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masterthespianduchovny · 3 years

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Early on, Severus learned that life wasn’t fair.

He knew that he either had to accept it or drown in things he couldn’t control. Life was hard and unforgiving, but he was a stubborn kid. He refused to accept his circumstances at home and refused to back down at Hogwarts.

Nothing was handed to him in life. Severus had to work for everything, which was fine by him. No one could ever say he wasn’t deserving of anything he earned.

He arrived in Norway with not enough money for food and board. Slept under a bridge until he got his first paycheck, and then rented the poorest, dingiest accommodations he could find with his first paycheck.

He grew up in poverty. What he lived in now was better than where he came from.

But it wasn’t easy.

Living on the streets and looking for a job.

Without an address, many didn’t want to employ him. However, he was determined. He didn’t leave his home and Hogwarts behind to die on the streets in a foreign land.

Severus applied for every apprentice position he could find. Every single one turned him down. Refusing for that to dissuade him working, he offered to do maintenance work. Clean the shop, put away items, and whatever miscellaneous work needed to be done.

He was hired on the spot.

Admittedly, Severus was severely underpaid, but it didn’t deter him. This was only temporary. He’d find something better.

Within a few months, something better found him.

He’d heard a group students arguing about the ingredients of a potions brew. One of the students lack confidence in their answer and the other had 100% belief that they were right. The group went with the confident person, which infuriated Severus.

“Idiots,” he spat. “If you’re the best Durmstrang has to offer, no wonder many parents are sending their kids to Hogwarts. Don’t worry about failing potions, you’ll be dead before the professor can even assess it. He may be a spineless fool,” Severus nodded to the kid who initially disagreed with the overly confident teen. “But at least his brew won’t kill the lot of you...unfortunately.”

Storming out of the deli, Snape prepared for a duel as he discreetly got his wind. Sourly, he chastised himself. This was the first day in weeks he treated himself out to eat because he had to penny-pinch to make ends meet. If the original brew wouldn’t have resulted in death, he would’ve kept his mouth closed. Now he had to fight a group of boys, which gave him a flashback of his time at Hogwarts.

As predicted, the boys attempted to attack him. As Severus prepared to defend himself, someone intervened.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” The man looked at the six of them.

“Nothing,” the man repeated. “Well, the six of you will be doing nothing or SOMETHING in detention with me for the next month.”

Severus pocketed his wand. “I don’t go to Durmstrang,” he said. “I won’t be doing shit with you.”

Assessing him, the man raised an eyebrow, and then glanced at the guy he’d been walking with. “You’re not a student and you’re not a local, there’s no accent. What are you doing here?”

Inwardly, Severus sighed.

When the school term started, he realized he was in the vicinity of where durmstrang was located. Although he didn’t know where the school was nor did he attempt to look, it was quite obvious. The shops that primarily existed for students, the crowding every weekend, the adults who appeared to be monitoring kids.

Naturally, since no one knew where Durmstrang was if they weren’t a student, teacher, or anyone directly affiliated with the school, those who were were suspicious.

“Looking for an apprentice position. I didn’t finish my seventh year, so no Master was interested in taking me on,” he groused.

“Ha,” one boy exclaimed. “You couldn’t even pass your seventh year and you’re calling us idiots?”

Fuming, Severus said, “I did not fail my seventh year, I left. Besides, there was nothing left to teach me that I hadn’t already taught myself. Your potion brew solution is pathetic and if you want to die as a result of incompetence, perhaps they’ll include you in lesson books as to what not to do.”

The other man spoke, “How was their brew pathetic?”

Severus noted the time. “Ask them yourself, they’d love to dazzle you with their stupidity.”

The man scoffed. “Just like I suspected. A bloke full of himself who has nothing to show for it. No wonder none of the masters wanted you as their apprentice.”

Scathingly, Severus explained how and why the potion brew was incompetence at its finest. That him brewing with dirty utensils would be a safer option than whatever this group of boys could do in perfect conditions. Severus cited his Hogwarts issued potions book, which he pointed out was outdated, and said that he’d trusted that over what he heard the boys discuss (and he’d stopped using the books as a source to brew from after his fourth year).

Smiling, the man said, “My name is Rodolphous Sweeney. I own the potions shop two blocks over. I’d like to talk to you more about your potions knowledge.”

“I need to get back to work.” Severus began to walk off.

“How about this?” The man spoke loudly. “If you come back to the shop with me and make three potions without any assistance or mistakes, you can be my apprentice. If you’re successful, you can start today.”

Severus stopped. “Why would you do that?”

“Because you’re right,” he said. “Their potions brew was pathetic. And a wizard that can thoroughly discuss the finer points of potion making based off of a passing discussion is someone I want as an apprentice.”

Severus followed him to the shop.

“What’s your name, boy?”

“Severus Snape.”

Without breaking a sweat, Severus completed each potion with time to spare. In amazement, Rodolphous assessed each potion.

“They’re...perfect,” he complimented. “You’ve completed these in less time than any published books states.”

“I told you, the books are outdated,” Snape said.

“Or they haven’t been updated because there wasn’t anyone brilliant enough to modify any of these instructions to merit an update.”

Blankly, Severus stared at him. “It was obvious.”

“No. It wasn’t.” Rodolphous put the potion down. “What’s obvious to you isn’t apparent to most. You have a brilliant mind, Severus. With that being said, you do have a lot to learn. School only sets the foundation of what it takes to fine tune our knowledge and skill.”

Severus’ black eyes followed Rodolphous as he walked.

“We can learn from each other,” he continued.

As promised, Severus was immediately hired. Rodolphous explained the ins and outs of his business and what he expected from him. It all sounded reasonable to Severus as he shook hands with the potions Master.

In no time, he was Rodolphous’ top apprentice. Frequently collaborating on projects with him and trying experiments.

Severus lived in his dingy quarters for a year until moving into a modest apartment. Bought actual food, still cheap, books, and saved the rest. Unlike with his former employer, he was being underpaid. His time and skill was valued as he learned more about potions and how other disciples connected to it.

He felt like he belonged...somewhat.

When his mother became sick, Rodolphous gave him time to tend to her and promised he’d have a job to come back to when he took care of his personal business.

As he took care of his mother, his father was died. Tobias Snape was violently mugged and choked on his own vomit in an alleyway. His mother died little under three months later.

Complicated feelings swirled within Snape. His tormentor was finally dead. Although his father never put his hands on him, Severus still carried emotional scars. The baggage that continued to weigh him down even though his father was dead.

A weight was not lifted. He didn’t feel better or free.

He just was.

His mother was different and more complicated. He loved and resented her in equal measures. She could’ve left. Why didn’t she leave?

Why didn’t she get them out of there?

He held her hand as she laid dying in her bed. He hurt and wanted to forgive her. His anger pent up ready to boil over.

His heart breaking as her heart failed her.

What was the use in being angry?

At her at least?

Instead, they reminisced over the few happy memories they had. Severus got read his mother books and watched her favorite shows with her.

She died before the episode was over.

Another funeral in less than three months.

Severus was emotionally exhausted in a way he couldn’t deal with. In a way he didn’t want to deal with.

As he did years before, severus kept very little personal items. He sold what he could and threw away the rest. With the money he made from his sells, Severus fixed up the house and contacted a realtor about selling.

Keeping this house meant holding on to memories. Unpleasant memories.

Months later, he came back to Spinner’s end to finalize the deal.

He ran into Lily Evans—Lily Potter.

“Hi, excuse me,” she said.

For a moment, Severus was taken aback. Still beautiful. She always had kind eyes.

Ever since he left hogwarts, whenever he was at Spinner’s end, he used poly juice potion of Rodolphous. He didn’t want to risk anyone (Lily, really) recognizing him.

“Yes,” Severus said.

“Are you the new homeowner?” Severus looked at the sold sticker slapped on the for sale sign.

“No. Afraid not,” Severus said, carefully.

“Do you know what happened to the Snape family,” Lily asked. “I haven’t been around these last few years. I went away and...” she shook her head. “So, I haven’t been up on what’s been happening.”

Severus saw the wedding band on her hand. She couldn’t have married Potter, could she? And so soon?

“Unfortunately,” Severus began. “Tobias and Eileen Snape have passed away.”

Lily clutched her chest. “Oh my God, really?” Severus nodded. “Poor Severus. How is their son holding up?”

“No one has heard from him,” he said. “Apparently he disappeared a few years ago. Without a living family member to claim the house and no one paying the mortgage, the bank seized and sold the house.”

“That’s horrible,” she murmured to herself, tears welling in her ears. Lily wrapped her arms tightly around herself. “Their son and I used to be friends. We ended on a bad note before he disappeared out seventh year. I sometimes wonder where he is. If he’s safe. If he has anyone.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want anyone to wonder after him,” Severus said.

Lily furrowed her brows. “Everyone wants someone to wonder after them. Everyone. I knew Severus was having a hard time at school, but —“

“Lily, my dear, we have to go,” James said as he walked up to them with a baby boy in his arms. “You said it’ll only take a moment.”

Lily wiped her eyes. “Severus’ parents are dead and no one still has heard anything from him.”

Shocked, James looked at lily. “Snape’s a smart guy, he probably—“

“I have to go,” Severus said, walking away before they could speak.

When he returned back to Norway, Severus was quite and kept to himself when work was over. Seeing lily again was a surprise, but he still was grappling with the death of his parents. Why didn’t he feel any different? Well, better? His violent father was dead. Instead, he felt worse and aimless.

As Severus inhaled his cigarette, his co-apprentice Chorus joined him in the alley. Stealing the cigarette from his mouth, she inhaled.

“I was smoking that,” he grumbled.

“I know,” she said. Once again, she puffed, and then handed him the cigarette. “We’re having drinks tonight, join us.”

“I’m not in the mood.”

“I wasn’t asking.” A smile played on her lips. Chorus looked at Severus sympathetically. “I know you’re having a tough time. I get it.” Chorus was very open about the unexpected and tragic loss of her parents. “But you won’t feel better isolating yourself from everyone. Have one drink. If you aren’t having fun by the time you finish it, you can go home. My orders.”

If Severus could smile, he would.

Three beers in, he managed to laugh. Privately, each apprentice spoke to him and expressed remorse for his loss. They appeared to be genuine and offered to help if he needed anything.

Throughout his entire ordeal, they consistently reached out to him while he took care of his mother. Looked in on his apartment. Didn’t touch his station.

Didn’t laugh at him.

Calling it at night, Severus said, “I’m heading out.”

“Can you walk me home?” Chorus walked beside him.

“Uh...sure.”

They chatted on their way to his apartment. Chorus wasn’t just easy to talk to, she had an interesting mind.

“For a world filled with possibilities, wizarding society has such a limited viewpoint,” she said. “Dark magic. It’s a fascinating field of study, but people think that just because you find it appealing it means you’re evil. Or the bullshit categorization what is it isn’t evil.”

Severus arched an brow. “Such as?”

“I understand that there’s levels to this shit,” she began. “However, shouldn’t there be more strict guidelines other than ‘you have to mean it?’ That’s a pretty low bar. Why can’t there be ‘grey magic?’ On a purely academic level, dark magic is interesting as hell. It’s a rich subject because of how intense, unpredictable, and powerful dark magic can be. Who wouldn’t want to study that?”

They moved on to lighter topics.

When they arrived to the front of Chorus’ apartment building, she said, “You should come up.”

Baffled, Severus said, “why?”

Laughing out loud, chorus covered her mouth. “I told them you were bad at this.”

Humiliated, Severus began to walk away when chorus grab his jacket and brought her mouth to his.

She waggled her eyebrows. “You should come up,” she repeated.

“I, um—I,” he stammered.

Chorus kissed his again. “It’s okay,” she promised. “Just follow my lead.”

Slowly, she led Severus upstairs and into her bedroom.

Chorus took her time and was patient with Severus to which he was appreciative of.

#a creation of my own making #pro snape #snapedom

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glitteraffe-art · 4 years

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@sanguith first of all, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANKYOU FOR THE FEEDBACK! I’m a biomedical engineering student (engineering for medical devices), so most of my information for my MIP headcanons comes from ‘reading free online nursing textbooks at 11PM’ haha, so I’m glad to see actual feedback (and a video! I actually never even THOUGHT to look up videos as a source… ) from someone with real-life experience!

Onto the questions:

How is the needle+catheter placed inside the suit? / What happens to this discarded needle? It would need to be removed and thrown away somehow, and safely.

Presumably, the placing of the catheter & discarding of the needle would be done by a person (likely a trained staff member of Black Mesa in the case of the Mark IV), not by the suit itself.

This would be done prior to putting on the LCVG layer of the HEV (i.e., while the user is just wearing their undergarments). The LCVG and the Mechanical Compression Suit would probably have specialized splits/openings allowing for the tube to be passed through while minimizing lost cooling- and compression- coverage area.

How is the pump-tube connected to the PVC after the original insertion-needle is removed?

In my version of the HEV suit, I think that the MIP’s tubes would be attachable & removable from the main body of the suit (since being able to remove them would make it easier to put in a sterile tube for every use). The MIP itself would be accessible by opening up the back of the HEV torso armor (Haven’t decided where the opening/closing parts would be, but just based on the torso armor’s dimensions it would need to be able to come apart somewhere to be able to wear it at all.)

In order to connect the PVC to the pump’s tube, I think the pump’s tube would be replaceable for every use and would likely have a specially made sterile packaging that allows it to be put in as sterile-ly as possible. (Something like “just like the normal packaging that standard IV tubing comes in, but packaged so that the tube is straight, not coiled, and it can open at both ends”).

The steps to connect the pump-tube to the PVC would kind of be somewhere between ‘connecting to an IV’ and ‘replacing a cartridge on an insulin pump’. It would be like this, very roughly (didn’t put in every Use Hand Sanitizer/similar steps):

(Person doing this procedure is assisting the person who will be wearing the HEV; the wearer has had the PVC placed and is wearing the LCVG and Mechanical Compression suits. The PVC is threaded through the suits in such a way that its cap is free & not stuck under the layers)

(The HEV opens up at the torso and at the forearm areas when wearing—haven’t quite decided exactly How but it opens in those places)

Open up PUMP end of sterile tube packaging (careful not to open up the wrong end or all the way)

Attach sterile saline cartridge to PUMP end of tube

Place & lock cartridge + tube into the MIP on the back of the opened up HEV armor

Align & lock tubing into attachment areas on the inside of the armor up to a certain point (ensures it doesn’t get loose during movement)* , allowing some tube closer to the CATHETER end (which is still enclosed in its sterile packaging) to be loose for ease of maneuvering about

Put on armor except for the left-hand forearm armor/sleeve (left arm/hand still Unarmored)

Open up CATHETER end of sterile tube packaging, hold this end of the tube as the HEV internal computer instructs the MIP to flush the tubing with the saline (gets rid of air bubbles; saline will travel down the tubing. May need to catch drips from the other end, though)

Sanitize PVC’s cap with alcohol wipe & flush with saline from a syringe

Attach CATHETER end of tube to PVC

Align & lock remaining length of tube in place into the inside of the HEV armor as it is put onto the left arm (very carefully…)

(Admittedly this is a pretty rough answer)

*Kinda embarrassed to say I don’t have a 100% good answer for how the pump tube would be embedded/attached to the inside of the HEV, though.

I never got around to thinking too deeply about HOW they would be connected to the suit in such a way to be removable, since I wasn’t satisfied with any of the ideas I came up with, so ‘exactly where the needle and catheter are in the suit layers’ never made it to the final Anatomy of a HEV Suit 2.5. The only really finalized idea I came up with is that “the tubes are under the radiation-shielding layer but above the Mechanical Compression Suit” (since it would be bad to have the drugs be exposed to radiation, but also bad to compress the tubes)

Some examples of ideas I had:

Velcro or a Slipcover: fine for the accordion-like parts, but would squish the tube between the wearer and the armor, resulting in impaired flow

Recess into the radiation liner with Velcro or snap system: bad since that removes most of the protective liner from the tube area

A recess in the armor with Velcro or snap system: worried that would eat into structural integrity

Another idea—a raised/stiffened sheath underneath the radiation-shielding layer where the tube can fit in: again, squishes against the wearer, so probably irritating to wearer. Still not great.

Plastic U-shaped snaps that tubes can be attached into (cant remember what they are called): prone to breaking off, again irritates/pokes into wearer

Sorry for not having a definite answer there! Maybe I’ll have a strike of inspiration (or find a similar device from which I can draw inspiration, which is what I’ve mostly done) and figure out a better way to attach the MIP to the HEV in a month or three…

How is the catheter tube guaranteed to stay perfectly inside the vein when the user moves around, as well as minimizing the risk of blood loss or infection?

This was one of the fictional concessions that I made that made it into the final post. It’s straight-up not guaranteed to stay perfectly inside the vein as the user moves, but I figured, with so much of the HEV being only plausible with fictional materials, a fictional tape sticker that stays on & makes sure the needle doesn’t move at all even during extreme movement would be the least of my concerns with the build. (That clear sticker is called a sticker? I had no idea! I just assume all sticky things can be called a variant of a tape…my bad for not looking it up!)

A very plausible alternative to a peripheral IV-cannula could be a central venous catheter.

I actually did consider a central venous catheter, but I chickened out, haha! The mantra of engineering a medical device is “if it can be done in a less invasive way, do it in a less invasive way” With that in mind, I went with the peripheral venous catheter instead of the central venous catheter, despite the whole host of issues that come along with it (which you articulated very nicely!). Anyways I 100% endorse the idea of using a central venous catheter for the MIP instead of peripheral!

#courts talks #anatomy of a hev suit #cw needles #cw drugs #cw injections #thank you for the feedback!#sorry for any errors ive been staring ata screen all day #long post

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distinguishedcolordelusion · 4 years

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A Study In Stargate

*This one is a bit of a doozy so bare with me a bit.

All notations and theories presented are just theories(not necessarily facts) regarding what is known and what can be inferred from cannon and ambiguously cannon(the novels and RPGs) sources.

For the purposes of this study if an ambiguously cannon source directly contradicts cannon it is disregarded as being relevant to the main universe and should be regarded as occurring within an alternate reality.

