#i think i'd run out of text in the image ID. so.

[hardware-sparks]

found poem i made after reading Exposure. it can be read two ways.

[Text ID continued: The unhighlighted words read: Warning: Contains a chemical which can cause cancer. / A reaction aid in the production of polytetrafluorothylene and tetrafluoroethylene co-polymers. / The CAT Team findings support DuPont's position that the presence of PFOA at the low levels defected to date in drinking water in the Mid-Ohio Valley is not harmful. / Cumulative liver, kidney, and pancreatic changes can be induced in young rats by relatively low doses of PFOA. / Q: Is FC-143 harmful? A: The issue is concentration - how much and when. Animal studies with rats have demonstrated that it is slightly to moderately toxic. / We do know that it does not readily decompose, react, or break down. … It is expelled from the body slowly. / [bullet point] Never told Cattle Team and EPA about C8 in the stream. / We have not seen any negative effects on human health or the environment at the levels of exposure at which we operate. / We continued to increase our emissions into the river in spite of internal commitments to reduce or eliminate the release of this chemical into the community. / 14. Q: If the stuff is not harmful, why are you spending money to reduce air and water emissions? / [bullet point] C8 in the stream and we never told them. / A: … Even though the material has no known ill effects, it is our intent to minimize exposure which could cause concern associated with accumulation in the blood. / We remain that DuPont acted reasonably and responsibly at each stage in the long history of PFOA, placing a high priority on the safety of workers and community members. / Orally, it was claimed to be "slightly toxic"; with skin exposure, "slightly to moderately toxic"; and inhaled, it was "highly toxic". / There has been no adverse effect on employee health associated with FC-143 exposure. / There has been no adverse effect on employee health at these levels. / There is no evidence or data that demonstrates PFOA causes adverse human health effects. Many studies on the toxicology of PFOA lead us and others to conclude that the compound is safe for all segments of the population. / We are confident when we say that the facts, the scientific facts, demonstrate that the material is perfectly safe to use. / …indicate there's nothing to worry about. No human health effects. / Consensus is that the death was PFOA related. / There are a number of different exposure routes. …through inhalation. It can be absorbed through your skin to a limited amount, but inhalation is still by far more important. Then of course you could be exposed through ingestion, and that would be the drinking water. / Pose a risk to human health and the environment. / DuPont had always complied with all FDA regulations and standards regarding these products. / There is no evidence of adverse human health effects. / 20. Q: Is C8 carcinogenic? A: There is no evidence that C8 causes cancer in humans. Tests with laboratory animals demonstrated a slight increase in benign testicular tumors. / PFOA is not a human carcinogen and there are no known health effects associated with PFOA. In fact, the more we PFOA, … conclusions that PFOA is safe. / No known ill effects which could be attributed to those chemicals or C8 have been detected among employees in more than 20 years of experience with the products. / We've never had any adverse health effects from PFOA. / Persistence does not equal harm. Just because PFOA can cause kidney cancer doesn't mean that it caused Mrs. Barlett's kidney cancer.

The highlighted words read: Contains a chemical which can cause cancer. / low levels detected in the drinking water is not harmful / Cumulative liver, kidney, and pancreatic changes can be induced by relatively low doses of PFOA. / Is FC-143 harmful? studies have demonstrated that it is slightly to moderately toxic. / it does not readily decompose, react, or break down / negative effects on human health or environment at the levels at we operate. / continued to increase our emissions into the river / internal commitments to reduce or eliminate the release of this chemical in the community / never told them / known ill effects could cause concerns associated with accumulation in the blood / DuPont acted reasonably and responsibly, placing a high priority on the safety of workers and community members / Orally, "slightly toxic" / Skin exposure, "slightly to moderately toxic" / Inhaled, "highly toxic" / adverse effect on employee health associated with FC-143 exposure / no adverse health effect on employee health / no evidence or data PFOA causes adverse human health effects. PFOA is safe for all segments of the population. / No human health effects / Death was PFOA related / There are a number of different exposure routes. inhalation far more important. exposed through ingestion, the drinking water / Risk to human health and the environment / DuPont has complied with all FDA regulations and standards / No evidence adverse human health effects / Is C8 carcinogenic? / There is evidence that C8 causes cancer in humans. Tests demonstrated a slight increase in benign testicular tumors. / PFOA is not a human carcinogen, there are no known health effects. PFOA is safe. / known ill effects could be attributed to those chemicals or C8 among employees in 20 years of experience with the products. / We've had adverse health effects from PFOA. / Persistence does not equal harm. PFOA can cause kidney cancer. It caused Mrs. Barlett's kidney cancer. End Text ID.

[anistarrose]

I want to make my posts more accessible, but can't write IDs myself: a guide

[Plain text: "I want to make my posts more accessible, but can't write IDs myself: a guide." End plain text.]

While every image posted online should be accessible in an ideal world, we all know it 1) takes time to learn how to write image descriptions, and 2) is easy to run out of spoons with which to write IDs. And this says nothing of disabilities that make writing them more challenging, if not impossible — especially if you're a person who benefits from IDs yourself.

There are resources for learning how to write them (and if you already know the basics, I'd like to highlight this good advice for avoiding burnout) — but for anyone who cannot write IDs on their original posts at any current or future moment, for any reason, the there are two good options for posting on Tumblr.

1. Crowdsource IDs through the People's Accessibility Discord

[Plain text: "1. Crowdsource IDs through the People's Accessibility Discord". End plain text.]

The People's Accessibility Discord is a community that volunteers description-writing (and transcript-writing, translation, etc) for people who can't do so themselves, or feel overwhelmed trying to do so. Invite link here (please let me know if the link breaks!)

The way it works is simple: if you're planning to make an original post — posting art, for example — and don't know how to describe it, you can share the image there first with a request for a description, and someone will likely be able to volunteer one.

The clear upside here (other than being able to get multiple people's input, which is also nice) is that you can do this before making the Tumblr post. By having the description to include in your post from the start, you can guarantee that no inaccessible version of the post will be circulated.

You can also get opinions on whether a post needs to be tagged for flashing or eyestrain — just be able to spoiler tag the image or gif you're posting, if you think it might be a concern. (Also, refer here for info on how to word those tags.)

The server is very chill and focused on helping/answering questions, but if social anxiety is too much of a barrier to joining, or you can't use Discord for whatever reason, then you can instead do the following:

2. Ask for help on Tumblr, and update the post afterwards

[Plain text: "Ask for help on Tumblr, and update the post afterwards". End description.]

Myself and a lot of other people who describe posts on this site are extra happy to provide a description if OP asks for help with one! This does leave the post inaccessible at first, so to minimize the drawbacks, the best procedure for posting an image you can't fully describe would be as follows:

Create the tumblr post with the most bare-bones description you can manage, no matter how simple (something like "ID: fanart of X character from Y. End ID" or "ID: a watercolor painting. End ID," or literally whatever you can manage)

Use a tool like Google Lens or OCR to extract text if applicable and if you have the energy, even if the text isn't a full image description (ideally also double-check the transcriptions, because they're not always perfect)

Write in the body of the post that you'd appreciate a more detailed description in the notes!

Tag the post as "undescribed" and/or "no id" only if you feel your current, bare-bones description is missing out on a lot of important context

When you post it and someone provides an ID, edit the ID into the original post (don't use read mores, italics, or small text)

Remove the undescribed tag, if applicable. If you're posting original art, you can even replace it with a tag like "accessible art" for visibility!

And congrats! You now have a described post that more people will be able to appreciate, and you should certainly feel free to self-reblog to give a boost to the new version!

[greenhorn-art]

World Champions | Artwork for World Champions by TheDefenestrator by TheDefenestrator, art by Blurb_brain

Fandom: The King's Avatar | 全职高手

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Category: Gen

Words: 71 944

At the end of season 4 of the Glory Pro Alliance, the government finally receives the information it has been waiting for: The other players have caught up. Or, In which Glory has been a government recruitment ploy for remote-piloted mecha operators all along.

