#click to expand and zoom

[hippolotamus]

Eddie’s thumb hovers over the location dropdown in the weather app, just like every day. And just like all those other days he allows himself to click it. The list unfolds as he huffs a humorless chuckle at how much it’s grown.

When he got his first cell, the only place he ever needed was current location. Technically, it’s still the only one he needs. Regardless he’s continued adding to it through the years. Hershey, Virginia Beach, a couple random towns in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. Fucking Sundance, Wyoming. All because he gave up pretending he doesn’t need to know.

It’s sunny, mid-50s today. A nice break for the time of year. Eddie scrolls through the upcoming week, noting a heavy snowstorm hitting in a few days. His nose wrinkles and he begins to worry his bottom lip between his teeth. Another thing born out of pure habit.

Not for the first time he types out a few messages before deleting them again. Eddie doesn’t even know if he’s got the right number. It’s been nearly three years since they exchanged anything at all. Not since Eddie could have manned up and told Shannon he could be a father, but not a husband. Not her husband, anyway.

He could have just been honest and said what he wanted when she finally decided to show up in her second trimester. He and Evan could have continued building a life together. But Eddie’s never claimed to be smart. Especially when it comes to all the bullshit his own dad drilled into his head about responsibility and honor and god knows what the fuck else. In the end it was too sticky to let go, trapping him like a spider web.

He can’t even say it was worth it because she loves him and they’re making it work for the sake of Christopher. Because why would that have happened? Instead all he got was a tour in Afghanistan, divorce papers (not that he’s surprised or blames her at all) and coming back to an empty house. Well, not totally empty. He’s got a son he’s still getting to know outside of a screen and shitty internet connection. A son he could have been raising with the love of his life this whole time.

Hope your coat’s warm enough, cowboy he types.

“Daddy!” Chris babbles from the floor, using Eddie’s pant leg to pull himself to standing. His toothy smile is on full display while he looks up at Eddie like he hung the goddamn moon and stars.

“Hey there little man.” Eddie tosses his phone to the side in favor of picking up his son and arranging him on his lap. Chris snatches up the yellow car from the next couch cushion, choosing to run it in a small loop over Eddie’s forearm, shoulder and chest. “Where are you off to today? Big race?”

Chris shakes his head vigorously. “Outer space,” he says as though that should have been obvious.

Eddie chuckles to himself. “Of course. How long until liftoff?”

There’s no answer as plastic wheels continue zooming along until Chris decides he’d rather be on the floor again. Eddie loosely assists as his son climbs back down. Some days are more difficult than others, but he tries to follow the physical therapist’s advice to let Chris do as much as he can by himself. She says it won’t do either of them any good in the long run. Eddie can certainly see the wisdom in that even if he’s constantly itching to roll Chris in layers of bubble wrap.

He blindly grabs for his phone, buzzing from the coffee table. “Hello?”

At first there’s complete silence and he winces thinking it’s yet another telemarketer. Before he can check he hears rustling, like someone’s covering the mouthpiece.

“Hello?” He asks again, more insistent this time.

“Uh, sorry. Didn’t think you’d actually pick up.”

Eddie thinks he might drop the phone. Or throw up. Maybe both? Probably both.

“Evan?”

tagged by the lovely and talented @monsterrae1 @spotsandsocks for Inspiration Saturday (go check their posts, I’m very excited) Instead of working on anything current, I wrote this instead. Not sure I have any actual plans to expand it, I just had to get it out of my system, y’know? So, bon appetit or whatever 💖

no pressure tagging (lmk if you want added or removed) @stereopticons @this-is-bwr @shortsighted-owl @eddiebabygirldiaz @disasterbuckdiaz @wikiangela @tizniz @theotherbuckley @elvensorceress @apothecarose @barbiediaz @buckaroosheart @buddierights @chaosandwolves @daffi-990 @diazsdimples @eowon @fortheloveofbuddie @gayedmundodiaz @giddyupbuck @heartshapedvows @honestlydarkprincess @hoodie-buck @indestructibleheart @jesuisici33 @ladydorian05 @lemonzestywrites @loserdiaz @spaceprincessem @statueinthestone @steadfastsaturnsrings @the-likesofus @theplaceyoustillrememberdreaming @thewolvesof1998 @vanillahigh00 @watchyourbuck @weewootruck @wildlife4life @your-catfish-friend @epicbuddieficrecs

[shippershipperyshippyship]

Enid Sinclair Werewolf Headcanons

Basic Understanding:

Strength: Enid is the physically strongest member of the squad (Bianca, Yoko, Xavier, Ajax, Eugene, Divina, and Wednesday) majority of the time she doesn’t get to show it as she has no interest in any form of fighting. Her muscles do expand a little more in her human body, more noticeable when she’s wearing sleeveless tops. She lands the designated jar opener of the group. Speed: While Yoko is still the fastest, Enid comes second (in human form.) She’s both a fast walker and fast runner - when she shares food with people, nobody sees how fast her swipes are from the bowl.   

Which is why sometimes she gets her own food bowl.

Endurance: Her athleticism is all thanks to both her love for moving and being a werewolf. Her cardio workouts have to be on the extreme end in order to make progress, like running in the woods in all fours for 5 hours straight instead of normal running. She spends all her energy to kpop dance tutorials. Noises: Growls, Grunts, whimpers, barks - They all exist in her vocabulary. Although she feels rather embarrassed whenever it slips up. Something about her emotions getting the best of her whenever one of those come out. Nobody in the squad teased her about it, lest they want to end up on Wednesday’s personally hit list. She whimpers a lot when watching horror movies.

Roomie Privileges: (These are special cases that only occur to Wednesday.)

Pets: Whenever Enid is in a particularly needy mood, she goes to Wednesday for pets. It could be on her hair, a rub on her back, the slight massage of the nape or even gentle scratches behind her ears. Enid patiently waited on Wednesday’s bed, scrolling on her phone mindlessly until the clicking of the typewriter comes to a halt. The blonde perked up as Wednesday sighs and move towards her. She didn’t hesitate to zoom in her head on Wednesday’s lap, looking up to those dead eyes.

“Same as last time?” Wednesday says stretching her fingers.

“Yep!” Enid’s eyes shutter to a gentle close. Cold fingers stroke and scratch her scalp, lulling her to a comfy nap. Scent Marking: Enid has subconsciously scent mark anything she and Wednesday have touched. From Wednesday’s blazer to her hand. For safety and her personal sanity she reasoned. Like to protect her from other furs. Then again, maybe it’s really because the furs needed to be protected from her instead.

“Enid. Hand it.” Wednesday crossed her arms. “I merely asked you to hold it for a minute.”

“Yeah I know but...” Enid looked down shyly. The blazer wrinkled under tightened hands. “It smelled uncomfortable!” Wednesday merely raised a brow. “... I am to assume you made it ‘smell comfortably?” Enid cringed. “Y-yeah?” Wednesday only blinked at her. She took the jacket and gave it a curious sniff. “Your cinnamon candles emanate a most nauseating scent, Enid.”

