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amerricanartwork · 1 year ago

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RW Headcanon: How Arti Gives Back

In the RW community on this site, I’ve heard quite a few Artimand thoughts about how Gourmand would help Artificer heal from her trauma and grief. And while that’s all good, something that’s continuously puzzled me when shipping Artimand romantically is, “but how would Artificer help Gourmand?”

Let me tell you, one of my all-time favorite qualities in a ship is the characters helping each other improve themselves, especially in ways no other character pairing can. And while it’s easy to see Gourmand helping Artificer improve, given the vast amount of grief and lust for vengeance she has to overcome, and since Gourmand probably has a natural inclination to help others in need, what would she give to him in return? And to add to that, why would Gourmand fall in love with her and choose her as a mate, as opposed to just casually looking out for her and straight pitying her at worst, especially when she’d most-likely appear very un-qualified for romance initially?

Well, I’ve developed some thoughts and headcanons for that, and I’ll put them below the cut! Please let me know if anything could be improved, or if you can add to it! I’d love more reasons to think of these two sweethearts!

Option 1: Combat

Arti would help Gourmand improve his combat skills. The way I see it, Gourmand is a very strong warrior, but doesn’t often engage in combat simply because he doesn’t see a need for it outside of defense. Even then, due to his kind nature, he typically only fights back enough to deter predators, not kill them. However, with Arti being a carnivore, and having LOTS of experience with more complex combat situations than just defense (mostly from scav encounters), I like to think that Arti would give Gourm more combat tips and they may even end up bonding on occasional hunting trips together. And it would circle back to Arti because Gourm, with his cooking skills, would make the resulting meals from their hunts taste SO much better than what Arti is used to, allowing her to slow down and really enjoy food in a way she hasn’t been able to with her warrior lifestyle!

Option 2: Motherhood

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. Given Arti was a mother once, and Gourmand’s story ends with him getting 2 pups, I could easily see him wanting Arti to stay around to act as a mother for them. Not only would that give her the chance to embrace motherhood again, but it would take some pressure from Gourmand because he has a partner (and an experienced one at that) to help him with parenting! I mean, don’t get me wrong, Gourmand is undoubtedly great with pups, but even so it’s good to have some help! Even more so since (depending on what general age you headcanon the pups as) he’d likely have to leave his pups alone while getting food; it’d be nice to have someone with her own experience caring for pups who can look after them during those times and, to add onto the first option, even help teach them how to hunt and survive on their own!

And heck, I personally actually like to imagine that, a little later, after she gets comfortable enough and fully overcomes her grief, Artificer would actually have a second litter with Gourmand (naratively-speaking, this would signify the completion of her character arc)! Of course it’d be a big deal for Arti, but just imagine how much fun Gourm would have exploring the new experience of getting to raise biological pups this time! And I can just see him being so, so thankful that Arti somehow managed to give him even more family to love!

Option 3: Passion

So this one’s the most personal-headcanon-based, and built off my personal depiction of Gourmand as a character. In my headcanon, Gourmand starts out as a rather reluctant leader of his colony. I have this whole idea of what specific event led to him becoming the leader, but to summarize, it seemed like a very sudden chance event at the time, yet from it he was more-or-less unanimously chosen to lead by the other Outer Expanse slugcats due to him having shown great creativity, survival skills, and protectiveness. Gourmand himself, however, doesn’t really feel he’s fit to be a leader; he’s used to an easygoing life just peacefully surviving and doing his own thing, not managing and defending an entire colony! He’s so used to seeing the simple parts of the world that he often underestimates himself, so something as “grand” as leadership often appears too great for him.

That’s where Arti comes in. I like to imagine that Artificer is extremely passionate, but that for a long time after her pups’ deaths, that passion was manifested almost exclusively as immense rage, grief, and desire for revenge against their killers. But imagine if, once she gets comfortable with Gourmand’s colony, she begins to show that passion in positive emotions! Not only would she, after seeing what he’s capable of in hunts, help him see that he IS the perfect leader for his colony, but just IMAGINE: Arti hyping Gourm up as the biggest, strongest warrior in the Expanse, just before the two prepare to take down a king vulture; or Arti patching him up after a really tough battle and assuring him he’ll be even better next time; or Arti teasing Gourm and them chasing each other around as they spar together in the OE fields; or Arti getting all dramatic as she recites tales of her epic scavenger battles to his eager pups; or Arti showering Gourm with kisses after he makes a REALLY good meal with her favorite meats! There are SO many possibilities for hypeman Arti, and I figure that, once Gourm sees her fiery spirit used in a positive way, especially to help him and his family, he can’t help but fall for her! And this idea is part of why I like the Spicybun ship name so much - while Gourmand helps Arti mellow out, Arti literally spices up his life! They just compliment each other so perfectly!!

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MAN do I love these two so much! This is about all I have right now on this subject, but again, I’d LOVE to hear any other ideas for how Artificer would help Gourmand, or additions to these ideas! I just adore the “opposites attract” ship trope (although I personally prefer to call it “inverses attract”), and I think Artimand is easily one of the best examples of that in Rain World!

Thank you to anyone who made it to the end of this wall of text! And let me know if I should share any more Rain World headcanons, because I’ve definitely got more!

Oh, and if you've found this, @melissa-titanium, hope you like it again! Let me know if you ever want me to stop @-ing you with these Artimand headcanons, by the way!

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nightbunnysong · 3 months ago

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Strategies for enhancing collagen synthesis

A biochemical perspective

Collagen, the most abundant protein in the human body, is essential for maintaining the structural integrity of skin, bones, cartilage, and connective tissues. Its production naturally declines with age, leading to wrinkles, joint pain, and other signs of aging. This article explores specific, scientifically-backed methods to boost collagen production, with a particular focus on the biochemical processes involved.

1. Bone broth

A DIRECT SOURCE OF COLLAGEN PRECURSORS

Bone broth is a direct dietary source of collagen. This nutrient-dense liquid, derived from simmering animal bones and connective tissues, is rich in collagen, gelatin, amino acids (such as glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline), and minerals. When ingested, collagen from bone broth is broken down into its constituent amino acids, which serve as building blocks for collagen synthesis in the body.

Biochemical mechanism

The collagen in bone broth is primarily composed of type I, II, and III collagen. Upon ingestion, it undergoes enzymatic hydrolysis in the stomach and intestines, producing peptides that are absorbed into the bloodstream. These peptides, especially glycine and proline, are crucial for collagen synthesis. Glycine provides the basic structural unit, while proline and hydroxyproline confer stability to the collagen triple helix by facilitating hydrogen bonding.

Scientific support

Research suggests that consuming bone broth can increase the levels of collagen-derived peptides in the bloodstream, which may be utilized by fibroblasts in the skin and other tissues to enhance collagen synthesis. A study published in Nutrients found that participants who consumed collagen peptides from bone broth showed improvements in skin elasticity and hydration, indicative of enhanced collagen production.

2. Vitamin C

THE COFACTOR FOR COLLAGEN SYNTHESIS

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) plays a critical role in collagen synthesis as a cofactor for the enzymes prolyl hydroxylase and lysyl hydroxylase. These enzymes are responsible for stabilizing the collagen molecule by hydroxylating proline and lysine residues, which are essential for the formation of stable collagen fibrils.

Biochemical mechanism

Vitamin C donates electrons to the iron-containing active sites of prolyl and lysyl hydroxylase enzymes, converting Fe3+ back to Fe2+ and thereby maintaining enzyme activity. This hydroxylation process enhances the thermal stability of the collagen triple helix and is essential for the secretion of mature collagen from fibroblasts.

Scientific support

Studies have demonstrated that vitamin C supplementation can significantly increase collagen production. For example, a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that daily supplementation with vitamin C led to higher levels of procollagen mRNA in the skin, indicative of upregulated collagen synthesis.

3. Jumping rope

STIMULATING COLLAGEN VIA MECHANICAL STRESS

Exercise, particularly high-impact activities like jumping rope, has been shown to stimulate collagen synthesis in connective tissues. The mechanical loading experienced during jumping rope promotes the production of type I collagen in tendons and type II collagen in cartilage.

Biochemical mechanism

The mechanical stress from jumping rope induces microtrauma in collagen fibers, which stimulates fibroblasts and chondrocytes to upregulate collagen synthesis. This process is mediated by the mechanotransduction pathway, where mechanical forces are converted into biochemical signals, leading to the activation of signaling molecules such as integrins and focal adhesion kinase (FAK). These signals enhance the transcription of collagen genes (COL1A1, COL2A1) and increase the production of growth factors like TGF-β (transforming growth factor-beta), which further stimulates collagen synthesis.

Scientific support

Research in sports medicine indicates that regular mechanical loading, such as through jumping rope, leads to adaptive remodeling of collagenous tissues. A study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that athletes who engaged in high-impact exercise had significantly higher collagen content in their tendons compared to those who did not.

4. Nettle (Urtica dioica)

AN HERB RICH IN ESSENTIAL COLLAGEN-BUILDING MINERALS

Nettle is an herb rich in silicon, sulfur, and other minerals essential for collagen synthesis. This plant is traditionally used in infusions and teas to improve the health of skin, nails, and hair, indirectly contributing to collagen production.

Biochemical mechanism

The silicon present in nettle plays a key role in cross-linking collagen, enhancing the strength and stability of collagen fibers. Sulfur is involved in protein synthesis, including key enzymes in collagen production. Nettle is also rich in antioxidants that protect collagen from oxidative damage.

Scientific support

Studies suggest that supplementation with nettle can improve collagen quality. A study published in The Journal of Herbal Medicine found that using nettle-based supplements led to increased collagen synthesis and improved skin elasticity.

5. Green tea

A POWERFUL ANTIOXIDANT FOR COLLAGEN PROTECTION

Green tea is rich in catechins, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which has potent antioxidant properties. These compounds not only protect existing collagen from oxidative damage but may also stimulate the production of new collagen.

