#unless they're on sale for like $30

[servantleverslutdrop]

I feel like dress shoes are either glued together shit leather garbage or absolutely unreasonably priced, with barely any inbetween

[mari-beau]

Sometimes being environmentally friendly/conscious is out of people's price range.

[dragongirlsnout]

Go Badge-Free: Tumblr is a multimillion dollar company that doesn't need your loyalty!

Some users ("many" by Tumblr's own unsourced metrics) might want to support Tumblr with something similar to regular donations. Great news! You don't need to, it's a multimillion dollar company, and its parent company, Automattic, was valued at around 7.5 billion dollars in 2021 as stated by none other than Tumblr's Elon-Musk-wannabe CEO himself! Tumblr isn't going to go broke any time soon, and any money you waste on it will just convince staff that the garbage fire they're currently tossing the site into is profitable!

Enter the power of not giving a fuck about useless badges and shitty merch of stolen memes. Everyone with a brain knows auto-renewable subscriptions aren't the way to a "user-led business model", and again, you don't need to show your support for a massive multimedia platform despite whatever their embarrassing ad campaigns that just want money may tell you!

How it works—or doesn't:

Tumblr doesn't care about the users, whether you're giving them money for nothing or not! So take the initiative yourself. Send them negative feedback about the pointless UI updates. Give Tumblr a 1-star rating on the app store or play store. Disable your badges. Block intrusive ads (and potentially dangerous flashing ones). Style the dashboard to look less like a 1 : 1 clone of Twitter. Install additions to fix basic site functionality.

Seriously, who is buying subscriptions besides staff:

The subscription badges do nothing. Nada. Zero. That is, unless staff decides to lock basic functionality behind a subscription in the future, so make so to make it flop before then.

Pricing:

A year's subscription for a useless cosmetic badge costs you $30 USD. Cheaper than Twitter Blue, sure, but it sure does a whole lot less! Meanwhile, fixing your own user experience and complaining to staff is permanently on sale for the low, low price of free. Spend your money on a nice treat instead!

More details:

I don't know how else to put it. This subscription service sucks ass.

That's all for now. No idea who exactly would buy a badge subscription of all things in the first place that staff probably designed in 5 minutes. Maybe someday Tumblr's will figure out how to interpret actual human behavior and user desires, but that day has yet to come. Stay weird, and Tumblr is not your quirky friendly hellsite company <3

[kedreeva]

how comparable is peahen math to chicken math, would you say?

It's not. Whereas chickens lay ~200-300 eggs, year round, and you can get babies around me at least for as low as $0.50 (on sale at box stores or at swaps) and a dozen hatching eggs for $3 (if you don't mind barnyard mixes) and chickens can hatch two or sometimes even three clutches in a year, with anywhere from 1 to a dozen babies, peafowl.... Don't.

Peafowl CAN lay up to about 30 eggs a year (give or take a few), but you're considerably shortening their lifespans to push them to do that every year- in a normal season where a hen sits a nest, she'll lay usually between 3 and 12 eggs, and that's it. There's no second clutch, she will take care of those babies until her next clutch is set, and the babies will continue to hang around her for another year or two if allowed, watching her raise their siblings and possibly even helping, until they're ready to raise their own. The cheapest I have ever seen peafowl eggs is $5 PER EGG, and they range all the way up to about $60 per egg for some of the newer varieties- if a breeder will sell them at all, which most don't. My own typically sell for $15 an egg, and I only offer about a dozen locally every year, if I offer them at all. The chicks, if a breeder is irresponsible enough or doesn't care if they die or even expects them to die (looking at you Brad), start anywhere from $15 to about $35 on average, with a minimum of 2, instead of 4 or 6 like most places that sell chicken chicks.

So, it's a lot harder to get into the same kind of trouble with peafowl, unless you have a lot of money to burn and are already set up for what you're getting. Then there's the fact that even if you have money to burn on buying too many, most people that buy eggs can't hatch them (peafowl eggs are extremely finicky and hate incubators) and most people that buy day old chicks kill them because they don't know what they're doing and peachicks are also very finicky.

Which means most people successfully getting peafowl are doing so at 3 months old or older, when the birds are much more stable, but also cost $60+ per bird, compared to even adult chickens that are often $10-25.