Enid perked up. She watched Wednesday slip it on with ease, straightened out perfectly well. “Suppose it’ll be efficient to strangle any passerby idiotic furs... Now, let’s return to the dorm. This ‘Bomb Time Haste’ show you speak of sounds torturous.” Enid’s smile reached to her ears. “Jeez, it’s Big Time Rush!” Biting: She gently bites or nips on Wednesday whether it be on her clothes or skin. It could be from a slew of reasons, but she mostly does it because she’s fond of her roommate. She bites the side of Wednesday’s hand usually not too hard but enough to leave a mark. On rare occasions, the collar of Wednesday’s clothes when they’re in the middle of some intense petting session. Enid took a deep breath while she leaned further into Wednesday. Her face to Wednesday’s neck as she practically laid on top of her. The pets from both her head and her back were driving her to bliss she’d never thought of having. To add on to it, their scent mixed together... “Enid, you’re biting.” Enid lazily opened an eye. She whimpered quietly. “I am not mad.” Wednesday sighed as Enid further dove onto her neck. A small huff and a grunt. “...It would seem I have spoiled you far too much recently.” Enid tightened her hold on Wednesday. More whimpers. “Don’t put words into my mouth. I simply said I have spoiled you.” Wednesday gently brushed her nape. “I did not say I’ll stop.”

Licking: Funny enough, it wasn’t Enid that started this habit. Rather a curious Wednesday. After studying more on werewolf culture, the goth learned licks from werewolves formed a way to calm down a pack member. Enid happened to be nervous for an upcoming test and well... “Wends! Did you just lick me?!” Enid’s voice rose to octaves she didn’t even know she could reach. Her wide eyes and a quick hand landed on the spot just below her ear. Wednesday merely nodded. “One of the encyclopedia’s of canine monsters mentions it is a therapeutic method: Heart rate returns to acceptable levels in a single lick.” “Actually I think cardiac arrest is far closer!” Enid huffs, “And that only works if we’re both werewolves!” Enid held her tongue when she saw Wednesday tighten her jaw. “W-wait you were researching...?” “Yes, for the past few days your distracting pacing around and whimpers during your studies have halted my writing time.” Enid processed the information as quick as she could. Before hastily standing up and putting Wednesday’s hand in hers. “You can be so sweet you know, that?” “I’ll skin you alive in your next wolf out, Sinclair.” There was no bite to it at all. Enid only smiled. “I’ll let you lick me... If you’re okay with me licking you?” Wednesday blinked. “I’m not a werewolf.” “And that didn’t stop you from licking me.” Enid teased. In the end, she gave a sigh. Wednesday’s space needs to be respected. “Okay - I get it you -” “You may.” Enid tilted her head to the side. “You may lick me, Enid.” There it is, another blinding smile. “Only in this room. Anywhere else, I will personally pack that wretched red bag of yours and hurl it at Yoko’s door. Are we clear?” Enid nods quickly and immediately leans in for a few licks on Wednesday’s cheek.

[moviesludge]

first look at tumblr patio. you can add or remove these columns and edit how each column looks, using the arrow buttons on the bottom right to navigate to the right and left. And you can add more columns

here's a picture where I have expanded my blog's (posts) column on the right to grid view, displaying 3 columns in one section:

wide view looks like this:

thumbs view looks like this:

The types of columns you can add are: Activity, Answer Time, Blog, Drafts, Following, For You, Inbox, Likes, Messages, Queue, Search, Staff Picks, Tag, Today, Trending, & your tags. It appears that you can have a total of 15 columns. There is also an option to remove or refresh columns. You can also refresh a column (and scroll to top) by clicking the column header.

Also, there is generally more room on screen for about 4 columns depending on display, but I usually keep my browser zoomed to 133%, so that's why it looks like this in my sceenshots

[sweetspecterz]

SOME OF YOUR HEADCANONS FOR THE MAIN 4 ??!!!

im rubbing my hands together like a really stupid villain hehehehe okay I MADE A PAGE (that i hope can be read, click for better quality and zoom in to read!!)

these are kinda just the basics, but it's a start!! some more headcanons under the cut cause it might get long!

They're all childhood friends! Tord joined their pre-existing friend group around 6th grade (around year 7 if I'm correct about the UK equivalent!) Then he left at the end of that year and came back in 9th grade (about year 10, again if I'm correct) Expanding on something written on my little chart, Edd learned Norwegian to communicate with Tord better/get closer to him. That's when they all REALLY became best friends. They moved in together the second they graduated and had enough money. (Matt's parents helped and still help a lot with money especially in the first month or so they moved in.) They have a chore chart in the house, instead of it being turn based everyone has different consistent responsibilities! Tord's on meal making and dish washing duty, Edd's on trash duty and responsible for everything that comes with taking care of Ringo, Tom does most of the laundry, Matt does some of the laundry such as towels and wash clothes, but also generally just cleans around the house.

Putting threatening notes in each others rooms has become an inside joke between all of them. Edd started it and then it just got out of control severely. He's still the main person that does it and will sometimes print off nonsense images and leave them on everyone's beds. Tom secretly wishes the printer will break soon.

Uhh some dumb favorite song headcanons!! For fun!! Tord's favorite song is Hjerteknuser , his mother used to sing it to him when he wouldn't go to sleep as a kid. Tom can't choose one, if you ask him he'll go on for an hour and picking several different songs. He probably has this on repeat though.

Edd's also someone who wouldn't be able to pick, but honestly it's either Mr. Brightside or one of these two

Matt's is probably Paparazzi and I'm leaving it at that LMAO

[ingridverse]

@staff

I use the Tumblr app on my phone. I have for a while. Tumblr, as you may have noticed, has a lot of pictures.

Initially, I could click on an image and then zoom in for more detail, because phone. I could also turn my phone sideways and the image would expand to fill the screen width. Sometimes that was enough, or I could still zoom in.

Then the rotate phone function went away, and by went away I mean you took it away. Bit of an inconvenience, but still workable, since I could still zoom in for more detail.

Now the zoom doesn't show more detail; it just enlarges the scaled-down version of the image.

This is bad.

[patron-minette]

Patron-Minette’s Paris

I thought I would compile a handy reference sheet of all the locations we see the Patron-Minette and their affiliates (both formal and informal) at different points of the novel. The 1832 map that I used can be found at this website— the site was really accessible and has a handy tool that lets you compare this old map directly to a modern-day map of Paris by overlaying.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the map featuring all geographic information relating to the Patron-Minette. Please expand this post to see the corresponding list of location names and find out what happens at each location. At the end of this post, you can also find a “short note” where I dissect and speculate some of the movements during the sections of the novel that centre around La Force specifically.

Click for higher quality and ability to zoom in on each numbered point. Sorry that I can’t make the image any clearer!

MEETING POINT

1. The ‘wasteland’ that adjoins La Salpêtrière; The location where the Patron-Minette assemble at nightfall and plan their heists.

•

GORBEAU AMBUSH

2. Gorbeau Hovel [estimated location]; Within this building exists the Thénardier (Jondrette) family lodgings— the location where the Gorbeau ambush takes place.

