numbe one: gloop slimy

sera he/him minor pfp by my pal @abyssium don't repost my stuff

[krillbones]

pr*shippers, t*rfs, & 18+ blogs dni

hi im sera this is my sky blog. i've been playing since season of dreams. i love mantas.

i follow/like from @campyfreak

[fallahifag-deactivated20240722]

goodnight everyone (:

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spreadsheet of families in Gaza you can help today

donate to:

Buy an e-sim

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The PCRF

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[palipunk-deactivated20260328]

Palestine Masterlist 

Introduction to Palestine: 

Decolonize Palestine:

Palestine 101

Rainbow washing 

Frequently asked questions 

Myths 

IMEU (Institute for Middle East Understanding):

Quick Facts - The Palestinian Nakba 

The Nakba and Palestinian Refugees 

The Gaza Strip

The Palestinian catastrophe (Al-Nakba)

Al-Nakba (documentary)

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 (book)

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (book)

Nakba Day: What happened in Palestine in 1948? (Article)

The Nakba did not start or end in 1948 (Article)

Donations and charities: 

Al-Shabaka

Electronic Intifada 

Adalah Justice Project 

IMEU Fundraiser 

Medical Aid for Palestinians 

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund 

Addameer

Muslim Aid

Palestine Red Crescent

Gaza Mutual Aid Patreon

Books:

A New Critical Approach to the History of Palestine

The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge

Hidden Histories: Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean

The Balfour Declaration: Empire, the Mandate and Resistance in Palestine

Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique

From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism and the Palestine Problem until 1948

Captive Revolution - Palestinian Women’s Anti-Colonial Struggle within the Israeli Prison System

Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History

Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics

Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of The Palestinians 1876-1948

The Battle for Justice in Palestine Paperback

Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom

Palestine Rising: How I survived the 1948 Deir Yasin Massacre

The Transformation of Palestine: Essays on the Origin and Development of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

A Land Without a People: Israel, Transfer, and the Palestinians 1949-1996

The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood

A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples

Where Now for Palestine?: The Demise of the Two-State Solution

Terrorist Assemblages - Homonationalism in Queer Times

Militarization and Violence against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East

The one-state solution: A breakthrough for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock

The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinians

Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians

The False Prophets of Peace: Liberal Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine

Ten myths about Israel

Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question

Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, New and Revised Edition

Israel and its Palestinian Citizens - Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State

Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy

Greater than the Sum of Our Parts: Feminism, Inter/Nationalism, and Palestine

Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History

Palestinian Culture:

Mountain against the Sea: Essays on Palestinian Society and Culture

Palestinian Costume

Traditional Palestinian Costume: Origins and Evolution

Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora

Embroidering Identities: A Century of Palestinian Clothing (Oriental Institute Museum Publications)

The Palestinian Table (Authentic Palestinian Recipes)

Falastin: A Cookbook

Palestine on a Plate: Memories from My Mother’s Kitchen

Palestinian Social Customs and Traditions

Palestinian Culture before the Nakba

Tatreez & Tea (Website)

The Traditional Clothing of Palestine

The Palestinian thobe: A creative expression of national identity

Embroidering Identities:A Century of Palestinian Clothing

Palestine Traditional Costumes

Palestine Family 

Palestinian Costume

Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, v5: Volume 5: Central and Southwest Asia

Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure

Documentaries, Films, and Video Essays:

Jenin, Jenin

Born in Gaza

GAZA 

Wedding in Galilee 

Omar

5 Broken Cameras

OBAIDA

Indigeneity, Indigenous Liberation, and Settler Colonialism (not entirely about Palestine, but an important watch for indigenous struggles worldwide - including Palestine)

Edward Said - Reflections on Exile and Other Essays

Palestine Remix: 

