#getting an accurate photo of this is impossible

[buboplague]

18x24 painting

[augustheart]

ebird’s apps drive me up the wall

[quiltingwitch]

An Exploration of Large Scale Foundation Paper Piece Quilt Designing

Aka

Cozy Swords So Big

I made this quilt for a sword enthusiast, I’m sure they would clock inaccurate sword proportions right away. It was important to me that the (non magical) swords be as proportionally accurate as possible. I based each blade to hilt ratio directly on historical or famous prop references (can you spot them?) and designed them to be life sized.

A very sweet boy’s tail for scale against an early pattern draft

The most challenging part of constructing this quilt was working on the RIDICULOUSLY long blades. Typically individual pieces of an FPP pattern are small and easily maneuvered. My largest blade pattern pieces were about 45 inches long, a design decision I would never inflict on anybody but myself.

The smallest blade- the only one I took photos of because the rest were way too overwhelming to document. The largest pieces were triple the length of this.

Designing the blades to be contained in a single piece of each pattern maximized precision in the parts of the designs that I really really wanted to be smooth and sleek.

The long blades were very hard to construct, it’s easy to end up with bubbled fabric on FPP pattern pieces so large. Glue stick and spray starch were critical here.

My only totally impossible sword was designed in a more traditional fpp kind of way, broken into many small pattern pieces. There was a lot more room for error in seam matching, so this block took me much longer to complete than any of the others. I redid quite a few seams to get as close as I could to perfect.

Overall I loved how these large scale FPP designs turned out. I think the result was worth the hassle of working with my comically large pattern pieces.

[henrioo]

°•*⁀➷ MINE TO SHARE: SHANKS (+???)

꒰ SYNOPSIS ꒱ : "You were Shanks's the moment he laid his eyes on you. But sometimes he needs to remind you that you being his means he can do whatever he wants with you."

꒰ WARNINGS ꒱ : AMAB! READER, CIS MALE! READER, MALE READER! SMUT! MLM, HOMO SEX (I laugh at this) GAY SEX (laugh again), DUB-CON, NON-CONSENSUAL EXHIBITIONISM (Shanks shows the reader sexy photos without him knowing, the reader is watched during sex without being asked) in this story the reader LIKES all the things that are did with him, even the exhibitionism, if you have any trauma or trigger with that don't read. ASSHOLE BOSS (NOT SHANKS) just a mention of a former idiotic boss, hidden romantic relationships, unlabeled relationship, relationship between boss and employee

꒰ CONTAINS ꒱ : Shanks is mean and soft at the same time but probably more mean, Benn and all of Shanks' friends know you two are fucking, you might want to fuck his friends too, office sex, risk of getting caught, getting caught, makeshift handcuffs and a lot of dirty talk.

꒰ WC ꒱ : 2,3k

꒰ NOTES ꒱ : lol o only notice how much warnings I always put, I just want to put everything that can make someone uncomfortable because I hate read a fic when they don't put warning in something and that's get me triggered. Okay so, PLEASE IF YOU ARE A WOMEN DON'T REALLY READ THIS, IT'S NOT ONLY INTERACT DON'T READ, IF I SEE ANY FEM BLOG IN THIS STORY I GONNA BLOCK YOU AND IM SERIOUS

You didn't remember exactly how you got there. Sitting on your boss's lap with his dick so deep in your ass you could feel it reaching your throat. Shanks' hands grabbed your ass hard, squeezing and slapping so hard that made you jump in fright. He used all his strength and the advantage of his size to guide you bouncing on his huge cock, your legs were already wobbly and shaking so all you could do was accept him using you like a toy and fucking you nonstop.

Every time Shanks fucked you he had a different rhythm, which was always decided by his mood that day. Today you weren't sure what the redhead's mood was, but he fucked you with deep and strong thrusts that made you roll your eyes and tremble with each blow, he hit your prostate so accurately and filled your insides so perfectly that you genuinely wondered how you was able to cumming with other partners before Shanks. It seemed impossible for someone to be able to give you pleasure like him.

Of course you were also a mess, thanks to that, you had your head thrown back moaning his name or resting on his shoulder or forehead, moaning breathlessly and begging softly for more. Your hands were dug into his shoulder, scratching so hard that even without big nails you knew there would be marks left for a few days, your head was already hurting and there was a little drool running down the corner of your lips... You looked pathetic, but in the end you liked being humiliated and Shanks liked humiliating you, it was the perfect combination.

You had only entered Shanks' office to give him some reports for the week, he was in his chair with his back to the door facing the huge glass wall that gave him a view of the entire city, advantages of being extremely rich and being able to work on the highest floor of one of the tallest buildings in the city. He was strangely silent and all he asked of you was to come over and deliver the reports... Of course, most of his visits to Shanks' office didn't just end with a conversation between boss and employee.

The truth is that your relationship with the redhead has always been… complicated. It all started when you saw him in person for the first time at a meeting between several city executives disguised as a gala party, at that time you were just an apprentice following your boss and his main secretary like a scared puppy. Your boss was terrible and liked to torture all his employees with the excuse of being an iron training that only the best went through, but he hid this from the spotlight and loved to brag as a boss that no job would leave, taking pride in his loyalty of each of its employees.

Shanks, as always, was a brat at these parties, his social reputation was one of the worst but everyone pretended not to know given how incredible his business empire was, even though he was known for scandals and even visits to countless police stations, the redhead was treated like an angel by everyone the other businessmen who pretended not to know anything about his antics. For some reason you caught his attention, throughout the party where you basically served as a personal waiter for your boss, you felt Shanks staring at you with a predatory gaze ready to grab his prey and run away.

You were still very insecure at that time, you had just left college and your career wasn't going exactly as you planned, maybe that's why you avoided his gaze so much at the beginning. When your boss and Shanks finally spoke, the redhead made no attempt to hide that he was paying attention solely to you and not the ugly old man who was desperate for a business deal. This obviously infuriated his boss who spilled wine on his clothes claiming to have been an oversight. When you kindly excused yourself to go to the bathroom to resolve the situation your boss's secretary simply whispered that you didn't need to go back to the party, when you looked at him confused he just rolled his eyes and said gruffly “you're out”.

This made you swallow deeply and run to the bathroom, you already had a terrible job even if it was in a renowned place and now you had been fired for attracting the attention of a billionaire who you never even dreamed of being in the same room with?! All you could do was rub your wine-stained shirt as you cried and cursed to the tenth generation of your stupid boss and anyone who worked for him. While you were lost in your own world you were unable to notice Shanks entering the bathroom and looking at you with concern.

That night many things happened, you were fired, humiliated, you received a job offer from Shanks who had one of the most successful industries in the country and you also received a small hope that your professional future could work out. The months went by and at some point you and Shanks were already in this arrangement, you weren't even close to being boyfriends, even though he had never had another partner and even though he had never forbidden you from having one, he hated seeing you with anyone else other than him. Your friends joked that Shanks was your sugar daddy since he always gave you money and gifts, but since he never asked for anything in return, not even sex, it didn't seem like the label for you either.

You were something, besides of course friends, but you weren't very determined to find out. You were afraid of falling in love only to find out that Shanks only saw you as a fuck buddy or worse, finding out that Shanks was in love and you only saw him as a fuck buddy! You had sleepless nights thinking about it but little by little you simply gave up making everything difficult. You loved fucking Shanks and Shanks loved fucking you, there was no reason to try to put feelings in or out of this arrangement, as long as it worked for both of you then it was perfect.

Shanks continued fucking you while you faced the office door with your head resting on his shoulder, you lowered your claws to his arm and continued holding him as if you were going to die without his support. He whispered praises and curses every time you leaned into his lap and made his cock all the way inside you, your own cock was twitching on your stomach, your pants were thrown somewhere and your white shirt was open so at least you wouldn't get your clothes dirty. You needed to come so badly, but Shanks' slow pace didn't give you enough stimulation, if he just let you masturbate you could have gotten there, but he liked torturing you.

“Shanks! Please! I! Oh! Shit!" You moaned choppy, disjointed words as you tried to increase your speed, but Shanks' strong hands kept you right where he wanted you.

“Huh? I didn't hear you boy, say it again” He said breathlessly and gave a light bite to your exposed neck “Say how you want my dick to make you see stars, say how you want to be my good boy and cum so much you'll get dirty both of us, tell me” the redhead’s dirty talk always made your belly twitch and your dick leak more, you were losing control and he was loving taking advantage of it.

“Oh! Shanks! Please! I need… Fuck! Faster!" You moaned louder as you felt him slowly increasing his speed, you were ready to beg again when you heard some knocks on the door and Shanks' electronic warning ringing, alerting you that there was someone at the door wanting a meeting with him. “S-Shanks! Stop! There is somebody!"

