#i want to see what other entries are on the list but at what cost man. at what cost

[creepyjirachi]

the eternal struggle of wanting to watch an iceberg explained video but the host has the most surface level, barely researched commentary imaginable

#trying to watch fox akimbo's ''unusually dark tv episodes'' video #and like he seems like a good dude but so many of his vids are like this. it's like he hasnt even watched half of the episodes at all #not knowing that heavyhanded emotional moments are iconic in full house to the point that the background music is itself a meme #being dumbfounded that static shock has one (1) episode about racism because it seems to be a ''goofy lighthearted super hero show'' #when that show had a huge focus on tackling social issues that were relevant to kids/teens especially kids of color #not even getting the plot of the episode correct for futurama's jurassic bark?? completely missing what even made the episode sad at all???? #IM NOT EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH THE VID BRO #i want to see what other entries are on the list but at what cost man. at what cost

[70sscifiart]

The Last-Minute Sci-Fi Gift Guide

There's only one thing worse than procrastinating on getting gifts for your loved ones, and that's procrastinating on putting together a guide to help out everyone else with all those gifts. It's Dec 12, so you can decide for yourself which I'm doing.

Art book: Worlds Beyond Time, $32

If you follow this blog, you might have heard of this one. I published Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s this year after five years of work on it, and I think it's really good! 400+ images, 100+ artists, with lots of fun art history and jokes.

Also, it's just $20 right now if you order through my publisher and use the code SKIPTHELINE! Cheapest it's ever been!

Card game: Coup, $14

In this "social deduction" card game, you play as a government official in a future dystopia who needs to backstab their way into power. Everyone starts out with just two cards in this bluffing game, so the tide can turn pretty quick when players start assassinating each other's cards. The fast pace makes it a good gift for someone who loves spies but thinks they don't like card games.

Game to play over Zoom: Bad Spaceships, $3

If a bluffing game stresses you out, try Bad Spaceships: It's a collaborative world-building game in which you roll dice to see what area of your spaceship connects to another, forcing you to spitball exactly why this is the case. As the game puts it, you might fix the hull by playing Tetris, or charge your weapons in the swimming pool. You're basically getting weird prompts to tell a story that can evolve over the course of the game.

It's such an indie game that it comes as PDFs you download from itch.io, but you can play it just as well over Zoom, if you're looking for an excuse to catch up with your old digital nomad college friend.

Movies/TV: Streaming service gift card

Gift cards are all well and good, but you can personalize them by recommending a few of your favorite shows as well. I suggest:

Hulu: Cowboy Bebop

Apple TV+: Severance

Criterion Channel: Ravenous, Paprika, Strange Days

Paramount+: Yellowjackets

Amazon Prime: The Devil's Hour

But to be honest, this entry is just an excuse to talk about the new Max show Scavenger’s Reign. Inspired by the work of French artist Moebius and with a clear debt to famed 70s animated film Fantastic Planet, this stylish sci-fi show features a bunch of humans trying to survive on a beautiful but hostile alien world. Perfect for lovers of fictional nature.

Vintage sci-fi

This Etsy shop has some good stuff, like the 1971 Frank Kelly Freas NASA poster above, a bit of history that I even mentioned on page 167 of my art book.

Penguin science fiction postcards, $28

These postcards have a ton of very cool sci-fi covers I've blogged in the past – great value if you want a lot of art for a low cost.

Meteorite pendant necklace, $34

I think we all know what kind of rock your loved ones need around their neck: A chunk of meteorite straight out of the 1576 Argentinan meteorite fall.

Book recs

For astronauts: Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel by Meredith Bagby

For comedians: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, Even Greater Mistakes: Short Stories by Charlie Jane Anders 

For sleuths: Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty, Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

For crafters: Knits of Tomorrow: Toys and Accessories for your Retro-Future Needs

For the resistance fighters: The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley, An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

For slasher movie fans: Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

Syd Mead "Biomorph Vehicle" button down shirt, $49

T-shirts aren't classy enough for the world's coolest visual futurist, Syd Mead. I haven't actually bought this incredibly odd shirt, but I really need to.

Art prints (and more) from 70s sci-fi artists

Artist shops can be surprisingly hard to track down on the internet, but here's a short list of ones I've come across. All of these artists are featured in my book (except one), so you can read up on them before you commit to a print.

Michael Whelan 

John Harris

Syd Mead

Don Maitz

David B Mattingly

Peter Andrew Jones - Jones was one of just a few artists who declined to be included in my art book, but he has a distinct, colorful style that I would have loved to have featured!

Finally, here's one extra bonus, just for everyone who made it to the end of this article: The UK-based educational charity Centre for Computing History sells three big officially licensed John Harris posters featuring these three artworks, famous for their use as covers for Sinclair programming manuals.

It's a great deal that I've never seen mentioned anywhere, and Harris' work has a timeless quality that makes it great for an unassuming wall decoration. If you're outside the UK, the shipping costs will be a pain, but there's no better deal for a classic sci-fi poster.

#gift guide #sci-fi #sci-fi gift ideas #gift ideas #retro sci-fi art

[lurkingshan]

Intergenerational Trauma Challenge - 180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us

It’s winter and I’m huddled up in my house hiding from the cold weather, so obviously this is the perfect time to tackle another entry on the intergenerational family trauma challenge list. This week I finally watched 180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us, a Thai drama about Wang, a young man just coming of age who is desperately seeking answers about his father’s death; Sasiwimol, Wang’s very complicated mother who does not want to dig up the past; Inthawut, his father’s best friend who has been hiding from it for years; and Siam, the black hole at the center of this story.

Before I dig into the trauma themes, let me just say that this show is excellent, if not for everyone. It has a very intentional style that makes it feel like a stage play—the writer is a playwright—and it’s basically eight episodes of very intense conversations. It’s not a romance and there’s an intellectualism in the writing that I found kept me at an emotional remove from the characters even as I marveled at how well crafted the dialogue is. And the dialogue is very important, which is why the translation of this drama is much stronger than we typically get from Thai productions—the words matter. It’s also loaded with visual metaphors and is all around beautiful to look at, and the three main performers are fantastic. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes theater, stories about complicated families, or beautiful and talented actors showing their work. And more than anything else, this show does incredibly strong thematic work and its messaging is on point: this is a story about how noble idiocy ruins lives.   

So, with that said, onto the trauma! Spoilers ahead, and I am assuming anyone reading past this point has watched the show. Some themes you’ll see in this one: taboo, denial of queer identity, homophobia, filial piety, and lots of emotional manipulation. Shoutout to @bengiyo and @twig-tea for reading this to make sure I didn’t miss anything in this complex story.

There are two main sources of intergenerational trauma radiating down toward Wang: the absence of his father, Siam, and his intense relationship with his mercurial mother, Sasiwimol. The story is structured around Wang’s determination to seek answers about Siam—both who he was and how he died. He has grown up knowing a certain story: that his parents met and fell in love in college but divorced when he was young, that his father loved him very much despite not staying with his mother, and that his father was an alcoholic who died in a drunk driving accident. Shortly after his father’s death, his mom put him in boarding school so she could focus on her career and became a weekend parent to him—as she was not around to structure his day to day life, their relationship became more about her taking him on fun adventures and spoiling him when she had time off, treating each other as best friends instead of like a mother and son, and never talking about Siam. He has always suspected there was more to the story of his parents that he was not being told, and as he has grown up, come into his own queerness, and picked up on his mother’s casual homophobia and obsessive devotion to compulsory heteronormativity, his suspicions about the secret his mom was holding became sharper. 

Enter Inthawut. Inthawut was Siam’s best friend, and with nothing to go on but a set of old pictures, Wang has an instinctual certainty that he is the key to the secret he’s seeking. And thus he engineers a way for he and his mom to “coincidentally” stumble onto Inthawut’s property and get invited to stay a few days in his isolated home, at which point Wang begins his campaign to figure out what the hell happened between Siam, Sasiwimol, and Inthawut at any cost.

One of the things I find most interesting about this story is how much the plot hinges on Wang going against Asian cultural norms in his pursuit of the truth. He is not respectful to his elders. He does not maintain filial piety and deference to his mother. He refuses to restrain his emotions. Instead, he is pushy and relentless and emotionally manipulative (all tricks we can plainly see he learned from Sasiwimol) and Inthawut doesn’t stand a chance against him. And so, because Wang explicitly acts against these cultural values, the truth comes out and the trauma is no longer suppressed. 

And in the end, it’s a simple, if desperately sad story: Siam and Inthawut were in love, but Inthawut was battling internalized homophobia and deep-seeded fear and so he relentlessly pushed Siam away and toward dating and then marrying their friend Sasiwimol. And when Siam, miserable in this heterosexual relationship he never actually wanted, finally snapped and confessed his true feelings, Inthawut rejected him and ran away to study abroad. Inthawut was running due to his own fear, but he also had noble notions of somehow protecting Siam from his own queerness and told himself that if he was gone, Siam would accept his heterosexual life. Of course, that did not happen, and in the fallout of this rejection Siam sank further into alcoholism and died soon after. Inthawut’s reaction was the exact worst fear of all gay people who work up the courage to confess to a friend they have developed feelings for: outright rejection, abandonment, and destruction of the relationship. And in his mind, he did this to Siam “for his own good,” a fairly textbook execution of the noble idiocy trope. In the aftermath, we see how Inthawut has isolated himself, part in penance, part in self-protection, and intellectualized his way to a romantic construction of his own cowardice that he tries to convince Wang is righteous.

But Wang is deeply affected by how the denial of his father’s queerness ruined his life and is absolutely not having any of Inthawut’s self-denying bullshit, and this is where things get messy, as both Wang and Inthuwat seem to start seeing Wang and Siam as interchangeable and they develop an emotional entanglement that is deeply unhealthy, to say the least. Wang wants to understand Siam so badly that he starts to be him, and Inthuwat is so desperate to address his regret and shame that he starts to see Wang as Siam, as well. Wang also uses this attachment as a way to shock his mother and forcefully bring her real feelings about Siam and Inthawut to the surface. Despite Wang’s many loud protestations to the contrary, I don’t believe that he and Inthawut actually love each other. They are using each other to work out their trauma about Siam.

