#circles before hexagons in rectangles

[fruchox]

Ok, SO. Prepare, I’m brain vomiting and I don’t know what my point is. Feel free to ignore, I just need to type this down and maybe get some feedback.

I really enjoyed Nine. He was my first Doctor and I wish he had more seasons. He is only slightly behind Ten in terms of favourites. slightly.

Ten is my favourite. I cried both times Rose left and when he said all that stuff before saving Wilf from radiation and when he said ‘I don’t want to go.’ I could go on forever of what I love about him, his walk, the little details like hands in pockets, his expressions, and 9/10 have the best TARDIS I’ve seen so far. 11’s is way harder to wrap my mind around, it’s too busy and long. Circles before hexagons in rectangles please.

I know the whole show is about change, and I did some reading, and people say that if you don’t like Eleven it’s because you hate change blah blah blah and I get that. I understand that what I’m hating right now is all the change, because I want my TARDIS and my Doctor and my intro scene because honestly the new music is so different I can barely hear the oooweeeooos and all the whooshing names went away which is sad because they were satisfying.

I don’t like Eleven, I’m going to give him a fair try, but I guess what I really want is to know I’m not alone in being apprehensive and if it’s worth watching him, because otherwise I’m going to skip to the ones with other doctors.

But then again I’d feel bad because I’m missing all that plot and I have an issue where I feel like I’m not worthy of loving something unless I’ve absorbed EVERY SINGLE PIECE of information and media relating to it (if u know why lemme know).

What is it about Eleven that people love? I’ve read that Ten was too human and relatable and lovable and Eleven is ‘right’ in that he portrays grief and is less human and more alien like a TimeLord should be, but I know that’s not all sides of the story. I just need someone to explain to me, argh I don’t know, everything? Why I’m having such a hard time switching over? Sorry. This is therapeutic, is that the word I need?

Tl;Dr: I’m having a hard time switching from the tenth doctor to the eleventh and I want to know why that is and what people love about 11 that I’m not seeing.

[rogue-nebula]

The Second Ascendance

//TW: INTENSE fight scene and depictions of would-be-lethal injury (were it not for the main protagonist's special abilities they would be dead many times over)

(characters by the mun of @servantrunaway were lightly involved in this but they are not named as they do not have a Rotomblr (both main combatants are my characters))

Right in the middle of a get-together between friends, Quasar had again felt the pull into the Nexus, so off he ran, his friends in hot pursuit. Following encounters with Shadowglass Howls and Drifts, he came to a Room where the Door ahead was sealed by a puzzle of Convytessan make, consisting of keyboards and runes above them, with papers nearby. His friends finally catch up

Help me out here. These papers tell an anicient Convytessan fable but I'm having a hard time with a phrase in it. I can't tell if this is (ancient language redacted) or (ancient language redacted). WHich one do you think fits better?

Uh...

We're supposed to put those things into the keyboards right? I don't think the text matters as much as the order then, so why don't we try both?

They follow Clara's idea. The room then goes dark, and Convytessan runes appear over each of the keyboards. The runes don't disappear, but a door opens off to the side. Quasar rushes through. The door leads to a hallway, and to the left are stairs going up (to the right is another room with the door open, but Quasar doesn't seem to be going that way). Quasar takes these and puts his hand to a door at the top marked with a Convytessan symbol. It opens, and stairs lead to a roof, and foating in the air in the middle is an odd being, who Quasar immediately begins talking to

You have come, core bearer

I am the second guardian of the secrets of Convytess. Prove herewith your strength and your worthiness

I accept your trial with gratitude, o guardian of secrets

Oppy takes a step forward

None save a Convytessan and their bonded Anolvordingyd may acquire the hidden secrets. And your bond is not sufficient

Oppy steps back

Let's leave them be

A ring of green surrounds the two as they take positions opposite each other. The Second Guardian then fires several lasers at Quasar. He’s caught off-guard by this and doesn’t manage to block them all, taking a hit in the leg. His whole leg is covered in a pins-and-needles feeling, that he only barely manages to shake before dodging the next volley of lasers. He retorts by casting Burn Circles and Freeze Triangles at the Guardian as it hovers above him, priming still more lasers. These, once blocked by Quasar’s Block Hexagons, are followed by great balls of light that fly toward Quasar and explode. The explosions surprised Quasar enough that a barrage of light projectiles from the Guardian hit him full blast, causing his whole body to freeze up with pins and needles. Quasar channeled Convytezynce through his body, getting rid of the feeling, and then he flew at the Guardian, all blades and Blow Pentagons, pushing the Guardian back, before hurling a Quake Rectangle at it. The Guardian recoiled intensely, before turning the whole sky above into a multicolor rapidly oscillating pattern of glowing sharp-edged shapes

GAH!

Something about this display immediately sent Quasar into overchannel upon just glancing at it, and the Guardian kept bombarding him with the sight. Quasar used a Blow Octagon to try to get airborne, and kept himself in the air by using Block Pentagons. At least looking at the floor he wouldn’t have to see the awful display. Quasar fired Break Lines down at the Guardian, before noticing faint lines all around the area. These abruptly turned very bright and seared everything they touched, Quasar included. The pins and needles broke his focus, and he fell back down, back in view of the flashing color shapes. The Guardian recalled the sight, only to fire 3 great waves of light at Quasar that disintegrated large amounts of his flesh, including all his skin, on contact. With Convytezynce, Quasar regrew his body, then leapt up at the Guardian again, this time trying a Zap Square, only to land in the area of effect of a group of light bombs. These all went off at once with great holy beams, dissolving Quasar’s right arm and left leg before he put up a Block Hexagon. The Guardian saw Quasar’s plight and fired a massive sphere of light at him. Quasar hurried and regrew his leg, dodging in the nick of time, only for the orb to split into 10 and bombard him, sending him flying across the area, barely able to move.

Bwahhh…

Quasar shakily stood, only for the Guardian to put the flashing color shapes back, flooring him again. The Guardian then blasted Quasar with an enormous beam of light. Quasar��s eyes disintegrated instantly, and he could feel the rest of his body swiftly going the same way. But not having eyes in the middle of all the light chaos was just the opportunity Quasar needed. He quickly thought of a maneuver. The Guardian was hurt badly by his earlier attacks, so one more solid hit might finish them. It had to, or he was done for. With how bad he was overchanneling, the Convytezynce Core would explode if this maneuver didn’t win the battle outright. He regrew enough of his arms to have strength, then jabbed Sagaris into the ground. Tapping into his abilities as a Psychic Hybrid for the first time in eons, he sensed the Guardian, then used Sagaris to throw himself at them. Landing on top of the Guardian and taking it off-guard, he then focused a Quake Trapezoid on the Guardian with all the Convytezynce he could muster, having the Guardian act both as the “target” and the “ground”. This mighty shape shattered the Guardian like glass, and Quasar fell back to the floor, heavily injured but alive and victorious

like before, Quasar is severely overchanneled, covered in green blood and with green light-leaking cracks all over his body He heard the Guardian’s voice seemingly from the Room itself

Your strength has been proven sufficient to defend the Secrets of Convytess from evil. Enter the Room beyond, let your wounds be healed, and claim the Hidden Secrets of Convytess

An odd gateway with the crest of Convytess appears. Quasar’s friends return, and help him open the Door.

the gate leads into an odd... library, in the sky. A pervading feeling of calm is throughout the whole area. Many books and trinkets are on the shelves, covered as they are by a green forcefield. At the top of the glass pyramid in the ceiling, a large mote of green energy is twinkling at them

Whoa...

Oppy approaches the bookshelves, but then hears in her mind "these secrets belong to the Creed of Convytess. They are not yours to claim"

Aww... wait! Svarog help me move Quasar under the green thingie!

Svarog and Oppy work together to get Quasar under the glass pyramid. once under it, his wounds fully heal. A deeper still calm fills the area as a green beam of light settles on Quasar. He lifts into the air a short ways, and looks up into the beam with a look of contemplative peace. The large mote of teal green energy at the top of the glass pyramid descends, and settles into Quasar's chest, inside the Convytezynce Core. He flashes with a bright teal green light, and the mote vanishes, absorbed into him. Whatever force held him aloft then sets him down gently.

《 Quasar has been granted the secrets of the Library Aloft 》

Quasar seems in a much better mood then normal, once again. Once again Quasar felt a profound sense of pride, accomplishment, and satisfaction, and again, hitherto unseen aspects of Convytezynce filled his mind. He goes to the shelf with the ribbon,and motions toward it, knowing exactly what to do

As the last and first of the Creed of Convytess, I give these tomes and artifacts to the good of the multiverse!

The field then disappears, leaving all the books and artifacts easily able to take. At Quasar's direction, they bring several back with them for study and general use

I wanna try something. Hang onto me Clara!

Quasar and Clara disappear in a flash of green and appear in an airplane flying over Kitikami

Whoa-kay, guess I overshot a bit. In his mind, he thought so I can teleport, and it can land on targets in motion.

He teleports again, this time bringing Clara to the more familiar scenery of Incursionist Alley, the others arriving also, having teleported the usual way

[walkingencyclopediaofweirdmayo]

I'm sorry, I keep thinking about this.

Bruce holding up various shapes and saying their names: Triangle, Oval,...Circle!

Elmo: *laughs* No, Mr. Wayne! That's a square!

Bruce: Really?

Elmo: Yes, Mr. Wayne! Squares have four sides. Circles don't have any!

Bruce: Square? *holding out the shape for confirmation before nodding and continuing* Oval, octagon,...Circle!

Elmo: No, Mr. Wayne! That's a square!

Bruce: Square. Right. Rectangle, hexagon, diamond. I like diamonds, because if you turn them like this, they become a circle!

I had a dream that bruce wayne was a guest star on sesame street. He was teaching us about shapes with Elmo but kept mislabeling a square as a circle and started crying on set

[allcalculator]

Square Footage Calculator | A guide to calculating square footage

What is the square footage calculator used for?

Here's how to use AllCalculator.net's square footage calculator and what each component means before we get into the nitty-gritty of how it works and calculates square footage. In the square footage calculator, the following fields are included when the "One room/area" option is selected:

Room/area shapes include rectangles, squares, circles, triangles, hexagons, and octagons

Depending on the selected shape, different measurements are taken of the room

Count the number of identically shaped and sized rooms/areas

The combined square footage of all spaces is input as area

Pricing is based on square footage (in the local currency)

The spaces described in the previous paragraph are combined to form a total cost.

You set the known values in the calculator and let the system calculate the rest. For example, if you know the price of a property and the square footage, you can use this square footage calculator to calculate the price per square foot thereof.

What is the formula for calculating square footage prices?

Here we deal with a widespread problem that, despite potential complications in actual life, is based on a relatively simple mathematician's theory. A square footage price is calculated mathematically by dividing the price of a specific property by its total square footage. As a result of such factors as the location of the property, its intended or potential use, and so on, this value changes significantly in everyday life. Nevertheless, it is a useful number when evaluating the value of a particular residence. 

We'll look at how this calculation can be used when square footage pricing comes into play before we go into more detail about its usefulness. You will need to make sure you select "One room/area" at the top of square footage calculator. You can either calculate the area in the previous steps or input it manually. The other value can be calculated using the price per square foot or the total cost.

What is the best way to measure a property's square footage?

There has been an explanation of how square footage can be calculated using square footage calculator and measured for simple situations, such as rectangular rooms or houses, as well as circular and triangular ones. A property may have a more complicated shape than that in which we wish to measure square footage. As a result, we have two options: (1) use a polygon calculator, and similar calculators, or (2) get creative, as we will do here. Using just one tool to measure the square footage of a house is not easy for houses with very irregular and complicated shapes. We can, however, use a simple trick to accomplish the same thing. We can decompose the area into several pieces with a regular shape, which we can then use as a formula to calculate the square footage for each piece. In this way, we can determine the house's total square footage regardless of its shape by adding up the results from each piece.

It may be impossible to build a house with rounded corners or curvy shapes (they are extremely popular nowadays). The closest approximation can be obtained by using a straight line going through the middle of the curves or if you want to be more precise, several small polygons. While it might be time-consuming, it can also be as accurate as one needs, regardless of how long it takes.

[geometropolis]

grt3D episode 1: square up!

new days in geometropolis don’t tend to imply new beginnings… despite its name, this place was more of a town than a city; it was quaint and predictable. the monochromatic grid of every shape’s life was routine and stable, a flat, two-dimensional space where they could live out their mildest fantasies; every path in life was simple, rule-abiding, and carefully calculated.

this day, however, was different. this day was one of transformation.

in the morning, square wasn’t doing any sort of transformation at all; instead, he was sitting languidly on the couch at home, absently watching television. he was flipping through channels when his little brother, rectangle, entered the room with a smile. 

“they’re done!” rectangle announced, holding up a tray of mathematicookies – delicious, number-filled mathematicookies – square’s favorite.

square thanked him; he grabbed one and, without even looking at it, said, “these are store bought.” 

“you know i can’t bake…” his brother replied sheepishly.

as square continued channel-hopping, a striking advertisement came on – “DO YOU WANT TO GO TO THE THIRD DIMENSION?” a strange shape on screen asked. but square changed channels again before either him or his brother could answer the alluring question.

