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esoteric-chaos · 24 days

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A Lesson on Sympathetic Magic

{My post is cross-posted from The Cobalt Athenaeum aka my original post. You can find the server at the bottom of my pinned post.}

Always take my words with a grain of salt and do your own cross-referencing and research on a subject. Never take my words at face value. Self-study is important.

What is Sympathetic Magic?

“Sympathetic magic, also known as imitative magic, is a type of magic based on imitation or correspondence." - Wikipedia

Another example is

“Sympathetic magic is a magical modality that involves symbolically imitating the desired outcome. It may involve acting on a physical representation of a target or creating a physical representation of the outcome or recreating the desired outcome through motion and art. In this way, the practitioner might cause change at a distance in time or space.” - magickalspot.com

Sympathetic Magic Broken Down

Sympathetic Magic might sound difficult but I promise it is not. Let’s have a bit of a history lesson. Sir James George Frasier first outlined the underlying principles of sympathetic magic in his (1890-1915) book The Golden Bough (Ch 3). He explained that it was based on two basic principles which we now call the Law of Similarity and the Law of Contagion or Contact. There was also a book written by Richard Andree called Sympathy-Enchantment which was written in 1882. The idea of some form of sympathetic magic has existed since prehistory.

There has been talk of Ancient Egyptians using sympathetic magic within their rituals, from use of charms and amulets. We can see examples of sympathetic magic in Kemetic practices, some history is never forgotten.

It goes like this:

Principle - Explanation: Examples

Law of Similarity - “Like produces like”: Uses of a poppet to create a direct link to a target for healing, baneful work and other means

Law of Contagion - Objects or beings/things in contact retain a connection: Using a taglock (hair, nails, body fluids) in a spell to influence the target or as a representation of yourself

Law of Correspondence - Symbolic associations create connections: using for example a pink candle for self-love or a black candle for protection or baneful work. This would follow colour magic for theory

Law of Association - Linking two entities establishes a connection: Placing a photo of an ancestor on an ancestor altar or using a photo as a Taglock for a spell

Sympathetic Magic is the correspondence itself within witchcraft practice. It’s the main driving point behind a spell that uses materials. Without mastering sympathetic magic, your spells may not work as intended and may not have the power behind them that you so wish. Even materials in magic sometimes need a taglock of sorts for a spell to be as effective.

Law of Similarity

The Law of Similarity states that things that resemble each other have a connection on a metaphysical level. Examples include a poppet being used to represent an individual, either yourself or someone else. Its similarity to the target. This is what would drive the spellwork, as it would influence the target as intended. This is the basics of the law, the very base of representations in spellwork.

The Law of Contagion or Contact

The Law of Contagion states that things that were once in contact remain connected after separation and that whatever affects one can still affect the other, and whatever energy was in the original remains in the removed. We see this in taglocks, taglocks that were once connected to a being, living or dead. This can be physical taglocks (hair, nails, body fluids) or even a business card this person once possessed or an item of clothing. Alternatively, if you were out of options a name and birthday or a photograph would work fine. In a pinch, you work with what you have.

Types of Sympathetic Magic

Similarity

That of which resembles something that represents or substitutes an object or thing to do with the working. We can look at alchemy in this sense, we would alchemize an ingredient as a substitute. Pomegranates have been seen as a substitute for blood as t’s connected with life/death, vitality and mortality/immortality. It shows this symbolism through myths throughout different cultures and some folklore (ex. vampires). You can thank our Maven Satan for this fun fact so I can look into it further.

Contact

That of which something came in contact with something that can represent an object, thing or person. Examples include taglocks (hair, nails bodily fluids) or even moon/sun water as its rays have “touched” the water, blessing it a certain way. It can be UPG, SPG or VPG.

Imitation

While being close to similarity, it's not quite the same. It involves the act of creating an imitation object. Things like Poppets are great examples of alchemizing an ingredient for a working. The important thing is that it looks like the thing/person you are creating, however, a close imitation works just as fine (alchemy). Correspondence Correspondences are essentially the idea that something can influence another thing because of its relationship or resemblances to said thing. Let's say for example a correspondence to a deity, Roses are seen as a correspondence to the goddess Aphrodite or Keys for Hekate. You can also have something like Peppermint that represents the planet Mercury, as it rules under such. Correspondences can look like colours, plants, minerals and objects. As long as it represents that thing you are working with, it is a correspondence.

Examples of Sympathetic Magic

Practice - Purpose: Example

Poppet Magic - Healing, cursing, influencing, or representing a person: Constructing a doll-like figure and using it as a focus point to a ritual

Mirror Magic - Reflection, divination, or reversing energy: Using mirrors to channel intentions, amplify energy, reflect energy or for scrying

Material Correspondences - Utilizing plants, minerals and colours for their symbolic associations: Selecting specific herbs or flowers from research for their correspondence to include in a spell or working

Charm or Talisman Creation - Protection, luck, or manifestation: Crafting a personal charm or talisman with an intended purpose like protection or invisibility

Sources

Sympathetic magic. (2024, August 25). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathetic_magic

https://magickalspot.com/sympathetic-magic/ (read this source with a grain of salt as it mentions things like voodoo dolls)

https://plentifulearth.com/sympathetic-magic-power-spells/ (again read this source with a grain of salt as it mentions voodoo dolls and other topics that are a bit of a yikes)

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1019/magic-in-ancient-egypt/

Would you be interested in the rest of my posts? Check out the Masterpost.

#sympathetic magic #law of contact #law of contagion #law of similarity #witchcraft #witch #witchblr #paganism #the cobalt athenaeum #cobalt athenaeum

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elisaintime · 5 months

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The post-episode 3 shift

FRESH POST!

So we were talking about how AMC's Interview with the Vampire Season 1 handles their choice of making Louis a black man in the early 1900s. This is a really cool change the show made in its AU version of IWTV, and it brought in a whole lot of subjects to explore that didn't exist in the books, making the TV show a very different work of art. But all the initial ideas for this show came from a cishet white man, and while he down the line had assistance from poc collaborators, I still think the show had areas where it could have done better with regards to some of the story beats, character arcs, and plot progression. The other thread got unwieldy with multiple reblog trees, but it's here for reference: https://www.tumblr.com/elisaintime/748738811357462528/woah-i-must-have-missed-something-why-are-people You can see everyone else's discussion in the notes.

I love discussions like this! Please talk to me about vampire chronicles! I live for it! I'm posting this now because I am disappointed that a few people seem to not be understanding several things I said. Maybe I said it unclearly, or maybe they're projecting and jumping to conclusions.

Kind of like how this poster does:

I deleted/banned every single comment on my videos that talked negatively about the show making Louis and Claudia black or deriding it for trying to be woke (and there were a bunch!). I delete block and ban all forms of hate speech. My channel is absolutely not a safe space for racists or bigots of any kind.

As you can see in the screencap, there is nothing in these comments that is about the race changes. These comments are talking about other changes the show made from the books and don't touch on race at all. The poster who screencapped them is jumping to the conclusion that these commenters liking the books better than the show automatically makes them racist, and that these are racist comments. And this screencap is specifically what I was referencing at the beginning of the other thread. Several people have said this now, that my YT comments section makes a safe space for racists. But these are not racist comments, and there is no evidence that the commenters are racist. This is projection and assumption. If you DO ever notice a racist comment on any of my videos, that I somehow missed, please bring it to my attention so that I can immediately delete and ban the user from ever commenting on my channel again.

But back to the show itself and my critique of it. I'm always here for talking about vampire-related writing! Let's go!

I still stand by what I said in my videos about the few issues I had with the show's scripts. If you watched my videos or follow all I've said about the show here on tumblr or elsewhere, you'll know how excited about this show I've been from the very beginning, how obsessively into it I am, following every aspect of production and behind the scenes news. You may even be in one of the multiple discord servers with me where we talk about the show constantly. There was much I really enjoyed about season 1, which I was outspoken about in my videos, and people keep seeming to forget. My videos had a greater percentage of positivity in them than negativity. But yes, I did have critiques as well, just like I do with every single piece of vampire media I discuss on my channel--it's the entire point of my channel!--and those mostly had to do with inconsistency in the writing.

What I've said is that the DRIVING FORCE of the plot wasn’t about Louis's struggles with chafing against society as a black man after episode 3, not that there was no more racism. I said he was obviously still immersed in systemic racism all around him, which the show showed us with visual details in the background, despite no one talking about them. This is fine, we don't need it spelled out for us. TV is a visual medium, and that's what the images are there for. But my discussion is about his character MOTIVATIONS on a writing level. His want vs need. His goal vs obstacle. If you're unversed on the techniques of story writing and plot structure, I recommend Blake Snyder's book Save the Cat as a crash course. In ep 1-3, for Louis, it was about being respected as a man equal to others among his society, the citizens of New Orleans, his colleagues and business rivals. Fighting for social opportunities that were limited to him because he is black. That story ends with episode 3 and a new story begins. I’m not saying this is a bad thing. I just said I NOTICED it.

After it all burns down, Louis stops focusing on society respecting him as a human being (which was ironic to begin with, because he’s not human anymore) and his driving plot becomes about making and keeping a family and such. Obviously race is still an element of that in a mixed marriage, but it’s not about his business or social standing anymore, these parts of his life that were SO IMPORTANT to him in the first three episodes. In the books, vampires stop caring about that kind of stuff the second they are made, but the show changed it to take Louis a few years to get there instead of it happening instantly.

Obviously racism doesn't magically disappear or stop mattering once he accepts his vampire nature (which Lestat kind of promises him it will), but it does shift to being a background element for what we see on screen. He is not focused on it anymore, when it used to be the primary driving force of his plot. We hardly even get to see Louis interact with (racist) society again til the finale (and I made this observation on episode 5, which the end-of-episode credits told us was written by a white person). For example, the police that come to their door are bigoted to him and Lestat because they’re gay, but meanwhile, they act completely colorblind. At this point, Louis’s character motivations are about fear of them being caught for murder, and his emotions regarding how Claudia is struggling with her eternal child body and lashing out--about keeping his family together. Not about his racial struggles as a businessman and citizen in outward society.