And they’re not the only ones! Sasiwimol seems to have her own psychological confusion about Wang as he relates to Siam, and their dynamic is very strange as a result. She refers to Wang as dua-eeng (and has taught him to do the same with her rather than calling her “mom”), a Thai endearment that literally means “self” but is often used between lovers. They have a very physically affectionate relationship that often had me grimacing in discomfort, and she clearly sees Wang as both a source of pain—because he is so like Siam—and her one source of comfort and happiness. She is a successful woman by any standard, but she’s also desperately lonely, hanging on tight to Wang as her only companion in a way that often veers into overbearing, and deeply wounded by her past with Siam and Inthawut. It was through her own friendship with Inthawut that she pursued Siam in the first place, and she clearly feels betrayed not only by Siam, but by Inthawut, both for getting in the way of her relationship with Siam and for leaving them. Her feelings about both men are complex and the story never fully spells them out, in part because Sasiwimol never does. Determinedly not thinking about what happened between them is a big part of how she copes, along with sublimating her suspicions into homophobia, which she perpetuates quite intentionally in her work via production of heterosexual romance propaganda.

Wang clearly loves his mother even as he is frustrated by her prejudices, her desire to control him, and her tendency toward emotional manipulation. He is a perceptive kid and he has studied her closely; he understands her very well and can often predict exactly how she’ll react to a situation. Which is why his decision to announce baldly to her face that he is in love with Inthawut—not only coming out as gay but declaring his intention to move out of her home and in with a man 20+ years his senior who is deeply entangled with her own trauma—felt very intentional to me. He knew what kind of reaction that would get from her, and he wanted it. And sure enough, Sasiwimol crumbles at this repetition of her trauma and the perceived disloyalty of Wang choosing Inthawut over her just as his father did. The rest of the emotion she’d been holding back comes pouring out, resulting in the three of them finally airing out everything that lies between them and everything they are feeling about the Siam-shaped hole in their lives. And once she breaks down, Wang is able to forgive her for the grievance she’s caused him and ultimately decides to remain filial and continue living with her, because he does not actually want to punish his mother for what happened to his father. 

So, in the end, where did the story leave us with all this trauma? I can’t really say that any of these characters have healed, but I do think Wang kick-started that process, at least for himself. He got what he needed most out of this little scheme: deeper understanding of who his father was and why his life took such a drastic turn. He remains caught in the dysfunctional dynamic with his mother, and I’m not sure he’ll ever fully break out of it, but at least there is more honesty between them now about what they’re dancing around. She now knows he is gay and she has to accept it to keep him with her, and given that he has backed off from asking her to accept something much scarier than that, I do think she will find a way to make her peace with it. Inthawut is the character who seems to have progressed the least, standing firmly in his stasis and remaining determinedly alone with his pain, though the show leaves us with a note of ambiguity that suggests he may someday find the courage to move on.

The messages of this work are clear. Internalized homophobia and denial of your own queerness are poison for your soul. Rejecting a loved one “for their own good” is an act of cowardice and selfishness, not an act of love. Hiding from and sublimating your trauma will never allow you to heal. Refusing to process your pain will only lead to you pushing it down on the next generation. Ultimately, this story told us that bravely looking ourselves and our trauma in the face and confronting our truths head on is the only way to begin to heal, and that running from them only leads to ruin. 

#180 degree longitude passes through us #thai drama #intergenerational trauma challenge #shan shouts into the void

[the--rebel--fae]

Hey Fae! Do you know about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? If not, basically they are biblical concept for rooted evil in humanity and first four of seven seals for the “end of the evil world” or whatever (conquest, war, famine, and death).

Anyways, to my request! I wanted to ask to see if you’d write a paring of a FourHorseman!reader with Vox from Hazbin Hotel (and any other characters from that show if you’d like to lol)

Thank you and Gl with ur other requests!

A/N This is probably gonna happen each time I post a request since I feel horrible for making all of y'all wait. So! Big sorrys for taking so long with this but tysm for your patience! Now! On to the main a/n: Oh my friend, you have triggered an idea that is genius! Ooh this reminds me of that one episode from Charmed.--if you know which one, you totally rock. I had so much fun with this! I hope you like it too! 😊

Pairing: Vox x Strife! Four Horsemen! Reader

TW: Just swears, but that's about it.

Word Count: 814

His Little Chaos Bringer

The brick wall felt like a cool and relaxing solace as you leaned against it. Your pencil scratching furiously away in your notebook. Today had a been quite the productive day.

Though, you could have done without Blitzø's hissy fit for nearly missing the portal entry back to hell. He was complaining how you nearly cost him big time as he took you back into your main domain of the pride ring.

“You're lucky you're so damn powerful and make our jobs easier, you twerp.” He grumbled at you as he practically shoved you out of the I.M.P. van.

An amused chuckle made it passed your lips as you closed your notebook with a satisfying snap. You couldn't help that you were on a roll today with causing so many humans strife. You were the epitome of it after all being one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Your other three siblings were Lucifer knows where and you didn't really give a damn as long as they were keeping their stats up and making sure the plan stayed on track.

Your notebook was already bursting with your successes, an impressive list of names and ways you affect them filled its yellow time worn pages. And that was only today.

Looking around at stretch of land that was the V's part of Pentagram City you let out a tired sigh. You loved what you did, you really do. But after a long day of causing misery, all you wanted to do was collapse in a comfy chair and just relax as you listened to your boyfriend boast about his day.

The brief silence that filled the air in the little alleyway you were taking a break in was quickly broken by the sound of your ringtone: The Flight of the Valkyries–little on the nose but you were always a fan of the classics.

You glanced at the caller ID and grinned. “Well, ask and ye shall receive I guess.” Clicking answer, you couldn't keep the smile out of your voice. “It's like you just knew I needed to talk to you. Should I add telepathy to the list of your talents?”

A deep chuckle. “Well hello to you too Doll. Rough day I take it?”

You leaned your head back against the wall and felt the satisfying thump of cool brick against the back of your head. “Not hard, just very long. Apparently causing misery for a living can drain someone a lot.”

“Why don't you come back home to the tower and I'll see what I can do to help get some pep back in your step hmm?”

A smirk played at your lips. You definitely didn't miss the innuendo in that sentence. “Sounds perfect actually. I'll be there in five.”

A pleased hum could be heard on the other line. “Looking forward to it Doll. See you soon.”

“See you soon, Vox.” The call ended seconds after.

Pushing forward you felt your muscles stretch out in relief. A spark of excitement and contentment ran through you. Sometimes it paid to be the romantic partner of one of the strongest overlords and a tech genius like Vox. No matter how busy the two of you were, you were always able to make time for each other at the end of the day.

***

As the elevator door to Vox's penthouse suit swished open, a tired smile was brought to your lips at the sight before you. In front of the blue satin couch, on the table laid a beautiful–and frankly absolutely mouth watering dinner with two champagne flutes filled with wine.

“I take it you like the surprise?”

You let out a pleased hum and walk forward. "What do you think?" Wrapping your arms around Vox's neck, you lightly bumped your forehead against the top of his screen. An amused giggle passed your lips as you watch Vox's screen take on a light rosy hue around where his cheeks are supposed to be.

"Well, I'm glad you like it, my little chaos bringer." Vox gave you a soft peck on the lips. His kisses always left you with a tingling feeling--probably thanks to the fact that he is a literal tv, but you couldn't help but want more. Maybe at a later time, the night was still young after all.

"You know exactly how to make a gal feel special don't ya?"

Vox pulled away from your grasp and gave a wink. "Doll, you're special no matter what."

You couldn't help the snort that passed your lips. "Wow, cheesy much?"

Vox just waved you off. "What? I was just trying to be romantic!"

A fond smile pulls at your lips. You were probably one of the most powerful beings in Hell seeing who you were, but if this was the life you got to come back to everyday? It's all worth it.

A/N that was so much fun to write. I truly enjoyed this request! Feel free to request again! I hope you enjoyed it!

And if you guys want even more stories--like maybe your own personalized several-page long one-shots or even a multi-chap fic take a look at my Etsy Shop! I do commissions! I even have listings for Hazbin Hotel!

#the rebel fae #hazbin hotel x reader #requests #commissions open #hazbin hotel season 1 #vox x reader #hazbin vox #hazbin hotel vox #vox x you #hazbin hotel imagine #the four horsemen #blitzo #helluva boss #blitzø #helluva boss blitz #hazbin hotel x y/n #hazbin hotel x you #vox #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel drabble

[aliz5karga]

Words about Gaza and Palestine

I'm not Palestinian. I have no family there. Yet, I mourn those who died, and I cry with those who lost their loved ones. I've been living those past days on autopilot mode. I'm stuck on my phone, looking to be updated on the situation. I am and will not be impacted by this. But my body, my heart is acting as if – because I realize how awful the situation is. It's called being human. It's called having compassion.

We live in a society that forces us to be selfish. To lack compassion, to be completely desensitized to atrocities happening around the world. To go on with our lives. We're a few realizing that the death toll isn't just a bunch of numbers, but a list of people, who had dreams and hopes, friends and a family.

We're a few realizing the importance of life, and how absolutely devilish politicians are. Every single government in this world has and will only care about power and money. It seems obvious, an equivalent to saying the sky's blue, but nobody really grasps how awful governments, worldwide, are...

The West is funding genocide. Joe Biden is supporting "Israel" in their genocide. The U.S. is sending troops and billions in aid to the Israeli regime – they're literally helping "Israel" to exterminate Gazans and colonize Gaza. At least 2000 Palestinian children have been killed and in total, at least 4000 Palestinians have been murdered by the illegitimate State of "Israel".

