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talenlee · 4 months

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2025 Custom Magic WIP Thoughts Pt 2

Yesterday I talked about the idea of a ‘spine mechanics’ and what I was thinking about for 2025’s custom cards. That article got a little out of hand, so I split it into two. You can read the previous piece here!

You won’t see any new custom magic designs here, Wizards employees. There’s a diagram of a pentagon, but you’ll be fine.

Organising Five Factions

The colour wheel presents the colours in a standard order – WUBRG. That then can be broken into allied pairs WU, UB, BR, RG, WG, and enemy pairs, WB, UR, BG, RW, UG. But that ordering is just a matter of the original order of WUBRG; you can absolutely have a mix of colours that works out to an even number, by just changing the order of WUBRG.

What this ordering is doing is taking the existing pentagon and drawing a line through it that only enters each node once. That means there are only four actual ways to organise this:

This means that instead of necessarily wanting a set that’s all allied factions then all enemy factions (pentagon and pentagram) you can go fish into wave, for a mix. Also, you just change the number you count from to get a different set.

For example, in this setup, the fish-wave on the conventional WUBRG arrangement gets you WU, UR, BR, GB, GW, in the fish set, and WB, UB, UG, RG, RW in the wave set. But if instead you start that colour wheel at say, B, the first set is BG, RG, UR, WU, and WB, then BR, WR, WG, GU, and UB. Now this may not simplify things for you designing your own sets but it’s hopefully a way to demistify mixed colour faction pairings that means you have more tools for how you want the colours to rest alongside one another.

You can also get the same effect by just reordering the colour pie and sticking with the pentagon and pentagram. If you decide you want WU police grappling with the over-the-line chicanery of WR noir detectives, then all you have to do is rearrange the colour pie to RWU and you can stick BG or GB on the end how you like. Let’s say GB just to keep things out of type. Then your factions in the first set break down as RW, WU, UG, BG, and BR. Then the enemy versions of that same colour set up are RU, WG, UB, GR and BW.

Okay, there, that’s something out there that someone else might find useful.

Now, faction mechanics!

Faction Mechanics

These are the mechanics that I like the look of that I need for the next

Something else is that I want to avoid reusing mechanics I’ve used in the past few years of custom cards. Particularly, I’ve used Ravenous for two years running, which seems like I may just have had someone design a perfect mechanic for me, in particular. If I set it aside I can play with other things for a while.

Faction mechanics are mechanics that:

Fit equally well in all related colours

Can be present in the colours as mono-coloured cards

Express something meaningful about the faction in the setting

Can appear at all rarities, common up

Here’s the list of mechanics I’ve been considering:

Prototype is a cool mechanic, but as designed, it is a colourless card and a coloured sub-version. If those were used as faction cards in the set, then there’d be a big pile of colourless cards in the set taking up space a faction normally would. It can make one faction feel ‘absent’ and what’s more, mean that other factions might want to take your cards because – well, they’re there. If Prototype shows up, as much as I like it, it’d need to be more like the Spine cards. Maybe there’d be a cycle of prototype cards where the coloured versions of the cards do something cool, if artifacts wind up being really important. None of this is to say prototype is off the table – but I also don’t have a card face for it yet.

Cleave, I hate the name. Cleave’s big problem to me is that Cleave as a mechanic word should be used for when a spell has splash damage, when it impacts more than its first target. I like the idea of taking Cleave, renaming it Redact, and making it either an alternate cost or an increased cost, and playing it as an officious lawgiver kind of faction. I can see a blue-white group ‘redacting’ things or possibly a blue-black sneaky faction doing it.

Boast, is just a codified version of a mechanic I already liked, Inspired. Boast is really cool, it encourages you to play on the board, and it’s structured so that Boast cards can look at one another. Almost no changes necessary, can see it as working for a red, green, or black faction.

Connive, I like this a lot as a way to give white and blue a common ground for drawing and discarding, where white could get it occasionally and get something for it.

Living Metal, a cool mechanic for the Transformers cards also has some cute knock-on applications. Particularly, it means that it’s a whole class of creatures that can’t block, because they’re not available on your opponent’s turn, but also they avoid wraths of god effects, and aren’t going to care about creature reanimation in other zones. I feel like this could be a tool for a red-white faction or a red-black faction.

For Mirrodin, which is a bit limited in that it’s named for a specific plane, but just ripping it off and making equipment that bring their own creatures, that’s fun. I like this because it implies that the people who wield the tools aren’t important, the tools are so important that they bring any old person to wield them. In a guild or factional arrangement, I can imagine this being the hallmark of a craftsperson’s guild, where they produce weapons and don’t care about anyone who carries them.

Exploit, a mechanic I’ve always liked. It’s on the maybe list, just because I keep meaning to use it. I like it because of how it can make creatures into sorceries (or instants!) and also let you trade your worst creature for a spell effect.

Haunt sticks in my head because I think of how it can be used in a positive/negative way. White cards that grant benefits to the creatures they haunt, black cards that impose penalties, there’s a fun binary there. It would just be using Haunt the same way Haunt always was used though in the faction it already was being used in!

Even if I use all of these mechanics, I’m still looking at eight of the ten I need, and they overlap with one another in the colours they represent. There are a few ideas here for white and blue and black, not so many for green (which is its own problem). Some of these things don’t even necessarily work together!

Like, consider if Prototype is the Spine mechanic – big expensive artifacts, and each faction has a way to get it out cheaper, or cheap durdly artifacts that each faction has a way to super-charge? How many cards can I get out of that? Watchers of the Dead indicate that a 2/2 artifact for 2 is a totally acceptable thing to just have sitting around somewhere. But Prototype isn’t going to work with something like Adventure, or Morph/Disguise as a spine mechanic, because there’s just not enough room on the cards!

