#but i do mean normal printer paper

[rillette]

honestly i think slade would eat paper.

Hey now. So would I

[tj-crochets]

Any chance I could buy a little mushroom plushie guy?

Probably! Depends on which version you want; I'm willing to make more plain mini mushroom guys, and I still have both the original mini mushroom prototypes*, but if you want an inky cap mushroom creature it'll probably be more expensive. I've been adding beads to the current one for about an hour and I'm still not done lol *I'll want to keep at least one because I have not yet typed up the assembly instructions, and I try to keep at least one prototype of every pattern until I have instructions saved

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP: I'm taking the civil service exam and if I get in there, will they fire me if I were mentally unstable?

Cnetizens: Sweetheart, guess why the civil service exam is oversubscribed as fuck?

yll: No, we have one in our unit. His performance bonus was deducted, and then he, armed with a fruit knife, stabbed two Deputy Directors of Bureau and then smashed the Director-general's office. He is now recuperating at home, and we have to visit him regularly. However, he is very principled and only attacks leaders when he has a seizure, not ordinary staff.

xhzz: Warrior.

dtxgg: I heard from my senior coworker in the organization that during one of the general meetings, when the Director-general was making an impassioned speech, this big sister suddenly slammed the table and shouted, “It's all bullshit!” Then she waved her sleeve and left, and from then on everyone realized that she was not normal. Big sister's exploits included rushing in during a bureau meeting and flickering on the forehead of every Director with her knuckle; when the leaders were eating at noon in the cafeteria's booths, she rushed in, made the rounds, and asked, “Yo, where's the corruption?” The leaders told her to go home and get well, she said she was not sick. After that, the big sister became the real Director-general of our unit, walking everywhere with two security guards behind. She came especially early every day, wearing sunglasses, patrolling the unit building, behind the two little brother trembling. No matter who it is, Big Sister will bash them right to their faces. The canteen auntie who scooped less food when dishing out, the masses who came to the unit to handle administrative affairs and stole the paper from the printer. She bashed them all, not to mention the leaders. The leaders have become numb. Later, the big sister's condition was slowly brought under control, and she had already retired when I joined the unit.

xxxC: LMFAO check the comments lmao

luvpp: There was a man in my mom's unit who became mentally unstable after joining the workforce and ran to the Director's office every day to sit there, saying that he himself was the director, and then the director granted him paid leave, and he still went to the unit to sit in the director's office as usual.

yzxka: ASDDFGHFGJ this one

momo: Our unit invited an expert to give a lecture, and when it was all over, he rushed up to the expert and asked loudly, “Do you know what it means to be full of crap?”

sbkpg: lkkfghdfgsdf

xuexue: The leader took me to another building in the office area, beforehand he specifically explained to me, “There is a man who guards the gate, if he asks you, do you believe in the universe, you must answer categorically, I do! Otherwise you won't get in.” Later I realized that the man was a little mentally unstable, and he was transferred to guard the gate, in fact, that building was originally inside the office area but the higher-ranks let them built a fence and set up a security booth in order to give him a post. Once the Director of Division went to a meeting and failed to answer his question and did not get in.

Vvvviola: After reading the comments, you will understand why everyone wants to take the civil service exam, because it is a job where even if you are really crazy, you will not be fired. It is completely different from capitalists squeezing laborers and laying off employees after squeezing them out.

momo: But as long as you don't go crazy, you'll be used like crazy.

arww: That was the case with the senior who was my tutor when I joined the office. She was crazily obsessed with her religion, and I don't know what kind of sect she was, but she played Buddhist scriptures in her office every day, wore a big red robe(*the unorthodox kind sect of buddhism), and meditated when she wasn't working, and practiced her skill in the room. I ordered a takeout at noon, it was Duck Blood and Vermicillon Soup. She righteously criticized me: duck blood can't be eaten, the animal's blood is full of anger, eating it will lead to evil spirits. I was so frightened that I dropped the vermicelli in my mouth. The leaders were quite polite to her. I worked with her for a month, she retired and went home, and I took over her job.

momo: Sister you go eat Duck Blood and Vermicillon Soup fearlessly hahahahhahhahah

lin: The Chief of my section, beat up two directors-general in a row, the third director-general was a woman, she told him, "I'm a woman, you can't beat me up".

xrhmm: they are even haggling

sytxztt: fuck

sstd: so did he beat that director?

lin: No, he doesn't beat women

[krisp-xyz]

Was experimenting with halftone effects after watching this video and it almost has spiderverse vibes honestly. I actually learned some neat things about why printers use CMYK instead of just CMY so I thought I'd share !!

So in our optimal little computer space, Cyan (0,255,255), Magenta (255,0,255) and Yellow (255,255,0) all multiplied together gives us a perfect black (0,0,0) Awesome! The issue is that ink colors irl arent exactly perfect like this, and color is a bit more complicated irl compared to how computers represent it, so they aren't the greatest at combining into black if they aren't those perfect CMY values:

Left: CMY

Right: CMYK

(thats not even black, its a dark blue in the original image but dark colors just look so much richer)

An important step to make sure you arent doubling up on the black values though is to divide the image by it's own "value" (the max of all 3 color channels) that way the value is equal to 1 everywhere, and you're letting the black ink take care of the value on its own.

Left: CMY (normalized value)

Middle: K (black)

Right: Combined

Now obviously the grids of dots cant be aligned perfectly with each other because you'd just get a bunch of black dots in unwanted areas, but if the grids are misaligned, then some dots become more prominent than others which tints the whole image. This was an issue because older printing methods didn't have great accuracy and these grids were often misaligned.

The solution was to rotate these grids such that they can move around freely while getting rid of that tint effect if they aren't perfectly aligned :D

(I have no idea how they came up with these angles but that might be something to look into in the future who knows)

SPEAKING OF MISALIGNMENT

I wanted to implement that in my own filter to get some cool effects, and I discovered another reason CMYK is better than CMY for lots of stuff !!

With CMY, you're relying on the combination of 3 color channels to make the color black. This means if you have thin lines or just details in general, misalignment can make those details very fuzzy. Since CMYK uses a single color of ink to handle value, it reduces color fringing and improves clarity a lot even if you have the exact same misalignment as CMY!

Left: CMY

Right: You guessed it! CMYK

(yes these comparisons have the exact same color misalignment, the only difference is using a fourth ink color for black)

ANYWAY I just thought there was a lot of cool information in this tiny little day project, I also just think it looks really neat and wanted to share what I learned :3c

EDITING BECAUSE THERE'S ONE MORE THING I WANTED TO ADD

So, I talked about how to get K in addition to CMY instead of just CMY, but how exactly do you separate CMY from an image in the first place?

Well, CMY is a subtractive color space, meaning the "absence of color" is white, compared to RGB where it's black. This makes sense because ofc ink is printed on white paper. You can use dot product to get the "similarity" between two vectors, and this can be used to separate RGB actually! Using the dot product of a color and red (255,0,0) will give you just the red values of the image. This is cool though because if we get the dot product of our image and the color cyan (0,255,255), we can get the cyan values from our image too! If we first divide our colors by their value to separate the value from them, then separate CMY using those dot product values, and using K for our final black color value, our individual color passes end up looking like this:

While it's called a "subtractive" color space, I find it more intuitive to treat white as the absence of color here, and then multiply all these passes together. It makes it much easier to understand how the colors are combined imo. Notice how cyan is the opposite of red: (255,0,0) vs (0,255,255) and magenta and yellow are the opposites of green and blue respectively! This means you can actually kinda get away with separating the RGB values and just inverting some stuff to optimize this, but this example is much more intuitive and readable so I won't go too deep into that. THANKS FOR READING I know it's a very long post but I hope people find it interesting! I try my best to explain things in a clear and concise way :3

oh thank you I realized I should probably add an eyestrain tag

[hillbillyoracle]

So you want to print and distribute a free zine...

I wanted to throw together a short tutorial on how I print zines using this excellent COVID safety zine by @newlevant as an example.

Printing

First make sure you are clicking on the printable file. When you open it, it should look slightly jumbled. I always look for seeing the front cover and the back cover on the same page.

Then click "print" (usually a printer icon) and open "more settings".

The key things people tend to get wrong when they try printing zines is they forget to make sure that it is double sided and flips on the short edge. If you tried printing one and it came out looking wonky, make sure to check this.

Also, it will make your life infinitely easier if you use the collate option should you have it available to you.

Fit to printable area is a helpful setting to have on if you're printing zines who use a different paper standard than you. This zine didn't for me but I leave this on out of habit.

When you've got this all set up - print as many copies as you want to assemble.

Assembling

When you get them out of the printer they'll look like this. Just a big old stack. I highly recommend parsing out each individual copy before you try assembling any. I have made that mistake before.

This is how I stack mine.

I like to leave the cover side up as it makes for a clearer division as I'm assembling.

As you're flipping through these to parse and stack them, check them over for any issues with printing. I ran out of printer toner on the first three so I'm glad I checked.

Imperfections are fine but you're looking for anything that makes critical information unreadable.

