#if you have trouble visualizing the background

[heretodefyfate]

ngl, Zeight layout confuse me

[queenhunter102]

Damaging Government Property.

I don't know if you have seen the Video on TikTok where the wife had gotten in trouble for 'Damaging Government Property', I.E., she had given her husband a visible hickey, but I sure did. Blurb: Imagine you had just crawled your way into bed, it being the first night with  them being gone on a mission

You had barely climbed into your bed, flopping onto your front, your head hitting the pillow.

RING

RING

Simon 'Ghost' Riley You wonder who could be phoning you at such a dumbass hour; when you check your phone, it says private number, and you sigh, picking it up; it's Price at the other end.

“The Riley Residence” "This is Captain John Price"

You pull back from your phone looking at the number before you put it back to your ear.

"Yeah? Hi John"

"Don't 'Hi John' me, I can't believe that I must talk to YOU of all people, but Don’t Damage Government Property”.

That was all that was said before John hung up the phone, you stared at the phone wondering what that was about, before putting it back on your nightstand and falling asleep cuddling Simon's pillow.

A week later

You are sitting on the very few calls you can get with Simon when you remember the strange call from John.

"Hey Si, I got a question for you," you say, picking at an imaginary lint off the blanket that covered you.

"What's that, babe" came back the gruff reply, the sounds of a base in the background.

"John phoned me like a week ago and told me not to 'Damage Government Property' " you say, the word's damage Government Property sounded unsure and uneven.

There was silence on the line "What?" Said Simon.

You sighed "Yeah, I think he phoned the wrong person, could you talk to him about it”.

"Babe, what time did he phone you?" Simon asked.

"I don't know, like two in the morning" You could practically hear Simon's eye twitch.

"I'm going to kill him for disturbing you at a fucking dumb hour," Simon said as he hung up. Johnny 'Soap' McTavish You lift your phone but are not quite ready to sleep yet. The phone call read as private, and you are confused. You know Johnny won't be allowed to call you yet, but you pick up the call anyway. "Hello, you're calling Soap’s spouse," you say, sounding annoyed; you hear Ghost's tired sigh on the other end. "It's Lieutenant Simon, I know he's your boyfriend--" He said. "Fiancée, you know this, Si. You were there," you say, annoyed that he had addressed you and Johnny wrong. Ghost sighed this time, trying not to bark at you. "Until you and he share the same last name, I don't care," he said, practically growling in your ear. "My point is, I saw that stupid mark you left," He says, sounding annoyed; you scrunch your face in confusion. "What mark?" You say, sounding confused This time, he growled, "The Hickey, you know, the big bruise you gave him." Your face made an awed face, and now that you knew what he was talking about, you sighed into the phone. "I was careful; I made sure." At least you were confident. You knew better than to leave anything visual. "Yeah, well, guess what? We can see it, so do me a favour and don't Damage Government Property." A week later

Your phone began buzzing, it was Johnny. “Johnny! Is everything ok?” you asked, sounding a little worried it wasn’t often that he called you when he was out on a mission. “Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine, Doll. I just found out that Simon phoned you, getting you into trouble for marking me. Honestly, I had my shirt off, and you’re the one in trouble,” he said, sounding pouty. He had gotten you in trouble for something that wasn’t your fault. Captain John Price

You sat in the Rattan Swing on the back porch, looking out to your back garden, your fingers tracing over the letters that John had sent you. You knew it was cheesy, but it made you feel special that he took the time to sit and write to you. Your phone sat off your side as you rested your head on the bars. Your phone began vibrating shaking you out of your fantasy, picking up your phone, answer the call without looking at the caller ID. “Well done, you’ve reached Captain Price. What can I do for you?” you say, your eyes still on the letters. All you heard was heavy breathing before John spoke, “I can’t believe they’re making me get you into trouble for this.” You pulled your phone away from your ear, looked at the number, and found it said ‘Private.’ “John? What’s happening is everything alright?” You ask sitting the letters to the right side of your knee, sitting up on the swing.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s just-” He sighs before he speaks again. “Honey, you know before I left…we uh-you-know”, You smile, thinking of when you were lazing around the house, “Yeah? What of it, John?” “You gave me a hickey, and it was seen by one of my Commanding officers, and I need to give you the talk about ‘Damaging Government Property’,” he said, sighing. Well…Don’t damage government property,” he said, hanging up. You rolled your eyes. This was going to be a very long month. A week later “I can’t believe they made me give my own god damned spouse into trouble”, John exhaled. You laughed into the phone. “I know, it’s all you’re talking about in your letters”, you say, as you flicked through the most recent ones, “You still keep those?” he asks, and you smile. “Always.” Alejandro Vargas

You were repeatedly pushing furniture around your shared living room when your phone went off. When you finally reached your phone, you could barely catch the call. “Hello? You’ve reached the annoyed Vargas,” you say, leaning against the couch that was taking up half of the room. “Yeah, it’s me, John. I get you and Alejandro have fun and like to play a little hot and heavy, but not where the rest of us can see it,” John says, sounding a little annoyed. You tilt your head back. “John, I don’t know what you’re on about,” you say. “The Hickey, the one that is a deep purple; it's visible, so here’s the tagline: Don’t damage government property,” he says, huffing as he hangs up the phone. You pull your phone away from your ear as you finally read through your notifications, all from Alejandro, warning you not to pick up any private calls. A week later “I can’t believe you picked up the call,” Alejandro said, annoyed; you giggled into the phone. “He would have kept calling if I didn’t, you know how your captain is” you say, as you lifted the TV onto the TV stand, “Yeah, Yeah, He's a dog with a bone, You better not be re-arranging our flat.” You paused, turning to your phone. “No, never” Kyle Garrick You groaned as you rolled over onto your front, your phone insistently buzzing on the side table; you grumbled as you sat up blindingly, hitting your phone “Hel-lo?” you mumbled. “Hello, it’s John Price”, came the voice over the phone; you made a muffled noise “John? Ky’s Captain?” you answered, your eyes still bleary, trying to adjust to the darkness. “Yes, It’s his captain. I’m calling to discuss the hickey you gave Kyle,” he said, sounding frustrated; your face pinches as you lean over and flick on the light, it blinding you slightly, “Hickey? I didn’t-” you paused as your brain started to wake further “Oh yeah? No, I remember, the night-” you mumbled half out of it. “Ah, Ah, Ah, I don’t want to know, nor do I care. Just don’t damage government property,” he said before he hung up. “I can’t believe I’ve had to make a to all the boys,” he grumbled before the call cut out. A week later “He said what?” Kyle laughed, and you flipped your phone over onto your other shoulder. Yeah, apparently, you’re not the only one,” you said, laughing, as you pulled out the cookies from the oven, the tray clinking on the table. “Oooo, are you making your famous cookies?” came a different voice over the phone, and you rolled your eyes as you hit the speaker. “Yes, Johnny, they are the cookies.”

(If you want to be a part of my tag list, check HERE for specifics)

Taglist: cringeycookies, dneicjefx Remember: leaving a like, re-blogging, and commenting helps in this world and encourages more.

See you around, my little loves.

Kissess.

[canmom]

Animation Night 189: Nonphotorealistic

There is a funny trend in animation-related terminology to define things by what they aren't. Animation is any technique for creating film that isn't live action. Limited animation is any style of 2D animation that doesn't follow the conventions of Disney's 'full animation' on 1s and 2s - a category that includes a wildly diverse range of approaches and techniques, as this wonderful history by Animation Obsessive describes.

In 3DCG circles, there is a similar term: nonphotorealistic. Which describes, naturally, anything that isn't trying to look like a photograph of a real scene. There has been a real boom in this of late, and just like the other terms, it really doesn't narrow it down very much. Other terms like 'hybrid animation' add a bit more hints.

Of course, if you've been anywhere near animation in the last few years, you'll probably know another term: 'Spiderverse style'.

There is no denying that Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018) by Sony Pictures Animation was an absolute landmark for animation. (I wrote about it way back on AN21, focusing more on the cultural angle.) The ludicrously stylish film pretty much set the direction for animation in the 2020s - making a bunch of money and awards and thus finally throwing open the door to 3DCG animation that doesn't look like the style set by Pixar/Dreamworks in the 2000s. Its sequel, Across the Spiderverse (2023), was even more ambitious and successful (despite a troubled production involving a lot of needless crunch). We'll be showing that soon in a Spiderverse double bill so look forward to it!

So perhaps not surprising that when people see the use of graphical styles, 2D elements, limited framerates and the like in 3DCG these days, Spiderverse comes to mind. In its wake have come various films and series that apply these and related techniques: 3DCG animation is more varied than ever, and it's cool.

It isn't really a style, tho.

Here I'm indebted to youtuber Camwing who has made a nice video overview breaking down the animation of recent movies in this vaguely defined paradigm. Among them we have The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021, also Sony), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022, Dreamworks), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023, animated at the French/Canadian studio Mikros animation), and of course over on Netflix you got the wildly popular League of Legends spinoff series Arcane (2021, Fortiche Productions), and the romance film Entergalactic (2022, DNEG), tying in with an album of the same name.

None of these films has exactly the same style, but they all pull from a related bag of tricks. The core techniques are animating on reduced framerates for a 'snappy', high-clarity feeling, the combination of 2D and 3D elements in some fashion, and taking inspiration from traditional media such as paintings or comic books.

