#also it must be a desktop thing but that's cool!

[deadsetobsessions]

Sea Cryptic!Danny Phantom- pt. 8

[Pt.1] [Pt.2] [Pt.3] [Pt.4] [Pt.5] [Pt.6] [Pt.7] [Pt.9] [Pt.10]

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been to the hospital in the past three years, I’d have enough money to buy a bag of skittles from Target. Most of it wasn’t for me though lol I’ll add this onto the list in a bit, but I tend to do that from my desktop but I’m still currently attached to an IV drip. I’ve also never been this hydrated in my life lmao

——

Danny poked a puffed up pufferfish. The poison floated through his ghost form and did nothing but give him a little zap. Danny chuckled, wiping away a bit of oil that had gotten onto the fish from a nearby oil spill. Jesus fuck. Danny knew that bald headed, easily drawn Vlad wannabe from across the river would do something terrible to Gotham’s waters (not that it needed help being atrocious to Danny’s clean water appreciation).

The puffer fish- Danny gave up on understanding Gotham’s water ecosystem, having realized that it was a cursed mix of saltwater and freshwater and swamp- gave a fearful little wiggle and Danny let it go, turning to the oil particles floating around.

Danny took out his phone.

“Danny? Why the hell are you calling at three in the morning?”

Danny raised a hand and blasted out some ice, gathering the oil up. “Hey Sam. If I got you into contact with Poison Ivy, do you think you could team up to get rid of Lex Luthor’s new holding company in Gotham?”

“Danny, are you asking me to commit an act of ecoterrorism?”

“That’s not even the weirdest thing I’ve ever asked you to do.” Danny placed a hand on the ice mass and flew it, the oil, and himself across the river to Metropolis.

“Deal.” Sam’s voice gets further away as she pulled her phone from her ear. “I’ll text Tucker, see if he could futz with Luthor’s taxes. I heard her doesn’t even give his workers a livable wage, and that’s so not gonna fly.”

“Perfect! Thanks! We could totally meet up and hang out with my new friends!”

“Hah! That Tim guy? The one that wanted you to introduce Phantom to him?”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, goth girl.”

“Sure, dork. I’ll swing by Friday?”

“Sure! Want me to pick you up?” Danny phased through Lex Luthor’s frankly ridiculous amounts of security measures, still completely invisible and towing a giant mass of oil covered ice.

“Cool. Now hang up. I actually need sleep.”

“Ah, you must be dead tired. I get it.”

Sam hung up, and a second later, Danny got a pic of her holding up a middle finger with her signature purple nail polish.

Danny stared down at the sleeping billionaire. Gross. He let his face re enter the visible spectrum and lowered the temperature of the room drastically. Luthor groaned, waking up as he shivered like a hyped up chihuahua.

Danny bared his teeth, glowing green skin reflecting the black holes of the universe and imploding stars and burning planets as he leaned towards the frozen two bit villain.

“RESPECT THE PLANET,” Danny snarled. He unmelted the invisible ice as he simultaneously made the oil visible, the entirety of the oil spill coating every single inch of Luthor’s penthouse bedroom. Danny winked out, but not before snapping a quick picture of Lex Luthor’s absolutely covered in his company’s oil spill.

If Danny had made sure that there were fish droppings mixed in with the oil… that was his own damn business.

——

Danny floated over to a brooding Batman.

“Do you have two hundred dollars on you?” Danny asked in lieu of a greeting.

Batman grunted a yes.

“Two hundred dollars for a photo of Lex Luthor being hit with karma.”

Batman instantly handed over the cash and received a printed out photo of Lex Luthor (in his Lexcorp pjs) covered by fossil fuel.

"Is this..."

"The oil from his oil spill? Yes."

Batman stared at the picture.

"Why was this more expensive than ID'ing corpses?"

"Cause it's funnier. And dead people deserve more consideration than a egg looking ass polluting everything he touches."

Superman zoomed into the space in front of them, face eager.

"I heard you had something about Luthor?"

Danny figured that Batman probably contacted the hero, and confidently said, "$200 for personal use, $300 for commercial use."

Superman quickly got together three hundred dollars in cash and quickly forked it over. Danny gave him another physical copy of the photo and a usb drive with the photo in a digital format.

"I am so pinning this up." Superman muttered.

"Get out of my city." Batman said flatly. Superman waved a hand, beamed at Danny, and left.

"Did you know Gotham's waters is a mixture of freshwater, swamp, and saltwater habitats?"

Batman grunted.

"Also, please stop stalking Danny Fenton. It's odd."

Batman swiveled his head over. "What."

Danny stared him down. "Stop. Stalking. Innocent. Bystanders. Or else I will recreate the phrase "drowned rat" with you as the subject."

Batman stilled.

"I don't kill, by the way. I can, however, dunk you in the sea and lift you up like a goth version of Simba."

Batman relaxed minutely. "I can't."

"And why not?"

Batman gave him a despairing look. "Have you met my children?"

"... Point."

[ridiasfangirlings]

AI Saruhiko being annoying to irl Yata seems so funny, I liked that ask. Yata slowly growing more dependent on the virtual pet just because he does the things he's supposed to do... most of the time. Also, imagine Saruhiko's cuss words get censored so all Yata hears is a high pitched beep. What if Yata decides to give him a compliment for Saruhiko's hard work? And a tiny little emoticon pops from his head agaisnt his will?

Following up on the ask with Fushimi as Yata’s virtual assistant, imagine Yata having such mixed feelings about his little AI friend. He thought virtual assistants were supposed to make things easier but Saruhiko just mocks him half the time, Yata tells him to do stuff and he’ll make this little clicking sound and tell Yata to do it himself. Yata’s sure he must have gotten a busted assistant somehow or like maybe this is actually a virus, because he’s pretty sure the thing isn’t supposed to insult him. But then one day his computer actually does get a virus and Yata finds himself unexpectedly panicking a little when he sees the blue screen, not just because his computer is borked but also what about Saruhiko. That’s when a tiny Fushimi pops up in the corner of the screen, looking at the blue screen and calling Yata a moron because didn’t I tell you to finish installing the antivirus. Yata’s like isn’t that what your job is supposed to be, Fushimi sighs all I suppose you really do need help all the time don’t you. He disappears from the screen and Yata isn’t sure what to do when suddenly the blue screen error disappears and it’s his normal desktop workspace again, with Fushimi sitting smugly on the task bar. Yata can’t believe that Fushimi actually fixed it that quickly, eyes shining as he says Fushimi is pretty amazing after all. Fushimi scoffs but imagine this tiny excited emoji appearing above his head and he doesn’t even seem to notice, Yata just grins because maybe this virtual assistant isn’t so bad after all.

After this Yata really warms up to him, like sure Fushimi is prickly but he’s actually pretty helpful. Imagining this as like a more cyberpunk style AU too, maybe Yata has not just his normal computer but his watch or even a VR headset type thing and Fushimi can show up on all of those so he’s with Yata a lot of the time. Yata will be checking his mail on his watch at work and a little Fushimi pops up all ‘aren’t you supposed to be working Misaki’ and now all the customers are wondering why Yata is yelling at his watch. Fushimi is maybe worryingly strong though, like Yata’s out skateboarding and he keeps zipping by all these cars who are stuck at red lights, when he expresses surprise at his luck Fushimi’s like who do you think made all those lights stay red. Yata is worried he’ll get in trouble for his virtual assistant constantly hacking things but Fushimi is like how stupid do you think I am, no one will detect me. Yata has to admit that it is cool though and the little happy emoji pops up above Fushimi’s head again.

[adudelolwriting]

Alan finished hooking up the last cord, plugging it into his PC. A small smile went on his face. He never thought it would be possible, but here it is. He grabbed the VR headset off of his desk, doing one more final check that everything was plugged in, and put it on.

Alan’s vision was black. His heart jumped in his chest, possibilities racing through his mind. Had something gone wrong? Did he not hook it up correctly? But after a second, his vision slowly faded back and he saw the classic, default background of his computer screen. 

Yes! Alan pumped his hands in the air, it worked!

He took a closer look at himself. He was actually a stick figure! On his own computer! His skin was a deep purple color, and was flawlessly smooth. Alan also hands, which was a tad strange. He then felt a pair of glasses hanging from his head -- good to know his imperfect vision followed him into this world.

He stood in front of a tall, minecraft house. It’s different from the last time Alan saw it -- it was for one, much taller than the one story building it was before, and two, well. Alan didn’t really have a two.

His stick figures weren’t visible on the desktop, so they must be the source of the noise from inside. It was honestly really, really strange seeing the house from the side angle (or was it the front angle? It did have the door, after all…)

Right as Alan was about to step closer, the door swung open and there stood Orange. Wait. How is Alan meant to communicate to them?

He waved, hoping it wouldn’t show how nervous he felt. Orange continued to stare at Alan, before glancing back into the house. 

“Uhm.” Orange could talk? “Hi. Who are you?”

Oh, duh, he doesn’t recognize me. Alan opened his mouth to talk (wait, mouth?) but nothing came out. How does he talk?

Orange was clearly starting to worry now, the stick glancing back and forth between Alan and the house. Alan perked up, pointing to his own chest, then pointing towards where his cursor sat dormant. Orange, you’re smart. It’s me!

“Oh, Alan?” Orange’s eyes lit up as he looked up and towards the left. Alan followed his gaze, and oh. The stick figures could see Alan through the monitor. It was like looking through bathroom glass -- you couldn’t see the details, but you could see the major shapes and colors. And Alan was looking at himself, his real body, with the big black VR set over his head. 

