#5 of which are undiscovered

[lemons-and-pie]

You do not understand the war crimes I’d commit to get ahold of a Fiddleford plushie, old or young, I don’t care *flutters my big long eyelashes at themysteryshack.com*

[class1akids]

"I like food"

I saw many posts people saying how random Shouto's line is about praying at Touya's altar and realizing that he likes food - and I wanted to point to how it helps wrapping up his arc.

Shouto is saying: "When I was praying at Touya's butsudan (Buddhist altar), I suddenly realized something, I liked eating food. I realized there's more to me than just the person I want to become."

Food was a "negative space in the Todoroki family, so liking food was not evident to Shoto growing up.

In Shouto's flashbacks with his family, we never see him eat food. His only memory tied to the kitchen is the kettle incident. We know from Natsuo that Shouto ate alone, a diet prescribed by Endeavor, no doubt all geared towards maximum performance, rather than enjoyment. Not even knowing your siblings favorite food is the ultimate symbol of how dysfunctional the household was.

2. Food was a positive space in Class A - tied to comfort, bonding, friendship

In class A, Shouto starts eating with Iida and Midoriya after the Stain incident. Food becomes comfort, connection, sharing, caring, teamwork, etc. He experiences things like using his fire to prepare food together, eating together, cleaning up.

Many memorable Shouto-scenes are tied to Class A eating together (e.g. heroes cry too) and he connects to Inasa over a discussion about favorite foods (udon vs soba) which is a theme that carries over to his endgame with Touya

3. As the Todoroki family tries to reconnect, food plays a central role

As the family changes, they attempt to reconnect around the family dinner table (the famous sluuurp scenes). But Todoroki dinners end in a disaster - still they are useful bringing to the surface important conflicts and trying to communicate about them (another important theme discussed in Shoto Rising).

There is more in the light novels: Shoto's and Rei's decade late reconnection as Rei offers him a little kid strawberry milk that she remembers he liked when he was 5, and their attempt to connect with Natsuo ending up in a mush of ruined soba - it's all out of sync.

4. Food as a symbol of lost time and broken futures

Food is also very central for the hopes of a happier future: Enji's dream of his family at the dinner table, Natsuo's regret about years of missed meals, Shoto wanting to share noodles with Toya, all culminating in the heartbreaking realization that they have the same favorite food they'll never get to share.

5. Food as a symbol of processing grief and healing

Praying at the butsudan (the Buddhist altar at home set up for a deceased loved one) involves the preparation of offerings of food and drinks, which then the family eats afterwards. We see this practice referenced in Ch 249 when Enji prays at Toya's altar.

So Shouto making a reference to it is a shorthand for telling us that Touya died at some point, Shouto is still grieving him and just like Deku and Ochako, he's trying to make sense for himself out of their short encounter. So wanting to learn how to make chopsticks and bowls (a traditional Japanese craft of woodwork and applying lacquer, often involving intricate patterns) implies that he wants to bring Touya the perfect offering, but also that he's finally stepping outside fully of the framework Endeavor created for the family, where children are cast into roles of heroes, villains and by-standers, masterpieces and failures but never human beings. He's thinking about what connects him and Touya together and who they would have been in a different story.

6. Shouto's personal arc

Shouto's character was always about balance. Balance between past and future, ice and fire, duty and family, etc. So crafting chopsticks and bowls to elevate good food connects the grief and survival guilt with healing and growth. It is both a tribute to Touya's memory and a new possible hobby to express still undiscovered sides of himself.

It fits the theme of the chapter "More" - as it focuses on what lies beyond being a hero, reaching a goal, working hard and how Izuku, Ochako and Shouto have been transformed by their experiences of trying to save their villains.

But it also fits Shouto's personal arc that was about discovering who Shouto really is. Earlier in the chapter, Shouto refers to being constrained into the framework of a bigger story, where his choices are bound to happen. As a hero of the sidestory of that manga, Shouto has no choice but decide what kind of a hero he wants to be (not-Endeavor, like All Might, reassuring, family hero). Encounters with his family helped crystallized this image of himself.

But now that he's being released from this story, he can look outside of the framework of a hero manga and discover those "more sides than just a hero". And Touya was the last encounter - the last piece of that puzzle. I think there is a parallel in how Tomura destroyed much of hero society - Touya also destroyed the foundations of the Todoroki family, so something different can maybe built.

Without Touya, I think the family would have kept at trying to piece themselves together in a tense, fake kind of peace to keep up appearances. If nothing else, Touya's actions tore through that need of saving face - leaving them all exposed and grappling with the harsh realities of their actions. But I think it also allowed the younger siblings to step outside the cage their parents created for them and build things better from scratch. It allows them to find more sides to themselves outside of the logic of the Todoroki household.

[feefivefoe]

I like you sahsrau 👀✨ can we have more of it?

I'll probably go in region order bc if I don't I will forget who I have and haven't done-

But if you want a specific character, just request some in an ask and I won't mind. Max of 5 characters though.

Herta Space Station. Where 2 individuals awoke and b̵̢̛̻̙̗͚̝͚̥̣͕̆̉̊̌͆́ę̵̮̲̺̘͖͖̦̫͗̅̏͌̀̃̀̀͘g̸̰̜̠̰̞̉̽̈́̅͂̄ä̴̧̝͇͇̝̗̩͚́͆͛͝ͅn̵̡̯̙͇̼̣͍̪͂͛̔̀̃́ their journey across the cosmos. A place very recently attacked by the Antimatter Legion, dedicated to the Destruction.

Perhaps this is why you also found yourself awakening there, though already aboard the parked Express. Perhaps THEIR theory had some merit after all.

Asta

The head of the station is a busy woman, constantly juggling the academic and social issues from the researchers, whatever work Herta deems below even her puppets, and even more so after the security breach.

It isn't until a while after your awakening that she manages to actually meet you. There was gossip, sure. That a mortal incarnation of the being that shaped the universe was found on the famed Astral Express, while ported in their station. As if she didn't already have a millions missives directed her way...

That being said, there is something celestial about you that puts any doubts the astronomer might have at ease. There's no fear in your eyes as you wander the station. Whether that's because you believe the threat has been eliminated, or because you don't believe even the Legion would harm you? It isn't clear. Asta isn't even sure you know.

Still, it isn't often she gets the chance to speak with you personally. Expect her to have either Arlan or Peppy trailing you whenever you set foot on the station. Expect welcoming gifts any time you visit, expensive enough to make you sweat a little. She won't even notice.

For a non researcher, she sure does seem to dissect you with her eyes from across the room. Hint, she's mapping out constellations on your skin. Be it freckles, pimples, moles...she doesn't care. Any mark or blemish is just an undiscovered star. And Asta has always wanted to find stars that haven't been discovered and named yet.

Arlan

As the one who feels particularly at fault for the invasion, he's constantly a little paranoid that you may be hurt by some straggler. Just one intruder he or his department missed, one enemy that attacks the first person it sees. After so long, would any follower of Nanook even recognize you before striking?

He can't take that risk.

Meeting you in person gave him the same crushing sense of relief and hope that he had experienced in his younger days. A hungry child that was willing to fight people he didn't know FOR people he didn't know if it meant earning something to eat. Asta and her family took a chance on him, and now he was someone the station trusted to keep them safe.

And he failed at that. Sure, he did everything in his power. He saved people, even was willing to sacrifice his life if it meant protecting what staff he could. But the fact remains that some people died, and even more were hurt in some way. He can't fail like that again.

He had a second chance, his new beginning. And he will die before he loses it. Arlan, the more he sees you as an Aeon and less as a human, will start fusing his perception of you with his gratitude for his place in life. If anything happens to you, he'll die at best, and lose everything at worst.

He cares about you deeply, of course. As much as idolization will allow. You're entirely perfect. Which is why, as someone who has only been able to fight and not learn like the others, he will dedicate every bone in his body to protecting yours.

Herta (puppet)

Really? All that fuss, and the Beginning is just a human? A squishy meatsack like the rest of them? Not even a bizarre size?

For a while she's unimpressed, even seeing your existence as less interesting than the prospect of a person with a Stellaron inside them.

Ah. But what if the two correlate? What if you only made your appearance because of an intact, contained Stellaron? Oh, had the Destruction found a way to place direct essence into a weaponization of matter???

This hypothesis needed confirmed before anything else. But even she doesn't have direct access to the Cancer of All Worlds...

Off you go on the Express now, go on. She's sure you'll come across one eventually. And you make sure to come right back as soon as you do, okay? She'll even let you have top priority when you return. No waiting, no leaving a message. She's even set your specific number to alert her immediately when you text, bypassing the bot that sends messages for her.

