#Dimensity 1200

[depresseddepot]

my monitor broke yesterday and I have been so brave about it, I only cried for (literally) 2 hours straight

[sunniestshark-ocs]

In BigBang I have several shinigami captains that were born in the 20th century which (looking at canon and fandom) is pretty young for a shini (barring the visoreds having spent about 100 years stuck in *redacted*)

But I do headcanon the 20th century girlies are uniquely equipped to deal with much higher amounts of stress and multitasking and paperwork, considering 20th century public school (US at least) is basically geared into turning you into a good little cog in the capitalism machine. Like, "Look, I get you grew up in the 1600s European wilderness, but I grew up next to a strip mall and a highway, this overstimulation aint shit." "When I was a kid no one had a phone and when I died you could talk to anyone in the world at any time and shooting stuff up into space was normal, so I'd say I'm pretty adaptable to change"

It's also incredibly funny to think of the gotei introducing new technology, and centuries old Shinigami keep having to go to the 1980s babies and asking them how to convert to soul.pdf and how to fix the printer

[genshin-impact-updates]

Notice of Changes to Device Performance Requirements

Dear Traveler,

In the future Version 5.0 of Genshin Impact, the developers will be upgrading the overall visuals and functions of the game.

This upgrade will also mean higher performance requirements. While striving to keep the minimum device requirements for Version 5.0 the same, we will use stricter performance optimization strategies to ensure stable functioning of the game after the version update.

Devices for which adjustments will be made are as follows:

iOS

Models with an A12 processor (or lower)

Android

Models with a Snapdragon 865, Dimensity 1200 (8050), Kirin 9000SL, or Samsung Exynos 1080 processor (or lower)

PlayStation®

PlayStation®4 Series (all)

Visual performance will be reduced (compared to the current version) after the Version 5.0 update on the above devices.

E.g.: When playing the game on the devices mentioned above, the resolution of some image details and smaller objects will decrease, the effect range of some special effects will decrease, etc.

For more details, please refer to: Minimum Specifications and Recommended Specifications

https://www.hoyolab.com/article/21852988

[annabelle--cane]

so I don’t have the knowledge of details that you have (complimentary) but is there anything in the computer code Colin looking into being written in German and Jonah Magnus’ buddy living in the Black Forest and finding that crypt that one time? Or is that Too far a reach?

vibrating at the speed of sound. so there are a couple of floating details around from the podcasts, the arg, and some promotional materials that may point back to germany having particular relevance. some of this is absolutely me going full pepe silvia, but there are enough threads here that I feel like it has to amount to Something.

so. germany.

archives 'verse:

-> point 1: johann von württemberg. while staying with his nephew in the schwartzwald in 1816, albrecht von closen finds an old mausoleum with the inscription "johann von württemberg" over the door, and it is guarded by a man with no eyes who nonetheless seems to be able to see. in a deep chamber well beneath the ground is johann's coffin, and the room is completely lined with books so old that they'd all rotted through and fused together, the marble shelves they're placed on having little carvings of open eyes all along them. the only two objects in a good state are an illuminated manuscript in arabic that had been kept apart from the rest of the books, and a gold coin with an engraving of a young man with flowing hair, the initials "JW," the year 1279, and the words "für die stille" (google translate tells me that’s “for the silence”). albrecht asks around for any information about johann because the name is unfamiliar despite his quite good knowledge about local history and nobles, and someone says they remember him being called "ulrich's bastard," likely referring to ulrich the i or ii, two counts of württemberg from the 1200s. with that information, in the present day jon is able to find some historical records that point to ulrich i having a son out of wedlock in 1255 who was rumored to keep the company of witches.

-> point 2: the von closens. it seems that a servant nicked the coin albrecht found before he could go home with it, and that was probably for the best for albrecht, because that servant Died Badly from what was ruled to be an animal attack. albrecht did take the book with him, however, and presumably went on to show it to jonah magnus. he then must have gone back for the rest of the rotten books at some point, though, because when doctor jonathan fanshawe visits his estate in 1831, albrecht has a full library of recently re-bound books that he tells fanshawe he got from the tomb, and owning them has done terrible beholding-esque things to him. fanshawe, in his capacity as a doctor, says they should return the books for albrecht's health, and they do so, but just as the last book is returned, albrecht dies, and fanshawe realizes that all the books were blank and finds out that jonah arranged to have them all swapped out by the book binder. when fanshawe performs an autopsy on albrecht's body, all of his insides are covered in eyes.

in his statement from 1816, albrecht says he and his wife carla have been unable to conceive, though in 1831 fanshawe mentions that all of albrecht's sons were away at school when he came to visit. not something that's impossible, they could have managed to have children shortly after 1816, but it does make me raise an eyebrow. magically blessed fertility? dimension shenanigans? fanshawe does mention a tree being burned on the von closen estate that feels remarkably similar to the tree on hilltop road.

anyway, wilhelm, albrecht's nephew, has some children, and the family stays in germany for about another century, but one branch eventually moves to england, and their descendants include mary and gerard keay. according to gerry, mary was big into mythologizing about the von closens and really tried to get him to continue her idea of a legacy for the family, but he thought most of what she said was made up.

protocol 'verse:

-> point 3: colin's comment about source code being written in german. nothing much to explain here, just that it's Weird that source code for some Weird bespoke program for the british civil service is written in german, right? Bit Odd.

