#;;the chopping block ((queue))

[chirpsy]

hi there! this is just a small post about some changes in regards to another user on here. again we aren't a blog around discourse or anything like that... but just from browsing and queueing i actually found out one of the people i've been reblogging + following actually allows the shipping of adults with like actual children? which i don't really think anyone in their right mind would support or really wanna be around... again, i don't want any smoke nor do i want this to blow up into a huge drama fit, but just know that we'll be doing our best to clean up and remove any posts by them. thanks for your patience with this blog if you're still stickin' around!

[coopigeoncoo]

Meat Cute, Chapter 2

Chapter Links: First, <- Chapter 2 ->Next

Pairing: Alastor x Fem!Reader

Rating: Mature (rating may change)

Tags: Canon-typical violence, Cannibalism, Reader is a cannibal, Fake/pretend relationship, Puns, Raccoon Reader, Tags may change, Swearing

---

In a bid to appear more approachable to the denizens of the Hazbin Hotel, Alastor enlists the help of his favorite butcher to step into the roll of an (after)lifetime: pretending to be his paramour! ---

“You can't deny we have so much in common,” Alastor's grinned, his smile somehow, impossibly, widening even farther as he leaned down on the counter on a single elbow; his nose nearly touching yours as you stood frozen in place. “I'm somewhat of a Butcher myself, you know.”

–--

A story where one thing is certain: the steaks are never bigger than when love is on the line.

---

Continue reading below, or follow the link to A03!

Extermination came and went with you wrapped up in all the blankets from your bed, crammed into the walk-in cooler Hal used to age gigantic slabs of meat.  Once the distant screams had died down you were quickly pulled from the fridge and put back to work, barely able to hold a knife in your frost nipped fingers. 

“Lotsa screaming means lotsa bodies,” Hal explained, tying the strings of his apron around his wide hips in a tight double knot.  “And lotsa bodies means lotsa meat.”

As though summoned by his words, a forceful knock sounded from the delivery entrance; a salesman bearing the first of many scavenged corpses sold to the shop for a quick buck. 

You stared down at the man laid across your chopping block, his face contorted to showcase the abject terror of his final moments.

“I'm sorry this happened to you,” you murmured quietly, fingers tracing the jagged cut that had ripped the man open from pelvis to sternum.  “But I promise to do a better job than they did.”

The angels had cut his life short.

And then you cut him into pieces.

It didn't seem particularly fair to you, but you supposed it was as balanced as things could be in Hell.  

Hal, in a rare show of mercy, gave his employees the weekend off to recuperate from the pre and post Extermination rushes.  You had been content to hole up inside your cramped apartment and sleep for the full two days, but once you remembered your promise to Ms. Rosie you managed to pull yourself out of bed and get dressed with a minimal amount of cursing. 

It wasn't difficult to find her once you actually managed to wake up enough to stumble down your apartment stairs without breaking your neck.  You'd pass by Franklin and Rosie's Emporium often enough running errands for Hal.  It would be hard to avoid the boutique considering it was smack dab in the middle of main street; placing it along just about every route through town.  

The Emporium offered a wide selection of impeccably tailored clothes you couldn't ever hope to afford with your meager earnings.  It was nearly impossible to swallow back the sour burn of envy roiling in your belly at the sight of the smartly dressed women spinning in front of mirrors in their tailored waistcoats and silver buttoned shoes.  You self consciously soothed out wrinkles in your burgundy colored skirt, the fabric likely permanently creased from being trapped under the tight sash of your butchery apron.

The checkout line moved slowly as every patron stopped to chat with Rosie or the woman standing beside her, and it felt like a small eternity had passed before you made it to the front of the queue.  Rosie's eyes widened as she saw you, a bright smile stretching across her face as she quickly skirted around to the front of the counter.

“Take over from me, Franklin!” Rosie called out to her companion over her shoulder, motioning you to follow her with an excited wave of her hand.  “I've got a special guest visiting!”

Rosie led you to a darling two person cafe table pushed into an alcove with a giant window overlooking the central square of Cannibal Town, where a barbershop quartet was starting to attract a fair bit of attention from passers by.  Rosie was silent as she slid up behind you, but the weight of her aura was somehow palpable; like a humidity that clogged the air and made breathing a laborious task.

“It's pretty peaceful for a place called Cannibal Town, isn't it?” Rosie boasted, but you couldn't fault her for her pride.  You knew from stories around town that the orderly life on display was the result of her tireless effort to secure a better life for the sinners under her rule.  

“It is,” you agreed readily, sliding carefully  into the chair that one of her attendants had pulled out for you while Rosie settled down across the table.  “You've built a lovely community, Ms. Rosie.”

“Oh, aren't ya' just the sweetest thing!” Rosie chirped in delight, hoisting a tray of finger foods up under your nose.  “Canapé?”

You were too nervous to be hungry, but grabbed a couple of crackers topped with thin slices of blood sausage and dollops of roasted marrow to be polite.  Not sure what to say, you quickly popped one of the hors d'oeuvres into your mouth immediately and hoped Rosie would take hold of the conversational reins.

Rosie, mercifully, rose to the occasion.  

“So, you seem to be fitting in pretty well around here.  That's unusual these days,” she said, deftly pouring some piping hot bone broth into dainty porcelain tea cups.  “Hard to find new sinners willing to live without television or cellular phones.”

You couldn't help but think of how much of your life had been squandered in front of screens; the endless hours of scrolling and watching and seeing and wanting- of wondering why your life never seemed to compare to the ones that clogged your social media feeds.  

