#sorry id i say the same thing like multiple times in this post this is like extremely rambly

[xrd]

Sorry I think I'm just a hater but I don't really see the point in remaking mgs3 lol. Games like genuinely a masterpiece and still extremely playable and still looks good imo. I think mgs1 is the one that could use a face-lift the most just bc there's some gameplay sections that could use some better balance. Konamis obviously trying to get back into consumers good graces between this and the sh2 remake and mgs3 was probably chosen bc it's the fan favorite (same reason they went with it when making the pachislot machine I presume). Idk I don't like when games are remade unless there's real improvements to be made to the core of the experience but I think I might just be becoming kind of a purist.

[rrcenic]

sorry for posting so much about the neil gaiman thing im very opinionated but heres my general take on neil gaiman (TW FOR S/A AND SU1C1D3!!!!)

good omens fandom please read this. yall need it

i wanna start with: believe victims. it might not be as bad as it was claimed to be bc the reporter was an anti bdsm terf who considers all bdsm 🍇 (including the bdsm w neil), but there was still clearly manipulation, weaponized power imbalance, and dubious consent. even if it wasnt s/a, it was fucked up. neil did some fucked up things

while we dont know if he actually s/ad those women, neil gaiman is clearly flawed

ive seen time and time again that his fans (specifically the good omens fandom) can get so viciously defensive of him that they refuse to see any flaws he has

as someone who was ruthlessly attacked because of neil, i hesitate to give him the benefit of the doub

when i had just turned 13, id just gotten on tumblr. i was thrilled that good omens season 2 was coming out. i was even more thrilled to see neil gaiman on tumblr. so i sent him an ask where i asked if crowley and aziraphale would kiss. i get why that was annoying. he probably got those asks all the time. but i worded it respectfully, and i was genuinely unaware that he was annoyed by this question

he responded to my ask with a multi paragraph callout post talking about how sick of this question he was. harsh, but not necessarily nefarious

the response wasnt the problem. it was that i got so many hate comments and death threats and people telling me i didnt deserve joy and i was ruining neils life and so many fucking anon "kys" asks that i had to quit tumblr. i tried to apologize to neil, i sent him countless apology asks where i begged him to ask people to stop cyber bullying me, but he never responded. it took years before i was able to communicate to him all the hate id received. his response was a basic "sorry for the miscommunication" and that he wished there was a way to convey tone on the internet (someone said "there is! tonetags!!" and he responded with "i dont like those"). the SAME COMMUNITY who told me to kms was suddenly saying "oh neil your such a saint" (THE TERM SAINT WAS USED MULTIPLE TIMES!!!!!) and "this poor ignorant child"

i was a kid and i was bullied off the internet and neil didnt respond to my pleas for forgiveness for almost 2 years. i was also in the most unstable time of my life. i was EXTREMELY suicidal. people telling me to kms deeply affected me

plus he reblogs a ton of "vote blue no matter who" stuff. i dont agree w that statement but i think its okay for people to say if they actively support palestine. but neil gaiman doesnt post about palestine ever other than reblogging posts that say "sure maybe the stuff in palestine is bad but if you dont support biden 100% democracy will crumble!!!" also im pretty sure he never apologized for some older zionist posts

ive seen a lot of stuff where people are saying "hey shhh its okay i see good omens fans getting sad bc of the stuff with neil but its ok!! youre still a good person even if you ignore this issue!!" and like. huh??? i dont think ignoring it makes you evil but its certainly fucked up to not be critical of the media you consume. pretending nothings going on is immature. you all sound like jk rowling fans smh

his general attitude towards fans makes me uncomfortable. ive seen people bare their souls in his asks (all of them start with something along the lines of "oh sir mister gaiman sir i am nothing but a disgusting peon compared to you you saved my life id die for you!!!") and he gives rude cold responses. i mean of course he gets annoyed and of course he gets spam but no one is forcing him to respond to asks. he doesnt seem to care very much??? this doesnt make him a bad person ofcourse but it does give me the ick

summary: even if he didnt s/a those women his fans need to grow up. he is not a pure perfect person. he might not be evil but he makes some extremely damaging choices. hes not a saint and never has been. at the end of the day, hes a rich cishet white man

[unforth]

I've debated multiple times doing something like cataloging racist microaggressions I see in the danmei tags and making a post about it. I generally see at least one a day, and I block the worst offenders. But in the end I'm a white USAdian and it's really not my place. I'm sure I don't even catch them all.

It's a real issue and I've seen a lot of anecdotal evidence that it drives Chinese and Chinese diaspora fans out of participating in Westernized Tumblr danmei fandom, and that's utterly unacceptable.

One of the most common ones I see is how people talk about the character names. For example:

[Image ID: screen cap of a text post. It reads: "This all came about when I was looking at SVSSS memes on Ao3 and went like "My friends nor coworkers would get heads or tails of what in the world these alphabet smash assortment mean let alone know that they're referencing Soecific individuals or novels." End ID]

THIS IS A MICROAGGRESSION. For fuck's sake, people, acting like the names are ridiculous, incomprehensible, outside of what "friends and colleagues" could comprehend, is RACIST AS FUCK. And I see people say stuff like this constantly.

"But I only meant I was struggling--" THEN WHY DID YOU ASSUME OTHER PEOPLE WOULD STRUGGLE THE SAME WAY? STILL RACIST

"But I could say that about the abbreviations in any--" BUT YOU SAID IT ABOUT THIS FANDOM SPECIFICALLY AND CONTEXT FUCKING MATTERS AND IN THIS CONTEXT IT'S RACIST.

"But it was on my personal blo--" LOOK IF YOU WANT TO BE RACIST ON YOUR PERSONAL BLOG I CAN'T STOP YOU BUT IF YOU TAG ORIGINAL POSTS INTO MAIN FANDOM TAGS THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WILL SEE YOU AND KNOW YOU ARE RACIST.

The person who posted the above, when I said it was a microaggression, demanded to know how. So, for them and everyone else in this fucking fandoms, I present what any of them could have learned by googling the term. The definition of microaggression:

(Source)

[Image ID: a dictionary entry for the term "microaggression." It reads: "noun. A comment or action that subtle and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member if a marginalized group (such as a racial minority)." End ID]

What that screen cap says about names is literally the textbook definition of a microaggression.

Chinese names are just names. The way Chinese sounds is just the way a language sounds. Cultivation is inherently based in Eastern culture and cannot be completely divorced from that context even for a cute AU. I'm so tired of seeing posts saying things like "MXTX just stole the plot of (insert Western myth/folktale/fable here)". Do yall realize how fucking racist you're being? Do yall realize how fucking racist even I've probably been by accident because I'm also a dumb white USAdian?

I've been holding this post in for like a year, but the person who posted that screen cap, who doubled-down by posting a non-apology to all the MXTX main tags, and who acted like I'd said something insane when I told them it was a microaggression...they're apparently my last fucking straw.

DO BETTER, WHITE WESTERN DANMEI FANDOM. We all need to learn and listen and knock it the fuck off already. Me included.

Please, please listen when people say "check yourself." Seeing this stuff everyday is exhausting even for ME and I'm not even in the marginalized group. Chinese people (including diaspora) who stay in the fandom here despite the constant deluge are strong as fuck and they do not deserve this and, as a white person, I'm so so sorry white people are like this.

[stardustviolet]

“I was at the supermarket, picking up some little pre-mixed martinis to enjoy in the sun, when I sensed the store manager hovering behind me. “Got any ID for that?” he asked, sighing protractedly. I didn’t. “But I’m 30 years old,” I said, motioning towards my face. “See? 30.” He laughed as if I were an over-confident sixth grader trying my luck. “Yeah, I don’t think so,” he said, scooping up the cans. “Sorry, no can do.”

Right then I felt like kicking over a nearby cereal display, spilling Shreddies everywhere. Think I’m a teenager? Watch me act like one, then. But I’m 30, so…my impulse control kicked in.

People love to say “consider it a compliment!” when you get mistaken for someone a lot younger, but I don’t at this point. I graduated from college nearly 10 years ago. I’ve worked as a journalist and editor for almost as long, been in multiple relationships, and navigated intense life experiences. I own a Hetty hoover. I’ve published a book. I remember AOL! When someone says I look younger than I am, what I really hear is: None of that counts. I still don’t take you seriously. Not that people in their 20s don’t get taken seriously, but I’m a different person to who I was at 24, 25, even 26. I want that to show, externally.

I don’t think I actually look physically younger than 30. But—like other millennials—I possibly give off a younger “energy.” My arms are covered in stick ’n’ pokes from my 20s. I look at ease in a cozy hoodie and low-slung jeans. Plus, I barely scrape 5’2”. The way I speak and hold myself hasn’t changed much in the past few years. And I’m not alone in this: my friends, who are broadly the same age as me, could easily be five years younger. My fiancée is a full-time musician with bleached blonde hair and a penchant for motocross jackets. As a kid, I didn’t picture 30 looking like this. My high school teachers were 30. We definitely look different from them. We act differently from them, too.

