#i put it under a readmore so don't complain to me about length

[awfulbadtaste]

Sneak Peek at some stuff soon to come

Later on in the story, taken from “The Ritual”:

A bag fell over her face, and in the split second between the sudden darkness, and the sharp blow to the back of the head, a single word formed in Laura’s mind.

Again?

The world winked out, and Laura plunged into the depths of the darkest sea again. Somewhere on the edge of hearing, there were voices, muffled and monotonous, like chanting. Her nostrils flared with the smell of smoke and spice. Her head throbbed, stars bursting behind her eyelids as she groaned.

She tilted her head, eyes fluttering. A warm glow filled her vision, with hundreds of tiny flickering lights scattered across her peripheral, with tall, solemn shapes dressed in black and made of shadow. She groaned again, mouth dry, and lifted her chin.

Her vision swirled, and focused.

Several things registered at once.

First, candles had been lit and placed around a large, cavernous space, and the room was filled with dozens of people, dressed in black cloaks, with hoods pulled over their faces so that only their mouths and nose could be seen. Second, there was a single person standing before her, dressed in red, the hood pulled right across their face, an upside down cross tied about their neck and glittering in the candlelight. Third, they were in the church, all the pews pushed to the sides haphazardly, and the crosses and jesus figures turned around or on the floor.

“Oh, this is Bill’s church,” Laura slurred, looking around, her head full of cotton. “He’s going to be so upset!”

“The Reverend won’t be upset for long if the ritual is successful,” said the figure in red, their voice thick with malice.

Laura squinted at them in the gloom. “‘Reverend’ is a title, you don’t call people ‘the Reverend’, it’s a title like ‘honorable’ for a judge.”

“I--I don’t care,” said the figure before her.

“Do I know you?” Laura asked, suddenly. She tried to move, and something stopped her. She turned, bleary eyed to look at her arms, splayed out across the familiar wooden cross at the back of the altar in the church. She tugged at the binds around her wrists, and then looked at the figure in red again.

“Aren’t you scared?” Asked the figure in red. They were taller than her, and broader too, the mouth cruel and stony beneath the mask and bordered with prickly grey stubble.

“I should be,” Laura admitted, her head pounding. The people in black continued chanting, their voices echoing in the church. The altar that usually stood in front of the cross had been moved, the flowers ripped apart and thrown aside, replaced by a black velvet cloth, a bowl, and a cruel looking knife that gleamed in the candlelight. “Oh, you’re doing one of these,” Laura said, matter of factly.

“One of these?” Asked the figure.

“One of these like, dumb, cult... things. Heil Satan and all,” Laura explained.

“This isn’t ‘dumb’, it’s the real deal,” spat the red figure. “Now, listen well, girl, you will play a pivotal role in bringing about the unspeakable power of hell. The devil cries out for your blood.”

“Wait, I do know you!” Laura started. She tilted her head, trying to see under the hood of the figure in front of her, and they recoiled back. She blinked, and continued. “You’re the gross old cult dude who rang me like two weeks ago, oh my god. You don’t recognise me? Holy shit, you don’t know who I am!”

“Where is the gag?” The figure spat, spinning on the spot. Someone in black robes rushed forward, holding out a twisted piece of cloth. The figure in red snatched it from their hands, and ducked around behind Laura.

“You guys have no idea how pissed he’s going to b--!” The gag cut into the corners of her mouth, and the figure pulled it tight around her head, before tying it off roughly, and shuffling back to the front. The chanting continued, growing louder, changing pace.

The figure in red approached the altar, picking up the black bowl, and the knife, the blade flashing. “Prince of sin, we beseech thee, King of Seven Hells, come forward, and heed our call.”

A hooded figure stepped forward, holding a book out in front of them, a candle in their free hand, and began to read, their voice descending into a strange animalistic chanting. Another hooded figure stepped forward, and began drawing things with a piece of chalk, scratching out designs and letters onto the wooden floorboards.

Laura struggled, pulling against her binds, biting down on the gag. In the gloom, she could see the black figures close in, creating a circle around the red one and the altar. Fear caught in her throat, pounding in her ears. If he saw her like this, she would never live it down--

The candles waved, and a coldness trickled into the room, seeping in from the walls and ceiling, unnatural and deadly still. The hooded figure continued speaking, reciting what was in the book in front of them, while the others stood around the circle, waiting.

The coldness crawled across Laura’s skin, travelling down her face in beads of sweat. A static filled the room, charging the air and making it feel alive with energy. The candles blew out, and the room became dark.

Here we go, she thought, rolling her eyes back into her head, and closing them.

Out of the centre of the circle, a darkness, deeper than black, rose up, like a wispy trail of smoke.

“Great lord, Asmodeus, King of demons, King of Nine Hells, we seek your aid,” The hooded figures chanted in unison, their voices echoing off the walls and glass windows.