Are there biases, too? Like, Prototype, Living Metal and For Mirrodin! are all based on artifacts. Is there a push towards a theme of artifact mechanics? That could be a cool thing to explore, especially if (say) three factions use artifacts and two factions don’t. Cleave probably doesn’t appear on creatures, which suggests a spell-based faction (though Manifest, tokens and Cloak are all options there). Heck, hadn’t even considered the possibility of using manifests instead of tokens. Imagine a For Mirrodin that manifested the top of your library! Or what about Roles? Cloak a card and put a role on it? A world of mysterious strangers, with strange portents about them? That could be something too.

I don’t have any decisions made at this point! I just have some stuff written down! And now you can look at it!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Games #Magic: The Gathering #Making

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chengyangli · 6 months

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Week 4 tut - Asteroids Elevator Pitch

Title of Game：

Hungry Chameleon

Asteroids Elevator pitch:

In a corner of the city, as you happen to step outside, you spot a hungry chameleon. Curious to witness how chameleons hunt in urban environments, you observe closely. To your amazement, you notice the chameleon's stealthy hunting technique. It silently lurks among walls and branches, blending seamlessly with its surroundings using its color-changing ability, patiently waiting for prey to approach. When a moth or insect flies by, it swiftly extends its long tongue, capturing the prey in an instant. This mysterious and efficient hunting method leaves you in awe, as if an unseen survival competition is unfolding even in the heart of the city.

Demographics:

People aged 6+

Genre:

Survival, Shooting, Action-adventure, Strategy

Concept Image:

Game Controls:

Arrow keys or w,a,s,d are used to control moving directions and space/mouse is used to control extend its long tongue.

Primary Mechanics:

Color-changing Gameplay: Players can control the chameleon as it navigates through the urban environment, utilizing its color-changing abilities to blend into the surroundings. This adds strategy and challenge to the game while allowing players to experience the unique hunting method of chameleons.

Urban Survival Adventure: The game immerses players in the bustling urban environment, testing their survival skills in the city. Players must navigate obstacles and dangers while utilizing the chameleon's special abilities to hunt for food and thrive.

Exploration of Biodiversity: Players will have the opportunity to explore the rich biodiversity of the city, including various insects, birds, and other animals. Through interaction with these creatures, players can learn about their survival tactics in the city and uncover the ecological mysteries hidden within urban environments.

Setting:

Chameleon moves around and catch the flying insect with its tongue to keep it alive.

Inspiration:

This chameleon game was inspired by a tutorial on how to make an Asteroids game. The game's top-down perspective and shooting mechanic made me think that it could be a combination of Catch-22 style gameplay and survival elements from Hungry Sharks, encouraging players to hunt for food to prolong their survival. The core concept behind the game is a reflection on the reality of wildlife being forced to coexist with humans in an ever-expanding modern society. What scenarios will we face when this coexistence becomes an everyday occurrence?

In this game, the player takes on the role of a chameleon that has to survive in an urban environment, which is not only a challenge of survival, but also an exploration of wildlife adapting to the environment and colliding with human civilization. The game simulates the difficulties of wildlife survival in human society through the chameleon's hunting process in the city, and also lets the player experience that with the acceleration of urbanization, the balance between human and nature is increasingly difficult to maintain.

In terms of game design, I tried to combine real ecological principles with gamified elements, so that players can enjoy the fun of the game and at the same time trigger in-depth thinking about the coexistence between human beings and nature. Through this game, I hope to arouse people's awareness of ecological protection and wildlife conservation, and to think about how to better protect our common homeland while promoting social progress, so as to realize the ideal state of harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature.

Reference:

image for Fishing Joy: https://www.gamezebo.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/5021-image001.jpg

image for Hungry Shark: https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/7W3YurVZ03qNpruL8Vr34PMClqCAKcfpzQQ65qdrnprAkp0g3Y0J-8krhBWCBKZyMZM=w526-h296-rw

#elevator pitch

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taocrafttarot · 9 months

Video

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Learning Tarot is a process, and part of that process is repetition.

Last time we looked at Lenormand cards, we started to explore two card combinations, which seem to be a big part of the Lenormand style of Tarot reading. Often when particular combinations of cards are seen, the meanings for the cards change a bit, not unlike a reversal in RWS style cards and readings.

The best way to understand that connection seems to be two card sets. It makes sense to understand the foundation, the building blocks of a larger layout before using a larger layout. In RWS style, that foundational building block is the single card reading, which plugs into the individual positions of any layout which is then woven together in a meta-analytical, intuition driven way.

I'm still learning Lenormand along with you, but it seems to me that building block isn't single cards, but the underlying connections between 2 or 3 cards, like a flat mat with dots (single card meanings) stuck on top.To put it in arts and crafts terms, RWS is knitting while Lenormand is paper-making with speckles on top.Today we have snake and fish. So starting with that foundational fabric, what is the common energy matrix behind the Flow and suppleness are common traits between the two. The fish are associated with prosperity. The snake in the guidebook is associated with typical western cultural meanings like deceit and deviousness.

Intuitively, however, I am reminded of Chinese astrology. People born in the year of the snake are said to be competent, wise, intuitive and passionate. When I put all of those aspects together the two-together message is to protect your resources through wisdom and know-how (akin to a four of pentacles combined with an ace of swords sort of vibe)I'm not sure if or how the playing card insets factor into it. Queen of clubs with the snake is akin to the queen of wands - which reinforces the idea of self-care, in the form of caring for physical resources. The king of diamonds is like the king of pentacles, reinforcing the notion that this is about common sense, physical realm money management more than some sort of grand spiritual lesson.

Sometimes, as Freud said, a cigar is just a cigar.

