#(i think it was time machine anyway. and there was a different recording of voices but it's. gone?????? i never got to hear it?? but anyway

[desultory-novice]

Noir! Do you by any chance know of a being that was called IDF-87?

"And here we are..."

[I assume you mean F-86 but either would trigger the same reaction]

"...ID...F8...?"

"...Ghhh...?!"

"M-My...head...!!"

-

"And here we are..."

-

"We'd like to thank you for volunteering to lead humanity's future." "It says here your hobby is...singing?"

"Yes. Since I was a child." "I even had an agent, for a short while."

"So, you were a professional?"

"Not really. My career never took off." "But...that's how it is with DREAMS."

"Not a household name, then?

"Surely not!"

"Good, good. Very good."  "...That is to say, you seem like a good candidate for our work."

-

"And here we are..."

-

"Oh!?"

"Hmm? Is something wrong?" "Feeling pain from the treatments?"

"No. I was just wondering..." "Is the alien...is it asleep in there...?"

"Yes. Deep asleep." "...Why? You didn't hear anything, did you?"

"I didn't. Just the buzzing of a machine. It's so noisy in here..."

"...Good. It's a very tense work environment here at the lab." "Some people can't take the pressure. They start to hear 'voices.'"

"Those poor souls..."

"It's no surprise. The whole planet's counting on us, you know." "We can't fail them. Not like previous generations did." "But you came from Old Earth, so you would understand."

"...Yes. Yes, I do."

-

"And here we are..."

-

"You're...putting it on display? Like a...circus animal?"

"The government gets stingy with their contracts." "And the entertainment industry has proved profitable for us so far." "I expect it'll be even more so after your new single."

"About that..."

"You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

"...No! I still believe in the work we're doing. It's just..."

"Just...?"

"Oops!" 

"...Sorry about that! Clumsy me!"  "Big old glasses and I still can't see where I'm going!"

"...Rim..."

"Was I...interrupting something by chance?"

"Not at all! Here, let me help you with those!"

"Ah, there's no need for that, Ms...?"

"...Neichel. And please." "One favor deserves another." "Where do these go anyway?"

"Just to my office! Let me show you where it is."

"General? Sorry about the thrilling conversation but..."

"....It's fine, actually." "I was thinking that you two really ought to meet." "Take all the time you need to...get acquainted."

-

"And here we are..."

-

"Everything I am now, was made into...is 'sleeping' in that tube." "...And I don't know how I feel about that. About it..." "You're a scientist here. What even...are they?"

"ID-F86... An aggressively hostile alien species and threat to all life on this planet. Only by subduing and studying them can humanity ready themselves for the dangers the greater galaxy holds."

"But, speaking personally and...off the record..." "...I think of them as...just a wandering traveler, lost." "Trapped, far away from home. Waiting rescue?"

"Haha... No wonder I sympathize with them so much!" "You too, I imagine...?"

"Yes! Though...I may also feign myself as...a rescuer...?"

"Why am I not surprised to hear that from you?" "You and your big HEART has saved me a number of times." "In a lab full of people who've seemingly sold their souls for progress...It's like you come from a different planet!"

"Ms. Neichel..."

"Please, Rim! Surely we're friends by now!" "Just call me Neichel."

"...Do you believe in fairies, Neichel...?"

-

"And here we are..."

-

"Did you think we wouldn't find out? That you were another?!"

"RIM!!" "Please, don't hurt h...hgh!"

"Neichel?!"

"T-The..."

"...Let him go to her."

"But sir, he's... He's an ALIEN!" "And a bloody saboteur too!"

"It's all right. This is what we've been waiting for."

"What is it? What's wrong, Neichel?!"

"...The...baby...!"

-

"And here we are..."

-

"And...of course the door's locked." "...I always feared being the next one put on display." "Sigh... What are we two caged birds to do...?"

"About a name? I've already thought of a few."

"...Oh, Rim. You never lose that optimism, do you?"

"Made you smile though?"

"You did." "...And? Let's hear those names." "'Scarf?' 'Beret?' Your twin sister's name was 'Bridge,' right?" "Should we stick with the glasses theming?"

"Not if fairy names sound as 'odd' to humans as you've told me!"

"I was thinking...we could name our daughter 'Adeleine.'" "That's 'canvas' in your language, right?" "A bright canvas on which any kind of future can be painted!"

"Oh...! That's a lovely name! But, Rim..." "...We're having a little boy remember?"

"Ah, right!" "I was already picturing little Noir in my head so strongly that...!!"

"......'Noir'......?"

"Yeah, 'Noir.'"  "It means..."

-

...It means 'unstoppable.'

-

AND HERE YOU ARE

-

-

AN: I hope this gives a clear-ish answer to most of the questions about the birth of Noir and Adeleine, as well as the story of their parents! Or... did it just create more questions? ^^;

@kirbyoctournament

[omegalomania]

someone put the full q&a that fall out boy did the other night on youtube and while i'm going thru it for highlights there's this exchange that was WAY too long to bulletpoint so i'm just transcribing the whole thing here. this was mostly just patrick and pete talking to each other but i need to note that andy was grinning SO big the entire time at the side and it killed me dead.

so, the answer they gave when the band was asked about the song that took the longest to complete on "so much (for) stardust":

patrick: probably this song "heaven, iowa." this is the truth...i hated that song. i wrote it, i sent it to pete [...] i send him everything, 'cause i don't like any of it. but i was like "i don't believe in this one, i don't like it," really far into the production.

pete: really pumped me up to hear this song.

patrick: i'm GETTING there, man!

pete: "got an elevator pitch for you, it's a fuckin terrible song, i hate it. lemme know what you think."

patrick: by the way, this exact type of anecdote is why i didn't talk on stage for like 20 years. remember that? so this is true - sorry, this is a side tangent but very true, we were playing a show with this band "killing tree" and i was the only one that had a microphone, naturally, and so i go "here's, uh, here's a new song..." and i don't know i said something silly like, "it took me like five minutes to write it" and i was being self-deprecating or something, and pete was like "well that's the last time you're talking."

pete: that is NOT actually what happened! you did the harry caray -

patrick: it was something - that was the next show!

pete: oh. the harry caray one...

patrick: that was a different one. so then there was another show, 'cause...i am...wont to do impersonations once in a while and there's a guy from chicago, an old broadcaster in chicago called harry caray, and i just did this harry caray impression and a few people laughed and i was like, "oh, yeah!" and i kept doing it. but the thing. the thing IS. this probably lasted -

pete: "i'm gonna do this impression until everybody stops laughing."

patrick: you're gonna like it! no, but um...so i kept doing it and it was probably only about a minute? it felt like 30. so whatever. anyway, um...the song that took the longest was this song, "heaven, iowa." we'd been working on it, and i wasn't really sure of it. every day we'd go in the studio, i'd ask joe to lay any ideas he had on the verse, any atmospheric guitar or synthesizer or something, and i'd lay down all these ideas, and then there was this moment - we recorded in a studio in seattle, and there was this weird synthesizer that i had and somehow that was it. i landed that and the whole thing came together, and now it's one of my favorite songs on the record. but there's some moments in there where it's just my voice and some other things, there's some sparse moments, and i don't like that a lot. i don't like...it's like hearing your voice on an answering machine.

pete, gesturing at the crowd: ask them if they like it.

