Fire in the head

I am Filipino-American, an actor, and a writer. my writing blog is jadevine.tumblr.com

[introvertbard]

Novel drafts! Please check them out!

What’s up folks, I just reblogged one of my really old posts about trying to get people to read my novel drafts. But here’s a shiny new one so I can pin this to the front!

So I originally posted these works on Inkitt and Inkshares, but Inkitt is most likely a scam that is often described as “a shittier version of Wattpad.” Inkshares is POSSIBLY a scam, but also an extremely new and experimental website even if it wasn’t, so I decided to move these drafts to Wattpad in hopes that a more established website had more people to read them.

Moonflowers is in-progress and The Crocodile God is completed, but I’ll just let people know that both “Moonflowers” and “The Crocodile God” are built on a LOT of outdated knowledge where Tagalogs/Filipinos all had tattoos and that Mayari is a Tagalog goddess. In “The Crocodile God,” I draw from a lot of Maori/Pacific mythology as well, and I’m not sure if I should keep that aspect in there.

If these ever make it to Draft 2 stage, there’s gonna be a lot of changes.

-- MOONFLOWERS - https://www.wattpad.com/story/324856549-moonflowers

Summary: When Alima Song's parents vanish for no reason, she eventually thinks that they're dead, so she moves from her home in California to the tourist town of Cloncarrig, Ireland to get away from her grief. Aside from issues with the Fair Folk, she gets to know some Malachy Bray and his friends, finds a job, a house, and adopts a stray dog.

Unknown to most people, the dog is Ned Song, her cursed but very much living father. He and her mother Lucy have not been killed--they "just" got kidnapped and cursed by the Wild Hunt, who are also the ones that keep trailing Alima after she moved.

The Irish gods do not enjoy thinking about why a whole gang of fairies are messing with the Song family, but since their leader is a force of nature, they'll have to start improvising their help.

--

THE CROCODILE GOD - https://www.wattpad.com/story/324254621-the-crocodile-god

Summary: If a god loses his community, his rituals, and most records of his existence, what is left of him to call divine?

On a windy beach in California, Mirasol finds a shipwrecked man and takes him to the hospital. With no phone, no ID, and barely any clothes after the sea got done with him, the most information they can get is that his name is Haik, and for lack of better options, he's discharged to Mirasol's place.

Dark-skinned, covered in tattoos, and hailing from Australia, Haik is not the typical Filipino. He tells her stories of the Tagalogs' far past, a foreign and unknown country--and soon finds out that he is Haik the sea-god, constantly searching for his mortal wife, and they are both stuck in a loop of reincarnation after their whale-goddess daughter was stillborn.

Unfortunately, she also finds out that he's an undocumented immigrant.

--

IF ANYTHING ABOUT THESE DRAFTS CAN PIQUE YOUR INTEREST, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO CHECK OUT THE DRAFTS AND LEAVE A COMMENT TO SHOW SUPPORT!!! I get so many people just saying my writing sounds cool EVERYWHERE ELSE BUT THE ACTUAL WEBSITE, and that’s not really getting my audience boost up.

[manuciruja]

awww the like button turns into a rainbow when you press it! that's so cute...hey staff what's with all the trans women you keep nuking?

[manuciruja]

i think we should be ridiculing them more for this. you don't get to try and go all "queer website" when your staff likes to go on nuking sprees targeting the trans fem users

[niceinchnails]

Everyone. This is NOT a drill. I have hacked into the backend of [tumblr]. I'll save us all.

[liarsblade]

Fanfiction is cool because you get to learn what other people's parents taught them the hymen is like

[liarsblade]

I know that I had somewhat unusually comprehensive sex ed but it still surprises me every time I'm reminded that some people genuinely think that losing your virginity is a capri sun kind of situation.

