#like the cc itself is easy

[loreleisims]

editorial makeup set ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

download / includes: bow eyebrows 9 swatches / eyeshadows v1 & v2 14 swatches / lipstick v1 6 swatches & v2 8 swatches

more info & unedited pics under the cut ↓

also! the spark eye highlight by @pralinesims goes amazingly with the eyeshadows! (used in the pics)

@sssvitlanz @emilyccfinds @itsjessicaccfinds @alwaysfreecc

#ts4cc #s4cc #ts4 #s4 #the sims #the sims 4 #the sims 4 custom content #ts4 cas #ts4 makeup #ts4 lipstick #ts4 eyeshadow #ts4 eyebrows #loreleisims #this took forever #like the cc itself is easy #but i scrapped so many ideas for the post layout #ughhhh #but we made it #should i tag coquette cuz the bow-brows #lol

[gummilutt]

Stuffed animal enabler and autonomy fix with traits incorporation

Today I have a mod for you all that was inspired by @chocolatecitysim stream. Have you ever put a stuffed animal somewhere in the nursery as decoration? Only to find it lasts no time at all before one of them pluck it down to talk through it to a toddler that is busy, which makes them immediately drop it somewhere on the floor before wandering off. Grrrr! In a previous mod of mine where I enable teddy interactions for older Sims I solved the issue by turning off autonomy. I decided to try something more nuanced, so today I have my new version of a teddy enabler with some global stuffed animal autonomy fixes baked in.

Enabled features on the 6 maxis stuffed animals - Carry and play with enabled for teens, adults and elders - Talk through enabled for kids. Yay more sibling interaction options! Some temporary floating occurs (see video below) but overall, animations work great. - Carry interaction enabled on lil chimera plush bunny, which for some reason did not have it

Global changes to stuffed animal autonomy - Teens, adults and elders may not interact autonomously with stuffed animals in any way, if the object is sitting in a slot. It's decorative, leave it alone! If it's on the floor, knock yourself out. - Children can autonomously take bears from surfaces to play or carry, but not to talk through. This is the default setting, it is controlled in a BCON and can easily be changed if you want it different. It is labelled explaining how to edit, all you have to do is switch between 0 and 1 depending on what you want. - Children may only talk through to toddlers, because they float in the air when doing it to older Sims, whereas with toddlers the animation mostly works (see video below) - If carry and play with is enabled for teen, adult and elders, they will only autonomously do so if they have the childish trait. - Talk through autonomy for teens, adults and elders is limited to sims who are 8 or higher playful personality, or that have the nurturing trait.

These global changes impact all stuffed animals. However I can't globally enable the interactions on CC animals, because the menu is held in each object. So if you want CC stuffed animals to make full use of this, you need to manually edit the TTAB to match the mod. I have included a short video tutorial in the zip, of how to do so. If not enabled, the only change in behavior with CC stuffed animals is that older Sims can not take them from slots in order to talk through, and they will only talk through if 8+ playful or nurturing.

If you do not use traits, do not worry, the mod does not require them to work. The only difference is you won't have any autonomous play with or carry in older Sims, and talk through is limited to 8 or higher playful Sims. Easy inventory check is not required.

Download from simfileshare

Conflicts: My original "BearEnabledTeenAndUpNoAutonomy"-mods. Remove those (one file per stuffed animal, with the name of the object at the start) if you want to use this. Will conflict with other mods that alter TTAB of maxis stuffed animals, or that edit the guardian bhavs of play with, carry and talk through interactions. Introduces a new BHAV to the stuffed animal semi global, and a new bcon. HCDUs will detect all forms of conflicts. Conflicts with parts of simler90's ToyStuffedAnimalFix, specifically the part that removes unavailable Sims as options for the talk through interaction. I recommend you load my mod last, but for more in-depth information on why and how that changes behavior you'll see, please see this reply to conflict report.

Credits: chocolatecitysims for inspiring me to retry my approach to this, picknmix for helping confirm the way to test for being in a slot

Here is the video of what talk through to a toddler looks like for kids. They float briefly at different parts of the picking up, squatting and putting down parts of the animation, but the talking itself they are on the floor. Doesn't bother me, but I wanted to show so you can decide if it's too much for your taste :)

#gummiluttmods #ts2 mods

[yin-shimo]

RATING CC SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO

DECAYED "Easy Access" ed.

RATE LIST:

poly count

mesh visuals

weights

UV texture

universability

1. POLY COUNT

Lets get the biggest possible problem out of the way first. There's four items.

Open Jeans: 71,856

Jeans: 34,080

Softie Top: 32,036

DDG String: 21,776

How does this compare to Maxis clothes?

I didn't go through every clothes they've made, but crop shirt, short sleeve wise, the largest poly count i saw was 4.2k That's a ratio of 160: 21 or 8: 1 if we make 4.2k into 4k.

for jeans, the largest i saw was 1,270. That's a ratio of about 85: 3 or 28.33333...: 1 if you want an easier number.

For bikini/under/etc the average was 1000~ so for ease sake, we'll use that. That's a ratio of 22: 1.

**Disclaimer: ratios are based on averaged numbers for simplicity's sake

Rating: 0/10

reason: the numbers are answer enough BUT in addition it literally made my game glitch/freeze up when first selecting them, playing with sliders, AND exiting CAS.

2. MESH VISUALS

This covers as stated... mesh visuals such as clipping or just looking nothing like it's advertised.

Problems 1 & 2:

for simplicity's sake, I'm using CAS poses. I think if it fails to look good in CAS it definitely won't look well in game.

Texture Type: 100% alpha, could not be mistaken for maxis.

Texture Quality: the texture is rather blurry and over-saturated in comparison to more higher quality CC clothes.

**Disclaimer: I don't play with the HQ mod so idk if it looks better with it.

Rating: 4/10

3. WEIGHTS

This section kind of overlaps with #2 so look back up for review.

Aside from what was shown up there, when walking (for the open jeans) the crotch area again clips between itself as well as ankle seen in the left leg.

for the unopened jeans, no immediate issues seen when walking (same for the shirt & thong)

Rating: 6/10

reason: clipping could be fixed by simply deleting unnecessary body mesh/ possibly minor weight tweaks

4. UV TEXTURE (mapping)

This section is meant to answer the question, "Will any conflict with other parts such as shoes, hats, etc?" Using the sims 4 UV map template as my guide, here are the results:

All four correspond to their proper sections and shouldn't conflict texture wise with other CAS parts

Rating: 10/10

5. UNIVERSABILITY

This section covers questions like, "Does this work for large muscular and/or fat sims? Does it work if my sims are the lowest body mass?

TLDR; answer: Yes.

Answer: I only checked the top and opened jeans (as it's the worst mesh of all 4) and with muscles and fat at the max both simultaneously and respectively, there were no additional clipping or issues such as it not following with the body changes. The same could be said when both (or one) was dropped to the lowest.

Rating: 10/10

and lastly:

Questionnaire:

Would you recommend to a friend: NO. Would you use this item yourself: NO. Paywall Status: PERMA-PAYWALLED. Additional Info: $5 USD for current month, $10 2months prior + blender cc, $25 access to lifetime cc. Additional Info #2: They have a free sample of the closed jeans...(yay SL behavior [sarcasm])

OVERALL RATING: 30%

#xian: rating

[thatsthewrongwallcraig]

Hi👋. Can you write a oneshot of kappa meeting a very subby and shy reader, flirting with them, realizing that they get flustered very easily. The flirting gets more intense as they go on (he calls them petnames like puppy and kitten) reader gets sooo flustered every time cuz of the pet names and everything he says. Smut ensues.

Pretty please🤭🙏

Hello my dear nonnie! 🖤 I know, this took like forever, but I hope you still like and are okay with the changes I put to it 🫶🏻 It got a bit out of hand and a bit dark 👀

Sugar

Summary: Is it love? Is it lust? Is it grooming? And does it even really matter?

Pairing: cultleader!Kappa x virgin!fem!Reader

Word Count: -1.8k

Content Warnings: Cult Flavoured Smut 18+!, Fingering, Loss Of Virginity, Unprotected P In V, Very Intentional Breeding, Age Gap (Reader is in her early 20s and Kappa somewhere in his late 40s), Strong Hints Towards Grooming, Praising, Kappa Being A Manipulative Piece Of Shit, From Consensual To Non-Con, A Forced Orgasm

A/N: The demonic ovulation hornyness is at it again, folks 🫡

Tagging the horny horde:

@crypticsewerslut @quicksilversg1rl @cc-luvr @icarus-star @milaeth @roryculkinsgf @spookyorchid @arch1viste @whoareyoi @angelsanarchy @blueberrypancakesworld @rocketqueen-world @lifelessvessel @doddernix @svgarcaine @amayalul @basementgrl222 @kristennero-wallacewellsver @iiheartsai @fan-goddess @shady-the-simp  

And I know this doesn't make a lot of sense

But do you really wanna think about yourself now?

All I'm asking for's a little bit of faith

You know it's easy to believe

- Mantra By Bring Me The Horizon

Not even the first, just somewhat coherent thought had worked itself through your sleep-drunk synapses as you felt your body buzzing, a certain sense of warmth tingling through every muscle leading you to instinctively press your thighs together to ease the growing pulse between your legs. The sun wasn’t even up yet, a scarce handful of early morning birds were chirping outside in the twilight zone of it not being pitch black outside but also not really daytime already. 

Shuffling a little under your comfortably warm blanket, you arched your back, very offensively pressing your ass into the crotch of the softly snoozing man behind you. To you, he wasn’t just anyone, no, he was the man you’d been looking up to for nearly as long as you could think, from the very moment your mother had joined the commune you’d been infatuated with the sharp-witted man with the curly black hair and intensely blue eyes. At first, it had been a childish, innocent kind of fascination, of course, but over the years and over the inevitable course of you growing into a proper woman, you’d started to feel different, less pure sensations pulling you towards him, sentiments like the one that was holding you in a very tight grip for the past few days now and you couldn’t really piece together just how you’d managed to turn his attention towards you, but somehow it had ended up with him showing up at your little corner of the hideout night after night, presumably stricken with the same need to fulfill his bodily desires. 

Simply thinking about it caused you to bite down on your bottom lip, pushing back a needy whine wanting to emerge from the depths of your ribcage. Vibrant memories of how he’s been touching you night and night again flooded your drowsy train of thought, sending even hotter, more urgent jolts of need amidst your thighs. This man had made you feel things you could hardly put into proper words, all you knew for sure was you couldn’t have made yourself experience any of those sensual hights all on your own. No arousal-covered fingertips of yours, greedily rubbing over your clit, and no pillow, oh so desperately pressed between your legs, had been able to so far.

