#actually access a lot of small things. (which j do)

[vampfucker666]

i managed to put all this (mostly newly acquired) cross stitch stuff away in a box and then remembered oh shit I Have Another Fucking Box!! and it is a mess and i have to open my other boxes up again and reorganize them now so i fink i am done for tonight. oh my GOD i need actual storage.

[intervex]

What Pride Flags Mean, Part 1: Gender and Attraction

Welcome to the latest installment of my autistic hyperfixation on flags! I wanted to figure out a common language of Colour X means Thing Y. Like how pink is consistently used for feminine.

Having a common language for flag meanings matters because it improves cognitive accessibility of flags. ♿️💙

But I didn't want to be prescriptive about what colours should mean what. Just because I think Thing X should go with Colour Y doesn't mean everybody else would.

So this turned into a descriptive, empirical project. I gathered a data set of 2060 pride flag colour choices to figure out what are the most common colour-meaning combinations. Some of the results:

And here are the abstract modifiers: these are modifiers that were generally shared between the genders and the attractions. For example, black is used to indicate having no gender as well as having no attraction.

Click here for tables with okLCH values, hex values, definitions, and notes - I've put a more detailed write-up on my Wikimedia Commons userpage. (Mediawiki supports sortable tables and Tumblr does not.)

METHODS-AT-A-GLANCE

To make the figures above, I assembled a data set of pride flag colours. It contains 2060 colour choices from 624 pride flags, representing 1587 unique colours. Click here for a detailed description of how I gathered and tagged the pride flag colours and tagged them.

For each tag, I converted every colour to okLCH colour space and computed a median colour. OkLCH colour space is an alternative to RGB/hex and HSL/HSV. Unlike RGB/hex and HSL/HSV, okLCH is a perceptual colour space, meaning that it is actually based on human colour perception. 🌈

In okLCH space, a colour has three values:

- Lightness (0-100%): how light the colour is. 100% is pure white.

- Chroma (0-0.37+): how vibrant the colour is. 0 is monochromatic. 0.37 is currently the most vibrant things can get with current computer monitor technologies. But as computer monitor technologies improve to allow for even more vibrant colours, higher chroma values will be unlocked.

- Hue (0-360°): where on the colour wheel the colour goes - 0° is pink and 180° is teal, and colours are actually 180° opposite from their perceptual complements.

The important thing to know is that okLCH Hue is not the same Hue from HSV/HSL - the values are different! (HSL and HSV are a hot mess and do not align with human colour perception!)

You can learn more about okLCH through my little write up, which was heavily influenced by these helpful articles by Geoff Graham, Lea Verou, and Keith J Grant.

You can play with an okLCH colour picker and converter at oklch.com

🌈

MORE RESULTS: COLOUR DISTRIBUTIONS

Back when I started tagging my data, I divided my data into five main chunks: Gender qualities (e.g. masculine, androgynous), Attraction (e.g. platonic, sexual), Values (e.g. community, joy), Disability (e.g. Deaf, blind), and Other.

I'll talk about Disability and Values in future posts! But for an alternate view of the data, here are the full distributions of the colours that were placed in each tag.

They come in three parts: tags I created for Gender, tags for Attraction, and tags from Other. The abstract modifiers are spread between the first two, though their contents transcend Gender and Attraction.

Some distributions have a lot more variance within them than others. Generally speaking, major attraction types tended to have the least variance: sensual attraction is really consistently orange, platonic is really consistently yellow, etc.

Variance and size do not correlate. Many of the smaller tags are quite internally consistent. I don't have a ton of tags in "current gender" but they're all the same dark purple. Xenine/xenogender has a whole bunch of entries, and there's a really big spread from blue to yellow.

Some tags, like intersex as well as kink/fetish show there are a small number of different colours that are very consistently used. Whereas other tags like masculine show a very smooth range - in this case from cyan to purple.

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with how things wound up! 🥳 It makes sense to me that an umbrella term like xenogender would have a lot of variance. What honestly makes me happiest is just how many tags wound up 180 or 90 degrees from their opposites/complements. 🤩

Not everything lined up nicely (the opposite of drag is .... neuroqueer? awkward.) 🤨 Some things lined up in hilarious ways, like how initially I had the opposite of kink/fetish being Christian (amazing.)

But as a whole, there's a lot of structure and logic to where things landed! I hope this makes sense for other people and can help inform both flag making as well as flag interpreting (e.g. writing alt-text for existing flags). 🌈

I'm hoping to post the Disability and Values analyses in the coming days! If you want to learn more, my detailed notes along with tables etc are over on my Wikimedia Commons userspace. 💜

Everything here is Creative Commons Sharealike 4.0, which means you're free to reuse and build on my visualizations, tables, etc. Enjoy!

[cocobirde]

𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃 | JOHN DORY

request. @Striped_Scheme on wattpad Requesting a JD x Reader where they've been dating since BroZone days but he kinda just left her with no goodbye and tries to reconcile and convince them to come help and save Floyd lol ("Technically we never really broke up"☝🤓) word count. 2.2k warnings. the word fuck lol. timeline. pre-trolls trilogy, pre-trolls band together. song. baby it's cold outside with some slight alterations (tell me he wouldnt. i DAREEE you.) a/n. honestly. idea was good, but my writing was not it so apologies but love u... thanks for reading lolz... probably rushed... (i do that alot in my writing how to not rush help me) no doubt ooc characters, characters will always be ooc.

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"He's gone? What do you mean gone?"

Floyd could sense your distress. Panicked voice squeaking and your eyes darting all over the small backstage area for your boyfriend, on how exactly he could've left without you catching him.

You were in front of the stage, courtesy of being the partner of a band member, which was amazing but also granted limited viewing if they went too far back. From what you did see, the expressions were a solemn mixture of embarrassment, anger, disappointment.

You barely paid attention to the fans, who were also attempting to go in the same direction as you. Getting caught up in them took a whole lot of convincing the security.

But still, you were just at the door, and you heard him through it. Where had he gone? Was he okay? He fell from a very tall place in front of a crowd of fans, which was probably more damaging to him compared to actually getting injured—but not for you.

You watched him stumble backstage, stumble.

Baby Branch hid behind Floyd, wrapping the little leaf-sewn vest around his body, looking from his older brother to you, worried.

Where's the rest of the band?

"He just left. Everyone did. The band's..." Floyd paused, sighing, "BroZone's over."

You stood confused, your brows furrowing at his words. Over? How could they be over? This was just the start of their world tour. The band couldn't just break up over one failure.

"Over?"

They weren't that fragile, were they?

You loved all the brothers; they were like your own family, but your worries were set on only one of them for the time being.

"Did J at least say where he was going?"

Floyd nodded his head but remained unsure of what your thoughts would be on his answer. He glanced down at baby Branch, who was huddled around his leg.

"He was upset, really upset," he explained. "Said he was going to go hiking to the Neverglades... alone."

The change in your face told him everything, and he was quick to extend his hands in front of him. "But John Dory always says crazy things like that, and he never goes through with them. I'm sure he probably just went up to The Point."

That did seem like a logical explanation, and it was. Floyd may not have been the oldest, but he always had reason and logic behind his smart words.

"You're right." You were still stressed, no doubt, but that calmed your fears down. "Are you guys gonna be okay?"

Floyd spared another guilty glance at Branch and nodded, offering a soft smile and urging you to go look for your lover.

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The troll tree was huge, and even with its large size, it was hard to find any area that wasn't already occupied. Trolls made sure to take advantage of all their space; it was their home, and they made the most of it.

But even with every taken, there was one place that was free from everyone else.

A special spot reserved for you and your lover.

The Point.

Little knew about the spot, and those who did ensured it remained private.

Hidden in the leaves was a branch sticking out high enough to conceal the ugly Bergen town that surrounded them and gave them access to the beautiful night sky.

You and John Dory liked to go there a lot. Whether it be dates or to blow off steam (not like that for the weirdos), if he'd go anywhere after an accident like today, he'd go there.

He was very athletic and made a show of it whenever you'd go together, carrying you up. Bridal style or pulling you up with his strong locks—the point was, you had trouble going up on your own.

It took a while—a hard struggle—but it'd be worth it to see your boy up there and cheer him up.

They couldn't just break up; they just needed their leader to see that.

"John Dory?"

You called upon reaching the top, pushing the heavy leaves out of your way, careful not to slip off the branch.

"Baby, are you here?" Your voice was soft; you didn't want to alarm him. He could be really sensitive sometimes.

That thought brought a faint smile to your face. A smile fell upon the realization that he wasn't up here. If not up here, where could he have gone?

Home?

Knowing JD, you doubted it. If this was as serious as Floyd had put it, as serious as he looked, he wouldn't have just gone home.

And so your search ensued.

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You spent days looking for him. Not a spot in the tree was untouched or unsearched by you. Somehow, the troll had just disappeared. No signs. No letters. No goodbyes.

He left you alone to suffer. Wondering where he'd gone, if he was okay, and if you guys were okay.

It was a coincidence, truly.

How on the day you reminisce when he left you without even a word explaining his sudden disappearance all those years ago was the same day you'd find John Dory on your doorstep.

"Come on, baby, could you let me in?"

"Baby?" you scoffed, remaining with your back slammed against the door in exasperation. "You lost the right to call me that a very long time ago."

One moment you were having a nice day, reading a nice book by your fireplace, enjoying the pitter-patter of rain outside, and the thunder struck, shaking you in the best way possible.

And the next...

"It's cooold..."

He whined, banging on the door desperately.

You couldn't bear to look at him; the second you already spent doing so when you opened the door was enough. He had a face that you'd never forget.

How'd he even find you?

"Go. Away." you growled.

"But it's cold outside."

You clenched your jaw, glaring at the door handle as he shook it. JD used little effort to push at the door; by the weight of it, he could tell you were against it. Not that it mattered.

He was strong; he could easily open it if he wanted to.

"You simply must go."

"Baby, it's cold outside."

If John Dory thinks a little singing is enough to serenade you, he is more of an idiot than you are already aware he is. You weren't a teenager helplessly in love with a silly musician from next door, you were grown.

Mature.

His tricks weren't going to work on you.

"The answer is no."

"But baby, it's cold outside."

He put more pressure, pushing, and you cursed for the lack of a lock on your door.

Trolls don't do locks! They don't have anything to worry about!

Except ex-boyfriend's trying to come in and ruin your life all over again.

"The welcome has been-."

"You should feel so lucky I dropped in."

You rolled your eyes, sarcasm dripping with your words, "So nice and warm."

He pushed the door, slipping a leg in to stop it from shutting completely, peeking a crack. You groaned and peered through it at him.

Sharp glares were directed at him, and gosh, if only looks could kill, he would've dropped dead right now.

He looked stupid.

Stupid puppy eyes with his stupid goggles and a stupid pout on his stupid face. He was soaked from head to toe, the rain falling on him more and more every second he stood outside.

My, did he look pathetic?

BANG!

He shrieked, desperation on his face and voice, jumping at the loud crash of thunder, lighting up the dark sky.

He turned back to you, singing rapidly.

"Look out the window at that storm!"

"Ugh, okay! Come in!"

His face lit up, the door swinging open, and he rushed in, soaking your carpet with rain as you shut the door behind him, slamming it hard enough that the whole house shook with force.

He glanced at you in surprise, getting a glare in return.

JD opened his mouth to speak, obviously nothing nice with the smug look on his face, and you were quick to shut him down.

"Don't."

He clamped his mouth shut, smirking and holding his hands up in defense. "I wasn't gonna say anything."

"Stay."

You urged with a pointed finger, walking off to your bathroom in search of a towel.

"Yes, your majesty."

You hated him with every fiber of your being, but you weren't cruel. He might've been, but you weren't. Any troll would do the same as you; offer him some refuge from the storm outside.

Returning with a towel, you didn't bother passing it to him, tossing it and smacking him right in the face.

Maybe you were a little cruel.

He reacted with a huff, taking it and wrapping it around himself, not bothering to dry himself like ordered, but more like a shelter from the cold.

"Is that how you treat your boyfriend after all these years?"

John Dory tutted, shaking his head in disappointment as he took a single step in your direction.

"Boyfriend?" you scoffed.

"I mean, technically, we never broke up."

Oh, you wanted to punch his little ugly face so bad.

"You disappearing without saying anything was us "technically" breaking up." You did air quotations with another roll of your eyes, speaking before he did, exasperated.