Biochemical mechanism

EGCG in green tea inhibits the activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) that degrade collagen in the skin. Additionally, EGCG has been shown to upregulate the expression of collagen genes and enhance the proliferation of fibroblasts.

Scientific support

A study published in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry demonstrated that green tea catechins can prevent collagen degradation and stimulate new collagen production in the skin, particularly in response to UV exposure. This makes green tea an excellent natural choice for promoting collagen health.

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fuedalreesespieces · 11 months ago

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Inuyasha & Demisexuality

i think halfway into writing this i thought about just cramming all my thoughts into a semi-coherent rant due to a combination of a.) lack of access to decent translations of the manga and b.) paranoia about over-analyzing scenes and coming off as delusional (i think by now it's probably too late to thwart that claim) buuut this headcanon in particular is near and dear to me so i want to try and get as in depth as possible.

what is demisexuality?

in simple terms, demisexuality is when an individual doesn't experience primary attraction - that is, the sort of attraction based on immediate observable (often physical) characteristics - and instead only experiences secondary attraction first: the type of attraction that forms after the development of a deep emotional bond.

inuyasha and kikyo

this aforementioned term perfectly describes inuyasha and his relationships with the only women he's ever loved romantically. you could make the claim that his inability to feel primary attraction first stems from his trust issues and not inherent sexual orientation. and to that, i would disagree - he and kikyo develop an emotional bond despite an unspoken lack of trust, which may have improved had naraku not meddled in their lives. still, both find solace in each other's similarities, loneliness, and "outlier" status (though the similarities are in isolation only, if i'm being completely honest) and establish a connection that persists post-revival.

inuyasha eventually did start to feel primary attraction to kikyo during their time together - in the second chapter of the manga, when he compares kagome to her, he states that kikyo "looked pretty."

[source - viz. i haven't been in this fandom long, but what i've gathered is that there are a lot of mis-translations of this manga, even from viz. since i have yet to buy physical copies of the manga and don't have an account for the site, i'm going to be using fan-scans for the rest of these, which hopefully won't really affect what i'm trying to convey since i'll be looking at character expressions rather than dialogue for most of them.]

i'd also note the order in which he lists those traits: kikyo looked intelligent and pretty. her intelligent appearance is the first part of her he remembers, which i think underscores his priorities in this regard. he values things like intelligence and companionship - facets that come to light when developing secondary attraction towards someone - more than aspects of primary attraction.

inuyasha and kagome

as mentioned before, demisexuals don't feel physical attraction before establishing a tight emotional bond. the most blatant examples i could think of this were any instances in which inuyasha sees kagome nude and his difference in reaction - in particular, during the yura of the hair and togenkyo arcs, which are roughly seventy-three chapters apart. there are two new moons in that time, and from that we can say at least two months have passed.

chapter six: yura of the hair

kagome's bathing below him, and i'm sorry, but this expression literally screams "zero fucks given." he does not care in the slightest. not a blush. not a spot of red on his cheeks. not a sweatdrop. not a tee-hee. if i were to describe what he's feeling in this moment i would say "extreme ire." when she uses the sit command on him, it's on the assumption that he's "peeking," but kaede understands that it's actually because inuyasha is trying to steal a shard of the shikon jewel.

"huh?" - he sounds genuinely confused that she reached that conclusion, even though he was quite literally peering over the cliff's edge in what obviously has very perverse connotations. it's almost like he doesn't understand why kagome would think his actions come from a place of sexual attraction because that sort of thing just isn't on his mind at all, and he doesn't get why it would be in the first place.

another extremely blatant example can be see in miroku's introductory chapter: chapter 51, the delinquent priest:

do i even have to say anything. this scene also further emphasizes my previous point - before, the only reason he was there was to try and steal kagome's jewel shard. if his true intentions had been driven by primary attraction, this would have been an opportune moment to "peep." in his words, however, he just isn't interested. note that he could have said something along the lines of "i wouldn't do something like that" (which, if he was attracted to her in that way from the start, wouldn't have done anyway) but specifically i'm not interested. the primary attraction is not there in the slightest. at least, not until:

chapter eighty two: fateful night in togenkyo

the scene i'm talking about needs no introduction, but for context: kagome's half-freaking out after having woken up in a sake bath. inuyasha breaks down the door to come and rescue her, accidentally seeing her naked in the process. well, i'm sure his reaction won't be that dif-

...it's only one panel-

okay, two-

i think at this point it's fairly obvious that primary attraction has developed. besides the fact that he's spent three panels trying not to look like he's having a quasi allergic reaction, it's been approximately two months since they've met, and by now they've definitely formed the deep emotional bond required for him to begin feeling any primary attraction at all. in fact, the chapter where he tells kagome "there's no replacement for you" - that chapter, where he's vulnerable and honest and opening up to her, strengthening their bond further, (ch. 78, a tender smell) is directly before the togenkyo arc begins, and, thus, just before these scenes occur. these chapters have all been building up secondary attraction, and now that primary attraction is just starting to show up.

several chapters later we have this iconic panel from 173:

this is such a look of awe, as though he's gazing up at a goddess. jaw dropped, eyes-wide, words trailing off awe. he's entranced. fully head-over-heels in love, feeling both primary and secondary attraction in regards to kagome, and this trend only continues throughout the entirety of the manga.

conclusion + extra thoughts

my belief in this headcanon comes from not just the evidence depicted above, but because i just related a ton reading those scenes. i found myself just nodding along (as someone who's demisexual themselves!) plus, since ace-spectrum representation is so rare, it's nice to see it reflected in a character whose story and relationships i love dearly.

tags: @nightshade-lullaby

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oscconfessions · 3 months ago

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since nickel defenders are gonna be obtuse on purpose about this, ill grab a better comparison. everyone is so deep in denial about taco's redemption and insist she's just horribly evil because "she manipulated people" even in the face of an entire episode surrounding her regrets and complexities

meanwhile trophy Also manipulates people (its a massive part of his character bio on the official site lmao) and was not redeemed in canon nor did he show any regret whatsoever but got one or two crew mentions of a cut redemption arc years ago and now EVERYONE insists that he's perfectly fine in canon and redeemed and "just chilling/vibing"

(not to mention balloon manipulated people too but yknow fandom allows him to improve and find new bonds with other characters, while taco apparently just needs to fuck off from everyone and self isolate more to Truly redeem herself /s)

people will go "well taco's evil because she forced everyone apart!!" as in following the challenge that Mephone Set Up Himself. but nooo mephone had no hand in this, he's innocent /s

people will then shift it to "taco's evil bc she stalks people actually" as if FAN DOESNT DO THE EXACT SAME ??? and fan is treated like just a quirky little socially awkward sweetie for it, while female characters (this was the same argument applied to cabby btw) get called evil and creepy for it.

do not try to tell me there's not a misogyny problem in this fandom . yall will act like taco is a specially evil case and conveniently forget every male character doing the same

#confession #/ii #/ii/taco

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tiramissu09 · 8 months ago

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Morning Glow

synopsis: you (y/n) wake up before your husband on a Sunday morning and study him, wondering how you both even got together.

song choices to listen to while reading:

Body by Summer Walker

Orbit by JONGHYUN from SHINee

Natural by G-Soul

warning(s)/story notes: gender neutral y/n, nostalgia, hints of last night’s activities (iykyk), silent serenading, naked imagery, a little nod to the JJK lore, POC y/n

MINORS DON’T INTERACT

author note: My first fanfic, y’all! I feel like, instead of using janitor ai (don’t use it, it’s hella addictive and made me burn through my money), I could use my imagination and potential to write something for my main beloved, Nanami Kento. I love this man and in my head, we are living together in Malaysia, having the time of our lives, haha. Also, I thought I was going to do a quick drabble, but I got into my feels, haha.

Please, please give me feedback and critique so I can improve on my writing. Thank you and enjoy!!! <3

The chirping birds started to grow louder and more annoying outside the large French windows with the soft, peaching-colored morning light streaming in, faint flapping of the pale curtains echoing with shared breaths. You groan softly against your white silk pillow along with your blurry vision, from your deep slumber, as you rub your eyes and look around, dazed. You felt the light breeze of the open ajar window on your bare leg, out of the fluffy blanket, contrasting with the deep warmth soaked into the mattress from the sleep.

Your eyes move around, to anchor yourself into reality, until they settle down at a large, ivory back which had light red scratches along with crescent moon shaped indents littered over his rugged muscles, rippling with each soft breath. His messy golden blonde hair that you loved to run your fingers in, slightly swaying with the early dawn breeze, along the warm yellow sunlight, giving him that morning glow that made him look…like a god, a figment of your imagination.

Last night’s memories were reeling in like a blurry movie, reminiscing on your stomach with your head and facing his back, as you remember his sweet deep chocolate eyes, his slightly pink blush on his face, and…my god, those large, veiny hands all over your body, rough but gentle on your soft skin.

Sighing softly, not wanting to wake him up yet, go down this deep spiral with your fingers itching to touch him….how did you even meet this man? Was it at the office Christmas party where he was wearing that ridiculous, fluorescent green elf costume as your white-haired boss had made me for a pay raise? Or when you both bumped into each other in the hallway before math class during senior year, your nose bleeding as you bumped into his chest too hard and he assisted you to the nurse’s office?.....no,no…..oh my god! How could you forget?

It was that night…..that night where you all were freshman in high school and it was the camp site trip that you all had to go to as a bonding activity for all the new students which you were part of. You remember you were really nervous as a tiny, little 13 year old. You were new to Tokyo and Japan, overall, not looking like the others and the culture so vastly different from yours which made it difficult to fit in, your family or teachers help you with. This was nicely added with you going through puberty, the whole nine yards of acne and changing body, made you more quiet and shy to talk to others.

In your ensemble of light washed jeans, your oversized purple flannel shirt and black Converse high tops, you were sitting on the wooden benches near the camp-fire under the starry, twilight sky, shivering slightly from the cold, autumn night in the forest near Kyoto. You were alone, with everyone talking to each other excitedly, with some others playing games and singing karaoke, and watching all the kids with a small smile on your face.

