Tumgik
#tl;dr i’m nerding out
sincosma · 4 months
Text
So. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I need to sing this show’s praises (no plot spoilers!) and if you’re a Trek fan, you need to watch it ASAP.
LISTEN. This show is on another fucking level. I know a lot of trekkies have been complaining about “New Trek” (even though a lot of their complaints are curiously similar to the complaints about VOY and DS9 back in the day), but SNW is genuinely one of the best Trek shows PERIOD. Say whatever you wanna say about the missteps of early Discovery or the massive stumbles of ALL of Picard, but SNW came out the gate FINE-TUNED and honed in on the show’s message, identity, and place within the canon. And it SHINES. No weak pilot or cumbersome first seasons; SNW knows what it is and goes for it without hesitation. Love the irony that a show about the captain from the TOS pilot (which had very strange circumstances) and yet his own show knocks it out of the park. Delicious. At last, justice for Jeffery Hunter’s Pike!
They absolutely perfected the episodic-mini-serialized-arc style that DS9 pioneered. Pike is hands down the best all-around captain in the entire series, with the friendliness and openness of Archer, the daring and charisma of Kirk, and the principles and empathy of Sisko all rolled into one. There’s even a little bit of our beloved Janeway’s questionable decision-making and stalwart loyalty in his character!
The way they’ve highlighted each crew member with barely a single character arc fumbled is supremely impressive. Special mentions to the character arcs so far for M’Benga, Chapel, Uhura, and La’An. Ethan Peck’s Spock goes places that truly delight and shock me. The fan service has been subtle and tasteful (e.g. incorporating young Jim Kirk, references to future TOS show/movie villains, etc.). The deep lore cuts have had me shouting incoherently at the TV in excitement. Watching Lower Decks crew nerding out over TOS-era characters while SNW crew geek out about Archer, Hoshi, and Travis from Enterprise NX-01. These moments are so skillfully handled and feel so natural. It reminded me fondly of the incredible DS9 episode where Dax and Sisko end up on Kirk’s Enterprise.
Side note, I have to specifically mention episode “Subspace Rhapsody”…man, THIS is how a musical episode is DONE. Fucking BRAVO.👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I’m truly impressed with the topics they’ve been unabashedly tackling with true Star Trek earnestness, optimism, and reverence. The challenging ethics of prejudice, eugenics, racism, sexism, fascism, war crimes. It’s all here, man. Yes, it’s not perfect and SNW of course has some issues, but this show hits the bullseye overall. Its flaws are completely overshadowed by its triumphs.
TL;DR: STRANGE NEW WORLDS IS STAR TREK AT ITS BEST.
90 notes · View notes
merry-pitchmas · 4 months
Note
Will there be an exchange this year?
Sorry, I totes dropped the ball on getting an early start on the exchange this year but never fear!
Tumblr media
The season of giving is almost upon us and you know what that means....
Tumblr media
For a RECORD-BREAKING eighth year in a row, it's time for the Pitchmas Gift Exchange!!
Tumblr media
Okay, listen up.
Tumblr media
If you need a refresh on the rule, please check out this post from last year, but keep in mind the cut of dates will have changed. Because I've left this so late (again, my bad, sorry) I'm only going to let this float around until the end of the day on December 1st. If you'd like to take part in the exchange this year, please reply to this post by then.
Here's the TL;DR for those of you who don't wanna check out the link:
TL;DR:
Reply to this post to take part. Reblogs will not be included.
December 1st is the cut off date to sign up.
Posting will begin on December 24th - not a day before! And you have to have your gift finished and posted NO LATER than December 31st.
You don’t need money to take part - just a dash of creativity and the drive to want to do something.
Manips, videos, fanfic, and comics are just a few examples of the things you can do!
All pairings are welcome, but I strongly encourage all participants to ANONYMOUSLY message the person they have to ask questions about which they might prefer.
TURN ON YOUR ANONS. I’ve gotten to the point where if your ask box is not set to allow anon questions and your Secret Santa cannot contact you, I will no longer be trying to get in touch - I’ll just remove you from the exchange. So please, even if you’re sure anon asks are already allowed, double check. If you’re not sure HOW to do that, google is your friend.
If you change your name between now and the posting date, please send me a message to let me know. I will not be trying to track people down again this year.
Please don’t leave someone hanging. If you have no intention of doing anything and just want someone to do something for you, don’t reply. It’s not fair. (And I’m always looking for volunteers who will write for anyone who might get missed!)
Tag your posts with #merry pitchmas 2023.
HAVE FUN.
See you in a few, awesome nerds!
~Red
56 notes · View notes
mysticcollectionbee · 2 months
Text
So…I just found out how Alastor beat Husk in the game and got his soul (Takes this with a grain of salt, I’m not a gambling historian just a history nerd)
So I decided to do some history about Vegas and it’s gambling for other reasons and found out something. Vegas in the 1930s had JUST begun to become a gambling spot. While in New Orleans it was being considered the ‘Wickedest Spot in the Union’ in the 1920s. And in the 1930s still had a lot of illegal gambling happening. Why is that? Because it was the origin of America Poker all the way back in the 1800s. Because French colonists brought a similar older game with them when they showed up in Louisiana.
Meaning/ Tl;Dr:
Husk literally grew up in a place where Poker might’ve been played but not that popularly until the 1950s where it reached its peak and kept going upwards. So at most his gambling golden years were when he was an adult in his 30s or 40s.
While Alastor had to have been around Poker (Specifically games where it was common to cheat because it was all illegal at the time) his entire life and experienced its peak in his 20s.
So that mixed with Husk’s addiction to the thrill of gambling + Alastor basically having a poker face 24/7… Kinda not a huge stretch to believe Al beat him without needing his powers as some people think.
Again, not a historian and I seriously doubt this was INTENTIONAL. But it’s a fun historical explanation to consider at least.
