another, pantalan dragons held onto their original language - let's call it pantalan - while also learning clearsight's pyrrhian? the idea that they slowly became bilingual feels much more realistic to me. and then, because clearsight became so widely worshipped and mythologized, i'd imagine that eventually pantala began to see pyrrhian as a fundamentally spiritual or holy language, not to be used as casually as their own. i imagine it would be used when referring to her, or her part in their history, or even when talking with extreme emotion that they don't feel can be fully conveyed with pantalan.

while most languages evolve over time, i actually think pyrrhian - for pantala - would not. they don't want to change the language they see as holy, and scholars rely closely on the book of clearsight to study the language so thoroughly that alterations are almost impossible. meanwhile, though, in pyrrhia, of course their language has changed over time, since it's casually spoken. so i actually think that while technically they're the same language, there would still be some communication difficulties between the two continents. it would be essentially like us today communicating with people who still spoke in thousand-year-old english. possible, but clunky. (i love to imagine tsunami's reaction when she washed up to pantala and realized the only way she could understand them is when they talk like starflight's most insufferable scrolls)

anyway, that's it. i didn't really take into account the fact that it's heavily implied that the pantalan tribes originally came from pyrrhia themselves (maybe rainwing offshoots?) and therefore would probably already have a similar language. i didn't think too much about that for the sake of simplicity, but if that gives anyone any other ideas, please lmk!!

fantasy language stuff is fun :)

[2af-afterdark]

Last thought before I go to bed, but... this means Lucifer is the only devil so far not to have a pact with Solomon (if Gamigin has a pact or not is unclear, but I will explain that briefly at the end).

Lucifer fell from Heaven after God vanished, and God vanished very soon after Solomon. Hence, Solomon was not around by the time Lucifer entered Hell meaning they couldn't form a pact. Take into account that Lucifer technically wasn't even a devil for two more years on top of that and... yeah. No overlap between Solomon and Lucifer to form a pact, which means if he and MC decide to form one for any reason, it will be the first pact that MC has made entirely independently of Solomon's past. I think MC deserves that, honestly.

Gamigin is a little unclear if he has a pact with Solomon or not. The dragon Gamigin certainly didn't make a pact with Solomon but his predecessor may have (we don't know). All we know is that the dragon inherited everything from Gamigin, including his name. That means that, if the original Gamigin had a pact with Solomon, it may be possible that it was passed on to the dragon. Or maybe it wasn't. Or maybe original Gamigin passed on before Solomon. We don't know the timeline or logistics with this one. Is it even possible to make a pact with a man who is technically a dragon and not a devil?

[irkendogma]

tak is the main antagonist for this crossover fic im writing and due to the lack of canon content beyond literally that one episode and some of etf, sometimes i worry im not doing her any justice or it’s too ooc. what do you think would be the best way to write tak in your opinion? (if you happen to have any advice on the matter. just wondering! byeeee💃)

i'm genuinely so relieved at the specification of "in your opinion" because i have such a strange long-lasting attachment to tak that i think i would second-guess my thoughts on her in an objective vacuum to the point of just saying "she should be purple". but as it is i now have the freedom to go stupid crazy about it

i think there's a number of crucial elements to tak, but i think the one that people miss most in writing her is that she isn't just meant to be a more competent counterpart to zim - she's a direct parallel in terms of her ego, motivation, and backstory (the latter particularly as a result of treatment by irken society)

like zim, tak has an enormous ego and an audacity that places herself above anyone else, even the empire itself (see: her custom invader insignia. that's like drawing a crucifix but substituting yourself for jesus after being refused by the church), and like zim, in spite of her disregard for the empire's rulings she's striving for recognition both by it and within it (to quote her: "the plan i have in store for this nasty rock will so impress the tallest that they'll have no choice but to make me an invader"). the same way zim "quit being banished", tak "escaped" from the janitorial squad she was placed under as a stopgap job until the next elite test in seventy years

i've seen some people write her as tall, but in my opinion her being only very, very slightly taller than zim is not just a stylistic choice but an essential part of her character that draws her backstory together: technically that janitorial job wasn't even a punishment, it was just deemed the most suitable position for her in the absence of official imperial proof that she was capable of anything "better" or "higher" that would've been afforded to a taller more easily