About the Book

FONTS: Mundo Serif, Azonix [dafont], Segoe UI Symbol

IMAGES: Illustration by Blurb_brain [AO3]; cover image by NASA ID: 440611 [Rawpixel]; Planet Earth background ID: 6331593 [Rawpixel]; Circuit lines background ID: 3117935 [Rawpixel]; endpapers' image by Eric Eastman [Unsplash]; Swoksaar, Desert Dust, Lord Grim, Vaccaria, and Cloud Piercer [The King's Avatar Wikia]

MATERIALS: regular printer paper (8.5"x11", 96 bright, 20lb), 80pt bookboard, Iris Bookcloth (colour: Black Pearl), Neenah cardstock (8.5"x11", bright white, 65lb), waxed linen thread (white, 30/3 size), embroidery floss (shades 3750, 350, 3845, 370), leather cording (1.9mm diameter), Reeves’ acrylic paint (Mars Black, Phthalo Blue, Titanum White), Americana acrylic paint (glow in the dark), ph neutral pva glue (Books by Hand)

PROGRAMS USED: Typeset in Affinity Publisher, cover/title page/endpapers designed in Affinity Designer/Photo, QR codes generated with LibreOffice Writer, PDF arranged for printing with Bookbinder-JS

BINDING STYLE: quarto, case bound (slightly rounded, with oxford hollow, forgot to use tapes)

.

Fenes' "Glory's tech isn't handwaved" AU. This was great! Funny and creative, and I'm both amazed and full of admiration for Fenes' ability to juggle so many characters.

I was feeling excited and ambitious with this one. Tried some new fun things (double core endbands, painted edges) and used some new equipment (a lying press).

The Text

TITLE/HEADINGS FONT: Azonix says 'SciFi' to me, it's a bold, non-serif, sleek font.

BODY FONT: Mundo Serif, it's a decent serif body font I haven't used before. Felt like it worked with Azonix.

SCENE BREAKS: a special character in Segoe UI Symbol of a black & white icon of Earth, the globe showing Asia.

TYPESETTING: Finished typesetting the fic, left document open on my laptop, laptop's battery failed, file now crashes immediately upon reopening, issue persists with copied versions of file (；￣Д￣) . Thankfully I had a backup file for the typeset with the barebones of the text, so I didn't have to restart from scratch...

Title Page

My thinking: it takes place in space, the world's at stake, and it's the dawn of a new horizon for Earth. Glory and the titular champions are represented by Swoksaar, Desert Dust, Lord Grim, Vaccaria, and Cloud Piercer – the captains of what I'd call the 'big 5' teams. A circuitry board background element hints at the tech/mecha nature of the story's competition. It may not match Blurb's art, but I hope I was able to convey some of what the story is about.

The circuitry image is used as decoration throughout the book. I only used the avatars of the top five teams' captains because too many silhouettes would lessen their impact and readability. (Removing the backgrounds was tedious, but worth it.)

Here's what it should have looked like. The test prints for this and the BB art were fine, but I think my inkjet started running out of ink just when I printed the final copies and I didn't reprint them. (Too impatient, really wanted to finish up and read the book)

The Cover

World Champions is another Big Bang fic, and once again I based some of my design choices off of the accompanying artwork. The dominant colours of Blurb_brain's illustration are red and blue-green.

COVER PAPER: For the decorative cover material I used NASA's ASTER image of Poyang Lake. NASA has some really interesting photography some of which remind me of marbled paper, thought it could be interesting. I chose this image of Poyang Lake because 1) it's in China, 2) the colours were similar to Blurb's awesome illustration (fate strikes again, dropping matching images and artwork into my lap!), and 3) NASA is tangentially relevant to the fic, which takes place in space.

BOOKCLOTH: Verona bookcloth in the shade Black Pearl, a lovely dark navy blue colour. Thought it suited the cover paper and title page. (Bought it for this fic specifically, but the colour goes well with almost all of my decorative papers so it should see a lot of use in the future!)

Endpapers

The final decision that held this project at a standstill for two months. In the end I drew inspiration from the matchups against the final opponent in the story. The image I used is a little chaotic and a little too unrelated to identify why I picked it without an explanation, but this book is for me and I know why, so there. (Note that I played around with the colours and cropped the photo.)

Endpaper inspiration: the maps for the matches against the Infilhites

"a long bridge through an enormous tube-like hall, where light seem to come from every side through stained glass windows. It was visually confusing, limited lateral motion" "a warehouse, crates stacked on and beside metal racks that went all the way to the ceiling." "a house of mirrors, fully enclosed to be sure the Infhillte couldn’t fly out of it." "like a volcano, rivers of lava moving sluggishly down a slope, occasional vents of overheated air nearby." "a series of overlapping bridges between halls and stairways, level after level layered over an open abyss."

Trimming & Painting the Edges

Going all out, a 2-for1 deal: the opportunity to use my lying press for the first time and learn a new technique!

TRIMMING: Used a paring chisel and lying press.

CHISEL: The 1.25" wide paring chisel I used was form a modern manufacturer. (Vintage paring chisels are very thin, enough so that you can bend/flex the blade. But don't do that.) It's long and wide blade made it easier to register against the surface of the press for consistent cuts. Looks like this one below from Lee Valley.

LYING PRESS: My dad's project. Solid black walnut, hand carved screws and internal threads — he even made the tools to make the threads too! The jaws of the press are each 3 7/8" wide. It's big and heavy (though much smaller than full-sized professional ones omg), but there's enough of a flat surface to register the chisel against. A thicc boi, much like this one below from Bookbinding Supplies.

PAINTED EDGES: The idea was to have dark navy edges, speckled with white stars. I used acrylic from a tube to paint the edges — tutorials recommended it over liquid bottled acrylic, and I had an old set hanging around. Had to water it down because otherwise the paint just flaked off.

My test of trimming and painting went well. Then the trimmed book itself came out slightly crooked, the paint required significantly more watering-down than before, and the white paint did not want to be both opaque and speckle-able. Unfortunate, but still book-shaped! And now I have an idea of what to do differently next time.

Also, did not like the glow-in-the-dark paint. Looked too translucent in the light when compared to the white acrylic, and needed a thicker coat to be visible in the dark. (The thickness combined with the translucence and base colour kinda reminded me of boogers... Ended up scrapping most of it off, so there's not much left to glow.)

Endbands

Still in the mood to have fun and go all-out, I attempted double-core endbands for the first time.

TUTORIAL: YouTube @ BookbindersChronicle: Bookbinding 101 Sewing Headbands Session 2. Also watched @ DAS Bookbinding's Double-Core Endband // Adventures in Bookbinding, but I personally found Chronicle's closeup video easier to follow.

I used embroidery floss from a 100pk of assorted colours off Amazon, wrapped around a core of 1.9mm leather cording from Michaels. I drew from Blurb_brain's art for the general colours, choosing a dark base, with red, blue-green, and gold. The specific shades were picked to go with the cover.

[cy-cyborg]

Ok so the saga with my old PC continues and is only fueling my desire to get back into fanfiction lol because I found all of the files from my attempt at making a legend of spyro fan-game! I honestly thought they were lost, I'm so excited to see all this stuff again! This was the "logo" for the game (I know its nearly unreadable lol, so it says "The Legend of Cynder, Shadows of The Past". 14/15 year old me didn't seem to care much for readability, I think I'd just discovered photoshop's layer effects lol)

Here's a bunch of random stuff I found.

I'm defiantly going to do a redraw of that last one at some point. That was like, THE thing I remember being super proud of when I first did it. I think it was going to be part of the trailer my now-partner was putting together for the game lol.

Actually, a lot of these were actually just frames from animations, but either the files are either just corrupted, or high school me didn't know how to set fps and resolution properly in the output so I got a headache trying to watch them lol. It's probably the second one honestly. Also I remember my old laptop wasn't able to play back the animation because it would lag so much, so I just had to kind of...guess at timing, and that went about as well as you'd expect. It didn't help that blender used to have this bug where your audio would move around your timeline so it really was just random guessing. I'm amazed anything got done at all, let alone how far we actually got (that is to say, not far at all but we had something playable at least).

I also found the demo files and footage of the "game" running (running at 12fps but running)! I'm curious if they still work, I'll have to download an older version of blender to test them out!

There's actually a lot more but actually finding it is proving to be quite a challenge since this laptop seems to be the digital equivalent of an ADHD "doom box" - meaning nothing is sorted into folders that make even a remote lick of sense to me, it's all just kind of thrown in together lmao.

I wanted to post these though because even though I don't really do 3D stuff anymore, It still made me really happy to see how much progress I've made over the years and how far I've come. Also a few folks who worked on this project with me back on Deviantart have started finding me lol, so in case there's anyone else out there, hello! I'm not dead, I'm still around, I'm just a lot more (openly) queer now lmao.

