#[ AESTHETICS: Stamp of approval ]

[rejectedfables]

Fandom and also Chinese history questions:

1) Does anybody know why, when actual tiger tallies looked like, you know, actual tigers:

why the mdzs manhua and donghua aesthetic design of the yin tiger tally looks like this:

2) Everything I’ve read about tiger tallies says that they were used to prove that a general had the authority to command their troops (because the general had one side of the tally and the emperor had the other, using both together meant you had approval). But absolutely no source I’ve found explains HOW they’re literally, actually, physically used. Were they just... put together and held aloft so everybody could SEE them? Is it a stamp? Was somebody else’s job to inspect and validate that the two halves were both real and present, and they’d cosign whatever orders were given? I’m desperately curious

[radiobl00d]

She serve

So, it's not like Alastor would ever approve of any of this mess, but at one point, Angel Dust suggested to Ziggy that doing a spicy lingerie (or maybe even nude) calendar could be a real career booster, ya know? And Ziggy was kinda curious about the idea, so when Angel invited her to do a photoshoot, she was down to give it a shot.

This was one of the pics that came out of that session. But of course, Alastor swooped in and confiscated all the photos, and he even sweettalked the photographer into deleting any copies they had. (Probably threatened to eat the dude, lol) 'Cause there was no way he was gonna let pictures of his exclusive lady and star get out there, at least not without his personal stamp of approval on the aesthetic.

Even if he didn't say it out loud, Alastoe thought she looked incredible, and that little initial necklace was a lovely touch.

[unhonest-iago]

Goth Bunny

Male reader

'You kept complaining about there being no Easter baskets that fit your aesthetic so we're making some.' y/n explained to Corpse as they walked into his apartment, arms full of shopping bags. 'At least let me help carry it in.' He grabbed half of the load, ignoring their protests that it wasn't that heavy. 'You know I don't celebrate Easter, like ever, right?' Sitting at the table as y/n unloaded all the bags' goodies. 'I know but you said you were bored and I figured between streaming and making music, this could be fun little DIY project.' Corpse sighed, not needing another project on his plate. Voicing this, y/n replied, 'But it'll take a day, hell, few hours at most. I'll buy food.'

'Fine, as long as it doesn't permanently stain anything.' Glaring at them while also reminding them of the last time they'd used Corpse's bathroom to dye their hair. 'Already thought of that, bought containers!' Holding up the items in question. 'Fine, so how are we making these baskets exactly?' Looking at the spread of items; containers large enough to hold the white bunny themed baskets, black fabric dye, plastic gloves, pliers, scissors, rings, and studs. 'Well, first we have to dye them.' Corpse's movements lethargic as he got up to boil some water. The two not needing to reference the box's directions. Pushing the baskets down into the black liquid.

Y/n ran to open the door, thanking the delivery driver for bringing their food. Placing it on the table, the two ate while they waited for the basket to dry in the container's after having dumped the water once it ran clear. 'Give me your phone.' Corpse connected it to the bluetooth speaker he had in the kitchen, randomly choosing one of y/n's playlists. Watching them bop around as he pierced the bunny ears attached to the basket with rings. Opening and closing the rings with the pliers. A line of studs along the seams, Corpse attempted to make it look like a fleur de lis shaped tramp stamp. 'You want any?'

'Nah, that looks sick though.'

'Only took 3 hours,' exaggerating the time.

'Shut up, you had fun.' Y/n had taken a few photos of Corpse when he wasn't looking, deleting the ones he didn't like. Putting the pictures that got Corpse's stamp of approval into a hidden album.

[shineemoon]

The best K-pop tracks of 2022 (by Dazed)

25. ONEW, “DICE “Dice” sounds expensive at all times; the elasticity of the bass is the dream foil to Onew’s inimitable vocals, with a chorus that swims on a current of 80s synths. It gives one of K-pop’s 2nd-gen OG’s a chance to flex his diverse personal taste, and he does so with sheer class.