“Those- those things do me more harm than good, I think,” you admit between small bites of sausage.  

“Oh, honey.  Those gadgets are nothing but trouble for everyone,” Rosie cooed comfortingly before angling her head down to mumble into her cup “especially down here.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing to worry your pretty little head over,” Rosie laughed dismissively, pushing a platter of finger sandwiches towards your now empty plate.  You grabbed the one with a thumb poking out, saving the sandwiches stuffed with choicer pinky digits for your host.  

“It's nice to see you don't shy away from the…specialized fare Cannibal Town is known for,” Rosie said approvingly, watching as you skillfully de-nailed the finger in your sandwich.  “Did working at the butcher shop help acclimate ya'?”

“A bit.  I won't lie, it was really hard at first.  I spent a lot of time pretending that I was eating other stuff- beef, pork, a really convincing soy substitute,” you admit. “But after a little while that started to feel, I don't know, disrespectful?”

“Oh?” 

“It's like- this person is nourishing me.  I am alive because of them.  It didn't seem right to pretend that they were somehow less than what they were; especially when they were providing me with so much.  Acknowledging their life, what they were-” you paused, considering your words along with the remaining phalange held between your fingers.  “It's the least I can do.  A way I can thank them.”

You feel a bit vulnerable from your confession, never having voiced your thoughts out loud before, and it takes you a moment to muster the courage to look up from your hands and meet your host’s gaze again.  Rosie is positively beaming at you, her small nose crinkled in delight.

“I need you to promise me you'll try and get out more, sweetie.  It's very inconsiderate for you to deprive the citizens of Cannibal Town of your company,” Rosie said, leaning over the table to place her hand on top of yours, the press of her fingers a balm to your touch-starved soul. “You're one of us now.  It's time to start acting like it.”

You'd reluctantly started to make appearances around town.  It started small, with short walks around the park when the belladonna began to bloom, followed by the weekly al fresco concerts once the early spring acid rains tapered off.  

And then suddenly a switch seemed to flip.  People would wave good morning to you from across the street, customers would ask about how your weekend was, and  your coworkers invited you out for drinks after work.  You'd gone from merely existing in Cannibal Town to really living in Cannibal Town.  

You tried to not dwell on how much happier you were in Hell than you were on Earth, fearful about what exactly that said about the sort of person you were. 

The years ticked by and before you knew it the workers at the butcher shop had surprised you with a lopsided devils food cake to celebrate your fifth death day.

“When you're facing down eternity you don't celebrate every single year,” Dorcas, the girl who usually worked the register, explained.  “Five is the first milestone party, followed by twenty-five and fifty.  They get more spaced out as time goes on.”

You had woken up early the next day, dehydrated with a headache pounding behind your eyeballs from overindulging at your death day celebration.  Hal, in a show of incredible foresight, had scheduled you for the afternoon shift.  With a mug of watery coffee in hand, you were slowly shambling to the threadbare armchair in the corner of your room when the broken radio on the side table suddenly began shooting off sparks; the device alight with an eerie green glow.

“SWEET SASSY MOLASSY,” you screamed, accidentally spilling coffee down the front of your dressing gown as you leaped away from the ancient box radio.

“Salutations!  Good to be back on the air!” a staticky voice greeted, the cheery tone completely at odds with your abject misery as you pulled your soaked nightgown away from your chest to cool your singed flesh.

The radio was loud, the volume knob having been set to maximum when it suddenly powered on; but the sound inside your apartment was nothing compared to the uproarious cheers you heard coming from outside as the citizens of Cannibal Town overjoyed by the return of their favorite radio program.  

[minisugakoobies]

Best friend’s bro trying to cheer OC up when they come home

🥺🥺🥺 Oh my god, YES, that is definitely something San would do!

So here's 700+ words about it. No warnings, other than PINING oh my god the pining!

******

Meetings with your editor are never your favorite thing. But today's meeting was especially stressful, given all the "cutting back" going on at work. The staff size is shrinking and you feel like your neck is on the chopping block.

It feels like you've run the gauntlet by the time you get home. Mentally exhausted, back aching from holding yourself upright so rigidly during the meeting, trying to look interested, like a good employee.

But to get into your apartment, you need a key, and right now, yours appears to have fallen into the Bermuda Triangle via your purse. Swearing profusely, you dig through your bag for a few minutes, before finally finding what you need.

The door opens, then stops suddenly, like there's a weight on the other side. "What the f-"

Nero greets you. Not on the ground. In the air.

You take a step back, baffled laughter leaving your lips. Your black cat is suspended in the crack of the doorway, bright green eyes blinking at you in similar confusion, San's hands gently wrapped around his middle. Around Nero's neck is his little fish-spotted bowtie, the one that makes him look like a proper gentleman.

"Nero?"

“Mrow?” 

"Good afternoon, sajangnim," San's voice says from behind the door. He shifts Nero slightly, like he's snapping to attention. "Welcome home."

"Thank you," you giggle, giving Nero a chin scritch. You push on the door slightly, and San steps back, bringing Nero into his arms.

"Hi Noona," he grins. HIs fingers stroke the back of Nero's neck, which is one of Nero's favorite spots. Which San knows now, too. He and Nero are inseparable. 

“When did Nero get a job as our doorman?” you ask, sliding your shoes off before slipping into your house shoes. 

“Just today. And he’s doing such a good job, isn’t he?” San rubs Nero’s ears, earning a loud rumble in return. “Yes, he is.” 

It’s too cute, the way San fawns over your cat. Like he knows Nero has a piece of your heart. So he protects him. Protects it. 

