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#so might as well buy the expensive stuff for the same price

merakiui · 10 months

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Do you think the sleazy mafia eel would catch real feelings for his darling?

Absolutely!!! I like to imagine you give in and text him again because he’s addictive like that, and Floyd’s all smug and playful. So you plan to fuck again, but before that Floyd has to be a gentleman and take you to a nice dinner. He’s so weird (and ridiculously wealthy). You’ll spend half of your situationship going on dates that he calls “hanging out” and then finding yourself fucked incoherent and brain dead. He treats you so good and he’s even better at sex, especially when he’s wheedling you into doing things you never would have done had you not met him. A rare text becomes a monthly thing and then you’re texting him on a weekly basis and Floyd always answers, always entertains you, always fucks you in every way you want.

You become acquainted with his brother, who sometimes picks you up because Floyd lost his license, and the first time you officially meet him, Floyd just had to ask: “You into twins, Shrimpy?” all with the biggest grin while you stared between them in surprise, not having expected they’d look so similar and yet be so different at the same time. Oh, but Jade’s just as smug as his brother, shaking your hand and saying, “It’s a pleasure to meet you when you aren’t half-dead to the world.” What he really means is: “Wow, you have a personality outside of getting fucked dumb! Happy to make your acquaintance.”

Floyd spoils you so much. He buys you lots of expensive stuff and always explains it away with a casual shrug and a “cuz I want to” when you ask him where he’s getting this money from and why he’s buying absurdly priced things for you. You hate to say it, but he’s the most fun you’ve ever had. So when he asks you to meet his parents, your sugary situationship comes screeching to a halt.

“What do you mean?”

“My parents. They wanna meet ya…or somethin’.”

“Why?” You’re horrified that anyone’s parents would want to meet you, but especially Floyd’s! The two of you aren’t like…that. You’re just fucking; it’s not romance.

“Cuz.”

“Cuz…?”

“Cuz they want to.”

You stare at him. He’s so difficult sometimes. Before you can grouse over that, something hits you. “Wait. Have you been…talking to them about me?”

Floyd peers at you. A smile spreads across his face. “I tell ‘em aaaall about how Shrimpy likes it from behind and—”

“Never mind! Never mind! Forget I asked.”

“Mama just assumes we’re a pair since I visited last and she saw these.” He points at the poorly concealed love bites on his neck and shrugs. “I never bring anyone home, but they wanna meet ya anyway. Guess you’re special or somethin’.”

“But we’re not dating.”

“With how often we fuck, we might as well be.”

You intend to retort, but his words have you considering. Dating… You wouldn’t be opposed to it if it’s with Floyd. The two of you know each other well enough to slide into that sort of development. But… He’s still only temporary. He’s not forever.

“We’re not, though,” you say, clipped and cold. “I’ll meet your parents if that’s what you want, but we’re not dating.”

Floyd smiles easily, but it doesn’t brighten his eyes. “Sure thing. Whatever Shrimpy wants. No lovey-dovey dating. Just sex.”

But the engagement ring he’s kept secret for months now says otherwise.

#twisted chit chat #i love him orz #he could ruin my life and i wouldn’t mind because he’s so <3

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static-scribblez · 7 months

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The PS5 has been out for three years and Chris Dunne deserves one by now he deserves a PS5 the universe owes him one all of this is still this is the text this is all on the shirt the universe owes him a PS I did the math Will I did the math its it’s I did the math if if we made if we fuckin profit 10 dollars a shirt I I give you half of that I get five dollars a shirt I gotta sell 80 t-shirts in order to get a PS5 94 t-shirts if I’m including a copy of Baldur’s Gate 3 that’s doable that’s totally doable that’s all on the shirt all of this is on the shirt including this including this it’s doable I could sell 80 shirts that’s on the shirt too right this is all on the shirt okay this is all going on it’s all on the shirt that’s the shirt that’s my idea for some new merch that’s great that’s a great shirt yeah and the fun thing is that it could also be a poster or that’s true or like a mug or a drink or fucking anything I don’t know just who cares wait can you do that can you setup on the bigcartel like 12 different items all with right the same block of text on it yeah and the plan is to price all of those items I will profit enough enough to purchase a PS5 that’s a lot of items and the second I make 400 dollars they’re gone they disappear because this is a terrible thing for me to do I shouldn’t do this its so funny that’s no that’s such a good idea I just I’ve been thinking about just putting up a fucking PayPal link I’m done I need a PS5 dude that’s dude I I like I want I was just I’m fucking sitting at home just like ahhh here’s the thing I’m not gonna like fuckin I’m not gonna I I I I I don’t I don’t want to beg for money uh huh I didn’t think I wanted to beg people for money but then I took a long hard think about how badly I want a PS5 and I think I might be okay with it. I’ve been having fantasy’s about just going to target and looking at them ya know just fantasies about looking about just I just been maybe I’ll go to target or Walmart today and just look at the ps5s just to be like I could get that I could I could have one I could take it home I could take it I could just buy it today what’s stopping you then because I PS5 the price point its at right now its very dangerous because its an exact price point where I could buy it and it wouldn’t immediately ruin my life but it would make it so that my life gets ruined quicker a couple months down the line okay right which still makes it a bad purchase right yeah you know what I mean that’s kinda where I’m at okay so I say we do the t-shirt thing we make a t-shirt a mug a poster all the specific niche things that the drop shipping company that we work with prints on yeah do’m all all the printful stuff just the entire printful catalogue 50 items yeah the whole catalogue this huge block of text make socks fucking fill out the entire bigcartel page mousepads with as many items as they’ll let me put on thermoses just canvas prints every single possible literation on of it and if that bothers you there’s a very quick to get me to stop doing it just buy them you just need to be the 80th person to buy these fucking t-shirts that’s amazing can we give a prize to the 80th person who buys one uh well how much is the prize uh its its its um its you get a little sandwich kiss you and me each take a cheek and give him a little smooch alright well I’m just going to round and say its going to 40 bucks for travel expenses so that’s 8 more t-shirts we have to before we do that but then yeah sure ya know well then we just increase yeah exactly we just increase the number of t-shirts I have to sell right exactly

#babe wake up new copypasta just dropped #oh hey both of them have their own copypastas now #Chris dunne’s PS5 rant and Will Wood’s Wednesday rant #well technically it’s both will and chris speaking here and not just chris but you get my point #shitpost #life in the world to come #litwtc #chris dunne #will wood

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sailing-through-hawkins · 10 months

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Part 1 ✧ Part 2 ✧ Part 3 ✧ Part 4 (finale) of Harrington Charms Hellfire ✧ AO3

Sometimes Steve thinks the real Upside-Down is his life before any of it really happened, before the demogorgon, before Will going missing, before he ever even met Robin, because that life feels like such a distant memory it might as well be a completely different person's.

In the moments between all the chaos and yelling and laughing, when everyone's quiet and like, content? It hits him harder than any punch (obviously not any punch given all his experience with getting them, but he's allowed to exaggerate when he has Dustin, Robin, Erica and Eddie being dramatic as possible around him every single day) that this wasn't always his life.

He didn't always know the best way to bribe Dustin was by offering to take him to the diner with the most expensive fucking fries but totally worth the price.

He didn't always answer the phone to find Erica calling him up for another round of ice cream at the Sinclairs' while she goes on and on about how Chelsea has betrayed her by cozying up to Valerie after they already made a pact about it.

He didn't always have Robin gently reminding him about people's names and their plans for the week and what he had that morning because fuck, did he have breakfast? Robin, what - ("We had pancakes and that gross syrup you buy even though I keep telling you it's not sweet enough, which means I have to use like half the bottle in one go -")

It's pretty weird to think about. That all of that is some kind of after instead of an always. It's nice.

He could do without the repeated banging on his front door though. Like why do none of his people know how to knock?

"Ready to have your mind blown, Stevie?" Eddie Munson stands outside his house with a wide grin and guitar hanging over his back like a weapon. It kind of is, in some ways.

"Get in here, jackass," Steve rolls his eyes as Eddie cackles his way through the door and straight to the couch in the sunroom ("What does that even mean, sunroom? Who has a sunroom?! If it's facing the pool, shouldn't it be the poolroom? Give me answers, whoever constructed this hellish house!") without so much as a hug. He shuts the door and trails after the madman. "What, no 'hi Steve, nice to see you, thanks for letting me come over'?"

Eddie whips around with a manic grin and wild eyes. "Haven't you heard? Chivalry is dead, sweetheart."

He has such pretty eyes, Steve thinks idly as Eddie carefully takes off his guitar and jumps into the couch, the kind he really likes looking at in moments of peace and quiet. Sometimes they go big and wide and Eddie pulls a lock of hair over his mouth, but that doesn't hide the way his whole face flushes pink when Steve really leans in.

It's not something he actually knows about Eddie, but Steve does know that he - well, he likes Eddie.

"You said he was glaring at Frank after he gave you that Star Trek thing."

"I mean yeah, but that could have been for anything, maybe they fought before I came 'round or something."

"Hmm, true, but I am personally inclined to the idea that he was jealous."

"You just want to make fun of him."

"Absolutely I do."

Steve shakes his head and walks over to knock Eddie on his head, laughing when he immediately pouts up at him. "It's lunchtime, Munson, and we agreed to eat first before you pull me into one of your 'artist moments'."

Gasping, Eddie immediately launches into the same lecture he does every time Robin makes fun of how focused he is while writing out a campaign idea ("Can you believe we used to know nothing about this stuff? And now it's like, saved our lives and we play it every other week. Who even are we?"). Steve walks on to the kitchen as Eddie raves behind him and doesn't even bother pushing down the fondness in his chest, the fondness he knows is written all over his face.

Yeah, Steve and Robin are pretty sure he's like, totally in love with Eddie at this point. It probably should be a bigger deal than it is but honestly, a couple years surviving another apocalypse and being distrustful of most authority figures (including but not at all exclusive to the American fucking government) really puts that kinda shit into perspective.

"Robin, how do you ask a guy out?"

"Gee, that's a great question, I hope I never have to find out."

"...you were the wrong person to ask this."

"No shit, Stevie."

So yeah, Steve's in love with Eddie Munson and the whole world's gonna know about it.

Because he has a plan.

Step one: get the guy to come over for lunch - easily accomplished once Steve promises to make his pizza casserole, a Buckley-exclusive recipe until today (with said Buckley's approval of course, because it's the fanciest thing Steve can do without fucking up like three times in a row).

Step two: use said lunch as a way to make easy conversation and settle nerves - already in action, just need to get his oven mitts on first.

"Oh my god," Eddie moans when Steve pulls the casserole out of the oven, the melted cheese and crusted pasta looking delicious, way to go, Harrington. "Oh fuck, that smells so fucking good, oh my god."

Steve laughs, quickly setting the dish down and poking it with a fork so his face has time to cool down. "Buckley approved and Munson sanctioned, huh?"

"Jesus Christ, let me at it -" Eddie reaches for the dish, hands squeezing mid-air before Steve slaps them both, mitts and all. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"Have some fucking patience, man." Steve sets the casserole onto the trivet ("Our latest word of the week!") and carries the whole thing to the dining room. He calls out behind him before Eddie can even walk, "And bring over the plates from the sink, they're clean."

"No shit!" Eddie calls back and Steve just laughs again when he walks into the dining room with the plates held up over his head, knees and arms bending awkwardly like he's some sort of gangly creature with zero limb coordination. He sets down the plates with a bow and in a weird voice croaks, "Your plates, my liege."

Steve looks at the gremlin of a man in front of and his heart beats once, twice, saying 'yes, this one, this one too, please.'

"Okay, Smeagol," he snorts and jumps when Eddie smacks his shoulder. "Dude, what the hell, I'm -"

"Since when do you read Lord of the Rings?!" Eddie smacks his shoulder again when he rolls his eyes. "That reference is way too obscure for you to just know!"

The casserole is firm enough that he can lift a piece to a nearby plate with zero casualties, but he still doesn't take his eyes off it for a second. "Dustin and Lucas talk about it all the time, even Max does the whole 'my precious' thing. It's not that obscure."

