#and the textures are Very dissimilar

[visceraspit]

i used to be like " why are the sims houses so mismatched these homes look so bad" but then i started looking at zillow and by god they're charging Above market value for this shit look at this garbage

and just for fun: what is this.

what. the fuck is this.

i dont even know where this is in its respective house i shit you not i have NO idea

[michaelenthusiast]

SON OF A BITCH!!!!!

[ms-demeanor]

Hey also you know that post about getting better at cooking and handling meat and stuff?

Meat is really expensive and it goes bad pretty quickly.

If you're a new cook and you're trying to figure out how to pan-fry something so that it tastes good, might I recommend tofu?

I'm not saying "treat tofu like meat and try to replace all your favorite meat dishes with tofu" (though, I mean, if that sounds good - go for it), I'm saying "it's a lot easier to practice heating a pan and flipping objects in a pan for a meal and seasoning objects in a pan when the objects in the pan cost two dollars instead of ten dollars."

Tofu lasts a lot longer in the fridge than meat does, is easy to season, and you can easily learn how to pan-fry it into a tasty snack (or main course) and only requires a little extra prep. You can also pretend that the tofu is raw meat (the texture isn't dissimilar) and start practicing for things like how to take it out of a package or cut it on a sanitizable surface, etc.

My favorite way to cook tofu is to press extra firm tofu for at least half an hour (you can get a cheap tofu press for around ten dollars, or you can put it between two plates with some books on the top plate - this is that extra prep i was talking about - tofu cooks best if you press the excess water out), then slice a 14oz cake of it into 8 slices. I lay these flat and sprinkle cayenne pepper, mushroom powder, and smoked paprika on all of the slices, then I rub it in and flip the slices and season the other side the same way. I cook it in a frying pan with a thin layer of avocado or olive oil over medium heat, flipping every two minutes until the flat sides start to crisp up a little. Just before the last flip I add about a tablespoon of tamari sauce (you can use soy sauce, I've just got allergies) to the pan, sprinkling it over the tofu so that both sides get a little bit of sauce on them.

I have that with steamed vegetables and with jasmine rice (with two teaspoons of rice wine vinegar per 3 cups of dry rice and 4.5 cups of water). I also make a honey-siracha-mayo sauce that I dip the tofu in.

It's really good. And now I end up eating leftover rice and sauce with fried eggs for lunch at least two days a week and that's also really good.

This has become one of my go-to low spoon foods because it's so easy to make, it's filling, it tastes good to me, and it has become extremely easy for me to keep a stock of tofu in the fridge compared to the effort of keeping un-expired meat in the fridge.

I find that a 14oz pack of tofu feeds two adults for one meal, though I can stretch that to three meals if I'm the only one eating.

It makes a very cheap, filling, easy dinner that I can keep the ingredients around for without too much concern for food waste or anything going bad (the tofu that I get lasts about a month in the fridge and these days I just buy three packs every time I'm at aldi and cycle in new stock - it costs $1.50 per pack)

If you're interested in becoming a better cook, rather than worrying about actual high-risk products like raw chicken that can be seriously dangerous and also cost a fair amount, tofu has a pretty low barrier to entry while also being a good way to learn on a new ingredient that has some similar properties to raw meat.

[cannonball-37]

I just had a theory about the larger shadow that disfigures when Bendy tried to make it into a human shape being related to the lost ones in Bendy and The Ink Machine and now I can’t look at it any other way.

It could even explain why they have emotions when other demon’s shadows don’t because there is definitely some kind of connection with Bendy and the actual ink machine in The Inky Mystery.

On the Bendy wiki it describes the lost ones like this:

‘The Lost Ones have a similar appearance to humans, only deformed, skeletal, and slimy. They are composed completely out of ink, with skin texture similar to black tar’

This could a reference to how the shadow disfigures and is made of shadows in The Ink Mystery. Additionally:

‘Their original personalities remain almost untouched, but they appear to be suffering in a state of despair; most will stand in complete stillness, some either hunched over and crying or, in one case seen in some occasions, banging their head against the wall in a suicidal manner. If provoked, the Lost Ones act as a threat towards anyone they deem dangerous’

This could explain the feeling of dread Bendy felt and the way the shadow acts a few moments later when it tries to attack him and Allison.

However it could also be a reference to the searchers in Bendy and The Ink Machine because of this:

I mean look at them:

There are a few dissimilar things between the two like only having three fingers and the arms being the same length but it’s also show in BATIM that the searchers and the lost ones have a lot of variation in their appearances so that’s not enough to discredit this theory.

If you listen to the sound the searchers make it’s very similar to what is described in the scene

And the way that the shadow attacks is similar to how the searchers attack in BATIM (with their arms).

(Sorry if it’s hard to see it’s was difficult finding videos of them actually attacking.)

Also! This could explain why Baby (the smaller shadow) is so helpful to Bendy because some Lost Ones are friendly (as described by the wiki):

‘there have been a few notable exceptions such as Porter and Heidi who aren't aggressive towards Audrey Drew and actually help her out.’

I came up with theory this like 10 minutes ago and I’m already in love with it

[thetinybutimportantthings]

Mushroom Foraging: Lions Mane

Lions mane (Hericium erinaceus) is a tooth fungus of the family Hericiaceae. A prime edible species, it is found in temperate climates across much of North America and Eurasia. They feed predominately on decaying wood and can be easily cultivated on sawdust, with kits available online from many sources.

I found this one on an oak tree where I hunt in the Southern United States, and since they’re as close to completely safe as a wild mushroom can be, I decided to treat my folks to one of my favorite wild edibles. This one was frankly enormous, so there was plenty to share.

We’re gunna need a bigger pan.

In seriousness, this one probably weighed something along the lines of 10 pounds, but that was largely because it had been raining all day and these things are like sponges. Unfortunately, despite looking pretty decent, it was on the edge of edibility, with the core having already softened and gone yellow.

Luckily, the toothed exterior (the best part for eating as far as texture goes) was still fine, and I was able to get a very respectable portion of the stuff.

This species is known for cooking down to a texture and flavor not dissimilar to seafood like crab or lobster, and is quite nutritious. I sauteed this one in butter, and seasoned it with some herbs, cayenne, and salt and pepper.

It was supremely delicious, with a side of roasted potatoes and salad and some shrimps. Dipped in cocktail sauce it really is remarkably similar to a bite of crab.

Foraging note: All members of the genus Hericium, in North America at least, are safe edible species. But once they begin yellowing and producing spores they can cause stomach upset, so be cautious. There are no dangerous look alikes of this species, which makes it one of the safest mushrooms to forage. That said, you should always be cautious when harvesting wild edibles, both ensuring that what you are taking is identified correctly, and that it is not contaminated by pesticides/herbicides/other environmental toxins. Also take care to not overharvest wild sources, and to not damage the habitat as you go.