Yes, we all know there were non-white people in the writer’s room (thank god! Can you imagine?? If there weren’t any, we’d all have been raging from the very beginning! Did you read RJ’s episode 1 script draft before it got revised with the input of black/queer/female editors? OOF), but the choice to completely shift Louis’s driving character motivations away from his impassioned societal race struggle to something different after 3 episodes was part of the original season outline made by white people before any poc were brought on to the team.

And again, I didn’t say it was a bad thing, it was just something I NOTICED, and the way the show executed it felt very abrupt and clunky. Did I want the cops to not be colorblind and get in some racial digs and microaggressions while they were at Louis’s house? Ew no. But I did NOTICE that they didn’t do that, and how it was so different from the way Louis was spoken to by white people in the first 3 episodes. Did the white writer of this episode perhaps feel uncomfortable going there?

The season told two different stories for Louis, with an abrupt turn in the arc after episode 3. It didn’t feel like an arc at all, but a sharp angle. Starting with Claudia, Louis’s primary drives and character motivations completely change. He no longer wants to be an important businessman respected in society, he becomes “the housewife,” and never once seems to miss his desperately-fought-for social status at all. This comes back to what I said about the show being weakened by trying to shove in too much book stuff. Ep1-3 were all these cool new original ideas from the show with Louis having entirely new character motivations based on the show's changes to his background. They were naturally driven by what him being black in 1910 now meant. But after that story was done, it abruptly shifts back to more of how he in in the books, and trying to suddenly pull him back to his book personality/motivations/goals after giving us this whole new organically-evolved self in 1-3 was notable. I noticed it.

All in all, I think it probably would have worked much better on a writing level if it was treated as two separate mini seasons instead of presenting itself as an attempt at one coherent whole.

#amc interview with the vampire #vampire chronicles #maven of the eventide

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screen-universe-official-thingie · 2 months

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Plague Doctor Cindy!

Hi, I drew this concept art sheet thing shortly after drawing the Butcher!Aurora art and I took a break after that. Sorry I didn't post this one immediately.

Edit: Some close ups and extra commentary have been added

Rambling below (TW: medical subject matter like diseases and surgery, death, delusions, and cannibalism)

Meta wise, she started out as a mad scientist for the sake of being a mad scientist by listening to Novocaine by Cree-P and GHOST, and Black Box Warrior-OKULTRA by Will Wood. I just imagined Cinderella going too hard or harsh on Lady Tremaine, her patient/ser-worker/co-star, with her research, experiments, and surgeries out of frustration, stress, and madness. Hell, I would not be surprised if she tried lobotomy at some point during her side jig/job as a doctor.

But ever since I listened to Butcher Vanity by Vane and Flavour Foley, Cinderella later grew to be more than just a plain old mad doctor as I revisited her Screen Universe para concept and explore what her deal is. From why exactly did she fall into this path, to her relationships with the characters related or relevant to her story. She became another tragic character. This time, someone who developed an obsession with finding a cure for the prions after it "ate up" her once villain co-worker friend with in-character or canon compliant delusions.

Some close ups

The other state was meant to say production as well, but I'm too lazy to fix the typo now

Cindy with the Bok-su pose is slightly cursed ngl, but it keeps living in my head rent free. The fact that they're both doctors doesn't make it any better ToT

Eldritch Cinderelly (the note says healthy because their true forms's color and brightness changes if they get certain health conditions. In this one, she should have been a bit dimmer and grayer due to the Discontinuation Rot)

Herbs and spices stuffed in the beak like a true plague doctor. Though, Cindy does this for different reasons. Instead of the original reasoning where the herbs will ward off the plague, she does this to replace the smell of burning and rotting flesh with as much fragrance as possible. It also puts her at ease

Stolen Ideas Inspo :>

How it'd look like under her apron/dress thing

Goggles stuff for eye protection

Eyes. Eye eyeballed (eh? eh?) her eye color because I can not find a good proper close up of her face and eyes in the official material and the coloring in the og movie looks a bit inconsistent at times.

Screen shots from the ID server itself again of course

OKULTRA cranking up the mad doctor inspiration (ft. Novocaine starting the whole thing prior to listing to OKULTRA)

I think this one is still pre-butcher vanity arc

meme

Typical Disney para behaviour

more Cinderella angst lore because yes

A shit ton of other paras have not so healthy relationships with their characters at this point. They include, but not limited to some Pokemon characters, and SpongeBob.

Health anxiety go brrrr

This is from when Butcher Vanity arc or obsession hit around. It expanded her lore and everything. It was a game changer for this specific para tbh. I think this is about four months after posting the past Cindy rambles shown in the previous screenshots

Ok, this one is from an ID adjacent server, but I feel like this is still a bit relevant to the whole thing

(Also from the ID adjacent server) Ok, this one is kinda complicated since I mentioned another para who had something to do with a different Disney centered subplot that somehow affected the plot and lore of the entire paracosm. Basically, Snow White helped one of her ser-workers to found a cult and... everything went downhill and batshit insane from there. Ruined or fucked over the entire government and all... you may either dig through my casual account for the answer or ask through the Screen Universe blog about it.

Bonus: A joke relevant to the whole Cinderella x Sleeping Beauty ft. prion plague debacle arc/subplot (I found this god damn image from Pinterest and I captioned it as "Cinderella and Aurora")

TLDR: 1950 Disney princess becomes a mad plague doctor, grows into another tragic para, becomes vegan as a trauma response, loses her villain patient to the plague's delusions, goes off into a deep end after burning said patient, despises cannibals, and turns into their world's equivalent to a veteran in a "has seen the origins of modern day problems and the horrors of war" way but the war is the plague from the distant past.

#screen universe #immersive daydreaming #art #paracosm #daydreaming #digital art #disney princess #cinderella #plague doctor time

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isolaradiale · 5 months

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POLICY UPDATE (04/27/24)

Hello everyone!

It's that time again! Time for a P O L I C Y U P D A T E or "MFRP PATCH NOTES" if you'd prefer! We have a few things to touch on this time including some policy changes, reminders, and even a new tag!

CHANGES

Starting on a positive note: we've recently made some changes to our Discord server to reduce the clutter and take advantage of the recently added forum channels. If you haven't dropped in yet now might be a good time! You can find a link to it here!

Going forward there will no longer be a rank requirement for a character to have internet access! This was a carryover system from the previous group but we have decided this stipulation is pretty unnecessary so every character will have proper internet access upon acceptance.

We've moved links to past policy updates onto their own page instead of listing all of them on the "important links" page. Only the most recent policy update will be featured alongside a link to this page on important links going forward!

REMINDERS

At the end of last month we made a post about communicating within the group. If you haven't read it yet please make sure you do! You can find it here!

If you are writing a muse that is under 18 years of age please do not engage with any dash commentary or replies on these characters that are adult in nature! While we understand that all of our members are adults we still expect that characters that are canonically minors to steer clear from these subjects because engaging in them may make others uncomfortable. Minor characters are explicitly forbidden from engaging with any form of sexual or suggestive content in any form, whether it be as simple as commenting on it.

For those that wish to reserve newly released gacha characters we'd like to reiterate the policy we've had for some time now. These characters cannot be reserved or applied until a full week has passed since their release! So if they were released at any time between 12:00am and 11:59:59pm EST on the 1st of the month they cannot be reserved or applied until 12:00am EST on the 9th! We do this so that there is a one time fits all policy, as different games release characters at different times. There was an inconsistency with this on the rules page but we've gone and corrected it!

When ranking up your character to Subgiant or Giant we request a certain number of interactions with "individuals". We'd like to clarify that these individuals refer to different characters and not different muns. However when submitting your rank up requests please keep in mind that we won't be accepting using more than three characters from the same mun going forward.

NEW

Going forward you must have your character's canon age listed either on the application itself or your stats page to be accepted. We understand that in many cases canon ages aren't given for characters but we ask that you make your best guess. If we feel that you may be over or underrepresenting their age we may ask you to change it! In the case of immortal or unaging characters please list their physical age (ie how old they look) along with their chronological age.

We also ask that all existing members make sure to include their character's ages on their blogs somewhere to coincide with the change above! There's no rush to do this immediately but we may start reaching out if we notice accounts without it in a few months!

To keep things a little more organized we'd like to add a new tag! Going forward if you'd like to post a permanent plotter call, or if you'd like to search for one to like, please use the "#isola perm call" tag! We hope this makes it easier to find these posts so that they're easier to utilize!

-- the island stars.

#policy update #modnote

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csmingy · 7 months

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Hi, I was notified about some asks about me on this blog concerning feral porn, and I wanted just to send in a post to clear things up since I do not want to be associated with anything feral-related. The art for my dragon!AU was never in any way or form intended to be feral art. The pieces for both AUs were made with the "Harkness test" in mind, They're both presented as sentient human beings that can shapeshift (same for my werewolf AU).

I was unaware that some of my art was perceived as feral, and I am/was extremely uncomfortable when I found out it was perceived that way, I removed those pieces a while ago and believe they are no longer on my blog. I cannot control if they have been reuploaded on third-party sites, but to my knowledge, I have removed all of them and those i have access to.

I apologize for any discomfort my past work may have caused, and I want to clarify that creating art that could be deemed feral was NEVER my intention.

On the other point of contention, I also have in the past talked about the defending of the writer, but I can only share my part and reasoning of the story since another closed species owner was involved,whom I am no longer in contact with and wish to not be associated with, hope you can understand.

Unlike how other people might have reacted I very much needed a second to come to terms with the fact that somebody i deemed a good friend created some fucked up content I wasn't aware of. it's admittedly very hard for me to deal with situations like this since I put a lot of time and effort into my online friendships and sadly I get VERY over-attached and care too excessively for people I deem friends and or users in my server,, EVEN if they don't have my best interest in mind, so finding out about stuff like this doesn't equal turning off a simple light switch for me, this is very much one of my flaws. After I had time to process and had time to talk with my mods and make them aware of the situation, the person in question has been blocked, banned and removed.

I am not seeking approval or forgiveness from others; you are welcome to make your judgment and form your own opinion of me. I strongly disapprove of feral art and regret making others uncomfortable with my past work, this was and has never my intention.

thank you for this, it was very well worded. we were unaware of any old apologies or conversations about this so we are glad to hear directly from you

following this post we will no longer be answering asks about this subject! we do believe that people can change, so out of respect for that and this apology, we hope y’all understand !🍋

#fenokey #csvent #cs #vent #closed species #csmingy

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starmonsterrr · 1 year

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Introducing: Undertale self-insert #102480124 • (Update 2.2 - Star Form redesign!)

