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literalgrill · 4 months

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Do NOT Support Hard Drive On Patreon

You might see friends today suggesting you support Hard Drive on Patreon today. You know, the funny video games version of The Onion? As a journalist, I will firmly tell you DO NOT GIVE THEM A DIME.

The CEO has pushed out all former staff that have built the site up to its current greatness and has been pushing the use of AI. The staff begged to have a Patreon before basically all being pushed out, but the idea was refused until now, when it will only line the pockets of a single person instead of hard working writers.

I know they might have provided laughs before, but Hard Drive is a shell of what it was once. Let it die and support the people who actually made those moments of joy possible. Don't believe me? Check out what former employees are saying below:

Kevin Podas: Okay you know what, I would feel bad saying nothing about this, so here goes:🚨SAVE YOUR MONEY🚨

We passionately advocated for a Patreon at Hard Drive & were aggressively shot down. The talent & people who built the site were pushed out. To see this now is beyond upsetting. For the past few years or so I put a lot of myself into this website. I pitched a ton of jokes, got over 120 articles published, & met a lot of great people. I'm sure if you've been following me for some time you could easily see this.

However, there is a lot of misinformation. I was eventually promoted to Managing Editor of the site & was ecstatic. Grateful for the opportunity. Felt like all of my hard work in the comedy mines was finally paying off. But things took a turn for the worst, & each day there were new surprises that affected our livelihoods. These were all very avoidable surprises, mind you.

A patreon was going to be our hail mary, but alas, for some reason, the power that be did not want it. Causing us to leave a dream job behind. "At least we did all we could," we consoled ourselves afterwards. I put a lot of myself into this project. I pitched all sorts of ideas that could have helped-- we all did. Merch collaborations, Patreon-integrated YouTube content, so much more. And most of them were shot down out of sheer stubbornness and nothing more. To see lie after lie spread, and multiple big publications and YouTubers that I am a fan of promote this Patreon under these pretenses is incredibly upsetting. There are so many receipts.

Please share this and consider pulling out if you've already put money into this. On Hard Drive using AI, also from Kevin Podas: I can't personally confirm that part aside from some of the recent header images for articles on both Hard Drive and Hard Times are being made with AI. As far as writing, it's been mentioned in the past, but I personally do not know. Maybe others do, maybe not. MORE From Kevin Podas suggesting the owner denying a Patreon being set up earlier cost an artist a job that was replaced by AI: We had a social media person who was awesome! He made the images until this AI implementation. He had to leave because ad revenue was low and a Patreon was aggressively refused.

Luca Fisher: at the risk of burning some bridges, i have to back up kevin here. i've only been part-time, in-and-out of hard drive since i got in last year, but i can corroborate that management doubled and tripled down about not hosting a patreon/crowdfunding and that many other suggestions and ideas, including mine (and ones much smarter than mine!), were shot down in really long, apocalyptic threads of everyone left on deck desperately trying to come up with ways to keep the lights on. managerially it has been messy and sad

i've written for multiple publications that have long since died, ones that were in the process of dying, and ones that, in this case, are soon to be put in the ground. it is sad and sucks every time. i don't know what could have been done differently, but i do know that a lot of great writers and content creators were left shorthanded and unhappy by the way things have gone. and it is sort of puzzling to see the sudden championing of patreon after we were all told plenty of times that it couldn't work and we should move on also, just to add my own personal two cents here, i was really disappointed by the shuttering of many different article sections on the site over the past 6-8 months. i understand cutting corners in a deficit, and i know it had to be done. that said…

all in all, i'm really sad to see this all happen. i don't fault anyone, if only because i don't really know enough about how this all can happen to make sense of it. games journalism is in a sad, sorry state, and will likely no longer be a thing in the next decade

VideoSealMan: I'm gonna say this because I think I deserve to. For months, MONTHS on end I was bugging Hard Drive management about a Patreon. Often I got ignored for a week+, but when I actually got a response I was encouraged to - of all things, write up a Google Doc pitching the concept I did it regardless. I wasn't the only one trying to sway management on a Patreon, but so fiercely was I fighting for it that last night, I was accused of making this comment directly by the CEO! With no evidence whatsoever! After I'd been gone for over a month.

I vouched so hard for Patreon because I wanted all the writers and creatives working with Hard Drive including myself to get paid better. When I actually got a response, the idea was often shut down. Eventually due to the state of my company, my pay was cut for a second time I confronted management alongside a couple other important figureheads at the org and told them that if we couldn't do a Patreon - I could no longer financially justify staying there. The answer was still no, so I left. Baffled at the decision, but whatever.

It is unendingly frustrating to know that myself and many other people who put their soul into Hard Drive LEFT because of management's absolute refusal to compromise on a Patreon, to then see them launch one anyway a month later and get over 1000 people pledging money. I'm seeing a lot of things float around about greed and people being fired. No one was fired. Everyone who left, left because they were sick of management's decision-making. And honestly, management is a lot of things but I would not call them greedy. (From my experience.) They did genuinely make an effort to pay people as much as possible. I found the pay very fair for a while. I am not disputing that I was paid what I was owed - yet management frequently feels the need to remind critics of that. Lmao, yes. I was paid what I was owed. No one is disputing payment. You did the bare minimum a business owner should do and paid everyone their due, very well done. I make no allegations of greed, cheating or foul play. I make allegations of poor management and incompetence that has fucked over other people.

Basically the only people left at Hard Drive have been there for about 2 months. They will reap the rewards of this successful Patreon I and so many others passionately fought for for so long. We will not see a dime.

I do not know the new people at Hard Drive, But I feel bad for them. They were haphazardly thrust into Hard Drive's workplace with little to no explanation on how anything works, or given any context on the state of the place. Even now managements feeds them half-truths and misinformation about other people's grievances. I am broke and have been for a while. I had to move out of my flat in Reading and back with my family because of how little money I was making. This has basically doomed my flatmate to moving back in with abusive parents, which is something I feel guilty about every day. If we had gone with the Patreon I worked myself hoarse over back then, this could have been avoided. Some of my other good pals could also not have been fucked over.

It was a bad judgment call, but it's not a crime. It's just management getting it wrong.

So should you give to the Hard Drive Patreon? I don't know! I don't think any of the new people working there to patch up the holes left by the recent mass exodus have any bad intentions. Maybe they deserve it! But it is not the same site you knew a year ago, or even a month ago. Myself and many people who were there far longer than me and did far more for it than I did are all gone now because we could not deal with management's terrible decision-making and dogass communication any longer. That's what you should know, imo

I had an agreement in place with management that I would receive the next 8 months of revenue from the Hard Drive YT channel from my leaving in November. This was a deal I appreciated, and thought was very fair on management's behalf. So far, the deal has been honoured for 2 months. However as of last night I was removed from the Hard Drive Slack without warning, and as an editor for the YouTube channel. This means I no longer have any way of verifying how much I am owed, I just have to take their word for it. I'm sure management will make their own statements full of half-truths and weird language on the many cases being brought against them - I'd take everything they say with a pinch of salt if some of the screenshots I've seen of them talking about me are any indication lol

To management; I do not want to talk to you. I want you to DM me a screenshot of how much I'm owed every month and then send me the money per our agreement until June, then we can go our separate ways. Do that and admit to your mistakes, and maybe you can recover your reputation! That's it from me, lol. If they pull out of the deal and fuck me over I'll have more to say, but most of what I know is other people's stories of incompetence and poor decision-making, lol. I genuinely get no pleasure out of doing this; I do not think management is evil - I just think they're really bad at what they do and it's cost other, more talented people, lol. You should believe the writers imo

One last thing I wanna say btw, management did often stress that no one should try to make Hard Drive a full time thing. They were transparent about that, and that is fair. I was working on it because at a few points, I was lead to believe we actually were doing a Patreon. Many other ppl have similar stories of being strung along by management changing their minds and stop-starting shit every 2 weeks. We all made the fatal mistake of overestimating our manager - who would tell you one thing one day and something totally opposite the next week lol

Hunter R. Thompson:

I'm not your dad, but speaking as a Hard Drive writer, I don't know that funding Hard Drive on Patreon is worth it

The driving talent on the back end—behind the kickass site I joined in 2019—have peaced out over the years as the site's been (in our view) increasingly mismanaged. Mismanagement like, not setting up crowdfunding before the ship sank and all its best crew failed; or publishing a screenshot of Andy Ngo pedojacketing a trans writer, complete with her deadname; or a disgruntled ex-writer getting falsely accused of shit-talk, by actual staff. I'm grateful for the writing I've gotten to produce for HD (and will forever be kicking myself for not writing even more, in the four years I've had to do it!! i'm a dumbass!!!) but it is very much no longer the site I signed up for.

I don't want to resign as a contributor altogether, because I'm open to the idea of the site recovering and bad practices being retired as finances level out-- it would just be dishonest for potential backers to not be Aware Of The Circumstances, I think.

Jeremy Kaplowitz: i truly don't want to start shit, but feel compelled to say: i want to see Hard Drive succeed w/o resorting to throwing former writers & editors, myself included, under the bus. surely there's a way to save the site without building it over the corpses of those who left. my $0.02 i don't blame anyone who wants to sign up for the HD patreon and i support the website, but that includes those who worked on it for years, have complaints, and don't deserve to be treated like bitter assholes like this kind of stuff is just objectively true, meanwhile there's these new writers who joined the site after i left (meaning, in the last ~3 months) claiming people are liars. decide for yourself if you care, but this is what happened! [Quotes this Tweet]

Seth Finkelstein: Writing for Hard Drive has been a privilege the past few years, and it makes me so angry to see people I looked up to get jerked around behind the scenes. The amount of grenades the editors jumped on our behalf is immense, and I don't think the way they're being treated is right.