~On with the study~

[What is a Stargate]

The Stargates are constructed of a tempered naquadah composite that is virtually indestructible through practical means.(impractical means would include destructive power such as destroying a planet or dropping the gate itself into a star) Though this is only in the case of second and third generation designed gates as the proto-gates constructed and dropped by gate-seeder ships are seemingly a great deal more fragile and less powerful.

[The Begining]

The Stargates and their network were designed by The Ancients(Altara/Altarans) and originally conceptualized by the Altaran Amelius – the night before they left their original home galaxy(The galaxy occupied by the Ori).

Note: Given the presence of a Stargate on Celestius it seems that either there were plans for the creation left behind when the Altarans left or perhaps more likely the Ori reverse engineered them for themselves after finding one during their hunt for the Altarans.

Though it would seem that the first actual gate(Permanent non proto-gate) built may have been the gate on the world Dakara as the location of the first Altara settlement in the Milky Way/Avalon Galaxy.

Note: This would make the Dakaran gate the oldest gate in the Milky Way having predated even Earth’s 50 million year old Antarctic gate

After the settlement of Dakara and the expansion into the Milky Way/Avalon, the Altara built a series of ships to explore new galaxies and lay the framework for more gates as they went. One of such ships was Destiny, the survey ship that follows in a 2000 year wake of the seeder ships.

Note: there were at least three seeding type ships ahead of Destiny. Potentially one to catalog planets and resources(Such as naquadah and other proto-gate building materials), one to lay the glyph point network, and one to seed the gates. Leaving Destiny to be the one to autonomously initiate the gate networks.

Note 2: It would have been during that same time period that the facility known to the Tau'ri as 'Icurus Base' would have been built to facilitate the necessary eventual contact with Destiny.

Note 3: It would be 10 million years between the launch of Destiny and the founding of the Alliance of the Four Great Races(est. 40 mil prior to start of series), implying that perhaps Destiny and her sister ships were instramental in the first contact between the Altarans and the other three races.

[How does it work?]

Within the Stargate network a Stargate uses six unique glyphs to find an address in the local galaxy network(with an additional glyph to dial another galaxy) and a final glyph as a Point of Origin. Each glyph represents a physical point in space within the local galaxy. The Point of Origin Glyph would hold the saved location data (the six glyph points that make up its own unique location) of the planet being dialed from.

Note: Given that planets and planetoids that are likely to have Stargates on or around them move a great deal(tending to be in habitable zones of their stars with much more rapid orbital period), the orientation of indicated by a gate address is likely referring to the surrounding solar system rather than an individual planet.

The implications of this would mean that multiple planets in a solar system would share the same gate address even if there were gates on multiple planets of the same solar system.

This being said a newly added gate can not dial out until it has connected with the already established DHD(which has a limited range – seemingly high orbit at most) or receives an incoming wormhole.

Meaning that in practice every world in that theoretical system would have to be a complete pair(Gate and DHD) on its own or an orbital path that brings them within range of the counterpart mechanism. Though they could create a very interesting Antarctica type scenario of being close but so much farther than they think.

On the gates themselves there are either 39(Milky Way/Avalon gates) or 36(Pegasus and Proto-gate networks) glyphs. From this we can surmise that after subtracting the unique Point of Origin Glyph from the count a gate network needs to have at least 35 points to properly work.

Note: Though Pegasus gates only have 35 spacial points and a Point of Origin Glyph, Proto-gates seem to have 36 spacial glyphs being able to use any glyph as a substitute Point of Origin(kinda like pressing 'ENTER' rather than the typical journey path.)

With all Proto-gates behaving in the same way and being known predisesors to the second and third generation gates the implication is that perhaps all systems have a minimum of 36 spacial glyphs and for whatever reason the Pegasus system only uses 35 of them.

If a gate network only needs those 36 points to function that implies something special about the fact that the milky way gates have 38.

It uses these glyphs to connect with another gate found at that point in space and establishes a captive stable wormhole between them. Each gate in the pair takes on a specific role: the dialing gate converts the traveler into its most basic components (sub-atomic particles) and transmits it, while the receiving gate reassembles the transmitted matter back into its original form.

[Gate Sounds]

Each glyph on the gate has a corresponding sound attached to it so that a gate address may be spoken aloud.

Note: Though the glyphs can be used as a mathematical conversion and numbering system for the gate network itself, the sounds associated with the glyphs are not actually numbers but rather a mnemonic device.(Think variables. Like pi = π =3.1459..., the sound has a value attached to it but the sound itself is not a number)

While the Milky Way/Avalon gates have a mnemonic device attached to them most spoken addresses are unwieldy and unpronounceable. Shorthand for the naming of planets based on their gate address seems to be reading whatever the glyphs are on the center ring of a DHD counter clockwise from 6:00 position

Original Shorthands would have been (Dakara) Ravacla Fin De'shi- Declara, (Earth) Vabo'Othe Ze'ka-Theva

Note: Theva (Latin pronounces 'Th' as a sharp T and hard H separately rather than 'th'. Making it sound like T-hev-Ah.)would have morphed into Terra which would morph into Taura in Goa'uld thus creating the word Tau'ri- from Taura, which would change in definition over time to simply refer to all humans and colloquially defining how goa'uld view humans i.e. beasts of burden/vessels.

Note 2: Obviously this naming technique is not always accurate due to planets being renamed whether by their inhabitants, by their conquerors, or words simply morphing over time. Not surprising since many of those names would be some 50 million years old and for the better part of three million years would only have been passed along verbally if passed down at all.

It would also theoretically allow for more than one planet to have the same shorthand

It is unknown if Pegasus gates ever had a similar mnemonic device attached to their glyphs or not. The only ones who would likely still know would be the wraith who as a primarily telepathic/nonverbal species would have no need for such a thing

Note: Most wraith only communicate with their fellow wraith through telepathy, as such verbal communication may actually be uncomfortable for them being physically unused to the task.

***Headcanon: The reason Todd talks so much is due to his imprisonment and functional solitary confinement with the Genii. Being unable to hear any other wraith he talks out loud to be able to hear something.

[Implications Part 1]

That being said it has been shown that third generation gate technology accessories – such as puddle jumpers – are capable of using second generation gates even though they are not constructed for use in the same local system. The implication here is that the gate system or perhaps the puddle jumper's onboard dialing computer is doing conversion math based on the numerical positioning of they glyphs on the gate itself.

Note: The inner track of Milky Way/Avalon gates spins clockwise and their default position is at rest over the Point of Origin Glyph(mostly because that’s always the last glyph dialed anyway) going by that logic the conversion from milky way to pegasus glyphs would be 1:1 going clockwise around the gate until reaching the end of the corresponding numbered glyphs.

However this means that puddle jumpers would be incredibly limited in their access on the Milky Way/Avalon network however due to the fact that their systems only have glyphs up to 36(including Point of Origin)

***Headcanon: While Atlantis is Earthbound the Tau’ri crews put number stickers on the puddle jumper dialer to remember what symbol goes where. (They’d make Sheppard annoyed and he’d spend a Sunday peeling them off.)

Given that an address has to be dialed in the proper order for it to connect to its assigned planet, each place in a gate address represents an actual spatial orientation.( for example: up, down, left, right, front, back) Using six addresses that share a the same glyph with each address using it in a different place we could find the physical location in space of that glyph and determine the orientation pattern of a gate address allowing the the ability to know where all the glyph points are in space.

Note: I feel like there would be an actual buoy(a buoy may be the most accurate term here as traditionally buoys are used for navigation as a location marker whether visual or digital relay), satellite, or star located at each of the glyph points allowing for the DHD to track the points and compensate for stellar drift. Something physically present though perhaps out of phase

Note 2: With the nature of the gate network’s automatic updates it feels like there should be a sort of equivalent to a hard drive somewhere in the galaxy that records the buoys location and that is what the DHDs(and potentially Destiny) calculate from rather than compensating for nearly forty unique points in space drifting for thousands of years every time it dials.

Buoys would ping to the network harddrive. And the network harddrive would ping to an active DHD.

Given that the Point of Origin Glyph is actually a shorthand of the dialing gate's own spacial address this means that a gate can't dial out unless it 'knows' where it is, thus an incoming wormhole to establish its connection with its DHD(hence teaching its DHD where it is relative to the glyph-points) or a pre-established gate system is needed.

Note:This would give reason to why the gate aboard Apophis's ship could not be used to escape even after they dropped out of hyperspace even though there was a DHD present

With this in mind and conceiving of the fact that the gate system is capable of dialing every gate simultaneously. It is implied that there was a single point that dialed all other gates to 'set' their Point of Origin Glyphs.

The problem with this situation is that for a single point to commit a mass dial the system would have to already have a known location point. At the beginning of the gate system the only established location points would be the glyph-points themselves. As all the glyph-points are counted as stationary values being calculated none of them could have been the origin of the first dialing. This means that the first system dial would have had to have been done by a known value that was not part of the calculating values.

In a proto-gate network all glyphs on the gate are used as locational markers with Destiny acting as a real time drift calculator and DHD. The implication of this means that all 36 symbols on the gate have a corresponding physically located glyph-points.

The only glyph on a Stargate that is not part of spacial calculations in second and third generation gates is the Point of Origin glyph.

The implications of this are that the Point of Origin glyph-point has both a physical location within the local gate network and a means in which to dial out – making it the location that would have been responsible for the original mass dial that established the gate network in the first place. Once the mass dial was done the DHDs would save their own locations to the Point of Origin glyph and the glyph-point's actual location would be lost.

For the Point of Origin glyph-point to be the origin of the first system dialing it would have to have a archive of all the other glyph-points and the original gate addresses placed.

Note: This is what makes the most sense as Destiny has the ability to recall addresses to worlds in a galaxy that is new to it(as its journey is one that moves ever forward rather than crossing paths it has already been to). Meaning that its getting its information from somewhere.

And with its sister-ships being two thousand years of travel time ahead of it they are doubtfully within reach for quick information access.

It would have to act as a sort of mainframe for maintaining the entire local galaxy's gate network. This location would have to hold all the data of the gate network including a full and complete atlas of gate-baring worlds within the local system and a sort of hard drive that would maintain precise spacial coordinates of every glyph-point, which it would relay to the DHDs as periodic network updates.

*from here one the Point of Origin glyph-point will be referred to as the Archive Point

(A/N:...this sounds a little too eerie ...did Ba'al find the gate network harddrive?)

Note: The idea of Ba’al having found such a system or device as the core of the Milky Way gate network isnt too terribly far fetched as Dakara was held deep within his own territory for much of his reign.

[Implications Part 2]

Mathematically calculations start with 0 instead of 1(this was made a big deal in series by Carter). Zero is the starting point and the collective idea of 'where you are now/begin' thus in and of itself it is its own set of coordinates. It would be no different within the complex calculations of the Stargate system. For all intents and purposes 'AT' – the Point of Origin glyph and the first glyph on the gate – would represent Glyph Zero in the gate's calculations between worlds and galaxies.

On most worlds the DHD is missing a glyph(not the Point of Origin). This missing glyph is not always the same one, indicating that certain points can not be safely called upon from certain areas of the galaxy.

Note: This means that Earth's use of a dialing computer over a DHD is yet again capable of circumventing safety protocols built into the gate network by its creators (~Sigh~ Damn Tau’ri).

If one knew the physical locations of the missing glyph-points they could map out the space between the worlds with missing glyphs and their corresponding glyph-points. With enough of these missing glyph worlds mapped there would be an intersection that would indicate where something was being avoided.

The gate network is millions of years old and seems to disregard most spacial anomalies that may occur within a travel path. This leaves the question of what would be enough of a hazard that the gate system would not allow a traveler to pass through?

It has been shown that large scale disturbances such as black holes and other cosmic events can affect gate travel meaning while it isn't a visible stream going from one place to another it is a physical presence capable of being interacted with to some extent(similar to being out of phase was portrayed).

It has been implied that Ring technology and Stargate technology function on similar principals with magnitude and distance being the defining differences between them. With this in mind that would lend the idea that there is an object between the missing glyph worlds and the worlds with addresses baring those glyphs that would either prevent travel or cause damage if traveled through.

Operating under the idea that Stargates and Rings function similarly then theoretically an un-designated Stargate (one without a DHD to give it an address) could 'catch' an incoming wormhole if it was positioned exactly between those points.

With that in mind it is possible that the disconnected space could be the location of the Archive Point. A Stargate that has no address within the system. As the Archive Point would be subject to automatic mass dialings to update and maintain the entire gate network trying to gate elsewhere from there would have the possibility of ending very badly(solid matter being transported through multiple wormholes doesn’t sound good) Thus having the possibility of even crossing over it by accident would be problematic.

(A/N) Now I need me a SG1 grade goof up scenario where the team accidentally finds the most important piece of the entire gate system by sheer dumb luck and the broken safety protocols of using an Earth made supercomputer in place of a DHD.

[Going Further than Before]

Within the gate network the commonly used seven glyph address reaches planets within the same galaxy.

With the addition of an eighth glyph the gate becomes capable of reaching worlds in other galaxies. Though achieving an eight glyph lock requires a specialized control crystal within the outbound gate's DHD (or just using the SGC's dialing computer). The seventh non-origin glyph in an eight symbol address is not a locational marker as with a standard address but rather a network extension.

The glyph in question would be defined by numerical value assigned to local networks seeded by Destiny and its sister ships as they were reached over the course of their journey. This would explain why a jury-rigged power generator was enough to reach Othala in the Ida Galaxy(Seventh glyph is #9) while a ZPM was required to reach Lantea in the Pegasus Galaxy(seventh glyph #20).

Note: Something odd to note on this matter is that the Milky Way/Avalon galaxy has a seventh glyph of 3. Implying that it was not in fact the first galaxy the Altara tried to settle and plant gates in.

With the Milky Way gates having 39 glyphs and Pegasus and Proto-Gate networks having 36 glyphs the network would have a design flaw of only being able to go as far as 39 galaxies out from the Milkey way and even fewer from Pegasus and the Proto networks. This would indicate why they instituted the 9 symbol address lock to gate to Destiny directly. Past a certain point it would have been impossible for them to reach the ship otherwise. And yet the logs aboard Destiny indicate that that Destiny and the gate-seeder ships have seeded more than sixty galaxies with Stargates.

Under very specific conditions(thus far only shown to exist on two known planets) a nine symbol address can be entered and this causes a complex series of equations to be pinged within the Stargate network to pinpoint the gate aboard Destiny.

As it is known that the Altara always played the long game with everything they did it wouldn't make sense for them to even passively go through the effort of seeding so many galaxies without having the ability to reach them. Something that, even with the ability to dial Destiny, would eventually be lost to them without alternative methods.

This implies that the network itself has the means to connect to those additional galaxies. With the maximum possible number of galaxies to be contacted it would have intended to use the 38th galaxy as a buffer point to reach any further galaxies.

This would also explain why the Milky Way/Avalon gates are different than Pegasus/Destiny gates as the Milky Way/Avalon gate system is both a local and intergalactic network hub. The 38th galaxy would be a second gate network hub.

Note: Given that the Milky Way/Avalon network seems to be both a hub network and not the first in its sequence it is unknown if the other two local networks prior to it would have been attempted to be hub networks as well or are simpler local networks like those of Pegasus

Potentially, given that they would predate Destiny's launch, they would be second generation styled gates like those in the Milky Way/Avalon Galaxy(Dakara being the oldest known gate in existence is still of the far sturdier second generation style gate design) but only having the 36 glyphs of a Pegasus and Proto-gate system.(making them reachable within the system but not really part of the fully fleshed plan to the grand scope of the gate network as a whole)

Likely the gate networks of those galaxies themselves would have been much smaller especially if the reason for them being left behind was the Altarans trying to put more distance between them and the Ori. There might have only been a handful of gates in the networks at all, only connecting to Altaran occupied worlds or worlds with resources vital to them.

Note 2: With the possibility of either a reverse engineered stand-alone network or a stolen concept network existing in the Ori home galaxy and without the set up of Destiny and her sister-ships or even the gate network as a whole the Ori galaxy should have been cut off. For it to be used to connect to the main established network of Stargates would require negative calculations within the gate system itself.

Following this logic any further galaxies in the second network hub would use glyph 1 for the 38th galaxy while the 38th galaxy would use a double Point of Origin address(where both the 7th and 8th glyphs are the Point of Origin – The mathematical Glyph 0 – to reach the hub galaxy previous to it.

This would create a bridge along hub networks with each one down the line dialing a double Point of Origin address to reach the one prior to it while the one prior would simply dial its 38th galaxy glyph. Hub network points would fall in galaxies 3(Milky Way/Avalon because...reasons?), 38, 76, 114, and so on. This bridge type system would allow them to circumvent the ever increasing power requirements of further travel as well as ultimately removing a projected limit to the number of gate systems.

***Headcannon: What happens to reach Destiny so many galaxies away is the Archive Point(the hard drive of the gate network) initiates a gate buffer bridge(like the Carter-McKay Gate Bridge only much much bigger) to conserve as much energy as it can to send travelers directly to Destiny.

However each link in the bridge is an intergalactic dial along hub galaxies and requires a guaranteed massive amount of power to begin with, thus reaching Destiny requires exorbitant amounts of energy.

Icarus-Class planets have unique high energy naquadria cores allowing for large amounts of power on demand(making the entire planet's core functionally one big naquadah generator). For that reason they are the only worlds that receive gates with DHDs capable of running the nine chevron program code regardless of the presence of all nine chevrons on all gates. And thus the only gates that would be used in the Destiny Bridge buffer dial would be on Icarus-Class planets.

This also entails that one of Destiny's sister-ships must scan the entirety of a hub galaxy to find an Icarus-Class planet to settle a prime gate on to continue on its chain. Unfortunately this means that if a Hub-galaxy loses its Icarus-Class planet then any connection to Destiny will be lost with it.

#Stargate #Sg1 #stargate atlantis #stargate sg1 #stargate sga #stargate sgu #fan theory #headcanon

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hypmic-info · 4 years

Text

HypMic 3rd Western Poll May 2020

Thank you for your participation! These are the final results for the 3rd HypMic unofficial Western fandom poll. After a month of work on this, we’ve got some estimates for general fandom opinions. Do you agree with the general opinions, or disagree? Let us know!