3. Rue de la Barrière des Gobelins; Here Marius spots Thénardier talking to Panchaud ahead of the Gorbeau ambush on the evening on February 3rd 1832.

4. Rue de Petit-Banquier; Behind a very low wall in the middle of this street Marius spots Brujon and Demi-Liard discussing the Gorbeau ambush, just five hours before it goes ahead.

•

PRISONS

5. La Force; The jail where Babet, Gueulemer, Brujon, Panchaud, Demi-Liard, Boulatruelle, and Thénardier are imprisoned after the failed Gorbeau ambush.

6. La Salpêtrière; A prison and ‘hospital’ where Babet’s mistress is locked up during the Spring of 1832. The location housed both “insane”, “hysterical” women and prostitutes behind its walls.

7. Les Madelonnettes; Formerly a convent, this facility was turned into a prison during the French Revolution. In 1832, Azelma and Éponine Thénardier are locked up here after the failed Gorbeau ambush.

8. La Conciergerie; A courthouse with an adjoining jail. In early April 1832, Babet was transported to this facility from La Force, but he managed to escape from the police en route.

•

RUE PLUMET

9. Rue Plumet [estimated location]; Located in the old Faubourg Saint-Germain district, this is the site where Valjean and Cosette live. It is here that Éponine faces off against the Patron-Minette on 3rd June 1832.

•

INFORMAL AFFILIATES: GAVROCHE, THE MÔMES, AND MAGNON

10. The Bastille Elephant; Gavroche’s ‘house’.

11. Quai des Célestins; The street where Magnon used to live.

12. Rue Clocheperce; After obtaining the two youngest Thénardier boys, Magnon moved to this street as a means of changing her identity. The comedic closeness of Magnon’s two lodgings is certainly not lost on Hugo and he explains as such: ‘In Paris, the identity which binds an individual to himself is broken between one street and another’ (Hapgood translation)

13. Rue des Ballets; On this street corner Gavroche and the mômes encounter Montparnasse the evening before the Patron-Minette’s escape from La Force.

•

CHARACTER SPECIFIC HAUNTS

14. Arche-Marion sewer [estimated location]; Gueulemer‘s hideout.

15. Square du Temple; According to Thénardier, Babet, amongst his other trades, had been an old-clothes broker at the Temple.

16. Barricade between Rue de la Chanvrerie and Rue Mondétour; The location where Le Cabuc/Claquesous shoots a porter and is executed by Enjolras. After being killed, his body is flung over the small barricade on Rue Mondétour.

17. Austerlitz village; It is in this general location where Gavroche witnesses Montparnasse’s attempt to attack Valjean in early April.

18. Gaîté theatre; Brujon and Demi-Liard watch a melodrama at this location on 2nd February 1832, the evening before the Gorbeau ambush.

19. Panthèon; Kruideniers is said to patrol and live in this general area.

20. Val-de-Grâce; Glorieux is said to patrol and live in this general area.

21. Barrière de Grenelle; Barrecarrosse is said to patrol and live in this general area.

•

A short note: Mapping La Force

THE ILLOGICAL TRANSFER OF BRUJON’S CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT “RUE P” (blue)

1. La Force prison (Brujon gives note to Babet).

2. La Salpêtriere (Note is delivered to Babet’s mistress).

3. Rue Clocheperce (Note is delivered to Magnon).

4. Les Madelonnettes (Note is given to Éponine by Magnon once she is released).

Frankly, the way that Brujon’s secret correspondence about the Rue Plumet job is handed around before being delivered to Éponine is hilarious. Why did Babet bother to send the note all the way to his mistress in La Selpêtriere when Magnon near enough lives on the doorstep of La Force? Surely there could have been a much easier and more logical way for the note to be delivered to Magnon directly, rather than it crossing over the Seine and going to another prison before being smuggled back out to Magnon again.

And, let’s not forget that the same thing happens in reverse after Éponine has scouted out the house on rue Plumet and delivered a biscuit to Magnon. The whole process seems extremely long-winded and perhaps even riskier than Babet and Brujon trying to get the message delivered to Magnon directly!

•

MONTPARNASSE’S INSANE RUNNING SPEED (red)

Red arrow to red flag: the route taken by Montparnasse to fetch Gavroche and bring him to La Force in order to help Thénardier down from the roof.

Well, by tracking the length of time it takes to complete this route, I have come to the conclusion that Montparnasse has very long legs and is an insanely fast runner. 

According to Google Maps taking the quickest route from La Force to the location of the Bastille elephant one way would take over ten minutes to walk. Which sure, maybe that could be run in five minutes if you set a good pace. But, Hugo states that in ‘seven to eight minutes’ Montparnasse had run the complete route twice over (as he had to bring Gavroche back with him to La Force) wearing what I can only image would be rather heavy and uncomfortable garments, considering that his clothes would be soaked with rain at this point of the scene. And, we must account for the time that Montparnasse had to stand outside the Bastille Elephant and call for Gavroche + wait for him to come down and follow him. 

It seems like a fairly impressive feat to me that he was able to do all that in seven to eight minutes— I guess he wasn’t referred to as Thénardier’s almost son-in-law in vain then, he certainly seems keen to get the innkeeper down from the roof!

•

HOW DID BABET ESCAPE? (green)

Green star: La Conciergerie, where Babet was being transferred from La Force when he made his escape. The green line is a rough indication of the route he might have been transported along.

Looking at all of the possible routes that Babet could have been transported along whilst being taken from La Force to La Conciergerie has me intrigued. Of course, I can only speculate about which point he might have escaped (if he even escaped en route? Montparnasse is rather vague when telling Gavroche how Babet escaped... but he does mention a police station— so perhaps Babet had fled before his transportation to La Conciergerie had even begun).

I think it is interesting to note that Magnon’s house is located fairly near La Force and La Conciergerie. And, we know that Magnon is at least acquaintances with Babet’s mistress thanks to the route of delivery of Brujon’s “Rue P” note... so perhaps she granted him a place to hide from the police.

Gueulemer’s hideout in the Arche-Marion sewer is also located very close to La Conciergerie. Again, this would have provided a nice hiding spot for Babet after he made his escape— and we know that Victor Hugo loves a good sewer story.

[cookierunauprompts]

and now

it is trauma time

-

Shadow Milk Cookie was rather curious about what had just happened. He had just finished up his date, when he happened to notice something odd in the forests around the Fairy Kingdom.

Strange machines - odd angular devices glowing with a strange green liquid - were following him and…just watching. Not doing anything else, just watching.

While he always liked an audience, the idea of these things spying on him - during his date - was not welcome. So, he began looking into them. Which led to this.

One of the odd devices was floating before him, projecting an odd panel from a sphere on its front. Said panel had words written on it in a much lighter green than the rest of the panel. What the words said was just as interesting as the machine.

Please come to the Simmering Swamps. I want to talk. (APPRECIATE THE CALMNESS OF THIS MESSAGE). - Withered Oil Cookie.

For a moment, he wasn’t sure who this was - and then, it clicked in his head.

Oh, Gleaming Oil Cookie! …or, well, Withered Oil Cookie.