[katsurinssims]

Katsu's alternative Afterglow Palette

as I mentioned in my last post, I made a lil alternative hair colour palette. Before I got into Afterglow, I really wanted to try out @0201-sims VK actions, as I love the idea of a visual kei inspired hair colour pallete. But I got into afterglow, so forgot about it for a while! Then when I was ill and making a bunch of sims and downloading a bunch of CC recently, I thought that I wished I had a secondary family of naturals to chose from, as when I was using Pooklet's colours I used 2, one being what my DRs were in, and the other being just another option. So I tried out the VK actions, but wasn't 100% happy with how some of them looked on Afterglow textures. Afterglow has a subtle, silky shine (which is what converted me, aha) that can easily become flat looking with certain colour actions applied- so I trialed some other colours I like and this is what I came up with!

The colours and why I chose them:

It's a mix of Cassis' VK actions and @digisims2 Ephemera Inspired Color actions. Cassis' Aliene is a much cooler (as in cooler tone) and slightly more unnatural, alternative looking black than Poppet's, which fits well with the Vkei theme. I knew I wanted cooler, but the green undertones are really striking! Basier is used as the red rather than the brown, its the main one I wanted as it reminded me of when I was a teenager and took a picture of Hizaki to the hairdresser as a reference photo. I suppose you could call it a strawberry-esque colour, its very fun. For blond and brown I picked out a couple of Digi's Ephemera colours that were dissimilar from the colours already included in afterglow naturals, and Digi's always been an inspiration for me in my CC making journey, as well as Ephemera, so it seemed only fitting. The main idea I wanted to get accross with the main 4 colours is hair that has clearly been dyed, but in natural types of colours, maybe for alternative types of sims, aha. For the grey I knew I wanted something richer and warmer, so went with @blackswan-sims Pipe Bomb x Finade mix, which I have had saved by for a while because it intrigued me so much! Finally I'm adding just one unnatural because I missed having a bright pink option, and this was the hardest to pick out. I went through a lot of options before landing on ol' reliable @pooklet, in Pentolite. It's warm but not too red, and doesn't blast out all the subtle detail. So yea, the main purpose of this alternative selection is to suit my game with a lot of late 90s FRUiTS and other Japanese street style inspired fashion ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

That may be too much information/explaination on my choices there, I'm mainly just excited to show you all these colours!

As much as I just picked these out because I liked and wanted to use them, anyone else is welcome to try this alt palette; but I don't expect others to like or use them, or for them to be a norm amongst afterglow creators. Besides these being maybe a bit of an odd choice- having one family of naturals makes CC creation easier, cuts down on the size of your downloads folder, and keeps your bodyshop neat! Nothing wrong with that, I'm just someone who's a lil over the top with these types of things I suppose, aha.

If you do want to use them, I'm uploading them as a set of actions for PS:

Download my Afterglow Alternative Palette actions

I didn't alter the original creators actions at all, just bundled them together- which means they may not work on all versions of Photoshop. I've included individual swatches in the file with the creators names so they can be found easily!

Intended to be run over Afterglow but would work on any volatile base. Check @the-afterglow-archive for more Afterglow ₊˚⊹♡

I'll be posting anything I make with these colours to this tag!

[damnedtreasure]

please do say some more about your favorite sweater patterns i recently learned how to do cables and boy am i excited for the possibilities that the future holds now

Ooooh! So many possibilities! Cables are so satisfying, especially the patterns that look impossible to follow that really are much simpler than they look.

Okay, so! I got a bit carried away looking through patterns, as I always do, but! Here's a whole bunch of pretty patterns I've either made myself or have had my eye on for ages. I'll start with the sweaters, because that is what you actually asked, and then move to the honourable mentions that aren't actually sweaters.

So for your classic aran sweater, the Moby Sweater Man by PetiteKnits is delightful; it's a dk weight pattern, so it's a little thinner and lighter weight than a true aran sweater, but the cable pattern is fantastic.

The Handsome Chris Pullover by Caryn Shaffer was reverse engineered from the sweater Chris Evans wears in Knives Out, and I'm so glad someone beat me to figuring out this pattern so I didn't have to.

Now, if you're just learning or wrapping your mind around cables, I recommend the Antler by TinCanKnits. (I can never recommend their stuff enough) Their patterns are fantastic, always, and very beginner friendly. There's also a free hat version, so that you can see how you like your yarn with the cable pattern, or see if you like the cable pattern at all before you lock yourself into buying sweater quantities of yarn.

Also by Tin Can Knits, and we're diverging from the classic aran sweater fully by now, but Hush is a really interesting design.

Quick aside to say that the pattern that got me loving cables is the Travelling Cables Handwarmers by Purl Soho, and if you're looking for a sort of one-step-past-beginner pattern, those are fun. They also are a good example of how cables really tighten a garment up, not dissimilar to how ribbing does.

The Seaway Pullover by Ozetta is a really good example of using cabling for texturing, which gives it a really interesting look.

I've been wanting to make the Wool + Honey by Andrea Mowry for ages now... it's not really what you think of when you think cables but look at it...... it's so pretty......

The Field Sweater by Camilla Vad is another one I've been eyeing for ages, same as the Wool + Honey. I just need to make it for someone sweaterworthy someday.

Honourable mentions time because I can't help myself:

The Ranger Cowl by Michael Vloedman is so very perfect for renfaire or DnD vibes.

Glimfeather by Sunidesus Knits is a shawl that I just know is the warmest thing in the world, and one day I will own twenty of them.

All of these are ravelry links purely because that's the database I use primarily, but most of these designers have their own sites as well if you prefer that. I do love ravelry though, and using the filters in the advanced pattern search can be so very useful and also so very tempting due to how many pretty patterns there are.

Best of luck on your cabling journeys!

[amor-immortalem]

Hi hi. I'm in the mood for angst and I really enjoyed your brothers react to MC enforcing the pact on Mammon. So I was wondering if you could do a brothers react to Mammon getting hurt saving one of them and maybe is in a coma or has irreversible damage like losing a wing etc your creative choice. Like all of them react to the news or maybe they witness it. Mammon saving one specific bro from an assassination attempt or an explosion from the science lab type accident of your choice. I'd prefer if it was either Beel or Satan. It would be nice if it was more of the fic style version but I wouldn't mind the head cannon bullet point version. Your writing is really good especially the angst 🤧

A/N: hope this lives up to your expectations, anon. I tried to go with like a pre-nightbringer-esqe setting just because I feel like in the ‘modern’ times the brothers are pretty much tolerated so there would really be no reason for an assassination attempt on anyone and I couldn’t get behind a scenario of an accident at school either (trust me, I tried! that’s what drafts 1, 2, and 3 were all about…) also it’s written half-and-half, one part story format, the other part bullet list format.

Warnings: Not canon-compliant (cuz I just can’t be arsed to care about canon atp) personal headcanons used, potential ooc-ness description of injuries

I wrote most of this during the height one of my manic phases so sorry if this isn’t worded well.

・・・〆・・・

It was supposed to be a normal day for the brothers- just a normal day where they continued to hide away in the castle while they awaited more permanent housing to finish being constructed but it just seemed to not be in the cards for the new demons.

There was a ball held by Diavolo to welcome the Devildom’s newest elite- war criminals who’d fled from the Celestial Realm after a failed rebellion to save one of their own.

Mammon notes how these nobles are all sizing him and his brothers up for any weaknesses among them- not too dissimilar from a pack of lionesses picking out the weakest gazelle in the herd. It makes him uneasy, wings pulling tight to his war-wounded body. The leathery texture makes the demon squirm. It wasn’t too long ago that those very same wings were once a pure white with feathers dyed crimson by the blood of his fallen former brothers and sisters- maybe just a couple of months ago at most.