Please click the read more to view our results!

The sample size was limited to 1000 votes, giving a rough indication of the demographic of consumers outside of Japan as well as opinions. The word ‘Western’ has been used, but we have opened this poll to those who were able to read enough English to understand this poll. As such, it is considerably Euro/American-centric.

This poll received the most activity through Twitter, given that the series is most active on that platform. The poll was also posted on Tumblr, Facebook and the HypMic wiki. Commentary has been given on sections of the poll.

Results will be posted on Twitter and Tumblr.

THE CONSUMPTION OF HYPMIC

This section is to be read as ‘What percentage of HypMic English fans have consumed x media?’ The drama tracks and songs have been split by album. Manga bonuses have not been included in the first two questions as at the time of this poll the 2nd Manga songs/dramas were being released so it would be unfair to add them to the poll.

BAT and DH order is written as such due to later stats in the poll where Doppo and Sasara were next to each other but their official colours were too similar so I used the order in Division All Stars songs rather than release order.

Pre-Season: Referring to the start of a battle season.

Battle Season: Referring to the battle/versus songs or dramatracks

1st Manga Bonus Songs: Songs that were included with the manga

DAS Songs: Division All Stars songs - songs that include the whole cast

Merch: Anything that is official HypMic merchandise or has content of HypMic. Plushies, nendoroids, magazines, stickers etc.

Shibuya Division: Fling Posse Drama Tracks and The Loneliness, Tears, and Hope of a Puppet are the most listened to drama tracks of their respective pre-season. Both belong to Fling Posse.

The debut drama tracks of Dotsuitare Honpo (Back Again, Partner) and Bad Ass Temple (The Heart’s Conviction Can’t Be Broken) were listened to less than the other debut drama tracks.

Yokohama Division: MAD TRIGGER CREW Drama Tracks and Chaser from the Past (Matenrou: Before the 2nd DRB) were the least listened to dramatracks of their respective phases of the pre-seasons.

The Champion album has the least listened to drama tracks (Testimony and Me Against the World).

In all cases, the songs have all been listened to more than the respective drama tracks for their album.

The 1st Manga Bonus songs have not been listened as much as the other songs.

This can be due to the fact that these songs cannot be accessed for free legally.

The most listened to songs are the Division All Stars songs with the full cast.

This can be due to the fact that these are the only songs that are available in their entirety on YouTube.

Fling Posse has the most listened to songs of both pre-seasons.

Buster Bros!!! has the least listened to songs of the 1st pre-season and Matenrou has the least listened to songs of the 2nd pre-season.

The Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- side D.H & B.A.T manga was released as the poll was being conducted, so was not included in this poll.

-Before the Battle- The Dirty Dawg is the most read manga. -Division Rap Battle- side B.B & M.T.C is the least read manga.

By the numbers given for listening to the Spotify radio show, Hypnosis Radio, 80.4% of this sample size has listened to the radio - 19.6% have not listened to Hypnosis Radio.

Around half of the fandom has bought merch - this poll has included plushies, magazines etc. and all from official sources.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Due to the limitations of Google sheets, Africa does not show up on the chart for location as the voter percentage is too small.

The age ranges used are of a similar range to those of Japanese polls. [ARB’s recent survey and the age demographics of Comic ZERO-SUM, publisher of the FP/M manga]

93.5% of voters use translations regardless of Japanese comprehension.

The option for ‘I bought multiple CDs’ refers to both different CDs and multiple of the same CD during the battle season.

Of those who were around for the Battle Season, 15.66% of this group did purchase a battle CD.

CHARACTER VOTING

For comparison, here are the rankings from the previous poll (January 2020), From Japan (October 2018) and the Yumejoshi poll (December 2019)

Names marked in GREEN show an increase in vote percentage. Names in RED show a decrease in vote percentage. Names in BLACK show that their popularity rank has not changed. Names in BLUE show the character has been added to the polls through voter suggestion.

The arrow besides the names show if their rankings went up▲ or down▼. No markings are set if the character’s position has not changed.

1.2% of votes had a minor character as one of their favourite characters (Ichijiku, Nemu and Yotsutsuji - No other minor characters were suggested).

These polls vary in selection method as our polls looked at the top 3 votes of each character.

From Japan’s method has been stated as a poll but we were unable to find the original. Rio and Jiro’s reason for being unranked is unknown.

The Yumejoshi poll was done by people suggesting their favourite characters for rankings, meaning that it was not entirely based upon HypMic. What is shown here are those who ranked. The ranking in their picking of a 100 is listed against them.

These three polls have varying demographics. From Japan’s spread seems to be more broad, while the Yumejoshi poll is specifically yumejoshi/female. Our polls were taken only for English speakers. In addition to this, there is some bias based on who the poll was spread through followers.

For example, the poll was created by a Gentaro stan and main supporters of this poll are Dotsuitare Honpo stans.

Doppo dominates the polls in both English-speaking and the Japanese fandom.

Characters who received less than 1% of the votes are listed as other: Jiro (0.8%), Rio (0.9%), Rosho (0.2%), Rei (0.4%), Hitoya (0.5%)

Names marked in GREEN show an increase in their vote percentage. Names in RED show a decrease in vote percentage. Names in BLACK show that their popularity rank has not changed.

The arrow besides the names show if their rankings went up ▲ or down▼. No markings are set if the character’s position has not changed.

The only significant change in division rankings shows that Buster Bros!!! are now more popular than MAD TRIGGER CREW.

Dotsuitare Honpo is the lowest in both the favourite division rankings and perceived lyrical skill.

SONG VOTING

Songs marked in GREEN show an increase in vote percentage. Names in RED show a decrease in vote percentage. Names in BLACK show that their popularity rank has not changed. The arrow besides the names show if their rankings went up▲ or down▼. No markings are set if the character’s position has not changed.

Debut Songs: Songs that received less than 2% of the votes: New Star (0.3%), G Anthem Y-CITY (0.7%), Meikyuu Heki (1.6%), FACES (1.3%). These songs collectively had 3.9% of the vote.

Songs that received less than 2% of the votes: Sensenfukoku (1.1%), New Star (0.1%), G Anthem of Y-City (0.8%), Bayside Smoking Blues (1.0%), What’s My Name (0.6%), Scenario Liar (1.3%), 3$EVEN (1.9%), Meikyuu Heki (0.5%), Own Stage (1.2%), FACES (0.6%), One and Two, and Law (1.1%), School of IKB (1.2%), Uncrushable (1.4%), 2Die4 (1.0%), You Are Therefore I am (1.9%)

Songs marked in GREEN show an increase in vote percentage. Names in RED show a decrease in vote percentage. Names in BLUE show that this song has been added for the poll.

The arrow besides the names show if their rankings went up ▲ or down ▼. No markings are set if the character’s position has not changed

BATTLE SEASON OPINIONS

BATTLE SEASON HOPES

For our final question, we asked “What are your hopes for this battle season? Any plot points, theories etc. that you want to mention.” This question was not required, but we received around 300 answers to this. We condensed the material into basic categories so you don’t have to sort through all 300.

Here are some choice points made about the plot:

What does Samatoki actually think Ichiro did to Nemu?

Could Saburo hack Ramuda?

How will Fling Posse react when they realise what Ramuda’s done to everyone else?

How do the other Ramuda clones interact with each other and everyone else

What if this is all Gentaro’s book?

What if Gentaro’s brother is the original Ramuda clone?

How are Chuo seen by other women?

Would Chuo rig the matches? Especially against Matenrou since their victory

What if they cloned someone else?

What if they reshuffled the divisions? Or added more divisions?

And here are a few funny comments before we go... just cause there were a few silly things added in that made us laugh. Yes, these are all as written.

Yo when is it gonna be confirmed that Ramuda has big top energy?

A song named "ALTERCATION ALTERCATION ALTERCATION"

I hope Rei gets his shit checked.

I'm a fictional doctor's wh o re so I'm rly in this for MTR at the moment sjfjskfkd I hope we get to hear how much the seiyuus have improved too compared to the first season!! :D

Doppo and Hifumi's wedding. Dice finally got some money. Everyone go on a hunt for emus. The 6 divisions go fishing. Rio making proper and digestible food. No more drama protecc ramuda.

I just kinda want them to kiss ngl

CHUUOKU DOWN! JUSTICE FOR ALL!!

i jokingly headcanon that gentaro cant read but i kinda hope its true. also i want sasara and ramuda to interact i think itd be kinda epic

I want Ramuda reduced to scrap metal

- - - - - - - - - - -

And that is it! After a month of work on this, we’ve got some estimates for general fandom opinions. Do you agree with the general opinions, or disagree? Let us know!

Here are the links to the aforementioned polls from before:

2nd Western Fandom Poll: https://twitter.com/DevsPallas/status/1213842101605150721

From Japan: https://blog.fromjapan.co.jp/en/anime/hypnosis-mic-division-ranking-result.html

Yumejo: https://note.com/yumejo/n/nca7de3e94d91

Comic ZERO-SUM readership: https://www.comipress.com/article/2008/06/25/3603.html

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teffyjeffy · 4 years

Text

Fabric Tears (Part 3)

NEXT (Coming soon to the Mystery Shack!)

PART 1

PART 2

PREVIOUS CHAPTER

ONCE UPON A TIME...

TABLE OF CONTENTS

With the sudden task to redecorate the dining room for a tea party materializing in front of everyone, an aura of calmness had settled within the Corduroy household, much to Wendy's relief, Mabel's joy, and Dipper's confusion.

First off, the winter garb finally came off, now that there was no longer the threat of a bear running away while the coats were being removed. Dan was more than happy to house them in the closet located near the entrance. The closet, which originally was only keeping plaid colored jackets in there, now had a splash of color with the trio's coats added to the rack.

The three Corduroy brothers returned in record time with a box of Candyleaf, and whole bunch of other boxes of tea flavors. They all talked over each other with excitement, talking about how the ghostly couple were so thankful for the boy's good manners that they were allowed to the other boxes for free. Dan roared with good natured laughter and got a second kettle of water boiling.

Wendy and Mabel were taking turns between keeping an eye on Mr. SnuggleLots and setting the table up. Mabel made sure to throw a bunch of cute stickers on the tea cups. Wendy taught the bear how to play card games, and thankfully, cards were not in Mr. SnuggleLots's diet.

Dipper and Frisk were taking a break, sitting at the bottom steps of the stairway and watching Mabel, Wendy, and everyone else running around and transforming the dining room into a top quality tea set for Mabel's wild tea party plan. Dipper and Frisk were also using this opportunity to keep an eye on the pets, with Dipper holding onto Waddles, and Frisk giving lovely head scritches to Toby

"Back in the summer, I bet I would've chopped the poor bear's head off by this point or something," joked Dipper.

"I have a feeling you would've faced some resistance from Mabel if you tried that," replied Frisk, holding the torn scarf in their hands and making sure that Toby was far away enough to not consider biting it.

Dipper laughed, setting Waddles down to give himself a moment to stretch his arms. "Yeah, probably. Still though... I don't know if she would have come to this crazy conclusion to throw a tea party if she hadn't met you. Maybe instead, she'd have... pfft, I dunno, encased him in ice and shipped him off to the North Pole?"

"It feels like any scenario is possible if Mabel is behind it," teased Frisk.

"Just her, huh? Sounds like someone's picking favorites," laughed Dipper, giving the child ambassador a playful shove on the shoulder.

"Maybe I am~ Are you willing to prove to me that you are the sibling who's worth more of my attention than your sister?"

"Ohhhhhh no, don't go there. Last time Mabel and I had that kind of dispute, things got... pretty ridiculous. I've hated carpets ever since..."

"If you're going to continue being secret about your stories, you should stop hooking people in like that. I was all down for letting your story remain untold, and then you bring up this sudden hatred for carpets? You have captivated me, Dipper."

The stairway softly echoed with the barks of Toby, the snorts of Waddles, and the chuckles of Dipper and Frisk... when another sound made its way to Dipper's ears.

It sounded like... sobbing. From upstairs.

"Everything okay, Dipper?" asked Frisk with a tilt of the head. "You got awfully quiet."

"I'm going to check up on Toriel. Call me if Mabel needs me," Dipper suddenly declared, making his way up the stairs.

"Huh? Dipper, wait-" began Frisk, but Dipper was already gone. Giving a sigh of uncertainty, Frisk resumed watching the rest of the group set up the table while the pets messed around.

Dipper was able to find Wendy's room pretty quickly, having memorized to route to get there, which he was embarrassed to admit. Without thinking, we twisted the knob and opened the door.

"Toriel, what's wrong? I heard... sobbing..........."

The room was almost completely dark, the only light source in the room coming from the paused image on Wendy's television. And there, sitting on Wendy's bed, legs folded and drawn in to her chest, was Toriel; her eyes were puffy and red, there was a prominent trail of tears on both of her cheeks. Even Papyrus could have deduced that the Ex-Queen had been crying.

Not wanting to stare, Dipper shifted his attention to the television set. The image on the screen appeared to be a home recording of some sort, the kind taken with a big vintage video camera. The background depicted a well maintained house with a wooden floor and fireplace. In the foreground...

There was a little goat kid, eyes wide with wonder, and tears welling up at the bottom of those eyes. He had white soft-looking fur, a tinge of pink to his cheeks, and just... the purest smile that Dipper had ever seen. Pure enough to rival Mabel's 1000-watt grins.

Toriel's yelp of shock jolted Dipper back to the present moment.

"Dipper! I- I wasn't- that is, I didn't... I didn't anticipate that anybody would need me so soon-"

"Nonono, it's my fault, I... I thought you were in trouble and I came running in-"

They both eventually stopped talking over one another and a thick silence fell on them.

"...........I- I'll go-" Dipper started.

"No, it's-" began Toriel, her voice hitching.

...

Toriel continued. "Frisk has... told me about you. How your curiosity tends to drive you."

"Well um... it's not something I'm proud of exactly... but yeah, I'd say that description fits me."

The awkward silence returned, but this time the intensity was a little lighter.

Dipper was the one to break it this time. "Listen, you don't need to tell me anything, my curiosity should not be a factor in this-"

"I appreciate that, Dipper. But let's be honest. If I had you leave now, things will be awkward afterwards, and they'll stay awkward for who knows how long. I.... I might as well tell you, now that you've already seen it."

For one last moment, silence filled the room, the only audible sound being the buzz of the old television set.

"......please come in," finished Toriel.

Not a word was spoken as Dipper warily entered Wendy's room and shut the door behind him, submerging the room in near-total darkness once more, minus the light shining from the TV. Toriel looked down to the floor. She said nothing, but slowly lifted the paw that held the remote... and hit 'play.'

"M-mom?! You made this for me?! It's gigantic! I want it! I WANT IT I WANT IT I WANT IT!!!"

"Ha ha ha ha! I know, it looks delicious, doesn't it! But that's no excuse to forget your manners. How do you ask for things that you want, my child?"

"Mom, may I please eat the cake?"

"Nope!"

"What?!!!? B-but you said... you said that I-!"

"Aha ha ha ha! I'm just teasing you my child! Before I can let you dig in though, your father and I need to sing for you!"

"That song again?? You sing it every year though, ha ha!"

"Maybe. But it is a tradition~ And it's worth singing for you, my bundle of sunshine~"

"Stoppit mommmmmm! You're embarrassing me!"

"Hush now, little one~ And close your eyes~"

The image suddenly went dark, and Dipper realized that the lights had been switched off in the household... then the screen lit up again, by candles being lit on the cake. The light gave the goat child a very calming orange glow. He looked so... happy.

"Okay! You can open them now!"

And he did. Dipper watched him gasp... somehow, the goat child's smile managed to get even bigger.

"♫Happy Birthday to you ♫..........♫Happy Birthday to you♫.......... ♫Happy Birthday dear-"

"Asriel" mouthed Dipper.

His lips had moved before his brain, or heart, or even his voice could process it. But he just knew. This was him. This... was Asriel. The child that Frisk had tried to save... and lost.

Dipper vaguely noted that at some point, tears had welled up in his eyes and they were currently trailing down his cheeks.

"...Happy Birthday tooooooo yooouuuuuuuuu~♫ Make a wish, little one!"

The video went still again. Dipper looked up to see that Toriel had hit the remote's pause button once more, the small box silently trembling in her paw. She dropped the remote, buried her face in her tear-stained sleeves, and let out the most gut wrenching wail that Dipper had ever heard. Instinctively he wrapped his arms around her. And bless her heart, she let him.

"He.......... he was everything..." whimpered Toriel after what felt like hours of weeping in Dipper's arms. "He was full of life... every day was filled with his cries and his laughter... the plan was when he was old enough to become a prince, we were going to surprise him with a throne that was just... covered with honey suckles. Asriel always... always loved those honey suckles..."

Dipper could not say a word. What could he say? He had never endured the loss of a loved one. He came awfully close to losing Mabel at the hands of him, but unlike Toriel, Dipper got lucky. He had his great uncles to thank for protecting him and his sister. But it appeared that Toriel did not have such luck...

Toriel sniffled. "You remember earlier when Mabel said she was willing to share her candy with the coolest mom to ever walk the earth, right Dipper?"

"I remember."

She gave a sad laugh. "Well... this is the day when I remember how lousy of a mother I was. I should have seen the signs. I should have stopped him... and I didn't. I'm no cool mother. I'm not even a good one... I... I was powerless, Dipper."

All Dipper could do was tighten the hug. Nothing could be said. Toriel Dreemurr was going through something that Dipper could never fathom, and part of him hoped that he would never come to learn it.

There was suddenly a gentle creeeeeeeeeaaaaaaak that shook the two out of their hug.

It was Frisk.

Nobody said anything for a while. All that could be heard was the clinking and clattering of silverware downstairs.

"...The tea is ready," finally spoke Frisk. "Mabel is expecting all of us to attend. I can let her know if you need more time th-"

Toriel shook her head. "N-no, I'm alright. You said tea is ready?"

"Yes, correct," affirmed Frisk. They watched as Toriel remained tense. They gave a quick glance to the television screen, before looking back to their mother.

