#putting someone In Charge Of A Community and putting that community into tiers fucks everything up. it's all about personal belief

[lord-radish]

I think I'm beyond the point of an organised belief system or more far-out philosophical stance than I used to be, like I toyed with the idea of philosophical satanism for a while but learning about how shit the Satanic Temple and LaVeyan Satanism were really soured me on satanism on any level outside of aesthetic. Like fuck it I'll be a poser and dig satanic imagery while being actively critical of the institutions and foundational texts of the wider satanic/pagan movement. I'll respect the people and their own belief and adherence to an idealised version of that, but my belief in any of it, even as a transgressive counter-cultural movement, is gone.

Like for a while I just discussed satanism as a concept and talked about the tenets and how it can be a tongue-in-cheek reaction to organised religion that reflects and contrasts and is empowering and all that, and then it turns out one of the guys behind The Satanic Temple, Doug Mesicko or Doug Mesner or whatever his fucking name is, had a pro-eugenics website until very recently, chose to platform KKK members for years and is generally a very shitty, antisemitic gloryhog.

Like satanism as it exists today is a hokey novelty that some carnie came up with, and now the leading satanic org in the world take people to court because they have a copywrited version of Baphomet. It's a con, and it took the wind out of my sails, especially as more people championed TST on the grounds of religious freedom despite their consistently terrible track record in winning court cases for civil liberties.

Pro-Satan, pro-666, pro-power to the people, pro-transgression. That shit belongs to everyone. But my stance to any sort of institutionalization of that is that it should be burned to the ground. Nothing good comes from a counter-cultural institution. It's an oxymoron.

[queenlilith43]

Reasons Why Post Plus is a Terrible Idea

Tumblr has recently unveiled their new "Post Plus" feature. It allows people to put a paywall around their blogs, allowing them to charge up to $9.99 a month, with Tumblr taking a 5% cut of the creator's earnings. In this post, I will explain why this is a horrible idea.

@staff: You better listen up. I took a few hours away from my day for this. I had to have my friend Ashley help me with this, and that took time from her day too. (Thank you @patalliumapples) I'm explaining everything under the cut because this is long.

1. We Don't Have the Money

First of all, Tumblr is a social media site. This means in countries like the US, people as young as 13 can sign up and have an account. Most teenagers do not have the money to keep up with their favorite blogs for the low, low price of $9.99!

Second of all, a lot of adults on the site already are having trouble paying their bills, and don't have any content they would be willing to charge people on. As explained in this post, people are already struggling. (They also explain how to support creators better, which I will go onto later.) They don't have the money to spend on this. I, as a teenager myself, don't have enough money to spend to unlock Tumblr blogs. I don't know if I even can, I don't have a credit card or anything, and I don't want debt before I'm out of high school. Oh, and that leads me right next into the next point.

2. You could fix other things

Tumblr is called a Hellsite for many reasons, and how it breaks a lot is one of them. One problem are the Ray-Bans sunglasses bots that hack the site every so often. I have gotten one, Ashley has gotten three.

You can also barely even search on this website. Searching for tags brings up the randomest things. You can barely even search your own blog, this is how bad it is. Fixing those issues before we give you our credit card number would be a great thing.

3. People don't want it

The consensus so far is NO. In some cases, "FUCK NO" This is valid, people don't want it. We can't pay for it, and we really don't need it. Everyone hates it.

And you bet that the Tumblr-famous will try this out.

I, as of writing this, have 416 followers. I bet all of them would leave me if I tried to do a paid post. (Not like I can, I'm a broke teenager, but still.) That would limit the market.

And other people have expressed they would leave anyone who put their posts behind a paywall, such as in this newly-viral post.

4. Monetization of fanfic

Alright. *Cracks fingers* I get to show off my knowledge of copyright law.

Fair use that covers fanfiction does not cover having to pay for it. Monetization of fanfiction is not legal, and if someone tries, the original content creator can issue a DMCA takedown order. The person who posted and monetized the fanfiction will be forced to take down their post, hurting their earnings. This will affect Tumblr.

Also, as we saw recently with a Loki T-shirt on Etsy, big corporations are known for taking down anything they consider infringement, even if it falls under fair use. There was a scare a while back on Ao3 (Archive of Our Own) that Disney would take down their fanfiction, but Ao3 had a legal time that can fight for them. Tumblr probably does not, and would probably lose a legal battle against Disney.

In fact, Ao3 does not allow any sort of links to other monetizable websites, like Pateron and Ko-fi, on their platform to avoid potential legal trouble. It's included in their terms of service, which you can read here. I would recommend it, and to check out some other links. They explain legal issues quite well.

And as satirized in this post, trying to find posts on Tumblr for a DMCA takedown is pretty damn hard.

5. You can get around paying for a post through the reblogs.

Despite the fact that is something you're technically not supposed to do, people can just copy and paste the content. The fact is if anyone has a Post Plus post, you bet the entirety of Tumblr is going to get around that. After all "you can share a teaser of +Post Content through the reblog function on the Services" (From the Tumblr TOS)

6. We've had mirror sites that could probably get around the paywall

In the past, we have had many mirror sites. They are the exact mirror of our Tumblr, tracking everything right down to our reblogs. Last I heard they were all shut down, though Tumbex sounded like it was going to come back. If these mirror sites are smart enough, they would be another way around the paywall.

7. You can't block people who are paying for your content

This is a problem. People can harass you, and sometimes, this Hellsite won't take them off. The block button is an important tool. I, for one, currently have 11 people blocked for various reasons. Some of them were messing with me in the reblogs of a post (it wasn't even their place to do so) and I didn't think Tumblr would count this as harassment.

If you can't block people, and even with the risk of it hurting your earnings, it's not good. Even remotely.

8. There are other ways to support creators that are much better. 

As said in the very first reason, creators hate this Post Plus. They prefer being supported in other ways. People also don’t always want to be paid for the content (not even counting legal issues) And if they want to there are already platforms set up for them to use. For example, Pateron has tiers you can set up for membership, ranging up to $100. There, you know what you walked into. You’re not expecting free content, like on Tumblr, you’re building a relationship with the people in your community. Ko-fi lets people donate directly to their content creators, and won’t take any of their donations, unlike the 5% cut Tumblr is planning on taking. Both platforms also offer features that would not be available on Tumblr. Creators are also more likely to already have one of these set up, and keep Tumblr for their free content. 

9. Tumblr could make money through better ads

Tumblr ads are famously . . . what’s the word? Ah, yes, “batshit” is the word I’m looking for. I’ve gotten ads for tattoo aftercare, signs of heart disease (the picture provided was someone with their nails painted blue), maps of the USA, celebrities that has passed away, lists of bad cities in my state, graphics of chickens with Hindi (note: I am American), and apparently now I should be worried if my dog licks their paws. (?) As I went to check my dash while writing this post, I saw a small air cooler that was apparently more powerful than A/C being advertised. 

No one clicks on them except for a laugh, or if they accidentally thought it was something that was actually interesting. Most of the time, it is not. Tumblr could do something like Instagram and actually have good ads and make more money off of it. It may not be as much as they thought they were going to make, but it’s better than what they have now. (It’s a low bar.) 

10. This is the same website that spearheaded DashCon

You remember DashCon, don’t you? 

This seems to illustrate the website's stupidity in one picture and this is why you shouldn't trust us with money.

If you have any other reasons why this is bad reason, reblog the post with your reasons. I'd like to hear them, and don't forget to tag the staff.

There is a survey Tumblr wants you to fill out here, it's a step you can take. You can also listen to the protest @postplus-protest which should help. It starts August 6th, it's going to be a great time.

[elsewhereuniversity]

When I first started here, I called myself Ada, because my wordpress as a teen was adamantiumhalfdragonx523 and it was the first thing I thought of when they said I should pick a nickname.

...I know, it’s kinda ridiculous, and I was hoping to present a somewhat more mature persona at college. But at least Ada is an actual name, and I could claim it was after Ada Lovelace instead of my RP blog.

Anyway, I dove into class quickly. Engineering, with an accidental minor in physics: I liked the required courses so I took a few electives, then realized I was only like nine credits away from qualifying for a minor so I went for it. Got immediately bogged down by homework as usual, barely scraping C minuses through humanities requirements and getting extensions wherever I could. I’ve never been good with time management? It’s the adhd.

There were always rumours of strange things happening on campus, but I mean, it’s college. You get drunk larpers and people hallucinating moving shadows from lack of sleep and old buildings with confusing layouts and it’s enough for weird rumours to be spread for months.

There was this weird girl who moved in a couple doors down from me: she turned up around March, I think she was a transfer? Her roommate literally burst into tears and ran away down the hall when I mentioned her, so I didn’t push it. It was a bit weird but I guess they were close with their previous roommate? Don’t know why they left, maybe they dropped out. Anyway, near the end of the semester the girl — she went by hazelnut, I think — invited me to this pre-finals rager out in the woods. I think it was late April, maybe the first of May? Mysty (my roomie) said not to go but I was feeling pretty prepared for my exam so I figured I’d go check it out. She kept, like, tutting at me, and made a big show of pouring salt lines at the window and door and around her bed? I don’t know how you can pour salt sarcastically, but she managed.

It was a pretty decent party, honestly, all through the woods. There was obviously much wilder stuff happening deeper, bright lights and screams and music and stuff, but I met up with a group I vaguely recognized from some class or other, spent a good couple hours playing, like, a music-based chase game around this awesome spiderweb of a slackline rope course someone had set up in the trees, falling off laughingly as we got progressively drunker. Also Cuttlefish (trans dude, marine bio major) with the Bluetooth speaker started skipping erratically between songs with dramatically different genres and beat structures until we all ended up tackling him to make him stop. I was just thinking of heading back to dorm when this girl with really cool dark-fantasy makeup stumbled out of the trees, obviously in distress.

She was dressed in this kinda ragged-but-flowing translucent robe thing over incongruous muddy cargo shorts, barefoot, exhausted-looking, and screaming about being chased. Lark (short girl, I think geology major?) immediately grabbed some big hoola hoops I’d been ignoring (I mean, when there’s a huge multi-tiered rope course with ladders and slack lines and trapezes, hoola hoops don’t stand out) and threw one over Spider-makeup-girl immediately, who kinda collapsed to the ground sobbing in apparent relief, and Lark yelled for everyone else to sit in one as well. Something something salt circles? So we did, kinda bemusedly, two to a hoop.

Spider-girl’s chasers burst out of the trees a moment later, and, like, I had figured Elsewhere must have a pretty substantial cosplay community, considering the larping I’d heard people talking about, but damn these guys’ costumes were good. One had to have been like six and a half feet tall, but they were on tall digitigrade stilts that raised them closer to eight, if you included the mask, and the other had this really clean 4-arm rig and I swear the arms were moving separately. Like, I’m an engineer and I couldn’t figure out how either had put the costumes together, the movements were so smooth they looked practically natural. I hope they get into whatever film studio or props company they want, the prosthetics were definitely movie quality.

Anyway, they came bursting out of the woods, making growling sounds, but they both stopped abruptly when they saw the probably-ridiculous sight of nine twenty-somethings sitting in plastic circles on the grass. I expected them to start laughing, but they were really deep in character.

They kinda circled around us for a moment, sniffing the air. I wanted to comment on their costumes, but everything seemed super serious all of a sudden. Then one of them spoke.

“Have they trapped you, weaver? Do you take salt chains over calm oblivion? Do you think they can hold you against the hunt?”

Their voice was kinda deep and raspy, oddly resonant in the chill night air, like I was only hearing part of it. This was obviously part of some scene, but I dunno. Spider-girl was curled into a ball, shaking, and I felt these guys were taking it too far.

There were a couple moments of tense silence, then Lark spoke up.

“Our bargain is with her, not with you. Leave, or wait out the dark. We aren’t moving.”

The four-armed one literally hissed at that, raising up this ragged crest along their back and flexing all four of their clawed hands.

“If you take her, human, then you take her debts. How certain are you, that you believe yourself capable of filling them? Do you think her gifts worth the cost of her entrapment?”

I still couldn’t tell how the rig was working, there wasn’t much space in their costume for complex pneumatics or anything, which was kinda annoyingly obscure. Was it just puppetry? How the fuck did they get the arms to DO that? And the tall one’s mask, were those articulated eyelids AND ears?

“She is ours, human, hunted and caught. You mettle in affairs of what you know not.”

The big one was circling faster now, striding long-limbed on those stilts. They sounded ominous, but I saw a loophole there, so I spoke up.

“You obviously didn’t catch her? She escaped long enough to find us, and if I understand the setting of your game well enough, we count as scenery or props, not players on the same level as you. So it sounds like she got away on her own and found a hiding place she can wait out the sun, which means you lost and she’s free. Go bug someone else.”

They both roared at that, making charging motions towards us, but thy kept pulling up short about two feet away from the hoola hoops. I’m not gonna lie, it was super intimidating, but they didn’t seem like they were going to get any closer? After like five minutes of this, the tall one broke and ran into the trees and the four-armed one followed, both shrieking.

We stayed in the hoola hoops after that. I would have liked to go back to the dorms, but any time any of us moved Lark started shrieking at us to stay still because it was “dangerous” or whatever. Cuttlefish turned the music back on and we ended up playing a trivia game someone had on their phone. It was super uncomfortable but it could have been worse, especially since I was still pretty drunk, so it was all a kinda pleasant foggyness. I must have dozed off at some point because next thing I knew it was a bit brighter and spider-girl was standing over me.

Her makeup was even better in the twilight, extra eyes and weirdly-textured skin and everything.

“If you are, as you said, merely scenery in which I have found my own escape, then I owe you nothing.”

She looked around at all of us, then at Lark, who was getting up with a murderous expression, then back to me. Up close, I could see my reflection in her eyes, including the six fake ones. They looked intimately real.

“Your words unwind me altogether, even from your would-be friend,” she whispered, just to me, “and I owe you, gift for gift.”

Then, suddenly, she was gone. I saw her bolt to the rope course and up one of the support ropes, much further up than I’d noticed it went, until she disappeared into the treetops. It was impressive.

Lark yelled at me a bit, something something she could have made us all rich? I don’t know, I don’t understand the larp setting well enough to understand the context. And then I went back to my dorm and collapsed into bed. I only got three hours of sleep before I had to get up and take my exam, but I did pretty well on it anyway, got a solid 83%.

