#it saves us both a lot of time if you just double-check :3

[twiixr4kidz]

HOLY SHITBALLS?!?!??!?! I KNOW SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF IS SUPER POPULAR BUT MY ASKS HAVE BEEN OPEN FOR LIKE 4 DAYS AND I ALREADY HAVE 63 ASKS?!?!??!??

that is actually insane to me?? first of all, THANK U ALL SO MUCH IM SO HAPPY TO KNOW U GUYS LIKE MY WRITING SDKJHSDJFHKFJ

and second of all, since there are so many asks it might take me a while to finish them all so please be patient with me xD i'm trying to do a couple asks a day but i might need to up that to like 10 asks a day cuz my inbox is overflowing like a subway sandwich LMFAO

[netherworldpost]

With the various rumors and releases of Tumblr possibly changing how they do things... (gestures to the vague rumor mill)...

Zines.

I really think we as Folks Who Make Things and Folks Who Like Art Writing Poetry Music Comics Other Things need to explore zines. And I mean ZINES. Nothing glossy. Nothing fancy.

Very. Cheap. Zines.

I've been threatening mentioning I was going to create a guide on how I'm going to approach this -- and I'm going to -- but I am also realizing in the writing I Do Things Highfalutin because I am who I am + had a career in graphic design.

Let's talk about how you can make a zine very cheaply and very pretty.

STEP ONE: SUPPLIES

Very bright paper. I like "Astrobrights" because they are absurdly bright. Here is a link in a store I like. I buy a lot of paper and envelopes from them. You can generally find Astrobrights in big box office stores. It prints on laser printers and ink jet and photocopiers.

Very bright envelopes. What's that? Astrobrights has envelopes?! AM I SOLVING PROBLEMS let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Letter paper is 8.5" x 11" and is the most common size in the united states (overseas folk will have to use this advice with a grain o'sea salt and search yer own waters).

A9 envelopes are a letter sheet folded in half.

A2 envelopes are a letter sheet folded in half, then folded in half.

#10 envelopes are your common long envelopes, letter paper folded in thirds.

Pick the size you like.

If you want to get big and fancy, Tabloid is 17" x 11" -- so double a letter sheet. This gets tricky to work with but is neat in sizing.

STEP TWO: ZINE CONTENT

Do you know how to use InDesign or similar program? Use that.

No? Use Google Docs or Word or whatever other program and ramble.

Want something special? Write out some or part with a sharpee or pen.

Mix and match both.

If you are feeling fancy, design it like a booklet -- mock up a sheet of blank paper as if it were a brochure. If not, just design it straight up and down like a letter. There are no zine laws.

STEP THREE: ZINE PRINTING

Print at home on your home printer.

Don't have a printer at home? Print it at work (don't get fired)

Can't? Your local library may be able to help.

You need 1 copy on white paper.

FedEx Office has photocopiers. Your local library may too. Or your job.

Print 1 copy of your zine on white paper and then photocopy the rest onto colorful paper (or white paper, it be yer zine seadog).

Or print everything on the color paper if you have access to free printing, that's fine too.

The photocopy setup is purely "printing tends to cost more than photocopying."

If you want to slash prices, print 2 per sheet and have FedEx office cut them for you, this will cost $1 - $5 depending on how many sheets you are dealing with. This is for when you're doing a LOT of zines at once.

Or use their manual paper cutter yourself for free.

STEP FOUR: ZINE STAPLING

"Long reach stapler" is what I recommend. There are a few varieties. They tend to be $20 - $30.

Or just use 1 sheet!

STEP FOUR: ZINE POSTAGE

A single first class stamp for 1-2 pages. If you get up to 3+, go to the post office and ask them to weigh a comp you have assembled.

This is a guideline.

It's a really good idea to check at least once how much your zine weighs just in general. Post offices have scales. And are pretty. And have stamps.

OKAY ENOUGH LUSTING FOR THE POST OFFICE FROM THE GHOTS POST OFFICE BLOG BACK TO WORK

STEP FIVE: ZINE MAILING

This is actually the most difficult part. Label printers exist with various costs -- if you're starting out? Go with printable labels.

Your office supply shop will have them and they'll have templates you can drop in the customer addresses.

Save yourself time by using this label as the thing that seals the envelope -- don't lick envelopes.

A key tenet to staying in business is constantly reviewing physical (and mental) labor and stressors and reducing them as much as possible.

Return address labels are intensely cheap in literally every online printer, google "return address labels." Make sure you have this because at least a few of your shipments will come back to you.

STEP SIX: ZINE PRICING

Okay here is where we get uncomfortable because we're talkin' coins.

Prices are based on above links. You can get whatever paper you want, so this is guidelines. All numbers rounded up.