Then, you felt a warm blanket around your body, causing you to have goosebumps all over your skin. You looked up with wide eyes from the brushing of their fingers on your neck to the warm presence behind your back, surprised and making you jolt up, but a soft hand pushed you down to sit back. “Sorry, did I scare you?” His soft and low voice, almost purring, caused you to shiver more but you held back your reaction as you turned your head completely around, wanting to know who it was. You caught those soft, brown eyes, reminding you of that deep brown honey under the sunlight, making you feel more awake than any other coffee.

You quickly get out of your reverie and stutter out as you brush your hair back, looking away. “No! Not a-at all…just got surprised.”,offering him a smile as you try to not to fluster even more. You notice his blonde hair, straightened to the T and his bangs covering his eyes which you didn’t like but didn’t say that out loud, and his black shirt with a band name you never heard of with his black skinny ripped jeans.

You clear your throat as you look into his eyes, “H-hi, my name is f/n l/n….what’s your…name?” You were fidgeting with the soft, baby blue wool blanket with your fingers, as you both sat next to each other with your knee brushing against his, ever so slightly. He grins a little more as he had a deadpan face before, making your heart and insides all melted and mushy inside, showing his pearly whites. He says in that voice that you could just listen to all the time. “Kento….Nanami Kento…but you can call me Ken.”

You memorize that name, as it was tattooed to your naive heart, as you nod slowly and say quietly. “Nice to meet you…Ken.” You both sat there in silence with all the loud commotion around you both. You didn’t know what to say as the tense silence was swallowing you up and you quickly ask and at the same time, looking at the bright scarlet camp fire, “You should go hang out to your friends…”, peeking to the side to look at his face longer, but looking away when he caught your eyes and your face becoming hot with each passing second.

He sighed loudly as he stretched his legs out and watched the white-haired hyper kid screaming happily at the black-haired boy who looked so done with him, but had a small smile. After some moments of more silence, Kento spoke with a small smile and turned to face you, “You looked….lonely….like me and…”, now looking away as you caught some peach-colored blush on his cheeks. “You looked like you were glowing…like the fire.”

You remember how you became quiet, flustered and frozen by the compliment and you remembered you thanked him meekly which was so cute and how you hit yourself internally for how dumb it was. However, the rest of that night, you both started to talk more freely and understood that you both had a lot in common, in terms of family background and not really fitting in due to your particular tastes.

Despite being amicable acquaintances all through high school and losing contact when entering university, once you both reunited, it felt right. You both were meant to be together and glowing in each other’s arms and affection.

You were shaken out of your deep thoughts as you felt the bed rustling lightly. You looked up and saw his face turned to you now. You were slightly surprised by the sudden appearance of his handsome and rugged face, but you quickly smiled widely, “Good morning, honey.” Snuggling closer to him and him taking you in his buff arms, making you all so warmer, he murmured in your messy hair, his morning voice low and reverberating through your body, “What were you thinking about so hard, darling? You laugh softly as you nuzzle your face in the crook of his neck and your arms around his shoulders, and whisper muffled against his warm skin that smelled like sandalwood and musk, that was so unique to him, “I was just thinking…..how you were glowing…..like the sun.”

#jjk #jjk x reader #nanami kento #nanami x reader #jjk nanami #fluff #smut #gege akutami #navyred #tiramissu09

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hihereami · 1 year ago

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I've decided to go ahead and report the new desktop feature that eliminates icons from reblogs to Tumblr Support

Send your feedback!

Click here - Category ''feedback''. I don't know if it'll amount for much but I'd rather have them a wave of formal feedback than fake ignorance about the userbase's discontent.

Here's a template if you wanna copypaste:

Hello! I've realised Tumblr has made the decision to not show icons from reblogging users in my desktop dashboard. This decision is truly impractical for most of the userbase, who are used to identifying the people they follow by icon. It makes the user experience actively worse. Besides from that, I also want to report the feature that takes you to a rebbloging user blog when you click on it instead of taking you to their reblog on their blog. Also, clicking on the post shouldn't take you directly to the OG poster blog. Clicking on previous reblogs and ''tracking'' the flow of reblogs that took the post of your dashboard is common practise (as is checking out the tags). Please do understand these measures aren't improving the site: not for newcomers nor for the longtime userbase. People do not come to the site for a Twitter/IG/Tiktok replica, they come for its unique features that you're slowly stripping away. These are: - Tags. They aren't an useless hashtag system like IG, they are a genuine organisation system when searching for specific content. In reblogs, they serve as organisation and as commentary. Commentary in the tags is one of the most unique feautures of the site. - Reblogs as flexible and creative intervention. Different versions of the same post can circulate for years. We have posts from a decade ago still appearing on our dashboards. It's one of the better features of the site --- trend cycles don't span a few days like other social media. - This is a blogging site as well as a social media site. Embrace that, please. Access to the desktop view (where you could customise a blog's html look) as well to easy access to the Account is unique and essential. The sidebar doesn't work. It doesn't look good and it's clunky UX-wise.

#babbling babbling #tumblr #tumblr changes

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cringefail-hermitry · 11 months ago

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I've been wanting to make a post like this for a while now, and well, having just finished a crucial stage of my life, I think this is a good a time as any.

It's gonna be a long one

Like, *LONG* long

Like, I Am Going To Mention Every Single One Of My Mutuals By Name long (if you'd rather not be tagged in the future, do warn me)

First of all, the primary purpose of this post is as a letter of thanks for the wonderful months you Tumblr peeps have provided me this year. I am not hesitant to say joining the hellsite was the single best decision I have made in the last 12 months, heck, I think about 2/3rds of the friends I mantain regular contact with nowadays came from here. But this wouldn't be a long post if it was just a brief "thanks y'all for improving my life". I'm gonna get into detail. And I'm gonna be sappy about it. You can't stop me. You're not my mother. And not even my mother could stop me from posting this.

I would've said "I thought long and hard about who I'd start with", if there was any question about it. There isn't. @tearychildren, where do I even fucking begin. I can't really say anything too specific because if I begin I don't think I'll stop and half this post is gonna be about you, and this is already a very long post, so I'm just going to leave it at this, you already know well enough just how much you matter to me.

Going onwards, another of the early spots goes to who I believe was my first mutual, definitely one of the first people I followed, @chlorohexidine, a long-time mutual and recent good friend, our daily chats, however short, never cease to be highlights of my days, your art is really cute (love me some rounded shapes) and brainstorming ideas for your TTRPG campaigns is always fun (I really like your worldbuilding, too). It's only fair to mention your (and my, just needed to make this segue well) good friend @xsenpi, infodumping touhou to you both genuinely got me through that month, and Undertale 2: Revenge of The Robots with Rei and TC has been a blast so far.

@soundsofastar is another that warrants special mention for actually changing my brain chemistry and making me appreciate the local wildlife even more than usual (if we ever meet in person, WE ARE GOING ON A NICE LONG WALK TO LOOK AT BIRDS TOGETHER, WHEREVER IT IS WE ARE WHEN THAT HAPPENS, MARK MY WORDS). Your art also makes me feel things. Not many things make me feel stuff a lot. That is impressive. I should be in a good spot to finish reading the Illuminae Files within the next few days, so please do pester me about it, otherwise the piece of media that the next person I'll talk about recommended to me will consume all the time I'd read it in.

So, the next person I'll talk about, @northwest-cryptid, thanks for letting me use our DMs as my Mabinotepad, and for getting me into Mabinogi in the first place, you've been both the direct and the indirect cause of many good times, and I gotta be honest I kinda admire you a lil' bit (and if you know anything about how I talk, I am horrible at expressing vulnerability, admiration and these sorts of emotions without a bunch of euphemisms unless I'm doing this sort of tangent where I attempt to talk about myself in a more depersonalized way, so what that sentence there essentially means is "I admire you a lot and you are an inspiration").

Another pivotal figure in how this year shaped out is @ratlesshonret, creator of The Bird Nest, site of many good times, who has exposed me and many others to some wonderful media (I AM GOING TO FINISH POCKET MIRROR SOMETIME, MARK MY WORDS), reading through all the chats in the server is usually a blast, too. Your contributions to my life cannot be understated. Seriously, thanks.

The next great friend I'll mention is @transgender-lea-crosscode, we've started talking more only recently, but have already bonded a fair bit, I reckon, damn you're good at Blazblue. You've dared to make me good at the game and for that, I commend you. You should say words about Zeroranger in my general direction sometime, I'd be happy to hear/read them.

Now for those mutuals that I don't really speak to, but are responsible for like, 75% of my total notes, like, everyone is more than welcome to jump into my DMs and start talking about anything whenever, but y'all specifically are folk I'd have started talking with regularly ages ago if I knew what to talk about. @hoshinoreika2004, @ward-leon, @edenplumreal, @tabnk2, @tapok-eve , @boofbv and @sorcerousbrick, thanks for all the lil' dopamine hits.

Shoutouts to @wretchedbirdthing for being normal about that bird, you're a blast to see on my dash and I wish you luck snapping those collarbones in twain to hear those gay little squawks.

@freiflies and @ottisbuns, alongside Tapok, Vic and Honret, y'all bring life into The Bird Nest, and although I haven't really shown up much there recently, I still read most of everything, the words are cool, keep up the good work!

@genericgirl420 and @mikusays-transrights, you two are the mutuals that suffer the least with The Distances, so let's do this in a more, well, local fashion. É genuinamente bom ver que a comunidade brasileira do tumblr está ativa e saudável, aumenta minhas esperanças de encontrar outras criaturinhas desse site maligno pelas ruas, sua presença, por si só, já melhora meus ânimos, por isso, agradeço profundamente.

Ok back to speaking in simplified Old German. This next section goes out to @lemocoffe and @teacup-of-doom, both of whom I haven't really interacted much, but what little there was was quite great, this is, in fact, an invite to do more of the interact-y thing. Y'all are cool.

