#I’m on mobile so I’m not linking the previous stuff but like just click on the tag lol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ms-demeanor · 8 months

Note

since twitter has become actively hostile to its users, so they came to tumblr, and reddit has become actively hostile to its users, so they came to tumblr, what do we do now that tumblr is becoming (more) actively hostile to its users? i’ve been here for over a decade so i know tumblr users are the type to cling on despite everything and revel in undoing every change, but i’m so tired of the way this website breaks the way it fundamentally works in order to appeal to new users. the twitterfication of the site seems so much worse than when people jumped ship after the porn ban, and even then, only small communities (and twitter) cropped up as solutions. you might not be the person to ask for a definitive answer, but i figured a tech blog might be interested in considering - what do we do when there’s nowhere left to go?

Okay so, I mean this very seriously: how has tumblr meaningfully become like twitter?

I don't personally find the sidebar view obnoxious and it seems to me like just another layout change that's pretty typical to tumblr. New users are getting signed up with a bit more emphasis on algorithmic feeds, but that is still very easy to change (MUCH easier than on any other social platform) and the algorithm has been there for everyone for quite a while, we just typically don't notice it because a lot of long-term tumblr users don't go into the "for you" feed.

I don't think that tumblr *has* fundamentally broken the way that it works to appeal to new users. My dash now is still very much like my dash in 2019, and still very much like my dash in 2018 (though much less pornographic). Reblogs are still reblogs, likes are still likes. Replies, for all that they seem like they've been around forever, are new and good and I think they work well. I'm irritated that the notes menu doesn't have a "view all" option but I think that's a worthwhile tradeoff for an easy way to see tags.

I *do not* understand why tumblr has broken linking back to previous reblogs but I don't think that's out of an effort to act like twitter; it is a bizarre choice that I dislike and don't understand but I also don't think that it has fundamentally changed the way the site works and i mean you've been around long enough that I'm sure you've had the same experience I have of going into the notes of a post and randomly clicking until you found a version that you wanted to reblog without a bunch of bullshit at the bottom. Tumblr has always kind of sucked, this change DOES suck but it doesn't suck in a way that is particularly novel or insurmountable. (For instance, I think this change sucks MUCH LESS than when they made posts with links invisible to the search, that is something that is genuinely bad that has been long lasting but doesn't get brought up much in lists of the ways that tumblr has gone wrong)

Tumblr *is* changing, but I think it is changing more incrementally and less terribly than other parts of the internet. I also hate the floating clown, the login walls, the dash-only view for blogs (you can't archive it and I HATE that), and - to an extent - the new lightbox on mobile. And I dislike that less than I thought I would but I don't think it's a fundamental change that necessarily impacts my interactions with the site - it *adds* a feature that I don't care for but it doesn't *break* anything that I require to have a good time on tumblr - in that way I think of it very much like Live. People hate Live so much and I find that perplexing because it is so easy to simply ignore it.

But that's not really your question; that's just some stuff I want people to think about because as much as tumblr has changed in the last two years it is nowhere near as fucked up as the recent things that twitter and reddit have pulled.

So, as to your question: where do we go?

Well. Not to be an extremely old person on the internet, but damned if I don't miss email lists. And forums. God I miss forums. Neither of those things has all the bonuses of platforms like twitter or reddit or tumblr or facebook, but they were great ways to hang out with people you liked on the internet.

The internet is changing. I can feel it, you can feel it, I'm pretty sure we're all like cattle in a field lifting our noses and hearing some distant rumbling and becoming slowly aware that it's almost time to run. There's a coming stampede and it isn't here yet but you know it's on its way. You're not imagining that, that's how things feel right now and there are a shitload of things contributing to it.

Things like SESTA/FOSTA and KOSA (which has not passed yet but is a big red flag waving on the horizon) have been eroding away the way that users on various platforms can function. Some platforms have consolidated in ways that harm users; some new platforms have popped up and shaken up the map of the internet; some platforms are being torn apart brick by brick by owners who don't care about the users. It kind of seems like people are actually looking up and realizing that advertising is A) bad and B) doesn't actually work and I think we're running straight toward another advertising-based crash like we saw in 2017. It feels like all the desperate things that tumblr is doing is just rearranging deck chairs on the titanic as the internet as a whole starts to sink into the ocean.

Honestly, I don't think it's that bad. I think it *feels* bad, but I think we're looking at a slow whimpering death of the platforms, not a bang. I think tumblr is going to hang on at least for a few years and I think it's going to end up like livejournal and myspace, which both still exist as websites that are recognizable as updated versions of the sites they were in 2004-2010. The thing that I think would really, honestly hurt tumblr in a fundamental way is if it moved to a more algorithmic and data-sales based model of advertising, and I think that's still pretty distant. I think Automattic is aware that killing the chronological feed would be the one unforgivable sin that would cause a mass exodus and a final crash, and I think when we see that, when we can't just scroll through the feed and see what our friends did that day in order of when they did it, that's when the party is over here.

But that's still not answering your question.

So, where do we go? What do we do? Well, for now, I'd say it's a good time to get contact info for your friends across various platforms. Get email addresses, get phone numbers.

Now is also the time for you to set up a personal website. NeoCities is currently the best place to do this, though it takes a lot more effort than just starting a blog on tumblr. I think that various oldschool blogging sites like Wordpress and Blogger/Blogspot/whatever the hell the google one is are a better place to have your emergency backup than a more platform-y platform if you aren't up to doing something with NeoCities.

If you've got the ability to do so and a group of people who are interested in the same core subject, set up a forum. There's a decent amount of off-the-shelf forum software out there and a text-and-small-images forum isn't prohibitively expensive, but it's never going to be huge and you're never going to have the kind of spread and virality and random connections that you would on a platform with millions or billions of users.

If you can't set up a forum, setting up or joining a discord server for your friends is a decent enough option at the moment, and may be a very good option for people who are looking to keep their interactions more private.

But yeah i think right now is a great time for people to start setting up their own personal websites, to start visiting actual webpages again, to start bookmarking their friends' websites, and to start collecting contact info that isn't tied to platforms.

870 notes · View notes

badassxbirdy · 8 months

Text

Edit: Some people are having trouble with the mobile nav link in the blog description. Click here if it isn’t working for you.

October Activity Update - Pinned Post

Happy spooky season! It’s time once again for an activity update! If you’re new here: these monthly posts help me to keep track of what the frick I’ve been doing, particularly when tumblr breaks or the brainfog strikes. This update includes things posted or in drafts for August and September, as I missed last months post. Everything else can be found in previous monthly updates under this tag. There’s also the thread tracker here.

The full activity update (along with OOC house keeping) is below the cut. Bold text = links.

If you want to see all IC interactions without the other stuff, click here. If you’d like to start something new, there are opens and memes, or you can just hit up the DM’s. You can also add Ty on Wire for IC texting.

Now onto the update!

OOC housekeeping:

I can no longer trim posts that were started in the legacy editor. I’ll be messaging folks about moving threads to a new post as and when those replies come up.

Text size! While I personally prefer small text as I find it easier to read on mobile, I know many folks prefer the opposite. So rather than relying on my memory to keep track of who to use bigger text for, I’m just going to match whatever text size my RP partner uses going forward.

RPThreadTracker does a fantastic job of tracking replies even when you don’t get a notification on tumblr itself. If you’re having issues with the current notifications glitch, I really recommend giving it a try.

There’s been a weird situation happening anons where they’ll send a really dodgy message, and tag another blog to try and incriminate them as the sender. Here’s a PSA post explaining.

Threads, replies and other IC interactions:

@astormymind

Library ghost (drafted) (Finn)

Memes from Prue and Alex are in the drafts!

@beastbitten

“I ain’t lookin’ for trouble.” (link)

@demcnsinmymind

Car trouble (drafted)

Taking Lance on a hunt (drafted)

At the motel (link)

Azzy proves a point (drafted)

Mischief at the bar (link)

@demonstigma

Kage is weird, but Ty appreciates accidental compliments. 😂 (drafted)

@derschwarzeengel

Ty tracks down Vampire!Damon. (link)

“Ken means…” (drafted)

Fence related incidents (link)

Roasting 50 shades (link)

Damon shields Ty, Ty calls him a gothy tree-hugger. 🤷‍♀️ (link) - moved from the legacy editor.

Damon encounters Dark!Ty (link) - moved from the legacy editor.

Ty gets sick and is a brat about it. (link)

“She’s a ghost AND a bitch!” (link)

Werewolf problems (link) - moved from the legacy editor.

@destroyerscved

Magic bean juice (drafted) - Edward

“How did you find me?” (drafted) - Nia

“If you actually wanted to kill me, I'd be dead, wouldn't I?" (link) - Adrian

“Drink your school, stay in drugs” (drafted) - Samantha

@discipulusmaleficus

“ This isn’t what it looks like.” (link)

Abandoned house (drafted)

@ebonyforged

Ty meets Ebony! 😁 (link)

@first-born-to-his-name

“What is your day job?” (link)

@hvbris

Ty meets Hook (link)

An appointment with Doctor Soliman (drafted)

A questionable attempt to cheer up Olive. 😂 (drafted)

@imprvdente

Ty and FBI!fish at the motel (link)

Birthday mischief (drafted)

@indyflanery

At the fair (drafted)

@jchnwinchester

“You know me?” (link)

@kingofthewebxxx

Ghost warnings? That’s new. (link)

@loyaltyguided

Cuteness with Azzy! ❤️ (drafted)

@lcbcshcart

Monster encounter (drafted)

@luposcainus

Ty is shocked to find Caspian isn’t dead. 😂 (link)

@magaprima

Demon problems part (drafted)

Demon problems part 2: electric boogaloo (drafted)

@nightiingaled

“You should have killed me when you had the chance.” (link) - Than

“I need a stronger word than fuck” (link) - Mel

Time for “The Talk” (link) - Mel

@normallyxstranger

Starter for Victor (drafted) - Welcome back! ❤️

@ourwar

Babysitting Jude and the Doctor (link)

“You’re welcome.” (link) - Homelander

@pantslessoptimism

“I totally didn’t do what you think I did.” (link)

Cannibal ghosts (link)

@stanfordprepped

“What in the reese's peanut butter fuck is going on here?” (link)

@tobeblamed

Dean is better than google. 😇 (link)

Memes/asks: 8

Drafts: 21, and I have no idea how I got so far behind jfc. ☠️

Headcanon, Dash games, and assorted silliness:

Bingo cards with Lance, Azrael, Fish, Isaac, and Michael! (link)

Mel and Killian come to blows while Tyler is missing. (link)

Messing with Killian. (link)

The bot brigade are annoying, but they have some truly banging names! Here are some of my favourites.

I think that’s everything! As always: please let me know if I’ve missed something. I never intentionally drop threads without notifying, rest assured that if it’s not here I am either having a brain fart or I simply have not seen it. Remember to be kind to yourselves, and stay safe! ❤️ — Em

#activity update #pinned post

2 notes · View notes

unforth · 3 years

Text

So, English-Speaking Danmei Fandom... (Part 2!)

...you saw my post yesterday and you’re like, “okay, I made a JJWXC account and now I know how much the thing I want to support costs, how do I do the actual money thing?”

Here, I’m figuring it out right now, let’s do it together. I AM STILL RELYING ON THE GUIDE BY SHOKO TRANSLATES. YOU SHOULD USE IT TOO. I have only the most basic idea wtf I’m talking about, and I only have that much because of this guide. That said, it seems to focus more on mobile, and I’m using desktop, so if you’re also on desktop my thing here might help you?

One, go to the payments page. Fortunately, they’ve made it pretty easy to find...

...by making it the one on that list that’s in RED. Handy, right? No, I don’t know what it actually says. Again, I don’t speak a lick of Chinese. I have some Japanese so sometimes I recognize characters but that doesn’t get me far, ha.

Once you click that (you have to be logged in, of course!) it’ll open up a new screen, with a list of payment options on the right. As far as I can tell, this is what the choices are:

I’m gonna take a stab at international credit card, since that’s...the only one of these I have??? I tried to figure out what the “shenzhouxing” prepaid card is but basically got no where.The Shoko Translates guide does NOT have instructions on this part, at least not for desktop? And the pages look pretty differently on desktop. Anyway. Here goes nothing...I’m mostly relying on C&P and Google translate. *sweatdrop*

So, there are two tabs, but I can’t C&P them and I have no idea what they say. However, the one on the right doesn’t have any boxes for entering stuff?? So I’m gonna stick with the left...OH. It’s a page for doing security questions. Oh god, um.

Alright. So. Put your password in the top box. For the security questions, what they say is basically irrelevant, except it’s worth noting that the default option is apparently not a question - it’s just “select one.” If, like me, you don’t know Chinese...just pick whichever questions, and put in answers you’ll remember. It doesn’t give a damn if your answers are correlated (though, the first one on the list has something to do with dad, and the second on the list has something to do with mom, I recognize those characters, ha. It doesn’t let you pick the same questions twice...and there are two near the bottom that I THINK might be “father’s birthday” and “mother’s birthday.” And one about elementary school. Sorry, I’m distractable. The point is, the questions don’t matter as long as they accept your answers! Yes, it accepts English ones, and no it doesn’t have anyway of knowing if your answers correlate to the questions at all. TAKE A SCREENCAP OF YOUR CHOSEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS AND SAVE IT BECAUSE YOU’LL NEED THEM AGAIN!!! Do your pattern match thingy, then click the green button, and there’s another page which looks like it’s asking me to re-enter the same answers.

Click the green button on that second page, and there’s a new page with a single line of Chinese text:

“恭喜你，密保设置成功，点击此处跳转到用户基本信息页面”

which, according to google translate, is

“Congratulations, the secret security setting is successful, click here to jump to the user basic information page.”

Guess I’ll click the thing.

ALRIGHT. So, after doing all that, it takes me back to a home page? Awesome. Whatever. As long as it worked. Click on that red one in the navigation bar again, and NOW when you go to the “international credit card payment” one...

AHA THIS IS VERY PROMISING, lol. So, based on Shoko Translate’s guide, that place drop down menu with “17″ written says “USD” after it, and that it’ll get me 10,000 points. It looks like it processes payments through Paypal; based on my experience with Paypal, that means you may not need an actual Paypal account? But I’m honestly not sure, and I’ve had a Paypal account for 20 years, so I’m just gonna, ya know, use that.

A little window pops up that I’m assuming (blind guessing) is a “this will take you to another page/open a new window, is that a thing you want?” and I clicked the option on the right, and yep, it opened my Paypal. I’ve got a card on file, so...I’m just doing that. (I’d...better make sure I actually have $17 in my account... *another sweat drop*...okay yes I have like $80, wooo...oh, crap, I accidentally paid from my business account, sigh...well, there was def money in there but I’d better pay myself back...ANYWAY.)

Do the payment thing!

It redirects back to JJWXC!

It says something in big bold letters and I have absolutely no idea what! But then it loads, and it’s all the Chinese that I now recognize as my personal account page, and when I scroll to the bottom and...

...well I have no idea what any of that says but it sure as hell LOOKS like victory. Now to see if I can actually, ya know, buy a thing! I can’t afford to get everything I’d like to at once - I’m pretty broke - so I’m going to start with Tian Guan Ci Fu. It’s my favorite danmei novel, and one of my favorite books of all time, AND it’s by MXTX so even though I can’t buy MDZS on here, I can still support her. I linked to it yesterday in my previous post (which, again, is here).

Author: 墨香铜臭

Title: 天官赐福

Direct Link:

https://href.li/?http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=3200611

Now...

1. scroll down to the chapter list and click on the first one that says [VIP] next to it. Click the chapter title.

2. the circled button is “select all”

3. a pop up checks if you actually meant to do that. click the one on the left to confirm.

4. scroll to the bottom, and...

5. ignore those two check boxes, you might think they’re a ToS confirmation or a “are you sure” but they’re actually about subscribing to the book (which is pointless, since it’s finished) at least according to google.

6. ...uh...shit...now I have to figure out which of these buttons actually does the thing...um...oh thank God, it’s in the Shoko Translates Guide. So, there are five buttons right below the line saying how many points I have. The first is “confirm purchase” so, ya know, just ignore the other ones and click it.

7. A dialog box popped up! It says how many I spent and how many I have left and a bunch of Chinese and two mystery buttons...thank God, again, for Shoko translates, apparently they’re “read now” on the left and “read later” on the right. I’m gonna “read now” just to see if it worked...

8. Well...it sure looks like a book??? I have the PDF translations (a copy from before it was removed, and no, I won’t share it), and, um...okay, so the first unlocked chapter is 21...oh hey, I see San Lang (三郎)! That’s, like, the only thing on this whole page I can read! lmao. Anyway, comparing, like, pagination, and the placement of the exactly one thing I can read, YES, this definitely worked!

SO.

This has been your second installment of “disaster dumb white person who speaks no Chinese liveblogs their way through figuring out how the HELL to buy danmei on JJWXC.” If this has been helpful to you, please REBLOG, SIGNAL BOOST, and more importantly, SUPPORT YOUR FAVORITE DANMEI AUTHORS!!!!!!

(I own TGCF. I’m so happy omfg. 😭 😭 😭 😭 )

(and as a reminder: I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. If you have a question that requires that someone know what they’re doing, DON’T ASK ME. Instead, try the Shoko Translates guide I linked at the beginning!!! Here, I’ll even link it again. USE IT. DO THE THING.)

#unforth rambles #tgcf #mdzs #svsss #2ha #erha #guardian #hell if remember what else i tagged yesterday #here guys i did the thing #now it's your turn #and now i've gotta go do my actual job

93 notes · View notes

boogiewrites · 4 years

Text

Mae Flowers Ch. 7

Characters: Alfie Solomons x Mae LeBlanc (OFC)

Summary: A modern, magical Alfie Solomons AU. Mae works towards growing her powers and Alfie is there to explain every step. They begin learning more about each other and find a connection that neither truly expected.

Warnings/Tags: Language.Magic/Supernatural. Soul mates.Some domestic fluff, getting to know you stage. Talk of the unknown.

Click on my screenname then go to Mobile Masterlist in my bio for my other works and chapters. (Had to do this since Tumblr killed links, sorry.)

The sun rose high enough to peek through her curtain. It wakes her by gently kissing her face. Mae greeted the new day with enthusiasm.

Alfie had given her the task of sprouting, growing, and blooming a plant with her powers. She had been a bit cocky, she supposes, after the meditation went so well. But using her own undisciplined powers to do work was entirely different from receiving a gift of knowledge from her light. With Alfie's strong influence, the visions were much stronger than she could’ve formed herself. He’d asked endless questions, just like she would do. But unlike her, he'd had years to find the answers.

She stood in the kitchen, glaring out the bay doors at the sprouted plant on the patio table. She sipped her coffee as the maker gurgled in the background. The house was quiet, save Percy's feet crunching in the litter box.

Alfie had set her a task, and she was days into trying to achieve it. He had vaguely explained that he had some spell work to do that he needed privacy to accomplish. After giggling at the way he pronounced privacy she nodded and he disappeared. He’d still been up every morning, looking a little rough around the edges. She didn’t want to pry but she also thought she might want to know what was going on in her house.

It was almost 10, she’d taken her time and lazed around long enough. She'd showered and eaten while hoping he would appear. But he hadn’t. So her curiosity got the better of her.

She made her way to the wall that held the archway to her sunroom and the door to the guest bedroom. She stood with a furrowed brow and pressed lips. She felt like she might be behaving rudely. She quietly knocks, her hand hovering over the door for some minutes before she talked herself into it. A quiet knock, then a more confident one after no noise from the other side. She pressed her ear to the door and heard nothing, not knowing if she felt relieved or more worried.

“Alfie?” She asked with a crack to her morning voice, not yet warmed up. No response. She tried to focus, head to the door, and see if she could feel anything. She didn’t really know what she was doing though, they hadn’t gotten to that lesson yet.

With no answer she reluctantly reaches for the knob, hand once again waiting to take action. As she clicks it, it sounded like one of the loudest noises she’d ever heard. She makes a space big enough to peep her round face through.

“Alfie?” she spoke softly, voice barely above a whisper into the stillness of the room. She made her way in, turning to see him star fished on the bed. His hair was a mess, hands still covered in what looked like soot, and lips pooched out while he was clearly in a deep sleep.

There were jars sealed with wax all over the dresser, salt around them, and little labels attached with twine to each. She was most curious and began to move towards them before a sudden grunt and sniff catch her attention from the bed. Unknowingly she’d passed the threshold of protection Alfie had cast and it had woken him up from his much-needed rest.

“Mmph Mae? What ya- bloody hell what time is it?” His brow arches high, dad noises followed as he rolled over to reach for his phone. “Oh fuck I’ve slept in.” He mutters and begins the process of moving his tired and half awake limbs to sit up on the bed.

“It’s not a problem, I just didn’t know what you were doing in here. I knocked… by the way. I was worried about you.” She explains hesitantly.

“No need. Just restin' me eyes.”

“Mm hmm.” She hums.

“Don’t appreciate that sarcasm Mae.” He rubs his eyes but she sees the grin behind his soft dark gingery beard.

