#want me to download the whole video anyway. there’s no way to download the whole video it only allows 40 seconds at a time. and i didn’t

[andwewerehappy]

i have so much work anxiety this is insane. i hate this job what does it even MATTER

[idyllcy]

couple tiktoks with the robins

Word count: ~ 700

Summary: cheesy tiktok trends with the robins :3

𓅫. "Heard you're looking for a boyfriend" - Tim Drake

"'kay, just," you show Tim the tiktok, fingers laced together, practically begging him to do the tiktok with you. Tim grimaces, but it's minimal effort, so he listens. He stands to the side as the audio plays from your shared airpods, waiting for you to move the camera to the side. He hates to admit it, but as he steps next to you to lean on the mirror, raising a brow with a mask on and your eyes light up, his breath catches in his throat. You're always so pretty— too pretty. You're always so pretty. And god, if doing couple trends meant that you'd stare at him like that, then he'd do all of them with you. (Though, he has to make sure none of his friends finds out about them. The embarrassment would eat him alive) Tim waits for you to stop recording, the noise going off in his ear as he steps next to you, staring at the tiktok. He looks just as lovesick as you. "Aww, you're supposed to look a little intimidating." You mumble quietly. "You're looking at me too cheesily" "You look too excited too." Tim sticks his tongue out at you, pointing at the way your pupils were blown wide. "Maybe we're both just lovesick fools." Tim doesn't see a problem with that.

𓅫. "she is the best thing that's ever been mine" - Jason Todd

"I know this is a trend for sapphics but please please please PLEASE—" You beg. "The only photos I'd be able to put are the ugly ones of you." Jason rolls his eyes. "No." "But you have a whole album of—" "No." You pout, jutting out your bottom lip at Jason as he wavers slightly. He doesn't even have capcut downloaded. He doesn't want to download it. It's just a silly tiktok trend, and sure you're obsessed with showing him off on your private social media, but there was no way he was posting you on his accounts. You grumble, going back to scrolling through your phone, typing on it, and Jason assumes that you're complaining to your friends about how he won't do the trend. He goes back to his own phone, putting his airpod back on, a video playing. You could complain all you want— He wasn't doing it. Yet, the recently deleted app on his phone and the newly downloaded video on his hidden album suggest anything but. Stupid. It's in his drafts. (Not that he'd tell you.)

𓅫. "Oh, I can't stop singing" - Damian Wayne

"Stay still." You set your phone on the table as you squish onto Damian's lap, and he raises a brow at you, setting his pencil down. He notices your phone recording, and you pull out your lipstick. Damian pauses. He knows this audio. He's pretty sure one of his classmates was showing him it a while ago. You draw half a heart onto your cheek, pressing your cheek to his affectionately, warmth pressed to Damian's cheeks, leaving the mark of a heart... no you drew the half the wrong way. You pause, the mistake registering in your head as the audio continues playing. "Habibbti, I don't think—" You burst into laughter at the accident, hiding your face in his collar, kicking your legs in embarrassment. Damian purses his lips in amusement with you, running his hand down your back soothingly while shaking slightly. That was funny. "Sorry for messing up and making you pause." You stop laughing after a while. Damian smiles, shaking his head, reaching for a wet wipe on his desk. "Would you like to try again?" Who are you to say no?

𓅫. "stay with me, I don't want you to leave" -Dick Grayson

"Okay, so—" "I'm in." Dick gives you two thumbs up. "I recognize this audio." "I really can't surprise you with any couple trend, huh?" You laugh. "Sweetheart, I'm on Tiktok more than you." Dick smiles, handing you your lipstick. You pout, taking it anyway, peppering Dick's face with kisses before the lipstick dries, smudging some of the kisses, letting the others look fine on their own on others. Dick presses kisses back to your skin while you reapply the lipstick, some of the red on his lips getting on yours, causing you to pout. He was getting you red too. You finish, eventually. (Dick's face is practically a red mess from both you and the lipstick) You step to the side to wipe the lipstick he got onto your face, setting up your phone and starting the tiktok. Dick stares at you the whole time, eyes gentle, sick with an affection reserved for only you, lips pulled into a foolish smile. You pout when you ruin your lipstick, only for Dick to reach for your chin, the phone panning to his face, a mess of red on his face, a stupid smile on his face, eyes crinkled, holding all of the love in the world for you and only you. (and god do you melt at the sight)

[hoodedjelly]

i look up to your art so much! i have a few questions if ur comfortable answering!!!

1. what app do u use to draw ? and what brush do u use?

2. were there any tutorials or videos in general you watched to be able to draw like that? im very curious on this question in general bc i love the way u draw poses. im very jealous of how well you do that! 😫 (if you have any vids you recommend, pls send it i begggggg)

3. how long have u been drawing? i got back into drawing last year and have been practicing since but i still struggle a bit 😣

HELLO! thank you so much for liking my work and for the questions!

Q1: I use Clip Studio Paint Pro, the brushes i use is a mix between free downloaded ones my friend gave me and paid ones. Main one i use is Cat Scratch but my other 2 options that i use are the fine pencil and mechanical pencil. i download so many brushes all the time that im not even sure they are default csp brushes or not, and i wouldn't even be able to find the original links anyway. The brush i used while working on the Sleep Walk animatic was "tantan"

(examples of my fine pencil and mechanical pencil if you want to try and find something similar)

Q2: wow thank you that is a very nice complement (i personally think i still need some work on my posing). I watched a LOT of gesture drawing videos, i honestly don't remember all of them too well, i will send over this one and this one. Also the book MORPHO anatomy for artists: Simplified forms by Michel Lauricella is on my desk at all times. I also recommend Line of Action, its a free website that imitates figure drawing studies. it's helped me a lot since where i am right now, i don't have the resources to actually GO to figure drawing classes. But for videos in general there's this fav animatics playlist i have that i go back to whenever im in an artistic slump.

also heres a list of my fav artists atm (literally didn't ask but im putting it here anyway): TheBrujoAri, fourleafisland, jam_etc, abyssalzones, Mayuko Watson, Megan Lloyd, Stephen Silver and satoshi kon (also just a bunch of moots of mine <3)

Q3: now thats a hard question. short answer: since i knew how to pick up a crayon. long answer: i've always loved cartoons and comics, animated youtube in the 2010s was what i was watching on the family computer 24/7. but that's normal for a kid tbh, the difference is i just never grew out of it! i'd say it was around 5th grade (11 years old) when i stopped and realized "wait i want to like do this whole drawing thing seriously", then i never stopped.

[what-even-is-thiss]

So I don’t mod video games much or often because I usually play video games because I like the vanilla version and therefore modding is unnecessary.

But I’ve been interested in Beyond Skyrim: Bruma and Beyond Skyrim as a project for a while. I actually considered submitting a voice acting sample to volunteer for them but from what I understand they’ve already got their pick of voice actors so I haven’t bothered.

But anyways a while ago I tried the mod and wasn’t that impressed mostly I think because of the major hiccups my computer struggled with.

Well. I actually sat down and decided to figure it out and downloaded some unofficial patches and turned my video quality way down low and got a wired mouse and that seemed to allow it to actually run at 30 fps instead of being an informative slideshow. So I’ve actually gotten the chance to explore a bit more.

My opinion on the writing is the same. Sometimes dialogue options sound a little too modern. A little too fanfiction. But this whole project essentially is fanfiction so I’m not overly bothered but for a project that claims to want to feel like vanilla Skyrim idk if they quite hit that exactly on the mark.