Actually, now that he thought about it…after he and the other Beasts turned on the Witches, he never saw her again. He thought that she had just gone into hiding, or maybe died in what happened…

But it seems she had changed too. And she wanted to see him.

…he was pretty sure there weren’t any swamps on this continent though.

-

Turns out, there was a swamp on this continent! It was where the Ravenous Forest used to be. (Which was probably one of the other’s fault. Or his. Either or.)

The massive, wide-ranging woodland was now almost entirely a swamp. The air was muggy and hot, pushing down on everything around it. The mangrove trees scattered throughout the marsh seemed ill, yet also clearly still alive and thriving, some of them dripping with a neon green…sap? Whatever it was, there were pools of it scattered around, contrasting drastically with the foggy water of the rest of the swamp.

…also, it had been an hour and Shadow Milk still hadn’t found where Withered Oil Cookie was, so that was frustrating.

Eventually, however, he saw something new - a green ball of light had just shot up into the sky, which was very likely to be her.

The green ball expanded out into a full message. I’M OVER HERE, CURDLE!

…yeah, it was definitely Oil. She was the only one that called him that. Many times over.

Shadow Milk lifted into the air and zoomed through the forest, soon arriving in a clearing; there was a large puddle of the strange substance off to the side, and standing right before him was Withered Oil Cookie.

She looked very different from what he remembered. Back before…everything that happened, she had her hair tied back behind her head in a ponytail. She wore a visor over her eyes while she was brewing potions (and when she wasn’t), and a green robe with darker green accents. She constantly had a bag filled with potions hanging from her side.

Now? Her hair hung down over most of her face, covering her eyes. She was wearing a metallic jumpsuit with various green tubes across it, bubbling with that same odd sap. Black ‘rubber’ was at each of her joints, and on her right arm was a much larger gauntlet that seemed to be loaded with more capsules of that sap…and that was clearly a cannon embedded in the palm.

She smiled at him, her extremely wide grin twitching. “Curdle! It’s so good to see you again! I wasn’t sure if I would after the witches sealed you away for so long I couldn’t keep track of it and was constantly wondering if you would ever be freed.” Her right eye twitched. (which was pretty concerning.)

“It’s good to see you too, Oil. What’ve you been up to since-”

“Oh well Curdle I’ve been building a lot of stuff like my super observer bots the ones that sent you a message to meet here a super awesome under-swamp base where I can see everything from there’s also this cool jumpsuit that I loaded with weapons and powered with eternal oil that’s the green stuff i also made a bunch of defense systems to protect me a really big super mecha so i can finally be big like you a therapy machine that really didn’t work and i didn’t want to mention that last one aaaaa-”

Right. That was definitely concerning. Especially since her expression shifted several times in that whole…ramble. And she was constantly twitching. And also the mention of a therapy machine.

“Oil…what did you need a therapy machine for.” Shadow Milk said, (comparatively) stern.

“Nothing important! I just need to not think about it at all and focus on everything else, building stuff, my crippling loneliness, random balls of sugar fluff-”

“What happened to you?”

And it was that moment that Shadow Milk realized he asked the wrong question.

-

Why are they doing this? What did I do?

“If the Heroes turned on us, whose to say this one won’t as well?”

“It would be best if we disposed of them before they grow too strong.”

I’m scared…Shadow Milk, where are you?

“We could seal them away now…but then they could break free later…”

“Perhaps we could simply crumble them? It would save time.”

I don’t understand…

“I have a suggestion, my creators. All I need is access to the Oven.”

“You wish to rebake this one, Blinding Syrup Cookie? It is not a bad idea…”

What are they talking about?

“Not quite, my creators. All I truly need is the heat.”

“...very well, Blinding Syrup Cookie. You may.”

…What’s he doing? Stay back!

“And thus, the flames of perdition ignite. They grant my chains their searing grip, so I may enact the Witches' will.”

“You shall never turn against the divine, like your monstrous ‘heroes’.”

…

A̷̘̙̦̗͗͂̔͜͝͠Á̸̻͑̉A̶͔͆̀͆͝ͅḀ̵̇Ą̵̬̍̇̏ͅA̴̳͚̳̾͐Ă̷̪̞̙̘̑̕͘̚A̵̞̎́͝Å̷̮͍̒͂̐̿A̸̪͑̔̒̍Ḧ̶̘̬̤͖̤́̃͂H̴̠͊Ḫ̵͇͓͇̗̎̆͠Ḩ̶̪͙̙̥̇H̶̝̻̰̘̿͛͜H̵̺̟͑̃̄͊̍Ḩ̸̭̩̺͓̅̅̎̓H̸͈̎̆̇͘H̵̝̤̹͊͗̾̈H̵͍̣͋̿͛̄Ḩ̷̡̨́̈́͜H̴̢̛͈͎̦̱̃́̃͗H̶̥̱̟͉̀H̴̛̻̻͂̂̋̆Ḥ̷̨̙̩͐H̵̟͍̦̑̌͠H̴͕͓̓͜Ḥ̸̮̝̫̤͂H̴̗̣͛͌H̵͕͍̎̅́ͅḨ̷̭̼̥͌̆̊͘ͅH̸̨̬͓̝͒̈́̄H̵͈̅̈̇͠H̷͙̤̉͗̓̄̔H̴̲̔̏̂̓̕H̴͙̘͋̉̇H̴̼̉́H̴͔͔̍͑̒̊̓ͅḦ̴̩́Ḥ̷͇͇͉͊͝H̴̡͔̖̓̀͜H̶͎̳͆H̴̢̧̞̼̞̓̽͠Ĥ̷͚͚̳̓͝H̵̟̑́̀̋̕H̸̢̠̱͎̊͜H̴̠̥͕̊H̵͕̟̱̘͋͑H̷̙͖̪̳̎̏̊̄͊͜Ḧ̴̻̜́Ḥ̷̗̠̝̜͒́H̶̫͗̿̂̕-!!!!!!!!

-

Shadow Milk Cookie had no idea what happened, only that he really messed up. One moment, he was asking a very loaded question (he realizes that now), the next, Withered Oil’s eyes just completely blanked out before she fell to the ground, writhing in utter madness. And her screams…

He had heard a lot of screams over the years, but that scream?

It was different.

It was wrong.

Before he even knew what he was doing, he moved. He dove for Withered Oil Cookie and grabbed her smaller arm, even as she lashed out with her gauntlet upon contact. It didn’t hurt that much, and slowly but surely, Oil came back to her senses.

She stared at Shadow Milk Cookie in silence for a moment, before she lunged and-

Hugged him. (he did not expect that.)

She whispered something under her breath. “Please don’t leave me again.”

“I…I don’t want to be alone…”

…eventually, Shadow Milk returned the hug.

-

I’m concerned i wrote Shadow Milk out of character.

Also, if you see any shipping in this…DON’T.

There is no shipping here. Only sibling relationship. Shadow Milk is the elder brother theater gremlin and Withered Oil is the younger sister throws-stuff-in-a-pot-and-weaponizes-it gremlin.

(i should probably post this on my own page...)

