#and I know how to ship stuff & make business cards

[goodboygustav]

A friend of mine who used to be my manager & assistant manager at FedEx Ground & Office has been working at a bank for a while now & is offering me a job again. And this time I really want to take it. It’ll be like 4 exits shorter than my current commute, & it’s $22/hr though he hasn’t fully told me everything the position entails. All I know is he told me it’s much slower and he just wants to look out for me. However the position won’t be available until like January so I have to survive Office through the holidays. But I think all the signs are there that it’s time for me to move on and do better for myself and my wife

I can’t really do retail or warehouse work anymore

[penkura]

Father's Day Moments

Note: Sorry this so late today, I've been busy with my own stuff this weekend, but I got it done! :) This is simply Father's Day moments with a small surprise in each of them, I had a blast writing these. 💚 I know again that this day can be hard for some, so if this isn't something you're okay with reading, please feel free to skip it and read something makes you happy today. 💚💚

Ace has rarely ever thought about Father’s Day, considering his own issues with his father and all that growing up. Even after joining the Whitebeard Pirates he never thought too much of the day, only when Marco or someone else brought it that it was about that time of year. Once he has own his children, the sweet little girls you both share, he still doesn’t think about the day as being that important, it feels more for the kids then it does for the dad in his mind. You do most of the caring for your daughters anyway, even though Ace helps as much as he can when he’s not busy, you two are a team, you should use the day to rest together, right?

That’s why, after you get Rogue and Ann to give Ace the little handmade cards you helped them with (he’s not crying, you’re seeing things), Ace tries to pass the girls off to Marco and Izo for the day, having asked the two the day before if they could take the girls off the ship for the afternoon so you two could relax together. They both had agreed, you find it very odd they’re so willing to take the two when they’ve jokingly called your daughters little hell fires, Rogue and Ann are happy to go with them onto the island you’re docked at for a couple hours.

You’re still skeptical even when all Ace does is pull you into bed for a nap (just a nap, he swears when you ask if he’s got other motives). “Ace, what’s this all about? You know it’s—”

“Father’s Day, yeah, I know,” Ace buries his face in your hair and you can’t help but nearly melt in his arms, he’s so warm all the time, it feels so nice just to lay with him, “But you deserve some time off too~”

The way he nuzzles into your neck makes you giggle, wanting to say something about how you already had your day until he speaks up again.

“I wanna have another baby with you~”

That’s not a surprise to you, he’s said it several times since Ann turned four and you first brought it up, just wondering what his opinion would be and Ace promising he’d get back to you when he had decided. He finally did just about a week or two ago, right after her birthday, telling you that one more would be perfect, your family would be complete whether boy or girl.

“Yeah, that sounds good, Ace.”

It’s a few moments of silence before you hear him snoring, but it still makes you laugh softly before running your fingers through his hair while he sleeps.

“Happy Father’s Day, you dork.”

~~

Father’s Day had left a bad taste in Law’s mouth for a long time, having lost his own father and then Corazon, it first made him resent the day before it became just another day that meant time was passing by. No one to celebrate meant he could ignore it, until you came along and blessed him with your son and daughter, the two angels he watches play doctor almost every day with their stuffed animals. Eight-year-old Rosi and two-year-old Cora, both his spitting image and the brightest part of his days, apart from you obviously.

The day is quiet while your children play, Law trying to take a nap for once when he feels someone come over and put something on his chest, cracking one eye open to see Cora has her toy stethoscope while Rosi holds her up so she can reach, and it makes him smile. They’re both just darling, even if Rosi is reaching the point where he’ll say how embarrassing such statements are.

“What’s up? I need a checkup from Dr. Cora?”

She giggles and nods, while Rosi huffs a little. Cora has gotten so big, its hard for him to hold her for very long. He asks if she’s almost done, when she nods again and takes her toy off Law’s chest.

“All done!” Law ruffles her hair a bit and thanks her, as Rosi tells her they should go check her stuffed bunny now. The two hurry back to their toys, as Law tries again to nap before he feels like someone else is watching him, opening his eyes to see you leaned over giving him a smile.

“Have you gotten to rest at all?”

“No, but it’s fine,” shaking his head a bit, Law notices you seem to want to say something, and gives you a look, “You okay?”

“Mm,” nodding you look over to your children, watching them briefly as they wrap bandages around the bunny’s ears, “Just…what would you say to one more?”

Law raises an eyebrow and sees how fidgety you are by asking, wondering if you’ve already gotten an answer and you’re just double checking with him that it would be okay, or if you just suddenly have baby fever again. Either way, he doesn’t think it would be a bad thing. It would be welcomed.

“I think that would be fine…”

The way you light up and grin makes Law start to smile too, even when you begin to ramble a bit about how you haven’t felt well, which he knew already, and how you had gone and taken a pregnancy test, and well, looks like your ‘one more’ is coming sooner than expected based on the pink plus sign when you show him the test. Rosi and Cora were both planned, and while this one wasn’t, there’s an excitement in his heart that Law can’t deny at the thought of having another child with you.

Its not such a bad Father’s Day gift honestly.

~~

To be honest, Penguin never thought he’d be this lucky. He never thought he’d be lucky enough to find you, to get married and have two daughters with you, and now have the joy of bringing home your newborn son on Father’s Day, two days old and baby Sage has joined his sisters in your home, the eight-year-old and four-year-old girls both squealing over how tiny he is.

Penguin beams with pride while he watches them, Wren has gotten over her jealousy of having little siblings ever since Ivy started to get older and could play with her. When you told them the baby was a boy, they were both ecstatic to get a baby brother, and loved coming to the hospital to see and meet him.

As the two try to push each other out of the way to see him while Penguin holds Sage, you put your hands on their heads and quiet them down.

“Hey now, that’s enough. We don’t want to scare him. Don’t you two something for daddy anyway?”

Wren gasps loudly before nodding and grabbing Ivy’s hand, yelling for Penguin to wait there while they ran off to their room. He gives you a confused look while you sit beside him and start to coo at Sage.

“Babe, what’d you do?”

“I didn’t do anything. It was all them.”

When they finally come back, both are holding drawings they’d made the other day with you watching them (mostly since they were using markers). Wren had drawn your whole family as penguins while Ivy had mostly done stick figure drawings of your now family of five, both making sure to include the newest addition. They both tell Penguin ‘happy Father’s Day’ as they hand the pictures over, and he has to fight to not to cry while he hugs them close, kissing them both on the cheek multiple times and making them giggle.

“You’re both the best daughters I could’ve ever asked for!”

~~

Sanji doesn’t take a day off, what are you talking about? The man is a chef, a professional one at that, and with your twins tenth birthday just two days away, he’s busy making their birthday cakes and all the snacks and treats their friends are going to want at the party too. Even though he knows it’s Father’s Day, you know it too, your twins and second daughter have already given him the cards they’d made, he did cry and didn’t try to hide it, and he went right back to work. It might be a day for him to relax, but he doesn’t for more than those few minutes earlier in the day. He’d taken your three-month-old son Elie after you’d finished nursing him, strapping him against his chest in a baby carrier and getting to work while your baby slept against him so you could rest instead.

Honestly, it kind of made you feel bad because you’d already gotten your day, and Sanji was using his to prepare for your twins birthday party and watch your youngest son, your older three children were busying themselves with cleaning their rooms. You’ve already finished the laundry for the day and go to the kitchen to see Sanji isn’t up and cooking at the moment, instead sitting at the table and playing with your small son’s hands while talking to him while Elie looks up at him.

“I feel really blessed to have all of you, Elie. I really hope that you and your siblings know that as you grow up…” Sanji sighs a bit and places a soft kiss on Elie’s head, “I never want you to feel like I did.”

“They won’t,” you surprise Sanji by wrapping your arms around his shoulders and kissing his cheek, “You’re a wonderful father and doing so well with them, Sanji. Just from watching you with all four of our babies, they all absolutely love you.”

“My love—”

“And don’t argue with me, you know its true.”

Sanji laughs and nods, knowing he’d lose that argument in a heartbeat. You’re always so headstrong and just want him to realize that yes, he’s doing a million times better than his own father did, he’s on par with Zeff nowadays, who your kids also have come to adore as their grandfather.

You look around the kitchen a bit, asking if Sanji wants any help, before he starts listing off everything he still has to do and you just watch him. He starts to take Elie out of the baby carrier and hand him over to you as he sees the look on your face.

“Yeah, I’ll uh…sit with Elie while you cook.”

He laughs again, before kissing your forehead and giving you a smile. “That would be wonderful, my love.”

~~

You never truly know how to celebrate Father’s Day when the father of your children is Zoro. It feels like he doesn’t care about it, even when you roll your eyes at him and tell him just to tell you what he wants, before he shrugs and says he doesn’t need anything. He’s got you, Keitaro, and Kuina, and the rest of the Straw Hats, what else could he possibly want or need? There’s nothing material he needs really, unless you want to get him the expensive sake he likes but you think a liquor store owner might find it highly concerning that a seven-month pregnant woman is buying alcohol, which just made Zoro laugh at you when you brought that up.

Ah right, that’s right, it’s not just you, your two children, and the rest of the Straw Hats anymore, or won’t be in a few short weeks. The baby you actually planned this time would be joining you all soon, that’s more than enough. He definitely doesn’t need anything when he thinks about that, just that you and this baby are safe through the rest of your pregnancy and the birth. That’s all he really wants.

Maybe some of that sake still but he’ll get that another way.

His morning meditation that day is interrupted when he senses Keitaro nearby, the seven-year-old trying to sneak up and catch Zoro off guard, though it never works thanks to his observation haki. Even when your son throws his arms around him and yells “gotcha!”, Zoro just smirks a bit, keeping his eyes closed.

“I knew you were there.”

“Daaaad, you’re cheating!” Keitaro whines and pouts, trying to climb onto Zoro’s back before giving up and going around to sit in his lap. “Mama said haki is cheating!”

“That’s only cause your mom can’t sneak up on me either.” He opens his one good eye and stares down at his little clone, the boy still pouting with his arms crossed over his chest. “Where’re your mom and sister?”

“Umm, Kuina’s still asleep, and mama was awake, but said she was going to lay down cause the baby was making her sleepy again.”

“And what are you doing up so early?”