“I knocked… like I said, twice, and said your name and you just laid there so…”

“You callin' me a liar? Bold of ya.” He kept a deep gruff tone as he yawns and stretches, but she could tell he was joking somehow. She felt comfortable with him in the snippy exchanges.

“Well I ain’t callin' you a truther.” She shrugs and gives a huff of a laugh.

“You’re a funny little flower, Mae.” Her odd response makes him laugh that turns into a cough. They share a pleasant lingering smile before something catches Mae’s attention. A movement under the covers of the bed.

He feels it against his hand and shoots his eyes in the direction Maes wide ones are staring.

“What the-?” He grumbles and jerks back the covers, and much to Maes horror a huge snake is making its way from the bed to the floor and towards the open window. “Fuck me, that wasn’t a dream? Ya sneaky cunt! Get out, ya slag!” He shoves the snake off the bed with a heavy thump while Mae presses herself against the door with too many questions rapid firing in her head. “I was tired from the work and you come all the way out here-?” His hands wave and he stops as if he were interrupted as he pushed the snake out the window. “Work innit?” He snaps and opens the window wider. “Ya ain’t fuckin special love. That’s always been ya problem. If ya never learn you’re gonna be like that forever!” He sticks his face thru the window opening before slamming it shut.

He turned around all huffed and annoyed and now awake.

“Uh… friend of yours?” Mae asks with a broken nervous laugh.

“I’m sorry Mae. She snuck in, I didn’t invite her. She’s never been much for respecting people’s space.”

“Wuh… so it was a friend?” She asks with eyes still looking at the spot where the snake had slithered out even though Alfie is moving around the room now to put the sheets back on the bed in his pajamas, a very rumpled white t-shirt with a v cut and his always present smattering of amulet holding necklaces.

“Well… yes and no. Bit complicated.”

“Like Facebook ‘It’s Complicated or…?”

“Like what?” He stops to plop on the bed and gives her an intimidating stare that suggests she might be behaving like an idiot.

“Y’know the relationship options on Facebook?” She says with an obvious nod. “You do know what Facebook is right?”

“Of course I fuckin know what Facebook is ya cheeky bugger.” he says harshly but huffs a single hard laugh.

She grins at his response and continued on with a lazy lilt to the early afternoon conversation. Her hands moving casually as she talked like the dust that was visible in the sun through the guest, well, Alfie’s room window now. “People can put it’s complicated as a relationship status. Usually, a sign someone’s made some bad decisions at some point.”

“Yeah? Like, fuck a snake?”

She snorts and covers her mouth as she laughs with bright eyes. “I wasn’t gonna say it but-“

“Didn’t have to read ya mind to know that’s what you were thinkin’, mate.” He shakes his head and fussed with his hair for a moment.

“I’ve been told I have a very bad poker face.”

“Terrible.” He says obviously but she felt the warm tone in his voice as he stood and gave her a smile that wasn’t accusing. “But it’s also somethin' you can learn.”

“Another thing to add to the long list of things you’re going to teach me.”

“That it is.” He says with an affirmative nod. “It comes with controlling your emotions. You feel things so strongly because you are unpracticed but we’re workin' in it yeah?” He nods and pats her shoulder.

“We are. I don’t feel as bad as I usually do after a rough day like yesterday.”

“Very good. Since I slept in like a fuckin lazy sod have ya got around to ya studies today?” They both move and carry a conversation into the kitchen as he makes himself some tea.

“Not yet, was being slow because I didn’t want to start until you got up. But then-“ she motions towards the cracked guest room door.

“Ridiculous, innit?” the previous annoyance at his unexpected visitor comes back to show on his face. “Not even my house and she doesn’t know you, yeah? Just invites herself in. Like everything’s bloody normal.”

Mae blinks with curious but very polite eyes as he rests against the counter for a moment, huffing and displacing a fluff of hair hanging onto his forehead. “I’m glad you also don’t think it’s normal. I know things are gonna start changing now, but python booty calls were not something I was prepared to handle.” She pauses her thousand-yard stare shifts to him. Blinking her full lashes over brown, now golden in the noon sun, eyes. “Not to be rude or anything. Just… being honest.” She shrugs, making herself smaller. “Thought it would be best to be… y’know with… all this witchy stuff.”

“First off, not a booty call.” He dismisses with a swipe of an expressive finger. “Secondly, honesty is the best policy. Always…. Unless ya Gotta lie.” He gives a more sly and cheeky smile her way as he takes a sip of tea.

“Are you lying about the snake booty call?”

“Nah, mate.” He gruffs out casually, “Not that I didn’t before she found herself in her current form. A stone-cold bitch of a witch that one. Piss off the wrong witch and ya go 'bout bein a twat and then next thing ya know you’re cursed to take her so-called, and very dramatically said at the time I might add- “true form”. He pauses, his tight but expressive face once again hides behind the tea mug and the fluff of mustache over the rim. “Old flame 'n that. Long, long time ago now.”

“How long is long for you? Since you’re…?”

“I prefer the term immortal to old if that’s what’s ya askin'.”

“I wasn’t but thanks for clarifying.”

“Years before you were even swimmin' in ya gran dads bollocks.”

“That’s the grossest way I’ve ever heard that put. Creative but, still gross.”

“Didn’t mean to be crude at the table, love.” He gives a nod but the polite face has mischievous and playful eyes behind it.

She huffs out a quiet laugh. “Wasn't a complaint.”

“Good to see ya aren’t squeamish. A sense of humor will help ya out in this work. Also nice to know my other half isn’t a stick in the mud.”

“Oh, I’ve been called that before.” She adds quickly and he laughs.

“Eh, don’t seem too bad to me Mae.”

“Well we just started so just give me a bit and I’ll let ya down.”

“Bad attitude like that means one thing.”

“What?”

“You didn’t eat a good breakfast did you?”

“I had-“

“Yeah, those bloody breakfast bar- bullshit things.” He cuts her off. “Ya have to eat real food now, pet. So we’ll be late getting at it today but nothings gonna get accomplished by no human without bein' fueled properly.”

“I don’t usually cook a big breakfast.”

“And ya ain’t gonna start now. I got it.” It’s almost as if her thought of standing to help was nipped from her mind, swearing she might’ve felt a light push to stay in her seat by some invisible force.

"You're not fattening me up to eat me are you? You and that snake?” She asks with a subtle playful smile but accusing eyes.

He lets out a loud sudden amused sound at her suggestion. “Maybe I am. Gonna butter ya up and stuff you in the oven.” He gives her a wink and chuckles to himself at the delightful energy she was putting out today before he turned back to the counter.

She blinks rapidly and finds herself hiding a flush in her cheeks at the seemingly innocent gesture. She retreats back to her normal sitting posture clenching her teeth to fight the smile that would otherwise appear on her face. Being forced to reckon with a handsome man winking at her that she wasn’t repulsed by was something new and she didn’t want to look like a giggling school girl. She was far from being a schoolgirl by being in her thirties but he made that same old energy bubble up inside her.

She clears her throat and tries to gain control of her emotions before they sweep her away. Since he’d been around all sorts of things were becoming quickly overwhelming. Since Alfie's appearance in her life, she’d started having mood swings, vivid intense dreams, and some rather animalistic passing thoughts. Most of them with the focus being on her new roommate. And she wasn’t talking about the unusual amount of reptiles she’d seen the past few days. She could swear the birds chirped louder now. It was as if she was going through some psychic puberty. Every sense and emotion was turned up so drastically it was as if she could feel a static tingling at all times. It didn’t hurt, but it was something she was trying to get a grip on. She was trying to be optimistic but her first round of puberty was something she felt she’d failed miserably at.

Alfie could feel her energy shifting and remained quiet. He had been both confused and impressed with her attempts to control all this new energy herself. He didn’t know why she didn’t ask about it but knew she was a scrappy little thing, forgo the occasional breakdown. Which he thought she had earned.

“MROW?” Percy jolts up from his warm bed in the sunroom, his morning sun spot starting to shift. He trots into the kitchen, the shifting of energy from his master drawing him from the bed.

He was a welcome distraction for her and both the men in the room, both he and Alfie felt ease as soon as Percy was in Mae’s lap and focusing her attention.

“Good little lad you’ve got there,” Alfie says, looking over his shoulder at the cat purring and grooming its owner.

“When he wants to be he’s very sweet.” Mae let’s put a sigh and cuddles him closer, feeling the tension in her body dissipate as she rubbing her face into the fur of the large white fluffy boy with his pink toe beans and nose.

“You know… I have a Percy.”

“You have a cat?”

“No, love. Percy is your familiar. I have one right now as well.”

She blinks in thought for a moment. “My familiar?” She asks, directed at the cat who was staring up at her with bright green eyes.

“A companion. A kindred spirit. He’s a little soul that is meant to help yours.”

She stares into the cat's eyes. “He just showed up one day. Like he already lived here.”

“Because he was called to you. Your power must’ve been blossoming at the time.”

“So you’re my familiar huh? If you’re supposed to help, why do you sleep on my clean laundry?”

Alfie let out an amused chuckle.

“Mrrm.” Percy responds and flicks his tail.

“I’d like to know how sleeping all day is supposed to help me out.” Mae gives him a big smile and scratches his chest. “Sassy little butthead.”

He purrs in response and rubs against her chest.

“Is your familiar a cat?” Mae asks while fussing over the affectionate cat in her arms.

“Oh no. Charles is nothing of the sort. A cat wouldn’t suit me would it?”

“A big fluffy ginger cat might.”

“Offensive language.” Alfie protests and Mae chuckles to herself.

“What is he then?”

“I’ll have you meet him sometime soon. Best to let him introduce himself instead of me.”

“Is he an animal?”

“He is. Familiars tend to be.”

“Can they be other things?”

“Sometimes a human. But rarely. Some have been Fae. Some like to stay in specter form if their counterpart is gifted in communicating with that plane.”

“So like spirit guides?”

“Good comparison, yes.” Alfie nods as he continues moving about the kitchen. “There are many forms any single soul can take, you see..” he began an impromptu lecture which he had done on occasion for the sake of educating her. He kept talking, as she found he had the tendency to do if the mood struck him. For now, he stuck to lessons about her, the baby steps any born and raised witch would know without even realizing. He didn’t want the sweet thing to seem like she lacked common sense when it came time to mingle with others like them. So he tried to begin with what to do to be able to perform at your best. He spoke of fuel and food, energy creation and destruction, and how it works with people like them. Or well, her, he was different from her biologically. But that was a lesson for another day.

—————————-

Alfie checks on Mae once again, a little lump sat in the grass in her back garden with those golden eyes focused on her task. He hadn’t really known how fast or slow the process would go, and the fact that she had made any progress at all made him happy for her. She sat with her hands pushed against her face, elbows on her knees as she sat with crossed legs in the grass in front of the plant. Her button nose was wrinkled, thick dark brows made her look more severe than usual. A stray loose curl would flop in the wind on occasion, but besides that, she was being very still. The fruit-bearing trees planted along the high fence line now had different symbols in new shiny paint. Mae had learned about protection and she was taking it very seriously. The glitter paint, her choice, sparkled in the light along with the various windchimes and suncatchers she had hanging all over the garden. You could always hear at least a small ting of metal against metal outside, it was something Alfie grew accustomed to quickly and found it rather pleasant now. All her new decor made space seem even more full of life with the rapid onset of spring. Not to mention Mae’s growing powers were causing the flora all around her home to begin to flourish early.

Alfie was writing labels, carefully packaging the spells he’d made to send out. He was enjoying a quiet afternoon. The weather was pleasant and the clink of chimes with the lazy breaths of wind outside was a calming melody. He was musing about how nice it was to finally feel some true calm for the first time in his afterlife. This is why the sudden shrill scream of Mae made him almost drop a spell jar in surprise. He would’ve never let his guard down enough to get caught off guard like that before he’d met Mae. He’d never stopped to consider if being with his other soul half might make him soft. But it was swept away from his cares when he saw the bundle of sunshine that was Mae. He could see the joyous yellow rays emanating from her small feminine form. Her hair bouncier and her cheeks flushed as she screamed his name in the middle of jumping up and down with excitement.

“Alfie! LOOK!” She squeals and stomps her feet, her hands with the chipped yellow polish point towards a now fully bloomed plant on the ground.

“WHAY!” He throws his arms up in celebration! “Mozel tov boobah!” He claps and approaches her. Much to his surprise she fillings herself towards him in an impactful hug. As soon as her delightfully soft cheek pressed bare against the fuzzy section of his chest his shirt allowed, their breaths caught in tandem. His hand on the back of her fluffy hair, one arm keeping her steady in her back. There was an ebb and flow that much resembled (to those gifted enough to see such a thing) an aftershock that shot through them on contact and was sent back into the world around them.

It felt almost as if she was in the middle of a giant speaker in the back of some fuck boy's car. Or those old 5ive gum commercials. The second feels drawn out and heavy as that pulse connects them and is loaded into their systems. something neither had felt in such a pure form before they felt a split moment of euphoria. A total lack of worry and anxiety, total zen.

They both exhale with synced breath and everything shifts back to its former self. Mae looks up at Alfie with an expression of what the hell was that and he blinks down at her and tells her that for the first time in a long time. He didn’t exactly have the answer.

Mae licks her lips and looks at his chest, her nose set above puckered lips showing the wheels turning behind her eyes. That were a very vivid -damn near glowing actually- golden. They were large and often wet and they reminded Alfie of a frog on occasion. Especially when she wore her little round glasses. He considers this a compliment as he is quite fond of frogs.

“That was..” she takes a deep breath and clears her throat, “...you know those little sand...zen gardens with the stick and you-?” She draws a swirl on his back where her hands stay.

“Yeah. With the wee Buddha’s?”

“I feel like what one of those is supposed to make you feel.”

“Felt much like I’d gone up and slapped the Buddha and he hit me arse back on my end.”

“Didn’t it feel… good? Though?” Her face shows her uncertainty as it always does.

“Ya bloody right it did.” He lets out a warm laugh that reassures her.

“What is..?” She hugs him again. The same grip as before but it doesn’t happen. She squeezes. Waits. Alfie looks around after her third attempt and considers intervening.

“‘Ere.” Alfie says. Moving her hand to mirror his, slightly outstretched towards each other. “Can you see that?” He asks quietly as if he might scare something away.

“I don’t… I feel something though. I think…”

“Trust your intuition, Mae. It’s where the answers are.”

She follows his advice, taking a deep breath and a slow exhale and clearing her mind and really looking at the space between their hands.

“Do you feel anything?” He asks after a moment, seeing her face shift.

“Yes.” A much more confident response.

“Good girl. What is it?”

“It’s..almost like electricity.”

He keeps quiet as he sees it differently. It fascinates him.

“Like the Ghostbusters ray guns.” She answers seriously then laughs. “Except it isn’t really a color exactly it’s, it’s sort of yellow.”

“I see yellow as well.” He nods.

“Now concentrate. Look at the… rays and what they feel like.”

“Oh! They’re happy.” She answers quickly and cheerfully.

“What happens when I-?” He asks and touches their fingertips together.

She smiles and laughs, “It's like you’re touching the surface of a lake.

“It’s a reflection.” He nods. “Now watch.” He begins to move it away and it’s as if a string is being pulled, the flow is taffy and it becomes thinner the farther away he gets. Her power is less loud, less clear the farther he is.

“It’s reacting to you.”

“It’s us. Welcome to stage one of your awakening. You can now see energy.”

“Did this happen because of the flower?” her head tilts like a curious baby animal.

“Flower?”

“Oh! Shit! I forgot! The flower! Alfie look!” She grabs his wrist and proudly shows off the fully blossomed Lily.

“Brilliant work, love.” He touches it and it’s strong and very alive. “Look at this little lass. Gorgeous.” He pets the plants leaves affectionately. “Lovely innit.” He leans towards Mae. “Takes after her muva.” He teases.

“I don’t see anything around it.” She says waving her hand near it.

“You won’t see everything at once. Be grateful for that because you’d go as mad as the first mantis shrimp.” He snorts at his own joke.

“The what?” She asks and shakes her head. “Alfie stop talking about mudbugs and explain.”

“You’re growing Mae darling! It’s all very good. Don’t worry. If there was cause for worry I would tell you, yeah? You’re learning to wield your powers and activating new ones. Natural innit?”

“So this is just my power growing?” She asks referring to the wobbly bit of energy as she moved closer to his body.

“I believe it is our souls. They want to be close. The closer the more vivid it is, see?” He touches his nose to hers and shows the tiny jolt of electricity that appears where their skin touches.

“It’s like static electricity. But it doesn’t hurt.”

“Nah, love they’re happy. They want to be close, little monkeys. They haven’t seen each other for so long. They get a bit excited.” He chuckles and rubs her arms reassuringly. He left a warm and good feeling behind in his wake. “Your powers are growing. You’re doing so well. In fact, I believe you are much deserved a few celebratory festivities, love.” He speaks quietly as he remains close to her.

“Like donuts?” She asks with a perky inflection.

“Could be but I was thinkin' more you should get yourself done up. Celebrate yourself. We can go out and I suppose eat since that seems to be where your mind is.”

“Done up? Like go out and eat together? A date?” There’s a mild flash of horror in her eyes.

“If that term scares you so then no. I am simply your friend-“

“Soul mate” she corrects.

“...soul mate who believes you should do things to celebrate this growth. Hard work earns hard play and you Mae darling have been working your bum off. You deserve it. Stop selling yourself short.”

“You being able to read me is good and all but it also really gets on my nerves. You get too real too fast on me like I’m just supposed to be okay with you plainly saying my obvious shortcomings.”

“It’s called growth. It’s what we’re here for.”

“When am I going to make you start growing?”

“Already have.” He states fast.

“I have?”

“Course! I don’t know if you could tell but I have not historically been known to be a very… coddling man. I have been alone and seen and done violence with my darkness… but being around you, your soul, it makes me feel like I’m young again at times. Your...spunky little personality- which is a great relief I must add- paired with the positive attitude and earnest approach has made me address how I approach things.”

“You like my personality?” her eyes look a bit sad but more intrigued.

“That’s what you took from that?” He chuckles.

“It’s a really nice compliment.” She quickly feels tears burn in her eyes.

“Oh bless your cotton socks.” Alfie laughs and pulls her in for a hug. “You little bugger.” He rubs her back as she gives him a tentative hug back. “You are kind and honest and curious. The world needs more like you. Your emotions are a gift. I do not see them as the burden you do. Most humans go through life feeling so very little. Did you know? It is a blessing to feel so strongly.”

“You’re so nice.” She sniffles and he once again laughs and kisses her head. “C’mon love. Let’s have a cuppa and we’ll get dresed up eh?”

“And then we go get food.” She sniffles.

“Yes, darling Mae then when go get food.” He lets out a deep chesty laugh as he escorts her back towards the house.

@jaegeeeeer @brianaisasongbird @hardygal69 @emerald-bijou @captstefanbrandt @coolgh0st @tinastarkandco @xstylishmileage @s-h-e-w-r-i-t-e-s @peakys-mystic

#Alfie Solomons #alfie solomons au #alfie solomons fanfic #alfie solomons fan fiction #alfie solomons fic

14 notes · View notes

random-thought-depository · 3 years

Text

In another post I wrote:

“Like … right now I’m planning out a story I intend to write in January; it’s supposed to be a kind of deconstruction of the Fremen mirage, and very much one of the thoughts going into it is “yo, a Proud Warrior Race would be a horrible society to live in or have as neighbors, we shouldn’t romanticize them!” and yet … I feel that the “bad guy” culture in it is much better, from a literary viewpoint, for me having given some thought to the material base of their society and how that would shape their culture. I could have just written them as flat edgelordy-grimdark barbarians, but thinking about their culture in materialist terms gave me a more complex and nuanced picture that I think will make for a more interesting and nuanced story and a fictional society that feels more interesting and human and alive.”

So, I want to infodump a little about this fictional culture I’ve thought up! I decided to split my infodumping into three posts, of which this is the second. In my previous post, I talked about the material conditions and subsistence strategy that shape this culture. If you haven’t read it already, I suggest you click that link and read my last post before you read this one, as it’s important context for what I’ve written here. In this and my next post I’ll talk about these people as a culture instead of just as an economy. I was originally going to make this whole thing two posts, but there’s so much stuff that could go in the culture part I decided I better split that up. In this post I’ll make a broad outline of the less “where does the food come from and where does the sewage go?” aspects of these people’s social structure, try to give you a general picture of how their society works. In my next post I’ll try to give you a more intimate “human” picture of what these people’s lives are like and what sort of people they are; talk more about relationships and attitudes and so on.

