#tldr 3/10

[blasphemme]

just finished call of duty black ops. here are some (long, comma abusing, mostly tangentially related) thoughts after playing it for the first time for anyone who might read them!

altogether the campaign was fine, i guess.

as many others have in the past few years following the modern warfare remakes, my online activity has been inundated with thirst edits made of characters in call of duty — despite having never played the games myself. they’re not my thing.

my flatmate, however, has played them. he played them as a kid when they were being released, and he has had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of me watching these edits and reading fanfics (shout out early 351780!!). increasingly annoyed at my thirsting, he has forced me to play every call of duty campaign on the xbox 360.

i’ve found that i actually really enjoy playing cod. it’s enjoyable, action packed and, most importantly, quite compelling. they’re something i’d never have considered playing without him pushing me to play them. i’m more of an assassin’s creed/ace combat/nier girl and always have been. the closest i’d been to playing a shooter before this experience was playing gta, badly.

my flatmate knew my priorities. after an introduction to the premise with world at war — the first game in the black ops series, which i promise i will get to at some point — we played the original modern warfare campaigns first, because i am a wee bit in love with captain john price, and i loved them. the stories, while simple enough to follow (and already knowing about the main character deaths in advance — it’s a 10+ year old series, after all!), were emotionally evocative. i found myself becoming attached to the protagonists quickly and deeply, all the while having a whale of a time fucking around in the rest of the mission. this girl loves just walking onto grenades! between world at war and the modern warfare trilogy of campaigns, i was hooked from the start.

i realise now that i have been spoiled. those campaigns were just too good.

black ops’ campaign pales in comparison to the other four games i’ve played. i will admit that it is still fun — very fun! i enjoyed the feeling of progressing from one badass area to the next, with sam worthington’s horrific american accent and gary oldman’s alright russian accent pushing me through. i also have to admit that i still play like an absolute scrub, but the enjoyment i got from it outweighed the frustration. (mostly.)

black ops lacks the charm and depth i loved in world at war. while fun, every plot twist was spotted as soon as it was hinted to, much to my flatmate’s dismay. it took one guy telling mason to get a hold of himself for me to figure out the twist around reznov, and one recitation of the numbers on the way to the pentagon for me to figure out that mason would go on to kill kennedy. this, in particular, also felt like a bit of a cop-out — having this confirmed in a post-credits scene was disappointing, when i’d gone through the whole game and sat through an eminem song in the credits expecting a sequence where i’d be on the grassy knoll just to end up in a round of zombies. honk shoo.

modern warfare — modern warfare 2 in particular (kevin mckidd’s soap my beloved <3) — introduced new mechanics that’d be used once or twice in the whole game, most of which i enjoyed. the missions where you have to assist tf141 from an ac130 in the first game? stellar. absolutely unmatched. all ghillied up can go fuck itself on a gameplay front though, fuck you if you think i’m gonna figure out what the coriolis effect is. in black ops, the helicopter sequences felt like hate crimes against me personally. poorly designed flight controls and awful combat mechanics combined to make a literally unplayable pair of missions involving attacking other helicopters that i had to beg my flatmate to complete for me. embarrassing.

this game is utterly us army propaganda. the epic final shot in the campaign after killing dragovich — where suddenly 3 aircraft carriers are there waiting for you flying star spangled banners, and 8 fighter jets pass overhead — only resulted in making me cringe and laugh in disbelief, where in 2010 it would’ve made young men enlist. world at war at least has the balance of ‘war is cool and we’re the best’ in the pacific segments and ‘war sucks, actually,’ in the eastern front segments. modern warfare, too, falls face first into the latter, and that’s part of what i enjoyed about it.

even the little fun things weren’t as enjoyable. i didn’t have a favourite gun, or a favourite mission. the star cast choices were okay, but nothing to call home about. there wasn’t a ��production babies’ segment in the credits, and they made me listen to eminem and pink. what the fuck?

altogether, black ops 1 has the worst campaign of the franchise i’ve played so far. next we’re onto black ops 2, which hopefully won’t come with a free personal statement like this one, and which i’ve been told is one of the best games ever made. we’ll see.

3/10

[arsenicflame]

It's a time-honoured tradition- every time Sam comes across Izzy (and Ed) in their travels, he asks Izzy to marry him. And every time, Izzy turns him down.

At this point, Sam is asking more for the sake of it than any belief Izzy will ever say yes, a remnant of childhood dedication touched with 30 years of heartbreak and regret- though even now, a small part of him still holds out hope. Sam's promises have only got more extravagant over the years, from a job as his first mate, to a captaincy, a fleet at his command, a whole fucking island if that's what Izzy wants- but he knows it isn't though, not really. If Izzy was ever going to agree to marry him, to leave his life and go with Sam, it wouldn't be for anything Sam could offer him. Izzy never did care for flashy shows of wealth, for a ship or to be captain. The only thing that ever mattered to him was loyalty given, and loyalty shown in return. 

