#Also experimenting with noise/grain a little

[aeriona]

“All in a day’s work!” (Total drawing time: 8 hours, 31 minutes).

Bloodier version under the cut:

This is an older photo from around 7-8 years ago, at that time Harlow would’ve been around 17. She’d been hunting salmonids since she was 13, but taking on a Steelhead solo would’ve been a big deal to her back then.

You can tell the photo’s old because Harlow doesn’t have her EVP slopsuit yet, and because she has two eyes. Weird, I know.

[hockpock]

Glasses Review - Firmoo

Hello vision impaired friends, I bring you the gospel of Ordering Your Damn Glasses Online

I have previously ordered from EyeBuyDirect (luxotica/lenscrafters'/America's Best in disguise, sorry.) and Zenni Optical ( most well known online provider, A+ would recommend) and have seen lots of ads for free pairs from a competitor, Firmoo. I have too much prescription for the free pair offers to ever work out from ANY provider, but their fun designs put them on my list.

When my current glasses broke, I was dinking around and saw their current promotion is Buy One Get One Free PLUS 20% off lenses and as lenses are the real $$$ I jumped on that like tigger on crack. I am VERY nearsighted with astigmatism and the average pair of glasses from lenscrafters used to cost me $300 minimum.

After much deliberation with a million tabs open and a poll I ignored the results of for Reasons, I ordered a pair of clear frames and a pair of purple steampunk-y wireframes . Two pairs of HIGH PRESCRIPTION glasses for $87 shipped. I could cry, y'all.

Note: I have an up to date prescription and a nifty app that measures Pupillary Distance or 'PD'. you will need both these things accurate to have the best experience buying your glasses online.

I ordered them 9/22, they shipped 9/25, I received them 9/29 with regular shipping. They came well packed - each pair was in a bag made of cleaning cloth material inside a sturdy plastic case and they come in a foil bubble mailer.

Both pairs feel well made, with lots of attention to detail-

however I did not pay attention to detail or pay extra money for the Re-he-heaaallly thin lenses. So the clear ones are slightly too big and I hate the way the nose pieces sit, while the purple ones are a wee bit small across the temple and heavy to boot. I haven't had dents in my nose like this since I was 12.

the website lists their exchange policy as 30 days, the pamphlet that came with the glasses says 60. Either way it was pretty painless to go into my order history and select "exchange". The form I filled out with my reasons for dissatisfaction promised me I would be contacted within 24 hours.

My 'personal Firmoo consultant', 'Karen', emailed me with a code for the full price before discount of both pairs + standard shipping, as well as the usual customer service canned answers about checking the sizing information and did I know I could upgrade the lenses?

Also I could keep the failed pairs 'FOR NOW', here are some places that accept glasses as donations. (mixed messages, Karen, but sweet!)

New friends are April006, round anodized wireframes with a cute dingly gem thing, and Sandy020 , literal tortoiseshell cat eye frames.

This time I used the site's search terms to cut the temple width and earpiece length options down and double checked the weight of the base frames. (14g vs 24g for the round wireframes before my coke-bottle lenses. RIP my nose. )

New order was placed 10/5 and they arrived 10/17 . (last time I checked the tracking estimated arrival had creeped from the 19th up to the 23rd so grain of salt. This may be a tactic to make the order feel like it got here faster or legit delays. In my case there was a federal holiday involved.)

Complete disclosure I'm gonna grab a pair of pliers and take the little dangly off the wireframes. It makes a noise when I move my head and if I don't fold the frames in the right order when I take them off it'll scratch up the lenses. I ain't gonna remember to avoid that, so off it goes.

The Good:

Large selection, Good Quality, Good Communication. Lots of Off the Beaten Path options for internet weirdos. Firmoo p much always has a promotion going.

My wallet is so happy. SO HAPPY. Frames run $20-30ish to start. lenses will vary with your prescription and options.

If y'all want 50% off your first frames and to give me a $10 credit they have a referral program and my code is T4Z8I2. BOGO20 is a better value but it expires 11/01/23.

The Bad:

Not flexible about lens options- you go down one track and pick your options within that. If there was a way to put tinting on a pair of glasses other than blue light blocking I couldn't find it. (in contrast I believe Zenni lets you choose a range of colors and tint depth on any pair, designed as sunnies or not)

You Will Get Emails. Firmoo REALLY wants you to buy more glasses and post about it and tell your friends and HERE THIS CODE IS ONLY GOOD FOR 3 DAYS, GO BUY NEW GLASSES. They are marketing themselves to fashionable young influencers who change styles every month. Unsubscribe with impunity.

like Zenni, this is a company with the majority of it's functionality based overseas. It's cheaper because you're ordering directly from a factory and not paying Luxotica's markups to itself. Customer service is mostly English as Second Language speakers and there may be delays.

Not For Emergencies. I was able to coast on a pair of glasses from a prescription or 2 ago but it's gonna take time for your order to be made and shipped.

Overall I'm very happy with them and will probably order again.

Next time I have spare money I'm aiming at Wherelight because y'all. they are next down on the list of reputable to shady AF but they have the most amazing WTF designs.

[fbfh]

Tony stark x daughter!reader where reader got SA'd and is having a hard time telling her dad?

usa/english/rainn hotline 1-800-656-4673 (also european hotlines, 46 countries listed).

first of all anon I want to give you the biggest most sincere virtual hug. absolutely we can talk about what an amazing dad Tony is, especially under these circumstances. (disclaimer that I don't have much if any experience writing about SA/SA trauma, I did some reasearch and as with all topics I don't have much experience in, pls take this with a grain of salt and feel free to send feedback if you'd like <3 /p)

Tony knows something is off with you immediatley. he's had a weird feeling he can't shake, but Pepper keeps dismissing it as more anxiety. When he first sees you after what happened, his stomach drops. He knows something is wrong, he knows his baby isn't okay, and he is going to make things right no matter what happened. You normally have such an easy time talking to him, but now you can't, and he knows it's serious. He doesn't press you for details right away (after asking if you're okay and doing all the usual dad check in stuff), but he knows you need him. He pulls you into a warm, comforting hug and rubs your back. You can hear the thrum of his arc reactor syncing with his heartbeat, and the white noise is so soothing and comforting and he's such a good dad who loves you so much it all makes you cry again.

"What happened?"

He asks so seriously, you know he understands the gravity of the situation. You try to tell him, but you get all choked up again, and you just... can't. He holds you and comforts you, rubbing your back and talking to you until you start to feel better.

"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay. It's okay." He says in that dad voice that snaps you out of your spiraling thoughts. "You don't have talk about anything yet if you're not ready. Okay?"

You nod, and he wipes your tears away. His hands smell a little like metal, and you know he's been working on his suits.

"Tell you what. Why don't we get some shwarma delivered from that place a few blocks over, we'll pick out a couple movies - what was that one you said you wanted to show me? The really bad one with the birds?"

You nod, but you don't laugh. He wraps you up in his blue hoodie, and has Jarvis call to order your food. He stays close to you, sending Pepper a message to cancel everything he has to do right now, the penthouse is on lockdown until this is resolved. He stays close to you, making sure you feel safe. He wants more than anything to know what happened, who hurt you, what was said or done to upset you like this. While your food is on the way and the movie is loading, the penthouse is quiet aside from your muffled sobs. Tony holds you, rocks you gently, comforts you. After a while, he pulls back enough to wipe your tears away and look at you. He gives you that dad look, the serious heart to heart one.

"I want to make this, whatever it is, better." He states, and you know he means it. He would move heaven and earth for you without hesitation, and he has in the past, and he'll do it again.

"But you need to tell me what's going on. I can't fix the problem if I don't know what it is."