Other Bits On AI: We do know for sure however that AI art has been used by the site. Its fucking owner confirms it here:https://twitter.com/MattSaincome/status/1743040541603123622. Seems the owner pushed AI written articles as well! TayFabe: My vaguetweet is making the rounds & these made me apoplectic. - owner regularly lobbied using ai. Once he tested it & said ai was writing better satire than 25% of the HT/HD writers. - ai images were used on the site & socials w/o consulting the team or disclosing it publicly I found the ai bit relevant to include bc 1) it illuminates a stark change in HD's current direction & leadership, 2) ai images have previously been used on the site and (since deleted) ig posts, 3) ai content fucking sucks, and repeatedly pushing to use it is a telling quality The "handful of writers who chose to leave" includes 2 editors-in-chief (both cofounders who wrote a combined total of >1,000 articles & defined the voice of HD), & at least 3 other editors. These guys put in WORK since 2017, so cool to be corrected by ppl who joined in Nov 2023 [Link to mentioned vague tweet from post.] More from TayFabe: owner continuously lobbied for using ai in every possible way. No one else wanted to do it, but he kept on, saying ai was writing better satire than 25% of the HT/HD writers. Also, ai images were used on the site & socials without public disclosure or consulting the team.

The owner has responded now multiple times in a private discord... Thank you for people sharing screenshots! First Screenshot:

Kevin's Response: He banned me from the server for speaking out, so no, I didn't see it. And he gave no indication of a timeline, it was just "we'll do one when *I* say so" and gave every inclination he was totally against it. It bred an environment that pushed our hands to have to leave. Screenshot Round Two:

Kevin's Response: "Starting one in 3 months" is an absolute lie. He denied it, I have screenshots and others who can confirm. No timeline was given. Just "this is what it is now" and like, I couldn't live off of that. I wanted to do more but he was allergic to good ideas from others around him.

Matt, owner of Hard Drive, responds publicly on Twitter.

Matt: Kevin, the patreon launch was delayed because I didn't think it would work. Everyone is happy that it did work. Everyone who left the site because we didn't have money to pay for creative content which didn't revenue is welcome to return home. But unclear why the hostility.

Hard Drive paid out literally every dollar it had, then a bunch more, to creative people who worked on the site. When we ran out of money, we couldn't pay anymore. We did our best.

Kevin: Right, and my point of this thread was that it was completely and totally avoidable. This is reasonable to be upset about. How could I have been any more clear?

Matt: If we knew with 100% certainly that the community would have supported us via patreon, we would have done that. We didn't know. We had tried 4 years ago and got no support. We were wrong this time. We did our best to figure it out. We paid all the money we could.

Kevin: So you knew with 100% certainty this time? Or you took a leap of faith?

Matt: It was a last gasp panic effort after ad rates got cut in half on january 1st due to seasonal spending changes. We didn't know it would work. We were embarrassed to ask for support. We wanted to figure it out.

Kevin: Every site has a Patreon. Every YouTuber, comedy group, etc. But you insisted that nobody cared about Hard Drive. Which is wildly untrue. I know you see that now, but again, I think you can see why I and many others are pretty upset. A last ditch panic effort was long overdue. A couple more things from Matt:

It was about the size of the hole we needed plugged budget wise, the time I had left of personal resources, and the past data I had about us trying a patreon (which turned out to be a bad indicator). I didn't think the Patreon would help us fast enough. I made a bad estimation

aka "if we make $1000 more dollars a month via patreon, which would be 10x what we got last time, we will not solve any of our problems. If instead we try to plow down path B, we might make it out in time." That was the thinking. I chose the wrong path, but didn't mean to Kevin also retweeted this comment from the user Matt was responding to: So you're saying that you're bad at running the business, didn't listen to any of your employees until after they were forced to leave their jobs, and now you're going to get more of the money from the Patreon that was their idea in the first place? Matt's Response: Respectfully, I made a mistake delaying the patreon decision. But keeping a comedy site alive for 9 years is not easy, there are lots of potential ideas, and think overall we've done a good and honorable job. Will leave this thread in peace now to allow people their space.

Sorry for linking to Elon's hellsite (derogatory), but sources need links so...

#video games #patreon #hard drive #ai critical

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agirlandherkinks · 4 months

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Hypnovisor: Beta Test (TGTF, Hypno)

James had always been a tech super-fan. The newest phone, newest headphones, shiniest laptop, he had to stay abreast of and on top of the current trends. So when he read about some fancy new VR company that wanted beta testers for a headset, provided for free (minus shipping), his vision blurred and he signed up before he even considered finishing reading the ad.

Three weeks of anticipation and waiting passed until his doorbell finally rung, accompanied by the corresponding buzz of an email notification on his phone. Scrambling from his couch he flung the apartment door open, and to his mild surprise saw that the postman was nowhere in site. There was just a nondescript cardboard box labelled "Fragile", which fortunately bore none of the expected dents and scratches one would associate with the postal service and delicate freight. Practically bouncing with undignified delight, James scooped his parcel up and dashed back inside, barely remembering to lock the door behind him.

The headset looked even better than he had imagined. Sleek plastic curves surrounded a central visor that was just translucent enough to see through, meaning you could walk around safely if you turned a program's opacity down. It fit beautifully when he tried it on, more comfortable than anything he'd ever worn. Wearing it felt wonderful and... right, somehow. His only complaint was that the black headset was decorated in hot pink highlights, although it still looked futuristic enough to sooth his fragile masculinity. His roommate and best friend Erik certainly agreed, interspersing James' insightful comments with appropriate "Ooh's" and "Aah's". Waiting for the battery to charge seemed to take a thousand years, although chatting with each other about what it could do replaced their boredom with swiftly growing excitement.

Two hours later, a soft buzz from the headset in the corner signified its charge was complete. Erik cheered, his sandy-blonde hair bouncing behind him, and even James couldn't suppress a soft whoop of excitement. Erik unplugged it and handed it to James with a flourish and a bow, who accepted it with a suitable stuffy speech. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but he was so giddy with anticipation he felt he could match Erik's goofiness for once. The advertisement had promised unmatched realism, a luxurious fit, and cutting-edge, groundbreaking technology. Normally James would have discounted claims like that as corporate claptrap, but the headset fit so well he actually believed the rest of it.

Booting up the headset brought a perky, relaxing jingle in his ears and wall of settings text in his vision. He would have read it, but between his own excitement and Erik's infectious enthusiasm he left the settings on default and skipped to the main menu. The feedback for the buttons was amazing, it felt just like he was pressing down on them whenever he touched one! Another little jingle sounded as he confirmed his choices, and a few games and applications bubbled up into his view, imposed over a hot pink background.

"So Erik, what do you think I should try," James asked. "We've got a music player, interior design app, some sorta idle monster game, and a few RPG's." "Surely try out the RPG's man! You've gotta see that high-definition you were yammering about when we called." Erik's voice came back surprisingly muffled, as if he was speaking down a long tunnel. "Bro, I can barely hear you, the noise-cancelling on this headset's insane! It's like I'm in a world of my own!" James took a deep breath, recovering a little of his composure. "Alright, an RPG it is. Fantasy, sci-fi, or modern day?" "Go fantasy! You know we've both got a thing for elf chiiiicks. Hell, with the kind of feedback you were telling me about, you might even get to grab her" Erik's distant voice sounded playful, with a ting of desire and jealousy. And it did make James hard, at the thought of getting to look and squeeze and fondle some busty elf bitch, made entirely to his wishes~

To James' horror a quiet moan escaped his lips, accompanied by faint hysterical laughter from his friend. Brushing it off angrily, he slammed the icon for 'Silverflame: A Magical Journey' (the button felt like thick moss to his touch). Instantly a soft flute begun to play in his ears, accompanied by the gentle lull of a harp and a quiet sparkling. James felt himself relax, all the tension draining out of his body. Erik must have noticed too, because James heard his laughter die down to be replaced with a slightly concerned silence. "Don't worry man," James said, "music's just really pretty..." He trailed off with a slight giggle, but heard Erik give an affirmative just before a silky, sultry voice started to speak.

"Welcome traveler, to the beautiful world of Silverflame. An untamed paradise where strange beasts roam the land, noble adventurers go forth in search of treasure, and the most wonderful magic [James shuddered] is woven. You are the latest brave, beautiful heroine [Heroine? Shouldn't I get to choose my character's gender first?] to step foot into this land. But first, tell us a bit about who you really are."

Pink sparkles rained across the screen, superimposing his view of a vibrant meadow with a series of stats. Physique, IQ, Wisdom, and Charisma, fairly standard stuff. And next to it, a human man with a blank, slightly happy expression on his face [...did he look familiar?]. James gasped, he looked just like a real person! Erik was suitably impressed by this information, and urged him to pick some stats so he can get to the body modification. "You can always change them later man, might as well pick a couple of stats now and get a move on. Sounds like you're not gonna get to pick your gender for a while, which kinda sucks. Buuut if we're being horny about this, you might as well go for a slut scaffold so you make less changes later." James chuckled at this, remembering the build they discussed one night while both sloshed beyond belief. For this game it would be high Physique and Charisma, low IQ and Wisdom. James touched the slider for Physique, and gasped as he felt himself feel... better than he had in a long time.

Not trusting his senses any more, and worrying about Erik being exposed to whatever was happening from the other side of the headset, James brushed off his concerned questions (which he could barely hear now, past the soothing, soothing, music) and suggested he went to the toilet, since he'd been holding it in since he got here. Erik grumbled at missing out, but mercifully left. James was actively sweating from what just went through his body, but couldn't muster the energy or concentration to feel the level of panic he knew he should be. The music was just so, so calming, that fear was harder to feel than usual. The prompt told him he still had to change two more stats, so he decided to turn down Wisdom. He gasped again and his vision went blurry, and when it cleared he felt a bit, fuzzier? In the head. But it wasn't too bad, in fact it was perfectly manageable. He felt even calmer now, so maybe changing another stats would make him feel better. Why not IQ? He tapped the slider.

He groaned as an immense pressure wrapped around his brain. Thoughts, aspirations, memories felt like they were melting from his head faster than they appeared. The pressure seemed like it lasted forever, but eventually it trailed off and he was left panting in his chair. It had felt, really good? Like, tots good, even. James giggled to himself. Something was different about him, but he couldn't think what. Oh well, it'll probably come to him later. He squealed in delight as he realized he could get a step closer to the body modification page, although he looked longingly at the IQ slider. He could come back to it later, for now it was time to make his super-hot elf slut a body!