Sometimes, as these cards seem to stay, you just have to mind the budget, even at the holidays. The energy here is all about practical, level headed things, unrelated to spirituality or emotion. Once we make the physical stable and safe, then we can turn our minds and hearts to the spiritual, emotional and intangible.Between now and New Year I don't intend to hold to any particular schedule other than doing email private readings as they come in.Usually I try to do the Learn With Me on Wednesdays and the Substack newsletter as a weekly digest on the weekend, with one card posts as often as I can manage on weekdays.I'm still of two minds about the "path through the week" thing on Mondays.What do you think? What kind of readings or posts would you like to see in the blog? For goodness' sake don't be shy. As long as it isn't spam, by all means post your questions or suggestions in the comments. Contact info is in the right hand column (or bottom of the page on mobile) too.I'm planning to do a bunch of re-introductory and behind the scenes posts over the next few weeks sliding in and around day job, private readings and the holidays.If you want a private Tarot reading by email, you can order it HERE anytime, 24/7 no appointment needed. I'll get the typed reading with a photo of your real-world card layout to you usually within 24 hours.Thank you so much for reading! See you at the next sip!via Learn With Me: Lenormand, snake and fish)

#learntarot

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copepods · 9 months

Text

moon: brave messenger, please hurry and send the message to five pebbles before i fucking die for real

me (taking 1000 screenshots per second of my beautiful wife): huh did you say something

#text #fish plays rw #rain world

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meanscarletdeceiver · 3 years

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Seeing as how crane steam engines are a thang, and not just somethign made up for the show: harvey head canons?

Ho hum, I wonder who could be on anon asking about Harvey? <3

Sorry for the wait but honestly I had to watch Season 6 a lot and some seasons beyond a little in order to get some ideas churning.

Now thanks to you I really like the lil bug.

First of all, I mostly am going to steal pretty much every detail of Feige’s Harvey HC post. It is all fire and you should all go read it and reblog it.

But the most useful bit, to me, is their notion that Harvey was not actually made circa 1900 but rather a one-off reproduction commissioned circa 1940. I dunno, it just feels right. I look at that face and I see a guy from the 40s.

I also love Feige's account of Harvey's pre-Sodor history. I modify it, however, to Harvey not going directly from Barrow Hemelite Steel Co. to Sodor in 1974. I see him arriving about a decade later, right around the time the TV series is launching. On the other hand I think it’s unlikely that he got another job anywhere else after ’74 so he might have spent a good deal of time just sitting around Hemelite waiting to be leased or bought. I should also mention the Furness Railway Trust might have played a role here in buying Harvey, even if they couldn’t afford or weren’t interested in overhauling him; they saved a diesel shunter from this same steelworks.

My “joke AU” where lots of non-classic episodes didn’t really happen but reflect the engines getting extremely Machiavellian about their own portrayals and pitching the stories to HiT? Well, it’s increasingly not a joke. Anyway “Harvey to the Rescue” didn’t quite go down like that.

It wasn’t the engines who were down on Harvey for “looking different,” it was the railway board. They spent much of the 80s and 90s enjoying the N.W.R.’s impressive new TVS-related revenue streams and getting a real bugabear about controlling their “brand.” They were very big on “branding.” God, the engines came to despise the word “branding” (so did the once-indomitable FC2, who decided to just effin’ retire because he was completely over of some of these big new shareholders within five minutes of their arrival). By 1990, they still hadn’t approved Harvey’s purchase and there were rumors that they were going to “pass” on him altogether. They just didn’t think he fit the “brand” (which mostly meant the RWS engines… and even back in the 80s, long before Gullane or HiT or anyone else, the railway board kind of wished Duck and really wished Toby just didn’t exist. They couldn’t get rid of them, but they considered them deadweight for publicity. They considered BoCo and Bear the same and that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish, let me get back on topic).

Anyway, the engines might have done the usual “frank and unflattering commentary when the see someone who looks different” thing, but they didn’t really give Harvey the cold shoulder because of that; that was just the usual light hazing.

Where Harvey did have an ongoing struggle was just… culturally. Industrial engines have a completely different etiquette from railway engines, who can also be casually classist about these differences. Harvey, bless him, did his best to adjust, but he couldn’t learn all the complicated ins and outs overnight and he kept inadvertently giving offense.

Some of the engines were more understanding than others. Guess which were which.

So yeah, Harvey once jumped the rails because he went too fast onto the loop line and tied up three trains, he (gasp) sorted trains in order of arrival instead of order of Importance, his eyes glazed over in boredom in a lot of yard and shed conversations making more references than he could keep up with…

… Add to all this that it’s generally very embarrassing for an engine when they make some mess that needs to be cleaned up; it’s worse still if you have to be bailed out of a jam by the new guy, and then if it’s “that ugly old hook-on-wheels”… oof.

Oh, then poor Harvey gamely tried to participate in the model-exchange method of bonding. He sent Murdoch a model of a Hornby 9F in B.R. black and Henry a wooden railway model of himself. For Christmas. Oh my God. Oh my God you guys. There was so much wrong here that it would take an essay just to unpack, although his biggest misstep was that the custom is supposed to be that you send your own model off to be accepted by the other. Sending someone their own model? What are you, some kind of creep?

(Henry did sort of spout off along that exact vein. In his defense, he’d taken a couple blows to his pride that year, and also he was very sleep-deprived due to some heavy timetables that month. But flippin’ Gordon and James put him in his place (“He didn’t give you his own model because he doesn’t have one, yeh big green plonker! Get a grip!”) Do you know how embarrassing it is to be schooled in empathy by James the Red Engine? Yeah. Henry finally woke up properly and realised that he was being an arse, that time. At the same time, Arthur was having a similar conversation with Murdoch, who realised that if Arthur was telling someone to lighten up about the rules of any particular thing, then maybe he should just grunt ’ah, thank’ee then’ and go back to sleep as the fastest way to restore peace.)

