#you can make them stay at all time on your foreground by going into the right-click menu -> options -> ghost preference

[bluepallilworld]

Helloooooo! So I promised a surprise for Mimosa's birthday and here it is! 🎉✨

I made a ghost/ukagaka of him and Mu!!!!

If you don't know what a ghost is, it's a sort of desktop pet! You can have them on the corner of your screen or interact with them! Play with them! Give them gifts! Talk with them! Pet them... Many things to do ;)

If you never had a ghost, I'm gonna explain how to download everything to make them work! If you're not a beginner, you can scroll and download the files (first the font, second the balloon then the nar ;3c)

Oooook lesssgo, the steps:

Download SSP on your computer! It's the thing ghosts work on, the files are all but useless without it! Here's the link: [http://ssp.shillest.net/] Fair warning, it's gonna be in japanese- Don't be scared and just click the download button!

2. Double click on the thingie, and unzip it! I advise to not unzip it in your downloads and give it its own secured folder however ;P

Then to start SSP click on the ribbon in the now unzipped files, ignore the rest, there are just "the guts" on the ghost (I mean you can read the "README" file if you're unfamiliar to all this or are curious, it explains stuff)

3. Let the cat girl (Emily) talks for a second (in japanese sorry be patient) until it opens a lil' window with stuff written (in japanese ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). Click on the right button at the bottom

4. You're good to install them now! Download and install the three files down there ! In that order: the font, the balloon, the nar

Happy Monkey font!

Mimosa talks with the happy monkey font, if you don't have it already (I didn't), download the font and install it on your computer so that what he says doesn't look weird! I promise it will look neater if you do that!

the balloon file (zip)

It's his personal talking bubble! If you don't have it, the bubble won't be adapted to them. ;w;

Download it and drag the file on the japanese-talking girl, she will do the work for you!

Open the right-click menu by, well, right-clicking on the girl and go to the balloon and select "mimomu-balloon". You might want to change the language to "english" as well! The balloon is set!

Do that before installing the nar or he won't use the good bubble for the introduction!

the nar file of the ghost

And it's the important file with the kids in it :3

Download it! If you have the font and the balloon installed, you can go and drag the nar file on Emily and you'll be done! You can change ghost in the right-click menu if you want ;3

Tell me if something is unclear <3

Now I have people to thank!

@creative-firebug was the big motivator and enabler! No ghost without them. And they found lil' bugs in it so I could fix them before putting it out in the wild too! Getting lil' hypes, hearts and advices really helps when you're working on something for months! And they linked me the tutorial so yes, enabler.

@zarla-s has created the template I used (Girl and triangle!)! I knew nothing (and still don't know a lot) of code and just how it works at all so thanks for that :D

@ukagakadreamteam answered questions I had and half of the fun stuff wouldn't have been possible without their answers!!!!!

Both Mimosa and Mu are my lil' kiddos shipkiddies

[space-matt]

Could I request a Matt x reader.They have been dating for a while but the reader has never left that honey moon stage.One day Matt is not having a good day and the readers presence make him on edge.He ends up blowing up on her calling her overbearing and clingy.Things shift and she becomes more distant,for a while he feels ok but he starts to miss the relationship they way it was before.when he tries to talk to the reader she cries to him about the whole situation.He is really sorry and does his best to make it up to her.

I’ll make it up to you 

matt.sturniolo x fem.reader

summary: It's really true that you understand the value of things when you lose them.. Matt figured it out too late, but will he be able to make up for it?

request: yes 

author’s note: thank u so much for the request!! I hope you’ll enjoy it ♡ I added the song that helped me to write it. For everything I’m here!

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English is not my first language, if you see grammar and typing mistakes, I apologize in advance! I just ask you not to be rude to me ♡

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revised

Still lying in bed you feel the heat coming from the window left half open in Matt’s room, with your eyes closed you stretch by turning to the other side meeting a boulder of a blanket, you reach out your hand in search of your favorite person but to your surprise, your hand leans on the mattress, so you open your eyes trying to focus and notice that half of the bed is empty.

You've been together for seven months and thirteen days now, and you have to say that they are the best months of your life; Having never had previous relationships, it can be said that Matt is your first true and actual relationship in your 20 years of life. 

Everything had started as a pure joke between you two to make fun of Chris and his girlfriend Maddy, but the more time passed, the more you began to feel real feelings towards the boy who unlike you had liked you for a long time, but for fear of being considered only and solely a friend, he wanted to avoid putting his heart in the foreground and listening to the rational part of his brain. 

But fate wanted that one evening while you were saying goodbye to go to your own house, the moment you were about to press a kiss against his cheek, Matt turned earlier than expected causing your lips to collide, making you immediately move away but when you stopped to look into his eyes you saw in both of them a spark to burst a breathless kiss.

It must be said, from that moment you have been together, indeed perhaps precisely because it is your first relationship that you try to always make everything go for the best unlike Matt who still had his first relationships during his adolescence that, however, according to him, ''they can't compete with you''. Of course, it scares you that sooner or later it may get bored or otherwise lose interest in you, but you still try to eliminate this thought and be the best girlfriend in the world. 

So you get out of bed by completely opening the window so that the room can change air, leaving the bed undone; Take your change in the drawer that Matt has free so that you can put some of your things when you stay at his house to sleep, and you head to the next bathroom without noticing who is in the open space connected by a small corridor to his room.

Meanwhile Matt was lying on the sofa, the TV turned on in the background, with the phone in his hand looking at the various social networks but his mind was elsewhere, indeed the day had started in the wrong direction.

All night you did nothing but stay attached to him not making him move, which didn't make him sleep a wink and that's why he was quite nervous.

His brothers were still in their respective rooms changing, as they would then be out all day under your precise instructions, as you wanted to spend a day entirely with Matt before leaving for spring break in two weeks. 

When Nick and Chris find themselves in the living room ready to go out, Matt pulls up his head ''Do we have any meetings today?'' He asks confused getting up and putting the phone in his pocket ''The two of us yes, you have the day off today.. enjoy it'' Chris replies with a grin on his face which vanishes when he hears a puff from him ''Wow I didn't expect all this enthusiasm '' exclaims ironic Nick going to the door of the house ''Please let me come with you, I need to disconnect, I need air'' Matt responds whispering so as not to be heard by you ''Sorry MattyB but no'' says Chris taking a can of Pepsi from the fridge and then he goes out too.

Another puff comes out of his lips knowing he has to stay with you all day, and resignedly throws himself back on the couch closing his eyes.

When he feels your steps approaching a sense of annoyance and nervousness pervades his body, he can't even understand the reason for all this but it's already been a couple of days that he just wants to have a moment for him, but with you in the middle it's almost completely impossible.

On the other hand, you do not notice anything different, perhaps because taken by too much love even the most obvious things go unnoticed by your eyes in the shape of a little heart. 

All happy you go to the kitchen take water pouring it into a glass, you notice Matt on the sofa, you leave the glass on the counter and go in his direction lowering yourself to his height ''Babe, let's go out for breakfast?'' you ask trying to caress his hair but at your touch, he moves by sitting down looking at you ''I can't, I have to go out'' he responds annoyed without even looking at you, leaving you a little surprised but doesn't give up trying with a ''Then when you come back we can go for a ride at Lake Hollywood Park, right?'' hopeful in one of his answers but the only thing he pronounces is a ''See you later'' without greeting you and leaving the house, leaving you standing in the middle of the living room. 

The hours go by and so does your enthusiasm, you start thinking about the worst situations in your mind, which do nothing but increase your paranoia;

Okay maybe you recognize that in the last period, you have always been with them but although it has been almost a year since you moved to Los Angeles, you have not been able to make many friends due to your armor that you tend to raise when it comes to new people. But with Nick, Chris, and Matt it's different, you've known them since you were little, and with them, there was never a need to create a wall to protect you, because they are your guardian angels.

