#giants below

[thepermanentrainpress]

SALT SWORD: BOUNDARY BREAK

boundary break – salt sword Release Date: January 27th, 2023

Track Listing:

1. endless sigh 2. 90′s game 3. giants below 4. cloudwalker 5. promise 6. rose coloured 7. this will all make sense

“Boundary break to clip through the edge / Find me in space uncontested by death.”

Lo-fi and hyper pop converge on salt sword’s boundary break. Anchored by electronic layers and heavy lyrics, the album is a satisfying listen.  

salt sword, also known as Colin Ablitt, released his debut EP after losing his job and being unemployed for some time. Overcoming a lengthy creative block, he tackled themes of grief, anxiety, and personal growth in the album, as well as the healing power of nature and connection.  

“endless sigh” is energetic and reflective. salt sword’s smooth and robotic vocals elevate pessimistic lyrics: “Feeling nothing / In the blood and gore / I keep trying to find myself / In an empty room.” The composition glides, using scales and white noise-esque flares. Futuristic synths and retro sounds congregate in “90’s game.” Catchy melodies combine with clever lyrics, making it difficult not to grin: “I'm holding my heart open like it's a 90s game / With no save function.” salt sword has a sweet, boyband-ish vocal tone that contrasts nicely with the vintage gaming sounds.

“giants below” is an experimental banger. Chaotic clanks fall into rich Japanese strings. Digital notes are sprinkled into the abstract, angular tune. “cloudwalker” is a serene interlude. Bells ring out over sharp, distorted hums. Slow, sad and soft, “promise” encapsulates dreariness with a tinge of hope: “Amplified heat wave / too many paradises paved / gravity keeps me pinned to the floor.” Piano notes are increasingly overtaken by high-tech sounds, signaling the struggle for change.

“rose coloured” is honest and introspective. It’s an authentic exploration of personal stagnation and the hold of mental weights: “I've been a stack of books in the corner, left unread / we've been carrying brick walls in our pockets / they've been stopping us from moving ahead.” The music still maintains a cutesy electronic bounce and curious, inflated vocals. The last track of the album quickly states “this will all make sense” with natural cricket sounds and textured lo-fi percussion.

boundary break is a pleasant and poised collection that deserves to be savoured. salt sword’s artistry heads in a direction perfect for an artificial, digital society that craves authenticity.  

Written by: Jenna Keeble

boundary break by salt sword

[reborrowing]

COLD

Sadly I live in a box of an apartment and there's no good windows to stare out but I am hiding under a nest of blankets

[raviollies]

BOUND TOGETHER

Stained Glass depicts a family tree with the father's side being broken and Lorelai's portrait weeping, a depiction of Lorelai's past as she had accidently killed her father.

The Skull has fangs, the nature of vampirism being tied to undeath, the Black Roses surrounding reinforce the theme of decay, death and dishonour. The Blood dripping from behind it is the price she paid by spilling her father's blood for her vampirism.

Blythe is depicted Dancing - a call back to her nature as performing to make herself liked and play a character to hide her true self.

Pomegranates, an allusion to the Greek myth about how Hades tricked Persephone to be chained to the underworld using pomegranate seeds, Theta tricked Blythe to become a hexblood to chain her to herself

Butterflies and empty cocoons are found in the Daffodils, both are symbols of rebirth, new beginnings and metamorphosis, tying back to Blythe's journey from Elf to Hexblood, and the eventual possibility of being a hag.

The Tied Magpie in the Mirror is reflection of Blythe's true self, a bird being captive by Theta, Magpies are considered an omen of bad luck, believed to have a drop of devil's blood underneath their tongue

Broken Elven statue is Raha's ties to his cultural identity are broken and decayed. The Creeping Vines symbolize the lack of upkeep to preserve this past. The flowers surrounding it are the Spring Snowflakes, known to bloom at the end of winter/beginning of spring - a new beginning to life and hope.

The Empty nest is representative of him having lost his family, and leaving behind the Elven commune he stayed with afterwards. Having left, and no one in his family being alive, all that's left is an empty nest.

A Borzoi is running from the statue, symbolizing Raha running from his past and wishing to distance himself from what hurt him. Dogs are often tied to symbols of loyalty, love, and protection, all things that are true to Raha's character as an individual.

A Red Ribbon surrounds them, the red string usually symbolizes the old myth of the red string of fate, binding people together.

[toskarin]

The Starveling Vile

[beanwood]

*bounces* "I don't know what to do"

[bitchapalooza]

Don’t think I ever posted it here but a while ago I talked about with my friends but what Usopp has giant ancestry in his blood? There’s no evidence to suggest it, I just think it’d be really funny + Usopp would absolutely bring this fact up nonstop

[geomimetry]

AL-AN’s colors

Alright so I’ve been trying to make understanding AL-AN’s colors as easy as possible for me, so I’ll start with color coding his lines in the fabricator base. I’ve decided to only use the final version of the game for this. The colors in Robin’s lines also indicate AL-AN’s color as she says them.

