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#time and what you create and etc in order to create a Brand is the most important thing– or rather a DEFINING thing– about being an artist
seilon · 1 year
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god I wish I could rip Instagram apart with my teeth I hate it I hate it I hate it
#kibumblabs#whenever I think about it and what it does (in general but mostly to artists) I go into a feral anti-capitalist blind rage#it is legitimately killing art. it is killing what it means to be an artist and replacing it with corporate brainrot#and it’s disgusting to me to think about kids going into art and getting brainwashed into believing you should sacrifice agency over your#time and what you create and etc in order to create a Brand is the most important thing– or rather a DEFINING thing– about being an artist#it’s just. god it makes me mad#I won’t even get into how it also rips your mental health to shreds and strips your ego and ability to enjoy what you do and etc#but you know. there’s that too#I could write a fucking essay on this man and maybe I should at some point honestly#what’s sad though is that the Instagram art account mentality is already so normalized and so in-line with how companies/corporations like#disney or blizzard or basically any animation/game company and whatnot work that it’s easy to have that mindset reinforced by comparison to#those ‘legitimate’ non-freelance jobs#like that’s how they do it at fucking riot games or whatever so it must be the Right Way To Do Art. constantly and painfully by everyone#else’s standards but your own. no! it’s not! stop sucking the industry’s dick and look up for a second#and yes that applies to freelancers because like I said this new freelance art mentality directly corresponds with how corporate art jobs#operate. just. think about it on an existential long-term level. you shouldn’t fucking waste your life for that shit#sorry I’m kinda spiraling cause it’s such a personally relevant topic especially with recently stepping out of art school and debating if#I’ll return or not next semester and all that because yeah my school is a direct pipeline into The Industry and thus it operates like#The Industry. and I thought that was something that’s a pro when I was going into this school but boy. it really hits you when you’re#slogging away worked to the point of carpal tunnel/wrist problems being a normal and accepted thing being expected to sacrifice your#physical and mental health and so on just#oh! this is going to be my life from now on. forever. this isn’t temporary to get a degree this is a model of the industry im being injected#into and if anything it’s just going to get worse staying in this pipeline. Don’t Forget You’re Here Forever#and yeah I just. how do you continue under those conditions and expectations?#I don’t know what I’m gonna do yet man- I’m gonna get a bachelors it just may be at a state college instead– but beyond that idk but it’s#become too taxing on my time and health to just say ‘it is how it is’ and do something that’ll kill me slowly for a company’s profit.#something something marx was right something something
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femmefatalevibe · 11 months
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Femme Fatale Guide: Tips On How To Be A High-Value Woman
Table of Contents:
Prioritize Your Self-Respect Above All Else
Set & Uphold Clear Boundaries in Every Area of Life
Make A Deliberate Effort To Discover Your Values, Passions, & Boundaries
Build A Strong Personal Brand & Cult of Personality
Center All Aspects of Your Health & Well-Being
Read, Study, & Build A Strong Skillset
Consistently Invest in Your Appearance
Remain Dedicated To Lifelong Learning
Personalize Your Interactions & Learn Proper Etiquette
Master The Art of Engaging Conversation
Become Extremely Discreet Yet Utterly Shameless
Embrace Growth Without Succumbing To Your Perfectionist Expectations
HOW TO BE A HIGH-VALUE WOMAN:
Prioritize Your Self-Respect Above All Else: Get goals and standards that align with your needs in every area of life (career, finances, physical/mental/sexual health, emotional well-being, friends, family, intimate relationships, self-development). Express and act in alignment with your standards and dreams. Don't allow the displeasure of others to dictate your actions or daily activities.
Set & Uphold Clear Boundaries in Every Area of Life: State them calmly and clearly. "No" is a complete sentence. Reciprocate this effort to others. Practice the art of discernment, differentiation, and interdependence. Get to know yourself, and learn how to observe your needs independently of others' expectations and desires.
Make A Deliberate Effort To Discover Your Values, Passions, & Boundaries: Figure out what matters most to you in life. What activities, topics, aesthetics, art, clothing, hobbies, sounds, movements, books, television shows, movies, songs, and types of conversations most light you up inside? Here are some resources to guide your self-discovery journey HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Build A Strong Personal Brand & Cult of Personality: I have more tips on building your personal brand, creating your persona (or ‘Dream Girl archetype’), and an ultimate Femme Fatale playbook linked HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Center All Aspects of Your Health & Well-Being: Physical, Mental, Emotional, Sexual, and Spiritual. Celebrate your needs – they make you human. Eat a healthful, plant-based diet, exercise and walk daily, meditate, read at least 10 pages a day, journal, make to-do lists, declutter your space, self-pleasure, recite your affirmations, lean into shadow and mirror work, create morning and nighttime routines. Feeling in alignment is essential to allowing your magnetic aura to shine through. Find all my tips to cultivate self-regard in every area of life HERE.
Read, Study, & Build A Strong Skillset: Designing the life of your dreams is an inevitable aspect of living in your queen energy. Stay informed, read books and articles on your industry, interests, current events, cultural happenings, history, and any other topic that brings you joy or you would find intriguing if someone brought up the subject at a dinner party. Mastering an evergreen skillset is essential for succeeding in your career or building a business. Living in your queen energy means living in abundance. While queen energy is a mindset, it is impossible to fully live in this dream reality without having passions and your finances in order. Start with my entire Femme Fatale booklist HERE and guide to building your dream career HERE.
Consistently Invest in Your Appearance: Choose between investing time, money, or extra effort into upkeeping a polished style, beauty, grooming, and physique-maintaining routine. Wear clean, wrinkle-free, well-fitting clothes – styled and accessorized in a way that appears thoughtful & put together with impeccable grooming (clean hair, nails, skin, etc.). Stay consistent with your beauty/makeup/skincare routines, smelling nice daily, and maintain a scheduled routine (weekly, monthly, every 6 weeks, etc.) for specific treatments that make your life easier and make all the difference. These practices don't need to cost a lot of money. You choose to spend more money, time, or effort on these practices, depending on your personal preferences and based on your lifestyle and circumstances.
Remain Dedicated To Lifelong Learning: Make it a priority to read a few articles and 10 pages of a book daily. Ensuring keep up with your learning & education on different topics and the world is fulfilling and enables you to enter into a wider pool of conversations. This practice also strengthens your mind, sharpens focus, and helps your brain relax.
Personalize Your Interactions & Learn Proper Etiquette: Address people by name, and offer a firm handshake. Maintain eye contact. Say "please" and "thank you." RSVP promptly. Communicate clearly and compassionately. Make the person feel special and like the only individual in the room while introducing yourself. It’s the secret to leaving a lasting impression, 
Master The Art of Engaging Conversation: Prioritizing self-presentation, learning how to listen, holding your own, and encouraging others to feel relaxed are the secrets to becoming magnetic in any social situation. Be mindful of how much you listen (more) and speak (less). Carefully consider your tonality and word choice. Remember and recounter the small details of another person’s anecdote that felt important to them. Acknowledge their emotions and validate them. Read more of my tips HERE. 
Become Extremely Discreet Yet Utterly Shameless: Do as you please, but keep your business (or pleasure) to yourself. Privacy is peace, power, bliss, and radiates quiet confidence – the greatest telltale sign that someone is living in her queen energy. Learn to hold your own. You will be guaranteed to earn respect within seconds of gracing anyone's presence.
Embrace Growth Without Succumbing To Your Perfectionist Expectations: Remember that every skill, successful relationship, and goal takes time and experience. No one has it all figured out. It’s okay if you’re not where you expected to be or desire to be at this stage of your life. Stop comparing yourself – we all have our own paths. Choose to do one small thing every day to make your life better – either a step towards reaching a goal or indulging in a deep desire. Ensure there's a healthy (not necessarily equal) balance between the two. Leave your future self better than you found your past self. Express compassion towards yourself and acknowledge that you’re doing your best. Everything starts to make considerably more sense in hindsight. 
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csuitebitches · 11 months
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Rebranding Yourself Online using ChatGPT
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Summary from “Brand Aid: Taking control of your reputation before everyone else does” by Larry G Linne and Patrick Sitkins. This book is from the early 2010s so some things are outdated and not exactly applicable. It’s also a more corporate/ business focused book. I took away what i felt were the major lessons and were more applicable to young adults/ teens/ people on social media today (because social media in 2013 vs today is very different).
I also wanted to add my own input to the summary. I’ve added prompts for ChatGPT that you can use to help figure your personal brand out better.
When rebranding yourself online, I would highly recommend:
1. Archive all your personal Instagram account’s posts (if you have an online business, create a separate page and show very little of yourself). Remove all your stories and highlights. Deactivate your account for at least 8 months.
2. Spend the next 8 months building your social media strategy, your personal brand and reinventing yourself in any way and form you want to (mental, physical, spiritual, etc).
3. Use Pinterest and figure out a theme that defines you the best. Take a look at @mafeanzures
————————-
* A brand is what people think of you.
Questions to ask yourself:
1. What do you think other people think of you?
2. What personal attributes would you benefit from the most if those items were well known to everyone?
Question 1 and 2 in the next few prompts refers to these 2 questions.
ChatGPT prompts after you finish writing down the above answers:
“I want to develop my personal brand on instagram (or any one social media site at a time). Currently I’m seen as a (2 of the most negative qualities and 2 of the most positive qualities from question 1). I want to be seen as (4 of the most positive qualities from question 2). What should I do to be seen as that?”
This will give you a STRATEGY that you can further modify.
Now, ask the same question again but with one change:
“I want to develop my personal brand on instagram (or any one social media site at a time). Currently I’m seen as a (2 of the most negative qualities and 2 of the most positive qualities from question 1). I want to be seen as (4 of the most positive qualities from question 2). What should I post online to be seen as that?”
This will give you CONTENT that you should consider posting.
**
* It is very likely that if you are to meet someone new and you’re aware you’re going to meet them, you’ll check their social media out. Whether its LinkedIn, facebook, twitter, instagram… keep your online presence clean.
* Before you post ANYTHING online, ask yourself: “how will this affect my brand?” If you post a story about a nasty break up/ a friendship falling apart/ a negative restaurant review… how do you think other people will see you? Be extremely mindful of your brand and what you post online.
