#people usually do Patreon for this kind of stuff

[grimrester]

i am really so sorry to continue harping on about the watcher entertainment streaming service. but this kind of stuff (internet content as a business & marketing it as such) is truly my obsession, and i think i will implode if i don't talk about some of the takes i'm seeing.

i'd like to emphasize again i don't have strong feelings about watcher either way. i like ghost files, i watch mystery files sometimes, i watched worth it back in the buzzfeed days. i don't watch any of their shows religiously.

anyway, here's the main things i keep seeing crop up and my thoughts on each:

"watcher has 25 employees they have to pay, and employing people in this economy is good, so we should be banding together to pay them."

employing people is good if you currently have the capacity to pay them. i checked watcher's linkedin page, and many of their employees were hired within the last year or two. if they hired people they cannot pay with the business model they had before, something is seriously wrong with their internal bookkeeping/decision making. it means they either didn't know they couldn't pay these people long term, or they did know and were content with risking newly hired employees' livelihoods on a huge content pivot in the next year.

of note is that none of their employees' titles have anything to do with managing the finances of the company. they are the size of a small business but have no one aside from the figureheads of the company in charge of their finances.

this is the kind of company decision making that leads to downsizing and layoffs, which can be devastating. but you know what's worse than laying off a portion of your staff? laying off everyone because your business is going under.

"not everyone can afford the subscription, but those who can should pay it to support the watcher team."

no. $6/month for a couple hours of content (depending on what shows you actively watch and the natural fluctuation of their release schedule) is a fundamentally bad value. i can pay that much for a few movies on amazon. i can pay that much for dropout, if i want to support a smaller business instead.

and to be totally frank, even if people do sign up, i don't think they'd get enough to compete with the amount they get through patreon/sponsorships. and the fact that they didn't know how many of their subscribers would realistically sign up is a bad sign.

a pretty good conversion rate of free to paid subscribers of a service or content is 3% (usually accomplished through a free trial). given the very poor reception of the announcement, let's say about 1% of their 3 mil youtube subs pay for their service. that's 30k people paying for their new platform. that's $180k a month in their pocket.

(they currently only have 12k subs on patreon so we are being generous here.)

a sponsorship deal (based on my googling, i have less direct experience with this) is anywhere from $10-50 per 1000 views. they've gotten about 1 mil views on their last few videos. 3 mil subs is nothing to shake a stick at, but let's say they're on the lower end of the payscale at $25 per 1000 views. that's $25k a video, $100k a month if they release 1 video a week. their lowest patreon tier is 5 bucks, so even if all their subs are at that tier, that's another $60k, so $160k total. it's entirely likely they're bringing in much more than that when you factor in merch, adsence, etc.

did anyone on their team crunch numbers on how many people would need to sub to make the switch worth it? did anyone do market research on how many people they could convert to paid users? because if not, if they really didn't have a game plan for this, the subscription service was always doomed to fail.

"this was their only option to continue making the content they want to make, with the production value they want."

i watched their announcement video. a key point in that video is that they have done sponsored videos and that's what used to pay for their content, but they did not like the amount of creative control the sponsor had over the content.

look, i get that's no fun. we'd all love creatives to be able to make whatever they want. but when you are a small business with a team of employees relying on you, you have to think about making money, sometimes at the cost of creative liberties.

and they had so many other options to make money for the projects they want to make without jumping to a subscription platform.

they could have started actually promoting their patreon, and maybe done some restructuring of the tiers. why not a highly produced, special series just for patreon members? or a special high-budget episode of each series, while the main series is lower budget?

bite the bullet and continue taking sponsorship deals on some less-produced shows, while axing sponsorships from the ones the crew feels more passionate about.

schedule larger, blowout-production shows only when they can be afforded. this is what Notorious Amongus Guy streamer jerma does. he saves up for big productions like his baseball or dollhouse streams, so he can really get creative with them.

they had other options and they've tried very little, especially when you compare them to other content house business at similar scales. try guys and good mythical morning both put out significant content with significant staff, and have had to diversify their income streams with auxiliary products, shows with widely varied levels of production, etc. but it seems to be working for them. watcher has merch and that's about it, and seems to only want to increase the production quality of ALL their shows.

really, all this just boils down to a terrible business decision. it's hard to say if the watcher team is working with a consultant or anyone outside of their team, but they certainly don't have anyone internally who is experienced with running a business like this. to me, it seems very much like they got in a room together and did some extremely optimistic income ballparking with no research behind it.

and that might have been fine for three dudes running a channel alone, but if they're a business, they have to start making decisions like one.

#i encourage discussion on this in my notes btw! #you can even be mean to me if you disagree. i dont actually care #watcher

[theveryworstthing]

made some Vermes. here are some facts about them from over on patreon :)

Vermes, or Worm Fae (an incorrect name that no one, most Vermes included, care about enough to change), are usually described as an offshoot of classically butterfly/moth/ect. winged Fairies but with wormy attributes instead. this description isn't quite right, as Vermes are actually in the muddy area between spirit beings and small gods depending on how powerful they are. most Verme magic centers on water, soil, plants ect., but there's a lot of weird weird variety out there so you'd have just as much luck meeting a simple Verme of the soil as one that deals with dead bodies. they might even be the same Verme. 

sometimes the soil must be fed. 

Vermes come in many shapes and sizes that largely depend on where they were born and what they're capable of. some look more humanoid but there's always a very strong Worm Vibe and though they're able to glamour themselves like fae do, they rarely bother. they kind of see being spotted in their natural forms as the spotter's problem. they're just out here going about their lives. half of Vermes don't even have physical eyes, what's the big deal? 

Vermes that don't live in the water or in...other places... make their homes underground and travel through connected "tunnels" of dirt and rock bewitched by their skin secretions to flow around their bodies effortlessly as the pass. it's easy for non Vermes creatures to get lost on these paths as there's zero visibility and all of the directional markers are written on stones that can only be read by touch or smell. breathing is also an issue. there's less oxygen on the paths than in open spaces and depending on the "weather" it can be incredibly dry or so humid that breathing can be uncomfortable. 

many people think that Vermes are responsible for things like mud slides, sink holes, and even horrifying intestinal problems, but that's not usually true unless a relatively powerful Verme is discovered living in the area and people decide to fuck around and find out. it's more common that a Verme's presence stabilizes ground that should totally be a sinkhole because they don't want random garbage like houses and people falling into their living rooms. as for the intestinal stuff, if there's a creature around big enough and weird enough for a parasite Verme to exist inside it, you've got bigger problems bud.

#vermes #worm #anthro #spirit #small gods #monsters #body horror

[evertidings]

i always start these kinds of posts by saying "time flies, wow, look how far we've gotten." and it's true, but it gets repetitive. so this is me trying to make an anniversary post without all that cheesy stuff. bear with me.

on february 24, 2021, i decided to post the intro for this story. it gained traction slowly, and, before i knew it, i was being asked when to expect the demo. it excited me, knowing that other people were excited. and it still does. to know i've created a fanbase (??) is so surreal. even if i don't post on tumblr for a while, or am silently working on an update, i know that there are still people waiting for my return. and will continue to wait, even if i take longer than i expect. i beat myself up a lot for this (if you're on my patreon, you'd know), but sometimes, it can't be helped.

this has been the case for chapter 11 lately. to say i've been swamped with schoolwork would be an understatement. i'm exhausted. i haven't been able to touch my when twilight strikes document for weeks and it pains me. but even then, many of you are kind enough to remind me that it's okay. that life gets in the way sometimes and i'm doing the best i can.

with that said, i usually post some sort of special for my anniversary, but this year, it's going to be late. i've already started working on something and don't want to scrap it, so it'll be a belated present for everyone. i'll keep you all updated as to when this will be.

all in all, this story remains my greatest and proudest accomplishment to date, and i have no plans on stopping anytime soon. i know i've been silent and mia aside from patreon, but i appreciate your patience. thank you for sticking by me. thank you for three wonderful years.

#announcement #personal

[gurugirl]

an adorable bad boy | loveable!rogue!harry

This is part 1 of a Patreon AU (4 parts have been posted on Patreon already). If you'd like more check out my Patreon! xoxo

A loveable rogue is someone who breaks the law for personal profit while being nice and charming, likely with a sad or dark past.

AU Premise: Harry has been in and out of jail for nearly a decade due to a string of bad luck and bad choices. But he's not a bad guy. Not really.

Summary: Harry's trying to keep on the straight and narrow now that he's out of jail but things have never come easy for him. And then he meets the most beautiful girl he's ever seen. Maybe things won't be so bad after all. If only she'd give him her number.

Word Count: 3.8k

Warning: Mentions of drugs and the sale of drugs, mentions of jail time

❊❊❊

Harry’s life sucked. Every time he tried to get on the right track, his past would come back to haunt him. He took responsibility for the things he did and he knew he deserved to have the book thrown at him. But he also knew where he came from didn’t make things easier for him. Starting at a young age he had to act like an adult and do things most people would never imagine needing to do just to get by.

Now, nearing 30, he was determined to get his shit together. If he had to step foot in another jail cell again he was going to just end it. He couldn’t handle another sentence that had him losing a job, his car, the place he was staying… Every time he got into trouble it was like he had to start over again. From scratch.

And he was always well-behaved once behind bars so he usually got out early on good behavior. But keeping out of trouble as a free man was nearly impossible. He’d be tossed out on the street once he was released but with no place to go and not a dime to his name, times were hard. He had to hustle for a dollar. And when he meant hustle, it usually involved something illegal.

Getting a job that paid well was a joke. No one wanted a convicted felon. No one would hire a man who had a criminal record. Why risk it? He sure as hell wouldn’t if he were in their shoes.

There was no program to help him reintegrate. No help for a safe spot to sleep. Shelters wouldn’t even allow him a safe haven due to his past. He had nothing. Incarceration meant drudging through, keeping his head down, and following directions. That was easy. But there was nothing easy about rebuilding his life over and over again once he was out from behind bars.

His sister wouldn’t answer his calls anymore. He’d drained that well dry. His mother had cut him off too. His cousin was a last resort, but that’s sort of how his life was these days. Everything was a last resort.

“Harry! My dude! You get out?”

He was leaning against a tall residential building in an alley with a cigarette in hand. The phone he was using was the one that he had when he got locked up, kept for him upon his release. The officer helping him fill out his release forms allowed him to charge his phone before they pushed him out the doors. How kind.

The wifi signal from the bookstore gave him access to his apps so he could make the phone call he was dreading.

“Yep. Glad to be out of there. How are you doing?” He figured he’d make some small talk before getting to the point. He didn’t want to be rude, after all.

