#i have no frame of reference except for mine

[whousestypewriters]

──── ୨ৎ THE BOOK CLUB — GRAYSON HAWTHORNE + READER ‧₊˚

a/n: pt two here we are!!! do i have any idea where this plot is going??? no. but you're along for the ride bitches so enjoy!! also if this is shit its bc im sleep deprived :)

[part one] i'm a fan

"it all happened so fast. everyone was happy... and then something happened... and now... now he's dead!" alya sobs from her spot on the couch.

"did you just spoil the book we're all reading together??" kira shrieks from her position on the mattress.

"i think the bitch actually just spoiled the entire book," pheobe rolls her eyes from underneath her blanket on the mattress next to kira's.

"oh come on you knew something like this was gonna happen!"

"yeah but i wasn't expecting it to be screamed aloud while i'm halfway through," kira says exasperated. "i mean please its not even five thirty yet, we got here an hour ago, how are you already finished?"

"alya, this is why we don't come over anymore," pheobe groans. "none of us were expecting that and now you've spoiled it."

"oh cry about it, i'm moving onto my next book anyway, does anyone want some snacks while i'm in the kitchen?" alya smiles nodding her head when kira requests some food and a bottle of water.

"so we're clearly never having a book club sleepover again guys," you say looking at the camera.

"no we're gonna have another," pheobe says shuffling over into the frame. "alya's just not invited."

────

yn.books

liked by alya.green, maxine.liu.loo, pheobethereader, kirasbooknook, graysonhawthorne and 672, 983 others

yn.books the book girlies unite!! for a sleepover a trip and a readathon (alya will not be invited back) stay tuned for the yt video!

tagged: alya.green, pheobethereader, kirasbooknook

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alya.green I AM OFFENDED

kirasbooknook good

pheobethereader had a lovely time with you girls can't wait to do it again (except for you alya)

alya.green u guys are so mean wtf

user1 im desperate to know why alya's in trouble lmaooo

user2 and im desperate to know why grayson is still in the likes

user3 THE GIRLIES ARE IN TEXAS I SAW THEN TODAY AND ASKED FOR A PHOTO!!!!

user4 they're in texas you say 😏😏

user5 divine rivals crushed me oh my goshhhh

graysonhawthorne divine rivals was a enticing read, thank you for the recommendation.

user6 ok so i died-

user7 OH OH OK SO WTF WHO WAS GONNA TELL ME GRAYSON IS HERE???

maxine.liu.loo the book girlies are together again!!! (invite me next time)

yn.books already done ;)

────

"they're mine," max's voice snips through the quiet of the room. she's staring directly at grayson and clearly referring to the book girls she watches.

"i'm not trying to steal anyone," grayson tries to reassure her.

"you're obsessed with my favorite one! why couldn't you have gone for pheobe or kira?" max huffs, you were her favorite. grayson had no right to become - rightfully - infatuated with you, and no matter how much he tries to deny it everyone can see he likes you. its painfully obvious.

"again i'm not stealing anyone, i've interacted like three times with-"

"grayson! the girl you're obsessed with posted another youtube video," jameson's extremely loud voice cuts through the room and emits a groan from grayson.

"i'm not obsessed with anyone," he says rising from his spot on the couch and picking up ruthless vows, which by the way he definitely went out and bought after he read divine rivals. what? he wanted to know what happened.

"oh my gosh they're in texas!!!" max screeches clearly watching the video. "they're in texas for a red carpet that they've been invited to!" she pauses watching for more conext. "they been invited to ask the people on the red carpet about books! oh my god- XANDER. we have to go to this event oh my gosh please?"

"sure and you can bring grayson along so he can officially join the book club, and meet his new idol," jameson smirks from the doorway

grayson responds by flipping him off.

────

graysonhawthorne

liked by thehawthorneheiress, ticking.time.bomb, yn.books, kirasbooknook and 4, 892, 647 others

graysonhawthorne a nice day out

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user1 i need him religiously

user2 NO BOOK THIS TIME???

user3 oh he is scrumptious isn't he

ticking.time.bomb i saw you obsessing over what photos to choose in case a certain someone saw this gray.....

user4 PLS TELL ME ITS WHO I THINK IT IS

thexanderhawthorne oh it is...

user4 OH MY GODDDD

user5 IN THE LIKES LOOK WHOS IN THE LIKES!!!!!!

user6 they're so into each other

alya.green we gotta catch up and talk about this whole situation buddy boy

user7 ALYA 😭💀

user8 i need him to go to the red carpet so they can meet!!!

────

maybe grayson should go to that red carpet... i mean he was invited. whats the worst that could happen?

𐔌 . ⋮ 🏷�� tags .ᐟ ֹ ��� ꒱

@arqbella, @midiosaamor, @maybxlle @reminiscentreader, @sweetreveriee

@elysianwayy77 @tornqdowarnings, @catapparently, @zenikswaffleshop, @thelov3lybookworm

[cable-salamdr]

Hello! How are you? :)

I came here because I just wanna say...

HOW DARE PEOPLE — I want to know more about your green cousins AU! (I know it's not called that ;-;) I thought people show interest. Am I taking what you said too seriously? You said:

“I don't care if people don't want to know more about this AU, I'm still going to talk about it anyways.”

and you know what? That's the spirit >:)

I want more PLSSSS I'm so curious about this AU! I admit that I'm not a big Morro fan specifically — I still love him though! And the AU's he is in :D Your art is Awesome too by the way! I want to know Lloyd and Morro's dynamic AHHH their relationship PLSSSS

FDBSHUBJIN THANK YOU ASGAHSBHBH

I read this and literally became so happy what the heck. Okay, well. First off, I wasn’t expecting people to really care about this au, no, especially not my random manic rambles. But now, second off: obligatory doodles and art.

I think the most important thing to note is that they are both brats, even if Morro is an adult by the time the show starts— He is an *asshole*!! (/affectionate)

Now. In my head I have it that Morro moves out of the monastery at some point because he’s sick and tired of being around Wu (who at this point begins training Lloyd and other students as well), so he just. nopes the hell outta there. Gets himself a little apartment, yeah. Lloyd goes to “visit him unannounced” sometimes (breaking into said apartment).

For some reason I’ve decided to make Wu really strict? Like, he doesn’t allow Lloyd (neither allowed this for Morro btw) to go out and hang out with other people are try new things unless he’s with him— so obviously Lloyd goes to Morro for when he craves a burger or just wants to hang out in the city without hawk eye supervision. And, like. Morro has a motorbike. What 8 year old doesn’t want to ride on a motorbike with their estranged older cousin? (Another part I shamelessly ripped off from Jason Todd 😔)

More old art (the last one being the oldest traditional art I could find this being all the way back from… uhhhhh… July of last year):

The gist is. Lloyd is really confused as to why Morro is so distant so obv the only viable solution as being to annoy the shit out of him by continuously showing up at his doorstep.

Morro just wants to try and have a normal life without being constantly reminded that he’s a failure, but sadly he still cares for this little brat (and Wu of course, but no one tell him I said that). Half of his monthly wages are spent on buying Lloyd dino nuggies and random shitty toys that he sees in market stores. They also do pranks together. Oh so many pranks.