“G’morning, sugar.”, A hot exhale getting lost in your neck led your head to loll back against his shoulder, “Oh, babe…need me again already, huh? Such a perfectly needy, little thing.”

You nodded vigorously, the tell-tale heat of embarrassment creeping up into your cheeks in no time upon your nonverbal confession.

“ ‘M sorry, Kappa. didn’t mean to wake you.” You muttered, not having yourself in control enough to refrain from rubbing your behind in his lap.

“Issokay, sunshine, everything for you.”, Kappa cooed into your temple, his voice still a little raspy and raw, which sent a wash of goosebumps down your body, “Been such a good girl for me, no? Might just be time to give you all of me, hm? What do you think about that?” 

His words of praise murmured right into your ear like this had your face burning in a mix of hammering embarrassment and aching need for him to finally take you fully, devour you whole, and have his way with you.

“Please…” You mewled out, the heavy pulse between your legs fogging up your mind, intoxicating you with an unbridled desire to eventually feel him inside of you, filling you out as no man before him had.

“There, there…”, The older man behind you hummed, his tone laced with satisfaction as his left hand snaked along the curve of your waist, fingertips stroking across your hips before dipping down following the round your thighs, “Oh, so wet and warm already. Don’t you worry, I’ll help you with that and make you feel so, so good, you just trust me.”

You wanted to answer with just something, but every word got stuck in your throat as you felt his lean, nimble fingers pushing between your fold, gathering your arousal to not rub you sore as they started flicking over your swollen clit, instead, a wanton groan got lost in the dark of the room. Wanting, needing more of him, you tilted your hips a little to the side, sliding your left leg over his to give his hand more room and to simply show Kappa just how much you wanted him right now.

“What an eager girl you are, no?”, His lips brushed over the side of your forehead leaving soft, little pecks, “Always knew you’re the special one in the herd and with that, you get some special treatment, of course.” 

Kappa’s saccharine-sweet endorsements went straight to your head, rendering you plain dumb with his and between your legs, his fingers causing one wash of pleasure after the other to ripple through you. Simply by the sheer amount of unreleased hornyness and pent-up desire for finally being touched, you knew that you wouldn't last long at all if he kept on toying with your clit like that, seemingly knowing the ins and outs of your body already.

“C’mon, breathe for me, sugar. Calm down a little, don’t wanna get you all spent just now. Would much rather wanna feel you cumming all around my cock this time.” Under mewls and whines of your protest, he halted in his movements to adjust himself behind you, making you gasp out as you felt the tip of his pulsing, stiff hard-on prodding against your cunt from behind.

“Please, I want you so bad…don’t care if it hurts, I-” Kappa cut you off right there and then by allowing his hips to snap forward, his full girth spearheading into you, stretching you out unlike anything before.

“Shit…fuck, oh fuck…” It shot out of your mouth in a somewhat pained whimper that got chased by a breathy moan caused by Kappa’s fingertips stroking over your clit again.

With his cock buried deep inside of you, you didn’t really know what you felt. It was too much all at the same time but not necessarily in a bad way, no. Although your senses were reeling, physical sensations burning you from the inside out, you’d never felt more present and in the moment than right now. Pain turned into pleasure with every nudge of his fingers against your aching clit as your walls pulsed and throbbed around him, pulling him in deeper whilst a very distant part of you wanted to get him out to make the intense sensation of getting stretched out to accommodate him stop. It felt good and yet so, so wrong to a degree that had you lost in all kinds of conflicting sensations.

“Shit, good god, you’re such a perfect human, sugar, taking me so well, fuck. Can’t fucking wait to knock you up…” Kappa’s voice turned sinister, almost menacing all of a sudden, praise clashing with the carnal instinct to just rut into you, to fuck you into the mattress underneath until you were nothing but a whimpering, filled up little vessel for his deranged ideology.

“Knock me up?!” It sputtered out of your mouth, feeling how his free hand cupped your hip in a tight, nearly bruising grasp before you could only so much as try to get away from him.

“Oh, of course, sunshine. Why do you think I’ve waited about a week after your period stopped to finally fuck you, claim you, hm? That’s not all just for you, honey, and you better be thinking about the service you are doing for all of us right now.” His words started an avalanche of worry and panic to ignite in your chest, spreading into your breathless lungs whilst he started thrusting into you at a heavy, painful pace.

“No, stop, please…I don’t want to…” You tried scooting away from him but his hold on your waist was too tight.

“What did I just tell you?”, Kappa shushed you with a sharp sneer as he drilled himself inside of you again and again, pain, confusion and build-up arousal thrashing through your system, “Don’t just think about yourself now! It’s not just about you!” 

“It’s gon’ be, I promise.”, He went on, planting a deep kiss to your heated cheek, “Allow yourself to enjoy it, we both know it does, no?” 

With every rut of his hips against your rear, your body betrayed you more and more, your walls tightening around him and what you knew were the first, now unstoppable contractions of an oncoming orgasm he ripped from you.

“There you go, good girl, c’mon, cum for me.” Kappa’s tone rendered a little sore upon feeling your violated cunt clenching down around him, muscles erupting into heavy spasms as you tried to choke back each and every moan that wanted to gush right out of you.

With his fingers still pleasuring your clit, his cock balls deep inside of you, you helplessly fell apart. Your eyes fluttered shut and every nerve ending felt to be in overdrive as he tore the most intense orgasm you’d ever felt right out of you. You wanted to cry out, weasel and squeeze your naked body from his bruising grasp but at the same time, you saw stars flickering up on the black of your eyelids whilst your legs grew numb as the release washed through you. 

“Fuck…pulling me in like a desperate, little slut.” He laughed out, shoving himself into you as deep as he possibly could before spilling his load all the way inside.

You took note of this new sensation, a sticky warmth flooding your insides, filling you up that extra bit which drew a new, softer wave of contractions from your cunt, your body making sure to keep it all in, practically sucking it up.

“See?”, Kappa cooed against your temple, “You did so well, sugar, ‘n I’m gonna breed you again and again until I see your belly swelling up with my child.” 

#tam rambles #asks are appreciated #asks are always open #rory culkin #kappa x reader #kappa smut #kappa #kappa black mirror #kappa x fem!reader #black mirror 6 #black mirror #black mirror: beyond the sea

[kopw]

g1 season is upon us! i'm too lazy to gif every match myself! the world needs gifmakers like you! yes you!

this guide includes: basic gifmaking, actions, how to blur on-screen graphics, coloring tips catered specifically to wrestling footage (mainly aew and njpw), how to add subtitles, what tags to use

what you will need:

photoshop (i currently use cc 2017 for windows which you can grab from this post by birdysources)

kmplayer (for extracting frames)

what you might need depending on what you're looking to gif:

4k video downloader (for downloading videos off youtube)

vkopt (browser extension that lets you download videos off vk)

step 1: getting the footage

if you're directly downloading from a site this step is super easy. just make sure to always go for the highest quality of footage available (for njpw this is nowhere near 1080p, and even aew's 1080p footage is pixelated in places—but don't let this deter you!)

if you plan on giffing something off a ppv, chances are you might need to torrent the event. if you can, look for versions off fite with either web or webrip in the title for the best quality. this applies to weekly television too (fite doesn't have picture-in-picture). always seed your torrents. yes, even that one match from 2012. especially that one

you can also get recent shows off watchprowrestling dot co (previously org) which includes njpw tour shows and indie events as well. check out indy★wrestling★group on vk for smaller promotions and japanese promotions outside of njpw (tjpw, stardom, noah...)

step 2: choosing a clip

wrestling footage quality is not consistent. entrances with too many flashing lights or small particles will have huge quality drops, so unless it's something really special, don't put yourself through that. close-ups are generally your best friend but don't shy away from clips with lots of movement (you do sometimes want to gif the wrestling parts of wrestling too)

step 3: extracting frames

open your video in kmplayer. go to the part that you want to gif (though, i suggest leaving a bit of fodder before and after the actual clip. you can always trim the frames down later and it's better to start off with more). then, press ctrl + g

this should bring up this window:

your settings might be different if it's your first time downloading the app so just copy what you see here

kmplayer automatically captures into its own folder, which you can change if you want, but i just left it as is. i recommend pinning the folder you regularly use to the quick access menu in your file explorer

hit start, start the video, let it capture frames for however long, and then hit stop on both the extractor and the video itself. and now you have a bunch of frames in a folder. cool!

step four: converting frames to layers

open photoshop. this will take ages but open it. go to file -> scripts -> load files into stack...

this will bring up this window:

click browse... and select all the frames you just extracted. depending on the number of frames, this might take you a bit. then hit ok and let your layers load into photoshop. this will take a long time (saying this as someone whose laptop tends to heat up to the temperature of an egg pan at this point in the process)

step five: actions

i use actions (user-built series of recorded commands, meaning you don't have to click everything manually) for everything except coloring. i use a mishmash of like three different actions that i never bothered to organize. these are the two most important ones:

actionpack #1 by giulia (i use the setup and save portions from this one)

squishmoon actions by lildohnut (i use the hd sharpening from here, first layer on 0.3 for close-ups and 0.2 otherwise, and the second layer at the suggested 50%)*

*most sharpening settings you'll find are made for current films and tv shows so you do have to make some adjustment to fit your crunchy wrestling footage

step six: sizing

pick a size for your gif! here is a handy chart:

as for height, it can range anywhere from 300px-540px and beyond. most people go for 350px-450px. 400px is the sweet spot

personal preference: adjust canvas size not image size and fit your footage accordingly. some footage (looking at you aew) can have an odd black bar at the bottom, and manual resizing can help getting rid of it. if you just resize the whole image that will stay there and bother you

additional tip: guidelines

9/10 times you will leave your footage centered. however, there are times when this can look a bit awkward, depending on the framing, in which case i like bringing in a few guidelines. go to view -> new guide layout...