It all comes to a head after Stede left and came back, after Izzy lost a toe, lost his leg. Sam hasn't seen him since before things with Ed started to really slide off the rails, before stress permanently set into the lines of Izzy’s face. So, when he sees a dishevelled man with a hoof for a leg in a no-name port, he doesn't even consider the idea that he might know him. It's only when he turns towards him, and Sam catches a glance at those oh too familiar tattoos, he realises this is Izzy, his Izzy, that stands before him.

Knowing Izzy's discomfort with pity, he doesn't treat him any differently than he would in years gone by, positioning himself in Izzy's line of sight before approaching and sweeping him up into a bone crushing hug. 

“Israel-goddamn-Hands!” he exclaims, as Izzy grumbles back a begrudging “Samuel-fucking-Bellamy”, a tradition almost as old as their friendship itself. Izzy might not hug him back, but he can’t keep the corner of his mouth from twitching, just for a second.

(If Sam holds Izzy a little tighter and a little longer than usual, well. That's his business)

By the time Sam lets go, most of the crew has appeared in the town square, drawn in by the commotion. They may have given Izzy his leg and welcomed him as one of them, but still there’s an underlying tension, with nobody quite ready to set aside everything that happened before the Kraken. Seeing him cosying up to an unknown man sets everyone on edge, unsure whether to come to their first mate’s aid, or to assume that they've been betrayed once again.

When Ed sees that the yelling was Sam, his hand goes tense where it's held in Stede's. He knows the routine, has seen it more times than he can count, but as he watches them part he realises that this is the first time in a long time he's unsure of what Izzy's response will be.

Knowing that something’s different, knowing that Izzy's feeling vulnerable already, Sam doesn't go for the same flashy proposal he’s been giving for years. He doesn't promise Izzy the world, he doesn't cause a scene (or, any more of a scene than he already has, anyway). He looks at the fractured man in front of him, takes his face in his hands, and says the exact same thing to him he said when they were little more than boys. “Israel, I have to ask you. I know what you'll say, but I have to try. Come with me. Marry me and sail away with me. I'll keep you safe”

And Izzy… hesitates. He glances over at Ed, at Stede, and says to Sam “...We’re staying in port for a week. Ask me again then”

That's the moment Sam knows there is something deeply, horribly, wrong. He's not just looking at an Izzy who got seriously injured in a fight and is struggling to cope, this is something so much bigger than that- and that Ed has something to do with it. Izzy wouldn't even be considering leaving if he didn't. Whether it was negligence or something more sinister, Sam doesn't yet know, but he intends to find out.

[xoxogeorgiegirl]

45 for franky/alex :))

45 - realisation of feelings at the worst possible moment | just a little taste of wasting time on ao3 | 1.9k

Franky is the first to check her phone and see the message from Valentina in the group chat to say that Alex will be staying in their hotel suite tonight, and could they please try and make her feel welcome. It’s oddly cheerful in tone, but then Vale usually is while they’re on these holidays, too relaxed to even bother lying to them properly. She’s about to say something, words eager to trip off of her tongue, and then decides to wait for Pecco to disentangle her arm from around Bez's shoulder and check her phone. There's a general outcry about it; expressions ranging from Bez's scrunched up, baffled face to Pecco's mildly disgusted frown. Franky stays silent, tapping her fingers against her phone under the coffee table while they chat, and ignoring the way that Luca, beside her, is trying to squint at the message she's sending. "I'm going to kill her," says Pecco darkly, not at all scary. She will, Franky thinks, be refusing to use the groupchat with Valentina in it for the next few days, defaulting to the Academy chat that they're still pointlessly denying the existence of to Vale. "Marc is making how much off that Ducati contract, and neither of them will pay for another hotel room?" She shudders and falls silent. Luca switches her attention to her, eyes turning teasing, and Franky is grateful for the reprieve as she clicks at the spot where the send button should be and considers whether it’s too risky to turn her phone brightness up.

Sorry, change of plans, Alex has texted her. It’s from before Valentina said anything, and abruptly Franky wonders whether she was going to cancel and if Marc had said anything. She looks up to see Luca’s eyes on her again, thoughtful, and turns her phone off, dropping it face down on the table with a click.

“Yes, well. We should go soon. Don’t want to keep her waiting,” Pecco says suddenly, and doesn’t move. Across the table, Cele casts an uncertain glance at her, halfway to standing up before she seems to register that she’s not ready to leave yet. Bez tugs Cele towards her, pulling her arm across with a laugh. The conversation washes over Franky, suddenly, inexplicably nervous, until Luca stands up decisively, pulling the keys to the rental car out of her pocket. When Pecco opens the door to the hotel room, Alex is sitting on the couch, knees together and arms folded, a duffel bag with clothes haphazardly sticking out of it still slung over her shoulder. She looks up when they enter, smiling at Franky, albeit somewhat tensely.

“Alex,” Pecco greets with a nod. For a moment Franky thinks she’s going to hold out her hand for Alex to shake. “I hope we didn’t leave you alone too long?”

“I’ve been surviving,” says Alex, and shrugs, skittish.

Pecco nods at her again. “Vale’s stuff is still in her room,” she says, “so-”

“That’s fine,” Alex interrupts. “The couch is fine.”