* Rather than the age old advice “just be yourself”, look at “just be your best self.”
**
7 steps to a great brand:
1. Write down what you think people think of you: both positive and negative
2. Determine your goals in life (career, family, etc). What brand items do you need to get there? For example, the brand item “intelligent” to move up the corporate ladder. What will you need in order to be perceived as intelligent?
3. Gap analysis: the difference between point 1 (current situation) and point 2 (desired situation).
4. Develop action items. For example, if you want to be seen as innovative at work, start bringing ideas to meetings.
5. Influences on your brand: your dress, style, voice tone and quality, health, recreation, the car you drive, social environments, where you live, the language you speak, the subjects of your conversations, social media postings all impact your brand.
6. List what you must do to protect your brand. For example: not drinking in public; dressing a certain way; etc.
7. Review every 6 months.
Ask ChatGPT: “I am (ethnicity) (gender), (age) years old based in (City, country). Currently I’m seen as a (2 of the most negative qualities and 2 of the most positive qualities from question 1). My viewers would mostly be people from (conservative/liberal/ rural/ urban/ define audience. In case there are two audience types, ask one at a time) backgrounds. I want to be seen as (4 of the most positive qualities from question 2). What behaviours should I not engage in?”
**
Using the power of “always”: 5 specific things you pride on yourself for doing regularly.
“I always take the time to be updated in my field of work.”
“I always volunteer every Sunday.”
**
Things to keep in mind:
A. Are you easy to find online?
B. Is your content consistent?
C. Do your pictures, videos convey your personal brand?
D. What will enhance your brand?
E. What will damage your brand?
Ask ChatGPT: “I want to develop my personal brand on instagram (or any one social media site at a time). Currently I’m seen as a (2 of the most negative qualities and 2 of the most positive qualities from question 1). I want to be seen as (4 of the most positive qualities from question 2). What can potentially damage my brand if I’m not careful?”
**
If you are willing to see what you are doing and saying on the front page of a newspaper tomorrow, proceed with it. If you wouldn’t want it on the front page of the newspaper, STOP immediately.
**
More things to keep in mind:
1. The internet amplifies everything
2. Context matters
3. Consistency is everything
4. Your “at home” brand is as important as “outside of home” brand
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the-eternal-child · 5 months
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So I was just singing Spy x Family's praises to my friend (as you do), and it occurred to me that the characters' backstories may be revealed in the order they were introduced: Twilight>Anya>Yor.
We know that each member of the main cast has had painful childhood experiences (honestly, I wouldn't even know how to rank who had it worse because each is its own brand of hell), it could make perfect sense to introduce the backstories sequentially or it could be introduced as leading themes into current plotlines. Who knows?
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Chapter 90.5 has us all waiting with baited breath to see if we're getting Anya's backstory or not and I think if we are getting another look into someone's past, Anya's makes the most sense. Though Endo could be a complete tease and not give us anything for another 10 chapters 😭.
Twilight's backstory provided some great context into his past and what led to his current emotional struggles, setting the context for why he holds fast to his goal of 'creating a peaceful world' while fighting his losing battle of loving his new little family (especially the mole arc hoooboy!).
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We already have in story context for Project Apple, we know it's existence, that there was human and animal experimentation (Anya and Bond) and that the subjects were being used for political goals somehow. We had the lead up of little bread crumbs along the way like she might have 'escaped the lab', her random knowledge of classical language, etc. Now would be a good time to start working toward weaving that story more fully into the main plot line (Random aside but has anyone ever noticed Desmond has 2 scars on the side of his head like Frankenstein's screws?).
I think Yor's backstory is still quite a ways off. There's still too much we don't know about Garden, I think, for them to introduce her backstory and how she met them. They're shady af, we don't know what their motives are, who they work for, nothing!
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I mean, was anyone else worried when Yor mentioned Loid took a liking to Desmond and Shopkeeper was like 'oh really?'. That was so sinister, and it was never mentioned again! Makes me feel like a setup to him digging into Loid Forger or something.
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Bringing in Garden's orgins seems like material leading up to identity reveals between Yor and Twilight, and the story just isn't there yet. So Anya it is and I'm so ready but I'm so NOT!
Anyhow, thank you for listening to me ramble about this series that has taken over my life! Have a good day! BYYYYYEEEEEEE!
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shehangsthemoon · 7 months
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To anyone out there that may be reading this… hi.
My name is Sam. I am 33 years old, married, and drifting through life like a plastic bag. Which might sound negative, but it’s not all bad. I create stained glass from my home, and I’ve been trying to build and run a brand new business with absolutely no prior experience or knowledge. I also also work a part time job at the zoo, and I do gig driving when needed.
Lately I’ve been avoiding glass to do literally ANYTHING else. Escaping into the worlds of Witcher III or TOTK, painting/watercolor, digital art (Procreate), photography, taking long baths, doom scrolling, ordering craft and “cosplay” supplies from Temu, creating blogs, etc.
I actually am glad the idea of a blog came to me today. I struggle with depression, general and social anxiety, PTSD, and lord knows what else. I’ve gone untreated for a majority of my life, and pretty recently started my journey to becoming better.
The reason I am bringing this up is because, this morning, while having a mild meltdown about finances, I realized I needed to make a change, for myself, and for my business.
Social media (Meta) has become a monster to me. It’s too polarized; I get interaction one day, the next, nothing. And it doesn’t lead to sales. I, like most people, don’t understand the algorithm, and I know it’s not designed to be understood. It’s also too competitive for my baby business, and if we’re being completely honest, I have been relying on those likes and follows WAY too much. When I don’t receive that instant gratification or feedback, I fall into negative or fearful behaviors/thinking, and none of that is conducive to my, or my business’ growth.
I’d like to use this platform to share my glass work and trials and tribulations of running a small business in a recession, but I would also like to utilize it as a kind-of-journal. I promise I will not be sharing extreme or in depth details from my life (unless asked), but my therapist told me to put my feelings down somewhere. He probably very explicitly meant somewhere private, but whatever. Oh god, is this the introvert’s answer to starting a podcast?
Anyway, some other things that you can probably expect to see or hear from me:
- Any creative projects I am working on, including my own photography and editing,
- fantasy,
- art, music, television, books I like,
- gaming,
- self realization and integration,
- self love and self care,
- burn out and compassion fatigue,
- tarot/astrology (I’m a beginner),
- pictures of my cats.
If you took the time to read this, THANK YOU. Please stay a while.
Sam
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drdemonprince · 9 months
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How do you feel about “weaponized incompetence”
I see a lot of people talking about it, and I know it can definitely be a thing that people do purposefully, but so many things that fall under the umbrella seem like things that some neurodivergent people tend to struggle with.
I don't think a person needs to be consciously or intentionally weaponizing incompetence in order to leverage it for their benefit. Due to forces like systemic sexism, sometimes a weaponized incompetence dynamic plays out without anybody meaning it to.
Now of course, weaponized incompetence is absolutely a dynamic that some people deliberately create (famously, a husband or boyfriend knowingly washing the dishes poorly so his partner never asks him to do it again), but more often than not, it's the byproduct of capitalist overwork and alienation meeting sexist norms that play out on an intuitive level rather than some malicious, evil plan.
My ex-partner absolutely benefitted from weaponized incompetence; he was also almost certainly an undiagnosed ADHDer who was struggling, and not a bad guy. From my perspective, it didn't matter. I still ended up having to pay the bills, sign us up for all the utilities, figure out a new place to live three different times when our rent went up, hire the movers, remind him to get a new ID when his old one was expired and we had a flight coming up, find him a dentist when his tooth was aching, help him write emails for his work when he first got a job, ask him to clean things rather than being able to trust he would contribute, make all the decisions regarding decluttering the house, take care of our pet, etc etc etc.
He deserved more help than he ever got, as a (very likely) disabled person living under capitalism. But I also covered him and shouldered his life burdens in a way that made me miserable and offloaded a lot of his responsibilities onto me. It drove me nuts and made me dysphoric to admit it, but a large part of how we wound up in that dynamic was systemic sexism, because he was a cishet man and I wasn't.
All that said, and my considerable real-life biases having been put on the table, I do think it's the case that many disabled people are unfairly accused of 'weaponizing incompetence' when all that they've done is express a limitation as clearly as they possibly could, which ought to be a good thing. There is nothing wrong or manipulative with asking for help, or for articulating what you are and are not capable of as honestly as you can. (And this honest communication piece was absent in the relationship I am describing; he wouldn't even acknowledge that he wasn't and could not contribute to maintaining a life together in any practical way. When I tried to name that dynamic, he would shut down, walk away, say things were going to change without any plan for how that might happen, etc).
In much the same way that an excited Autistic person who is infodumping or communicating super clearly in order to be helpful can be unfairly branded a "mansplainer", lots of disabled people are seen unfairly as manipulative, lying about their limitations, taking advantage of other people, lazy, and weaponizing incompetence.
The trope of the fake disabled person who is just gaming the system cuts deep. It's pervasive and it's responsible for a lot of social problems that disabled people face, from impossibly difficult benefits applications programs, to cruel teachers who refuse to provide the accommodations to which their students are entitled, to abusive and neglectful partners who fail to meet their disabled loved one's needs. Arguably I even was one of those partners, even if I did have genuine reasons for grievance and very real disabilities of my own.
The reality is that the lines between all these things can be blurred, as a person's intent and their impact can be wildly different. people who are doing their best can still leverage sexism and leave a partner feeling taken advantage of. And a partner who feels taken advantage of can have real reasons for feeling that way and can also still be ableist, or even cruel and unfair to their disabled loved one. it's tough.
Thanks for the great question, it is one I think about a lot for obvious reasons.
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karlie-what-you-want · 3 months
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Grammy Voting, Record Labels, and Reputation…
An anonymous source with industry connections has provided me with some interesting context on the academy and has given me permission to share. I personally found it very eye-opening—just another layer or two that most of us would not even be aware of when considering things like awards, touring, and the power of record labels. Let’s begin.
* Grammy voting - 40% musical merit, 60% business
What does this mean? My source estimates that about 40% of the judging is based upon the content of the song/album/body of work being presented. Is the song actually good? Is the album sonically cohesive and coherent as a whole? What are the technical aspects that deserve recognition? Etc. This is what we, the audience, generally expect the Academy to be voting on, but that’s not all there is too it. In fact, my source feels that their estimation of 40% may actually be too generous based on what they have seen, because the business aspects of voting carry a lot more weight (again, roughly 60%, which means the business side matters more).