We live in a world where it isn't outraging and worth burning everything down to see babies being traumatized by war. Newborns coming into this world and whose first sound is either explosions, pain, fear and/or grief. Parents being forced to bury their kids. Children bidding a farewell to their siblings. Entire families being wiped out of the civil registry. Thousands of people have been murdered, and thousands of others are on death row, held hostages by the genocidal regime of "Israel". Because "Israel" decided to cut off access to electricity, water and fuel, hospitals in Gaza are even more struggling to help the injured. The world cries about 40 fake babies, but has nothing to say about 130 real newborns who will be sentenced to death by "Israel" if the blockade doesn't end immediately.

“130 babies at mortal risk in Gaza's hospitals as Israel continues to bar entry of fuel : Israel's 'insistence' to block fuel deliveries needed for hospital generators may cost lives of 130 premature babies, says Gaza Health Ministry” (Anadolu Ajansı)

Worse, they're funding it! They're aiding Israel to murder all these people.

It sends shivers to my spine, it makes my heart sink and it boils my blood when I see those videos of bombs further destroying Gaza ; every single time they touch the ground and detonate, they tear the lives out of many people at once, who thought they'd be safe. I wished those deaths were false, that "Pallywood", as so many disgusting, vile “Israeli” assholes think is real, truly existed. That all these people, all these children, were still among us…

Damn it. I don't know what to think or say. I just want to burn everything down. From what I've seen, many people (thankfully) feel the same.

We need to organize ourselves. We need to accept the (ugly) truth : the government doesn't give a damn about any of us. For the State, money is more important than anything, it's worth killing for. We need to accept it and start organizing ourselves and truly fight for justice. Making them know we don't agree doesn't change anything, voting doesn't change anything – we need to stop playing by their rules because it's useless : we're only fighting for a better illusion of a just society.

We can't live with illusions anymore. Be bad, be angry. Organize and fight for the insurrection. 🔥🏴

If Palestinian children can't dream, then we'll prohibit world leaders from sleeping.

RIOT, STRIKE AND BOYCOTT NOW!

Palestine will be Free, from the River to the Sea! We'll fight until the fall of the apartheid regime. 🍉

Here's what you can do to help the Palestinian cause :

Boycott! Preferably, boycotting all companies that funds the Israeli apartheid is good, but you must absolutely boycott...

Puma

AXA

HP

Siemens

Carrefour

SodaStream

Ahava

Isr*eli produce

Donate to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) if you can. Uplift Palestinian voices and share everywhere, on every single platform you have, what's going on in Palestine, from Gaza to the West Bank. Settlers are committing an ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and the IOF has shot dead numerous Palestinians in the West Bank. "Israel" has bombed a mosque in the West Bank too.

This isn't a "war", even less a war against terrorism. It's a genocide. We must fight.

#anarchism #anarchist #my text #government #palestine #gaza #gaza strip #gazaunderattack #save palestine #save gaza #palestinian genocide #israel apartheid #palestinians #west bank #occupation #hamas

[howlingday]

au where jaune actually talks to the paper pleasers while he's stuck in the ever after. and as a result works through some issues and becomes a true hero in the new world. jaune: "you know I get it right? you're tired of being fragile, you're tired of being weak. you wanna be something anything other than what you are.... I think I want that too. but ascension isn't the answer you think it is, because you owe it to yourself and to me to see this life through to see what you can become even as frigle and weak as you are" paper pleaser: "what value is there in living like this if we'll simply die another time?" jaune: "that value comes from the effort, the fact that you're alive in this moment is what makes this life precious." paper-pleaser: "we'll be alive after ascension too" jaune: "but would that be you? or just another life that you'll give up on too because it's a little more difficult than you thought? for now you're a paper-pleaser and I think you owe it to yourself and your community to find out just what that means." jaune: "you owe it to me to find out just what value life holds" tldr; the rusted knight sets off to save everyone he can so they know how valuable each life is. can you tell us some adventures the rusted knight has and how his story shifts with his new philosophy of helping instead of saving?

Jaune watched in horror as he watched the Stag Queen impale herself on the jagged stones of the river. He was helpless to stop hurtling boulders fly and crush the Red King. Knowing that the Ever After system of life and death and ascension did little ease his pain knowing characters like the Porcelain Princess, who drowned while crossing the river, would only return later after their ascension as someone entirely new. Someone whom he had never met.

He did all he could to save everyone. He started on his patrols, then continued his round the clock watch safeguarding the Paper Pleasers from their exhaustive list of potential deaths, and when the time could be spared, he would search for his friends who had yet to enter the Ever After with him. The nights he got sleep did not last long, either because he spent too much time on his prior duties or in his search, or he'd awake screaming for his dear friend, Penny.

Jaune Arc was not okay. He knew he was not okay. But what else could he do? Let these innocents perish in some cruel, possibly even ironic way? No. He'd seen too many before his entry to this world of fantasy and fairy tale die without seeing the end of their true potential. Without their happy ending.

And if it costed him his happy ending, Jaune would ensure these people would keep theirs.

#rwby #jaune arc #paper pleasers #the paper pleasers #my answer #my answers

[angelasscribbles]

A Little Healing

Fandom: Heaven’s Secret (Romance Club)

Pairings: Adi x MC

Word Count: 1,255

Rating: MA

Warnings for this chapter: references sexual activity

A/N: This is the follow-up to Solace and completes my ideas about the emotions surrounding their little tryst. Consider it a two-shot. I have ideas for a poly ending with all these characters but I think that will be written in third person and have a different entry point. It will probably be a lot less canon as well, but we'll see.

My other stuff: Master List.

What had I done? Agreeing to help free the boy in the tower was madness. Yet something about him tugged at my very soul. Sleep was elusive as I tossed and turned, contemplating the possible repercussions. Then thoughts of Sammy intruded upon my consciousness, and I gave up on sleep. Without bothering to change into real clothes, I slipped out of my room and down the hall. I needed to see Adi.

I knew I shouldn’t be risking it. I had barely escaped expulsion that very morning. Somehow, I had managed to squeak by without a chaperone. Shepha knows how. I deserved to have one. After all, in the short time I’d been here, I’d managed to sleep with Mimi, Dino, and Lucifer. All forbidden fruit. All tantalizing and delicious.

The demonic spark inside me danced in joy at the thought of breaking the rules and getting away with it. As much as I tried to do the right thing, sometimes the wrong thing delighted me even more. It was like I had both inside me somehow. Was that even possible?

The demons called me a goody-two-shoes, and Dino called me the most demonic angel he’d ever met.

Dino.

The thought of him sent waves of warmth cascading through me. His taste still lingered on my lips from earlier. Out of all my dalliances, he was the only one who had accepted this thing between us without reservation. Oh, he fought it in the beginning, but now? Now he was ready to go all in. The offer was on the table.

“Before I decide to run my whole life into the ground, you have to decide if you really need it. Do you understand what I’m talking about?”

I understood only too well, and I struggled mightily with myself to not ruin his life. Part of me wanted to throw caution to the wind. Why should we be bound by these arbitrary rules? I wanted him. And there was an evil little part of me that delighted in the fact that I could have him if I wanted, that he would come willingly into my arms whenever I asked, personal cost to himself be damned.

Dino would destroy himself for me if I required it. And for that reason alone, I could not ask it of him. I wouldn’t.

Then there was Lucifer. The son of Satan was hotter than any being had a right to be. He was also maddening, frustrating, and infuriating. Sending off mixed signals like a malfunctioning traffic light, he ran so hot and cold I couldn’t keep track of if he liked me or hated me from one moment to the next.

He had certainly seemed to like me last night.

And that was the reason Mimi was mad at me. Angry didn’t begin to cover it. Mimi was furious but because she was jealous that I was with Lucifer, or because she was jealous that he was with me, I wasn’t sure. Mimi herself didn’t seem to know.

I was still trying to decide if having Mimi as a roommate was a gift from heaven or a torment sent from hell. Yes, I had told her that I felt more than friendship for her because I do. But we weren’t exclusive. Thanks to these asinine rules, we couldn’t be anything officially, what we did in the privacy of our room notwithstanding. I’ve always liked both boys and girls but never has any woman set my body on fire the way she does.

She feels it too. We were drawn to each other from the very first moment. There was not an ice cube’s chance in hell of her staying mad at me for long.

Dino had forgiven me for Lucifer. Mimi would too.

I made it to Adi’s door unseen. I raised my hand to knock, then hesitated. I didn’t want to wake him. I turned to go, but before I had a chance, he called out, “Come in.”

Technically, I had fucked Adi too, but what happened between us hadn’t been about love or courtship. It had been about grief, pure and simple. At least that’s what I told myself.

We hadn’t spoken of it. What had happened in that empty ballroom had stayed there.

Until now.

Adi was perched on the edge of his bed. He looked like hell. Dark circles under his red-rimmed eyes, his hair unkempt, clothes rumpled as if he’d slept in them.

I hurried across the room and sat down next to him. “Oh, Adi, what’s wrong?”

“I can’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see his face.”

The anguish in his voice was breaking me. “Aw, sweetie, Sammy wouldn’t want you to torture yourself this way.”

He stared into my eyes, trembling as he confessed, “I feel guilty. For what happened with you. It…do you think I betrayed him? His memory?”

“No.” I shook my head emphatically. “It wasn’t like that, and Sammy wasn’t like that. He would understand. He would want you to take comfort wherever and however you can.”

“But what if….what if that was just an excuse? The truth is, I’ve wanted you since the first moment I saw you, even though I was in love with him. What does that say about me?”

“It says you have excellent taste in both men and women.” I teased.

He made a sound that was half laugh, half sob as he wiped the tears from his cheeks. “I’m being serious.”

“So am I.” I chastised him. “People have desires. We aren’t meant to be emotionless machines. You’re a demon, you know this.”

He dropped his eyes to his lap as he whispered, “I hate myself for not being able to save him. For not even knowing he was in danger. For arguing with him the last time I saw him. That was his last memory of me, Vic!”

“Hey!” I pulled him into my arms and let him rest his head on my shoulder as I ran my fingers comfortingly through his hair. “He knew exactly how much you loved him. I promise.”