"Steve Harrington," Eddie shakes his head and Steve sighs when both plates are set, the rest of the casserole intact. "You are something else, man."

When Steve turns around, he's struck by how fond Eddie's eyes are, staring at him, smiling at him, sweet and soft. It's heady, makes him smile back, makes him forget every step of his plan, makes him lean in. Eddie doesn't flinch, eyes fixed on him, but does inhale sharply when Steve takes his hand, slowly settling his fingers between Eddie's until they're holding hands warmly, gently, lovely.

"Steve?" Eddie murmurs, eyes flitting all over Steve's face like he's tracking every spot, mole and freckle he can find.

And that right there is what gives Steve the courage to say, "Look, I -"

Brrrrrrng!

Which is exactly why the doorbell rings. Because when Steve is brave, the universe just has to keep pushing him to find the limit of his patience too. God damn it.

"Be right back," he sighs, letting go of Eddie's hand to pat him on the shoulder with a weak smile. Eddie doesn't seem to mind, staring down at his hand like it has the answers to the universe. He walks to the door when the doorbell rings yet again. "Don't start without me."

Eddie doesn't reply and Steve sighs again, opening the door with a tilted head at whoever - "Harrington!"

Steve blinks and tilts his head even more. "Frankie? What's up, man?"

"It's time to discuss." Frank stands tall in his doorway, holding up what looks like a giant roll of paper under his arm. Steve doesn't even want to know what the plastic bag in his hand has. Frank glances around, as if there's anybody else out here, and his voice drops to a whisper. "We need a plan on how you're going to woo Eddie."

Eyes widening, Steve quickly shuts the door and shoves Frank away from the entrance ("I may have the pointy elbows but you've got the strong arms, so together our jabs would be like unstoppable!") . He glances back at the house, relieved when Eddie doesn't come shooting out at the very sensitive information. "What the hell, dude?"

"Listen to me," Frank continues, leaning against Steve's car as if he's not being cornered, setting Steve's teeth on a grind. "Procrastinating this is not the solution, and if you really want to court him properly -"

"Do you have to say it like that?!" Steve runs a hand through his hair. He should have known this would happen and he still got cocky. Fuck. "Look, this is stupid, I'm -"

"Strategy is never stupid, Harrington," Frank seethes, poking his chest harshly. Fuck, what's his deal with using last names anyway? "You want to ask Eddie out, so you asked Hellfire for aid. And our aid is about coordination, patience and a step-by-step tactical journey that includes failsafes for every occasion."

"Oh joy," Steve snorts. He crosses his arms and leans on one leg ("You're the one who said it's our bitchiest move! Besides, it always works, doesn't it?"), eyebrows raised high. "Look, I appreciate the help, but considering the fact that I've literally got Eddie in my house right now, I think I'm doing just fine."

"He's what?!" Frank's smug face turns pale and he whips a glance at the house before slapping Steve's arm with a hiss. "And you're mentioning this only now?! I had to take a bus here man!"

"Ow!" Steve glares back, rubbing the spot. It's basically nothing, barely a sting, but he feels the need to make a show of it to prove a point ("Oh my god, you have been hanging out with Eddie too much, he's infected you - fight it, Stevie! Only you and I can infect each other!"). "I would have said it earlier if someone hadn't -"

"Shh!" Frank rudely smacks Steve's arm again, the prick, and gives a...nervous smile to the house?

"What -" Steve turns around to find Eddie's glare through the window before it quickly turns to surprise and disappears. Steve sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, god fucking damn it. "Okay, well, this conversation is over because now I need to do damage control before any wooing."

Frank nods with a wince. "Perhaps...I could have called first."

"Perhaps," Steve mocks before letting out a laugh and patting Frankie's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, man, I'll just tell him you were trying to start another fight about the tribbles and fuzzies."

"It's a valid -"

"Frankie," Steve says sternly and watches amusedly when Frank deflates.

He still squints and pokes Steve's chest again. "Next time. You owe me the bus fare. Twice."

"Bring food over," Steve calls out as Frank starts to walk away. "I'm not cooking for you if I have to pay!"

"Eat shit, Harrington!"

And Steve laughs and laughs because he finally feels so light after all this time. With a sigh, he makes his way back to the house, startling when Eddie's face in the window makes another appearing-disappearing act.

Huh.

Well, in Eddie's defense, it's pretty suspicious that Frank came over with a roll of paper and bag of markers, right?

"Eds?" Steve walks in, a smile growing when he sees Eddie lying on the stairs in the most unnatural position possible, stretched out with one hand holding up his head and his leg crooked up on the other knee. He lets out a laugh when Eddie blinks at him. "Comfortable?"

"One hundred percent," Eddie croaks, sliding down the stairs, Jesus it's like he's made of liquid, until he's a pouting puddle on the floor. "Why'd Frank come over? I didn't tell him I was here."

"Eh," Steve shrugs, holding out a hand and, when he takes it in his own, pulling Eddie up. "Thought he could finally prove his conspiracy theory about the tribbles again."

Eddie doesn't reply, eyes flickering down to their hands, warm and connected. Steve purposefully doesn't make a remark or snatch his hand away the way the small, dark corner of his brain is insisting he should ("I think it's time we both stop listening to our dark corners, huh? I'll be your light if you'll be mine."), casually making his way back to the dining room. Something glows in his chest when Eddie's hand squeezes just enough for him to feel, before Steve squeezes back and lets it go so he can pull out a chair.

"Ready to have your tastebuds blown away?"

With a gulp and a very quick shake, Eddie grins at him before dropping into the chair. He squirms around until he settles, legs stretched out and hands behind his head, looking up at Steve with that same, wide grin. "I'm always ready for a Harrington Feast."

"Ew," Steve wrinkles his nose as he gently pushes the chair in, making his way over to the one directly opposite Eddie. "Yeah no, we're not doing that."

"But Harrington Habits -"

"I'm going to punch Gareth next time he says that," Steve grumbles. "I don't care how many movies he wants to try out."

It's honestly a little flattering how quickly Gareth warmed up to Steve after the whole 'Grease' thing, hell, the kid even asked (very angrily and with zero eye contact) if Steve knew how to style his hair to look like Danny Zuko's a couple weeks back. Steve had to take a minute before agreeing but then had to coax him out of the look when it very clearly wasn't working, and offered to help him look for a jacket like Danny's instead.

Nobody knows why or when exactly Hellfire started to mellow out against Steve ("I can't believe all it took was some music, movies and cookies, I'm gonna lose my mind! We should try getting Mrs Byers to invite us for dinner with that charm of yours."). Mike still suspects it started after he offered to host their next game night (they didn't take him up on the offer but Eddie barely took his big shiny eyes off him for the rest of the evening, so it was totally worth asking) but Dustin claims he just wore them down with his "- dad energy, Steve, I had to stop you from wearing your fanny pack to the pool."

Excuse him, Dustin, if El might need tissues in case of a nosebleed or if Robin gets another papercut on something that isn't even paper and needs a band-aid or -

Oh.

Oh god, he's the goddamn babysitter by instinct now, fuck.

"Steve," Eddie says as solemnly as he can with a giant piece of baked macaroni in his mouth. "This is fucking heaven."

Trying his best not to preen, Steve smiles and nods as he takes another bite. But apparently, Eddie isn't finished.

"No, seriously, this is like, if an angel stuffed liquid gold into my hands and told me I could chug it. I'm not even -"

"Dude," Steve laughs. "What does that even mean?"

"You think I know?!" Eddie says, his lips twitching like he's holding back his own laugh. "I'm just the messenger here!"

He doesn't know how they made it through lunch because Eddie kept pulling out stories and jokes that got Steve laughing so hard, he literally choked and needed five minutes just to breathe normally again ("Come on, Stevie, keep breathing for me, match me, come on, don't make me panic too -"). It's like he was doing his best to make Steve lose his shit.

Which.

Huh.

Interesting thought to come back to later, because step two has been completed.

On to step three: clean up lunch together as an excuse to be physically close and make some gentle, casual touches.

Casual, because outright holding his hand might be jumping ahead ("I feel like our impulse control gets better when we're together. Wha - that doesn't count, we were high off surviving the apocalypse and she was very pretty!"), and Steve definitely doesn't want to scare Eddie off.

"I am no coward!" Eddie declares, shoving his hands straight into the sink and under the running water as he turns his nose up at Steve. "If the dishes need be done, then they shall be done, good sir, so sweareth I, noble -"

"Oh my god, just start washing, y'goose," Steve lightly shoves at his shoulder and no surprise that step three is already going well, he's just that good at strategy, thanks Frankie. He picks up the already-washed cup and uses the towel he slapped onto his own shoulder to dry it off. "I don't know how you keep pulling those monologues out of nowhere like that."

"Observation, imitation and practice," Eddie says smugly, wiggling in place as he works on the plates. "It's not all pure talent, y'know, I gotta work at it."

"Ha ha," Steve rolls his eyes, barely able to keep his smile in. He nudges Eddie's shoulder once, lets him nudge back, does it again and repeat, until he just lets his shoulder rest against Eddie's. "Thanks for coming over, man."

"'S no problem," Eddie lightly shrugs his other shoulder. "I...like hanging out. With you."

Steve pauses. There's no "I know, crazy right?" or "The Hair and the Freak, who'da thunk?" or "But don't get sappy on me!" that follows.

There's just him and Eddie, side-to-side. There's gentle sunlight streaming in through the window and it makes his rings shine and there's -

"Eddie, what the fuck, you didn't take your rings off?!"

Without a second thought, Steve grabs his hands out of the water and immediately does a headcount (or is it a ringcount? Whatever, doesn't matter), drying off Eddie's hands with the not-damp side of the towel. None of them got lost ("You keep track of his rings? Stevie - no, that's different, stop turning your gay - sorry - bisexual pining on me!"), so he carefully dabs at them to let the shine through.

That's when it occurs to him that there is, in fact, a person attached to these rings.

Ah.

"I, uh -" Steve coughs. "If you're gonna help with the dishes - I mean, we wouldn't wanna lose any of these, right?"

Peeking up at Eddie, who's entire face is flushed pink, staring straight ("Haha, straight. What? Let me have this -") at him, Steve feels something roll through under his skin, making him stand taller, making his face relax, making him feel like - (You can do this, dingus. I believe in you.")

"Here," Steve says softly, pulling a ring off Eddie's pointer finger slowly, waiting for a refusal. When he peeks back up at Eddie, he's still frozen, wide eyed and blinking repeatedly. He gently pulls off the ring from his middle and ring fingers, and holds the silver collection up in the palm of his hand. "Keep them safe."

Frozen, Eddie doesn't say anything.

"Eddie?" It's impossible to hold back his smirk at this point, even harder not to let it widen when Eddie's eyes snap to his lips. "Did you want me to keep them?"

Before he can put them in his pocket, Eddie snatches them out of his hand and shoves the rings into his own pocket, the noise of clacking metal apparently breaking the spell. He squeaks out an, "All good, Stevie!" and quickly goes back to the sink to shove his hands under the water.

See, that would normally hurt, the idea that Steve's touch needed - needed to be washed off. But he saw Eddie's eyes, his expression whenever Steve touches his skin. That's not disgust.

Nah, that's not disgust at all actually.

Steve smiles as he watches Eddie curse when he almost drops a fork, hair bouncing against the sunlight so prettily. He lightly glides up behind Eddie, gathering the curls together, humming when Eddie freezes again.

"Uh -"

"Can I tie it up?"

Eddie seems to take a moment. "Sure," he says quietly.

Continuing to hum, Steve runs a hand through Eddie's hair, coaxing away any little tangles and knots. It's nice to see he's been keeping up with the new routine he and Mike have started together, even if it took Robin's horror stories of hair damage (which were definitely exaggerated just so she could see Mike's face) to get them to think about it. Once he's got all of Eddie's hair held up, he takes his time getting a hair tie out of his back pocket ("What if I need one and I forget? Or Erica? Or Max? Or -") so that he can stare at the nape of his neck, pale but littered with little pink scars.