"...The plan was to talk once this was all over, correct?" said Frisk reassuringly. "I'll tell you everything then, I promise. But first, I'd like to have some tea. Mabel will be furious if anyone lets their cup get cold."

"R-right... Yes... Yes of course," said Toriel, standing up from the bed and dusting herself off. "Tell Mabel I'll be right down."

"Yes Mom," said Frisk with a hint of a smile, disappearing from view as they climbed back down the stairs.

"Well... I'll see you downstairs Dipper," said Toriel, wiping her eyes. "Mind shutting the TV off for me?"

"I don't mind at all, Toriel. See you down there," said Dipper with a wave, watching as Toriel disappeared from his view.

There was... a lot to process from that exchange. But it would have to wait for now. Dipper reached forward to press the TV's on/off switch...

...when something on the monitor caught his eye.

The dim background made it hard to see, but Dipper swore that there, sitting in a chair, was another child.

A human child.

...

Dipper hit 'play.'

"I wish that I can stay best friends forever with-!"

"Oh come on Asriel, you wished for that last year. Wish for something else this time, sheesh."

"Hey! That was rude!" said Asriel, seeming to be both shocked and tickled by the remark. "You're such a meanie sometimes, Cha-"

And then there was static. The videotape had reached its end.

...

Filled with questions that he knew he'd have to wait until the right moment to ask about, Dipper turned the TV off and finally left Wendy's room.

Dipper was met with a very lively spectacle.

Dan was pouring cup after cup of various tea flavors, handing them to Mabel and Wendy (both wearing heat resistant gloves) who fanned out to place each cup in front of 11 different seats at the dining room table. Toriel had already sit herself down at one of the seats, but had opted to wait until everyone was seated before she began sipping her tea. Toby and Waddles were running around underneath the table, darting under some chairs and darting around others. The boys and Frisk were gathered in the living room, Frisk eagerly listening to a story that Marcus was telling about how he once managed get himself a gigantic fish from the lake (while Kevin and Gus acted it out in the background to hype up the tale) and all four of them were smiling and laughing. Sitting at the end of the table, his beady eyes taking in the entire scene, was Mr. SnuggleLots.

"Dipper! Welcome back!" said Mabel as she noticed her awestruck brother. She walked up to him and took him by the hands. "Welcome to the tea party! Your seat is right over here next to Mr. SnuggleLots! Don't worry, he hasn't been biting anything since he ate my half of Papyrus's scarf. Come on, this way!"

Dipper let himself be guided by Mabel as she sat him down at his seat. Now that he was at the table, he noticed all of them had a designated name. Starting from Dan's seat, and working clockwise, the seats were as follows.

Daniel

Marcus

Gus

Kevin

Toriel

Frisk

Mabel

Mr. SnuggleLots

Dipper

Wendy

Francine

...Francine? Who was-?

"ALRIGHT EVERYONE!" Hollered Dan, clinking a glass so hard that it sounded like swords clashing. "THE TEA PARTY HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN! THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING, AND ON BEHALF OF THE MABEL PINES ORGANIZATION-"

"Yes my friends, that is actually a thing!!!" piped Mabel.

"-WE HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY YOUR TIME HERE! NOW, DRINK UP!"

Everybody swarmed the table, plopping down in their designated seats and engaging in lively conversation. The Corduroys, minus Wendy, clashed their mugs together like they were beer mugs, then blew on their cups and gently sipped on them because they were actually hot mugs of tea, not cold jugs of beer. Toriel was giggling as Frisk had managed to get roped into another story that Mabel was telling to Mr. SnuggleLots, whose reactions were proving that he could always understand English like Dipper hypothesized. Looking elsewhere, the boy was pleased to notice that Toriel was looking more and more like her old self, and Wendy seemed to be lighting up from the calm but animated gathering. Dipper couldn't help but smile, happy to see that Wendy was starting to recover from her frustration from the recent lack of sleep.

But in the midst of this discussion, Dipper noticed that the seat of Francine was still vacant.

"Wondering about the empty seat, kiddo?" Wendy spoke up, Dipper tearing his gaze away from the seat to look at her.

"Um... y-yeah I suppose," said Dipper, cheeks turning the faintest shade of pink. "Is it..."

"A seat for my mom? I'm afraid so, champ," said Wendy, giving a gentle smile and taking a hearty sip of her tea now that it had cooled down enough. "Francine Corduroy. Better known by her nickname, Manly Fran."

Dipper looked down, not knowing how to reply. As he looked up, he saw Toriel on the other side. She appeared to have overheard the conversation.

"Manly Fran?" repeated Dipper.

"Yep, believe it or not, my dad was always a fan of tea time. His masculine attitude was a rather late addition. It's how he makes sure that her legacy lives on, I suppose. Though I bet that most of what he does nowadays would just make my Mom howl."

"Did she enjoy tea?" Toriel blurted, before putting a paw to her mouth. It seems she didn't mean to speak out loud.

"Oh she loved it, especially if Dad was the one who made it," Wendy gave a warm laugh. "Her adoration for it is the reason my dad didn't abandon it when she passed..." she takes her napkin and gently dabs at her eyes. "It's our way of honoring her. We do this every memorial. It is... one of my favorite nights every year. It's cool that we managed to find an excuse to do it tonight, but... it just wouldn't feel right to have it without that one empty seat, even if this one isn't for her, you know?"

"I assume that the atmosphere here is... a lot less lively during the day of her passing..." Toriel's voice quivered near the end.

"Oh, you couldn't be further from the truth," snorted Wendy in laughter. "If anything, tonight's positive vibes are subdued compared to the anniversary of her passing. The whole day is filled with stories, memories, laughs, and endless tea for anyone who asked for it. I know it seems backwards to be that jovial during a day of remembrance for a dead family member who was a part of all of our lives- and don't get me wrong, there is a fair share of crying as well- but hey... if we're gonna remember her every year, we all knew that it would be better, and healthier in the long run, to fill the day with as many smiles as there are tears."

Wendy tilted her eyes towards the ceiling. She gave a kiss to the air, gestured her mug to it, and finished the rest of her tea. "Ahhhhhh..."

"That's... that's incredible," said Toriel, wiping her eyes.

"Oh, the tea was cold enough at this point," Wendy assured. "If it was fresh from the kettle, there's no way that-"

"No, I mean... the way your family honors your late mother. It's....... I've never thought of it that way. 'As many smiles as there are tears...'"

"Words straight from my Old Lady," said Wendy, leaning back in her seat.

Toriel looked down, silent. She witnessed her reflection in the steaming liquid. She managed a smile. "Wise words to be sure. I would've loved to meet her."

"She would've loved to meet everyone here," said Wendy with a courteous smirk, before heading out of her seat to quickly pour herself a second mug.

The topic of Francine drifted off soon after, and eventually everyone was back to jovial discussions that were occasionally sprinkled with a bark or a yip. All the while, the smile on Mr. SnuggleLots's face never wavered.

About an hour and a half passed before the mood died down enough to declare that the table should be cleared off. The kids had reconvened to discuss the night.

"I guess we managed to check off almost all the boxes on your Rehabiliteddy Program™, Mabel," said Frisk.

"Oh right, I forgot that that program had multiple steps," said Dipper, proving that Mabel had relied on this program before.

"Right... we still have no idea if this guy has an owner out looking for him," reminded Mabel.

"Or whether or not the owner ever want's him back," cautioned Frisk.

"Or even whether or not the owner is a human, or a bear, or something else entirely," added Dipper.

The kids went silent, stewing in all the questions that were unanswered.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

Everybody in the house froze. Toby started growling at the front door.

"Helloooo?!" came a muffled, ragged voice of an elder woman from the other side of the door. "Pardon the disturbance! I just need to know if something passed this way! A Teddy bear to be specific! One that's alive, to be more specific!"

The kids shared a glance at Mr. SnuggleLots who was being playfully tossed around by the Corduroy brothers. Did the voice truly belong to the bear's owner?

Frisk shimmered orange for a second, deciding that there was only one way to find out. "I'll get the door."

"Wait, hang on a second, Frisk-!" tried Dipper.

But Frisk had already marched toward the door and opened it.

On the other side was a heavily hunching, stubby old woman. Her skin was heavily wrinkled and had a sickly green complexion. Her hair was gray to the point of looking white, and there was a cobweb or two that was nestled in her shabby locks. And she was wearing a tattered cloak that was decorated with two giant shadows of disembodied hands.

"Hand Witch!!!" cheered Mabel, recognizing the kind hag.

"Well welllllllllll! If it isn't the lady who helped redecorate my caaaaaaave!" dragged the delighted witch. "And the boy as welllllllll! Good to see you!!! I don't recognize the kid in the striped sweater though..."

"Wait, the Hand Witch?" said Wendy, cocking an eyebrow in bafflement. "I thought you were just some myth that Stanley cooked up to sell his overpriced molds of decapitated hands."

"Nope, he and I go way back!" said the Hand Witch proudly. "Thanks to the kind metal-teethed lady, I finally know what it's like to have a sweet heart!"

"You have a boyfriend!!?" squealed Mabel in excitement, slapping her hands to her cheeks.

"Hm? Oh no, he broke things off with me weeks ago," explained the Hand Witch, cheerfully adding, "So I boiled him up and ate his heart! Hearts are surprisingly sugary after you cook them!"

Mabel looked like her own mom told her that Santa Claus got killed in a sleigh accident. "W.... What...?"

The Hand Witch laughed awkwardly. "That was a joke. I thought I was being obvious about that, sorry. We're still together!" she continued, holding up a photo of herself smiling happily and holding hands with... a pale skinned, wrinkly man with unfocused yellow eyes, crooked brown teeth, shaggy dirty hair, and a giant gaping hole in his chest. "I did eat his heart for real, though. He's a ghoul now."

"Oh, okay then!" said Mabel, calming down quite a bit, not appearing to care about the whole eating-hearts thing. Dipper probably did though, considering how creeped out he looked.

Frisk on the other hand marched straight up to the witch and stuck their hand out. "Frisk Dreemurr, Ambassador of Monsters from the Underground. Pleased to meet you."

"Ooooooooooooooo, such delicate haaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnds~! Um, I mean, the pleasure is all mine!" said the Hand Witch, eagerly shaking Frisk's hand with both of hers.

"Am I to understand that you are the owner of this Nocturnal Teddy Bear?" asked Frisk, seemingly unphased by the Hand Witch dragging the hand shake on for a little too long.

"Yep!" nodded the Hand Witch. "Good ol' Beelzecub is my own creation! Did you kids cross paths with him by any chance?"

"Beelze-what???" Mabel stumbled over her words, when suddenly she felt something land on her head. It was Mr. SnuggleLots, recognizing the witch.

"Ah! There he is!" exclaimed the witch. "Beelzecub! You sure gave me a work out that is only sure to worsen my distorted spine! Why'd you run off?! Was it something I said? Or did? Was it something I didn't say or do? Speak to me Beelzecub! Speak to me, even though I know you can't talk! Was it because you thought I couldn't handle raising you when you turned out to be more of a bear than I intended?!

"What do you mean by him being more of a bear than you intended?" asked Toriel, approaching the group.

"My goal was to create the most Teddy Bearish sentient Teddy Bear to ever roam Gravity Falls!" bellowed the witch, imaginary thunder and lightning booming behind her. "But what came out... acted a lot more like your average bear cub."

"So you abandoned him?!" realized Toriel.

"Absolutely not! I raised him like any well-respected mother should do! Anyone who abandons a child if they don't come out exactly like they intended was never meant to be a parent at all!"

"I mean... do the rules of parenting apply here?" said Dipper, a little perplexed by this strange scenario. "What do you think, Frisk? ....Frisk?"

Frisk suddenly shook out of their stupor. "Hm?"

"Do you think the Hand Witch should treat Mr. SnuggleLots like he's her son?" said Dipper.

"Oh um, I suppose so. She did create him and all."

"See Dipper?!" said Mabel, nudging him. "I knew that Necromancy could be used for good!"

"I'm pretty sure necromancy doesn't apply here," grumbled Dipper.

"If he knows I created him, then why did my boy run away from home???" said a downtrodden Hand Witch. "I did my best to raise him right in the three weeks that I had him..."

There was silence among the group, nobody knowing how to approach this extremely weird conundrum. Even Waddles and Toby were silent.

The silence was broken by a familiar growl from a stomach made of stuffing.

"Oh!" said the Hand Witch, noticing the Teddy bear. "Are you still hungry, Beelzecub? I have a nice plate of fresh fish waiting for you at home!"

The bear said nothing.

Mabel got up to the hag's ear. "Try calling him Mr. SnuggleLots."

"Hm? That's a weird name..." nevertheless, the Hand Witch cleared her dry throat. "Oh Mr. SnuggleLoooooooootssssssss! There's a plate of fish with your name on it if you accompany Mama back to the caaaaaaaaaaave!"

The Trio, the pets, the Corduroys, and Toriel all watched as Mr. SnuggleLots's face turned a sickly green at the mention of fish, the poor bear looking absolutely nauseous.

And everything made sense.

"Mrs. Hand Witch," said Mabel, standing straight. "I believe we know why your pet Teddy ran away from home."

Dipper stood up next. "The reason for him leaving you was not because you were a bad role model, but rather..."

"You were feeding your child literal garbage," finished Frisk.

"B-but, look at him!" pleaded the Hand Witch. "He clearly acts like a... well... huh, actually he's acting pretty much how I envisioned him to act when I made him."

Dipper paced the room, stroking his chin. "I believe that what you had been dealing with was simply a side effect of a hungry Mr. SnuggleLots. It would appear, based on our experience, that the hungrier that Mr. SnuggleLots gets, the more animalistic he becomes. And this is not unheard of; I know a great number of people who display similar behavior when they're hungry. Take Mabel for example. Mabel!"

"Present!" said Mabel, raising her hand.

"Answer honestly! Do you, or do you not, start to growl like gremlin whenever breakfast takes longer than usual to be served?"

"I do!" said Mabel. "I also start biting the table legs!"

"Now then, Ms. Hand Witch," said Dipper, pointing at the witch who was taking notes. "Would you say that Mabel's behavior is well mannered, or not?"

"It isn't," Frisk chimed in. "But it is very much a quality that defines Mabel, and should never be corrected."

Mabel couldn't help but smile at that.

"So wait, hang on," said Wendy. "You mean to tell me that all of this crazy behavior was happening because Mr. SnuggleLots was hangry?"

"You are absolutely correct, Wendy." said Dipper, before returning his focus to the friendly crone. "The point we're trying to make here, Mrs. Hand Witch, is that when you created Mr. SnuggleLots, he was born without any food in his belly. He was starving. And he left your cave because what you were feeding him is not what he eats. It isn't fish, or bugs, or even honey. It is-!"

"Fabric!" said Mabel from behind Dipper, throwing confetti out of her hands. Where she got the confetti from was information that only she knew about.

"So, all that you need to do is change what you feed him," informed Frisk with their index finger up. "If you can't get over feeding him bear-food, then do it in the form of fabric. Knit a fish-doll. Use a yellow spool of yarn in place of a beehive. Things like that. Do that on top of everything else you've been doing for him, and you should be fine."

"I see, I see!" said the Hand Witch, enchanted by the new information. "I shall update his meal planner right away! Whaddya say to that, Beelz- um, I mean, Mr. SnuggleLots? Wow, that's going to take some getting used to... Ahem, well, Mr. SnuggleLots, how 'bout it? Ready to head back to our sweet little cave?"

Mr. SnuggleLots slowly crawled up to the Hand Witch... and gently chewed on her robe. Not eating it. Just chewing it.

"Looks like he's willing to give you another chance," said Frisk smiling.

The hag cackled with glee, picking the bear up and spinning him around. "Mama has missed you sooooooooooooo much!"

Mabel smiled at the happy reunion... but try as she may, she couldn't stop herself from choking up. "I'm gonna miss you, *sniff* Mr. SnuggleLots! Don't forget about me, you- you hear me?! I forbid it!!!"

"There there, sis," soothed Dipper, patting his sister on the back. He looked back to the bear, and gave a gentle yell. "Stay out of trouble from now on, okay buddy?"

"Your mother loves you very much! You're very blessed to have someone like her!" Frisk chimed in. "Don't forget to thank her occasionally!"

The sentient Teddy smiled and nodded, giving one final wave to the kids before the door to the cabin gently shut behind him and the hag.

"Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" came the over-the-top wails of Mabel Pines.

"And here come the post-Teddy-bear Blues," sighed Dipper, giving his sister a big hug.

"Ah, so this is a normal occurrence?" asked Frisk.

"Yep," nodded the capped twin. "She is incredibly loyal to any Teddy bear she encounters. You would not believe the number of times I've had to drag her away from various Lost and Found departments because she gave them a lost Teddy bear and couldn't will herself to part with it."

"Heh," chuckled Wendy. "I guess she couldn't bear saying goodbye to any of them, huh?"

The whole room went silent. Well, almost silent; Toriel took everyone by surprise with her giggles.

"You've been hanging out with Sans too much," snarled Dipper at Wendy.

"The guy's a hoot! Shut up!" laughed Wendy.

"At- at any rate," said Toriel, composing herself, "We should be heading out."

"Wait! We should try to help Wendy out with her sleeping problems!" said Mabel, having snapped out of her state of weeping. "I was going to suggest Mr. SnuggleLots but... he's gone now..." annnnnnnnnnnd the tears resumed.

"Meh, that wouldn't have worked out," said Wendy. "It's right in his species' name: Nocturnal. He'd be up all night, and I'd be spending the whole time taking care of him, instead of getting any sleep. But... it did give me an idea. I think having a stuffed animal would help me get to sleep."

"You want a what???" called Dan, his voice becoming a calm growl.

Wendy sighed and tightened her fists. No backing out now. She was a daughter of Francine Corduroy, and dang it, she was going to act like one.

"You heard me, Dad! You all heard me! I am done with the December noise! You all wanna holler about the upcoming New Year, do it outside! The pub, the woods, the sewers, I don't care! Just do it away from me when I'm trying to sleep! As for the stuffed animal, heck yeah I want one! I've always wanted one, why not!? They're soft, they're quiet, they'll help me sleep, and they don't even cost that much, Dad!"