Saul gave him the rundown of what had been going on with everyone. And then Harry learned he was engaged.

“Wow. Congrats, cousin. Proud of you. You guys living together?”

“Nah. Not until after the wedding. She’s a really good girl. Super sweet. Her whole family is. Just like, the nicest people I’ve ever met. But she doesn’t want to move in until we’re married since that looks bad to her parents,” Saul laughed. “They’re super conservative about stuff like that. They think she’s still a virgin.”

Harry humored him with a chortle through the phone and then sighed. The sun was going down. Small talk needed to come to a halt. He had to get this part over with.

“So, uh… hate to ask this but um, could you let me crash at your place for a few nights? I’ve got nowhere to go since I just got out and gonna be cold tonight. Otherwise, I’d just sleep in the park or something.”

Silence for a few uncomfortable seconds.

“Did you ask your sister? I mean I’m sure–“

“She hates me right now. Won’t take my calls. But man, look, it’s okay if you can’t. I get it.”

“You know what? Sure. You can stay here for a bit. I know shit’s hard. How you gettin’ here?”

Harry let out the breath he’d been holding in and leaned his head back into the building in relief, “Gonna walk. Literally have nothing to my name. Just my old cell phone, half charged, and this free wifi I’m using to call you. I can get there in like an hour.”

Saul told him he’d pick him up but Harry didn’t want to trouble him anymore than he had. It was already embarrassing asking for help. Plus a walk through the city would feel good. It’d been a while since he’d seen the hustle and bustle of daily life in the city.

It was late September. He was wearing black jeans and a black t-shirt with boots. At least he had a beanie on his head. His cousin lived in one of those “up-and-coming” neighborhoods. Gritty but recently gentrified. His flat was two floors up. A flimsy plastic call button for the residents hung outside the reinforced glass door that opened up to a small lobby with mailboxes in the wall to the left and just beyond that, old wooden stairs that led up to each apartment.

Saul was on floor three. Harry took the stairs two at a time and the door was already open with his smiling cousin waiting for him and then a warm embrace that made Harry feel like maybe he was going to be okay. Silly as it sounded. He hadn’t been hugged in over a year. Hadn’t felt safe and relaxed in over a year.

“Ordered some pizza from this fire spot. Should be here soon. Beer?”

Harry could cry. He hadn’t had pizza or beer in over a year either. There was a lot he hadn’t had in over a year.

“Uh, yeah. Thank you, man.”

Harry followed Saul into his tiny galley kitchen and leaned against the frame of the door as he watched his cousin pull a beer from the fridge, “And thank you for everything. For this. I really mean it. I’ll pay you back as soon as I get a job.”

Handing Harry his beer Saul laughed, “We’ll see. Alyssa and I might need help for the wedding next summer. Her dad wants to have the wedding at their place. They’ve got this nice house with a massive garden in the back. But they need people to help landscape and do some manual labor to get it ready. Might save us a little money if you could help. But that’s a ways off,” he waved his hand as he walked past Harry into the living room. “Don’t worry about it right now. I’ll figure out a way you can pay me back.”

. . .

A few nights turned into a few weeks. And Harry did find a job, but he’d need to save up for a while longer to be able to afford a place on his own. He figured, at least he could pay Saul for food and help pay some of the bills in the meantime.

Fortunately, the job he found paid pretty well. Unfortunately, it was illegal. It was what had gotten him thrown in jail in the first place.

Selling drugs. Mainly weed. Some shrooms, ecstasy, molly… party drugs.

He applied to 28 places. Twenty. Eight. Dishwasher, food prep, janitor, midnight stocker, busboy, fast food line cook… everything he could find from places that might take a chance on someone with a record. After a week of having Harry sleeping on his couch, Saul appeared to be getting frustrated. So, Harry did what he always did when he needed money (and who doesn’t need money?). He called Memo.

Memo always had a spot for Harry. And because he trusted Harry he gave him an advance.

The first thing Harry did with his money was buy some clothes for himself and groceries for the house. Getting rid of his supply was easy. He still had all his old contacts to sell to and with Harry’s natural charm, he was introduced to even more people who wanted some killer weed and Harry was their man.

Saul seemed to lighten up a bit when Harry began paying him cash for his part of the bills and to help cover some of the rent.

Being a drug dealer bought him time. Eventually, he’d find a better gig. He knew there were places that would hire felons, he just had to be patient. But in the meantime, doing shady shit to get by was necessary.

“So, I’m going out tonight. With Alyssa and a few others. Just going to Ray’s. You can join us if you want.”

Harry was sitting on the couch readying himself for another night in but maybe going out with his cousin for a few beers could be fun, “Anyone I know going?”

Saul shook his head, “Doubt it. It’ll be Alyssa, her little sister, and a few of our mutual friends.”

Harry figured it was better if the people that were going to be there didn’t know him. And besides, what better way to spend a Friday night as a single man? Sitting at Saul’s house was fine, but going out and meeting new people with a few beers in hand sounded a hell of a lot better.

Harry nodded, “Why not?”

. . .

Roy’s might have been an old hole in the wall, but it was a popular old hole in the wall. Harry could hear the music before they walked into the black brick building with the lighted, vintage metal sign that hung above the door.

The smell of stale cigarettes and beer hung in the dark space, a shiny lacquered bar that ran half the length of the room, high-top tables, two pool tables, and a few booths.

Alyssa nearly pummeled Saul, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and kissing him on the cheek as she squealed.

“We’re just over here! Tony got us a big booth 'cause he got here early.” She pulled Saul along with her. Harry followed.

The group that came into view were two young men and two young women. He barely had a chance to take it all in before Alyssa pulled his arm, “Everyone! This is Harry, Saul’s cousin. The one we were telling you about.”

The one we were telling you about. Harry knew what that meant.

Harry smiled and nodded as he slid into the booth. It was long and easily accommodated all seven of them.

“I’m Kelin,” the man he sat next to held his hand out to Harry to shake. The one next to Kelin greeted Harry, “I’m Tony,” he turned and looked at the girl next to him, “And this is my girlfriend, Dasha.” Dasha smiled and waved at Harry.

Then as Alyssa moved into the opposite side of the booth with Saul at the end she hugged the girl next to Dasha, “And this is my little sister, Y/n.”

Some moments in time are unexplainable. Like moments when things feel like fate but you don’t believe in that sort of thing. Or like when someone is speaking a language you don’t know but you swear you understood everything they just said. Sometimes it was more like a riddle you couldn’t figure out all day only to wake up in the middle of the night from a dream with the answer.

The moment Y/n set her pretty gaze upon Harry was like that for him. Something inexplicable. Something enchanting. Almost mythical.

“It’s nice to meet you all,” Harry spoke as he tried to tear his eyes from the angel called Y/n. He forced his pupils away to look at everyone else but his heart was already beginning to thump violently in his chest.

Drinks were ordered and conversation resumed to wherever it was left off before Saul and Harry’s arrival.

“So, we were discussing anything but the wedding!” Dasha laughed as Alyssa moaned exaggeratedly.

“I was only letting you guys know the theme!” Alyssa laughed.

“Girl, tonight is a night off. And the wedding isn’t for like another 8 months!”

Harry tried to focus on the conversation as he sipped his beer but he couldn’t help allowing his eyes the indulgence of Y/n’s pretty face. She had some kind of clear drink. A vodka soda maybe. And when Kelin started talking about the Halloween party he was throwing Y/n’s eyes met Harry’s again and he thought he was going to fall limp to the floor in a puddle at her feet.

He didn’t even know what her voice sounded like and he was already imagining waking up next to her in the morning and getting to see her disheveled hair and warm pajamas and soft, tired eyes. He had never had such a visceral reaction to anyone before. Ever.

Another round of drinks made its way to the table and Harry hardly spoke a word. Y/n only laughed a few times at what was being said but otherwise, she remained quiet as she sipped her drink.

He needed to talk to her. He needed to learn all about her. He wasn’t sure why it felt so important, so vital to him. But every time she looked at him his throat went dry and he searched her face for any sign that she might be feeling the same odd connection that he was feeling.

“I need a cigarette,” Y/n spoke as she looked at Alyssa, making Saul and Alyssa scoot out of the booth to let her out.

Harry tapped his fingers on the table as he watched her walk past before speaking up, “Yeah, me too.” He hopped up from the booth and jogged to catch up with his dream girl before she could push the door open.

“Allow me,” he grabbed the handle and opened the door for her.

“What a gentleman. Thank you,” she grinned teasingly at him and Harry felt his head swirl and his knees go weak. She smiled at him and he was sure he was in love at that moment.

“I try,” he chuckled as he followed her to the edge of the building before she pulled out her pack of cigarettes. Harry liked the same brand.

He pulled out his lighter and held it out as she put the filter between her lips. The flame lit the tip and then Harry put his own cigarette into his mouth and lit it.

“You have good taste,” Y/n gestured with her cigarette toward his and watched his mouth as he inhaled the smoke into his lungs.

“Guess we both do,” he blew the smoke out and it mixed with the smoke she blew out at the same time.

“Heard you recently got out of jail. Alyssa told me to keep my distance,” she laughed as she took another puff, her eyes on his.

“Yeah. Trying to keep on the straight and narrow now. Jail sucks,” he let his gaze wander over her lips and jawline and down to her neck, “I’m not that bad, though. You gonna get in trouble with your big sister for having a smoke with me?”

She snorted (which Harry found adorable and irresistible) and shook her head, “I’m an adult. She tries to act protective and tough but she knows better than to tell me what I can and can’t do. In fact,” she took a drag and lowered her gaze to Harry’s outfit and then back up to his eyes before exhaling, “When she tells me not to do something it just makes me want to do it more.”

Harry felt his face grow warm as he listened to her speak and couldn’t help the smile that took over his face, dimples winking awake in his cheeks.

“Oh shit,” she leaned into the brick and crossed an arm over her middle, one arm angled out with the cigarette propped between her two fingers, “You’ve got dimples.”

Harry ashed his stick, keeping the smile on his face, “I guess I do. Is it okay?”

Y/n laughed softly, the prettiest sound Harry had ever heard, and nodded, “Of course it’s okay. It’s adorable.”

“Adorable…” Harry repeated as he leaned his shoulder into the brick and faced Y/n, “Think I’m adorable?” He pulled his lips into his mouth, tamping his wide smile as he blushed. Yeah, he was blushing.

She reached her hand up to his shoulder-length hair to tug at a curl, “You are. Pretty curls, green eyes, dimples. I get why Alyssa didn’t want me to get mixed up with you. An adorable bad boy. Dangerous combo.”

Harry shook his head and looked down at her feet before winding his pupils up her frame to her face, “Bad boy? Nah, not really. Just made some stupid decisions.”