"Why are you even here, John Dory?"

He stayed silent for a few moments, pondering what exactly to say. What could he say? He knew it was stupid of him to even come in the first place. He knew you'd be angry, upset, but not like this.

You didn't look the slightest bit happy to see him.

His smugness dropped along with his shoulders, and he took a breath.

"I need your help."

He looked dead serious. So serious.

You shook your head, your lips curling up in disbelief. "You need my help. Right." your arms crossed, "You leave, disappear off to who knows where, say nothing, suddenly come back after 20 years, and you decide you want my help?"

A short and dry laugh left you.

John Dory really was unbelievable.

"I knew you wouldn't want to see me..."

"I don't want to see you." You cut him off with a grimace, ready to say more-

He had that same desperate look.

Honestly, it brought you back. It brought you back to all those years ago, when both of you were young.

John Dory was always a terrible boyfriend, cocky and arrogant, bossy, too busy with BroZone to give you the time you needed. It hurt you. You loved him so much, and he didn't seem to always reciprocate those feelings. And each time you guys would argue and break up, he would be the first to return with a bouquet of your favorite flowers.

"Leave me alone, John. You can't just come back and expect me to accept you. That's not how life works! If you wanna be in a relationship, you have to commit-..."

"Can you please just listen?"

He stared at you with a small pout, furrowed brows, eyes pleading into yours for you to give him a second chance. His stupid, loving eyes knew exactly how you worked. How exactly to work you.

The only difference right now was that he came empty-handed.

Nevertheless, it effectively shut you up.

"I fucked up all those years ago, I know. I fucked up leaving you. That's the biggest mistake I've ever made. I should've said goodbye, apologized, invited you to come with me- I should've done something!" He ranted, "But I didn't. And I just left..."

John Dory expected you to say something. One of your snarky remarks and cut him off, tell him he's wrong or right, and degrade him on what a terrible person he is because he is well aware of it.

But he's trying.

"Baby, you of all trolls know how terrible I am at apologies," he sighed.

And you didn't bother to correct him on your name; looking at him up and down, eyes still narrowed. You were still angry, you'd probably be angry for a very long time, but for the moment... you'd put it aside.

"What do you need help with?"

His face lit up, beaming at you at your acceptance, not denying him completely, not shunning the troll out, and kicking him back into the rain. You were hearing him out.

You noticed the look and huffed, "Just because I'm asking does not mean I'm going to say yes."

"Floyd's been kidnapped."

Your expression softened, and your mouth fell open in a quiet gasp.

"Kidnapped?"

"I got a letter from him saying he got kidnapped by popstars Velvet and Veneer." He went on and explained the story about how he went to see him and help him escape, only to fail: "-The only way to free him is by singing the perfect family harmony."

You loved Floyd to this day. It'd been years since you'd last talked to him, heard of him at all, but the same amount of affection you felt for the troll remained.

"I need to get the band back together. And... I really can't do it on my own. I'm not sure if they want to see me any more than you did-."

You cut him off a lot.

"I'll help," he grinned. "But not for you. For Floyd. Don't think I've forgiven you yet."

"Yet?"

"Shut up."

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[anachronisims]

How to EFFECTIVELY Use Empty Standby List to Reduce Flashing and Crashing

This tutorial is for TS2. Obviously. This is virtually the last "chapter" of advice for the Pink Flashing Survey Report (still forthcoming as a single readable thing but posted in bits and pieces over the last six months). PS it's a lonnnnnnng post. Ctrl+F "tldr" for the very short version once you open the cut.

"Part 1" of the Empty Standby List ("ESL") tutorial was already written comprehensively with screenshots by Digi at her wordpress. Following Digi's tutorial will get you set up with ESL as a routine automated background task your computer runs, typically every five minutes.

@gayars set up two instances of the routine, each running every five minutes, staggered two/three minutes apart. In other words, task 1 runs at 12:00, task 2 runs at 12:03, task 1 runs at 12:05, task 2 runs at 12:08, etc. However, I found that this negatively impacted the graphical performance of my game, notably by having the ESL task window flash over the game window, which I had never seen before, nor since reverting back to a single 5-minute task routine.

Anyway. Go do Digi's tutorial if you haven't already; I'll wait.

Background on Why this Matters

So, now your computer will be wiping the standby memory every five minutes. The thing is, this won't be able to have much impact on your game unless you wait to let it wipe before you do a major loading action.

Major loading actions are, in general order of strain (most to least strenuous):

Loading a full neighborhood.

Loading a large (3x4 or bigger) populated lot.

Loading a large unpopulated lot.

Loading actual CAS, if you have a lot of non-defaulted CC.

Loading a medium (3x3) populated lot.

Loading a medium unpopulated lot.

Loading a small (2x3 or smaller) populated lot.

Loading a small unpopulated lot.

Loading CAS catalogs from within a lot (e.g. using FFS clothing tool, "Change Appearance" on the mirror, shopping for clothes/trying on clothes on a community lot).

Turning up your lot view settings (generating other lots' lot imposters within your current lot)/panning the camera around.

You should already be doing at least all medium- and large-lot loading with the Lot View Settings Juggling Method, and “uint LotSkirtIncrease” removed from your userstartup.cheat - otherwise whenever you load a lot you are compounding the strain by also having the neighborhood load at the same time.

Using Resource Monitor Effectively

If you watched the Jessa Channel tutorial on flashing, she recommended downloading a third-party RAM usage monitoring software. This is unnecessary. For purposes of reducing your crashing, all you need is the native Windows program "Resource Monitor" that she also recommends.

To open it:

Click the Windows symbol/start menu.

Begin typing "Resource Monitor."

Click Resource Monitor when it shows up.

Once it is open, get to the useful information:

Click the "Memory" tab.

Make sure the "Processes" and "Physical Memory" subs are fully open, as above.

Sort by "Commit (KB)."

Each time you reopen Resource Monitor, it should restore your last view settings, so you won't have to repeat these steps.

While Resource Monitor is still open, "Pin" it to the taskbar so it will always be readily accessible.

Right-click the icon on the taskbar.

Click "Pin to taskbar."

If it says "Unpin from taskbar" you have already done this step :)

Now comes the monitoring part. You will focus on the dark-blue "Standby" block of the bar graph on Physical Memory.

Every fifth minute, when the ESL task runs, this will flash down to 0 and then pop up to about 30-75, depending on what you are doing. It will go higher faster if you are doing stuff, obviously, and hover pretty low if your computer is just sitting still. TLDR the remainder of this tutorial: only take stress actions when Standby is below 100.

As we all know too well, TS2 has a 4gb RAM limit. The problem is, TS2 seems to count the memory that is in standby, too, not just the committed/working set. Thus, before you take a major loading action (that is going to push up to 1.5gb into Standby), you need to wait for Standby to wipe so the game doesn't accidentally think it's using more memory than it is. Got it?

This is how much RAM my game is using when my neighborhood opens, pretty closely zoomed in on any particular lot. If it is zoomed out further - like a whole city block - both committed and working set are easily over 2.2gb. When I pan around the neighborhood, it continues going up. Portions of the hood that go back out of view seem to get relegated to standby, but yes, my game has crashed just from looking too much at my neighborhood from too wide an angle. Unless I slow down and let ESL run before moving on to the next section.

Six months of diligent Resource Manager monitoring has resulted in substantial reductions of crashing and flashing on my first hood view load and first lot view load. It is not 100% guaranteed, but it cuts it back to Very Playable Levels. And when I have tested the theory by purposefully not letting ESL run before a stress point, it always flashes and/or crashes within the next couple minutes.

SO! Here's what I do when I'm launching my game.

Because of overheating concerns, I always fully shut down my computer when I'm not using it for more than an hour. If I have been playing and experience a flash or crash, I will restart before trying again. @infinitesimblr, a survey Respondent who reported virtually no flashing or crashing despite a vast CC catalog, also recommends restarting between using Bodyshop or SimPE and the full game. I have found it may make a difference with Bodyshop (which I use too rarely to make a pseudoscientific claim) but that I have found basically no impact going from SimPE to the game. YMMV.

Immediately after Windows is done loading, I open Resource Monitor and wait a few minutes. Often background updates begin running and the Standby bar goes crazy - sometimes filling up the entire available RAM - and I just let it sit and do its thing. (Usually I start the computer right before my kid's bedtime so I am not actively waiting on it or anything. Go take a shower or make a sandwich or drink some water, like you did in the old days when the game itself took 20 minutes to load.)

Once the standby bar levels out and is consistently peaking no higher than about 250mb between ESL wipes, after the next ESL wipe, I will launch the game. (Usually between logging into Windowsat the beginning of storytime and checking Resource Monitor before we go do tuck-in, it is reliably hanging out below 100 unless a big TS4 or Windows update was downloading.)

Reminder: do not delete thumbnails anymore prior to launching the game. I also have turned off RPC's clear caches option and have observed faster loading times with minimal increases in crashing.

After the neighborhood selection screen comes up, wait for ESL to run again before opening your neighborhood.

If you have continue to have more than VERY sporadic hood load flashing after taking these steps, you should try launching into a subhood if you have one, then pivoting to the main hood if that's where you're playing that session after yet another ESL wipe. If that doesn't help you simply need to thin out your hood or accept the flashing. (I ended up deleting about 25% of my deco trees and 10-15 outer-lying lots that will be re-placed in a subhood.)

After the hood is loaded, navigate to the lot you want, but DO NOT actually load that lot until ESL runs yet again. Ditto for CAS - Do not select "Create New Family" until ESL has run again.

Play should be proceed as normal at this point. You probably don't need to alt-tab back to Resource Monitor again unless your sims are going traveling or you are changing play lots.

BONUS TIP #1: You can put a shortcut to the ESL routine on your desktop and push it manually (just double click the icon) if you don't feel like waiting once the game is loaded. I have had imperfect results with this vs. just waiting the five minutes, though, because the game wants to run through some stuff and flush it. But it's an option for you to experiment with.

BONUS TIP #2: If you have a really deep clothing/hair CC catalog, try to avoid using the FFS clothing tool option where you select every outfit for the sim, and their hair and makeup, at the same time. Instead, choose individual outfits by type and use the regular mirror option to change appearance (or SimBlender has it, I think, so they can do it where they already are).

[buggywiththefolkmagic]

Hello!! I was wondering if you have any book recommendations for Appalachian folk magic? Especially for a beginner, I’m familiar with our local “old wive’s tales” but I’d love to learn more!!

Hello there! I have answered this question before but I have some new resources so I'll list them here!

It really depends on which part of Appalachia you are looking at! And if you want to dig deeper the ancestral roots of the family you are looking at. For example my family has a lot of Welsh and British influence because that was our family source so a lot of those beliefs lingered and changed throughout the years!

Someone from Pennsylvania would likely have a lot more German roots for their practice. But despite the root differences for the folklore these practices stem from they do still share a lot of connecting points!

But having babbled all of that here are my favorite books on AFM specifically. (Mind you Christianity takes a super huge part in the practice so a lot of bible and doing things in threes for the Trinity is involved!)

Authors to check out:

H. Byron Ballard- A pagan who also practices AFM, from the NC side of Appalachia, a lot of people hate her writing style which is a bit ramble-y. I also dislike the term she uses for her own practice but that is a super simple and small complaint honestly. I own all of her books on the subject, which should say something.

A NOTE ON H. BYRON BALLARD: I no longer support her work after discovering she is a TERF. I will no longer be suggesting her as an author to follow.

Jake Richards - From Eastern TN like me! A lot of what he talks about are things I have seen before, and he breaks down complex concepts like burn blowing into something relatively easily understood. HOWEVER HAVING SAID THAT the author is partially Melungeon, so he does have some Hoodoo mixed in from his grandmother's side iirc? He does label these things in his works and explains that they are not for everyone which I do appreciate.

Rebecca Beyer - While vaguely Wiccan toned, which I attribute to her publishers/raising, she's a transplant to Appalachia and if you're looking for herbal information on Appalachia and to wax poetic about how even with a ton of people settling there SO MUCH of the natural herbs and plantlife still survive, read her work! Her work on foraging safely and environmentally is so SOOOOO good.

Brandon Weston - For Ozark Mountain range/German/Dutch Appalachian work! He has written quite a few books on the subject and all of them are a treat!