Luca laughs, and ignores Franky’s warning glare. “You can share with Franky,” she offers. “She’s got a double bed, you’ll be more comfortable than on the couch.”

“Right,” Alex says, and glances at Franky. She smiles again. “Mind showing me around, then?”

When they wander out of the room together, her hand drifts towards Franky’s arm. Behind them, someone snickers.

"Of course I've thought about just getting my own room," Alex says grumpily, as soon as the bedroom door swings closed behind them. "Marc's still trying to pretend like she's not planning these holidays so she can run into Valentina halfway through, and that involves playing happy families with hotel rooms." "Then book another one to use after Valentina inevitably steals your side of the room?" Franky asks innocently. She pulls Alex onto the bed behind her and they settle into place, heads bent close together to the centreline of the mattress like they’re sharing secrets at a slumber party. "Please, she ambushed me," Alex squawks, indignantly pushing up onto her elbows. "Escorted me here, even. One hundred percent chance Marc asked her about-" She cuts off, and Franky blinks up at her. Alex is blush prone at the best of times and it's showing now, a flush spreading up over her cheekbones while she avoids looking at anything in particular; it's a nearly impossible task given that over the course of her movement she’s ended up leaning nearly directly over Franky, but she’s giving it her best shot, eyes wide and lips curving up. "Alex," Pecco calls, poking her head into the room. Franky tries her best not to audibly groan. "Sorry, we're figuring out dinner, and we don't know what you'd like." "Anything," Alex says, a little wildly. She hasn't even twisted her head to look at the doorway where Pecco has been hovering, checking in on them while she switches between her usual dislike of Alex and what she feels is her duty, blatant neutrality followed by guilty fussiness; Valentina, Franky thinks, has a lot to answer for. There's a third aspect to it tonight, because Luca likes to think she's good at reading people, and now everyone else thinks they know something about Franky and Alex. To be fair to her, Franky isn't sure Luca's been wrong yet. She's trying very hard not to think about it, at least not while Alex is lying on the bed next to her, warm and still halfway to laughing. "Oh, alright," Pecco is saying, slipping out of hostess mode and back into relieved neutrality. Franky blames Valentina and by extension Marc, somewhat, for making this into a big deal and also for ruining her plans for the evening. “What type of pizza do you want?”

“Ham and cheese, please. With pineapple,” says Alex, without hesitating or smiling.

“So. A Hawaiian?” Pecco asks, tentatively. Alex shakes her head sombrely and Pecco frowns, nods, and promptly shuts the door.

It’s hard not to grin, at the obvious bait and at the way  lets herself fall back down on the bed again to laugh as soon as the door clicks shut. The sun is beginning to go down now, the last dregs of light filtering in through the open window along with the warm air. When she twists to lie on her back, hands pressing over her stomach and legs stretched out long in the jeans, Alex’s hair is pulling out of its ponytail, longer strands falling down to frame her face. She twists them back, exaggeratedly aggressive, and Franky laughs.

“Up,” Franky says, grabbing her hand and pulling her backwards, towards her, letting her twist halfway onto Franky’s lap. Gently, she uncurls the twisted hair tie and combs her fingers through Alex’s hair through, gentle, and begins to braid it.

“You’re better at this than Marc,” says Alex, too restless even when she’s trying to keep still, and Franky has to let her hands go with the movement to avoid yanking at the strands. “She’s, eh. Impatient.”

“Like you,” mutters Franky, affectionate, and even though she can’t see Alex’s face she can feel the grin in the lift of her shoulders and the arch of her neck, loose and easy. “Easier than curly hair, anyway. Tangles less than I’m used to, as long as you stay still.”

“Why I love you, of course. Easier for you to do my hair than to learn myself, eh,” Alex says halfway through laughing, light and absent-minded, and maybe it would have been fine if both of them didn’t go tense at the words, Alex’s voice cutting out. As it is, she pulls back, her half-done braid slipping out of Franky’s suddenly numb hands as she climbs off the bed, movement awkward across the tangled quilt.

“I should go,” she says, and doesn’t look back in time to see Franky open her mouth. She closes it again uselessly as her body continues to catch up faster than her thoughts, pushing up off the bed and moving towards Alex, too slowly.

“You can’t go,” she says. The worlds fall, too blunt, and she wishes Alex would look at her if only to see the way that she’s wincing. “Marc has the room-”

“I’ll find a place,” Alex mutters stiffly, hand twisting on the doorknob and finally, decisively, pulling the door open.

Instead of disappearing down the hallway, though, she takes a step back, and Franky cranes her neck to see past.

“Oh, good, you’re ready,” Pecco says, too brightly, hand still tentatively raised to knock. “Pizza’s been delivered.”

Neither of them react, and she frowns, adds, “We thought we’d eat outside. Luca dragged the table onto the balcony, since – it’s such a nice night.”

Finally, Alex brushes past her, denim of her jeans swishing ridiculously loudly in the sudden silence that follows her to the balcony. When Pecco raises an eyebrow, Franky can only shrug, swallow the acrid taste lingering at the back of her throat, and mutely follow.