Y/n shrugged and pulled at her cigarette before blowing out the hot smoke, “Mmm….” She pursed her lips and squinted at him, “You’re definitely a bad boy. You kind of emanate that persona. And I bet you use those dimples to charm all the ladies.”

Harry chuckled and looked down again to give his retinas a break from her breathtaking beauty. When he looked back at her he shook his head slowly, “If anything you’re the charmer. Making me blush over here.”

She giggled and leaned her head back as she looked up into the sky. Harry was not going to be getting over her laugh. He knew he’d be dreaming about it too.

“I’m just honest is all. Not particularly charming I don’t think.”

Harry shook his head and pointed at her, “No. You are definitely charming. Sweeping me right off my feet.”

“Oh, I am? Falling for me already, Harry?” She smirked at him and turned her body to face his, mimicking his stance.

Was it too soon for him to fall for her? Yes. But Harry was never one to play by usual timelines. He grinned and licked his lips, “Be bad if I said I was?”

She puffed out a laugh, “Probably would be bad. You don’t even know me. I’m really not all that great. Lots of issues. Very unstable,” she laughed as she gestured at her head and then wrapped her lips around the filter to inhale.

“If that’s the case, then you’re just that much cuter,” Harry parted his lips to place the cigarette between them as he kept his eyes on hers.

She bit her lip and turned to look out into the street, “You gonna go to the Halloween party next week?”

Harry shook his head, “Probably not. Wasn’t invited. Don’t like to dress up for shit like that anyway.”

“Hmm… If you go I’ll go,” she turned to look at him and raised her brows.

Harry stitched his brows together and tilted his head, “Are you serious?”

She nodded, “Sure. Why not. Wasn’t planning on going either but I will if you do.”

Harry narrowed his eyes at her and grinned, “Still wasn’t invited, though. We’ll see.”

Y/n tossed her butt down to the ground and stepped over the tip to crunch out the burning end, “Probably should get back in there. Alyssa’s gonna think we’ve run off together. That’d really get her going.”

Harry chuckled and followed suit with his own cigarette and nodded before following her back to the booth in the bar.

This time, as luck would have it, Harry scooted into his original spot and Y/n sat down next to him at the end.

“I wish you wouldn’t smoke,” Alyssa frowned at Y/n and Harry leaned forward to put his elbows on the table as he turned to look at Y/n’s profile. She was certainly stunning.

Y/n shook her head and looked at Dasha, “Will you pass my drink down?”

Harry looked down at his lukewarm beer and pushed himself into the seat, his back hitting the vinyl cushion behind him before turning his head to watch as Y/n drank from her glass.

Everyone at the table resumed their conversation but both Harry and Y/n were thinking about the way their thighs were pressed together and how warm it felt. How nice it was.

“You’re staring,” she whispered with a grin as she set her glass down on the table and turned slightly to see the limn of his outline in her peripheral.

He grinned as he leaned his shoulder into hers as he spoke quietly, “Can’t help it.”

Harry tried to be as subtle as possible with everyone around but his skin was tingling in delight any time she shifted to pick up her glass her thigh ran against the stretch of his jeans. He regretted that he couldn’t stare into her beautiful eyes but he loved her nearness. The smell of her perfume and her shampoo.

“So, Harry,” Tony spoke up, “What do you do for fun?”

Harry was caught off guard. He’d been far too focused on the girl next to him that he nearly forgot he might need to participate in a conversation.

He laughed and looked at Saul and then to Tony, “I like music a lot. Um… reading. I don’t know,” he shrugged.

“He used to be in a band. Plays guitar and sings. He can play almost any instrument actually,“ Saul chimed in.

Harry rolled his eyes when everyone began to ask questions. He didn’t enjoy talking about himself because then that wound up leading to discussing his time in jail. Thankfully no one brought it up, though he was sure everyone already knew anyway. Saul wasn’t exactly discreet.

When the bill was paid after everyone threw down some cash, Y/n slid out of the booth with Harry right behind her, “Can I have your number?” He spoke so only she could hear as he brushed his fingers against hers.

She stopped and turned toward him, a mischievous grin on her face, “I’ll give you my number if you come to the party next weekend.”

Everyone began to walk to the door and Y/n turned to leave but Harry wasn’t done. He felt his heart walloping in his chest as he hastened his steps after her, pulling at her hand as stealthily as possible, “I can’t just crash a party I wasn’t invited to.”

When they stepped outside Y/n moved to the side to let everyone walk past and she looked up at Harry, “If you don’t come then you don’t get my number. It’s up to you.”

Harry swallowed as he looked down at the pretty girl in amazement, “Fine. I’ll be there.”

She smiled sweetly and raised her hand to poke at his dimple, “I know you will.”

NEXT PART (link goes to Patreon)

I hope you enjoyed part 1! This is the only part I'll be posting on Tumblr. If you want more check out my Patreon 💕

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#harry styles #harry styles smut #harry styles x reader #harry styles x yn #harry styles fanfic #harry styles one shot #harry styles imagine #harry styles fic #harry styles fanfiction #firstpost #harry styles fan fic #harry styles fiction #harry styles x y/n #harry x reader #harry x yn #harry x y/n #harry #harry smut #harry edward styles #harrystyles #harry styles writing #patreon exclusive

[cats-artbag]

SwapOut/Webcomic/Twitch PSA!

Hi everyone 👋🏻 Zk here >< or Cats, for older followers

So I've been getting back into doing SwapOut again, but I would like to appeal to everyone who reads and loves the comic. Much love to all of you who's still sticking around 🙏🏻💙 But something has also always been bothering me throughout this journey.

As many of us know, we artists do these comics for free (especially fan comics), starting them out of love and taking a LOT of time and energy out of our lives to continue making them.

And it's amazing how many of you come from translations or comic dubs on Youtube, which are also very well-done and take a lot of effort to make, much love to them too. There is a difference, however.

Monetization.

And I'm not asking for pity! I'm appealing for understanding.

Because some comic dubbers on Youtube are able to earn ad revenue from the videos they upload. From the beginning, we artists have given them the permission to dub our works. But we don't receive anything from it, nor do we usually charge them for using our art (against our better judgement).

We let them use our comic pages in their monetized videos for free. And occasionally these videos receive thousands and millions of views, which I imagine gives a decent amount of ad revenue, while the artists themselves don't usually earn anything from their own artwork, nor do we ever want to put it behind a paywall of any kind. (we like reading free comics too so don't worry x|)

... But doing full-colored comic pages for free eventually gets hard to sustain without any income from it, even more so when we need to give our time and energy to other jobs to earn money for a living instead. We legitimately keep going on our comics purely out of love. Truly, we would LOVE to do our own art for a living. There's things like Patreon but it's only feasible if we're also able to produce bonus content or show BTS, and only people willing to spend money for them can help us, and not readers who aren't able to.

And we understand that not everyone can afford to support us monetarily. And that's okay!

But if you love these comics and want to really help us to keep going, there ARE ways you can easily support us for free!

For example, affiliates on Twitch (like myself) are able to earn ad revenue very early on (they must have at least 50 followers, quite a requirement, but still easier to obtain than Youtube's 1000 subscribers).

(my Youtube, btw. not much rn but drop a subscribe?)

But simply put, if the vast majority of readers from the yt numbers visit and stay for ads on the artists' Twitch streams (remember to have adblocker disabled for the site, if any), they'll be making an actual, physical contribution to the artist themselves, at no cost whatsoever. We earn up to 55% from any ads that run on our stream, so the more viewers, the better!

(this is my twitch on average 8 viewers, with a 3 hour stream. again, the more the better!)

(ofc you can also buy subs to watch ad-free and supports me directly, but i'm typing all this to share the free ways people can support their fave creators ✨)

And even if that doesn't work out, I'd be happy enough to see most of you there 🙏🏻💙 I've been treating my streams as work, so I'm striving not to break the streak.

So drop a follow on my Twitch, and catch the streams when you can! They're great if you need company or background noise, and also great for co-working~

Currently streaming WEEKLY, Mondays, Wednesdays (SwapOut) and Saturdays, 10.30AM EST

(art by @cupcakepaints)

>> twitch.tv/zkcats <<

Anyway thanks for listening to my Ted talk, please share this around for others as well >< 🙏🏻 Artists, make this a reblog chain or something! Promo your stuff!

And apologies for the essay, I wasn't expecting to type this much sdghsgh this itself is not an ad for Twitch or whatev, I'm just a little frustrated with needing to juggle all this.

I was also considering hosting SwapOut somewhere that could get ad revenue, but I wasn't sure where until I realized I can probably earn that from my Tapas now (i think?? sdfhgh up to 70% ad revenue there but i haven't seen any yet) So maybe I'll post there a day earlier than here or something? We'll see. Go subscribe there! Check it out! Reread it! Help ME help YOU!

... Much appreciated ><

#catschats #undertale #webcomic #swapoutcomicupdate #typed this out mostly for people who aren't aware that ads support streamers etc. #im super tired now wheezee but im living

[thechekhov]

How often would you say that you draw comics and art while also focus on the other things in life; work, family, etc?

Like, for example, if you had an exact number of minutes, hours, or days of drawing, what is an estimate per day or week? I'm just curious.

Honestly, it's difficult to count since my workweeks tend to vary based on the season but here's a quick example:

I don't work full-time at this point but I do have an hour commute both ways, and because I'm on a salary, I'm sometimes forced to stay overtime, meaning that my entire day is just sleep-eat-work-eat-sleep in that order, with nothing else that really happens that day.

During non-work days, most of my non-work time is..... art-work time!

And by that I mean that if I'm not washing the dishes, running an errand or spacing out, I'm drawing.

When do I play video-games or watch shows? I don't.

When do I spend time with friends? I don't.

Not unless it's specifically scheduled, such as when someone visits from far away. I have about 1 hour of social stuff set aside each week because I participate in a taiko group in the city I work at.

When I count it up, my art stuff ends up being anywhere between 30 -35 hours each work. My part time job is supposed to be 24 hours (not counting the commute), but often ends up going over. And I usually need another 5 hours each week to take care of the back-end office stuff - scheduling posts, managing Patreon, answering asks and planning future stuff.

I will admit I would not be able to do that if it were not for the kindness of my partner, who takes care of most of the cooking and cleaning, and often ends up cooking me things to eat:

I appreciate him and his commitment to keeping me alive very much

Also, just to be clear: I am not pretending that this is not a good work-life balance.

It it just the balance that works for ME, personally. I think most people would find this...less great.

I do not go out for coffees with pals. I do not watch new series, and I do not partake in social events. This is something I am fine with, but I know many other people would find my life incredibly repetitive and boring.