History and context:

The ancestors of these people were abducted from Bronze Age Earth by imperialistic aliens and used as basically slaves and slave-soldiers by these aliens. Some time in the last millennium BCE these imperialist aliens and their enemies blew each other up in the interstellar empire equivalent of a nuclear apocalypse. In the aftermath of this war the alien civilizations never really recovered, but the descendants of the human slaves built their own interstellar civilization, and the space nomad raiders I’ve been talking about are one branch of that civilization (the surviving aliens now mostly live on a small number of their planets that avoided destruction during the big ancient war, while nowadays most inhabited worlds in local space are populated more-or-less entirely by humans). There’s complexity here I’m not going to get into now, but as I said in my previous post, a significant point is these space nomad raiders I’m talking about mostly interact with other humans; the foreigners they interact with are mostly other humans, and the victims of their raiding are mostly other humans. The location of Earth was lost in the chaos of the big ancient war, and Earth continued its independent cultural development (i.e. real history) and was isolated from the rest of the setting and the rest of humanity for about 3500 years or so, with re-contact between Earth humanity and the rest of humanity happening maybe around 30 years before the story I’m planning to write (which takes place some time in the twenty-second or twenty-third century CE).

The story I’m planning takes place against a background of a utopian-ish future Earth society that was in the process of colonizing the solar system fighting an “alien invasion” of these space nomad raiders.

Gender weirdness:

These people went straight from Bronze Age to space age, they completely missed the Enlightenment etc., and their former alien masters had little interest in giving them a more “progressive” culture (and were kind of too starfish alien to even really think in those terms; e.g. they were genderless hermaphrodites, so why wouldn’t they more-or-less just shrug and accept a Bronze Age human’s ideas about human gender?). So, to us these people’s culture would look like a strange mix of the very primitive and the space age, with the two combining in strange ways.

These people have strong gender roles and no concept of gender equality in the sense we think of it. Their society still runs on a “men are warriors, women are non-combatants who at best get patronizing protection and at worst are part of the spoils the men fight over” paradigm. Most younger men are more-or-less full-time warriors; their lives are more-or-less completely dedicating to raiding, defending the community from raids, and preparing for doing these things. If they survive long enough to become too old to fight they usually “retire” and then spend their time doing maintenance work on the weapons and passing on their knowledge to the younger generations of warriors and warriors-in-training. Women do most of the non-combatant work.

This might sound like a recipe for a rather brutal patriarchy, and in a way that conclusion isn’t wrong, but... This means women are doing most of the work of keeping the space habitat running. And remember, much of the labor of keeping a space community alive is specialized skilled labor; the sort of work where trying to extract labor through simple brutality wouldn’t work well. Women are most of the machinists and the repair technicians and the nuclear reactor operators and the doctors and so on. As I said in my last post, you really don’t want to anger the person who fixes the machine that makes the air you breathe, one of the people who tend the nuclear reactor that provides energy to your community, or the person who might do surgery on you. So this is a society with lots of female power (which coexists with horrifying institutionalized abuse of other women).

Now, in my last post I stressed how a society like this will be labor-limited and want to make efficient use of labor, so you may be thinking that having half the population be full-time warriors sounds extremely inefficient. And it would be! But that’s not what these people do. For one thing, that’s a simplification of their system; there are gender-variant male eunuchs and enslaved men who do “women’s work,” and as I said retired warriors do maintenance work on the weapons and raiding ships. But what really helps in making their system viably efficient is their population isn’t 50% male. This is where it gets weird.

Remember when I said earlier that a small almost-self-sufficient space community would have tightly controlled reproduction? Among these people, there’s a powerful order of priestesses that does that. They regulate reproduction to prevent over-reproduction or under-reproduction and to minimize the effects of inbreeding ... but they’ve also spent the last couple of thousand years doing eugenics and genetic tinkering on these people. Partially they’re into creepy fascist trying to breed superior warriors stuff, but also at some point they fiddled with the human meiosis process to give these people a naturally unbalanced sex ratio. I’m thinking they got it to the point where something like 60% of the children born among these people are female. The sex ratio among adults is even more skewed because of higher male early mortality rates, a tendency to ritually kill male captives while keeping female captives, etc.. This gives maybe 20% of the adult population being active warriors (remember, the retired warriors are mostly functionally maintenance workers until they get too old and feeble to do that too), which is probably still inefficiently big but manageable.

So these people have some of the social structures and cultural attitudes of a patriarchal society, but they’re a society where men are a minority and masculinity is defined by doing something socially prestigious but economically marginal (and, incidentally to this point but important to understanding their culture, they’re a society where warrior vs. almost everything else is heavily gendered).

Tribal warrior barbarian hordes IN SPACE:

Another aspect of these people being a weird mix of the extremely primitive and the space age is that they have advanced technology but they are basically a patriarchal clan rule society.

The basic social unit of this society is the patrilineal kin-group, i.e. the patriarchal clan. Inheritance is patrilineal and marriage is virilocal; when a woman marries she moves into her husband’s family’s dwelling, she becomes part of her husband’s clan, and her children “belong” to her husband’s clan. Because social kinship is basically unilineal, these clans become quite big; a normal size is thousands of people (and that’s if you don’t count non-kin dependents). A typical habitat community contains maybe five or six of these big clans. Usually the most powerful clan (usually the biggest) is the “royal family” and exercises hegemony over the habitat, while the other clans are allied to it in an arrangement similar to feudal vassalage. Attached to these clans through various vassalage-like and slavery-like arrangements are a large number of non-kin dependents, who usually make up the majority of the community’s population (more on them later). These clans are very much families in the Mafia sense of the word. So, I said earlier that the mobile space habitat community is the basic political unit of this culture, but most of those communities are more like five or six allied big Mafia gangs/families in a trench-coat.

The social glue of this society is blood ties, marriage, vassalage, slavery, and other forms of what can broadly be called fictive kinship style relationships. The line between marriage, vassalage, slavery, and other forms of fictive kinship is often blurry - indeed, these are basically Earth Western concepts that I’m imposing on this society to communicate what it’s like; these people would not carve their own social reality at the places I’m carving it by using these terms. As I said, this is a clan rule society; your social position is basically entirely a question of who your relatives and in-laws are or who you are affiliated with or owned by; the concept of an individual having legal rights (or even really legal personhood) separate from their clan affiliations basically doesn’t exist.

Status and rank within a clan is mostly hereditary, though it’s mediated by gender and age, and there’s also a significant “meritocratic” charismatic component (e.g. a younger son of a previous patriarch who’s a distinguished warrior and popular with the cousins may be chosen for leadership over a less distinguished and less popular older son who all else being equal would have been ahead in the succession order). The clan overall functions as a disciplined hierarchical organization with a delegation of authority and duties that’s orderly enough to be more-or-less functional (patriarch bosses around his brothers and sons, who boss around his cousins, who boss around their cousins, etc.), but there’s a significant amount of jockeying and potential for overlapping conflicting authority within that. Note: I’m making this sound like a basically male hierarchy, but remember that this is a society with lots of female power, the wives of high-status men tend to be high-status themselves and often have significant power bases of their own, so high-status women are very much big players in this.

These communities are economically egalitarian but socially inegalitarian. Your clan leader isn’t much richer than you; he probably has some servants and a somewhat bigger apartment and somewhat nicer clothes and furniture and somewhat better food and so on, but that’s about it - but he can control your life in more-or-less the same way your parents controlled your life when you were 14, you must show him deference, and if he wants almost any sort of favor you’d better give it to him. Power in this society isn’t about having stuff, it’s about being respected and obeyed.

The clan is responsible for the conduct of its members and your conduct reflects on your clan, so this is an “honor culture” where reputation is very important; you can expect to get killed by your own relatives if you harm or embarrass your own clan badly enough, and on the flip-side if you do something heroic your whole clan gets a boost to its reputation and “soft power” by association with you. Between this and what I said in the rest of this section, this is a society where most people (of any gender) have little personal freedom.

One thing these people mercifully mostly don’t have is the spiraling inter-clan blood-feuds that often happen in clan rule societies on Earth. You really, really, really don’t want gloves-off open gang warfare in a space habitat. So, these people have developed powerful social mechanisms for resolving disputes before they get to the blood feud stage. Unfortunately, these dispute resolution mechanisms themselves include lethal violence, i.e. there’s a tradition of often lethal dueling. These basically controlled murders are a significant cause of male early mortality among these people, so in that sense this is a very violent society even internally, before you get to all the violence they inflict on outsiders. However, this violence is very gender-asymmetric; among these people the taboos against killing women are stronger than the taboos against killing men, and there are especially very strong taboos against killing female skilled specialists (doctors, engineers, etc.). Ironically, as a consequence of the way male eunuchs and enslaved men are considered not really men, they are more-or-less grouped with the women for purposes of these taboos, so they are often actually safer from intra-community violence than higher-status men are.

This basically fits with men in these communities doing something that is prestigious but economically marginal; they get some prestige and power and privilege, but they are treated as disposable, and you can interpret the dueling as them having internalized this collective judgment on them. Mind you, it’s mostly not the same people getting both ends of this deal; it’s mostly the high-status men who get the “prestige and power and privilege” end of the deal, and the low-ranking warriors tend to get more of the “treated as disposable” end of the deal. Though in fairness this society is one with an idea that a leader is supposed to actually lead in battle, so high-status men often do take the same sort of risks as their subordinates (on the other hand, the strong hereditary element of power in this society means it trends toward gerontocracy, so the guys at the very top are often “retired” from direct participation in fighting).

In my previous post I said that humans usually prefer sharing or trading to violent theft because violent theft means risk of injury or death. That’s kind of true of these people, but with these people there’s an internal social pressure that acts in the opposite direction. In this society, heroic deeds in battle reflect positively on your clan and increase its prestige and “soft power,” and also because of the charismatic “meritocratic” component of their hierarchy impressing people by performing heroic deeds in battle is one of the few avenues of social mobility available to men in this society (note: “heroic deeds” in this context often means things like pulling off some particularly audacious heist; things that directly benefit the community if they succeed, so in a sense this is a smart incentive system). So this society will have a lot of ambitious young men who at least kind of want battles to happen so they have opportunities to prove themselves, and clan leaders will similarly often want battles to happen so they have opportunities to increase the prestige and influence of their clan. Also, individuals and clans who contribute to a successful raid often get to keep some of the loot or have the right to control how some or all of it is distributed, and that makes raiding tempting to people who aren’t satisfied with what they have in the status quo even if the community as a whole has enough resources. So this is a society that’s likely to be more violent than is “rational,” if you define “rational” as “acts like a hive mind instead of like an actual human community made up of people who have their own goals.” Their whole social structure basically reflects that sort of dynamic; their warrior class is probably inefficiently big, but masculinity and participation in the raiding have become so entwined that they can’t shrink it without facing ferocious resistance from people who have their whole identity invested in being warriors; you can’t take somebody who’s been literally raised from birth to do one thing and has their whole sense of self-worth bound up in it and just casually reassign them to a different job (I’m thinking the man = warrior thing started when these people were slave-soldiers + logistical support “camp followers,” and survived a transition from “we’re an army with some ‘live off the land’ short-term self-sufficiency capacity” to “we’re space nomads who use violence as part of our survival strategy”).

“Women’s spaces” and non-kin clan dependents:

Societies with very strong gender roles often have lots of homosociality, and these people very much fit that pattern. Because women do most of the productive work among these people, most of the habitat community’s work-spaces are female majority spaces that the male warriors don’t directly interact with much (there are male eunuchs and enslaved men working in there with the women, but in these people’s gender system those hardly count as men, and anyway the women outnumber them quite solidly). So, basically, this society has a more-or-less separate majority female social world that has its own social networks, its own strong affiliation/friendship groups (mostly work gangs), and its own centers of power.

Being a clan-based patriarchal society, these people also have a marriage system that’s kind of a bad deal for women (patrilineal and virilocal marriage strengthens male-centered social networks while disrupting female-centered social networks, and makes wives vulnerable to abuse). This is a society where patriarchal family institutions coexist with a semi-separate female-majority social world and lots of female power, so a lot of women respond to the former by never marrying. If this was a more conventional patriarchal society this might mean lots of childless spinsters, but this is a society where maintaining high genetic diversity is a community survival imperative and where a female majority population and high female homosociality makes it easy to create all-female cooperative child-care arrangements, so the result is lots of unmarried mothers.

Note: “unmarried” may be a simplification here, I’m thinking there might be a sort of “marriage lite” where the woman gets some of the benefits of marriage (e.g. her husband has “honor code” obligations to protect her and her children from harm and take revenge on anyone who harms or kills her or one of her children) but she and her husband keep separate residences and her husband and his kin have no authority over her. But if this status exists it’s basically a formal recognition of a boyfriend/girlfriend type relationship and the woman can “divorce” the man whenever she wants. Possibly the line between boyfriend/girlfriend and husband/wife in this culture is fluid (IIRC in a lot of past societies all a heterosexual couple had to do to be considered married was live together and call each other husband and wife, and I could see the sort of “marriage-lite” I’m talking about here being similarly fluid, though since the couple not living together is part of the point of it the details of how it works would have to be different).

Children of unmarried (or “married lite”) mothers are for purposes of clan affiliation considered to have no father. This means they’re by default more-or-less outside the clan system, especially if the mother doesn’t have a patrilineal descent connection to one of the local clans (e.g. if she’s an abductee who was taken in a raid). Because being an unmarried (or “married lite”) mother is a better deal for the majority of women, offspring of unmarried (or “married lite”) mothers are usually a majority of the habitat community’s population. So in a typical community of these people, the local big clans dominate the community politically but are actually a minority of the community’s population.

I’m thinking the way this is usually handled is legally fatherless people legally directly “belong” to the “king” (the leader of the community’s most powerful clan). But in practice legally fatherless children are usually raised by majority-female cooperative child-care groups in majority female social spaces that have a lot of independence, and if they’re female they’ll usually spend their entire lives in those spaces and follow the same reproductive strategy their mothers did. So the effect is to strengthen the semi-separate social world character of these female majority work-spaces.

That’s how it works with legally fatherless girls and women, with legally fatherless boys and men things are more complicated. If you’re a legally fatherless boy among these people you spend the first 11-12 years of your life with your mother, and then you’re given various aptitude and fitness tests, and if you fail you’re left with your mother to be raised to be a worker, and if you pass you’re taken away from your mother and given to a group of legally fatherless warriors and retired warriors to be raised by them and if all goes well ultimately become one of them. It’s a bit like what the Spartans did, though thankfully the training is actually significantly less nasty than what they did in the agoge; I’ll talk about it more in my next post.

I’ll generally talk more about the details of what life in this society is like in my next post!

#my writing #worldbuilding #warning: long #cw: slavery #cw: sexism #cw: rape #Artemis of the airless vastness

8 notes · View notes

365daysofsasuhina · 4 years

Text

[ @sasuhinabigflash2020 || Day Eleven: Total Silence ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Hyūga Hiashi ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: Divine Light ] [ AO3 Link ]

[ Previous ] [ Next ]

Noise, noise, there’s always only noise.

No matter how many times she tells her father she hates these social gatherings and publicity preening parties, he still strong-arms her into coming. You’d think as an adult herself now she’d finally find the guts to tell him no, but...well, a childhood and teenage years of a controlling parent that forced obedience through a constant threat of removing what you hold dear birthed a fear of that power still lingering after maturity.

...or so she tells herself.

Hinata Hyūga knows she’s mostly just a pushover no matter who it is she’s dealing with. Whether it’s her father, or her cousin, or even her little sister. Making waves and starting arguments just...isn’t in her skillset.

Hence why, more often than not, she ends up at her father’s obnoxious gatherings. His business in the medical technology industry means rubbing all the right elbows. And while Hinata’s choice to pursue journalism isn’t exactly in line with his expectations or standards, he still portrays her in the best light he can...in order to make himself look better.

And through all of that, his company...and its stocks.

For most of her time at these get-togethers, Hinata sticks to the walls, socializing only when necessary and otherwise trying to be as unnoticeable as possible, and evade such interactions in the first place.

But for some reason...tonight is just more than she can handle.

Not only is there music pulsing through speakers, but conversations, laughter, and even some shouting fill the air to a staggering degree. Ugh, she can feel a headache coming on...maybe she’ll just -

“Hinata.”

...wonderful.

Turning to her father, Hinata forces a smile. “Yes?”

“I’ve been talking to a young up-and-comer who would like to speak to you about a possible piece you could write about his company.”

She blinks. “...a piece?”

“Yes, a degree of publicity to help him get things off the ground. Say a few nice words, interview him...that sort of thing.”

Immediately, something in Hinata’s stomach churns. This sounds a lot like a piece of bribery, and that’s the last thing she wants to get herself into. “I...could look into it.”

“He’d like to speak to you now.”

Oh no...no, not now. Not with her head spinning and senses overloading. “I...I’m sorry, I’ve been fighting a headache, and -”

“It will only take a few minutes, Hinata.”

“Could -? Could you give him my email, and I’ll just -”

“No, now.”

The brazen order actually makes her catch herself in a lurch. Her vision is swimming, her skin feels clammy - she has to get out of here, now.

So, without a word, she holds up a hand and just...stumbles forward toward the door.

“Hinata…? Where do you think you’re -?”

For once in her life...she ignores him. With a push, she urges the door open and steps out into the cool air of the city evening. It washes over her like a relieving tide.

But it’s not enough. If she doesn’t move, he’ll just drag her back inside.

So she flees.

Turning to the right, she keeps on down the sidewalk, heels clicking. Thankfully she’s so used to them, even an unsteady gait born of dizziness doesn’t twist her ankles. A few curious passersby give her strange looks, but none make to stop her.

Good.

It’s late enough most other doors are locked and lights out, but by some grace she finds a place alight and open. An old brass handle turns in her hand, letting her into...wherever. At this point, it doesn’t matter. Anywhere is better than there.

Once in, she pushes the portal closed, leaning against it and heaving a weary sigh.

...and then notices something odd.

It’s completely and utterly silent. Such a change from her prior surroundings, her ears begin to ring.

Lifting her head, she takes in the building properly. At first glance, it appears to be nothing more than a second hand or antique shop. The building itself is also old, with crown moulding and rich wooden floors, worn but shining. The smell of old paper permeates the air.

Feeling almost like she’s stepped into another world, Hinata then realizes the door has a glass panel, through which she can be seen. Hefting upright, she moves between rows of shelves to better hide herself from view. And, with nothing else to do, she starts looking through the merchandise.

In truth, it...doesn’t look like much. Random knick knacks, decor, old-fashioned tools and kitchenware. It’s like someone went through every grandmother’s house and looted them, putting whatever they can find into the bins and rows.

It’s...bizarre, and not at all what she expected to find on the same street as the fancy hotel her father almost always rents for his parties. But at least that means it should be one of the last places Hiashi or his goons think to look for her. She walks slowly down the aisle, wondering if something might catch her eye while she’s here.

“...what are you doing?”

Jolting with a gasp, Hinata turns to see she’s no longer alone. At the head of the aisle where she came from, a man about her age eyes her almost suspiciously.

What an odd way to treat a customer, but...well, on second thought, she’s a little overdressed to be shopping for...whatever this stuff is.

“I, um…” How to explain…? “Someone was...following me, so I stepped in. Are...are you open?”

“...yes,” he replies after a pause, clearly weighing her story. “Are you all right?”

“Oh, yes - I’m fine. I’m sure they won’t think to look for me in -” She catches herself, not wanting to be rude. “...here.”

That earns a hint of a snort. “Well...I’m open another half hour, so...stay as long as you like until then.”

“Thank you…” She watches him turn back and vanish from view.

A nagging in the back of her mind sees her follow.

“May I...ask what your store is called? I, um...I m-missed the sign on the way in…”

“Curiosities.”

“...is -? Is that the whole name?”

“Did you expect something more?” he counters, stepping behind a register at the rear of the room.

“I...guess I didn’t know what to expect.”

He leans on his arms, looking her over. “...I find things that are unwanted, and try to find the person who’s meant to want them,” is his cryptic explanation.

“People look for -?” Again she cuts off, realizing she’s...about to be very rude. “...I’m sorry. I’ve, um...I’ve never been to an antique shop before…”

“That’s not exactly what this is, but...a close enough guess.”

Something about his refusal furrows her brow. Is he...hiding something? “How do you find these...curiosities?”

“Most are happenstance. Some I look for specifically. Though those sorts of wares are kept in the back.”

“Because they’re...valuable?”

“To the right people, yes.”

Another pause at his odd reply. “...I should introduce myself,” Hinata then backpedals. “I’m Hinata. Hinata Hyūga.”

“Sasuke Uchiha. And what do you do for a living that’s clearly above the par of a humble shopkeeper?”

His jab makes her go pink. “...I’m, um...I’m a journalist.”

“Hm...you have the air about you. Maybe that’s why you ended up here.”

“...I beg your pardon?”

“It’s Curiosities,” he replies, a grin curling one corner of his mouth. “Only people who are looking for something tend to find their way to my little shop. And journalists are always looking for something. A new story, a new point of intrigue.”

“Well, this...place is rather intriguing,” she agrees, glancing around again.

“One way to put it, yes.”

“As is the man behind the counter.”

His smirk seems to grow, and for a flicker of a moment, as his head tilts, Hinata swears there’s a ruby-red shine to his otherwise dark eyes. “I’d argue that my wares are the true point of interest, but...I can’t deny another’s observations.”

Suddenly, Hinata feels her inner writer coming out. “So...is this a family shop?” she asks casually.

“You could say that. It’s been in the line for quite some time.”