Image descriptions:

[ID 1: A game title that reads "The Legend of Cynder, Shadows of the Past". The two lines, "the legend of" and "shadows of the past" are written in dark purple text. The purple material is supposed to look like liquid, but instead just looks hard to read. "Cynder" is writen in black, 3D text with red outlines, with the exception of the C. The "c" is modeled as a black tube instead of in a blocky style like the rest of the letters. The inside of the C has a red underbelly, and the bottom of the C ends in a tail, resembling Cynder's from the Legend of Spyro Series. There are 3 white spikes at the top of the C. /end ID]

[ID 2: a 3d render of 4 dragons around a christmas tree. A black dragon at the front, Cynder, is using her tail to hang tinsel, a pruple dragon, Spyro, on the left is reaching up into the branches of the tree. A blue dragon, Ignitus, is hovering behind the tree, his paws outstretched, implying he is placing the glowing star at the top. On his head is a silver dragon, Zerali, balancing on his horns. behind them is a series of floating islands. /End ID]

[ID 3: A render of Cynder with a darker colour pallet than the previous image and glowing yellow eyes, snarling at the camera, guarding a black gem. The sky in the background is blood red and the terrain is flat and barren. /End ID]

[ID 4: A render of an incomplete model of Terrador, a green dragon with brown horns and rocky shoulder decorations. He has no underbelly or wings. /end ID]

[ID 5: A render of a fan character named ekkosel, a blue, anthropomorphic dragonfly with an unsettling, uncanny face and green wings, T-posing. Her green wings are a blur /End ID]

[ID 6: two sketches of a anthropomorphic cheetah heads. One has long ears like a lynx and is labeled DotD design, the other has small, rounded ears like a cheetah usually has, labled TLoC design. /end ID]

[ID 7: A render of Zerali, the silver dragon from the second image, and ekkosel, from the 5th, playing together. In this image, we can see Zerali has a pinky-purple underbelly and shiny gold horns.]

[ID 8: A rendered scene showing a close up of blue ignitus with his eyes closed. He appears to be talking to Cynder, who is in the background, but blurry. The game's logo is visible in the bottom left of the image. /end ID]

[up-in-flames-writing]

This is an old Twitter thread I'm posting here as an archive, when I eventually get banned on there for not tolerating transphobic abuse against me.

Still pretty relevant tho, even tho it was written almost a year & a half ago.

I'm sorry, I don't know how to do alt text, so here is the image ID under the cut:

[Image ID: A Twitter thread made by user Booker-Garet Feniks @abookandabun. The thread reads:

So, lately, I've been seeing some Takes™ on transition on here, & as a transman who looks like a baby butch lesbian, I have some Thoughts™, so here's a thread

First thing's first: I am short. I am skinny (read: underweight), & curvy. I have a more or less conventional hourglass figure. I also have a soft face, big lips & big eyes with long lashes. I keep my nails long & my hair long & when I cut them, they grow back fast

By all means, if I were a woman, I would be, if not conventionally attractive, at least conventionally feminine, with my small waist, wide hips, my long legs, & even my tiny tits. Despite this, I dress masculine. I hold myself like a man, I deepen my voice

My voice is naturally a bit deep, but not deep enough for there to be any ambiguity about what's in my pants. I still speak in a fake, deep voice, & when I introduce myself, I do it with a grin & tell everyone very openly 'my name is Booker-Garet'

Despite this, I do not pass. I am constantly Miss'ed & Ma'am'ed when I'm out & about. People who know me need to be told that I'm a man & go by he/him pronouns. Imagine that, imagine calling a teenage boy with an unambiguous male name 'she'. Imagine how I feel

How I feel when none of my efforts matter. How, when I'm at my most masculine while pre-op & pre-T, people see meas nothing more than a girl. It's distressing. I know what they're thinking, that I'm a tomboy or a lesbian. If they recognise that I'm trans, they don't show it

And, I feel like it's easy to get mad at GNC women. It's easy to get mad at the tomboys & the butches & the studs. 'They think I'm you' you might think. 'You're too visible & I'm not, & they think I'm you.'

I find it easy to blame a lot of ciswomen for this. The ones who tell me I should've just stayed a lesbian (which I never was), that I should've just been a tomboy (which I was), that I'm a traitor to womanhood (so be it). It is easy to get mad at them

It's hard being a trans guy, when the only pieces of masculinity coming from a female person people are aware of are the ones who are women, who stay women & who love being women. I didn't love being a woman. I love women, I love my cis & trans sisters

But I can't help feeling bitter when they perform masculinity & no one denies their womanhood, no one on the right side of history. But I can be my most manly self & even my allies feel that I'd just be better off as a lesbian, as a masculine woman.

As if masculinity is alright, is safe, as long as you're a woman who performs it, but the moment you're a man performing masculinity, you're not worth the time, the effort, the brain power.

Almost as I'd it's easier for people to accept me as a masculine woman, with my deep voice & my masculine name, than admit to the fact that I am a man

It's hard to admit that you don't pass. It's hard to admit that I'm not a 'real man', whatever that means. It's not, however, hard to admit that I don't have privilege. It's not hard to admit that I face misogyny.

It's not hard to admit that if you're AFAB & masc presenting, nothing short of a Thor voice & a Gandalf beard, & body hair like a gorilla will make people see you as anything but a woman. Because if I don't say this, who else will? I can't let people live a lie

I can't let people keep on believing that 'transmascs have it easier', that it's easier for us to pass. I can't let people keep believing that we 'run away from womanhood to have male privilege'. Where's my male privilege, Joanne? Did it get lost in the Owl Mail?

People will keep on believing that we have it easier, that we don't face discrimination, that we don't get misgendered & assaulted & killed. They will keep believing that, & they will keep ignoring us & our oppression, unless someone finally says 'Enough!' & tells their story

& I'm a good story teller, so I'm telling you. I don't pass, I wish I did, but I don't. Many of my brothers do not pass. Stop ignoring us just because you think we have it 'easier'. We don't, & your inaction is allowing us to get killed. Do better

End image ID]

[ennaku-sirri-da]

I wanna be just like you; made of felt and flesh and FREE( no strings on me !)

[ ID: Traditional fanart of me standing with an AU version of Puppet Habit or Pabit from Smile For Me the game. The AU is called AskPabit. Traditional materials used are pencil, black and blue pens, sketchpens, color pencils. The coloring is vivid and mostly done in many different shades on an individual scale, even for the same color.

Pabit's more anthromorphised form, from the askblog, is drawn in my interpretation as skinny and muppet-like with bigger proportions for the facial features and hands, high-heeled feet. He is made of felt and this is shown through the messy textured strokes.

Stitches run through the sides of his body and face. On his chest at the side is stitched a trans flag-colored heart with the letters " We love U!" -- the word love is just represented by a heart. His hair is brunette, curly and very long. His eyes too are a brown shade-- his eyes are big and lashed like those found on some children's dolls, the sclera are yellow. Below his eyes, fur-patches of pink blush are there. In his grin, his taken teeth are seen, one of them bleeding still at the side. Not all the teeth are there yet. He only wears pants in dark shades that seem to smoothly become heels in one piece-- stitches run along the sides of these too.

I am by Pabit's side. I am a shorter, light brown skinned person of average size with longer black hair and a round sparsely acne-marked face. I wear square pink glasses. My dress is a bright teal chudidar with multicolored flower designs in outline, and a sandy gold dupatta with pants of the same color to complete it.

Pabit grins and leans with one arm unsteadily on my head, I am clasping my hands in closed-eye delight, clearly excited. I lean to him. His face tilts slightly and he looks amused, one eye squinted while the other crinkles.

Beside me the text is written in a pink and black outlined box -" I'd love to be just, just like you"-- words in blue pen. Then in black--" I'll be made of felt and flesh and" -- then an arrow leads to a lavendar cloud saying " Free!" in bigger words.

Half the top background is covered by big outlines of flowers in sketch pen, lightly filled in with overlapping color pencil shades. It gives a soft look. Finally, from out of the very top a little bit of a book with a dragonfly wing design on it is seen in the drawing's photo. End ID]

--

My fanart for @askpabit ...!! I was trying for SO MANY DAYS and I FINALLY did it woooo..!!! I'm so tired after my flight so I'm short on words but I've been following this blog since like the beginning I think. The artist obviously has a lot of talent and he's really sweet too. Askpabit has been a happy influence on my life and here's my expression of that! I wish the artist all the best in his future endeavours. :) (smiley emote)

I really enjoyed coloring this by the way. Hehe all my faves become FLUFFY. I know Pabit's different here from your version but I hope you still like him...!! This is kind of just how I roll in my style.