“Here.” Beelzebub holds a plate out to his older brother, drawing Mammon from his thoughts. “You should eat something.”

It’s filled with a generous portion of gourmet foods that make second-born’s stomach queasy. He’s still not used to his food having such otherworldly colors and abominable textures to it. If Mammon’s being honest, he’d rather starve.

“Thanks, Beel,” he turns his eyes back to the crowd of demons in the ball room, “but I think I’m gonna pass this time.”

“You’ve been passing for the last week,” the sixth-born frowns, worried for the second. “Your wounds will never heal right if you don’t take care of your body inside and out.”

“Do you notice the way they’re looking at us?” Mammon changes the subject. “I don’t like it.”

“We’re safe, Mammon.” Beel insists, twilight-gradient eyes follow his brother's line of sight. “Lucifer’s here- he’ll protect us if any trouble arises. Let yourself relax for a moment.”

“Lucifer’s got his hands full with Satan at the moment.” The white-haired demon only sighs, watching his exhausted-looking older brother attempt to wrangle the demonic child in his arms. “That group over there’s been eyein’ the two of ‘em up ever since this whole shindig started. The one over there’s been watching Levi ‘n Asmo ‘n then you and I have our own dedicated group of spectators as well.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Beel sets the plate down and takes a much closer look at the crowd surrounding them to find his brother is indeed right. “You noticed all that from just observing them?”

Mammon nods slowly blue-to-gold eyes still scanning around them in hyper-vigilance. Something has felt wrong ever since the ball began and the demon can’t quite put his finger on what it was.

And then everything goes to hell in a hand basket. Glass shatters, screams can be heard, a volley of arrows thunks into the ground one right after another.

The attendees panic- typical of nobles who’ve not once seen the hell of a battlefield- as Diavolo and his father begin attempting to calm them, so none are trampled in the hysteria.

The brothers group together as close as they can with their nearest sibling in all the chaos, all of them on high alert to whatever threat there is. They stand back-to-back in their own separate little groups to ensure nothing can creep up on them in all this as they begin to move to each other.

That’s when Mammon hears it, the whizzing of another set of arrows to his left. There’s not much time to react as the tanned demon uses all his strength to shove Beel forward, knocking his brother off kilter and straight onto his front.

Thunk

Thunk

Thunk

Thunk

Mammon doesn’t necessarily feel it at the moment of impact. All he knows is that he can’t breathe, and a warm liquid is flooding throughout his airway. His ears are ringing, and the sounds of his brothers’ voices are all muffled, almost mute and he can’t move his left and wing from his side.

Mammon starts to choke on the fluid backing-up in his airways as he coughs and gasps and he finally looks down to see the arrows piercing his throat and side, golden lines of celestial magic spiderwebbing out from the points of entry as his skin starts to crack and decay at an alarming rate. His vision is starting to go dark now, black spots dancing all around the white-haired demon’s eyesight from lack of oxygen.

The last thing he can remember is meeting Beel’s eyes and seeing the sheer horror in them as the six-born realizes that, yet again, he’s failed to protect one of his siblings.

・・・〆・・・

The Reactions:

Lucifer

• Can not believe this is happening

• He thought they’d be safe here. How could he have been so careless?

• It almost feels like he’s reliving the war and that terrifies him. He can’t lose another sibling.

• The first to react, he’s across the room in a flash, doing everything in his limited power to help his favorite brother while the others stand around too shocked to do anything for the moment.

• The damage to his skin looks like it’ll take eons to repair on its own and his wing already looks unsalvageable.

• When he catches whoever did this, they’re going to wish they were never created.

Levi:

• *cue internal screaming*

• He’s fine! He’ll be fine! We won’t lose another sibling like we lost Lilith!

• Mans was paralyzed by shock at the scene before him- some ex-General he is…

• After the whole ordeal he goes to visit his brother in the hospital despite all the demons there and how uncomfortable he is in settings like that.

• He leaves feeling even worse for not acting sooner after seeing the way Mammon’s wing is nearly mangled and the way his skin is chalky and cracked where the arrow heads pierced his body.

Satan:

• The noise and promptly being dropped on his ass is what really catches Satan’s attention

• His tiny body is still filled with nothing but rage and contempt for the family he got stuck with at this point so he doesn’t exactly care that one of his brothers might die

• He doesn’t really expect Mammon to bite the big one though- I mean, this is the same brother Satan watched get his shit rocked by Lucifer not more than two nights ago for stealing something out of the royal vault. He’ll live.

• After Mammon comes home from the hospital though, Satan is a pest ™️

• After hearing the others talk about how dangerous Celestial Gold can be for demons and how it’s nothing short of a miracle that Mammon didn’t immediately combust in the areas where is body came into contact with it, Satan decides he’s going to study his brother like a bug.

• And Mammon’s a good sport about it… until it turns into a six-month ordeal before ultimately Satan decides there’s no more information left to glean from his observations…

Asmo:

• “Did that really just happen?”

• His jaw? On the floor- Beel’s such a big demon and Mammon just shoved him down like it was nothing!

• But now’s not the time to be admiring his older brother’s strength- this is an actual emergency!

• Does his best to help with what little medical knowledge he did have- in the war between angels and demons, he’d been conscripted to a legion responsible for healing other injured angels so at least he knows enough about what not to do.

• “No Beel, don’t pull the arrows out like that, you’ll injure him more!”

• After Mammon comes home from the hospital though, Asmo’s there to help him find ways to hide the scarring without the use of glamour magic.

• Also, like the king of boosting people’s self-esteem so like if Mammon’s ever feelin’ down ‘n out about the scarring, he’d always have something to say make him feel better like: “some people are into scars, you know?” Or “No, they don’t make you ugly, they add to your character.”

Beel:

• This poor demon- he got to watch as his little sister died at the hands of these same arrows, now his older brother is meeting the same fate?

• Not on Beel’s watch.

• Tablecloths are being torn to shreds so he has enough material to pack and dress the wounds in makeshift bandages until they could get their brother properly treated.

• Afterwards, he blames himself every day for what happened even after Mammon comes home from the hospital.

• Thinks he should have been the one to get shot up by all those arrows.

• Always making some kind of meal for his brother- the quickest way to promote healing is to make sure one’s body is properly nourished after all.

Belphie:

• Didn’t see the initial incident because he skipped out 20 minutes before shit hit the fan to go take a fat nap. (Can you blame him though? The music was calming, the food filled him right up; it was only inevitable)

• When he wakes up, he initially doesn’t seem all that bothered because he’s good at hiding that shit

• But on the inside? Whoo boy, he’s sweating bullets. What if the worst comes to pass?

• “What do you mean the arrow heads were laced with Celestial Gold?? that shit’s lethal to demons.”

• Breathes the biggest mental sigh of relief once he finds out his brother’s gonna be okay.

• Crisis averted; he can go back to be the annoying baby brother now.

• Doesn’t draw too much attention to Mammon’s wounds- mostly so he can avoid thinking about the incident himself.