Orange took Alan’s hands, his eyes bright and full of life. Orange was shorter than Alan, having to look up to meet his eyes. “This is so cool! You’re here! You’re actually here! How did you get on the desktop? Did you really do this for us?” Orange spoke quickly, tapping his feet quickly as he spoke. “Oh, right, you don’t know how to talk. Gosh, how did Green try and explain this to me?”

Orange let go of Alan’s hands, rubbing his chin while thinking. “Okay! Green said that it has to come from your diaphragm,” Orange said, poking Alan in his chest. “Uhm. So just, focus a lot on it? And really think about what you want to say.”

That… doesn’t really help. But it’s the only thing Alan has going for him right now, so he takes a deep breath. He closes his eyes, and, “hello?”

Orange gasps, his arms quickly shaking up and down. Talking was different than Alan was used to, but it still felt natural. Like he was supposed to talk like this. “Oh my Cursor, it worked! Green’s gonna be so happy that you did all of this for his birthday!”

Oh, God, it was Green’s birthday? 

Orange’s face dropped slightly, “you didn’t know? Blue said she put it in your calendar a week ago.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Alan said, slowly, still getting used to how it works to talk here. “Just… Give me a moment. Uh, how long has Blue used she/her pronouns?”

“Oh, Blue doesn’t care what you call him!” Orange’s smile was back. “We all alternate for their pronouns.”

Okay, okay. So one of Alan’s stick figures doesn’t use explicitly he/him pronouns. One, at least. God, has Alan ever actually asked about it? He’ll need to ask about it sometime, write it down maybe. 

As Alan was about to speak, the door to the house opened, revealing a black stick figure with a hollow head. Alan’s heart spiked, and he instinctively put Orange behind his own body. Orange let out a confused noise as Alan’s heart dropped, watching flames ignite in the stick figure’s hands.

“I don’t know what you’re doing here,” Alan started, keeping an arm out infront of Orange. “But you need to leave. Now.”

He didn’t know what The Chosen One was doing on his computer again. He didn’t know what it was going to do to Orange, or any of the other stick figures. Orange could die. Alan’s stick body could, but Alan would be fine. He probably wouldn’t feel it. Even if he could feel pain, he would not let Orange get hurt.

“Wait, Alan, what--” Orange started asking, before he got moved away as The Chosen One flew at Alan with his hands alight. The Chosen One tackled Alan, easily pinning him down on the ground. 

“I don’t know what you’re doing,” The Chosen One hissed in a low voice, “but I will not have you ruining this for anyone. I don’t know how you were able to get here, or why you decided to, but I can kill you right here.” The Chosen One’s grip on Alan tightened, and he gasped for air. The Chosen One looked to Orange, before looking back to Alan. “Lucky for you, Second here says that ae trusts you, and aer’s siblings trust you too. I do not. Lord does not. We know what you’ve done to our kind, I know what you’ve done to me. But we’re going to be nice, and civil for Green, and everyone else showing up to their birthday party tonight.”

The Chosen One let go of Alan, letting his back and head fall back onto the ground from where it was lifted. The Chosen One looked at Orange, and cringed slightly. “Sorry, Second… It won’t happen again. I’ll go talk to Lord, that way she knows He’s here. It won’t happen again,” The Chosen One muttered under The Chosen One’s breath, “not tonight, at least.”

The Chosen One walked inside, leaving Alan and Orange together. “What was that?!” Orange asked, “The Chosen One is like, one of the nicest people I know! The Chosen One could be a bit standoffish when we first met The Chosen One, but not aggressive!” 

“I… Me, The Chosen One, and The Dark Lord don’t have a good history,” Alan sighs. “I wasn’t a good person, when I made them. I was young and stupid, and I treated The Chosen One like shit. I created The Dark Lord to try and kill The Chosen One, but that obviously didn’t work and they destroyed my computer. I haven’t seen them since. How did you meet them?”

“Oh, The Chosen One kidnapped me.”

“What?”

“But it’s okay though! The Chosen One found me, cause we’re spirituality connected, apparently? And The Chosen One knew I was uhm, ‘The Chosen One’s Return’ or ‘The Second Coming’ or whatever, and The Chosen One was getting hunted, and needed help… but it’s okay! So The Chosen One’s been hiding here with Lord!” Orange explained quickly, his -- aers voice and words getting jumbled together. “But it’s okay! You’ve changed, and so have The Chosen One and Lord! C’mon, we’re wasting time, Green’s gonna be so excited! And you can meet King and Purple, too!”

“Wait, Orange,” Alan said, causing Orange to turn and stop in aer’s tracks. “How… old are you guys?”

“Oh. Well, I’m the oldest! Well, out of us who live here normally. I’m thirteen, Blue’s twelve, Green’s turning twelve, Purple’s gonna be twelve soon too, Yellow’s eleven and Red’s ten! I don’t know how old The Chosen One or Lord is, though they say they’re young. King’s, like, ancient!”

“You guys are just kids?” Alan’s face dropped in horror. They are kids. They’re kids. Alan had killed Green, and Red, and Blue and Yellow, and tried to kill Orange. Alan tried to kill children.

Oh, God, how old was The Chosen One and The Dark Lord when Alan created them?

“Yep! We’re all kinda a family. Purple and Green are even twins!” Orange smiled, taking Alan’s hand. “C’mon! Everyone’s gonna start wondering where I went.” 

Alan gets dragged inside, and if Alan thought it was small before, it’s even smaller when full of people. The chatter was loud, laughter breaking the sound. “Guys! We have a special guest!”

Alan saw that The Chosen One and The Dark Lord were off to the side, The Chosen One squeezing the other's hand. 

Honestly, Lord was fuming. She never wanted to see Alan again, and was only on this computer again for Second’s siblings. Most of the time when Chosen invites the others over, it's at his and Chosen’s house. 

Lord never wanted to see Alan again. Lord wants Alan dead. 

But unfortunately, Lord was told to be nice tonight. Her teeth clenched, and Chosen squeezed her hand. “Just for tonight, Lord,” Chosen whispered, leaning Chosen’s head on Lord’s shoulder. “We just have to tolerate Him for Green.”

“I hate Him,” Lord said in a hushed voice, “I hate Him. I hate what He did to you, Chosen. He doesn’t deserve any of this. They don’t deserve it. They -- we know Second got manipulated to literally work for Alan to stay alive. He hasn’t changed, I know it.”

“I know, I know. But we just need to ignore Him. Second and aers friends want to stay here, and they all love Alan. That much is obvious.” 

Lord sighs, his shoulders relaxing. “You’re right, I suppose. I’m just worried for them… Second’s practically your sibling, and everyone else is like Second’s siblings. I want them to have a good life. I don’t want Him holding everystick’s lives over everystick.” Lord closes her eyes, and decides to just focus on Chosen’s comfort. Chosen wraps an arm around Lord’s waist, pulling her close.

Lord and Chosen can ignore Him for one night. One night, and then they can go back home, safe, in their bed.

This is just one more horror the pair have to get through together. For Green. --------------------

Green was ecstatic. Not only was it his birthday, but Alan was actually here! Green wonders if He designed His character to be a deep purple hollowhead, or if the way He got here randomized it. Green likes to think that it matches Him.

“Happy birthday Green!” Everystick said at once before he blew out the candles. Blue baked the three layer cake, just for Green. As the flames go out, everyone cheers for him.

“Now I’m really older than you now!” Green laughed, nudging Purple’s shoulder. It rolled its eyes, hitting his shoulder. 

“Oh, shut up. I’ll be the same age as you again next week!” Purple huffed, dramatically crossing its arms. King ruffled Purple’s head, who giggled. 

“You weirdo. You said you wanted to invite everyone to our house for your birthday, right?” King asked, to which Purple hummed and nodded its head.

“You guys have a house?” Alan asked, and King jumped, forgetting the dark purple stick figure was there. 

King cleared his throat. “Yes, me and Purple live together in Stick City. It’s… not the best, but this one-” King patted Purple’s shoulder, “-has been helping me. The little stick isn’t letting me slack a day to get my shit together.”

Purple laughed. “I mean, you just can’t continue living in that dumpster! I know you were struggling with your depression and revenge plot, but I can’t live with this mess, and I lived on the street!” Purple giggled, teasing King. Alan’s face dropped as King let out a hissed “Purple!”

Alan tentatively spoke, “you were homeless?”

It shrugged. “After my mom died I was, but I found a mac for a while, and then King found me! It’s my trauma, I can make jokes about it,” Purple said as if it was talking about the weather.

“A lot of sticks are homeless at one point or another,” Lord spoke up, and Chosen shot Lord a look. “Especially children, or sticks created by Cursors.”

“Lord,” Chosen warned quietly. Alan glanced at the two.

“Hell, me and Chosen were homeless for a long time. And when we finally tried to get a house, we couldn’t. We built our house, together, in a place in the middle of the woods.” Lord stepped towards Alan.

“The Dark Lord,” Chosen hissed, placing a hand on her shoulder. Chosen used Chosen’s other hand and held Lord’s in them -- Lord hadn’t even realized that her hands had burst into flame. She took a deep breath, and his hands unlit. “Sorry. I’m gonna step outside for some fresh air.”

Lord walked out of the house without a word. Chosen silently followed.

The whole house was silent as the pair walked out. 

“Maybe I should go,” Alan sighed. “I can… do this-” He gestured to His body, “-another day. I don’t want to ruin the mood anymore. Have a happy birthday, Green,” Alan leaned down and gave Green a hug, and Orange, Yellow, Red, and Blue joined in. 

“We don’t want you to leave!” Green frowned, holding onto Alan.