And here's a small concept below...plus the uncoloured version of this drawing!..

[ ID: uncoloured concept sketch of Pabit from AskPabit. He is front facing and it's a bust. Here he's like he's made of felt, has big eyes like a doll, stitches like a felt toy and has long curly hair. Overall he looks a bit muppet-like. He has blush-patches of fur as well. End ID]

--

The very first concept art( Not this one) had him more like a potato sack LOL. But anyway I tried to make him look like he's made of felt..!!! As blog lore dictates, hehe. And I remember saying I really liked how Pabit's movements worked all cutesy and kind of, like he's really stuffed, like a toy. It was really neat to see coming through in just non-animated images So I tried to imitate that a bit.

Here's the Uncoloured version..!

[ID: Uncoloured version of the first drawing. It's all outlined in pencil. It's in warm filter. End ID]

[ladybots]

welcome to LADYBOTS! We're a female-focused Transformers fandom blog! Queue currently posts ONCE a day. inbox is open!

original posts include written IDs and/or Alt Text, reblogs include written IDs.

feel free to tag us in posts!

FAQ under the readmore!

• Why do you use mech/mecha to describe girl robots?

I don't believe in the mech/femme binary, i think that's dumb. Secondly, IDs are meant to give a visual description for people who for one reason or another may not have access to the image. Femme is vague and fandom-centric lingo, while "mech" is more widely understood to refer to large, humanoid robots.

• Are we ever going to do a second TF Women's Week?

It's not in the plans right now! Currently, only one mod runs this blog. I have a lot going on, and a variety of factors make event moderating unfeasible for me. If you'd like to run your own, feel free to reach out, i'd love to boost it!

• Who are the mods favourite TFs?

Termagax (IDW2), Pyra Magna, Shadow Striker, Nyx + Skold (BW21), Aileron, Airazor, Twitch + Hashtag (Earthspark), Anode, and Velocity! I'm primarily a comics reader, and a big shill for IDW2. The only continuity you're unlikely to find on here is prime/aligned, because I do not care for it.

•Are genderbends / humanformers allowed on this blog?

If the character is canonically male, I don't put art of them on this blog, even if the artist depicts them otherwise. If a character is male in some continuities and female in others, such as Swoop or Skywarp, art of them in the continuties where they are girls is allowed, of course!

• What about nonbinary characters?

I wouldn't feel comfortable grouping a nonbinary character, like Nightshade, in with female characters. It would seem to me to be disrespectful! This is case-by-case though. If there were, for example, an edit of a character in front of the demigirl flag, it may be more appropriate!

•Is there fanfic on this blog?

I don't read fic, so it's unlikely that I'd find it on my own. If theres a fic you'd like us to reblog/boost, feel free to tag us!

•I need help writing an ID/getting started with IDs!!

Feel free to send an ask! We can of course share resources or offer advice on ID writing, and direct you to places you can learn more about them!

•Do you need/want more mods?

It could never hurt! Send us a message/ask if you're interested and I'll reach out to you!

[devilofthehounds]

God Eater 3 Character Novel | Beginning of a Vow: Chapter 4

[image id: A novel cover. Hugo Pennywort from God Eater 3 is leaning against the bars of a prison cell. He is holding up his hand and looking at one of his armlets as if reminiscing. On the other side of the bars is a faded image of a young Hugo looking off into the distance. The text, when translated into English, reads “God Eater 3 Character Novel | Chapter 1: Hugo Edition | Beginning of a Vow”. /end id]

This is a fan translation. Original text here.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

On their first mission, they disobeyed all orders, rushed head-on into a horde of nearly a hundred Aragami, then returned alive in triumph, having completely contained the Aragami.

Luca and I accomplished something that would astound any God Eater. Before we knew it, the guards had started calling us the "Mad Dogs".

I wasn't sure if I'd ever forgive the guards, but it was also true that they had saved my life, and that I had no choice but to rely on them to survive.

I would continue to use them until, one day, I regained my freedom.

That was my tentative conclusion.

Influenced by our example, more and more of the other kids in the prison refused to give in to the guards. Before we knew it, a strong sense of solidarity and an atmosphere full of laughter were born in the prison.

Several months passed following that first battle...

We were training one day. During a break, someone approached me and Luca.

"Yo, Hugo, Luca! Hero coming through, make some room!"

He plopped himself down between me and Luca, tousling his shaggy blonde hair.

"...Hey, Din. Punch a guard and get thrown in the detention cell again?"

Din Pennywort—an AGE from a different block who was a little older than the rest of us.

He was known for being a maverick, always getting into fights with the guards.

"Heroes are supposed to send the bad guys flying, right, Luca?"

"...It was to protect your friends, right? I think that's pretty cool."

"Ahahaha! I knew you'd get it!"

Din smiled heartily as he put his arms around our shoulders. Training was one of the few times when AGEs were unrestrained.

"What do you want, Din? We don't have anything to talk to you about."

"Easy there, I'm not looking for trouble. Just hear me out, little Hugo."

"Yeah, right!"

I shook off Din's hand as he pinched my cheek teasingly. Then—

"Come on, Din, slow down! Hugo, Luca, mind letting me explain?"

A shorter boy came running after Din, his long black hair swaying behind him.

Oulu Pennywort—Din's shadow. The two were always joined at the hip.

Despite his unreliable atmosphere, he seemed to be a skilled fighter, teaming up with Din to defeat Aragami plenty of times.

In contrast to Din, Oulu wore a small but wry smile as he approached us.

"I'm just going to ask you straight up, alright? ...How would you feel about joining up with us and starting a rebellion?"

I couldn't believe my ears.

It was surreal to hear someone as mild-mannered as Oulu say something like that with a smile on his face.

"What?! A rebellion...?!"

"Shhh! Shhh! We don't have a lot of time, so just listen."

Oulu kept his voice low as he listened for the guards monitoring our training.

"During a mission recently, we found some small radio units."

"There's a trio of brothers in our block, and the youngest one is a whiz with machines. He's really young, but he was able to fix them just like that."

"The guards haven't found out yet. This way, we can secretly intercept their transmissions, as well as communicate with AGEs in other blocks."

I felt my heart pound slightly.

If it were true, it would be possible to strategize amongst only the AGEs of the Port.

"One of them is hidden in our block. We'll discreetly give you another one so we can communicate in secret and gather materials for negotiations."

"Negotiations? With who?"

"We heard that there are some people looking to open up a new route around here soon. Once it's safe, people from other Ports might start passing through on a regular basis."

"If we get the chance, we might be able to contact those people and sell them confidential information, or even our own talents. If they find out we're being treated badly, they might be able to help us."

I couldn't help but look over at Luca.

There was a possibility. At the very least, it seemed like a realistic plan with a realistic chance of success.

"We're still working out the kinks, but in order to pull this off, we'll need a force bull-headed enough to go toe to toe with the guards."

"That's why we decided to first consult the prison's rising stars: the Mad Dogs! What do you think? You on board?"

Din and Oulu were smiling happily, like children playing a prank.

It was an expression I hadn't seen in the prison in a long time. There was a certain hope in their eyes.

"...Sounds exciting. Sure, I'm on board. How about you, Luca?"

"Yeah. I want to help, too."

"Alrighty, let's get started! Hugo, I'll get right to it—Hrrah!"

The next moment, I was sent tumbling by Din's headbutt.

"Ow, that hurt! What the heck, Din...?!"

Oulu hurriedly intervened.

"Wait, Din, let me explain first! Sorry, the radio's hidden in the detention cell. We couldn't bring it to training, so it's the only way to get it to AGEs in other blocks..."

"That's the gist of it. I'm going in with you, so don't hesitate to hit me back, Hugo!"

"Tch, so that's what's going on... Alright, then. I'm gonna send you flying!"

The training area began to buzz with excitement as a loud fight broke out.

"H-Hey, you can just pretend! L-Luca, say something!"

"Hugo, get a running start, then hit him."

"Why are you encouraging them?!"

Soon after that, Din and I were quickly seized by the guards and thrown in the detention cell as planned.

"Tch... I'll remember that, Din..."

"Heheh, even if you don't, I'll remember that dopey look on your face when I first hit you."

With that, Din laughed and threw himself back on the hard bed.

Sighing as Din casually pointed under the bed, I laid down on the cold floor.