Couple days later I heard a sound at the window, and when I went to investigate I found a bundle of fabric on the sill. Unwrapping it, i found a hooded knee-length asymmetrical vest thingy with this really cool greyscale-geometric pattern on it, made from the same flowing material as spider-girl’s robe. It fits perfectly. Mysty made a bit of a fuss when she saw it, but calmed down a bit when I told her the context. I’ve been wearing it ever since, it looks really good over jeans.

Anyway, yeah. Probably the weirdest story I have, though there are some solid contenders, actually....College, you know. Stuff happens.

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21751201 (wrote this back in December, forgot to submit it)

[lovelyirony]

dsjhfjkdj winteriron with that fight prompt would be god tier please give us that gift

Here’s something that most know about Tony Stark: he doesn’t keep his mouth shut, and he likes to know everything. It took many deals to make sure he didn’t tell the US people exactly what was in Area 51. 

(He made the sure the deal expires two years from now, there’s no way in fuck he’s not telling people about the whole North Dakota thing.) 

Tony has grown up with power. He knows how to manipulate it, how others manipulate it, and he’s not afraid of it. That’s a dangerous thing, to not be afraid of power. But when you run an influential company that can make or break people at an alarming rate, but not that alarming because he doesn’t use it for evil, then it’s...well. 

You’re not scared of threats. And if the people threatening you are smart, they’ll realize why. 

This is why when Alexander Pierce walks into his office and charmingly tells him all about his plan to threaten Tony Stark with death and blackmail of the sexual kind involving two men, Tony snorts. 

“Pierce, fire whoever the fuck got you that little blackmail. Half of America has seen my asshole before, it’s not anything new. It’ll just be more material that people see, and to be quite frank, I don’t think my sleeping with men will hurt literally anything besides some conservatives with children or community or whatever, but I couldn’t give less of a shit. Tell me, does my ass look good in that video? I wasn’t sure that time around...” 

Pierce turns red with rage. Tony’s used to it. 

“As for death,” he steamrolls on. “Go for it. I assume since I stopped creating weapons you have Hammer weapons now or some incredibly old Stark weaponry, which is hard to find given the fact that there’s an order to destroy all of it or donate it to a museum. And if it’s neither and you’re planning on a knife or anything, go right ahead. Try and kill me. I guarantee you won’t.” 

“You have no idea who you’re going up against,” Pierce warns, voice turning low and gravelly. 

Tony laughs. “I’m going up against an old leader of a mob named Hydra who had to hide because of my Aunt Peggy being the most terrifying leader around. You couldn’t make a move. And now you’re recruiting people, but you think you’re being so slick about it. I can and will make sure that you are burned along with the rest of your little game. That sound nice?” 

“And how will you do that?” Pierce asks. “You think you can find all of us?” 

“Yes,” Tony says easily. (He doesn’t know this, but like. It’s Hydra. How hard can it be?) “Because if you’re so reliant on your own power status, then how easily will it be for your organization to crumble?” 

Pierce is sent away, and Tony tweets out that he got threatened. Casual Wednesday stuff. Then he says he’s flying away for safety. 

This is a flat-out lie. Pepper knows it. Rhodey knows it. Maybe someone reading the tweet in the middle of Wisconsin knows it, hell if Tony can guess. 

But the point is, no one else will think it’s a lie, especially when he sends a plane over somewhere tropical. 

He’s staying put in New York. The best lie is one that is grand, multiple small holes in this lie, and one that doesn’t involve not going out in public. Everyone else will be looking for Pierce. Not Tony Stark. 

Tony is looking for someone else--or rather, a group. 

They call themselves the Avengers. A group of people that rival Pierce in power, although their group is smaller and more concentrated at getting people out of positions of power. 

It’s understandable. 

Tony walks right into their office building. 

There’s a guy who he thinks is Clint? He spills his ramen. 

“Oh fuck, my ramen,” he whines. “What the fuck are you doing here, Stark?” 

“I have a favor to ask,” Tony says with a shrug. “Who do I talk to about favors? And your security? It lacks, to be completely honest. I expected more from you all.” 

“Security is me,” comes a voice from behind. Tony side-steps a charge from a woman who was lunging for him. 

“Ms. Romanov, I expected more from someone who worked for my company for six months.” 

“You remember?” Natasha asks, surprised. 

“Natasha I do love my scotch, but not enough to black out anymore,” Tony says. “Honestly, who do you take me for? A floozy?” 

She smiles. 

“Good to have you here, Stark. Wish the circumstances could be better. Let me take you to Barnes.” 

Well. Tony Stark was not expecting Barnes to look like that. He wasn’t expecting any of them, to be completely honest. 

“Is the expectation to be attractive and a model?” Tony asks. “Is this your interview process for new candidates? Wow. Okay.” 

James Barnes stares at him. 

“Why are you here?” 

“Alexander Pierce,” Tony says. “He tried to threaten me in my own offices, and I’d like to destroy him. A bit of an impulsive project, but I bet he’s going to infest more things if we’re not careful. I want your help.” 

“Consider it done,” Barnes says. No thought needed. Natasha looks at him. “What did you have in mind?” 

“I am technologically gifted,” Tony says. “I already have gotten into some files that definitely are not for the public and I’ve found a lot of people that are Hydra. We need to round them up, encircle Pierce, and get him to break. Preferably on national television, but that’s just my own flair for the dramatic coming up.” 

James nods. He reaches out his hand. The metal one. 

It’s meant to intimidate people, tell them that that’s their fate if they fuck up the deal. 

Tony stares at it almost with reverence, a bit of confusion, and then understanding. 

“Your fingers need to be re-calibrated soon. And I’m going to replace something in your arm.” 

“What?” 

Tony laughs. 

“Barnes, you’re wearing an arm I created. I know it as well as you do, maybe better. I want you to come down to my shop some time this week and have it worked on, if you’re comfortable with that.” 

And so the deal starts. 

“Do we think this is a good idea?” Steve asks cautiously. “Is this seriously just something he decides on a whim?” 

“Steve, I’m going to pretend like you questioning the most famous billionaire of all time but not for shitty reasons is asking us for help,” Bruce says. “I am planning on taking full advantage of this and breaking into his labs for science reasons since I’m not trusted with a Bunsen burner here.” 

“You used it to make soup and it ended horribly,” Clint reminds him. “And I know, because I supported you.” 

“You’re the only one on this team who does,” Bruce says. 

- 

Bucky does bring Bruce along. He’s figuring that part of the deal can be that Bruce can actually use a real lab. 

Tony’s focus zeroes in on Bruce, actually. 

“So, this is where Dr. Banner’s been hiding,” Tony says. “I’ve been looking around for you for quite some time, Bruce.” 

Bruce blushes. 

“Well, thank you Dr. Stark.” 

Bucky raises an eyebrow. 

“Bruce here is a legend in the scientific community for two reasons,” Tony says. “He was the first to call Richard Reed a little bitch, and his scientific papers are the stuff of legend. I presume you want a lab?” 

“If it’s not too much.” 

“Nope, not at all. After everything is done, you’ll have a lab here.” Bruce gapes, and Bucky clears his throat.

Tony’s gaze returns to Bucky. 

“So, what can I help you out with?” 

“Strategy. And I’m wondering what kind of help you have.” 

Tony nods, flipping a picture of a man on his desk. 

“Thor. And his brother, but his brother is kind of...temperamental. I think he’ll most likely help because I told him that he could use crazy straws and shaving cream for unknown purposes.” 

Bucky raises an eyebrow. 

“Trust me, it’ll be worth it. But Thor is good at being discreet, also using an incredible amount of force.” 

“His name is Thor,” Bucky states. “For real?” 

“As far as I’ve found,” Tony mentions. “I’ve connected him to Rogers and Romanov, they’re already planning together tonight.” 

“Then why have us here?” Bucky asks. 

“Because I’m getting Bruce’s lab set up with input, and I’m fixing your arm,” Tony says. “So both of you, follow me to my home.” 

Bruce is giddy. Beyond giddy. It’s the first time Bucky’s seen a smile on his face for longer than a minute. 

(Okay well, a second time. The first time was when Steve tripped over three socks.) 

Tony leads Bucky to his “garage” which is full of cars worth more than Bucky’s entire life, and they sit at two chairs as Tony gets out his tools. 

“When’s the last time you had a maintenance check?” 

“Uh...when I got the arm?” Bucky asks. “Wasn’t exactly aware of maintenance checks.” 

“I bet you had Ted as your person,” Tony grumbles. “Hated that dude. Well you can always come and get it tuned up, no charge. They didn’t tell you that. I’ll have to remind them.” 

Bucky’s surprised at Tony’s easy confidence, the way his shop is laid out. 

He smiles at the robots that curiously come up to investigate. 

“Dad has a couple of new friends,” Tony explains. “U and Dum-E, please don’t poke Bucky in the side, he might--” 

Bucky laughs, flinching away as the screwdriver drops from Tony’s hand. 

“Do that,” Tony says, bending down to pick up the screwdriver. He gets a random bolt, one of the larger ones. 

“Go see if you can pick this up with your claws,” Tony says, throwing it in the opposite direction. The bots squeal after it. Tony sends a look to Bucky. 

“Kids. They’re a mess.” 

“You named them...that?” Bucky says. 

“Yup,” Tony says. “The one that’s anxiously looking behind the couch is U, like the letter. He really liked pointing when he was first born and the first word he learned was ‘you.’ He’s a cutie. The charmer there who’s spinning and trying to show off his new tape that Pepper decorated him with is Dum-E. He’s a drama queen. I have no idea where he gets it from, honestly.” 

Bucky laughs. 

- 

From then, Bucky and Tony work in close quarters together. It’s nice, honestly. They’ve been cracking down on Hydra, driving them into a smaller and smaller circle. 

“You think after all this is over, you want to get dinner some time?” Tony asks. 

Bucky smiles. “I’d love that. Where do you want to go?” 

“Your choice,” Tony says. “As a thank you for helping.” 

“Anything for you, doll.” 

And then Tony gets kidnapped. By all accounts he’s not sure why he wasn’t expecting it. Maybe because it was a Sunday night, and you shouldn’t kidnap people on Sunday nights. It’s rude is what it is. 

They also punch his mouth, which ugh. That just ruined his good days of not having any chapped lips. He was working hard on that particular aspect. 

- 

Bucky goes into overdrive. He didn’t think this would happen because Tony is a very central figure to the city, a figure to the US. To be this ballsy? It’s a death sentence. 

He knows death sentences quite well. Been on a few himself. 

Hydra should be quaking, because he’s getting his knives strapped. 

Hydra is not quaking. Or in fear. It’s because they have quite the large ego, which no organization should have. But powerful men who have another powerful man in their grasp tend to think the world is bowing to them, when in fact the world does not give a shit but their enemies do. 

This is why Bucky breaks into the building in two minutes (personal best), throat-punches six people, and finds Tony singing “Turn Back Time” as loudly as possible. 

“Oh! You’re here!” Tony says. “I was beginning to think I’d have to drive the guards to insanity.” 

“Who did this to you,” Bucky asks, tilting Tony’s chin up in his grasp. He can see dried blood on the corners. He hates that Tony had to go through with that. 

“Bucky, it was Hydra, who else?” Tony says. “Pierce if we’re being specific. But you might want to stop doing that or I’m gonna get hot and bothered under the collar, which isn’t my style. You wanna break out of here or stay with me? I’m not fond of the last option.” 

“Then why give it as an option?” 

“I don’t know!” Tony yelps, grabbing one of Bucky’s knives and throwing it at a man’s leg. “But let’s get out of here. Or at least, to their file room. They keep files. What losers.” 

Bucky laughs. 

“Got it doll. Let’s go.” 

For the record, it’s a huge success. Pierce gets taken away in handcuffs for roughly about life in prison, unless their prison system decides he’s been good after about ten years, and then he might get released. Who knows. Point is, Bucky and Tony will both be alive in ten years, prepared to make sure he goes to jail again or they’ve reformed the jail system by then. It’s all up in the air, really. 

But they’re doing it together. Which is all the more important. 

[loverontheleft]

Aftercare

AU with single PFTW/quarantine Brendon. Fluff and implied smut. 

Brendon x reader. Warnings: So...we’ve (@beautiful-tragic-fallout) created a points system for smut. 

0.25 for handjob

0.25 for fingering

0.5 for blowing him

0.5 for going down on her

0.75-1.0 for sex, vanilla

1.5-2.0 for sex, advanced positions

3.0 for bondage, spanking, other kinks, or public sex. 

This has a score of technically 0...they talk about rough sex in general, spanking, and fingering/oral though...along with a Daddy/Kitten kink and my usual warning for language. 

Word count: 3.8k

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“Mmmmm,” Brendon sighs, collapsing on the mattress next to you. You giggle and scoot closer, loving the spread of pink flush across his skin. “I need a shower.” He pauses, running his fingers along your own flushed and glistening skin. He grins up at you. “We need a shower.” 

“Noooo,” you protest, shaking your head vehemently. “No. Not yet.” Brendon props himself up on one arm and raises an eyebrow. “No,” you insist with a playful pout. 

“You seem pretty firm on that,” he comments, rolling onto his back so you can cuddle into his side. You nod and tip your head up for a kiss. Brendon delivers and smiles down at you tenderly. “Hi Kitten,” he whispers, and his eyes, when he says this, reveal just how precious you are to him. 

“Hi Daddy,” you chirp, puckering your lips for another kiss. “More pweaf.” The words come out slightly garbled from your refusal to abandon your kissy lips. He laughs and cups your face in his hand and kisses you gently. Yes, you think to yourself. His kisses are everything. If you could only ever kiss him - he could probably find a way to get you off with just a kiss. You press closer into the embrace and run your hands up through his long hair. You love his hair like this. Long and unstyled and perfect for tugging.

When he groans into your mouth, you know he’s sold on postponing the shower. He just doesn’t know why yet. The kiss is sweet and gentle; both of you are pouring all your affection into it. “Now tell me, Kitten,” Brendon mumbles against your lips, “why you’re so against showering.”

You wrap your legs around his waist and cling to him, hands still working through his hair. “Because,” you reply, pausing to rest your forehead against his, “we need to do aftercare.” 