-> point 4: the usenet forum. okay so I'm an avatar of the idiot and only read up about the arg after it was already over and don't know anything about code and whatnot, but as best as I can understand: on the OIAR's official website, if you try to submit a form, you get an error message, and if you look into the source code for the error then you find Some piece of code with an IP address shaped hole in it, and there's an IP address hidden in an OIAR advertising video, so you put that IP address into the code, do something else (???), and then find yourself at an old defunct usenet forum from the 90s/00s for people who left east germany.

(it is from here that I got too verbose for my own good, so the rest is under a cut)

notable things about the forum: most of it is pretty normal, and, naturally, it was pretty much all in german, massive shoutout to everyone who helped to translate all 21k words of it. there are threads about finding work in various countries, weird cultural idiosyncrasies, resources, reminiscing about berlin, yknow, normal stuff. the mod “SandmannS” (translates to exactly what it looks like) ran the forum with a bit of an iron fist, which I guess makes sense, it’s the kind of forum that attracted people who wanted to say some heinous stuff and he was really serious about not letting anyone solicit personal information, but he was also kind of overzealous about keeping threads on topic and locking any discussions that he thought were “pointless.” he was eventually strongarmed into opening a thread for cat pictures, and that’s as good an opening as any to talk about some of the Weird things about the forum.

one of the cat photos was posted in february 1994 and shows a cat standing in front of the thames, with what looks like the completed o2 arena in full view (great choice of a red flag landmark to include @ whoever chose it. nice big landmark that was called “the millennium dome” when it first opened, a handy reminder that it was made to celebrate the turn of the millennium and construction wouldn't even have started in 1994). several comments across the threads are dated as earlier than the comments they’re replying to, one person references the content of the phantom menace a few months before its release, and several comments were somehow made after the mod locked the forum in dec 2001/jan 2002.

and okay. the forum locking. I’m going to condense this to all hell because this is already [redacted] words long but basically, “einsamernarr” (translation: lonely fool) was an active user of the forum with a big conspiratorial streak, real paranoid about “the government” spying on him, always getting warnings and just dodging getting banned just before going too far, yknow, a Type of Guy. in december 2001, he mentions in a book rec thread that he was trolling through some databases and found a bunch of old records and he can’t tell if they’re fictional or not, but he’d like to share them if he can. about five days later, he starts posting in several threads that he did something really dumb, people are after him, the meetup they were planning is not safe and this forum is being watched, people should look for him if he doesn’t come back within a week, and he’ll try to leave some info behind for them just in case. a few days later, a couple of people post worried messages asking if anyone’s heard from einsamernarr and that they’ve been getting weird cryptic emails about an “institute” from him, and sandmanns says that he did everything he could, but he can’t keep doing this, and he closes the forum.

marina “avatar of the idiot” annabelle--cane showing my face here again, I don’t know how this next part happened, but it’s possible to retrieve the email einsamernarr sent, open it with a password found in colin’s code repository (that’s a whole ‘nother thing), and find inside: 1. some pictures of bonzobucks, 2. a weird pdf of an old german book on alchemy with a lot of symbols and codes in it, and 3. a spreadsheet of the names, ages, and test results of the hundreds of children the protocol 'verse magnus institute was performing psych studies on. which finally brings us to our next, much shorter section.

-> point 5: “gerard kaey” (sic). gerry’s name is on that spreadsheet, which I think is relevant to this conversation given mary’s obsession with the von closen legacy. archives ‘verse mary keay resented the magnus institute for what she felt it stood for comparison to what she felt she stood for; she saw jonah magnus as a thief who stole away her family’s honor, so what might be different about the protocol ‘verse situation? why would mary keay in this universe send her only heir to go get scrutinized by a bunch of self-important academics?

-> point 6: the berlin dead drop. more arg stuff, we’re getting into things that I’m sure probably have more to be said about them than I’m capable of saying, but from some clues in a picture of cookbooks that einsamermarr posted in the cat pictures thread of the usenet forum to annoy the mod, and a voicemail on the OIAR’s telephone line, people found out the date and location of the first irl arg event, and it was for somewhere in berlin. a newspaper covered in alchemical symbols was found in a bookshop, and from that people somehow derived coordinates, and those coordinates lead to the last irl event where a battered old video tape with a video of a creepy ritual was found (note: the tape was too badly damaged, so another copy of the video came from an arg affiliated tumblr account).

-> point 7: klaus.xls. from a floppy disk found in the second irl arg event, klaus.xls is a spreadsheet originally written in german with about 100 dates and times of potentially paranormal sightings. a lot of it is corrupted and unreadable, but there are columns for category, rank, “TSHU,” and notes. translated into english, notes sections that aren’t corrupted say things like “mr. b,” “war people,” “avoid, “unhappy child,” “ink,” “lady m,” “cats lol,” and “I hate witches.”