Indeed, there was a small, black box down there.

This could lead us into the future.

A place where you could do what you want, how you want... with your own will.

A rebellion conducted by children. For the first time in a while, I started to feel excited.

I closed my eyes and waited until nightfall, when the guards would be gone. Time passed.

"...Hey, whatever happened with all that talk about selling one of our AGEs?"

"Ah, right. There's a Port that comes knocking whenever they hear about a Grade-A AGE. A wealthy Port called Baran."

"That sounds good. If we sell his partner, maybe the Mad Dog will quiet down a bit."

I felt a sudden stir in my chest as I heard the exchange coming from outside.

Din sat up, too, and looked at me for a moment. We rushed to the bars together.

"Hey... Hey! What were you saying just now?!"

"Hm? ...Geez, you're in detention again?"

The guards turned around, smiling menacingly.

"I feel kind of bad for you. If you hadn't been such a stupid dog and got yourself put in there, you and your little friend could've spent one last night together."

I felt a chill go down my spine.

"No... No way... You're lying..."

As the guards walked away cackling, the hatred I once felt flared up again.

Luca was going to be sold? For the convenience of selfish guards? To make a quick buck?

It was too sudden. It didn't feel real.

But I knew this empty feeling was a sign of despair.

"Hey, wait... I said wait, damn you! You... You're going to take everything from me again?!"

I yelled frantically towards the outside of the detention cell.

But to the incoming guards, it probably only sounded like the baying of a wounded dog.

Din clicked his tongue and kicked the bed in anger.

"Those guys are just nasty... This is bad. If we rebel and he gets sold, it'll break everyone's hearts. If that happens, then our plan... Dammit!"

I sat shoulder to shoulder with Din, staring into nothing as my thoughts started moving faster and faster in my head.

Not again—I didn't want to lose another friend.

He was the hope I'd finally found in the darkness.

I didn't care what it was; I grasped for anything—anything—that could turn this situation around.

I clenched my fists so tight that my fingernails dug into my palms.

Suddenly, an alarm rang out through the Port.

"...What?! There's a Vajra on the route?!"

Raising their voices, the guards all ran at once.

"Vajra..."

Taking advantage of the commotion, Din took out the radio and connected to Oulu, who was waiting on the other end.

"Hey, Oulu, can you hear me? What's going on?!"

"It's really bad. A large Aragami—a Vajra—showed up where they're planning to put the new supply route! It's been blocked off, and the guards are in an uproar because the whole plan might fall through."

It seemed the route that was supposed to be profitable had now become unusable.

Amid the rapidly changing situation, my mind quietly connected possibilities one by one.

Profit. Route. Value. Large Aragami. And AGE—

"Tch, the guards are coming back... I've gotta cut you off, Oulu."

A pair of guards walked by while discussing countermeasures against the large Aragami.

I turned to them and called out.

"Hey, that Vajra... We just need to get rid of that Aragami, right?"

The guards stopped and looked at me blankly.

"Once that Aragami's gone, you'll be able to open the route and make a profit, right? Your money... I'll earn it."

It was a gamble, but it was the only way to make the most of the situation.

"I'll defeat it. Whatever Aragami come, I'll defeat them all. In exchange... there won't be any more talk about selling Luca!"

"Idiot... Don't make it sound so easy, brat! It's a Vajra. All you'll do is die a dog's death."

At that moment, Din stepped forward next to me.

"Then shut up and eat the loss, asshole. Hugo and I will take that Vajra down. Maybe sending a couple of dumb kids will get the job done, right? Take the bet."

"Din, you..."

"Two of your strongest AGEs take down a large Aragami! And you get a new route to boot! It'd be way more profitable than going to the trouble of selling one lousy Grade A!"

Din and I seemed to be on the same page.

The tension grew as the guards remained silent.

There was almost no chance of success. But if you didn't do anything, you wouldn't get anything. You wouldn't protect anything.

That was a truth deeply engraved in our hearts as AGEs.

In the suffocating atmosphere, suddenly—

"...Hugo, are you going to fight?"

Somehow, Luca wandered up and approached me.

"Luca?! What are you doing here?!"

"...Since you and Din are here in the detention cell, I figured it'd be easier to talk if I joined you, so I took a swing at one of the guards."

Beside Luca, a guard stood abjectly, holding the back of their head.

Next to me, Din doubled over with laughter. I faced Luca across the bars.

Had he already heard? That he was going to be sold?

Luca would probably try to stop me, say there was no need to do something so reckless for his sake.

But even if he said something like that, I—

"Hugo. Are we... going to be separated?"

I gripped the iron bars and squeezed tightly, steadying my voice as I answered.

"...If we're not strong enough, we might be..."

"Alright. Then, let's fight."

Luca smiled gently at me like he always did, to the point where I started to wonder if he really understood the position he was in.

"If it's just you, I'm sure you'll be reckless again. So, I'll be reckless with you. That works, right?"

He usually had a habit of being absent-minded, but once he started talking, he would never give in.

That was why. His words... they always gave me courage, even when the anxiety in my heart threatened to crush me.

Din, who seemed to be wholeheartedly enjoying himself, lined up next to us. Together, we turned to the guards, our eyes hungry like dogs.

"We'll win, even if it kills us! So put us to use!"

Translator's Note

[neversetyoufree]

do you think it’s possible vanitas could somehow mark noé one day? cuz i was going through a few pics (vampire vanitas art and chapter 11) and i was wondering if you think this is a coincidence or not

[Image Description: Two images of Noé Archiviste's hand and wrist. The first is a cropped section of the cover illustration for the Winter 2022 issue of エス Magazine. Noé is holding bright red rose petals, and blood is running from the petals down his wrist. The second image is a cropped section of a page from the Case Study of Vanitas manga. It shows Noé's hand below a text box reading "The regrets of that day..." Noé's hand and arm are spattered with blood. End ID.]

Oh interesting idea! I'm assuming by "wondering if this is a coincidence," you mean the double occurrence of blood on Noé's wrist?

If so, then as of right now, I don't think I'm inclined to read that as foreshadowing for a mark. In particular, in the chapter 11 example, both Noé and Vanitas's hands are pretty blood-covered in the full version of the image, so I don't think we can read into the blood on Noé in particular.

[Image Description: A full version of the above Case Study of Vanitas page. It shows Noé reaching down toward Vanitas's hand. Both of their hands, as well as some of the surrounding space, are covered in spatters of blood].

If one specific bit of blood was meant to be significant, then why let it blend in with all the rest of the splatter, y'know?

As for the magazine cover image, then, I don't think you can make much of it without support. If there were other specific images of blood on Noé's (and only Noé's) wrist/hand, then that might be something, but since I don't think we have that, I'm inclined to read the blood in the vamp vanitas pic more as standard-issue bloody flower imagery.

However, I noticed that the version of the chapter 11 panel that you used (and the one that I used) has some funky white lines on Noé's wrist. I originally thought those were a quirk of the scan, since I couldn't find them in other versions, but @torterrachampion says they're actually a detail mochijun added for the volume reprint only. And that's really interesting! The fact that she went out of her way to add them suggests that they're important, but I couldn't begin to say what they are. They remind me a bit of both the Book's constellation motif and Vanitas and Misha's Mark cracks, so I suppose it's not out of the question that they could be a Mark from Vanitas.

So overall, Vanitas marking Noé is a neat idea, but I don't think the images you've provided work as evidence to prove it for sure (provided I've understood your meaning correctly, at least). It's possible those white lines could be something, but it's hard to say for sure what. I'd love to hear others' thoughts on the subject!

(Also, note that I did just rewrite a chunk of this post since Torterra pointed that out for me, so if you saw the older, more negative version. whoops).

[vulturereyy]

PRE-ARTFIGHT PREP - SAVING REFS FOR FUTURE ATTACKS! :)

Hey y'all!! I'm so excited for Artfight 2023, especially to be on team goggie :> (You can find my profile here!)

I know I'm responsible for getting a few more folks into AF this year, and I've seen a lovely few tutorials on many aspects; but one thing I haven't seen is a general 'how to' on saving refs pre-fight.

For those who are new to AF, the site... Typically doesn't work the first week or so. Downtimes are getting increasingly better, but since this site is run on donations and volunteers, it's understandable that it's experiencing some hiccups with SO MANY people joining every year! AF is usually extended into the first week of august to make up for this.