“hey wait, turn back!” rectangle exclaimed. square did so, as rectangle leaned towards the tv in interest.

“DO YOU WANT TO GO ON ADVENTURES, HAVE FUN, AND BE FAMOUS?” the ad continued, beckoning the viewer.

rectangle nodded with newfound energy. “doesn’t that sound cool?” he now leaned towards his older brother, a gleam in his eye.

“sure.”

“THEN JOIN THE COMPETITION! CALL THE NUMBER ON-SCREEN NOW! WITH A SMALL SIGN-UP FEE OF ONLY 50 DIGITS, YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO HAVE AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME! by signing up you agree to stay on show premises for the full allotted time of 20 days.”

rectangle quickly grabbed the phone off the hook and dialed 123-456-7890. and so did many others… why, this was likely the first interesting thing to ever happen in geometropolis.

“hello? good morning… yes, i’d like to sign up for the race to the third dimension. huh? yes. and i’m signing up my brother square, too.”

after finishing the sign-up process, rectangle sighed in relief and put the phone back. he was never the biggest fan of phone calls.

RING RING RING! rectangle fell backwards in shock as the phone tormented him with its chime. 

square picked up the phone in his stead. “hello?”

“hey man!!!” it was triangle! “long time no see! lmao.”

“yeah. did you hear about this ‘race to the 3rd dimension’ thing?”

“oh yeah. crazy, right? circle and i signed up, and i’m planning on winning.”

“cool. rectangle and i are in as well.”

“nice!”

as triangle was chatting on the phone, she heard a strange buzzing coming from north of her house. she stepped outside, curious, only to be dragged towards a giant shape she had never seen before – which was surprising, considering how small geometropolis’s population was. this shape was a golden four-pointed star, like a twinkle of light.

“hey!” triangle exclaimed as she stuck to his edge – and then her limbs vanished. what was going on? the already crazy day was getting crazier by the second.

square stared at the phone in his hand. it had been a while since triangle responded. “...hello?” he glanced back at rectangle, who shrugged.

suddenly, rectangle started hearing a buzzing sound as well. he left the house, and…

“woah!” rectangle yelped as he got stuck onto this strange, other-wordly shape. his limbs vanished and he noticed many other shapes along the shape’s edge as well: a trapezoid, an oval, a heart, a hexagon, a star, a droplet, a rhombus, an octagon, a pentagon, a kite, a circle (their old friend circle!), and hey, that’s where triangle went! 

square followed his brother outside, concerned, and soon the same happened to him.

this giant shape, square newly added to his collection, flew farther north, barely missing all of the houses in the way. he abruptly stopped in a clearing only marked with a sign saying, “put contestants here!”

and, with another buzz, he did – and all the shapes flew off, the heart screaming as he did so, arms and legs still nowhere to be found.

just then, the big shape left again, and after a few moments, returned, with two rather disgruntled shapes attached: a parallelogram and a heptagon.

the group – who, apparently, were all contestants for the race for the 3rd dimension – thought that the giant 4-pointed star was the most alien sight to ever grace their eyes; but then another entity came to claim that title. 

what was he? he seemed to glitch in and out of visibility, a nigh-incomprehensible, nigh-imperceptible gray loop sitting north of them beside the other shape.

“HELLO THERE, CONTESTANTS.” he was the shape from the ad! “I AM MӦBIUS STRIP. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR MONEY – I MEAN, THANK YOU ALL FOR SIGNING UP. YOU ALL GOT IN. CONGRATS.”

suddenly, the 4-pointed star manifested two hands out of thin air and started clapping. the hands promptly disappeared.

“but we didn’t even sign up!” the parallelogram protested, referring to himself and the heptagon. 

“WOW. GOOD FOR YOU :)”

mӧbius strip was holding a strange remote with an antenna. upon clicking it, everyone’s limbs reappeared.

“YOU HAVE YOUR LIMBS BACK NOW. GO AND MAKE 4 TEAMS OF 4. also you guys are trapped here for 20 days so you better like eating polynomial pasta. that’s, like, our only food.”

“good to have my arms and legs back, lol,” triangle said, standing up and stretching. she had never not had limbs before…

circle popped up and gathered his childhood friends together: rectangle, triangle, and square. “and it’s good to have you guys back, too!” he exclaimed, his smile making itself apparent in his voice. “we can be a team!” circle’s enthusiasm was infectious – even if they hadn’t hung out for a while, the friends were very excited to be together again. 

“OKAY,” mӧbius strip announced, “TEAM 1 IS CIRCLE, SQUARE, TRIANGLE, AND RECTANGLE.” 

heart and star, already knowing each other well from middle school, instantly gravitated to each other. they were the best of friends, and signed up for the race to the third dimension while hanging out at star’s that morning.

“i think we need two more people…” heart mumbled, even though he knew star wanted it to just be the two of them, like always.

star groaned, looking out at the array of shapes before them. “really? but they’re so uncool…..”

“w-well, i think rhombus and droplet are pretty cool…” heart suggested, showing the two to his best friend. rhombus looked ahead blankly, while the little droplet smiled sweetly. heart fluttered his eyelashes.

“well…” star started, his gaze flitting between them, “one’s a child and one’s a nerd… but they match our aesthetic. so sure.”

“TEAM 2 IS HEART, STAR, DROPLET, AND RHOMBUS.”

oval thought for a moment before slowly approaching kite, who was lost in thought. 

i wonder what this is going to be like? imagine if i could go to the 3rd dimension… but i can’t even fathom what that would look like…

“hey kite, wanna team up?”

“oh?” kite gasped, startled out of her daydream. “oh, sure!” 

“but who else should we have?”

“how about those two?” kite pointed to parallelogram and heptagon, who were busy moping around. they seemed to be very good at that.

oval nodded and translated over to the two. “hey, do you guys wanna join our team?”

parallelogram didn’t make eye contact. “we’ve got nothing better to do,” he sighed, with a resentful edge to his voice. heptagon said nothing, but knitted his brow further. 

“TEAM 3 IS KITE, OVAL, HEPTAGON, AND PARALLELOGRAM.”

trapezoid saw the remaining contestants: octagon, pentagon, and hexagon. the former two were fighting, while the latter was trying to stop them from killing each other. a perfectly tailored team, to be sure…

“i guess we’re the last ones, huh…” he said.

“AND TEAM 4 IS TRAPEZOID, PENTAGON, HEXAGON, AND OCTAGON… I GUESS. SORRY TRAPEZOID.”

“it’s okay…” trapezoid replied sheepishly.

soon enough, mӧbius strip had a list of team names: team 2 was named “the cool kids”, team 3 was “yim yum”, and team 4 was “helvetica”. 

“I HAVE THE NAMES FOR EVERY TEAM EXCEPT FOR TEAM 1. GIVE ME A NAME.”

“how about ‘the besties’?” rectangle quietly suggested.

“ew, no. that’s cringy,” triangle replied.

square, triangle, and rectangle began to argue about their team name; square in particular was annoyed that triangle should call his brother “cringy”. circle frowned and turned away from his friends, glancing at heart and star.

it looks like they’re getting along, anyway… he thought.

“YOU CAN’T DECIDE ON A NAME, SO WE’LL CALL YOU ‘GROUP TWO’.”

“but that doesn’t make sense!” triangle yelled. “we’re team 1, why would we be group 2??”

“SCREW YOU, THAT’S WHY!!” mӧbius concluded, leaving no more room for protestation or complaint. “…TIME FOR THE FIRST CONTEST, PLEBEIANS!”

after a long pause, mӧbius said it again: “…TIME FOR THE FIRST CONTEST, PLEBEIANS!”

“you already said that!!” parallelogram yelled.

mӧbius strip paused again, now holding multiple sheets of paper. “ahem. here are the rules for the game.” he gave the papers out to the contestants by sending them flying out amongst them.

octagon caught a sheet and sighed dreamily as she gazed at its convoluted procedure… 

heart, meanwhile, was not at all enamored by them. “this is so complicated!!!” he cried in exasperation.

“chill out, bro,” star replied casually, patting heart’s shoulder without actually looking at him. 

pentagon skipped toward mӧbius strip. “shouldn’t we set up our bunks first?” she asked.

“BE PATIENT, CHILD,” mӧbius replied drily. 

“it’s ‘be patient kiddo’,” trapezoid said, correcting the host’s apparently faulty terminology.

“kiddo’s not a real word.” heptagon muttered bitterly.

square, meanwhile, was having trouble reading the rules at all.

“what the heck is this??” he asked, looking in bewilderment towards mӧbius strip.

“CAN’T YOU READ THE RULES, CRETIN?”

“no i cannot,” square replied, finger guns and all. “what up, i’m jared, i’m 19, and i never heckin’ learned how to read!”

mӧbius strip did not reply further.

circle translated over to his friend. “i can read it to you!” he offered.

“thanks bromide.”

“the game is called ‘square up’. you will be put into two groups, two teams per group: the negatives and the positives. there is also an item called ‘the power of two’, which is hidden somewhere on the premises. the goal of the game is to turn everyone into your group: if you are a negative, to turn everyone into negatives, and if you are a positive, to turn everyone into positives. a negative can turn a positive into a negative by tagging them directly (as if multiplying a positive number by a negative number to get a negative number); likewise, a positive can only turn a negative into a positive by tapping them with ‘the power of two; (as if squaring a negative number to get a positive number). the game ends when either everyone is a negative or everyone is a positive – in which case the original members of that respective team win immunity.”

out of breath, circle fainted.

“heh…” star chuckled. “translation please?”

octagon scoffed. “sorry, i don’t speak IDIOT.” the rest of her team watched on in chagrin as she continued to mock star. “learn to appreciate the rules in all their glor–”

“quiet time.” trapezoid shoved a pacifier in octagon’s mouth.

hexagon came over, holding little pentagon’s hand. “why do you have pacifiers with you?”

“...i babysit.”

“aww!”

“quiet time.”

“AHEM,” mӧbius cleared his proverbial throat. “TIME FOR YOU TO GET READY OR WHATEVER.” he edged towards the large 4-pointed star. “‘THE POWER OF TWO’ IS ALREADY HIDDEN, RIGHT?”

the shape manifested a thumbs up.

“GROUP TWO AND THE COOL KIDS WILL BE THE POSITIVES. TWINKLE, TAKE THEM NEAR THE FOREST.”

“my name’s origin…” the 4-pointed star said under his breath. he started buzzing, and the two named teams floated towards him, losing their limbs in the process. he then flew to the east.

“YIM YUM, HELVETICA, YOU ARE THE NEGATIVES.”

origin let go of group two and the cool kids by the forest. moving slightly north, he used the same remote mӧbius strip had used before to give them back their limbs – before accidentally letting it go as well.

“ooh!” rhombus gasped, picking it up. they were fascinated by the mechanics of this strange machine…

but before rhombus could investigate the remote further, a speaker appeared in origin’s center, as mӧbius held a microphone.

“BEGIN!” mӧbius announced through his assistant.

“wow! i’m actually competing in a competition!” little droplet exclaimed, giggling eagerly. this was the first time she’d ever done anything really exciting in her life – but then, that applied to everyone else as well. 

heart patted her on the head, smiling warmly. “yup! now let’s go find that power of two’!” droplet hopped up over his head.

“did anyone see mӧbius hide it?” square asked.

“nope,” star replied carelessly. “but did anyone see where the cameras are? this is a show, right??”

triangle hit him lightly with her hand. “unimportant. let’s go find that dumb ol’ power thingy, whatever it is.”

thus group two and the cool kids headed into the dark forest, looking between the trees as they weaved through them…

meanwhile, despite being in the negative group, hexagon remained ever-positive. “c’mon gang!” she exclaimed, trying to rally her groupmates. “let’s go get the positives!” she lifted her fist in the air triumphantly, which pentagon cheekily mimicked beside her.

kite was sitting down next to parallelogram, thinking. “hm…” she glanced over at the forlorn polygons. “where do you think we should look? the positives probably went to hide.”

parallelogram just grunted. 

oval translated towards him. “what’s wrong?”

“heptagon and i aren’t supposed to be here!” he answered angrily. “we just got taken from our lives and forced to compete in this dumb show! it sucks!”

“yeah, i guess,” kite said, “but as long as you’re here you could give it a try! it sounds like fun to me. and until you can go home, it’s better than sitting around doing nothing.”

“hm.” 

octagon took the pacifier out of her mouth. “you should give it a try. the more forces we have, the better.”

“forces?” pentagon sat over octagon’s head. “what is this, an army?”

“it could be…” octagon replied ominously, shaking her fist.

“then let’s go!” oval smiled and led the group forward. “to the forest!”

as they headed east, trapezoid looked back and noticed heptagon sitting alone. trapezoid hurried over to him.

“hey buddy, you gonna join us?” he asked gently.

heptagon sneered. “what do you think?”

trapezoid sighed and looked away. “octagon’s not gonna like this,” he mumbled. then he ran after his group – “wait for me!!!” he yelled. 

the positives were traversing the wooded landscape under triangle’s leadership, searching far and wide for the elusive ‘power of two’.

rhombus piped up, “do you think it’s a good idea for us all to travel together?” they were fiddling with that strange remote they had picked up earlier.

rectangle looked uneasy, as did circle, who was sitting above him. “what, do you want us to split up?” rectangle asked.