How pretty can one guy be? Every little part of him, every expression, every -

And then the phone rings.

What the hell.

"For the record," Steve says before he finally ties up Eddie's hair into a bun that hangs low on his head. He starts slowly stepping away and out of the kitchen. "I like hanging out with you too, Eddie."

Speed walking his way to the phone, Steve lets it ring a few more times, taking in quiet and deep breaths because holy shit, did he just do that? He just did that ("I can't believe you fucking did that, oh my god. I mean - I always believed in you!"). With a grin and a glow in his chest that spreads across his veins like some kind of magic high, he answers the phone.

"Harrington Residence -"

"Steve!" Jeff's voice sounds winded and his heartbeat is already racing fast.

"What's wrong, are you okay?" His blood on fire, ready to hit back, where're the bad guys, his axe, where's his axe -

Jeff swallows a deep breath. "Yeah, no, yeah, yeah I'm fine. I wanted to warn you about Frank."

Steve blinks, moves the phone away to stare at it, before putting it back to his ear. "Why, what did he do?"

"He said he was coming over to help with that thing even though you said you'd handle it, and I know you're meeting up with you-know-who so like, be alert."

His eye is twitching. Fuck, he better not be getting a headache today, it's his day off to chill for once, he deserves better than this. "He already came by, dude. He just left like an hour ago."

Jeff swears colorfully enough that it relieves the tension of Steve's shoulders when he laughs. "That motherfucker lied to me, he said he was coming by for dinner."

"He probably knew you were gonna warn me," Steve grins as quiet sounds of plates and cupboards echo out from the kitchen. "Why are you even warning me anyways? I mean I know I backtracked but it was pretty neat of him to try helping out anyways.

"'Pretty neat' he says. God, Harrington, you're such a dad," Jeff teases and it's one of those rare times the joke makes Steve laugh without shame.

Out of everyone in Steve's life, Jeff is one of few who don't make Steve feel so bad about wanting a big family ("Platonic soulmates excluded, of course, right?"). Maybe it's because he gets it, especially after Trey had moved out so quickly. He gets how a house can be lonely without a bunch of family filling up the space.

Jeff hesitates. "Like I said, I know you wanted some alone time today." His voice softens to a murmur and Steve can't help but run a hand through his hair, fidgeting with a lock at the back of his neck. It's getting so long now. It makes him think of Eddie's nape, warm and so pale against the black of his hair but still so alive. "You said you were gonna make a move."

"I -" Steve blows out a breath, cupping his own neck and staring out the window into the greenery outside. The sunlight really does make everything look so much warmer. Alive. "Yeah. Yeah, I am. Today, actually."

"That's great!" Jeff whispers excitedly and Steve just laughs again. "Shit, okay, I should let you get back to it then. I'll phone Wayne for your check-in too, good luck man!"

"Thanks, Jeff. That...means a lot." Steve smiles. "Talk to you later."

Setting the phone against the wall ("You think you're so fancy with your wall phone, Harrington?! ...Yeah, you are, it's pretty cool actually. Should we crank call Hopper or would that be like, a crime?") feels like a weight's been lifted off his shoulders. Alive, safe, well.

The approval of Eddie's friends isn't exactly something he'd expected to want or to get really, but they keep surprising him. Even Wayne's been really supportive of Steve in general, always trusting him to take care of their people, even if he does ask everyone to check-in with him whenever Eddie visits. Sometimes the paranoia doesn't lift up and Steve definitely isn't going to give the man grief about it when he understands.

With a nod, Steve turns back to the kitchen and stops when he sees Eddie, who quickly stumbles back on the kitchen door when he tries hiding.

"Ow." Eddie rubs his elbow with a wince. He quickly hops along the wall to get to the sun room. "Pay no attention to the man behind - uh - out of the kitchen?"

"Eddie," Steve laughs as he follows, the panic of hurt, he's hurt, find him, bring him home, keep him safe fading away. "Eddie, wait, what were you even -"

"Upupup!" Eddie plugs his fingers into his ears and starts chanting. Steve has to lunge when he almost bangs his hip against the doorframe to pull him to the side instead. With a groan, Eddie hides his face in his hands. "Can we pretend none of that happened and that I was on my way to get my guitar without eavesdropping?"

"Nope," Steve says cheerfully, dragging Eddie along by hooking an arm over his shoulder. "I'm gonna be using that for weeks."

"Well excuuuuse me," Eddie squints, dropping down to pick up his guitar and sling it over one shoulder. "If I just wanna know why Jeff would be calling right after a house call from Frankie. You planning something I don't know about?"

"Don't worry your pretty little head about it. It's just some new tracks," Steve pats his shoulder and saunters his way to the stairs. "Now come on, you promised me a show."

It's silent, no footsteps, no quip, so Steve turns back just in case.

"Huwha?"

Yup, same flushed cheeks. Looks like his plan is working perfectly. Steve smiles, turns back around and makes his way up the staircase. It's almost time for the final step - actually fucking saying something.

He's got this. Right? ("Right.")

"So," Steve starts as they walk into his bedroom ("Keep your cool, keep it together, do not fuck this up - but also no pressure, this is a big step -"). "What exactly were you gonna show me anyways? All you said was a melody and -"

"Upupup," Eddie says, placing his hands on Steve's shoulders and walking him back towards his bed, where he ends up tripping on to. "Woah, shit! You okay?"

Shaking his head, Steve just laughs. The giddiness has finally cracked open in his chest, all his feelings floating up like - like they're in his blood, pouring out of him. "All good. You're that excited, huh?"

"Don't think you can trick me," Eddie pokes a finger at Steve's forehead, both hands coming down to rest at Steve's shoulders as he lightly shakes him. "This is very important, Harrington, no distractions or interruptions, alright?"

Steve lets his hands glide back behind him on the bed, leaning back on them and tilting his head. With a soft smile (practiced and well-worn with the amount of times he's used it for Robin, Max, Dustin, Erica, Eddie), he leans on his hands behind him, watching Eddie's cheeks turn pink in real time. "Alright. Impress me, Munson."

It takes a second, Eddie fumbling with his guitar and his jacket, his eyes flickering back to Steve before snapping away, but eventually he spins around and sits on the floor, leaning against the bed. Without the leather (a gift from Dustin, with Mike and Steve's help, that made Eddie cry that day, no matter how much he denies it), he looks smaller. His white shirt isn't thick enough, lets Steve see the skin underneath, the wounds and scars.

With a sigh, Steve brushes a hand along Eddie's shoulder, lets the warmth sink in -

"Woah!" Eddie chokes, twitching in place, shaking Steve's hand off. "I said no interruptions, my good sir!"

"Sorry," Steve says genuinely, totally went a bit far there, that's fair. He clears his throat and shuffles to lie down along the bed instead, careful not to hit Eddie with his feet ("You've gotten enough concussions for all of us, so it's my job to make sure it doesn't happen again, as your best friend and soulmate because I am not losing you.") and settles on his side. "Go ahead, I'm listening."

Eddie takes a deep breath, readjusts his guitar, tunes it, strumming and adjusting and tuning and looping over and over - "Okay, uh, could you like - uh, not like, stare at me? I mean, not - I'm just - uh, nervous I guess."

With a blink, Steve says, "'Course, man. Take your time," and reshuffles so he's staring up at the ceiling. The glow-in-the-dark stars he put up with Dustin are still up there. They don't glow that much but he thinks they're bright enough for him.

"Thanks," Eddie murmurs and clears his throat. With one final deep breath, he starts playing and...

It's good. It's great actually. Steve doesn't know much about music ("You're surrounded by musicians! You play music when you - you know, do the thing! I bet you know way more than you think."), but the melody is slower than he expected, less head-banging and more...just looking at his stars.

He lets his head turn so he can watch Eddie play, the little bun of hair pulled up higher than when he tied it up. It isn't anything special, but it makes the cracked-open glow in Steve's chest burn brighter, melt out of his ribcage like some kind of radioactive goop that he doesn't bother scooping back inside. Not when it feels like this.

The sunlight is dimmer now, but it shines over Steve's legs onto the back of Eddie, casting a shadow on the bedroom floor.

With that thought, the melody ends and Eddie turns a little in his spot to stare at Steve. He looks nervous, the light outside keeping him bright and Steve can't look away. "So, uh, what - what'd ya think?"

It isn't that easy, describing music. Usually Steve sticks to whatever makes him feel good, sometimes just whatever makes him feel in general. But this felt -

"That was amazing, Eddie." The words taste awkward on his tongue but it's blown away by the delight in Eddie's face.

"Yeah?! Yeah, I wanted to try something different, after everything, y'know, so I figured, well the world almost ended, maybe going easy for once wouldn't hurt and -"

He goes on. He goes on and smiles at Steve and the sunlight surrounds them and he can't take it anymore.

Sitting up and smoothly shifting back onto the bed, Steve leans over and reaches out. When his hand cups Eddie's jaw, the rambling stops. He stares down, Eddie stares up, the sunlight reaching out between them, and Steve lets out a soft chuckle.

"You're amazing," Steve says, bringing over his other hand so he's gently holding Eddie's face. He doesn't know what he looks like but he knows that in this moment, Eddie is stunning. Big wide eyes, pink flush and a shadow over his face -

Knock knock knock.

"Oh, you are fucking with me -" Steve shouts, leaping off to the other side of the bed to see - "Gareth?!"

"Open - the - window -" The scrawny asshole mouths up at him through the window, one hand wobbling on the frame. Steve has a quick, ruthless thought of pulling the blinds down but it'll never be more than a thought. With a sigh, he opens the window and reaches out, helping Gareth climb through. "Holy shit, that was so scary. How the hell did you do this every night?"

"I -" Steve sputters, shutting the window behind him. "I did not climb through people's windows every night! Just - like, on the occasion! Shut up, what are you even doing here?"

"Okay, so remember when you told me about -"

"Nope!"

Steve and Gareth jump, looking over to find a fuming Eddie, his guitar strewn on the bed and his expression manic.

"Nope, we're not doing this, actually, thanks Gary," Eddie says brightly, grabbing Gareth by the scruff of his shirt and dragging him out of the bedroom. "I'm sure whatever movie or album or debate or whatever you just couldn't wait to talk to Steve about, it actually can and will fucking wait!"

He shuts the door behind the poor kid before spinning around and stomping over to the window, where he pulls the blinds shut so they're left in shadows. Steve stares as Eddie breathes heavily, his shoulders hunched up and hair lifting up and down and -

Then Eddie spins around again, grabbing Steve by the shoulders and staring straight into his eyes.

Steve blinks.

"Listen up, Harrington," Eddie spits out, his glare vividly stuck on Steve's face. "You and I both know this little meet up wasn't just some meet up and I have no fucking clue why my band keeps interrupting us, but I'm going to fucking explode if I don't kiss you right here, right now after a whole fucking day of just - just you."

Steve blinks twice.

Eddie's breathing is still heavy but not harmful, his eyes wide and harsh on Steve's, so dark without the sun, so deep and obscure. His hair is still in the bun, messed up and frazzled as it is, a few curls coming down to brush against his cheek.

He really does light something up in Steve.

"Harrington, I swear -"

"Kiss me," Steve says and -

And he does.

And it's amazing.

Eddie mashes their faces together, knocking Steve's teeth with his own, bumping their noses, gripping Steve's shoulder too tightly.

It's everything.

Steve sighs into the kiss, running a hand up to Eddie's jaw, letting the other coax around Eddie's back and pull him in closer.

It's Eddie.

"Guys?"

With the very audible sound of skin on skin, Steve pulls away, heart fluttering when Eddie sighs and the breath touches his lips. He opens his eyes and stares at Steve, who rests his forehead against his.

Giggling, he shyly says, "Hi."

Steve grins, closing his eyes briefly to nuzzle their noses together. "Hey."

"Sooo," Eddie giggles again. "That was nice."

"Very nice," Steve hums. He strokes a thumb over Eddie's cheek, feeling the heat of the pink against it. "We should do it again."

"Yeah? Yeah, I think so too." Eddie leans in -

"Guys? What's happening?!"