For example, Arcane and Entergalactic both use the trick of 2D backgrounds/projecting paintings onto 3D geometry, inhabited by 3D characters with a stylised shader. Arcane is dripping with 2D visual effects. Puss in Boots drops the framerate during its action scenes - the opposite of the old paradigm of full animation, where fast actions would get more frames. Spiderverse draws 2D expressions onto its 3D models to push them further, and is full of all kinds of colourful stylised rendering - screentone effects, kirby dots, outlines, the works.

It's tempting to link this to 2D-in-3D animation, and certainly many of these films apply this technique - this is the major niche where Blender has found its way into industry pipelines. But using 2D isn't mandatory to count here. For example, TMNT Mutant Mayhem has an incredibly striking storybook-painting style, accomplished largely by clever shader work and a strong sense of graphic design. Genndy Tartakovsky's canned 2014 Popeye project was planning to use a ton of 2D-style posing and squash-and-stretch, accomplished largely with rigged 3D models. There are many paths to take!

And mind you, I haven't even covered one of the biggest angles here. Search for nonphotorealistic 3DCG on Youtube and what you'll probably find most is information about cel-shading - aka 'anime style'. This has also advanced considerably in the last few years, with the techniques pioneered by Arc System Works in Guilty Gear such as editing the normals of characters for more precise control over shading, and minute adjustments to break up the mechanical feeling of 3D, becoming widely copied in both games and films. (And particularly, animated porn.)

Vtubers in particular have really run with this technique, generally speaking using cel-shaded models with edited normals, inverted eyes, etc. etc. to try and get the feeling of an anime character come to life. [You can see a lot of these state of the art techniques if you download Pixiv's free VRoid Studio software and import the model into Blender using the VRM plugin.]

Naturally this kind of cel-shaded approach has found a particular home in Japan. In anime, the biggest champions of it are certainly Studio Orange, whose hybrid approach involves planning out shots with 2D animation before matching them with the rigs. We've covered their adaptation of Houseki no Kuni in great detail on Animation Night 97; their Trigun reboot was perhaps even more popular. But cel-shaded techniques, 3D previs and the like have also made their way into big films like Eva 3.0+1.0 (AN66).

Although this type of rendering aims to recreate the look and feel of 2D animation as much as possible, it always ends up being something new: character models that would be too complex to draw, an ease to 3D movements and camerawork that would be challenging in 2D, and generally a new hybrid style. This is good! 2D animation is already very good at being 2D animation - it's fascinating to see what 3DCG becomes with that inspiration.

So with that brief overview, where does that take us tonight?

I'm not quite ready to do a Spiderverse double bill tonight, so instead the plan is to check out a couple of recent American franchise films that are taking on the new suite of techniques. I've mentioned them up above, but let me introduce them more fully here.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a sequel to a fairly unpopular spinoff about a side character of the Shrek franchise (AN75). Not, on its face, very promising - which is why it is all the more striking that I was told on all sorts of sides that I must watch this movie. I'm finally going to make good on that.

The title character is a kind of feline musketeer type, now facing the end of his swashbuckling career as he's lost 8 of his 9 lives. Not wanting to hang up his hat, he goes on a quest to restore them. What makes it stand out its the action scenes, which go all in on the anime-influenced, extreme perspective and lighting, limited framerate style that we're discussing above. Apparently it looks sick as shit.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a fresh reboot of the venerable TMNT franchise, which pretty much describes itself in the title: four turtles (named after Renaissance painters, of course!) live in a sewer as ninjas, led by their aging master who is a rat. Starting as a comic book, it became one of the iconic toyline-driven TV shows of the 80s - but it's still going! Indeed, Turtles has been on a roll of late (at least going by animator scuttlebutt), with Australian studio Flying Bark Productions turning a lot of heads with their neo-Kanada School style (and for really stretching the definition of 'storyboard').

This new film takes a different approach to the bombastic action of Rise. It focuses on a new origin story for the turtles, telling a kind of coming of age story - but what makes it unique is the animation style and cinematography. Cinéma vérité is not a phrase you really expect to be associated with ninja turtles, but the film seems to really go all out in a way you wouldn't really expect from a franchise movie, shooting the young turtles in a handheld style and focus heavily on character. Marcel Reinhard's shader work, allowing the animators to isolate lights to specific objects and characters and introducing graphical elements of cross-hatching, stippling, etc. etc. to the lighting, gives it a uniquely painting-like feeling, augmented by a lot of 2D creativity in lighting and effects.

Turtles has never really been my thing, but this film looks unique enough that I really want to see it - and I hear it's a good film too.

So that's our bill for tonight! Puss and Turtles. Let's see what the big studios have been cooking of late...

Animation Night 189 will be starting around 10pm UK time (roughly three hours hence) and carrying on til about 2-3am same! We'll be on twitch.tv/canmom as usual. Hope to see you there!

[the-rini-rush]

Dear Ryuuni, I am pleased to announce that you have the official invitation to…

The Golden Frost Festival!

Event Summary !

Ryuuni has gotten a highly coveted invitation to an event thats only hosted every ten years! Because of NRC's... interesting actions with it's invites... so it hasn't received an invite in almost a century! not even a single student!

so Ryuuni was confused to see the peculiar letter in the mail, but to hear that they got one.. everyone at NRC was suddenly very interested and nice to their 14yr old enrolled student. :D

Invitation states that Ryuuni can take 4 people! (2 canon + 2 ocs)

the invited oc guests will be chosen by a raffle!

The festival happens when the smaller fairies of nature gather and make a big deal out of the switching of hot summer to cool fall and eventually winter! they all gather to watch their queen cast the weather! (because the royals always cast the weather, this event doesn’t happen often because of safety reasons)

all accompanied by stunning visuals, music, food, and games!

Canon Characters!

-- Ryuuni

-- Jamil (you can make it, or don't its ok)

-- Jack (DRAWN BY @skriblee-ksk)

Background for the Cards! + concepts/outfit info

(yes this event was inspired by EAH)

having trouble? figure out the general aesthetics through this video! (certain parts have nothing to do with the festival, so i suggest skipping to 5mins in)

Competing Inviters !

💌 Rose by @blood-red-bumblebee

💌 Flori by @bunniehunn

💌 Blanche by @screamintoad

💌 Sally by @babyghoul138

💌 Hopper by @theolivetree123

💌 Joseph by @readsrandomstuff67

💌 Yumi by @gimmeurmoneyagh

💌 Jewel by @jewelulu

💌 Delilah by @slumberingrose-fandom

💌 Yuyu by @anonymousplant

💌 Rolene + Flori by @cheerleaderman

💌 Anchor by @venaue

💌 Yumi by @twisted-wonderland-memories

💌 teddy by @yuus-sentient-teddy

reblogs are apprecited!

SUBMIT BY 9/15/24

you don’t need to submit art! edits or fics are fine too!

just remember to tag me and hashtag it as #golden-frost-fest 😎(no emoji, but yes dashes)

it’d be great if you all spread the word 😁 by tagging or reblogging <3

[pushovermediacritic]

This meme got me thinking:

And I came to a conclusion.

The problem with modern Youtube is that it's too fucking boring and political.

Pulling back a bit, that's not to say I dislike those creators, or don't watch them. There is definitely a niche for opinion-based essays, discussions, and political content, and I enjoy watching stuff like that occasionally. And partially it's due to the current worldwide political climate being fucking crazy, so people genuinely do want to talk about it.

But primarily, this is an issue created by Youtube itself, with three major changes:

Videos can't have explicit content like swearing, sex, or violence, otherwise advertisers will demonetize the videos because they want to advertise to children. And no copyrighted music or footage, otherwise the video will get claimed.

Paradoxically, videos have to be marked as "not for children", and if they're too funny, silly, bright, and colorful, they will get in trouble with the government and be demonetized by Youtube switching them to "for children".

Also, the algorithm now favors overall watchtime over number of views. Both in terms of revenue and push. This means that short high-effort videos are less favored over long low-effort content viewers can put in the background while doing chores.

These three factors combined: no explicit content, no childish content, and no short-form content, means that people have naturally gravitated toward one style of video: being fucking boring and just talking about the news for hours on-end.

No-one could say that the news is "for kids", they don't give a shit, but just saying your opinions on current events can also be sanitized enough to not get demonetized (no sex or violence when you're just sitting in a room talking). And if you can ramble on for 2-3 hours on whatever current events have you annoyed, that's more watch-time. It's low-effort because it can just be a stream upload, and without music or visual aids, there's no worry of being copyright claimed and viewers can put it in the background while doing chores and listen like a podcast.

[shelandsorcery]

an aside on our eyes and relative colour

I wrote a HUGE post on digital camera white balance, and this is just a little excerpt on one of my favourite aspects of colour: how slippery it is!

So!

If you light a scene with a flame, say in a campfire or on a candle, you know it’s giving everything a warm glow, right? The way it’s doing that is: the light produced by the flame is itself made of mostly red and yellow wavelengths of light. It’s not producing any light on the blue wavelengths.

The way we, or a camera, perceive color is by coloured wavelengths being reflected off the object we’re looking at. The object doesn’t create the coloured light, it requires light of the right color to hit it for the colours of the object to be visible. Sunlight, white light, contains the full spectrum of colours, and so in bright sunlight the light itself shows us all the potential colours – which means it changes none of them, which means the light itself feels white.

When the flame on a candle produces light, it’s mostly producing red and yellow light, which means if it encounters a red object, it shows us the red, but if it encounters a green object, it can only show us the molecules inside that green color that are yellow, and the molecules inside that green that are blue don’t reflect any light. To our eyes, this tints the object yellowish in the candlelight.