And Wu is just trying to figure out why tf his students keep not listening to him and disappearing (it would probably help if he stopped being a Bit of An Asshole (he is mostly concerned that they will do something stupid like he did as a child, so he compensates by keeping them tight under locks)).

End of rant/ exposition dump!

[rassicas]

hello!! lately i've been thinking about houses/interiors in splatoon as i've been pondering some up for my ocs, & i was wondering if there's any info on them in canon? so far the best that comes to mind is the splat 1 loading screen & that new art of acht, but I was curious on if there's anything about apartments & interiors specifically... tysm! :-]

Unfortunately we don't have much, and considering how much living spaces vary in real life even within the same culture, it's hard to say x thing applies to all splatoon households. the game developers are japanese, the game takes place in japan, and takes inspiration from japanese culture and daily life. taking that into consideration, where canon fails, i use modern japanese living spaces as a reference for imagining what an interior may look like in inkadia. headcanon aside. time to dig up what canon info i've found regarding homes and living spaces

In the Octotune album booklet we get one of the few examples of an inkling home interior, the Houzuki mansion. though pearl, as well all know, is Insanely Fucking Rich and our average inkling is NOT going to be living this luxuriously. one useful tidbit we can get from the text is this:

Q5: Wow! Is this the garage? Pearl: That's just the shoe storage, man.

the word she's using for shoe storage is ゲタばこ which is a cubby you're meant to put your shoes in before entering a house, located in an entryway. in other words, implying a cultural norm of taking your shoes off before entering (something adhered to more strictly in japan vs america). not like this is really followed in official art showing inkfish at home (except for this s1 era piece of an inkling watching tv) probs because shoes are cooler lol

let's see what else ummm bedding.

s1 and s3 dialogue for flounder heights mention futons. traditional japanese bedding typically laid out on the floor when in use, and folded up and put away in a big cubby during the day. its a common sight to see them hung out in the sun on the balcony to not get moldy. some of those things draped over the railings in flounder heights are futons.

not everyone in japan does this though- youll still see western style beds or even futons on bed frames since taking it out and putting it away is a pain in the ass. also not every apartment has a built in proper futon storage space. (...mine does, but i repurposed it into another closet and just use western style bedding lol)

same is true for inkadians too -the bed in the s1 splashscreen doesnt look like a futon to me. point is there's options for what do with the bed situation.

speaking of the apartment splashscreen for s1, there is a blurb in the artbook about it and how inklings are typically pretty tidy with their living spaces.

im sure there's plenty of messy inklings too. anyway there's just a few tidbits about living spaces in relation to canon info. unfortunately there's Nothing about the bathroom or how they bathe, though previously i shared my headcanons about how i think that could work. for the kitchen i think all we can do is assume. Acht has a fridge how surprising /s at the start i mentioned that i take inspo from japanese life where canon fails. ive spent a few years in japan so this works conveniently for me LOL but i assume most people following me do not have that experience. so for those who wanna take that japan inspo too, here's a few small things that are different in japanese living spaces that ive thought may be true for inkopolis? -living spaces are so much smaller on average (of course) -washing machines do not use heated water and like Nobody has a drier in their house. laundry is hung on the balcony, or by the window if there is none, to dry. you want a drying machine? go to the laundromat. -big ovens? like for baking? casseroles? this is Rare in japanese homes. more likely youll see like a little toaster oven. microwaves with an oven setting. i have a gas stove with a fish grill drawer like this. ive never seen this in america but i KNOW in my heart inklings would have this -tiniest fucking kitchens sometimes. a pattern ive often seen for little one room apartments is a pathetic kitchen space in the hall between the entrance and bedtoom where its like. one sink. and space for an electric burner. you want counter space go fuck yourself. if youre a broke inkling who doesnt cook much this may be the option for you. -i think every house ive been in has had a genkan in some form.

[probablybadrpgideas]

Hello! This is in response to that post you just posted with the big wooden d6 that's a box with more d6 inside it with no scale or frame of reference on how big it is.

I have a very similar one, except mine doesn't have a face with the 6 on it, it instead has a window to see the smaller dice inside.

Here it is with my hand, and a normal sized 7-dice set next to it for scale (the stack of weird dice in the background are erasers, don't mind them)

thank you! i know people in the replies were saying the shadow showed the size but shadows are really unhelpful for scale since they depend on how far away the light source is

[sideshowsnob]

Sims 3 animated bedding tutorial

I've been working on this tutorial for quite a while now, and i figured i'd upload it for those who need an in-depth explanation on how to assign bones to beds so they animate properly However, i must note that i do NOT know how to assign 'bits' to beds, therefore that part of the tutorial is missing... You may be able to accomplish this if you try following Gruesim's tutorial found here, but it is not included in mine [the bit is the piece that stretches to cover the inside of the bedding]

Also, you will need Gruesim's bed mesh references here

You can download the .doc version of this tutorial here Sideshow_Snob functional bed tutorial [TS3]

tutorial below -->

Programs you will need: TSRW (i like to use the old version/portable) Milkshape 1.8 Blender (im using 2.7 but you can use any version) Meshtoolkit

-To start, let’s find a good bed to convert. Try to find something that has the blanket, pillow, and mattress textures all on one image, so you don’t have to re-map it. Try and pick a bed where the design isn’t too complicated, if it’s your first conversion.

-This is an example of a good bed to convert. The textures are all in one image, the polycount is only 2k so we don’t even have to decimate it, and it has a good blanket and pillow mesh.

Step One: [Exporting the mesh and textures in sims4studio]

-Open the bed you chose, and import it into sims4studio. Export the mesh, and all the textures into a folder. I usually name my texture files (1,2,3) and so on.

Step Two: [References to use]

-This is extremely important. Open TSRW and clone this specific bed

-Use either the single or double version. I’m using bed single modern, since I'm converting a single bed.

-Go ahead and export this bed as a .obj file in the mesh tab, as we need it as a reference to use in blender. Leave this for later, we’ll come back to it when we import our finished mesh.

Step Three: [Separating the mesh in blender]

-Open the .blend file you got from exporting your mesh. We are now going to separate the bed into multiple pieces (pillow, blanket, mattress, bed frame) and fit them to be the same size as the EA Bed.

-Separate your mesh by shift clicking verts, and pressing shift+ to select the entire piece. If shift+ doesn’t select the entire thing, you’ll have to select them all by hand. Separate your selected piece, by pressing P

-After your done, your mesh should be separated like this:

Mattress

Bed Frame

Pillows (i usually separate both of them if its a double bed)

Blanket

Step Four: [Shaping the mesh in blender]

-These shortcuts are going to be very important for this part.

Shift S → x (scales on the x axis) Shift S → y (scales on the y axis) Shift S → z (scales on the z axis)

-Go ahead and move the pieces of your mesh around until they closely align the EA Bed, so it animates properly

-This is what my finished mesh looks like

-Once your mesh parts are close to the EA counterparts, go ahead and export each piece separately.