"Gareth, I swear to GOD I am killing off your character," Eddie yells at the door, his arms wrapping around Steve's neck heatedly. It feels amazing. "In fact, I'm killing off all of your characters after the stunts you guys pulled today!"

"Wha - what did we do?! Wait, what did I do?"

"He's right," Steve leans closer, nuzzling Eddie's hair. "They were just trying to -"

"Oh no," Eddie half-heartedly smacks his chest, cheeks still a pretty, pretty pink. "Don't defend them, not when you're the one that used your weird charm on my friends and made them all 'Ooh, Steve this, Steve that' while I was trying not to think about your ass for the fifth time every goddamn day!"

Blinking, Steve smirks. "Think about my ass often, Munson?"

"Shut the fuck up," Eddie glares. "And get back here."

Lucky him, Steve doesn't think he'd want anything else.

if anyone else had wanted to be tagged but wasn't or if i accidentally tagged someone wrongly, my apologies tag list: @ramyayaya @alienace @5pac3g1r7 @emly03 @tell-me-a-secret-a-nice-one @maya-custodios-dionach @elliegrey2803 @bejeweledbaby @blanketlicker @messrs-weasley @estrellami-1 @stillfullofshit

#sailor✧writes #steddie #sailing✧harrington charms hellfire #writing #fanfic #au content #corroded coffin #hellfire club #HERE WE GO #THE DOOZY IS DONE

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alpaca-clouds · 3 months

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How to get DnD to make money

As you might have noticed through the ramblings on how Hasbro is not really making money from DnD, how the DnD Lore is not accessible, and also lacks modern stories, I am thinking a lot on how Hasbro is mismanaging the franchise. And make no mistake: No, DnD is right now not really making money. In the earning reports for Hasbro DnD is listed under "other franchises", because it makes so little money, that it does not even earn its own little listing with a detailed breakdown. In fact, I would not be surprised if in 2023 Hasbro made more DnD-related money through the bit they got from the license on BG3, than they got from everything else.

So, yeah. No. DnD isn't really making money. Which is ironic. Because it is by far the most recognisable TTRPG franchise, the TTRPG with the most players, and close to something like mainstream in recent years. At least among younger folks: When I ask them on the street, a lot of them will at least be able to name me some playable races and classes. Even if they never have played before. Just because it is just everywhere in pop culture.

And the thing is: I have a master's degree in economics. I do know a bit about economics and about marketing and to be honest... I have no fucking clue what Hasbro and WotC are doing there.

I get, that they are planning on getting most money through DnD Beyond, which I do not think is that bad of an idea, given that yes, digital media usually makes more money than physical media. (Due to you not having to pay for printing and what not.) But DnD has one giant problem: It is a great platform. I love the character creation thing in there. But... also for everything else Roll20 is better. Because everything that DnD Beyond offers for money, Roll20 offers for free.

So, let me get out my economics hat and go a bit about what WotC could do to make DnD Beyond more viable - and to just make a bit more money with the franchise.

Please keep in mind: I am doing this from my economics point of view. There are going to be some things in there, that I would personally hate (like Rainbow Capitalism). But economically speaking... I think that they could make more money for WotC. And that without the kind of totally shady business practices they are using right now.

Why am I writing this on tumblr? Well, because I do not know where else to share those thougths.

The Issues with DnD Beyond

Alright. I think there are three major problems with DnD Beyond right now:

It puts certain things behind paywalls that Roll20 offers me for free.

It has no fucking information on the world and reasons to engage with it.

All things considered, the amount of stuff you can actually buy is very little - and most of it is fairly expensive.

First things first: I actually think that the subscripe prices are absolutely fair. It is not really that expensive and having played in campaigns with a DM who had the subscription, I would absolutely say: Those $3-6 are kinda fair, because what there is, is actually nice and nice looking.

However... Roll 20 offers most of the same functions (like the ability to use maps and stuff) for free. And there is just nothing WotC can do about this. Hence... They kinda need to up their game. Yeah, sure, their platform looks and plays better, but... a lot of people won't care.

Bonus is that all this information on items, monsters and what not that Roll 20 has for free, DnD Beyond wants your money for. And that is just... Look, I don't get why. That information is just out there. I am not going to pay for it.

On the lack of lore I already wrote a whole own essay, so I will spare you here.

And then there is the fact that... Actually even for the content you can pay for, there is a suprisingly small amount of stuff with little variety. Which is not good if you want to get it to make money.

So, let me go over DnD Beyond - and how you can make money with it.

DnD Beyond - The Content that should be Free

Let me start with the stuff that whoever makes the decisions at WotC/Hasbro will not like to hear: The stuff that should mostly be free.

Here I will say it once again: DnD Beyond needs a free wiki!

Gives players some basic information on the world. That is information on:

The physical world (that is landscapes, cities, different realms/planes)

How the magic world

A timeline with the major events

Important characters in the world

The gods and their worship

And what you would want to do is then on each of the pages put a "If you are interested in this, you might wanna buy X" and sell them adventures, one shots, shortstories and the like (more on this a bit further down). Get people hooked on events, cities, locations, NPCs and then offer them stuff on that. For the love of god, do not just expect players to do their own legwork to decide on what module they might wanna buy.

Additionally to this, I would take a page out of how the German publisher for Shadowrun does their marketing there: Have a monthly in-universe "newsletter" styled as a part of an in-universe newspaper to just introduce some in-universe events, which at times could also be used as a jumping off point for one shots and the like. (Look folks, there is a reason why the German publisher for Shadowrun is beloved even in the English fandom. How much they give on worldbuilding is part of it.)

And as much as whatever directors responsible will hate this: Yeah, fuck, make all the species and classes accessible for everyone. (With one caviat - but I will go into that later as well.) Because what you want is players to use DnD Beyond over Roll20.

This also means: Items and monster stats should be accessible over DnD Beyond without buying three different books. Because they are accessible on Roll20 and even outside of that... Look, it is not that hard to find. And given that it is fairly clear that they want DnD Beyond to be the main source of income in terms of DnD, they need to get people hooked on DnD Beyond over Roll20.

The Stuff that should come with Subscriptions

Alright, so let's talk about what I would put into the subscription model. I will not go what I would put under each tear. Because honestly, I have no clue.

For once, yes, I have complicated feelings on the map tool. Because the DnD Beyond tool is a lot better than the tool that Roll20 offers and as they are still working on it, I have no doubt that it will get even better in the future. So, yeah, it is... complicated. I get why it is behind the subscription, I do. But I am not entirely certain whether it is the right decision - for a reason I will get to shortly.

So, what I would put behind the Subscription - even though I would also offer everything of this in a short for one-time payment. Monthly content. (And yes, I am using the content word here, forgive me Patrick H. Williams.) That could be:

Little One-Shot adventures

Short stories and short comics

Maps

Like, technically they already have those "monthly perks", but... You know, right now it is mostly pretty pictures and other aesthetic. Give the people just a bit more stuff that would actually get them to play a more and interact with the world more.

Bonus points is, that in short stories, one shots and concepts you can easily test out ideas. (Like, heck, make a lot of more different genres within the setting. You can tell a crime mystery, a slice of life story, all sorts of stuff.)

Right now they are publishing some free one shots from time to time. Just do a bit more with that. It is a roleplaying game. Give people more reasons to interact with the world.

Because again, here is the thing: The world is the stuff you can actually sell. The simple game mechanics are not. For once game mechanics cannot be licensed, but also... Again, I know were to find it all for free!

In this I would also put something that is a bit more controversial: Use this to digitally distribute some of the older stuff from older editions. I know that Hasbro is like 100% against it. But here is the thing: They keep saying: "Oh yeah, not all of that is canon anymore." But they also do not bother to give us an idea what is canon and what not. So, great moment to clear this up, don't you think?

And given that I doubt that 20 years old books are the big sellers, they could just easily give away the e-books in the subscription as a little bonus.

How to actually fill up the Marketplace - Original Stuff

Alright, let's face another thing: All the lore books and adventures together in the DnD Beyond Marketplace together add up to a total worth of about $1200. Which, sure, if you are a fan wanting to buy it all, is a lot. But from a company perspective actually is not that much. Because here is the thing: Actually the production of those books is fairly expensive. Even if you only market them digitally.

Like, I do think that they would do better and go with the prices that Catalyst does with Shadowrun of $20-25, rather than the $29, but knowing how much financial overhead is there for those books, I can understand where the price comes from. Again, I am talking from an economic decision.

So, I say... Fill it up.

For example: Right now there is one set of maps sold in the market place. Which is a 20 maps strong collection. But it is literally the only maps-thing sold in that section of the market place. And maps are the one thing that literally every group will use in some place.

Which brings me back to why I think the use of the Map Tool should be free: Because then you can actually sell more maps. Sell single maps. Sell small collections of maps. Go with a low price of $1-2 per map, maybe $4-5 for the bigger or fancier maps. $10 for a collection of five maps.

Bonus: You can use those maps to also throw in fun little lore things.

And just... you know. Make a map for a temple each of each of the gods. Make some premade dungeon maps. Maps of certain canonical locations. City maps. You name it. Compared to other sorts of illustrations, maps can actually be fairly cheap.

Additionally: Just throw in little dungeon crawls as one shots. Depending on the amount of content in there, put in $3-8 per one dungeon crawl. Theme it nicely.

I love DMing DnD. I do. But I am frank with you: I hate designing dungeons. So, if I could buy a premade dungeon for $4, I would go: "Shut up and take my money!" Heck, I would probably also use it as a writing ressource and all of that.

In generally you can also sell some one shots here. Like, a one shot or two shot is actually not that expensive to produce. Which is why so many are given away for free. Sell them for again $3-8 depending on how much content there is.

Which brings me to short stories and comics.

I know what some might say: "But didn't that already kinda fail with League of Legends, like you spoke about last week?" Which, yeah. It did. But... I am also going to assume that in general the playerbase of DnD is way more interested in the lore, than the LoL crowd is interested in their respective lore. Because one game is all about storytelling, while the other is all about the gameplay.

And again: Short stories and one shot comics could be a good way to get people hooked onto the lore, which again might get them to invest into stuff like the adventures set in the world. And you can use them to try out ideas for what ends up to be fairly little in comparison to bigger stuff. Also, you can get more diverse writers and artist to do stuff for you, which looks good and might actually interest the wide diverse audience of your game.

How to actually fill up the Marketplace - Licensed stuff

Okay, let me talk about the no-brainer where by the love of all the gods I cannot figure out why the fuck WotC is not doing this. It is boggling my mind. I do not understand.

You remember the fucking drama with the OGL last year and how it bit them in the fucking ass? Yeah. Here is the thing, they did it the entire wrong way around. And honestly, I am not even sure whether now they can pull the intelligent version of this off, even though it is so fucking obvious. I mean, again. I do not understand. It is so stupid. If you know anything about the fucking internet.

Allow big content creators to sell supplementary material over your webshop and then take a cut from that. They do some of that with Critical Role, where they do sell some adventures from that franchise in their webshop. And from one other group too, I think.

But like... There are so many Actual Play groups and even other content creators (the entire Fool's Gold Campaign comes to mind with their millions of views on Youtube), that even have like their own self-produced lore books, adventures, one shots and other content.

And then there are of course just people who create additional rules, that currently can partly be shared over the homebrew system on DnD Beyond - but not be monetized, which sucks for the creators and for DnD Beyond.

I... I just do not get it. Rather than going: "Oh, you used DnD for this, now we change the OGL, so you'll have to give us money!", which went over as well as expected, they could have gone: "Hey, content creators. Great opportunity! You created additional moduls/adventures for DnD? Now you can officially sell it in our webshop at the page we want everyone to use! Of course we are gonna use a small cut for the hosting, marketing and moderation. But in return, you have access to a much wider audience!"

Like, it is so simple it is plain stupid that they didn't do that. I cannot fathom why they have never done this. I just cannot. I am sorry.

It would allow them to get a cut of the stuff they kinda want a cut from - while doing it in a way that is a lot more pro-community building.

