#do not kill the part of you that is cringe. kill the part of you that cringes :)

[kirain]

How I imagine the conversation between Anya and Swansea went.

The dull, scarlet light of the cockpit flickered, the sound of retching echoing off the metal panels. Swansea paused in the doorway, leaning heavily against the frame. The acrid stench of bile mingled with the sterile tang of burnt wires and coolant stung his nostrils, but he didn't seem to care. He simply watched, waiting for her to finish.

After a moment, Anya wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, her body hunched over the waste bin. The fit didn't last long, but it was rough, her heart racing, her mind reeling. When it was over, the large, unsteady man finally approached, and Anya tensed, casting him a fearful glance.

"Swansea?" she wheezed, as if expecting someone else.

"You good?" he asked, his tone flat.

"Y-yeah," she choked, dismissively. "I'm fine. Just a bit too much stress."

"You don't gotta pretend," he muttered, lowering himself into the seat across from her. "Not the brightest guy in space, but I've had enough kids to know prenatal puke when I see it."

Anya's head snapped up, her expression shocked and pale. Her lips parted to deny it, but no sound came out. The silence between them thickened, pressing down like the crushing gravity of the moon they were stranded on.

Then, Swansea leaned back, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a half-empty bottle of mouthwash. He unscrewed the cap and took a long swig, the minty burn doing little to ease the sourness in his gut. He swirled the liquid in his mouth before swallowing and murmured, "It's Curly's, right?"

Anya's shoulders bucked. She began to cry, a sound so quiet it could've been mistaken for the wind outside—and Swansea flinched. He lowered the bottle, his weathered face softening unexpectedly.

"Aw, hell," he sighed, his voice gravelly but not unkind. "Don't cry. Even a burnt up wreck like him can manage to be a decent dad. You know we got all kinds of medical shit back home, enough to make him... somewhat functional. He can definitely afford the surgeries. It's not the end of the—"

"It's not Curly's," she whispered, cutting him off.

Her voice cracked as she wrapped her arms around herself, desperate for comfort, and Swansea froze, the weight of her words sinking into his chest like a stone. As the bottle of mouthwash dangled in his hand, his gaze sharpened. He studied her, taking in the way her body curled inward, how it shuddered, how her cheeks flushed an almost greenish hue, disgusted and sickly.

A dreadful understanding crept over him.

"Jimmy," he growled, the name heavy with venom. He shot to his feet, his fists clenched. "You mean he—?"

Anya's sobs deepened; louder, exacerbated, despite her best effort to contain them.

"That bastard!" he shrieked. "I'll kill him!"

"No!" Anya panicked, blocking his path. "Don't. Please."

"Why the fuck not?!"

She cringed, her fingers curling. "If you fight him, he might... he might get the upper hand. I don't want anyone else to get hurt. I... I can't handle it."

"But he—!"

"We don't have enough supplies for any more injuries. Swansea, please."

He stared at her, his body trembling with rage, but he suppressed it. Slowly, he forced himself to breathe, then rubbed a hand over his face.

All if his anger gave way to despair.

"We're dead anyway," he said bitterly. "No one's comin' for us. No rescue crew's gonna find us out here before we run out of supplies. Might as well face facts."

Anya didn't respond. She stared at the floor, her tears leaving dark spots on the dusty metal. He was right, and she knew it. They all knew it. For a long while, neither of them spoke, the silence filled only by the distant hum of failing systems, until Swansea broke it with a heavy groan.

"I've been keeping somethin' from you," he said. "Well, not just you. From everyone."

Anya looked up, her red-rimmed eyes meeting his. "What?"

"One of the cryopods survived the crash," he admitted. He gave her a chance to react, but she didn't. "One. The rest are either fried or buried under foam. I've been saving it for Daisuke."

Anya blinked, her confusion palpable. "Why for Daisuke and not yourself?"

"He's the youngest. The strongest. Got the best chance of makin' it." His voice lowered, a mix of envy and compersion. "And he's got a good life to go back to. A mom that loves him, money out the wazoo. We ain't got none of that. Seemed... seemed right. Whatever the fuck 'right' means, anyway."

Anya frowned, her brow furrowing. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Dunno," Swansea shrugged, the motion almost helpless. "Just felt like I should, given the circumstances."

"I see." Anya swayed, processing his words.