Franky sits down next to Luca, and Alex drags her own chair to the very opposite side of the bench. Beside her, Bez startles and shuffles her chair a little closer to Cele; they were already, Franky realises, sitting so close that the gap to Alex now seems comical, a scene from one of the old, long-table press conferences that you could look at and tell immediately who everyone’s friends were. Alex, with her hair loose and slowly tumbling out of its braid, suddenly seems very vulnerable, like on one of the rare nights she falls asleep before Franky.

Alex’s detachment seems to stymie the conversation somewhat, and Franky wonders belatedly whether Pecco was relying on her to keep the presence of a relative unknown from being awkward.

“How did you find the beach, Celin,” she offers dutifully, and Cele looks up from where she’s been fixing her gaze on the untouched slice of pizza in front of her.

“Ah, it was… fine,” Cele says finally. “Good. Hot.” She glances to her left, reddens slightly, and looks away again; Franky frowns, realises that the general oddness is directed at Bez, not Alex, and loses interest.

“Alex,” she says abruptly, too loudly. Someone that she didn’t realise was speaking has stopped mid-sentence, “Can we talk?” “I wouldn’t want to interrupt dinner,” says Alex, and glances at Pecco, as though expecting her to agree. She doesn’t react, though, and so Franky pushes her chair back and heads inside, looking back over her shoulder for Alex to reluctantly follow. She leaves the balcony door open, sounds of conversation filtering through until Franky doubles back and closes it. Bez is peering back at them through the gap in the glass, and she pointedly avoids meeting her eye.

“I’m sorry,” Alex says, not sounding particularly sincere. She’s staring at the wall, arms folded. “If I’ve made things weird, then we can go on a break, although I refuse to sleep on the couch-”

“Alex, just because Marc and Vale are, eh, complicated-” Franky says, interrupting, and hoping that Valentina will forgive her. “It doesn’t mean that we have to be. And, hey. Maybe I love you even though you’re trying to make my friends believe that your pizza order is anything different to Hawaiian.”

“I swear it’s an entirely different type of pizza,” she says, mock offended, but she’s laughing now, relaxing and allowing herself to be pulled into a hug.

The balcony door pulls open behind them. Bez looks at them, wide-eyed and tugging Cele by the hand, and guiltily says, “Don’t mind me.”

[synthshenanigans]

Days gone without a new chonny jash song killing me, my emotions, stealing my wallet, my heart, my home & me thanking said song for it anyway: 0

[futuremrscameron]

"dark!rafe" that's just rafe i fear

[mxwhore]

can i get a fucking Break

[musical-chick-13]

Always funny to me when people say, "Why was the Doctor ever interested in River in any way when she's Not A Good Person," as if a) their oldest and closest friend in the universe isn't The Master, someone very much not known for being a particularly good person, and b) there wasn't literally a line that went, "And unlike me, [River] really doesn't mind shooting people. I shouldn't like that; kind of do a bit."

[usuallydyinginside]

TLDR: Francesca Bridgerton is Autistic. Fight me.

Okay so I did not go into Season 3 of Bridgerton expecting to have any feelings about Francesca Bridgerton. We have seen her only in glimpses in the show and I have not read the books, so I knew basically nothing about her before binging the first four episodes.

But guys. GUYS. I will die for this autistic queen.

Okay, so starting with first impressions. We know that on her big day, Francesca went out of her way to avoid her nosy, loud family by having a very early, quiet breakfast by herself and then calming down via playing the piano (clearly a special interest of hers).

In her first balls, we see Francesca light up any time she talks about music (clearly her current or forever special interest) but as soon as men try to take it to a flirting place she IMMEDIATELY shuts down. It's clear that even as she states very matter-of-factly that she plans to marry this season, she also is baffled and uncomfortable any time someone tries to actually, ya know, court her.

At one of her first shindigs, she got attention and then went up to her brother and (while making almost no eye contact) told him (rather than asked him) that she needed a sec.

She then sat by herself in the side of the ballroom.

Later on, she left a ball in search of quiet and solitude to fix her sensory overload, so she went outside this time. (A thing that we know from pervious seasons is a HUGE no-no, particularly unchaperoned. But she was very respectfully near the door so maybe that's fine?) The point is that she cares very much about staying respectable so she can get this marriage thing over with and get people to stop perceiving her, yet she risks some scandal by going outside just so she can be somewhere quiet alone.

Enter: this absolute (also autistic) Prince Charming.

He says hello (so she knows he's not like trying to sneak up on her in the dark like a creep) and then just stands there. 10/10, no notes, best way to flirt I have ever seen in my life.

Seriously just look at this. I'm in love. Never before has there been a greater sign of love at first sight than in this "standing politely five feet apart in total silence in the middle of a ball and enjoying each other's company."

I need to go watch these first four episodes about a hundred more times, but I THINK this might be the first sincere smile we see from Francesca??!? I at least got the impression immediately that this is the first time she's felt genuinely comfortable and happy while not entirely alone this season.

Like, these nerds did not even exchange names. They barely exchanged a word. Yet you can see them falling head over heels in love right there in that moment. I don't even LIKE love at first sight tropes and they have my whole heart. They are the only exception.