-Be sure to give them the correct names (blanket, pillow, bedframe, mattress), so that you don’t get confused later. I usually save the .blend file as well, in case I want to make edits later, which you will probably have to do if something happens after you assign your bones.

Step Five: [Renaming files to the correct groups]

-This is where things unfortunately get a little bit tricky

-We’re going to be going both milkshape and Meshtoolkit quite a bit

-Import the .obj files from your bed, one, by one so we can rename them. They need to be renamed ‘group_base’ so we can assign bones.

-Export all files you rename with the same name, except add “merged” onto the end, and export them as a .wso file. The bedframe bones are going to be assigned when we import all the finished bones into milkshape, so you can export it as 'merged' but we aren't going to be using meshtoolkit for that one.

Step Six: [Assigning bones with meshtoolkit]

-make sure you have frankie’s EA bed mesh references

-Open meshtoolkit → Auto Tools for WSO, and uncheck interpolation, and make sure you have it set to ‘replace all bone assignments’

-WSO mesh to modify: your merged file

-Reference mesh: The EA reference of the same kind (IE, blanket)

-When it prompts you to save the file, save it over the existing ‘blanketmerged’ file.

-Once you’ve assigned the bones to the blanket, pillow, and mattress, import them all into milkshape.

-Side Note-

This is important, you will NOT have to merge all your groups if you are doing this for a DOUBLE bed. only merge all the groups if you are assigning bones for a single bed. For double beds keep the groups separate like how they are in the TSRW reference mesh!

-Go ahead and select everything, press the ‘regroup’ button in the mesh tab, and then rename it back to ‘group base’

-do this for everything EXCEPT the bed frame. we will be assigning the bed frame by hand.

Step 7: assigning the bed frame bones

-Since you've got your bed pieces all grouped together and renamed group_base, go ahead and import your bed frame file.

-Go ahead and 'hide' your bedding in the groups tab so we can only see the bed frame mesh. go ahead and search for the specific bone labeled "0xCD68F001" in the joints tab. once you have found it, go to the model tab and click "select". 'alt shift right click' to select all the verts of your bed frame mesh. go back to the joints tab and click assign. your bed frame bones have now been assigned.

go ahead and "regroup" the bedframe and bedding as one group.

Import your mesh into the tsrw project we made earlier, import your textures and you should be finished.

[finished product]

If you have an questions, or suggestions please don't hesitate to ask. I hope this tutorial was helpful ^_^

[bleucalire]

Hello!!! I literally adore your art style! The way you manage to add depth and perspective to your faces without heavy use of facial planes is really impressive because my art looks similar to yours, (but without the depth) but every time I try to use facial planes it just doesn't work with my style. Do you have any art tutorials or pics with guidelines?? and if not would you ever consider making any?

once again LOVE your art your azi and crowley are just ADORABLE!!

thanks!!

Hi !! Thank you for your kind message !!

I’m afraid I don’t have any strict process that i could explain..? Except A LOT of training ? 😭 I can share how I like to train though ! (it’s often warm-ups before starting working)

- Posemaniacs !!!

20min of 45sec-1min poses every morning is a super cool warm-up, and it forces you to be quick and go to the point ! No unnecessary lines ! (Posting my sketches because i often see people who starts using it trying to do super detailed pics, with a lot of lines, and can’t finish their sketches before the time limit. Loose sketches are fine, you want to get the pose, the perspective, the overall volume, not to create a masterpiece. Posemaniacs is super rad because it helps you learn how to draw any pose from any angle. Also they have a bank of hundreds of 3D models with various poses you can move and turn how you like in a 3D space when you want a reference for when you’re drawing !)

- Do studies from animators/series you like !

Sakugabooru is a mine of references for that ! (i do both movement studies and still of frames i find super cool/instructive) Animators try hard to convey the depth/volumes, even on simple designs, so that’s good references (and yes i’m a kameda simp)

- Pictures of real people !/Real people from real life !!

For studying poses, clothes etc ! (Super rough and not detailed sketches like these ↓ help me a lot ! Sports references are cool ! Try to stay concise, not too many details ! It will leave you more time to do even more studies, and it forces you to find the essential points and lines of what you want to draw !)

- Michel Lauricella’s Books !!!

Suuuuper useful !! Also always checking them at work ! (My books are at work so sending my studies as well 🙈)

As for the style, most of the series i work on have a « simple style » (i like it when there’s not too many lines because it’s easier and funnier to animate). So i’m used to it and it’s reflecting on my Azi and Crowley i think ! If you like my style i can recommend you to do studies from Ousama Ranking, Mob Pyscho, Sherlock Hound, Doraemon, The Gutsy Frog, (and many more haha) (also of course 80’s-90’s Aoyama Gosho’s works ! Magic Kaito, Late Yaiba/Early Detective Conan ! The expressions I draw are heaaaavily influenced by it, as it’s the first thing I actively studied)

I hope it gives you ideas to dig when you want to train a bit !

Thank you again for your kind message ! Have a nice day !!

[squidthesquidd]

*scratches at window cutely* any lore of pre-war Cybertron pls :3 💫💫

teehee :3 well… every since watching tfone my ideas have changed a bit, but most of my pre-war lore is a bunch of my favorite bits and pieces from other continuities! (also all bots have t-cogs)

as for characters, the ones I have the most ideas for pre-war are Optimus, Elita, Megatron, and ratchet! Optimus, elita, and megs were of course: Orion pax, Ariel, and D-16 (ratchet was always ratchet lol)

Orions job was to transport energon from the mines to the refineries, so he wasn’t actually in the mines himself, and instead worked around them. he did essentially live with the miners though. I think ive mentioned this before, but his cooling and ventilation systems have never worked properly, so despite his job being very easy for most, it put a lot of strain on him because of how easily he overheated.

Ariel wasn’t a miner herself, she was a mining dump truck, so she just carried away all the unneeded material that was dug up. also!! she used to be yellow instead of pink (tfa elita reference lol) She always followed the rules and did what she was told.. except when it came to orion. her superiors often gave orion a hard time, so she would get in the middle of it, and since she’s huge and great at her job, they could never get rid of her for insubordination. (she was also the only dump truck at the mine she was stationed at so she definitely wasnt expendable)

D-16 worked in the mines just as your typical run of the mill miner. he was great at what he did, buuuuuut he did have a bit of an issue with authority figures. and this pissed off his superiors a lot, so after one particularly heated argument where D and ariel were trying to convince their boss to please let Orion go to a medic cus smoke is literally pouring out of him, D was shipped off to the gladiator ring. His frame was practically remade to twice its original size, and he was dropped off in the fighters barracks. he hated fighting but was unfortunately very good at it, and his fans nicknamed him “megatronus” which he later shortened to Megatron

aaaaaand last but not least, Ratchet! He was created a medic, loved being a medic, and was amazing at what he did. After an incident at the mine where our big three worked at, Ratchet was sent there to treat any wounded he could find.. whhiiich is where he found Orion! Orion wasn’t injured in the incident, but he was severely overheated at the time, and Ratchet saw this chronically ill little guy and immediately decided he just had to help him. Ratchet got permission to bring Orion back with him to run some tests, aaand it turned out that if orions temperature increased anymore he was literally going to explode and die! but ratchet was able to stabilize him 👍 yaaaay. after that, Ratchet would often be at the mines where orion stayed so he could do daily checkups on him and to keep him from going offline. and of course they became besties lol

as for society and governemntttt,,, the functionist system was very much in play (if you were created with a certain alt-mode, that dictates your entire life) i think the aligned continuity is closest to what im going for with.