Actually, looking at this math laid out, I am quite disappointed in not being able to accomplish more with the 30 hours I have per week. But...the reality is that aside from running the comic on my Patreon and doing random personal doodling on my main blog, I'm also often trying to do other projects in the background that I don't feel like sharing until their completion.

The reality is, I enjoy this load, though. I make it work for me, and I'm getting to do stuff I like AND make money for myself and my partner! So I'm fine with it. I'm not actually dying from exhaustion.

It's just hilarious when I sometimes get asks going "Hey, have you played that latest 130-hour-long videogame? :)" followed by a swift "I wish you would post comics daily again :((( I want more arrttttt" like kids, you can't have both, I don't know what to tell you.

#chekhov answers

[lady-raziel]

I'm not part of the Watcher fandom, anything I know about it has come through your blog. I feel like maybe they saw the success Dropout has had with their own streaming platform and want that, but it sounds to me like they're sticking to their same upload schedule with a single show; which Dropout doesn't do. They upload new episodes of a variety of shows multiple times per week, both continuing beloved shows and introducing new ones regularly. I say this as a person with a Dropout subscription, I keep it because I use it consistently, multiple times, every single week. What they want to do definitely sounds more like it should be an early access patreon subscription, rather than a full paywall.

for sure. lots of people have brought up dropout on every side of the conversations being had right now usually either to say "well it worked for them" or "they'll never be dropout" and i guess where i stand on the whole thing is that i'm sure dropout's success was one of the reasons why they felt like this move might work, but failed to consider that watcher's situation and dropout's situation are pretty different. it seems to me that dropout's success was hard fought and kind of a one-in-a-million sort of thing and they're in a very different place creatively with the amount of content they're able to put out. that's just not where watcher is right now. this sort of move wouldn't work out for pretty much every youtuber out there with the exception of maybe mr. beast or something. that's the kind of level you'd have to be at to make this sort of thing work while going pretty much cold turkey on youtube. dropout is definitely the exception, not the rule.

the fact is that they DO have a pretty successful patreon where they were doing stuff like early access and they were making a significant amount from that, plus merch, tours, ad reads, youtube revenue, the whole shebang. and now essentially they've thrown that all away for an "everyone must pay" model. Very strange.

#watcher #watcher tv

[meanbossart]

Asks about VaM, art advice, and miscellaneous stuffs

HI! Real quick please refrain from referring to Sad Sack as S/S for the uh... Obviously reasons LOL We call it "sads" for short!

If what you're asking for are recommendations for a website to host that kind of thing, Neocities, Twitter, Itchio and as you mentioned AO3 are all perfectly good options! Patreon too (depending on how gnarly you're planning on getting) but I'd suggest keeping that as a secondary host option because I don't think it lends itself super well for getting your work circulating. I believe Bluesky allows that kind of thing too, but I'm not too sure since I don't use it.

Now, If you're asking about public reaction rather than guidelines, anywhere you go you might find people that don't jive with the work you do 🤷 just be upfront about the type of content you're making right off the bat to avoid having anyone stumble upon it by accident to the best of your abilities, otherwise, I wouldn't worry too much. I know we're constantly exposed to examples of overwhelming harassment and "dogpilling" happening to others but... Truth be told, most of us won't ever get to the size/internet level of fame where we experience that. I think the threat is a little bit... Overstated, nowadays. Not to mention that most of the time people are getting harassment for things that have nothing to do with their work, and rather relating to their behavior and attitudes. Play smart, be responsible, and be honest! Whatever comes next is in god's hands LOL

Thank you for the ask! Not sure I was of much help 😅 but frankly when you're just starting out it's best to focus on getting the work done first and just throwing it out there, wherever it may be. You can worry about technicalities like that later!

I GOT YOU MAN the full sketch is now up on my patreon!

YES AND YES WHETHER IT BE STORIES OR ART OF DU DROW AND YOUR CHARACTERS SLAMMING PINTS TOGETHER BE MY GUEST PLEASE

I love seeing everyone's take on my weirdo so much, anything is honestly welcomed!

AW DUDE thank you so much! Especially for suffering through the mammoth of a story that ANE turned into - writing has never been my strongest point so I'm always shocked to hear from people that enjoy it 🥲

About the booze question, honestly I'm not picky at all, I usually go by price and by that I mean whatever is cheapest LOL but I prefer a dry white as far as types go.

You only have to pay for it once! You get a code that unlocks the software and all of it's features and you're free to cancel your subscription after that. At some point the code might change or there might be an update that requires subscribing again - but that seems like a very rare occurrence so I wouldn't worry about it.

OH NO I HAVE DEFINITELY TRACED MY OWN REFERENCE BEFORE, but not entire poses! When something is challenging I'll make a point of drawing it out the usual way.

I can remember a couple of instances from Nick and mine's comic where I traced pictures I took of myself, just as a time saving measure. Again like I said in the post, there are several ways to employ tracing your own material that is perfectly acceptable. I have also traced bare-bones 3D backgrounds that I made for the same reasons.

I know you specifically asked about tracing when something's complicated, but I still wanted to be upfront to demystify the practice under different circumstances. The rule of thumb is to never use it when you know it would be inhibiting your skill development!

Happy to hear you wanted to pick up the skill! I definitely understand the urge too LOL since playing BG3 and becoming so invested in the stories and characters my art has improved a ton, simply from forcing me out of my usual style and making me want to capture different moods and scenarios - finding something you're passionate to draw is, frankly a great damn start.

I replied to a bunch of asks asking for pointers and advice a while back, one of the questions was very similar to yours and I still stand behind the advice I gave then. Hopefully you can find something helpful here! https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/740543514692173824/some-art-advice-asks-ive-been-meaning-to-reply

HMMM I don't usually think of myself as the best teacher/tutorial guy, but funnily enough I can think of a few things about this topic that I could elaborate on lol. If I do that in the near future, I'll put it up on my patreon (for free as with everything else.)

If there are any specific things about it that you (and anyone else who would be interested in it, for that matter) find challenging and would like for me to focus on, let me know!

---

That's all for now folks, and as usual thank you so much to everyone who's left a nice compliment, word of encouragement or funny tidbit in my inbox as well! I can't reply to you all individually, but I see and read all the messages I get c:

HAVE A LOVELY REST OF YOUR WEEK

#lore asks coming either later today or tomorrow! #I might reply to a few right now/space them out rather than do another compilation #we'll see how I feel about it! #ask compilation

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

So... Where You Going?

For those not in the know, tumblr's doing its swan song and is going down to a skeleton crew for running the site. The site won't be gone immediately, but given how things run on tumblr now (will sometimes be totally unusable, I've had my blog automatically killed for nonsense reasons, held together with duct tape and glue) I'm going to treat this as if it could go down tomorrow or else that it will probably collapse by Christmas.

I'll probably be here until it's no longer usable but I'm not going to hold my breath that that's going to be any significant amount of time.

So, there comes the question of where I am going to go.

@therealvinelle and I have been discussing that and what we're likely to do is pivot what would be text meta into @rankheresy content. Things that would have been long text answers to questions will become episodes (note this is what the episodes essentially are already). We're also looking into doing Q&A style streams/videos where we'd answer questions from the audience to get to what would have been the short/more ridiculous 'what if' kind of things we usually do.

Of course, if people want us to run certain episodes/do certain content, we're open to suggestions and feedback.

As for Ao3, I'm not going anywhere on there, because if I could have shaken the fanfiction habit, I would have years ago. I'm in this for life, baby.

Neither of us have any plans to move all the blog content somewhere else in part because a) nobody seems to know where they want to land yet b) all the existing options are collapsing or else are terrible and I hate them. As much as this place is a hellsite, there's nothing quite like it. This could change but, for now, them's the breaks.

Also, since I've now published things, I can't disappear from online entirely.

So, here's the places you can find me.

Me, Myself, and I

The_Carnivorous_Muffin on Ao3

Amazon Author Page

If you're interested at all in my venturing into original things/what's been going in there, follow the Amazon author page as that will for sure alert you when new things come out, I'll make announcements other places (e.g. discord) but of course that depends on other places existing which who even knows at this point.

Rank Heresy (@rankheresy i.e. me and @therealvinelle meta stuff)

Rank Heresy Spotify

Rank Heresy Podcastaddict

Rank Heresy Apple Podcasts

Rank Heresy Amazon Music

Rank Heresy Player FM

Rank Heresy Google Podcasts

Rank Heresy Patreon

Rank Heresy Kofi

Rank Heresy Discord

Rank Heresy discord will probably become the best place to catch me or @therealvinelle as well as catch any announcements we make. In #announcements we drop anything we update (either the podcast or fics) and #notice-me-senpai channel can be used when you really want to get our attention/have us answer a question (we do lurk there but as of right now it's not a super active server).

Podfic (me and @therealvinelle podfic stuff)

Podfics on Spotify

Podfics on Amazon Music

Podfics on Podcastaddict

Podfics on PlayerFM

Podfics are what it says on the tin, it's me and @therealvinelle podficcing only our own material (which so far is just partway through For The Love of a Woman)

It's been a wild time, friends, hope to see you all in the future.

#about this blog #rank heresy #meta #vinelle #therealvinelle #announcement #discord

[inkyquince]

Patreon Post: Wren's Unionising Perks (Wren)

content warning: Cheating, Cucking, Nasty Wren really into Remy's spouse

Wren always got what he wanted. Not while he was growing up, no, never then. But when he reached his twenties, he found out there’s a lot he could get, either with his winning smile, or with quick hands. Then his tongue could worm himself into some good graces in more ways than one. He liked getting what he wanted. Suddenly, he could put food on the table. Suddenly, he had a favourite leather jacket. Suddenly, life was a breeze and nothing could bring him down.

So, all in all, fuck you.

Fuck you.

God, he’d love to fuck you.

Regular little love story, you and Remy. Horse Ranch meets Riding School. Horrible father meets Horrible Future Husband. Married within 6 months.

Wren didn’t hate a lot of things. Bad hair days. Shit hands when playing poker. Maybe when those shark teeth cut his fingers when spending his Friday lunches at the prison. But fuck, he hated you. He really hated you. He hated you till his stomach was painted with his own cum, his cock sore as his fingers gripped the base too tightly.

Cute townie, trotting in here. Can’t ride a horse, looks lost when Remy rattles off facts about why his cows are the most excellent, didn’t even own a pair of boots until you ruined a pair of your fancy shoes in the mud. Real cute. The kind of adorable where if someone like you, with a face like that, Wren would definitely have you in his bed after a charming little riding lesson and some flirting. But he couldn’t. Because of that fucking golden ring adoring your finger.