Everything about your dad is so comforting, it makes your throat tighten up and your eyes well up with tears again. You try to explain through choked out, shuddering sobs, but you just can't get the words out.

"Okay, okay," Tony comforts you, bringing up one of his holographic screens he uses for work. A translucent glowing holographic keyboard appears in front of you.

"Why don't you try writing it out?" He offers, hoping that will be easier.

By the time you're done writing out what happened, you look over at him. You're almost scared for a moment, a part of your racing anxiety worried that he won't believe you, or he'll blame you, or-

"Thank you for telling me."

he pulls you into an even tighter hug, holding you close, and his voice shakes as he speaks.

"You did the right thing by telling me, okay?" He comforts you and reassures you that it's not your fault, that you're safe, and that he is never, ever going to let that happen again. Through every battle and alien invasion, you've never seen your dad this protective, this pissed on your behalf.

He gets a little more information from you, the location, the time, if you know who it was. He hacks into anything and everything with a camera until he finds the son of a bitch who hurt you. Then he sends out the drones. He has Stark drones, armed to the teeth, follow the bastard's every move, monitoring him while Tony gets everything together. He gets you counciling and resources, he calls you out of work or school or whatever so you have some time home to recover. If you want to file a police report, believe me he will get it filed immediately. If you don't want to, Tony has other ways of getting your attacker off the streets and away from you for good. Maybe he plants classified shield information on him and gets him thrown in a maximum security prison, maybe he pays someone to blast him into another universe. You don't really know the details, and you don't really want to. All you know is that your dad comes into your room after "making a few calls", and informs you that he's never, ever going to bother you again.

He does whatever you need him to do so you feel as safe and empowered as possible. Your suit gets upgraded, security systems get maxed out, and Tony finds a way to hook Jarvis up to keep an eye on your vitals.

"I'll get a ping if your adrenaline or cortisol spike, or if anything else looks iffy." he explains, hooking up the new system. "Even if it's just a stressful day, I'll know what kind of ben and jerry's to bring you."

You thank him again, and he hugs you, pressing a kiss to the top of your head.

"I love you, kid."

[minhosblr]

hello! i hope ur day is going well! im not really sure how to word this but ur one of my favorite gifmakers on this site!! and i was wondering if u have any tutorial or would be willing to tell how!! do u make ur gifs so sharp! along w being so smooth and gorgeous im foremost always just stumped at how beautifully sharp ur gifs r!! not to mention the coloring!! regardless of if u get to answer any part of ur process or not, i just wanted to tell you ur gifs r very very beautiful. im always so awed and admiring wnv i see them! so warm and prettily colored yet so sharp!! apologies for gushing here, pls have a good day!!!

AHHH THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY, ANON! It always makes me so happy, when I get any kind of compliments on my gifs, so this really really really warms my heart!! ♥

I did a gif tutorial like 1,5 years ago which you can find here! My sharpening has changed slightly from back then, so I'll just tell you what I do now.

Much more detail under the cut (this got way longer and detailed than I had expected)!

This is a walk through of my sharpening/effect process, so if you want any tricks about colouring or anything let me know!

The first important step to sharp gifs is the video quality! The higher the video quality is, the prettier and sharper your gifs will be. TS files are the highest quality (most of the time, sometimes they kind of scam you ngl) files you can get. Else 4k videos are great too! For me I usually don't go under 1080p (with few 720p exceptions). Sometimes I don't really like TS files, because they're a bit too sharp for me. This is mostly if it's a variety show. Concerts tend to be not as sharp in my experience.

I use vapoursynth to resize my gifs before putting them in photoshop. I usually don't do any sharpening or denoise in vapoursynth. This site has everything you need for vapoursynth!

For sharpening and stuff in photoshop, I usually do camera raw + topaz denoise + sharpening + 1% blur at 30% oppacity.

A bonus tip is, if you've done everything and tried soooo hard to make it non-grainy, but you just can't get it to do whatever you want it to... embrace the grain and add a noise layer! I do this with big gifs (540x540) usually.

To go more in depth, my settings for those are as following...

Camera raw

Texture (tekstur) I usually go between 20 and 30, depending on the thing I'm giffing. For Clarity (klarhed) I do the same number as texture, but minus 10. Idk why, it's just how I usually roll!

For Topaz denoise I usually only use a little bit. Like 0.04-0.06 overall strength. I don't really have any "this is what I always do" settings, but usually my shadow is at 0.90 and my highlight is 0.48 (because I liked it one time and then just kept it). You can also use the denoise option in vapoursynth, I just prefer photoshop, because it feels like I have more control over it. I know a lot of people don't use denoise at all, but I usually do with files less than 4k quality!

OBS! Using topaz denoise on smart objects in photoshop is a bit tricky, but I made a video about it once, so here you go! (the video is kind of outdated for me, so ignore the sharpening part and focus on the "how to do after you've put denoise on your gif" part. Also ignore my voice, thank you).

Sharpening:

These are my settings for sharpening. If I think the gif is a bit too sharp after I've added a blur filter, I change the amount (mængde, sorry my ps is in Danish) to 80% and that usually does the trick!

If you use all of these, this is how the smart object will look, before you convert it into frames

Let me know if you have any other questions or anything at all!! ♥

[pastafossa]

hi pasta! idk if u remember but a few months back i told u about me being zooted and wondering what matt would think of cheezits when he’s high. just want u to know i am having a not great high rn and i am once again, thinking about how matt would think of cheezits. the individual salt grains, bro.

TW: matt is high af in this one

He has no idea where the cheezits come from.

He's never bought a box of cheezits.

In his drifting mind, it's as if they simply... appear on the coffee table, a strange scent that ripples through the air like swirls of paint and over-processed fire.

He swings his head blearily, inhales slowly a few times, and he swears he can feel each individual molecule tickle the hairs in his nose, each one singing as it impacts his sinuses.

Wheat flour. Vegetable oil. Skim milk-

Cheese.

Cheese sounds nice.

Does he like cheese? Maybe he does. Foggy's grown bad cheese before, but he shouldn't judge all cheese by what science experiments Foggy cooked up in their little college dorm fridge.

He's a lawyer. It would be unfair.

He makes a noise where he's sprawled out on the spinning couch, which he also does not remember laying out on. His throat feels too heavy to make any further noises, especially when he's distracted by the way the sound waves ricochet inside the fridge like a drunken trumpet. A hand appears from the ground, flapping heavily and rustling air currents so loudly they sound like the gusts of a hurricane or maybe a particularly loud condor.

Matt wouldn't know; he's never heard a condor, so he can't rule it out. "Want cheezit?" Foggy says, very slowly, syllables making him twitch pleasantly.

Another affirmative noise. He can feel each individual fiber on the pillow below his head, but they're nice fibers that smell good and feel like tiny fingers, so he doesn't mind, even if that's a little creepy.

The floating hand makes its way to the box, and the plastic wrap inside tastes like Michigan and lake water. The roar of each cheezit striking its neighbor sounds like battle, like the bellow of cheesy, salty elephants before Foggy's retrieved one and plucked it free with another rush of air currents.

He can't lift his hand, not when his body feels like it's composed of five hundred pounds of sand inside a tube sock. He is once again reduced to a noise, and holding his mouth open.

It takes Foggy a while to find his mouth, but eventually he makes contact and clumsily drops the cheezit into Matt's mouth.

Matt's pupils cannot dilate. This is fact.

And yet... they do.

He suddenly understands why it is called a cheez-it, for this is not cheese. It is only a mockery, a mimic, an idol of lead beneath bright orange paint... an it.

It is... an abomination, and God leaves him in that moment.