Brendon’s brow furrows in confusion for a split second as he processes this, and then his eyes go wide. “Love, I didn’t mean to hurt you - was I too rough? Tell me what hurt and I’ll - never again - I’m so sorry, Kitten- I didn’t think-“ 

“Not for meeee,” you cut him off, waving a hand in the air as if to get rid of his worry. “For you.” 

Brendon pauses again, obviously trying to think through this one. “You’ll forgive me,” he says finally, “I hope, because, thanks to someone’s,” and he kisses your nose lightly, “tight cunt, I’m thoroughly fucked, and I can’t quite keep up with you mentally. But - for me? Kitten, you weren’t exactly...rough with me. So I don’t need-“

“See,” you cut him off again, kissing him gently. “Aftercare isn’t just for rough play. It’s for all play.” Your knowledgeable tone is his clue; Brendon relaxes, drops his concern, and rolls over so that you’re both on your sides and face to face. This is your “Deep Life Talks With Kitten” position, and it’s one of Brendon’s favorite non-sexual positions. You both scoot in so you're nose-to-nose, and you tangle your legs together while his hands move over your back. 

“Someone’s been doing some reading,” he comments, rubbing his nose against yours affectionately. “Teach me something, my brilliant girl. You know I love your seminars.” You beam at him and give him a quick peck on the lips. 

“Gladly. So...aftercare is predominantly associated with the BDSM scene and within that community, Dom/sub play, right? But it doesn’t have to be, and honestly, it shouldn’t be. Aftercare essentially  is taking time with each other to come down and check in and build intimacy.” 

“Build intimacy?” Brendon sounds confused, and your eyes go wide as you realize that he thinks you think your intimacy is lacking. 

“Noooo, Daddy, we’re fine. Our intimacy levels are -“ you pause to kiss him and scritch at his hair, and he relaxes against you. “Top tier. Our intimacy is everything I’ve ever wanted. I’m just talking in general. But I was thinking while I was reading - we’re so good about doing aftercare whenever you’re rougher with me- which is when I need the care. But what about when you’re sweet and tender and giving to me? What about when I want to give it to you?” You let the question hang in the air. Brendon grins a little and starts to tell you that he’s fine when you groan and cut him off with another long kiss. 

“Kitten, that is the third time you have interrupted me. If you keep doing it, I’m gonna have to put you over my thigh and spank you,” he mumbles as you deepen the kiss. 

“I’ll take that risk,” you murmur back, giggling when he nips at your mouth lovingly and calls you his naughty Kitten. “Aaaaanyway,” you continue with a smile, pulling back and tugging at his hair affectionately. “We always do aftercare for me when you’ve been rough with me, which means that I’ve been sweet and good and giving for you. So why shouldn’t we do the same when you’re sweet to me? Aftercare isn’t just about taking care after being rough,” you tell him, snuggling in closer. “It’s also about checking in and processing and showing appreciation when someone’s giving. And you,” you shift onto your back now and spread your legs a bit, “were very sweet and giving just now. And I want to show you how appreciative I am.”  

“I see your logic,” Brendon tells you, nodding with a faint smile. “I’m game. You’re in charge. Aftercare the shit out of me, Kitten,” he says as he rolls onto his back and luxuriates in the feel of the cool, soft sheets under him. 

“Yes, Daddy,” you say promptly, climbing on top of him and kissing him softly. “We’re gonna start with some touching to establish a connection between the physical and emotional.” Your hands trail down his body and meet his eyes.

“You’re still wearing your metaphorical glasses, Kitten. Still in seminar mode. It’s hot. Keep talking.” Brendon grins up at you while you laugh and lean down to kiss him. You’re moving your hands over his stomach and chest in slow, soothing circles and pressing lightly against his abs. “That feels - good,” Brendon sighs. 

 “It should. You tense up from all the thrusting. Hopefully you won’t be as sore tomorrow after this.” Your voice is low and soothing, and Brendon closes his eyes; he’s on the verge of bliss. You keep talking. “Thank you for being so generous and giving of your time and effort and body.” He cracks a smile, and you giggle, reaching farther down to caress his post-orgasm softening cock. “You’re a wonderful lover, and I’m so grateful for the moments we share. I love you so much, and our sex is...well, it’s more than just physical.” 

Something in his eyes changes and softens even more than when he usually listens to you. You know he’s enjoying this - not in a sexual way. Just in a human-to-human, lover-to-lover way. You keep going. “When we have sex, you aren’t just - it’s not just a physical release. We’re together in that moment in every way, and I feel so close to you in every way. You are so attentive and indulgent of me. I know you prioritize my pleasure, and it doesn’t go unnoticed. You make me feel like I’m the only person in the world who matters to you at that moment. You give yourself to me wholly, and I recognize how lucky I am. I love you very much.” You bend down to kiss him again, and he wraps you in his arms and holds you tightly. 

“I’m the lucky one. I love you, Y/n,” he whispers, stroking your hair. You murmur it back to him again. You’ll never get tired of telling him. 

“I always feel so relaxed and satisfied and safe with you. You don’t just prioritize my pleasure- you prioritize my well-being. Even when push me to new levels, I know I can trust you to take care of me. I love you. I love being close to you like this. No sex required. You make simple cuddling deeply intimate and special.” You snuggle down and rest your head on his chest. “You’re my favorite, Brendon. I’m entirely yours.”

“You’re my favorite, Y/n, and I’m completely yours,” he whispers back, kissing the top of your head. “I won’t even spank you later for calling me Brendon when you know I’m still Daddy,” he teases as he squeezes you affectionately. 

“You’re lucky you’re so cute,” he adds, laughing when you feign innocence. “Now come here, my naughty little Kitten.” He draws your mouth to his for a gentle kiss. “Love kissing you. Love you,” You preen under his embrace and continue to trace your fingers over his cock. “That feels nice,” Brendon whispers into your hair. 

“I’m glad,” you whisper back, kissing his chest and rubbing the tip of his dick gently with your thumb. “I want you to feel good.” Brendon sighs, and you can feel his body sink deeper into the mattress. “That’s it,” you soothe. “Just relax for me. You gave me so much and worked so hard. Just relax and feel. Not trying to get you hard again. Just trying to touch and appreciate.” When you can feel his breathing slow, you trail your hand back up over his tense stomach. 

“You’re good at this,” Brendon tells you in a low, raspy voice. “I’m feeling very...appreciated.” You smile, and he grins back at you. “I just love seeing you happy,” he whispers. You kiss him gently before sliding out of his lap and rolling over so he can be the big spoon. “I also love holding you like this,” Brendon mumbles, letting his fingers wander over your bare skin. 

“That’s good,” you reply, eyes closed. “Because I love being held like this.” You’re both resting comfortably in the silence; his lips are pressed to your neck, and your fingers are entwined with his on your stomach. “I love that we can just...be,” you say after a moment. 

Brendon nips at your shoulder twice, and you know that’s his Cuddle Code for “say more right now, you naughty and-slash-or sexy thing,” and you giggle. 

“I mean - sex as a concept is great. Our sex specifically is incredible. But sex only gets a couple so far. I know too many couples that are basically roommates who just happen to fuck. They’re not really partners. They can’t sit in silence and enjoy each other’s presence. You and me...we understand and appreciate each other. We take care of each other. We work together in and out of the bedroom.” You falter. You’re pretty confident he understands, but he did say earlier that his brain was thoroughly fucked. Then it hits you - the way to make it make sense. “Okay- so. We can just lay here like this and not have sex or even say anything but still communicate and be on the same page. The silence isn’t something to conquer. These couples that aren’t partners...the silence is awkward. Intimidating. Sex is sex and actual intimacy is rare. You and I - our intimacy is part of everything, including sex.” You exhale, emotion evident in your next words. “What I’m trying to say is - they don’t have a Cuddle Code.” 

Brendon pauses - you can feel his mouth drop open against your shoulder. “They don’t have a Cuddle Code?” He says in a voice that reveals his combatting disdain and concern. “How the fuck does that even work? Okay - do they have something similar?” You shake your head. Brendon is indignant now, but you know it’s not directed at you. “Well that’s just stupid. How does he know that she’s feeling vulnerable and in need of extra attention and love and lots of snuggles when they’re spooning? Or that she’s just stressed and all she needs to really feel better is for Daddy to get down there and eat her pussy? And - and - how does she know that he needs her to just keep talking because the sound of her voice makes him feel safe and grounded? How does she know Daddy is still so into her, and it’s not her fault at all, but sex just isn’t going to happen right then and he’ll make it up to her later? How do they -“ he trails off as his processing catches up with his feelings. “Oh. They don’t. They just don’t communicate like we do, do they, Kitten?” 

“No,” you say in a small voice. “They don’t.” You push back against him lightly and wrap his arms tighter around you for a brief moment before releasing. He knows the Code. 

“Commere, my love,” Brendon whispers, turning you in his arms so he can wrap you in his embrace after lifting your thighs up to his hips. “My sweet little empathetic Kitten.” He nuzzles the top of your head. “My soft, sweet, tender love. You feel everything, don’t you? I love that about you. I really do - you know that, right? I love that about you. You aren’t afraid to feel. The opposite of sensitive is not brave. I mean that. I think you’re so brave to let yourself feel. And that’s what you mean by us just being. You and me...we can just be ourselves, huh? We make it safe for each other just to feel.” You nod. “Yeah. We have our own little world, don’t we? And it’s just Daddy and his perfect Kitten.” 

His voice is a soft purr in your ear, soothing you. “We’re a team, me and you. It’s always going to be us, my love. I’m always going to be by your side and on your side,” he promises, kissing your forehead. You nod against his chest, and he squeezes you gently. “That’s why the silence doesn’t bother us. Because we’re both at peace with the other. It’s not - we’re not trying to maintain an image or play a role or whatever. We’re just us and we’re comfy because our feelings are safe and respected and we both know the other is always going to be on our side.” 

“Yes,” you squeak, agreeing to all of it, and Brendon smiles when you give his collarbone a quick kiss. He knows it’s your Cuddle Code for “all is well. Proceed as normal. I’m good - just getting my shit together. Thank you. I love you. I adore you.” 

“I love you too, Kitten. So much. But it makes me sad - what you said about other couples,” he says finally. “That there are people who aren’t as happy as us. I know we joke that we invented Cuddle Code, but I guess I just always thought...well. I don’t know. I've been with you and only you for so long now. I guess I just got used to us. I assumed every couple was on our level. I want everyone to experience the love I feel for you and the love I receive from you.” He sighs now. 

You lift your head and he brushes a hand through your hair. “I know,” you agree. “It’s hard, isn’t it? But...we can only control ourselves and we’re both happy. So...let’s keep making me happy and complete the final step before we shower,” you offer hopefully, sitting upright. “Food?”

You roll your shoulders back and Brendon smiles. His little badass Kitten. He’s in awe of you. You feel so much and just keep on going- you just roll your shoulders back, fix your hair, and keep going. “You had me at food,” Brendon declares, shifting and trying to get up. 

“I’d hope so,” you tease, grinning at how easy he makes it to bounce back. “It was the last word I said. You stay here. I’ll be back.” You climb off the bed gracefully, knowing Brendon is watching as you bend over to pluck his t-shirt off the ground and wriggle into it. 

When you get back into the room, Brendon has propped himself up with two pillows and the sheets are tangled down around his waist. He’s got a hand behind his head and he looks completely blissed out with his eyes shut. You falter in your step; he opens his eyes and looks concerned. “I’m good,” you reassure him. “You’re just so...hot. Hair all messy, face and chest flushed, arms looking like - that…” you trail off when he laughs softly. “Don’t laugh at me,” you pout playfully. 

“Oh, I’m not laughing at you. Don’t worry. Now, come here, my sweet Kitten,” Brendon coaxes. You set the bowl on the bedside table and crawl into his lap. “There’s my best girl.” He kisses you softly and you melt into his touch. When you part, he looks over at the small bowl with some interest. “What’d you bring us?”

“Yogurt with granola and berries,” you tell him, running a hand through his messy hair. “Something light. Just a little recovery snack.” He nods and gestures for you to pass him the bowl. “We share,” you tell him. “You probably figured that out from the one bowl and one spoon. But it’s also more than that.” Your tone turns reverent. “It’s also the Speaking Spoon.” Brendon gives you a curious look and you smile. “We feed each other. And whoever is holding the spoon gets to talk while they feed the other.”

“Are there any rules for what we can talk about?” You love that he just accepts this. He’s always so supportive in the big and little ways - even down to your impromptu implementation of the Speaking Spoon, which you definitely just made up. 

“Nope,” you say simply. “No rules. I mean...preferably the topic is the sex that just occurred, if anything needs to be brought up in a safe environment, but anything low-stress is encouraged. I’ll go first.” You take a spoonful of yogurt and bring it to his mouth. “I loved how you fingered me while you licked my clit- that felt so good. Then when you started curling your fingers deep in me while your tongue rubbed my clit? Made me come so hard- I love you. Please keep that combination in the permanent rotation. That’s a go-to move right there.”

“Mmm definitely,” Brendon agrees as he swallows. “Loved seeing you lose control like that. Whining and wiggling and coming...” He takes the spoon from you and offers you a bite. “I also loved how you were such a good girl for Daddy—keeping those pretty legs spread open for me. I know it was difficult; you like to squeeze my head with your thighs while I work. But you know I love the view. Thank you. You sounded so sweet, and looked so good, Kitten. Made my cock so hard.” He hands you back the spoon, and you accept it. 

“Well, it’s easy to be good for Daddy when he treats me so sweetly. Especially after you made me come twice - and that was before you even got inside me. I love that breathy moan you make whenever you push into me - it makes me feel so wanted.”

“You are wanted,” Brendon murmurs as he feeds you another bite. “You are wanted and loved and cherished and appreciated. You know I absolutely adore and worship my Kitten. I’m very devout. I try to pray at that altar between your thighs at least once daily.” 

“Mmmmm,” you hum in gratitude. “Well, you know it’s mutual. I love touching you and your cock.” You pause. “I’ve never asked before, but that’s what this time is for so...you don’t mind me touching you when you’re not hard, right?” Brendon laughs and shakes his head. 

“I love you touching me any time and all the time. I’m much more sensitive when I’m hard, so you touching me when I’m soft is so nice. I get to really enjoy your touch and the attention. When I’m hard, it’s so good but I’m also trying to balance arousal and - well, this really lets me just appreciate how sweet and caring my girl is. Plus, it’s good for the ego,” he says with a soft grin. “Knowing you like my dick even when not hard and not inside you.”