And that is without mentioning that the entire OGL disaster has now several big Actual Play groups go and play with different systems. I heard that people are blaming Matt Mercer for it and like... No, this is entirely WotC's fault.

Speaking of Actual Plays

Okay, this leads me to the thingie where I also do not understand why they do not do it. Because they could license the living hell out of this. Do a fucking official Actual Play. Not on DnD Beyond, of course. Just... Somewhere. I do not really care where. Youtube, I guess.

While they host some one shots on their official twitch, so far they did not a big campaign thing officially as far as I am aware. And the concept is fairly simple: Follow the Critical Role formular. Get some voice actors on there. Bonus if you get a more diverse group than they have on Critical Role, that I also call "Critical Whiteness". (Note please: I do not actually like Critical Role for that reason among others. It is way too white for my taste. However, I cannot argue with success.)

And most importantly: Set that campaign in the official world, and do create and understanding with the DM that there is actually some meta-story progression with the lore. Again: The world is what they can license, so LICENSE THE FUCK OUT OF THAT!!!

With that you would also have some more characters that can work as access points into the world and the lore. You also can sell those campaigns, you can sell short stories and books, you can sell merchandise for this. Because as soon as that is the official group, yeah... You are the producers, you can get to make the money of it.

This is also something that falls under: "Why the hell are they not doing this?"

I mean, again, I am not the biggest fan of Critical Role, but technically WotC could also go: "Hey, do you wanna cooperate on the next campaign?" And jump off from that.

Or have the voice actors from BG3 cameo as their characters from that game. Folks would EAT THAT UP.

Some other assorted things

One, or two more things that I actually think they could do a bit more with... well, events and community stuff. And by using social media better, because... Look, the way WotC is kinda marketing the stuff is so 2000s in many regards. Like, use new media. Heck, use fucking TikTok. Which also might I note: They so desperately want to reach Gen Alpha. And I am honest with you, I have no fucking idea how to reach Gen Alpha. I don't. But a gut feelings tells me that TikTok might be a start.

See, I am following other franchises as well, and one thing that some do well is just got throw out some event related stuff. Make some pride month stuff. Sure, I hate Rainbow Capitalism, but sadly it works. And again, I am writing this under the idea of: "How to turn DnD Profitable."

Bring out some stuff to some other events. Like a Christmas thingie or something along those lines. Again, be it short stories, be it one shots, be it an Actual Play one shot on the Actual Play podcast THEY DESPERATELY SHOULD DO.

Also... They cannot learn the wrong lessons from BG3. Just because this one game they licensed out was lightning in a bottle, they cannot go and be: "Let's just rely on CRPGs to make us money." Because that can backfire really quickly.

#dungeons & dragons #dnd #d&d #dnd beyond #wizards of the coast #hasbro #critical role #legend of vox machina #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #economy #dnd:hat #honor among thieves #how to make money #actual play #ttrpg

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wormmilker · 7 months

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#life in the world to come #will wood #chris dunne #litwtc #wormmilker #copypasta

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robinsceramics · 11 months

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@catkin-morgs yeah, I've got tips! <3

First, it definitely does take time. Especially when you're just starting. It's not great to have a time limit while making sculptures, especially since one of the essential materials in ceramics is time. See, (I'm about to geek out for a minute feel free to skip this paragraph), clay is made of tiny flat particles ("plates") with water between them, and the water allows the plates to slide around over and under each other. That's why clay is moldable! But when the water dries out of the clay, the plates stick close to each other and are no longer moveable. So, while working with clay, time and wetness counteract each other. But you have to take time to make a sculpture look like what you're envisioning and less like blobs of matter. You have to get the main shapes into place and then smooth them out and refine them, and that takes time, man. In ceramics, you learn to make time your friend while it tries its best to be your enemy.

All of that to say, yeah, if you're rushed, it just won't work out that well. I'm glad you're thinking of trying again in a less regimented environment!! That takes some real bravery, to try again at something you weren't good at the first time.

Also, on a personal note, I know you have an eye for good Shapes and pretty Animals. That sense of physical proportion, posture, cuteness, color, and so on, will pay off in ceramics even if it takes a while to get your physical skills to match your eye for beauty.

If ceramics turns out not to be for you, that's fine. It took me years to get to where I'm at now skill-wise, and it's not worth the investment for everyone. And I have been extremely lucky. My dad had all the materials necessary for ceramics just. hanging around the house. when I was growing up. And he helps me fill the kiln, which he owns, which is not a cheap or easy investment. So: I acknowledge that I have been privileged in getting into clay. Please don't feel insufficient if you just Can't because the resources you'd need aren't worth the price of laying your hands on them. Ceramics as a hobby is Expensive :|

But there ARE resources! Community centers, public studios, and even private studios (on request) often have studio classes, studio hours, and kiln sharing available. You'll typically have to pay for that, of course, but I mean. it's way cheaper than buying your own $2000+ kiln and equipment and stuff. As a college 3rd year, I'm facing down what it'll look like for me to get my own studio equipment in the future, and man... at least until I've saved some more money, I think that getting membership in a public studio is the way to go for me. It might be the same for you.

Oh, and don't worry about buying your own materials if you go that route. A studio, whether public or private or university-owned, will typically provide all of the raw materials necessary to ceramics making out of the fee you pay to use the studio. You won't need your own clay, glazes, or maybe even your own sculpting tools depending on the studio.

Another resource is https://www.kilnshare.com, which is a worldwide network for potters to share kiln space! Oh, and if there are no studios in your area, depending on how much you want to invest and what your schedule is like, if there's a college with an art program, there's always the possibility that you could audit a college ceramics class. *shrug* just throwing anything out there that might help!

As for how to do the sculpting itself—you'll figure it out! I promise! Doing sculpture because you want to is way different from doing it for school. Put love into what you make, and it will be lovable.

#not ceramics #my process #ceramics asks #sorta

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paradoxcase · 5 months

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@longroadstonowhere:

well, speaking for myself, i feel i would definitely have a phantom limb feeling if i switched to never wearing glasses again (i dont wear contacts so i don’t have great proof for this, but i have worn prescription snorkeling goggles that let me see but didn’t sit on my nose the same way as glasses and so created that sensation)

Hmm, I guess it may vary from person to person, then, or possibly vary depending on whether you've ever worn contacts. The first time I switched to contacts was over 20 years ago so I no longer remember what it was like the first time. I'm guessing contacts may not actually exist in the Nine Houses

@racefortheironthrone:

Regarding the tech issue - it's not just what they know, but also what's available and what they can afford. Nona/Pyrrha/CamPal are pretty strapped for cash because BOE doesn't give them very much, and the New Rho economy is doing very badly (food and other necessities are expensive and not always available, which suggests supply issues; likewise, the instability of employment and the lack of public services suggests that there are also problems with demand as well).

So there may well be more advanced tech than Cam's casette recorder, but it might not be available in New Rho markets or at prices that they can afford for non-essential items.

I mean, it kind of depends on why there are food shortages. Food shortages could just be the result of war rationing - they said that you could technically acquire poor-quality meat via the black market, which indicates to me that it is available, it's just not allowed to be sold right now, probably due to rationing. Other things than food might be rationed, but I don't think our phones at least are made of things that would likely be rationed in that context, but who knows what kinds of devices they have after 10,000 years, or even what the prices of those things would be. Things that would be considered incredibly high tech much less than even 1000 years ago are now dirt cheap and no one has to worry about being able to afford them (ballpoint pens, for example). After 10,000 years I would expect even more stuff like that

You can technically, right now, still buy cassette tape recorders for relatively cheap, but I have wonder how true that would still be if Earth was destroyed and all of the companies that are still producing cassette tape stuff were destroyed along with it - there's an incentive for companies that have always sold cassette tape stuff to continue doing that, but is there an incentive for brand new companies to start manufacturing and selling cassette tape stuff? It seems like a lot of older technology might get left behind permanently if something like that happened. Also, like, currently a cassette tape recorder is not in fact considered a low cost alternative to using a phone to record something even though it's technically cheaper than a phone, a) because of the general difficulty in getting and maintaining something that can play cassette tapes, and b) because smartphones are a basic necessity now in most places and you need one anyway, and they are all able to record video, so I think you probably wouldn't save money anyway

@eye-lantern:

Gideon did fight and kill heralds. She also lost a thumb. And got her intestins ripped out. And her skull smashed. And died at least 3 times. While in an unfamiliar body but also a body who's tendons could rip and recover in the same movement, and did not need to breath. Hect could kill one or two. But as much as she is a beast she would die.

That's true, but it seems like Palamedes and Camilla may have achieved Lyctorhood in the same way G1deon and Pyrrha did, and thus they would have the same advantages that Gideon had

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess:

I think part of the issue with the ‘tightness’ Nona mentions is that she is walking miles a day AND Cam has her always working out.

Ahh, if that's the case that makes sense

#the locked tomb #nona the ninth #longroadstonowhere #racefortheironthrone #eye-lantern #wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess

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waitingonthewind · 1 year

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COMMISSIONS TIME come buy yall some art

it's that time again where i am poor and must resign myself to the cogs of capitalism and have therefore updated my commission infooooooooo

i don't wanna take up too much of ur dash so pricing info with examples are below the cut (well worth checkin out tho theres some cool stuff), and you can always view more of my art over >>> here <<< for more examples of my art

even if you don't want a commission, please consider reblogging! reblogging is the only way to spread the word and it'd be a huge help!

If anything below doesn't cover what you're looking for, shoot me a message either here or email me at [email protected] and we can discuss what might work for you. i retain the right to reject a commission if it's not something i'm comfortable with (either emotionally or if i don't feel my skillset would be best suited for your request).

the base commission prices are for sketches, as follows:

bust - $5

half body - $10

full body - $15

from there, you can add on extra money on the following, and i'll spend more time and effort to make ur commission look cool in a cool new thing i call Putting More Time And Effort Into A Service For Extra Money.

rough lines (more refined, more detail) - $10

clean lines (even more refined & detailed. imagine.) - $15

flat colours - $10

full shading - $15

lineless (painted art style) - $35

pixel art - dependent on complexity and size, message me with enquiries

backgrounds / props - dependent on complexity and detail. ranges from $5 to $45

extra characters are 70% off. This means you only pay full price on the most expensive character in your commission, and any additional characters are 30% of what the additional character's cost would usually be (i.e. if you get a sketch commission for a full body character ($15) and a half body character ($10) in the same piece, the half body character will only be $3, with the whole piece costing $18 total).

if you see something in my art tag that has a specific style you're after or doesn't fit any of the above categories, please feel free to message me!

below are some examples of my art with a breakdown of the costs to give you an idea of what you'd be looking at:

if youve come this far and are reading this sentence ur an absolute angel and i worship the very ground you walk on and would die for you and we are married now

#my art #commission #commission info #commissions #open commissions #pokemon #dungeons and dragons #d&d #homestuck #monster #monster tag #monster girl #monster boy #artists on tumblr #art

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chockmatsu · 2 years

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chockie’s exhaustive guide to the merch-buying mercari jp rabbit hole

(this is a much more extended + standalone post version of a reblog i wrote a couple months ago! includes a step by step guide for dummies with explanation of paying, shipping, glossary of search terms in japanese etc)

as someone who has just god awful terminal karamatsu merch hoarding disease i am often asked how the hell i have just so much merch and that i surely must be very rich to afford it. nah i just budget really carefully and hunt for great value bulk deals on the GODSEND that is.... secondhand japanese sites like mercari jp (this post will focus on that), yahoo auctions, etc.

i am down abysmal for mercari jp. it’s a few more hoops to jump through compared to buying from international english merch platforms like goodrespublic, but you save SO MUCH MONEY in comparison. THE PRICES ARE NUTS.

for context, this is the last haul of stuff i received in one order just a couple months ago. total value was 17,370 yen ($142 USD) not including shipping which was ouchy… but still worth it af.

i bought mostly bulk sets that were basically all sub 1000 yen (~$8.20 USD) each. the single most expensive thing was that kabedon towel which is kinda hard to come by at 3400~ yen. here is a terrifying collage of all the merch i’ve hoarded so far since nov 2020 to aug 2021 and no exaggeration like 90% of it is from mercari jp.