[crowd promptly goes apeshit and patrick shakes his head and looks down while pete just fucking smirks at him]

[inthiseverymoment]

silhouettes emerging: chapter vii

"the Moth, Frozen in Amber"

a hunt, an exchange, a continuation, and an outburst

iwtv oc x armand, this chapter ~1.8k

as the kids say, WE'RE SO BACK

can you tell that i'm already having A Time this semester

and yes she was besties with edith piaf bc It's My Historical Reader Insert and I Can Do What I Want

anyway WHOO this one was very cathartic to write. hope yall enjoy, lmk what you think

chapter vi fic masterlist

“Getting lunch”, as suggested, was not as fantastical a concept to this unlikely pair as it would be to many others of their kind. Being fledglings of an ancient vampire, they stalked the gloomy New York afternoon-with Daniel staying more in the shade, his inherited powers having had less time to mature than Isabelle’s-and searched.

This search came to a delightfully obvious end when they passed a thoroughly isolated alleyway, graced with the vape-flavored sight of a posse of college-age boys in polo shirts and unfortunately lettered red baseball caps.

Isabelle bit the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning and turned to Daniel, finding a wicked glint under his dark sunglasses. With a nod and a saunter, the actress and the journalist shared a feast and cleaned up the evidence, keeping leftovers to last long past the interview.

Twenty Twenty-Three (The Next Hour), New York City, United States of America

Satisfied with their meal, sickened by the memories of privilege and unearned arrogance they’d taken in through the blood of the young men, and both now a little bit high on flavored nicotine, they wound through the streets back to Daniel’s apartment. As they walked, he told her the parts of his story not granted to human eyes, as well as what had happened after; Armand’s machinations, the now-grown “fascinating boy”’s own turning, and most of what he’d learned to have happened decades earlier (though not all, she could tell, and fully understood why). Isabelle had had no idea upon first reading the book that her existence would have so many similarities to that of this entirely jaded man, who had of course felt exactly the same about this conscientiously skewed “young” woman; they realized now that their experiences held so much in common that the differences in those placed demeanors faded, leaving an odd sort of knowing despite their very short acquaintance.

“I guess I just thought,” Daniel was half-laughing in a last shot at nonchalant bitterness, “I thought I was the first. That’s all.”

“No, I get it,” she responded. Turning to study his face, her voice took on a bit of teasing incredulity: “Is that…could it possibly be…a bit of vulnerability from the great Daniel Molloy?”

“Don’t start,” he said, adjusting his sunglasses. “I’m the one interviewing you, not the other way around. This just changes a lot.”

She nodded solemnly, and he dug into his jacket pocket for his phone, pressing record despite every bell and whistle being back at the apartment.

“We’re back post-midday-draining with the vampire-”

“Isabelle de la Rue.”

“-and I want to know whether things felt the same for you as they did for me. You’re a vampire now, you’re part of the coven, he doesn’t have dominion over your mind anymore but you’ve essentially given into that life. How did things go after that turning point?”

“...Turning point?”

“Let it be stated on the record that I did not attempt a pun.”

“Let it be stated on the record that it was definitely received as such,” she replied. “But, yeah, it was…as you said, it was a sense of letting oneself be swept up in a new life. I had been so focused on the fact that Armand couldn’t physically get into my mind anymore that I forgot about every other-more human-emotional tie.”

“That fucked-up blur between supernatural manipulation and genuine…”

He stopped, fiddling with his key and pretending that was the reason he’d trailed off.

“Love,” she finished, looking at Daniel as they reentered his apartment. “That’s the word you’re looking for.”

“Sure,” he coughed, a thousand recently-revealed memories passing across his eyes.

“And, yeah, precisely. I found that I just…well, after being turned, I felt that I needed him more than ever. After a lifetime of being tossed to the side and swearing that I’d wait for the right person, a lifetime of scrambling for control over my own life, this sudden onslaught of being entirely and straightforwardly wanted for the first time knocked me out; I fully let go after that first taste of his blood, and everything rational was just…gone. Honestly, nearly everything before I had stepped into the Théâtre was gone; not by the work of the Mind Gift, just by the overwhelming newness of vampiric existence-of vampiric existence as his companion. Now, whenever there was somewhere to go, there was somebody beautiful waiting for me just outside the door. Now, when I absentmindedly hummed a bit of an old duet, someone would complete the phrase. Now there was finally someone who wanted to understand all of my depths and flaws, who didn’t shun them away or pretend not to see them but instead viewed them as natural and even admirable. We had both come from this sort of rigidity and exploitative background-his far, far worse than mine, of course-and we each found this wonderful sort of release in the other. We’d stay up hours into the night and day, and talk and talk and talk-”

“And only talk?” came the interruption of her near-rapturous repetition.

“Oh, of course not,” Isabelle said once she’d recovered from the memory, “but you didn’t want to hear about that.”

She was quiet for a moment, one finger circling a small threadbare spot in the armchair she’d now grown quite familiar with.

“‘For the first time in my life, I was seen.’ That’s what Louis told you, and that is how it was for me. When I read that phrase in your book…I lost my breath all over again.”

The journalist nodded as he finished connecting his phone back to the laptop and microphone.

Nothing more needed explanation.

Daniel already knew.

“So,” he said after a while, “when did things change? When did you come to the thought that you needed to go?”

“Part of it was because of Édith. Armand always seemed to come up with more rehearsals and group hunts during the times when we’d try to get together; eventually, I confronted him about it. He said that, since I had chosen this life, asked to become his despite his doubts, that I needed to give up every outward tie to humanity. I pointed out that that humanity was what drew him to me in the first place-the same way it was with you-and by the way he reacted, it seemed that he simply wanted it all to himself. I missed her. The last time I managed to see her, it was even more difficult to do so, because she was becoming truly famous.”

“Wait,” Daniel said, “...that Édith?”

Slowly, Isabelle nodded, looking to him with a slight smile.

“That Édith. My Édith. You know how the nightclub owner who discovered her died, the mobsters she had some associations with, the accusations that almost destroyed her career?”

“I have to say I’m not as brushed up on the history of French popular song as I guess I should have been, but I’ve heard of that, yes.”

“The murder was Armand’s doing. A warning, I think, that he could make my friends suffer if they kept me from him for too long.”

“Red flag number…we’ve lost count now.”

“You’re one to talk, Mr. Molloy.”

“But Mademoiselle Piaf clearly got back on her feet.”

“At least we got a proper goodbye.”

“When you left?”

“When I…tried. That was the first time. Captain of the ship got ‘rest’-ed into never leaving the dock. I think, on some level, Armand knew that playing any power card wouldn’t get me to want to stay, so he ran up that ramp in a billowing trench coat like some hero of an old film, wrapped me up into his arms, and said that he’d heard the waters that week were far too treacherous for a ‘visit home’. I knew I didn’t believe him, but he held me so tightly, so-so tenderly, whispering over and over that he couldn’t lose me…”

“So his tears worked better than the Mind Gift ever could.”

“...Yes.”

“Christ, Isabelle, he was never afraid of losing his power over you because he knew he already had it. Armand didn’t even need access to your memories-”

“I know-”

“-you were just so in love that he could easily,” Daniel bulldozed, “like any mortal, play your heartstrings like that fucking violin you always talked about-”

“I know!”

After the days of quips and tearful recollections, this was indeed a shout. She slammed her hands onto the arms of the chair, and every light in the room flickered.

Daniel was silent.

“I’m not proud of it,” Isabelle eventually said, cold and hard and finally loud. “I am fully aware that I spent my whole life terrified of being controlled only to wind up under the spell of the first dark-curled, smooth-voiced soul to actually look my way for once. I am fully aware that I saw everything and allowed love to blind me anyway. I thought we could figure it all out and grow together-it had truly seemed, for a while, like we were. I was young, I was tired of waiting, and I felt that those twenty-two years spent waiting were longer than any possible eternity. I wanted to be desired, chased, caught, cherished, held-I wanted him. Surrounded by this mockery of the life I have always longed for, this place where self-titled artists postured in their little cliques and prided themselves on their shallow works while ignoring the hundreds of bodies being dragged across the floor, I thought that that was all I was ever going to get.”