“I love your dick all the time,” you say softly as you reach down between your bodies to palm over his cock. “This conversation was brought to you by aftercare.” You give an exaggerated thumbs up with your free hand (holding the spoon) and Brendon laughs out loud, calling you his favorite dirty dork. He takes the second-to-last bite you offer him before taking the spoon and holding it to your lips. 

“You’ve made very good points about aftercare, my love,” he tells you. You nod as you swallow and Brendon sets the bowl and spoon back on the bedside table. “We’ve always been good at the physical aftercare when I’m rough. The coming down and the cuddling - but I like the idea of always doing it. I love-  the talking is so nice. Now though...I want you. Your attention and focus to my cock is making me hard again and I’d bet anything that your pussy is getting wet. I want you so badly. Does your guide to good aftercare say anything about a round two?” He grins and tugs you closer gently so he can kiss you again. 

“It says,” you whisper against his lips as you shift in his lap to tug the sheets all the way down, “that it can happen. And if it does, to go with it because sex is great. Just be sure-“

“To practice good aftercare the second time around too,” Brendon concludes, trailing his hands up your thighs. You nod and he gives you a wide smile. “Well, I think that can be arranged. You know I want you. Do you want me?” You nod eagerly, and he kisses you sweetly, laughing when you cling to him. “Is that a yes, Kitten?” 

You giggle and nod as he grips your thighs with his warm hands and rolls you both over so he’s hovering over you. You run your hands through his hair and bring him close for a long, heated kiss. 

“Fuck yes, Daddy.” 

first photo by me (@loverontheleft) and second by @1-800-hallelujah​. Do not remove/repost/re-anything without crediting. 

[wingedweasel]

Would you rather...

Sorry for the super long post, but...

So my eyes were i a hostage situation with Twitter earlier, and I noticed a bunch of people posting things like ‘would you rather have $X or $Y?’ where x is an extremely huge amount and Y is a comically smaller amount. One was along the lines of ‘would you rather have one billion dollars all at once or 15 cents every day?’ The point of these is to bring up the idea of passive income and how it’s better to have steady income over large lump sums.

However, when it’s these comically small amounts, it would be better to have the lump sum. There was one that offered one million vs one dollar every day. Ummm, the million...? Every time. I’d choose the lump sum. Sure if it’s something like one million vs 10,000 every month, then okay, yeah, the parsed out payments would be better. I mean, yeah, it would take 10 years to get the same amount, but you would be getting more in the long run. Also, in these hypotheticals, there is no end date, so taking the monthly payment would be better since you could assume that you would keep getting the payments until you die. 

But - and this is the thing that got me questioning if I was missing something - why would anyone take the super small amount? If it was $1 a day, rounding all months to have 30 days, then you’d only be getting 360 a year, 3600 in 10 years. Why would anyone want that compared to having the lump sum of 1 million? 

What could you even do in that situation anyway? We’ve all seen those commercials “With $1 a day, you could save the life of a child/animal” uh...but I wouldn’t be spending $1 a day. I’d have to pay a large amount, that  yes, technically comes out to $1 a day, but I wouldn’t be getting a daily charge of $1. Getting $1 a day wouldn’t help anyone. As I said before, that’s less than 1000 a year. Even if it was somehow able to pass along to your descendants, it would take 2-3 of your descendants’ lifetimes to get to 1 million. And this is all assuming that you never touch any of that money in all of these lifetimes. 

I’m sorry, but no. That’s not gonna work for me. Especially if it’s something stupid like 15 cents a day. No, gimme the lump sum and I’d show you that I could make more with that lump sum than any low daily amount. 

This piggy backs off my belief of ‘sort yourself out before trying to sort other people out.’ This stems from having to grow up watching the people around me run themselves ragged trying to help others out of financial binds while they didn’t have the funds to do. I’d usually get the shaft because of that, and any financial decisions I had to make - when I was actually able to make them - had to go through this kind of tiered system and rank what I wanted to do over the wants (not needs) of other people. It sucked, still does since I’m still stuck in this system because of the decisions of other people’s past mistakes and temper tantrums. But yeah, that’s why I believe that a person should help themselves before they help others. I get that this comes off as selfish or egocentric, very ‘me first’ Americanism, and on one hand it is, but it doesn’t mean I (and the hypothetical others) don’t give to the poor or help others when they need it. It just means that I don’t think it’s good for you when you are guilted (or tricked depending on how you look at it) into opening a credit card to a tire shop when you don’t even have a license so that your sister can get her car fixed even though she has a very well paid job, but for some reason can’t afford to pay her bills and continues to not learn from her past mistakes by spending all her money as soon as she gets paid, constantly going on trips to Vegas, and seems to be always doing some money spending activity every weekend. 

Why are you asking if this was something that happened to me? What ever gave you that idea?

Anyway, getting back on tract of proving the lump sum is better: First, obviously, I’d pay off my debts. For me, I’m fortunate enough that it isn’t a massive amount, still a lot, but not hundreds of thousands. I won’t have to worry about a huge amount that I have to pay every month and not have to decide which bill gets the late fee this time. School loans, credit cards, not so much debits but a few people have gifted me various amounts to help pay my tuition, so I’d want to pay them back. I don’t have to because they were gifts, but I feel guilty that I had to ask them for money. 

Next, I would sort out my living situation. I would move to a better neighborhood in which I would buy a house there. I would also take the time to learn to drive and buy a car. I would have to outfit my new home, and while that can take a good chunk of money, second hand stores, Craigslist and the castaways from friends would help with a lot of that. I’d need to outfit almost everything because I would not be living with anyone else except my fur babies. In this fantasy, I’m saying fuck everyone else, I’m moving far far away from my family of leeches and never seeing seeing them again. I might send birthday/holiday cards/gifts to the ones I kinda get on with like my nieces and the one uncle that is actually a decent person, but everyone else can piss right the fuck off. They took advantage of me whenever I had money - more often when I didn’t have money and somehow managed to squeeze everything out of me then - so why should I help them when I have money now? Harsh? Absolutely. Petty? As fuck. 

After that, I’d invest. Obviously. If the point of the would you rather was to teach about the benefits of sustained constant income, then investing is the best way to do that. Investing in companies that have a history of doing well. Having a diverse portfolio is something that I’ve heard wealthy people talk about, so if one investment doesn’t pan out, I wouldn’t lose everything. Sounds...sound. I’d also take the time to invest in me. I’d finally be able to afford the hobbies and skills that I couldn’t before. I’d take back up with music and be able to afford lessons. I do better when someone is beside me telling me what I’m doing wrong and showing me how to do it correctly. Ex, I tried learning Japanese outside of a class setting and just couldn’t wrap my head around the basic sentence structure: XはYです. For some reason, my brain couldn’t figure out that x and y were nouns and it basically translates to X is Y. My brain freaked out, and I just couldn’t. However, day 1 of class, the figurative lightbulb went off and went “oh.” and laughed for a solid 10 minuets as soon as I got home. Musical instruments are the same way. I’ve tried to lear guitar and violin several times, but all without an instructor. Can’t do it. Hiring a personal trainer would be helpful as well. Getting someone to kick me in the butt about my fitness would go a long way in helping me reach my goals. Language tutors as well. I’ve maxed out my ability to learn at the community collage I take classes at, even though it’s been over 10 years since I took those classes, but I passed them so they’ve said screw you. While technically I could do all these things for free - there are various websites, YT tutorials, and Duolingo - like I said, I need that live teacher/student interaction for it to click. 

Finally, as I said above, help yourself before you help others, so now that I’ve helped myself, I can now start helping others. Not my family. Fuck them. However, there are friends that have helped me so much over the years, and now that there is money that I can actually use - remember those investments? They’d have started to see returns by now - I can now start ‘paying’ them back for all that they did. It may not always be money that they would give, just being a shoulder to cry on meant more than anything at times so they’d deserve something as compensation for putting up with my issues. However, because I would now be in a good place. I could literally afford to go ‘here, here is a little something to show how much you mean to me and as a small step in saying thank you for all that you did.’ I could also now go, ‘I see you are struggling, so here is something that you can use to help get out of the bad situation.’ This was - and still is - something that made me feel so guilty that I couldn’t do when I was younger. I’d see a friend need something - or even just really want, we were kids after all - but I sometimes couldn’t even spare a dollar to help them. Helping others also means gifting to charity. I have always wanted to be able to donate to charities, to give money to panhandlers - I don’t care some of them use the money for drugs or alcohol, the small amount who do do that shouldn’t cause you to not give to those who don’t - remember those commercials from before? Even if some of the charities suck major ass, there are some really good ones that I would love to be a donor. I could afford to be a Patron member for certain YTers, I could donate to small Twitch streamers. Kickstarters and GoFundMes would see my name on the donor list. Animal shelters and children’s hospitals; after school programs and community centers; friends and neighbors. I could do so much.

But it certainly wouldn’t happen if I received $1 a day. 

[justjessame]

Dr. Tali Sullivan Chapter 3:  Help Comes at a Price, But Who’s Paying?

I sat back on the couch. Drying my eyes and waiting for Dean to explain. I’d moved away from him. Comfort or not, I couldn’t stand how much he smelled like John. It hurt. Like feeling like he was here when he would NEVER be here again.

“Before you tell me about Sam,” I swallowed and swiped my face with another tissue, catching the remaining leaking. “Where did you-”

Dean shot me a look and realized what I wanted to know. He looked uncomfortable. “We buried his tags at the same cemetery where Mom is.” I nodded, that made sense. “I’m sorry, Tali, if I’d known Dad hadn’t-”

I shook my head. “It’s fine.” It wasn’t, but dwelling on it didn’t help. Wouldn’t help. “Now what about Sam.”

He explained and I listened to what he’d learned, not only from John’s warning, but since that day in the hospital. “Dad said that I had to watch out for Sam and take care of him.” I nodded, Dean had done that from the moment that Mary had died. “To save him.” Wait, from what? “And if I couldn’t,” he swallowed hard and he looked like he’d gone green in the gills. “He wants me to kill Sam, Tali. Dad wanted me to know that if I can’t save my baby brother from whatever the hell Dad thinks he needs saving from, I have to kill him.” SHIT.

Damn it John. “He didn’t give you any idea of what you needed to save Sam from, at all?” Dean looked pained. “What did Sam say to all this?” I’d never seen Dean with pinched lips before, but now I could mark it off my bucket list. “You haven’t told him.” Shit. Fuck. “You have to.”

“No, Tali,” Dean started to argue.

“Dean Winchester,” He stopped. “Your father was the MASTER of lack of communication, and I get that you have taken hero worship of him to an obscene level,” he raised an eyebrow and started to speak, but I held up my hand. “Don’t pick this trait to mimic, Dean. Don’t do it.” He closed his mouth and studied me. “I will never know how your dad might have felt-” that punch of pain in my chest that would always accompany the regret of that knowledge. “About me. I never got to say goodbye, or tell him-” I swallowed back another flash of pain. “Don’t do that to Sam. The two of you, the ONE constant the two of you have always had, is one another. Don’t keep it from him, don’t carry the burden alone. John, your dad, carried so much pain and guilt and look at how much he missed.” I was blinking back tears again.

“Tali,” he tried to reach for my hand, but I stood up. “Dad, before he told me about Sam, he-” I looked down at him and knew. John had managed to make a bit of peace with Dean. “He told me he was proud of me. He told me not to be scared.” I snorted and Dean looked up at me in surprise.

“I’m sorry.” I offered, still blinking back my tears. “I’m glad John finally told you that he was proud, but that was a shit thing, telling you NOT to be scared and then telling you that killing Sam might become a reality for you.” Fucking John Winchester, one step forward, four steps back. “Don’t become him, Dean.” It hurt to say it. To put into words the pain I felt over the loss of him, yet the absolute certainty that he could have saved so much fucking pain if he’d just opened up more to the people he really did love. “Don’t lock it down and put the hunt ahead of everything. FEEL. Tell people how you feel. Tell them goodbye like it’s the last time you’ll ever see them or speak to them, and for God’s sake, if you love someone, don’t leave it unsaid.”

 Dean left before darkness fell. He’d had a call from Sam, who I learned was getting premonitions now. He only left after I promised to answer his calls. And before he walked away, he said goodbye. He hugged me tight and promised me to check in. To let me know what he’d learned, and begged for me to find something, anything to help him save Sammy.

I got better at pushing the grief down. I became more animated during my classes, and I started researching ANYTHING that John might have meant when he gave Dean that cryptic fucking warning. I researched the Yellowed Eyed Demon, finding out more about Azazel, Ramiel, Dagon, and Asmodeus. They are higher tier demons, known for yellow eyes and their rank as Princes of Hell (well, Dagon was a ‘Princess of Hell’ I suppose, since she was female). Lucifer himself had a hand in their turning. That type of power, coupled with the extra information I managed to drag out of Dean about what he’d gone through prior to John’s death. The power of this demon, the ability to act as a deal maker, and yet flinch off the other ways that most demons get cornered in. Shit.

When the phone rang after my class, I didn’t have to look at the ID to know it was Dean. It was around the same damn time he called every damn day. “Hello, Dean.” I answered, walking toward my house. “How’s the case?”

“Ever hear of Croatoan?” I’m fine, Dean, thanks for asking. “Because for fuck’s sake, Tali, I feel like I’m in the middle of a damn Romero movie.”

“Zombies? What do zombies have to do with the lost colony of Roanoke?” I asked, shifting my messenger bag so it balanced out better during my short walk home. “I thought you were in Oregon?”

“Pretty damn sure they aren’t fucking zombies, but they’re definitely not normal.” He grunted and I heard a strange noise in the background of his call. “Sam caught sight of the word of ‘Croatoan’ carved in a telephone pole.” Bit by bit, that was Dean. Like pulling damn teeth sometimes. “Dad’s journal mentioned a demon associated with the name.”

“The plague and pestilence one.” I nodded, pulling out my keys as I walked up my walkway. “Makes sense,” I shrugged, I didn’t find the need to research demons that had been beaten into the ground by academia. “Tell me what you’re dealing with so I can work my head around what you’ve got.” He did as I walked inside the house, carefully navigating my salt line and flipping on lights after locking the door behind me. I dropped my bag on the couch and headed toward the kitchen as I listened to Dean’s report. “Yeah, that sounds like demonic germ warfare.”