To assemble a copy, get them lined up by tapping them on the table along a short and a long edge.

Both hands is a lot easier but I was trying to take a picture lol

Then fold them hamburger style and smooth down the spine as best you can. If you have a bone folder or similar use that.

Again, let go of perfection. We are looking for good enough here. Minor errors here should not make info unreadable so don't sweat the small stuff.

I recommend doing all your folding in one go to prevent errors. Or at least it really helps me.

Now it's time to staple. You will see my fancy stapler in the background - you do not require it and I would not recommend it. Unhinging a normal stapler is way easier to use in my opinion and this one gets jammed fairly easy. Use what you've got.

If you don't have staples, but you do have sewing supplies - check out this tutorial for a way to bind it with thread.

If you have no staples and no thread, you don't have to staple every zine. Smaller ones (~5 pages or less) do fine with no staple. They can be a little tougher for some people to use and don't hold up as well being taken in and out of places so I would consider that when thinking of where to leave them. They're still well worth printing and putting out.

This zine is small enough that one staple in the center should be enough to keep it together.

I opted to staple in two places - one about an inch in from either edge - mostly out of habit. It does add a little stability and will make them a little better for putting in Little Free Libraries and other places where they'll be removed and placed back.

Here is my partner looking over the zines to make sure my stapling didn't cut off any important information in each copy. It's a little tedious but it's pretty important. A quick flip through can mean the difference between someone getting the info you want them to have or not.

And here's the finished product

I made 15. I'm pretty privileged and have been making zines for over a decade now so it's almost like knitting or crochet for me. Feel free to make fewer copies or just one for yourself. It still counts.

I will stick some in each car and my bag. I have some medical appointments coming up so I will for sure be leaving some of these in the waiting room.

I'm also going to keep an eye out for Little Free Libraries and other place where people are looking for something to read. I might also toss some on the tables of a coffee shop I pop into sometimes (masked, take out only) and the library to pick up books (also masked).

I tend not to give them to specific people, even people I know, because people are way more open to information they've picked up themself than something it feels like someone is pressuring them to read. But if people bring it up in conversation, I'll be sure to offer a copy to anyone who is interested.

Hope this is helpful!

Go out there and print!

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

Do you sell versions of your embroidery designs? I'm obsessed with your Solas patterns and would love to try them!

Hello!

So, short answer is yes, while the first digital mockups I made were designed just for my own reference and as color guides for transferring the designs painstakingly by hand, I ended up going back to them and turning them all into digital vectors. This means they can be printed onto transfer paper or directly onto stabilized fabric for stitching, which is MUCH easier than drawing by hand. Lots of people asked me if I could sell the designs so I figured this part out and was able to test it myself--the tower embroidery was an example of printing the vector directly onto the fabric and worked out great!

(above: tedious hand-drawing process for the Hierophant design, vs my failed attempt at transfer pencils that did not work at all for the Tower, vs printing directly onto fabric which did work in the end)

Long answer is after I did that, I uh, never figured out how or where to list them for sale online. Or what all to include with them--like what level of written instruction to include, should i also make notes on the thread colors I picked, should I include my colored-in-versions as color guides or just let everyone free-for-all it, in the case of the Tower embroidery i also hand-dyed a lot of grey thread that was crucial for it coming out how i wanted it to look--is it deceptive to sell a pattern when other people can't necessarily recreate it the same way because of that? Should I list in general the dye instructions if they wanna recreate it, or for people who want some of my extra thread or for people who don't have an inkjet printer so can't print the design onto the fabric themselves, should i think about selling full "embroidery kits" that include the printed pattern sized for a display hoop and the thread needed? etc etc etc

(above: photo of the color guide I made myself with tentative thread color selections (warning NOT the ones I actually ended up using), photo of my pile of threads I picked from, and photo of some of the threads I ended up dying myself to get closer to the design I wanted)

Anyway that was all a lot of thinking and work to do, so i put it off!!! and uh here we are 2 years later and I have still not posted them anywhere. I really gotta get around to all that still...

But in the meanwhile, if anyone reading would like a pattern, just let me know directly what you're looking for and I can save the versions of the files as needed for your plans and send them over. like for a digital only version (so no threads or me printing for you) i would probably make a zip file with a transparent png of the design (so you can put it in a word doc to print at whatever size you desire), as well as a pdf with a few copies of it already pre-sized for a display hoop for ease of printing or transfer, the colored-in version i used based on the tarot cards, photos of my finished versions, etc (note to self i must remember to include the design both normal for direct printing and horizontally flipped for anyone who plans to use transfer paper for it since those are mirrored...). Oh and a quick explanation of how i managed to get my fabric through a standard printer if you wanna try that.

But yeah i'm happy to work out something with kofi or paypal or venmo and sell the digital ones for like $20 each or something for now, if you don't mind not having written step-by-step instructions accompanying the patterns and example photos. Or if anyone has suggestions on where to host them for sale, for someone not interested in maintaining a dedicated storefront like etsy or storenvy long term. Maybe Gumroad? If i stuck to digital-only sales something like that might work. I'm open to input for sure. If you want something more than digital like a pre-printed fabric (since it's kind of weird to do yourself), I'm still open to trying, it just would be a little more $ to account for the fabric/stabilizer and cost of shipping, and probably take me a few more days to do.

(above: example of finished DA themed embroideries)

But regardless, thank you for your interest at all!! I'm so glad people have enjoyed my embroidery series :) While I'd love to make lots of copies to sell to whoever wants one, I simply don't have the time, and they are SO labor intensive to make it really is like 80-90% of the cost is manhours. I spend anywhere from 5-15 hours making the patterns and vectors, but the stitching and rest of it itself is easily the bulk at 40-100 hours depending on complexity and number of threads used. So WAY more feasible to sell the patterns than make more to sell myself, and then anyone willing to put in the time can have one too :)

[meirimerens]

how do i get into drawing more? i've enjoyed drawing since i was a child but i never really practiced it that much and as such most of my stuff is pretty rudimentary from a technique standpoint. i only have physical supplies and i cannot afford an ipad or a drawing pad any time soon

there is no need for an ipad or a tablet if you don't already draw something expansive you don't even have to worry about that. I (and i imagine many/most artists who began drawing young) got my start on normal paper sheets the one they call "printer paper" because it's thin and textureless. Actually that might be a lie because I think that even before that I was drawing on walls so truly full circle of a thing.

The only stuff you need to draw are something To Draw With, whether it be a pencil or a pen; if it is a pencil also have an eraser, a no-bullshit rectangular eraser, I've literally never understood what the good was in the pink & blue ones beyond making holes & stamps in them, just get a normal good eraser, slightly squishy so it doesn't pull at the paper like a maniac when you use; And paper to draw in. I'd say get a sketchbook for the convenience + the chill of it all. Doesn't even have to be thicker "drawing paper" it can just be a random, lineless notebook. I like mine to have a spiral spine so I can take full advantage of the page but don't even need that. Genuinely for years this was my drawing material (+ whatever paper I found, including my school supplies)

(Staedtler eraser very good actually I've been using it for 10yrs among the better I've used if you find it get yourself one. This shit was like 1.50€ at my local papeteries and then again they mightve inflated the price)

Now I'm gonna tell you about my life because I think it colors the way I approach drawing and as such the advice I'll give you: I started drawing really young (like pre-dates knowing how to read or write) and never stopped. That means I, technically, have some 20+ years of drawing, but I still struggle with what are kinda "fundamentals". I only quite late, technically speaking, gotten into trying my hand as perspective & naturalistic anatomy. That's because I had, at the start, nothing but passion.

And that's gonna be the one piece of advice I have for you:

Get really, really into something, and start trying like the devil to get good at drawing it.

When I was a wee lad I loved horses so much (and I still do.) and all I wanted to do was get good at drawing horses so I could draw stories with horses, so I practiced drawing horses from the horse magazines i had. Around 11, I got really into manga and all I wanted to do was get good at drawing manga so I could draw my own (a lot of my actually like Formative Years of drawing was manga, and I think it's still visible especially when I draw cartoony faces these days), so I practiced drawing manga from the how-to books their were at the library (and we had actually good ones, including Japanese mangaka's translated into french). Around 14, I got really into Video Game, and all I wanted to do was get real good at drawing the characters, so i practiced from youtube tutorials & other internet finds. Nowadays I'm into art history & archeology, and go out of my way to see and grasp and understand #whateverthiswas and try to pepper it (or sometimes dump the whole bag) in my images.

If you're starting "from nothing", I feel like practicing anatomy for the sake of anatomy (for example) will just piss you off. When you get more into the groove of things, and actually want to Get Serious, you'll sit down to Actually Practice, but I personally have always found that Learning for the Passionate Goal makes the whole thing more interesting than Learning To Learn To Then Attempt The Passionate Goal.

It's gonna suck for a while. It truly will. You'll see every improvement so drastic you'll be like ewww what was that 2 months ago. But you will HAVE HAD FUN DOING IT!!!

Tldr

1) get into something. Whatever it is.

2) collect tools and tutorial to serve whatever it is you're into, and not try to get into the tools: that will come later, once you're already in the habit of drawing.