Her ragged breath had climaxed into sobs now, without a single speck of the demure camera-worthiness of her previous tears. These last words hanging in the air, Isabelle stared daggers at Daniel, the golden circles at the center of her glowing hazel eyes now alight with the same fire that Louis had burned the Théâtre with only a few years after she’d gone.

This was the desperation of the vampire Isabelle de la Rue,

and the desperation of the young mortal Bella Ditell,

all wrapped up into one bleeding watercolor quilt of a woman.

“I was swept away again,” she choked out, catching her breath. “I let him take me back to the Théâtre, swooned into him when he put La Bohème on his phonograph, and relished in every physical reminder that this glorious, terrible, deeply complex and surely divine being could not bear the thought that I would leave him. I committed it all to memory-the dizzying warmth of Armand’s bare chest against mine, my hand moving up his thigh and his tangling in my hair as he ripped out every bobby pin I’d placed for easy travel, the way the taste of his blood was now tinged with something like bitter wine. His grip was rougher now, but I didn’t care…”

Her breath having nearly returned to steadiness, Isabelle winced at one more admission.

“I didn’t notice the pain, because it fit so well with the music.”

[rockbandsrockfans]

My thoughts on From Zero:

From Zero (Intro): Yeah like from nothing!

The Emptiness Machine: I really like this song, I think it's good. The first time I heard it it sounded really familiar but like I've heard a demo of it not like it's a rip off of another song. I'm always down for Mike singing

Cut the Bridge: Rap verse and the drums under it is mad modern Linkin Park, everything else reminds me of a different band but idk which one. I like the bridge a lot

Heavy is the Crown: "THIS IS WHAT YOU ASKED FOOOOOOOOOOR!!" I see what you did there guys. This sounds plausibly Linkin Park and that muted sample or whatever that is in the back is cool af

Over Each Other: Emily's mostly solo song, the verse won't stick in my head but I'm into the chorus. The way the song resolves is exactly what I expected based on the chorus and exactly what it should be!

Casualty: This one is like if Lies Greed Misery (with some War influences) was written by teenage Slipknot fans in a garage. It sounds like it's gonna have an outro that goes into the beginning of Overflow and then doesn't

Overflow: Generic starting flow saved by really nice harmonies and arrangement. Atmospheric af I bet there will be remixes of this one too. Doesn't sound like it should be on the same album as Casualty.

Two Faced: Song that makes you go "oh THIS is a Linkin Park song" I've missed that crunchy guitar 😫 this shouldn't be my favorite but it might be anyway. The bridge is like the "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" line from Killing in the Name combined with One Step Closer. Sometimes I think "is Joe still here?" He's here in this one

Stained: I like the verse WAY better than the chorus I'm grooving to the verse and then it's like oh it's done. The second chorus is more interesting than the first caus there's more backing instruments. The bridge comes together nicely though. Weirdly reminds me of Hall of Fame by The Script

IGYEIH: Similar melodic progression to Heavy is the Crown so like those two actually sound like they go on the same album. Matches the energy of Casualty, absolutely nothing like Cut the Bridge, but the LP guitar is GOING.

(Obligatory comparison of Emily to Chester: I can't help but notice how present the vocal harmonies are. They sound AWESOME but I think it's going to lead to people expecting something they aren't gonna get

Good Things Go: God DAMN Mike's voice has come a long way from No Roads Left. Holding those notes like a pro. This is a Post-Traumatic song though. Like if a Post-Traumatic song was an album closer. It definitely has the Album Closing Epic Drum Crescendo but it doesn't feel like an "ending." Spotify looped back into the intro and that felt like exactly what you're supposed to do at the end of the album. Which makes perfect sense for the first record of a new era

[candycryptids]

For Chuu!! She's a MCH. What bits of the story and job toolkit are canon for her? What arent? Whatve you changed? (like, does she have an alternate Queen or multiweapon attachment?)

So I don’t think she does Any of the Machinist Job-Quest-line, lmfao. She doesn’t have a Job Crystal, either, this is all self-taught organic rootin tootin aim-n-shoot’n. (Please laugh) … her ‘Drone’ is just a Magitek Bit she’s gotten her paws on while relocating (read: Quitting her Job and moving countries with no fore-warning) and repurposed to do a number of things Before-Building-Tuesday. Like cover fire. And recording voice-journals.

The Queen is. ‘Technically’ the same- I like to think it’s Probably just Old Tuesday Prototypes being put through their paces instead of getting scrapped, running on very bare-bones programming. If I was more mod-savvy I’d give it the Loporrit Robot Bunny ears in game XD (I almost made it a different Magitek machine altogether! But I think she’d rather have something marching into battle she built completely with her own hands than something repurposed. Not that she wouldn’t require a Reaper to start firing blasts randomly and March in a straight line into the enemy lololol)

She initially learned how to wield a gun from Garleans, with rigid target practice and gun handling procedures. For self-protection, mostly. An Engineer is no good to them dead. Especially not one so promising, even if she is…. Difficult to work with. She develops her own style over time and while she never gains PinPoint Accuracy without some, uh, self-modification, she’s a pretty decent shot. Favors guns with bayonets or blades for when something tries to get too close, though usually if she’s given any time to prepare she’ll have a handful of machines to call into battle anyways… or Talia. Lol.

[POV; Your girlfriend is pointing out a cool bird but you spotted an imperial and on fucking Byregot nobody is about to interrupt her day off.] On her person is nearly always the Makai Hand Mortar, even for situations where combat isn’t expected. It’s small, easily concealed, and pink. Which. It’s just great. So even if she doesn’t have The Big guns ™ she’s still packing heat. (Is this a strap joke? Maybe.)

I cannot think of a possible way to improve on or change the multi-tool, it’s in the brand of all-in-hilarious-nonsense Chuu Loves to make for some reason. At best, she probably tries to work out a way to make it Much More Compact- after all, Tuesday was her attempts to make a Robot that was so…. Humanoid. Pushing the limits on what was possible in terms of size and shape and functionality. [She managed to make a robot so human-like he's no longer attractive to her in the way Machines are.... Sad! Oh well, there's other robots.]

She did specifically paint her lunchbox (aether converter/ammunition kit/whatever you want to call it) cherry pink for Talia though. Her favorite color is pink 🌸

(You might be wondering; how did these two ever meet? You’d be right to wonder! I wonder too. 😳 someday me and my partner will hammer it out …. LOL.)

Shaders used are Kore's [Edge Triangle Mix] [Electro World] [Glitter] and Neneko's [Basic C [Gameplay]]

[the11tailedwrites]

1 - Osiris

CW: Angle Trap from Saw so heavy gore

@hidden-scarlet-whispers @braindamagedrizz

They saw trapped my man.

Osiris awoke to a pounding behind his eyes. His head pulsed and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust. When they did adjust, Osiris had absolutely no idea where he was. It was a dark and musty room with only a single light. He shifted slightly and pain flared up from his chest and he hissed in pain and glanced down. There was a strange ribbed metal cage around his chest. He could feel metal twisting inside him, and he bit his lip to hide a hiss of pain. He grabbed at the cage with his fingers, desperately trying to pry it open.

“Rise and shine, little phoenix,” crooned a feminine voice.

A screen in the corner of the room lit up, bathing Osiris in artificial light. Osiris glanced over at the screen to see a masked woman. The mask was pure white, with nothing on it, not even holes for the eyes. The woman’s bright red hair made her white mask almost seem to glow.