“Do you have any idea of what we should do?” He asked, and I had to close my eyes against the similarities between the gruffness of his voice and John’s.

“Yeah, leave.” I heard him inhale. “Roanoke DISAPPEARED Dean. No one has any information on what the hell happened. Other than the demon’s name. No way to exorcise it or how it infects or works its bad mojo. There’s no fix for this.” I sighed, feeling useless. “Keep the blood of the infected from any of your bodily openings, and DON’T let them wound you to give you a new entrance for the infection.” I poured myself a glass of juice. “Sorry, Winchester, but this one is pretty much a blank page for me.”

“Shit.” Dean growled. “The entire town?”

I gasped. “They’re ALL infected?” Shit was right.

“No, but, enough.”

I closed my eyes and felt like a hand was gripping my heart and twisting. “Get out. Get Sam and leave. Now.” I opened my eyes and put down the glass of juice feeling nauseated. “Seriously. Leave.”

“I’ll call you later, Tali. Goodbye, sweetheart.” Damn it. Damn you, Dean Winchester, using my fucking words against me.

“You’d better fucking call, Dean. Bye.” He hit ‘end’ first and I sat down hard at my kitchen table. The Winchester men would be the literal fucking death of me.

  It was the early morning, and by early I mean pre-sunrise, when my cell rang. I groped for it on the nightstand where it was charging, finally hitting ‘answer’ before it could go to voicemail.

“What?” I was groggy. I was tired and I was scared. No good ever fucking came from an early as fuck phone call.

I heard a chuckle and rolled my eyes. “I promised, Tali.” Damn it, Dean. “We made it out, I wanted to let you know, so you wouldn’t worry.”

“Ugh.” I pulled the phone away from my face to try to focus on the time showing. “It’s two o’clock in the fucking morning, Dean.” I sat up and managed to figure out how to flick on the lamp. Blinking against the minimal, yet fucking bright light, I groaned and yawned. “I only finally passed out an hour ago.” Shit, fuck.

Another quiet laugh. “I wanted to hear your voice.” Um, no. We will NOT be doing that. He sighed. “Tali, I had to hear your voice and KNOW we made it.” Ah, thank God for that clarification. “I told him.”

I squinted. He told him? Him who? Him what? “You told him?” An hour of sleep after HOURS of worry and fear didn’t help my mental processes.

“Sam.” Ah, I waited. “I told him what Dad told me.” I swallowed and let the silence grow. “He’s-”

“Confused, upset?” I answered, coming awake a bit more. “It’s understandable.”

“Yeah,” Dean sounded tired. “I should let you get back to sleep, Tali. Goodnight.”

“Night, Dean.” I swallowed against the pain of knowing that I shouldn’t feel this much for the two of them. The fear and worry. I was nothing to them. Nothing at all, passing acquaintances from childhood, that was all. “Let me know-”

“I’ll call you tomorrow, sweetheart.” That word again. “Night.”

The call ended and I sat there, in the dim light of one bedside lamp, staring at my phone and wishing like hell that I could talk to John one fucking last time.

[entrance01]

The Market Landscape of Commissions, or How Artists Do Not Really Understand Economics and Business

A think piece by an art hobbyist with a BS in Business Administration (Marketing Concentration)

I’ll start off by saying that I won’t blame anyone for not knowing the basics of economics or business and how it can apply to something like art –especially fanart commissions. Often, people don’t realize that there is always a business take on these things.

Commission prices are a point of debate for everyone, from artists themselves and to the people buying the art, and it’s honestly ridiculous. I’ll fucking say it: it’s not too much of a wide scale problem if someone under charges themselves. That is not your fucking market.

I used to be one of those people who are like “CHANGE YOUR PRICES!! CHARGE MORE FOR YOUR LABOR!!” but now I realize that maybe they don’t have to if they know what they are doing. And if it’s not out of their own volition, it most probably isn’t their own fault.

Basic Economics

I’ll assume that you learned economics in your high school (and college as part of your general education), but if you didn’t, don’t worry. I’ll give you the quick rundown.

Supply and demand have an inverse relationship. As the price increases, quantity supplied increases while quantity demanded decreases, and vice versa. There are exceptions to this case, but that is another topic for another day.

In art, you can lower or raise your prices to attract or deter customers –like any other business. It’s not uncommon for some artists to have “commission sales” if they haven’t had commissions open for a while or because of a special holiday. Those are valid reasons to drop your prices momentarily. But, on the flipside, if you are having too much on your plate, just raise your prices incrementally to weed out the people who don’t want to pay those prices. And honestly, if you already have your audience, those people wouldn’t care what the price is if they buy it from you. That is customer loyalty. Cherish them.

Target Markets

Target markets, or target audiences, are the people you are trying to sell to. Sure, you can try to appeal to general audiences, but it really is easier to find your niche and work it. There are plenty of reasons why individuals, and even companies that aren’t conglomerates, would do this.

This is my personal observation, but I think people just assume that the art world is monolithic. That it’s an identical landscape throughout, and it’s not! Like, the overall online art community is, indeed, highly saturated, but you can build your own Blue Water Strategy. There are people who do specific fandoms, specific art styles, specific mediums, and so forth. Sure, there may be intersection, but knowing your quality, your knowledge, and what you are willing to draw, you are making your own brand and market.

I’ll fucking say this too: someone who charges $10 chibis are not taking customers away from the person that does $100-200 portraits.

That artist that does $10 chibis has done their thinking! They thought “I could pump these out pretty fast. I know I can charge more, but maybe I’d get less customers in the long run. If I maintain my price, I can have a steady flow of customers without overworking myself!” And that is understandable! Same with the artist who charges $100-200. They specifically go for the customers who are willing to save money and wait for something they deem worth it.

Not to mention, you can also have tiered commissions based on complexity.

The Fault of the Smaller Artists?

A lot of times, people go and complain like, “Wahh!! These young artists are undercharging, and it makes it harder for us bigger artists to compete!” And honestly? Fuck right off with that.

They are charging what they think their art is worth and it does suck that they aren’t giving themselves the fair wages that they deserve, but whose fault is it? Most certainly not theirs. And while I’m not trying to pit artists against one another, bigger name artists could help by paving the way for smaller artists to follow.

No doubt that these artists with larger followings charge more for their commissions, but there are also some that don’t. I’d say “fine, whatever,” but it’s that kind of behavior that makes it difficult for smaller artists to get some elbow room and find ways to garner more respect. If a famous artist is charging pennies for their work, how can a smaller artist compete with that?

But it’s neither the larger nor the smaller artist’s fault. The real problem lies in the entitlement of the consumer.

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Let’s be real. When someone tell a small-time artist to raise their prices, are they really going to help them? Chances are that they won’t. They just tell them “hey, you should charge a working wage for your art” and then fuck right off and do nothing else –don’t signal boost, don’t even commission them, etc. And that really hurts them if they lose customers. That’s honestly on them.

I think these people just want to feel good about themselves, like they’re being helpful and that they know more about the art world than the actual artists, and maybe they do have some good insights! But, ya know, not really… This really comes from a place of, I guess, just thinking that you know universal experiences, which are not a thing… (see my point about the art landscape). Then again, there is also the problem of consumers who don’t see things from the artist perspective.

I can say with certainty that there are a lot of customers who think that custom made art should be easily accessible. That it should be cheap and en masse. They don’t seem to think that one can save up for a commission. I know I do for that one artist I appreciate!! If they understand that someone is willing to pay more for a bespoke suit, then they should extend the same sentiment to art. Art is a luxury, people!!

I guess this may go into the territory of “what gives art value?” and/or “who assigns value to certain artists over other artists?” –my father likes Rembrandt but doesn’t see the appeal of another famous Dutch artist, Van Gogh. But this takes the cake of “another topic for another day.”

Alright, so what about all this? Is there anything we should take away from this? I honestly don’t know. This was mostly just me going off and I didn’t really think I would get so far as to make a conclusion, but I guess I ought to now.

I think… ultimately… the art world, especially in online fandom spaces, is a hot mess. It is a weird environment and is a highly saturated market, aforementioned, and if you are competing directly, it’s a hellscape. Either you play price wars and go in as the lowest bidder, or you charge your fair prices, your luxury prices, your whatever, and back it up with your skill. It’s terrible!!

I do believe that artists should charge more for their work, but not just new, smaller artists. I want this to happen for all artists. And I will still tell artists that they should charge more, but only if they can. Art/content creation is such a weird thing…. Does my advice make sense? Yes. But everything else I’ve been saying about not raising prices also makes sense. There are too many options, all of which have their values, but what works best for one artist won’t work for the next.

When it comes to commissions and prices, we all just have to go back to the drawing board.

[hivedent]

on “operation blow us all the fuck up”

sources:

ARANEA: Ok then!  ARANEA: Has everyone settled down? Do I have everyone's attention?  MEENAH: attention huh  MEENAH: whoda thought  MEENAH: you would want any of THAT  ARANEA: Just stop. Please?  ARANEA: I know it's only 8een minutes since you died, and you pro8a8ly aren't thrilled to see me for any num8er of reasons.  ARANEA: 8ut for me it has 8een millenia! I have 8een waiting a long time to see you again, and orient you to the afterlife. 

ARANEA: However, I don't think much of it will make sense without some major contextualization.  ARANEA: There's really quite an amazing amount of nuance to the full sequence of events. Many different players, personalities, conflicting agendas, all interwoven together.  ARANEA: I'll need a little time to set the stage for everything to 8e comprehensi8le, if you all don't mind indulging me for a while.  ARANEA: You could say it all started during our darkest hour, when it 8ecame clear our failure was inevita8le. I took it upon myself to venture into the palace of my denizUMPH.

    please be aware that these were MY PERSONAL NOTES. theyre full of me deciding things and arguing with myself and putting ideas out there to see what sticks so i can come back and refine it when i can

 Aranea and Meenah meet up upon a large floating lily pad over what used to be their Battlefield before it was destroyed prematurely by the Reckoning. The time has come. It was made clear long ago that their session was bleak. There would be no winning for them. Aranea Serket headed directly to her denizen, Echidna, to ask what route should be taken. Echidna of course informs the Scorpio girl of a method called The Scratch, initiated only once a game has become unwinnable. Echidna continues to explain that the kids will cease to exist and will reincarnate as average people on a different planet. You know. The basic deal behind The Scratch.

Meanwhile, out in the Void, Meenah is communing with the Horrorterrors who are very adamant that Meenah use the Tumor to kill everyone just before the Scratch so that they will continue to live on in the dream bubbles (this is in part mostly to carry Horuss who is carrying Calliope over into continued existence). As one would expect, Meenah is thrilled with the idea of staying around and being immortal and in charge forever.

Now the logistics and details behind this are a bit shady, but it boils down to this. Aranea and Meenah have only just recently had a fight with each other that really shook their friendship. Aranea is skeptical that the Horrorterrors’ plan even works. Why should you trust a bunch of octogods anyway? Aside from that, an eternity of death doesn’t sound exceedingly pleasing, nor does the idea of a mass suicide to accomplish that.

The two set off to accomplish their goals. Aranea accompanies Damara to transport the Cardinal Movement to the Battlefield for their final goodbyes. During this time, Meenah has retrieved the Tumor and is ready to begin her part. Aranea and Meenah continue to have conflicted opinions on how to go about this. Aranea is excited for her new potential life!

Each of the girls have acquired half of their crew to debate what they should do. Aranea has accumulated Rufioh who claims that he couldn’t even manage to face death to reach god tier and the idea is just too gruesome for him and Horuss who says he would not want to keep on existing forever without his beloved. Cronus joins in as well, claiming that he finds it sexier when women aren’t trying to kill him. He also makes a passing comment that Aranea would give him favors for siding with her (which she did not. And if she did they were not sexual). Latula thinks that conceptually it’s not really a solid plan and there is nothing suggesting it is a good idea. The entire idea just sounds grody. Mituna joins her because DOOM.

On Meenah’s side she is accompanied by Kurloz who simply stares vacantly at everyone with a wide smile on his face and Damara who is only siding with her because she refused to be with “the cheaters” and who just wants to start the damn Scratch already and get it over with finally. Both are also interested in Lord English’s propagation. Kankri believes that he will be able to help spread social justice in the afterlife. Porrim claims she is obliged to go with him, not daring subject an afterlife to Kankri without her intervention. This is mostly joking as she also admits it might be fun to get to keep living so to speak and that SOMEONE has to protect the little guy too. There were a lot of things in her life she never felt were complete. Similarly, Meulin believes in the optimistic concept that there is much to do- even if all she gets to do is talk to Kurloz forever, it is something to do. Kurloz may have also convinced her to join him because Lord English.

The two begin to face off in whose plan should work, and who should be allowed to be Scratched if that is what they want. If nothing else even just half of them can blow up while the others leave to be Scratched. Either way, the numbers are tied and no conclusion can be reached.

Flashback time for explanations!

[calliopes soul is involved with this somehow, i mentioned this in a previous post]

(Meenah’s oven, Porrim’s mannequins, Latula’s coins, Rufioh/Damara’s egg timer, etc . Die’s voodoo doll does not count. He has had the doll since he joined. Then again so did Biscuits and Eggs. This is not important. Stop riding me.)

There is also the matter of a First Guardian. This Guardian is cool. And unlike Scratch they are neither creepy nor do they fuck up the entire planet. Though they do claim to have a great interest in watching and observing the story. This is mostly because the Guardian is stuck in a dimensional pocket. Something like the Void. They are incapable of acquiring power from the Green Sun. As such, they’re black. Fizzled out in the Void, powerless. Unlike Scratch’s lit-up white. This is in part because Horuss/Calliope’s soul was used to ectobiologically birth them. And because I fucking said so. This is similar to how Lil Cal embodying Caliborn’s soul created Doc Scratch. A puppet linked to Caliborn. Whereas this Guardian is enveloped in the Void housing an antithesis of Scratch, one who embodies Calliope. But she’s not going to explode from their head or anything like Athena or Lord English. They’re just. The antithesis. They will only acquire their First Guardian powers once they have been summoned into their universe proper.