James clapped to himself with delight as a cute little melody played, a shower of sparkles spiraled [spiraled...] across the screen, and the man on the side moved to the center of the screen. "Firstly", the sultry voice said, "choose what race you want to be." That was an easy choice. He clicked on the 'Elf' button, and shivered as he felt tingles run through his body, intensifying in his ears. Reaching up to touch them, he inhaled as he felt long, pointed tips. In fact, his whole body seemed a bit slimmer. This doesn't quite feel right... he thought. Oh I know! It must be making me an elf too! Maybe we'll be in a party together! Between the strange fuzziness and the pulsating heat in his groin, James quickly flicked to the next page and made his choices. Long, silver hair, gorgeous big purple eyes, and some giant perky lips. "Combination unlocked!" the narrator exclaimed, "+1 Charisma, -1 Wisdom!" James giggled again as the mental fog settled a little tighter around his brain and naughty thoughts about cute girls and boys filled his brain. Boys? Well I guess I've never minded swinging both ways... This felt natural to him, because of course he'd always been bisexual. Next screen!

"Choose your voice young heroine," the woman commanded. James felt a little strange, like her voice was echoing around his head. And why were the sparkles still there, spinning and spinning around the screen. He felt confused, but knew he had to obey that voice. He picked the sexiest combination for his own voice; high pitched, breathy, perky. "Combination unlocked! +1 Charisma, -1 Int." He moaned as that wonderful pressure wrapped his brain and his weekend plans changed to eyeing hunks at the beach. Girls were cool and all, but men had always been more interesting to him [and their pulsing, hard...].

"Now heroine, can you tell me: Are you a girl, or a boy?" The question sent shock waves through his brain. He was a he... right? Why did it feel like there was some longing, some need to acknowledge the woman in him... her? The fog, the music, the spirals, all the feelings he had been having, James could hardly think. Maybe he should think less. Being a girl sounded fun, it's just a character after all. And he needed to be sexy. "Wonderful choice young lady! Now, are you a dominatrix, a super-switch, or a bimbo slut?" Bimbo slut~ James giggled as the words echoed in her brain. She was a bit of a slut, now that she thought about it. It felt odd to pick it, but why not for funsies? "Bimbo slut selected! Wonderful choice, just wonderful. Hold still while your stats are adjusted, and then we'll begin on giving you the perfect, sexy body you've always wanted."

The spirals filled her view and began increasing in speed. James was taken aback at first, but quickly felt oddly calm and receptive to that sultry voice.

"Physique +1, Physique +1, Physique +1." James felt wonderful, like every ache and blemish in his body had faded away.

"Wisdom -1, Wisdom -1." Thinking was fuzzy, but Jamella felt so content she didn't care.

"Charisma +1, Charisma +1, Charisma +1, Charisma +1. Charisma +1." Jamella gasped as visions of sexy men, pecs and abs and juicy, throbbing cocks filled her mind. A desperate heat filled her, and she began touching her groin against her will to try and ease it.

"IQ -1." She moaned, feeling light.

"IQ-1." Empty. She was so, wonderfully empty.

"IQ -1." This was like, so much funsies! She didn't know what was going on, but everything felt so nice~

"IQ -1. Congratulations Ella, you now have the 'Bimbo Slut' build."

Ella giggled absently. Thinking was like, so hard, and she felt like, so hard~. The fun spirals had disappeared... But the nice lady was talking to her again! With great effort, she listened in. "Now that your mental changes are complete, it's time for the physical changes!" Ella rubbed her thighs together and cheered in excitement. She couldn't wait to have more fun! "Unless you choose so now, the process will be au-to-ma-tic [...why was she using such big words?]. You can choose to take over at any time, or wait until the end and adjust as you please [...please. That word felt funny in her brain]".

"No user input detected. Body adjustment commencing."

A nice shiver went through Ella's body as she felt her headset warm against her face. Looking at the boring young man she'd begun to customize (her reflection, of course), she couldn't wait to begin! She sighed happily as waves of pretty silver hair drifted into her view and cascaded down her back. It felt especially nice against her smooth, soft skin, and she couldn't help but gently shake her head to watch it sway. A cool feeling brought her attention to her face, and the alluring amethyst eyes now set in it. Her face itself became much more elegant [but cutesy, too!], and she puckered her lips as a lovely pressure made them swell and bulge out, giving her a sexy and kissable pout [the boys'll love this look! boys~]. She felt herself shrink a few centimeters, gulping as her Adam's apple disappeared into her body. In fact, her whole body had become even more slender, with narrow shoulders, adorably small hands [pretty purple nails!], and a tiny little waist. She gasped, then clasped her hands over her mouth in delight. Her voice was so high and cutesy! She couldn't stop herself from giving out tiny, high-pitched giggles, just to hear how cute she was!

"Basic body structure altered. Adjusting outfit in preparation for primary and secondary sexual characteristics."

Ella ooh'ed appreciatively as a stream of sparkles enveloped her body. And when they disappeared, she squealed in delight! Her drab t-shirt and denim shorts were gone! In their place was a beautiful silver mini-dress that shimmered like starlight when she moved. She frowned in vexation, though. The plunging chest and shoulder-less design was very pretty, but her chest was flat! [shouldn't I have tiddies? The boys won't like me like this...] And the way it clung to her waist and hips would have been sexy, but as it was there was barely any difference between them! Her ass wasn't nearly big enough to justify how the dress cut off barely past it, and with how tight the fabric was Ella could see how achingly hard she was [wait, why do I have a cock? I'm supposed to get cock! In my mouth, in my ass, in my tight little pussy~]. It wasn't right!

"Thank you for your patience sweetie. Optimal figure calculated. Prepare for adjustment of sexual characteristics."

Ella let out a moan as a wave of heat and pleasure washed over her. With how horny she was she could barely keep her eyes open, but she knew she wanted to watch herself become the sexy little [cum] slut she was meant to be [I want it... I want to be~]. The heat settled in her hips, her ass, and her chest, and she moaned again as the changes begun.

Her nipples grew first, more than doubling in size and stiffening through the soft fabric of her dress. Tentatively touching them induced a gasp of pleasure [so nice~] and sent her rocking backwards. The motion made her giggle, because in that time she'd grown a cute pair of B-cup breasts that jiggled when she rocked. Jiggle makes me giggle. I like giggling. I like jiggling. Ella nodded thoughtfully to herself, feeling very wise. Her boobies grew to C-cups. She jiggled some more. She giggled some more.

A tightness around her hips distracted Ella from her tiddies. They were growing! She groaned as fabric and flesh tightened around them, too euphoric to feel pain. Sliding her hands from her waist to her hips made her squeal happily. She had such a sexy hourglass figure, she knew any girl worth her money would be jealous [and the boys would wanna hold me and squeeze me and fuck me raw]. Thighs thickening dramatically in response to her growth, she slapped her ass in impatience. Why won't it get bigger already!

But get bigger it did, swelling out in response to her touch. She fell forward as sheer pleasure blanketed her mind and weakened her knees. Squishing her boobies against the ground made her feel even nicer, until she was panting and moaning for somebody to help, to hit her again and make her bigger~

A slap landed on her booty, and she groaned in delight as it and her thighs swelled again. More. More! I NEED MORE! She moaned in ecstasy as blow after blow landed, making her swell and grow and grow and swell and feel so gooooood! Her tits inflated to D, then E-cups [good for the boys. I can jiggle so well for them~]. Her hips widened and thighs thickened, until she looked ridiculously large compared to her waist [ridicu... ridic... really, really sexy...] And her ass kept growing, and growing, and growing and growing and growing and growing! Tighter! Around my cock! Cock... I... oh~ Too... too... much! Too much! I'm~ I'm!

OooOOoOoOOooOoOoooOOOOOHHH~

Ella screamed in delight as she came, just cumming and cumming and cumming her tiny little brain out.

"Wisdom -1. IQ -1. Charisma +1. Charisma +1."

She was desperate, humping against the ground as the flow of cum abated from her cock. Everything she had been was flowing out of her messy stupid brain, and everything that she should be was coming in. Boys... Cock... Need fuck... Breed~ I'm such a dumb little cum slut~ She giggled to herself.

"Final adjustment required."

Ella stood up shakily, the bottom of her dress a cum-soaked mess. She squealed with delight as the mental fog settled even tighter and she felt an intense heat in her groin. She could see the tops of nipples trying to break free from her dress, and could feel the air drift over her ass, which had mostly escaped the fabric in her growth. So sexy. Hehe~ Boy can take me~ Don't even need dress off~ Thinking hard... Her ass and hips had pulled up so much fabric that her cock was visible now, deflating and still leaking from her orgasm, but she gasped in pleasure as it began rising up again. And, as she felt something long and hard brush her booty [cock? Boys? Fuck?].

A pressure like hands on her shoulders forced her to her knees, and she whimpered in desire as she felt an unseen cock touch her cheek. At the same time, something began intensely stimulating her own. She reflexively opened her mouth in a moan, but was cut off as she felt the cock shove inside [Feels~ Feels!].

All thought stopped.

Her mind was blank, full of pleasure and desire and happiness. Her cock felt good like it never had before, and the dick in her mouth tasted wonderful~ This was what Ella was made for, what she was meant to be. Feeling good, feeling sexy, feeling a pleasant emptiness that could only be filled with cock. Her haze reached a crescendo. Dimly she was aware of her own cries of ecstasy, muffled by the cock fucking her mouth and mind, as she came harder than she even had before. And as she came, her dick shrunk with each spurt until it went inside her [inside me!]. The cock withdrew from her mouth, filling her with a desperate longing. Emma moaned for her unseen hero, then gasped as she felt him once more. And blinked in surprise as the pretty meadow and her sexy reflection disappeared.

She was kneeling on the floor of an unfamiliar room. Shaking off a little of her confusion [don't need know much anyways...], she gasped as the tell-tale smell of pre-cum filled her nose. There was a man standing in front of her!

Sandy-blonde hair. Body like a surfer hunk! Naked. With a massive, sexy cock, dripping with her saliva and it's own juices. Ella moaned in desire, falling on all fours. Visibly trembling with lust, he tenderly cupped her cheek and slowly moved behind her.

Touching her with his [cock!].

Ever so gently, on the edge of her [...pussy!!!!]

He rammed inside her, and she screamed as an absolute feeling of rightness, of sexiness and pleasure and single-minded happiness rushed through her [MORE! HARDER! COCKKKK~]. Riding his dick she felt herself go into a trance, with nothing, absolutely nothing, disturbing her feelings. Ever. This was right. Ella moaned and surrendered to herself, drifting away on her lover's cock and mindless pleasure.