We clung to each other for a long while, taking solace in each other’s arms.

When we finally pulled apart, I gently placed my fingers on his temples. “Look at me, Adi.” Then I showed him all of my memories of Sammy. All the good times, all the laughter, and all the love. Before I knew it, Adi was laughing despite himself. He relaxed, a little of the misery dropping away as he shared his own memories.

We traded stories about Sammy as the night deepened. There were tears and laughter as we reminisced.

Finally, we curled up on the bed together. Emotionally wrung out, we clung to one another.

The laughter had felt good. A little like healing.

I knew it wasn’t over.

Grief comes in waves. It sneaks up when you least expect it and takes you out just when you think you’ve beaten it. But in that moment, it gripped our hearts a little less. The darkness was a little brighter and the heaviness a little lighter.

I wrapped my body around him, the big spoon to his little spoon as we drifted off to sleep, the warmth of his body soaking into me, comforting and reassuring.

My grief surrounding my losses and my confusion over what to do about my three lovers kept me from being strictly happy, but as I slipped into slumber, I was, at least for the moment, content.

#heavens secret #rc adi #vicky walker #hs fanfic #heavens secret fanfiction #angelasscribbles #romance club

[elliespectacular]

Regarding that "Raffle"

On March 17 2023 I uploaded a YouTube Poop called "The King Files His Taxes" where King Harkinian is kidnapped by an IRS agent and finds out he owes $6000 - an unsubtle allusion to my own tax situation. The first half is on DaThings Archives if you want to see it, but the second half was a promotional stunt I pulled. There were a lot of things wrong with it. Things that could have legally gotten me in trouble had they come to pass and still has the potential to do harm. So we're gonna talk about what went wrong and how to move forward in a way that treats you fairly and with dignity.

Here was the initial pitch - Link talks about a raffle where you can join my monthly Ko-Fi supporters for a chance at winning some prizes. Already we've hit a couple of roadblocks and to understand why we need to talk about Raffles.

In a raffle, one person sells the opportunity to win something in a game of chance where a winner is selected at random and the odds are determined by the number of participants. The raffle holder tries to make a profit by selling beyond the number of entries needed to offset the cost of the prize.

However in most of the US, events like this are classified as an illegal lottery. The main sticking point is that the raffle holder takes in a profit rather than supporting a school or charity. But beyond that, the law is there to protect would-be participants from getting scammed.

I don't want you to get scammed, so we need to think about how to do things ethically. But before we get there, there's another roadblock to my original plan. Ko-Fi's terms of service clearly state that "You are prohibited from using the Ko-fi platform, service or page in connection with […] Raffles, lotteries, giveaways or games of chance where a fee is paid to enter and winners are selected at random". Ko-Fi is a great platform and we want to stay in their good graces too.

So let's look at our situation again. I as the event coordinator have two goals: Drum up enough Ko-Fi support to get out of the $6K hole, and send my belongings to good homes. However, promising supporters the chance to win prizes creates an illegal lottery.

And I'll admit, I didn't do enough of my research before posting the original video. I could have gotten in huge trouble if it weren't for the folks who gently pointed me in the right direction. I figured being upfront about what's at stake would be enough, but it turns out operating things this way creates an undesirable scenario for everyone.

So here was my original workaround: People who support on Ko-Fi are paying for the listed perks - names in the credits and Discord privileges to be specific - and agree that their purchase is not in any legally binding way considered a Raffle Entry.

But we're still violating Ko-Fi's terms on the same line because now it's a giveaway where winners are randomly selected.

We could get around this a little by selecting winners "arbitrarily" instead of randomly - basically I can use any logic I want other than randomness to determine the winners and we can call it a game of skill. But that feels phenomenally less fair, especially if I were just plain evil and decided my logic is to just pick my friends.

So where do we go from here? First and foremost I want to very sincerely apologize for this whole entire mess. The raffle idea was misguided and poorly researched, and was predicated on promises I can't legally keep. I tried to mask my desperation in confidence and spin it into a fun event, but in doing so I not only dipped my toe into legally hot water, I also misled many of you. That was the last thing I wanted and I've already lost sleep over it.

So before I get into my spiel about making things right, just know that if you were misled and you sent a Ko-Fi tip with the expectation of getting a raffle entry, you can get a refund no-questions-asked.

Refunds for PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/us/cshelp/article/how-do-i-issue-a-refund-help101 Refunds for Stripe: https://stripe.com/docs/refunds

The reality we're in is that a bunch of kind people believed in me and already gave me their money with no expectation of a refund. I still have a debt to pay and objects to share. How do we make everyone happy?

Well first, I have to legally tell you that there is no raffle and that paying for Ko-Fi only earns you the perks listed on my Ko-Fi page, which does not include any kind of raffle entry.

HOWEVER I do still have all the would-be prizes and I'd like to thank my supporters by giving them away. Since I can't do that randomly as per Ko-Fi's terms, I'm going to do it arbitrarily. So all I can say is don't be surprised if I message you and ask if you'd like one of the Lots.

And as a gesture of good faith, I'm going to be considering ALL Ko-Fi Tips that have been made - not just the monthly ones - going back as far as the opening of the Ko-Fi page itself. Honestly the whole reason I made that restriction in the first place was because I was scared of being in this debt situation again - but that was selfish of me. I shouldn't have prioritized certain kinds of support over others. I am sorry for that.

In addition, there is no more unlocking Lots at different combined tiers - I don't want to keep all this stuff. It's all gotta go, including the YTP requests.

No amount of apologies can fix the heart of this whole ordeal though - the truth is that my carelessness got the best of me and I have to accept the consequences of that. Some might see this as a whoopsie, but others may see this as broken trust - which they're right to, and I accept whatever negative reactions folks might have.

I plan on moving forward with DaThings as I have the last few years - focusing on silly videos and keeping updates like this rare. I'm sorry for flooding your subscription boxes this week. Please take good care of yourself.

Thanks

#Youtube

[nebulein]

Text transcript under the cut

The Freedom of Choice

Windy City Sports, August 2022

"I didn't pick the city, the city picked me," Toews says with a rueful smile. Hockey prospects have no input over who will own their rights for the first few years of their careers, their fates left up to the whims of a bunch of senior executives to decide. "All I ever wanted was to play hockey." Chicago picked Jonathan Toews third overall in the 2006 NHL entry draft and—after another year at college to develop—he's played here ever since. The 34-year-old captain of the Chicago Blackhawks has settled well into the city that picked him, embracing a town and a club that's been his home for over 15 years.

Now, though, he may soon get to pick his next destination. Toews is on his last contract year, and in a full teardown initiated by newly appointed Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson it doesn't look like there's a roster spot for the veteran captain anymore. "It's hard to know where you're supposed to fit in," Toews says, taking a sip of his coffee.

He looks cozy in the hip but quiet upscale coffee place not too far from his home, dressed down in a lightweight cream hoodie, athletic shorts, and his trusty Birkenstocks. Off the ice, Toews is unassuming, a quiet guy with intense dark eyes that netted him a lot of nicknames early in his career. Age has mellowed the serious center, who was famously prone to outbursts on the bench, loudly arguing with referees over every call he didn't agree with. "Oh yeah, he's gotten soft in his old days," Patrick Sharp, former teammate and good friend of Toews jokes. But age hasn't taken the competitive drive from Toews. He still wants to win. "I don't think time is ever gonna change that," he admits with a laugh.

The Blackhawks are about as far from winning as you can get. With disappointing performances these past few seasons, barely dipping their toes into the playoffs, Davidson finally decided to burn it all to the ground, trading away the few hopeful young talents in Debrincat, Hagel and third overall pick in the 2019 draft Kirby Dach. Toews doesn't like to speak about Davidson's decision, but the stoic mask his face becomes as he politely "no comment"s does all the talking for him. He doesn't agree with the new management the Wirtz family brought in, publicly disagreed with other trades in the past. But the loss of a good teammate is easier to stomach if the return is more than a limp handshake and vague hopes of picking the right prospects years down the line. And Toews' time is running out. For him to still be a part of the rebuild, it would have needed to happen four years ago.

"It is what it is" seems to be the mantra echoed by the players in the locker room, at least the few that were there, that still know what it could've been—if only. Once upon a time Kane and Toews turned Chicago into the most successful hockey team of the last decade, bringing home three Stanley Cups in five years to a city whose streets were lined in red jerseys as far as the eye could see. Now they're the last stragglers of the old guard as one by one the rest of them retired, got traded away or decided to sign elsewhere. Dallas, Tampa Bay, Edmonton, Columbus, Montreal, Washington, Ottawa: the list of possible destinations for a former Blackhawk spans 31 cities and two whole continents overseas. What would it mean for Toews to play with an old teammate again? He shrugs, tracing the wood grain of the coffee table. "Sure, it'd be nice," he says, in the listless way I tell my wife that visiting her parents on the weekend is a great idea.

Jonathan Toews doesn't want to play anywhere else. Fifteen years ago Chicago picked him, and in return he gave everything he had to this city. It's certainly cost him: His health, weathering numerous concussions and most notably sitting out a whole season while his body slowly recovered from a condition that might best be described as physical burnout. His relationships, recently splitting from long term partner Lindsey Vecchione and watching even his retired friends move out of town, back to Canada or Europe. And ultimately, his career.

There's no question he's going be a hockey hall of famer, most likely a first ballot inductee, joining ex-teammates Marian Hossa, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith. But what seemed so certain before has now become doubtful under new GM Davidson, who doesn't appear to share Stan Bowman's deep appreciation for Toews and all he did for this city: whether he'll see his number 19 raised to the rafters of the United Center, or whether it'll be Patrick Kane's 88 alone that'll hang up there, next to Chicago greats Mikita, Hull, and Esposito.

The tides have turned in Chicago. Leaving town would mean giving up a dream that Toews still harbors in a tiny corner of his heart: to retire a Blackhawk, never having donned another jersey than the red and white, the C stitched on his chest a sight so familiar few can remember the single year it wasn't there.