You tried to get off of him and give him a few pats so he would get the hint and at least he would give you the chance to hide in the bathroom instead of getting caught by someone while fucking your boss. But Shanks didn't seem to care, he quickly turned the chair, turning towards the door and leaving you facing the glass wall, and instead of slowing down or even letting you go, he simply gave your ass a hard slap as he started thrusting into you like the world was ending. He was moving in and out so fast that you became unable to speak, only letting out desperate screams and moans at the sudden increase in stimulation.

“Shit… Don’t squeeze me so much boy… Come in! Come in quickly Benn, I'm kinda busy” He shouted the last part and you tried again to fight Shanks, only to receive an annoyed growl from him as he took off his own tie and used it to tie your wrists behind your back in a clumsy and quick way, but still firm enough for you to be unable to escape. “Stop running away you brat! You came here to get fucked in my office and now you don’t want anyone to see you?” He smiled mischievously when he saw your embarrassed face and the tears of humiliation that were about to fall.

"Stop!" You sniffled at him and hid your face in his neck, you heard the door opening and you knew that soon Benn, the vice CEO and someone who had as much power as Shanks, would be able to see you bouncing on the redhead's dick like a real whore.

"To stop? But I feel you clenching around my cock…” he chuckled at you and stroked your back gently “You're acting like you hate this… But I see how you look at my men, you perverted boy, I'm sure you'd love it getting fucked by all of us at the same time, right? After all, all that’s going on in that stupid little head of yours is being filled with cock in all your holes, right?” He laughed teasingly and when you just whimpered without responding he finally seemed to get angry, so he grabbed your penis tightly, squeezing its sensitive head. “I asked a fucking question.”

You just screamed, feeling the ecstasy overwhelm you to the point where your vision went black and you felt your whole body go limp, you had just cum in Shanks' hand just from his dirty words and tight grip on his sensitive and neglected dick. You fell against him crying and panting, your dick trembled as it continued to leak some more cum, Shanks simply laughed and stopped fucking you, letting you calm down slowly.

“Did you see that Benn? He simply came when I accused him of wanting to be fucked by all of us” Shanks laughed at that as if it were a joke and you almost forgot that the other man had entered the room, but now you could smell his cigarette and his malicious laugh.

“S-Shanks…” you begged whimpering as you tried to hide against his body, you had no idea what you were asking for, but it was clear that Shanks always knew you and your body much better than you knew yourself.

“Hmmm… I would even let it go this time, but you hid this beautiful spectacle of you cumming, didn’t you feel sorry for Benn? He came here and missed the entire show…” he said a little more gently as he rubbed his nose against your hair “Now I can’t just let you go and leave my friend empty handed… Besides, you didn’t even make me cum… No, No, you were really a bad boy…”

You no longer had the strength to argue or fight against the redhead, he quickly grabbed you and turned you around to face Benn. Now you were a complete and pathetic exposure, Shanks' cock was still thrusting deep into you, your own cock was a little soft, already extremely tired after having an intense orgasm, your abdomen was dirty with your cum and your entire body was dripping with sweat. You had a tired and cloudy look, a face that was drunk but kept begging for more and more.

Shanks smiled and grabbed your face with his hand, squeezing your cheek as he whispered in your ear “Open that mouth wide and stick your tongue out my boy… Give them a good look” you did as he said as he was squeezing her cheeks and forcing your mouth open. You hadn't understood what he was planning, your head too tired and confused to try and guess the man's plans.

It was only when you heard the click and flash of your cell phone that you realized, Benn was in front of you with his own cell phone and had just taken a picture of you practically naked being fucked on your boss's lap. The damage and scandals that a photo like that could cause made you feel sick, but luckily Benn's mischievous smile and his hard penis over his dress pants indicated that his goal wasn't to destroy your life.

“How was it?” Shanks asked the gray-haired man playfully.

“Perfect, you weren't lying when you said that his face when he cum was perfect… Huh, Hongo is going to love this…” He quickly placed his cell phone on Shanks' desk and approached you.

“Now… My brat” Shanks kissed your cheek and smiled against you making your whole body shiver “Why don’t I show you that you belong to me completely to the point where I can do whatever I want with you?” He offered with a smile, “And by ‘whatever you want’ I obviously mean sharing… After all, you’re a good pet and you’re not going to let Benn go so hard, are you?”

You didn't need to answer for the two older men to start smiling, everyone knew you never refused an order from Shanks.

[s-lycopersicum]

A while ago, I quickly wrote a post about the OKLCH Color Picker, and the neat insight it gives about digital colors.

Ever since, however, I have heard the confusion of many people as to where the holes in those graphs come from. And although I am far from an expert in these things, I thought we could do a small exploration of one of the principles behind it.

Also, if any actual experts spot any mistakes or misconceptions I fell pray to, feel free to leave a correction in the replies!

On any discussions of color vision and/or digital color spaces, you are likely to see the following image:

This is the notorious xy chromaticity diagram for the CIE 1931 color space, rendered here in glorious GIF format, as you may notice from the dithering in the gradients. It is an inaccurate representation, sure, but so are all of them.

This color space was designed to mathematically represent all color sensations that are visible to the average person. The diagram visualizes only the chromaticity of this space, that is, only the hue and saturation of the colors, which is what we are really interested in right now. However, the critical issue is: the colors the average display can show are just a small portion of the colors the average human can see.

The sRGB color space is what the average display uses to represent color, probably the default color space of the digital world. If we were to show only the colors sRGB can represent on that diagram, it would look something like this:

Hm. Not good, is it? Look at all the greens we're missing!

That's why we cannot display the accurate chromaticity diagram. The proportion of the colors your display can show is just that small when compared to the full gamut of human vision.

Okay, so how does that leave us with the holes on that colorpicker? Well, let's say I choose this blue color (#008EF7):

That's a nice, strong blue. Not too vivid, but also not muddy in any way. But I wish it was just a little bit greener. Some sort of "greenish blue" tone. Let's see what the color picker tells me:

Hm. The color I want is in the hole.

In this graph, the color picker is showing all the available combinations of hue and chroma that have the same lightness of the blue I initially chose. To get out of the hole, I can either bring the chroma slider down, which will make the color grayer and less intense, or I can tweak the hue slider to the sides, going fully towards green instead.

But to be clear, the color I want is not impossible, see. If we use some questionable math tricks, we can pinpoint where those two colors would fall in that CIE chromaticity diagram:

In there, we can see that the blue is right at the edge of what the average display can show, while the "greenish blue" I wanted is straight out. Again, this is a color that I can see, and could very well be trying to take a photo of out there somewhere, only to face the cruel constraints of sRGB.

[tenderlywicked]

i've been reading quite a few Doctor/Master fics lately (angsty, smutty, or both, mostly Tensimm and Saxteen), so it looks like I'm ready to start another rec list :)

NEW Ever-Fixed Mark by x_los

Summary:

"...there it is. Neat, looking fresh-drawn. It apparently came with the Master’s assumption of the body, with his transformation of the flesh into a shape that suited him. It is so deeply a part of the Master that any shell he occupies must bear its testament. Isn’t love grand."

False Start by Verayne

Summary:

After one of their confrontations goes too far and they regenerate at the same moment, turns out that getting hit with two blasts of regeneration sickness can have some interesting side effects. They know they're the Doctor and the Master, they're just... not entirely sure which one of them is which. (TenSimm AU)

Hurt by Verayne

Summary:

Something awful happens between them, sometimes. Bad timing, bad chemistry. Times when the Doctor's guilt grows rabid in his chest, black and vicious and masochistic, demanding answer. Times when the Master's gleeful sadism rises to meet it in force.

It's the worst of both of them.

NEW The Loop by Lis_zimoy

Summary:

The Master travels with the Doctor. AU after “Last of the Time Lords”.

The Master got up and went to look for another place in the TARDIS.

The Doctor's voice caught up with him on the threshold.

“Are you really not going to kill me?”

The Master stopped, turned to the Doctor and looked at him in surprise.

“What for? Doctor, we died and went to hell. Don't you notice?”

NEW The Love Island AU by imbackintime, Verayne

Summary:

A story told through DMs. No, literally. The authors were having a very innocent discussion about recent photos of lockdown!Ten and somehow it evolved into telling each other a fun story about domestic and dating ridiculousness between the Doctor, the Master, and a very long-suffering Donna...

Need by Lamiel

Summary:

It isn't about what they want.

new gods by sariane

Summary:

The line of salt had drawn new rules into the edges of the universe.