(Also I promise I’ll try to make this the last Hazbin Hotel thing I post, I’m so sorry people who follow me for MCU stuff lol)
43 notes · View notes
snackugaki · 1 year
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
...this could have been an email text post
hi hello, i’m snacku ur local first gen/90s turtlemania survivor/”87 fan”/”90s fan” and I hurt my own feelings contemplating Donatello Ninjaturtle
bAcK iN mY dAy... Donnie didn’t like.... have this many fans out here, at least not as much as my then preteen brain remembers-- it was mostly Leo’re Raph I saw. like i AM accounting for hanging out here, on tumblr, for my tmnt content, and the iterations that are especially popular with turtles just straight up made more blorbable than others here but like ......hmm there’s too many disparate thoughts I’mma bullet point instead
like hhhh there’s so much I’m gonna/gotta gloss over ‘cuz I’m still pretending this is my original art blog and not the tmnt fanart blog I’m slowly mutating into
anyway, endlessly hilarious to me Donnie went from this kinda dweeby mechanical engineer gear head character to this dweeby (affectionate) computer science menace
that he (and his brothers) used to be max 5′, and now he’s just Taller than his brothers
for me, originally all of them would’ve been able to at least survive alone but now, as goods and services become more accessible via internet now it’s like for fanon Donnie’s become utterly indispensable to the survival of his family and that makes me kinda sad in a way I’m not even gonna try to unravel why
i do not have a whiteboard big enough or the dry eraser markers that work on the first try to draw a Pepe Silvia-level theory board on the jumps in technology, how it’s affected public perception, the whole Nerds R Cool phenomenon and how it’s affected/will affect Donatello’s characterization/audience reception in future iterations
with electronic waste being what it’s become, fast fashion waste too... I am so curious how Donnie’s (and the rest of them) gonna look like in designs/redesigns
(still have a hard time bay!Donnie didn’t, like, cobble together a 3D printer or even fix an industrial textile machine but like I get it, their look was very Scávenge S/S 2016)
tl;dr tech advancements have been silly strong and since 2016 Donnie’s just out here with personal tech like 20 years ahead instead of recycled junk to keep contemporarily functional lolololololololol
145 notes · View notes
mx-pokirby · 2 years
Text
I’m all but prepared/hoping for a future chapter of Deltarune to make us control another character besides Kris via the red SOUL. (And I do mean “make us”, but I’m getting ahead of myself)
Not only that, but Deltarune has the potential to do something I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any other game do, and it’s something I think can only really be pulled off in the medium of video games.
At this point it feels extremely redundant to point out that given all the info we currently have, Deltarune seems to be attempting to deconstruct what it even means to play a video game, with the red SOUL being the only conduit through which we can interact with its world.
Now, having multiple player characters to swap between is nothing new. Something something arcades, blah blah Luigi, you probably already know the history. But in story-focused games, it can get a bit more interesting, where being forced to control a new PC is often used to raise the stakes.
Whether the original PC is killed, incapacitated, etc, the game is basically telling you that the “you” you’ve grown most comfortable with during your adventure just wasn’t enough to get the job done, so you as the player are forced by the game’s will to take a new role until you “win”.
So... “wtf does this have to do with Deltarune?” Well here’s what I want to posit. In other story-centric games, because the player’s control is abstract, you being the metaphorical baton being passed between characters doesn’t require explanation, only justification. (See above paragraph) That’s where Deltarune differs significantly.
With our connection to Deltarune’s universe, the red SOUL, being something diegetic, we’re not a metaphorical baton to be passed around, but a tangible one. This seemingly eliminates the possibility of us arbitrarily forced to control someone besides Kris based on what “the story demands”, but more importantly, this allows the characters themselves narrative agency over who you as the player take control of.
So finally, here’s the vague scene I have floating in my head. I can imagine a climatic moment where everyone is on the same page, that there’s some “otherworldly parasite possessing Kris which can’t be stopped, but can be forcibly removed and contained”. And as you the player attempt to reach an important object or location through whoever you can, the characters themselves are playing keep-away with you, the SOUL; tossing you around like a football to each other, “catching” you by allowing themselves to become your temporary vessel as they get further and further away from your objective, ripping you back out and rinse & repeating.
It’s not about what we want. It’s not about what “the game” wants. It’s about what they want.
Of course that’s not the only way I could see this concept playing out. There’s likely a good number of people who might read this and be dissatisfied; believing it’s uncharitable to assume a scene like this would have to be framed in player VS character conflict. After all, we don’t want to be enemies with this lovable cast, and we didn’t choose for our means of playing this game to be so... unpleasant (at least for Kris thus far). And honestly we’d agree with those people.
But that was just one example. There could easily instead be a moment where everyone simply recognizes us as another reliable teammate, everyone gets split up, and they pass us around at long distance to whoever is in most dire need of our help (but still regardless of who we want to control).
Tl;dr Deltarune good and I have the upmost faith in Toby as a writer to nail it.
(Oh my gosh it’s almost 3am and I started writing this like an hour ago, I’m such a nerd. XP)
185 notes · View notes
wheredoesthegoodgo · 6 months
Text
my friend convinced me to watch the ultimatum: queer love and now I can’t stop imagining a bkdk au. where izuku shows up with todoroki who gave an ultimatum because he proposed months ago and has patiently been waiting for izuku to decide so he can Cherish him. katsuki of course is there with kirishima who also thinks its time for them to get married, he like, wants kids and all that shit with his main man, which katsuki also technically wants but isn’t sure he deserves kirishima.
but now low and behold bkdk both show up to this weird ass reality thing and see each other after like ten years (which the producers totally knew and of course wanted to start drama).
and izuku’s just Shook(tm) and katsuki’s just high key stressed that fucking deku is here. kirishima was amused until he realizes this is the so-called nerd that was bakugo’s gay awakening tween childhood friend/victim and then he stays amused while also trying to be supportive like “maybe apologizing is what you need to make peace with yourself and feel ready for marriage”
and then after their ‘break-ups’ they end up on dates. obviously bakugo’s dates are with icy hot (who is perfectly pleasant but bakugo decides he hates him anyway) and deku. and with deku it starts off awkward and then turns into arguing w ust and then their last date together melts into a heavy apology where bakugo’s explaining “I realized I’d rather be reading all might comics with you than talking about girls or to girls and it was harder to accept than I realized” and “we knew each other for so long I figured you already knew and I was paranoid you were going to say something or do something and that you were looking down on me, pitying me because of it”
to which of course izuku’s like “no I was just kind of oblivious to my own feelings I’m sorry you felt that” and “I forgave you a long time ago but honestly not sure I ever felt there was something to forgive cause I could tell you were going through something”
and suddenly they both feels so much lighter but at the same time its HEAVY between them like What Could Have Been and there’s Something There
but the date wraps up and before ya know its its the time to choose who they are going to “marry” for a week.