#hypnosis #tgtf #brain drain #breast expansion #hip expansion #ass expansion #hypnok1nk #bimboification #expansion #ally's kinks

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cochart · 4 months

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To add more serious note to my Duolingo & Feanor crackpost yesterday, I really do not like how many companies—not only Duolingo—have been pushing AI in language acquisition. Companies are pushing AI “instructors,” even daring to claim that they’re better than human instructors. But why?

Machine translation is already used in places like shopping sites where people would need them and where it doesn’t make sense for people to have to seek out a translation service all the time. But replacing humans with machine learning algorithms—because, let’s face it, “AI” makes the thing sound way deeper and smarter than it actually is—in the realm of literature and education is just bizarre.

I speak English as a second language and know Spanish (rusty haha) and Japanese on the side. Each language is an aggregation of my interaction with other humans. It’s a collection of accents, words, and expressions that I have picked up from people that I have met and books and movies that I’ve enjoyed.

So what does it mean when you speak to a machine instead of another human?

Sometimes, a language might just feel like a burden—a wall standing the way between you and what you want whether it be a job, an online purchase, or a fanfic. So it instead of it being means to communicate to other humans, it becomes something to be conquered, to be overcome, to be thwarted with our lord and savior technology.

In fact, I think that is precisely how the techbros treat everything that we consider an integral part of being human. Language is a barrier to be broken down with machine translation. Drawing is something to be overcome by automated generation. Why worry about how you could make your machine more humanlike when you can make humans more machine-like?

But when you learn a new language and knock on that barrier that used to bar you from talking to that foreign artist you love, you’re expanding outside yourself. When you learn to draw or sculpt, even if you’re just making squiggles and lumps, you look inside yourself. Language and art not only makes humans humans, but also lets them grow and change. Trying to deprive humans of that and calling it “progress” frankly sounds malicious and stupid.

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cozylittleartblog · 4 months

Note

hey, so I'm trying to figure out what places would be good to sell my own art at, and I'm wondering- what has been your experience with selling on etsy? I've heard mixed reviews from people, and I want to know your perspective as an etsy seller.

etsy is not perfect but i think it gets a little more shit than it deserves, i've thought about opening my own website but generally i'm actually pretty okay with the services i get on etsy compared to what it costs so i'm just gonna make a subjective pros/cons list for you under the cut (because its loooong)

oh and if anyone else has experience selling on etsy and would like to add their two cents in the replies/reblogs please do!

Pros

⭐ The search function - this is etsy's biggest selling point. it already has a dedicated userbase of millions of people and a search feature to help them find your shop, which takes a lot of the load of marketing off your shoulders, and marketing is a huge factor for pushing sales. i am not good at marketing and a lot of my sales just come from people searching my stuff up lol

⭐ Purchase protection program - if USPS loses or damages your package, you file a missing package report and they confirm they don't know where it is, Etsy will refund your buyers order out of their own pocket (under $250). this is my favorite etsy feature because USPS likes to eat packages every now and again. delicious keychains. if you had your own storefront, you'd just have to replace the order yourself.

⭐ Share & Save program - every time someone makes an order on your shop through a special Share & Save link, etsy will refund you 4% of the fees. it's a nice perk to doing some of your own marketing and it helps combat the moderately high etsy fees!

Trackable letter mail - selling stickers but think it's insane to charge $4 shipping? you can buy letter mail labels for about the rate of regular postage, which is like .65c. this tracking is done through etsy though so you can't track with usps, but it does give customers a little peace of mind. this only works in the 50 US states though.

Customs forms built into your shipping label - shipping internationally is a nightmare. etsy makes it easy though, generating everything you need to ship internationally on one label that you just have to sign and date and slap on your package like normal. for some countries they will actually just have your package sent to a domestic facility where they literally do all that for you. this is miles easier than having to do all that paperwork yourself.

buy shipping labels directly from etsy - related point, and just what it says on the tin. when you fulfill an order, you can buy your labels right there on Etsy so you don't have to mess around with a third party website. it comes out of your sale funds so you don't need to charge a card or a bank account or anything.

star seller program - some people say this is completely useless but i actually disagree! it's incredibly easy to earn this badge, and it lets buyers know you've got some of the best products, shipping, and customer service around. it helps you stand out from some of the more... questionable shops on the website.

sales tax - they remit sales tax for you. i don't think any of the other online platforms similar to etsy do this but i could be wrong. doing any kind of taxes sucks so i consider it a perk if they do it for you.

website promotions - every now and again etsy likes to host sales out of their own pocket. you get all the perks of having a sale without eating into ur profit margin. HUGE sale booster

generally the site is just very easy to learn and use and it's very beginner and dumbass friendly. i say this as a former beginner and current dumbass 👍

Cons

❌ the fees. oogh the fees. they claim it's just a 6.5% fee per sale, but on top of that you have to pay .20c automatically for every individual item you sell, plus there are processing fees (3% + .25c) that apply both to the item you sold AND the cost of shipping. i think it comes out to like 10% total in fees on average @ > @

❌ but wait, there's more fees! if you make more than $10k in sales a year (very easy number to hit actually) you are forced to participate in offsite ads, which i believe takes 15% of your total sale on top of the fees in the previous point. these kinds of sales are not as common as you'd think, but it's still annoying having a couple bucks shaved off your profits a few times a month because of them.

corporate bullshit - etsy is like renting a space in a mall. you don't own your lot, nor the mall itself, so if upper management decides to make any stupid ass decisions, you just have to deal with it or pick up and move. if they decide to raise fees again, you just gotta Deal. you are a little bit helpless on this website unfortunately

the push for discounts - etsy is constantly shoving it in your face that they want you to do discounts. they want you to have free shipping on orders over $35, they want you to do 25% off or more on sales, they want you to have returning customer discounts and abandoned cart discounts and 'you recently favorited this item' discounts - but you already have to compete with the steep fees, and when a customer gets free shipping, you still owe USPS that $4-ish bucks to send the package. you don't have to do any of this, but they do reward participating shops by favoring them in the algorithm and search results, so you can feel like you're missing out.

there aren't as many cons imo but they Are steeper cons. generally etsy is very beginner friendly and easy to get into and set up, and in spite of everything i do actually recommend everyone looking to get into online retail start on etsy and perhaps move to other platforms in the future. plus, you can combat all the fees by just... making your prices a dollar or two higher than you initially wanted to, and using your 'save and share' link as frequently as possible. the fees are a little bit much, but you have to think about what you get in exchange:

the search is invaluable, you could argue the fees are partially a marketing budget lmao. if you have a private website you alone have to push traffic to your website, and not as many people know about things like shopify and bigcartel so they might not be as trusting putting their card details into it. i miss out on a lot of REALLY COOL STUFF because artists only advertise on instagram and i don't hear about them, meanwhile if i want some cool owl house stuff i can literally just search that in etsy and find a lot of TOH stuff super easily. i cannot highlight enough how GOOD the search function is, especially in this day and age where social media like instagram and twitter will blacklist your posts if you say words like 'shop' or 'sale' and now nobody can find your stuff in that website's search either. its very hard to do your own marketing now a days :(

being able to refund customer's lost orders out of the company's pocket is such a nice thing to fall back on if you have to and worth its weight in fees. USPS lost like... four or five packages of mine in december. that's like $100 or more worth of stuff that Etsy Covered Completely, and a lot of the times the customer will take that refund to make their order again. don't abuse this system, make sure you check with usps that the package is actually Gone, but it's a godsend when you don't make billions of dollars and eating the cost of lost orders would otherwise sting a bit.

if etsy did not make international shipping easy i simply would not ship anywhere but the US to be honest. shipping to europe is still a headache though but that's because europe is stupid

that's everything i can think of, but tl;dr yes please open an etsy 👍 i recommend it completely in spite of everything

⭐ if anyone wants to open their own etsy shop, use my referral link to make your first 40 listings for free! :)c ⭐

#etsy #small business #advice #ask #anonymous #anon #selling on etsy

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arminreindl · 8 months

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Baru: The Cleaver-Headed Crocodile

Ok back on my croc stuff, today discussing Baru. Like most the other crocs I've been talking about, Baru was a mekosuchine, a member of an endemic radiation of crocodilian native to Australasia. Baru is easily among the largest of this group and among the most robust, with massive curved teeth and almost inflated looking jaws. Left my interpretation of Baru darrowi, right the illustration by Willis et al. from 1990.

My reconstruction differs subtly in some regards, obviously the jaw material shown is from Ristevski et al. 2023 and elements of the posterior skull are based on the older Baru wickeni. My mandible also turned out slightly different, tho the quality of the images in the original description is not great so that is not guaranteed.

Anyhow, this head likely sat atop the body of what was a decently large crocodilian, with estimates suggesting four or even five meters in length for both currently recognized species Baru wickeni and Baru darrowi. As you can see below, I went for the lower estimate (which is the one given by proper publications), which still renders an immense animal all things considered, certainly holding up with many crocs of today.

Currently, there's two recognized species, one unnamed species and one that has been reassigned. The older of the named species is Baru wickeni, which was found in the Lake Eyre Basin and Riversleigh World Heritage Area during the late Oligocene. Like I already said, it was approximately as large and robust as the later Baru darrowi, but did differ in some regards. The skull had much more prominent crests, the nasal bone extended into the opening for the nares and importantly, the cutting edges of the teeth were smooth.

During the Miocene, Baru wickeni would be replaced by Baru darrowi, known from younger strata of the Riversleigh and the Bullock Creek fauna. Baru darrowi had less prominent crests, but in turn slight serrations on its teeth. Also the nasal bones did not extend into the nares. Baru darrowi is the species shown at the start.

The other two are then the unnamed Baru species from the Alcoota fossil site and "Baru" huberi. I talked about the latter before and how it is now thought to be something else entirely. Which leaves us with the Alcoota form. Generally regarded as a distinct species, fossils of the Alcoota Baru have been found from 2000 onwards near Alice Springs and appear to represent an animal more robust than the other known Baru. Below you can see a skeletal mount on exhibition at the Megafauna Central in Alice Springs (image by Aussie Bucket List) and a skull held by Adam Yates, an important researcher of this animal.