that she made it so far in the elite course at all in spite of her height gives context and precedent to the competence and sheer refusal to admit defeat she exhibits in her attempt to destroy earth, a planet she initially believes is already undergoing an officially-sanctioned invasion judging from how bitterly she tells zim about what should've been "rightfully hers", down to specifically mentioning the great assigning - loops back to her audacity, in that she has zimlike degrees of ego regardless of how hard the circumstances logistically are aligned to stomp her back down (see again her quote where she confidently states her plan to hijack an official invasion will impress the tallest to the point they won't mind her flagrantly flaunting the rules). she would've spent so much of her life striving to meet her own exceedingly high expectations, not the exceedingly low ones assumed of someone her height, that this likely isn't far from her standard procedure of "show them i can do it better than the rules say"

what sets her apart from zim, i think, is in how much she's allowed herself to let those miserable expectations get to her and leave her pettier, more vindictive, less grandstanding speeches like zim than showing off everything she's capable of as often as possible, no matter how necessary (ALL the stupid parkour she does for no reason) - which i think is admittedly less her fault than partially being the result of her having actually experienced her confidence failing her when the entire future she'd set up for herself was pulled out from underneath her

unlike zim, who experiences failure regularly but never has it truly sink in, tak had the entirety of her progress wiped off the board in a single moment as a result of circumstances entirely beyond her control: i think a large part of the reason she resents zim so deeply and sincerely isn't solely because of the practical consequences of her missing her test (though it is in no way insignificant to it) but because he was the one who broke her streak - he was the one who made her brutally aware that no matter how she built herself up, no matter what proof she offered, she could still fail and be crushed into exactly the nobody she was expected to be

and she just cannot abide that, no matter what, because even if the memory of helplessness and humiliation will never go away (not that she'd acknowledge it wouldn't), if she can make him hurt the same way maybe that will give back to her some of the power and control over her life and her identity that she lost in losing her potential status as a real, sanctioned invader

also, i do think she should be purple. she seems to have a great attachment to aesthetics and individual style, given her custom pseudo-elite uniform (which we see her wearing even in training, on her test day), the fact she designed and programmed her hologram specifically to have the distinguishing marking of a beauty spot in the same place she has one on her actual face, and her penchant for making nearly every damn piece of her tech purple some way (minus mimi, who while being her own bootleg SIR unit still follows the same red color scheme as a functional one) - even the cockpit of the spittle runner she pilots is initially purple before it's ejected as an escape pod, and the magma pump's interior looks like this:

girl likes giving things her own little touches whether that's in terms of her trademark color, her near-blasphemous custom imperial logo, or her doing a tactical slide between bars of a railing instead of just stepping normally onto the floor

[bangtanhoneys]

Bangtan Baby: Bangtan Day Out!

Trying to organise a trip out with eight members of BTS, one child, a team of bodyguards, three managers, one small camera crew and one make-up artist (because you know) was a logistical nightmare. Especially since it had been mentioned casually that Seokjin and Grace were going to take their child out to the zoo in Seoul, everyone had decided to come. 

So began the mission of the Bangtan Day Out their managers had called it.

They didn’t want to pull strings and do the ‘BTS want to come to the zoo, can you close it down for us’ but with the amount of people in the team required, a call went ahead for them to come and view the zoo just for their pleasure. 

Considering Bora was now two years old and had never been properly to a zoo, especially in her hometown of Seoul. Also her parents didn’t need everyone gawking at her in such a public setting they couldn’t quite control.

“Okay,” Hobi stood at the entrance to the zoo with his hands on his hips. He had been deemed the most responsible one and had been in charge of tickets and the map. “Let’s not cause too much trouble,” he added with a pointed look at the maknae line. “Let’s not get lost,” he continued as he glanced at Namjoon. “And let’s make sure Bora has a good time,” this time he looked at Jin and Grace as well as Yoongi who had the two year old on his shoulders.

The little one had picked Yoongi to be her ride for the day. 

That was a privilege in itself and the man in question waved away concern for his shoulder. If he got too tired, he knew Jungkook would jump in.

“Ready?” Hobi asked, getting nods from his members and then the crew.

“Onwards!”

“Hobi-hyung, you’re in a fun mood today,” Jimin commented from beside Jungkook who had his camera ready.

“Well it’s not everyday we get to enjoy a fun day out with our niece is it?”

Comebacks, albums, tours, performances, photoshoots and the like tended to take up most of the time ever since they came back from military service and then there was a pause for at least Grace to go through her pregnancy comfortably until she had been ready to join them. 

There was a break between their last comeback and the next one, giving plenty of space to bring Bora along for day trips out. Hence the reason for the family trip out to see the animals. Even though Hobi was in charge of the map, Taehyung suggested they should visit the animals that represented themselves which then started an argument over whose animal was better.