“Anyone else help run it?”

At that, Sasuke seems to hang up for a moment, and an unreadable look passes over his face. “...no, just me.”

“...was that a bad question?”

“No. I...had an elder brother, but...he passed some time ago.”

Shocked sympathy wilts her features. “...I’m so sorry.”

“It’s in the past. Feels like it was centuries ago now, but...well, even old scars can ache.”

She mutes for a long moment. “...seems awfully quiet.”

“Yes, my clientele tends to be...sporadic. Or by appointment.”

“Appointment?”

“People call looking for something in particular, and I...acquire it. We then arrange to meet.”

In spite of herself, Hinata gives a soft laugh. “Sounds suspicious.”

“Any business dealing is, in the right light. But I can assure you, it’s all perfectly legal.” His smile begins to return.

Opening her mouth to speak again, Hinata hesitates as a buzz sounds in the little handbag she’s miraculously kept ahold of. “Oh, sorry...my phone…”

“No apology needed.”

Bringing up her mobile, Hinata grimaces at her father’s name.

“...unwanted conversation?”

“Unwanted lecture,” she sighs, muting it. Guilt and apprehension grow, but...she’ll find some excuse. Her headache is gone, but...well, Hiashi won’t have to know that. “Still, I...should probably be going. It’s getting late, and...I’m doing l-little more than pester you.”

“Pester away. As you said, it’s quiet...a bit of conversation is nice now and again. Perhaps you can do a proper piece about the place another time, since you seem to find it so curious.”

His quip earns a laugh, then a pause. Right...there’s that other piece her father wants her to write.

...she’ll think about that in the morning.

“It was nice to meet you, Sasuke. Um...thanks for letting me hide out in here,” Hinata then offers sheepishly.

“Of course. I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting a gown-clad maiden in tonight, but...you’d be surprised what other sorts of characters I end up with in here.”

“You’ve already sold me on the place, you know,” she replies with a smile. “No need to keep whetting my appetite. I’ll be back.”

“Just being thorough,” he replies, giving a wave as she peers out the door, and then trots back the way she came. “...hm…”

With a trill, a feathery figure alights upon a stand that rests atop the counter.

“Yes, yes...she’s gone. Thank you for behaving yourself.”

A bird of gold and auburn plumage blinks vermillion eyes at him, a small comb of fire flickering along her regal head. But as Sasuke gives it fond strokes, it doesn’t burn him.

“Yet...I wonder…” Looking back to the door, he seems to sink into thought. “It’s very rare we get anyone el’tahl in here. Maybe she has some ven buried in her bloodline, hm?”

In response, the phoenix gives another melodic flow of notes.

“You liked her, did you? Well, that’s all the convincing I need. We’ll have to see how deep she manages to dig when she comes back. But for now, time to call it a night.”

With a snap, the lights extinguish, lock bolting shut at the front. In his hand, an orb of revolving fire lights his way through the back door. Here, objects clearly not meant for unenlightened human eyes glow, spin, float, and hum.

“...how deep, indeed.”

So this is very late because wow my toothache is...unreal. I’m so sorry, guys. It’s also not what I first envisioned but sometimes characters just veer you off course! I was going to have this be vampire-themed but instead we got...this! Which is...technically another crossover with a work of my own. DL is mostly a medieval-fantasy sort of world, BUT I do have one story in it so far that’s modern. And Sasuke is being directly crossed with one of the characters, but uh...it’d take a lot to explain and possibly spoil things so we’ll just leave the mystery intact xD Anyway, I’m...totally exhausted and technically still in pain. Might be going to a dentist tomorrow, no idea, so...I dunno when I’ll get more done since I’m still behind. Thank you for your patience - I WILL finish this event one way or another, it just might be delayed because life things, woo. Buuut on that note, I’ll be heading off. Thanks for reading!

#sasuhinabigflash2020 #shbf2020 #sasuhina #uchiha sasuke #hyūga hinata #hyūga hiashi #divine light [ au ]

14 notes · View notes

murumokirby360 · 4 years

Video

My XP-Pen PenTablet Window Software: ON and OFF Windows Ink difference - Windows 7 ver. (Oct. 15th, 2020)

Hi, My XP-Pen Deco 01 V2′s topic continues after a weeks of hiatus focusing on my other stuff.😊🖊️📝

Today I’m talking about “Windows Ink” on Windows 7 from the old Lenovo laptop (G470).💻 So why am I talking about this? Well... You’ll see.

*But before that, I want YOU… Yes you, which you’re reading my description. I want you to watch my recorded video first 📹📲 (as a observation) before you read the rest of my reaction experience. Hope you’re watching…

My Experience #1: •(Now as you already done watching video.) I didn’t realize in my whole drawing life, that the “Windows Ink” was disable from the XP-Pen PenTablet Window Software. But what happens if I enable the “Windows Ink”? Well, the result was my cursor mouse is unable to move and I can’t tap anything at all; both in GIMP art software, and other windows programs. Except in the working canvas area of the GIMP, in which is the only part that the cursor can move. In my theory: “Windows Ink” for Windows 7 version can only detect the working canvas area when plugging the drawing/graphic tablet and enable the “Windows Ink”, unlike in Windows 10′s Windows Ink counterpart (and also Windows 8 variants I guess). As for my drawing performance 📝✍️ between ON and OFF "Windows Ink” for Windows 7; well it’s quite the same actually, albeit a little bit weighty when I switch ON “Windows Ink” compare to lightness when I switch OFF. Here, I made some examples for that.↓

My experience #2:

• So like I said before, it performs the same for both of them with a bit heavy scribble for turning ON and light scribble when turning OFF.

• Though I even try to send a message to a professional artist youtuber named “Teoh Yi Chie” / Parka Blogs on his profile website about “ON and OFF Windows Ink differences”; saying that “Certain apps will only have pressure sensitivity when Windows Ink is turned on. So if there are troubles with pressure sensitivity, you may want to turn Windows Ink on or off to troubleshoot.” and “You have to toggle Windows Ink on and off. If you can’t drag with or without Windows Ink, it’s probably not Windows Ink problem. Could be driver problem.” From the looks of it, I haven’t much problem on pressure sensitivity after I already setup the right way. And you know what, I think I should switch / leave turn off the “Windows Ink”, just for the sake of mobility on my cursor using my Passive Pen and the Drawing Tablet of my XP-Pen Deco 01 V2, rather than just toggle on and off which is annoying in my opinion. Although… Unless If I moved to Windows 10 OS from a my little bro’s former gaming PC desktop, I should do another topic. Because my little bro is earning his big savings for a better gaming PC desktop; I mean -better graphics card, motherboard, CPU chip, RAM and all needed specs, just to get a improve performance for his Autodesk Revit architect work. It seems to be that I will moved to Windows 10 and leave Windows 7 very very soon… Probably November or December.

And BTW: Big shout out to Mr. Teoh Yi Chie from Singapore. I think he’s a good professional artist who had a lot of drawing/graphics tablets reviews and also pen display and sometimes flatbed scanners too (at that time) which mostly I watched from his video a lot (than just art supply tools,etc… because I focused on digital drawing/graphics tablets), so I want to say thank you for your good advice about my recent topic. If you want to see his YT channel [CLICK ME!] and his Parka Blogs website [CLICK ME!], then go ahead - check it out.

Well, that’s for now... And in case you missed my related parts and accessories for my XP-Pen Deco 01 V2, then I’ve already provide some links down below. ↓ 😉

Previous: • XP-Pen PenTablet Window Software for my XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 (Aug 8, 2020) • Drawing art test with my XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 drawing - Part 2 (Aug 17, 2020) • My XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 Aftermath Usage (Aug 17, 2020) • My XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 drawing test with my GIMP 2.8.10 (Aug 17, 2020): Part 3 [3rd Attempt], Part 4 [4th Attempt] •Drawing art test with my XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 drawing: Part 1 (Aug 12, 2020) • My XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 drawing test with my GIMP 2.8.10 (Aug, 12, 2020): Part 1 [1st Attempt], Part 2 [2nd Attempt] • XP-Pen PenTablet Window Software for my XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 (Aug 8, 2020) • My XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 connecting computer laptop(Aug 8, 2020): Part 1 - [1st Attempt], Part 2 (Final) [2nd Attempt] • Installation steps for my XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 [Aug. 7,2020] • Accessories for my XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 [Jun 25,2020]: [Part 1], [Part 2] • Part 5 [May 8,2020] • Part 4 [May 1, 2020]: First Half, Second Half • Part 3 [Apr 22, 2020] • Part 2 [Apr 17, 2020] • Part 1 [ Apr 14, 2020] • Recorded video opening [Apr 10, 2020] • Unopened parcel/package [Apr 7, 2020]

(Tagged: @bytern, @ftgxsee, @gibsonfreak49)

#My Video #MyVideo #Video #Huawei #Huawei Honor #Honor 8C #XP-Pen #XP Pen #XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 #XP Pen Deco 01 V2 #Drawing Tablet #Graphics Tablet #Graphic Tablet #Windows Ink #GIMP #GIMP 2.10.20 #Art Tests #Art Test

6 notes · View notes

generaldelusionfox · 4 years

Text

Group Buy Seo Tools

Bulk of the Search Engine Optimization players provide onsite optimization with 91% of the SEOs practicing this. Google+ optimization has also a great variety of SEOs practicing it as 86% claimed to be using this solution to their clients. For affiliate marketing, just a tiny percentage (11%) of SEOs are providing this service to their clients.

Other solutions provided by Search engine optimizations:

Content creation/optimization

Link building

Citation structure

Social media site marketing

Site advancement

PPC

Mobile site development

Video marketing as well as mobile advertising and marketing.

The most required service by SEO customers is onsite marketing, while the least demanded solution is affiliate marketing. The various other solutions are in some way averagely required. Nonetheless, the majority of tiny and also average businesses do not understand the chances that video clips as well as mobile advertising can unlock them and therefore often tend not to use these solutions. Search engine optimizations, therefore, need to inform their customers on these advertising and marketing networks to ensure that they can opt for them.

When asked about the online Search Engine Optimization services SEOs really feel are effective, 82% of them stated that the General search is the most reliable for producing leads. Local search appears to be the second-best after 62% of the respondents in a Search Engine Optimization study voted in its favor. PPC is third with 53% while social networks are 4th with 26%. Everyday bargains seem an interesting a lot of Search engine optimizations due to the fact that only 1% voted in support of it.

Laborious SEO Tasks

55% of the current SEOs out there locate web link building to be one of the most tedious as well as lengthy jobs. Others, though 15% only think that web content writing is one of the most tiresome and also time-consuming job among all the jobs they do. It as a result emerges that to the 55% who locate web link structure laborious, this task is also boring to them.

Future Projections

This is a synopsis of what we anticipate in the near future as for SEO business is of worry.

Development of Search Engine Optimization Businesses

Contrasted to the previous years, SEO organizations have actually been growing as well as increasing continuously. The Majority Of Search engine optimizations (concerning 93%) are not just hopeful about expanding their companies, yet are also expecting to grow their organization. In what seems to be an identified transfer to expand their organizations, the majority of Search engine optimizations (82%) want to hire more personnel so as to understand their desired levels of development.

The social media is likewise anticipated to grow and be a lot more effective also than the local directories. This is since many Search engine optimizations think that social networks can do better because of referrals from friends. Mobile usage is likewise anticipated to grow additional and become pertinent for neighborhood businesses.

The upsurge of Confidence in SEO Service

Unlike other companies, the SEO business is showing a favorable development of self-confidence among gamers. Regardless of this being a vibrant as well as innovative sector, the majority of Search engine optimizations are still ready to hire even more personnel to assist drive their businesses in advance. 84% of the tested Search engine optimizations in the SEO study are also confident that the SEO business is going to be extra lucrative starting this year 2013. Self-confidence is additionally running high that if the SEO players boost the understanding of SEO/social among business owners they serve in future, they will not just boost the business proprietors' price of financial investment, however also make them move their advertising and marketing budget plans from various other networks to the digital channels. Read more about cheap SEO tools.

. Google Analytics Google Analytics is to the online advertiser like air is to the individual. You can't survive without it. In case you're not yet utilizing Google Analytics, I suggest that you start doing as such as quickly as time permits. There is no other information source that gives high caliber and nitty gritty data like Google Analytics. In a Google-overwhelmed period, it's what we need to work with. The majority of different information apparatuses basically piggyback on Google's information utilizing the API. Appraisal you can't disregard Google Analytics. For all intents and purposes all the significant and significant information about site guests, traffic, and so forth. originates from this basic source. More Information Look at a conversation of how Analytics assists with driving high changing over inquiry traffic. Gain proficiency with a couple of Google Analytics reports that can help create natural traffic. 2. Google Search Console In the event that Google Analytics is the air that an online advertiser inhales, at that point Google Search Console (some time ago Webmaster Tools) is the food that the online advertiser eats.

"Webmaster" in the previous name is somewhat of a misnomer. The apparatus is for more than website admins. It's for SEOs. The very focal point of the device has to do with "search" and "improvement." A portion of GSC's best bits of knowledge originates from simply looking at the dashboard. SEOs and advertisers need to stay aware of the dashboard all the time. Google Search Console gives a portion of indistinguishable information from Analytics, however in a less complex and increasingly direct manner. There's less tweaking you can do with the numbers, yet simpler access to them. 3. Uber suggest Uber suggest is an across the board SEO apparatus intended to assist you with dominating the match of SEO. A major piece of SEO achievement is recognizing what you're doing, what your rivals are doing, and how to modify your procedure to exploit openings in the market. Beginning with Uber suggest is as basic as composing a space or catchphrase into the inquiry bar. From here, you increase moment access to a report for your picked space or catchphrase. For this post, I need to concentrate on the catchphrase search abilities of Uber suggest. It's an extraordinary option in contrast to the Google Keyword Planner apparatus, which has lost a portion of its brilliance throughout the years. In the wake of running a quest for your essential watchword, here's the way you can utilize Uber suggest to reveal related catchphrases to remember for your substance. Step #1: Click "Watchword Ideas" Situated in the left sidebar, click "Watchword Ideas" to be taken to a far-reaching report. 4. MozBar

Information is the situation with the MozBar. At the point when you consider it, SEO has a great deal to do with knowing the secret sauce. The MozBar causes you to find the secret sauce initially. The MozBar button sits straight up in your program toolbar — where all the activity is going on. Snap-on the MozBar, and you create a moment report on the site you're visiting. 5. SEO Workers Analysis Tool The Analysis Tool permits you to connect a site URL — any site, regardless of whether it's not yours — and produce a report. SEO Workers doesn't give anything new, yet it assists with sparing a ton of time in the examination. Additionally, it gives foundation data on the information. A portion of the information, similar to the HTTP Headers Check is in the engine stuff that you wouldn't ordinarily think to check for. Here is SEO Worker's one of a kind component. They show you SEO notwithstanding demonstrating you the SEO information that issues. Inside each broke down classification, the report gives an itemized conversation, and frequently a video (ft. Matt Cuts). 6. Woo Rank from the outset, Woo Rank seems, by all accounts, to be simply one more freemium site analyzer. Upon closer, examination, be that as it may, it gives convenient experiences into some not really evident stuff. Woo Rank first shows a "Main concerns segment. Sadly, here's one of the drawbacks of the device. In one way or another, it feels that I have a 404 mistake, come up short on a favicon, and don't have a robots.txt document. These are incorrect. Read more about Group Buy SEO tools. 7. Neil Patel SEO Analyzer I'm accepting that you're now mindful of my free site analyzer. I believe it merits referencing, notwithstanding, as a last free apparatus available to you. One component that I've taken a stab at is the serious investigation. Some portion of the achievement of web-based showcasing is knowing how your rivals are getting along.

1 note · View note

jimclassicstoycollection · 4 years

Photo

Transformers: Masterpiece

MP-30

Ratchet

Ratchet is a figure I bought off of a Chinese ebay seller, so this took over a month to arrive. And it might be a knock off, but much like MP Tracks if it is a KO it’s a good one.

Ratchet is the Autobot’s chief medical officer

Collector’s card:

I don’t normally do this, but talking about the collector’s card is a habit I think I need to establish. Most MP Transformers come with a collector’s card.

I’m not a huge fan of the card art. Normally I have a tendency to love transformers art work on the boxes, but much the MP Tracks’ card it looks like whatever action scene is going on it’s taking place on a foggy, or rainy evening.

The ambulance and Ratchet are nicely drawn, but the environment is murky, and nothing reall pops. I’m just not a fan of that.

Flipping the card over to the back you see the product shot of the toy in both modes, and a bio and stats all in Japanese.

The pose for the toy is similar to the 1986 movie where ratchet is defending the Autobot shuttle right before he’s gunned down.

Ambulance:

Ratchet’s vehicle mode is that of an ambulance. This vehicle is very G1 accurate and cartoon accurate. It works, and it’s solid.

The ambulance is mostly white plastic with some red striping, and beautiful Autobot tampograph just below the wind screen, with some nice baby blue clear plastic windows, and...unfortunately plastic wheels.

The official Masterpiece Ratchet is supposed to ahve rubber tired, and considering this one has plastic tires pretty confirms it’s really a knock off.

If that’s the case then this is a really good knock off.

Looking at that light bar on the roof of the ambulance really brings back memories of when I was a kid. I’m not sure what it is, but that chrome light bar with the translucent plastic just reminds me of when I got the original Ratchet as a kid, some Christmas morning (possibly 1985, or 86). That’s just where my mind goes, I guess.

I really like this ambulance mode. It’s a solid, little brick-mobile and even though it has plastic wheels it rolls really well.

Transformation:

Transformation was tricky at first, but over time I’ve gotten used to it. There are area where I’m concerned of plastic breakage, so I recommend you are careful during the transformation process. Otherwise it does get easier as you go.

Robot mode:

Robot mode however is...awkward. ::sigh:: It works, and it’s solid, however this robot mode neither homages either the old G1 toy (thank god) or the cartoon model very well.

I really do have some mixed feeling about this robot mode. Let me focus on what I like, and then I’ll move on to what I don’t, and then I’ll just focus on what I find funny.

I like the head sculpt, it’s very cartoon accurate (he has two faces) and they both looks really good. The toy poses well, and he stands well. He does have some limitations due to the hip skirts, but

What I find a bit off putting about ratchet is if you look at the old SunBow animation model you’ll see that Ratchet is very blocky, and there’s very little evidence of a vehicle mode on him. And maybe this is why the MP version is so awkward, because that must be impossible to hide it all. Maybe the designers did the very best that they could.

That being said, from the front Ratchet looks pretty good, and instantly recognizable, I would say the chest is a little more rounded than I would like, and the blocky legs could be a bit blockier and wider. The side windows on the forearms aren’t the best, but at least from certain angles you won’t even notice they’re there.

Ratchet does have a clean back pack though.

I really think those butt cheek tires are pretty funny.

Ratchet’s rocket launcher is great! it pegs onto any 3mm port on him (and he doesn’t have a many of them) but it looks best on his back. The missile doesn’t launch but it can be removed, and i suppose it could just be a scanner.

I do like the accessory platform, which is a call back to the old G1 toy. The original G1 platform was something like a personal transport, or mobile weapons platform and what Takara did was make it accessory storage. I like it, and I think it works! I will delve deeper into the accessories in a bit

One of ratchet’s pistols is based on his G1 axel gun which would would attach to the battle platform. This looks pretty good as a pistol, it’s scaled down, the chrome is nice, and he holds it well.

His double blasters only seen in the 1986 film...right before he died...

ratchet can repair wounded Autobots with his arc welder.

Accessories:

Masterpiece Ratchet has a staggering amount of accessories. Most of them are guns, or repair tools, but he comes with a lot of stuff.

In the comics Ratchet was a pacifist, and the in the cartoon he was a fighter (though not a very good one) regardless for a doctor Ratchet is armed with a ridiculous amount of guns. I mean, he’s got a virtual armory of pistols.

Of course Ratchet comes with two wrenches, and something resembling a..ratchet...he even has a wrist mounted arc welder with even an arc blast effect.

Ratchet also comes with two additional guns, and a forarm mounted repair tool as well, including a sticker sheet, of the red medical cross, and one with the Autobot badge in the center.

MP Ratchet comes with an overwhelming amount of accessories...

Final Thoughts:

I like Masterpiece (KO) Ratchet, he’s not perfect, but I like him.

MP Ratchet is from that transitional period when HasTak was trying to make these figures a bit more cartoon accurate, but weren’t quite successful yet.

It’s a solid toy, and it poses well. He comes with a lot of stuff, and he scales in in well with MP10 (Optimus Prime), and his head sculpt IS cartoon accurate and looks really good.

As far as KO a toy` goes, I’m quite happy with it.