No Exit (Everybody Lives) by Bagheera

Summary:

"So. You'd spend eternity with me."

The Master shrugs again. "It's not eternity. We both know the universe is finite. Been there, done that, remember? Besides, you have an interesting mind."

Of Three Headed Dogs and Fridges by Roxanne_Police

Summary:

The Doctor's exploration of domestic bliss leads him to strange places, Donna has a busy day at work, the Master needs more butter and Shaun is confused.

Out Of His Sight ; Out Of His Mind by SilhouettedBowTie

Summary:

The Doctor, with the Master in tow, walk down a corridor of the afterlife.

'... [they] continued their trek further down into the impossible hallway- which the Doctor found to be quite fitting, really, since just about everything about his present situation was impossible. Now that he thought about it, almost all of the situations he found himself to be in throughout his entire life were those of the impossible sort.'

--

An AU inspired by the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

NEW A Polished Silver Link in the Chain by Zabbers

Summary:

The Doctor keeps Yana, or tries to. But of course, he fails.

Properly Indecent by lasersonicked (songoshen)

Summary:

"You were jealous," the Master says, holding the Doctor's gaze, unwavering and impassive. Not a question but a statement, clipped and sure.

Heat flashes in the Doctor's cheeks again, rushing to his ears and neck. "You were causing a scene," he deflects, finding it difficult to maintain eye contact with the Master, the other's amber stare as if piercing easily through him.

A slow, confident grin creeps up the Master's face. "I was not. I only danced."

---

Post-EoT AU. Tumbling into a broom closet isn't quite what the Doctor envisioned when he wheedled the Master into attending a ball in Victorian England, but he should've never underestimated the Master's propensity for trouble. (Or more accurately, the strength of his own jealousy.)

red like blood and just as sweet by thesecondbeatitude

Summary:

It’s never easy with the Master. It’s never as straightforward as a knife and a watermelon and a picnic blanket spread beneath a slowly burning sky.

to regret the past, to hope in the future, and never to be satisfied with the present by ProdigalPragmatist

Summary:

It’s a familiar feeling, the Doctor falling apart in his arms. The Master covets it each time he feels the degradation of his posture, the rattle of his breaths. He’s well used to being the only thing keeping the Doctor together — shoving the puzzle pieces of his fragile sense of self back with the edges frayed and overlapping. They both sacrifice parts of themselves in the process, but it’s never felt like a loss.

“Please,” the Doctor mouths against his throat.

The Master swallows tightly and yanks him away by the collar of his jacket. “I won’t be gentle,” he says, but they both know nothing else is possible between them. “I won’t stop,” he warns, but they both know neither of them want that.

The Confession Dial was unexpected. The Doctor's reaction to it flying through the TARDIS doors was not. He wanders the halls of the closest thing he has to home, and he falls into the brutal arms of the closest person he has to home. The person who is his home, built on a foundation of grief and thorns.

NEW Saxon and Jones by ellbie

Summary:

The Doctor has vanished, and according to whatever “Emergency Program One” is, he’s presumed dead. Not only does this leave the Master trapped aboard the TARDIS on some no-name planet, but he’s also stuck with his second-least-favorite doctor: Martha Jones.

The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords as told through Twitter dot com by AFunDuck, SilverTheArcher

Summary:

A reimagining of beloved Doctor Who episodes Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords where all the characters have Twitter accounts.

Stockholm Syndrome is Based on a Lie by NebbyAxolotl

Summary:

Lucy Saxon doesn't shoot the Master. Unfortunately, it's hard to get someone to let you save the man who ended the world when you're very in love and been tortured for a year by him.

OR

The Doctor saves the Master from U.N.I.T..

Theseus' Paradox by Lis_zimoy

Summary:

The Master did not die on a Mondasian colony ship. He meets the Fourteenth Doctor and they start playing.

"Do you know what I was thinking when I came to your room at the Academy? I was thinking about how lazy and sloppy you are. What a dump of things I've always found at your place. Scattered books. Bundles of wires. All the stuff you dragged out of the Dead Zone. Things filled the room like thoughts clogged your brain. There was chaos all around you. That's why you studied terribly. You couldn't concentrate. There were no windows in our lecture halls so that we would not be distracted. You looked at the bare walls as if there were windows."

The Doctor listened to him with bated breath, his face sharpened, his eyes were greedy. The shadows under his eyelashes are deep, like wells. Oh yes, he needs a break from running.

The Master nodded.

"Now you understand why you can't find dirt? You're just being sloppy."

He put his face down and spat on the floor.

"See," he said. "You missed a spot."

The Volatile Nature of Binary Stars by OneOfThoseThings

Summary:

A dark(er) AU in which the Master happens upon a mind-wiped Donna and gives her a little boost the rest of the way to full Time Lord status. Then they both return to the TARDIS and an unsuspecting Doctor.

Life aboard the TARDIS is suddenly much less lonely and much more hostile.

Spoiler: Unlike most fix-its, in this one Donna is Not pleased that she was abandoned and does Not magically just get over that.

To Wither by inckpot

Summary:

The Doctor and the Master attempt domesticity.

And you can also read my fics And Silence Afterwards (human AU, asexual Doctor, mostly angst with a bit of BDSM) and Vicious Games (non-con + not-things)  ��

[guavi]

I made Aziraphale’s waistcoat about two months ago and boy it was a journey

Rant about the process under cut!

First thing to do was pick a fabric. For the visible fabric on the front and collar, I knew I definitely wanted to use something piled. I also did not want to use a synthetic fabric, which would have been cheaper but miserable to wear. I settled on cotton velveteen which would be more comfortable, slightly cheaper and easier to work with than silk velvet, and generally less shiny than silk. I was able to order some beautiful cotton velveteen from someone local.

Unfortunately it was not even in the same ballpark as the color I needed. This was due to a combination of reasons including the lighting in the photos they had (they were online only and didn’t have a storefront I could walk into), piled fabric in general being nigh impossible to accurately photograph the color of, and probably also some variations between dye batches. This is why we buy swatches when we can, folks.

The fabric itself was absolutely lovely though. So. No biggie I’ll just dye this myself what could go wrong

The dark brown here is after the first dye; the scrap laying on top on the right is the original color; the beige coat underneath for color reference. Note that even the colors in this picture looked quite different from irl. I did dip a scrap in first to check the color, but because Dyeing Is Weird and also I made some mistakes the final dye did not end up the same. I can write several more paragraphs on why this probably happened. We’d be here for a while.

But maybe it’ll be fine right? The color’s not exact but not offensive, maybe I’ll just start sewing and it won’t bother me that much.

Here’s a bit of that process, where you can see the interior of the waistcoat with interlining and twill tape, following some 19th century construction techniques. Lots of tedious but relaxing hand sewing. (Also, real pockets!)

I chose broadcloth for the interlining rather than a more typical canvas, because I wanted a more soft and aged look rather than crisp and new.

(I made another mistake here using cotton twill tape straight off the roll, which shrunk later in the process. You can see this later in how the edges pucker a bit. Oops. Oh well.)

(I also have no other photos of this stage because I went into the hyperfocus zone and forgot about everything except the task in front of me)

Turns out I was not ok with the color. It bothered me a lot.

So I tried to bleach it a tad to lighten the color, but Bleaching Is Also Weird and doesn’t always give you back the same color but lighter.

I got back something extremely orange tones, which bothered me even more. Had a minor breakdown until reboot papped me and helped me talk through how to fix this.

This ended up going through another round of light bleaching, and two rounds of dyeing over with blue to cancel out the orange. Finally I got something I was happy with!

You can very clearly see the puckering here caused by the shrinking tape..thankfully a good steaming was able to get rid of the worst of it.

The color is also slightly uneven if you look very closely, because rounds of the dyeing/bleaching happened after it was sewn together rather than as fabric pieces. Oh well. I can chalk this up to an “aged” look.

Time to finish it off with some buttons and 19th century style hand-worked buttonholes! The buttons aren’t accurate but I just went for ones that were the right size and vibes.

Last step was to add the wear around the buttons, hem, and collar. I’m sure there’s some faster way to do this, but I did it with a pair of eyebrow tweezers to pluck out the pile and a bit of sandpaper to finish off.

And that’s it! For the waistcoat at least. I also made the outer coat, the bow tie, and the blue shirt because I couldn’t find one for purchase that fit me. I still need to make other things. But that’s for another time.

[pinkeoni]

So I lost the original draft, but I got an anon asking me what I thought rainbows represented in ST. My answer looked a little like this:

I put off answering this question because this is actually a rather tough question that I didn’t have a quick answer to and did have to do some thinking on.

I feel like it’s easy to say “Gay,” and yes this is part of it, but this answer might actually be reductive and innacurate to what is actually happening in the show.