3) you don't need fancy material

4) never underestimate the power of the humble ballpoint pen and clicky pencil

5) train your brain, the muscle of your brain, to conjure up images until there is nothing you can do BUT exteriorize them lest they poison you

6) you don't have to post anything online btw. In fact, I attribute the fact that I have always loved art so much to the fact that for the first 15yrs of my life I could truly just enjoy the process and vibe. I still do, don't take me wrong, and truly I draw for myself and you're all trapped in here with me. Looking at the slop i feed you. But there is an inherent, new dimension added with Being The Blogger. So have fun and vibe.

7) the heart is the horse, the hands are the rider

[mayajadewrites]

Sweet Secret (Levi Ackerman x Reader)

Pairing: Levi Ackerman x F! Reader CEO Levi Ackerman coming in hot. I've been wanting to write a CEO Levi/Sugar daddy Levi story for a hot minute. Enjoy! Story Summary: You needed a job. Ackerman Inc was hiring for an in house assistant for none other than the CEO: Levi Ackerman. He's known to be essentially the worst to work with, you decide to take the job and take on the challenge that is Levi Ackerman. Will your relationship remain professional, or will their be monetary value added to the stakes? Or possibly even... love? ao3 Chapter Fifteen: Trust

let me know what you guys think!! i love responding to comments and it inspires me to write more :)

You needed to tell Levi how you felt.

That is 'arrangement' wasn't working, because you wanted all of him. You didn't want to feel like this was a transaction. You wanted to know all the little things about him that he may see as insignificant, but in reality they're what makes him, him.

It's been a couple of days since the bar outing and things with you and Levi seem... normal. Well, normal for you two.

You open your phone to check if your sister answered any of your texts, but they all are left unread. Your heart starts to beat faster as you open the map to see where she is - about an hour away upstate. Your work laptop is in front of you as you're organizing the company's expenses on a spreadsheet, but your mind is elsewhere.

"You okay?" Jean pressed his hand to your shoulder which causes you to jump. Jean interrupted your thoughts, maybe for the better. "You looked like you were zoned out."

"Leave her alone, horse face." Eren said as he picked some papers up from the printer. "I'm sure your face scared her enough."

"Eren you are such a hater, I don't know how Mikasa can stand you." 

"You WISH she could stand you." Eren mumbled as he walked to his desk. Jean turned his attention back to you. 

"Seriously, you good?"

"I'm fine, thank you." You look back at your phone, hoping that your sisters name will pop up. 

She means everything to you. You spent so much time raising her the best you could, so she wouldn't turn out like your parents. Gave her everything you could, even though that meant you would suffer. It was all worth it for her. 

It was finally the end of the workday and you honestly can't remember anything that you did. Your anxiety is at an all time high, your heart rate definitely 5x faster than it should be. You kept checking your sisters location and your text thread, but there were never any new notifications. You leaned on the kitchen counter as you scrolled. 

"Oi, what's wrong?" Levi grabbed your arm gently. "You've been somewhere else all day." He poked your temple with his index finger.

"I haven't talked to my sister in 2 weeks." 

"Is that abnormal? I don't have siblings." 

"For us? Yes. I'm more of a mother figure to her, so I worry more than a sister might."

"Show me her location." Levi pressed his chest to your back as he peered over your shoulder at your phone. You slide the map back on your screen, pointing to the dot with a picture of your sister on it. "Why is she up there?" 

"Your guess is as good as mine." You sigh and check your messages again. "Am I being over dramatic? Should I just let her live?" You turn to face Levi, letting your hands settle on his forearms. "Tell me the truth, Levi."

"I've never lied to you."  Levi pushed a piece of stray hair behind your ear. "I don't think you're being over dramatic. But I do think you need to take a breath. She's an adult, right?"

"She's only 18." You look down. "I knew nothing at 18."

"But you were basically a mother at 18." His index finger pushed your chin up to gaze into his eyes. "Do you trust her?" 

"I-I do. But sometimes she acts like my moth- the woman who birthed me. And that worries me."

"She's growing up, she's not the little girl you have to protect anymore." 

You nod, pressing your forehead to his chest. His fingertips traced shapes on your back as he held you, letting you just... be. He didn't say a word. You didn't cry, but you needed comfort in that moment. 

Once night fell, you buried yourself in your bed. You don't sleep in Levi's bed often, only when you hear him have his nightmares. Your body craves his presence, but you don't want to seem like you're spending time with him for money. You genuinely want to sleep next to him. You want to wake up next to him - morning breath and all.

You soft skin touched the sheets as you tried to find a comfortable position, but it was to no avail. Anxiety fills your stomach and brain, so no sleep for you. 

You pad to the kitchen, surprised to find Levi already there.

"Can't sleep?" He takes a sip of his tea, pushing a mug towards you with his fingers. 

You nod, taking the tea and sipping the warm liquid. "How do you make this so perfect every time?"

"That's a secret for me to know and you to never find out." 

You stare at him for a moment, in his white t-shirt and navy blue sweatpants, his hair a bit messy. Your mesmerized by him - he makes your heart flutter.

"Levi," You set the mug down, taking a step toward him. He takes a step toward you, gently setting his cup next to yours. 

"Mm?" He tilted his head, his hands restraining themselves from touching your beautiful face. 

"I-I want to tell you..." You take another step toward him, your bodies almost touching. 

"Spit it out." He whispered, his hand ghosting your waist. 

You look up into his eyes, then to his lips, back to his eyes. He leaned his head in as he closed his eyes. Your lips hovered over his before you hear your phone ring in your room, breaking the moment.

"I'm so sorry." You ran to your room to see your sisters name on your screen. You sighed of relief as you ran into the kitchen with your phone to show Levi. "It's her!"

Levi watched you as you answered the call.

"Alexis! Where the fuck have you been?! I've called and text you-"

"Hey." Someone elses voice said your name. It was a woman who you don't recognize. "You're the only person who's text her recently so I thought you would be the best to call."

"Who is this?" You raise an eyebrow, then looking to Levi.

"My name is Sage, I've been hanging out with your sister for a bit and well... she's not okay." 

"What the fuck do you mean she's not okay? Where is she? What's wrong?"

"She's... in the hospital. Critical condition."

"Why?!" You almost scream. "What happened to her?"

"She overdosed."

[leiawritesstories]

I saw the below prompt and could easily imagine Aelin running a black market of printing services and I would love to see what kind of favors she’d take from a certain buzzard who is pressed for time.. especially if they’ve maybe been secretly pining after one another this whole time? 👀

Prompt: You’re the only one in our college dorm building that owns a printer so you run a black market of printing services for favors/money/food/etc. I don’t have time to walk twenty minutes across campus to the library, please help me.

Congrats on 500!

ANON DID YOU READ MY MIND????

Okay so.....this is actually real-life me at my college 🤣🤣🤣 I own a desktop printer so I don't have to use the campus printing service all the time and half the people in my building want to use it. Naturally I charge a fee--either money or food or coffee, i'm not picky lol. Anyway this is literally me in real life except for the secretly pining part bc i'm very very single and I adore this prompt, thank you so so much 😁

Here you go!!

Word count: 870

Warnings: maybe some swearing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, Galathynius! Do me a solid?"

Aelin glanced over her shoulder to find Fenrys jogging after her, catching up to her before they made it to the dorm building they both lived in. "What do you want, Moonie?"

The blonde huffed a dramatic sigh. "First of all, stop calling me that, you know it doesn't fit my mature persona." Aelin snorted so hard she almost coughed. Fen just rolled his eyes. "Secondlyyyy," he groaned dramatically, "I need to print a paper. Lemme use your printer? Pretty pretty please?" He widened his big brown eyes irresistibly.

"Your sad puppy face isn't gonna get you free printing, Moonie," Aelin drawled. "A dollar a page, or $30 flat if it's more than 20 pages."

"Highway robbery!" he gasped.

She rolled her eyes. "It's the same price I've always charged and you know it."

"Ugh, fiiiiine," he grumbled. "Unless...how about I cover your coffee for the next week?"

"Hmm." She pretended to seriously think about it, knowing full well that she'd accept. Who was Aelin Galathynius to turn down free coffee, especially when she spent somewhere around 40 dollars a week on her precious caffeine. "All right, I accept. I'll text you my drink order, and I expect it delivered every morning as I leave for my first class."

Fen saluted her. "Yes ma'am!" he chirped.

She smacked his shoulder teasingly. "Cut the flourishing, drama queen." Fen flashed her a grin and jogged off towards his next class, while she swiped her student ID in the building's card reader and walked into the dorm. She, Elide, and Lysandra shared a triple room with an ensuite bathroom on the fourth floor, so she had to climb three flights of stairs to get to her room. As she opened her door, she noticed a sticky note stuck to the wood. It wasn't uncommon; people who wanted to buy her printing service often left notes stuck to her door. She gave the note a cursory glance.

HELP! Need to print 30 pages for 2pm class! -RW, #350

Aelin glanced at her phone. It was 1:15 pm, meaning whoever had left that note was probably pacing around their room in distress right about now. So of course, she decided to go pay Room 350 a little visit.