HOWEVER, this does mean that all those lovely characters you've bookmarked to attack? You won't be able to access their refs if the site is down! :((

This is why it's EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED that you save them beforehand, as is often repeated!

This is not a universal method for most folks, but if you're like me just hearing 'just do x!' doesn't always help me picture *how* to do something, so I wanted to share my method :) My example will use discord, but you can very well use a google doc or word doc; anywhere that images can be saved.

Now, Let's begin!

For starters, I have my own discord server that I use for various things. I'm the only member in it, and it's great for organizing things I need.

Next, I use a text channel where I'm going to store all of the information I need

Now, while the site is up, i head over to my bookmarked characters:

Find a character you'd like to save the refs of from your list, and click onto their character profile! :)

Now, for the important question: What should you save, at the very least? (Hi @saturno-sol I'm using Chantilly as an example :> Go attack fae here!!)

Above a character's main image, you should see this:

The first thing that may not be obvious to save is that string of numbers, which can be copied by pressing the clipboard. Artfight does not use character names, but character IDs for submitting attacks, and these cannot be found anywhere but on-site.

Second, you'll want to save the username of the person who the character belongs to. I usually format these in my notes like:

Chantilly - 2231643 By Saturno-Sol

The other things you will want to save text-wise will be that person's permissions, found under the images and character descriptions here:

( Please be sure to take note of each person's character and personal permissions! Getting free art is lovely, but so is respecting boundaries <3 )

And the character profile itself, situated above the permissions and below the image gallery

If a character description is longer, I personally tend to pick out important bits from it and paste them together in more bullet-pointed form. But those who won't break the character limit of a normal discord post, I'll simply copy paste both perms and character description :)

Finally, you'll want your images of course! These can be copy pasted into wherever you're saving them, though I highly recommend a format where you can have the above text information and the images together for sake of clarity. Especially if you're going to have a lot of saved characters, like myself :>

In the end, my posts usually end up looking like:

**Name - ID** By [Username] **Character permissions** [character permissions] **[username's] global permissions** [global perms]

**Character profile** [Character information here]

And lastly, images at the bottom, given how discord formats things :) All in one place, off-site, so I may still browse various characters while the site broken. And as soon as it's ready, I don't have to worry about loading multiple tabs on-site to submit the attack, I've got all the information I need right there!

I hope this helps some new and maybe even some old artfight veterans. I'd recommend saving over the amount of attacks you think you'll do, just in case you're an indecisive queen like I am and want some variety to choose from.

Hope to see you all in the fight when it starts! Excited for my fourth year in the brawl >:)

[motionjames]

Wake up girlies, it's time to return to the frontline!

Guess who has insomniaaaa! 🤗💕💕

A month of cramps, nausea, increasingly worse insomnia (but a strangely good mood) has lead me down the path once again. I caught wind of some strange "gfl2" thing and after being struck with nostalgia, I grabbed bluestacks and fell into hell once more. I'd deleted gfl off my phone simply because it took too much space but now that it's on my computer, it's become DANGEROUS...! Github and clip studio up front with logistics running forever in the background. Yes, the ideal working experience.

Anyhow, everyone say hello to Contender.

I've been making more progress in these past two days than I had in the entire two months I spent with my new account because I realized how to (partially) Not Be An Idiot. Turns out there's a thing called "anchored construction" and you can get some pretty nice units (eventually) if you realize it exists! Wow! I got the girly and now I'm working on grabbing Carcano because she is pretty but also insane skillz.

Also, there's a discounted gatcha running right now and that means I can finally get over my mental block and spend tokens... I was surprised at how easy it's been to acquire them, so I've just been shilling em out. My dorm was totally bare until now. I'm sorry, everynyan...

As for actual gameplay, I finally made it past 2-6. It might seem like a simple thing to most but I was yet again, being an idiot. I was under the impression that I HAD to have dupes of the girls to dummy link them when I actually was swimming in dummy cores 🤦🏽‍♂️ What's wrong with me... Well, I jumped over that hurdle, blasted through the emergency missions, and am finishing chapter 3. The first parts arent so bad when you learn how to read! 😃😃😃

First eschalon is good, it's the standard one that everyone seems to use to clear the early game. This second one is a WIP mess that I'm readying for night missions. You see, I'm really hurting for half-decent SMGs and rifles, the second one there is kinda lacking in defense/fire power... I wanna create a decent second eschalon and night mission groupie but I gotta figure out what units to invest in. I hope for Carcano soon. She is cute. Also, feel free to berate me for my bad decisions and suggest decent compositions. I am so lacking in SMGs that dont immediately explode (mpk you are so cute but so stupid). I'm currently looking at friend's compositions to figure out what formations work...

In completely different news and only further proving how dense I am, I only recently learned that Girl of the Bakehouse was related to GFL. I've had my eye on Reverse Collapse for a while now since it's a remake (of a remake?! I didnt play the previous one) of a visual novel I played in 2012 or so. The original vn was made in 2009 in like Kirikiri script and I was a young lad very fixated on all things with girls and guns (Gunslinger Girl was and still is a favorite of mine, I would've read it one summer at my Uncle's out on the front porch). There's an english patch now, but back then it was only in Chinese so I had to use text extracting and image translators, looking up the characters as I went. I got a cup of coco and opened up a patched version last night for old times sake. It's clearly a doujin work with those rough edges but it's so damn confident in its presentation you can't not get swept up in the presentation. The sound work make it very immersive. I highly reccomend reading it if you want a solid, emotional war story. Looking at the sepia soaked sketches, down-to-earth narrative, dense wordbuilding and general war otaku sentimentality... It really predicted a lot of my tastes, huh... 😅

Behold, teh wolfguy...

Back to work. Logistics still running. I can and WILL continue being stupid. The nostalgia is really strong, I'm tempted to draw fanart despite the sour memories of the past. Again, please berate me and tell me of your team compositions. I think my ID is 772030 but I promise you, I won't be any good on teh battlefield 😇 this machine runs off hopes and dreams, not realities!

[encrucijada]

PÍA RAMBLES #6

nanowrimo is technically over and i barely made a dent on what was supposed to be my main wip during november. but one thought led to another and i made some changes that contradict the powerpoint i posted at the start of the month... so let me tell you about evergreen lung!

if you're new to my writing updates: because of how inconsistent i am with my progress i just label everything as a writing update and then theme them accordingly.

disclaimer: this is my original work, plagiarism of any kind won’t be tolerated.

[ all images ids in alt text! ]

i was having a lot of trouble making the relationships between characters work, which is a problem considering character relationships would make or break this book in particular. i've only written one and a half chapters which, i know is too soon to know if the dynamics were really as bleh as they seemed in my head (especially considering i've only barely introduced the character of raquel)... but things just weren't clicking in an appealing way.

so what did i do? i opened my phone's notes app and started typing naturally lmao. i laid out all my troubles and i think i've found it now! the version of evergreen lung i like.

these are the changes

august is now a completely different character! originally she was supposed to be ezra's "friendship interest" (like love interest but for friend) but i was having this problem about their relationship being too similar to that of ezra's mums xiomara and katalina. something that was bothering no one but if i didn't do something about it it was gonna bother me for all intended 70k words of this. i've aged august up and now she is running the radio station mentioned in the powerpoint (there's also something new and magical about her but [spoilers]).

it also allowed me to implement a dynamic i would have otherwise discarded with the changes i did to ezra's family, which makes me happy as i really liked it. see, since her inception august has been the someone new by hozier sorta character where she falls in love with pretty strangers on the bus. in the earlier versions of evergreen lung, ezra was supposed to live with her aunt who couldn't really hold down a partner and that was going to contrast with ezra who didn't want a partner. now that dynamic is the one shared between ezra and august! they have more of a "queer neurodivergent student who imprints on their cool teacher" vibe

juan diego figueroa! you may remember him as santiago figueroa from the powerpoint, i changed his name. the obligatory adam parrish-esque character because this is a book about a sentient forest. he's ezra's new platonic soulmate. a story about two aspec kids with lots of nature imagery surrounding them and whose relationship people are being extremely amatonormative about. after all, they're a boy and a girl so they should be falling in love

not only are they extremely cute, but their dynamic immediately puts me at ease with being Different(tm) from xiomara/katalina/caleb, which is what was bothering me if i had made a little trio out of ezra/august/santiago. as said in the powerpoint, his family runs the greenhouse where xiomara buys all her plant babies and it gives juan diego and ezra a fun thing going on. where they know each other but will grow to be each other's best friends much to their surprise

okay! let's talk chapters

i have named a few scattered chapters. these are the first five (at least for now some titles could be moved around later). as of rn i have only written chapters one and i'm working on finishing chapter two. yes, in my head that is more than enough to talk

I: CREATION ACT

so for the uninitiated: evergreen lung is about this girl named ezra who died and then undied. what felt like passing out overnight in the forest for her turned out to be a year of her being missing.

i'd written the opening scene of the book many moons ago, around the time when i first had the idea for this story. it remains one of my favourite openers. here's an excerpt!