However, if you stay a long time in a room lit only by candles, you probably feel like you can see green and blue and purple colours a little still. As I understand it (and my neurologist family members will I’m sure be haunted by this maybe oversimplified info so please follow the rabbit hole here if you’re curious, it’s really interesting stuff!) this is your brain compensating for the tinted information by shifting your identification of colours, maybe to try and help you discern as much information as possible from the limited visual data. You don’t stop knowing it’s warm light, but you adjust to it.

As an example, and here I’m talking about your eyes, remember, not the camera tech yet (we’ll get back to it shortly), here is a photo of a candle.

First off, let me assuage your dress-related paranoia – this is a teal candle.

To me, looking at the photo, this is clearly a teal candle. You can see it’s a lovely seafoam green at the top where it’s warmer and glowing through the melted wax, and a much more vibrant blue farther down, away from the flame.

So let’s take a closer look at these colours! I have isolated a few into bigger dots and overlaid them on the image where they were eyedroppered from:

And here are the same colours just on a neutral 50% grey background.

Here I have eyedroppered that brightest blue in the dots, the one on the bottom right of the image. This is how blue it is: not very blue! Pretty green still! Because that candle’s light cannot show us blue and purple wavelengths, we end up with an image where a cold green-grey starts to feel blue.

Our eyes work to compensate in limited-colour situations. We’re actually really good at it! And anyone who makes art commercially, anyone who designs colour for film and tv, advertising, fashion, games, etc? They all know this and use it when creating images. It’s why, given full colour vision, at a candlelit dinner, you can still tell your green veggies from your red ones.

And it’s not at all new! You can see this in Georges de La Tour’s famous candlelit paintings. The brightest light feels white, and colours still have some vibrance to them, and the scene feels rich, but, there’s no actual blues on the canvas, even though we have no trouble identifying the woman’s dress as light blue:

If you want to read more about how this applies to white balance settings on your cellphone or digital camera, the rest of the post is here:

[webslingingslasher]

is trouble ever frat!peter’s lock screen? Either before or after the whole situationship thing or secretly during both eras? If so, what picture?

yes! relationship!peter does it proudly, situationship!peter is a bit more stealth. iphones have a wallpaper feature where if you hold the screen down you can swap between photos and i imagine that’s how it is.

peter went home for a week and really missed you and went through his photos and he saw that picture he snapped of you at a party. the background is blurred, proof that the liquor was flowing heavily. you’ve got a smile that shows off almost every tooth and a vice grip on a liter of rum. he doesn’t know why, but he made it his wallpaper for the week and would pick up his phone every five minutes just to look at it.

relationship!peter has a picture of the both of you. something he looks at and is reminded of what he has and how much he truly loves you. it was from a double date night you both had a few months into being official, your friend pressured peter for the photo, he rolled his eyes and gave in. he’s glad he did. it’s his favorite.

you’re wrapped around him in a side hug, peters got a grip on your shoulder. he’s laughing at something your friends date said, he’s wearing the grin you tell him you love. but the reason he has such adornment for the photo is because of the way you’re looking at him.

your eyes are bright and shining, your smile matches his, not because you found anything funny, but because peter’s joy was contagious for you. each time he looks at it he feels warmth radiate, a visual reminder of how much you love him.

—

(you know i had to add a bonus of trouble finding peter’s wallpaper!! -situationship!peter obv)

‘just sit here and look pretty, i’ll be thirty minutes tops.’

peter had pulled you away from date night with the promise of stopping at his chapter meeting. he had negotiated the first hour, trent, the chapter president, wouldn’t break on the last thirty minutes and demanded peter be there. or else.

you wouldn’t mind but peter didn’t tell you until last minute and now you’re sitting down at an empty table at the library while they fill up a rented room across from you.

‘it’ll be longer than that and you know it.’

‘you’ll be fine. give me a kiss.’ you meet him with one, you grumble down at your phone. ‘my phones about to die, what am i supposed to do?’

peter feigns shock, ‘oh no!’ he looks around, ‘i hope you’ll find something to do in this big, empty library. it might be hard.’

your eyes narrow, you hate his sarcasm. ‘the library doesn’t have instagram reels, peter. how am i supposed to entertain myself while you’re talking numbers and business?’

there’s a miniature battle of silence, you win when peter groans and hands over his phone from his back pocket. ‘here. use mine.’ you reach forward, peter’s giving you unbridled access to his phone, you’d be dumb to say no.

‘nuh uh. you promise me right now you won’t fuck up my algorithm, i spent months perfecting it.’ you make grabby hands, ‘promise.’

the sleek, black screen is in your hold in seconds. your thumbs fly over the screen, you’re in and on instagram in a second. peter looks back once more, ‘thirty minutes.’ you nod, the first video already playing, you wish you could send it to peter. you send it to yourself to send back to him when you’re at a full charge.

ten minutes and you need a refresher, wandering around towards the bathroom you grab a water from a vending machine. cracking the cap, your left thumb pressed into peter’s home screen and his wallpaper separated, another photo right next to it.

you can recognize the edge, you swipe and feel your heart melt into a puddle. it’s you and only you. smiling and posing just for peter. he snapped the pic and saved it, he even went one step further and put it as his screensaver. a backup one, but something tells you he doesn’t want you knowing it exists.

you can keep a secret.

you can’t stop smiling at his phone and the short videos playing aren’t even that funny. you perk at a kiss on the top of your head. ‘told you i’d only be thirty minutes… what? why are you looking at me like that?’

‘no reason. it was very nice of you to offer me your phone, thank you.’

another kiss, you can’t wait til you get him alone. you might be the only one in on the secret, but he was going to be treated very nicely for it.

‘no problem, trouble. what’s mine is yours.’ your heart thumps louder. ‘and now,’ peter gently pulls you up with him, you’re along for the ride.

‘i owe you dessert, let’s go.’ you don’t walk with him, you stay until his hand tugs yours, peter looks back at you confused. ‘i wanna have dessert at yours.’

peter pouts, ‘tarrent polished off the ice cream.’

‘i know.’ peter knows that tone, now he’s standing straighter and acting casually. ‘oh? alright, yeah, let’s go home.’

[camberdraws]

I really like your art! Do you have any tips for drawing environments?

Ahhhh thank you so much!

I did some thinking before answering this ask... a lot of general drawing advice absolutely applies to creating backgrounds (such as using references, keeping perspective in mind, etc). But the #1 tool that especially helps me with environments is creating thumbnails!

I depend massively on the thumbnail process, especially for environments. I use them to resolve almost every major detail before painting the real thing! It makes it so much easier to experiment with colors, values, etc. and figure out the important stuff in your image. You want to keep them very blobby and sketchy so you aren't afraid to make big changes!

The thumbnail shown above for my shaymin drawing leaves very few questions about what the final should look like. It only took around an hour to create, and the time it saved me from making any mistakes is massive! This is especially helpful as someone who has immense trouble visualizing color schemes and has struggled numerous times trying to make color work after finishing lineart without a good thumbnail.

The more complex an environment, the more I suggest a thumbnail. Some of my recent zine pieces would have been impossible for me to complete without a detailed sketch to guide me.

Another big piece of advice, mentioned above, is USING REFERENCES! I think this is especially helpful for creating interesting and detailed backgrounds. Doing research on objects/props/scenes will enrich your drawing and make it more engaging to the viewer!

Here is an example of the reference I gathered for my lurantis+gloom drawing. I brainstormed different plants/items I thought would be fun to include with grass-type pokemon, and threw them together in a PureRef file! (I highly recommend using PureRef, it's an excellent software for making reference boards). Generally speaking, it's difficult for humans to conjure up exactly how a watering can/gardening tool/fence/flower might look like down to super specific details, so obtaining reference to fill in those gaps is essential.

Finally, advice that applies very broadly to all types of drawings: do lots of studies! Starting last year I have done 50 environment/scene studies, and they have been extremely helpful for improving my general skill and ability to compose backrounds! I can't recommend this enough to all artists!

And that's about it! I think it's easy for artists to be intimidated by drawing backgrounds, but it can be so much fun! Take it slow, do research, and create thumbnails for your drawing. And don't forget to do studies, they are good for you!

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Thoughts about the supposed direction Rhaena's storyline is going in Hotd and the apparent Nettles erasure? Disappointing but... I can sort of see where they could take it? Idk... looking at grrm's posts in hindsight kinda makes me even more disappointed if he is as well (he just can't get his adaptations right atp but idk)

Well. Pre-ep7, we're still pending any Rhaena-Sheepstealer bonding, but I'm basically 😑🫠 about the rumors. (I dislike borrowing trouble, I'm not even sure how many of the rumors are true -- actually I'm pretty sure many of these supposed "leaks" are straight up lies -- and yet. Still *disgruntled meh* and *"we're all fine-everyone's fine here" dread*.) Rhaena is one of my more beloved F&B characters (it's the Sansa parallels, I can't help myself), and Nettles has been a super fave since TPATQ and TWOIAF. (Particularly TWOIAF, since the Burned Men fire-witch reveal; heck, I think my little dollmaker is still one of the few fanarts of Nettles in the mountains.)

I mean, sure, I understand that Rhaena's book storyline during the Dance, where she's offpage from basically the start of the war until nearly the end of it, socializing in the Vale and waiting for her egg to hatch, would be difficult to adapt in an action-oriented visuals-oriented television show. (Like Rhaenyra this season sure isn't just catatonically crying from Luke's death until Jace's.) And I'm glad Rhaena's getting more to do, and I'm glad it's directly addressing her feeling slighted and ignored by her family since she doesn't have a dragon. However...