It’s too cute and it’s too much to think about. 

You don’t lay down so much as collapse onto your couch, a loose pile of bones sprawling across the cushions. San takes a spot on the floor, leaning back against the couch. Nero leaps from San’s arms up onto your legs, where he proceeds to bake biscuits in the meat of your thigh. 

“Where’s Haneul?” you ask. Normally when San’s sister is working third shift, she’s up by now, zoning out in front of the tv until she has to get ready for work. 

“Jongho took her out for breakfast slash dinner,” San informs you. “Just me and Nero home.” 

“Well, good thing he’s here to keep you in line. And he got a promotion today, so I think someone’s earned an extra treat tonight.” Nero’s purring grows, ears pricking up at the word ‘treat.’ 

San passes you the remote. He watches you scroll through your Netflix queue for a few minutes. As your fingers run over Nero’s smooth coat, you wonder idly if San’s hair feels as soft as it looks. 

“What about me?” San tips his head back, letting it rest on the cushion beneath your hips while he glances at you. “It was my idea to make him doorman.” 

He pouts, but not his usual pout, not the one that makes you want to give him everything in the world, but a comic pout, bottom lip stretched to its limit, meant to do nothing more than to make you giggle. Which it does.

“Why’d you do that, anyway?”

Something shifts in San’s eyes.

“You said this morning that you had a meeting today. I remember how stressed you were after the last two. So when I heard you in the hall, cursing like a sailor, I figured maybe you could use a laugh.”

“Oh.” Looks like San knows other things now, too. “Oh, yeah, that’s - I did have a meeting. And it sucked. So, um, thanks.” Too many emotions swirl through you, your voice shrinking as you speak, unsure how to express how you feel. Or if you even should. “I appreciate it.” 

“Of course.” When he smiles, your chest physically aches. “Anything to see you smile, Noona.” 

There goes another piece of your heart.

*********

Previous installments of bff's lil bro San: one two three four

Tagging a few people who I think are interested @moni-logues @kiestrokes @augustbutwinter @sweetnspicy-noona @krystal-a @yeontan-my-love

[bunnybisexual]

much better <3 okay we can resume business as normal

CRIES i missed 69 followers :’(

[gideongrovel]

Interacts from my main, @thepastelhobbit

Side for reblogs, @gideongrovel-reblogs

About | DNI + BYF | StrawPage | F/Os | S/Is

Art Trades 💕

Slot 1: Open

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Whenever there are slots available please don't be afraid to hmu if you have any interest!! (Trades for mutuals only) 🤗💕

90% of the time i'm posting through my queue,,, So it may seem like I'm online when I'm not, so apologies if you see me posting, but not respond,,, It's cuz i'm not actually online and it's just my queue posting 😅

My main F/O, soulmate and wifey~ 💜☮️

I am ficto so I do consider Chop my real life companion! So he is important in a way that's beyond just love for a fictional character! Even when he is not my main focus, his place in my heart is special! 💜

Current F/Os of focus~ 🖤🩵🤎

I'm fine with sharing all F/O, aside from E.nel and Brook (o.ne piece) I am more selective with them (if im ever get uncomfy i will just block /nbd, /nm) i go back and forth with my feelings on sharing Chop, you can totally follow/interact if you want its fine fr! (/gen), but just know i might not follow you back? or I might take a while before I do, but idk? (current moots are fine)

Userboxes are by me, and for my personal use only!! please please please do not use them on your own page, thank you!

Artwork: @/frankenbridez, @/marzipanny, @/ColaKissing, @/Canon-Can-Fight-Me Pinned Post Dividers: @/AnimatedGlitterGraphics-n-more Icon: @/BobAsThrone Mobile Theme Header: @/AnOddOpal Desktop Theme Sidebar: @/marzipanny

[rwuffles]

; no way ?? 😔😔💔 can't believe you hate xenogenders man 😕😕😕 that's so messed up ☹️☹️ thought you were an ally fr 😕💔 /s ( what was anon talking about .. . ( o_o) )

yeah sorry guys i'm. mephobic. xenogenders are on the chopping block ‼️‼️‼️

i have no idea what anon was talking about ... maybe i'm xenogenderphobic because my ass canNOT keep up with fillijg the queue <- literally a baby

[theseasasleep]

I'm Gonna Become Emperor!

And I will fuck you up! GO! I can't help giggling at the way he runs but also I felt his authority when he defied death and spat in its face. No going gentle into that good night for this monk.

Me at the current Emperor believing his mother would never assassinate The Monk Who Would Be Emperor to install her Crown Prince of choice:

Honey. I don't know exactly what rules you're playing by, I just know you are largely playing them by yourself.

Tread lightly, Emperor lover. When it comes to the royal temper, anyone's neck is fit for the chopping block. Hmm. With him I am now unsure. At first I thought there was no way the Emperor's lover would betray him beyond the normal stuff that lovers and concubines of powerful people do. But this entire sequence introduces a wrinkle in that surety. Was his anger at having a message to the Emperor get through without being vetted through his well-cultivated channels about that disruption to his flow of control? Or was it something more insidious? Is he working both sides of the angle?

Soldier 1: Are we really going to burn the mountain and burn The Monk Who Would Be Emperor?

Soldier 2: Death by stabbing, death by fire, it's all the same.

Soldier 1: But he's a descendent of the Dragon. We'll be punished with lightning and death.

Soldier 2: You really believe all that nonsense?!

30 seconds later: the Heavens cue up rain to dampen the fires and lightning to scare the shit out of everyone.