So, not really comparable, imo

[kings-highway]

would anyone read what would probably be a collection of one-shots or only vaguely sequential chapters that was like a slice-of-life/comedy series following the haikyuu third years working part time jobs unrelated to volleyball and developing weird, normal, adult friendships with each other because of it and then going back to school on Monday like "oh fuck right we need to beat them to go to nationals. thats gonna make seeing him at work weird. I hope he still covers my saturday shift if I win."

but the joke of the content would be that it's primarily focused on the work experience

so like Hinata and Kageyama come into a local grocery store and spot Aone and Asahi down one of the isles and spend a whole 30 minutes like "oh my god things must be so tense i hope they can stay civil" but theyre actually just retagging the canned goods for a sale and are just very efficient and silent.

and they go to say hi to Daichi at the customer service desk and he's stressed beyond belief, like, more stressed than they've ever seen him, and they're like "oh my god are you worried about going to nationals next month? yeah Im freaking out too!!"

and he's just like "what? no our new hire just quit so Im trying to rearrange the schedule and I think I need to ask Iwaizumi to cover closing for another few weeks and he's gonna be so mad. He hates working with Semi but I dont have any other options. Unless I wanna move- no there's no point in scheduling someone who doesnt know how to do it-" and hinata and kageyama just back away as he mutters to himself

Kageyama needs money for something and gets his first job with them and on like the first day he ends up working with Oikawa in the garden section of the store and expects it to be a chance for conflict and is all like "im not gonna let him bully me!!! we are equals here as coworkers!!!!" but instead Oikawa just sort of wanders around looking tired as fuck and very robotically doing his work and Kageyama eventually asks him if he's okay and Oikawa is like "dude ive been here since 4 am I dont even know who I am let alone if Im okay."

just classic grocery store employee hijinks

[goodluckclove]

I don't know who needs to see to hear this, but I'm taking a break from writing book two to post a little rant to my fellow indie authors online.

Your work is worth money. Self-publishing is worth it. It's a slow process and it's a lot of work, but holding a physical copy of your book is really cool. Seeing your book for sale on a website is really cool. Knowing you have an ISBN number (Which you can get for free on Amazon and Ingram Sparks) so you can get your book into libraries and indie bookstores is really exciting. Searching your name on Goodreads and having something come up is great, even when no one's submitted a review yet.

I've made almost 30 dollars so far based on e-book sales of Blind Trust. That's not a lot of money. It's a start, though. Once people start submitting reviews I'm going to work on advertising and reaching out to reviewers. I already have a bookstore in Portland that says they'll buy and stock a copy of Blind Trust.

Self-publishing for money does not make you more valid of a writer than if you don't. It doesn't mean you're better. But thinking you shouldn't bother because you'll probably only sell a few copies is not the right way to think about it.

If anyone wants my book they can just ask and I'll give it to them. I have no problem with that. I'll give a free e-book of Blind Trust to every goddamned aspec person that wants it assuming they message me comments on it occasionally. It's cool to make your work accessible. But - like - it's also not a bad thing to want to make 30 dollars. It's not a bad thing to be proud that you made any amount of money off your art.

I'm already planning on what I'm saving my income from Blind Trust for. I'm buying my wife the leatherbound edition of Tess of the Emerald Sea, but they told me I'm not allowed to do that unless I buy myself some french fries first because they're my favorite food.

There's like a balance here, people. We have to remember that.

[nem0-kn0ws-n0t]

Hermit Permits- or Hermitconomics101

I would just like to start off by saying I adore the concept. It's perfect. But also, I'm a massive nerd and I wanna talk about it.This is such a fascinating little economic model. Like, the usual hermitcraft economy is already so fascinating.

Warning-Long post! Also might Slightly skew your perspective of the Gimmick.

At first Glance, the Hermitcraft economy is the epitome of a Perfect Market economy -the basic selling/buying market you think of when thinking of markets-which has a few requirements

1. Homogenous products: gunpowder from Doc's shop is the same gunpowder from Tango's or Iskall or whoever sells it

2. No barriers to entry and exit: anyone can decide to sell. The technology's there. Any hermit can decide to make a farm or manually harvest something, set up shop and sell

3. Sellers are Price takers: If say, X and False are both selling copper ingots (for example), and X prices his higher than False (and they both keep their shops stocked), Hermits will buy from False. So X has to price the same (or lower but shhhh) than False.

4. Product Transparency: If you pay 1 diamond for a stack of iron blocks, you know you're getting 1 stack of iron. (usually) no shenanigans involved

And now the interesting point->

5. Many sellers- In a perfect competition market, the market is usually saturated with sellers, to the point that everyone needs to price the same, or at exactly the cost of production (or whatever needs to be to have the last seller joining the market to have economic profit of 0 but that's real hard to count in diamonds). Usually, this is done by having many firms coming in (free market remember) and undercutting each other until it's at the point where Supply is equal to Demand (yes, exactly the graph you're thinking of). In hermits' case, rarely is there more than one shop for an item unless there is an obnoxious amount of demand for it, and often, they'll buddy up in the same shop and split the profits and the work (I'm thinking of all the wood groups) for the highly in demand items. (More on that later).

So the sellers aren't usually competing with other hermits to sell resources- they're competing with the hermits' other way of procuring resources- The Endless Grind

Think about it- The rule of thumb for establishing the scope of a market (and its competition) is to ask yourself- where do I go if the shop becomes too expensive? In our real-life situation, we go to other shops- hermits just roll up their pixilated sleeves and get to work themselves. They are the alternative. (or Lag but stealing throws off all economic models so we're assuming it doesn't exist.)