[natnormalatall]

roald dahl was antisemitic and misogynistic. george orwell was openly homophobic. edgar allan poe married his 13 year old cousin. dr seuss cheated on his wife (and was racist as well as antisemitic!). hp lovecraft was racist as fuck. anyways they’re fucking dead it’s not like you’re enabling their behaviors in the afterlife or something. then again I think they bleed into the books so uh keep an eye out for that

the difference between these old white guys and jk rowling is that the former group is all dead. jk rowling is alive and using your money to oppress trans people

[baraphalloplastyclinic]

I actually do think we should discourage women from becoming housewives. Do not become financially dependent on a man. That's how a lot of women ended up dead over the years. A man gets violent suddenly and you have to choose between homelessness or potentially dying at his hand because you have an enormous gap in your resume and no degrees or certifications or anything that will help you pursue a career that will allow you to be financially independent. He owns your bank account. His name is probably the one on the car. Try and leave and he can report it stolen. Where will you go then?

Don't become a housewife.

[ladyfoxfire]

And if you do become a housewife, take steps to protect yourself. Make sure you’re legally married, for starters; stay-at-home girlfriends have very little legal recourse to claim their partner’s assets in a breakup. Make sure your name is on the house deed/rental agreement, and have your car in your name, even if your spouse is paying for it. Have your spouse transfer money every month into an account solely in your name, so you can buy yourself things without needing permission, but also so you can save up to leave if needed.

If your spouse fights you on any of this, then don’t quit your job. The tradwife to poverty pipeline is real, and so is financial abuse.

[dressedupliketheking]

also, many women/people experience controlling behaviour and domestic violence from their partner for the first time during pregnancy. don’t risk thinking “he’s just stressed, it’ll get better when the baby comes” because it won’t. neither you and your child will ever be safe with that man. get out as early and safely as you can

[lonelyroommp3]

when you show up to the met gala you should immediately be faced with a panel of fashion experts and art historians before you even get to the red carpet and you have to explain your outfit choice and why it is on theme for that year’s event like you are defending a phd and if you can’t produce a coherent defence they turn you away at the door and the people of manhattan are allowed and encouraged to throw rotten produce at you as you get back into your car in shame

[partywithponies]

Strange racists and homophobes on the internet seem to have access to an alternate way cooler version of TV than me. "every white character on TV is in an interracial relationship" "every show has a gay couple in it" "main characters keep having to secretly be bisexual and nonbinary" "every show has gratuitous full frontal nudity" like damn promise?? What channel???

[byjove]

I need you all to see this

And, of course, they’re very upset some intern on the DNC Twitter account called Stephen Miller an ugly fuck (factually correct) and responded to his passive aggressive and insulting transvestigating of Texas senate nominee James Talarico with a similar level of inflammatory ire. We need more Dark Woke. I am so tired of the Democratic Party playing respectability bullshit and acting like what people saying on the right should be treated as reasonable and sane. “Shut up you ugly fuck.” is really the only way to respond to that.

[charlesoberonn]

It says "Invest"

[introvertbard]

I don’t mess with CEOs, but as a lazy artist: SOMEONE PLEASE MOVE THAT GUY ONE LETTER OVER IN EITHER DIRECTION, OR SHRINK HIS PORTRAIT SO THE TITLE DOESN’T FEEL SO UNFORTUNATE.

[sailermoon]

this is how new yorkers @ mamdani

[sailermoon]

[tyrantisterror]

I was thinking in the car today about how most modern superhero stories always have the love interest of the protagonist - and most of their friends for that matter - be superheroes too, in contrast to how most of the big names in the genre - Spider-man, Superman, Batman, etc - at least started with supporting casts of primarily normal, mundane humans. And as I thought about this, I realized it might also be why almost no modern superhero artist can draw monsters worth a shit, when the classics used to be downright packed with great creatures.

Namely, the teams that made the heavy hitters in the genre also had a lot of experience outside of the superhero genre. Before Superman and Batman, comic creators did detective stories and pulpy adventure tales - lots of normal people in weird situations, lots of monsters, etc. And before crafting the Marvel superheroes we recognize, people like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were working on a bunch of different genres - sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and even romance comics.

Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen are characters out of a pulp adventure serial. Alfred and Commissioner Gordon are stock detective fiction archetypes. All of Spider-Man's supporting cast would be at home in a romance comic. And the wonderful monster characters like Fin Fang Foom and Devil Dinosaur are descendants of the monster stars of Tales to Astonish and Amazing Fantasy.

But somewhere in the 80s and 90s there was a shift where more and more of the people writing and illustrating superhero comics ONLY had experience with making superhero comics. And, coincidentally, a lot of the non-superhero elements of superhero comics kinda went to shit.