A little side note I want to mention is the name Baru. As you might have guessed from the etymology of various other mekosuchines (Kambara, Mekosuchus, Quinkana, Kalthifrons), the name actually ties into the native People of Australia. Specifically, Baru is a figure in the mythology of the East Arnhem Region, which describes him as a sort of totem crocodile that brought law to the lands he named. Baru also had a fight with Jarkitj (Willy Wagtail) after stealing fire for himself. Sadly I couldn't find much about the mythical Baru beyond a brief summary written up by George Pascoe Gaymarani you can read here.

Returning to the animal, one would suspect that the robust skull meant that it didn't quite hunt like modern crocodiles, especially considering the serrated teeth found in the younger species. Well, tho nothing concrete is known Willis and colleagues speculate that this might have been an adaptation to shallower waters. While modern crocs tend to ambush prey, grab it using a strong bite and conical teeth and then proceed to drown it, Baru may not have had that option. A modern croc can just drag a zebra for instance into deep water, weaken it and let go to adjust its grip without the risk of it getting away. In shallow waters, this may have been too risky and lead to prey escaping. So Baru's robust head and curved, sometimes serrated teeth were built to inflict a lot of damage upon prey when lunging, securing the bite and incapacitating it. Willis estimates that it may have taken prey as heavy as 300 kilos.

There's also the interesting tidbit of Baru wickeni coexisting with a diverse croc fauna, yet being conspicuously absent from more southern regions of Australia despite entering the respective drainage basin. I go into more detail while talking about Australosuchus, but the jist of it is that Baru was likely not as cold resistant as Australosuchus and thus not found as far north.

Alas, as with other mekosuchines, not much art of Baru exists aside from this absolutely fantastic piece by @knuppitalism-with-ue

As per usual, this deep dive is brought to you as part of me redoing the wikipedia page of this genus, which resulted in a major size increase. The image below is just to show the difference, but if you want to read it here's the link: Baru - Wikipedia

#mekosuchinae #wikipedia editing #wikipedia #baru #baru wickeni #baru darrowi #baru huberi #croc #crocodile #paleontology #palaeoblr #prehistory #oligocene #miocene #australia #long post

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ikindamaybewanthertositonmyface · 2 years

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Hi, my name is Dahlia, that's not me up in the header image of course, that's my kitty Stormi, I'm not all that comfortable with my appearance so I figured I'd share her cuteness instead.

So I feel kinda uncomfortable doing this, but recently I wound up 3,000 dollars in debt, and I'm required to pay off 300 dollars of it each month. But I really cannot afford to do so all on my own. I barely have any money in the bank to speak of, and my only source of income is 700 dollars a month that I receive from Social Security Disability, which I've been on since I was 18. Normally this 700 is actually just enough for me to get by each month, but now with 300 dollars of it going towards paying off this debt, it's left me in a pretty bad place.

I of course have bills to pay for, including for rent, among other things. And then I also have about a dozen or so medications to pay for, medications that I need for my Depression, Anxiety, and OCD. Along with the ones for my Hormone Replacement Therapy, which I've been on for almost 4 years now.

And so the 400 I'm left with after paying off the debt each month is just not enough for me to get by.

It's lead to me having to borrow from the few friends I have just to get by, and they are all having hard enough times getting by as well, and I don't want to keep putting the burden on them. Especially when they can't afford it either.

So all in all the situation I'm in just has me having daily panic attacks, as I'm just so scared and worried about what I'm going to do, and even with all the medications I'm on, my depression and anxiety has just been out of control lately.

So last night I was talking to a friend about all this, and they suggested I try making a Go Fund Me page. Originally I wasn't sure about that, I mean it's not like I'm in a medical emergency or anything like that. And I felt, and still do feel kinda bad at the idea of asking those I don't even know for help when there are probably people out there who deserve it more then I do. But my friend assured me that things like this, the situation I'm in, is exactly what Go Fund Me is for. So here we are.

I honestly don't know if anyone will even help me out here, I can be pretty pessimistic at times, and since all this got started it's just been so much worse. Plus I know that times are hard for everyone right now. But anything you could spare would help me out a whole lot. Or if you can't help out by donating, please consider sharing this link on any social media sites you use to spread the word. Thank you.

Also, if anyone likes the pic of my kitty, I'll gladly share more pictures of her in updates, I have tons of them. :D

#Go Fund Me #GOFUNDME #Donation Post #Donation Request #Please Help #Financial Aid #Donations Needed

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skyf0ckz · 3 days

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Chris and Scott meeting at a show as requested by @russolaw !! Also a little extra moodboard and writing<3

♡

A spark landed on him. "Ow! Fuck-" Chris yelped, dropping his lighter and shaking his hand. He popped his cigarette out of his mouth with his free hand, letting out a puff of smoke.

"You alright?"

He looked up and nearly jumped backward at the site of the blonde man now standing closer. He gulped, "Uh...yeah...just fine..." he stammered, licking his lips.

The blonde tilted his head, and the sight made Chris want to squirm, "Are you sure?" He asked, voice rising ever so slightly in the most adorable way.

Chris blinked dumbly, "Uh yeah, no, yeah..uh sorry I.." he stuttered, glancing away and smiling wide out of embarrassment. Oh God, what is he doing? He brought the cigarette back to his lips, inhaling.

He glanced down and noticed how the man's hands were clasped together, twitching and fidgeting. The thought of raising them to his mouth and kissing them passed through his brain, and he blushed.

"Uh..did you watch the show?" Chris asked, exhaling a huff of smoke to the side of him.

The man raised his eyebrows, before resting them and smiling softly, "I did, yeah," he dug one hand in his jacket, and pulled out a rolled-up playbill. He unraveled it and held it in front of him like it was proof he watched it.

Chris couldn't help but smile, "Yeah? Did you...like it?" He asked slowly, bringing his cigarette up to his lips.

For some reason, his opinion meant a lot to Chris. He knew it was a bit pathetic, especially considering he just met this guy, but he couldn't help it.

The blonde shrugged, a mischievous smile tugging at his lips, "Hmm..yeah it was okay,"

Chris' face dropped slightly. Okay? It was just okay? He let out a puff of smoke.

Then the man laughed, his hand combing away his hair and pushing it behind his ear, "I'm only kidding," he huffed, a sweet smile replacing the previously sinister one, "You're a really talented playwright, Chris."

Chris' heart skipped. He sounded so genuine, and...well he'd never been told that before. People compliment the actors of course because...well they're what you see on stage. But so far tonight this was the first compliment he'd gotten over his writing.

Wait.

Chris' jaw dropped, "How'd you know I was the playwright?" He asked, dumbfounded. It wasn't like he was wearing a name tag.

"Mmm, I asked around. I wanted to compliment you on the work," the man hummed.

Chris' face heated up. Wow. This...gorgeous man wanted to meet him? And compliment him? Shit his play must've actually been good...

He chuckled, "Huh..well now I feel bad. You know my name, and came here to compliment me and all I've done has stammer uselessly," Chris shook his head, bringing the cigarette back to his lips.

The man plucked the cigarette out of his mouth, "It's Scott," he smiled sweetly, bringing the cigarette to his lips.

Chris' face tightened, and his entire body felt hot. He watched as Scott inhaled the smoke of his cigarette, blowing it in his face. And he looked fucking ethereal doing it. Does he normally smoke? Did he just do that to tease Chris? Was Scott flirting with him openly?

"It was a good show," Scott's squeaky voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and his jaw dropped as he watched Scott put the cigarette back into Chris's mouth, holding it for him.

Chris felt like he may faint if he tried to do anything. So he simply closed his mouth around the cigarette, inhaling as he stared up at Scott.

Scott's eyelashes fluttered as he stared down at Chris, and his hair fell into his face. It didn't matter, because he looked beautiful no matter what.

Chris took his lips off the cigarette, exhaling smoke, "Thank you."

#chris x scott #Scott x chris #lawrusso adjacent #karate kid #naked in new york #Chris naked in New York #scott not the werewolf mccall #scott mcall #the equalizer #art #High key wish I'd written thar excerpt before finishing the drawing #Because then I would've had the idea to draw them smoking instead of just standing there :((#Oh well

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formulatrash · 9 months

Note

Hi Hazel. I'm a new motorsport writer working for a website that is obsessed with making clickbait pieces. And, despite my efforts to ensure that all of my headlines are straightforward, the editors change them in a way that makes readers "want to click to find out more"... I'm scared this will harm my reputation as a journalist. Could you give me some advice? And is that something I should be concerned about, or is it not that serious? Thanks! :)

as someone lying on my bed ready to give up and die after closing a Wetherspoons five nights in a row I feel like I'm probably not very qualified to give career advice but I guess, also, here's the tea. I am completely broken there's no point for me to sugar coat it.

idk who you are, anon but: white men who work for these sites succeed. so there is no reason you should consider this a career setback.

wherever you work, occasionally you will have to beef your editors. I have had to do it at RaceFans, despite Keith being someone I worked incredibly closely with - in fact I once made him pull a whole feature length article because he'd edited it differently to how I meant it. when I write freelance, I do not write my headlines and I have to accept whatever edit they put on it - my Barbie in racing article was full of grammatical errors but I had no ability to change that.

I once had to growl at an editor at The Drive that I - someone literally from the actual USSR - would never write "[something] comrade" at the end of an article. you have to work out where you stand with Ls and take some but take a stand on others.

but you will never write your own headlines. that isn't how journalism works. I no longer even bother writing one for the majority of my freelance pieces - subeditors and editors write headlines, you write the copy. worry about your words being changed or inaccuracies appearing, no one on earth believes journalists write their headlines because we don't.

on a separate level: if you are currently writing for somewhere that sucks, please consider whether that is a good use of your time. I know I am not a successful or particularly shining example of a journalist but: it is not journalism's sacred mission to do things that suck. if it sucks, hit da bricks.

you do NOT need to write for some hellhole, you do NOT need to enrich almost certainly already rich white men with your labour. you do NOT need to do it - go work in a bar and write what you actually want to. journalism is a trade and you are meant to do good work.

there is no world in which this is fair and yes, you would be replaced by some amoral asshole who can't write for fuck. it's not a fair place.

if you are doing good or even no harm, crack on. but don't imagine that there is a payoff for bootlicking.