“But Taehyung is both a tiger and a bear, which is unfair,” Jimin pointed out as Jungkook pouted. “And I’m a bunny and sometimes kangaroo so how is that going to work?”

“And Seokjin-hyung is both a hamster and a llama,” Namjoon helpfully added as they walked in the direction of the lions. 

“Poor Yoongi-hyung isn’t going to see any cats today,” Jungkook butted in.

“Technically, lions are felines,” Yoongi sent a glare to the maknae who grinned at him. Tiny fingers tightened against the bucket hat he had chosen to wear, making his head tilt. “What’s wrong Bora?”

“Mama,” the tiny voice said as a tiny finger pointed in the direction of the sign that said ‘Wolf & Fox Enclosure' with a large fox and wolf on either side of it.  

There was a brief pause before Seokjin went into dad mode, proudly settling his daughter on his own shoulders from Yoongi’s while boasting how clever she was just as Namjoon puffed up his chest, also proudly stating how she got her intelligence from him. 

“Looking pretty smug there,” Hobi whispered to Grace who had said nothing during the whole thing. “It might have nothing to do with the fact that I’ve been teaching her about foxes lately,” Grace whispered back.

Hobi cackled and held out his hand for his female member to hit in return. Never go against a mother and a smart baby.

[thatdogmagic]

The "NSFW = Easy Mode" Post

We all know this post. We all know this complaint. NSFW artists have faced it the entire time we've spent drawing.

Aside from being hugely denigrating towards a very legitimate craft, there are multiple fallacies involved in the argument.

Let's start off with the most obvious, the very real phenomena of getting visible traction on social media sites. Namely, to say that, LIKES/RTS DO NOT TRANSLATE TO FINANCIAL STABILITY. Working your ass off does. NSFW artists who make it their livelihood churn out an absurd amount of work to stay relevant, constantly have to work outside of comfort zones, and face steep competition.

Next, the argument presumes that all NSFW is created equal. It's not. For example: mlm, that is to say, men loving men, will earn you much more traction than wlw, women loving women, and mlm involving trans bodies will earn you much less traction than the cis standard. Additionally, your audience for any of those things is NEVER guaranteed.

It places porn an erotica on the same footing, which is also enormously wrongheaded. Porn has an almost singular focus on secondary sex characteristics, and will rush straight to the point at every given opportunity; erotica is holistic, and doesn't even really have to show genitalia in order to hit its mark, if it's written and framed correctly.

To be clear: both of these things take an enormous amount of skill. It is not something you just learn to do overnight. Good, illustrated porn requires an understanding of action, anatomy, perspective, and all sorts of other technical skills that are often beyond even very adept artists.

With erotica, technical prowess is less of a focus. It's more on character art, scene setting, and story (be it implied by imagery or written in). I don't need to explain the level of expertise this requires, not the least of which is being a good writer, which is fully beyond a lot of peoples' grasp. It's a whole different skill, and being good at erotica is tough for even industry professionals. Many are embarrassingly bad at it.

The other bullet points, I outlined in a Twitter rant, but here they are:

NSFW artists face logistical hurdles SFW artists don't. Namely: we don't know when the site we're posting on will ban NSFW content.

We can be randomly banned/shadowbanned from a site whose rules are not especially clear (Tumblr), and whose filters are garbage. We can also have our work deboosted and effectively removed from circulation because we didn't label a nipple appropriately (Tumblr still thinks a female-presenting nipple is 100% sexual).

We can have our funding cut at random, for seemingly arbitrary reasons.

We face a host of degrading comments and overfamiliar clients.

NSFW artists working commissions have to take on work they're not personally very interested in. This takes way more work and fortitude than anyone is willing to admit. If you're commissioned for a fetish you don't like, you still have to make it look hot for the person who commissioned you. If you don't think that takes extra effort, IDK what to tell you.

We are constantly subjected to arrogant shitbags saying they can just jump in and make bank, because Site Number Went Up that one time.

Bottom line is the 'I should just do furry porn I guess' joke is not a joke. It's not funny. It's just you showing your ass, and insulting your friends/colleagues, who do very hard work for very little reward.