Keitaro starts to look away a bit, shyly trying not to give anything up, before leaning his head against Zoro’s chest and saying “I wanted to hang out just with you…”

When he was younger, Zoro never thought that having kids was for him. He thought they’d get in the way, that there wasn’t any reason to really have them around apart from legacy, but then you showed up and turned everything upside down. Keitaro wasn’t planned, but he’d brought so much more to both your lives than either of you expected. Your sweet Kuina was a surprise too, you swear she’s made Zoro softer in more recent years, something he tries to deny but everyone else can see it when she’s got his attention.

And your coming addition, the one that was planned, even if they hadn’t been you still would welcome this baby happily. Sometimes, Zoro still isn’t sure that fatherhood suits him, but you swear to him that he’s the best father you’ve ever seen, even better than your own, and maybe you’re right, just from how Keitaro quietly wants to spend time with his dad, just the two of them before the day really gets started. Its more apparent when Kuina convinces him to read to her, and when your unborn child kicks at his hand while he talks to them.

“All right, buddy,” Zoro sets one hand on Keitaro’s back and strokes his hair with the other, watching as he starts to fall back asleep too, not used to being up this early, “You stay with me for now then.”

Maybe he’s not so bad at this fatherhood thing after all.

[ravenstargames]

✦ Lost in Limbo Devlog #13 | 11.11.24

Feels good to be back! This is our first post-Kickstarter devlog and I'm so excited to be writing it.

First of all— Lost in Limbo was successfully funded on September 20th, 2024! 🎉🎇

Yep, it has been almost two months, but it's still something to celebrate! Thanks to every single one of you for making this possible! We didn't meet all our stretch goals (there were a lot and taxes are a pain) but that doesn't mean we are giving up on those. More on that another time.

There's a lot of things we want to show y'all, so let's jump into it!

A sneak peak of Envy's postcard!

Raquel has been working hard on getting the "special postcards from your favorite LI" ready to send them to print ASAP! Initially we were going to use art we already had of the LIs, but we thought it was more exciting to offer y'all exclusive art pieces. After this, Raquel will focus exclusively on the rework of the sprites!

We hosted a few polls and got a lot of feedback. If you missed it, you can check it here!

Astro says hello :^)

As you know, the Extended Demo will feature more locations, including a glimpse of the MC's city, Faybourne! Astro is getting the main street ready for you and your bestie as you go on about your day. I've calculated around three / four different and new locations to properly pace the demo as we imagined it in the first place!

The writing deparment (me. i'm the department) has been focusing on the Extended Demo script. I have a lot of things to play with, like the flavor choices, the personality choices, and more. I want to create a proper balance because one of the things y'all asked for was more choices, and the pacing needed a bit of fixing, as we already knew!

The Extended Demo will actually introduce characters you've heard about, like your mom, your ominous grandmother, and your bestie. So no more talking about them, you'll actually get to meet them like we wanted to!

There will also be more time with the LIs, and hopefully the amount of time you spend with each one of them will feel more balanced, too.

Programming has been an adventure! Huge shoutout to Feniks for helping me figure out how to properly make a toggle for the timed choices as well as helping me polish the personality system. What a lifesaver!

So the timed choices toggle now works perfectly. That means you'll be able to turn them off if you'd like to play the game without being jumpscared by a timer—that doesn't mean you won't be able to mess up, though, on purpose or not :^) This is a dark game, after all!

The personality choice system lets you decide how the MC reacts to things including the nature of your romance with the LI. That means dialogue will automatically change in certain parts of the game to reflect the personality of your MC, some options will be locked, some unlocked, etc. There's three different personalities available.

For colorblind folks, the choices will have a different icon when you hover over them for you to know they're different!

Also, I've started coding some extra mini cgs Kayden's been working on! There'll be more in the Extended Demo to enhance the experience, so we hope you enjoy them! :^)

All the packaging stuff has arrived to our provisional headquarters (Raquel's home), and our business cards have been secured! Every backer with physical goodies will receive one for free :^) This month has been all about managing Backerkit, orders and merch, as well as preparing the Extended Demo. We hope we can receive everything very very soon and start shipping packages starting December!

For now, that's it! There's a lot of stuff going behind the scenes, a lot of things that need attention, and a lot of planning happening. Also the catastrophe the DANA has been on our cities is keeping me a bit on edge, but I'm trying to focus on work. This Saturday I'm going on a trip to Greece with my family, so I'll disconnect then! It's our first time traveling to a different country since I was like...seven years old? And we have been saving up and preparing a lot for the trip, so we are excited :^)

I hope everyone has been taking care and doing alright! Have a huge hug from the Ravenstar Team, and see you around!

[moonastro]

the vibe you give out to others

pick a picture

left to right(top)-> 1,2

left to right(bottom)-> 3,4

°DO NOT take this as literal, take everything with a grain of salt as this is purely and intendedly for entertainment purposes. °Don't be afraid to give feedback and opinions about this post (as i would entirely appreciate it). ° This is a GENERAL reading, take what resonates and leave and pass on what does not!

PILE ONE

someone who can communicate hours on end with someone, usually about the deeper stuff. so you may like to share your thoughts a lot which leaves people guessing that you would be a very good person to talk to. you also are good with reading the vibes of a room, people almost expect you to change the atmosphere of the vibe within a group. you really are someone who solves problems, situation ships and other things people may need assistance with. i feel like you help others grow, you teach people from wrong or right and perform humanitarian acts. if you are in a bad situation, you get the heck out of there as soon as possible, people know that because you may express your thoughts and feeling through communication. i feel like you talk about the little things to others that they might even find that you can be oversharing at times. anyhow, you may look back on what people did you in the past or vice versa. you don't hold onto a thread, you make very clear decisions that take you wherever it may.

yeah, you learn from your mistakes and only go forward which makes you a stronger individual. there is still some youthful energy surrounding this pile, so don't forget to not be hard on yourself all the time, you give out but not necessarily get given back which allows people to use your time unnecessarily. people can also see a child in you, you may get told that you remind someone of their son or daughter. being behind the scenes is what you are used to and may project a certain insecurity that others notice. i feel like its that others see their own insecurities in you as well which may cause jealousy. you are careful though, you plan, you observe and you double check. there is nothing wrong with being in routine but i feel like people notice that you are too afraid of failure because you might have grew up to be the high achieving kid or the oldest child who had influence on the younger siblings and so forth. overall a very sensual and hardworking pile.

assigned song: Black beauty- Lana Del Rey

PILE TWO

very energetic around people or friends and family but think a lot by yourself, you may keep your true self hidden. you are such a good manifester and people notice that whatever you say out loud becomes real. people may call you a psychic because you just know things before others do, for example if a friend asks about something like an event and you just tell them like "watch this happen in there" and something like this and it happening. you are quite reserved with your feeling and emotions, you use them on better things. around you, others feel confident and secure. you are a very good empath and feel whatever others are feeling, so it is very easy to empress ones feelings to you. you are such a caring and observing individual that others feel nothing but security and comfort around you. honestly such a nostalgic pile!!

you crave a free life where you are not stuck to anything or anyone, people feel the freedom you possess. you don't aim to be powerful nor business oriented, you just want to see what's out there and see what other cultures and countries have in store for you. i feel like you have a plan that you have that consists of you travelling abroad and creating a happy home there at a new setting. you are good with legal matters like documents, credit cards, the law and so forth. you may know about it as you may be interesting in becoming a lawyer or working somewhere that involves a law, like police and so on. but on a real note, you balance everything out in your life, people see how well you split your routine in even pieces. overall, this is a very free spirited and intelligent pile!

assigned song: Ride- Lana Del Rey

PILE THREE

someone who reserves there space and energy, someone who talks very cautiously and are aware of their surroundings. a lot of people don't actually know how to figure you out and it may sound very cliché but i think its just because you don't reveal your feelings by making facial expressions and people don't know whether to laugh or cry when you tell them something serious. you might like to do stuff alone and may feel like a burden to others but it is not the case for other people, they see you as a sweet and isolated human being that likes their space and peace. i see a LOTTT of overthinking and just daydreaming in general. i feel like something is restricting you from taking action and i think it is your thoughts, relax pile 3😅. no but for real, others avoid you not because you are unlikable but because they see how you thrive alone and you don't look like the type of person that needs help from others.

you may have moved a lot as a child and felt like you lost many things because of that. i feel like you don't feel secure and people notice the disease you portray in your body language. that is totally not a bad thing but i feel like others see the frustration and a void that you have, this is very deep but I'm getting an image of just a black figure which may translate of you feeling numb or not feeling anything at all. i feel like this was in the past for some of you, however where there is hardships there is hope and that is exactly the case for this pile. on a good note, your smile brings comfort to others, may make others happy with your smile and that's just so sweet. you do have many ideas flooding in your mind and i feel like that could bring you excesses so be careful. you have many ideas to start over or to change your personality completely. overall, this is a very reserved and a busy mind pile!

assigned song: How to Disappear- Lana Del Rey

PILE FOUR

check out pile one if you felt drawn to it as it may resonate with some of you!! so, you care about others very deeply and this gives me motherly vibes. i feel like you may not listen to people and do your own thing but that's entirely okay but the way i see it is that you sometimes need to take advice in order to move forward. you stand your ground fairly and see the contrast between right and wrong, i feel like that gets people thinking how you pick up on things others don't pay much attention to. say if you called someone out for something, others may go like "oh yeah, i didn't even notice". you really cant be bothered to argue with no one, you feel like there is no point because people are childish and immature and that is something you would rather pass on. conflicts and any other sort of fighting is a strict no go for you. people get the vibe of how can you keep your cool??? they actually are very impressed of your skill to maintain your cool😊. i feel like also you go through very transformative periods in your life that actually change your way you act, maybe you go through different eras and like to experiment different styles and ways of living which is totally fine.

wow, you are a very powerful soul, you have some sort of power that others are stunned. you are literally the lion of the jungle, the boss, the CEO, the millionaire, the royal. WOwww just wow. people just keep getting surprise on surprise from you, you may have so many precious hidden facts about you that make people stunned by the fact that you have so much treasure hidden. people see you as a very humble individual who is always there for people and see the good in everyone. it is such a pleasure to be around you, people may feel almost lucky to have you in their life. you hold a lot of secrets as you may stand with he statement that if you talk about your achievements to others it may delay your success. overall, a very very very powerful and mysterious pile.

assigned song: LION- (G)-idle

that's it everyone, thanks for sticking by and like always don't be afraid to interact with this post however you'd like as i entire appreciate everyone's support and kindness!!

FRIENDLY REMINDER- paid tarot readings are available (DM or check out here for more info!!)

