#speaking clock

[earhartsease]

this is the second "speaking clock" - in the UK you used to be able to phone a certain number (when we were a kid it was 123) and a very posh woman's voice would say "at the third stroke, the time will be eleven, fifty-seven, and forty seconds" and then three beeps

the woman whose voice was recorded on that drum as the speaking clock was Pat Simmons

we grabbed these screencaps while watching an ep of the Antiques Roadshow, and the bloke who's talking about this device is from the Royal Horological Society, and he told a story of how he walked past this machine one day (which was running full time for visitors to listen to) when it made a really weird noise and then the motor just stopped, and it took a lot of work to get it going again - but he found out a few days later that it stopped on the day that Pat Simmons died

[juliehowlin]

The Speaking Clock

When the speaking clock was first launched calls to the service cost one penny from home. Today a call costs about 40 times that much. 10 things you might not know about the speaking clock.

[apostatefeverdream]

hello gay people dot com is anyone else going gently insane about the whole "We have retaken Skyhold from the demons that infested it, and there we've brought refugees from this onslaught. How fitting that the fortress that housed my people when we waged war against Corypheus should serve to once again protect the innocent from would-be gods." thing????

idk there's something about the image of the inquisitor back in skyhold after ten years. back in their chambers, the war room, the herald's rest. a decade on and somehow the odds feel even more impossible this time around and maybe that's ever so slightly because skyhold, once busy and bustling, simmering with zeal and pride, is now sitting dark and empty and sad. the skeleton crew that keep it do their best, dust and crumbling mortar are easily fixed, but nothing can dull the slow, steady ache of time and memory.

then skyhold once again floods with people - the noble, the common, warriors and mages and all other manner of folk - and this time, rather than spoiling for a fight, these people are terrified. most are injured, some are dying, all have lost everything. the grounds and great hall are once again fit to bursting, but skyhold remains so desperately, achingly sad. the rotunda is conspicuously empty. as is the library, the rookery, josephine's office, the training grounds, the undercroft. there are new advisors, of course, and the return of a few old friends, but they don't play wicked grace, don't eat together, don't sit and tell long stories into the small hours. the hearth in the inquisitor's room is never as warm as it used to be, the gardens are never as green.

everything is a pale imitation of what was, and the inquisitor, who once was the beating heart of it all, realises that skyhold can never be their home again.

something like that.

[tagnoob]

Finding Friends with the Popcorn Lady

There was a time when, in our particular area in the state of California, if I said I had “called popcorn!” any local would have known exactly what I meant, while anybody from far afield might be baffled as to what I was talking about. “POPCORN” spelled out on a phone dial pad translates to the phone number 767-2676, and if you dialed that number in northern California you would get the speaking…

[normal-nightmare]

God I am OBSESSED with this panel. The sheer amount of yearning in Jason's eyes, looking almost shy. Sneakily stealing a glance at Dick. Dick smiling a little, staring up at the ceiling, completely unaware of Jason's stare.

This feels, like, CLASSICALLY gay. This feels like a scene you'd see in a movie or show where two characters are clearly pining for each other but haven't yet confessed (but it's clearly heading that way).

Like, there is ZERO way to interpret this as platonic or as "just hero worship". Especially in the context of the entire annual. It feels like a 150k slowburn fanfic the way this annual is written. This entire thing threw me off so badly when I just joined the fandom bc this doesn't at all feel platonic.

I could talk about this annual for HOURS man

[oliveden]

hua cheng's "disguise" as san lang was absolute shit but also he wasn't really trying to be hidden? like, he was still slightly nudging xie lian to make the hong'er connection the entire time and i always read the whole "reveal" scene after banyue arc as his surprise being less of "oh xie lian knows??" and more of "oh xie lian's gonna acknowledge it??"

so the whole "ah yes gege i am a totally normal human teenager" wasn't like 100% actually attempted. at least how i interpreted it. he felt "hua cheng" to be unworthy to speak face-to-face with xie lian but also did not really care that much if xie lian figured it out beyond some embarrassment.

feng xin and mu qing, however, have no excuse.