I woke up again because I couldn’t breathe. It turned into crying. Blood smeared on my cheeks, my nose, my mouth. I think… I might have been having nightmares, but I couldn’t remember. The sun made nightmares go away.

Checked my phone again, mechanical. The dead screen spiderwebbed and mosaicked with the honeycomb light through the canopy of branches. I did that three more times, forgetting each time, until I sprung panicked because the weight of my own body made my arm fall asleep and I thought the fox was back and had taken it along this time. I pressed the power button on the phone like that might will it to work.

I also got bitten on the leg, the tender tissue on the back of my knee, and I kicked. A fox with shamrocks as way of ear tufts whined and sprang away. That made me sit up and I cried, whimpering apologies. Whimpering please forgive me’s to an animal that wasn’t there anymore.

i'm now gonna shout out @rxinbowbright and @chaoticdecember because it's thanks to them that i even conceived making any progress with this book at all. and it's all thanks to the characters of ezra's parents who are actually our ocs for a personal project we share. with katalina being teddy's and caleb being fluffy's, xio is mine. it makes sense for a story about the importance of queerplatonic relationships for our main character to be born into one imo.

a while back (a long while back) i decided to start using chapter titles. they add so much personality and i think they need to do a comeback in books. i'm especially fond of the two words structure which is what i'm gonna be doing with evergreen lung. it creates such vivid imagery with something as simple as creation act, especially considering the subject matter. ezra coming back home and all.

II: PRESSED FLOWERS

aka ezra takes a walk around town and reunites with raquel, they go to a concert. alternatively: sometimes the main conflict is the fact your best friend has a boyfriend.

the plot truly begins here: ezra realises there's a disconnect between her and the person who's her best friend, she missed graduation and we all know how much things change in not even a year of being done with high school. the people you saw 5 days a week aren't part of your routine anymore, friend groups don't survive, everyone's got their own goals and no one's worried about the same homework as you.

other stories might turn raquel into the villain but there are no villains here (except for amatonormativity). i love raquel, and i love the relationship with her boyfriend like i love any other ship in my wips. they've got this fun garage band aesthetic going on and damian is friends with ezra... sadly while she was gone they planned and agreed to move out of town together. and now instead of having time to process this, ezra's arriving a month (or so) before it happens.

the title of pressed flowers is supposed to be a metaphor about preserving things.

Raquel’s mum was a redhead like her two daughters. She was wearing an apron and a dress, hands clad with rubber gloves, she looked as if she’d stepped out of 50s USA nuclear family propaganda. Wendy was forced to stay outside and I stood in their kitchen on the verge of tears for an agonising ten minutes.

I kept asking them: Raquel? Raquel? Raquel?

And they put a glass of pink lemonade in my hands and hugged me until I spilled it on the floor anyways. You went missing, they said, as if I was a third-party stranger who hadn’t heard of the local tragedy. Instead of being the very subject of it. Yeah, I know, I said, objective, like speaking of the weather. Your parents— Raquel's mum started to say. They know, I said.

“She’s going to be so happy.” Marianela was holding the baby to her chest.

“Where’s Raquel?” I asked again.

“Not here,” her mum said. “She got this crazy idea in her head when she turned eighteen. Moved right out, said she was ready to be independent.”

“Where’s Raquel?” I asked again.

“She didn’t even have a job!” her mum said. “Now I think she’s working as a cashier.”

“Where’s Raquel?” I asked Marianela directly.

“The shopping centre downtown,” she said, patting the baby’s back as she became fuzzy. Warning of a wail. “They have these empty rooms serving no purpose at all.”

okay! i think that's gonna be it for now. i mainly wanted to talk about the changes i made (which also helps me it's the rubber duck method). and also hopefully this gave you a better idea of what the book's about, where it's headed.

the other chapters will tackle the following:

dead heading: the real weight of being gone

organic bodies: trying to reconnect

blink twice: ezra goes to a party with her old classmates

the sentient forest is coming, i promise.

cheers, pía

[wobster109]

Twitter isn't going down all at once, but it was never going to. No site gets that big and popular without being pretty stable. I'd expect trouble to gradually pop up over the timespan of a few weeks and months as crucial but unexciting tasks get overlooked.

I'm no systems expert. I'm a programmer who writes code in a little silo, so I'm only peripherally aware of how systems, applications, networks, etc. all work together. But here is my best guess.

Here are some places Twitter might start breaking down.

Software is always changing, and some of those changes are in underlying tools. Look for the words "API" or "patch". If whatever uses it is not updated, it's going down. One example is how neopets games don't work anymore: Neopets doesn't own or develop Flash, but it relied on Flash.

This could be as silent as authentication protocols. What this means is that different chunks of code are always asking other chunks of code to do things for them, for example when I tweet from my phone, my phone asks Twitter to post the tweet. The tweet is not posted on my phone, it is posted on Twitter, where anyone can see it, browser or mobile. So Twitter needs to decide whether to post the tweet to my account. Well, my phone tells Twitter that I am signed in, but does Twitter believe it? Or is it a hacker pretending to be my phone? There are all sorts of protocols before Twitter will believe my phone. Think of it as whispering "The eagle flies at night," or perhaps "I like your shoelaces". Now, security experts are saying "No! That phrase is too common! You need a different phrase!" And if Twitter doesn't have anyone who can update their code phrase, they will no longer know whom to trust. I used this example specifically because authentication protocols are always changing.

In the same vein as Flash, a lot of third-party stuff is licensed. Annually or monthly. Something as big as Twitter probably uses a bunch of third-party stuff in its code. It's easier and more robust than writing it from scratch, just like me building my own table with my own hammer won't come out with a great product. I do not know what third-party software Twitter is using (one guess is it probably uses some image-scanning tool). Personally, I work at a small-medium company and we use third-party software for bug reports/ticketing, and we rent Cloud space from one of the big Cloud providers, and we contract with a company to watch our network traffic for hacking attempts. If we don't renew the contracts, then our stuff stops working. This won't happen to twitter overnight, but crucially, the people who know when it will happen, and to what, might be fired or gone.

Maintenance - data: electronic stuff generates data and logs all the time, and the more data you have, the slower stuff runs. We routinely archive our old logs and files. Some of it is very low-tech -It will take you several minutes to open an excel doc if it has 100k lines in it, and it will freeze when you scroll. A database is like a high-tech version of that. Twitter is always looking up who your mutuals are, what they posted, what you posted, etc. With something like 2/3 of its staff gone, are the crucial databases getting archived or cleaned? (For databases of tweets, it's probably automatically cleaned up. But somewhere down the line, there are probably a handful of somethings - folders, obscure databases, files etc - that are not. Here, we have a text log of user updates that someone manually archives every few months.)

Maintenance - incidents: sometimes something comes up that only a human can fix. One example of this is when new hire A's ID got typoed, and their account got merged with person B, and they can't access any of the stuff they need. Another example is a physical device goes offline, and the reason is it got physically unplugged. Does twitter have the staff to investigate and manually handle these situations? A few issues here and there is probably ok, Twitter probably has redundancies built in, and is not relying on any one person or device. But if it becomes a backlog, and issues pile up over time, there could be trouble down the line.

All this to say that Twitter won't be gone overnight. More likely it will gradually have more and more errors popping up, and get slower and buggier until it falls apart. I think this will start to become more noticeable after a month or so.

It sounds like Twitter is already seeing the first signs of trouble. Axios reports that Twitter has gotten bad at detecting copyright infringement. That may have been one of the third-party tools it was relying on.

[kusanagionthetelevi]

red alert! new project sekai rp blog!

as you make your way through the vast spectrum that is project sekai roleplay blogs, you find yourself running into...

...a television?

what's that doing here?

you attempt waving at it, but as you move closer, you notice the confusion in their face as they try to process everything that had just happened, to no avail.

a dialogue box suddenly appears from the screen...