[figroth]

Flickers in the Dark

The orange lights flickered unexpectedly in the distance of the abyssal darkness.

Thania observed the first source of light she had encountered in years thoughtfully. What could the meaning of this be? Down in the Abyss there was no light. There was barely anything to be honest, but especially not light. She had learnt to sense her barren and bleak world through other means, so much so that she had almost forgotten what it was like to see. Could she believe her own sight after it'd fallen in such disuse?

Indeed the question of whether she could trust the vision was prevalent in her mind. Her many years of experience in the Abyss had taught her that trust was a sentiment one shouldn't afford to anything.

Once, she remembered, the harrowing cry of a woman echoing through the darkness. She had hurried to the aid of the distressed woman, hoping in the depths of her heart that she might finally have a companion in her empty journeys. At the end of her dash, however, she had met no person, but a bulbous mass of disparate parts. Her first tentative touches had felt a number of faces, distorted in unnatural asymmetrical shapes, undulating in and out as one with the breathing of the beast. As she stepped back, she could hear the unearthly shrieks of people rendered so inhuman in how real they sounded. She had barely escaped the claws that had then swooped in to catch her, and likely add her own face to the amalgamation.

No, there were two very fundamental lessons about living in the Abyss. The first was that despite the general emptiness, in the rare event of encountering something other than yourself, investigating was never worth the danger it put you in. Though Thania did not understand the purposes of the things she met and could never predict their actual nature beforehand, she knew they were never safe. From the pleasant aroma of a flower luring you into a plant that would entrap you and incorporate your living body to its growing vines; to a room of warmth and comfort inviting you to rest your sorrows away, only to sap away all your will and motivation by the time you woke up; everything in this world harboured a threat of some kind or other.

Yet, these orange flickers of light made Thania feel warm just by looking at them. She remembered a time when a flame of not too dissimilar hue would have kept her company through the night, shielding her from the cold of the outside world. She could imagine the small crowded home that surrounded such hearth. She yearned for its warmth. Could these lights possibly be houses of people? What else could create light? She had never seen the creatures of the Abyss do such a thing.

The second lesson of the Abyss was that the cold, lonely life it offered was not living at all when you didn't let even its rare encounters approach you.

"Do you reckon you'll find people over there?" Grinner suddenly appeared with a condescending chuckle.

She ignored him.

"It's almost inspiring how you still believe after all this time. Your optimism is why I like you, though", his mocking grin was perceptible even without having to see him.

Once upon a time, a naive young Thania had allowed herself to feel around his face and body. He had seemed roughly human-shaped, even if the texture wasn't quite right. But most noticeable had been the incredibly wide smile his face was contorted to. It was a smile she could hear in his very voice. That's why she had called him Grinner back then.

Of course, it had been entirely wrong to engage with him. She had once been glad to meet another person she could speak with. Nowadays, she wasn't sure if she should refer to him as a person at all. Her current theory had him be a demon haunting her in an attempt to confuse and mislead her, out of pure appreciation for her suffering. She still feared he might have yet worse intentions, however. Thus, she ignored him.

"Still not much for conversation, I see. You wound my feelings, dearie. In any case, be careful in your foolish little endeavour. We wouldn't want you to die, would we?" his last words were dipped with a pretend concern that induced an ominous feeling in her.

With his part said, she heard Grinner's essence dissolve back into nothingness. She was alone again. Perhaps she wouldn't be for long. Her tormentor didn't seem to think the flickers held anything good in them, and in truthfulness she agreed. But if the demon was right about one thing was that in the core of all her jadedness, she simply wanted to believe in the light again.

After all, although Thania always said she had been alone since the start, in reality she'd met other humans before. It had been mostly in the beginning, right after her home had been taken by the Abyss. She assumed they came from the same place, but she hadn't been able to confirm it, since she didn't recognise anyone she knew. Unfortunately, in most cases the humans were already dead or in irrecoverable states that didn't allow communication when she found them. Horrifying though these instances were, they were invaluable learning experiences that allowed her to survive all this time.

After a while, the humans stopped showing up. Thania was left to deal with the Abyss and its dangers by herself. What happened to her home, she never knew exactly. In her childhood she and her family had lived in a mining colony on a far-off moon of the solar system. It had not been an easy life, but it was all Thania had known and she had been happy. She knew that now at least. But then with no sign or warning, a fog of complete blackness had appeared and consumed the whole moon within it.

Where was she now and where was the moon gone now? She didn't know. Her current whereabouts, the thing she called the Abyss, didn't feel like she was on a planet or in space, or even in the fog that started it all. Sometimes the Abyss didn't even seem to have any corporeal form at all. It was just a Darkness, and she existed in it. Then, sometimes other Things would appear within it.

The fog had taken her entire home. But then, after the initial panic and mayhem, she was alone. She had met some people, but not nearly enough. Where had the rest of them gone? Where had the buildings and towns gone? Where had her family gone? Were they also somewhere in the Abyss to be found? Or had they perhaps been spared from the darkness and she could go back to them, if she only found an exit.

Those questions bothered her whenever she tried to sleep. But they were also what kept her hope alive. What kept her moving after a long series of disappointments.

There was of course something else that motivated her. That inner hunger she always felt that could never be quenched in the bare landscape of the Abyss. An agonising unrelenting hunger that plagued her always. It tormented her, but it kept her alive. It drove her to take risks she wouldn't have otherwise, every time a step closer to death. And yet when she made it out alive, she had what the hunger demanded of her. Perhaps without it she would have given up long ago.

Her belly now again rumbled. She didn't get to eat often. Whatever waited for her at the end of this trip, this was an unmistakable chance to alleviate that hard knot in her stomach.

She looked down at herself, a motion more symbolic than anything else. If she did find people, though, would they be able to accept her as she was now? A wandering creature, twisted by the instincts of survival and the corruption of the dark, who can only think of consuming whatever she can find to satiate her hunger... Was she perhaps also a monster of the Abyss now?

Her clothes were long gone, torn and frayed through time and wear. They wouldn't fit her grown body anyway. Instead now she wore a veil of shadows, fashioned like a cloak. Although no prying eyes could pierce the darkness that enveloped all and no clothing could shield from the coldness permeating everything in the Abyss, she still somehow felt safer or more comfortable with something on rather than otherwise. Perhaps it was an artifact of a life in a more reasonable world.

Would such appearance scare a fellow human? The transformations the Dark had forced upon her. Could they ever be accepted by people? If she ever re-surfaced to the real world, would she be welcome? Would she be able to live there? Or would she be so far gone, the warmth would burn her?

In the Abyss, there was no night and day. The only differentiation of time for Thania was the cycle of necessary movement replaced by the loss of all willingness to think and experience. Then, she would sleep, surrendering herself to the same void that surrounded her from all sides. Once again now, stopped in her tracks by her maddening thoughts, she found a hole to crawl in and lied down hoping the oblivion would claim her and erase all worries.

She had no dreams.

She awakened to the call of her hunger. Though sleep in the Abyss rarely offered enough rest to be considered fulfilling, Thania had at least shed some of her exhaustion, allowing to build up her mental fortitude once again.

The orange lights were still there. Whatever lay there, human, monstrous or otherwise, she would have to face it in the end no matter the outcome. That wouldn't change.