“Who the fuck are you,” snarled Osiris, jerking forward before grimacing in pain, feeling blood leak out from under the ribbed cage.

“I am Chaos, pleasure, my dear boy,” said the woman, “Now let’s play a game, yes?”

“What?” hissed Osiris

“You don’t have much of a choice, give I’ve already strung you up,” said the woman, “Now, here’s how it works; as you can probably tell, you are strung up with ribbed metal around your chest, embed to the bone. In front of you is a vat of acid. When the timer starts, the key to unlock the ribbed cage drops in. Failure to get the key out of the acid before it melts results in no way to get the cage off. 60 seconds later and the machine activated and rips out of your chest. The fun thing about guardians is that this won’t keep you dead, so you get to try out so many different methods!”

“I am going to kill you,”

“You can try,”

Osiris’ eyes flicked over to the vat of acid, neck pricking slightly. He stomach twisted painful. Why was he so nervous? He was the phoenix of the dark ages, the student of Lord Felwinter and a damn powerful warlock. A simple trap shouldn’t set him on edge, but it did. Maybe it was because he could barely feel Sagira.

“Wait,” he shouted, “What have you done to my ghost!”

“She’s fine,” said the woman, holding up Osiris’ beloved ghost in one hand, “I need subjects for my experiments anyway and you are fascinating. Make sure to smile, you’re being recorded!”

Then the timer ticked on, and a key dropped into the acid. Osiris wasted no time reaching his hand in. He bit down a scream as the acid bit apart his hand as he groped for the key. After a few painful seconds, his hand clasped around the key and he pulled into out quick, splashing some acid onto his legs. The smell of chemically brunt flesh filled Osiris’ nose as he forced the key into the lock, though it took almost four seconds.

It clicked.

It opened.

It fell off.

But the ribbed cage did not.

Confusing spread through Osiris as he stared at the fallen lock. Osiris gritted his teeth and gripped the cage, ripping and pulling, desperately trying to free himself.

5.

Osiris thrashed.

4.

His nails broke off.

3.

His heart was in his ears.

2.

Why couldn’t he stop shaking?

1.

The sound of tearing flesh and the searing pain almost blinded him. He only got a few seconds to look down before gravity took hold of his organs. He could only watch as his intestines fell out before nothing.

Osiris awoke lying on his own organs. They felt warm and squishy, and Osiris pushed himself up.

“Sorry, no way to win,” came Chaos’ annoying voice, “Good quality video, though, I sent it to the Iron Lords. Wonder what they’ll think?”

“Bitch” snarled Osiris, forcing himself up, entire front drenched in his own blood.

A piece of his intestines clung to him for a moment before slipping off and hitting the floor.

Chaos’ laughter filled the small room.

“If you’ll excuse me, I have other guests to tend to,”

The tv turned off and Osiris was plunged into darkness.

It took incredible effort for Osiris to move away from the pile of organs and crawl into a corner. He tried to create a solar flare, for light or warmth he didn’t know. It didn’t matter because he couldn’t create light at all. He wasn’t bound in any way with void suppression, so Osiris wasn’t sure how he wasn’t able to use light.

Osiris leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes.

Tearing flesh. The wet sound of organs falling to the ground.

Osiris snapped open his eyes.

“Fuck,”

Osiris wished he could feel Sagira. He could really use her comfort right now.

Distantly, he wondered who that other guest Chaos was talking about was.

He tried to remember how he ended up here. He memories of recent events was hazy at best.

He had been on patrol. Lord Felwinter has requested he look into something nearby. He had gotten there, checked, nothing odd. He had been on the way to sweep the nearby area. His neck had pulsed for only a second and everything had gone dark.

Did Lord Felwinter set a trap for him? No, that wouldn’t make sense. If Lord Felwinter wanted him out of the way or dead, he would have done it himself. Lord Felwinter was not the kind of person who tortured his targets before he killed them.

If not an Iron Lord, then was Chaos working for herself?

Osiris sighed.

He was getting nowhere.

All he could do now was hope for a rescue. He didn’t even know if anyone would care enough to rescue him. Maybe they would come for whoever else was trapped here and leave him. He wouldn’t be surprised.

He was used to being abandoned.

[thessalian]

Thess vs NaNoWriMo

So that time of year is fast approaching, and I think a lot of people I associate with on this platform are going, "But Veilguard's coming out on HALLOWEEN!", which is entirely fine - NaNoWriMo is optional. And honestly, all things considered, I am probably never doing it as an organised situation again.

It took some digging to find the original text, and I'll probably post the screenshot I saw on Bluesky too, but summary: not only is NaNoWriMo pretty much supporting AI (they say "absolutely not condemning", but the rest of the text isn't nearly so mealy-mouthed about it) but also calling people who are against AI "ableist and classist".

No, seriously. I mean, seriously.

Look, how people get their ideas is probably up to them. And stolen valour aside, plugging an idea into ChatGPT and getting some word salad in return is ... I guess someone's prerogative. The same as someone just typing, like, "rutabaga" 50k times technically counts as writing 50k words. But ... first of all, NaNoWriMo was supposed to support people who write. Second of all, the idea that not having someone immediately at your side to serve as beta reader is "classist" is ... no. Like, if you're online enough to understand NaNoWriMo, you can find a damn beta reader. Third, "Some people's brains don't work well enough to see the problems in their writing--" SEE ABOVE RE PROOF-READING, FOR ONE THING, and for another, that's just shit like spelling and grammar check, which has been standard on word processing programmes basically ever since the concept existed! Fourth, I'm not sure how AI assists in shit like "Can't find a publisher because publishers are only really interested in what will sell ALL THE BOOKS", but that's one of their arguments too.

But the last thing - the worst thing - is what that means. NaNoWriMo is not cool with plagiarism as far as I know, but that's what trains AI. More to the point, you have to verify your word count with their website by actually copy-pasting everything you wrote into the site for it to show you as a winner. The fact that they support AI, and that one of their sponsors offers a whole bunch of AI features? I don't trust them not to be selling every single thing people submit for word count total to feed someone else's writer-bot.

I mean, the NaNoWriMo bods have made some spectacularly shitty decisions the last few years. There was that partnership with those scammers at Inkkit, which also revealed the whole thing where one of their moderators - who operated the youth programme, by the way - turned out to be a paedophile and groomer. But this one is just ... disrespectful of the very thing they were supposed to be supporting.

Please don't use the official NaNoWriMo resources. I am concerned for what it will do with not only what you submit for word count, but what you put in their forums too. If you want to do 50k words in 30 days, I am with you all the way, and others will be too. Find a support group that isn't these jackasses and do that.

Plus the "not using AI is ableist" thing is bullshit, by the way. I am not participating this year (I don't think, anyway; not unless I get a great idea) because I'm damn sure I don't have the spoons for that ... because disabled. Because fibromyalgia. The thing is, I don't want to just say "I produced 50k words and won NaNo", I want to write. I want to use my voice, not something cooked up by a machine learning algorithm based on a single sentence. I think way too many people have forgotten what "in your own voice" means to art.

Like, on the r/criticalrole subreddit, we were talking about how Lance Reddick actually did record all his lines as Thordak in TLOVM before he passed, and I mentioned how different that was going to hit, with the example of having heard Robin Sachs as Zaeed in the ME3 Citadel DLC after he passed. And someone went, "Oh, shit, I didn't know he passed! Hey, do you think they'll one day be able to use the voices of dead voice actors so we can keep hearing them? Because I know it's possible because Snoop Doggy Dogg is reading me my homework now and it's awesome!"