You've always gotten along, except for a few quarrels which is normal, but you've never noticed before behaviors so distant from Matt, as if your presence wasn't welcome.

When you hear the door open you hope that your boyfriend's figure will come out of the stairs but you recognize the voices of Chris and Nick, you resign yourself completely on the couch with your pajamas and the tray of ice cream on your legs.

''Ookay... why are you at home? Didn't you have to go out?'' Nick asks looking at you confused ''By the way where is Matt?'' Keep looking around ''I have no idea'' you answer him in a subtle voice while you eat a spoonful of vanilla ice cream, you feel the tears stop at the corners of your eyes, so you don't see you turn your head on the other side putting the teaspoon in the tray ''He came out this morning and never came back, I tried to text him and call him a couple of times but I didn't receive an answer'' you keep whispering closing your eyes making the tears fall.

You feel the package of ice cream being removed from your legs and two arms that surround you, from the essence that envelops you, you recognize that is Chris and with your eyes still closed you abandon yourself in a liberating cry after holding it all day ''Shh, it's okay'' he whispers massaging your back ''You know that now and then he has its relapses and behaves like this'' he keeps trying to reassure you.

You pull up with your nose and detach yourself from his arms ''But with me, he had never behaved this way.. at all he always came to me'' you explain looking in his direction receiving almost an expression of pity on his face ''What do you say if we order something and watch a movie here all together? We will make you choose'' announces trying to cheer you up But on your part, he only receives a nod with your head.

Even though he had spent the whole day outside walking around the crowded streets of Santa Monica, his mind did nothing but think about the time to get home, the only thought of having you always stuck made him take his breath away, of course he cared you but this so much physical contact, at that time, was leading him to detach himself from everything, but especially from you.

That's why he had waited for a late time to come back, so as not to have to face you trying to postpone everything to the day of your departure. But you know how his thought works more than yourself, in this way after finishing watching your comfort movie together with the two boys, you decide not to go to sleep right away but to stay on the couch not being able to stay alone in bed without Matt by your side, with the knowledge of having done something wrong. 

The fact that there was no communication between the two of you was new, you have always been the anchor of each other, and not being it in a short time has completely upset you, especially not understanding how to act, and consequently how to find a solution. 

The silence that reigns in the house is broken by the noise of the keys that are inserted into the door patch, your heart begins to beat quickly but you remain motionless sitting with your gaze turned in his direction, while he tries to slowly climb the entrance stairs but when it reaches the last one, he stops seeing you pulling his eyes up ''you shouldn’t have waited up for me, there was no need'' he says changing towards the fridge taking a bottle of water but no longer being able to hold back your thoughts for you ''What have I done? It's all day that you avoid me indeed it's days that you behave strangely'' you blurt out getting up to get closer to him, and given your height difference you are forced to pull up your head to look him better in the eyes.

As you stand in front of Matt, you can feel the bitterness in his words cutting deep into your heart. "What did you do to me?" he asks, his voice laced with anger and frustration. "There's that you've become overbearing and clingy. I can't take it anymore. You're always sticky, I never have a free moment, and if I have it, you're always there" he exclaims with clenched teeth and a hard look.

His words strike you like a bolt of lightning, and you take a step back, not believing what you're hearing. "We weren't like that before, and now I understand why no one has ever wanted you" he adds with wickedness, making you feel small and insignificant.

You try to speak, but your voice catches in your throat. You know what you've been through, and you've always hoped that Matt would understand. But instead, he holds it against you, making you feel like an outcast.

"You're an asshole" you finally manage to say, raising your voice as tears slide down your face. It's not like you to use such harsh words, but you're hurt and angry, and you can't help it.

At that moment, Matt opens his eyes, and you can see the surprise and shock on his face. He had never heard you say such a thing to him. Among all people, it was always you who used a calm tone, even in the most difficult situations.

Seeing you rush into his room, he follows you around, but when he sees that you start to take your bags, he realizes that he has exaggerated. "What do you do?" he asks, trying to take your arm. But with all the anger that you had in your body, in very little, you wriggle from his grip. "Let go of me" you say in a dry tone.

"I'm not going to stay in the room with you anymore. I'll go to Nick's, and I'll bring all my stuff" you finish, closing the zip and dragging the bag on the ground. As you come out of his room, you find yourself facing the two guys who, from the screams, immediately catapulted to see what had happened.

As you ask Nick for help, you feel exhausted and drained from the situation at home. Without even turning to see him, his hand takes the bag from yours and you head up to the room with the older brother. In the distance, you hear Chris saying, "Dude you have already done too much damage, let her be."

Days pass by, but the situation at home remains the same.

After receiving some harsh words, you decide to build a wall between you and Matt and try to avoid being alone with him.

You attempt to behave like a mature person, spending more time with the two brothers and going out on your own when they can't accompany you.

Matt, on the other hand, feels good when you're not around. However, as time passes, guilt starts to creep in, and he realizes that he doesn't want to push away the one person who means the world to him.

He understands this even more when you don't even look at him at the airport and leave without a single glance. "Why did I do wrong to her?" he says to himself as he watches you go through security checks. "Because you're a jerk, that's why" answers Nick, watching him with a serious expression.

Although he regrets his actions, Matt is determined to make things right between you two. Without telling anyone, he packs his backpack with only the bare minimum and heads off to the other side of the country.

Spring break is coming to an end, and leaving your family and friends in Boston again feels like a stab in the heart. This time, it hurts even more because you know that once you get back, you'll have to fend for yourself completely, starting with finding an apartment.

You and your family were having a pleasant evening playing board games when you heard the doorbell ring. "Were you expecting someone?" you asked, moving your pawns on the board. "No, we weren't. Why don't you go and answer it?" your mother replied, gazing at you with a gentle expression. You got up from your spot, a little confused.

As you reached the door, you saw Matt standing outside with a bouquet of your favorite tulips and a puppet with the words <I'm stupid> written on it. The sight of the flowers made you smile, but you didn't let your guard down completely.

''Please, I have to talk to you''

"You have five minutes" you told him as you closed the door behind you and sat on the porch, keeping a distance. He handed you the flowers and the puppet, and you accepted them, putting the flowers next to you and holding the puppet in your hands.

"I'm sorry" he began, fiddling with your fingers. "I know I'm not good with words, but I realize now that I was wrong to say what I said.

I shouldn't have blamed you like that. I just wanted to talk to you and explain my side of things."

He paused, looking down, and when he looked up again, his eyes were watery. You felt your own eyes fill up with tears, too.

"I don't want to lose you" he said, touching your cheek. You closed your eyes and put your hand on his. "I was an asshole, but I understand that now that you're gone."

You spoke up, your voice barely above a whisper. "It was a low blow. You've never made me feel so small and helpless before. But I have to admit, I've been clingier than usual lately. That's just my way of showing you love, and if you don't like it, we can end it here."

"No way" he said, taking a step closer. "I flew over 2,500 miles to see you and tell you I love you more than anything. We just need to communicate better and make sure we're both happy. I'm here because I want to be and make it up to you." concludes by looking into your eyes '' I love you too... but please let's not hurt ourself anymore'' you leaned your forehead against his and felt his lips on yours in a gentle kiss.

When you pulled away, you grinned and grabbed the puppet. "Would you be him?" you asked, laughing together.

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Taglist:  @sturniolosreads @mayhem-72 @dracoflaco @lyzsaphrodite @ifilwtmfc @xoxo4chrisss @soimightlikeoldmen69 @inlovewithmattstur @sturniolobendystrawsposts @tillies33ssss @junnniiieee07

[venelona-turtle-den]

Ghost Future Leonardo FAQ

(...I'll get a better header picture later. Maybe.)