Much has already been said about millennials’ inability to “grow up.” We’re lambasted for not owning homes or having kids soon enough (who can do either of those things unless you have a hefty two-income household and/or an inheritance?). We’re living with friends and roommates like overgrown students for a lot longer (plenty of my single friends can’t afford to live alone). And things like marriage, or toiling away in the same career, appear to have lost their shine for many. Even so, that doesn’t explain why we don’t always look like the 30-somethings of yesteryear—or why I can’t get served a pink martini in my local supermarket.

I’m not the only person to be mulling this over. TikTok is overrun with videos about why millennials don’t seem to be aging “normally” (“why don’t millennials age?” currently has around 19.4 million views on TikTok). Some have hypothesized that it’s because “tweakments” like filler and botox are cheaper and more widely available now. Others have joked that it’s because millennials “have depression, so we’re indoors all day, and we don’t let the sunlight age our skin.” Still others have wondered whether it’s due to camera phones, and the fact that we see ourselves more often than ever before, meaning we pay more attention to our looks and outfits. Or maybe we are aging normally, we just don’t think we are, so we don’t act like it.

There are likely countless reasons for this time-body-mind warp. One of my personal theories is that our image of a “real adult” is simply outdated, and fails to take more recent style and culture shifts into account. Your parents and grandparents didn’t post photo dumps, wear athleisure in the workplace, or DM their colleagues “lmao” in their 30s. But frames of reference evolve constantly, and that’s what 30-somethings are like now. You don’t just suddenly get a cropped haircut and start saying the word “trendy” as you age. We’re stuck with an image of a 30-something that is no longer relevant. I’m sure Gen X—the Britpop kids, the ravers—didn’t always resemble dads. It must have taken a moment to catch up.

Before I continue, I must add: I’m well aware that age is mostly meaningless, and that attaching labels to a person based on an arbitrary yearly marker is a disservice to their individualism. I know that most people don’t actually “feel” their age, because they just feel like themselves (same here). And I am so much more interested in a person’s mind than how old they are. But that doesn’t mean I am not intrigued and curious about how I appear to others now that I’m in my 30s. I find myself fearful of becoming a Benjamin Button-like character—like when you google a child actor and they look the same as an adult, just weird and with facial hair. Are millennials like child actors? Stuck, and frozen in time, forever?

One of the most frightening things about existing is that the world keeps spinning and time keeps hurtling onwards. Stop, you feel like protesting, I’m not ready yet, I’m not ready. But the universe does not hear you, and it doesn’t care anyway. That’s the great tragedy and gift of living. We all move forward. And one day soon, Gen Z will wake up and they will be middle-aged, and Gen Alpha will have children of their own, and their grandparents will not be wearing slacks and cardigans and taping money to Christmas cards. They’ll be wearing Juicy Couture and Post Malone Crocs and sending skull emoji reacts to their grandkids’ messages.“

[fcknstar]

(Amazing Spider-Man) Harry Osborn with a (female) s/o with social anxiety? <3

i honestly love this request cause i experience social anxiety myself too!

,, hold me? "

harryosborn x fem!reader

a.n : m vv sorry abt how late i posted this. i currently have alot of hw and in my previous post i stated my reason. i hope everyone understands! my taglist!

warnings : mentions of social anxiety!

** lowercase intended **

" you dont have to come you know? " harrys voice broke your focus. you both were currently in the lift, trying to get the main room where his company celebration was being held. 

" yes, i know harry. but i wanna be there for you, be here for you. youre telling me that i cant try and bear it for a few hours? " you looked up at him, seeing his concern look. 

" okay, if it gets tad bit too unbearable, pull me with you okay? i dont want you to suffer alone. " 

" okay, just hold me and don't leave my side.. please? " you tightly held on his arm. 

" never. " harry gave you a comforting smile when the door of the lift opened up. 

walking into the main room was frightening. it was so crowded, that it looked like there was multiple insects running into each other. taking a deep breath, you readied yourself and placed on a smile while harry brought you deeper to the room. you most definitely didnt want to embarrass you yourself and harry when it was supposed to be his special day. harrys hand hardly left your skin, worried that you both might get separated, knowing that thats one of your biggest worries. 

" mr osborn! ah, im guessing this is the soon to be mrs osborn? " a family friend greeted you both, making you lose the train full of worries. 

" well, what can i say. we found each other. and you know people fall in love. " harry looked at you with adoration in his eyes. he truly loved bragging about you. 

" oh, honey! they are just like us when we were younger! " his wife cheered. " you two are made for each other. " 

that sentence warmed your heart despite having heard that multiple times. youd like to think that love is rare, and that you managed to build love with someone else. someone that truly saw everything in you. 

" congratulations on the company! its better than usual! "

" yea well, couldn't have done it without her.. " harry pulled you closer, giving you a comforting side hug that he knew you needed. you always found hugs comforting, and harry loved giving hugs. 

when harrys family friend communicated with harry for a few more minutes, you smiled at everyone who came your way. 

" (name)! you look even more gorgeous in person, its actually surreal! " a young lady, around your age complimented you. it was very rare yet delightful when the same sex complimented you because it was very common for the opposite sex to do so. 

" she is, isnt she? " harry seemed to have ended his previous conversation and went ahead and listened to your current one. 

the girl smiled, eyes focusing on you and only you. " well, have a good night (name)! oh! and congrats mr. osborn! " 

" you okay? " harry asked, tugging your arm. 

" mhm, just a little bit tired.. " you said, feeling overstimulated with all the walking and smiling you did. 

" alright then, we can leave now if you want? " harrys gaze was focused on you. nodding, you sighed, leaning your forehead on his chest taking in his scent. 

bonus : 

harry would order for you. 

" so what would you like? " the waiter asked, chewing her gum annoyingly. many things annoyed you and it made it worse when you realized she was directing that question to you. frowning, you looked at harry who sat opposite of you. harry saw how stressed you were even if your facial expressions didnt show any of it. harry then gave you a soft smile and proceeded with the order you both agreed on. 

" shed like a venti latte with a cheesecake, and a cup of cappuccino for me, please and thank you. "

" sorry harry.. i know i said id try and- " 

" hey, hey.. i know its hard and you dont have to force yourself you know that right? im here and most definitely can and would love to help you.. okay? so don't worry. " you appreciated having harry by your side. he knew how to comfort you when you had nearly tuned out everything. 

[rainbowonice]

writing down all my problems with this episode to heal my soul and release my inner hater self:

Athena pestering Amir and abusing her power as a cop once again without repercussions

the narrative using Amir, a man that lost his wife in a terrible fire and got literally scarred for life, as a red herring MULTIPLE times literally leave him alone he did nothing to deserve this

Eddie's parents character regression, Helena SMILING the whole time and Ramon saying that Shannon is "even in death that woman is making his life a chaos” like? neither he or Chris ever got over her and Kim made it 100 times worse and they didn't fix it or address how Shannon death affected them, Eddie is still romanticising her, his family is still vilanizing her and we have no idea what Chris thinks even if that should have been where the story was taking us, them finally having a real talk about Shannon, instead they made Chris run away.

daddy kink joke i already made a post about this but id like to add that daddy issues ≠ daddy kink and that making them equal is gross and is harmful having parental issues shouldn't be a sexual thing.

cartel not cartel thing taking up 40% of the episode for literally no reason and i already made a post on how racist that whole plot is

Bobby dying for 14 minutes and then being ok by THE END OF THE DAY and then 2 WEEKS LATER coming in at work without telling it to anyone else and without even taking away his retirement request??????

the zero stakes regarding Bobby's life the team looking unfazed, no one was crying, no one was really worried and at the end of the day we even got Buck having a dinner date wearing the same shirt he has been wearing THE WHOLE DAY (I'm not letting this slide I'm sorry that's my new roman empire) like ok i thought that we were a family lmao?

Bobby suicidal thought are healed ig now sure

Madney taking temporary custody of Mara first of all a quick google search told me it takes "after you complete your training, it usually takes about three to four months" and they did it in like a week help and the whole narrative is just lesbianphobia. Henren can't get a single family story without it ending with the kid taken away or the kid thinking that two mothers aren't enough there is a need of a dad... while is a cute scene or whatever it reeks of cishet couple does it better and without struggle while the black lesbians have to struggle and beg.

that old fart coming back he's 200 years old at best what the fuck a cold will take him out prince Philip looked better 2 days before perishing be real how is he supposed to be a threat? Just sneeze near him GOD

the episode overall was predictable af and honestly boring it fell flat and the screentime Amir got was CRAZY they cut so many scenes they cut a whole Eddie and Chris scene of them crying in Chris room (what was the context we will never know rip) just to get 100 scenes of the cartel, the ugliest date scene you've ever experienced in your life and Athena neighbour from 4 doors down.

this season was The Worst season they ever made even worse than season 1 and 6 and you guys have no idea how much i hate them. It was a whole mess rushed, dumb, badly written, badly executed, wasted time on useless scenes and cut away too much, they didn't had a single normal call, they didn't had a single fire engine scene, they all looked disconnected and it legit made no sense not even the actors liked it.

[purplekoop]

So Marvel Rivals, that's an interesting surprise from nowhere! A new hero shooter with emphasis on the "Hero", but with a 6v6 format... huh. Interesting.