It sits on his tongue, each jagged, individual grain of salt razor-sharp, hooking against his tastebuds like the jagged suckers of an octopus, like the reverse fangs of a serpent, digging in and prepared to assault his tongue for as long as possible. The scent of over-processed, overcooked cheese dust shoves its way up into his sinuses, beats at the roof of his mouth in sheer rage in the manner of all foul things that know they are evil and curse God for their own existence.

The edges are jagged, an army of lines and furrows, there is a dot in the center, a lie to tempt his tongue into thinking there is an escape from the cursed food he has placed upon it.

He wonders if it will get better if he bites-

It does not.

He's not sure how long he sits there with the cheezit on his tongue.

Minutes.

Hours.

Days.

Weeks.

Months.

Years.

Millennia.

He is an ancient, minuscule planet in the uncaring universe, held beneath the endless weight and universal laws of fake cheese and salt grains shaped like shark teeth and diamonds.

He is a temporary gasp of atoms and stars made alive, made to remember the fiery pain of their origination billions and trillions of years in the past thanks to the fleeting, hellish synthesis of processed chemicals produced by metal machines made of fractured stardust.

"Yay or nay on the cheezits, Matt?" Foggy slurs, each letter bursting in the air like bubbles.

Matt... inhales. And slowly swallows the melting cheezit.

It grinds its way down, each nerve it passes relaying in adequate detail that Matt has just swallowed something unholy, something not made for Mankind's throat.

He swallows the cheesy Tower of Babel, swallows Mankind's baked hubris and their attempts to play God, to create what should never have existed.

He... blinks, and inhales, drawing in the spiraling currents of air for strength, drawing in the atoms of the multiverse, filling his lungs with fire and light and individual particles of millions of lives that have touched and hated cheezits, particles that will touch millions and billions more people who love or hate cheezits, before eventually all grows cold and man's chance to render such abominations upon the universe will be ended, and says in a tone that carries the weight of one who has just had a deep, cheesy, unpleasant pot-related revelation:

"Gross.”

"More cheezits for me, then."

[fiammee]

Hello, how are you? Hope the playing session in the last week was good!

So, for the question for this weekend since I got to listen to Jon's composition... What are you top 5 of his solo compositions and why?

Heyyyy my dear and welcome❤️ finally finished school, waiting for the final exam :)

Actually I didnt get to play on last sunday bc our teacher got sick like 30 mins before the show😭😭 hopefully hes good now and tomorrow we might play again, crazy story😵‍💫

Lets start (its always so difficult to do a good placing but lets try🥲):

5) Before I Forget

A good mix of pure rock 'n' roll, ballads and english folk/medieval music. Also his arrangement of the Bach Toccata and Fugue "Bach onto this" with Cozy Powell on drums (fantastic work of his) is so nice to listen to.

4) Gemini Suite

The "sequel" of the Concerto, with each movement based on a different member of the deeps. You can clearly see his interest in the zodiac (Gemini being his sign, and every musician that participated had their sign and birthday too!). This work stands out from the previous one obv bc Its orchestral, but also because you can feel that his music is mostly not melodic or follows an harmony, but it's "organized noise", bizarre jingles, sound effects (like percussion parts) and sound walls that are so fascinating and unconventional to me. Also his collaboration on the 3rd movement with Yvonne Elliman (really nice singer, you should check her work!). My favourite movements are Piano, Drums and Organs.

3) Sarabande

Another tribute of his love to Bach and Baroque dances (every piece maintains the name of the specific dance) where he kept the original time signatures but experimented more with the electric-acoustic interaction between instruments. Sarabande (track) is hypnotic and captivating, and Gigue has a beautiful continuous piano part that sets the rythm :)

2) Boom Of The Tingling Strings

One of his later and first orchestral-only works. If I remember correctly he got this title from a poem about a childs experience with being under a grand piano, and the thing that stands out for him is that "unexpectedly violent" sound, recalling his childhood (so cute☺️). He wrote a piano part so complex compared to his skills that got played only by a concert pianist (Nelson Goerner), so I consider this work to be also one of his most challenging, both in technique and expression; very atmospheric piece, with melancholic inspirations from the 900' revolutionary composers (take this personal view with a grain of salt: im no professional in judging correctly this kind of music😭 but the piano solo part in the middle of Allegro Giusto reminds me of the Prokofiev's War Sonatas, more precisely the 6° in A Major: again this was composed during the middle of a the 2° world war and the sovietic dictatorship, and the music perfectly shows the chaos that took place in people's minds: I've got the same "out of place" feeling with Jons music and its mindblowing for me). Altough I wrote an essay here its still too little to describe this incredible piano concerto 😌

1) Concerto For Group And Orchestra

I want to put the Concerto still on no. 1 bc of the huge impact it had both musically and socially aswell. A first approach of combining popular and élite music in 1969, a revolutionary period where the younger generations wanted to change the old post-war sistem that moved everything, so the union of young-old was visionary enough. He made this work with a strict deadline and in basically no time, probably going burnout after burnout: but he still managed to kick asses and showed his early genius to the world, making Ritchie mad enough (I bet to this very day) ❤️❤️❤️

This was a bit long, ooops🤣 but you gave me the right occasion to talk about it in a free manner, so thanksss dear💋 (I know that I have to still make a review abt your fic gal, I wish to find the proper time soon😭)

[eggmixercortex]

the thing about skinamarink is that people tend to say that it would have been better as a shorter film - particularly people who hated it - and while i understand where that idea is coming from i actually disagree.

(long as hell)

people who disliked skinamarink for the most part cite the long, "empty" shots between relatively little/mediocre action as the reason that the film didn't work for them. and i actually agree with that last bit, i think that the scares in skinamarink are kind of badly done*. they're just the sudden movement + loud noise combo, if they were standalone they would suck. and the first point isn't technically wrong either! i would bet like 50-60% of skinamarink is just still shots of dark hallways with film grain. and i'm going to make it clear that i have no problem with people who see the film this way. if you hated skinamarink that's perfectly fine and you aren't 'missing something' that could magically make you like it.

however, I do think that making skinamarink shorter would actually DECREASE the quality of the film. Heck, the short film that kickstarted the creation of skinamarink, is about 1/3 the length, and about 0% as scary. is it well made? absolutely. is it interesting and worth the watch? very much so. but scary? not in the damn slightest. and that's why the length of the full film is important, because when the action of the film is condensed it removes the truly unique thing about Kyle Edward Ball's style as seen in the bitesized nightmares and Skinamarink.

i'm a pervert for this type of film so i am of course highly biased but the thing that skinamarink does is kind of like the allegory of the cave. in the allegory of the film you the audience are expected to be affected by the suggestion of the film rather than its direct contents, in a really extreme fashion. this is a relatively unique way to present a film, and i personally think Ball is really very good at building a successful atmosphere for this type of device, and i hope that he makes more films like this in the future. BUT the issue of course is that because it relies so heavily on the audience being able to essentially scare themselves, if you the viewer can't do that, skinamarink immediately falls flat on its face. if you look at each action scene in isolation it becomes fairly obvious that they're all... a little silly. the formula is pretty much just ack! something is weird! and suddenly it jumped at the camera! excepting the ending which is 3x speed settings of the same thing. and that's fine, but not showstopping or anything.

most horror that utilizes 'jump-scares' tries to build up to it of course, but skinamarink almost literally gives you nothing to work with except for the knowledge that something is going to happen... eventually. and for me that worked really really well! i was literally frozen in fear! it took me around 10 minutes to be eaten alive by the damn film! but for someone who that doesn't work on, its not going to work at all. the film will genuinely be boring and the audience member who walks out or says that is was a dud isn't actually missing anything - skinamarink is just a film that relies so heavily on its one aspect that the rest of it crumbles if that doesn't land.

skinamarink was made (intentionally or not) to appeal to a very, very specific type of audience, and pretty much ignores anyone else. if skinamarink were more like Heck it would definitely appeal to more people, but also would have been a significantly less interesting film. this is also why i get a little annoyed at people who act like skinamarink fans are 'snobs' or that people who didn't like it are 'missing something' because it isn't actually a particularly artsy film in story. reading an essay about the themes isn't going to make the film experience scarier (but would be a fun read, mostly) its just that the film works best with people who can scare themselves out of going to the bathroom at night.

genuinely, if you watch 20 or so minutes of skinamarink and you aren't enjoying it, leave. it won't get better** and it's not worth wasting your time on an experience you really won't enjoy just because you feel like you have to. if it sucks hit the bricks man

(i would love to re-watch with a staunch skinamarink hater so we can discuss the different pieces of it tbh... there's so much to talk about in the structure here)

i adore the empty skinamarink shots because they demand you fill them yourself with only the little paper towel ghost they gave you to work with it's awesome. but also sometimes you would prefer the movie give you at least a bedsheet lawn ghost instead.