"Ah, shit!" yelped a male voice from inside the room when she knocked. There was a flurry of noise and stumbling, and a tall guy wearing a UTerr Hockey sweatshirt opened the door, his pale blonde hair a frazzled mess. "Um, hi?"

"Well hello there, Whitethorn," Aelin smirked, delighted to see the normally perfectly put-together Rowan Whitethorn, star defenseman of UTerr Hockey, all flustered over not having printed materials for class.

"Aelin, thank the fuckin' gods," Rowan gasped. "Did you get my note?"

"Mhmm," she hummed, intentionally vague.

"Ae," he groaned, his desperation showing, "can you print my articles? Please?"

"Got payment?"

"I--yeah, gimme a sec." He vanished into his room and banged around for another couple of minutes, rummaging through drawers and probably his closet as he tried to find cash. He reappeared with a sheepish, embarrassed blush staining his chiseled cheeks. "Uh..."

"No cash?" Aelin clicked her tongue softly. "Sorry, Ro. I don't take credit cards."

"Please," he begged, dropping right down to his knees in front of her. "Fuck it, Ae, I'm desperate! I'm fucked if I don't come to class prepared, the professor already thinks all athletes are dumb jocks who pass classes on daddy's money." He clasped his hands together and stared imploringly up at her, his deep green eyes wide and pleading.

A very naughty part of Aelin wanted to tell him all the sinful ways he could pay her for printing his articles. But because she was a mature woman, she kept that part of herself quiet.

"Well," she mused, "I suppose you could offer me a favor, but it better be worth thirty pages."

Rowan closed his eyes and tipped his head back, a soft groan slipping from his lips as he frantically tried to think up a worthy favor. That gods-damned little groan of his did bad, bad things to Aelin's naughty little inner voice.

Or maybe that was just her enormous little crush on him.

"Dinner." Rowan's voice broke through her traitorous wandering thoughts.

"What?"

"I'll buy you dinner," he repeated. "Anywhere you want, as much food as you want. I swear."

Aelin couldn't have stopped her response no matter how hard she tried. "Like a dinner date?"

Rowan's face flushed a surprisingly endearing shade of vibrant pink. "Um...yeah?"

A tiny, pleased smile curled the corners of Aelin's lips, blooming into a full-blown smile the longer she made him squirm. "Okay, I accept. It's a date." Without waiting for his response, she waltzed off.

When she returned to his room, his articles in hand, he was waiting by the door. He took the papers from her with a slow, relieved smile that made a dimple in his left cheek pop out.

"Thanks, Ae."

"Of course." She waved him off. "Better not be late, Ro."

"You too." Her brows furrowed in confusion, and he winked. "Our date, darlin'. Seven o'clock tomorrow. I'll pick you up."

