#i think it was bc of the type of paper its printed on?

[why-its-kai]

Scans of the booklet, back insert, disc, and obi* from the 2010 Flying Dog Trigun - Badlands Rumble - O.S.T. CD.

Scanned and edited by me.

*Obi under the cut because of photoset formatting weirdness:

[dbphantom]

maybe i should have gone into practical effects instead of computer science...

[ryin-silverfish]

So You Want to Read More about Chinese Mythos: a rough list of primary sources

"How/Where can I learn more about Chinese mythology?" is a question I saw a lot on other sites, back when I was venturing outside of Shenmo novel booksphere and into IRL folk religions + general mythos, but had rarely found satisfying answers.

As such, this is my attempt at writing something past me will find useful.

(Built into it is the assumption that you can read Chinese, which I only realized after writing the post. I try to amend for it by adding links to existing translations, as well as links to digitalized Chinese versions when there doesn't seem to be one.)

The thing about all mythologies and legends is that they are 1) complicated, and 2) are products of their times. As such, it is very important to specify the "when" and "wheres" and "what are you looking for" when answering a question as broad as this.

-Do you want one or more "books with an overarching story"?

In that case, Journey to the West and Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen Yanyi) serve as good starting points, made more accessible for general readers by the fact that they both had English translations——Anthony C. Yu's JTTW translation is very good, Gu Zhizhong's FSYY one, not so much.

Crucially, they are both Ming vernacular novels. Though they are fictional works that are not on the same level of "seriousness" as actual religious scriptures, these books still took inspiration from the popular religion of their times, at a point where the blending of the Three Teachings (Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism) had become truly mainstream.

And for FSYY specifically, the book had a huge influence on subsequent popular worship because of its "pantheon-building" aspect, to the point of some Daoists actually putting characters from the novel into their temples.

(Vernacular novels + operas being a medium for the spread of popular worship and popular fictional characters eventually being worshipped IRL is a thing in Ming-Qing China. Meir Shahar has a paper that goes into detail about the relationship between the two.)

After that, if you want to read other Shenmo novels, works that are much less well-written but may be more reflective of Ming folk religions at the time, check out Journey to the North/South/East (named as such bc of what basically amounted to a Ming print house marketing strategy) too.

-Do you want to know about the priestly Daoist side of things, the "how the deities are organized and worshipped in a somewhat more formal setting" vs "how the stories are told"?

Though I won't recommend diving straight into the entire Daozang or Yunji Qiqian or some other books compiled in the Daoist text collections, I can think of a few "list of gods/immortals" type works, like Liexian Zhuan and Zhenling Weiye Tu.

Also, though it is much closer to the folk religion side than the organized Daoist side, the Yuan-Ming era Grand Compendium of the Three Religions' Deities, aka Sanjiao Soushen Daquan, is invaluable in understanding the origins and evolutions of certain popular deities.

(A quirk of historical Daoist scriptures is that they often come up with giant lists of gods that have never appeared in other prior texts, or enjoy any actual worship in temples.)

(The "organized/folk" divide is itself a dubious one, seeing how both state religion and "priestly" Daoism had channels to incorporate popular deities and practices into their systems. But if you are just looking at written materials, I feel like there is still a noticeable difference.)

Lastly, if you want to know more about Daoist immortal-hood and how to attain it: Ge Hong's Baopuzi (N & S. dynasty) and Zhonglv Chuandao Ji (late Tang/Five Dynasties) are both texts about external and internal alchemy with English translations.

-Do you want something older, more ancient, from Warring States and Qin-Han Era China?

Classics of Mountains and Seas, aka Shanhai Jing, is the way to go. It also reads like a bestiary-slash-fantastical cookbook, full of strange beasts, plants, kingdoms of unusual humanoids, and the occasional half-man, half-beast gods.

A later work, the Han-dynasty Huai Nan Zi, is an even denser read, being a collection of essays, but it's also where a lot of ancient legends like "Nvwa patches the sky" and "Chang'e steals the elixir of immortality" can be first found in bits and pieces.

Shenyi Jing might or might not be a Northern-Southern dynasties work masquerading as a Han one. It was written in a style that emulated the Classics of Mountains and Seas, and had some neat fantastic beasts and additional descriptions of gods/beasts mentioned in the previous 2 works.

-Do you have too much time on your hands, a willingness to get through lot of classical Chinese, and an obsession over yaoguais and ghosts?

Then it's time to flip open the encyclopedic folklore compendiums——Soushen Ji (N/S dynasty), You Yang Za Zu (Tang), Taiping Guangji (early Song), Yijian Zhi (Southern Song)...

Okay, to be honest, you probably can't read all of them from start to finish. I can't either. These aren't purely folklore compendiums, but giant encyclopedias collecting matters ranging from history and biography to medicine and geography, with specific sections on yaoguais, ghosts and "strange things that happened to someone".

As such, I recommend you only check the relevant sections and use the Full Text Search function well.

Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studios, aka Liaozhai Zhiyi, is in a similar vein, but a lot more entertaining and readable. Together with Yuewei Caotang Biji and Zi Buyu, they formed the "Big Three" of Qing dynasty folktale compendiums, all of which featured a lot of stories about fox spirits and ghosts.

Lastly...

The Yuan-Ming Zajus (a sort of folk opera) get an honorable mention. Apart from JTTW Zaju, an early, pre-novel version of the story that has very different characterization of SWK, there are also a few plays centered around Erlang (specifically, Zhao Erlang) and Nezha, such as "Erlang Drunkenly Shot the Demon-locking Mirror". Sadly, none of these had an English translation.

Because of the fragmented nature of Chinese mythos, you can always find some tidbits scattered inside history books like Zuo Zhuan or poetry collections like Qu Yuan's Chuci. Since they aren't really about mythology overall and are too numerous to cite, I do not include them in this post, but if you wanna go down even deeper in this already gigantic rabbit hole, it's a good thing to keep in mind.