Bakugo chooses Deku.
and he reasons fuck, no one knows him like this nerd even if it’s been a decade since they talked. if anyone is going to help him figure his shit out its going to be this man.
Izuku of course accepts. absolutely reverential about being chosen. after all he and todoroki talked it out and both agreed they were going to fully commit to this, so its totally okay he’s 100% invested in being kaachan’s husband for a week.
cut to bkdk having an absolutely xander/yoli of a lovefest week x1000. just meshing perfectly together, and after their first kiss all bets are off and they absolutely sleep together (bakugo definitely gets off on being better in bed than todoroki) (who is absolutely adequate izuku just has a higher libido and more kinks ok) (this definitely came up on their date together much to izuku’s mortification of saying so on camera and bakugo has been thinking about it since) and bakugo is like…all in. he loves kirishima but they’ve been growing apart and he’s all in with deku like fuck. meanwhile deka is also head over heels but having the occasional existential crisis about todoroki. who is perfect and deserves all the love.
and so bkdk end up married and grossly in love; todoroki decides nothing will piss off his dad more than getting engaged to a guy he hasn’t known for more than a week and ends up engaged inasa; kirishima either gets with kaminari or back with mina idk
Tl;dr bkdk love all around #lovewins
20 notes · View notes
pr0udn3rd · 7 months
Text
Ok wholesome rant time.
I love board games. Not like, Monopoly or Scrabble, no no. Nerd board games. Board games with intricately designed pieces and rulebooks thick enough to scare away the average person. And Wingspan designed by Elizabeth Hargrave is the best one.
Now, I am an autistic floof who would prefer conflict be avoided, so if you want to make kids cry with your capitalist greed and brutalist strategy go play Ticket to Ride. This game is not that. It is a chill beautiful refined game to put your pinkies out and enjoy a cup of tea with your friends. Imagine sunny days with poofy pretty clouds happy carefree vibes.
The game centers around birbs. You are a birb enthusiast and if that doesn’t hold true in your real life it will soon. Your goal is simple: score the most points. There are a myriad of ways to do this but they all revolve around hosting a sanctuary to birbs of all habitats, diet, size, etc. You play birbs by paying food and eggs. You get these resources by taking a turn to obtain them in a specific habitat. The more birbs you have in that habitat the more of that resource you get and you get to use those birbs powers, which are themed after the real life birb. It’s an engine building game but these rules aren’t really why this is the best game ever.
This game excels at providing a warm fuzzy feeling in your heart. Your competitors cannot impede your progress as everyone has their own sanctuary/board. They can only help you (ie birbs that let everyone get a resource.) Everyone can flourish, and in fact the more players the higher the average score.
But the piece de le resistance is the theming. The birbs are FUCKING GORGEOUS. I don’t mean they only picked birbs that look pretty, I mean the art on these cards makes me calm and happy. And each card has a fun fact at the bottom about that bird or it’s history. The whole game oozes charm and really just encapsulates the feeling when you see an animal and go “oh he’s just a silly little guy.”
The base game is North American birbs so pretty standard but the expansions really leaned into silly guy territory. Or maybe I’m just not educated enough to recognize foreign birbs as normal. The base game is very well constructed and a great stepping stone into slipping into the rabbit hole of expansions.
Because of this game, I have a new hobby. Birbs. I have a favorite birb. I watch birbs out my window. I know random birb facts. I can identify most birbs into a general category. It’s wonderful.
Tumblr media
Look at this guy. This is a European Robin. My man does not have any worries. He is living under a rock. He doesn’t even know what a tax is! His entire existence is just round boi. Oh to be a birb like him on a snowy rock.
Tumblr media
This guy, however. This is a Sri Lanka Frogmouth. He has committed at least 3 war crimes and he knows it and I love him anyways. He’s so ugly! I love him. He is also my favorite irl birb. So he gets 3 pictures.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
This guy, the American Woodcock, is in base game and he gives “mom i frew up” vibes. He looks guilty and uncertain and HIS NAME IS A WOODCOCK.
I met these birbs through this game and I’m a happier person for it.
TL;DR if you like board games and want a good relaxing time and maybe a new birb obsession Wingspan is the game.
Below: card art
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Also bonus the art is mostly male birbs for the foliage but they can lay eggs so this game is 95% trans birbs. Hell yeah.
29 notes · View notes
Note
Kinda curious, don’t know if this has been asked, but I’m trying to get into the habit of sending more asks, so,
What’s your *least* favorite Ocean Liner?
Thank you SO much for this question. It's a little tricky to answer. Over the years, there have probably been thousands of liners, most of which nobody has ever heard of. For example, my great great grandfather came to America on the Manuel Calvo. This was a tiny no name liner that would have probably been completely forgotten to history if I wasn't such a huge boat nerd. So my least favorite would probably end up being a liner like that. In all honesty, it's probably a liner that I don't know exists.
But let's make this interesting. Let's talk about my least favorite of the "popular" liners that people actually talk about and remember. For me, that ship is the SS Normandie.
Tumblr media
Now don't get me wrong, I don't dislike the Normandie, she's just easily my least favorite. Maybe it's because I constantly compare her to the Queen Mary. But to be fair, her rivalry with the Queen Mary is one of the most notable things about her short career. I think her exterior is just plain ugly. I don't like the way her bow is shaped, her superstructure looks weird, and she looks really short and fat, despite her relatively normal proportions on paper. Her funnels are also way too big. If you're going to have really fat funnels, they need to be short to look aesthetically pleasing (like the MV Britannic, MV Georgic, and the planned but unbuilt RMMV Oceanic). If your funnels are going to be tall, they need to be thinner to compensate. Keep in mind, I'm speaking purely about aesthetics. Not function. Just as a whole, I feel like she's just not as aesthetically pleasing as more traditional ships like the Queen Mary, Aquitania, or Olympic. And she's also not as aesthetically pleasing as more modern liners like the SS United States, Queen Elizabeth 2, or her successor: the SS France (the one from 1960).
