#sticker is another good example

[galoogamelady]

How do you draw inorganic things so well your guns and armor and metal stuff is just so gosh darn good like i need tips i fail hard at inorganic matter every i every draw looks so soft and fleshy

The thing about hard surface items is that you have to be at least a little bit anal about perfect straight lines and ellipses in relation with perspective. I was really bad at descriptive geometry (my teacher sucked ass but that's another thing), and okay at best at drawing still life of objects in high school, but I recommend dabbling in the latter at least, if you can, to strengthen your foundations. How and where shapes connect to each other, how corners are formed, how a pattern or sticker translates on a flat surface we see in perspective all matter in selling your drawing.

Unless you're going to simplify shapes a lot, don't rush it and just refine the drawing as you go. This is my process. Again, I'm not a perfectionist, I know this final drawing is not a 1-to-1 to the reference, but it's good enough for this practice. If the gun was the main focus of an image, I would make sure the tip of the barrel looked sharper and nicer.

You can see me using this method in this old speeddraw and in a recent twitch stream (footage of which will be in my next youtube vid).

I recommend using rulers even if you trace over images of items. And be mindful about where and how you weather or detail shapes. For example, I could have drawn horizontal lines on the upper receiver here, but the short vertical lines help convey its roundness better.

If you're drawing different materials, you can forego the ruler on soft materials but still use it for the hard ones. (eg. a couch that has a wooden base/legs vs the cushions):

[femsolid]

"Women are still choosing to opt out of work and stay at home to raise children, and women are still taking pole-dancing classes, saying it is good exercise. Women are still painfully removing all of the hair from their bodies and pretending to be morons so as not to threaten their male suitors. They are still giving their money and attention to musicians who tell them they are worthless pieces of ass. Women are still watching blockbuster films and aspiring to be the supportive wife or the sexy girlfriend who needs rescuing, rather than the one (man) saving the world. Women in Hollywood are still producing films where men save the world. They still love and support and marry wife-beaters, rapists, and misogynistic trolls. Women are still voting Republican.

You can, they insist, still be a feminist and shave your legs, fuck men, consume misogynistic culture. Look, we’re doing it, we call ourselves feminists, you can too. The political and sociological understanding of the pressures under which women attempt to live their lives is replaced with personal choice. For example, everything about our culture may be pushing women toward marriage—from romantic narratives in movies and television to health insurance policies and tax benefits granted by the government. And marriage has historically been a way to control women and reduce them to being property—the visuals in marriage ceremonies and the words of wife and husband are still heavy with this symbolic meaning. Yet, if you want to get married and you choose to get married, and you identify as feminist, then your getting married is automatically a feminist act.

So we have books called Sexy Feminism, scientific studies about whether feminists have a more satisfying sex or romantic life, personal essays about how feminism helped me get that promotion/have better orgasms. And while there is a vague notion that there is something called the Patriarchy keeping you down, there are few ideas of how to counteract it, except through individual achievement.

Now that we have removed all meaning from the word feminism, our ranks have swelled. A woman can now take up the feminist label without any true political, personal, or relational adaptations whatsoever. It’s just another button on her jacket, another sticker on her bumper."

- Why I Am Not A Feminist by Jessa Crispin

[reasonsforhope]

"Of South Korea’s countless kilograms of annual food scraps, very few will ever end up in a landfill. This is because of two reasons—the first is that it’s been illegal since 2005, and the second is because they have perhaps the world’s most sophisticated food waste disposal infrastructure.

While representing a significant burden on the economy, the food waste disposal nevertheless produces ample supplies of animal feed, fertilizer, and biogas that heats thousands of homes.

As the New York Times’ John Yoo and Chang Lee reported from Seoul, South Korean cuisine tends to lend itself to creating food scraps, since many staple dishes come with anywhere from a few to a few dozen sides.

With the culture erring on the side of abundance rather than restraint, many of these small dishes of tofu, kimchi, bean sprouts, and other bites would be tossed in the landfill if it wasn’t illegal to do so.

The government put the ban hammer on it because the mountainous terrain isn’t ideal for landfill construction.

Instead, restauranteurs and street hawkers pay the municipality for a sticker that goes on the outside of special bins. Once filled with food scraps, they are left on the road for collectors in the morning who take 90% of all such waste in the country to specialized collection facilities.

At apartments and among residential housing areas, hi-tech food waste disposal machines are operated by a keycard owned by residents under contract with the disposal companies.

Once taken to the recycling facilities, the food is sorted for any non-food waste that’s mixed in, drained of its moisture, and then dried and baked into a black dirt-like material that has a dirt-like smell but which is actually a protein and fiber-rich feed for monogastric animals like chickens or ducks.

This is just one of the ways in which the food scraps are processed. Another method uses giant anaerobic digestors, in which bacteria break down all the food while producing a mixture of CO2 and methane used to heat homes—3,000 in a Seoul suburb called Goyang, for example. All the water needed for this chemical process comes from the moisture separated from the food earlier.

The remaining material is shipped as fertilizer to any farms that need it.

All the water content is sent to purification facilities where it will eventually be discharged into water supplies or streams.

While one such plant was shut down from locals complaining about the unbearable smell, many plants are odorless, thanks to a system of pipes built into the walls that eliminate it via chemical reaction.

It’s the way South Korea does it. Sure, it costs them around $600 million annually, but they have many admirers, including New York City which hopes to implement similar infrastructure in the coming years."

-via Good News Network, June 15, 2023

[boxturret]

How to get Stickers/Tape off of boxes

There's nothing worse than spending money on a sealed Bionicle set, or just tracking down one with the box, only to find that some criminal went and stuck things all over it.

This is a problem that I've faced a lot, and have found a pretty good solution to!

First, blast the sticker with a hair dryer. This will soften the adhesive and allow you to get a small knife underneath an edge

Then you can start carefully peeling it up. Ideally you would use some tweezers to grip the sticker, but none of mine have enough grip so I just end up sing my fingers. My fingers are very sore afterwards from all the hot air...

Now while this removed the sticker itself there's probably a lot of adhesive left on the box.

You could try washing it, but water and cardboard don't mix...so recently I found that Blutack works amazingly well!

You simply roll it over the surface gently, and slowly but surely the blutack will stick to the adhesive and pull it off!. It will take quite a while, and its a bit hard to roll it with burnt fingers, so maybe don't do the two steps back to back...