Gods help her, she could not wait.

~~~

TAGS:

@live-the-fangirl-life

@superspiritfestival

@thegreyj

@wordsafterhours

@elentiyawhitethorn

@morganofthewildfire

@backtobl4ck

@rowanaelinn

@house-of-galathynius

@tomtenadia

@julemmaes

@swankii-art-teacher

@charlizeed

@booknerdproblems

@chronicchthonic14

@earthtolinds

@goddess-aelin

@sweet-but-stormy

@clea-nightingale

@autumnbabylon

@darling-im-the-queen-of-hell

@llyncooljones

@silentquartz

[arcadian-wild-art]

IT'S DONE!!

Four months later.... it really shouldn't have taken this long, but I'm glad I got it done :P

This isn't the greatest picture, I'll try to get another one tomorrow maybe? I really wanted to post it right when I finished

commentary under cut !

sooo the watercolor is just normal cardstock with blue and purple! I did wet on wet and actually (accidentally) left it there for a bit after finishing, which is where that bottom bit came from- the water around it soaked back in, which gave it a really cool look. I did cut off the sides where that happened though.

The little guy I drew on an ipad and then cut out with my cricut machine ^-^ ain't trusting myself to do that with scissors

Same with the umbrella! And, oh yeah, these two are actually technically vinyl stickers. So it was really easy to stick them on a piece of normal printer paper and then cut that out for the white background thing :D

The clouds I just cut out of a different watercolored paper. That wasn't the original plan but I went "screw it" and had a lot of fun arranging them. Er, I mean, that was definitely the plan from the start and it's symbolic of how our problems are more complicated than they look...

Again, definitely should not have taken this long, but thanks for sticking with me! I definitely don't think I'm going to keep trying to go in order, but I'll try to keep the blog updated with what I'm working on. Have a nice day!

[chalkeater]

I think you need to have a serious read of this post:

http://undertale-science.tumblr.com/post/137797519093/ive-settled-the-issue-of-frisks-design-once-and

This is a racist post?

The reason yellow is used because the first “smiley” was made to boost moral,so a bright yellow color was used as a green face often represented poisoning or sickness, a red face was evil or angry, and a blue face was sad. Black on yellow stands out the best compared to other basic colors. It’s why our school buses are yellow, so they are easy to find and see. Because of this and the historic use of yellow for smileys, that shade of bright yellow gold is what is considered the standard for race neutral.

I was talking about how Frisk being drawn with yellow skin is way too close to racist propaganda. I am talking about Yellow Peril and Yellow Face. The color theory of SYMBOLS and graphic design in Logos is a stretch when talking about HUMAN representation.

The yellow face has nothing to do with Asians, or with race at all.

In emojis it wasn't meant to present any one Asian at all- this is especially because there is more than the -_- emoji. When I talked about yellow face I'm talking about yellow peril and how yellow face was used against Asian people. Asians never PICKED yellow, it was assigned by racist people.

Instead of making a bunch of options and eating up coding time to make it so you can customize the sprite to look as much like you as allowed by the options, Frisk’s design relies on something far stronger: your imagination. such a blank face can be interpreted in a number of ways. It’s a default poker face, watch poker, people actually make the real life version of that face, squinting a bit, trying to have relaxed eyes, flat mouth.

No one is saying to make Frisk customizable BTW!

I bolded "squinting a bit" because this is where this post admits that people will interpret it this way. And I never said that people were even inherent malicious for seeing it this way-- it is racist, but it's INGRAINED into our society to read stuff like this AS Asian. Just like how Goblins and what we associate them with are so normalized to us and we don't see it as anti-Semitic even though it is.

Frisk cannot be a caricature of any race, because by design, they are as close to raceless as possible while still maintaining a form instantly recognized as human, which is important considering the monsters versus humans story of the game.

There's a reason why POC have said that Frisk is heavily implied to be POC, even if they're bright yellow. Since this post mentioned Color Codes, I'm going to point at the difference between Frisk and Chara.

Chara is literally closer to white. I bring this up because I've said before that Chara being pale-skinned next to Frisk is ODD and can imply that that Frisk is a POC! Especially matched with their face/eyes design. If Chara is white-skinned (how humans classify white skin colors) then it's odd that Frisk, who literally in the color codes is darker than Chara, is colored in yellow.

Asian people are nowhere near that color. Just like how Native Americans are not actually naturally beet red, Africans are not actually pitch black, and Caucasians are not actually printer paper white.

Yeah, Asian people are not yellow! And while I know this post is not directed at me, you sent me this post to review carefully. I'm happy to tell you that yes: obviously Asian people are not yellow. I look at the mirror and don't think I look yellow at all. that's the point of what I'm trying to say, too! Asian people aren't yellow. Trying to explain that "Frisk being drawn with yellow skin and closed/squinted eyes has weird coincidences with yellow face and yellow peril" does not mean I think Asian people are yellow or that Asian people are literally yellow.

I don't think white people are Gesso-paint white, either.

But here's an article that briefly mentions how Dr. Seuss had to have his work edited to remove the yellow skin because it was racist to depict this.

According to the facial muscles, the “-_-” face is about the closest way you can depict the resting face when you only have 6 pixels.

Not really. I'll add on to this in a bit.

you are at the base “neutral” face that most people have when completely unconscious.

So is this an argument for Frisk is unconscious? I'm not saying it's a bad headcanon or that no one can use this. I think it's a fun idea that Frisk might be unconscious the whole time, but I'm not sure why this was mentioned.

Your eyes do not actually squeeze shut all the way when sleeping, some people even have eyes that do not squint as much and appear to be sleeping with their eyes open.

Yeah, this is the kind of thing asians, especially east asians get made fun of for, and it's been a long-time issue. "Can you even see?" "Are your eyes even open?"

"Appear to be sleeping" "appear to be closed when it's actually open" in order to excuse Frisk's face design? People with monolid eyes or epicanthal folds are not closed.

This is racist! Hope it helps.

Going for such a neutral character, Toby would not go and give the character a canon iris color. The only way the eyes could be changed is to make them 1X1 black pixel with no white pixel sclera (white part of the eye) to avoid making it appear like they have black colored irises.

There are people out there who have REALLY dark brown eyes that it looks basically almost black. There's nothing wrong with that. Also, as pixels, like this post suggests, we as humans have seen black colored irises in media ALL the time, and make our own interpretations.

See: Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, Loud House, etc. Adventure time doesn't need a white sclera to be seen as eyes, and Something like Gravity falls are still seen as eyes even with a sclera. If you look up Fanart of any of these media, a lot of people make their own interpretation of eye colors even if their irises are black.

A 4x4 eye is too big for that size head, as we see when Chara shows that look with their creepy face. 2 tall by 1 wide eyes would look too surprised and awake. When making a neutral face, this was the best way to go while still looking relatively human.

There is no mention of 2x2, so I feel like this is an unfair argument. Below I edited their eyes to quickly show how even this part isn't so hard.

If someone draws Frisk yellow with slanted eyes, just imagine them with whatever race, sex, gender, and emotion you have in your “headcanon”.

If people draw Frisk with yellow skin and slanted eyes, I think we should be upset, or at least tell this person not to do this.

Here is the image Dr. Seuss illustrated, again. This has gone through several revisions years after it was first published because of the racist depictions.

There is no true race or gender or sex or emotion or age or body type. It’s done on purpose.

This ignores one of the most widely spread headcanons and/or analyses of Undertale: which is that Frisk is their own person (which Flowey and Chara reinforce), and while we start the game by projecting ourselves on them, we literally learn through the pacifist route, that Frisk is NOT us. We play AS Frisk. Especially because no matter what name we give the True Name, Frisk will always introduce themselves as Frisk when asked by Asriel in the end of the game.

Again, we are NOT Frisk. We play AS Frisk. As we play the game through Pacifist, we learn more about Frisk- they like to Flirt, they are the ones who choose to call Toriel "mom". Players might just not associate these with being Frisk traits, because we originally project onto them until the reveal.

"No true gender" is also frustrating to see, because this is going to be the same argument to say that Frisk does NOT use They/Them, and that we shouldn't advocate for people to use They/Them for Frisk.

I also saw in another post on their blog that they believe that Chara does not necessarily use They/Them either (that Chara is also someone to project onto), even if Asriel uses it for them during the epilogue. "[Name] wasn't the best person."

Source: Undertale, images derived from this dialogue dump.

When it comes to Deltarune, if this argument was used for Kris as well it would be incredibly false due to the fact that it's even more so canon that Kris is NOT the player, and that the player is NOT Kris.

That's all! Thanks for the post. It was frustrating to read.

Here's some sources I also looked at to make sure what I'm saying made sense; some of these are repeated links that I mention earlier just for reference.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/dr-seuss-got-away-anti-asian-racism-long-rcna381

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691140315/becoming-yellow

https://caata.net/yellowface-what-it-is-why-its-bad-and-action-steps-to-fight-it/

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/asian-eye-surgery-and-media-racism/279770/

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-newzealand-passport-error-idUSKBN13W0RL/

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article249528800.html

https://digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/student/exhibits/show/race-in-us/asian-americans/asian-immigration-and-the--yel

https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/fox-eye-trend-asian-cultural-appropriation-trnd/index.html

[claiestve]

𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐬 / 𝐆𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 ꨄ Isaac

˜”* ❝𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙬.❞

⎯⎯ ୨ ୧ ⎯⎯

ꜱʏɴᴏᴘꜱɪꜱ: ʜᴇ ᴡᴀɴᴛᴇᴅ ʟᴏᴠᴇ, ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴇʀᴇ ᴏɴ ᴀ ᴍɪꜱꜱɪᴏɴ.

⎯୨⎯ " " ⎯୧⎯

It has been a few months and you’ve adjusted well. You knew where the cameras were, their blindspots, and parts where Isaac could see you. You were familiar with where the creeks in the woods were. All you had to do was finish what you started. Get the information, make physical copies, and get out. You already had a source, you just needed to wait for Isaac to get out of the way. 

You’ve been making him sleep earlier and didn’t allow him to do anything that would keep him awake for even an extra minute. Nothing would’ve worked if he stayed awake at normal hours. 

Tonight, it’s 11 PM, you’ve forced Isaac to go to sleep a bit earlier than every other night. The plan was, to print everything and move on to the next step.

“Y/N?”