AL NAKBA

Gaza Lives On

Gaza we are coming

Lost cities of Palestine 

Stories from the Intifada 

Last Shepherds of the Valley

Voices from Gaza

Muhammad Smiry

Najla Shawa

Nour Naim

Wael Al dahdouh

Motaz Azaiza

Ghassan Abu Sitta

Refaat Alareer

Plestia Alaqad

Bisan Owda

Ebrahem Ateef

Mohammed Zaanoun

Doaa Mohammad

Hind Khoudary

Palestinian Voices, Organizations, and News 

Boycott Divest and Sanction (BDS)

Defense for Children in Palestine

Palestine Legal 

Palestine Action

Palestine Action US

United Nations relief and works for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA)

National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)

Times of Gaza

Middle East Eye

Middle East Monitor

Mohammed El-Kurd

Muna El-Kurd 

Electronic Intifada 

Dr. Yara Hawari (suspended on X 10/25/2023)

Mariam Barghouti

Omar Ghraieb

Steven Salaita

Noura Erakat

The Palestinian Museum N.G.

Palestine Museum US

Artists for Palestine UK 

Eye on Palestine (suspended on Instagram 10/25/2023)

[snoutbug]

silly thing

[krillbones]

this is so gross

[danelloevee-sky]

How do you. draw manta

[danelloevee-sky]

Behold: mantas

[jayevrd]

commission for @cyraenea :] ☁️🌠🫧

[forgetful-storyteller]

Okay but. What is tgcs long term goal. Because I'm really starting to think they don't have one,, everything they do seems to be building them up to a point where no one wants to play sky anymore?? Everything they do feels like massive self sabotage? It just feels too stupid on their part for it to be a coincidence and yet. It probably is. And sky is going to keep succeeding as a game because no matter what happens and no matter what they do, people only talk about it for a few days and then go back to playing like normal. It's like they know that no one will actually do anything to stop them,, they know no amount of people will stop playing "just because" of whatever the reason of the week is. They can just keep getting worse and worse and worse

[krillbones]

i reaaally wish that tgc would try something original for the next season this is really disheartening

[feral-theories]

It's so upsetting to see fanart of the next season. Like... that shit's stolen. Do you know that? How can you still support this season knowing that?

[agodth]

TGC staff posted a statement about the idea theft on reddit

How do you all feel about that?

I remember the hat drama and I appreciate that TGC finally addresses things but also there is still the fact that they have that part in their TOS that says they can just use our fanart and that's still a big red flag to me.

And I find it suspicious that so many of their items look so similar to the ideas of one person. Hard to believe that it's a coincidence tbh. Hard to believe TGC.

[krillbones]

as much as i love sky as a game it's gotten increasingly exploitative and tiring to play and enjoy. especially since that blatant case of art theft it's just been kind of sucky. i dunno

[jayevrd]

commission for my buddy @rookdaw 😁🕯🌀🦐🌊

[grinnersmiler]

Woah what a goddamn fucking coincidence

[grinnersmiler]

Friend informed me that the apron was included too, i might lose it

[thevalleyoftriumph]

Haven’t played or paid attention to sky in a while. What happened? <:(

oh ive got a list. forgoing my typing quirk for this bcos its a long one. it contains nearly everything tgc does regarding the game, not counting anything thats just an awful choice on the npcs, because thats a whole other can of worms.

1; tgc, starting sometime last year, began patching out "oobs," or out of bounds locations. these locations were harmless and often used by players to get pretty screenshots, have a quiet place to play music, or hang out with friends and show new players. instead, most oobs for the elders - where you can glitch out to hang around where the elder cutscenes are held - were removed and replaced with A FUCKING PAID TELEPORT FEATURE. IF YOU SPEND 30+ USD ON A SINGLE PIN OF THEM, YOU CAN USE THE STAR FEATURE TO TELEPORT THERE. the only one they have yet to fully remove is the valley elder oob, but they still sold a pin for that so they probs plan on it

2; again starting sometime last year, they implemented an "afk" feature. this basically putz your skykid to sleep after you have been away for a certain amount of time. the time fluctuated a bit in development and release, spanning from 2 minutes to 10. i think nowadays its around 2 minutes for your kid to fall asleep, and 5 minutes for the timer to kick in.

