When i was like 13 was allowed to use the internet unrestricted for the first time and i spent a lot of time on Runescape. One of the people i talked to on there was this person who had much higher levels than me in every skill and had, to my perception, a seemingly overflowing amount of game resources. One day i was taking about wishing i could get gold ore to level my smithing and not having access to any and they like “here, you can have this gold that i have” and just gave me this big stack and i was like “i don’t even have anything to offer back”. They told me they didn’t need anything and just wanted to be nice. I said that they didn’t have to and what they told me honestly has stuck with me since, they said “life’s too short to spend it being mean to people” and like it’s such a simple thing to say but combined with their actions and the weight they bore to me at the time was hugely influential on my outlook on life and the way i treat others. I don’t know who that person is but they changed my life that day and I’m so thankful to them.
high level MMO-ers are either the nicest people on earth or the spawn of Satan there is no in between
Runescape was a big part of my formative years for better or worse. Age twelve left me impressionable at best and the free lobster this guy gave me one day just stuck with me. We fished together for days on end and we talked about our parents and stuff. If you’re out there NinjaKirby69 I miss you buddy.
I forgot to type it up yesterday but one of my best experiences didn’t even involve me. It was when my younger sister, Runescape user cooldudetha, crashed the steel market single-handedly out of sheer boredom.
I need to know this story
So if you’re not aware, Runescape has the Grand Exchange, which is basically a global trade market controlled by supply and demand. It’s an incredible system, and deserves a lot of commendation.
Well one day back in…I think Summer between 2010-2012? my younger sister and I had nothing to do but play Runescape in our free time. I did what all aspiring heroes do, I was happy to go out and commit mass goblin murder. My sister was more creative. At first she went to train Smithing in Al Kharid, which is this desert area with easy access to iron, coal, a player bank, and a smelter. So basically she made craploads of steel for hours on end for like a week. But then she realized she had nothing to do with the steel. She could go find a smith with an anvil and train Smithing further, but that was boring since she’d already been grinding forever. So she went to the Grand Exchange and sold it all.
Thousands of units of steel ingots.
And it sold like immediately, since there was always a large amount of people training Smithing at the level they could use steel.
Obviously she became fabulously wealthy and didn’t know what to do with her newfound wealth. But since she spent a lot of time at the Exchange, she knew basically how the market worked. I’m not 100% sure on what the thought process was for her, but she essentially realized a basic economic principle: If she could control the supply and demand for steel she could accelerate her profit margins.
So like any reasonable 12-14 year old, she bought out about twice as much steel as she sold. Flooding the market had almost halved the price, and she now was both the supply and demand. Of course, as a result of some mystery person buying tons of steel, the price went up again. So she went and sold it at the higher price. She spent about another week or two playing Carnegie before it got old and she retired to Lumbridge with fat stacks of gold and the finest armor money could buy (but she couldn’t wear due to low Defense level).
I found out from a friend later who was part of one of the big trade guilds that the big market guilds were all pissed that somehow the steel market had crashed, skyrocketed, then crashed in quick succession for no goddamn reason and all of them had lost thousands of coins in the process.
My favorite thing about this is that it validates my entire Master’s Degree. This. This is how games can develop incidental learning and teach kids valuable lessons. This 12 year girl figured out, and manipulated, a free market economy because she was bored. She was able to recognize, understand and utilize a fundamental principal of economics to entertain herself.
i’m going to tell you in advance that whenever you ask yourself “oh wow but did she do that one part of the vocals tho?” the answer is always yes. yes i did.
this took an hour. broke out that vocal score and zooted all the way through. please enjoy it.
ok, but what if peter finds all those children’s drawings tony keeps and finds the one he sent to iron man after being saved by him at stark expo and tells tony he’s the one who drew that
tony would be weeping like a baby
Oh look my hand slipped
“Hey, this is mine!”
Tony looked up from where he was moving boxes around. The lab was getting a bit crowded with him, Bruce, Vision, and the bots in there already, and with Peter joining them more often, accidental bumping was becoming a more common occurrence. So, Tony had decided to clean out the back storage space of the lab so he could expand it, that way everyone would have their own little corner. However, that involved cleaning. Which meant going through a bunch of boxes and deciding what to keep and what to move into storage.