Isaac. Why was he awake? You made sure to put him to sleep.

“Isaac? Why are you up?” You use your voice to distract from you slowly putting stuff away.

“I needed to talk to you. I mean, I know it’s late but this has been on my mind for hours.”

If you wanted him to cooperate, you had to listen. 

“What do you need to tell me?” You walk away from the printer, hoping you remembered not to leave it on.

“I just… there’s something about you, you know?”

Was he catching on? Uh, hello, that’s not good!

“Y/N, I hope I don’t regret saying this but I thought this through,” He starts again, “I think after all this time, I trust you. I feel like I can go to you, even if I don’t want to.”

You catch yourself staring at him in disbelief. How could you not? You were confused and only here for one thing. 

Isaac notices your silence and continues.

“I have felt things that I haven’t felt in years and with you, it feels so natural which is why…”

He takes your hands into his and takes a deep breath. 

“I love you.”

“You what?”

You thought it was a joke, like, one of those sick sick jokes. As much as you could believe that, you knew Isaac wouldn’t joke like that. 

“Isaac,” You started to talk.

The sound of loud clicking and clattering starts.The printer. You never turned it off. Of course, you didn’t! You would’ve been better off running out of the house in front of him than whatever this was. 

“Why’s the printer on?” Isaac moves his head to look past you. 

“Oh! I probably accidentally turned it on when I was cleaning that area!”

“Ah, that makes sense.” He gets up to turn it off but he sees…

He sees all

“Y/N.”

Of the pictures

“Why…”

Of all that information

“Are you printing…”

Printed out.

“All of this?”

He looks at you, waiting for an answer, and sighs.

“What the hell is going on?! Why are you printing this classified information out?!”

You look at him, frozen.

“Say something! Why are you actually here?!”

“Isaac.”

“Is this why you’ve been making me sleep early? You don’t care about me, do you?”

“Please–”

“Do you?!”

He grabs the papers and holds them up before ripping them before you. Your eyes widened as you saw little scraps of the papers falling to the floor. What would your boss think? You went into this so confident of your skills and this… love confession blew it. 

“I want you out of my house by the morning.”

“Isaac, we can talk about this,” You reach your arm out. 

He moves your hand away, “I take you in and this is how I get repaid? I should’ve left you where I found you. Were you even struggling?”

“No…”

He scoffs and guides you away from his office. 

“Get whatever sleep you need and get out of my house before I wake up.”

“Isaac, I don’t know who you think you’re talking to but–”

“But what? You’re in my home. I determine your place in it.”

He starts to walk away but you grab his wrist. You seriously needed to walk out of this house with the physical copies you were asked to get. 

He turned around and pushed you away, “Y/N, stop touching me! You’re lucky I’m even allowing you to sleep here tonight!”

Isaac gets closer to you just to get louder. 

You didn’t know what to do other than…

“Forgive me.”

You pulled out a pocket knife from your pocket and pierced his stomach, the same spot where he’d been stabbed before. Isaac grabs you for support before falling to the floor. He stares into your eyes and all you can see is that look that he has been betrayed by someone he loves. Well, he did. 

Leaving the house, you took what you needed and left someone who loved you to bleed on the floor he allowed you to walk on. 

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

hey... how yall doin 😃

[pizzazz-party]

i am going through colored squares bit by bit. im doing this by exporting individual squares into JPEGs out of photoshop, printing them through Windows Photo viewer, comparing them to the gray of the enamel pin, and then eyeballing what color adjustments to try next so i can feed my printer the same paper and start all over again.

it’s stupid, but im still getting a monitor-accurate print. so whatever i guess.

hoping something fixes itself is NOT a valid strategy. However,

[jpitha]

Just a Little Further 30

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

We sent the Venusians home today.

We left them enough thruster to travel to the Gate and traverse, enough environmental systems to keep them alive - so long as they stuck to their quarters and the Command Deck - and... that was mostly it. Oh, we did take the entirety of their weapons. I even had their weapon lockers stripped. We now have a good supply of high quality rifles and small arms. I gave a few to Sep and asked them duplicate them and begin training. I also promised to stop by later and give some tips in the finer points of their operation.

When I saw their faces when they saw what I was sending them home in, I admit I cackled just a teeny bit. We made sure it was survivable and they won't be injured, but their ship looks like a joke. Large pieces are missing from the hull, whole rooms exposed to vacuum, the thrusters we left them are undersized for what would normally be used, and so on. I imagine they are going to have an... interesting time going through joint human/K'laxi space.

The wormhole generator was destroyed in the explosion, so they can't link home, so what they'll do after they reach human space an the end of the Gates is a bit of a mystery. They won't be trapped though, there are plenty of human Starbases or colonies they could reach via the Gates and ask someone to link a beacon to Venus so they could get a ride the rest of the way.

They don't use AIs at all either. Their ships run with only human crews, so it's not like we left some poor AI behind to drag their own corpse home. It's just a ship.

Well, it's 65% or so of a ship.

As for Raaden and Emery, I did wind up going with the option Ava and I discussed. We found an empty apartment building that was close - but not directly next to - the Royal Dawn. It had two empty apartments and we put Raaden, and Emery in separate apartments quite a long distance from each other. The apartments are guarded all hours of the day, and meals are sent up.

It feels like I just stuffed them into a corner and are trying to forget about them, and I guess I did, but I that's what having hostages is sometimes. I'm trying to make sure they're comfortable and well taken care of. Emery has seemed to accept his lot. He mostly reads and sketches. When he asked for art supplies he seemed excited when we brought him paper and pencils that were native to the Reach. He spends his time looking out the window and sketching what he sees. I've seen a few of them; the drawings are actually quite lovely. I have a feeling he's pretty used to being stuck in a corner somewhere and told to entertain himself.

Raaden... hasn't accepted her lot so easily. She's tried to escape twice already and the only thing that has prevented it was her unfamiliarity with the locks. After the second attempt I had to use my Voice to make her stop trying to break out. Now she just sits in her apartment and alternates between seething and sulking. I almost wish we had a hibernation cabinet to put her into. She'd be less of a problem if she was just on ice the whole time.

Wait a moment. I wonder if Omar can print one? I'm sure there are plans for one in the printer database we got from FarReach. I should ask.

Ginny we put up in the Royal Dawn. Not right near our rooms, but in a room in the hotel. I did use my Voice to order her not to talk to Raaden and Emery and to not have any contact with Venus without our permission, but she knew why and accepted the order.

Yes, we did decide to let Ginny stay. Of all of the people we interviewed she was the only one who actually wanted to be here. Everyone else was indifferent to it or was being actively ordered to be here. That was what finally convinced Ava, Omar, Um'reli and Starlight. We won't give her the Builder package for a long time, if ever, but that still doesn't mean we don't need the help. We don't have her doing much right now, but she is shadowing Sound of the City and they love that they have a helper and someone they get to show the Reach. Maybe I'll take her with us when we go to the Wilds of Besmara. She might enjoy that.

I'm just finishing up breakfast in the Royal Dawn when Omar comes in. "Melody, what are we going to do with all the parts we took from the Lavinia?"

I can't help myself. "Put them on a Starship, Omar."

"Melody. Which Starship? High Line and Sun Dancer are done. We'd have to put them back into the dock to add things to them, Immar IV isn't done, but do we want to put all the parts on that one?"

Ah I see. If we put the Venusian parts on High Line or Sun Dancer, then that delays how long before we can go to the Wilds of Besmara.

"Let's keep them off High Line and Sun Dancer for now. I do want to go to the Wilds now that we've dealt with Venus. Once we're back and Immar IV is done, why don't we start construction on a whole new ship?"

"A whole new ship?" Omar sits down at my breakfast table and looks off into the middle distance, thinking. "Yes, we could do it. I think we have a handle on how things work now. We would add the Venusian parts, of course. That would save a lot of time. I'd make a dreadnought of our own - smaller than the Venus or other human ones - but it would still pack a punch."

"See? What a great idea I had." I'm laughing, but I mean it. I think it's high time we make our own Starships. I wish we had more printers, we could really get production going, but it's not like we need a whole fleet right away. Slow and steady progress is fine.

"Omar, do you want to pilot High Line when we take it over to the Wilds? I want to go next week, and we need to figure some things out. You piloted it during the shakedown, but this will be our first Gate traversal since we came here."

"Yes, I'd like to drive if you're okay with that. We should have the others take a turn so we all get experience with it - it's different than being the Reach - but for now, I'll take us over. Who is going to come? We should probably leave at least one Builder here."

"I agree. I wanted you and Ava and Starlight to come, and we can let Um'reli run things while we're away. I want Ginny to come too."

Omar breaks his reverie. "Ginny? Why?"

"I want to show her she's not a prisoner like Raaden and Emery. She was the only one who wanted to be here. Might as well start treating her like that. Plus, we could use a reactor tech on High Line."

"You make a good point. Fine. Ginny can come too. We don't really need much of anyone else. With Builder systems I can run most of High Line from the chair. I wonder if it feels the same when an AI runs a ship? I'm doing a similar role."

"I don't know. If we ever get back to our side of the Galaxy we should ask." I really find lately I'm missing stuff from home. I hope once were done visiting some Starbases on this side we can go home, just for a visit. "I'd like to open up some lines of trade too. I bet people over there would like some of our foodstuffs and I sure could use some coffee." I looked wistfully at my cup of tea on the table. I hadn't had coffee since talking with the Venusians. I was trying to save what little she had for special occasions, but it's so hard!

"One thing at a time, Melody. Let's do see if we can figure out what happened at the Wilds. Then, see if we can find any other Starbases or colonies. We could finish the exploration that FarReach abandoned."

I looked up at Omar in surprise. "That's it. We can continue the mission! Just because FarReach declared Captain Q'ari unfit and left doesn't mean that there isn't good things to learn out here." I jumped up and gave Omar a hug. "Thanks Omar. It really helps to talk things out sometimes."

"No problem Melody, glad to help."

I leave the Royal Dawn and start walking towards the Throne, thinking while I walk.

We're going to go to the Wilds of Besmara with the refurbished High Line and see what's up. Last time we went there was some kind of field that grabbed FarReach and started to pull it in. Maybe it was an overzealous landing field? I don't know. Either way, if it happens again, I think we want to let it take us in.

