#rating: 7/10

[pinkaddiofficial]

https://youtu.be/1MevYCdn5S8

Oh, this is a Lightner song. I know this one!

* They begin to sing along. Their voice is... well, at least it isn't painful to listen to. Some Addisons can sing, but it appears they aren't one of them.

I'll admit, I've never much liked the full song. It is sad, for such a lovely chorus. And this version, it sounds so... vengeful...

[species-ratings]

Species Ratings: Skire

(Let me know if you like this and I can do one for Grems later. I'm only semi-familiar with other species, so can't do this kind of rating for them, unfortunately!)

Group: deviantart(.)com(/)cccats, skire(.)club, owned by WellHidden AKA Kid Kudos

Any warnings?: Yes, this is a species that features a lot of body horror (CCCats have disembodied tongues and an eyeballs, and Crooks have multiple eyeballs on their bodies and an inner set of human teeth). The Discord shows these characters uncensored, generally, though there is a gore channel to keep the super gross stuff out of the way. If you're squeamish, this is not the species for you!

Rating scale: score out of 10, based on the community, pricing, quality of adopts, accessibility, lore, events, and staff

SKIRE

Community

The Skire community is quite friendly and active! You can usually find at least one person to talk to at almost any time of day on the weekend and in the evenings. During the day, of course, a lot of people have school or work. Much of the server seems to be US-based.

There are a few Systems/DID folks who pass through or hang around a bit, so be prepared to bite your tongue if you don't like that kind of thing. They generally behave themselves because gross misconduct is not accepted in the Skire server, though of course popular people, as with everything, get a bit more slack.

People usually make an effort to respond to other people's art before posting their own. The redline channel is extremely helpful.

The overall tone of the server is pretty light-hearted and zany.

There is a lot of Kid Kudos fawning whenever he releases a new adopt. It's not that much more intense than normal for CS servers, but because the server is so silly, the fawning can feel obnoxious.

RATING: 7/10. The server is pretty well-moderated and the people are easy-going, but the members can get a bit obnoxious during adopts, raffles, etc.

Pricing

Base staff pricing is around $250, with some holding auctions that go up to $600. Members higher up in staff, such as AgreeableFrog, can have auctions or OTAs that go much higher. If you want an adopt from WellHidden himself, that usually starts in the $300 range.

Customs are available subject to the staff's availability. A custom with even one Touched trait (the rarest trait available) starts at $1000. From there, it depends on the other traits you want, along with which Touched trait you've chosen. For example, adding magic abilities will cost you an extra couple hundred, wings will cost much more. And of course, if you want more than one Touched trait, the dual-formed Touched trait, or one Touched trait with many Myth traits, you will pay much more.

Customs that don't use Touched traits and instead opt for a few Myths with the rest being Rare and down are a bit cheaper, usually in the $600 - $800 range.

The server regularly holds free raffles. It's uncommon for the raffles to have much in terms of rarity, of course. Sometimes participating in events can put you in raffles for extra goodies, such as tickets for rare or myth traits.

RATING: 6.5/10, only because of how ridiculous Touched customs are. $1000 to start no matter what? One can argue that $600 - $800 for lower-traited customs is also ridiculous, but it's not that uncommon in the art world when it comes to customs from well-known names. The lower-traited adopts that start around $250 are more on-par with the rest of popular CS price-wise.

Quality of Adopts

The quality is all over the place. Customs, of course, have the highest quality. The raffles tend to be way lower on the quality scale, ranging from, "it's tolerable" to, "what am I supposed to do with this?" 

Adopts from AviatorCid and AgreeableFrog range from decent to absolutely awful. In Frog's case, it's usually the choice of art style. PalletEclipse's designs also suffer from a lack of design know-how. Pallet in particular needs to take a character design class.

WellHidden's adopts are quite good, but sometimes they feel overpriced for what you get.

RATING: 5/10. For the amount of money these adopts cost, the quality should be much higher and consistent, and the free raffle adopts should have some more effort put into them as well. Just because they're free doesn't mean you should dial it in!

Accessibility

This depends on how much money you have, or how long you're willing to wait for a raffle, and how picky you are about the design. If you have money, Skire is quite accessible. It shouldn't take you much time at all to get your first CCCat, probably around six months. Customs are open on a rolling basis, batches of adopts come out semi-regularly (and are snapped up fast), and people voucher their characters not infrequently.