*IMAGES ARE NOT MINE*

[cottonlemonade]

Secret Santa

word count: 1153 || avg. reading time: 5 mins

pairing: University AU!Ennoshita x chubby!Reader

genre: fluff

warnings: none

request: Hello 💖💖💖 At breakfast and lunch I'll get a 15 and 34 and then going back to study with Ennoshita, please??? Thank you 💖 || fluffy, crush to boyfriend Ennoshita, being part of the same club and celebrating Christmas together

There were pros and cons to spending Christmas abroad. The pros were that your family understood that shipping presents to them as a student would cost way too much so you agreed to only exchange cards this year - you had handmade yours and posted them weeks ago so they would arrive on time and could now bask in the unhurried coziness of late-December. Furthermore, Christmas in Japan was considered a couple’s holiday meaning you didn’t have to wistfully watch all your fellow students rush home over winter break to stuff themselves with all the holiday classics. But the lack of ever-present, sickeningly sweet merriment was also your main con.

You loved Christmas and wanted to get into the spirit and thus, after ditching your drama troupe at the convenience store, you snuck back into the campus theater on Friday afternoon to decorate before the premiere on Christmas Eve.

In your opinion, the bottom of the stage as well as the crammed backstage space was definitely in need of some paper garlands and maybe a bauble or two - or twenty.

“There you are.”

You spun around, your chubby fingers tangled in some fairy lights, and saw your stage manager Ennoshita walk down the aisle towards you.

“I was wondering where you hurried off to so suspiciously.”

You gave a playful pout and continued fiddling with a knot in the cable that somehow only seemed to make it worse.

“Please don’t make me take it down. I’ve come too far.”

He chuckled and shrugged off his backpack and jacket to set on a seat, then rolled up the sleeves of his sweater and looked at you with the same expectantly lost expression you usually gave him when you forgot your place.

You handed him a box of tinsel and he got to work.

“So, why the sudden need to Winter Wonderland the stage? Are you homesick?”

Leave it to him to read you like a book.

“Yeah. Kinda. But I dunno, it’s less homesickness than more… general… nostalgic yearning, if that makes sense.”

He nodded as he distributed strings of gold all along the green garlands.

“I’ve never left Japan and I don’t even know what it would feel like to miss my family since they live so close. Plus, I can’t imagine I would miss my little brother that much.”

His dry tone made you laugh.

“It’s more so that I miss the Christmas experience.”, you explained, “The food, the singing, the gift exchanging. Or going ice skating. I’ve never been but always wanted to. And then later listen to my mom and grandma gossip over a late-night cup of tea.”

You finally managed to free a few small light bulbs only to immediately encounter another knot.

“I was thinking of suggesting something cheesy like Secret Santa to the troupe but I didn’t want to pressure anyone. Plus, what if you get someone who you don’t like or even worse, someone you do like and then have to get them a super crappy gift so they don’t know that you’re into them.”

He cocked a brow. “Is that … is that a possibility?”

“Of course! We’re all one awkward yet iconic New Year’s party away from being the cast of High School Musical.”

“No, I meant, you like someone?”

For a split second you considered confessing to him right then and there that ever since you’d seen him goof off during dress rehearsals of the summer play you’d been drooling over those soft sweaters he wore and dreamily doodled his name into your notepads. But the fact that he was still busying himself with the tinsel and didn’t look at you with pining hopeful eyes made you think better of it. Realizing your pause had been going on for quite some time you opted for a simple No. And then ruined it immediately by adding, “Imagine how weird it would be if I was. Hello waiter, could I have a plate of sweet and spicy daydreams with a side of delusions, please? - hehe ahem. W-why do you ask? Do you like someone?”

“Yes, I do.”

On the one hand, you were grateful that apparently all the time you spent together already had made him immune to your ramblings but on the other hand that sounded a bit too casual and came out a bit too fast. You squinted at him.

“Uh huuuh, anyone I know? Is it someone in the club?”

He hesitated, then continued his task. “Yes and yes.”

“Oh okay, didn’t think you’d give that up so easily. Have you told them yet?”

He shook his head and you wouldn’t be you without giving unsolicited advice, “Well there’s no time like Christmas to do so, if you ask me. New Year’s break is coming up so even if it goes south - which it won’t unless they're an idiot - you don’t have to see them for a bit and can come back pretending like nothing ever happened. Foolproof.”

“Foolproof, huh?”, Ennoshita had reached the end of his tinseling and smiled at you, “I’ll think about it.”

The premiere a few days later was a smashing success and the applause kept on going for many extra curtain calls. When Ennoshita hurried on stage to receive his portion of cheers, he came to stand next to you, naturally grabbing your hand for a collective bow which sent tingles through your body. Filled with the rush of a job well done you only realized once you were backstage again that you were still holding his hand and dropped it like a hot potato.

“I’m sorry!”

He just smiled and shrugged. “No worries. You should go get changed so we can all head to dinner.”

“Yes! Yes. You’re right. Imma be so fast. Be right back.” And with that display of poise, you snatched your backpack and rushed to the bathrooms.

Other girls were already removing their stage makeup and applying new dewy lip gloss while you slipped into a stall to peel yourself out of your costume, relieved when you rolled the skintight overall past your squishy tummy and took your first deep breath in hours. When you opened the flap of your shoulder bag to get your clothes you saw a little box sitting on top, wrapped in red and green with a small golden bow. A tag hung from the knot that read - For Y/n, From Your Secret Santa. The relaxed chatter of the other bathroom occupants was drowned out by the pounding in your chest and your body practically vibrated from excitement. You sat on the lid of the toilet and curiously opened the gift to find a silver keychain with a pair of ice skates dangling from the end. A neatly written paper slip lay underneath.

Will you go out with me? was penned on it in a handwriting you were all too familiar with from your many many stage directions.

a/n: request for @ennoshitas-princess

Thank you so much for this fun holiday themed request! I hope you enjoyed it! 🌟 and merry Christmas!

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

this is a slight detour from your usual subject matter but i'm very curious about your experience renting a high-quality camera lens? how did you go about doing that and have you been pleased with how it worked out? (the changing of hands i mean, it's clear you're happy with the lens!)

i didn't know this was a Thing before and now i'm wondering if i might be able to try that myself!

Oh yeah, it's absolutely the best thing if you can't afford fancy lenses / want to try out new gear / just need something for a special occasion.

There are places you can rent online that will ship you gear, and depending on where you live you can often also rent from local camera stores. I've done both!

Right now my main practice is renting lenses from LensRentals, which is an online company that ships out of Tennessee. They've got pretty reasonable rental prices, and they don't charge a deposit - but you do sign a thing saying if you damage or lose it, they can charge you. You can also pay for insurance on the rentals against damage or loss which would mitigate a lot of that cost if something went wrong. I've heard a range of opinions about them, but I've pretty much always had a good experience with them and gotten stuff on time that worked correctly, and their customer service has been really responsive for me when we had some snafus with shipping stuff back lately. One thing they do that I really like is their system is set up with an option to ship directly to FedEx stores for you to pick up, which means I don't have to worry about a package containing pricey gear getting stolen or rained on.

LensRentals also is willing to let you buy their rental gear, which is what I'm hoping to do before I send the really nice huge telephoto lens I've been using back tomorrow. They'll take some of the price of your rental off the purchase cost - it isn't a ton, but it generally covers sales tax and maybe a little more. I like it as a way to purchase used gear because I can see the condition before I commit, and I've had it in my hands and gotten to use it a bunch. That's how I bought my first real digital camera like a decade ago, and where I got my current camera and starter lenses.

If you've got a local rental store, I absolutely encourage going through them! I've done that when traveling - there have been some times I wanted a specific piece of gear to test on a habitat - and it's worked out really well. Plus, supporting local businesses is always the right choice. They'll often all operate a little differently, but it's nice to know people IRL who can help you decide what gear to use or just nerd out with you. Sometimes local places will ask for some type of deposit to make sure you bring the gear back, and TBH if that's within your budget it's perfectly reasonable.

Unfortunately, the local rental place in my area charges a deposit to your credit card for the entire worth your rental until you bring it home, and my credit limit isn't high enough that I can float a hold for that (e.g. upwards of four thousand dollars for the two lenses I'm using lately) and still be able to, y'know, use my card, so I go with online rentals. It drives me up a wall! I'd really like to support local businesses and minimize shipping costs / carbon emissions.

If you think you'd like to rent some gear to try out, I recommend it! Just make sure you know what's compatible with your camera, you've got a safe way to transport and store the rental when you're not using it, and that you know the terms up front. It's been such a fun way to play around and see what I like and what works well for me.

[tanya56]

RELIGIOUS ASPECT IN BILLFORD

Since the book of bill came out, I've been once again dragged into a rabbit hole that is billford and it made me recontextualize a lot how I viewed this ship. Back in the day I was way too young to ship this pairing, so obviously half of the fanfiction on Ao3 (especially non-con ones) left a scar on my tender soul, not able to deal with "mature themes", so I ended up shaming myself for "gloryfying abuse and stuff".

Now when billford shippers are no longer hated for "proshipping", I decided to give myself a chance to simply enjoy all the content we have. Unfortunately now I created a new reason why I can't enjoy billford which is a religious aspect in this relationship.

The thing is that a lot of fanfics I've read lean into god × follower dynamic, in which ford is on his hands and knees for bill, doing his bidding. Although I find the whole "he was a god and he was a one-man church" thing interesting, I feel like this trope does ford a disservice as a character.

Having said that, it's stupid to deny all the evidence like tapestries and statues, but please bear with me, I'm having a hard time rationalising all of this.

The thing is that god × follower dynamic has a very telling power imbalance, stripping "follower" of basically any agency. Can you say Ford has no agency to himself? Yes, Ford eventually built the portal for Bill to use, but it wasn't MEANT for Bill. The portal was a way for Ford to achieve HIS goals like success in his theory and fame. Followers do everything for their god, without any ulterior motives to get something in return, but this isn't the kind of relationship Ford and Bill had.

Bill presented himself to Ford not as a god, but a "muse", someone who is there to inspire and help him in time of need to achieve success. In this whole portal ordeal they were partners, not an employee and his boss. Gods are supposed to be aloof and above everything, their only interaction with those below them is through worship. Furthermore, nobody would name his God a partner. Why would a god play chess, have a chat, act friendly, help with research, do other million things I'm too lazy to write about, with his worshipper? Pre-betrayal description of Bill is that of a friend, someone of higher plane but in some ways equal to Ford. God could never be an equal, but a Muse, someone with whom an artist works, can be.