Before data transfer begins. Robin commences data transfer. AL-AN stretches. AL-AN: It has been some time since I last stretched out in so many dimensions. Like waking from a dream. AL-AN picks Robin up with his levitator arm. Robin: Whoa! Hey. AL-AN waves back. Robin: You’re really not in my head anymore? AL-AN: There are some remnants. (Pause.) Would you like your memories of me removed as well? Robin: Are you kidding? No way. You still owe me the end of your story. AL-AN: I told you I must return home. To assess. Repair. Make amends. Robin: Tell me more. AL-AN: When the bacteria escaped, it was my fault. I disobeyed the directive from my network. (Pause.) AL-AN stares off into space. Robin: Oh no... AL-AN turns green and teleports to the terminal. AL-AN: We noticed that a species of leviathan young produced an enzyme that is efficient against the bacteria. I thought if we incubated Sea Dragon eggs, we might expedite their hatching. I was not wrong... Robin: But... AL-AN: It would appear that Sea Dragon parents are stronger and more motivated than our facility was rated to handle. Robin: And the bacteria got out, infecting everything. How many survived the outbreak, back home? Are they still waiting for someone to bring back a cure? AL-AN: I do not know. Robin: Can I help? AL-AN: The fact that I withheld this information does not concern you? Robin: It was certainly manipulative. But I’ve also made my own share of mistakes. I’m still committed to helping. AL-AN: I accept your help. Find me at the Gate when you are ready. In te meantime, I must prepare.

The colors used are as follows: Purple Cool pink Green Warm pink with hints of orange Blue Saturated neutral to warm pink Orange

I'll get into what I think the colors mean in a second, but first let me preface it by saying that I could have gotten some of the colors wrong as the lighting conditions change in the scene. I also want to mention that I don't think the emotion behind a color varies from Architect to Architect. They seem to value efficiency, so having to learn the color-emotion combinations of each Architect would not be ideal. Therefore, I think this color chart applies not only to AL-AN, but to every Architect.

Purple seems to be a sort of stand-by color, as well as a color between some of the color shifts (not apparent in my color coding above). It could possibly mean there is no consciousness currently inhabiting the vessel. The in between shifts of purple could just be a product of two colors blending together as they shift from one to the other.

Cool pink seems to be a neutral color. AL-AN is not feeling any specific emotion strongly enough for it to show. It is possible that AL-AN could suppress his feelings somewhat, resulting in this neutral color.

Green seems to signify a heavier processing load and analytical thinking. He turns green as he mentions the need to assess the state of his homeworld. He turns green when he notices or remembers the terminal and what his next step for now is. What's perplexing is that he turns green when stretching too, but this could be explained by the fact that AL-AN is getting reacquainted with an Architect vessel after having been in storage and in Robin's mind for a long time. He is also waking up the facility from what seems to be a low power mode as well as powering on the robotic arms. I believe this would need some processing power. Furthermore, it does make sense that Architects would predominantly use green in their work in this case as they seem to value information and knowledge.

Warm pink with hints of orange gives me the impression of fondness and companionship. He turns this color when first looking at and interacting with Robin in his new body, before the weight of his past mistakes crashes into him again as he tells her his story.

Blue looks to me like joy or possibly amusement. He turns this color when waving back and when Robin speaks to him. He could be happy just for that, or perhaps because he is happy he is no longer limited to her cerebral cortex and can now start making real progress in returning to his home and making amends.

Saturated pink could mean embarrassment. It makes sense when applied to the part where he talks about the accident being his fault. The embarrassment he feels after waving back and hearing Robin ask if he's really not in her head anymore could be because he does not know what the gesture means, that he's a bit embarrassed by the awed reaction from Robin, because there is a bit of an awkward silence at that moment, or because of the fond and joyful feelings he's having at the moment. And then he's only feeling embarrassment as he talks about what he thought was his foolproof solution regarding the incubation of the Sea Dragon eggs. He remains embarrassed from there on out—for not knowing the extent of the damage he caused back home, for withholding crucial information about him. It could be a reason for wanting some space from Robin, telling her to meet him at the Gate when she's ready. Though perhaps he simply needs time to prepare or is only giving Robin time to prepare and his suggestion is unrelated to his embarrassment.

Orange seems like anger. He turns orange after admitting that he disobeyed the directive from his network, which he is probably angry with himself for. Orange shows up only once in this entire scene for a very brief amount of time, and I feel it makes sense in case it does signify anger, as AL-AN does not come across as someone who is easy to anger.