Otherwise, you'll be waiting for RNGesus to turn his benevolent eye on you. Some people have bad luck with raffles, so be prepared to wait. The wait is nothing like in Chimereons, however.

Supposedly, when the ARPG opens, it will be possible to earn MYO slots, but this can't be confirmed for obvious reasons. Fingers crossed!

RATING: 6/10. Skire is slightly more accessible compared to a lot of other species. If the ARPG truly makes MYO slots more available, I'd bump the score up by one or two.

Lore

There is a wealth of lore. Some of it is found in the CCCats DA group, some on the Skire website. Unfortunately, way too much of it is found in the FAQ section of the Skire Discord. The quality of the writing/editing varies wildly but you can see that WellHidden has a vision and has a response to almost any question, from the gods to little details about the different species.

Occasionally, a lore drop will be included in an event, which makes events more engaging. Unfortunately, event entries don't seem to make much of a difference in how the lore develops.

RATING: 7/10. There's much more lore than most other species and, while the quality of the writing varies, the quality of the ideas is quite good and usually cohesive. My rating would be higher if the lore was editing and organized. They've had years to do it.

Events

Events are the typical once-a-month prompt kind of thing, with occasional special events like the Trick-or-Treat. Participants get entered into a raffle where they can win pre-mades, or sometimes trait tickets are available. Usually it's pre-mades.

When accompanied with a lore drop, the events are engaging.

The events can be pretty fun and have a decent number of participants, but it would be nice if Skire pushed the envelope in terms of quality like they did with lore. Unfortunately, events are limited to what staff are available (for example, a lot of the staff moved this summer, so there wasn't much in the way of events).

Note that staff can enter events and, therefore, the raffles, but if their number is rolled, an extra number is rolled so the community at large has a better chance.

RATING: 5/10. The events are well-organized and feel like they've had thought put into them, but they still have that CS feel of "here's a little something to do so you'll stay and spend money". The art people make is phenomenal.

Staff

They respond better to criticism than others, but money is a huge no-no. Bring up ideas to make things more accessible to broke people in the right channel if you like, but no money talk. Like every other CS, it's a taboo subject. It's more taboo than usual to openly criticize the owner's (WellHidden's) choices, by the way.

Otherwise the staff is friendly and open to talk compared to a lot of other major species. Questions in the FAQ channel rarely go without an answer for long unless it's something WellHidden has to answer (in which case you may end up bumping your question once or twice depending on his schedule).

I've interacted with the staff a lot and found them to be nice people even behind doors in DMs. 

As with every server, there's probably some favoritism going on somewhere, but the staff at least have the courtesy of not rubbing it in everyone's faces on a daily basis like in some species.

WellHidden is quirky and almost constantly busy. Plan on bumping DMs to him if he hasn't responded in 24hrs. He's a nice guy, but you get the impression he's always in a hurry to respond to whatever you need and then rush off somewhere else. 

RATING: 6.5/10. The staff is friendly for the most part, but asking the wrong questions will get you iced out. WellHidden himself is super busy and gives off the impression he treats his DMs like an assembly line. Assuming he's as busy as he says he is (I'll give the benefit of a doubt as I don't know WellHidden's personal life), that's not entirely unreasonable, but some people may be put off by it.

FINAL RATING: 7/10. An above-average species with problems that aren't unfixable. I think improving the adopt quality and putting a little more into events would push the score higher. I have some hope for the ARPG, but after experiencing a lot of disappointments in the past from other species, I'm skeptical.

[milfglupshitto]

Shadow of the Sith review

spoilers for the book below:

I’m not sure how best to format this, but I’ll try and list positives first, then negatives, and lastly summarize my final thoughts.

things I enjoyed:

- Luke and Lando as a team! the pair have a vastly underrated dynamic we don’t get to see often.

- ironically enough, Ochi of Bestoon. maybe it’s because I haven’t been keeping up with the comics which I’ve heard have been inundated with his presence, but I thought he was a perfectly miserable character and I had fun seeing him fall apart.

- the TIE Defender my best friend the TIE Defender. the implications of the ship being designed from the beginning to mimic Sith architecture are deeply fascinating to me.

- also on the subject of Sith designs: I really enjoyed the presence those artifacts had in both the narrative and the actual prose. the seeing stone sequence was particularly well done.