THEY RE-BAKED HER ALIVE??? OH.

May I ask if I can crush Blinding Syrup with a comically large hammer? Because I want to.

Also i think you might be pretty in character for Shadow Milk here, it's pretty well done! All and all this was rather nice to read!

[theneighborhoodwatch]

Any ideas what the letters could be for? I tried them as a link but that drew a blank for me. (Unless I have them in the wrong order? Maybe they're a word??)

oh anon. you have No idea. i’ve added these to the observation document, but for posterity i’ll copypaste what i’ve written there under the “read more.”

Throughout the new pages, several letters are noted to be offset from the rest of the text. These include Y in the word “year” on the homepage under the “Website Updates” section, W in the word Wally on the “What’s Welcome Home” page, X in the word “expand” at the bottom of the Neighborhood map, O in the word “About” from the “About Us” page, and E in the logo for the “News” page. The whereabouts of V are currently unknown.

There are currently five combinations of these six letters that yield secret pages. These combinations will be listed below, accompanied by a brief description of the pages themselves.

yxwvoe: A mockup of the site’s standard 404 error page, but with Home replaced by Wally’s phone, and the text appearing to be slightly corrupted. Clicking on the phone takes the visitor to a page titled “singingmp4”/”duet,” containing an audio file that can be played in-browser. A transcript has been provided courtesy of imakestuff1987 on Tumblr.

woxyve: A page consisting of the same script page overlaid onto itself multiple times, along with a few scattered images of Welcome Home’s logo. In the script itself, Wally muses on not knowing what to paint for that day. In the center of the page is a non-looping gif, a corrupted version of one of the banners found on the site’s “Links” page.

ywxoev: A dark page containing an image of Home, with a non-looping gif of Wally’s eyes overlaid on top where their windows would ordinarily be. Scrawled beneath the image is the word “OPEN.” Clicking on either the image or the writing does nothing as of the time of this writing.

voywex: A dark page containing a message from Wally being typed across the screen. Within a few seconds of opening the page, Wally’s eyes appear, trembling as he stares at the visitor. 

eovwxy: A dark page containing a video of a static TV. The camera sways in place before footsteps are heard, at which point it zooms into the static.

[jonnysinsectcatalogue]

Insect Songs: Dog-Day Cicada - Neotibicen canicularis & Black-Legged Meadow Katydid - Orchelimum nigripes

In today's exploration of insects and their songs, we 2 familiar species today that are quite prevalent in Ontario's summer months. We begin with the tree-dwelling shriekers that seem to grow even louder when heat increases. Just as with Crickets and other Orthopterans, the large-bodied Cicadas only sing if they are male. To produce their sound, they rapidly expand and contract a membrane behind their thorax called a tymbal. Knowing this information, you can actually identify males and female by looking for the tymbals, which (in this specie) is located underneath the wing. Be very gentle when handling a Cicada in order to see this tymbal, and if it screeches in response, it's definitely a male. That said, unlike Orthopterous insects, Cicadas do not use stridulation to produce their song, as that process describes insects rub certain body parts together (e.g. see below) to produce sound. Vibrating a membrane doesn't match the description. If anything, it's more like flexing a muscle and allowing the hollow-filled body to amplify the sound so that all can hear it.

Pictured below is a typical example of how a Cicada song normally appears in audio form. It is a distinct, clear sound. Headphone warning, a Cicada shriek can be very shrill, even if the audio has been gently reduced.

As mentioned in this blog's 100th post, the Cicada's song appears continuous because of the tremendously rapid expansion and contraction of this membrane. The muscles controlling the membrane are so powerful that the tymbal can vibrate several hundred times per second. The faster the vibration builds (for this specie), the higher the pitch of the song becomes. That said, just as a Cricket's chirp can be isolated to clicks, a Cicada's song can be slowed down to hear the individual pulses. After slowing the screeching down by several hundred times, this is the result:

On the other side of the summer of insects, most Katydids generate their mating calls using wing-to-wing stridulation. There are exceptions of course (such as the Drumming Katydid), but today's specie has a loud method of communication! Like its Cricket friends, the loud, continuous sound is many clicks in rapid-succession. In fact, you can actually hear the beginnings of the clicks at the start of the song before the wings suddenly accelerate and make the call distinctive. Considered the role flight muscles play in controlling the wings and their noises, it's no surprise how the song can suddenly turn loud. It's very likely that the song can only be sustained in short bursts to prevent muscle damage or heat buildup, which is to say nothing of exposing oneself to a predator. The sound is alluring, for both mate and hunter alike. Pictured below is a typical example of the Black-Legged Meadow Katydid's song (headphone warning):

Do note, that while this is louder compared to the Cicada song, I was much closer to the source. If I was next to a singing Cicada, that too would have been an incredible amount of decibels! Nevertheless, when this Katydid's song is slowed down, the individual clicks become more prominent. Looking at it immediately after slowing the tempo down a few hundred times, a quick burst of less that one second becomes nearly 45 seconds of clicks! To showcase this, I've included a "portal" that offers a zoomed in look at the slowed song. Each spike in amplitude is a click of the wing-scraping. Even at reduce speed, you can hear the gradual acceleration of the clicking as the song goes on (headphone warning):

Pictures were taken on August 24, 2019 (Dog-Day Cicada) with a Samsung Galaxy S4 and on September 5, 2021 (Meadow Katydid) with a Google Pixel 4. Audio amplitude graphs were created using Audacity and samples from the following blog videos:

Black Legged Meadow Katydid | Dog-day Cicada

[sweatandwoe]

Kitten (1/2)

Different daily drabble because this took over my brain today tagging @vasiktomis and @six-feet-sleep come get your kitten Marcus juice

Pairing: Silco x Marcus Tags: MDNI, Silco, Marcus, Marcus is Silco's discord kitten, Sugar Daddy relationship (kinda), Lying, Part 1 is Funny hahaha while Part 2 is funny because I'll get questions about my mental health, Marcus is that bi guy who didn't realize he was bi until he got pursued by another man and realized he liked it a lot

-

Marcus knew he had fucked up. That going along this far is probably the stupidest, most moronic thing he has ever done. If Grayson found out, she’d give him that disappointed stare that she did that made him feel like he was eight years old again. 

He had just wanted Nitro so badly. And Silco had been handing it out to him like it was free candy. All he had to pretend was to be this cute woman he found as a stock image and act interested in Silco.

It was easy pretending to be interested in another man, despite Marcus having no experience prior to it. He just told Silco things he’d like to hear. 

Now he is in a world of shit, one that he can’t get out of. As it turns out, all that big talk in chat probably wasn’t a lie, Silco had connections and wasn’t shit talking about his wealth. Or maybe when he had been talking big to Marcus in DMs, trying to impress him, his ‘illicit activities’ weren’t as fabricated or funny as Marcus had initially thought. 

It certainly wasn’t funny when he checked today and saw Silco had dropped his IP address in the DMs, his address, and his entire name. With only one thing typed underneath: Answer when I call. 

There was no point in not answering, trying to cover it up, or pretending that to still be the girl he had lured Silco in with. He had even removed his avatar.