She made her way towards them once again. Although the Abyss had no definite shape or form, it did sometimes assume a particular, more corporeal state. Often Thania found her feet walking upon what felt like hard rocky terrain. Other times, it was as if she was in a murky bog, her legs submerging themselves into invisible mud and water. And yet other times, even more structure appeared in her way, like stony trees, pillars made of tar and even rivers of ambiguous substances defying the notion of gravity and flowing in any direction they saw fit.

This time the darkness melted into a liquid form and Thania found herself having to swim through a lake. It was not her favourite state. The touch of the water, if it could even be called that, made her yet colder. She pushed on despite it. The faster she swam, the sooner she'd be out of the lake.

Whilst at first, her head remained above the surface, letting buoyancy keep her afloat, suddenly all the enveloping darkness was liquid, pressing from all sides. In a panic, she tried to swim upwards, but no end to the water appeared. She'd closed her mouth as soon as the change occurred, so nothing had gotten in, but as a result she hadn't gotten a good breath in. She didn't have long.

Taking a moment to calm herself, she stopped and looked at her target, the only visible thing in so long. The Abyss was playing tricks on her, but the lights were surely there and approaching. She could try go back, but it wasn't certain the Abyss would change back. The lights were true and material, though, no matter what the Dark shaped itself into. That was her only hope.

She dove straight for the orange dots, now blurring through the pain-induced tears. She didn't even know if oxygen existed in the Abyss, yet her lungs longed for it nonetheless. They begged her to open her mouth, ignorant that what lay outside was not air. They pressure built up far quicker than she had hoped. She couldn't stand this. She was getting closer, but her instincts fought her.

She opened her mouth.

The darkness flowed quickly into her mouth and down her neck, filling her up inside with the most dreadful stuffy solidified sense of drowning. It reached the capacity of her lungs and then overflowed, spreading to her entire being. A single scream escaped, short in duration, muffled, and eventually swallowed by the void.

The next instant that she could be certain she was conscious, Thania was on solid ground -solid enough at least- with no sign of the lake that had been drowning her, for how long she couldn't tell.

She greedily breathed in and out, partly to calm herself, but also to make up for all the breaths she just skipped. The essence that had invaded her seemed to be gone and any lingering taste was probably her imagination. However, she didn't trust that it wasn't hiding somewhere within her with some insidious purpose. The fear of that would be something more to worry about in her lone moments of sleep, but in the moment she couldn't do anything about it, so she tried to repress it.

She felt around her body, from her limbs to her chest to her belly, to make sure everything was still in place, then she got up. The lights were closer than ever, fairly bigger than before and easier to distinguish. Without any other landmarks, it was hard to estimate distances, but she felt she was almost there.

As she continued on her way, the ground started to turn uphill. Eventually, after some searching she found a swirling path that appeared to climb up a hill or mountain. The lights proved to be higher than her current level, so the path seemed to be a promising way of reaching them.

As she went around the hill, the flickers came in and out of sight, as if something was hiding them, but now Thania could see they weren't quite round, but had a more elongated squarish shape. The excitement caused by this almost made her turn around and run away, for fear of the disappointment being wrong would cause.

"Don't do this to me now", she inadvertently mumbled to herself in a croaky voice.

The remaining climb was some of the hardest exercise she'd gotten in a long time. Other than running away from dangers, the empty Abyss didn't often offer much physical challenge. Now, the clear path up the hill seemed to stop and instead the way up was through steep jagged cliffs. Yet, the lights were just above, tantalisingly close and yet out of reach. Thania put in her all, making her way up, blindly searching for stable footing.

She was faintly reminded of climbing a much less steep slope in the dark during the exploration of an abandoned mine, back home. Was she with her friends then, venturing into dangerous passages out of curiosity despite warning; or had her father brought her there to familiarise her with the mines that she might also have worked in some day? She couldn't remember. Her memories of her old life seemed so far now, so faded. Lost almost, as if taken by the all-consuming Darkness.

A sharp feeling grasped her gut. Her memories of the old world were one of the few things she had, one of her precious treasures. Without realising it, it had escaped like sand in her hands. Was forgetfulness and nothingness all that awaited her? If she had lost what once was, could she perhaps ever make memories to replace the ones that were gone? A warm life with warm people. Could she possibly ever have something so nice?

A monstrosity of many eyes and enormous size stared at her and seemed to almost silently reply "No". Archs of almost human size, emitting orange light, with a cross separating them in four parts dotted the gooey flesh of the monster. By all accounts they should have been windows. And yet they were just another trick of the Abyss meant to deceive her. The window-shaped eyes of the vaguely spherical mass of overlapping disproportionately small arms turned to look at her. A maw covering about half of the creature opened in anticipation, revealing its inner dark depths. The two chicken-like legs supporting its weight dubiously, slowly started to move towards her.

Thania wasn't sure if this was worse than the creatures she imagined when she couldn't see the horrors of the Abyss visually. It didn't matter in this moment, however, as instead of a fearful scream, hoarse laughter escaped her mouth. Of course. What else did she expect? She felt horrible, yet she could only laugh.

But something else stirred within her at the same time. Looking down, below her cloak, in the light of the beast's eyes, she could for the first time see the gem that had embedded itself in her stomach. It opened up to reveal the mouth she knew was there, demanding flesh to quench its hunger.

Many might have wondered, had they heard Thania's tale, how she managed to survive this long in the Abyss, escaping its touch and its horrible traps. The simple answer is she didn't. Since the very beginning, the taint of the Abyss had accompanied her.

When the fog came, unimaginable beasts had emerged from it. Some had been satisfied hunting for food. Others had simply killed, seemingly for its own sake. Some few had committed unthinkable horrors on the unfortunate victims of her home. As for Thania, before she could escape one of the small ones had bitten her leg. What happened next was always a blur, but the creature had managed to enter her body and somehow merge with it. She could still feel it inside her, attached to her heart, its tendrils reaching within her, sapping any warmth she could produce.

Its thirst for life, its search for sustenance had always followed her. It was what had made her eat the the detached claw of a face-stealing monster. What had convinced her to accept the fruit of a tree growing out of a man. It was what gave her power and what had helped her survive.

It was what would have her fight the many-eyed monstrosity charging at her right now. And the survivor's hunger will be sated.

If only for a moment.

[emmieheere]

A beast, if you can even call it that, inches towards you. The sight of its lagging, almost wounded looking, movement accompanied by the sound of joints cracking and the snap of sinews, along with the shriek of rusted steel against sheer concrete. The body of the entity is the color and texture of raw flesh, tentacles slogging about its sides (Though it is quite impossible to say what is its front and what is its back). The stench of it is that of rotten meat, the appearance not too dissimilar, with maggots writhing about the wet surface.

Twenty eyes, almost entirely blacked out by massive, eerily human, pupils turn to face you. A gaping maw opens, revealing row upon row of teeth, some sharp and incising, others flat and gnashing. It speaks in an unearthly grumble, one that shakes the very earth you stand on: "Hey man, how's it going?"