Her interiors are another big thing for me. She was decorated in an art deco style, as was popular at the time. These interiors are gorgeous, and they look like works of art you'd see in a museum, and that's part of the problem for me. All of the marble and works of art create this imposing atmosphere like you'd feel in a museum. Museums are cool, but it wouldn't be comfortable to live in one for a week. By comparison, the Queen Mary fell very homely and comfortable. I feel like the Normandie (while undoubtedly gorgeous) wouldn't be very nice to live in for the duration of the voyage. The Queen Mary isn't nearly as flashy or pretty, but feels infinitely more comfortable.
The Normandie didn't even have an interesting career to compensate for her shortcomings (again, in my opinion). She had her maiden voyage in 1935, had a REALLY GOOD few years competing with the Queen Mary for speed records, and then got stuck in New York in 1940 when world War II broke out. She sat there for 2 years before the Americans accidentally burned her down trying to convert her into a Troop Ship. Meanwhile, the Queen Mary had a long and accomplished career, and performed excellently as a Troop Ship.
Tl;dr - The Normandie looks ugly on the outside, doesn't seem comfortable on the inside, and her career wasn't notable either.
Thank you so much for this question, and I hope you enjoyed my answer.
20 notes · View notes
eemoo1o-kuroo · 1 year
Note
I love that ep 1 scene with the boys and Kaoru too! I agree that Kaoru was studying them like the nerd he is, but I also think he may have saw a bit of himself in Langa at that moment cause of what happened when he first met Adam.
Like he saw Langa's awed face and was thinking, "Yeah, I know that look, doesn't lead to anything but heartbreak."
That frame is one of my favourite shots. It belongs right in a “Sk8 No Context” video. In fact, that’s probably why it was included.
I see it as caution, and instead of seeing himself in Langa, he sees Adam*. There’s the “Blue Theory” that I’m yet to write out I full, only backed up by that after-credits scene with Kaoru/Kojiro in episode nine. And while what Kojiro and Kaoru say about the matter contradicts what I just said, perhaps Kaoru’s stance on Kojiro “overestimating Langa” wasn’t that to begin with.
*I can quite unfortunately see a whump fic somewhere about Reki breaking up with Langa, or something, and pushing him into becoming the “next Adam”, either alongside Adam himself or against Adam’s desires (now that he’s all “reformed” or whatever… spoiler alert: he really isn’t), though given the circumstances of such a fic being created I can imagine it’s alongside Adam. (Eve goes a bit crazy, for real.) It’s shipping. I don’t want to find out if such a fic exists unless the ship, if included at all, is depicted negatively and as a “grave mistake”, or something. So, I’m not looking.
I see it, with episode nine in correlation. Kaoru is studying Langa, and Reki, and seeing himself, Kojiro and Adam from when they were kids (with a few differences, of course). Reki in this situation is Kojiro and Kaoru, and Langa is Adam. Makes sense, right?
Well, there’s a few shifts that I think Kaoru has studied (as the “smart one” of the group, I’m sure) Langa and Reki as to assure his suspicions of the similarities, or a lack thereof.
In fact, when I’d first seen this ask a few days ago, I’d gotten the idea to make a Venn diagram of all the similarities I could remember without rewatching the show:
Tumblr media
Incidentally, Langa’s exclusive qualities are also connected to Adam — but he’s not included here, for obvious reasons.
The immediate parallels in terms of “Renga vs. Matchablossom” would be Reki/Joe and Langa/Cherry. Though, outside of ship dynamics (I’d so badly wanted to put “bisexual” and “gay” in the diagram, but withheld my compulsions — though, I did allow myself the “Lovestruck Stare”, as that’s canon compliant enough, with Kojiro giving several to Cherry and Langa to Reki, breaking the “obvious parallels” immediately, giving Langa and Joe more leverage as counterparts over Langa and Cherry) the parallels, as I’d just mentioned in parentheses, are more complex.
TL;DR: I really need to write my Blue Theory out in full, but here is the “character parallels” in the main cast (which doesn’t play into the Adam/Langa parallels as much as the Blue Theory does, with some Cherry on the side, and maybe some Tadashi/Reki parallels to compare with how they nurtured their own foils with Adam/Langa respectively).
The parallels aren’t as straight forward, but I think the main takeaway is just:
Tumblr media
43 notes · View notes
robotslenderman · 1 year
Note
Do you have any suggestions for writing Strauss? I was thinking of doing an LA by Night fanfic and I’m a little unsure of how to incorporate his old characterization from Bloodlines with the characters introduced in the series. Thanks a bunch!
So I wouldn't know about his LAbN characterisation, but I'll comment with what I've noticed of VTMB!Strauss and hopefully that will help!
He's a very rare character in that he's both very stoic, but also very expressive. His emotions don't really bleed into what he's saying, he keeps an even and professional tone... but his body language is something else entirely. He speaks with his hands, he leans back and forth, he moves his body around. When he's excited his voice will continue to have a bit of a calming drone to it, but his hands would probably act completely differently -- moving around quickly, maybe a clap, head moving all about the place.
He likes fledglings, he likes to teach, he likes to guide. He'd be a sterner teacher than most, I think, but would also adapt his technique to the student, and in exchange expect more from them. That part is speculation though.
He's a very good example of Nice Is Not Good. In VTMB he's the only person that treats the fledgling with an ounce of respect, but... he's also the character (that we know of) that's done the worst deeds, second to only Andrei -- he made a gargoyle, and gargoyles are made in a process that involves torture and agony for the Kindred that are made into one.
Along those lines he's also pragmatic. He doesn't see the point in swinging his dick around just because he can like other elders do. He treats people with polite respect regardless of whether or not they can do anything for him. He's also opportunistic -- when they can do something for him, he uses that respect to his advantage.
Wants power, but not in ways that are immediately obvious; he remarks that he's not interested in becoming Prince of LA (but will go for it when the opportunity presents itself later), but mentions that he aspires to far greater heights. We never find out what those heights are.