Then he chuckled dryly, though there was no humour in it. "If you wanna fight me for it, you can. You'd probably win. Like you said, upper hand and all that. My back's shit. My knees are shot. I'm too old and too broken to—"

"I have nothing to fight for," Anya interrupted, her hand subconsciously moving to her stomach. "Nothing."

Swansea's eyes followed her movements, wincing as her nails pierced her skin through her suit. He said nothing, only nodding as he reached out, offering his bottle of mouthwash.

She shook her head. "There's not enough alcohol," she said hollowly. "I'd throw it up before it could do any damage."

He pulled the bottle away, and again they stood in silence, the unspoken hanging heavy between them. After a while, he took another swig, his throat tightening against the burn.

"What about Jimmy?" he asked, his teeth bared.

Anya hesitated, cupping her chin. "He'll destroy himself eventually. People like him always do."

Swansea scoffed in agreement, though his jaw remained tight. "If he tries anything with you again—or Daisuke—he's done. I don't care what he does to me."

Anya nodded, her expression grim but grateful. "No. I understand completely. If that's how it has to be—"

Suddenly, the doors slid open with a shiver, and Jimmy entered, taken aback by the sight of them.

"Hm? Oh, it's you," Swansea huffed, crossing his arms.

"Jimmy!" Anya squeaked, wiping her eyes. She was startled, but quickly composed herself. "Not able to sleep either?"

"It's 'nighttime'," he groused. "Why are you talking this late?" His tone was acerbic, his eyes drifting to the woman. "...Anya. Are you crying?"

"No, don't worry. I'm okay," she sniffed, her only solace Swansea's watchful presence.

"We all need to keep it together," he hissed, oblivious to their schemes.

"Oh, I'm keepin' it together," Swansea said, his voice as sober as it had ever been. "Don't you worry, Captain."

[laniidae-passerine]

I made my post about Dean Highbottom and then as I was writing my tags realised that his Hunger Games counterpart is Haymitch. and now my head is in my hands and I don’t think I’ll ever recover

[kaythefloppa]

More rambling about Wild Kratts Game Lore bc I can

On today's episode of "shit about the flash games that I am probably the only person alive to care to notice," let's look at a certain pattern in the tutorials that, whilst it may seem minor, may actually reflect something about the overall website (and if you have no clue what the f*ck I'm talking about, feel free to stay, it's so much funnier that way)

Ok so let's look at the first wave of flash games made by Chocolate Liberation Font (the dev-team behind them). In the tutorials of these games, (i.e. Cheetah Racer, Ride on Remora, Caracal Leap, Draco Glide, Kickboxing Kangaroo, ect), one of the Kratt Brothers would introduce the animal and objective before activating their Creature Powers. When they do so, we see a close-up of their shirt (oddly enough without the suit or gloves??), and we see the buttons on the Creature Power Suit with the Creature Disc insignia in the same color as the suit itself.

Some image examples as Exhibit A.

You get the picture.

Now let's move on to the games that were added to the website in 2012 by Pixelpusher; Flower Flier, (R.I.P.) Croc Hatch, Frogfish Feast, Aardvark Town, and Web-tastic!; The Wild Kratts Creature Math Suite that collectively made up a quintilogy game, Creature Roundup. These games features new animals and new Creature Powers, 3/5 of which were featured in Season 2 of Wild Kratts which had recently premiered on PBS Kids at the time. Like before, the Kratt Brothers introduce the creature, the objective and Activate Creature Powers. However, here is one difference;

When the screen zooms in on the Creature Power Suit post-activation, we can see the physical Creature Power Disc itself over where the PowerSuit button/creature insignia would be. Regardless of the disc's color, it would show up. As shown below in Exhibit B.

Quite the difference eh?

But wait, it gets even more fun.

In 2013, two games, Dolphin Dive, and Slither Run, also done by Pixelpusher, are released. They're not affiliated with the Math Suite, but are in the same league as them. In the tutorials where the brothers activate their Creature Power Suits, you realize that, just like in the games developed by Chocolate Liberation Font, the close-ups of the buttons don't have any overlays of the disc (using Slither Run here because Dolphin Dive wasn't a good enough example)

Put a pin in this, because this becomes relevant later.

Let's redirect ourselves to the habitats. You probably remember exploring the habitats, finding and learning about different animals, unlocking photos, and adventuring with the Creature Powers earned from the games. The site was updated to include some new habitats and Creature Powers, but let's exactly look into the details of that, shall we?