"Dang, she's going off," said Dipper, almost mesmerized.

"'Tis the wrath of the teenager," said Mabel with deep respect towards the red-haired girl. "A power that you and I will soon acquire for ourselves, brother."

"And... A-and...!" Wendy stammered.

The room went quiet from bated breath.

"AND IF ANY OF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT, I'LL SUPLEX YOU INTO A MOUNTAIN!!!"

There was silence. Not a peep was uttered from any of the Corduroys. Wendy simply waited, puffing and panting...

"BWAAAAAAAAAH HAH HAH HAH!!!" Dan howled with laughter. "THAT'S MY GIRL~!"

"Pardon?" said Wendy.

"First thing tomorrow, we'll stop by the local toy store. You can pick out whichever one you want! The boys wouldn't stop pestering me about it anyway. As for the New Years noise..."

Wendy tensed up.

"Baby girl, I'm gonna be honest, it completely slipped my mind how busy you are with the shack. I promise to take the noise elsewhere. And if you ever catch me forgetting that promise, you have permission to wack me upside the head with your late mother's favorite frying pan."

"You're kidding," said Wendy with a flabbergasted smile.

"Nope, you know I don't kid around with you or any of the boys," said Dan with pride.

"Heh... thanks Dad," said Wendy sheepishly, thinking to herself, Looks like Undyne isn't boasting around when she's giving advice. I keep forgetting that she was a Captain during her time underground.

"Victory for Wendy!!!" cheered Mabel, throwing more confetti from seemingly out of nowhere.

"And with th-thaaaaaattttttt..." Toriel said before letting out a massive yawn of her own. "I believe it's time that we headed home."

As the kids, the pets, and Toriel made their way back home in their winter garb (Mabel now donning a decently lengthed spaghetti scarf thanks to Mr. SnuggleLots biting it down to size), Frisk slowed their pace, drifting away from the kids until the stoic faced child was side by side with their mother.

"Frisk?" said Toriel, curious as to why her child fell behind.

"I knew that today was Asriel's birthday. I knew the whole time."

"!!!"

"And when I found out that you stole the living room TV, I realized it was because you were planning to spend the day alone in your room with the videotape of his birthday. I... I wanted his birthday to be a day of celebration. A day where you and Dad could come together, if only for the one day. I..."

Toriel said nothing. She just picked her child up and held them close to her as she walked. Frisk buried their face in her shoulder, their tiny hands gripping onto her robe.

"I got..." whimpered the child. "...I got so mad when I found out that you were planning to spend the day away from me... from Dad... from everyone. If anything, we could've at least helped you carry the burden of all the grief the day brings you. So... So I stole the videotape in the hope that you would abandon looking for it and spend time with us instead. I should've told you, I know... but... I was scared you'd just turn me away... I'm sorry..."

"Oh, Frisk," comforted the remorseful mother. "You don't have to apologize for anything..."

"...except for stealing."

That earned her a muffled chuckle. Okay, good.

"I'm the one who needs to apologize here. I should have never secluded myself from the group, from Asgore, and especially from you. If you knew that today was his birthday, you must've been grieving a bit yourself. And there is no doubt that Asgore was coping with his own grief as well."

She felt Frisk silently nod against her.

"Did you overhear the conversation I was having with Wendy, Frisk?"

"...A bit."

"Well," said Toriel, giving a murmur of a giggle as she ran a paw through Frisk's hair soothingly, "She told me something that I feel silly for not considering sooner. About how the anniversary of a lost loved one should be filled with laughter, not just grief. I promise you, this is the last night where I suffer in a room by myself on my dear Asriel's birthday."

"Really?"

"I swear it, my child."

Frisk pulled back to look their mom in the eyes and smile. "Thanks, Mom."

"You're welcome, my dear sweet Frisk," cooed Toriel, brushing her snout against Frisk's nose endearingly. "Would you like me to set you down?"

"Please," said Frisk. "I just remembered something I want to tell Mabel."

"Of course, sweetie," said Toriel, setting Frisk back down on the snowy ground. "I suppose we can consider this to be the end of the conversation that we both promised earlier to continue."

"Okay, Mom," said a beaming Frisk, before running up to rejoin the group and say...

"Hey Mabel, don't you owe your brother fifty dollars now or something? The owner of the bear turned out to be a witch after all."

"Huh... that's right! Alright, Mabel! Hand over the dough!"

"I don't owe you squat! I refused that deal, remember?! Frisk, you're my witness! Back me up here!"

"I plead the fifth~"

"Traitor!"

The next day was a whirlwind of activity. The Mystery Shack finally reopened, and it turned out that everyone's fear of a swarm was unwarranted, as there was no swarm. But, there was something new about the visitors that kept things interesting.

Monsters were beginning to visit the shack. Of all shapes and sizes, inhabitants of the underground were stopping buy to peruse the gift shop or experience a tour of the museum. Of notice, there was a dummy that was very brash and loud, but was very respectful when asked to shush. There was a purple spider humanoid that was creepily polite as she bought herself a few Mystery Shack Mugs™ and left a flyer on the counter for the 'First Spider Bake Sale on the Surface!' before tittering and leaving the store. There was even a humanoid cat and alligator that stopped by that Wendy just knew her ragtag of friends would get along with.

Wendy looked like she had a face lift with how much better she looked. At Mabel's curiosity, Wendy spoke about how once this shift is over, she's heading out with her family to visit the toy store and get a toy for each of the kids, and that's when she'll be able to pick out her stuffed animal to sleep with.

"But honestly, I still have no idea what kind of stuffed animal I want right now..."

That's when a peculiar critter, with the cutest face and voice that Wendy had ever seen, passed through the door, followed by 19 lookalikes.

"Hoi! I'm Temmie! Is this the Mystewy Shack???"

Wendy knew exactly what kind of stuffed animal she wanted now.

But it wasn't just monsters showing up. Candy and Grenda finally passed through now that they could, and Mabel nearly knocked Grenda over with her pounce-hug. They spent the whole time preparing sleepovers, catching up, and promising other times to meet up that weren't sleepover-related.

Old Man McGucket passed by as well! He needed a batch of normal AA batteries. When Dipper asked him what invention he needed the batteries for, he hooted and hollered, saying they weren't for him. They were for the alarm clock for his new lab assistant, simply named 'P.N.' Something about that name struck Dipper as familiar, but McGucket had left the store before the boy could ask him anything else.

Frisk had bumped into someone roughly their size. The other kid was in very suspicious clothing: A tiny trench coat, a fedora, and sunglasses. The only thing Frisk heard from the kid was a simple phrase spoken in a boyish, and ridiculously southern, voice. "If anyone asks, I was never here. Good day."

The Mystery Trio was certain the day was over when Wendy left with her family, flipping the sign from 'Got money? We're Open!' to 'Begone from this cursed place! We're Closed!' on her way out. But it wasn't over.

Toriel had been missing for most of the day, much to the Trio's confusion, the only clue given to them was that she had asked Stanley if there was any flour left over from the errands he was running when Tim attacked. Now, they were about to find out why.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN," rang Papyrus's voice. "THE EX-QUEEN OF THE UNDERGROUND HAS AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS ORDERS YOU TO PLEASE HALT WHATEVER IT IS YOU'RE DOING AND PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT SHE HAS TO SAY! ALSO IF SOMEONE COULD TELL WHY MY SCARF GOT SO MUCH SHORTER OVERNIGHT, THAT WOULD BE FANTASTIC-"

"As I told you, I will explain everything to you soon," a giggling Toriel promised the uptight skeleton, waiting until everyone had congregated in the living room and kitchen before continuing. "My friends, I owe you all an apology."

The whole crew went quiet as Toriel went on.

"Some of you know- and for those that don't, I apologize for holding this secret from you- that yesterday was the birthday of our departed prince of the underground, Asriel Dreemurr."

Gasps were heard all around.

"I spoke nothing of this occasion previously because I didn't want anybody to know. I wanted to grieve alone. I wasn't even willing to share the grief with my ex-husband, Asriel's father, Asgore. My time of grieving for all these years had made me grow distant and selfish."

She spared a glance to Asgore before closing her eyes, sighing, and proceeding.

"Yesterday, a chance encounter with Wendy's family opened my eyes to something. If I'm going to remember Asriel's passing for every year when his birthday comes around, I'm doing my poor child a horrible disservice by not celebrating. By not smiling. By not laughing. By not spending it with those who were close to him and the friends of those close to him.

She looked to everyone. The misty eyed Stan twins. The Papyrus who was trying his best not to shriek like a dog whistle. The Sans who looked lively for once. The Undyne and Alphys who were looking pumped as all heck. The joyous Mettaton. The smiling Napstablook. The Asgore grinning from ear to ear. And the Mystery Trio, who were slowly realizing what she was about to say next.

"So who wants to help me bake a cake?!"

As pandemonium continued to ensue in the kitchen, Toriel found a moment to pull Asgore aside. They both were now sitting quietly on the couch of the back porch.

"Everything alright?" asked Asgore.

"In the grand scheme of things, absolutely not," answered Toriel with brutal honesty. "Our child is still dead. And with him, 6 other children fell. By your cursed trident."

Asgore could only look down, well acquainted with the crushing shame that coursed through him.

"But... today is a tribute to Asriel's birthday. And you were... are... his father."

Toriel finally looked the ex-King in the eyes. "I may never forgive you for what you did after we lost Asriel. However... you were the best father a boy like him could've ever hoped for. And you continue to be that father for our little Frisk. For that... I cannot thank you enough."

"...that's all the thanks I could ever ask of you, Toriel." said Asgore with a sad smile. "I appreciate you telling me."

Despite herself, Toriel gave a small smile. "Come inside. Cake is almost ready, and I'm not going to sit and listen to your whining if you aren't quick enough to nab a piece."

"Ha ha ha, of course," beamed Asgore.

"♫♫HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUU!♫♫"

The band of misfits finished the terribly sung rendition of the ancient tune. And yet, it was music to Toriel's ears.

She looked up to the ceiling, wiping her eyes and smiling.

"Make a wish, little one~"

"Mabel, Frisk, you guys go on ahead. I'll be right behind you as soon as I'm done with something!"

"Okie dokie!"

"Understood. See you in the morning, Dipper."

Dipper was just on his way to a long needed nightly rest, when he remembered a very important question he wanted to ask Toriel. This was why he approached her as she was getting ready to settle into her bed with a good book.

"Hey, Toriel?"

"Yes, Dipper?"

"In all the excitement from last night and today, I forgot that there was something I wanted to ask."

"Ha ha ha, and what would that be?"

"Yesterday night... I was watching the tape after you left, and... I couldn't help but notice that there was another child in the background."

"Another child?"

"Yeah! They were looking away from the camera a lot but I think they looked like a human... Who were they?"

Toriel gave a bemused smile. Her face was one of pure honesty, and when she answered, her words came straight from the heart.

And that's why what she said next did not sit well with Dipper at all.

"Dipper, sweetheart, I'm afraid I don't understand. Asriel was the only child we had in our family. I don't remember raising anyone alongside him. Who is this this other child that you claim to see?"

A day spent remembering the passing of a loved one is better went it's filled with laughter and good company. Solitude and grief is necessary, but extended doses of it can be harmful.

Credits Scene

"Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" cheered the Hand Witch. "I present to you, my dearest Mr. SnuggleLots, with the first round of your new meals!"

The Teddy bear was currently seated at the table, the latter donned with a table cloth and three covered platters.

The first platter unveiled a perfectly crocheted fish, with light-blue scales made of yarn and beads for eyes.

The second platter revealed a giant spool of yellow and brown yarn, representing a beehive.

The third platter showcased a plethora of colorful beads, which symbolized different berries and bugs.

"So which one will it beeeeeeeeee?" dramatized the Hand Witch excitedly. "Take your pick! It's all up to you!"

Mr. SnuggleLots took a very decent amount of time examining all three tasty fabric-treats...

...

Before eating the tablecloth.

"Ah, I see," said the witch, dumbstruck. "You are... quite the picky eater."

Mr. SnuggleLots only smiled at her, his cheeks puffed up from the tablecloth currently in his mouth.

.- / - --- .- ... - / - --- / - .... . / ..-. .- -- .. .-.. -.-- ---. / - --- / - .... . / .--. .-. .. -. -.-. . --..-- / -- --- ..- .-. -. . -.. / -... -.-- / .- .-.. .-.. ---. .-.-.. .- -. -.. / --- -. . / - --- / - .... . / -.-. .... .. .-.. -.. / - .... .- - / -. --- / --- -. . / -.-. .- -. / .-. . -.-. .- .-.. .-.. ---.

NEXT (Coming soon to the Mystery Shack!)

PART 1

PART 2

PREVIOUS CHAPTER

ONCE UPON A TIME...

TABLE OF CONTENTS

#IT IS DONE #AFTER FOUR YEARS #CHAPTER 7 IS FINALLY COMPLETE #See you all in 2030 for chapter 8! XD #gravity falls #undertale #underfalls #gravitytale

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aeori-o · 5 years

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So long 2019!

I usually try and get these up December 31st not January 1st but, really, it’s 24 hours apart, does it really matter?

End of a year! And end of a decade!

I usually go over my yearly reading first. I wanted to get the “bad” out of the way first this time. This year I continued to stagnate creatively. I haven’t drawn anything since Qelvi back in January of 2018. I have written but mostly in role-plays with Vin and the other stuff I haven’t tracked very well. I don’t know how to track it in a way that’s clear and also easy to remember.

In the past my goals going into the new year have always been along the line of “do a little of [thing] every day” and that is super not working for me. So this year I’m going to try and change it up. For writing all I want to do is a five minute, free-flow, unplanned just-put-pen-to-paper-and-write based off a prompt. That should be do-able as there’s no pressure of it having to be connected to a larger work. There’s no planning and thus no pressure except to take five minutes and do it. I think in the past I’ve tried to do that in addition to x amount of words or pages per day. I’m just gonna scale it back and see if I can get myself to do the bare minimum consistently and see where that goes.

As for drawing. Ideally I’d like to do a little bit every day so I can actually get better at it, but as that’s been my goal for the last several years and I have not done it even a little bit these past two years I’m going to change my goals for drawing up, as well. Instead of trying to do anything consistently I’m just going to make it my goal to do one drawing a month. That’s it. I don’t need to show it to anyone, or post it, or whatever. Just one drawing I can consider “complete” every month. Complete doesn’t need to be polished I just don’t want to do nothing again and this seems do-able. We’ll see how it turns out at the end of the year.

Reading! My goal was to read 100 books this year and then I got sucked into playing Fortnite halfway through the year and basically read nothing in May. I read as much as I did last year, so I’m not torn up about the amount I read, but just once I do want to read 100 books in a year. (Not counting graphic novels, because I read through them too quickly and it doesn’t feel the same as reading a novel). So next year will be attempt number 2 at reading 100 in a year because I don’t think I should give up after not meeting it once. Life happens, sometimes we play more video games than we should, I still read 78-book-books and 63 graphic novels. For a total of 141 books. Which is pretty good, I can’t be upset at that number.

Part of my goal for 100 books this year, too, will be to slim down my at-home to-be-read pile, which is currently taking up seven shelves and must be stopped. I say this but I already have five more books on hold at the library. Whoops.

Here’s everything I read this year that I inputted into goodreads:

My one hour a day reading calendar (this year I started trying to add dots for every book completed on the day of completion, but I think I missed days, gonna do that some more this year, too, I like it):

And my goodreads badge:

2019 was a pretty wild year, there were some unexpected and costly hiccups. One of my cats went missing for a week; the other got struvite crystals and his bladder nearly exploded; My ancient AV receiver kicked it and on top of those things being expensive there was a whole thing where the new one seemed to be messing up my TV, it was a time; I got rear-ended on the freeway which thankfully didn’t wind up costing me anything except for a lot of stress, some minor pain, and over two weeks without a vehicle. None of these turned out to be that bad, in the end, and thankfully spread out enough that I didn’t just expire from stress.

There was a lot of good this year, too. I got to bring my partner skiing for the first time ever, and for my first time in a very long time (I don’t know when the last time I went skiing was, back when I was in highschool maybe?). I expanded my plushie collection by A Lot this year. I have cute eevee plushes, and some really soft pillow plushes now, and beeb got me a little corsola who I would Die for.

I’ve been more involved with pokemon go. I technically found the group I play with at the end of 2018 (right at the end, it was in December during the community weekend and someone from the group saw me doing circles hitting the same pokestops over and over and was like “hey… wanna join our group?”), but 2019 was the first full year with them. It’s been really nice to reliably be able to get stronger/rarer pokemon and just have a general sense of community. It’s neat because it’s not like I’m close friends with any of these people, but they’re all good people and I like seeing them. I know virtually nothing about any of them, but still, it’s nice.

I also got super into stickers this year (I blame you, beeb) and since my laptop only has so much room I’ve taken to adding stickers to my car. I don’t want to go overboard but I love all the ones I’ve added so far and now that my bumper looks better than new I think my car looks pretty slick.

I started keeping a video-game journal at the beginning of this year, which has been really satisfying and I’m going to keep doing it. I always struggle to remember how much time I sink into games and what happens in this games. Being able to flip through and see all of what I played, when I played it, and what was going on is interesting.

Also got a new phone this year. I didn’t get the latest and greatest but usually when I’ve needed a new phone due to a previous one being busted I have found myself inheriting whatever phone someone else doesn’t want (for the most part). This is the first phone I’ve gone out of my way to get because mine was just not performing well and I have no regrets.

I have a huge issue with upgrading to a new device when my old ones are perfectly serviceable. For instance: the computer I am writing this on is twelve years old. It’s slow but it works for what I need. This computer isn’t even from the past decade, which is pretty wild to me. In thinking about the past decade this computer has been through it all with me.