I think when considering period-accurate clothing, you have to consider the context of that time period. Rainbows being on clothes in the 1980’s is a little different then say, rainbows on clothes in the 2020’s.

It is true that the rainbow pride flag did exist in the 80’s, and rainbow pride gear did exist, however this was pre-rainbow capitalism and before we had the overabundance of rainbow merchandising. Rainbows were a symbol of pride in the 80s, but it also existed well outside of that. Now, it’s almost impossible to find clothing with rainbows on it that isn’t associated with pride. (Or even if it’s not the manufacturer’s intention, that correlation will still be made.)

On the left is a bts photo of Robin Buckley, and on the right is Mindy Meeks from Scream VI. Both of these characters are lesbians, and both include clues in their costuming that point toward their sexualities. Robin has rainbow shapes and triangles on her shirt, while Mindy wear’s a shirt that says “Lavender Menace” on it and has a rainbow pride flag patch sewn onto her jacket.

Considering the personalities and context of these two characters is important when deciding their costumes. Robin is a closeted lesbian, living in a conservative small town in the 1980’s. Any indications towards her queerness are going to have to made incredibly subtly. Rainbow pride gear did exist in the 80’s, but it wouldn’t make sense for Robin to be wearing that openly.

Mindy, on the other hand, is out and proud and living in 2020’s NYC, so her wearing more overt pride gear makes sense for her character and the time that her character lives in. The rainbow patch serves as a reminder to the audience of her sexuality. When Mindy was first introduced Scream V, her sexuality was not explicitly stated, but the costume department instead gave her a rainbow pin as visual shorthand to communicate her identity.

So, with all that in mind, rainbows on clothes of a character in ST—

—may not in itself be indicative of their sexuality.

But then again, this is a show created in the modern day for the modern audience who would have that association with gay pride, so it shouldn’t be ruled out.

I don’t think that Lucas having rainbows on his shirt means that he’s queer, but then when we have this—

A rainbow being squarely placed behind Will, a character we know to be gay, who in a later season did a whole project on Alan Turing, the gay inventor of computers, it would be ignorant of me to say that rainbows in the show had no correlation with gay pride.

So then, I tried to approach the meaning of rainbows from a more broad sense. Maybe the meaning behind rainbows is something that could encapsulate gay pride while speaking to a larger meaning. So I decided to simplify it, and go back to rainbows in nature.

When do rainbows appear? After the rain.

Let’s go back to Lucas’ rainbow shirt that I pointed out before. Lucas wears this when he realizes that he’s in way over his head with his basketball crew and he returns to his friends. Lucas is getting out of the rainstorm and back into the light. He’s seeing the rainbow.

We can also apply this to his relationship with other characters, especially Max. Max has been in the dark for so long, but thanks to her friends, thanks to Lucas, she’s able to see some of that light again. Lucas is like her personal rainbow.

Max also wears rainbows in season 3 to the same affect, except here I believe she is meant to be El’s rainbow. El has been kept in the dark but Max is the one that shows her the light.

I think rainbows can also be misleading, though.

The Rainbow Room was the reward that Papa gave the kids for doing well in their lessons. “Whoever wins will win an extra hour in the rainbow room.” It was supposed to be their light after the dark, but really it was another symbol of their entrapment. No matter how much extra time you get in the Rainbow Room, you are still a prisoner.

I wanted to talk about the Rainbow Room in regards to when we see rainbows on El’s letter that she sent to Mike.

And yes, Mike reading a letter with rainbows on it in his Freddie Mercury tank while in front of his closet does seem like rainbows are being used as queercoding here, and that might be part of it, but considering that this scene comes right after we see the massacre in the Rainbow Room at the beginning of the episode, leading me to believe that the rainbows here are meant to correspond with the rainbows there.

Because Mike is like the Rainbow Room, he is supposed to be El’s light in the dark, he is supposed to be her reward after being in the rain for so long, but just like the Rainbow Room, it’s all false hope.

The Rainbow Room is where El has her showdown with One though, which represents another aspect of the light after the dark, clarity and truth.

El has learned the truth and she even gains a new power in this moment. In a way, One has also reached a light in this moment. He had Soteria removed, he is seeing new possibilities, but it’s twisted, it’s upside down, hence why his rainbow is flipped.

And now I bring it back to the screenshot I showed earlier of the rainbow behind Will, which yes lends itself to some queercoding, but this is also the same scene where Will reveals the truth to the gang about D’Art. He’s bringing new infortmation into the light, and thus there is a rainbow behind him.

So, when we talk about rainbows and costuming, I think it’s significant that Robin and Will, are two confirmed queer characters, do not wear rainbows on their clothes. And if they do, it’s only very subtly. Will’s most colorful outfit is probably the one he get’s taken in, and after that both Will and Robin wear pretty muted and monochromatic outfits. They are hiding in the dark, they aren’t able to show their truths, their rainbows, just yet.

So, to the nice anon whose ask I lost about what rainbows represent in ST, my answer is: Clarity, truth, and the light after the rainstorm.

[zeldahime]

I did math on David Tennant's hands (so you don't have to)

EDITED WITH MORE ACCURATE PHONE INFORMATION AND A DIFFERENT CONCLUSION.

I swear all I wanted to know was what kind of phone Crowley has in season 1.

See, I have an iPhone, and one of my gigs shares a building with an Apple Store. I was taking a screenshot of his contact picture for Aziraphale, and noticed that the camera on the back of his phone is laid out horizontal. Most iPhones aren't! So, I fell into this rabbit hole: what phone does Anthony J. Crowley have?

(The bit where you can see the cameras, immediately before the cool heart-in-flames picture he has for Aziraphale's contact, is basically impossible to screenshot; the phone moves very fast and reflects the environment. But his contact photo for his angel is so neat and I love it ❤️‍🔥)

I figured out very quickly the only iPhone with that camera layout is the iPhone SE series, but there have been only three generations: 2016, 2020, and 2023. Season 1 of Good Omens was released in 2019. The iPhone SE first generation was also Apple's "budget" phone. It just didn't make sense to me that Crowley would have an old budget phone, but the new SE wasn't commercially available so it also didn't make sense to me that the prop department could have given him a new phone.

The main visual differences between gen 1 and gen 2 are threefold: gen 1 didn't come in black; gen 2 has slightly more beveling; and they are different sizes. The first two visual differences are basically meaningless, because it's trivial for a props department to turn a white phone black and the beveling difference only is obvious in comparison. So I had to figure out what size Crowley's phone was.

We see Crowley's phone in s1e4 and s1e5, but the only thing in its environment we can really measure to get an accurate read on its size is... Well. David Tennant.

More specifically, we get a fairly good shot of the phone in his hands, held level with the screen, and thumb easily available to use as a reference.

But if anyone has done David Tennant Hand Math before, they weren't on page 1 of Google and therefore may as well not exist. So I took up this quest myself.

So first, I had to find a picture of David Tennant holding something of known dimensions. I am, first and foremost, a Doctor Who nerd. There's only one answer to that.

Another Doctor Who nerd on the internet went and figured out 10th Doctor's sonic screwdriver was about 160 mm and the head of the sonic from tip to the joint with the middle section was about 40 mm.

I then got out my actual goddamn fabric tape and measured this man's fingers on my computer screen. After converting the measurements back to scale, first to second knuckle on his middle finger was 54.55 mm.

Then to figure out how long his thumb is, I needed a photo of his hands. This one is courtesy of the GO Reference Server:

His thumb came out to being approximately 68mm long. (My thumb came out to 55mm long. Not relevant, I just got curious while I was doing all this measuring.)

Finally, the data necessary to the main event: the goddamn phone.

Using the thumb as a reference, the phone came out to 136mm in length.

The iPhone SE Gen 1 was 123.8 mm long; the Gen 2 was 138.4 mm long.

Given that I rounded quite a bit during my calculations to keep things at 2 digits or less, I'm very comfortable saying: Crowley had an iPhone SE (second generation) during the events of Good Omens Season 1, a phone that would not become commercially available until April 2020.

I don't know how the props people got their hands a phone that wouldn't be released for a full year and change after filming, but they did that for us. It's a character note that practically nobody noticed, for a prop that gets barely a full minute of screentime. They could easily have used an iPhone XR or iPhone XS Max, which were the newest iPhones actually on the market at that time and which people would have recognized when the episode aired, but they knew Crowley would have the newest iPhone before anybody else had the newest iPhone and by Jove, he did.

After I posted this in Discord, @giveintomay pointed out that the iPhone SE second generation used the same build as the iPhones 7 and 8, which came out in 2016 and 2017 respectively. So, he most likely had an iPhone 8, which would have been the latest generation while filming (as generation 10 became commercially available over the summer and fall).