A lot of people suspect he's in LA either because he's in the "naughty corner" (LA seems to be the place that Camarilla send their most annoying members), or because he deliberately wanted to be away from the scrutiny of the rest of the Pyramid. Given that Kindred are pretty evil as a baseline, and that the Tremere are eviller still, this would indicate that Strauss would have to be a whole lot worse if he's either in trouble with or afraid of getting in trouble with the Pyramid. Like holy shit how depraved would you have to be to be worried about them getting mad at you? (Some have pointed out it might be because of the gargoyle, which could be true but also doesn't disprove my point here either.)
(That, or he's a potential defector, which is unlikely given that a Malk Fledgling comments on his loyalty to the Pyramid; he is clan before sect to the end.)
TL;DR: Affably Probably-Eviller-Than-Most-Tremere-Which-Is-Seriously-Saying-Something nerd who likes to teach, is very calm and controlled but very expressive with his body language and hands. Very chill, and strongly loyal to the Pyramid. Would torture your best friend to death For Science but be exceedingly polite to them in the process.
Not sure if that helps at all lol.
70 notes · View notes
tizzypizza · 1 year
Note
your agent 24 is white savior fix yourself
good morning to you too, polite anon, who has clearly not read my interpretation of agent 24 beyond presumably a single comic! lengthy post incoming, so tl;dr rude, i’ve portrayed them as otherwise, valid concern but rude and do better.
in case you’re new here, my agent 24 is very much a captain 3 who is constantly busting ass to “make up for” the trauma that caused inner agent 3 in the first place, for essentially turning their world upside down, etc. and an agent 8 who is very resistant to captain 3 overworking and pushing themself towards what they believe will be “just compensation for all of the damage they caused.” my agent 8 is one who still spars with 3 and works as a weapons consultant, and i’ve explicitly shown this EXACT dynamic in one of my agent 24 posts. i’m sorry you got this idea from a single dumb comic that i’ve been getting increasingly tempted to take down despite it being my most popular post.
in my mind, agent 8 is someone with a more diverse skillset than 3 who can more than efficiently hold their own. they alone are the ones who made it through the entire campaign of octo expansion with the occasional bit of help from 3. it’s easy for me to simplify all of the agents for my dumb little meme posts— 3 as edgy, 4 as a nerd, 8 as sweet and n3 as a street rat— but i try to balance those posts out with more fleshed out content. octo expansion is chock-full of covert and overt racism; it’s the last story i’d want to leave oversimplified. that’s how white saviorism stories like this frankly belligerent anon mentioned come about.
last bit of talk poc-to-probably poc? as an asian living in america (hint: not white) who has endured MORE than their fair share of white saviorism in their time, i politely ask you to reconsider how you come swinging into other people’s inboxes. there’s better approaches to take than assumptions and better advice to offer than “fix yourself” LMFAO. i think “uwu helpless twaumatized agent 8” is rampant in this fandom, and as someone who has diagnosed trauma of their own it doesn’t sit right with me and i try to use my serious posts to create that distinction. if it’s been overrun by meme posts i’m sorry and i’ll try to put out more serious content in the future, but for now it’s 5 am my time gooooodnight.
31 notes · View notes
Text
Too Little, and perhaps Too Late: The short-comings of MFC as a platform
I know how sick and fucking tired I am of hearing this exact phrase but I will reiterate because it’s important: we’re living through rough times. The pandemic coincided with a massive shift for digital SW, from a realm that was largely live stream (which in a lot of ways was very much booming then) to a content creation platform that by and large took the entire world - SW and vanilla - by storm.
MFC is not a household name. It never has been. The average person doesn’t know what MFC is, and even the average porn consumer likely just thinks of it as one of the sites that pop up as an ad here and there while browsing other sites. Even in the “hayday” (which I’d argue was probably between 2014 and 2018), the pool of people in the know was small, especially in comparison to how prolific OnlyFans has become in broader (vanilla) society.
When established camgirls moved to OnlyFans in the wake of declining traffic and declining mental capacity for live streaming, especially those of us who were five or more years into constantly grinding, we created the foundation for the platform that quickly attracted non-SW to the site as soon as the pandemic occurred. The timing was the perfect storm. With an interface identical to Instagram, it was familiar even to the most vanilla or casual of audiences. With the concurrent rise of subscription-based payment modalities, people felt as comfortable clicking “subscribe” to a $5 a month page as they did with signing up for Netflix.
MFC has not had the same luck. Yes, strategic interface choices and payment structures were conscious decisions on OnlyFans’ part, but I cannot stress enough how heavily luck played into the explosion of OnlyFans as a platform. As much as what I’m about to say (eventually, after I’m finished my characteristic long winded ramble*) may be counter to this point, OnlyFans also inevitably did draw a significant portion of MFC users away from the platform and toward OnlyFans instead. Cheaper (sometimes), faster, easier to use, more transparent. The “tokens” thing was and still is an interesting concept** (again, I’ll get into this in a second), but seeing an obvious dollar amount to subscribe with and clearly defined dollar amounts to spend on individual creators pages themselves cleared any ambiguity about spending for the consumer. For better or for worse, OnlyFans is a SW-consumer platform for consumer dummies. It simplified everything a casual user was looking for out of a digital SWer, and then grew from there.
This is not to say live streaming is dead. Live streaming is bigger than it EVER has been before - but this also means MFC has even more competition now than it ever had in the past. We were the first live streamers the internet had, and for a while, the only live streamers the internet had. We were here before Instagram live, YouTube live, TikTok live, hell we were here when Twitch was justin.tv and even then, the average person had no idea justin.tv even existed.  reference notes for internet history nerds: MFC was founded in 2004, justin.tv (which later became Twitch) was founded in 2007. By 2010, MFC was considered the largest adult live streaming platform on the internet (which also means on the internet itself, since ... others didn’t ... exist yet). Justin.tv was initially a free for all live streaming platform, but after developing a successful gaming section, it moved its gaming component to a site called Twitch in June of 2011 - later dissolving justin.tv and solely becoming Twitch in 2014, which was then quickly acquired by Amazon that same year. Tl;dr - MFC was first, and it was king. 
