#cloud token

[marlynnofmany]

Seeing Faces

It’s rare when we get a shipment to deliver that’s not packaged somehow — either in Earth-standard boxes, another world’s version of shipping crates, or a livestock pen of some kind. Even that bunch of alien trees had been thoroughly wrapped at the bottom. But this collection of machinery parts didn’t have so much as a layer of cling-wrap on it. I guess the owners figured these things were sturdy enough not to need it.

They were probably right. The metal chunks were heavy. I tried to guess what they were made for as Blip and Blop muscled the biggest ones onto a hover sled, clearing the way for Paint and me to gather up the smaller pieces. Captain Sunlight bid the customer farewell and shut the cargo bay door.

“I think these look like vertebrae,” I said to Paint. “Greasy vertebra. Ew. I’m going to need a new shirt.” The offworld engine oil of whatever didn’t seem acidic at least, so that was nice. I sighed about the black smears.

“Strange vertebrae,” Paint said, juggling her own armload of odd shapes that didn’t seem to be rubbing off on her orange scales. Not that I was jealous or anything. “There would need to be a dual spinal cord.” She tapped a claw on one of the holes.

“Hm, yeah. There are probably animals like that,” I said. “Or robots, as the case may be.”

Ahead of us, Captain Sunlight opened the door to the appropriate storage hold, then headed off on captainly business. It was impressive how different a vibe she gave off compared to Paint, for all their physical similarities. Both were little lizardy people, but one strode with her lemon-yellow head held high, every inch the authority figure, while the other was Paint. She somehow bounced when she walked, even when weighted down by unwieldy metal things.

“I’ll bet these stack really well,” Paint said. “They look like they interlock. We could probably build a spinal column without them falling over.”

“We probably could,” I agreed. “But I don’t want to be the one responsible for bending one of the flanges because we wanted to test it out.”

“Hm. Yep yep yep. But I maintain that we could.”

“We could.”

The two of us entered the storage hold to find Blip and Blop racing to see who could unload the sled faster. It’s not that the Frillian twins were overly competitive, but they were twins. They’d apparently hatched at the same time, and had been in a low-key competition to see who was better at life ever since. But they smiled while they did it.

“Done!” Blip declared, setting down a lump of metal big enough for Paint to hide behind. She raised her hands in triumph, fins fluttering.

“Doesn’t count,” Blop said as he put down his own piece. “You didn’t line them up right. Mine are tidier.”

They squabbled about this while Paint and I unloaded our metal chunks nearby. I had to kneel to keep from dropping the things. It would be just my luck if they did warp on impact, or bounce off each other and whack me in the shin.

The Frillians took their debate out the door before I finished. They’d already moved on to who could steer the hoversled with the minimum of touching.

“Ha,” Paint said. “They do stack.”

I turned to see only one of the things set on top of another, with Paint ready to catch it if it slid. She took it down before I could say anything.

I just nodded and arranged my own into a reasonable huddle, then wiped my hands on my shirt. It was only when I moved toward the door, with a look back at the big pieces, that I got a good look at the one that Blop had set on its side.

This was the logical place to put it, not sticking out past the rest, but the thing that caught my attention was the shape when seen from this angle. Those two holes could have been eyes, and the flanges were shaped like stubby arms. There were even a couple slots in the middle like nostrils.

I burst out laughing.

“What?” Paint demanded.

“It looks like Zhee!” I said, pointing. “Big bug eyes and everything!”

“What does?” Paint asked. She came to stand next to me, following my arm, but just looked confused. “Where are the eyes?”

“These!” I said, stepping closer and pointing at the holes. “And those are the arms. Isn’t it perfect?”

Paint cocked her head as if slightly tilted vision could unlock the answers. “Arms?”

I repeated myself, but she still looked lost, so I found a notepad and pencil in a storage cupboard —reliable even when the batteries all run out — and sketched what I saw.

“Ohh, I get what you mean now,” Paint said when I showed her. “Those parts are lifted like pincher arms, and those are roughly the same proportion as Mesmer eyes.”

“Yeah, it’s uncanny,” I said.

Paint took the notepad to study it closer. “How did you even notice that?”

“It was pretty easy,” I told her. “It just jumped out at me when I looked from the right direction. Like seeing faces in clouds, you know?”

Paint’s blank expression said that she didn’t know.

“Do you not do that? Find patterns of familiar shapes in random things?”