HELLO PEOPLE

I may have disappeared for a maybe long while

And that is because of 3 reasons:

Ink appreciation server

running @ink-selfship-shenanigans (surprise surprise it's me)

And school just started a week ago (which is more recent but i guess that may have added)

Except there is a 4th one and that is,,,,,,, I MAY have been working on a little Undertale AU,,,,, and then made an OC out of it,,,,

The AU will get it's own post and i'll reveal as much info as needed at the moment to explain who even is this new character that will be one of my faces on this blog (because i'm gonna have 2 OCs representing me. yeah- second one's design is still W.I.P (nevermind this is future me i finished the design but i might make a separate post for it))

And HERE IT COMES

(NOTE: RELY ON DOPPELGANGER FORM REF'S SOUL REF INSTEAD OF THE STAR FORM'S. ALSO THE STAR FORM DESIGN REWORK IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS)

A FURRY. What's cringier (affectionate /gen) than an Undertale self-insert in mid 2023? A FURRY Undertale self-insert that can shapeshift (WOW OP WHAT A MARY SUE) and exists for SELFSHIPPING

YEAH

THAT'S IT

TH- THAT'S THE CREATURE

And speaking of selfshipping if you scroll in my blog for a bit you might notice that i very much like Ink

and also reminder that I run a blog that has the purpose of feeding Ink simps

So uh I think you get what i'm trying to say

It might take me a little while (or until i get asks about it) for me to open up about the selfship shenanigans, but meanwhile, here are some bits of explanations and stuff!

which AU is this menace from?

OuterRenaissance. It's still being fleshed out (asks would help a lot), and I plan to later on make an outcode expanded version, and even have some basic stuff for that version. But in simple words it's Outertale but in addition of the space themes, i added themes of the Renaissance historical period, as it brought great advances to science; including astronomy!

what the flop is a star-born monster????

I have a post explaining exactly this!

(also, Io can shapeshift out of this appearance because shapeshifting powers)

Backstory???

Its AU died (destroyed by Error), and it almost did too, but i possessed it and fused my soul over time with its own using my creator powers and it is now technically a walking corpse puppeteered by me so I can interact with the UTMV, while also forcing it to change its form into the Doppelganger form; giving it the ability to, well, shapeshift. Also ink snas selfship shenanigans i haven't properly written yet (yooo two walking corpses that love eachother!!!!!1!!!1). that's the fewest words i can put it in

IS THAT A 'THE STARRY NIGHT' REFERENCE???

Yes. Yes it is. and fun fact: the ship between Io and Ink is named exactly that. The Starry Night. how clever of me, i should get a prize

Does it have a personality?

Yup. I just don't know how to describe personalities, but here's an attempt at that.

Io is a passionate artist, but struggles with some degree of perfectionism driven by the pride of its art skills which are, by far, its best ability. It also tends to be (sometimes dangerously) kind-hearted at others. It might act one of two ways in social spaces: kind of awkward, not talking much, OR ABSOLUTE MENACE as in SUPER SILLY. No in-between.

Also, it is a quick learner, and could be considered quite intelligent. Thing is ... It carried over speech from the Renaissance time period and is still adapting to modern words. A bit of an overthinker too, which can lead to communication issues, and tends to plan elaborate strategies to perform the simplest of things...sometimes not even following them.

Pronouns/gender identity?

Io, like me, goes by it/its pronouns and identifies as non-binary! (Subject to change as I occasionally explore my gender identity)

And here's some trivia to finish this off!

Io, due to being puppeteered by me; a Creator, also has the powers of one, but either doesn't use the powers at all or uses them in subtle ways to try and steer things to its/my favour. It may sometimes disguise it as "art magic" shown in these doodles i made a bit ago:

also. autism. i'm autistic and because i take control of this critter i'm dragging it into the spectrum.

And I think that's everything that comes to mind right now! Thank you for listening to this bunch of rambling that i did not beta read prior to posting.

#cringe warning: undertale (multiverse) self insert made for self-shipping and also potentially a mary sue #Also reminder that the block button exists #i don't care about cringe anymore #just wanna have fun #corv rambles about lore #corv's OCs #one mention of OuterRenaissance so like #because it's like one or two mentions i'm not really tagging it as an Undertale AU #undertale au #i lied #Corv's OuterRenaissance mentions #Corv's OuterRenaissance #undertale au oc #undertale oc #utmv oc #original character #oc

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outlawcare · 1 year

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Minecraft's New Usage Guidelines Are Extremely Stupid And Dangerous, And Here's Why

Hello everyone, and welcome to a section by section breakdown of Minecraft's new usage guidelines. I do not have an education related to law or legal terminology, but I know enough to know that these usage guidelines are stupid, and downright dangerous when you get down to it.

Let's get started, shall we?

(Long post under cut)

Purpose

This section does not have many issues on its own, I'm mostly providing it for context. But, I do think that it is ridiculous that they count 'any names which are confusingly similar to our name' as part of 'their name'.

And pay attention to the assets section. That'll be important later.

Target Audience

So. I don't think banning non profits from hosting events to raise awareness using your game as a medium is a great idea. Everything else I can get, but the non profit clause strikes me as weird.

Also, this would likely apply to projects like The Uncensored Library, a project created as a collaboration between Blockworks and Reporters Without Borders. Anti-censorship is an 'agenda unrelated to Minecraft', and both of the organizations involved would fall under the groups they say cannot use Minecraft to promote an agenda.

While I understand that Minecraft likely wouldn't go after The Uncensored Library, it is discomfiting that this section appears to say that Minecraft cannot be used as a platform to promote awareness and change, at least by non-individuals.

Legal Agreements

It's good that these guidelines do not form part of the legal policies. However, I do not like the last sentence, as it implies that if they decide it is not a 'good idea' they will not 'allow leniency with respect to how you use Minecraft.'

Subject To Change

While it is common practice to have the guidelines be subject to change, most services will inform you when they change. Minecraft does not appear to be planning to do that. Also, it is unbelievably tone deaf for them to count any part of this document as having 'good intentions' with what we'll get into later.

All Uses

"If we don't like what you are doing." That is quite possibly the most concerning sentence in this entire document. That leaves them so much room to get rid of anything that they 'don't like'. What if they decide they don't like The Uncensored Library? Or if they dislike a particular content creator, so they revoke their ability to monetize content based in the game? It is also a ridiculously unprofessional statement.

Also, "feel free to make requests"? This is just asking for people to attempt to put hateful guidelines in this document. As we'll discuss later, some of the guidelines already provide a platform for hate.

Essential Guidelines

This is just a summary, but I'll use it to talk about some of the issues.

"Do not be obscene." This applies even if you are on a private server, as far as I can tell. Policing what users do on private servers is again, ridiculous. If they are on a private server and using swear words or making obscene builds, they have in fact consented to see that content. You should not censor what users are doing privately.

They don't want you to include gambling or violence. What does this mean for PVP? For chance based games on servers? This cannot end well.

The disclaimer. I get that they are trying to cover their legal bases, but I honestly think that this is stupid. The people that use it aren't the ones who Mojang are worried about, and the people that won't use it, won't use it.

I'll talk more about the other issues in the sections specific to them, but trust me, it gets worse.

"We are trying to be open, honest, and most importantly, trusting."

I don't feel very trusted right now, what with the insane restrictions, Mojang/Microsoft.

Naming Guidelines

Great to know that no one can name their videos things like "Minecraft- How to find netherite" anymore.

Also, "don't use any other aspects of any of our brand or assets as part of any related branding, including as a logo or part of a logo."

So, no one can use any Minecraft assets in their channel icons, anymore. Remember how the assets include stuff like all the blocks? Heck, they would probably count DanTDM's old logo as disallowed under this policy.

Also, it's again, horribly unprofessional to use "(we're cool with this)" and "(we're not cool with this)"

This is supposed to be a guideline for how to use their brand, assets, and name in an 'acceptable' way. They tell you to contact a lawyer if you're unsure about what the guidelines mean. I'm pretty sure most lawyers would laugh their ass off at the wording in this.

Personal Use

That's not what commercial means. For something to be commercial, it quite literally has to have the intent of making money.

So if someone has a Tumblr blog, devoted to talking about Minecraft, that they do not make money off or intend to make money off, is counted as a 'commercial thing'. Again, very unprofessional wording there.

So, let's take a look at those commercial guidelines.

Commercial Use

The commercial use section has multiple subheadings, and as such we'll go over them one at a time, starting with the first section.

Again, commercial does not mean any content that you publicly share. Commercial means something created and shared with the purpose of making money. Content shared for free, with no intention of making money, does not qualify as commercial use.

But they are counting it as such.

Let's start in on these guidelines.

In General & Domain Names And Websites

(I combined these two because the first is so short.)

In General just says not to break any laws, which is totally fine.

Now, let's look at that domain name stuff.

"Your website only relates to the Minecraft game." So, if I mention a third party game at all, even in passing, I'm in violation of this. Cool.

"Any third party advertising does not harm our brand." You haven't defined what that means. Also, what the heck is someone meant to do if they run the website through a service that puts ads on websites run through it? Or, if they post a video related to Minecraft, that advertises for a third party brand that you would consider 'harmful to our brand'? Is it on the website owner to make sure that every little thing they post perfectly aligns with what you consider acceptable for the brand?

Constructed Promotions

Oh, so individuals aren't allowed to promote charitable causes either, I guess. Or events.

Unless, of course, they gain written approval from Mojang or Microsoft.

Just think about that. You'd need written approval to build something referencing a specific charity, and post it on Reddit. You'd need written approval to make a skin that had the Make A Wish logo. You'd need written approval to build a Minecraft version of Tesco on stream.

Oh, and let's not forget, you would need written approval to post a build of anything from a movie, TV show, or video game.

Because they define anything shared publicly as being under commercial use, that means that you can't build and post a pixel art of your favorite anime character. That's not allowed. You need written approval.

You can't build the Upside Down from Stranger Things, and post it to Youtube. That's not allowed. You need written approval.

You can't build a tribute to Peewee Herman, whose actor Paul Reubens recently died, and post it here on Tumblr. That's not allowed. You need written approval.