It's a very special privilege to be able to contact a genius so readily, so don't abuse it, okay? Though, if you sprinkle in discoveries you make about your existence, she may be willing to chat a bit. Only for you, remember.

The Herta

And just as she predicted, you have a much different aura about you by the time she meets you in the flesh. Perhaps it's the time in Amphoreus, a land filled with 'divinity', but you hold yourself with the presence of an Aeon, now.

Someone who knows their companions would slit someone's stomach open merely because you asked them to, just to see if they would, and feel no guilt.

Droidhead suddenly seems much less impressive. She's wanted the Aeons to ask a question of her for a while now, tired of constantly being the one to seek answers. Herta feels those questions in your gaze, before you even open your mouth. She feels dissected, rearranged, and put back together with a single look.

It's a bit addicting, actually.

Oh, and the way you listen when you ask her something and she answers! It isn't like her to get so excited. It's out of character. It's wrong.

And that is precisely what makes it so fascinating. Just how dangerous will your presence be if this is after only a handful of encounters with a Stelleron? This isn't even a percentage of what you once were.

She tried to recreate you in the Simulated Universe, sending the Trailblazers (as your constant leeches companions) through over and over again, just to see how your AI acts, and growing more and more frustrated when it doesn't live up to the real thing. Maybe she needs more time to study the original in person...

[whencyclopedia]

According to UNESCO, an estimated three million shipwrecks are scattered in the oceans’ deep canyons, trenches, and coral reefs and remain undiscovered. These shipwrecks preserve historical information and provide clues about how people lived in the past. The term ‘underwater cultural heritage’ refers to traces of human existence and activity found on ancient sunken ships or retrieved cargo such as bronze statues and priceless artworks. The Spanish treasure galleon, Nuestra Señora de Atocha, is the world’s most valuable shipwreck, estimated to be worth over USD 400 million. It was part of the Tierra Firme fleet of 28 ships bound for Spain from Cuba in 1622 and carried the Spanish Empire's wealth onboard – creamy pearls from Venezuela, glittering Colombian emeralds, and over 40 tons of gold and silver. The Atocha sailed into a hurricane off the coast of Key West, Florida, and sank. Its riches were discovered in 1985 by famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher (1922-1998). Thanks to virtual exhibitions and tours, you do not need diving skills to explore the oceans’ underwater cultural heritage. You can take a panoramic tour of Henry VIII of England’s (r. 1509-1547) favourite ship, the carrack Mary Rose, which sank in the English Channel during the Battle of the Solent on 19 July 1545. Want to see a 2,700-year-old Phoenician shipwreck submerged in the central Mediterranean? The virtual museum ‘Underwater Malta’ has a 3D model of the ship and app on Google Play. Fascinated to know what the wealth of the Spanish Empire looked like? Take a tour of Mel Fisher’s virtual treasures and the Atocha. There are countless virtual maritime museum displays, but let us take a look at five shipwrecks with interesting stories to tell.

[buddierecs]

oblivious buddie fics

all of these are general audience, teen and up or not rated (no smut) make sure to kudos/comment on these amazing works :)

"and we're back...in the car again" by: beulaugh "buck gives christopher permission to finally watch jurassic park, and it sends eddie down a feelings spiral" word count: 11k important tags: christopher diaz has two dads, feelings realisation, co-parenting, fluff, first kiss buy back the secrets by: allyasavedtheday "after getting hurt on a call, buck wakes up thinking it's 2018. aka buck can't remember who eddie is but he's pretty sure everyone's lying when they say they're "just friends." word count: 18k important tags: amnesia, memory loss, hurt!evan buckley, hurt/comfort, fluff, friends to lovers, love confessions those two firefighters by: darkfairytale #thosetwofirefighters starts to gather a following on social media, as everyone tries to figure out if those two cute firefighters from the 118 in la are a thing or not word count: 64k important tags: social media, fluff and humour, crack, injuries, slow burn, ptsd idiots on reddit by: 7ate9 "buck and ana seem to keep clashing during eddie's recovery after the shooting. both turn to reddit for assistance, and both get answers." word count: 35k important tags: idiots in love, ana flores bashing, ptsd, shooting (s4), protective!evan buckley tear me to pieces and make me feel whole by: justhockey "and that’s when it clicks. in the pasta aisle of the grocery store, at 10am on a saturday morning. buck is frowning as he tries to decide what to get - and eddie is in love with him" word count: 2.5k important tags: fluff, didn't know they were dating, getting together, fluff, team as family, friends to lovers at every table i'll save you a seat by: siblysleaves "five times someone tells buck he’s in love with eddie and the one time he tells eddie" word count: 10k important tags: 5+1 things, friends to lovers, getting together, fluff early morning sunrise by: taecafune "in which buck wakes up half-naked next to his best friend and ends up facing hidden feelings he'd rather keep undiscovered." word count: 20k important tags: hangovers, pining, light angst, soft!buddie, friends to lovers, misunderstandings, fluff the art of making love. by: dylaesthetics "buck’s loft gets flooded, making him temporarily move in with eddie, who’s out and about dating guys now, apparently, and buck tries to figure out why the hell the thought makes him sick" word count: 6k important tags: roommates, gay!eddie diaz, mutual pining, idiots in love advice wanted by: cairparavels "eddie diaz takes to reddit to figure out why he hates his best friend’s new boyfriend so much." word count: 8k important tags: social media, misunderstandings, jealous!eddie diaz, tommy kinard bashing, idiots in love, fluff, angst, mutual pining, getting together appetency by: daisies_and_briars "when buck learns eddie has suddenly developed a sweet tooth, he falls down a bit of a research spiral about the cause behind unusual sugar cravings, and tries to help eddie with this perceived problem. eddie’s ‘problem’ isn’t exactly what buck has in mind." word count: 4.6k important tags: evan buckley cooks, worried!evan buckley, evan buckley has adhd, fluff, getting together the ducking of evan buckley by: browney3dgirl6 "buck doesn’t have any ducks for his jeep. eddie decides to fix that. aka 5 times eddie secretly leaves ducks for buck, and the one time he hands one right to him." word count: 13k important tags: 5+1 things, crack, soft!buddie, pining!eddie diaz, fluff, humour, jealous!eddie diaz, idiots in love, love confessions betting pools and barbecues by: withmeornotatall "buck is really good with kids. eddie knows this. he just isn't quite sure what it is he's feeling whenever he sees buck with children." word count: 7.2k important tags: fluff, love confessions, getting together

[nikethestatue]

Hi Nike!! Hope you don’t mind the random message - I’m prettyyyyy new to the fandom but have been on a deep dive as of late & I’ve loved all your fics/ hearing your thoughts on theories, development of story etc. and of course elriel 😂 I’ll not mention this whole shambles with BB/SJM cuz it’s driving me mad lol

But I did want to ask you - why do you think Gwyn is in the BC?

I was honestly shocked after reading the books & the BC at the uproar for Gwynriel. Genuinely couldn’t believe it - I’ve loved elriel since they first met…I a) don’t understand why people wouldn’t want them to be together & b) I can’t fathom that after the slow buildup, the connection/ parallels & they mystery of them that they won’t end up together!! I just don’t understand it!

But anyway. Some of the gwynriel fan art, theories etc have actually managed to get under my skin. And I just would love to hear your perspective as to why you think she’s in the BC? I read one that noted how something does shift between them in that scene - and it’s really got my worried 😔

Thank you!!

And sorry I’m sure many people have come to you for this 😂

Hi, no problem. :)

I think we need to establish a baseline for any argument about Elriel vs Gwynriel, which people tend not to do, but it would save us all a lot of time if we didn't.

Elriel-fact

Gwynriel-emotions

Elriel is based on facts. Facts from the books, facts from ACOSF, and facts from the POV as well. SJM only confirmed and set up Elriel as a romantic pairing. Not Gwynriel. Not in any way, shape or form. SJM had other characters--Nesta, Rhys, Cassian--notice that something was happening between Elriel, and not Gwynriel. These are facts. It's Elain who stood next to Azriel at the dais of the throne in Hewn City. It's the rescue of Elain that Azriel AND Cassian both discussed--something that didn't need to be discussed at all in Nesta's book, since neither Nesta nor Cassian were involved in the rescue. It's Elain and Azriel who held the new baby last, not Azriel and Gwyn, and not Elain and Lucien. Speaking of Lucien, it's Lucien who cut Cassian off rudely and told him that he isn't in Velaris to see Elain. And it's Cassian who noticed that Azriel cooled off towards Mor. Furthermore, it's Nesta who notices how the Elucien bond is affecting Azriel.