what is mercari jp?

mercari is a secondhand sales platform, and mercari jp (not to be confused with mercari.com, which is for international sellers) is pretty much one of the biggest ones used in japan! the great thing is that japanese secondhand sales are (generally) a walk in the park, at least compared to buying secondhand locally where i am. they take good ass care of their stuff and most of it isn’t even truly “used” as we understand it bc a lot of the time they straight up left the stuff in its original packaging, maybe just a little dusty. and mercari sellers will include adorable handwritten notes thanking you. you might even get a drawing if you’re lucky! it’s amazing

the thing is that sites like goodrepublic and surugaya that are selling secondhand merch are literally just listing listings from sites like mercari or yahoo auctions jp but at a crazy markup. don’t even get me started on the scalping on ebay. it’s kinda reminiscent of what sites like devilinspired do with lolita fashion, like a 200%-400% markup. you’ll need a shopping/proxy service to buy from mercari jp if you’re not based in japan, but do not be scared because the savings are SO MUCH BETTER. here is a comparison of a listing for the exact same product on mercari jp that i bought vs listed on goodsrepublic. 700 yen is $5.74 USD. marked up to $25.29. that’s deadass a 5x markup. and the goodsrepublic listing doesn’t even have a real photo of the thing so you can’t check the quality yourself lmao or the reputation of the individual seller. nvm them charging absurd prices like $10-20 for a single keychain. you guys deserve better than this. THERE ARE BETTER OPTIONS OUT THERE GUYS AND THEY’RE ALL ON MERCARI

some notes on shopping services:

DO NOT use the shopping service built in to mercari jp (buyee). they charge absurd extra fees for doing stuff that is typically expected of SSes like checking you even received your items period or packing them into 1 package to ship to you. even though they give you mega discounts on your first order, it STILL ends up being way more expensive than using a different SS. do not recommend.

my go-to japanese SS is jpshopping.jp. you can use them to buy from mercari as well as literally any other japanese site that sells stuff (e.g. i bought my kara season 3 varsity jacket new from rakuten through there). their site is a little jank, but all you really need is just order > online shop and then fill the form accordingly. you basically just copy paste the link to the thing(s) you want, type the price in, then pay for it, they buy all the stuff for you, get it shipped to their warehouse, and then ship all of it in 1 phat packidjge to send to you internationally. they only accept payment via paypal! other proxies may provide other options; this is what i use the most tho and will be the basis of the tutorials in this guide

(at least with jpshopping) you’re responsible for declaring duties and taxes on your stuff yourself. for legal reasons, this is definitely not a suggestion to commit tax evasion, because that is illegal! just because you have the ability to declare the value of the items in your order yourself as low as you like which in turn will determine how much you pay in custom fees and import taxes, and all mercari items are used/secondhand which means that there’s no way for customs officers to really determine their true value since it’s all weeb stuff that looks like junk toys to them anyway, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD COMMIT TAX EVASION! you’re welcome to dm if you need more information on how you should Definitely Not Do This

if you’re using an SS like jpshopping, you can literally ignore the “sorry! this item is only available in japan” thing bc the SS is based in japan. that’s a buyee problem. that’s not your problem anymore. you are free. just order it through the order form like you would anything else. the world is your oyster

jpshopping (and most proxy services) will require payment in whatever currency works for them, which is often JPY (or if it’s based in china for example, CNY or HKD or whatever). so keep the currency conversion in mind as well as the currency conversion fee that paypal charges you.

some proxy services like jpshopping will actually have a built in mercari browser as an option on their own site. it’s up to you if you want to use this. personally, i prefer browsing on the mercari site itself and just copying/pasting the links into the order form

understanding the layout of mercari and jpshopping:

here’s a quick guide to the layout of mercari jp and how to browse it. it’s that simple! and yeah, THOSE ARE THE REAL PRICES. remember to convert from JPY to whatever currency is relevant to you. here’s a quick guide on the order form at jpshopping

a step by step detailed breakdown of how to place an order:

search for whatever you want on mercari.com/jp/ in japanese and find the listings you want to buy. make sure to google translate the page to check the listing title and description. i have made a glossary list of common search terms down below!

copy and paste the link to that listing into the URL box of the jpshopping order form at jpshopping.jp/chkoutoss. if you have more than 1 item you wanna order in one go (recommend this- i call it mercari HAULS bc economically makes most sense to ship stuff in bulk rather than just a single small item. the first kg of your haul hurts to ship the most), you can click the dropdown next to number of items. jpshopping lets you order 10 things at a time. if you want more than 10 listings, you’ll have to do a new order form and when everything’s arrived, choose to merge these orders into one package later. if you wanna do something like split or take a specific thing from a big bundle, write that out in the enquiry/item comments section

write the exact price of the item as listed on mercari in yen in the item value box. this is the price the system will charge you when you place your order, so if you mess this up, they’ll have to refund the difference (or you pay the difference, depending on how u mess up). not a big deal, but kinda annoying to deal with

(can leave all this as default usually) - select shipping method: i recommend the default option, “select after jss receives item”, especially if you’re ordering a buncha stuff in a haul. - also recommend default packing option for the same reason. - if it’s something you think might be bought up REALLY quick (like those cute new retro pop things, listings get bought up within hours) or hotly bidded on as an auction, choose the “buy it now” option for jpshopping to buy it instantly with the system. otherwise, generally recommend “buy during business hours” so that an actual human working at jpshopping will manually buy it themselves. especially needed if you want to split up a bundle or something.

it will show you a page confirming all your items, prices, and options, and importantly, the total item costs at the bottom plus the commission fee they charge. you can see a detailed breakdown on JSS’s site here but basically, if the total cost of all items is less than 3000 yen, there’s a flat 300 yen commission fee. more than 3k yen, and the charge becomes based on percentage (10%, down to 5% if you get 10k, 20k yen worth of stuff). make sure everything looks good to you

click the paypal checkout button, pay via paypal. afaik, jpshopping only lets you pay via paypal (so paypal balance, credit/debit linked via pp, or direct bank transfer via pp). other proxy shopping services may have other options available, but otherwise, this is what you got

the waiting game: ~1-2 weeks or less usually. less if you have fewer items, longer if you have a lot of items - you will first receive an email with an order confirmation and another confirming your first payment. - when they officially purchase whatever listings you requested (~1 business day or less), you will receive an update email telling you what they purchased. sometimes due to individual mercari seller issues (or if you wanna split bundles, etc) they may have to speak with them which can delay this email. ordering outside of business hours with the “buy during business hours” will also delay it. so, keep in mind it’s a possibility another person might buy the listing before JSS gets to it. (that’s what the buy it now automatically option is for) - you will receive an update email when the mercari seller ships out the item to JSS domestically within japan (1-7 business days). - you will receive an update email when JSS receives the item. these usually get staggered out over time since that’s how mail works and diff sellers send at diff times/speeds. they will hold the items for you for free for a while but will charge a storage fee if you leave them too long. see their site for more info - when all the items in your order have arrived or otherwise been accounted for (e.g. if it gets bought up/deleted before JSS gets to it, they cancel it from the order and refund you accordingly), you will receive a “select shipping/packing option” email. this means that JSS is ready to put everything into 1 big box and send it to you internationally

you can now log in to jpshopping and click “select and pack” either on the homepage or in your order history tab. this will take you to a page where you can check boxes for which orders you wanna merge into 1 box that gets shipped to you. if you only have 1 order of stuff, then just check that. i love JSS cuz unlike buyee etc they don’t charge you for doing this pretty basic thing (or confirming that they even received everything lol)

declare your items for customs/border control. there will be an area on the page where you’ll have to write an itemized list of what exactly each item is, quantities, and how much it’s worth. the description of what the items are should be very specific (e.g. “used anime PVC statue”, “secondhand cotton polyester tshirt”. “used aluminum anime pin badge”) and list the fact that it’s used, the material, and a clear description of what it is. a criminal might commit tax evasion by entering item costs as lower than they actually paid for it because it’s so hard to accurately judge the value of a secondhand toy, resulting in a reduced amount to pay for duties/import tax, possibly even so that the total value of all the items in a haul is below their country’s item import tax threshold ($100 in the US, CAD$60 in canada, google your own country’s) to be considered a “gift” and thus bypassing the need to pay duties/import tax entirely. so, make sure not to do this! everything on mercari counts as used/secondhand, however if you buy something new from a different site in your order then you actually should list the actual cost just in case.

choose your shipping option and click “calculate” for shipping cost. as of 2022, the options available to you are dependent on your country and what restrictions japan postal service has shipping to it. for example, if you’re based in canada like me, fuck you absolutely no options available to you except fedex which is absurdly expensive and also awful :’) but other countries may have different options! you can read more about the specific options available to you either on the page you’re on or here. JSS will also be able to tell you how much shipping will cost you depending on the option you pick, which is 99% of the time calculated based on weight usually with a flat base cost for the first kg or less (for fedex, it’s volumetric weight). that’s what makes it wiser to do hauls rather than buy single items. personally, pre-covid i recommended EMS as the best value for the price shipping (fast, 2 weeks ish or less, tracked, safe) but EMS prices have skyrocketed since covid :( so use your best judgment

pay for shipping via paypal! you will now receive a confirmation email of your payment going through, and then when they ship your pakijj to you, an email notifying you your box has shipped out with tracking number if applicable.

the waiting game 2: electric boogaloo, and paying duties/import taxes if applicable. if the total cost of your haul is above the import tax gift limit, you may have to pay import taxes depending on your shipping method. private couriers like fedex or DHL will pretty much ding you and make you pay, guaranteed (as well as awful extra fees for even using them on top of everything else), and you’ll receive an email and a snail mail letter with an invoice of how much you owe your gubmint in taxes. they’ll have a way for you to pay online by card usually.

receive pakijj and simp! you did it!

some helpful search terms in japanese for you to copy/paste!

set/bundle: まとめ売り or セット

official: 公式

figure: フィギュア (nendoroid)（ねんどろいど）

plushie/stuffed toy: ぬいぐるみ

badge: 缶バッジ

acrylic keychain: アクリルキーホルダー (acrylic keychain (short form))（アクキー）

rubber keychain ラバーストラップ

acrylic stand: アクリルスタンド (stand (short form)（アクスタ）

plastic file/folder: クリアファイル (file)（ファイル）

hoodie: パーカー

shirt: シャツ

manga: 漫画

cushion: クッション

mug: マグカップ

plastic cup: コップ

sticker: ステッカー or シール

dakimakura/body pillow cover: 抱き枕カバー

wallscroll: タペストリー

towel: タオル

pouch/purse: ポーチ

coaster: コースター

bag: バッグ or カバン tote bag: トートバッグ

backpack: リュック

(phone) case: ケース

i hope this helps! i’ve dragged so many people into the mercari rabbit hole. may this bring even more into the fold. jpshopping and most other SSes will have easy ways to communicate with them directly like email or chat clients, so don’t be afraid to contact them with questions about items before you buy or about your order after it’s been placed. and if you have questions or need help with this stuff my DMs and asks are open anytime!!