Look at it this way. Grammys are a form of currency in the music industry. Having a Grammy on a track or a record gives that project more exposure and more value, as well as being an excellent marketing ploy. The highest honor, the biggest gold star. So…
* Labels trade votes
According to my source, voting season is a big deal. A big part of the daily schedule for label executives at this time revolves around trading those votes. If you have something to offer, your artist will stand more of a chance. For example:
“Can you and your team vote for [my artist A] for album of the year?”
“Yes, but in exchange, I’d like you and yours to vote for [my artist B] for song of the year.”
Alternatively, and potentially more interestingly…
“Give me your votes this year, and next year, I will have my A-list artist give a collab and a few words of praise to your new up-and-coming artist whose first album you’re making right now.”
We’ve seen how much a little recognition can catapult a new artist into the stratosphere of fame and success. An IG story feature from Taylor is basically like having the light of god shine upon a new artist, and suddenly they’re not an obscure indie artist, but a shiny brand with big associations. Look at Conan Gray, Olivia Rodrigo, Girl in Red, Gracie Abrams. Allison were at varying levels of fame before Taylor acknowledged them, but they are massively famous now with a strong foothold in the industry that goes beyond their respective genres.
Please note, I’m not saying that Taylor is in charge of these things or at fault. I’m talking about the labels specifically, and the inner workings of them. I would imagine a lot of artists just do as they are instructed.
* Artists vs Labels, Labels vs Labels
It’s important to have a menial understanding of the labels themselves. The “Big Three” as it were (UMG, Warner, and Sony), while not technically being a conglomerate, have put in place a system of major cooperation. This is especially true for the big account labels.
What are big account labels? Well, using Sony as an example, they have a lot of “sub labels.” Some of these Sony created themselves, others they have bought. A lot of this is division by style. That said, a lot of the BIG accounts are with Columbia (Beyoncé, Springsteen, Adele, Bowie, and…oh hey, look, 1D, John Mayer, Calvin Harris…). For a lot of big accounts, this is where the vote trading happens. It determines who gets the best tour dates, the best venues, and in some ways, it stops mattering what label you have at this point—because there are so many outside factors.
* Yes, Grammy votes are even negotiated against touring dates and venues
My source has seen Grammy votes be traded in favor of freeing up a couple of nights at the O2, a big venue in London. When we look at these huge stadiums that popular artists often tour in, we have to remember how much has to be juggled in order to secure those dates. Many of those stadiums exist primarily for sporting events, so that is a big portion of any given year taken off of potential tour dates. Ie “You can’t perform there on any of these nights, because there’s a game happening.”
Tour dates and venues are often negotiated, planned, and booked years in advance. Oftentimes, a tour will be booked before the artist has even finished working on their album. Taylor’s next tour is probably booked already, or is being booked right now.
With that in mind, competition is going to be even higher for the nights that remain open. And how many artists are gunning to play at those stadiums? How can it be divided fairly and evenly? Well, it probably can’t, but that’s where the vote trading comes back into play. There is a lot of politics, trading, back-scratching, and back-stabbing going on regarding these things.
Let’s think of it in terms of X-Factor winners. They are all signed to Sony upon their victory—a huge label with plentiful resources and successful artists. But, Sony knows that most of the winners don’t actually find success in the industry, so are they going to invest time, money, and resources into the winners when they already see that track record? Of course not. My source says that in one particular year they have knowledge of, the season’s winner did not have a single person at the label assigned to them. Nobody to advocate, nobody to plan, nobody to book tours.
If a label loses interest or thinks you’re too much of a liability, they can simply let the contract expire (and potentially your career along with it).
In that regard, I can imagine how frustrating it would be to be signed to a label. You go on bright eyed and hopeful, excited that you got signed because you think that this will open up so many new opportunities for you. Then you discover that your label might not book you any shows at the best venues (or any venues at all), and you’re not allowed to perform without their permission. You don’t have much to negotiate with because you’re a new artist, so how can you ever prove yourself?
Alternatively, you’re a veteran artist who’s suddenly being neglected, but you notice the new artist without any released work is being promoted and getting all sorts of opportunities that you used to have. You don’t realize everything at play behind the curtain; all you know is that this thing that was supposed to put you ahead in the industry has now put you very far behind. Which brings me to…
* Why was Reputation snubbed during its Grammy season?
I’d imagine that if you’ve read this far, it’s all coming together for you now. In Miss Americana, we watched Taylor’s heart break over Reputation not being acknowledged by the Academy. She tearfully resolved to just make a better album. But there was so much more at play here.
We now know that during Reputation era, Taylor was in a battle with Scott B. and her label—hoping to secure her freedom. She wanted the rights to her work, and likely the freedom to show the world her true self. My source says that when Big Machine executives failed to campaign for Taylor at all in that Grammy season, they knew something was very, very wrong behind the scenes. A successful artist like Taylor would usually be the bread and butter of their label, and they were not advocating for her.
It was not a lack of talent or merit that lost Reputation a Grammy (or even a nod), but the fact that she had pushed back against the label in hopes of owning her own work and determining the direction it would go. This struggle seemed to start back with 1989 when Taylor decided to go full “pop” against their wishes. I can’t help wondering if Taylor wanting desperately to live her truth openly also contributed to this, which would make it even more heartbreaking.
I know some people in the GP were puzzling over why Midnights won AOTY, and I’m sure many of us around here have been baffled by the lack of critical acclaim for Reputation. I, obviously, am a huge fan of Taylor’s and I love to see her talents recognized. I also just enjoy discovering more about the inner-workings of Hollywood and the music industry. Fresh off the Grammys seemed like a great time to share this “insider’s perspective” that I’ve become privy to.
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eldritch-spouse · 9 months
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I needs more Cleric _:(´ཀ`」 ∠):
What them tendrils do~ 
As the Cleric’s human can we convince them to mess with the rest of the Clergy staff? (When Krulu and Admin are away visiting Miara or something and before the doors open) 
Move things around, create random objects to trip others, lock all the doors, the floor is lava, etc etc 
While everyone is in the break room, before opening time, we drop a disco ball from the ceiling and play Never Gonna Give You Up on loop for the next hour (heard all over the building - you can’t escape it) 
[Those are strings actually. They can be used to restrain you, yes, but the Cleric doesn't pick up on any possible sexual uses until they see your reaction to being tied up.]
The Cleric is hard to make budge. At least initially so. They've been very well and thoroughly programmed to keep order around the establishment (well, keep the sort of chaotic order it features, more accurately). This means that any request worded in a way where it understands you just want to mess with workers and clients for no reason is blatantly rejected via ignoring your words entirely. You have to be a little smarter, and unfortunately, you can't fool them too many times- The Cleric will start losing what little trust they have in you so far.
The more time you spend around this creation, the more it learns to behave like a person, as you know. It'll learn to express itself in a more comprehensible way, and with expression comes also the ability to interact more properly, experience reactions with brand new contexts added onto them- Contexts it can now interpret in a social manner.
Thus, it discovers humor.
And by God, everything is so fucking funny to the Cleric.
Yeah sure, they can make the chandelier drop right on Vinnel's head while he performs, that's very funny, you're so smart!
Oh you want them to make Morell's knives constantly pop up in different areas of the kitchen? Done.
Should it trick Grimbly into dashing face first into a new wall?
Hey hey- Look! They're going to melt the floor on Patches' lab. Haha, look at him trying to crawl the walls.
The two of you giggle and howl in laughter as Santi is jostled like a milkshake inside the practically dancing elevator, groaning with each hit against hard metal.
Fank-e has been Rick rolled ten times in a single day and he's frying his circuits in frustration. You could probably cook an egg on him.
Since the Cleric knows no limits, things can escalate to legitimately worrying proportions if you enable it, so be careful. Rest assured there will be consequences...
Admin gets several concerning messages while away, consisting of all her employees complaining about the building becoming unstable and harmful, inoperable. Her and Krulu might have to make an early return.
And really, while the Cleric confusedly but immediately allows itself to be punished- You're probably better off trying to haul ass outside.
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An Inconclusive and Slightly Unhinged Analysis of the True Lab Entries from Undertale: And Why They May Be Significant to Deltarune.
There is very little I can add about the True Lab entries that hasn’t already been pointed out by the fandom many many times before, so this analysis is more of a re-telling of EVERYTHING rather than a suggestion of brand new theories, however… I will be throwing in a few details I noticed while extensively combing through each lab entry that may have been missed by other people (but again, I highly doubt it. I haven’t searched through every thread on reddit or tumblr etc. so if I’m repeating anything that others have already mentioned, then I apologise. I’m mostly just writing this to get all of my thoughts in order before I explode).
Nevertheless, I’m going to order this in chronological order based on the most well known facts/speculations, down to the least well known, and the speculations that I myself have been recently thinking about.
So what are the True Lab Entries?
Basically, the True Lab is only accessible when carrying out the True Pacifist Route and reaching (almost) the end of the game. After defeating Omega Flowey, you can travel back to Hotland and enter Alphys’s Lab like normal. This time, however, you will find a note on the ground reading:
Hey,
Thanks for your help back there. You guys… Your support really means a lot to me. But… as difficult as it is to say this… You guys alone can’t magically make my own problems go away. I want to be a better person. I don’t want to be afraid anymore. And for that to happen, I have to be able to face my own mistakes. I’m going to start doing that now.
I want to be clear. This isn’t anyone else’s problem but mine. But if you don’t ever hear from me again… If you want to know “the truth”. Enter the door to the north of this note. You all at least to deserve to know what I did.
Upon entering the door to the north of the note (the door with a bathroom sign on it), you find yourself in an elevator, which almost immediately breaks down when you try to ride it, and sends you plummeting down into what is known as the True Lab.
The True Lab is basically just the creepy basement where Alphys does all of her more shady experiments involving determination, or at least, the place where she kept all the monsters who’ve had determination injected into them after death. Now, however, all of those monsters have turned into sticky, melted “Amalgamates” and are being hidden away from the rest of the Underground and in particular, their families, who regularly send letters to Alphys asking where their family members are, only to be completely ghosted by her. I’m going to safely assume that everyone reading this knows all of this and therefore, I don’t need to continue on with this very long-winded explanation.