[ri47]

Economy: KHU Standard

Before going any further, it should be clarified that the KHU Standard economic system is not the only one that exists within the KHU's territories, but is the only one that is mandated by the Seneschal Board. In short, this means that certain territories may issue their own currency and dictate their own economic norms, but that all affiliated entities are required to respect the KHU Standard

The KHU makes use of three primary currencies, each with their own system of established value: SIP, Vo, and Lira

While the average person rarely carried anything besides SIP, all were required to "own" some amount of Lira. Vo, on the other hand, was seen as more of an investment currency than normal legal tender (in spite of its official recognition in government exchanges)

Steelgoods Interests Piso [SIP]: SIP, more commonly referred to as pisos, are the most commonly issued currency in the Union. The value of SIP is fairly stable, as steelgoods (a euphemistic governmental term for unprocessed alloy plate) remain in more or less permanent demand. SIP is also notable for being the only currency issued in standard physical cash rather than being a digital marker, which has the handy side effect of ensuring that the average person can avoid the hefty transaction fees associated with the cashless currencies. SIP is available in note, coin, and digital format. While one piso can be subdivided into one hundred sentimo, physical currency is only issued for a half-piso. Though it's technically illegal, the presence of a dividing line across the centre of the half-piso has led to the practice of splitting the coin to create a fourth-piso in some territories.

Trade Voucher [Vo]: Vo, usually just referred to as vouchers, represent an investment in Callisto's trade with affiliated (but nominally non-puppet) colonies. Most currency-issuing client states maintained their own form of voucher, but these voucher currencies were all measured against the Vo proper, and so most were handily converted into it as a way of "cashing out" on financial investments in trade sectors. When the board cracked down on the minting of currency and corporate scrip by non-Seneschal entities, dissolving all forms of voucher, only those holding Vo were insured in SIP. all others were left at the mercy of the entity which issued their vouchers. Because of this, many populations were left without any financial power, leading to the collapse of several smaller governments and a handful of larger ones.

Federal Lira [Lira]: The Federal Lira is the currency in which all official debts are paid to the board and its associated governmental entities. Taxes, fees, bills, and anything similar are paid in the lira. While the exact value of the lira may seem to fluctuate, this is actually a side effect of the fluctuating values for currencies which may be converted into lira. Once another currency is converted to lira, the value of the holder's account towards paying government debts rarely fluctuates. While the highly restricted financial infrastructure of the lira makes it non-viable for daily use (lira cannot be converted back into other currencies, does not mint, and cannot be used for non-government debts), the usage of lira remains mandatory. For logistical reasons, groups are allowed to share accounts that pay towards agreed-upon debts. This sees frequent use in rural communities, where pisos are gathered to be converted into pools of lira, paying towards territorial taxes and other regular bills that would prove troublesome to pay every time they arrive.

By 103 EC, only the piso and lira remained in regular use. While some voucher currencies continued to exist within the KHU, these were relegated entirely to contractor stations and other demigovernments that were too large to be fully brought under the currency unification mandates.

[ggardengirl]

GGardengirl's Guide to Choosing Perspective & Tense When Writing Fiction

because for some reason, i felt like writing an essay. (word count: 1974)

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First Person: Give Me a Reason, Pretty Please

I don’t think I have written a single thing in first person since I was in middle school, but that is because I mainly write fic. First person fic is generally a turn off for most readers (me included) and I think that’s because first person is such an intimate perspective.

You, the writer, aren’t just writing about a character, you are becoming the character, so that we, the reader, can become the character too. If it is not your original work you’re writing about, then it can feel weird and out of character when we read it, because it implies an intimate knowledge the layman (laystan, if you will) doesn’t have when it comes to the source material. And even if you do know the source material inside and out, and have a serious grasp on the characters, fic readers are not likely to take a chance on it—so keep that in mind, if you’re thinking about first person for a fic. It can be done, and it can be done well, but just keep that in mind, so you know what you’re getting into! 

(This ONLY applies to fic. If you’re writing an original story, I don’t think you need to have any worries about choosing first person, because they are your characters, and it is your story. You can do whatever the fuck you want with them, and no one can say it’s out of character. Now, onto my main thought about first person.) 

First person reads as a real time internal monologue—these are thoughts being thought for the very first time, as something happens, not after. Because of this, it should mainly be used with present tense, unless there is a narrative reason for past tense, such as the protagonist writing the book they exist in. 

Think: Percy Jackson and the Olympians—We are supposed to read the books as if Percy himself is the one who is writing them, not Rick Riordan. (It’s kind of a mixed perspective, because he does address us, the reader, which is direct address, but it’s still first person. The audience is only really referred to as an aside.)

We know this, because Percy straight up tells us it’s a book in the second sentence of The Lightning Thief:

“If you're reading this because you think you might be [a half-blood], my advice is: close this book right now.”