But eventually your work will be rewarded! A nice clean box to enjoy.

Here's another example. Note: near edges or parts where the cardboard has torn you have to be very careful, as the blutack is strong enough to tear the cardboard up. But a slight dab of glue on the underside is enough to repair it.

Also: This specifically is an English brand of Blutack, the north american version is different so I'm not sure how well it would work, so be ware.

[alithographica]

Re: Redbubble & Alternatives

Redbubble is doing some nonsense and I've deleted my account. I barely bothered with it anyway, was mostly there for people who've asked for specific images as posters.

Anyway in doing that I sacrificed the $4.35 that was still sitting in my earnings. They only let you cash out at $20, so rather than drum up sales and therefore make Redbubble more money, I'm gonna do what I feel is $4.35 in anti-publicity for them. 🥳

tl;dr there are new fees that hurt artist income at all sales levels. Redbubble is either looking to cut costs and raise profits for funsies, or is in serious financial trouble.

About the new fees:

Redbubble offers their services to artists by allowing artists to control their profit margin above a certain baseline manufacturing fee. This was pretty cool! There's now an additional fee that will be charged starting May 1, 2023. It is not an upfront fee that requires you to pay out of pocket, but it does directly cut your profit margin. How badly? Well...

By Redbubble's own example, if in one month you sell $300 in products that you had set at a 25% margin, you'd previously earn $75. Under the new structure, that earnings level means you pay a $28 fee, so you will now be paid $47. That $28 represents a 37% cut off what you were supposed to earn.

There's a full fee table in that link, but other highlights include a $1 fee if you earned $2 (aka 50%!) and big sellers who'd expect to take home $400 will now receive $320 (an $80 fee, 20%).

It also puts you in a weird spot that earning $1 more in a month may bump you to the next tier, causing you to actually take home less money. Make $1 more, end up losing $11. Make it make sense. 🤨

About the new tiers:

Each shop is evaluated and labeled Standard, Premium, or Pro. Premium and Pro shops are not subject to the new fees, but there's no clarity on how to move from one tier to another. Redbubble says it's under your control but it's clearly not. Many artists are reporting that they have accounts with next to no sales that have been labeled Pro, and accounts with thousands of annual sales that are labeled Standard.

Action items:

Look, I'm not gonna tell other artists that they have to close their shops, or tell buyers not to buy from Redbubble if your favorite artists have chosen to stay. What you do with the above info is up to you.

What I will say is that many artists are leaving because the new pay structure sucks. I encourage people who buy from Redbubble to expand their support to other sites.

Attrition is arguably their goal here—they know people will leave over this, and that'll probably lower their costs and lower competition for the remaining accounts. But goodwill is lost easily and they're playing a dangerous game on betting how many stay vs. leave. I'm out.

Feel free to leave your feedback on Redbubble's feedback form here, but it feels slightly like yelling into the void.

Alternatives:

tbh I don't have a good read on things. If you do know of any recommended (or unrecommended) print-on-demand sites, speak up!

I will say that as of now (April 2023), based on my research:

🟢 INPRNT sounds like a winner if your game is art prints and stickers. Does not have any wearable products like t-shirts.

🟡 Etsy + Printify/Printful might be viable? Etsy always had higher profit margins than POD marketplaces, but it's a bit more work and they also do weird things occasionally. Also has a listing fee so if you're the type to upload a ton of designs, pricey.

🔴 Teepublic is owned by Redbubble. Doesn't have the tier/new fee structure as of now but might be imminent. Have also heard their customer service sucks.

🔴 Society6 is going to charge artists shipping costs, and there's going to be a (mandatory?) subscription service launched in the fall, so that's not a winner anymore either.

[beespaceprogram]

Sticker Cutter Research

I was looking into getting a sticker cutting machine, and I decided to start by looking into cricut which is a well known brand. I had a look at what models they had than their feature etc, but what I was most concerned about was their software. Printer companies like to lock you into a defacto subscription to support hardware you don't really own, and as I was to discover, cricut are operating in a similar way.

The cricut software is online-only*. To cut your own designs you need to use their software to upload your art to their server. There's no way to cut a new design without a logged-in cricut account and an internet connection. At one point in 2021 they flirted with limiting free accounts to 20 uploads/month but backed down after huge community backlash, as far as I can tell.

The incident spawned several community efforts to write open-source firmware for cricut hardware. Some efforts were successful for specific models/serial numbers, but require cracking open the case and hooking in to the debug contacts to flash the chip; not exactly widely accessible. Another project sought to create a python cricut server you can run locally, and then divert the app's calls to the server to your local one.

I restarted my search, this time beginning with looking for extant open-source software for driving cutters, and found this project, which looks a little awkward to use, but functional. They list a bunch of cutter hardwares and whether they're compatible or not. Of those, I recognised the sihouette brand name from other artists talking about them.

I downloaded the silhouette software to try like I did w the cricut software, and immediately it was notable that it didn't try to connect to the internet at all. It's a bit clunky, in that way printer and scanner software tends to be, but I honestly greatly preferred using it to cricut's sluggish electron app⁺. Their software has a few paid tiers above the free one, adding stuff like sgv import/export/and reading cut settings from a barcode on the input material. They're one-off payments, and seem reasonable to me.

This is not so much a review, as sharing some of the research I've done. I haven't yet used either a cricut or a silhouette, and I haven't researched other brands either. But I wanted to talk about this research because to me, cricut's aggressively online nature is a red flag. Software that must connect to a server to run is software that runs only at the whim of the server owner (and only as long as it's profitable to keep the server up). And if that software is the only thing that will make your several hundred dollars worth of plastic and (cheap, according to a teardown I read) servos run, then you have no guarantee you'll be able to run it in the future.

Do you use a desktop cnc cutter? What has your experience been like with the hardware and software? Do you have any experience from home printers with good print quality and user-refillable ink cartridges?

* Cricut's app tried to connect to more than 14 different addresses, including facebook, youtube, google analytics, datadoghq.com, and launchdarkly.com. Launch Darkly are a service provider that help software companies do a whole bunch of things I'm coming to despise, for example, they offer infrastructure for serving different features to different demographics and comparing results to control groups. You know how at various times you've gotten wildly different numbers of ads than your friends on instagram? They were using techniques like this to work out how many ads they could show without affecting their pickup/engagement rates. Scummy stuff.