The way I see it all this business with tapestries and statues weren't 100% about worshipping.

First of all, Ford mentioned them as artifacts, not a shrine. This makes sense since while Ford was definitely fascinated by Bill, he is still a scientist, he studies obsessively anything interesting to him, and boy, was Bill interesting.

Secondly, the "shrine" in question could have been a way to show reverence to his Muse, but I really doubt that there was a full on worshipping actually going on at the moment. I don't know why I think so, it's just I can't see Ford being so religious, being a man of science and all. Or maybe I'm having problem with mixing both romantic and religious aspects.

This whole rant is basically me deluding myself into writing out religious aspect of billford in my head because for some reason I'm just uncomfortable with that, so points I've made here are as stable as a house of cards. Maybe it's because Ford really resonates with me as a character and I don't want to imagine him being more of a puppet to Bill than he already was, but that's my problem, maybe I just refuse to appreciate the ship as a whole because of some uncomfortable themes.

If someone has a different opinion about this, please feel free to bash me, because I'm too stuck in my head to enjoy shipping fictional characters without shaming myself for ridiculous things, that's exactly what I need right now

[sl-walker]

Color Cards for sale

Or: Custom nails!

*updated 9/3/24*

Want some professional looking stick/glue-on nails on a budget for yourself or someone else? Since I am still unemployed and my wife makes these stunning creations as art therapy, we're looking to sell them to keep us afloat and do things like buy food until I have a new job. (She already owned all the nail stuff.) So, if you want a set of truly gorgeous nails, take a look and contact me here or on that one chat app starting with a 'D' where I am also sl_walker.

Nails will be sent in a padded envelope with cardboard to protect them, though I might clip the longer color cards in two for mailing. Shipping is free to the continental US! (Though if you wanna toss me a couple bucks towards it, I won't turn you down. It's about 4.50 per package. LOL!) Probably you'll also get a handwritten note and maybe even a sketch from me. Several of these nail sets are three hours or more of work! And as you can see, they really are beautiful. Just ignore my very amateur photography, Tumblr's assholish image compression and the occasional cat hair. I promise I won't send any kitty dna with the nails! And you can also contact me and ask me for a set of pics emailed without compression.

As they're sold, I'll update this post by striking those through! And YES! SHE DOES CUSTOMS! (We just finished a set of Boba Fett nails and we're working on Maul ones!) If you want a custom color card (or loose nails once you know your sizes! I'll try to write the sizes on the color cards when I can see them), just contact me with a description and we'll let you know if she's able to do it. She can do cat meme nails, no joke. Or like-- fandom themed. So please do feel free to ask after that.

Also, if you request it, I'll throw in a little tube of nail glue, too.

1.) Autumn's Coming - $40

Stunning set of thirty nails, which means that you'll be able to find your exact size, but you might be able to wear a couple different sizes and have nails enough for two sets, too! Amidst the gorgeous fall-themed colors, you have cats eye magnetic metallic nails, plain color, blossom decals and a gorgeous coppery metallic crackle. They're shorter and with a blunt tip; in fact, I'm wearing a set right now, albeit in a different color theme.

2.) Good Omens - $30

This is a set of thirty nails. My wife's a huge fan of Sir Terry (sorry about the other guy) and so she came up with a Good Omens set! The red is metallic and magnetic cats eye with silver and white decals, while the white nails are themed in gold. I can definitely attest to how pretty these are, since she also made me a set of my own; I'm wearing them as I type (badly because I'm not used to wearing nails) and they're pretty enough for me to learn how to type with nail tips. LOL! She said to warn whoever bought them that she had to glue one back to the card. Sorry about that! It doesn't affect the nail itself.

3.) Thinking of Spring - $36

Another set of thirty, this time more spring-themed! With some popping magnetic metallic green cats eyes interpersed with some softer pink/orange metallic magnetic starbursts, cats eye and be-dazzled, you also have the lovely decals adorning the white nails, too. This is another beautiful set that reflects a similar quality to the autumn themed nails.

4.) Dusky - $26

A set of thirty, these are relatively simple by comparison: Done in a dusky metallic magnetic cats eye on one side and a brilliant, eyepopping holo on the other, they're classy and beautiful.

5.) Better Call Prince - $24

This fun set of twenty-four is absolutely sparkly; with metallic purple on one side and purple holo on the other, all of them also have holographic decals on them! They're busy, but if you're a redneck like me (or just really love sparkly things!) they'll make you oooh when you see them live!

6.) Pride - $18

This is a set of twenty-four. My wife actually made these for me, but they're too long for me. But boy, they sure are pretty. With the silver cats eye magnetic metallic on one side and the glittery rainbow on the other, this is a great set for you if you want something pretty with a relatively low price-tag!

7.) The Art of Subtlety - $18

This set of twenty-four is actually more gorgeous the brighter the light. All one set, all the same, these beautiful cats eyes in a sedate blue actually have a subtle holo effect on top of the loveliness that is that magnetic metallic polish; I wasn't able to capture it, but it's there! These are great for business people who like to have pretty nails to tap on a table top as illustration for their annoyance while still having that whimsical underlying hint of color.

8.) Slightly Better Than Business Casual - $16

This set of twenty-four is what my wife calls 'scratch and dent', not because they aren't pretty, but because there are a few minor flaws in the finish of the tips on the teal side. Despite that, they're a damn pretty set and will feed the cats for a few days!

9.) Where There's Smoke - $26

The first set of matte nails on offer! This set of thirty (eleven regular, three half-sizes) is three different shades of matte gray, one more silvery/metallic and two more literally smoke-colored. Perfect for someone looking for that bit of elegance, no reflective topcoat necessary!

10.) A Touch of Class - $34

This set of thirty includes three half-sizes on the end for better sizing! A gorgeous set of nails with white, decorated nails meeting silvery gold magnetic metallic meeting a gorgeous deep green glitter! This is a really lovely set, my cat Ajax really wanted to see them up close. LOL! You can't beat that endorsement. (But we're selling them anyway to help feed Ajax. XD)

11.) The Denver Mint - $30

Oh man, I actually gasped when Erin showed me these. Just the richness of the metallic silver and copper looks awesome in person offset by the plain beige nails interspersed through the set. This is another set of thirty that has the three half-sizes, too! A really lovely and elegant set of almond shaped nails.

12.) Please Forgive Ajax - $36

This is another stunning set, this time with printed decals and some custom hand-drawn art on them! Please ignore the stray cat hair, they will not come with; the culprit is sitting on my lap right now completely unashamed. But anyway, beyond those lovely green nails, the silvery-gold magnetic metallic nails will absolutely transfix you in the light. Heck, they transfix me and I can't even wear them. This set of thirty also includes the three half-sizes.

13.) Tropical Daydreams - $30

With the deep teal and the gold metallic and an almond shape, this set's sure to invoke the tropics; same as the others above, a set of thirty with three half-sizes! They're a relatively straight-forward set compared to the rest, but no less beautiful in person.

14.) Is Star Sapphire a Villain? - $34

If you're a DC Comics fan, you might giggle. But for everyone else, this particularly cute (and even conditionally chunky!) nail set is a lovely group of pink, dusky sorta violet, and actual violet magnetic metallic flake! So they're especially interesting in motion, and the bling on them are a whimsical kind of fun, too!

15.) The Spider-Gwen Special - $34

Protect Trans Kids. (Like my nephew!) And thank you, makers of the Spider-Verse, for having that poster on Gwen's wall and inspiring the name! Anyway, the theme of this set of thirty (no half-sizes on this card) is obvious; short nails, they'll look good and probably not interfere too much with typing! And the jewels are supercute, too.

16.) Cool Colored Chameleon - $40

THESE ARE SO DAMN COOL! Ahem. ANYWAY. Several of these are actually temperature-reactive! So, they change color with the temperature. Like a mood ring, kind of. They're also really super pretty in-person, not gonna lie. I can't tell you how many of the nail sets Erin shows me cause me to go O.O and oooh. This was a big one, I think I might have squealed. A set of thirty, with the three half-sizes, this one's just ridiculously fun.

17.) Pretty in Pink - $32

Another one of those sets with some breathtaking magnetic metallic, this time in a soft silvery pinkish color! Mixed with the flat nails and the occasional bit of bling, this delicately colored set nonetheless has enough flash and flare to make your average redneck (meaning me) happy. Hopefully they'd be able to make you happy, too!

[kazucinth]

You write for Varian!

Can you please do a magician/petty thef reader x y/n?

Like they use the sleight of hand to steal and she stole from varian only to get his book “ugh nerd things.” And ends up retiring it to him (due to no use) and they oddly became friends/lovers

Sumary: In which a magician who is secretly a theif, attempts to steal Varian’s book

Note: I’m not really a good writer so sorry if it too simple for you!

The sound of beakers, liquid mixing, and cogs turning filled the room. Varian reached to grab a certain liquid ‘hm? Where is it?’ He says while the Erlenmeyer flask seemed to be empty. Varian sighs because he knows that he has to go out and retrieve the ingredients, While strolling through the market he heard the people talking how a ship arrived at the borders ‘Ship huh?’ He thought. As he was walking he accidentally bumped onto a person “Oh! Sorry!” Varian tried to help the person up till he recognized it was a girl “You should watch Honestly watch your back kid!” Said the girl, he noticed the way her outtfit wasn’t like the clothes of Corona’s it was more foreign. “Uhm your not from here aren’t you?” Varian asked, the girls 'eyebrows furrowed “And so what? Its none of your business” she says as she crosses her arms turning to leave. ‘Hm, That was weird’ Varian thought, going back to his purpose for going to the market, Soon it was afternoon and he had bought the materials and began going home, till he noticed the girl again in a crowd making tricks with a card ‘What’s she doing?’ The girl pulled out a card to reveal 4 of hearts “Was this your card sir?” The audience gasped as it turns out her guess was right, the audience then watch as she handled with more tricks with different objects. Although it soon began going dark, everyone left to go back home yet Varian still stayed, impressed with her Sleight of hand. While the girl was fixing her things in a box, Varian came up to her “Your sleight of hand was good, I didn’t expect you’ve do it professionally” he stated, the girl chuckles “Oh? Of course, It’s one of my talents after all” The girl looked at Varian recognizing him earlier “Wait- your the guy that bumped onto me!” She scoffs “Oh that! Uhm… hah sorry?” The girl then raised her eyebrow, observing him till she saw a book ‘Hm.. that looks.. quite valuable’ she thought. “Here how ‘bout I show you some tricks?”“Huh oh sure” the girl began with some cards for him to focus on, showing him a last bit of her sleight of hand talents. Varian became interested, despite knowing what the backround of these tricks were, it was still nice to see. It was time for varian to go “Hey uh I never got your name?” The girl grins “Y/n” she brungs her hand out for him to shake and he gladly accepts it “Varian” “Thats quite a unique name, I’ll see you around Varian” she says as she began to walk back, and varian smiles as he made a new friend till she pulls out his book in her bag. ‘Wait that bag seems familiar’ Varian noticed as his eyes widen “Hey that’s mine!” As he chased her, the Y/n laughs as the reached the market, going through alleys of the buildings as Varian turned to an alley, Y/n suddenly disappears. “Damn it, she got away” He sighs as he goes back home. Y/n opened the door of her house to be greeted by her father, “Why are you so late?” Ask her father, Y/n took a bottle of water in the cabinet “The show lasted a little more than preferred” She took her water and went to the room, she opened the book and started reading, hoping to find some valuable stuff “what the-!” but hope was turned into disappointment when she realized the book was only filled with science notes, she turned the pages to the very last to find atleast one important information for her but she had no luck, Y/n sighed knowing she’ll go back to the market tomorrow and probably meet Varian. It was next morning, Varian tried to find Y/n but he couldn’t, after all the book may not contain important notes about the castle, yet it had important information for him. Varian went to rest on a nearby tree where he could see everyone and everything, at this point it would be impossible for Varian not to spot Y/n. “The view ‘ere is calming no?” Varian yelped as he saw Y/n come down the tree and dusted herself off