All of these are FACTS.

Now, in terms of the POV. Power, is the answer.

Because people very conveniently 'forget' that it wasn't just Azriel and Gwyn who were present in the POV.

We have, in fact, 5 people, who are actively present in the POV.

Azriel, Elain, Rhys, Gwyn and Clotho.

Can we agree that these are FACTS too? And that the whole POV wasn't about Azriel and Gwyn. In fact, Gwyn/Azriel scene was sandwiched between a bunch of other scenes. It's not the alpha and not the omega. It didn't start or end the POV.

The POV begins with Elain, and the entire thread of the bonus is about Elain and Azriel's feelings for her.

We learn about his obsession and his desire for Elain.

Elain then steps into the scene and accepts his gift, and then accepts and encourages his affection. We learn that she feels the same way.

We then have Rhys, who forbids Azriel from seeing...Elain.

We then have Gwyn, who takes his mind off...Elain.

And we conclude with Clotho, who comforts him and offers him a measure of peace, because she sees that he is sad. Over Elain.

So, what do we truly have? 3 people who exercise different types of power on Azriel--a High Lord, who forbids him from doing what he wants, and 2 mysterious priestesses who offer him comfort and assistance...or do we have 'the end of Elriel'?

We have different displays of power. Absolute power, undiscovered/secret powers and daemati power. Let's not forget 'Gwyn's power rumbled in response to Nesta's'. There is a hidden power in Gwyn (it's based on music and song) and that's why she was in the bonus. Just like SJM basically confirmed during a Live--Gwyn is likely a Lightsinger, and for a period of time, she made Azriel forget his sadness and sorrows.

It's no more complicated than that. Like we had an Elriel thread running through ACOSF, we had a Gwyn thread running through the book as well, and it was connected to her singing. We also had a thread of Clotho hearing and seeing things running through since ACOWAR.

Bonuses are there to expand on what we read in the book(s). That's exactly what this bonus did. Expanded on Elriel's situation, on how stressed and scared Rhys was over the pregnancy and its ramifications, the political situation in Prythian, and the powers of the Library priestesses.

It's no less and no more than that. It's not the 'end of Elriel' or the 'beginning of Gwynriel'.

[nowimjustastranger]

(can we get more xi11-5 ford and tommy lore? 🙏)

Of course! And here's the link to the initial post about Dad Ford and Baby Stan!

Despite his numerous reservations, Ford Xi11-5 would settle into caring for Tommy with surprising ease. Sure, there would be hiccups here and there, but fatherhood would suit him better than Ford thought. Unfortunately, raising a kid is a full-time job, especially an infant who is dependent on their parents for everything. It wouldn't leave any time for his research, which would start to grate on him.

Not knowing what else to do, but remembering that Fiddleford had a kid, he'd call his old collage acquaintance for advice on what to do. Fiddleford would be surprised that Ford has a kid, congratulating him and asking if the mother was around. Ford would say no of course, telling Fiddleford that he has sole custody of the child.

Once they got through the pleasantries, Fiddleford would ask if he considered a babysitter to watch Tommy while Ford works. And Ford considers it, deciding that it was a good idea even if he had to pay out of pocket. He thanks Fiddleford for the assistance, pausing when Fiddleford tells him that he's just a phone call away if Ford ever needs anything. Ford murmurs in agreement before hanging up.

Ford ends up hiring an older woman who is known as Abuelita among the locals due to how grandmotherly she was toward everyone, clearing out the guest room so she can be a live-in nanny. To Ford's pleasant surprise, Abuelita also does all the cooking and cleaning. Ford tries to raise her pay, but she refuses because he's already allowing her to live under his roof and buy groceries with his money.

If you guys haven't already guessed, when Soos eventually comes into the picture, he and Tommy are gonna be brothers in all but blood. The four of them will live together in the shack, Abuelita maintaining the house while Ford becomes a renowned scientist after bringing the various undiscovered species that reside in Gravity Falls to the public's attention.

[saturns-apple]

day 1 - egg

hii im doing 5 or so prompts from @ultrainfinitepit angeltober with my oc atlas [they/them]! i haven't talked about them in-depth here so think of this as an introduction to them specifically. each post will have snippets of lore and it'll all be actual canon stuff, not aus or crossovers which is what i. usually do. stay tuned for yappage

atlas isn't exactly an angel, but it's not hard to see the resemblance in more than just their visage. they are entirely unknown in nature to the 4 humans they interact with, and theories about them range from thinking they're an undiscovered animal to an alien to something not yet thought of. one thing is known for sure, though, and that is that they are Not familiar with basically everything regarding humans and their society.

they had no name when they originally came to earth. they went by nicknames for a time, "polly", "angel", "bird". but one day they showed a very obvious interest in a display globe set up in an antique shop they visited with one of the humans, kyle. they pointed at it, wanting to know what it was. he told them that it was a thing called an "atlas." the name has stuck ever since.

the connection to the prompt is. a stretch, admittedly. the greek titan atlas held the sky, in the form of celestial spheres in sculptures and stuff, and some people think of the universe as an egg so. yeah. the next few posts will be a lot shorter <3

[illafer]

De-othering of the lovecraftian other in Harlan Guthrie’s Malevolent(warning: massive spoilers for all 5 seasons)

.First we need to establish how Lovecraftain horror – and cosmic horror as a whole in fact – operates. It is, as most kinds of horror, heavily rooted in sensibilities and anxieties of the era in which it was conceived. H.P. Lovecraft – the father of the genre – is famous for holding fears that were typical of the era (distrust of racial minorities and outsiders in the US, which becomes especially prominent when one reads Call of Cthulhu) and some that were….less typical (his distrust of air conditioning comes to mind). Usually these anxieties become personalized or materialized in the figure of ,,Other” taking the form of a cosmic entity or it’s servants awaiting an opportunity to bring down humanity or to fulfill it’s devious goals with detriment to all of mankind. This dynamic is especially visible in his most famous work – The Call of Cthulhu where the titular being is being aided by a predmonantly black and foreign cadre of cultists which is not the subtlest thing Lovecraft could have written. There is also The Whisperer in the Dark where a race of crab-like aliens from Pluto (funnily enough undiscovered at the time of the writing and referred in the text as a ,,ninth undiscovered planet in our solar system) harass one of the characters and ultimately snatch his brain into a jar and on his merry way into outer space. In general Lovecraft has a tendency to associate evil with otherness, both the otherness from established predmonantly white masculine order of America and from the ,,regular” humanity as a whole.With that established, how does Harlan Guthrie approach this dynamic in his work? At first one would be forguven for assuming that we are faced with just another run of the mill adaptation and reinforcement of this established dynamic. With John presented as a likely malevolent (hehe) entity hellbent on using Arthur for his own ends and visibly trying to assert his own control over the situation they both found themselves in. He lies from the beginning, he’s avoiding disclosing any information, he belittles Arthur and disparages him whenever things do not go his way….. And yet, in hindsight in these beginning moments we can already see something odd happening with John. The moment Arthur considers (1/6)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

A Writer on Writing: Ronald Knox

10 Commandments of Detective Fiction

Knox was also a Catholic priest, which is perhaps why he was tempted to write a 10 Commandments of detective fiction. If you write such stories, thou shalt obey these laws:*

The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.

All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.

Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.

No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.

No Chinaman must figure in the story.

No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.

The detective must not himself commit the crime.

The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.

The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.

Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

*In truth, most of these rules have become outdated in current mystery fiction.

[NOTE: In Rule 5, the use of the word ‘Chinaman’ is jarring to a modern reader and clearly not an appropriate term of national or racial identity by modern standards. Knox’s inclusion of it in the decalogue in 1929 reflects contemporary prejudices including a lazy (and usually racist) tendency, promoted by contemporary authors such as Sax Rohmer, to cast characters of Asian origin as villains in crime fiction (see Van Dover, 2010). While Knox’s racialising ban on Chinese characters appears to be an injunction against the unthinking use of racist stereotyping in the plotting of crime fiction, it is ironic when we recall the Chinese origins of detective fiction.]

Ronald Knox was a mystery writer in the early part of the 20th century who belonged to the Detection Club, a society peopled by such legendary mystery writers as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, G. K. Chesterson, and E. C. Bentley. Among his novels: The Viaduct Murder, Double Cross Purposes, Still Dead.

Sources: 1 2

[kitteninthewindow]

Custom Fur Accessory Tutorial

I have been meaning to put this together for a loooonnnng time, but as there is still a lot of information about the process that is undiscovered, I held off. I didn't have the energy to deep dive and solve those mysteries either, so I just kept delaying and delaying. The circle of procrastination in progress!