A hermit shop, to have sales, needs to price its resources low enough that other hermits will see it as a better (cheaper) alternative than acquiring it themselves.

But Nemo, I hear you ask, isn't it always going to be cheaper to collect the material themselves? All the hermits already have all the tools/technology they'd need to get the resources they'd want, so shops wouldn't work.

But they do work, every season hermits "get rich" which implies there's something "wrong" with my model, which there is.

It's Time. That's the main currency in Hermitcraft.

Any hermits can decide to get any amount of resources with no real limit except Time. Sure, some hermits are more likely to build farms and have it done quicker than others, but all of them can decide to pick up a tool and just grind away (which they do, often). The point of the shops is to be convenient. You could spend 3 hours getting 15 stacks of oak wood, but you could also drop 30 diamonds at Ren's shop and get that done in less than a minute. Which, when you're a content creator on a tight deadline, already spending hours upon hours just building and editing and living outside of work, time is precious. So Time is the real trading currency on HC.

And so there comes a wrench in the plan as you have 2 "types" of goods- you have the Sellers' resources (that cost you diamonds but less time) and your own resources (which cost you Time but fewer diamonds)

Which invalidates point 3. Price Takers- There are 2 very different prices, which you are willing to pay at different times to different degrees. Somedays, they grind somedays they pay.

And thus, there goes the perfect competition model-

~~And in comes Monopolistic competition.

Now, listen to me, this is crucial ish- this is not the same as a Monopoly.

Monopolies imply there is 1 seller. 1. there is 1 way of acquiring the good (at this point in time) (everything is taken as if time is held constant). YouTube has a monopoly on hermitcraft videos (kind of). You can't watch Hermitcraft videos anywhere else, as the hermits don't upload their videos on other websites. If YouTube started charging 10000$ per video watched, you probably wouldn't watch hermit videos anymore. That's a monopoly.

Monopolistic competition is when a few firms sell slightly different products. Think Pepsi and Coca-Cola. They're functionally the same thing (don't @/me for this), but they both still work as companies, because people tend to prefer one over the other.

And thus our model. A monopolistic competitive market.

The real competition was not store vs store (unless for the bit), it was Sellers vs the Grind.

(There are also sunk cost fallacies exhibited, when hermits make their own farms for materials they know they'll need a lot of, which then reduces the time spent, especially with AFK'ing, thus the active time spent being reduced but server time still fluctuating but that can be hermitconomics 102 lmao)

But Back to this season-

With the introduction of Hermit Permits (which, is such a fun term, I wouldn't be surprised if they came up with that first before the concept) they are forcing there to be a single official seller. But hermits are still able to collect their own resources and make their own farms. So the market stays the same.

Which is probably not what you were expecting was it. All this fanfare but theoretically, the model doesn't change. It might change the point at which a hermits decides it's better to grind it out instead of spending diamonds, but not the theory.

But here's the second hole in this theory.

One of the first assumptions one makes about any market model is that everyone involved wants to maximize profits. (which irl, is making the most money).

But the same was as the real currency is Time, the real Profit for Hermits is Content (and engagement, and a whole bunch of parasocial scales to do with audience retention but I'm an economic major, not a sociology or business student damn it, we'll stick with Content) .

Theoretically, nothing changes in the economic model, but the result changes. The potential to change things up is massive, simply because they at least superficially changed something. Rebranding something, in a way that shakes up previously established norms- That's what they're getting out of it. Forcing people to do content about things they normally wouldn't even touch, which inspires viewers to be invested, so see our favourite blorbos overcome the challenge. It's a narrative device.

(If anything, I'd expect this to actually "promote the economy" as hermits would be motivated to stock up their shops, thus making more farms/farm building episodes, or the competition occurring from additional permits being circulated.)

So yeah. Hermitconomics 101- The not-so-perfect competition. Sorry If I burst some bubbles, I just think it's fascinating.

Thanks for reading to the bottom!

TL:DR :This is gonna be so fun, and the hermit economy makes economists everywhere cry

[chuplayswithfire]

I'm not going to rag on the original post, but video games have generally always cost around $30 to $60. A GameBoy used to cost around $80, with each individual game was around $30 unless you caught it on sale or on resale at like, a flea market. The legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, which released in 1998 on the Nintendo 64, cost $59.99 on release, which in today's value is $108.

This is not to say that video games are not expensive, and it's not to say that it doesn't suck that they're getting a little more expensive (AAA games used to cost around $60 10 years ago, now they're up to $70 after hovering around $65 for a while), but the prices aren't actually changing that much in comparison to what they've always been. Video games are costing about the same amount as they always have, the adjust for inflation and the value of money in different periods of time. We really need to avoid romanticizing the cost of things previously, because it leads to this idea that we can go back to a time when things were a lot cheaper.