I guess I’m moving onto the decade now. I was just thinking that this computer still has msn/wlm on it. There’s a dedicated button on my keyboard for it. I hit it and I can see the last icon I ever used on there (I used to change icons constantly, which is a thing I do not do anywhere anymore), as well as the theme I had in place. Absolutely wild. In the last decade(ish) we all abandoned msn/wlm, got skype, abandoned skype when it became a bloated, ad-filled disaster, and got onto telegram, discord, and the dms of various social media websites. (Which I suck at using as if I’m a person three times my age.) In 2010 we were on the iPhone 4 and basically every android sucked, now we’re on the iPhone 11 and androids are a viable option for a phone. Console generations are slower and mess with my perception of time. In the last decade we’ve only gone up one console generation which feels weirdly slow but then when I contemplate any company releasing a new console I inevitably feel it hasn’t been nearly long enough.

On a more personal note, I definitely cannot remember even most of the things that have happened in the last decade. I know I’ve read about five hundred books (closer to six hundred including graphic novels) because I’ve been tracking that since 2011. I’ve been tracking what I read for about a decade.

Left is books by year, middle is graphic novels by year, and right is the total of both.

I became decent at excel in the past few years. I went from not understanding this program at all to trying to find excuses to use it. I used to track all my reading in a notepad document, it looked like this:

As you can see: I only switched over in 2017. And it used to be a total pain because I would have to count all of the dates by hand. Hope I didn’t miscount. Then I’d be looking at my goodreads count and trying to figure out if that made sense against my personal count because I also didn’t count graphic novels as book-books back then and would sometimes mark them on goodreads. So I’d have to figure out how many I had inputted to goodreads to then make sure the two counts reconciled. It was a total nightmare. Now the computer counts for me.

And the reason I even became interested in excel is because of DnD which I have also gotten into in the last decade. It’s one of those things I had always been interested in but had no way to play or had false starts. A group came together a few years ago and we did some of the most fun, fulfilling, and emotional group-role-playing I have ever experienced. Our group has kind of disbanded now, and I’m trying to work on a campaign myself, but our first campaign is definitely one of the things I really cherish from the past few years. It’s definitely a highlight of the decade.

Speaking of meaningful role-plays. I got with my partner in the last decade, too. I’d feel weird getting all gushy about them here, but we’ve been doing written role-plays since before we figured out that we were a thing. They’re a constant source of inspiration to me and the things we create together are some of my favourite things in the world. At times there have been lulls between the things we make that really grab both of us, but this past year we started an AU of some of our characters and I think it’s safe to say we’re both in love with our little creation. Roach Squad is definitely the highlight of 2019 and I suspect it will continue to be the highlight of 2020. I don’t think we’ll be as aggressively into them by the time 2030 rolls around, but our original boys have persisted for the better part of the last decade (the Boys have been a thing since 2013 and we are still enjoying them, so I don’t doubt Roach Squad will persist, as well, but I imagine the next decade will give us a third group that we’re consumed with).

I’ve lost some friends in the past decade, and made some new, but find I don’t have the time to stay caught up with as many people as I used to. That used to be a thing I was good at. Toward the beginning of this decade, I’d regularly keep-up with at least a dozen people (by which I mean: talking to them daily). Now that number is at… maybe three or four people who I interact with daily (not counting group chats of which there is one). But if you’re reading this and we haven’t spoken in a while (“a while” could be years, honestly) and nothing really happened we just sort of stopped talking or hanging out: I still care about you. I hope your 2019 was more good than bad and that you have nice things to look back on in the last decade. Also hit me up, if you want to.

Overall I think the last decade has been pretty good. I’m thankful for all the good times with friends I’ve been able to have, all the sushi eaten and talks on long car rides. I’m thankful for the help I’ve gotten with housing and car situations that would have been outrageously stressful if I’d been dealing with them on my own. I’m thankful for all the creative people I’ve been able to meet and interact with, all the character ideas and moments we’ve shared through written role-plays, tabletop role-plays, and art.

I hope the next decade can be as socially and creatively fulfilling as the last!

And at the end here, because I never do this and then I always look back and go “what even were my goals” I’m going to make a handy list of goals-discussed:

Draw one thing a month

Write for five minutes every day from an unplanned prompt

Read 100 books and continue with my one hour a day reading

Get my DnD campaign off the ground and keep it going (I don’t think I explicitly mentioned this above, but it’s a goal this year)

#new year get better do better

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raisingsupergirl · 5 years

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Comic-Con-fusion

So, I drove up to Iowa this past weekend and stayed with some good friends in order to experience my first comic-con. Some of you are giddy with excitement to hear how it went (you’re the ones who probably recognized the above picture of Carey Means, Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s Frylock). Others of you are wondering why this is a big deal because comic-cons are stupid and colossal wastes of time and money (though I DID go to represent Havok--my publishing company--and to support the book releases of my aforementioned friends). And still others of you are completely lost because you’ve never heard the term “comic-con” (or you have a vague idea that they're a place where comedians gather). For you skeptics, I concede. Like most recreational things in this world (baseball, fishing, quilting, video games, etc.), it is a waste of time and resources. But only in the shallowest sense, and only to those who don't understand it. For a large percentage of humanity, these conventions represent a collection of the things that bring them joy. And more importantly, they're collected in a safe place filled with other like-minded fan boys and girls, free from ignorance or judgment. And for those of you who are oblivious, let me just say this: stick with me. By the end of this post, you'll have some understanding of what a comic-con is and why people attend them. At least… you'll have some understanding of what I experienced while at my first con, which was not what I expected…

First, I'll admit that a part of me still doesn't get it, and maybe it never will. But the rest of me is totally embarrassed by that practical, "normal" part. "Ooooh, I'm Andrew. I do my own taxes and wake up at a sensible time so I can exercise before work. Then maybe I'll mow the grass and watch a documentary before I fall asleep and do it all again." Gag me. Life is about balance. There are countless ways to break the monotony and make life memorable, so don't imagine that I believe that things as… unique as comic-cons are appropriate for everyone. I get it. They're pretty out there. Like, "a-body-painted-woman-casually-strolling-through-hundreds-of-sexually-frustrated-boys" out there. But we're all just little specks that make up a huge world, and just because something's foreign to me doesn't mean it's not healthy and enjoyable for others, right?

I know, I know. I'm opening a huge can of worms here. And I'm doing so on purpose. As I said, this was my first con, and I was struck with a lot of surprising aspects, the biggest one being the sexual dichotomy that pervaded everything. Like I said, right next to my booth was a body painter, and each day she covered a new "canvas" with a work of art. The canvas was always female, and she always had bikini bottoms on and pasties covering her breasts. Well, covering as much as pasties are designed to cover. The first day this took place, I couldn't believe it. Here we were, sitting quietly behind our vendor tables, giving away stickers and selling books to kids and fairly conservative-looking adults (not counting the occasional light saber or pair of fairy wings), and this woman was sitting twenty feet away wearing nothing but pasties to keep her warm.

But slowly, this artist covered her "canvas" with what I would truly describe as art. And it was incredibly frustrating because I couldn't bring myself to give more than a cursory glance without feeling like a pervert. Many of the passing convention-goers seemed to be in a similar boat, but curiously, they seemed to feel better about staring when they actively discussed and critiqued the artwork. It was as if continuously reminding those around them that they were looking at everything except this woman's ta-tas made them seem less like voyeurs. And you know what? I did the same thing. And it wasn't just with the body painting. A lot of the cosplay costumes (people dressed up in various costumes based on characters from video games, movies, cartoons, etc) were also sexually provocative. Most of them came by it honestly since the source material is often hyper sexualized, but seeing an animated blonde bombshell poured into a latex outfit is a little different than seeing someone try to replicate it IRL (in real life for all you noobs out there. And a "noob" is a newbie… a newcomer. Gosh, I should do a blog post just on gamer—video gamer—lingo.). And while I had no problem sizing up the more modest costumes (you know, the bloody zombies and ten-foot demons), when a woman would walk by in a Jessica Rabbit costume, I couldn't look at it without assuring the guy next to me that I appreciated its attention to thematic detail. All in all, the situation just made me want to crawl away and hide somewhere no one would find me.

But here's the thing: the fact that I didn't understand how to act in this environment didn't cheapen the experience. The work that these people put into their creations was seriously impressive. The merchandise for sale (costume jewelry, original paintings, metalwork, hand-made toys) was truly awe-inspiring, and the costumes were no less so. These people were dedicated. They were expressing themselves in unique and extremely talented ways. Yes, some of the art played on sexual attraction, but what era of human history hasn't (our current society's inability to process that appreciation in a healthy way is a MUCH larger and different topic)? And there was so much more to it than that, as well. Decades worth of stories, characters, and story worlds—which have all been heavily inspired by centuries-old, real-world cultures—were represented beautifully, and their creators all poured their own style and flavor into their work.

The longer I was there, the more I was able to appreciate this culture. Yes, some of the costumes and creations were beyond what I could understand, and yes, some of the attendees undoubtedly had unhealthy relationships with these fantasies, but no more so than the obsessions of baseball fanatics or diehard fishermen. That's the nature of passion. Kept in balance, it brings us joy and motivation to do great things. Left unchecked, it will destroy us. And in the end, I finished my weekend with a deep appreciation for this passion that the con-goers shared, both the vendors and the guests. And this fact alone would have made the five-hour trip worth it, even if I hadn't shared delectable drinks, decadent food, and more laughs than I've had in a long time with some amazing friends (though the drinks, food, and laughs certainly helped).

Okay, so if you had no idea what a comic-con was when you started this article, you're probably more confused now. Sorry about that. But for those of you who knew just enough to be judgmental, hopefully I helped shed a little light on the inspiring culture behind all the "weird stuff." And maybe next time I go, I'll learn to not be so cheap so I can actually buy my daughter that $5 pair of unicorn earrings I saw. Or maybe I'll just make her some myself. I've been known to be pretty creative, myself.

#comiccon #comic-con #comic con #planet funk comic con #planet funk #cosplay #art #creativity #recreation #frylock #aquateenhungerforce #flash fiction #havok publishing #body paint #amwriting #comic books

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rezllen · 6 years

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Hi! I saw you at my first furry convention AnthroNW, I really look up to your art! I'm a young aspiring artist, I really strive to sell at conventions and all stuff relating to that. I hope you don't mind me asking, but do you mind giving tips on what college to go to/ how you started off to get where you are now? Thank you!

Hi there! I’m really happy to hear that you like my stuff and I always think it’s really cool when others want to sell their art at cons! I def think it’s a really good way to learn a lot of skills as both an artist and business person and def encourage you to give it a shot when you can! Putting this under a read more since it’s sort of long, but I hope this helps you!

I went to a community college in the Seattle area called Bellevue Community College for an AA in animation/graphic design. Bellevue was one of my favorite schools I’ve attended and had a really good sense of community and great classes. I honestly miss that school a lot! I also did a course at Evergreen State College in non-fiction media/documentaries, and eventually studied game design and animation at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment in Seattle. Scholarships helped a ton and I ended up working on multiple jobs to get through the various courses, but if I had to pick only one of the colleges now that I can look back on those experiences I def think that the community college was best for me. It felt a lot more financially accessible and had great facilities that I was also able to balance more easily with self studies and learning through my own projects. I still enjoyed those other schools though! I did a lot of original character tournaments and comic competitions at this time as well on the side which I def think helped my ability to plan for projects.

College is def a thing where a lot of factors contribute to how it works out for others and your millage may vary. I know some people who never went to college or dropped out and are still very happy with their choice and I know other people (like me) benefited from the environment. I personally benefited most from access to tools, classroom environments to help me manage my adhd, and the connections I made in school, but those connections can also be made by participating in art communities, meet ups, events. Community College is a safer way to experiment with the idea of “is college right for me?” instead of applying to a big name school like scad and having more money anxiety, especially if the school isn’t a fit for you. Community College allowed more flexibility for me to learn and grow.I actually started doing cons because while I was going to school at Evergreen I was working through bad anxiety/depression, saw there was a small on campus convention and decided to try it to try to force myself out of my shell. I personally believe that starting at a really tiny low cost event to sell at was great for me because it was a good learning experience with low financial risk. I had only 3 prints designs, 3 buttons designs (and only 10 of each and 2 size variations), home made stickers printed on matte paper from staples, and took commissions at that con. (you can still find those old as hell prints and buttons on this blog actually lol).The experience went well enough where it encouraged me to try vending at other events. My ability to socialize improved a ton and it helped to get me out of a bad creative funk I had worked myself into. I was starting to think about other ways to do merch and was becoming way more involved in a community and it helped me a ton on a personal level.Something that I personally learned about cons that I sometimes worry about when I see others starting out is that it’s okay to not burst out the gate with expensive to make merch. Selling at cons is a lot of trial and error about what does and doesn’t work for you as a vendor. There have been plenty of times where I’ve been like “oh this merch idea is GREAT” and then it barely moves LOL. That is okay, that is totally normal! It’s all part of the learning process. That being said I think building up your stock is important and starting with lower cost to produce is a good way to test what sort of designs do and don’t sell before dropping a ton of money on something super expensive that may be hard to earn the money back on right away.Another thing with cons, is to remember to always be kind. Your peers in artist alley are your co-workers and collaborators. There’s people I turned to in artist alley when I first started vending to ask for for help who grew as friends and we now help each other a ton and also just enjoy hanging out. There’s been points where I’ve been in tight spots with emergencies during cons where people I’ve met who have also been tabling have been able to come through to help me or vise versa. The friends you make are super important! If you’re looking for sources on groups to discuss vending with, artist alley international on facebook is a really good starting point and there’s another blog co-run by a friend of mine on this site called howtobeaconartist that I cannot recommend enough.Best of luck on your journey! I believe in you and am willing to answer questions you have if any pop up in the future! \o/

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treehouseart · 6 years

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Why Reblogging Is So Important to Artists | Why Being Nice Online is Important | Storytime

First of all, I wasn’t going to talk about this. Because I thought it wasn’t needed, because I thought there was enough information out there asking people NOT TO REPOST ART and if we do, at least give PROPER CREDIT.

But there isn’t. That’s alright. Let’s talk about it.

Two days ago I was approached by the lovely @vaugleysassygrunt who told me someone was reposting my art. They said this person had been changing their url all day (and they’re still doing it) and sent me a hyperlink to the art they had posted. It was one of the comics from my on-going Sanders Sons series, a sequential comic I have been working on for almost a year. It was pretty dear to my heart (and the context was pretty important as well).

My immediate thought was “Oooh boy, my first art thief, that’s so exciting”. All the big ones get those. Along I went to this person’s tumblr and was about to send them a message when I saw they had already addressed the issue by saying they found reblogging annoying and that’s why they preferred reposting. That they never claimed the art was theirs.

Of course my first thought was “if you don’t like reblogging what are you doing on tumblr?”. But we shouldn’t give in to our first thoughts. They’re often rash.

So I get into a conversation with said art thief and try another way. Because THERE IS another way. We can’t nunchuk our way to awareness. This is what I wrote:

Hi, friendo! I'm sorry people are giving you a hard time, but crediting art is very important for us artists :( It's how we make our carreers. I understand you don't enjoy reblogging, but it can help people find our art and find more of our work if they need to. I also am really embarrassed to have to ask, but could you please credit sandersssons-comic or sanderssons in the quadruplets AU? It's a series I spent a lot of time on and I would hate it if people only read a part of it. Thanks and have a good day :D

They repond right away. Telling me they accept my apology (?)

Also that they found the image on google images.

Also asking how much artists get.

FIRST LESSON TO TAKE FROM THIS: Google Images, such as Google itself, it’s an image SEARCHER. It COMPILES images from the whole internet. An image being on Google Images DOES NOT MEAN IT’S UP FOR GRABS. Google Images provides the proper source of the picture.

BESIDES, Google Images can be a great tool for finding the author of an artpiece. Just go to Google Reverse Image Search. You can do it from your phone and from your desktop. Just put the image on and Google finds the original source for you!

So I proceed to explain to this person that artists don’t make much. Most of us get money from comissions that depend on the complexity. Some get Ko-Fis and Patreons and online shops with stickers and key chains and some other goodies.

ALTHOUGH, FOR YOU I ALSO SAY: PEOPLE ARE ENTITLED TO THEIR ART EVEN IF THEY DON’T GET MONEY FOR IT. BECAUSE IT’S THEIR OWN AND THEY MADE IT. DON’T BE A DICK.

They say:

I don’t mean to be rude but you could just get more money by being an art teacher or something that pays good minimum wage.

And you can imagine this big red flag raising in my head. Disengage. Disengage. Disengage. But this was a HUMAN BEING. And a misinformed one. I had already made contact. Might as well. I explained that we DO NOT WANT other jobs. This is our jobs. This is our choice of carreer. And it’s not hard to respect.

Reminder, that should go without saying: YOU DO NOT HAVE A SAY ON PEOPLE’S LIFE CHOICES

Our friend says they don’t understand cause they’re in high school and they don’t draw a lot (as if art knowledge just comes by osmosis when you draw a lot)

I said it was totally cool not to understand. Because it is

SECOND LESSON: SOMETIMES PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THINGS. I came back to tumblr for the Thomas Sanders fandom. A fandom that thrives on kindness and caring and validation of different people

They thanked me for being cool and explaining things and asked if we could be friends. I said that absolutely

(After our little talk, they started giving credit to the pictures they could find. Read as: the ones that had signatures on the image)

We talked yesterday a whole part of the day. We get acquainted. They’re finding themselves as non-binary, they’re in high school. Things like that. I tell them I’m 20 and in college for journalism

In this proccess I explained how comissions worked and, again, why reblogging and not reposting was important

So yesterday night I’m already in bed when they message me “Hi”

I responded I was tired and going to sleep. They said they were going to bed too. And that they hated when they were accused of something they didn’t do. Which was stealing art

And I said that, indeed, they weren’t STEALING art per say. But reposting was a dick move. They got PISSED. So I tried to find an analogy they would understand.

Ok, think of it like this

You've painted a tradicional piece in oil and put it in your gallery with other paintings

Someone can't come and take the painting off the wall and put it on their gallery

Even if they say it's yours... It doesn't bring more people to your gallery. It exposes your work... But that's mostly it.

To which they replied:

The Mona Lisa got stolen once and people have made counterfeit paintings in the past

Which, goes without saying DOESN’T MAKE IT OKAY. Just because someone already murdered another, it doesn’t mean we can go around on a killing spree.