I want to say right here that I do not think this is an inherently bad shift, even if it hurt some characters I love (cough Mary Jane Watson cough). A person writing a superhero story deciding to focus almost exclusively on superhero stuff is making sure their story is streamlined and focused, and that's usually a damn good idea, especially for a young writer. You want to make sure the main thrust of your story works as well as possible - that's what people will primarily judge it for.

The GOATs made non-superhero stuff work in their superhero stories because they had experience with writing that stuff - a romance comic background makes the mundane love interests in Spider-Man work, a detective story background sells all the non-powered crime and mystery in Batman, etc. There's no shame in a writer deciding that they'd be more confident writing a superhero story that sticks to superhero tropes alone than trying to make it five other stories at once. It's more or less what I'm doing with my superhero tales, after all.

But, still, I think there's a lesson to be learned here about broadening your storytelling horizons. The more genres you dabble in, the more cool shit you can do within them - because some of the most iconic characters in superhero comics only exist because their creators had done a bunch of non-superhero shit first.

[neosilverthorn]

So. For those of you who didn't pay attention to the details of the legal spat between Krafton and Unknown Worlds, allow me to give you some details of the finest legal comedy of a generation.

Krafton CEO looks at the hype surrounding Subnautica 2, goes over the contract between Krafton and Unknown Worlds, realizes he'll have to pay out bonuses and freaks out because shelling out those bonuses will make him look like a pushover.

CEO goes to his legal department, asks them to come up with a plan to weasel out of paying bonuses. Legal tells him the contract is iron-clad and to accept the loss.

CEO refuses to take the loss, asks ChatGPT for a plan. ChatGPT says the exact same thing the legal department did.

CEO demands a plan from ChatGPT, which dutifully spits out a plan at this point because clearly the CEO is a goddamn idiot.

CEO deletes the chat logs, failing to understand that 'delete' doesn't permanently remove things.

CEO follows plan, and is surprised when Unknown Worlds sues for breach of contract despite being told by both humans and an LLM that is exactly what would happen.

Court does not go well for Krafton's legal department. It comes out that after ignoring the sound legal advice of human beings, the CEO went to ChatGPT and asked for a plan. When asked for the logs by the court, Krafton's legal team states they were deleted, thus that it's simply herersay. Judge goes "Oh, that's okay, we'll have our IT folks recover them." Krafton's legal team is astounded that's even possible.

The chat logs are recovered. It comes out that even ChatGPT was in agreement with Krafton's legal department, and only spat out a plan after being asked a second time.

The judge, now thoroughly done with the stupidity of Krafton's CEO at this point, rules in favor of Unknown Worlds. Her ruling doesn't simply undo the scheme, but effectively leaves all control over Subnautica 2's development in the hands of Unknown Worlds, including the early access release date, reducing Krafton to just publishing out of contractual obligation. Krafton must also return all social media platforms for Unknown Worlds and Subnautica 2 to Unknown Worlds' control. Financial damages will be determined at a later date.

Krafton proceeds to violate the court order in less than 72 hours by trying to set an early access release date before returning Unknown Worlds' social media platforms.

Summary: In trying not to look like a pushover, Krafton's CEO now looks like a complete idiot who's going to have to fork over bonuses, plus court-mandated damages, plus whatever comes out of violating the court's orders. Krafton's legal department may as well come to court dressed as clowns after this. I suspect Unknown Worlds might buy the rights to Subnautica back after all this and either relegate Krafton to just publishing or find a different publisher for future games altogether.

[captain-price-returns]

[thefloatingstone]

btw, Steam is currently having an "ocean fest" where they showcase all the ocean themed games on the store

which they obviously decided to do by complete coincidence and didn't mean to say anything by this or anything 🙂

[wifegideonnav]

“bits to use in everyday conversations”

[donniehaspronouns]

this might piss some people off but I don’t think some of you actually ever tried to unlearn your hatefulness. you just came out as queer and decided your new targets really truly deserve it this time.

[donniehaspronouns]

you. you get it.

[70sscifiart]

Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, "Mammoths of Atlantis," 1982

[cherrysnax]

so when people are transphobic for jokes, is it just a phase? or is that only for antiblackness