If anything we need to go forwards to a time where we have price controls for certain goods and an increase in living wage for people as a general rule rather than misremembering the past and how much we used to pay for things.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi, WQA! Thank you so much for all the advice you give! I'm not sure if you can help me out with my problem, so feel free to ignore me. For the last couple of months, I've been very motivated and I've been able to write quite a lot. I was so happy about it and excited to share my stories, but I've barely had any response by the people that read them. It has had a negative effect on me, and I'm slowly and surely losing the motivation to continue writing. So, I guess my question is, how/what can I do to continue writing even though I feel bad and I lose my motivation everytime that I get no response to my stories? Thank you!

Motivation Lost Due to Low Audience Engagement

This is a common thing for writers, whether it's low audience engagement on a fiction-sharing site, lack of ratings/reviews, or low book sales. However, the reality about publication is that there's a lot of competition and it can take a lot of time and effort to find an audience. Every story doesn't garner tons of engagement, and every book doesn't sell a ton of copies. So if you put a lot of weight in those things, the truth is you're bound to be disappointed. For that reason, it's very helpful for most writers to put more weight in the act of writing and publishing, but then let it go after that. Don't pay too much attention to ratings, reviews, comments, etc. And if you can't help glancing at them, just remember that a lack of visible engagement doesn't translate to a lack of interest. People can read your story without rating or leaving a comment, and they can read your book without buying it or rating it or leaving a review. Not engaging doesn't mean they didn't like it--it's just the reality that people don't usually take the time to engage unless their like or dislike was extreme. People don't often engage if they simply enjoyed something.

So... put more weight in what you get out of writing and sharing your stories. Try not to pay attention to ratings, reviews, comments, and sales--but if you do and they're low, remember that doesn't mean people aren't reading your stories/books or that people aren't enjoying them. Write for the people who love your stories, even if they don't always take the time to tell you so. And know that the more you write and share, the more your audience is likely to build, so in time, you may see that engagement build. There are a lot of free author summits, workshops, talks, guides, and articles that offer tips on how to build your audience and increase engagement, so you might find those helpful as well. ♥

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[thephantomcasebook]

Hello! I'm sorry, I don't know how the financial aspect of films and series works, but I was curious, could you talk about the subject of the studio being underwater by 50 billion? I really don't understand since HBO has several series that were successful and HOTD itself was very successful, unlike its competitor from the Amazon studio. As for promotion, I don't think we need to worry, HBO is focusing on TBxTG,so I think it will be Emma and Matt and Olivia and Fabien will promote together 😊

Warner is like a big suit that keeps putting money in different pockets.

HBO is a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. HBO's earnings go into the Warner slush fund and then Warner gives HBO an operating budget. A show is commissioned by a studio who hires a production company, that is paid for by producers.

"House of the Dragon" is given a budget by HBO that is financed by Warner Brother's operating budget. Which means that the show must make back both production and marketing cost, plus salaries of cast and such.

Season 1's budget was around 230$ Million. Which means to make a profit House of the Dragon has to make back at least 780$ Million Dollars in revenue - new subscribers to "MAX", Merchandising, and physical media sales. If the show is a complete thud than they can write it off on their taxes as a loss. But if it's only okay to moderate, than its a disaster cause they can't recoup the money nor can they write off the entire production.

So, the only way that "House of the Dragon" can keep is if it is growing "MAX" by gaining new viewers by pushing subscribers to the streaming service. You need a full turn out from a wide audience.

The issue that almost sank "House of the Dragon" in season 1 was the complete lack of self-awareness from Olivia Cooke, Miguel Sapochnik, and Sara Hess, along with some of the female directors. In that for a show of this budget, of this scale, you cannot alienate an audience.

As much as they live in their Hollywood and London social bubble of "The Morality is Settled" with their childish luxury politics. Most of the world, much less their countries, doesn't believe in their elitist white girl social and political beliefs. Which means that by leading with bimbo feminism, closet lesbianism, and "commentary" on abortion ... you're not just isolating 3/4ths of a potential audience, you're turning off a global audience in general.

So while Tumblr and Reddit might find Emma D'arcy and Olivia Cooke's antics and interviews charming ... no one else did. There remained a lack of care and disinterest in the show and the hard work of others from 30 year old women acting like self-important teenager girls.

If you piss off a large contingent of the audience, then you have a net negative subscriber base, because, people will not watch your show. And then you're going to have to justify to the bean counters in accounting why your show needs a larger budget. Thus, if a large and complicated show like "House of the Dragon" doesn't have the operating budget to tell the story they need, then they cancel your show.