It's long overdue though, and even though the mysteries still remain, I am sure there are others eager for even the partial scoop of knowledge I've managed to glean. And also thanks @angelapleasant for helping re-motivate me! I appreciate the patience as I worked through to remember all the steps.

This assumes you already know the main basics of making a mesh and using SimPE, so I won't go over every excruciating detail for this. I personally will be using a cat mesh for this tutorial, but the method is the same for dogs as well (they just have way more meshes/resources).

Tools: SimPE, a mesh editor such as MilkShape, and a photoeditor. I also put together some Custom Pet Genetics Resources, which includes everything pet related I've ever utilized when making pet cc. Everything is separated by cats or dogs, and then sorted even further. For this tutorial, I will be making a cat item, so the resources I'm using will be from there. If you're making an item for dogs, just follow the same steps but using the dog equivalent of each resource instead. I tried to make it organized, but it's probably still messy.

Step 1 - Slaved Vs Recolorable: There are two types of Fur Accessories: slaved and recolorable. I will only go over the process for slaved furcards, but the process for recolorable is pretty much the same except at one part.

• Slaved are my personal favorite fur accessories; they grab their color from that of the pet’s coat color. They don’t require any recolors, just one simple package and they’re all done. The only downside is that they don't have their own textures. Examples of slaved furcards are the furry belly fluff on cats and dogs.

• Recolorable is by far the most tedious of all versions, as it requires an additional recolor of the accessory to be made for every single fur color, and any fur colors that don’t have a recolor made for them will default to white. Do yourself a favor and avoid recolorable accessory furs at all costs. Examples of recolorable furcards are dog beards, dog eyebrows, and poodle fluff.

Step 2 - Make the Mesh: Open MilkShape and import "bodyfurcards.5gd" from the zMeshResources folder.* There's 5 groups, don't delete any, just make your mesh on one of the group layers already available. I, personally, put my meshes on the bodyfurcards7 group.

After you've made your mesh, map the textures to "fubodyaccflowingfurcardREMAKE.png" in the zMaterialDefinitions folder. This is from my AccFurCardsTextureOct2018.package, which is a default replacement of Maxis' original body furcard texture. It adds a square in the corner (for the dog equivalent, it adds a teeny tiny rectangle near where the eye texture normally is).

Once you're satisfied with the mapping, then make sure all the comments and joints are correct, and export. As a fair warning, pet weights are super weird, so your mesh might wind up with some strange issues such as morphing or floating.

*There is also a facefurcards version, but my attempts to use that one for custom fur accessories have been unsuccessful. I included it if anyone else wanted to try their hand at it.

Step 3 - Make the Mesh Package: In the zMeshResource folder find the BodyFlowingFurCardsMesh package. Open it in SimPE, Fix Integrity, then Save As under a new name. Then replace the GMDC with your exported Milkshape mesh, and save. Or don't, if you prefer a different way of mesh making. The TRULY important part is the Shape (shpe) file. Click it and make sure it has the correct number of parts in Plugin view. BodyFlowing (Cat) for example has 5 groups, so it should look like this:

Make sure the new mesh is in your Downloads folder, if you haven't already put it there.

Step 4 - Make An Accessory: Open up Bodyshop and make a brand new accessory. To make it easier on yourself, I would suggest choosing an accessory that has only 1 or 2 ages or genders. One age group if you are making a mesh for only adult cats, two if it will be for cats and kittens, etc. That way you won't need to delete unneeded overlays and other resources from the package.

Other than the number of ages, don't worry about anything else. Immediately import the accessory project into Bodyshop, and then close the program.

Step 5 - Clean Out Unneeded Textures: Inside your SavedSims folder should be the new accessory package you just made. Open it, and delete all the Material Definitions (TXMT) and Texture Images (TXTR). The only exception would be if you're making Recolorable Fur Accessories, then skip this step instead and skip step 6 as well. For the Recolorables' case, here is where you would import your recolor. Remember, each fur coat color will require their own recolors of your mesh, which means you will need to make a new accessory in bodyshop for every single fur color.

Step 6 - Link To Furcard Material Definition: Click on the 3IDR resources and let them load. Pick 3IDR, if it has a Resource Node and a Shape listed in the plugin view, perfect. Find the first available material definition line, and change it to the appropriate File type - SubType/Class ID - Group - Instance and delete any material definition lines underneath it.

0x49596978 - 0x08CCE154 - 0x1C0532FA - 0xFF7FC524

It's the same for both cats and dogs for some reason. I also included the "FUBodyAccFlowingFurcards.5tm.xml" in the MaterialDefinitions folder, if you prefer the package method. Repeat for additional 3IDR that have material definitions, ignore 3IDR that don't.

Step 7 - Link Accessory Package to Mesh: If you already know how to link, feel free to jump ahead. While still on the the 3IDRs, pick one that has a Resource Node and a Shape listed in the plugin view. Memorize the chosen 3IDR's instance. I picked the one with an instance of 0x00000801, which is usually the instance for adult female accessories. Click on Tools>PJSE>Body Mesh Tool>Linking Stage. Then select the mesh you made in step 3. Click on any other resource available, then save.

Step 8 - Edit Overlay XML: Click on the XMOL with the same instance as the 3IDR from step 7. As a reminder, I picked the adult female instance of 0x00000801 for this tutorial. Find the family string value, and copy it with ctrl+c and make sure you put it somewhere you won't lose it.

From there, right-click the XMOL and select "replace", then select the "XMOLReference.xmol.xmol" in the main folder. Paste the family value you copied earlier into the new XMOL, then save.

Click on the XMOL again and change the values of any lines necessary. For the Species line use 8 (cats), 2 (big dogs), 4 (little dogs), or 6 (big & little dogs, AKA puppies). For the Gender line use 3 (unisex). For the Age line use 18 (adults & elders), or 20 (kittens/puppies). The Parts line should be 8 or 2 (use 2 for meshes that need to morph and move with the pet's body/face, like the face fur cards). The Category line should be 7, but if they aren't then fix them. Delete the Outfit and Priority line, if they haven't been already. Override0subset needs to say bodyfurcards.

Step 9 - Choose A SubtypexBin: The most frustrating part about pet cc is that they have big limitations. For example, pets can only wear one "collar", and only a small number of custom fur accessories are allowed to be worn at once. You can have as many fur accessories as you want in the game, but if any two fur accessories share the same subtype and bin combo, then they can’t be used together at the same time. Pets can have a total of 10 fur accessories without conflict, but once you exceed 10 eventually some will have to use the same SubtypeXBin combo and thus be unusable together.

In the XMOL, change the Subtype line to B, if you're making a Slaved Fur Accessory*. If you're making a Recolorable one instead, use 0 as your subtype. Then change your Bin to either 0, B, C, D, or E. Now save.

Depending on your project, I might even suggest you choose a slot already filled instead of a free slot. For example, if you are making a wing accessory then choose BxC (BxE for dogs), or a head accessory that would look terrible with antenna then choose BxD (BxC for dogs), etc.

*There is a way to trick the game into allowing slaved fur accessories to use the 0 subtype. It involves loading the game with the fur accessory as a normal B subtype first, and then changing the subtype after. The game will then use the "old" version of the accessory, but with the subtype permissions of the "new" version.

Step 10 - Repeat Steps 6-9 For Additional Ages/Species: As it says, if you plan on making versions for kittens/big dogs/little dogs/puppies/etc. Have all of them share the same family, so that way they are all connected and can be passed down to offspring.

At the end, each XMOL should roughly resemble this, but with whatever their appropriate values are:

Don't forget to make sure the override0resourcekeyidx is correct for whatever line the material definition is in the 3IDR! ("4" means the 5th line, etc. The first line is number "0", so count the lines then minus 1.)

Step 11 - Delete Cache/Thumbnails/Registry: To quote @angelapleasant who worded it perfectly, pet cc is sticky. The game frequently gets stuck on old versions, and has to be forcibly updated. This stickiness is exactly yeah the subtype loophole mentioned earlier exists, but it can be very frustrating when testing new cc. In your game folder delete the Accessory.cache, Group.cache, cigen.package, ContentRegistry, and Thumbnails folder. Make sure AccFurCardsTextureOct2018.package is in your Downloads folder. Then load up the game, and check out your custom fur accessory.

If it all worked out, congrats! For Dogs if you mapped onto the tiny rectangle, then slaved fur accessory will appear gold with Maxis fur colors but custom colors will work just fine. Recolorable dog accessories on the other hand will require my MaxisAccFurDogFix to work.