I'd do a full breakdown of everything shown so far but that feels like a job for someone with a usable computer. For now I'll just give my quick thoughts as a fan of both the genre and the IP.

On the Marvel side of things there's a good bit to be excited for already, with an interesting roster of picks already. Got a lot of obvious staples along plenty of choices that don't feel like cheap MCU tie-ins. Glad there's already a few X-men in, and genuinely very happy to see some characters I've literally never heard of. Again this mostly feels great because of how the MCU dominance has been overtly a hindrance to games like Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, where if a character didn't have a movie already out or in the works then they had a fat chance of getting in, even for series staples like Doctor Doom and literally any X-men characters.

On the gameplay side I can't say too much on the finer details, but it looks like individual characters bring a lot of interesting mechanics to the game. Doctor Strange can make portals, Hulk has his iconic leap and even has a transformation mechanic where he seems to need to spend some time as Banner before he can do the real work, and Loki has some sort of copycat technique. So... teleporting teammates, leaping and getting angry, duplication... yeah maybe these aren't as unique as they sound when tied to characters with a history of using those abilities outside of games.

There does also seem to be some sort of unique "team up" mechanic, like Hulk can lend Iron Man some gamma energy to power up his big laser blasts, or Rocket can scamper onto Groot's back in classic fashion. Not sure if these are unique interactions based on specific synergies, or if it's a more modular system, like first example coming to mind, Kirby Star Allies. Either has some balance or mechanical concerns, but it certainly sounds interesting.

The third person camera is also unique for a hero shooter, which makes me anticipate a less aim-intensive game and one more about movement, ability usage, and team play. Definitely a fair choice given the cast, plus I imagine it's compelling to actually see the iconic character you're controlling.

Now a big point I wanna address:

Will this be the Overwatch killer??

...no, probably not, sorry.

I think regardless of how much this game succeeds or OW2 fails, I don't think it's going to be much of a competition. Not as in Overwatch is gonna curb stomp it, but I just don't see the two games butting heads that much. Marvel Rivals seems to be going in its own direction with the finer details, even something as simple as first versus third person camera seems to inform pretty sweeping differences.

Plus, in the past I think calling any game the "killer" of the previous big thing in the genre. Looking to Overwatch specifically, people tried to call it the TF2 killer, which... I mean TF2 kinda killed itself trying to be like Overwatch, so bad example, but even with Valve's shortsighted incompetence TF2 never totally died, it's still got a solid playerbase and plenty of fans in spite of its rough post-2016 history, and with Overwatch existing completely fine alongside it. And "Overwatch killers" have come in the past, but never really meant much to OW besides some players deciding they preferred the other game more. Apex and Valorant are more just other subgenres with a "Hero" twist and not quite the same kind of game as OW, but Paladins was undoubtedly trying to fill that more specific niche. And... it didn't totally fail. No seriously, any game that still has its fans and active players, however few, is worth respect in my book.

I think that's the beauty of it, that multiple teams are willing and able to make their own approach to the same concept! That's how we get interesting new ideas, and move the subgenre forward in cool ways! To be blunt, ideally for me OW2 AND Marvel Rivals go on to coexist and both be great! If people prefer one over the other then that's fantastic, but the fact multiple options exist with their own ideas and approaches is so cool to me.

It's like with a similar subgenre developing over the past few years: platform fighters, or "Smash clones" for the outdated term. In the release downtime after the three most recent Smash games, we saw more and more teams try their hand at that uniquely accessible and interesting subgenre of fighting games, and it's been so exciting to see progress over time. We saw a good number of indie attempts after Smash 4, but after Ultimate we've been seeing bigger and bolder teams take serious attempts at a quality contender to challenge Smash. And while each new one garnering the title of "Smash Killer" is more and more of a meme, we're now seeing games that genuinely reach that level of polish and quality. Rivals of Aether 2 is personally the one I'm SO excited about in this respect. But I also can't help but think of the one platform fighter in recent memory that genuinely did Fail, at least in temporary dramatic fashion:

...Multiversus.

Yes, the hellish concept of a free to play fighting game, which prided itself on its grind culture. Now the utterly bizarre mess that is/was/will be Multiversus is sort of a unique disaster, but I can't help but imagine the worst for Marvel Rivals just because it shares that dreaded "f2p" label. Maybe it won't be too bad, but considering early screenshots imply characters need to be unlocked makes me assume the worst.

Frankly my biggest hope, however unlikely it is, is that these two games pressure each other to fix their individual shortcomings. Have OW2 Season 10 making heroes free make Marvel want to do the same, and have Marvel's 6v6 format make OW2 bite the bullet and revert to the same to fix its otherwise impossible to solve balance mess.

...no that's a lie, my biggest hope is actually that Wasp makes it in as a support and gets a skin based on her Earth's Mightiest Heroes look. Or better yet make that the basis for her default design, the designs are another promising point for this game so I have hope they can recognize quality.

[army-of-bee-assassins]

hi I just have a question about image descriptions, is it better when I put it in the alt text or under the image? does small text make a difference? I shouldn't put the description under readmore, right? sorry for so many questions I want to do it right

hi there! thanks for these questions. i'm always happy for people to ask this sort of stuff! i appreciate that you want to learn more and do it right. :)

so just right off the bat, i'll say small text should be avoided. some people who need the image description may be low vision but not using a screen reader, which means the small text would be inaccessible. they may have ways of enlarging the text on their phone, but it can't enlarge the small text enough to read. and yes, a read more should usually be avoided as well. the only exception i would say is if you're describing something extremely long, such as pages of a comic. in that case, the best practice is to include a short description outside of a read more, like a quick summary of what the images are, that then also indicates that the full description is under the cut. but again, that should really only be for something super super long.

when it comes to alt text versus ids in the body of the post, they both have their uses and are preferred/more accessible to different people! alt text is designed for people who use screen readers, and it has been standard practice across the web for a long time. most people just weren't aware of it until recent years when sites like tumblr and twitter made it more visible to those not using a screen reader. when an image does not have alt text (which is the vast majority of images on this site), a screen reader coming across that image just says "image". so the screen reader user needs alt text to be able to have access to the content of the image. an image description following the image will also get the job done, but i have seen multiple screen reader users say that they're in the habit of skipping a post as soon as they come across an image without alt text, just because the majority don't end up having an id anyway and they just get tired of scrolling through inaccessible content.

some people do prefer an image description outside of alt text, since alt text still has some accessibility issues for those who don't use a screen reader, particularly in terms of color contrast and formatting. it can be hard for some people to read, which is why they prefer the image description to be in the body of the post instead. something to note for image descriptions in the body of the post - it's important to place the id right after the image and before any commentary.

basically - both alt text and an id in the body of the post are good things! different people have different preferences for one or the other. according to a resource i've seen shared around here a lot (i believe from perkins school for the blind), generally speaking alt text is for a short description, while an image description is meant to include more detail. so this can be good practice. you can also always mention in the alt text that the description will be expanded in the image description. something that i and a number of other people do is actually just use the same description in both alt text and the body of the post. in that case, for the image description i start it with "image description copied from alt text", so that someone using a screen reader could skip it easily.

sorry for rambling so long, and thanks again for your questions! if you have any others just let me know!

[bnnuy-wabbit]

HAAIIIIII you can call me Lago, im 21 (i dont know how EITHER), im just some guy*. this is my main blog and where i throw funny things that makes my brain produce juices and also random ass personal poasts.

one of those he/shes they never warned you about (pathogenic variant they have yet to make any vaccines to protect you from)

my art tag is #feral art tag.

there will be adult things in this blog because im an adult. follow at your own risk etc. were horny in here towards men occasionaly.

I'm brazilian. From Brazil. As in born here, living here and stuck here for the foreseeable future. é nois 🤙

Everybody says I'm really nice! I am Unable to hit people up first though, but if you'd like to be friends, send me an ask and I'll give you my discord!!!!

i have many interests (mostly music and nerd shit) and funny things that I'll be putting under the read more lest this post get Unbearably Big. There are flashing blinkies down there by the way.

OK SO INTERESTS. I like MANY things! and i have favorite things! I think it's really cool of me to have favorites. i decided I'm going to wear them on my sleeve. anyways Here's some things i Like.

MUSIC!!! its one of my favorite things ever. I play the guitar and a bit of bass. heres stuff in no particular order of favoriteness. Just stuff i care enough right now to remember.

Linkin Park (meteora, hybrid theory <3)

My Chemical Romance

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Mindless Self Indulgence

scalene

Rammstein

Ft-rj (listen to it or i am going to chase you with a broom)

francisco el hombre (i recommend the rasgacabeza album)

danny bond

2000-10s pop!!! fuck it, lady gaga, britney spears, kesha, katy perry, black eyed peas, that sorta jazz.

Every single Homestuck song there is. i have listened to all of them multiple times. My favorite albums are colours and mayhem and also the beforus fan album.

Dad rock (acdc, queen, talking heads, nirvana, judas priest, Some pink floyd etc)

Industrial and Adjacent. I've been listening to code:redcore a lot and some grammostola actaeon lately. processor also fucks.