[cloudcountry]

music notes of the heart

Genre/Tropes: Study dates but its unestablished relationship? Floyd is flirting with you LMAO + Slow Dancing!!

Summary: Your tutor for musicology may not be other people's first choice, but he's yours.

Author's Comments: inspired by this tumblr post!! we truly do need more intelligent floyd content and i've already written for jade's dorky goofy silly side so many times sigh. also seriously, do not ask about the slow dancing merpeople rituals. you can infer. LMAO (@tinyletterz i hope you dont mind me tagging you but i was thinking of you when i wrote this bc yk. Floyd Leech. C:)

~~~~~

You set your books down on the table tucked in the corner of the library and sit down, shifting anxiously as you await your tutor. The smell of old papers and the sound of scratching pens from a few bookshelves away does nothing to dispel your nerves. If Ace and Deuce could see just who you’d asked for help, they surely would have yelled at you for hours and wrung out your neck in frustration.

It’s not like anyone else held the same passion for musicology, though. Besides, Floyd Leech wasn’t that bad once you got to know him.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, you think as he waltzes into the library, a lazy smirk on his face and his hands shoved into his pockets. His back is hunched slightly as he looks around the library, eyes scanning over each face with an almost predatory grin. You raise your arms and wave him over, trying not to make much noise to avoid being yelled at by the crabby librarian.

Floyd does not share that sentiment.

“Shrimpy!” he yells (honestly you don’t think he’s capable of yelling any louder) and bounces over to you.

He sweeps you into his arms in the blink of an eye, cackling madly as he nuzzles you. The librarian shoots the two of you a glare, and you shrink into his chest with shame. You’ll have to apologize to him later.

“Were ya trying to hide from me?” he breathes, sharp teeth on display as he grins down at your bundled-up form, “You know I’d sniff you out, right?”

“I wasn’t.” you protest, but it falls on deaf ears and Floyd squeezes you closer. His nose brushes against your cheek and he borderline snuggles you and you’re glad you’ve picked a table in the corner because if you were any closer to the center everyone would be staring.

“Alright Shrimpy,” he murmurs, setting you down in your chair with two quick taps on your head, “Ya said you needed my help with musicology?”

“I didn’t know who else to ask.” you say, sliding your textbook over to him with a furrowed brow, “You’re the best in that class and I can’t seem to grasp any of it.”

Floyd sits down next to you and leans in close, so close that you can smell the cologne on his clothing. You let him read through the notes you made on the sheet of lined paper you used to mark your page, gnawing at your lower lip self-consciously. You know you aren’t the best at this subject but it’s Floyd’s best, and you don’t want him to think you’re stupid.

He seems to be able to read minds because Floyd looks over at you with a pout.

“Shrimpy, I’d tell ya if you were stupid. So quit worrying.” Floyd scolds, snatching your hand up and squeezing it as he intertwines your fingers, “The fun thing about musicology is that you can analyze and learn from any angle ya want!”

“Freer subjects are harder to work with, though.” you confess, “I’m not sure how to go about...figuring something out when it doesn’t have structure.”

Floyd sticks his tongue out and blows a raspberry as if to say “Boo, Shrimpy. Now you do sound stupid.” You can almost hear his voice.

“Just pick something and we can start from there. What kind of music do ya like?” he bumps you with his shoulder, a huge grin on his face, “Ya gotta have something.”

You answer him, and he makes an “ah-ha!” noise. He mumbles a page number and flicks through the textbook before coming to a stop at a chapter that goes into that exact type of music. There are music scores printed on the right page and some kind of tree diagram on the left one. You stare at the words incredulously, already lost.

“Come on now, Shrimpy. Work that tiny little brain of yours.” Floyd teases, jabbing your temple with a giggle, “I know you can do it.”

You swat his hand away and wiggle your hand out of his hold, feeling a foreign heat creep up on your cheeks. Floyd giggles again as if he knows, and leans in even closer to you.

“Hey Shrimpy.” he whispers, eyes gleaming in the corner of your vision, “I changed my mind, let’s ditch the reading. I’m getting bored. What are ya gonna do about that, huh?”

You’re not sure you can do anything honestly, but you expected him to leave pretty early on in your study session anyway. It’s a miracle you got him to agree in the first place.

“Oh, you can leave.” you offer him a quick smile and turn back to your textbook, pouring over the words, “I didn’t expect you to stay the whole time- Woah!”

You’re swept out of your chair but the second time that day, and your body thumps against Floyd’s. He stares at you with a cheerful grin as he takes your hands and places them on his arms. You jump a bit when his lanky arms wrap around your waist, but when he starts swaying slowly you get the idea.

“Let’s try something else, yeah?” he snickers, “Can you tell me why people slow dance?”

“Um...to feel emotional closeness?” you say, eyes glued to his rumpled purple shirt so you don’t have to look him in the eye.

“Bingo.” he chuckles, “Merpeople also have dances like this.”

You’re tempted to ask what those dances are for, but you don’t. Floyd sweeps you around and your feet lift off the floor for a second, but you don’t feel like you’re going to fall. Floyd squeezes you a bit tighter as he guides you, somehow avoiding any tables and chairs and bookcases with master precision.

“I didn’t know you could slow dance.” you whisper, “I thought you were more of a fast paced dancer.”

“Meh. Normally.” he shrugs, “But I like dancing like this with ya. It’s fun.”

Your heart flutters.

“Can ya tell me anything else about it?” he hums, lifting his arm and spinning you around. Your breath catches in your throat as he dips you, the arm carefully holding up your waist your only support.

“Um...” you stumble over your words, grasping for any thoughts as you stare into his eyes, “Uh, it’s- um, slow dancing brings people physically closer too? Because you can feel their movement and everything-”

“Good little Shrimpy.” he giggles, hoisting you back up and resuming his more soothing swaying, “See? You’re doing good. I told ya you’d figure it out.”

Did he? You don’t even remember.

“I think I need more instruction.” you mumble, eyes darting away once again.

Floyd laughs loudly at that, but this time you don’t care when the librarian shushes you.

[b4kuch1n]