SEPT. 3 2022 EDIT: some additional FAQ/issues

it’s actually been bugging me for a while that i forgot to include these in this tutorial, so i’m doing a quick edit to it now!

i placed my order, but haven’t received any emails yet? you should get an automatic confirmation of payment email literally immediately after you place your order, so if you haven’t gotten that, please check your spam inbox and whitelist/allow emails from jpshopping, because the email updates are important and will tell you when they’ve received your stuff/when it’s ready to go out! you get emails in this order: 1. automatic email right after you’ve paid and placed your order 2. email after the people at jpshopping have bought your item. this is usually manual and won’t be immediate bc they’ll buy it during their work hours, unless you chose the “buy it now”/automatically option in which case it comes immediately. 3. email after jpshopping receives the order at their warehouse in japan 4. email after everything in your order (assuming you got multiple things at one go like i suggested) has arrived and you can now choose to combine packages/orders into one big thing to ship to you and pay for shipping. 5. automatic email confirming you’ve paid for shipping 6. email after jpshopping has shipped out your big package to you!

but do they ship to my location? the good thing about using proxy/shopping services like jpshopping is that their whole thing is shipping stuff from japan worldwide. so yeah, whether you’re in europe or south america or southeast asia, they’ll ship to you. the question is what shipping options are available to your country from japan. in the absolute worst case scenario, all standard national post services are NOT delivering from japan to you, because fuck you lmao (full disclosure, as someone usually based in canada, this is the boat i’m in :’) i don’t know why we are still stuck like this when our neighbors down south got it back last year but oh well). in this case, ABSOLUTE worst case scenario, you will still have private couriers such as fedex and/or DHL (depending on the SS. jpshopping only offers fedex i think). the cost will hurt because this is both the fastest but also the VASTLY more costly option.... but at least it delivers no matter where you are in the world? if you are lucky, then you may have some other options to try! yamato, EMS, surface, etc. they’ll all be cheaper than fedex and have their pros/cons like being slower, or no tracking number, or there’s a weight/size limit. it’s up to you. EMS tends to be the best value for your buck, if that’s available to you. otherwise jpshopping will give you a breakdown on the details.

#osomatsu san #merch #mercari #tutorial

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rianafying · 5 months

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i’m sitting on the 51st floor of my friend’s apartment building, it’s a lounge area that looks over melbourne cbd and it is gorgeous, but the lights in this room are blinding. i’ve had a really long day and i’ll probably have an even longer one tomorrow but i don’t wanna leave this building. i feel safe here. i don’t wanna go back home. home is representative of my source of anxiety. home is messy and dirty. home is where the tasks await me. and i just can’t. so with my 48% battery on my phone, i will stay here for as long as i can. it’s already 10:31 pm. but it’s okay my house is a 5 minute walk away. i feel incredibly lonely tonight, like i’ve been craving some sort of romance. and ( very embarrassing ) physical touch. especially when i see or hear about other people in love, it makes me feel so alone. but this is not the time for me to date anyone. and i don’t really like the people i know. i have a therapy session booked for day after tomorrow, basically the day after this assignment is due. so hopefully my brain will be a little clearer by then.

i feel really sleepy and tired even though i overslept the last two days. it’s just that time of the month. pms and psoriasis. causing fatigue. i chopped off a lot of my hair today. didn’t really think it through but it’s fine. idrc. same when i dyed it black. i just do things and it doesn’t matter. it’s just hair.

my friend is really lucky she gets to live in this building. it’s quite a lot more expensive than my apartment. the one i live in is already too expensive for me but somehow i’m managing.

i sat super still for an hour so the motion detector wouldn’t catch me and the lights dimmed down and i stayed by the window for 2 more hours. i really didn’t wanna come back home but i was hungry so i did.

i had one of those chicken curry pies from woolies, i only bought them because they were on sale but damn they are so good, but normally they’re priced at 8$ for 2 pies which is out of my budget :((. but it’s okay i can make my own and freeze them.

2.75+4 + ingredients i already have i can make like a whole bunch of curry chicken pies. but it might not be as good as the store bought ones cause my little toaster that i use as a makeshift oven kind of sucks.

im still hungry, the little pie did not fill me up enough, which makes sense because i only had two tiny pieces of sushi in the last 30 hours. i’m craving another pie but i don’t have any. also something about having food with mayo makes me feel gross and oily. like it’s all over my face. i can’t stand it anymore. i’m so tired. i know ill be getting my periods soon because i have been getting cramps all day.

i finally found the time to open the bag of stuff my uncle dropped off because they’re moving and they no longer need em. there’s a whole bunch of sauces and spices in there. i wonder if my cousin bought these cause these are good ingredients. i’m kinda hungry but there’s nothing to cook at home. there’s pasta but it’s not gonna be substantial enough. i’ve been wanting to buy some parmesan for the longest time but it’s so expensive, and i go through it pretty fast because it’s too good not to. i also kind of like goat cheese, not really in pasta more with like fruit on toast. there’s a thing of frozen shrimp in my fridge afaik, but it’s stuck solid in with the ice layer in my fridge and i wrestled with it but i couldn’t get it out. i’ll just dump it out when i clean my fridge and let everything thaw. it will be okay. it was old anyway.

i’m just so hungry. but i’m just too lazy to make anything or get creative, or eat something i cooked. i wish there was like a sandwich or something i could eat rn. well there’s rice, surumi, wasabi, soy sauce, sriracha, mayo, chilli oil, carrots, and nori. but i just wish i had some cucumber. i’ll go buy some tomorrow along w some cooked shrimp. maybe the frozen cutlets. i kind of miss them.

#personal #journal entry

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thefirstknife · 1 year

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The thing is, forcing you to buy extra silver is by design. It's a well-known and annoying, even predatory, tactic to get more money out of people. If they have just a little left over, they're more likely to spend more to round it out next time. And if they never use it, then it just sits there but the company already got their money so they don't care. I highly doubt they'll make it possible to buy just the exact amount of silver specifically because it means making less money. On the one hand, I get it as they don't have a subscription fee and the money has to come from somewhere. On the other hand, it's still a scummy tactic that I hate. (And I hate the price increases overall. Lightfall + Annual Pass is the same price as I've paid for other games' CEs that came with an assortment of highly limited edition physical collectible goods. If TFS is more expensive yet again I might not be able to see the conclusion to a story I've invested almost a decade of my life in...) I'd honestly rather they drop the price back down and scale dev back to keep it more affordable.

Yeah, agreed. It's a really annoying predatory practice, especially announced in this way. We're almost to the new season and they hyped people up for it. Especially since this season was very mild overall, but we've already been told and hinted a lot about the next one which has been highly expected. Obviously, hyping people up for the new season is normal, but waiting until the last moment to also tell us about the price is kinda shitty. They must've known that the price will jump a decent amount of time ago.

Definitely not expecting them to let us buy the exact amount of silver any time soon, but I think it's one of those things we should let Bungie know about as a community. This community makes a drama out of everything, but this is the one time it would be actually for something important. Letting them know that we don't appreciate these practices can't hurt. Maybe the silver bundles can't be altered right now, but perhaps in the future they could be.

I'd love to see people send feedback about it. In like, a normal way like human beings without threatening the devs for once, of course. It's not their fault anyway. But like, there's been so many price increases recently. Season pass stuff is just the latest one and it's paired with this shitty practice of basically holding us hostage by FOMO or by making us pay extra silver we don't need which makes people more willing to buy again because of leftovers you can't spend on anything else.

We got hit with the dungeon key first, then event cards, then base expansion increase and now season pass. :/ Everything is getting more expensive so it's not surprising, but at LEAST don't shove in these predatory practices, damn. I'd honestly give them $15 per season rather than this pretending that it's only $12 but actually not really. Just be honest and transparent. It's still awful, but you know.

#destiny 2 #bungie #ask #also someone noted on the other post that other currencies exist as well #for me everything is in euros and costs more. laughing crying emoji #like my seasons are €10 but € and $ aren't the same value. not by much but they're just not #screaming crying throwing things

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osrs-stonks · 7 months

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OSRS Stocks: Ensouled Chaos Druid Heads

Old-school Runescape has a mechanic where some enemy mobs drop ensouled heads when you defeat them. Usually enemies will drop some standard items like bones, ashes, coins and/or meat, and then have a small chance of dropping some other stuff like weapons, ammunition, armour or runes. The ensouled head is an occasional drop that - as you've probably guessed - gives you their head with a little bit of their soul inside of it.

The purpose of this mechanic is to help you train your prayer skill. Prayers are basically just buffs, and the higher you make your prayer skill, the more prayers you unlock. You also get an extra prayer point per level so your buffs last longer. Before ensouled heads were added to the game, the primary way to train your prayer skill was to bury bones; you had regular bones, big bones, monkey bones, dragon bones etc. that would grant you higher amounts of prayer experience when you buried them. Other remains came a bit later.

Unfortunately, burying bones is a very tedious task with a very middling XP reward. The lowest class of bones grants you 4.5 prayer experience, and the highest class - superior dragon bones - only grant 150 XP. There are ways to amplify the payoff, but you're still looking at a maximum of 600 XP per pile of bones.

Ensouled heads can be resurrected at an altar, summoning an astral body to be refought so you can gain prayer and combat experience. The "worst" ensouled head, the goblin one, grants 130 experience - again, the bog-standard bones that just about everything drops only grants you 4.5 XP per pile. The best head - a dragon head - gives you a massive 1,560 prayer XP.

The ensouled chaos druid head nets you 584 prayer experience, just shy of the superior dragon bones.

Superior dragon bones - which I might make a post on in the future, because there was a massive dip in value in 2022 - cost 7,861 gold pieces to buy on the GE at the time of writing. These bones are only dropped by a story-relevant boss named Vorkath which has a minimum combat level of 392 (compared to the player character's maximum combat level of 127).

Ensouled chaos druid heads cost 404 gold pieces, and the mob that drops this item seems to only exist at level 13.

The low value of ensouled chaos druid heads has interested me for a while. In this post, I'm going to go deeper into the value of other ensouled heads and speculate as to why the ensouled chaos druid head is the second cheapest head to buy on the Grand Exchange.

---

The value chart for the ensouled chaos druid head is interesting, in that the peak of its value is when the item was launched on OSRS:

After which it dipped significantly, and stayed mostly in the same ballpark.

You can see that there was a brief boom in 2020, where the price almost hit 1,700 gold pieces:

After which it hit its lowest value of 352 gold pieces per head:

The ensouled chaos druid head is the second cheapest ensouled head you can buy on the GE, compared to the ensouled goblin head which only offers 130 prayer experience. And sure, it's no ensouled dragon head with its 1,560 prayer XP, but the next best option is the ensouled giant head at 650 XP, and that head is almost twice as expensive as the chaos druid head.

I'm starting to believe that the price for this head is so cheap because of the daily volume of ensouled chaos druid heads being sold on the GE.

Like - unicorns are rare and kind of a pain in the ass to farm for heads. According to the wiki at the time of writing, the daily volume of ensouled unicorn heads being sold on the GE is like 170. Ensouled dog heads only drop from two hostile dog mobs ranging between combat level 44 and 63, and the daily volume of that item is 117.

The daily volume of ensouled chaos druid heads - again, the DAILY volume - is just shy of 6,000:

So case closed, right?

Well, maybe not.

Ensouled chaos druid heads grant 584 prayer experience when you resurrect them at the Dark Altar in Arceuus. They're preceded by ensouled dog heads which grant 520 prayer XP when resurrected and defeated, and they're succeeded by ensouled giant heads which grant 650 prayer XP when defeated.

Over 26,000 ensouled giant heads go through the Grand Exchange every day, and the price is almost double what ensouled chaos druid heads are worth:

And I think I might have an answer for why the figures are the way they are.

Chaos druids are kind of common. There are five or six outposts of them in the entire game, and they're only ever at combat level 13, so they're easy enough to mow down and farm heads. Low combat level, easy to farm, common enough mob compared to dogs and unicorns. I'd imagine they're also a lower level slayer task.

Giants are fucking EVERYWHERE.

You've got hill giants, moss giants, ice giants, fire giants and cyclopes. They're a common slayer task, and they're often a reasonable option to train your combat skills and farm key drops to take on Obor and Bryophyta.

Giant heads might be the single most common ensouled head you can get in the game. And because of that and the slightly superior XP gain, giant heads are always moving through the GE and are always fairly valuable.

In my opinion, chaos druid heads are fairly common compared to its contemporaries, so it faces a sort of mundanity that keeps the value low and the daily volume high. Giant heads are plentiful and popular, so the value remains much higher than that of the ensouled chaos druid head despite not being all that different. Chaos druid heads are mundane, like toilet paper. Giant heads are popular, like McDonalds.

Other heads that grant less XP are more valuable than the chaos druid head only due to not being as common of a drop, presumably due to their mobs not being as common in the game world or not being a popular mob to grind. Like who's out there grinding scorpion mobs? They barely drop anything. Low daily volume, low item reserves, higher price. You can say the same for pretty much every mob with an ensouled head prior to the chaos druids, except for the common goblin.