OTHER THINGS I ENJOY

Eragon (the books)

Disco elysium.

ADVENTURE TIME. I AM OBSESSED.

How to train your dragon (the books. specifically.)

Animated movies!!! Specially the hand drawn ones.

My horrible little OCs (@honsebeasts just go there but also Beware.)

Worldbuilding. I do aliens and monster speculative biology. Most of my thoughts on it are on the Above mentioned blog though.

Real life physiology and anatomy also

MEN (and like 3 fictional women.)

HORSES!!!!!!!!!!!

stranger things

Pokemen (i do not know a single thing after gen 6 though.)

Dungeons and dragons, sometimes

Traditional art like watercolors and oil pastels

Drawing my blorbos in the same side facing pose or just standing there.

Drawing in General actually! Designing characters is my passion

Fictional fathers

sewing and felting and sculpting and painting and singing and playing

COLORS. i love colors. i love looking at them. i love playing with them. i would like to eat them if i could. i love warm palettes.

Hiveswap (pissing screaming CRYING)

MONSTERS!!!!!! They're really cool and gay and hot.

Portal (the games. all of them. glafos........ kissing her)

Half Life.

y2k and 80s-90s vibes. i think its awesome.

I am afflicted by the human condition and also a few other funnier conditions. my brain and my body dont work right.

If you want to know the brunt of the brain ones: autism adhd avpd. they all impact heavily how i interact with people with people. Sorry in advance if i can't keep conversation going.

I'm some sort of queer thing. If we need to get really specific, id say "bisexual aromantic bigender femme", mostly into men and butches, but Queer will do just fine. I'm a self entitled part time pretty fag and ugly dyke in my free hours. Intersex it turns out.

[geographerdose]

Moon and Appearance, Pt. 3 featuring the diurnal luminary ruling the first house —> Leo Risings (Aries-Virgo Moon)

⏰ Picture descriptions go clockwise starting @ top left

Leo Rising/Aries Moon: Ingrid Bergman, Eva Green, Selena Gomez, Celine Dion

👃🏻Noses with substance and structure; a cardinal nose thing. There’s a predictable pattern to them as in the hall have a similar shape more or less (vs mutable moons with their unique and varying nose shapes)

👯My childhood best friend has this combo and she was like a lowkey celeb in our small town. Everyone was always so concerned with what she was up to (good and bad). She was super popular on social media, hella likes. I think her 11H Gem Sun helped but overall popular and FUN

🪂Istg she is SO CONFIDENT. She takes chances with fashion too, man. And even if it didn’t really “work”, she still rocked it and played it off like it did. Even if she wasn’t feeling her body or the outfit wasn’t super flattering, you wouldn’t know any different. QUEEN 👸

🌞Have you tried sales? Cause I bet y’all would ROCK at it especially if you too have a Gem Sun! (Since we’re talking Leo Rising but I’m saying in general I think 11th place Sun people are typically well-liked and charismatic… UNLESS it is afflicted/poorly placed/maltreated ofc)

Leo Rising/Taurus Moon: Meryl Streep, Brigitte Nielsen, Frida Kahlo, Demi Lovato

😶‍🌫️Alright so you may or may not recall my thirsty post regarding Sylvester Stallone being 76 and still fine as hell but I since deleted it, lol, sorry. Basically Virgo men are fine af.

💍Well guess who was married to the strapping Virgo man himself but Brigitte Nielsen!

✋🏻The hands though! Lol this is stupid but I’m gonna say it anyways: Leo is associated with the number 5, Taurus with 2 so 5-2=3 and 3 is associated with Gemini and hands… look! 2/4 of the ladies above have hands in their pictures.

🌰 Anddd that’s it. I’m sorry. Y’all are like silent, people probably tell you “you’re a tough nut to crack” often.

🙈No but seriously it’s always gotta be ONE that I cannot think of anything… I’m on it, guys.

Leo Rising/Gemini Moon: Ambra Angiolini, Irène Jacob, Elisha Cuthbert, Tina Turner

💄Id like to start this with a shoutout to Tina’s bitchin’ do up there. I love it so much. Big hair, big life ✅

🍾I have this strong urge to just go up and talk to them, lol, I didn’t have this feeling with any others. Approachable AF. Can probably have a conversation with anyone. Probably get caught into a lot of unwanted convos too bc of this. ☠️

👃🏻Air moons and their dainty, structured and hella cute noses. I think Gemini moons might have the most enviable noses of them all.

Leo Rising/Cancer Moon: Stephanie Seymour, Dorothy Dandridge, Catherine - Duchess of Cambridge aka Kate Middleton, Nancy Sinatra

🪩Something just captivating about these folks. As I have been scrolling through this entire post to update my notes multiple times, I keep finding myself lingering on these folks. Moreso than the Leo AC+Moon. It’s like they have both luminaries going on so they somehow have more of a balanced light that shin

👃🏻 Their noses are so small and cute! They are thin, on the smaller side and have a cute button tip! 📍

🌝Brooooo those cancer moons have such an unmistakable matte GLOW to them. The sun just extra emphasizes this!!

Leo Rising/Leo Moon: Patricia Arquette, Kirsten Dunst, Meredith Clarke, Katie Holmes

🙂I feel like they are all smiling exactly the same. Makes sense as Leo is a fixed sign.

👀 smaller eyes but super bright, almost unmistakable like the sun. Also lighter in color as well… I feel like those with rising/moon in the luminaries in general have lighter features whereas Saturn-dom people have darker features

👃🏻 They all have this unmistakable circle at the nose tip, similar to the symbol for Leo ♌️ “the tippity tip” nose

🧹I think the witch from Bewitched has a Leo Moon. Remember, the one that like twitches her nose in the beginning sequence of the TV show? It’s in black and white... she has a Leo Moon looking nose.

🌙 Pretty crescent-moon shaped eyes, they have such a pretty curve upwards to them. It’s like when you draw an eye “proper” aka not a perfect circle? Idk that’s the type eye shape they have

Leo Rising/Virgo Moon: Betty White, Mary Kate Olsen, Michelle Williams, Summer Bishil

🧼Virgo on the appearance indicators gives such a clean, fresh look!

🐶The eyes say the opposite of the meaning behind “doe eyes” and “damsel in distress”, they’re like 🗿TRY ME: I can handle it and already know your “sneaky” plan, commoner

🎰Betty White was iconic for her ability to cut through BS and say it like it is in a way that others find appealing & amusing: the sun really brightening up that sharp wit, allowing it to be on display to the pleasure of an audience

👃🏻 Mutable moon noses are less structured.

👁Virgo moons have big eyes, fact! I believe I said the same for Cancer Rising/Virgo Moon… seeing a pattern here 🧩

🥸Obscure hypothesizing here —> Virgo moons most likely to have green/hazel eyes? Or some type of green in with the blue or brown. Kate Bosworth (Cancer Rising/Virgo Moon) has two different eye colors. Too lazy to look up the name of the condition but it’s gorgeous.

[empyrean-decay-god-dca]

Hello!!! Your recent ID post has def helped me a lot and I'm slowly adding alt text to past work (and then eventually reblog with IDs in desc :D). However there are some things that I'm still uncertain about:

1) How should someone properly format ID's where you have multiple images that you don't want to/can't separate with IDs (i.e. comics). I'm sorry if I missed an example of that in one of the linked sources ^^;

2) Additionally, as someone with hand/wrist issues I'm really grateful for shortened posts/read mores as it's less strain for my hands to scroll past. That is to say, would it still be rude to place an ID in a read more if the IDs happen to be lengthy (in the event of describing multiple images)? Would it be better to add it as a reblog instead?

I would like to try to make my posts more accessible for others!!! I'm incredibly grateful for those who provide audio captions, so I am very interested in doing the same for visual descriptions :D thank you for bringing attention to this, and providing helpful resources on the topic as well ^w^♡

I'd like to mention there's a Tumblr feature that automatically shortens long posts. Go to Settings -> Dashboard -> Interface --> Shorten long posts.

Hi besties! Also don't worry. There are a lot of links I gave you guys, and even I get lost in the sauce. The most useful thing I found writing IDs for comics is this:

it's for all types of visual media, but it has a comic section. The general formatting is this:

Write comics in a single ID:

Have an introductory paragraph where you describe the context of your comic, or the context of its beginning. This includes your style, the main subjects and how they're positioned, the surroundings (the location), and the basic thing happening between the characters.

Then the later paragraphs will go into specifics of dialogue and action. If there's a visual change, such as a zoom-in or a change of perspective, you're going to describe that, and put that before the dialogue.

End ID

Panel by panel is not good. Comics are narratives and stories and they need a flow. This post talks about it here:

Also, often, describing a comic isn't that long. Unless you're posting multiple full-blown pages at a time, then your typical 4-panel or maybe, 1-2 page comic will span a few paragraphs for the ID. But I answered an anon over at @lab-labrava about comic lengths. If it genuinely is long then @antimonarchy addressed this problem

Put image descriptions first. Don’t hide them under readmores or any other text. If you have something with multiple images and you are the creator, place the description under each image in succession rather than all at the end. Readmores are ableist, as they require someone who has vision problems/one of the conditions described above to do more work to access the message of visual content. 