Now he just stares at the screen, feeling the sweat drip down his back. Wondering what Silco would do for the call, or how he’d Finally, it starts to ring, and after a moment to tremble, feeling his eyes sting and throat tighten, he accepts the call.

Silco is quick to jump into the conversation, his voice surprisingly neutral and not angry. “Hello, Marcus.” 

He swallows, trying not to focus too much on the voice, other than acknowledging it was surprisingly nice. Usually, guys who played the edgy card were usually more meek sounding, but Silco sounded like he is literally holding a knife when he spoke. “Hello, S-Silco.” 

There’s a pause, the sound of a click, and then some typing on the keyboard. His voice is smooth and deep, and neutral again.  “You don’t have your camera on, Marcus.”

“My camera?” He blinks, eyeing the webcam. It was mainly used for zoom meetings for his current training. “You want to see me?” 

“Of course, I want to see you, kitten.” The nickname sends Marcus almost sputtering, cheeks flaring red. 

“Even though I’m a man?” 

There’s a tut, and Silco’s tone turns an oddly tender note. “Is that why you hid from me? You thought I wouldn’t like you, Marcus? That I wouldn’t be interested in you because of your gender? I bet you’re lovely.” 

Okay, that had something stirring in his stomach, which was surprisingly not a negative feeling. “I thought you’d hate me if I told the truth.” That wasn’t a lie entirely, he had been quite sure Silco would’ve just never spoken to him again, maybe after outing him to the other chats. Not the whole finding his address and full name thing, but at least now Marcus

“I think it would take a lot for me to hate you, kitten.” Silco’s voice purrs, and Marcus can feel the heat expanding over his face, up to his ears. “Now, I want to see you. I think Daddy has waited long enough.” 

After a few moments of hesitation, Marcus turns on his camera, sitting back straight into his chair. Silco doesn’t turn on his, not that he wasn’t expecting him to. Marcus sits for a moment, blushing horribly in his stupid gaming chair while Silco observes him and he just has to sit there, unable to even view the other man in return. The dark-haired man half-expects Silco to end the call, but then he finally speaks. 

“Marcus?”

“Yes?” He asks, voice timid as he glances into the camera, before trying to straighten himself out, to keep his head held high instead of the meek, shrimpy form he had been doing. 

There’s a sigh, but it sounds happier on the other line than disappointed or upset. “You’re stunning. Better than I could’ve ever imagined.” 

No point in trying to hide or deflect it now, Marcus can feel how red his face is getting. He's never been called stunning before, and it’s causing an odd flutter in his chest. One he’s only ever felt for women before. 

Maybe he wasn’t as straight as he thought. “Thank you, Silco.” 

“Now, tell me about your day. I want to hear your voice for as long as I can hold you here.” 

So Marcus began to. Chatting with the other man for a little over an hour, as he checked his emails and made sure everything is updated. The topics changed from how days were going, to dinner plans, to Silco even offering to buy Marcus something, which he only tried to refuse a little. 

It turns out Silco is very wealthy, and also now Marcus’s sort of boyfriend. Okay, no definite boyfriend. They were going to watch a movie now on call tomorrow night. 

The call ends after an hour, with them both still messaging each other during Silco’s meeting he had it for. Talking far more than they ever had throughout the day, and ends when Silco forcefully declares goodnight, after being reminded of how early he has to get up tomorrow. 

And throughout it, Marcus has never felt so wanted. It almost has him forgetting that Silco definitely has his address and personal information. 

That thought has his finger hover over the block button because he really should. That would be the healthy thing to do. But Silco sends him one more message right before he hits it. 

I hope you’re having sweet dreams, sweetheart. I miss you already. 

I used to want to be a cop, he thinks before swiping away from the block page and back into the DM. I miss you too. Get some sleep Silco. And then after a moment, he sends an emoji he hopes doesn’t come off as too desperate or interested or whatever the fuck. How did he flirt with guys? 

Silco sends a heart emoji in return, and it has his chest warm. Then a sleeping emoji, and the reminder has Marcus curling up into bed too. 

He glances over the block button once more, far less confident in it now. It wasn’t like Silco was a complete stranger, after all, he had been talking to him for over a month now, even if it was under a different persona. 

Silco just seemed like a lonely guy. And maybe Marcus could relate to that feeling a little too much. 

So he doesn’t block him or remove him from friends, or leave the servers. In fact, he does something even stupider. and reacts to his heart emoji with another emoji before shutting his phone off and going to sleep. 

He’ll awake to a very affectionate message, along with a gift card to go get breakfast. Marcus realizes he could very quickly get used to being spoiled like this. He had never had any partner pay for his breakfast before. 

He lies in bed, reading over the message twice, he thinks that maybe being Silco’s kitten wouldn’t be too bad. 

It might even be a little fun. 

A/N: Part 2 is gonna be NSFW, just so you know

[ncisfranchise-source]

NCIS: Sydney will feel very familiar to fans of CBS’ well-watched franchise, while also being uniquely Australian, showrunner Morgan O’Neill tells TVLine in the exclusive Q&A below.

The premise for NCIS: Sydney: As international tensions rise in the Indo-Pacific, a brilliant and eclectic team of U.S. NCIS Agents and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) are grafted into a multi-national task force, to keep naval crimes in check in the most contested patch of ocean on the planet.

The cast also includes Sean Sagar (Fate: The Winx Saga) as NCIS Special Agent DeShawn Jackson, Tuuli Narkle (Bad Behaviour) as AFP Liaison Officer Constable Evie Cooper, Mavournee Hazel (Neighbours) as AFP Forensic Scientist Bluebird “Blue” Gleeson, and William McInnes (Blue Heelers) as AFP Forensic Pathologist Dr. Roy Penrose.

The first international NCIS offshoot’s eight-episode season will premiere on CBS on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 8/7c, and also be available live and on demand that night for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers. (“Regular” Paramount+ Essential subscribers can stream each episode the day after it airs.)

Check out the exclusive key art poster above (click to zoom), then read on to see what series boss Morgan O’Neill has to say about the NCIS franchise’s trip to the land Down Under….

TVLINE | What was the genesis of NCIS: Sydney? Was CBS looking for an NCIS set on another continent, or was it, “We need a show for Paramount+ Australia”? MORGAN O’NEILL | I think it was more the former, although the latter is probably a good upside for it, too. My understanding is that CBS was looking to expand the franchise beyond [the northern] hemisphere. Since the show revolves around naval crimes, naturally they looked at “the world’s largest island,” and then they pitched the idea to Bev McGarvey who runs Paramount+ Australia. She’s a massive fan of the franchise, so she said, “Let me take it to Endemol Shine Australia (ESA).” They then came to me and said, “We have this incredible opportunity to expand one of the world’s biggest franchises into Australia. How the hell would you do it?” I got together with the head of scripted at ESA and worked up what this show might look like and pitched it back to Paramount+ and to CBS. They flipped for it at lightning speed, which almost never happens in our industry.