(Get your own Desktop Old Turtle Man here)

Since I keep getting repeated questions, I've decided to make a FAQ where I can put all explanations to and link to it 👉👉

❓How do I keep Leo on top of my screen applications?

If you want him to stay on top of your windows, right click him, then go to Options - Preferences, then the Ghost(2) tab in the big menu that pops up. Check "Always Show Foreground" and that should do it.

❓Is there any screenshots on how I can install Leo?

Check out this post, it describes how to install Leo, screenshots included

❓Does Leo work on Chromebook, IOS, newer Android, etc? Will he ever?

No. I can't personally make him work on other platforms - unless the developers of the software (called SSP) will make SSP work on those platforms, Leo won't be able to work there.

❓How do I talk to Leo? How do I ask him a question? How do I pet him?

After installing Leo, if you want to interact with him just double click him - anywhere but his face. Right click on him calls more generic options menu.

To pet him, stroke the top of his head with your mouse, no clicking. If you want to know more general area, look at this gif here.

❓Download link for Leonardo doesn't seem to be working, what should I do?

Since the download link in my post leads to the website I made on neocities, sometimes website doesn't work, but you should be able to install Leo straight from the Google Drive here. You can see instructions linked in the second question of this post.

❓My data doesn't save - every time I open Leo, the introduction plays again, what should I do?

Most of the time it means that the files have been installed incorrectly, and folders are not where they should be.

Here's the files you should have in your 'ghost' folder (the location of which will most probably be your 'downloads' folder), and files you should have there

For the first 'ghost' folder, unless you installed desktop ghosts before you will only have 'Future Leonardo' and 'emily4' folders

Inside the 'shell' folder you should have 3 folders - 'Taileo', 'Neon Leon' and 'Chin Stripes', and they all contain lots of pngs and a couple of txt files

Don't worry about 'profile' folder, I believe it just saves the data of ghosts's coordinates on your screen in case you move them around

It might be a problem with a save file - just make sure you don't move 'aya5_variable.cfg' from the 'master' folder, because that's an actual file that contains all the save data.

❓Will you ever make more TMNT ghosts? Other brothers?

No. I have enough stuff I still wish to implement to Leo, and even if I made any other turtle, the overall experience wouldn't be much different. But don't let your dreams be dreams, you can always try and make your beloved turtle live on your desktop yourself! English Desktop Ghost devs community is so lovely, they're always happy to help both new and seasoned devs 💖✨

❓I still have a question!

You're always welcome to send me a question. I might take time responding (perhaps a lot of time...), but if you send it straight to DMs I usually reply within a day. So, DM this blog or @venelona for urgent questions 💌

[asherlockstudy]

I'm a fairly new RandL fan (it's been about a year or so) and I'm so fascinated by their friendship and I love coming to your blog to see your takes, thoughts and opinions because you often say stuff other people aren't and it's so interesting to read

I don't have the time to catch up on their past ear biscuits episodes (or really even keep up with the current ones) so hearing that they've openly talked about that they've put rules and boundaries on their friendship was kinda shocking and I really want to watch episodes relevant to that because that sounds an awful lot like "if we put distance between us and have rules then nothing outside of regular friendship can happen" which is a bit 🤨 because it has avoiding cheating vibes like you said. I don't read them as the type of guy to cheat but unintentional emotional cheating is plausible and it makes me wonder if those rules and boundaries was because of that or the fear of that happening

Yeah they sounded like they considered it absolutely natural when they decided upon it. They explained that they spent so much time together for the job that they were not spending enough time with their families at home alone. This makes total sense.

What doesn't make sense is HOW they chose to go about it - like forbidding to look or speak at each other in an accidental encounter out of the workplace. Now that's some weird shit.

They make their friendship unnecessarily strange for me to not think something is up with it. Even today, look how emphatically (and performatorily) Link showed he was uncomfortable with saying "We love you Rhett" for his best friend's birthday alongside everybody else. That's charged. I am not even saying it is only explained 100% by a romance but it is not indicative of a normal dare I say healthy platonic friendship.

Normal best friends could even decide this on the go, like, one could come up with the invitation to go out and the other could respond "Dang man I would love to but I gotta stay with the family, I am not seeing them enough". That's all honestly. Why it needs rules and excuses and restrictions and not even interacting on the most basic level (greeting or looking at each other) is just crazy charged and can not be explained by a typical friendship.

Of course one year later or so they made another podcast saying they were bringing their friendship back to the foreground because they were not nurturing it enough. Okay. Something tells me Link's email played its part there.

[activatebutterflyshield]

Something something the album Coyote Stories by The Crane Wives is about the current objectively horrid state of the world and also a call to action on changing that.

Okay. Starting with “Keep You Safe”. Here, the singer starts out as a young adventuring child who is afraid of joining their friends in slightly dangerous games. They never joined in, too afraid to face the consequences. As they grow up, they get more and more scared of the world as they see more and more slightly dangerous things happening around them. The refrain is a mantra that “Time is not your friend / Time is not your remedy / No amount of waiting will make you, make you brave / No amount of fear will keep you / No amount of fear will keep you safe”. The singer in this song is symbolic of the current state of the world, with so many people afraid of what is to come. The fears keep on piling up, from climate change to war to so many other things, and the people stay afraid, but they never grow any safer by being afraid. Time can and will march on, and, as the song says, “Come what may”.

Going on to “The Moon Will Sing”. The singer speaks of an unfulfilling relationship, with someone or something that keeps on leading them on but never fulfilling their promises. They mindlessly follow the something, and quietly ignored their neglected heart for a time. The chorus is “The moon will sing a song for me / I loved you like the sun / Bore the shadows that you made / With no light of my own”, in which the singer is lamenting their neglected state, but is also speaking of it in the past tense. They’ve moved on now, and are recalling the unhappy past. The singer in this case still represents the state of the world, but of a slightly altered state. They used to be in a bad place, but they’ve changed for the better, reflecting how the world has started to shift for the better. We’ve caught sight of our sorry state and are trying to remedy that.

Next is “Allies or Enemies”. This one is blunt and very personal. The singer immediately references “wildfires and weeds”, as well as an “awful damn disease”, all of which are rather familiar to 21st century Homo sapiens as omnipresent news headlines in the backgrounds and foregrounds of our lives. We are intertwined with these tragedies just as the singer is intertwined with the subject of their song, to the point that neither can conceive of a world without the tragedy or the subject. Anything and everything may or may not happen, as “All is fair in love and war”, but if this dynamic keeps up, it will be “the death of me”.

“Unraveling” is mostly a heaping pile of metaphors and symbolism. The singer is lamenting their lost loves, people who seemed to care for them before disappearing without a word. Though these men were kind and seemed to help, each and every one would eventually disappear and leave the singer worse for wear. Perhaps the best line to be applied to the world’s current state is the one about the carpenter: “Sanded my rough edges, crafted new and lovely things / But now my love is gone / And I can’t help the fracturing”. The carpenter represents the groups and people who have shepherded the world into its current state, keeping the population complacent by plying them with pretty little gifts and things to distract them while profiting all they can. But as soon as the carpenter has gotten what they wanted, they leave the world to its own devices to deal with the consequences of their profiteering. These profiteers are partially the ones at fault for the current state of the world.

“Hard Sell” does, in fact, hit hard. The singer is clearly going through something rough, holding themself together through sheer will to live. They’re trying so hard to get better, but it’s so hard to improve that it seems that they’re “working with barbed wire and moth wings”. To go on a tangent, the decision to specifically say “moth wings” and not bird or fly wings evokes (in my biology-addled brain) the image of salt and pepper moths. These are moths that rapidly evolved to have darker coloration thanks to the sooty, polluted conditions of the Industrial Revolution. The singer is using the only things they have: a metal material designed to harm and keep out and the wings of an animal greatly impacted by human-spurred climate change, and they’re lamenting that it seems that everyone might be going through the same thing. And its true; we’re all facing the same consequences of the state of the world in one form or another, and the only difference is how we present ourselves to the rest of the victims out there. We’re all affected, and we all need to “stop pretending now” and get something done.