The issue is that due to a lack of professionalism across the board, people like Oliva Cooke and Sara Hess, don't understand this. They're not thinking of the show or below the line workers that need these jobs. They're thinking of themselves and only themselves. By running their mouth and virtue signaling through their privileged white girl luxury politics, they're making themselves look good for activists and Tumblr morons, sure. "OLIVIA IS SO GIRLIE, UWU!" but in reality, the normal person who watches this show doesn't nor wants to care about Cooke's personal politics and, in fact, they're so obscure and unrelatable to a majority of the world that people will be turned off by them.

Most people hate actors and actresses ... and no one wants to hear them talk unless they're playing a character.

So, Warner is operating in a 50 Billion Dollar Hole, and borrowing their production budget on credit from banks. That means that they have to make a shit ton of money ... and fast. Which, alternatively, means that they have to rely on their franchises to get them out of it. "House of the Dragon" is something they can lean on because "Game of Thrones" was a global phenomenon - second highest viewed TV Show of all time behind "Downton Abbey".

Therefore they need the largest audience possible in order to drive growth in "MAX". Thus. the last thing they want is a loud mouth airhead actress or writer/producer going out and making potential customers angry or antagonizing the audience and making them leave.

The worst thing that can happen to a entertainment company of any kind is for the customer to realize that said entertainment company is a luxury commodity and that they don't actually need them. Cause they'll never pay for it again.

[rederiswrites]

Ok, I swear, this one's for the people who DON'T follow K-pop, and only know BTS as some Korean boyband that uses a lot of autotune. Just to highlight some things I'm currently enjoying the hell out of from their careers. Lemme start with some context.

So in Korea, Idol is a job above and beyond just performing onstage. You are meant to be a product. An object for adoration, specifically trained and cultivated to create the sort of parasocial relationship that sells out shows and merchandise. It is fucking rigorous. It usually involves substantial economic hardship unless and until you're one of the handful of groups that makes it big. It's also blatantly predatory, and idols are chosen when they're literally kids, at most 18 usually.

Your contract with the label frequently specifies that you're not allowed to swear, smoke, date, or generally do anything not squeaky clean anywhere you might be seen, which, since they've got cameras shoved up your ass and bolted to your bed, is everywhere. Merely touching a person of the opposite sex can set off a whole scandal and get you (or the poor unfortunate you breathed near) a huge pile of hate. They're also perfectly aware that they're "just" idols, just boybands or girl bands, to a lot of people, and not considered serious musicians, even in their own country.

Idols also have a pretty short shelf-life. Korean beauty standards are, as far as I can tell, even more youth-obsessed than in the US. The oldest female artists are like, 34. There's like, one woman over 30 for every twenty under 20. Men's careers often founder on their mandated military service, which is roughly two years (depending on branch). They've got to serve that by the time they're 30.

BTS got extensions, because they're a statistically significant percent of the entire South Korean GDP. But now the elder members have got to do their service, no way around it. Kim Seokjin (Jin) went in a couple months ago, Jung Hoseok (J-Hope) a few days ago. So the group is on hiatus, there's no helping it.

That was the background. What happens now is the fun part.

The Korean government played politics, bouncing back and forth on "should idols big enough get exemptions" for years, specifically namedropping and using BTS as a political toy. BTS themselves didn't comment on any of it, and played their cards very close to their chest and said nothing about their military service. Then they did a huge concert in Busan, Korea, where they resurrected an old rap cipher which involves chanting "Fuck you I don't care, you can't control my shit", performed it with such fire that it looked like they were legit about to start a riot, and then the next week announced that they were going on hiatus and Jin was entering the military.

Since then, let's see: nearly every member has at least posted a shirtless photo, and the three youngest members have done entire photoshoots (and in one case a music video) shirtless. Jimin released a single titled "Set Me Free"--not terribly subtle--and a photoshoot he made a point of saying he'd designed from the ground up, which is SOAKED in queer symbology. I have to emphasize that these choices are all MUCH more significant than they would be in the US. Min Yoongi put an entire album full of rage and violent imagery and painful intimacy and swearing, and smoked and shot people and performed self-harm in his music videos. J Hope released an album full of dark driving rhythms utterly unlike his previous work, and broke sales records as a solo star at Lollapalooza, even while still singing and rapping primarily in Korean.

Some of the members are quieter, clearly a bit unmoored without the thing that has shaped and dictated their entire adult lives, but they're also shrugging off the idol image with deep relief. Namjoon is philosophizing and being extremely frank about mental struggles and crying on camera. Jungkook is having regular almost uncomfortably intimate lives, where he just sings along with the music or folds his laundry or even just smiles sleepily at the camera for a while. Who the hell knows what Taehyung does. Exactly as he pleases, probably, but definitely while wearing thousands of dollars of fashion and looking like the prince of the dark sidhe.

I was looking forward to this. Not to the military service, of course. As a non-Korean, I'm well aware that it's none of my damn business, but of course I don't like it. But I was looking forward to these guys slipping the leash and having lives and careers beyond the chains of idolhood. And it's been pretty awesome so far.