⁺ Electron apps are web-pages pretending to be applications. They use heaps of ram, tend to have very poor performance, and encourage frustrating UI design that doesn't follow OS conventions. Discord's app is a notable example of an Electron app

[ariesjupiter]

Astro Notes: Degree Theory Part 2 🌟

part 1 

• Planets or house cusps (particularly 2nd or 10th house) in an Aquarius degree (11°, 23°) may be interested in photography or make a living as a photographer

• Mars in a Capricorn degree (10°, 22°) could have started working at a young age whether it was for a family business, creating their own business, the entertainment industry, etc.

• This is more a theory than an observation but all the things you’re hoping for and trying to manifest can come true when you’re the age of your Jupiter sign degree. This can also happen at the age(s) of the other degrees associated with that sign too. For example, if you have Jupiter in 5° (a Leo degree), then you could have good luck and many opportunities when you’re 17 and 29 as well (also Leo degrees).

• Another theory about Jupiter... In his degree theory, Nikola Stojanovic said the 2° is the degree of supreme power. While I respect and agree with this, I also think the degree of your Jupiter sign can hint at what you’re best at and where you can achieve the most as well. If your Jupiter is at 2° this just further emphasizes your talent in this area.

• Venus in an Aries degree (1°, 13°, 25°) do you always make the first move when you like someone? I genuinely admire your confidence and boldness

• Any benefic planet in an Aries degree 🤝 believing in and/or experiencing love at first sight

• Uranus in a Taurus degree (2°, 14°, 26°) may have a unique or distinct voice.

• North Node in a Scorpio degree (8°, 20°) suggests you may have to work hard to strike a balance between being open and vulnerable while also choosing to keep aspects of yourself and your life private and hidden from others. It’s also commonly found in the charts of people who have made a lot of money. Working hard and putting your all into what you love will help bring you growth, success, and fulfillment.

• 7th house cusp in a Cancer degree (4°, 16°, 28°) might get pregnant or have a baby with someone before they marry them. 

• The degree of your 3rd house cusp could show where you’d prefer to live. 3rd house cusp in a fire degree (1°, 5°, 9°, 13°, 17°, 21°, 29°) may enjoy living in a warm or hot fun place. earth degree (2°, 6°, 10°, 14°, 18°, 22°, 26°) may want to live somewhere where the climate is the same year-round and/or somewhere where they’re surrounded by nature and lots of greenery. may not mind being in a more “boring” area where things stay the same as long as there is comfort. air degree (3°, 7°, 11°, 15°, 19°, 23°, 27°) may want to live in a place where there are four seasons and/or a in a city where it’s busy and they can meet new people often. water degree (4°, 8°, 12°, 16°, 20°, 24°, 28°) could prefer to live in a place by the water and/or somewhere that allows them privacy and a chance to be creative.

• While there’s many indicators for career in astrology like your mc, 2nd and 6th house cusp, etc., I also think the degree of your Mars sign can show what area of work or career you might go into. For example, Mars in a Sagittarius degree (9°, 21°) could be a lawyer, teacher, professor, real estate agent, something to do with language or travel. Does your Mars degree match with your career or ideal one?

• Aquarius degrees on the cusp of the 3rd house may change their phone case often because they could view their phone like an essential “accessory.” They could also have a bunch of stickers on their phone or laptop case.

• Venus in a Virgo degree (6°, 18°) could indicate someone who enjoys eating healthy a lot as well as exercising

[nyaagolor]

Paldean Elite Four (+ Geeta) Headcanons

They've been on my mind recently bc of all the asks I got

Rika:

Rika is the office gossip QUEEN. She knows everything about everyone, so if you need or want to know something you ask her. She knows a guy. She also desperately wants to figure out what Larry and Geeta's Deal (tm) is. They bicker constantly, are insanely passive aggressive, but despite their opposing attitudes agree on most fundamental issues. They look like they hate each other, but Larry constantly takes on new responsibilities for the League and Geeta constantly showers him with raises and promotions. Rika has taken to snooping thru their emails and prodding Hassel for info, but he doesn't know anything either. It’s driving her nuts

Paldea had a Region’s Sexiest Man contest. Rika won. Women Want her. Despite this however she can only pick up women accidentally. If she actively tries to flirt she will fuck it up spectacularly. Just the in-universe version of this

Rika is actually on the payroll as the league receptionist and does that Elite Four thing as a side hustle for extra cash. She gets kind of embarrassed when you call her a receptionist during her Elite Four duties though because other regions often use her as an example of why the Paldean league is garbage (i.e. they're so understaffed even a receptionist can be on the E4. They must have grabbed the nearest person, etc etc). She puts on the vibe of someone chill but this in particular is a bit of a sore point for her

She hates dresses / skirts with a burning passion and refuses to wear them. If you give her a REALLY good reason it's a solid maybe, but good luck with that. She needs to stretch

Her Clodsire's name is Pancake :) I like to think all her pokemon are named after breakfast foods (which, btw, is her favorite meal of the day. She is easily bribed with good waffles)

She and Larry are drinking buddies. She does most of the drinking

Poppy:

Everyone in the league is very careful to alter their habits around Poppy. She’s small and cute and sweet and a little baby so the usual informal cursing (like Rika shouting that HR needs to “cut the bullshit”) or the smoke breaks on the roof (yes I think they all smoke) can’t happen when Poppy is around

The league spoils her rotten. Candy? Toys? Help with her kindergarten homework?? Anything for Poppy. Even Larry, who seems too strict or apathetic to care, has her drawings in his desk drawer and lets her decorate his ties. The toys in the lobby are also hers

Her parents are accountants who brought her to take your kid to work day and let her play with their Pokémon outside. Rika challenged her to a match as a joke because they had a cancellation and Geeta watched— but both were shocked that Poppy’s skill with her parents’ steel types and her own Tinkaton were unparalleled by anyone in the building. When another E4 member retired, the league decided to let Poppy battle under her parents’ names just to blow off some steam. Poppy gets to let out energy, her parents make extra money, and the elite 4 has a strong battler. Win win!

