Robinkelp

I'm interested to see what will happen with the Elemental Quartet on The Flight, as they're all being pulled in different directions at the moment. we've got:

-Drift, who has heard that Pyro and Maddy may have been kidnapped by rebels, but has also connected with confirmed rebel AJ and agreed to ally with her in taking down the academy.

-Shelby, who also has heard that Pyro and Maddy may have been kidnapped by rebels, but is equally concerned that Pyro's corrupted after seeing the aftermath of his attempt to fight the corruption (Drift also shares this concern).

-Scott, who's still unsure if Pyro was actually kidnapped and is worried that he may have swept his old friend's disappearance under the rug by insisting he left of his own accord. AJ's also attempting to frame him for planting the poisoned food.

She's a Stella, which are one of several sapient species on Mars and are some kind of working class under Martians. She grew up working a lot, particularly mining and potentially with bounty hunting, although this has not been stated as such. What we do know is that her parents wanted her to be a bounty hunter or a miner and had very high expectations, hence why they named her something that roughly translates to "prince".

She did not like her life on Mars and seems to have been very lonely. She has said she never had anyone else worry about her or concern themselves with her survival back on Mars. Because of this (or some at this point unknown reason) she decided to leave Mars, which was considered highly taboo and may have been quite experimental, as space flight seems to be a rather new technology.

Once she arrived on Earth, she spent some time working at a circus, where she at first did not realise that the visitors were laughing at her, not with her. I think she also had a boyfriend at this time, as I believe she said he was a co-worker when she mentioned him and to my knowledge she hasn't had another job since. That relationship ended poorly, though I don't remember the details. I do think that she described it as him becoming unpleasant and demanding though, and she was the one to break it off.

After leaving the circus tf!Zam came to the capital and was poorly received by the residents, who seem to have feared or derided her. At some point she seems to have resorted to stealing for her survival and she was living out of a cave before coming to the academy. She saw recruitment posters for dragon riders and, thinking it would be some kind of performance job, signed up.

For general info she also wears a space suit with a crystal embedded in the chest which allows her to breathe, does not have a sense of smell and has pink viscous blood. She also was considered very weak on Mars but has discovered that she is much stronger in comparison to Earth creatures.

As a small bonus as well, she has once or twice stated that "all Stellas have yellow skin", which may be true, but cc!zam made a throwaway joke once about "having the wrong skin colour", so it may also be her trying to establish herself as "normal" to people who don't know she's "wrong".

so we've got an update on what's happening to Maddy and Pyro on The Flight... sounds like the students are going to have to find this "new base" to find them, or catch the rebels while they're moving.

as many of you know, the work we did for Avid was substantial. the music we made with him has been our lifeblood for the past several months as we have been reeling from the onset of a severe, life changing disability diagnosis that prevents us from working a typical job. music, video editing, streaming, and making our own videos are about all we can do. our disabling dissociative amnesia prevents the timely and reasonable learning of new skills. while we have been working constantly with a dissociative specialist to inch towards remedying this, we do not expect that we will be equipped to work in any other capacity any time soon.

the royalties we received from the music we made together with Avid were roughly 80-90% of our income on any given month for the calendar year so far, and they have helped us stay afloat while we have been trying to go through the rigorous and ill-equipped disability system.

putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea regardless, and the fears i had building for the past couple of months only further emphasized this. as such, i have been trying to diversify by engaging with streaming, trying to get my name out there for collaborative work in other SMPs, and reaching out to my creator friends for editing work. i really can't thank two people in particular enough - LeonSBU and NatureOfGaming - for providing me work as they have been able to afford and especially in Leon's case, getting my name out there for other SMPs.

unfortunately, the true extent of Avid's manipulations and lies were more than i could ever have imagined. the fact that my entire understanding of his intentions has been flipped in a matter of no more than 3 days feels like being hit by a truck. for full transparency, i am no longer in contact with Avid, but i did inform them that i was leaving the fate of our music in their hands. in the final messages he sent to me before i cut contact, he told me that he "would never cut [me] off financially". he told me he would never do a lot of things, so forgive me if i have trouble trusting this. regardless, the dropoff in listenership after what has been revealed will be substantial and immediate.

in the best case-scenario, i have a month or two left before royalties catch up to this dropoff, and will see consistent income for that time still. in the worst, i will no longer be able to afford my rent by the end of the month if he does remove the music and disable my royalty splits.

what i need is two things: i need immediate funds to fall back on in case things go poorly, and i need longevity. i have been so lucky to be surrounded by so many truly astounding and generous creators who have been willing to put my name out there for work. i am hoping this comes to fruition. i am already hearing from some about potential editing opportunities which is amazing. but things are still up in the air, and i need to be quick and smart. this is why i am doing something that my fans know i hate. i'm asking for help.

as i see it, there are three pillars to this. all the highlighted text below links directly:

immediate aid - if you have the funds to spare, buying our music on Bandcamp and donating to our Ko-Fi are methods of which we see the funds in a matter of days, if not instantly. this will help us build an emergency fund if worse comes to worse.

supporting our work - by spreading the word about our streaming on Twitch and listening to our music on streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube (and any other platform our music is on), you provide a significant source of consistent income that we can rely on month-to-month.

word of mouth - talking about what we do and why you enjoy it is a surprisingly big help, because it helps us find connections for potential growth opportunities and commission work. additionally, letting people know we have a Discord and are the ones responsible for Avid's music in the first place not only helps us, but it helps the people who loved Avid's music know there is more out there from the person who made his songs possible.

i'm gonna level with you all. i fucking hate writing this. i feel like a beggar. i feel humiliated. these past three days of piecing things together have been some of the worst of my life, and having to once again ask for help is the cherry on top. since i learned about the truth three days ago, this has been constantly looming over me. everything else has been made crystal clear to me, so i at least know without a shadow of a doubt what happened. but with this? i'm terrified. Avid knew my situation, my disability, my reliance on our work together. he has left me in a truly impossible situation. i am taking it as an opportunity to double down on the work i was already doing and try to turn it into a positive. i hope that you all are gracious enough to help me make that a reality. it would really mean the world right now.

the art is so fucking ugly, but this was from weeks ago

owen being owen

after all this time, we finally get to see Owen and Louis together :)))