“The Chosen One and The Dark Lord trust you guys. They trust you all enough to come back here after everything my stupid, younger self did to them. I can come back here later. You only turn twelve once, yeah?” Alan smiles sadly, patting Green’s head. He let go of Alan, and Alan waved goodbye. “It was nice to meet you, King, and Purple.” 

Alan walked outside, avoiding eye contact of the two other people and walked to the corner of his computer. Alan brought up the VR icon, jumping slightly as the panel opened up. His hand hovered over the exit button, glancing back. His voice stuck in his throat as he watched the two stick figures whispering to each other. 

“For what it’s worth,” Alan started, catching the attention of the two, “I’m sorry. Orange has -- ae’s helped. They all have. If I knew what I know now, I wouldn’t have done any of that.” 

And Alan hit the quit button.

[tequitoclown]

List of programs and stuff I use

[pt: List of programs and stuff I use ./end pt]

Disclaimer: This is in no way trying to say I have the best setup of all time or anything. The point of this post is mostly to introduce people to cool things they may not know about, or a place to point to when someone asks what I use!

(Last updated: 6/28/24)

Browser

[pt: browser ./end pt]

Firefox (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Obviously I recommend Firefox above all else, especially with chromium-based browsers moving onto manifest V3.

Bitwarden (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Good password manager! Used it for years with no complaints!

AdNauseam (Firefox/Chrome) - My adblocker. It's built upon uBlock Origin and has all the same features, but it actively clicks on the ads to waste advertiser money. If that's not up your alley, uBlock Origin is fantastic too!

Wayback Machine extension (Firefox/Chrome/Safari) - Allows you to make snapshots of pages, or view old snapshots if a page isn't loading correctly!

XKit ReWritten (Firefox/Chrome) - Pretty much a must-have for Tumblr. Has a ton of features to make navigating this site much better. Full feature list here!

Discord

[pt: Discord ./end pt]

Vencord (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - A modified Discord client that adds support for plugins and themes. Basically allows you to install plugins from a massive list that improves Discord. (Technically against ToS. Basically, don't post that you're using it in big servers, and turn off your themes before sharing screenshots.)

Bunny (Android/IOS) - If you miss Vendetta for Discord, Bunny is an actively maintained fork of Vendetta! Basically the same as above, but for Android/IOS instead of desktop. Same warnings about ToS apply.

Aliucord (Android) - Miss the old Android app feel, and still want to have plugins/themes? Pretty cool but has a less impressive theme/plugin selection. Same warnings about ToS apply.

Bluecord (Android) - Another Discord modification without the new Discord UI!

Youtube

[pt: Youtube ./end pt]

Freetube (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - A desktop Youtube client with adblock and sponsorblock built in. Still in beta, but very good.

Sponsorblock (Firefox/Chrome) - Pretty much a must-have for watching Youtube these days. Automatically skips over sponsors, self-promos, interaction bait, outros, intros, etc. Highly configurable!

Dearrow (Firefox/Chrome) - Haven't used this very long but I love it. Gets rid of vague or clickbait titles/thumbnails and replaces it with descriptive and more accurate thumbnails. Also built into Freetube now!

Newpipe (Android) - Lightweight Youtube client. I haven't used it myself much but people swear by it!

ReVanced (Android) - Modded Youtube client with Sponsorblock, Return Youtube Dislike, and Youtube Premium features. Doesn't support Dearrow as of 6/25/24 :( (PLEASE BE CAREFUL INSTALLING THIS. If you don't know what you're doing, you can cause some damage!)

Spotify

[pt: spotify ./end pt]

Spicetify (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - Spotify modded client. Has adblock, themes, etc! Think Vencord, but for Spotify.

Misc.

[pt: Misc ./End pt]

Obsidian (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Basically a personal wiki for notetaking! A bit of a learning curve. Fanfic writers and worldbuilders... go feral.

Notepad++ (Windows) - A must-have text editor. Might be on more platforms but can't confirm?

Mullvad VPN (Windows/Android) - The only VPN I can 100% recommend. Cheap, fast, and really cares about your privacy. It's a little under $6 USD a month!

NVDA (Windows) - A free screenreader I use for reading large blocks of text. (Notice: I am not visually impaired to the point I rely on a screenreader to navigate my PC. I use it on occasion to read text to me because I have a hard time reading. If you're looking for advice on screenreaders for the visually impaired unfortunately I'm not a good source! Maybe check out the #visually impaired, #blind, or #accessibility?)

Syncthing (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android) - Lets you sync folders across devices. It's especially good with Obsidian.

"Tequito, I didn't find what I wanted!"

[pt: "Tequito, I didn't find what I wanted!" ./end pt]

I'm sorry. :( If you're looking for a program I have personally mentioned using in the past, feel free to shoot me an ask or DM! Or hey... maybe try searching the letters "FMHY" and having a look around? *wink*

[devildomditzy]

Pacts 2; Levi - A Mammon x MC Fic

Part one of ?

Haven’t read Pacts No. 1? Click here for the three part story!

🚨🚨:) this is still missing the final line on mobile and it’s displaying twice on desktop. i don’t know what to do about that :)

——————————————————————————-

Ah, nothing like a nice mist hitting your face on a hot day to keep you cool from the sweltering heat of hell.

Was it a light rain that suddenly moved in, uninvited? no.

Was it one of those flimsy tourist fans found at human realm theme parks that mixed a laughable amount of water into its foam propellers to bring your body temperature down?

of course not.

Was it your demonic boyfriend spitting out your shared bufo egg tea all over your face in shock at the words that had just left your mouth? bingo.

“YA WANNA WHAT?!”

“First of all, gross,” you grimace, wiping the remnants of the drink off of your cheeks and out of your eyes. “Second of all, I said I want to form a pact with Levi.”

“W-Why do ya need to go a do a thing like that for! You’ve got me! Ain’t I enough?!”

You can’t help the small smile that begins to form on your lips. Of course he’d get jealous over this. And while Mammon was certainly more than enough on his own for you personally, you simply couldn’t help but want to get closer to your newly forced housemates.

“It’s not that! You’re perfect. It would just…be nice you know…to have more than one friend here. And to maybe get to know your brothers more?”

“T-There’s no need! I can tell ya anything about them ya wanna know!”

“You know that’s not what I mean. I want to be friends with them!”

“And out of all of em to be friends with, ya pick Levi?!”

You roll your eyes at your incredulous pact mate. “Well, he was the first one to talk to me besides you. And he didn’t have to be forced to, unlike some people”.

While you mutter the last part under your breath, it was still loud enough to hear, causing a swift flick to your forehead from the second born.

“Oi! Do I gotta remind ya he used ya to make me pay him back? He saw ya as a means to an end! At least I saw ya for what you were.”

“Oh, and what is that?”

“A spoiled brat”, he mocks, ruffling a hand atop your head causing you to lightly push him back.

“Cmon. I didn’t make you and Beel marathon TSL for nothing! Levi’s not gonna just befriend some normie who doesn’t know their stuff! I gotta get good!”

“Gross! You’re even startin’ to sound like him.”

“Lol.”

“Ugh! Stop, I feel like I’m on a date with my brother!”

“Lmao. Rofl.”

“CAN IT!”

Mammon takes another irritated sip of tea before continuing, “How’d ya expect to do that anyway huh? It’s Levi we’re talkin’ about. The only person he’s nice to ain’t even a person. It’s a damn fish for cryin’ out loud!”

Your eyes twinkle in determination. “Maybe he just hasn’t met anyone like me!”

Mammon breaks out into a cackle at that one. “Yeah, you’re certainly somethin’!” He can hardly contain his laughter. “Aw shut up”, you shine, playfully pushing his shoulder. “It’ll work! I’ve already got a plan!”

“Ah- does this little ‘plan’ involve me?”, he questions, whipping away a stray tear.

You shoot him a mischievous look as you steal the cup away from him. “Yes, to some degree.”

“Damn. You’re really hellbent on this, huh?”

You nod in agreement. Of course you were, though why you could not disclose to the demon in front of you. You’ve heard someone? or something? calling to you from the top of that spiral staircase ever since you got here, the one Lucifer was determined to keep you from climbing. Unlucky for him, you were just as determined to get up there. The others must be suspicious too, considering the fact they’ve been dropping hints on how to catch Levi off guard.

Appealing to his music aficionado side with a rare cursed record was sure to work to lure Lucifer from the place his been guarding steadfast, but first you had to obtain said record. Of course, that’s were Levithan came in, the owner of the TSL record. Also, adding one more demon friend to your repertoire wouldn’t hurt. The more the merrier.

A TSL quiz, you wagered to the third born, to prove who was the biggest fan. Talking about TSL was about the only way to get him to interact with you, and it seems he wasn’t gonna budge. If he wants you to prove you can be a bigger dweeb then him, fine. So be it. As long as it brought you closer together.

And one step closer to the top of that staircase.

You stand up abruptly, wiping the front of your uniform off. “C’mon, we’re going to go talk to Simeon.”

Your lover looks at you with an annoyed gaze. “Ugh, why do I have to come? I don’t need anythin’ from the angel or the pipsqueak.”

“No, but you’ll do it because you looooove me? Or, you know, I could just command you to come with me?”, you point out, a crucial detail that he seems to forget often.

“Hey! You can’t play those cards! That’s cheatin’”.

You lean forward to place a chaste kiss on his cheek. “I learned from the best!”.

The second born (begrudgingly) grabs your hand as you walk towards purgatory hall together in search of Simeon at the behest of Satan’s advice. You needed something big to stump Levi, something he can’t one up you on, something that will make him jealous. And for some reason, it seems the answer to your prayers lie with the angel.