Roger J. Horne - For how to dig into folklore and apply it to your own practice! This author is pagan and does blend in some traditional work with the Appalachian but I do enjoy his work and how he applies folklore. This author is also FROM Appalachia which is nice to see.

INDIVIDUAL BOOKS TO READ:

Appalachian Folk Healing by Jake Richards - A republication of a very old book on remedies and 'spells', while kitschy and stupidly worded, after all it was a popular book created just for sales reasons, some of these remedies are things I remember having done to me! Good for both a giggle and actual information. TW for mentions of animal parts, hunting, illnesses, the G slur, period specific phobias and racism.

Albertus Magnus - These books all supposedly written by an ancient guy, were actually mildly common on traveling salesmen's trucks and wagons. So as a result a lot of people in Appalachia had access. Like the book above it is very stupidly worded and definitely of their time. Same TW as above.

Pow-Wows or Long Lost Friend - Another Pennsylvania Dutch book! Very good and very clear.

Southern Folk Medicine - A book that breaks down a lot of common medicinal beliefs in the South which does include Appalachia! Sadly not just Appalachia but a very good book regardless. THIS BOOK MADE ME UNDERSTAND THE THEORY BEHIND BLOOD ISSUES MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE EVER HAS.

Moon Eyed People - A collection of Welsh folktales that brewed within Appalachia from Welsh immigrants. Very good book imo!

Granny Buck's Dibs and Dabs - This book is so worth the price tag! One of the more expensive books in my collection, but I'm fine with that. Granny Buck covers a lot of topics and I can feel the accent through the wording!

Signs, Cures, & Witchery - More German Appalachian stuff! This book and it's interviewees are from the Kentucky side of the mountains!

Witches, Ghost, and Signs - This book is based more in the Southern Appalachian area! Georgia, SC, NC, and TN specifically! Lots of folklore here, but does mention some not so great bits of the lore, but that is expected.

The Foxfire Books - What began as a school project exploded into a collection of true to life stories and idioms from Georgia elders within the mountains. SO SO GOOD OKAY? For everything. How to plant, hunt, make musical instruments, anything from the mountains? They cover.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Heyy me again so about the creepypasta thing, I just wondered if you can do Ben drowned with a gen z reader platonically? It's okay if your uncomfortable doing it ><

Ben drowned x gen z!reader (platonic!)

not uncomfortable at all! love that im getting ben drowned requests since i enjoy him a lot and kind of want to write for him more; just strictly platonic ..which reminds me, i need to draw him again soon! gonna answer this then take a break and get back to requests yipe!

admin is still sold on the idea of ben being confined to electronics most of the time so i can easily see him gaining access to your devices so he can pester you whenever he wants; though this may get a little annoying since youre... well still alive! you have a life

whether or not the reader is a creepypasta themselves or is a normal person is up to you! i think both can work, though i must say the idea of the reader being just some random person is really funny. like can you imagine? you get some haunted virus but the ghost is chill an you guys become friends

i do think ben can only mess with devices, i dont think he can mess with like. any internet browser stuff.... which segways me to my next idea; the og creepypasta came out in 2010, majoras mask came out in 2000, so putting it in the middle lets say ben died in 2005.. bro has missed a lot. youre going to have to fill him in on a lot of stuff, and boy let me tell you hes going to be going nuts

tell him about the new legend of zelda games. i think he would be hyped. throwing admins hc of ben being sick and tired of LOZ due to being trapped in the game out the window, admin needs this boy to get joyous!

he probably pesters you and asks you about the dumbest shit, does it on purpose because he thinks its funny

sometimes you guys play video games together, bro is absolutely astounded by how far games have come since he passed away. i think he would go insane over five nights at freddys. fill him in on the lore

going back on the video game stuff and playing together, just know that hes going to break the game and cheat + hes a sore loser, soooooooo...

do you think sometimes he comes and tries to spend time with you more and more over time because hes been stuck for years and hasnt really had many people to talk to? like yeah hes an angry spirit, but even angry spirits deserve friends!!!

ponders

probably messes with you by messing with your recordings if youre trying to make a video/tiktok/reel/what have you

probably interjects his own texts into your posts, never really says anything harmful, just messes with spelling or adds dumb messages

honestly its not your SM account/blog, its yalls shared account/blog now/j

stuck with old 2000s humor but i think he would absolutely love present day humor and how unhinged its gotten, though quick warning hes going to start quoting stuff

definitely quotes the sticking out your gyatt thing, hes going to drive you insane with it and hes going to laugh at you

do not play roblox tycoons with him hes going to bully small children

you guys play a horror game together on roblox and you can hear him freaking out through the speakers (likely using an old device for him so youre not fighting for control over one device)

absolutely DEVASTED when you tell him club penguin shut down

just know hes punching the metaphorical wall

on the rare chance ben is able to pull himself into the real world for a brief period of time, you guys probably do the same stuff hes just physically there for a short time!

make him touch grass while hes out, bro hasnt touched grass in nearly 20 years. this isnt even a haha "hes chronically online" joke, he hasnt actually touched grass in years due to circumstances

closing this with a hit of angst that made me go :( but imagine that it starts out as you guys being around the same age (well... close enough, since ben doesnt age anymore due to being a ghost) but overtime, you obviously grow up and have less and less time for him and :(

like owie

"what happened to us? we used to be best friends?" audio but its you two SOBS AND CRIES

[liampaynemysteriousdeath]

sober coach/conservatorship theory. I'm going out on a limb here. I don't claim to necessarily be correct...

Remember liam said he had friends in florida so that is why he is choosing to live there?

And remember how roger was acting as an intermediary between Liam and his family plus the whole email or roger washing his hands clean of liam? (Concerning liams sobriety).

I think roger was acting as a "sober coach" even though he was obviously unqualified to do so.

Thays the only way in my opinion that liam would have willingly given over control of his finances. To "keep him in line". And him having "free days" to have drugs, etc.

And then with the whole cookies thing of roger(?) supposedly bringing them over, who knows how long that was going on for. Or if they were laced with some type of sedative or relaxer? There's certain stuff that doesn't show up on drug tests iirc.

In my opinion from what I can tell, it kinda seemed like roger could have potentially been drugging liam behind his back, but then trying to be like "let's get you sober buddy". And then maybe liam thought "this person is so nice trying to help me". Kinda like a savior complex. Almost like Stockholm syndrome dare I say.

Example of what I mean:

I think liam was in too deep before he realized what was happening. (See my 5 part post where I blogged about female celebrities liking their boyfriends to be drugged out to be easier to control).

for example when j.3l3n,a broke up, what would selena do? Send er male friend Alfredo over to check up on justin and get insiderInfo. Selena also manipukated alfredo(mutual friend of them both), and a bunch of other people, but thats a different story for another time.

Back to liam, now that maya was out of the picture, she was pissed and "blindsided" about the breakup. So she needed to possibly use someone to get to liam. I assume she took a page out of selena's book and used his weakness against him which was drugs and whatever other information she told roger about liam and how he is as a person. She knew she could play him like a fiddle. But through roger this time.

Also remember how I talked about how selena would send Alfredo over to Justin's place when they were broken up to get the inside scoop on justin? We'll seems maya did the same thing sending roger over. Also both of those women know what the weaknesses of those men are. For liam it was drugs obviously. And allegedly she was a druggie herself.both maya and selena.well selena for sure but that's a different story

from one of my last posts about kate getting exposed from her past, there's a Pic saying he came out of rehab. (Idk if roger was around at that time specificalky because there was other rumors abiut the spain rehab as well). Also there were rumors/also liam pic proof himself saying he was doing good being sober. (Aka diet coke example and et clip saying he was sober). And also liam got signed to was it CAA? In July I believe. And roger wasn't in the picture anymore to my knowledge,I could be wrong though. No one made an actual timeline of all the times roger was in liams life.

If roger was a "sober coach", I can see why liam would willingly allow roger access to his money. All in the name of "helping liams sobriety". I assume rogers claws started out small,and he didn't get access to liams money at the very beginning. It was probably almost like an abusive relationship. I mean we all saw liams split lip, the red mark on his neck at the villa, the bruising on liams last day.

(But I could also be wrong and some of the injuries could gave been from when liam was on drugs and got hurt accidentally.)

Not sure if you've heard of the term, idr exact name atm, but its like when a victim retraumatizes themself hoping for a different outcome. So they put themselves back into a similar situation to try and regain control and change the outcome. Demi mentioned something similar with what happened to her in her past concerning her drug dealer lacing her with drugs. She went back to him and redid the same situation unfortunately. Watch her docu for more info.

Liam unfortunately being perfect victim because of his past with one directions management, he was so used to controlling environments.

Liam was used to having a controlled environment in his 1d days, everything was very strict.

plus liam did those im-paul-sive interviews talking about how he was so controlled during 1d that he didn't even know who he was anymore. But at the same time had a fondness for it all. Probably becayse it was a familiar environment. (Plus of course all the perks of being in a boyband plus his bandmates being like brothers). Even though it was a toxic environment because of management.

Impaiksive saying he didn't know who he was

It was almost a trauma in a way being that controlled from management. Examples:

Do you remember the dj interview where the interviewer wasn't allowed to ask them any questions besides basic hi how are you lol

Wikileaks the boys had to be marketed a certain way. also sidenote, I don't think any of them were allowed to grow out their beards besides some stubble but i could be wrong.

Zayn spaghetti from stop1ds mgmt. With this example, it's hard to tellif management was actually reducing his food, because he did later come out and say he had an eating disorder. But also he was a smoker, plus supposedly drugs. Although his addiction didn't get worse til later...

Zayn skinny but I'm not sure if the weight loss was from zayns substance abuse, or his eating disorder. Eating disorders tend to stem from lack of control of eeverything in your life so the only thing you can control is food. There were also rumors of being "clean cut", looking a certain way. For example niall always having to be blonde.

More random examples of how their management was. Ome of them mentions food restrictions again...this time for all the boys, not just zayn

Once people get out of abusive situations, unfortunately sometimes they are preyed upon by other abusers. Or sometimes they choose to go back because of the familiarity. Aka liam was looking for some type of structure like he had like back in his 1d days.

Aka "free days" and scheduled days like roger had him do. But if course we don't know exactly what went on behind the scenes.

Just my theory as to why so much control Thanks for reading!

Edit: for those who dont know tattoos can sometimes be a for, of self harm becayse it releases endorphins. It's another form of control. I'm not necessarily saying the boys did that per say. Just a thought.

[ladyiristheenchantress]

Sick Day Magic

It may come as a shock to some that I am, in fact, a human being and not a 500 year old oak tree with internet access. /j

Being human, and actually being alive, means you will get sick! Exploring biology for my biomed degree has taught me a lot of things about virus's, bacteria, and how exactly they work! For example: All living things can be effected by virus's, they are nanometers big for that reason, and not much is known about their origins here on earth which is really cool! With that said, every living thing gets sick, and with that we can pair magic to help us through our sick days!

I know I am, simply because I am writing to you now while on sick leave from all 3 of my jobs. Currently the summer flu has hit our home really hard, so lets talk about recovery!

Obvious disclaimer before getting started: Doctors, medical professionals, and health organizations are here to help you. This post is not to discourage you from using modern medicine, or seeing a doctor when you need one. I actually am very much against using spiritual bypassing to discredit medical research, especially as someone who is entering the medical field. If you are sick it is always important to speak with your doctor before trying any holistic remedies, especially if you are on medications that can conflict with herbal supplements. Know the warning signs for when symptoms escalate. This post is mainly about illnesses that can be treated at home and go away within a couple days or weeks (cold, flu, etc)

Lets get started!

How do living things get sick?

To keep this as simple as possible, living beings get sick from small organisms in a couple different classifications. You have virus's, bacteria, fungi, or parasites, and they all have one goal: to use your body as a host! Some things cant reproduce on their own like virus's so they hijack your cells, some things feed off of you and your daily body functions like parasites! In all, we are exposed to all sorts of pathogens, and our body will react with the nasty symptoms like fevers, chills, coughing, vomiting, and more because your body is trying to fight off all the pathogens using your body to reproduce. There are some circumstances where medical intervention is required however, for things like the common cold, flu, and sore throat you can find remedies over the counter!

All living things get sick, including tree's, seals, and even grasses. These pathogens are really good at evolving with us!

What did people do historically?