I do not want Rhaena merged into one character with Nettles! I do not want Rhaena to have Sheepstealer and not her hope-for-the-future (doomed hope, and yet) baby dragon Morning, that hatched for her. Also note how pink Morning, worn as a fashion accessory, so suited Rhaena's coquette personality vs her sporty, adventurous twin sister... I mean, I've said before, I understand adaptations can be different, this still wouldn't make HOTD even close to a "loose adaptation".* But I do not want this adaptation to lose Rhaena's personality that I loved.

Or for that matter, to lose Nettles's character, and her importance to the themes and worldbuilding of ASOIAF. (See also.) And her importance to the plot -- but god knows, they're doing all sorts of things with Daemon and Rhaenyra on this show, toxic romance or what have you, who knows if once Daemon reaches his emotional breakthrough or whatever at Harrenhal this season, if they want to backslide him into a cheating plot in S3 while Daemon is again stuck in a castle for months.** Nevertheless, I'd be deeply disappointed to lose scenes like "as well as her dragon, the girl had taken to riding Daemon", or the last morning in Maidenpool scene... and um, you can't really fit Rhaena in there, or if you did, it would certainly put the lie to the ship denialists' "he just treated her like a father, platonically bathing naked together!" (Also the pretty blatant fake S3 leaks including one where Rhaenyra decides Rhaena has betrayed her... are pretty blatantly fake, sorry.)

And then there would be the frankly racist erasure of the one book black character. "Oh but the show made the Velaryons black, so it's not erasing, it's adding more!" No, sorry. (1) I was and am all for adding more racial diversity to the show and especially to Valyrians, but face it, when you take the book's secondary character Velaryons, two who get killed off early and are portrayed as lesser to the "true" Daemon/Rhaenyra marriage, and make them black, you've already done a lot of hinky damage there. (2) What, it's that hard to write three distinct black girls with very different personalities and one from an incredibly different background? I don't see Addam and Alyn getting merged. I don't see Aemond and Daeron getting merged. I don't see Hugh and Ulf getting merged. But I'm not really one to speak here, for this particular discussion I'd point you to @ride-thedragon and @venusintheblindspots-blog and @chrkrose, among others, they have many many posts on this subject in far greater detail and better argued than mine.

OK, so. I still have hope that Nettles -- even if not cast for this season (sorry y'all, that extra is an extra) -- may appear next season, and all this worry will turn out to be a tempest in a teapot. Per last report from the HOTD panel at SDCC, the rumor of Rhaena and Sheepstealer definitely doesn't happen in ep 7, though, yes, there's one episode after. And if it does happen... I'll be strongly disappointed. Deeply, deeply disappointed, and probably far more suspicious of future adaptational changes. But, for me at least, it's not a dealbreaker like GOT S5 was.*** I won't be happy at all about the storyline, but I would like to think the show will remain high quality re themes and character and all. Time will tell, though. Time will definitely tell.

As for GRRM, when his complaints seem to be "wild dragons shouldn't be in the Vale" and "the heraldry with four legs is wrong", well, I struggle to see that he's that disappointed in the adaptational changes. Believe me, I am well used to reading between the lines re GRRM and adaptations, something like the fact that he's not visiting the HOTD writers' room when he's in the UK is nothing. Catch me if at Worldcon or his Oxford lecture in August, GRRM again says that he could write a whole novel about Nettles, or if actually says something about non-Valyrian dragonriders, ok?

*I was just reading up on The Beast (2023) vs Henry James's “The Beast in the Jungle”. lol HOTD doesn't compare. Don't even think it, man.

**You know, this reminds me of how the Dance in F&B is not paced very well for individual characters, they keep going offscreen for months at a time. From shortly after Rhaenyra's crowning to the Fall of KL, Daemon just sits at Harrenhal and occasionally ventures out into the riverlands. From shortly after the Fall of KL until the Battle Above the Gods Eye, Daemon just... sits at Maidenpool and occasionally ventures out into the riverlands (with Nettles). Yeah, obviously a show would need to write more for him to do, he's a main character.

***Thank god HOTD isn't the sort of exploitative shitshow that GOT was. All y'all thinking it was a better adaptation because of your nostalgia goggles (and/or shitty memory) need to actually reread the books (especially AFFC/ADWD) and then submit yourself to the real-world misogynist and homophobic nonsense of S5-6 again, ugh.

[shepherds-of-haven]

Happy New Year, everyone! I thought it would be fun to do a little retrospective on the game's progress over the last year... Shepherds of Haven has grown so much from the little demo I posted in January 2018, and it continues to steadily build and flourish in so many different and exciting ways! Here's a look at just some of the things we accomplished in 2023!

I added 143,151 words to the game (2.5 main chapters, 8 new character interludes) in 2023: the equivalent of writing the longest Lord of the Rings book in one year! We also broke our huge 1 million word milestone—without including code—meaning Shepherds of Haven is now officially twice as long as War and Peace, and almost as long as the entire 7-book Harry Potter series... and all in a single game!

A lot goes into game creation behind the scenes, including the coordination and creation of visual assets for the game—like character cards, codex entries, maps, portraits, and backgrounds—fun stuff for the fans (like the MC info template we created), and songs for the official soundtrack. As the game creeps slowly and determinedly towards its initial completion, that also means learning new things as a solo developer to prepare for the future, like learning to build an official website, researching business and tax practices, and beginning to think about how to conduct testing, publishing, and marketing down the road. Much of what I enumerate here hasn't been made public yet and will continue to cook in the background for a while, but I'm very proud of the work I've gotten done this year and will be excited to unveil more in the future!

And of course, for even more Shepherds of Haven content, I've added and completed even more stories for our little library on Patreon (which also has sizable word count at this point): The Bridge of Bones (a Trouble and Riel murder mystery), O Happy Dagger (a dark adventure featuring Briony, Chase, and Red), and The Hunt (a wild tale involving Tallys, Halek, Shery, and new kinds of spirits, fey magic, and Elves) were all serial stories completed in 2023, while Some Kind of Virus is a cyberpunk zombie apocalypse AU that will continue to be updated with new chapters monthly.

A full list of the Shepherd short stories and serial novellas (with links) can be viewed here!

I hope you enjoyed this session of Shepherds of Haven Wrapped! Honestly, this doesn't actually cover everything I've been working on, but some things can't be packaged and listed out neatly, or otherwise won't seem very interesting to anyone else but me! 😂 As we inch through Chapter 9 and get more interludes done (only a few more main chapters to go), I'm hopeful that I'll also be able to find time to work on my next novel, but we'll see if the Shepherds schedule ends up ramping up or settling down as we work steadily towards finishing the main story!

One important thing before wrapping up is to acknowledge your guys' role in this wonderful, wild journey. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for your invaluable contributions to the development of Shepherds of Haven. Whether you took the time to share links to the game, supported its growth on Discord or Patreon, left encouraging messages or asked interesting questions, reported bugs, or showcased your remarkable works of fanfiction or fanart, I am sincerely thankful for the unwavering support from this amazing community! Your collective efforts have played a pivotal role in shaping the world of the game into what it is today. Words cannot adequately convey my gratitude for your support, and I am truly blessed to have such a passionate community surrounding this project.

As we step into 2024, I am filled with anticipation for the developments awaiting Shepherds of Haven. Big things are on the horizon, and I am so excited to share these experiences with you! Thank you for being an integral part of this journey, and here's to the continued growth of our shared little world. Cheers to 2024—may it be a year filled with creativity, adventure, and joy! 🎊

[sweetmage]

Accessible BG3 Mods For The Visually Impaired!

As someone with a vision disability, I have a hard time reading small text, distinguishing menu options, and so on. So of course I stay on the look out for accessibility mods. I'm gonna link some of the mods I use (and some that might just be useful) for other PC users that are struggling with vision issues with this game. Be sure to check the mod pages for specific installation instructions for each mod as well as any dependencies or compatibility issues with other mods. Do note that these mods were compiled based on my own experiences with low vision, eye strain, and trouble distinguishing small objects/words so they may not be useful for everyone. If you have any suggestions for things to add to the list or if any links are broken, please let me know!

Also please show some love to these modders if their mods helped you 😄

Better Maps All In One

Link Here

With this mod you can remove the grid overlay on the map which reduces visual clutter. There is also an option to make the minimap larger and a recent update says that colorblind support has been added for NPC markers!

Bigger Mouse Cursors

Link Here

Does what it says on the tin, makes all mouse cursors larger.

Darker Paper

Link Here

Providers a darker background for all readable items (books, notes, etc.) which may reduce eye strain for some.

Comic Sans (Font Replacer)

Link Here

Can be useful for those with dyslexia or vision impairments.

Better Context Menu

Link Here

Adds related icons to all context menu options and (optionally) makes the context menu larger.

Increased Font Size

Link Here

Does what it says on the tin, increases font size with options ranging from 10% to 55% increases. Note: If using in conjunction with the Comic Sans mod, the author of this mod recommends starting with the 10% size and increasing if needed as the Comic Sans mod already starts larger by default.

Less Annoying Magic Effects

Link Here

Disables VFX for many spells, status effects, etc. (see mod page for list). Useful for reducing eye strain, visual clutter, or headache inducing effects. There is an optional configurable version so you can remove only certain effects, though I haven't tried that myself.