tbh i dont have it super fleshed but i’ll be working on it 👍👍💥

[frodo-with-glasses]

More Reading Thoughts: The Prologue

I will never not love Tolkien’s framing device of “my fantasy epic is 100% a translation of an ancient historical book like Beowulf, it’s totally real, you guys, definitely”

“[Bullroarer Took] was surpassed in all Hobbit records only by two famous characters of old; but that curious master is dealt with in this book” is an incredibly intriguing line to me. You’d think it refers to Frodo and Sam, because of what they did to destroy the Ring—but the rest of the hobbits didn’t really care all that much about that. They saw Sam as just another mayor (if a very tenured one) and Frodo as a strange recluse. I think this line refers to Captains Meriadoc and Peregrin, actually, for their courage and leadership during the Battle of Bywater.

“To the last battle at Fornost with the Witch-lord of Angmar they sent some bowmen to the aid of the king, or so they maintained, though no tales of Men record it.” This cracks me up. First of all, the fact that hobbits claim to have sent some aid to the King’s war, but either they’re lying or mistaken or they’re literally so small and unremarkable that everyone completely forgot they were there. Secondly, this is the first and not the last time hobbits are gonna be a pain in the Witch King’s butt

“They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it” is a line that goes so hard bruh

Today’s vocabulary word is “ramify, v: form branches or offshoots; spread or branch out; grow and develop in complexity or range.” So “large and ramifying tunnels”, in this case, paints the picture of the hobbit holes sprouting rooms and hallways that branch off like tree roots. Fascinating.

The fact that Merry probably has some Stoor blood in him still makes me giggle because they’re the only hobbits that could grow any sort of beard. I still maintain the headcanon that Merry has three (3) hairs on his chin, and he shaves them regularly and is inordinately proud of them.

“Sometimes, as in the case of the Tooks of Great Smials, or the Brandybucks of Brandy Hall, many generations of relatives lived in (comparative) peace together in one ancestral and many-tunnelled mansion.” That little interjection of “comparative” was not mine, it’s right there in the text, and it has me cracking up X-D

Merry’s little personal asides in “Concerning Pipeweed” are absolutely darling—including the shade at Breelanders, the almost wistful descriptions of how much better the plant grows in Gondor, and the fond way he speaks of Gandalf.

Okay so I once claimed that the book never refers to Frodo as Bilbo’s nephew, only as his young kinsman; but here at the end of section three he is actually called “Frodo his favorite ‘nephew’”, with the quotation marks and all. So the idea is already planted in our minds that their relationship is sort of avuncular (throwback to that old vocab word!) before we start the story.

“With [Thorin’s company Bilbo] set out, to his own lasting astonishment…” 🤣🤣🤣

Boy I still need to do Bilbo-With-Glasses someday

Tolkien taking several pages of prologue to explain the inconsistency of the riddle game in The Hobbit will never not be funny

“And no one else in the Shire knew of [the Ring’s] existence, or so he believed.” Except for Merry, who watched him put it on to escape the Sackville-Bagginses that one time.

It’s called the Red Book of Westmarch because it came from Undertowers!! Guarded by the Fairbairns!! ELANOR’S KIDS!! HI HELLO I’M HAVING EMOTIONS

“The original Red Book has not been preserved, but many copies were made, especially of the first volume, for the use of the descendants of Master Samwise.” I AM HAVING ✨EMOTIONS✨

PIPPIN BROUGHT A COPY OF THE RED BOOK TO GONDOR WHEN HE WAS OLD

AND THEN ARAGORN HAD IT COPIED AGAIN

AND THAT’S THE ONE THAT WAS “TRANSLATED” INTO LOTR

HELP

The fact that Merry wrote so many books and Pippin wrote none is honestly so in-character for both of them

And Merry frequently visited Rivendell!! You guys I cry

[lintwriting]

i think i really love how visceral the politics of signalis is. not just in the in-your-face propaganda aspects. but like, the way it dooms the narrative.

the whole plot of signalis is based around two entirely disconnected settings -- the Penrose ship and the Sierpinski prison. They are so disconnected from each other across time and space that you spend the whole first half of the game disoriented by the whiplash these two locations give you.

and personally? I stayed confused until I realized what connected them:

they're the two branching paths of Ariane's future.

after her military service, she gets a state letter informing her that if she's not accepted into the Penrose program, she'll be sent to Sierpinski, a "re-education" camp that's actually just a prison mine.

And, to her luck, she "somehow did end up joining the Nation's Penrose Program, the same one on the posters she had seen years prior."

I love and hate the way the wiki frames it, because yes the Penrose space expedition program seemed preferable to the prison camp.Yes, she had seen posters of it and glamorized it as a new start for her. After all, she was an art-obsessed outsider in a world where people molded into being unfeeling machines, where art is frivolous and degenerate except for how it serves as propaganda. Why not dream of a new planet?

But it's all a lie. The Penrose program sounds too good to be true for Ariane-- how can this under-qualified, ostracized freak get accepted into such a prestigious program? -- because it IS too good to be true.

The truth of the program is that it's a glorified propaganda tool, and a useful way to get rid of political enemies. Just send them off into space and tell them it's for the good of the empire, to find new planets to colonize. Then, after 7.74 years of loyal service to the program, tell them:

If you have not found a suitable world for landing by this point, accept that you will not. Find solace in the thought that others might be successful where you failed.

Remenber, you will die having served your Nation by partaking in a glorious demonstration of our power. --- End of decrypted transmission ---

As you are probably aware, your ship's spare parts and rations will soon be depleted.

Penrose is ostensibly about founding new colonies on different planets, but the reality is that these vessels seem to have very little planning put into them, like throwing darts at the wall and hoping one of them will stick. Some people wonder about the efficacy of wasting ships of supplies for this seemingly useless endeavor, but they're missing the point and buying into the propaganda.

The truth is that Ariane was just a pawn for their political power play, quite literally a demonstration of their power, like a horrifying version of The Tallest sending Invader Zim on a useless quest to conquer Earth to keep him out of their hair, like Ozai banishing Zuko off to chase a hundred year old myth. And it cost Ariane her future.

And like, that means no matter what, Ariane never had a future. Penrose is death by space, and Sierpinski is death by mines. She never had a choice, only the illusion of one, because she was doomed by the political reality of living in under an authoritarian state that would never value her.

And like, it's so impossible to ignore the similarities of this to the Cultural Revolution in China. I think the retro aesthetic of the nation references that, along with the Chinese characters littering all the walls.

Ariane's story reminds me a lot of Ye Wenjie's story from the 3 Body Problem, as a similarly powerful woman who also dooms the whole world because of the ANGUISH of the Cultural Revolution destroying her future.