I think that's everything, and good luck! Feel free to ask questions or reach out, I'll do my best to help. And if you do wind up making something, please let me know; I love seeing what people create!

[obliviouspoptart]

hey so i’ve seen zero posts about this yet today, which i mean the news broke only today but i feel everyone should have this amazing and disgusting imagine burned into their retinas as i haved

someone (undiscovered as of this posting) took over the tv screens on the first day of return to office at the Department of Housing and Urban Development showing a Generative AI video of donald trump giving elon musk (with two left feet) a toejob

warning: if you’re eating or have just ate, viewer discretion is advised

angle 1 [links to bluesky]

angle 2 [links to imgur]

no this is not a joke and no you will not be taken to a rickroll. this is 100% real [source: The Rolling Stones, accessed feb 24, 2025]

atop the video of, quote, “Trump making sweet, sloppy oral love to Musk’s bare feet”, are the words “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING”

it was reportedly only up for 5 minutes before they started unplugging tvs, as staff allegedly did not know how to turn off the monitors.

amazed that it happened, unfortunate that image will be in my brain for the rest of the day

[t0ast-ghost]

The last one… it’s been coming for awhile…

Here’s my thoughts on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

(Spoilers for- well— everything)

- Before watching this movie I was trying to figure out why they chose this name and was told by my mom it’s a Shakespeare reference which.. I should have guessed

- “A Nicholas Myer Film” Cool! Now we know who to blame or bow to

- The music is so fucking intense I’m worried now

- I know Christopher Plummer is famous, I can’t place the face though and I want to say I know the name from the muppet show

- WAIT. Michael Dorn… WORF

- Wanna let y’all know that there was a guy (Harve Bennet) who wanted to create a completely different sixth movie that would’ve been more like a prequel where they recasted everyone to have an “academy era” movie with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy shenanigans. Gene Roddenberry didn’t fucking like that idea (cause only he knows how to cast apparently)

- explosion :)

- Teacup that tells you what ship you’re on. I now understand why everyone hates Quark trying to spread his own brand when Starfleet clearly is trying to push their own into every single crevasse

- HIII SULU HIIII

- It’s nice that they gave him the ship he kept saying he was hoping for in voyage home

- I won’t make a fart joke out of “gaseous planetary anomalies” and I definitely won’t say that Q did it

- DAMN NOT THE TEACUP. NBC Hannibal would fucking hate this movie

- Forgot how much I freaking love George Takei and I am so happy they gave him more stuff to do in this movie

- Falling… for about 7 seconds which is about 4 seconds more than normal

- Fairly certain that’s Janice Rand (5:32) (edit: it is! Hi Janice!!!)

- “We have no need for assistance,” and “Stay out of the neutral zone,” sounds like challenge

- Kirk says “What are we doing here?” STARRRING IN THE SIXTH STAR TREK MOVIEE BABEYYYY

- Scotty bought a boat, Uhura teaches seminars at the academy, I love hearing about their lives, keep going

- “Where’s Spock?” Asked in the saddest wettest voice. Kirk’s got his priorities straight. Er- well- not straight exactly but they’re there

- Them trying to hide that the “special envoy” is Spock when Kirk is sitting there looking at him like this

- Sorry babygirl not taking in any of that information. I am taking in those beautiful eyes tho <3

- Ooooh starting this one off with Kirk and Spock on opposite political sides

- Kirk being the one who has to offer the olive branch probably because Spock thought he could trust him to be on the side of peace (which was a miscalculation cause he’s probably still pretty angry with the whole “you Klingon bastards killed my son” thing…)

- “I remind you this meeting is classified” as everybody splits off into chattering gossip

- Kirk actually getting angry at Spock for “volunteering” them. The giant empty room with Kirk in the shadows and only Spock in the light (plus that random person standing in a dark corner for some reason) augh the mise en scène is wonderful

- I don’t even know how to unpack all that. Kirk so prejudiced against the Klingons (finally taking a more antagonistic stance) and saying “You should have trusted me” WHICH IS WHAT SPOCK HAS ALWAYS DONE. Because he trusted that Kirk would ultimately want peace no matter how battered and broken he became.

- They changed Spock’s ears, made the points more curved into themselves

- Why does every new lieutenant like quoting regulations to Kirk? How many does he just regularly break?

- OH FOR FUCKS SAKE WHY DOES HE LOOK OVER AT SPOCK SO SOFTLY

- I love how shape her hair is (draw it draw it draw it dammnit)

- Whenever creating a Star Trek movie you need someone on the production team who loves the ship departing from space dock scenes

- “I can never forgive them for the death of my boy.” Kirk says my boy

- Okay yes, Valeris should have knocked before entering his room but Kirk should also know to lock his door when he’s talking to his diary

- Why is Valeris so involved in this movie? First she’s talking to Kirk and now we’re following her to Spock’s? Strange (my guess. She’s evil.)

- “It is a reminder to me that all things end.” Like your life. Twice. Also that’s a nice sentiment and all but it’s so sad with the context that even his own original timeline ends

- “Logic is the beginning of wisdom, Valeris, not the end.” YEAHHH OLDER SPOCK he’s got a more balanced view on the world and himself

- OKAY I absolutely adore the costume design, especially for Gorkon. Like the golden clips in the hair? The red suit adorned with studs and the giant silver necklace?? The beard??? Amazing

- I like that there’s a “chief of staff” for the Klingons. It’s like the manager at a party city

- “They all look alike” BRO THEY MOST FUCKINGLY DO NOT

- I love the chief of staff being so confused over what the napkin roll thing is. I feel that.

- Ah yes my favourite meal. Blue. With a side of orange of course.

- “I offer a toast. The Undiscovered Country…” Welp. He said it. Time to wrap up the movie

- YEP ITS SHAKESPEARE BABEYYY (thank you Spock for saying that it’s Hamlet, act III, scene I, cause I didn’t wanna look it up)

- “You’ve not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.” Quoi???

- Spock actively trying to stop Kirk from starting a war

- I think this is such a good part where the Klingons are trying to state their worries. The gradual (or not so gradual) need for assimilation to be apart of starfleet. This is a particularly big problem for the Klingons because so much of their culture has been entwined with violence which Starfleet seems almost hellbent to take away. As well as hearing troubling language such as “human rights” thrown in their faces

- IM SORRY. Kirk. You didn’t. You didn’t just compare someone to hitler.

- Spock looks actually so fucking pissed at Kirk

- “If there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it.” Gorkon dropping all the good lines

- McCoy just standing there adjusting his outfit and looking like the most tired man alive

- “I’m going to sleep this off.” “I’m going to go find a pot of black coffee.” Both Kirk and McCoy leaving Spock :(((

- The shaky swoop of the camera as Kirk and the rest of the bridge realize that somehow they just fired on the Klingon vessel

- Don’t care about the rest of the movie I just love the scene where everything starts floating on the Klingon vessel

- AUGH THOSE SPACE SUITS OKAY I DO STILL CARE

- Love me some good ol’ bad 3D graphics blood

- Times like this I wish I’d never skipped my tlhIngan Hol classes

- Floating dead Klingons. What. A. Scene.

- Aw Fuck Dude. The one guy getting gravity back online and everything falling to the ground and blood splattering and AUGHHH. Every time I think this scene can’t get better, it does!

- HIII MCCOY!!! He got to rush onto the bridge just to ask “are we firing torpedoes” and I appreciate that :)

- Kirk and Spock fighting over who should go to the Klingon ship and Spock saying “perhaps you’re right” and then putting his hand on Kirk’s shoulder made me more nervous than it should have. Darn you Wrath of Khan! You’ve given me trust issues. (but you're telling me this isn't supposed to look like a nerve pinch???)

- Also Kirk ultimately still trying to maintain peace. It’s his knee jerk reaction to this. He’s got what he’s said he’s wanted when incased in his own emotions about loosing his son but he knows it’s not right

- and finally, yay! McCoy gets to go on the mission!

- The actor for the Klingon that greets them is so good at the rage mixing with grief and sadness

- McCoy to the rescue!!