He did do his best at first, keeping away from you, real polite, only sometimes swinging by to help out when you got lost on the stupidly big estate. One of his winning smiles, a squeeze of your elbow, and then he could disappear back into his work, only sometimes glancing over to see what you were up to. Sweet little thing. Sweet thing that he won’t lure into his bed at all, god no, because he will be fired at best, killed at medium, and turned into one of Remy’s best bulls at worst.

Which was annoying. He didn’t even pay attention to you. It’s like that one time when he was a wee sprog, his somewhat friend had a toy that they hadn’t played with in a while, and then acted so annoyed when he stole it for himself. Like, what did he expect? When people put stuff aside, Wren will usually take it and be halfway out the door before they realise it was gone.

He just happened to think that the same rules should apply to you. Get left in the corner too long, and he’s allowed to step in. No one puts baby in the corner and so on and so forth. But apparently Remy and the Church of England were against his very reasonable thought process.

Luckily, you seemed to agree with his thought process. Somewhat.

You were obviously bored. Leaning against the bedroom balcony, watching the cows be led out. Wren looked up from his horse, the scene mocking Romeo and Juliet as you barely looked at him, and he was getting a lovely view of your legs. But you did notice him. Soft brown eyed boy with the wicked smile. You didn’t get to meet him properly, only formally. Remy just vaguely gestured at him, called him Wren and moved on, with one gloved hand pressing against your back.

A gesture Wren also liked to do with you.

Spotting you, bored, petting one of the horses. Hand against your back. Inviting you to a poker game. You accept.

The others worry. They can’t have fun like they usually do. Nothing scandalous or perverted, not while the boss’ spouse is sitting so pretty at the table. You were fun, it turns out. Only got more fun as the others became drowsy and passed out from all the shots. Only you and Wren awake.

How could he resist?

Tit for tat, he offered. Which you countered with “Tits for Tattoos?”, which amused him. You pull off your shirt, in return to see one of his tattoos. He likes you naked, and you like him… Showing off to you.

You win a hand, he has to share embarrassing stories, tattoos, see if he can tie a cherry stem into a knot with his tongue. He wins one…

He gets to taste that pretty little mouth. Lick your teeth as his lean hands grip your thighs, pressing you close. Wren gets to grope and squeeze and touch, feeling his thigh get warmer from where you are perched so cutely. Best of all, he could tell that Remy had yet to do his husbandly duty and fuck you like a whore. You were his, and the thought of shoving your face into the pillows of the marriage bed to fuck your hole raw never crossed his mind.

Idiot.

Well, Wren was his right hand man for a reason. Pick up the slack where Remy can’t.

It isn’t the marriage bed, but it’s his, and fuck, you look good. Debauched and spreading your legs just for him. To be fucked, a couple of paces down from your mansion, in his little cottage. He couldn’t breed you, obviously, but the thought of keeping you full, sated and a happy little spouse for his friend had him stroking at your stomach greedily. All his, at least for most nights in the week, and maybe every other midday break.

Yes, Wren settles on, as he fucks into your hole roughly, enjoying the arching plane of your back as you grip his thin pillows and covers. Yes, this is how it should be. Enjoying a tight little thing in his own bed.

#wren the smuggler #dol #degrees of lewdity #quincewrites #patreon posts #nsft

[askxigbar]

So life updates from your Xigbro, feel free to ignore;

Went to the doctor and found out I've got some severe vitamin deficiencies which explains a lot physically and mentally going on.

My ass feels old taking as much medication as I am daily, but I can feel some stuff being better thankfully.

Been having bad side effects so I've been very tired outside the usual tired the meds are fixing, and just sick because my stomach vs meds.

Uh... I got Covid for a second time from new people at work!! So uh, that's going great. It's not as painful as last time but I am FULL OF FEAR.

I am missing like 2-3 days of work because of it which is like easily $400+ money wise so that's terrifying me.

I was gonna try and do an ask this week but I've literally only been awake 5 hours a day this week I've been sick, which has been spent eating or doing patreon stuff.

So that's where I'm at, uh I might just take a break and see if I can get anything done through the holidays, but just try and come back beginning of the year fresh again. Life is just kind of all at once hitting my ass again, oof.

Uhhh that being said, if you appreciate what I do or feel up to it think about dropping my ass a tip or joining my PATREON for early art and like WIPs that don't see the light of day for ages, and that you might have a say in seeing earlier if you ask for it~

But either way uh... yeah. Life is kind of a mess for everyone atm huh?

#the xigbro speaks #ask xigbar #askxigbar #I hate promoting my fucking patreon... shit feels like begging and I'm tired of feeling that way~

[jarofstyles]

Sugar Sugar 10

Hello my loves! Enjoy sugar sugar 10…. Things are about to thicken 👀👀👀

Check out our Patreon for early access and exclusive writing!

Warnings: fatphobia, witchcraft, the usual

Series masterlist

—-

His new couch was stupidly comfortable.

Y/N was laid across it, her head in Harry’s lap as they appropriately watched a home makeover show. After the deliveries and some organizing they’d called it a day and got their dinner delivered, leading to wine and laying on the new couch to ‘break it in’, as Harry put it. Neither were drunk, just enough wine to make the warm feeling cover them like a blanket. His fingers stroked her hair as they sat in a comfortable silence.

“If you keep doing that I’m going to fall right to sleep.” She warned him, eyes closed as she relished in his comfort. His thighs were perfectly toned, and he had changed into some soft blue sweatpants so that only added to her comfort. Her cheek rubbed against the fabric as she adjusted slightly, taking a deep breath while she felt his chuckle under her. The digits twirled a strand around, the motions making her melt further into him.

His place was more comfortable now. Even with boxes waiting to be unpacked and a pile of trash in the corner, Y/N had lit a vanilla tobacco scented candle and set up his coffee table to at least seem a bit more presentable, the flickering of the flame capturing her attention. Y/N loved candles and fire, incorporating a lot of that into her spell work. She was drawn to warm colors and feelings. It made sense she was drawn to Harry.

“That’s alright.” He murmured. “You can if you’d like.” There was a tiny bit of worry in his stomach for suggesting it so early on but he really would love for her to sleep here. They were waiting on his new bed frame to be delivered but it was doable for now.

With every new relationship, Harry knew that perhaps it was a difficult thing to find the timing of each milestone. When was too soon or too late to do things. Sleepovers, sex, meeting family, moving in. What was the timeline? Had anyone ever written a book about it? It would make sense if they didn’t, though, because relationships weren’t linear. That’s a mistake a lot of people seemed to make from his own nosy observations.

“I really would love to, but I’ve got no clothes.” She pouted, turning in his lap to look up at him. “Got to open the shop tomorrow too. Otherwise I would.” Y/N was beginning to become a bit greedy with his attention. Never had anyone so willingly and easily given her the attention she had always craved but thought to be selfish to ask for. He handed it over on a silver platter and offered her seconds. If she was comfortable enough sleeping naked with him, perhaps she would… but it was taking her a bit.

“Did you want to borrow some of mine?”

Harry had said it with such innocence, such a genuine tone that Y/N felt awful for giggling. Her hand raising to her mouth as she laughed quietly, stopping herself from actually laughing out loud as she shook her head. “Harry- my darling, you’re so kind. So sweet.” She sat upright, turning to him and pulling him in for a tiny kiss of appreciation. “Your clothes would fit my right thigh. It’s not a bad thing at all. I’m just not the size for that.”

With anyone else it would be embarrassing to admit that. It still kind of was underneath the surface level amusement, but she wasn’t ashamed like she used to be. Harry was muscular, sure, and she didn’t feel giant next to him, but he was small in terms of clothes. His shirt would work in a pinch, maybe, but she wasn’t going to be able to wear his stuff as sleep clothes. At least not now.

“Oh.” His cheeks flushed slightly, unsure how to respond. She didn’t seem upset and he genuinely hadn’t thought of that, but he still felt bad. “M’sorry.” He apologized quietly, letting her take the lead. “I mean, I’m sure some of it would work but I want you to be comfortable. Maybe…” he pinched his bottom lip in thought. “Maybe you could bring some stuff over in case we get to this point again? When it’s late and we hang out and you decide you don’t want to go home?”

He was essentially offering her a drawer. If Harry was full of one thing, it would be surprises. Y/N looked at him in slight shock, realizing he was deadly serious about the offer. He wanted her to keep clothes here just in case. A step she hadn’t been expecting in the slightest, but one that managed to make her giddy internally. Y/N had a bad habit of letting herself think that maybe she was the one feeling more in every single one of her friendships and relationships. A lot of the time , unfortunately, it had been proven to be true. This time, with Harry taking the leap, it seemed like maybe that wasn’t the case.

“Sure.” She said slowly, a little smile growing on her lips. “I’d really like that, actually. I…” There was a pause as she tried to gather the correct words she wanted to say. “Thank you.” Is what she settled on. “For not trying to like… undermine me and how I feel about it. Or lie and say I’d definitely fit. Those types of things used to really irritate me.”

Harry had to wonder what sorts of relationships she had been in that would make her thank him for such simple things. To be listened to and not brushed off. It wasn’t even a matter of her fitting more so seeing how she could possibly be uncomfortable with the idea. Harry wasn’t an idiot, nor was he unaware of her size. It just simply didn’t matter to him. He found her to be stunning. Her body was a vessel for all the things he had liked about her, and he loved how she looked regardless of what other people may have said or implied in the past.

“You really don’t have to thank me for that, Sugar.” He replied, taking her hand into his own and rubbed over her knuckles. “If you aren’t comfortable with something, if you would rather wear your own things, I’m happy with that. Your happiness and comfort here is what I want.” He wouldn’t be a whiny little boy or feign ignorance. Y/N had been someone he immediately felt comfortable around and his hopes were to be that person for her as well.

There weren’t proper words for a response, so she decided to kiss him instead.

-

The next morning, Y/N opened up the shop with a happy song humming underneath her breath. The sun was warm on her skin through the windows, dusting off the shelves as her patchwork skirt flowed behind her. The new incense had been lit and the oil diffusing as she worked, the sweet smell lifting her mood dramatically. She had been feeling a little sad that she hadn’t stayed with Harry the night before, but his send off had almost made up for it. He had a sinfully good mouth when it came to kisses and it had been almost impossible to rip herself from his hands but she would have stayed all night leaned against his car if she didn’t move away.

Her lips still felt tingly as she smiled to herself. Harry was a large percentage of her mind this morning and she didn’t think anyone would blame her.