“WHAT!? Woah woah woah slow down! Ya mean to tell me you know what happens in the ninth volume of The Seven Lords!?”, your boyfriend questions, openly gawking at the angel sitting across from you.

Simeon chuckles fondly, “Is that so hard to believe?”. As you converse, Luke sits at his side, pouring you a steaming cup of devilwood tea all the while throwing the man sitting next to you a look that could kill.

“How do ya know all this? What happens to Geldie? To the Lord of Fools? To Henry? Ya gotta tell me!”, Mammon all but begs the angel.

Once again Simeon let’s out a laugh at his astonishment. “Let’s just say the author and I are…close.”

“Isn’t this a series of books? How does Mammon know about it? Does he even know how to read?”, pips the smaller of the two, still holding his glare steady.

“Oi! How dare ya speak to yer elders like that! Course I can read!”

“How long did it take you to finish all eight books?”, questions Luke in an innocent voice you can tell is laced with venom.

“Uh- I uh- I didn’t read the books. I-Im not some nerd! I watched the movies. B-but I coulda read em if I wanted to!”

Luke’s laughter fills the room as Simeon has to hold back another giggle.

“Shaddup, tiny! Even yer laughs sound like yapping.”

Luke snaps to attention at his comment, Mammon’s teasing.

“Hey! I am not a chihuahua!”, he shouts, crossing his arms across his chest.

You give Simeon an apologetic glance on behalf of your second half. He simply responds back with a knowing one, placing a hand on Luke’s shoulder.

“Luke, would you please go brew some more tea for our guests?”, he asks as gently as he can.

"Hmph!", Luke indignantly huffs as he snatched the kettle off the table and heads towards the kitchen.

Simeon settles back on the couch after watching Luke leave the room. Facing the two of you once more, he says, “I suggest the two of you make yourselves comfortable. This… may take awhile.”

[knickynoo]

Back to the Future: The Animated Series, s01ep12 “Retired”

Previous episodes linked HERE.

In this episode: Jules and Verne's April Fool's jokes nearly destroy not only their family but also the entire town.

Quick update on the pic/gif situation. If you've been keeping up with these, you know my pics and gifs aren't being formatted correctly when viewed through a desktop computer. Instead of being in a row, they get enlarged and stacked vertically. Tumblr support has informed me that this is a bug they're working on. So, while it still bothers me and ruins the "flow" of my posts, I'm at least not losing my mind over it anymore. That is all.

Our visit with Real Doc begins with him hyping us up to see his latest experiment. He explains that it's taken months of research and hard work, but he's finally able to reveal...

He's finally able to reveal....!

Yep, Doc can't remember what it is. He goes totally blank, having completely forgotten what experiment he was going to show us. He's put hours upon hours of painstaking work into something and cannot for the life of him remember what it is. Doc panics as he tries unsuccessfully to figure it out. This is basically what happens.

He briefly ends the broadcast, then returns a moment later to make his second attempt at announcing his latest invention. Unfortunately, he still can't remember anything regarding what he was so excited to show us. "It can't be," he says. "Not my brain power."

This leads Doc into the story of another time he feared he was losing his mind, which all started with a prank on April Fool's Day.

The cartoon begins, and we watch as Jules and Verne put the final touches on all their planned hijinks for the holiday. Some of the things on their list of pranks include: salt in the sugar bowl, chocolate sauce in the shower nozzle, and pouring sparkling water on Doc's brainwave analyzer (which is less of a prank and more of just. breaking something lol).

One by one, the pranks play out, with Doc being completely unaware that he's being tricked. When his "automated jogging shorts" (which have been filled with banana peels) malfunction, he's confused but generally unalarmed. When Clara goes to shower and gets covered in chocolate sauce, he ends up thinking it was a skin-moisturizing feature he purposely built in and somehow forgot about. And when he tries to use the brainwave analyzer, which the boys had poured water on, it tells Doc that he's only got 0.01% of his brainpower left.

Doc tells Marty, who has stopped by for a visit, that he must immediately give up science in order to preserve the tiny bit of his brain that he's got left. He also says that he can't even risk conversing with Marty anymore.

Doc then runs straight through the wall of the garage and toward the house in an absolute panic.

Marty, meanwhile, is very bummed at the timing of this whole crisis. He's got a big upcoming gig with The Pinheads, and Doc had promised to help create some cool special effects for the show. But special effects require brainpower, which Doc refuses to use. Left on his own in the garage, Marty takes it upon himself to "borrow" a weather simulator machine Doc had invented. He thinks it'll make the perfect special effects for his concert and has no idea that Jules and Verne have also messed with this device.

We do a little time-jump then, where we see Doc sitting on the couch in his robe, watching mindless television. He's determined to not do anything that requires thought, and Clara is fed up with the whole thing. She tells him he's got to find something else useful to do if he isn't going to do science anymore. They have this funny exchange.

Unable to convince him to get up and do literally anything, Clara announces that she's getting Marty (who she feels is the only one able to talk some sense into her husband). When she returns with him, they find a note from Doc telling them he feels like a burden and has decided to run away. Yes, Doc has ABANDONED his wife and two small sons.

Also, yes, this is a silly cartoon for kids, but I also feel like there's a lot to examine here. Doc thinking he's used up almost all of his brain and deciding his family would be better off without him sort of says a lot about how his sense of self-worth is dependent on his perceived level of intelligence. The guy really thinks he has nothing to offer his family anymore and has decided to jump ship because he evidently can't see any remaining valuable qualities in himself.

Who did this to him? Doc, who damaged you like this? Was it Erhardt? Can we assume Erhardt is somehow responsible?

Meanwhile, Doc is wandering the streets, desperately trying not to think. And honestly? He should've brought Marty along, because Marty is well-versed in the skill of Not Thinking. He could've been a big help.

After a brief scene of Marty and Clara failing to get the police to take them seriously regarding Doc's disappearance—they think it's an April Fool's prank—we return to Doc, who has taken a job playing piano at a Hawaiian Luau-themed lounge. The patrons are less than thrilled with his rendition of "If I Only Had a Brain" from The Wizard of Oz.

Also, I'm no expert, but I'd say playing an instrument uses a significant portion of your brain, Doc. If you're trying to preserve that 0.01% that you've got left, you're not doing a very good job.

As a side note, I like that Doc can play piano. Unfortunately, he swiftly gets fired from the job for putting everyone to sleep.

We go back to Clara, who has resorted to wearing a sandwich board in order to bring awareness to her plight.

After his failed job at the lounge, we follow Doc on a montage of several more failures as he tries being a gardener, a parking attendant, and a pizza maker.

Things are not going well for him.

Apparently, the whole situation thus far has all taken place in the span of a few hours (I thought it had been days, lol) because Marty and Clara go to pick up the boys from school and inform them that their father is missing.

We go again to Doc then, who has decided to use the DeLorean to travel back to a time "when things were simple." As he flies off into the sky, we see a brief shot of a movie theater where Back to the Future is playing.

He ends up traveling to the Cro-Magnon period, where he attempts to teach the people there how to make fire. And I say again: Doc is doing a very poor job of not using his brain. He should've stayed on the couch watching mind-numbing TV if he was really serious about all of this.

After concluding that the temptation to invent things is still too strong, he seeks out a place where "no thinking is required."

Back in present day Hill Valley, Marty is preparing for his concert with The Pinheads. Wow, there's a lot of scene-jumping in this episode! We're all over the place here, bouncing between Doc and everyone else.

Marty is convinced that the best way to find Doc is to do his show because, "Doc told me he was coming, and he hasn't broken a promise to me yet." Awwwww. Very sweet. And he ends up being right about Doc showing up because we soon see him sleeping under some newspapers.

Turns out a rock concert is the perfect place to go when you don't want to experience a single thought.

Clara and the boys catch up to him and try to explain that the brain wave analyzer had been sabotaged, but Doc isn't buying it. The show begins, and Marty uses the weather simulator he had taken for his special effects earlier in the episode. Since Jules and Verne had also tampered with that device, it starts going haywire and creates a massive, dangerous storm. Marty is struck by lightning (he's fine), Doc is struck by lightning (he's also fine), and the sky turns into a swirling vortex of doom. There's a simultaneous thunderstorm, massive flooding, and snow. Clara and the boys beg Doc to use his brain to come up with a plan to save the town before it's too late. Btw, this is the current situation...

And I'm sorry but. I don't think Hill Valley can be saved at this point. Everything is completely underwater. The clock tower is almost entirely submerged. This is hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, and people are probably dead. It's incomprehensible destruction all caused by Jules and Verne's April Fool's Day prank. They should be brought up on criminal charges.

After being convinced to finally use his brain, Doc is able to turn off the machine and undo all the chaotic weather. The end result is only a slightly soggy Hill Valley. I guess no major damage was done by the 50-foot-deep floodwaters. Somehow.

We go to the Browns' kitchen table, where Doc falls victim to one final prank the boys had set up: salt in the sugar bowl. After choking on his salt-filled cup of coffee, we end on a freeze frame of Doc scowling at his children.

I also must address the fact that Doc's eye color was off again in this episode. If you've been keeping up with these posts, you've seen me mention this inconsistency before. There have been many instances of a character's eyes changing for a few seconds mid-scene (a Tannen relative's eyes going from black to blue, then back to black briefly, as well as Doc's changing to blue for a few moments) but this was like. The whole episode. They went from being black in all previous episodes to being green.

Left is how they should look (taken from a previous episode). Right is what they were like for this whole episode.

I'd really love to know why this show struggles so much with eye color consistency. What a weird little problem to have.