Except, unlike Ye Wenjie, we're not going to get a bunch of assholes calling her an Eve, doomer of mankind. Instead, the story actually succeeds at portraying Ariane as a tragedy doomed by the narrative.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

i have this excerpt from Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: The Journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum printed and framed

Like, I paid an etsy seller to print it for me on the nicest cardstock with the best ink, and then I waited in line and paid a stupid amount of money to have it framed at the Michael's custom framing counter. And I have zero regrets. I've probably posted this excerpt here before but I don't care. It is everything.

The heroic girls, Chajke and Frumke—they are a theme that calls for the pen of a great writer. Boldly they travel back and forth through the cities and towns of Poland. They carry “Aryan” papers identifying them as Poles or Ukrain­ians. One of them even wears a cross, which she never parts with except when in the Ghetto. They are in mortal danger every day. They rely entirely on their “Aryan” faces and on the peasant kerchiefs that cover their heads. Without a mur­mur, without a second’s hesitation, they accept and carry out the most dangerous missions. Is someone needed to travel to Vilna, Bialystok, Lemberg, Kowel, Lublin, Czestochowa, or Radom to smuggle in contraband such as illegal publica­tions, goods, money? The girls volunteer as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Are there comrades who have to be rescued from Vilna, Lublin, or some other city?— They undertake the mission. Nothing stands in their way, nothing deters them. Is it necessary to become friendly with engineers of German trains, so as to be able to travel beyond the frontiers of the Government General of Poland, where people can move about with special papers? They are the ones to do it, simply, without fuss, as though it was their pro­fession. They have traveled from city to city, to places no delegate or Jewish institution had ever reached, such as Wolhynia, Lithuania. They were the first to bring back the tidings about the tragedy of Vilna. They were the first to offer words of encouragement and moral support to the sur­viving remnant of that city. How many times have they looked death in the eyes? How many times have they been arrested and searched? Fortune has smiled on them. They are, in the classic idiom, “emissaries of the community to whom no harm can come.” With what simplicity and modesty have they reported what they accomplished on their journeys, on the trains bearing Polish Christians who have been pressed to work in Germany! The story of the Jewish woman will be a glorious page in the history of Jewry during the present war. And the Chajkes and Frumkes will be the leading figures in this story. For these girls are indefatigable. Just back from Czestochowa, where they imported contraband, in a few hours they’ll be on the move again. And they’re off without a moment’s hesitation, without a minute of rest.

He only namechecks Chaike Grossman and Frumka Plotnicka here, but I can tell you for a fact that he's also referring to Tossia Atlman, Tema Schneiderman, and Lonka Kozybrodska. At least.

So far the count of Jewish women (that I'm aware of) who have responded to "They are a theme that calls for the pen of a great writer" with a book (or long-planned book) are three: me, Dr. Lenore Weitzman (who won't return any of my emails) and Judith Batalion (who did return my emails, had lunch with me, and told me that Dr. Weitzman wouldn't respond to her emails either). I hope more Jewish women--in and out of the academe--continue to take up this call, and I hope they keep getting published and aren't rejected because it's "too similar" to mine and Batalion's. No like seriously like two months after I signed with my agent, and one month after I got my book deal, I received a rejection from a lit agent saying that my book was "too similar" to Batalion's. Ok first of all it's not. I read Batalion's the day it came out, and they're very different books with very different focuses, goals, and approaches; the only thing they have in common is that they're both about this underserved, underappreciated group of amazing women. There SHOULD be multiple books about each and every one of them. There SHOULD be multiple books about one day Tossia spent in Vilna. Every white man who looked sideways at WW2 and the American Civil War have like, 87 terrible books dedicated to them, and I DEMAND at least 3 for each of these women. And 17 for Queen Zivia. (Who does have a biography, written by Bella Gutterman). Plus a biopic. So this post went in a direction.

tl;dr:

[maspers]

Bionicle is weird yall

Okay so let's talk Bionicle. The Lego action figures with surprisingly deep lore and themes, and basically one of the coolest things to ever exist. You either love Bionicle or have not read Bionicle.

Who's your favorite? Mine has got to be Kopaka. For various reasons, including his general competence throughout the whole story. He's just pretty rad.

Now, you might be surprised I like Kopaka, since all things considered he's kind of a prick. He snarks at basically everything that enters his line of sight, and largely acts kind of stuck up due to his (admittedly justified) belief that he's the smartest person around. He spends the entire story fed up with everything else. He is completely and utterly convinced that he is the only sane person in the entire universe, and that nothing in the entirety of Mata Nui is behaving in a logical and rational way.

But see, here's the thing: all of that bluster about being the only rational thing around is complete bullcrap and lies, and here's why:

Kopaka, like all the original six Toa, is an amnesiac. He popped out of a magic canister in the ground and basically has no backstory to speak of since before he woke up he essentially didn't exist. And we know he's not a possible exception to this since, unlike the other Toa, he's the one we actually see it happen to. He has legit no idea who he is until Nuju tells him. What this means is simple: KOPAKA HAS NO FRAME OF REFERENCE. You can't judge something to be insane if you have not experienced sanity. Nothing is "irrational" in the abstract, you need context. Most people have extremely well-developed context obtained by living, but since Kopaka had not yet lived until he woke up he has NONE OF THAT.

And even if he did, he'd still be a massive hypocrite. Sure, the Matoran society and the Makuta are kind of weird, but Kopaka is a TOA, and Toa are a whole new kettle of craziness. Kopaka is a magic space warrior robot with the power to control the very concept of THIS STUFF IS COLD. His face is a magic mask that grants him X-ray vision and then gets even more powers later on. He can physically combine with other Toa to create a weird mega fusion Toa. Heck, after his first upgrade his primary weapon was skis. SKIS. He basically shapeshifts into a new body every time he goes somewhere else. And, as noted before, he legit just popped out of the ground one day, which makes him and his sibling Toa objectively weirder than all other Toa ever, since all the rest are transformed Matoran. Kopaka's entire existence is really freaking weird. He has no legs to stand on in his "I am the only rational being in the universe" belief. So where the heck did he get it from?

The simple answer: Mata Nui himself. When designing the Toa to act as a sort of internal anti-virus for all the weird garbage in his system, Mata Nui decided "You know what let's make the Ice one a prick who thinks he's sane" and somehow that idea perpetuated to the very end of the design process. The only reason Kopaka has to deal with everything else seeming completely bonkers to him is because Mata Nui, massive benevolent Troll that he is, *made him that way*. I bet when Kopaka finally made it to Bara Magna he was probably internally extremely relieved, because now he could judge the Agori by comparing them to the Matoran and vice versa instead of judging the Matoran on no actual justification whatsoever.

TLDR Kopaka is my favorite Bionicle because the entire premise of his personality is absurd and he probably spent the entire plot trying to internally justify it. Also ice powers go brrrrr

[missacidburn928s-heathenhideaway]

Strings Attached

Mechanic!Biker!Sy x POC!Reader

Summary:

You could turn a good boy nasty. And Sy wouldn’t have it any other way.