*re: users migrating to OnlyFans: many of my biggest contributors on MFC did not move to OnlyFans strictly because their interest is live streaming, not content creation. Over the past year that I’ve been on Twitch, I’ve seen the return of many old names that remember me from MFC but simply haven’t seen me since, because they don’t like OnlyFans. Live stream consumers are still live stream consumers - it’s not as cut and dry as “OF stole all our people!”.
**re: tokens instead of dollar amount: Twitch uses this in the form of bits. It is still a strategy that works on other live streaming platforms - so I’m not necessarily saying that MFC using the token modality is a poor choice, but I am stressing that during a time where people are keeping their wallets closer to their chests, precise understanding of how much something costs may be more important to users now than it was before.
Alright kids, history lesson concluded. Now you know. Back to the topic at hand.
MFC consumers are unique - but in their uniqueness, I personally feel that the user base that was once largely exclusive to MFC now have options to have both of their primary needs met on other competing sites. Consumers on MFC are looking for two things: personal connection and sexual gratification. For some, having both needs met simultaneously is necessary - but for many others, dividing and conquering is likely a cheaper and higher quality strategy. A user who wants to get off will go to places that are cheaper or have more immediate access (aka OnlyFans), and that same user who wants to feel a sense of community or comfort from a live streamer can go to Twitch to have those needs met over there. 
Even for the most dedicated MFC users, the history of site culture, for better or for worse, has likely impacted overall satisfaction for using MFC itself. There is massive pressure on dedicated MFC users - those with recognized usernames, at least - to provide their performer with tokens often on an hourly basis, and sometimes, depending on their reputation, the expectation is to spend a lot an hour. There is little in the way of anonymity for a user. The second they enter a room, their name pops up in the viewer list, and model expectations immediately kick in. Some of us even lurk other models rooms from separate member accounts or as guests to see members we consider “our tippers” (for better or for worse) and feel a massive sense of loss or disappointment if other camgirls are being tipped by “our tippers” more than they tip us. 
In so many ways, expectation is the thief of joy, and this is playing a role on both sides of the MFC experience: for camgirls and their audiences. We need expectations about tipping because for many of us, it’s our sole or primary form of livelihood. When our goals aren’t met, our morale sinks. When our morale is low, we have less in our cup to pour from, impacting not only our own enjoyment of our jobs, but the experience of our viewers as well. Thus, the downward spiral.
Aside from literally forcing ourselves to keep on smiling and shaking ass, much of the issues experienced are in the hands of the MFC platform itself. Since the same team had no problem copying Instagram for their interface, having MFC improve their homepage in a Twitch-esque way even if only slightly could help new users (particularly those familiar with Twitch) feel more familiar on MFC. Main page integration of MFC Share visibility would work wonders for our video stores. The bare minimum would be consulting models themselves about site functionality and interface - an open forum of any sort for MFC developers to receive feedback is a pipe dream of course, but at this point, the state of things does call for drastic measures.
Very little of this is actively helpful for you as an MFC streamer right now, during a time crisis more or less, so I’ll hop off the lecture podium and begin the workshop component. Thank you for your patience. I will never, ever stop being wordy, so if you’ve made it this far, congratulations - you’re just as big of a nerd as I am.
“What the fuck am I supposed to do?”
- Forget everything you knew about what you used to earn on MFC; focus on the future, not the past. Re-frame your tokens per hour goals, or throw them out the window entirely, because they’re not likely to serve you well right now if you’re already struggling. Create a stream schedule and stick to it. Focus on hours streamed, not tokens made. Hope for the best.
- Up your quality as well as your content production. Lean on familiarity marketing, and increase your visibility. Twitch is huge right now and a lot of MFC viewers, particularly die-hards, are splitting their time and money between platforms. Learn how to use OBS, create “stream starting soon” screens, “BRB” screens, “Bath show starting soon” screens - stuff like that. Jack up the quality of what your set-up looks like as much as you can so that you appear attractive physically but also in terms of digital (and professional) set up style.
- Do more. More streams. More videos for MFC Share. More content for OnlyFans, more advertising on Reels, more advertising on Twitter, more hours more content more hours more content more hours more content --
...yeah. I know. That’s where it’s come to, in a lot of ways. It’s either relentless patience (which a lot of us don’t have the financial freedom for), or aggressive and constant ‘more more more’ which most of us just don’t possess the capability for anymore. 
I’d strongly recommend revisiting whether or not you want to continue on MFC, particularly if its your (perhaps failing) primary form of income. Obviously there is and always will be money to be made on MFC. Diehard users will likely stick around until the platform literally falls into ruin, and there is always the potential for new users to fall in love with the experience and become dedicated supporters. 
The question here is ... do you want to ride this out? Are you over it? Are the emotional, financial and time costs outweighing the pay? Do you feel as though you want to continue streaming on the platform while it’s experiencing the issues it’s currently experiencing? What if the issues never get resolved?
We’re in recession, “post”-pandemic, during a time of massive inflation. We, as creators, are under more pressure now than ever to be making the type of income we used to make, while relying on supporters who have less to spend than they used to. I hate to sound doom and gloom here, but this is a very, very challenging time, particularly for MFC camgirls for all of the reasons listed above (and more, I’m sure). 
My only strategic advice is to diversify income and go where the money is most likely to be. Reels for advertisement (and the potential for virality, which isn’t a word but you get what I mean) are a more sure fire way to draw traffic to OnlyFans than using MFC. 
This is a heavy post. I don’t want to deflate anyone, but I’m being realistic when I say the vast majority of us right now are likely struggling. You’re not alone, this isn’t the end and there will be another time in the sun - but now we’ve got to work three times as hard for half the pay, and if that’s what it means to make ends meet, we simply have to rise to the occasion.