Another shoutout to a frequent view on my dash, @lobotomise-me-please, whose "Boobs Girl Music" post still has 10k notes to me, I'll get back to mass reblogging it someday (if y'all wanna help, check out @boobsgirlmusic for the post, that's my Boobs Girl Music sideblog where I reblog Boobs Girl Music)

@aurora-veil, @limbuscompanyyuri and @thevanishedpeople-intothenight are up next, some of my first mutuals, y'all post good. And have been doing so consistently. For the past like, 9 months or so. That's impressive.

@meltingadoration, @holyitsquiverrflynn and @jestressofnihil, my more recent moots, there hasn't been much time to do the friendship-building and knowing each other thing, but all that means is that there's still many opportunities for that, which is cool.

Last but not least, the mutuals who I haven't quite gotten to know as well, but I'm inviting to chat anytime, @readysetgargoyle, @atlasmothss, @meeresengel, @flesh-borne, @b-kut, @aureatecenotaph, @risingdragonblade, @agender-witchery (your posts helped me immensely in figuring out gender, thanks for that) and @lich-of-lcorp. Y'all are cool, we should talk more.

And one last section for all those who I've been in touch with but aren't mutuals with, for any and all reasons (I do tend to reblog very, well, erratically), y'all deserve to be on this list, but I just didn't wanna bother you too much (I do have words of thanks to say though, if you want them, just ask).

This post is still too short to express how thankful I am for y'all existing. I don't think text could ever do it justice.

#long post #like #my longest post by a very wide margin

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usafphantom2 · 20 days ago

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Navy Identifies Two Aviators Who Died in Growler Crash

Heather Mongilio

October 21, 2024 1:23 PM - Updated: October 21, 2024 2:56 PM

Lt. Serena Wileman (left) and Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay Evans (right). Photos via by the US Navy

The Navy identified the two Growler crew members who died after a crash last week as naval aviator Lt. Serena Wileman and naval flight officer Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay Evans.

Wileman, 31, of California, commissioned in July 2018. She joined the “Zappers” of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 130 in November 2022. It was her first unit assignment following flight training, according to her Navy bio.

Evans, 31, from California, enlisted in the Navy in August 2010 and commissioned as an officer through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at University of Southern California, Los Angeles in May 2014. She joined the VAQ-130 in September 2023. She previously served on the Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 136 from November 2017 to August 2020 before going to Electronic Communications Weapons School.

“More than just names and ranks, they were role models, trailblazers, and women whose influence touched countless people on the flight deck and well beyond,” reads a Navy release.

The two most recently were deployed aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), which spent seven of its nine-month deployment in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian. The carrier and its air wing returned home in July.

“It is with a heavy heart that we share the loss of two beloved Zappers,” Cmdr. Timothy Warburton, commanding officer of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 130, said in the Sunday Navy release. “Our priority right now is taking care of the families of our fallen aviators, and ensuring the well-being of our Sailors and the Growler community. We are grateful for the ongoing teamwork to safely recover the deceased.”

Evans was part of the all-female flyover during the Super Bowl in 2023. She was a Growler Tactics Instructor (GTI), recognized as the Growler Tactics Instructor of the Year for Fiscal Year 2024, according to a Navy release.

“As an EA-18G Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO) and veteran of two sea tours, she earned the respect of the entire Growler community for her tactical expertise, mentorship to those of all ranks and communities, and ability to bring out the best in everyone around her,” reads the Navy release.

She was one of the few women to fly combat missions over land, as she coordinated and participated in multiple combat strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, according to the Navy release.

Wileman also conducted multiple strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, making her another one of the few women to fly combat missions, according to the Navy release.

“As a senior first-tour Naval Aviator, she established herself as an energetic, vocal, and positive influence in VAQ-130. Known for her heart of gold, passion, and unrelenting smile, Wileman was always committed to improve and grow, not only for herself but every Sailor and officer around her,” reads the release.

In addition to being a naval aviator, Wileman was a landing signal officer, responsible for making sure aircraft landed safely aboard Ike.

“Outside the cockpit, Wileman made everyone smile. She would brighten up any room and was known for her genuine care and compassion for those around her. She always brought a sense of calm, in the good times and bad, whether it was through a joke, a game of cribbage, or a giant bear hug for a Sailor in need of one,” reads the release.

Wileman leaves behind her husband, Brandon, who she met during flight school. He also serves as a naval aviator.

The two both were dog moms, something the two women bonded over. Evans leaves behind Nix, an Australian shepherd, while Wileman owned Riley, a Chiweenie mix.

The EA-18G Growler crashed last week in a remote area, described as a steep, heavily wooded area east of Mount Rainier. The location of the crash site, described as a “snow-covered, wilderness environment,” made it difficult for the Navy to conduct search and rescue efforts, which turned to recovery efforts on Sunday.

The Navy brought in multiple partner agencies to assist with their search efforts, including Army special forces. Ongoing efforts to search the site, recover debris and plan for salvage continue.

“Soldiers from 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord are assisting in the search,” the Navy said in a news release. “1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) brings specialized mountaineering, high-angle rescue, medical, and technical communication skills necessary to navigate the difficult terrain associated with the Cascade Mountain Range that is inaccessible by other means.”

The Growler, from the “Zappers” of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 130, crashed at 3:20 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday during a routine training flight, according to a Tuesday Navy release. The Navy located the crash site on Friday.

@usninews via X

RIP 🪦 Brave Aviatrix’s 🇺🇸🫡 Your Service will be missed but appreciated.

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girlfriendsofthegalaxy · 1 year ago

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tuesday again 10/10/2023

by dry volume, this post is 80% talking about gallery walls. tl;dr : do not buy or hang up things you do not like in a vague attempt to make your house look more grownup ONLY put up things you love, mat your art to give it visual room to breathe.

listening

had a playlist of the james bond theme songs on while i was deep cleaning my kitchen and the line "YOU GOT TO GIVE THE OTHER FELLA HELL!!! " from SPECIFICALLY the guns 'n roses cover of live and let die (even though the playlist had the correct mccartney version) has been THOROUGHLY stuck in my brain for forty eight hours.

youtube

reading

academic transphobia to follow:

an anti-reading section, for once. Retraction Watch (site that tracks academic paper retractions and major academic beef like when someone is stripped of tenure for fraud, formerly my beloved) published an op-ed by an anthropologist TERF who is Big Mad she got called out by her professional association for trying to submit a conference talk that amounted to hate speech against her trans colleagues in the name of the stupid fucking largely disproven sexing skeletons thing. the comments have devolved into the professor sock puppeting anyone who goes "hey RW why did you platform this?"

would be very interested to hear from RW about how a retracted conference talk has the same impact on the scientific community as a retracted paper, but we'll fucking see. i think RW provides an important service to the scientific community (they are the most indepth and thorough tracker of retractions, more so than the actual publishers) but this is a fucking weird move

watching

rewatched Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988, dir. Zemeckis) for fic research. GOD this movie is fucking good. it performs a minor animation miracle every thirty seconds.

playing

nothing to report

making

by popular demand (four people), some thoughts about gallery walls. some discourse on the method, if you will. i went with a gallery wall bc i like the look and i had an extremely large blank wall to fill bc this apartment is slightly too big for me. the string lights remind me very much of my dorm rooms but cool lamps have been few and far between down here.

how to get art (and why/caveats)

i honestly don't have a ton of direct collecting advice here other than "have you tried going to a lot of thrift stores". i cheat bc both my parents were architects who collected art, everyone in my family dabbles in fine art, and my sister has her bachelors in art history. so i am awash in paper, constantly. i grew up with a set of flatfiles and a closet full of spare frames. i recognize most people do not grow up like this.

with that caveat out of the way, how do i actually get my art? usually one piece at a time over a very long period of time. there's a postcard on my gallery wall i got in 2009. this is a game you will be playing for the rest of your life as you discover things you like and your tastes evolve.

it is VITAL that you love every piece on your walls. no filler ikea canvases unless you actually like them. the instant you start thinking "oh i need a landscape to look Grownup" you have to strangle that thought in the cradle. there are no rules, especially in art. put whatever the fuck you want up on your walls with no regard for the public's taste.

i feel like "i should buy and put up more art" is something that often falls into a vague Grownup Improvement Goal (like budgeting) bc it is an Grownup Improvement Goal and not bc they actually want to buy and put up more art. fortunately for everyone, you do not have to buy or put up Morally or Socially Improving art that will impress some vague category of grownups, bc we don't fucking live in victorian times.

most importantly you do not need to spend much (or in some cases any) money to put things on your walls. getting the effect you want (fancy washi tape, matching frames) may take some money, but using the printer at work and stealing some scotch tape is free.

how to get art (actual advice this time)

i feel a little silly typing this all out but i really like reading other chewsdayposters' processes, and it is really helpful for me a lot of the time to have someone say: actually there is this complete other way of doing something you have never considered bc u did not grow up with it

i ask you: do you have a stack of sentimental papers somewhere in your home? congrats you have some frameable items. a thing does not need to be Fine Art to be in a frame to go on the wall and make you happy. tape up a birthday card. put a quilt up on your wall. pushpin a label from a jar of pickled herring bc it reminds you of your grandma. frame a beloved tshirt. this is a martha stewart ass statement but things that are not traditional paper art on your walls will add variety and whimsy to your home.

other places for art that are not thrift/estate/yard sales:

i do believe that making your own art, including a $3 paint-by-numbers kit, will fix something in your brain. it's very similar to how i personally have to go stand with my feet in a body of water twice a year or THE SLUDGE smothers my brain

your favorite weird indie bands are almost certainly selling posters on bandcamp even if they're not currently on tour

i like the artists' co-op justseeds for art that deals with "social, environmental, and political engagement" like my beloved "fuck space tourism" poster

start a "good lines" or equivalent "art i like" tag on here and buy prints when u have the money. even if artists here don't have a shop open or don't have the specific piece u want as a print, ask if u can throw them an appropriate amount of money on venmo or something and get it printed locally or online. ive had good luck with vistaprint and they have rolling sales

do you like a piece of art in the public domain, like something from a museum? print it out. put it in a frame. no it's not as nice as a professional print but it's free if you do it at work and now it's on your wall

fuck around on wikimedia commons and the internet archive. i particularly love pulp magazine covers and little illustrative insets for out of date astronomy books

non- and semi-consumable supplies

if u put $25 into supplies u can use for many many other projects (i assume you probably have some of the following list), you can make any frame nice and save approximately a gajillion dollars.