10. KEY, “GASOLINE” The video’s costuming alone deserves an award; it’s so aligned to Key that everything, from the crucifix-stamped cumberbund to the gold, embellished suit, is a second skin rather than simply worn. Key’s solo career has come to follow the same ideology: Make songs that fit his true nature rather than garner public approval. “Gasoline” opens as a brassy, self-congratulatory affair but narcissism it is not. It’s born from defiance, of beating the odds and the pernickety judgement of the masses. “It’s not about the trophy, I’m just driving on my own,” he sings, later adding, “These threats fuel my evolution”. He’s holding true to that promise, carefully curating his aesthetic and sound to a point where he’s made himself a new world and we’re just living in it.

Source: dazeddigital

[justanotherfanfolks]

So it's Cater's Birthday!

🎉

And I have NOTHING! (I'm sorry king)

So to celebrate I'm just gonna praise his Broomquet for the 1000th time!

Ok so the Broomquet's are my favorite line of cards. The groovies and original artwork are just PHENOMENAL! I found out the Broomquets were actually made in real life for art reference, and that fact- I just love that fact.

So onto the card:

The entire wizard aesthetic has me. They look so magical in these outfits, true Magical Boy energy.

Appreciation for a the little design details, just zoom on this.

And the physical Broomquets. I love flowers, and the color scheme on these is so pretty!

Color scheme has the Cay-Cay stamp of approval.

I like how the colors are more based on the character's aesthetic while the dorm color is for the wrapping. Cater's flowers are really bright and vibrant, like he usually acts! The Cangst may be real, but the colors fit him! (Don't get me started on the flower symbolism experts' Broomquet analysis). The flowers are so detailed, you can see each one perfectly!

But you know what about his Broomquet has my entire heart:

HIS SMILE! He just looks so happy, that smile just looks so genuine. His smile is everything, we need to protect THAT smile.

The smiles on every Broomquet card make me smile, but Cater's especially does considering everything we know about him.

And his Groovy:

He looks so peaceful! AND THE SUNSET GUYS THE CLOUDS THE COLORS THE LIGHTING-

The backgrounds on the Broomquet groovies are on another level.

And this has been a Cater/Cater Broomquet appreciation post. If you read up to this point, uh, here's a flower: 🌺

Let me finish off with another Happy Birthday to Cay-Cay!

[moonlit-positivity]

How to get free cell phone service if you're in the States

Edit: as of April 2024 the FCC has passed a bill that will terminate the Affordable Connectivity Program. This program is different from Lifeline, which is what this post is referencing. But it is still connected to the same issues of affordable and accessible Internet and communication for low income and disabled families. Here is a petition you can sign to help stop this from happening.

This is not a scam. This is a government program called Lifeline. You do have to qualify based on income, and there are some limitations to how you can qualify. I'll get into it below. But if you get Medicaid, food stamps, or SSI then you automatically qualify.

Who can apply:

- low income households

- if you receive Section 8, SNAP, Medicaid, or SSI

- if you receive Veterans & Survivors Pension benefits

- if you live on Tribal lands

Documents needed:

- photo ID/proof of ID (SSN, birth certificate, etc)

- proof of citizenship

- proof of address

- proof of income

- proof of assistant programs

- a physical address on file

- an email address

How to apply:

- the process is done online via the National Verifier Website

- okay so look, this website looks sketchy as hell, alright? I don't know why but it seems like all official govt websites have this 90's Dial Up "Win A Free iPod" aesthetic and it drives me nuts. I swear to God they're not phishing for your info. You can read the FCC guidelines for how this program works here.

- you'll need to make an account

- you can take photos of your documents and upload them directly to the website, or you can make copies and mail them to the address listed on the website

- they will email you when they've processed the info

- if approved then you can sign up for your phone provider

- providers vary from state to state. You'll get options like Q-Link Wireless, Safe Link, etc. You can pick whichever one is available in your area.

Extra info:

- Only 1 Lifeline benefit per household

- You can also apply for the Affordable Connectivity Program which gives you a very nifty discount on your Internet bill.