*the action moments are some of my least favourite scenes, and i genuinely think that the toy phone moment could have been removed entirely. it's not good...

**again, not saying its bad to dislike skinamarink! it also might improve for you but like. don't let people force you to sit thru paint drying for 16 hours part two just bc it could get good later

[eldritch-spouse]

Hmm I think neomorphs would understand bonds and maybe could bond w humans?? I also think they *could* be smart enuf to understand human culture

Like imagine ur horny and u start shedding ur clothes and the neomorph immediately knows exactly what u want

I think I heard u say this abt breg in one of ur fics, but they would def also make low noises to comfort a mate bc I imagine them as very territorial

I also feel like they could have have a crush on a human if said human took care of them(or they just find them mate worthy) so they try to pursue u.. I remember one scene in a movie where rhe neomorph just stood quietly infront of a human (b4 getting killed oop) literally towering over them.. if I was there and had it staring at me like that I’d feel some romantic tension

Yes, that's what I was hinting at with this ask.

To me, I believe their ability to form bonds outside the species would stem more from the fact that they're the "blank slate" before David 8 starts fucking with them to make the xenomorphs we know. But take what I say with a grain of salt, I'm rusty on Alien lore. Anyhow, I don't think David could have made xenmorphs into such a social/colony-based species if the neomorphs themselves didn't already have some level of surprising social adaptability.

The scene you're mentioning is a tad dubious because the person standing in front of the neomorph was David, who is a synth. Xenomorphs can tell a human apart from a synth, so I'm keen to believe neos can do the same, and they might have hesitated purely out of morbid curiosity. It could also just be the fact that the neomorph had recently eaten, and therefore might not have had as much of a violent drive at the moment. Though the way they reacted inquisitively to David's exhale, as opposed to violently, is a good start.

My idea with that comic was to explore that hypothetical bond a little bit more, this time in a setting where you meet one in a premature stage and experiment with the possible outcomes of raising one of these beings (which makes absolutely no sense from a realistic point of view, but all my brain cells were effectively shut off when I sketched it). You're under the impression his obsession with you is typical of pack behavior, and to a degree it is, but you mean more to him. And that only sinks in when it's already too late to do anything about it. Now, I'm a yandere blog primarily, so of course the neomorph was implied yandere in that comic.

The bond implies that he'll get to know your body through scents and gestures. Just as he'll be able to decipher your intent from the tone of your voice and you'll pick up on the different meanings of his vocalizations. It's a learning curve, but they're very fast learners and extremely adaptive, so you might "synchronize" much faster than expected. Naturally, this would definitely lead to him understanding what abrupt stripping means, or if nothing else, gouge your arousal through some sort of scent stimulus. Mimicry is likely to happen at some point, wherein the neomorph will attempt to reproduce your own sexual gestures in an attempt to behave more like you and further erase any sort of communication barrier.

When it comes to noises, I haven't really thought about it too much, but I like to imagine they might be capable of differently pitched rumbles, judging from that same scene where they interact with David. Not all of their high-pitched vocalizations might be born of hostility/fear/alarm, but if they're quiet around you it's probably a good sign.

I'm on the fence about them being territorial. I can see neos being protective, but I just haven't seen enough to determine if they'd stick to one place and become attached to it.

[blorbologist]

Imogen for the whump prompts? Maybe 13 or 14? (Or any others that take your fancy.)

(Whumptober: 13, "Can't make an omelette without breaking a few legs," Fracture/dislocation + 14, "Die a hero or live long enough to become a villain," desperate measures, failed escape.)

(TW for broken bones, dislocation, hurting the one you love to try n save them. It's Rough.)

Imogen never thought, never in her life, that the waking world could be as red as her dreams.

I mean - sure. If you stuck her in a neat red barn, full of Rexxentrum Red hens, slathered in red paint just to make a point, yeah, she would agree that’s pretty damn red. Imogen would also think you tacky and miserable, not that she’d say it or think it loud. 

It would be red, sure, but not red. 

Red the color, not red the experience. 

Red rolls and roars and ravages. It’s blood and heat and adrenaline and fear and power and not. 

Usually, when faced with red - overwhelming, overwhelming red - Imogen runs. Red and run rhyme in her head. Hells, runnin’ is usually the only thing she can do in her head for anything. Get away from the noise, get away from the feelings, get away, get away, push it all down and be quiet and make it quiet.

So when the crawler crashed - and maybe it was just the speed of the whipping sand or the fear that made each grain a ruby or a fleck of dried blood - and the world was red... Imogen ran.

And then everything became saturated. Not just red but a state beyond it, like she could see heat like some sort of snake. Saturated with blood. All of theirs, all of Orym’s, all of Fearne’s, all of Laudna’s.

Imogen scrubbed as much red as she could. From everything - from Laudna’s poor clothes, from Pâté’s fur, from her hands where she’d held her. Couldn’t stand the color on a good day - why you think she leans for pastels and soft browns that all yell if that damn color touches ‘em? - but now, now, she just. It’s loud, it’s like the voices, but worse because she can’t shut it out. 

So when Imogen next dreams and red, fucking red drowns her, she’s rooted to the ground. 

Ruddy sand and scarlet blood a mud around her ankles, tugging at her skirts and squelching into her boots. Or maybe she’s imaginin’ it. 

It isn’t the storm in her dreams. 

Not open fields, a lonely house, a lonelier figure. Crowded - with buildings, with bodies, with Otohan’s dark mirrors. Crowded and yet there was nothin’ to hear. 

Laudna’s red.

She’s smiling and it’s red with blood. Her hair is red with Ruidus’ shine. Her skirts and lace is red with sand. 

(Imogen knows it isn’t her because Laudna bleeds black. Bless her subconscious, for giving her the handy cue. Just a dream, not a dream.)

“Imogen?” she says her name like a question. Next part isn’t one: “Imogen, run.”

“No,” says Imogen. 

(Well, that’s bein’ a little generous. A lot generous. She doesn’t say it, she isn’t sure the sound she makes could even qualify as words, but she thinks no and thoughts mean more than words because words are all lies and thoughts are all truths.)

“No,” she thinks/says/tries to invoke, grabbing Laudna’s wrist. It’s so cold and boney and pink in her hands. Pale white plus a little red,.pink like a pretty blush or rose petals or living flesh. Funny dream. She’d laugh. Ha-ha. 

The wind picks up, dragging Laudna from her or her from Laudna or tearing the world apart. She holds strong, flings her other arm around to grasp her hand, too. Laudna, oh poor Laudna, she’s so slight and light and practically a rag in the gale. 

“No,” she says, well and truly this time. 

Imogen pulls, tries to draw Laudna towards her. Something creaks. That’s normal. Laudna creaks, she just does, an old attic of a body, an old attic of a skull with terrible secrets stashed within. Imogen knows all of them, and if she doesn’t she don’t mind it.