This is how I interpreted his colors anyhow. Some emotions we didn't get to see being represented by a color, like sadness, grief, fear, and love, or perhaps I am simply wrong in my assessment. It's possible these emotions have their own colors, but will need to exist outside of canon.

TL;DR Purple — Stand-by. No consciousness inhabiting the vessel. Cool pink — Neutral. Green — Processing. Analyzing. Warm pink with hints of orange — Fondness. Companionship. Blue — Joy. Amusement. Saturated neutral to warm pink — Embarrassment. Orange — Anger.

[toacody]

Hero Factory MOC: Rocka Stealth Machine

Clearing out the underground.

Source

Creator: Plague-Doc-Matteo

[clumsiestgiantess]

Day 2: Wings

Oops! Looks like you spooked my sona, Tselani, on a walk through the woods.

Just try to act uninteresting and she’ll ignore you. …hopefully.

(forgot to tell y’all yesterday but I’m mainly using @bittykimmy13’s October prompt list — some days swapped out with @gt-con’s g/t-specific prompt list!)

[friedpunster]

Clown to clown communnication

Clown to clown conversation

[starbuck]

just found out that my boss’s boss, who responded to a situation where i was harassed by a coworker for a month for being autistic by telling me to “do some soul searching,” is LEAVING MY PARK!!!!!!

my boss broke this news to me by saying “not to ruin your night, but…” as if it wouldn’t be the best news i had received in months.

[asjjohnson]

The ability to fly would open up a new dimension to explore (in the mathematical-physical sense—we already know Danny had opened one up in the other sense). Think of how much Danny would notice that no one else would?

Think of bees. (Not so much birds, because we see birds all the time, and also because they don't seem quite as graceful and maneuverable as bees.) When I did a search for how high bees can fly, I found something that said bees could fly higher than Mount Everest (little edit: may've misunderstood what it meant. They might not've been found flying that high after all, just that 'they could'). Bees can go anywhere they want, just for fun.

We as humans tend to (for the most part) view the world as six feet high. Anything six feet or under, we know about (or possibly up to eight feet. But it's not much higher than our height). And we don't really realize we're thinking this way.

Sure, we can look upward, we can see treetops from a distance, we can see what the sky looks like. But it's from the perspective of looking up from a distance. Our worldview is colored by looking up from six feet or less.

It's a flat surface. Despite us knowing it's not flat, we don't really internalize it as being 3D and navigable. And we also don't realize what's up there. Who would ever imagine there were bees buzzing around the top of a 200 foot tree? To get to flowers we didn't even notice were up there?

And, yeah, we have planes, but they fly in a set path and you can only look down at the very distant ground. Helicopters are probably more similar, but not many people fly or ride those.

But Danny... after the accident, he would've started out sticking close to the ground a lot, but as he started getting more comfortable with the ability to fly, his worldview probably would've changed gradually. From his preconceived idea of 'the world is six feet or less' to 'the world is spacious and easily explored and so very 3D'.

There's an episode where he's vacuuming the living room ceiling—as though he thinks his parents will notice that it's cleaner than before. And though I understand the 'I have to clean everything so I don't get in trouble' impulse better than I should, there's a chance it's partly from Danny seeing the house differently than before. The ceiling becomes just another wall for him. ...One that he might clean often when he has cleaning chores, because he's going to notice all those spiderwebs and cobwebs, and the little bugs gathering in the light fixtures.

(...He probably would realize the ground is also navigable at some point, too. Think of all the tunnels and moles and snakes and other creatures he'll see, and all the plant roots and such.)

[pikolswonderland]

You’ve heard of @spyroid101’s Jestdeer, now get ready for @pikolswonderland’s MOTHIUS

(Feat. An extremely confused and slightly terrified Morley)

[hypnofantasma]

Updated Bellojey art ............ i think about him (a lot)

gonna add Toyhouse profile links with character art now so i dont post hugeass scp documents every post

[standupcomedyhistorian]

Um…so this happened 👀

Still can’t believe it tbh…

Daniel Sloss was an absolute GEM and took photos with everyone who stayed after his amazing performance of Can't at Town Hall that opened the New York Comedy Festival this year. SO much fun, and he signed my copy of his book! 🥰

My trip was incredible, the Inside cabaret show at 54 Below was a BLAST (I had on disco ball jewelry courtesy of @ilickedthegardenwall), and @nicoleanell couldn't have been a more gracious host.

We even went to the Brooklyn Cat Cafe (and I got a beautiful turquoise shirt)! 💗

Lots to come on my website, especially about meeting Sloss in person, and keep it here for more comedy fun! ✌🏼🐔

[bamgamronpa]

i have been enjoying drawing creatures … i love creatures …… needed to make them into weird things