[whatwooshkai]

I told my sister bumblebee and starscream are ex's in cyberverse to get her to watch it with me and then the show immediately proceeded to make it make too much sense

[cabeswaterdrowned]

The Gray Man’s “preferably not” when Maura asks if he’s going to kill someone and then killing someone reminds me of Adam thinking he usually has better ways of getting what he wants than lying, and then immediately lying. Kings <3

[charseraph]

Chronotics not included, but does intersect.

[quinlinkin]

just so everyone knows, nora's dad was voiced by an arab man (eli shankji) and she herself clearly has an olive skin tone so when you depict/draw her as white it's really not a good look lmao

[arsenic-clownip]

ilove you, young people. ilove you if youre 10, if youre 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 14, any age under 18. youdo not have to apologise for your age. youdo not have to apologise for simply existing. you deserve the rights anyone over 18 has, and im sorry youdont have that freedom. im sorry for all children who suffer from their lack of rights. young people, dont apologise for your actions. youhave the right to be "weird". the right to be "abnormal". the right to go through "phases". youhave the right to speak up against child abuse. against hitting, against spanking, against adults touching you without your consent, against the hatred for young people, against the disbelief of young people, against all forms of discrimination youve suffered from. youhave the right to exist. nobody has the right to bully you for your age, so youshouldnt beat yourself up for your age. young people, please know im listening to your struggles. no matter how young, your struggles arent "unimportant". please know you are loved, young people. you matter.

[afterthelambs]

It's funny that the only characters who truly know that Joker is a freaky freak are:

Akechi

Maruki

And boy does Maruki exploit that

[theresattrpgforthat]

@martianworder asked me about this on my Forged in the Dark post, so here we go!

Clocks

So Clocks have been a tool that have been used before and outside of Blades in the Dark, but BitD was where I think they were made really popular.

Golem Clocks designed by cmartins on Itch.io

For all intents and purposes, a Clock is just a track that you fill, but in some cases it's preferred over a track because it fills less space, and it's easy to just draw a clock on a piece of paper to help you keep track of something as you play.

A Clock can be more than just a track. It can be a countdown, a timer, or a representation of a person or faction's goals. The larger the Clock, the bigger task it is. Here are some examples of how you could use them.

A Healing project clock from Blades in the Dark.

A player could have a project Clock that they fill over the course of many sessions. Perhaps they want to research a cure for a vampire virus that is threatening a loved one. The GM would ask them to make a research roll every downtime, and how successful they are indicates how many slices they fill - effectively, how much progress they make towards finding a cure.

Rebellion and Sedition Clocks for Brinkwood: Blood of Tyrants.

A play group might use a Clock to track a common goal, such as winning over a number of anarchists to help take down a mega-corporation. If this is a campaign-long goal, you might use a series of linked clocks to represent the jailbreak you need to assist before you can win over a computer hacker, and then the massive hacking project you need to support before you can overwhelm the corpo servers.

Faction Clocks from Scum & Villainy.

A GM might use a Clock to track the work a Faction makes towards their goal. Every downtime section, they GM might roll to see how successful the Faction is, or simply tick one slice of the clock if the Faction has no reason not to be able to do what they want. If the Faction is allowed to work unimpeded by the PC's, they might eventually do something that changes the world around them, for better or worse.

Mission Clock from External Containment Bureau and Doomsday Clock from Apocalypse Keys.

Clocks might also be used as a timer, to indicate when something terrible might happen, or when the group's time is up. This might be the amount of time before a murderer next strikes, before the haunted house claims another victim, or before the world begins to end. In some games, specific points in the clock (such as halfway, or a quarter of the way through) may trigger special events that give the PC's more information, or remind the group that the pressure is really on.

Clocks for Protect the Child.

All in all, Clocks are a great visual tool to help you and your game group keep track of what's going on in the fiction, and it can also help you keep track of a number of narrative threads in a fairly condensed space. Even if they're not built into the game you're currently running or playing, I think they're a fairly easy addition, and can certainly help with bookkeeping!

[buthappysoverrated]

[swordtit]

[willowchild]

אני בממ"ד בלי משקפיים בשלוש וחצי בבוקר