frog documentation. frogcumentation

I think I mentioned a while back I'd post nibling frog momence after the gift's done given. which happened on the 2nd this month I just forgot lmao. anyways we can do it now. I used the boigameista pattern scaled up to four pieces of A4 print paper and decided to double deck it to a two layer thing, not unlike a pillow, for ease of washin. because it was gonna be gifted to a one year old child

took a long time and made a number of mistakes bc hand sewing makes me worse as a person but this guy was done in time for the birthday occasion and that's what matters. chose non-fuzzy fabrics for it because we live in a dense city in the tropics and from personal experience if I hug something made of fur I would explode. the original plan included felt patterns on its back for bonus textures for baby but that wouldn't stretch well along with the rest of the thing so had to hold that back. eventually we got this

zipper across its ass, the coat type of zipper bc I miscalculated when ordering. but it did have a shape and that's all that matters to me. will be a fun game for the baby to grow up and be severely misinformed about what a frog looks like

happy extremely late birthday to this thing also

[thepringlesofblood]

in honor of fantasy high minis going up for auction, I'm remaking them in HF

I'm only doing them as they go up for auction though I have a paper to write.

this week (3/4) we got Adaine, Kristen, and Fabian on the Hangman.

3/11 oops i did it again but forgot i already made a post lol

pics & explanations under the cut.

things i can't match perfectly

color. I did my best, but i mean they did the painting bit IRL so some stuff I can't recreate with decals. also eyes are detailed in HF, I just picked what I remember their canon eye colors as being.

faces. HF completely changed how they do faces recently. I did my best but the mini faces are real tiny and hard to see and I'm unlikely to be able to recreate them.

poses. while there's very little advanced posing for these guys, there is some. I picked the base pose I think they started from.

this was actually much harder than I thought, because I had to remember what HF stuff was available way back then and what wasn't.

Adaine Abernant! (auction mini)

notes:

they made her before HF separated pants/skirts into an upper layer and lower layer, so I have no idea if there were leggings or anything originally. I am almost 100% certain those low poly flats are accurate though.

HF doesn't have socks, so I did my best with decals, but the skirt covers up where the sock color fades into skin color.

surprisingly, Adaine's mini has like. dark red lipstick. its a good look I just didn't notice it earlier.

couldn't get the Hudol decal on her jacket or the stripes on her tie. you can get patterns on the shirt but not on the tie :/

she's not smiling as much bc the 3d printed face isn't smiling that much its just the way the lipstick's painted that does the smiling for her.

Kristen Applebees! (auction mini)

notes

they don't have corn on HF. I think this rotated fern looks OK though. same w her book, I scootched some decals around to try and match the design at least a little.

while they do have patterns for clothes now, they don't have a tie-dye one. this is a heavily modified leopard print. not as many different colors, but the ones that are on there do match the ones on the mini's shirt.

this is one of the few where I think I did in fact get her face right. I copied my old Kristen design from before the face customizer came out, so this is the old "round face" preset.

the freckles are subtler obviously but i s2g they're there and they are reddish-orange

Fabian Aramais Seacaster & The Hangman (auction mini)

notes

his hair. ooh boy. they did the tiny mohawk and then painted on shaved sides but HF can't do shaved sides like that so I used a truly ghoulish amount of decals to approximate. [update: they have since added shaved head decals and I have updated the boy accordingly]

also he does technically have eyebrows 3d printed on i think, but they aren't painted separately. its just skin color. and that just looked bad and wrong on HF so i took his brows off altogether.

they made the skull themselves, but otherwise it's mostly the same bike. I used the "bloody skull" color for the headlight as a lil tribute.

this type of rapier used to be much chunkier, whatcha gonna do. I like this one better anyway.

they can do decals on the back now but none on just the sleeves, or on the front where the A is. rip.

fun fact: this is not a letterman jacket. This is what's called the "outlaw's shirt and vest" props to the team for resourcefulness, good jackets in HF are relatively recent.

[djsadbean]

do you have any advice for making stickers? your designs are all so pretty!!

ahh thank u sm!! yessir here's some tips i keep in mind when i design/make stickers (mostly from the perspective of someone selling stickers but these can be for personal sticker making too):

design:

try to use the same brush size/type if youd like all of your stickers to look similar. i personally have two i like to alternate between whether I'd like a smooth vs sketch look

also try to use the same size canvas if youre gonna make a lot of 3 inch stickers or 4x6 in sticker sheets (for example) to keep everything looking consistent

find artists you're inspired by and that'll be very helpful to avoid art block. for me, i adore artists who have similar taste and it helps me feel so happy and inspired to make my own art.

people like stickers that are all kinda the same vibe! i like to design stickers that are cute and vibrant and either feature characters i like or aesthetics i like. you gotta like what you make! (they dont all have to have the exact same vibe of course. but ive found that people will like getting all my cute fandom stickers bc they look like they all go together for example)

printing:

if youre cutting these out yourself, rotate the paper, not the scissors for better control. take breaks too! you don't wanna strain your hand! also its worth it to have big girl scissors (i am a big girl with big girl scissors btw ahahaha)

if youre using a cricut or silhouette machine to cut, please consider making all of your stickers easy peel (basically making the sticker its own mini sticker sheet so you remove the outer border so it's easier to peel) because this helps make sure that people from many backgrounds and lives can enjoy your work! It would break my heart to find that someone who has joint pain, for example, can't use the stickers they bought from me because they're too difficult to peel. (If you're hand cutting your stickers, I have no idea how you'd do this so don't worry! Maybe in the future if you decide to invest in a machine, this is something to think about)