Click on the link below to check out my previous review of Masterpiece Autobot Tracks.

https://jimclassicstoycollection.tumblr.com/post/618759261594533888/transformers-masterpiece-25-tracks-tracks-is-a

#toys #action figures #transformers #masterpiece #ratchet #autobot #hasbro #tomy takara

2 notes · View notes

comicteaparty · 4 years

Text

June 10th-June 16th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from June 10th, 2020 to June 16th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

How does poor web design affect if and/or how you read a particular webcomic?

carcarchu

it's a huge factor. if a comic is amazing in every way but the website or app makes it difficult for me to read i'm simply NOT going to read it. there are a lot of great series that i've put on the back burner just because the website is so annoying to navigate

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i've honestly never run into a website so bad it stopped me from reading a comic i was interested in

carcarchu

FYI the worst comic app i've ever experienced is Aqua Kiss which I downloaded to read a single series. it's the most barebones app imaginable with no search bar. if you want to read something you actually have to manually load each calendar week to find it and some stuff are buried dozens of pages back. and to make matters worse it doesn't have a "history" or "bookmarks" feature either

Deo101 [Millennium]

The worst things with sites that I see often are 1: huge headers, and 2: laggy sites (not really site design, but its adjacent I think) Another is if the pages are too big on the screen, so you can't, for instance, see some panels all at once. Those kinds of things can really ruin a reading experience for me

carcarchu

One example of a website that is hostile to the reading experience is ZMYK which for some reason hosts vertical scroll comics but cuts them up into little pieces as if they were comic format so you can't actually scroll through the entire chapter as it was intended to

That kind of thing grinds my gears so much how can something you have to pay for be that incredibly bad

Deo101 [Millennium]

I've also seen some sites that have graphic design issues, where elements are illegible due to their color, and some have very busy and distracting backgrounds. Those kinds of things won't necessarily ruin it, but they're distracting

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

forward comic's website was doing this weird thing where the further I read the longer pages took to load. Near the end it seemed they were taking 10 full seconds. Still read the whole thing though. Reading manga on shady sites with terrible internet connection as a kid has desensitized me

Oh one comic I was interested in but didn't read because of the site: I was kidnapped by lesbian pirates from outer space. It doesn't have a website. To read it you have to pirate (hehe) copies of the archive.

It's a pretty sad story- the author was young and tricked into giving up the rights to her series

She ended up taking the site down to prevent the company from getting any more money off of it

https://rosalarian.tumblr.com/post/65353128180/its-with-extreme-sadness-that-i-announce-that-my

Here's her post about it

I think it can be a good warning message to us

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

For me, the biggest thing that deters me from reading a comic is if the website isn't well optimized for mobile (as someone who reads a lot on the go). This includes the images loading bigger than the page, or navigation being hidden on mobile, or glitchy scrolling, or any number of ungodly things. Also, too many ads. That'll turn me away in a heartbeat.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah ads are definitely a huge turnoff for me too

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@carcarchu okay i just digested this comment and wtf

no search bar is laughably bad omg

how did you even find out about it

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah that's ridiculous hahahaha

carcarchu

it's a shame because there are genuinely good comics on there you can't read anywhere else?? and i found it because an artist i adore did a series for it but it got AXED after only 2 chapters and after that was pretty much scrubbed from the internet. i think it's a shame because it really had so much potential and it ended before the story was really able to start

it's a screenshot from the app. you can see that it is categorized reverse chronologically by week

the point of aqua kiss is to emulate monthly/weekly style manga magazines but in app form. however i think the execution of this idea was horrendous

SteffieMusings

Oh no! It must make reading there so challenging. As for me, if the navigation is so hard to understand/pages don't load properly when you click a link or when the website's colours hurt my eyes so much I can't stay there for too long.

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

Honestly nowadays most of the CMS's out there share the same basic functionality and adaptability, so it's getting harder to screw up on that. Most sites are OK, if only a bit laggy. If the site takes less than 2 seconds to load and it's not so crowded that I have to look for the comic, I'm generally good.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

How much bad/inaccessible web design I'll tolerate is directly proportional to how much I care about the comic.

I've dropped a couple series in the middle of the archive just because they changed the site design to screw up the tracking of bookmarking sites, so I would've had to figure out an alternate way to keep track of it, and it didn't seem worth the effort

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh yeah, I've totally had that happen too where I was deep into an archive, had taken a reading break for a month or two, and came back to find the urls had been updated and my spot was lost it isn't so bad if a comic also has an archive page, but ive stopped reading a few stories that it would have been too hard to track down where I was.

DaeofthePast

I haven’t had to experience weird websites in a while, but I do sometimes go to an unknown website to read the comic/manga I’m looking for. Mostly what I’ve had trouble with is unnumbered chapters, of that it’s unclear where/how to start reading in general.(edited)

Like, I get to the page for that specific comic and then there’s no easy “start reading here” button anywhere

And when I do find the chapters list, I don’t know which end of the list is the beginning bc it’s unnumbered

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Is a "First page" button enough or are you looking for a "new readers start here" button? (<- is redisigning her page)

DaeofthePast

Is there a difference? :0

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

hm, sometimes yes.

Some old running comics have different jump-on points (schlock mercenary for example).

DaeofthePast

Ooh I see

Well when I first go on the site, I just want to start reading so idk

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

So, I always try to read every comic that's featured in the book club all the way through. Like even if I don't particularly like the opening, or if the comic is thousands of pages long, or I don't have time to meaningfully discuss the comic, I do try to at least give the comic a fair shake by reading through the entire archive. There have been four exceptions. One was because of content (it was a gag a day comic, and the content was SO horrible for SO long that I just couldn't stand it anymore. real "punching down" type of humor). Another was because the comic was literally deleted before I could get to it. The remaining two were because the site design/organization were so awful that the comics were unreadable. One of the two comics had a custom built, hand-coded site (I assume), and it just... didn't work properly. Like the "previous" button seemingly took you to a random page, the "next" button and the "latest" button led to the same place, etc. I'm not sure the creator ever bothered to test the site. The other one used some pre-built stuff, so it was ok... but you had to scroll to the top of the page to go to the next page. Not only that, but the author was posting all their comics to the same archive - which means one page would be the comic that was actually meant to be read for the book club and the next few pages were a completely different comic entirely. And this wasn't a gag-a-day either - it was a story based comic, so the three action minimum to get to the next page made things absolute hell to keep track of.(edited)

DaeofthePast

Wow

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Uff, yeah, that sounds horrible.

Nyx+Nyssa's page is currently a barebone mess, but I made at least sure the navigation works. :/

DaeofthePast

Having the comic be deleted while you’re reading it sounds like such a weird experience lmao

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i mean, it wasn't thanos snap style lol

DaeofthePast

Was the website gone too or?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

it was in between days

nah the website was still there, it's just that the author had decided to reboot their comic and forgot that they had submitted it to the book club

DaeofthePast

Oh okay I imagined Thanos snap style

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Not really a design but a site thing: I can't do comics without an archive of some sort. On platforms like Tapas or WT, the episode list serves that purpose perfectly fine. I personally need to be able to see how many pages there are, and I need a way to go to specific pages easily. It might sound like a small complaint, but it's a big thing for me! There have been comics that piqued my interest, but once I saw that there was no archive of any form, I left forever. Sure, I might be missing out, but there are also lots of good comics out there that have accessible archives. My life isn't long enough to read them all, so I'm letting myself be very picky.

copperine

I can manage a very basic site just fine. But if a site is hard to navigate, or just makes reading the page/getting to the next page difficult - I'd be likely to give up eventually. Doesn't matter about the quality of the comic, but if it's a chore to just read it, it's going to put me off after a while

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I will note - if you want me to actually discuss your comic in the book club, please do have an archive link, and probably a cast page too. Like the lack of one doesn't stop me from reading entirely, but I can't discuss anything without being able to look back at specific moments. (and one of those archives that just has dates doesn't count - lemme know what the chapter is!)

copperine

For example - when I read webcomics on dA, I was absolutely fine with either the author having a dedicated folder with the pages in order. Another option was to link next and prev pages in the description. But if I had to go find each next page, I just wouldn't.

DaeofthePast

By an archive do you mean kinda like a chapters list?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

A list of all the pages, ideally

That also list the chapters somehow

copperine

Short version: if I feel like I'm spending half as much time navigating the site as I am actually reading, it's gonna get old real quick

DaeofthePast

And same copperine. As long as it’s organized well, I will probably read it

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like maybe you click on a chapter link to get to a list of the pages, or maybe it's just a list of the pages with the chapter names as headers

some sort of organization

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah! (I admit my own comic's archive page isn't the prettiest, but it's 100% functional.)

DaeofthePast

I only have a chapter list so far ^^; idk how to go about getting an archive

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Chapter list is totally fine if your chapters tend to be on the shorter side

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I like having chapter lists around, although coding them can be a handful Not sure if to go for an archive with thumbnails or just with page numbers though.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's also workable if you also have like... a dropdown menu for individual pages on the actual pages? So it only takes 2 clicks to go to a specific page (first click to go to the chapter, second click to go to the page)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

OH yeah, there was also a dA comic in the book club once that didn't have any next/previous buttons. However, it was a short comic - the bare minimum for getting into the book club - so I still read it all the way through. But it was pretty annoying to do so. (it was also pretty obviously a fetish comic, but that's not really relevant to the discussion XD)

DaeofthePast

I want to post by scene so I’ll be dividing chapters like “chapter 3 part 1” to hopefully that will be better

copperine

I'll always take functional over pretty

DaeofthePast

Haha I’m not sure if I want to know the comic for that one

Also what is “punching down” humor?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like, the author was a straight man, and nearly every joke was making fun of people who weren't those things.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it's like making fun of people but

copperine

Yikes

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

you're intentially trying to put them down

that's punching down in my imo rip

DaeofthePast

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah....

DaeofthePast

Well at least I know what to call it when I see it in the future ._.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like, occasionally I see a shitty joke in a comic and I keep reading because maybe the author improved (we do sometimes get comics with archives that date back decades in here) But this comic was just so consistently awful for so long that I couldn't stand it

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oof that aint good

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Though that's kinda off topic lol

DaeofthePast

Oh yeah

So bad site design...

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Anyway, I don't really wanna post the examples of the comics I talked about in here cuz I don't wanna call anyone out

Actually, hold on, lemme check something

DaeofthePast

I feel I haven’t had too much experience with bad site designs, but I might have just forgotten(edited)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

ok yeah

so, the comic where you had to scroll up to the top of each page to click to the next one, and the site was multiple comics alternating pages that made the story rough to follow

copperine

Oof yeah having to scroll up to click next won't stop me but it is a bother

DaeofthePast

I like having the next button both on top and the bottom, even if they update page by page(edited)

It just feels convinient

copperine

Yeah same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Re: punching up/down, here's an overly simplistic set of examples: billionaires making fun of poor people is punching down. Poor people making fun of billionaires is punching up.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

's good webdesign pattern for everything with continous content - e.g. blogs, web-novels, webcomics.

Ideally you have one on top, between content and comments and under comments

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

the comic that alternated storylines & required scrolling back up to go to the next page was Antibunny: http://vinnied.comicgenesis.com/d/20061002.html if you see that page I linked and click next a few times, there's no obvious distinction between the main story and the spinoff story (no, like, header change between the two, and the art style looks similar), so you can see how it'd be confusing to follow and the scrolling is just icing on the cake (it used to be even worse) the only reason I feel comfortable sharing that is because the author uploaded the comics to new sites, and fixed all those issues in the process: http://antibunny.net/

DaeofthePast

Oh nice. So they realized the problem

copperine

Aren't they in this server? Or am I thinking of another one

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah, the author is in this server

copperine

I thought so

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Hence why he realized, because we told him that there was a problem during the book club

copperine

I'm not gonna take anything said here as a comment on anyway btw

DaeofthePast

It’s cool that submitting their comic to the tea party resulted in some good feedback :3

copperine

You love to see it!

It always makes me happy when webcomic community stuff helps people out, that seems like the ideal outcome

DaeofthePast

Yess

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

i agree on that yeee

DaeofthePast

It’s like having a friend point out a spelling mistake. Embarrassing but you can live with the knowledge that your work is now a little bit better(edited)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah kinda off-topic, but I love it when the author of the comic for the book club joins the server. Like not only does it mean that the author could join in on others' discussions in the future (pay it forward 'n stuff), but... it's just really sad when I see a comic pop up in the book club and the author seemingly forgot they submitted it.

DaeofthePast

How long does it usually take to get to a comic? :0 that they would forget they submitted it?

copperine

I always hope I can help others out or support them, and I hope they feel the same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The book club had a very very long wait list in the past. These days, not so long.

DaeofthePast

And I guess if you submit a comic with a website, the people here can be your beta testers

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

what's odd is that five months ago, the wait list was six months but now, the wait list is two months y'all need to submit/resubmit your comics

DaeofthePast

I tried going to submit mine yesterday and the site doesn’t let me v.v says you’re booked for July

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

oh yeah, so it is

DaeofthePast

Maybe later :3

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i guess Rebel doesn't want the queue to get too long

copperine

I would submit mine but I'm only at 10 pages and I believe you need to have 20 to submit

DaeofthePast

Ooh they have a minimum?

Gotta count my pages now

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean it makes sense. Hard to discuss a comic that only has the cover for chapter 1

DaeofthePast

Tru

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

"Let us dissect this cover image for an entire week"

DaeofthePast

It would be a hilarious April fools challenge

copperine

Idk I think it was 20 minimum?

DaeofthePast

shrug

copperine

@snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) can you shed any light on this

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The sign up form is where you would normally find that information.

copperine

... very good point

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

But the form is currently unavailable, and it's possible that Rebel might change the requirement when it becomes available again

copperine

Thank you for the heads up

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

FYI, https://comicteaparty.com/ is where the form will be available eventually

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

They accept resubmissions now?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I def like arrows on the top and bottom of pages for sites to be more of a thing, as well as clicking the image for the next page too! Honestly there hasn't been a make or break, mainly preferences, and the most complaints i have are with the mobile formatting. I think most comics have been pretty solid in functionality that i've read, and it's clear that having their own website is becoming mainstream enough for there to be help, tips, and tricks to making it work!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I definitely prefer if I can just click on the comic image to go to the next page especially for mobile.

copperine

Agreed!

Idk about resubmissions tho

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

... Wow. I absolutely HATE clickable images on mobile, because they usually mess with the pinch-zoom.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i've had sites that didnt have image click throughs and the arrow..... was like SO TINY XD

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Didn't think anyone would actually like it, so... huh.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i kept going back and forth

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

yeah, navigation needs to be bigger on mobile for safe tapping.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh, re:resubmissions, I'm pretty sure you can if it's been long enough? I think @snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) mentioned it recently as an option. But maybe a tangent for #general

boogeymadam

i dont mind the pinch zoom being a little more difficult from time to time cause usually the clickable image is worth it to me

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Same

boogeymadam

am also fond of sites that allow left/right arrows to let you move forward and back on desktop

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Mainly it's just for like Krispy said, reading on mobile and tiny next/previous buttons.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ye my dummy thicc fingers prefer the click through image for sure

ohh yes Boogey that too

boogeymadam

it took me hours of googling to find the very simple comicpress option to just turn that on on my site

copperine

Mmm I do like sites that allow pinch zoom though

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I also prefer clicking on the image to go to the next page

mariah (rainy day dreams)

My fingers small, but still dummy T-T

copperine

It makes it easier to get a better look at the page

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

iweudhweiu Mariah XD

copperine

Especially if it's got smaller font

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

nyxandnyssa has a seperate navigation for mobile that's much bigger and skipping scene select to make tapping easier.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I've had the hover text def bum me out for some comics, where you click the image and it just displays the text, then you gotta click the tiny next bar def killed me there

copperine

I've never had issues with pinch zoom affecting clickable images but I can imagine it would be annoying

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

but! never breaks me out of a comic for me to stop reading-! i persevere in the face of adversity XD

boogeymadam

i've never encountered a site so bad i couldnt continue reading. maybe stuff where i'd stop reading until i was less frustrated but i'd come back later.

DaeofthePast

That’s something I’ll have to consider for my site then

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I feel like Smackjeeves had a really obnoxious auto pitch & zoom before they updated most recently. I like when I can turn it off on my phone. I'd rather do it myself most of the time and let my phone try to auto it X')

DaeofthePast

I usually read on desktop more often than on mobile so it’s good to hear from other’s experiences

copperine

Idk I've never used a custom site yet

boogeymadam

same dae, except on tapas and webtoons!(edited)

comics with their own website i'll boot up my computer for a single update of

DaeofthePast

Even on webtoons I read on desktop

boogeymadam

omg your power, webtoons feels so choppy on desktop to me

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

im definitely lucky that our site got a mobile friendly version i remember the 'ol pinchy zoomz was tiresome on our site for sure

DaeofthePast

I get headaches from reading on my phone unfortunately :/

Idk what the difference is between reading mobile and on a desktop but my brain doesn’t like it

Like, I can text fine???? But reading a comic for some reason is like “no”

So yeah, comics on desktop for me

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohh!! it could be the close proximity!

DaeofthePast

Ooh :0 maybe?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i know i get motion sickness depending on how close/ far i am from screens

DaeofthePast

Maybe it’s something like that... :O

boogeymadam

whatever the reason sorry you get headaches and motion sickness from comics :'0

DaeofthePast

Every once in a while I’ll try again to read on mobile I never learn

boogeymadam

the only reason i dont like mobile is sometimes comics text is a combination of too small there and the font is hard on my dyslexia

DaeofthePast

Rip

boogeymadam

so i see if zooming in on my computer helps

DaeofthePast

The lesson here is that it’s good to have both mobile and desktop options

boogeymadam

yep :'D

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohhh yea def agree. I know that feeling and i sometimes ... have a Time reading my own work XD (i admit it lol!!)

boogeymadam

sometimes my own comic is hard on my dyslexia for The Effect so i never have hard feelings with other comics

copperine

(brb)

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ewiudhiwue the things we do AT WHAT COST XD

DaeofthePast

Asdfghjkl

Meanwhile I use the same font for everything

boogeymadam

wait im gonna generalize this more so it can be a party

DaeofthePast

Please post that on pillowfort so I can reblog it

boogeymadam

you can post it for yourself if you want dae!

i'm having a hard time logging on asdfgjh

DaeofthePast

Rip sure

copperine

Ah see I have both

Because hand lettering

It's great for feeling right for a comic but also eternally wondering if it's readable

DaeofthePast

Ooh yeah I guess that would count as both

What’s your comic btw :0

Wait, we’re supposed to be talking about website design right

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yep! If it gets too off topic, you can always continue in another channel that's more fitting.

copperine

Ah sorry! Sure thing

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Mobile is too small for me

DaeofthePast

Yeah

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(oHHMYYGOSH BOOGEY XD)

boogeymadam

mm archives were mentioned already, and how it can really turn readers away to simply not have one at all? my favorite archive is https://www.vaingloriouscomic.com/comic/archive 's but i've seen some where they attempted an all picture archive and it backfired by just being a page of all empty boxes. this didn't deter me from reading it and it got fixed pretty quick tho~ mine is one of these and its a very chonky slowmoving page cause i uploaded the first 90ish as fullsized pictures. nobody's ever complained so idk if it's ever deterred anyone from reading but i know i gotta fix it someday.(edited)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I really dont mind any kind of web design in particular though tbh. I prefer desktop sites but it’s fine if the design isnt great

DaeofthePast

Have you guys ever gone to a comic website (for a single comic) and the colors used in the background were so bright that it felt like they were blinding you to the point it was hard to read the actual pages?

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My archive is down right now becayse it broke and I dont know how to fix it lol

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i def want a fully view-able archive but we're gonna be hitting 800 pages and i dont know how well that will work XD

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

But I have a navigation bar now

boogeymadam

u could have multiple pages of archive, krispy!

i'm starting a new page for chapter 2

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Or dropdown menus

boogeymadam

but its probably important to have a dropdown if u have more than 1 page, yeah

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I want to switch to picture archives, but I haven't found a good plug in/way to get my word press to do it :( if anyone has recommendations...

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I wish I knew how to make dropdown menus

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i'll have to bring that up ! we dont do the tech work for our site ( thank gosh seriously) but i love archives that show full pages

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

If I could make dropdown menus I would be unstoppable

copperine

I miss the drop-downs on SJ

boogeymadam

i feel like dropdowns are smth i pretty much only exclusively see on hiveworks comics

i wonder what their secret is,,,

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I’ve inspected the elements on so many hiveworks sites lol

I want to know

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

they use word press I think

for their comic sites

just have to do some digging with the site html and csss

copperine

Right click and inspect maybe...