Before the introduction of germ theory in the 1860's, and the introduction of modern medicine in the 19th century cultures all around the world were still evolving to combat common sicknesses! From medieval Europe using cupping and leaches which assisted in medical standards and theories, to indigenous tribes using the herbs around them to pave the way for medications, cultures all over the world had their own tips and tricks for staying healthy!

In general most cultures followed a 3 way system, prevention, coping, and resistance, where methods were followed to assist in times of sickness. Often times they had distinct prayers and rituals, and would combine it with local remedies and folklore to help the general population.

Later on, herbs would pave the way for medicine as scientists discovered exactly what about an herb could help someone and isolate it into a pill, salve, or tincture!

What is some illness prevention magic?

When getting vaccinated create a prayer or chant to not only take your mind off it, but also for a metaphysical boost

leave offerings to gods of health during cold and flu season by your front door, and leave offerings to spring gods during pollen season by windows

have fire tonic, elderberry syrup, and lions main mushroom tinctures prepared (reminder: always consult a doctor)

Keep crystals like jade, green aventurine, and carnelian by your bed for health

Keep fresh flowers in the home, as scents can represent healing

Visualize sickness being repelled away from you as you practice hygiene

keep sigils in your shoes to 'draw illness back to the earth'

Mundanely make sure you are also having regular checkups (if you cant afford to see a doctor regularly, see what option you have for free clinics, or public health options like medicaid in the US), going to see your dentist because the teeth has a lot to do with health, and practicing good health habits can all be really helpful with preventing illness

What is some illness coping magic?

When sick, keep lavender and chamomile under your pillow as a sleep aid

Contrary to popular belief: Don't burn incense when you have a stuffy nose because the smoke will irritate your nose, instead use a humidifier and optionally put essential oils in it for drainage

take healing spiritual showers

create soft broths, and plain foods using kitchen magic and infusing it with intentions

Optionally if you are having trouble eating because of vomiting or fever, enchant your water bottle with healing energy with even just a simple chant

Put cold or hot compress on pressure points, optionally while you rest research what those pressure points symbolize and how you can translate that into your healing rituals from bed

visualize a healing green or blue light enveloping places that may hurt like joints or the head

Listen to gentle music or healing subliminal during naps to draw out illnesses

enchant your tissue box so every tissue you use is one less you have to use later

create a salve using willow or birch bark, camphor, mint, and chamomile for a soothing joint pain relief

Enchant medications with chants or sigils on the bottle

Mundanely, we see a lot of spiritual hacks, don't put garlic in your nose (The only reason you think it works is because it irritates your nose lining creating mucus), don't use elderberry (It puts your immune system in over drive when you are already sick and actually hinders the healing process), its better to limit herbal and holistic approaches other than things that are rich in things your body needs like fruits, veggies, and electrolytes!

Recovery goes into this much like prevention, our bodies begin to process and understand the invaders making it less likely for you to get infected by the same problem again, however as mutations grow, make sure you are taking care of yourself!

Spiritually, your body is a temple, and its the only one you have, love it and it will love you back, take care of it and it will take care of you back. As a human being I recognize the struggle that concept can be. Its easy for someone to say "just sleep lmao" without having insomnia for example. In general, finding a routine that works for you, your body, and your mind is very important! You are a spiritual being, but you are also human! Don't let people try to sell you the idea that modern medicine is out trying to hurt you, because there are people out there like me who will stand for making the medical field a safer and better place! Don't let people try to sell you the idea that your sickness is because of "bad karma" or that your "low vibes" or something silly like that because the truth is, you get sick because you are alive. Cherish being alive in all of its forms.

Fair winds friends!

And remember, if you took nothing away from this I will say it again, Cherish being alive in all of its forms.

Tip Jar

[canmom]

Animation Night 151: Modest and Immodest Short Films

Ahoy my friends! The hour is late, but not so late that we can’t watch a few films...

So. Lackadaisy huh.

I feel like you need to be in a somewhat specific age bracket of internet old to feel like that’s immensely significant. You need to be a webcomics bitch, basically. But from quite a specific era: the decade or so window between when webcomics looked like newspaper comics, and before the present era of webtoons. The Webcomics Review narrativises it as people who went to art school arriving on the scene in the mid-2000s, and that seems accurate enough. And of that crop, Lackadaisy Cats was certainly one of the biggest!

The concept is pretty straightforward. It’s a Prohibition-era crime drama set at a speakeasy that’s seen better days... and also everyone is an anthropomorphic cat. It was the beginning of the furry boom (Digger was a contemporary). But mostly... Tracy J. Butler could really fucking draw. You could say things like: clean, expressive designs with a lot of texture and depth and strong composition. (Not surprisingly, she’d worked in animation before drawing the comic.)

And compared to other comics whose selling point was the art such as The Meek and Dresden Codak, it also updated (if I’m remembering right) fairly consistently. It had archetypal characters, a very clearly defined aesthetic, and, compared to many webcomics of its era, a clear, accessible story. In short it read like a pro comic.

So it was natural for it to pick up steam.

Now, at some point I kind of stopped keeping up with most of the webcomics I read back then. Sure, some of them stopped updating, but others kept on going, sustained on merch and later, Patreon type sites. In that time, the standard of art in the scene went way up, the number of comics became so huge that there was no longer really a ‘shared context’ of webcomic readers, and manga scans and webtoons arrived in force. It is now almost impossible to build a new following with a webcomic, but you can do pretty well for yourself if you got in at the start.

Well, in the last few years a new phenomenon has developed out of that whole webcomic scene: the crowdfunded independent animated film. I wrote about this a bit back on Animation Night 117, with the biggest example being Vivziepop‘s works like Hazbin Hotel. In 2000, Lackadaisy joined in, running a kickstarter for an art book and maybe a short film if it did well. You can guess the rest of that story.

These films sit at an odd scale between ‘independent’ and ‘studio’. If you look at the credits of Lackadaisy, you’ll see a small army of animators and cleanup artists to exceed most TV productions (apparently the staff number in the 170s in total). The calls they put out for animators were demanding. And the lavish effort certainly shows! The makers of Lackadaisy set their sights on full animation, on-model, cleaned up and with an ambitious drawing count. Every scene is full of movement and acting. (There’s actually an interesting stylistic choice where construction lines are left in the final composite on many scenes.)

But in many other ways it was very unlike a studio production. One of the animators who worked on the short, Manu Mercurial, has put out a little making-of retrospective, which is pretty light on detail, but still gives some info. Since the production took place during the pandemic, it was completely organised over Discord, with animators posting WIPs and receiving feedback in full view of everyone else, and a director receptive to animators adding their own spins to shots. This apparently led to an atmosphere of friendly competition that was beneficial to the film as a whole.

Mercurial is full of praise for the film’s director Fable Siegel, who seems to have been the major organising force behind making this be an impressive, finished short film instead of just a bunch of artists hanging out in Discord. At least going off IMDB credits,  Siegel seems to have come to The Industry by way of participating in ‘Reanimated’ collabs on Youtube, before getting jobs on Hazbin and also Pendleton Ward’s experimental post-Adventure Time series The Midnight Gospel. (Right now their Twitter is a huge wall of Lackadaisy process shots if you’re curious.) Here’s an interview (by Toon Boom, so one of the questions is blatantly slanted to sell Toon Boom, but the rest is pretty interesting.)

The short film is presented as a pilot, and that is indeed how it plays out: a tour of all the major characters and dynamics of the comic/show, with a car chase, a set piece battle in a quarry, and a final wind down scene in the speakeasy itself which sets up the broader plot. It’s unquestionably very well executed. I’m certain it’s going to get a good few million views in the next few days alone, and maybe it will lead to a series. (Will it surpass Hazbin?). It’s got electro-swing, of course. SungWon Cho (ProzD) is in it, of course.

All the same... I wish it was weirder. Like something about Lackadaisy always feels like it’s playing it safe. It’s fun, it’s goofy, it’s charming... and that’s where it stops! For all that the creators like to talk about how we’re on the cusp of adult animation really taking off in America, the moonshine, and strangely ineffective guns, don’t really change the tone from the more mainstream animation. Bah humbug, etc.

Still, it’s unquestionably an extremely impressive work of animation and a sign of the way things are changing. I expect with all the animation studios laying off staff left right and centre, we’ll start to see a lot more like this.

That’s our first act! For our second...

Ian Hubert returns! I wrote briefly about him back on Animation Night 78. Hubert’s thing is compositing human actors into elaborate cyberpunk environments using Blender; his channel is full of ingenious tricks for creating impressive looking shots and effects with minimal geometry. What makes it work is Hubert’s eye for lighting and composition, knowing just where to place detail to sell a shot and what’s unnecessary for the camera.

The first episode of Dynamo Dream - which we’ll rewatch! - introduced us to a plant selling girl in some sorta cyberpunk megacity. After inadvertently saving out the weird cyborg landlord that runs her apartment, she gets a favour, which she calls on to contact her faraway boyfriend using a kind of missile launched phone terminal I guess? He invites her to come out and join him, but weird shit starts happening on the train. I haven’t watched this yet but I’m sure it’s going to deliver some fascinating visuals.

And then...

Modest Heroes is a collection of three short films by Studio Ponoc, a studio which spun out of Studio Ghibli. In the mid 2000s, the period that Ghibli could enjoy an exceptional state of employing lot of full-time salaried staff (instead of per project freelancers) was coming to an end. In 2014 it seemed they were on the verge of shutting down altogether. Yoshiaki Nishimura, lead producer of many of Ghibli’s films in the 2000s era (Howl - When Marnie Was There), left the studio in 2015, bringing in a bunch of ex-Ghibli animators under a new studio called Ponoc.

Their first film, Mary and the Witch’s Flower, apparently found it hard to define an identity beyond the shadow of Miyazaki (I haven’t seen it!), but things got a lot more exciting with their second. Modest Heroes is a collection of three short films, showing off a variety of ingenious approaches to animation. (It was originally planned to be four, but then Isao Takahata went and died while planning the segment on the theme of ‘death’... oof.) The writers of Animation Obsessive are big fans, and they’ve written two detailed, enthusiastic articles on two of the shorts in the collection.

Invisible, directed Akihiko Yamashita, is a take on the invisible man concept. Since the invisible man is, well, you know..., his entire existence must be communicated through interactions with objects and clothes. Yamashita hoped to communicate feelings and interior life. His invisibility is a metaphor for social invisibility, and thus it comes combined with other metaphors, such as weightlessness.

The idea came from Nishimura, who thought it was a worthy subject for an ‘animation genius’ such as Yamashita. Nishimura wanted the film to bring a kind of inventiveness that he felt was missing from the overly conservative contemporary anime. Yamashita, after leaving Ghibli, attempted to get by in the regular anime industry and found it unbearably strained. He returned to the fold to work on Boro the Caterpillar with Miyazaki, and this convinced him to follow Yamashita over to Ponoc.

The result is something gorgeous, with its emotional drama playing out against grimy desaturated backgrounds that are perhaps closer to something like Tekkonkinkreet than the Ghibli nature scene. Yamashita named quite a specific palate of inspirations...

As reference, Yamashita drew from Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men and Gravity, the films of Alejandro González Iñárritu and the manga of Junji Ito, among others. They contributed to the dark, unusual vibe and look of Invisible.

I’ve been wanting to watch this film for ages, here’s our chance!

Alongside that comes Yoshiyuki Momose’s film Samurai Egg (here’s the aniobsessive link again). Momose, the ‘right-hand man’ of Takahata, was one of the guys he leaned on to actually draw the storyboards of films like Grave of the Fireflies.

In contrast to the elaborate visual metaphor of Invisible, Samurai Egg is a very grounded film about a kid with a severe egg allergy. Takahata is famed as a realist, although a different sort than people like Okiura and Inoue who bring incredibly meticulous detail and well-observed acting to sci-fi scenarios. Certainly, Takahata would make films about ghosts and mythology, but he’d also make films like Only Yesterday that are much quieter, everyday dramas.

Despite sharing the everyday focus of, this film veers away from it into more expressionistic techniques, bringing in softer pencil effects to the anime cels, as well as techniques like 3DCG-rotoscoping. There’s a dance scene where Shinji Hashimoto gets to go nuts with shapes a la Ryan Woodward.

Momose took some pains to avoid being too sentimental with it; AniObsessive quote Nishimura in Animation Magazine:

When you make a film about a parent and a child, it’s easy to fall into the trap of showing a “heartwarming” relationship, and creating a cheap-feeling structure. We wanted to avoid that.