“if we’re all together when they find us, they could tag all of us. game over.”

star laughed, walking on casually. “that doesn’t sound like an epic gamer move. lol.”

“hey, maybe you shouldn’t walk with your eyes closed,” heart suggested softly.

his friend’s only reply was “lmao”. 

soon enough, the negatives arrived at the forest’s edge.

“it’s safe to say they went in,” parallelogram stated. “it’d be harder for us to find them there, right?”

pentagon grinned, bearing pointy teeth. “well they can run, but they can’t hide!”

“c’mon!” kite said, leading parallelogram into the woods after the rest of the group.

as heart kept walking hand in hand with droplet, star kept walking with his eyes closed, despite the previous warnings. 

“hey!” circle called. “watch out!”

but he was too late – star bumped right into a tree, emitting a resounding “OOF!”

pentagon perked up at the sound.

“did you hear that?” trapezoid gasped, peeking around a bush. the rest of the negatives followed suit – and there, just beyond, were the positives by a tree!

as heart helped him up, star looked over to the west – and saw the negatives looking straight at him! “AIEEE!” he yelped.

the negatives all pounced towards the tree as the positives tried to scramble away. most were able to escape the other group’s clutches, hiding behind the surrounding brush – all except rectangle, who couldn’t make it out in time.

“help!” he cried, right as he was tagged by oval, turning him into a negative.

the rest of the positives sheltered behind trees, staying silently out of sight. among them was little droplet, quietly and curiously observing her surroundings. then she spotted a little white circle with a label on it saying “x²” –  it was the power of two! “aha!” she exclaimed quietly.

just then, pentagon, the little speed demon, sprung out of nowhere in an attempt to tag droplet! but droplet tagged her first with the power of two, turning her into a positive. 

square grabbed pentagon so she couldn’t run away, and smiled at droplet, pointing at the power of two. “you should throw it between the trees and try to hit the negatives over there,” he said in a hushed voice.

“but how would it come back to me?”

“it’ll bounce back.”

“i don’t think i can throw it that hard...”

“but i can!” triangle appeared, grabbing the power of two. droplet crouched behind triangle as she peeked from behind their tree and poised her arm to throw. triangle seemed so ready that it was as if she had been born to do this very task.

she threw the ball – and it hit oval! then it ricocheted off of him and hit trapezoid, and then octagon – three more negatives squared into positives! the power of two finally came flying back to triangle, who was grinning in anticipation as she snatched it.

triangle threw it again, this time aiming for parallelogram – but much to her dismay, the previously half-hearted shape was now laser focused, easily dodging her pitch.  

“nice!” kite cheered, high-fiving him.

triangle frowned and caught the ball as it returned to her yet again.

“can i try?” heart shyly asked her; she handed it over. 

“where did kite go?” he pondered, cautiously peering at the other group before throwing the ball. it hit parallelogram, octagon (causing her to spit out her pacifier), and rectangle – and heart smiled proudly as he caught the ball again.

just then kite hopped out of nowhere, about to tag heart!

but a beam of light shot out from behind him and hit kite, causing her to lose her limbs and fly back – it was rhombus, with that enigmatic remote! kite landed by her groupmates, soon hit by the power of two. “ow,” she muttered, now immobilized.

rectangle approached his groupmates and clapped with glee. “good job, guys! …now where’s heptagon?”

should i tell them? octagon considered. i can just picture the look on that useless idiot’s face when he gets hit smack in it with the ball… it would serve you right, heptagon! but then it’d make me lose… so maybe i shouldn’t.

“we’re not telling,” she finally replied, sticking out her tongue. 

still behind the tree, circle took a second to think. “aha!” he exclaimed, weaving between the trees and emerging into the light. there was origin, placid and silent as always.

“hey!” circle called. “did you ever move the negatives from where they were before in the field?”

“nope,” origin replied softly. “they were still in the field when we started.”

“thanks!” circle gave him a thumbs up before rejoining his group. he then swiftly grabbed the power of two from heart and started running out of the forest with the negatives on his tail – parallelogram was holding the limbless kite as he ran.

“is pentagon secured?” rhombus asked, as they and the rest of the positives joined him. “she’s the fastest.”

“yeah!” square answered, holding a flailing pentagon up.

the crowd approached the field, and there was heptagon, sitting there with his eyes closed, completely unaware of his surroundings. or was he just ignoring them?

“c’mon heptagon!” kite yelled. “circle’s coming!” but heptagon, as usual, did not give any indication of even hearing her…

trapezoid reached out to try and grab circle, but he missed – and circle chucked the power of two down on heptagon! everyone collapsed around him as the game ended and the ball bounced away: the positives had won!

“THE GAME IS OVER!” mӧbius strip announced, holding a pair of scissors. “THE POSITIVES WON – SO GROUP TWO AND THE COOL KIDS ARE SAVED FROM ELIMINATION.” he furtively scooched towards origin, waving the scissors at him. “twinkle, put these away.”

origin sighed and acquiesced.

“does that mean…” oval started, his brow furrowing.

“NEXT TIME, A MEMBER OF YIM YUM OR HELVETICA WILL BE HISTORY.”

“h-history??” heart cried. “what happens when we’re eliminated?”

“THAT’S FOR ME TO KNOW AND FOR YOU TO FIND OUT.”

heart gulped nervously. 

what is that supposed to mean? he thought. what’s gonna happen to me if i get eliminated? or my teammates? oh my prime, why did star convince me into joining this show???

parallelogram was sitting beside heptagon with a sour expression. the limbless kite fell against him, and he smiled.

“we lost big-time, but i still had fun!” he said. “i guess you were right.”

“well, i guess i was!” kite smiled. “i’m glad.”

“but if heptagon would’ve participated, we might’ve had a chance of winning…” parallelogram muttered, glaring at him.

“hm… hey rhombus, could you give me my limbs back?”

…

in the dead of night, origin sat by the forest. watching. waiting. 

a fuschia figure flashed between the trees.

brrr… a camera lens appeared in origin’s center, focusing…

octagon found her pacifier sitting behind a tree. her eyes darted from side to side cautiously, before she finally grabbed it, wiped it off, and put it back in her mouth. 

then, as quietly as she came, she left.

origin snapped a photo. click…

[smile-files]

the cast of characters in my object show idea, “geometropolis”!

it’s basically a bunch of shapes battling for the ultimate prize: access to the third dimension! i don’t know if, how, or when i’ll actually make the show, but i really love the characters and ideas i have so far. speaking of which, character bios under the cut!

team 1: “group two” (all four of them are childhood friends)

circle - a happy-go-lucky guy who’s not only shaped like a friend, but also is a friend! he’s optimistic and supportive, but strongly dislikes fighting and change. 

square - rectangle’s twin brother; he’s very relaxed and calm, but has an incredibly strong sense of justice. doesn’t like socializing if he doesn’t need to.

triangle - a very opinionated gal; she speaks her mind and others tend to listen. she’s very spunky and very keen on getting what she wants.

rectangle - a timid fella who’s not only shaped like a doormat, but also is a doormat! rather close to triangle, which gives them a very odd dynamic.

team 2: “the cool kids” (star & heart knew each other before; heart invited the other two to join as well)

star - a popular lad who’s rather unaware of the consequences of his actions. isn’t close with anyone besides heart, and is rather clingy to him.

heart - the shy, unlikely friend of star. he’s very thoughtful and very emotional, and has issues with bottling up his feelings until it’s too much for him to contain.

rhombus - kite’s cousin; they might seem like an oddball, and probably is one, but they’re also very observant and extremely wise. possesses the limb remote.

droplet - a little kiddo who believes that everyone is a good person! she has a rather naive worldview, and will soon have to deal with the reality of life.

team 3: “yim yum” (kite and oval joined up, then rounded up the two who didn’t want to be there)

kite - a quiet and philosophical tall girl who spends much more time thinking than doing. has many qualms about the morality of the little stuff she actually does.

oval - a friendly and patient fella whom everyone likes hanging around, even if he isn’t ‘popular’ like star. is your involuntary therapist.

heptagon - doesn’t want to be here and doesn’t care; too smart for his own good and doesn’t bother putting effort into anything. people don’t like him.

parallelogram - a very passionate guy who fights for what he believes in; extremely soft-hearted and empathetic, despite his aggressive demeanor.

team 4: “helvetica.” (the people not on any other team)

trapezoid - think of “as your father i expressly forbid it” by lemon demon. is rather bossy but only out of the immense concern he has for the people he cares for.

pentagon - a little girl who can’t help but scamper up the walls and cling to the ceiling like a spider. needs adult supervision at all times.

hexagon - a ukulele-playing girl who can’t help but care for everyone (but herself, mind you); very happy on the surface, but is easily stressed.

octagon - a grump who wants everyone to listen to her; most people don’t take her seriously and say she’s just being mean. won’t admit she cares about you.

hosts:

mobius strip - the main host. has the ability to travel between the 2nd and 3rd dimensions, and thus has no need for the magical ‘3d access’ he possesses (hence the competition for it). doesn’t listen to anyone and is rather eccentric; nobody knows what his deal is.

twinkle - originally thought to not be sentient at all; a large shape who can do things such as carry others and act as a megaphone. does whatever mobius says, for the most part. has access to ‘the paradox’, the place where contestants go when eliminated.

[getindumdums]

Now that’s a skeleton! We can work with this! For turns you want curved guide lines similarly to the torso. By breaking the arms, legs, and hands into cylinders, spheres, cubes like shapes you can pose them too. Try thinking about 3D spaces. Making 3D models out of foil, the posable mannequin, and action figures could help visualize it. You can personally adjust, and just pick a pose and angle you like.

The silhouette test asks: is this character recognizable by its black silhouette? Character design has a character with square/rectangle (sturdy and strong, logical), triangle (sharp, villain like), and circles/round shapes (friendly, bubbly, happy). Think about the ROTTMNT turtles. Doodling ‘black silhouettes’ before actually drawing the character can help with both design and poses!

Since you have more of a ‘box’ shape torso, and if you really want to play with the “box” part of turtles. A more square-like head could be work. (Or I guess hexagons, pentagons here, just ‘straighter’ lines.) But if you want a rounder torso, a rounder face will work.

Then after picking your head shape, and sketching your silhouette/skeleton. It’s onto experimenting with eye and mouth shapes. Personally I start with the face first, specifically the eyes, the beak, and adjust the face as needed. And draw the mouth and mask last. (The mask can act like eyebrows!)

Then we move onto actually working on the body! (I just find it easier to draw the head first. And adjusting the body after so the head fits together better.)

I’m a big fan of ‘less is more’, or more abstract styles. So we can exclude pupils and/or beaks if you want. If you work on expression. It’ll work regardless of what you choose.

@getindumdums After your advice I put some thought into what cartoon characters I do see them resembling when it comes to body type. This is sort of a starting point borrowing Amethyst's shapes (I looked up how to draw her).

I think they're more fun and certainly easier to draw with the simplified limbs, although I may have made them look too babyish with the big round bald heads. Also I still don't know if I can pose them XD

I would love to see your takes on them and get more advice.

Thank you for helping!

[eurydicees]

for @falling-pages​! it’s probably a bit ooc and not super funny but i had so so much fun writing this, and i hope you enjoy!

the great escape

summary: the hosts go to an escape room. they break up into two teams, each competing to get out first. it goes... less than stellar. but also, they have fun anyways. 

(group a: tamaki, hikaru, and karou. group b: kyoya, haruhi, honey, and mori.) 

pairings: none

words: 2586

warnings: none

GROUP A: 1 HOUR TO GO

“You said today would be fun,” Hikaru mumbles, stepping into the locked room. 

“It will be,” Tamaki says, insistent. He turns to the ground with a grin. “Alright, we have an hour to get out of here.” 

Kaoru sighs, looking around the room that they’ve just entered. It’s small, built to look like the living room of a simple house. “Let’s just try and get out of here before I start getting claustrophobic.” 

“That’s the right attitude,” Tamaki says brightly. 

“Sure,” Kaoru says, not really paying attention. He steps farther into the room, beginning to walk around the edges. He runs his hand over the frame of a chalkboard. On the board is a “who am I?” riddle. 

Tamaki frowns at it. “What is that?” 

“It’s probably a clue,” Hikaru says, not looking at it. Instead, he’s looking at a cabinet. He jiggles the handle, but it’s locked by some kind of panel of light up colored buttons. “Everything is a clue.” 

“Not to be dramatic or anything,” Kaoru says. “Now, where do we start?” 

Tamaki shrugs. He starts wandering the room, picking up the little knick knacks pressing random spots on the wall. “I dunno. Are there buttons, or something— oh! Secret passageways? Bookshelves that are actually doors?” 

“There aren’t any bookshelves, boss,” Hikaru says. He’s abandoned the cabinet to instead look at a safe that sits on a table next to the couch. Instead of numbers, the keypad is made up of nine buttons with little shapes marked on them. “I bet the key is in here.” 

“So what’s the code?” Tamaki asks. 

“If I knew that, I would have opened it already.”

“Yeah, okay.” Tamaki hasn’t lost his grin. Instead, he joins Hikaru and Kaoru to look at the safe. “So, let’s figure out the code. It’s a bunch of— shapes? Triangles?”  