But Toews doesn't sound ready to hang up his skates, even though he's got plenty of projects dear to his heart he could focus on, such as his Jonathan Toews Foundation that fosters kids' wellness and nutrition, planting gardens for schools in low income neighborhoods.

"It's a tough choice, but at least it's mine this time," Toews says, trying to make light of a situation that's clearly ripping him apart. It's a statement that's true only on paper. Sure, he'll have the freedom to sign wherever he wants to. But how many clubs can afford to pay the veteran a salary that he deems himself worthy of in a time where the salary cap is flatter than America's Midwest? There may be fewer choices here than Toews makes it out to be. And the one choice he really wants isn't even on the table: to win one last time with the Blackhawks, the team that drafted him.

Hockey life is tough on young players whose only choice is to sign with the club that owns their rights or forego the NHL, but it's even tougher on its veterans whose only choice is the way in which to break their own hearts when the only home they've ever known forsakes them.

#neb writes #fanfic #sometimes you just gotta spend your saturday breaking your own heart #click on the pics to make them readable #jonathan toews #mixed media #chicago blackhawks #i never write gen except when it's to wax poetically about my captain #i have too many feels #hockey baby

[strawberryjamsara]

I’m interested in your thoughts on ztd since you said you don’t think it’s that bad (I have never played a Zero Escape game btw)

Hmmmm. I’m probably gonna state some unpopular opinions in this but sure.

So I’m gonna start by saying I don’t think this entire game was one big asspull. There are several, but lots of stuff had been hinted at in earlier entries, and… unfortunately mind hack was foreshadowed in the very first entry. And sadly, it makes the twist that Cradle Pharmaceuticals was in the pocket of Brother which I didn’t like in vlr make more sense because it would mean Delta gathering more information on that. I think it’s the way it’s written that’s so infuriating. It’s essentially a last minute plot device that isn’t really properly explained, and doesn’t even have any bearing on the plot, which is better than if it was a huge inescapable part of the plot, but good lord it feels contrived.

I also heard a lot of decrying before playing this game that everyone was ooc but I… respectfully disagree. It felt more like a sense of not knowing the characters as well as I thought I did and trying to adjust my view. Akane is not running the game for the first time so it changes the way she acts. She’s vehemently against it when Junpei wants to kill everyone and yeah. Fair. She did kill people as part of the plan in 999 but for her, those were people who put her through misery and killed her. I can understand the shift in tone. She’s willing to kill to achieve her goals but she’s not bloodthirsty, and she’s in this timeline specifically to have the life she couldn’t in the others. She wants a fairy tale future, and she’ll even ruin another chance with Junpei to have this ideal. This is Akane Kurashiki, wanting things desperately to go back to normal after the nonary game, when they never can and never will.

Sigma I was expecting more mad scientist and evil vibes out of, but I think it’s more fascinating that he’s just himself but overly serious. He’s still a self sacrificial goofy dude, and knowing who he is and what he’s done makes it all the more stomach sinking when you see that, despite the change in tone, he IS Sigma. Sigma did what he did not out of any sort of malice or hatred towards anyone, not even for his children who suffered, but because he loved the world and everyone in it so much that it was worth everything he did to save it, which is so in line with his character in VLR, but to a horrific degree.

Also Junpei being emo. I’m fine with it. He went through a death game. Old man Junpei in VLR is a good person overall but he has had moments where if it came down to Quark or everyone else, he would choose Quark and this is the same but with Akane.

The new characters are where it starts to fall apart a bit…

So I think Diana was a good character and predecessor to Luna. I don’t really have much to complain about with her. She’s a kind person. Kind enough to kill six billion people. And that’s a brilliant premise of Sigmas love interest because, for the reasons listed above, she’s the perfect foil. Kind enough to save the world at the cost of people close to you and kind enough to doom it for the people close to you.

Carlos is also a good character. Sometimes all you need is a fun goofy dude who loves his friends and his little sister. I also think he’s a parallel to Aoi in a sense. Akane is close to some dude who won’t shut up about how important his sister is, and there’s moments where she directly calls to how he’d do anything for his sister, and all I can think is if she’s thinking of Aoi in that moments. Aoi would do anything for her. He doesn’t get much in the development department despite the fact that he’s one the only ones who remembers most of the timelines though, which is dissapointing. I liked that they took away the decision to have him shoot delta at the end. That was his choice in this world, and nothing else mattered to him at the moment.

Q is also a pretty good character. He’s a sweet kid, and I enjoyed his arc where he learns his role in the game and his nature, and still wants to form relationships and be happy.

And then you have the last two…. Mira and Eric

Mira had me fascinated when I learnt her backstory. A serial killer who wanted to know what a heart is. That’s cool! I can’t wait to see more! How she develops or gets worse! She has a deep sadness that she herself can’t understand, and she does love Eric, but not for him. She doesn’t even know what she wants or even seem to understand what she’s doing is wrong. It’s a beautifully toxic relationship. But we really don’t get anymore besides two scenes. I also thought they were gonna drop the reveal that she killed Eric’s mom because of the parallels between her first victim and him, but it didn’t really come out. Sad.

Eric is a character that I can see where a lot of the hate comes from, and I can also say he’s not a good person… but he’s a very interesting and sympathetic character. He’s gone through so much trauma, he has essentially become just like his dad, and he thinks love will fix him, because his dad was so happy when mom was alive, obviously this pretty woman will make him better too. We don’t really… get any conclusion though. He flip flops between finally calming down and being better to Q than his father was to him to rageaholic murderer, and the game ends with his kind send off to him which after all we’ve seen doesn’t feel like it’ll stick, and seemingly blissfully ignorant that his girlfriend wants to murder him. Again, like Mira, this was a character we could’ve watched get worse or better but we didn’t get anything.

So yeah the two extras on Q team didn’t really develop. I understand it’s hard to have characters in a story with multiple timelines have consistent development, but give us something man. Or better yet, just replace them with old characters who’d we already be able to recognize as full characters. Have Aoi there. It’d make the parallels to Carlos more obvious. And maybe Lotus, since this sort of mars mission seems up her alley. It’d also be very funny for these two to see each other again, they see each other on the base and spiderman point at each other. Oh, I actually love the idea of an Aoi Lotus Q team. I want this now.

But yeah then there’s the worst character of all… Delta.

Delta fucking sucks man. In 999 and VLR, Zero was the highlight, and now they follow up Akane and Sigmas act with this guy. The ‘complex motives’ stuff he keeps spouting is the kind of thing you put in your first draft with a ‘rewrite later.’ next to it. Like seriously? That’s what you come up with? You could’ve drawn from resentment of being abandoned by his parents, maybe have him bring up the whole ‘Timelines you shift to have the consequences left behind’ thing incorporated while he looks directly at Akane because he can’t shift and will have to deal with whatever choices his sister and father will make. I dunno. Do SOMETHING. Also why did he kill the dog? To make him more evil? Uchikoshi why did he kill the dog-

I like his design in the Zero costume though. It looks like a plague doctor which is very fitting. He’s still a dissapointing reveal of Brother though. And hey, if Dio was a clone of him why did he have blonde hair? Why did he have blonde hair Uchikoshi-

Also the models. They’re an improvement on VLR… but still bad. I’ll give them credit on how they stylized them a bit. They have defined lines that makes them look like sketches, and a very cool cell shaded style. When paused the game looks good! Only when paused though. The second these guys start moving it is laughably bad. Sigh. I miss the first games sprites.

But anyways. I think the game had a lot of stellar moments. Akane making her decision to save the world from R6 hurt, and I also adored all of c teams interactions. Diana giving the phone call that reveals she was the one in vlr who we heard declare she’d kill 6 billion had my heart in my stomach. Carlos telling everyone he was friendly while covered in blood… was hilarious.

I think overall the game had great scenes to set up VLR and while the near ending and villain reveal were incredibly bad, I think I liked where it left off. The characters make the decision to create their own future, and break free from the shifting and loops we always see, and for finality’s sake, Carlos pulls the trigger without any alternate routes. That’s a good ending. Delta still sucks but that’s a damn good ending.

So overall, I think the game has some dropped arcs and a woefully bad villain in a game that lives and dies by its villains, but it is NOT the worst ending to a series I’ve ever seen, go watch the dr3 anime and then tell me that this ruined the series for you.

#zero escape #ze #ztd #ask

[bymwrites]

I don’t have anything for WIP Weds so have this Sashannarcy eSports AU write-up I’ve been thinking about instead

-

Marcy is an Epic Competitive Gamer best known for being the world's best Vagabondia Versus player, an older but still technically live service 1 on 1 pvp game. She's sponsored by Calamity eSports and streams, but rarely and without voice, but she's still pretty popular just for her gameplay that's several cuts above anyone else you could be watching.

When Vagabondia United, the next entry into the online versus Vagabondia games is announced, Marcy's fan base is excited to see her dominate ANOTHER game; and Marcy's happy to oblige them... Until she learns it's a 3v3 game. 

Marcy isn't known for making friends in the community. She doesn't make tutorials, she hasn't done a collab for a decade, her organization has no other competitive VBV players signed because *why would they when they already signed the best*?

So the announcement passes and Marcy remains stoic about what her plans for VBU are because she doesn't have any... Until she gets an email from the eccentric owner of Calamity saying they've found some teammates for her to play with. She immediately writes back that she's not interested, and the owner responds that they aren't interested in using Marcy's contract to force her to play BUT they will be using it to at least force her to meet her potential teammates. Grumbling about lawyers, Marcy gets ready to meet the two idiots that Cal wants her to play with.

-

Frannie is a household name in the VTuber scene and has been for a couple years now. Of course, Anne Boonchuy isn't nearly as famous a name, even though they're one and the same. Rising to stardom in the VRenaissance, the duality of Frannie's positive attitude while playing rage inducing online games paired with her vicious temper when she did rarely get mad or, as happened more often, when someone fired the first shot at another member of her team, put her in a difficult to find and extremely popular niche.