The most intriguing part about the True Lab are the Lab Entries, which are basically updates about experiments being logged as “entries” that can be read as the player wanders around the True Lab. They are numbered, but this is both painfully significant and also potentially not significant at all, so bear with me here. I’ll get back to this.
Who writes the Entries?
This is where we start to get into the meat of the True Lab, and also down the rabbit hole of speculation, so pretty much nothing beyond this point can be considered canon, apart from a few select details.
At first glance, it seems that all of the entries are written by Alphys, and indeed, a lot of them certainly are. Entry Number 11 is certainly proof of this:
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[“now that mettaton’s made it big, he never talks to me anymore… except to ask when i’m going to finish his body. but i’m afraid if i finish his body, he won’t need me anymore… then we’ll never be friends ever again… not to mention, every time i try to work on it, i just get really sweaty…”]
Obviously, we know that Alphys canonically created Mettaton’s body, so we know– at the very least– that this entry was written by Alphys. Because of this, people have assumed that she also wrote entries 9-13, and 18-21 (and maybe entry 16 and the second version of entry 17… again, I will get back to this). This is because the grammar and the capitalisation of letters at the beginning of the sentences (or rather, lack thereof) is the same throughout all of them (entry 16 is tricky to determine, because there are no sentences. It simply reads “no No NO NO NO NO NO”). Not only that but, again, a few have very Alphys-specific details in them, such as her spending time at the dump.
Now… this is where it gets Very, Very Interesting (for those who haven’t heard this shit thousands of times before because this is NOT new information, I promise). The rest of the entries are written COMPLETELY differently. I don’t just mean grammar-wise either (but it is noticeable that everything is properly capitalised, which tipped people off into thinking that these weren’t written by Alphys). What I haven’t really seen analysed before is how much the content of the entries don’t quite match up with Alphys’s timeline. Not to mention the fact that there are some very specific wording choices that caught my notice.
Entry number 4 and 8 are the ones that mostly confirm the theory that these weren’t written by Alphys, at least in my mind, by the simple fact that they mention Toriel (both directly and indirectly). Entry number 4 explains that the writer found the VHS tapes and we can glean from their wording that they watched them (why would they say that Asgore shouldn’t watch them if they didn’t know what was on them?) which means they heard audio footage of Toriel.
In entry number 8, they mention how they found a flower that appeared “just before the queen left”
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which means that they are aware of Toriel, and may have even interacted with her, if they were around before she left as well. I say all this because, unless Alphys is lying at the end of the Pacifist Route, she doesn’t recognise Toriel.
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(Yes it’s a screenshot from Jack’s playthrough, did you think I was gonna go through the full game for this one scene?)
None of the monsters really do, except for Sans, because Toriel left long before any of them were even born, judging by the timeline (which I’ll get to in a sec). Not only does Alphys not know the queen, but she also absolutely did not have anything to do with the first flower, and therefore did not create Flowey.
Think about the timeline for a second. Toriel left fairly soon after the original human’s death and after Asriel’s death, when Asgore started to take the souls of other human children. We can assume that, unless human children were literally dropping down every other week, it has been YEARS between the first human who fell and Frisk falling down. It could be anywhere from a few decades to potentially even centuries (I think I saw a timeline suggesting it had been about a hundred years since Chara fell?). Now, I’m sure many monsters probably have ridiculously long lifespans– clearly Toriel and Asgore do, but I honestly don’t buy the idea that Alphys was there when Asriel died and the queen left. I honestly don’t think she had anything to do with any of the experiments in the True Lab beyond the creation of the Amalgamates.
And, because of this, the reason why I’m sure she didn’t create Flowey is because Flowey had to be created fairly soon after Asriel died. We know that he was, because entry number 8 specifically mentions that the first flower was taken from the outside world, just after the queen left (“hang on,” I hear you say. “The entry says the flower appeared just after the queen left, not that it was taken. It could have been taken way later!” buttercups live for two months, next question). Now, this is where it gets a little tricky, because I think there are still some people who don’t quite understand how Flowey was created (believe me, I was one of them). The reason he has Asriel’s soul inside of him is because the dust from Asriel’s soul stuck to the flower and mixed with the determination that was injected into it. In entry number 10, which was written by Alphys, it’s mentioned that the seeds of the flowers “stick to you, and won’t let go” which is a nod towards how the dust stuck to the flower. This is why Flowey had to have been made very soon after Asriel’s death, which Alphys just was not there for (and yes, I know that isn’t technically confirmed canon, but I really don’t think the timelines match up in this case). Overall, I think it’s safe to assume that Alphys didn’t create Flowey.
However, going back to entry 10, we do know she worked on flowers. In fact, I think this is more solid evidence that Alphys didn’t specifically create Flowey, because the original experiment was on one, original flower. Whereas Alphys seems to work on multiple of them: “whatever. they’re a hassle to deal with anyway.”
I also don’t think that Alphys’s experiments on the flowers led anywhere, because the only reason Flowey turned into Flowey in the first place was because he had Asriel’s soul embedded inside him, not because he was a flower. The entries about Alphys’s experiments in the flowers seem to align with this, because there’s nothing in them that suggests the flowers ever did anything after being injected with determination.
“But wait!” Yes… I know. What about entry number 18?
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Well… I don't think Alphys wrote this one either.
I know the lack of capitalisation suggests that she did, but I think this is a red herring. Think about it, does this read like Alphys? It’s very abrupt, very factual. There’s no concerned ramblings or anything, it is simply a grim statement that the flower has gone. Also, why does it only mention the flower? We know that Alphys has worked on more than one flower before, so the fact that she hasn’t clarified, or said a flower is suspicious, to say the least. It sounds more as if the person who wrote this is the person who experimented on the original flower (or at least was present during that experiment), aka Flowey.
Lastly, none of the other entries that Alphys presumably wrote ever mentions this flower again. True, neither do any of the entries after this one, but to be fair… this is the last entry that (possibly) isn’t written by Alphys.
So who did write the other entries?
Well, you can theorise all you want on this aspect, but personally I do believe it has to be W.D. Gaster and naturally that’s the most accepted theory. Obviously, we know for a fact that he was the Royal Scientist before Alphys, so it stands to reason that these are the notes from his experiments. This is where I’d like to actually talk more about the contents of these entries, though, and put together more of an idea of exactly what Gaster was working on, how it relates back to Alphys’s own experiments, and one theory that I made up while reading the entries (though I haven’t checked to see if anyone else has pointed this out before… perhaps I should have researched this more instead of just launching into my own ramblings).
First, Gaster specifically researched humans and their souls as part of his experimentation, including experimenting on the souls of the humans that fell into the underground. Again, this is why I don’t think Alphys had a hand in these experiments because– unless she’s still hiding a lot of things– she never mentions that her knowledge of humans really goes anywhere beyond what she’s seen in anime, let alone personal experience with the souls of the fallen humans.
This isn’t what interested me, though. The interesting thing, in my opinion, is where the experiments of Gaster and Alphys cross over each other: the monster souls that were injected with determination, an experiment which they both worked on. Here me out, but.. I don’t think these are the same monsters. I think Gaster experimented on dead monsters and their souls and the results were just as inconclusive and fatal as when Alphys tried to remake the experiment. However, I think the outcomes might have been slightly different.
I think Gaster specifically created the so-called Gaster Followers (and Goner kid). I think these are the monsters that he experimented on, and something went wrong, and now they don’t even exist anymore.
I’ll get more into my reasonings why in a sec, but I wanna go back to the timeline again. If Gaster experimented on Flowey around the same time as he experimented on the monsters, then these can’t be the same monsters that make up Alphys’s amalgamates. We’ve already ascertained that there could be a decades long gap between Gaster’s experiments and Alphys’s experiments, so how would Alphys still be getting regular, frantic letters from the same families of whom Gaster experimented on if their family members have been gone for decades? I’m not saying the families would have given up entirely (if they’re even still alive by this point) but the letters would certainly be fewer and farther between, surely. The letters Alphys is receiving are from families who have only just recently lost their family members, which doesn’t match up with the timeline if these are supposedly the same monsters from Gaster’s original experiments.
So, why do I think the grey characters are the original monsters that Gaster experimented on? Well, I’ll start with the most obvious connection first and talk about how Gaster specifically uses the word “goner” to describe the monsters he had been working on, which I think?? may have been the reason the fandom nicknamed the grey monster kid Goner Kid in the first place, but I could be wrong on that. I haven’t kept up with fanlore for a while. I think a lot of people assumed that Goner Kid was more of just a victim of timelines being reset over and over again, but I think it’s plausible that he could have been one of the monsters that Gaster experimented on before this happened, along with the Gaster Followers.
I can’t really back up this claim with evidence from the grey NPCs dialogue, except that they have the most information about Gaster, which would make sense if they actually interacted with him at some point or with his lab. I just think it’s never really talked about why these characters exist in the first place. Why have they been erased from existence when other monsters haven’t and why are they so connected to Gaster? If the experiment that Gaster was working on with the monster souls happened around the same time as the experiment that shattered him across time and space, it would make sense if the monsters had gotten caught up in this, along with everyone else in the lab at the time (Flowey perhaps? Judging by entry number 18, Flowey was still there when Gaster “fell into his creation and shattered” if we conclude that entry 17 is the moment that this experiment went wrong and, let’s be honest… There must be a reason that Flowey is able to control timelines. Almost like a side effect of something idk…). Unlike with Alphys’s experiments, we never actually see the outcome of Gaster’s. His entries talk about the monsters waking up and walking around, before we get entry 16 and 17 which cuts off his experiments for good before we’re able to find out if the results were the same as Alphys’s. Perhaps they would have been, had Gaster’s time fuckery experiment not got in the way and potentially wiped out both him and the monsters entirely. As a result, we get these grey NPCs who don’t look melted and fucked up like the amalgamates, but their existences have been destroyed.
Which brings me onto another point of interest. What is the timeline of the entries? And do Alphys’s entries even exist in the same timeline as Gaster’s?