Poppy loves to braid and play with hair, so the other elite four members will often let her play with their hair and add clips while they work. Larry is Poppy’s favorite because he sits Very Very Still

If Poppy really likes the battle she had with you, she’ll give you a sticker. Geeta once walked into a meeting with a gold star directly on her forehead because Poppy stuck it there and she didn’t want to take it off where Poppy could see it, forgetting about it by the time she walked in. She later moved it to her jacket

She has nicknames for everyone except Rika, which drives Rika insane. Grandpa Hassel, Mister Larry, Miss Geeta (or Auntie sometimes) but Rika? It’s just Rika. It’s always Rika. When Hassel was babysitting her at his and Brassius’ home in Artazón, Poppy’s eyes went really wide and she asked if she had two grandpas now or if Brassius was just SUPER old. He found that insanely funny

Larry:

I saw a fic that had Larry naming his pokemon after Excel commands and I cannot stop thinking about it. It's canon in my heart. Btw if anyone knows this fic / the name pls lmk I can’t find it again but I remember his Flamigo was named COUNTIF

Larry is actually pretty wealthy, partially because he's raking in cash from his three jobs and partially because he doesn't spend money on anything but food and pokemon products. Considering that the Treasure Eatery feeds him for free and the pokemon products are provided or subsidized by the League, that leaves him with a LOT of extra income, which he uses to help out his friends or gym challengers with financial issues or simply buying them dinner

Someone added this on another post of mine but every single one of Larry’s passwords is some variation on “password”. He’s many things but creative is none of them. Also these tags are canon to me

In contrast to his outward grumpiness and seeming apathy, Larry is incredibly gentle with and good with kids. He is confident the future will be better because of them, and does what he can to encourage them. It's a big part of the reason Geeta picked him for the positions-- they have a pretty similar philosophy regarding children and the future

Geeta has been doing everything in her power to get him to quit his third job (which is not League-affiliated) because he does the best work of anyone around and his other boss is a complete and utter asshole. She's tried promoting him, telling him how valuable he is to the team, using raises, praise, and passive aggression, but nothing is working. At one point she even tried overloading him with hours so he'd be forced to quit something but that didn't work either. She's stumped. The man won't quit

That third job? I'm not actually sure what it is but I do have an AU where he's a hitman. Call that a business casuality ;)

Hassel:

He always keeps candy in his desk (and his coat pockets) because he's a teacher and wants to be prepared. It's the strawberry kind, yall know the ones. This came in handy when Poppy joined the league, so all the other members started doing it too

His family gets traditional tattoos all over, which Hassel likewise has. He'd never remove them, but still keeps them covered most of the time for modesty reasons. Brassius has filled in the gaps in the traditional dragon shapes with various flowers to show how Hassel has grown from but not forgotten his past. They look very cool and Rika is insanely jealous of that

This old man is way more fit than he appears. He's a sensitive sweetheart and prefers the arts to sports or battling, but he's still a dragon tamer and keeps up his workout regime quite meticulously. Peepaw’s fucking shredded

His favorite art medium is paint, and he loves it when the little kids have class so he can finger paint alongside them. His office in the League building is covered in art. Geeta thinks it's sweet how he remembers every piece and how emotional he gets talking about it

Hassel has a hard time turning off teacher mode, which makes his training sessions at the league insanely funny to watch. “Haxorus, we do not Guillotine our friends!”

He can, and frequently does, play classical Paldea guitar. Once his rock career fell flat, he started experimenting with the style of his new home region and fell in love. You can often find him giving impromptu concerts from his balcony in Artazon

Geeta:

As much as she micromanages others, she's more than willing to take any responsibilities herself if she can't find someone else to do them. Plumber cancelled and they need the sink fixed asap? Get her a hammer. Rika is out sick? She'll cover those emails. Part of the reason the league struggles to complain about her is that they know for all the work they're doing, she's doing double. This doesn’t necessarily mean she’s GOOD at it but she’s doing it

I’m not sure how I want to explain it backstory wise but a lot of her skin is crystalline just like the AI professors. She’s got a LOT of connections to Area Zero and her top priority is making sure nothing goes in and nothing gets out. The professor hates her. The feeling is mutual

No one has ever seen her blink

She’s incredible at traditional Paldean dances. When Hassel plays classical guitar, she’ll dance along, and it’s magical to watch

That whole thing about not being able to hold back during battles? It’s a PR thing to make kids feel better. She’s not very good at battling. Geeta is just like (gestures at her Avalugg) I just think they're neat

A huge point of contention between her and her employees is that she takes everything literally and is terrible at reading tone. Her gym leaders are scared of her and try to drop hints about things because they think they’ll be punished if they’re too forward, but all those hints go right over Geeta’s head. The gym leaders then think Geeta is ignoring them on purpose but she’s none the wiser. Everyone is losing.

[ave661]

Art theft in COD community

This is something that has been on my mind for a long time, but I didn't have the courage to say it out loud. Lovely @namedlunagoddess uploaded tik tok and it motivated me to write this post.

I've been fighting with art theft lately, like many artists in cod community. People don't appriciate our hard work and use us for their popularity. From what I noticed, a lot of them follow my accounts, because when I upload something, they quickly repost it on pinterest or tiktok without credits. Pls understand me, I do it all for free. One render can take me several hours or more. For example, I spent 2 days on the last one, because I didn't like how it was turning out and started from scratch several times - when I share something, I want to be fully satisfied with it. It is EXAUSTING when you need ask for the bare minimum (credits) and even then you're not listened.

You probably noticed that I upload everything in lower and lower resolutions with bigger and bigger watermarks. These are not full pics - I crop them to non-standard resolutions, and 16:9 are only on my Patreon, because I'm sick of art theft. Why? I had a few cases of people selling my art as designs for t-shirts, phone cases, stickers, etc. Previously, I tried to hide watermarks so that they would not be so eye-catching, but people were using it against me. Tik tok and Pinterest are the biggest-*censored* For example, this is what happens when ppl don't give credits and edit out my watermarks

Then they end up on pinterest with thier tik tok name:

Good examples of giving credits (I LOVE ALL OF YOU AND THANK YOU!! ♥)

DO NOT REPOST

Another thing that annoys me is reposts of my art, even here on tumblr. When you do that, you are taking away my credits. I try to make everything available on different platforms, but I guess it still doesn't help. Most people can't read watermarks and will assume that if you upload it - you are the author.

It takes me 6 hours (on average) to make one render, and it takes you 6 seconds to write credits. Please respect my work, because more and more I want to drop everything and stay only on Patreon.