I ... may have kind of exploded. I may also have mentioned that some bunch of assholes tried to make a George Carlin special after Carlin's death and his daughter (understandably) hit the roof. It's bad enough to disrespect thousands of people by training an AI to spit out whatever of their works will fit a prompt sentence, but imagine hearing the voice of someone you love, mangled by AI's inability to get real emotional nuance, possibly saying shit they would never say? Using their voices doesn't change that the emotion and power behind those voices is gone forever; it just parades a decaying copy of them around like some vocal equivalent of Weekend at Bernie's.

[bearpillowmonster]

Transformers One Trailer

That new trailer and I have some thoughts? Surprisingly.

I don't normally watch trailers anymore and I've said why before but it basically boils down to they spoil too much too much of the time and what's the point if I'm sold anyway. Now Transformers One seems like a no-brainer, gives those fans a prequel origin sort of thing as well as an introduction for the newbies who only know the Bay and Rise and Bumblebee movies in animation no less so completely different. Then I saw the images of the designs and oh man0

It looks generic. Like I never watched Transformers Prime, it has its fans but I just do not like that art style and this started making me think of that, like it wasn't finished. I much would've preferred a 2D movie but 3D can be done, look at the War for Cybertron trilogy (which I've already talked about)

Nice and stylized, distinguished, scuffed metal, I wanna lick them. Anyways, that's a show though, it'd look good as a movie and heck, T-One looks good as a show but I don't know, is it just me? I also didn't finish the trilogy because the first one was good and I thought it'd only get better but reviews for the second one came out and they were bogus so I dropped it.

But then I watched the trailer-

And it looks better! Notice anything? They're all close up shots! And you mean to tell me this is the same movie>

Ugh. Visuals out of the way, cast. Why? We don't need all these celebrity voices and I'm someone who supports Peter Cullen just being Optimus all the time but I also understand that he's getting older just like Charles Martinet did with Mario leaving the character in a specific position but you didn't get Chris Pratt?? No I'm just kidding, we got Chris Hemsworth, and really, I can't even tell that it's him, I saw his name attached and I was like "Here we go again" and there are a few times where he had traces of that Cullen voice pattern and it's like an adolescent Optimus settling into his voice- wait am I complementing? Stop that.

Josh Cooley is directing and he's got a pretty decent track record with Pixar, we even see Keegan Michael Key again for whatever reason- oh, it's goofy, it's made for children

"But he says bad ass!" mehmehmehmehmeh, so do the other movies twit, somehow, someway, they get away with anything. He's gotta go and announce everything that's happening "I have knives?!" "I have machine guns in my butt?!" Stupid even for a kid, especially menaging Megatron, what'd you do to my angry baby? He's just reading the script, I know, which also isn't great. So, instead of just being a race of transformers, they're a race of robots that gain the ability to transform to save Cybertron. There's the generic nature again! I also don't see it in the trailer but with the toys, they have this weird thing where they use energy to summon their weapons? Bumblebee is fine with the "KNIVES" but

"I put my hand on a ba-all to see if I still bleeeeddd and nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda freeeeee" What is that? Just give him an axe, he doesn't have to summon it and then attach it to a ball. But wait- the design is different here, what's going on? These toys don't match up with the movie. Like, look at Bumblebee before and after he transforms, he doesn't look like the toy does (I've used enough pictures, do some leg work) and Megatron...just looks like Megatron and I know these are movie toys, just look at Alpha Trion, so I don't know how much of it is an accurate conversion between the two and I normally wouldn't care but it's that ball that drives me bonkers.

BUT I will say that I support Scarjo playing- who is she playing? Because that's not Arcee. Elita One? Cool name, at least. Oh, she's an OG, we're good then. Lawrence is also a good one. Anyways, disappointed, we'll see.

[justconstantly]

MY TOP 9 ALBUMS OF ALL TIME

tagged by @belladonnafey

couldn't sleep, saw ur tag zoph (<3), and here we are. I'm a big album listener so this was a struggle for me, but I tried to avoid all my short term obsessions and only pick my absolute favs, ones I could listen to no skips at any time (order here isn't a ranking or anything, solely was aesthetic for the collage)

lungs (deluxe) - Florence+the machine

fav songs: I'm not calling you a liar, bird song, kiss with a fist

every spare moment for the entire summer of 2014 my brother and I played Minecraft on a LAN server together and I listened exclusively to a YouTube playlist of this album on repeat and that's definitely part of why I am the way I am

heretic pride - the mountain goats

fav songs: autoclave, lovecraft in brooklyn

funnily enough, not one of the three goats albums I have on vinyl, the others are better for living room activities that my record player is good for (lounging, plant watering, etc) but this one is still my all time fav

wasteland baby - hozier

fav songs: almost (sweet music), wasteland baby

RIP my college roommates in spring 2019 because I listened to only this album for approximately 2.5 months and I think they hated me for it (blasting it out loud, singing badly, etc)

Grace - Jeff buckley

fav songs: lover you should've come over, dream brother

this album is so so cool, I mean even discounting Jeff buckleys angelic voice, the haunting guitar? the early modern English hymn?? lilac wine AND hallelujah??? makes me feel incredible

sound and color - alabama shakes

fav songs: this feeling, shoegaze

this whole album makes me just dance/sway around my apartment feeling like I'm the most soulful and tender person alive

post-war - M. ward

fav songs: Chinese translation, right in the head, rollercoaster, magic trick

makes me so indescribably nostalgic for a life I've never lived. when I heard Chinese translation for the first time I was like hmm I'm different now

collapsed in sunbeams - Arlo parks

fav songs: too good, eugene

got the vinyl from my library on a whim to listen to while me and my roomie did a puzzle and spent the next 2 weeks of the hold just glued to the record player, haven't bought my own copy yet but it's on my wishlist FOR SURE just perfect lazy living room vibes for me

crawler - IDLES

fav songs: the beachland ballroom, meds, car crash

massive thank you @azertykeys for recommending me idles bc this album is a go to for me when I'm coding and/or also just in my feelings

bridge over troubled water - Simon & Garfunkel

fav songs: keep the customer satisfied, the boxer, the only living boy in New York, why don't you write me

my parents listened to quite a bit of Simon and Garfunkel when I was a kid and I didn't realize I knew them until I was like 20 and my friend was playing their greatest hits and I knew every word to every song. she was like why do you know so much Simon and Garfunkel and I was like oh is that who this is? anyway love this album, my vinyl is a treasured posession

only reason mitski isn't on this list is because I can't choose between any of her albums

other honorable mentions:

<COPINGMECHANISM> by willow

hospice by antlers

woman on the internet by Orla gartland

case/lang/veirs by case/lang/veirs

transgender dysphoria blues by against me

fetch the bolt cutters by Fiona apple

she won't make sense by the harmleighs

this was long so absolutely no pressure, but tagging @azertykeys @heart-to-hearts @bromaine-lettuce @junewild @unnonexistence @navigatorwrongway and anyone who sees this and wants to give it a go

[apphiarothowrites]

Modern MAS Musician Au ]

this has been poking my brain, will I ever write it who knows?

Ace Punk Rock; Machine gun Kelly- very mainstream and adored for his music

Sabo alternative punk; YUNGBLUD - less mainstream but very popular in the UK and with lgbt/marginalized groups

Now Ace and Sabo have collaborated and have some.. feelings but that ain't gonna be looked at too closely cause both of them are focused on their careers. Anyway they end up getting contacted by Whitebeard records (a huge deal, Edward newgate was known as the father of rock for a reason)

SO they come in and are met by Newgate himself, Basically the deal is they are to collaborate in a album to re-launch Di-Angels Return.