HA! While yelling for the future Emperor to come out of hiding, Soldier 2 cries out, How many have to die so you can live?

Me: historically speaking, A LOT. A lot of people die so that royals can live. Hell, a lot of people die so that even a royal's favorite won't be inconvenienced. He may be in the robes of a monk but he clearly still has that royal aura.

Oh my god. OH MY GOD. My monk emperor is so freaking smart and brave! I hope he really rewards Soldier 1 in the future.

Too many years of fire drill practice. All I can think as I watch everyone scramble like chickens with their heads cut off is, if you all just moved in an orderly fashion towards the exits...

Wow, current Emperor actually stopped to help a man overcome from fear? smoke? Okay, he's worthless at being a ruler but he's not heartless.

This was a surprisingly easy watch. Great pace. Good acting. I'm actually disappointed there isn't another ep waiting in the queue. Waiting a week SUCKS.

[thessalian]

Thess vs A Very Long Week

Soooooooo glad it's Friday. It has been a very long, very tiring week. I'm going to have to book myself some time off soon. However, I do intend on waiting until Temp's back from compassionate leave, just so I don't come back to a disaster. Not that I blame Goblin for taking the week off, as I imagine it was booked before Temp had to go on compassionate leave (at least I hope it was, though one can never be sure with Goblin), and I certainly don't blame Temp for taking compassionate leave. Just ... it. Has. Been. A. MEEEEEEEESS.

Not only did I get all the word salad reports again, but something else has been going really bizarre with the typing queue. Stuff seems to ... just ... go back into the queue? Even though it's already been typed? Except for the ten-minute long urgent monstrosity, which was mostly finished by Violet but was missing one of the blocks, but I didn't want to touch it because ... you know, not mine?

Today I also learned that almost none of my colleagues follow the protocol we were told we have to follow for typing macros. See, we're not supposed to do line breaks except in very specific circumstances, because they want to keep everything as short as they can so it doesn't stretch across multiple pages. It's easier to see the entire report if it doesn't stretch across multiple pages, see. So I use a line break under only very specific circumstances - mostly a new specimen pot. But the others? Line breaks in the specimen description between every specimen - even when it's a lot of specimens. Hell, Violet double-spaces the specimen description. But no one calls her out on it, so meh. It's just irritating. There is a very tidy protocol and no one seems to use it but me.

(I mean, part of the irritation is that not even Scruffman, who was the one who said we needed to keep the line breaks to a minimum in the first place, keep line breaks to a minimum.)

So I am very sore, and very tired, and fed up with most of the world at this point. But I did make chicken stew. Did pretty well, too, and there are leftovers for later. But even that relatively small bit of chopping and stirring was a bit much after this week.

Hell, I even skipped the morningly trip to Horizon-land in favour of some noodling around Botany Manor, which is a fun little puzzle / hidden object / walking simulator / plant growing kind of thing. So I can at least end a very hard week with a nice little video game recommendation.

[batboyblog]

LINCOLN, Neb. —  

The Nebraska Legislature was set to vote Thursday on a contentious bill that seeks to ban gender-affirming care for minors and led one lawmaker to stage a weekslong filibuster.

The vote to advance the bill was expected on the third day of debate in which lawmakers have angrily accused one another of hypocrisy and a lack of collegiality. It also saw Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt promising to join fellow Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh’s effort to filibuster every bill that comes before lawmakers for the rest of the 90-day session if the bill advances. 

Hunt took to the floor of the Legislature on Wednesday to confess that the debate is deeply personal for her, because her teenage son is transgender. She called the bill an affront to her as a parent and called out by name lawmakers she would hold accountable if they vote to advance it.

“If this bill passes, all your bills are on the chopping block, and the bridge is burned,” she said. “I’m not doing anything for you. Because this is fake. this has nothing to do with real life. this is all of you playing government.”

The proposal had caused tumult in the legislative session long before debate began on it earlier this week. It was cited as the genesis of a nearly three-week, uninterrupted filibuster carried by Cavanaugh, who followed through on her vow in late February to filibuster every bill before the Legislature — even those she supported — declaring she would “burn the session to the ground over this bill.”

She stuck with it until an agreement was reached late last week to push the bill to the front of the debate queue. Instead of trying to eat time to keep the bill from getting to the floor, Cavanaugh decided she wanted a vote to put on the record which lawmakers would “legislate hate against children.”

The Nebraska bill, along with another that would ban trans people from using bathrooms and locker rooms or playing on sports teams that don’t align with the sex listed on their birth certificates, are among roughly 150 bills targeting transgender people that have been introduced in state legislatures this year. 

Introduced by Republican Sen. Kathleen Kauth, a freshman lawmaker, the bill would outlaw gender-affirming therapies such as hormone treatments, puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgery for those 18 and younger. The purpose of the bill, she has said, is to protect youth from undertaking gender-affirming treatments they might later regret as adults, citing research that says adolescents’ brains aren’t fully developed.

She introduced an amendment Tuesday to drop the restriction on hormone treatments, instead banning only gender reassignment surgery for minors in an effort to get enough votes for the measure to advance. But opponents vowed to force a vote Thursday on the original bill.

If advanced, the bill would have to survive two more rounds of debate to pass in the unique one-house, officially nonpartisan Legislature. Republican Gov. Jim Pillen has said he will sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk.

If it fails to advance, it’s dead for the session, but could be revived next year.

today is the moment of truth, Nebraska Republicans need 33 votes to override Senator Cavanaugh's (and Senator Hunt now) filibuster, there are 32 Republicans, if every Democrat hangs tough and backs up Cavanaugh and Hunt then this bill dies, at least for the rest of the year.