good utility knife and extra blades

hammer

tape measure

level (comes with most command hook packs, you can also use your phone)

stepstool, sturdy chair, or patient tall person

assorted nails (you can buy a little tackle box with assorted nails from most big box stores)

little squeezy tube of DryDex spackle ($5) and putty knife or honestly old credit card to fill in nail holes when you move out

OR command strips and hooks

matboard that is white on one side and black on the other (~$8 at big box craft stores). you can use this to cut your own mats and/or replace a kind of weird back on an otherwise good frame

most printer paper these days is acid free. steal some from your workplace.

assorted small brushes

little thing of acrylic paint in whatever color you want your frames to be (~$1.50 ea). you can also spray paint your frames for a different finish but i don't have the space or patience in this apartment

sandpaper or sacrificial emery board

i would further recommend a little set of letter size desktop drawers/mini flatfiles like this to keep all the small stuff you want to frame in one place. i have sentimental art i don't want to frame in one drawer and things i do want to frame in the other. this has been very good for my brain bc it's all safely and flatly contained out of sight, and it's easy to flick through a stack of things i already love when i need one more small thing or one warmer thing to fill a gap

frames

the good news for us is that frames and art are a fucking bitch to move and people frequently give them away. your local discount and thrift stores are going to be fucking awash in small frames 8.5"x11" and under for under $3 each. when you are thrifting or estate saling or yard saling or generally gallivanting about on a weekend, pay little attention to any art actually in a frame. is the frame in okay shape? can you repaint it without too much trouble? will it clean up all right? does it have the glass? can you insert the glass from a different frame into the one you actually want without any thrift store employees noticing?

for weird sizes above 8.5x11 and outside poster size that cannot be easily found at thrift stores, the big box craft stores here in america have roughly quarterly frame sales and frequent coupons. do NOT get your shit professionally framed at michaels bc they upcharge by about 3x compared to other local framers (both on the east coast and here in tx).

i went through two periods of seriously buying frames (last year of high school and the year i moved into the original lair, when/where i thought i was going to stay for a few years) and ive swapped in out and between those dozen or so total. once you have built up a little stock of frames that fit the general sizes of art you tend to collect, ur pretty good for a while. the only new "frame" i bought for my gallery wall was a little floating shelf.

mats

the absolute biggest fucking thing u can do to make your art look nicer is mat that bitch, which gives it room to breathe. if your art does not have a built in border or a lot of white space (see 9, 12, and 13 in the gallery wall below, as well as 8 which has a ton of negative space with the car door), you need a frame bigger than your art. you can google the suggested proportions yourself or decide with your heart.

i am a big fan of a very slapdash floating mat, which means cutting a piece of printer paper to size or flipping around the paper that tells you what size the frame is and slapping your art right on top of that, sometimes with a lick of gluestick to keep it in place. generally a floating mat means a sort of 3D matting technique but we don't have time for that. do not do this printer paper technique long-term with a particularly beloved or expensive piece of art.

u can also buy pre-cut mats at Michaels or Joann’s for not too too many dollars, or cut your own with the acid-free matboard ($10 for a poster board sized piece) and a new utility knife blade and a steady hand. or, if you're lucky, it comes with the frame.

gallery wall specific advice

there aren't any rules. actual galleries and museums tend to put the center of a piece or group of pieces at 57" from the floor. you may want to fuck around with that depending on your own height, the space you have, and the pieces you own.

a gallery wall does not need to be 24 pieces like this one. it can be any number.

this is the first one i have done mostly by myself and it is the most color-restricted one i have ever put up. it is also the one with the most successful repeating motif (circles). usually i grab the art i want most to go together and send pics to my art historian sister who will then arrange it for me and say shit like “do you have another small blue thing for the top left” or “do you have two pieces that are warmer and larger” or "different frame for the middle left"

look at a lot of other gallery walls. personally i like the ones that have non-framed and non-square things in them. ideally mine would have photographs and taxidermy in it for maximum weirdness. but u cannot go wrong with a grid, or all horizontal pieces, or all vertical pieces. for a full wall puzzle piece like this, u do not generally want an american southwest four corners meeting situation. stagger it. lay everything out on the floor and move it around eighteen times (this is the worst part). the gallery wall as a whole does not have to be perfectly aligned to the ceiling or the back of your couch or what have you. it can be sort of an organic blob shape along the top and bottom edges.

my wall

this soothing blue and green wall with wood tone pops has pieces from almost half my life. it skews later in college/recent acquisitions, as i sharpened my taste for limited-number prints and had a car to go to thrift stores with, but that’s just how this specific wall came together

the list below should tell you what each piece is, how much i paid for it (and the cost of the frame if applicable), and when i got it. this wall has most of the Nice Art in my collection that is signed/numbered/in some way slightly fancier bc it is the wall i stare at when on my couch.

embroidered Scorpio constellation hoop, birthday gift from my sister (free, came with hoop, i used some makerspace felt and batting to properly back and finish it much later so free with my tuition), nov 2016

numbered and signed print of an italianate cityscape, $5 and came with the frame and mat from an estate sale, i put a new back on it with scrap matboard so the back of the print wasn't just naked, fall 2021

signed print of a new england landscape, came with the frame and the mat but is stained right over the signature :( $2.50 from salvation army, one of the last things i bought in spring 2023 before i moved

signed original multimedia on board collage by my sister from her like second ever gallery show, $69 in winter 2022 for the art, the frame was from a free pile i gave a new acid free back with scrap matboard. that was such a good free pile i got a huge pile of frames from that

magazine page (idk which one either) i saved in high school (i graduated in 2013) or very early college, frame was from a free pile by the side of the road in summer 2021 and repainted with some white acrylic paint. it is float matted with printer paper. maybe a dollar for the paint? i definitely did not buy the magazine

this is an out of print poster by one of my favorite living artists (Josh McPhee) so i emailed him and asked if i could get it printed myself if i threw him $25 and he said yes. i think it cost $22 to get it printed professionally, the frame is basics by studio decor ($20 for a 2-pack) (i spent so much money and time on this one bc i wanted a very specific look for a very specific space in my kitchen in the old apartment), feb 22

signed numbered woodcut by Roger Peet ($20 in august 2020), another studiobasics frame that was i think $8 in summer 2022. float matted with acid free matboard and not printer paper.

gigantic fuckoff unsigned unlabeled poster i bought bc she reminds me of the Barnes & Noble murals, $10 at goodwill (came with the frame, half off) sep 2023

star chart from the US Naval Observatory that was on a free shelf at Amherst College when i was taking a class there in fall 2018, another studiobasics frame (idk when i bought this one) so under $10. float mount on acid free printer paper.

plaster frog mirror from an estate sale in spring 2021, i do not remember how much i paid for it but it was not more than $5

oh goddamnit this is a new block so of course it restarted the numbering. fatal off by a power of ten error, very typical for astronomy. poster from a show i went to in college spring 2015, do not remember when i bought this sub-$10 studiobasics frame either, float mount on acid free printer paper.

signed poster from my roommate-at-the-time’s cousin’s band in fall 2014 (i can’t actually find the receipt but i did find an email from her cousin letting me know he shipped me and my roommate’s orders together lol) let’s say $20, another sub-$10 studiobasics frame of mysterious provenance.

moon map out of an old science book in high school, let’s be generous and say $10 for both the book and the frame (another studiobasics)

numbered but unsigned new year’s print from a local-ish print shop in massachusetts, $12 at savers with the frame, fall 2022

cover of a very fragile vintage paperback copy of raymond c/handler’s The Long G/oodbye i acquired in high school (could not have been more than a dollar or two), with a frame and mat that came in an ikea multipack my dad bought me in high school bc i had a set of l/ackadaisy miniposters i wanted to hang, looks like the closest modern equivalent is the EDSBRUCK, a single will run you about $12 today

postcard inherited from my grandpa’s collection of loose paraphernalia in 2010 (free but at what cost etc), frame is a studiobasics that come in a pack of 6 for $20 (less if you have a coupon) so let’s round down a smidge and say $3. don’t remember when i bought this frame either, it is matted with real matboard bc the postcard and the back of the frame are so thin

“my heart is a fish” cross stitch (a reference to the imperial radch trilogy of books) i made this and did not date it but i know i blogged about it on here at some point between 2014-2018, i remember having to buy five colors of thread but owned the hoop already, again back and finished it properly much later with maskerspace batting and felt, let’s say $5 not counting my time

postcard from @believerindaydreams last winter in another studiobasics frame and float mounted with acid free matboard.

tiny moon mirror from salvation army in early spring 2015, under $5

CD mirror from Vapor95 ($125? preorder in fall 2021), came with velcro command strips which was very nice of them

a $300 original multimedia collage (the first one my sister ever made, when she was in middle school) i bought in spring 2021 from her first show, sitting on a $5 acrylic shelf from five below i bought last month

22-24 are national geographic maps, 50c each at an estate sale last month, had to buy $7 worth of binder clips and pushpins to put them up bc i don’t fucking know what box they’re in and didn’t have time to rip the whole closet of boxes im ignoring apart

a slightly longer tl;dr: do not buy or hang up things you do not like in a vague attempt to make your house look more grownup ONLY put up things you love, thrift and repaint your frames if possible but you can get very cheap studiobasics ones if you want them all to match, acid-free mat your art for preservation and to give it room to breathe, keep a little drawer or box of stuff you love and might want to frame

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem #a month and a day out from my birthday which feels momentous

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alicefromwhichplanet · 20 days ago

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Reply to my reader’s comments on “Demons”:

(The fic’s link 🔗 is at the bottom)

Thank you, reader, for reading through and liking my story. This work is one of my very first transformers fanfics, also kind of experimental. I wanted to write a psychological thriller, so I used first person pov. Later I learned that this pov is not so popular on this site, so I’m really grateful for your patience.