Hikaru nods, pressing the keys at random. “It’s a number combination— or, a shape combination. We just have to guess the right one.” 

“Do you have any idea how many combinations there are?” Kaoru asks. He turns away from the safe, looking around the room. “There’s got to be a clue somewhere. Guessing is going to take too long.” 

“We have an hour,” Tamaki points out. “Let’s get to guessing!” 

GROUP B: 1 HOUR TO GO

“Okay,” Kyoya says, stepping into the escape room. Haruhi, Honey, and Mori follow him, the door clicking shut and the lock catching just as Mori steps in. “We have an hour to escape.” 

“This should be fun!” Honey says brightly, looking around the room. “It can’t be too hard, right?” 

Haruhi smiles at him, beginning to walk around the room. They’re in a living room, one that was advertised to be identical to a second escape room, where the rest of the hosts are. The first one out, the group had decided, is the winner and gets to choose the cosplay for the next week. Haruhi has very little faith in Group A. 

“We should just start by looking around,” Kyoya instructs, “and figure out what we have at our disposal.” 

“Kyoya, this is supposed to be fun,” Honey says. “Relax a bit.” 

Kyoya glares at him, the light catching on his glasses and sending shadows over his cheeks. “I’ll relax when we’re not in a locked room.” 

“Oh hey,” Haruhi calls out, having stopped at the safe by the couch. “I bet the key to the door is in here. Looks like there’s some sort of combination. It’s made of shapes, though, not numbers.” 

“What shapes?” Kyoya asks. 

Haruhi glances back down at the safe. “Square, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, circle, pentagon, an arrow, a heart, and— a weird blob-like thing.” 

“I think it’s a flower,” Honey says, standing next to her.

Mori stands next to them, peering over Haruhi’s shoulder and frowning. “Maybe a sun?” 

“I can see that,” Haruhi says, tilting her head and squinting. “It’s so small, though.” 

“Does it really matter?” Kyoya asks, turning away from them. He’s standing by a closet, and he pulls at the handle a couple times, testing it. “This is locked as well.” 

“One of them has to have the key,” Honey decides. “We just have to figure out the codes. There’s got to be clues somewhere.” 

Kyoya nods, dropping his hand from the knob of the closet. He turns back to the group, then looks around the room. “Okay, so we each take a side of the room— look for keys, buttons, puzzles, anything might help.” 

Haruhi grins. “We’re definitely going to win.” 

GROUP A: 45 MINUTES TO GO 

“We’re definitely going to lose,” Hikaru groans, dropping his head against the safe. He’s been pushing buttons in random combinations for the last fifteen minutes, while Tamaki and Kaoru wander around the room, searching for other things to play with. “This is terrible.” 

“Oh this is fun,” Tamaki says, looking at a locked jewelry box and ignoring Hikaru. “More locks!” 

Kaoru glances over from the other side of the room. “Any keys over there, though?” 

Tamaki seems to deflate at that, shoulders slumping. “No, no, and no. Aaaaaahhhhhhhh.” 

“Okay then, Detective Tamaki, that is not helpful.” Hikaru lifts his head to find Tamaki sitting in the corner, the gloom and disappointment practically radiating off of him. “Come on, boss, pull yourself together. You sound like a bad acapella singer who just lost a competition.” 

Kaoru snickers. “He can’t find the right key to sing in.” 

“I thought he was confident in us,” Hikaru says, a grin coming over his face, his eyes suddenly bright. “I thought he was a believer—” 

“—but then I saw his face,” Kaoru sings. 

“I hate you both,” Tamaki mutters. But he’s perked up, smiling, turning to the jewelry box with a renewed vigor.

GROUP B: 45 MINUTES TO GO

“I think I found something,” Haruhi calls out, the excitement coming out in the wide grin she sends Kyoya. “Here, there’s something rattling in this jewelry box.” 

Honey walks over to her and she hands the box over to him, so he can shake it. Something rattles— it’s small, but makes an audible clinking sound. “Could be a key.” 

Mori, standing at the other side of the room, gives a shout, not very loud, just enough to get their attention. “I got it.” 

Honey bounces over to him. “Great job, Takashi!” 

Mori just nods. He pulls open the cabinet door. “You just switch the colors of the buttons to the colors of the painting over there.” 

They all turn to look at the painting; a modern art piece with a series of stripes in different colors. They match the colors on the lock that Mori had just opened. 

“Awesome,” Haruhi says, a grinning spreading over her face. “What’ve we got inside?” 

Honey reaches into the small cabinet. “It’s a… plastic triangle?”

He hands it off to Kyoya, who has joined him at the cabinet. Kyoya turns it over in his hand, fingers running over the blue plastic. “There’s a number on the back— three.” 

They all ponder that for a moment, looking around at each other. 

Honey frowns. “Triangle. Three. Plastic. Blue. What?” Then he starts laughing— “Oh, of course! It must be the third shape in the lock to the safe.” 

“I bet,” Kyoya says slowly, looking down at the triangle, “that if we open the rest of the locks, we’ll find three other shapes with three other numbers—” 

“ — and that’ll be the code to the safe,” Haruhi finishes. “Brilliant.” 

“Let’s get working,” Kyoya says. He’s smiling. 

GROUP A: 25 MINUTES TO GO

“I got it!” Kaoru yells, making everyone else wince. 

“What is it?” Tamaki asks, walking over. He’s still holding the jewelry box, no progress having been made in opening it. 

Kaoru pulls open a drawer that had been hidden in a desk at the corner of the room. “The lock was a word— the answer to that riddle over there.” 

“What riddle?” Hikaru stares at the drawer, pulling it open. “Ooooh, this is new.” 

“On the chalkboard, next to the weird painting with the lines.” Kaoru picks up the object in the drawer— a small plastic square. He turns it over to find the number one etched into it. “What do you think this means?” 

Hikaru reaches over, taking the square away from Kaoru. He runs his finger over the number, feeling the hills and valleys of the carving. “Maybe it’s the code to the safe— like the square is the first key to push when opening the safe.” 

“Hikaru,” Tamaki says, “I’m going to hug you now.” 

GROUP B: 25 MINUTES TO GO

“We’re running out of time,” Honey moans. “And we’re no closer.” 

“We’ve got three of the shapes,” Haruhi says, shrugging. “We’re doing fine, I think.” 

Kyoya fiddles with the lock on a drawer. “We’ve got two, three, and four. We still need the first number. Arguably the most important one.” 

“Key word being arguably,” Haruhi says. “You’re too stressed, we just have that one drawer left. What’s the riddle again?” 

Honey glances over to the chalkboard, hanging next to the door. “I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?” 

“Branches,” Honey says, flopping down on the couch. “Fruit. Gross. Trunk. Leaves. What? Branches. Fruit. Tru—” 

“Repeating it isn’t helpful,” Kyoya snaps.

“I’m just trying to help,” Honey protests, rubbing at tired eyes. Mori puts a hand on his shoulder and Honey just sighs. “Okay, Kyoya, what do you think?” 

Kyoya sighs, head falling back to stare at the ceiling, eyes squeezed shut. He’s quiet for a few moments, nose scrunched up. Then he opens his eyes, chin dropping. “I have no idea.” 

“Wow,” Haruhi teases, “Kyoya doesn’t know something.” 

“I’ll kill you and make it look like an accident,” Kyoya says dryly. 

Haruhi just rolls her eyes. “Let’s just think about this. What has branches?” 

“Trees,” Honey says. “Plants.”

“Businesses!” Haruhi yells, voice much louder than she had meant it to be. She snaps her fingers, staring at the keys on the lock, tapping her chin. “What corporations are four letters long?” 

They’re all quiet, looking at each other. No one says anything. 

GROUP A: 10 MINUTES TO GO

“We’re screwed,” Hikaru says, glaring at the clock. The offending clock ticks on, ignorant to Hikaru’s frustration. “We’re absolutely screwed.” 

“Incorrect!” Tamaki says, raising a hand. “We’ve got two of the four shapes, we just need two more! We can—” 

Kaoru sighs, and that’s enough to cut him off. “We’re not any closer to figuring out the other two locks, boss. We’ve got nothing.” 

“Well, maybe if we stopped arguing—” 

“We’re not arguing—” 

“Just cooperate—” 

“Kaoru—” 

“I’m gonna—” 

“Stop it! This is about working toge—” 

“Kaoru—” 

“Stop arguing!” Kaoru yells. Tamaki and Hikaru stop, turning to look at him. “We’re not gonna get anywhere if we keep arguing. Just think.” 

“We could probably just guess the last two numbers,” Hikaru points out. “There’s only so many combinations.” 

Tamaki wrinkles his nose. “But that’s not how the game works.” 

“It is when you only have ten minutes left.” Hikaru walks over to the safe, starting to punch in random combinations of shapes. “Okay, well, it’s not square/heart/rectangle/blob. It’s not square/heart/circle/arrow.” 

“You could at least do this methodically,” Kaoru says, joining him. He starts pushing at the numbers too. “It’s not square/heart/rectangle/circle. It’s not square/heart/rectangle/arrow, either. It’s not—” 

“You’re never going to get it like that,” Tamaki says with a sigh. He turns over to the nearest puzzle— the cabinet with colored lines. If you push the key up, you get different colors. He’s pretty sure he just needs the right of colors, but he has no idea how to get that combination. “We only have ten minutes left, guys.” 

GROUP B: 10 MINUTES TO GO

“I got it!” Kyoya says, an exclamation louder and more excited than Haruhi had ever heard him before. “Try BANK. It’s not a tree, so not fruit, trunk, or leaves. But it has different branches.” 

Haruhi punches in the numbers. The four of them wait in a strained silence, hopeful, all of them leaning forward on their toes, waiting. Then— the lock clicks. They let out a breath. Haruhi, carefully, slowly, opens the door, drawing out the last shape. 

“It’s a square!” she shouts. 

Honey runs over to the safe: he punches in that four squares, and then tugs at the handle.  

It opens. 

Inside, is the largest key that any of them have ever seen. It’s ornate, more decorative than anything else, but Mori grabs it and shoves it in the door. With a little bit of rattling, the door, slowly, so slowly, opens. 

GROUP A: 3 MINUTES TO GO

“Well,” Tamaki says, sitting down on the couch. He stares up at the ceiling. “This has been fun.” 

Hikaru laughs— not cruelly, but genuinely entertained. “I hope the other group is just as stuck as we are.” 

“You know they aren’t,” Kaoru says, sighing. “Think about who’s in that group.” 

Hikaru sighs, but the smile doesn’t leave his face. He sits down on the couch next to Tamaki, their shoulders pressed together. “We probably could have taken this a bit more seriously.” 

“Probably,” Tamaki admits. “Turns out that an hour is actually not that much time.” 

“Who would have thought?” Kaoru sits down on the couch, Tamaki between him and his brother. He presses himself against Tamaki, nudging his shoulder. “We tried.” 

“We kind of tried,” Tamaki says. He smiles, though, pushing back against Kaoru. “Do you think they’ll really lock us in here forever?” 

Hikaru laughs. “You know that they have Game Masters who have been watching us the whole time, right?” 

“Wait, what?” Tamaki frowns. “The whole time?” 

“Yeah,” Hikaru says with a nod, “just in case something goes horribly wrong. You can also ask for hints if you need them.” 

Tamaki stares at him, face blank. “You mean that we could have been asking for hints this whole time?” 

“Pretty much,” Kaoru says, shrugging. “But that’s not as much fun.” 

Tamaki leans back against the couch as the alarm rings, their time being up. “Damn it.” 

GROUP B: 3 MINUTES TO GO

Kyoya, Haruhi, Honey, and Mori stumble out of the escape room and into the hallway. Haruhi and Honey are laughing, Honey gripping onto her arm with a bright smile. 

“We deserve a reward,” Honey says with a giggle, “I vote for cake tonight.” 

“I vote for two pieces of cake,” Haruhi says. Her eyes are bright, excited. 

Even Kyoya is smiling. “And we get to choose the theme for next week.” 

“We do?” Haruhi asks. “How did the other group do?” 

Mori points towards their door, where one of the Game Masters has a key and is letting out a sheepish Tamaki, the twins behind him, rubbing the backs of their necks in unison. “They got stuck.” 

GROUPS A and B: 30 MINUTES LATER

They’re sitting in a pizza place, laughing over the three pepperoni pizzas that they’ve ordered. Honey had objected to broccoli, and Tamaki had demanded something more than just cheese, both of them agreeing on pepperoni. They’re all reaching over each other, grabbing food, laughing, pointing at each other. 

Haruhi glances around the group, eyes settling on the other hosts for a moment each. She can’t help but love them all. Honey catches her eye, face red with laughter. “Are you okay?” he mouths. She just nods, and smiles. Yeah, she’s okay. 

[tomasorban]

Merkaba - Star Tetrahedron

The Star Tetrahedron is a sacred geometric shape, also found within Metatron’s cube. It is made up of two Tetrahedrons (three-dimensional equilateral triangles) one inverted through the other. This powerful shape is also referred to as the Merkaba, an ancient symbol. It is principally a three dimensional Star of David. It is an electro-magnetic field that is geometric in nature.