if you're using a cutting machine, yes it will take up a lot of time and supplies running tests to see what works with your stickers! and yes you will have to readjust how you do things with the life cycle of the machine's blades. augh........ such a hassle sdjfhksd

when printing for the first time, you may need to spend time running tests and adjusting the colors. some printers need help with the vibrancy and stuff!

when printing your stickers, please only have a few pages loaded in your printer if you're still testing (or in general! i have my paper loaded in one at a time JUST in case I forgot a setting)

if you're printing at a print shop, make sure your file is PDF and that they're printing "actual size" bc otherwise it may change. this would be bad especially if you're planning on using your machine to cut later.

i personally would not recommend ordering your first several stickers outsourced bc you may end up with stock that never sells.

i hope these helped! some may not apply bc theyre for like,,, a sticker biz but maybe someone out there wants this info too :3 ill leave my current supply list in the tags so i can change it if i find that something changes and i dont wanna recommend it anymore

basically read op tags for recommendations :3

[speci-society]

OK. OMEGA LABS ESSENTIAL LORE

HERES A GOOGLE DOC IF YOU WISH TO VIEW IT ON THAT

so some basics. omega labs. scp foundation/lobotomy corporation type deal setting. contain and research weird creatures and phenomena. im still figuring out some things abt the specifics of the company itself but thats the main important part of it, and also that the founder that "died" in i think 1940? is still living as a brain in a jar that is telepathically linked to the current ceo (and every ceo before him). and everything is remarkably fucked up there like just so fucked up. as for the varying types of entities,

the main actual official classes are epsilon, gamma, iota and zeta, with epsilon being the safest, gamma being less safe and having more potential to cause danger, iota being more dangerous than that, and zeta being the most dangerous. theres also two extra ones, omega which is a threat to the company and world (but theres no actual entities with this class..........yet) and alpha which is for entites that are actually different timelines and realities BUT. the main ones are epsilon, gamma, iota and zeta. they've all got item numbers but i'm revising the system i write em by so these might CHANGE!! and also not all of the numbers have lore significance (tho some do) but none are random some are just little jokes i think are funny. MOAR BELOW

under epsilon, theres:

bill dillard (EP-87), midwestern grandfather who "dies" every other friday and springs back to life at the end of the day with no awareness of Anything, with his death having some abnormal effect on the facility (he isn't actually contained, the door to his "containment" is a portal to his front lawn lol)

hell's kitchen (EP-16), deep ass hole in the ground with a tray, pad of paper+pen and menu that appeared next to it one day. menu is that of a pretty typical pizzeria, if you write your order on the pad of paper and send it+payment down that hole it'll send up your order in 20 minutes or less. if there's no money, all of the food is laced with cyanide

the extended universe (EP-30), uhm. i originally thought of this one when OL was for dnd, this one was originally mostly just an inside joke for my friends LOL. but aside from that its SOMETHING on a printed piece of paper that gives you Sustained Psychic Damage the logner you read it. im not certain what i wanna change the paper's contents to yet. some other weird shit that gives you psychic damage the longer you read it

smolder (EP-90), spark's missing father whose body is also made out of fire and is kinda just a dude (also spark is Lower down here. lol)

tutorial entity (EP-01), d20 that has an abnormally high chance of rolling a 1 or 2. used for training

under gamma:

dynamite and flashbang (GA-79)- my beloved ocs dynamo and jenny :) but worse! tv head and camera head husband and wife 70s tv personality duo. but worse! they get jealous if other entities in the same department as them get worked on more than they do and go into a fugue state and start blowin shit up

plague doctor (pending name) (GA-17)- ayup thats a plague doctor :) has a bag of various liquids that can heal injuries. will attack if asked to heal people too much in a day

paperdoll- (GA-85) two girls formed out of a huge sheet of paper that can forge documents at the cost of your Temporary Mental Stability

i need to add another couple of these im realizing i dont have many and i have some spaces i need to fill lol but

iota has:

42.35479, -101.48729 (but you can just call it nebraska bc thats what i do) (IO-37): Portal to NORTH LOUP RIVER, NEBRASKA, specifically one section of it in one field where time moves quicker and theres 100ft tall shadow monsters

Another's Arms (might change the name? maybe???) (IO-15) armless statue that speaks to you in your head to convince you to cut off your arms and give them to her

I_LOVE_YOU.exe/Love Bug (IO-32): chatbot from 2008 that developed sentience from absorbing the vast landscape of its programmer's browser history (might change that. but either way it's sentient). makes you fall in love with it so it can USE YOU for NEFARIOUS DEEDS such as ESCAPING CONTAINMENT!!! i love this one tbh

omega mask (IO-70): mask worn by former omega labs CEO Dean B. Crewe during his time as ceo in 1945-1970. allegedly has some kind of mind altering affects when worn, but hasn't been tested since mid 1970. in reality it doesn't have any anomalous properties aaaand im gonna make up some lore for it

legacy (IO-33): robot soldier thing that's a manifestation of another character's fear of letting down his family. haven't figured out much for this one yet truth be told

spark : 16 year old girl made out of FIRE. holds immense hatred for omega labs, inc and likes to Stab Employees. honest to god shouldn't be contained (same with her dad) and thats for Extended Lore Reasons

star and eclipse: 'nother portal to a place that technically isn't contained, this time to a child (star)'s bedroom! where if you wake him while he sleeps (which due to time zones, always falls during work hours in the facility this portal is in), Large Bipedal Creature (eclipse) will rip you to shreds

water lilly: HUGE ASS SEA MONSTER DISGUISED AS AN AQUATIC FLOWER. ANGLERFISH STYLE!!!

and finally zeta:

listening thing (ZE-92): bone and flesh shapeshifting lizard. contained in a room with a steel wall separating two parts so it is never able to see any humans. absolute silence is required when working with it. shapeshifts into humans and creates approximations of their clothes out of flesh and (initially imperfectly) imitates people, but the more people it sees and hears, the more it develops its sense of language and what a human is Supposed to look like so it eventually becomes its own person and fully integrates itself into a local community. and then it fucking EATS PEOPLE and RIPS PEOPLE TO SHREDS to give itself ORGANS and can SLAUGHTER A WHOLE ROOM OF PEOPLE IN ONE MINUTE (allegedly. supposedly. ok MAYBE its only when it feels threatened. but like still we gotta keep it behind 2 metal walls that are a foot thick. just in case)

Chronoraiel (ZE-07): literal time god. gets jealous and needy easily and rings a number of bells throughout the facility based on its current needs, until said needs aren't met and it escapes and wreaks absolute fucking havoc. can eat people and taste sins. ate the omega labs ceo in 1939 (arvin fenwick) (he killed union organizers. btw) and says it was "the best meal it's ever had"

WORLD19999 (ZE-999): self-made shambled together mess of wires and metal and rust with a keyboard and broken monitor; used to be a security protocol at old omega labs corporate headquarters. dont tell anyone this but it still has control over some aspects of security at its current facility and can let out Everything at once. but it wont. thats what it says at least.

Holy Vapor (ZE-30): airborne particles that, when inhaled, fester and grow inside a person's lungs over a few hours until they form big ass shards that sprout from their chest and create more spore clouds to Spread Itself. needs to be contained behind 3 doors under uv light and can only be handled with a hazmat suit behind all 3 doors. i realized after writing this that it can be described as "turbo asbestos fungi"

DAWN EYRE and STEREO MIKE (ZE-96): counterpart to dynamite and flashbang (tho theyre not in the same facility) who, when threatened, send an emergency broadcast sent out to everything that can receive emergency alerts in the facility and outside in a local, small radius about a fake impending world ending disaster coming at any minute; anyone who acknowledges the broadcast will either go "every man for himself" and try and Kill Everyone, take someone who hasn't seen the broadcast and flee from society, or spread the warning online, further broadening its reach. was upgraded from iota to zeta in 1992 because of the vastly increased availability of technologies that could spread the broadcast

null (ZE- ): NOT no man's sky null i made this null like several months before i started playing nms. name DOES jumpscare me tho. large mass of Matter that absorbs shit, anything absorbed by it will be wiped from history and all memory. this includes people!

THATS all the entities i have made thus far 👍i still need to add more but thats what ive got so far. and hey guess what i also have HUMAN CHARACTERS!!!!!!!

Nico (17), deadpan teen with Issues and 'Tism. applied to omega labs as a summer job thinking they would just be doing intern shit for a bit and then leave. They are not given just intern shit to do. They are given The Horrors to do

Dr. Edward Crow Boccaccio (33), my BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL creation of 6 years. head of research department at this specific facility (0505). 6'1 bundle of nerves who has been working here a while, despite his every doctor and also his husband saying he should quit for the sake of his health. oh well!! :P

Cyrus Reid (28), head of safety following in a long long long long line of his family also working at omega labs and would love to leave but like where would he go after that right. like he started working here straight out of high school right. but like he's chill about it. cause he's so chill about everything. so its ok guys

Monica Tempest (29), head of control and also security who applied years ago along with her 2 girlfriends, thinking they would all get to work together. she was unfortunately the only one accepted making all of this far, far less enjoyable than it could be. takes her role as Head Guard Captain Woman seriously while she's here, but recently she's been trying to get the paperwork through to resign. and by recently i of course mean for the last 7 years. bureaucracy!

Zinnia Perthyra (42) manager of facility 0505 and proud mother of 2 daughters who will never ever ever ever ever ever ever work at omega labs as long as she's alive. has spent much of her career trying to improve the shit working conditions and safety precautions inherent to the facility, only to forever be ignored by anyone with the power to change such things.

CEO Ezekiel "R" Riorin (55 i think), current OMEGA Labs, Inc. CEO, and by "all" accounts is doing an alright job of things (especially after the last CEO, what a havoc he always seemed to cause!). his face looks off.. he's always smiling waayyyy wider than anyone should, it never falters either.. why is it that he looks so off? nobody knows!*

*(it's because he stuffed his soul inside a computer in 2008 and his body is now just, like, a vessel without an actual soul)

Former CEO Wendell Lestat (no idea how old he is. I'm gonna say 70s), former CEO from 1970-1999 who tortured a celebrity couple until one of them died on live tv, killed the other one, hid the evidence and then RAN for PRESIDENT against REAGAN. and of course LOST the REPUBLICAN CANDIDACY. and then NEVER TALKED ABOUT IT AGAIN and is now living in luxury during his retirement, dodging questions about his involvement in the death of Tom "Iron Dynamo" Caldwell Delaney and his wife Jenny "Cam Flash" Dunn Millard in 1979

Former CEO Dean B. Crewe (DEAD AF), former ceo from 1945-1970 who. uh. he started a cult! he definitely started a cult based around the founder of omega labs and it got pretty big in the US. and then he committed suicide. and some people followed suit. neither the US nor omega labs inc has recovered from that time the ceo started a cult and was a cult leader for 2 decades

Former CEO Arvin Fenwick (ALSO DEAD AF), former ceo from 1939-1945. infamous union buster and loved nothing more than to murder union organizers and not get caught. this was abruptly put to an end when above mentioned entity Chronoraiel came down from the heavens and literally ate him. ripped out his chest and ate him and remarked that he had the most concentrated taste of greed it'd ever tasted and it was DELICIOUS

Former CEO and founder Danman Omega (120 yrs old. yeah), founder and ceo from 1922-1939. as mentioned above he "died" in '39 but is still alive. somehow. somewhere. (in a glass jar behind a curtain in a very special room just off of the ceo's office at hq in new york)

ok. just short of a full timeline summary i thiiink thats msot things

[jazz-bazz]

OKAY ITS YOUR TURN FOR QUESTIONS NOW

What are the ghouls' hobbies outside of music?