“sorry didn’t mean to scare ya” She took the book out of her bag, and gave it to him “oh uh thanks” he took it with hesitance “found out your were pretty interested in alchemy huh?” Y/n says as Varian looked through the book to make sure the notes were still intact “yeah, how about you?” “Eh, more of astronomy but still part of science yeah sorry ‘bout stealing your book, habbit of a curiousity of mine ” Varian chuckled “its fine atleast you brought it back” Y/n smiled “how about I bring you some of the best view as an apology or treat you, how does that sound?” Varian thought about it then he nods with content, Y/n took his hand to lead him the way as they laugh together.

[cellarspider]

12/30 Things come to a head

(Previous) | (Index) | (Next)

⛬

We return to that shambling mass of a film, Prometheus.

Content warnings for body horror, contagion-y stuff, something that could loosely be described as medical horror, It’s Been 0 Days Since Our Last Incident, and me, going on a ramble about movie gore to distract myself from The Madness.

There's a lady in this scene who's had a number of speaking lines so far–the maybe-chemist. She has a name, but it doesn’t matter.

But I'm going to call her Doctor Frankenstein.

They have just got the helmet off the head, revealing that it’s truly, unmistakably humanoid. They have noted that there are “new cells” on the head. In the business, we call that “decomposition”, but Doctor Frankenstein is not concerned with this. In fact, she immediately proposes a new plan.

Doctor Frankenstein has had the brilliant idea to plug a big cable into the head like it’s a guitar amp, and zap it with electricity to wake it up.

Yes. This is what the movie goes with.

You know, Alien included a similarly shambolic first examination of an alien subject, but it was performed because said alien was attached to a man’s face, and all they had to try and fix that was the contents of a cargo ship’s medbay, with the only qualified personnel being the corporate android who had been ordered to consider the crew expendable. The crew of the Prometheus has no such excuse.

Well, except for David, he has precisely the same excuse, but he’s not trying to poke wires in anybody’s ears.

Doctor Frankenstein calls for enough amperage to run three electric kettles (cite 3), then all the way up to two Titan RTX graphics cards before the head starts to get what appears to be a massive migraine. 

I know this expression well, migraines can feel very much like someone is subjecting me to unnatural horrors.

This is getting a little extreme, though. Yes, when the head starts pulsing, they realize they may have made a mistake. 

I’d say this was inexplicable behavior on their part, unbelievably hasty and foolish–and I will say it, actually, it deserves to be said. But in context, this is the team that did so little prep for entering the alien structure that they didn’t notice the giant fuckoff skull carved into the outside of it.

Knowing how much Shaw and Holloway read into the intentions of the Engineers from the depictions they found on Earth, they probably would’ve interpreted this as a good sign, somehow.

Anyway, they put a sneezeguard down over the head before it explodes.

Good job everyone. This is like what would’ve happened if Napoleon’s savants took one look at the Rosetta Stone and decided “maybe we should try hitting it with hammers. Surely that’ll make the knowledge fall out.”

From a horror perspective, this scene only works in two contexts: First, gross-out. Generally found in schlock, exploitation, and outsider art flicks, the tone of gross-out content can be highly variable, but there are two general trends I'd mention, which are of relevance to this movie.

First, gross-out tends to exist in that weird alternate space where lots of comedy movies do: characters will behave in unreasonable ways for no apparent reason. Within the film, this is treated as the universal norm, besides maybe a straight man character who highlights the absurdity. Gross-out is often like that, but pushes different boundaries of acceptable behavior than a traditional comedy.

This is, bafflingly, what Prometheus increasingly feels like. It feels like it's transitioning into gross-out schlock, and yet it never goes all the way.

Second: the audience for gross-out is largely self-selecting. If you're watching John Waters' Pink Flamingos, you expect things to get messy. You are looking forward to things getting messy. A head exploding is perfectly par for the course in gross-out horror. One might even be disappointed if there wasn't an exploding head.

But again, this movie was not marketed on gross-out. It was marketed as a tense, Alien-esque horror movie. If you followed that premise like I did, you're not in the theater to view a debauched spectacle, you're there for the movie to put a well-paced squeeze on the characters and your nerves, where half the horror comes from having the room to really think about how frightening the core concepts of the series are.

Does Alien involve some shocking gore? Sure does! But in Alien, Kane's fate is not there to make you laugh and exclaim "ewww!" at how far the film's gone, the film tries to make you very aware of how horrifying his demise is.

So, there's an alternate way this scene works, if you're coming in from that perspective. I don't think the movie intended this as much as the gross-out, but it's what I drew from it at the time: the scene works if you decide not to focus your sympathies on the human characters at all, or even David, and think about it from the perspective of the head. 

It’s patently impossible that what they did actually “woke up” the brain inside that skull. But if we sink to the movie’s level and entertain the idea for a moment, what in the hell have they just done to this Engineer? The last thing the head would’ve remembered was running, falling, decapitation, and then this. They just tortured this poor bastard for no adequately explained reason. There’s none! “I think we can trick the nervous system into thinking it's still alive” is the entirety of the explanation. It makes about as much sense and seems as thoughtlessly violent as anything in Mad God (2021, content warning for body horror). 

I already spent all my anger about desecrating bodies in the name of shambolic pseudoscience, I have no more rage to give for now. And similarly in the theater, I hit my limit. I’d already hit a different limit back when they landed the Prometheus on top of some archaeology, but now I’d fully given up on this movie being what I’d hoped it would be. 

The maddening thing that keeps me obsessed with it is that it keeps throwing random scraps of that hypothetical movie into the mix anyway, bouncing me like a yo-yo between scenes. 

But for right now, the yo-yo is still on the descent. Having exploded the first sample of alien biology ever touched by science, they apparently stuck some of it in a generic, science-y DNA machine. What does the DNA machine tell them? 

“DNA match”. 

The movie does not actually explain what this means. It thinks it does, but in a very vague and handwave-y way that ends up being even more hilarious than if they’d just been out-and-out wrong. Because this is what I do for a living, I want to science at this for a bit. 

But I’ve written enough about it for an entire post on its own, so that will wait until next time.

⛬ 

(Previous) | (Index) | (Next)

⛬ 

Citations for alt-text rambles, as well as some text-text rambles:

1. https://www.behance.net/gallery/78297841/Semiotic-Standard (contains a high-quality download for the symbols, should ye wish them for yourselves)

2. https://www.sculpturedepot.net/clay-wax-tools/product.asp?Steel_Tools 

3. Doctor Frankenstein calls for 30 amps first, then 40, then 50 in the space of several seconds. According to wikipedia, an electric kettle is about 16.6A, and a 288W high-performance graphics card would require 24A. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(current) That graphics card isn’t mentioned by name, but it matches up with the wattage reported by Tom’s Hardware for a Titan RTX (cite 4). Running with two of these things, you might be able to run 4k Ultra settings on some games without tanking your framerate. They could’ve been playing video games and seen way more exploding heads.

4. https://www.tomshardware.com/features/graphics-card-power-consumption-tested 

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(film)#Design

6. https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/f4rf63/for_the_chestburster_scene_in_alien_1979_the/

7. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/8e/2f/9b/8e2f9b0716746aac7ce5b2f369bf4082--aliens--scene.jpg

8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karyotype#Human_karyogram 

9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centromere 

10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centromere#Telocentric 

11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G_banding 

12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteinogenic_amino_acid 

13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hula_language

[dudefromwormhole]

Hazbin Hotel Headcanons:D

That I collected through the internet and now have and absolutely adore. Feel free to add yours:)

Warning for cannibalism and possible spoilers. Enjoy:)

Alastor

1) Alastor rather eats meat of his possible victims than organs. He finds them edible, but just doesn’t like it.

2) Alastor never shares his food. And even when/if he is cooking something for others, he will cook the same food in the separate bowl just for himself.

3) Even if Alastor fell in love he would never(or really unlikely) realise that. Possibly because his own ego and beliefs.

4) Alastor sometimes fantasises about him being executed rather than his own original death. His favourites so far: hanging and electric chair.

5) Alastor would have a love/hate relationship with Will Wood’s music(yes.) just because he despises and underastimates all modern music.

6) Alastor has literal piles of old(and sometimes broken)radios.

7) Alastor hates discussing love and relationships, if they’re not about breaks up, while Rosie adores talking about them.

8) Sometimes Alastor cannot control his shadow. In terms of where it goes and what it does. So yeah, sometimes he walks around without shadow.

Rosie

1) The stuff Rosie proposed to Charlie when they met was prepared by herself.

Also I think Rosie can cook anything(aside from bones perhaps). She knows a lot of recipes about how to cook organs, different types of seasonings, etc.

2) Rosie has Belgic roots. Or French. I feel like she speaks French and maybe Italian or something. I haven’t decided.

3) Rosie only likes to drink dry semi-sweet wine among the alcohol beverages.

4) If Rosie would ever open a fashion business, all her clothes would be with embroidery. She loves embroidery and is pretty good at making it.