Here are the available Creature Powers to use in the habitats to unlock the photos for your adventure journal in the character creator page, Your Room. Rattlesnake Power, Draco Lizard Power, Cheetah Power, Kangaroo Power, Caracal Power, Squirrel Power, Firefly Power, Dolphin Power, and Remora Power.

Now, you may notice that the Creature Power Suits from the Math Suites (Hummingbird Power, Crocodile Power, Frogfish Power, Aardvark Power, and Spider Power) are missing here. In fact, they're not in any way able to use in the habitats. They (along with Dolphin Power and Rattlesnake Power) are also absent amonst the assortment of Creature Powers to use in the supergame, Habitat Rescue Game.

This is where I pull stuff out of my ass cause I'm fcking crazy everything comes together.

Notice how the only Creature Powers that aren't available to use in the habitats are Creature Powers that the brothers use in the games where the physical discs are displayed on the buttons. The only ones available to play are ones where the button is visible when the brothers activate that particular Creature Power.

Conversely, none of the Creature Power Suits from games developed by Chocolate Liberation Font have PowerSuit photos that the user can take with a camera once they complete Level 5. Only the games added by Pixelpusher (this includes the Math Suite, Dolphin Dive, and Slither Run) are, and 5/7 of those games are where the physical disc is placed over the button. Slither Run and Dolphin Dive are anomalies from this pattern, but the majority rules (especially since they were added in post after the Math Suite).

But wait. It gets even deeper.

You know how I said in the assortment of games where the physical discs are present in the tutorials, Dolphin Dive, and Slither Run are anomalies in terms of games that had unlockable photos in levels? You know what pattern they aren't anomalies of?

Yeah, the Habitat Rescue Game at the beginning of this post wasn't just bc the game is fucking peak (based on a show that's fucking peak). None of the 7 Creature Powers from Pixelpusher's update to the website appear in the supergame Habitat Rescue. Not a single. One. And none of the Creature Powers available in Habitat Rescue are from games where you can unlock a photo in the site from directly finishing Level 5.

In case this has been way too complex, let me break it down *Activates Lawe's Parotia Power*

Creature Power Discs earned from games where the physical disc is not shown on the Power Suits after the activation in the tutorial are available in Your Room and the habitats.

Creature Power Discs earned from games in which the physical disc is visible over the Power Suit button in the tutorials are available in Your Room, but NOT in the habitats or Habitat Rescue Game.

Creature Power Discs earned from games in which you must complete Level 5 to earn the PowerSuit Photo and Badge, regardless if they physically appear on the Creature Power Suit in the tutorial, do not appear in the supergame.

None of the games that show the physical button of the suit have collectible photos from directly playing Level 5, BUT all of them that do are available to access in Your Room, the habitats, and Habitat Rescue Game.

CONCLUSION: Whilst there are many anomalies and errors in the structures or patterns of the original flash version of the online Wild Kratts website (I'm sure many of you noticed the duplicate Martins in the Aardvark Town tutorial Jesus Christ), some of these inconsistencies have consistencies in their inconsistencies, even if it wasn't the developers' intention. With this, you could logistify several appearances or absences of certain Power Discs in certain games or pages. And to those of you, who like me, grew up with the flash games and were confused as to why you couldn't access all 14 Creature Powers in the habitats or in Habitat Rescue, hopefully this observation could provide good enough answers and closer after a decade.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

you get riz gukgak so well 👍👍

thank u!! he really kinda is all of my favourite character things rolled into one package (negotiation of principles/investigator-truth seeker-negotiator with reality and the narrative/obnoxious character whose narrative reward for participating in the story is getting to be even more authentically obnoxious/deeply and hauntingly aroace

[grantwilson]

sorry i cant be normal about characters. as if it's my fault

[moxymaxing]

whatever. old man yuri blast 💥

[wingstobetorn]

I LOVE when people have different interpretations and headcanons than me. We all see things so differently n it's great

[megastrikeback]

Riddle goes to Idia's room for Manga Recomendations (Cater advice). Idia shows off his colections featuring the more questionable manga he owns. Riddle gets, understandably, curious. Most Akward missunderstanding of their life insues.