Warnings:

18+ Only. MDNI. SMUT, Inappropriate use of a motorcycle, Porn without a plot.

Notes:

Hello Heathens! Sometimes I hear a song and then BAM a scene unfolds before my vary eyes. The urge to bring said scene into existence becomes overwhelming until I flesh the damn thing out and bring it to life. That’s what happened here. I was working on another fic, trying to clear out some of my WIPs and well now were here.  (I have an overwhelming need to call Sy Beasty in reference to the Beast. I will not apologize for it. Don’t like it? Feel free to pick another nickname when you read.) Happy reading!

Divider by @firefly-graphics Banner by @cafekitsune

We made it home just as the last rays of sunlight disappeared and the moon began her ascent into the diamond filled sky. I watch as Sy, bathed in moonlight, unloads his black on black Harley Road King into the garage.

Once he has her parked in her new home, he returns to the truck to close the tailgate and lock her up for the night.

I couldn’t help sauntering over and getting a closer look of the powerful machine. “She really is a beauty.” I state, bending over to run my hands along her leather seat.

“She absolutely is.”

I turn my head over my shoulder to look at Sy. His eyes remain on my bent over frame. Not once glancing at the magnificent machinery in front of me.

“Did you know that I have this recurring fantasy to be fucked on a bike? Forced to be all quiet so no one catches us with our pants down.” I confess.

“Well that's interesting, Peach. Because I have a fantasy of bending you over my bike and fucking you until you soak the leather so good that I smell you every time I ride for days.” His voice has taken on that gravelly tone that makes my panties damp.

“So what are we going to do about that?”

He closes the space between us in three quick steps. Causing me to quickly turn and sit back on the bike. Reaching forward, he wraps his massive hand around the base of my throat and carefully pulls me up to stand.

“Undo my belt and unzip my pants.”

Keeping eye contact, I extend my hands forward and blindly unbuckle him before pulling down his zipper as requested.

“Good girl.” He gives my neck a tiny squeeze. “Now yours. Except I want you to also pull both your pants and panties down to mid-thigh. Understand?”

I nod my agreement and slowly push my pants down my thighs.

With the hand not holding my throat, he runs his fingers up my inner thighs until he reaches my dampened center.

“Always so wet and ready for me.” He growls out. “When I let you go, you’re going to walk to the back of the bike and bend over. I want you to stretch forward until your hands can grip the handlebars.”

He releases his hold on my neck. My weakened knees somehow manage to make it over to the end of the bike without falling flat on my face. I proceed to bend over and push up onto my tiptoes so that I can reach the handlebars.

My breathing begins to pick up as I feel Sy move in behind me.

He has removed himself from his undone jeans and is now teasing his bulbous tip along my vulva. “You look like heaven bent over my bike, cunt dripping, waiting for me to fill you up. I could bust right now from this image alone.”

“Don’t.” I whimper. “Please. I need you to come inside me. Always inside me.”

“Fuck, Peach.” He grinds his pelvis forward, gliding his dick between my cheeks. “You know what hearing you beg like that does to me.”

“I can’t wait anymore Beasty. Please fill me up. Make our fantasies come true.”

“Shh. I got you, baby girl.” He coos. “Now hold on tight and keep that pretty mouth shut or I’m going to have to do it for you.”

I feel the heat of him leave my skin momentarily before he slowly guides himself within my slick walls. He takes his time, giving us each a chance to catch our breath as my body reacclimates itself with his thickness.

When his pelvis is flush against mine he gives his hips a swivel. Eliciting a groan of pleasure from the both of us.

“Gotdamn, you feel so tight right now babygirl. I don’t know how long I’m going to last. Your sweet pussy is trying to fucking milk me dry already.”

“Don’t care. Just need you to move.” I whine.

“You’re a needy little one tonight.” He grits out. “Remember to stay quiet Peach. Wouldn't want to alert the neighbors now, would we?”

I have no chance of responding as he pulls his hips back and thrusts them forward. Gripping my waist tight, he sets a hardy pace. I bite my bottom lip to keep from screaming as his weight pushes me down against the leather and metal beneath me.

He slaps my ass, making me cry out, before clamping my mouth shut once more. “If your pussy keeps squeezing me like that Peach, this is going to be over sooner than I would like.”

So of course I purposely do exactly that. I clamp my walls around this girth and circle my hips as best I can in my current position. Rubbing my clit along the leather seat. I can feel a tingle begin to move up from my toes into my core. I’m right on the precipice of ecstasy and I want to take Sy along with me.

“So close.” I whisper out.

“I know, baby. I know.” He groans. “Be a good girl and come for me so I can fill you up. Wanna watch my cum drip out of you onto my seat.”

He picks up the pace and suddenly I feel like I’m flying. Goosebumps erupt along my skin, and I forget all about staying quiet as I come around his cock.

“That’s it, babygirl. Fuck you feel so good when you come on my dick baby.”

I lay there, riding the waves of pleasure as Sy fucks me through my orgasm. Just as the last pulses ring through my body, he thrusts in as deep as he can go. With his tip notched at my cervix, he growls and groans as he unloads inside of me. Hips twitching until the last drop is spent.

He slowly pulls out of me. Reaching forward, he spreads my cheeks. Admiring his seed leaking from my abused hole. “One of these days I’m going to have to film this. My mind never does it justice. And you really need to see just how damn sexy you look all swollen and dripping of me.”

“Why not just do it now? I won’t be moving without help thanks to that orgasm. Enjoy the fruits of your labor Beasty.”

I observe him reach into his pocket and pull out his phone. Taking his sweet time, he snaps pictures and even takes video from practically every angle.

Next thing I know his screen is before me with a video playing. My pussy, front and center, spasms. An aftershock most likely, and a fresh trickle of cream trails down my lips. I’m a mess, but I have to admit, he’s right. I do look sexy with his claim painted on me.

“Fucking perfection.” He whispers in my ear. “Now let’s get you inside and cleaned up, baby. I’m going to push my cum back where it belongs and pull your pants back up. Then I’m carrying you to bed.”

“Such a chivalrous beast.” I giggle.

“Only for you, Peach. What can I say. I’m attached. Strings and all.”