My main reasoning for this is the fact that there are two entry 17s. One of which was definitely written by Gaster because… well, it has to be because I think if Wing Dings McGee wasn’t the guy who wrote entry 17 then the fandom will immediately lay down on the floor and die. The other, however, was written by Alphys and talks about the monsters she experimented on melting together:
monsters’ physical forms can’t handle determination like humans’ can. with too much determination, our bodies begin to break down. everyone’s melted together…
Now, yes… I know this entry doesn’t exist in the game and I know it’s technically a deleted entry that can’t be treated as canon. However, it does still exist in the game files. People can access it, and by this point, I think it’s common knowledge that Toby Fox does not just leave things behind on accident. Everything that can be accessed by the players is put there for a reason (unless we go with my other theory that Toby is a master of chaos who just likes to amuse himself, which… shouldn’t be ruled out tbh). How can there be two entry 17s and how come they overlap each other without ever mentioning the other. How can Gaster go on a one-man trek into a fucking black hole while Alphys is dealing with melted dogs at the same time? These entries did not happen together, and I definitely don’t think entries 9-13 happened before entries 14-16. I also think entry 4 is actually the first entry, because it mentions Gaster “researching humans to see if I can find any info about their souls” but the previous entries already talk about the “persistence” of human souls.
Also, I briefly mentioned how the voice of entry 16 couldn’t be determined, but what I find interesting is that it… technically has both Alphys and Gaster’s voice. I don’t know for sure, because this could absolutely just be me reaching into an abyss right now, but Toby Fox’s attention to detail has driven me completely insane so fuck it… the entry specifically reads “no No NO NO NO NO NO” in which the first no isn’t capitalised and yet the second one is.
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It feels like their timelines are crossing, but never fully meeting, if that makes sense, and entry 16 seems to be the start of everything going wrong. It’s the last entry before (Gaster’s) entry 17 and after that we get the mysterious “the flower’s gone” entry which you know what? Hot take, but this entry has even more mystery surrounding it than entry 17 because WHO WROTE THIS ENTRY?? Gaster didn’t; by this point he’s already yeeted himself off into space, and Alphys didn’t because I already said that this isn’t the flower she was working on (and hey… before anyone says “ummm but she literally knows Flowey when Papyrus mentioned him, she freaked out about it”. Okay smartass just because she didn’t work on Flowey doesn’t mean she doesn’t know about him, Gaster could have kept notes lying around… give me a break I’m tired). Point is, I don’t think either of them wrote this entry.
And yeah okay I am about to bring up that old ass theory that Sans may have a connection to the True Lab Entries because he’s the only other character who doesn’t capitalise his letters (curse you MatPat for being a defining figure in my childhood) but like… guys. Remember I said that Gaster’s failed experiment may have had side effects on everyone in the lab, including causing Flowey to become aware of the timelines?? Yeah, how do we know that didn’t happen to Sans too? That experiment fucked everyone up, and Sans sure as hell knows everything that goes on in Undertale. There’s no way he isn’t connected to Gaster in some way or another, like there’s no argument about that atp we’ve been over this time and time again already. 
(oh and is now the time to mention that Gaster’s entries were the ones to mention the blueprints he used to begin his experiments on soul power, which means those blueprints predated Gaster’s experiments and also there are blueprints in the shed beside Sans and Papyrus’s house? I know the common theory was that Sans and Papyrus came after Gaster, but like… what if they didn’t? And I don’t mean that they were there at the same time, because I know about the “Gaster is Sans and Papyrus’s father” theory, but I mean like… what if Sans actually predates Gaster? I know it sounds really tinfoil hat-esque but we honestly can’t rule anything out by this point).
Someone wrote entry 18 and I don’t think it was Alphys or Gaster.
Okay cool, so what does this have to do with Deltarune?
Let me answer that with a different question:
What if Deltarune is the creation that Gaster fell into?
There’s plenty of theories out there about Gaster being connected to Deltarune, possibly even more so than he is to Undertale, but like… what if that’s because he literally created the whole universe? He fell into this parallel universe that he wasn’t supposed to enter and it caused him to shatter, throwing off timeline hopping side effects that may have caught both Sans and Flowey. I mean, Sans does show up in Deltarune, and it’s odd that he’s the only character there that clearly hasn’t been established as a long-time resident. He doesn’t really know anyone there, he’s asserted his store into the street by rubbing out Grillby’s name and he winks at the player when he says he doesn’t know you. He’s like… the only character there who definitely still remembers Undertale (and like I don’t think we talk enough about the fact that Papyrus just straight up isn’t there. Like, yeah we assume he’s locked away in his house and that’s his parallel version to his Undertale self– a shut-in introvert, but the “distant trousle of bones” line might suggest that he actually just isn’t there at all. How distant is distant, Toby?).
Like, it’s obvious by this point that Gaster has some major control over the Deltaverse, and that entry 17 has a lot of parallels to the creation of dark worlds, but we don’t really ask how that parallel world existed in the first place. We know that parallel timelines exist, but Flowey said nothing about parallel worlds. Flowey doesn’t even seem to know about parallel worlds because if he did, I’m sure he wouldn’t have gotten bored so quickly and turned into a homicidal maniac if he had whole other WORLDS to explore. How did this world suddenly come into existence if not a creation by the one and only W.D. Gaster?
And while we’re on the subject of funky little guys who haunt the Deltarune narrative, it’s funny how Dess has disappeared from the world, rather than explicitly died. There’s already a theory floating around that Dess is somehow connected to Gaster in the same way that Spampton and Jevil may be but again her circumstances feel… different somehow. Not only that but unlike Spamton and Jevil, Dess is potentially present in Undertale if we take the Undertale alarm clock dialogues from 2017 as anything to go by, wherein Sans mentions “that antlered girl and her big sis” (it may also be notable that it’s Sans who seems to know Dess and Noelle but… I’m too tired to go much further on this theory right now).
So, I think what I’m saying is, Dess is almost definitely incredibly significant, and is potentially linked to Gaster in more ways than we first thought, although again… we probably all did think this and I’m just late to the party (if you can believe it, I’ve been in the Undertale fandom since the game came out, but I never frequented Reddit or Tumblr at the height of the fandom so… I’m definitely repeating a lot of old stuff here).
Basically, this whole analysis is just a recap of everything we know about the Lab Entries, while also potentially throwing out a few tidbits that may interest Deltarune theorists far better than I could ever be.
Also the song Don’t Forget at the end of chapter 1? That’s 100% Dess and I take no other suggestions on that. “When the light is running low and the shadows start to grow” Hey that sounds fucking familiar *said with the most deranged smile on my face*
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certifieddilfenjoyer · 8 months
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In Plain Sight - an interactive Gus FringxGN!Reader
============================ How does it work? At the end of every chapter, you will be presented with a hyperlink, disguised as a dialogue or action option, which will then lead you to a chapter following your choice and so on and so forth :)) Please let me know what u think (please don't sh#! on me choosing the xGN! instead of xBoy, I wanna enjoy my story as well lol) ============================ INFO: ============================ Yes, there are going to be smut chapters involved at some point. You can expect tags like: (MDNI!!!)
Domination, degradation, submission, power imbalance, sexual tension, hate fuck, choking, bondage, recording the deed, manhandling, hair pulling, dragging across the floor, Gus being the only receiver, etc etc.
The course of chapters, so smutty stuff as well, depends on your choices. If you read through the fanfic once, you can always come back to this main page and try other options! :D
The action is happening during BCS, not necessarily Breaking Bad (but I so badly wanna do something with the boxcutter, well, we will see), so you can expect appearances or mentions of Lalo, Nacho, etc. (but I don't like them so it's Gus focused) and there's gonna be Mike! <3 Now, the fanfic is not fully finished, so if you don't see the hyperlink at the bottom, it simply means that I haven't added the chapters yet. Please be patient <3 <3 ============================= UNFORTUNATELY it turns out that Tumblr does not support my idea completely as every time I edit a post, the URL of the said post changes which is incredibly bad as the more I write the more chapters I'd need to edit each time. Because of that I have moved this project to my blog that I created specifically for this and future x Reader projects: https://xrdr.blogspot.com/
You adjust the headphones in your ear and feel your heart sink as you fight to recover balance on your bicycle. You take a deep breath of fresh, moist air with a heavy scent of rain and turn the handle bar to the left. You pass through a big rain puddle and speed up, allowing your bike to gain momentum as you continue down the road. In the distance, a big glowing logo casts a cone of yellow hue on the glossy street. You feel your heart speed up as you try to go through all the possible questions that employers usually ask during an interview.
As you turn your bike to the parking lot of the fast food restaurant - Los Pollos Hermanos - you anxiously check if your pant legs got dirty. You sigh with relief and drive your bike to the bicycle stand and secure it there with a key chain. You brush your hands across the fabric of your clean, light blue shirt and enter the building. It's most deserted, probably due to the bad weather and the late afternoon hour.
You nod at the employees, currently taking care of the kitchen and the dining area. They nod back and one of them appears in front of the counter, waiting to take your order. You take a quick glance at the person and suddenly you become hyper-aware of all of his facial features. You want to inspect his entire face, but you know damn well it would be weird and most likely make him uncomfortable.
'Hello, I am here for the job interview. I was told that I will be speaking to the manager named Monica.'
The man smiles at you in the most heart-warming way you've seen in your life.
'Monica is unable to attend due to personal reasons. I will be taking over your interview process.'
'I see,' you nod and offer him your hand. 'Y/N.'
'Gustavo Fring,' he introduces himself and takes your hand into his. You can feel the strength resonating off his body and the hard texture of his palms. 'Nice to meet you.'
The name rings a bell immediately. You remember that Monica introduced the Los Pollos Hermanos brand to you over the phone and his name was mentioned at least once.
'Nice to meet you too, sir. Are you the owner of the food chain?'
'Yes.'
'Oh, I'm sure you're busy then. If Monica called in to cancel, I can be rescheduled as well,' you suggest.
'That's not going to be necessary, but I do appreciate your consideration,' he gives you a smaller smile, still just as warm as the first one.
You respond with the same expression and look to the side a moment later, feeling butterflies in your stomach. You blame it on the thrill of the new job interview and look back at the man. His eyes seem like an endless void, which immediately sinks you in.
'Do you need any more time?' he asks.