“Imogen,” Laudna says, faint. So normal, like they’re whispering before bed, whispering before dawn, whispering in eachother’s heads. “Let me go - you’re hurting me.” 

Creak - something slips. Not Imogen, not her grip on Laudna, not the red’s grip on her. Laudna’s shoulder - it’s always the right one, so finicky, compared to the left, so unreliable. Of course it dislocates here. Laudna’s dress and legs and hair wave like a flag.

“No,” she screams. “You’re - you’re fucking comin’ with me, you hear? You hear, Laudna?”

If Laudna says something she doesn’t think it, because Imogen can’t hear any reply despite the moving red mouth, moving red teeth, unmoving red eyes.

“We’ll run together,” Imogen promises her. “Together, alright? You just hang on, Laud.”

The creak turns into a snap. 

Dreams are fucked up. Laudna doesn’t flinch, her expression doesn’t change, the red doesn’t change as that wrist moves wrong and sharp. 

“You’re hurting me,” Laudna hums. “You’re hurtin’ her,” she adds, in Pâté’s voice. He must have been swept away, already. Oh, fuck. 

“We’ll run together,” Imogen repeats in a sob. 

Dreams can be good, sometimes, because somehow she gets Laudna into her arms. They’re both red, red, red, moving through the red, red, red. Trying to. Not sure if they’re making any progress. 

Imogen can feel her behind them. That sort of intuition nightmares offer, so kindly spelling out exactly what’s on your tail. But not, because so much chases her.

Her could be Otohan. Her could be Delilah. Her could be her mother. Her could be Ruidus.

She keeps walking - she’s red, everything is red, the red isn’t changing. She can’t outpace the storm. She knows, knows, knows it’s because of Laudna, red in her arms, the same red as her arms, the same red as her blood. 

Somehow, somehow, some-fucking-how, the red - her - catches up. How it could get even more red she doesn’t know. 

Imogen sobs, presses a red kiss to the red forehead. The tears dripping down are rubies, the spit in her mouth garnets, the sweat dusted with sand carnelians. “I’m not runnin’ without you,” Imogen promises.

So they get caught.

“I have you,” says Her (Otohan, Delilah, mother, Ruidus, her, Laudna, Laudna, her).

Imogen wakes up. Predawn purples and blues. 

She looks left. 

Laudna’s dead. 

But Laudna’s also black and white. Not red. 

She cries. Just to see, just to know, not because of anything. The tears are clear and worthless.

Imogen’s almost fucking grateful.

[thepunkmuppet]

ok so hear me out.

this has been rattling around in my brain for a good couple of days, i had two all-day art exams so i was just sat silently alone with my own brainrot for ten hours and honestly it paid off

so this is my idea for the magnus scrotocol protocol and what it could be about, but honestly if it ends up being way off i might actually write it - because of all the alternate universe shit it could easily be canon Somewhere Else. also i know alex and jonny said that it’s inspired by the video game control, but i know absolutely nothing about that game so please take this with a grain of salt, it probably won’t be canon but a guy can dream!!

so, it takes place on another earth, parallel to the main tma universe, where things are pretty much the same as real life. and while it’s obviously not a world without fear, the entities don’t exist there. well, until they do.

so when jon and martin do That One Thing and the fears are let out into the multiverse, the sheer energy they cause as they enter the outskirts of this world sends technology CRAZY. and everything, at exactly the same moment on every electronic device in the world, is just chaos, a mangled mixture of nonsensical noises and static (and maybe you hear a little “statement remains” here and there, not sure what the mechanics of that would be in terms of jon’s official status, but hey it would be fun and it would make “Oh…Hello” make sense). and everywhere around the world, people are just… watching. listening. frozen with the most complete and all-consuming feeling of terror they have ever experienced. and of course it ends, and no one wants to admit that it was real, but after around twenty minutes of society just grinding to a halt, everyone feeling the same thing at the same time EVERYWHERE, it’s a terrifying global phenomenon. the world is afraid.

and so The Experts (whoever would be assigned to deal with whatever this is) start doing their research, and they manage to “decode” it (which makes the ARG and stuff like MAG - Error even more meta and fun) and it’s straight up just mag 200.

and they say that it’s clear it was recorded via tape, and they don’t know how it made its way onto electronic devices like this because it’s A TAPE, it shouldn’t give off any kind of signal you would be able to broadcast, and nothing should be able to be broadcast on that scale in the first place. but that’s not the worst thing. the worst thing is that one of the voices in this mysterious message is that of uk prime minister elias bouchard.

and no, i don’t mean jonah magnus, i mean the ORIGINAL Elias Bouchard. i mean it makes sense - he was a white man born into a rich and privileged family, and despite his uselessness, no one batted an eyelid when he became head of the institute. so yeah, it doesn’t seem too out there to think that in an alternate universe, he became the tory prime minister. (hence “there will be some returning voices” - i think it would be so fun to finally hear ben play the real elias, and such a different role and experience despite being in a similar position of power in the context of the story)

so the series begins in a meeting of all the Important Brits who need to deal with this issue, maybe with our civil servant protagonist(s?) in the background serving tea or something like that. we hear basira say her “good luck” before the tape clicks off, and we’re finally introduced to the people she ended up unknowingly saying it to.

and i haven’t actually figured out plot details, it’s just my idea for the basic premise, and i do think it’s unlikely because of the rest of the plot. like, in my opinion it wouldn’t be that interesting having the characters try to figure out where the tape comes from, and what the events of mag 200 mean and how it happened and why it happened… because we already know that, and alex and jonny specifically said they weren’t going to spend time pretending like we didn’t know information that we already know from magnus. but at the same time, they said they want to “play around with the lore”, so a post-apocalypse show set in the original tma universe definitely seems off the cards and this is the most interesting Somewhere-Else-civil-servants idea i could think of.

but yeah, just my idea! again not sure what would happen in the rest of the series, but it would be really cool as a starting point. and maybe you could even have jon and martin existing as like,,, ghosts in the machine, communicating through technology and helping the main characters navigate a world with the fears in it. which would definitely explain the actual canonicity behind “Oh… Hello” and this idea of mag 200 being broadcast to the masses as the fears come through.

please do reblog or send me an ask and tell me what you think and your own ideas, i personally would lose my shit if something like this were to happen and i think it sounds really cool.

also im gonna tag @jonnywaistcoat because i would love to see what he thinks of this idea and any crumbs of either confirmation or denial he might give us (but also if he does see it i will lose my mind and probably spontaneously combust so there’s that)

[musicmusings42]

Greatest Hits by Waterparks

Greatest Hits is not a Greatest Hits comp as the name might suggest, simply Awsten saying that the band is always pushing themselves to create music that is better than the music they put out before. While I dearly loved FANDOM, Greatest Hits lives up to the bold name. Conceptually, this album happens in a single night — the night after the release of FANDOM. It’s about self exploration and the music industry and fan pressures and mental health and identity. It all fits together thematically while also covering a huge range of music styles in an almost paradoxical way.

Greatest Hits: The build of ambience in the first 20 seconds is amazing. It’s not silent, but it feels like it could be. The grain doesn’t go away, either, as the instrumental pieces are introduced. Awsten’s voice is quiet and sounds almost ready to break with that first line and then we get transported into the dream world. The grainy sounds established at the beginning disappear and we get to see some sonic signatures of Greatest Hits: heavy drums, distorted guitars, an almost electronic feel to it all. The voice that introduces everything is electronic and impersonal, simply stating facts while Awsten repeats “Last night I had the strangest dream of all” in a way that’s almost like a prayer. We’ve entered the world of Greatest Hits — there’s no other way to describe this opening track.