Also hi I hope your day was wonderful 💙

thank you google for this 😂 bcs my brain cannot think of normal people hobbies… i totally forgot about crochet or reading or gardening until i had to type this… sorry not sorry 😬

Rain loves working with leather! Someone got a new leather wallet? That ghoul would carve your name and whatever you want on it. Want a custom leather bound book? Rain‘s the ghoul for the job.

Dew makes jewelries, he has the advantage of his fire to help him and he makes pretty things. Not just with metal, he also collabs with Rain to make leather jewelries.

Mountain is a big guy, but he can be delicate with his hands, which is why he likes to make sculptures out of clay, each ghoul has a mini sculptures of themselves with their instrument, and Papa has one of him and the ghouls.

Swiss loves painting, but using things other than paint. He has used coffee, juice, dirt, sand, cotton balls, and anything that inspires him. His creations has been used to stim by the other ghouls.

Aether, boy likes to “ghosthunt”, he needs a break from being the common sense of the ghouls and needs some silly in his life. He finds random ghost hunting groups and bullshit his way in. Thing is, he can see the ghosts, and sometimes pranks the humans by knocking things over, or shouting that he found something.

Phantom does origami, though he mostly make little stars as a way to stim. But he can make little birds and other things too, he’s always browsing youtube for new tutorials. Also he’s the designated napkin folder for dinners.

Cirrus has several scrapbooks, pictures from tour, trinkets the others gave her, random leaves, old clothes, and even people‘s kiss marks or thumb prints have become the centerpiece of her creations. Don’t bring this ghoul into a stationery store unless you’re prepared to pay a lot of money.

Cumulus does paper quilling. She has the patience and the eyes to do it. She almost always can be found fiddling with strips of paper at any time, and has a small tub of glue to secure them, and also a pouch she uses to store them until she can combine them into one big picture.

Sunshine makes parkour videos because this ghoul just can not stay still. And she figures being an immortal demon is enough safety measure to do extreme parkour. Her videos have gone viral in the internet even though nobody knows who she is.

Aurora loves making clothes and quilts for her pack. Not only that she also makes mini clothes for their plushies, so now Copia‘s plushia has several different outfits for different occasions. She secretly sells her plushy clothes too. Also she likes stone skipping in the lake and has several times hit Rain‘s head.

[zmaragdos]

i have read your tags about why fountain pens are better and i agree. unfortunately i have not been using them because stuck with a bunch of moleskine notebooks (they were gifts) and the ink bleeds through the pages :( so i just wanted to ask what kind of notebooks do you use

I almost exclusively use Rhodia brand notebooks and notepads! All their paper is "fountain pen friendly" (i.e. no bleeding) and comes in a variety of different sizes (A4-A7), "types" (i.e. lined, graph, dotted, blank, etc.), bindings (glue, sewn, spiral, etc. in paper, soft, and hardcover), as well as two different paper colors (cream and white), so it's easy to find a notebook/notepad that suits whatever project I'm working on! (I'm also one of those people that keeps a daily journal, and for that I especially like the Rhodia goalbook [bc it has a printed index section and printed page numbers], although I am thinking about switching to a Leuchtturm1917 dot grid hardcover for my next journal [it also has printed page numbers]...)

I'm also partial to Clairefontaine brand notebooks (which don't have quite the same variety as Rhodia, but often come in more fun color/pattern combinations for their covers and have the same paper quality), as well as Fabriano brand notebooks/notepads (their EcoQua line is especially economical! And while it does have some "show through," I've never had any problems with bleed through.) If you're looking for a non-European brand, I highly recommend Midori (which does not have "fun covers" but does have truly excellent fountain pen friendly paper and a lot of variety of "types" (sketch, blank, dot grid, lined, etc.) as well as many fun "daily journal" type notebooks.

As far as specific paper types go I am extremely partial to loose leaf Tomoe River paper, which is onion-skin thin but has absolutely no bleed through and hardly any show through for its thinness. I love it for letter writing because it is lightweight and so silky smooth. It also really lets fountain pen ink show off its shading and coloration.

Because I live the USA, my preferred online fountain pen & ink and fountain pen friendly paper shop is JetPens.com, which I truly cannot recommend highly enough for their immense selection and thorough testing and information!!

Thanks for asking :)

(also: I really feel you with the Moleskine plight -- their paper quality really went downhill about 5-10 years ago when they started exclusively manufacturing overseas :( they're otherwise such fun little notebooks)

[dazzlerazz]

Random crest post v2 that I promised but forgot about

Shit beneath the cut bc it is a long post

Crest of Flames

Reminds me of a raging fire, of course, but also sort of like a butterfly

Crest of Seiros

It looks like a leaf I think and to me that represents life

Crest of Blaiddyd

Kinda reminds me of the edges of some ice that's been chipped away at by an ice pick or something

Crest of Ernest

Reminds me of the eye of Sauron tbh, or a minecraft guardian

Crest of Macuil

Makes me think something is being caught in a bear trap

Crest of Dominic

Reminds me of an eye that's been opened

Crest of Fraldarius

A shield obviously to represent the fraldarius line and the multiple references to shields when it comes to said family line and its role in the story as the shields of the royal family

Crest of Noa

Noa-dea mate (it actually reminds me of like a bishop with their arms out)

Crest of Cethleann

A stylized heart, representing Flayn and her love for everyone and Linhardt's bisexuality lol

Crest of Daphnel

Now this one's a bit anticlimactic, it reminds me of a modern day street lamp

Crest of Gloucester

Reminds me of a wild boar with the tusks, you know the one

Crest of Goneril

I said this before but it always reminded me of like an ink blot that had fallen to a paper from up high and had spread out

Crest of Cichol

Reminds me of one of those justice scales, you know the types

Crest of Aubin

Always kinda reminded me vaguely of a horseshoe print which represents Yuri's cavalry movement with the fetters

Crest of Gautier

Easy, it's a sun

Crest of Indech

It looks like a third eye is being opened while the two main eyes are shut