rule of thirds is generally good for drawing the eye to certain places. these settings will divide your canvas into nine squares that help you reposition your main gif layer

optional step: blurring pop-up graphics and banners

so, you have your sharpened, resized gif... but the sharpening made the small text and other unwanted elements on your screen shrivel up like raisins. you can leave it as is, people won't mind, it's a wrestling gif, who cares. but, if you want, you can just blur it out

i'm at least a little bit certain that i'm personally the guy who brought this over from k-pop tumblr (not saying i invented the concept, i just love being a trendsetter) and so i can give you a few reasons as to why people do this. such as:

adding subtitles over pre-existing, burnt subtitles (example: njpw post-match comments off njpwworld and not youtube)

getting rid of elements that might distract people from the focal point of the gif (the hotties... and the moves. mostly the hotties)

it makes your otherwise milquetoast sharpening look a little better in contrast

it's gonna be ugly either way so it's a pick your poison type of situation. if you do want to try the blurring method, you will need a basic knowledge of filters and layer masks

step-by-step blurring process:

duplicate your gif layer

blur the layer on top (i typically go for a 4.0 gaussian blur; for this, go to filter -> blur -> gaussian blur...)

apply a layer mask to the blurred layer and make the layer mask black (this will remove the blur effect, don't be scared). to access the layer mask just click on it. you can press alt before clicking to "enter" the layer mask (though you won't see your gif this way)

go in with a soft round brush (or any brush) with white and draw over the bits you want blurred. this is the tedious part

profit?

here's a comparison:

it's really down to personal preference ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و

i convert my base gif layer and the blurred layer into a smart object before moving on with my process because sometimes photoshop likes to do this thing where it only applies the blur to the frame you're on. you can avoid this by combining the layers manually

if you're working with njpw footage and your clip plus coloring combination allows you to, you can also just go over the banner with black and blend it into the background. it's by far the best option but there's so rarely an opportunity to utilize it (i did it in the little header i made... go back and look at how beautiful she is)

step six: coloring

the big one. oh boy. prefacing this with: you can just skip coloring if you want. the sharpening settings i recommended earlier give a nice contrast to the gifs as is, so if it looks fine like that, you don't need any fancy colors. that being said...

my thought process going into coloring is to focus on skin tones and adjust everything around them. i don't tend to use psds, i always just manually color correct based on the actual footage i'm working with (venues differ, lighting differs, hues differ... incredibly hard to plan for all of it in advance). if i plan on making multiple gifsets of the same event/match, i do re-use settings, but sometimes minor adjustments are still needed

to begin coloring, you will need to use adjustment layers. you will pretty much need a basic knowledge of all of them (to the extent of knowing what the sliders and values do)

[1] i always begin with an exposure layer. this will remain above all of your layers (unless you plan on adding subtitles). here are my settings:

again, every layer you add after this will go below your exposure layer

[2] i add a selective color layer to further adjust the blacks. this will vary gif to gif but keep your adjustments small

[3] i add a vibrance layer. wrestling footage has major saturation problems that you can manage early on to make your life easier. take back a tiny bit (usually from -3 to -5) of vibrance before you begin your other color adjustments

[4] this is the big skin tone adjustment step using a curves layer. it does most of the heavy-lifting in my process. here is a video tutorial that explains the technique i use. it works the same with gifs as it does with images. the key differences are:

the image you are color picking off of shouldn't be a limited skin tone chart but rather an image of the wrestler(s) in natural (or as close to natural as you can find) lighting. i just go for renders used on the roster page. fan photography is way too edited to use here

try picking from a darker area of skin (shadows, midtones). it fits better with match lighting

this step will most likely correct color tints, but keep in mind that different promotions/shows/venues have different lighting. here are my personal observations:

aew dynamite and rampage have strong magenta tints

aew collision and roh honor club have strong red tints

njpw has a washed out blue tint

impact has a strong green tint

you can either lean into these (play around with making them really vibrant) or cancel them out using opposites on the color wheel (for example: to get rid of the magenta tint on dynamite, either decrease the magenta slider in your neutrals using selective color or add more green using color balance)

you will almost always have to add more cyan as well (either using color balance or channel mixer; channel mixer can also help you fine-tune skin tones with its blue tab—don't get rid of yellow undertones!)

[5] here is where i start fiddling around with manual adjustments that i seriously can't help you with... just add layers and change colors until you think it feels right. don't be afraid to start over if needed

[6] finishing touches! if you're like me you will have overcolored in the previous step. don't be afraid to add a saturation layer and decrease specifically the saturation of the reds (this will affect the skin tone; if you feel like you're on the right track but it's just too orange-looking, it's a saturation issue)

i also tend to add a black & white layer below the exposure layer up top set to soft light and lowered to 10% opacity. this gives you a bit of additional contrast that pulls the final gif together in my opinion

optional step: adding subtitles and watermarks

always add text layers above your coloring!

[1] subtitles

the font i use for subtitles is arial rounded mt bold, which you can download for free here. the point of subtitles is for them to be readable, so feel free to use any other font as long as it can be read with ease (nothing too thin or too blocky). if you plan on using the font i use, make sure to set it on faux bold and faux italics

font size differs based on the size of your gif, but it should normally be between 17pt and 23pt. i like to keep my tracking (letter-spacing) the same as my font size (so for 21pt subtitles i would have the tracking also at 21). i keep leading (the space between multiple lines of text) 3pt or 4pt

if there are two people speaking, i like setting the second speaker's text color to #ffd300. this is a generic yellow caption color that is still easy to read

after you have your basic text done, right click on your layer to add blending options. adding a stroke and a drop shadow can further help bring your text to the foreground. I keep my stroke (hah) at a simple 1px black. here are my drop shadow settings:

here is a more detailed guide about subtitles by clubgif

as for placement i add a horizontal guide at 95% and put my text on top of the line (while also keeping it centered vertically)

[2] watermarks

i personally don't use watermarks because i just don't care to, but if you want to add one, the same general ideas apply. just lower the opacity of your text layer at the end (if you want... again, a watermark is personalized)

step seven: timing

this is where you'll have to convert your video timeline back to a frame animation!

delete the frames that you don't need and then set a consistent timing (click on your first frame and shift + click on your last one to select all of your frames before adjusting). i like my gifs at 0.04, but depending on the footage you can go for 0.03 (newer bte episodes) or 0.05 (this also works if you don't have enough frames and want your gif a bit slower)

step eight: exporting

go to file -> export -> save for web (legacy)...

here are my export settings:

make sure to keep your gif under 10mb! if your file exceeds 10mb, you can't upload it to tumblr. you either have to cut some more frames or add compression to your gif (something i would never do, i always just cut frames)

additional tip: tagging

you have your gif! but how do you get people to actually look at it?

i always tag wrestlers* (full name, for both searchability and tag filtering purposes), promotions (initialisms like #aew over #all elite wrestling; if it's a more generic promotion name i.e. impact, go for #impact wrestling), tracked edit tags (#aewedit, #njpwedit; this not only helps source blogs find your posts and give them a bigger reach but it lets you browse other people's works). if you want to go the extra mile you can also include which event/video the gifset is from somewhere in your tags (if it's not already in the caption)

*even if you feel like it personally hurts you to tag that one wrestler you can't stand who happens to be in a match with your fave: do try tagging all wrestlers involved for ease of filtering, especially if you don't add image descriptions to your gifsets (tumblr's post content filtering system picks up on those)

general tumblr etiquette but don't cross-tag (i.e. tag a wwe gifset as #aew). no one likes cross-taggers. crossover events are exempt from this rule of course (forbidden door, multiverse united...)

additional tip: accessibility

don't use gradient text in your captions. screen readers can't read them!

if you can, include an image description. no matter how basic. this not only helps people with screen readers but the alt text of your gif is what's going to be displayed in case the gif isn't loading properly. here's a guide on how to caption gifsets by shangs

and you're done! all that's left to do is get silly with it. once you have the basics down you can virtually do anything. you can make those pretty graphics with blending. you can gif every single match of your fave in chronological order. sky's the limit

don't be discouraged if your gifs are not "perfect" from the get-go. this is a hobby just like any other hobby, and with time you'll get better at it. don't compare yourself to others and don't put your efforts down. only you can make the exact gifs you want to see

#aewedit #njpwedit #i spent all day on this... i hope it's at least a little bit helpful 🙏

[odusseus-xvi]

Some people have been asking why others are expecting a revolution when Forever is doing his best, and why parts of the fandom are so critical of Forever as a president. (not talking about haters who just don't like cc!Forever, and here I'll be talking most specifically about the french part of the fandom because it's the one I'm most familiar with)

There is an easy answer : He's president, and he wants to be one. This is a thing most french I know hate as an idea. And that was a criticism that was made to Forever during the election arc : He's too eager to be president. If you want to be president, to the french, there is a problem, and that's what the french part of the community liked about Baghera, BBH, and Etoiles' campaigns : They didn't want to be president : They either wanted to get rid of the position entirely, or didn't propose things as president (Etoiles wasn't saying "I will be a good president", he said "if I am president, it'll be easier to protect you guys", his role wouldn't change, he would just have more ressources to do so.) There is also the feeling that was already talked about when the election arc came around : Do we really need a president ? Most people would say no. So when this guy comes around, is elected and does things as president, he can do as much good things as he wants, a slight mistake that worsen the already hard life on the island will be seen as a result of having a president : If we didn't have a president, these problems wouldn't be here. And again, in addition to that the President says he wants to be it, he says he is finding solutions and wants to be a good president. Cool, the people still don't want of a president, so wanting to be one, is a mistake in itself.

Now I'm not saying it's justified or anything, BUT it was to clarify where those anti-president and pro-revolution feelings came from to those who would follow mostly Forever's pov and didn't get it.

#qsmp #qsmp forever #qsmp elections #qsmp baghera jones #qsmp baghera #qsmp badboyhalo #qsmp bbh #qsmp etoiles

[theaggressivewriter]

Pf2e Boss Monster Design

The tight math of Pf2e allows for encounters to be built swiftly and without worry, and the same goes for homebrew monster creation. One problem with the system, however, is the boss monster. Creatures with high level stats against a group of players can feel like a slog if the players are unable to reduce the creature's AC or saves enough for damage/cc to go through. It normally takes a lot of items and tactics for a normal group to take a creature down that's 4 levels higher than the party's level (or a +4 monster), and even creature's 3 levels higher (or +3) can still feel like a slog depending on their stat block. If you're designing a boss fight, consider this one trick I've learned over the past 2 years of GMing with the system:

Lie to your players.

For different systems this could mean a lot of things, DND 5e famously is known for its GMs secretly increasing the hp of a given monster behind the screens. But for Pf2e it's less a blatant lie and more of a performance. Rather than throwing a +4 or +5 monster, you could instead throw a +1 to +3 monster and accompany them with either other creatures or traps that you present to your players as that monsters abilities. Let's make an example.