This may be the stupidest part of these whole guidelines.

Videos, Streams, and Screenshots

Are they seriously saying that you're not allowed to monetize content that doesn't have voice over? As fireb0rn said in his video on this subject, "What about speedruns?"

The first few viral Minecraft videos didn't have commentary. And they want to make it so you can't monetize the type of videos that built this community.

Also, apparently you're not allowed to charge money for Minecraft events using big screens to showcase gameplay, or anything displaying gameplay in public. Neat. What about conventions? (Oh don't worry, we'll talk about conventions later.)

"Sponsors and any callouts must be suitable for children and minors." There are multiple groups in the US, where Minecraft and Microsoft are based, that think that transgender people's existence isn't suitable for children. Hell, there are people who think that gay people's existence isn't suitable for children. This rule could be used to push queer content creators out of the game very, very easily.

Even discounting that, can a streamer take a sponsorship for a first person shooter game? Remember, they don't want you to include 'violence' in anything relating to their brand. Can a Youtuber take a sponsorship for a self-help product? Would that count as unsuitable for children, because it discusses mental health? Where is the line?

It seems like they're going to go after anyone who's put Minecraft content on subscription services. So, people like Aphmau may be in trouble. Twitch creators who put content about Minecraft behind a subscription will be in trouble. This honestly feels like a great way to drive away some of the most popular creators currently involved in the Minecraft community, but I guess Microsoft hasn't been thinking about that.

Live In-Game Events

So, how are y'all planning to shut down live events taking place on private servers, that are being streamed? Is it terminating people's accounts? I have a feeling it's terminating people's accounts.

Also, great to know that all the constructed promotions bullshit applies here, too.

In-Person Events

Oh boy, this one is a doozie.

Let's start with the fact that they are functionally banning conventions, unless of course you have an official partnership with Microsoft.

Heads-up, banning conventions will not help grow the community, Microsoft. It'll do the opposite.

Also, these guidelines are...interesting.

The 150 people limit means that a standard elementary school couldn't host an all grades (Ages 6 through 12) party themed around Minecraft, without entering into an official partnership with Microsoft. You see why that's insane, right?

And again, you can't use any assets on marketing materials. That includes all blocks and mobs.

This is insane. They say that this is to keep community gatherings from 'becoming commercialized'.

It seems likelier to me that this is to make sure that if an event is going to be 'commercialized', to turn a profit, a significant amount of that profit will go directly to Microsoft, through their partnership program. That's why they're requiring it. Not out of some 'good of their hearts' instinct to protect the community from big, bad advertisers.

Music and Audio

Yeah, pretty sure this means you can only use royalty free music. Which is fine, but I have one question:

Does this apply to note blocks?

Would I not be allowed to create note block songs, unless I obtained proper copyright permission.

I know that under copyright law, I would be allowed to under fair use, as it's transformative, but-

Does Microsoft agree?

Servers and Hosting

Great, there goes half of the popular servers.

Because loot boxes count as gambling.

Say bye to any server that uses them.

Seriously, what does the violence rule mean? Is PVP allowed or not?

How is someone supposed to make sure pirated accounts don't access their server?

I'm pretty sure that under these rules, you're not allowed to run subscription tiers on your servers, as that would qualify as 'charging different amounts'. And I know that some popular servers do that.

And you're not allowed to have "Explicit lyrics, or other unsafe/mature content." Basically, everything has to be perfectly child friendly. And we've already discussed why I don't like that.

And what the hell do they mean by "unsafe/mature content."? What counts as 'mature'? Does saying 'hell' count? Does mentioning depression? Does saying that you're gay? Is it anything that the strictest parent would object to? I know teenagers who aren't allowed to watch a video that even mildly references anything mildly objectionable. Like references to partying. These guidelines need better definitions, if they want anyone to take it seriously.

"In short, don't do evil things to players and you'll be fine." This is wildly unprofessional and vague.

Extended Functionality and Modifications

Mmm.

So, if I use part of their mob AI code in my mod, to make it a bit easier to code my own original mob, does that violate this? What do they count as substantial?

Also, they can just decide that something 'doesn't count as a mod' and take it offline or sue the creator.

And while this is overall reasonable (I don't want people locking skins behind NFTs either!), I don't think that restricting modding is the solution they need here. I especially don't think that they should have the authority to say what is a mod and what isn't.

Books and Other Publications

Again with not using any 'assets' anywhere. Seriously, this is unreasonable. That includes every block and mob.

And of course, you're not allowed to use the word Minecraft unless it's a 'secondary title'. And it can't be in the official font. Yay.

Oh, and you must include 'enough of your own unique content'. What does that mean? Their examples leave something to be desired. Does a book explaining Redstone count as 'unique content'? Oh, and would this apply to fan-run magazines? I don't know if we currently have any going, but I want to know.

"(we're not cool with that)" great to know that I'm no longer allowed to sell any merch using your assets.

Well, any printed merch.

Oh wait.

Hand-Crafted Products

Great to know that we're not allowed to sell anything using any of the assets, unless it's subtle. Lovely that all of those great stickers of stylized diamond blocks aren't allowed anymore.

Oh, and we can't sell remixes of Minecraft sounds or music now. Or monetize it at all, in all likelihood.

Oh and let's not forget.

You're not allowed to sell more than twenty pieces of merch of any specific design.

What the fuck.

Seriously? They're restricting how much of your own damn product you can sell?

You can't make more than 5000$ off it, either.

This is going to ruin lives.

That is not hyperbole.

There are vendors who make the majority of their money off of Minecraft related merch and designs. This is going to cause so many problems on the convention scene, not even bringing into account the aforementioned ruining lives.

In Summary

This will be my summary, as well.

These guidelines do not help me understand what you do and do not want people to do.

They are overly vague in some sections, and overly restrictive in others.

These guidelines are pushing to make anything even remotely related to Minecraft entirely child friendly.

These guidelines are ripe for abuse.

Some people don't consider trans people 'child friendly'. Some people don't consider opposing views 'child friendly'.

You are taking away people's livelihoods.

And for what?

To try to prevent the game from being commercialized?

Newsflash, you're the top-selling game world wide.

You're already commercialized.

These guidelines are idiotic, and actively hinder the community that has been built around Minecraft.

If you don't backtrack, and quick, you are going to lose content creators.

You are going to lose players.

You are going to lose the community.

To my fellow players, spread this.

Make sure that Microsoft knows that we won't stand for this.

We cannot let them set a precedent of companies policing what type of content is made about their game, down to how much merch you can sell.

Down to if you can swear or not.

Down to making sure that you, as a person, player, consumer, are completely and perfectly child-friendly.

This is censorship, clear and simple.

Feel free to add to this post, and correct me if I got anything wrong here.

But most of all,

Feel free to tell Microsoft, Mojang, Minecraft

That We Will Not Be Censored

That

Minecraft Players Will Not Be Censored

#minecraft #minecraft usage guidelines #mineblr #this took over two hours to write up #i have a lot of opinions about these godawful guidelines #make sure to let microsoft know that we won't stand for this #minecraft players will not be censored #i got kinda poetic at the end there #i just really REALLY hate censorship of any form

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ironstakes · 1 year

Text

YCTiB Moon Big and how the Hermits ended up in Naruto + wth is up with Kaguya. Also, plants.

Once again, this is for my hermitcraft x naruto crossover fanfic You Can’t Take it Back. This is, obviously, HUGE spoilers of the current fic and subject to change. Anyway, onwards, the ramble is a long one. So, as the first part of the title says, let’s start with MoonBig:

I’ve decided that there was a catastrophic server failure. After the moon crashed things were bad. One by one the hermits died off, alone or in small groups, except Xisuma who couldn’t die. A lot of the hermit’s deaths were unpleasant and as the admin, Xisuma felt echoes of all of them dying and losing their connections to his world and how their souls were drifting, waiting for him to make a new world as they were still tied to him and the season 8 world too. Between moon big and how he’d been under Evil X’s control all season, Xisuma’s not exactly at his best. I made a different post that mentioned server stability and Mumbo’s role as ‘CEO of the server’ before and I like the idea of Xisuma being in an admin-related unstable state right out of the season 8 gate. Regardless, Xisuma is stuck with a faulty connection to a dying world where his hermits are suffering and he can’t do a thing.

Instead of creating a new typical minecraft world like normal he instead makes a smaller, finite world and because of the moon ordeal of season 8, creates it without a moon. The world is ‘modded’ and it’s easiest to farm and harvest plants for exp and to get resources in this world. In theme, a special tree grew at spawn and over time it would be overshadowed by the growth around it.

After guiding the hermits’ souls to the new forming world and waiting a bit Xisuma started to build a thing. It wasn’t really anything specific but it had a lot of rooms, some dedicated to the things they’d never get to complete in the season cut short, and after a while he stopped moving and stood, afk, and wouldn’t move for millions of years.

Time passes and eventually this world becomes recognizable as the Sage of the Six path’s era. A young pale princess named Kaguya who yearns for peace hunts down the god tree (unbeknownst to her, the spawn tree) and eats a chakra fruit to gain supernatural power, intending to use her abilities for peace and to be a just ruler.

At some point she stumbles into a ravine, perhaps subconsciously drawn to the root of her power. Deep below ground, buried beneath sediments settling atop it for longer than humans have existed in this world, is the thing Xisuma built. She wanders the rooms and finds him AFK but believes him to be a statue. She moves to wipe away some of the grime on Xisuma when she notices some color beneath the debris but the chakra she had from the spawn tree reacted with Xisuma, a player and the world’s admin. She saw snippets of things about Xisuma as her main powers were eye based, including the moon crash, a respawn, the impression of afk as a sort of stasis, and a primordial version of her world and she incorrectly deduced that Xisuma had destroyed the world with the moon in the past before creating the building as a temple of some kind and falling into a slumber.

Now throughly terrified of a creature that was certainly not human and had ended the world before she flees, and slowly she begins to accumulate more and more power, haunted by what she’d seen and determined to prevent another apocalypse by any means necessary. Her measures seem extreme to everyone and she begins to turn crueler as people turn their backs on her and lose trust in her, but no matter what she implies or says no one believes her about a slumbering god that could end them all. Realizing that she’d have to stand on her own against Xisuma should he ever awaken she strives to cast aside her humanity and become a god herself since it was the only thing she could possibly do to combat him without help.