'No, but I'd like to wash my hands first,' you inform him and look around the restaurant. He lowers his gaze onto your face, observing you for a moment with a lingering smirk.
'It's over there,' Gustavo says after a few seconds, extending his arm to his right side.
You nod and turn on your heel, then go to the bathroom. As you catch your reflection in the mirror, you notice a small blush on your face.
'Oh my God,' you roll your eyes and turn on the tap, then wash your hands with soap.
When you return to Gustavo, he leads you to his office at the back of the building. The room is fairly small, with a small window above his desk. There is almost no sunlight sinking inside the office and it has a weirdly hostile vibe to it, even though the owner looks like nothing else but a sweetheart.
'Please, take a seat.'
You sit down at the chair and adjust yourself in the seat, then straighten your back, while Gustavo sits on his chair in front of you, immediately taking on a perfect posture. You can feel your heartbeat speed up as he opens up the lid of his laptop and you can see a small reflection of your resume in his thin-framed glasses.
'Let's begin, Y/N.' You nod enthusiastically and he gives you an encouraging smile as his eyes come back to yours. 'I don't usually review resumes of candidates without any previous experience in gastronomy.'
A slight hint of worry flashes through your face, immediately noticed by Gustavo.
'Can you tell me why you decided to make an exception?'
He makes a pause and observes you for a while. The single ray of the sun, sinking through the window behind him, falls onto his neck, creating a shadow of his figure, which is reaching all the way across the wooden desk towards your clasped palms.
'We are in need of employees. We are planning to expand to another restaurant soon and some of my employees from the restaurant in which we are sitting are going to be transferred, as it is closer to their home address.'
'Congratulations on the expansion!' you throw in the comment.
'Thank you very much,' he responds. 'What made me accept your resume is the fact that you live near this area, but mostly it was the fact that I realized that you are a foreigner, correct?'
'Um, yes,' you are taken aback by his question and you mask your discomfort before it gets noticed. 'I came here from New Mexico.'
'I'm from Chile. I know how hard it is to get your first job here, that's why I decided to give you a shot,' he admits.
'That is so very kind of you,' you say openly.
Gustavo raises his hands and connects them in front of his chin.
'But hard or not, I am going to treat everyone equally, without giving anyone a head start.'
'Understandable.'
'Because you do not have any prior experience with customers, can you tell me, if perhaps at school or in other areas in your life, have you encountered a difficult situation, a conflict that you managed to solve?'
Even though before coming to the interview, you had multiple sessions of talking to yourself in front of a mirror, preparing possible answers for usual interview questions, you cannot help but feel a little sting of stress at the question. Your mind presents you with a flash of an image, a painful memory of a rainy night and the car lights aimed straight at your face. There is an older man standing in front of you and a much younger one to his side.
'Y-yea,' you answer and clear your throat. 'Sorry. I remember solving a conflict in my classroom, where three of the top students wanted to take the responsibilities of being the class president. I suggested a class vote to clear the confusion. The other time I also stopped a fight between two classmates.'
'How exactly did you achieve that?'
'They were arguing about some girl. I went in between them,' you respond and see his eyebrows rise slightly. 'I know, a risky move, but it was worth it. They cooled down a bit, didn't hit each other and I just listened to both of their stories. It turned out - I don't remember the context now - but it turned out that they misunderstood each other.'
Both of the stories are made up, but Gustavo Fring doesn't have to know that. He doesn't need to be made aware of the fact that your cartel family never allowed you in a public school and that you are home-schooled. He also shouldn't be made aware of your fake ID that you used for your resume.
'How would you deal with a customer who reports incorrectly prepared food? For example undercooked chicken wings?'
You look to the side, then let your eyes wander across the wall and up to the ceiling, as you make a slow, quiet humming noise, thinking about the answer.
'Do I see the food that this imaginary customer reports?'
'Let's assume that in this particular scenario, you do.'
'Ok, so I wouldn't check the recipe, because I can see the plate, so I ask them nicely what is wrong with the food.'
''It's disgusting' - that's what the customer is saying,' Gustavo responds with a shadow of a smile on his face.
''I really want to help you in this situation, but I need some more information, please. Is it not to your liking in taste or is the quality disappointing and how?' that's what I would ask, or something similar,' you clarify.
'The quality is disappointing, because the meat is partially raw.'
'I am very sorry to hear that, would you like to receive a refund of your chicken wings order or a special offer for our menu?' you respond, choosing your words carefully. You look for validation on his face, but it is unreadable.
'Would you not try the chicken wings yourself to verify their honesty, Y/N?' he asks after a moment. I would or I wouldn't
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momolady · 2 years
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Commissions are now open to the public! Slots available for August, September, and October!
From now on all commission inquiries will be handled via email. That brand new email is [email protected]. Below is a format I wish you to follow so that the commission you want is assured, and I will have all information needed in order to complete the job easily, smoothly, and stress free. If further discussions are needed, we can do so via discord.
My main goal with this is to make commissions easier for everyone! I want the process to be a joy and as less frustrating as possible. I want us to build something together so the best possible story is created.
(Please also be mindful that these commissions will start in August)
Basic commissions: 1.50 cent per word. (ex: $45 is 3k words)
The basic usual fair. A self insert reader or a simple ‘you’ reader. Describe the monster you want, basic plot outline, and simple wants for the story and outcome. Usually requires minimal research and prep on my end, and the story is probably mostly fluff, meet cute, etc. If free reign is given to me, your author, you will be guaranteed extra word count for my enjoyment.
Smut Commissions: 2 cent per word. (ex: $60 is 3k)
This includes more complex details and requests, these may be stories that feature original characters or that deal with a more involved storyline, plot, character work, and word count. This includes plots and characters that may require extra research on my end. This also takes into account that these complex stories may include word overflow (I know they do, I know how I work., as well time discussing and working out things may take.
Discounts are available on most of Patreon reward tiers. And people who have commissioned me more than five times will receive and friends and family discount as well.
I will also only accept payments made in USD. I feel that is fair, considering I have been lenient about this in the past. I have let friendship and my own kindness allow me to be taken advantage of, and I am tired of it. Payment, as always, is due in advance, and you can pay as soon as you like (5% discount if you pay right away). Payments will be made via p*yp*l and I will send an invoice when you are ready. If p*yp*l isn’t an option for you, we will discuss that in advance.
I do not mind you being as vague or as detailed as you want. I do suggest you get all your details out in one go, as we can discuss them quickly and easily. If things change, that is fine too, just make sure to tell me advanced enough it won’t hinder the production of your story. What I request is that you do not bombard me with requests, ask, and details over and over and over again. The more this happens the more I tend to get anxious and stressed about the story. Once details are agreed upon then they are considered final. Any changes made a week before will not be accepted. Also, stories that require a lot of detail and research will have a higher price point. I have bent over backwards and worked myself to the bone on stories like these, and I think it’s time I am paid for it. I also ask that anything you want for the story does not alter or bend the rules of the universes you want them set in, such as Hearthway Hollow, Ruby Empire, and Miror. These are my worlds and I have specific things in place for them, if you feel the need to play God, please discuss it with me beforehand and we can see if we can reach something amicably.
Be prepared to hear ‘no’ from me. In the past I have not put my foot down and I have ended up uncomfortable or unsure about things. There are certain topics, kinks, and creatures I will not write, but I am very happy to work with you to come to something that will satisfy your needs.
I will start asking for extra pay if extensive edits are needed. If there are whole chunks that need rewritten or paragraphs you wanted added, I am going to have to charge for them, although it will be cheaper than the regular cost per word. If it’s something that is truly my mistake (like if I wrote the wrong monster or something), it will be discussed.
I ask that you trust me as a writer to do what is best. If I twist something or request something goes another way, it is me wanting to give you the best experience for your story and not disregarding your wants for the story at all. Usually when this happens I will discuss it with you and double check to make sure it is ok.
Commission Inquiry Form:
Make sure to include as much as possible! If your desired story needs a lot of details, give as much as needed. If you want to leave something more simple and trust me with the details, make sure to say that too. This will also decide which commission price comes into play. When you send the email please make the topic Commission Inquiry.
What is your budget? (either list a price or the word count you want)
Reader Character Gender:
Reader Character Description:
Monster Character:
Monster Character Description:
Is this NSFW or SFW?
Any kinks, tropes, or specifics?
Story Outline:
Other thoughts or comments:
Commission Prices:
Now here comes the FAQ:
Do you have a word limit?
Considering how many commissions I get, I will not be accepting commissions under 3000 words. It hasn’t come up, but I just wanted it to be known. Smaller commissions are extremely hard for me to do. The bigger the commission the better for me, it’s a lot easier.
Why do you have a preferred word count?
3000 words is my favorite fic to do. It has enough to build characters and relationships as well as have enough room for smut or anything extra you request.
My story’s at 3502 words! Do I have to pay the extra pricing per word?
If a story goes over 500 words I’ll discuss with you what you’d like to do. But usually, extra word count is my bad, I get excited sometimes and have fun, and I don’t mind eating it.
I have this great idea for a novel…
I’m glad you have an idea, but no. I cannot write your novel for you. It isn’t fair to me, and it will probably cost you more than you are willing to pay. I have my own projects and novels to write. I can’t baby your dream as well as my own.
Will you write fanfiction on commission?
For the time being, no. But! If you’d be willing to work with me and create a ‘legally distinct’ original to compensate then lets talk!
I have a completely original character and would like you to write with them. Is this okay?
YES. But, Be prepared to give me a decent bio as well as their physical description and all the basic information I will need to bring your baby to life.
Can I have you write another chapter to one of your existing stories?
Yes! If the story was a commission though we will have to ask the original commissioner. If they approve then I will do it for you.
I want to give you free reign over the story. Is that ok?
Always! I love getting creative and going off in my own little world.
What kind of stories do you write?
I enjoy writing almost anything. I’m good at comedy and romance, but horror and psychological stories have become my guilty pleasure to write.I’m good with most anything, but there will be topics I will be unwilling to write. But this will all be discussed and approved when you contact me.
What won’t you write?
This is a better question to ask. I absolutely will not write anything involving scat, vore, children in sexual situations, or nonconsensual sexual acts. These are just major examples of things I am uncomfortable with. Also, I am NOT open to role plays, so don’t ask for those.
So how does this work?