- Rey’s family. While some parts frustrated me (more on that below) I enjoyed Dathan and Miramir as characters, and even knowing where their path ended I was still kept in suspense wondering how they would get there.

things I wish were better executed:

- This book was very cameo-heavy. Not necessarily a problem, but if a reader can’t identify if information about an object is being given because it will be helpful later in the book or if it’s meant to remind them that they know this thing already from another source… let’s just say I got a few things spoiled because I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to know them already or not.

- Some of the dialogue and characterization choices felt very… off to me. The guard droid on Polaar spoke in a very human way that had me checking dialogue tags frequently, and many of the elements of Zargo Anaximander’s description and speech patterns had me skeptical at best of authorial bias. The whole scene from Mico Haswell’s perspective where he details prejudices against most of his colleagues and then in the next scene Luke senses all the love and concern those colleagues have for him came off as just too over the top (and at least to me, slightly reminiscent of the “Walk Up Not Out” campaigns they introduced at my school and others to prevent gun violence by encouraging students to approach peers who seemed isolated, blaming horrific violence on mental health issues and placing the onus on the students to solve it rather than the adults who ought to be responsible for the minors in their care), especially given that it’s never made clear if the student he attacked under the influence of the Sith artifact actually survived?

- Lando’s treatment by the story. One of my favorite aspects of the post-ROTJ stories in the EU was the way that the team from the films was able to come together for new missions, unlike in Disney’s sequel trilogy. When I first began reading these stories I was pleasantly surprised by the way that Lando was included just as fully as Han, Leia, and Luke, with his strengths and insights allowed to flourish, which I had unfortunately rarely seen in most of the fanon for that era. While I thought it made since for Lando to be jaded and off his game in this story, after the tragic loss of his child, it seemed that too often he was simply along for the ride, with his contributions dismissed or rendered unimportant by the characters with higher training or more powerful abilities. The idiot’s array scene near the end of the book was refreshing, but I wish he had been able to have more of those moments throughout, moments that make it clear his instincts are correct but in his grief he’s terrified of being wrong and allows doubt to hold him back.

I’m sure there are other positives and negatives I’m forgetting, and I’ll add those later if they come to me. Overall, I enjoyed this novel, and can appreciate what it was trying to do in terms of leading into the sequel trilogy. However, there are certain elements of the story which simply sat the wrong way with me. If I had to rate this book I would say maybe 7/10? As always I’m happy to provide more detailed information and answer any questions for anyone considering whether or not they should read this book.

[colorful-horses]

greatest line delivery ever

[minecraft-sideblog-tm]

Okay so it's been about a week since I made the Hermit Permit Request Form uquiz and it's kind of stalled now at just over 100 attempts so I feel obligated to show you that it has a 9.09%* acceptance rate!

*Of those 10 that were accepted, one was me when I tested the quiz to make sure it was possible to get. Then 2 of them were the same person who succeeded and then retook the quiz shortly after to read the accepted screen I think.

(if that was you, hi you were also the first person to get accepted and I loved the dedication lol)

So technically only 8 people got the Request Accepted! screen, since my attempt and their second attempt were both by someone an advantage, i.e.: knowing the right combination of answers to get there.

And therefore REALLY it's a 7.27% acceptance rate, assuming those 8 were all individuals who weren't retaking it after getting accepted. Of course this quiz has a very small sample size, but a quick Google search tells me that the Julliard School of music has a higher acceptance rate than my little uquiz Hermit Permit Office

I am so proud lol

[orange-content-rater]

Hello there! This is a blog where i rate the content of orange in an image. The more orange and better use of orange will net you a higher rating. I have mostly rated images, sometimes videos or text.

Feel free to tag me or use my askbox to submit any of the above categories (please note: i wont be rating a bands entire discography again anytime soon)

An example of rated orange content:

Lots of orange!

Not much content

7/10

Avatar by @brachiowlsaurus (thank you)

Asks are usually open, if not ill like say something or edit this post again i guess idk.

Thanks for reading!