Then, of course, you have this second absolutely iconic Scene of Silence where the entire Bridgerton family stares in neurotypical confusion a these two amazing weirdos. The way these two do not know each other but they DO know each other. The way they are both so happy and so comfortable but also still playing the whole society game the way they were told they had to?? I just don't have words right now.

LOOK AT HER SMILE, GUYSSSSSSSS.

Look how happy this tiny, silent moment is making her. How she understands immediately what he's doing and is absolutely delighted to participate too even knowing her entire family is hardcore judging them from not that far away.

And then you get this smug little look from him and it's like you can see his autistic ass thinking, "Yes. I calculated correctly. This was the correct romance option. Gold star to me." (Okay, maybe that's just how my brain works but shhhhh)

Which, of course, brings us to this absolutely hilariously awkward ND attempt at flirting. We start off with some fairly normal "whoops, I'm flustered cause you make me nervous" sort of moments, but notice how little eye contact she makes. How she only looks in his eyes very briefly and it seems like she almost has to remind herself to do so when she's doing the "polite" answers (OR later when she's genuinely interested in a topic).

So as soon as Francesca is like "oh shit, I ruined it. I forgot how to neurotypical. It's over" then she loses patience with the practiced social niceties.

I spent like 30 minutes trying to find a GIF and I should already be asleep so I'm not going to go learn how to make one BUT I needed to look up exactly what happens next cause it's basically the most autistic thing I've ever seen.

WHICH IS that in response to the second awkward silence after Francesca shares all of this, John's response is, "That is helpful. If you'll excuse me."

Then dude bro just WALKS AWAY WITHOUT ANOTHER WORD.

Like it would be awkward anyway but now Francesca thinks she misread a social cue so she's feeling sad, and meanwhile this absolute king is over here on a romantic mission no one asked him to do because he is that set on showing her he's listening and cares.

The man shows up at the ball and as soon as he had a paper we were all screaming "he wrote her a song!!!"

Again, notice the eye contact (or lack thereof). I think with period dramas and women, it's easy to just go "oh she's just shy" or "she's just being demure like she's supposed to" but like NO. This girl does not want to meet anyone's eyes.

Until she does. Because in moments where she's talking about music or enjoying quiet, it's worth it to purposefully meet his eyes and see how he's feeling too. To make sure he can see she's happy.

ANYWAY, it was so much better than him writing a song for her.

SO. MUCH. BETTER.

Because he didn't just give her any ol' music. He sought out the music they'd specifically heard in the street, and he took her exact specifications on what was "wrong" with the music, and he FIXED IT. He then put the whole thing on sheet music and handed her a copy with no further explanation than this.

Our autistic lass was so excited she basically sprinted out of that ball so she could find a piano. (Which, the fact that she does this rather than try to stay and flirt/dance with the man who just gave her this incredible gift ALSO says a lot, just saying. Daphne could never.)

So our girl finds a piano and GUYS. LOOK AT HOW HAPPY SHE IS.

I'm pretty sure this woman would accept a proposal right this second. Maybe make one herself. She is so head over heels in love with this man that it's absurd. We have watched her mask in these first four episodes, but the last two where she's interacting with John are the first times she seems genuinely happy and like the real her is shining through.

Like, does she enjoy her family? Sure. But it's obvious (and she even tells us) that she finds them overwhelming and generally to be A Lot. But these scenes? This gesture?

You can just get how seen she feels. How weird and wild and amazing it is to her that this man can see who she actually is and wants to join her there instead of making her play some part of the perfect Bridgerton who likes to be the center of attention.

(And even here - the EYE CONTACT. She glances at people when she's talking to them, but the way she looks at the sheet music is so much more intense and intimate and personal than anytime she's looking at the average person in the show. She still even in places she's most comfortable, such as sitting at the piano, makes very little eye contact and only at very specific moments.)

Anyway I'm going to sleep now but I'm sure I'll add more thoughts as they come to me. Feel free to add your own case for why Francesca is autistic and/or otherwise neurodivergent. I want to hear allllllll the thoughts.

[futurefind]

"Explain Nasuverse mage Rea w.o explaining Nasuverse mage Rea:"

(Loose translation anyway:

if runes are used as supplemental magecraft like nails or screws, Rea uses them as brick n mortor for entire structure (and it WORKS)

unintentional (if unspoken) speciality in magical circuits construction and, with proper study, magecraft effecting the soul and outright Concepts directly

(FGO Rea absolutely works on an anti-Servant magecraft by targetting the 'thread' that allows that incarnation to have been summoned from the throne in the first place (ie via excising the cause and effect that allows them to have been summoned in the first place, for that summoning)

(Lesser example of this is FGO!Master subverse being incentived to develop 'artificial nerves' Mystic Code for when her Crest bs acts up, ie every rayshift, to mitigate how much it kneecaps her in the field)

she's an American magus that only spent time in Mage's Association for politicking/pawn reasons, and because she's so humble and friendly she has no idea how op any of her bs actually Is. she tries to explain/share it to people and it goes in one ear and out the next

[why-rock-look-tasty-if-no-eat]