[beneath-her-soul]

Time check: 0837hrs

Location: Train otw to work

I'm feeling a lil bit anxious right now. I don't know if I can make it on time to chase after the company's transport and also I'm still having dry cough and it's been like this for the past 3 days. I would also like to take my mind off by writing so I feel much calmer.

Over the last weekend, I spend my off days with Mr Husband by going to our first Halloween Horror Night at USS! I've never been to this event during my younger days as I never like crowds, horror, tickets are pricey and I was still schooling and it normally ends late at night hence, I need to have enough money so that I can actually pay for the tickets and taxi fare back home. In summary, it just cost expensive for me to pay for everything because I wasn't yet a working adult and I have curfew.

Mr Husband bought the tickets to surprise me as both of us are virgins for this event and since we're already married, why not right? He made sure I blocked off the date and told me not to make any plans. I was so excited and looking forward to it because it's been awhile since he come up with something for us.

After night shift, I slept for the entire 5hrs and woke up at 5pm to wash up and get ourselves prepared. H told me to wear something comfortable with my tokidoki bag and sports shoe as we're gonna be walking alot on that night. While I was doing my make up, I asked him if we're watching a concert lol 😂 Idk I just want to find out more to see if he's able to keep up with the surprise.

I was terrified at first bcs lol like I told you, I am never a fan of anything horror as it stresses the shit out of me and furthermore, it just makes me overthink when I'm alone. Almost every of the haunted house, I decided to walk infront and prefer H to be at the back bcs I hate it if the ghost starts to scare me from my back like I can't see but I can feel your presence behind me. I was laughing most of the time during the haunted house experience bcs of the other people in it as they were screaming and just trying to avoid getting scare hahaha it was hella funny. I was more fascinated by the works they put it on the set up. Every haunted house has a theme for it and it was well decorated it looks real. The cast look real and they didn't broke out of character.

During the journey to the destination, I somehow got a sense that we're going to go to Sentosa judging by the route we took. We parked our bike at vivo and took the monorail to Sentosa. It was crowded since it's Saturday. (And it's been awhile since I went out on weekends). And tadaaaa, we reached USS! It was crowded as heck and we were already perspiring. Bleargh. We brought our portable fan and it was a huge life saver for us. There were 3 terrifying haunted houses and 3 sinister scare zones. And btw, H also had another surprise by purchasing the express tickets. Homaigod how much have he spent in total just for these. Makes me feel guilty that he's spending so much just for this. But then again, it's worth it bcs the queue was insaneeeee for each of the haunted houses. I think I might just give it a pass if H didn't buy the express tickets.

The last haunted house we went to was The Weeknd: After hours til dawn nightmare. All you see was...... The weeknd, his chopped off head, everything of him. I'm just like 😮 I don't listen to his music but I knew who he was. I was really horrified and disgusted. The Botox face, just everything. But it was well executed I must say.

We did get to ride on mummy and transformers at least. The atmosphere was so lively as it's been such a long time since I attended something like this. Something that makes me feel alive. You know? I've been walking in circles over the last few months and going to this event at 29 years old, hits me differently.

We ended off our night at 0030hrs and head our way home. I kept thanking the husband for the surprise and it was memorable experience for first timers. Alhamdulillah, bucketlist ✅

Update: I made it to catch for my bus.

[canmom]

L'Aventur de Canmom à Annecy - Jeudi 4: Short Films (Perspectives 1 + Grad Films 4)

After White Plastic Sky my plan was to see some graduation films and then try and get into a screening of Mars Express by Jeremie Perin, which I missed on Monday for bad reasons. While queuing for the short films, I saw that the queue for Mars Express was already filling up two hours in advance, so I decided to join it, because I really wanted to see Mars Express.

I did not get to see Mars Express. After queuing for two entire hours, a bunch of people in front of me got in, but ultimately I was seven places too far back.

Perspectives 1

Pretty disgruntled by this, my friend and I decided to hop into the line for Short Films: Perspectives 1. I did not have high hopes for this one. Perspectives is essentially where Annecy puts the films with worthy political and social messages, about refugees and miscarriages and so forth.

This format kind of sucks, honestly. These films are generally speaking vehicles for a message - maybe they’re just an interview with someone illustrated by short animations for example. Viewed on their own that might be reasonable expressions of their thing. Viewed back to back in a huge block it's exhausting.

Which isn’t to say they’re all bad: the Bulgarian film Depersonalization had some pretty effective imagery set to music (and it helped that it was kinda vague what it was about lol). Here's the trailer, which won't let me embed for some reason:

So, quickly running down the list:

Lost At Sea depicts a Rohingya man on a boat, along with flashbacks to the violence he faced, with a lone singer singing of the plight of the Rohingya people. It's done in a a rotoscope style of rough paintwork, and I can see what they were going for, but it didn't really come together for me. I feel like it could have stood to put more effort into individual characterisation instead of letting everyone melt into a blur of suffering. It seemed laser focused at evoking pity and not much else.

Nurit features a voiceover by an Israeli woman talking about her miscarriage, and the way she came to terms with it, illustrated in a childrens' book sort of style. This one definitely dragged. The animation was not visually interesting enough to add a lot to the voiceover.

Depersonalization - mentioned already above - describes itself thus:

An interpretation about personality loss. The tree grows and buries its crown back in the earth, the world returns to primal matter, the consumer is consumed.