-> point 8: albertus magnus and the philosopher’s stone. right, this is where I go a bit off the rails, and credit to this post by @misfitmagpie for discovering some of this. first, nearly every official visual we’ve had for tmagp has been covered in alchemy symbols. they’re all over the logo, they’re all over the in-universe OIAR and magnus institute websites, they highlighted hints in the arg, they’re everywhere, and the end goal of alchemy was the pursuit of the mythical philosopher’s stone, a substance that could turn base metals into gold and produce an elixir for eternal life. the tmagp logo/the coat of arms for the OIAR is centered around an upside down alchemical symbol for the philosopher’s stone, a circle in a square in a triangle in a larger circle. 

albertus magnus (aka saint albert the great) was a bavarian philosopher and scientist who did some writing on alchemy and has been widely rumored to secretly have been a master alchemist, mainly as a result of a lot of people attaching his name to writings about alchemy that he never touched. some have credited him as discovering the actual philosopher’s stone, and while he never made that claim in any way that survives, he did record that he’d witnessed seeing base metals be turned into gold. something of which to take note is that he didn’t go by the name “magnus” during his life, that was appended to him posthumously, it’s just another way of calling him “the great” with a fancy latin word, but it does kind of remind me of that edmond “reimer” halley -> maxwell rayner thing from mag 140. if you discovered the elixir of life and became immortal, you would probably need to nab a new identity at some point, and if people have already been nicknaming you “albert the great,” well…

anyway, the thing that’s really cemented his potential relevance in my mind is his birth and death dates: c. 1200-1280, lining up perfectly with the time period of johann von württemberg (thought we’d moved on from him, didn’t you?). I know magnus timelines are notoriously a bit unruly, especially the further back into the past we get, but it’s scratching at my brain. besides that, I think it would be a really cool move if the magnus this podcast is named for was a completely different person than the magnus the last podcast was named for.

if albertus magnus isn’t directly relevant then I’ve got another theory about the title that I’ll be posting in a hot minute, but it’s not germany related and this ask is already long enough. 

just, to sum up, a lot of protocol content so far has been germany-adjacent, and even if nothing more comes of it I think there are a lot of interesting threads here to speculate about.

[labellenouvelle]

18th C. VENETIAN CHINOISERIE

A stunning 18th century Venetian Chinoiserie wall mirror. Original mirror glass has a crack on it , it's so old that can you barely see a reflection on it, but still so decorative just as is !!! Hand painted details over the red lacquer finish on wood. Hand carved floral details. Not an every day find . Item No. E5824-12 Dimensions. 29" high x 17.5" wide List Price. $ 1200

504.581.3733 / t

info@labellenouvelle.com / e

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

ok here's my half-hearted attempt to figure out the tripolar singularity

[ID: First image is a screencap of Fukuchi holding the space-time sword at his side; the blade glows bluish purple. The second is a colour portrait of Fukuchi from the manga. The last is a screencap of the Holy Sword from the anime, wreathed in blue light against a dark backdrop. End ID.]

The singularity is comprised of three components:

Shintō Amenogozen - The space-time sword, which allows the wielder to cut through time and space in a limited capacity. Created by an ability user to be used in shinto rituals 1500 years ago, Fukuchi used it for combat which made him nigh-unbeatable due to his ability amplifying the sword's range - from around 12 centimeters to a hundred-fold more: 1200 centimeters, or 1.2 meters. Interestingly, the original time limit seems to be the same - a limit of 12 seconds - so Fukuchi does not seem to have enhanced it temporally. An interesting line about it from chapter 86: "A katana infused with both the ill-omened and divine... At that time and place, what was unexpectedly materialized resembled the very law of the universe." Another from 114.5: "The space-time sword, said to have God himself dwelling within it."

Mirror Lion - Fukuchi's ability, which allows him to enhance any weapon he gets his hands on by a hundred fold. From his use of Shintō Amenogozen though, it seems as though he can amplify speed, strength and range but in only spatial dimensions, not temporally.

The Holy Sword Soluz Levni - The sword used to seal Bram, forged from an ability user who died and had their body turned to metal. It both attached to the brain of its victim and placed a Holy Seal on the hand of the one who wielded it, which is what allowed Fukuchi to use Bram's ability. It does this by consolidating "body" and "ability" into one, thereby merging the physical with the abstract. Bram has been stabbed with it twice.

As with any singularity, the key is to find the paradox or contradiction - as the space-time sword was the last component that set off the actual singularity, that's what we need to be looking at most closely. A singularity also takes one of two forms that we've seen so far - one, the clash of two or more similar abilities with no clear victor creates an unforeseen third effect (Odasaku vs Gide), and two, an interaction of ability on the self or with another ability creates a feedback loop that amplifies indefinitely and becomes much more powerful than its host (Rimbaud, Chuuya, Verlaine).