#work asks

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writersblockedx · 2 years

Text

The Exception

Requested: ‘Hello! If you are taking requests I was wondering if you would be willing to/ want to write a fic! I was thinking dean X reader where they both like each other (but they are not wanting to tell the other/ don’t realize kinda thing) and Dean let’s reader pick music when he is driving and/or let’s reader steal some of his french fries! Thank you!!’ - Anon

Pairing - Dean Winchester x Fem!Reader Summary - Y/n and Dean have been silently pining for one another since they first met. Though, things suddenly start to come out when the two venture on a hunt on their own. Warnings - Mentions of death, general violence, mainly fluff Words - 2K

A/n - The request didn’t specfiy gender of reader so, as I mainly write for fem reader, I made an assumption!

Visit my Masterlist

It wasn't often Y/n and Dean went on hunts without the youngest (yet taller) Winchester, but, when they did, the dynamic constantly changed. Dean was flirtier, Y/n less focused on research and more centered around the time she was spending with the boy. Somewhere along the slaughtering of monsters and exterminating of ghosts, feelings developed - which made their duo hunts all the more...different.

"So why are we driving to Iowa exactly?" The girl had finally asked once they were getting close to this certain state.

Dean shuffled around in his seat a little, retrieving a newspaper that he passed over to Y/n, "Here." He said as he took it for herself, beginning to skim over the words. "Second line down." Dean directed.

She followed his instruction, "Husband dies tragically, leaving wife looking like she'd just seen a ghost." It sounded like a stretch. Y/n glanced back over at Dean, "You do know 'like she'd just seen a ghost' is just an expression? Doesn't actually mean there's a case here." She joked, earning herself an eye roll from the green-eyed boy.

"Keep reading." He told her and she did so.

It didn't take her long to realize: "He entered a new construction site with work, never to leave again. Co-workers found him, deemed it death from a heart attack. A strange incident when considering he won the town's marathon the week prior." So maybe this was something ghostly.

Y/n looked back to Dean, folding the paper up once more, "See?" He was holding an 'I told you so' expression that led Y/n to look away.

Her hands found the radio. She almost franticly began to switch through the channels, giving her mind a form of entertainment. "What are you doing?" Questioned the oldest Winchester as his gaze flickered between the road and the girl.

Her eyes never pulled from the radio, determined to locate a song that she would enjoy. "Dean while I love your obsession with classic rock music, I don't want to listen to the same three albums on repeat every drive." She told him while Dean kept his lips sealed. She pushed and shoved at several buttons before some acoustic guitar music started to lull through the impala.

Had it been anyone else, even Sam, Dean would have been throwing a childish fit right now. He would be lashing out about how his favorite three albums were iconic and not meant to be replaced by some hippy guitar music. But as it were Y/n in the passenger seat, Y/n having her hands all over the radio, then Dean kept quiet and excused such actions because, "We're almost there anyway."

She raised a brow, "And exactly where is there?"

As if answering that question, Dean pulled into the town's nearest motel. "It's a ten-minute walk from where the construction site was." He informed, parking the car.

Y/n was already getting out of the impala, Dean following as they went to grab their bags. "One of us should probably head to the library, find some archives on the property." She suggested while the boy popped the trunk and handed the girl her bag.

He sighed, slamming it shut as they turned to one another. "You mean to do research?" He clarified. To which, she nodded. Neither of them wanted to take part in said research. Usually, they left that to Sam. But on these certain hunts, where research was heavily involved and one of them had to do it, there was only one way to decide between them who got assigned which job.

Their palms conducted into fists, their eyes going narrow as they stared at one another. They patted against their other hand three times before revealing their move.

Y/n played paper; Dean played scissors.

The boy's lips twisted up into a cheerful grin that seemed to taunt Y/n. "Have fun at the library!" He gleamed walking into the motel. All while she did nothing but let her eyes roll.

Once having booked their room, Dean changed into his suit and tie, fit for one attempting to pass as an FBI agent, and headed for the site. All while Y/n stayed as she was and got dropped off at the town's library. She found a desk that she would make her own for the next hours and shuffled through a variety of books before piling them onto the desk. In that moment, she cursed Dean for winning at such a childish game they still decided to play.

But as an hour or so passed, she finally came across something that may help. In the towns history book (which dated back to the 1600s) Y/n came across the fact that before the previous property (an insurance company) had been built, a small cemetery had stood there. She was willing to bet that whatever was haunting the town, was a ghost whose bones were still buried below the dirt and stone.

She had kept reading in an attempt to find anything about there still being bodies buried on the site. Which was when her phone started to ring, and Dean's contact stared back at her. "And how is research going?" He was quick to taunt, prompting an eye roll from Y/n as many books stared back at her (them too seeming to taunt her).

"Fine, actually." She lied right through her teeth; it was still torturous. "Just found that the site, many many years ago, was in fact a small cemetery. I just need to find out which of the bodies buried there is still the one haunting the site." The girl informed, scanning over the paper in front of her. "What about you? Find anything?"

The boy hummed in response, taking a moment to answer as he chewed on something. "A load of EMF" He finally answered.

Y/n's eyebrow quirked as she slowly relaxed back into her chair. "You found a load of EMF in a diner? Because that's where it sounds like you are." She paused and Dean said nothing to his defense. "Please tell me you did actually visit the site?"

"Of course I went to the site. Spoke to a few people, spoke to the guy who had found him too." Another chewing sound blared through the phone, making Y/n squirm at the sound. "Said that it was definitely strange and that he could have sworn he saw a white cloud of smoke over the body before he rushed in." The boy went on before shoving more grease into his mouth. "Then I went around - found loads on EMF."

Y/n followed along, his words assuring them in that they were dealing with a ghost. "Okay and then what, decided to get food?"

"I was hungry!" He argued, probably loud enough that the whole restaurant on the other sound had heard it.

"And you didn't think that maybe I might too be hungry?"

Dean was silent for a moment or two, Y/n picking up on the sound of his knife and forking hitting the plate. "There's an empty seat across from me and I'm sending you the address now."

And not a second later, her phone pinged again with said location. "Hey, Dean?" He hummed as to acknowledge her words. "Any more research or anything that even remotely required something to read; it's your job."

He sighed but accept his fate, "Fine." And then he hung up.

Y/n packed every historic book she had once taken back away and walked towards the diner Dean had messaged to her. It was their stereotypical place to eat: Burgers, fries, and a warning for a heart attack. And sure enough, sat with an empty seat across from him, was Dean and a slice of pie staring at him.

"You look like you're falling in love." Y/n observed sitting in the empty chair.

Dean looked up, a great grin on his lips and glistening awe in his eyes. "I am." Then he slowly pushed his fork into the luscious desert, practically drooling.

Next to that plate, was a portion of fries. And, with Dean so infatuated with the pie, Y/n took a couple of fries, throwing them into her mouth. Dean dropped his fork before it could even brush against the cream of the pie. "What are you doing." The awe in his eyes dissipated, replaced with a stern expression that glared Y/n's way.

The girl, however, could barely keep a straight face, taking another fry. "Eating. It's what most people do in places like these." Then she ate that fry, watching as Dean's jaw clenched.

"But they're mine." He whined like a toddler would have done.

"And the least you can do for leaving me to do research while you sat here and ate fast food, is let me eat some of said fast food." She responded with the quirk of a smile.

Dean's eyes were narrow, debating in his head whether to let this one slide. And, similarly to in the car, he did, because it was her. "Fine. Go right ahead." She returned to the fries; he returned to his pie; everything was well.

"So what do we do next?" Y/n inquired. "It's not like we find a name and look for the gravestone."

Dean shrugged with a mouthful of pie. "Guess we'll just have to torch them all."

Her brows raised in surprise, "You're joking right? All of them?"

"You said it was a small cemetery."

And so, with greasy full well and truly digested, they returned to the motel and waited for it to get dark. Once it was night, the two made their way towards the construction site with two shovels, salt and a lighter. And they started digging. Luckily, the site was far from any curious neighbors so they didn't have much to worry about. It was just a rather tedious job to dig for hours, finding the many bones and having to burn every single one.

It was 3am, and they were covered in dirt, tired, and threw themselves into the front of the impala with a much needed huff. Y/n believed she couldn't have looked worse in that moment: her hair tied and an utter mess, her clothes so muddy they felt as if they were glued to her body. Yet in that silent moment, Dean glanced over to her and could have swore she was ever so beautiful. So much so in fact, it just, sort of, slipped out.

"You're beautiful."

He hadn't meant for it to happen. And when it did, they were both caught by surprise at his words. Her head snapped to him, eyes wide. She laughed awkwardly as if she must have heard him wrong. "What?"

Dean wasn't sure how he was meant to play this off - or even if he should. "I don't know what it is about you." He paused and budged closer. Now or never. "You are one of the closest people to me and I can't help but think that, whenever we're alone, about how we would be...together." This wasn't like Dean. He wasn't one for big confessions. He never needed to be. "I know maybe that's stupid to think but I can't help it. Whether you change my music or fight over who should do the research or steal my food, it just makes me think that I must see you as more than just a friend to let you do that. I mean I don't even let Sam do that and-"

"Dean-"

He kept talking. "And he's my brother. I suppose what I'm trying to say-"

The only way she found to stop the boy's rambles was to lean in herself until her lips grazed his own in one kiss - and shut him up for good.

Supernatural Taglist - @desimarie12 Dean Winchester Taglist - @lyarr24

Want to be notified next time I post? Click here to be added to a taglist!

#dean winchester #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester x y/n #dean winchester x you #dean winchester imagine #dean winchester fanfic #dean winchester fic #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester oneshot #sam winchester #sam winchester x reader #supernatural #supernatural x reader #supernatural imagine #imagine #fanfiction #x reader

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taylortruther · 2 months

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i’m curious if you’re comfortable answering what places have you branched out to besides the atlantic as you’ve moved further left???

so this is hard to answer, because you can't just go to one source. i didn't just replace the atlantic with a single other publication, i just outgrew it.

anyway, i read A LOT. i've always been interested in issues of gender, inequality, prejudice, even before i knew what they were called. so beyond resources, i encourage you to read a lot, read from many different sources, and read critically. it is up to you to distill the truth from fiction, opinion from fact. also, you must think critically. you have to take the information and apply it, let it challenge you, let it stack up in your brain until you have convictions that you can actually justify.