The film is pre-recorded - like Grave of the Fireflies, actually. (It’s the norm in the West, but rare in anime.) There’s some interesting linguistic nuance there:

It was necessary because Oko’s role called for something special. In a detail that’s lost on foreigners, Shun’s mom uses the Kishiwada dialect, which “sounds harsh, but you can feel the love behind it,” Momose said. It’s a cruder, shorter form of Japanese. They used it partly to fit more information into Samurai Egg’s 16-minute runtime, and partly to reveal the relationship she has with Shun. He’s a Tokyo kid — he speaks differently.

As for the third film...

Kanini & Kanino takes us underwater for a pair of kids who live on a coral reef. Alas, I don’t have a detailed article on the making-of and influences on this one, but I can tell you that the director Hiromasa Yonebayishi, aka Maro, is behind it - best known as the director of The Secret World of Arriety, When Marnie Was There, and Ponoc’s first film Mary and the Witch’s Flower. Notably the dialogue for this short is all in ‘crab language’ - are these kids anthro crabs? In fact, yes, it would appear they are anthropomorphic crabs. Sick. Whether they will attend a rave I can’t say, but the internet reliably informs me that is the primary activity of crabs, so probably.

I think that’s enough to be going with! Apologies it’s so late - I had to spend most of today reinventing Canabalt. But I succeeded, so I think I’ve gotten a lot better at this whole game dev thing. Let’s go enjoy some short films!

Animation Night will be going live now at twitch.tv/canmom, films to begin in maybe 15 minutes.

[ailurocide]

Okay some random hc’s I’m dropping to see if they’ll stick for her :333

-She cannot handle really strong smells. At most she can take small sprigs of lavender (a whole patch would make her sick for a day). While Grousefoot was injured she sucked up the smell of the den but ever since she just cannot go near it. Some smells also make her physically weak, mostly the ones used for burials…

-Very much in her head most of the time. She thinks through everything before doing anything which both makes her very knowledgeable but also stuck sometimes.

-She tends to just stop in the middle of a sentence. Those close to her can tell the difference between her stopping because she thinks it’s the end of a sentence and her stopping because she’s still working through her words

-Not a picky eater to say but has strong likes and dislikes. Lizards are AMAZING!! Eggs tho… icky. She’ll try something new but most of the time doesn’t like it :/

-Probably would be a poet but not necessarily because she wants to share her work but because she can’t really explain things in “normal” ways. Everything is kinda a metaphor in a way since she doesn’t know how to explain it easily.

-Naturally very very cold. Always cold. She’s grown used to it, with all the time speeding everywhere and all but really craves warmth when she feels it. (Lots of cuddling between those she trusts enough, also naturally just a cat to stick to those she likes)

-She isn’t like super spiritual but has a mixed belief in lucky objects of sorts. Would probably carry around a charm or smth and give anything she feels is special to those she cares for. Sometimes she calls it dumb to have these things but deep down she does feel a lot better with them

This is all actually SURPRISINGLY accurate for my thoughts on her character lmao???

Once again. How’re y’all getting access to my notes >:0 /j

Not necessarily the specific tastes, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with adapting something so small for a fan favorite ;) So lizards it is!!

[cerenemuxse]

Bold of you to assume I wouldn't do a monster engine and bold of you to assume that the first vic- engine wouldn't be Edward. /j

Inspired by the aus of @ohjeeztrains and @gummybuggy

Monster engines are so damn cool.

I mixed in a bunch of animals because I said, "Fuck it. Hybrids ftw." It's so random. I chose dogs, horses, and rhinos. Yes, rhinos. I was going to add horns and I just realized I forgot but you know what, I think its fine like this. I tried fitting on horns earlier but it failed. It looks really odd. The specific breeds I chose for Edward originate from Scotland, because of course I go that deep. 💀💀💀💀

So he's based on the Clydesdale horses, the Gordon Setter dogs, the common rhinos, and the bull horns were from the Highland bulls. Can't do anything without wanting to do research.

The "leaders" (leading wheels) are based on rhinos and the "drivers" (driving wheels) are a combination of horses back legs and the dog paws. I was originally going to make them just horse legs but I started thinking about Emily, who would have "trailers" (trailing wheels). I really want them to be able to kick back but I'm not sure about Emily. Maybe she could kick forward like kangaroos. 💀 Girl stands on her damn trailers and her drivers kick forward, because that's where the power really is. Or she can do both.

I really took in the fighting aspect of it, simply because I find it interesting and it might be something they do more often than their engine counterparts, considering they're (basically) animals. They are slightly easier to tick off. Edward has a pretty good tolerance compared to the others. Basically, start biting or swatting at him and he won't be mad initially. But the longer the biting and swatting goes, the more he gets mad. He'll attack suddenly with a minor warning, which is low growling.

The long tail of nothing but hair looks harmless but its actually used a lot in fighting, too. It's pretty damn heavy so with enough force, it enough to knock another engine over. The ones with the long tails will also cuddle with said tails during the cold seasons or allow the Tank Iron Horse (oh yeah, they're called Iron Horses because why not) to cuddle into them. So now that i mention the name, let me explain it. Iron Horses refers to steam engines only. There's two main types of them: Tank and Tender. Tank Iron Horses have much thinner tails and tend to be small. If they're a Tender-Tank Iron Horse, it's definitely longer but not as thick as the Tender Iron Horses' tails. There's two forms. Regular engine forms, which existed first, and the Iron Horse forms. The Iron Horse forms were extremely unexpected when steam engines began running on railways. It's weird how they work. They can eat many things. Every single one of them is chunky as hell because I said so. They have cat-like instincts and all sorts of different species mixed in, which makes them weirder. Edward will squawk like a seagull. I might actually give him feathers, which i was debating but completely forgot. 🤡 Arthur probably has some mouse aspects to him as his class was nicknamed "Mickey Mouse Tanks." Rebecca could get swirly tail because her class is nicknamed "Spam cans," referring the cans "SPAM" is sold in, which is made of pork. Those tiny details. And I told myself I wouldn't let myself get so invested.

For other engines, I haven't figured it out.

Oh, and the "man-bun" is just the funnel. It slops up like Spencer's funnel does but depending on the height of the funnels, the slope is different.I think that's it. This was all improvised because damn it, this wouldn't leave my thoughts.

Not important, but the "NWR" logo was taken from James' ref sheets because I did not feel like drawing it. The 2 wasn't. I may have reference Edward's old ref sheets but the font is different to the one I chose for the engines. I also erased those layers so I don't even have access to it. Speaking of said design, this is the final palette for Edward's 1992-1995 rebuild. I also got brass wrong. Its not the same as Edward's eye color. Its much more yellow and it looks green when next to green colors.

I want to talk more about it but it'll start diverging into other characters and this post is already getting long. I don't like making posts long. ;-;

[episodicnostalgia]

Spider-man: The Animated Series, 101 (Nov. 19, 1994) - “Night of the Lizard”

Written by: Gerry Conway, Stan Berkowitz, & John Semper Jr. Directed by: Bob Richardson

The Breakdown

After sightings of a mysterious lizard-creature in the sewers make the news, J Jonah Jameson offers a $1,000 reward to whoever can provide a photographic proof.  Peter Parker is hurting for cash, so he grabs his camera and thwips into action.  First up, he begins his search with a visit to his professor (Dr. Curt Connors) because that guy knows, like, a LOT about Lizards you guys. In fact, Connors even has a fancy ray gun at his campus facility called a “Neogenic Recombinator” which is capable of giving small mammals the ability to regrow missing limbs just by zapping some Reptile DNA into them. Pretty neat, right? Maybe one day this device will help Connors regrow his own arm, but surely not today. Of course, that expository information is purely to set the tone of the story, and I’m sure it won’t relate directly to the primary narrative or events of this episode.

In the twist that utterly may shock you, it turns out that Doc Connors and the Lizard are-one-and-the-same on account of engaging in a reckless attempt to regrow his own arm, which has gone horribly wrong! (Who could have foreseen this?) With a new set of reptilian priorities, Croc Connors decides to turn everyone into Anthropomorphic Reptiles, because he’s decided being a dinosaur-man actually kinda slaps. (Important follow up question: does he maybe have a point? That does sound awesome.)  Regardless, it’s poor form to assume that’s what everyone wants without checking first, so Pete gets into Spidey mode and shuts the whole thing down, using the gene-ray-gun to turn Connors back into his normal human self.  And to top it off Peter gets the pictures so he can keep the noose of capitalism at bay for a little while longer!  Yay!

The Verdict

One thing these old 90’s cartoons excelled at was in getting to the point. ‘Night of the Lizard’ picks up when Spider-man is already well established, and Peter is in university. Even Peter’s supporting cast are all introduced as if the audience could already know them, and it works. At no point are we ever left to wonder what’s going on, or who anyone is. The writing and animation on this show never reached the maturity of Batman: TAS or other WB fare of the era, but this episode still holds up pretty well for a 90’s kids show. Visually the animators do a decent job of capturing Spider-man’s acrobatics (the webbing looks great), although the CGI backgrounds have not aged gracefully. Meanwhile, what the writing lacks in emotional depth, it makes up for it in whiz-bang adventure that’s simultaneously a faithful update to the source material. 

When all is said and done, this is remains a solid intro to an iconic show from my childhood.

3 stars (out of 5)

Additional Observations

I like that they introduced Eddie Brock as a rival photographer right away. Gives us some time to establish his dynamic with Peter before he becomes Veno- I mean, I’m sure they’ll sort out their differences amicably.

The Lizard’s design is spot on. As a kid watching this show felt like like a comic book come to life. Coincidentally the Lizard was one of the first Spidey rogues I was introduced to back when I first started reading comics.

I love how a university has access to a device capable of creating literal super-monsters almost instantly, and there seems to be no resources devoted to guarding it. And this is only the first of many times that specific one-of-a-kind device will be misused to a similar effect. Maybe the line between this universe with super-people, and ours, is a better security budget.

[enneamage]

why do you think the new york vlogs did so badly viewers wise? what made it go so wrong?

At a glance, Kacey Neistat /j

(/hj? I think Kacey people didn’t care about Tommy and Tommy people didn’t care about Kacey, which caused that abrupt dip. That or people were turned off the museum vlog and decided to jump ship from there.)

For starters I would like to sift out things going ‘Badly’ from being ‘slightly less ridiculous than usual.’ He still pulled insane numbers compared to what most people do on Youtube, and I have a lot of respect for other Youtubers that pull a small but refined audience. I think that the easiest road bump to understand was that people got overwhelmed / fell behind on content and just never picked the series back up again since they were coming out so often.

Tommy has a vlog format, and a vlog persona. I think I really focused on this series because it was an accidental exercise in the limits of doing a wide-reaching vlog formula, and how something that performs well in one format won’t always transfer to power in another capacity. The vlog series was a successful series of videos in YouTube terms, but the sore spot about it was that it was clearly designed to be a massive fundraiser that only made it to around half it’s goal.

The scaling on the fundraiser was wonky in a few places, and even backfired a bit. Tommy clearly thought this series was going to pop off, and it really did get a good number of views, but expectations were set very high.

The incentive to subscribe was too low and the buy-in for the donor rewards was too high. I didn’t realise I could put a price to what my subscription to a channel was worth, but having someone say it cost a penny had me going ‘that ain’t right.’ There’s actually experiments that show if you give someone an insultingly small amount of money for a thing they were going to do anyway, they’ll stop doing the thing because the switch from internal to external reward reframes it as being unappealing. I think he accidentally triggered that effect in some people and turned them off. If someone wasn’t already invested in who Tommy was (and those people were probably already subscribed by now), the penny thing wouldn’t have done anything for them.  

Tommy already had a healthy handful of subscribers, but one of the features of his scaling was he would throw in $10,000 for every million he got. I don’t think that ever came into play, but you can tell what he thought we was going to be dealing with here. As for the cork board, he never really spent any meaningful time with it in the vlogs, and it felt more like selling ad space rather than anything communal or accessible.

You could tell when Tommy started panicking because his friends decided to get into a friendly dono war with each other to cheer him up. Phil eventually even did a supplementary YLYL stream close to the end. As I said before he eventually started crediting everyone who donated, because the list turned out to be not that long. I think he started to adjust on the fly and never really had the time to ground himself again in between filming the vlogs themselves.