I love it so much!

this is so stupid but here’s a little comic i made for a little bingo au me and @twisted-tales-told came up with a few weeks ago. pretty much just the idea that jason needed a cover at some point and stumbled in on bingo night and was quickly adopted by the little old ladies there. now he plays every friday and has beef with dora and gets sent home with banana bread :) clara is trying to set him up with her grandson and all of her problems with her land lord have mysteriously been solved :))

being involved in his community is very important to jason and he loves seeing them host community events bc it feels like his home is healing

bonus: none of the bats have the faintest idea what Jason does in his spare time aside from babs and dick is so butthurt he wasn’t invited (not pictured: nightwing outside the bingo hall window looking in look a kicked puppy while jason flips him off)

(this is my first comic pls be nice it’s just a sketch)

[haikyuupaladin]

TLDR; don’t give tumblr money until they start making visible improvements towards accessibility

I’ve seen a few posts around about something people are calling crab day where you’re supposed to gift the crab button to your mutuals to support Tumblr financially. Please don’t participate in this unless Tumblr starts making noticeable improvements towards accessibility between now and then. It’s been 5 months of me trying to get the bare minimum of accessibility for photosensitive users or even just find out who I can talk to to get anywhere, and Tumblr is refusing to make any changes.

@photomatt has doubled down on the suggestion that you should just pay for ad-free or install an ad-blocker instead of listening to any of the suggestions photosensitive users have repeatedly made. Please do not give money to Tumblr until they show a commitment to accessibility because they will continue to ignore our requests if it doesn’t impact them financially.

Some of the requests we’ve made are:

1. Allow us to disable autoplay on browser as well as the app. This is an accessibility feature, not a data-saving feature, and should be treated as such.

2. Include ads in disabling of autoplay, along with other formats that currently get around the autoplay feature. Currently even if you have autoplay disabled you can still end up with flashing lights in your face every few posts from ads.

3. Improve the reporting process for strobing ads. The quick reporting process doesn’t provide good options to ensure the person reviewing the report realizes that it’s being reported for flashing lights so you have to hope they agree it’s either malicious or offensive and don’t just brush you off as abusing the report function. The more complicated reporting process involves getting a screenshot and the link that the ad brings you to, which requires lingering on the ad, which if you’re trying to report the ad for your safety, is dangerous. You can also still get the same ad 10 times a row after reporting it until it’s been reviewed. Which again, presents a danger to users.

4. Add a community label for flashing lights. Flashing lights are commonly untagged or mistagged, even sometimes maliciously. It would be extremely helpful to the photosensitive community to be able to add a warning to a post that doesn’t have one.

I’ve talked a lot about the photosensitive community in this post because that’s what I have personal experience with and what @photomatt has explicitly come out and just said to buy ad-free about, but there are definitely other accessibility issues that need to be addressed as well (like the alt text function needing improvements to make it accessible to users who need it and don’t use screenreaders, or the fact that a lot of tumblr official stuff still doesn’t seem to use the alt text feature themselves). Please feel free to add on accessibility issues I’ve missed in the reblogs.

[v1si0n]

LOVE ON THE (DANCE) FLOOR⚡️(L.JN)

SUMMARY: jeno was not thrilled about you joining his dance team, especially because he starts messing up every time you’re around. is it really his fault that he gets distracted by how good you look when you dance?

GENRE: smau, enemies to lovers, fluff, humor, angst, college au, dancer!jeno x bookworm!reader

WARNINGS: jeno is kinda mean, profanity, jokes about death, sexual jokes, slightly suggestive, inaccurate depictions of the majors that are mentioned, mentions of alcohol consumption, mentions of (mild) illness/injury, mentions of hard childhood/trauma

PLAYLIST: daddy issues by the neighborhood, safety net by ariana grande (ft. ty dolla $ign), you get me so high by the neighborhood, i wanna be yours by arctic monkeys, lie to girls by sabrina carpenter, stargazing by the neighborhood

NOTES: hiiiiiiii i know i just posted jgmar like two weeks ago but i’m back with ANOTHER smau bc i cant stfu so strap yourselves in and lets get freak nasty‼️ special thanks to babygirl @domjaehyun for helping me with the banner💞💞💞

TAGLIST: open !!! please lmk if you’d like to be added :)

Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑) Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑) Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑) Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑) Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑) Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑)

profiles(1): the dancers

profiles(2): the “nerds”

intro: donghyuck she’s SIX

ch.1: hater alert🚨

ch.2: girl…self respect..?

ch.3: tldr: i got jumped.

ch.4: in this house we stan winter.

ch.5: drama o clock🍿

ch.6: since we’re lying now…

ch.7: odd…peculiar even…

ch.8: jeno is a liar and a half.

ch.9: 1 step forward, 3 steps back

ch.10: the bells are ringing

ch.11: NOT jeffree star approved

ch.12: and the crowd is…concerned

ch.13: winter and y/n’s dorm📍

ch.14: geeking and tweaking

ch.15: get a load of this guy

ch.16: the cat distribution system

ch.17: okay guys what the flip…

ch.18: me and the voices

ch. 19: having a what on who😟

ch.20: anyone else scared?

ch.21: if i could fly

ch.22: bros cooked

ch.23: the adults are talking.

ch.24:

ch.25:

[micahulrichdraws]

I come in peace! I don’t wanna try to convince you to take commissions! But I am curious about why you’re so strongly against them, did you have a bad experience working on one? Anyway, love your stuff, your tarot designs go so hard

Thanks for the love!! The reason isn't a bad experience or some such, it's 19 years of being a professional artist and knowing the field!