Is your monster a fire breathing mutant bear that is killing other wildlife in the area?

(Art by Deftspex)

Easy. Let's make it an Elite Black Bear (making it L3), then add a Fire Mephit (L1) to the initiative, making the combat a Severe encounter for 4 level 1 players. What does this do, and how can we make this convey what we want?

Mechanically, the Black Bear acts as the base monster that the players can target and kill and the Fire Mephit acts on its own initiative, but what you do is tell your players that it's the bear doing what the Fire Mephit is doing. The bear is the one moving and its base health is the health your party is trying to take down to 0, but the "Fire Mephit" acts on its turn as if attached to the bear. It still takes damage if hit by an aoe, but must otherwise be specifically targeted by an attack rather than the Bear itself (you should give your players some sort of heads up or a description of something that can be targeted in order to remove the ability from initiative, like pointing out that breaking its jaws would remove them on a successful recall knowledge).

What this does is a multitude of things, your solo boss monster technically has more action economy without breaking the math, your players have more tactical choices to make between getting rid of the Bear's fire related abilities, and it should make your players shit their pants from seeing a fire breathing bear.

I have a lot of other tips and tricks for boss monster design for pf2e, due to my notorious one shots being considered "Dark Souls" by many approving players. I'd like to one day turn my knowledge into a published book alongside templates, some homebrew monster designs, and some variant rules, but due to legal concerns will need to wait until I have a lawyer to assist me in understanding what I'm getting into.

#adventure #fantasy setting #setting idea #writing #dark fantasy #dnd #fantasy #pathfinder #sci fi and fantasy #homebrew #ttrpg #dungeon master #monster

[autumnwhistles]

Introducing Last Life SMP: The Unofficial Musical

“There is an old, old tale to be told

Of green like the spruce, of crimson and gold.”

[Full song list and links under the cut]

NOTE: AUDITIONS ARE OPEN UNTIL NOV 20TH!!!! If you're interested, please check out the #auditions and #info tags for more information.

Those are the first lines sung (...kind of) in a musical adaption of the Last Life SMP I’ve decided to talk myself to write, for... some reason. Please note this is not an actual play and never will be (rights and crediting issues, for one thing, the CCs deserve to take credit for the storyline they’ve made), but I will record, put it together, and upload songs to Youtube in a playlist. Most of the plot is from Last Life itself, and is stated in the songs, so it should be easy enough to follow. There will also be the relevant plot in the description of each song.

My aim is to tell a coherent story through songs (which, because I can’t hold myself back, I’ve planned 45 of...), meaning that I can’t just jump perspectives continuously and chronicle events. This means that some of the CC’s characters are going to have a bigger role than others, though I do want to honour everyone involved, so I’d appreciate any ideas on doing this (especially for Tango and Skizz). However, so far:

It mainly follows Martyn (especially due to his lore, he had the easiest storyline to adapt into a narrative setting, and to me at least was the main character of that season), partially following Scott as the winner as well. They do foil each other quite well this season, which is a bonus – though I am going to be stretching this for the sake of Cohesion^TM.

Important events and important exposition are given to us by the Chorus, keeping the storyline in tact while shifting focuses (Joel going Red, for example). The Chorus are actually Watchers observing the events, which is hinted in the opening song (they sing a lot of references to Martyn’s Last Life teaser, for instance).

This means that Watchers and Listeners are technically canon (especially since we’re following Martyn’s lore), but the names aren’t going to be stated so things can be interpreted differently for people who don’t keep track of/aren’t fans of that. 

Memories of 3rd Life are also canon, as they are in the series.

This follows the headcanon (and out-of-universe truth) that 3rd Life took place in Spring and Last Life in Autumn, so if there are references to that in songs (which they are), that’s why.

Also, though I’ve tried to keep everything as faithful to the events of Last Life as possible (except one confrontation/song that doesn’t happen, to resolve various things), but I do tweak some minor chronological aspects (eg when alliances were established) and omit some things  again for cohesion, and also to help establish information early on.

Progress-wise first song is nearly finished, though I do still need to record it. I have pretty concrete ideas for others, and some I don’t really know yet, but hopefully they’ll be coming out at a steady, if slow, pace. I am somewhat a novice at music production (as in recording and putting tracks together) though, so help with that would be appreciated.

*if you’re not convinced, watch the start of his session 8 until 1:57, he canonically hallucinates his friends and this is due to a sinister entity only he can hear speaking to him and commanding him to follow it even somewhat despite his will, manipulated by promises of bringing back these dead friends. And all this is in his episodes. Main character behaviour, guys. Main character behaviour.

Full song list:

Part 1:

1. Overture/Middle of Nowhere: We’re introduced to the Last Life world by the Chorus as players spawn in. Martyn seems to hear something, but brushes it off.

2. Corners of the World: Through Martyn’s perspective we’re introduced to players and their alliances. He meets Scott and Pearl and chats to them for a while, before heading with them to spawn.

3. “Tales: Record 13″/”The Boogeyman”: At spawn, Grian narrates his experience with BDubs’ Boogeyman curse, and all around the map the players express what they’ve heard about the Boogeyman curse themselves.

4. “A(ha)lliances”: The Southlands ally, making a-ha jokes, and Pearl and Scott solidify their alliance via Pearl gifting Scott a life.

5. “The Table Song 1″: Now some time into the series, the Chorus updates us on the alliances that have formed: the Fairy Fort, Team BEST, Magical Mountain, Scott and Pearl, and the Southlands. It also chronicles the journey of the Enchanting Table, now in Magical Mountain, and the Southlands’ trip to enchant which ends with Scar’s Boogeyman kill.

6. “Our Will Be Done (Precursor 1)”: Martyn hears a mysterious voice speaking to him for the first time, telling him to give Ren some Nether Wart. He does so.

7. “Debts (potentially an instrumental)”: Martyn extinguishes Ren’s burning tower and Ren tells him of his alliance and pledge to Lizzie, reminding him of his time in 3rd Life.

8. “In Spring We Met”: After returning to the Southlands, Martyn thinks about the conflicting loyalties he feels between the Southlands and the remaining ties he feels to Ren, despite it being a new life. As he falls asleep, the voice whispers to him about betraying the Southlands and forming an alliance with Ren to suit its own goals.

9. “Green, Crimson, Gold”: Joel is now Red after an unlucky session, and news of a Red name spreads throughout the server.

10. “The Table Song 2″*: The journey of the Enchanting Table is further chronicled, coming into Scott and Pearl’s possession, who then sell it to Lizzie for a life each, putting Scott up to the same number of lives as Martyn, 4.

11. “Their Dubious Game”: Scott wonders about how trustworthy the rules of the game actually are, prompted by the forced isolation of Red names this time due to their nature contradicting his experiences in 3rd Life with Jimmy, while Martyn, breaching the border with the Southlands, hesitantly wonders the same thing. 

12. “Northern Lament”: Below Magical Mountain, Joel fumes at being distrusted by everyone and isolated purely due to his Red name. Above, Scar muses about being isolated and distrusted for the opposite reason, because of how many lives he has.

13. “A(ha)alliances (Reprise)”: Time passes, and Martyn grows closer to the Southlands. However, he’s still meeting up with Ren who offers to introduce him to Lizzie and the rest of the Fairy Fort, potentially considering a betrayal. The Voice prompts him to accept this, as they can be useful in its plan.

14. “unnamed Wither theme (Instrumental)”: Grian informs the Southlands that Scott and Pearl are in possession of a Wither Skull, expressing his desire to retrieve it. Martyn, Impulse and Mumbo go, Martyn however intending to eventually destroy it because of how unprepared everyone is for a Wither fight.

15. Unnamed Song: After they’re found out by Scott and Impulse and Mumbo flee, Scott informs Martyn that Grian also has a Wither Skull, Martyn immediately gives the skull back, and the two talk about their distrust of Grian and his desire to bring complete chaos to the server. However, that night (post-song) the Voice informs him that its goal is to watch the server burn.

16. “The Table Song 3″: The Chorus further chronicles the Enchanting Table’s journey, now in the Fairy Fort, where two members – Ren and BigB – are chosen as the Boogeyman. Team BEST visits and Bdubs gives a life to Lizzie in exchange, giving enchanting to everyone free of charge. Ren manages to kill a member of Team BEST, Skizz, but BigB has not gotten a kill yet, and the session is nearly over. He catches sight of his closest ally Cleo by the side of Ren’s pit trap.

17. “Green, Crimson, Gold (Reprise)”: Cleo, now Yellow, arrives at Scott and Pearl’s base informing them of BigB’s Boogeyman kill on her, wanting to cut TIES. Scott and Pearl accept (song intro). Meanwhile, Joel is getting desperate for allies, now hunting for Yellows to convert to Red with him. Hearing about Grian’s wither skull, he goes to the Nether, where Grian and Mumbo are building a Ghost farm, and shoots Grian off the edge, turning him Red. BDubs, fighting in the Nether, falls and turns Red too. When heading to Scott and Pearl’s base, a Yellow Cleo is killed by Joel’s trap. 

18. “Friends”: The Southlands are informed of Grian’s death, and, now Red, Grian is to be exiled from the Southlands. He desperately tries to kill Mumbo as Impulse and Jimmy arrive, asking if they can still be friends, while Scott and Pearl mourn the loss of a friendship with Cleo, and Martyn is introduced to the rest of the Shadow Alliance under the gaze of the Moon, giving Ren a life.

Part 2:

1. “Walls”: Grian has been exiled from the Southlands, the stone wall he built separating them. In the Snow Fort, Etho and BDubs build a wall to keep them separate until he can gain a life again. Cleo, wanting vengeance on BigB, meets Scott on the other side of his wall, Scott giving her some sugarcane. Post-song, Grian, Joel and Cleo express their desire to gain lives back from Scar. 

2. “Their Will”: Martyn relays the aims of the Voice, which he now interprets as the Moon, to the rest of the Shadow Alliance, who agree with it.

3. “Die For Me”: In a Shadow Alliance meeting, Martyn asks if there’s anything recent he should know about the Fairy Fort. They tell him the Fairy Fort has burned down at the hands of Cleo, relaying the tale as a flashback (with mainly Cleo singing). 