This involved a legit cool sort of scratchy style of depicting volume, with perspective shifts as a crowd of people were pulling each other with yokes, and was generally pretty neat. I don't quite get what they're getting at with 'personality loss', but the animation put me in mind a bit of The Wall or metal album covers. It's probably something alchemical, right? In any case, this one stood out.

Sjeti se kako sam jahala bijelog konja was just incomprehensible if I'm honest. It cut between various images: a man sitting in a coffee shop that was blurring and chromatically aberrating, a knight riding a horse, another knight chopping wood, the barista at the coffee shop (also the narrator) standing in a room that is gradually filling up with salt. The barista said various things, but they all seemed like non-sequiturs. The blurb said "Time continuously elapses, and apathy can trap consciousness into a loop. Escaping this stagnation one can discover the true beauty of existence." So I guess the looping visuals and distortion were supposed to communicate a sense of dissociation, but the resolution was not clear.

Graduation films 4

After that one, my friend and I decided to duck out of Perspectives and have a go at the late night showing of the graduation films instead. I had pretty high hopes for this one: late night showings have been really energetic, and the last set of student films had some crazy good ones.

Unfortunately this set was a bit lower key; a lot of films were just kind of abstractly setting a vibe without much of a narrative per se, and I was a bit too tired and worn out for that. Still, let's run down the list, I don't want to be too mean, obviously all the students worked tremendously hard on these films, it just wasn't my cup of tea at that time.

Feux by Mohammad Babakoohi from France, depicts a dog slowly dying of thirst on a dry riverbed during a riot. Eventually it seems as if rain has come, but it's actually a dust cloud kicked up by cops on motorbikes, who beat the dog and then shoot it. We end with a shot of the dog's skeleton, at last covered by water. The film is done in a heavily textured, painted style. I'm not entirely sure I got it, but rip that dog :(

Carp Xmass by Anna Heribanová is a stop motion riffing on a Czech tradition of eating carp at Christmas, by switching the roles of humans and carp. It's definitely leaning a bit on shock/grossout humour - the carp kids find a swastika instead of a cross or a star in an arrangement of apple pips, you have 'fingers' instead of fish fingers, the street is covered with human bodies... Overall though, compared to the other 'what if fish were humans' film I saw, this felt a bit heavy handed. I definitely remember the credits, which show a carp being killed and gutted in a Czech marketplace in great detail!

Bedroom People by Vivien Forsans was a sort of creepypasta horror kind of vibe. Presented as a USB stick of found footage, it depicts monsters that manifest in people's rooms at night. It's a neat idea and the clips escalate pretty well but I struggle to remember the ending, if it went anywhere with it.

Saltwater by Declan Mckenna... I struggled to remember this one but the trailer jogged my memory. It depicts memories of a gay relationship with fairly minimal animation, and various filters of e.g. LCD subpixels or dot matrix printing to give it an old media feel I guess. But yeah, didn't ultimately leave an impression. Apparently they used AI a bunch, which I didn't realise at all.

Pas Amoureux by Eugénie Bouquet from Switzerland is an illustrated interview with a sex worker discussing her work in 'sexual assistance' for disabled clients. It's another film of the illustrated monologue type which I generally don't click with, but I did find the interview kind of interesting because I have a disabled family member with progressive MS that leaves him mostly paralysed, and a couple years ago now I remember my family hired a sex worker to come in to see him. I wasn't really involved but from what I was told, it sounds like he was helped a lot; it was cool to hear the other side of that dynamic. The sex worker in this video was generally very positive about the whole thing, and talked about how it's less stigmatised than other forms of SW, so she can for example be good friends with the clients' families as well. She ended by saying she wished it was more normal to have sex with people you don't love, which is an interesting framing lol. The animation didn't really add a lot besides something to keep the eyes busy, but this would have been a neat radio segment even without visuals lol.

Dodo by Yi Luo was an odd one. I was pretty tired by this point so I didn't really follow the story until I read the blurb on the website just now. It's about a kid in a mostly monochrome painted world whose dad is a big blue bird. One day dad flies away; the next day some kind of secret police looking guys show up. Dodo stops growing, although this wasn't clear to me; he goes on some sort of spiritual journey inside his mother's chest or something and eventually sprouts wings himself, at which point his dad returns and Dodo at last takes off himself. An easy reading would be to say it's about like antisemitism or something? But it left it pretty open to interpretation. I think I'd like to see this one with a less tired brain to give it a fairer shot.

Tomoya! by Masataka Kihara from Japan was a welcome dose of energy and levity lol. A group of baseball players are posing for a photograph and horsing around. Tomoha isn't really joining in. As the photo is taken, they all dive forward, crushing Tomoya underneath. At this point Tomoha has a strange encounter with a cicada in a white void in which he learns to dance crazily like the others. It's in this painted style with hypersimplified faces which was definitely unique lol.

Origines d'un monde by Emma Zwickert from France was another vague moody one. Children assemble various bits and pieces into a diorama; allegedly they grow up. I will fully admit I didn't get it, and probably missed the implications. All I can say is not really a film to watch sleepy.

Mano by Toke Ringmann Madsen from Denmark was very solid. It's a CG film depicting a tense moment in the life of two brothers - an protective older brother and his younger sibling who looks up to him. Their mother is neglectful, not buying food; the older brother attempts to steal some money from her boyfriend's jacket to buy food, but he's caught in the act, leading to a tense confrontation. The character animation is very good, and the story arc just the right amount for the runtime. These are some truly moody looking boys lol.