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Php stands for my Personal hell pit

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

if i could go undercover for yall i would XD

boogeymadam

also!! @mariah (rainy day dreams) i use elementor for mine

its not perfect and breaks like every time i update it but it works asdfg

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

... I'm currently writing a sparkling fresh wp-plugin for my page (comic easel wasn't doing what I wanted), but I am also a software dev who enjoys coding.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My template I use functions in mostly php and xml and its gibberish to me but functions so well I dont know how to improve it to have specific things I want

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

my knowledge with site design is basic at best lmao

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

wordpress is a bit special in that it does most things more complicated than strictly necessary.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but I do like fiddling with stuff

^that too lmao

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I know Shiza of osarilho is really good at web designing? she's made some beautiful work with her site!

boogeymadam

i want to ask shiza for more help but not before i have some money to pay her :')

she's helped me a lot already

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I can do html and css at the babiest level

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I'll check that out Boogey, thanks! Even if it does break X') And I guess I'll just make a note to start stashing money to hire shiza XD im definitely at the point where my site needs a general face lift, but I don't have the spoons for it.

boogeymadam

imo i've made some really pretty pges with it. it's a drag and drop that's excellent at galleries, but it doesn't like when you don't have even rows for some reason

the wordpress plugin, Elementor, i mean.

copperine

I've been wanting to try comicpress for ages

I just don't know where to start

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I'm gonna move over to #shop_talk for my response

copperine

I had someone who was gonna help me out but we lost contact so it's on the back burner

boogeymadam

OOPS yeah

copperine

But for websites in general I prefer to have one that feels very basic than one that feels too busy or crowded

I'm not a graphic designer at all lol

If I do try an independent site I'm planning to pay a coding friend to help me

DaeofthePast

yeah i have no idea what I'm doing when working on my site, it's kinda basic, but at least it looks nice

copperine

I just use a premade theme on my ComicFury site

It works and that's good enough for me so far

Oh I guess the other thing that would put me off reading a comic is if the site isn't formatted for mobile, and/or particularly if the site doesn't have adaptive formatting

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

same, but editted it hard core so it looks like it's own thing lmao

copperine

I usually read on my phone because my computer is where I work so I like to get off it for hobbies

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but for me uh i guess mobile i try to read it either on tapas, webtoon or its own site

I find just clicking the page to the next one helps me a lot lol I don't do a lot of zooming

copperine

Mmm

copperine

It's personal preference a lot tbh!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I like my comuter because its big

copperine

Valid

Mine is not

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

did anyone talk about paying me please you don't have to do that

copperine

Idk but you can pay me

Idk what for but

I'll take money

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I absolutely would have to if you made my site awesome X') work is work, and you should be paid for it

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

fair enough

Just send me a DM whenever you're up for that and lemme take a look at what you already have

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I would hire someone to do web design for me but I dont have the funds & I dont wnat to make someone do work for me for free

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

I've been meaning to set up my own website for a while now, since the collective i was originally hosting my webcomic with kinda fell apart, but it's so much work and i'm hella intimidated :'''D

copperine

@sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead) there's been some related discussion in #shop_talk and I believe @boogeymadam might be able to advise (I'm sure others can too but I'm going off the convo from earlier)

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

@sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead) depending on how much it is I can help you out

RebelVampire

Admin Reminder Remember this channel is for experiences as a reader first and foremost, so #shop_talk and #general are better if you want to discuss your own stuff.

DaeofthePast

thank you for the reminder :3

RebelVampire

I would say poor web design is something I have a complicated relationship regarding webcomics. On the one hand, outside of a site being 100% completely broken, I'm willing to sit through a lot to read. So in terms of affecting whether I read a comic the first time or not, there isn't much to say there. But it does affect how engaged I am with the comic. Cause if I can't easily go back to re-read a page, easily find things like character names, have to deal with extreme lag cause the host is garbage, have to deal with eye bleeding color schemes, etc. you can bet your bottom dollar 1 time is all that comic is going to get in terms of reading it. I can only subject myself to so much, and if I don't feel like reading a comic again because of the site itself, I'm going to quickly forget it in favor of comics whose sites don't make me cry. I do give more leeway to sites created by creators in many respects. But professional bigtime hosts like Tapas or Webtoons literally have no excuse for some of their garbage design choices. And some of their design choices are super duper garbage.

DaeofthePast

that's true yeah, there's a big distinction of the quality expectations between sites by small creators and those of big companies like Webtoons

RebelVampire

At the same time, though, I know from first hand experience that poor design choices are literally influenced by user data for bigger companies. So for every decision I consider stupid- at the same time they probably did the AB tests that showed crappy design A had better results for their conversion rates than user friendly design B.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Which boggles my mind

I wonder if there's some kinda causation-correlation thing going on that the A/B tests could not detect accurately

boogeymadam

Rebel mentioned sites that have eyebleedy color schemes and I'm in the same boat; will read the comic, just will be turning down the screen brightness a looot. Sites that have a huge space of extremely neon background that distracts from the comic make me reluctant to read on the site, and I'll look for a mirror before trying. That white background of the 2 big comic hosting sites can at least be affected and turned dark by nightmode when needed, while nightmode doesn't work on half the bright comic sites I've tried it on. u-u

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #reader favorites

1 note · View note

barx-buddy-near-me-blog · 4 years

Text

BarxBuddy Evaluation

You will be viewing, studying, and realizing that BarxBuddy can be a training tool for the puppies. It's a very frequent "range" you are reading through.

Which are the realities and specifics in the BarxBuddy, who will show you? I am talking about I can tell you a few things i have observed in this merchandise. I will tell you the things i have recognized exactly about it. Stay calm and stay tuned...

Pet or pet is regarded as the favorite animal nowadays. In numerous places, individuals have trend to help keep this faithful animal in their houses. However when these dogs "show" a poor "habits" then this teases you. So, when this occurs, you want something that can cease your dog or dog from barking. The Barx Buddy is the best item (at the moment) to suit your needs.

What is BarxBuddy?

"BarxBuddy is a coaching tool or device, emits an ultrasonic sound that may be listened to through your dog or pup (only). It is actually a great-pitched seem, allows you to receive the focus of your respective canine. Go near to your pet and make use of this remote-like education resource effectively.

"Make sure that you are a great coach".

"Whenever your canine or pet barks, you "click" the option in the tool and can cease him or her from woofing". 22 days, you are able to teach your puppy or puppy with the aid of BarxBuddy - the producer claims.

It happens to be an item which is helping you to workout your dog. This will always enable you to end the not so good conduct of your dog. This may always enable you to end your puppy from barking, sitting down in your house over a chair.

"Boost your dogs' wellbeing".

CLICK HERE To Get With A CHEAPEST PRICE (24HRS LIMITED Offer you)

Why BarxBuddy?

There are lots of food supplements on marketplaces claiming to help you to help make a puppy and puppy relax (when woofing). But those dietary supplements are dangerous. A lot of those usually are not made with 100 % natural ingredients. Read more here https://www.facebook.com/Barx-Buddy-102829261439367/.

Dietary supplements and also other stuff like this may degrade the healthiness of your dog or pup.

You don't "know" once your puppy or pet shows terrible actions. You don't know whenever your devoted animal will start barking and tease you.

At this point, you surely need the BarxBuddy that allows you to train your pet dog once and for all. In the effects, once your puppy barks, you may stop. It is like a far off that features a lengthy length 50 feet.

Manufacturer's Detail - A Whole Depiction!

"Barx Buddy" is a renowned firm, based in the United states of america. The corporation tends to make four items that are about for puppies (all varieties) or puppy. Their goods are trustworthy!

These are producing the Barx Buddy - workout your dogs at home. They can be manufacturing the Barx Buddy Clean - to keep your puppies, tidy and clean. They produce the Barx Buddy Safety Siren - to remain safe along with your dogs in an emergency. And, previous Barx Buddy Clippers - to slice the nails of the puppies or pup.

Their most useful product is BarxBuddy Device that is certainly being offered around the world. The item will be the largest supply of their massive earnings.

The Way You Use BarxBuddy and the way Can it Job?

You need to "use" the Barx Buddy gadget (user friendly) in order to simply train your pet (in your house).

The product has 2 major control buttons: Change (higher) and Coaching key (decrease).

Go near in your trainee and push the low switch. It begins to produce ultrasonic sound. Your trainee gets attention since you are the owner of the trainee. The dog or pet begins to "learning" as being the device is the perfect resource to find out your trainee. 22 days are enough to exercise your puppies when you are an effective instructor.

When your trainee continues to be skilled by you then the individual always becomes focus and prevents barking (once you press switch). In case your puppy or trainee is woofing you should simply press the "option" as well as the trainee is located down stop and quiet.

Click This Site : Obtain It NOW FOR THE Most affordable !

BarxBuddy Directions

Ensure that your canine is starting to become familiar with the Barx Buddy, a instruction resource. If you always use the product then a trainee may become impolite. The product can make an hypersensitivity for your personal puppy or pup.

Total, the Barx Buddy is safe (effective too) but you need to use it carefully. It emits an ultrasonic seem that is rich in pitched and undamaging to all of types of canines. So, you just need to cherish that your particular pet or pup has grown to be knowledgeable about the practice instrument.

What Exactly Are Experts Declaring In Regards To The Barx Buddy?

Mr. Lucas Said "BarxBuddy is the best example of the modern 21st-century period. It really is revealing us how you have done advancement in every industry of lifestyle. It helps people to teach to creatures so they can grow to be knowledgeable about this time".

Mr. David O. Mentioned "When I got to learn about the Barx Buddy i come to be satisfied while i have two canines of numerous types in my house. Also i bought this piece of equipment and begun to coach my puppies one at a time. I felt that the system is doing work and it's really awesome".

An additional label I'm decreasing here prior to who have stated uncommon terms.

Mr. F. Grayson Mentioned "Yes, I recommend Barx Buddy to individuals while we always explain to people about great goods. If you are a dog fan then you certainly also require this device that can assist you to stop the negative habits of your own puppy".

Professionals

Simple to operate

Mobile, Convenient to carry

Functions on all breeds

A single switch controlled

Harmless

Negatives

Available On The Web, only

Any Unwanted Effects...?

One important thing I let you know in order to recognize that Barx Buddy has no adverse reactions.

The product releases an ultrasonic noise that can simply be observed through the dog for any breed. This audio never harms to dogs. This sound never harms to animals. This has been produced by professionals who are very conscious (and specialists) for making these kinds of products.

Click This Link : GET System HERE AT The Least Expensive Cost!

How Much Barx Buddy Remains Safe And Secure?

Could you possibly hear when i state that Barx Buddy lets out "ultrasonic sound"?

Ultrasonic seem is a form of sound that should not be heard (or witnessed cautiously) from a individual. It is a kind of seem that may be produced for any "purpose". Whenever we focus on ultrasonic sound inside the Barx Buddy that means it is safe. The maker says that "safety maters" - their strong phrases. This is basically the most secure gadget or education tool for those creatures.

Is Barx Buddy Legitimate?

The Barx Buddy system is a scientifically-made product or service so that it is safe.

It is high in frequencies and also loaded with pitched appears to be.

It is really an ultrasonic noise-structured product that means it is safe for humans (and also wildlife).

It is actually harmless for puppies of most varieties. It also never harms with other creatures (besides pet dogs)

4.65 stars, the corporation has earned till now - it's a really good ration of the pleased folks. There are 1767 evaluations from clients or customers of your item. And, they can be very satisfied with this device.

So, the Barx Buddy is really a 100% authentic product.

1 note · View note

badassxbirdy · 10 months

Text

Edit: Mobile nav is here. Blog maintenance may have temporarily broken the link in the description box. 😅

August Activity Update (Pinned Post)

It’s time once again for an activity update! If you’re new here: these monthly posts help me to keep track of what the frick I’ve been doing, particularly when tumblr breaks or the brainfog strikes. This update includes things posted or in drafts for the month of July, as well as the first three days of August as I’m a little late. Everything else can be found in previous monthly updates under this tag. There’s also the thread tracker here.

The full activity update (along with OOC house keeping) is below the cut. Bold text = links.

If you want to see all IC interactions without the other stuff, click here. If you’d like to start something new, there are opens, memes, and the wishlist, or you can just hit up the DM’s. You can also add Ty on Wire for IC texting.

Now onto the update!

OOC Housekeeping

@innerwar has just released a book! Check out the deets here for Amazon, or here if you prefer google books!

I’m giving the blog a clean and tidy. That includes clearing out the likes, so ignore it if you get any random likes on older posts. I occasionally double click by mistake.

Apologies for the huge dip in quality lately. Ditto the quantity! I’m beginning to feel a little more like myself than I have for quite a while, so hopefully this will improve things! 😅

Thank you for the kind words regarding the loss of the oldest pooch. People have been lovely, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the support. ❤️

Threads, replies, and other IC interactions:

(In alphabetical order by username)

At the motel. (link) - @demcnsinmymind

Azzy proves a point. 👀 (drafted, and I am screaming over this whole interaction!) - @demcnsinmymind

Drunk!Ty being her silly self. (drafted) - @demcnsinmymind

Taking Lance on a hunt! (drafted) - @demcnsinmymind

Car trouble (buried somewhere in the depths of the queue. I’ll find it and yeet it to the top asap! ❤️) - @demcnsinmymind

Damon shields Ty, Ty is ANGY. (link) - @derschwarzeengel

Werewolf problems. (link) - @derschwarzeengel

The idiots reconcile. (link) - @derschwarzeengel

Ty encounters Vampire!Damon. (link) - @derschwarzeengel

The children are bickering again. 😂 (link) - @derschwarzeengel

“She’s a ghost AND a bitch!” (drafted) - @derschwarzeengel

Universe differences (drafted) - @derschwarzeengel

Damon encounters dark!Ty (drafted) - @derschwarzeengel

Judging 50 shades (drafted) - @derschwarzeengel

Ken in France means… (link) - @derschwarzeengel

“This isn’t what it looks like.” (drafted) - @discipulusmaleficus

“Tell me— What is your day job?” (link) - @first-born-to-his-name

Ty is about to die of embarrassment. ☠️ RIP. (link) - @heavenguided

Meeting the captain. (link) - @hvbris

Ty is massively confused by Wednesday. 😂 (link) - @hvbris

Human!Ty and FBI!Fish (buried somewhere in the depths of the queue, I’ll find it and yeet it to the top asap! ❤️) - @imprvdente

Mischief at the fair (drafted) - @indyflanery

Bad jokes with Charm (link) - @innerwar

Monster encounter (drafted) - @lcbcshcart

Demon problems (link) - @magaprima

Demon problems part 2: electric boogaloo (drafted) - @magaprima

“I totally didn’t do what you think I did.” (link) - @pantslessoptimism

Leaving the compound. (link) - @razorfst

Drafts: 11

Memes/Asks: 13

Headcanon, dash games, and assorted silliness:

Tyler needs everyone to know what “kenning” means. (link)

I think that’s everything! As always: please let me know if I’ve missed something. I never intentionally drop threads without notifying, rest assured that if it’s not here I simply have not seen it. Remember to be kind to yourselves, and stay safe! ❤️ — Em

#activity update #pinned post

2 notes · View notes

kinsie · 5 years

Text

Game Impressions from PAX Aus 2019

Wake the fuck up, samurai. We've got a city to burn.

Every year I go to PAX Aus with some close friends to check out the Incredible Future of Games that everyone else already checked out six months ago, along with some cool weird indie shit and some awesome retro stuff. And every year, I write a little diary of what I saw to share my impressions with my friends. This is that diary.

Doom Eternal

Okay, let's get this out of the way. I played Doom Eternal pretty much as soon as I got on the show floor. It may shock you to know that it is, in fact, good.

No pictures of the demo units, sorry, so have this big logo.

The demo started with a little grey-box tutorial map just to teach you what you need to know for the demo level, since it was taken from the middle of the game. It looked very Snapmap-y and had some Doom 2 MIDI music playing. After that we were given about 25 minutes to acquaint ourselves with the lengthy "Mars Core" mission they've been showing since E3. I was at the start of the first arena of the hell bit when I ran out of time. :(

Here are some scattered thoughts from playing:

Your standard running around and double jumping feels much the same as in Doom 2016. The dashing feels great, although I think it might reduce your air control a little afterwards as I had some trouble overshooting a platform in the floating debris bit.

Climbing walls felt a bit weird to me. You have to press E on the wall manually to grab onto it, which feels a bit unintuitive when you're plummeting past it. Also feels a bit odd considering mantling up walls is automatic. You can auto-grab onto walls if you dash into it, but I think it's only for the first bit of the dash? Maybe I'm just bad at videogames.

I think the Combat and Super Shotguns now use different ammo types? I could have swore there were situations where I could select the Combat Shotgun but not the SSG.

The Chainsaw now no longer has even the slightest pretence of being a "real" weapon. It's now just a swing animation when you press the button, like a melee attack, before bringing your weapon back up.

When you have the SSG's Meat Hook attachment, a little meathook icon appears below the crosshair. When you're close enough to an enemy to grapple onto them, the icon floats over them, indicating that it has some kind of auto-aim mechanic to reduce frustration.

There was a monster with swords on its arms that acted an awful lot like the Baron of Hell (might have been the Hell Knight, looking at the Quakecon footage of the same fight) but it looked quite different. Looked fuckin' cool, whatever it was.

The platforming but in the debris section with the giant floating red barrels was actually kind of frustrating. It wasn't always clear where you needed to go, and the climbable bits tended to blend in with the rest of the world. Then again, keep in mind I have a frankly abysmal sense of direction. Thankfully falling into the void just whacks you for a paltry five health and teleports you back onto safe ground.

The locational damage stuff is really fun. Breaking a monster's guns has a satisfying metal "PING" sound to it to inform you that the dude got fucked up and is weaker now, and that you should keep doing it.

When I picked up one of those "?" secrets, the pop-up box told me that they unlocked "collectable dolls" and "cheat codes". The former is vague, but I suspect they'll be like the mini-Doomguys but of more characters. I'd imagine the latter will be like in Rage 2.

Oh, and it looks a million bucks, too. Though you probably didn't need me to tell you that.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with what I saw and it's even more of a pity it's not coming out next month.

Not Indie Games, But Also Not Doom Eternal

The Vive Cosmos felt really comfy - the lack of cabling and the decent display resolution made it feel a lot more natural than the Gen 1 Vives I've previously used. The game they were using to demo (Audica), however, was pretty lame. A rhythm-target shooter that didn't really take advantage of the medium at all.

Bleeding Edge was not inspiring. It was basically the control point mode from TF2 or Overwatch, except every character was a third-person brawler with little emphasis on projectile weapons beyond the occasional special. It felt like someone making a claim at TF2 or Overwatch's throne several years late while bolting a weak character action game on, which is fairly odd considering how innovative and critically acclaimed Ninja Theory's previous game was.

Dreams is fairly fascinating in its potential. The creation tools weren't available in the demo build so I can’t really judge them, instead there was a choice of eight developer-made experiences ranging from Mario-inspired obstacle courses to videogames as art.

I didn't get the chance to actually play MediEvil, but I watched some folks play it and it basically just looks like the PS1 game with more triangles, with all the slightly wonky 32-bit gameplay that entails.

The demo unit for Monkey King: Hero Is Back had some utterly bizarre graphics settings for some reason that made it look like I was playing a JPEG file, with big whopping compression artifacts surrounding each character. Weird!

Not happenin’.

Indie Games

Grabimals is a brilliant local co-op puzzler where players roll around as shapes and link together to solve puzzles like catching a falling water droplet, crossing a gap or casting a shadow that matches an example image. Supposedly it's still a ways off from release, but it's already impressively polished (disregarding one hilarious crash bug we found by accident!)

Hamster Scramble is a really fun take on Puzzle Bobble, with platforming elements, team play and the ability to jump over to your opponent's screen and fuck their plans up directly. It's an absolute blast and didn't feel like it was almost a year away from release.

Fork Knights is a platform fighter with an emphasis on one-hit kills. The character designs are cute, but I can't really say the gameplay itself struck me, to be honest.

Baron is an eight-player single-screen local multiplayer dogfighter. Fairly simple mechanically, but pretty fun all things considered.

Broken Roads had some lovely hand-painted art assets and some interesting ideas like a literal moral compass, but the demo build showcased was waaaaay too early to be shown off to the public. Of the eight or so areas present in the demo, only two had any characters, interactivity or really anything other than wandering around set up, and the combat side of things was extremely rough and sequestered off to a side area as a "well, if you insist..." kind of deal.

Misadventure In Little Lon is a true-crime adventure game for mobile with a unique mechanic - each "scene" is integrated into the real world via AR, with characters (that resemble Poser models more than a little bit) speaking to you directly. Not sure if it holds up over an entire game, but it's attention-garnering at least.

Speaking of true crime, The Black Window tasks players with using an Oujia board to question Australia's first female serial killer, with responses taken from court records and letters from the time. The well-acted performances of the actual individual in question's words lends it an impressive atmosphere, which the booth added to with a big wooden oujia board type thing you could "type" on. Sort of.

ACID KNIFE is real, real early, but the aesthetic is awesome and the pixel art is great. Hopefully it grows and expands into something special.

The Vigilante Proclivities of the Longspur is an oldschool Lucasarts-inspired point-and-click adventure with a custom demo scene set at an oddly-familiar videogame convention. Pretty promising so far, but could do with a good bit of polish - I'm pretty sure there was only one sound effect in the entire demo, and dialogue was often lacking in punctuation.

I didn't get to play Hot Brass but I watched over shoulders and talked with the developers, and it looked pretty cool. It's basically a take on SWAT 4's rarely-imitated brand of tactical copwork, but with a Hotline Miami-style top-down perspective, but with all the characters abstracted down to simple board game like tokens - a circle with a coloured outline denoting attitude towards the player, with a weapon icon if armed.