TVLINE | Is there anything that a U.S. viewer should know before watching this, with regards to what’s different about law enforcement in Australia? The first and most obvious difference is that while NCIS exists in Australia in real life, they don’t have the same kind of jurisdictional authority as they would in the U.S., because they’re in a foreign country. So when NCIS works in Australia they work in conjunction with our highest law enforcement agencies — in particular the Australian Federal Police, which are our equivalent of the FBI. From the perspective of our show, what’s going to be very, very different is that it’s effectively the first “blended family” where NCIS has to form a team with the Australian Federal Police and operate in conjunction with them.

It’s Australians and Americans working not always in concert, but certainly together, and working through cultural differences, working through the clashes that would naturally exist when you bring two disparate organizations together. But ultimately they find that there is this core DNA that they share between the two organizations that actually bonds them into a team really quickly, but with unexpected results.

TVLINE | So, each case will need to involve some sort of U.S. serviceman…? Absolutely. The basic premise that NCIS has to find a connection, a nexus back to the U.S. Navy, will continue, but what’s interesting in Australia is that it’s not just the Navy. If there is something that happens in Australia in the Army or the Air Force or the Coast Guard that pertains to the U.S., NCIS does the investigations. So, in a funny way they actually have a bigger remit than they do in the U.S. because they’re looking after the four other arms of the Armed Forces.

TVLINE | What are some fun character dynamics to watch for? Well, No. 1 on the call sheet, the person who gets to kind of call the shots out here, is [NCIS Special Agent] Michelle Mackey (played by Olivia Swann). She’s a former Marine captain/chopper pilot and somewhat of a maverick, so she’s kind of a problem child who’s been handed around NCIS for a little while as they figure out how to handle her. She drops into Australia where we are, in and of ourselves — how should I put it nicely for my fellow countrymen? — a bit “antiauthoritarian.” So sparks fly naturally, which is great.

Then there’s a core group of characters, which in some ways will feel familiar to an NCIS audience, because they know that in the world of the show there are investigators and forensic pathologists and forensic scientists involved. They’ll look at the show and see a familiar architecture to it, but three-quarters of them are Australians and that makes for a very, very different experience. A lot of the things that Americans take for granted about the world will be put up into relief here a bit, and interrogated, but ultimately what’s fascinating about these characters and the first season of this show is that it doesn’t actually take very long to realize that they’re kind of cut from the same cloth.

TVLINE | Did you try to cast the Australian side of the cast with 100% percent Australians? How did that net out? It’s interesting — the show is an entirely Australian show. Its cast, it’s crewed, it’s written by, it’s produced by, and it’s commissioned by Australians. All of the Australian characters are Australians, and that’s 95% of the cast including guest cast. But when you work on a show that’s as big as NCIS, which is is 200 territories, in 60 different languages, with trillions of hours of this show watched, the great relief from a showrunner’s point of view is that I don’t really have to go out and find “stars.” The show is already the star; I just get to cast the greatest actors on the planet! So we were able to cast really wide, really broadly, to find the best actors to slide into these pretty unique roles. And we were able to find a couple of actors out of the UK, as it would happen, who are just remarkable, in Olivia Swann and Sean Sagar.

TVLINE | I know Olivia from Legends of Tomorrow, and she’s great. She’s incredible, and I had sort of been following both her and Sean. I’m a huge fan of [director] Guy Ritchie and Sean is one of Guy Ritchie’s favorite actors to work with.

I’ve worked on a lot of shows and I’m a huge believer in the idea that whatever the vibe is amongst the humans that make the show somehow translates to the screen. And in this case, as we wrapped production on Season 1, even though some actors when they wrap you never see them again, they kept coming back to set. In fact, Olivia wrapped up on the very last day of shooting, but Todd Lasance, who is her No. 2, made a point to be there. It’s a real vibe, and we’re really excited to see what the rest of the world thinks.

TVLINE | Will there be nods to any other NCIS shows along the way? “I once met Leroy Jethro Gibbs at a conference…” or something? Look, there are a couple of little Easter eggs there. I won’t spoil them, but they’re definitely there. One of the things that I think audiences love about this show is the fact that it feels like a universe, not individual shows. And while they each have their own DNA, I think that’s what was really clever about the way CBS developed this franchise is they didn’t go out to make the same show twice. If you look at the original show, the mothership, it’s very different from L.A.…

TVLINE | Oh, NCIS: LA was chasing stolen nuclear materials, like, every other week! Correct. Each show gets a different tonality, a different vibe, a different pace, a different rhythm, a different color palette, a different sensibility. I feel like what CBS did really cleverly was they realized that they needed to expand the audience and to expand the universe, but not just replicate it. So when they came to us, I kind of sat down and watched about 950 episodes of NCIS [programs] in the space of a few weeks to get myself up to speed — I feel like I have a PhD in NCIS! — and what I realized was that they were looking to capture the authenticity of a place. So I went back to [CBS Studios chief] David Stapf and his crew and said, “In order for this to be successful, I think it really has to capture that authentic rhythm, that authentic cultural sensibility of Australia — the colors, the flavor. We should lean into it.” And they said, “That’s music to our ears. Go for it.”

TVLINE | I was going to ask: After a person gets done watching this first season — and if they like me have yet to pull the trigger on an Australian vacation — will they kind of feel like they’ve been to Australia? I hope so, I really do. You’ll certainly feel like you’ve been Sydney. I’m actually kind of surprised in some ways that they haven’t come here and created a franchise sooner. As I said to you before, Australia is the world’s largest island and Sydney Harbor is the world’s largest harbor. And our naval base, which is called HMAS Kuttabul or Fleet Base East, is right in the middle of that harbor. Like, our entire East Coast Navy Base fleet is based in town, so you’ve got an almost indefatigable, inexhaustible supply of stories right in the middle of the world’s biggest harbor on the world’s biggest island. And then you throw in the geopolitical realities of the part of the world that we live in, in that the Indo-Pacific is kind of the hotspot for all sorts of geopolitical tensions right now. It’s the most hotly contested patch of ocean.

TVLINE | The trailer plays that up a lot. I mean, that’s the situation. Pick up the New York Times and I dare you not to find an article about tensions between China and the Philippines, or contested maritime rights in the South China Sea. It’s an incredibly diverse and vibrant part of the world. Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation on the planet, is just to our north — friends of Australia obviously, but it’s diverse. You’ve got one of the world’s biggest shipping nations in Singapore [3,900 miles away]. You’ve got the world’s second biggest island, Papua New Guinea, right there. You’ve got all these islands dotted across the Pacific, which fall under our sphere of economic cooperation, in terms of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and all of them are contested places at the moment. There are lots of forces vying for economic, military, social partnership.

The trailer mentions the AUKUS Agreement, a military alliance between Australia, the U.S. and the UK, which has only recently been signed. It’s a big deal and it’s literally there because we are in a really contested patch of the world right now. The show tries not to too political, obviously — that’s part of the appeal of it, I think — but the reality is we have basically an endless supply of stories pulled from the front page of the newspaper that seem to be really applicable.