The Mer-Ka-Ba field is extremely complex, involving the five Platonic solids and other sacred polyhedrons. The word Merkaba, derived from ancient Egyptian text, is translated as Mer: light, Ka: spirit, and Ba: body. In Hebrew it means “Heavenly Throne Chariot.” This electro-magnetic field is also referred to as the Vehicle for Ascension.

The Star Tetrahedron/Merkaba is an extremely powerful symbol and tool in assisting one in the ascension process. The combination of two Tetrahedrons - one pointing up to the Sun and heavens, connecting with Divine Life Force Energy from the Universe to the earth plain, and one pointing downwards, drawing Divine Energy from the earth. Both these Universal Energies connect at the Heart Chakra when meditating upon and activating the Merkaba.

The Tetrahedron pointing upwards to the sun and the heavens is male and rotates clockwise, while the Tetrahedron pointing to the center of the Earth is female and rotates counterclockwise.

By meditating on the Merkaba one is able to merge with Source, God, the Divine, All There Is and this is a beautiful reminder to remember that we are, true, loving, and Divine in nature. The awareness and remembering of the Mer-Ka-Ba is unfolding all over the world. This unfoldment is all part of the evolving shift in our DNA.

The Golden Ratio

The Golden Ratio symbolized by the Greek letter φ “Phi”, is a mathematical proportion that occurs every where in nature. Phi is a special sacred number approximately equal to 1.61803... The decimals go on ad infinitum without any discernible pattern to the digits.

We find the golden ratio when we divide a line into two segments so that the longer segment divided by the shorter segment is also equal to the whole length divided by the longer segment as shown in the diagram to the left. This ratio is expressed as, approximately 1.61803.....

A great geometric example of phi is the pentagram resulting from connecting the points of a pentagon, which consists of five lines. Each of the intersecting lines are divided into the Golden Ratio, as in the example to the left: a/b = a+b/a = 1.61803 = φ “Phi”

Similarly, within the pentagram the Golden Ratio is evident throughout its entire structure, as also shown in the diagram to the left: A/B = 1.61803 . . . B/C = 1.61803 . . . C/D = 1.61803 . . .

The Golden Ratio is also sometimes called the golden section, golden mean, golden number, Divine proportion, Divine section, and golden proportion.

Dating back thousands of years, the Golden Ratio has been revered as the proportion of harmony, perfection and Divinity.  

The Golden Ratio & Vesica Pisces

The Vesica Pisces provides a simple way of arriving at the basic patterns and measures of sacred geometry, especially the fundamental ratio of the Golden Section….. These are the ratios, proportions and harmonies found in Nature, in the form of plants, animals, crystals and the human body. They are also present in music and mathematics, and so form the underlying structures of creation.

The Vesica Pisces is a shape that is the intersection of two circles with the same radius, intersecting in such a way that the center of each circle lies on the perimeter of the other. In adding a third circle as in the sequence of drawing the Flower of Life, a third Vesica Pisces emerges. These three circles and corresponding three Vesica Pisces are frequently referred to as the Trinity.

Within this simple structure of the Vesica Pisces, one can extract the Square, Equilateral Triangle, Hexagon, Pentagon and Pentagram, amongst other polygons.

The shape formed where the two circles of the Vesica Pisces intersect is known as the mandorla (the almond shape in the centre) and it represents the womb where the Seed of Life is birthed into the duality and then eventually evolves into the trinity – it is the seed bed of all trigonometry.

Fibonacci Sequence & Golden Spiral

The Golden Ratio within the Fibonacci Sequence, is a sequence that was introduced by the French mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, also known as Leonardo Fibonacci. Leonardo Fibonacci began study of this sequence by posing the following problem in his book, Liber Abaci.

How many pairs of rabbits will be produced in a year, beginning with a single pair, if in every month each pair bears a new pair which becomes productive from the second month on?

The Fibonacci sequence is generated by adding the previous two numbers in the list together to form the next and so on and so on. (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, ...) Divide any number in the Fibonacci sequence by the one before it, for example 144/89, or 34/21, and the answer is always close to 1.618. This is known as the Golden Ratio.

This Golden Section Spiral is obtained when we make a set of rotating squares beginning at 1, that produces a logarithmic spiral. The spiral begins where the two faint lines intersect at 1, and the ratio of the lengths of these two lines equate to the Golden Ratio.

Another most significant example of this special ratio can be found in Deoxyribonucleic Acid, DNA - the Divine Blueprint of all living organisms. The spirals are found extensively in nature and resonate with the innate human spirit. The spiral pattern is found encoded in our DNA, in plants, animals, crystals, aspects of the earth, our Milky Way galaxy and the countless galaxies around us.

Even the Cochlea, the part of the inner ear that converts impulses into electrical signals, has a Nautilus shell spiral shape. A cross section of the Cochlea shows that it forms a Golden Spiral.

Music & Sacred Geometry

Music, Phi and the Fibonacci Sequence.

Musical frequencies are often based on Fibonacci ratios.

Notes in the scale of western music are often based on natural harmonics that are created by ratios of frequencies. Ratios found in the first seven numbers of the Fibonacci series ( 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 ) are related to key frequencies of musical notes.

Fibonacci and phi relationships are often found in the timing of musical compositions. As an example, the climax of songs is often found at roughly the phi point (61.8%) of the song, rather than the middle or end of the song. In a 32 bar song, this would occur in the 20th bar.

It was Pythagoras who first described the fifth interval which has come to be universally recognized for its harmony. The fifth is the interval found in most western and sacred music, and it has a profound balancing effect on the human energy field.

This basic harmonic musical relationship called the fifth, is simply the interval between the first and fifth notes of a major scale. For example, in the key of A the fifth note is E (A=1, B=2, C#=3, D=4, E=5, etc). This interval is so primary and profound in music it is called the “perfect fifth.” The perfect fifth identifies that there is a progression in music that naturally cycles through all 12 keys in a way that is harmonically pleasing to one’s senses, also referred to as the cycle of fifths.

Using the 12-around -1 matrix pattern as a guide, a do-decagon, one can observe two sets of the five Platonic Solids in this structure.

Shri (Sri) Yantra Sacred Geometry

A Shri “Sri” Yantra is a Sacred Geometric Mandala, the origin of which is said to be of ancient Vedic texts, dated as far back as 5,000 BC. It is a type of mandala with geometric patterns of nine interlocking triangles. The center triangle is an equilateral triangle and the center point within this triangle is referred to as the Bindu, representing unity of All There Is. The center Bindu is also said to be representative of the Flower of Life.

The nine triangles are of various sizes and intersect precisely with one another. In the center is the Bindu, inspiring the highest potential, the infinite center from which the Universe expands. The triangles are enclosed by two rows of (8 and 16) petals, representing the lotus of creation and Vital Life Force Energy. The four openings to the rectangles of the outer frame denote sanctity, with the four openings gaining access to the highest regions of the Universe.

The two layers of lotus petals outside the circle are pointing outwards, as if opening to awareness, ultimately enlightenment. It is said they illustrate unfolding of our understanding, awareness of the greater self in Oneness with God, Source, All There Is. The lotus also represents the heart connected with the Crown Chakra.

Shri ‘Sri’ means wealth and prosperity and ‘Yantra’ means instrument. The Shri Yantra is a symbolic representation of aspects of divinity, the creative forces of the Universe. It is an interlocking matrix of Sacred Geometric fractals, comprised of circles, triangles, lotus petals, and floral patterns that invoke atonement to the majestic elegance and harmony of the Universe, Source, God - The Kingdom of Heaven within.

[nonbinary-octopus]

so this weekend is my usual bi-weekly grocery weekend, and so since I will probably be going out tomorrow (probably. still need to write a grocery list, but I definitely need to get food tomorrow or sunday), of course I went to check up on my mask situation.

There were two masks in the drawer where my masks are supposed to be, the flat, accordion style mask (I do not know what any of the mask shapes/styles are called), and the first one I made out of the same turtle flannel I used in the baby shark quilt, and the other I made with pink rose fabric with white fabric for the inside and the straps. I dunno if I ever showed or mentioned on here, but I made a double circle skirt a bit ago out of pink rose fabric, and white shorts to wear underneath, and that mask is made of the same fabric. But I don't really like going grocery shopping in them, cause they squish my nose and over the duration of a shopping trip it gets pretty sore. First masks I made, learning experience. Plus the rose one's a little small because I didn't measure too carefully. anyway.

in my laundry basket, one mask, of the kind that's made of two curved pieces of fabric sewn together, and it's got a pumpkin face on it. Sort of a reverse pumpkin face, it's black background with orange jackolantern nose and mouth. Got it at a cvs. (all my storebought masks (currently all of them but the two accordion masks but that will change) are from cvs.) I wore it to go down and get a package earlier today. probably should have worn one of the acordian masks since it was such a short trip but oh well.

so since I can't wear the comfy mask because it's in the laundry and obviously it has to be washed first before I put it on again, but I can't just do laundry to fix that because I did laundry yesterday and there's not enough dirty clothes for a load, and I don't want to wear the accordian masks because they're not comfortable, I went looking for my other masks.

went digging in my closet. specifically in the pile of clean clothes in my closet. it's not on the floor of my closet but only because I happen to have an extra bed in my closet and I dump my clean laundry on it. though now they're mostly on the floor because I had to move them off the bed to search. or at least the stuff that goes on hangers is in a pile on the floor. the stuff that goes in sorty bins by the door are now in the sorty bins by the door.

And I found one more mask! The first mask I bought from a store. It has dinosaurs on it. It's a flat mask, but it's not a rectangle, so it's more comfortable than the accordion masks. I dunno how that works exactly, but it does. Problem is it's kinda smallish and I don't feel like it quite covers my face as much as I'd like

I mean, I'm sure it's sufficient, it covers both my mouth and my nose, but if I open my mouth as wide as I physically can, I can get it past the edge of the mask

so I'm like. I know I have at least two other masks. There's the hexagons one (same cut as the pumpkin one), and the green one, which is a shaped mask, with a fold in the middle, a dart for the nose, and a chin triangle. (kinda the same resulting shape as a chin dart, but the seam is in a different place. requires more cutting AND more sewing, but it might be more comfortable?)

Problem is, I've gone through the entire thing of clean laundry, and they're nowhere to be found. So I'm thinking, okay, tomorrow morning, I need to make another mask, a comfy one. I'll use the pattern I made from the green mask. (Unfortunately, despite being a super comfortable shape, it's made of a kinda scratchy material I don't particularly enjoy touching my face, but fortunately, I spent a good portion of last saturday using it to make a mask pattern, which I then used to make a prototype out of my white mockup fabric. (it's not in the house right now, it's in a different state, but it was very comfortable and I will be making more.))

And then I remembered that I forgot my last load of laundry in the dryer, so I went and got it, and lo and behold, both missing masks were in there. So now there are SIX masks in my mask drawer, where they are supposed to be, and I will wear probably the hexagon one to go grocery shopping because it's the most comfortable one in the drawer

[lovemesomesurveys]

I’m in love with the shape of you

Shapes Survey

First, name something that is shaped like… a circle? - Cookies. a square? - Post-It notes. a rectangle? - A piece of paper. a triangle? - Pizza. a diamond? -  Baseball fields.

a heart? - Heart shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day. an oval? -  Eggs. a star? -  Starfish. a crescent?  The moon can be. a pentagon? -  The Pentagon (a building in the US). a hexagon? -  Honeycomb. I really don’t want that image in my head ljfskfjsdk. an octagon? -  Stop signs. a trapezoid? - Some popcorn containers are. Like the classic red and white striped ones. a parallelogram? -  The United States Postal Service symbol. a semi-circle? - Slice of watermelon. a quatrefoil? -  4 leaf clovers? a ring? - Donuts and bagels. a zigzag? -  Harry Potter’s lightning bolt scar. an asterisk? - Stars. an arrow? -  Uh, an arrow? an arch? -  Rainbows. a cross? - A cross and the plus/addition/positive sign. a spiral? - Snail shell.

And here you thought I would forget about the 3-D shapes…

a cube? -  A cube of cheese. a cylinder? -  Soda can. a sphere? -  A ball. a rectangular prism? -  Bricks. a cone?  Traffic cone. a pyramid?:  Some cheeses. a triangular prism?:  A tent. a hemisphere? - A watermelon cut in half.

Random Questions About Shapes/The Term “Shape”

What is your favorite shape? Do you even have one? Hearts and stars. Has anyone told you that you need to “shape up”? How about “I’ll whip you into shape”? I’ve been told “I’ll whip you into shape.” Are you in shape? Why is it important to stay in shape? Nope, not anymore. :/ I used to have great upper body strength, toned arms, and I was active. Now I’m weak and a bump on a log. Do you ever wish that you could be a shapeshifter? It would be kinda cool. Does your house look ship-shape, or is it a hot mess? It could use a little straightening up.  Have you ever felt bent out of shape before? Yeah, I find myself feeling agitated quite often. Has a creative idea ever began to take shape for you? I am severely lacking in the creative department. :/ Is your body shaped like an hourglass? No. I’m stick thin like a board. What shape face do you have? I guess kinda oval. Do you have a small or large circle of friends? I have a non-existent group of friends. Have you ever been called square before? Ha, yeah. Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that pizza is baked as a circle, cut into triangles, and delivered in a square box? Yeah. Do you prefer diamonds or pearls? Both are beautiful.  Has the teacher ever arranged your desks in a horseshoe before? Yeah, in elementary school. Have you ever used a bow and arrow before? Nope. Do you wish upon stars? I’ve never even seen a shooting star. Do you ever think about the man in the moon? No. Who has your heart at the moment? Pretty sure I do. *checks* Yep, it’s there. Have you ever told somebody to “eat their heart out?” or to “have a heart?” lol not the first one, but some variation of the second. Do you have heart-to-hearts with others? Yeah, sometimes. Have you ever bumped into a traffic cone? No. What’s your favorite kind of ice cream cone? Good ol’ waffle cone. Would you like to explore the old Egyptian pyramids? I imagine they’re not very wheelchair accessible.  Do you recycle cans, bottles, boxes, etc? Yes. Have you ever witnessed birds flying in a “V” shape? Yep.[a-zebra-is-a-striped-horse]

[atakdanote]

Color Vocabulary

Achromatic. The total absence of color: Comprised only of black, gray and white values.