[fatphobiabusters]

[PHOTO ID: Three photos of an article from the June 2022 issue of Good Housekeeping. First image is a flesh tone title page, on it sketches of pear shaped women are seen, they are curly and faceless reminiscent of a fashion doodle, they have various skin tones and are standing in different poses. The other two images are of the article itself transcribed below. END ID]

CW: o word, healthism 

Transcript: Titled “Why we’re saying bye to BMI”  followed by “When it comes to your health and happiness, Good Housekeeping is committed to providing the most relevant and reliable information. Th more we’ve reported on body mass index, a widely used but flawed measure of health, the more we’ve grown to see that thee are more accurate and less stigmatizing indications of overall health to include in our coverage. To understand- and to lean what these are- read on. By Kaitlyn Pirie”

“It’s all by impossible to see a doctor without hopping on the scale and being told your body mass index (BMI), a number calculated b dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared. The concept originated in the 1800s as a way to categorize the population by weight, says Amy Lee, MD, an internal medicine physician and weight specialize in South California. People are “In a range of ‘underweight’, ‘normal’, ‘overweight’ or ‘obese,’ she says. As Benign as that may sound, many experts are realizing that there are problems wit the measurement and that the way it is applied can do more harm than good. The issue is complex, but here ar just a few reasons:

“Overweight” is not a synonym for “unhealthy.” 

“While higher BMI is correlated with certain conditions on a population level, there is littler evidence that higher weight cause these in individuals. Yet with so much emphasis in our culture on thinness and BMI, things can get oversimplified. In some cases, people with high BMIs are denied treatments (such as IVF or surgeries), or weight loss is presented as a secure all. Consider a patient with knee pain: ‘If the patient is fat, the doctor may diagnose weight as the problem, prescribe weight loss as the treatment, and send them as their way without further diagnostic tests or treatments,’ says Paula Brochu, PHD, an associate professor in the College of Psychology at Nova Southeastern University who studies weight stigma. ‘But if the person is not fat, they are much more likely to receive scans and treatment for the knee pain at the time of complaint.’ Not only might the doctor miss a problem that would have been visible on an X-Ray or other imaging, but being mistreated can discourage bigger people from seeking medical care, possibly worsening health issues. 

In truth, you can be heavy and healthy - or thing and less so. ‘One large study examined peoples cardiometabolic health across the BMI spectrum and found that nearly half of all overweight people and nearly one third of obese people were metabolically healthy,’ says Brochu. Almost a third of normal weight people were not. ‘Researches estimated that nearly 74 million adults in the US have their health misclassified on the basis of BMI,’ she says.”

“Race and ethnicity matter.”

“While BMI is calculated the same way fore everyone, research shows the significance of the number to be different for different groups. ‘For the Indian population, we know their chances of [issues associated with] metabolic syndromes like diabetes and heart disease go up at a BMI of 27,’ says Saniea Majid, MD, FACS, FASMBS, a board-certified obesity specialist is Livingston NJ. That’s lower than the BMI of 30 associated with the same issues in white people. The number is even lower for people of Taiwanese descent, adds Dr Majid. SO someone who thinks they're in the clear with a BMI under 30 may actually be at serious risk.  Other research has shown that the BMI associated with living longest is around 23 to 23 for white people but 23 to 30 for Black people- ie a higher BMI could be beneficial for Black people. While medical weight stigma and inadequate care are bad for all, misclassifying Black people as overweight may add to an already wide racial health disparity.” 

“BMI doesn't take body shape or composition into account.”

“As a result, muscular people are often classified as overweight, says Dr Lee, leading to stigma and denial of treatments. BMI calculations also don't factor in where you carry your weight. Studies show that a higher waist-to-hip ratio is more closely linked to heart attack risk than BMI, whereas having bigger hips does not seem to pose as similar risk.”

“A higher BMI does not mean higher mortality.”

“Many people are surprised to learn that those who are overweight have lower mortality risk than normal weight people and that people who are obese have the same mortality risk as normal weight people, says Brochu.”

“Why is BMI still used?”

“The data point is easy to calculate and cheap to measure, and its the basis of decades of health research. It is also entrenched in our health care system. For example, BMI is baked into the coding system that doctors use to let insurance companies know what they’re billing for. Also, many doctors, including Dr Majid, find it a helpful screening tool when used in conjunction with other measures. These include blood pressure, pulse, cholesterol, fasting sugars, fatty liver disease and bod composition as well as ‘a conversation based on a patients ethnicity, family history, lifestyle, age, activity level and whether someone is perimenopausal,’ Dr Majid says. Other medical doctors, however, as well as psychologist such as Brochu, fell that the use of the BMI leads to too my emphasis on weight in medical setting and fuels the mistaken belief that thinness equals health. ‘It focuses on weight loss as a health outcome, and by and large weight loss is advocated at any cost, which often leads to harm,” Borchu explains. ‘A focus of health rather than weight provides more support to patient of all sizes.’” 

In the periwinkle rectangle it reads:

“Our Commitment”

“Good Housekeeping will avoid relying on BMI as a marker of health in our reporting, and if we determine that we must mention it, we will point out its limitations. How much emphasis you give to this measurement, or to body weight at all is between you and your provider. If you decide to deemphasize weight as a measure of your own health or happiness, you can ask your provider to do the other tests noted here (such as blood pressure, pulse and cholesterol) without having you step on a scale. ‘People have the right not to be weight and not to consent to discussing their weight,’ Brochu says. If you would rather not be weighted but aren't sure how to say so, visit more-love.org for helpful phrases to us as well as small cards you can give to providers to express your preference.” 

Additional thoughts from mod squirrel below:

I read many “family” or “womens” magazines for a lot of reasons but suffice to say these magazines are going to people who are likely the backbones of families. The fact this information is likely to reach so many people, people who can advocate for fat children, who can model good behavior for others both in their families and communities is so so important. Depending on the magazine they can skew conservative, I personally find GH to be middle of the road, and thats great! 

[mara-tevith-solo]

Sing a Little Song For Me

Photo not mine

Part 3 of the drabble set, still in no particular order

Warnings: Capture, Canon levels of violence, threats to an animal even though the animal can and will body people, threats of bodily harm, Quaritch is still a warning, mentions of past violence

Pairing: Colonel Miles Quaritch x Na’vi/Avatar named reader/oc Still no true descriptors

Rating: 18+

Words: 2.3k+

"Toruk Makto!" A voice called out as I circled over the Seadragon, calling my attention to the figure who was standing on the main deck and waving for my attention. A human-dressed Na'vi figure, more accurately.

"What?" I called back, letting Thor swoop low but fast, not wanting either of us to get shot.

"Boss wants a word!" The man yelled back before we were high up again, turning to make another pass "Says it's important!"

"Who's your boss?" I called just before Thor was going high again, taking us out of range as we circled around the whole ship.

"You'll just have to come see!"

"What if I just leave? Nothing is stopping me from just flying away!"

"If you try it, we'll shoot a tracker in your bird and hunt you down!" I frowned at the impossible situation, knowing that he wasn't bluffing, and them hunting me down meant that I'd be in way more trouble than I was in that moment. A man hunt meant collateral damage.

I frowned as I stared at the man wordlessly, making Thor circle higher, not swooping down to exchange words "Jake." I pressed into the radio around my neck, hoping that he could still hear me.

"Ani? What is it?" He asked, already alarmed since I was using names instead of codes.

"I'm being captured by the Recoms. They've got a ship, and it's crawling with soldiers."

"Where are you? We'll come get you." I could already hear him moving, imagining the alarm he was raising with the others.

"No, it'll only end badly." I frowned up at the open sky, closing my eyes so that I didn't get blinded "There's no way out of this for me, Jake. I just wanted to give you a heads up of what's on the way. Figured I could do that at least." I admitted softly.

"Sister, just tell me where you are, and I'll come get you." His voice cracked as he begged for the information.

"Love you, little brother. Give a kiss to the kids for me. Iron Sky going dark." I opened my eyes as I looked back down at the ship, at the Recom who was still standing patiently on the deck, arms crossed over his chest, a sniper standing beside him already sighted in.

"No! Ani! Just te--" I took off the radio and the ear piece, throwing them into the ocean before letting Thor get closer to the ship.

"If I come in, will y'all shoot us?" I asked on autopilot, my eyes fixed on the sniper like she was a poorly camouflaged viper.

"No! Scout's honor!"