Finally made it to “Rockslide”, the song that got me down this track in the first place. It has a runaway rhythm with a singer that speaks of feeling the “wild weather” that’s “got the mountain shaking weak”, and of the “quaking” of “rocks … a’tumblin while the people are asleep”. That wild weather is all the rapid and negative changes rocking the world, or the mountain. And the rocks are the consequences crashing towards the people so ignorant they might as well be asleep. Though the singer prays that they might keep their soul and that “you”, whom they’re singing to, wants to settle down, they also acknowledge that they must run or “the devil we will meet”. The people of the world must run, or make changes, else they’ll face the horrible consequences, or the devil. The devil, or “monster”, is coming and does not care what it hits.

On to “Metaphor”. Oh boy, “Metaphor”. The singer here is someone broken, jaded, the sort of person who’s been hurt ten too many times. They are a liar, a scavenger, a (metaphorical) killer. “You can’t trust a single thing I say”, they sing, because they’ve been lied to and forced to survive in the corners and the margins of the world. They are loud, they are hurt, and by goodness do they not want to go through that again. I really shouldn’t have to say why this is all to real to so many people in this world. They’re the ugly, hard to look at truth of the world, the headline you’re afraid to finish reading, the words just a little too raw to be fake. “I’ve gotten good at making up metaphors”, they sing, because that truth is too hard to bear without at least a little bit of sugarcoating.

Now comes “The Hand That Feeds”. Do I really need to explain this one? “I’ve seen good men spoiled / Chained to their jobs like hounds / They work and sleep, and work again / In the darkest nights they howl”. The people of the world, those who by all measures should not suffer, are chained and bound, deprived of freedom beyond their desperate laments. This is the fate the singer’s father wants his child to avoid, the snare he wishes them to see and remain free of. They sing of how “He taught me that the hand that feeds / Deserves to be bitten when it beats”. No matter how good it looks, you should never take the deal. Never shake the hand of the devil, despite his honeyed words, and remain your own self. That hand only wants to drag you down deeper.

Next is “Little Soldiers”. Okay when I started writing this thing I had just finished All Quiet on the Western Front and so I had a lot of sad war metaphors about this one, but it’s been a while and most of them have vacated my brain in the meantime, so… here goes. “On the broken backs of all the words we spared” they sing, “Like little soldiers in the trenches / It was a march we made towards ruin and despair / but we held hands all the while”. The singer here is recovering from a horrible loss, of the ending of a relationship they thought was good and healthy, but in reality was false to both parties. Both the singer and their former partner are representative of the common suffering of the common people, of their past struggles and strife, and how, in the end, they banded together to fight for each other. The refrain reflects this bittersweet dynamic, switching between “I swear that I loved you” and “I swear that you loved me”. The common love was the only good thing in the lives of the partners, and is all they can look back to in the end.

Following is “Sleeping Giants”, with a return to a feel similar to that of “Rockslide”, as forces beyond mortal comprehension threaten to wake. “I feel the mountains / Shifting under me / The sleeping giants are finally waking”. The singer is hyper aware that they are in danger, and said danger is something so alien, so powerful, and as unexpected as the land itself was shifting beneath their feet. Their pulse is racing, they are in fight-or-flight as all those prophecies from the previous songs in the album begin to come true. “The moon is humming / Lovely melodies / The forest echos, the trees are crowing / Hungry, hungry harmonies”. Natural keystones as far separated as the trees on the Earth and the moon in the sky are calling out in tandem, something is wrong. Something is terribly, horribly wrong.

A rather abrupt tone shift as “Of Everlong” follows. It’s a very short song, barely more than a minute, and its poetry is perhaps the strongest. I’ll just write the whole thing here.

“Out of the ocean / Over the harbor / Lay no sons and / Lay no daughters / Among the mountains of everlong / Twas there I wrote me / A sad, sad song / And if my lover / Will not hear it / Take my voice and / Take my spirit / Leave me weakened / And dig my hole / Only my lover not I can keep my soul / Only my lover not I can keep my soul”.

The singer, a lover much like the one mentioned in “Little Soldiers”, is singing a lament that they are alone, here in the mountains of everlong, beyond all reach of other people. Here they sing of what they have lost, or perhaps never had, a tune that can only echo about those mountains and never reach beyond the ocean. They declare that they’d rather die than never see their beloved again, consigning themself to eternal loneliness rather than risk breaking their heart all over again. Theirs is a song of what was and what will never be, of a world of memories that was long taken by the mists and will never emerge from the horizon with the breaking dawn.

It stays melancholy with “Never Love an Anchor”, with a rocking rhythm like a ship in a calm sea, and a singer who laments that they were never enough for their beloved. They were unable to care for their child, their spark of light impossibly kindled in a life made of sorrow, and feel that it is all their fault. “And I tried to do the best that I could / But try as I might I couldn’t bring myself to hold you”, they cry, a gentle, quiet admittance of defeat. They knew that they could never be enough, and so gave a chance to their beloved in exchange for defying their own selfish desires. This singer acted for the good of the many rather than the good of the few, giving what hope they did have to the little one so that they may rise just a bit higher. “On some level, I think I always understood / That a ship could never really love an anchor”, they sing, an admittance of their own failings, and a declaration that their beloved will be better, will have some brighter future, some breaking dawn at the horizon to look forward to.

The final song of the album is “New Discovery”. It’s a final declaration of the singer’s hope for a brighter future, of some true and real goal that they might strive for. It may not be real, it may be a mirage, but by goodness will they bite and claw and fight for it. “I want to believe / There’s something left for me / A new discovery”. It’s a hope, a faraway paradise, an impossible pipe dream, but it’s something. And to a person at the very end of their rope, to those who might sing of their trials and tribulations and torments and tragedies, something can be everything. It doesn’t need to be grand, or golden, or even great. It just needs to be better. And that is something everyone should be able to get behind.

Hope is famously that thing with feathers, the creature at the bottom of Pandora’s box, the last feeling humanity will ever have. It will drive us on through the deep, dark night, be our guiding lantern in the shadow of the dragon, and when we see the light of the sun shatter over the eastern horizon, we’ll think, yes. One more day. One more day to live and to learn, one more chance at making things better. There will always be nights; times of death and destruction will come again and again for the foreseeable future. But the night is always followed by the day, by hope and a new chance to take another step towards a better future.

Never stop fighting to see that next dawn, to once again behold the sun declaring that a new day has risen.

Never stop working to make things better.

[incomingalbatross]

Top 5 favorite AUs?

A good question! (I'm going to assume "types of AU" here - apologies if you were looking for specific AUs, but this was what came to mind first.)

In no particular order:

Platonic soulmark AUs. I am obligated to include this given that I've written multiple in different fandoms. :P I love taking characters who are Significant to each other and throwing a big red flag at them, in-universe, and getting to play with how they process that once it's been foregrounded. Also love the freedom and room for variety under the umbrella of "soulmate marks."

Reincarnation AUs. This one is funny because the actual concept of reincarnation offends me on a deep theological and metaphysical level, to the extent that I often have to rationalize it a bit within my own plot bunnies. And yet I love it. Love the idea of people starting all over, having new lives, but finding each other and starting where they left off - of getting to start where they wished they could have last time. I'm a sucker for it.

Fix-it AUs. Extremely basic, yes, but they're like candy. I also love watching the variety, in fandoms where there are one or two Bad Things everyone's sad about - they range all the way from "here's one thing I changed to give them a slim window toward a better path, and they are going to forge their way through with blood sweat and tears" to "what if this particular person had just... been less stupid" to "everything goes suspiciously easy for them but we all know this is wish-fulfillment so sh" to "and the bad guy tripped and broke his neck on the way to committing crimes THE END."