A few things occupied the other spaces in her brain. The new shipments out in the back room, payroll, the new moon, and the tugging feeling for her own tarot reading. She woke up knowing she needed to do one for herself as she usually did when the cards had something to tell her. That was the last on her agenda for today.

The shop’s energy was fantastic today. The cleansing Delilah had done the night before had done wonders for the area, an easy breath floating through her body. Y/N loved her shop, loved her little place she had built and been able to sustain herself with quite comfortably. With the times changing and more people becoming open to spirituality, new practices and people doing what they wanted, it hadn’t been a better time for business. Growing up with the knowledge and yearning for growth that she had been blessed with had managed to help her tremendously.

As soon as Delilah had clocked in, Y/N headed towards the back room to unpack some of the new inventory. Rose quartz spheres she had sourced, some new sphere stands, some tiger’s eye carvings and other mineral specimens. A new tarot deck had come out that she managed to snag with the most beautiful artwork she had seen had been something else she had been called to order, the girl taking one and setting it aside for herself.

Grabbing the pricing stickers, she began to write down the prices of each piece and got lost in the 70’s classics. It was one of her favorite things to do. Sitting back and doing the busywork, her energy contained back here as she hear people enter the shop and make their first sales of the day. She could hear her second employee, Lily, come in and hang up her bag with a chirpy hello before going back out to the floor.

All was fine and good- until it wasn’t.

Y/N didn’t quite know how to explain it to people who didn’t feel it first hand, but without being cliche, she could feel the energy change. Like a lively flower being covered by a storm cloud, wilting in front of your eyes. Prickling of skin as the temperature changed, a shoe being dropped. Her hair stood up in the back of her neck, a quietness filling the usually lively and soft shop as all that remained was the music that even seemed to be quieted by the unwelcomed energy. There was something Y/N had called the ‘knowing’, or that’s what she called it. Whatever the energy was, it was here for her. Standing up, she covered her shoulders in her wraps to metaphorically protect herself from whatever it was, listening to a voice murmur and Delilah speaking crisp and clear.

“I’m sorry, the owner is on a call. Can I help you?” Her voice was no nonsense, no doubt being able to feel the atrocious air around the person and not wanting Y/N to have to be bothered, but they both knew. They always did.

“Actually, I just finished it. I have another in a second.” She called, approaching the door behind the register. Taking a breath, she opened the door and stepped out.

Immediately she could see that this customer wasn’t here because she wanted a crystal. There was something else brewing in her mind. Her hackles raised in her mind, though her spine straightened and she kept her head up as she met icy blue eyes across the counter. “How can I help you?”

The woman was beautiful. There was no denying that. Lithe and sharp, her lips pouted and painted a bright red, she was very much old Hollywood type of beautiful. Straight, glossy honey blonde hair fell down her shoulders, her handbag clutched in the crook of her arm. She looked like someone Y/N would compliment when she came on screen at an awards show, saying how she liked her makeup or dress. Dressed in all black without a spot or wrinkle, she looked like she stepped out of a film too. Large diamond earrings sparkled as she moved her hair and gave a smile that was far too big, giving Y/N a once over.

Y/N wasn’t unused to this. The raised eyebrows, the slight noises, the scanning of her body. It wasn’t a friendly thing. It was judgment, sizing up, for whatever reason. She never really could quite place why people would do these types of things. Get that look of pity, or disgust at someone who looked different from them. Why what other people looked like mattered to them, she never would be sure. However, one thing she did know for sure was that the once overs would never end, and this woman did not come for a good reason.

“Hello. I’m Claire.” She replied. “I was just in town, exploring a bit, and decided to step into here. I heard about it from some locals. My brother is a big fan of Harry Potter, so I thought when they said there was a Witchcraft store they’d meant something themed after that.” She gave a chuckle which Y/N only nodded to. “I didn’t think it would be… serious.” She looked around again, icy eyes staring at the books and guides and tarot decks with a little wrinkle in her nose. “Is it a gimmick? You don’t actually believe in all this stuff, right? The readings and crystals and all that. I’ve seen plenty of these things at fairs and stuff, so I’m assuming its a bit like that. For the children. There’s no way grown adults can believe in stuff like this.”

Delilah stiffened slightly, raising her own manicured brow but not saying anything yet. This was Y/N’s conversation and she could handle it like a grown woman. This wasn’t the first, nor would it be the last time she got this from someone who walked in. There were always skeptics. That wasn’t inherently a bad or disrespectful thing. In fact, Y/N liked it when people had a healthy dose of skepticism because it meant they wouldn’t be fooled by people hoping to make a quick buck or scare them into giving them more money. People would always be skeptic of things they couldn’t understand and with things of the magic variety? It was understandable. People could believe whatever they wanted to. Sometimes people came in simply to learn about it and decide for themselves.

However, people like Claire? They already had their minds made up. The joking as if they were going to go along with it, the condescending tone, it was a show she had seen so many times before. Not to mention the dark cloud she had hovering around her. Almost like a lack of an aura, a cloudy life force. Something corrupt was following her and embedding in her veins. Nothing Y/N nor Delilah wanted a part in.

“We do, yes. We all believe in different things, and that’s alright. Life would be very dull without a bit of magic.” Y/N gave a little smile to the woman. “It could be called a witchcraft store. You can get supplies here for that. We mainly sell crystals and offer readings, palms, tarot, oracle, and we have guest mediums as well. It’s alright if you don’t believe in it. Everyone can have their own opinion as long as it isn’t disrespecting the very people in the room.” Her hand ran over the stack of crystal bracelets she had on her hand. “Is there something we can help you find? Did you want to learn?” She looked towards Delilah. “D, can you sweep a bit please?”

The girl smirked, nodding her head as she grabbed the broom and began to sweep towards the door.

An old trick. Sweep when you wanted a guest to leave. It worked every single time.

“Oh. Well… I suppose I thought we all grew up and stopped entertaining things that were useless.” Another viper-like smile made Y/N want to roll her eyes. The woman wanted a reaction. “I was just in the bakery across the street. The young woman said the owner wasn’t there but I was curious if you knew him? How to get a hold of him?”

There it was. A dark pit in her stomach rising to her throat, her eyes meeting Delilah’s across the room. She watched as she grabbed a spray, spritzing it in the air before putting it down.

This was why she was here. To get ahold of Harry. And she didn’t like the intention she felt from her. Not in a jealous way, though that had a little to do with it. But… a way in which made her suspicious. If she knew Harry, she should have his number. Harry hadn’t divulged much about his life before moving here but she had an inkling he wanted to start over. He wanted freedom. Y/N would be damned if she let someone from his past come and stomp all over the good thing he had started here. Her gut told her to throw her off his trail.

“I’ve met him a few times before. Lovely person. He’s not in often, but I don’t have any way you could reach him. I’m sorry.”

She watched as the woman cleared her throat, beginning to back towards the door. “Oh. Well, the employees said you two are friends.” Irritation was visible in her eyes and it made Y/N smile internally.

“I wouldn’t call us friends.” She would call him more.

“Ah. Makes sense.” The woman let out a cough, looking around at the store once again. “The incense in here is too strong.” The protection incense. Ha. “But if you see him, can you tell him that I stopped by?” There was something devilish in her tone that made her bristle. Y/N wouldn’t call herself easily irritated but this woman managed to do it to her. Pissed her off immensely. Her intentions were to cause problems. Not just for her, but for Harry. She had no clue why, but the level of protectiveness she felt towards her boyfriend raised quite a few notches. It would be her mission to keep this woman out.

“If I see him.”

Delilah continued sweeping at the door, pushing it open and letting the woman out.

As soon as she left, Y/N felt like she could properly breathe again.

“My god.” Delilah exhaled. “She’s got some dark shit attached to her.”

“Or she is the dark shit.” Y/N retorted, grabbing a cleansing bundle and lighting it up. “That was awful. I felt her as soon as I walked in.” Y/N had seen her fair share of bad energy in people but this had felt deep, dark and personal. The woman probably hid it well to others, a gorgeous face and body, good acting skills, but nothing could hide a true intention.

#jarofstyles #harry styles one shot #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fanfic #harry styles smut #harry writing #harry styles imagine #harry drabble #harry styles blurb #plus size reader #plus size y/n #plus size harry styles #sugar sugar #sugar sugar 10 #harry styles plus size fic #harry styles plus size reader #harry styles plus size #plus size x harry styles #reader x Harry #reader x Harry styles #harry styles one shots #harry styles fic #harry styles fanfics #harry styles x yn #harry styles y/n #Harry styles fluff

[queenofthearchipelago]

So watcher keeps their patreon and the supporters over there have to pay twice if they want to see everything? Or will the patreon content be available on the streamer as well? This is confusing.

So my understanding of the situation the Patrons are in right now is that the ONLY benefit to continuing to pay for the patreon subscription is that they still get access to Watcher Podcasts.

So yes, the Patrons have to pay "double", essentially. Probably what's going to happen is that a lot of people on the patreon cancel their subscription. It simply isn't worth it anymore.

And as for whether the exclusive content on the patreon is moving to the streamer, I don't think so. I scanned the website for exactly this when I looked at it. I'm pretty sure if they were moving the patreon stuff over there, then there would be more Watcher Weekly and behind the scenes at Watcher videos on the streamer.

I agree it's very confusing. Seeing posts from patrons on here and then also finding some patrons in the comments section of the YouTube video, it sounds like the patrons are just as upset as we are. Like... the whole point of the patreon was to help fund them because we liked THEM as creators and didn't want them behind a paywall. And so if I had been a patron, this decision would feel even more like a betrayal because Watcher is simply saying they weren't good enough.

Like I genuinely don't know how to emphasize that those 12,122 people (last I checked) that subscribed to be patrons were doing that so that the 3 Million people who were subscribed to the free YouTube channel wouldn't have to.

Usually when a creator makes a patreon, the understanding is that the content Simply Would Not Exist without them. There are plenty of YouTubers and other creators who rely on their patrons to make the content worth the time and resources to make, and if the patrons disappeared then the creations would simply stop happening, the creator would have to find a new project or potentially a new job. It's essentially the same relationship you have between a commissioner and a creator. Patrons give the money for the creator to create what they make best.

But this decision from Watcher makes it feel like they're looking at their Entire Audience this way. They see the difference between 12k patrons and 3M subscribers on YouTube, and they feel that if they forced those 3M to pay, then they could lose the ads and do what they want with production.

But those 12k patrons were there by grace. With kindness. Those 3M subscribers were there because they were welcomed with love, not because they could obviously afford to be a patron and they were just chosing not to be. (Because apparently anyone and everyone can afford this, right?) The 3M subscribers are not a funding resource to be mined. They weren't an untapped fountain that was holding back the water.