4. “Promises”/“Coal Mine”: Martyn chases Jimmy, who’s stolen his life in the Southlands life-passing ritual, spurred on by the Voice. He lies to Jimmy, telling him they can run away from the Southlands together if he gives him back his life. Jimmy expresses his worry about potentially being the first out again in the process, as this has happened before and he is very vulnerable as a Yellow, and agrees. Martyn runs back with his life straight after.

5. “The Table Song 4”: Since there are only three of them now, the three remaining Southlanders spend the day together, including sneaking around Team BEST’s snow fort looking for the Enchanting Table and finding a secret entrance. They are caught but let go due to some lies of Martyn’s about their aim, telling them he was simply looking for Ender Pearls.

6. “Unnamed Wither Theme (Song: Precursor)”: During the day, the Southlanders meet Scott, Martyn bringing up the danger of Grian’s Wither Skull as he’s now Red, and they decide to look for it. As Martyn is called away to a Shadow Alliance Meeting, Impulse manages to find it, and entrusts it to Scott. Scott gives it to the Fairy Fort for safekeeping.

7. Unnamed Song: Cleo, now Yellow again, visits Scott and officially joins their alliance. Scott expresses his desire to simply protect his allies and simply live a quiet life in these games, though violence is necessary as a means to this end as he knows the chaos that will ensue.

8. “Tales: The Wizard On The Mountain”: a Yellow Grian rejoins the Southlands, telling them (especially Martyn, as he did not know when this happened due to his absences) how he got a life back from Scar, who’s now Yellow himself. (And yes Grian gets songs where he’s relaying events to others instead of ones of them happening to him because he’s a Watcher hehe, he’s not involved in the action songs he watches)

9. “The Trial of Timmy”: The Southlands hold a trial for Jimmy about whether he should be exiled or stay in. They will anonymously vote their verdict in a book, Grian campaigning for Jimmy to leave, while the others, minus Martyn, campaign for him to stay. When it is time for them to vote, Martyn votes him in.

10. “Our Will Be Done (Precursor 2)”: The Voice is angry at Martyn, asking him why he’s still attached to the Southlands when he wishes to join the Shadow, appearing to him and telling him a demonstration is in order... “Lights extinguish/Begin the Slaughter/Our Will Be Done!”

11. “Unnamed Wither Theme (Instrumental 2)”: Grian manages to gather the three Wither Skulls he needs with the help of Impulse, who wants to stay loyal to his allies and feels regret for taking it with Scott. Martyn, though not active, does not try to stop him, and distracts Team BEST while the other two take it. 

12. “Red, Crimson, Gold (Reprise 2)”: As Grian is distracted by this aim, the other members of the South fall to boogeymen, of which there are six of this session, due to the Voice’s promise. Impulse falls to Yellow at Scott’s hands, and Mumbo and Jimmy both become Red, along with many other players on the server, including Lizzie and once more, Joel.

13. “Friends (Reprise)”: Returning to the Southlands after their mission, Grian, Martyn and Impulse find the South blown up by Mumbo: mourning the loss of the alliance, they mournfully burn the walls in commemoration. Grian and Martyn muse on each other’s untrustworthiness, Impulse remaining loyal to both, as the allyship between Scott, Pearl and Cleo strengthens. Far away, Etho, with Bdubs once again on the other side of the wall, discovers the missing Wither Skull, suspecting the Southlands.

14. Unnamed Song: Martyn and Grian, now the last two Southland members after Impulse is shot by Mumbo in the Nether and becomes Red, mentally comment about their distrust of the other person and about there being something off about them, Martyn due to the Voice’s seeming hatred of Grian and Grian’s apparent apathy to everything apart from causing bloodshed, Grian because he senses something around Martyn (Watcher powers heh) and his relative absence from the Southlands when they were still around, though he does express a wish to protect their last remaining threads of alliance. They express none of this aloud. 

15. “When Will You Learn?, Parts 1 and 2”: Heading back to the Southlands, Grian and Martyn meet Jimmy and Mumbo, who attack them. Grian kills them both, to Martyn’s shock, and shocked himself, tries to defend these actions. All of a sudden, the Voice appears again and a Boogeyman curse strikes Martyn. Prompted by the Voice (seeming to have a specific hatred of Grian) and by vengeance for Mumbo and Jimmy, Martyn immediately moves to kill Grian. He succeeds, but the kill is attributed to Joel, who has sniped him. Exhausted, Martyn managed to kill Tango. When called to another Shadow meeting, he returns to his empty Southlands tower instead.

16. “Unnamed Wither Song (Proper)”: The Wither is raised by Grian and Impulse in Team BEST’s base. Etho wants to run, but Bdubs attacks it, giving him the courage to attack too – however, Bdubs loses a life to it, turning Red once more. The remaining Greens and Yellows flock to fight it as the Reds join in, trying to kill the other players. The Wither is defeated by Etho; Impulse falls to Scott’s hand, dying permanently; Bdubs takes Lizzie’s final life as he was promised a life in exchange for killing a Red; he is shot by Grian as he runs to Etho to inform him of this.

17. Unnamed Song: In the aftermath, Etho mourns BDubs’ death, while Ren mourns his failure to protect his Shadow Queen, even if she was Red.

18. Unnamed Song (and the only one not following ‘canon’ events): With Impulse’s death as a catalyst, Martyn seeks out a Red Grian, proposing a temporary truce for him to explain what's going on. They confront each other about their various actions against the Southlands, and their apparent detachment from it, and talk about their suspicions that the other person knows more than they seem about the nature of the games – as the Voice tries to stop Martyn from inquiring further. Grian says he experiences this alongside his friends as a decision when prompted by Martyn stating he never cared in the first place. He wonders if Martyn would understand the situation due to his position; however, he does not know what Grian is talking about and distrusts him. Angry, Grian leaves, calling Martyn nothing but a follower. Angry, the voices swell around Martyn and he falls asleep.

19. “Our Will Be Done”: Waking up all alone, Martyn hallucinates his friends, before they are revealed as fake, the Voice in their places. He snaps at it, finally asking why they’re doing this. Why are they speaking to him? Why are they hell-bent on killing Grian? What did he mean? Why does he have to follow it when he wants to do the opposite of what they tell him? Who are they – why should he do anything they say? However, they pacify him, promising that if he does what they say, they will bring Impulse, Mumbo and Jimmy back. Martyn concedes.

20. “Scott’s Elegy”: Scott, cursed as the Boogeyman once more makes a decision to surrender himself to the curse instead, as he doesn’t want to kill any more allies with so few lives left in the game.

21. Unnamed Sad Martyn Song: Martyn thinks on Scott’s decision, thinking about what he’d once wanted, everything that’s now impossible as he’s pushed around by the Voices with not enough willpower to say no: he wishes to make choices but cannot, and thinks about Grian’s words. 

22. “Our Will Be Done (Reprise)”: In a meeting of the Greens and Yellows, the Voice tells Martyn to place an End Crystal in the centre as a test for Scott: if he blows it up, he passes, if he doesn’t, he fails. Scott chooses not to, and as Scott turns Red, the voices talking to Martyn become loud and angry, commanding him to kill Scott for disobeying them, yet again promising him the Southlands back if he does. While walking around, Martyn loses his first life to a trap at Grian’s hands.

23. “Boogie Boogie On The Dance Floor”: The Chorus informs us that it is the last day. Pearl is chosen as the Boogeyman, rigging a TNT trap on a disco floor, turning Ren’s red. The others quickly fall to the Reds, including Cleo.

24. “Martyn’s Stand”: Now left as the last Yellow, Martyn decides he is tired of hiding, deciding make a last stand against everyone. At first humming the start of “In Spring We Met” as a comfort, he heads to a mountain and pouring lava down the sides as a beacon for the Reds. However, though he puts up a good fight, he doesn’t manage to take any of them down before dying himself, marking the server entirely Red. 

25. “Battle Royale”: With the Reds having turned on each other, the four survivors – Pearl, Scott, Ren and Martyn – agree to a Battle Royale to decide the victor. Pearl dies early on, prompting Scott to grieve and resolve to win this fight, no matter what it takes. Martyn eventually falls to his own End Crystal. Only Scott and Ren are left, and they fight to the voices of dead players telling them to play the game. After a long fight, Scott manages to kill Ren, partially due to a zombie which he interprets as the world maybe doing something after all for his defiance. He is crowned the winner. However, the Voice does not like this, the Chorus supporting this, and Scott is stricken dead with heavenly lightning.

26. “Plainly Spoken [Epilogue]”: All is silence, and yet Martyn opens his eyes once more, to the Voice and the Chorus, now joined as they are the same entity, informing him how disappointed they are in him, and that he is heading closer and closer to the light. As he asks questions, he is cut off, and they say he will forget all that has happened with them as he and everyone else moves into the next game. Up above, the land is now in the state it was at the start of “Middle of Nowhere”, and they are revealed to be those that run the death loop. 

*This may be later excluded due to not adding much at the moment.

#last life smp #llsmp #trafficblr #the life series #last life: the (very unofficial) musical #martyn inthelittlewood #scott smajor #dangthatsalongname #smajor1995 #grian #<-- tagging due to narrative importance (i won't tag everyone don't worry) #3rd life smp #limited life smp

[ladyloveandjustice]

Spring 2023 Anime Overview: Yuri is my Job!

Premise: Hime Shiraki is a high schooler whose life goal is to be always cute and loved by everyone so she can achieve her dream of marrying a millionaire and living the easy life. Who cares if that means she has to lie and pretend? But then she’s roped into working at a café. The waitresses of the cafe playact as students from a fictional all girl’s school from a famous novel that focused on ‘romantic friendships’ between schoolgirls. (It’s a Class S yuri café basically. They put on a show that has the vibes and premise of Maria Watches Over Us for customers.)

Hime’s already great at acting, but she’s flummoxed by her co-worker Mitsuki. Mitsuki acts like a doting upperclassman when they’re in front of customers, but the second they’re off the clock, she’s harsh and cold to Hime. Hime is determined to make Mitsuki like her, but Mitsuki may be more than she appears…

At it's core, Yuri is My Job starts out seeming like a fun gay comedy boasting a cast full of quirky lesbians, but then reveals itself to be a complicated and fascinating examination of performance- as it intersects with queerness, girlhood, and the desire to be "likeable" and "cute," The girls at the cafe "perform" romantic friendships with each other- these friendships that they perform are uncomplicated, cute, and consumable to an audience. But the real relationships they have with each other are much less "safe" and much more complex, and the drama they deal with as real people often interferes with the "act".