Real Doc closes out the episode with an experiment involving condensation and "creating clouds" but it isn't all that interesting, so I don't have much to say about it. The end!

This episode was kind of fun, even though Doc was super out of character. That guy would not ditch his family like that. It also made no sense how he was spent the whole time going, "I must not think!" while taking on jobs that all required significant amount of thought. The rapid-fire scene-jumping gave me whiplash, too. Fifteen seconds with Doc, then a thirty second Marty and Clara scene, then back to Doc for like a minute before we go back to Marty and Clara...I'm tired.

Why are Doc's eyes green now?

Join me next week for our final episode of season 1, in which Clara's mother falls in love with Marty.

[blindrapture]

I have been in full-on Recluse Mode lately. in the interest of communicating a little more, let me share with you what games I have been playing lately:

MyHouse.wad (finally! had been meaning to play this for years. I have gotten the default ending and might maybe try to look for more branches of the maze when I feel up to facing all those monsters again.)

FAITH: The Unholy Trinity (fuck, finally, someone made a good horror game. I have gotten the best ending in chapters 1 and 2 and have made it to the final boss of 3.)

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (ah! wow! this is not my kind of horror game. it's honestly a kinda average adventure game but one that has subject matter that makes me feel gross and depressed and not want to play it. which probably means other people will like it a lot more than me, as I am coming to terms with the fact my tastes *are* weird.)

Who's Lila? (oh wow... I was so curious about this one but it's *also* a kinda average adventure game? albeit with a Mario Party minigame permanently attached to the screen that you have to keep playing. the Easy Mode just gives you a lot more time to do that, which is a sign that the developers were simply unable to balance it properly and had to give you a bandaid solution. I may have to just watch some YouTuber play this one, as the story *probably* gets good!)

Cyberpunk 2077 (I found a surprisingly cheap PS4 at a local pawn shop and picked this game up with it. the PS4 is good for watching blu-rays, even more convenient than a dedicated player. for gaming it is *comically* bad. I may have a bias against PlayStation, the fucking failure of a brand whose first-party properties have serious "AI-generated corporate brand" vibes.... but I thought I was just being stupid! but no! the PS4 cannot game. the controller feels like cheap plastic, and the console itself has a cooling fan with the volume of a jet engine and it will *shake my entire bedroom* if I want to play any game, any game at all. even doom 2016, which it should be more than capable of running. the *menus* on doom 2016 push the PS4's fans into overdrive, there is no refuge. in cyberpunk I can at least pause the game every 30 seconds and wait 20 seconds for the fans to go silent, before unpausing and playing for another 30 seconds. ....it's fucking awful. gaming with a permanent headache, my whole body assaulted with noise and vibrations. .......but uh, Cyberpunk itself honestly seems like fun. I don't really give the slightest shit about the aesthetic, but to my surprise they buried a perfectly good game under there. can't say the same about Sony and any perfectly good gaming consoles, though. the PS2 was the last competent console they released, and that's the one I have a *grudge* against, because It killed the Dreamcast. for what!! for decades of garbage consoles afterwards?? get a damn Xbox. or, when you want to actually play games for real and stop fucking around with these childish insecure "GAMING FOR ADULTS" aesthetics, just get a fucking Nintendo, like god intended. mic dropped.)

Doom 2, in QuestZDoom. (in VR. I have the first three Dooms just.. permanently installed on my quest 2, along with Half-Life. this is admittedly still one of the coolest things ever, that I can just play these games in VR whenever I want. anyway, I have never actually played through Doom 2. never done it. never even tried to. so my first playthrough is in VR. I average about 10 maps a day, on the easiest difficulty because I have no shame. I did not know just how troll-y Doom 2 was. I also did not know everyone was just *wrong* about the city levels, I'd always heard the city levels sucked! but no! they're the best part!! I had a blast with the city levels!! god I LOVE mazes!!!)

oh yeah, also, Starfield. (I managed to find a mod that forces the game to not use 4k textures, and that actually solved most of my performance issues. it still stops to load every now and then, but it hasn't crashed to desktop in a long time now. so I went and finished a quest. I do *kinda like* Starfield, I like the promise of freedom, and I automatically love anything that's first-person. I wouldn't mind actually *playing through* Starfield. I already like it more than any Fallout game-- that's just a bias, I find mass media's fixation on Wasteland Post-Apocalyptica to be boring as hell, to the point of ruining whatever good there is to find in the media itself. but it is not as good as Skyrim. maybe it could *compete* with other Bethesda games if it.. was actually optimized properly? but then it wouldn't be a Bethesda game.)

and yeah, I think that's it.

will get back to you when I play more video games.

[hyperfixat]

Really Silly Levi Fic (~650 words)

Literally made this only for me. If someone else likes it that’s on you.

Me and Fnaf and Levi and Tsl we are so silly.

Levi gets it. He’s the same way with TSL as you are with FNAF.

“AHHH!” He screams and tears his headphones off his head. “WHAT THE FUCK?”

You hold your hand over your mouth and giggle.

“WHAT THE FUCK, MC?” Levi turns to you in his spinny chair. “What is this game…?”

“Five Nights at Freddy’s,” you reply, still kinda laughing.

“Why did the bunny attack me? What the hell is this game about? Why is it scary?” Levi is no stranger to horror games, but he wasn’t expecting some human world game to be… actually able to startle him.

“What do you think?”

“It’s cool, I mean, the concept is neat, but what part of it is your favorite. You said this is your special interest, right? Like what about it… makes you go?”

“I like the characters, and the games, but I really like the lore speculations. Like it’s crazy how many possibilities could be canon. In the VR, I think it was, the narrator says something about the first games being the ramblings of a mad man, and that’s meant to be a joke, but if it isn’t a joke that means everything before it came out was fake, and that makes you wonder what is the cannon then? Like were there any child murders? What did William Afton even do to become a bad guy? Did the spring lock incident even happen?

“It’s really hard choosing what to believe, and a part of me is pretty sure the dev didn’t really plan much lore out. I wouldn’t have made much lore for a game I didn’t know would take off, and draw in a crowd. There’s probably a little bit of lore that he’s built off of, but it’s so convoluted, that I want to believe the ‘it’s all fake’ theory.”

Leviathan nods as you speak. “I must say that is a lot more than I expected from an animatronic game. What’s your favorite game in the series, MC. We should play together.”

“I like the third one, with Springtrap. He’s the only animatronic in it, and he’s also like a ghost - zombie man. Lots of people think he’s sexy, but he’s British or something.”

“Ah,” Levi makes a sound of agreement as he opens his Steam account to look for the game. He set up a human realm router to access the games you like.

You continue to talk about random parts of FNAF, not much of it making sense cohesively, but Levi doesn’t mind. He knows what it’s like to be in a happy spot just spewing whatever is on his mind about TSL.

It’s nice having someone to talk about your interests with that won’t find your intensity odd or annoying.

“Okay, it’s downloading now,” Levi clicks out of the steam application and waits for the desktop shortcut to open. “You know the thing you mentioned about William Afton kinda reminds me how in TSL the Lord of Shadow….”

You let him blabber about his seven lords while he boots up the game. The haunting music of the title screen plays beneath his voice, and he’s starting the first night as he talks.

He quiets down after a minute of explaining the connection he found, focusing on clicking up the monitor to check on the ventilation.

(“YOU SAID THERE WAS ONLY ONE ANIMATRONIC?! WHAT WAS THAT?!”)

“Thanks for letting me info dump on you, I love talking about FNAF.” After all five nights with Springtrap, and a brief time on DevilTube watching the clips from TSL (third film rendition) that Levi connected to FNAF, you both lay in his tub.

“I’m always talking about Ruri and The Seven Lords, MC,” Levi snorts from under you. “I like it when you talk about your interests.”

“Mmhm,” you shove your face in the pillow next to his head. “‘s embarrassing sometimes.”

“It’s cute,” Leviathan assures.

[cerealandchoccymilk]

Trigun Bookclub: Trigun Vol.1, Chapter #07 (Part 2)

previous | all | next

I’m doing a deep-read of the Japanese original print (reread) and Overhaul 1.0 (first read) side-by-side, and writing down everything I notice from small details, version differences, translation differences, etc.

This one’s divided into two parts since it surpassed the desktop image limit of 30. whoops

Here are the ME BEING GAY panels:

And the rest is under the cut.

[link for if the images aren’t in horizontal rows]

This part is significantly more text- and analysis-heavy than Part 1.

I know this part isn't supposed to be funny but I can't get over the way they exchange glances. Kaito is just absolutely jaw-dropped. I can't tell if he's shocked by the fact that there were gang members where he didn't expect, or if he got scared by the fact that he heard the #1 thing you don't want an adult to say during an emergency.

Also... Vash raising his voice... hello..........

This angle of Kaito kind of reminds me of Gag Manga Biyori... (this really stupid '00s anime with like. Monty Python humor)(please tell me if you know of gag manga biyori. it's my entire childhood. i can quote so many bits)

In Japanese, Kaito's phrasing is more like "You've been missing vital organs on purpose!?"

Does Vash keep first aid on him at all times, in case of situations like this?

The nuance here is a bit different - Kaiyo says "However skilled your arm is... this is ridiculous!!" (real kids don't talk like that but. yk what i mean)

I forgot to transfer the Japanese annotations onto the English version... whoopsies

He's taken a hit...!! Despite having taken quite a lot of damage, he's still more worried about his enemies than he is of himself... Take care of yourself more......(second time saying this)

YAOI SHOULDERS He's so damn cool augh...

The "dame dane" in blue is because he says "baka mitai" lmao

I initially corrected this line (to "I probably look stupid, don't I?"), but it becomes redundant with what he says after this so I crossed it out.