In order, Fyodor stabs Fukuchi with the Holy Sword, fusing body and ability. This may already cause a singularity - the physical and the abstract has been merged. We still don't really know what this means, but if you recall from Dead Apple, abilities can be temporarily separated from their "hosts", and from Stormbringer, abilities require a human or human-like soul/will to exist (with the exception of singularities), so while we don't know the true ramifications of this merge, we do know it's... significant, in some way. This part here is the big question mark to me.

But in this case, the result should be inert. This shouldn't cause anything in particular to happen - but it does, we assume, allow Fyodor to wield Mirror Lion through wielding the blade.

So when he stabs Fukuchi with the space-time sword, this is where, presumably, the feedback loop is created.

Mirror Lion is bound to Fukuchi's physical form and able to be controlled by Fyodor -> Shintō Amenogozen is stabbed into Fukuchi -> Fyodor holds the hilts of both swords, allowing him to amplify both simultaneously with Mirror Lion as the conduit -> ??? evil profit???

My current thought (really more of a shot in the dark than anything) is that Fyodor amplifying the Holy Sword also binds Shintō Amenogozen's ability to Fukuchi's body (so there are two abilities bound to one body now - one space-time cutting and the other constant amplification). This amplification is likely the source of that feedback loop that would amplify the ability into a singularity (so presumably, bye Fukuchi, for good now - he's ceased to be human, most likely), and now that both abilities are bound to Fukuchi on a physical plane... I suspect the time range can now be extended. It allows Fyodor to increase the range of time the sword can jump through far past its limits, and if Fyodor is now in control of how this time-cutting ability is directed, then theoretically, Fyodor may now be able to jump through time and space and alter the outcomes of various points in history. If he wants to rid the world of ability users, this would be a control freak's best means of doing so, I assume.

"Two heavenly blades bring forth unto this land, a miracle."

Essentially Fyodor may want to rewrite ability users out of the narrative, and so in order to use the Book (potentially) to do so, he needs to "prepare" the timeline so that removing abilities makes logical narrative sense (in keeping with the rules of the Book). Alternatively, he cannot use the Book because it may have been created by an ability user, so this would be an unalterable contradiction - he is forced to remove ability users by going back to do things manually, perhaps even by killing the original creator of the Book.

I am definitely going to turn out to be completely wrong on this, but I hope it was fun to read, nonetheless!

[its-knifewife]

Memorial Day Weekend is the biggest sale on mattresses of the year

so of course I am doing a donothon for a new mattress the following Friday. Friday May 31st - join me on Twitch for a donothon for a new mattress because my back f&%king hurts and I really want to sleep comfortably. *First 5 people to donate $100 in a single donation get a custom made fragrance bundle, which includes a soap, candle, perfume/cologne roller, room/linen spray and air freshener - We will work together to make something custom for you and it will be sent to you with FREE shipping. USA only, due to shipping restrictions for perfume. You have to be comfortable giving me your address. PO Boxes also work, but please let me know your PO Box dimensions.

*Donate a total of $50 and I will put your Sim through the Death Gauntlet. If you don't already have a Simself, I will make you one based off vibes/pfp. Death Gauntlet stream will be announced TBD.

*Cheap Crowd Control Day: The game is TBD later, but we will do a cheap crowd control day where everything will be soooo cheap for you to torment me (and possibly my friends) . Community will vote on the game and I/we will play it.

*Highest (total) donor will be an NPC in a one-shot that I will run with my friends. We will stream the one shot, and I will be DMing. I will work with you to determine what kinda vibe you'd like the NPC to be, and I will put them in the one-shot with a guaranteed appearance.

$100 - Final Fantasy 6

$250 - Modded Left 4 Dead with the homies

$500 - Cheap Crowd Control Day

$750 - Darkest Dungeon

$900- Dragon's Dogma 2

$1200 - Hades

$1500 - Sea of Thieves

$2000 - D&D Oneshot

$2250 - Chat creates a dnd character with me - this is a separate NPC that will appear in the oneshot, and it will be voted on what type of character it is, including lineage, class, subclass, personality, etc.

$2500 - Face Cam in Crow Kigurumi

[fredomotophoto]

Château de Versailles

L’Orangerie est un bâtiment situé au cœur du parc du Château de Versailles, en contrebas du château. Construite entre 1684 et 1686 par Jules Hardouin-Mansart, elle est considérée comme l’un des chefs-d’œuvre de l’architecte.

La restauration Depuis 2020, le Château de Versailles a entrepris un important programme de restauration de l’Orangerie, notamment des grilles et des décors sculptés. Pour répondre à ces travaux, une partie de la restauration a été délocalisée à Mantes-la-Jolie, où les visiteurs peuvent découvrir le chantier-exposition, baptisé “Le réveil de la pierre”. Ce lieu propose une exposition interactive et pédagogique, avec des activités de recherche d’indices, des jeux de plateau et des contes, ainsi qu’une expérience de réalité virtuelle pour découvrir l’histoire de l’Orangerie et de sa restauration.

Le parterre Le parterre de l’Orangerie est un jardin à la française, caractérisé par ses 1200 caisses contenant des orangers, citronniers, grenadiers et lauriers-roses, ponctué de mai à octobre. Il offre une vue spectaculaire sur le château et le parc, notamment depuis les terrasses du château.