- you do need to reapply every year to keep your service going. They will send you an email when its time to do so.

- the phones you can choose from are cheap smartphones, but they do come preset for Internet, wifi, streaming, video calls, apps, etc.

- you can buy other phones than the one they give you for free. You can even bring your own phone & just change service providers, which will give u a new SIM & number.

- if you go with the standard free smart phone, just know they're kinda ditzy on durability. Usually I need to replace my battery once a year, which you can do easily on the website. You can get replacement SIM cards sent for free, but if you need a replacement phone or battery then they will charge you for it.

- replacement phones start at $30 for the standard. Which is currently the Samsung Hot Pepper Serrano. This is the one I'm using, it's nice tbh. I can never set the wallpaper though, it resets to factory default whenever I turn my phone off 😭

- the service can be kinda shitty in terms of roaming & out of area service. Sometimes when I go like two cities over I lose service. I think the provider depends on your area (mine goes through Sprint). So keep that in mind.

- but if you're in need of a phone? Bingo. Bada bing bada boom. It's not the iPhone X, but hey, it works.

Getting around the physical address limitations:

So obviously this program would be amazing for homeless & unsheltered people to utilize. The problem is that you need a physical address on file. This is for many reasons, one- to ship your phone to you, two- so they can keep track of your household benefits, etc.

There is no sure fire way to get around this, but there are instances where some work arounds might be able to work for you.

Up first, obviously, if you have contact with anyone who can loan you their physical address for the sole purpose of applying & getting your phone shipped, that would be ideal. You can change your address once you get the phone delivered.

But that's a bit tricky when you don't have anyone to help out with this.

Instead what I've seen people do is to contact your local Post Office, your local Food Banks, and your local Public Service stations, and ask to use their physical address. The phone can be shipped there and you can present your ID to pick it up.

But, this is solely dependent on if any of these places agree to help and also if Lifeline hasn't fixed or addressed this issue yet, because sometimes they will pick up on addresses that are recognized as places of business.

So please be cautious of this.

Unfortunately I haven't seen any other work arounds that have been successful as of yet.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Anyway. I really hope this can help someone out. I've noticed this is one of those things that a lot of people dont know about, and it's helped me out a LOT actually. I've had my cheap lil Q-Link phone for like 5 years now.

Hope this helps

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

[historia-vitae-magistras]

"Petty" for the wip game

This fic is actually complete. Short but thorough. I have a friend who really liked his Maria with my Matt, and this was his Christmas present one year, so it's old and kinda cringeworthy and kind of smutty, and I don't really stand by it anymore, but it's kind of nice, I think.

Vancouver, 1995

“I never noticed you don't own a rosary,” Maria asked him one morning. She lay in a beam of buttery yellow sunlight, and he thought of technicolour marigold altars. A riot of colours he wanted to paint her body in, maybe outlined in a bright, crystalline, sugar-skull white of the sheets. She is gold, in her real sunshine. “Or even keep one on the wall.”

“I'm not that Catholic.” He shrugged.

“Sure you are, tabernako,” The pads of her fingers rested on his thigh for a long moment. He thought she might want to go again, that the seven orgasms weren't enough, but she tapped him thoughtfully instead. His profanity was Catholic, sure. But he didn't know how to say that. It didn't mean he believed in much.

“I think the first thing I can remember my father giving me is a rosary,” She said. “White ivory and gold. It's in a museum now, in the capital.”

“It sounds beautiful.” He replied lightly.

“Antonio's a piece of shit, but he has good taste,” Mari stretched, her entire body arching in a way that made him itch to paint. “At least the Catholics have an aesthetic.”

“I think I've got a higher rate of protestants than you, though.” Matthew pointed out. “I'm not so Catholic anymore.”

Mari laughed like the porcelain bells that he often saw on the porches of her neighbours. “You apologized when I only came six times. If that's not Catholic guilt I don't know what is.”

He snorted and shrugged again. “Just making up for what you spend on dairy when I come over.”