The guard random filler dialogue is quite good. On par with the quality and stupidness of regular elder scrolls. And if you’ve started the main quest back in Skyrim like I did the Bruma guards might gossip about how a new Dragonborn has shown up in Skyrim. They also seem to have a sick pleasure in punishing criminals which is kinda funny and horrifying at the same time which I really like.

Bruma has been recreated pretty much exactly. If you know your way around in the Oblivion version of Bruma you’ll know your way around here. The ruins of cloud ruler temple are beautiful. The creature reskins to look more like Oblivion creatures are really well done.

Quest design is fine. Dungeons can be confusing at times but I’m also an idiot when it comes to dungeons so yeah

I think that unofficial patches for the mod and the game as a whole are worth downloading.

What I like about the church of Saint Martin is that it seems clear to me that the religion of St. Martin was created specifically to replace Talos after Talos worship was outlawed which is pretty funny. I hope that whenever they finish the project as a whole I can visit Martin in giant stone dragon form and do something extremely rude and/or evil in the vicinity.

I’d like to be able to lick the statue but I don’t think Skyrim has that mechanic

Anyways, fun mod. My opinion of it has gone up since I found a way to run it without my computer catching on fire.

[ddlcbrainrot]

ok so i was feeling nostalgic today and started thinking about how my first time going through ddlc was so i’m making a post about it lol

buckle up this is going to be a long one

so i first heard of the game when it first came out in 2017, which means i was like… 12 years old?? so definitely should not have been watching it but what can ya do. anyway i’ve seen the title in a bunch of yt videos which described it as a horror game, and i was intrigued bc… 4 cute anime girls? how is that a horror game. i was too much of a scaredy cat to actually download it on our family computer so i watched some ddlc playthrough in yt. and i was so bored throughout the first half of act one lmao. i think i mentioned it before but when i first encountered the game i wanted to go the monika route, and i was so disappointed it wasn’t an option (until later on when i realised why it wasn’t an option). also the yt video i watched went down the yuri route and look, i didnt necessarily have a problem with the shy girl character type, what i did have a problem with (and still do to some extent) was how the shy girl is always portrayed in anime. i was definitely a shy person growing up, so seeing the traits that had caused me so many problems be considered adorable and desirable kinda irked me the wrong way. so yeah, first half of the game i was pretty unimpressed. i didn’t dislike it, i just thought “i’ve seen these character archetypes before, i know how this is going to play out, i’ll just wait until the other shoe drops”. and oh boy it did.

i remember that scene in sayori’s bedroom to this day dude. this is probably embarrassing to admit, but i honestly believe that scene changed the trajectory of my life. i live in a very uneducated country on the subject of mental health, so i had no idea on anything surrounding it. i’ve heard the term “depression” before, but it was only brought up either in a joking way or in a way of saying someone is too far gone. which is obviously not the case, but that’s how it was usually used back then in my environment. so to see a character that (even if i wasn’t as emotionally invested in bc of how tropey they were at that point) i liked talk about how they struggle with it was a very eye opening experience to say the least. it’s kind of funny thinking back, but i really was like “huh. depression is actually a real thing people can go through. and it could also be something people i care about have to go through. and something i could go through.”. it sounds dumb when i write it down but that was srsly how it was.

then act 2 happened, i don’t really have much to say about act 2 bc throughout the whole thing i was just uncomfortable and unsettled, which is definitely what act 2 is supposed to make you feel. natsuki was now somehow the most normal one, i didn’t like yuri even more now bc she was now also weirdly obsessive, i knew monika was up to something i just couldn’t wrap my head around what. a moment that stuck with me a lot during act 2 was the whole “can you hear me?” thing in monika’s second writing tip, bc wow this girl knows something and is also very clearly trapped by something and WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?? i literally had no idea where the story was going so the reveal hit me like a truck.

act 3… what to say about act 3… i was so mind blown you don’t even know. remember that i was like 12 at the time, this was my first ever experience with the media breaking the fourth wall. and from what i remember i had an… interesting viewpoint on it. i think there are two ways to interpret monika’s self awareness. first up is taking it under the context of the story, basically knowing that she isn’t actually self aware but for the sake of the story following along with the idea that she is. second one is taking it under the context of the behind the scenes, so you understand that she isn’t actually self aware but you can’t ignore it and just immerse yourself back in the story. it’s a risk the creator takes with breaking the fourth wall, bc the second interpretation usually ruins the idea behind the media. i had the second reaction to the awareness reveal. and i think it gives the game an entire new meaning, one that probably wasn’t the original one but i’d like to talk about it. the only thing i was able to think throughout monika’s monologues was : “oh crap. she thinks she’s self aware but in actuality she is programmed to kill her friends. she isn’t free from the script, she’s still following it. the creator just made her think she is aware but actually, she is just as much of a puppet as the other girls and she doesn’t even realise. she’s trapped in an even worse way than the other girls. bc she thinks she is free”. which, is definitely not what dan was going for, but i gotta say it is ten times scarier.

and then sayori goes through the epiphany too and then monika deletes the game and the credits roll but i was so flabbergasted by everything before that i couldn’t even form thoughts through act 4.

so yeah 12yo me was not only struck with the realisation that feelings are real things (thanks to sayori) but now also the thought that just because you experience something that could be 100% real to you doesn’t mean it actually is (thanks to monika). needless to say this game changed me as a person.

damn this was a long one, i apologise if you read through all of this lmao

[shellingtons-failed-driving-test]

Chapter One

4,311 Words

Authoru's Note:

Sorry, this doesn't have a title yet, but I'm trying to think up one. I just wanted to go ahead and post it to see what people think. If you have any suggestions pls put them in the comments.

Oh, my word this got way longer than I'd originally intended. I hope I was okay with the characterisation. I was worrying so much as I was writing it. I hope the interactions feel in character and you enjoy it.

Also, I have changed the ages slightly, which I think is fine because they're unspecified. However, it is canon that Peso has finished Medical school, but in the story, he has not. He's 19 and a half because he went to nursing school right after high school and plans to get a medical degree later.

And, in this universe, all humans are animal hybrids so they have actual hands and feet but still ears and tails. I'm not exactly sure how to explain it, but they're referred to by what type of hybrid they are as well as their race. Certain areas have more common hybrids that correspond to what "regular/normal" animals live there. EX: skunk hybrids are only in the Americas because skunks don't live anywhere else.

Anyway, sorry about my ramblings, and happy reading!

Peso's Perspective:

The big car stops with a squeal, throwing me forward with its sudden breaking. As soon as the door opens the sound of waves crashing and seagulls crying fills my ears. The sea breeze is refreshing after being cooped up in a vehicle for so long.

“Here we are.” The driver says curtly. He’s a state government employee with a scruffy beard that makes him look older than he probably is. He didn’t say a single word the entire drive, leaving me in silence broken only by the occasional crackling of the radio. In a way, it was good because it gave me a chance to do some last-minute studying of the Octonauts handbook pdf I printed out at home. Still, I felt like he was kind of glaring at me in the mirror. Maybe it’s just the anxiety. Maybe he’s just a grumpy person. He had photographs of his children clipped to his visor, but I didn’t see a wedding ring. Divorced, maybe?

“Thank you, sir.”

“It’s just my job. Say, you’re with that team of astro- er, aqua- whatever, scientist, right?”

“The Octonauts, yes.”

“Right, that’s what it was.” He nods as he helps me unload my bags. I gulp a bit at their size. I’m really going to be living at sea for months. I hope my family will be okay.