Marathons, endurance tasks, and challenges tend to have a theme in common: Struggle and suffering. That sounds extreme but it’s true, public spectacles in those styles tend to be interesting because they tap into some raw human emotions. Tommy had a challenge / marathon format, but he never really got to extremes of emotion that we were meant to notice. He very distinctly went ‘odd’ making the videos (partly from dealing with the nerves of realising that his plan was not working) but it seemed incidental to what he was doing rather than an intentional feature; he was suffering making the vlogs, not doing the tasks themselves. He never really felt like a convincing narrative underdog, he was just Tommying around the city.

I think the vlog format kept him from being earnest. Underneath the hood I could see the logic of the fundraiser that went along with the series: living in New York is damn hard on a slim budget, let’s make life easier for the people who need it. The thing is, the connection between those two points was never made explicit or clear. What you got was a hyper-real call to action that felt like a mid-vlog ad read. He also didn’t wind up sticking to the challenge format, for either the tasks or the budget, which grew the disconnect even further.

It didn’t really seem emotionally honest because it was hitting that strange scattershot tone where people play to the ages of five to twenty-five, both making things as colorful and hyper-stimulating as possible while also making sex jokes. Tommy knows how to make himself into a cartoon character to do these bits, but the mask went on too thick to be able to connect with the audience in a way that people would have found genuinely inspirational or moving.

Reality was weird in that series. It was obvious that some bits were scripted in a very storybook-simple way (“I’m going to meet my hero!”) and things were planned in advance, which stacked kind of awkwardly with other aspects of the vlog. The storyline seemed to be pitched to a very young audience, but those people don’t have wallets, so that came off as an odd choice to me. I remember thinking that the final vlog was like making a balloon animal out of a fire hose, the footage and the editing style just barely stuck together because of the weird tonal places it went and then tried to over-write or ignore. I also remember thinking that several parts of the series would have breathed better at a slower pace or at least with different editing style, but I also knew that wasn’t on the table.

I talked about this very briefly when the series was still coming out, but I think there’s a big difference between the average level of engagement that an audience has with a YouTube video versus a livestream. Charity livestreams are a big thing for a reason, the immediacy and community of working together for a shared purpose is a lot easier to get in a live format.

On the other hand, I think that the things that get Youtube videos clicks and retention might have worked against him in the end. As people slowly zero in on what makes people keep watching videos, they get better at bypassing the parts of your brain that think for long enough to be able to get bored and click off. It’s a bit of a stun-lock system where you can dazzle people into paying attention without having to build deeper investment, which is good for retention but bad for trying to get a proactive and engaged response from your audience, since those are the parts you’re trying to put to sleep. I think this series created a kind of bystander effect where people didn’t feel any real need to engage, especially since Tommy kept a brave face on when it came to what the donations actually turned out to be. I remember waiting for him to crack or acknowledge that there was something wrong, but he never really did.

To be metaphorical, I think Tommy followed a recipe without fully understanding how the ingredients worked. On paper it was the vlog format stacked onto a Mr. Beast style challenge (specifically this one since he references the guy in the series), both of which seemed like sure-fire winners, with some flares that made it more personal to him. You could really tell from his scaling of the subscription ‘price’ and donation goals that he expected the series to blow the roof off because separately those things worked well, but it didn’t turn out to be that simple, and he got a different result.

[matryx7728]

dear god

1: medibang, krita, ibispaint

2: i can only draw most things facing right except for the fucking v models from ultrakill i have to draw them at least facing somewhat forward i don’t know

3: i can’t really understand what this question means at the moment my reading comprehension is fucked sorry

4: gabriel ultrakill .. 💔���💔 cant draw him good for the life of me

5: i show like everything i draw to a very small discord server of very close friends but i hardly post any of my art anywhere else so

6: there’s way too much here for me to list

7: painting. like on a real canvas i love it so much but i just can not do it

8: i was gonna make a thing with my current sona and my old sona ghat j could redraw like every month or something but like i kind of just Didn’t

9: i name my files mostly just the thing i drew. like if i draw my oc v0 i’ll name it like ‘v0 doodle.png’ or something however @cikdik would have a very good answer for this question

10: i hate drawing all clothes i don’t know how to do it

11: music very loudly always my v0 playlist mostly

12: probably arms but when it comes to anything animalistic the face and the legs

13: i don’t really have one of these as far as i can remember

14: body horror, gore, horror in general things like that i also like religious themes a lot but that’s just cause i really really like ultrakill

15: anywhere i have access to my phone or my tablet i guess

16: reference images which is funny cause that’s all i fucking draw half the time it’s either that or whatever character i’m drawing just standing there side profile and it’s kind of frustrating

17: i don’t eat when i draw but i will drink. mostly flavored water, tea or juice

18: not much i draw digitally most of the time for the past like four years

19: uhhhi have no idea unless robots count and i don’t think they do

20: not really any specific thing but i make my sketches very fast apparently like for mostly anything i’ll take at most like maybe 20 minutes for a sketch or doodle i think

21: that kind of like. scraggly roundish art style i have no idea how to describe it better but i love it i just try to draw more angularly you know

22: absolutely none unless you count constantly cracking my knuckles as a habit

23: no i don’t know how they work i’m trying to figure them out though

24: no i hardly ever remember to use references and i think that’s not good for me but hey

25: j can’t remember anything named specifically but it happens often

26: i don’t really have many actuall like. pieces and if i do i haven’t posted them so

27: no my dumbass always goes straight in and then i’m like shit hold on and then doodle a million other things while i’m halfway through and forget what i’m doing

28: artfight if that counts this year will be my third on artfight

29: like uh. mostly everythjng j think the only media that really influences my art has been wings of fire and ultrakill i guess

30: i don’t post most of my finished art like at all i don’t have many pieces to go unappreciated but like. that one time i made that shitpost of gabriel and me and @cikdik ‘s ultrakill angel ocs on the ‘save the turtles. that’s a fucking frog’ video i think that’s my magnum opus /j

@cikdik (i tagged you like twice already in this sorry) @athiav2 @adriaue

Weirdly Specific Artist Ask Game

Didn't see a lot of artist ask games, wanted to make a silly one.

(I wrote this while sick out of my mind last year and it's been collecting dust in my drafts, I might as well let it run free) 1. Art programs you have but don't use

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

3. What ideas come from when you were little

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it)

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

9. What are your file name conventions

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

12. Easiest part of body to draw

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

14. Any favorite motifs

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth)

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

23. Do you use different layer modes

24. Do your references include stock images

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

[lifesteal-headcanons]

Something Small (Part 5)

Except it’s 11:12 PM and I’ve given myself permission to go nuts and elaborate on the “incident w/ Clown” that I mentioned in like, my second ask/part 2. Anyways, let’s start before I end up leaving this ask in the back of my mind. Again.

So there’s this ‘little’ thing with hybrid in which their own instincts can somewhat cause other hybrids (especially those of the same type) to have their own instincts come to the front, if that makes sense. To give an example, if two Avians hybrids are preening one another; while the other is completely out of it and riding an instinctual wave(from being preened), the other might be making more vocal “bird noises” and more (to a lot) more inclined to participating in hybrid behaviors like nesting and such. If say the other avian, for whatever reason, didn’t want to let the other into their nest, it wouldn’t be unsurprising -nor uncalled for- the other avian to make a nest next or nearby to the other avian. Though, like most things in life, the amount hybrids will be affected by things such as their instinct and this ‘instinct’ ride is very much varied. Some people within the MC universe should take well with a lesson of it.

Now just pair a Vulture hybrid who tends to get widely overwhelmed by their hybrid instincts and a shapeshifter who is easily affected by others instincts, and you’ll have yourself a ClownPierce and a Branzy.

Something that Branzy did learn after accepting the “oh I’m a shapeshifter” thing is that while they very much struggle to shift on command, they do shift to match a hybrid type when someone is having a day/moment where their hybrid instincts are either more prevalent or more in control. They actually “cheat” the system so to speak, when they want to transform back into a shark hybrid, they’ll go spend time with Midmysticx because normally her instincts will flair up when hanging around other people. Either way, Branzy is a whitetip reef shark and Mid’s a blacktip reef shark, I am not taking questions at this time (/j). Back on track though.

Now something that Clown pretty much kept under lock and key was the fact that it is a Cinereous Vulture hybrid. Parrot knew because Parrot had to as server admin, and whoever was acting doctor on the server would know if a situation ever would arise for them to need to know, however no one knew. Minus one other person of course, who is the reason why Clown hid its wings for as long as it did. That person, is Vort3xDragon (and I’m apologizing now if this is ooc! I have only watched maybe 1 of his videos. But my brain picked Vortex for this and is not letting go.)

Now preening for some Avian hybrids can be seen as a way to bond, being used as way to either build or mend a relationship. There still has to be some trust involved, but seeing as not every Avian hybrid is going to have access to their flock 24/7, some will use the opportunity to try and build a closer friendship with people by giving them the chance to preen their wings. It’s basic self-care and showing people you trust them, win-win right? That aside, when Clown came to Parrot asking if either he or someone he recommended could preen them (as they weren’t fully ready to let MOB do it), Parrot kinda jumped at the opportunity. Clown and Vortex, while friends, were constantly bickering and bantering with each other to the point of “this doesn’t seem all that friendly anymore” and was kinda edging on the point of arguments, so Parrot suggested it and Clown tentatively agreed to letting Vortex preen him.

The inter moment started rocky as well, with the atmosphere being tense af. Clown was very much riding a stress and anxiety high and wasn’t really responding well to any of Vortex’s attempts to break the tension and it only got worse when the preening actually started. See, Vortex (being at the time human) never got the memo on “not every hybrid reacts the same way to things as those of the same hybrid type/species would” and made a pretty damn big mistake. See while Parrot would just lie down content while being preened and chirp an coo on occasion an just take everything in, Clown gets overwhelmed by its instincts and emotions very quickly when being preened. And that tends to lead to Clown crying, hard.

(Parrot would much much later, after learning about what happened, theorize that it had something to do with the fact that Clowns wings normally are just more sensitive than most Avian Hybrids and that being paired with its anxiety/stress from everything and the fact it was it’s first time being preened from somebody outside it’s flock and they didn’t trust Vortex as much as they thought they did, made their instincts and emotions go a lot more haywire than normal. Clown’s flock says “it normally cries while being preened, and that’s okay! Fuck you if you say otherwise!”)

Now Vortex, not even halfway through Clown’s first wing yet and realizing that Clown is very crying, makes just about the worse decision he could’ve. No matter how light teases were originally meant to be, they still came out with overwhelmingly harshness and kept coming for much too long. Clown pretty much ended up shutting down for the remainder of the preening session and only moved from where they were on the floor awhile after Vortex left to curl up in their nest.

(Vortex would very much be kicking himself later on for not catching onto the fact he fucked up immediately while the session was happening. The signs were there, Clown very much wasn’t making noise anymore. Not to mention there was times it was like it’s wing would flinch or try to pull away from his hands as he was working through. He ended up apologizing multiple times to Clown, though Clown is still trying to work it out in their head whether or not they 100% forgive him or not. The inter situation was somewhat traumatizing for them and it’s a lot to process even still.)

After the session, Clown was pretty much convinced that it’s wings (and by extension, it’s hybridness) was a weakness and would only lead to it getting hurt and it overall being seen as weak because (it’s a shitshow, and I can’t figure out how to word it, but crying and macho toxic masculinity ideals is involved here. Clown was viewing emotions like crying as a weakness to a big extent) It constantly kept its wings bound underneath its clothing and didn’t tell anyone about the wings after that. It also didn’t fucking preen themselves! Like at all! It was so worried about the extremely off chance of someone finding it’s base and that even letting themselves process certain emotions and letting itself cry was a bad thing! Needless to say, it’s mental health was a shitshow throughout seasons 2 and 3 because of it. If Branzy hadn’t accidentally have managed to find out about it’s wings, it probably wouldn’t have told them despite them being in a serious relationship and Clown considering Branzy apart of its flock by that point.

Needless to say, Branzy was quick to gently (but serious and firmly) get onto Clown’s case about it and Clown ended up letting Branzy preen them. It was still a very overwhelming experience overall for Clown and still lead to them breaking down very bad during the process. Except this time an overall positive experience and lead to Clown’s hybrid instinct addled brain very much happily cuddling Branzy after it all (and unknowingly) preening Branzy back after Branzy finished its wings. Branzy ended up learning the hard way that Clown tends to head butt while being preened, and that you should either have it take its mask off or wear a fabric one if your preening them.