Sometimes I feel that what I do is not appreciated. I don't want much, and yet I feel like everything is being taken away from me. EDIT: I don't mean using my art as an inspiration to fanfics, headcanons, banners etc. If You give me credits - we're good, so no worries! Use them as much as You like ♥♥♥

[sleeplesssmoll]

Theory: Psychubes are Vertin's creations.

I originally posted this idea to Reddit but I figured making a proper post here would be good for future reference since I use Tumblr more often. I've also expanded on it a wee bit.

Psychubes function as “weapons” in game and provide buffs, support, stat boosts, etc. to the crew member equipped with them. To get Psychubes, Vertin needs to complete Pneuma Analysis. The literal translation of pneuma is ‘that which is breathed or blown’ but in philosophical terms it refers to “the vital spirit, soul, or creative force of a person.” (Disclaimer: this is a very simple definition of a complex topic.) She receives two types of currency through Pneuma Analysis: Thought Elements and Thoughts in Entirety.

Thought Elements: an element of an arcanist’s thoughts. There are so many ways to organize the mess: the furnace that burns and the blade that cuts…but I wish to keep it the way it is.

Thoughts in Entirety: an arcanist’s complete thoughts. As the disorganized has been organized, the darkened vision lightens, ideas are finally taking shape in my mind.

Lower level Psychubes have less defined strokes and tend to be faceless. They can be purchased with Thought Elements, which are fragments of a complete thought.

However, the higher leveled Psychubes must be purchased with Thoughts in Entirety. These Psychubes have clear, defined faces and lines. They are not as abstract as the lower leveled ones and cost.

From a lore perspective, this high price could be the result of the time and introspection needed to complete the work. The lesser ideas are also the foundation of strong ones. In the game this is represented by engraving a Psychube to make it stronger.

But why do the strong Psychubes depict her friends? I read a theory somewhere that Resonance and Insight represents Vertin influencing her allies and expanding their minds. What if Psychubes are similar, but they work the other way around? Psychubes are the result of Vertin’s allies influencing her thus showing up in her art.

For example, the Loss Psychube is an orange. It grants no special effects and is used as material to build up other ideas. Is it a stretch to think this might be a reflection of Vertin’s mindset? You’re not meant to level up the Loss Psychube, instead you use it to empower the other works. To me this reads as moving forward while using that pain as fuel to make something greater. I'm not fond of the “art is pain” trope, but in this instance we see Vertin using art to cope and overcome hurt rather than fixate and obsess over it.

A lot of the lower level Psychubes are single words like Numb, Slighted, and Fatuous. The Psychubes' impressions are pretty interesting to read, especially if you consider Vertin being the artist who made them. You can read them here.

If Druvis can make wands/guns and the Foundation can mass produce Floppy Disks that teleport people, perhaps Vertin has a similar ability. If we think about Vertin in battle, she's not only the conductor for her allies, but also a buff/support. We can see this in her skills like First Melody and Grand Orchestra. Psychubes could be an extension of her arcanum and is another way she supports her team instead of just leading them.

I wish we could see what a Psychube actually looks like. Are they like stamps or stickers you can mix and match? A literal painted cube as in Psy-cube? I need to know if Vertin is handing out art pieces to her crew like “I made this for you” the same way she gave Sonetto frogs and stuff as a kid.

[phantomrose96]

Oh while I'm on U.S. economics, I have another thing that bugs the hell out of me: the hiking of mortgage interest rates.

For those who don't know, mortgage interest rates dropped low during the pandemic. Which is not all sunshine since it resulted in many bidding wars and a ton of way-over-asking offers in competitive areas, but it put home-ownership way more within reach for a lot of people.

Then the fed started to pee their pants over inflation, and hiked their rates up, prompting mortgage companies to follow.

Here's a chart of mortgage interest rates over the last 4 years

It hit a trough at 2.65% on average in early January 2021, and then you see it hiked itself way back up, now chilling at 6.27%

For context on how different these are: let's use an example of a $400,000 home - someone pays 20% down ($80,000) in cash, and finances the remaining 80% ($320,000).

Monthly payments at 2.65%:

This results in paying back, in total, $464,040. You'll notice that's well over the initial $320,000, and that's because of the interest paid over those 30 years.

Now, monthly payments at 6.27%:

This results in paying back, in total, $710,640. That's more than twice the initial loan of $320,000.

And, of course, it means the same exact property which could be paid for with a monthly budget of ~$1,300 in early 2021 now requires a monthly budget of ~$2,000 in 2023.

Also, those pandemic lows were an anomaly... Historically, mortgage interest rates were on average HIGHER than 6.27% - but also, historically, wages were much better relative to the prices of homes and people could afford the high interest rates (with the exception of the people who got screwed over in the 2008 housing market meltdown... There's a really good Cold Fusion video on that.)

And because these low interest rates were an anomaly, they may never come back...

So with mortgage interest rates going up, home-buying becomes harder. When home-buying becomes harder, rents increase (because renters have no alternative).

So who DOESN'T get affected?

ENTITIES THAT CAN PAY IN ALL CASH.

They need no mortgage. They pay the sticker price on-spot with no interest applying to them. And I say ENTITIES because, sure, some people can buy their home in all-cash. But a huge number of the entities that can buy in all cash are BIG investment companies--the Blackrocks and the Mega-landlords who scoop up properties to sit on, rent out, and turn for a profit later like it's a piece of stock, and not a habitable property...

Anyway I don't have a conclusion for this. Fix wages, or bring interest rates back down, or kill Blackrock. Preferably all 3.

[cocogum]

Reassuring proof that the sadidas are very much alive and well in the Waven era:

In the Lance Dur webtoon, a sadida appeared in the 4th chapter called “The Sickness of Lance Dur”. Lance Dur is far older than the last time we saw him in Season 4, meaning that more than a decade had passed which was after the wave had happened. (Waven happens 10 years after the Wakfu era)

In Waven, if we look around on Astrub Island, we can see a female sadida gardener looking for some shrubs. Her quest info does not reveal her race but her skin complexion as well as her hair color matches the sadida race perfectly.

(this woman was looking for some sentient shrubs by the way...don't ask why...)

One of Waven’s quests has Renate, an (iconic) sadida asking you to help him about the smells of a temple. He is not only a sadida but is also a royal servant of Amalia.

Renate doesn't seem to be near Canar this time around but looks to be well. He’s even joined one of Waven’s four cardinal clans, which in his case, is the nature clan.