"Fine, I'm coming in!" Thor hated the idea to his very core, pulling away from our circling so that he could get a good angle at the main deck, slowing at the last second with powerful wingbeats and a mighty roar, letting me stand on his shoulders as he set down carefully, playing up the wild beast belief the humans had of his kind with more roaring. I stood on his shoulders for a few moments longer, looking over the twitchy soldiers and the bald Recom who was waiting patiently with an amused smile on his face. I was slow to jump from his shoulders, landing lightly before disconnecting our kuru and letting him fly away with another bone rattling roar. "So, now what?" I asked while taking my bow off my back and handing it to him as carefully as possible so that no one got cut by the arrowheads.

"Now," He appraised the bow with reverence before handing it off the a soldier who carried it like it was simultaneously made of glass and a bomb "I cuff you to ensure crew safety. Knife please." I handed it to him hilt first without complaint, even handing him the small one I kept on my left calf before offering my wrists. I growled darkly at the approaching humans as the Recom cuffed me with quick movements, his grip careful like he was ordered to not hurt me, though he did chuckle softly as sailors jumped away from us quickly. I flashed a toothy grin as I dropped my ears back, leaning into the rumors that I was batshit crazy "Come on, cupcake. Time to see the Colonel." He shook his head at my antics but his smile remained, even as he took me by the bicep and began leading me up tight stairwells and hallways. My heart beat loudly in my ears, already knowing who he was referring to but not wanting to acknowledge it until I absolutely had to.

"So who had to die for you all to get access to this rig?" I asked as I memorized the path, locking onto every little identifying feature because there were so few.

He scoffed and ducked low through a doorway "No one, cupcake."

We entered what looked like the bridge, the view was definitely the best, matched with large windows that let every possible ounce of sunlight in, a large projection table in the middle of the room that was flanked by watching eyes "Mom!" Broke the tense silence as movement flashed from the other side of the table, Spider hopping around other humans as quickly as he could manage.

It felt like my heart was soaring as I crashed to my knees, not caring that I was crying in front of the enemy as he barreled into me, arms latching around my shoulders as his head tried to disappear in my hair "Spider, oh my Spider! Thank Eywa that you are safe!" I sniffled as I hugged him as best as I could with bound hands, closing my eyes to the overwhelming relief as the tears continued to pour in earnest. "Have they hurt you, my son? Have any of them done you harm?" I pulled away enough to cup his face in my hands, giving him a once over for any bumps and bruises.

He shook his head, beaming a happy smile as his own tears fell down his cheeks "No, Ma. Dad won't let them." He sniffed, looking over his shoulder to the Recom that I hadn't noticed, leaning casually against the holo-table with his arms folded over his chest, a gleam in his eyes that set me on edge in funny ways. It was hard to look away from the familiar features, the set of his brow, the scowl, the way he wore his gun even. All of it made fear flood my veins and my thigh ache through the bone. I shifted so that Spider was angled in such a way that I could quickly put myself between he and the demon, every ounce of my focus on him and only him.

When he noticed my staring he stood as tall and straight as he could in the human dimensioned bridge, a lavender tint to the bridge of his nose "I see you, Ani of the Omaticaya, Rider of Last Shadow, Mother of my son." He made the motion as he spoke, bowing ever so slightly from the waist as he spoke, his use of the language still shaky, but it was good. He looked to Spider as though asking how he did, what he needed to correct, but Spider's smile widened as he nodded enthusiastically. I blinked in shock at the behavior for a split second, that old computer error noise practically screaming in my ears as my brain refused to process it all.

I decided to pay him in kind, curious to how he would react as I stood, one of my hands on Spider's shoulder until I began speaking, making the motion and inclining my head politely "I see you, Colonel Quaritch of the Sky People, Father of my son." I didn't miss how Spider looked between the two of us, smiling as though you'd just told him he'd won the lottery, neither of us missing how Quaritch's blush moved into more of a lilac tone, neither of us saying anything about it. "So, Quaritch, you wanted to talk shop, so talk." I invited firmly with little more preamble, braiding some of Spider's locks while he was still there in front of me, needing to do something with my hands.

Quaritch shifted with a frown, crossing his arms over his chest again "Let me start this rodeo by saying that I know you're not going to give up the Sullys. I know it'd be a... messy waste of time for both of us, if I asked." He looked at me in that knowing way, though from the Recom body it didn't look nearly as threatening or malicious. "So, I'd like you to teach me and the others how to survive out there in the water. Teach us how to appeal to the People." There was a record scratch in my head as I blinked up at the man, wondering what sort of trap he was preparing for me if I agreed, what he'd do to me if I didn't. "I'm not gonna hurt ya if you refuse, Ani. Stop lookin' at me like that." He sighed, shaking his head and waving my concerns, though I was almost sure I was hallucinating the shine of remorse in his eyes that lasted for a split second.

I sniffed as I squared up, not fully believing his assurances, remembering the past "Why should I believe you?" My voice was firm and unwavering around my words as I studied him, watched every little movement he made. I was sure I could still get off the ship while bound. "You once put a knife through my thigh when I wouldn't defect. I still hear your laughter in my nightmares." Ok, maybe that was a little too much information.

The remorse was back as he held up his hands in placation "I'm not that man." He swore earnestly with his head down in submission. I cocked my head to the side as I studied him in a much newer light.

"He's not, Ma. He's a lot nicer now." Spider nodded as he looked up at me, hope shining in his eyes.

"This isn't The Parent Trap, kid." I reminded him, remembering that gleam from every single iteration of the movie.

"Please Mom!" He begged, pouting up at me as though he had no shame. There again, he was trying to set up his parents, of course he had no shame.

I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose, cursing softly under my breath, before I was pointing at Quaritch, fixing him with a frustrated glare "I will teach, but the moment you act like that murderous old monster I will not teach another thing!" I swore as firmly as I could, trying to impress my seriousness upon him.

He perked up instantly, eyes shining and ears trained on me like my word was gospel "Fair enough." He nodded with a croon to his tone. I hated that the audiophile in me was enjoying his voice. I hated that there was something to him that instantly put me at ease. "Where to?" He asked, still smiling, eyes still bright, still radiating excitement.

"Pull us in to the nearest uninhabited island. There, I will see if your insanity can be cured." I stared up at him defiantly as I hit him with the line that Mo'at had once hit Jake and I with, the one that had started so much.

"I've got a quota to fill! Not ferry you lot 'round for some heathen mumbo jumbo!" A human interjected angrily, smelling like a shit stack and looking like one too.

Quaritch changed immediately when he turned his attention to the man, still smiling but the previous light had gone out. His ears dropped and it was as though the temperature of the bridge had dropped with them, but I didn't get the sense of being in any danger even still. At least not from him. "You heard the woman, Captain. We have an island to be at." His voice was cold though still jovial, a bone chilling mix as the human visibly gulped.

"I'm not taking orders from some woman, Colonel. I don't care if she's the President of the United Bloody States!" He pressed on despite his fear, and I couldn't decide whether he was just that stupid or that brave, but my money was on stupid as he puffed up his chest to the large Recom.

Quaritch's ears pinned to his head as he closed the space between the Captain and himself, the ferality of his smile dialed up to unprecedented levels but still I did not feel like I was in danger, and it seemed like Spider was of the same mind, just watching the interaction with hard eyes and a carefully aimed scowl at the Captain. "Any orders that come from her, come from me. Do we have an understanding?" He got in the man's space as he leaned down, his voice quiet despite the unconcealed anger in his tone.

There was a tense moment where no one on the bridge seemed to breathe, all of us just watching the interaction, helpless to interject or intervene. "Alright." The Captain finally nodded after a minute, deflating and no longer meeting the Colonel's eyes.

"Good." Quaritch praised with a nod, standing back to his nearly full height, glancing at Spider and I with an apologetic smile. "Give me your hands." He held out one of his own while he waited for me to comply, his fingers relaxed. I obeyed, staring him in the eyes the entire time, and action he reciprocated as he deactivated the cuffs. I was quick to snatch my hands back when they were free, not entirely trusting that he wouldn't bind me some other way if I left them out too long. He smiled tightly, trying to act like my distrust meant nothing to him "I'll show ya around."