As soon as he sets the bags down, he closes the hatch and drives off, leaving me once again alone. The other Octonauts, the original Octonauts, have been at sea for a year already. They got a send-off with fanfare at their port in England, all I got was a crumpled map to try and find my way around this place. I’m not jealous but . . . it only reminds me that I’m the newbie, not one of them.

I’m only here as a filler for Dr. Deere, who had to leave due to a research development for one of his projects on land. They’re going to have a proper replacement, someone qualified, in six months at the latest, that’s what they said. It takes a lot to qualify for this programme, the best of the best with years of study in their fields and here I am, just some lucky guy. I’m not even an actual doctor, just a nurse, and even then I still have a few final training courses to complete. All week I’ve wondered, why on earth would they pick me? Am I even good enough?

I blink at the blare of a ship’s horn. Crap, I can’t zone out like that! I need to be prepared for anything, ANYTHING. I will be . . . as soon as I find the ship.

I was sent the training videos, all 600-something of them, on a hard drive the size of my hand, but obviously, I haven’t had time to watch them all and downloading them would’ve taken nearly all of my storage space, so I just packed the whole hard drive instead. The schematics are on the hard drive too, so I have no idea what this thing looks like. They said they’d go over plans and safety once I was settled, but I wish I could at least have a photo. It’s got to be some kind of submarine, right?

The port on the Isle of Skye is a small, but bustling place. The signage is old, and blocked by containers coming in. A crew pulls a fishing net of turtles out onto the dock, and I wince. Then, I see they’re all for studying. Several scientists surround them, scanning red tags on the fins and retrieving cameras from their shells. I smile as I pass them, waving at the turtles, who wave back. I notice one of the scientists, a brown-haired man hurrying around. When he looks at his tablet he jumps in surprise.

“Jumping jellyfish! We were totally wrong about the feeding grounds. This is amazing! I thought . . .”

I don’t catch the rest as I walk on. I’ve never heard someone so excited about being proven wrong before.

As I round the corner, I see it. 

Dios mío . . .

It looks like an octopus. Of course, it does. I’m so stupid. It’s the Octopod. A state-of-the-art international research station with laboratories capable of housing a crew of 10 for extended periods. Can I just go in?

I stop when I get to the ramp, hesitating at the bottom, I survey the large oddly shaped submarine once more. My temporary home. As I look up something flickers in the window, like a lamp, or a streak of orange, but it’s gone before I’m sure.

I remember what my 4th grade science teacher, Mr. Perez always said: Take a deep breath. I do, and even after all this time, it helps.

The ramp echoes under my feet in a comforting way, assuring me of the ship’s solidity. A small yellow creature greets me, and I gasp. It frowns.

“Oh, I’m sorry, that was terribly rude of me. You’re very cute looking, you just scared me.”

It makes a chirping sound, which sounds affirmative. Laughing, I follow it into the elevator, as it closes I hear footsteps, someone running.

“Tunip!” A male voice pants, he has a heavy Scottish accent. “Don’t . . . leave me.” 

Huffing and a little winded the scientist from before appears. The yellow creature makes a sound that sounds like a scold. 

“Ah, well, sorry. I got distracted with the turtles.” the man says sheepishly. He’s the same scientist I saw with the turtles. Now that I can see him better it’s clear that he’s not too much older than me. His chestnut brown hair is messy and his eyes have bags underneath them but are still concerningly bright, He bears the appearance of an overworked uni student, and yet somehow still cute.

The creature blows a raspberry at him and starts to close the lift doors.

“Hey, now that’s not very kind! I was just trying to– Ah, hey! Don’t close the lift on me!”

The creature huffs, sounding almost affectionate, but allows the man into the lift. 

Once inside he takes a deep breath, pulling a handful of Polaroids from his shoulder bag, looking at them as if to make sure they don’t disappear. They’re of the turtles, and a few have him in them, but he doesn’t spend as much time looking at them. Finally, he turns to me, as if he’s just noticed me.

“Oh, hello there. Forgive me, I didn’t see you. I’m Shellington.” He doesn’t extend his hand, only nodding, but the greeting is still just as friendly.

“I’m Peso. I’m the temporary medic.”

He nods, more to himself than to me, I think, muttering “Oh, good. It’s dangerous for us not to have one on board, especially with Kwazii.”

As the lift rises, it makes a loud mechanical whirring, as if no one had bothered to dampen it as they do in most lifts. In fact, the whole thing looks industrial and feels about five degrees colder than before the door was closed. I wonder why, I also wonder who Kwazii is. Finally, it dings and the doors open and he steps out into a small dark room. I trip after him, barely able to see a centimetre in front of me.

“Uhhh?”

My foot collides with something and I go sprawling over (except not really because there’s barely space in this room for my body length).

“Owwie! You’ve stood on my foot!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. But, where are we?”

“Oh, whoops, I must’ve forgotten to mention. This lift is only here because some equipment would be unsafe to carry any other way, either because it contains potentially hazardous materials or it’s simply too large.”

“Oh . . . I suppose that makes sense.”

It would be hard to carry an entire x-ray machine up and down stairs, even a portable one.

“Welcome to my closet!” He says it with his arms wide to indicate the space around us with affected excitement, but the space is small so he can’t extend his arms very much. I can’t help but laugh.

The idea of being in a closet makes me laugh a bit, but I still don’t like dark spaces.

“Can we, um, maybe get out?”

“Oh, right, yes.”

He presses a switch I can’t see and light streams in. With a sigh of relief, I follow him into the larger room. It’s a laboratory. It’s very green, with light green walls, floors and posters. Now that I pay attention, even his shirt is olive green. He must really love green.

I turn to ask him about where I’m supposed to be, only to see he’s already gone back to work. Right, they don’t have time for a bumbling rookie. After a moment of debate with myself, I tap him lightly on the shoulder. It takes a few times before he notices, and when he does he jumps again. 

“Excuse me, do you know where it is I’m supposed to go?”

He furrows his brow thoughtfully, “Hmm, I don’t have much to do with the recruitment process, that’s Professor Inkling and the Captain’s job, but I believe you’re supposed to meet with the Captain, he should be in HQ. I have to finish processing this data, but Tunip can take you.”

“Okay.”

The creature, Turnip, seems to smile. He chirps excitedly leading me back to the lift. When he gets in he jumps high enough to press the button that reads HQ. The ride is short and the doors open out to a large circular room. Glass makes up the top half of the room, a large skylight. I can only imagine what it must look like underwater. It must be incredible.

In the centre stands a tall man, not quite old enough to be my father, but a little older than Pogo, with neatly combed white hair, he wears a blue uniform with a tool belt. This must be the captain. He smiles, extending his hand. He towers over me.

“Good morning, you must be Peso. I’m Captain Barnacles, it’s lovely to finally meet you, Dr. Deere told me all about you.” His voice is loud, but kind.

“Oh, h-he did?” It comes out as a question, and I stutter under everyone’s sudden gaze. Even Tunip looks expectantly at me. “I mean, I’m glad he did. And I’m very glad to meet all of you and be working with you.”

“Us as well, we hope you can learn a lot during your time here. Let’s meet everyone.”

He waves for me to follow and takes me to a station full of buttons and computers. A woman gets up when she sees us. She has warm brown skin and hair cut in a fluffy chin-length bob, sunbleached with blond highlights. She’s a bit taller than me

“Dashi, meet Peso, our new medic.”