Ispod Maske by Darian Bakliža from Croatia shows the confession of a bully who, in a group of five masked friends, harasses another boy with snowballs and later eggs, while unmasked ends up befriending him at school. Inevitably he is unmasked during one of these attacks, destroying his friendship with the other boy. And that's kind of where it ends. Given the fairly long runtime, I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It feels like it might be going for something similar to the first part of koe no katachi in showing how bullying is rationalised, but the scenario was a bit too farfetched for it to feel like something sharply observed. And the style of it didn't really allow a lot of room for emotion and acting.

Cyclepaths by Anton Cla from Belgium is another oblique one. Various acts of violence take place: someone shoots down a drone, a group of men crash their car into a train and then board it with pistols and shoot some of the passengers - presented in a choppy disjointed style without much of a narrative to tie it together. At this point it was kind of one mood piece too many for me.

All in all, this left both of us pretty disappointed. I think what this collection really underlined is that not everyone wants the same things out of the medium of animation lol. It's a tricky line to walk between being too direct, with the illustrated monologue, and too oblique, with the vague abstract mood piece. You can absolutely do vague and confusing and non-narrative, but you've got to work pretty hard to sell that. You need compelling visuals and strong enough editing to make it flow well and feel satisfying. Music is a huge help.

Anyway, that's the end of Thursday. Of course I saw a bunch more stuff today, including a premiere, so I'll have to write that up tomorrow on the way home lol. Tomorrow I check out of my hotel and hopefully, hopefully, catch Mars Express at last. So goodnight for now!

Also, also, even if I wasn't impressed with these films, the festival is still a blast. This has been the best week I've had in so long, and I cannot wait to come back next year with the experience to play my cards better lol. (I'll soon be making an index of all these writeups and at some point, making a special page on my site where you can filter the comments in various ways.)

[dgcatanisiri]

Drew MIGHT have volunteered to be the heel. MAYBE. I give long odds on that but I will grant it as having a statistically non-zero possibility. I am willing to offer her the goodwill that she made a mistake and misjudged things but that her heart was in the right place of wanting to provide jobs for the people who work on her show who were struggling because of the strike continuing as it had, and that it is possible that she was in a position where she could take the hit of playing the heel in order to prove to the studios that public opinion is VERY MUCH on the side of the writers asking for a fair share, even if I don't necessarily believe the latter was the case.

Maher on the other hand ABSOLUTELY was banking on the idea that he could get away with it. He just decided that he was tired of not getting paid and wanted to get back to that. And the only reason he was even willing to take the hit of going back is that he wasn't the first on the chopping block after Drew went first.

He's too selfish to offer any good faith and too spineless to lead on doing shitty things.

EDIT: After putting this in my queue, the news came out that Drew's writers have quit because of her actions. So yeah. NO chance she volunteered to be the heel, she legitimately fucked up here.

Maher, though, is just an inherent fuck up.

I spoke to my dad who's been on strike a few hours ago, and he said this is absolutely true. The studios were still hoping they could starve out the writers, and didn't expect the general public to be so strongly on the union's side still 5 months in.

He's lived through four WGA strikes, and he says the energy and solidarity he's seen both inside and outside the union has been far beyond what has ever been present before. The internet ate Drew Barrymore alive for scabbing, and within days the studios were back at the negotiating table giving in to almost every demand.

Thanks guys. This really was a team effort ❤️❤️ #eatthefuckingrich

[littleshopofhorrors-confessions]

Sorryyy I've been the one sending in fanfics mostly because I don't have my account to be promoting them myself anymore. And I created the promotions blog on a whim so I could have some kind of Little Shop Tumblr account still and because secretly submitting my own stuff amidst everyone else's would be funny, but no one's submitting anything so I kinda gave up on that. Just delete anything you haven't already in your queue from me ig. The like two people who followed this account can just unfollow me because the promotions account probably isn't happening especially considering that half the fandom had me blocked on my old account. Peace out ig I'll probably only be posting Little Shop related stuff on AO3 and fanfiction.net from now on. Hopefully this isn't too personal bulletin-boardy because it addresses a topic of another recent post on here and the fate of the promotions blog. My last non-fanfiction message for everyone is that the ship name for Seymour x Twoey should be Chopped Suey okay bye