Then there were all Harvey’s many faux pas at washdown. Oh, washdown. Suffice it to say the politics of who cuts in front of whom at a railway washdown are immense. There are probably 28 different unverbalized algorithms by which the order is determined, and you might think that therefore reconciling all the competing factors is an art-form, but it’s not art, it’s a science and there is always only one correct answer. The North Western, if possible, has a pecking order even more labyrinthine than most railways because they’ve been mashing together rules from clashing cultures (different home railways, different B.R. regions, the sea-change that came post-dieselisation) for 70 years before Harvey even arrived. Even Duck can’t articulate why it is that Engine A goes ahead of Engine B but not Engine C, Edward won’t even try, Thomas actually was once the only engine pretty good at laying it all out in great, rambley detail but then again he hasn’t really needed to calculate it since the 60s because he’s tended to at Ffarquhar or he just always gets to jump to the head of the line, only exceptions ever being pending express engines or some sort of Special Special Special Special (that isn’t his own), and the workmen? They've given up trying to have the least say in it generations ago. “Back in the old days” they would have been in charge of maintaining this order, but it’s gotten completely beyond their ability to comprehend, and besides, they just don’t make ‘em as tough and stern as they used to, so now the engines sort it all out themselves. And while it’s possible to catch up engines whose ways were a little different, Harvey was completely lost and nobody could get him up to speed. Several different times, instead of trying, the offended parties just bitched at him. Harvey went through a phase of avoiding washdown completely, which only lead to getting written up.

This was a problem because, as said, by 1990 a significant portion of the railway board seemed to think the best course of action would be to send Harvey away. Him going around grubby and reluctant to pipe up did not help matters.

Finally… Percy Took Charge.

First, with the other engines. One day he just ran out of patience and flipped out on every single engine at Tidmouth, calling them out on what classist twats they actually were, had always been, had been to Percy for the past sixty years, and goddamn it he was not going to let them spend another generation putting down another useful engine just because he didn’t keep his pinkie out when he drank tea, FUCK Y’ALL. (This is paraphrased. I am taking this liberty, however: Percy was so pissed off that he had lost the powers of speech at different points in his rant and so a good bit of it was composed of angry whistling, hissing, clanking, and wheeshing that is incomprehensible to us humans. However, in engine language these sounds are all enormously eloquent.)

The paint fairly blistered off of them, the engines took this dressing-down with surprising mildness, a few even apologized to Percy privately for past slights, and, while of course it was impossible to unprogram themselves overnight, they made a conscious effort to be more considerate. After this, Harvey no longer felt like every day he was rolling into a social minefield.

In addition to Percy’s fury, the railway board’s indifference may have also helped Harvey’s integration into the N.W. family. Because by 1990 it seemed they were seriously considering “passing” on Harvey, even with the Fat Controller and other directors making it crystal clear what sorts of dark or dreary fates would probably await him. And, once the engines were filled in on this, they were most indignant. Even without having been schooled by Percy, they undoubtedly would have been on Harvey’s side. They were not okay with the idea that an engine (ESPECIALLY a steam engine!) could do good work for them for six years only to be sent away into the hostile world again. Sure, in the 1920s that sort of thing happened all the time, but now it was a chancy time to even be a steam engine, and the N.W. engines all knew it.

Besides, no one had “ol’ hook on wheels” ahead of “the foreign shareholders” on their shitlist.

Still, they were rather stumped on what to do. FC3 was already on their side, but there was a powerful faction on the board that he could not be guaranteed to shut down. And the last time they had sent a deputation to their “branding” board members, the board had formally voted to put it down the engines’ forwardness as a mark on FC3’s management.

So… Percy Took Charge, Again.

Knowing he was perfectly safe, he took a spill off the rails right within sight of the station where directors were disembarking for a board meeting, knowing Harvey would be dispatched to the scene.

Harvey was internally freaking out because his role is not supposed to be picking engines off the track and Percy you dumbass you didn’t.

However, Percy is a nice small thing, and Harvey was indeed just able to manage it. This rescue, right in the sight of a good portion of the railway board, did indeed do a great deal to lift Harvey’s reputation among them. This saved him from being “sent away” for some time.

But he wasn’t officially bought by the railway until much later in the decade when, with the issue still unresolved, the Famous Eight (well, actually minus Duck, who had some reservations about the propriety of this thing) put their funnels together and used their fictional personae For The Greater Good.

(They actually did a lot of this in the ‘00s. Long story. Well, many stories.)

Anyway, they found an ally in none other than Britt Allcroft, who agreed to start petitioning for rights to use Harvey in the TVS.

That changed the politics of the situation in a hurry.

In the end, the engines actually wrote most of “Harvey to the Rescue” themselves. It’s moralistic and preachy coz they wanted it to be a morality tale, both for children (they’d already had a good deal of practice in that sort of thing)… and for the railway board (they were sharpening their knives, y’all).

The young cleaners at Tidmouth—all teenagers—were drafted to transcribe their ideas. It wasn’t easy to parse what everyone was calling out and fussing among themselves over, but the cleaners had a ball. (They also teased Thomas greatly when everyone worked out Thomas’s “public-face” lines, reminding him how he would word this sort of thing when there were no kids around who might overhear!)

Percy was absent for the collaborative writing session. And he was pretty hacked off about his portrayal. (I’m afraid the others were pretty amused by their own cheek in the cutscene to Percy just getting shoved around and losing control of his trucks. “As usual… just another bloody Tuesday amirite…”)

Percy was on board for the engines’ rather savage detail that the railway board should be represented by half-a-dozen identical suit’d figurines. This idea was retained by David Mitton’s people with only minor adjustments:

Memetic.

The Sodor Gazette, about the only organ in the universe that had previously been terribly fussed over the camera-avoidant new N.W.R. boardmembers, was delighted. They now run that still as their photo whenever they report on railway developments that the venerable old newspaper is against.