“Rad! Nice to meet you Peso. I’m Dashi, head of system and operation here in the Octopod. I run all the computer systems and track the weather patterns, but on my days off, I’m a surfer.”

With her Australian accent, it definitely makes sense.

“Ooh, fun.”

“It is, have you met anyone else yet?”

“The Captain, but that was obvious, sorry, and Shellington. He introduced himself as just Shellington, but does he have credentials I should call him by?”

“Not yet, but finished uni and he’s doing his PhD research on this mission, so he will. Have you met the vegimals yet?”

“The what?”

“They’re what he’s doing his research on. Oh, I’m sure you’ll just love them. I think Barrot is with Tweak right now actually.”

At this, Captain Barnacles nods, “Yes, I’m taking him to meet Tweak next.”

“Great, see you around, Peso!”

“You too.” I take a breath as we get back in the lift.

“This must be a lot for you.”

“Oh, no, sir. It’s really fine.”

“Oh, I’m sure you can handle it, but if you ever need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask any of us. I know they can be a bit intense at first, but they’re all good people and they all want the same thing, to help creatures in the ocean. We’re happy to have you and they’ll be happy to help you adjust.”

“Thank you, Captain.” I can tell from his voice just how much he believes in the crew and in me, the only question is whether the crew feels the same, and if I even deserve that belief.

“I do hope you’ll settle in easily.”

“I’ll try my best. The crew all seem really nice.”

The lift dings then, relaising us to what looks like a garage with a large pool in the centre.

I see more of the creatures like Tunip standing next to a machine I can only describe as looking like a big orange shark, holding wrenches. What was it Dashi called them? Vegi-mals? The vegi-mal is as orange as the gup.

“47, please.” a female voice calls. Whoever she is, she has a southern United States accent like I’ve never heard before. I look around for the woman but I only see a pair of fluffy, light green ears sticking out from underneath the metal shark. They contrast oddly with the orange.

The vegi-mal hands her the large wrench he was holding.

“Thanks, screwdriver.”

She reaches up and he puts a small screwdriver in her hand.

“Thanks.” she hands the wrench back, “carrot.”

Huh?

The vegi-mal hands her a carrot straight out of the toolbox.

“Tweak, are you almost finished?” the Captain asks.

“You bet, I’ll be done faster n’ you can say buncha munchy crunchy carrots.”

Just as she pronounces the “t” she slides out from under the machine, half-eaten carrot in hand.

“What’s up?” Her hazel eyes sparkle in a nice way.

“Tweak, I’d like you to meet the new member of our team, Peso. He’ll be our medic for the next few months.”

She jumps up, striding over to shake my hand, “Nice to meet ya, Peso. Welcome abroad, and welcome to the Launch Bay.”

She takes a big bite of carrot, smiling, her green braid swinging as she walks over to the control panel. She’s more muscular than I am, wearing a jumpsuit not zipped all the way so it shows her tank top revealing her build. Her belt is full of tools I can’t even name, she looks like she belongs here.

“Thank you, it’s such a nice space,” I tell her honestly, looking around at all the gadgets. Finally, I spot something familiar. Ring of Fire, it's my younger brother, Pinto’s favourite video game. Seeing it makes me miss him more. 

She follows my gaze, “You play? I’m always up for a tournament!”

“Oh, ah, no. My younger brother. I’ve joined him a few times but I always die before the first round.”

“Shame, maybe I can teach you. Perhaps I can even teach you so well you’ll beat Kwazii. Ah, speakin’ of Kwaz, I should probably put Bea way before he comes lookin’ for her.”

Two people now have mentioned Kwazii. I wonder what his deal is? Is he the Octonauts mischievous pet or something? Whoever he is, I really want to meet him now. Meanwhile, there's a bubbling and the orange metal contraption disappears into the water.

The Captain laughs, “Yes, you should. Thank you for taking the time for Peso, I’m sure we’ll be back soon to see which Gup he’ll be riding in.”

“Well I was working’ on a little project . . . but yeah, s’probably best if he just rides with one of us for now. Gup A’s probably safest. You’re going to see the professor?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, well tell him thanks for the book, it’s helped a lot with my design.”

“I will. He’ll be glad to hear it.” The Captain smiles as he takes us back to the lift.

“The Equipment elevator, really, Cap?”

“Well, I thought that—”

Suddenly there’s a whooshing, and somebody lands right next to me.

“Ahoy Tweak!” A male voice shouts.

Tweak looks unimpressed, but I can see hidden affection when she rolls her eyes. “She’s not here.”

“Not anywhere?”

“Nope, ya just missed here.”

He whines, “Tweeeak! When am I gonna get my Gup back?”

“Come on, it’s just repairs, we do this every quarter, you know this.”

“I know, but . . .” he turns, starting to stalk off, then calls over his shoulder, “Fine, but I’ll be back!”

“I’m sure you will.”

While he’s looking at Tweak he stalks right into me. I fall very gracefully onto my butt. He snaps his head back in my direction with surprise, looking down.

“Oh, hey there little fella. I’m sorry about that.” he bends down offering his hand, and after a second I decide to embrace the humiliation and take it. He smiles, “So what brings you here?”

“I-”

“Are you lost?”

“What? No, I-”

“Kwazii.”

“I’m just trying to make conversation, Captain.”

“I know but-”

“Are you here for a tour? I didn’t think they let people do that.”

“Kwazii.” Captain taps him hard on the shoulder.

“Ouch! What is it, Captain?”

“He works here now.”

The man, Kwazzi, steps back, eye wide, then narrowing into basically a slit. I shiver. “Oh.” he lifts his eyes patch, squinting to look at me . . . and then he bursts out laughing.

I feel my entire body heating up with humiliation. Tweak winces.

“Oh, matey, I’m so sorry!” he manages between laughs, “I thought you were a kid. My bad, my bad.” At last, he recovers himself, extending his hand. “You must be Peso. I’m Kwazii, First Lieutenant.”

I don’t shake his hand. He frowns, retracting it and crossing his arms in disappointment. He seems kind, like someone who cares but that only makes it more patronising, only he isn’t wrong. Of course, he thought I was a kid. I am a kid. I don’t belong here with these smart talented adults.

It must show on my face because he softens, he steps forward, then back as if unsure of what to do. I don’t want to be babied. I’m not some creature he has to help. I want to be here to help, and here I am obviously a penguin out of water.

“Oh, I’m not laughing at you, I was laughing at meself, for being so knot-headed”

It’s fine really. I’m used to it, to being underestimated (even though I’m not sure I even have the skills) I don’t let it touch me anymore. (at least that's what I’m trying to tell myself. It’s not working.) I shake my head, not able to help the sign that escapes me. I am so in over my head. I don’t think he meant to be rude (surely not, but maybe insulting rookies is acceptable in scientific communities. Even if he sounds like some sort of pirate, he’s probably waaay smarter than me). “Oh. No, it's perfectly fine, you’re not the first and won’t be the last.”

He stands even farther back, not saying a thing, arms still crossed. His eyes scan over me, as if picking me apart, definitely judging me. He almost looks still, almost, but I can tell he’s not, not on the inside anyway. He can’t seem to truly stand still, his tail and ears twitching impatiently. He rocks on his feet ready to go do whatever it is he does at a moment's notice. Now that he’s as close to still as I suspect he gets I take the chance to really look at him.