[aliensubstance-011]

Hi hello I absolutely adore your band AU!! I was wondering if you have any thoughts on the band's appearances, like clothes/hair dye/etc.? Especially given you've mentioned things past highschool

I rlly rlly want to draw these dorks practising together and want to stay true to your ideas :3

Hello I saw this just before I was going to go to sleep and then laid awake Thinking About It for the next 30 minutes so here I am!

Under the cut because there's a LOT!!

Richie

He layers just as badly as in canon

So in my head it goes:

Long sleeved stripey T-shirt

then a graphic short tee on top (which eventually becomes a band T-shirt nearer then end of senior year when Steph joins the band! (And when I design the logo lmao))

THEN a zip up hoode

I'm not done

Then a leather jacket he found at a garage sale (it's slightly too big for him normally so it fits over everything else.)

Ripped jeans + belt chains

He has one of those goth belts with all the metal eyelets in it

Boots!! He has loads of different coloured laces he wears each day!!

And ofc he has his blue hair

He has his ears pierced too- he has these skeleton studs and they're all he wears.

Oh and the green and black bracelet Max eventually makes when he becomes the band's friend. It's tied onto his belt loops every morning.

Peter

Pretty similar to canon in my head

He takes off his suspenders and bowtie when they practice though (he feels safe then)

His hair is longer! He wears it in a man bun because it made him feel more masc before he came out to everyone (in middle school)

When he felt more comfortable (and after he came out) he decided to keep his hair long and the man bun just kind of stuck

He gets an undercut maybe? I can't decide in whether that's good or not.

He had LOADS of ear piercings (industrial, tragus, three on each lobe, conch, helix) but he's too scared to get facial ones somehow

He wears dangly earrings in his main lobe piercing

After he makes friends with Steph and stops wearing his suspenders+bowtie altogether he unbuttons and untucks his shirt during practice.

(Steph almost passes out the first time he does this. She can see his collar bones. Victorian woman seeing ankle for the first time core)

Richie clips a short chain onto his belt loops "So we match!"

His yellow and orange bracelet becomes his hairband- you can't usually see it unless you're looking for it/it's in a ponytail

Ruth

Ruth was actually so so difficult for me to decide

Her normal style just goes so hard yknow?

I think she starts wearing Docs like Richie

But she just has rainbow laces and that's it she doesn't change them

She gets a leather jacket too and paints the band logo on (badly)

The band tee she'll wear but it'll be over-sized and half tucked in

Logo front and back babey!!

I don't know what else for Ruth so if you have any ideas please feel free to use them

Her blue and white bracelet is just on her wrist like a normal person lmao

Steph

Nose piercing Nose piercing!! She has a little ring

Her style is already SO SO good for the band AU!!!

She has fingerless leather gloves

She also has tattoos methinks

The beginnings of a rose + thorns sleeve on her left arm

And a shitty stick and poke star on her right wrist (over her veins) she got when she was 16- it's started to fade so she gets other stars tattooed on her wrist around it (one for each band member?)

She's the one who commissions an artist to design the logo, and gets t-shirts made for each of them!!

She, and Ruth both get the logo put on leather jackets. Steph's is proper vintage and is more of a biker jacket though.

She tries to convince Richie and Peter to get ones too, but Richie doesn't want to damage his jacket and Peter refuses to wear one at all (he won't wear the shirt either)

(She catches him using it as a sleep shirt. She teases him about it for weeks)

She cuts her band top into a crop top but she doesn't always wear it.

She dyes the tips of her hair red for while

But it fades into pink weirdly quick

So she dyes it back to her normal ombre

Steph's pink bracelet hangs from a hole made in one of her drumsticks. Her bracelet was made first (Max cried when he saw it)

Max

Max isn't technically part of the band

But he is their #1 fan forever and ever

So he has a shirt too that he wears to all of their (eventual) gigs!! The logo is a bit faded/damaged and washed out because he keeps washing it the wrong way

He has a scar in his eyebrow from when Steph punched him after she first joins the band (this kickstarts his redemption.) (Punchstarts?)

And he has his purple and yellow bracelet around his wrist!

I still haven't figured out how to fit Grace into this AU at all. I do HC that she thinks all music other than Christian Music is Of The Devil™ and she plays the flute but that's about it honestly... One of these days I'll figure something out

[televinita]

Highlights of my Half Price Books Labor Day sale store tour (sightings & purchases edition):

Things Of Interest I Saw & Didn't Get:

-Both Flawless and Heartless by Elsie Silver. flipped through one out of curiosity, and JESUS CHRIST no I will not be reading those ever, ew.