The Vees

1) Vox has a love/hate relationship with an electro swing. He likes it, but also “hates” it just because Alastor also likes it. He also likes dubstep and techno genres.

2) Valentino’s afraid of tickling.

3) Val’s also absolutely cannot sleep with the lights turn on, because he’s a moth.

4) Vox was absolutely horrified when he got to Hell and realised that he’s a fucking TV. If there wasn’t a constant danger of getting killed, he would probably sit in the corner of some building in shock.

5) Velvete uses Vox as powerbank.

6) Valentino’s eyesight got worse especially after he realised that he can use Vox’s head when he’s asleep, so now he kinda watches whatever he wants on his head when he’s bored.

7) And also Val and Velvete play the console using Vox(ye, the comic:))

8) In earlier days Vox was absolutely disgusted by someone touching his screen(in first days(look up #4) himself included), but as the time went and also the upgrade, change in themes, he kinda suppressed this disgust.

9) Velvete likes strawberry in chocolate.

10) Vox can draw decently, he just usually doesn’t have time and much imagination to do so.

11) Also Vox has a bad habit of tearing paper to keep his hands busy. By that I mean any paper. So yeah. There were some accidents.

Residents of the Hotel

1) Residents of the Hotel bump into Nifty at least two time per day.

2) Sir Pentious hates stairs.

3) One of the reasons why Husk hates his form is because he cant stop throwing off hairballs.

4) Angel can keep important secrets.

5) Nifty and Charlie both likes those bright and colourful plasters.

6) Vaggie is allergic to citruses(lightly but still).

7) Cherri makes her coffee with energy drinks. Tastes awful, but at least she’s full of energy to kick someone’s ass.

8) Husk knows a lot of card games and also taught the Eggbois how to play couple of them so they’d stop bothering him so much.

9) When he was alive, Husk used to travel and move from one country to another quite often.

10) Sir Pentious when he has a shower, always takes his Eggbois with himself.

11) The reason why Sir Pentious’ ship was covered with plasters was because his Eggbois thought they would actually heal it.

12) Lucifer will never admit that process of making ducks stopped bringing him as much happiness as it used to. But after seven years of just making them, trying to keep his mind off his problems, it just became a routine.

13) One of the reasons why Lilith decided to “disappear�� was because at night Lucifer constantly stepped on his ducks and then screamed and cried and apologised to them, making it harder to sleep.

14) Charlie used to make little theatre shows with her toys when she was younger.

15) When Vaggie and Charlie’s relationship got a little more established, they had a whole trip through rings of Hell.

16) Lucifer has a handmade duck copy of every person that he met. He made the most absurd one for Alastor, of course

17) Angel is scared of swallowing bubblegum, because he genuinely believes that his gut will glue together if he does so.

18) Vaggie can’t stand sleeping covered.

Other Overlords

1) Zestial is a tea nerd. I think he would actually do those Chinese ceremonies and stuff. It’s like… the more he appreciates you, the more effort he would put into tea x)

2) Carmilla was(and maybe is?) a big fan of ballet and took classes when she was alive.

Other

1) Adam would love Beetlejuice. In any form, cartoon one, film, musical… He would be a fan.

2) Adam hates waking up at the morning and tells to “fuck off I’m a Gods fucking son” to anyone who tries to wake him up.

3) Adam hates tomatoes and will absolutely roast anyone who eats them when he’s near. Except for Lute.

4) When Heavens court plans to set up a party they usually don’t plan to invite Sera and St Peter.

5) Mimzy is the one who talks about her previous life more than anyone else, each time adding almost unrealistic details.

6) Adam calls his Exterminators group "tits" for because they are woman and there's a bird like that.

6)(this one is to Hell in general) I like to think that you don't die in Hell in a way that when you recieve a deadly wound your body just kinda... gets more regeneration, so you still feel pain untill the wound is healed, but you don't die. So when Exterminators stab sinners with angelic weapons, process of regeneration stops, which gives them opportunity to die.

7) Though Vox created his own special kind of dying for himself. When his screen gets badly damaged, he changes it, so same goes with his body. I think he has a folder somewhere with his personality.

[fortemelody]

I'm bored so imma send an ask but what are your Amy Rose headcanons?

HI HELLO IM SORRY THIS IS SO LATE!! i didn’t know how to answer it and then i got busy and then i forgot but i’m here now!

and tbh i still don’t entirely know how to answer it becus im not someone who makes headcannons very often. i usually just see some on my feed and be like “oh yeah that’s so them” and then immediately forget about it LMAO but i do have a couple even tho they are a bit basic and so i’ll try to describe those few in as great detail as possible

knuckles and amy are sibling 100%. they have that dynamic for sure! they train together and they tease each other. amy’s in the small demographic of few people he trusts too. many have also pointed out that they look similar and some people hc her as part echidna which im not really opposed to either

amy and shadow are definitely besties. whenever sonic is too stubborn to do “girly” things such as try on makeup for example, shadow would do that with her instead. he doesn’t care about his public image unlike sonic. music is something that brings them together too, seeing as we already know that they’re both swifties and went to hot honey! and she was the one who brought him back to his senses in the ending of SA2 (which btw im praying that the third movie has that scene aughdkftk). shadow has a clear soft spot for her that can only be brought out by amy. i feel like the next follow up question would be if i ship them and the answer is…not really?! i think it would be a situation where maybe amy is a bit touchy at times without realizing it and shadow blushes, or shadow does stuff to make sonic jealous (to clarify them hanging out in general is purely becus shadow wants to -not just an act so he can get back at sonic- but i think it would be funny if he would take the opportunity to brag about it when sonic gets on his nerves). i do not think either of them would actually date tho even with these one off situations and they are way better as platonic besties fr ong ‼️

this one is a bit random but i’ve always thought of amy being like… a starbucks addicted girly (in the world of mobius- not irl where they could possibly be funding a genocide 😭). and it’s kinda an ironic thing in my mind. yes, she’s the least ordinary girl you could get: wields a giant hammer, incredibly strong, is hyperfixated on and can use tarot cards as weapons, and has an indescribable intuition. however, calling back to the events of SA1, she really is just a normal hedgehog at the end of the day trying to lead a normal life. she had to learn all of these attributes, she wasn’t really born with an ability like the rest of team sonic. she also lived in an apartment for part of sonic x (i think?? haven’t watched the full series and i don’t remember everything) and actually liked it. so i think she would really enjoy simple more earth like customs. i think she honestly might be embarrassed of this fact too, seeing as she’s come all this way in her life just to resort to her old ways of living.

(…okay i’m gonna be honest that last one was a bit of a stretch and it originated from me and my friend calling her a basic white girl at one point as a joke LMAO but then i thought more about it and it kinda made sense once i put it into context)

the last one is a concept i kinda stole from a comic i saw a long time ago (i have no idea of the username- but if someone does lemme know). it was the idea that sonic started liking amy once she had started to move on, how the “chasing” kinda switched roles, and after she dialed down her “fangirling”. how sonic now wants her to be obsessed after she’s made so much progress in being her own person. i kinda wrote a fanfic based off of this and expanded upon my interpretation of it through amy’s POV. although i never posted it, i think the words i chose still capture it well so i’m just gonna copy and paste that:

“When Amy started to slowly change her childish and obnoxious mannerisms towards Sonic, he immediately felt more comfortable around her, and even started subtly reciprocating his feelings to her. Amy was obviously maturing no doubt about it, but she felt as if she had lost a part of herself in doing so. That side of her that would boldly protect and proclaim her love to him. That side to her that wouldn’t stop until she got her way. That side of her that was, as Jewel stated “…constantly following him”. She felt as if she had given up so much of her personality just to feel less incomplete, to have that soulmate she always dreamed about. On top of that, Sonic loved to come and go as he pleases. She knows that he was always going to be the adventuring type, but she wish more often that he would make an effort to chat or to invite her to tag along. Chaos knows when she tries to plan anything with him, she’s too paranoid for her own good, wondering if he’ll instantly interpret it as a date and chicken out.”

-different scene-

“Amy was surely blushing before, but nothing could’ve prepared her for that statement. She felt her heart beating, no, throbbing out of control. She looked like a full on tomato now. It’s always been her dream to dance with Sonic, but in the past he always ran away, so she gave up after several attempts. But this was the “new” her. He liked the “new” her, apparently enough to dance with him.”

(ik a lot of this doesn’t make sense without more context but uhhh this is getting too long already so if you wanna know details just DM me ig 💀)

and if it wasn’t obvious already- i take a lot of what is said in the twitter takeovers, tailstube, and idw comics to heart becus i think they have the most genuine and interesting versions of these characters and tell us about small details that we wouldn’t otherwise know. i not only make this info my hcs but also like to expand upon them and use them in my evidence- so that’s what most of the things i said above are referencing.

sooo yeah i think that’s all i got. sorry i guess a lot of these were more about dynamics of character interactions rather than amy herself… i hope that’s okay! tysm anon this was a lotta fun to answer and i hope to get more of these types of questions!!

[skittlewaffle]

boy … I wanna give life updates on stuff I sort of left behind me and now it’s hard to remember what exactly I was doin around the time I made his art XDD

Well,, I do know that these were for this big huge final… which i think i barely passed for never finishing but still working hard on it CHDJGJSJF;; MOST of what i worked on didn’t make it into the final cut and it’s just so rough and messy that i don’t even wanna show it 😭 ughhh the more i look at it the more guilty i feel bout how FAST i dropped the project after my deadline had passed .. fuck adhd fr, my ambitions were too high 😔

But hey, I’m thinkin about selling buttons !! I made one of Wilson :) I just need to figure out how to set up shop, how to make business cards, ship stuff out, etc

Hope u enjoy ;; i have once again failed to sleep but on the bright side i’m goin out with friends to draw over poke and boba today !! 🥹

[roboticchibitan]

Okay, between an Amazon gift card I got from doing a yearly survey for a study I'm in and three very generous people offering to donate towards the cost of a button press, I have almost everything I need to get pin making supplies for the "making pins for people in exchange for cost of shipping + a donation to the food bank" thing! And I can cover the rest!

So! As soon as I get the last of the donations (people are busy so I don't quite have it all yet) I will order the stuff and then once I've got a handful of designs ready I'll make a post with more info + the pin designs I've come up with. I'm not 100% sure how many pins I'll be offering (depends on if operating the press is hard on my joints), but the guidelines will be a donation of at least $3 gets you a premade pin and a donation of at least $10 will get you a custom made pin.