For some reason or the other Aranea has Quarters’ quarters. Maybe from during her fling with Latula or maybe Latula gave them to team members for whom the numbers/colors fit. Also I’m not sure on the specifics of this but BASICALLY she is intent on flipping them. Specifically Snowman’s. Because it’s a double sided 8 coin. What more of this decision could I POSSIBLY answer. Now it could be a few things. Perhaps she knows what it does. And she intends on flipping it to summon-kill herself so that she may be Scratched and avoid the afterlife. With… her teammates somehow? Maybe she somehow wants to flip it to decide what they do. I do not know. Like I said. They were shaky and hazy. THE POINT IS: Aranea flips the stupid Eight Ball Snowman Coin. She uses her Luck powers to make a favorable outcome… whatever that might be considering both sides are the fucking same. Maybe she bet that the coin would land on its side and if it did Meenah wouldn’t blow everyone the fuck up.

Anyway, Damara’s sick of this. Probably Damara. Someone has to shoot. But Cronus doing it wouldn’t make much sense. So Damara shoots the coin midair. Presumably Aranea’s Luck only ends up affecting how Damara hits the coin. Because it goes straight through the center. It is now just a black circle with a hole through it. But do you know who else is associated with just a black empty circle? THE FIRST GUARDIANNNNN. So it lands and they appear in a flash, all green and white and flickerin and makin people pass out because that’s just too much.

Now their influence is only right then. They can’t just go back in history and have always BEEN ALREADY THERE. They just can’t. They don’t even really HAVE that time stuff. I guess. ITS’ NOT IMPORTANT. POINT IS. FIRST GUARDIAN SNATCHES UP ALL OF THE JUJU AND ON THE SCRATCH THROWS THEM INTO PARADOX SPACE WHERE THEY APPEARIFY WITH DOC SCRATCH. Doc Scratch then distributes them to the leprechauns before Caliborn even meets them. There. Now they have their stupid Juju. Idk, they probably do some other capricious plot-altering GARBAGE too.

Anyway, for some godforsaken reason Aranea and the crew agree to not get Scratched and Meenah’s like yessssssssssssssssssssssss. Maybe because of the First Guardian being summoned being taken as a sign. Maybe Meenah does it without consulting them. I don’t know. So Damara starts the Scratch, and Meenah gets the Tumor at the ready for just the prime moment. I don’t really get what’s going on. Basically everyone agrees with Meenah but Meenah and Aranea are still kind of bitter and feuding. However Aranea gets scared and like what if this is the last time they ever even see each other? So she begins to apologize to Meenah and

SYSTEM ERROR: MEENAH PEIXES BLEW YOUR SESSION THE FUCK UP

SYSTEM REBOOT INITIATED. SCRATCH COMMENCING.

[chaosd1]

You know, when I reblogged that, it was mostly to showcase an issue that’s been present for YEARS, but keeps cropping up every now and then because most of Channel Awesome’s fans still think it’s 2010. If I had a Patreon dollar for every person who asked me something about “____ DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY!” despite that not being a thing I’ve done for over half a decade, I would probably not have to worry about paying off that damaged tire, or any future repairs to my car and/or PC. Long story short, they aren’t very good at letting things go.

I know people who want me to share my story are hoping for the same level of juicy gossip or levels of hypocrisy or betrayal that have accompanied so many of these other stories but I’m sorry to say it’s not quite that interesting, or even remotely “gotcha” in any sense of the word. If anything it’s more a reveal of how the company feels about its low-tier producers, and symptomatic of the larger issue that they clearly DON’T want anyone but the Chicago crew, or anyone that’s possibly bringing in their own audience. Remember when JonTron and PBG posted on Blistered Thumbs? I’m pretty sure they’re still kicking themselves over that one. As a bit of background, I always wanted to be on the CA site in some form, and by the time I had a show to offer up, I was already pretty close friends with a lot of the producers. In fact, it was Julien (Sad Panda) who decided to post up one of my videos in his schedule slot as a way to offer me a test spot. It was well recieved enough, but video games were almost always relegated to BT at the point, so off I went.

Despite being the more “respected” site by some audiences, all snafu’s aside, I felt that Channel Awesome treated Blistered Thumbs producers as second class citizens. Posting on there was like the Wild West. You put up whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted, and as often as you wanted, and hoped someone with a show that consisted of a three-hour long livestream split up into 15 minute increments wouldn’t end up pushing your video off the main page slider within the next few hours. It was very much for that reason I pursued some means to get myself listed on the main site by cleaning up the YEARS worth of spam and reported comments. After bringing it to the right people, I was permitted to post videos on the main site as well. It went well enough... for a while.

Once BT was shut down, a few of my friends (specifically MegaGWolf) were unceremoniously let go without an ounce of communication. (Most everyone on BT who wasn’t brought on to the CA “merger” had to find out via friends, as Michaud didn’t directly inform them.) Despite the promise of rebranding and stronger promotion, the BT audience didn’t really follow over to CA as the site didn’t really fit their desires, and the core CA audience was basically “NC, Linkara,and that’s it.” Views tanked and it was around the time I decided to move over to Youtube as the Blip waters were already pretty troubled.

At some point I started doing relatively well on Youtube, to the point CA felt like an annoying afterthought. I had to make special titlecards for CA as they had a ridiculous format I’d purposefully ignore later on just to see if they were paying attention. For example, the images were all supposed to be JPGS, though I always made them PNG, and since they were hotlinking them from my site anyway, WHY DID IT FUCKING MATTER?! It most felt like this ridiculous push for control and a power play that no one bothered to enforce anyway. Each time we scheduled we had to provide a link, a title, and a link to a special made titlecard. Did you have a special instruction or link you wanted to include when posting on CA? Good fucking luck they would ever include it, or spell half that shit correctly. Hell after a while, I figured it was pretty non-coincidental that after changing the title format from “MMO Grinder: Name of Game” to “Name of Game - ChaosD1,” views coming from CA were barely a percentile of the overall views I’d get from every other source. It wasn’t worth making them a stupid special title card and hopping onto a painfully broken scheduling site (a site that, by the way was designed for Sporting Events, and was so filled with non-updated dead links I occasionally would troll them by posting my category as “Blistered Thumbs” and “The Inebriati” both still available in the category dropdown menu. I’ll bet you they are still there to this day.

My issue didn’t come about until a sudden rule change. A rule I didn’t really have an issue with until the market started dying down, and my constant crushing depression over winter and my wife’s illness kicked in. Basically, “Post one video a month, or you’re stricken from the site.” later on that was changed to TWO videos per month and my show was almost always a ONCE per month deal. Seemed a bit suspect and draconian. There were people who didn’t post videos for several MONTHS that were still listed on the site, but they suspiciously had pretty strong followings elsewhere. Still I figured some form of warning or amnesty would take place to some extent. So in April of 2017 it was a pretty shitty month. Most of it was spent working on Eternal Crusade which was such a miserable slog none of us felt like doing much of anything else, there were no games to Sidequest for the suddenly required 2nd video per month, and I was pretty sure I was going to get some flak for it.Keep this in mind, I was WELL AWARE of the risk I was taking by not posting a second video, despite me rather often saying my show was monthly at the most. I figured they might know this, I’d get a warning, and that’d be the end of it. However, I was able to get out Eternal Crusade at the very end of April, but didn’t get around to posting it on the schedule until May 1st. May 1st rolls around, I check the site for any feedback and comments, and notice the video isn’t posted at all.... and I can’t access the scheduler anymore. One day late of posting consistently for 5 fucking years, and I’m locked out of the site like I stole a laptop from the studio. So I hopped on Twitter. Partially to express dismay, and partially because... I noticed I didn’t really have an audience on Channel Awesome anymore. I asked this very specific question and joked with some of the replies, most of whom confirmed my suspicion. They really only watched me on my site or my YT channel.

Still in talking with the CA chat in Skype, (I’d be on that Producer’s chat more often if I didn’t basically swear off Skype after Discord included screenshare. The producers and former producers really should make a Discord channel already.) they informed me that they’d probably reverse their decision if I just contacted Greg. While I didn’t think it was likely worth the effort, I figured I would anyway. Maybe pipe dreams of being included in an anniversary special some day. I just couldn’t wait to be the guy sitting slightly out of camera range in every shot with the one exception of getting to say “What should we do now, Critic?” for my first and only line in the movie. So I contacted Greg. It went a little something like this (for the Skype uninitiated, my words in Blue, Greg’s in grey):

So yeah, always fun to have to wait several days for a sentencing to the crime of being a day late on a post.

Of course, I cropped out the rest of the image, because the response without any contact in-between immediately afterward was this:

Yes I was being a sarcast there. I’m a sarcast... but when I’m last told “we’ll go through everything” and that is immediately followed up by “Sorry I took so long to get back, but... get lost scrub” I’m probably going to be a bit miffed about it. Of course this is CA and you can’t talk bad about them... or post something on Twitter they presume is talking bad about them, as this was the response to my sarcastic reply:

So yeah, Greg not quite understanding the concept of linear time (again I posted the tweet BEFORE I sent him the Skype message, not after) apparently you can’t even ask your audience where they still watch your videos most. They take it as a personal insult, like I didn’t enough appreciate those generous table scraps us low-tier producers had to fight over.

All things considered though, I knew the risk of not posting a second video in that month, and I valued my sanity over tossing out content for the sake of a suddenly imposed deadline. Could I have contacted Greg? Yeah, I suppose so, but why should I even have to? To be only a day late and have everything stricken without warning, like a robot looked over the feed and said “Well a month has passed, and there was only one so fired lel” without considering why, or even checking in on the employee in question, is the kind of corporate "numbers-only” bullshit that I swore off retail for. It’s fitting so many people in charge of Channel Awesome used to work at Circuit City is all I’m saying.

So that’s it. Nothing major, something I basically brought on myself, but still a fairly telling story of how you’d be treated as a content producer on that site.

And to all the current and remaining producers that aren’t showing up to the studio every day, or have a sizable enough audience to make a dent if you were to leave... they don’t WANT you there. They do not care about you. You are a liability. The very second they have a logical-to-them reason to cut your ass from the site, they will. Why put yourself through all that stress for a job that makes demands of you, without even paying you, promoting you, or benefiting you in any way? You know they don’t care about that site now that they are where they are with their YouTube channel. (Currently there are two producers that haven’t posted since December, that are still listed on the site. I must have been a special exception, or maybe it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a video as long as you keep telling them you don’t.) You’re white noise to them. Stay or go. As much as you think it might, it probably won’t make a difference to you... 

...but it definitely won’t make a difference to them.

[classpectcurse]

classes - romantic relationship emotional constipation ranking (part 3/3)

It was when I hit this part of the document that I was seriously questioning myself. I wrote this entirely in order, no references, no discussion with anyone. In a tiny window on my desktop at work. Why the fuck do I just have this sitting in my brain. But anyway. Last group.

Tier 3: The Opposite Problem

9. Thieves

(After writing out the whole Thief explanation I'm moving them all the way up to #9 because on average they're more constipated than the ones below, even if they're some of the least constipated most of the time.)

Thieves are a tricky one, but also not at all. Because the Thief framework makes no sense, but within that framework they are very, very predictable. But the framework puts the Thief's emotional constipation level in flux.  

The Thief pattern is extremely straightforward: they only care to protect themselves, and what they consider Theirs. So if their entire community is considered "Theirs" in the Thief's eyes, then congratulations, the entire community benefits. But if the Thief has been taught  (as is often the case with Thief characters) that only a select few are considered "Me & Mine", then they will act without any hesitation or remorse to protect their own interests. If others suffer in the process, to the Thief, it's an unfortunate but necessary sacrifice.  

However, in addition to this framework is the One Exception: someone that the Thief loves unconditionally, and relates to them on extremely Normal Fucking Person terms. They are the one person who falls outside of that "Me & Mine" mentality. For story purposes this is usually the romantic partner.  

(I had a whole explanation about the One Exception pattern but it was very long and more relevant to the Thief class description so I took it out.)  

So for the most part, the Thief is usually pretty straightforward in their intentions with anyone they're interested in. Thieves have a lot of charisma, and so they can depend on that to draw their partner in. They don't really fear rejection except as a blow to their ego, which can be dangerous for the other party as a Thief can and will seek revenge for a perceived slight to their dominance. But the revenge seeking is an impersonal, calculated thing, not stemming from a raw sense of hurt.  

They may be more hesitant if the person they're pursuing is their One Exception, since they will be genuinely afraid of rejection. Again: everything about their relationship with their One Exception is Extremely Fucking Normal. Which is so contrary to everything else that the Thief does that it makes no sense? But nevertheless. The framework holds. That's just how it works.  

So they're 0 emotionally constipated, except for the one time that they actually care, in which case they are just precisely as constipated as their individual experiences would lead them to be -- which is usually a bit higher than a  Normal Fucking Amount, because Thieves usually have a tragic backstory to justify their damage.  

So it averages out; they get to go right under our Normal Fucking People classes, but above those classes who have no bars on chasing romantic interest.

Rank 10: Witches

Now we're in the tier of people who will consistently and actively pursue/initiate relationships.  

Witches are easily identified as the shouty, punchy ones, who feel emotions very strongly. So it makes sense that Witches are easy to pick up on their feelings, and pretty uncomplicated in going about getting what they want. They're strongly active in all senses of the word, so they're go-getters on the relationship front.  

Witches tend to be naturally more self aware and sensible than Heirs, though, so they may be more likely to stop and pick a right moment before charging ahead. But that will make them take time to pick their moment, not to make them stop.  

The problem Witches may initially encounter is in being too pushy, and may inadvertently pressure their partners into whatever they want. Their strong will can tend to overpower their partner, and a less assertive partner might be unable to speak up in the face of that.  

However, the Witch outlook generally isn't one that tolerates an unwilling partner for too long -- Witches value assertiveness in their partners; a lack of assertiveness is perhaps the least attractive thing to a Witch. So if a Witch had a partner who was disinterested, the partner would ideally be able to stand up to the Witch and make their opinion known, thus ending the relationship. If the disinterested partner is too weak-willed to stand up to the Witch and cut the cord, then the Witch may lose interest and end the relationship anyway. Even if the Witch still likes this person, if their partner can't even bring themself to a confrontation about their unhappiness, then the relationship probably isn't worth fighting for.  

On the other hand, it's not uncommon to see a Witch who has undergone some of their character journey to back all the way up and be paralyzed with self doubt. The negotiation with the confidence with their assertiveness is the central focus of the Witch arc, so it's natural for a Witch at different points in their arc to have different levels of confidence in that regard.  

But generally speaking, a Witch doesn't have issues with knowing their feelings and acting on them, and that's what puts them this far down the list.  