Negaverse AUs. All right, this one does have a specific fandom name, because Darkwing Duck did the "mirror universe where everybody's moralities are swapped" my favorite. It's hard for me to find a morality-swap/mirrorverse AU I actually like to read, somehow, but they are delightfully fun to brainstorm. (The key for me is A) letting your new villains maintain some core of their canon self while now being garbage in very distinctive ways and B) leaning just as hard into creating new heroes who you can love and root for.)

Peggy Sue/time-travel AUs. By this I mean specifically the "character gets sent back into their past body, with all their future memories," and... I have a complicated relationship with this one, honestly. I will often revolve AUs of this type in my head, but they almost always end up breaking down under their own weight. I want to give characters second chances but I can't accept the losses involved for them in going back alone, so I keep expanding the time-travel cast list until it gets ludicrous. And like, when I'm so unwilling to give up their present, it makes it hard for me to stay committed to wanting a new past for them. ...But even so, it takes up enough space in my brain that it goes on the list. ;P

Thank you for giving me a reason to ramble about my AU thoughts! :)

[intcritus]

It was a warm night, the moon was just shyly peeking from the clouds and the lakeside cabin they've stayed within for the pass few weeks for their time away from the city life was at rest. Fire crackled in his foreground, gentle in its dance and warming him from the cool breeze that passes over and yet, attention was moved towards the cabin doors that part slowly with his forever other half, more than a friend, beyond family and heart keeper. Something with Vega was without words that nothing in the universe could muster up the right label for it, so why bother?

"Vega…" A small voice, more akin to the child that held his first book on magic identification with large tears and no understanding on why he wasn't picked by one of the many elements out there. Only to find out that he was selected by them all, this time, it was without the tears but his eyes were still just as glassy. "I think I'm going to give up my magic." This world… didn't need it, something about this planet should remain asleep and if his mana rings were to be a beacon, he didn't want to be the source of dooming this wonderful place after running away from their prior home in the first place.

 Vega was more acclimated to being outside the inside than within. Something about it was busy, nosy and as someone who’d come from a place as war-torn as Aaphrine, it made him often feel like a beast with a sore paw, cornered with eyes darting and looking for safety. There was always so much going on at once that it was enough tot cause him to get frazzled. Out here with Emon, something in his dark heart settled. It was safe, quiet but then anything within Emon’s presence usually was for Vega.

Joining the other, there’s a moment when his heart stutters when he sees the glassiness in Emon’s heart, his rage becoming a palpable beast at anyone who would put it there before it fizzles out just as quickly and he’s left to blink almost owlishly at his friend. Ah, this had been a while coming, hadn’t it ? To his rampant mind, there was no need for magic here. They didn’t need it here. Sure, for simple thing every day things but even that was replaced by the technological advancements of this world, and why invoke wrath of war upon this war.

And it makes him think back to how Emon had asked if if they were safe, and how his heart had shattered at the question. The pockets of magic in this world needed to stay just that, miniscule. Because if he could live long enough to see that sweet smile blossom and every day the slump in the other’s shoulders be eased, then this was a wish he would prey to someone to uphold. Emon deserved to be happy, to experience new things, to make memories not stained by blood and death.

Pale eyes drift to the fire crackled between them, swallowing before shaking it off then stepping closer to Emon, dropping to his knees, and capturing one of his hands with a small, genuine grin. ❝ ━ Are you telling me looking for my approval ? My disapproval ? Do you think I’d be upset ? ❞ Magic was as much a part of them as breathing, but Vega wasn’t upset, the opposite actually. Emon stepped out and took this new journey seriously, by the veritable horns.

❝ ━ You know, no matter what, I am on your side. If you need anything, I am there. I can and will walk by your side, no one can stop that. ❞ Wet laughter escapes him, bending down to press his forehead against the back of his friend’s hand, uncaring of the tears that drip onto skin, ❝ ━ So tell me, what can I do to ease this transition? The city is unforgiving but not unnavigable. ❞  Lifting his head, Vega lets go of Emon’s hand, opting to instead embrace the other, holding him tightly, a smile upon his lips, ❝ ━ I’m proud of you. Can’t wait to see what you get up to. ❞

no matter which walk of life, he's going to be there. | @nvrcmplt

[angie-long-legs]

I wasn't there when the hotel was built, but I have to assume that the stay and food are free, because Princess Charlie intended to help people that are trapped in abusive workplaces get by without having to rely on their abusive job. And you've got a wardrobe. So not showing up at Valentino's studios and not getting paid by him does not equate to lack of the essentials.

And there is also the alternative of not going back to Valentino and utilize the time you have (that you'd normally spent filming) in a different, safer workplace and use that as your new source of income. You're a capable person, there's tons of other jobs you could get.

And you can use the time away from Valentino to get his pheromone out of your system for good. Heck, being high on party drugs is actually safer than being hooked on his stuff, all things considered. If you're gonna give up on one of those, start by giving up on Valentino, and then move on to the other stuff, if that helps you. It's not the safest way or the way the experts recommend but I'm no expert, so take what I'm about to say with a pinch of salt, but you could use cocaine or pot or [I don't know a third drug to name] to distract yourself from the struggle of going cold turkey with that absolute bitch's pheromone.

And after you've been clean from Valentino for a year and some, get a new room in a new floor at the hotel, have Niffty clean out the old one and your friends can help move you in, to eliminate the temptation of setting up a hiding place for a secret stash.

It's much, much, much, much easier said than done. It can take years. I know that and I know I probably sound hypocritical or as if I'm playing it down, but I promise I'm not. I understand how hard that shit can be. But you have a support system. You've got friends and a lover that are right there, willing and able to spend hours, days, weeks on end by your side (and no! You're not "burdening" them, they're probably dying to help you out!) and you're so much stronger than you give yourself credit for. If you set your mind to it, realistically, there's nothing stopping you but yourself.

The urge to fight back on this matter was beginning to wear Angel down, the stranger's well-intentioned suggestions grating on his patience. Did they really think it was that easy? Did they think that if it were that simple, Angel wouldn't have done it already? It was one thing to be misunderstood, but to be belittled simultaneously? It was only as the spider opened his mouth, a barbed retort at the ready, that the stranger came out with their little disclaimer.

His eyes fell heavy to his feet. They weren't belittling him - they were trying to help. It didn't make their advice feel any less frustrating, but it did make him think twice about lashing out. This person, someone he didn't even know, wanted the best for him.

It was more than he deserved.

"Honey, I'm a porn star," he eventually responded, bitter and scathing. "Gettin' anotha job when yer famous in this industry don't exactly come with safe on the label."

The thick, red smoke had penetrated Angel's thoughts before he had time to register it's presence, memories of the moth's manipulation clouding the foreground of his mind. Telling him that no one else would put up with his bitch fits, that other directors wouldn't be half as lenient as Val was with him. They'd tear you apart, Angelito. You don't know how good you have it.

Arms pulled around himself, the actor sighed wearily. "Trust me: I'm betta' off with Val."

You were a street whore when I took you in, and I made you a star. And this is the thanks I get? The constant whining and complaining, and now, you think you can just leave? Oh, baby, no one out there would do what I did for you. You wouldn't last a fucking night. I know you, amorcito, I made you. Without me, you're nothing.

"Betta' the devil ya know, ain't it?"

[vergess]

So, have you watched the new Doctor Who episodes? What do you think of them if yes?

Yes

I LOVED IT ALL SO MUCH

Hugely relieved that the nostalgia tour is now over; I don't think my neurons could tolerate much more of it

I think my favourite is still The Star Beast because I enjoy when Doctor Who gets all hamfisted about social issues. I'm a sucker for that!!