Hime's entire life is about putting on a performance to seem likeable and acceptably cute to everyone, and she's terrified of seeing that performance fall to pieces. Mitsuki, in contrast, struggled as a child because she COULDN'T acceptably fake that "likeable" cuteness. She was too honest, too blunt and awkward, too "real". Most queer people know the stress of having to put on an act and hide your real self to be acceptable, and YIMJ explores this wonderfully with these characters.

It's not just Hime and Mitsuki,the rest of the cast struggles too. Kanoko is so invested in her role of "supportive best friend" and being the only one Hime drops the act around, she's also suppressing her real self and her real romantic feelings for Hime. As a result, she becomes possessive, jealous, and expresses her feelings in secretive, unhealthy ways. The irony is that she believes in order to access Hime's "real" self, she has to put on her own mask. She can't picture a life outside her role as pining best friend. The pining, obsessive (sometimes in just a mildly quirky way, sometimes not so much) lesbian best friend with an unrequited crush  is a well worn trope both in yuri and non-yuri anime-think Tomoyo from CCS- but YIMJ examines the trauma that comes with that and how suppressing a part of yourself to play a role might feed into that obsessive behavior.

Meanwhile. we have Sumika, who is VERY invested in the romantic friendships of the cafe, and had come to believe real romance is toxic and ruins the purity of those relationships. She panics when confronted with the reality of queerness and when she sees two coworkers enter a blatant queer relationship. Sumika's whole deal is maybe the most fascinating at all, and makes a lot of sense if you look at it as a critique of Class S, "pure" yuri, and the fucked up world of internalized lesbophobia.

In recent years, there's been more yuri critiquing the trappings of "Class S" yuri. Class S is yuri that straddles the line between 'friendship' and 'romance', typically taking place in an all-girl's school sealed off from the rest of society, with an either unspoken or spoken implication that the lesbianism is just a transient phase and all the girls will eventually renter the "real world" have to settle down and marry a man.

There's been some pushback against these ideas, obviously. Bloom into You, Run Away with me Girl and many other yuri examine how harmful  'just a phase' rhetoric is towards lesbians. Flip Flappers famously had the episode where the girls were caught in a creepy Class S school that led them on an endless cycle where nothing ever changed and the days were horribly repetitive. Yurikuma Arashi also gave it's (somewhat muddled) critique of Class S. And it's impossible to fully analyze Yuri is my Job without seeing the skillful critique of Class S that's woven into the narrative.

The trappings of class S aren't confined into the world of manga- the idea that lesbianism is just a phase, that girls expressing real romantic or sexual desire toward each other is toxic and sullies the purity of sisterhood, that it's okay to be a LITTLE gay with your gal pals but you can't cross that line!!!- all of that is part of the stigma real queer women struggle with and sometimes internalize.  So when we consider Sumika''s terror of actual "romance" invading the cafe and ruining the sisterhood, her ideas that romance must be toxic, her belief that the cafe is this safe space sealed off from the rest of the world where girls can be a little bit queer, but they musn't let the actual problems and messy realities of romance invade- it's not just a Class S critique, it's about a mindset most queer women are familiar with and have to struggle to unlearn. And seeing Sumika grapple with this makes her a very real and wonderfully realized character. And the manga will only continue to go further with those themes.

But Yuri is my Job doesn't just work as a nuanced examination of queerness- it's also a well told drama full of wonderfully fraught relationships. It's fun to see the growing romances and the sweet connections growing between the characters, as complicated as they are. The backstory reveal that explains the tension between Mitsuki and Hime is top tier drama and relationship writing, and there's also a good dose of comedy to keep viewers entertained. Watching this web of relationships become even more tangled, and discovering the baggage all the girls carry is a good (and sometime heartbreaking) time. They're well-done characters. If you enjoy fucked up girls and don't mind a touch of soapy melodrama, you're in for a treat. These girls are a MESS, but a fascinating one.

I should note that it's also very easy to read these characters as neurodivergent- Hime having to craft a "facade" just to socialize regularly, while Mitsuki very obviously struggles with social cues- well, Vrai wrote a whole article on this with their article What role are you playing? Communication, queerness and nerodivergence in Yuri is My Job, so I'll leave that to them.

Yes, Yuri is My Job has all this amazing nuance...and there's a half an episode where Mitsuki's boobs bounce a bunch. It contains multitudes. The episode does touch on both Hime's obvious fascination with what Mitsuki's packin' and the struggle big chested women face when just wearing normal clothes is seen a "lewd"- but YMMV on how it's resolved. They definitely centered Mitsuki's pain (and Hime's thirst), but also mined it for mild comedic fanservice, and the ending is more "we found a good compromise" than the pure "fuck people for sexualizing you in a normal outfit because you have big boobs, wear whatever you want" message that people might want.

I also saw a lot of people get frustrated with how hard everyone is on Hime in the early episodes when she's new to the job- this pretty much stops after episode 3 and the attitude toward her is fully explained, so please give this four episode watch to fully see if this show is for you. (But of course, if you don't like to see girls sometimes expressing attraction in suppressed, unhealthy ways (eSPECIALLY Kanoko), no matter how it's ultimately examined thematically, this isn't the show for you.)

Overall, the YIMJ anime was a faithful adaptation of a wonderful manga- unfortunately, I worry that we'll never get the season two that gives us some of the best moments of the story so far. But hopefully seeing it will inspire you to check out the manga and see how hard this story can go! It's definitely a special one, and I really recommend it.

#yuri is my job #yuri is my job! #watashi no yuri wa oshigoto desu! #watayuri #watashi no yuri wa oshigoto desu #spring 2023 anime #anime overview #my reviews #yuri #anime

[kukkakisu]

My baby boy finally has a reference... Oughh took me a very long time but here he is. Copycat my beloved. My favorite little creature. As always more deets below.

Forgot to write it down in the ref itself, but CC is about 5'3-5'4. Appears a lot shorter since he's usually slouched or crouching down. Has a very bad balance and is not good at piloting the body so to speak, which is the reason for his wobbly and janky movement. While he isn't that good at moving around quickly or with grace, he is excellent at mimicking sounds. He can repeat anything he hears and copy it exactly how it sounded. This includes all kinds of sounds from humans to monsters to random things like the jester's music box or something falling on the floor. Though repeating things is easy, speaking sentences is not. CC often has to use multiple different voices to form a sentence he wants to say, and especially during his first few months didn't even understand most of the things he was repeating. He loves to mirror what others say back at them, with their own voice. Which can obviously lead to many awkward or even unintentionally unnerving situations. While he can't fully speak with his host's voice, he does still use it to make sounds and blabber about incoherently in an attempt to communicate sometimes. And boy does he have a lot to say! He isn't aggressive by nature but will get defensive if his items are touched or taken away from him. Despite trying to seem tough, the little masked is quite bad at actually fighting anything or anyone. He will likely start wailing and hold onto his mask tightly in an attempt to keep it safe. If anyone attempts to take it away, they will see what is underneath it. The tendrils will grab onto the mask and lash out at anything in near vicinity in an attempt to get it back on his face. Otherwise, they remain still and inactive under the mask. When distressed, they start to move about under it and Copycat can feel it. He's "adopted" both by the human medic Nathaniel and the Bracken Naava that dwells on Rend. While he isn't a child, he's still very much in a position where he needs a lot of support to survive and feels happy to have so many friends he can rely on. He's still trying to understand what it means to be masked, and what it means to be human. CC feels like he is a bit of both, even if his host is no longer alive. Thanks to his human guardian, his body doesn't decay like it usually would either so he has a lot more time to ponder his place in this world. Constantly learning and exploring, Copycat will keep going as long as he can-- even if his never-ending curiosity and eagerness do sometimes get him in trouble.

#lethal company #lethal company oc #masked oc #lethal company masked #kisudraws #ocstuff #been working on these refs like crazy in the past week or so #CC was my very first lc oc and I love him dearly #he's a baby tm and deserves to be held and loved #be nice to him! <3

[spinebuster]

It's been requested so here it is: my gif tutorial! I hope to make this very simple as I've made gif making very simple for myself with the help of .atn made by myself and others. More under the cut!

First, what you'll need.

Photoshop (here's a link to a masterlist of free photoshop resources from birdysources)

KMPlayer, to get your screencaps.

These PS actions. (My gifmaking one, and this sharpening action from insomniacgifs.)

Some understanding of how to color gifs (I'll be linking my psd shown here, as well as including the process of making one.)

Next, how to get the videos that you want to gif.

I personally source my videos from Youtube, Twitter, and streaming services. (Firefox browser is your best friend, as it doesn't black out the screen that some services have.) If a Youtube Video Downloader isn't working, or if I'm capturing my own footage, I use the Xbox Game Bar's recording feature (windows + alt + r) to capture footage. There's also applications like OBS Studio. For Twitter, I use twittervideodownloader.com

Now, making the gif.

I use Photoshop CC 2018, but any PS with a timeline will work. But first, we gotta take our screencaps. Open your video in KMPlayer, and press alt+v. This will open up this second screen

These are my settings, with an easily accessible folder that I save my frames to. Find the scene you want to clip, and hit start & play your video, then stop when you have the frames you want.

Next up we're going to open up Photoshop. I changed my keyboard shortcuts so all I've got to do is hit ctrl+alt+o, but for you guys, you gotta go to File -> Scripts -> Load Files Into Stack

Select your screencaps of the scene you want to gif. Now that Tumblr allows gifs up to 10MB, the amount of caps you want is totally up to you. I stick to around 45-50, but sometimes there's a scene I need that's up to 150+ caps, and it still fits under the size limit. It all depends on the dimensions and coloring of your gif. I'm loading up 51 frames as the sharpening .atn deletes the final frame of your gif once it reverts back to frames, so I'll have an even 50 framed gif.

Your PS should look like this. Here comes the gif making itself. You want to hit Create Frame Animation at the bottom, where your timeline is. If your timeline isn't already open, click your Window tab up top, and find timeline in the dropdown.

After you hit Create Frame Animation, you want to Make Frames From Layers, which you'll find when you click the three lines on your timeline.

Then, reverse your frames.

Finally, Select All Frames, click the arrow on the frames, and change the frame delay to .06 seconds.

Way to go! You've made a gif! Now, if you're like me, you'll get tired of having to do that over & over when making a gifset. So, I recorded and uploaded an .atn, which means all you gotta do is load up your frames, hit play on the .atn, and your gif is good to go. I'll link it again so you don't have to lose your place in the tutorial.