Fuzzy: I love the perfect segue between Greatest Hits and Fuzzy. This happens a few different times on the album and every single time it gets me. It really drives home the idea of what an album is meant to be — a collection of work that all lives together and explores the same themes and are made to be experience one after the other. It’s incredible. I love the little noises Awsten makes in the background, it’s almost like he’s literally fighting his demons. His voice, the explosive guitar that breaks through in a few different places and the tempo of this song all create a perfect energy. The bridge very much feels like it belongs in a dream.

Lowkey As Hell: I love the guitar in this song. It provides a really good base level/ anchor for the track. I love the vocal treatment in the chorus, it feels echoey and really plays into this idea that this is all just a wild dream. This song really connects to Parx’s pop rock roots, which is always a treat.

Numb: The synth in this song is wild. Once you notice it you realize how perfect it is for this song. The break down that starts at 2:00 minutes is such a perfect way to not only end the track without losing the energy it has but to seamlessly transition that energy over to Violet!

Violet!: The lead vocals and drums on this song are great, but the background guitar and muffled vocals on this track subtly create such a perfect atmosphere for this song. There’s so much happening on this track without it feeling overwhelming. The way the background vocals are used to augment certain lines in the chorus is another little addition that really only jumps out when you’re truly listening to this track and trying to dissect it. It’s deceptively deep while also just being a boppy, fun song. I love the little guitar solo we get before the final chorus, as well. This song takes the energy of Numb and really capitalizes on it

Snow Globe: The piano in this song was the first thing that caught my attention. Waterparks rarely uses piano and when they do it’s usually more synth/keyboard aligned, so to have the piano in this track be so prominent and raw was a huge change of pace. The layering of two different recordings of the chorus and the vocals are both really subtle ways of adding to the soundscape without detracting from the lead vocals. I love whatever they did to the guitar to make it scratch like that. At the end of the pre-chorus at 2:30 the vocals are distorted so that they seamlessly transition into the guitar, which is mind blowing. I love the lines “I don’t have the sympathy/ I think that you need more from me/ If life is just a game then I’mma flip the board and break the peace.” They get lost a little bit in the end of the song, but it feels intentional. He’s got these intrusive thoughts that are spilling into this song and are really explored in the next track.

Just Kidding: Just Kidding very much feels like a continuation of Snow Globe, even if they aren’t explicitly linked. The muffled beatboxing at the beginning feels like the scratchiness of the guitar from the last track. The guitar in this song is very simple, but it works for this track. This song is very raw — not quite stripped down, but less complex than other songs on the album — and it serves as a perfect sonic reflection of the lyrics. I’m obsessed with the way the line “And Repeat” transitions into the next track.

The Secret Life of Me: I love the idea of The Secret Life of Me as a way of exploring the themes of Just Kidding. This is a song about escapism and getting trapped in the dream you want to run away to after finding out everything isn’t as great as you thought it would be. I would listen to an instrumental version of this song. I love the vocals and the lyrics and everything, but these instrumentals are gorgeous. There are all these little additions that feel ver sparkly. There’s really no other way to describe what the synth, backing vocals, guitar and drums build behind the vocals. I also love the way they don’t cut around the vocals like the instrumentals do on some other tracks, they allow the vocals to coexist without feeling the need to highlight the vocals. That guitar that starts at 2:30 and lives in the background of the bridge lives in my head rent-free. It’s incredible. Again, there’s layering of vocals at the beginning of the last chorus to differentiate it sonically and avoid any sort of redundancy. I love the way the last line bleeds into an exhale, almost like this track is letting out a dying breath… chills.

American Graffiti: Another classic pop rock track, but with enough new Waterparks sounds for it not feel like it should be on Double Dare. Compared to the other tracks on this album, it’s very simplistic, but it’s done on purpose. It allows the listener the chance to just appreciate this song. Of course, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing interesting happening — the last bit that sounds like gibberish is actually the “Usually I’m all I’ve got” bit played backwards. It adds to the ethereal, dreamy effect of the whole record

You’d Be Paranoid Too (If Everyone Was Out To Get You): I’m obsessed with the snaps in this song. They’re so crisp, there’s something about them that just scratches an itch in my brain. Again we’ve got the layering of different takes on the chorus’s vocals. I love the continuity on this track. The guitar before the bridge is insane and adds this powerful energy as we head into part of the song that is much less energetic than the rest of the track.

Fruit Roll Ups: Another perfect transition introduces this track. This is one of my favorites on the album. Again, we’ve got those snaps, but since this song was written in 3/4 it has such a distinct sound from the rest of the album. It’s sweet and slow, but at the same times the lyrics are so desperate. That sense of desperation permeates the rest of the album and I think exploring it in this song in terms of a relationship that the singer wants to work out so bad is both genius and slightly heartbreaking. There are some moments throughout this song where the background vocals are used to build this dreamy atmosphere, but because it’s just his vocals as he soliloquizes about this relationship it feels very lonely. Like an unrequited daydream. This is the third time on the album that the final verse tapers off into an instrumental end (the other times being Numb and Violet!), so again, a little continuity/ repetition to help build out the themes and signature aspects of the album

[giomagnetism]

spencer emoji questions (: except i'm on desktop as always. lying, ghost, milky way, pencil, music note, books

emoji prompts

🤥 LYING — are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying?

Answered here!

👻 GHOST — do they believe in ghosts? what are their "ghostly experiences", if any?

augh. Okay, first of all, Spencer grew up with Shinto practices and beliefs, so that's her baseline. But I'm still not confident enough in my place of research with it to be more specific than that; and take this answer with a grain of salt, because it's bound to change. That said, Spencer's kind of halfway on the skeptic to believer scale; she believes in the supernatural, but will sooner check for a carbon monoxide leak than cry ghost. I want to say she'd believe more in broad forces rather than individual hauntings, by dint of personality—there's definitely more to reality than what we make of it, but in this day and age, anyone who says that's most likely trying to sell you something. She takes offense to the impracticality of it all. Don't you want to know the answer instead of obscuring it?

With that in mind, she doesn't interpret a lot of the weird things which have gone on at Grizzco as ghostly. Bad weather, strange noises, and tech malfunctions are par for the course; glimpses of things that aren't there get chalked up to exhaustion. But it does not escape her that it is a place all but built to manufacture lost and vengeful spirits—and, yeah. She's a little scared of it. She dreams of Shiloh as a dead man more often than she'd like to admit, and it takes her a very long time to forget that one late night spent in the building trying to track down their lost coworker.

🌌 MILKY WAY — what was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?

If I had to pick one singular thing, the most memorable, it was definitely her infatuation for silver things. I remember wondering what kind of characterization I could imply with badges and a banner and went with the silver scheme from there. Then I was still stuck on the idea of a real jerk of a salmon runner, and naturally matching her with Shiloh, giving them both an excellent synergy and real hatred of one another. She was sarcastic, cutthroat, bitey, entitled, commanding, and stupid as fuck from the moment of conception. If that wasn't enough, even then she didn't actually want to be there—but, for various reasons, she didn't think she had a choice.

✏️ PENCIL — is there a particular quote / lyric that you associate with them?

Literally so many.

Maybe we will wake up singing. Maybe we will wake up to the silence of shoes at the foot of the bed not going anywhere. (dots everywhere, richard siken)

Before it happened, it was never going to happen. / After it happened, it was always going to happen. (against silence, frank bidart)

"Hotel" by headspace-hotel

Such a waste of a girl, such rumination. / I am obsessive. I contain nothing but the replay. / I am blood and blood and replay. I am please don't go. (i put the coffin out to sea, lisa marie basile)

There was a great difference, I said, between the things I wanted and the things that I could apparently have, and until I had finally and forever made my peace with that fact, I had decided to want nothing at all. (outline, rachel cusk)

Know that the desire to be perfect is probably the veiled expression of another desire—to be loved, perhaps, or not to die. (how to be perfect, ron padgett)

Last year I abstained / this year I devour / without guilt / which is also an art (you are happy, margaret atwood)

🎵 MUSIC NOTE — what is their playlist like? their favourite artists? do you associate a particular song with them?