^^^ This goes more in depth. Check the section with Placement of ID

You guys see me writing IDs in reblogs like this:

ID:

Image 1: (description of image)

Image 2: (description of image)

End ID

This is because I'm reblogging from the OP. I don't own the original post, so I'm forced to format it like this when ideally, I'd place the ID straight after each image. if you have multiple images, then write an ID for each image and place it straight after that image, like the following:

(image 1)

ID: (description of image 1) end Id

(image 2)

ID: (description of image 2) end ID

and so on.

Full-Blown Comics with Multiple Images/Pages

See I'm so conflicted here. When it's a huge ongoing project, then the ID for each page can span multiple paragraphs, and each Tumblr post may have multiple comic pages in a single update. So my formula above, where I place an ID straight after each image can elongate the post severely. In that case, alt text is a good idea. Especially since people using screen-readers may listen to Image image image, and skip past the post, not waiting the lump-sum ID near the end. In this case, you can forgo ID and write alt text. That's what most people do anyways.

I hope that answers some questions

[kidflashimpulse]

Hey! I wanted to ask this anonymously first before I embarrassed myself but I just started my first young justice blog and I really need some help coming up with fic ideas, with writing, with a lot of stuff I'm a complete mess, an I was wondering if it's not much trouble, could I get some help?

Hey :)) omg that’s so exciting! looking forward to checking out ur blog :D just saying in advance to hopefully squash any worries and to scale expectations, i’m not the best person with communication and can take a while to respond to messages (also sorry bout the slight delay with answering this one, i do hope u see it i can’t remember if anon questions notifies the sender 😭). I cant guarantee being the most helpful person either but i’d be happy to try to help where/if i can :)

in terms of general advice for fics/writing which i think tbh is the best one (that i use to try to motivate myself to write for fics) is to just start writing! like literally anything, as soon as u feel like even a second of inspiration or motivation just go with the flow. Whether it’s one sentence, a paragraph or 1000 words lol, just putting words on a page is a great start already. It doesn’t need to be perfect at all, my first fic (unposted) ended up being long with multiple chapters and all the writing throughout was so questionable lol but i was and still am so proud of it! It gave me experience and the learning curve was inspiring that i was excited to try to write even more stuff after. I noticed with each chapter i slowly found a rhythm and improved step by step. Even if it’s just tiny things that u learn, it makes all the difference. You 100% learn as u go, even now whenever i post something i’m like damn i could make a million changes or be annoyed/critical at something but ultimately i’m just happy to have posted something to share with others and contribute a little something to a community of people who share the same interests as me :) and that’s rlly all that matters and as u start doing that u can develop more ideas and “what ifs” to explore i.e more fic ideas etc

in terms of structure for working on fics id say it rlly depends on the individual. for me i usually write a rough outline/summary of what the fic is basically about. I usually try to have key details summarised where they all connect until the end of the fic, so that after that’s done, u can then flesh out the individual chapters or paragraphs out better. But things like plot can also really change whilst ur writing! It all boils down to what inspires u to write.

It’s not bad to have no ideas, i think it’s actually super cool for people to start out with a really simple/basic prompt (maybe something like: oh flash family go to a restaurant or zetaflash go to an arcade or outsiders play board games (lol)) something like that and then u can expand on the story with dialog/events/characterisation/description that really fills it up and makes up the chunkier part of the fic where it almost at times feels like it writes itself.

also fics really doesn’t need to be long at all if that’s something u might find intimidating, my stuff tends to be quite wordy because that’s just how i write (as u can see from most of my ask answers where i just go on and on like can i shut up for once? lmfao) if anything, i admire people who can get points/description/stories across through concise writing or short stories! that’s a real impressive skill too

if u want to start writing fics to post, 100% start writing anything, literally anything and eventually u will manage to figure out ur own workflow/style that suits u best :) i’m 100% still learning too, i mean i have yet to finish a multi chapter fic, but by reminding myself that any writing is a good step somewhere, despite the slow progress, i can still be motivated to keep working on it. i hope these general tips managed to help u somewhat 🙏 again rlly looking forward to checking out ur blog <3

[mechanical-sunchild]

I totally get where you're coming from with the term irl but I do wanna bring up that I think 'irl' tends to be used in a way with slightly different meanings/connotations than 'kin', I think irl tends to be used in a way that more openly or strictly acknowledges that it has roots in or is caused by a mental illness (in a non negative way) which CAN be a way to be otherkin 100% but the otherkin community tends to more commonly have the "this is NOT a mental illness this is a spiritual phenomenon" mentality (which is also a valid and true way to be otherkin, but there tends to be the mindset that everyone is otherkin the same way you are and some kin can even have hostility towards openly or obviously mentally ill kins and say things like if your kin is rooted in mental illness it's fake) so yeah essentially I'm saying they can often be the same thing but a lot of the time irl isn't used as a replacement for kin so much as a separate identity altogether (coming from someone who's been in both communities myself and IDs more with psychological otherkin relating to mental illness but finds a lot of comfort in how accepting of psychosis/multiplicity the irl communtiy tends to be)

Sorry for the huge ask haha! I'm too shy for public comments feel free to ignore anyway

Hey no problem, I actually already know this though thanks to another helpful user showing me the carrd and explaining it in a similar way! /lh

My actual issues with the term IRL is that most people don't know that irl is supposed to be for a specific kind of experience and just think it means 'more than a kintype'. My post was made with the intention of showing how I have to make myself acknowledge that the term is just a new fresh term my old ass has to get used to but at the same time some are just using it as stated above, because they think it means 'more real than kin'.

They either don't know or ignore how it's supposed to give those with psychosis or other ND a term (making it actually more similar to the term endel) and use it despite being NT or they're ND but not psychotic, or they assume they're psychotic only because they have an alterhuman identity which is also uhh not great.

As a being who is primarily psychological in the origin of my identity, I do wish such explanations were taken more seriously in the kin community. I also wish that the term IRL was more properly understood and used just like I wish that for the term otherkin/d. Looks like we're both muddying each others waters when we should be swimming together!

Thank you for your polite tone! Have a nice new year! /pos /gen

[navree]

Hey I think you made a post a while back that I just saw talking about an Augustus show and I would love to hear how you would breakdown his life season by season if you want to share of course!

lol I could probably do an episode by episode breakdown if you wanted, I just finished a vacation that contained multiple flights sans-WiFi, and staring out the window listening to music always engenders my creativity.

Season One: I'd actually start the story with Caesar's return to Rome after defeating Pompey with Cleopatra and Caesarion in tow, so when Octavian is around sixteen-seventeen years old. This season would cover things like Caesar's campaign in Hispania and Octavian's very storied journey there (shipwreck? treks through enemy territory? hell yeah), the situation surrounding Lucius Vipsanius and Octavian's role in saving his life, Octavian's increasing importance to Caesar, a burgeoning friendly familiarity between Octavian and Cleopatra, for foreshadowing purposes, that time Octavian made himself sick trying to organize smth for Caesar and nearly died and Caesar got super worried about it, and of course, the increasingly tense political situation in Rome. Caesar's assassination happens is the end point of the third to last episode (in a fashion, in my head the episode cuts off just before it starts, and the actual murder cold opens the second to last episode), with the final two episodes of the season dealing with the aftermath as the conspirators realize they do not have their shit together and, to everyone's shock and surprise, Caesar's will leaves almost everything to an eighteen year old Octavian, as well as the posthumous adoption. The through arcs here would be a lot of foreshadowing of things like the Ides of March, the future Cleopatra/Antony affair, the future change in dynamics between various factions (there'd be a lot of scenes between Caesar and some of the conspirators, and I've got vagueries about moments of positive interaction between Octavian and people like Antony and Brutus, along with that familiarity I mentioned before between him and Cleopatra). There'd also be a big focus on the emotional connection in the relationship between Caesar and Octavian, in order to really understand why everything shakes out the way that it does: it all comes back to the horror and grief engendered by Caesar's assassination in a boy who did see him as a father, who lost him without even getting a chance to say goodbye. Also, at some point this season, since I don't remember when it was actually supposed to happen historically, we'd get that bit where Octavian and his friends go to see a soothsayer or smth and the guy prostrates himself and starts ranting about Octavian and greatness and Apollo and the sun, cuz that's cool for a first season and again, foreshadowing.