Bigger Customize Dice Button

Link Here

Does what it says on the tin, makes the button to customize your dice larger.

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I have a character named Connie with Albinism who's in a tropey superhero comic esq world as a semi important supporting character. She works with the main heroes sometimes but isn't a hero herself (She's the reporter always getting into trouble type character) . She does however have an "aura reading" type power which manifests as basically just raising the hairs on the back of her neck whenever someone has bad vibes. I'm trying not to bump the "Super Mystical Person with Albinism" trope along the way and I don't think I have since 70% of all the other characters also have powers but I wanted to ask just in case

Hi there! Thanks for your question. I think it is very good that your conception of aura reading is not visually oriented and instead relies on tactile clues, since it does not fall prey to the trope of superpowers overriding people’s disabilities. You have a good starting point, so here are some components to consider for fleshing out the character more:

Albinism goes with Blindness, so if you are not well-versed in writing visually impaired characters in general, that is a vital starting point. All Blindness-causing conditions are more specific and complex than just “can’t see” — with Albinism some specifics will likely include nystagmus, strabismus, ptosis, light sensitivity, etc. Treating it as a disability without any connection to her superpowers helps dismantle the trope.

There are also multiple varying types of Albinism so you must decide which specific type your character will have, and must be prepared to research and treat the other accompanying symptoms of their Albinism with the same complexity as the Blindness.

Is your motive for writing her with Albinism solely motivated by aesthetics? A good litmus test for this is to consider if you would give her OA — a type of albinism that does not result in the white hair/pale skin/red or purple looking eyes. If that is an automatic dealbreaker for you, then that is a sign to re-think your motives. The aesthetic of that form of OCA is a big contributor to the “mystical Albino” trope.

If you truly want them to have that form of Albinism, do it justice! Treat is as the complex condition it is, and do not base her superhero uniform on it or otherwise exotic-ize her appearance.

Please do consider giving her OA! Most people with OA have lighter blue eyes, and may have lighter hair or skin or for the most part can be normally pigmented. So many people do not know this is a type of Albinism and it is much needed representation.

Finally, please consider her race. Even if she has OCA that affects her skin, if she comes from a non-European background, please look into how people of her culture with Albinism view their condition and how it interacts with her environment and family.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask follow ups.

Mod Zohar

[castle-of-ruin]

Reacher Comes to Visit 1

A/N: Well, here I am again. Dipping my feet into the waters of posting content on Tumblr again. This time, it's for my beloved Reacher. A character that I have grown ridiculously attached to thanks to Alan Ritchson 🤭. This story is based very loosely on the contents of the show but does not actually tie into the show. All things that happen in this story are strictly made up. Big shoutout to @quaritchscupquake and @cryingwriter, convincing me to post this.

Pairing: Jack Reacher x f!reader

Rating: 18+ MDNI

Warnings: Mutual pining? Size kink if you squint? Reacher being Reacher. This part is pretty tame. Mentions of food and injury. Character has a nickname, but not too many defining characteristics.

A/N 2: Please let me know if I miss any content warnings. I want to make sure it's properly tagged.

I do not condone the reposting of my story anywhere. DO NOT DO IT

Visual inspiration for anyone who cares. This is a very pretty gif. Thank you, @hunnam , for creating it!

The tv plays softly in the background as you float around your home cleaning up as you go. It was your favorite movie, one you have been watching since you were a little kid. The musical soundtrack was by far one of the best you have ever heard. Even now as an adult, you found so much joy and comfort in the movie and its music. Your night is rudely interrupted when a loud knock resounds off the walls of your house. Jumping, you grab your remote and pause the movie. Tilting your head, you make your way to the front door, you were not expecting any visitors.

Opening the door you freeze, heating finding its way into every part of your body. None other than Jack Reacher was standing opposite you beaten and bloody, however, this time he had friends. Two years ago Reacher saved your life: twice. Then the two of you spent one hell of a weekend together, and then he left, and you had not heard from him in two years. For him to be on your front porch unannounced after two years made you feel something you didn’t expect. You were mad at him, but part of you understood that is who Reacher was, a drifter moving place to place no one and nothing holding him down.

You stare up at the large man unable to form any words. Neagley, you remember her from before, steps forward and gives you a tight smile.

“Sorry to show up unannounced, Hawk,” She references the nickname she gave you. “We ran into some trouble and need a safe place to lay low for the night.” Neagley, as usual, is straight and to the point.

This was something you appreciate about her. Taking in the tired faces of the two other members of their group you let out a deep sigh and move to the side motioning them in.

You stand in the doorway leading to the living room and watch as three of them settle into your house comfortably. Reacher stands on the opposite side of the room and watches you.

“This is O’Donnell and Dixon, two of our old team mates.” Neagley speaks up, breaking the silence.

“Nice to meet you both.” You tell them with a small smile.

“Why does Neagley call you Hawk?” O’Donnell asks.

“She’s observant.” Reacher pipes in, folding his arms over his broad chest as he leans against the wall.

You avert your eyes from his stare, turning your head down towards the floor.

“I only have one extra bedroom. You can fight over who gets it. Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll go get some pillows and extra blankets,” You pause as you look over them. “I can also run to the store and grab some robes for you all to wear so I can wash your clothes. If that is something you are interested in.” You finish looking at each of them individually.

“That sounds amazing. Thank you.” Dixon speaks up first. O’Donnell nods his head softly and settles deeper into the couch.

“That would be great, Hawk, thank you.” Neagley states.

Nodding you make your way out of the living room and back towards the front door where you grab your purse and keys before heading out the door. Leaving strangers in your house probably wasn’t the best of ideas, but you knew Reacher and Neagley. You knew they were safe.

Your trip to the store was rather quick, you try not to draw attention to yourself, but it was hard when you were getting four bathrobes all in a different size. You just smile awkwardly at the cashier who checks you out. Speeding home you mentally prepare yourself for the night to come.

When you make your way back into the house all four of them turn to look at you.

“Okay, each of you can have a hot shower, then bring me your clothes and once I have them all I will throw them in the wash for all of you. Anyone hungry?” You ask.

“I am,” Reacher shrugs. You nod and look at the others who nod in unison. This wasn’t a talkative bunch which you were thankful for.

“Okay, decide the order for showers and I will get started on food. The robes are in this bag.” You instruct, dropping the bag on the vacant chair.

You head to the kitchen and prepare dinner for the four of them, you had eaten earlier that night and were not hungry. The room suddenly felt smaller and you knew who was there with you.

“You look good.” He tells you quietly coming up behind you.

You close your eyes as a shiver runs the length of your spine. Even after all this time he was still imprinted in your senses. Turning, you lean against the counter and look up at him. Taking in the wet patch on his left side, which you assumed was blood, and the bruise under his left eye.

“You look like hell.” Your words have a smile pulling at Reacher’s lips.

He doesn’t say anything else after that, just shakes his head and leaves the kitchen. After some time food is ready and three out of four of them have showered.

“Okay, food is ready, come eat.” You instruct, smiling as you watch all four of them eagerly make their way to the dining room to eat.

“Thank you!” Dixon yells.

“Yeah, thanks this is good food.” O’Donnell nods.

You smile at them and nod your head. “It’s my pleasure. I will be in my room if anyone needs me. Just knock.” You tell them, excusing yourself to your room.

Flopping on the bed you stare up at the ceiling. Memories from two years ago running freely in your head. A quiet knock pulls you out of your thoughts. Looking to the door you see Reacher standing there. Sitting up you tilt your head.

“Everything okay?” You ask.

“Yeah, you said if anyone needed you just knock. I knocked.” He shrugs, and you stifle a laugh.

“Well, you’re the reason I can not start the load of laundry. Get it together Reacher.” You tease.

“Right, I’ll be back.” He states and leaves.

You shake your head and let out a groan. He was going to be the death of you. There weren’t many people in this world who consumed your thoughts freely, but he did ever since he saved your life, and fucked you better than any man ever had. You shake your head, now probably wasn’t the best time to think about that.

Not long after Reacher had left another quiet knock could be heard. When he enters your room he takes up the doorway with his large frame. You take in the way the dark robe holds on for dear life, like it was on the verge of ripping as it stretched thin over his broad shoulders.

“Everything is in your laundry room and ready for you.” He states.

Getting up you nod. “Okay, thank you. That robe is holding on for dear life.” You can’t contain the giggle that bubbles up in your chest.

He looks down at the robe. “I think they left me the smallest one on purpose.” He grumbles. You giggle again and he gives you a dirty look.

“I’ll be right back. Gonna go start the load.” You tell him.

"Is it okay for me to stay here?” He asks.

You look at him for a moment. “Yes.”

Going out you make your way to the laundry room and throw all of the clothes into the wash and start it. You poke your head into the living room on the way back where the others are still sitting talking quietly amongst themselves.

“Hey, once the washer beeps, one of you can put the clothes in the dryer. I’ll be in my room if you need me. Goodnight.” You tell them.

Entering your room you smile upon seeing Reacher asleep on your bed. He made your queen size bed appear small and you chuckle to yourself at that. Going over to your dresser you pull pjs out of your drawer and go into the adjacent bathroom. Closing the door softly you strip and turn the water on. A quiet sigh passes your lips as the water bears down on your back. After your shower you get dressed and head back out into your bedroom. Reacher is awake now and watches as you exit a cloud of steam pouring out behind you.

You get into bed and lay on your side looking over at Reacher. He turns so he is facing you.