When we take a look at Waven’s emotes skin shop, we can see three Sadida god reaction stickers. If Sadida had lost his godly status (meaning if he died), then his stickers wouldn’t have been present in the shop. The emotes skin shop currently has three reaction stickers for Iop, Cra, Eniripsa, Ecaflip, Enutrof, Sram, Sadida, Xelor, Sacrier, and Feca.

*Reaction stickers are not available for Osamodas and Pandawa at the moment*

In the Bestiale teaser trailer, which is a show that will take place in Waven, two sadidas can be seen in the background when Yrehn, our osamodas main character, is visiting a market.

One of these sadidas, however, seems to be someone we already know: the one on the left is Chamberlain Thicktuft, the counsellor or advisor (?) of the Sadia kingdom. He appeared in every season (excluding Season 3) and has even been seen in The Great Wave manga attending the banquet for the male sadida and female eliatrope marriage.

So why is he in the Bestiale teaser? No idea.

Aside from the Sadida proof listing above, another thing people noticed were the cras in Waven. Or rather their weapons.

When we take a look at each cra and their types, none of their weapons remotely look like the ones we’ve seen in Wakfu or Dofus anymore. Back in Wakfu, the cras were in an alliance with the sadidas which is why their bows were primarily made of special wood. Evangelyne was a good example of this.

So when we compare Wakfu to Waven, the cras now have more than one choice of weapon :

Arcarius Paladir replaced their bows with a much more efficient trajectory leafy-like weapon.

Blunderbust have adopted a steampunk style and chose to use guns that shoot arrows.

Buneblade have abandoned long-range weapons of any format entirely and opted to use boomerangs instead.

Piven Bow might just be the only type we know who still uses the old cra style by keeping the bows. Their name even has the word “bow” in it.

Shaden Shiru just like the Buneblade, threw out the bows to use knuckle ring-looking weapons as their main source for fighting.

Zandiezer Zo relies on a stoned glove in the shape of a crossbow that can emit long-range shots.

Given that most cras have preferred using other weapons than the bow, this leaves us to speculate that the alliance between the cras and sadidas is indefinitely over and might have possibly ended after the Necrome war or a bit later.

Other than that, it’s reassuring to know that the sadidas have at least survived the great wave since the tree of life had to have been protected and now resides somewhere safe and hidden from the world.

Waven is currently in progress, so there is still a lot to discover and learn about what happened after the great wave struck. When more updates drop, there might also be more islands to explore which could reveal more about the sadidas’ situation.

[junkratsjunkertown]

Hi! I saw that your requests were open and was wondering if I could please request Hanzo with an artist s/o who likes to sell at conventions and if he would like to help his s/o out when they are selling there and how he'd help them for example? Thank you in advance and have a good day!

Of course. Sorry I took so long to write this. I was so stressed since October.

Artist Alley

Hanzo x Artist! GN! S/O! Reader

You were pre packing your art for the convention that was happening in the city over from where you and Hanzo live. Hanzo knew you love to sell your art at conventions.

“Y/N, how long will you be gone?”

“I will only be gone from Thursday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. I like to set up on Thursday since there won’t be a lot of people there.”

You finished packing your fourth bag of your art. You then start to pack your clothes. Hanzo sighs.

“You can come to the convention with me if you would like to. They said that I could bring an extra person if I wanted to.”

Silence filled the air as you packed your clothes. After a few minutes you heard another suitcase zipper unzip and you look over to see Hanzo packing his casual clothes. You smile as you finally finished and you two pack the car. Once you two get to the hotel you check in and bring in your luggage. It was Wednesday so you had time to relax before tomorrow.

~Thursday~

You and Hanzo go to the convention center with the four bags of your art and your banner. You and Hanzo get your lanyards and ID’s then you two head to the artist alley. Hanzo was setting up the banner while you set up the table. After you two set up you take a step back to see if you need to fix anything.

“I think it looks nice, Y/N.”

“Thank you, Hanzo.”

He takes it in and realizes that most of your art is based off his dragons. Like the plushies, the prints, the stickers, and the patches. They look similar but don’t look exactly like his dragons. He lets the two little reptiles out and tells them to be careful. You laugh at the two reptiles trying to intimidate the plushies.

~Friday and Saturday~

Hanzo was nervous at first with all of the people coming to your booth. He felt that way because he kept thinking someone would recognize him. You reassured him that no one will because they will probably think he’s just cosplaying as himself. And that’s exactly what happened. He eventually took over the card reader, the prints, and plushies. While you handled the cash, stickers, and patches. You two finally had a break to go eat something.

“I don’t know how you do that by yourself, Y/N. I swear you must have a secret.”

You laugh

“I wish. I think it got easier after a couple of conventions. Like after the 5th or 10th convention. But I think it’s easier with you.”

~Sunday~

Hanzo was happier since it was a chill day. You two ended up selling out of the plushies and prints by the end of the day. Hanzo made sure to take note of what you two didn’t sell. You did take a lot of pictures with your fans. After you two packed up, got your other bags, checked out, and packed the car you were finally going home.

“I think I would love to do that again.”

“You would?”

“Of course. It was fun.”

“Maybe we could do a couples cosplay together for the next one.”

“Maybe. It’s a maybe, Y/N. But right now we need to get home and rest.”

The end

[good-beanswrites]

WAH HEY BEANS!! okay so i was looking at the plushies and merch again and i suddenly had a thought in LCSyS, what are their thoughts on like merch?? i have no idea if you've mentioned this before and if so i am silly. i can totally see fuuta go OH NO IVE BEEN TURNED A MARKETABLE PLUSHIE

YES AHAHAHA I love that!! This is for the gone-public variation of the au

This made me realize the wide range of official merch, plus I think a lot of them would love supporting artists once they're out and have access to the internet again lol. Overall I think the plushies would cause the biggest stir around the facility 😂 I mention bootleg merch, like when you have random companies making weird/ugly knockoffs -- I don't think real Milgram has that but it was a fun idea for the story lmao

Haruka isn’t used to having his own image on so many things. The others are really sweet about taking care of his plushie and doing kind things for it to boost his own confidence (although there was One Singular Moment of jealousy where his tiny counterpart was getting more attention than himself and needed to be talked down lol) He and Muu have plushies of each other that they’ll plan cute matching outfits/accessories with.