This leads to her lust for power and the ends justify the means ideals that give rise to her zetsu army, however her sons never learn that she was driven by fear, not greed. They fight her ‘corruption’ and seal her away, making a moon much to her horror- she then believes that Xisuma influenced them to do so and is preparing for another armageddon; he had corrupted her sons behind her back somehow, making her mourn that they’d been turned against humanity but as a ruler she understands sacrifice. She is determined to stop them by any means necessary even if they are her sons because the entire world isn’t worth ten thousand lives, never mind two.

Xisuma meanwhile has no idea any of this has happened and is anxiously waiting for his hermits to be reunited (as they won’t ‘spawn’ in until certain conditions are right). He’s long overdue for some hugs, they’re long overdue for some bodies, and they all need to recover from Moon Big.

When he finally feel’s Scar’s soul tugging some hundreds of years later he stepped out of his crumbling build and was pretty upset to discover that the world formed a moon anyway.

Phew, finally done with this segment! I tried to keep as many elements as I could from the canon Naruto Kaguya storyline and tried to make them cohesive, like adding reason for Kaguya to go from kind to cruel as she had canonically and added an explanation that actually makes sense as to why she interacts as she does with her sons. Like, if she hated them for ‘stealing’ her power why would she get so teary in the final battle when Naruto and Sasuke reminded her of them? That didn’t make sense to me… same with her power lust conflicting with her supposed desires for peace. If she wanted to protect earth from the beginning, which was her reason for eating the chakra fruit, then why was she ‘kind’ at first with a milder approach? The reasoning for her temperament shift never checked out as the level of danger she was aware of never changed; nothing really prompted that huge shift in her as far as I’m aware. I mean, she is an alien in canon, she knows what her kind are capable of from the start so why the back and forth? Plus adding Moon Big and Xisuma purposefully making a moonless world explains why there wasn’t a moon initially as in Naruto canon the Sage of Six Paths creates it when he seals Kaguya away. I thought that lined up so neatly!

Plus the naruto world being a plant based modded world explains the importance and power of plant based things in Naruto canon (wood release, the god tree, etc.) as well as the hermit’s obsession with plants… there are no exp grinders or deep mines that reach to nonexistent bedrock, no villager trading or iron farms: everything is plant based, hence their focus.

So yeah Kakashi’s going to have A Time. Seriously, how the hell is he supposed to piece this story together?

I guess the plants will continue to whisper to him ominously for a while yet.

#Thoughtful rambles #Hermitcraftxnaruto #hcxnaruto #crossover #Naruto #hermitcraft #Yctib #fanfiction #Xisuma #kaguya otsutsuki #what a combo #I’m actually really proud of how I slotted this all together #I don’t mention it above but the pre sage moonless planet in naruto canon really bothers me

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problematicfactive · 1 year

Note

wow that's fucking disturbing, hope you're taking care of yourself today as a treat after that /g

Thank you!

Host is going over his lines but the stress is making us tic :(

It's a pretty common occurrence but it still gets me pretty badly every time.

On the note, I want to talk about manipulative source hate,

This came in immediately after I was banned.

Actually, let me clarify.

This person said this in MY own discord after I was banned from revenge.

I'd like to break it apart and explain why this kind of behavior isn't okay. You think you're being genuine, you're actually being an asshole.

"I kind of understand where they're coming from"

It is okay to have your own opinions, however, this person did nothing but make assumptions on how I live my life and my connection to source. They understand the other side because they were willing to hear out that sides "reasoning" for banning me (which can be seen in my last post) but they weren't willing to hear out how I live my own life. I have said it before and I always will say that hatred for problematic factives comes from ignorance on the subject. The idea we can just "get help" when in reality, this is the way our brain manifests "help." I am the help.

Also. That one person said "kys" -- this person is1 they understand where someone who wants me to commit suicide literally just because I exist "is coming from"

It IS okay to have your own opinions. But when a person is talking about how they got banned for being alive, maybe don't speak on your negative opinions of them in the moment. If you really want them to know how you feel, maybe give them time to calm down just a little? Dm them later and ask if it's okay to ask questions

This blog is primarily to educate. If you have any form of questions feel free to ask. If someone is asking you questions you feel I can answer, feel free to direct them to me.

"I don't want to see your icon, it makes me uncomfortable."

Being made uncomfortable by something is totally valid. Watching people eat makes me super uncomfortable. I'm not going to go to people who make eating content and try to manipulate them into feeling bad for EATING. Yesterday I had a different icon. It was the guy who played me but out of character. I hated it. It made ME uncomfortable and I felt like I was lying to myself. Deciding to change it to something that felt right was hard for me, but it was the decision I made. It means a lot to me and nothing to others. Just don't talk in the channels (need I remind, in MY server) where I'm talking? We have so many channels so you can avoid people that make you uncomfortable, its in the rules.

This person is focused on letting me know about their feelings, but they not once stopped to ask me about mine. That leads me into the next bit

"I know you deal with a lot of hate, but it isn't about you."

This is want I call "fake sympathy" "I know you deal with hate" is this person's way of pretending to have cared for my feelings and to justify only worrying about their own feelings throughout all of this. They don't mention how receiving this daily hate must hurt me or even how hard that must be on my health, they say "It isn't about you" (and give no further indication to whom this is about because at the end of the day, this is, in fact, about me. I'm the one who goes to bed every night hated by the internet and wakes up hated by the internet. I'm the one who can't be accepted in public places, I'm the one who people genuinely want to kill themself because of who I was sourced from. That's about me.) its simultaneously the most manipulative excuse I have EVER seen, and the poorest attempt at manipulation I've ever seen. "This isn't about you" because they are making it all about them. Again, literally just because I am alive.

"You need to show you aren't your source. Change your icon or your name."

First off, telling me what to do without me asking for anything of the sort. I've done both of these things. For a period of time, my display name was that of a creepypasta, and as I had already told that person, I also go by anxiety. Having my sourcename is not illegal, but when I didn't, I was still recognized and banned from servers in situations literally just like this one. Changing my name is doing nothing but lying to myself about my identity. Even though I am very very not connected to source, my name and appearance are the most important parts of myself to me. I've already spoken on my icon.

"Ill go. I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable but this is how I personally feel"

1) the only thing you did throught all that message was make me beyond uncomfortable. You saved NO ONE the discomfort because nit only did I have to read that, the other people in the server did too

2) Why should I be expected to give half a fuck about how you feel if all you were gonna do is brush my off and side with people would literally want me to kill myself?

3) if you were gonna go, you should haveleft. Staying and giving this attention seeking speech is doing nothing but trying ti manipulate me into feeling bad for existing and making you feel uncomfortable in my server. You could have just left. You could have tried to understand things better, you could have said you were uncomfortable and left. You gave a whole shpill about how my existence makes you uncomfortable trying to get people to feel bad for you because the only thing you can do when you see me is judge me based on my source.

That is manipulative source hate.

Thank you for coming to my blog and also for being here for me.

Being able to throughly analyze this and warn others on it honestly and genuinely made me feel better

#problematic factive #problematic source #problematic introject #factive #introject #plural community #plural #system #sysblr #problematicfactive blog things #plural system #plurality #pluralgang #system safe space

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astercontrol · 1 year

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I think the only sustainable form of online interaction is the small group-- be it a Discord server, a Mastodon instance, an email cc'd to a dozen friends who've been replying to each other on it for a year, or what-the-heck-ever.

And I'm not saying such online groups are likely to be sustainable individually. I'm saying that 1. they theoretically CAN be, and 2. when they fail they aren't utterly destroyed or fundamentally changed in their nature, they just break up into similar small groups that retain whichever social connections want to continue.

And this is a feature that only small groups can really manage...

(cw: troubling and depressing thoughts about Moderation Drama, debates over banned content and the boundaries thereof, potentially triggering topics)

The reason is because any moderation done on such groups is done by a person or people who have some capacity to grasp the job they're doing.

And who are doing it because they care about it. Not because they have some delusion that free social media can ever be profitable.

Now, their job is NOT EASY. It's extremely hard, sometimes. Even if you have a small number of people to moderate, you can get very overwhelmed very fast by the task of trying to enforce rules, trying to decide just what is and isn't covered by the wording of the rules, fielding accusations of bias and second-guessing yourself on whether you're enforcing rules equally and consistently for all members of the group. I tried it once, and I don't want to again.

But if the group is small, at least there's a good chance that the people in it will be making a good faith effort to get along with each other and resolve disputes reasonably.

The bigger the group, the more likely that there will be a large number of people on it actively trying to exploit loopholes in the rules or gaps in their enforcement-- often with the goal of spamming, scamming, or harassing people. And there is simply no way to moderate this sufficiently.

Say I'm in a small group of fanfiction writers, and the rules of the group say "no explicit sexual stories involving minors."

So far-- thank goodness --every small group I've been in lately has respected that rule-- no attempts to challenge it or debate its boundaries.

But ...That's a rule that could be a subject of intense debate if people WANTED to argue about it. How do you define a minor in, say, the world of Tron programs (who can look and act like adults on the same day they're created... and whose time system is so enigmatic that we can't even agree on what's the equivalent to a "year")? And how do you define an explicit sexual story, in the Tron fandom (where many of our erotic scenes are about characters touching each other's circuits nowhere near the genital area, and the climax gets called things like "overload" or "restart")? How in the world could you define any of the borders of that rule?

But a small, cooperative group will probably just go with it, and will have an overall agreement on what is meant, and will probably have no interest in breaking the agreed-upon spirit of the rule or debating the gray areas.

Now imagine a group large enough to have subcultures of not only spammers and scammers and trolls, but also bitterly feuding armies on both sides of a culture war. Right away, you'll be dealing with countless members finding ways to use that rule against each other:

"If you won't ban him over how he acts when he's debating social justice, you should at least ban him for posting a sex story about that character who never canonically has an age but In My Opinion is clearly an underage teenager"

"Moderators are biased against me! They used the no-sex-scenes-about-minors rule to ban my story where the character has flashbacks to being abused in childhood, but they won't ban that story about him hooking up with the AI right after creating him, even though the AI is less than a day old so it's clearly eroticizing this thing between a man and his newborn infant son"

"He has no business moralizing about other people's writing after THAT thing he wrote! just because no one's circuits turn purple in the scene doesn't change the fact that energy transfer is SEXUAL and between that pairing it's seriously CREEPY"

"I'm not slut-shaming her, I'm just saying that the OC she uses in her slutty roleplay claims to be 21 cycles old, so she'd BETTER make it clearer what side she's on in the argument over whether 'cycles' are days or years"

And the moment you get enough people questioning the boundaries of a rule like that (with or without ulterior motives against others, or accusations of unfairness) ... the moderator suddenly has to deal with constant attacks from all sides regarding their interpretation and application of the rules, no matter HOW many times in how many ways they tweak the wording and enforcement.