Peter was sitting hunched over a box he’d just opened, holding and slightly crinkled piece of paper in his hands.
“What are you talking about, kiddo?” Tony asked, dropping the box on top of the stack next to him.
Peter got up from his own box and brought the paper over to Tony, shoving it in his face.
“That box had a bunch of kids drawings and stuff and Iron Man stuff, so I wanted to see what all was in it,” Peter said, smiling at the paper in Tony’s hands, “and I found my drawing!”
Tony looked down at the drawing in his hands.
On it, a little boy in Iron Man armor was fighting off a bigger, clunkier suit of armor, standing next to a taller, more adult looking Iron Man armor. They stood side by side with their hands out, shooting repulsors at the cluncky armor. A speech bubble popped out of Tony’s armor, saying “Nice job, kid!”
Tony recognized the drawing. It had been one of his favorites. He’d gotten it not long after the Stark Expo incident of 2010, and it had really helped him feel better after the whole “Tony Stark, not recommended” fiasco. If he remembered correctly, the picture came with a letter from some kid, telling him that they were excited they got to see him at the Expo, even if “Mr. Hammer” had ruined it for everyone in the end. The letter was probably over in that box where Peter had found the picture.
“This was yours?” Tony asked, a weird, warm feeling spreading through his chest. His throat feels weirdly tight, and he’s sure it’s probably just dust or something kicked up from moving boxes that’s making his eyes water, too.
“Yeah!” Peter nodded enthusiastically, “look at the back.”
And sure enough, there on the back, printed in somewhat jagged child crayon block letters, was the signature P. Parker.
“I remember drawing it and sending it to you after you saved me at the Expo that year.”
Ice suddenly floods Tony’s veins as he flips the picture back over. The memory of a kid, a stupid, stupidly brave kid standing up to a Hammer drone with nothing but a plastic Iron Man mask and a fabric glove with LED repulsors built in. If JARVIS hasn’t called the boy to his attention as he flew by, that kid would’ve been—
“That was you?!” Tony practically shouts, his head swinging back up to look at Peter with wild eyes.
Peter doesn’t seem to notice Tony’s freak out in front of him, his eyes still dancing over the picture.
“That was the coolest day of my life, honestly. I couldn’t believe I actually got to see you in the armor. I don’t think Uncle Ben really believed me when I told him, now that I think about it, but he helped me send this to you to say than— Hey, Mr. Stark, are you okay? You look a little pale, do you need to— oomph!”
The breath is knocked out of him when Tony suddenly grabs onto Peter’s t-shirt and pulls him against his chest. His hands come up automatically to rest loosely on Tony’s back, the exact opposite to the way Tony’s hands are clenched in Peter’s shirt, his old drawing crinkling slightly in his clenched hand.
“Uhh.. Mr. Stark?” Peter says timidly, suddenly unsure of himself, “Are you okay?”
“Shut up, Pete,” Tony says into his shoulder. Peter’s eyes widen at how choked Tony sounds, and he almost thinks he feels wetness on his shoulder where Mr. Stark’s eyes are.
“Is this— is this a hug? Because if it’s not I don’t want to make it weird again—“
“Kid, just let it happen.”
Peter stands shocked for a minute before shrugging within the hug.
“Okay!” Peter says brightly. He brings his arms up to wrap tighter around Tony’s chest and he lets his head rest on Tony’s shoulders, a small smile pressing against Tony’s shirt.
Tony just clutches him tighter.
Stupid dust in my eyes, he thinks, ignoring the warmth he feels spread in his heart when Peter hugs him back.