I like ensouled giant heads well enough, but ever since learning about the ensouled chaos druid head I've come to feel kind of sorry for it. It's not much worse than the ensouled giant head, but it's not nearly as popular and it's extremely cheap on the Grand Exchange. I love an underdog, and honestly using chaos druid heads to train your prayer is probably the best coin-to-XP value due to its reduced value compared to giant heads.

So the next time you're considering training your prayer level, consider the humble ensouled chaos druid head. They're not quite as good as giant heads, but you're not missing out on much and you're getting a fantastic bargain.

#osrs #old-school runescape #oldschool runescape #runescape #grand exchange #ensouled chaos druid head #osrs stonks

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braisedhoney · 6 months

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do you have a watercolor brand rec? 👀

i'm actually a really big proponent of using whatever's convenient for you, fr. brands vary in price depending on where you're buying them/where you live, what's available, etc. sure there are definitely differences between them, but especially when you're using professional materials it's actually more rare to pick something bad than to stumble on something serviceable.

(whoops this one got long too. under the cut it goes.)

some brands do, admittedly, do certain things better than others. sennelier (a french brand) is known to go down kind of pale/less saturated on the first wash, but they build really really well in glazes and have a luminosity to them that gives paintings a really interesting depth.

daniel smith (an american brand) has one of the largest collections of colors available i've ever seen and their earth tones are gorgeous and really unique.

QOR (not sure where they're based?) has WILDLY saturated colors that bloom so much it kind of looks like fireworks, same with roman szmal.

holbein (a japanese brand) doesn't move much in water at all and thus offers a lot of control to the user instead at the cost of more abstract or dynamic movement in water.

schmincke horadam (a german brand) was hailed as the holy grail of watercolors for a while for their fine pigments and wild dispersal, but that's kind of chilled out these days since so many new players became beloved staples, and some people aren't fans of wild blooming to begin with. in a similar vein, winsor and newton (english brand) has a very extensive history and honestly works as a super "traditional" pick with few surprises but a solid foundation—and none of that is considering the wild variations in properties between student grade paints or the many types of handmade ones that hit the market lol. some brands make great pro but weak student lines, and vice versa.

buuuuuut.

all of that is pedantic when you're starting out, and honestly if you're asking this you're probably looking to get into watercolor. at beginning or intermediate stages where you haven't gone down the fixation rabbithole, all of tha information is more likely to confuse you than help, especially if you don't know what you like or dislike about watercolor yet.

at beginning stages whatever established pro or student brand is available to you is probably good enough to build fundamental knowledge on.

my actual, legit advice is to pick a few colors you like, then if another brand has what you want get it from them. get a small set if that helps and just build with whatever you find lacking, whatever you aren't using can be replaced with something that appeals to you more. there's no need to stick to one specific brand name just because. just don't pick the super chalky ones that come in those huge art packs with the round pans, and you should be fine (and even then, i've seen some people do great art with those! i just don't like when it comes off like dust on my fingers lol.) general rule of thumb i follow is that if they have accurate pigment and lightfastness information, you're going to be fine.

art isn't really all that exclusionary when you do it for fun, it's just an environment where people started making stuff for smaller and more specific audiences to cater to preferences lol. hell, paint with coffee if you want to. life's short and painting is fun, might as well enjoy it for a while.

oh, but do use good paper. blah blah, you've probably heard it before, and trust me we're all just as horrified as you that watercolor paper is so goddamn expensive. but you could literally have The Nicest Paints In The World and they'd look terrible on bad paper that won't let you use the techniques people try to teach you. if you have to pick between good paper and mediocre paints vs bad paper and excellent paints, pick the paper. trust me.

#ney's art tips (art questions)#ney's chatter (ask answers)#wow this got long too #can't believe i'm talking about traditional art so much lately when basically all i post on here is digital #mainly bc trying to take a picture of traditional art without a scanner is a HELLHOLE #orz #genuinely i'm not even all that GOOD at watercolor #i'm just a massive nerd (and i mean RIDICULOUS) when it comes to everything that makes them/how they work/the super small details of brands #literally to the point where i memorized pigment code charts. where i know the differences in binders.#the difference between honey-based paints and those without it #not even a bee joke fr #my first watercolor set was...#eh. story for another time i think lol this is already too long

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yuhi-san · 2 months

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I used to have 658 Manga. I started collecting when I was very young, at a time and in a place where it was harder to find them online, let alone in german (back when I didn’t speak english). so what else was there to do but buy them? I also loved having the copies! But, it was expensive, already like 25 years ago. Prices have more than doubled. Not to mention, back then most had to be ordered on demand because it was a very, very niche thing even in bigger cities.

The point is, I had 658 manga, that is a lot of money and also some space they take up.

Had a special shelf made that took up an entire wall. I loved them. I moves out from home and into an apartment with a friend. I was in my early twenties and below us was a family with three girls. They weren’t quite poor but they also didn’t have much spending money for fun stuff. The oldest girl was 14, I think, and I was talking to her mum once outside when she came begging to get money for the new volume of some series (I can’t remember which one, it was an ongoing one that I knew of but didn’t read). She promised to clean the bathroom, vacuum the house, everything.

I remember saying, “oh, you like manga? So do i!”

The girl was so excited. I mean this stuff was more common overall these days but still more niche in a backwater place like the one I lived at that time. I was like the first person she met that didn’t just loosely watched the shows and was aware what manga were but was really into it, too. I told her if her mum was okay with it, she could come see my collection and pick any she would like to read.

Her mum was a little reluctant. The younger ones would maybe want to look at them too, she was worried they might get signs of usage and so on. I said as long as they don’t split the back, that’s fine. They aren’t collectibles. Like 6 different elementary schoolers went through the dragon ball ones back in the day. Yes, treat your books with care but at the same time, they are made to be read.

Girl was over the moon when she saw my collection. At first she would just ask to borrow new ones when she happened to see me come home from work but later she was less hesitant and came knocking on occasion.

We moved to a different place like two years later. My room would be a lot smaller. So, so many of the manga I have read once and left in the shelf ever since. I put the nostalgia one and the ones I liked a lot into boxes.

The ones I only ever read once into another. I told the girl later she could pick any she wanted and keep them. She could also keep the shelf because I knew hers was cramped and overflowing ( mine was big, actual wood and designed in depth and all to perfectly maximize the space for manga.) and I would no longer need such a big one, let alone have the space.

She was absolutely losing it. Shrieking and jumping and going, really, really? All over again.

I was so excited that she was so excited.

Her mum came to me and asked me at least 5 times if I was sure. Its so much money!

The truth is, second hand manga, even in top condition, don’t sell super well. I did sell some, but couldn’t and also didn’t want to keep the others in boxes until they did sell.

I said, “yeah, sure. I haven’t read them in years. What’s the point in keeping them like decorations in my shelf or in boxes? It just makes me happy that they can make someone else excited the way they excited me.”

(I randomly found her on Pinterest almost 10 years later, she is still super into anime and manga and still has the shelf)

I have a bit of a problem of letting things go because, what if I want to use it later? So I still had like 400 when I moved the second time. My cousin was over to pick something up and saw my collection. Mentioned her neighbor kid was really into it, too. (they didn’t have much money, bad family situation all around, she just moved to live with the grandparents). I sorted my manga out again, put them in a box, got into contact with the girls grandparents. Explained the situation and learned her 13. birthday was coming up. the weekend after her birthday, I showed up with a giant box, told her who I was and that she could have whatever she wanted from the box.

Just like the other girl, she was so, so happy. I loved it.

Could I have made some money back if I sold them? Sure. But it’s a hassle. And see, if I had met someone like me when I was their ages, that would have been such an amazing thing. I like to share the thing that made me happy.

Now, I bought the trigun and maximum manga. They don’t fit into my perfectly filled, current shelf anymore.

The manga now have been there for years. I love them. Re read some of them. But there is still a bunch that is good but… not enough to have re read them in like the past 10 years.

So what do I do? Keep them? So I have physical copies still if I ever want to re visit them?

For a whole while the talk about getting physical copies of stuff has been going on, especially with what is going on with streaming. I get it, though there is more to it than just ‘unlike with streaming they cant take it away and you actually owe it’ (mostly its money and space but also the ability to check it out before having to invest too much).

The point is, trigun had me actually wanting to own physical copies of something again. And with the rooster teeth situation going on I am glad to know I have all available dvd and Blu-ray from rvb and rwby.

Then again, they sit on my shelf, just in case, looking pretty.

I decided to cut down again. Keep the best and the nostalgia one (I don’t think I will ever reread dragonball or even inu Yasha but that’s the nostalgia. Fma will stay. Durarara, d.n.angle… bunch of shorter series that are mindblowing like blood+ or another).

I don’t know any kids big on manga personally right now, so lets go to the library nearby (that also offers manga drawing courses) and see what they want.

Yes, owing physical copies is important. But if they stay on my shelf untouched for years on end, I think they serve a better purpose with someone what gets to actively enjoy them.

#manga #just me going on about stuff #i currently have nothing to play the dvd but i will keep those of corse #with how many times i have rewatched rvb lol #trigun is a special kind of brainrot

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artemisbarnowl · 6 months

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Okay so Costco was a time but I called my sister about it and now I'm like...it was fine I guess.

It's strange. Yes everything is big and there's the biggest fucking TVs I've ever seen as well as fresh fruit and Xmas ornaments and frozen fish and a whole isle of soda but the strangest thing to me (after the freaking....inflatable pool slide hanging from the ceiling which when I was in the central open part of the store felt like it was hunting me) was the organisation. There are general sections such as Food and Tech but....there's candles next to kitchen bench top appliances, snacks seem to be spread across different Isles and then also some in the central island where the clothes are. There are several freezer locations that are separate from each other and not necessarily related to whatever else in the isle. The Isles are BARELY 2 trolleys wide. With such huge trolleys turning a corner is difficult but there is not a lot of room to turn if someone is already in the isle you're turning into. No check out lines. It was just a crowd. which I hated. The car park also did not think so much about flow of traffic and while it was relatively quiet for us it was easy to see how it would be a nightmare if busier.

My friend who has a membership told me they don't have the same stuff every time??? So you're getting your once a year dishwashing liquid bucket or whatever and next time they might not have the same brand or flavour? Also this could have been a person I went with thing but things seem to move. There was one kind of seaweed snack but we were looking for a different one and we found it on a pallet near dogfood which is not normally where it lives??

There were the biggest bags of chips I'd ever seen in my life and literal tin buckets of ghee but many Big Things were actually just normal large size but they are packaged in 2 or 4s so you cannot buy 1 4litre bottle of vinegar you must buy a box of 4. The bakery onsite was surprising but as one woman who lives a lot I could not buy 26 mini pan au Chocolat for 10 dollars even though they smelled very yummy. You can order birthday cakes with lettering. They didn't even have full coffins/caskets just end pieces to show the finish/shape but they all looked cheap nasty plastic as heck. One was called the Nixon coffin which I thought was funny for tenuous reasons. Did he get buried in one like it? Was it his favourite? Do people buried in this have some semblance to him?

I got a bag of freeze dried fruit (peaches, lychees and strawberries) to share with my friend as office snacks. 100g for 15 dollars is expensive but freeze dried fruit are very light so it should go a long way. My friend also bought some mangosteen juice to try.

I stared longingly at large slabs of paneer and fior de late. Also at the 15 cents cheaper than average fuel prices. Not sure I'd go enough to actually make any savings (fuel alone would probably get my money back, but I live alone so can't buy much in bulk as a way to save). Also many things just didn't seem That Cheap. Many pantry staples were just the normalish price scaled up, like rice. Some things were cheap (6 tubes of miso ramen flavoured Pringles for 10 dollars for example) but they were often somewhat novelty so you are buying A LOT with the risk you don't like it.

#would like to go again with someone who has a list and planned route #or maybe just to dawdle the department store half #there was a set of hellow kitty Pyrex containers im still thinking about

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