But Anne wanted to keep her anonymity, which got harder and harder to do as she got more and more popular. She'd deleted all her oldest collabs, before she had adopted the Frannie avatar, to keep her friends (some of whom were her IRL friends rather than online ones) protected from the horde of her fanbase, the size of which frankly terrifies her, as thankful as she might be for them too.

Eventually though she thought she'd have to stop, that the struggle to keep herself hidden would become too much and she'd have to give up her fame, her face, her fun.

Until a curious benefactor made an offer she couldn't refuse; retain her anonymity, they'd take care of all that, and in return she'd work with their collection of creators. They didn't even want the money she was making beyond some extremely sensible maintenance costs; just for her to play with a pretty all-star list of creators, some of whom she hadn't even thought herself in the same realm as yet.

So began a perfect symbiosis, as far as Anne was concerned, and so it was that when her benefactor, who in five years hadn't once failed to hold up their end of the deal, asked to meet with her in person to discuss a potential opportunity, she agreed readily.

-

Two years. That's what the doctors said when Sasha asked them when she could play again. She'd asked them to repeat that, she must've heard them wrong. Two years. There must be something they can do?! Two years. Fractures can't be rushed if you want a return to peak performance; cheat the recovery and the bone will never be like it was again.

No Olympics, no WBA, no nothing. The sport of basketball had taken her temporary retirement from the court bleakly, but not nearly as hard as her team; or Sasha herself.

She sat in her hospital bed watching them lose matches they could've won if she'd just been there and when it came time to leave the hospital, four months into two years, she'd already decided she wouldn't blame them if nobody came to see her off. She wasn't even sure where she was going, really.

What she did not expect was a car waiting for her with the owner of the Toads in it, but that was what was there outside the hospital that day. She'd expected a polite but firm "renegotiation" of her contract; but again, what she expected wasn't what she got. 

The news her contract had been sold to someone else and for a real, albeit discounted, price apparently too, wasn't expected either. But that’s what the team owner told her, and when she asked WHY someone wanted her contract, he said they have a game for her to play. Without legs? She’s skeptical, but, well, what else is she gonna do for a year and a half, right?

#amphibia #amphibia au #sashannarcy #sasha waybright #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #Calamity eSports #this is pretty selfindulgent #but i have a lot of ideas for stories #wipwednesday?

[chattingwiththelightkeeper]

Discovering D/S Later In Life

Something that I am seeing more and more these days is people who are, I shall say, more mature discovering the D/S lifestyle. When I say more mature, I am talking about those who are finding the lifestyle in their thirties or later. With this in mind, I want to chat about some of the challenges that someone who discovers or embraces the lifestyle a touch later in life can encounter but I also hope that there will be nuggets of wisdom for everyone regardless of the number of times a person has orbited the sun.

Something is often true of people of any age who are starting the voyage of D/S discovery but I have found it more common among those whose adventures in the lifestyle have come later is one of being alone on their journey. I think this can be attributed a bit to what life traditionally brings as we grow up such as career, children, and for many discovering this lifestyle later the big D, and I do not mean Dallas, divorce (or at least a one failed serious relationship). While at first, it can seem that a person’s set of circumstances like this makes for a more solitary path, experience has shown me that this is very commonplace for those who are new to be. Everyone indeed walks an unusual journey in life, but I believe many who are later arrivals have a very similar background which means there are already many people here in the lifestyle who have walked a parallel road. So please do not feel that you are alone on your journey of exploration and there are a great many people here who have had a comparable trip into the lifestyle who are more than willing to lend an ear or advice based upon their experiences.

Looking back upon my journey in the lifestyle I was introduced and taught about it when I was in college but I put it all away when my college days ended with my entry into the “real world”. When I finally realized, after failed vanilla partnerships, that it was not them (my partners) but me, I started to tiptoe back into the lifestyle. The hardest part of that journey was admitting to myself that this lifestyle was truly part of me. As someone in their thirties, it was going against what society expected of me since I was of the age when I should be settled down, married, and striving towards building a college fund, not rediscovering myself. What I came to learn is that growing in the D/S lifestyle is something that I could do with along with all the vanilla dreams and desires I had and still have. Exploring D/S did not mean I had to put anything else in my life on hold but deciding to return to the lifestyle along with the self-acceptance that came with it was one of the hardest but most rewarding decisions I have made. So know that it is more than okay to grow in a world that, while it is more accepted today than ever before, is still taboo in many circles.

At this point, I feel I need to interject a brief few words of warning. While people of any age can and do engage in cheating behaviors, my experience, as well as conversations with others of a similar age, do highlight that there are higher odds of encountering someone who is unethically stepping outside of an existing relationship to explore D/S. There are many reasons for this bad behavior but there are two reasons that always float to the top of the list. First, comes from the fact that many people can find themselves finicially attached to their partner. In other words, some discover the lifestyle, find it is a fit but they are unable or unwilling to leave their partner because of the costs. Either the actual costs of dissolving their current partnership are greater than they can afford or they feel what they would lose in the legal proceedings that can come with a relationship dissolution would put them in a place they do not want to be. Once again relying on my own experience and through conversations with others, many who decide to seek a ‘discreet’ D/S relationship do so because they want or even need the lifestyle but they are unwilling to leave their partner simply because they have a ‘golden goose’ at home. The other common reason for relationship dishonesty in the higher age range is sadly boredom in the bedroom with their current partner. Many who have been in long-term partnerships find that keeping that spark alive can be a challenge and these folks enjoy kinky sex which their current relationship does not have. So to scratch their itch for kinky bow-chicka-wow-wow they come to D/S, not for a true relationship but simply to get what they are not getting at home. Please know that I believe most people are involved and exploring the lifestyle for the right reasons but those who engage in unethical relationships need to be reminders of the importance of truly vetting a potential partner.

Another common concern that many feel but is often more pronounced with those who have built a career and/or family, is the fear of others in your life discovering your ‘secret’. This is an understandable feeling but one that I would like to temper a bit. When I first restarted my journey, this was a very real fear of mine and it was the reason I refused to even consider going to an in-person lifestyle gathering. I did not have so much of that trepidation online because the internet then as well as now allows for anonymity but I feared going to anything in-person because I might see someone I knew, even if I travel an hour or more away from home for it. Over time, I have learned that if I did bump into someone that I knew in the real world in the D/S world, is they are involved with the lifestyle for the same reasons I am and thus I need not fear the one and million chance of seeing anyone of I would know outside of the lifestyle. I feel it is important to remember, even if you are not comfortable with considering in real-life groups, that the online community can be a great place to connect with others while still keeping the level of comfort and control that fits one’s needs. In other words, provided common sense or maybe consider the ways of the world now, uncommon sense is used, it is very safe to discreetly discover this lifestyle.

I find that as my age increases, the number of responsibilities I have to carry also goes up. With this in mind, I have heard from some who are just starting to explore that they do not have the time to dedicate to D/S. This may be true for some, but experience has also taught me that the things in life that speak to my soul are things that I will find the time for and I feel this is the case for someone who is starting to connect with this lifestyle. I feel it also needs to be said that there are no hard or fast rules on the amount of time anyone needs to invest in D/S. The world continues to get busier and busier with each passing day, so there is absolutely nothing wrong with not having dedicated D/S time but simply exploring when time and life allow. I believe that should a person start to connect with the lifestyle more and more as they learn, they will naturally free up little bits of more time for their continued growth but I do not want anyone to feel that there needs to be X amount of hours per day, week, or month dedicated to these pursuits especially since everyone has to juggle so many things daily.

Now I want to talk a little turkey, no wait, it is not anywhere near Thanksgiving so how about we just talk a little bit about terms. Something that I have discovered is fairly common among people who are exploring, is that there could be a term or label that while these people might find the role behind the honorific appealing, the title is a complete turnoff. I am going to pick on the title/role of daddy dominant here since this is a fairly common concern among those who are newer for a variety of very valid reasons. One of the beautiful things about D/S is that titles and roles can mean different things to different people which means, for example, it is okay to identify with the role of daddy dominant or find someone who identifies as that but does not want to be called or call someone ‘daddy’ as an honorific. It is perfectly fine and dandy to use what works for you as there are no hard rules that everyone must use predetermined labels but people should be able to articulate what works for or is of interest to them when they are ready to seek someone special.

Speaking of someone special and the hunt for that perfectly imperfect partner, slow down. There is no rush to find a partner. The same is true for experiencing kinky play. Exploring, experiencing, and a desire to see if one enjoys giving or receiving a spanking, for example, can be even more intoxicating than Hemmingway downing drinks at Sloppy Joe’s. I believe that the number one lifestyle mistake is people who rush into either a lifestyle relationship and/or D/S play simply because things here in the lifestyle just feel so amazing. I would say, even to the newer person who feels they are moving carefully, to slow down, you are going too fast. Rushing into a relationship and/or play is only setting a person up to have a negative relationship outcome and when it comes to lifestyle fun and games, jumping in quickly can and often does create unsafe situations. So for your safety, slow down and move calmly and cautiously.

Once again this is important for people of any age to openly discuss with a prospective relationship or play partner and this would be health-related issues. I mention this because as we age, our bodies do not function as they once did. Using myself as an example, I have skied and played hockey all my life which means some days my knees are not so amazing with today being one of those trying knee pain days. Thankfully, I am not submissive but if I was, today I am in a place where I could kneel but someone better be ready to help me up. While this is meant as a humorous example, many people’s medication or health conditions may impact play. A real world example is someone who must take blood thinners and that will need to be discussed carefully since impact play could truly impact their life. So no matter your age, it is imperative to be transparent with any health issues that you or a partner may have.

No matter how or why a person is drawn to and possibly into the D/S lifestyle those who join this adventure at a more mature age or position in life will face some different, yet similar, challenges to those who begin their adventure in the prime of their youth (but very much legal aged youth). My hope with this is to offer encouragement as well as advice to all who are growing as a person and in D/S but I hope it will touch on some of the concerns of those who have had more time being a vanilla bean before coming over to the lifestyle.