[callmeajorallie]

I'm not sure why but ever since the internet was blessed/cursed with "Battle for Nightmare Moon" (Reminder I don't support Hypercrystal) It has consumed my brain to the point I have created an entire au based around it. For the longest time, I've wanted to share it, but at the beginning I was stopped by social awkwardness, followed by the Hypercrystal controversy & not wishing to be associated with him. But now that I've used Tumbler more, I've gotten more comfortable sharing this hyperfixation of mine & all the craziness that comes with it. Starting off, here's the general outline in regards to my take on bfnm (I have yet to figure out a name for my version of bfnm). 1. Time frame - Each season would be written to take place during the same time period as their respective bfdi season counterpart (ex. Season 1 - 2010/2012) 2. Gender - Yes, gender. Why? Well to go with the opposite theme, my dumbass brain decided to default gender-swap each character (With a few exceptions, e.i Winner) lest I decide otherwise. Now why am I mentioning this? Because various other takes on bfnm has the cast keep the gender the same as their bfdi counterpart, which sometime causes people to I guess correct me- but hey, these are open-source objects, nor was there confirmed genders. 3. Cast - You think I just limited myself to the opposites? Ha! Lol no. So before the whole Hyper drama (We'll get to that soon), I had planned to involve the characters from another video of his that were also open-sourced (e.i What if bfdi had new team members) as contestants because, like everything else, I could. 4. Hosts - Bringing up the drama again, before such, I decided to have Hypercrystal as a character, being the host. Why? Because every version of bfnm I saw had a mock announcer box of some sort so I wanted to be unique I guess (idk I'm thinking back like 9 months). Now, this hasn't changed in the slightest, for I have pre-planned too much to be ruined by drama, but also out of spite (The trauma I have prepared for this crystal ball). However, that's not the only crystal I've snatched (e.i the 100kly Object show contestants), recreated the assets & all because these goobers are too silly. Oh yeah, also the number hosts are negative versions of themselves (except x, bro became y).

Anyway with that out of the way & to follow up on it, we have my designed for the other crystals (The photo above is for reference- Also I tried to post these fools in a reblog of an earlier post of mine but the reblog wasn't reblogging so-) Brighter/Darker Crystal

Liarcrystal (4s lookin ahh)

My personal favorite; Spidercrystal

& Finally, Diapercrystal, who for the sake of bfnm my take has been redesigned & renamed to Cringecrystal

Why am I obsessed with these silly objects? I don't know, I just think they're neat & have an entire notebook dedicated to them, on other news & to finish to ramble off, take these character sheets I made for bfnm my take Watery & Steely before the Hyper controversy (I'll probably make new assets for the bfnm but we'll see if I can give enough effort to do that-)

(The gif isn't gifing I think-)

[lucindaspartnerrealandtrue]

okokok i NEED to know abt ur oc!!! im lowkey already obsessed w her whoops

We can be obsseseded with her togehter <3

I ended up properly RANTING, so I'll put it all under the cut so people won't have to scroll down a bunch of paragraphs about someone's random oc's lore

Mermaid lore

Me and a friend of mine decided that there are two types of mermaids in their universe, ignoring that there are other types of fish people. Ones that live in big lakes, these ones being bigger due to most lakes kinda being somewhat enchanted and for simplicity this is what we call sirens(even if they're basically kinda the same thing, but also sirens i don't think are even half fish but shh), and ones that live in seas/oceans, these being slightly smaller and we're just gonna refer to them as mermaids. Why's that? Good question! Fantasy reasoning I suppose, but to give an even more exact reasoning, i'd say that all waters are enchanted due to a reason or two but lakes don't have as much movement and in the ones that sirens are mostly found, the water also has a hard time reaching the sea so the magic gets to concentrate more? Anyway, even if they're cousin species, they do not fancy each other. Sirens need a big quantity of food as they're bigger(thinking something 7ft), while mermaids are smaller. Both species are somewhat hostile towards anything that comes from the surface.

Backstory

Manya was born in a group of sirens originally, residing in a lake, but she got lost when she was still very small and ended up in the sea(The Gal'ruk Sea, to be more specific). Now, she gets adopted by another shoal of mers that think she's one of their own, but as she grows up, they start realising that she's different, and by different I mean that she's a siren. So she ends up exiled from the only home she ever knew, as a teenager basically. That, of course leaves her bitter. She was kicked out even though she did nothing. Just because she's different. No one wants her around, and no other group would accept her. The thought of trying and find her way back to a lake does cross her mind, but, even if she does, then what? Will she really be truly accepted? So she doesn't do anything. Basically just decides that she'll remain on her own. Regardless, as any respectable mermaid, she spends her time by tricking sailors to their death. Easy lunch. (Not that food helps too much).

'Present' times

Now, she'd be appearing in season 3. Picking up from where it last left us, Aphmau, Lucinda and Lo are in the The Gal'ruk Region, and the girls went to search through Enki's library(if i remember correctly). Well, at this point I decided that SOMEONE from the main cast is coming for them to warn them about some big danger(probably Shad, or the Shadow Knights in general, i do not have this part entirely decided). And that someone i decided would be Katelyn(and Travis). Manya ends up stalking this exact boat, awaiting a new meal. She takes Aphmau's form. And now, well, I have a very specific imagine in my head; Katelyn leaning over the boat's fence, probably slightly sea sick, a rock gets thrown towards her, and she looks downwards and just sees this...head peaking out of the water, familiar orange eyes looking at her. Black hair framing them. And she's just like '????'. Manya gets out of the water, they talk. Things feel off but for SOME reason Kate can't put her finger on what exactly it is(she's in a trance that's why). 'Aphmau' gets on board(on suspiciously shaky legs)...Kate does realise that this Aphmau...doesn't have her markings/tattoos. She's starting to think it's just a weird dream. But before things can get worse, Travis interrupts.

From this point onwards, I do not have any SPECIFIC ideas for her YET except concepts...I know they take her with them and for a while she resides in a huge aquarium on the Phoenix Alliance island(she does not appreciate that, for multiple reasons). And she keeps stealing people's forms to mess with them. She does befriend them. Eventually. She becomes friends with Vylad first tho, somehow(they eat together in comfortable silence)...I have some imagines in my head of her and Zoey ahem.. And she does get freed later in the season after all the disaster happening around them starts getting easier to handle. But she hangs around because she will finally find her crowd. She's not that important to the lore as much as she is a plot B, but she does help with coordination. After they start getting on her good side.

Anyway, this is the story summarised as much as I could! Thank you for actually going through my rambling if you read this and I tried to keep it as organised as I could ^^

[the-nosy-neighbor]

More on A Cricket on the Hearth

In Dickens’s version, we have more characters, the story is from the viewpoint of the Peerybingles, John and Dot.  They are a couple with a large age difference and they have a new baby.  They know a toymaker named Caleb who works for a jerk named Tackleton, who is going to marry Mary, who is an old school friend of Dot.  Mary used to be engaged to Caleb’s son, Edward, who went off and died in South America.  Dot doesn’t want to marry Tackleton, but her mom is making her do it.

John brings home an elderly guy who was hitchhiking and the old guy invites himself to stay.  Tackleton comes to John and says that Dot is stepping out, which worries John.  They go peeping and see that the old man is actually a young man in disguise, who is young and hot without the disguise and has his arm around Dot’s waist.  John is heartbroken.  He thinks about killing the guy, while he sits in front of the fireplace brooding, but then a cricket chirps and turns into a fairy that shows him Dot’s past and how she is a good person.  In the end decides to be the bigger person (and not murder her!) and divorce her so she can be happy with the young hotness.  

It all comes out and it turns out that the young man is Edward, who finally made his way back to discover that May was going to marry Tackleton and decided to go in secret to see if she still loves him.  Dot helps them find a moment to talk, and they get hitched.  Dot didn’t tell her husband because he is a bumbling idiot.  All is well.  I guess except for Tackleton, I suppose.