TLDR: I'm a traditional pen and ink illustrator, so it's not financially viable or creatively fulfilling.

I'm always down to talk art business, so here's a brief breakdown wall of text:

On the financial side, commission designs are almost always done at a net loss/break even for the artist, and I'm no exception. They're alright for starting out, or if you're looking to incorporate them into your marketing (IE: doing a poster design for a band to gain exposure), but typically they're roughly half the cash-per-hour for any established artist VS making an original design, and creating a print run of it.

Example: while tons of folks would look at someone charging $1k USD for a commission and think that it would be crazy cash, once you break down the math, it's pretty bad. An average design for me takes on average 30-40 hours, and that's because I don't have to communicate with anyone else. I'm just drawin' my idea. Assuming this is a dream client who has the mind-meld with me, wire transfers the $1k straight into my bank account the second it's done, that's roughly $25/hr. Once again - this looks *great*, that's around $50k/yr from drawing custom stuff! But that's not how it works. First of all, most folks would lose their *minds* at paying $1k for a commission - over the years I graphed it out, and back when I was a less-established artist, most folks would start with a budget of $100, have their limits pushed at $300, and outright refuse $500. You have to sift through all of those folks in order to get that reasonable commission. That includes folks who aren't willing to commit to a commission, don't want to say no to the price, but will still take up your time. Roughly, for me at least, 10 hours a week of it. You'll also have to run collections on roughly 20% of your customers - they may pay the deposit, but you'll have to chase them for the final payment. Even if you take the payment *in advance* you'll end up having to chase them down/get ghosted. So, realistically: you end up taking the $500, for *at least* 50 hours of work. On average, it clocked in closer to 65-70. $7.14 an hour. That's less than a third living wage and less than minimum wage. You cannot grow an art practice while actively starving. It's easier to make a design, sell it/license it/etc. to make more cash without losing your mind.

That said - After 2020, I reached a point in my career that when I take on custom work, it's typically from a larger brand with a larger scope and larger budget, ranging anywhere from $5k-$30k. That said - these businesses are typically ones that understand the industry and are far less of a headache to work with than individuals, and will give several months worth of work at a time at a living wage.

On the creative side, I enjoy making my own designs and work as opposed to other folks. I have a ton of drawings and projects I'd rather work on and share with folks of my own that are infinitely more fun than the 200th identical commission request (a biblically accurate angel that also is the grim reaper that is also Baldur's Gate 3 thirstraps/Dark Souls fan art/primarchs because Y'ALL AIN'T CREATIVE BUT MY ASTARION X SANGUINIUS SHIP CAME FIRST.) Also, most of the fun of my career is knowing as many folks as possible get to enjoy my art junk. I'd rather go through a few extra hoops and have thousands of folks see my stuff vs something only one other person gets to see.

If you made it this far, congrats, here is my favorite image I have saved in my camera roll:

[awfuckitssunshine]

i thought they were cute so i drew them! (hope that okay)

sorry guys its selfship time

[thefantastickatinator]

Dropout should hire more trans women.

That said, a couple things about the data set floating around showing disproportionality in casting:

1. 7 of the top 9 (those cast members who appear in over 100 episodes, everyone else has under 70 appearances) are members of the core dimension 20 cast, aka “the intrepid heroes”. This cast has been in 7 of the 22 seasons, with those seasons usually being 20-ish episodes long (the other seasons are between 4-10 episodes long typically). That’s approximately 140 episodes for each of the main intrepid heroes cast members just for these seasons (not including bonus content like live shows). Brian Murphy has appeared 154 times, which means almost all of his appearances were on D20 intrepid heroes campaigns.

2. The other 2 in the top 9 are Sam Reich and Mike Trapp, who are both hosts of long running shows (Game Changer and Um, Actually)

3. 198 of the 317 episodes that noncis “TME” people have appeared in can be attributed to ally Beardsley alone (there is some crossover where for example alex and ally have both appeared in the same episodes). Erika ishii has been in 67 of the 317 noncis “TME” episode appearances i don’t know how much crossover there is between them but i don’t think they’ve been on d20 together so i doubt it’s more than 20. It could be as many as 250 of the 317 episodes that have either erica or ally. Both Erika and ally are majorly skewing the results for the data

4. Over 3/4 of people have no listed gender identity in the spreadsheet - most of them have 1-2 appearances, but a few have 3-4 appearances. I’m pretty sure these people aren’t included in the data at all (some of them i’m p sure are not cis like jiavani and bob the drag queen)

5. The data collector has assigned “tme” and “tma” to various cast members.

TME: transmisogyny exempt

TMA: transmisogyny affected

Now, tranmisogyny can affect trans women, trans femmes, and nonbinary people, and occasionally masculine appearing cis women.