The last member of my new team is tall (well, tall to me, and most people are tall to me, so probably medium height), and ginger. Unlike most gingers I’ve seen he’s not actually strawberry blond or a carrot top, but a light shade of orange that changes colour as the light shifts. It’s pretty.

His eye does the same. I can only see the right one and it's hard to tell because he keeps twitching but I think he has heterochromia, the rarer kind where one eye has two colours. The eye that I can see is brown with an amber in a ring around the middle.

But that’s not the strangest thing about him, one of his ears has a piece missing from it. I shiver at the thought of what could’ve done that. Did he get it while on a mission? Luckily they said I won’t have to go on missions . . . probably.

The Captain coughs awkwardly to break the silence. “Kwazii is field personnel, so he spends most of his time outside of the Octopod. You most likely won’t be seeing each other too often.” he looks at me as if trying to assure me. I know it’s unkind, but it makes me feel a bit better that I won’t have to spend much time around Kwazii. He's loud, seems unpredictable and looks dangerous (though I’m sure he’s not).

“That must be very exciting. I’m sure we can get to know each other some other time, then.”

He smiles but like all cats he has fangs, so it’s all teeth. I try my best not to gulp. Thankfully Captain leads me toward the lift. As we walk away I hear Kwazii whisper to Tweak “Huh? Where are they going?” I don’t even know why I turn around, but I do.

“Why aren’t you using the octochute?”

“The what?”

“The octochutes, haven’t you been using them?” I can tell he’s not trying to be mean. He looks so genuinely confused that it’s almost comical. His face is like the "???” expression in real life. It makes me laugh a little, releasing the tension.

“No.”

“Well then how’ve you been getting around, then?”

“I just took the lift.”

“But . . . it’s for equipment?”

“Yes, Shellington told me.”

He still looks incredulous. “The equipment lift? Why in the seven seas would ya do that, matey?”

“I don’t know, I just . . . did.”

“Matey, we ONLY use it for equipment, plus it’s sooo slow, and cold.”

Oh, that would explain why it isn’t nearly as fancy as the rest of the ship and opens into closets. I feel dumb for not realising it before. I guess I just thought they were cramped for space, but of course not. How stupid of me.

“Kwazii. Be polite, I told him too. It is his first day, after all. The octochutes can be a bit shocking at first, and he’s already come a long way to get here. I wanted to ease him into it.”

Kwazii droops, face losing the confusion and entering to a neutral state with no expression at all, after seeing him so energised it looks wrong like excitement is the natural state of his particles.

The Captain leads me away, back into a second equipment lift (I didn’t know there were two), I exhale when it closes and Kwazii and Tweak disappear.

After escaping another closet, we step into a bright blue and white room. It’s filled with medical equipment. This must be the Medical Bay. Through the door’s small window, I can see through the window across the hall. In his laboratory, Shellington is typing away on a desktop. Probably finishing the data he was talking about earlier.

“Here we are.”

I turn back to where the Captain stands. 

“This is the Medical Bay, where you’ll be working for the next few months. You share a sleeping pod with Dashi and there’s an Octochute that will take you there.”

“Sh-hare?” I mean, sure, I’m gay, I’ve known that since I was young, but still, wouldn’t Dashi like her privacy? I’d like my privacy. We barely know each other!

“Oh, not like that, this isn't a sleepaway camp. We’re all professional adults, she gets one half and you get the other, there’s a wall in the middle with an Octochute. If you want Dashi to show you how to use it she’ll be happy to, I’m sure.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you, Captain.”

“I hate to leave you all by yourself, but I have a meeting with Tweak to discuss her latest project. If you need anything just find one of us.”

“Oh, okay.”

He leaves, and then I’m alone. The Octopod must be soundproofed to outside sounds because I can hear nothing but the air system cycling. I pull my phone from my pocket for music, but the battery is dead. Great! And then, I’m not even sure exactly why but I start to cry. I’m an idiot, trapped on a ship with people I don’t know who probably think I’m incompetent and unqualified for a job I didn’t even sign up for. The meeting with Kwazii showed me exactly how much I don’t know. Now here I am, pathetically crying. I miss my family.

There was a cat in my class in primary school, an orange tabby just like First Lieutenant Kwazii. He’d been held back a year so he was taller and bigger than all of us and he was loud too and would always bully the smaller kids and get away with it. I don’t even know why I’m remembering him all of a sudden. I know he and Kwazii aren’t the same, but I’ve never liked loud unpredictable people. They scare me. Maybe that’s why.

And something tells me I’ll be seeing Kwazii in the Medical Bay somewhat often. I’m not sure how to feel about that. I don’t dislike him, of course not, but I feel . . . wary.

Oh well. I won’t allow him or anyone else to interfere with my job. I will prove to myself and them that I can handle myself for a few months. And then it’ll all be over and I’ll get to go home again.

Taking a deep breath, I keep busy by familiarising myself with the workings of the Medical Bay and everything in it. It’s fully stocked with any supplies and equipment I could need so all I brought were clothes. There isn’t much to do, so I resort to cleaning the space that’s probably already sterile, just because it calms me down.

After a while, an announcement comes over the speakers that we’ll be departing for the Mediterranean Sea to aid in the preservation of coral at sunrise tomorrow. 

Before I know it I find myself falling asleep at the work table. Too tired by the day’s events I let myself drift off.

(A/N: Poor Kwazii, he can be kinda scary without meaning to be. He’s just so confused as to why someone wouldn’t want to use the super duper fun octochutes. LOL)

[awesomesaurous]

-rant, please excuse the salt-

I really wish Don’t Starve Together was a different genre of game. I know that’s stupid because the objective “Don’t Starve” is the whole foundation of it, but I kind of just wish I could take the look and the loose story and make it more of an adventure and less of a never-ending survival game. I think in the Hamlet DLC for the base game, the “town” aspects of it scratched that itch a little bit, but I want more. The interface could even look exactly the same. I played the demo of Cult of the Lamb, and that game has a similar top-down 2D look to Don’t Starve, except there are in-game “cutscenes” and you have dialogue options which advance the creepy little narrative. Hollow Knight was good with this too. It’s a metroidvania, so there’s no crafting at all (I don’t consider status upgrades to be crafting), but like most RPGs with a silent protagonist, the story is furthered through exploration and interaction with NPCs. Some people love survival games, and I enjoy them quite a bit, but I like them to have an endpoint. The Flame in the Flood has a brutal difficulty curve, but it does reward you for your persistence, and it’s by no means impossible to beat. The journey takes you further and further along a river which at first seems endless - but it does have an end, and that’s what I want, I guess. Closure.

Hades is one of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever played, and the main reason was how much you are rewarded, even for failed attempts. You might totally choke on a run, but even so, every time you venture out you’re gaining more darkness/gems/etc that you can invest back into your stats and weapons. As in - there is no wrong way to play the game, you will move forward and improve no matter what. I love that. DST has finally dipped into this territory with Wilson’s skill tree, but I think they ought to give every character a similar mechanic. The skills would be specific to each character, and I think would give players more of an incentive to do repeat runs. At a certain point the whole game gets boring, and depending on my mood I sometimes boot it up, think about all the trees I’m going to have to cut down, and then immediately close the game, because I’m sick of doing virtual chores.

Stardew Valley was so addictive for me that I had to delete the game to get control of my life back. That game is nothing but farming and chores, yet I didn’t get tired of it. I think that’s because if you want to, you can ignore any aspect of the game you don’t care for, and time will pass anyway. You can spend all your time farming, or just mining, or focus on relationships with NPCs. Obviously with Don’t Starve, you can’t ignore food because starvation is an ever-present threat.