“You do consume more crema than anyone I've ever met. Even for a white boy.” She pondered this a moment. “Mostly white boy. Whatever. So you don't have them? Or you've never had them. The worry beads, I mean.”

“I have one.” He said, standing and opening the old trunk at the end of the bed to take it out from where it still lay. Father had never approved of it. Black and wooden and plain, he'd carved it from Scottish oak scraps while stuck in bed after the handover.

“It's pretty.” She said. It wasn't, and they both knew it, but he thanked her anyway.

“Monsieur Bonnefoy gave me one when I was born.” He said. “Black stone beads. It had his bulla in the center. Rome gave it to him, I guess. It was set under a plate with the virgin stamped in iron to attach it. To keep me safe.”

“Thoughtful of him.” She said dryly. "Strange how they're always squabbling over the sons of Rome."

He flushed, thinking of France's invasion in the 1860s. “Sorry.”

“What happened to it?” She said, batting his apology away with a wave of her hand. She rolled onto her back, her hair a cloud of wildfire smoke around her golden face, and he pillowed her head in his thigh and leaned against the headboard, playing with her hair. She liked that, she'd said once because he didn't mess with the pattern of her curls. “In a museum in Ottawa?”

“No,” Matt said. “He took it back. It was in their agreement, his and Father's. Monsieur Bonnefoy took his name and his protection back. Property too, but his politicians had already taken that back when they fled anyway. So my rosary and a few little odds and ends went back in a box. I had a set of apostles spoons from Uncle Alasdair he took back too, even though my uncle was my godfather.”

“That's petty.”

“That's Monsieur Bonnefoy for you.” Matt shrugged.

“I suppose at least you're not still paying him for the privilege of being colonized.” She said.

“Did your father take anything back?”

“You mean besides the pile of silver he dug out of me?” She raised a brow.

“Ah,” Matt said, feeling guilty all of a sudden. Maybe he was Catholic. “I just kept Elizabeth on the money and Dad's content.”

“Aren't you a lucky one,” She teased. “Now, why don't you get back down there and make your brother jealous all the way from Japan.”

“Well,” Matthew grinned, his angsty bullshit mood gone in a moment. Her thigh was warm when he kissed it. “He did say we had to get to know each other.”

“I'd—” She gasped. “I'd say we're getting…” The little intake of breath she made was better than praise. “To know each other.”

Send me a word, if it’s in one of my wip documents I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in

[crayfurbs]

New prototypes pt2.

Owl buddy! One of the very few main line buddy prototypes seen. Faceplate is notably different.

Tag reads:

1/6/99

"Furby beanie - owl"

7mm printed velboa

(Print of color c)

1L Temp

The product shape need to be revised per the final aesthetic sign sample

Final prototype so far is kinda boring but… interesting none the less

Graduation prototype. Seems to be a final production sample

Tag reads:

Furby specials

Item: Graduation furby

Vendor: Genalex

Approved for aesthetic

*signature stamp* 4p

I think this one is interesting because it reveals another one of the furby factory’s, being Genalex. Or ‘GE’

[crystal-cliffs]

gonna take a moment to compliment the hell out of your blog cuz oh my goddd it's organized in such a nice and aesthetically pleasing manner and it just looks so awesome it gets the ocd stamp of approval

also for someone who doesn't like purple you sure do use it a lot <3

OH MY GOD <3333

Ugh ily tysm

But I know right, I don’t know what happened tbh. I’m still debating on wether or not to switch the colors around 😅but the purple works for now ✨and I might not dislike purple as much as I thought I didddd

[gulyas069]

id have more things to say about the departure from the aesthetics that originally made DA good (and why some shit ass ugly aesthetics get the stamp of approval but others don't) but it's fucking Dragon Age so who fucking cares

[missbyng]

Update on the lesbian thing. Told my cousin I’m a lesbian and he (gay, my fav cousin) goes “oh we been knew. My memories fail me most of the time but not with that” so 😭👍

GAY COUSIN PEER REVIEWED i’ll even give you the stamp of lesbian approval . i felt as if we both had that part in our lives where we thought we were bi but it was actually the enjoyment of their aesthetics . spread , my spore

[azrielgreen]

Hi Az! I love your new fic so much, everything you write is a masterpiece 🔥 But I was reading your notes at the start and I just have to know: who are cherry Steve and Prism Eddie?? 💜

Ahh, thank you so much! So, "Cherry Steve" is what I call my favourite iteration of Steve ever written by another author, it's my name for him from the fic 'sweet boys taste like sour candy' by honeyvenom, I'm very attached to him.