[turtlemagnum]

some facts about me and restaurants:

i always order my drinks without ice because drink almost always comes out cold anyways and now i get more drink per drink and i dont have to worry about my drink getting watered down because of the ice melting

because of this, i couldn't tell you how many times the server brought me with ice anyways and i had to be like "hey, this has ice. dont-wait no, dont take it back, just dont put ice in the refill ok"

i really dont like wasting food, hence why i'm very adamant about them not just dumping the first drink. the rare times i don't finish something and dont bring it home are like when the burger at that chain steakhouse made me puke. pretty much anything less than "literally made me puke" at least gets brought home so at worst, i can remake it to be more edible

back to drinks: i generally dont use straws. a while back i realized that as far as actual restaurant cups go, straws dont really do anything other than add another thing to throw out and just generally slowing down my sippage. from what i understand this is different for physically disabled people, but given how (as far as i'm aware) i'm not physically disabled, i can just lift the cup just fine. this does not apply to things like fast food cups, like you ever break a straw when using one of those? i swear they're designed to be as inconvenient to drink out of without a straw as possible, the mcdonalds one the last time i tried had this little lip on the brim that felt like it was specifically designed to spill shit when drunk without a straw

if it's a place i've been to enough times to know what the menu is right off the top of my head, i usually know exactly what i want before i even sit down. the local bar i'm a regular at, the owner lady who takes my orders when shes there; she knows my order by heart at this point. honestly got a little uncomfortable with how much shit she gave me when i got something else that one time, even if it was joking (i'm pretty sure, anyways)

probably my most controversial opinion: i like my meat well done. crispy, even. the other day i got food with my grandparents and the sausage they gave me tasted about as close to uncooked as you could get while still technically being fully cooked, was wretched. when it comes to burgers and steak, i can definitely tolerate medium or rare stuff, dont get me wrong. i feel like what's probably the Objectively Correct stance to have is that some meats are better suited to some styles of preperation, and that's fine. but honestly when it's done poorly, rare/medium beef tastes like a wet goddamn sock. wretched

so, something about me: despite being whiter than a significant amount of white supremacists, i can handle my spice pretty well. to put this into perspective, my mom's last boyfriend was black (and therefore more used to actually seasoned food), and we got chicken from a local place and i heard him from the other room go "hoo! that's hot!" in a fairly exasperated tone, and while i definitely think the place actually knew how to season their goddamn food it wasn't like, loudly exclaim how spicy it was levels of spice, y'know? at least to me. anyways, this sucks for me because i live in the midwest, where an arguable majority of places don't season for shit, probably because a significant amount of their customer base are like my grandma who eats tacos without seasoning. not fuckin making that up. like it was just cooked ground beef with like, maybe a miniscule amount of salt, put into these nasty ass tortilla bowl things with a texture and taste not too dissimilar to plastic. i remember this one time i asked a place what kinda seasoning they used in their fish, and they just straight up said "none". god i hated that restaurant, it was like if you distilled all of the worst qualities of suburbanite wasps into a physical space

my default food i get at most places is definitely a burger. it's at least partially because it's generally hard to fuck up to the point of inedibility, but also because most places around here don't make any fried chicken at all other than tenders and That's Like My Main Thing, Bro. sometimes i get pizza, which is somehow more common than fried chicken but also i fucking hate noodles for the most part so it's pretty much the only edible thing for me to get at italian restaurants. the exception to not liking noodles is in wonton soup, but ever since the chinese place we always went to closed down we haven't been able to find a place that's nearly as good.

finally, back to drinks. my specific drink of choice tends to change over the years but stay pretty consistent over any given period of time. i've been a mtn dew typea gamer for the past few years but i've been liking cherry coke more and more, which was my favorite circa 2016 or so. i definitely feel like i'm being a bit more mixed about it, though. recently i've been drinking a fair bit of water simply due to the fact that the only other shit in the house is this diet root beer that my grandpa always gets because it's on sale and he insists on buying diet shit. and like, it's objectively good tasting, it's still fucking root beer which i've never tasted actually bad root beer. it's just that he buys so much of it for extended periods of time that i'm so sick of it that i'm probably not gonna be able to drink root beer in any significanf quantities for at least a few years. but yeah i definitely feel like i can get behind any kind of pop. my fallback is standard coke because that's something literally everywhere has, and while there's definitely a tangible difference in taste between coke and pepsi i wouldn't say one's better or worse than another. my preference lays in RC cola anyways, which i've literally never seen served in any restaurant but god dammit it's so fucking good, dude

[treetownconfessions]

htfs and the textures i think theyd have if i bit into them

cuddles: marshmallow. soft. like digging ur teeth into those jumbo mallows

toothy: sopping wet disinfectant wipe. flat and squeaky against the molars. weird

giggles: dots candy. almost stale if youre trying hard enough. relatively malleable

petunia: acetone. disappears as fast as it comes in contact with your teeth. very cold

lumpy: sand. gritty and falls out of your mouth in large clumps. unbiteable but still crunchy

handy: sawdust. similar to sand but finer and more persistent. probably has residue

pop: foam insulation. takes effort to pierce through. chewy

cub: jello pudding. slippery and wiggly

disco bear: pickle. crunchy for like the first two bites. then its mush

russell: actual wood. like biting a wooden pole. possible splinters

flippy: solid cheesecake filling. like in the fridge kinda solid. almost like butter

fliqpy: crackly. not dissimilar to pop rocks. a tad sharp

shifty: banana peel. stringy and possibly pasty. bad goosebumps

lifty: apple stem. not solid enough but not soft enough. kind of annoying

sniffles: stack of papers. practically impossible to bite right. incredibly gross feeling if you drag your teeth against it directly

nutty: period blood clot. bad

mole: horizontal toothpicks. has the potential to be very painful but its not. still splinter possibility

flaky: fake itchy sweater. stray threads brushing at your mouth. plastic

mime: dense cake. very chewy. (un)surprising lack of air

lammy: half-dried candle wax. oily

splendid: raw steak. cold. gross

.

[endertender]

Shopping For Super King-Size Bedding

In the event that you have read my post about king size bedding, you realize that I love bigger mattresses and the better sleeping experience that they can give. All things considered, the super king size bed is kind of a definitive articulation of this thought, and it ought to shock no one that I seriously love them too. They can be a particularly extraordinary choice if you and your life partner have small kids or this website creatures that like to go along with you in the bed. The more room you have the better with regards to getting a decent night's sleep, and super king size beds give 'room' in spades.

Despite how extraordinary the sleeping experience might be in a super king size however, you can hope to run into similar issue we discussed with finding standard king size, yet to a bigger degree. As referenced before, sheets are accessible nowadays in just about any example, variety, and material that you can envision. Be that as it may, dissimilar to whatever other size, this isn't generally the situation with super king size bedding. The reality stays that this size just isn't standard, and for various reasons. Basically, these beds are just too huge for most households. Beyond the advanced, cutout manors that exist in the suburbs, houses generally have never been worked with the huge main bedrooms that we see today. This removes a colossal lump of the addressable market for most mattresses, and puts these in light of most families. Obviously, the other fundamental explanation that these are not frightfully normal is cost. As I'm certain you know, bigger mattresses require more work, material, delivering cost, and so on to create and sell. These expenses must be given to the shopper, and in this manner super king sizes are at the external furthest reaches of cost. By and large, a customary king size is above and beyond, and supporting not paying something else for the super is simple... all good.