As with all of my writings, please see this disclaimer.

©TLK2022

[aester]

A look at RT from a fellow digital media employee

Oof, so RT scandal am I right?

I haven't been in the fandom since ~2018 but following all of this (and specifically the alleged workplace conditions) I thought I'd throw in my two cents as someone who grew up idolizing the company, has chosen to go into digital media because of them and now works in the industry (thankfully not for them).

This will be a long boi (organized into a tumblr-friendly numbered list) based on what I know of the industry in the US, both my own experiences(all thoughts and opinions are my own) & what I've seen of my peers' experiences.

This is also useful info for those interested in pursuing a career in studio-based anim, vfx & game design fields.

To throw in my own cred, I was a member of the RT (and specifically AH & AH art) community from about 2014 to 2018, Monty's work inspired me to pursue my own interests in digital media in a professional sense. I went to uni with my dream internship/job being RT (thankfully that didn't come true). Since then I've graduated and got a job within the industry. So, thanks to having a pretty nice sample of recent grads joining the industry as well as doing my own research on wages and positions before graduation in prep I wanted to take a look at some of the claims and numbers I've been seeing mentioned in this whole mess.

None of this is in defense of RT or in contempt of the ex-employees. RT is a company. People deserve other people's support against a corporation.

Starting with the most quantifiable thing: ✨wages✨. Digital media encompasses a variety of fields - animation, gamedev, vfx, ux etc. & salaries will vary based on both the location and the field that the job is in. From what I've seen among my peers, the avg pay for an entry-level position is about 50-60k for non-LA Bay area jobs(for those add ~ extra 10k from the cost of living). This is not counting additional pay such as overtime, relocation, severance(although I don't know a single person in the field with this condition), or bonuses. Adjusting to what I know of Texas industry salaries, I'd put a good starting industry salary for Austin at 40-50k a year (~20-~25 an hour). Motion Graphics and editing usually pay a bit less than 3D anim positions so the pay could be 5-10k lower than that, which would fucking suck when it comes to cost of living but still doesn't reach the 20k mentioned by Kdin.(20-40k for an LA-based position is just disturbing). Remember that digital media is considered a specialized occupation and generally requires a bachelor's degree (doesn't mean you HAVE to have one) to enter a field so that should be reflected in the salary.

Now onto the most unfortunate part of the industry: overtime (OT) is an industry standard. Everyone joining the industry knows that going in (at least coming out of college). The difference here is that companies should be open about the expected OT/month. My employer for example (all thoughts and opinions are still my own btw) was very clear on how much OT I'd have per month before signing a contract and I am compensated for it. Usually, those who don't get OT comped get higher starting pay. VFX (especially compositing dept) has infamously horrible conditions with insane levels of un-comped OT, crunch, low job security, burnout, and low wages but that at least is an open secret.

Crunch is not just overtime, crunch is sustained OT that exceeds usual expectations. It is more prevalent in studios that have to answer to a client & haven't heard that much about crunch from anim houses now that I think about it? if someone has more experience with serialized anim prod & conditions i'd love to hear from a more reliable source.

To address people's concerns about why certain people(current employees) don't speak up I've seen people bring up NDAs.A Non Disclosure Agreement covers sensitive & internal data (both company secrets and personal identifiable info). An NDA break can be litigated so it's obvious employees don't want to break it. That wouldn't be what is stopping people rn, commenting on this situation would probably fall under some sort of employment guideline. Digital media companies often have extensive guidelines as to what an employee can and cannot say about the company, things that happen in the company, the employees of the company, and other things like this. Now, a breach of guidelines wouldn't be a legal issue, it would just be breaking the contract and be grounds to either have some sort of action against the employee or termination of the contract. It's understandable why folks don't want to lose their jobs for speaking up but the "trouble" they'd get in wouldn't be as big as THE COURT.

I saw someone (don't remember who because of how much info has been coming out) mention offhand RT promising assistance with a work visa & not delivering on the promise & I wanted to quickly bring that up because of my own experiences with this. What they're talking about here is an H-1B lottery application(yes in order to get a work visa in the US you need to win a lottery). This is a process in which the employer(!) petitions the gov't for a non-immigrant work visa for a prospective (or current because these fuckers expire & you have to do the whole lottery all over) employee. There is a lot of documentation, applications, and fees involved, which is why few companies undertake trying to hire international employees. Those who do are at the scale where they have their own immigration attorneys and the H-1B application process is outsourced to a separate law firm. Financially I don't know enough int'l employees to give a blanket statement, but for me, the H-1B application cost was covered by the company and was written into the contract. The records for what companies entered the H-1B lottery are available online & I think like 3 years ago I remember seeing RT having 2-3 applications total?

Union efforts. I don't have a single acquaintance who works under a union in the industry because no one is unionized. I'm not saying RT shouldn't unionize, but their issues seem so far beyond what I've seen at any other company that it's not even comparable to some digital media startups I've seen.

Lastly, I wanted to bring up something extremely subjective when it comes to the field. Any sort of decision of staying or leaving a production company relies on the people you work with, the creative fulfillment, and the stability of your position. Unfortunately, the industry is full of short-term gig positions & project-based contractors. The projects you work on won't be yours, the length of you having a stable income is always up in the air, while the industry is mostly located in the most expensive cities in the country. It's a tough one.

So tldr; the overall digital media field is not peachy with its work conditions but holly fuck what the fuck RT.

And remember kids:

If a potential employer promises something, make sure it's stated in your contract~ otherwise, the promise carries no weight.

Always negotiate the terms of employment! You might not get a higher starting salary but you might get a bonus or some other benefit!

If you want to earn a lot of money in digital media become a tech artist or a rigger.

#rooster teeth #rt #achievement hunter #ah #dear lord i haven't used these tags for so long #rly brings me back to an oof simpler time #don't idolize companies kids it never ends well #digital media career tips i guess

[bard-owl]

I think everyone has heard the term “supply chain crisis” at this point. Manufacturing centers were first hit in late 2019 and most to the global lockdowns were in effect by the second quarter of 2020. It is now third quarter of 2022 and we are into year three of this “interruption”, it is time to discard this outdated and frankly wrong from the start system of manufacturing and distribution. Americans in particular were already caught in a state of duality in which much of the public laments that nothing is made domestically, while also discarding anything made by local shops as “overpriced hipster gear”. I have previously stated that for true domestic production to return to America there would need to be enough demand for the products to cause more competition and drive the prices down as domestic supply increased.

That is the current situation as I see it, so now what do we do about it? In the last decade one particular technology has taken off, once a novelty and hyper expensive tool for industrial prototyping, 3D printers have become affordable, commonplace, and surprisingly capable. While still used by many to produce novelty items and in industrial roles, this technology is akin to the movable-type printing press of the mid-1400s in that it represents an upset to the established order if utilized effectively. Now before this is dismissed I am aware of the limitations of what can be printed at home. More exotic and expensive versions are used to produce high strength items. But this is where it gets interesting, because it isn’t about everyone having a printer. It’s about everyone using home printers to get a head start on skills, hobbies, and trades they couldn’t afford to break into otherwise and then using those skills to work with each other.

Lathes or milling machines are both often said to be machines that make machines. 3D printers should be included in that list. Now there is nothing made on this machine that can’t be done with other tools and methods, but few that allow the low cost of entry and ease within a home settings. Open source software and thousands of free files allow anyone and everyone to make tons of tools, dies, forms, jigs, stencils, etc. as needed. I've seen sheet steel stamped on dies made from common PLA on a cheap press from Harbor Freight, or even just stuck with hammers. My cousin makes brackets for electronics with an entry level printer while his wife makes custom cookie cutters for various events on the same machine.

And that’s the thing about this, the broad range of applications combined with people’s varied and personal interests. With the addition of a chop saw and drill for extruded or tubular metal you can make strong supports for printed pieces to form a much larger machine. If you can make a drill press or milling machine, you can make a lathe, manually operated or CNC. I’ve seen people make large format CNC router tables that can quickly and efficiently cut and trim an entire sheet of plywood for assembly. If within a community most people have the ability to make their own simple plastic or resin tools and utensils, while someone has a garage metal shop, another a carpentry shop, a couple down the road a leather shop and sewing studio, someone else a pottery studio, even a small foundry for smelting and casting, you would have a far more self-reliant community than anything seen in a hundred years in much of the western world.

I was originally going to link a bunch of videos showing the possibilities and I still might add some later on about specific applications. But I really want everyone to give this some serious thought on their own. Is there a hobby or trade you are interested in but you’re concerned about the investment? Look at what the essential components are. Can the more complex ones be found used? The cheaper ones made at home? We, as in all of us, are in a massive web of unsustainable distribution and centralized manufacturing. I don’t believe the key is to change where that center is, but to replace it with local and regional decentralized networks of skilled individuals whom own their own tools and shops.

#self reliance #sustainability #decentralisation #3d printer #trades #hobbies #skill set #new skills #casting #welding #machining #carpentry #pottery

[cognitiveleague]

Cut for work venting / length / sleep deprived ADHD run-on sentences. Basically just using Tumblr as a journal for stress relief since I’m awake

Goddddd it’s past 3 AM on a damn Saturday and I’m trying so hard not to spend half the weekend trying figure out any response to an upset client’s most recent email other than like.