What that means in Welcome Home context, I am not sure, but I have some half-formed ideas.  This story became popular at the time, and brass crickets around the fireplace became a thing.  I believe it was a common gift.  Example below:

We are used to having bugs around, and I thought we had a cricket, but the wiki calls it a mantis and those sure look like mantis front legs:

So, it is a tradition, but one that honestly hasn’t been around for a while.  At least, not where I am.  It might still be popular in England?  The internet only has references to it being obscure and there are tons of little articles and essays like mine above, enjoying this forgotten thing and how weird it is.   

The subtitle is interesting, though.  “A Fairy Tale of Home.”  The home is central to the story, in that the cricket stays around there, and it’s supposed to be a general good luck thing.  Generally in literature and myth, the hearth is like the heart of the home, and is closely associated with the positive aspects of home and family.  Hera and other goddesses are generally described as “of the hearth,” and not of the home.  If you get really weird about it, the hearth is comparable to a womb (I looked it up, it’s not just me, whew).  And the toys are something that figured in prominently in the update, but most Christmas things have toys in some form.

Fairy tale, though. I wonder if that is the important part of the title for our purposes. I'm going to have to think about that.

I did pull some frames that remind me of Welcome Home.  

The pic below Eddie is Edward from the cartoon special.  For one, the names are pretty similar.  Edward’s last name is Plummer, of the toymaker and blind daughter Plummers.  The last name is a reference to a person who works with lead, maybe pipes = plummer.  Thank god they got out of that field.  I wonder if this is one of Clown’s references for Eddie?  I went and looked at the references Clown used in an answer to an ask, and it included “It’s a Small World” and Special Delivery Kluger from a Christmas special called Santa Claus is Coming to Town.  But that is a very specific reference, and Clown does have a love of animated specials and kids’ shows. I think it is still a possibility that this was a reference for Clown when designing Eddie.

Another reason I posted that pic of Eddie is that it has images overlaid, and I saw it in his eyes first.  When I saw the reflection of the figure in the eye (from the previous post), I thought, “this is something Clown would do and probably has done.”

There is something about the way the cuckoo clock background is drawn.  The wash that is on the background does feel like it is an influence, though instead of a blue we get a black/red effect.  

How about this:  When Eddie has his freakout, we are getting a purely external view of what Eddie is going through.  What if he is having a Dickensian experience in his mind?  Maybe not ghosts, per say, though you could say that there are ghosts overlaid on most of the images in the Homewarming content.  (below is me torturing this pic to see what is overlaid on the top)

Just out of sight, and I have pointed out a few different instances where this almost invisible layering is happening.  Could we be seeing what someone would see watching Scrooge have his out of body experience?

Clown has stated that hard work and being useful is Eddie’s reason for living.  Is there some reason that he feels this way, especially where Christmas packages are concerned?  What if he is going against some kind of moral Homewarming code that earns him an experience equivalent to Scrooge.

Also, Cricket Crocket is mentioned in this cartoon, so what if the pea on the plate is not only an expression of solitude and loneliness (and an all seeing eye, more on that to come), but is also a reference to the stingy dinner the Crocketts were going to have before Scrooge got it together and brought them food?  Side note, in Muppet Christmas Carol, which is the far superior version (Scrooged is a close second), they bring a giant uncooked turkey and every time I think “how are they going to eat that before tomorrow because it is going to take 12 hours to cook in a fireplace?”

Seeing the clock speed up and slow down in Home could be related to this idea of all of the spirits doing this in the same night, this manipulation of time.  Eddie sees himself in a room full of giant toys, and he is dwarfed in the middle.  Out of body, out of time, surrounded by strangeness.

I’m not suggesting that it is a Christmas past, present, and future kind of thing, but I’m suggesting a reference to a supernatural level experience that fits into Dickens’s works.  Like the references Clown has made to Eddie’s extreme commitment to his work, he may feel similarly about the holiday, hence why he was so excited to help Poppy.  He was performing the duties that he is supposed to do on Homewarming.  The fact that he didn’t follow the tradition, since there were no packages to deliver, could be a clue to where the breakdown occurs.  

I may have to read some more of Dicken’s holiday stuff to see if there is a stronger connection.  But I do think that I have some more to write about Eddie, regarding this theme and applying the themes introduced with Poppy.  

[ratwavegamehouse]

Doing work on This is Your Lifepath season 2 has got me thinking about lists of inspirations again. So I rounded up some lists in upcoming projects.

(Ritual Magic for Besties isn't here as its bibliography is fairly short and more explanatory rather than list-y, also like it comes out later this month so you can just wait)

PSYCHODUNGEON

The games listed are primarily about mechanical influence (which is why they're mostly a very large slice of Belonging outside Belonging games). Big exceptions are Subway Runner and DD.TV which are both there for post-dungeon fantasy influence. ACWtM is there for the influence on the asymmetric roles, which are a divergence from how BoB setting elements tend to work, and so my own Fear the Taste of Blood is there because working on that is how I understood that element better.

Probably should clarify Moonstruck is the comic (as like loose setting influence) rather than the film (which bangs but doesn't relate much to PSYCHODUNGEON).

NHSmackdown is a wrestling/performance art show by a friend of mine which was focused on being a nurse. The influence is in how it got me reflecting on being trapped in job which is nominally doing good but isn't protecting you and is honestly actively harming you.

Nemesis Revealed

Nemesis Revealed is a storytelling game of great rivals, where you play someone's nemesis, their dark counterpart and follow their story. It has multiple playsets which frame a different hero to create your nemesis in opposition to.

So the game influences are either in mechanics or in the structure of a book basically. Whereas the other section primarily focuses on specific influences for different playsets (there's a sort of conventional street level superhero, a gender-twisty tokusatsu inspired story, as well as strange space knights and near-distant future mecha crews). It's a scattershot and probably reads very opaque without context (I think that's how all my bibliography lists look which is probably why I place them at the back, where a reader will find them already armed with context, rather than at the start as a taste setter).

Transgender Deathmatch Legend II: Grand Slam

TDL2 actually has two separate lists. There's a traditional bibliography. I referenced my own work I've drawn on because it seems honest. Fox in the Forest is there for influencing the original mechanic. Hieronymus influenced how i wanted the shape of the book to be. Stealing the Throne influenced some non-fighting mechanics.

The other references are more for how they influenced specific scenarios (like one is loosely Raid inspired but turned into smashing up a GIC, while another is a direct Warriors-riff).

I included the Party of One episode i did cause it helped clarify how i felt about the game. British lads hitting each other with chairs is there because it's a mood.

Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats was a fringe theatre show I did set up for and it ended up influenced the content of a work-in-progress show I did called Crossface (which was a wrestling inspired character comedy performance drama). Some of the content for Crossface has been recycled into some personal essays I have in the book. So paying tribute to that root felt important.

But before that section TDL also has a Recommended Reading list. It's mainly stuff that I think conveys what's enjoyable about wrestling. I wouldn't say everything was a direct inspiration, but if you read the book and played the game and wanted to know more about wrestling; there's a little roadmap in the book.

(Though being serious this appendix is obviously super subject to change before release if anything horrific comes out about anyone featured, obviously the danger in recommending any wrestling tbh)