Additive color. Color created by mixing the rays of white light, from which all color is derived. The spectrum of color exists within the rays of white light. Superimposing the three additive primaries (RGB), which when reversed will create white light.

Analogous Color. Colors that are closely related in hue. They are side-by-side on the color circle. Three to five colors in order constitute an analogous color harmony. They are basically a family of hues.

Atom. The smallest particle of an element that still retains the properties of any given element. The atom is the mother-ship with a cargo of smaller particles and units, including the all-important color quark.

Brilliance. Same as the word intensity, which refers to the change in the lightness in any given hue.

Chroma/Chromatic. Pertains specifically to the presence of color. The opposite of Achromatic.

Chiaroscuro. The average gradation of values from light to dark. A type of tonal shifting across a curved or variable surface, which is responsible for creating volume and mass. The skilled use of Chiaroscuro is to create believable space or the illusion of form, on a flat surface.

Color. Color is the visually revealed component of light. Color possesses certain physiological factors, which are accompanied by various psychological ramifications, and symbolic elements. The symbolic and psychological aspects of color are at variance, since they are determined by specific cultural perceptions.

Color Dyad. A color harmony consisting of two opposing colors on the color circle. Another definition for dyads is a complementary color scheme.

Color Hexad. A color harmony comprised of six colors. A hexagon within the color circle determines specific color orders. The color order is designated by the points where each line meets. A hexad is made-up of three complementary pairs.

Color Tetrad. A color harmony comprised of four colors. A tetrad can exist in two forms. The first is a perfect square inscribed within the color circle. Each point where lines connect will determine the harmony color order. The second form of a tetrad harmony can be determined by inscribing a rectangle in the color circle. The same method determines the color order as before. Tetrads contain two primary colors and their complements, or a complementary pair of intermediates.

Color Triad. A color harmony containing three colors. A triad is an equilateral triangle inscribed within the color circle. Color harmony is determined by the point where each line meets. Primary and secondary triads are the most common.

Color Quarks. Contained within the atom are baryon particles, each one containing three quarks. Each baryon bundle of three quarks contains one red, one green, and one blue quark. Together, these constitute the additive primary colors. Constantly colliding, these quarks form white light, the sum of all colors.

CMYK. An acronym for digital color: Cyan, magenta, yellow and black. They are the subtractive colors of inks in a printer. Color while on the monitor is referred to as RGB additive color, but when printed it becomes CMYK subtractive color.

Complementary Color. Two colors directly opposite of each other on the color circle. The three basic complements are comprised of one primary and one secondary, such as Red and green, yellow and violet and blue and orange.

Electromagnetic Spectrum. A chart representing every possible radiation emitted from high energy gamma rays (shortest waves) to low energy radio waves (longest waves). Visible light, which equates to the spectrum of colors, is located in the center of the spectral chart between the gamma and radio waves spectrum.

Hue. Hue is the common name of a color and indicates its position in the spectrum or color circle. Hue is determined by the specific wavelength of the color in a ray of white light.

Intensity. Intensity is the degree or amount of saturation strength, or purity in any particular hue. Intensity also refers to brightness, whereas its cousin, which is saturation refers to purity. Intensity then, refers to a certain level of brightness in a given hue, as well as its amount strength of purity in a given color.

Intermediate Color. A color produced by the mixture of one primary and one secondary color. In the color circle, it is located between any single primary and secondary color. It is also referred to as tertiary color.

Key Color. When referring to key, we generally say that there are two states of existence for keys, that is to say high key and low key colors. High key is very bright, or think of a composition being very light, a tendency toward overall brightness or clarity. Low key is a dull state, or overall darker composition. Think of tints for high key and shades for low key. High key tends, at times to be somewhat radiant, where low key is not. Intermediate key is simply that; a means to be more specific.

Light. The revealed source of component colors within the electromagnetic system of wavelengths, known as the visible spectrum of color.

Local Color. Local, or objective color is the perceived notion about the color we see. It is what we think we see, as opposed to what the eye actually sees.

Monochromatic. Having only one hue with a complete range of values. So, a monochromatic blue composition will have a range or variable of values from light to dark blues.

Neutrals. 1. The inclusion of all color wavelengths will produce white, and the absence of any wavelengths will be perceived as black. With neutrals, no single color is noticed—only a sense of light and dark, or the range from white through gray to black. 2. A color altered by the addition of its complement, so that the original sensation of hues is lost or grayed.

Neutralized Color. A color that has been grayed or reduced in intensity by being mixed with any of the neutrals, or with a complementary color.

Optical Color. A type of additive color when two or more colors are closely juxtaposed. When viewed from a distance these combinations of colors appear to blend optically to produce colors other than those seen as local colors. When positioned closely together, they are perceived as a new color. Optical color is what your eye actually perceives, as opposed to what you think you see.

Pigment. Physical color substances, both natural and synthetic, that can be mixed to cover another tangible surface. Pigments are added to liquid vehicles, such as egg yolk or linseed oils to produce paints or inks, and are considered subtractive color.

Primary Color. The preliminary hues that cannot be broken down in order to make other component colors. The basic hues in any subtractive color system that in theory may be used to mix all other colors (red, yellow and blue). In theory, all color of subtractive pigments mixed produce black. Additive primary colors are the primaries of light (red, green and blue). All colors of the additive primary lights mixed produce white (light).

Reflected Color. The absolute truest color of any particular object is revealed by reflected color. It’s true color is separated from the other spectral colors, when the remaining colors are absorbed into that object’s surface. A red apple appears to be red because the red is reflected back into the viewer’s eyes, while the remaining spectrum of colors is absorbed into the apple’s surface. Basically, the molecular constitution of the apple’s surface recognizes the ray of red light only.

Refracted Light. The bending of light as it travels from one transparent medium to another, such as when light travels through two pieces of glass, through a white diamond, or when light travels from air to water.

Saturation. In pigment, it is the absolute purity of a given hue. It is total freedom from black, gray or white; it is the pure state of a color, or full strength. In additive color of prismatic hues, it is the color spectrum, which possesses the maximum saturation of a hue.

Secondary Color. A color produced by a mixture of two primary colors on the color circle, which are Orange, Green and Violet.

Shade. The addition of black to a given hue. Shading gradates from white to gray on the value scale, in that order.

Simultaneous Contrast. When two different colors, such as complements come into direct contact with one another, creating a neutral gray zone between them. The contrast intensifies the difference between the two, and in many cases a thin gray line will appear at the point where the colors come together. This is particularly true when saturated red is joined to its complement of green, which will produce a very obvious gray line between them. The two complements have visually cancelled each other at that juncture. Basically, the eye mixes the two complements, and cancels (neutralizes) them between.

Split-Complements. One specific color plus the two colors that exist on either side of its complement. An example would be a yellow and its complement violet. An example would be yellow and its complement of violet. One half of violet would be added to red, producing warm violet, and the other half of the violet would then be added to blue, which produces a cool violet. Therefore, the split complement is comprised of yellow, red-violet, and blue-violet. It is in effect a non-equilateral triangle of three colors.

Subjective Color. Color resulting from the mind, which demonstrates a personal viewpoint, particular bias, mood or emotion. Color combinations that tend to produce creative or original results.

Subtractive Color. The sensations of color that are produced by wavelengths of light, which are reflected back to the viewer’s eyes after all other colors have been absorbed by the object. For example, the surface of a green leaf has a particular molecular constitution that is only recognized by green in the spectrum of visual light. All other colors are not accepted, and are absorbed into the leaf, rather than reflected back to the eye.

Temperature. The colors of the spectrum, which are observed in their warm to cool and cool to warm order. Warm colors are red, orange and yellow. Cool colors are green, blue, indigo, and violet. Violet can be either warm or cool, depending on whether it is closer to the red side of the color wheel, or the blue side respectively.

Tertiary Color. Most refer to this as interchangeable with the word intermediate.

Tint. The addition of white to a given hue. Tinting is a gradient from gray to white on the value scale, in that order. Tinting tends to brighten a color.

Tone. Any hue with a combination of white and black, which reflects the overall value of a composition. The general tone of a composition can refer to the tints and shades throughout a given composition, which is responsible for its overall ambiance.

Value. The relative degree of lightness or darkness, or light to dark gradations, which can be seen on a gray scale. Chiaroscuro is much the same in this respect.Visible Spectrum. A band of seven individual colors that results when a beam of white light is broken into its component wavelengths, which we can identify as particular hues. Located in the center of the electromagnetic spectrum in the form of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo (blue-green), and violet.

[touchpiner]

Shape collage for preschool

Remember that as they are doing these collages, they are thinking, solving problems, and will create representational collages when they are ready for it. Just be careful that you don’t get too caught up in the representational collages until the children are really ready.Įven if a child is not making a representational collage one can see the thought that goes into a simple shape collage such as the one below. Of course the older the children are, the more their collages will start to take on the representational look as they try to create pictures out of these shapes. If you are a teacher or a home school mom, you can use these collages to make a book of perhaps all the shapes the children are learning about and there is of course, no reason not to add other shapes of your choosing like I said before of octagons and hexagons. If you want to buy shapes to add to your collection then Foam Shapes W/ Adhesive are one option as well. You can always make sure to add interesting materials to these collages and even find different background materials like wallpaper pieces to use to collage on. The combination’s you can use are many, and as I said before it will depend on how old the children are and how much they like pasting. Here are some variations and combinations of how you can present these different shapes and collages.ġ- Shape background with same cutout shapes all same sizes as in 2 examples belowĢ- Then of course you can add many different size of the the same shapeģ- To expand further on the same background same shape, you can also add different materials in that same shape.Ĥ- The next set of activities would be with one shape background and either one different shapes or more than one. In this activity I have 3 empty pieces of tagboard displayed a the top that you can use either at the same time, by offering them a choice of a special shape to paste onto. It’s the in between stage of 3-5, where you can try to expand their shape collages activities by making varieties of background, shapes and in general one can mix ‘n match shapes, background and types of materials. Really young children like the 2-3 yr olds can paste anything, very often, and are not even usually aware of what they are pasting, so involved in just the activity of pasting itself. Older kids get a kick out of learning those fancy new geometric shapes. You can even add different geometric shapes like hexagons and octagons. With children that are already 5-6 years old, you can’t do too many shape collages as they may get bored unless you add different flavors to your collage activities. The age of the children is what really determines how much time you can spend on activities like shape collages. Organic shapes is for older children butt I just saw this wonderful organic shape activity that you may want to try if your children are 5 or 6 already. Even though shapes are not only geometric and restricted to the 3 or 4 basic ones I usually start with the circle shape and then move on to the square, triangle and rectangle shapes. Shape collages are a wonderful collaging activity for young children. If you discuss the different shapes there are around us in life and do some geometric shapes collages this will help do all the shape teaching you need to do. I don’t think that one needs to do a unit of specific shapes with children. Geometric shape collages are just one of many types of collages you can do with children.

[branding2-alexlondon]

Packaging Brainstorm:

As a group, we talked about the potential shape of our packaging. 

Initially, our idea had been to create a starter kit and place it in a relatively large box (like the first image) but were reminded by David that they are simply string manufacturers which made us think that there would not be other tools inside it, simply the macrame cord and this would be wasted space.

We first brainstormed whether we wanted a box, vs bag, vs pouch design before looking at different shapes such as cylinders, circle tubs, squares, rectangles, hexagons etc. We decided we would like a box-like package the most, opposed to a pouch or bag, as it looks more sophisticated, luxurious and is perhaps better suited for string. We quite liked the idea of the circle tub, however, could envisage this being messier as a string bundled into a flat circle (or the flat hexagon) has connotations with being unruly and hard to manage. This lead us to think about how the string might sit inside a cylinder, square or rectangle box. There were two ways we narrowed down to, on a cylinder roll or in a knotted ‘bundle’. Of course, we thought the bundle would be more appropriate due to our brand name and that this would either sit in a rectangle or cylinder shape best. We felt the rectangular shape would be better as we believe it is easier for customers to process your branding than on a cylinder. 

We then looked at how we wanted customers to interact with it in the way of how it opens. We felt our options were opening on top, having a latch on each side or using a drawer, meaning we would have an inside tray. We thought the inside tray was the most luxurious as it is open used in higher-end brands and is definitely a step up on the latches on each side. We discussed as a group whether we wanted to have a string on the side (like the last image here) or having a half moon crescent that a customer slips their finger under but decided we would allow this to be decided ourselves in the individual stages. 