the afk timer is a near universally hated feature, as after a set amount of time, you can NO LONGER COLLECT WAX . AT ALL. unless you move between world barriers you cant collect anything.

this was a major slap in the face for anyone who was even REMOTELY busy. candle runs - the act of going through the entire game to collect wax for the in game currency - used to take 2-3 hours depending on how well you knew the map, resulting in around 20 candles. with the implementation of the chevron system, it turned into an average of 15 candles every run. along with this, the runs got LONGER. it took me personally nearly 5 hours to complete one, and i had been doing crs and ubering - the act of carrying someone around, usually for crs - for years.

usually people could go afk being ubered and still get wax, or afk at the geyser - a location that every few hours would spew wax out, and when people burned it, the wax flew to you no matter where you were around the area. some people afk'd at campfires that gave wax.

people usually went afk due to real life schedules, and who still wanted to participate in the game and have the currency to actually enjoy it. this includes people with jobs, babysitting, school, homework, etc. it was a non-harmful way for people to spend time in game and get candles.

however, the initial implementation of the afk timer completely screwed these people over. they kept having to check in every few minutes just to make sure their efforts werent going to waste - because at that point they may as well not have had the game open in the first place.

2.5; to go with this, candle prices for items in game went sky high, esp during the first days of rainbow, where an item was 175 CANDLES. FOR A SINGLE CAPE. in fact, right now, theres an item that just makes a snowman, that costs 120. thats it.

so now, people were rightfully upset. at this point in time the timer was just in beta, and there was a huge uproar in the beta players that made tgc frantically backpedal and do damage control. they tried appeasing to us, changing the timer length, but we were still rightfully pissed. the initial timer wouldnt even allow for proper candlerunning.

eventually tgc removed it fully, only to sneak it in fully implemented into the live version of the game without mentioning it anywhere.

then, they changed it so afk locations? like the geysers and campfires? the wax doesnt automatically go to you anymore. you have to actually MOVE.

all of this is to say, they wanted to implement this to force people to be social and interact w ppl. and now you may be going, oh but austin, but kit, but but- isnt this a social game?

and yes! it is! but not everyone has TIME or ENERGY to be social! some people just wanna get on, get shit done, do some important irl work, and be done w it all! tgc shouldnt force that on people!! not everyone has the free time or the spared energy for what they want !!!!

3; the constant inflation of prices and pushes for iaps.

last year, the halloween event totaled to nearly 100$usd for all of the iaps. the aurora season is very much the same. this years halloween event was just as absurdly priced.

these arent fucking micro-transactions anymore. these are full fucking purchases. most of these range anywhere from 10 to 25 dollars. once or twice theres been 30$ ones. its insane.

and with the ingame inflation of the cost of items - most items costing anywhere from 50 to 100 candles on average, of which end up being anywhere from 3-4 days of a full candlerun minimum to NEARLY 20 DAYS OF CANDLERUNS. just for ONE item.

the more these prices raise, the more tgc pushes for iap's of candlepacks. they place a bunch of candles, seasonal or otherwise, in overpriced cosmetics packs to persuade the player to buy it.

4; its not my place to fully elaborate on this but it pisses me off so much that im mentioning it here and can/will link to anything if youre more curious on the topic; TGC. STEALS. COMMUNITY. DESIGNS.

its even in their tos! anything you make and post about the game publicly is THEIRS and they WILL use it without credit !

one of my good friends got their shit stolen TWICE NOW. and tgc hasnt just done this with them! theyve done it nearly 4 separate times, with three different people! and thats just what we KNOW. there could be tons of old content we cant find anymore that tgc had taken from! and they refuse to give any sort of credit because "its in the tos that anything you post is ours now" EVEN THOUGH THATS THE TYPE OF SHIT THAT GETS SHOW WRITERS IN TROUBLE W THE LAW.

i take a lot more issues with tgc just in general than what i wrote here, but if i included every single gripe i had with the company as a whole and not just their influence in the game at this exact moment, we would be here all day.

insert my favorite image where the company compares sky to the kim kardashian game and also the seven sins and seven virtues. yeah thats a real image. i wish i was kidding i could show you it.