[silverstagspirit]

This is going to be a word vomit, but there are some comparisons between Earth and Twisted Wonderland that I wanted to make based on souls and myths on what happens to souls in the afterlife. So I’m sorry for how long this will be🥺! For biology au, I feel that not only would Yuu be biologically different from everyone in Twisted wonderland, but also have a different soul structure. In Twisted wonderland, the color and shape of the soul is used to indicate the type of magic and how much magic someone would have. The color of souls that are used to separate people into their dorms are red, yellow/orange, light purple, dark purple, blue, and green. For ghost in Twisted Wonderland they look very cartoonish and have a different appearance than when they were alive. Meanwhile on Earth souls are very impossibly to see or to prove their existence, but the ghost here on Earth are much more terrifying looking. Not only do they have the same appearance when they were alive, they would also have the injuries/cause of death marks on them. Plenty examples are on YouTube, “Creepy Sentences said by Kids”. (there was this one kid making weird faces in their living room, when their parent asked why, the kid responded they were mimicking the woman with the long braid around her neck) Also, in varies religions (mostly in the big ones such as Christianity, Muslim, and Jewish) you’re soul is affected by the decisions of your actions like doing good deeds or committing sins. Another factor that could impact your soul is how you lived and died. (If you committed suicide you just doomed your soul to never passed on to the afterlife). Whatever action you take will affect the shape your soul and will be your indicator if you pass into heaven or hell. Imagine how funny it would be if Malleus and the doctors came up with another method to see Yuu’s soul, only for many doctors and some of their classmates to faint when they see something eldritch appear, like one of those biblical accurate angels staring back. (Yuu did help save the dorm leaders from dying when they over blotted and stayed friendly to them despite almost getting killed. I’m pretty sure Yuu earned big points in getting into heaven.) The people that would faint would be Trey, Ace, Cater (after taking a blurred photo) and maybe Riddle. The people who would be stunned would be Malleus, Lilia, and Silver. The people that would try to fight this would be Deuce and Sebek. Meanwhile Grim would most definitely hide or shoot fireballs.

I'm not gonna lie.

I've been daydreaming about the ghost thing as well for a while now but didn't think about putting it in this series.

This ask has now confirmed for me that I am not the only one who wonders if all ghosts in Twisted Wonderland look all cute and puffy like that. When I got the English version and played the prologue; then those ghosts in the mine start attacking us, I remember how scared Ace, Deuce and Grim got and thought: "Why are they this scared? These guys are all puffy and cute.

I was thinking about another au that I have in the works where Ace gets acidentally sent to Yuu's world whilst they are still in twisted wonderland. Until he is summoned back, he learns about Yuu's world through the people around him and the experiences he endures.

One of the scenarios of that series has Ace split off from the other people and encounters a ghost that is inspired by a ghost story I heard IRL. I kinda wanna work on my horror writing.

Them all fainting would be funny. They would never be able to look at Yuu the same way ever again.

Thank you for the ask. It was very entertaining to read.

[amarguerite]

First sentence for fic:

The sunshine had seemed deceptively inviting, but the strong breeze and sea spray were still unpleasantly cold.

This sparked a little coda to my Northanger Abbey/ It Happened One Night mash-up:

The sunshine had seemed deceptively inviting, but the strong breeze and sea spray were still unpleasantly cold. It was not quite the French Riviera Catherine had seen in the pictures or read about in glossy photo spreads but she was here and the Mediterranean was right there and she was morally certain that too much time had already passed. The two of them must meet. She defiantly put down her towel on one of the many empty chairs adorning the beach in front of the Hotel de Loiselle.

“It really was so good of you and Bill to invite me,” Catherine said to Eleanor through teeth that only chattered a little.

Eleanor, still wearing a wonderfully daring cape and broad-brimmed hat over her Cubist bathing costume, lowered her sunglasses to critically eye the waves. “Of course, darling! It was the very least we could do after all you’ve done for us. But perhaps we ought to rest up in the rooms and try the beach tomorrow? After all, it was your first time up in Bill’s plane and that can be such a horrid trial—“

Though Catherine had spent most of the flight trying not to be sick into her best hat (who knew planes went so high or flew so fast?) she was determined not to waste her first ever day outside of England’s green and pleasant land. “They always are sending people to the seaside for their health in old books. I am sure if I go and bathe I shall feel perfectly fine.”

“Do let me know if you change your mind,” Eleanor said dubiously, before arranging herself on a chair and taking out a very thick novel with one of those modernist covers where everyone depicted on the front was made up of colored polygons. (Catherine wished her joy of it but was internally very glad she had picked up Did the Butler Do It? from the lending library.) Cartherine sat down herself, to unbuckle her sandals and try to wriggle her way out of the white and Nile green one piece beach pajamas that the advertisement had assured her had caused Florida to go wild. The contrasting cross-strap back that had seemed so darling in the illustration had been tricky to button in the hotel room mirror and was now proving somewhat impossible to unbutton. Catherine glanced over at Eleanor, but she was so deeply absorbed in her book she was smiling gleefully at the pages.

Eleanor had been really so sweet already— whisking Catherine away to France for her birthday and providing her with luxurious room and board— Catherine hated to interrupt her. But all the same…

This did not seem like the sort of tangle from which she could extract herself. Catherine had a more-or-less accurate understanding of her abilities at this point, as well as the fact that life as depicted in books or magazines or the pictures was often exaggerated, but it was very hard to let go of that vision of herself tossing off her oh-so-trendily-American one piece and dashing into the ocean with a flick of her curls and a gay laugh upon her perfectly lipsticked lips. Catherine engaged in a series of trying-to-be-discreet contortions that did not help at all, and only resulted in someone— probably another hotel guest— pausing behind her.

“In a jam darling?” asked— oh that was no passerby! She knew that voice.

“Henry!” Catherine shrieked in mad delight. She rocketed up from her chair and flung her arms about his neck, not able to take in all the wonderful facts of him all at once. His aftershave was the same, his arm about her (bare arm!) felt as cozy as ever, his laugh still rang so wonderfully in her ear— what bliss! Catherine nearly kissed him, but remembered in the nick of time that Eleanor was right there. Catherine settled for beaming up at him. “Henry! Henry, you darling! How on earth— you weren’t in Bill’s plane! How did you get here?”

Henry said, impishly, “Would you believe me if I said the bus?”

“How could a bus cross the channel?” Catherine demanded.

“Alright, an aeroplane and then a train and then a bus,” said Henry.

“Frightfully glad you made it, Henry,” said Eleanor. She kept her book open but turned to smile at him. “Bill and I were beginning to despair! You were supposed to surprise Cathy when we got in.”

Henry sighed. “Eleanor, you would not believe everything that happened to me on the way here—“

“I’ve heard that one,” teased Eleanor.

“Oh Henry, will you go in with me?” Catherine interrupted, too excited for tales of travel delay. “Only, my button in the back—“

“At least I don’t need a lock pick to get you out of this one,” said Henry. But he unbuttoned her with alacrity, tossed aside his own shirt and took her by the hand. “Come now Catherine— shall we brave the elements?”

“Let’s!” she cried, and together they raced into the surf, with all the elan and laughter Catherine could have hoped for (… even if it was so cold that as soon as they rushed in, they immediately left it.)

[vashti-lives]

I ordered some ceramic buttons and I think the seller sent me a (slightly) different set than the one I ordered. They had one leaf button set in a darker green and two listings for a lighter green and I ordered the darker green set but I think they sent the lighter green. That or their product photos for these buttons were much less accurate than they’ve been for the other products I’ve bought from them.

It’s not the end of the world but the color definitely does not look as good with my sweater. It’s ok, but the lighter green doesn’t pop as much against the gray and doesn’t match my green yarn.

I don’t even like telling servers the kitchen got my order wrong at restaurants, so the idea of going into this person’s DMs and being like “the color of these buttons might be wrong” feels impossible. Like… at best I can send these back and get the others, which feels like a hassle for me and the seller, but the dark green buttons were in multiple people’s carts when I ordered and I have a gut feeling a second person ordered one of the other button sets at the same time and the light and dark green buttons just got swapped. OR I’m just being weird and the set I got is the one I ordered.

(Obviously no matter what I do I won’t give a bad rating the buttons in a vacuum are extremely nice!)

[aswrm]

My Chemical Romance in ‘Negatives’ by Amy Fleisher Madden

transcript/ID below the cut

My Chemical Romance

Est. 2001

Belleville, NJ / Kearney, NJ

You can't discuss emo now without mentioning My Chemical Romance, but the early days of the band were fraught with unintentional mystery.

There were rumors that it was a side project of the already established band Thursday, that they were vampires, that they were a death metal band. Only some of those rumors were true or. maybe partly true. What was definitely true, however, was that after releasing an ambitious first album that felt like an emotional hybrid of Ink & Dagger and the Murder City Devils, as well as signing to a major label, the band was on the tip of every scenester's tongue. At the time, it was noted that there was this palpable feeling that something big was going to happen. What no one knew was just how big, and that this band would break out globally and achieve rock star status around the world.