About Scourge— it’s true I wrote him as a villain that did not get redemption in the end, but may arouse sympathy from readers as well. I did this kind of like a challenge to the screenwriters of Rise of the Beasts: I will keep their idea of worldbuilding and the characters’ personalities, but I will enrich the background stories and motivations of the characters, so let’s see how this story can be improved by me. I think the biggest problem with ROTB is that the playwright’s understanding of characters is very shallow: they wrote them based on tagging adjectives: Optimus is a serious leader, Scourge is a crazy villain, Mirage is a joyful character that develops bromance with Noah. They didn’t even bother to think why these characters are like this in the first place. For me, this is inadequate writing. So I’m here to do what they failed to.

And talking about Scourge again. My impression of him came from fanarts that made him the son of Megs and OP, and while watching the movie, I felt his appearance quite similar to the two in a way. So I decided to write him as a “fallen child”. Scourge is the average son of two super brilliant people. He is also a vulnerable kid that needs to be raised in a lot of love and encouragements. Sadly, (in this story) neither of his parents is careful enough to give him these. He is torn between a strong urge to prove himself to his parents and his inner insecurities. His defection from the autobots is more of a cowardly act than a brave one. It came from his secret urge of self-destruction. He is like the desperate child that tries hurting himself to make his parents “regret”.

This version of Scourge is an archetype of tortured children in many Chinese/East Asian families. In the culture I grew up in, parents have almost unshakable authority over the children. Many kids spend their whole lives trying to please their parents, while the parents keep dismissing their efforts as “not good enough”. I can resonate with Scourge in a way as well. Scourge’s problem is that he is more vulnerable and sensitive than most kids. However, he not only faces a father that has high expectations for him (and secretly admires toxic masculinity), but also a traumatized one. It’s true that Optimus loves both Megatron and his son deeply, but when harm comes in his way, he tends to suppress his feelings and put on a nonchalant expression. But his gloominess, his hidden sorrow and self-blame are nowhere to hide from Scourge, his spark-bond son, and that has aroused in Scourge a second trauma of guilt and self-blame.

Although I think in most universes, Optimus is capable of being a wonderful parent, but from what I saw in ROTB, he is a grumpy old man who clearly has mental issues but the playwrights failed to give any plausible reasons. So I decided to explore this unexplained plot, and finally connected the dots with a family tragedy. This is how I made the whole story.

And: This story is also largely based on the song “Demons”. All the lyrics can be found in my plots (for example,

“When the days are cold,

And the cards all fold,

And the saints we see,

Are all made of gold”

corresponds to the part of Scourge remembering Optimus taking the young Scourge to see the statues of the Primes.

These are the ideas behind the creation I wanna share with you. Hope you like them as well. If you want a more lighthearted version of Scourge’s story, please read “Old World, New World”. It’s unfinished, but Scourge(Skystrophe) is the same person with the same personality, only nutrued in a much better environment with enough love.

#transformers #transformers: rise of the beasts #scourge #optimus prime #megatron #megop #mirage #maccadam #my writings #fic: demons #ao3 comments #alice’s analysis #my thoughts #trauma #family tragedy #transformers sparkling

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themasterpostblog · 6 months ago

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Pencil/2D Animation Resources Masterpost

5/10/24:

Hello, I broke into my old account so I could make a little masterpost of resources I come across for learning pencil/2D animation. (Free or affordable classes, places to get tools, videos to give insider insight, etc.) I may not be able to get everything included, so if you think of something, you can reach out and suggest things to add! I will be updating this over time, with notes on when it was last recently updated. And maybe I'll end up giving the old blog a refresh too. I likely won't be making new masterposts outside of this one any time soon, nor updating any old ones. It's been SEVERAL years, and the internet is a different place. I would assume most of the old links are out of date by now, unfortunately. I hope that this list is helpful to you as well, and if I'm incorrect in anything I list, I'm learning too! So please be patient with me and feel free to reach out with a correction. It's not finished yet, but Tumblr deletes my posts before I finish them, so I'm starting with posting the skeleton and slowly updating this)

Find a Community to Learn From!

(recommended groups to lurk/join/make connections and ask questions)

What Tools Do I Need?

PDF Guide to Animation Desks, as written by David Nethry

(next line)

Where Do I Get Tools?

(Places where you can buy art supplies, software, etc)

Cartoon Supplies

(Online seller who carries Ingram Bond paper, lightboxes, storyboard pads, blank cels, etc. See also: Lightfoot LTD, which is identical in every way to Cartoon Supplies and for the life of me I'm not sure the difference, though both are equally recommended along side each other.)

Jet Pens

(Ah... I love window-shopping this site. If you love stationary like I do, you'll be on this site for hours adding things to your cart... and inevitably removing them because it's not feasible to spend hundreds on pens and sticky-note pads.)

Dickblick

(I've found they have good prices on name brands, but I haven't purchased from them yet. Often, I'm too overwhelmed by all the choices.)

Improve Your Art/Learn the Basics!

(anatomy classes, starter tools, etc)

Aaron Blaise (Co-Director of Brother Bear)'s Online Classes

He runs very good deals on the classes occasional, but you can also do a year's access to all classes and keep what you download, which is very useful! They're short, quick lessons, and tend to veer into more "helpful tips" than teaching, from what I've personally noticed, but it's well worth the price if you get them at a good deal!

Inside Look at the Industry -- aka: the Special Features:

(behind the scenes stuff, etc)

Books are more useful than you might think!

(Richard Williams Animator's Survival Toolkit, etc) (check out gently used copies of these books on Thriftbooks for a good deal!)

Nifty Free Resources

(Things like height charts, references, color wheels, blog posts, videos, etc)

What Artists Can Learn From Aladdin's Incredible Color by J. Holt [VIDEO]

(spacing for formatting)

The Art of Color Theory: Guide for Animators, Designers, and Artists (Animator Artist Life)

(space for formatting)

Free software!

GIMP

(A classic, GIMP is an old friend of mine. The first software I downloaded for art, I used to use it almost entirely to create animated GIFs for the Warrior Cat forums. Ah, how time has passed. Nowadays I can't even remember how to animate a GIF on there, but such is life. I still use it to this day for digital art, even having Corel Painter. Before GIMP, I animated the old fashioned way -- MS paint and Windows Movie Maker. With determination, I scripted and animated a handful of Warrior Cat characters frame by frame. Each frame of Hollyleaf or whoever it was blinking was the likely source of death for our old computer, may she rest in peace.)

Storyboarder

(Storyboarder is a free software with which you can use to create professional and clean storyboards. It also provides printable storyboard templates so you can do you work traditionally and re-upload it easily into the software! It also works with Wacom tablets. Check it out! It's actually super cool.)

Pencil 2D

(A free, open source software. Simplistic design, switch between raster and vector, and best of all, again, it's free. I haven't used this one much yet, but I've seen it positively talked about by many! I'll update with more research when I have the chance.)

Krita

(I haven't used this one yet, so I can't speak on it either! But it's going on the list so I can come back and research it later. My poor laptop is not going to handle this many downloads lol.)

OpenToonz

(I also haven't tried this, but see above, haha.)

Blender - Grease Pencil

(Blender is well known for 3D animation, but they added a 2D feature called Grease Pencil as well.)

WriterDuet

(Free for up to 3 projects, very simple, but upgrades to a $10 a month plan, which is... eh, I'll keep my Scrivener for now. I used to write scripts in Microsoft Word or the Notepad on PC back in the day, I don't think I personally need the fancy features.)

Trelby

(A free screenwriting software, very basic and simple, good for beginners.)

Keep an eye out for

(Humblebundle occasionally does software deals -- a good art bundle at a discount can give you an easy start!)

#animation #wip #animation resources #art resources #free software #software resources #art tools #animation tools #how to #how to art #how to animate #animators on tumblr #2d animator #animation masterpost #masterpost #masterposts

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darkdemeter · 2 months ago

Note

SCP 999.2 rarely ever leaves off-site to other testing sites and other SCPs can be transported to her instead. Experimentations involving SCPs such as 999, 2295, 348, and 6485 had greatly improved mental health and healing injuries. However, one major incident involving another escape from SCP 682 resulted in 999.2 coming in contact with 682 and being critically maimed, barely alive. This triggered the Ignited forms of the Horsemen as Foundation staff hurried to tend to 999.2.

Due to the intense nature of the Horsemen SCPs, procedures to move SCP 999.2 off-site is next to impossible, thus SCP 999.2 is to remain on location.

There are a number of recorded experiments in the archive files pertaining to SCP 999.2's interaction with the following SCPs listed above. These reports have proven to not have occurred with any violence.

999.2 and her predecessor 999 get along very well, serving together in a sort of symbiote dynamic. Whenever 999.2 is found to be inconsolable, SCP 999 is often brought in to cheer her up. The Horsemen, though protective of SCP 999.2, do not perceive 999 as a threat and have calmed to its close proximity to both themselves and 999.2.

SCP 999.2 has also been noted to be inflicted with multiple illnesses during other experimentation with more contaminated SCPs. Because of this, it is now standard procedure that before or just beginning to present symptoms of sickness, SCP 348 and 999.2 are to engage. Along with curing, multiple dishings calm SCP 999.2 into a relaxed state. She's recounted that the flavour of SCP 348's contents remind her of her mother's soup. The origin of this mother of SCP 999.2 is undocumented, as she has recounted that she sees the Horsemen as her caretakers.

Further information within this documented report is classified and contains more sensitive material.

SCP 999.2 and SCP 2295 have also a form of bond. Whenever she has sustained any form of traumatic injury, SCP 2295 has produced a newly sustained organ to her through past experiments with more dangerously classed SCPs of the Foundation. Some of these encounters have come very close, rendering SCP 999.2 to extreme levels of termination only for SCP 2295 to aid in replacing the damaged organs. Furthermore, SCPs 348 and 999 have also been brought in to perform treatment methods to secure 999.2 bodily and cognitive health.