Now for those who don't Know Di-angel or for those who were fans Marci Diangelo was a HUGE deal back in the day. Like Joan Jett mixed with Lady gaga. The woman was the beginning of the punk rock scene, aggressively making out with both genders for paparazzi and generally being an absolute menace. Ace and Sabo of course say yes, (Sabo was inspired to start his own music career by her and Ace just thinks she's neat.)

Anyway the day comes where they are supposed to meet Her, Di- Angel, Marci and of course Sabo is kinda fanboying and Ace may or may not be very jealous cause come on, she was hot back in the day but she's in her 40s now. Instead of the busty blonde who once screamed into the microphone about flying away. They are met with a blonde man in a leather jacket.

"Uhm, excuse me?" Ace wants to be irritated but damn the guy is smokin hot. "We were supposed to be meeting Di-angel here."

The man blinks sleepy blue eyes, "yeah, I know."

Sabo bites his lip eye twitching, "You- Marci, we are meeting with Marci Diangelo, the singer."

The blonde man sticks a cig in his mouth, the corner quirking up. "Just said, I know. But you obviously are a bit behind the times." The man stands towering over both of them, "I go by Marco now, call me Marci again and I'll send you both through the door got it?"

Oh shit, fuck yeah, this is GOOD SHIT right here raccooon.

Ever since Pops suggested relaunching Di-Angel, Marco's been nothing but a roll of anxiety in human skin. While their family was fairly accepting, and the punk-rock community as a whole generaly was too, the larger scene is...well. Not quite the same. With most of the people of Marco's generation reacting across the entire spectrum from acceptance to hard rejection, Marco honestly didn't think it would be a good idea.

Yes, his voice and range dropped by a few octaves. Yes his old favorite dresses didn't fit the same any more (not that he wanted to put on most of them any more, just the shiny leather number but he had to get it tailored for the new dimension of his chest and hips). Yes, he's different now and that difference is something that he's gotten shit for from people he thought were friends and something that people he thought hated him were supportive of. It's been a roller coaster of strangeness and that was before Pops suggested relaunching his music career.

He left music because he knew the reactions would be. Mixed. once things got off the ground for his transition. Music never left him-Pops has multiple videos of him humming melodies and tapping beats from doctors' offices and one in a hospital bed-but the scene? He assumed the scene left him well behind.

Then Pops came to him with this insane idea and told him that these two young pups, rising stars and rough diamonds the both of them, were jumping and chomping at the bit. Marco didn't know what to think. He told Pops he'd reserve judgement until they met, but even then the hotcold churning in his stomach of anxiety was steadily eating his confidence of this whole thing working.

Then he meets them and despite the fact that neither of them knew who he was now, they were adorably eager just as Pops said. And, just as Pops said, they're talented if a bit raw. Unrefined, somehow. Both have a similar feel-rough voices in a slightly high medium range, but what really grabs Marco's attention is that they both actually play. Something that's fallen out of fashion in newer bands, that their lead vocalists know what to do with a guitar in hand, they both pick up an axe during the experimental jam session and they aren't too bad either. They know classic riffs and stings, whole lead lines from classic and punk rock staples.

Then something of a miracle happens. Ace picks up a bass and smacks out a fairly simple beat on 5, jumping octaves, and Sabo picks up Marco's old stage piece and. Oh.

That's the lead and bass of "I Feel Fine" and Marco's nothing if not a perfectionist for the classics. He grabs the mic they rigged up for his studio, coughs to clear his throat, and-

Ace does something to the bass beat, a lick or two to change things juuuuust a little and Sabo slips a few 16th and 32nd notes here and there, little twangs to change the key down a half step and suddenly its not The Beatles any more, it's something a little rougher, a little less refined, it's something from the back alleys of a queer bar that Marco used to dress butch for where he got called a good man for the first time. It's like being in love, if love were a dirty suckerpunch and a cigarette after-if love was two men who might not always be men-if love was a little less straight.

That ends up being the second song on the album a year later, a fucking Beatles cover that rockets them right to the top of the charts in multiple countries and forces Marco back into the spotlight no matter how much he tries pushing the younger stars forward and blames them for the majority of their sound. Three vocalists who trade off is definitely strange, especially since Marco is....well, not 'Marci' any more.

But it works, somehow Pops' insane idea doesn't explode in their faces, and if there's maybe a little charged something that happens in the limo ride home from their first awards show, something that's been building for months and months over heated eye contact and falling asleep on each other in the studio and appreciative whistling during the set and costume set-up of music videos, well.

That's their business and nobody else's. And if that charged something results in Ace stumbling down into Marco's kitchen in the middle of the night only to scream at Thatch who's in the tradition of making Marco breakfast after award shoes (started before Di-Angel and 'Marci' ever got big), who then screams right back at him which draws both Sabo and Marco down to see what the goddamn noise is about. Well.

That's also their business and nobody else's. (yes Thatch even you, get the fuck out of my kitchen, goddamn-yoi)

[mabsolgirl]

Headphone warning

Transcript below! :3

I made this a while ago, around when I first started making art of the Supernova AU AU. There have been some slight changes since then but I wanted to post this anyway since its been just sitting in my drafts and starting to get dusty. The changes aren't enough to alter anything in the audio in a major way anyway so neeeeh.

It's been a while since I did voice stuff so hopefully I don't sound terrible lol

Obligatory @linxprime ping cause au of their au

Watch me pull world lore outta my ass cause I still don't know what im doing

-------------------------------------------------------

In the ruins of a crashed and destroyed ship, you find a strange audio file labeled "Project Supernova". You made a copy of it and now you have the time to give it a listen...

--------------------

Transcript

Warning. The following video is the private property of [REDACTED]. Any outside or uncertified personnel caught viewing this video will be terminated by any means necessary. Viewer discretion is advised.

Log 1.

I am Dr. Jane Doe and I’ve recently been put in charge of “Project Supernova” after the old one quit. I decided to keep audio documentations of my findings and observations. I find it easier for me to document things by recording them by audio then writing it all out later.

Project Supernova is a study on the abilities of intelligent lifeforms, how they manifest, if different abilities can be manifested in specific situations, and researching the phenomena of Berserkers. Before I came in, an embryo was successfully fertilized and grown into a stable state. There were many failed attempts with this being the only one that has made it this far, living for roughly 12 years as of this recording. To be honest I question the decision to make a lifeform rather than study the cases of people who already have abilities, but the higher-ups wanted to do this rather than the simpler way.

Regardless it is planned to come out of the tube once it reaches 13 years, which is a couple months away. It should be stable enough by then. Until then we monitor it for any changes.

End log.

Log 2.

Right, so I forgot to mention info about the lifeform last log. My bad, heheh.

So, the lifeform is female and it was made with the DNA of multiple organisms with the two primary ones being Human Earthling and Cuixcus. I think I pronounced that right. Cuixcus was used for their adaptability and Human Earthlings to counteract the weaknesses of the former. It has bones, can withstand hotter temperatures, and while it doesn’t need to, it does breathe oxygen. The DNA from other organisms were used to help stabilize it so it doesn’t just die spontaneously. The genetics chosen specifically to see if heritage has an influence on what abilities would appear.

Now the real reason I am logging this. Earlier today it was monitored that specs of light were floating around the lifeform’s tube. They looked so… ethereal. It was like looking at a cluster of tiny stars. I should probably mention that the lifeform is in an unconscious state. It has been like this since its creation and this was the first time these lights were documented. They disappeared before we could study them. Maybe it dreamt them up? We’ll have to keep an eye on it.

End log.

Log 5.

Today it came out of the tube, emphasis on “it”. We weren't supposed to take it out for another week but I guess it had other plans. One second it was in the tube, the next the lights appeared again and it was out and fell face-first into the equipment. It teleported itself out.