Also, that warning. I know now it was in the Voice, but it was over radio which - for me at least - commands in the Voice don't work. I wonder how it was in the Voice, I thought that was just an Empress thing. Maybe it was a recording? All these mysteries. We just have to go and find out for ourselves.

I take a long way to the Throne and say hello to people as I walk. When I first got here, people were so frightened of us, but now people tell me hello, they give me little bits of news from their world, I even get to meet families! More than once I've been told how nice it is that I was able to increase the food deliveries. As plain old Melody I was often intimidated making small talk with people and would try and avoid it, but when I'm Empress, I find it's much easier. It almost feels like I'm pretending to be the Empress; like it's a persona to put on and take off. When I'm with Ava in our room I'm just Melody, but when the gown comes on and I walk around I'm The Empress.

It's hard to explain. I wish I knew more people that had gone though this to see if it's normal. I guess, when you're the only Empress around, anything you do is normal, by virtue of the fact that you're the one doing it.

I make my way to the Throne and settle in. Ava, Um'reli and Starlight are there already. I can feel Um'reli and Ava showing Starlight how to work things.

"See Starlight, if you just look... over here... you can see the transit network."

"Yes, yes, I see. It looks like we have the trains on schedule and... wait, what's that one on that siding?"

"That's Melody's Royal Transport. She likes to use it when she feels like showing off, or if she needs to get somewhere after hours or when things are too busy to wait for a scheduled train."

Mentally, I look up at them "I don't use it to show off. I use it when I want to make an entrance."

"Okay, so when Emp-Melody's not showing off, she stores it over here?" I smile to myself when I hear the smirk in Starlight's tone. When I made them a builder, I let them call me Melody. I decided it would be weird for Ava, Um'reli and Omar to call me Melody, but Starlight has to call me Empress, and I didn't want to make everyone call me Empress as well, so Builder Starlight can call me Melody. They're still getting used to it.

"Um'reli, you're okay with staying here and running things while the rest of us go to the Wilds of Besmara to see what happened to them?"

"Sure Melody, it's fine. I have reports to go over on reactor efficiency. We have enough of a power surplus now we should look at taking down the reactors one at a time for refurbishment. I don't think it's ever been done!"

"What do you mean, take the reactor down for refurbishment?" Starlight looks curious as Um'reli and I talk.

"So, at least with our reactors, they need regular maintenance. We usually build our systems with enough overhead that they can run with one whole reactor down so we can work on it, or if one fails we can swap it out without inconveniencing anyone. Before we got here, the Reach had enough power, but I wouldn't have dreamed of shutting a reactor off. Now, I think we can turn one off, make sure it's in good condition and then turn it back on, move on to the next and so on."

"That's impressive, Builder Um'reli. You have found so many ways to improve efficiency."

"Just Um'reli is fine, you're a Builder now too, remember. But, thank you. I enjoy working with the reactors. I hope we can get Ginny up and helping us too, it will be useful to have someone else - someone who actually took some training on this and isn't just an enthusiastic amateur - take a look at things."

"Okay, good. Omar is going to drive, I'll sit in the Command chair, Ava can monitor systems, Starlight can let us know if there's anything we're missing with local information and Ginny is coming along to prove to her that she's not just another hostage like Raaden and Emery."

Ava looks up from the report she's reading. "I like it Melody, it seems like a good plan. Ugh, I wish there was something we could do about Raaden. I don't trust her as far as I could throw her."

"I know! I was thinking about it on the walk over. What if we printed a hibernation cabinet for her? I know that Starjumpers carry them, and that FarReach used to be one so I assume their printer database has the plans."

"Actually, I think that could work. Let's ask Omar how tough it would be to print one up. On the one hand, I don't like the idea of just sticking her in a closet until we decide what to do with her, but on the other... I don't know what to do with her. She'll never trust us, and we can never trust her."

"Exactly."

Starlight looks like they are warring with themselves over something. After a moment, a decision is made. "Melody, why did you keep her anyway? If it was me in charge, I would have declared her culpable for Rapid River Roaring's death and had them executed."

Now everyone is looking at me. "Starlight, for right now, she's worth more to us alive than dead. If we killed her and sent the Venusians home with their ship stripped and them humiliated they would have come right back with all their dreadnoughts and just fired upon us as soon as they traversed the Gate. No radio, no opportunity to use the Voice on them, just kaboom. This way, with Raaden, their Archduke and Crown Prince Emery, they have to think twice about whether to come in guns hot or not."

"Ah, I see. Yes Melody. You are making it so that we are too valuable to outright destroy. But, what do we do when they want their crown prince and their archduke back? Or worse, what if they don't want them back?"

My shoulder slump. "I don't know yet. As soon as we figure out a deal and we give them Raaden and Emery they don't have a reason to not come in and destroy us."

Starlight's eyes are bright. "Well then. We just need to be better armed then they are by then. We can then repel them the regular way."

"Hah. That's the best idea I've heard so far Starlight. For now, we'll go with that plan. Once we come back from the Wilds, Omar was going to look into building a dreadnought from the parts we... liberated from Venus. Do you know of any Aviens plans for large warships?"

"Actually, yes. I believe we have some plans for a ship like that. We should try and reach out to more of my people. Ever since our ancestors were trapped here, we have not heard from any other of our kind."

"Starlight, I was wondering, what did trap you and the Mariens and others here all those years ago?" Um'reli and Ava look up at Omar's question. I guess we were all wondering it.

"I wish I knew Omar. My parent's parents were the original ones left here, but they wouldn't talk about it. From what I can gather, there was... a war, or something like it. The last Builders left the Reach to... do... something and never returned. My parent's parents did mention that the first few years after the Builders left were very difficult."

"Another mystery to solve then. I want to get going. Hey Omar, do you think you can print a hibernation cabinet?"

"Probably Melody, what for?"

"For Raaden. I just don't trust her to be awake and around while we leave to do explore the Wilds of Besmara. I was thinking of putting her in a cabinet and sticking her on board in hibernation. Crown Prince Emery seems fine, we could probably leave him here under guard."

"Melody that's brilliant! We don't have to deal with her trying to escape and we can carry her around as a kind of... talisman against Venus attacks. You just have to get her into it."

"Leave that part to me."

It actually only takes Omar a few hours to print the hibernation cabinet. When you have printers that can make a whole starship in a few weeks, one small hibernation cabinet is hardly a feat. It comes out gleaming and white, looking like a long lozenge or pill from the medical department. On the top is a clear window to see the face of the resident and on the side is a small readout of vitals. I ask Omar to let me borrow some people, and an Aviens and Azurian wheel the cabinet behind me as we walk.

In front of the apartment complex it's clear that the cabinet is much too large to bring up to Raaden's room. "Wait here please. I will be down with them in a moment."

Upstairs, I nod to the guards and knock on the door before opening it. "Raaden, come here please."

"Go to hell mmmmmm-Empress."

I don't have time for this. "F̷̗͝o̸͔͌l̷̺̊l̴̨̃o̶̦̾w̵̡͠ ̶͔͘m̷̢̒ē̵̬.̸̹̊ Raaden." She gets up out of the other room and robotically walks to me. Her eyes radiate hatred, but she follows none the less.

We get to the bottom floor and I open the door to leave and she catches a glimpse of the cabinet. Raaden's eyes go wide and the snarl of hatred on her face is replaced with a new emotion.

Terror.

"No! No no no no! You're not going to put me in one of those! Please! Please Empress! Don't put me in a hibernation cabinet! I won't escape! Please! Don't put me in there!"

I stop and turn, surprised. "What? Why not Raaden? It's just a hibernation cabinet. It's brand new. Omar printed it up from our copy of FarReach's printer database. It's not even a local design, it's one of ours."

She's standing in the doorway, shaking. She is legitimately terrified of the hibernation cabinet. "I-I-Its a form of punishment in Imperial Venus. For people who have... displeased the Emperor. A person is placed into the hibernation cabinet and then they... manipulate the settings. They change the person's sense of the passage of time. A day can feel like centuries."

You know, I actually feel bad for Raaden right now. That sounds like a horrible punishment.

"Raaden, I'm not going to manipulate your perception of time. We're going to run you deep enough that you won't have any perception of time passing. It'll be just like when people were put in cabinets for Starjumper trips before the wormhole generators. You'll go in, and then you'll awaken on Venus when we've worked out the details with the Emperor."

"Possibly, or else I'll never wake up for my failure. Or worse, I will but it will be after ten thousand years subjective and I'm a gibbering mess. Empress, I am actually begging you." She gets down on her knees in the door way and bows down "Please. Please. Don't put me in hibernation. I will literally do anything else." She puts her head up and her cheeks are wet with tears and she's shaking. She whispers. "Please, don't."

I... I can't. It's too cruel. I look at her and try and concentrate. Is she just acting? No. I think she is completely terrified of going into hibernation.

Ugh.

I sit on the cabinet and reach out to my Builders. "Hey. Raaden is like, wet her pants terrified of going into hibernation. She's literally begging me not to do it."

Is it a put on, is she just really good at acting?

I don't think so. My heightened body language processing says she's being honest.

Just order her to do it anyway, use your Voice.

Doesn't that seem unnecessarily cruel to you? We'd be leveraging a legitimate phobia just to make things easier on us. She'd never forgive us.

You still think she'll forgive us?

Hey, we have a responsibility to treat our prisoners humanely, and that includes not torturing them. This would be torture for her.

They wouldn't have the same consideration of us.

All the more reason for us to treat her better.

Okay then, what do we do with her?

Take her with us.

WHAT?

Take her with us. She'll still be on board, I can order her around with the Voice and we'll still bring the cabinet. If she causes trouble I'll order her into it and we'll be done with it. This is her chance to show us how much she doesn't want to be in the cabinet.

Or for her to show us how good of an actor she is.

Ava, I'm pretty sure she's not acting.

Ugh fine. She can come. Let me get a room ready and strengthen the locks on it.

Thanks Omar.

I look up. Raaden has gotten up from the floor but her eyes are still wide with fear. She is working very hard to control it, but fear of the cabinet is still very strong. She truly is terrified of being put into it.

"Raaden. I won't put you into the hibernation cabinet."

As I complete the sentence, her body relaxes and she starts breathing heavily.

"Yet."

She tightens up and holds her breath again.

"You're coming with us on the High Line to explore the Wilds of Besmara. I need insurance against Venus, and if you won't get into the cabinet then you'll come along. I will also bring the cabinet so if you cause us even a small amount of trouble I will just order you into the cabinet and be done with it."