- Either Klingon blood is pink (like in that one game) or they wanted to keep it pg-13

- “He’s gone into some kind of damned arrest!” McCoy proceeds to straddle the Klingon on top of the table so he has leverage to do proper CPR… I have no thoughts on this that I’d like to share

- I do not believe McCoy’s punches would be strong enough to restart a heart. I’m sorry but they look so puny

- The blood bubbling as Gorkon dies is so fucking good oh my heart

- This is all happening at 2:00 fucking AM??? No wonder Kirk is tired

- “I sympathize, Mr. Scott.” Love when they make Spock say he ‘understands’ or ‘sympathizes’

- SAREKKKK!! Hehe hiiii

- “We are experiencing technical malfunction. All backup systems inoperative.” “Excellent. I… I mean, too bad.” A banger scene from Uhura and Chekov

- Rosanna DeSoto as Azetbur (the Chancellor’s daughter) plays the part so well. Again their portrayal of grief and anger while trying to get to peace is so fucking amazing. LOOK AT HER FACE

- Maybe I’m not so happy about McCoy being on this mission after all…

- The giant circular judgement chamber is so fucking cool

- MICHAEL DORN 🫵

- The sparking gavel <3

- I love the beginning of a translator translating all the Klingon’s words

- WORF IS THEIR DEFENDANT???

- That one Klingon that laughs at McCoy’s joke, wanna be friends?

- “You say you are due for retirement. May I ask, do your hands shake?” “Objection!” “I was nervous!” “No. You were incompetent.” This is like watching reality tv for me. That’s some good drama

- phew thank goodness they’re not killing McCoy. He’s too pretty to die

- The back and forth slow zoom in on McCoy & Kirk and the judge didn’t have the intensity they were going for but I appreciate the effort

- “Better to kill them now and get it over with.” That’s nice Scotty

- Oh shit Spock loosing both of his husbands in one sentencing. That cannot be good for the economy

- “An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains however improbable, must be the truth.” Ancestor? You mean fucking Arthur Conan Doyle?? Or Sherlock??? Either way that’s a hecking lore drop

- They’ve got a murder mystery aboard the Enterprise, this is my dream

- Hey babe, new Klingon dog beast just dropped (Jackal Mastiff)

- I let out an audible “aww” of pity when I saw McCoy wrapped up in a blanket

- I can’t believe I’m only halfway through this movie what is even happening anymore

- Had a brief pause to voice crackedly yell a little bit. Something along the lines of “I do not care. I do not care! I don’t care! I just want Spock- I just want them with Spock! I do not care!” And then let myself breathe for a second or two (and then made chicken nuggets). The outburst was born of a deep sadness from the fact that they can’t just be happy and retired together. Ok, back to the movie.

- Martia just handed Kirk a blunt change my mind

- “Somebody up there wants you out of the way.” of course, it can’t just be about actual politics between the Klingons and Federation, it has to actually be about Kirk and somebody trying to kill him. Dang it.

- “But the killers may still be among them.” …wait a damn minute.. you’re saying there’s imposters- *pulled away forcefully*

- I love how every commanding officer comes into the kitchen absolutely furious that someone fired a phaser

- On that note: why is there a kitchen? And why are they preparing various cooked birds? Who’s having a banquet tonight?

- What kind of bullshit evolution puts a species genitals in their knees?

- Hate how Kirk just lets McCoy go treat the highly dangerous being alone

- “Spock was right” NO SHIT HE’S LITERALLY AN ANCESTOR OF SHERLOCK

- YASSS SULU!!! Now get your rest you beautiful man

- Spock will literally leave no stone unturned for his husbands

- Either Martia has some really good prosthetics in the cave or she’s wearing someone else’s skin… NEVERMIND haha she’s just a shapeshifter

- Chekov was so proud of himself dammit. Too bad he was so utterly wrong

- Also Valeris is so expressive, kinda loving it

- The planet seems kinda nice in the daylight.. minus the dead body I’d say it’s pretty similar to winters in Canada (yes I made the joke, please delete it before posting) (edit: nope <3 just like Canada. Made your bed, lie in it)

- “Leave me. I’m finished.” Goddamn this man’s worst enemy is the cold. Both times McCoy just gives up and tells Spock or Kirk to leave him (First time being in All Our Yesterdays)

- “If they’re even looking for us.” Bones. Spock would literally NEVER leave the both of you. That aside the rest of the Enterprise crew also loves you like crazy

- Everyone laughing on the channel with the Klingons is so funny

- Holyy shit. Is Kirk going to fight.. himself???

- McCoy angel <3

- “I can’t believe I kissed you.” Yeah. Me neither. You didn’t actually have too.

- Poor McCoy holy cannoli oil. He’s knocked out and when he wakes up immediately gets trampled by two versions of his husband

- HIIII JACKAL MASTIFF HIII

- “Since you’re all going to die anyway, why not tell you.” When I go to watch the cinema sins video (I know I’m sorry) on this movie I bet they’ll say “klingonposition” or smt like that here

- If it’s just Chang that wants Kirk dead that’s so disappointing

- McCoy looks over and sees this

- “What you want is irrelevant, what you’ve chosen is at hand.” SPOCK IS ANGRYYYYY SPOCK IS PISSSED

- Please someone let McCoy take a shower, he stinks

- WAIT VALERIS WAS THE ONE SITTING IN THE DARK CORNER OF THE ROOM IN THE BEGINNING

- The distorted wavy angle that almost feels like it’s going side to side dutch angles with each of Spock’s footsteps as he nears Valeris

- I WOULD HAVE SCREAMED IN THEATRES

- Valeris is fucking crying omg what the actual fuck

- I honestly don’t know how to take that apart. I’m still shocked and screaming a little. The reactions from each crew member being just absolutely horrified

- I’m still reeling from that but I gotta acknowledge the fact that Spock says “I prefer it dark” when Kirk enters his quarters. So did I as a teenager and my mom would tell me it was bad for my eyes

- “You and the doctor might have been killed.” “The night is still young.” They are three months from retirement. Goddammnit let them just get to be retired together on a farm or condo or smt. I don’t give a shit just let them rest.

- “Spock, you want to know something? Everybody’s human.” NO THEYRE NOT IN THIS CONTEXT. That was kind of a big point made in this movie. I think the point you’re trying to make is ‘everyone in the whole galaxy forever will always make mistakes.’

- “Doctor, would you care to assist me in performing surgery on a torpedo?”

- Chang just said, “ah the games afoot” why are there so many Sherlock Holmes references in this one? Like I know they have a hard on for famous literature but this one is named after a Shakespeare quote. Just saying it’s a bit crowded.

- They really wanted McCoy to say smt doctory while making the torpedo so they chose “we’ve got a heart beat”

- I think it would’ve been better if Chang said to be or not to be in Klingon like they did at the dinner table

- So they saved the day? Yay? Kirk and McCoy should legally not actually be there- oh they’re all clapping for them who cares

- SPOCK GETS TO SAY GO TO HELL

- Kirk did not just fucking quote Peter Pan. Shut the fuck up.

- McCoy’s look says it all. And by that I mean just let him retire with his husbands. Oh my goodness.

- Just for my mom I'm mentioning the flared pants (Spock and McCoy look kinda goofy tho)

- Ohhh so this is where they change it from “where no man” to “where no one”

- And the Enterprise rides off into the sun. What kind of Grease ending is that?

Awwe okay all of their signatures at the end was a nice touch

I don’t have much more to say here, I forgot how fun but time consuming it was to do these thought posts. I really really appreciate everyone who likes these posts because it means y’all took the time to read this which is just something so meaningful to me.

Thank you all so much <3

Masterpost

[unnonexistence]

I would like to know the answer to 5 & 62 from the math ask :)

(math asks are from this post)

5. Are there areas of math that you enjoy? What are they?

I don't like to get TOO specific on here, just for privacy reasons, but broadly speaking the stuff I like is in these areas:

(the Map of Mathematics is from this video)

I probably should have left machine learning out of that lol. I had it in my head that this was "what areas of math are you interested in," and I haven't actually done any machine learning stuff yet. It's more something I want to learn about (to understand better what's going on with the AI boom & because it'll probably be relevant to my career).

There's also a lot of stuff I don't know much about but think is neat. Like topology. I haven't actually taken a course on it, so everything I know about it comes from the videos Cliff Stoll did with Numberphile (plus it being graph theory's weird cousin).

62. Are there any non-interesting numbers?

I had to think about this one for a while. We need some sort of definition, right? Let a number be interesting if some person at some point in time has been interested in it. Not the best definition because idk how to define or quantify interest, but let's go with it.

If we count being interested in a set as being interested in all the numbers in it, then all numbers are interesting, because if someone has bothered to define the set, then they must have been at least a little interested in it, right?

If we DON'T count interest in sets and are only talking about specific numbers, then there must be infinitely many non-interesting numbers, because there have been finitely many human beings and each human being only has time to think about a finite number of numbers in their life, so there are infinitely many numbers no one has ever spared a single thought for. Which is maybe kind of sad? Or not, idk, maybe they like their privacy.