These procedures are best done out of sight of the Horsemen as they become greatly agitated and attempt to break out of their confinements.

Horsemen SCPs have also been experimented to test their regeneration abilities. Suffice to say they possess an immaculate self-healing and preservation ability that grants them excelled levels. They are able to heal from grave wounds considered fatal and broken bones are healed within at least ten minutes depending on the location and exact calculated damage. These experiments were to see if SCP 2295 would be needed to act its life saving procedures on the Horsemen. Only 2 cases for the Horsemen have had need of 2295.

Far more recent experimentation has pushed the limits of both the physical extent of the Horsemen and their bond with SCP 999.2. Involving SCP 6485, who's appearance often comes in the form of a stuffed toy or doll has been documented to appear and comfort SCP 999.2 within the recorded time frame when the Horsemen SCPs have been announced terminated in their own experiments.

However, there seems to be some unknown cause that revives the Horsemen from the dead. Their ability to heal is slowed considerably and SCP 2295 is required to replace numerous damaged organs.

These session experiments so far have been labelled as successes for the Foundation's research.

Today's session is to yet again place SCP 999.2 in close proximity to 682 after its transport from site [REDACTED]. Careful measures have been previously placed to secure SCP 999.2's safety and to limit the engagement of Ignited forms. However, these newer tests are about expanding the bounds and truly putting the laws of scientific investigation through the wringer.

EXPERIMENT LOG UPDATE: SCP 682 has been set into a rage-state. Unknown exactly what triggered its temperament though its speculated that exposure SCP 999.2's very presence incited this status. SCP 999.2 is in critical condition. Sustained injuries and incredible maiming and lacerations nearly all over the body, torso and organ exposure has begun to cause the subject to seize up and her body go into frenzied shock. SCP 999.2 is suffering sufficient amount of blood loss, estimated time left remaining to live, perhaps twenty (20) minutes at most.

Ignited forms have broken free of their containments and now fight with SCP 682. Foundation task force teams have been called in to handle the containment and restraint of SCP 682 and the Horsemen by any means necessary.

Emergency officials on site have taken SCP 999.2 and tend to her now. Experiment log will update once all assets are in stable condition and reinstated back into their units of confinement.

#dem's inbox reply #darksiders #darksiders scp au

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tarithenurse · 2 months ago

Text

I see fire

Fandom: D&D 5E/homebrew campaign. Word count: 3584. Contents: Detective work. A/N: I know that this story doesn't garner a lot of attention….but neither did my other works and I'm having fun sharing it with the few who read, so - Enjoy and thank you! Any questions are welcome. Please comment and like and reblog. Let me know if you want a tag. Divider by @firefly-graphics

In the bright of day (much to Zilvra’s and Owen’s dismay (for different reasons)) the adventurers have breakfast and Malikka even hands them all some bedrolls that have seen better days. Then Zilvra and her new companions bid the other group and Malikka goodbye and set out along the only road leading north.

The first day of travel is quiet, no one else seems to be using the road and as night falls there are no sight of civilization or camp sites and so the trio seeks out their own little spot which Anvindr unsuccessfully attempts to improve on before he settles down. He is the only one that needs a full night’s sleep – in fact he’s the only one who sleeps while the other trance seated semi-consciously – and so the two women decide that he can combine all bedrolls into one proper and he’s very happy with that.

Like the night before, Zilvra takes first watch, studying the eladrin in her trance as her appearance changes from what it had been. Nothing else happens, and eventually the drow settles in for her trance as Morella wakes up now as a radiant summer’s day.

---

When Anvindr and Zilvra wake up, the are immediately shushed on by Morella who’s stretching out on a patch of moss. She points towards a figure lying on the other side of extinguished campfire and both of her new party members are respectively shocked and weirded out by the fact that it’s a wolf. A fully grown wolf. Even though they try to keep their voices down, the harsh whispered demands for an explanation wake up the creature who departs, leaving the trio without a scratch.

“It was hungry so I gave it some food,” Morella tries to explain happily, “and then I noticed it was hurt – look what was in the wound!” She holds out her hand, allowing the other two to inspect what appears to be metallic fragments. Copper, Zilvra realizes. “He wants us to find his alpha, Dolos, so we can help them.”

Anvindr inspects one of the nuggets. “Maybe it’s to do with that mine Tio mentioned?”

“Wait it what?” Zilvra is more focused on something else: “It talked to you?”

“Yeah.” Morella doesn’t elaborate further.

They have no way of knowing how or where the wolf sustained its injuries and no clue on where to find the rest of the pack either, so the trio resumes their trek along the dusty road.

---

In the evening on the third day after setting out from Oldgarde, they arrive at the first marker of civilization: the abbey of Heartwell Shire. The road leads off to the right past fields of grain and grapes and farms. Heading for the only logical place to ask for directions, Zilvra leads the group towards the abbey’s doors, noticing the sigil of Amaunator above the door: a blazing sun with wavy rays – Amaunator is the god of justice and law, a deity who also had been featured in the capital.

Thankfully, their knocking is answered quickly by a rather young man with Stouvanian armour on who introduces himself as Deputy Willem. The trio shows their credentials, the copper tags, and are welcomed inside with the promise of a place to sleep and a proper meal. Apparently, the place is not only the religious seat of the village but doubles as the local law enforcement’s quarters.

Inside, he guides them through the main room of prayer and on to an office where they meet the Marshal, McBribe, who gets the lay of the land because he’s apparently been expecting some sort of adventuring group from Master Tio. Also he knows about Zilvra’s crime and punishment but thankfully he is kind about it and is keen to fix the bonds so they last longer.

“Fetch Paxton,” he asks Willem who hurries off only to return moments later with a chubby friar in tow who’s huffing and puffing but smiling at least.

“Let’s see, dear,” the rotund man of faith grabs Zilvra’s hands and begins rubbing a sticky ointment on the bonds, wrists, and neck of the drow while muttering an incantation.

The bonds had not been super tight, but the decrease of the circumferences had started to worry the drow so it’s a relief to feel the metal widen.

Paxton smiles jovially. “Now you got four days. You come back to me when it’s needed, alright?” and he makes to leave.

“Actually,” McBribe stops him, “I have some things to attend to still and I’m sure our guests are tired and hungry. Why don’t you show them to sister Anetta?”

“Yes, Marshal. Right this way.”

He’s a kind and chatty guy, explaining about the place as the trio ventures towards the dining hall (an extension of the kitchen). He even admits to things being quite different in Stouvania since the rebellion.

“Which rebellion?” Anvindr asks cautiously.

Paxton blinks. “The Masons’. Ah, I suppose you wouldn’t know seeing as you’re outsiders.” Just then sister Anetta comes over with plates of warm, delicious food and wine to go with it, making the kind friar beam in anticipation. “So...after the war, the Masons worked hard on the repairs of the city and rumour has it that they weren’t getting paid as they should? Either way, there were a lot of protests and the king was killed as he had gone to address the mob.”

“Assassinated or mobbed, you mean?” Zilvra wants to be sure.

“Weeell...” brother Paxton hesitates, “I wasn’t there but it almost seemed...unplanned. Like he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The trio exchanges surprised looks before Anvindr voices their thoughts: “An accident?”

“It probably wasn’t but the reaction of the Masons afterwards...”

“But they apprehended the murderer, didn’t they?” Morella insists, recalling master Tio’s words.

“Emmet von Kresswell, leader of the Masons.” Paxton shudders. “Anyways! This is hardly relevant to you. Now, we’ve got a nice little corner carved out for us up here but it’s nice to see someone like you three come to help us. I’m sure McBribe will explain it better, but,” he hurries on, “we’ve got some wolf trouble. Good ol’ Daremot Jones is hard pressed when he goes hunting – he’s a tanner – and he’s been pushed out of his normal range.”

“By a copper mine?” Morella asks.

“Uhm, dunno but yeah there’s an old abandoned mine to the north. Why do you think...?”

The eladrin chaotically explains about the wolf she had befriended and even shows the friar the residue which he suggests they take to the local blacksmith, Janus Hammerknuckle.

“Oh? Newcomers?” a man’s voice calls from the threshold of the kitchen.

Looking over the trio sees another friar, more slender and wrinkly but dressed in the same dull robes and soft shoes. Standing up to shake hands, they each greet him amicably though it in Zilvra’s case isn’t enough to prevent him from recoiling at the sight of the bonds.

“This is brother Samuel,” Paxton explains, apparently not having noticed the distaste radiating from his colleague.

Another figure appears in the door but this one they’ve met before: McBribe. He apologizes for having had them waiting, then joins them at the table where both latecomers are served by sister Anette.

“So, Paxton’s telling you about our problems?” Thankfully there’s no malice or annoyance in the marshal’s voice.

Anvindr nods. “The wolves? Yes sir.”

A wave of the hand dismisses the title: “Just McBribe...or marshal if we have to be really formal.” The trio nods. “So, you’re used to hunting wolves?”

None of them are but Morella barely lets that slip before trying a different approach: “Well there’s always been wolves in these lands, right?” She gets an agreeing humph. “So the problem is purely that they’ve shifted their territory but they wouldn’t randomly do that. I bet something’s forced them away from their normal area. That would fit with what our friend said about them being in trouble.”

“Who said that?” McBribe interrupts.

Morella looks surprised at the question but Anvindr is quick to explain to the marshal about the wolf from the previous night.

“Well that sure it...different. Unconventional.” McBribe looks unsure whether to believe the tale or not but then his face clear up in a smile. “Maybe that’s just what we need, though.” He studies the colourful eladrin for a moment. “They used to be near the mine up north...I’d like you to find out what’s going on and then report back to me. It’s just a day out from here.”

“I think Niels has a map, you could ask him to see it,” brother Paxton suggests helpfully.

Apparently brother Niels is the resident bookish friar but before the trio seeks him out, they are first shown to where they can sleep that night: up in the clock tower one of the floors has been refurbished to serve as a guest room with multiple beds despite the open air flowing in through the arches and the bell up above. But it’s neat, dry, and clean and the five beds look comfortable enough.