Photo : CBS

TVLINE | What specific sites or locations were you excited to squeeze into the show? When we started out, we looked at the Australian Navy base in the middle of the harbor, which is where all the American ships come into, and said, “Wow, it’d be fun to get on that, wouldn’t it? It’d be fun to be able to shoot on the actual operating Navy base.” So, we contacted the Australian Navy and said, “Look, we have this little show you might’ve heard of — NCIS? We’ll be doing a franchise here in Sydney, would you like to help out?” And believe it or not they said, “We’d love to, send us a letter with all the things you feel like you might need across the season.” I went, “Well, we need Seahawk helicopters, and we need access to your biggest ships, we’d like to get onboard your subs, we’d like to work and shoot on your Navy bases all around the country, we’d like to get some air assets….” And they came back and they were just incredibly supportive.

In the trailer, that Navy Seahawk helicopter flying at 50 feet above Sydney Harbor? That’s a real one. There’s no CG. We had to clear the harbor, we had an air exclusion zone, and we had the pilots from the Australian Navy flying up from their base down south and landing on a small aircraft carrier and taking off. It was an incredible thrill.

TVLINE | Were there any more “touristy” locales you filmed at? When you film on Sydney Harbor you kind of spin the camera around and see the Harbor Bridge, you see the Opera House, you see this vast harbor….. We shot at Bondi Beach, which is Australia’s most famous beach. We shot in Kings Cross, which anyone who’s ever been a U.S. serviceman arriving in Sydney will know; it’s the red light district just up the hill from the base, so it’s seen its fair share of U.S. servicemen and women across the years, in all capacities.

One of the things that people think about when they think of Australia is the Outback. Obviously Sydney is not in the Outback, it’s a big urban center, but not too far away you drive up into the mountains and suddenly you’re in this pristine wilderness that’s very uniquely, quintessentially Australian. So, we find ourself up there.

TVLINE | And that lets you include a kangaroo and koala in the trailer! It does!

TVLINE | Someone at CBS was like, “Yeah, we saw your first pass at the trailer, and there’s no kangaroo. You’ve gotta give them a kangaroo.” It was a shameless plug for Australian wildlife, what can I say?

[k00289234]

Monday 29/01/24 (Printmaking)

We began the workshop by telling Suzanna our ideas for our projects. She gave us all a lino block and we had to do a few drawings the same size as the block and choose which one to do.

I drew a couple hands but I wanted it to be less basic so I zoomed in on a picture I had taken of my hand a week or so ago. It's a picture I had taken of clicking my fingers which is a repetitive action I do frequently to self-regulate.

I talked to Suzanna then and she said I should do two linos completing the action of clicking and then I'd be able to repeat them.

(These are the picture I used for reference):

I then drew the images onto the lino blocks. I decided to add in lines around the fingers to show the feeling of it. In the first one I had the lines thin to show tension and in the second one I made them expand to show the release of energy and also the sound, as this can be quite a loud form of self-regulation.

I then went over them in marker so that the lines would be more clear when I started cutting.

I then started cutting the lino. We had to share around the lino cutters and I had a pretty small one so it took me quite a long time to cut them but I was able to get a lot of detail in which was good.

After I had cut both of them I started printing. It took me a few tries to get the hang of it but I'm very happy with the results.

I was then able to put them in a sequence to show the actual action. I mixed up what direction they went in a few times but I got there eventually.

I'm really happy with the finished result :)

[cssscriptcom]

Medium-Style Image Zoom Animation - ZoomableImage

Disrupting reading flow with jarring lightbox popups is a thing of the past. The ZoomableImage is designed to revolutionize image interaction on your website. Inspired by the elegant zoom functionality of Medium.com, this JavaScript library lets visitors explore visuals without compromising the reading experience. Click an image, and it gracefully expands to full size, taking center stage with a…

[mytearsrricochet]

is the image and gif formatting wildly fucked up on the app for anyone else or is my dash just riddled with weirdly zoomed in and off centered gifs that when you click on them actually expand

[entropy-game-dev]

Alpha testing, v0.08a & patchnotes

My initial testing friend came back for v0.08 after missing a couple of builds, and there were quite a few changes for him to take in!

He noticed a nasty bug that took me ages to figure out the cause of. Sometimes, when enemies were being moved around by attacks, they’d zoom over to a completely unrelated position. After a couple of hours tweaking and testing the various conditions where it did/did not happen, I found that when an enemy would be moved into an invalid position, it would instead be moved into another valid position instead...

But this was not a bug, it was behaviour I had programmed in and forgot about!!

I was annoyed with myself for putting this “feature” in my movement script and NOT giving it the option to be toggleable, as well as being annoyed that I had completely forgotten I had programmed it like this. After I realised, it was simple enough to fix.

Separately, there is an array that stores which logs you have read (generated on game creation), and is the same size as the log database. But when the game updates, and new content is added, those sizes don’t match anymore, so I added some code to expand the save game data structure accordingly. I left in a new dummy log called “im going insane” when testing this feature (which was both the title and description of it) and I had completely forgot about it. When my friend acquired it randomly we both started cackling.

There was also a rare softlock that happened when missing an enemy! It turns out I had programmed it so that when an attack misses, the entire attack script is skipped. However, it also skipped the code where the state changes to give control back to the next unit. Thankfully I have an anti-softlock button that returns you to the ship no matter where you are.

Alpha testing for v0.09 has also been completed so expect a blog about that soon too! But for now, thank you for reading, and as usual, patchnotes are below the cut...

v0.08a Features:

Pressing cancel in a text menu selects the last option!

Robots have a 15% chance to drop random materials!

Tier 2 areas now locked behind research!

Added options furniture in base but not funcitonal yet

Added extra tutorial triggers and text

You can now access the options menu from the base!

There are ceilingless and floorless tiles now

Made map icons stay dark until interacted with

Added oxygen and carry capacity research

Polish:

Screen starts glitching at 2 bad status effects, down from 3

Tooltip in manage part hidden when no core inventory available

Disabled autoextract and added cancel sfx to the other field menu options

Add clicking to skip 1 panel in a cutscene and to skip the title messages

Changed "No way" to "No" in robot trade screen

Made speed number mouseover work outside of battle

Removed AP bar visibility

Added "no moves" message on inspection when no moves are available

Made it so you can mouse over the part icon in the part information panel in the menu

Changed reset section options to reset visible options for clarity

Research overall progress bar now resets after collecting research

On the (placeholder) routines interface, changed ability text to routine

Reworked research costs

You can inspect items now in dissassemble/destroy mode

Some sounds changed when unable to do things in the storage menu

There are now no circular recipes/materials for infinite disassembling

Added expansions to some of the saved grids when there's more entries in the database detected

Added tutorial count deletion flag

Slightly changed the way tutorials fire but underlying problem is NOT solved

Swapped the mining recipe to tier 1 and changed some costs around

Bugs:

Bad machine's prompts now have a question mark at the end of them

Text in options changed from "context sensitive controls" to "context sensitive help overlay"

Added item counts back in inventory screens

Fixed mouse clicks confirming menu options when in kbmode

Fixed parts not showing moves when selecting the same part ID (but different part item)

TUTORIALS FIXED?? HUGE NEWS????

[darrylhudson86]

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