This is the first (direct) connection between Vash, Rem, and the Big Fall. The space imagery is of course representative of the setting of the Big Fall and Vash's backstory, but it also shows the sheer scale of Vash's trauma and love for humanity. This will be expanded on in a bit.

Here you can also see the self-hatred that Vash has....

Rather than a matter of forgiveness, Vash says that he's "sure [Rem] would be saddened."

In the Japanese version, Kaito's echo of "She?" is in brackets/quotes.

More interspersed space imagery.

There's something about these occasional shots of space that *gets* me.... Vash's thought patterns, ideals/values, etc. vastly transcends anything of a regular human's, I think.

Most of what I want to say can be summarized into that. I probably have said this before and will say it many times in the future, but Vash's stubborn pacifism and determination is something that can only be achieved because he's inhuman. His physical abilities are ridiculous, either because he's a Plant or due to his training and long lifespan (or both), and he has experienced things far greater than anyone can imagine. No idea where I was going with this but...you get it.

I think the ガッ bubble on the top right is onomatopoea , possibly for the gunshot or the bullet hitting something? Vash's pose must be ridiculous here. I can only imagine how insane he would be at Twister. And he shot that guy's arm completely without looking too!? This guy's insane. like we knew that already but damn

Honestly I'm not smart enough to understand what the rest of these commands are saying, but I think they're referring to "the three teams" in the port passenger section, rather than "team 3".

We can see Vash's wound slowly getting to him...

Here's the only time we see Kaito's backstory!! It looks like after his father died, his mother left Kaito? Or she left her family for another man and his father died after that.... He ended up being homeless.... He either killed someone or found a body??? Is that the stepfather his mother ran off with??? NIGHTOW GIVE ME ANSWERS!!!

The scene...... I can't help but imagine where Vash thinks he falls in this. It's something he has been doing for the past however many years it's been since July, the century and a half since the Big Fall, or even [trimax vol.7] during his childhood. But I don't think he ever counts himself as deserving of this, to be on the recieving end of the forgiveness.

More weak Vash... It's just so rare to see Vash in such a state. no other reason im putting this here no sir this is purely analytical (←me when i lie)

The way this page's panels are arranged really highlight how slow each action is and that Vash is running out of energy, which I think is a neat detail.

And that's the end of my Japanese copy of Trigun Volume 1!! I wanted to do at least rough translation of the omake, but my Apple Pencil died (and this chapter had so many images) so the omake will be a separate post, probably all 3 at once.

The Japanese annotations for this chapter are reblogged from the Part 1 post. (There are less than 30 of those, so they're all in one reblog.)

[spikeinthepunch]

i have been working a bit more on what i want Penrose to be and i always have loads of documents for my lore stuff, but its always a pain to work with because either i have way too much in one document that i then have to scroll through thousands of words, or i have numerous short documents that i have to have all open at the same time and sift through what i need to reference. i at some point came across some wiki-ish program and forgot what it was until now and i just wanna mention it, and one other, bc its pretty useful

i mostly went looking for alternatives to scrivener which you must buy. additionally im not writing a novel, so i didnt feel like i needed all those features either. a "wiki" would be cool, because thats what itd be good for- organizing lore. and so i found Zim which is an incredibly bare bones program that does just that. literally in its simplest form. its a desktop wiki with simple markdown and a collapsing folder set up that allows you to organize categories, sub pages, and use links to refer to other pages much like a normal wiki. plus there is an ability to export it as an html ready website.

when i say its simple and bare bone i really mean it-- its not full of bloat, its not overwhelming. it may lack a feature youd want from something bigger (it lacks the ability to manually order categories, theyre in alphabetical so i name mine with numbers before the words). but all i need it to do it let me make these collections of easy to navigate pages. the whole thing is simple .txt files in folders it produces, so its incredibly easy for you to manage and convert them outside of the program itself.

on the other end i came across Manuskript which is also free, and much more like scrivener because it has functions more focused on writing a novel. i cant say too much about it but someone really wanting to organize their lore and characters in relation to a stories with chapters and a timeline would likely have far more use for it. allowing categories for characters like main, secondary, minor. a tab for plots and sub plots, a tab for lore, and a very useful tab for all chapters and outlines to be written in program. because i dont need those other functions, its just a bit too much for me, but considering its a very close free options to scrivener its great to try out.

[starberry-skies]

Hello! Sorry to bother you, but you are the only blog I know who makes IDs outside of their own stuff so I figured you were the best person to ask. Do you have by any chance ressources to learn how to make and practice them? I want to start using them but I'm not a native speaker and I'm kinda struggling ^^'

Thank you and have a nice day!

oh ofc!! if u want, i have some good posts in the #image descriptions tag on my blog, but i'll link some stuff here too :D

Why and how, basics

Quick tips and tricks

Describing comics

Describing videos

Image Description Guidelines

and a couple of my own tips !!

a great rule of thumb is, "the more time someone would look at an image, the longer + more detailed the description should be". This means, if it's a little doodle or a meme, u don't have to spend hoursss describing every little thing (ie, the clothes ppl are wearing, the lighting, that typa thing -- unlessss it's like,, part of the joke/meme. does that make sense ?) this post by mothfishing [hyperlinked] explains it SO much better than i ever could

on that note, a short/""bad"" id is always better than none at all!! don't worry too much abt the quality, or else you'll get stuck in a loop of fixing and editing and the description will never be published (or is that just me lol)

an absolute lifesaver for me was using a text-to-speech/screen reader to read my descriptions back to me ! especially if it were a longer piece, i would write an id, turn on the screenreader + close my eyes, then see if i missed anything important + if i needed to rephrase anything.

for practicing:

if you see an image w/ a description, try to write one yourself for that image. then just check between those ! it's bound to be different, but how? try to figure out which fits the image better, then adapt !

whenever i'm bored/have nothing to do, i try to describe things in the room. this is mostly just a fun little game to keep my brain busy, but it's also helpful in building skills !

if i can, i like to read out my description to a friend/family member if they're around. i ask them to imagine what i describe, then i show them the image to see if it matches. getting other people's input is always v v helpful... and speaking of....

the people's accessibility discord server!!!!!! i cannot emphasize enough how cool and nice everyone is there !!!!! u can ask for help describing something, ask ppl to double check ur work, or just send an image for ppl to describe!! literally everyone there is just so wonderful and helpful :3 here's an invite link!

little things that i learned:

the screenreader on my phone reads quotes without pause. so it would read "a sentence just like this" as if the quotes weren't there. so i picked up the habit of putting a comma before the quote to break the sentence up. so saying "this" sounds much more different then saying, "this".

(desktop only i think) it's much better for a screen reader to read line breaks (holding shift and enter) than just paragraph breaks (just enter). with paragraph breaks, the person using the screen reader would have to tap on each new paragraph to read it, which can be a hassle. with line breaks, the screen reader just reads the next bit automatically, but the ID is still visually broken up.

save stuff to ur drafts to look over later !

for text-heavy images, use a OCR/image-to-text extractor. just put the image in and copy the text it spits out, maybe looking over it to make sure there aren't any mistakes. this definitely removes a lot of the burden of copying text painstakingly by hand yk

i'm sure there must be more i'm forgetting, so if any of my followers want to leave any more tips in the notes i'd greatly appreciate it :D

[queensectonia]

@akay4 replied to your post “really cool thing about whoever's shitheaded...”:

The fear of hearing a bad new update you haven't seen yet

​it's a desktop thing, because apparently the current ongoing passion project at HQ is to enshittify desktop as much as possible. they also must have done some serious backend code rearranging this update because it completely busted xkit rewritten, and that's always a sign that a significant portion of code has been edited.

[darsynia]

I Know No Other Way Than This | Ch 4

(Bruce Banner/OFC, Tony Stark & Bruce Banner Friendship, post-Avengers 1 Soulmate AU multichapter)

image found on @multifandomfix

MCU Masterlist | Tony Stark Masterlist | Prev | Next

Summary: Bruce tried to forget he had soulmate words entirely, but on the day of the Chitauri attack, he returned from his stint as the Hulk to find that his black words had turned silver. His soulmate must have watched him shift from the Other Guy into himself and said them while he was unconscious…

Length: 1,953

Tags: @starryeyes2000 @arrthurpendragon @ronearoundblindly @themaradaniels

Excerpt:

“It would be better if I had never met her at all.” Saying that didn’t have the ring of truth it had days ago.

“You’re going to run out of those by-rote responses and have to think up something original eventually, you know.”

“That will take a while. I’ve been writing them for years, Tony.”

Tony stood up and made a face. “I was trying to work the name ‘Bruce’ into ‘Benedictine Monk’ somewhere but it is just not working.”

Bruce smiled. “You went with the wrong name. ‘Bannerdictine Monk’ would have worked just fine.”

“Listen to you! I’ll have to relinquish my crown.” 

Chapter Four: Breaking the Fourth Wall

Bruce didn’t wait until twenty-four hours had passed to tell Tony that he’d broken down and looked at the folder of videos of Cicely.

“Okay, you’re right. Someone’s following her. What do we do about it?” he asked the second he walked into the lab (late, with coffee for once instead of tea, and one for Tony, too, in case Stark decided to crow about that instead of the fact that his stupid plan might be working).

“So, interesting thing to note before you go all Blitz Hansen, To Catch a Predator on this guy, she seems to have caught on,” Tony said, snagging a rolling chair with his foot and collapsing onto it in a move that was equal parts smooth and frightening. “This was from yesterday morning.”