This is actually a bad definition, I just realized, because very large primes are clearly of interest to a lot of people, and there are infinitely many undiscovered ones out there. Oops. Let's go with the set version and say all numbers are interesting.

We could go a step further and say some numbers are more interesting than others, and define interesting-ness as the total number of times a number has been thought about. I think the MOST interesting number in that case would be 1, because everyone who knows what a number is has thought about 1.

If we're just talking about numbers I personally don't find interesting... idk, 46 is kind of boring? I also don't really care about the complex numbers, but they have so many uses that I don't think I could honestly say they're non-interesting. They're just not my thing.

Thank you for asking!

[harpersdragons]

Theft in the Family...By Jason Todd Chapter 4

finally finished chapter 5, so I can post this one! sorry it's shorter than usual, the next one makes up for it though.

Chapter count has gone up, so we're looking at around 7 chapters now.

Damian had passed out against Jason’s chest shortly after Jason finished cleaning up, so he turned on a movie, relishing being able to hold Damian. It’s a testament to how much the kid missed him that he’s letting it happen.

When the movie is over, he debates waking the kid up—they really need to change safehouses before it gets too dark—but ultimately decides not to. A sleeping Damian is a rare sight. He carefully shifts so Damian is on the couch, and puts his gear back on.

Once he’s ready, he grabs Damian and heads out the window, making sure to reset his traps.

Damian wakes up not long after they leave, looking around as Jason lands on a nearby roof.

“Incoming Bat.” Damian states sleepily, words slurring slightly, and rests his head on Jason’s shoulder again.

“Which one and where?”

“Robin, approximately 20 feet behind you.”

Jason does not startle, ok?

He just spins around really quickly, that’s all.

Sure enough, Tim Drake is perched on the gargoyle behind them. “Give me the kid, Phoenix.”

Damian tightens his grip almost imperceptibly, and Jason rubs his hand over his back.

“No. How do you know he isn’t my kid?” He adjusts both Damian and his cape so the kid is wrapped in it.

“He matches the description of a missing child from Bristol.”

“Well it is Gotham, kids go missing all the time.”

“Give me the kid, Phoenix.” Robin jumps off the gargoyle.

“Incoming, Akhi.” Damian murmurs in his ear. Jason can see the confusion playing across Tim’s face,

Nightwing lands lightly, much closer than Robin. “Hand over the kid.”

“Nope, finders keepers!” Jason backs up a step, eyeing the distance between him and the edge of the roof, and readying his grapple. He lowers his voice to say to Damian, “Ready to fly, Habibi?”

“That is not how it works with kids! You kidnapped a child, give him back.”

“That’s how it seems to work for Batman, does it not? Besides, is it really kidnapping if the kid asked me to take him?” Jason watches as the implication of his words hits them, and steps off the roof. Damian grips his neck tighter.

Jason enjoys his free fall for a bit longer, then fires his grapple at a nearby roof. He barely pauses before aiming at his next location, he knows the bats are right behind him.

He leads them in circles for a while, at one point letting Dick get close enough he can snag and deactivate one of the spare trackers.

It takes a while to lose the bats, but eventually he does. He heads off towards one of Bruce’s safehouses (Jason hasn’t had time to set up more of his own, ok? …no other reason).

Before he gets there, he triple checks the tracker is deactivated, and just to be sure stashes it in a different location.

He makes sure to overwrite the security when he gets to the safehouse, ensuring Bruce won’t be alerted. Damian is asleep by the time he’s done, and Jason sets him on the couch once he gets inside.

Jason gets his gear off and stashed around the utilitarian safehouse in record time, and puts Damian to bed and takes the couch for himself.

They just have to remain undiscovered for a few more days, then Jason can return Damian and possibly steal him for a couple days every so often.

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Dick can barely see Damian when he lands on the roof, the kid is tucked securely under Phoenix's cape.

He’s calmer than Dick had ever seen him, arms wrapped around Phoenix’s neck and head resting on his shoulder.

Phoenix steps towards the edge, and then off, and his parting words ring in Dick’s head.

Is it really kidnapping, if the kid asked me to take him?

Damian asked Phoenix to kidnap him?

Why?

They haven’t been bad to the kid, hell, Dick was pretty sure they were leagues (heh) better than the League.

Why would Damian want to leave?

“Nightwing.” Tim breaks him out of his stupor. “I know what he said, but we have to go if we want to have even a chance at catching him.”

Dick nods, and together they jump off the roof, flying through Gotham after Phoenix and their little brother.

The crime lord leads them in circles, always ahead of them.

WIth the exception of one time, in which Phoenix was close enough to catch, but Dick had gotten distracted and the vigilante darted away before he could.

Phoenix continued the game, because it truly seemed like this was a game to him, for a while. They were chasing him for nearly an hour and a half, before Phoenix lost them.

Dick landed heavily on a rooftop, staring in the last direction he saw Phoenix go.

Tim lands behind him, and Dick kicks the ledge of the roof in frustration.

“N, we’ll get him back.”

“Will we? You heard what Phoenix said. Damian asked to be taken.”

“He might have, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that Damian is six. He’s in danger, and he doesn’t realize it!”

Tim is right, of course he’s right.

But something feels off.

Damian is a smart kid, raised by assassins. He knows danger.

He knows how to protect himself, even against assailants three times his size.

But there was something else.

Something in the way Damian was acting.

“Do you think Damian was drugged?” He surprises himself when he voices the question aloud. “He was …sluggish. Overly tired, slurring his words.”

“He’s also six, and it’s nearly midnight. Besides, according to B he had some sort of head wound in the alley.”

“So he likely has a concussion and he’s currently being towed around the city to god knows where with a crime lord known for cutting heads off. Great.”

“We’ll get him back, ‘Wing.” Tim, at least, sounds sure of his answer.

Dick wishes he could say the same for himself.

[dafpork]

Ask Game Dump

IT IS THAT TIME AGAIN! where i want to shoot my mouth off about the pig and duck and answer a bunch of ask games myself to satisfy such a craving. huzzah! i found a few and decided to dump 'em all in one post, so, yay! enjoy!

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What made you first ship them?

October 23rd, 2019, a day that shall live in infamy... I'VE SAID IT BEFORE but i don't think it was really a [BAM] "oh god i love these guys" type thing, i think it was a natural progression--i'd been watching a ton of Porky shorts since i was binging Bob Clampett's chronology, and he directed the most Porky shorts, and he also frequently paired him and Daffy up as buddies; i was accustomed to their dynamic and found it really charming, but seeing Boobs in the Woods (where Daffy makes passes at Porky twice in one cartoon and literally ASKS HIM OUT?), gushing over a then-leaked clip of Wet Cement where they were dancing together, and My Favorite Duck, which is one of my all time favorite pig and duck shorts and has Daffy calling Porky "my little cherub", ALL IN THE SAME DAY... that's at least when i realized, Oh Dang. likewise the allure of nobody seeming to pick up on how affectionate/close/whatever you call this they are?? it felt a lot like prospecting undiscovered territory, which is both a blessing and a curse

2. Favorite canon scene between them?

GOSH I DON'T KNOW... i really don't think i have a favorite scene with them because it's all just so... cumulative, you know? i feel like it's all a bunch of parts that make a very big whole... the gifs in my pinned are definitely some all-timer scenes for me though. the Boobs in the Woods scene where Daffy leaps in Porky's arms and asks him out is legendary, Porky getting all bashful towards Daffy's advances in The Prize Pest, the "i didn't know you cared!" bit in Scalp Trouble that is played with such an anomalous sincerity in comparison to Everything Else... Porky gushing about him and Daffy being childhood friends in Wise Quacks is very high up there for me too, just because it's so indicative of how unique and close their relationship is. no other LT character has this!! i keep stressing it, but it's true! god there's so much

3. Who cooks and who cleans?

self explanatory

4. Where/How do they live? (Together/Separate)

depends at which point we're at in the Actor AU! USUALLY for most of my art and stuff on here it's just assumed that they live together... and they eventually do move in together in the actor au so Porky can stop racking up Petunia's phone bill and having 7 hour long conversations with Daffy over the phone every night. but until then Porky still lives with Petunia and Penny, and Daffy... lives... somewhere

5. Biggest in-universe supporter of the ship?

well this is LT and in-universe/canon does not exist, the answer would be nobody because everyone hates each other... but poor Petunia and Penny have to sit and watch Daffy and Porky pretty much do every conceivable act with each other and then listen as Porky insists there's nothing funny business between them. and then he has a crisis when the prospect of there being funny business finally catches up to him and Petunia has to gently explain that she has known this the moment that Porky started taking about Daffy.