Yuno loves her own plushie, and is excited to share it with Yura. She takes really good care of all the plushies she has, and they genuinely bring her warmth, especially post-milgram when they all separate <3 She (or maybe Mikoto, I haven’t decided) gets only the weirdest/most concerning buttons on her personal bag. She loves her Borderline Suicidal Fuuta, Crazed Bug Muu, Grieving In A Hospital Shidou, Rats Mahiru, and so on. She asks Amane for permission to add Waterboarding Button to her collection. For her more public displays, she likes the aesthetic things from the anniversaries and birthday art. She loved those days of dressing up for the photoshoots, so they carry nice memories as well as being super cute. 

(I tagged you in the art I thought of, but yeah,) Fuuta puts up a big act about how weird and capitalistic it is to have merch of oneself, how plushies are “for kids,” and also how ugly/skrunkly his t2 one looks... His refusal to interact with it only makes the others interact with his more. I can see some of the prisoners (*cough* yuno *cough*) carrying around their Little Fuuta and sharing full conversations and activities while he looks on in horror. In the end, he caves in order to set a good example for Amane, and keeps a few in his room. He never admits that he also gets really attached >:3 Another secret -- he likes using the special bluetooth headphones. He thinks they look cool and the voices are a fun touch, but he’d never dare tell the others. 

Muu has one of those really aesthetic merch bags where she keeps buttons, plushies, stickers, keychains etc. She has a little something for every prisoner, but there are definitely a few who have some shameless favoritism… Once out of Milgram, she makes a lot of social media posts focused just on the plushies in different locations and outfits. She keeps them in pristine condition, caring a lot for them.

Shidou gives the plushies to his kids, and the prisoners laugh/brag about which one each child chose as their favorite. (I also like to imagine the conversations Shidou must have with strangers: “aww your daughter is so sweet! Who do you got there, honey? Aw, you’re squeezing ‘em real tight! Is that your favorite disney princess or something?” “Ah, that’s a little doll version of the divorced cop who lives a few streets over. In a prison uniform.” “O.oh…?”) He likes adding stickers to his tech, using some of the cases, and thinks the album covers look nice to display.

Mahiru goes crazy over the plushies. She sews little mv outfits for all of them, alternate outfits, and other accessories to hand out. She starts planning on making custom plushies for other people – her bf, Hinako, Shidou’s family, Lucky, etc. She was genuinely upset by how sad her T2 plush looks, thinking no one will love it – Jackalope breaks his experiment-long internet ban only once to sit with her and scroll through pictures that people had posted of them treating the plush kindly because of her looks. Also, even though they broke up, she excitedly shows her bf the buttons that feature the two of them 😅

Kazui already has a lot of records/CDs collected, and he makes a really nice display of all the albums for his wall. The other prisoners love gifting him bootleg merch of his own videos – tshirts and things from random companies that are juuust off somehow. (I have no clue about her sense of humor, but maybe one day Hinako wears one of the Cat marriage buttons like “I got married and traumatically divorced and all I got was this this stupid button)

Amane would have tried to match Fuuta acting too cool for the plushies… if it weren’t for every single other person absolutely fawning over them. She can admit to loving them and carries a different one to set with her each day, treating them kindly and dressing them up with Mahiru. She also enjoys adding stickers to her notebooks and things, they end up completely covered by the time the later mvs come out. At the very end of the experiment, she ends up using merch to cover up the old cult stickers on her backpack.

Mikoto owns the most of his own merch, claiming “it’s John :)” (and then John points to the same things claiming “it’s Mikoto :)”). They each have a T1/T2 plushie to carry around, though they end up like that Garfield "to be loved is to be changed" plush -- they really go everywhere. Mikoto gets those anniversary art shirts with the prisoner’s face taking up the whole center, and wears it to each of their mv shooting sessions, much to their embarrassment. He owns a lot of the stands to keep on his desk while he works, using them for rubber-ducking when needed. He posts I feed him rocks.

Kotoko prefers the more general things when she goes out, feeling like it’s odd to show off the other’s faces out in public. (They claim they’re famous anyway, but she insists you can never be too careful.) So she wears a lot with the main milgram logo/inno and guilty symbol/Jackalope/etc. In her personal space, though, she has a ton of the others’ things, and tries to play down how much she really likes the plushies :3 When Mahiru’s finished with it, she’s excited to show Lucky both of theirs.

Everyone owns a lot of Es merch. They try to be subtle about it post-reveal and not overwhelm their poor guard, but it comes out eventually and does scare them just a bit. 😅 Later, Es really enjoys having something of each of the prisoners close even when everyone goes back to their lives.

[d1edre]

how do you make the placing of everything and all the stickers so perfect in your lockers please teach me 😭

YESSS i will try to teach you, i love talking about this !!

i will explain my usual process, some little tricks i use, as well as show some examples :3

the first thing i do when i set out to make a locker is drop objects that fit the theme or color scheme on the empty space on the left. this way i can see a good overview of things i could fit in the locker and think about where i might place things

i do the same thing for stickers, i just scroll through my list of stickers and place ones i like on the door without worrying about the placement yet.

once everything is laid out i start to mess around with placement. i tend to put the biggest or most important items in first so i can make sure they fit.

i like to make the objects line up with each other, but if i can't find something to fill in the gaps i put stickers behind it so the gap is less noticeable. this is without the background stickers ↓

and this is with ↓

see how it makes the inside feel more full and neat!! :3

here's another example where you can see that there's not a lot of items in the locker, but because of the stickers it still feels nicely filled.

figuring out how to place my stickers on the doors is usually the hardest part. i work with layering things on top of each other and mess around with placement. simple compositions (symmetric, asymmetric, pyramid, diagonal, etc) can really make your locker stand out. i recommend buying many doubles of stickers so you can do things like this:

if you're feeling creative you can also make little drawings or scenes which is really fun !!

here's a bunch of close-ups of lockers i really like that might inspire you as well

some other notable tips that you might not know of:

objects with a part that is very thin can sometimes be hung on the railing of the clothes shelf. (keychains, backpacks, but also headgear like glasses, headphones and headbands)

you can get two of the same shirt if they have a masculine and feminine variation. drop a shirt in your locker, change your avatars body type and then go back in the editor to add the other variation

each brand has their own unique shoe box design, a lot of them look really cool and they're a really nice item to fill up space with

hope this helps !! go forth and have fun making awesome lockers

[hxhhasmysoul]

Can I ask from this ask game : https://www.tumblr.com/toomanyfandomsthings/749729499738996736/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-ill-tell-you?source=share

No. 2, 10, 11, 12, 15 for KilluGon and SukuIta.... Thanks ......🌻

I did it all of those, they looked fun I hope you don't mind.