Taking the chance and setting down their backpacks, the trio descends with the purpose of finding a map to study. The abbey isn’t big and they quickly find a small library, tightly stacked with books and scrolls all tended to by a withered friar who somehow manages to balance a pair of glasses on a very crooked nose.

“Ah, the adventurers,” he creaks, “we’ve been expecting someone of your calibres. How can I help?”

Explaining the basis of the situation is simple enough and he guides them over to the wall behind a loaded desk where a faded map hangs. It shows the shire only, including an icon for the mine that hasn’t been crossed out or erased in spite of the misuse of it.

“Yes it’s been abandoned years ago. Ran dry,” he explains, “there has been no maintenance so it must be in danger of collapsing.” He smiles, eyes unusually big through the lenses of his glasses. Then he looks around. “I thought there were three of you? Where’s the...other colourful one?”

Morella is indeed missing.

A brief search is all it takes to find her sitting crisscross-applesauce with a cat in her lap. The furry acquaintance is purring loudly, clearly happy with the attention and scritches.

“Well, alright then,” brother Niels seems relieved.

“Perhaps, if you have the time, could you help me with a bit of research?” Anvindr asks, causing the old man to kick into gear, eventually finding several books for the air genasi.

Meanwhile, Zilvra has taken to her own perusing. Not daring to pluck out any of the books, she tries to get an idea of what sort of literature is available. Walking, twirling her wooden dagger absentmindedly, she barely realizes in time that the librarian is heading her way with an expectant smile on his thin lips.

“And are you perhaps also thirsting for knowledge?” he creaks.

Uhm. She rubs her neck, feeling the circular bond there and how unfair she found the verdict she now is a slave to. “Do you happen to have a book about the laws of Stouvania?”

His eyes drift to the bonds but he is kind enough to refrain from commenting, just nods and heads down along the row of bookcases, trailing a long finger along the backs of the volumes until he finds what he is looking for: a fat and old but surprisingly pristine volume.

“This is...perhaps not the newest edition so there may have been some specification or addendums that you can’t find in it...but mostly it’s the same.”

“Thank you.” She means it.

There is no chance for her to appeal the case but she sure as hells won’t risk committing another crime...on the other hand she also has no chance of reading and memorizing an entire tome of law. Picking through the book, she does surprisingly find a paragraph explaining the legality of Roofwalking as a means of quickly getting from point A to point B without worrying about such things as trespassing as long as only the roofs were used and balconies remained off limits. Having to concede that Roofwalking is an actual thing, Zilvra deduces that this might have been among the laws that have been amended since the war or the rebellion.

Eventually, both Anvindr and Zilvra are satisfied with their research and so they round up Morella (who only reluctantly leaves the cat behind).

The night passes without incidents.

---

On the morning of the 19th of April, the trio rises to an overcast sky and a blue Morella. They only wake minutes before Anetta comes huffing up the stairs, announcing that the breakfast is almost ready.

After breakfast the trio finds Janus Hammerknuckle further into the village.

The big hands and leather apron is a good indicator for his occupation if the outsiders had been unsure. Great in stature and rough looking, he does seem friendly and helpful enough as he takes a look at the metallic residue, confirming that it’s copper.

“That’s weapon shrapnel...which is weird,” he further informs them, “I used to be a weapon smith and I can promise that copper weapons are a thing of times gone by. Oi! Goddrick!” He calls towards the back room. While waiting for this Goddrick to emerge, he continues: “As I said...I used to make weapons and I was darn good at it if I say so myself. But...I didn’t like it much. There was no joy in only creating something that destroys.”

Another human comes over, sticking a pair of thick gloves up under his arm. His hair is a mess and there’s soot in his face except around his eyes.

“What?” he demands before fully realizing that the trio is present.

Janus holds out the copper shrapnel. “Thinking the same as me?”

There’s a moment of silence where the two boink heads as they both try to study the metal.

“Shrapnel. Weapons?” Goddrick then confirms unknowingly.

Janus turns to the adventurers. “Well, there you have it.” He sprinkles the metal shavings back into Morella’s palms. “No clue who’d still use copper weapons though.”

They thank both men before asking direction to the hunter they were told of, Daremot Jones. Not that there are a lot of options as the village only consists of one street and so they can’t mistake the place after they’ve gotten the description.

Daremot’s there in an open front workshop where several hides are strung out to cure. He seems to have been expecting them, as he immediately sizes them up and then begins to explain about the wolves.

“My grounds, so to speak, have always been to the northwest and while there might have been the occasional track of a stray wolf, it’s never been anything more than that,” he explains in a husky voice. “Now the area’s swarming with them, scaring away the game and they seem to be encroaching on the village too. I’m worried they might be desperate enough to pose a threat to us.”

“They’ve come to the village proper?” Zilvra wonders.

He shakes his head. “Not yet...but there’s little sign of any prey animals left in that neck of the woods so who knows.” Then he sighs. “That’s not even the worst. There’s something out there, sounds like a wolf but much deeper and more growley even as it howls.” He scratches an itch on the arm. “If it is a wolf, then it’s gotta be a mighty beast.”

Morella doesn’t seem deterred, smiling gently at the man before turning to her new friends. “Sounds like a job for us.”

“So...both the mine and the wolves?” Anvindr checks and both women nod. “Alright then!”

Bidding the hunter goodbye, the trio heads north out of the village, their first destination being the mine.

---

“It’s really quiet,” Morella whispers.

They’ve been walking for several hours, following a mostly overgrown path through the forest.

“Mmm,” Zilvra agrees, “I don’t like it...the Topside is always noisy with birds and wind and whatnot but this...this is eerie.”

She silently draws her rapier, noting how the others follow her example.

Advancing further, it’s not long before the sharp-eyed Morella spots an odd structure that looks a bit like a rocky hollow or den. Sneaking closer, the stealthy drow gets near enough to see that the structure isn’t wholly natural but more interesting than that: it is occupied. A loud snoring emanates from a dwarfish creature. Zilvra recognizes it as a duergar.

The duergar are cousins to the dwarves but lives in the Underdark, deep underground. They are among the chief enemies of the drow so apart from being surprised at seeing one Topside, Zilvra also has an instant dislike of it and is about to try to communicate as much to her new friends when Anvindr decides to move closer, snapping a branch loudly by stepping on it – he hadn’t seen it lying there but the duergar definitely hears it and bolts upright. Already speeding up to a sprint at the sight of the blue male, the duergar leaves its little hideout through the backdoor where Zilvra has made it to.

“Drop the weapons,” she motions to the crude gear with her rapier.

The duergar drops the things but says nothing. It, a male with grey skin and black hair and beard, eyes her warily and its gaze grows anxious when Anvindr joins the silent stand-off. Shifting it weight from one leg to another, it’s only brought to hesitate by Zilvra’s warning sound for a moment, though, before it takes of screaming and howling through the woods in a northern direction, leaving the three adventurers behind.

Calming down enough to check out the outpost, as they theorize it is, Anvindr finds nothing more than the axe and shield the duergar had dropped as ordered. And a mudball.

“They eat those,” Zilvra comments, “I think.”

What is interesting is the gear: both items have a rough coating of copper dust on the edges, perfect for botching up a wound even more.

“Looks like what was in the wolf’s wound,” Anvindr notices, causing the females to nod in agreement.

Then they set out, moving quietly so as not to step into an ambush or similar but nothing seems out of the ordinary for the first hour which is when they reach yet another of those crudely constructed stone shelters.

“Can’t see anything from here,” Morella is stretching her neck to get a better look.

Zilvra nods, silently drawing her weapon. “Moving in, hang on.”

A moment later she can call out to the others that while the outpost has seen recent use, there’s no one now.

There’s not much sense in lingering and the trio continues.

---

Eventually, they reach the outliers of the mountains that stretch into the forest like chubby fingers. A little ways up ahead, they see the forest come to an abrupt halt, old stumps mingling with younger trees indicating that nature even has reclaimed some of its lost space and what lies beyond is the mountain range that the trio had seen on the friar’s map, known as The Spine of Heartwell.

Another thing worth of note that the odd group now can see is the mine and an odd structure outside of it: stones and rocks have been piled to form a crude but effective barricade. No one had mentioned anything about such a structure and Zilvra suggests that it might be the use of whoever uses the mine now – duergar maybe – although there’s no sign of any life at the moment.

“Should we go in?” Morella suggests, ready to face anything.

The other two are more reluctant, though.

“Not without knowing what’s in there.” Zilvra has plenty of experience scoping out places in her past but there’s no reason to mention that now.

It doesn’t take long for them to figure out what to do and they manage to find an agreeable camp spot where they can keep an eye on the mine throughout the night. In the morning, they’ll go west to the wolves, hopefully.

---

“Guys,” Morella whispers, beckoning her friends over to the watch spot, “guys look.”

It’s early in the evening, just about dusk after a few hours of nothing exciting.

Joining her, both Zilvra and Anvindr quickly see what she’s referring to: several duergar have exited the mine and are starting their work on shaping the stones as they want to enforce the barricade. A patrol sets out towards the forest, disappearing between the trees and underbrush in a southern direction not far from the well hidden camp.

Despite the duergars’ love for darkness (like anything else in the Underdark) they do need some light and so set up torches to work by as night falls, unwittingly allowing the trio to have a clear view of them moving about in and out of the mine.

Later, when Anvindr and Morella are just about to settle down for a rest, rustling is heard just beyond the camp: the patrol is returning empty handed and by some miracle, they don’t notice the people watching them.

“I’ll wake you if anything happens,” Zilvra promises as she prepares to take the first watch.

Nothing does happen however and eventually the two of elven kind switch roles, allowing the drow to trance and the now golden/yellow eladrin to observe the busy dark dwarves.

#writing #d&d #dnd #dungeons & dragons #homebrew #dnd homebrew #campaign #story #fantasy #dungeons and dragons #homebrew campaign #oc

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