6. Who confessed first?

i STILL don't have an answer to this after six years. this is a big example of Porky and Daffy being such their own thing to me, i don't feel like there's ever a confession or a big first kiss moment or what have you... which i know isn't very realistic, but it just.. these things feel so baked in already. judging how i characterize them, it'd probably be Daffy through a very off-handed sort of "wait you mean we aren't already together"-esque remark?? i guess? but i really struggle to imagine either of them having a moment like this. but given Daffy's track record in the cartoon he's probably the most likely candidate.. and it's more of a statement/proclamation than a confession!

7. Who do each of them tell first about the relationship?

"does Daffy even have friends" was the very first thing that came to my mind and it made me laugh out loud LOL. I MEAN, PENNY AND PETUNIA OBVIOUSLY i guess that'd go for the both of them... but, again, it feels like they know about any prospects of a relationship before Porky and Daffy themselves do. it's a symptom of that "idk it just... IT'S ALREADY IN PLACE" type thing

8. Who makes the bigger romantic gestures?

if there's one thing Daffy is good at, it's being very flashy and Big! he's definitely the more likely candidate to splurge or treat Porky (and himself)--if he wants something he just kinda makes it happen LOL. Porky will occasionally surprise Daffy too, but he's not at all the initiator of the two

9. PDA, yes or no?

absolutely yes in private, no if you take the meaning of PDA literally... though i'm going by actor au adjacent logic, so make of that what you will. in private though i think they're more touchy than either of them realize (or, well, Daffy realizes it but he doesn't care. Porky's clinginess is more instinctual/accidental)

10. Who gets more jealous?

i answered the question below first, as i saved these two for last with this round since i was so torn.. but i guess Porky applies here too for the same logic listed below, which is really weird and unfitting to think about? but, comparatively, he would be, at least in the context of a relationship. it's not that Daffy doesn't care, but, also, he's very much more "go with the flow"/not nearly as uptight about these things (whatever "these things" means to you)

11. Who is more possessive?

i.. GOSH, it feels so weird to say Porky for this, doesn't this? but considering everything i've written for Porky and just my general headcanons for the two of them, i guess it'd be him... i don't consider him to be a possessive personality at all, and you'd think Daffy would be much more fitting, but in the context of a relationship... well, Porky just spent a chapter and a half of the actor au lamenting over Daffy being gone and half wishing Gabby was Daffy instead. likewise... i mean, i don't believe either of them would ever cheat on each other (because. with WHO.) but Daffy's definitely more the type to get distracted by a Pretty Gal and Porky would have to begrudgingly drag him away. so i guess he's "possessive" in that sort of way

12. Who proposes to whom?

another "i don't KNOW i can't see them getting married but maybe i just need to not take these all so literally" answer LOL. in the times i've tried to think about it though, it'd again probably be Daffy... BUT I DON'T KNOW, Porky's proposed to Petunia numerous times throughout their history together... if i were in charge i'd say Daffy though. Porky would also think he's punking him at first and insist that it isn't funny. and then he cries

13. Will they have kids one day?

I SINCERELY HOPE NOT!

14. How did their family take the news of their relationship?

WELL Daffy doesn't have a family so, i guess they can't take it poorly LOL. and i again maybe just need to have a better imagination, but i don't know if Porky would explicitly come out to his family (coming out to Petunia who's known from the start was torturous for him as is), but Porky's family would absolutely love Daffy and pretty much make him an honorary member of the family when they visit, so the effect is pretty much the same. one of Porky's brothers jokes about how Daffy should have been his brother instead and Porky gets mad about it.

15. What's something they love to do together?

what DON'T they love to do together.. i sincerely don't know how to answer this because i feel like so much can apply!! but i think they both love to drive each other a little crazy. i know that's not exactly what this is asking, but someday we shall impact the romanticism of them bickering like an old married couple... i do think they love getting each other's goat though and getting a rise out of each other. it's like a routine you'd see them doing on screen, but they're also just Like That and i think they're at least a little bit aware of it.

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Who is a night owl:

well actually he's a duc[A CARTOON BOMB EXPLODES IN MY FACE]. but definitely Daffy. i don't really have any elaborate explanation for this. it's just Daffy.

Who is a morning person:

EQUAL OBVIOUSNESS IN ANSWER APPLIES TO PORKY HERE.. Porky i think has to be a morning person because he's the type to have his whole day ruined if he oversleeps. he likes to feel prepared and enjoys the sanity and quiet of those few hours in the morning where Daffy isn't awake yet

Are they cuddlers:

🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️ not entirely on purpose? i guess it depends on what i'm drawing them for. sometimes my posts are from the point of view of an AU of an AU--the reality of the actor au, but in a universe where they are more open and intimate together. in that case they do all the time. but on my regular default, i think they just end up gravitating towards each other through the course of the night and wake up ensnared in each other. they're two different types of cuddlers

Who is the big spoon and who is the little spoon:

STILL UNABLE TO GIVE A DEFINITIVE ANSWER FOR THIS! it really depends, they switch... each combo has its benefits. i think i usually end up imagining Porky being the big spoon 60% of the time and Daffy being the little spoon 40% of the time, but i'm just not sure

What is their favourite sleeping position:

Daffy prefers on his back or occasionally stomach--Porky is a bit more versatile in that he doesn't mind side or stomach, but i usually imagine him more on his side. he's more inclined to curl up more, whereas Daffy takes up more space

Who steals all the blankets:

thank you Daffy Duck Slept Here for making blanket hog Daffy "canon". it's so true. just because it would be so annoying. i haven't mentioned it yet but he would be utterly obnoxious to sleep with for a menagerie of reasons. and DDSH is a seven minute short dedicated to that idea!

What they wear to bed:

i need to experiment with giving Daffy more clothes LOL because giving him pajamas feels like over-dressing him... but him wearing a nightshirt in Tick Tock Tuckered has always felt so wrong to me. he's naked. all the time. gross! Porky usually goes for the classic Bert and Ernie style button up pajamas. WHICH, SPEAKING OF. i'm actually wearing a pair of pajamas in that style right now, which i bought because they reminded me so much of Porky. they're a light mint green with white stripes and a collar and everything and i was just like ohhhh the spirit of Porky Pig is compelling me to buy these... you got it boss.

cutest Porky pajama outfit. ignore that he's threatening his cat

Who likes seeing the other wearing their t-shirt:

this is always such a funny question with them BECAUSE PORKY'S THE ONLY ONE WHO WEARS CLOTHES! which is why i need to experiment more with Daffy's wardrobe! and i feel like Porky would get all snippy if Daffy was stealing his clothes. and Daffy would probably steal his clothes just to make fun of him or something. so, if Daffy wore t-shirts in a parallel universe, he would probably enjoy seeing Porky wearing it. wait... though... Porky is probably more the type to give Daffy his jacket or something because "you ih-meh-make me cold >:("

Who falls asleep mid-conversation:

Porky definitely strikes me as the more likely candidate to take a catnap out of the two... maybe i'm just projecting my own lifelong hatred of taking naps onto Daffy. i HATE naps i always have too much energy and struggle taking them and he'd probably be the same. Porky has always had a very strong "i'm just resting my eyes" energy to me though... and there are some periods in the actor au where he is working himself wayyyyy way way too hard, and he doesn't function as well on reduced sleep as Daffy does

Who wakes up in the middle of the night with nightmares:

SO in previous iterations of the actor au, i experienced with the both of them having nightmares for angst reasons, and i kinda got tired of it? that's not really something i wanna bother with now, maybe that's just out of embarrassment for the direction i took the au at one point, so i don't really have an answer... i experimented with it more with Daffy i think since he was actually the big Angst Target starting out, but i don't think he would. i don't really have an answer for this, but i will say that Porky is the more finicky sleeper of the two and will wake up at least once in the middle of the night every night

Who accidentally punched the other in their sleep:

DAFFY. Daffy is so bad about this i definitely think he's a kicker and it would drive Porky crazy no matter how long he's used to it. which sort of leads into the next question?

Who can’t keep their hands to themself:

BOTH but for very different reasons. Daffy fits the definition of this ask more--he's more touchy and is definitely prone to accidentally locking Porky in a chokehold in his sleep. he tosses and turns and moves around a lot. but i've always imagined that Porky's a bit of a cuddler without meaning to--he never starts off that way, but he'll end up gravitating to wherever Daffy is. either way though, Porky almost always wakes up next to/on Daffy somehow, whether it be Daffy smothering him or him having nestled up to Daffy at some point. the first time Daffy discovers that Porky's a cuddler, he tells him and Porky is so embarrassed that he sleeps on the couch for a week after (after vehemently denying that he isn't a cuddler)

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