Besides, tumblr has original content and tools to get replicated inside the website. And so I told them.

And then again:

Why are the majority of people here artists who clearly don’t realize they can get a part time job?

And I told them, AGAIN, they do not want part time jobs. They want these jobs.

They said I lied then, when I said art didn’t pay well. And proceeded to say they didn’t understand why people want to be starving artists.

Also that tumblr didn’t have the kind of images they wanted. EVEN THOUGH THIS WHOLE THING WAS HAPPENING BECAUSE ARTISTS FROM TUMBLR WERE FINDING THEIR ARTWORKS REPOSTED ON THEIR ACCOUNT.

I was also making them upset.

I tried to explain further, but they blocked me.

Fortunately, I was able to send one last message and I think it’s the biggest message I want to pass here.

I'm sorry I'm upsetting you but I've been nothing but respectful

Be respectful. Even when you’re mad. Even when people are rude. Kill them with kindness. If they’re too immature to listen to you, that’s on them. Practice what our dear youtubers preach (Thomas Sanders, Jack, Mark).

This person is still reposting, yes. They’re giving credit, but still reposting. It’s a start, I believe. It’s more than I would have gotten sending a hate ask.

So now, princes, princesses and non-binary royalty, I give you the

TL;DR

Artists are ENTITLED TO THEIR ART. You. Are. Not. It doesn’t matter if it’s on tumblr, on google images or on the street. If there’s a signature or not. Getting money for it or not (also, since I’m here, don’t forget that art is not only visual arts, but also videos, music, podcasts and a bagillion other things. If it’s not yours, don’t post it)

You DO NOT get a say on how people should get their wage (just like you don’t get a say on how they dress, on where they go, or who they love)

When you REBLOG, you help the artist to get known. It costs nothing. When you REPOST, you’re a dick. You’re not helping anyone and you’re giving yourself more trouble than just clicking a simple button

It’s okay not to know everything, but listen when people talk respectfully

Don’t be hard on people when you can be nice. Aggravating people will only make enemies of people who can be friends

Be mature enough to accept sometimes you’re wrong

BONUS ROUND: I believed we were done, but I saw this post short after. I didn’t think it was relevant to include, but I feel like I must say something.

I’ve had it with everyone being nothing but mean and antagonizing me. I’m not the bad guy and I really want to kill myself or leave tumblr. I’m never accepted by anyone or anywhere. Hell its hard to tell my friends I’m into men and women or that I like certain things. I get rejected constantly so goodbye forever

And later proceeded to post normally.

Please notice that your life BEING HARD does not make up for BEING A DICK and REFUSING TO BE EDUCATED. I will not refrain from telling you the truth R E S P E C T F U L L Y to protect your feelings just because you’re LGBTQ+ (specially because the you being B part was totally new information for me in this post/and I’m in the community too).

So since I’m giving moral lessons, do this for your friends. We should not stand for something we do not agree. Real friends will respect your side and reconsider. If a person hostilizes you for having a different opinion - or, in this case, being right - they’re not someone you want to have around.

PS.: I will not disclose this person’s identity because it’s irrelevant. I’m only posting this in hopes it can help someone else

PPS.: I ended up did reporting this person for giving my comic specifically the wrong credit

#art #reposting art #storytime #please don't repost art

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valentinaforerocreativeblog · 5 years

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Curation - Introduction to KSA’s Veolia Exhibition

The beginning:

At the beginning of this semester, I was given the opportunity along with Jordanna, to curate a mini-exhibition based on the installation in which the whole of CCI Year 2′s was focused on. This installation was created for Veolia, a UK leader in environmental solutions. They asked for us to create an installation made out of recycled materials to bring awareness to homelessness and stay within the holiday theme. We were all asked to create an idea for the installation and then create a machete using the recycled materials we thought best to construct it. Later on, Veolia decided on the best idea which led to the start of the ‘The Giving Bear’ installation project, which was the main theme of the exhibition.

1stIdeas of the exhibition:

To start off the exhibition, I made to make an object list of the artwork we wanted to display. I was given an example of an object list, I noticed that there was key information that I need on the object list such as, source, display position, and design requirements. By using the key information on the object list, helps me while creating the Id labels since I will already have all the information I need. I decided to create the object on excel since in the example I was given was created on excel and I already knew the program well.

My 1st Object List:

In my first object list, I had the idea of making the exhibition surround by the different machetes which everyone made, but that all changed once I started asking around for everyone’s machetes. I noticed that many people had already thrown away their machetes or they simply didn’t want to show them. Which was the first of many obstacles I was going to face doing this exhibition? This leads me to the idea of basing the exhibition on images of everyone’s designs. I sent an email to everyone in the year asking for the original jpg of their machete, to have a better image quality when printed. I gave everyone a deadline of a week to send in their images. When it came to the deadline I noticed that only six people had sent in their images. Since there were only six images, the final display idea was to show images of each design step which were asked to do; original sketch, digital mockup, and a machete. In each of those categories, it was decided to show an example of the winner, Ellice’s design and show another example of another student’s design beside each other. Further, into creating the exhibition, images of the construction of the installation and of the different design groups were included into the exhibition, for the viewer to see and understand all the hard work that put into creating the installation.

Final object list:

Simpler layout:

Design layout & learning to use Sketchup: I wanted to create a digital design of how I wanted the layout of the exhibition to look like. I noticed the more I start designing and being able to visualize the exhibition, it was easier for me to know what needed to be done. The idea of creating an exhibition to me was a bit overwhelming, thinking about all the steps that needed to do, it was easy to get confused along the way.

I started searching for different digital design programs which could help me to create a more realistic image of my idea. I found this program called, Sketchup. I started viewing the tutorials and simply started designing,

The space of the exhibition:

My 1st layout design:

In my first idea of the layout, I wanted to divide the space into sections, on the left side I wanted to display the images along the wall and separator. Along the glass wall, I wanted to set up a narrow table to display the ‘The Giving Bear’ published books, for the viewer to have the opportunity to read the book since they might not be able to go central to see the installation. Moving into the right side of the exhibition I had the idea of projecting the video which the film team, based on the construction of the installation. The plinth right in front was the original place where the exhibition text was going to be placed. I thought by having the exhibition right in the centre, it was going to attract viewers to walk in. After given feedback, I was told I needed to focus more on the viewer's experience than focusing on the most practical way to display the artwork. I started coming up on the idea of ‘bring the park to them’, I wanted to create a playful imitation of the park in a section of the exhibition. By creating a little park, the viewer can have an opportunity to enjoy the installation without having to go all the way to central. Creating the little park was my favourite part, I wanted to bring in some fake grass, along with a bench and lampposts.

Design layout including final park idea:

Later on, the layout changed again, having the park had to be moved to the right wall since the left wall has a radiator which would’ve interfered with the bench. The wall for the projector was changed as well since there was no way to hang the projector to the ceiling. The next best thing to do was to have a plinth in a corner of the room and project straight ahead. I originally wanted the projector to be hung on the ceiling for the viewers to be able to walk freely around the space without having to worry about blocking the projection, nonetheless, we were able to place the plinth with the projector on the far ride side of the exhibition which viewers wouldn’t interfere that frequently with. Having a clearer idea of how the design layout was going to look like, I was given the suggestion of including another element within the exhibition, to cancel out the negative space that was still there.

Startup ideas:

I knew I was set on using chicken wiring because I thought the idea of using a material which plays a big part in the construction of the installation, would show the viewer a clear understanding of the recycling aspect of this project. From the start, I wanted to mould the wiring into the shape of an iceberg, to represent the polar bear which is the shape of the actual installation, and represent the polar bear’s habitat. We started playing around with the wire and noticed that the wire was a bit more flexible then we thought it was going to be. We thought of the idea of creating mini boxes which would make the iceberg construction easier for us, by creating separate parts and simply constructing it at the exhibition space to eliminate any moving issues. Once we had all the mini wire boxed in the exhibition space I wanted to create the icebergs almost like melting, which is why at the bottom of the icebergs, the wiring flows into exhibition space. Besides constructing the icebergs, I wanted to spray paint the wire, so it would represent the icy texture of an iceberg. This was the first time I had ever used spray paint which I ended up finding very fun to use.

Spray painting the chicken wire:

youtube

Constructing the icebergs:

In addition to the wire icebergs, we had to figure out a way to have a bench for the park section of the exhibition. We were suggested to ask in the 3D workshop if they had any props from the previous exhibition in the university, but unfortunately, we were told that everything was thrown out due to the construction of the new building. At that point, it was decided to make a new plinth in the measurements which we need the projector to be. Luckily, when we went to the 3D workshop we were assisted by one of the teachers and had the plinth made within 10 minutes. On the other hand, the bench was a harder issue. After looking around the campus looking out for benches, I was told that there was a bench located in one of the offices on the first floor. My first step to achieving this bench was to send an email kindly requesting the rental of the bench, substituting the bench for two chairs which we would supply them with. In no matter a day we were given a sharp response, ‘the bench must stay in the office’. There, once again an obstacle we needed to overcome.

The final bench:

Luckily we had the help from our course teacher Russell, which found us these two wooden units that can be connected to make a bench. What I loved about this bench was the fact that the idea of reusing and recycling was visible. We were able to take both wooden units down to the 3D workshop and received assistance in connecting both units correctly.

Going back to the layout of the images, we were had originally thought of creating a timeline of the installation, from the very first design all the way till the finishing product. It would have included the visual aspect of different colours representing the different stages it took to create the whole project. Nevertheless, the idea became way too complicated, which could’ve made the viewer confused.

The colour code for the timeline:

The layout of the colour code:

Final design layout (without projector working):

youtube

Creating, locating and ordering pieces: First thing I started off with was the pieces I knew I needed to order from Amazon since they’re needed to be ordered in, I didn’t want to run the chance that they would arrive late.

What needed to be ordered:

What was ordered on Amazon:

Correcting gel light filters were ordered because I had the idea of using the spotlights which were right above the bench and project blue light, to give more of an arctic atmosphere. We were advised to get those exact gel light filter since they were heat efficient.

When it came to ordering the fake grass, I looked at several websites and noticed that with the measurements I needed, I was able to find the best price on Amazon. I was able to even get a bit more then I was asking for which came to our advantage.

In the beginning, I was planning on buying a lamppost shaped wall sticker. When I told Russell about the lamppost idea, he suggested finding a lamppost image and creating it into a vector file on illustrator and sending it off to the digital printing lab within the university. The end result was perfect, we were able to have two identical six-foot-tall lamppost stickers, along with our brand new knowledge of digital printing.

We also needed to create the gift in which will be placed in the middle of the bench, to represent the actual gift on the installation. The original idea was to have an exact replica of the gift, but the process of welding another gift wasn’t going to happen. As plan b, I simply thought of just getting a cardboard box and wrapping in exact same colour scheme as the original gift. We were able to find a box and wrapped it perfectly, using white wrapping paper and red ribbon.

Brand guidelines:

When it came to the brand guidelines, it was very clear that the branding of the exhibition was Jordanna’s job as the art director. and I was able to assist her if she needed any help with decision making.

Jordanna’s thought process:

The final brand guidelines:

The name of the exhibition at the beginning could’ve been anything we wanted. So we decided to brainstorm some ideas: Tap to give differently this year Tap to give the homeless a home Tap to home the homeless The gift of giving The gift of difference Giving difference ‘The gift of giving’, was the one that stood out to us. Later on, throughout the project, we were told that the exhibition name needed to be the same as the installation. The exhibition ended up as ‘The Giving Bear’.

Logo design & Exhibition posters:

This was another job in which Jordanna was in charged and I was there to assist.

Original designs:

Development of the logo:

Final logo:

Example ‘A’ of the development of the posters:

Example ‘B’ of the development of the posters:

Example ‘C’ of the development of the posters:

Final posters:

With the exhibition posters, I learnt that when putting up any poster around the university, you must get them approved and stamped from the student union.

Exhibition Text: The exhibition text was something I was a bit worried about since it describes the whole exhibition to the viewer and normally is placed at the front, it could determine whether or not the viewer wants to see the rest of the exhibition. I started off researching examples of other exhibition and even some guides on how to write one.

1st Draft:

The key I noticed was to attract the viewer's attention, I saw many examples starting off with a question. Which brought me to create a question between the two main ideas of the installation, polar bears and homelessness.

2nd Draft:

Final Exhibition text:

Id Labels: The Id labels were another task I needed to research on, I found many useful websites that explained the outline of an id label especially for artwork. I was also given a powerpoint on ‘captions and writing’ for curators.

Example ‘A’ of my research:

Example ‘B’ of my research:

Final Id Labels:

Creating the exhibition’s Instagram & QR code: With the exhibition’s Instagram, Jordanna and I separated the roles, she would be the art director and create all the content for the profile, while I create and manage the page and story contents Instagram content created by Jordanna:

Thought process:

Once the content was created I had to create the Instagram profile. I made it into a business page so we would be able to see the statistics of activity on the page. Meanwhile, we were constructing the exhibition, I was able to take photos which I decided to make into Instagram highlights for the profile, for the viewer to see behind the scenes.

Profile:

Statistics on the activity of our page Dec 3 - 9th:

We wanted to create the Instagram page as the way in which people could understand the exhibition and have a further insight into the development of the installation. We thought of creating a QR code for people to find the Instagram page directly. Knowing that QR codes aren’t that popular, we still decided to implement it because of its easy accessibility. The QR code was very simple to create, all I had to do was search up, ‘create a QR code’, and on the first page I was able to find a secure website which gave me step by step directions and within 3 minutes I had a QR code ready to direct straight to the Instagram page.

Website used:

Final QR code:

Conclusion: Being my first exhibition I have ever done, I must say that I am proud of the final outcome. Like in every event I have ever worked in, I know that there are always obstacles that will stand in the way, especially last-minute problems. I have learnt and improved several new skills such as time management, communication - people skills, and digital design skills on Photoshop, just to name a few. After creating my first exhibition, it gave me the opportunity to experience first hand my major which has reassured me that this is the field I want to develop in.

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mysynthfetish · 5 years

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BOSS NS-50 Gamble.

Yeah so last Saturday I had to go to the Kyoto Concert Hall for our annual school (work) choir festival thing. It’s not a bad deal, we get paid a day of overtime, plus an extra paid day off added to our vacation time, and the upper grade classes really did an outstanding job this year, so I’m not really complaining.

This is the concert hall as seen from A Place Into Which Entry Is Forbidden. Can you tell how much I pay attention to (and obey) Do Not Enter signs? Shit, I had an “official photographer” pass anyway so whatever. Hahaha! In any case it’s a fantastic venue obviously. When it was over, I thought I’d walk a few km over to Circus Coffee, a nice, small (really small!) shop that roasts its own beans, some of which are sourced from single origin farms or whatever coffee growing thingies are called. Bought 300g of some beans I forget exactly what the deal was but from Central or South America someplace. Sun-dried small lot stuff. Considerably cheaper than Starbucks Reserve (got one of those literally a 5-minute walk from here) and just as good. If you take the trouble to find sun-dried small lot beans, I think you almost can’t go wrong. In any case, yay. I saw an odd sign along the way:

Two hands clasped, making a heart shape, but “human brain” underneath. Whaaaaaat? I’ve been in Japan twenty goddam years now and I still don’t get some of this shit. Amusing but confusing. Also along the way I found Ecogreen Recycle Shop, which was a big surprise. I’ve known about the place for a couple years as a friend of mine (Bigfoot) did a panel and designed stickers for the shop. Here’s the top of the panel:

Yeah so if you recognize this and go “Wait, what? THAT Bigfoot?” Yeah, THAT Bigfoot. Met him here when he came along with Mike V on their Japan tours. I literally walked right past the shop and then stopped, my subconscious screaming at me “HOLD ON A GODDAM SECOND, LOOK BACK! LOOK BACK!” And BAM there the shop was. Freaky shit. So I walked in and looked around, and found a BOSS NS-50 with no power supply, as-is, for ten bucks. Well, ¥1000 but same difference. It was in really good shape. Hmmm. Yeah ok. Why the hell not? So I had to source a power supply, twenty bucks. Moment of truth, turned it on, works fine. Yay! But no no no I can’t leave shit alone, we know this. Time for an overhaul! LED swapout and total electrolytic capacitor replacement. Went with Nichicon KT Audio grade caps. Took maybe an hour and a bit start to finish. Woohoo!

Before.

After.

In action. Pink (“sakura”) LEDs for Overload (why not?), Blue instead of red for the Reduction meter, and Green for Reduction On. Looks pretty snazzy. Total cost, about 50 bucks. Groovy.

Since I went through the trouble of writing down all the cap values, and couldn’t find a service manual online anywhere, I figured I may as well share the info, though I have doubts as to whether anyone will find it useful. Who knows. Here goes: C1 4.7u, C2 1u, C3 1u, C4 10u, C5 100u, C7 10, C9 1u, C11 100u, C16 4.7 (tantalum but I went with electrolytic for less KABLOOEY! chance), C17 4.7u (same as C16), C19 1u, C26 10u, C28 10u, C29 10u, C30 10u, C33 10u, C34 10u, C38 10u, C39 10u, C45 10u, C46 10u, C47 10u, C48 10u, C49 10u, C50 10u, C51 47u, C52 47u, C53 10u, C54 10u, C55 10u, C56 47u, C57 47u, C58 100u, C59 100u, C60 100u, C64 47u, C65 47u, C66 1u, C67 220u, C68 220u, C69 470u, C70 470u, C71 100u, C72 100u, C73 220u, C74 220u, C75 100u, C76 220u, C77 220u, C78 100u. So it’s 50 caps in all and here’s the shopping list:

1u x5

4.7u x3

10u x19

47u x6

100u x9

220u x6

470u x2

The shop I bought these at (Digit, or maybe dejitto, in Japanese デジット, an offshoot shop of Kyoritsu in Osaka) only had the 50V versions of the Nichicon KT Audio series I went with. The highest rated original cap was in the NS was 50V, most others were 16V with one or two oddball 25V in there too if I remember right. I read a page online from a shop that mods these and other similar BOSS Pro series half rack units, and regarding the NS-50 they were adamant about the thing being run at its absolute limits because of using low-voltage rated caps (predominantly 16V), but whether that argument holds any water or not I can’t say. It works, it sounds clean, maybe a bit cleaner than before but it was already pretty goddam transparent (it’s not supposed to color or affect the sound anyway) to begin with. Anyhoo, that’s that.