We then thought about the measurements the box would need to be. We want to waste the least amount of products as possible so decided it would be tightly fit around our bundle of macrame cord. We doubled over some quite thick string on a video call (as macrame cord is quite a bit thicker than normal string) and decided on a 20cm x 10cm box with 5cm depth. This gave the bundle a little breathing room but was small enough to not be wasteful. 

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/302796774954692690/ 

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/383368987039486400/

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/837036280736743506/

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/237635317824932898/

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/568931365432872203/

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/502784745899008707/

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/695735842415324956/

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/1084663891475079855/

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/322640760786619672/

https://www.cchobby.com/macrame-cord-l-55-m-4-mm-off-white-330-g-1-roll

https://modernmacrame.com/products/4mm-cotton-string-100-bundles?variant=29222059147382

[transcendence-au]

The Manor of Alcor (4/?)

Also on ff.net

Orrie grinned at the completed sketch. Ignoring how some things weren’t drawn to scale, he was admittedly impressed by how much he remembered of the rooms, the hallways they passed through, and the relative lengths and distances between each of them. Maybe he should be a mapmaker when he grew up.

Silly as the thought was it didn’t entertain Orrie for long, and he was soon wondering what was taking the twins. The two had gone to get something to eat about half an hour ago, which (he had to remind himself) was a reasonable amount of time. But being alone in the manor was greatly raising his anxiety. Even without the clue on him Orrie did not fancy having another run-in with Siegfried. And then there was the staff, any one of whom could be the culprit behind Dug’s death. And that was assuming it was only one of them and not more, or even some unknown third party.

Orrie made an indecipherable noise in his throat. Now was not the time to be worrying about that– they had a mission. Solve the mystery and escape. But he wasn’t going to be doing any solving by just standing in place. Maybe…maybe I can explore the grounds? Anything to give himself something to do. Calm his nerves and mind. He packed his sketchbook back into his bag and made for the mansion’s front door. The nagging sensation he’d been feeling since Belle and Dipper left grew as he walked. But he soothed it somewhat by promising himself he wouldn’t be gone long; he’d be back inside by the time they were done eating.

Stepping though the front doors the midday sun greeted him brightly. A warm breeze teasingly ruffled his hair as it blew past, and for the briefest of moments Orrie could just forget his worries. Robins chirping from the distant hedge maze, dazzling light glittering off the pool water’s surface, the faint smell of roses and tulips that lined the trimmed bushes– how could anyone suspect a greater evil here?

Orrie hurried himself down the cobblestone path, wishing to check something. He knew the others had dismissed the idea and for good reason too, but he just wanted to make certain…

“Well now we know for sure…” he muttered to himself. The gates were indeed locked as he could clearly see. Orrie paused, leaning in a bit closer. Was that—? Listening carefully he could hear a faint, steady thrum coming from the bars. Brow furrowing, Orrie bent over and picked up a tiny stone, tossing it at the gate. A loud pop followed by agitated sizzling rang out upon contact, and the charred pebble fell with a dull thud. Magic-powered fences? he thought. Okay…this was going a bit far. Surely the owners would have turned this security feature off while visitors were here. Despite wanting to see just how far the fence stretched, Orrie knew he needed to get back inside. Even if it wasn’t much information he had to let Flynn, Dipper, and Belle know about the gate.

Footsteps grabbed his attention. He took an unwitting step back, twisting fully to face the hedges. Nothing moved. Only the sound of chirps continued to ring out clearly from the maze. “I-is there someone there?” Orrie called out nervously, still refusing to budge. When no words answered back he hesitated a step towards it. When still he saw nothing emerge he reasoned he’d probably misheard the noise and it’d been a deer or something. Orrie approached the neatly-trimmed maze from the side and peeked around its corner. It was empty as far as he could see.

Orrie briefly debated the chances of the murderer simply jumping out and killing him once he entered, then he reasoned the person would’ve already done so by now. He entered the maze only to find it an overly simplistic labyrinth. Two turns right, one left, and he quickly found himself at a dead end. Slightly put off that there wasn’t anything of worth here he made to leave.

But it was right when he reached the entrance again he paused, listening. It was incredibly easy to disregard but now that he thought about it he never did see any birds while in the maze, and yet not once did it let up on its song. Surely it would have gone quiet or flown away as he approached it. Berating himself for going back on his self-made promise, Orrie reentered the hedge maze, now seeking the strange bird. He scoured every inch of the bushes, slowly nearing the source of the tweets. It was roughly halfway through he noticed something brown hidden deep within the compact branches– extremely easy to overlook if you weren’t searching for it.

Sticking his hand through the maze wall, Orrie could feel it was a handcrafted nest, and inside it were a tiny device and something flimsy. The device had to be a speaker of sorts; the chirping was momentarily muffled when Orrie ran his fingers over it. As for the flimsy material—

“You have got to be kidding me.” Did fortune actually favor him? The boy hastily pulled out the hint, eagerly unscrolling it to read:

“How many of these go round all day long?”

Orrie snorted to himself; now this nursery rhyme he could figure out. Still, where exactly was he going to find a bus? The hint couldn’t be referring to the one they rode on yesterday as it was likely long gone by now. Maybe there was another bus they needed to find, one in a garage hidden somewhere behind the manor. So…wait, no; that couldn’t be right. The song was ‘Wheels on the Bus’. So was the hint referring to the wheels themselves? Orrie frowned, wordlessly rolling the paper back up and stuffing it into his backpack.

Another light breeze fluttered through, and Orrie took the moment to appreciate it before the answer suddenly thrust itself to the forefront of his brain. Pinwheels! He made haste to the greenhouse, spotting with happiness the rainbow pinwheel spinning lazily above the glass building. It took a few seconds to find the door that was nearly identical to the thick glass windows, but it wasn’t long before Orrie was inside. Almost instantly he was hit by the overwhelming stench of damp earth carried by hot air; the greenhouse was a lot muggier inside than he expected. So he left the door open in hopes of dispelling some of the heat.

Getting a better look of his surroundings, Orrie made a noise of slight annoyance. This place was more a maze than the actual maze outside– tables of varying lengths were arrayed in such an unorganized fashion that there was no easy way to walk down the rows and columns without having to turn corners every few steps. And some pathways led to obvious dead ends. Yet covering every table were brown pots holding various plants: some with flowers, some with growing trees, and some with strange foliage that were likely of magical origin. These pots had sets of colorful shapes painted on them, none of which were arranged in any particular pattern. Orrie approached the nearest pot, the one with three red squares and contained a bamboo shoot. To its right was a pot with foxgloves and painted with ten blue hexagons, and beside that was a pot with some sort of fern and dotted with four white diamonds.

So what should I do with these? He lifted the pot. Nothing underneath. He turned it around. Nothing on its backside. He scooped out some of the packed soil. Nothing noticeably odd inside, but now he knew at least all the plants on the tables were fake after he pulled out the plastic bamboo stick. “They have to be fake for a reason,” he muttered quietly; the real plants had probably been put away for the event. He wandered around the greenhouse for several minutes, simply looking and pondering what he should be doing. There didn’t seem to be much else in here to browse at. It was when he somehow managed to maneuver himself to the back of the building he found ten trowels lined up neatly on the wall. Ten trowels– one for each of the guests.

Ah, so they did have to dig through the pots. After climbing onto the table (and taking care not to knock over any of the bowls containing water and real lotus plants growing) Orrie snatched one of the trowels. Now to figure out which pot to dig through. The boy grinned, remembering the hint. Of course– a bus has four wheels that go round, so he needed to find the pot with the four circles.

With excitement and a bit of pride in how much of the hint he solved by himself, Orrie hurried through the table maze once more, scanning each pot for the correct pattern arrangement. It wasn’t too long before he found the one he was looking for. He removed the fake bonsai tree and started digging. When he scooped out all the hard dirt he saw a thin indent at the bottom of the pot, just wide enough to fit the tip of his trowel in it. Orrie put the tool in and twisted, the bottom lifting to reveal a tiny but empty compartment beneath.

What? The frown appeared as quickly as his excitement vanished. Was this not the correct pot? Orrie checked underneath it and even the two pots beside it, but there wasn’t anything. Am I missing something? He walked slowly down the paths again looking for another pot with four circles. That one had seven squares…four rectangles…eight pentagons…five triangles. He eventually looked at each and every pot, but he couldn’t find any other with four circles.

He stopped and contemplated. The rhyme wasn’t complex so the answer had to be simple; he was just overlooking something. He thought some more before realizing his mistake. He had been missing something– four wasn’t the right number. A bus may have four tires, but it had five wheels; he forgot to take into account the steering wheel. Spinning around, he dashed back where he’d been, realizing he’d passed a pot with five purple circles a couple tables down. He quickly found the pot, shoveled out the soil and fake tulip, connected the trowel to the slot, and twisted. The door opened, and this time there was something inside. Orrie dumped the items out—another key and scroll—and read the piece of paper:

“Non amo thee, Sabidi.”

What does this—?

The door to the greenhouse slammed shut before he could finish his thought. Faltering for only a second, Orrie took quick steps toward the exit but could already hear a mechanism click as he grabbed the handle. He turned it; the door was locked. Orrie banged against the reinforced glass. “Hey! Can somebody hear me? Open the door!” He paused when he heard something begin to buzz. Looking up, he saw the lights flicker and shift from a warm yellow to neon pink, and almost instantly the temperature in the building began to rise to a sweltering level. Orrie gasped, seeing that the greenhouse used strong magic to make its plants grow. “Help!” But he knew there was no one around to save him.

Droplets of sweat already beginning to coat him, Orrie forewent pounding the door with fists and tried flinging a pot at it instead. It bounced back with nothing more than a dull thud. He tried again and again, both door and windows, but all he succeeded in doing was drastically wearing himself out in the rising heat. Orrie was panting as he looked around for some other route of escape. The walls? A back door? He groaned, his thoughts slipping into sluggishness. He fell to the ground and crawled beneath a table in a useless attempt to find shade. Orrie pressed himself against the ground, taking in what little coolness was left in the concrete floor.

“Hel…he…” His mouth was too hot and dry. Sweat drenched his body yet couldn’t cool him. His eyelids felt heavy, and he so very much desired closing them and falling asleep. Orrie glanced one last time toward the sealed exit. What’s…that…? From this position, head flat against the ground, he could make out a small raised something on the floor nestled by the door hinge. It was only a shade darker than the rest of the cement but clearly not part of it. Orrie forced himself to believe that was some sort of emergency switch as he half-crawled, half-dragged himself toward it. He thought his heart did a tiny flutter when he saw it was indeed a button. He pressed it.

The floor rumbled, a grinding screech nearly too much for Orrie to handle. A couple feet to his left a part of the floor fell and slid away. Orrie crawled over to it, peeking over and noticing at least a ten foot drop into an underground tunnel. What little reasoning his brain had left could not stop him from pushing himself forward; the boy tumbled through the hole and landed painfully on his shoulder and side. He rolled onto his back, dimly aware he should be in more pain than he was but honestly too tired to care.

Something clattered beside him. It took Orrie a moment to realize he’d dropped the key and even longer to realize he’d been holding it and the hint the whole time. He moaned and closed his eyes, falling asleep to rest in the cool, quiet tunnel.

When he woke up after what felt like hours later, Orrie felt somewhat rejuvenated though still a bit woozy. His eyes stared upward. The hole was still open, the pink light flooding through but not nearly as scorching. He had seriously just been this close to—

No…

He…he didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to. It had to have been part of the act…it had to…

Orrie wordlessly grabbed the items and climbed to his feet, slowly trudging down the spacious tunnel before him. It wasn’t long before he couldn’t see and had to feel out in front of himself to not crash into anything. He didn’t dare think of where the tunnel led and forced his thoughts to remain optimistic and hopeful. That’s why Orrie relaxed a bit when the tunnel ended with a vertical turn upward. Metal rungs were embedded in the wall, and he climbed them to find a wooden plank above him.

Orrie pushed once, twice, three times with all his might, finally able to get the heavy trapdoor to open. Is…am I back in the manor? He seemed to be in a supply closet of sorts, artificial and non-magical light pouring in from beneath the closet door to reveal old brooms, buckets, and mops scattered messily about. He climbed out and, after closing the trapdoor, exited the tiny room. He found himself in an unfamiliar wing of the mansion.

Orrie walked down the halls, taking in the silence, the lack of magical heat, and the absence of people. He was safe…for now. So his thoughts drifted to the newest hint and what it could mean. Taking a second to pull it out and read it again, he noted that while the language was unfamiliar it looked an awful lot like Latin. “No…love…thee, Sabadi,” he roughly translated. “Oh! Don’t love thee, Sabadi. I don’t love thee, Sabadi.” He could recall no nursery rhymes that had that line.

He racked his memory for anything that could possibly be related. The only thing he could connect with was a song his doctor used to sing to him as a little kid. The memory was faint, though, because she only sang it to calm him down long enough to give him his shots, joking afterwards the song had to have been made just for her. “But how did it go?” he muttered to himself. He knew the melody and rhythm, and he was certain the words did relate to the hint. “I do not something, something…uh…” He bit his lip. “I do not…oh! I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.” Orrie smiled softly, remembering how much he actually liked Dr. Fell; she must’ve sang that song to all her patients.