But oh man, oh man, the Giggles!!! The music sequence! The ending!!! AHHHHH

And then the fucking. The direction on Wild Blue Yonder, fuuuuck. Like, I expected the actors to be amazing; it's Tennant and Tate. To describe them as "good actors" does not capture the skill that they have specifically in working together.

But I was blown away by how well it was directed!! The fucking scenes where you as an audience member are realizing "wait, that's not how the Doctor talks to Donna normally.... WAIT THAT'S NOT THE DOCTOR AT ALL" just. Delicious. Perfectly done. Which is extra wild to me when looking at the dirctero's other credits which are ummm. Not that good, shall we say.

And THEN you find out that the torso-and-head framing of each camera shot was So On Purpose and it just!!!

It was all so good.

Oh man, I know I'm the specific target demographic being pandered to (queer millennials who loved Eccleston, obsessed over Tennant, enjoyed Smith, wandered off during Capaldi, and bounced off Whittaker).

I was always going to love it. It's designed to make me love it!

it's designed to bait with nostalgia. I know that. I recognize it.

But the thing is? Oh my god, the thing is, instead of a nasty little trap, the bait was just to get you SO HYPE for Gatwa.

And it worked. I'm so much more excited for his run than I was beforehand. Like. WAY more hype.

I was excited enough for him that I knew I would watch his Christmas special and probably the first 1-3 episodes of his run.

Now? Just from the little sample we got of the way Gatwa will be carrying this role, in the context of the more child-friendly* approach that earmarks Davies as a Doctor Who showrunner?

I'm SO fucking COMMITTED. I wanna see where they take him. I have always preferred the... the times when DW is like... Cringe? But earnestly cringe? Hamfisted social messages. Monsters that sound absurd until you see then. Monsters that stay absurd even as you're hooked. AMVs as threats.

All that shit is MADE to please me specifically.

AND BUDDY!!!!!!!!!! I AM PLEASED!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot WAIT to see the Situations they're going to put Gatwa's doctor in and watch him get out of them. He has the perfect level of charismatic charm and genuine emotion.

Normally I need to see the Doctor and his Companion interact before I can get a sense of the pathos the actor will bring to the role and how they work off the writing and direction.

But shiiiiiiit, Gatwa came out swinging and I already have SUCH high hopes.

And this hasn't even gotten to how fuckin' diverse the backgrounders were in these specials. They really said, "okay, we have filled these scenes out with too many unmarked people, we need to dial that down." And I know, I know, packing your background with diverse actors (race, gender, ability, etc) while you foreground two white, abled actors that were brought in specifically to be nostalgia bait is, like, on paper it's a bad look.

But they gave those backgrounders each a lot more charm and character in their writing than I was expecting. Everything from Sgt Singh's suspicion loosening to military obedience and Shirley saying "don't make me the problem just go" to Rose reframing her mother's tic into a statement of her own independent power.

(Yes I know Davies has a thing about how he writes moms but listen I'm going to let him have that one)

And fuuuuuuck meeeeee, but they just KEEP saying trans rights, even after The Star Beast ended.

I just really, really enjoyed all 3 so much.

*Child-friendly isn't the right term, but I've gotten through the whole post and I can't figure out better phrasing. What I mean is, under Moffat and Chibnall, Doctor Who was not for children. The show didn't go out of its way to exclude them, but it certainly didn't try to provide education, entertainment or even engagement for them.

Doctor Who is not "a kids show" but critically, it shouldn't be "an adult show" either. It functions at its best as a family show. Something you can watch with your parents and your kids both on the same couch, and everyone enjoy it. This is an absurdly difficult line to walk. It's why Disney had so many years of failure before the renaissance.

And one of the ways people fail to walk that line is by treating children as an afterthought (Chibnall), or not at all (Moffat). Meanwhile, Davies's previous stint as Showrunner did a phenomenal job of bringing up The Horrors in ways that would put adults on edge while letting Children also enjoy the ride.

And the same is true of these 3 episodes.

I think "can kids get really into it too" is an extremely important benchmark for this type of scifi (and, I think it's part of why many modern Star Trek properties are so fucking tedious).

[kindaoptimisticsquirrel]

Trigun Bookclub Trimax Vol9 Par2

Vol01: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3  | Vol02: Part 1 | Part 2

Trimax: Vol01 Part 1 Vol01 Part 2 | Vol02 Part 1 Vol02 Part 2 | Vol 03 Part 1 | Vol03 Part2 | Vol04 Part1 | Vol04 Part2 | Vol05 | Vol06 | Vol07 | Vol08 Part1 | Vol08 Part2 | Vol09 Part1 | Vol09 Part2

And next part!

Chapter 5:

I assume this is a time where Wolfwood really really didn't want to pull the trigger. Because as much as Livio has changed, he still once was a part of his family.

Wolfwood, spying Chapel with the eyes of a hunter. (I like to say "hunter" instead of "killer" as a hunter, much like a wolf, can also be someone who only kills to protect? Maybe? I'm trying to make sense but it's late and I'm mostly spilling thoughts that come to my mind as I read these pages again)

Looks like this show of supreme fighting instinct is smth Chapel is proud of. Ugh, Wolfwood is no longer a part of you! You have no right to be proud of what he does or what he has become!

No super cure without some nasty side effects. Or a price, the price being that they itselves take a toll on the body.

Oh the way the light is set, the composition, this is a very beautiful panel! Hmm I like when we get tone gradiant from dark to light!

Razlo!!! Teheee. Also what the hell is the deal with that third armm?? I want to know the logistics, how is it connected to the body? Can it rotate 360°?

Chapter 6:

Farewell Nicholas my ass that man is not done yet and you still have to pay for what you did to him, old man.

Oh I think I got it just now that they sacrificed one of the three dudes in order to distract Wolfwood with his blood and flesh. Best employee of the month, but at what price!

A Wolfwood in the wild will spread all its limbs far apart to appear more big and threatening.

First of all: oh dear oh dear oh dear. Second: I dore how Nightow draws so dynamic, like in these moments with quick movement, he draws the limbs without too much care for the joints. Stressing the speed and direction of movement by having the limbs flail behind and also kinda angling them like the speedlines. AND making it more dynamic by adding perspective, cause the hands are bigger and just a bit in the foreground!

D'awwwww he looks like a happy little vampire!

No stop don't give me Wolfwood thoughs, they will make me sad :((

Vash, in Wolfwood's mind: standing upright and proud and a smile on his face. Me, the reader: *bawling internally*

oh oh oh in that moment he was saying to Vash what Chapel once taught him!

It is a crime that I'm reading these pages while stopping in between to comment so I'll read these first and comment afterwards. The impact of Wolfwood's thoughts is so so strong. Let me just...post the rest of the chapter in one go.

You really, really need to read the last chapters of vol9 in one go and directly start with vol10 to get the best feeling and flow of storytelling. Complete quietness around you or some music playing, but something that makes you focus only on these words and the emotions and ....everything.

And oh my god oh my I just tried to get behind the meaning of the last sentence and I might have found something. Please look at the lyrics for "Time" by Pink Floyd. The last verse especially but also, the whole song fits??? I can no longer listen to this the same way:

"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today And then one day you find ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking Racing around to come up behind you again The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way The time is gone, the song is over Thought I'd something more to say

Home Home again I like to be here When I can

When I come home Cold and tired It's good to warm my bones Beside the fire

Far away Across the field Tolling on the iron bell Calls the faithful to their knees To hear the softly spoken magic spell"

Also what a beautiful end note to end this review with.

[authortobenamedlater]

Predictions, questions, good/bad/neutral about E3.

Why does this show make me so long-winded.

Predictions:

As I already mentioned, Jacob Keyes is not going to survive Reach. I don’t want this to happen, because death seems like too easy an out for him and the Spartans need their Dadmiral, but it’s close enough to canon. He can live on in my AUs.