So you've made your gif, now what? Now we crop, sharpen, color, and save for the web. Let's get to it.

Tumblr dimensions can be tricky, but they're easy to remember. (I even made a little graphic for it!)

For my tutorial, my Jamie gif will be 268 x 268 :)

Here is my unsharpened, unedited gif of Jamie Hayter. I believe this clip was snagged from YouTube, but it's been awhile since I saved it. I use insomniacgifs' gif sharpening atn, as I hate manually sharpening gifs. So let us run that real quick. (I'll be using the Strong option. Don't forget to delete the final frame.)

Onto coloring! The example I whipped up for this tutorial is super simple, so let's go!

I typically edit the curves first. I'm not sure why, just something I picked up from my photo journalism class back in HS.

Next, I add a little brightness. (+10)

Then, I mess with Selective Color, just a bit. (Neutrals, Black +10. Blacks, Black +5.)

Now, I don't know exactly what Channel Mixer does, but it's fun. Here's my settings.

Some Saturation (+5)

And lastly, I edit the Color Balance!

Aaaaand here's my final product! I also uploaded this as a PSD for you to save and use yourself!

Once your gif is all done, we need to save it properly. File -> Export -> Save for Web (Legacy). Here are my settings.

Note: Make sure your looping options is set to forever so your gif doesn't loop once and freeze!

And that's it! I hope this helped, and if you have any questions, my ask box is open!

#tutorial #gif tutorial #photoshop tutorial #wweedit #wrestlingedit #aewedit #*tutorial #keyara.gif #she's here!! #long post

[nightospheresims]

hey im not a cc creator and i saw your most recent post, is that why its so hard to find good textured sims 3 hair? im always on the look out but i can only seem to find dead links and the same like 5 hairs being retextured, i didnt know there was a actual reason why its hard to get ones from 4 into 3!!

Ik i was wondering that too! It wasn't until i tried converting some myself till I realized.

Let's take the penisha ponytails by sheabuttyr as an an example. Here's how the hair is supposed to look:

(beautiful, gorgeous, legendary,, iconic, my heart was ripped to shreds when i found out i couldn't convert it)

and here's how it looks when you take it into blender:

...yeah.

What the creator did here was they drew the baby hairs and hairline directly on the scalp itself (this doesn't show up in blender). That's a problem for us converters, because here is what the sims 4 scalp texture looks like compared to the sims 3:

As you can see, the sims 4 scalp is more of a front view of the hair, while the sims 3 scalp is a back view of the hair. So unless you re-draw the texture yourself, it's nigh impossible to get it to the sims 3.

What sims 3 converters are really looking for are hairs that draw on a transparent layer on top of the scalp, like this (transparency in sims 4 studio's blender template shows up as this beige color):

This makes converting it super easy (you just have to turn off "draws on scalp" in TSRW to get it to show up).

However with maxis match hairs you can also run in to another problem. Let's take this one for example:

As you can see, this hair is split into a bunch of tiny irregular pieces, which as you can imagine is a pain in the ass to color map.

So yeah, that's part of the reason why a lot of people can't convert natural hair to the sims 3. A lot of these creators don't create with converters in mind, which is totally fine since they don't owe it to anyone and they can create things however they like. just a pain for those of us who play ts3 lol.

#ask #ts3 help

[majaloveschris]

I don't believe there was a MA wedding on the 9th, but imo too much is being made about the weather. It rained off and on (sometimes heavily) throughout that weekend here in the Concord area, but it was not a hurricane. If they had an at-home event as originally reported by Page Six, then they likely had an event tent set up in the yard; some tents can withstand severe inclement weather. Granted, they would have been taking a chance because it would have been a problem had there been high winds or lightening, but many people plan outdoor events and have to deal with the same possible weather challenges. I would not plan an event such as a wedding this way, but it is not impossible.

A few other things:

-IF they married in a town on Cape Cod, then they didn't do it on the Sept 9th. CE was spotted in Concord that morning and in Sudbury that afternoon. Given it would take a few hours to get to the Cape (particularly with heavy traffic of beach-goers on what was a hot weekend), it is impossible for him to have married on the Cape that day regardless of whether the party was there or back in Boston. Plus you have the celebrities who allegedly were back at the Boston hotel by midnight and out of town guests staying at CE's Concord house who were still at the house on the afternoon of the 9th and on the 10th.

-There was a sighting posted on a Sept 9th from someone claiming to have seen a tent set up after riding by his house. While part of the Concord house can be seen from the main road, the yard cannot. The Carlisle house is in a totally secluded area. If someone actually saw a tent at either location, it would have had to have been seen by someone affiliated with the wedding itself. Also, the Concord house is close enough to other homes that neighbors likely would have seen/heard things.

-It would be a challenge for anyone looking for a MA marriage certificate to find it. Per MA law, an officiant has 60 days from requesting a license to return the signed document to the registrar. In addition, MA law allows one to apply for a license in any MA city/town and then get married anywhere in the state. IF there was a lega marriage, they did not necessarily apply for the license in Concord or Carlisle even if that is where they ended up getting married. In order to obtain a copy of a MA marriage certificate, one needs to know in which city/town the paperwork was filed. Again, I don't think they legally married in MA, but it would be easy for them to try to hide the paperwork.

Yeah, it's not impossible, and maybe it wouldn't even be that weird if there weren't other things that didn't really make sense about this whole thing.

This whole Cape Cod thing didn't really make any sense to me. You know that I don't believe people without any actual proof, so like a picture where you can visibly see his face or where you can clearly recognize it's him. But even if I don't consider people seeing him in C and S, it still doesn't make any sense. Page Six was the one reporting the whole thing and didn't even mention Cape Cod. Now we can obviously question whether P6 just ran with the rumors or got the information somewhere. They are running with the marriage thing, so I'd say they got the information, probably from their or her team. I'd say they made the story up on the go; it didn't seem like they had one in mind, and since then there wouldn't have been several articles about adding and correcting details. I still find it really unbelievable that they went to have a ceremony in Cape Cod but then went back to C to party. Why? Why couldn't they just have a ceremony at home? It would definitely reduce the possibility of people seeing them there since they want to keep this whole relationship so private. Or why couldn't they have the party on Cape Cod? Why would they and all of their guests drive from CC to MA for like 2 hours just to have a party when they could've had both things at the same place? And do you want me to believe that nobody saw them in CC? Not a single person? So nobody saw Chris, any other Avengers, or any other celebrities there? Not a single person. Nobody saw them. This sounds pretty unbelievable to me.

I could say the same thing about the MA party. Nobody saw or witnessed anything. And as you said, they can't see his backyard from the streets, so yeah. However, there is a road going from the main road that goes to his and the other houses there. I think you can drive there if you want, and from that road, you can see his backyard, but I still doubt every single person in Concord who witnessed, saw, or heard anything is so nice that they wouldn't have sent something to DM, tweeted something, or taken a picture. This was the only person who said something, so it's weird to me and a bit suspicious.

And don't even talk about the license.

#majaloveschris #chris and alba wedding #cevans-love

[everycorner]

ruminating about the bovinecorps families who lived twelve years from now. tradcow parents with pastoral visions of permanently swollen breasts and dicks, ubiquitous food, and skin effortlessly tough and coated so that the rain rolls off easy as the nails from their withdrawing fingers. in a grand sequence of prolapses, new compartments are birthed from their stomachs into their stomachs, like a ziptie pulled through itself. when the transformation is fully underway they catch trains and ferries and flights booked months in advance, on their ways to leased shrubland to live pristine.

it’s the 14:15 and you see green and white countryside through the glass, never approaching or receding, just gliding parallel to you in the opposite direction, and you know one is sat in your carriage from the rasping – their tongues come in vast and hard, blocking their tracheas, which rarely dilate at the same pace. the green of the vista dulls as the cone cells in their retinas are decimated. for them the hues of endless sunset descend: yellow, orange, red. half as many stars fill their sky, each blueshifting speck erased so that every remaining pinprick of pink-tinted light seems only to be approaching.

when they arrive they can’t understand each other’s lowing, only their own. necks stiff and perpendicular with residual humanity, they don’t inhale the urine of dumbcows. they charge the herds until they’re elsewhere. months in and they still stand in uncertain clusters with their family units, confused purecalves moving back and forth from their parents’ knees as though attached by rubber bands. and ulcerous holes soon bore into all their fresh brains because so many of them lie swollen and rotting in the alluring sweetwater rivers. before the corpses’ sturdy limbs erode, they splay outward in resolved salutes. when the sun sinks towards the hills, shadows are cast by their protruding legs and mercifully conceal their fly-infested eyes. in their expression the eyes still look human, though you don't see them below the thick, thick lashes that do nothing now to stop the insects.

[Minotaur statue adapted from photograph by George E. Koronaios CC BY-SA 4.0]

#got a prestigious Taco Bell Quarterly rejection today so this can go up here now #🩸

[set-in-eternity]

I'm noticing something VERY interesting [maybe only to me] about SJ/M's latest release, both from an author/personal standpoint and a reader/book standpoint. [saying this as someone who has followed her, and her work, for at least a decade now]

the anticipation for CC/3 is huge. her fans are frothing at the bit now that the ACO/TAR world has collided with it. everyone wants THEIR ship to sail, everyone wants to see the culmination of their theories unfold.

BUT throughout all of this, in the space between the books, people have been getting upset at her, too. the latest issue has been about fans coming to notice how much money blooms/bury is asking people to pay to see sj/m for for each live event, in addition to the purchase of a book.

this is also riding on the coattails of a larger discussion, seen all over publishing, about how there are 5 [more?] special editions with separate bonus material across several stores, and fans are BIG MAD about that.

so people want the book, but they're upset at the way the publisher is handling the release, and sj/m has been DISTANT herself for years.

on a personal standpoint, which i'm tempted to connect to the reader standpoint: she's MUCH more visible now than she's been in years.

suddenly, within the last 2 months, she's been posting more. teasers, to be fair, for a new release, so not surprising, but that's [i think] her trying to calm the crowd a bit.

midnight release parties? interviews? willfully interacting with fans? yes and yes and yes.

early release material on her website? yes.

people are connecting her current career trajectory with that of smey/er and twi/light because sj/m is so big now and has so much attention and hype.

i agree, but i don't think they're right in how.

it's only been, what? two days? three? people WHO ACTUALLY LIKE HER are already not so happy about what she produced. it's early, but i'm tempted to think it's getting something like break/ing da/wn attention. people who genuinely love her are calling this book sloppy. rushed. they're saying that everything in it is too easy.

i don't think sj/m's going to ride this high forever. i think she's doing some PR for more than just the book.

i also don't think she's going to flop as quickly, and as badly, as smey-er did. smey/er hadn't faced much criticism before, which she'd admitted as much at the time. sj/m has, which is why she distanced herself. where smey/er shot pretty much straight up from where she started, and then totally fumbled once she reached such heights, sj/m has fumbled before, but despite distancing herself, she's still popular, it's not yet totally in vogue to tear her down, if only because her online fan base has given her so much clout [deserved or not].