Season Two: This season would cover a period of roughly a year and a half, from Octavian's return to Rome until the formation of the Second Triumvirate. You'd see the aftermath of Caesar's assassination, the way that the elites were on board with it but the actual common people were incredibly against (sorry to all the communist children online who think it's based to quote the same thing that John Wilkes Booth shouted after shooting Lincoln in the head for ending slavery). You'd also see the different factions forming within the pro-Caesar camp, as a large part of this season would be that first conflict between Antony and Octavian and them bitching at each other twenty-four seven. There'd be a lot of stuff with Octavian's relationship with Cicero (along with all that delicious dramatic irony from Cicero's writings where he talks about how Octavian won't be a problem and also totally loves him and it's all hunky-dory Cicero's gonna live forever), and the vibe would honestly be almost horror movie-esque. Because partway through the season comes things like the Siege of Mutina, and Octavian's first big moves for power that the Senate was not expecting, and the realization that 'oh shit, maybe Caesar's close relative who loved him isn't as okay with him being tremendously murdered as we all thought' (and also that bit about Octavian learning of the 'raised, praised, erased' quip and saying he has no intention of being erased). Two things would get major focus that I feel often don't: Juba and Atia. On the Juba front, I've talked about this before but Octavian did essentially take parental custody of Juba and raise him following the Ides of March, so the emotions behind that and what that meant for both of these people would definitely be something to explore. On the Atia front, I feel like I harp on this too much but it bears repeating, Atia died. Little over a year after Caesar did! Octavian was clearly dealing with the feelings involved in someone who was, for all intents and purposes, a father to him (since his stepdad certainly never filled that role), and then his own mother, who he seems to have had a complicated relationship with (she was clearly caring towards him to the point of being smothering but she also did not raise him for a good chunk of his formative years, sending him off to live with his grandmother while and she and her husband and Octavia played happy family), dies unexpectedly too, when Octavian is in a far more emotionally fraught position than he was during the Ides. Given that we don't know how Atia died, just that it was sudden, you can play around with the cause, make Octavian think that it was some kind of poison due to his own fears for his safety, see how that affects him and his decisionmaking. The season ends with the meetings that set the formation of the Second Triumvirate between Octavian, Lepidus, and Antony, with the Senate gobsmacked and Brutus and Cassius put on their heels by the alliance.

Season Three: To me, this is where you cover everything in the rest of the Liberator's War, and all the gore that entails. For example, the first chunk of the season is going to focus a LOT on the proscriptions. Don't pare down the violence of it, or the fact that it is a really Not Great thing to make kill lists of people you dislike so that you can also steal their wealth to fund your vengeance war. I'd hew closer to Suetonius when it comes to Octavian's personal feelings on it, that he was reluctant to start off with but once the plan gained momentum was equally as involved in persecuting their enemies as Antony and Lepidus were. But a special focus is gonna be given to one proscription: Cicero's. I'd go with the view that Octavian wasn't immediately on board, and that he did try to tell Antony that he wasn't gonna let him murder a retiree for his vendetta, but when it does happen, it is Octavian's decision. He's not browbeat or pressured into it, and while he does frame it as a gift to Antony, it's not necessarily a concession, given that Cicero was vocally anti Caesar and Octavian has not been shy about his hatred for the anti Caesar people. It'll be kept vague how bad/how remorseful he feels about it, whether it does affect him or not, though he'll at least find Fulvia's whole "stabbing the tongue" thing distasteful. The season also covers the battles of Philippi, the suicides of Brutus and Cassius, and Octavian's attempt to desecrate Brutus's body. Crucially, this is also the season we meet one Livia Drusilla. It's just a cameo, but given that her father was a noble patrician who fought on Brutus and Cassius's side and also committed suicide along with them, it allows us to introduce her and set her up, since literally every other important person in Octavian's life (Caesar, Agrippa, Octavia, Maeceanas, his mother) has already been introduced. And speaking of important people to Octavian, a major thread throughout the season is that a lot of Octavian's people are noticing that he's behaving differently than how they're used to. That something has changed, hardened, been embittered within him, that there's been a shift between the boy who asked for Lucius Vipsanius to be spared and the guy who is now demanding that Brutus's head be cut off from his corpse so he can nail it to a post in the Forum. It's part of a broader trend that'll get explored more in season 4, how death and grief can change a person (there's a reason my hypothetical Batman show I also have in my head starts with Jason Todd as Robin) and part of the overall series arc.

Season Four: Speaking of this season, this one is kinda gonna be more of a darkest hour story for Octavian. This season is one where a lot of focus is going to be put on Lucius Antonius's rebellion and Fulvia's War, and especially the siege of Perusia and what Octavian did after he ended it. We're going to see an Octavian who has theoretically done what he's supposed to, avenged Caesar and knowing that those mainly responsible for his death are dead, but he doesn't feel any better. He's not suddenly at peace, he's not healed, and as he's dealing with yet another threat to his personal safety, he kinda snaps a bit. It's very clearly over the top, burning a city to the ground and murdering three hundred surrendered prisoners of war as a specific religious sacrifice to your dead dad, and it is reacted to as such by most other characters. Lucius and Fulvia are freaked, Octavia and Philippus are freaked, Antony is freaked, even Agrippa is a bit wide eyed about it (but the fact that he's still with him through it, and might even have a scene defending it, feeds into Agrippa's overall arc of 'devoted to Octavian heart and soul' that's obviously gonna be there, because duh). We'd also see the betrayal of Rufus and how that affects him, and how merciless he is in the face of it, since again, darkest hour. This season will also tangentially cover the beginning of the affair between Antony and Cleopatra, since that does relate to Fulvia's War, but this ain't about them so it's peripheral. Antony's main input here comes in two things: the end of the season, where he and Octavian come to an accord with the Treaty of Brundisium and that peace, and the wedding of Antony to Octavian, and in the introduction of Herod. He's not a major character, but given Herod and Augustus were friends and reigned at similar times, Herod's journey to Rome in the aftermath of his father and brother's deaths will be when he and Octavian meet for the first time. I'd hint at the friendship by having Octavian give genuine condolences for the deaths of Herod's family members, though he's still leery of Antony's decision to unilaterally proclaim Herod as "King of the Jews". Also, more Livia cameos, including when she and her husband and Tiberius were allowed to come to Rome after Brundisium (cuz her family also fought in the Perusine War too, the Claudians were BAD at picking sides) and she and Octavian meet for the first time.

Season Five: One major thing that happens in this season, one of the most important things, is the birth of Julia. If Octavian has been on somewhat of a downward trend, emotionally, since season 1 and the assassination of Caesar, than this is where it starts going back up. Even though he's been raising Juba since season 2, he's still utterly gobsmacked that this baby is his baby, and that he can genuinely feel that amount of love for another person. Given that there was a Roman tradition of "give the newborn to the dad and ask if he wants to kill it or not" where the dad could kill the newborn for literally any reason at all, I find that Octavian immediately going "nah we're letting my baby girl live" when a daughter was functionally useless as an heir in Rome's misogynistic society worth exploring. And the exploration ties into another somewhat neglected trait of Octavian's, which is that he was deeply involved as a parent, incredibly personally involved in the raising of his daughter and his stepsons and his grandchildren. We've had it hinted at with him raising Juba, but having Julia is where it becomes a core part of his personality. And the emotions that come with having his daughter in his life, being receptive to having someone new to care about that wasn't grandfathered in from the Gaius Octavius Thurinus days, is what also allows him to be more emotionally receptive in marriage. The marriages to Claudia and Scribonia would be footnotes in prior seasons, and something he's not at all invested in beyond Scribonia's pregnancy and what that could mean for him, and that'll be a stark contrast to his relationship with Livia. I'll link to what I said here about Augustus and Livia, but that's the characterization I'd keep, that it's not love at first sight and they were both looking for material gains in the match, but there was an attraction and an affection that did become love. Politically, this season would also have the issues surrounding Sextus Pompey and his eventual defeat, including Agrippa building Octavian a lake, because that's just awesome, as well as Octavian ousting Lepidus from the Triumvirate and him and Antony reapportioning the Roman world between them, all while things heat up in the periphery between Antony and Cleopatra.

Season Six: The main arc this season is the disintegration of the Triumvirate, and the breakdown of the relationship between Antony and Octavian. We'd see a lot of the propaganda war between them, probably personally see the Donations of Alexandria, and see Octavian react to things like Antony's blatant disrespect of Octavia. It'd be two-fold for him, he clearly wanted the marriage to bait Antony into being an asshole towards his saintly sister and have the people turn against him, but he loves his sister, she's one of his closest relationships, and he despises Antony for mistreating her even if it serves him politically. It would become increasingly obvious that war is coming, practically inevitable, and then you have the moment where Octavian steals Antony's will. I'd have it be the ending of an episode where we get a lot of scenes of Antony and Cleopatra being mushy-gushy, to show that however good they are right now, it's not gonna last, some guy is breaking into deeply sacred religious buildings in order to fuck up your shit. The season would end with Octavian using the will to turn the Senate and people against Antony, and formally declare war on Cleopatra, as well as setting sail for the coasts of Greece for that final showdown.