Not only can you not make everyone happy-- you can't even make everyone stop actively rooting for your death, calling you an oppressor/abuser/predator, and trying to cause you real-life harm. With enough people, the category of People Causing Serious Problems becomes far too big to be dealt with.

At this point a conscientious moderator who cares about the group will likely just give up.

A corporate owner of a social media site, who's gotten rich entirely by convincing stockholders that this venture will someday make money, is going to keep trying... but is not going to care enough to do it well. At all.

So... part of me hopes every online group I belong to will always stay small.

And I take at least some comfort in knowing that if the small ones get just slightly too big, parts can always break off and start anew.

(Dividing after reaching a certain size is natural cell behavior. Whatever is going on with major social media..... is not.)

#social media #groups #tw depressing thoughts

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a-wild-things-rambles · 2 years

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i in a bit of a weird time rn. ive been majorly online in some form since 2020, but only in the last months of 22 did i start posting/creating anything to more than discord servers and friends.

as you can see with the new icon and the fact ive posted more art in a few days that i have... ever on this blog, im readdressing my proiritys when it comes to our beloved interweb. my 'successful' pieces of art were gifts to bigger creatives. ive done lot of fandom stuff, and been inspired by the creatives around me.

but emulation isnt good for the self. ive had alot of issues with going from traditional to digital, especially with the gap in expertise, ive learnt and grown [albeit in my own stubborn way without getting help] and how for fictional characters its hard to get refrences.

i am a visual artist, i work best of pictures or models, not having to fuiger out what things look like and how body's work. i have done some stunning [if i say so myslef] graphite drawing which while not 100% photo-realistic are pretty damn close. i have trialed and error-ed my way through the basics, and i can do things like the dick grayson alone anamatic with fast and quick drawings of bodys in motion.

as i mentioned earlier, the bone/skeleton pieces are not just easier and more interesting for me to do, but a lot less stressful, i do them for myself, for my skills, and how i see light.

going forward id say to expect less fandomy stuff. more still lifes and objects and buildings. ill still do people drawings but their not my favorite to do. im not gonna never do anything fandom related ever again. but dont expect it id say.

an artists journey is a long and ever changing one, im still slowly getting a 'style' and i think moving to subjects i enjoy drawing more will help me avoid burnout and stress. art is my relaxing thing to do after long hours and stressful days, and i want to keep it that way.

as i grow even more conscious of the future and jobs and all that, i want to grasp my freedom i have right now, use it to make stuff i enjoy, and maybe get my own little corner of the internet, being able to continue my art through the years ahead. i want to get something im good at. to be the neon skeleton artist. or the bones bitch. gain an identity and something for being me and doing what i enjoy.

idk. this dosent mean much change. but i hope yall stick with me for whatever happens. ive really enjoyed tumblr and everything so far, thank you for sticking around, beloved mutuals new and old, and all the regulars in my notifs! and everyone who has liked or shared or commented on my works, it means the world and has got me though a lot.

#thebirdspeaks #not much is gonna change #but id like a style and artistic identity #something me in the ever shifting world we live in

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lechet · 3 years

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This is - best as I can figure - accurate as of 1/2/2022. They’re talking about adding new forms or new places on the old forms to accommodate the different money that could be reported on a 1099-K but they ain’t come out w/ ‘em yet and probably won’t till it’s closer to the end of the year 2022.

Everything in here is subject to change.

---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------

The new limit on Paypal, Venmo, CashApp, Zelle, etc, where if $600 goes through their sites, they'll have to send you a 1099-K and you'll be expected by the IRS to tell them where that money came from, is for ANY money. Gifts, sales, money that comes from selling a $2500 lawnmower on ebay for $600 (incurring a $1900 loss), that amount all gets added up and stuck on the 1099-K.

What is a 1099-K? It’s informational, telling everyone about what all went through their servers. It is a way for them to say “Hey, this amount of money went through our things. They need to be filing taxes on some of it, IRS. We just had to let you know.”

Gifts (unless they're an insane amount) and sales at a loss are generally not necessary to report to the IRS. However, since you're getting a 1099-K, the IRS will now expect you to tell them where this money came from.

---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------

So let’s say your 1099-K included the following:

$100 - Gift

$600 - Lawnmower sale from above

$1,200 - Commission money made from art

Your 1099-K would be for $1,900.

The only amount that's actually taxable per the IRS is the commission money, that $1,200.

Where you report the $1,200 depends on what sort of activity your art-making is.

If your art is A HOBBY, you fill the income from your 1099-K that you receive from Paypal or whoever on Schedule 1, Form 1040, line 8, "Other income” with the explanation of “income from hobby.”

You are NOT allowed to claim any kind of expenses or deductions from this sort of income post-2018. So if you spent $300 for supplies for your knitting, and sold two sweaters for a total of $300, breaking even, the IRS doesn’t care. You’ll have to report the income from this as $300.

If your art IS A BUSINESS, you file the income on a Schedule C as a business entity. You'll be subjected to self-employment taxes but have the opportunity to write off deductions, such as if you had to buy a new tablet, a PORTION of your bills that are RELEVANT to the business, and other things.

IS IT A HOBBY OR A BUSINESS?

Do you conduct it in a businesslike manner, and maintain accurate books and records?

Do you have personal motives in carrying on in the activity?

Do you intend to make it profitable?

Do you depend on the income for your livlihood?

Are your losses due to circumstances beyond your control (or are theynormal in the startup phase of your type of business)?

Do you have the knowledge needed to carry on the activity as a successful business?

Have you been successful in making a profit in similar activities in the past?

Has it made a profit for years, and how much profit does it make?

Do you expect to make a future profit from the appreciation of assets used in the activity?

The IRS cares most about if you've consistently been shown to make profits from the hobby for the last 3 to 5 years. At that point they’d consider it more of a business than a hobby.

---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------

So we know where to report the $1,200 for the art. What about the other $700 from the gift and lawnmower sale?

You absolutely should tell the IRS about this other money. If you don’t, they’ll automatically send you a thing asking for an explanation for it.

I would report this amount on Schedule 1, Form 1040, line 8, “Other Income”. If your art sales went here, then the explanation could be “Income from hobby + gifts and yard sales.”

Down below it, you could put an Adjustment to Income, 24-Z, in the amount of $700, and list what it’s for. “Other money from 1099-K, not taxable / gifts and yard sale at a loss” or something similar. Alternatively, you could attach an explanation to your tax return.

As long as it seems reasonable, the IRS likely won’t bother you with it. The main thing is that you just let them know somewhere what is up with this money.

---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------

Keep records of everything beginning from now on. Anything that goes into your accounts with any of these third party money movers, make notes for it. That $60 your sister repaid you through Zelle for taking her family out to eat the other day. That $100 you were CashApp’d at a yard sale, reselling your Twisted Fate League of Legends statue you bought at $250 4 years ago. That $30 you got from doing a headshot of a male Viera when they paid their Paypal invoice.

Just in case they ask you to prove anything from these 1099-Ks from now on. They love extensive documentation.

#taxes #paypal #$600 #1099 #1099k

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shinydelirium · 2 years

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MLQC Season 2 Chapter 30: Day and Night (Kiro) Part 2 Translation [CN]

***WARNING*** THIS POST CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR CONTENT NOT YET RELEASED ON EN SERVER!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!***

Previous translations of Season 2 Chapter 30: Part 1

Please excuse my comments/reactions (***) throughout the translations. There was so much going on in this chapter.

[Disguise and Determination]

In the silent car, I sat cramped in the passenger seat, occasionally sneaking peeks at Helios from the corner of my eye.

At the next turn, the scenery outside the window gradually became familiar. Seeing that I’ll be home in no time, I pursed my lips and decided to break the awkward silence.

MC: What were you doing at GR?

Helios: I should be asking you that.

He looked straight ahead with a blank expression on his face. I paused before speaking truthfully.

MC: I thought GR might have clues about the mechanical box so I went to investigate…

I suddenly remembered the last time when he told me to abandon those dangerous thoughts and sheepishly changed the subject.

MC: Nevertheless, aren’t you guilty of being suspicious?

Helios: I only said that to deceive him.

Helios: I promised to help you with the investigation and I keep my word.

Helios: So until then, don’t act on your own.

There was a bit of anger in his voice but it couldn’t hide his worry.

I frowned as I looked at him. Seeing his distant profile against the backlight, my heart stung.

It seemed that every time he behaves like this, it’s to confront those with ill intentions.

It’s his disguise as well as his armor.

MC: Are the guys in NW still after you?

He softly murmured the answer.

MC: And that’s why you’re posing as Helios?

Helios: On top of keeping out of sight, it also makes it more convenient for me to do things.

MC: So the reason they came after you…does it have something to do with that experiment video?

There was a brief silence and Helios stared at the blinking traffic light for a long time before speaking again.

Helios: They’ve been watching me for quite some time.

His hand instinctively went to his ear.

Helios: It’s just that I’m running out of patience.

My heart felt like it was being stabbed by something and the clues that I couldn’t understand before finally became clear to me.

That’s why he decided to get treatment during this time even if the method caused him so much physical pain.

He knew what he was doing and what it meant in the end.

All at once, I truly felt how powerless and frustrated I was at not being able to keep up with him.

Sunlight outlined his profile, revealing his determination and nothing seemed able to bring him down.

My mind’s made up—

I can’t leave him alone. Even if I can be of little help, just a little bit, I want to be with him.

Just when I was about to say something, my phone’s screen flashed suddenly and went black.

Before I could react, a blinking underline cursor popped up on the screen automatically typing out some letters—

“Hello.”

What’s going on…?!