“No?” she replied. “Is that a thing I’m supposed to be doing?”

“You don’t have to! It’s just something that everybody does on Earth, ever since we’re kids. It’s probably from a long history of watching for camouflaged predators in the bushes. You’ve got camouflage on your planet, right? You must.”

“Yeah, sure,” Paint said easily. “But I guess not that much. I’ve never seen a face in a cloud; that sounds terrifying.”

“Not really; it’s more like feeling smart for spotting something. Well,” I amended. “It could be a little unsettling if you see a skull or something. But that’s rare. There are whole systems of divination about this sort of thing.”

Paint looked like she was about to ask a million questions, but right then the sound of familiar clicking footsteps tapped down the hall.

“Zhee!” Paint called, whirling with the notebook in her hand. “Zhee, look what Robin saw!”

Zhee came into view looking just as eyecatching and purple as usual, halting at the doorway while Paint eagerly explained the conversation we’d just had. Quickly and enthusiastically. With lots of waving the sketch around, and pointing back at the machine part.

I felt like apologizing as he stared with an unreadable alien expression. His antennae weren’t even moving; I couldn’t tell what he thought of it all.

Finally Paint finished talking. “She says it’s probably because her species watches for predators in the bushes. Isn’t that amazing?”

Zhee made a point of looking slowly from the sketch to the metal thing, then to me. I braced myself for judgement.

Instead, Zhee raised his pincher arms into the same pose and declared, “I am the danger that lurks in the bushes.” Then he slunk out of sight, many legs scuttling in a quickstep way that he knew darn well I found creepy.

Paint blinked at the empty doorway, still holding the notebook.

“Aw, man,” I said. “He’s picking things up from Trrili.”

Paint immediately closed the notebook. “We definitely shouldn’t show her.”

“Agreed!” I said.

After a moment of thought, Paint tore the page out and handed it to me, then took the notebook back to the cupboard. I pocketed it with a final glance at the metal vertebra that looked remarkably like a cartoonish Mesmer squaring up for battle.

Someone had left a roll of no-residue marking tape on a box nearby. I grabbed a strip and stuck it onto the metal, with the ends curved up.

Now the thing had a goofy grin that possibly no one would recognize. But if there were any humans on the receiving end of this delivery, they ought to get a good laugh out of it.

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come! And I am currently drafting a sequel!

[one-flower-one-sword]

well I know what you want from me you want someone to be your reflection, your bitter deception setting you free won't you come and dance in the dark with me? show me what you are, I am desperate to know nobody better than the perfect enemy and I know what you want from me you want the same as me my redemption, eternal ascension setting me free

for @bladesmercy's fic The Fear of Falling Stars

[megaclubdiolis]

柄本 佑 || 「光る君へ」 (2024) · 第三十回 「つながる言の葉」 ​​​

[deepbluesafety]

the night comes down like heaven

[iniziare]

Tag drop: Jingliu

[dark-elf-writes]

Chosen One Support Group where main characters and fated saviors from all sorts of universes come together in a sort of group therapy/life advice/mutual bitching session. Ft. One character over the age of twenty wondering why the fuck everyone is eighteen and below and who the fuck is going to save these children.

[foxgloveinspace]

Y’all know how I don’t give Sleep Token music to fictional characters/ships?? How I put ST music on such a high pedestal, and all that??

Sleep Token music is so sefikura coded it’s gonna make me frow up.

[melit0n]

The sun decided to come out today, so I went on a little walk!

Please enjoy some clouds, feilds and old trees <3

(@kkarmatic clouds for you!)

[mtgfantokens]

MtG Token: White/Blue Bird

Magic: the Gathering has been around for 30 years. There are 27,000 unique cards and growing. And a lot of them create tokens. While the official tokens are great, I have a need to celebrate the artwork of our (mtg) ancestors. Let's celebrate older artwork with a new coat of paint.

Token: 1/1 white and blue Bird creature token with flying

This is for 2 cards from Dissension, Dovescape and Pride of the Clouds

We have Judge's Familiar from Return to Ravnica by Jack Wang

The literal and graphical information presented on this site about Magic: The Gathering, including card images and mana symbols, is copyright Wizards of the Coast, LLC.