Spencer's playlist's comprised of an hour and a half of songs that sound nothing alike and don't make any sense together. OK, that's hyperbole, but I do want to clean it up a bit more before I make it public; I'll list a few I'm biased toward.

buttercup — Hippo Campus

Waste — David Vertesi

Private Life — Oingo Boingo

I Am My Own Muse — Fall Out Boy

And just for fun, other stuff I like to imagine her band covering:

What the Hell — Avril Lavigne

good 4 u — Olivia Rodrigo

Call Me — Blondie

Killer Queen — Queen

Eventually I'll update her setlist tag with more, it's kind of a catch-all for music that reminds me of her.

📚 BOOKS — how were they at school? what is their best subject? what is their worst subject? do they have a favourite subject?

In most of her fellow students' view Spencer was that peak annoying overachieving teacher's pet with no personality beyond homework and fewer friends. She was a diligent, quiet student who didn't rustle feathers and put in rigorous work, much to the pleasure of her teachers... but she wasn't ever good at learning. Every high grade she got was a product of hours poured into homework, extra reading, and self-teaching—and especially of her parents' intense standards. No matter how much effort she put in, how much she pushed herself and memorized and stayed up late studying, she was always little more than average. She didn't have a favorite subject—she moved quite often and changed teachers frequently, and found the subject unimportant in comparison to how it was taught.

Language arts was her particular kryptonite, though; Spencer is not a woman built for metaphor and she finds both reading and writing more difficult than they're worth. She isn't illiterate, but doesn't think of writing as an art, and her attempts at it... leave something to be desired. Nor does her work as a lyricist shine with wordplay and mastery. Band would be an obvious answer for "best subject" but she was never actually taught it or music theory—it's the one thing she's managed to pick up under her own power. She's alright with numbers, and did fine with geometry though not so much with algebra... The one good memory she does have in education was an especially patient and hands-on geographies teacher, and that remains the one time she actually excelled in a subject.

[justices-blade]

no (tea)leaf unturned // lyon + edward

Reason and Faith band together to put on this month’s special seminar: the history of tasseomancy! You will be learning the “magic” behind divination and how the old masters used the remains of tea leaves and coffee grounds to predict future events. Just in time for the moon of love, you will all be divining your romantic futures from a delicious cup of white rose tea. [Grants Reason or Faith +1] starter for @sacretic.

It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, ice-flowers are blooming… On days like these, what better to do than enjoy a cup of white rose tea?

For the record, Edward could count a few things he'd rather be doing, like not having to drink the tea while stuck indoors, or having that tea be hot chocolate, or be one of those homier grain blends he likes instead of rosy and expensive-smelling, because he's not sure he can savour such a delicate taste appropriately. But also, he likes coffee even less, and it is pretty cold outside, so he gets it. It also beats struggling to read a single page of whatever while a professor blathers on for the better part of an hour, and he had signed up for this for a more hands-on experience in understanding magic better...

Sure, tasseomancy sounded cooler as a word than what it turned out to be, but it's a kind of fortune-telling, right? It's what Micaiah does on the regular. And even if it doesn't work for real (not like he could know), it would still be a cool party trick to bust out later. He's come to terms with his initial disappointment pretty quickly, and is actually kind of looking forward to the whole thing now — Exciting, albeit possibly embarrassing, but honestly? He's got nothing to hide or know about.

(At least to his knowledge.)

Humming a raspy tune to himself, Edward brings the tea set over from the trolley to the desk he's sharing with his appointed partner: A gentle- but melancholy-looking young man by the name of Lyon, who looks positively miserable to be here. That, he gets too. Hoping to help at least a little, he shoots the other a winning smile as he sets down the set and sits down afterwards, picking up a spoon to twirl between his fingers idly.

"I've gotten better at enjoying tea recently, but never this nice! This kind looks sorta expensive. Smells good, too. We're pouring our own cups, yeah?" It's a rhetorical question, so he continues on. "It'd make sense, since it's our fortunes."

The tea steeps between them, even as Edward runs his mouth in attempt at lightening the mood. A clink of spoon against teapot as he gestures with his occupied hand — It's a light noise, deliberate, not an issue over the general noise of porcelain starting up across the classroom. He leans in a little, lowers his voice, a playful twinkle in his eyes, hoping to put the other at least a some kind of ease.

"By the way, if you're nervous — whatever I read from yours or you from mine, we can keep a secret. Promise!"

[septembersghost]

Which memphis mafia members do you consider reliable sources when it comes to Elvis?

this is a tricky question because i know opinions vary and accounts have notable discrepancies...it's difficult with everything surrounding elvis because it often feels like, to one degree or another, everybody was looking for a way to exploit their connections to him (not necessarily in a malicious way, though some definitely have done that, but just insofar as everybody relying on him and their stories and experiences with him financially and for other assorted reasons, as comments in this thread mention), and did so especially once he died and had no say in any of it. i have a lot of qualms with the total lack of hesitation in sharing intimate details about his life with the general public that go a bit far beyond explaining his character and experiences, and yet at the same time of course there's an insatiable curiosity and market for it because people want to know about him. it makes me think of the preface shared from june's book: “There have been lots of books written about Elvis Presley, of course, with probably as many personal memoirs among them as have attached to any other cultural figure or entertainer in history. Some have been spurious, a number seem to have been written out of little more than personal rancor, motivation has ranged from love to money to self-adumbration..."

i'm rambling, but sometimes it's difficult to sift out the people still looking after e and his personhood versus those using him for their gain. jerry i would count easily as one of the former, perhaps the most obvious choice there. maybe george klein and billy smith? perspectives range all over the place on charlie hodge, joe esposito, marty lacker, lamar fike, the stanleys, and even larry geller (despite elvis often being open and vulnerable/trusting with him in particular), to the point where i feel like we have to take everything with a grain of salt and be circumspect about individual subjectivity and agendas. red and sonny i struggle with for *multiple* reasons, and given what they did to him (and whoever the third one was involved with that book. god el i'm sorry sometimes i cannot keep track of all of your people...), i think it cut him to the core, from which he did not recover (and he didn't have time). but i also respect elvis' inherent generosity and kindness and forgiving qualities that he extended to the people he loved, even when he was hurt.

tl;dr ugh sorry this is not a particularly helpful answer because it involves so many factors and complicated people. tbh i'm probably not the best person to ask this because my little introvert self that cares more about elvis' humanity and artistry than some of the noise and chaos around him is way less informed about each of those guys as individuals. i do think they all loved him in their own ways, to one degree or another, but their usefulness and incentives in sticking by him could be mercurial. and e was far from perfect himself and i'm sure many aspects of being in that group were not easy, he was responsible for many of his choices, but he also had a retinue of people clinging to his lifestyle. it can be painful to observe how he had this mix of enablers and dependents around him as constant companions and everything still unraveled the way that it did.

edit: i went to the sub to see if i could find you a better/more comprehensive response quickly and still turned up a lot of dispute, but this comment speaks to some of it (also funny how some of the comments here use similar language to what i'd already written, i appreciate seeing those thoughts from others): Each has told their version of their story and of course each person is the hero of their own story, and many paint themselves as Elvis's One True Best Friend. Some, as you mention, had proper jobs, others were really, truly sycophantic hangers-on, some were true blue friends and brothers, and some would barely qualify as part of the "Memphis Mafia" at all - they just happened to be in the right place at the right time and latched on to what little time they had in his periphery. For most who care, I think it comes down to an individual by individual basis...Personally, I think more attention should really be placed on the artists, songwriters and creatives whose influence impacted Elvis's actual creative and commercial achievements and legacy. But people like hearing celebrity gossip, and Elvis fans have always been voracious to consume anything and everything they can about him. People also like picking sides and being in opposing tribes, even over the most petty shit. In our collective cultural grief over the loss of Elvis, trying to grasp onto anything and everything left that we could, we gave them all attention to hear them say nice things, and the media happily gave a platform to those who were willing to help tear Elvis down off the pedestal his fans put him on, too. I think, at the end of the day, people are looking for understanding about what happened. Many would like to take their sides and lay moral judgment on all of them and everything they've said or did, as though talking about who was or wasn't at fault for what happened would change things or help us understand what happened any better. But we weren't there, and never can go back and be there. Some were good, some were bad, some just happened to kinda be there because Elvis wanted or needed them for whatever reason. The only sure truth is that Elvis died regardless of all of them - which is a tragedy. And they're all just background characters who've taken up too much time on center stage. And now that most of them have left, I think it's about time to bring the curtain down.