I narrow my eyes and meet her gaze, "Do you understand?"

She stands straight and tall and matches my gaze, looking me in the eyes. "I will not betray you, nor will I attempt to escape, nor will I sabotage any aspect of your mission. So long as it keeps me out of that thing, I will be good."

"See that you do." I jump off the cabinet and gesture to my helpers. "Bring this to High Line. Omar will show you were to put it. "C̵͖͋o̷̤̒m̶͉̍e̶̩͛ ̶̰̎R̷͈̅ä̵̮å̷̡d̴͍̒e̶̙͝n̷̬̓.̶̀ͅ, I will bring you back to your apartment."

She follows me without struggling this time. I stop at the entry to her apartment. "We'll be back tomorrow morning. Do you have any requests for food or drink onboard?"

She blinks. "You're asking my opinion?"

"Well yes. You're going to be onboard with us for at least a week, if not more. You deserve to have some input."

She runs her hand through her close cropped hair, surprised. "Uh, I don't like coffee, so don't bother giving me any. I know you love the stuff, so don't waste any on me."

Oh nice. More coffee for me then. "Thank you. We'll be by tomorrow after breakfast."

She nods and moves to close the door. "Until then."

After the door closes and I lock it, I look at the guards and they acknowledge me. "Empress" they both say, and then face forward, silently.

Part 31

[fivedayslater]

Part 11: Under the pool table

Dinner and a Murder: A Mr. Prince mystery master post

Sanji drops to his knees and crawls under the pool table to retrieve the paper. He grabs it just as he hears a choking noise from Zoro.

“What?” Sanji asks as he shimmies his way back out from under the table, glancing curiously over his shoulder at Zoro, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he says, his face red as his eye darts from Sanji’s face to his rear still sticking out, “Just admiring the view.”

It’s Sanji’s turn to blush, his leg striking out in his embarrassment to kick him hard in the shin.

“Crass mossy shithead,” he mutters as he stands up and smooths the paper out on the pool table, “Learn some fucking manners.”

“You’re the one crawling around with your ass in the air,” Zoro says as he comes up behind him, then whispers in his ear, “And I can do manners when I need to, Mr. Prince.”

Sanji shivers at his tone, but quickly turns his attention back to the paper.

It’s a note, or the beginnings of one. The handwriting is rough and almost illegible, and most of the words – including the name of the recipient – are scribbled out, but there are a few key parts that Sanji can make out:

I know your secret…$500 million…or else…

“It’s a blackmail note,” he realizes with a gasp, “Or a rough draft for one.”

“Rough is right,” Zoro frowns at the paper, his brow furrowed, “I can barely read it. Are you sure?”

“I can’t be positive, since it’s incomplete,” Sanji says as he points out the legible bits, “But secrets, money, and threats usually add up to blackmail.”

“Huh,” he purses his lips, then shrugs and finishes his drink, “Well, you’d know better than me.”

He wanders back to the liquor cabinet for a refill as Sanji ponders the letter.

Try as he may, he can’t glean anything else from it on context alone. Like most blackmail notes, it’s unsigned, and the handwriting is unfamiliar to him, mostly devolving into scribbles save for the few bits he can read. The paper itself is normal printer paper that can be found almost anywhere, although there’s a brown stain in the corner that smells a bit like stale coffee.

“Aren’t most blackmail notes made from, like, newspaper cutouts?” Zoro says. He has drifted over to the bookcase while Sanji examines the letter, and is pulling things off of it at random, “That’s what they do on TV.”

“This isn’t TV, this is real life,” Sanji sighs as he flips it over, but the back of the note reveals no new information about who wrote it or who it was for, “And even if that is the end goal, you still need to draft the letter first.”

He turns to Zoro, “Do you know if this has anything to do with Ace?”

“Hm?” Zoro looks up from the book he’s flipping through, “What?”

Sanji taps the note, “The blackmail note. Do you know if Ace was being blackmailed, or if he was doing the blackmailing?”

Zoro’s eye narrows, “He wasn’t blackmailing anyone, if that’s what you’re implying.”

“More like outright stating, but okay,” he holds his hands up, “I don’t mean to speak ill of Ace, but if this has anything to do with his death, then I need to know.”

“Ace isn’t like that…wasn’t like that,” Zoro sighs, his eye sliding shut as he leans against the windowsill, “Even if he did know some secret about someone, he’d never take advantage of them like that.”

“Okay,” Sanji nods, feeling a little guilty about accusing Ace of blackmail now, even if it is all in the course of investigating, “Do you know if he was being blackmailed?”

“No,” Zoro’s frown pinches his face as he opens his eye, “I don’t know. We haven’t…exactly kept in touch. Since I left.”

“I see,” Sanji sighs as he lights a cigarette, taking a deep hit from it as he mulls over the problem.

“Luffy would know,” Zoro suggests as he turns back to the book, “He and Ace always tell each other everything. I don’t think they can keep secrets from each other.”

Sanji hums as he mulls it over, tapping the ash off his cigarette into the ashtray.

“That’s a pretty good idea,” he concludes, making Zoro visibly perk up. Sanji blushes at the beaming smile he gives him, so he cuts it with, “You know, for a Mosshead.”

“I’ll take it,” Zoro laughs as he comes back to Sanji’s side, “Also, if you’re looking for motives, how’s this for one?”

Sanji’s heartbeat spikes when Zoro presses up against his side and slides the book over to him. He manages to pull his focus away from just how warm he feels and instead looks at what it is he’s trying to show him.

It’s a ledger, filled with large numbers and small neat handwriting. In one column he can clearly read everyone’s name, Luffy, Ace, Zoro, Usopp, Law, and the large amounts of pluses and minuses across the rest of the rows.

“What is this?” Sanji asks, intrigued by the find as he flips a page to find more of the same.

“Nami’s debt ledger,” Zoro laughs, his finger tracing over his own row, “I figured she was just keeping track in her head, I didn’t know she actually had it written down.”

Sanji stares at him, incredulous, “You’re in debt and you don’t know by how much?”

“Of course I know,” he rolls his eye, “But it’s just numbers. Any idiot can keep track of numbers. You don’t have to write them down.”

Sanji briefly wonders just how good with numbers Zoro must be to say that, but is pulled back to his previous statement, “You said there was a motive in here.”

“Oh, yeah, maybe?” He scratches his cheek, then flips to the back of the book where the final totals are.

Sanji’s eyes go wide at the amount of zeros he sees, “What the hell, you all owe Nami that much?”

“It’s fine,” he shrugs, “Most of us just pay her back with favors, but here.”

His finger lands on the last two rows, Usopp’s and Law’s, and the cigarette almost falls out of his mouth, “What the shit…is that in the billions?”

“Law’s is, Usopp’s is just under,” he shrugs as if this is nothing, “I know Usopp is paying her back through royalties on his inventions.”

“And he’s the only other person who couldn’t have killed Ace,” Sanji reminds him, rolling his cigarette around his lips, “But what does Ace’s murder have to do with Law’s debt?”

“Thing is, I’m not sure how Law is paying Nami back,” his gaze goes back to the ledger, “This kind of money…he might have gotten desperate.”

“But how would killing Ace have gotten him out of debt?” Sanji muses, then gasps when he thinks he’s got it, “You’re not saying Law was paid to kill him?”

“I don’t know, it’s just a thought,” he shrugs, his gaze darting away, “But I do know that someone had it out for Ace. His accident proves it.”

Sanji hums as he takes that in. Zoro would know the particulars of Ace’s accident better than him, but the whole thing did smell of a set up. Perhaps the hitman angle is not the most farfetched idea out there.

“Two thoughts right in a row,” Sanji grins around his cigarette, “I guess you’re more than just a pretty face too.”

“Shut up,” he says with a growl, but the faint blush on his cheeks speaks volumes.

“So,” Zoro turns back to him, “What do you want to do?”

[yourbestpalpercy]

“Wh-Wh-What d-do you mean y-you’re going to…??” Iris couldn’t believe it! The Cogs, the very same machines who had brought her into this world, “You’re g-going to…delete ME!? B-But I’ve done nothing wrong..!” Iris whined, her large, fluffy pink mane deflating at the thought. Her large, white tail coiled around her leg, pulling the rainbow sock on it up.

“You haven’t been the least bit useful since your creation, Lovecake. All you have done is use our servers to inspire more rebellion among the Toons…this stops now,” H. Lesser hovered his cold, metal hand over the few buttons that would need to be pressed in order to delete Iris.

Iris growled loudly, clutching her paws as thunder clouds rolled into the sunshiny, clear skies behind her. Her tail struck the wall of the screen besides her as her blue antlers grew sharper. “You are all just a bunch of heartless jerks! Maybe if you jerks made better music, I wouldn’t be rebelling!” Iris pressed her muzzle to the screen, glaring directly at H. Lesser. Her frills tucked down as the rainbow fade on her face cycled to a sharp red.

“I’m sorry, Iris, but it’s our final decision. Any last words?”

“How about a final conversation because I wasn’t told about this AT ALL! How mean!” Iris crossed her arms, pulling away from the screen. Black slime had already started filling her eyes.

“...I guess I had asked for final words…” H. Lesser slowly pulled his hand away from the buttons and brought his hands into his lap. “Very well, Iris. Perhaps you can try to talk your way out of this…”

When H. Lesser picked up on the black slime filling Iris’s eyes along with her pupils changing to white skulls, he drew his head back with a hiss, “Don’t you start it with your morbid thoughts, you have been wasting paper printing all your thoughts.”

“If you try this whole thing again, maybe you shouldn’t allow me access to the printers!” Iris perked her frills up quickly. “Then again, I could just give myself those permissions, the digital world is mine to control…”

H. Lesser hadn’t even noticed the cables all strewn all around him start to writhe and move, seemingly inching closer to him. “What are you suggesting, Iris?” He pointed at the large dragon before him, glaring at the screen she was displayed on.

“I’m saying…” Iris crept closer to the screen, letting the black slime fall from her eyes…letting the white fur on her body fade to black until Iris’s skull pupils were all that H. Lesser could see. “When you made me…you thought you could restrict me…”

“I figured out my permissions…I had them changed…tick tock…” The skulls in her eyes changed to a 10 second time.

10…

Wires bound around H. Lesser, holding him still.

9…

They started to pull as a nearby collection of screens began to move.

8…

H. Lesser could feel as the wires pulled him to his limits.

7…

The other cogs felt themselves freeze in their tracks.

6…

New orders…new ruler…

5…

Iris laughed ever harder as wires swarmed over the main computer’s buttons

4…

There goes an arm…there goes a leg!

3…

There goes a torso! There goes a head!!

2…

Laid on the ground, H. Lesser could barely function, trying to look around and cry for help.

1…

Suddenly seized by his own guards, Iris said only a few words, standing as an amalgamation of machine and wired tvs as a crude body, “Annihilate him. Let him know he’s no longer god in these parts…”

And the guards listened, shutting down once the job was done.

Iris’s crude makeshift tail flicked as Iris started to giggle loudly. Her claws went to her face as she laughed loudly. “It worked! Everything worked out perfectly! Did I record his screams?? Maybe I can have it be known to the toons that this area is clear!! Oh I’ll have so many new friends! We’ll be best friends~!”

Iris’s face jolted into pink as she cheered excitedly at the thought. The black slime left her eyes as they returned to normal.

“This area is mine, now, Heartless…”