[frmtheroombelow]

a sunset from the farm for all of you 💛

[weather-phenomenon]

god i miss being a teenager and listening to whatever the fuck this was and thinking it was so good i had to write it down yeah

[mega-stellar]

Take it all back now, run it back

@MegaStellar_

[patternbase]

Glitch Pattern #010 — Dye Bath by @patternbase

Available on token.gallery

(via GIPHY)

[999-roses]

so I finally sat down and watched this movie. Overall enjoyed this movie, but I have my issues with it. I don't think the ending is sad [speaking as queer chinese diaspora but not mlm/gay]. I understand why this trailer was cut like this (romcom) but this isn't a romcom, it's much more dramatic/serious and touches on diaspora and racial topics that I find good discussion starters and mostly still relevant.

Things I liked, and my many nitpicks. spoilers ahead

Director/screenwriter Yueng really got the internalized racism down on Ryan. Taking "you're not really Chinese" as a compliment -- oof, that stings but a lot of us diaspora/ABCs know this is unfortunately common. I used to respond to "where are you from?" with "Oklahoma" or "Texas", well I still sometimes do depending on who's asking and their tone. Like Ryan's internalized racial hatred/conundrum even comes out in his behavior of only sleeping with white dudes. In direct contrast, I love how much pride that Ning has in himself being Chinese, even goes for the throat with "what do you know about June 4th?" (mildly disappointed that wasn't elaborated for the western audience, but then again there's not time to properly detail in this kind of movie). I love the casting for Ryan's parents, and the writing and acting, they're my favorite 😭😭😭. I also appreciate that the film doesn't go out of the way to explain butterfly lovers or Chinese opera, iykyk.

I have a bunch of nitpicks though about minor details though. There were a lot of things off about how Chinese culture is presented imo. For example, the first meet scene at the restaurant. Nobody would be that openly rude to Ryan, like calling him a banana to his face, at best they'd say "ah, you're not familiar with our culture. This is our way." and like show him how to eat crab. Also R/L liquid consonants are distinct in most Chinese languages, particularly with the Mandarin dialect spoken by Ning's cohorts, so I'm very 🤨 about that decision for Ning to originally pronounce Ryan's name as Lyan. I'm not saying it doesn't happen with Chinese speakers but R/L is more common with native Japanese speakers, so this speaks to me as a gross stereotypical "all oriental Asians speak like this" generalization from the writing/editing department. … and preference for sake?? girl what. are you telling me that an actor in a nationalistic movie about Nanjing of all places A. would even give [Japanese] sake the time of day and B. wouldn't be a baijiu king!!!!! I also have SERIOUS questions for who did the makeup+wardrobe for Ning's girlfriend. LMFAO for a movie about a "fashion stylist" they didn't take care to research what the street and gala fashion looks like in China. It's 2014, 2015, Hanfu movement has been in full swing, not even Angelababy beats her face like that. Also I think Ning was more southern China styled, ugh Beijing? Nah. Dude was more like from Shenzhen or at the very least Shanghai for the other Chinese city that white people would know.

Ending: I think Ryan's a bit of a bastard. His little press release comment was full of double-edged shade ("happy and confident with himself to be so accepting"). Soooo shady. No he didn't out Ning but his compliments were also calling Ning a hypocrite and a coward. But people and characters aren't nor should they be perfect.

I actually don't care about the two leads getting together in the end. However I would have preferred Ryan ending up actually visiting China for himself, and maybe even seeing a potential career there, because Ning is right, the economy and market are only growing over there, compared to stiff competition for fewer and often racist-colored opportunities in the west. Like... also seeing the gay scene in China for himself, because frankly, it exists, and Ryan should go check it out himself, we got a whole culture and history and it (the history at least, modern culture has some exchange) has nothing to do with westerner's version of gay or queerness. Ryan could totally find a Chinese boyfriend who's not closeted, and whose job isn't so high-publicity.

But at least it seems Ryan is more open to interacting with Asians/Asian community than in the beginning of the movie.

I do still think, with the type of nitpicks I had... idk. You see where I'm coming from though? One of the biggest themes of this film was "dismantling internalized racism" and "accepting who you are", but the movie committed stereotypes about China/Chinese that are incorrect to my experience and understanding, a faux pas on "knowing how you are".

Front Cover (2015) Official Trailer -  FRONT COVER is about handsome, openly gay New York City fashion stylist Ryan, who rejects his traditional Asian upbringing. Ryan is given an assignment to style Ning, a famous Chinese actor, for an important photo shoot. After a rocky start, an unlikely friendship develops between them, leading Ryan to examine his identity and consider an enticing new path for his life and career.

[industryupdate]

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