Les sculptures L’Orangerie abrite quatre sculptures monumentales, inspirées des Métamorphoses d’Ovide, représentant les amours des dieux : Aurore et Céphale, Vertumne et Pomone, Flore et Zéphyr, ainsi que Vénus et Adonis. Ces sculptures, créées par Louis Le Conte et Pierre Legros vers 1687, pesant environ 25 tonnes chacune, ont été restaurées dans un atelier aux dimensions adaptées à Mantes-la-Jolie.

Accès et horaires L’Orangerie est accessible tous les mardis de 9h à 12h30 et de 13h30 à 17h30, ainsi que lors d’ouvertures exceptionnelles.

The Orangery is a building located in the heart of the park of the Palace of Versailles, below the palace. Built between 1684 and 1686 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, it is considered one of the architect's masterpieces.

Restoration Since 2020, the Palace of Versailles has undertaken a major restoration program for the Orangery, including the grilles and sculpted decorations. To accommodate this work, part of the restoration has been relocated to Mantes-la-Jolie, where visitors can discover the exhibition site, called "The Awakening of Stone". This place offers an interactive and educational exhibition, with clue-searching activities, board games and stories, as well as a virtual reality experience to discover the history of the Orangery and its restoration.

The Parterre The parterre of the Orangerie is a French garden, characterized by its 1200 boxes containing orange trees, lemon trees, pomegranates and oleanders, punctuated from May to October. It offers a spectacular view of the castle and the park, especially from the terraces of the castle.

The sculptures The Orangerie houses four monumental sculptures, inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, representing the loves of the gods: Aurora and Cephalus, Vertumnus and Pomona, Flora and Zephyr, as well as Venus and Adonis. These sculptures, created by Louis Le Conte and Pierre Legros around 1687, weighing approximately 25 tons each, were restored in a workshop with adapted dimensions in Mantes-la-Jolie.

Access and opening times The Orangerie is accessible every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., as well as during exceptional opening times.

[blueiscoool]

2,600-Year-Old Temple Filled With ‘Exotic Offerings’ Found in Greece

In 2017, while exploring a sanctuary devoted to a goddess in Greece, archaeologists discovered the first traces of a monumental structure at the heart of the sanctuary.

Now, after years of excavations, the team has unearthed what has been identified as a temple filled with treasures, altars and “exotic offerings,” according to a Jan. 8 news release from the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece, which oversaw the excavation with the help of the Ephorate of Antiquities in Euboea.

The temple was discovered “at the heart of the sanctuary of Artemis Amarysia,” researchers said. Artemis was the Greek goddess of wild animals as well as chastity and childbirth.

Archaeologists said the temple — which was built sometime toward the end of the seventh century B.C. — “held a number of surprises,” starting with is floor plan. The building was apsidal, meaning it had a semi-circular dome-like structure at one end.

This kind of floor plan, popularized during the Early Christian era between the fourth and eighth centuries A.D., was “quite unusual” for the time the temple was built, the team said.

The temple was “larger than originally anticipated,” measuring about 100 feet, according to experts. This measurement is symbolic, and several other monuments from the same period share the same dimensions.

Inside the structure, researchers found “another surprising discovery”: an abundance of hearths or altars.

Typical Greek sanctuaries of the time built these structure outside of the temple, but archaeologists said they found the stone platforms — covered with thick layers of ash and bones — within the building.

One altar, shaped like a horseshoe, appears to have occupied a pronaos — a vestibule surrounded by columns on the exterior of the temple — and has evidence that it was used as early as the end of the eighth century B.C., predating the temple, officials from Greece’s Ministry of Culture said in a Jan. 8 news release.

The team also discovered a rich collection of offerings, it said.

Among their finds were alabaster artifacts, vases, ritual water jugs, amulets, bronze and iron fittings, and precious jewelry made of gold, silver, coral and amber, officials said in their release.

Experts also identified a “finely chiseled ivory head with Egyptian features,” they said. The “exotic” object was “unrecognizable” when first identified, but it has been restored.

Evidence at the temple indicates that it partially burned down in the later half of the sixth century B.C., according to archaeologists. The building was temporarily restored with mud brick walls until it could be entirely replaced and restored at the end of the century.

EVIDENCE OF AN EVEN EARLIER TEMPLE

Beneath the foundation of the temple, archaeologists said they discovered deep trenches containing remains from a building possibly dating to the ninth or eighth century B.C.

Bronze animal figurines from the same period and a terracotta bull’s head dating to the late Bronze Age — roughly 1200 B.C. — were also found in the trenches, according to researchers. Excavations of the lower levels of remains are ongoing, but early finds indicate that the site was used by Artemis worshipers earlier than the temple’s construction.

BRONZE AGE REMAINS NEARBY

The sanctuary of Artemis Amarysia is at the foot of a hill that was occupied during the Bronze Age, experts said.

Excavations of the hill have identified “imposing walls” that likely belonged to a third millenium B.C. fortification system, archaeologists said.

A tomb, filled with skeletons and offerings, was also unearthed from the hill, according to Greek officials.