I also don’t give a damn about boss fights. I never have, in any game. I’m always eager for them to be over so I can get back to actually enjoying the game again, but nope I have to hit this thing 1000 times without getting permanently killed. Don’t Starve’s fighting system is shit, and it always has been. The hit boxes suck, and the fact that I need to download mods just to see health levels for the enemy is ridiculous.

I’ve had a lot of fun with DST, but I think I enjoy the fandom stuff more than the actual game. Same with TF2. It’s pretty fun to play, but I enjoy watching SFM videos and stuff like that more than playing the actual game. Don’t Starve has such fun characters and such an appealing style that it draws people in, and the animated shorts promise this wider world and a more intriguing story that isn’t in the actual game. Most players won’t even get to the cryptic hints at the story that are in the actual game (the Ruins, etc) due to the difficulty curve.

There’s a lot of creative energy and highly imaginative world-building, but when are we going to see it put to use? If anybody has any thoughts on all this, feel free to leave a reply.

[meraki-sunset]

Hi! I just got into Homestuck and my friend said you were one of the best artists in the community! Do you have any advice for reading, any knowledge or magic wisdom to share before I really get into it? Your art is really cool though!

Hi there! Well, I guess the only advice I can give you is that, the beginning can feel slow if you’ve heard about the whole madness that happens in the future, maybe if you’re looking forward to the action, the beginning might feel boring, but every part has its own charm, even the interludes. Homestuck can have you hoked on two characters conversation and then jump to some mafia dudes breaking shit. Cuz at its core, it’s a convoluted story that can get meta and break the fourth wall, so it will make fun of you at times, that’s also part of the charm.

Homestuck can have a lot of world building that’s half really important and half bullshit, it’s up to you if you want to remember every detail or just move forward.

Me personally, I have the “lore keeper” diploma on my wall and I dissect every info I get. That doesn’t need to be your case at all. You can just read it, get confused, talk about it with your friend, and you can chat about stuff that was cool or important. And If you finish it, you can just look for theory videos just for fun and find new stuff that was hidden all along

Oh! And most important of all. The original comic isn’t as good as it used to be since flash died, because the whole thing used it, the video games are no longer playable and the animations don’t have the same high quality they used to. I highly recommend you to download The unofficial Homestuck Collection <==Link It emulates homestuck the way it used to be, you’ll get the actual experience with it

So anyway, that’s all I can tell you about it. It’s good, I love it! But it’s okay if you don’t get hooked right away, or at all, if you don’t, i hope you still get a laugh out of it.

[gaystims]

How to make headcanon GIF's

What you will need

VLC media player

A video/edpisode/series/ect of the character you're making headcanons for

EzGif

Photopea

What you should probably have (not required)

A VPN

The whole series of whatever you want to GIF

An Adobe account so you can use Abobe express

A hard drive (this shit takes up a LOT of space, especially if you're batch downloading a series)

Now that you have all the basics let's get started!

Step one: Choosing a character

Obviously this process will vary from person to person, sometimes a headcanon is hard to prove with canon, sometimes it's easy.

For this we're going to go easy so we will be making GIF's of Maomao from the Apothecary Diaries displaying autistic symptoms.

She's basically a cat so this won't be too hard (does anyone else remember the autism cat or am I just old?)

Step two: Downloading the source

This can be a difficult process and (while I'm more than happy to help) I won't be sharing where I download anime from (Loose lips sink ships) although a quick google search into how to torrent anime will work.

Anyway I have the whole series downloaded for this, it's much easier to do the whole series.

Step three: Cutting the video/finding a scene to GIF

Best way to do this? Get your autism glasses on and pick up on all the details that make you think this character is autistic.

For me, one of the 'signs' is the way Maomao is obsessed with poisons and herbalism, so a good scene for me to GIF is when she's allowed into the doctors medicine draws.

But how do you clip a scene from a whole vedio?

Simple, you record the scene you want to GIF with VLC! Just hit the red dot (circled in red here) and let the scene play out!

I would personally allow a few seconds before the specific scene and a few seconds after to play, because sometimes the video can glitch.

Step four: Making the GIF

Next you'll need to go to EzGif and upload the clip you made, if the clip you made is too long you can use Adobe Express to trim it.

When your video is uploaded (it can take a while sometimes) you need to trim the length to the closest second that shows what you want to GIF, then you need to edit the GIF size so it's not too big for tumblr.

Here are the measurements we use!

Hit confirm and now you have a GIF!

Step five: Cropping and trimming

At the bottom of your GIF you should see a row of options of what to do with it.

Personally I would crop the GIF first and then do frames because frames takes longer to load larger GIF's.

To crop I hit the square option and drag out the edges, then process the GIF. Then I hit frames and press skip for any frames I don't want in the end GIF.

Then save it.

Step six: Adding Text

Now you will need Photopea where you will need to open the GIF.

I have a file saved for the text so I can copy and paste what I want it to say so it looks the same, for you though you need to type the text out.

Hit the text button (red) and then type out what you want it to say, change the font with the blur circled and the outline/font color with green.

I personally use a rainbow overlay for the text because I'm ~fancy~ and the autism symbol is mostly represnted as a rainbow.

Step seven: Exporting as a GIF

After typing out what the scene represents, you need to save the GIF.

Go to File > Export as > GIF

Step eight: Repeat eight times

And then you stick them all together and make a board

This is the finished GIF set for this tutorial!

[barrenwomb]

roughly two months ago an old lady saw me walking around and asked some help to download a video of her grandson doing a christmas school play and we ended up exchanging numbers. told her i'm a nurse so obviously she very excitedly told me her whole clinical history. i'm fine with that though, i love old people. anyways yesterday she called me and was like hi martina do you remember me and i was very confused at first then i recalled her name and we started chatting. she told me she feels tired all the time and complained about leg swelling. i tried to help her out the best i could and then asked her to see a doctor. then at some point she told me very intimate facts about her life until she was bawling her eyes out and admitted she feels so lonely it will eventually kill her. her daughters won't talk to her and she divorced from her husband 20 years ago. she said she's ashamed of feeling this way because she's always been a strong willed and cheerful lady. said she has random anger outbursts and hates it because it's so unlikely of her. said she doesn't know how to be honest with her daughters and just tell them she wants to share a genuine connection with them. said she has no friends and no one to talk with and it's hard to admit you're completely alone in this world. said she loves taking long walks but keeps finding herself crying in the middle of the street. we talked for almost an hour and i tried to reassure her and i told her i can be her friend and she can talk to me any time she needs and i can buy her groceries and we can do yoga together. i genuinely felt like i was talking to a much older version of myself. i love you concetta

[heybaetae]

gifmaker / cc wrapped 2023!

thanks for tagging me my angel @jkvjimin 💜

i tried really hard not to choose all comp sets, but those take the most effort and therefore are what i'm prouder of than a standard set, but regardless...

here are my top 10 fave creations of the year:

bts chapter 1 insta feed // this was an insanely taxing project and is probably the most work i've ever put into anything, but i was really inspired to do it. it took about a week (one day for each panel) and was repetitive, i literally threw out my back by day 3 from sitting working on it that my body was in SO MUCH PAIN, but i wanted to get everything right and make it make sense which is why i wrote up a detail post breaking it down and explaining every decision that went into this. i still intend to make this a series and do one dedicated to their japanese discography (i actually started on one before i published this but didn't like the concept) and for their solo work, but it doesn't feel like the right time yet as things continue to release. but i look forward to it!