Blood Metal... Blood Metal is not good. It is extensively not good. Development seems to have only started in July, so one can still hope that the bad AI, unsatisfying gunplay, buggy collision detection and complete lack of damage feedback (outside of some ridiculous, sight-obscuring gouts of blood) get fixed over time. The 80s action movie aesthetic and low-poly artstyle forces it to be compared to Maximum Action, which is at least a fun kind of jank...

This Starry Void is a real-time, tile-based 3D dungeon crawler set in an abandoned spacecraft. It seems pretty cool so far, but it could probably use some UI/UX tweaks. The attempts at a "graphic novel inspired" visual style for the environments could probably benefit from looking at how Void Bastards did things, as well.

Lethal Lawns and Beam Team are fucking arcade games with massive cabinets. In 2019. Granted, they're also on computers and coming to consoles and stuff as well, but still! They're both pretty simple games, and therefore best played in cabinet form.

Unpacking is a "zen puzzle game" by the developers of Assault Android Cactus about the second-worst part of moving house, unloading an unseen character's packing and getting a glimpse into their lives as a result. I wasn’t able to play it due to an unexpectedly-crowded booth, but the pixel art is quite lovely.

Feather is a chill game about being a bird and flying around an island trying to find its secrets. I tried the Switch port, which played alright but obviously (and understandably) toted a lower framerate than the demo PC.

Topple Pop is a cute puzzle game that blends together elements of Tetris, Puyo Puyo and that one joke game that was Tetris but with a proper physics engine. Looks cute, with a fun gimmick!

Shooty Skies Overdrive is an VR spinoff of the popular mobile shmup, and basically similar to that one shmup minigame in Valve's The Lab. Weave your plane, which is attached to one of your hands, through incoming bullets and enemies like a toy! The 3D effect on the incoming projectiles looks great, but they can tend to get in the way of the action sometimes.

Dead Static Drive has been at like the last three PAXes and it looks better every time I see it. I hope it comes out this decade.

Snow Mercy is a third-person shooter/strategy thing where you hunt down icecubes to spend on an army of snowmen to crush your opponent's base before they crush yours. Not a common genre combo, reminds me of C&C Renegade a bit.

The Adventure Pals has graphics straight out of mid-2000s Newgrounds and level design out of pretty much any european platformer, but it didn't seem too bad from my brief prodding at it. The player character is perhaps a bit too small for my elderly eyes in Switch portable mode, but that's about as far as my gripes go.

#gaming #paxaus2019

9 notes · View notes

incarnateirony · 5 years

Text

To confused Supernatural fraaands joining pillowfort

Making a “how not to get lost” tutorial. I know a new social platform can be really intimidating, and I'm getting a lot of people flocking in from tumblr, sending DMs asking questions -- and no, that's not a sign to stop, I just recognize there's a lot of questions I can give you a masterpost to share to your confused friends!

Included is: how and where to find people and content, maximize your reach and impact, how to actually use the interface to its best capacity, what bugs to expect, how to talk to the staff and suggest new features, dos, donts, and how-tos.

Pillowfort tutorials and stuff exist, and I'll link those in a bit, but I can not emphasize enough how important it is to find the right communities for you as a base line to start. So, have a list of the biggest Supernatural communities and a few not-huge-ones that may still tickle certain fancies.

Supernatural: show, cast, and ship positive

Destiel: Take a wild guess what the comm is for

ProfoundNet: The PB/Destiel server related, I dunno how much they upkeep it at a glance but everybody seems to stay in touch.

SupernaturalArtsAndFics - All ships, all cast, don’t be a dick is the rule there.

DeanWinchesterIsBisexual

And lo, though I hate promoting it I will be fair, there’s The_Wincest_Community and just “Wincest” - the members and content seems pretty identical.

There’s an SPN NSFW Art group too -

Castiel fangroup

SPN Multishippers group

SPN Reverse bang

SPN Fanart,

Destiel Fan Favorites Survey Community

Cockles

After here, groups keep getting smaller and are all like… 30 people or less, I’m stopping centralized listing at the 30-mark. And right now, small groups still have a chance to boom once more people migrate across. But this is where you can start to find MOST of your people at.

You can search the community feature for smaller, related communities. Hell, there’s a Drowley community with 7 members right now. A Sabriel , a Sastiel. Etc. There’s a bunch of fractal J2 hat groups that have like 3-10 people, one has like 20. Any time I try to search J2M I’m getting a nightmare deluge of unrelated results and freeze when I click to page 2 to find something relevant. The Team Free Will group looks young and may end up redundant on a feed, only time will tell. Actor based groups seem… smaller. There’s a J2 Fanart group, but not one for them independently. 17 members. There’s a misha group called Mishapocalypse . So that’s still needing to get built up over there all-around.

For what it’s worth, I tried to paste a few together:

Right now, Supernatural Meta has 19 members. You don't have to be a meta author to join.

Annnnd I just put together a “The Brothers - Sam and Dean”place to enjoy non-shippy talk, content and conversation about the brothers. Just forage up the rules and roll.

And I have a Bobo Appreciation club I just launched but the site is in lag-mode and I don’t have the will to find the link.

Disclaimer: I’m just going with the biggest groups I’ve seen. I have not personally investigated all of these. I can’t say I’m necessarily endorsing all of these as awesome places or whatever, but it’s a place to START on a new platform. And before I get a concern troll asking why I linked a Wincest group, whether we like it or not, Wincest is here. It’s not the biggest ship, it’s not the cleanest ship, it’s not the - whatever. I don’t agree with it, most of my followers don’t agree with it, but lots of fans are multishippers, are scattered abroad, and frankly… now is not the time to be separated bitching over our differences.

Now a short bit about what communities are GOOD FOR and why I endorse them so much.

See, when you join a community, you get subscribed to all posts going through that community, whether you follow the individual or not. If you fear a community will give content you don't want to see, blacklist the tag on the sidebar under Filters & Blacklist and, if someone just utterly fails to tag their trash you don't want to see, there's always the block function. If a community has more bad than good for you, maybe try to find another, or make your own. There's lots.

But that said, it helps us find each other and content while this platform is young. If you post, say, to the Supernatural group, several hundred people get your post blasted across their feed, presuming you aren't using a tag they blacklisted. It keeps feeds active and keeps us from climbing into holes we lose information in. And, frankly, gives even the smallest account a chance to be seen by the world.

Okay cool, you've found a few communities, there's posts on your feed, you know where to start chattering and finding people, so how does this work past THAT?

Well, first there's a few realistic messages from early beta users and devs about the platform worth reading.

A sort-of masterpost of tutorials and how-tos.

Where to find the beta community, make a wishlist of features to suggest to the devs, introduce yourself, find known issues, contact the staff, history, find other base cornerstone communities outside of fandom, tips, how-tos, you name it. REALLY USEFUL POST. MUST READ.

Realistic expectations for the client in beta.

How to jerry rig it to work as a mobile app with notifications.

In the area of visuals, if you're tired of the blue ... ocean that surrounds us while they refine their visual experiences, if you're on desktop, I made a series of SPN skins. Follow the instructions to install the skin of choice.

Sam Winchester - Vivid; Warm tones, mostly red

Rowena; Dark, black, violet, red.

Team Free Will - Dark; amber green blue slate

Sam & Dean - Earth tones, medium theme

Dean & Cas 1 - vivid; bright, blue/green

Dean & Cas 2 - dark, blue/green, slate, transparent side bar, feather head navbar.

The second Dean & Cas one is the most extensive. The first were quick generated slap-overs to get rid of the most persistent blinding elements, D&C2 I took it a few steps further. It’s lightly responsive with glows on link hovers, more image overlays tucked around quietly, wider use of gradients and color filled posts to match the theme, which the others don’t have. In time I’m going to see if I can start styling the divs themselves such as changing shape/align. Pretty sure I can. I’m weathered in the fires of RPH profile editing to make CSS do ridic stuff.

And yes, I take requests. I do it for free, right now at least. It’ll probably go obsolete. I don’t have a huge number of requests. So why not?

Keep in mind, there's some differences between pillowfort and tumblr, which most people are migrating from. Personally, I consider these HUGE improvements and steps forward once this place gets bigger. So let's do a breakdown, in complement to some of the resources I linked above.

So what makes Pillowfort so fucking special?

Okay, so check it out. On tumblr, we’re used to reblogging shit into the depths of the internet. As Pillowfort grows it, too, has that capability with some differences. The boldest difference is that when you reblog, your opinion doesn’t get attached to the end of the post. It just reblogs the base post. Some people initially complained and thought that was the loss of a feature but came to realize it’s a blessing.

You see, that means someone can’t kidnap your post with a shitty opinion to reblog it to their friends with a shitty opinion that all attach their heckling shitty opinions. Like, let’s say it’s someone that’s Destiel fandom reading this. Ever had an anti shit reblog your post and it run wild? Well, now, if they try to reblog it, all they reblog is… your Destiel post. Thanks for that.

So how do we actually say what we need to?

Well, fam, it incorporated elements from LJ/DW, in having threaded replies. Multiple threads if so needed. The threaded replies are capable of housing just about anything an OP has. So a blog post has, alongside Like/Reblog notifications, comments. Open the post, read the comments, start an actual conversation with some merit. Did some douchebag come to spam your comments since they can’t reblog? No problem, delete their shitty comments and block them, problem solved.

But it doesn’t end there.

Double back to the stuff about communities I bragged up, above. Notice what all that gives you. Realize you can blog into/out of/across different communities.

When you make your own communities you can have internal discussions or blog in/out posts, you can set rules, promote moderators, remove or ban problem users, and generally control the flow of your community to keep out shitlords. But, if for example, you subscribed to a community that turns out to be secretly run BY a shitlord because, IDK, maybe they don’t like that you think Sam is bi or something, most of these communities are large and blog in/out/engageable enough that you won’t lose your contacts, you WILL find your people over time, and you won’t be completely choked off to a singular abyss.

So the base beat is

PF treats every single post like any root post on an LJ/DW comm, but is able to be reblogged from/to communities or your own blog page as freely as tumblr. PF takes the best concepts of current and previous fandom platforms in its base application and lays a groundwork that literally all of us can prosper on if it survives and continues.

“I kinda like PF but it doesn’t have X feature-”

Okay look, PF is a smolbabe, like I said. It’s in beta. The thing is, they’re adding things every day. They have a dev list like 2 pages long for goals and things are getting crossed off and added like, biweekly. It might already be on their list to add. And if it’s not, guess what?

The staff actually give a shit and react to questions and concerns. There’s entire beta groups to talk about features with bugs, and/or features that should be added or adjusted. There’s a comm to talk directly to the staff about things. They're linked above in this post, and you can find them, leave what you want to see modified or added... boom! Help make this platform WHAT YOU WANT IT TO BE.

A small, young platform needs people willing to be out there saying what would improve the experience. You’re not just fandom pioneers, you’re social media pioneers if you so choose to be. It’s not mandatory. You can just fan in your space how you want. Or you can go to the beta groups and staff groups and tell them what you think would improve the experience. Keep in mind, tumblr didn't start with all the bells and whistles it ended up with. It didn't start with a bazillion users. But some people put their toes in the water while others jumped in, and others stayed back for years until all their friends changed pools.

Hopefully this answers most questions, concerns, and wants for people tripping into Pillowfort from the fandoms I attend right now. If anything still confuses you -- don't be shy about making USE of the powerful differences. Pop open this post, leave a comment, hold a conversation and I'll help how I can.

#supernatural #tumblr exodus #pillowfort

23 notes · View notes

iminclinedtowriting · 6 years

Text

Love Yourself (Chapter 6)

title: Love Yourself summary: A lot of things about Dan’s life are pretty great. He gets to make the music he wants, he’s got a great fanbase, and his manager is his best friend. A few things about his life suck a bit more. He’s currently lacking inspiration, he’s rather lonely, and he’s stuck in a rut. Dan’s been going to the same coffee shop for years. It’s quiet, it’s quaint, it’s near his home. Most importantly: none of the employees give a shit that’s he a world-famous singer. Things change when he meets the new barista. chapter words: 6.1k story words: 26k (so far) chapter: 6/? genre: singer!dan, coffee shop au, barista!phil, slow burn [[ao3]] [[previous chapter]] [[first chapter]]

a/n: i’m fully aware that this is two days late and i’m SORRY. between the end of the semester and getting sick, i’ve failed to meet just about every deadline this week oops. but here’s 6k?

note: this chapter is a bit more M rated than previous chapters. slight tw for homophobia and bi-erasure, and sexual activities.

thank you @auroraphilealis for her wonderful help as always, she always points out the best ways to make my story better

As soon as Dan was across the threshold of his apartment, he sat Darcy down and grabbed his computer from her little fingers.

"Uncle Dan, can we have a snack?" Darcy asked, carelessly dropping the rest of the stuff she was holding. The crayons spilled out of the box and rolled everywhere.

"Just a moment, okay Darce? Uncle Dan has something to do first." Darcy pouted, crossing her arms stubbornly in front of herself, and looked like she was about to complain. "I'll tell you what, you can pick out our snack after you pick up all the crayons."

Darcy looked down at the crayons, which were still rolling away. "Fine. But I want chocolate."

Dan shook his head in exasperation. "I swear, you are just a tiny version of your mother. Meet me in the kitchen when you're done."

Dan practically ran from Darcy once she was occupied. He slid into the kitchen, opening the computer before he even got to the counter. When he was finally perched at the breakfast bar, he opened his Twitter homepage, and completely ignored all of his notifications.

Impatiently, Dan punched in the handle that Phil had given him into the Twitter search bar. A...M...A...Z...I... — holy fuck.

The very first suggestion that showed up — from only the letters "amazi" — was AmazingPhil. And, apparently, AmazingPhil was verified and had five million followers.

What in the fucking hell.

Dan skimmed his profile, trying to figure out why in the actual fuck Phil had five million followers. The tweets on Phil’s page weren’t particularly helpful. None of them gave any insight into why he had several million followers. There was a link in his bio though; shakily, Dan clicked on it, opening it in a new tab.

The page felt like it took ages to load. Dan’s internet was so fucking slow. Finally, he was staring at a YouTube page.

A Youtube page for AmazingPhil.

A Youtube page for AmazingPhil that had over four million subscribers.

Dan didn’t waste any time opening the first video on the page in another tab. Immediately, he was greeted by Phil's typical one-handed wave and a bright "Hey guys!" As interested as Dan was in the video, he switched back to Phil’s twitter, hoping to figure out what the heck was happening. The video continued to play in the background. Phil was talking about how weird of a kid he apparently was (no surprise there, Dan found him to be an endearingly weird adult, too).

Suddenly, Dan understood why Phil was so weird about giving Dan his username. Knowing that he didn’t have much time left to explore Phil’s apparently celebrity life, Dan pressed the follow button and, just to make him suffer a little more, Dan clicked to tweet him.

@danielhowell: @AmazingPhil hey there you snek

Just as Dan pressed send, Darcy came running into the kitchen. Proudly, she threw all of the crayons she had picked up onto the counter, completely defeating her efforts as they rolled across the breakfast bar and clanked to the floor.

"Uncle Dan, I cleannnnned. Can we please have chocolate now?"

"Yes, Darcy, just one second." Dan quickly turned on mobile notifications for Phil before shutting his computer. He was curious, sue him. He didn’t have time to do a full stalk now. But he would later.

He shoved his phone into his back pocket and swooped down to pick up Darcy. He swung her up onto the counter, setting her next to the sink. Darcy let out a high pitched giggle at the sudden swooping motion. Her hands were slightly tinted a rainbow of colors from the crayons. He turned the water on, letting it get warm.

"Wash your hands, then you can have chocolate."

Darcy leaned over the sink to wash her hands, inadvertently soaking her pants and the sleeves of her sweater. After all of the effort he'd made to keep her dry, too.

"I think that's enough of that." Dan laughed and pulled her wet hands away from the tap. Before she could make too much more of a mess, Dan turned off the water. He opened the cabinet by Darcy, bringing a hand to her waist to steady her as she clambered up to stand on the counter. She peered into the cabinet seriously, evaluating the food options Dan had. Her tiny hand reached out to grasp a box of chocolate biscuits. Proudly, she turned around to show Dan her selection.

"Can we have milk with the biscuits too?"

"That's the only way to have biscuits!" Dan pulled Darcy back into a seated position before he walked to the fridge. He pulled the milk out, only to find that there was hardly any left — right, he was supposed to buy new milk and got distracted. Oh well, too late now.

He poured the small amount of remaining milk into a glass for Darcy and tucked the biscuits under his arm. She instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist when he pulled her off the counter. He carried her into the lounge, setting her down on the couch and dropping the biscuits into her lap.

“Hold on just a second, Darce. I want to get you a new shirt since you got yourself all wet.”

Dan ducked back to his room, grabbing one of his spare t-shirts. When he got back to the living room, Darcy already had the box of biscuits opened and was munching happily on one. Dan rolled his eyes, not at all surprised she’d started on them before he got back. He grabbed the biscuit and the box from her hand, balancing them precariously on the arm of the couch.

“Can you stand up for me? I brought you something dry to put on.” Obediently, Darcy stood up on the couch and lifted her hands above her head, letting Dan pull off her damp sweater. He tugged his t-shirt on her and helped her pull off her sopping leggings. “Is that better?”

Darcy nodded her head enthusiastically, jumping back down into her seated position. She looked precious in his shirt. The hem of it fell passed her knees and the sleeves, which reached his mid-bicep, hung passed her elbows. Dan loved having Darcy in his life and was eternally grateful that Louise allowed him to be as big of a part of her life as he was. Someday, way down the line when his life had settled down some, Dan desperately wanted a kid (or two or three) of his own. But for now, he showered all of his attention on Darcy.

"What do you want me to put on the tv?"

"The Tigger Movie!"

Dan bit back a groan. He'd spent all of Darcy's life trying to get her into Winnie the Pooh and for some reason she's picked the worst Pooh movie to be her favorite. Honestly, he was so fucking sick of this shitty movie, but he put it on the tv anyway. He deserved a fucking award for Uncle of the Year for how many times he'd watched this bastardization of Winnie the Pooh.

Dan fiddled with his phone, his eyes flickering back and forth between his dark screen and Darcy. Inadvertently, she knocked the box of biscuits over and a few tumbled out onto the floor. With better reflexes than he realized he had, Dan reached over and caught the glass of milk just as Darcy was jumping down to pick up the fallen snacks. When she settled back on the couch, Dan repositioned the milk between her legs and poured a few of the biscuits onto the couch for easy access. Screw the crumbs. It was better than her dropping them all over the floor again and potentially knocking the milk over as well, especially as he was fully planning on tuning out of the movie as soon as he could.

Dan waited until Darcy's attention was fully consumed by Tigger's annoying bouncing around the screen before he pulled his phone back out. Surprisingly, there was a notification from Twitter — apparently Phil had already tweeted him back.

Dan swiped on the notification, opening the app.

@AmazingPhil: @danielhowell Hiss Hiss [snake emoji]

Dan looked at the time stamp on Phil's tweet. It was dated a mere two minutes after Dan had originally sent his. Interesting.

Dan switched over to the YouTube app, finally taking a moment to properly look at Phil's channel. According to his about page, he had created his channel on February of 2006. His description said that he "shares his strange life with people on the internet" — from everything Dan had learned about Phil so far, he definitely did have a strange life. He was looking forward to getting to hear more about it while watching the... holy shit, 250 videos Phil had.

Dan tapped back to the Twitter app in order to respond to Phil's tweet.

@danielhowell: @AmazingPhil looks like that's my evenings plans sorted then

Dan glanced over at Darcy. She was still munching on the biscuits. The milk had turned into almost sludge from all the biscuit crumbs that were dissolving in the glass. He was going to have to take that away from her soon. When he looked back at his phone, Phil had already tweeted him back.

@AmazingPhil: @danielhowell Oh no! Please don't go too far back [gif]

Attached to the tweet was a gif of a bunny hiding its face in his paws.

Jesus, this guy is too precious.

Just to be a dick, Dan scrolled all the way back to the beginning of Phil's channel and copied the link to his first video — "Phil's Video Blog - 27th March 2006".

@danielhowell: @AmazingPhil idk this seems like a pretty good starting point https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0dsyXzmHFM

Dan surreptitiously grabbed his headphones and tucked his left earbud — the one hidden from Darcy’s view — in his ear. He clicked play on the video and Phil’s voice… shit, it sounded so Northern. Completely adorable, though.

How old was Phil here? Dan was suddenly desperate to know. How cute was this?

When the video finished — it was only just over two minutes long — Dan clicked back to Twitter. He briefly considered replying to Phil’s tweet again, but decided it might be better to just slide into his DMs.

Daniel Howell: wow you were a baby when you started this how adorable

Phil’s response was instantaneous.

Phil Lester: Shut up, I know for a fact that you have plenty of embarrassing stuff on the internet from when you were younger, let me be.

Daniel Howell: touche lester. you have a fuckton of videos though, so much for my productivity i guess

Phil Lester: What happened to Darcy? Go pay attention to her.