“Two years is a long time.” You whisper, reaching out and hovering your hand over his arm. You weren’t sure if you should touch him.

He answers your internal question by grabbing your right hand with his right and guiding it to his shoulder. The fabric is soft beneath your fingers, but part of you wished it was his skin you were touching.

“I know, I’m sorry we didn’t call first before just showing up. I knew you were safe and just brought them here.” He reaches out and grabs your hip, pulling you closer.

“Not tonight. You need to sleep. Something tells me your life is about to be in danger, again. See it as an incentive to come back alive.” You tell him, placing your hand on his somewhat exposed chest. Enjoying the warmth that fills your fingertips.

“Can I kiss you? Just once?” He asks, cupping your cheek softly in his large hand.

You nod and close your eyes. His lips are warm against yours, and just like you remembered, soft, yet rough. The kiss was short, sweet, and full of an unspoken promise. He pulls you into him and tucks you into his side beneath the covers. You find yourself snuggling into him and closing your eyes. The warmth from his body spreads through you.

“Goodnight, Reacher.”

“Goodnight, Hawk.” You smile at him using the nickname as well.

Tomorrow, things will surely be different. Tomorrow, the threat was to be dealt with. Tomorrow, the outcome was unknown.

Uh, I'm gonna tag some folks. Maybe you'll like to see it :)

@obiknights @a-reader-and-a-writer @chelseasdagger @gemstone-roses @cryingwriter @quaritchscupquake @supernaturaldawning @xxidontwikeitxx @spnshortcake

[thesoftboiledegg]

"The Jerrick Trap" was a clever twist on the body-swapping concept. I had trouble following it at first because they both sounded like Rick, to the point that I wondered if Jerry's half went in hiding. A lightbulb went off in my head when they clarified that they're both Rick and Jerry.

I've seen two people merged into one being ("Tuvix" from Star Trek: Voyager) but two consciousnesses sharing half of each person is something I've never watched before. And Rick and Jerry's personalities merged surprisingly well. Rick and Beth struggle to get along because they're so similar, but Jerry complements Rick perfectly--if only Rick would get his head out of his ass and accept it!

I wasn't a fan of the cold open, thinking "...OK, seriously? Rick 'hates' Jerry so much that he kills himself when he's stuck in his mind?" Others pointed out that maybe Rick just couldn't handle being in a brain without his coping mechanisms, which is a better idea. Still, it's hard to shake off your initial interpretation. I hoped that the episode would elaborate on that, but it never did.

And boy, Jerricky almost ruined the episode for me. Rick and Morty is full of silly, stupid humor--"The Old Man and the Seat" is an episode about Rick sitting on a toilet, for one--but that human-centipede creature was too bizarre. I won't say it was objectively bad, but I might skip that part during rewatches.

Back to what I enjoyed. I loved seeing the reappearance of Rick's favorite thing: crystals. The writers gave Rick's crow phase a shoutout, which is MY favorite thing. I'm surprised the comics never explored that period. I don't read the comics, but I would consider buying that issue.

The backgrounds were stunning, too. Rick and Morty's artists create dazzling environments with their color theory expertise. Rick and Jerry's Miami Vice adventures blew me away in every scene, making me want to live in that tropical city.

As for Memory Rick, he was a surprise. I was wondering today if he ever escaped Rick's mind, so I guess that was a premonition. He'll probably have an important role later on.

Anyway, Jerry admitting that Rick is the closest thing he has to a friend surprised me, but it's true when I think about it. Who else does he talk to? Space Beth can't stand him, his marriage is strained and his kids aren't his friends. His parents rarely show up.

Rick's the only person in his life who isn't obligated to hang out with him because they're related. He's also the only fellow adult male. As much as their lives diverge, Rick can relate to him in a way that no one else can.

Morty says at the end "I think it's clear that you both love each other more than you're willing to admit." Of course, Rick denies it, but his and Jerry's bickering at the table is their weird way of saying "I love you." If they didn't, they'd just leave the table instead of frantically overcompensating.

And their minds wouldn't have fused together so well, either. Otherwise, both halves of Rick would've just killed himself again, or grabbed the gun while Jerry's halves tried to fight him off.

"The Jerrick Trap": a visual masterpiece, a feast for the Jerrick shippers and insight into what's really going on in Rick and Jerry's minds when they argue.

[artist-issues]

So if you could tell everyone about your favorite movie, what would you tell them about it?

PS I love your blog and your media deep dives

Thank you! So kind! Anything good I have to say is really just because of Jesus, not me. I'd tarnish and ruin good things, left on my own.

I keep trying to tell everyone about my favorite movie, but I get so choked with all the things I want to say—and knowing that the more deep I make it seem the less they'll like it because they're not accustomed to deep-diving into children's media and that'll skew their enjoyment of it—that I wind up falling back on the tried and true "it's so good, you have to see it, I can't believe you've never seen it before, we have to watch it!"

It's Lilo & Stitch.

Lilo & Stitch is incredible for so many reasons.

It was an underdog in the Disney Studio. One of their lowest-budget movies, in their B-Team Shabby Florida Studio, and only a handful of higher-ups really believed in it. And now it's one of their biggest, longest-lasting, farthest reaching worldwide franchises.

Disney was stuck in a rut of making only a certain handful of movies; Triumph-of-Humans Adventures, or Princess-Fantasies. And Chris Sanders, the guy who basically invented their Story Department during the "renaissance" period, came along and said, "let's break the mold. Let's just try something small, quirky, bold, and new. Let's flip the script on everything except good storytelling." Instead of Princesses, you get Normal Humans Living in a 2002 rural beach town. Instead of Magic you get Sci Fi—but only like five minutes of Sci-Fi. Instead of a Romance you get Family. And when we say "family," no, we don't mean, "Epic Lion King or Tarzan Coming-of-Age Destiny Stories—" we mean "orphans about to be split up by the foster care system, needing a friend." Instead of Lassie (pet movies, like 101 Dalmatians or Lady & the Tramp.) you get something closer to Gremlins meets E.T. Instead of an Epic Adventure, you get Smalltown Sister Tries to Find a Job. Instead of Dashing or Loveable Main Character you get Mildly Disgusting Main Character who picks his nose and pushes little orphan girls down, for fun. Instead of a Namable Famous City on Earth, like New York or London in their old movies, you get Nameless Town in Hawaii. Instead of Hero Triumphs, you get Villain Redeemed.

The style. All the alien ships look like fish, all the alien creatures look like some take on small-town animals like armadillos or pigs or bobcats, or more aquatic life. And then it matches with what? Small Town Hawaiian Imagery. So you get the idea that not only, stylistically, do the visuals of the movie blend well, but, Stitch not only doesn't belong in outer space among those aliens—he doesn't belong on Hawaii, where even the locals have something in common with the Galactic People, and he does not.

Watercolor backgrounds. Nobody was doing that. Nobody is doing that. They didn't have to do that. It's just beautiful, and soft.

Stitch. As a character. Name one other character whose arc starts with "you can never belong; there is nothing inside of you that is good." and then ends with "loved unconditionally, adopted into a family that loves him in spite of the trouble he brings them. In spite of his inability, at first, to love them back."

Lilo. Lilo is loved that same way by Nani. Nani willingly invites trouble into her already fraught life if it'll make Lilo the tiniest bit happier. Even though Lilo already makes Nani's life hard. Lilo, too, is about to go into the next phase of life with nothing—if the social worker takes her away, she'll have lost her parents, her sister, her home, and her hometown, which she's shown to know and love—and we've already seen how feeling lost and like she doesn't belong causes Lilo to act destructively, because her classmates treat her like she doesn't belong and Lilo beats the crap out of them. The directors said it like this: "Lilo is a future Stitch," if she's taken away.

All these characters have holding them together is this commitment to this definition of family: "Nobody gets left behind or forgotten." Lilo and Nani were "left behind" by their parents, because their parents died. Or they could think of it that way. But Nani doesn't. She does whatever she can to keep Lilo with her, and refuse to "leave Lilo behind." She's eighteen, nineteen—she could go on to college, live in a dorm, while her troublemaking sister goes to foster care. She has all these surf trophies on her nightstand—she could've been somebody if she'd left her family behind. But she doesn't. Whether Lilo loves her back or not, she won't leave Lilo behind. And guess what? Whether David, the surfer boy, gets Nani's love back or not, he loves her and is there for her. Whether Stitch loves Lilo back or not, she sticks with him—until she almost doesn't, but guess what, by then it's okay, because he's learned. He's been transformed by the idea "nobody gets left behind," which is just another term for "unconditional love."

The commitment to FOCUS. Chris Sanders is always good at this. But this movie could've been about, or addressed, DOZENS of social issues. It could've picked up the "government worker" flag. It could've picked up the "racism" flag, or the "classism" flag. It easily could've picked up the "feminism" flag, or the "be yourself" flag, or the "find who you truly are," or the "you're worth everything" flag. But it didn't. It CUT OUT previous scenes that would've addressed racism or classism. It JUST later-focused on one, universal, unifying theme that every human on this planet can understand, and relate to, and needs to be reminded of: "family loves unconditionally."

This movie is why I looked into being a storyteller. Just this movie; no other movie did it for me.

[jakes3resin]

PowerPoint Night with Bubbles

There are many things a man needs to know once assigned to the 100th Bomber group, and Bubbles Payne has created a presentation full of rules of survival. These are vital things to ensure the safety of the crews and keep the peace on base. Rules like don't touch Major Egan's curls unless you can outrun Buck as well as don't let Lieutenant Biddick talk you into flirting with Major Egan even if you think Buck isn't there. Or don't dare Major Egan to do anything unless Buck or Kidd have approved it. Learn these rules, and you too can enjoy a peaceful life here at Thorpe Abbotts! Link to AO3

"Major where are we going?"