upon learning Shuri is 16 in Black Panther, I quietly revise all my original shipping plans from “adults” to “Shuri is a hopeless baby lesbian with a crush on every single Dora Milaje and soon a big useless enormous crush on MJ, who is like a semi competent but mostly just grungy bisexual with a super popular twitter account that Shuri is obsessed with and MJ is s t o k e d about everything about Wakanda and tweets that she’s doing her senior research project on Wakandan tech and T’Challa, who follows his baby sister’s online crush’s twitter so he can forward Shuri the most embarrassing tweets that will make her furious (“YES BROTHER I DID SEE THAT SELFIE AND I DON’T NEED YOU TO REMIND ME OFF IT”), is like “this is the moment I was born for. This is why I became king” and tweets MJ like “we’re doing youth outreach, come to Wakanda, my very talented and smart and accomplished sister will give you a personal tour :)” and MJ and Shuri simultaneously die”
the Dora Milaje prepping for MJ’s visit by giving Shuri different and conflicting romantic advice until Okoye tells them it is against their sacred duty to torment the princess into a crush-induced panic attack because she cannot decide between her top twelve outfits and cool confident quips for making a good first impression
MJ meanwhile with Peter is repeatedly punching him in the arm because he just told her that he met T’Challa and she’s furious this hasn’t come up before, and also he’s Spider-man, but that’s not nearly as important as KING T’CHALLA WHAT, DID HE TALK ABOUT HIS SISTER AT ALL, MJ’S BEEN FOLLOWING ARTICLES ABOUT HER FOR YEARS AND SHE SEEMS DOPE AND CUTE AS HELL
Shuri, so excited and nervous that 10 percent of her attention is freaking out about how she can smell MJ oh no she smells so good, and 70 percent is on trying not to jitter so hard she thrums into a new plane of existence (and then the remaining 20 percent for figuring out cold fusion, nbd): HELOO M-UH-MMM- MICHELLE. DO YOU PREFER TO BE CALLED MICHELLE AND WELCOME TO MY BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY OF WAKANDA. WOULD YOU LIKE TO PHOTO WITH IT FOR YOUR INTERNET FRIENDS. I AM SHURI. YOU MUST KNOW THAT ALREADY. HAHA MY BROTHER TOLD YOU ABOUT ME. I WILL MURDER HIM.
MJ, who has spent the last ten minutes hiding in the bathroom applying deodorant to basically every non-face part of her body because she can’t stop sweating oh my god stop sweating you’re sweating on a three hundred year old chair in a sitting room in a palace in fuckin WAKANDA, and who is so stressed that she’s transcended the human for and is now astral projecting somewhere behind her own body, distantly pitying this new york punk gremlin who thought Formal Plaid was a good idea talk to a real ass honest to god genuine princess with a beautiful smile holding a small cat robot that she hand designed this afternoon on a whim: dope. I love murder. call me MJ
Since my last post was so popular, I would just like to remind everyone that I have written three novellas that center butch/masculine of center individuals available to read for FREE on a03.
The series is called The Gallaro Equation and it currently consists of:
my imagination will feed my hungry heart: The
love story of one Dr. Rebecca Gallaro and her Harley-driving, butch
dyke graduate student Connie Williams. From meeting to marriage, and
everything in between.
she keeps me warm:
The love story of nonbinary/genderqueer butch pastor Max Kushing and stud prosecutor Sam Fitzgerald. How met, fell in love, and
ultimately created a home together. Also the story of Max’s coming out
and coming to grips with her anxiety and her genderqueer/nonbinary
identity.
the greatest love story this town had ever seen: The love story of baby butch Jack Eun-Li and spitfire femme Andrea Duvaul meet, join forces against the bigotry in their small 1960s North Carolina town, and accidentally fall in love.
‘Shadowhunters’ Canceled at Freeform, Will End With Two-Hour Finale
The genre drama produced by Constantin Film has been canceled after three seasons. The genre drama based on the Mortal Instruments feature film franchise will wrap up in spring 2019 with the second half of season three and an additional two-hour series finale for a total of 12 new episodes.
Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Constantin Film lost its output deal with Netflix, which helped to foot the bill for the pricey genre drama. Without Netflix’s financial backing Constantin sought a greater cash infusion from Freeform, which sources say was unable to afford to keep the series running.
“We are very proud of Shadowhunters, a series that broke new ground in the genre world and became a fan favorite,” the network said in a statement. “However, along with our partners at Constantin, we reached the very difficult decision not to renew the show for a fourth season. But as big supporters and fans ourselves, Freeform insisted on and championed the filming of a special two-part finale that would give devoted fans a proper ending. The 12 episodes will air in spring 2019. We want to thank our talented creators, producers, cast and crew along with our colleagues at Constantin for their hard work and dedication and to Cassie Clare for her incredible book series. We look forward to the final chapter of this breakthrough drama.”
what i do is not up to you 