#fucktrump #satan #boss ns50 #nichicon #soldering fun #my wife will never understand

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thesassybooskter · 5 years

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ALMOST JUST FRIENDS by Jill Shalvis: Review & Excerpt

Almost Just Friends by Jill Shalvis Series: Wildstone #4 Published by William Morrow Paperbacks Publication Date: January 21st 2020 Genres: Contemporary Romance, Women's Fiction Pages: 384 Source: Publisher Format: eARC Goodreads Buy Online: Amazon ♥ Barnes & Noble ♥ Kobo ♥ iBooks

Disclaimer: I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely mine.

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis returns to Wildstone with the touching story of finding your place in the world—and the people who make it home.

Piper Manning’s about as tough as they come, she’s had to be. She raised her siblings and they’ve thankfully flown the coop. All she has to do is finish fixing up the lake house her grandparents left her, sell it, and then she’s free.

When a massive storm hits, she runs into a tall, dark and brooding stranger, Camden Reid. There’s a spark there, one that shocks her. Surprising her further, her sister and brother return, each of them holding their own secrets. The smart move would be for Piper to ignore them all but Cam unleashes emotions deep inside of her that she can’t deny, making her yearn for something she doesn’t understand. And her siblings…well, they need each other.

Only when the secrets come out, it changes everything Piper thinks she knows about her family, herself…and Cam. Can she find a way to outrun the demons? The answer is closer than she thinks—just as the new life she craves may have already begun.

Review

I don’t want to sound like a breathless fan girl, but Ms. Shalvis really is that author. She can write about weighty subjects like the ones in this story, but also leave you feeling very satisfied with how she handles these issues and the happy endings her characters get. She is always a sure bet and ALMOST JUST FRIENDS is no exception.

The underlying theme of this book really is secrets, secrets that need to see the light of day for healing to happen.

Piper has had to put her needs aside for so long that she may have lost the ability to be honest about those needs and accept the help or even affection that she needs. She has been a parent for so long that she cannot see that her siblings need her to accept them as equals, instead of trying to fix everything.

Cam has his reasons for being in Wildstone, which have nothing to do with Piper, but his feelings for her are exactly what he needs to ground him and give him the home he needs. I love that he took everything in stride and was steady and dependable for Piper and their family.

There is so much to love about this book – Piper and Cam’s romance, the story of family, loss and new beginnings; and the fact that we get two romances for the price of one. As always, there is the perfect blend of romance and drama to look forward to.

Excerpt

The last time a woman had ordered Cam to strip had been a very different scene altogether, and it’d been a while. Generally speaking, he liked to be behind the wheel in most situations, but he’d never had any complaints about a woman driving in his bed. “Interesting bedside manner.”

“Okay,” she said. “How about strip, please.”

He laughed, and he realized that until tonight, it’d been a damn long time for that too. “Well, since you asked so nicely . . .” But still he hesitated.

“Trust me, I’ve seen it all before.”

He pulled off his shirt, wincing when the cotton stuck to the deepest slice across his chest.

Piper blinked, and for the first time all night, appeared short of words.

It was pretty damn cute, especially with the mud on her nose. “Thought you’ve seen it all before.” She bit her lower lip, eyes suddenly hooded, and he couldn’t resist teasing her. “So, how do I stack up?”

That got her, and she rolled her eyes. “Like you don’t know. Sit.”

The couch seemed too . . . personal, so he sat on her coffee table. She dropped to her knees at his side and doctored up first the cut on his left palm from where he’d nicked himself in his dad’s kitchen, and then the two slices on his left biceps, and then the biggest one across his chest, during which time he did his best to ignore the feel of her soft breath on his skin and failed.

When she’d finished, she looked down at his cargoes and saw the blood seeping through from his thigh. Rising to her feet, she stepped back, gesturing for him to lose the pants too.

“Seriously,” he said. “Doesn’t even have to be dinner. An appetizer would work.”

“If you’re real good, I’ll give you a sticker.”

“How about letting me look at your secret secret bucket list instead?”

Her eyes narrowed. “How about we stop talking now?”

“Wait.” He cocked his head. “Does this mean you also have a secret bucket list? And possibly a not-so- secret bucket list?”

She had hands on hips; a fresh, clean gauze in one hand, antibiotic ointment in the other, her expression dialed to Not Feeling Playful.

With a rough laugh, he stood and took the gauze and ointment from her. “I got this one, Doc.” And then he gestured for her to turn around.

She did with a smirk, and then spoke over her shoulder. “Didn’t peg you for the shy type.”

“Oh, I’m not shy.” He shoved his icy, muddy, wet cargoes to his thighs, and yeah, the cat had come within two inches of de-manning him. “Just didn’t want to have to fight you off.”

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I always get verbal consent first. And I bet you didn’t want me to see your tighty-whities.”

He gritted his teeth as he cleaned out the cut. Son of a bitch, that cat had gone deep. “They’re not tight and they’re not white.”

“Batman undies?”

“Commando,” he said, and that shut her up. When he’d finished and pulled his pants back up, he lifted his head and found her facing him. His brows went up. “See anything you like?”

Instead of answering, she blushed. And he grinned because, yeah. She’d definitely seen something she liked.

Reprinted courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers

About Jill Shalvis

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental.

Look for Jill’s sexy contemporary and award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website, www.jillshalvis.com, for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

ALMOST JUST FRIENDS by Jill Shalvis: Review & Excerpt was originally published on The Sassy Bookster

#Addiction #Contemporary Romance #Family #Grief #Loss #small-town romance #Women's Fiction

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

Link

Obamacare’s marketplaces are having a surprisingly good year.

Two years into the Trump administration, more health plans are signing up to sell coverage. Premiums for mid-level plans actually went down 1 percent. This is after years of double-digit increases, many under the Obama administration.

This all really surprises me. These positive changes are happening the same year that Obamacare’s individual mandate — the penalties for not carrying health coverage — is going away. They’re happening at the same time the Trump administration has rolled out policy changes that were expected to weaken the marketplaces, like letting consumers enroll in skimpier, cheaper plans that don’t comply with Obamacare rules.

I thought these changes would have scared insurers away from the marketplaces, or at least encouraged them to jack up their prices. But that just doesn’t seem to be happening.

I called up two of the experts I trust the most when it comes to understanding Obamacare marketplaces — Chris Sloan at Avalere Health and Larry Levitt at the Kaiser Family Foundation — to figure out what was going on.

Both of them agree: The Obamacare marketplaces seem to be pretty resilient to policy headwinds.

”It feels like we’ve finally hit a plateau with this market,” says Sloan. Or, as Levitt puts it, “At this point, the market looks pretty stable.”

Part of that, they say, has to do with something that seems boring but might actually be Obamacare’s secret weapon: the structure of its premium tax credits.

These are the subsidies that low- and middle-income Americans receive to purchase coverage and, crucially, they are tethered to the price of a mid-level health plan. When premiums go up, the tax credit goes up with it. This makes the 9 million or so subsidized Obamacare enrollees very price-insensitive; the tax credits insulate them from the sticker price of their coverage.

These are the consumers who have stuck with the marketplace as premiums have bumped up and down. They’re the reason that more health plans are selling on the marketplaces in 2019 — they know this group of people can reliably be counted on to purchase coverage.

”The availability of essentially unlimited tax credits is really important in a market that experiences this amount of volatility,” says Sloan.

And it’s not really clear that Congress understood how important the tax credits were when they were writing the Affordable Care Act. At the time, Levitt remembers that legislators settled on the final structure — premium subsidies that would cap individual contributions as a share of income — because they wanted a strong talking point.

”Congress wanted to say nobody would pay more than a certain share of their income for insurance,” he says. “I don’t think anyone really anticipated how powerful of a mechanism it would be.”

The second thing I heard from both Levitt and Sloan: We’re starting to learn that the individual mandate isn’t as important as most health policy experts originally thought.

”This is the first enrollment period where the individual mandate penalties no longer apply,” Levitt says. “At one point, people thought that would be an unmitigated disaster, and so far it doesn’t seem to be that way.”

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easier to see why the mandate may not have mattered as much as we thought — and why taking it away isn’t collapsing the marketplaces.

For starters, the penalty was always pretty small. That made it more politically palatable but also less of a motivator for signing up for coverage. What’s more, the penalty was assessed as part of the income tax process — meaning that it wouldn’t be paid until more than a year after someone made their coverage decision.

”The mandate, as it was constructed, was not very effective,” Sloan says. “You saw lots of exemptions which really watered down its efficacy. And the structure of having it paid as a tax penalty meant that you weren’t fined until 18 months after your decision.”

Levitt has done a lot of work analyzing insurance filings and says that, on average, health plans raised their premiums 6 percent to account for the individual mandate disappearing. In other words: Premiums would be declining even more if the mandate were still here. Still, at the same time, the disappearance of the mandate is leading to a small premium bump and not full-scale collapse.

The place where the Obamacare markets are looking weakest right now is arguably enrollment. We’re currently in the middle of open enrollment and, right now, numbers are lagging behind where they were last year.

But both Sloan and Levitt caution against reading too much into the early numbers due to a number of changes that have happened since 2017. For example, last year, a lot of insurers left the market. So lots of customers got notified that they needed to visit Healthcare.gov to find new plans.

This year, fewer plans are exiting — and those same customers will get a notice saying they’ll be reenrolled in their current coverage unless they want to switch to something else. The impetus to shop just isn’t as great.

Another important change includes Virginia starting its Medicaid expansion on January 1 (which will siphon off some marketplace customers into the private program) as well as the improving economy — which likely means more people getting coverage at work and fewer needing to turn to the marketplaces in the first place.

All told, it’s hard to know where the signup numbers will shake out. But what we do see pretty clearly is that Obamacare marketplaces aren’t collapsing under Trump. If anything, they’re proving more resilient than a lot of observers expected.

Vox’s email explaining the biggest news in health care, edited by Sarah Kliff

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Original Source -> Obamacare is having a surprisingly good year

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truckingrave · 7 years

Text

'F-- TRUMP' truck motorist has actually been apprehended

Photo: Constable Troy Nehls/Facebook Image

of/

Caption

Image of Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls is threatening disorderly conduct charges against the owner of a white truck bearing a large"F

-- TRUMP"sticker label on the back window.Fort Bend County

Constable Troy Nehls is threatening disorderly conduct charges against the owner of a white truck bearing a large" F-- TRUMP "sticker label on the back window. Photo: Sheriff Troy Nehls/Facebook Image of Karen Fonseca, driver of a truck bearing a profane anti-Trump message, was detained Nov. 16, 2017

on a felony warrant for fraud originating with the Rosenberg Authorities Department. She was reserved into the Fort Bend County Jail and has because been released on bond. less Karen Fonseca, chauffeur of a truck bearing a profane anti-Trump message, was apprehended Nov. 16, 2017 on a felony warrant for

fraud stemming with the Rosenberg Police Department. She was reserved into the Fort ... more Photo: Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office Picture of Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls is threatening disorderly conduct charges versus the owner of

a white truck bearing a big "F-- TRUMP "sticker on the back window.Fort Bend County Constable Troy Nehls is threatening disorderly conduct charges against the owner of a white truck bearing a large"F-- TRUMP

"sticker on the back window. Photo: Sheriff Troy Nehls/Facebook Image of

The Fort Bend County Constable's Office is known for stimulating conversation and warming hearts on social networks. See a few of the department's most significant hits.The Fort Bend County Constable's Office is understood for stirring up conversation and warming hearts on social networks. See some of the department's most significant hits. Photo: Houston Chronicle Image of Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls is seen offering his work

boots to

another man on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. Deputy Mark Duran published the picture to Facebook."My sheriff, Troy Nehls, is much better than yours!"Duran said in his post. less Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls is seen providing his work boots to another guy on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017.

the"scary minute"on Facebook. Image: Fort Bend County Constable's Office/Facebook Picture of In March, deputies D. Lytton and M. Ansico made the prettiest Facebook photo ever when they quickly embraced some puppies they discovered on the side of the road.In March, deputies D. Lytton and M. Ansico made the prettiest Facebook image ever when they instantly embraced some pups they discovered on the side of the roadway. Image: Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office Picture of A month later on, deputies rescued 11 abandoned pups and offered them their own Facebook page, making the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office the informal young puppy capital of Houston.A month later on, deputies saved 11 abandoned pups and provided their own Facebook page, making the Fort Bend County Constable's Workplace the informal young puppy capital of Houston. Image: Fort Bend County Constable's Workplace Picture of Deputy Sofi Guerra, who moonlights as

an infant photographer, went viral in July with a Selena-themed picture shoot.Deputy Sofi Guerra, who moonlights as a baby professional photographer, went viral in July with a Selena-themed image shoot. Image: Courtesy, Sofi Guerra Photography Picture Of Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls threatened disorderly conduct charges on Nov. 15 against the owner of a white truck bearing a large"F-- TRUMP"sticker on the back window.Fort Bend County Constable Troy Nehls threatened disorderly conduct charges

on Nov. 15 versus the owner of a white truck bearing a large"F-- TRUMP"sticker on the back window. Photo: Sheriff Troy Nehls/Facebook Image of'F-- TRUMP'truck chauffeur has been apprehended/ Back to Gallery

The

woman accountable for

the "F-- Trump"decal was arrested Thursday, Nov. 16 for a previous exceptional warrant, according to Fort Bend County prison records.Karen Fonseca was booked into the prison shortly after 2 p.m. on Thursday for a scams charge. According to jail records, she is out on bond.According to the Rosenberg Cops Department, Fonseca's felony warrant stems from a June 29, 2015 case for supposed fraudulent possession or use of identifying details. The case was examined by a grand jury in July 2017 and the warrant was provided at that time.No other information on the case is being launched at this time.Fonseca's arrest followed Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls on Wednesday produced a social networks

firestorm with a Facebook post threatening to bring disorderly conduct

charges against the chauffeur of a truck showing a profane anti-Trump message on its rear window.Now Playing: FOX 26 News press reporter John Donnelly Media: FoxM9NJ Nehls informed the Houston Chronicle that he had actually received calls, texts and e-mails in current days from people who took offense at the language in vibrant

, white lettering:"F--

TRUMP AND F-- YOU FOR CHOOSING HIM."The sheriff, a Republican politician

who is weighing a quote for Congress shared an image on

his main Facebook page in hopes that it would assist to recognize thetruck owner. The license plate is notvisible in the image.Update: The image has now been removed. The sheriff's workplace launched this statement on Thursday afternoon:" The Constable made the post on his Personal page. The goal of the post was to find the owner/driver of the

truck and have a discussion with them in order to avoid a possible altercation between the truck motorist and those upset by the message. Since the owner of the truck has been recognized, the Constable took down the post. Due to the hate messages he has been getting towards his better half and children, the Constable will not be talking about the matter even more. " READ: Twitter revokes verification of Alt-Right leader Richard Spencer Ends up, Fonseca stated she used to work for Nehls in the county jail.Fonseca also said the truck belongs to her hubby however that she typically drives it. They had actually the sticker label made and added it to the window

after the billionaire realty mogul and reality TELEVISION star was sworn into office.The sticker label

has actually brought in attention often times before, Fonseca stated. Individuals shake their head. They take images of it. Officers have actually pulled her over but cannot discover a reason for writing a ticket."It's not to trigger hate or displeasure,"stated Fonseca, 46."It's just our freedom of speech and we're exercising it. "Concerned that the language could incite a confrontation on county roadways, Nehls said on Facebook that he wished to have a conversation with the truck owner." I have gotten many calls regarding the offensive display on this truck as it is often seen along FM 359,"Nehls wrote in his original post."If you understand who owns this truck or it is yours, I want to discuss it with you."Nehls wrote on Facebook that a county prosecutor had consented to accept disorderly conduct charges-- a viewpoint that District Attorney John Healey disputes, as does the ACLU of Texas." Numerous families have called that have actually seen that truck on our county streets and are extremely upset by the language on the truck,"

Nehls stated. "I believe they're walking a great line."Healey, a Republican politician not seeking re-election next year, said he wanted the sheriff's workplace had actually contacted him earlier about the incendiary concern. He

said he did not receive a call up until around the exact same time the remarks were published. In disagreeing with his own district attorney, Healey noted that his workplace did not have any info about how the public was responding to the truck. "I did not think it was a prosecutable case based on the definition of disorderly conduct,"Healey said.The ACLU of Texas, meanwhile, reacted to the constable on Facebook. "Constitutional Law 101: You can't ban speech simply since it has 'f@ck' in it, "the organization published."Hey truck owner, feel free to contact the ACLU of Texas."The constable's post quickly went viral, and his office decided to hold a hastily-called afternoon interview Wednesday, pointing out" the high volume of interview requests."Nehls, who has retweeted a video posted by Trump of an arena crowd standing for the national anthem along with videos of the president protecting law enforcement, is no complete stranger to media attention.He is known for comments that wrongdoers who get in Fort Bend County could leave in a body bag. He embraced a pet dog that a television reporter saved while out with the constable throughout the 2016 floods.The statement on Facebook

Wednesday stirred controversy amongst members of the general public. Some on Facebook questioned whether the truck sticker label amounts to an offense of the law.State law describes disorderly conduct as deliberately utilizing"

abusive, indecent, profane, or repulsive language in a public location, and the language by its very utterance has the tendency to prompt an instant breach of peace. "The law also restricts making"an offensive gesture or screen in a public location"that could have the very same impact."I'm thankful to see our government officials are focusing on exactly what is essential,"Facebook user Antonio Herrera discussed the post

."It is necessary to react to calls from residents, yes, "Nehls responded."Glad we agree on that." By 7:30 p.m., the post had been shared more than 4,700 times and received nearly 10,000 comments.

Source

http://middletownpress.com/neighborhood/fortbend/news/article/Fort-Bend-sheriff-calls-out-owner-of-F-Trump-12360280.php

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