“Hon, I think you may have mistaken my polite tone and commitment to engaging with you in good faith with decency and transparency for some kind of inclination to bend over backwards if a client is not happy for any reason? But I think my colleague and I have both been pretty straightforward with you about what kind of help we can and can’t offer in this situation and Karen-ing about it at this stage isn’t going to change that, especially since we have legal obligations to your insurance company to actually charge you what they have put toward your deductible costs for this year, so instead of stamping your feet about not being happy with the cost (which I *understand* is a lot and we’re all broke and tired and it hurts, and which I fundamentally believe a just world shouldn’t place on the patient, but we live in the world and the country we live in for now and you are older than my thoroughly grown ass so we are both going to have to be adults and deal with that part) please fucking work with me here so Incan at least give you all the patience you need and the assurance that your credit won’t be affected as long as you stick to some type of payment plan or at least keep in communication with us about any issues with the plan, or it WILL become my job to send your case to a collections agency, which exists to try and get your money without giving any kind of a fuck and will ABSOLUTELY both add 20% to your already difficult to bear balance and immediately report the debt to credit agencies without batting one goddamn eyelash, and under no circumstances do I want to have to do that any more than you want me to so please help me have another choice in the matter”

Or, less charitably, “oh my god I’m so sorry, I thought you told my coworker you were upset to receive a bill for [pre-expected write off amount] because you were confused, but if you ‘already know how to read a statement and know the actual balance is [much smaller amount] and that’s what [you’re] upset about’ then you must just have been trying to intimidate the entry-level worker with the wrong number on purpose to see if you could guilt her into doing her job wrong and getting in trouble for you, my bad!” or “look, it sucks, but management is not going to view the one mistake that was made on our end as one on the scale where it would be appropriate to respond by lowering the balance significantly, like if I stuck my neck out even further than I already have for you there’s a slim chance I could get you a small courtesy write off but it’s not too damn likely and would be small enough to feel like more of a slap in the face than just saying ‘no, the balance is correct and I’m afraid it isn’t something that’s negotiable at this point’ , and since you’ve been sort of a dick to my colleague and me so far (because you seem like the kind of person who thinks it’s appropriate to throw a fit at underpaid employees until someone kisses your ass and pretends the client is always right, but unfortunately for you my instinctive reaction to rudeness is not to kiss ass, it’s ‘oh that’s how you want to play? Let’s fucking dance, then, asshole’), I’m not sure why I should waste more of my limited time and annoy my bosses for the slim chance of a small change that would still leave you furious and dissatisfied anyway”

or “I think there may be some kind of error on the alleged list of practices your surgeon gave you for the mental health clearance, because if the other practices can actually provide this evaluation at the out of pocket price point you insist were on that list, I will eat my fucking hat. Like at this point it’s cost our practice more than that much to buy the blank forms needed for your evaluation, submit them for you, and pay me personally (even at the mildly insulting rate I get paid) for the amount of work hours I’ve spent reviewing your case, talking to office management to see where I could get them to compromise for you out of the goodness o my heart, and making sure my colleague’s and my own responses to you have all had the right balance of ‘compassionate and polite but setting clear expectations for what’s realistic to be asking at this point’ and you haven’t even paid us a damn cent of it yet?”

Or “look, I owned up to the one small contributing mistake on our end in the interest of being decent and honest to you and being able to grant you SOME ground in compensation, and I really do get where you’re coming from, but in total fairness here, even the least competent member of our billing team on a bad day would have easily caught that and cleared it up for you before services took place if you had made any attempt to ask *us* (the people whose job it is to know jack shit about insurance) what it was going to cost prior to your appointment, but what you did was wait until you were already in session and then ask the guy who, I cannot stress this enough, is a wonderful person who is great at the things that are his job but has a doctorate and decades of relevant experience in *psychotherapy and psychiatric testing*, not any sort of financial field, and works for a practice where someone else handles the accounting and insurance stuff for him, so why the fuck would *he* have been able to instinctively notice that the numbers looked wrong the way we would have in the 5 seconds of your appointment time he could spare to check on them for you???????? How was asking *him*, during the appointment, ‘doing your due diligence to research the costs in advance and make an informed decision’, you absolute turnip?????”

#work vent #long post #personal #at least the office job means I can make whatever faces I want and take a few drafts to get the email right #instead of having to deal with this shit in real time where the client can see what my face is trying to do #on the other hand I would love to see her have to look me in the goddamn eye #and tell me that a single easily made non-malicious paperwork error #is worth compensating for with a write off large enough to mean the practice would lose money on her services #even before paying the actual fucking provider for several hours of highly specialized work #look right at me and pretend that is a reasonable ask that I should be able to accommodate #for fuck’s sake

[wroteonedad]

Body Poetics Review

Writing about art is difficult. Especially when you live in a town that doesn't have much art, you work full time and you also can't drive. It makes me feel as though I am restricted to the amount of inspiration around me I can find, unfortunately Bournemouth pier just really isn't doing it for me anymore. I love to be on the move, I love to see new places, but I feel as though I am never going to find the place that I want to be settled into forever. Or the place I want to go to is going to be too expensive and that I may as well just flush that dream down the toilet. And did I mention that the cost of living crisis is also making it even harder to be able to go out and explore anymore, that is on the odd occasion that the trains are even running at the moment.

It feels as though I wait for the one gallery to open up their new exhibition before I wander in and end up reviewing every show that they do, except for Martin Parr. I really don't think there was much to say about his work other than it's pretty and they're of beaches. This show, also presented by the wonderful Giant gallery, is called Body Poetics. I was reluctant to go to this show at first, and you want to know the real reason why I wasn't sure if I wanted to see it? It was because I hated the main piece that is advertised on all of the posters of the show, at first glance it essentially just looks like a furry wearing a winter outfit, I hate it. I'm not judging people who say it's their thing, but it really just isn't for me. I decided to give the show a chance anyway, though I had no idea what I was going to ultimately end up saying about it.

The show has been curated by a group of 9 different female artists from across the world. Most of the deeper meaning behind these works is feminist theory from the 70s and 80s and all of these works available to feast your eyes on are made from the 70s and onwards. The works also feature many contemporary values to what it means to be a feminist.

Upon general entry into the gallery, one of the first things I saw was Carolee Schneemann's Eye Body works. It features the idea of the social construction of the female / femme or queer body. The selection of works on the wall all featured different positionings of the body surrounded by materials; all of which discussed pain, suffering, political protest as well as joy and sexual expression. I for one was a huge fan of the collection of images on the wall, there are 4 different images. This one in particular is my favourite because it reminds me of a still you would see from a horror movie in the 60s. The way in which to see an image like this in the 60s would be terrifying, enough to make the film only available for an adult audience. I think it's visually fantastic and perhaps one of the stronger pieces from the show in my eyes, this is purely based around the fact there is little to no photography featured in the show and although I love art from every medium, I still feel as though I am drawn to photography the most.

This piece is Rite of Spring by Florence Peake. Her collection of works also feature the same themes as Schneemann when it comes to female / femme and queer attitudes of representation. I loved this piece from all of the colours it contained as well as the texture of it. I am obsessed with textures that have been edited as the piece has been curated overtime and think it really adds an extra depth of field to it. However, and this is not down to the artist, but rather the gallery. When I posted an image of this on my Instagram story a few days ago, I actually managed to tag the wrong artist in the post. This is due to the signs of the works being very unclear in the work. The list talks about two artists body of works, one being hers, but the sign simply named the work and wrote (opposite) on it while also displaying another list of works near the piece itself. It made the show very difficult to navigate and I apologise to Peake for giving another artist credit for the work.

The work above is Untitled (Hands Waving) by Kiki Smith. I feel like this work stuck out to me in the gallery space because it feels very simple in comparison to a lot of the complex works I saw in there; and sometimes it makes me feel bad because I don't look at everything in the space and immediately know what the deeper meaning behind the work is. This is a piece that I feel like I could stand there and look at for quite some time, it stuck out on the back wall full of eccentric colours and deep meanings, but this piece made me just want to wave back at her. I want to feel what she feels here. I love the focus on the hands, I think people can forget how expressive hands can be. How important they are, I don't want to sound fake deep and be like we take them for granted, but I do feel as though we forget how much we actually can do with them.

I think that Kiki Smith's work was some of my favourite pieces on show in the gallery. The other piece is a ceiling to floor length tapestry with star constellations and crescent moons titled Visitor (Stars, multiple crescent moons). In a way, I feel as though both pieces of work she displayed in the gallery really interlink with each other in opposing ways. The pieces all feel simple, with their matching colour schemes and dainty details all visible to the eye from afar. This piece in particular feels very feminine, the glitter, the stars in general, and like I said before the dainty details. It adds a whole new level of feminism to a piece of work without being an in your face piece of 'this is feminism'

TW: the pieces I hated the most in the gallery.

I was complaining on my story when I saw the show that I was so upset that they chose to use this model as the poster image for the show because every piece of work I saw in the gallery was so much better than this. Perhaps it's harsh to say this, but I feel as though this set of work felt like a whole waste of space, but I just hate it. I really hate it. The work is by Ad Minoliti who is all about the use of abstract forms of art to explore social aspects of the body and gendered experience. I see it I really do, I just hate that they chose to display a full blown furry. Perhaps that was the point, for it to hold a discussion, to use something so bold on the poster to advertise the show that it made people feel something. Enough to come to the show to see what it looked like up close. Maybe I'm being closed minded when I look at this, but I will simply just be walking straight past it next time I come to the show. On the other hand, some of the canvas works submitted by the artists were bright, bold and super eye catching. These were works I enjoyed to look at a lot more.

This piece was the one I enjoyed the most by the artist. This is Queer Modulor and it slayed.

I gotta say though, this is the bad boy that stole the entire show for me. This sculpture slowly rotates in circles and is literally full of surprises. Not only do we get the sculpture, but there's also a fun accompanying drawing of it in the gallery (I'm really sorry I don't want to post every detail of this show, but I urge everyone to go to this). This piece is by Rae-Yen Song and is called happy little leaf.

Next up is Guerilla Girls with Birth of Feminism. The group are very well known for their loud and outspoken media to discuss issues with being a woman and so it only made sense for them to be apart of the show. The poster adds an extra level of overall comedy to the end project.

Holly Steveson

Overall, I think the show is really fun. There's a bunch of outstanding forms of media and installation works and it's so nice to see a big artist collaboration in the space, a space that works really well for the works they are exhibiting. The only thing is I feel there is not much discussion to have with all of the works, rather they are good pieces by good artists and that is all that is left to say on the matter.

Body Poetics is on at Giant Gallery until 8 May 2023.

#giant gallery #body poetics #guerilla girls #art review #writing #exhibition review