cheesy bts valentine cards // this was purposely corny, but the response was unbelievable! i had fun working on it and was so happy it made people laugh and smile. the tags were a joy to read on this post and it's my fourth most popular gifset ever. thank you!

bts guide to troubled birds // yet another corny idea, but i get a kick out of making silly comps and was inspired to make this. i started with jimin's as an experiment because his poem was the easiest to choose and built the rest of it from there, carefully deciding which poem to apply to each member and recreating them from scratch. i love celebrating their chaos in fun ways, so this was nice!

jungkook's sensitive tear ducts // sometimes i get really random comp ideas and spontaneously start making something with no plan. this was one of those times and it is now my third most popular gifset since making this blog in 2020 lol. ofc i'd never gif him upset about anything serious, so i only chose moments that didn't feel inappropriate to include to keep this set lighthearted and humorous.

long live bts (10th anniversary set) // i always knew i wanted to make something with the lyrics of that song because every word of it reminds me of their story. the 10th anniversary was perfect since it literally says "it was the end of a decade". i wanted the set to just be really simple so i went with a more desaturated look and focused more on choosing a scene from each year that fit the lyric per that gif.

love me again mv // this was my first time bothering to gif a music video in 4k. i usually avoid it bc it slows my computer down and takes a lot longer (i also have to reconvert the youtube download to a different file type to get it to play in my kmplayer, it's a whole process) but i waited a few days after it came out because i originially didn't think i could color it when it premiered so i just didn't gif it. but i gave it a try anyway when i didn't feel so pressured and i really like how crisp they came out.

jungkook's bday set // i didn't have a plan for this when i started, but i searched a lot for inspo and finally found something i felt like i could make something with so i came up with this very barbie-esque rendition for jungkook that i'm still very fond of. i purposely didn't write happy birthday on it anywhere so it could be shared year-round. it's probably my fave set i made all year and everyone seemed to like it too!

jimin's bday set // this was originally just going to include songs from FACE, but i decided it didn't celebrate jimin's work as a whole if i didn't include all his solo songs/endeavors so it turned into a big monster. i like how it came out though!

standing next to you mv // this year i was introduced to HD master files, so instead of rushing to download a new mv from youtube and giffing it fast, i'd wait for a higher quality rip from apple music to show up online. the difference is quite astounding. i made gifs with master files for all three of jk's music videos this year (seven, 3D), but i like how this one turned out the best.

vmin comp // just felt like giffing my two favorite people before they left and needed to channel my sad emotions into something before seeing them seperate for so long. i included moments i've giffed before and ones i've never had the chance to gif. i could have made this post so much longer but forced myself to stop lol. i like the pink and blue colors in it a lot <3 i miss them so much

thank for all your support on my work this year! i have lots of (old) new stuff in my drafts to share in the new year so please keep your love coming x

i'm going to tag @userjiminie @userjungkook97 @btsiu and @cordiallyfuturedwight to do this if they'd like to!

[corvidcall]

Hewwo! I have been watching your interest in MTG and also a few of the like content creators I watch have ALSO gotten into MTG lately and its all gotten me like 'wrow that looks pretty fun actually' but i am a dumbass with the brain of a prey animal and idk where to even begin to look to try to get into it and also mtg spaces scare me. But Corv my buddy Corv!!! I thought maybe you may have some tips and tricks and directions to point me in perhaps???

yes hello!!!!!!! magic is a lot of fun, and for me personally, going to go play it at my local game store has been the only thing thats actually gotten me to leave the house and talk to strangers lol.

if you want to learn to play the game, i would recommend trying Arena!! (its also on Steam if youd rather download it) its free to download, and though it has microtransactions and a sort of battle pass, i have found it really easy to not spend real money on it. anyway its got a nice tutorial, and ive always found the starter decks they give you are really solid. (also you can add me on Arena! im corvidcall#67657)

you can also check out if there's a game store near you, because i know the one near me has a "learn to play" night once a week

if you want to get into The Lore, each set has their own storyline that is depicted on the cards, and also in the webfiction on their website! The current story arc started in 2023, with the Wilds of Eldraine set. i also really enjoy Spice8rack's video summing up the entire storyline until Wilds of Elrdraine started

the way i got into it was i downloaded arena and played it a lot, and then looked at the wiki entries for the characters whose cards i used all the time. or thought looked cool lol. now i have a whole room in my apartment dedicated to it.

[booasaur]

sorry for bothering you but how did you download the wtfock clips without the dutch subs or even with them?

No bother, anon. :)

I did download with subtitles, the official versions I've found are hardsubbed the same way they are on the Wtfock English channel. Actually, funny story, but I was telling my friend about the stepsister twist last week and she told me about another Belgian show that'd just aired where in the finale there was ALSO a lesbian stepsister twist! How wild is that. Like, what's going on there... Though that was pretty awful in terms of psycho manipulative lesbian tropes, but, the thing I noticed was that those official episodes were also hardsubbed in Flemish, so I guess this is a thing they do there?

Anyway, I use the tool youtube-dl [Edited 2023-10-29 to change link to correct site]. It may require a bit of setup, but there's a lot of help online to get it running.

Then I go to the official site: https://www.goplay.be/wtfock. It's geoblocked, so you do need to be in Europe or use a VPN to get a European IP (UK doesn't count, lol, I happened to already be on a UK IP once and tried, it didn't work).

Then, while the youtube-dl tool will work for a lot of sites by just putting in the URL to a page that has the video you want, for goplay.be you'll want to first open up your browser's Developer Tools, on most browsers that'll be Ctrl+Shift+i, and then go to the Network tab.

Go ahead and type mpd into the filter at the top. Go back to the goplay.be page and click on the clip you want to download, it'll start playing. If you keep an eye on the Dev Tools window, you'll see the mpd request, it'll be called manifest.mpd. Copy the whole request URL and download it using youtube-dl. You can just do that for each of the clips. For example, I was downloading the latest clip today, and this is the request URL:

There are other extensions and tools that no doubt also download videos as you're playing, but I find most aren't free or have very limited functionality.

[xplrvibes]

so the second colby goes under and starts (whether consciously or subconsciously/unintentionally) channeling and focusing in on the spirit world, EVERYTHING starts happening? and he hasn’t even said a word yet.

I DARE ANYONE TO TELL ME COLBY ISN’T A CONDUIT OR WHATEVER THE FK

bang in the morgue, music box goes off indicating someone walking out of the morgue and towards the kitchen, first thing colby says is “take them” … dude i’d be halfway back to melbourne.

“take them… the girls… they won’t stop” to me its like there are girls in the room and someone wants them taken away from snctb in a protective way? like in an old fashion ‘women are fragile and must be protected from harsh things’ way

“everything is going off!” sam… this happens almost every time colby is under. are you surprised anymore?

“that’s me” 😳 ….just gonna aggressively cross geelong gaol off my list of places to visit

i was just thinking ‘colbys been under a long time’ and then colby said “get him out”

it is actually super creepy the way colby just sirs there like a statue, saying creepy shit, while everyone else freaks out abt knocks and responses lol

and aaallll the activity stops when colby is out?

no one argue with me rn. colby just… yeah man. he’s got direct access to the other side. he can open that door and shut it.

ok that was good :) better than anticipated and im SO PLEASED not a single fan of dipshit moment of the other stuff made even a hint of an appearance.