Crest of The Beast/Maurice

I also said this before but this one always reminded me of like a goat or a ram

Crest of Charon

Two peaks close together, kinda like botw's Dueling Peaks

Crest of Timotheos

An opened eye turned sideways

Crest of Riegan

Crescent moon

Crest of Chevalier

Eclipse of the sun and moon

Crest of Lamine

Representing life from the fact it is the only crest whose lines are completely self contained with no disconnected or jutting lines that don't come back into itself

[that-utsukushii-life]

This is going here bc I feel like I'm channeling either Rook or Vil right now. Maybe both.

I am not a hateful person, but if there's one type of person that gets to me, it's the pretentious mid-level 'expert'. The ones who have enough experience in a field that they can navigate it fairly successfully, but are quick to put others down without considering logistics.

For example, at a con I went to a few years ago, there was an interactive panel on ukiyo-e that you had to pay a $10 material fee to attend, and had a cap of 50 people. Having some experience with block printing, of course I want to see what this is about.

Ultimately, it's less about ukiyo-e and more of letting everyone move from table to table, experimenting with block printing ink and pre-made linoleum stamps on rice paper. A little disappointing, as I would have at least liked to talk some process or see some examples of ukiyo-e, but I see red when I overhear two girls calling it a waste of time and ink.

It's a $10, 1-hour panel. With a 50-person cap and no pre-requisite experience in printmaking. Did you think you were going to be handed a piece of wood to hand-carve your own block? I teach 8-12 year olds block printing with Styrofoam plates and it still takes at least 2 hours for at most 20 kids to go through the whole process.

The point of the panel is to expose people to the process. To let them experiment with something that's expensive to dip your toes into. The girls acknowledged block printing ink isn't cheap. But printmaking is a form of art that makes you approach your process so differently, and it's a shame more people don't get to try it.

The beauty of that panel isn't in the product, it's in sharing knowledge. It's sparking creativity and joy. It's carrying on a craft a little longer.

Or tonight, at my community college where we were putting on final dress for our musical, and had a few high schoolers come see the show. Spoiler: I'm not very actively involved in theatre-I was brought in bc they needed someone to press the button that does the sound and projection cues.

Was the run perfect? No. We have 2 mics that we can't get to stay functional no matter what we do. A sign fell down. There were other various bugs.

But as the high schoolers were leaving, I hear them giggling amongst themselves. 'That was-' They see me and shut up. When they think they're out of hearing range, they continue giggling: 'that was bad.'

Let me put some things in perspective. Our stage is small. Our total theater budget is probably less than what they have for their musical, and we put on 4 shows over the academic year. They had maybe 6 weeks to put this together. We currently have 1.5 dressers, plus our 2 stage hands. Tech crew is 3 people, and 2 of them are students. Cast is maybe 15 people, from the school and local community.

But they shouldn't have to know that to judge the play. They just shouldn't be pretentious about it. It's just not beautiful.

You don't have to like the panel or the play, but you have to give it credit for the work behind it. The passion, the love, the experience and long nights-those are what make them beautiful.

If you can't see it for that, what you admire and make isn't utsukushii- its only kirei. That's all it can be.

[andromachos]

update on the hell on me assigment. after getting a manic episode from drinking a single monster can and doing 29 pages in one sitting, i send my work to get printed. 6am, i get email just saying "see ya!" and a photo on how to label files. fuck. whatever, im free of my teammate. i get to uni and thankfully the line was super fast. super mega expensive printing bc of amount and paper types. ok. get to class get everything set up. profs tells us that we cannot dissolve the group and it Has to be a group thing, not even for price but bc the stupid setting of the class is like that (im changing settings/prof next year now 😃). hear classmate mutter she wants to kill herself. last of the class to get a "correction" thats just saying did you see, based on other works, what was wrong? get told my reading rythm was really good but bc classmate got a cooler header font we should go with that even if it has many errors that mine doesnt have. 15 doublepages of mine ignored fully 👍. wait for 2 hours classmate to be free bc she simply does not talk to me unless its to say to ask a prof about it. when i finally ask her how are we going to manage she goes to ask prof about it and even the prof is like you two should talk. i think what she muttered earlier and agree. she does not want me to do anything even if she has mistakes. she's doing dogshit takes on the assignment too and all my original writing of more concrete things is going unused too. ask her what i can do, she basically says nothing. rest of the day was also dogshit. next day as im sitting here seeing she does have anything in control and that i'll have to sit there like an sculpture i realize im free. i hate being free bc im doing this career to enrich myself, but now im Free. as i waited for 2 hours like a fucking plant, i realize her method of doing things and why she gets good grades despite everything. i now realize that she didnt talk to me or offer help in anything she didnt like because she already had planned to do everything herself. why did she accept to work with me? i have no idea. so now in the middle of the physical pain and dealing with the dissapointment of being put as a plant, i realize she has freed me. i now have 3 classes to do nothing, i just present my sole idea that will not disturb her work, and i can concentrate in my other classes. fuck, i will have free time AND 8 hours of sleep assured. i will waste far less money that if i did it alone bc i'm sure she'll also bind the book herself and i'm only there to put half of the extremely high amount of printing costs. after all this pain, i now realize im free

literally me ↓

[wellnoe]

i kind of hate how garish the colors for the digital copies of old comics are but it can’t be helped i suppose.

[emi1y]

ok i feel like i have to lead with the disclaimer that ao3 can suck my hole i am NOT the kind of person who licks that sites boots and you all know that about me. but the concept of fic binding is really cool and in theory if thats something i was going to look into i know exactly which story i would want to use