🚨 also, disclaimer: i do not endorse EVERYTHING these publications or sites have printed. i don't co-sign every opinion these activists hold. i am sorry if i am ignorant to some crime against humanity within! i'm certain all the resources here are considered "problematic" or biased in some way, or to someone. some publications serve corporate interests, some have problematic business practices, some writers have problematic histories, and some of the info will challenge your worldview in a way that might seem harmful and cause you to deem them problematic. 🚨

mainstream news is still essential to stay aware of what's going on in the world (al jazeera, npr, cnn, to name a few) -- but these are some of the corporate interests i was talking about. they're biased, heavily, but sadly can't think of a news site that covers world news that isn't somehow beholden to their corporate overlords.

magazines, such as: mother jones, the nation, tempest, jacobin, dissent, inverse (for science) -- some of these are socialist publications. some, like mother jones, do excellent investigative reporting. you must know the difference between that and editorial - they are all valuable, but they aren't interchangeable. you will find a lot of editorials/opinions here, and you should assume any of them are owned by a bigger company and might be subject to their interests.

a selection of books i've loved at various times in my life: "aint i a woman? Black women and feminism" and "feminist theory" by bell hooks; "revolution and evolution" by grace lee boggs; "so you want to talk about race?" by ijeoma oluo; "bad feminist" by roxane gay; "unpacking the invisible knapsack" by peggy mcintosh; the publications of jackson katz, who researches what we now call toxic masculinity.

i also follow a lot of activists/thinkers, such as:

ericka hart - sexuality and Black history educator

tarana burke - founder of the metoo movement, Black feminist activist

laura danger - discusses domestic labor and gender inequality in relationships, and how global inequality creates it

megan jayne crabbe - writer and body positivity activist

ijeoma oluo - activist and author of "so you want to talk about race?"

abolition notes - not an activist, but a resource for educational material

following magazines and activists is probably the "easiest" solution, because you can expose yourself over time. read articles as they interest you, don't look away when activists say something that initially seems too extreme. idk! hope this helps!!

#recs #turning off rbs for now because i don't know if i want this to escape containment #socio #politics

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ifreakforicecream · 9 months

Text

COD MODERN WAREFARE 3 Predictions

Disclaimer: I have never played the games I am just doing this for my own enjoyment (I don’t have 70$ lying around) I am going off of cutscenes, the wiki and other people’s head cannons. I kind of wanna see how this list plays out once the new missions come. (This barbie has to draft 30 sheets of site analysis for a presentation but is doing this instead) I will probably update this with coloured text as it goes

also, lmao mw3 getting revealed by monster energy drinks has the same energy as the previous installments being revealed by Dorito Chips or when hero movies get early reveals from toy/action figure patents.

Graves does come back but only as an operator for the multiplayer games. Conversely, He could be an illegal arms dealer but in hiding (think MacAfee before they found him). Shepherd has a higher chance of going in that direction in my books. Update: he comes back completely unscathed and going by the new trailer he's siding with Farah and Alex? oooo this gonna get messy (28/7/23).

Price, Laswell, or Gaz dies. Sort of a riff off from the originals I’m guessing the writers are trying to find some form of subversion but this is where it's at (oof)

Farah or Alex dies and neither of them finishes what they started. My money is on Farah tbf.

Gaz dying makes sense in the way that he started with wanting to do right by people when he first met and would probably die that way too. or this being a red herring price jumps in for him and dies and then takes his place which seals his fate as the MC of this installment.

Laswell goes out of the way of aiding a mission when she was expected/advised not to.

Laswell gets a protégé that will replace her in a much later installment. It has a shot at being Gaz man just collects good intel.

more female ops? I like to think COD writes them pretty damn well. (at this point my standards are must pass the Bechdel test. which is not a bad benchmark considering its flaws but not great either)(this is also where I found out the first installment of Twilight passes the Bechdel test. go figure)

Gaz replaces Laswell and Ghost takes Price’s place.

Price dies while killing Makarov. or we get him smoking a cigar as he is introed making it a full-circle moment once more.

Ghost trades bullets with shepherd but only shepherd dies. Many have said the reboot plays it safe so I am going off of that assumption here slightly but ik a lot of og gamers of the previous titles would find that satisfying.

In the wiki, it states that the shadow company is disavowed but that might change. I didn’t check the established title (Like if it was private or public) of such a company but there might be a line of succession here. for what they have in assets it seems too big to be disavowed.

we get a partial face reveal of the ghost. It could be something mundane as smoking or a teasing jump cut. it’s just like barely there.

everyone gets promoted: It happened after the mission in the ghost's origin story. It’s a hefty mission they just survived. I would be surprised if they didn’t. with shepherd gone this swings either way. or gets buried under the rug as it is a mission hidden from the public.

Roach gets in the picture. he also wins the IDGAF wars or is second to Price in that regard.

regional operators? They were all over the place in past titles and with las almas this seems the least farfetched. (hoping for some Indian or Nepalis operators woo)

someone from 141 or affiliated gets kidnapped or “killed” but it’s that “lucky death” situation that COD likes to pull like it did with Alex. This happens towards the end or at a start of a mission season.’

Shepherd is the actual villain and they kill off Makarov pretty quick as a subversion of the original title. Again moot, if you consider the potential monster energy leak his face is in red behind price.

price dies, Gaz finishes the job.

this is more of an anti-prediction: the price isn’t gonna be the main character but the most prominent. (also going by the monster leak) ghost was the last game’s MC I don’t think they were married to his POV all that much even though it played a huge role.

ghost dies, and Soap finishes the job. “you wanna be better than me Johnny” or Johnny dies saving Ghost in the final moment.

Makarov operates the no Russian mission remotely and he acts as a clean nationalistic politician, making him more dangerous and will cause international trouble when apprehending him. (a lot of opposing politicians or figures “fall out of windows” in the process.

The ghost team carries over to Russian soil.

141 gets bigger and possibly with pre-existing operators within the game.

shepherd gets murdered by a more evil boi/girl

ghost’s tattoo design has a canonical refresh/update. The grey fleece jacket comes back.

Soap recovers while Ghost hunts for Shepherd solo. (this happens right after the final mission or the bar scene)

Every now and then a COD title comes out with a new game mechanic or a way to play. In this installment, I am predicting laser sights for night missions.

Heavier lean on digital/informational warfare.

we don’t get much about ghosts. RalphsValve said there might be a spinoff personally I don’t this will ever happen but it’s a tossup considering the original investor report saying mobile makes 40% of revenue but the Microsoft acquisition may change things ( also wonder where product collaborations are at on that investor report probably not that sizable but still worth a look). Conversely, he’s ghostie has become a character favorite and the market landscape has changed drastically in the last 10-20 years and he already has source material. BTW I read that Origin comic That poor fucker can’t catch a break. Brother looked so red-eyed when he hit the tarmac when he met Soap.

#cod mw2 #cod mwii #mw2 #mw3 #call of duty #simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #john price #kyle gaz garrick #gary roach sanderson #kate laswell

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flowery-laser-blasts · 6 months

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What are your headcanons for how Drakken and Shego made up and became a team again? What happens when he finds out she had a hand in Warmonga taking her world domination stuff back?

In my opinion, I think this is what happened. (Buckle in, it's long).

Drakken and Shego made up and became a team again? After Shego left Kim in the lair, she would get the hovercar (or whatever she used to get to the lair) to fetch Drakken (who is probably very vulnerable doggie peddling/drowning at sea).

Not necessarily to get on his good side, but to make sure she 'saves his life', make him 'owe her' for saving his life (she'll be loyal in his eyes again) and to rub in his face that 'this alien isn't as powerful as she is'. Shego felt upset (jealous) of being 'replaced' like that and I think mostly; Drakken thinking that Warmonga is strong than her and a more competent ally.

But now she can say "See? That Alien was only loyal to you because you fed her some dumb lies about being an almighty God figure".

All of this happening would literally break Drakken down. He'll be upset and mad and want to scream at her, however Shego does have a point and he's no longer drifting at sea anymore. Drakken tells Shego that she can be his sidekick again but she corrects him that she's way more than a simple sidekick. She wants more recognition and probably more pay and to never speak of this again.

2. What happens when he finds out she had a hand in Warmonga taking her world domination stuff back? This would likely happen AFTER graduation. Shego and Drakken would talk about the whole Alien situation despite prior statement and she might slip something along the lines of "Those aliens may have brawl, but they certainly got no brains if they were so easily swept by that other blue one after your lie". Drakken will think back and notice something: 'that blue one' looked a lot like the Middleton Mad Dogs' mascot. He didn't notice it before in that situation but now it seems pretty obvious that Kim's friends (he doesn't know its one of the twins) would help her out at that moment. But HOW did they knew about Warmonga, what she was here for and 'the great blue'. Sure, Wade could have listened in on the conversations during the site call BUT never ONCE in that conversation did Drakken tell them about Warmonga's goal/mission, only his plan on world domination. The only once who knew about this were kim, Warmonga, him and....

"Shego? Come to think of it, it was very coincidental that that space dog made a broadcast during our brawl with Kim Possible. Where were you during that?"

Shego can't talk her way out of it. Confesses everything that happened during that moment. Drakken will feel betrayed yet again. "She would find out eventually and then-" Shego can't finish her sentence.

Drakken, enraged, would point out that NONE OF THEM knew what could have happened. Maybe he would actually succeed at the whole world domination plan and have Warmonga with him to rule over all and maybe even more.

Shego snaps. "Alright, so you take over the world. Then what? What does the 'Great Blue' do?" Shego points out that Drakken never considered the fact that this being has 'God like' status to the Lowardians. What does that God do indeed? Did Drakken really think that he wouldn't visit that planet after world conquest? He would have to lie to an entire race of aliens and if they found out... he'd certainly would get tortured.

"I did what I had to do." Shego points out, "I saved you from a lot of hurt and a possible death."

He knows that she's right, but he doesn't like the tone. He's turned himself away from her and fiddles with the medallion he received earlier that day. Going over everything she said.

"And, all of you were right; I was jealous" she admits in defeat, hoping that this would make the man face her again and it does.

"You? Jealous? For real???" Drakken snaps out of his thoughts by this sudden uncharacteristically vulnerable and honest side of Shego. "Was it her strength? Looks? Her-" "yes I'm going to cut you off here." Shego snapped. It is her turn to sulk.

Both of them after a long time of silence apologise to one another. Drakken apologises for blatantly rubbing Warmonga's 'superiority' in her face and Shego apologises for not attempting to break him out sooner.