Percy is writing down his story, so that future demigods can learn from his experience. Everything that happens in PJO has technically already happened. Future Percy is telling us how Past Percy felt in those moments, while also having the gift of hindsight, and being able to know what is important and what’s not. (One could argue that this would make it present tense, but Present Percy isn’t telling us what’s happening in the current moment. The story is still set in the past.) 

It can feel weird to read something in past tense when the narrative doesn’t call for it, because it makes me wonder: who is the protagonist narrating for? If the story isn’t happening in the moment, are they just sitting somewhere, going through their past beat by beat in their mind?

“I did [BLANK],” “I thought [BLANK],” —why are they rehashing their own thoughts? And why are we, the reader, being told their past thoughts? Give us a reason!

This is just my personal opinion—there doesn’t technically need to be an in-universe reason for first person being past tense. There’s no hard and fast rule. But I find it distracting to read, and I think it’s something to be aware of—the last thing you want as a writer is for your reader to be stuck on storytelling logistics, and not the actual story. 

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Third Person: Flexible as Hell 

Third person is a lot more malleable. It can be past or present, but it’s still good to think through your choice of tense and whether or not it should be omniscient or limited. You want to choose something that helps serve the story, and doesn’t hinder it.  

Past tense omniscient makes it clear right off the bat that the story being told is a work of fiction. It’s very storybook-esque; very Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, and all that. You don’t need an explicit narrator to make this work, but this is where an explicit narrator works the best—think: The Book Thief, and how it’s narrated by Death. (Once again, one could argue this is technically first person, but since Death isn't actually in the story, he's just telling it, it is seen as third person.)

It works similar to Percy Jackson—everything we are being told has already happened, and the narrator is telling us what happened for a reason. There is a purpose in this specific story being told—we want to read on, so we can find that purpose. 

Present tense omniscient feels more like a movie/live action. We, the reader, are watching the events unfold. These things are happening now, and we are witnessing it. And, like a movie, we see a fuller version of events, because we aren’t only seeing through the eyes of one person. We are watching from a third party camera; a bird’s eye view—not straight through a character’s eyes. If you want your story to feel like a movie, this is probably the way to go. 

Limited and limited omniscient POV’s work in the same way. Both focus on the direct view of a protagonist; we see what they see—limited omniscience just means you add more characters to the mix. This is typically what I choose to write in, but I oscillate frequently between past and present tense with different stories, sometimes with no rhyme or reason. If it’s a book I’m writing fic for, I tend to use whatever tense the book was written in, but otherwise, it’s just based on vibes. 

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Second Person: Criminally Underutilized, Terminally Misunderstood

Second person is…complicated. Which is understandable—it can be weird to read, and tricky to write. I understand why people tend to write second person off, but I think that’s a huge loss for them. Because when second person works, it fucking works. 

Second person works best in the present tense. I think of it like there’s an omniscient overlord who’s describing your—the protagonist’s—life in real time, as it actually happens. Past tense feels weird because why is the overlord telling you what you did? You already did it—you should know. 

SIDENOTE: (spoilers for Harrow the Ninth)

This is the exception to the previous statement. Second person past tense can work, but only if the story is lying to you and is secretly first person direct address. It works when I, a secondary protagonist, am narrating what happened to you, the main protagonist, while I was hidden in your body like a parasite after you lobotomized yourself in the name of love, and you need some clarification of events after the fact. This, and only this, is when it works. (Please read The Locked Tomb series. I’m begging you.)

BACK TO THE POINT:

You can write in second person no matter what the story is about, but I think the real beauty in second person comes through when it’s being used for a reason. I’ve found that it works best in character explorations, and stories where the main character has complicated feelings surrounding their identity. Second person detaches you from the world; it adds a degree of separation from the self that you can’t get with any other perspective. 

For example: there’s a wonderful jackieshauna fic by britishngay on AO3, called memento mori, that’s set in Ancient Rome. The entire story is set in second person, and while reading it, I realized that it couldn’t be written any other way and still work the way it was meant to.

(Spoilers for the entire fic—feel free to come back, but it's still worth reading even knowing what I'm about to say) 

In memento mori, Shauna is a former butcher whose home is destroyed and is taken to Rome. In Rome, she’s forced to be a gladiator, and to go by the name of “Butcher.” 

Shauna is robbed of her identity as “Shauna.” She keeps her name as a secret just for herself, because it’s the only thing she has that’s still hers—the only thing that has yet to be stolen. She takes on the persona of “Butcher.”

“‘Far from home, it’s the Butcher of Gaul!’ The announcer yells and the gate starts to rise. The anxiety in your gut reaches an all-time high before dropping to nothing, you detach yourself from you, the girl from the woman, the rebel to the gladiator, Shauna from the butcher.”