[alt text: an animated gif of a custom mint-themed earthbound dialogue box that reads: wha.. what am i doing here… /end id]

(ooc intro under the cut)

hi there! i'm no one's favorite inazuma eleven fan @nanairomelette! i made this sideblog as a sorry excuse to overuse the earthbound text labs site because it's beautiful. sorry not sorry

general? info:

i prefer being called noa, but i use other names too :3 (allister, fei, j, sol)

i use the same pronouns i use for nene, as well as thou/🎲/nine/six pronouns !

basic dni (homophobes, transphobes, naz1s, ableists, racists, etc) and anti mogai or neopronouns. also if you sexualize any of the pjsk characters you WILL be blocked on sight. this excludes some of the npcs and kaimeiluka as they're all of age but i will likely avoid interacting with you since i'm a minor

speaking of sexualization, please don't send anything suggestive in the askbox! nene is a minor, and so am i.

this is generally a self indulgent blog so expect a lot of headcanons. one of those hcs are he/they/six/waltz nene so just a heads up i guess

although this is less important, i'd like to note that i also hc nene as a genderfluid transmasc aroace lesbian :]

oh ANF ANFD AND. i will also use pronoun hcs for other project sekai characters and i'll make a masterlist when i feel like it.

even then, i'll use the pronouns you use for the character you're roleplaying as when the time comes that we interact!

also i already have this in my description but i'd like to add a trigger warning for unreality as this is a roleplay blog, as well as an obligatory no this account is in no way officially affiliated with sega nor colorful palette!

and since i'm using gifs (image format) as a means to communicate, i'll do my best to maximize alt texts on this blog. feel free to criticize me if i'm missing out or pointing out too many details in my alt texts!

i might not be too active on this account as 1. my current sp/in is inazuma eleven so i don't really dwell much on pjsk anymore 2. school is stressing me the hell out

also i have a few negative experiences with roleplaying and i'm a bit scared of interacting with strangers so please bare with me

some stuff i think you should know:

this is basically an au where for whatever reason, rui's inventions accidentally get nene stuck inside a damn old television. as of late, she has not found a way to get him out of there

that's like. the main premise if we're talking about nene, however i haven't really decided the rest. i'm thinking the main plot would include project sekai characters inside random things (ie. miku inside your washing machine)

feel free to add more to this mess of an au, i'm open to anything, just shoot me an ask either here or on my main account!

tag masterlist:

#nene live broadcasting -> text? posts #live nene reaction -> in-character reblogs #nene rebroadcasting -> in-character self-reblogs #dial KUS4N4G1-N3N3-720-06 -> asks #noa live broadcasting -> ooc/mod posts/reblogs (includes self-reblogs)

to conclude this post, i'd like to link the project sekai rp blog masterlist down below! nice to meet you all, and let's have fun!

[scribblescreative]

ARCHITECTURE PROMPT DAY FOUR

[Image ID: a square instagram post with a grey concrete background and green, creeping vines with the word “FOUR” written in black font. /.End ID]

[Image text: Lambeth North - Tube Station. Philip writes: Once you get down Lambeth way Ev'ry evening, ev'ry day, You'll find yourself Wondering how a tube station that was closed for “maintenance works” for seven months in 2016-17 (new lifts) could still look like a Detroit ruin. Oi! Maybe that’s the vibe TfL were trying to achieve at platform-level - something a little more earthy, more dungeony, than you’ll find elsewhere on the system. Perhaps work in-progress has been suspended. If the Bakerloo line is the Cinderella of the tube network, then Lambeth North really has had a going over from the Ugly Sisters. Leslie Green on the surface, of course, and all very pleasing. Severely damaged in a 1941 air raid - one shelter user died, and 27 more were hospitalised. Today it’s the quietest tube station in Zone One. Perhaps things will change when the Bakerloo extension is built, but that’s currently scheduled for “sometime, never”. Well, we live in hope! Maudslay image: Lambeth borough archive. /.End ID]

[Image ID: A square image with a grey concrete background and five photographs of a tube station on top of it. Four of the photographs depict the inside of an old decrepit tube station with mouldy walls and lots of crumbling plaster. The fifth image is of the exterior of the station which has vibrant and shiny burgundy tiles covering it and bright blue door, and various people milling about on the pavements outside of it. /.End ID]

[Image text: Writing Prompt - Underground: I can't pretend to understand all of the references Philip makes in this post. But I do feel inspired by the reminder of the long history of the London Underground. Architecture is about more than the buildings we see above ground. Philip mentions the contrast between the neat outside of the station and the dungeon-like interior. In his photographs he captures just how run down and discoloured the walls of the underground are, in comparison to the stunning tiling in other underground stations. There is also the history relating to WW2 and the air raid in 1941. For this, the penultimate prompt, I'd like to invite you to let your imaginations wander somewhere dark. Use the idea of the underground to start writing a piece that takes flaking paint, stained walls and out of date signage as a way into an event. Go underground, write about a subversive or protest event. Think gothic, sewers, tube stations, abandoned, deserted and forgotten. What purpose might these places serve? /.End ID]

[Image text: Artist Prompt - Underground: I absolutely love the mouldy, crumbling walls inside this tube station, and as a proud member of the Dirtcore aesthetic these photos are making my fingers itch to take one of the photos and just draw a bunch of mushrooms and ferns growing out of the wall with gremlins milling around waiting for their ride to arrive, it’s like an underground fantasy daydream! So please; take one of these photos and add in your own inhabitants! Is it so disused it’s now overgrown with only plants? Are there post-apocalyptic people wearing masks to protect them from the toxic air? Ghosts of those long since passed? Huddled people hiding while the air-raid sirens boom above? /.End ID]

[therandomfandomme]

Archaeologist Habits Are Hard to Break

I've dug a water management well in my mom's garden the past two days (we are Dutch so you know we love some good water management) and I have discovered some defects that come with being an archaeologist and being asked to dig something that's not a coup.

[image ID: Image 1: picture of the well which is 1 meter in diameter and 1.5 meter deep. There is a purple step stool in it and there gray encased electrical wiring running across it on the upper side.

Image 2: a picture of awhite sieve filled with all types of pottery, rocks and other bits and bops. End ID]

AKA I have collected all the things I found while digging the well and since I wouldn't be an archaeologist if I didn't share what I found, I will provide pictures of all my finds sorted in categories below :D

All these finds come from the upper layer, they look pretty recent and are probably just trash that ended up in the upper layer after this house was build somewhere in the 1920s.

[Image ID: Image 3: a collection of glazed pottery, consisting of mostly orange glazed pottery but there is also a purpule and a dark gray piece Notable is the big rim fragment. There are 16 total.

Image 4: a collection of white pottery, most is glazed white. There are a few bottom pieces of what could be plates. There are 17 total.

Image 5: A collection of decorated glazed pottery. There are 4 total. One is white with a blue decoration in the bottom hard to make out what since it's so small. Another one is also white with blue decorations. This piece is entirely decorated with a blue flower on a white background and then a band of blue floral decorations. The next one is decorated with an orangy brown. These create white shapes in bands such as circles and triangles. The last one is the bottom of what could be a plate with a little bit of text left in the corner that reads: 'AMIQ..'

Image 6: A collection of random things. There is an rusty nail, two pieces of glass, a bit of pottery that I forgot to put in another category, a marble, a coin and the cap of a preserving bottle.

Image 7: a close up of both sides of the coin. On the front there is an image of a royal woman, the text around her says: 'Juliana Koningin der Nederlanden' which translates to Juliana Queen of the Netherlands. On the other side states that it is 10 cents with a crown above it. Surrounding it, it is indicated that it's from 1950.

Image 8: a close up of the cap. On the side it says in red: 'Flesschen Fabriek Delft' wich is annold spelling of bottle and then factory Delft (a place). The top is more faded but in black is says: 'J.H. van WEES DEPOT ZHB BAARN'

Image 9: a collage of collections of more pottery. These are sorted in four categories: identifiable pieces, smooth pieces, rough big pieces and rough small pieces. There are 7 pieves in the first category, 7 in the second too, 8 in the third and 28 in the forth.

Image 10: a collection of fun rocks I also found and wanted to keep, because I also have magpie tendencies. end ID]

I myself focus more on the Mesolithic to the Iron Age, so I have little clue if this is anything but I thought I'd yeet it in the void (i think @chaotic-archaeologist does more historic work but America is different). Anways I'd love to hear observations! Or if anyone else struggles with letting go of their archaeologist habits XP