Daniel Howell: she’s watching the fucking tigger movie and eating biscuits, she hasn’t even noticed i stopped paying attention to her

Phil Lester: What? That’s the worst Pooh movie!

Daniel Howell: THANK YOU her and louise don’t agree with me smh

Phil Lester: Wow, how shameful. Maybe you should try something different? Totoro?

Daniel Howell: trust me, i’ve tried. she only likes totoro when she is on the verge of falling asleep idk why

Phil Lester: That’s kind of cute though. I used to watch My Neighbor Totoro when I was going to sleep a lot (maybe I still do shhh)

Daniel Howell: that’s actually adorable (i do too)

Daniel Howell: tbh i wasn’t sure if you’d even see my tweet, much less respond so fast

Phil Lester: This is embarrassing. I may have you on notifications. Oops.

Daniel Howell: philip lester are you a secret fanboy

Phil Lester: Friends are allowed to have notifications on for their friends! It’s not that creepy.

Daniel Howell: it’s not THAT creepy, sure.

After Dan hit send, he panicked that maybe his last message hadn’t come out sarcastic, just harsh. Quickly, he followed it up with another message.

Daniel Howell: ;)

Phil’s next message came almost at the same time that Dan’s second message sent.

Phil Lester: Hey, I only put on notifications once I started seeing you almost everyday.

Dan sent Phil a smiley face and switched back to YouTube. He tapped on the next video — he figured he might as well watch in order if he was going to binge all of the videos anyway.

He made it through a few short videos before he got another DM from phil.

Phil Lester: Oh my gosh, our Twitter mentions are a mess.

Daniel Howell: how so?

Phil Lester: Everyone wants to know how we know each other lol

Daniel Howell: hmm i didn’t think of that

Dan bit his thumbnail in thought.

Daniel Howell: they’re your fans too, so you can obvi do whatever you want but i’d rather the whole world didn’t start coming to beans and grind

Phil Lester: No, me either. They know I’ve started doing some work with the BBC, I’m sure if I say I met you through work they’d all just assume it was that.

Daniel Howell: you do stuff with the bbc? who the heck are you phil??

Daniel Howell: that’s fine btw we can just be vague

Phil Lester: Lol yeah, I guess we have plenty to talk about huh? Come by the coffee shop soon?

Daniel Howell: obviously x

Dan glanced at the clock. It was four o’clock in the morning and apparently he’d been on YouTube nonstop since Louise had come to get Darcy sometime before dinner. Somehow, he was still only in 2014. The man had over 250 youtube videos, 120 of which were just from the past four years. According to Dan’s calculations, that meant he had roughly… another ten hours of AmazingPhil videos to watch?

Well shit. How was he supposed to be productive tomorrow, now?

After carefully (drowsily) considering his options, Dan made the best decision his curious, tired brain could make at this hour: he turned autoplay off, but kept clicking on video after video. He figured that if he fell asleep during a video, at least this way he wouldn’t accidentally sleep through two dozen videos.

Somewhere around five in the morning, Dan clicked on the first AmazingPhil video of 2015 and fell asleep to Phil’s quirky, eccentric storytelling. He had fully intended to get a full night’s sleep so he could wake up bright and early and head to the studio in hopes of finding inspiration, but… here he was now.

Despite being up until dawn watching AmazingPhil videos, Dan managed to wake up when his ten o’clock alarm went off. Out of habit, Dan pulled open Twitter and scrolled through his mentions — Phil was right, they were a mess. Almost every single tweet was screaming about the fact that he’d tweeted at Phil. A substantial number of the tweets were begging for the story of how they had met. AmazingPhil was tagged in almost all of the tweets, too. Who knew they had such overlapping audiences?

As he was scrolling, he realized that Phil had responded to a few of the messages. Eager not to miss anything, Dan switched to Phils Tweets and Replies page to see all of his responses.

@AmazingJenniffffer: @AmazingPhil tell us something we don’t know about @danielhowell

@AmazingPhil: @AmazingJenniffffer His standard coffee order is a triple espresso with one sugar and he’s a complete grump until he’s finished half of it.

Dan huffed in annoyance. He wasn’t a complete grump. He just… wasn’t very cheerful.

@danielhowell: @AmazingPhil @AmazingJenniffffer i resent that. i’m a delight thank you very much.

Phil’s response came quicker than Dan was anticipating.

@AmazingPhil: @danielhowell You haven’t had coffee yet this morning have you?

Dan’s eyes narrowed at the accusation. Stubbornly, he threw off the duvet so he could get up. He wasn’t about to let Phil have the last word here.

Jesus, it was bloody freezing in his flat.

Hugging his arms around himself, Dan looked around his floor, searching for something warm and relatively clean to put on. His eyes fell on Phil’s pugs not drugs jumper. Before he could overthink it, he pulled the jumper over his head. It was warm and comfortable, okay? It had nothing to do with the fact that it was Phil’s.

Dan could practically hear his internal devil laughing at the thin excuse, but the angel in his mind shoved the thought out of his head. That thought was far too much to process before coffee.

He stumbled into the kitchen and made a cup of coffee through half-lidded eyes. He spent a bit longer than normal picking out a mug while the coffee pot brewed, knowing he was about to tweet a picture of it. Eventually, he settled on a sloppily painted polka dot one his sister had made him — it would make her happy if she happened to see the tweet.

When the coffee was (finally) done, he filled the cup all the way to the brim and dumped in a small spoonful of sugar. While he waited for it to cool, he moved the coffee to the breakfast bar and carefully angled his camera so that the mug and his guitar on the kitchen table were both in shot.

@danielhowell: @AmazingPhil excuse you not only do i have coffee but i’m being productive [picture]

Dan tried to shove his phone into his pocket, only to remember that he was just wearing pants. Somewhat annoyingly, Phil’s jumper didn’t have a pocket either. Precariously, Dan tucked his phone under his arm, grabbed his phone and his guitar, and meandered into the music room. By the time he had set the guitar down next to the piano, his phone had chimed with another Twitter notification.

@AmazingPhil: @danielhowell You’re not fooling anyone, that coffee is completely full

There was also a DM from Phil.

Phil Lester: I thought maybe you’d come to b&g this morning.

Daniel Howell: sorry louise might actually have my head if i don’t do something productive today

Phil Lester: :( Rude, what are you supposed to be doing today?

Daniel Howell: working on writing the piano piece for a new song and louise threatened that if i didn’t have a draft of it by the end of the week then she was going to hire a composer because apparently i ‘take too long’

Phil Lester: Doesn’t she understand that art takes time?? (do I sound like a total fanboy if I ask for a preview?)

Daniel Howell: smh apparently not (yes but i watched 160 of your videos last night so i don’t think i can judge. i’ll send you something when i have something)

Without waiting for Phil to respond, Dan sat his phone face down on the top of the piano. He knew if he kept responding to Phil, he’d end up just talking to him all day and not getting any work done and, at that rate, he might as well have just gone down to Beans and Grind.

Dan spent the next hour and a half switching back and forth from playing his guitar, where he knew how to play the song, to the piano, where he was trying to arrange an accompanying piece. The top of the piano was littered with messy, half-crossed-out attempts at new sheet music.

After another hour of furiously trying to translate the song to the piano, Dan finally had a working draft of nearly half of the song written. Needing a break from flat out writing to just playing, Dan decided this was as good a time as any to film Phil a sneak peak of his new song. Awkwardly, Dan gripped his phone in his mouth and hit the record button, doing his best to record his hands on his piano. Unfortunately, the phone dropped almost instantly, landing face up so Dan had to awkwardly give Phil a terrible look at his face.

He watched the video back. There was just a quick clip of a piano, his hands, and a blur of his torso. It was kind of hilarious actually. He knew his followers would find it just as funny as he did.

@danielhowell: i was trying to film an exclusive sneak preview for @AmazingPhil but ended up with this gem instead

Without waiting to see his followers reactions, Dan returned his phone to his mouth and took another attempt at the video. This time, he managed to film the forty-five second portion of the song he’d composed.

He watched the video back. It was a bit shaky, both in filming and in… well, the quality of the song. Obviously, there weren’t lyrics or guitar or drums, but the piano part was complex enough that it sounded nice on its own. Still, he’d only just finished writing it, so his finger hit the wrong keys a few times and there were a couple of instances where his hands stilled for a split second, trying to remember what came next. Briefly, Dan considered refilming it, but he knew if he did it again, he’d end up filming fifteen drafts and wimp out of sending it.

Instead, he dropped it into his DM conversation with Phil, and sent it without a caption.

Weirdly, he was a bit nervous about Phil’s reaction to his music. So far, only Louise and his producer had heard the song — and that was just the guitar and vocal portion. Literally no one had heard any of the piano part yet. For all he knew, it was shit.

Instead of dealing with his nerves, however, he dropped his phone back on top of the piano and wandered back to the kitchen. He’d realized he’d only had coffee today and had completely forgotten about food.

In the kitchen, he grabbed a packet of crisps and a ribena and shuffled back to the music room. By the time he got back, Phil had already responded to his DM.

Phil Lester: What the heck? You’re so talented. Did you just write that now?

Daniel Howell: i mean technically i adapted it from the guitar, so it wasn’t like i was starting from the beginning or anything

Phil Lester: Don’t be mean to yourself! The guitar and piano are very different instruments.

Daniel Howell: and i’ve been playing them both since i was five, no excuses

He tapped back to his general notifications to see that his mentions were a wreck again. So far, there were several dozen tweets informing him that Phil had the exact same jumper. He had kind of forgotten that he was wearing Phil’s pugs not drugs jumper, to be honest. Well fuck.

Dan groaned to himself. He hoped no one thought too much about the outfit choice. Particularly Phil.

A notification popped up at the top of his screen.

@AmazingPhil: @danielhowell nice jumper

Or not, then. Dan rolled his eyes. Of course Phil had noticed. Even if he had overlooked the fact that Dan was wearing his jumper in the three second video, enough fans had pointed out that he had the same jumper as Phil that he was bound to see it.

He half expected Phil to DM him about it too, but he didn’t. Dan briefly considered DM’ing Phil himself, somehow trying to justify his clothing choice, but he figured there was no coming back from it now. Best to just move on, really.

Dan dropped his phone back onto the hood of the piano and re-concentrated his efforts onto composing the new version of his song.

Dan wasn’t sure how long he had lost himself in the music, but he was eventually jolted back to the present by the chime of the lift door.

The high pitched ding of the lift opening drew Dan out of his trance. The flat was silent for a moment, but the chime was quickly followed by a resounding smash and the smash was followed by a sharp clang. Dan dropped the pen from his mouth and dashed into the living room to see what the fuck was happening in his apartment.

Much to his surprise, he found Isabella standing in the middle of his kitchen. Around her, several of his pots and pans were spread across the kitchen floor, almost as if she was trying to make as much noise as possible.

“What the fuck, Izzy?” Dan asked, frozen in the kitchen entryway.

Isabella didn’t acknowledge Dan’s presence. She opened his next cabinet and grabbed a few more pots, unceremoniously chucking them to the floor.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Dan rushed over to Isabella, pulling her hands from the cabinet and holding them in front of him. “Stop it. What the fuck are you doing, Isabella?”

Isabella ripped her hands out of his grasp and reached for his next cabinet. She grabbed the nearest cookware and smashed it harshly to the floor. Just in time, Dan leaped back. The heavy metal bowl landed just centimeters from his bare foot.

“Jesus, Isabella. Will you stop? What the fuck is wrong?”

As Isabella opened up yet another cabinet, she realized that she was out of pots and pans she could crash to the floor. So instead, she turned and started grabbing what she could see in the cupboard.

His beautiful mug collection.

“Izzy. Izzy, Izzy, Izzy, Izzy. Stop, what are you doing?”

Isabella sent him a harsh, angry look. “You tell me. What the fuck do you think YOU’RE doing?”

Isabella grabbed another one of his gorgeous black mugs and smashed it to the floor.

“What the fuck? No, Izzy stop! I like my mugs.”

Isabella turned and stared him dead in the eye, grabbing the next mug and crashing it against the hard tile floor. Mug after mug, Isabella threw his prized possessions to the ground. Quickly, Dan found his kitchen floor becoming filled with little bits of Totoro, legos, and black ceramic.

“Fucking christ, leave me something to drink coffee in, will you?” Isabella snatched another mug off of his shelf and threw it to the floor with all her might. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Who is he?” Isabella grabbed another mug — ironically, his favorite mug, which was bright pink, and smashed it to the floor.

Fuck, he loved that mug. His grandma had gotten it for him years ago. It was her way of silently supporting his rebellion against gender roles when he had first started wearing nail polish and earrings sometimes. And now it was broken. Smashed into four big chunks.

Dan bent forward and scooped the pieces of the mug off the floor, cradling them into his chest.

“Who is who?” asked Dan, completely lost, as he set the broken shards of glass gently on his breakfast bar — far out of Isabella’s reach.

“You know who I’m talking about. That boy from twitter!” Isabella held another mug in her hands threateningly.

“...that boy from twitter?” Dan carefully hopped through the glass, taking care to avoid stepping on the large shards of his favorite mugs that littered his kitchen floor. Naturally, she didn’t have to worry about the glass, she didn’t have to worry about the mugs he so desperately loved cutting up her feet. She was wearing nine hundred pound shoes that were surely worth more emotionally than the mugs his family and friends had slowly given him over the years.

“What are you on about?”

“You know, that one you’ve been tweeting all last night! And today! So fucking flirty.” Carelessly, she dropped the mug she was holding by her feet.

“You mean Phil?” Dan glanced down at the shards of glass at his feet, honing in on the hand painted bits of broken glass.

“Phil? That’s Phil? Like coffee shop Phil?”

“Yes?” Dan stuttered. “Why? What the hell has gotten into you?”

“That guy you’ve been tweeting with is the coffee shop guy, the one you haven’t been able to shut up about for ages!? Nice jumper, by the way. I’ve never seen it before. But it sure sounds like all of Phil’s precious little fans have. It’s his, isn’t it?”

“What is your point, Isabella?” Dan asked through gritted teeth. He’d been trying, really trying, to stay calm. His mother had always taught him that getting loud and angry back didn’t solve problems and that was what he had been trying to do so far — solve whatever this problem was. But bringing Phil into it… that angered Dan more than almost anything else so far. More than his Totoro mug, more than the Lego mug, more than the near miss of the heavy metal bowl.

“You’ve been, like, spending so much damn time at that coffee shop recently. I was concerned it was because of a girl or something, but, of course, I forgot you were gay.” Isabella’s words came out sharp, dripping with poison.

Dan flinched back. In the back of his mind, he could hear the callous, ruthless taunts of his school bullies calling him gay, homo, fag… He tried to shut out the memories, but her tone, her tone mirrored those kids’ tones so closely that it was hard. He’d been comfortable, proud even, of his sexuality for years, but one word, one tone, one attempt from someone he loved to use a word he was proud of as an insult and… suddenly he was right back in his terrified, raging adolescent mindset.

When he’d told Isabella that he was open — enthusiastic even — to dating more than one gender, she had been cold, rude even. But that didn’t even compare to her throwing and shattering every kitchen item he owned onto the floor because of — well, this.

“How many fucking times do we have to have this conversation?” Dan closed in on Isabella, backing her into the corner of the counter. “I told you, I’m not gay. I like girls just as much as I like guys, or anyone else for that matter.”

Isabella scoffed at him. “Right, tell that to your new friend, Phil. With the way you’ve been acting recently, I just assumed that you’d let the full freak-gay flag fly.”

“One,” Dan angrily grasped the counter, right against Isabella’s hip, “I never said I was into Phil. Two,” Dan’s other hand landed on the counter on Isabella’s other side, effectively trapping her against the counter. “Even if I was, I wouldn’t be gay. Just in case you forgot, Izzy, there’s this thing called bisexuality.”

Isabella tilted her head sideways, looking back at Dan through heavily-lidded eyes. “I’m not sure I believe you, Danny. You’re going to have to prove to me that you still like vagina.”

Dan felt something snap within him. Isabella’s constant jabs at him, her constant disbelief that he could find multiple genders equally attractive, her inability to realize that despite his attraction to anyone else, he was actively choosing to be in this relationship… it all drove Dan to a point of anger that he hadn’t ever felt before in his life.

Suddenly, he wasn’t just backing Isabella against the counter, he was lifting her up by her upper thighs and pressing her against the marble countertop. His mouth instinctively found her neck, harshly biting more than kissing. In response, her leg wound its way around his waist, forcing him in close.

He shoved her harder against the counter, lifting her up further so she could sit, forcefully spreading her legs apart so he could stand between them.

Dan didn’t hesitate, working his way aggressively down Isabella’s neck, sucking and biting until he reached the crest of her bulging breast. His tongue flicked over it, dipping down into her bra and across her nipple. He’d never felt so angry before. All he wanted was to make her finally shut up, to make her finally stop making jokes about his love of dick.

Never once had he asked for the opportunity to seek cock, to take cock, to suck cock, yet here she was, angry about the fact that he could even consider wanting cock.

“If I were only into dicks,” Dan muttered, squeezing her other breast in his hand roughly, “would I love your boobs as much as I do?”

Dan roughly pulled her shirt and bra down with his teeth, giving himself more access to her chest. His teeth scraped sharply against her soft skin, leaving bright red marks behind. In response, Isabella wrapped her legs tightly around him, pulling him in tightly.

“Fuck, Dan…” Isabella hissed. “Like, I said… prove to me you aren’t into him.”

Dan growled, reaching his hand under Isabella’s thighs, sliding up until his hands were tightly squeezing her ass, and forcefully pulled her forward. Her legs instinctually locked around his waist and he effortlessly started walking her back towards his bedroom. Without warning, she started biting at his earlobe. Hard.

“Jesus, fuck. Isabella…” Dan trailed off, gasping as arousal shot through him. Isabella’s teeth moved lower, sinking into his shoulder so sharply that they nearly drew blood. Without warning, Dan shoved her against the hallway wall.

“Fucking hell Isabella…” He bit and sucked his way down her neck, latching on to her exposed breast again, groaning at the feel of her under him. He hadn’t expected this to be quite as much of a turn on as it was. His arms shook as he held her, biting at her skin, thinking about how much he just wanted to fuck her, show her how much he wanted her. He was just worried he was being too rough.

“Is this okay?” he gasped out.

Isabella responded first with a high pitched whimper. Dan hesitated for a moment, pulling back, searching her face for consent. “Yes —” she finally whimpered, bringing Dan’s attention back to her body. “Don’t stop.”

Dan growled, pushing her harder against the wall, holding her up with just his lower body. Good, he thought, because he didn’t want to stop. His hands tugged at her lacy top, tearing through the delicate fabric.

“Danny!” Isabella yelled, “That was expensive!”

“Does it look like I give a fuck?” Dan didn’t even bother meeting Isabella’s gaze.

He reached behind her, unsnapping her bra. Her tight skirt had ridden up from their position, granting Dan open access to her body. His left hand wound its way out from under her knee to her inner thigh, while his other hand landed on her lower back, roughly pulling her further against him, until his hard cock was pressing against her. His nails scratched sharply against her back, surely leaving deep red marks above her ass.

In turn, Isabella’s hands wound their way down Dan’s side and underneath Phil’s jumper. She shoved Dan backward, nearly causing him to lose his grip on her, and yanked the jumper over his head. The moment his shirt was off, Isabella’s hands returned to his shoulder, her nails raking down his back.

“I don’t care if you’re gay for coffee house boy, Danny, remember that you are mine.” Isabella punctuated her sentence with a sharp bite to Dan’s neck.

Fuck. She knew. She knew his neck was an off-limits zone. And yet, she still chose to bite at it.

Fuck it. Dan retaliated. Without mercy, his mouth attacked her collarbone, sucking a deep, dark purple mark against her pale, white skin. When he pulled back, he could see the marks of his teeth glowing red, encompassing a dark purple patch. Not good enough. Dan moved to the other side, latching his lips on the opposite side of Isabella’s neck and biting down.

Isabella matched him bite for bite, scratch for scratch. For every mark he left on Isabella, she left one on him. His hand had just worked its way fully up her skirt, grasping her hip so hard that it was bound to bruise, when Isabella bit his ear harshly, mumbling, “Fuck me, Danny, prove to me that you like me most.”

Defiantly, Dan ripped her away from the wall and carried her toward the bedroom. The whole way, her hands kept scraping down his back, her mouth kept sucking at his neck. In turn, Dan pulled at her hair and squeezed at her ass so tightly that he was sure it would bruise.

When they finally reached the bedroom, Dan threw Isabella mercilessly onto the bed, arms shaking with the effort of holding her up for so goddamn long. His hands immediately went to pull down her skirt as her hands reached for the drawstring of his pajama pants. Without ceremony, his pants and her skirt fell to the floor. The moment his cock jumped up, Dan was ready, and he pushed into her, roughly showing her just how much he liked her.

*ducks and hides behind the metal bowl isabella threw at dan* please don't hate me

#iminclinedtowriting #love yourself #ly #phan #phanfic #barista!phil #singer!dan #au #phan au #phanfiction

29 notes · View notes