Since it wasn’t connected to the machines anymore it woke up quickly after that. Of course we were all freaking out but it didn’t seem too bothered by us. We ran some tests and it was stable. It bruised its head but other than that it wasn’t significantly injured.

It’s a very curious one. It would grab and inspect what we had. We let it for the most part and it would hand us back what it had when it was done. Right now it’s in its own room that we had to quickly scramble to finish putting together. It’s a quiet little one. The team and I decided on the name “Nova” after the project. As per usual we’ll keep an eye on it.

End log.

Log 27.

A lot happened today. Today is the first day Nova went into her Berserker state. The first thing I noticed was that she was much calmer than I expected. I expected a rampaging beast like the other cases of Berzerkers but Nova would just… stare at us. We kept an eye on our monitors to watch to see what she does and then we watched her create light orbs; like the ones from one of my first logs but much bigger. This time we were able to scan them to see what exactly they were…

They’re stars. I am not joking, she was making literal stars, balls of collapsed burning gas, in her hands! From our observations they disappear when she loses focus but still incredible nonetheless! We later figured out the key piece to what her abilities are: a limited form of matter manipulation. She can teleport herself, and those she touches, by willing her own matter into another space and the stars are made by manipulating the matter of gas and dust to collapse in her hands. It is theorized she can manipulate any form of matter so long as physical contact is made.

After a while she went out of Berserker state and fell unconscious. We hooked her up to make sure she’s alright. Right now she’s comatose; we’re hoping she comes back alright.

End log.

Log 39.

Earlier today one of the higher-ups came in and told us that we were not needed on Project Supernova anymore and that in the coming days a new team would be coming in to take over the project. Of course we were outraged. We were consistently giving them good results! We did what we were told! We did nothing wrong, didn’t question a thing. Nothing we said could convince him otherwise. None of us wanted to leave the project. I’ll admit, Nova has grown on us. She’s like family and now for some reason she’s being taken from us. When he left we all decided to look into it ourselves.

The more we dug, the more things began to not add up. Then… we found something. We’re not here to do what we think we’re doing. We’re gonna get Nova out of here. This place is no longer safe. We’ll get her out and we’ll be the whistleblowers to this place.

End log.

Log 40

…I’m… I’m sorry…

Dr. Jane Doe, Dr. Bailey Shindo, Dr. Margoba Entano, Dr. Manbagea Nals, and Dr. Ripley Hedon have been terminated. Project Supernova assets will be transported to [REDACTED] for further completion by a new team effective immediately. End communication.

[dollarbin]

Sandy Saturdays #2:

On My Way by Sandy Denny and The Strawbs

The summer of 67 was dominated by two songs you know well.

One of them, Aretha Franklin's Respect, is titanic, a song that is as important and on fire today as it was then.

The other, The Beatles's All You Need Is Love, kinda sucks.

Come on, admit it, the song is a bore. By the time Paul interrupts the interminable fade out to sing "she loves you yeah, yeah, yeah" we all wish they'd sang that song instead. Would I rather listen to The Monsanto Years all over again instead of All You Need is Love? Hell no. But after the high water mark of Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane at the dawn of 67 Ringo and his moptop mustachioed mates hit a dull patch singles-wise which, in addition to AYNiL, includes the asinine but hummable supermarket anthem Hello, Goodbye (seriously, it's always on while I contemplate lunch meat; I hate buying lunch meat) and the frantic Lady Madonna.

Look beyond those two dominant summer tracks and you'll see that 67 otherwise featured a lot of bubblegum pop: the Monkees' I'm a Believer and The Turtles' Happy Together are obvious examples. What was missing altogether in 67's jovial pop department were female voices. The Mamas and Papas and Sonny and Cher had already had their moments largely come and go. Yes, Grace Slick commanded everyone to experience her white rabbit that summer, but that great song scares the hell out of me; pop confection it is not, nor did it top the charts.

Linda Ronstadt would soon fill the feminine gap. In the fall of 67 she married the bubblegum gesture of the day to the independent feminine power Franklin had unleashed at the opening of the summer. Take a listen to her broad strength on Different Drum.

"Get all men and their ponies behind me; place them behind bushes," Linda commands. "I'm as loud as an entire orchestra and I'm not letting any person, place or thing pull the reins in on me."

In my own version of the multiverse, in August 67, when Respect was still echoing in everyone's ears and Different Drum not was not yet beating, The Beatles scrap their nice but unoriginal idea about people needing love and they stand bloody well aside, making way for Sandy Denny. Here's what Sandy recorded that July with an earnest group of pop wannabes: this song that was not released (in our version of reality anyway) until 6 long years later:

Lean into this piece. All the ingredients are in place for pop chart domination: there's a catchy chorus, bold, warm chord changes, vague romantic optimism and let's-pass-the-hat-among-friends vocal sharing.

And then there's Sandy. Just as bold in her way as Linda and Aretha, she tuns this simple pop nugget into a bold declaration of feminine power. By comparison, the poor guy who shares vocals with her sounds like he's James Madison sized: Five foot nothing, 95 pounds. Then again, any man would be instantly insignificant beside Denny. Stephen Stills would be lilliputian.

So get in your time machine already and head back to 67: give Sandy and the Strawbs a slightly bigger budget and a marketing plan. Then we'll all have this song in our bones instead of Happy Together. Wouldn't that be great?

Athena sprang forth from Zeus's head fully armed. In the summer of 67 Ronstadt and Franklin confronted patriarchy and popular tastes with that kind of unabashed feminine strength and power. It's only because some dumb record producer initially shelved On My Way in 67 that we don't think of Sandy Denny in those very same terms.

So go out and get Sandy this Saturday.

[dandylovesturtles]

12, 18, and 29 for the fic ask!

12. Do you have a playlist for your current WIPs?

not really...... I talked before about how the song dead girl in the pool by girl in red is kind of my song for IMBI but I don't have a whole playlist set up for it. It's not something I do very often (I'm boring sorry lol).

For Corrupted Upgrade I was initially toying with using lyrics from Viva Las Vengeance by Panic! At the Disco for the title. I ended up not doing that obviously but still

Hacking at my feed, act like you are me No one really cares (really cares) Nothing's really real, no one really feels Nothing to declare (to declare)

I don't wanna be anonymous But, I don't wanna be you In a city full of promises Nothing rings true

I think it fits lol

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

MMMM... this is cheating a little because it's not one line but this bit from Tapping Out:

“Yep, that thing,” says Leo, his voice far too cheery. “Don’t worry, Angelo, I’ll take care of it. Give us ten minutes.”

Donnie doesn’t want ten minutes. He wants ten years and then some. A moment of peace for every one stolen from him by the krang.

He picks up another wrench and flings it. There’s a crash as it knocks something over.

“Twenty minutes,” Leo amends, and then he’s opening the door.

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic.

I initially had a completely different fight scene written for the final confrontation in Corrupted Upgrade but I ended up cutting it and rewriting it from scratch because I didn't like it very much - I kept some of the dialogue but that's it. Here's a bit of it (under the cut):

Donnie had the audacity to pout, lowering just slightly on his robot arms. “Well you’re no fun.”

“I’m serious, Dee.” Leo straightened up, lowering his sword. This wasn’t working - it was time for a different approach. “No more tricks. You stick with your tech-bo and I won’t open any more portals. Mano a mano. How’s that sound?” 

“It sounds like you’re the one playing a trick-”

“Ninja honor here. I open a portal, you send the big robot after me.” He grinned, giving Donnie a one-armed shrug. “You have all the power here, Lord Othello von Ryan. What do you say?”

Donnie’s eyebrow quirked behind his visor, but after a moment’s contemplation he lowered himself to the ground, planting his feet and retracting the arms of his battleshell.