32 notes · View notes
light-lanterne · 9 months
Note
hi I just wanted to let you know the your fic “the darkest eyes” is super cool, I’m constantly rereading it it’s amazing! Anyways I have a question, you’ve mentioned that there’s some kind of disease in this universe? Could you expand on that? im really curious, if you can’t that’s totally fine! Keep up the good work nd make sure to take care of yourself!
oh hi ! thank you so much for this message, i'm happy you like my story <3 as ever, apologies for the long delay in updates :(
and there is an illness, yeah ! long story short, i gave the people who came in contact with the upside down long-lasting consequences for their interaction with such a foreign environment !! in my mind, the upside down behaves a lot like a massive fungi system (similar to what "the last of us" did with cordyceps and what is described in s1e2 of "hannibal"), so i figured the "fungus" would have an effect on various levels depending on method and time of exposure.
for instance, most characters have inhaled the spores, some for way longer than others (like nancy, who's been significantly exposed twice, in s1 and s4);
then we have those that have briefly ingested a liquid secreted by the tunnels' structure (hopper and dustin in s2);
then we have those who have been bitten by creatures of the upside down (el with the flesh monster, steve with the bats, and mike in my story with the demogorgon)
and then we have will, who literally got infested all the way up to his brain by the mind flayer.
so all these characters (and the others) are different levels of infected and while some of them could easily get rid of the infection, some have developed permanent syndromes as a result of this fungus and need life-long treatment for it.
as for the characteristics of the illness itself, i plan on expanding on it during the story but i basically made it all very similar to chronic aspergillosis and candidiasis (both real life fungal infections), with manifestations that are not different from the symptoms of those illnesses and essentially the same treatment as those.
for most characters this just means they need to get a little injection every one or two months; kind of like a booster, with few side effects and an overall minuscule effect to their daily life. however, for the characters who got bitten or infested, these injections are far more frequent and the treatment has to cover a lot of the comorbidities they've gotten as a result (fevers, anaemia, seizures, general immune-system compromise and so on).
,,,so yeah, i could clearly go on for days about this >.<
tl;dr: i made up an illness to make the characters suffer even more even after they've finally gotten rid of the upside down, all because i wanted to nerd out about fungal infections x.x
anyway, thank you once again for the question !!! and for the kind words ~ ;-; <3 take care of yourself too and i hope you have the greatest day / night ! :D
the story || masterpost
11 notes · View notes
hazelcephalopod · 7 months
Text
My review of DnD: Honor Among Thieves:
Tl;dr: overall I liked it -I was side eying a lot of the dragon arc. Also, surprisingly- needed more magic. Druids are full casters, Bards are full casters, Paladins are half casters! Did Holga even rage?
Also I fully thought Simon was secretly an artificer actually, for 1/3 of the movie.
For a movie it was good fun. I enjoyed that it didn’t take itself too seriously, and the characters felt like dnd characters yet in a good way? Which is really hard to do without it becoming too campy and while I like camp not everyone does. The story was simple but fitting, because it felt like a dnd campaign. In terms of character and story it was pretty spot on. Except one thing, more bisexuality needed.
Now for the cons (aka DnD nerd nitpicks DnD movie the for #1,000,057th time)-
As a lifeline fan on DnD, both the game and the settings most especially Faerûn -I was introduced to to Faerûn when I was like 8 folkx. My dad played 3.5 and maybe even earlier additions. I have many 3.5 books and have played a little of that edition, 4th, and quite a bit of 5th. I watch so much rpg and dnd specifically actual plays and I criticize them and love them. And criticize the critics. So. Where were the classes? Where was the lore? What is best boy Xenk a Paladin of?? It doesn’t have to be a god, but tbh, imo not having gods is a fucking waste! It’s Faerûn! Faerûn is drowning in gods, sometimes literally! Throw a rock and you’ll unearth some gods bs. Was Mystra, goddess of magic and more importantly bffs/gf/child/it’s very complicated of Elminster “what if I became a woman? And enjoyed it! Again!” Aumar even mentioned? (Yea mfers I read DnD books. And wikis!) (also reminder he is Simons great-great-great(?) grandfather, so the opportunity was there)
Also, I know that Tieflings can be typical skin tones or whatever. However two things 1) why did she have elf ears? Two… damn those parents where whimps she coulda passed for human, or part elven very, very easily. Also I’m sry but total waste to make her look like tiefling Keyleth CR. Give her some weird color, even if it’s just like blue freckles or something. Next-ly , when the soldiers are chasing her I guess I could accept she rolled a nat one. Multiple times. But how did they know she was a she? And why call her a “wild shape” and not a “Druid”. Bc calling her a wild shape, like shouting “Wild shape!” While chasing her? it… it Was. A bit. Weird. Moving oon…
More egregious was the strange lack of magic, when there’s was also so much magic. Half of Simons spells are from strange little objects, which is why I thought he might be a secret artificier or maybe multiclassed. For a minute I thought he was an eldritch trickster! However that’s relatively minor -actually I was a little disappointed he wasn’t an artificer, because they are cool and I love strange little magic devices and trinkets. Which, in comparison to no one else using magic except to become trademark animals and many non trademarked ones. Why would they not want people to know that druids, and bards, AND paladins, HAVE MAGIC?!? Don’t tell me they are too low level. I saw Xenk fight! Paladin Yendar is at least level 7. At least! (Maybe 6… but 7 is already a stretch tbh.) The rest? Bards have magic at level one, as do druids. And Druid Doric the Wild Shape was at least level 5 herself thank you. So no! Rejected, they where mid ranged level at least! Where’s the magic! Hmm!?
Imho they could have solved this several ways. (You can choose whichever combination you prefer). 1. Instead of uh, Bard (looks up his name) Edgin (lol) Darvis make him a mastermind Rogue or something. 2. If not, have him do spells but when Simon points it out everyone is like “no but that’s different because it’s music magic. Duh”. 3. Same thing for Doric, “no she can’t do it because she only has nature magic. It’s different”. 4. Hilariously, make Doric also terrible at casting spells. 5. I wanted Holga to rage more. I’m sry. Fighters can do everything she did and idc. Make it look magic or something. 6. Same with Xenk. Where was the brandishing his holy symbol and doing some magic? Bc I was like “wait is he just a high level fighter? Or rogue/fighter” (Which would have been funny to me) (ok I checked. He casts a spell on his sword once. Which I missed completely. Makes no difference to my point. Eldritch knight or trickster could do similar)
So that’s my review. If you made it this far good job. Tbh, I think I just know too much about Dnd, because otherwise I quite enjoyed this movie. I kinda hope they make more of them, so the studios better fucking learn to respect their workers and negotiate.