[evanbuckleyrecs]

So I just read this fic and it absolutely BLEW my mind and I can't not share it. I have to tell everyone: GO READ THIS

ashes, ashes, ashes

Written by pinkpeachtea

10,172 words

Rated T

Buck/Eddie, Buck & Christopher, Buck & Bobby, Buck/Tommy mentioned, Eddie/Marisol mentioned

Additional Tags:

Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Evan "Buck" Buckley, Pre-Relationship Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz, POV Evan "Buck" Buckley, Evan "Buck" Buckley Acting as Christopher Diaz's Parental Figure, Christopher Diaz is a National Treasure, Angst with a Happy Ending, Ambiguous/Open Ending(for now) - Freeform, (I might make this into a fic), Speculation for 9-1-1 (TV) Season 7, Speculation for Episode: s07e09 Ashes Ashes, Fire, Evan "Buck" Buckley's Apartment burns down, unfortunately he is still in there, and so is chris, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Not Beta Read

"You said you're not afraid of anything," Chris repeated Buck's own words back to him, still staring at him in favor of ignoring the lasagna, "but everyone's afraid of something."

"I am afraid of you not liking my lasagna. Does that count?" Buck asked with a smile, watching fondly as Chris groaned in his newly adapted I-am-a-teenager-and-I-find-everything-annoying tone, before grabbing his fork and taking a bite. "And?"

Chris mumbled with his mouth full. "'S good."

"I guess then I am still not afraid of anything."

———

Or, someone from Bobby's past sets fire to Buck's apartment. Chris is with him when it happens.

[autismswagsummit]

how autism is her

0/10 everyone go home autism has been destroyed forever sorry.

[mlchaelwheeler]

ok wait in lieu of this post, pls rb and in the tags rate each s4 plot (listed below) on a scale from 1-10, 1 being a snooze fest and 10 being cinema

hawkins/creel house plot

russia plot

el/papa/lab/NINA plot

cali crew plot

[aengelren]

roses are red, it’s Eren’s birthday week, i take this shit seriously, even though he’s a fictional genocidal freak

[climbdraws]

I've had my new cricut machine for a few weeks now (same exact model as my old one) and man the difference is hugeeee

My old machine would constantly error - either not reading registration marks, constantly offset cutting and I could only use a small portion of the page because anything past 6" became horribly offset or unreadable. Now I have the other machine for comparison & I honestly think my old cricut sensor was malfunctioned from the start given how many issues it used to give me

[purple-content-rater]

Hello there! This is a blog where i rate the content of purple in an image. The more purple and better use of purple will net you a higher rating. I will mostly rate images, sometimes videos or text.

Feel free to tag me or use my askbox to submit any of the above categories

An example of rated purple content:

Lots of purple!

Not much content

7/10

Asks are usually open, if not ill like say something or edit this post again i guess idk.

Thanks for reading!

[lazywitchling]

I keep screaming at Weave the Liminal but also agreeing with it. Reading this book feels like having a loud and shouty discussion with someone you ideally agree with, but vehemently disagree with their application of their ideas.

Like, every time Laura presents a question and asks me to draw my own conclusions, I’m like “oh hell yeah, that’s such a good question!” And then she presents her own conclusions and I’m like “how the FUCK did you arrive there???”

I mean, she gives me this: “Using black and white in terms of magick is a practice that needs to die out, immediately.” There’s a whole section about why “black and white” is a stupid classification for magic, why it’s racist and gross, why magic that’s well-intentioned can harm, and why “harmful” magic can make the world better. I’m right there with her, nodding along and taking notes. And then her example of this????? Is that “a healing spell can kill bacteria or cancer”????????? Like, to show that a “good” healing spell will “harm” bacteria and cancer??? I’m??????????

I am enjoying this book. I want to throw it out the window. I don’t like this book. I recommend it. I want to shake Laura’s hand. I want to shake her by the shoulders.

[cuppajj]

Why is transformers earthspark's IMDB user review section so freaking brutal... it's tanking the show rating to a 6/10 :/ I know it's different, and that it's got a different story and a good megatron this time but jesus, wanna wait til the show is over before you call it the worst of all time? Are you sure you'd watch Energon or BM over this? ES would have to be legitimately egregious to deserve a 1/10 but apparently that's what I've been seeing... and there are very few 5 or 6 out of 10s either. You either love ES or you think it's the most awful schlop Hasbro has made and it's killed your hope for a good tf cartoon. Give earthspark a break people, it's not even on season 2 💀 and didn't we do this song and dance with Cyberverse when it only had 1 season?

[justanotherghostwriter]

.

[orange-content-rater]

I dont need it

Oramge!!

Orange is main focus!

Large portion of image not orange

7/10

I dont need it