Rank 11: Heirs

After reconsidering, Heirs go all the way at the bottom actually! 

Heirs, being the epitome of No Thoughts, Head Empty, are open and obvious when they have feelings. Outwardly, they're the textbook example of Someone With A Crush. However, they do this without always consciously processing that they have feelings? Heirs project their emotions loudly, so it's the case that other people will clue into their feelings before the Heir themself. That doesn't stop them though.  

This attitude makes Heirs a good choice for a first person narrator in romance stories, because the Heir will act on their feelings without consciously realising it. They'll dote on their crush, spend all their time thinking about them, feel jealous, and get closer to their crush, all while not realising that a) that's a crush and b) they're being super fucking obvious to anyone with eyes.  

Because of that, Heirs are really good relationship starters. Their honesty with their emotions allow the relationship to develop naturally and at the exact pace that they're feeling those feelings. Since their demonstrations are 100% just about how they're feeling, and with zero expectations of the other party, they're a good class to pair with classes who are more hesitant about acting on their feelings, or who need more time.  

But on the other end of that dial, that means that Heirs may sometimes push their emotions onto people who aren't ready for them. They're so consistently oblivious to what's going on outside of Expressing How They're Feeling, that they can make the other party uncomfortable with their persistent displays of affection. In order to be a good partner, an Heir will need to learn to consider the other party's feelings before they go ahead and express how they're feeling. 

Their obliviousness can also make them vulnerable to manipulation; their lack of understanding of their emotions may get them pushed into a relationship they're not ready for. The Heir is really just, raw emotional output; the outcome usually depends on the other person.

So overall, the Heir's goal in this regard would be to develop and maintain an awareness of the situation and to consider the feelings of others before they go ahead and express their emotions. It's the opposite problem from emotional constipation, really. More like emotional diarrhoea.  

 

Rank 12: Princes

Our final destination. Honestly this position as Least Emotionally Constipated is probably more honorary than actual, as Princes in general are Pretty Fucking Constipated in all regards. But by the terms of this list, the Prince approach wins on being the least filtered, the least subtle, and the most assertive.  

The joke is that Princes are the incel class, and while we Don't Do That Anymore because calling an entire class incels is not good practice and is just not a nice thing to do, there's a reason for the stereotype. Princes feel their feelings strongly, they know what they want, and they will pursue what they want, with no necessary consideration for the other party or the situation.  

There's really not much else to say here: unlike Witches, Princes don't care too much about the relative assertiveness of their partner. Unlike Heirs, Princes are usually well aware of their emotions and maintain a tight control over their own actions and their relationship status.  

So the Prince, especially early in their character arc, would have no qualms pursuing someone that they liked, with zero regard to the other person's level of reciprocity, or whether it's an appropriate situation to be expressing interest. The Prince would get frustrated if they felt that their advances were not being taken seriously and double down on their efforts in order to force the other party to see their point of view. Add to that the Prince tendency to jump to seizing control as a solution to things not going their way. Thus, the incel thing.  

Overcoming this self-centred approach is very much a central focus of the Prince arc. So naturally, like with Witches, a Prince progressing on their arc can very well retreat entirely from this reaction and display extreme hesitance as they figure out the best way to balance their emotions with the situation. It's all about the learning process.  

Like we say over and over again -- and this applies to all classes -- when we describe "class behaviours" we are merely describing  instinctive tendencies that people will display early in their arc, or if they're never given a reason to change their behaviour. The extent to which an individual will display their class's characteristics will vary heavily based on the individual context, and every person is capable of becoming aware of their own strengths and weaknesses and working towards becoming the best version of themself. 

So that’s it for this updated ranking list, jfc it’s been coming for a while. I’ll leave the old list up with an edit at the top, since it’s iconic, even if the ranking is updated.

[techyblogger]

How I Grew In The SEO World, Launched My International Link Building Agency And The Business Values I Believe In - INTRODUCTION POST BE NICE :) https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/g02trg/how_i_grew_in_the_seo_world_launched_my/

My name is David, 28 Years old from TLV IL, I'm an SEO Expert who provides International Link Building Services and Link Building Consulting Sessions - Working in the field for over 5 years.

I would like to share with you a bit about myself and how i operate my International Link Building business.

I started on my own around 5 years ago when I decided I shouldn't continue to Med school after I successfully past all the entree exams (Every Jewish mom's dream is to have a son doctor so you can imagine she was furious but that's for another post). I started learning SEO on my own, from scratch, driving my old beat-up Suzuki from business to business trying to score some clients 🤣 back when everything felt possible and I was young and energetic.

Slowly but surely I managed to gather proper experience, skills and proven results. I was super committed to making it big in this business, I secured some big clients as a part-time freelancer and 1 year or so later (2016) I started lecturing in some of the biggest universities in Israel educating hundreds of students on SEO / Digital Marketing over a period of 3 years, up until the end of 2018. It was definitely one of the best eras in my life so far, super fulfilling always pushing myself to be the best marketing expert and teacher I can be! 16 months ago (Jan' 2019) I decided its time for me again to take a big leap of faith and I launched my full-time SEO Company "Web David".

At the beginning of my independent way, it was absolutely awful lol. Sleepless nights, the mental stress of getting clients and getting good opportunities, providing for myself and my family, programming my time correctly, dealing with tax authorities, you name it, all the fun stuff :)

I think the stress and responsibility freelancers take on themselves while trying to provide the best services altogether making ends meet are underrated as fuck and it's not for anyone! no matter how much the "motivation gurus" urging you to QUIT YOUR JOB TODAY! its bullocks, one should mentally prepare himself for the trials and tribulations of becoming fully independent and building a successful business.

Although the beginning was filled with hardship and struggles, a lot of lessons learned over time, my skin got thicker, i was managing my tasks and cash flow much better, i was getting massive clients and getting top rankings in difficult niches.

I managed to pull through due to hard work, dedication and a fully developed business plan which i stuck to along the way. I'm now in a position in which I hire 25 Foreign writers, 4 SEO workers full-time and 2 VA'S worldwide, i grew in this business as i learned so much in my journey.

So after you know a bit about me back to my current businesses :)

Now, My main occupation is foreign link building. I'm an expert in this field, actually, it makes for over 70% of my business's income these days, and growing.I invest most of my time expanding my international network of sites (Over 15K+ Sites WORLDWIDE) while creating great international opportunities for my clients and I. I manage huge operations for international companies in budgets of around 75k-100k a month handling and carefully maintaining their international link building efforts and overall reputation.

MY MAIN CLIENTS ENGAGE IN THE FOLLOWING NICHES:

CBD Products

International Flowers Delivery and Gardening Products

Crypto - Affiliate & Trading sites

Legal Gambling, Legal Sports Betting, Online Casino Betting, Crypto Betting (Cool Niche)

Sports News, Esports

Steel, Energy and defense industries

IN WHICH COUNTRIES DO I OFFER LINK BUILDING SERVICES?

Spain, Latin America

Italy

France

Germany

Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark

Poland

Russia

Brazil

Japan

UAE

​

The turning point for my business was when I decided to focus on International Link Building. I recognized the demand for many corporations to handle themselves properly in foreign markets and get more traffic globally because as we know, the world is bigger than the US, UK, AU :)

One of my biggest clients ever, a local flowers delivery company in the united states decided to extend their services worldwide and with my help building a masterful plan, we managed to dramatically grow their income and get a crazy boost of organic traffic while conquering top positions in places like Spain, Brazil, and Japan. International companies want a professional securing the best possible links in relevant countries for their audiences and of course, for Google in different parts of the world.

The barrier of language and culture can be time and money-consuming. not knowing the market of accessible sites in different countries can cause headaches not mentioning creating the right content in a proper native tongue, distinguishing the native slang and common pricing in a foreign country. Most business entities or SEO Companies just want someone trustworthy to handle their affairs without juggling back and forth between temporary freelancers.

SO WHY DO MY CLIENTS MY TRUST ME WITH SUCH BIG BUDGETS AND OPERATING THEIR INTERNATIONAL LINK-BUILDING CAMPAIGNS?

My international Connections and Expertise - my connections spread globally from small niche blogs to huge traffic magazines all over Europe and Asia. over 15k+ sites in 12 different countries in total! I have one of the biggest International Networks For Guest Posting amongst global SEO Agencies, No Doubt About It :)

​

My actions are measured, my techniques are surgical - In a field where most link-building freelancers are beginners who tries to get some more income from random sites and big agencies are overblowing prices, i decided to take this game to the next level - you need someone on your corner who'll monitor the bigger picture and not only build random links for you. my team and i take into consideration a long-term game plan, calculate every aspect that can affect your Google rankings with links like:

unique IP's

the placement of your anchors on a page

Multi-Language Content creation

Keyword selection

spam-free sites

good reputation sites

the linking ratio of potential posting sites

nurturing your traffic value and domain authority

purchasing domains on your behalf

automated reporting

more advanced methods like sky-scraping, tier-2 links or multi-level strategies, social bookmarks, fixing internal linking issues duplicated content and more.

​

I'm reliable and confidential, so is my network. it's in my best interest in keeping my client's keywords and links safe and spam-free by any means necessary. i will never share any data on my clients or make a move that will compromise their traffic or income. In the first deals with a new client, i will only share the data of the sites and some screenshots in order to block any unnecessary penetration into my network of sites and to verify any potential client as legit. some clients even ask to use only sites which block bots from ahrefs and other tools - a request I'm happily obliged and am able to help with.

​

My pricing is honest. I strive to provide the best prices i can give out. I'm trying to keep myself competitive and fair - my main goal is to maximize my clients' investment with pure value and results I will never charge over-priced rates. whether it be International link building, foreign content creation or manual outreach. For example, The Hoth (the biggest link building agency in the world which FYI doesn't provide foreign links) prices the most basic links - DA20-30, NO TRAFFIC, and minimum data about them for around 400$ a piece!! Another big guest posting site like PR NEWS. IO charges 200$ per article!! and tries to convince clients they can use it a number of times which is misleading and can actually put your website in danger! and let's not mention rookies who offer posts on free platforms like medium or web 2.0 blogs, links from multiple sites sitting on the same IP, filthy sites spammed with viagra links, no-index links, and all the other nonsense legit businesses just don't have time to deal with. How do i know all of this? like i said, international link-building is my bread and butter - i know the inside and out of this biz😎 and, yes my pricing is so much better!

​

I leverage my client's budget for the best possible websites and placements. i prefer to work with bug budgets because it gives me the possibility the negotiate the best prices possible and close deals that will benefit all sides. using a proper budget i can secure amazing placements in awesome rates and significantly lower the expanses of link building overall.

​

All Foreign SEO Solutions Under 1 Home - I remove the headaches, the multiple vendors that can't be trusted, the spending on unnecessary outreach - Content, Links, Outreach all in 1 Home. i aspire to fully manage your entire binternationaludget and provide maximum results I choose the word home on purpose to emphasize that i try my best to make my clients feel at home whether it be 24/7 support, full transparency awesome communication and yes - having some fun along the way🙌 As a rule of thumb - I only work with good people in trusted companies i believe in and enjoy working with.

OK COOL, SO KNOW WHAT?

In the next couple of weeks, I'm rolling out my International services in some selected platforms and groups along with my new English website so i wrote this post as an introduction about me and how i found my way in SEO to make Potential clients and SEO experts understand this is what I'm good at and love doing every day.

PM ME or COMMENT for any question about link building or inquiry about my INTERNATIONAL services you might have.

I'm enthusiastic to offer FREE 30-Min Consultation over Skype to legit companies only! to examine your SEO GAME and talk about expanding your traffic globally.

It will be my honor to help legitimate businesses with their Link-Building efforts abroad. I'm cooking some great deals and placements for CBD Companies in Europe and selected countries, ill try to update every week on some great deals, i really hope you found some value in here, Again feel free to ask me ANYTHING

Happy Easter Much Obliged David.

submitted by /u/letsfuckinggo520 [link] [comments] April 13, 2020 at 12:46AM

[the-erudite-library]

Government (alt. title: Oh God, Why?)

So i’m going to lose my shit if i put off making this post any longer because i can’t stop thing about it. Let me preface this with that I don’t really give a shit that my theory (or whatever this is) isn’t 100% canon compliant, because I’ve analyzed it from every conceivable angle and canon makes no fucking sense.

I’m putting this all under a cut because things are going to become very longwinded and confusing very quickly

So to start out, I noticed how in canon the terms ‘leader’ and ‘representative’ are used interchangeably and it bothered me, a lot. So instead, I split it into two jobs, and this is where things begin to get a little complicated. In my theory, there are three levels to the government: the Abnegation Council, made up of eleven members with the chairperson and vice chairperson being Abnegation’s leader and representative, they’re also chair and vice chair of the Faction Council; the Faction Council, made up of two people from each faction, the leader and representative; and the individual factions different leaderships. This is because in canon there’s talk of an Abnegation council that leads the city that Andrew Prior and Marcus Eaton sit on, but also refers to Jeanine Matthews and as Erudite’s leader and representative on ‘the council’ and does the same with Johanna Reyes sans the leader part, AND talks about there being five Dauntless leaders. Thusly I believe that there are three tiers to the cities leadership, each with different amounts of power. I will get into the different leaderships in every faction at a later point in this post, right now I want to discuss the Abnegation Council and the Faction Council.

Canonly, Abnegation runs the government; so they’re at the top of this food chain and ultimately they have the final say on literally everything that goes on in Chicago. The Faction Council can say what they want, but nothing ever gets done without Abnegation’s approval. They control citywide initiatives (like the factionless relief effort) and hold some power over the factions individually so that nothing can ever get out of hand. They’re meant to be an oversight committee to the faction council to keep things from getting too one-sided. Basically, anything that affects the city at large must be done with Abnegation’s blessing no matter how much it may be the sole responsibility of one faction; i.e. Candor is the justice system but they can’t make laws, they can only enforce them and make suggestions; Amity doesn’t get to decide what’s best for their crops, they just do the work; and Erudite doesn’t get to decide how they run the schools, they just have to do it. In some ways, it seems like the entire system is a farce; why even bother electing faction leaders and representatives if Abnegation is just going to step on them?