[licorishh]

WHAT THE CRAP IS THIS

WHAT IN THE FLYING FREAKING FRICKIN' EVERLOVING CRAP IS THIS, ACTUALLY

[grooviestsadpapaya]

Literally I cannot possibly have anyone I know in real life find out about my comic or I will have two worlds collide and that would be bad,,, is this normal

[dixidin]

And you still haven't responded to most the stuff I've answered from you

@sinnlos-star everyone's so mean 2 me sometimes....☹️

[novelconcepts]

me, every time I leave a deeply earnest comment on Instagram:

“I promise I’m normal. I am so normal. This is so embarrassing. Why am I here. Why are any of us here. I swear, I’m so chill. I know you’re supposed to tell artists they’re making shit you like so I’m uh. I’m trying. To do that. And be positive about representation and jobs well done. But you’re right, it’s so cringe, I am s o. sorry. I’ll just see myself out.”

[tame-a-messenger]

you know what? i WILL kill the part that cringes!!! also something i observed and found so cute is how damien often makes a joke and looks at angela waiting for a reaction/response. it’s a thing that happens also with Angela and chanse and i just think it’s so cute bc it’s like “hey i just said something I know you will find funny!!!” I LOVE FRIENDSHIPS I LOVE THEM ALL

"Don't kill the part that's cringe, kill the part that cringes" has been a very important quote to live by for me as a somewhat shy introverted person, with (obviously) strange interests. (nothing feels better than knowing what you're doing is cringe, and doing it anyway because it's fun)(so long as no ones getting hurt obviously)

YES!! THE LOOKING FOR APPROVAL!!! SO CUTE! She tends to do it too! not as much as he does, and she usually tends to address him directly, then wait for him to say something to her face, but she still does it!

Angela really is a good person to pick on with her out-of-this-world reactions!

[towards-toramunda]

I’m sorry if anyone is annoyed with my ashrym brain rot but if it makes you feel better I am also annoyed with my ashrym brain rot.

[katabay]

I'm going to be honest finding your account has sent me down a rabbit hole I did not expect to find myself in, yesterday I spent six hours, looking at all of your stuff and I'm absolutely amazed, I have no words. Your art and everything you talk about I'm absolutely fascinated in a very normal way I don't mean to sound weird. I was wondering if you had any thoughts to share with someone who's hating everything they draw and have lost the fun and passion when creating, I want to snap out of it.

I've been holding onto this ask for a minute because a few years back I went through a phase (I call it a phase, I fully intended never to pick up art again) where I also hated everything I was making

ultimately, what got me out of it was mostly doing other stuff. not even in a 'get a new hobby,' kind of way, I hated drawing in my sketchbook, so I started cutting out washi tape as clothes over old sketches and filling in the negative space between scribbles with highlighter and pen colors I thought looked nice. I went out to daiso, bought $10 worth of stickers, and started putting them where I thought it would look nice when I got the urge to do something but still couldn't bring myself to actually pick up a pencil.

if there's something that you know for sure you don't like about art, it can help to confront it and then go in the other direction. there were a lot of things I used to draw because I felt like it was expected, only I was unhappy all the time, and once I realized I was unhappy because I wasn't actually exploring what I thought was interesting about the subject holding my attention, it was sometimes easier to see what I DID want to do, I just had to acknowledge what I DIDNT want first.

that said, I still have an on-off again antagonism with myself and art, it's messy and it's always going to be that way for me, but whenever I feel stuck, I do try to change things up, or head off to a space that I feel has absolutely no expectations from me whatsoever. like. whenever I get really annoyed on my history blog, I actually turn to watching 2PM's vlogs on youtube. I have enough 2PM art in my sketchbooks I almost thought about making a dedicated HOTTEST twitter account lmao.

probably my last thought on this might be: try keeping two sketchbooks. nothing expensive. one can be something more serious, but keep a space just for yourself to fuck around in. don't draw in it unless you want to. put stickers in it, press flowers that you think look neat. buy some cheap water colors and see if you like the blues that you get out of it. it's okay to feel antagonistic towards art, but if you aren't ready to break up with it (and art will always be there if you want to go back, that's an important thing), I've found the straightforwardness of 'I like these stickers, so I'm going to put them on top of this square of blue I liked,' to be akin to leaving messages for someone you aren't ready to talk to face to face just yet, but maybe someday.

[rat-prophetess]

I have this deeply unfortunate condition where I cannot absorb verbal information without doodling, but also I have the drawing skills of young child and the permanently shaky hands of a wizened crone SO the results are. Unfortunate.

I am definitely making a great impression on my classmates and future colleagues by scrawling stick-figure patho characters next to them while they’re trying to listen to orientation lectures 👍🏻

anyway this (+ illegible handwriting) is why I can never lend people my notes. termitarywallart.jpg