The smoke swirled, becoming solid, forming a tall, hulking figure, so black that it seemed to suck in the very light around it. Four great wings unfurled from its body, black as ebony, two pairs of arms ending in clawed talons stretched from the being’s side in a lazy movement. Laura could make out large, curling horns crowning the beast’s head, and see the wetness of its teeth as it opened its mouth in a hideous smile.

The chanting went silent, voices dying in throats. The figure in red seemed to shake, staring up at the beast. A single white dot appeared in the middle of the creature’s forehead, growing to a thin little glowing line. The line popped open into a crude looking eye. It blinked, and swivelled around the room. The beast stayed motionless, standing stock still, the eye slithering down over its body, and appearing at the back of its head, across its neck, on its cheek, before snapping back to its forehead.

The beast opened its toothy maw, and spoke, the voice a steely, inhuman whisper. “This is Bill’s church.” Laura banged her head against the cross, looking up at the ceiling and letting out a deep sigh through her nose. The fear melted away, and was replaced by frustration. “I have always liked Bill,”  the creature stated, black smoke swirling about its body still.

Laura kicked the cross hard, and the bang resonated in the church hall. The beast’s eye trained on her, and a palpable silence fell across the church, the collective holding of breath. More eyes grew out of the dark of the creature’s body, appearing across its head, around its horns, all pupils fixed on Laura’s face.

“What a pleasant surprise!” The beast exclaimed, the wings fluttering. It stepped over the circle, and the candles around the room relit. In the gold gloom, the creature’s blackness seemed deeper, more intimidating, as if staring into the heart of a black hole itself. It approached Laura, standing inches from her face, grinning at her with giant fangs, and a dozen, glowing eyes. “My love! My little love! What brings you here?” Laura blinked, and gave him a pointed stare. Marius’ grin faltered, and the eyes glanced from side to side at her bound wrists, and then at the gag about her mouth. “Ah,” he said.

[roboticchibitan]

So I was talking to a fellow broke person about knitting needles for lace and I feel bad saying this because I know some things just don't work for some people and sometimes even small reliefs cost too much money, but I really do think nice needles are one of those things you SHOULD wait and save up for.

Putting this under a readmore cuz it's long

The difference between cheaper needles and nicer needles is like the difference between riding the bus and riding in a car. Both get you there! But the bus and cheaper needles take a lot longer to get to the end point. And sometimes the bus IS the better option for some people. But riding the bus has, for me and a lot of people, more stress attached. It's the less pleasant option. But if you only have money for bus fare, hell yeah ride the bus!

I recommend chiaogoo twist interchangeable needles. They start at $11.50. They come in sizes 000-15. I have used size 0 needles and they bend a little bit in your hands but it's actually really nice to me. Kinda stimmy. You have to buy the cables separately. They are $9. The cables come in mini (fits size 000-1.5), small (fits size 2-8), and large (fits size 9-15). The cables come in several lengths, from 8 inches to 50 inches.

I like these needles for several reasons.

First, they are made for making lace. It's in the description. This means the tips are sharper. Which is important when doing nupps or things like 7 stitch increase into a 3 stitch decrease. You run unto a lot of stuff in lace that is MISERABLE with blunter needles. I literally couldn't do the 7/3 increase/decrease with my knitpicks metal needles. I was getting pissed. I bought 3 needles over the course of making that thing. The last ones were these needles.

Secondly, also because that are made for making lace, they have lifeline holes. A lifeline is when you thread waste yarn through all your stitches in a given row to "catch" them so that if you make a major mistake, you only have to rip back to that row. In something as home consuming as lace, this is really important. If you don't have a lifeline hole, you have to manually thread the waste yarn through the hole. It's a HUGE pain in the ass.

I did it this way on the evenstar shawl and MISSED A STITCH and ended up with a HOLE in my finished shawl that I had to fix before blocking. But! If you thread the waste yarn through a lifeline hole, it behaves in the same way as the cable, being threaded through the stitches as they pass from tip to cable. After that nightmare, I am no longer buying fixed needles because they do not have lifelines.

The lifeline hole also serves as a way to tighten the screw of the needles. The cables come with a T-pin and you insert the T-pin into the lifeline hole and use it to give yourself leverage when tightening the needle. A lot of people I've seen complain about interchangeable needles unscrewing didn't know that's what they're for, so I'm mentioning it. But also that does occasionally just happen and yeah it's annoying but the other use of the lifeline hole far outweighs the annoyance.