Payment processing ($0.30) + $0.05 sheet + $0.15 envelope + $0.66 first class postage = $1.16 base cost

$1.16 + 2.9% of $1.16 payment processing = $1.20

Plus taxes. I'm not getting into tax figures YOU DO THAT (just say 30% for easy math, this is not saying "your taxes are 30% or that mine are" I am saying "I am going to factor 30% for this equation to complete this guide".)

I did not include the mailing label (it will be $0.01 - $0.05 depending on how fancy and how many you buy) because you have the option to just write things and also it fits into the rounding of the above.

If you use Patreon, include your fees. Probably replace the above processing fees with your patreon processing... fees? I don't use patreon I don't know how it works.

Retail option 01: $1.50 - 1.20 = $0.80 gross - 30% = $0.09 / net / zine.

Retail option 02: $2 - 1.20 = $0.80 gross - 30% = $0.56 / net / zine.

Retail option 03: $3 - 1.20 = $1.80 gross - 30% = $1.26 / net / zine.

Should it be $1.50? Should it be $3.00? MORE? LESS?! That is for you to decide. Base it on what your zine contains, how long it takes you to write/draw/etc. it and how you want your flow to be.

STEP SEVEN: ZINE FREQUENCY

When my shop launches, it'll have a zine once a month. We are going to offer a subscription option + a "I just want 1" option.

You can do a zine monthly, or every few months, or whatever.

Keep in mind that the purpose of doing this is to break the dependency on social media marketing.

KEEP IN MIND AS AN AUDIENCE MEMBER TO A CREATOR YOU LIKE THAT THEY ARE DOING THIS TO BREAK THEIR DEPENDENCY ON SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING.

If you have a lot of energy and an audience that comes to your shop a lot? Consider doing a zine monthly.

If you do not have a lot of energy and/or your audience is tapped for cash frequently? Considering doing 1 zine per season.

Consider 2 zines a year if that works better for you!

NO RULES ONLY JOY

Not sure? Experiment! Be upfront! "This is new. I'm figuring this out. Billionaires are tinkering with these things and we gotta figure something else out."

BONUS STEP: NETHERWORLDPOST.COM

so hi I'm atty and I'm your loud long rambler today

Netherworld Post Office used to be @evilsupplyco and now we are rebranding in prep of relaunching. Same person behind the rambles and comics, new name with a more focus (mail instead of mail + seemingly everything else in experiment)

if you enjoyed this ramble and/or like ghosts, monsters, witches, mermaids, and fun stories and projects focused on cozy Halloween, you may like us when we finish the rebranding and relaunching in autumn 2023.

email sign up (the zine will come when we are open)

WHETHER YOU JOIN MY LIST OR NOT

I really, really, really hope you consider doing a regular, or irregular, zine. Something outside of email, something outside of social media, something that connects I MADE A WEIRD THING and the people who say I LOVE THIS WEIRD THING YOU MADE.

The walls are closing in on free social media as a platform for people who make weird things to build audiences for free or very cheap.

And with that...

netherworldpost.com as one final hat pass

good luck folks

thanks for listenin' to the ol' ghost

[achilles-rage]

Worth It

eddie diaz x plus size!reader

summary: you borrow your friends boat for the day, wanting to share with eddie how much you love days like these. all is well until the wind picks up and makes the waves large and dangerous. as he gets out of the water, he slips, and you have to perform cpr on him.

word count: 3.2k

request: Eddie and Y/n are having a nice day on their boat but the water is a little choppy. When a big wave comes Eddie stumbles and falls in the water but has a hard time resurfacing. Y/n dives in after him and rescues but has to give him CPR and saves him.

A/N: i firmly believe eddie is the type to live 3 seconds from the beach and never actually go in the water. i’m posting this as i’m about to go to the beach. wish my luck! enjoy<3

TW: eddie almost drowns (lolz), no use of y/n, plus size!reader, fem!reader, race inclusive!reader

“Got the snacks?” you ask Eddie as he’s about to walk out the door. He has a large cooler in one hand and a beach bag over each shoulder. He sighs as he stops in his tracks, nodding as he turns back to you..

“Yep.” he tells you sweetly, although a hint of annoyance is making his way into his voice.

“Sunscreen?” He nods again.

“Extra water?”

“Yes.”

“Towels?”

“Mi amor, we have everything. We’ve already been through the list.” he tells you, holding his empty hand out for you to take.

“I’m just making sure.” you say with a sigh, taking a step and grabbing his hand, letting him lead you out the door.

It’s a beautiful sunny day in LA, and your friend mentioned a few days ago that she had inherited a boat from an old relative in her family, and anytime you wanted to use it, you were more than welcome. You decided to take advantage of it, knowing that in all the years Eddie has lived in LA, the only time he goes to the beach is to watch Christopher from the shore. 