Butcher is violent, ruthless; an amalgamation of the audience’s desires. But she can’t be anything other than Butcher, because Shauna died when her home did. 

“‘Butcher?’ [Jackie] asks, tentative and for a second you forgot that that’s how she knows you, that that’s your name, your identity here. It’s Shauna, my name is Shauna. You almost say but it gets quelled by your head. Nothing else, nothing more.”

It’s only as her relationship with Jackie grows, and she feels like she can open up to her, that she tells Jackie her real name, and then eventually Van. By the end of the story, she’s reclaimed her identity as Shauna all together.

“‘My name is Shauna.’ You tell [Van], in case you don’t make it. She’s probably your closest friend here, and you want someone else to say it, so you can hear it one more time before you go out there, in case." "It’s nice to hear it. You’re enjoying hearing it said again, by people you trust.”

The story works the way it does, and has the impact it does because of the perspective it’s in. There is no other way it could work.

Third person wouldn’t work: Shauna would have to be referred to by name—but the narrative can’t refer to her as Shauna, because she isn’t Shauna, she’s Butcher. But she’s not entirely Butcher, because that would mean she’d completely erased her identity as Shauna. 

First person wouldn’t work either. It would solve the problem of how to refer to Shauna, but it wouldn’t serve the narrative—it wouldn’t show the disconnect she has when it comes to who she is and the things she is doing. First person is far too personal, too intimate, and she has walls up for everyone around her, even herself. Shauna can’t invite an audience into her internal monologue when she doesn’t even let herself into it. 

Which leaves only second person. When Shauna’s real name is mentioned, when we see Shauna call herself “Shauna,” or her friends call her “Shauna,” it feels important. It’s important, because it’s only ever mentioned those few times—only 34 times is the word “Shauna” written. “Butcher” is written 81 times. 

Writing from a second person perspective gets me into a character’s head more than any other perspective. It plays a weird trick on my brain, where I start to feel like I am the “you” I’m writing about. There is something about how matter of fact it feels to write something like, “You walk down the street. You feel broken inside,” that makes me go: “Huh. I guess I’m walking down the street and feel broken inside.” Shit makes me feel weird, but I love it. 

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No matter what perspective or tense you choose to use, remember this: writing is fun! It is meant to be fun! Don't torture yourself with this stuff if it makes writing not fun—talking about technical things and writing strategies is just how writing is fun for me.

Happy writing!

xoxo, lulu ‪‪❤︎‬

(TLDR: first person past tense needs a reason, third person is a jack of all trades, and second person is kinda cool, actually.)

[qqueenofhades]

can i ask you for some advice on how to reach out to a professor (at a university you don't attend) to ask about helping them out with their research? i'm not currently enrolled in college for a variety of financial/logistical reasons, but i really care about research and i really want to gain the skill of doing good research. i like to think i'm good at writing and critical thinking, and i'm eager to both learn and contribute.

i know i'm going to have to cold email professors and show that i've read their papers and find their research interesting, especially since i don't have much on a resume. i've read conflicting advice on how to email people -- some sources say to keep it as short and easy to read as possible, and others say to provide in-depth analysis and possibly constructive criticism of the research they've done to show you're committed. i really don't think i'm in a place to provide constructive criticism on what professional researchers are doing, LOL, but it might help to provide some commentary to show i understand it.

so my questions are, how much is too much, and how little is (probably) too little? i'm thinking of aiming for the equivalent of ~two paragraphs per email. also, are there any reliable indications of how well a professor treats the volunteers or employees/grad students who work for them? (and whether they could use extra help?)

thank you so much for reading!! i hope you have a wonderful day, and i love your blog ❤️

I admire your initiative and your desire to improve your research skills, which is why I'll have to gently say that I'm not sure this is the best way to go about it. There are a few reasons for that, namingly that first and foremost, professors are very busy and overworked people. They don't have time to do all the things they actually need to do and/or are actually paid for, and having to take extra time to summarize their research and/or organize it for an outsider who doesn't attend their university is, I'm afraid, probably going to be a pretty hard sell for most if not all of them. There's also the fact that if they do have the kind of research where it's useful to have a student assistant, there is no reason for them to give that spot to you and not one of their own students at the university, who are already actively enrolled, paying for their time, and contributing to their job and institution's research goals and projects. Not to mention that there are university confidentiality agreements, work-study arrangements, and all the rest, which would all preclude a professor just hiring a random non-student assistant off the street. Speaking from my current spot in university/department administration, I can say that it would definitely be a non-starter for us for a number of reasons. We just had an issue with flagging a student who wasn't technically enrolled in our specific program within our constituent college, although she was enrolled in the university, so bringing in someone with no connection to the university at all wouldn't fly, alas.