Researchers continue to explore the region to determine how the temple and sanctuary fit into the broader “ancient landscape,” they said.

Amarynthos is on the Greek island Evia, also known as Euboea, which is off the country’s southwest coast.

By MOIRA RITTER.

[theofficersacademy]

TOA ZINE: "Another Chapter" Now Accepting Submissions!

Hello TOA! Reflecting on these past five years, we've come quite a ways as a community, haven't we? Many of you have been here long enough to remember the [last zine] we created together. Others, meanwhile, may be newer to TOA, but are no less part of the family.

Think of this, perhaps, as kind of a yearbook as we celebrate The Officer’s Academy’s fifth anniversary! What fun memories have you made with your muses over the past five years? What unlikely friends have your muses made? What kind of trouble did they get into? TOA is a place where muses from all different continents can come together and interact, and we would like to shine a spotlight on this particular aspect.

Here are some details on the zine:

This zine will feature both art and writing! We are accepting old pieces you have already created as well as any new ones you’d like to make. This includes any drabbles you may have written for class mastery and snippets from threads.

The zine is planned to be A5 in size: this is roughly 5.83 x 8.27 in, 148 x 210 mm, or 1748 x 2480 px. Art must be in portrait orientation, but we may consider landscape if it fits within the spread. If you are submitting older art, we will do our best to have it fit within the page’s borders, but keep our dimensions in mind as resizing images can affect image quality. Written pieces have a 3000 word cap. Autographs should not take up more than half of the page: 4 x 3.5 in, 101.6 x 88.9 mm, and 1200 x 1050 px would be the maximum size for both length and width. Autographs can be hand-written by you as the muse or you can type a message with a hand-written font and submit it as a transparent image.

Art featuring in the previous TOA Memories zine is ineligible for submission.

We plan to split the zine into different sections with their own topics, and they are as follow:

-Portrait Day & Characters in Officers Academy uniforms -Mission Boards -Daily Life in the Officers Academy (includes class-changing) -Lore Events (ie. Lock & Key, Labyrinth, Unlocked, Unscripted, etc.) -Non-Lore Events (ie. Midsommar, Floralia, BOEL, Fleeting Snow, etc.) -The Ethereal Ball -Autographs

All contributors will be credited with their in-group name and their social media handle if they choose to share one. Both past and present TOA members can contribute content related to their muses. Content for dropped muses can only be submitted if said muse remains unclaimed and available.

Submissions must be entirely your own work, OR, if commissioned, must be submitted alongside the express permission of the creator. This requires the original creator of the commission to DM Mod Key or Mod N stating express permission. Commissioned works will only be considered if they were created by members of TOA, current or past.

We will not be capping the type nor amount of submissions you can make, but we will be curating these submissions and picking which ones enter the zine. This means that if, say, you decided to submit 20 pieces for whatever reason, not every piece you submit will be necessarily be in the zine, but we encourage you to submit whatever you are willing to share!

The zine will be free to download. This is not for profit, just for fun!

The submission phase will be open until October 8th at 11:59PM EST. Please let us know about any questions you may have!

If you are interested in contributing, you may submit your piece(s) [ here ] or via Discord (dm Mods N or Key!). Please take note of the submission guidelines.

Thank you!

[reallyhardydraws]

My cousin ended up commissioning me for a digital picture and since you do art commissions professionally, are there any dimensions you recommend for a vertical drawing? Her bf doesn't want it to be toooo big and I think he has plans of printing it out to give to his parents possibly? Any size recs are appreciated cause I am just l o s t when it comes to this, thanks!

heyo!

these days, my vertical canvases are usually 1200 x 1800 pixels, which i think is probably quite non-standard, but is a habit leftover from when i had a much slower laptop and going above these dimensions would slow everything down. and often when i DO need to print things (generally if someone asks me to put a specfic piece on my redbubble, i'll enlarge it using waifu2x)

i'd actually recommend going like... A4 at 300dpi if you know before starting that you're going to be making it specfically for printing, which is 2480 x 3508 pixels 📃

[arthistoryanimalia]

More for #InternationalPolarBearDay: #DYK its scientific name is Ursus maritimus - "maritime bear"!

Swimming Bear walrus ivory carving, c. 500-1200 CE Middle Dorset culture, Alamek Site, Iglulik Region, Canada Dimensions: H 30.4 x L 156.0 x W 36.0mm Canadian Museum of History collection.