-choppedupnotkilled

~~~

[grad603-breilamia]

Introduction to kinetic typography - m&m 8.1 notes -

Kinetic typography is an animation that utilises moving (kinetic) type to capture attention and set the tone.

Task: 

1 Size – Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) Frame rate – 25 frames per second. Published using Adobe Media Encoder – in the mpeg-4 format. Upload the final animation to the Assessments area on Canvas

URL for blog/research. (example: GRAD603.tumblr.com). This should include AT LEAST some research on speech and speaker, concept development, ideas, progress screenshots, storyboards, experimentation, and some reflection on design decisions.

‘Your animation should include a title at the beginning, and correct credits at the end - your name, year, and any audio credits.

Final published mp4 file must be between 40 – 75 seconds in length, allowing room for a title at the beginning and credits at the end.’

Class and project-related notes

After Effects is a valued skill in this industry, which we will now be learning about. 

After Effects has many layers, which may slow the computer down.

Must have credits roll at the end of your animation 

Design based on the context of the speech 

Don’t ignore ums and ahs, utilise the type to your advantage when designing animation.  

Cannot chop up audio at all 

Can use illustration, but the focus is on text as an image. Styling text. 

We are adding context, enhancing and providing a visual aid/creating a tone for the speech. 

Stylised illustration with text content 

Essentially utilising motion in text, using context to enhance and create. 

Picture the environment and paint a picture through type and minimal illustrations, maybe even adding a sound effect.

Thinking about type choices and why, what it is communicating visually in line with the content of the words being spoken, colour physiology and relation, form, and motion that embodies speech and atmosphere. 

E.g

Type 

San serif feels direct, neutral, stable, modern, clean 

Serif feels formal, timeless and traditional, respectable 

Slab serifs feel assertive, impactful, bold, and important

Mono-spaced means the same spacing between words, which gives the impression of being orderly 

Script is, unique, casual, sociable, welcoming 

Display is expressive, friendly, quirky

Etc. 

Workshop notes - after effects introduction

Hour minute seconds for frame rate - for this set to 5 seconds a frame

Right mouse click, import 

Highlight spiky ball 

Fit too 100

Can put on half-resolution when you don’t need super high quality. 

Tweening - frames in between, computer interpretation from your commands 

process ( presets first image)-

Transformation tools: 

Unlinking on the scale allows you to alter proportions 

Hover over to drag easily side to side

Shortcuts: 

Click j on the keyboard takes the frame signifier to the front (home), and k sends it to the back (end.)

A for anchor point

R for rotation

S for scale etc. 

T for opacity 

Shift p to hold the one selected on there and add another when you’re busy with lots of layers and cannot have everything open. 

keyframes:

Hitting the stopwatch creates a keyframe 

Little blue rock selection mirrors keyframes/creates more

Only have one keyframe selected when doing a new move, one on one end

Adds key Frame when you are in the frame and move the object 

Have to be careful not to make a million keyframes 

Adjust the speed of rotation etc by moving the end keyframe inwards

When adding another e.g rotation keyframe, you have to put in a number like for the others for rotation percentage

Motion blur:

3-ball grey tool, put in the bottom panel, blurs sharpness 

WHEN CREATING A NEW KEY FRAME, FOR IT TO WORK, CLICK OFF OTHERS IN THE SAME CATEGORY. 

Rendering:

Composition, add to render queue, click not yet selected near output, name save press render. 

Important - after rendering, go into applications, and open adobe media encoder, it compresses your video file. Look for the plus icon in the right block, find file, open, can change the formats - H264 for this - ‘match source brate- make sure it doesn’t have the same name as the original-click green play button, renders it for you 

grids & guides -

reflection:

last year I found animation incredibly hard to get my head around, but after this lesson I am feeling comfortable and excited to get on with this project, knowing key frames and all the transformational tools. This was a really good refresher and I feel I have a good grasp on the brief. I now want to make sure I time manage well, and am slightly concerned about my laptop slowing down because I won't always be in uni and have access to the computers.

[gideongrovel]

i love going through my chop tag in chrono order and just smiling at all the post and my descend into love 💞💞💞💞 i just care him so much!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 I especially like going through my tag for him when im on my laptop,,, since all the pics/gifs look so much nicer then they do on my phone screen lol,,,, but he makes me smile so much!! i love re-reading all the post that make me think of him and all the imagines 🥰🥰🥰

tho i do fear the day when some these gifmakers block me for reblogging their post over 6 times and gushing just as much in each reblog lmao 💀 ( <- it says this while sending the same post into the queue to be reblogged again)

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Oh god that meta was magnificent, you really hurt me, like some of those lines are so beautiful (also describing xxc as giving tree, how could you?). Btw thing about this that I see often ignored in fics- xue yang and meng yao are friends. horrible friends who perform necromantic crimes together and are certainly using each other, but weirdly caring about each other? Meng Yao takes preteen xue yang in from streets, gives him courtsery name (chengmei) and xy violently defends his honor and plans.

Also have you seen Xue Yang’s theme song from untamed soundtrack (陈情令 The Untamed OST - Liberation at Deserted City 荒城渡 ) cause its..good and painful and pitiful. 

A fic for you: ongoing one, chopping block by Sectionladivivi. Its got both songxiao and xue yang as monster in love. Plot is basically songxiao capturing xue yang and taking him to court and it turns in roadtrip from hell as xy tries to seduce and corrupt xxc. Got fantastic characterisation and very dark in places.

OF COURSE THEY ARE, of course they’re friends, Jin Guangyao and his die with me, er-ge and Xue Yang and his of course it was fun (I LOVE A VILLAIN), they’re exactly the same kind of half-starved laughing hunter with a mouth full of blood and a heart full of conviction.  They’re both so determined, to either have their hero with them or leave them a ruin in their wake.  And Xiao Xingchen and Lan Xichen, of course, share the same fatal flaw, which is that they fucking trust people.  They want to fucking help people, and if someone says they’re helping them help people, they believe them.  

Which?  The tragedy of it is that they should have been able to believe it.  But they weren’t, and they were used, and they were complicit, and after everything the only question is can you live with what happened, can you live in the world you were used to make, and apparently the answer is no.

Fucking choice, folks.  I love a villain and I love an antiparallel (this is Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian but backwards, the “villain” who shoved the “hero” away every moment, who fought to keep the hero’s hands clean while the villain’s grew dirty, and the hero who dove after them with clear eyes and no regrets and still lost them and the world they were trying to make) and I love this whole debacle.

Everybody gets an angst.

Also, here is the fic in question for anyone who’s curious, it’s dark and terrible and I’m delighted (I read…the whole Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen tag on AO3, you’re all very talented, 10/10 would suffer again), and the theme song of my new pet monster is very lovely and it’s too 3 AM to have evolved thoughts on it but honestly this whole soundtrack is beautiful.