Either way, Clown was very fucking confused to wake up the morning after being preened to find it’s Shark Boyfriend very much no longer a shark and very much a bird like itself.

Also, something fucking stupid but I’m refusing to not mention it, Ivory and Rasplin were Clowns only flock before LifeSteal and they pretty much had a system down when it came to Clown’s preening time. One of them would lay down with clown, holding them up for the person who would actually be going through the feathers. Rasplin was normally held up Clown because Ivory had an easier time getting stuff (like gravel) out of Clown’s wings without accidentally yanking or bumping into clowns overly sensitive feathers though.

Either way, it’s uh 3:23 AM. My phone has gone from 97% to 49%. And my face hurts. I am sorry if there’s any typos or such cuz I think I’m going to cry if I keep going for much longer. Which also, sorry for essentially kinda just dumping a hysterically long ask in your ask box again,,, uh anyway, have a nice night/morning??

That’s it, that’s the ask!!

[thewidowsghost]

Sunshine - Daisy Johnson x Romanoff!Reader

Main Masterlist

imapotatao asked:

Hey! I have a Daisy Johnson x reader request. When being sent to the future, Daisy and Reader meet their grandchild. Said grandchild is brought back with deke, they have no idea that they are their grandchild until something happens to reader and they think she won't make it. Or the grandchild says something that reader always says and Daisy puts it together. (That make sense? God, I hope so. Sorry it's long.)

Daisy Johnson leans against her girlfriend, as (Y/n) Romanoff shovels pancakes into her mouth, her fiery red hair making a curtaining plate as she eats.

"You know," Phil Coulson says, eating his own food. "I think this is really the first time we've all been together in a really long time."

(Y/n) hums in agreement, swallowing another huge bite of pancake and May smiles warmly at Coulson.

(Y/n) lets out a whine as Daisy steals a bite of pancake from her, and everyone - Mack, Elena (Yo-yo), May, Coulson, Daisy, and FitzSimmons - laugh.

"Why do you always have to steal my pancakes, Sunshine?" (Y/n) asks her girlfriend, a frown on her face.

"You know you love me," Daisy replies, gazing fondly at her girlfriend. Daisy grins mischievously, taking another bite from (Y/n)'s plate.

(Y/n) blinks affectionately at Daisy. "I do," she murmurs in Daisy's ear.

"Anybody have room for some pie?" a waitress asks

(Y/n) drops her fork in excitement as the others murmur their agreement.

"Okay, so we have apple, strawberry, rhubarb, and chocolate banana cream," the waitress continues, looking amused at the excited expression on (Y/n)'s face.

There is a crackle of electricity, and the diner powers down.

There is a whir of electricity, and all the SHIELD agents sigh as lights appear outside the restaurant, resembling headlights.

"Here we go," May grumbles.

A door slams open, and some of the other customers gasp.

(Y/n) looks sadly down at her plate of pancakes before, simultaneously, the agents sit up straighter, lifting their hands into the air.

"Phillip J. Coulson," A man with a calm voice says, appearing behind said man.

"Yep, that's me," Coulson says with an eye roll, his eyes fixed on his own plate. "You got us. Nice job. And hey, congrats on the whole power-outage thing," he adds. "It was very . . . ominous."

A device powers on, and there is an actual ominous high-pitch ringing noise.

"The window closes in less than two minutes," the calm voiced man says. "Take them."

. . .

All seven agents gasp as they finally regain their breath.

Daisy sneaks her hand into (Y/n)'s, interlocking their fingers as the agents look around the dark room.

"Is everyone okay?" Coulson asks.

"Yeah, I think so," Mack replies.

Looking around the room, Simmon's eyes fall on a white rock with red lines running through it.

The Monolith melts into a white sludge, like solidified milk, and washes over the seven agents.

. . .

When (Y/n) blinks, she finds herself standing beside, not Daisy, but a woman who looked a lot like her older sister, Natasha. The same splash of freckles across her nose and cheeks, the same fiery red hair, but she had familiar chocolate brown eyes, but (Y/n) shrugs off the younger woman's - she may have been twenty or twenty one - appearance for a moment.

"You," The woman turns to address (Y/n). "We've been waiting for you to come save us."

(Y/n) tilts her head questioningly.

"You must be (Y/n)," the woman continues and (Y/n) nods.

"How do you know me?" (Y/n) asks, frowning slightly.

The young woman replies, "Virgil and I always believed the stories."

"Believed what?" (Y/n) asks. "What stories?"

"Well, this one," she answers. "T-that you would - you would come and save us."

"Save who?" (Y/n) narrows her eyes.

"Humanity," the younger redhead answers, looking grim.

. . .

Coulson, Yo-yo, Simmons, and Mack are running down a hallway, Yo-yo shooting at one of the aliens chasing after them.

There is a rumbling, and Daisy Johnson is framed in the corridor where the alien had just been - it had been exploded.

"Right?" Daisy asks shakily.

"Yes, that was right," Coulson replies, "and not the only one."

Daisy looks around at the group, noticing the two missing bodies. "Where's (Y/n)? And May?"

. . .

Coulson, Yo-yo, Simmons, and Mack stalk cautiously behind Daisy, who walks with her hand out, ready to strike.

"This has to be the coolest we've ever looked," Coulson comments.

. . .

"My friend should be here somewhere," (Y/n) comments as the two redheads walk down one of the corridors.

There is an intersection and (Y/n) crashes into a familiar, shorter figure.

"Whoa," (Y/n) says as her girlfriend scrambles to her feet, raising her hand defensively.

"Hey," Daisy says, looking relieved, wrapping (Y/n) in a tight hug.

"Hi, Sunshine," (Y/n) says so softly that no one else but Daisy could hear.

"I suppose I'll leave you here, then," the younger redhead says.

"Thanks -" (Y/n) pauses, not knowing the younger woman's name.

"Natalie," Natalie replies.

"Thank you, Natalie," (Y/n) nods.

Natalie turns and walks off, looking around cautiously, leaving (Y/n) with her friends.

"Seems like it's just a lot of work just to keep this place afloat," Coulson comments, looking at the walls.

"But it's designed for humans to survive -" Simmons says. "Atmosphere and simulated gravity - and machinery seemed to be for reclaiming water, I think."

"Yeah, it looks man-made," Coulson agrees.

"Could possibly be a colony?" Simmons wonders aloud. "Moving mankind to the stars? Maybe that's what Virgil meant by 'humanity,'" Simmons goes on.

"That's what Natalie said, too," (Y/n) says. "Said she and Virgil had been waiting for us to arrive."

"I don't know," Coulson says. "That plasma gun wasn't man-made, and I don't think they could've built this place without some outside help. It's got some serious miles on it."

"Decades it looks like," (Y/n) comments, "but that means that this program had to have been started in the eighties by Howard Stark. And that doesn't feel right. Tony would've mentioned something."

"Yo-yo found something," Mack says, appearing out of the gloom.

(Y/n), Daisy, Coulson, and Simmons follow Mack, and they find a flare still lit on the ground.

As the group walks up to the flare, it goes out, and Coulson frowns.

The group lines up in front of the door, stepping back.

(Y/n) steps forward and kicks down the door.

The agents walk into the room, catching sight of the dead men on the floor.

Daisy sighs heavily. "Nothing," she says.

"Nothing alive," Yo-yo says.

(Y/n) kneels down, studying the fresh blood on the ground.

"Hey," Coulson says, noticing the blood, as well as Melinda May's jacket.

"They didn't get to her, did they?" Yo-yo asks, looking rather concerned.

"May would've put up a fight," (Y/n) replies.

Coulson nods. "And they left the other bodies here," Coulson adds.

"'Water reclamation,'" Daisy reads off a computer screen.

"You were right, Jemma," Coulson says.

"I figured it out using magic," Simmons replies, glancing at Mack with an amused gleam in her eyes.

Mack shakes his head, not looking the least bit amused.

The console beeps and Daisy leans over the computer. "I can try and find out a layout and track May," Daisy says.

"It's in English," Simmons says. "They're tracking debris fields called 'frozen oceans'."

Daisy types on the computer, and there is a silence that is only disturbed by the clacking of a keyboard.

"They're collecting water form ice in space," Simmons says and she and Daisy look up from the computer. "This is a colony."

"Which means unless they all came through a Monolith . . . " Coulson trails off.

"Then we're close enough to Earth for people to travel here," Daisy looks back down at the computer.

"And we can get home," (Y/n) says.

"Yes, bu just as important," Simmons adds, "collecting ice means they have a spacecraft, and if they have a spacecraft, they must have a laser-based rapid-transmission system," Simmons rambles. "If we can find the ship and fly above the debris field . . ."

"We can send a message," Coulson finishes.

"We can send a message to Fitz back on Earth," Simmons goes on.

"Okay, okay, so if I can find a layout, find a ship, find May, it's a start," Daisy says. "This interface looks similar to -"  the monitor beeps, and (Y/n) leans down to read the message, her hand resting on the small of Daisy's back.

"'Human access denied'?" (Y/n) reads.

"Coulson, do you recognize this language?" Daisy asks.

"No," Coulson replies, leaning forward to look at the hand print. "I don't think humans are running this place after all."

There is a thud on the door and (Y/n) moves her hand to rest on Daisy's waist.

The door bursts open and two blue aliens step into the room, through the doorway.

The aliens attack Yo-yo, and knock her to the ground and (Y/n) advances but one of the blasters smacks her in the ribs and she hits the wall, sliding down it with a gasp of pain.

Mack tries to knock down one of the aliens with a metal pipe, but the alien doesn't gall down.

The other blue alien raises a staff and a white light floods through the room, knocking everyone in the room out.

. . .

When Daisy comes to, she blinks deliriously, but she focuses herself faster when she hears yelp of pain from (Y/n).

Sitting up, Daisy blinks again, looking at Simmons who is wrapping a cloth around (Y/n)'s ribs.

"Thankfully they're not broken," Simmons says, tightening the cloth.

"Sure feels like it," (Y/n) mutters.

"Are you okay?" Daisy asks, looking worried.

"Don't worry, Sunshine," (Y/n) replies, wincing a little, but Simmons and Coulson share a look of amusement. "I'll be alright."

Daisy softens before looking at the rest of the jail. "Mack?" she asks. "Yo-yo."

One of the Kree says, "We'll leave the transgressors on the floor chief?" He pauses. "To use as he needs."

Daisy swallows thickly, glancing at (Y/n).

"He should be interested that they've removed their Metrics," the Kree continues.

Daisy stands up and stumbles over to the doors. She slams her hand against the door. "Hey," she says, her words slurring a bit. "What are you gonna do with our friends?" she questions and (Y/n) gets to her feet, her arm resting on her bruised ribs.

(Y/n) puts her other hand on Daisy's shoulder, squeezing gently.

"Whatever we want," one of the Kree says. "Experiment. They knew the rule, and they broke it."

"They're not gonna make it easy for you," Daisy says, her eyes watering.

The two Kree walk towards the door, and (Y/n) gently pulls Daisy back.

"No," the Kree replies. "They'll beg for their lives as you humans always do. I've done twenty-two rotations and I have never observed anything else."

(Y/n) swallows thickly. She takes Daisy's hand and leads her back over to the bench. "They'll be alright, Sunshine," (Y/n) murmurs. "They're strong, the two of them." Daisy turns to study (Y/n), but even though (Y/n)'s words were meant to keep Daisy from worrying, but (Y/n)'s eyes betrayed her words.

. . .

"Okay," Coulson says. "New plan."

"The Kree have been abducting humans to this outpost for years," Simmons offers.

"Running experiments?" Daisy asks, pacing the room, and (Y/n) furrows her eyebrows.

"Well, their genetic work in creating Inhumans is well-known," Simmons says. "Maybe they're doing more of the same."

(Y/n) frowns.

"Yeah, well I'm not going to wait around to find out," Daisy says, raising her hand at the door. "So . . ."

She falters as the door opens, and three figures are framed in the door.

"May," Coulson says, taking a stop forward.

The older SHIELD agent is leaning against a familiar red haired woman, and a spiky haired young man beside them.