-Magnolia Parks (incredibly ugly what-in-the-generic-2000s-chick-lit newer/traditionally published edition)

Side note: I really appreciate that at least my local branch has committed to putting the smuttier romance novels, even the popular ones (ex. Anna Huang's Kings Of... series), into their "erotica" section. It doesn't mean the ones in regular Romance are necessarily better, but it does help confirm which ones are guaranteed eyeball poison. I hope it also gives some people enough pause to think about their life and choices, confront what they're actually into instead of tee-heeing about ~spice~.

-The Bright Side by Kim Holden, newer & prettier cover edition, a book on my TBR that I can only get through I.L.L., but alas, the spine was not only wrinkled but fully bent into a backwards C. No, we're not spending more than $2 on that condition. >:( (bonus, now that I've had a chance to flip through it...eh, maybe I'm not that interested after all, the writing style doesn't feel that polished)

-The paperback edition of Fangirl with green sprayed edges and 2 color illustrations...which I should have but didn't realize were new for this edition, along with a new introduction, and damn, now I'm kinda mad at myself.

-If one were so inclined, one could have bought nearly the entirety of Colleen Hoover's backlist, including novellas, at a single location. You could do that at one of two locations, in fact.

-The Once Upon a Book Club special edition of A Diamond in London, in the regular section so I think no more than $10, with all its paper ephemera tucked inside. (tempting, but I already turned down an option to buy the full box on eBay for $30, in part because while beautiful, I'm not that enthused by the story. btw, fascinating that it's not listed on their website -- unless it was bought in the last 6 hours, they only have the trade paperback listed, and then this edition at $40).

-Dorothy Lyons horse book! Midnight Moon, for $35. It IS rare, but that's still more than I paid for my copy, and this one had a bit of the top of the spine bitten or torn off, no dust jacket either.

-Young Warriors: Stories of Strength, ed. Tamora Pierce, even though it was under $4, because I practiced miraculous restraint and reminded myself that I can get this through interlibrary loan and I'm literally only interested in her story and her introduction. How I had the strength to do this and still lost my mind later on is unknown, but at least I showed ONE ounce of restraint today.

-The massive Harry Potter World of Stickers book (truly tempting. but even $11.20 (the price after discount), while a great deal objectively, is a lot for stickers I know i won't use / a thick, heavy hardcover)

THINGS I GOT: (might photograph later but absolutely cannot guarantee it)

-A Mimi Matthews book! (Gentleman Jim, regrettably in its uglier original cover rather than the series-matching Perfectly Proper Press one but I'll still take it for access reasons)

-TWO Betty Cavanna books! (ugly Berkley Highland mass-market photo cover editions, and not ones I know or or am that excited about -- A Time for Tenderness and Stars In Her Eyes -- but I will literally buy anything from her. Also they were $3 each and came in plastic sleeves and, if ugly, are at least in perfect condition).

-Speaking of mass market vintage children's paperbacks in plastic sleeves, The Ghost of Five Owl Farm by Wilson Gage because I read another one of her books earlier this year and liked it. Also it was only $2.

-Did You Hear About the Morgans on DVD (clearance) so now we shall never be parted. 🥰

-I did in fact get the $3 pink edition of Fangirl, even though its spine is sun-faded, because I have spent fully two years now looking at the regular price of $10 and continually saying no to it. I just wanted the interior art!

-The Once Upon a Book Club special edition of The Lost Melody by Joanna Davidson Politano, also with its paper ephemera tucked inside, because that one I was somewhat tempted by when it was new, just not enough to get the full box. And it's even prettier than The Diamond of London, and it was only $6, even before the sale.

-Book 3 in the Alanna quartet by Tamora Pierce, in the pretty Atheneum trade paperback editions I'm collecting, on clearance for $2! Just one more I need now, I think. But should probably double-check.

-The Princesses of Iowa which wasn't even on my want-to-own list, but I happened to randomly spot it while walking past, where it was misshelved in adult fiction, and that felt like...a sign? Tell me why I spent $4.20 + tax on this though, even if it IS a pristine paperback, just because I felt surprisingly fondly toward it when I read it. (and it's pretty i guess)

-Scripted Unscripted, a random young-end-of-YA novel on clearance because damn it the cover is so cute and also I simply could not walk away from a premise of "daughter who normally helps her dog-trainer father on Hollywood movie sets randomly gets pulled to work in front of the camera."

[kanerallels]

501st Follower Celebration!

Ladies and gentlemen, friends, enemies, and assorted others, welcome to my 501st Follower Celebration! I have been planning this one for a while, and I'm VERY excited

The rules for this celebration are pretty simple: pick a number between one (1) and one hundred (100), and I'll tell you about the corresponding au on my list, possibly with a little snippet of what I would write, if I haven't written it. If I have, you get a link to the fic and some background lore (and maybe a snippet. It really depends)

I'll be honest with you guys-- this is like the garage sale of follower celebrations. You never really know what you're gonna get, which is exciting!