KilluGon

1. Which one is the better cook?

Canonically neither is a good cook XD But I think Gon can cook some basic stuff even if it’s not amazing and Killua is a spoiled rich boi who just can’t cook at all. In AU I still think Killua just wouldn’t know how to cook most of the time unless he ran away with his sisters and had to step up, maybe he could know how to bake if he stayed with his family. Gon would know at least the basics of cooking, because Mito wouldn’t let him move out if he didn’t. 

2. What do their love letters look like?

Gon is super suave, he has his way with words. He’d quote poetry or movies. He would attach dry flowers to the letters. 

Killua would be awkward, he wouldn’t know what to write, there’d be few words in the letter, He’d use colourful ink though, and cute stickers, especially rare ones, like ones you win in some way.

3. Which one outlives the other, and how do they cope?

I think Gon could live longer because he has a better diet. But if he was old he’d wither slowly once Killua died, it just wouldn’t be the same.

4.What do they do on date night?

That’s Gon’s ballpark, he’d make plans. Each date would be different. Some would be small and intimate, some grand and with many events along the way. Killua would try to plan something sometimes, probably something geeky, Gon would indulge him.

5. How many kids will they have?

In canon? Likely none, they would jump from one adventure to another, there wouldn’t be time for kids. In AU that’d depend on the story. Like in my political clans AU, I imagine them having a kid eventually, though it would be a difficult choice because Gon travels for work in that one. It’d take negotiating and him taking a more stationary job at least when the kid was small. Also In my magical creatures AU they would have kids eventually, they would both be really into it and commit to it. But for example in the Regency AU, or the cyberpunk one I don’t think they would.

6. How do they decorate their bedroom?

Like the rest of their house. Gon has his geeky shit connected to plants and animals, Killua has his geeky shit connected to games. It’s chaos. I’m sure Killua has a Gold Dust Girl bodypillow, they both sleep on it. On their blanket there is a huge frog.

7 Which one is the worse driver?

Killua, the road rage is high with that one.

8. What do they argue about?

The canon stuff, like their self-destructive tendencies, overreliance on each other, etc. They aren’t great communicators and situations that could’ve been talked out escalate to arguments.

9. Which one swears more?

Gon, that’s just canon. Killua doesn’t really seriously swear.

10. What TV shows do they watch together, and which ones do they hide from the other?

They watch all the stuff together, they can be cringe with each other.

11. What was their first impression of each other?

“He’s so cool”, for both of them.

12. What do they do for their anniversary?

Something wild, likely they go on an adventure together.

13. Which one makes a bigger deal of birthdays?

They both make a big deal of birthdays.

14. What nicknames do they call each other?

I’m not really sure, they don’t seem that big on nicknames. When I come up with nicknames for them in AUs it’s tied to the AU and not canon.

15. What would they change about each other?

Their communication skills, their self-destructiveness. Like both of them really are against the other sacrificing himself and yet they just don’t listen.

_____________

SukuIta

1. Which one is the better cook?

Yuuji, unless it’s an AU where Sukuna is a pro chef, then he’s either better or they are equals. 

2. What do their love letters look like?

Sukuna’s look like proper Heian love letters, written on the paper matching the season, containing a well crafted tanka. 

Even if Yuuji writes a tanka back, it’s a bit humorous but likely still has the seasonal word. It’s on Hello Kitty paper because Yuuji knows Sukuna is secretly a Kitty fan.

3. Which one outlives the other, and how do they cope?

Yuuji lives longer because he’s younger. He compartmentalises it, like every loss in his life it just adds to his general sense of misery. 

4. What do they do on date night?

Something kinky. 

5. How many kids will they have?

I feel like none, Sukuna’s the baby kind of… XD

Though in an AU setting they could have kids, it depends.

6. How do they decorate their bedroom?

I feel Sukuna generally has an expensive and snobby taste so he really pushes for a fancy house/apartment. I feel he likes it traditional, or in Modern AU, modern meets traditional. But I think in the bedroom Yuuji managed to get some cute elements, possibly a big Kitty plush, maybe even a Kitty duvet or bed sheets.

7 Which one is the worse driver?

Sukuna, the road rage is high with that one.

8. What do they argue about?

Ideals, their world views are not the same. Where and how they live, Yuuji doesn’t really desire opulence. Sukuna’s better than thou attitude. Yuuji devoting too much time to others. They have a lot to work through. 

9. Which one swears more?

I feel Yuuji more casually but also less harshly. When Sukuna swears it’s like a punch.

10. What TV shows do they watch together, and which ones do they hide from the other?

They watch Yuuji’s horror movies and anime together, and discuss it together. Sukuna doesn’t always manage to win the “this is trash” argument, Yuuji’s good at noticing cool and poignant stuff in pop culture. They don’t watch Jeniffer Lawrence films together, Sukuna gets jealous. Also Sukuna hides that he sometimes watches sappy romance, to criticise it of course but also when Yuuji is aways and Sukuna is lonely.

11. What was their first impression of each other?

Sukuna’s impression of Yuuji: “What a naive fool. Would be an easy to fuck if he didn’t look like he’s needy.” Or to translate it into normal language from repression and denial: “Fuck he’s cute, he fasicnates me, I want him so badly but I’m terrified of commitment.”

Yuuji’s impression of Sukuna: “What a stuck up jerk! Nice ass though, why the fuck do I want him? What is wrong with me?”

12. What do they do for their anniversary?

Something really kinky that takes most of the day/night. There’s also a fancy dinner/breakfast after the kinky stuff. 

13. Which one makes a bigger deal of birthdays?

Yuuji because he wants big parties. 

14. What nicknames do they call each other?

Sukuna’s for Yuuji is obviously “brat”, sometimes something like “sweet/cute brat”.

Yuuji’s for Sukuna, in the beginning it’s likely “pompous/snobby jerk”, later just “Kuna”. 

15. What would they change about each other?

Their respective world view. Sukuna wants to bring Yuuji down to his level. Yuuji just wants Sukuna not to be a menace to society.