Season Seven: It's all about the leadup to Actium babeyyyyy! I know it's not historically accurate but I'd have Octavian make landfall from Rome to Greece in Apollonia, which we haven't seen since season 1, to kind of show the whole "it was never gonna be any other way" vibe. The main tension of this season is, as mentioned, the buildup to Actium. The various battle skirmishes, penning in Antony's forces, the long sieging, the way that Antony's forces suffer, the constant desertions to Octavian, the various foreign factions involved including Herod (which Octavian is almost disappointed by) all of it. And there's a sense throughout all these episodes that everyone knows that this is kinda It. Whatever happens at this inevitable battle is going to set the stage for who controls the Roman world, that this is the final countdown, it's all been leading to this. I'd actually put in a few parallels between Antony and Cleopatra and Agrippa and Octavian, world leaders and the Roman generals devoted to them and all that (I don't think I'd go concretely romantic since this is meant to be history, but I'd toe the line as close as I could with Agrippa and Octavian, very touchy feely in private and openly expressive with each other in a way they are with no one else, the night before Actium's gonna have quite a long hug). And then there's Actium, our big setpiece battle, and that would take up an episode itself, and we know how that ends: Cleopatra and Antony fled, their forces were defeated, and Octavian won. The season ends with Antony and Cleopatra retreating back to Alexandria, while Octavian goes to deal with some mutinous soldiers before settling down for the winter, during which those soldiers reaffirm their loyalty and we get a sort of "oh yeah this is It" moment of victory. And given that this season is primarily a waiting game, this is where there'd be most of our flashbacks. There were always gonna be some, but most of them can fit here given the need for it, things like the death of his biological father, him speaking at his grandmother's funeral and getting noticed by Caesar, other times he's been dangerously ill as a kid, meeting Agrippa for the first time, to fill in space.

Season Eight: Final season! I didn't mean for the eight symbolism to show up, what with the eighth month named after him and "octo" meaning eight, but it shook out that way. This just covers the remainder, primarily land campaign, of the Last War of the Republic. Various leaders make obeisance to Octavian as he marches towards Alexandria, including Herod who makes a whole ordeal out of it to prove his loyalty (that might get an episode to itself, given the Herod and Octavian connection), all while Antony and Cleopatra try to stave off the inevitable. There'll even be a moment where they send Antony's son Antyllus as an envoy, and given that Antyllus was partially raised by Octavia, he and Octavian like each other, know each other, are friendly, but Antyllus maintains he's gonna stand by his father and Octavian is blunt in telling him what that could mean, given that he's an adult and his father's heir (foreshadowing). Eventually, we arrive at Alexandria, and we all know what happens. There's battles, Octavian wins, Cleopatra locks herself in her mausoleum and puts out a false rumor she's dead, Antony stabs himself and is brought to Cleopatra to die, Octavian conquers the city, Cleopatra and her children get taken into captivity. Cleopatra and Octavian have that moment that Plutarch wrote about where he visits her in her chambers, where they can reminisce on Caesar and their lives and all of it. Octavian's forces find Caesarion and bring him back to Alexandria, where he and Antyllus are both murdered (we're keeping the 'two Caesars is one too many' line I love it), while Octavian also crucifies Antyllus's executioner for stealing from his body, and then Cleopatra kills herself with an asp, after which Octavian allows the two lovers to be buried together. We have the "I came to see a king, not a row of corpses" line too, cuz I love that, and we might see an interaction between him and Cleopatra's remaining children, where he's formal but somewhat kind, and we will see him return back to Rome and his family (reunions with Maecenas, with Livia, with his sister, with his daughter, with his stepsons and nephews and nieces, all of it) utterly victorious and at the height of his power at this moment. However, the last two episodes are a time skip. In the second to last episode, it's 23 BC, he's now been renamed Augustus, he's basically god emperor of the world, but he's still thinking ahead. And at the end of the episode, he starts vomiting blood and collapses; it's that super dangerous illness he had that almost killed him, and since people think it was a liver problem, I get to use puking up blood. The finale is split between the real world, where people are frantically trying to heal him and he gives his papers to one guy while giving his signet ring to Agrippa in case he does die, and the dream world. In the dream world, an Augustus on the brink of death visits a lot of old haunts and old ghosts: his biological father, Atia, Brutus, Cicero, Rufus, Antony, Cleopatra, his grandmother, and Caesar. The Caesar reunion is gonna be very emotional for him, but also what convinces him he can't die yet; Caesar may be dead but he's not, and he's got so much more to do. He eventually wakes up, has reunions with his daughter and sister and wife, recuperates at Maecenas's house (because that was a real thing, when Augustus got sick he liked to go to Maecenas's house until he felt better that's a real thing he did, mr homebody who wants sleepovers with his friend until he feels well, I love him), has a moment with Agrippa. The last scene is probably gonna be him on some high ground overlooking Rome, probably making a comment that's a precursor to the "I found a city of clay and left a city of marble" that he said at the end of his life, and end show.

Emotionally, there's gonna be a lot of how Octavian felt about various things, what drove him to do certain acts, how people around him reacted to him and his decisions, and the development and evolution of relationships like with with family members, with friends, with allies, with enemies even. It would be as much a character study about the man as it would be a biographical dramatic narrative. And, well, I'd say that's the outline but this behemoth isn't even an outline. But that's how the Augustus show would go if I were given free reign and an unlimited budget and allowed to do whatever I wanted for as long as I wanted!

[hoediaz]

who is agn? i've seen loads of posts about 'her' but idk who she is or what's going on

sorry to be an absolute bitch but she is the worst blog on this website for real. putting this under a read more so people who don’t suffer rage black outs don’t have to deal with this.

chelsea mentioned some of her highlights before which include some overt racism and homophobia but last night she really decided to up her game. first, she spent weeks pulling the word retcon out of her ass and slapping it on every plot point she doesn’t like or understand instead of rubbing together two brain cells to even attempt to comprehend how narratives might work (including eddie ana’s break up since, according to her, eddie was Clearly in love with ana in 4x13 during the follow your heart scene and yet at the same time he was a misogynist and treated her terribly :/ did you know panic attacks are misogynistic? shame all those panic attacks i’ve had have been out of misogyny and not mental illness if only i had known id be able to attend agn’s school of feminism and cure myself). but then with the end of bt (aka the departure of her most beloved girl boss who can do no wrong, since i don’t think she cares about bt at all past taylor since she actively hates buck) (and yet. while she hates buck she never treats him with the same vitriol she gives eddie. now i’d say that’s racism but according to her eddie’s white so! guess it’s texas phobic or something :/) she went completely off the rails.

part of this was of course! saying it was a retcon despite the multiple references to dosed but what can we expect from someone who learned the word retcon last week and never bothered to dig up the meaning. it’s ok i get it i did the same in the ninth grade with words like pathetic fallacy and i don’t think you need anything higher than a ninth grade education to work at fox news. anyway! that led to saying anyone celebrating the bt break up is a misogynist! bc idk if you knew this but apparently 911 is the taylor kelly show and everything should be about HER development, not buck’s, and if you celebrate buck’s development you’re a woman hater just like eddie ❤️ now EYE am actually a woman hater because i think taylor kelly and owen strand should move to ohio together to start a bed and breakfast, the bt bones celebration was just a bonus.

and when that wasn’t enough absolute bullshit stupidity for one night, she decided to use her time to type out a post onto oliver stark’s internet in which she called buck a “dirty firefighter” for not wanting his gf to report on an incident that involved his family, equating him to dirty cops that protect other corrupt cops. because that’s a totally fucking proportional reaction to having your fictional ship break up, because police corruption is not a genuine thing that happens in real life and impacts real people who aren’t taylor fucking kelly. i fr even hours later don’t even have the words to put together to express how fucking stupid and insensitive and offensive that is. it is genuinely beyond me how you could ever in your life see a FICTIONAL couple break up and become so fucking unhinged you think it’s ok to make light of real issues to force a fictional character into some make believe villain role just so you can avenge a side character on a ryan murphy production. get some fucking help for real.

anyway last night when she posted i reblogged it calling her an idiot and she immediately blocked me, just like she blocked every other person who tried to reblog it to point out how offensive that was which is always a good sign that you’re being rational.

oh also she said taylor and lucy should be together which was just personally offensive to me, a lucy understander, and then also, since miss agn can’t go three seconds without being generally offensive, she has to say taylor/lucy would be better than buddie bc buck and eddie are [checks notes] white men and taylor and lucy are oh dear…. yeah :/

in conclusion agn is racist, homophobic, terminally fucking stupid, and also cowardly to boot and i hope she has an absolutely terrible day. i hope fox news fires her. i hope megan west never has a job again just to spite agn. bt is finally bones and the fact that that makes agn feral is all i need, get fucked agn.

[phantomrose96]

can you walk us through the math a little slower so us at Reigen's level can catch up? I think it was a fantastic piece of writing and really badass of you, as a writer, to show who's boss and write a full ass quadratic equation into the story. i hate it when ppl are talking about something i dont understand, though, so i whipped out my highschool math books and khan academy, but id appreciate the help

(Re: the math in ABoT ch42)

Sure sure! Let's see if I can't break this down piece at a time.

(warning, long post under the cut. Also it's hard to type out math in a tumblr post, so I'm sorry about the poor formatting. Tried my best!)

So we start here:

“The characteristics of psychic power roughly follow this ordinary differential equation, as defined between 0 and x_max as the bounds of x(t).”

(I'm gonna start by just giving a high-level look at this. Once we're done thinking about the high level, I'll get into the math in the chapter).