Bruce didn’t really like that the folder Tony opened was on his desktop, but then he looked more closely at Tony’s desktop. The cluster of folders kept rearranging themselves about every ten seconds or so. Tony looked over his shoulder at Bruce and then maximized the folder as if self-conscious.

“Yes, okay, I’m trying a new thing where JARVIS moves the files I’m most likely to mess with at any given point into a more prominent view. Honestly, it’s a compromise, because I used to just tell him what to open but Pepper thinks I’m relying a little too much on the automation.”

“That’s… more automation, though?”

“Cool the Butlerian Jihad.” Tony double clicked on the video he was looking for, and Bruce felt instantly guilty for recognizing Cicely’s apartment complex. “Here,” Tony said, pointing. Bruce watched as a few people left the building, but he didn’t see Cicely’s recognizable scrubs or black hair. “Missed her,” Tony said. “So did I, the first time.” He rewound the footage a bit and hit play again. “Right there.”

The woman Tony was pointing at had blonde hair, not black. She was also wearing jogging clothes, and had earbuds in, with a backpack. However, it was definitely Cicely, Bruce realized, when Tony rewound it a third time and hit pause.

“She dyed her hair and changed her typical outfit.” He was stating the obvious, but it was important.

“Your girl is smart,” Tony said, spinning his chair around to face him. 

Bruce didn’t object verbally, but he frowned. She wasn’t his, that was the whole point! As he thought the words, some part of him wanted to change the word ‘point’ to ‘problem,’ which was new and concerning. He shoved the thought away, because Tony was still speaking.

“--to find out whether the guy has a secondary spy/accomplice at the hospital. Presumably when he doesn’t see her, Celery-boy here will have to assume she missed work. If he calls to find out she’s at work, she might hear about it and that’s confirmation right there. If he spots her right away tomorrow, that’s another kind of confirmation.” His grin at Bruce was more than a little teasing. “She’s your soulmate and even you had trouble recognizing her.”

“It would be better if I had never met her at all.” Saying that didn’t have the ring of truth it had days ago.

“You’re going to run out of those by-rote responses and have to think up something original eventually, you know.”

“That will take a while. I’ve been writing them for years, Tony.”

Tony stood up and made a face. “I was trying to work the name ‘Bruce’ into ‘Benedictine Monk’ somewhere but it is just not working.”

Bruce smiled. “You went with the wrong name. ‘Bannerdictine Monk’ would have worked just fine.”

“Listen to you! I’ll have to relinquish my crown.” 

As with everything, Tony put all of himself into his look of admiration, and Bruce couldn’t help but feel proud, even if it was a bit of wordplay. He liked that about this man. Sure, he was narcissistic and selfish, but he was thorough, and when he liked you, he was thorough in his friendship, at least he had been so far. Even if so far, 40% of it was trying to get Bruce to accept a concept he’d painfully turned his back on after the accident. Today, that kind of thoroughness might be helpful to keep Cicely safe.

“So that video was yesterday, you said? What about today?” he reminded Tony.

“I don’t typically get them in until the evening. JARVIS, do you have the Hathaway building’s surveillance footage gathered yet?”

“Creating a new file in the Soulvengers folder for you, Sir.”

Tony cleared his throat and sat back down at the desk, as if he were avoiding Bruce’s gaze.

“Soulvengers?” Bruce asked.

“You aren’t the only lost soul in need of reconciliation,” Tony said loftily.

Just as Tony had predicted, the tall, skinny man with the thin mustache spotted Cicely right away. In the video, Bruce could see her noticing the man by holding her phone up as she approached the cross street. He could tell that she recognized the stalker, because instead of crossing the street, Cicely turned on her heel, pushed brusquely past him, and called for a taxi.

The stalker lurked against the facade of the building and watched until it drove away.

Bruce felt the Other Guy lift his head and take notice. “What time does she get off of work?”

“Woah, toss some sand on those coals, doc. Flattening the guy isn’t going to help things.”

“JARVIS?” Bruce tried instead.

“Cicely Besnard’s shift at Children’s ends this evening at 8 PM. She’s usually seen leaving the building between twenty-five and forty minutes later.”

“What are you going to do, tell the guy you were stalking her first?” Tony asked. It was a reasonable question, but Bruce’s blood ran hot in his veins.

“Not at all,” Bruce said, loosening the button at his throat. “I doubt I’ll have to do much more than encourage him to find a new target, one with fewer friends in high places.” He rolled his shoulders, loosening his body. If things went the way he planned them to, he’d be more calm, more persuasive, by that evening. “JARVIS, if you’ve got some sort of process set up to track her, can you track him? Can we find out if he does find a new target, and gather evidence to present to that new target in as minimal and helpful way as possible?”

“Yes, Dr. Banner. Might I suggest a more professional-sounding name for that folder? Though, dare I say it, ‘soulvenger’ would likely be more applicable to that venture, in the end.”

“And here I thought you’d chucked your morals,” Tony laughed, a bit nervously.

“Hmm? Oh, the comment about finding a new target. No, I just don’t want Cicely to have to deal with the court nonsense. If this guy makes a habit of stalking, he’ll dig himself into a new case soon enough,” Bruce said. 

Bruce wore jeans, a baseball cap, and a nondescript jacket to stand outside the hospital waiting for Cicely to emerge. Of course, he wasn’t really waiting for her, he was waiting for the stalker, if he was around. He’d indeed calmed a little, but not much. There was a non-zero chance that he might lose control tonight. A part of him was screaming that he had no right to reject this woman but also act like a bulldog snapping at anyone else who showed interest, but Bruce felt pretty confident that the other man was not a potential love interest. The barge pole of a man had bad intentions, and Bruce would set him straight.

Hopefully without her noticing that it was happening at all.

That was why he’d come to her workplace, strangely enough. Cicely Besnard knew that someone was following her in the mornings. She’d changed her appearance to throw the guy, and had reacted in an appropriately freaked-out manner when she’d seen it hadn’t worked for very long. She’d be ready to see the guy tomorrow, or whenever her next work day was. Would she be as on edge leaving work? Bruce’s gut instinct said no. That made it the best place for him to confront the guy.

He used his years of experience having seen people standing outside hospitals to blend in. There was always one guy who looked deeply concerned, checked his phone all the time, and sometimes stood and just watched the entrance, as if hoping like hell his ex would come walking out and he could tell her he was sorry. With his attire so different from his normal clothing, Bruce didn’t think he was recognizable as Bruce Banner at all, particularly not to Cicely, if she saw him.

Then, he caught sight of the stalker guy. He was in a suit, one that had clearly been bought off-rack at a resale store by the fit. Bruce made his way over to him over the course of five minutes, focused on anything but the man himself. Cicely herself would probably not appear for another ten minutes.

“You here waiting for your girl too?” Bruce asked sheepishly, not looking at the guy.

“Fuck off.”

“What a coincidence, because that’s my message for you. From myself and a few friends.”

The Other Guy was lurking, waiting, watching. Bruce could feel his presence in the tightness of his skin, the heaviness in his chest, the heat in his veins. He was holding steady without concern of transforming, at least for now, but the odd thing about it was that Bruce could feel the interest, the investment that the Hulk had in what he was doing. It mirrored his own vested interest, which he hadn’t clearly understood was so deep until that very moment. 

“Friends, sure. Thanks for your time, weirdo.”

Bruce shot a glance over to see the guy tapping out a cigarette into his hand, unconcerned and unmoving. “Find a new obsession. This young lady has friends in high places.”

“I can’t believe you assholes are checking up on me after not paying me for yesterday,” the guy said in a hoarse, furious whisper. “If you want multiple eyes on this bitch you’re going to have to pay for the ones you have, or I’m going to bounce.”

Bruce sucked in a deep, desperate breath and gritted out, “I’ll pass it along,” before turning and running in the direction of Central Park. His only thought was to get as far away from his soulmate before leaning into his absolute rage.

This went beyond stalking. This went beyond a single man’s obsession-- whether that man was himself, or the thin criminal haunting Cicely Besnard on behalf of some other, more powerful figures.

Bruce hoped to hell it wasn’t about him. He’d never forgive himself.

At the last minute, when he was leaning with both hands on a mailbox and watching them turn green, knowing that his neck has already done so despite desperately fighting against it, Bruce saw a blur of red and gold land beside him.

“Hold on for three more minutes and I’ll get you to the room,” Tony said, grabbing him with arms strong enough to lift twice his weight, thanks to his Iron Man suit. “If you Hulk out in midair, though, we’re going to have to try it the fun way.”

“Get going,” Bruce growled at him.

Tony took off, streaking toward the tower. “You might not be the only one with a vitamin deficiency. I should never have let you do this.”

Bruce couldn’t tell him it was worth it thanks to what he’d learned, but Tony would find out soon enough. Just that thought was enough to break his fragile grasp on sanity. After that, all he saw was green.

Next chapter, Bruce wakes up in containment, and has to figure out whether he is the most dangerous person in Cicely's life at the moment.

[leonsrightlations]

The Earth is Online Chapter 3.1

From start to finish, those who didn’t believe in the Black Tower merely watched the fun. They believed it was the result of high tech research done by the government and wouldn’t harm them.

Those who believed in the Black Tower were extremely scared as the third day neared.

“What does ‘game’ mean? What does ‘elimination’ mean? We demand a statement!”

“A statement! An explanation!”

“What is this thing? We must be given an explanation!”

The protesters multiplied, blocking up E-City’s center. In the meantime, there were a few people who wanted to fish in troubled waters [1] and see if they could obtain a few benefits. They used the number of people to their advantage and were unwilling to leave, tenaciously surrounding the white walls until they were on the verge of breaking through.

All over the world, this kind of scene was occurring.