[everglowz]

Hiii I just saw your recent gifset and I was wondering if you could share some colouring/quality tips for gifs?? I've been having some issues lately and I'm trying to collect knowledge from people with great skills, thanks in advance!

hiii!! <3 first of all, thanks omg :(( i feel absolutely underqualified to be giving advice but i'll try to tell u some stuff that i think makes gifs look nicer (i'll do it after a read more so that i don't clog up the dash)

idk how much experience you have in making gifs so i'm gonna be all over the place probably lmao sorry!!

first all, in connection to quality, using anything other than photoshop to gif (like websites or stuff like that) is gonna make your gifs look much less hq no matter how nice the actual footage is. sadly no website can beat ps :( also, using 4k/1080p clips is going to make your job much easier. I use 4kdownloader to get videos from youtube and it works great most of the times.

in terms of processing, once i get my video i use vapoursynth but i don't sharpen/denoise there. i think the vs sharpening is a bit too harsh sometimes and the denoising can be too extreme. (i know ppl get great results w sharpening/denoising there tho!! i've never got it to work like that lol) after the clip is opened in ps, i sharpen there. my settings are very basic (amount 500% and radius 0.4px and then i do that again but with amount 10% and radius 10px) if the original clip is too lq and i'm not satisfied with how the gif looks i might use topaz clean / denoise a little bit. but i try to keep that light. in my personal opinion, i think gifs that are too smooth (so much so that their hair gets blurry and stuff) just don't look as nice. i'd rather have a slightly grainy gif over a very very smooth gif where ppl don't look like ppl.

a lil trick i do when i'm not as pleased with the quality and the gifs are from mvs is to add a little bit of grain using the smart filter. so then the grain looks like it's there on purpose and not bc the og clip is bad (other times i just add noise for aesthetics like with my keppie gifset)

another tool some ccs use is high pass. i feel like high pass needs to be used lightly because sometimes it just makes people look like dolls :(( it's like it takes away all texture and it just looks... slightly odd? i tried to use it a few times but in the end i went back to my own sharpening. i just think it's a tool that needs to be used v carefully.

ok, coloring time!! coloring can literally fix a gif sometimes hahah. like a gif that looks kinda grainy suddenly u color it and it becomes ten times better. when i color, i start by messing with the curves and i tend to do this (this pic is just me messing with a random gif hahah)

i obviously play around with that but i love doing this because it makes my blacks darker. i also play around with exposure and i tend to bring the exposure up a little, bring the offset down a little and the gamma correction up (again, me messing around randomly just so u can see how my settings might end up looking visually. the numbers change all the time because it's not that i do it exactly like this all the time)

i've been told (and i can attest to it myself) that having gifs with a lot of contrast is good for quality so i feel like doing these prev things (and also messing with the blacks in selective color) allows me to bring out that contrast and also make gifs that i enjoy (i'm a high contrast gif lover) but you also have to be mindful not to make your subjects too white by upping the exposure or messing with curves too much. whitewashing is a no no, even if whitewashed gifs always end up looking less grainy >:( for skintone i play around with color balance and selective color mostly. if the whitewashing in the original video is too much, i might go to color lookup, use the preset 3strip, set the layer as 'darken' and mess with the opacity and then if it ends up looking too red i might do the same with a 'fall color' layer and lower the opacity even more for that one (or else the gifs looks too yellow). i also play around with the reds and the yellows in hue/saturation

finally, when i export the gifs, i make sure that i pick the saving mode (i'm sure this is not the proper way to call this but anyways sdfasd) that makes the gif looks better. like sometimes i find that with green gifs some settings make the gif look atrocious so i have to use adaptable for those but anyways i usually mess around w that hahah

idk if this was useful in any sort of way??? if u have a question about something that i mentioned here or i want to ask me more u can totally dm me or come back and ask me 'hey girl wtf?' because i'm so so bad at explaining things by text!! also i wrote this under the idea that u are sort of knowledgable on how to gif but idk !!

[fostersffff]

Hello! I’m an insane man who purchased Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water on blu-ray from eBay last year for an amount of money I’m embarrassed to disclose. I did this because I was under the impression that this series- which was last made available in 2014- would probably be in license purgatory for quite some time. Gkids then announced a few months later that they had plucked it from purgatory, and would be doing a new blu-ray released that was downscaled from a 4k rescan of the original film elements.

After realizing that nobody else was doing it, either because they lacked the materials, means, interest, or any combination of the above, I realized I could do a side-by-side comparison of these two releases! This won’t be terribly in-depth, just a few quick shots from the intro to see the difference.

First up, the logo! Simple white text and clouds on a deep blue ocean and sky clearly highlights the first big difference between the two, which is color. Compared with the Gkids version, the Sentai version looks a little washed out. However, I believe this has less to do with the resolution the footage was scanned at, and more to do with the other big difference between the two...

Digital Noise Reduction, or DNR! If you’re unfamiliar, DNR is the process of removing film grain from older works, and it’s a contentious subject. Most people are cool with getting rid of the grain, but purists will cross themselves at the mere thought of it. The reason for this is that the process of removing grain can also unintentionally smudge detail, which is less noticeable in still shots like the above, but more in heavily animated, less intricately detailed shots, such as these:

I’m not sure how clear that is considering the low detail of the gif format, but you can see a little artifacting around the characters’ linework and shadows in the Gkids version compared to the Sentai release. I can also tell you the Sentai version gif is actually larger in filesize than the Gkids version because of the grain, because it prevents the Sentai version from having color banding as aggressive in the Gkids version, but that’s really only a concern if you’re making gifs yourself.

Now, generally speaking, anime distributors are careful about the application of DNR, so in the grand scheme of things, these are just nitpicks between the two. And ultimately, nitpicks that don’t matter, because if you want to check out Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, of course you’re going to buy the easily available and reasonably priced Gkids release, and not hunt down the out of print, significantly more expensive Sentai release. And if you already happen to have the Sentai release, you’d probably never even think about double dipping for the Gkids release anyway.

This was mostly an experiment for me to see how much better the image quality was on the Gkids version, and as best as I can tell it’s “more color saturation, less grain” where the Sentai version is “less color saturation, more grain”. The most crucial thing is that they’re both native HD, so as far as I’m concerned, you’re a winner either way if you own the blu-ray. Maybe upgrade if you have the original ADV DVDs.

(Oh, and as far as extras go: both versions have a five minute promotional video from before the series aired, as well as a commercial from before the series aired. The Gkids version comes with a physical art booklet, and the Sentai version includes a clean version of the OPs and ED, but they’re upscaled kinda poorly from the DVD quality, which is why they’re not present at all on the Gkids release)