The board was, as a whole, very displeased to be represented in the show, to have been preached to about how Special it is to be Different by the show, and to discover that this episode contained a writer credit for their own engines, whose writing endeavors they immediately banned from the show.

The engines have continued to pitch and draft ideas for TVS, albeit they never again were credited. (Even after the board was brought to heel, the show was no longer held in high enough esteem that the engines were that keen on taking the blame for some of the big-picture executive decisions. Instead any engines involved were simply “railway consultants.”)

However, despite the fury of some members of the board, there were quite a lot who now felt that there was plenty of rather public reason to onboard Harvey properly. So the purchase was at last completed, Harvey given an N.W.R. number, and there was no longer any thought that he would be sent away. Au contraire, he had a very good run of invitations to promo events by Gullane and HiT!

All this drama is now a couple decades old. Albeit it’s been a long and rocky road, Harvey is now quite happily settled on Sodor. He has been transferred to Vicarstown, where his crane comes in very handy when there are mishaps in the loading or unloading of car ferries, and he enjoys the rather undramatic company of engines such as Rosie, Murdoch, Neville, Molly, Sidney, and Whiff, who live there with him, and Arthur, who is often in and out with goods or passengers from Norramby. However, he is often drafted in to help when Tidmouth or any of the other harbors are facing a particularly busy spell, and he is perfectly content to be sent anywhere, for he’s quite one of the family now.

Ignore that CGI episode where Bill and Ben were able to get inside Harvey’s smokebox. It didn’t quite happen that way. They were pretty brash with their teasing during the one time Harvey was sent to cover for the Brendam shunter. Harvey is a pretty passive, easygoing guy, but he put a stop to that by 'accidentally' picking up Ben and swinging him about. (Accidentally! He swears it was accidentally! ... and it's Harvey, so who knows? Maybe it's even true. Maybe.) The trucks and the boats and basically everyone on site still haven’t let the twins live it down.

Also, yes, Harvey was well forkin’ aware that he could pull a damn train by that point. He didn’t need another well-meaning engine to tell him that. By God. Albeit his first venture onto the main line did basically go down the way it does in "Gone Fishing."

#ttte #thomas the tank engine #this is ttte #chatter #ttte harvey #recs #many characters #ttte percy #ttte murdoch #ttte thomas #ttte arthur #ttte emily #ttte molly #ttte bill and ben #ttte bill

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st-louis · 3 years

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with the season fast approaching and development camp at a close, i was just thinking about the flyers’ upcoming season and how excited i am to see the baby flyers get a chance to play. some of them may be cracking the nhl lineup, some of them may be playing in the ahl if that loophole exemption for juniors players who played last year holds, and some of them might get a chance to prove it in european leagues or in juniors. we don’t necessarily have any game breaking talent waiting in the wings, but we do have a bunch of guys with good hockey sense and bad skating, and really fun personalities!

this isn’t a full rundown of all of our prospects in the least (like i’m excited for samu tuomaala but idk much about him yet and it’s doubtful he’s gonna play in the ahl next year) but here are a few i’m most excited to see in action during the upcoming season. they also all seem like they’re friends who legit enjoy hanging out with each other, i’m sure you have all seen the pictures of them wearing dresses and skirts at the golf course. and what more could you want from team tbh.

like how fuckin’ cute is that, man.

TYSON FOERSTER - C/RW - 23RD OVERALL 2020 6′ 2″, 194 lbs

tyson describes himself as a “shoot first player with a strong playmaking ability” and that is an accurate assessment of his game. he had 36 goals in his second season with the barrie colts, and he’s got a wicked shot--and the most exciting thing about that is that he’s got a variety of shots that are good. a one-timer, a wrister, a slapshot: he’s got ‘em all. and he’s got good hockey sense. in 24 games played in lehigh valley, he had 10 goals, 7 assists, and 16 PIM. the main concern about tyson is his skating, which is unfortunately kind of a theme with the flyers and the flyers prospects in general. he’s improved a lot since his draft year but it’s still a concern. his season ended a little early due to breaking his tibia.

tyson grew up working on his grandparents’ sheep farm during the summer and i just love that. his personality also is very flyers, as evidenced by this quote from his grandma: “the bales were pretty heavy for him, and it was really, really hot and sunny and I remember him crying his eyes out as he was working away. he was so hot and so tired, but he didn’t want to quit.”

as with most guys who went through juniors, tyson is friends with a lot of other prospects. he spent most of this summer hanging out with the kings’ quinton byfield and the other flyers’ prospects, including zayde wisdom and wade allison. he enjoys posting pictures of himself with fish and working out shirtless.

he’s literally always smiling and he’s very cute on the ice.

more on tyson and zayde wisdom below.

ZAYDE WISDOM - RW - 94TH OVERALL 2020 5′ 10″, 201 lbs

it’s incredibly hard not to root for zayde wisdom. first of all, look at that smile. that’s a screenshot from a game last season where he scored two goals for the second game in a row. from the beginning of his life, he’s been working so fucking hard to prove people wrong, and i truly cannot wait to see him do it in the big leagues. people really knocked on him for his juniors numbers because he was playing on a line with shane wright, but to be honest, if you can’t keep up with the really good players that says a lot about you. and zayde can more than keep up.

i’m sure most of you have read stories about zayde’s early life and to be honest a lot of them leave a bad taste in my mouth because they read very inspiration porn-y. his family grew up without a lot, his mother sacrificed her own time and energy, including working three jobs, so that her boys could have what they needed and so they could play hockey. literally look at how cute:

he’s just a good kid who says stuff like:

“i kind of used it as motivation, and still do . . . it gives me an extra boost that most kids don’t experience. i had to grow up a lot younger than most kids my age. i had to take care of my little brother. i had to make sure my mom was OK, even though she was making sure we were always OK. it was definitely an experience that made me grow up a lot faster and gave me maturity that helped me out a ton.”