"You're right, Shego. If you hadn't interfered, I might- would have been a goner... a tortured head trophy above the fire mantle" "what?" "Yeah don't think about it, I don't think I'll make for good taxidermy." He pulls a face, tongue sticking out on one mouth corner and cross eyed. Both of them laugh. Drakken sighs and now that he let it sink in...

"I was, well, am always too focused on the plan at hand, but you think further than that and see potential problems in the future. So thank you for looking out for me. You are a loyal partner and better than Warmonga could ever be. " this apology is more than enough for Shego.

Both of them are now at peace with what happened and can move on forward from their past fights.

I couldn't possibly shortened this in a small headcanon so it turned into a semi fanfic, oops.

Hope this answered your question, thanks for asking!

#kim possible #dr drakken #shego #drakgo #drakken #drdrakken #kimpossible #drakken x shego #shegoxdrakken #maddogsvsaliens #maddogs vs aliens #kim possible headcanon

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syntia13treeman · 1 month

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Case files 08.01

what I think happened in:

Case 08.01,

the case of "Time of the Hungry Architecture" or "There are no missing persons in Forton Service Station."

Ok, I've had twinges of suspicion in some earlier episodes, but now it's a certainty. There are some Time Shenanigans afoot! Not time travel per se, but time asynchronicity for sure.

But let us start at the beginning, with Terrance Stevens (51) who recently went through a messy divorce, lost most of his friends in the process, and rather than going down the rabbit hole of workaholism/alcoholism/etc, decided to practice some self-care. He ditched his high-stress job in finances and became a janitor (less money but also less stress), and for a bit of intellectual challenge he enrolled in a university course. Good for you, my dude!

Downside of this – I imagine there are not many opportunities to bond with co-workers at a service station, and most if not all his fellow students are bound to be half his age, so he likely didn't make any new friends to replace the old ones. This is important, because I believe that lack of connections made him extra vulnerable to the spookies.

As Terrance later explained in his paper, his new place of employment, Forton Services, can be considered a site of brutal liminalism (TM). It's a cold and uninviting place, where there is a constant stream of people who want to be somewhere else, and where time has little to no meaning (open 24/7 and not a clock in sight).

In a place like this, reality might start to wear a little bit thin. Time and space might get a little bit warped. A little bit distorted. And not a little bit hungry.

And Terrance, lonely, sad and isolated Terrance, looked like a perfect meal.

It crept up on him over the course of few days. Without ever realising, he was being pulled somewhere else for increasingly long periods of time. (From his point of view, it seemed like there were less people around. There weren't. Terrance just didn't see most of them, because he wasn't there). It kept happening, until the fateful night, when Terrance phased out of reality for good. (For awhile).

Where did he go? Someplace almost here but not quite, where time was just a little bit out of sync with ours. Not by much. Just enough that the people and cars moving around started looking to him like a colourful blur. (Like stepping into a time-lapse picture).

Spooked by the (seeming) absence of people and strange visuals, Terrance ran right into the waiting trap elevator (defunct here, but working there). He was greeted by a too thin woman with name-tag that wasn't actually name-tag (it read You Are Here). She took him up to the (not)functioning restaurant at the top of the Pennine Tower (20m high).

There, in what seemed to be a 60s themed restaurant, he saw a crowd of people* who looked like they were AI generated (with key prompt words being thin&malnourished) sitting at the tables, not-eating and not-chatting. The chef, wearing another 'you are here' name-tag greeted him with a cheerful "You are here! Stay awhile!"

As first reaction, Terrance moved to sit at a nearby table.** (Everyone turned to watch).

As second reaction, Terrance showed admirable self-preservation instinct and tried to get the hell out of there. Sadly the door he'd entered through weren't there any more, the windows, he just noticed, were empty holes leading into black nothingness, and all the 'guests' moved to grab him, repeating after the chef: "Stay awhile!" (It was not a greeting this time. Nor was it a request).

After this, things escalated quickly. The hungry crowd closed in on Terrance and started biting him (the chef munched one of his fingers whole). Not quite ready to become dinner, Terrance punched and kicked his way free and with no hesitation jumped out the not-window.

Somewhere between the window-hole and hitting the ground, he re-entered the normal timestream, and some kind soul called in paramedics to treat his injuries. Which, for the record, were classified as fall damage by said paramedics and I find it either sus or hilarious. Sirs, these are bite-marks. How many teeth does your average building/pavement have? (To be fair, maybe the hungry crowd didn't master the teeth just yet. Maybe they need to take an anatomy course or something).

It is unclear how much time passed here while Terrance was NOT-here. It wasn't the Rip Van Winkle's 'one nap = 20 years', since he managed to submit his paper the same year it was assigned, but it was apparently long enough that he felt that someone should have reported him as missing. The fact that no-one did can have two explanations:

Very mundane if sad 'no-one cares about you enough to notice your extended absence, buddy'.

Part of the Pennine Tower's whole thing is that people who were pulled in-there are not remembered out-here, at least for as long as they remain in-there. A good hunting strategy, actually. If you were an immobile ambush predator, you wouldn't want potential pray to realize that fellow humans die here, would you.

To finish the story - Terrance immediately quit his janitor job, rationalized his experience as psychotic episode brought about by bad influence of hostile architecture, wrote a paper about it (submitted 12 July 2023 - late; failed) and, hopefully, moved on with his life.

Things of note:

*This is the second time we were introduced to a group of nameless, copy-pasted not-quite-people, prone to repeating cheerful, positive phrases. Colour me intrigued.

**I wonder what would have happened if Terrance took his place at the table. Maybe even tried some food he was offered. Was he always going to end up as the main course, or would he be assimilated, turned into one more thin, hungry guest, forever waiting for a new meal to walk in the door?

I keep going back and forth between 'the tower is a predator that creates human-facsimiles as part of its digestive system' and 'the not-people made the tower their home because they liked the brutalism vibe (or it was just a convenient spot)'.

I rather hope we'll see the Pennine Tower again. It's such a distinctive landmark. And the land is definitely marked.

There sure are a lot of mentions of hunger and food in this podcast, eh? Wonder what could it mean.

#the magnus protocol #tmagp #tmagp case files #tmagp case 08.01 #tmagp 08 #Pennine Tower #ep. written by Alexander J. Newal s #ep. written by A.J.N+J.S.

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waspredteeth · 7 months

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Reader Beware....

another Flamebird in Gotham au, notes app substitution on this site!

this time I'll be listing my personal goals for the au and the developing fanfiction. (ignore if you don't want spoilers! /or you just couldn't care less about my DC/Batman thoughts)

create a fic/maybe a series that develops Bette Kane and introduces her to an audience that does not know her

Bette is highly underrated and unused. The potential in her parallel to Dick Grayson and her history with both Kate Kanes is a lot. Now that I've gotten into this fic and my hcs, I will now forever resent Grayson (2014) bc I can see so much there if you just swap Dick for Bette as the insider-spy. (Kathy Kane characterization in that comic notwithstanding).

characterize and humanize Talia al Ghul

I very much prefer a Talia that is complicated and tragic. She deserves her own development arc and she deserves a characterization that won't paint her as a strictly abusive mother. There's so much there, she's an old character and a great one! (Morrison I am closing my hands around your bald head). Yes, she's not a perfect mother. Who is? I prefer a Talia who maybe wasn't there for Damian all of the time, but she tries, goddamnit. Talia has her own heavy trauma and baggage that should be taken into account with the way she raises Damian. She should have way more in common with her son, especially when it comes their relationships with Ras.

actually write Damian Wayne in a published fanfic for once (you do not want to see my many many drafts and wips)

Not as much to add here, other than I don't think my Damian headcanons or characterization is that far removed from canon.

focus on other aspects of Gotham City that aren't tied to Batman/Robin (like Ragman, Wildcat, Mother Panic)

Self-explanatory. Gotham is a huge and diverse city, and having only Batman and vigilantes directly associated with him operate there is super boring.

Integrate Bette Kane and Kathy Kane into the wider Batman/"Batfamily" mythos

Also self-explanatory. It'd be nice. They're the first Batwoman and Bat-girl!

Create future opportunities for smaller, lesser known Batman characters (if this becomes a full series) like Charlie Gage-Radcliffe, the Foxes, Calvin Rose, Onyx Adams)

Please I need to see them in fanfiction form. Charlie is my blorbo who needs more comics, and Calvin is my favorite Talon. Also, he's canonically a former member of Haly's Circus and he wasn't given the immortal juice like the others - it is my hc that he was in the circus around the time that Dick was.

Rectify the deaths or character assassinations that I don't like (Orpheus, Holly Robinson)

Orpheus's death sucks major ass. Bringing him back no matter what, just to satisfy my brain. Holly Robinson deserves to be Catwoman for at least a while longer.

If I'm crazy enough to do it - introduce Christopher Kent in the future to an audience who does not know him.

MY SON. Look, I like Jon. Mildly. He's alright. But Chris is MY defacto Superman child and everyday I mourn what could've been if he wasn't aged up (deja vu) and he was able to exist for just a little while longer so that he could interact with Damian. So, if this au becomes a series, you best believe that I'm including at least a cameo. Jury's out if I fully replace Jon in the au or I make them similarly-aged brothers.

Expand/lengthen comic arcs I like and wanted to see more of (Robin: Son of Batman in general, We Are Robin, Talon, unironically Beast Boy 2000, Streets of Gotham)

Mostly self-explanatory. I just wanted to see more of Damian/Maya. Suren hanging out and going on adventures. We Are Robin needs a longer series, Talon is one of my fav comics, and I genuinely just wanted to see more of Bette in LA in Beast Boy. I also wanted to see Colin and Damian in SoG. (Plus, there was a Ragman backup running there!)

maybe give characters who are considered part of the "Batfamily" but are usually never given their dues - a chance to be main characters (Duke Thomas) (once I actually fully research him)

Yeah. This needs development on my part. I like him a lot, I just want to understand him better and give him some screen time so to speak. If I do get around to a We Are Robin rewrite or just incorporate it somehow into a larger fic.

umm... maybe expand on al Ghul lore perhaps, and develop the League of Assassins into something functional, terrifying, and tangible

Requires further research. But I love @arabian-batboy's take on how the family names (the al Ghuls, the Orghams, the Darga) connect to Behenian stars and the idea that each star could be connected to a hypothetical family and their powers. It's just cool.

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