If you're really interested in working with THIS particular professor for some reason and not just a name you picked off a department directory with a form email that you're sending to any likely-looking candidate, you'll have to explain why in considerable depth, what you're doing or what your project is for, why you think it would be valuable for you AND for them for them to collaborate, and why you're contacting them directly instead of say, central Human Resources or the Careers page for the college. There are sometimes spots for research fellows, part-time lab assistants, or other jobs with the kind of work you seem to be looking for, but that requires you to go through the formal application/interview process like any other job and isn't something for which you can just slip in the back door (a professor would, for one thing, not likely be willing to just take you on without you going through the regular selection process for these posts and being interviewed by the university's regular hiring people).

As noted, there are legal liability issues, restrictions on what kind of information they can share with people even within the university let alone outside it, and the fact that it's not their job to hire and screen potential assistants for a research project UNLESS they are running an active project as the Principal Investigator (PI) and explicitly looking for student volunteers/employees (which even then will likely be searched/filled from within the university first). A cold email out of nowhere asking if they have some work for you, Random Stranger, will, unfortunately, go straight into the junk folder. If they're feeling polite, they might respond by directing you to reach out to HR, but that's a stretch. If you are planning to attend this university in the future, you might lead with that, because then they'll have more incentive to discuss what kind of options are available and so forth, but yeah. It's just not something I would expect to have a very great success rate and I know that if I got that kind of email, I would discard it pretty much out of hand. (I did get an extremely weird email a few weeks ago from someone asking ME if I would help THEM with their research, wherein they never specified so much as the basic subject area, what university they were at, what the project was, how they would envision me helping, why they chose me to contact, etc. It was basically a cautionary tale in how not to ask an academic to collaborate, and yes, it went pretty much straight into the recycle bin without a reply.)

If you still think after hearing this that you have a legitimate option to contact and at least feel out the waters (after all, never say never, stranger things have happened, etc) then yeah, uh, don't go with the "absolute stranger the professor doesn't know from Adam makes an unsolicited critique of their work and then asks for a job." Academics are used to receiving constructive criticism and it obviously comes with the territory, but it also comes within structured forums and at expected times -- when you present a paper to your peers at a conference, submit to a journal, etc. Popping out of nowhere to give unsolicited academic crit is as rude as popping out of nowhere to give unsolicited crit on a fanfic or something else that you've posted outside of the specific expectation of receiving it, wherein some "I Just Wanna Help" obnoxious mansplainer (gender neutral) says a lot of "helpful" things that nobody asked them for and then seems shocked when this isn't well received. I don't know who gave you that particular little nugget of uh, wisdom, but as you think, it's not something that strikes me in any way as a good idea, and would probably piss the academic off in a way that would have them venting to their friends and colleagues, and might therefore do you more harm than good in a number of different ways.

If you want to independently improve your research skills and work within the structure of academia-adjacent realms, what I really recommend doing is volunteering at your local public library, history/science museum, or other similar institution. They're always eager for volunteers and/or part-time employees, they have a number of different tasks and skills that need doing, it's a great way to build professional and community connections and see how things are done behind the scenes, and it looks good on your CV when or if you do apply to college (and then have a much easier path toward working with professors in the way you want to do). So yeah, all told, that's strongly what I'd recommend -- good luck!

[thecryptidzenith]

I was thinking today about a timeline where Midnight Oil Riz gets back to his mom and somehow ends up in a party with the rest of The Bad Kids in Junior year (ignore the logistics). Thinking about him having to interact with the Rat Grinders is so funny; I feel like he'd see Kipperlilly being mean to Kristen, immediately try to find something to blackmail Kipperlilly with to force her to drop the election, and accidentally uncover Porter's whole plot in approximately four days.

First of all, I'm delighted that my silly little fic lives in your brain enough that you're thinking of alternate timelines, that's incredible. And thanks for sending this to me! I love excuses to procrastinate and excuses to yell about my guy.

So obviously, I'm God, and there's a lot of stuff prior to where this would be on the timeline that would have an impact, but I'm going to keep my cards as close to the chest as possible, however I think the thing that would impact this the most has already happened: which is that Poxson Tiktaalik is a student at Aguefort. On that, Kalina says "I have contacts at Aguefort." and "There’s more than one conspiracy going on at Aguefort," (to which Riz's internal response is 'what a fucked up school,' a sentiment made extremely funny both because he's an Aguefort student in canon and because he'd be an Aguefort student here.) This will be said directly soon, but Riz has met Eugenia, he's passing rogue class. Logistics aren't a problem at all.