in 28 games played, he scored 7 goals, had 11 assists, and 33 PIM. he was a +6. he missed a bunch of games last season towards the end of it and i suspect he is one of the phantoms’ players who got covid, which is very disappointing. he participated in some of the team canada showcase games but he is currently sidelined indefinitely after getting surgery on a shoulder injury which absolutely sucks. he’s just a really fun player to watch. he’s got a very good hockey sense, he’s fearless, he plays so much bigger than he is.

wayne simmonds gives him hockey and girl advice. literally what more could you ask for. i truly believe he’s gonna be a longtime fan favorite here.

brent flahr, the flyers’ agm, on zayde: “he’s a kid who loves to play the game. he’s got an edge — obviously, he’s a power forward — not the tallest guy, but he’s a tank. he likes the physical part of the game and gets his nose dirty. so he’ll be a fan favorite wherever he plays. that’s for sure.”

additionally, tyson foerster and zayde wisdom are childhood friends who became childhood rivals who then became best friends and are roommates while playing in lehigh:

Prior to suiting up in the OHL’s Eastern Conference, Foerster and Wisdom were familiar with each’s playing style, having played together in the spring when they were young. Having faced off on opposite ends of the ice over the past two seasons, their friendship turned to a friendly rivalry.

“It’s definitely a love/hate relationship on the ice. We definitely get into the game and our emotions definitely get mixed up,” he said of his fellow Flyers prospect. “Off the ice, nothing but love for the guy. I think he’s a great hockey player and I think he can take this far.”

Foerster’s breakout sophomore season saw an 80-point, 36-goal production atop the Colts’ scoring race while Wisdom put up 59 points over his 62-game campaign. Coming off impressive performances with a mutual respect for each other’s talent, both players are looking forward to continuing the hard work together.

“It’s pretty cool because we’re pretty close. I’m excited to go down there and share it with him,” said Foerster.

“I’m excited for him for sure,” said Wisdom of his potential future teammate. “It’s going to be tough at camp.”

their friendship is adorable, look at them on the fucking BENCH:

anyway, onward.

WADE ALLISON - RW - 52ND OVERALL 2016 6′ 2″, 205 lbs

wade grew up in a very small town in manitoba (a very small town, “30 people, 29 now that i’m gone . . . might even be 27 now that my grandparents moved out.”) he’s always been divisive; he’s got the shooting ability, offensive instincts, and energy, but his skating (hoo boy) and hockey sense were concerns. even according to wade, he only has one speed. then he started getting hurt. he suffered multiple injuries at western michigan in his first season and then tore his acl in his second season. flyers fans, always known for their moderation and even keels, lost their shit.

anyway he’s finally healthy and played with both the phantoms and the flyers last year. with the phantoms he played 8 games, 4 goals, 5 assists, and 2 PIM. with the flyers, he played 13 games and had 4 goals, 1 assist, and 4 PIM. and you know what? he’s a really fun player to watch! he’s energetic, he gives it 110% every shift, and he can actually shoot.

he’s fun to watch with his teammates, too. he seems like he’s got a pretty goofy, laidback personality that fits in well. this clip of him and zayde in the box together was one of my favorite phantoms moments from last year.

he’s very funny on the bench: here, here, here, here.

here’s wade and zayde hanging out on wade’s insta:

anyway, on to some defensemen.

EGOR ZAMULA - LHD - UNDRAFTED 6′ 3″, 177 lbs

i love egor zamula’s personality so much that i made an entire moodboard for him. how can you not love this kid:

he’s this tall, skinny as fuck russian guy, undrafted, came in and earned his contract, wowed everyone at 2020 wjc, and has basically played solid as hell for the phantoms last year. seems like his teammates have nicknamed him z.

i am also pretty sure i saw instagram stories of him walking his cat but i forgot to save them but regardless that tells you everything to know about my absolute favorite flyers’ defense prospect.

in 25 games with the phantoms, he had no goals, 6 assists, 8 PIM and was a +1. he didn't get on the scoreboard with the flyers, but he was a +1 in two games played. he’s on the smaller side (or skinnier side, anyway) but he plays with confidence bordering on cockiness and a lot of physicality.

egor on his first nhl game: “i tried working hard every shift and playing fast . . . i will work hard in practice to play. this is the best level.”

CAMERON YORK - LHD - 14TH OVERALL 2019 5′ 11″, 186 lbs

that 186 is self-reported because most places still have him listed at 175.

a lot of flyers fans were upset we drafted him because the very next pick was cole caufield. i also think that maybe this was a mistake, but they needed a defenseman and cam york projects to be a very solid defenseman. he’s not flash but he’s a smooth skater and he’s got good hockey sense and he’s got the proven leadership (he captained the gold medal winning american wjc team in 2021 (playing alongside cole caufield and another flyers prospect, bobby brink).

like many of the flyers’ prospects he is very into posting pictures of himself working out on instagram.

i was weirdly charmed by his mic’d up (it was the “i’m gonna cross check you” repeatedly that really did it for me, but also “i felt like mcdavid out there” and saying he felt great and then “mama i can’t breathe.”)

brent flahr on cam: “but he’s coming in here to win a job. i don’t know if you’ve talked to him. he’s quiet, but he’s a quietly confident kid. he’s really focused, really driven to play — and play now. my guess is that he’s going to put his best foot forward and show the coaches that he’s ready.”

#flyers #tyson foerster #zayde wisdom #wade allison #egor zamula #cam york #i left off like. morgan frost because even though he's technically a prospect we all know him #and i think he'll probably make the big team this year #technically i could have left wade off as well since i also think he's a lock for a roster spot but he's just so fun #flyers prospects #a.primer #tyson and zayde

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hottestthingalive · 3 years

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I figured out how the punnet squares could work.