In the event that you're hear however, you have the space, and you have the mixture for a super king size, yet it's horrible without sheets. We will discuss a couple of things to see while you're shopping for bedding.

A decent set of sheets and bedding is a serious use, and somewhat of a drawn out speculation, particularly with a bed this huge. Thus, you will need to ensure that you require some investment to settle on a very much contemplated and clever decision. In any case, you'll should know that not all that you find that you like will be accessible in super king. Know that going in, and you're more averse to become frustrated while you shop. What's more, remember that there are consistently workarounds - you might find an example you like that isn't accessible in the texture you like. You might find a material you need, yet can't get it in an example that will look great with the remainder of your furniture. Try not to surrender. This is the cross that king size bedding shoppers must bear. It is possible that you have to have the sheets custom made, or it may be the case that you have to converse with a purchaser to get what you need custom arranged. Frequently these choices can be something to be thankful for as it ought to assist with protecting that you get precisely exact thing you need.

Anyway, what do you have to think about? Indeed, thread count, as discussed in the king size bedding post, is considerably even more a worry. With more space, comes an improved probability that the sheets will be extended and pulled, and for the most part tried positively regarding their durability.

[parasphendale]

be honest- do you have a type for feeding?

For humans, I tend to be practical and prefer smaller people whom I can more easily overpower. Joggers tend to taste better than average people, which I think has something to do with adrenaline and other workout chemicals present in the blood. Younger people tend to taste better, but not always.

Cainite vitae is varied and I'm a bit more... well, I was going to say "picky," but I'm a vitae garbage disposal. Let's say I'm more opinionated.

Malkavian tastes okay, though it reminds me of when I'd bag my own vitae and store it for later. It's just weird.

Toreador tastes like the platonic ideal of what vitae should taste like, but can be boring in the same vein. It's like... any of the men on The Bachelor and how they are attractive yet unattractive.

Lasombra and Brujah both taste similar to Toreador, but dissimilar from each other. Lasombra has a more textured flavor with a noticeable pleasant aftertaste, whereas Brujah is more heady and aromatic.

Lastly, there is something dead inside Hubert's veins. Very bad. I'll still drink it, but I'll grimace the entire time. Tastes like a wine tasting spit bucket.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

WISH Teaser, Paramount CinemaCon Presentation Thoughts

Well now, our teaser for WISH is finally here... Been here for a few days...

And my reaction took a while to type up, because I spent most of my day out and about, namely seeing another movie in theaters that happens to star Chris Pine... and being up to other stuff earlier today.

I've ready spilled my thoughts on WISH's visuals on an earlier post, but I'll repeat... This does look like a cool next step for Disney's CG animated movies. Sure, it's pretty much the TANGLED/FROZEN/MOANA/etc. house style and character models with a 2D linework overlay and subtle textures/tones, but it looks very nice and if this is the baby step to even more experiments and equally cool-looking movies? I'm down. I particularly love the color work of this world that it's set in, the architecture is eye-catching, along with the stylized forests that look to be channeling Mary Blair and Eyvind Earle even. Very, very classic-like FX on the star character. The brief taste of the song shows promise, too. Not much else for me to say, other than... It looks like a typical Disney animated movie, but sure to be served up quite nicely and with fantastic visuals that will *pop* on the big screen. I know, it's not actual pure 2D, but I'll take what I can get. Alan Tudyk's goat character Valentino is a standout as well.

The trailer's proclamation of the film being a story a century in the making is utterly silly, though... As if Disney, stretching all the way back to the day Walt and Roy founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in 1923, had this thing sitting around... and it sat and sat and sat and sat for decades until the current administration decided to go through with it... I mean, c'mon... What does that even mean? I'm pretty sure, per what I hear from the trenches, that this thing was pitched around 2018... Ahhhhh marketing. It's not dissimilar to how director Chris Buck's own FROZEN was touted by Disney's marketing machine as a film that was over 70 years in the making, when it really... Wasn't. FROZEN, as you and I know it, came into existence around 2008 as ANNA AND THE SNOW QUEEN. The early 2000s SNOW QUEEN project and the short segment that Walt was going to do for a scrapped Samuel Goldwyn movie about Hans Christian Andersen in the 1940s do not count. They are merely separate stabs at the source material, whose only link is said source material. I extend the same to something like BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, or RAPUNZEL/RAPUNZEL UNBRAIDED/TANGLED.

What *is* cool is the trailer not only saying "From the creators of" the more recent WDAS movies like FROZEN, MOANA, and ENCANTO... But also THE LION KING, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and... CINDERELLA??? Wow, we're going way back! Surprised PINOCCHIO and THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, actual Disney animated movies with a wishing star in them, weren't mentioned. You can tell Disney's not going to take the marketing of this one lightly, they need a not-sequel hit big-time, as they haven't had such a thing at the box office since MOANA aaaaall the way back in 2016.

The typography nut in me also noticed that they used the original poster and home video logo for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. CINDERELLA's logo, curiously, comes from the 2012 Blu-ray and DVD release. Not the more recent DMC exclusive 4K disc release.

So yes... WDAS' WISH... I'm there! I mean, they had me at WDAS, and the style, so, I'm expecting a fun ride with great visuals.

--

Paramount presented at CinemaCon yesterday, dropping plenty of animation news... Though Paramount Animation's future is largely IP-based stuff...

More word on next summer's all-animated TRANSFORMERS Cybertron-set prequel, which now carries the title TRANSFORMERS: ONE... Okay then, if you say it as that, people might think you're referring to the first of Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS movies, the first one from way back in 2007. Nope, TRANSFORMER: ONE, as in the animated prequel. Josh Cooley, director of TOY STORY 4, has been attached to this one, so that made me pretty excited for it. I mean, an animated TRANSFORMERS movie in this day and age is also exciting to me given that it all started as a cartoon series. And said cartoon series spawned a theatrical animated movie in 1986. What's a little concerning is how star-studded the voice cast is. I'm sure they'll do great as the various bots, and I get that these are younger versions of the Transformers, but... I dunno, I don't want to sound like one of those people who complains all the time about voice actors not getting to voice these legacy characters, but... Why not? Either way, I'm looking forward to this movie... Does it function as a prequel to the Michael Bay movies? The BUMBLEBEE-verse movies? Or is this starting its own all-animated TRANSFORMERS universe?

The Smurfs musical they have set for Valentine's Day 2025 is now called THE SMURF MOVIE... As if, five Smurfs movies later, this is *the* one. Chris Miller, director of SHREK THE THIRD and PUSS IN BOOTS, is confirmed to helm the picture. Good to see him directing again, long after his PUSS IN BOOTS sequel got canned. Despite earlier reports saying this is an all-animated Smurfs movie, there appear to be some conflicting reports on this one being a live-action/animation hybrid much like the first two Sony Animation Smurfs movies... I'd rather it just be all-animated, myself, like THE LOST VILLAGE was. I wonder if, since this is a Paramount Animation film, they'll push the visuals even harder than LOST VILLAGE did and really make this dynamic, 2D-looking translation of Peyo's original comics? Rihanna voices Smurfette, much like how a pop singer voiced her in both the hybrid movies and the all-animated one.