Kai leads the Spartan-IIIs on Reach. In a couple of trailers we see her in a drop ship with what I’m now certain are SPI helmets behind her. Then she goes to Onyx and steps into the Kurt role. Or maybe she takes over for him. It’s probably too much to hope that we might see them working together. I’ll save that for headcanons and fanfic.

…Does this mean Kai will go out like Kurt at some point? Getting ahead of things.

Miranda is on Onyx doing artifact research and/or working on the science side of the S-IIIs. She did finally show up for two seconds in the “this season on” trailer.

The Covenant forces Cortana to reveal the location of Earth, which is why John is standing on a drop ship with Jupiter in the foreground in one of the trailers.

We will meet Noble Team in some form, especially if Kai is leading the S-IIIs into battle.

Reach is going down. There. At least one of these predictions is guaranteed.

Questions:

WHO is that S-III who looks an awful lot like Corporal Perez? Just a coincidental lookalike? If not Talia, maybe Kat or Lucy? I would love to see Tom and Lucy on screen.

Silver Team is, officially or otherwise, getting separated. Kai and Riz are both justifiably POed at John and Vannak isn’t too happy either, I imagine. Kai got pulled to the S-IIIs and Riz is wondering about “life without all this Spartan $#*!.” Are we going to see John as the one-man army we get in every Halo game except 5, and Silver will become recurring characters? Or, are we making room for John to get a new team? Maybe a team we know already? Like…Blue Team?

I am very curious what the Spartan-IIIs look like in this world. I get the impression they haven’t been around that long, but most of this is fan brain conjecture from trailers. Exhibit A: In one trailer Kai steps out in front of a formation of IIIs and we hear Ackerson saying “make them Spartans.” The IIIs already ARE Spartans. They’ve been around for 20 years by this point.

UNLESS. They’ve basically made the IIIs into the IVs. That could explain a Talia sighting and why Kai is getting tapped to train them. Maybe Reach is their first deployment.

If these are the IIIs who are more like IVs, maybe the Talia Perez lookalike is Sarah Palmer? I hope not, because Frankie Adams of The Expanse fame is live action Palmer in my mind’s eye and I want to keep that illusion as long as possible.

The suits look pretty similar.

Once again getting WAY ahead of myself.

How are they going to resolve the Cortana situation? In one trailer it looks like a Sangheili is putting her on a chip or disk of some kind. Is she going back in John’s head at some point? Who’s going to do this? If she stays on a chip do they have to retrofit his helmet and every other piece of UNSC tech?

Who’s this Var ‘Gatanai Talia names in the last scene? Did the show make an entirely new Arbiter? Is Var going to die and make room for Thel? Is Thel still leading the fleet and Var is on the ground? Does Thel not exist here? Last time we saw Makee she was about to touch the larger artifact. Did she ever touch it?What happened? Are we going to see her during the battle? Will she die again? Will she stay dead?

Good, bad, general commentary:

You all know what I want. I’m here for The Chief and Cortana Show. I want my Chief and Cortana Show. This is not the Chief and Cortana show. I want them back together.

I like how the show is giving us a peek into how the UNSC / ONI bureaucracy and agenda is as big an adversary as the Covenant. A good example of the show telling stories the games can’t. Not that shooting your way through ONI red tape wouldn’t be kind of a hilarious video game.

I currently don’t like how they just wiped Madrigal out of the picture, but I am reserving judgment for now to see how this plays out.

I love Ackerson. I hate Ackerson.

Kind of mad Cobalt Team turned up dead. They deserved better.

I still live in hope of one day meeting Avery Johnson.

Ackerson talks about John “interact[ing] with the Covenant agent” and says he read the report. So all that is common knowledge? And John is just walking around like nothing happened? Weird.

Laera being a boss lady and mama bear is awesome. She is truly the only woman for Soren.

I am SCREAMING and FLAILING and GEEKING OUT over the overt Christian references this season. Making me want to write my “what if a Spartan got religion” story. Gahhhhhh

[some-random-lizard]

I should preface this with the fact that I’m not officially diagnosed with anything yet, but we are pursuing an ADHD diagnosis. I have a formally diagnosed parent, with a long family history indicating it went back a long way. The other side of my family has a lot of autistic markers, although I don’t think any of them have ever been diagnosed. I don’t know what combination of neurospicy I am, since again, I am currently undiagnosed.

I don’t think people talk enough about overstimulation. For me, it doesn’t happen so often, but usually when it does I get incredibly stressed. It’s not just something I can walk off.

For the 3, maybe 4 neurotypical people on this site, I’ve found a pretty good way to explain how it feels to be stuck in choice paralysis which in a twisted way causes overstimulation.

Sometimes, my brain finds the task at hand not mentally stimulating enough. It decides to make its own stimulation by making me hyperaware of everything going on around me. This seems cool, right? Like a spidey sense in real life? Nope. Sometimes actually, but in this case, nope.

I have a history of overstimulation, although I didn’t put together what it was until recently. My family always tends to go to caravan resorts on holiday, and typically we go and see the evening entertainment after the stuff aimed at younger kids wraps up. The microphones are always turned up far too loud, leading to a number of times when I was younger where I’d sit with mum with her hands over my ears and I’d be completely silent and detached because it was so loud it was too stressful to do anything but shut down, since I was very young and wasn’t exactly trusted to go outside on my own to get away from it, or because on one occasion I was performing in a talent show, but they only did the results after the adult’s section (pretty late at night for a 9 year old), but I wasn’t sure how long it would take so I couldn’t go anywhere else.

It’s like being in a room with the drip torture setup, where the slow tapping of water from a leaky pipe makes you willing to do anything to get away from the noise. Overstimulation is like having three, four, maybe a hundred leaky pipes all at different volumes and distances, all driving you insane at once, making functional existence extremely difficult.

It’s like the POV in The Telltale Heart being incredibly convincing to the police, but the old man’s heartbeat no one else can hear is deafening and he can’t tell anyone about it for fear of seeming insane.

One leaky tap or silent heartbeat might be a clock in the other room, another might be people talking upstairs, or the refrigerator buzzing, or yet another clock in the hallway that ticks out of time with the first, or the trickling noise of the fish tank, or the fabric of an item of clothing suddenly making you want to scream, or the taste of the last thing you ate constricting your throat, and all these things stack up. You can’t tell anyone or do anything about them because they don’t feel those things. Of course they hear and feel, but as background noise. For you, it’s all foreground all the time, and daily life gets lost in the midground as it’s covered by the things most other people store elsewhere.

Stacking a dishwasher is a mountain of overstimulation for me. Each fork to go in the cutlery compartment has to be carefully positioned and quickly dropped and moved away from. If old food (or new food (eating chicken wings is similarly torturous), or even water) stays on my hands and starts to dry on its own, it becomes extremely itchy, adding to the network of pipes dripping, the all-eclipsing heartbeat no one else seems hear.

[rosepoems]

The Bungalows

John Ashbery

Impatient as we were for all of them to join us, The land had not yet risen into view: gulls had swept the gray steel towers away So that it profited less to go searching, away over the humming earth Than to stay in immediate relation to these other things—boxes, store parts, whatever you wanted to call them— Whose installedness was the price of further revolutions, so you knew this combat was the last. And still the relationship waxed, billowed like scenery on the breeze.

They are the same aren’t they, The presumed landscape and the dream of home Because the people are all homesick today or desperately sleeping,    Trying to remember how those rectangular shapes Became so extraneous and so near To create a foreground of quiet knowledge In which youth had grown old, chanting and singing wise hymns that    Will sign for old age And so lift up the past to be persuaded, and be put down again.