First of all we have to assume the Fox Gene is recessive, and both Human and Smart Fridge are dominant over Fox. So then Wilbur gets a dominant Human (ish) gene from Philza who is pure HH human. And a Fox gene from the smart fridge (the smart fridges genes being Ff (F=fridge) (f=fox) making Wilburs genetics Hf (H=human) (f=fox).

Then we also have to assume the Salmon Gene is dominant over Fox as well, and Sally had a fox somewhere in her family tree and she is Sf (S=salmon) (f=fox)

This allows a 1/4 chance of the recessive fox genes for Wilbur and Sally combining to make Fundy (ff)

ok see that’s what i was thinking originally too EXCEPT punnett squares are for trait inheritance, not for species.

with crossbreeding species, it produces stuff like ligers or mules or camas. usually, these animals are often sterile, so it’s difficult to know how the species traits exactly translate, but we know from domestic dog and cat breeding that things can start to get a bit strange. punnett squares are especially difficult for species because sometimes mixing of traits will form a new trait: white and red flowers, for example, represented in this example by RR and ww alleles respectively, could create, instead of a red flower, a mixed gene that makes them pink in something called incomplete dominance. that’s why you’ll get mules and whatnot: the traits of the species mix or combine instead of the species itself being dominant or recessive. dsmp biology is pretty janky, but we have to assume some commonalities, and so that’s where things get tricky.

the difficulty here is that phil, and therefore wilbur’s, biology is questionable. that was why i could make my fridge headcanon in the first place: we could reasonably assume that, through whatever quirk of genetics causes phil’s strange semi-god traits and lack of aging, both of them ended up with a wonky circulation system or some magic bullshittery to make their body temperatures wonky. even without headcanons in play, just based on canon:

-phil had wings before he joined the server

-phil does not age or die of old age but naturally has only one life, which wilbur did not inherit

-phil’s definitely been affected by magic. even if we consider magic unknown science that hasn’t been cracked yet, that messes with things too

-wilbur has been confirmed multiple times to be phil’s biological son.

-wilbur has also said that the fridge parentage was canon, and although i don’t doubt he did that just to fuck with people, we have to take that into account.

-fundy’s age is dubious, and it’s hard to know how he ages or if he does so according to canon time because of mixed reports, but wilbur says he is wilbur’s biological son. this strange aging could be because of fundy being affected by phil’s wonky genetics, but we don’t know.

-sally the salmon is also dubious, as she is/was kept in a bucket and is called a salmon often, but also was apparently cross-eyed and an accountant, with her favorite color being brown (according to the wiki). she also divorced wilbur for unknown reasons, which means she was probably smarter than the average fish (i’m joking about the divorce bit, but the rest of it still applies). we can guess that sally is in some way like michael, steve, endermen, or yogurt; mobs that seem to have gained and/or been assigned by the ccs some higher level of sentience, although that’s a factor we have to consider with a grain of salt. we have to assume from canon alone that sally was a literal salmon and not some form of shapeshifter, like she is often headcanoned as, but is also a salmon that somehow attained higher brain functions than average.

-the fridge is also confusing, as fundy has claimed to have met them (i’m aware the fridge has been referred to as grandma and mother by ccs but i will use gender neutral pronouns for them until further notice) and we have to think that said fridge has some form of sentience to hook up with phil. or, well, hope they did, at least.

so with all that in account, here’s where things go downhill:

i said earlier that species cannot be graphed on a punnett square. we can use the hybrid animals as an example again to explain why.

when hybrid animals are bred, it is from two different species that have compatible enough genetics to still create offspring. however, when they are bred, it is rare that their traits act within the bounds of the regular punnett square; usually, hybrids will have incomplete dominance. and though hybrid animals are only rarely able to have offspring (as their mixed cells usually render them infertile) the few fertile mules we’ve seen have children tend to have strange genetic mixes of traits from mules, donkeys, or horses. from my understanding of hybridization (which could be wrong, as this is from a biology class i took years ago and brief research done just now, so science tumblr feel free to correct me) hybrid traits are not nearly as simple as R or w or Rw, like we saw in the flower example. hybrid animals’ genetics can not only demonstrate incomplete dominance-created trait mixes, but can display entirely new traits caused by the blend in species, which makes things very, very complicated.

which means that fundy’s (and wilbur’s, for that matter) genetics can’t easily graphed on a punnett square. the fact that wilbur, a hybrid, even managed to have fundy is shocking, as we know wilbur is also a hybrid. we know this because wilbur is phil’s son but does not have wings or only one canon life, and (according to the wiki) may not have entirely human traits either (the wiki talks about it being implied that his blood was blue even before ghostbur, although we once again have to take that with a grain of salt). wilbur also had three lives instead of one, something we have to assume is inherited from the fridge. we can’t explain any of that away by assuming that phil’s genetics are non-inheritable either, or that they’re caused by magic and not biology, because the cc has confirmed that c!phil does not know why he has not died or aged, which makes him being cursed or blessed or anything like that unlikely.

the fridge and sally both appear to be members of their individual species with merely a higher level of intelligence than normal: therefore, we cannot assume that either are hybrids. fundy, meanwhile, is an anthropomorphic fox, and clearly is hybridized. although he has fox features, fundy can walk like humans, must logically have some sort of opposable thumb feature since he can make potions, wield weapons, and create machinery, and has different internal systems to foxes. although minecraft foxes can actually consume any food besides cake, (which fundy can consume, so their digestive systems are also evidently somewhat different) foxes (in minecraft or otherwise) do not have the capacity for human speech, because even if they could learn the language, because of differences in body structure it is difficult for most animals to create human sounds. fundy is not fully a fox; he is a mix of fox traits, human traits, and possibly traits relating to sally, although we do not know if that is true.

basically what i’m saying, anon, (and again anyone with a better grasp of biology should feel free to correct me) is that wilbur and fundy are essentially genetic nightmares. even if wilbur or sally was part fox, the odds of fundy displaying only those traits is infinitesimal, AND it raises questions about wilbur and sally’s own biology. the biology of the minecraft/soot/dy family is preternatural and keeps me up at night tying string to pins and sticking them in a conspiracist’s corkboard.