"Buddy!" the young man says, stepping into the room. "Just go with it," he whispers. "We've been looking everywhere for you guys," he says in a normal voice. "Man. What a mess back there, huh?" he asks. "These poor suckers," the young man turns to look at the Kree. "Virgil - you know, from R&R? He was trying to scam these guys out of some tokens. This one," he turns to May, "came running to me begging for help, the poor thing. When I get my hands on that no-good louse, he's gonna have some explaining to do."

"Where is Virgil, anyway?" Natalie asks.

"He's dead," Coulson replies.

"Good," Natalie says after a moment of silence. "Good," she turns to the Kree.

"He got what he deserved then," the young man agrees, nodding to Natalie, "didn't he, for trying to drag these poor transfers up from Processing into the Wet Works," he grabs Coulson's hand, showing it to the Kree, "just to steal their Metrics."

"So, he's just Roach food then?" Natalie asks.

"Oh, yeah," Coulson replies.

"One more vacancy, right?" the man asks.

"That's what I was gonna say," Coulson agrees.

"Guys," the young man stammers.

"What did we tell you about trusting Virgil?" Natalie asks.

"She's right, we did go over this. What did we say?" the young man adds.

"Don't trust Virgil," Simmons says.

"N-not to trust him," Daisy says simultaneously, her arms crossing.

"God, you repeated it back to us," the young man says, "and we said back - it was like a pass-and-catch thing."

"Look," Natalie turns to the Kree. "We really appreciate your help with these guys, but I can take them off your hands, even slip a few tokens your way for your trouble."

There is a moment of pause and the Kree warrior nods.

"Right, let's go," the young man says, and (Y/n) lets out a soft sigh.

Daisy keeps close to (Y/n) as the two walk down the hall after Natalie and the young, spiky-haired man at her side, May and Coulson in front of (Y/n) and Daisy.

"Don't worry, Sunshine," (Y/n) murmurs, soft enough for only Daisy to hear. "I'll be alright."

Daisy's chocolate brown eyes soften, the corner of her eyes crinkling cutely. "I love you," she says softly, and (Y/n) smiles.

"I love you too, Sunshine," (Y/n) replies softly.

The group stops as the young man and Natalie look down the hall.

"What the hell happened to Virgil?" the young man beside Natalie asks. "The Roaches get him?"

"Sorry to say," Coulson replies. "Was he a friend?" Coulson asks.

"Acquaintance," the spiky-haired man replies. "He owed me a ton of tokens for this job."

"Job?" Simmons asks.

"Deke!" Natalie says, smacking the young man.

Deke looks at Natalie before her replies, "All he said was that he wanted to hide some people. That's not unheard of. So I was hired to supply the Metrics and swap them out," Deke grabs Daisy's wrist and (Y/n) narrows her eyes, "but you guys don't even have Metrics,  which means you don't have the tokens to cover Virgil's end, so have fun."

(Y/n) wraps an arm around Daisy's waist, and Deke lets go of Daisy's wrist.

"Hey, wait, wait," Daisy says as Deke turns around. "We need your help. We need to find our friends," Daisy goes on

"Your friends?" Deke asks and Natalie glances warningly at him. "Your friends attacked a Kreeper. They're as good as gone. Those blues are bred to kill," Deke looks around, "so, so just - you make your peace with it."

(Y/n) pulls Daisy back a little as Deke looms over her.

"We'll take our chances," Coulson replies, and Deke looks over at him. "Listen, if you could just help us find them and then get to the spacecraft -"

"You mean the Trawler?" Natalie asks, looking surprised. "To do what?" she questions.

"The only pilot I knew was Virgil," Deke add, "and may he rest in peace," Deke shrugs, "apparently. So best of luck to all you guys, but mine's running out."

"Jeez Deke," Natalie smacks the man's arm and (Y/n)'s eyes flare with amusement.

"Well, Deke," Coulson says, "we just wanted pie, and now we don't know where we are or what's going on, and we finally found someone who does, so you're not walking away."

"I really wanted the pie," (Y/n) says wistfully.

Then the group stiffens as they hear Yo-yo screaming in pain.

May moves forward, twists a knob, and Deke rises of the ground, and sticks to the wall.

(Y/n) glances appreciatively at the older agent.

. . .

Daisy cracks through the pad, May, Natalie, Coulson, and (Y/n) standing behind her.

"All set," Daisy says.

"Good job," (Y/n) says, her eyes twinkling lovingly.

"Express train to the bottom of the Lighthouse, no stops," Daisy says, her hand coming up to brush against the inhibitor in her neck.

Natalie, May, and Coulson walk through the doors, and (Y/n) goes to take Daisy's hand, but Daisy steps back.

"Daisy?" (Y/n) asks, looking at her girlfriend questioningly.

"I'm not coming with you," Daisy says.

"Like hell!" (Y/n) says, frowning and glaring at her girlfriend.

"I know you're scared about going home," Coulson says, (Y/n) still fuming.

"No, I'm terrified," Daisy replies. "Look around. Billions of people gone. If there's a chance I'm the cause . . . I can't go."

"We can get through this together," May says.

(Y/n) looks away, a hurt expression crossing her face.

"You don't even have your powers anymore," May goes on.

"It's only a matter of time, and you know it. If there's an emergency or if one of you are in danger, I will need them, and we will find a way," Daisy argues. "If I go through that portal, you know it's the beginning of the end."

"We don't even know you did this," Coulson says, Daisy's eyes welling with tears.

"I was right in the epicenter," Daisy replies.

"I won't let you sacrifice yourself," Coulson says, "because you're scared of what's to come."

"What's to come is the end of everything," Daisy argues, her voice rising.

"If you can change the future here, you can change it back home," May says, gritting her teeth.

"But we know this solution works," Daisy says.

"I. Don't. Care!" (Y/n) shouts, clenched, her eyes filled with tears.

There's a pew noise, and Daisy drops to the ground, the dendrotoxin doing it's work.

Natalie gazes, wide eyed at the brunette lying unconscious on the floor.

(Y/n) tucks the ICER into the waistband of her pants, kneeling down to brush her fingers across Daisy's cheek.

"She's not going to forgive you," May says and (Y/n) glances up at her.

"I'm not leaving her here," (Y/n) picks Daisy up from the ground, and Daisy's head lolls to the side, resting against (Y/n)'s shoulder. "Let's go," (Y/n) says grimly.

. . .

May, Coulson, (Y/n) - who is still carrying Daisy - and Natalie walk down to meet Simmons, Fitz, Mack, Yo-yo, Flint, and Deke.

. . .

"What happened?" Simmons asks, her eyes falling on Daisy's unconscious figure in (Y/n)'s arms.

"She ICE'd her," May replies. "Daisy didn't want to come home."

"I wasn't going to leave her behind," (Y/n) says softly.

"Where's Yo-yo?" Mack asks. "She didn't find you?" he asks.

(Y/n) lies Daisy down on one of the couches on Kasias's lounge, Daisy's head resting in her lap.

"I'm sorry, Sunshine," (Y/n) murmurs. "I know you might not forgive me, but I couldn't leave you behind. Not like this." (Y/n) swallows thickly, blinking back her tears. (Y/n)'s fingers thread through Daisy's hair. "I love you too much to leave you here."

Coulson walks over to (Y/n), his eyes soft, and his voice is gentle, "It's time." He glances down at Daisy resting in (Y/n)'s lap. "Do you want me to take her?"

(Y/n) shakes her head. "No, I've got her."

(Y/n) shifts slightly, holding Daisy in her arms before she stands up.

Coulson stands beside (Y/n).

The rock turns to liquid and everyone - minus Daisy - looks around as they realize that they're in the same place.

(Y/n) lies Daisy down on a table, slips her hand into her pocket, and sets the box in Daisy's jacket pocket.

"Not like you'd want to," (Y/n) murmurs.

"Well that was a hell of a thing," Fitz says and (Y/n) smiles.

"Are you kidding?" Natalie says, looking around. "I'm from the future."

Coulson looks amused, then looks at Yo-yo, Mack, and Simmons. "I'm so glad you guys made it," Coulson says.

"Why are we still in the Lighthouse?" Yo-yo asks.

"Maybe Flint's Monolith didn't work," Mack offers.

Natalie looks around. "It took us to the same place, but in a different time."

Fitz nods at the redhead. "She's right."

"We're home?" Simmons asks.

"Yeah," Fitz says, and all the agents sigh with relief.

. . .

Coulson gives the agents some tasks, and (Y/n) has to remain in the same room as the unconscious Daisy.

(Y/n) opens one of the electrical panels but freezes when she hears a familiar voice.

"You ice'd me," Daisy's words are slurred. She shifts slightly, not noticing the velvet box in her pocket.

"I was . . ." (Y/n) pauses, a pained expression flashing across her face, ". . . kind of hoping you'd forget that part." (Y/n) stops herself before she says 'Sunshine.'

Daisy scoffs before she sits up, looking around at her surroundings. "Sorry to . . ." she falters, ". . . disappoint."

(Y/n) swallows thickly, focusing back on the problem in front of her she could actually fix.

"It looks the same, but we're - we're home, aren't we?" Daisy asks.

"I -" (Y/n)'s voice quavers, "- I couldn't leave you behind."

"Even with all of the risks that -" Daisy begins.

"I don't care," (Y/n) turns around, biting the inside of her cheek. "I need you here."

Daisy tilts her head, softening.

(Y/n) turns back around, fiddling with some of the wires.

There is a spark, and the lights flicker on.

(Y/n) sits herself on the floor, her back to her girlfriend.

Daisy softens even more, and gets to her feet.

(Y/n) jolts as she feels Daisy's arm wrap around her waist.

As Daisy leans into (Y/n)'s side, both women can feel the box (Y/n) had left in her pocket pressing against their sides.

Confused, Daisy reaches a hand in her pocket, pulls out the box.

"What's this?" Daisy asks. She opens the box and finds a pair of rings inside the box.

]Daisy's eyes widen and she stares at (Y/n).

"Marry me?" (Y/n) asks, meeting Daisy's chocolate brown eyes.

"Yes, is that even a question?" Daisy says, capturing (Y/n)'s lips in a kiss, pouring her love into the kiss.

Daisy's hand moves to the back of (Y/n)'s head, deepening the kiss.

Daisy pulls back from the kiss, to find a disheveled (Y/n) blinking back at her, her eyes wide.

(Y/n) shakes her head slightly, takes the sun ring from box and sliding it onto Daisy's ring finger, and Daisy does the same with the moon ring, sliding it onto (Y/n)'s finger.

(Y/n) leans into her new fiance's side, and Daisy smiles softly, her head resting against (Y/n)'s.

"I love you, Sunshine," (Y/n) murmurs.

"I love you, too," Daisy replies, her eyes gleaming happily.

. . .

"Plans are already in motion," Leopold tells Fitz, smoothing the front of his suit.

. . .

(Y/n) charges into the room and she finds a teary-eyed Daisy on her side, strapped to a table, and Fitz sitting in a chair beside her.

"Fitz? What are you doing?" (Y/n) asks.

There is the sound of a gun firing, and (Y/n) looks down, her hand coming up to her stomach.

(Y/n) slides down against the wall, her eyes glazing.

Daisy lets out a strangled, pained cry.

Simmons and Deke - who had somehow appeared a few days before - run into the room, Simmon's eyes falling on (Y/n), and her eyes widen in horror.

Daisy screams as Fitz cuts the inhibitor from her neck as Simmons and Natalie - who had just ran into the room - crouch beside (Y/n).

(Y/n) lets out a pained groan as Simmons presses against the wound.

"Don't worry, Sunshine," Natalie says, and (Y/n) is too dazed to realized what the redhead had said, but Daisy isn't, and her eyes widen. "You'll be okay.

Mack enters the room next, and he takes Fitz down into the holding area.

. . .

Daisy sits by (Y/n)'s side in the MedBay, holding (Y/n)'s hand.

Natalie enters the MedBay, and Daisy fixes her gaze on the redhead.

"Where did you hear the Sunshine thing?" Daisy asks, and the question startles Natalie a little.

"My mom would always talk about how adorable her mothers were," Natalie admits. "She said that one of her moms would call the other Sunshine. I always though it was the sweetest thing.

Daisy's eyes widen with disbelief. She studies Natalie's familiar features, the fiery red hair, the same splash of freckles across her nose, and chocolate brown eyes that matched her own.  "(Y/n) always calls me Sunshine," Daisy whispers. "You're our -"

"Grandaughter," Natalie finishes, her eyes wide.

Word Count: 4322 words

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