I personally do not believe that an outside person can assign you a label deciding whether or not you experience certain types of oppression- and yet that is what the data collector has done.

I think a more accurate label would be amab/afab, or more honestly- “people i think are amab or have said they are amab and then everyone else”

6. The data does not include many of their newer shows such as Very Important People, Gastronauts, Play it By Ear, and Monet’s Slumber Party, all of which feature trans people (MSP, Gastronauts, and VIP are all hosted by noncis people)

What I think the data more accurately shows:

- Dimension 20 has a “main cast” who have appeared in the majority of episodes

- Dropout has some “regulars” who appear on the majority of their content/shows (sam has referenced multiple times that brennan is one of the first people he calls whenever someone can’t show up for something since he’s nearly always down for anything) - none of these people are trans women

Final thoughts:

I think eliminating “hosts” and the “intrepid heroes” from THIS TYPE of data set would be more appropriate because they massively skew the data when crunching the numbers for dropout shows. Especially since I can tell from the excel sheet that there are shows missing. Examining d20 sidequests and the guests on the other shows will give a more accurate representation of casting. Hosts should be analyzed separately as that’s a different casting process.

Also imagine if we referred to men and women as “misogyny exempt” and “misogyny affected” when doing demographics. Or if someone did a data collection of the number of POC appearances in dropout episodes and sorted it by “racism affected” and “racism exempt” - so weiiiiird

TLDR: the data set has massive issues with its methodology and that should be considered. That doesn’t make what trans women are saying less valid.

In other words: spiders brennan is an outlier and should not have been counted

[kroosluvr]

aftermath

ERMMM this takes place after long winter au third semester.... it could honestly vary but i think sometime btwn 5-10 yrs. sumire is abroad, akira moved back to tokyo after finishing hs/college, goro is. around

SORRY ITS 5am again so ill make this quick . again

QUICK DISCLAIMER this is kinda like a lot of me projecting LMFAOSDOGKJSDHFK@#)40 so like dont read into this tooooo much bc idk royaltrio cld be insnanely ooc here but. YEA.

started thinking abt akira constantly calling up goro and sumire even after 1) goro dies (so they think) and 2) sumire distances herself post-third sem. i elaborate on this on my shusumi fic........ sorry subtle shilling

^ tldr i think these 3 kinda drift apart after the snowglobe world crumbles, that false reality that ironically brought them so close together..... back in reality, things feel Different (but this is Our reality right? why does it feel so strange now?) and so. well its just not the same, no amtter what

the. the “the love was there. it didnt change anything. it didnt save anyone. there were just too many forces against it. but it still matters that the love was there” tumblr post

even though they loved each other and knew it too, there was also some sort of looming feeling that it won't last - but it does, still. it exists, in some meaningful sense-

akira sees and thinks about sumire and goro in everything he does, his day to day life, worries about them, wants to tell them about all he's doing, wants to hear about what they're up to. so he does so by leaving voicemails (although in this case sumire changed her number LMFAO. he does it anyway)

in the same vein, sumire thinks about all the things she'd like to tell goro, but with no address to send it to, it's useless. but she writes them anyway - more and more as a solace to herself, conversing with the memory of goro in her head, making him live on in that sense. and with akira i think it's a little more subtle. here she's trying to find a coffee shop that measures up to lebalnc, and of course she doesn't. there's only one leblanc and only one akira. but yeah like in sumire's case she kinda goes these "roundabout" ways in her Missing Them. theres also the added thing of her wanting to be more independent (from goro and akira and kasumi and tokyo and etc etc etc. also elaborated on in said fic)

goro! i think there's smth so poignant about visiting your own grave (i wrote sumire doing htis in another fic. thats an aside) hair cut, mask on, no gloves, he's a different sort of goro akechi but not really in any meaningful sense either. he's just different. sumire leaves the scarf (i think w sumire, she learns from goro like. omg im blanking on the word. LIKE reliability..? thinking realistically? smth like that.) so shes subconsciously thinks oh ill get him something useful like a scarf to keep warm (and a lil more subtle on the love aspect). akira gets him a lovely bouquet, straightforward and honest w his love/adoration, never afraid to spell it out. smth abt goro needing to live a new life now but also he keeps looking back - but this time, there's love when he looks back. there's still love

a kind of "youll always have home with me" sentiment btwn these 3. even if we never return there, youll still have a place in my heart

like "i dont think ill ever have that kind of love again. but i had it once. and even if i couldnt keep it, its still important." THIS IS HARD TO EXPLAIN

anyway tldr theres just some sentiment w royaltrio w Wanting to move on but also holding onto your past, and learning how to reconcile with the horrible parts but also the tender and lovely parts. sometimes there's stuff you gotta leave behind and grow past, grow around, even if it's good. even if it's good, you still have to push forward. <- a lesson that i'm trying to teach myself currently so thats why this is very. projecting. LMFAODSJKHJKSDKW sorry im crnge goodnight

these notes are horrible dont read these.