"Don't ask questions, just get in the bunker before they see us."

"Sir?"

"Private get in the fucking bunker right now."

"Yes, sir!"

Jack sighs from where he can hear Veal and one of the new guys. Really, he wished they could have this talk back in the briefing room where he'd welcomed them all or even in the mess, but secrecy is key according to Curt. Jack is hard pressed to disagree given the contraband they have, contraband that could get them all killed if Buck found out, but he still wishes they didn't have to sound so ominous shoving the new guys down here.

Bubbles stands to his right quietly collecting his note cards. Jack isn't sure why he has notecards considering this is a talk even he could give in his sleep, but Bubbles likes his note cards, says they make things seem less threatening.

Sure, Jack scoffs to himself, they're the threatening ones here.

Curt slides in right after Veal shuffles in the last of the new guys, who all look differing shades of terrified, confused, and lost. Curt waves his arms around, his signal for them to get the show on the road, and Jack sighs when he nearly hits Rosenthal in the face. The pilot, thankfully, doesn't seem upset by it, especially after Curt sends him a smile before darting off. Jack isn't going to think about the lovestruck look on the lieutenant's face. He has more pressing issues to deal with.

"Hi y'all," Bubbles starts with a smile as Friedkin and Claytor drag the projector forward. Bubbles is the best at these lectures with his sweet smile that'd make you think butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. It's a shame he's also secretly a gremlin like Bucky and Curt. "Now if anyone can't see the front of the room, please move so that you can. I've got visuals for this, and it's important everyone can see them."

A few boys shuffle around, and Bubbles nods gesturing for Friedkin to click on the projector. Without prompting, Veal turns to dim the lights. Curt hushes all of the new guys, and Hambone locks the doors. It's startingly well-coordinated, but Jack, despite himself, is thankful for it.

"I'm sure you boys are all wonderin' why we dragged you down here. Don't worry, you're not in trouble!" Bubbles turns to his next notecard. One of the new boys sneezes in the background.

"So, you've all sat through Harding's welcome and the regular onboarding talk, yes?" Bubbles nods as a few voices confirm it. "Great! Well, you can consider this an addendum to that talk! Just a few more very important things to learn before you settle in on base. This won't take more than an hour I promise, and then we'll show you all to the enlisted men's mess to get you some dinner!"

Bubbles turns to the screen that Curt somehow wrangled down here a week after they'd flown in. Jack didn't ask any questions just simply accepted it. Friedkin clicks the projector onto the first image, a picture of Jack, Veal, Buck, Bucky, Harding, and Turner. The boys all stare in confusion.

"I'm sure you fellas recognize Major Kidd, Major Veal, Colonel Harding, and Major Turner." Bubbles uses a laser pointer that he'd pulled from nowhere to point out each man as he names them. He jumps over Buck and Bucky. "They were all at your briefing earlier, you'll be seeing a lot of them depending which squad you're on. Now,"

Friedkin clicks to the next picture. Buck and Bucky stand smiling at each other. Jack knows neither of them know of this picture's existence given they'd been too deep in the other's eyes to notice the camera pointed right at them even after Curt yelled at them to smile. Idiots, the pair of them.

"These are Major Gale 'Buck' Cleven," Bubbles points his laser pointer at Buck's smiling face before shifting it to Bucky's. "And Major John Clarence 'Bucky' Egan. They're the topic of this briefing."

Jack leans back watching the new guys shuffle around glancing at one and other. Rosenthal quickly raises his hand. Jack sighs.

"We'll take questions at the end, sorry lieutenant, but there's a lot of ground to cover with not a lot of time." Bubbles at least seems apologetic when he says it.

"They, sadly, had to miss the briefing earlier due to Major Egan hitting his head during a rec soccer game this morning. They'll introduce themselves in the next few days."

Jack does not want to think about that headache. A simple soccer game nearly turned into a bloodbath. Friedkin had nearly been murdered, and Bucky was still in the infirmary at Buck’s insistence. God, he really didn't want to think about it.

Bubbles gestures towards the screen. A picture of Buck appears. Jack leans back against the wall as the new guys all stare slack jawed. For good reason too.

"This is Major Cleven demonstrating his hand-to-hand combat skills." Bubbles uses his laser pointer to circle the knife Buck's holding. "We don't know where he got this knife. Next!"

Friedkin clicks to the next picture. This one is Bucky's military headshot. Jack thinks its a good opener. They need to control the replacement's first Bucky Daze, and doing so with a soft opener like this works best. Curt had wanted to open with a shirtless smiling Bucky, but he'd been swiftly vetoed. Bubbles nods and turns to stare into the crowd.

"Now, I'm going to show you boys a few pictures, and then I'll get into a few Dos and Don’ts of life here at Thorpe Abbotts. We'll take it slow, but if any of you start feeling dazed or light headed, please take a seat on the ground. Someone will help you if you need."

The boys all turn to each other confused. A few whispers break out about what the hell is going on, but Bubbles doesn't let that deter him.

Friedkin clicks to the next photo.

"This," Bubbles says, not looking directly at the photo. "Is Major Egan after winning a baseball game."

Jack stares out into the crowd checking on the boys. A few seem dazed. Another few lean forward. He glances at the photo as Bubbles keeps talking in the background.

It's a good photo. Bucky is smiling nearly blinding in the darkness of the bunker. His curls are going everywhere as he stares down at the ground as he walks off the field. He's wearing a long-sleeved black shirt which does nothing to hide how broad his shoulders are, and you can just see the beginnings of his shorts if you glance down. Thankfully, the shot didn't show anything lower. Brady must have taken this one most likely, Jack notes. Few others would have stopped so high.

A click, and the photo changes.

"This is Major Egan after hearing Major Cleven tell a joke."

If Bucky's smile in the last picture was bright, this one was radiant. Jack would call it like staring right into the sun itself. Bucky's staring at Buck off camera, and with the sun just behind him, Bucky looks a lot like the sun made human.

"We call this the Bucky Sunshine Smile. On days where the weather consists of rain, rain, and more rain, it is dangerous to look at head on which is why we've prepared this for you boys just so you know. Early exposure helps keep you on your feet when you see it in person."

Bubbles uses his laser pointer to point out the ground crew in the background. A few boys sit down on the ground.

"Poor Winks fainted the first time he saw the Sunshine smile, and Lemmons now requires his boys to wear goggles if Bucky is going to hang around while they work."

Bubbles smiles at the men, but Jack can tell a few of them are already lost to Bucky's smile. Bubbles gives them another minute. Thankfully no one faints.

Friedkin clicks to the next photo. This one prompts a larger reaction from the men.

"This is Major Egan on the wing of Major Cleven's fort after a night of drinking."

Bucky stares up at the camera with flushed cheeks and a lazy grin on his face. With the top few buttons of his shirt undone, he's laid out on the wing like it's his bed back home, thighs open and arms draped above his head. This one was taken by Curt. Jack can tell because it looks closer to a pin-up poster than an innocent photo of his friend. Jack's just glad he's wearing more clothes this time. In the last iteration of this presentation, Bubbles had included one of Bucky in a tank top and shorts. Shorts, Jack might add, that went exactly five inches down his thighs before stopping. They're lucky the boys made it through the rest of the presentation.

Bubbles gives the boys a few minutes to take in the photo before gesturing to Friedkin to move along.

Bucky stares out at them, one arm curled pillowing his head. His curls are nearly as wild as the first photo, but they lay almost stylishly messy. Curt would describe Bucky's eyes here as 'fuck me' eyes, but Jack chooses to think they look sleepy, for his own sanity you see.

One of the new guys faints. A few others look like they might join him. Crosby runs over with some smelling salts. Well, Jack thinks to himself, at least it's only the one this time. They may have finally gotten the correct photo order this time. Daze the boys just enough that exposure to the real thing doesn’t kill them.

"Sorry bout that. He's fine, happens all the time," Bubbles gestures to Friedkin again. "Just one more then I'll give you gentlemen a moment."

The final picture gives Jack headaches just looking at it. It's Buck and Bucky, all over each other as usual. Bucky's got an arm thrown around Buck's waist with his other hand reaching up to squish Buck's cheeks. Buck has one arm tossed over Bucky's shoulders, and he's staring back at Bucky with a soft besotted look. In the background you can just see Veal doing shots at the bar of the officer's club. Jack doesn't blame him.

"Lights please!" Bubbles calls out. He leaves that last photo up even as the lights start to wash it out. It's probably for the best. Giving the boys a picture to focus on helps them remember the information, but washed out like this, they don't run the risk of anyone fainting again.

"Now, gentlemen," Bubbles moves to his next notecard. "These are the Buckies' Dos and Don'ts of Survival. Or as I like to call them 'Bucky-Proofing the 100th,' and if you follow them carefully, you may escape bodily harm and grievous injury to live a happy life here between missions."

Bubbles grins at them all. Jack suppresses a groan as Curt cackles. Rosenthal, Jack notes, turns his head in Curt's direction to watch him laugh. Jack turns his head away. He's not focusing on that right now, no sir. One problem at a time.