The warning is nothing more than an aspirate “h”; The problem is sketched completely, like fireworks mounted on poles:    Complexion of evening, the accurate voices of the others. During Coca-Cola lessons it becomes patent Of noise on the left, and we had so skipped a stage that    The great wave of the past, compounded in derision,    Submerged idea and non-dreamer alike    In falsetto starlight like “purity” Of design that had been the first danger sign To wash the sticky, icky stuff down the drain—pfui!

How does it feel to be outside and inside at the same time, The delicious feeling of the air contradicting and secretly abetting The interior warmth? But the land curdles the dismay in which it’s written    Bearing to a final point of folly and doom The wisdom of these generations. Look at what you’ve done to the landscape— The ice cube, the olive— There is a perfect tri-city mesh of things Extending all the way along the river on both sides With the end left for thoughts on construction That are always turning to alps and thresholds Above the tide of others, feeding a European moss rose without glory.

We shall very soon have the pleasure of recording A period of unanimous tergiversation in this respect And to make that pleasure the greater, it is worth while At the risk of tedious iteration, to put first upon record a final protest:    Rather decaying art, genius, inspiration to hold to An impossible “calque” of reality, than “The new school of the trivial, rising up on the field of battle,    Something of sludge and leaf-mold,” and life Goes trickling out through the holes, like water through a sieve,    All in one direction.

You who were directionless, and thought it would solve everything if you found one, What do you make of this? Just because a thing is immortal Is that any reason to worship it? Death, after all, is immortal.    But you have gone into your houses and shut the doors, meaning    There can be no further discussion. And the river pursues its lonely course With the sky and the trees cast up from the landscape For green brings unhappiness—le vert Porte malheur. “The chartreuse mountain on the absinthe plain Makes the strong man’s tears tumble down like rain.”

All this came to pass eons ago. Your program worked out perfectly. You even avoided The monotony of perfection by leaving in certain flaws: A backward way of becoming, a forced handshake, An absent-minded smile, though in fact nothing was left to chance. Each detail was startlingly clear, as though seen through a magnifying glass,    Or would have been to an ideal observer, namely yourself— For only you could watch yourself so patiently from afar The way God watches a sinner on the path to redemption, Sometimes disappearing into valleys, but always on the way, For it all builds up into something, meaningless or meaningful As architecture, because planned and then abandoned when completed,    To live afterwards, in sunlight and shadow, a certain amount of years.    Who cares about what was there before? There is no going back,    For standing still means death, and life is moving on, Moving on towards death. But sometimes standing still is also life.

[thearsonfungus]

Hey yall! Game update (it’s a long one, so buckle up (hehe)):

The project known as CAR-PG! was initially intended to be a smaller game meant to help me learn the RPGmaker system. It has grown exponentially, and I do not feel it would fit as that project, however I have grown to like this stupid little vehicular role playing game, so it isn’t cancelled or on hold, just moved to the background while I put more focus into a new, smaller project that I know won’t spiral out of proportion like CAR-PG! did. That said, I did say this update would be about what the Offroad is, so I will do that after I introduce the smaller project I’m currently working on in the foreground.

Steamboat Skulkury is a ‘steamboat willie’ ‘horror’ game. I put horror in air quotes because I’m not going to butcher the personalities of characters for the sake of making something ‘scary’. I put steamboat willie in quotes because I want to be more original than that, so it’s my own characters inspired by the aesthetics of it, and a few characters that are the equivalent to the characters from steamboat willie. I am not limiting myself just to that one however, there are other things I’m keeping in mind.

Anyway, now to the offroad. The Offroad can be found to the west of the roundabout, and it’s your standard wasteland. Road warriors and mutants about. The area is split up into 7 sections, each owned by it’s own roving band of raiders or wasteland warriors, with the space in the middle being a no-man’s land. I’ll intoduce them going around clockwise, starting at the ones in the northwest corner of the offroad.

First up is the sanctuary, owned by the group: The Fishtank. A floating city above the boiling sea, you’d have to be able to fly to get there, this group uses aviation capable vehicles (whether they can fly is up for debate)

Next is the Well, Owned by The Tycoon. The apocalypse that caused the offroad to form also caused some valuable resource to form en mass, the CEO of the tycoon was quick to form a company and monopolize.

Up next, you have the church of the feathered god, owned by The Hegemony of the Endeific Necrosis (H.E.N.). These religious fanatics believe that the chicken crossed the road to ascend to godhood, and worship it’s self-inflicted corpse as one.

Then, you got the Toll Gate, owned by the Rubber burners. Mad max road warriors meets fallout raiders, simple as that.

In the south east corner of the Offroad, you have the Complex, owned by Cupid’s Turn Signal. These deranged lunatics believe that love is what makes someone human, and so they’re trying to spread their twisted view of love to (almost) everyone. With the exception of the next two, because they aren’t that degenerate.

Finally, you have the Yard, co-owned by the Mutilated Motors and the Tykes on Trykes. This junk-yard playground combo is owned by the only permanent alliance in the entire offroad, with children playing not-so-make-believe alongside undead hordes. The leader of the Mutilated Motors used to be the boyfriend of the older brother of the Tykes on Trykes’s leader, and the two of them stayed friends afterwards.

All of these various gangs are fighting to take complete control over the Offroad for their own reasons.

Pictured below is the concept sketches for each group’s symbol, along with their name and the color they paint their vehicles! (The last one is subject to change, don’t be dissapointed if that happens)

That’s all for now! See ya next time!

[ciprc]

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[thetwentyfourminutes]

Make your shopfront stand out

You’ve probably spent some time working out what to put on the home page of your website, but how much time have you invested in planning what goes into your shopfront display of your bricks and mortar business?

Your shopfront will quite often be the first impression you get to make – so make it a great one! You want to encourage people to enter your premises, and when customers or potential customers walk or drive past, you have just seconds to grab their attention.

If you’re ready to put in a little time and creativity into your window display to maximise your impact, here are some quick tips to help.

1. Go window shopping

Rather than simply lining up products in your front window, work out how to create a scene to engage customers - tell them a story about your brand or business. People relate to stories and by setting a scene, they can imagine how your products would fit into their lives. Look at any large department store window display and you’ll see how the visual merchandising team weave together a range of products and elements. They create a visual story to attract and draw customers in. Make looking into their shopfront an experience to remember.

2. Give it a topical twist

You could plan your display around the seasons, special events on the calendar or even use specific colours for inspiration. You can have a lot of fun with theming and even if your products don’t directly relate to a season or particular celebration you could still use a theme to catch people’s attention and keep your display current. Get creative and look up some not so obvious dates to celebrate and use as a theme for your display.

3. Remember - “eye level is buy level”

One of the best-known principles of displaying merchandise is putting what you want to sell at eye level. Work out where eye level is when looking into your shop window from the outside and display your best or newest products there. Display smaller items in the foreground and larger ones in the background, then build your display using different levels or layers to keep things interesting.

4. Keep it clean

Make sure your shopfront is clean and tidy for maximum street appeal – don’t let the dust gather on an old display. Some other tips to create the right impression include:

Keep your signage current and well presented.

Don’t feel the need to display all your latest products – feature a selection so your display doesn’t look cluttered.

If you or your staff can be seen by people looking into your shopfront, remember to always look friendly and professional so potential customers will want to come through the door.

5. Light it up

The right lighting can make a big difference to your shopfront display. You might need to install overhead lighting or spotlights to make your products stand out and look their best. If your shopfront can be seen after hours, consider lighting it up at night to make the most of your display and get the attention of potential customers you might miss during the day.

6. Keep an element of surprise

Stay current and attract the attention of passers-by by updating your window display. Plan ahead and refresh your display every couple of weeks or at least once a month to keep your existing customers interested and appeal to new ones. Include an element of surprise – such as balloons or different textures – to keep it interesting.

Overall, have fun creating your window to the world. It’s a great chance to share your products and invite people in to find out more.