Send me an email to [email protected] with your intent and a brief idea of what you want. Once I approve it we can discuss what length of story you want, what genre, what characters, and a loose outline. Payment will be given upfront. Until I receive payment I will not begin working on your commission.
Will you be showing my story off to everyone else?
Commissions will be yours and yours alone for up to a month. After that it will be posted to Patreon and a month after that it will go live on Tumblr. But having your commission and the feedback will help me build my portfolio for the future.
Food for Thought
Remember when that you are commissioning anyone, writer, artist, voice actor, musician, anyone, that you are not just paying for the product. You are also paying them for their time talking to you about what you want, you're paying for their research and study on whatever it is you want, you're paying them for double checking and making sure everything is ok with the product. More goes into the commissions you ask for than you think, so please be kind and considerate with commissioning anyone. Art takes time, patience, and a lot of love, and we want to give you the best bang for your dollar.
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femmefatalevibe · 11 months
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What are traits of high value woman?
Prioritize Your Self-Respect Above All Else: Get goals and standards that align with your needs in every area of life (career, finances, physical/mental/sexual health, emotional well-being, friends, family, intimate relationships, self-development). Express and act in alignment with your standards and dreams. Don't allow the displeasure of others to dictate your actions or daily activities.
Set & Uphold Clear Boundaries in Every Area of Life: State them calmly and clearly. "No" is a complete sentence. Reciprocate this effort to others. Practice the art of discernment, differentiation, and interdependence. Get to know yourself, and learn how to observe your needs independently of others' expectations and desires.
Make A Deliberate Effort To Discover Your Values, Passions, & Boundaries: Figure out what matters most to you in life. What activities, topics, aesthetics, art, clothing, hobbies, sounds, movements, books, television shows, movies, songs, and types of conversations most light you up inside? Here are some resources to guide your self-discovery journey HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Build A Strong Personal Brand & Cult of Personality: I have more tips on building your personal brand, creating your persona (or ‘Dream Girl archetype’), and an ultimate Femme Fatale playbook linked HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Center All Aspects of Your Health & Well-Being: Physical, Mental, Emotional, Sexual, and Spiritual. Celebrate your needs – they make you human. Eat a healthful, plant-based diet, exercise and walk daily, meditate, read at least 10 pages a day, journal, make to-do lists, declutter your space, self-pleasure, recite your affirmations, lean into shadow and mirror work, create morning and nighttime routines. Feeling in alignment is essential to allowing your magnetic aura to shine through. Find all my tips to cultivate self-regard in every area of life HERE.
Read, Study, & Build A Strong Skillset: Designing the life of your dreams is an inevitable aspect of living in your queen energy. Stay informed, read books and articles on your industry, interests, current events, cultural happenings, history, and any other topic that brings you joy or you would find intriguing if someone brought up the subject at a dinner party. Mastering an evergreen skillset is essential for succeeding in your career or building a business. Living in your queen energy means living in abundance. While queen energy is a mindset, it is impossible to fully live in this dream reality without having passions and your finances in order. Start with my entire Femme Fatale booklist HERE and guide to building your dream career HERE.
Consistently Invest in Your Appearance: Choose between investing time, money, or extra effort into upkeeping a polished style, beauty, grooming, and physique-maintaining routine. Wear clean, wrinkle-free, well-fitting clothes – styled and accessorized in a way that appears thoughtful & put together with impeccable grooming (clean hair, nails, skin, etc.). Stay consistent with your beauty/makeup/skincare routines, smelling nice daily, and maintain a scheduled routine (weekly, monthly, every 6 weeks, etc.) for specific treatments that make your life easier and make all the difference. These practices don't need to cost a lot of money. You choose to spend more money, time, or effort on these practices, depending on your personal preferences and based on your lifestyle and circumstances.
Remain Dedicated To Lifelong Learning: Make it a priority to read a few articles and 10 pages of a book daily. Ensuring keep up with your learning & education on different topics and the world is fulfilling and enables you to enter into a wider pool of conversations. This practice also strengthens your mind, sharpens focus, and helps your brain relax.
Personalize Your Interactions & Learn Proper Etiquette: Address people by name, and offer a firm handshake. Maintain eye contact. Say "please" and "thank you." RSVP promptly. Communicate clearly and compassionately. Make the person feel special and like the only individual in the room while introducing yourself. It’s the secret to leaving a lasting impression, 
Master The Art of Engaging Conversation: Prioritizing self-presentation, learning how to listen, holding your own, and encouraging others to feel relaxed are the secrets to becoming magnetic in any social situation. Be mindful of how much you listen (more) and speak (less). Carefully consider your tonality and word choice. Remember and recounter the small details of another person’s anecdote that felt important to them. Acknowledge their emotions and validate them. Read more of my tips HERE. 
Become Extremely Discreet Yet Utterly Shameless: Do as you please, but keep your business (or pleasure) to yourself. Privacy is peace, power, bliss, and radiates quiet confidence – the greatest telltale sign that someone is living in her queen energy. Learn to hold your own. You will be guaranteed to earn respect within seconds of gracing anyone's presence.
Embrace Growth Without Succumbing To Your Perfectionist Expectations: Remember that every skill, successful relationship, and goal takes time and experience. No one has it all figured out. It’s okay if you’re not where you expected to be or desire to be at this stage of your life. Stop comparing yourself – we all have our own paths. Choose to do one small thing every day to make your life better – either a step towards reaching a goal or indulging in a deep desire. Ensure there's a healthy (not necessarily equal) balance between the two. Leave your future self better than you found your past self. Express compassion towards yourself and acknowledge that you’re doing your best. Everything starts to make considerably more sense in hindsight. 
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cosmichighpriestess · 3 months
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Be what you know you are Let Go and BE.
I think people can become very surprised and lost even devastated when their old world comes crashing down on itself because they were not following their highest excitement and everything based off false foundations came crumbling down on itself because nothing based on love and truth was holding it in place.
They attempt to go back to their old life, old ways, their old career and look for a new job in the same field that were not truly inspired by to begin with. Did you really think you had to kill yourself to live a successful life? God said, Rest and put all your burdens at my feet and know that until you feel inspired, that is the only time to do something. Your heart is always knocking at your door. It will only continue to get louder and louder until you finally answer the door.
You will be molded and created brand new and morph into your higher self when you rest and follow your highest excitement every moment, that is your job, to be yourself, rest when you are burdened and follow your high excitement when you're not resting and taking care of your immediate responsibilities like pets or children. Do the things you don't enjoy and see them neutrally, in a nonjudgmental way with unconditional love, see them through the perspective of God and you will no longer be in your non preferred reality. You will no longer be that other version--you stepped out of it. Then say from that higher perspective, " what is the lesson that you wish to learn, what are you attempting to teach yourself through these actions?" Then you will actually be able to see it the way Source sees it.
You are allowed to ask for help and be a little selfish especially now in the year 2024. When you have to quit your job or you're let go, or a relationship fails, or meditation, praying and old spiritual practices quote on quote "fail", realize this is not failure but rather indicates a graduation to a new state of consciousness, you no longer are in alignment with what previously worked so well. It's indicative of where you are consciously when you think you have to work hard or struggle for something you already carry within you to create. Your soul is already rich and abundant you just need to recognize the abundance already around you and the Universe will spoil you with riches. You always have been worthy without having to suffer for it.
This is the nature of the structure of existence. Remember when something feels bad, when we're experiencing sickness, disease, sadness, pain, suffering, lack, negativity, loneliness, grief, "death" ect. Remember, It's not the truth. Nothing is real except love, peace, abundance, harmony, joy, bliss ect. All Negativity is an illusion based from a third dimensional perspective level of consciousness.
There is NO divine law supporting these things, these are not God ordained concepts, these are human constructs because they are all an illusion in this simulation because God consciousness does not have ideas of lack and limitation. God is not judging you as "an old man with a beard sitting up there in the clouds", God alone IS, You are the wholeness of God, God is not made from man. you are judging yourself, your higher self is the only one judging your physical self. God is not a man sitting in the clouds telling you that you were "bad" or "good". You have free will and everything in this Universe is neutral to begin with and meaningless. Nothing has meaning until you assign it a meaning as either positive or negative. When you accept both experiences as beneficial for you to learn from you become more grateful for each experience and graduate to another level.
We must let go of the obsolete religious and metaphysical teachings telling you to pray this way or that, do this to be spiritual etc. in order to obtain what you believe you or others need. Everything is already spiritual just by existing. Because everything is Source. You cannot pray for peace in the world, and see change outside of you, you must recognize and realize the peace within you and you will shift to a more peaceful world on a parallel reality version of Earth. You only experience the reality you believe you know as truth that you prefer. You must believe nothing bad is happening on your planet. Truth must become in your state of consciousness before it can manifest outwardly.
There are still many old energies that are intense and extremely painful that are being cleared now by being recreated in your simulation such as a lifetime of abuse because you are more spiritually empowered and emotionally prepared now and you are able to re-experience the energy in some form, recognize it for what it represents, and fully release it from your consciousness which never dies, just keeps ascending into the higher dimensions.
If someone or some organization is controlling you or abusing you, there is no Divine Law supporting that behavior, that does not come from God and you have every right to stop giving that person your energy and power over you and leave somewhere you won't be manipulated and controlled anymore. Your true underlying energy is always happy, always has been pure love, always in bliss. Any negativity you experience is not who you are and never has been.
You are apart of Source pretending to be human on this rollercoaster called life on Earth and you are here to enjoy meeting different versions of yourself in everything you meet, you are here to be love and enjoy this rollercoaster because you have no agenda. You are here to enjoy the ride and take in all the experiences in your kingdom you created.
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hypergamiss · 2 months
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What’re vintage pieces (of anything!) that you’d recommend we invest in? For myself I’ve been into buying Ralph Lauren shirts, and other “business casual” “old money” clothing. I’m also investing in good shirts, socks, etc. I’m planning on having a great, versatile wardrobe. Do you have any suggestions on what other clothing items I should invest in/other vintage items worth our money?
I love this for you!
Not sure if we are talking about real vintage (40yrs+) or vintage as in purchasing clothing that is considered timeless? Or both?