“Fine.” He smirked. “It’s been awhile since I’ve kicked your tail with just my tech-bo.”

“Uh, you have never beaten me, just for the record.” Leo grinned back, raising the odachi again. “And you won’t this time either.”

They quickly fell into a rhythm Leo was familiar with - Donnie with his quick, dancing hits and Leo with bigger, heavier strikes with his sword. With the bo, the goal was to use the opponent’s weight against them, and Leo, with his two-handed sword, had a lot of weight to throw around. He knew how to watch for that, though. 

His goal now, up close, wasn’t to win, anyway. It was to finally break through to his stupid brother so they could go home already.

“Okay, so like I was saying, we’re both hooked up to a machine that has us trapped in a virtual reality-”

“You’re still going on about that?” Donnie rolled his staff around his neck, and Leo just barely ducked the swipe. “You know I don’t believe you.”

“You have to believe me, because if you don’t then we’re going to be stuck here until we die of dehydration, or electrocution, or… bed sores or something!”

“Hah! As if the Purple Dragons could have programmed an actual functioning virtual reality without my help!”

“They probably stole some experimental code or something. If you’d just stop being so stubborn then you could look at it all you wanted!”

“I already know that it’s fake so what’s the point! Now!” He swung his bo at Leo’s chest, and he just barely managed to block. “Are you going to fight back or are you just going to dodge all day?”

“I don’t want to hurt you-”

“Hah! If this is a virtual reality then why would we even feel pain?”

“Because it’s a really mean virtual reality that’s hooked to our nervous system!”

“That would be highly experimental and incredibly dangerous!”

“I know that which is why I would really like to get out now- Gah!”

Donnie got in a hit on his arm, and it hurt; even with a normal bo staff it would have, but the titanium in his weapon was serious business.

Donnie took the opening to his advantage: he started to pummel Leo on both sides, and despite his best efforts to block he started getting smacked around. In the arms, in the legs, in the plastron. Donnie wasn’t letting up, and Leo realized that he was out for blood in a way he never had been during training.

He wasn’t listening. He was still trying to hurt him.

Thanks for the ask!

[runekeepershymnal]

Witcher season 3 thoughts (spoilers for all episodes of S3 below the cut

Maybe I'm projecting, but it just did not seem like Henry Cavill was having a good time this season. Like in previous seasons, even when Geralt was miserable, I got the vibe that Cavill was having the time of his life.

The bit when Yen says to Geralt "Promise me this won't be the last time I see you" broke my heart a bit. I think my favorite bit of the whole season, though, was Jaskier bringing the dryads to tears singing the song in Elder.

I haven't read that far in the books yet, and I haven't played the games, so I can't really comment on deviation from the books compared to the show.

I also don't think it's necessarily fair to call out a fantasy universe for anachronism, but I did find the Valdo Marx and the Marxists bits to be... tonally jarring? It just seemed extremely modern compared to the vibe of the show thus far. The biggest record-scratch moment there for me, however, was the Melange, where Yen and Geralt have a sudden tango in the middle of this other dance and it all flows just fine around them. I get that it was (probably?) intended to be representative of how they had their own mission while there were complex machinations all around them, but... enh?

I'm not sure, but I feel like they switched Yen's contacts, especially in the longer shots, and I wish they'd kept it more subtle. There were some Spirit of Halloween moments there, and Anya deserves better. I could be completely wrong, maybe it was a change in the lighting, but I remember them being this deep, rich, wine purple, and season three they were kinda lavender? I dunno.

I loved Jaskier as the big brother or uncle figure (or mommy and daddy's special friend, we don't know what goes on between scenes) who acts as intermediary between Ciri and Geralt. Compared to Geralt and Yen, Jaskier was Ciri's age much more recently, so it makes sense.

Tissaia dying ripped my heart out. I kind of expected her to turn herself into an eel to jumpstart Aretuza's power again, and I don't love the notion that, to pass on leadership to Yen, she had to die. But then, it may have just been her broken heart and the grief at the fallout from her being betrayed. Still, she was my favorite, and I have such an enormous crush on her, and when her hair went white, she was just incredibly hot in a different way. I will miss looking at her, listening to her beautiful voice, and watching her annihilate idiots with a sharp look.

I didn't mind Radovid and Jaskier, it was an interesting dynamic and I'm glad the show went there, especially since it seemed to show how much Jaskier has dispensed, by necessity, with some of the more shallow things that used to be incredibly important to him.

I really enjoyed Philippa and Dijkstra, how committed they are to one another, their shared and individual internal conflicts and desperation.

We may be cancelling Neflix in my household because of the most recent price hike, but I hope that the show continues to be good.

Anyway, unsolicited opinions and general musings conclude.

[lolli-popples]

@0mossymeep0 Okay well since you asked- *takes deep breath*

So, I'll start with the design inspiration here. At a base level it's me trying to make something with the same energy as fandom watcher designs, but not just a mouth-themed version of the same concept.

The thing that's directly pulled from those designs are the magic/illusionary mouths on the face and hands, they're meant to be similar to the purple eyes people like put around stuff that's watcher-themed. Also, I specifically didn't give him an actual mouth or face, and that's also inspired by watcher designs, specifically the ones that obscure the face with a hood or the eyes with a blindfold. I will say, I often see either watchers don't have their real eyes exposed OR they ONLY have their eyes exposed, and have other senses covered. I sort of combined these two, because I wanted a less human facial appearance.

Also, I liked the idea that none of the holographic mouths are actually real, and all of the sound comes out of the speaker on the neck and the mouth on the torso. (and I put a mouth on the torso again to add to the monstrous inhuman vibe.)

The multiple arms idea is both to stand in for how watchers have multiple wings, and also because hands IMO are a vital part of communication. (and if all the hands have mouths, them it gives the appearance of a choir) And, of course, having multiple hands means that he can play multiple instruments at once.

To actually speak on the neck speaker, I liked that idea partially because it adds to the artificiality and horror. You can speak, but you can't use your real voice, it's filtered through a machine that could theoretically break or be turned off.

Also comedy wise, it acts as a voice modulator, he can change his pitch and volume (as you see with the arrows in the art)

The halos are to tie in with the angelic feeling of the watchers, and I specifically made them audio tracks. I imagine that they change and move based on what he's saying, like it's being actively recorded.

The leg auras are to imply that he's able to fly (and to add leg detail lol) I chose music notation just because I wanted to do something different than the audio tracks, and tie back in the musical theme.

Colour-wise, I very much chose blue and yellow randomly. I know people usually only do one colour for watchers and listeners, but it just worked better for the pallete I wanted to do lol.

And lastly the umbrella is a replacement for the watchers wings! And also, it's a reference to both the quiz bot's umbrella and the snails parachutes, since Oli did voice lines/music for both of those.

Seperate from design stuff these are my main headcanons and random thoughts

-I imagine most of the time, he fully wears the cloak, and the only details you can see are the glowing mouth and speaker beneath the hood, and the halos slowly undulating behind him.

-the hand mouths can play wind instruments I actually almost gave him a saxophone instead of a fiddle before I realized you'd need 3 hands for that.

-he can also use the speaker to play sound effects

-this isn't a new thing I just think it's really funny that the watchers have cool wings and he's floating around with a fucking umbrella insane energy

Anyway you asked for my thoughts those are my thoughts, you're welcome.

See no evil, hear no evil... speak no evil?

Because Oli did all the music and sound effects for Wild Life I wanted to try my hand at making him a Speaker design. He's very funky.

Also before ANYONE says anything, I *KNOW* that music notation has 5 lines, not 3, and that how he's holding the violin is slightly inaccurate. I AM AWARE.