Prism Eddie is... well, I'd have to explain a little about the fic I'm co-writing, so I'll keep it vague for now but essentially we're working on a story that explores the darker side of Eddie in a way that goes very hard and nuanced and deep.

It's a Dead Dove fic. It's probably one of the darkest stories I've ever worked on and while it will still have the "happy ending" stamp of approval, it's a violently gentle feral-in-the-woods gothic aesthetic, a cult washed fever dream story that's dripping in blood and low baritone praise that will absolutely fuck you up. The concept completely belongs to honeyvenom/thorniest-rose, and I'm lucky enough to write with her to make a little dark magic. Prism is the tentative title we have so far, hence Prism Eddie.

💜💜💜

[hiddencatacombs]

i really like the aesthetic your videos give off, you get Victor's stamp of approval ⭐

Well thank you, always nice to see more fans out there. 💪⭐️ what kind of "aesthetic" would you say my videos give off?

[duckapus]

On a lighter note, Splatoon Stuff! More or less.

As I've mentioned before, after Inkopolis glitched out of existence in the Emulator Arc many of the survivors settled in the Mushroom Kingdom, and of course brought much of their culture with them. Most notably, Inksports. By the point we're currently at in the AU timeline, enough of a Profreshional Inksports Scene has developed that a part of New Donk City called Blooper Heights has become a Splatoon Hub Area, and several parts of the city and out into the kingdom as a whole have been seeing use as Stages, both of which got the Royal Stamp of Approval and Official Splatoon League recognition after being in use for a few months.

Also, thanks to E. Gadd perfecting his Inkboi technology Inksports are now fully accessible to non-Splatoon characters as well. The new versions, rather than being boards (and board equivalents) that need to be pulled out and ridden through ink, are instead much smaller add-ons for the Ink Tank that give the user their own proper Swim Form.

Anyway, as you'd expect Blooper Heights has the usual Hub features.

The Battle Lobby is in a central tower (as expected) that has a large statue of a Blooper on top, which a Great Zapfish has decided to perch around. Though it hasn't been seen lately...

The weapons shop is the Funky Shack, run by Funky Kong (he is a weapons dealer after all), who's entered a business partnership with Sheldon of Ammo Knights.

The Crazy Cap store, run by Soldier and a Bonneter named Derby, is the headgear shop.

Stomp Zone is the shoe shop, and is run by a Goomba with really cool sneakers named Kicks.

The clothing shop is called Fresh Wraps, and is run by a Chum Salmonid who goes by Tortilla. I say goes by because Salmonids actually use titles instead of names but she needed something that would fit in a dialogue indicator.

The local branch of The Shoal is owned and operated by the Grid.

The local Shroom Mart carries Locker customization items, and Karen just so happens to work there as one of her many jobs.

Ever since the Haltmann War there's been a Salmonid problem off the Mushroom Kingdom coast, even without A.S.Swipe leading them, so the BattleToads Justice Crew has been on the case on Peach's orders, and has been recruiting part-time members to help with the large workload. It's basically GrizzCo with a different aesthetic.

Waluigi's Taco Stand is now much more official looking (aka it's an actual purposely built stand instead of a random table with a paper sign) and has a specialty menu that functions similarly to the Crust Bucket and Crab-n-Go.

There's a Pianta Gangster who's figured out the secret to Ability Chunks and is doing back-alley deals

And of course, there's an oddly-dressed Inkling people-watching near a Warp Pipe...