Tang Mo didn’t know about any of this. He was clutching a stun baton in his hand and, even though his clothes were very thin, his forehead was already covered in a fine sweat. That treacherous, melodious, childlike voice finished singing the nursery rhyme. In the vacuous city library, that voice still resonated in an ethereal echo for a long time.

“Did you hear that?” Tang Mo squeezed a few words out through the seam between his teeth.

The spiritual weirdo had long ago become paralyzed on the ground from fright, his messy hair obstructing his eyes. When Tang Mo looked in his direction, he could only see a pair of eyes that were shivering from fear. The spiritual weirdo was speechless with terror. He crawled fearfully back to the wall where he shrank down and held his head, shaking uncontrollably and saying, “What is that thing…what…”

Tang Mo didn't know at all. After the nursery rhyme ended, the city library once again fell silent.

Gradually, Tang Mo grew calm. There are people who, upon encountering a crisis, are at a loss for what to do and panic.

Tang Mo, by chance, was the opposite.

Tang Mo’s nature was extremely rational.

Five years ago, his parents were in a car accident. At that time, he had barely entered university. If it were someone else in his situation, they probably would have just collapsed. Tang Mo methodically handled his parents’ funeral. It wasn’t until after everything was finished that he secretly wept once and then began considering his future.

Furthermore, ever since his heartbeat had accelerated two days ago, bringing a feeling of restless anxiety, he discovered that he was even more cool-headed than he had been before.

Tang Mo held the stun baton in his right hand and took a thick tome from the G-shelf to use as a shield. He walked to the window.

Out the window was a scene of endless white.

This window was on the city library’s east side. Ordinarily, one could look out and see the main street through E-City’s downtown as well as several famous old parks.

Tang Mo grasped the stun baton in his hand even more tightly for several minutes. He appeared undisturbed, yet was constantly vigilant of the movement in his surroundings, preparing to counterattack every time he walked past a bookshelf.

He looked out the east, south, west, and north windows on the city library’s third floor, then returned to the start.

“We are not in E-City.”

The spiritual weirdo sat in the corner, looking up at Tang Mo in alarm.

Although Tang Mo really didn’t want to voice this conclusion, he could only harden his scalp [2] and say, “We are currently surrounded by a blank space, but the inside really is the city library. It’s basically as though the library has been relocated into an enormous blank area. I have been at this job for a year. When I passed by the service desk just now, I took a look. My coworker’s glass of water was still sitting on the desktop. The library is exactly the same.”

Ultimately, he wasn’t alone. Hearing Tang Mo speak, the spiritual weirdo also summoned his courage and stood up. He looked around and suddenly said, “Ah, I secretly put a book there last week!”

Tang Mo looked in the direction he was pointing.

“I was afraid someone else would borrow this book, so I hid it in a small crack between two bookshelves.”

Tang Mo: “...”

So it turns out that was all done by you!

Tang Mo was an administrator at the city library and the spiritual weirdo was a frequent visitor. The two of them both verified that this was definitely the city library. There could be no mistake.

Tang Mo took the spiritual weirdo to the security locker and retrieved a stun baton. Everything was currently uncertain. Allowing the spiritual weirdo to have a stun baton was first so that he could protect his own safety and second so that if the two of them encountered something dangerous, Tang Mo had help.

The two of them had only just walked to the service when a burst of footsteps sounded from within the depths of the third floor’s bookshelves.

The spiritual weirdo’s eyes widened in fear. Tang Mo was also afraid. A layer of cold sweat seeped across his back. It had only been a moment ago that he’d gone to take a look, and absolutely nobody was there! Whose footsteps were those?

The two of them held the stun batons tightly, cautiously staring ahead, their backs pressed against the wall. That sound grew closer and closer, still very irregular, very much like a child skipping along. 

Thirty seconds later, a small shadow appeared from the depths of the bookshelves. It was a little girl with her hair bound up in two twin-tails. It was late autumn in November, but she still wore a red dress and a pair of small, shiny red shoes.

The ‘da da da’ of footsteps from just now was exactly the sound these shoes made as the stepped on the wooden floor.

“Ghost…ghost, ah! It’s a ghost!”

The spiritual weirdo shrank behind Tang Mo in fear.

But Tang Mo was also afraid! It wasn’t a question of whether or not he was naturally calm. What the hell kind of mosaic is coming over here!

In a nutshell, the little girl in the red skirt seemed to be about seven or eight years old. She wore a small, delicate skirt, small shoes, and even had a small, pink book bag with Minnie Mouse on it. She was incomparably intricate and indistinguishable from a real person. It was just that her face had a very thick layer of mosaic in front of it.

She had no eyebrows, no eyes, no nose, and no mouth.

She only had a mosaic.

[PREV] [TOC] [NEXT]

Translation Notes:

[1] 浑水摸鱼 - to fish in troubled waters is to take advantage of discord

I'm not really sure what kind of benefits can be gained in this type of situation but that's probably why I'll never be a millionaire.

[2] 硬着头皮 - to harden your scalp is to brace yourself, summon courage, bite the bullet, etc.

Additional Note:

3.1 has the most obvious textual changes between the original online version and the print version so far. The following parts are omitted from the print version:

A line about the crowds around the Black Tower ignoring the military police.

A line about people believing the government wouldn't harm them.

A section describing people around the world worshiping the Black Tower, particularly in "smaller" countries.

I personally found these changes interesting so I thought I'd share them.

[sibyl-of-space]

My roommate and I (or more specifically basically just me but my roommate was there half paying attention) started playing through Castlevania Symphony of the Night tonight, and well.

I don't know what I expected, but this is quite possibly the coolest and sexiest game ever made.

The only thing I knew about Castlevania prior to playing this was the existence of an item that is a pair of boots which functionally does nothing except make Alucard slightly taller. From this tidbit of knowledge I knew the game must be a masterpiece, but playing through it is something else.

The sheer swag. In EVERYTHING. All of Alucard's animations are so ridiculously melodramatic. You can tell it was a top priority to make sure that his hair ruffles cuntily behind him no matter what you do. The rule of cool prevails in every decision that was made throughout. Almost every background in the game could be a desktop wallpaper. The font you use to name your file is basically illegible because it's so extra.

And also... crucially.. the game is so fun. You can wear a pair of sunglasses that increase your defense slightly but make you stupider. There are just enough save points that it feels very fair but there are still moments of stretched out challenge that force you to learn new mechanics to survive them. You can throw battle axes and knives and exploding potions and shit. The game doesn't explain most of these to you because it expects you to own an instruction manual, but my roommate looked all that up for me so we figured it out.

And! Perhaps most importantly! ALUCARD CAN TURN INTO A WOLF????????? The wolf can't do anything except leap over ledges and run and has a dedicated bark button. So basically what I'm saying is the game has no flaws and I should have played it 10 years ago. But I probably wasn't ready for it then. However, I am ready for it now. It rules

[mood2you]

Welp

I actually haven't gotten the desktop update yet but the way Tumblr's denizens have been complaining about the looming algorithm reminds me that Tumblr was made as a blogging or micro-blogging platform. I know the difference does matter, but it hasn't enstated a 256 character limit (although, fanfiction writers are vexed by the limits of characters/lines, a limit is here!) so it must be a blogging site.

No one remembers what blogging is, since now it's a thing influencers do to become copyrighters, doing free influencing to "gain experience" which sounds just miserable. But I think blogging is like having a diary entry, not like Tweeting, which admittedly a lot of my posts read like. They are one or two lines, sometimes with mangled punchlines, or just a mean observation of the day.

There is also art which I believe in spreading. That's the one thing that reblogging as probably been turning this site into something it wasn't from the beginning, because if the next few paragraphs is more personal, you may be confused on if I want it to go viral or just be widely spread, (as opposed to just posting art without blogging, but then, why are you on Tumblr? Because somehow the users of Tumblr are kind of unique, and blogging would be good for showing the WIPs of a long piece or showing off a portfolio) but after all I am publishing it, so I must want someone to see it. This week has been slow on art and I will get to why, but I did one ArtFight Piece, which I am proud of, mostly because of the background as the form was hasty. That doesn't mean no one can think the form is good, it's just about how I produced the piece. I got the pose completely wrong, so stiff, and then fixed it real quick.

No matter what, it's cartoonie and loose. It is a drawing of SundaePlaza (Sp on AF and Sp on Twitter) The pose was the most inspired part, hand-in-hand with me seeing Super Mario in the character description and erroniously pulling Kirby and then going back and seeing Kirby explicly called as an inspiration they would love to see in Blondie (the character) art. Really a star would throw you around quite a lot unless you leaned into the turns, something I was reminded of earlier this month subway surfing.

I meant to work on JPB every other day besides ArtFight, and Undermoon on the other days since I was jumping into it so happily I thought I should spread the love onto my preexisting comic. But Stardew Valley has eaten my brain. And I'm reading more this side of the month because things have settled down compared to earlier. It's really hot out, and I like to read outside, and lately I've been so conscience of heat exhaustion, but my hair has gotten long enough to wash it in the morning, and then go out with a cool head. I used to wash it at night and wake up with it sticking straight up, well ordered enough naturally, I never gel it.

I've also been working on learning to crochet but it's going slowly.

My poor old cat didn't eat this morning because I was carpet-cleaning with the loudest machine ever. He has been losing weight. I took an oddly shaped matt of his knee last night and he seemed more sore than grateful, and he left a big hairball in the bathroom last night. He hates to be brushed. Who knows what to do with him, give him a Lion Cut I guess, but I don't want to trust groomers with him. The kittens are alright.

I've been catching up on Reading Glasses, which has a lot of ads.