We loved them. We thought we were respected for just being there. It's not even that we feel entitled to free content, it's that if Buzzfeed had been behind a paywall, most of us never would have heard of these guys. And with this move being primarily about production quality, it implies that things of "quality" must be behind a super expensive paywall. And that simply isn't true.

I've even already seen some YouTubers discussing this move, saying they have more than 25 employees and they manage to pay them. YouTubers who know how to do the math on how much money each Watcher video would make, and they they should be turning a profit with each episode. The quality should be possible without betraying the fans this way.

But I've already talked a lot here, and this is waaaaay beyond the question that I was asked lol. It's just that while the average viewer of Watcher is disappointed and upset about this, the patrons already had money in this, and they're in such a strange place now.

#watcher #watcher entertainment #ryan bergara #steven lim #shane medej #thoughtsfromthequeen #asks #thanks for asking!!!

[sanctus-ingenium]

answering your asks vol 3

Full context for the Inprnt issue can be found here on this post , tl;dr my shop is closed until I receive my payments from inprnt in a timely manner and essentially won't reopen unless they clean up their act. Regarding the money they owe me outlined in that post, I still have not received it and on Friday I sent a support ticket in to inprnt demanding they send it soon. Haven't heard back since. I think where Inprnt is concerned, it's worth mentioning that they no longer send promotional emails (which used to be a regular occurrence) and there seems to be a complete lack of communication and the only thing about the site that regularly updates is the sale banner (ending soon!!! 🙄)

So honestly I'm of the opinion that the print on demand bubble has burst and that this method of selling art was a very short-lived feature of an internet that doesn't exist anymore. Think about it - I make money on a sale after having spent nothing on promotion, on materials, on postage fees, etc. It's so easy to game the system using bots or stolen art to essentially print free money that I'm shocked it even lasted as long as it did. Maybe I'm wrong but I won't tie myself to another print on demand service that's just going to pull the same old shit redbubble and inprnt have done this year, or one that requires me to constantly promo it like some kind of influencer on instagram or tiktok or whatever.

Will prints come back? I hope so. I am looking into local printing shops and considering the feasibility of handling the process myself but you must understand that if I do that, the price will rise. I won't have the ability to run constant discounts or eat a loss if I order 20 prints and only 7 sell. It is what it is.

And the actual worldbuilding asks below the cut lol:

(referring to this post)

Only if you want to! I've had a few people send me cool sketches and stuff via dms and it's always nice to see but you really shouldn't feel pressured to. After all it's not like I post my rough practice here lol (that goes on patreon ;)

-

I'm going to be SO real with you right now - I did not consider that at all. However I do know that tinting flames with various chemical compounds was a huge part of alchemy, part of the whole flashy show of it to impress the layperson. So sure, I bet they do throw in copper sulfate or various other chemicals to produce the coloured flames - these make a huge impression on witnesses who might not even have imagined such a thing possible, and also help identify a holy beast at a distance on a battlefield choked with smoke and dive-bombing serpents.

Fun fact, the flames come from the furnace wells, right. Each well is connected to specific systems, where it can most efficiently deliver fuel to the heart and onwards. So it is possible to 'read' the pattern of flame bursts from the furnace slits - they are not constant, but there'll be one every few seconds based on when the furnace tenders excite each well. You can tell at a distance, for example, that Leun is readying an acid spray, or rerouting power to the rear legs for a leap, or even what direction he's turning. It all runs at a slight delay, which is why the crew inside has to be SO closely coordinated.

-

@absolutely-flabbergasted Knights are allowed to reproduce but not marry, because it's sort of accepted theory that blood relatives of a knight will be 'accepted' by the knight's beast when the time comes. This is not true but it means that sometimes the knight's apprentices are their own children. The other parent is mostly another member of the church and usually not identified or considered important (unless they're a smith...). There are usually a decent number of known knight bastards running about.

Smiths are not allowed to have families or marry, because their first devotion should be to their art or their beast if they are assigned to one. If one tries, the kids are taken away, anonymised with new names, and put into the pool of potential novices in some other stable. Now, in reality some stables or churches are just not that strict and have a slightly different culture, so there's often an Open Secret about some master smith's illegitimate family or a priest's secret mistress. This is tolerated by the authorities to a certain degree but if it becomes too rampant there'll usually be a change of management and some sort of crackdown.

Families who give up their second born cannot stay in contact, but if the child becomes successful in some way (say, if the child becomes a knight) the families are sent tokens symbolising this which can be placed in the family/village shrine. This can be a huge point of pride, with some people faking the tokens just so that they can show off about their successful kids that are totally knight apprentices.

The reason they don't get to stay in touch with their children is due to the secretive nature of the church and its arts. The church has been at war with the neighbouring nations for a long time and only its mastery of engine work has kept it afloat, and nobody wants these secrets to fall into enemy hands. Particularly if your kid goes on to become a scribe, which is if anything an even more closely guarded profession than that of a knight (those engine diagrams don't draw themselves). The laity are usually quite devout and understanding of this. If they aren't, they might attempt to find their child, often without success.

If you want your church kid back: it depends. If you can prove to the church authorities that you need your child's labour to stay afloat or to carry on the family line, they might take that into consideration. Of course, the only children that return are the likes of sweepers, cleaners, altar boys, pages, etc. Nobody who might have witnessed any Secrets. The church is best understood as being in the middle of a cold war for the past few centuries (and sometimes just regular war) so it's far more closely guarded.

-

@kicks-tiktaalik-back-into-water

It's not likely. Even if the ventilation system worked perfectly, he is still from an older generation of holy beasts and no longer represents the pinnacle of the technology. Leun might have a less sophisticated ventilation system but everything else about him is head and shoulders more advanced - including the crew number he can take on. Leun only requires a single enginesmith in the heart, for example. This is because there's more automation of his systems, and he can actually manage to walk home from battle without anybody inside at all, just based on the knight's input (because the throne chamber is open to the air the knights are technically not inside the beasts). It's not preferable (it can damage the systems) but it is a huge bonus.

Think about how in the early days of commercial aviation, there could be as many as eight people working on the flight deck. In the 60s, a 3-person crew was standard; captain, first officer, and flight engineer. Today there are only two pilots needed. This is down to increased automation, and it means that it is cheaper to fly the plane - the airline has to hire fewer pilots, 'flight engineer' is a nonexistent role these days, and that means you need to train fewer people, have fewer people on call, feed fewer people etc etc. It is cheaper for the church to run Leun than it is to run Krokodilos and even though the church is wealthy, the money and resources are not infinite. Especially now, in times of plague. Leun, for all everybody sings his praises, is basically a reskinned Pantera with better systems - again, cutting costs, because now we can get all of Pantera's old enginesmiths to work on him instead of having to train up new ones on a brand new and wholly unique platform. It's as much a matter of logistics as it is innovation and technology.

#info asks #setting: mez #fun asks this time round .. thank you everyone <3

[balvana]

Draw this again ~ Yuri On Ice

Sooooo 😆 This is ~6 years of art development 😱✍✨ See the old version from 2016 and some of my thoughts down below 👇

Yaaaay!! I'm back from some very much needed holidays and a convention I attended last weekend 🥰✨💪 . It was such a lovely experience to finally meet people face to face again and have some chats about anime, art, music and have some fun together 🥰🥰 And it also inspired this artwork 💖👌 . I hardly ever look back on my really old drawings. Mostly it happens by chance. But for cons I usually bring my big folder with me that contains everything I ever had as a print, so while people are browsing this at my booth I also get to see a lot of stuff again, that might be 6+ years old already 😳😆 . And this kind of experience is always a bit "special" 🤣🤣🤣🙈 I won't say that those drawings are bad, but I can clearly tell that, back then, the vision in my mind and the outcome that my skills allowed did not align most of the time 🤣🤣 (still happens nowadays as well sometimes but yeah 🤪) But seeing some older stuff motivated me to try out and see what has changed in all those years in direct comparison. How much closer I am now to really bring my vision to the canvas. . So.. for the very first time actually 🙃 I am doing a ~ draw this again ~ post. And I have to say this was a very interesting experiment for me 🧐 I really tried to keep the pose the same because I wanted to see the changes 🤔 And yeah, there is a lot of development that happens in 6 years 😱✍✨ . I remember being so proud of this back then 😆🙈🙈 And it brings back some bitter memories as well, because this was the first artwork that was stolen from me and sold online 😭😤🔥 But it was also the reason why I decided to try and go to conventions and sell stuff myself 💪💖 This art work will forever hold a very special mix of nostalgic and also melancholic emotions for me. . I think the biggest takeaway for me is, that I feel a lot more confident nowadays concerning the gap between my vision and my drawing skills 💪💖✨ And also that there is always something I can and will learn if I continue practicing.  It might not be huge changes from month to month or from year to year, but they will keep on adding to the big picture ✨✨👌 . Anyway, I hope you enjoy what you see! 😖 What are your thoughts on artists posting their development and revisiting old drawings? 🤔🙂 . . My PATREON

#YOI #yoi fanart #victor #Yuri on ice #victor nikiforov #draw this again

[akfamilyhome]

YouTube 2023 Year in Review

Welp! Guess it's that time of year again. I'm sure 2023 has been a...pretty interesting year to say for quite a few people. And for me personally, it's also been a weird little year that's great in some parts and could be better in others.

What have I been up to?

My life right now is kinda divided into three parts:

A) the "IRL" stuff, as in working on my editing day job and spending time with family.

B) working on YouTube videos which I still have the passion for,

and C) playing video games, collecting cool things and socializing with my online friends.

I've always felt that it's difficult for me to put equal attention to all three, and lately, it definitely feels like I'm focusing on 'A' and 'C' more. Of course, my day job is kinda how I make a living at the moment so that obviously gets priority, but that doesn't mean I want to ignore my YouTube stuff! It's just hard to sneak in a few lines of script-writing while multitasking at a day job, and only being able to freely spend time on 'B' and 'C' during night isn't the most productive way to go about things, especially with other things that aren't YouTube production. I also have games I want to play, art I want to draw, folks I'd like to hang out with etc.

And that's a fine, healthy way of going about things online for regular folks! But I don't want my YouTube channel to stagnate as a result of this, because I still love making videos! I have support from folks on Patreon, and I still hope to continue growing the channel so that it becomes more sustainable to do frequent updates.

Part of me has always thought about just quitting my day job once I have a decent amount of money saved up and just try doing YouTube full-time and rely on Patreon, even if there's a very low chance it'd be sustainable. Of course, that's a big gamble, and I'm not truly sure if that's really the best way to go about things. But those are just my inner thoughts and I've rambled long enough...