Thirdly, and this is less important I admit but going back to clover needles after being spoiled by chiaogoos it is making me So Mad... chiaogoo cables don't have memory. You unwrap them and hold one end and it unwinds into a straight line (more or less). With clover or hiyahiya (better than clover or the other brand at JoAnn's and sharper then knitpicks but not as good as chiaogoo/Addi) your cable between needles is permanently wound to want to be in a circle. I've tried some of the fixes for this but they didn't really work for me. But constantly fighting my needles for new stitches was extremely annoying and looking back I enjoyed knitting less back then.

I had a fourth thing but I forget what it was. Will update if I remember it.

It's hard to make the switch, especially because the first time you have to spend $20.50 on one set of functioning needles. But! You don't spend $20 every time. The cable is an investment. Once you have a cable, you can buy 6 tips and have 6 sets of nice needles for only $9 more than buying a bunch of crappy needles. I just checked, clover needles which I absolutely hate start at $10.99. So for the price of a seven crappy needles, you can have 6 nice sets of needles. They take up less space (sooooo much less space omg my entire mini interchangeable set came in a package the same size as ONE of my fixed size 0 needles RIP fixed needles I am Pathetic Victorian Dandy who is Wasting Away and can therefore not tolerate minor to moderate inconveniences in my hobbies anymore). And you can have a ton of needle combinations with less cables taking up space in your tools storage.

I'm loosing steam so I'll just say these couple last things. My dad was a bastard but he taught me two useful things in life: don't half ass stuff cuz you'll pay for it later, and you need good tools. And it's true. A lot of things can be done cheaply, including yarn and needles (not hating on cheap yarn), but there are places where that is less important (for me yarn is in this category) and places where it is more important. For me, not being frustrated all the time so I can peacefully enjoy my hobbies is worth it.

You deserve nice needles. You deserve to have that burden of frustration at blunt needles and curly cables lifted. I know it's hard to save $20 sometimes, so if that's not an option, know that I've been there and I see you. Thrift stores often have all kinds of knitting stuff. And you can sometimes find people getting rid of their needles (like I'm in the process of doing) when they find ones they like better, so make friends and maybe you'll get lucky.

OK just remembered something urgent and it's 12:30 am thats it thats the post thanks for reading

[redgentleengie-a]

(Decided to write a little backstory for Glamrock Bonnie interactions, since a missing animatronic that could theoretically be fixed is right up Jonathan's alley. Put under a readmore for length:)

"Hey, Roy! What's up with 'Bonnie Bowl'? Bonnie is the only member of the original cast who doesn't have a Glamrock counterpart. Wouldn't it make sense to just pretend he doesn't exist altogether if he isn't going to be in the band?"

The employee Jonathan was speaking to chuckled. "Ah, that's right. You weren't here when it happened." Holding a finger to his lips, Roy added in a hushed tone, "There was a Glamrock Bonnie. Kids loved him, too. But one day, he had... an accident." He thumbed in the direction of Gator Golf. "Darn bot kept wandering over to Monty's turf. No one could figure out why. Heck, might've had you tinker with him had you been available. Anyway, he got broken real bad. Management decommissioned him, and put Monty on stage in his place." The man shook his head. "Darn shame if'n you ask me. Bonnie was second only to Freddie in popularity. Kids would swarm into Bonnie Bowl for weeks, asking when he'd come back. It was almost heartbreaking. The bigwigs are trying to put a new face on Bonnie Bowl, bury his existence just like ya said. If he could get fixed, and the reason he wanders over to Gator Golf resolved, maybe he could come back."

Roy looked up suddenly. "Hey Johnny, you've got the run of this place! Think you could find where they stashed him and fix him up real good? I don't think those fat cats calling the shots would have room to complain when the news that Bonnie's back brings in a swarm of happy fans. Money talks, ya know." He tapped the side of his face in a gesture to his eyes. "I'm a custodian. If they'd snuck his parts outta here, I'd know it. He's still around. Somewhere..."

Jonathan considered what Roy was saying. What was so bad about Bonnie that Management wouldn't have him repaired, or at least replaced? He knew the Glamrock models were the most sophisticated, most expensive animatronics Fazbear Entertainment had yet to release; typical bean counting would explain not making another one, especially if he'd have the same seemingly self-destructive leaning. But then, why not repair him? The thought occurred to him that maybe nobody knew where Bonnie was, which seemed silly, but not entirely impossible. "Alright, Roy, I'll do it. But you'll have my back if Monty gets ousted, right? Don't think he'd appreciate that," the engineer said half-jokingly.

Roy grinned in response. "Oh, you're on your own there, Johnny boy! But I could look the other way if you need to sneak onto a delivery truck," he said with a wink. Looking at his watch, he grunted. "Crap, the ankle biters will be getting out of Raceway any minute now. Gotta go check on the S.T.A.F.F. See ya 'round, Johnny." And he was gone.

Jonathan scratched his head. Well, my shift doesn't start until midnight anyway, he thought. He headed to his little room in the employees' area. Maybe the camera footage would prove helpful...