[grinnersmiler]

It still amazes me how the addition of the AFK timer was apparently to "make us more social", but all it did was make people unable to help their friends and others, making some to resort to overcomplicated solutions to get like, 20 candles max.

If you ask me I never understood the thought process on how the afk timer was supposed to heighten the friendship factor like they said, if anything, it seems more like something rooted in greed and TGC bending over for the people with chronic crab mentality over digital game clothes. not only do all these updates and updates after betray so much of what the game is about and what it says it stands for, Its getting more and more obvious that the game is turning into a hypocrites cash grab from the absurd prices today.

and its not to say the community isn't at fault either, the attitude of sweeping so many big problems under the rug and the greediness of players who think they have more of a superiority towards others because they payed money played a big part. it's a neverending spiral downwards and i doubt theres any chance itll get better.

[grinnersmiler]

first shattering now this..... tgc should pay you! 😔 what the helllll

2 times this has happened and not a single penny to be seen and frankly my hatred is over the roof

[grinnersmiler]

Cant do anything about it either because this is their tos

[bongoplayingkrilltamer]

And what sucks is that this isn't even the only way TGC has used ideas from artists. There's a (now deleted) post by Efflam Mercier who was asked to do an unpaid art test when interviewing at TGC. Unfortunately the post is gone I don't have a screenshot, but the art looked very close to the Valley flying race, which is why someone replied "that scenery is there"

I found evidence of one other art test being similar to something used in the game, which is this autumn leaf cape by Zachary Stout. The art test was posted on Artstation 2 years ago and the cape appeared for Days of Mischief 2021

It's honestly really disheartening because I look up to and deeply respect the artists working at TGC, especially because their work has been so incredibly inspiring. But the way Sky's terms of service is worded is concerning. They encourage you to create, and to create freely...and then give themselves the right to do whatever they want with what you make. Irrevocably.

[whitebookposts]

It is just so incredibly stupid, the way Tgc treats their fan creators. They claim that they care about their fans and want them to express themselves and their love for the game, yet go on and make a specific TOS that discourages every single fan from creating and posting something out of fear of it being stolen by Tgc with no credit whatsoever.

Let’s be real here. Sky would FUMBLE if not for the hundreds of talented artists that bring life into the shallow mess that is Sky. The only reason I keep playing this god-awful game is because of the ARTISTS that show Sky in new colors. Because of the writers that bring story into a hollow world of Sky. Because of the musicians, animators, sculptors, and crafters who prove to everyone that this game does hold some sort of importance if it can inspire people to create.

It’s all thanks to them that the fandom is alive and Tgc can keep players. I’m SURE that SAD-ist’s animation brought more players to the game than any of Tgc’s advertisements. And Tgc knew that, that’s why they recreated the animation as an ad for the PlayStation launch.

Tgc should be thanking and licking the fan creators’ boots for everything that the artists have done for their dull game. And yet. TGC is so high up on their horse of success (that, yet again, was available to them only thanks to the fans), that they actively become hostile towards their artists, ignoring the fact that if the fan creators get discouraged from making art for the game, Sky will literally die because there will be no reason for ANYONE to stay and play this game more than a few months because of how lacking and hollow it is. TGC is literally shooting themselves in the foot because I saw MANY great artists getting discouraged from making fan content for this game after they saw this. Me included.

How can I show my love for the game if the creators of the said game actively want to steal the work, that so much soul and love was put into it, for their gains? How can I trust that the art that I work so hard on won’t be ripped from me against my will and licensed by the same game company that promised to create a safe space for everyone?

[krillbones]

yikes tgc yikes