The Faction Council itself, is a bickering mess half the time. You know those deep seeded problems that some factions have with each other? Well, you can bet that those don’t get left at the door. They’re supposedly responsible for what happens to the city at large, every faction is represented and supposedly that means that everyone’s voice is heard. It is the one commonality in leadership that every faction has, there’s a leader and a representative and they serve together. But as I mentioned above, I split those jobs and made them different. The leader is very directly responsible for everything that happens in their faction, the one that is in charge of it all and no matter how much help they have it ultimately comes down to them. They’re the ones who will wield what power the Abnegation Council allows them to make in-faction laws specific to their ideals and needs (Abnegation’s rules on alcohol and other activities, Erudite’s ban on pets, Dauntless’ thing with old people). Though it is true that there’s a lot that they can’t control, there’s also a lot that they can and they do. The representative on the other hand, while technically the leader’s equal and partner, are not involved with the legislative process in as direct a fashion. Most of their power relates to each other, in that it is through their communication that agreements are made and some laws are passed. They also act as a mouthpiece to the people in a way that some leaders just don’t care to (Eric and Andrew would fill this role in canon). They are an advisor and an overseer to certain jobs in a similar field. While everyone is governed by the leader, they most often directly answer to the representative.

On to individual factions’ governments, things become even more complicated. The extras beyond the official council leader and representative don’t hold much power beyond their own faction, but they still have the title and for some that’s enough.

Abnegation is controlled directly by the Abnegation Council so as to not complicate things further. Enough said. Abnegation leadership and council members are chosen by their peers who believe them to be selfless, morally sound, and competent; though those currently sitting on the Abnegation Council has a say in whether they’re actually good enough to serve.

Amity does not technically have a leader. They have Johanna and their representative, but within their own faction the two of them are not above the people that they represent in any way. Any actions or decisions made by Amity are by consensus, as in canon. This is also how their leadership is chosen.

Candor has their leader and representative at the top plus a panel of top judges (think the supreme court) to advise both from a legal stand point and a moral one. Candor chooses its leadership through something akin to their initiation. They’re all but put on trial and questioned thoroughly, both by the current leadership and the common people, under the truth serum. After that, the people vote.

Dauntless’ leaders are appointed, not voted for and they’re one of only two factions who does this. The appointment of leadership takes place behind closed doors for the most part, not that most of the people care very much (that’s some Nose shit if you ask them). The prospective leaders go through a training program that lasts at least a year and tests everything from their combat skills, to their fear simulations, to just how they handle the political environment. Despite their insistence that they don’t care, Dauntless goes to great lengths to ensure that their leadership is competent and embodies their faction’s ideals. Dauntless always has an odd number of leaders so that they can vote on everything that happens in the faction and never have a tie, but the leader and representative that the Faction Council recognizes do hold a bit more power than the others.

Erudite is the other faction that appoints rather than votes. Sort of. They have the most complicated system by far. The leader and representative are both chosen via an intelligence test (as told in their faction manifesto), but the leader and representative aren’t really the factions only leadership. Sort of. The leader is advised by and delegates certain duties to a group of people known as the Department Heads, and they’re exactly what they sound like. Because Erudite has different fields of study that can be consolidated into a smaller amount of broad categories, there is a singular person that oversees all of it as well as represents that department before Erudite’s leader. The department heads are chosen not only by that same intelligence test, but also one specific to the broader field they hope to represent, their contributions to said field, AND they have to be approved by the leader and representative. In some ways, it’s harder to become a department head than it is to become Erudite’s leader. These different department heads exist because Erudite kind of runs itself based on people working in subcategories and subcategories of subcategories, and someone needs to be overseeing these subcategories just to keep things orderly. The different departments are: sociology, psychology, mathematics, history, education, engineering, medical, pharmacology, biology, architecture, chemistry, physics, language arts, journalism, and initiation (which is kind of a big deal).

Beyond all of this, there are also diplomats, council liaisons, behind the scenes people, etc.. They do everything that the leaders just don’t have time for or it’s simply beneath them. The diplomats are constantly on the move, keeping things smooth between all five factions consistently in a way that the reps don’t have time to do and don’t. The council liaisons work at the Hub and they coordinate everything, they plan events and keep meetings on schedule. They’re impartial, and apolitical, they’re there exclusively to serve the greater city and to make sure that everything doesn’t fall apart because of a damn scheduling error. Those working behind the scenes do all sorts of things depending on different specificities; there’s transcribers, and photographers, and broadcast crews on the rare occasion that a meeting or event is given permission to be televised. There’s dozens upon dozens of positions that people from all factions fill that go completely unnoticed, but are half the reason that the whole city doesn’t fall to pieces.

I could go on forever about the actual political drama, but i think i’ll save that for another post.

[stinkrascal]

Little controversial, but a lot of fun. What are your sim s' toxic traits? Asking all of my favourite story tellers. Let's get deep

omg YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS please i love talking about controversial things lets goooooooooo <3

vlad - he’s a very controlling and overbearing person, honestly. he’s the type of person who trusts his knowledge above everyone else’s and feels he’s the most capable in any given situation, therefore he feels it’s only right that he’s in charge, no matter the circumstance. he’s wise, yes, but after centuries of believing this of himself, his wisdom has warped to unabashed pride, and he finds it difficult to trust another’s capabilities over his own because of it. i like to think this ties into why he’s fairly codependent in his relationships; he needs to feel as though he’s the one providing for, guiding, and therefore “controlling” his relationships, he needs to feel needed, so he seeks out people who feed into that desire, people he feels are “misguided” who need a wise, proper hand to bring them to normalcy. you know, someone like him, the spitting image of normalcy, seeking out impressionable people in an attempt to satiate his intense desire to be needed. like sir have u ever heard of therapy? LMAOOO

breanna - she’s laidback to a fault and oftentimes irresponsible, someone who rarely considers the outcomes of her decisions and someone who ignores the telltale signs given to her. this manifests in a lot of careless, reckless behavior and poor decision making skills. like, for instance, if vlad reminds breanna that the water bill must be paid by x day? you best bet the water will be shut off because queen, irresponsible as she is, forgot to send the check. if she promises to bring you to your doctor’s appointment, you best bet that the morning of you’re gonna call her only to discover she didn’t realize your doctor’s appointment was Today and she is currently stoned asf and cannot operate her vehicle, to which you will reply Breanna It’s 8 AM Why Are You Smoking At 8 AM to which she will apologize and cry and hang up and fall asleep. much like vlad, i like to think this ties into her own codependency issues, as she feels she’s, in essence, unable to properly, or rather, responsibly care for herself, and must rely on someone else to do this for her. she enables his controlling nature by relying on him for most things, and in return he enables her immaturity by providing for her unconditionally. isn’t that, like, super fucked up lmaooooo? like, it’s the sims universe u know, so take all of this with a grain of salt, bc like in the context of my silly sims 4 legacy all of these codependency issues honestly amount to, like, breanna being a happy and uncritical stoner tradwife and vlad being the one who pays the bills and drives. it’s not actually that serious u know. but when you think about it critically and apply it to like real-world scenarios n consequences n whatever... it’s gross as fuck <3 you guys need therapy <3

lucien - like vlad, he’s fairly prideful, as he feels he’s the most knowledgeable and capable of any given situation, but more so than that, he feels the need to show off his intelligence by testing others’ knowledge. he also feels the need to lecture those he feels aren’t as knowledgeable as he is; often he doesn’t realize he’s doing it. he’ll basically mansplain to you for hours, if you don’t keep him in check. also, his ego usually gets the best of him, and he can’t help but find himself better than those he views as unintelligent. it can come off a little classist at times, and this is something which has been brought to his attention in the past, something he wishes to alleviate in his further interactions. it’s a work in progress. ;-;

gen - their main issue is that they’ve a difficult time understanding and empathizing with other people, primarily women. i like to think this comes from their overall discomfort within themselves, whether that discomfort revolves around their personality, their gender identity, or their apathy towards life. women in particular are difficult for gen to empathize with, as it is that gen makes an effort to distance themselves from women, most likely a consequence of their discomfort with their assigned gender. lashing out at the “thing” they wish to distance themselves from is a simple, quick way to tell your peers, I Am Not This Thing! you don’t wish to be perceived as a women? vehemently hate all of that which is considered womanly, and maybe you’ll stand a chance against your audience. that’s... gen’s way of looking at it, at least. it’s not healthy, and gen realizes this by now, but so far it’s not caused too much of a hindrance on their life, save for all the girlfriends they can’t get because of their shitty misogynistic streak, so they’re not too bothered. i can promise you as they grow more comfortable with themselves, they will eventually drop their mean streak. i know gen’s been a misogynist for, like, two years now lmaooo ;-;

carlile - much like his mother, he’s extremely irresponsible. he forgets important dates, he often misplaces his belongings and the belongings of others, he can hardly be trusted to cook without forgetting the stove’s on then burning the house to the ground. he’s also rather bratty, especially when he’s hungry. idk i’m blanking on carlile honestly his toxic trait is being perfect <3

nikolai - he has a hard time establishing boundaries with others, so he often finds himself in situations he finds uncomfortable, merely because he can’t say no to anything. you can usually tell when he’s uncomfortable, as he wears the expression well on his face, but even then, he’ll bite his tongue and carry onwards. worst of all, though, he’ll be upset with you if you’re the one who suggested the plans, even if he’s the one who agreed to the situation despite not wanting to attend in the first place.

klaus - he doesn’t expect anything from anybody, and he feels that all people should feel this way about each other, as no expectations means no one can get hurt. this also means, however, that klaus’ effort put into everything he does is fairly low, and he doesn’t often impress people with his lazy, myopic attitude. he’s self-dependent to a fault, wanting to do most things by himself without considering the help of others, as he feels he’s the only one who should provide for himself. basically, he doesn’t accept “charity” from other people, and he thinks most people shouldn’t accept “charity” from others, either. very much a “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” kind of guy, which i consider toxic as fuck, so, like. :)

anastasia - she’s a lot like vlad; she feels her judgment is the best in most situations, and she feels she deserves to be in charge at all opportunities because of this. her confidence teeters on pride, and she often confuses the two and unknowingly comes across as arrogant and abrasive because of this. she trusts the abilities of others, it’s just that she believes she works the hardest and wants it the most, and this innate desire puts her above others. she’s also prone to fits of jealousy, especially over her friends, an attribute also lovingly instilled into her by her father :p if you so much as look at her best friends the wrong way, she will come for your throat as though she were some rabid dog, about to feast on her next meal. she’s loyal, yes, but loyalty doesn’t come without its faults; she’s quick to excuse her friends, even for truly heinous actions they provably committed, so long as she feels the intention is forgivable. her love and affection for other people blinds her, and often she’ll act in their best interest, even if that means being rude or aggressive towards others who go against them.

ilya - his toxic trait is that he’s never featured on this blog and idk what to do with him <3 his other toxic trait is that when hes a teen hes gonna commit arson. thats sooooo toxic

ok im gonna go through everyone else really quickly bc my fingers hurt HAHAHA ok lets speedrun this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bonnie - her toxic trait is that she thinks 50 shades of gray is legitimately a good book series. LMAOOOOOOOOOOOO

cooper - his toxic trait is that he smells so bad and he doesnt know why he uses soap and deodorant and bathes frequently hes just sweaty asf and you know what Me too king sweaty kings rise up

shivi - her toxic trait is that shes a barista at a coffee shop and she doesnt even like coffee. her other toxic trait is that she lowkey hates vampires :( and thats just rude asf

maeve - her toxic trait is that shes an apologist. she sees someone doing something terrible and shes like OKAY THEY DID THIS BAD THING BUT THEY’RE JUST TROUBLED IT’S NOT THEIR FAULT MAYBE I CAN FIX THEM!!!! like no bitch you cant

tarek - his toxic trait is NOTHING tarek is literally so perfect like he just wants to take care of his sick boyfriend and learn how to be a top tier witch like thats it? He doesnt deserve any slander bye

abigail - her toxic trait is that she’s SOOOOOO clingy to the point where like u guys can be in the same room but if you’re not looking at her rn while you two are in the same room together she’s like DO YOU HATE ME? like abbie please we dont hate u ur just being crazy rn. shes also extremely jealous and self-destructive so like if she feels like u are cheating on her she will FREAK OUT and ruin your relationship bc she doesn’t know how to effectively communicate her emotions and feels the need to lash out inexplicably at everything that triggers her </3 poor girl

karmen - her toxic trait is that she hides behind her humor and nonchalant persona to mask her emotions. she says it’s a coping mechanism, but the truth is, she refuses to meaningfully engage with these feelings, as they’re too uncomfortable for her, so she downplays her struggles with humor. she’s very much someone who acts as though she’s got it under control, even if the truth is, she’s struggling to stay afloat. her other toxic trait is that she will endanger her own internet safety it if means she can get a cute e-milf to send her money <3

caspian - he’s reserved to a fault, as though he’s physically unable to admit what’s troubling him. yet, when he speaks, you can always tell when there’s an issue. it’s always one of those things with him, where the emotion is too repressed to be articulated, yet too present to ignore. he’s so resistant to aid, he’d rather subject himself to terrible situations if it means denying help from another. often, he does this under the guise that he doesn’t wish to be a burden to others, therefore he must take care of himself without help, but he fails to realize that by not helping himself, he’s hurting his relationships around him, which burdens everyone. he’s deeply insecure, and he often weaponizes his insecurities, typically without meaning to. this manifests in a lot of self-deprecation, deflective language during arguments, ie “I’m the worst person ever, I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me after this,” which often comes off very manipulative. again, he doesn’t mean to sound manipulative, it’s just something that happens naturally, something he's gotta work towards alleviating.

vaughn - like caspian, he’s many emotions which are too strong to ignore, though too repressed to be expressed. this manifests primarily through vaughn’s financial immaturity and his promiscuity. he enjoys the physical pleasures of life, and he often abuses these luxuries as a way to distract himself from the very real pain he feels, pain he refuses to admit he harbors. so instead he sings his silly songs and spends his money recklessly and fucks everyone within a thirty mile radius to distract himself from the void in his chest :\

wolfgang - he’s basically an incel LMAOOOOOOO or like what do they call an incel who larps as a normal person to pick up woman? a pick up artist i think? hes that LMAO hes quite literally in the incel community is what im trying to say. i havent talked about it yet but its literally a plot point. if you look in my brainstorm sheet rn it says “Wolfgang munch reads incelme forums every day. Wolfgang munch thinks j*rdan peters*n is the leading figurehead in the hall of intelligentsia.” so like yeah