#dsmp wilbur #dsmp philza #dsmp fundy #dsmp sally #you all should know that i wrote this while preparing for a funeral #it’s not relevant just thematically appropriate #asks #anon

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infinitelytheheartexpands · 4 years

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Les Huguenots (Grand Théâtre de Genève, 2020): Reactions, Part I

Given that my current Act of Hubris Involving Video Editing is putting English subtitles on this production, I guess now is a good of a time as ever to finally officially liveblog it.

@monotonous-minutia you have seen this and @sweatershowgirl and @tatyana-dreaming you have not but all three of you are interested in this Act of Hubris, so...here you go! (there are spoilers in this liveblog)

Night of the Living Dead

well now they’re just Dead (except for a couple of principals. also spoiler alert these people keep coming back occasionally. don’t ask me. I was not one of the codirectors so idk)

“this production is sponsored by Adidas”

that one dude in the back obviously did not get the color memo

that or the costume department ran out of white/off-white shirts

JOHN!!!!!!! *heart eyes forever*

FANTASTIC chair setup

Nevers and Raoul are such a BROTP

spotlight’s on you buddy

also this viola d’amore solo is SO PRETTY

how is it that John Osborn is able to turn anything his voice touches into gold

also, UNBELIEVABLY PRECIOUS CHILD

It is a lovely morning in Touraine and you are a Bass Emerging From The Bog (not actually but...yeah) About To Crash A Party

“no, I already told you I needed twenty stuffed-crust pizzas from Medici’s for the Renaissance Faire!”

(I’m only half-kidding, as this is apparently supposed to be Catherine de Medici. yes, this production is weird. yes, it somehow works in the end. also it’s the most musically complete one on film)

you’re going to regret giving Marcel the megaphone

see? Marcel is just Ultimate Chaotic Energy

anyway this aria BOPS and Michele Pertusi is (as always) amazing

the valet (at right): “I do not get paid enough to deal with this shit”

RWS is so pretty *heart eyes*

@rayatii work your meme magic on this I know you can

also I guess this is supposed to be a farewell kiss or something?

also also I love how all the chorus people just start clapping

also also also I am the newspaper dude that is Such A Mood

Raoul please stop jumping to conclusions so quickly (although I will acknowledge that the kiss doesn’t really stem from canon)

tfw your fiancée breaks up with you the day before your wedding

Alexandre Duhamel is me jamming out to this chorus

*dies of Adorable Mezzo*

also: I don’t care that (according to behind-the-scenes video) Urbain is technically played as a woman in this production; I will proudly continue to say that this Urbain is wonderfully genderfluid because that was the Vibe I got

SASS HIM

ABSOLUTELY GLORIOUS

tfw you’re asked to go blindfolded to a Secret Rendezvous

he’s so freaking adorable I can’t

their energy

when you’re the new royal protégé but have no idea

magic movie makeover

off into the Great Unknown (better known as Act II)

we love the Old Hollywood Vibe

CAN I HAVE THIS OUTFIT IMMEDIATELY PLEASE AND THANK YOU

we stan both onstage instrumentalists and dancing sopranos

there’s just something about her and her voice that makes her one of my top 3 people I’ve ever seen or heard in this role

(her name is Ana Durlovski; the 2 others are singers you’ve likely heard of-- Lisette Oropesa and Joan Sutherland, with Erin Morley and Marlis Petersen not far behind)

I aspire to have her confidence and flair

everyone is Bopping feat. Costume Porn

also: sometimes the ideal Friend Group/Professional Network is a bunch of strong, confident, talented women, a strong, confident, talented, genderfluid director’s assistant, and one (1) Kindly Elderly Gay flutist (not pictured)

Léa Desandre and Anyone brings out wonderful energy

Urbain: “ma’am you are great at what you do but we are on a schedule and that schedule does not include you coloratura-ing”

we have no choice but to stan a QUEEN

Urbain: “really? the PUMPKIN PANTS?”

VALENTINE!!!!!!!!! *heart eyes forever for my favorite character in this opera*

stop being so perfect please I am begging you

Marguérite just checking in to make sure Valentine is okay is like *heart eyes forever for my SISTP. also I kinda ship them*

picture-perfect

WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT BEING SO PERFECT

“now we are going to call your douchebag of a father whom I have to act like I don’t despise so I can persuade him by hook or by crook to let you marry your dream guy”

aka Girls Supporting Girls

this aria should be done every time and LÉA YOU ARE KILLING ME HERE

ooh... (the ladies are INVESTED)

I would like to thank the directors for making this happen

poor Valentine :(

Protect The Clueless Baby

Blinded By Spotlight, Round 2

iconic duo

twice the cadenza, twice the awesome

Raoul: I gotta admit that I’m a bit horny

Marguérite: okay maybe I am a little too BUT I am a good best friend so I’m not gonna do anything with you

Directors: *decide to end this duet with them making out*

Me: >:(

(John Osborn and Ana Durlovski though? LOVE THEM together)

Marguérite: oh shit I am officially regretting the last thirty seconds

also, tfw you walk in on your boss/crush/girl you just kissed making out with someone else you’ve barely met #awkward

CHILD

Urbain: well, you’re a person who...exists

“are you gonna get that?”

“no, are you?”

aka, the Nevers and Urbain Beef continues

someone’s on the phone please be quiet

also, something that happened a bit later but I couldn’t get into a screencap: Nevers has a very firm handshake while Saint-Bris has one like a limp fish