[punkbakerchristine]

october 7th marks 1 year since hamas invaded israel. the terror group massacred 1200 people, rampaged the city of sderot and the nova music festival, kidnapped 250 people from all walks of life, from literal infants to little old ladies, from americans to british to thai to israelis, from jews to bedouins to druze to christians to actual muslims, and started this godforsaken war. it was a terror attack, a crime against humanity, an act of genocide, and if you’re going to point fingers at anyone for starting it, blame donald trump (he sold intel about israel to russia, an ally to iran and the base of hamas, which is how they were able to break through the iron dome). israel are not the genocidal ones, and they never have been, either. hamas is. radical islam is. radical islam doesn’t give a single fuck who you are, not even muslims.

it also marks 1 year since i started baking bread. i literally made my first bloomer when it happened (and i was like that guy back east when the pandemic hit, and he was living off the grid and had no idea why everyone was masking up, so he went into a gas station like “can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!”).

so, i’ve made a bloomer again as both a means of coming full circle and to remember the attacks.

this recipe is based out of the standard bloomer, as every culture has a loaf of bread, and inspired by a cheesy jalapeño loaf from schat’s bakery up in bishop, california, and also chilean flavor profiles (i’ve been on a chile kick lately). the pungency of the cheese and the garlic is like a direct opposite of the sweetness of the foods served at rosh hashanah to commemorate how painful this whole experience has been, and the chili powder, which is piquant and earthy, is meant to be ironic as this conflict is not about land. flavor-wise, it gives a dimension to the garlic and an earthy feeling to the cheese. it’s an oil bread, so it’s kosher. ***i just read that cheddar is not halal unless it’s made by tillamook. otherwise, i’d recommend using a different pungent cheese that’s made with a vegetable rennet. if you’re not a fan of sharp cheese, you can use a milder one like havarti!

nevertheless:

500 grams of all-purpose flour

10 grams of salt

7 grams of fast-action yeast

40 milliliters of olive oil

320 milliliters of cool water

1 tablespoon of minced roasted garlic

1-1 1/2 cups of shredded sharp cheese

1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder

***my loaf was actually made with 375 grams of flour (or roughly 3/4 of the measurements because we’re running low on flour as of writing), but the measurements still stand.

***if you’d like an authentic middle eastern version, swap out the chili powder for sesame seeds and za’atar seasoning!

tip the flour into a metal bowl with the salt on one side and the yeast on the opposite (salt can stunt the behavior of the yeast and slow the proving process so it’s best to keep them separated). add the oil plus 240 milliliters of the water. with one hand, stir the ingredients together and begin incorporating them: add more water if the dough is too dry. once you have the dough going and all the flour is mopped up, place on a lightly oiled work surface and begin kneading. put your hands, arms, and back into it!

the kneading should take 5-10 minutes (or longer if you’re new to bread making): you want the dough to be smooth like the inside of your arm.

place into a lightly oiled glass bowl and cover with either plastic wrap or a tea towel and let proof in a warm place for at least 90 minutes (or longer if your kitchen isn’t very warm). you want the dough to double in size. i like to tuck it into the oven so the air is still and the temperature is constant; on a cold day, turn on the oven as you’re kneading to 200° f, and then switch it off once you put the bowl in.

once doubled, gently tip out the dough and begin ���knocking it back”, where you’re folding it back and pushing it with the base of your palm to knock out the extra air bubbles made by the yeast. after a minute of knocking, spread the dough flat before you and sprinkle half the cheese, half the garlic, and half the chili powder over the surface. fold the dough over and finishing knocking—it might require some more muscle as there are new things incorporated now.

flatten the dough as best you can into a rough rectangle. fold the long edge furthest from you towards the middle, and then fold the edge closest to you into the middle so you have a seam and somewhat of a log shape.

carefully turn over so the seam is on the bottom. cup your hands on either side of the log and begin tucking in the ends. turn the dough about so the top is smooth and rounded. gently rock it about until you have an oval shape.

place the loaf on a baking sheet lined with either parchment or silicone matting (i prefer the silicone), then place inside a large plastic bag to proof again for 1 hour or when doubled in size. the dough is ready when it springs back slowly upon tapping the surface.

heat up your oven to 425° f / 220° c and place a roasting tray at the bottom rack. pour 1 liter of water into the tray for some steam, which will give the loaf a nice chewy crust.

with a sharp knife, score the top of the loaf (a basic bloomer has four diagonal slits about 1 centimeter deep) to help it “bloom” and steam out. lightly spritz some water over the top of the loaf, then lightly dust with a small handful of flour, followed by more cheese, garlic, and chili powder. be gentle during this step: you don’t want to knock out more air.

bake for 25 minutes, then bump the oven down to 395° f / 200° c and bake for a further 10-15 minutes. you want the loaf to sound hollow on the bottom and the cheese to be browned and melted. let cool on a wire rack, and enjoy 🙏🏻

[charmixpower]

Issue One: The Castle

I love how excited Vanessa is to see a fairy school, she's so down for this fairy stuff 🧚‍♀️✨

"They do that sometimes." What does this mean?? Like some barriers just inherently keep magic-less out without even being programmed to do that?? Wild

Also the collective term for magic users in the comics is "Magicians" which is interesting. Like you have your technicians, your politicians, and of course your magicians. Important jobs in the magical dimension

I definitely like magus and magi more bc it sounds fancier for my own stuff but I'm now going to call the Winx magicians in canon thank you

The implication being that Mike kept this phone on him the entire time instead of giving it to her before they left to the magic dimension

Tho this does contribute to why Bloom was so upset about what Tecna said to her, her dad literally just got her this phone

The fact that he still has his face is so fucking creepy

According to the comics, Alfea is a five year school

Which, according to my research (aka texting my Italian friends) is normal in Italy

Also why is talking to them like their freshmen??? Italian freshmen are 14, they're 16. They've cut out two of those years already

Because the Winx are 16, that means Bloom skipped two whole years of magic school

They're probably on intermediate spells at this point no wonder she struggles so much in the first ep

Tbh she should be struggling more

Alfea is the only fairy school in Magix, CT is likely the only witch school, idk about RF bc is it really even a magic school??