But here's the fun part: the second conspiracy Kalina's referring to is Porter's plan to take Ankarna's place in the pantheon. Him and Jace are her contacts who take care of the administrative aspects of Poxson Tiktaalik being a student there. And Riz has already passed freshman and sophomore year with flying colors, and Eugenia knows who he is. The only thing that would need to happen would be changing his name in the system, and that's not technically necessary. Porter knows Kalina, and he knows Kalina wanted Riz in Aguefort's system for some reason. Throw in anything he may have heard about Poxson from Eugenia or any other networks he may be a part of, and suddenly, he looks like an incredibly useful ally with a high likelihood of helping them. If Kalina did, surely her protege would too, right?

Plus, this is a super tumultuous time for Riz. His living situation has changed drastically, his mom is alive, and he only recently found out that his godmother--his closest confidant--kidnapped him as a child and groomed him to be her actor in the physical world. Kid's not doing great as a baseline, and this makes everything so much worse.

How much does he really know or care about the Bad Kids? He's not exactly a team player here, and these kids are directly responsible for his ability or lack thereof to go to college. In canon, Riz doesn't have any resentment for them, but here? That's likely to be a different story. The two people he actually cares about are his mom and Aelwyn, the later of whom is working for Kipperlily Copperkettle.

Would it be so wrong of him to be a little angry? After everything he's been through, would it be unreasonable for him to get a little mad?

This isn't to say he'd join--there's no way he wouldn't despise the Rat Grinders, especially Kipperlily. He'd find them incredibly entitled, petty, and incompetent. Porter and Jace would probably annoy him too, their final goal is just to make Porter a god, and that's not something Riz would find worth it. Maybe his complicated feelings about Cassandra/the Nightmare King have solidified into hatred and he just wants her to hurt when her wife's domain is given to a new god, but that's the strongest motivation I can devise. Compare this to Kalina, who gave him a personal reason to help her in bringing his parents back and a societal reason in using the Nightmare King's power to fix the ugly parts of the world Riz got to know all too well in Gravalvia. Porter and Jace just aren't that good. Sorry to say, but nobody's doing it like Kalina.

And then there's the Kalina of it all. Does he want to help them because it seems like the thing she would have wanted him to do? Or is he spiteful and works tirelessly to destroy them instead? There's no way he isn't curious about what in the hells she was up to with them, but what does he do with that curiosity? Maybe he plays both sides until he knows exactly where he stands. He could pretend to infiltrate the Rat Grinders for the Bad Kids and the Bad Kids for the Rat Grinders. It'd be hard to pull off, but he's Riz 'Poxson' Gukgak. He excels at hard things.

[ri-badguypilot]

FAQ

Q: Who are you? A: My name's Dylan. My job's in the description. Hope that helps.

Q: Where are you getting this gossip from? A: I've been flying the Bad Guy for a while. Everybody loves to gossip on the way to operations like I can't hear them, and what am I gonna do? Stop them? There's five soap operas going on at the same time on any given day. I make multiple hour long flights. Pry my entertainment from my cold, dead hands.

Q: Should I work for Rhodes/can you tell me about life on the landship? A: Tough question. Logistics staff push paper, R&D staff handle drugs, medical staff make people better, combat operators make people worse. I can't speak for all of them, since I'm technically logistics department due to flying a transport ship and a combat op at the same time. Don't think too hard about it. There's also about five million people just making the landship work, so there's probably a job opening somewhere. Be a janitor or something? I dunno.

Q: Can you take me somewhere? A: Look, you have to send your requests up to Dr. Kal'tsit for that. Do you think you can handle her wrath? Do you think I can handle her wrath? Just sign up for delivery duty next time.

Q: Why are you so chummy with the Elite Ops? A: Because I'm everyone's favourite and the specialest aircraft pilot on the face of the planet.

Q: That's not true. You're lying. A: Yeah, the boss doesn't really care about me. Revised: The boss cares, but not enough to exempt me from SSS even once. Reason is I make a lot of emergency flights to high-risk areas, and the Elite Ops tend to be my passengers. We're work pals. You can only get written up together so many times before Blaze takes you out to drinks to apologise.

Q: When are you going to get back to Engineering about those mishap rates? A: Haha! Funny joke! Don't talk to me.