But if you prefer knowing, I'll have a little cheat sheet (not super detailed, but you'll be able to find your likes and avoid your dislikes there if you want) below the cut, where I will also be tagging some of my mutuals!

Remember-- any number between 1 and one hundred!! You can also send multiple numbers if you want-- no more than five, I'd say. Thanks for following me, guys, I'm lucky to have you!

(disclaimer: these probably won't get published until after Jacen Syndulla Week, which runs from the 18th to the 24th of June. But after that, they'll start showing up!)

The cheat sheet goes as follows:

1-10 are the Classics. They're some of the first aus I've ever come up with, some of the first I ever posted, and I love them very much. A good example of this would be the Camping Au

11-30 are Modern Aus, which are pretty mundane but I always have fun making Kanera meet in new ways. They're also pretty much always crossovers, because I can do whatever I want. A good example of this would be the Locksmith/Fencing Au

31-40 are my Chenford Aus. They're always centered around Chenford, and the characters from the Rookie first and foremost, although I DEFINITELY cameoed some other characters in there, too

41-50 is Marvel and Misc. Fandom AUs, and largely consists of my Kastle stuff. If you ask exactly the right one, you'll get the most ridiculous crossover I've ever written, and I'm very proud of it

51-70 are the In Universe Star Wars aus, and while most of them are mainly Star Wars characters, there are a couple that are centered around non-Star Wars characters. How Kaz Brekker Saved The Galaxy is a good example of that

71-80 are what I like to call my Feral Gremlin Mode Aus. Aka, if you send them to me I will go Feral Gremlin Mode and possibly write an entire one-shot because I finally have an excuse to write them

81-100 are the Aus Based Off Of Other Pieces of Media! Generally they're inspired by movies, tv shows, or books I've read/watched that remind me of Kanera or the Ghost crew, and then translated so it fits them! A good example of this would be my Batman Au!

For the record: most of these are SWR aus, unless they're marked otherwise, but most aus will have Star Wars characters in it at some point!

Taglist here: @accidental-spice @laughingphoenixleader @thirteenmyspacegirl @heckin-music-dork @singswan-springswan @lucilliantpearl @strige-art @seleneisrising @backgroundagent3 @oldmanwithashield @ladywren7 @firefoxtessa @day-to-day-thots @auroramagpie @opalknight @seleneisrising @cassie-fanfics

[atticollateral]

Losing my mind at work because people who are on floor with me keep trying to order take while I'm the order taker, so they'll put their hands in front of me trying to press buttons on the POS (point of sale system) and I'm just here like please stop, I will figure it out on my own, you do not need to press the buttons for me.

You don't teach anyone anything by intercepting someone else's work. People need to make mistakes and fix them themselves in their own way. after making a mistake, if you want to explain how to fix it, that's fine! that's all well and good, but neither of us benefit from the way you're trying to "fix" my service. I know when I am making a mistake. If it takes me longer than a second to find something on the screen with 30 different options on it, that's okay!!! it is literally my second day on the floor, you can't expect me to know where something is, and I'll find it myself. If that makes me slower, so be it, because I'm in training! I'm not going to be fast- but I'm already faster than most people who start out. That counts for something. 30 second service is insane, and nearly unachievable unless you're making things that are simple (ie. Coffee, lemonade, iced coffee, bagels, running baked goods.) it is 100% okay if I take an extra few seconds to punch someone's order into the POS. Especially a modified food/drink order. Those take everyone forever.

The only time you should be intercepting a new employee's work is if they're going to hurt themselves or somebody else, or they're going make a mess or are clearly struggling physically; like someone carrying a canister of iced coffee or something. Beyond that, intercepting a co-worker's work flow during service is not helping them; it will slow them down and screw up their learning and their service. If someone needs help, they will ask for it, and if they're scared to ask, make it clear that it's okay to ask! You are working as a team, and will be working as a team for the duration of your employment. it's important to know that you can go to other people you're working with for help and questions. If they're mean to you, tell them not to speak to you that way. Nobody should get away with being rude to you. If they keep being rude, you can go to your manager and get them to do something about it. It's literally in your workers rights and written in the employee handbook. <3

TLDR; be kind to new employees and let them make their own mistakes! :3

P.S. if you're ever unsure if someone needs help, ask them how you can help them / if they need to be helped. You will solve so many problems this way. It also helps in every day situations by the way.

[mediapiays]

Kinda funny all the armys that are saying they're gonna get a top 10 for nj. Without a rap beef or Beyoncé Meg usually peaks in the 30s. Unless they're gonna get like 100k sales or something, I really don't see that happening. I'm just curious to see his us spoti numbers. If it releases soon, I say we do a Who recomeback of our own and chart above it. That'd be fun.

I'd say that we shouldn't underestimate him but I remember that yoongi had that juice wrld collab that got decent playlisting and a digital store back in 2021 (armys were at their peak buying power btw) that only got him at 29 and out the next week.