I'm not skilled in making art so the best I can offer for custom pins is a doodle BUT if you want to design it yourself there's a website that has pin design templates for a variety of programs. You can DM me for a link

If you need to know how much shipping will be before committing to a pin you can DM me and I'll check once I have a pin made that I can weigh. Pins will be mailed via USPS unless you prefer a different carrier. (USPS is usually cheapest)

Pins will be first come, first serve, but I will be doing this again in March for my birthday (as long as everything goes well this time around).

Let's see how many people we can feed!

[mxrcjqckspnchqsc]

Hiii! If you're accepting requests for prince Friedrich (bridgerton), could I get a Friedrich and reader fic where theyre royalty too and frenemies? And they end up at the same ball and have to dance tgt (obv)? The next day lady whistledown and the ton out there shipping the two so they have to keep up appearances and promenade together all the time? Eventually fall in love!! (+ points if they childishly argue through the whole dance) thanksss💕

Is It Love Or Hate?

Summary: Read request above!

Prince Friederich x gn!reader

Genre: Fluffiest of fluff, (It's also the only thing I can write about but moving on)

Warnings: Romantic themes, strong language(not really just good old british slang that I love very much), and It is a gender neutral reader, y/n(aka you or just plain old y/n) is a princess and wears a dress in this one-shot!!

A/N: Omg omg omg this is my first request, this is so exciting! This request is so cute, I hope you like it! Also I'm sorry for some of the writing is in third person, I just don't really like first person. And I'm sorry this took too long, I'm quite busy with stuff(school) atm. And now because of this request, I wanna make a prince Friederich fanfic lol but I hope you guys enjoy this one-shot!!(Also this isn't proofread so if there are any errors do tell me!)

Y/n groaned at the thought, they were going to yet again another ball, y/n loved being a royal and all but that meant they had the possibility of seeing him, Prince Friederich, Y/n had mixed feelings about him, they would love him and then the next minute, they hate him. As I finally laid down on the couch, my mother busted in, causing them to jump up.

"Mother, what is it? Why must you rush in here as if I did something wrong?!?" I asked.

"Oh no dear, it's just your dress is finally done! You just have to wear it for tonight's ball." Y/m/n explained as she gave you the dress. "Doesn't the color look nice?"

I had to agreed, the colors on the dress were absolutely stunning, y/f/c always looked good on them, always.

"Well I must agree, the dress does look nice." I agreed.

"Perhaps you might even find the one," Y/m/n teased.

"You said that as the last fifty balls," I exaggerated. "It seems people only see me for my looks Mother, nothing more, I told you many times that I wanted to marry for love."

"Then find someone you love, my dear. You know I will always support you." Y/m/n smiled at you and left moments after.

Y/n changed into the dress and was suprised on how the dress complimented her very well.

"Are you ready to go-?" Y/m/n asked as she busted in the room but stopped once she saw y/n. "My dear, you look beautiful."

"Yes mother I am ready to go," I placed the tiara on her head. "Thank you but we must not make haste," I reminded.

"Oh yes yes!" Y/m/n exclaimed. "We shall go to the carriage at once." Y/m/n announced.

Y/m/n linked her arm with Y/n and they left and headed to the ball, moments later, they had arrived.

"I'll be on the lookout for potential suitors, and you Y/n shall be the princess you are and dance with two men tonight." Y/m/n said.

"One," I corrected.

Y/m/n sighed knowing that Y/n wouldn't listen to her. "Fine, you must dance with one man tonight."

"Good, Ah I think I see the Duchess of Hastings right there. I'll leave you be mother!" I called out.

Before Y/n could make her way to Daphne, she was stopped by the one of the many men she didn't want to see tonight.

"You highness, Princess Y/n," Lord Gray bowed down infront of her. "May I have your first dance?" He asked, holding out his hand.

Y/n was about to tell him off when someone did it for her and she didn't have to turn around to know who it was.

"Actually, the Princess had already offered her first dance on her dance card with me." Prince Friederich explained.

"Oh, I see," Lord Gray seemed to buy the lie and walked away.

"Shall we?" Friederich held his hand out.

Y/n only glared at him before taking his hand, the two royals made their way to the dance floor.

"Now look at what you did," I whispered. "I only wanted to dance with one man tonight and now you're fulfilling my mother's wishes and I'm going to dance with two."

Prince Friederich only snickered in response.

"Well I apologize for doing that but it seemed like you didn't want to dance with him." Friederich stated the obvious.

"Yeah well I didn't want to dance with you either and here we are." I smiled sarcastically.

"You can blame my aunt on that, she actually insisted I'd dance with you first tonight." He replied.

Prince Friederich dipped you and pulled you close, making you gasp, he noticed this and backed away. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" I asked confused.

"For making you uncomfortable," He answered rather quickly.

"If anything, you actually made me feel more safe from the viscount, I can see him glaring at us" I laughed and smiled at him, causing him to smiled back as he pulled you in close again.

...

"Y/n, Oh Miss Y/n! Wake up! Your highness, it is urgent!" Evelyn, one of the lovely servants shook you awake.

"I'm up," I mumbled, not fully awake.

"Lady Whistledown wrote about you and the Prince from the dance, you must read!" Evelyn exclaimed.

"Can I atleast get out of my bed first?" I asked, Evelyn nodded excitingly before leaving.

Y/n got up and ready and finally headed down the stairs where they was greeted by not only Evelyn but their mother as well.

"So Lady Whistledown wrote about me in her paper?" I asked.

Y/m/n nodded happily and gave you the paper. When you were shocked, Lady Whistledown wrote about the two of you dancing and how you two would make quite a lovely couple but before you could read anymore, you got called upon by Prince Friederich, he seemed to have read the latest issue quickly this morning.

"Your highness," Evelyn bowed down at him before he stopped her.

"Oh please, just call me Friederich, is Y/n awake yet? I hope I didn't wake her, I just wanted to have a little chat." Friederich smiled.

"And does your little chat include those lovely y/f/fs?" I asked.

I made my way to him and Evelyn, who now exited the room once she took notice of my appearance.

"Oh these," Friederich looked at them as well. "I didn't send them, maybe Lord Gray no Gary sent them." He teased.

Due to his teasing, I snorted and I quickly covered my mouth in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I normally never do that."

"It's fine, it was quite adorable if I were to be honest." Friederich smiled.

I blushed at his words and smiled softly but quickly changed my expression as I still had no idea what he was doing here so I asked. "Well if you will allow me to Prince-"

"Friederich," He cut you off.

"...Friederich, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I was just going to ask if well considering what Whistledown wrote about us, maybe she should write about us even more if you give me the opportunity to court you and take to on a promenade?" He asked.

My eyes widened at his words, he wanted to court me out of all people but I realized that maybe this was just his aunt's doing.

"Are you sure that you want to court me and this isn't your aunt's doing because if it is then I'm gonna have to-" I was cut off again.

"No!" He exclaimed before clearing his throat. "My apologies, I did this on my own. My aunt has no idea I am even here." He chuckled.

"Oh, then yes, I would be delighted to be courted by the only prince I seem to know." I laughed.

...

Y/n and Friederich have been courting for quite awhile now, making this their fifth time going on a promenade, Y/n had developed feelings for him and was wondering just as everyone else was thinking once they saw the latest issue "When will he propose?"

"This is the fifth time we're out to promenade, can we please go somewhere else Friederich?" I asked in a hushed whisper. "The sun is practically setting!"

"Please Y/n, just called me Freddie and to answer your question, we can't go somewhere alone, you know that but perhaps a boat ride would be nice."

"Or hunting or we can pretend to get lost in a flower field?" I suggested.

"A flower field would be nice, hm there is one there," He held up his arm. "Shall we go?"

"We shall," I smiled. "Mother, we'll be right back. We're going to pick some flowers from the field!"

"Okay, stay safe!" Y/m/n exclaimed.

But Y/m/n was distracted with Lady Danbury that she didn't even notice that the two royals weren't going to the flower field but instead the woods.

"Ah the woods, why did you take us here Freddie," I asked.

Friederich blushed at the nickname even though he suggested it but brushed it off.

"I wanted to look at the nature, nature is quite interesting. I mean just look at that bird!" He exclaimed in a hushed whisper.

"That bird does look quite fascinating." I comments, making him smile wide.

"I never saw those in Prussia so they are new to me," Friederich revealed.

"Well maybe if you stay here a little longer then maybe you'll see more," I smiled at him.

"Yeah maybe," Friederich smiled.

I took my eyes off him and laid down to look at the sunset, He laid down beside me.

"It's quite beautiful isn't it?" I asked, referring to the setting sun.

"Yeah, it's breathtaking." He whispered, still staring at me.

I looked back at him when he was indeed already staring, he didn't take one look at the sunset and kept his eyes on me. I blushed and tried to look away when his hand caressed my face and leaned in, he kissed me and I kissed back. When we broke apart, he sat up, I repeated the action and we kissed again, he mumbled something in the kiss that I couldn't decipher..

"Freddie, what did you say?" I asked, my hand resting softly on his cheek.

"I wish to marry you Y/n, I'm in love with you." He confessed.

"The night of the ball when we danced, I lied to you, my aunt didn't say anything about you at all, I chose to dance with you that night because not only are you breath taking, you are the only person that I love competing with and poking fun at with, you're the only person who knows the real me and I love for that, I love that you let me in and that you trust me and you share all your conspiracies about who Whistledown is, you're the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, kids or no kids, in London or in Prussia. I want you just the way you are because I'm smitten and I love you oh so much. And I completely understand if you don't desire me the same but I couldn't keep it in any longer and I-" Friederich was cut off by you kissing him again, more passionate this time.

When you pulled away, you spoke. "I love you too, I would say that I want you but that's a lie, I need you and I just can't possibly see my life without you in it. Without you, I could probably be married to Lord Gray and I know we are both happy that isn't the reality," We both chuckled before I continued. "Freddie, just know this. No matter where we are or who we're with, I will always be looking at him and with you because you are now my husband to be, and I wish to be your wife forever." I confessed.

I rested my head on his chest and I heard his heartbeat making me calm, I closed my eyes and hugged him, he hugged me back.

"Your wish has been granted, my love." Prince Friederich kissed the top of my head.

[feraliminal]

Cross-Faction Diplomacy

Titan TV tries to give Titan Speaker reassurance, but makes things worse. They both use various forms of communication to calm down. Ship-ish, but with plausible deniability.