At its simplest, ordinary differential equations tend to describe how systems behave over time. In the above, the x(t) is "what is the amount of psychic power you have at time 't'". And the dx(t)/dt is "what is the rate you're gaining/losing psychic power at time 't'" (if dx(t)/dt is positive, that's gaining power. if negative, that's losing)

Often-times with ODE's, there's self feedback, as there is in the above. As a common example - studying how a rabbit population changes over time can be modeled as an ODE, where x(t) [number of rabbits] impacts the d(x)/dt [rate at which the population is gaining/losing rabbits]. If you already HAVE a lot of rabbits (high x(t)) then they can BREED a lot of rabbits (high dx(t)/dt). A population of 100 rabbits can have more babies in a year than a population of 10 can. But it's possible at TOO high of an x(t), the opposite happens (too many rabbits could mean not enough resources in the environment, means a lot of rabbits die off) and dx(t)/dt drops low. So whatever the ODE is for this rabbit population, it would reflect how too low or too high of an x(t) value would negatively impact the value of dx(t)/dt.

In the above equation, something similar happens, kind of like a battery! This is also a case where too-high or too-low of an x(t) [amount of psychic energy] negatively impacts the value of dx(t)/dt [rate at which the psychic is gaining/losing power]. That middle part c(x_max - x(t))x(t) is made of three things being multiplied together

c (a constant, positive value)

(x_max - x(t))

x(t)

A key thing about multiplication: if any one part being multiplied is really close to 0, then the whole product is gonna end up close to 0. So if x(t) is TOO low (close to 0), then this product will be close to 0. Same thing if x(t) gets too high and approaches x_max (since the (x_max - x(t)) will be close to 0.

And if that MIDDLE part hits 0, then this equation looks like dx(t)/dt = 0 - u. which is just -u, meaning there are values of x(t) for which a psychic would be LOSING power over-all.

If you're losing power because x(t) is too high, well no worries. You'll lose power until x(t) comes down to a steady value where you're regenerating power at the same rate it's being used. So that's sitting comfortably at "fully charged". But if you're losing power because x(t) is too LOW, well.... you're out of luck. because x(t) is just gonna keep getting lower and lower until it hits 0.

And that's roughly what Teru gets across to Ritsu - Ritsu's x(t) has dropped too low. He still HAS a positive amount of psychic energy, and Ritsu is convinced that means it'll regenerate more until he's okay. But he's dipped below a crucial threshold, where his rate of recovery is not high enough to counteract the rate he's burning through it, meaning his energy will keep draining until it hits 0.

Now, the math.

Teru tells Ritsu to characterize dx(t)/dt by x(t). He's basically saying to draw a graph where x(t) is the "x" and dx(t)/dt is the "y". And this graph is saying "for every value of x(t), what is the corresponding dx(t)/dt value?"

When characterizing a graph from a function, there are a few things you can try to figure out at a glance:

the shape of the graph.

where it intercepts (crosses) the y-axis (the vertical line)

where it intercepts (crosses) the x-axis (the horizontal line), these values are often called the "0"s of the graph, since it's where the output (the y value) is 0.

Ritsu is able to deduce that the shape of the graph is an upside-down parabola, this is because you can expand the function to look like this

which, given that x(t) is our "x", follows the parabolic shape of y = ax^2 + bx + c. And because the "a" is a negative value (-c) that makes it an upside-down parabola.

Figuring out the y-axis intercept is simple, because that happens where the value of x is 0. so in the above case, if you plug in 0 for "x(t)" then you get dx(t)/dt = -c*0 + cx_max*0 - u. Get rid of those 0's and it's dx(t)/dt = -u.

^all of this, Ritsu does in his head:

Ritsu studied the board again. “The regeneration rate as a function of current power reserve is an inverse parabola, offset to the right and… either up or down.” He drew a grid, one vertical line and one horizontal line. He labeled the top of the vertical line dx(t)/dt and the right of the horizontal line x(t). “Intersects the y-axis at negative u.” He placed a dot somewhere low on the vertical line and labeled it.

The next part, finding the "0"s of the graph, Ritsu cannot do in his head. That's more complicated. That's asking "at what values of x(t) does the output of the graph equal 0?" Like this

This is where the quadratic formula comes into play. (Well, you could do it more manually by completing the square if you want fun, but the quadratic formula is a shortcut for finding exactly these kinds of 0's.)

Before applying the quadratic formula, Ritsu simplifies the above a little bit, turning it into the (equivalent) formula of:

Quadratic formula states that the 0's of the function can be found at the value of "x" where

That "a", "b", and "c" are when the equation is in the form "y = ax^2 + bx +c". That's the reason Ritsu does the simplification above, because in that case, a=1, b=(-x_max), and c=u/c.

And THAT'S what leads to this:

But, that's almost all letters! The graph value is 0 when x(t) equals that amount above. What does that tell you? And one important thing Ritsu notes, the 0's can be imaginary if the value under that square root is negative. If the 0's are imaginary, then this graph will never cross the x-axis.

But Ritsu already knows the y-axis interception of the graph is below the x-axis (in the bottom half of the graph) so if the graph NEVER crosses the x axis, that means all parts of the graph would exist in negative values of dx(t)/dt, which doesn't make sense. So it's at least a safe bet to assume "x_max^2-4*u/c" (that piece under the square root) is a positive value. which Ritsu confirms with Teru.

But still, this is a lot of letters. So Ritsu can only explain where the 0's would fall based on how big 4*u/c is relative to x_max^2. Basically, when Ritsu says this:

Ritsu’s lip twitched. He looked back at the board. “For the highest ratio of 4*u/c to xmax^2, there’d be a double 0 at xmax/2. For the lowest ratio, there’s be a 0 near x(t)=0 and another near xmax. Which is to say the two x-intercepts fall somewhere between, equally far forward from x(t)=0 and back from xmax.”

He means the end graph will fall between one of these two extremes

(excuse the bad parabolas)

Either the graph JUST barely crosses over the x-axis, right in the middle. Or MOST of the graph is crossed up over the x axis, which happens near x(t)=0 and x(t)=x_max

This is because if 4*u/c is ALMOST as large at x_max^2, then x_max^2-4*u/c is effectively 0, and the piece under the square root is effectively 0, so you're left with x(t) = x_max/2 as the value where it crosses the x axis (left graph)

BUT if 4*u/c is very small compared to x_max^2, then the square root of (x_max^2 - 4*u/c) will be VERY close to the square root of x_max^2, which is just x_max (ever so slightly less than) so you get whats essentially:

in the "plus" case, you get x(t)=x_max (just slightly less than) and in the "minus" case, you get x(t)=0 (just slightly more than). which is what the right-hand graph is getting at.

So Ritsu is saying "somewhere between these two extremes"

“Here’s a hint: for most decent psychics, 4*u/c is quite a bit lower than xmax^2.”

“So the latter.” Ritsu hatched a mark along the right side of the horizontal line and labeled it x_max. He marked a dot a little to the left of it, and another dot a little to the right of the vertical line, and he connected all three dots with the shape of an upside-down arch, which swooped over the horizontal line and then back beneath it through the two marked dots.

Teru confirms it's the latter case, and then Ritsu goes on to draw what is essentially that right-hand graph.

and THEN Teru tells Ritsu to parametrize it by time..... Because our x axis is x(t), which is itself a function of time.

So it becomes a game of figuring out how x(t) behaves over time by choosing a starting value of x (x(0)), plugging it into the graph, looking at what the dx(t)/dt is to figure out if the next value of x will be higher or lower (Positive dx(t)/dt means "you are gaining energy". Negative means the opposite.)

So if we look at THIS graph, we can consider there are 3 possible starting regions. basically "if you currently have -this much- amount of psychic power, what happens next?"

the regions labeled "1", "2", and "3"

Ritsu lapsed silent, soaking in the graph. “If the starting x(0) falls in the middle region, regeneration rate is positive, so for the following time step of t, the next mark will fall further rightward on the parabola. The rate would slow down as it approached the right-most x-intercept, after which point the rate dips negative, and the next mark would fall left of the previous. So it reaches a steady-state at the rightmost intercept, where the power reserve is equal to ½(xmax + sqrt(xmax^2 - 4*u/c)). Same would happen if you started right of that intercept.”

This is Ritsu explaining regions "2" and "3". If you're in region "2", look the graph is positive! That means dx(t)/dt is positive. That means you're gaining energy, and your next value of x(t) will get higher. higher higher until you hit that right-side orange dot, and cross into region 3. Then you start losing power. But dont worry that tilts you right back into region 2! So you basically end up SITTING on that orange dot, "fully charged"! Same would happen if you're over-charged (region "3") where you lose energy until you hit that orange dot and sit there.

then there is region 1....

The value of x(t) IS positive in region 1! it's on the right side of the vertical line, so it's greater than 0. However the value of the graph is BELOW the x axis. Meaning dx(t)/dt is negative. Meaning while you're in region 1, you're losing psychic power.

So x(t) will go down, down, down, down

until that hits 0. and the amount of psychic power you have is gone.

Ritsu swallowed. “Regeneration is negative.”

“Repeat that.”

“It’s negative.”

“And does it stay negative?”

“Yes.”

“So then where does that fleetingly positive x(t) go?”

Ritsu had slipped paler.

“To zero.”

Which means Ritsu is doomed.

And there you have it! We just proved the high-level stuff I went over at the start of this answer.

Thats the math in chapter 42.