The first of the new wave of AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER movies is still on and going full steam ahead, so that's nice. The 4th theatrical SPONGEBOB feature is titled SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: THE SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS... Kind of a mouthful of a title there, but a big epic is promising, one involving the Flying Dutchman. Wonder what visual style it takes on, given that the previous three movies all tried on different looks. The original 2004 movie resembling an upscaled version of the show, the 2015 sequel having sequences where it's a hybrid/CG movie, and the 2020 movie being all CG but in its own unique style.

But... My burning question... All this talk about MUTANT MAYHEM, PAW PATROL 2, TRANSFORMERS: ONE, THE SMURF MOVIE, SPONGEBOB 4, AVATAR: TLA MOVIE #1...

What's going with... UNDER THE BOARDWALK?

UNDER THE BOARDWALK, directed by David Soren (TURBO, CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS), was announced as a "GREASE with crabs" musical set on the Jersey Shore. For a while, it carried a summer 2022 release date, until Paramount out of nowhere kicked it out and threw in a movie they acquired the distribution rights to: PAWS OF FURY: THE LEGEND OF HANK, formerly known as BLAZING SAMURAI... That movie came and went last summer, and there's been radio silence on UNDER THE BOARDWALK. Soren has spoken a few times every now and then, indicating that the movie is finished, but Paramount was figuring out a release plan for it...

I have a feeling they'll just offload it to Paramount+, like they did with RUMBLE, which was originally set to be a theatrical release and even had trailers rolling in theaters. That's how last minute that decision was. There's next to nothing for UNDER THE BOARDWALK other than previous announcements and maybe a piece of concept art... Where is it at? Are there still plans to give it a theatrical release?

For that matter, there was no word on THE TIGER'S APPRENTICE, either. That film - directed by Raman Hui, Paul Watling, and YongDuk Jhun - carries a 1/19/2024 release date, but Paramount said nothing about it during their presentation. Maybe they wanted to prop up the franchise movies, to whet the appetites of CinemaCon's audience... Theater business people. Of course sequels and IP movies would get them excited for potential profits and attendance... Because, outside of animated movies, what else did Paramount strut around? SMILE 2, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE, A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE, a Bob Marley biopic, and Martin Scorsese's KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. Outside of the Scorsese movie, it's all IP (SMILE, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, A QUIET PLACE) or something immediately recognizable to the public (Bob Marley).

Either way, I still wonder what's going on with those two particular pictures, being that they aren't entries in long-running movie franchises. UNDER THE BOARDWALK is an original story that takes inspiration from GREASE and other musicals and named after a song by The Drifters, while THE TIGER'S APPRENTICE is based on a book that wasn't adapted elsewhere. I'd at least like to know if the former is even being released or not.

[anosci]

(196-211 albums etc that I’ve listened to this year, copied from twitter) (now with art. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15])

names and thoughts below cut

196/ ramone - Unreleased Works Part 1 (2001) The Fistful Of Dojo is some tight of-the-era dnb. dark and gloomy and kung fuey. SuperSIDekick is a mixed bag of style and timbre. standout: "Doj'omatic red". hip hop breaks with a touch of chip! "ScrewDriver" really neat spooky vibe!

---

197/ (all mono211 singles, 2001) "starshipoetry" really capturing a cool crunchy sound "DDD" oh holy shit "connect" i HAVE TO YELL about how much i resonate with this sound "autumn week" this song is exactly 5 years ahead of its time "8-bitten break smitten" amiga squarepusher pastiche. slappy "this is over by inches" :') "my human side" md smps spotted. well used. "console-related depression ep" giving surprisingly warm sunshine vibes! "Where's My Parka? EP" absolutely VIBING with that melodica or w/e it is kinda surprised how many ppl are outshining basehead! he's been a longtime fav artist for me damnit!

---

198/ (every mod from milk, 1998) liking the idm, skipping the dnb. "D.Exiguus was wrong" proper early-mid afx cutevibes! "Clouds II: Cumulus" cool flangedrum chillout :) "agrimilkture" squishy and harsh but not too much! "aggregate" insanely cool "non-sound file" sound design!

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199/ (every mod from milk, 1999) rly zooming into that idm! "Ameepa" i daresay…….. cute. "Childhood friend" rly neat djeridoo thing "kalx_" good shit! "la noche verde" decent hiphop plus some delightful bass textures "ilooklikeesasowhat?" the childlike dist synths win me over

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200/ (milk singles, 2000) the styles branch, merck vs tigerbeat. sadly i didnt dig the singles as much this year. hoping the gamut of albums is hiding the goods. "face on/take one" compared to squarepusher, and… yeah a little! it's really fun! "fingers" synths hit just right

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201/ salice - Purple/green+blue EP (1999) absolutely delightful synth soundscapes! the glistening on "adv track"! fascinated by the autechre comparison for "denatured". it does sound like an early take at the LP5 era ae! "sun track"……. yeah this is all around good.

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202/ ylikulju & kyllönen - yllinkyllin EP (1999) is this the "be ae" era of milk? im digging it! "lehtone" feels more comfortably 90s, idmustrial. "metsaserla" rly rly cool sinking sounds but THE STANDOUT BY A MILE is "twotwo". hella beats!!! holy shit!

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203/ H.Kyllönen - ciproxin ep (1999) i have never heard a song that nostalgically evokes the ambiance of chilling at a lake dock more than "waterworks". "iteca liqer" being compared to EARLY afx feels apt. kinda neat! this entire release is ace! super good!

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204/ K.Ylikulju - Clayderman LP (1999) "tak-ap" with a very specific indescribable feeling. personal highlight imo. laid back summer afternoon vibes in "fat paavo" are nice if a bit weirdly mixed. as a whole, this is kinda all over the place. im not vibing with it much…

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205/ Tiger - Sirius ep (1999) astoundingly lush IT modules. each track feels like it could score something beautifully. sadly i dont care too much for it. that said, "arkaja" captured a nice floaty feeling that i enjoyed. highlight imo.

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206/ ceniq - Gaylab (1999) a small feast of idm flavors! the original and the lackluster reconstruction are fighting for my fav spot and the "backmix" ver is just some good y2k lush ambiance. also: "tilt goddess" rmx is wild! sadly its also painful (thx for the 12khz tone…)

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207/ 8bit Rockers - Arcade Hits (2000) kinda… moog attitude but a bit more modern? all over the place in quality, to my taste. "estee lauder" is just good idm? "monsters cave" is a nice low stakes beat. "underwater sequence" personal highlight honestly not dissimilar to joseph nothing

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208/ DJ Fish Finger - Gone Fishin' (2001) honestly great beats but damnit those endings bug me. be a little more serious pls :( it kinda sounds like something from omelette records actually. proto omelette?

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209/ Eprom - Syntheism (2023) instantly lush absolutely wild textures and soundscapes all around but also rhythms! specific standouts: "Motion Blur" has a wild ebb-and-flow feel! the stuttering in "X-Fade Strategy" holy shit

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210/ Howie B - Down With The Dawn (2014) mostly this only has a few keepers for me: "Run Always" has a delightful chemical breaks feel. the title track is nice and zen. a standout. "Night Nice" hits the spot for me in a very specific retro way.

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