I created sort of this hierarchy for how much money I invest in my clothes. My core items that can easily fall under a "capsule wardrobe" category are where I drop the most money. I know that they will be heavily used and will last me. The pricing varies, sometimes my tailor will let me know that they got a hold of high-quality fabric and have pieces made to fit me with amazing stitching and structure. Other times I will find amazing items in boutiques that are based in wealthy areas or come across someone who specializes in making custom items like a shoemaker. I have ordered online as well from brands that are considered ethical as long as their fabric and stitching are great as well. I sometimes work with a personal shopper or stylist who knows what I like and will snatch the items for me since they're constantly at stores/boutiques/courtiers and have connections that I do not have in the fashion world. When it comes to very expensive dresses I prefer to rent them through a stylist or whoever has the item I want to wear, usually a designer of course.
I do have some good items from Ralph Lauren, but I tend to like Brooks Brothers more. I feel that they have fewer clothes for women than men but when I do find something good I like it a lot more than my RL pieces. Lately, I've had some items from Carolina Herrera in the back of my mind and I'm trying to decide if I need them as much as I want them😅 I can talk about this topic for days!
I don't think there is a right or a wrong way, as long as it's good quality and serves its purpose it's worth investing in. This is just my opinion on clothes, jewelry/accessories is a whole other topic!
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harrysmaison · 1 year
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blogs whose themes/icons/headers etc you like best gogogogogoogog
what an interesting ask! so i took a look at a few of the blogs i came across, or that came to mind and here's a bunch of my favourites (in no specific order)
to begin with, i always always love gio @heartshaped-lou 's themes. she has the prettiest themes which just yk they just work. Always. Look at her current header.
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the trans heart!!!! the rainbow! it's so cuteee isn't it?
next up, @pop-punklouis.
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I love hope's header. I love the vibe of it all. Hell yeah, punk is not dead. She's badass, that header is badass and I'm in love.
Mari @hlkings icon (which is also her header) is very very cool.
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Very cool. Just like her. I remember talking to her abt headers and stuff once and she told me how it's become sort of her brand now. It' totally goes along her vibe, and i love that every time i see the hot Louis smoking pic i think of her.
Then there's my beloved dheera @stylinsuns. Her headers, even tho not larry related, always serve aesthetic. She's a full on aesthete, she's up there. And her most recent header is just *chef's kiss* to die for.
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For those of you who don't know her, this GORGEOUS woman is a legend in India, Rekha, the woman who rules our entire country's hearts. And this is just so soft. The pinks and the roses and that expression that I've been meaning to tell you dheera, very much matches yours.
I also have a thing for @ladychlo 's header
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Following are the reasons:
1. Louis looks like he's wearing an eyeliner, smth i would die for to happen irl
2. Louis in black and white
3. Louis close up
4. Louis
Let's also take a look at @kiwikiwiandkiwi 's header.
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Look at that. So intimate so soft so beautiful. It's like i can feel that texture. Its a fanart, it's totally gorgeous, kudos to the artist (@sweetest-devotion ) I'm so so so in love.
speaking about art. @ialwaysknewyouwerepunk 's header is their own art.
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And it's golden art. And it's ball pen art. And it's a beautiful art. And i love that art. And i love that header.
Let's not continue this art topic i could go on and on and on.
If we're talking abt the entire theme, @perksofbeingasunflowerblog 's theme does this to me.
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Unexplainable things. It's all green, and it looks much better on desktop but I'm too lazy to go take a desktop ss rn so go check yourself one day. But i love Manas theme. And that title, yes.
Also taking this chance to mention @bluewinnerangel (i just checked their header and wow ok wow I'm am adding this after everything was said and done) that is the MOST BLUEWINNERANGEL header EVER.
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Alien baby up to smth art and the colors and the way it shimmers and it's so mischievous and fun and chaotic just like demy.
Now if i didn't have to go to sleep, I'd go check out some more blogs and rant more but this post shouldn't be any longer fjfjfhf so I'm mentioning a few blogs below who's themes/icons/headers I'm in love with.
@kieumy who creates their headers and they're always beautiful
@louishandkink Dani and her hand kink and her infecting us all with those sexy hand headers
@thetriangletattoo I'm jealous of that header. I just am. I love it too much.
@londonfoginacup has the cutest icon. Squinty eyed louis is 💓💓💓
@thedevilinmybrain Jennifer and her extremely hot header. Louis doing that thing and killing me
And there's so many moree but i gotta go to sleep now soo this is where I'll stop. I'm sorry this got so unnecessarily wrong.
Ps: if anyone is not okay with me adding pics of your header (especially art) lmk and I'll remove immediately!
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Mark Henn, loooong time Disney animator who was still with the studio in the recent years, has spoken recently...
He's pretty much kind of done with Walt Disney Animation Studios, feeling that the minimal 2D work he had been doing lately (alongside veterans Eric Goldberg and Randy Haycock) wasn't very "meaningful". He is open to going back to finish a short of his own, that he was working with producer Clark Spencer on, but that's just about it. As the Brew notes, his full-time career there is over. He started on THE FOX AND THE HOUND, which released in 1981, to give you an idea of how long he's been there.
It's quite telling how many of the greats departed or were laid off under both John Lasseter and Jennifer Lee's leaderships. Glen Keane, Chris Sanders, Nik Ranieri, Ron Clements, John Musker, the list goes on... I know a lot of animation fans desperately want Disney to do 2D features again, but I don't see it happening. I haven't seen it happening in years. Whenever a piece of 2D for a short or a promo or a commercial surfaces, twitter goes gaga and says "See Disney?? You can do 2D! No excuses!"
It's not about excuses, they simply DO NOT WANT TO. For whatever reason, no matter how silly it may seem to us.
Henn said it best:
"Since then, I think it’s just too difficult for the studio to justify essentially creating a second studio within this current studio in order to do 2D, which is what you had when we had Princess and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh. We essentially had literally two smaller studios under one roof, and I just think that that became too much of a financial risk. Right now, we’re barely able to house everybody that we have on staff. So, I mean, there’s all kinds of logistical things from where you’re going to put people to taking that risk."
I've talked about it, exhaustively, myself. It's just, the larger Disney company isn't too interested in being - to quote former Disney storyman Steve Hulett - a "Renaissance art factory". In addition to 2D really not being conducive to editorial and a one-a-year assembly line model, WDAS management are simply making movies that they think the public wants to see. They spend upward $135m+ on them, and they try to get one out every year. They're lucky to even be making movies, since they've been nearly shut down far too many times to name... As recently as 2006, even, because one Steve Jobs felt they didn't need to be a thing anymore now that the company owned Pixar. I see them as a "legacy brand" at this point. Still alive, still kicking, probably by virtue of being the thing that created the whole company in the first place... But that's just it. It's very "Disney, the way you always liked it" these days. I think that's part of why STRANGE WORLD and WISH had trouble theatrically, among many other things. Pixar had one miss with LIGHTYEAR, but a leggy sensation with ELEMENTAL. It remains to be seen how ELIO does a year and a half from now. Universal on the other hand is somehow keeping audiences coming back for both DreamWorks and Illumination's movies. With the rare miss every now and then. (SPIRIT: UNTAMED, RUBY GILLMAN, etc.)
But yeah, I've kind of made peace with it. Disney Animation is currently not in the business of making movies for people who can spot a Milt Kahl head swaggle from a mile away, they're making movies for the folks who put on Disney+, and then put on ENCANTO and such as background noise. It just... Is what is. 2D is still there in some way or another, like in short films and small bits of animated effects and whatnot, but... It's a crapshoot to think that they'll do a full feature like that this decade, I feel. If anything, they'll just keep tinkering with the art style of WISH, which... Didn't work on a lot of folks. So... Do they go back to the tried-and-true TANGLED/FROZEN/MOANA house style? I don't know, I don't have a crystal ball. I don't even know if they'll have a movie by Thanksgiving of this year. That new Disney+ series they made that's coming out next month, IWAJU, looks like a slightly upscaled Disney Junior show.
I still look for something I'll like in the upcoming stuff, because... Well, even though Disney Animation is merely a cog in the massive Disney machine at this point with little of an identity left (much like the live-action/CG tech demo end of things), this studio's output... Decades and decades of it, has been formative for me. At least one WDAS movie was someone's gateway to the wider world of animation, methinks. It was certainly my VHS tapes of BAMBI, THE JUNGLE BOOK, and THE LION KING, among many others in my library at age 8, that's for sure. I even *liked* the recent films, I have yet to see WISH all the way through, but I did enjoy STRANGE WORLD enough, and liked ENCANTO, RAYA, FROZEN II, etc. a good deal. It's just, a lot of it is nothing really special to me in the end. Just fine at best, with some impressive stuff here and there. Like, say, some of the directing in ENCANTO. Just fine, adequate. I don't think that of the Disney animated features made before this decade. Even my least favorite animated Disney work of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and '00s still has something very unique and influential to it. I don't intend for this to be a knock on the crews' hard work, it's only my personal feelings on what I've seen. It's what they seem to want to be making, or what the management is approving of... I can kick and scream, but, that won't do anything. I'll just see what's next and say "Well, let's see... What will I get out of this one?"
I've long accepted that the ship sailed on 2D features at WDAS, and most of the other big theatrical studios for that matter. Many of whom never even MADE a 2D feature. Pixar never made one, Illumination didn't, Sony Animation didn't until FIXED, you get the idea. The only other one that's still chugging is DreamWorks, and they made their final 2D feature back in 2003. Twenty-one years ago. I look elsewhere for that kind of thing, and I found just that... KLAUS, WOLFWALKERS, you get the idea. The best you'll get in theaters is an adaptation of a 2D animated show or pre-existing franchise, like THE BOB'S BURGERS MOVIE. I doubt that pending-theatrical release Looney Tunes movie, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP, will be the great decider of the future of 2D animated movies in theaters. Ditto FIXED, *if* that's still aiming for theaters. (It got its rating from the MPA a long while ago. It's done. It's in the can... and there's no release date for it.)
So... Yeah... Is what it is. WDAS seems to refuse to do a 2D feature, and have been refusing for over a decade (I really think PRINCESS AND THE FROG and WINNIE shut the door permanently, like an encore that they fought to make happen), and the kind of movie that they're making now may just not be for me and others for the foreseeable future. We'll see where their next path takes them... As long as they come out whatever happens still making movies...
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