So, I apologize for the above situation sort of being the root cause of the recent slower pace of my YouTube channel! The pace of the channel this year is about the same as in 2022, if not a little slower. I didn't really get a lot of dormant scripts from 2020-2021 off the ground, but being true to what I said in last year's Year in Review, I did end up working on a lot of spontaneous ideas even if there wasn't a "big" core video! In fact, I think almost every video released in 2023 that we'll discuss below were spontaneous ideas.

I'll talk more about what's to come for the channel in the end of the post, but for now, as usual, we'll take a look at each video I made during 2023 and I'll share my thoughts and some fun facts about each!

A Trip to the Hong Kong Kirby Pop-Up Store

Various things were put up on the channel from January to March, including a funny little short for Mario Day and a new trailer for a revamped Patreon, but the major thing I put out was a look at the Kirby Pop-Up Store in Hong Kong! This was my first time doing a scripted documentation of an in-person event, and Nintendo Hong Kong would eventually do more events like Nintendo Live 2023 Hong Kong, and I'll definitely be talking about them on my channel eventually!

As for fun facts...uhh...I suppose Patreon patrons get to see the full unedited raw footage I took from the event lol

Top 10 Nintendo Trivia You NEVER Knew

This year's April Fools video...was also a last-minute sort of idea, if I recall correctly! The concept is simple: it's a parody of generic Top 10 trivia videos in terms of presentation, but the curveball is instead of just doing other blatantly obvious fun facts, the facts would actually be super obscure, inconsequential Nintendo facts that barely anyone would've known about, so in the end it's kind of a legit trivia video in a twisted way. The facts in the video were sourced from new research, me asking friends for suggestions and some of my old posts on Twitter, so there were a few 'fun' facts that were left on the cutting room floor, and here's a good place to share them!

In an early version of the GameCube instruction manual, Mario 64 was used as a placeholder game

The infamous 'black box' in Super Mario 64 DS is not a visual glitch as commonly believed, and briefly appears in E3 2004 footage

Prototype screenshots of Mario 64 have appeared in an early print of the game's box art...and on a Nintendo Monopoly board in 2006 (next to the ? Block on the right side of the board if you're looking)

The Onion in Hey! Pikmin has white and purple in its colors, even though white and purple Pikmin never appear in the game

The original 3DS had two separate sets of black & white colors, for some reason

And to finally come clean...yes, around 30% of the video's script was generated using ChatGPT, as part of the joke. Mostly the introductory bits at the beginning of each segment, since it definitely did not give me the results I wanted when I asked it to describe the specific details of each fact, so y'know, hopefully that's a sign it's not coming for my job of talking about obscure Nintendo things! And don't worry, this will probably be the only time I ever use AI in my videos.

The Better N64 Wavebird Experience

This is a follow-up to a 2021 video where I also used the N64 Switch Online controller on an original N64, albeit with a different adapter! This actually isn't a case where I received a free product to do a review on, I just happened to read about a better alternative, pre-ordered it online, it arrived in April and I decided to knock out a quick review/comparison video in 2 days!

As such, this is more of standard informative review video, but in all honesty, I still really like this setup, and it's in my opinion still one of the best controller options for original N64 games. So much so, that I recently completed my NSO controller collection by picking up a Sega Mega Drive 6-button NSO controller to eventually use with my original Mega Drive! I'm still looking for the compatible 8bitDo adapter though, so maybe when I eventually do, that can be a quick little video on the Plus channel for patrons!

The Most Expensive amiibo

This is my favorite video I put out this year! The Qbby amiibo has always been in my sights for a while, and I've gone on record saying that I'd make a video on it if I got my hands on one.

Back in 2019, I once saw a Qbby amiibo being offered on Yahoo Auctions for a relatively cheap price, but to afford it I asked for extra donations via Ko-fi. Looking back on it now there were probably better options I could've taken, but either way the listing got cancelled and I refunded everyone who donated for that. Then sometime later I saw another relatively cheap BOXBOY package in a local listing, but then the seller never replied and deleted the listing, so the amiibo has eluded me until now, and there seems to be no signs of Qbby stock going down any time soon. My hope for a Qbby reprint continues, and hopefully this video still serve as a little awareness boost for folks who are wondering why he's one of the most expensive amiibo around!

Some of the gag editing on this one got spruced up a little bit which I enjoyed doing, but you also probably noticed that I got a turntable specifically for those glamour shots! ...yeah, I'll probably get more use of that thing later on as well.

The Kirby Battle Royale online joke wasn't exaggeration: I couldn't find anyone to play online with! I suppose that is to be expected for, y'know, playing a mid 3DS game in 2023, but it's a shame that Kirby Battle Royale doesn't at least offer a option to play with friends, and from some experimentation, it seems that two of my US-based friends were able to match with each other online while I couldn't, which also suggested some region-based matchmaking was at play. Oh well! There are some better 3DS games out there that I'd still like to play online one last time before their servers shut down this April.

Tetris...on a McDonald's Nugget

Continuing the trend of 'make video on a recent find' for the third video in a row, it's the China-exclusive McDonald's Tetris Chicken McNugget! For an unscripted Things of Interest video, it turned out pretty well, kinda like the Rhythm Tengoku arcade video in 2022! Compared to the first unscripted TOI back in like 2018, I've definitely gotten a bit better at rambling since.

I was kind of a few days late to the party, and some other videos about the Tetris Nugget from larger channels have racked up more views since, but that's not really the point! As a casual Tetris fan that happens to be in proximity to mainland China, something as bizarre as this is totally right up my alley. Covering China-exclusive gaming stuff just kinda reminds me that I have yet to do a video on the iQue Player though, which I really want to...

FlashBoy Plus: The $95 Virtual Boy Flashcart

I haven't really taken a YouTube sponsorship deal yet, but I do get emails about doing reviews or ad reads of items on occasion, like new Switch gaming accessories from different third parties and whatnot. Unfortunately, that's not really the type of stuff I do regularly on the channel unless I find a great angle to tackle it from, so the only review offer I've done on the channel until now is a limited Switch physical release in 2020.

When I was offered to review the FlashBoy Plus, I was definitely intrigued despite having already previously covered the HyperFlash 32, a technically better option! Virtual Boy flashcarts are already a very niche thing, so I gladly took the opportunity to take a look at any new option out there, and even if it's not a mainstream topic at all it does kinda appeal to me specifically.

In the video, I mentioned the (very cool looking) clear cartridge shell was not a publicly available option yet at the time of the review, but looking at the order site now, it has been added since! So hey, good for them! It is honestly pretty sick to have a transparent Virtual Boy cartridge.

Playing PC Games with the SNES Mouse & Famicom Keyboard

I started work on the next core video right after the FlashBoy Plus video (more on that in the last section), but getting sick during early December forced me to delay it, so for that month I decided to do one last spontaneous idea: a followup to the 2021 video where I used the Famicom keyboard and SNES Mouse on a computer...but this time on a proper PC!

A thing that was brought up in the comments was one setting in particular: when I was changing the mouse settings in the Control Panel, there was a 'Enhance pointer precision' option that I didn't uncheck, which presumably slows down the mouse for precise movements. There wasn't a super noticeable difference when I unchecked it during further testing, but when I coupled it with further increasing the mouse sensitivity in games that allow you to change it in-game, I was actually able to get the SNES Mouse to move at a decent pace in some games! Of course, that requires tweaking with additional settings that would normally be overkill for a regular mouse, so it's still not practical, but at least there was a setup that would alleviate some of my complaints in the video.

Akfamilyhome Plus videos

Over on my second channel Akfamilyhome Plus, once again there's a variety of stuff! There's Mario Wonder memes, a new high quality video game rip album, archival footage and more. If there's one thing you should check out though, it's the supercuts of me playing Everybody 1-2-Switch with my Discord server. It's the best kind of chaos. Long live Kitchen Timer 4.

This year, 8 new unscripted bonus videos were released publicly! You can enjoy watching me:

Visit the 3DS eShop on its final day of operation

Check out the Nintendo DSi XL Demo Video carts

Look through gaming goodies on a Chinese second-hand market

Unseal Captain Toad Treasure Tracker for the 3DS

Read through the 2010 Nintendo Anti-Piracy Manual

Unbox a complete copy of the original GBA Play-Yan

Compare the two popular 3DS capture card models

And check out the Nintendo Power...rewritable cartridge!

And over on Patreon, 8 more exclusive videos are also available, featuring things like a slew of Nintendo cleaning kits, iQue DS games, the Chinese Mario Movie DVD and more! As always if you don't want to wait till some of them rotate into public availability, they're all available on Patreon for just $1 USD a month!

The fuuuuture

Okay, so what's next for 2023?

I mean 2024. Oh god the typos are already starting.

Right before the FlashBoy Plus video came out, in late June 2023, I did a video topic poll on Patreon, asking what idea I should do next. Out of the four options given, one of them is a continuation of a limbo project from 2021, and the other three were spontaneous new core video ideas I came up with and wanted to do.

Well, one of the spontaneous new ideas won the poll, so the next core video is...

A look at the camera and sound apps on both the Nintendo DSi and 3DS! I originally wanted to get this out in December, and you all know what happened to that plan, BUT the script is done, the VO recording is done, footage recording is well underway and I am confident I'll be able to get it out this January. I really like how the script for this one shaped up and am commissioning some banger thumbnail art for it (🐦), so I REALLY hope you'll look forward to it!

Afterwards, there are a few in-progress ideas that I also want to work on for quick videos afterwards. As mentioned above, I visited Nintendo Live 2023 Hong Kong which was hosted on November, and ALSO the Nintendo Hong Kong Pop-Up Store which is running from December to January, so both of those would make for a perfect video in a similar vein as the Kirby Pop-Up Store video last year!

I also went on a trip to Japan last August, and took quite a bit of photos and footage. I still want to share my findings and experiences of being in Tokyo for the first time that I could remember, so there will be a fun little piece about that going on the Plus channel in the future!

And don't forget, I'm making a video about every game I beat during 2023, continuing the thing I started last year!

And after ALL of the above is done, I still have the remaining core video ideas from the June Patreon poll I did, since I did say I'd eventually love to do all of them, and that desire still hasn't gone away. I don't know how the rest of 2024 will go for this channel but I'd say this is a fantastic starting point, and I hope it'll all go up from there, since I'd really love to be more productive on here, while trying to keep that A-B-C balance in check!

So yeah! That's it for the 2023 Year in Review. If you've made it all the way to the bottom, thank you for reading! Here's a 25-use invite link to my Discord server as a little something! Thank you to all of you who've supported me this past year, whether you're a viewer or a patron, and I hope to keep up the work this year and try to strive for better!

#akfamilyhome words #year in review #Youtube