In 2004, when the video for "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" was released, there were so many emotions and even more opinions. Some took the stance that this was emo exploitation; others celebrated that the music that had been bubbling up for years had finally broken into the mainstream. At first the band rejected the emo label, but after years of their fans waving the emo banner all over the place (and in their faces), they accepted it and gave into the title of reigning champs of third wave emo.

Regardless of which side you were on, My Chemical Romance's success was big. Big, like your parents who had never understood the kind of music you listened to (or why your hair or pants looked the way they did) could now see it front and center on the cover of Rolling Stone, kind of big. And to say

that the band and their music changed the scene forever would be accurate. Some of the polarizing attributes of third wave emo that tend to agitate die-hard first and second wave fans were made abundantly popular by this band and their fans-and often the outright popularity of the band infuriated other emo fans who tend to gate-keep.

You can't have it both ways, though. You can't only want certain friends within the scene to be successful, but be upset when others experience that success instead. That's a rough double standard and I can't get down with it.

My Chemical Romance risked everything to be successful and "make it" -and I fucking love and respect them for it. And listen, it is impossible for me to decide whether I love Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge or The Black Parade more, so please don't make me choose a favorite. Numerically speaking, My Chemical Romance is not the biggest emo band of all time.

That honor is currently reserved for Fall Out Boy.

But in my opinion, they are the most influential third wave emo band. It's no surprise to see Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas, citing them as one of their greatest influences. No other band has had such an indelible impact on pop culture, the scene, and the future waves of emo.

[photo id: black and white photo of gerard. they’re bending forwards and singing into a microphone. they’re wearing a leather jacket, black tshirt and jeans]

[photo id: the whole band. L-R: frank, ray, otter, mikey, gerard.]

[realcatalina]

Troubling portrait of Maria of Aragon

Not everything is that well with this portrait and I am not going to pretend otherwise. I marked it for you what is wrong:

(Pink-suspicious, orange-original outlines, red-altered, dark red-physically impossible for those layers to exist simultanously!)

This is crazy! What the hell is going on?! ...Let's find out.

I hope this will fit single post(tumblr has limits regarding amount of pictures you can post.)

Now, about the painting.The amount of alterations I can spot, is disturbing.

The headwear is mixture of netherlandish subtype of french hood, and english gable hood, as if somebody put them together:

(my photoshoping skills are not good enough to make them 100% accurate, but you get the idea...)

Yes, in France and I think also in Netherlands you can find some examples of frontlets on french hood-in cca 1480s and early 1490s. Afterwards...nope. And this one...has the bejewelled part surounding face typical for english gable hood ...and I've never seen it in historical examples of these combining.

And in closeup it's obvious the layers cannot even physically fit together...Literally impossible.

Because these frontlets have black base upon which decorative part sits...and it's obvious the fronlet is supposed to go ABOVE the veil french hood..., so french hood should go UNDER it...but the pattern on french hood goes ABOVE the base of frontlet. It's literally impossible for that to happen simultanously.

One or both have to be altered. But which? Idk!

Futhermore there is dark shadow behind the current edge of veil, which indicates the outer edge of veil was moved, making it more narrow.

But if it was wider it'd be consistent with both netherlandish subtype of french hood and english gable hood:

Neither was that flat at the back. And neither would be worn by Maria. Furthermore, the netherlandish headwear is of style of copies based upon her sister Joanna's headwear. It's not historically accurate style. The gable hood...well, in form which we see now, it is also not historically accurate. Yet at same timethere is bigger level of realism than I'd expect if it was completely made up.

Hence I started to suspect that actual portrait was inspiration for this peace.

If we look at the portrait further we can tell that outer edge of dress was also moved, making shoulders more narrow and more femine, and one shoulder has no ermine, hence likely ermine area was extended.

Imo the high of neckline is also altered, I am highly suspicious of it...because even in England and Netherlands it was not worn so high, in Iberia absolutely not! This neckline would only make sense in very cold countries. In Scandinavia, Moscowy etc.

But there are more things I am suspicious about.

Little detail on veil of french hood(occasionally hapens, but not much in 16th century)...anyway it is probably just minor decorative add-on. But this part of cloth of gold looks photoshopped:

These bits, the way pattern is similiar...nearly identical, looks photoshopped:

In program which I use(photopea)...there is tool which allows you to copy the pattern and move it around ...and then you can create things like this. You'd need to just play with it bit afterwards, to blend it in...and in one spot it's not even done.

This is very disturbing for me. Especially given what wikipedia says about the painting.

Date of creation is XXI meaning 21. Like 21st century? Is it just modern creation made in computer?

... I created one such fake for April fools post... and I too deliberately played with shadows to make it look like it was altered...

I cannot rule this possibility, but it could also be case of bad photo, or bad printing. Because the wikipedia also says that source of image is a book called Infantas de Espanha, Rainhas em Portugal:

So could it be that there was so problem in printing process? Or something went wrong with photo?

Or...that the portrait itself is real...but it had some ugly paint loss and they decided to fix it in photoshopp to make it more pleasing to look at the book?

All of these are possible.

Additoonally, the arm on right(from our POV) seems to be moved in such position as if away from the painting...which could indicate it was originally larger.

And while the ribbon being held is not that impossible, fact that it goes over the ledge suggest it is not an accurate detai, but alteration.

More details I am suspicious about are all in same area around the 2nd hand.

These decorative round things...if they are supposed to be pearls...they look nothing like the one on headwear, yet if we mark their positions, they look as if trying to copy that pattern:

Furthermore the shadows are bit off in this area. There are parts which are lighter in colour...which could be if originally there was ermine edge to the dress...which was overpainted. Unfortunately I can't tell from these what shape exactly it'd have...

So after seeing all of this...what is my opinion on this?

I cannot confirm the portrait is real. But...I don't think anybody would be able to create this in photoshop without having something real to work with. I think there is portrait like this...and the level of alterations...the oddities...suggest it has been altered a while ago.

I cannot rule out photoshopped was used in part of it, but I think rest exist in real.

Does it mean it is accurate or that it is Maria? ...No, and given the level of alterations, it's not likely the head was spared...

On occasion though it happens. For example portrait of Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, Archduchess of Austria(b.1566)

who is supposed to wear the Franciscan habit of a Poor Clare(like on left), but in portrait (on right) somebody added lady Margaret Beaufort's headwear(probably) and changed some other details too.

Could it be the case of Maria's portrait too?

Well...in theory yes. Somebody could add english and netherlandish headwear to her portrait.

Could altered possibly heck out of the dress too, thus removing Iberian fashion from Iberian portrait.

Could photoshop it(possibly.)

... Or perhaps somebody created new portrait based upon Maria's portrait and Joanna's and Elizabeth of York's? (Puzzle of 3.)

Or some other option.

The face, the coat of arm, text and M on book could have been added to make it clearer that it is Maria...or could have been used to make it Maria. WE SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW!

...BUT we cannot play ostrich...and pretend that everything is fine with this portrait. Because it is not.

And if we remove all things which are weird, what is left of this portrait? A hand?!

(I didn't know how far ermine extended, so i left it like this)

...Hold on...

You've got to be kidding me. I recognize it. I recognize the hand!

...Well, not this hand but the style of the hand...the way the fingers are drawn/painted.

No way...no it can't be...Let me check.

...Maybe it could be. I have speculated there was one...and it'd make perfect sense. Wide shoulders, hand across chest, cloth of gold with ermine...the reddish girdle...

the ledge...the round top. ...I should have seen it front first glance!

The only real problem is that is facing the wrong way! It's flipped from the normal position.

But if you flip it back it's obvious. It's same outfit as in Whitehall Mural:

Even the reddish/pinkish girtle!

The the other hand is of Henry VII, in drawing which I speculated could have been by Wewyck's workshop(although it is not confirmed):

And I have also said it's likely there was once Elizabeth's portrait which matched his. With one hand across chest and the other extended downwards bit to the side!

This could be altered portrait of Elizabeth of York...with yes, some major alterations...but it's not the most common image of hers...it looks to be based upon rare image of her, of which we have no copies or no good copies of...

Yes it is facing wrong way...but it's not 100% rule.

Which could mean...that we're looking at altered original.

Which tbh if we consider it could be Elizabeth, wouldn't need to be even altered that much(and I didn't need to remove that much), and majority of the changes would be done to hide her thicker neck and wider shoulders.

...You know I have been suspecting certain spanish artworks to be based upon English royal portraits...but I thought...how would they get hands on it...well maybe Henry VII and catholic monarchs were exchanging portraits of their family members...

And if so...there might be more english portraits waiting to rediscovered on iberian peninsula...

But I could of course be wrong...but none of this points really to Iberian peninsula. It's too toward N-W fashion.

What do you think? Am I correct or am I chasing shadows?