"Now, if my lovely assistant could bring up the poster boards he prepared." Bubbles looks over at Croz, who under the eyes of everyone there looks like he would rather die. Croz carefully drags over an easel with a bunch of poster boards under each arm. Dougie steps forward to help fix the easel when Croz trips over it and nearly smashes the thing to pieces. Jack sighs pinching the bridge of his nose.

Croz puts up the first poster board up before running back to hide at the wall. Dougie follows with a laugh.

"Thanks Harry!" Bubbles chirps before pointing his laser at the board. "The first Buckies' Do is: do keep space between you and Buck. Major Cleven likes his personal space, and he likes Major Egan’s personal space. So, unless Major Egan invites you into his and Buck's space, do keep a few feet away. Major Cleven may also decide to enter your personal space, but usually that isn't a good thing so avoid it if possible. Once he has his hands on you, we can't help you."

Bubbles moves on.

"Next! Do join Bucky's sports leagues! He has a few of them, so if baseball isn't your game, try soccer, volleyball, or any number of other sports. Bucky also likes learning about new games, so we encourage you to teach him. Buck doesn't care for sports, but he'll watch Bucky play." Bubbles points his laser to the next point.

"Do go out to the pub, especially if Bucky invites you! He's the best at getting everyone passes off base, so take the opportunity when it presents itself. There's always something fun to do, and usually there are games to bet on or locals to flirt with."

Jack can see Douglass nudging Harry. He hates this last point. He really does, not that Jack can blame him. Poor Croz had been subject to both Buck and Bucky due to the man's unfortunate tendency to walk in at the worst moment.

"Finally!" Bubbles says it like it's some grand reveal. "Our last Buckies' Do! Do place your trust in Majors Cleven and Egan on missions even if one of them just threatened you. Especially if they just threatened you! They're good men, and you'll soon see why we respect them so much up in the air!"

Bubbles gently lifts the board off of the easel to replace it with the next one. Curt starts laughing, probably at something Dickie or Veal said to him, and Jack wishes he'd sat this meeting out. Rosenthal is just blatantly watching Curt laugh now instead of Bubbles.

"Here are the Buckies' Don'ts. These are vitally important gentlemen, do not forget them! We'll do questions after, and Dickie and Hambone will have leaflets for when you leave listing them."

Dickie and Hambone wave when Bubbles points them out. They're both carrying a large stack of printed leaflets that Jack doesn't want to know where they came from.

"The first Don't is the most vital. Do not under any circumstances touch Major Egan's hair. Major Cleven doesn't like it, and he will react negatively to those who do. If you're interested in witness testimonies, those are also on the leaflets." Bubbles moves on.

"The second Don't is do not listen to Lieutenant Biddick when he says Bucky is okay with something. Bucky may be okay with it if you're nice and polite, but usually Buck isn't. Curt knows this, and he knows you don't. We've lost a few boys to this already."

Curt just smirks as the new guys all turn to stare at him. He winks at them, and Jack, for his sanity, does not want to think about why Rosenthal is blushing right now.

"The third Don't is do not flirt with either of them. Bucky is protective, and Buck is feral." Bubbles circles this Don't with his laser pointer. "Bucky won't hurt you, but Buck probably will. Your best bet at dealing with a feral Buck is to divert Bucky's attention to him. Usually this will calm him down within moments, but you will have to avoid the pair for at least three days. Buck never forgets, but time around Bucky lessens the punishment you’ll face we’ve found."

"The fourth Don't," Bubbles moves to his next note card. "Is do not stare too long into either of their eyes or look at Bucky's smile for longer than three seconds. It will cause confusion and befuddlement, and in some cases, it can be permanent. They are very, very blue. We know this. They are very, very captivating. We know this as well."

"The final Don't is a new one, added just for you boys," Bubbles lifts up another poster board. "Do not dare Major Egan to do anything if Buck, Kidd, or any other officer of or above the rank of Major are not there to stop him from doing something stupid. He likes dares, but there have been disruptions in base wide activities, which means any dare, bet, or proposition must be judged by the committee before they can be carried out. If anyone is found to have dared Bucky to do anything without approval, the guilty parties may be subjected to discipline under Buck or Kidd depending on the severity of the outcome."

Bubbles gestures for Friedkin to turn the projector off. Harry runs forward to dismantle the easel. Dougie, thankfully, helps him before he breaks it.

"Thank you for sitting through this presentation. We will be taking questions now." Bubbles gestures for the others to join him at the front of the bunker to answer the replacements' questions. Jack stands up to follow the guys up there. The replacements just stare at them. Jack almost thinks maybe they're still in shock when one tentatively raises their hand.

"Is Major Egan a model?" The question draws a few laughs, but a few nod along.

"Not in this century," Curt shakes his head.

That seems to open up the floodgates.

"How did you get those photos?"

"Very carefully, and no one is allowed to tell Buck about them. We’re still recovering from his rampage after the pin-up fiasco." Jack jumps to answer this one when he sees Curt start to open his mouth. Jack doesn’t need Curt giving them any ideas. Not yet at least.

“Are his curls soft?”

“Devastatingly so.”

"What do you mean you don't know where Major Cleven got that knife?"

"He just pulled it out during training one day after someone played with Bucky's curls." Bubbles shrugged.

"He's damn good with it too. Man can fight." Curt joins in. "Next question?"

Curt's eyes latched onto someone in the crowd. Jack did not like how they lit up.

"You," Curt points, "Rosie, right? What's your question handsome?"

Jack was going to neuter Curt.

"Well, I," Rosenthal's cheeks looked near ready to burst into flames. "I was wondering how long the pair of them had been going steady?"

Curt bursts out laughing. Jack rolls his eyes. Veal sighs next to him, and Jack understands his pain.

"Nah, those two ain't going steady. In their dreams, yeah, but reality is Buck can't get his head out of his ass to ask Bucky who thinks he's not good enough for Buck."

Curt clapped his hands together, the sound echoed in the large underground bunker.

“Which is why I have a master plan,” Curt’s grin is downright sinister. Jack reaches over to shut him up.

“Do not listen to a word he says. Second Don’t remember that boys.” Jack stares at the crowd in front of him, deadly serious. “Lieutenant Biddick is not to be listened to. He enjoys chaos and destroying Buck’s psyche. He gets away with it because he’s Bucky’s best friend, and Buck wouldn’t do anything to upset him.”

Curt licks his palm, but Jack’s used to it and holds firm. Sadly, this is his life now.

“Majors Cleven and Egan are, how can do I say this?” Bubbles jumps in. “Circling each other? We’re trying to force one of ‘em to make the first move, but they’re stubborn.”

“Any other questions?” Jack pulls his hand away when he feels Curt open his mouth, narrowly avoiding Curt sinking his teeth into his palm. “You are a feral child they never should have let into a cockpit.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re no fun.” Curt zeroes in on Rosenthal in the crowd again. “Rosie dear, why don’t you help me lead these boys to the mess?”

Rosie stutters, but Curt guides him along. Jack fears he’s lost Rosenthal to Curt’s clutches now. The man is hanging off of Curt’s every word, and Curt is beaming from the attention.

“Don’t forget to pick up a leaflet on your way out!” Bubbles calls after the boys. Veal helps guide the stragglers out, and Jack locks up once Bubbles secures the projector.

“I think that went rather well?” Harry joins them as they climb out.

“Sure did Croz!” Bubbles links their arms. “Only one guy fainted! I think that’s our new record!”

“C’mon Buck!” Jack can hear Bucky’s whining tone. “I just wanna say hi to the new crews! Curt said he saw a few cute ones.”

“Oh God,” Jack guesses the boys will be getting their first real viewing of Buck and Bucky sooner than he thought. He starts to push his way to the front of the crowd. Maybe he’ll be able to divert them a different way.

“I’m just making sure John.” Buck’s low voice grows louder, probably walking in their direction now. The new boys all stop, eyes wide. “That ball could have done real damage. I can’t believe Friedkin kicked it at your head.”

“It’s fine! See?” Bucky laughs. “Doc said it only bled so much because it reopened the cut from before! Two wounds mean double the blood!”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.” Buck and Bucky round the corner, too caught up in each other to notice the crowd watching them.

“Holy shit!”

“Oh my god!”

Jack hears a thump as someone faints. Fuck, they forgot to warn them about the blond hair.

Bucky’s still blond curls gleam in the late evening light. His roots have slightly grown out, but that just means they bounce as he moves around. He’s still in his gear from this morning’s soccer game, and while thankfully his shorts are slightly longer, there is little left to the imagination. Buck hovers at his shoulder, worry etched into the lines of his face. Jack hears Friedkin squeak and run away.

“Don’t be such a worrywart Buck!” Bucky drags Buck closer. Buck doesn’t even flinch at having Bucky’s face barely even an inch from his own. Jack thinks it probably calms him down, the fucking simp. “How about a kiss to make it feel better? Don’t know if you know this, but kisses heal all wounds.”

Buck stares at Bucky with furrowed brows. Bucky grins and leans closer. Jack can see that at least the infirmary had washed the blood off his face.

Quick as a whip, Buck pulls Bucky’s face down to press a soft kiss to the cut across his nose. He places a second on the tip of his nose before pulling away. Bucky stands frozen. His cheeks start to color, a bright pink coloring his pale cheeks. His blue eyes stare at Bucky dazed.

“And they’re not going steady?” Rosenthal’s voice whispers to his left. Curt’s answer whisper is closer to a laugh than anything else.

“Idiots, am I right Rosie?” Curt pauses. “See what they want right in front of them, but they just won’t take it.”

Rosie stares back at a loss for words. Jack sighs.