He stuffed the paper back in his bag and picked up his pace. Now he had a destination in mind: an infirmary. There was no way this manor didn’t have one. Orrie was both relieved and unnerved that he didn’t come across anybody in his search for the room. He really should consider putting all this on hold and finding Dipper and Belle first, but it was right then he just so happened to stumble upon a door with the word “Clinic” printed on its window. Orie sighed, reasoning he was already this far along so why stop now, and entered the small room.

Inside had a bit more than one would expect to see in a clinic: a doctor’s desk and chair, a cushioned bench, a single cot, a full-length mirror, and a doctor’s scale. There was a bookshelf cramped into the corner behind the desk and a counter and cabinet full of medical supplies, but otherwise that was it. Orrie quickly went to work scouring through the drawers and cabinets, finding only a wireless (and broken) keyboard in the top drawer of the desk. At the bookshelf he tried to remove one of the books from the shelf, but they might as well have been nailed down because they wouldn’t budge.

Orrie stepped to the doctor’s chair and flopped down in it. He mumbled to himself, “I don’t love thee, Sabadi,” a few times, trying to find some secret meaning in it. Growling in frustration, he took out the hint once more. “Non amo thee, Sabadi. Non amo thee—”

Wait! This whole time he’d been translating the probably-Latin into English when he should’ve also been focusing on the actual English in the hint. ‘Thee’ meant ‘you’, he was mostly confident. He glanced up at the mirror, his reflection staring right back. It seemed perfectly normal, so he got up and inspected it. Sadly, it didn’t open up or have any backwards messages on it. Orrie returned to the seat, spinning himself slowly around in it as he brainstormed again. He was close to solving this, he could feel it. With little conscious thought he opened the top drawer again, eyeing the wireless keyboard.

It wouldn’t be in here for no reason, right? There was, after all, nothing else inside the other drawers and no monitor or computer on top of the desk. But it was broken, with several of the keys missing and bits of plastic chipped off to reveal exposed circuitry. Orrie half-heartedly started pressing some of the remaining letters. He really needed to figure out what he was overlooking. Which, he admitted, would be so much easier to do if he had the twins helping—

It was when he pressed the ‘U’ key that a book from the bookshelf suddenly popped out of its place with a loud shoonk!, startling the boy and nearly causing him to tip out of the seat. He really wasn’t expecting anything to happen just now. He bent over and grabbed the displaced object, and his eyes widened when he recognized the book as actually a clue. Orrie snatched the key from his backpack and hurriedly unlocked the booklet. He at last read the clue he’d spent so long seeking:

“I just got the news from Pierce: The construction of our manor will begin Tuesday morning. I…I can’t believe this is actually happening. Joining a cult, constructing a home, capturing and commandeering a demon of unimaginable power. I suppose it’s a miracle that they knew how to contact me at all. And while I’m happy to no longer be seen as an outlaw to at least a few, it’s still so strange to me. Those six seem like the closest of friends; why drag an exiled nobody like me into their plans of grandeur? Is it only because of my knowledge of rare and blacklisted flora? Or is it also because of my understanding of the terrain, the likely routes and direction authorities would take to find us, the back-paths of escape?

Pierce assures me it’s nothing to concern myself over, but I don’t know; I don’t think they treat me like I’m an equal to them. Still, being far from my birthland and with no allies of my own, I’ll stick close to these people I’ll hesitantly call friends.”

Orrie took a moment to reread the first page, understanding that this writer was the least connected to the other cultists. Was he perhaps—no, he couldn’t jump to conclusions yet. Orrie turned to the other page:

“Four years to complete the manor, even with Jans and Sarkozy’s extensive knowledge in magic and their unrivaled proficiency in handcrafted spells. But I’m not complaining. It’s wonderful! A home. At last. I want to explore every inch of it like a young child…except for the attic. Sarkozy may be a bit overdramatic (or maybe her arachniphobia is legit), but she has a point, and so I’m keeping my distance from there until the infestation problem is resolved.”

Orrie’s heart raced. The names– these were the same names that were on their bedroom doors. He quickly went through the rooms and their occupants: he was in ‘Keller’, the Sterlings were in ‘Pierce’, Flynn was in ‘Jans’, the Lionharts were in ‘Gogh’, the Tosettis were in ‘Lemaire’, Siegfried was in ‘Sarkozy’, and Dug was…had been in ‘Kohl’.

Comprehension then dawned on him. “So those abbreviations must be for their first names since none of the rooms start with ‘M’ or ‘H’,” he said aloud as he took out his sketchbook and wrote down all the important takeaways from the clue. But when he finished he faltered in putting the clue back in its place.  Yes, Siegfried would be problematic if he found Orrie carrying it but…what if Flynn had been right? What if he couldn’t depend on the other guests? Sure, he felt mostly safe with the Sterling twins, but they wouldn’t always be here– right now being a great case in point. The killer wanted them all to solve the mystery; and the more clues he had, the likelier his chances of staying alive to do that.

Was that why Dipper had asked to hold on to it earlier? Had he already realized their importance and wanted a safeguard? Orrie’s hold on the clue tightened. He trusted them, he really did; he told himself such. But…but it wouldn’t hurt to keep this one little secret. His own safeguard. Besides, if it turned out to be something crucial later on, he’d tell them about it immediately.

Orrie removed the two diary pages from the booklet’s flaps and laid them in his sketchbook. Then he put the booklet back on the bookshelf and left the small room.

Mr. Goodman stared dolefully at the stone floor, still unable to bear looking at the security feeds. How in the world could this have all happened under his watch? How had—he had trusted his staff. He had trusted Terry. He’s known the young man for four years; not once had he done anything remotely this…horrendous. Then again did he really know Terry if he was currently tied up and gagged in the inner chamber’s spare room? There was commotion by the monitors for some reason, and Mr. Goodman looked up. At least someone had been “kind” enough to leave the door cracked open, enough so that Mr. Goodman could see the screens and several staff members crowding around them.

From his limited view he could tell they were switching through the feeds quickly, looking for something. Or was it someone? Earlier it had been Mr. Fairfern as he talked to the children and convinced them to move Mr. Segal’s body. Then it had been on Mr. Connolly as he wandered the manor for clues. For a long while the staff kept watch on the twins as they ate; for some reason the cameras’ mics only picked up interference when they spoke. He did spot briefly the young boy Orrie heading outside, but that had been well over an hour ago and shortly after Terry had left the chamber for who knew why. At least the Tosettis were currently out of danger; the staff quickly turned feeds from them when they noticed all the elderly couple doing was reading and looking out their bedroom window.

Mr. Goodman returned his subdued gaze to the floor again. He was absolutely useless, unable to protect his own guests, so many of them so young. It was relatively quiet for several minutes until a scream tore through the speakers. Mr. Goodman’s head snapped up, his terror-filled eyes dreading to see what was before him.

The feed was from the foyer, not far from the staircase. Zahia Lionhart was leaning over something on the ground, wails escaping her as she did something with fervor. He couldn’t tell what exactly was going on—with her back to the camera and the staff pushing to get better views and blocking his sight—but based on her location he could make an educated guess.

Someone else had been killed—Cliff Lionhart no doubt. Mr. Goodman struggled to think what specifically could have done it; there were just too many possibilities. His blood chilled when he realized Zahia’s screams would act like a beacon to the other guests. With Terry in control and clearly having reactivated the mansion’s traps, the foyer in particular was nothing more than a death room waiting to claim its victims.

Shadows bobbed down one of the connecting hallways, and soon enough the Sterling twins ran into the picture, stopping short by the stairs. Dipper, face carefully blank, said something to Mrs. Lionhart, but again the mics had difficulty picking up sound; it was mostly garbled static with words occasionally breaching though. Whatever the boy said Mrs. Lionhart refused to answer, still hunched over and crying heavily.

“…eed to…could…atching ri…” Dipper made a step forward. That’s when Mrs. Lionhart rounded on him, shouting something indiscernible to the twins. Belle said something back, she too trying to keep herself collected, and Mrs. Lionhart broke down into tears again. The staff members started murmuring amongst themselves, making it even harder to hear what was going on.

Flynn arrived from out the same hall the twins came through. Mr. Goodman could tell he was a man seasoned to handle crises because almost immediately he was taking long strides toward Mrs. Lionhart and gently pulling her away from the spot she rooted herself to. Zahia struggled against him, but the elf was far stronger and held her tight to his chest. His glare hardened toward the twins, and Mr. Goodman could barely read his lips as he ordered them to go upstairs. Dipper retorted, his expression darkening as he took a defiant step forward and crossed his arms.

“…ot a game! We…nger…perty.”

“How d…eave? In…e’ve no…no…un awa…”

Belle joined in with something, but Mr. Fairfern shook his head at the two. “…en barrac…rooms. I’m ta…rol of the…” He paused. “And…rrie?” All eyes turned to Mrs. Lionhart then; she must have been muttering something. Whatever she said caused Dipper to look away with…anger? Frustration? Mr. Goodman couldn’t quite place the emotion. Likewise, Belle and Mr. Fairfern seemed quite uneasy. It was only then Mr. Goodman took notice of the thin puddle of blood pooling on the floor by Zahia and Flynn’s feet.

A door slam made all the guests jump: Siegfried had entered the scene. There was a brief moment of no one moving while Mr. Connolly and Flynn exchanged words, the twins speaking up every once in a while. Then Flynn, Dipper, and Belle were all staring incredulously at the large man. Both teens glanced at Flynn when the elf suddenly started shouting at Siegfried, looking downright furious. Even Zahia momentarily looked up at him.

“…will not allo…ou…ndanger the lives…people, Siegfried!”

Siegfried yelled harshly, “I didn…ared off by…came for…oney! Your…no concer…me!” He faced Belle when the girl uttered something evidently scathing to him. He scowled, curtly turning his attention to Zahia. He nodded toward her (again, likely talking to her) before turning on his heel and leaving the foyer. Flynn watched him go with the darkest glare Mr. Goodman had ever seen on a man’s face. His anger was almost palpable.

His head snapped to the side. Mr. Goodman had missed him coming in during Flynn’s outburst at Siegfried, but there was Orrie standing just at the edge of the screen, frozen in place as he stared with terrified and unwavering eyes at the scene before him.

“No…ve now! Orr…go!” But the boy couldn’t move, his form visibly shaking, all ability to otherwise respond gone. Flynn half-carried, half-dragged Zahia away and towards Orrie, her resuming her struggle to break free from him. “Zahia!” Finally she escaped, but she had been carried far enough away for Mr. Goodman to at last get a good look at Cliff.

The man’s death was hopefully quick. Long, needle-like blowgun darts were embedded deep into his chest and upper body, several piercing clean through his heart and base of his throat. A look of surprised pain was forever frozen on his face that stared blankly into the distance, his own blood soaking through his shirt and staining everything it touched. Beside him, half smeared by blood and half crushed when Zahia knelt beside him, was a note. It went unnoticed as Zahia screamed her husband’s name over and over. It went unnoticed as Flynn changed priorities and hurried to guide Orrie up the stairs, desperate to block the child’s view and demanding Belle and Dipper to help him. But Mr. Goodman saw it. And he read it. And he knew Terry was far from done with toying with his unwitting prisoners:

“Needles and pins, you married on whims; let’s end all your grins with dastardly sins.”

[lmfmp2021]

Structures Of The Rainforest

Here, I have created a simple diagram explaining a bit more on the structure of the rainforest. I have picked out important parts of how the trees work and the positive effects it has on animals and the soil. To go with this information, I have also drawn some minimal trees using different methods to create each one. I felt doing this could help me if I ever needed or wanted to draw something like this for this project. I found some inspiration on Pinterest for these type of trees to which I recreated myself. As well as this, I produced some of my own too where I experimented with different techniques and tools. 

To create this, I started by drawing the trees, to which, I used the shape tools, such as the ‘ellipse tool’ and the ‘rectangle tool’. I also used a previous technique I have learnt and used before which is the ‘blend tool’. Another method I used when creating the shape on the right side of the page, is where I drew a singular line, duplicated it and placed it beneath the original. I then used the ‘blend tool’ and chose the number of blends I wanted. Next, I decided to try another idea on top of what I have already created, and draw a circle over the top of the repeated lines. I would then go into ‘object’, ‘envelop distort’ and ‘make with top object’. Doing this, created this circular outer shape, which was what I hoping for as this now conveys a tree look. A new skill I had to recap myself, was creating a shape that wasn't the usual, rectangle, triangle or hexagon. I wanted to create this almost clover leaf looking shape, where I remember doing something like this in the past, but wasn't sure how to produce it. I discovered that you create it by using ‘pathfinder’ tool panel at the right side of the page. Firstly, I had to draw the three circles and place it in the position I want, then I selected all three shapes and held down ‘shift’. I did have to remind myself on what each button does, but I managed to find out for what I wanted, I needed to click the first one. Lastly, when I drew the rectangular shaped tree trunks, I curved the curves ever so slightly, as I felt it added a little detail to the overall design. 

In the end, I feel this brief information about the structure and how the trees have adapted, has helped to me realise how important they really are.