I stared wide-eyed in shock and at the same time, I heard a soft jingle beside me like some kind of signal.

I looked up and saw Helios’ face change.

He turned the steering wheel sharply, slammed on the brakes, and stopped the car firmly on the side of the road.

Then he took out a mini computer from the back seat and started tapping on the keyboard.

I stared blankly at his nervous, stern face realizing something crucial must have happened.

I looked at my phone again, only to find that the screen had gone blank again and then a line of black letters appeared like ripples on a lake—

“I can help you.”

My fingers squeezed the phone tightly in my hand as a cold sweat broke out on my back.

Without giving me more time to think about it, the screen flickered to black again and white words appeared.

“In ten minutes, you’ll find what you’re looking for here.”

In the next second, all the words shattered into a million pieces and then started coming back together, forming a pattern.

I wanted to restart my phone but found that all the buttons weren’t working. The broken pieces continued to piece together on the screen.

Is it a new Trojan virus? Or is someone remotely controlling my phone?

I bit my lip, waiting intently for Helios to finish what he was doing and ask his opinion. Abruptly, the sound of the keyboard stopped.

A cold touch suddenly grabbed hold of my hand.

Helios: Did you get a message?

I gave him a worried look and saw his eyes widened. Many emotions I couldn’t make out swirled in his clear eyes.

His voice was full of urgency along with some unusual restlessness which made my heart beat heavily in my chest.

MC: …Yeah. Some strange words showed up on my phone and now it’s like this. See?

I simply recited the text on the screen just now to Helios and he took my phone with a frown. Immediately, he connected it to the computer with a USB cable.

Noticing me staring nervously at him, his fingers on the keyboard halted and his eyes sank.

Helios: I’m tracking down the IP address that sent the message.

Helios: The person using this IP…

He paused.

Helios: Might be KEY. ***👀👀👀 KEY IN THE MAIN STORY!?!?!***

[Silent Companionship]

I watched in disbelief as Helios pursed his lips, his eyes darkening as he looked at me.

Helios: Don’t you know who that is?

MC: I…

“Aren’t you KEY?” was on the tip of my tongue but I swallowed my question and suddenly realized something.

It’s unlike him to be so nervous and anxious which meant that the person he wanted to track must be important.

I instantly remembered a lot of our conversations we had in the past. Some serious and some not. Then, it slowly dawned on me.

This KEY must be Kiro’s master.

He quietly stared at me without urging me like he didn’t care or rather he already knew the answer.

Fine light casted over his silver hair making it sparkle. I thought about it and gave a firm nod.

MC: I do.

MC: It’s not you so it can only be your master, the previous KEY.

Helios was shocked, not expecting me to be so frank. His pupils dilated.

MC: …I’ve seen reports about KEY in my dad’s notes.

MC: There are also a lot of rumors about him in BS. Some people say…he was the one who took you away.

MC: And you mentioned him before too when we were in the hunter game.

MC: So I did my own research…

I can’t help but feel a little nervous after saying this. Although these are facts, nonetheless, I kept the real source of the information secret.

Helios: Is that all?

His voice was very soft like a whisper. He sounded unsure and it seemed like he was unwilling to ask more.

I suddenly felt a little sad but in the end I could only blink my eyes hard and gave a light hum in response.

Around the same time, the computer beeped. Helios lowered his eyes and started typing on the keyboard again.

Lines of written code from the screen reflected in his eyes, giving me a warm sense of nostalgia along with some remorse.

Helios: My master just up and disappeared without warning four years ago and I’ve been tracking his IP.

Helios: The ringtone from before was specially designed for that. Once his device is online, I’ll get a signal.

Helios: So this is my chance to track him.

He spoke calmly but his shaky fingers betrayed his urgency.

Seeing his determination, I was reminded of that time years ago when I saw him like this, never giving up when he came across the perfect opportunity.

How many times did he have to experience disappoint to be so calm and skilled like he is now?

Feeling a bitterness spreading in my heart, I quietly watched him type out code after code until the pattern on the screen gradually became clearer—

A live view of the street was displayed.

I took a closer look and my eyes widened.

MC: There…that’s the green belt trail near my home. Why is the map marked here?

I paused trying to process my thoughts.

If the person who sent the message is really KEY, then his words must have some merit.

But he said what I was looking for would appear here. What could that be?

Then it hit me.

MC: You keep tracking down the IP. I’ll head over there and have a look!

Helios: I’ll come with you.

He pointed at the fast-moving pages of numbers on the screen, put the mini computer in his pocket, and swiftly got out of the car.

Helios: I set up automatic tracking so if anything comes up, it will be immediately locked.

Helios: He did teach me after all.

Helios: So of course, I can’t afford to mess up.

A black box glowing with white light is suspended in the air of the green belt. The eerie image contrasts sharply against the peaceful environment.

MC: I knew it, it’s the mechanical box!

The white light recedes and I couldn’t help thinking back on the mechanical box I stumbled across on the road earlier.

The memory of being attacked flooded my mind and I shivered. After looking around, I hurriedly reached out to take it—

My wrist was pulled back and Helios pushed me behind him.

He reached out, grabbed the black box in one swoop and weighed it a few times in the palm of his hand, looking at it in deep thought.

MC: What does it feel like?

Helios: Quite heavy, nothing special.

I hesitantly stretched my fingers to touch it but Helios suddenly lifted his hand making me trip.

MC: Don’t lift it up so high. What if someone sees it?!

Helios: Don’t worry. There’s no one within a few hundred-meter radius. On the way here, I hacked into the city surveillance network to confirm the area.

Helios: But it’s strange. Right now, it’s too quiet for a residential community.

After he said this, I noticed that the trails are indeed vacant today.

MC: Could it have something to do with the message I received?

Helios didn’t say anything which only confirmed my suspicions.

MC: Not only did the other person knew where the mechanical box would appear but also knew that I was investigating it.

MC: Even the area was cleared especially for us.

If the other person really is KEY…is he helping me? But why? Why did he appear now of all times after going missing for so many years?

Helios frowned. Seeing him like this, I held back my unspoken questions.

All of this is happening out of nowhere and so strangely. Many doubts buzzed around in my head.

When Helios got back inside the car, he kept staring at the computer without making a sound. I glanced at him and saw that his coiled body became even more tense.

Could it be…I had a vague idea that I didn’t dare ask out loud but his eyes still caught mine.

He looked up, his eyes flickering like a sea of starlight.

Helios: I lost the signal.

MC: …

Helios: It’s fine. It’s not the first time.

He smiled indifferently but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Helios: Have you received this message before?

I thought hard then shook my head. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something else and met my eyes.

Helios: MC, can you leave your phone with me?

Helios: I have a feeling he’ll contact you again.

Worried that I would refuse, he added.

Helios: I promise, I won’t read anything else other than that person’s messages.

His eyes glimmered and I could see the innocence and sincerity that I was all too familiar with. My heart softened a bit and I raised my hand to smooth out his unruly hair.

MC: I’ll give you the phone under one condition.

MC: Wherever you go, I want to be with you.

Pushing open the door of the apartment, Helios raised his hand and pressed a switch near the door. With a beep sound, various electronic devices booted up at the same time.

MC: Is this your “secret base”?

He nodded but there was a strange look on his face.

Helios: Have a seat, I’ll…be out in a little bit.

Before I could answer, he walked straight into a room. After a while, the door opened and velvety soft golden hair greeted me.

As soon as we locked eyes, I could clearly see the shy and embarrassed look on Kiro’s face. ***Did he do what I think he did?!?! I wanna see him transform!!! Why do doors exist!?!?😫😫😫 ***

….At a time like this, should I act normal and pretend that nothing happened? ***No, there’s nothing normal about someone changing their hair color on the fly like that, lol***

Kiro coughed and waved the mini computer in his hand.

Kiro [clears throat]: Give me a sec, okay? ***Lmao!!! I’m laughing because he had to clear his throat in order to go back to being “Kiro”***

I hastily nodded and he quickly started working at the coffee table. I placed a pillow in my arms and stared at his back as he became engrossed in his task. I couldn’t help but think about today’s events.

After all, KEY has no reason to help me so why is he doing this? Is it because he knew that Kiro was with me and that’s why he sent those messages to me?

But if it involves Kiro, why not contact him directly? Or is there some other reason I haven’t thought of yet? ***I’m sus. It’s not an imposter, is it?***

Kiro: What are you thinking about?

A voice came to my ear and I came back to my senses only to find that Kiro was sitting beside me at some point.

MC: I was thinking, why did KEY contact me?

His expression froze and there was a hint of softness in his eyes.

Kiro: Honestly, I don’t know either.

Kiro: He always had this casual attitude when doing things and he tends to come and go whenever he pleases. From what I remember, he was always busy.

Kiro: Even though we lived together, I still couldn’t figure his whereabouts.

MC: Why does he sound so mysterious?

Kiro: Nah, he wasn’t mysterious at all. Just an average but great guy.

As Kiro talked, a burning light flashed in his eyes but he still couldn’t hide his fatigue.

I tossed aside the pillow and lightly patted my thigh. He immediately understood what I meant and laid down.

MC: Tell me more about you and your master.

He blinked as he thought about what good memories to tell me.

After a while, his eyes lit up.

Kiro: My master….he’s someone who can never find a pair of socks and drinks his coffee with a spoonful of sugar.

Kiro: Although he is a very powerful hacker, he barely gets a pass in the life skills department.

MC: Pfft, on the other hand, Kiro who he raised, is not only passing but has full marks.

I gently brushed away the bangs from Kiro’s forehead and there was some tenderness in those bright eyes.

Kiro: Because he taught me a lot of things, I was able to understand and accept myself.

Kiro: Come to think of it, it was so long ago.

Kiro: In fact, his whereabouts have always been unpredictable. I’d often get puzzles or codes from him.

Kiro: After cracking them, I would get some information about him.

Kiro: Sometimes, it would just be a bad joke or gossip about an actor I like.

Kiro: Other times, it would just be a photo of a landscape….

Kiro: Although he never said much, I knew he was telling me—

Kiro: Hey, kiddo, I miss you.

Kiro: But then…he completely disappeared without a trace.

Dim light fell over his shoulders, casting a lonely shadow.

A long time ago at the hacker conference, he also told me about him and KEY like he is doing now.

MC: Did you write back to him?