I’m back from a super busy week and I want to start turning some of my (many) scraps into actual fic! This was inspired by speculation on how the Alliance communicate and think, and an essay on consciousness called “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” which concludes that you can’t know unless you are one.

—

“Why did you call me? Is that it?” The TVmen’s titan gestured across the hill range from where they stood with the speakermen’s titan, towards a very tiny, very new base. It was a few floodlights casting a glow over a few shipping containers, and a few speakermen on night watch, instead sitting on their arses and playing cards. This was exactly what they’d expected to see, no surveillance system had picked up anything more interesting than a few wandering toilets for miles, at least none that they had access to. But they also suspected it was worth keeping up appearances - two things could be happening, either the speakermen had picked up something big on surveillance that wasn’t linked to the Alliance’s general network -

- or their titan had pulled off a sneaky social call

“Strategic importance, and we’ve only got to make sure nothing happens until everything else arrives in a few hours.” Titan Speaker insisted through a speech transmission, using their faction’s habit of transmitting emotion data as well. In this case, it was something like you trust me, right? “And nothing else is happening.”

The emotion thing, Titan TV found hard to know what to do with. TVs didn’t do it, unless they really meant it. Or were trying to convince someone they really meant it. It was difficult to know if and how to respond, and they recalled Polycephaly describe addressing those kind of differences as cross-faction diplomacy - and as a pain in the arse. They switched to transmission too, encrypting it in case anyone at the base was feeling nosey. “Sure. What’s this really about?”

“Seriously?” Titan Speaker made a dismayed buzz. “You aren’t supposed to say that.”

“What was I supposed to say?” It seemed obvious that this was a way to justify an in-person chat without factions having to figure out a playdate protocol. But with the spectre of cross-faction diplomacy hanging over them, Titan TV tried to do the emotion thing. It didn’t work. Sincerity somehow became contempt-fondness. You’re an idiot but I like you hadn’t been the intent, but it was sincere.

The speakers’ titan tilted their head, lights shimmering a little brighter. “I guess you weren’t supposed to do that either,” they teased. “I thought you’d think meeting to talk is a waste of time, but…?”

“If you need to say it in person, I trust it’s important.” A dozen possibilities, and none particularly easy to contemplate. The TVs’ titan noticed they were shifting their balance a little, foot to foot, and stopped it.

Transmitting uncertain-awkward-worried, Titan Speaker looked out towards the little base, then up at the night sky, as if the words they were looking for were floating around. “Not important, I just… I dunno. I want to ask something first. Does it now feel like there’s more than one… uh, you?” They gestured with their finger, as if drawing an air-circle around the other titan’s primary and secondary screens.

“No, not a lot different. My conscious processing is more or less the same, just spread out and harder to kill.” Not a lot different was still different - the first time they’d switched from automated to conscious control of their secondary heads was an experience they still hadn’t entirely come to terms with and didn’t want to revisit just yet. Not while they needed to be in the here and now for whatever was going on in Titan Speaker’s own head. “Are you thinking about upgrades?”

“No. Well, yeah, maybe one day. But I asked because I’m thinking about weird brain stuff.” Wrapping their arms around themself, the speakers’ titan crouched down on their heels. They started to transmit something, a jumbled, ghostly kind of feeling, then paused. “Okay, I called you to talk about…”

But they didn’t. They stayed silent, on comms and audio.

The TVs’ titan noticed where the pools of light cast by the pair’s respective glowing components overlapped. The new outpost sat in its own pool of light downhill, part of a landscape of similar little points of light that made their mental map of the Alliance’s networks mirror the night sky. In the outpost, the guards were swapping tunes. Twenty miles away, a turret was dealing with one of those wandering toilets, the only other thing remotely interesting happening. Titan Speaker’s glow was receding “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

Titan Speaker flopped back off their heels into a slumped seated position, and signed ‘No shit.’ Then, when their companion turned their main screen to watch, ‘Sorry, do you understand this? I’ve never seen a TV do it.’

“We understand it, we don’t tend to use it ourselves.” It was one of (many) indicators of how well the speakermen and cameramen had managed to operate as one, and their people hadn’t. “Use it if you need to, I can try too.”

‘Thanks. You don’t have to, it’s dark and my vision’s low resolution, so if you’re not used to sign…’ The speakermen’s titan shrugged, paused again, and with a might-as-well-go-for-it burst, quickly signed, ‘Being able to remember what I did when I was infected is still freaking me out and I want to know what you make of it. I know it’s not the same, but it’s all weird brain stuff and you’re the weird brain stuff faction.’

It was difficult to reconcile the ridiculousness of being called the weird brain stuff faction with the desperation in the request. Titan TV felt their screens flickering and needed to make an effort to hold back whatever might leak into the transmission. “You need to ask your science team.”

‘I don’t mean that, I don’t mean what happened to me, but what happened to me.’ They emphasised the last sign with a sharper movement, and had stopped transmitting emotion. The TVs’ titan supposed it was for similar reasons that they’d chosen not to - this needed straightforward discussion now and a fuckton of firepower later, save the anger for then. ‘They said it wasn’t me, but I was there, the parasite made me do it and I did it, it’s like, now I know I can do that, I can’t trust me not to do it again.’ They paused. ‘I haven’t asked again. I didn’t want to freak them out as well.’

“That was your body, and your body saved data. The intrusive thoughts are probably just subconscious metacognition systems sorting it all out. Really, ask someone, engineers think about this stuff so we don’t have to.”

Titan Speaker shifted to stare straight at their bigger companion, signing more slowly with a perceptible shake in their hands. ‘Me is also what my body does.’

The Alliance had shared (heavily redacted) schematics for the titans across faction borders, so Titan TV knew that what their companion was perceiving. Audio data and electromagnetic signature first, then visual data was a secondary source. But still, they angled their side-screens to illuminate their body and softened all their lights to reduce glare. Even with simulation or data transference, it would be impossible to know what it was really like to inhabit Titan Speaker’s perceptual space, with all its memories, meanings, metacognition. And even if visual data wasn’t that important, considering it was part of how Titan TV showed respect from their own perceptual space. “It won’t happen again. That was not you in any meaningful sense of what you are.”

‘I’m tired of everyone saying that.’ The speakermen’s titan rocked forward to crouch on their heels again, made an intention movement to stand that didn’t go further than a twitch, and clasped their arms around themself. They switched to comms again, and the transmission came out cracked with static. “I thought you, of all people, would get that. Everyone’s telling me it didn’t happen but… I was forced to kill my friends and I just… I just want to be allowed to feel like shit about it.” They let out a distorted audio “Fuck.”

“Fuck.” Titan TV echoed that statement, in reverse.

Neither of them had much to say right after that. There wasn’t really else that could be said. The TVs’ titan watched their companion looking up at the stars, softly illuminating their own little patch of red light. They uncoiled, slightly, from their gargoyle crouch, still hunched but dropping on to their knees.

No longer bothering to keep their slight swaying motion in check, Titan TV offered, “We need to get out of here. There’s a suspected underground lair, you’ll be able to locate it, and we’ll blow the roof off. I don’t have clearance to investigate yet, but two of us will be more than enough to overcome anyone’s concerns about risk.”

The sag in Titan Speaker’s shoulders was unexpected. “No. I’m not outsourcing my shit, not to my engineers and definitely not to everyone else by sneaking off.” But not nearly as unexpected as what they shared when they were the first to use emotive comms again. No anger, just sadness, confusion, and grief. Uncoiling a little more, they signed ‘Stay here. Sit with me.’

It wouldn’t have felt right to say no to this poor creature who’d sooner arrange an awkward clandestine meeting with someone they, really, barely knew than upset their friends. Titan TV shook their primary head with exasperation, and settled down cross-legged on the hillside. Titan Speaker watched, looked away and signed something to themself, then did an ungainly shuffle-flop to move right beside them.

They both took their time to adjust to the dissonance of this whole thing, pinging little status requests and presence acknowledgments at each other until they realised that they no longer needed to and had been enjoying doing it just for the sake of it. The speakermen’s titan trilled their approval and did a tiny wriggle.

“I like watching you move,” Titan TV commented.

‘I like that you moved your screens so I could see you better. Can I lean on you?’

“Yes.” Titan TV’s side-screen was obscured by the smaller titan moving closer and working out how best to arrange their speaker array, finally settling in and gently nudging their head against the screen casing. Making an adjustment themself, the TV leaned in little too. Staying had been the right decision, providing a few stabilising moments for both of them.

When they leaned back, the TVmen’s titan thought they felt something that could have just been an artefact of their movements, but it was a bit too persistent for that. Suspecting what it was, they inclined their primary head against the top of their companion’s array, and there it was - a barely perceptible vibration that was becoming more noticeable until it somehow managed to travel through their body and into the ground under them. It made their vision blur very slightly at the edges, but otherwise didn’t feel unpleasant. “Purring?” they rumbled, purr-like themself.

“You don’t mind it?” There was a new contentment in the speaker titan’s transmission, and the vibrations became a little wobbly. Signing would be tricky in this position, but they were making the most of that by sharing emotive comms freely. “Kind of. I’m just… feeling everything. Grounding myself. No sense of impending doom?”

“That’s oddly specific. Infrasound?” What Titan TV felt as a vibration was likely composed of echolocation and electrolocation and, being too low frequency to be useful for scanning, the infrasound component was probably just there for communication or self-soothing. They found it fun (if a little tragic) to imagine someone, possibly the cameramen’s titan, getting creeped out by an overenthusiastic purr. Cross-faction diplomacy again. “We use it too. Although admittedly not for purring.”

“For…?” Titan Speaker looked up, blinking their lights at their companion, who went ‘ ≽^•⩊•^≼ ‘ and said “Slaughter.”

“Terrifying.” They’d both aimed for a deadpan delivery - but it was interrupted for the better by the speaker titan’s failed attempt to suppress a squeaky giggle.

“You’re terrifying, you see sound and your idea of grounding is making the earth shake.” The TVmen’s titan wondered if speakermen were able to perceive the world as assemblages of vibrating particles. It was one thing to have the knowledge of that, it must be unsettling to really feel it. There was a lot to learn about the other factions, and their titans. “You’re well worth my time. We’re a sample size of three, and should be sharing data.”

With an affectionate hum, Titan Speaker bumped their head against the bigger titan’s chest and released a silent burst of something that interrupted their train of thought as well as their vision, and really did feel as if it had made the earth shake for a split second. A mischievous confirmation of you bet I’m terrifying.

“I’ll find something really strategically important next time.”