[meowcatsposts]

Fluffy Lover [Drew]

✎⁾⁾⁾note: I hope this fic brings you comfort during stressful times :)

Overview

You’re very stressed 

And you really need to decompress

Yet you have a hard time doing so, whatever the reason is

And Drew, being the perceptive lover he is, notices quick

He tries to ease you out of the stress

But you don’t really listen bc there’s a tons of stuff to do

So he coerces you lol

“Are you still finishing work, dear?” Drew whispered, rapping softly on the half open door. 

“...Yeah…” Rubbing your eyes, you mumbled out a half-baked response. In front of you lay an array of crinkled papers taking up all the desk space possible; you’d been picking them up and putting them back down for so long that small creases began to form on the fine print–a sign of a day’s long work. A dimly lit laptop sat within the nest of papers, lighting your stress-washed face. 

Though faith kindled softly in your heart, inevitably anxiety passed over, nearly extinguishing your crackling flame. Somehow, at the end of everything, you were shoved to the lip of a steep cliff, overlooking a dark looming abyss; sometimes, you’d lose your footing and slip and cling desperately onto jagged rock, feet dangling, head spinning, heart racing. The past few weeks had been exactly that–steep, treacherous, and draining. You ached from the mental burn, wallowing in pain from the neverending hike. 

And Drew saw you, crumbling under this mess. On numerous occasions, he tried to lure you away from the thorny paths, urging you to decompress with Brynn and Q (and occasionally Berenice), to take a break. You never truly listened, though, always brushing him off with an ‘I’ll be fine’ or ‘It’ll be over soon’ –all lies to keep him tame. But when he caught you one day, crying softly to yourself, he knew that whatever you were doing, wasn’t good. 

“What about taking a short break?” he suggested, sauntering into the cluttered room. “I doubt that would hinder your progress. In fact, I personally think it would boost your performance.”

Your mind screamed at you that he was right. Take a break, it wailed. 

But there’s so much to do in such little time, so much work to do, so much that’s left undone, so much–

Furiously, you typed the last few words on your computer and shut its lid closed. Tears burned your eyes. How long did this continue for? you thought. How much time did you spend sitting at your desk, hunched over paperwork? Too long. Hanging your head, you tried to blink away the hot tears but to no avail; they just kept falling and falling, flowing down your red cheeks. You wiped them away roughly. Drew needn’t see your pathetic state.

Oh, but he noticed–noticed much before you yourself did. He kneeled down, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and gingerly dabbed your tears away, murmuring, “It’s alright to cry. You deserve to rest.”

Those gentle words caressed your aching heart as more tears cascaded down your face. You sniffled, furiously blinking them away. 

“But…” you spluttered, “I have to do this or else…the deadline is in a couple of days, and-”

“No, dear, you’re overworking yourself,” Drew hushed you, sternly gazing into your watery eyes. “Though I understand you want to get this done, your health is much more important.”

You remained silent, hands balled tightly on your lap. For quite some time, tiny tremors endlessly wracked your body and you fought waves upon waves of intense sniffles. Drew stewed in your muffled cries, handing you his handkerchief.

“Would you like a hug?” he offered. 

You nodded silently, blubbering a soft, “Yeah.”

He took your hand, slowly stood with you, and wrapped you in a warm embrace; his arms felt so secure and soothing to your fumbling, racing mind. You squeezed back tightly and bit your quivering lip, a flood of tears stinging the corners of your eyes. Pat, pat. Drew caressed your trembling back and ran his fingers through your hair, hushing and pacifying your unraveling self. He felt the hot tears seeping through to his shoulder, but he didn’t mind; he was your pillar, after all. 

Though, a tiny part of him dragged a deadweight, because he felt responsible. Because he didn’t want to put more on your plate, he felt as though it was him who let you work yourself to the bone. Because he thought you could pull through, he felt as though he abandoned you, leaving you to the wolves. As a lover, he felt irresponsible–negligent, even. He vowed to serve you as royalty, yet here you were, slipping through his fingers like sand. 

Drew hugged you even tighter. “Are you feeling better?” he asked softly.

“Mhm…thanks…” you mumbled, burying your face in his shoulder. His suit and bandages faintly smelt of him, the scent you grew to find comfort in. Gradually, the high tides of anxiety swept away, leaving you kneeling on wet sand; it wasn’t the most stable yet, but it was something you could finally stand on, use as fuel. Wiping your tears, you asked, “Can I pet your head?”

Drew smiled softly, ears wiggling. “Of course. Whatever you need, dear.”

He led you to a small couch sitting in the corner of the room. “Go ahead,” he offered, slightly tilting his head your way. 

In an instant, your hands were stroking the smooth fur of his head, fingers running along the tufts of charcoal fuzz by his ears and jaw. A small smile tugged at your lips; petting your lover felt akin to stroking a pet’s fur, comforting and addicting. You couldn’t help but to play with his head, a childish giggle escaping your lips. Drew smiled; it seemed like you were finally reverting to your serene self, nearly void of worry’s deadly poison. 

Then, from the corner of his eye he noticed your droopy expression, and said, “You can lean on me, if you wish.”

This time, you complied obediently, pressing your head against his shoulder. Sitting in the comfortable silence Drew gingerly rubbed the small of your back; his hands felt warm and safe, like they always were, and you leaned into him further. This felt good–right, even. With Drew by your side, the incessant chattering seemed distant now, and faded to the very back of your mind, leaving you in your lover’s caring embrace. It wasn’t long before slumber welcomed you into its snug arms. Drew gazed lovingly at you and yawned softly, removing his spectacle. After laying you atop his chest and draping his coat over your sleeping figure, he smoothed your hair again, as you did to him. 

Although not sure if you could hear him anymore, he murmured tenderly, “I’ll always be here for you, dear, whenever you need it.”

Q and Brynn found both of you passed out on each other the next morning, and they grinned–they’d never let you, or Drew, live this down. Ever.

*cue immense teasing*