PS: Maybe we could do without the fat jokes next time. Or ever again.
PPS: srsly they better learn to negotiate. Because we have we have other options and I can watch countless actual plays for thousands of hours. And waiting the strike out so long people are starting to lose housing and probably worse? Well, there’s plenty of creator owned projects to provide more support to instead. (TBC- I mean if you can do that anyway but, like stop giving the assholes the support and distribute those funds to the creators)
5 notes · View notes
kinetic-elaboration · 4 months
Text
December 12: Work Shit
Today was such a shitty day. And for the most dumb-fuck reasons too. There was work drama in the morning so incredibly inane I am embarrassed to post about it in a pubic space but the tl;dr of it is that I had no opinions about the thing, but was still the brunt of others’ (an other’s really) annoyance about it. We kept saying ‘it’s not personal’ as we spoke harshly to each but it felt SO personal, and I just couldn’t get over it for pretty much the rest of the day. I am quite sure it wounded me more and affected me for longer than anyone else. I want to be like ‘please don’t do this to me, I am a sensitive flower, I am easily emotionally decimated’ but also like ‘I am not bothered at all (lying), I am strong and fine, I am above this, I am not engaging because there is nothing to engage with.’
Again, there was nothing to engage with. But it just made me feel so shitty. I still feel kind of sad even now, to be honest. I was so bummed out and tired that I took a nap as soon as I got home (after a bus ride sitting in front of someone who was yelling into their phone and kept saying ‘no one can hear me! It’s the bus!’—um? We can all hear you because it’s the bus?). There was probably nothing else for me to do but of course now I am up late because it takes a while to wake up again from a nap, then I am all riled up and easily distracted. So I will go to sleep at a stupid hour again, and also have accomplished nothing with my paltry post-work hours.
Fuck I’m so depressed. This is such a depressing train of thought.
Anyway, yesterday I mentioned at work that I had never seen a single episode of Doctor Who (this is the truth: I think I saw a partial episode on TV, but not even the whole thing) and this shocked my co-worker considerably. She said it was incredibly surprising of me or something of that nature. And I do not know how to take this. I mean, probably what she means is ‘you are known as someone who likes science fiction and is rather nerdy’ and these are true things and also positive reputations to have. But I have literally never given the slightest fuck about Doctor Who lmao. I can’t tell you why, but it obviously doesn’t feel weird to me that I don’t because I never have! Obviously I’ve been in a lot of spaces that are sort of Who-adjacent (fandom, tumblr, nerd-dom, crossover appeal with other stuff I like) but it’s never been tempting or intriguing at all. It’s not on my list.
What I said was just like… a non-answer that sounded like an answer based on my tone of voice. Like, ‘Hmmm, well I’ve seen a partial episode on TV and I’ve seen Torchwood.’ This is all true but does not at all address the surprise or the reasons of my not being interested. I was surprised by her surprise, I don’t have good reasons, and also all I could say would probably read as insulting to Who fans, one of whom was in the room.
I think part of it is, honestly, that my mom isn’t into Doctor Who, and so I did not have anyone getting me into it at a formative time. Not that people can’t get into Who independently and not that I haven’t gotten into things independently but I just… I really think that in this particular instance, if she had been into it, I would have been. My mom being into Torchwood is the reason I watched it (well… 2-ish seasons). She thinks Who is a kids’ show and while it’s probably more a family show, that opinion really influenced my non-desire to watch it.
Another part is that I’m sort of a sci-fi poser in a way. I hate to admit it but it’s true. I love that people think of me as a sci fi fan and I think of myself that way too but I am NOT well read. I’m more like an ST:TOS fan with aspirations to sci fi fandom. This isn’t to say I want to pick up Who (or Dune, the other piece of science fiction I was strangely assumed to be familiar with), but I do want to be more well-read in some classic sci fi literature, as well as be more aware of like modern sci fi stuff. Especially books. There are very few sci fi TV series that interest me. A couple but not a ton.
I also have a weird definition of science fiction which is, it’s science fiction if it FEELS like science fiction to me, personally, the arbiter of all things. Some media are in the sense that they can’t be anything else, I guess, but they don’t feel like science fiction to me and so I’m not interested, which is a weird and irrational and unreasonable thing for me to say, but it’s the middle of the night and I’m sad so there it is.
2 notes · View notes
omgzineplease · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media
Fast Facts:
What you do: I’m a design admin~!
When you joined the fandom: Summer of 2016
Things you like outside the fandom: So. many. comics. Manga, manhwa, webcomics, superhero issues, graphic novels—if it has pictures, I’ll probably read it LOL.
About Me:
I am an asian art student grad, very short, very crass, very amused when drawing [REDACTED]. Yes, I’m saying that I am Lardo and Lardo is me. The main difference is that I’m awful at beer pong LMAO.
I actually found out about OMGCP back when 2.06 came out (“Never fall for a straight boy.”) and then again when 2.19 (Zimbits First Kiss) made the rounds. I finally read it when my BFF sat me down and had me blaze through everything (which was up to 3.06 at the time) and simply never left the fandom.
Aside from OMGCP, I’m just a huge nerd. This will be the 7th zine I participate in, and the 4th that I’ve helped moderate. I’m super excited to see what everyone makes~! \o/
Fun Facts:
I once wrote an essay on OMGCP for class and got an A. I then submitted it to my university’s academic journal and had it accepted. So I basically wrote a standard OMGCP meta post and somehow got it formally published.
I also wrote fanfiction for my undergrad thesis and got nominated for an award. That’s the TL;DR version at least—the longer version includes me looking like Bitty during his thesis.
Yeah, I can’t quite believe any of it either LOL.
Things I Think Would Be Cool in the Zine:
Future Lamilla would be so cute tbh
Future Shardo too
Seeing what Lardo gets up to in Haus 2.0 would be hilarious
Lardo in general is 🧑‍🍳👌
(Can y’all tell who my fave is? 😂)
17 notes · View notes