The implications of how big the magical population is compared to the rest of the dimension is insane if the entire magical population of one planet can fit into two schools

Six billion, which was the population of earth in 2000, is gonna be our stand in for how many people are on Magix

Alfea is a boarding highschool, and at most schools like that hold about ~1200 students, usually they only hold about 300-400 students

If we were to put the number of Alfea students at 1200, the fairy population of individual planets (bc in later seasons we only see one magic school per planet too) is about .00002% of six billion

And pretending that Wizards, Witches and Faries are just as common as each other for a moment, that would make the magician population per planet .00006%

Or per every 6 billion people there are 3600 magicians

And that's at most

You are more likely to win the lottery because that's 1% of 292.2 million

This one line of dialogue has so many implications to it omggg

I love how Bloom is excited to see some witches and Stella is like "Woah woah woah there, hold your fucking horses. Witches are to be avoided and disliked." No other place is the division between witches and faires seemed more like a very weird magic caste system

I wonder what would have happened to Bloom if she presented as a witch instead of a fairy... unlikely because Bloom doesn't have a negative bone in her body, but she and Mirta could become besties

The Trix would also have a much easier time manipulating her...rip Bloom

You know I just realized

Princess Stella di Solaria gets a room for herself, but Princess Varanda di Callisto doesn't. This is also true in the show, which sorta calls into question the idea that Stella has no roommate just because she's a princess

I love how Tecna's dialogue here comes off "She left because she's offended by me." Sounds like something that would come out of an extremely annoying person's mouth but Tecna means it literally

I love her

I really like how the comics use the idea that Stella can't transform without her ring by having people fighting with her stop her from using it

It's a really good and compelling way to use that piece of plot that the show only remembered when it wanted too

Also Stella saying Domino strengthens the connection between the sword ring and Domino but it's very very weird

Where is the favorite??? Where is the drama??? These are just three nomral ass bitches, and one is wearing a collared crop top

-10/10 not impressed

Seeing them do magical battles without transforming is so fucking weird

It's like the uncanny valley for Winx, they aren't supposed to be doing that

In this house we hate comics Griselda

Seriously what the fuck is this dialogue, fucking YIKES

[kayssweetdreams]

Facts about Kaylo Crescendo

Art done by the awesome @alex-frostwalker

She lives in the ROTG/GOC Earth, that she calls the "Sucky Earth" and calls the Guardians a Cult (this is before the movie)

She used to be a Gypsy child in her past life...1200 years ago

She refuses to celebrate Christmas or Easter, as they both are connected to the Guardians

Ultimately has not lost a single baby tooth yet.

In a betrothal with a prince named Feathrik. However, it's not official until the two of them can actually start aging

Kaylo's reign is significantly longer than any other ruler before her

Kaylo's hair used to be white and her eyes brown, until she shoved a large piece of Pink Corruption into her head

Has a ever growing hatred of Mortals, but loves children.

Kaylo's sells off her memories in a memory auction in another dimension every 5 months, and every time, her memories get replaced with someone else's memories

When she gets REALLY mad, she usually takes her anger out on the person who made her mad...usually in a very terrifying and painful way

Since she's the only "Sortal" she got to place herself on the Interdimensional hierarchy. She placed herself right in the middle.

Is under VERY strong hypnosis to make not fear anything. Only Soprano knows the Trigger Word to undo the trance, but she won't say what it is

The members of Kaylo's court have the option of having their friends and family under her protection

When she "charms" people, everyone's eyes gain the same neon pink as her

She drinks. A lot. There is a special ale in Rhythm Heaven that is alcoholic, but safe for kids to drink

She like BeezleJuice

Kaylo DESPISES rabbits, and has called them "Good for nothing rodents with longer ears" (has a particular vendetta against Bunnymund)

Takes the Joy Pills from "We Happy Few" when ruling Rhythm Heaven gets hard for her

Is trying to find an heir to take her place on the throne...the key word is TRYING

Kaylo has a music note rapier sword. But she'll rarely use it, unless she's sparing with Keys or a last ditch effort. She usually sticks to her mallet

[labellenouvelle]

19th FRENCH BRONZE CASKET BOX / PERFME

A rare and stunning solid bronze French 19th century casket perfume box. Large hand-painted central medallion in porcelain and amazing details in bronze, even in it’s handles. Lined with a purple silk and fitted perfume bottles . A total of 5 all with their original stoppers, A great gift for the collector of all fine things.

Item No. E5671-4

Dimensions : 7.5″ x 7.5″ x 5.5″ high ( closed )

List Price: $ 1200

Ships Worldwide

504.581.3733 / t

info@labellenouvelle.com / e