MC: Did you say you missed him too?

He shook his head and lowered his eyelashes.

Kiro: His messages were one-way and that information will automatically be destroyed after I cracked them.

Kiro: I didn’t even get the chance to save those beautiful pictures.

MC: Damn, does he have no sympathy for the “recipient”?

Hearing my “fight for injustice”, Kiro laughed softly.

Kiro: At first, I couldn’t understand it either.

Kiro: However, I slowly realized that he was telling me in his own way—

Kiro: Other than long-term companionship, it’s also important to constantly explore the unexpected and unknown joys in life.

Kiro: Although he’s not by my side, he’ll always share this small moment of happiness with me. ***This is the most that we’ve heard Kiro talk about KEY in the entire game. Even though KEY isn’t physically in the story, he still has such a strong presence.***

He raised his head and his eyes gazed at the starry sky outside the window, looking off into the distance.

My eyes swept across the empty room in front of me and his solitary back. The tip of my nose suddenly felt a bit sore.

I don’t know how many nights he spent hopelessly holding on to these little bits of words, wondering about what KEY was thinking?

Repeating this over and over, the hope and disappointment that came with it.

Leaning down, I tenderly rested my forehead against his.

MC: Then, let me stay with you from now on.

MC: I can’t write code, make clever jokes, or take pictures of landscapes but I’ll be with you—

MC: Creating beautiful moments together and witnessing the wonderful views of the world with our own eyes.

His warm, slow breaths caressed my face, melting my heart.

MC: I’ll always be with you.

A warm blanket wrapped around my back and I felt Kiro holding me tight, surrounding me with his familiar, sweet scent.

In the darkness, I saw him gazing at me with burning eyes. The night sky gradually became clear and reflected in his eyes.

Kiro: Then, you can’t run away, Miss Chips.

He closed his eyes and softly smiled.

Kiro: Many stars are testifying for me.

MC: Yes, they’re all witnesses…no, they’re heaven’s witness. ***T/N: So I had a very difficult time translating this line because MC is doing a play on words so-to-speak in which the “witnesses” she’s using is referring to a “human witness” but Kiro mentioned the stars so instead she says “witness stars”. However, that doesn’t make much sense in English so I went with “heaven’s witness”. I’m sorry if it sounds really cheesy but that was the best I could come up with. Translations be HARD.***

Amused by my words, a corner of Kiro’s mouth perked up.

The sky overflowed with vibrant stars and specks of light seemed to fill the whole room.

After much time had passed, the stars fell into a deep sleep and steady breathing drifted to my ears. Looking at his peaceful face, I said a silent prayer in my heart—

Please let him find KEY soon.

Let his thoughts be laid to rest and receive that long-awaited embrace. ***This entire scene is too sweet which can only mean one thing...***

-End of Part 2-

#spoilers #mlqc #mlqc spoilers #kiro #kiro spoilers #mlqc kiro #mlqc season 2 #mlqc season 2 spoilers #kiro season 2 #mlqc translations #mlqc season 2 translations #kiro chapter translations

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tbifancomic · 3 years

Text

Hello Mechanisms Fandom!

If this comes across your dash, you're likely: 1. A fan of The Mechanisms 2. An artist, writer, or other sort of creative 3. Follow friends or other artist who like The Mechanisms

And to all of you, I say you're in the right place! We're The Bifrost Incident Unofficial Comic Project. You might be asking, who is The Bifrost Incident Unofficial Comic Project? And your answer is: We're a group of artists, writers, and people who just really like The Mechanisms who want to turn one of their shows into a piece of media that can be more accessible! It's a love letter to some of our favorite writers, singers, and the people behind the band! And the show has very little in the way of official graphics, but oh so much in the way of fan talent and creations- so we've come together to make something that incorporates all of that into one thing!

What can I do for TBI Unofficial Comic Project? If you're interested, see some of our other posts or send in an ask! As of this post, we're looking for more artists and more advertisers- If we still are by the time of you seeing this, check out our official form to apply!

Who are the current members of The Bifrost Unofficial Comic Project? As of writing this, we have 4 organizers/moderators! Myself (Vox), Dillo, Krill, and Mel. Our team is subject to change if we gain more organizer staff, but for now, there isn't anyone else!

Who all can join the project? Artists, writers, and really anyone who wants to! We are specifically aiming at artists, but community support is also really useful.

How are you organizing this? We're splitting songs into chapters that will be illustrated by separate artists/teams of artists to show off their skill! As well as that, we have a discord server for those interested!

In short, thank you for reading (and possibly reblogging!) This post! We really appreciate it, and you can check on our blog for weekly Updates! - Vox

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5uptic · 2 years

Note

here from ur main. why don’t you like him today? 👀

i'm putting a keep reading on this one because this is the most negative i will get about 5up here, just as a way to express myself about how my perception of him has evolved from the last time i touched the subject. i also don't think i'll come around so probably this is also the last time i'll talk about this, at least as candidly as i plan on doing lol. and i do want to make it clear that this is no form of "cancellation", that this isn't me urging 5up to change or do anything, or to say that i will come back once x or y things change. this is just a matter of personal taste and just my opinion on the guy, which comes down only to my likes and dislikes.

but yeah, the wording of my tag post is that yesterday i just fully accepted that i don't like 5up. it was just a buildup of a lot of things... i have my gripes with every streamer i watch, because of course i'm not gonna like every aspect about their online personality and presentation - no one is meant to, that's just how humans work. so i did genuinely love 5up for a long time, while things about him and his community did bother me, because i enjoyed a lot of things on his streams and i had a lot of nice things to say about him. it's just that i no longer see those things that i used to like that much, or it's a case of the bad things outweighing the good ones.

of course there's the case of 5up's ego which is easily my biggest problem. i like other streamers who have a bit of an ego, like punz for example, but there are many instances where punz either accepts he's not performing so well, chat doesn't take him seriously and he plays along the teasing, or actually does something to back it up. and when it came to watching 5up the instances where we could make fun of him became few and far between. just something very memeable, like the whole colors thing, ends up being annoying just because he refuses to let go of the idea of superiority around something that 70% other people in the world experience too. and that's just one example: if you are familiar with 5up's streams, you can name a lot of other things 5up is overconfident about. and if you are familiar with 5up you are aware of the way he deals with those situations and can understand why someone might feel annoyed at the constant ego showcase.

personally, there are a lot of guys around my life who have an ego problem and mansplain me and shit, but in that case i'm able to stand my ground and tease them about it or call them out. but it's just an impossible thing to do with 5up because well, he's not my friend very obviously lol, so that just leaves me feeling powerless and annoyed on the other side of the streamer/chatter interaction.

this is also a big problem when 5up has pretty much branded himself around the idea of being great at every game. of course i don't deny his skill in lots of games he plays, but as someone who is into dbd content creators, the constant gloating when he was playing the game feels unwarranted because he's an average survivor at best, and relies heavily on good perks and killers on the other side of the 1v4. i really loved to see the og core 4 playing dbd because of the interactions and dynamics of 2 of them being complete noobs at the game, but the need to feed 5up's ego when he looped novice killers was so unnecessary and it made me cringe a lot. the phrase "breaking their ankles" is forever tainted because of it. this is just another case of 5up performing averagely and having an ego around it despite so many people being able to do what he does. and also the claims of "i could eaaaasily be rank 1 if i tried hard enough", the overconfidence and lack of self awareness is a big eye-roller. same thing with mcc: again, i don't deny 5up has skill and experience to back up some of his claims, but the overconfidence that he can bring his team to victory every time is annoying when he never does vod reviews or practices on the server. i remember when pogchamps was happening and 5up was going to be in mcc that same week, people were complaining that he never practiced and i was like "how do expect him to do it when he's competing in a chess tournament atm?". but then it turned out he barely did any chess practice outside of his streams with anna, and i had nothing to defend him with. and i know i can't feel crazy about this, because everyone is laughing at 5up's question of "what games does sapnap beat me in?" and just his lack of self-awareness when it comes to his perception of himself.

another criticism that i never voiced before is his inability to commit to let's plays or certain games. you know, stuff like it takes two, resident evil 8, deltarune chapter two, no umbrellas allowed (which was also the last time i genuinely enjoyed watching his stream) that so many people were able to coordinate and play across multiple streams, he just won't do it. if he didn't play "little nightmares" in one stream, i have a feeling he would've never finished it. the fact that he was so spread about his schedule annoyed me because i wanted to see 5up finish certain games, only for him to complete drop it the next stream and then claim that he wouldn't be continuing the game days or weeks later. again, not something i would fault him for, because who knows if there's a real reason why he does it, but it feels baity and i couldn't even get excited about 5up playing certain games because if i got too attached, he could just drop it immediately and forget that it exists.

there's also what i noticed yesterday, although i can't really have the novelty of saying that it's something that only i know. when people were messaging me when i first talked about how i didn't like 5up anymore, i got asks talking about his lackluster interactions when he's on calls with other streamers, and after yesterday's crab game lobby i have to agree. there was such a novelty in seeing so many people interact with each other, mcyts with otv and the crewfu, etc. punz hiding with scarra, steve and celine agreeing that costco chicken is top tier... but every time it was 5up interacting with others, it just felt stilted and awkward, and he just repeats things back and doesn't add anything to the conversation. back then i did pick up on this, although not as explicitly as now, and i didn't love streams where the catch would be 5up and co playing a new game and interacting. but yesterday i was finally able to catch it and that's what made me officially admit that i straight up don't like him.

sigh. it's sad. i'm still somewhat fond of him, and it's a very weird thing i've never experienced with other content creator. part of me wants to be able to like him and let that be the end of it, but i genuinely tried it. in the past months i sometimes watched his streams, no volume and no chat, just to try and have that bond again, but as soon as i turned on the volume he would say something that would make me roll my eyes. it's hopeless and i'm sad that it is, because i do love every other member of the crewfu and i like so many people in the streamer circle around 5up. it feels wrong for him to be the one exception when he was the one that brought me in.

well, all that said, i'll never be antagonistic to 5up on this blog so you won't have to worry about it. it's a me thing so i'll keep it to myself (maybe occasionally vent on my main if i feel like it). but i'll still post as i've been doing it lately and remain active in the community, so if that's what you're worried about, well then, no changes will be made to my blogging in these last few months :)

#5up #answered

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