Ok, so here's the problem -

I STILL haven't had a chance to go back and watch the middle part of this video. 😬

I just got too much going on. I plan on downloading it to watch it on the plane, but until then, I decided to at least weigh in on the Estes Method, since that's the only part of the video I truly remember.

Anyway, I agree with what you said here, but I also have to be controversial and state this for the record: The Estes had the potential to be top tier.

And I say this knowing it sounds like I hated the Estes, which I didn't. It was really good. There were lots of interesting answers that lined up with everything going on, it was creepy, Colby was in his zone...

...but like, all of them talking over one another was driving me up a wall.

It was too much. It was 9 Sam's a'Samming.

I needed silence and calm so I could truly start to decipher some of what was happening. It was just too much.

Anyway, aside from that - Colby is really fucking creepy when he gets into his little conduit mode, huh. The way his body moves, the inflection of his voice, the way his head sometimes moves around? I don't know what all of that is, but it adds to the creepy factor. He is so freaking good at that shit.

And that isn't knocking others who do the Estes Method; there are others who get brilliant results as well. But something about Colby's whole aura and demeanor when he goes under has always felt so charged and different. He's truly putting himself in a trance or something, I don't know.

Also, side note - but can someone make a compilation of all the times shit is going down and snc seek each other out for reassurance, either by touch or just by making sure they are in each other's line of sight? I saw a mini-compiliation on tiktok of Colby reaching for Sam while in the Estes Method (from a different epsiode) and Sam in this episode moving to stand as close to Colby as humanly possibly when shit was going down during this one and it just made me think that they have a habit of doing this shit, huh 🥺.

Anyway, the Estes would've been a 10/10 but I'm deducting 2 points for the annoyance factor with the yammering lol...so 8/10!

[cristal-m-3-th]

I think there might be an option for those who don't want to pay for the watcher streaming service.(Like me)

LET'S COMMIT PIRACY

Reason 1: piracy is free.

Reason 2: the watcher streaming service is stupid.

Reason 3: those stupid mother fuckers aren't letting paying users share passwords with more than three devices.

Reason 4: it's fun being a pirate. (Yargh)

How do we commit piracy?

First method:

There are a lot of methods and forms of piracy. I mean, there's a whole reddit dedicated to piracy. Personally I use a third party browser, an ad block, and a VPN when I watch shows. There are websites that host "definitely paid content" I literally use three of them. (And yes I am gatekeeping these websites, I've seen what happens when they get distributed. Mainly through tiktok.)

So, first method (summarized)

Third party browser

Ad block

VPN

Readily available piracy websites.

Pros:

It's easy!

Cons:

Pesky pop up ads! (I'm not interested in boobs or hot women in my area! I just want to re-watch Bob's burgers!)

There's a heightened risk of obtaining a virus on your device.

Second method:

The second method is a little easier and has a reduced risk of downloading a virus on your device.

Google drive video downloads.

So I found out about this method back in 2022 when I was trying to find a way to watch season 3 of Lego monkie kid early. (I know it's cringe and embarrassing) Basically, on the monkie kid Reddit, there were users distributing a Google drive file with all the season 3 lmk episodes, I downloaded the file and watched all the episodes. I would consider this method pretty risk free since it involves downloading content (in this case the pay walled watcher content) and uploading it to a Google drive. The only con I can think about in regards to this method is the potential lack of constant updates.

So, the second method (summarized)

Google drive file

Download videos from streaming service.

Upload downloaded videos to the Google drive file.

Distribute the Google drive among interested users/viewers.

Pros:

Reduced risk of obtaining a virus on your device! :D (yippee!)

Reduced watcher streaming service profits! (This reason can apply to both methods)

Cons:

Potential lack of constant updates. (This can probably be avoided if the Google drive is treated as a community effort among users.)

Anyways, just in case the FBI or whatever monitors Tumblr sees this, this is just a satirical post, I have never committed piracy. I pay for all the content I watch. This post is quite literally a written yapping session.

[mndvx]

Sorry if you’ve answered this question before, but how do you make your gifs?

With an outdated version of photoshop and a lot of patience 😤 my messy process under the cut

let's say i have this movie downloaded in .mp4 i open it in windows movie maker - or any other software that lets you do quick and easy edits and whatnot but me i use wmm even tho it's obsolete i knoooow leave me alone - cut the scene i want to gif out and save it into this tiny little file

then i open photoshop and go into import > video frames into layers (i may be a little bit off in how things are called on PS in english, but they should be in the same places anyway)

this little popup will open

since my file is exclusively the thing i want to gif i don't need to bother with the little arrow-ish things underneath the video player, they're there if you need to shorten your thing or like cut into it.

this bit here needs to be checked like this, it'll set up the gif animation or whatever. so yeah then click Ok

bim bam boom photoshop will open like this

big scary image with many tiny scary images, so first of all what i do is get on the cropping tool

this will show up in the toolbar up top

and in there you set the dimensions of the gif, 1 gif in a gifset that takes up the whole post has to be 540px wide for 2 gif next to each other it's 268px wide and i can't remember 3 by 3 but i never do that so whatever who cares.

once you've set up the dimensions you want, you got this grid thing to move around and set however you want it to be

and then you wait as it painstakingly takes its time to do it

boom! it's done!

so that's your gif raw and unprepared without any filters or whatever, no length, no speed, nothing!

down there you've got the frames of the gif, depending how long is it'll be either a lot or very very short, in this case it's 277 frames, so already you know it's not gonna be just one gif but probably two or three - which i knew btw that's on purpose!!

first thing i do when all the cropping and setting up is done is scroll all the way through the frames to see if there's a bit that won't make it into the gif, and here, there is

these last four frames show a different bit of the scene because i cut shit very messily and don't check before opening photoshop but you know! trust the process! so make sure to select the unwanted bunch and delete them

so now hurray the gif is 273 frames and it's only the one scene i want

and now the fun not fun starts!

to the right you got these, the layers

so you gotta scroll all the way up and NOT forget to click on the very last layer before you start playing around with filters and all that

this little guy right here is my bestien he's the only one i use when editing gifs, fuck everybody else on that row. when making gifs i mostly just use a combination of those three things, brightness/contrast, vibrancy and photo filters

so anyway, let's fool around with those little things and make a gif (i realize now the scene is very dark and it will look very ugly but never mind! we carry on) so there a bunch of random settings added - you gotta make sure they are all the way on top of everything or else they just won't appear on every single frame

what i do then is probably very stupid and there's probably a better way to do it, but MY PROCESS, so i divide the amount of frames i've got by the number of gifs i want to make in a set, so 273/3 that's 91 (thank you google), so we look back down at the frames

and then scroll aaaaaalllll the way back to frame 91 (if you hold shift and use the wheel it'll be much faster) and while still holding shift pressed down click on frame 92

that will select every frame from the last to that and we delete that shit

so now we only have 91 frames and that's one gif. so let's save it! but wait, no you forgot to do something! see the 0.03s? that's the gif speed or whatever, idk how it works but 0.03s is too fast, me i usually use 0.05s so what you do next is select every one of those frames you've got left and click the little pointing down arrow, that'll open that

click Other... and then set it as the speed you want

ok so your gif is at the correct speed NOW you can save it so it's file > export > save for web

this new popup will appear

currently as of 2024 gifs can't be bigger than 10Mb/Mo, this one is 4mo

so we're good we're fine. so then you just click save, name the file whatever you want and VOILAAAA, a djeef!

(and then undo the delete and repeat everything for the other two gifs you'd want to make in that set)