I don't see this as being the mess that smey/er faced. i think sj/m will hang on for longer, but based on the reactions to the book itself that i'm seeing, i don't think people will let her get away with as much. if she doesn't address the glaring issues the antis have pointed out, she's facing a healthy decline going forward.

ETA: i think a lot of why she's doing the interviews - on daytime TV no less, this is highly unusual for her - is because her numbers [how much fans are buying from her] are down, which is reflected in how upset the fans were about the 5+ special editions across 5 stores with 5 separate but RELEVANT TO THE STORY bonus chapters that blooms/bury wanted them to fight over.

i think sj/m is being told to appeal harder to the adult/middle aged market. she was the "queen of YA" for years, but her books are being challenged in schools and libraries, people online were furious about the highly adult book box that went around with references and/or links back to sj/m's work [and the book box was supposed to be geared towards younger readers? i think? which again, upset a lot of people because sj/m's work has intimate scenes that not everyone agrees on YA readers reading].

so blooms/bury put a fresh set of "older fantasy" and discreet covers on sj/m's books to get some fresh, not-YA eyes on them, she's going on talk shows to say "hey, i write books for adults who like spice," and they're going to push harder for the crowd with slightly more money [not really, but they need to sell books] who won't be totally offended by the spice, and who may not know about her.

the one issue i see right up front is: they DON'T always know about her. their KIDS might, but middle aged/older readers aren't necessarily the same rabid fanbase making tiktoks online that she currently has. her readers are AGING, for sure, and she's having to keep up with that fact, but we know for sure that Millenials and Gen Z aren't exactly rolling in money right now. so she's relying on the Gen X+ crowds to be as hungry for spice and fantasy mixes as the younger ones were...back when they could afford them.

this might pan out in her favor, but i don't see gen x and the older people lining up for midnight book releases. they might watch the show, depending on how well it's done, or they might decide the books are too young for them as older readers who lean more heavily towards GRRM's work. again, this may well be the start of sj/m's decline, but we'll have to see how much traction she gets with the older crowd AND if that reflects in future print runs - does the publisher do more special editions? do they demand twice the price for live events? or do things start to look more reasonable?

ETA 2: the obvious similarity between sj/m's career and smey/er's [besides having a huge fanbase, made mostly of female-identifying people, who want and enjoy romance] is also that sj/m has been in talks for an adaptation of her work, like smey/er got, which could definitely bring in new readers, not sure how i missed that in the rest of the post.

#publishing #thoughts #anti sjm #anti sarah j maas #anti acotar #anti tog #anti cc #anti crescent city #anti throne of glass #anti smeyer

[gg-selvish]

recovering from parasocialism, the ideal of a faceless man, and a heaping tablespoon of comphet within lesbianism

my name is tender, and i'm a multishipper who writes self-indulgence. as of december 31st i will have been posting fic for dteam-adjacent for three years with very few breaks, and a lot has happened in that time. i've been harassed and cancelled multiple times, chased into priv twitter, and now my last remaining public account is starting to get swarmed over something recent that i believe is a pretty simple misunderstanding that i would like to clear up. i've been alluding to it vaguely and it's partially my fault because my word choice implied things about the timeline that lead people to draw negative conclusions about me. but we're gonna fix that now.

dream is my least favourite member of dtk, but in the beginning he was my #1 favourite. i went corpse -> dream -> dnf -> george -> knf for my favourite ccs and i feel like it's pretty normal for stuff like that to switch around, but the way dream and i were previously attached and the way that attachment broke was pretty interesting but i also don't think it was that unfathomable. and firstly, for people who won't extend this post: it had nothing to do with the drituation. i say 'about a year ago / over a year ago' and people's minds go to the drituation / drexit but it wasn't that for me that broke my parasocialism to dream, it was the face reveal itself.

i am a lesbian and i've been a lesbian for a long time. i also love mlm content as evidenced by the fic i read and write and that's also always been an aspect of my life to the point where in my formative years i identified as an mlm trans man because i didn't want to get called a fujoshi. but i don't like men and i know that now. however, i have a nasty, nasty case of comphet. unattainable men to me are a safe and comfortable way to explore attachment to men because in my life i've never really had a positive experience of being friends with or dating a man. early dtk was like a pipedream to me and i think that's why i got so deep into it. discord podcasts and alt streams felt like private calls with friends and they were men in a distant and safe way so i was excited to feel apart of that (partially due to my own genderfuckery and gender envy but that's not what this about).

dream especially. it was dangerously easy to get into dream in 2020/2021 because he was so equally parasocial it fed into a relationship that felt like equivalent exchange and i got deep in it. self-ship daydreams and fantasies i turned into fic and basically dating this idealized faceless man in my head for a year and a half or some shit because he made me feel so safe and comfortable the way he makes a lot of people feel.

but i was scared of the face reveal always. when it comes to me developping comphet attachment i usually am introduced to the man as himself, and determine whether i like him or not and then either cling or drop. like george was genetically engineered in a lab for me to fixate on, same with karl, but dream in his faceless and parasocial era was another fucking level. and i fucking dreaded the face reveal because i knew the second i saw his face the magic would break and i would realize he's a man and that would make me uncomfortable.

dream has said before that 'dream' the persona can be gender neutral, any gender, anyone, and i really believe that. faceless dream was this magical and perfect person who i really loved deeply and found so much comfort in. and with the other male ccs it was easy to remind myself 'be careful, these are men', but dream didn't feel like a man, he felt like a soft voice who was there for me and a character i enjoyed exploring in fic.

the way i got into this fandom was also different, i was never in it for the content. i wasn't really watching streams or vods, i got into it via a heat waves tiktok, binged fic, and lived off of clips, youtube videos, highlight reals, and fan content. that's just how i approach most fandom spaces. hell, when i was into voltron i watched the first 3 seasons, got bored, and read a shitton of klance fic with my scraps of lore and was perfectly content. i have never indulged in fandom including rpf fandom for the people creating the source, i love the fan content and the easy to digest stuff. i don't really watch movies or tv shows, i read books or write stories or watch longer youtube videos.

so we're building up to the face reveal. everyone's so hyped and i'm excited too but i'm also bracing myself because i know my heart's gonna break and it's out of everyone's control and i just didn't talk about it because it was weird and might kill the vibe. the face reveal happened. i saw him. i processed him in my head as 'this man is dream', and my heart broke a bit.

dream has always been handsome, he's still kind and smart and the least funny of his friends. nothing about him changed besides my perception of him. but that's the point i'm trying to make with this: parasocial relationships can snap like a twig in a very one-sided way. but in this case it was a bit equal again just like our dynamic before. because as i was recovering from the face reveal and meetup vlog and sad about this 'break up' i was going through that was so stupid in my head (i literally looped a taylor swift song about it it was a break up.) the drituation hit and i was really turned around. my deep love for dream was gone already, i just had lingering fondness and empathy, and then the allegations scared me really badly. i absorbed the evidence and believed dream was likely innocent but i decided that between my loss of parasocial attachment and this new grey-area of morality i was just going to distance myself. not to mention by this time it was late 2022 and i had been harrassed and cancelled by dream stans more times than i can remember so i was pretty comfortable moving away from dream.

then he made himself smaller, and wasn't really around much. it was easy to get over a lot of the parasocial feelings because he didn't really give it back anymore, so then the interest just wasn't there. and there was so much constant negativity i just didn't want to be involved. but even after all of this and wasn't really into him as a content creator i have never stopped having empathy for him. dream is a human being and i think both stans and antis forget that because i've always been displeased with what i've seen on both sides and aligned myself with neutrality. but the internet doesn't really seem to allow for that, so antis think i'm a stan and stans think i'm an anti. and most people just hate me in general. do you see why it's hard for me to be here? and it's not anything dream has done so i don't hold anything against him. we just broke up. i've never said 'i hate dream' or even really 'i don't like dream' i just don't really care about his content anymore and that's, like, super normal.

but why do i write about him? well, as i prefaced this and as is in my pinned post, i don't write fanfiction the way other people do. i write self-indulgence that's chock full of projection and weird niche stuff and heavy themes. and most people don't like my fic, but the readers i have love it and give me a lot of positive feedback, so with my passion for the hobby of writing, my familiarity with the dnkn dynamics i have established in my 'cinematic universe', and positive feedback for creating only art i want to create instead of clinging to realism and making sure no one's feelings are hurt, i just make art that makes me happy. sure, if i need a bad guy it's been dream a lot, but it's also been george and karl. my comment about doing him dirty in fic was fucking. starting hush hush with a dnf break up and having knf fuck in his bed in a college au. it was so not that serious and it bothers me people assumed i was writing harmful content to take out some weird hateboner on a guy i used to love. that's not me, dude, i'm 26 years old. if i don't like someone it's easy for me to drop them. when supermega was outted as shittheads i dropped them after being a fan for years, it is a perfectly viable option for me and i didn't deem it necessary for this case.

in the end, i'm not exactly sure why people are so angry dream's my #4. he's still there, just lower on the tier list. i didn't get shit when i actively disliked sapnap in the early days, but now that i'm neutral on dream it's the end of the world? and to resolve this i'm getting harassed more by dream stans insulting my new #1? in what world would that get me to do what u want, be it liking dream or disliking karl, or not longer writing. i'll reiterate again: i am 26 and write self-indulgence for myself and my readers. i've done this for a long time and i'd really like to continue if that's okay. if you think i'm dragging dream's character through the mud and beating him with a baseball bat in my fic i really encourage you to look at the fic i've written about dream. even when i lost interest in him my fondness and empathy has always been there. i've written a lot of really lovely things about dream recently, and even when i put him through hardships it was just a story, there was no ill intent towards the real person.

and most of all: dream doesn't care how i feel about him, why do you?

#don't piss me off on a website with no character limit #thonking #txt #drituation mention //