He was a little weary about it, not being completely used to being in a boat in the ocean, but he agreed when he imagined the sight of you in your swimsuit. He knows he made the right choice when you walk out in your slightly see-through cover up, your bikini just barely visible. He drinks in the sight of the way your tits sit in your top, and the way he can see the outline of your soft tummy through the cover up, and the way your thick thighs peek out from under it.

He was a little annoyed when you doubled, and then triple checked you had everything, but he feels the excitement grow as you both make your way to his truck.

The drive to the marina is relatively short, and you take in the clear blue sky and the gentle warm breeze filtering in through the rolled down windows, enveloping you. You can feel Eddie’s warm hand placed firmly on your thigh, his thumb rubbing absent-minded circles on your inner thigh as he drives, and you sigh happily. You’ve always loved days on the boat, and you can’t wait to share the feeling with Eddie. You wish Christopher was here with you, but you’re also excited to have some one on one time with your boyfriend.

You get out of the truck quickly once Eddie pulls into the parking lot. Eddie takes the bags and starts to walk to the dock, ignoring you as you try to take a bag. You shake your head, fighting back a smile at his refusal, but it also makes your heart swell. When he’s around, you never have to lift a finger, which is something you had to get used to. Now that you’re used to it, though, you try to do more things for him to make his life easier; cleaning up around his house, cooking him dinners, packing Christopher’s lunches in the mornings. 

Once you get onto the boat, you both work to untie the ropes, and then you’re off. He wanted to drive, but you’re so excited that you won’t let him, insisting that you want to do it. He backs up with his hands raised in surrender, letting out a soft chuckle as he picks up on your eagerness. 

You make your way out into the ocean, giggling as Eddie yells at you to slow down a little. You keep up the speed, knowing he’s only joking; you’re not going that fast, you’re just excited. After a while of speeding around and driving the boat over some other boat’s wakes, you finally slow down to a stop a good distance from the shore. 

“We need sunscreen.” you tell him as you stand up. You pull your cover up off your body and then rummage through the beach bag to find the sunscreen, and Eddie’s mouth goes dry.

His eyes roam up and down your soft figure, feeling his dick twitch as you bend over to grab the sunscreen. If he thought the sight of you in your cover up was good, this sight is perfect. Without your cover up, most of your skin is completely exposed to him, and he takes this chance while you’re distracted to memorize your dips and curves, and your stretch marks, and the way your skin glistens with a mixture of sweat and miniscule ocean water droplets.

“I don’t need any. I don’t burn.” he tells you with a smirk once you stand back up. You scoff and roll your eyes, taking a few more steps until you’re right in front of him.

“And I guess you don’t get skin cancer either, huh?” you reply sternly, but with a hint of teasing in your voice. You gesture for him to put his arms out, and he obliges with a sigh, holding his breath as you spray his arms and chest. His eyes are locked on you as you begin to rub the sunscreen in, letting out a groan as you bite your lip in concentration.

As you spread the sunscreen over his chest with your hands, you can’t help the wave of desire rushing through you. You’ve always loved his chest, and with the way the sun is hitting it, illuminating his freckles and chest hair, it’s hard not to give in to your inappropriate desires.

Once you’re done you tell him to turn around, and then you spray his back and shoulders. You rub this sunscreen in as well, more or less giving him a shoulder massage as your hands trail across his skin. He lets out a groan as you do, because your hands feel good on his shoulders, but also because he can’t help but imagine something else you could be doing with your hands at the moment, your bikini not helping his wandering thoughts.

He takes the sunscreen from your hand after you’re done and sprays your front, licking his lips as he sees your chest move with your breathing. He rubs it in with his hands, starting on your arms before making his way to your chest. As his hands get closer to your breasts, you can’t help but let out a shaky breath as your eyes follow his movements. As he continues, his fingers move under your bikini top just slightly, making you giggle, as he’s now more or less massaging your tits.

“I don’t think this is necessary.” you tease him softly, looking back up at his face. His eyes move back up to meet yours, the smirk on his face growing.

“Can never be too careful, mi amor.” he murmurs, then moves down to your plush tummy, hands moving across your stretch marks. He smirks as his eyes follow his hands, mapping and memorizing every part of your body that he can.

You bite the inside of your cheek as his hands run over you. There’s a small voice in your head telling you that you shouldn’t let him see your curves, let alone touch them, but his touch is so tender and loving that you can’t bring yourself to care. You know that Eddie loves all of you, and at this moment, it feels like he’s putting all of his love into his soft touches.

Once he’s done, you turn around, letting him get your back. He rubs the sunscreen in again, moving down your shoulders to your back, taking his time as his hands roam over your curves. After he finishes, he leans in and kisses your neck softly, then gives your ass a firm smack.

You squeal in surprise, turning around to face him. Before you can speak, his lips are on yours, and his hands are pulling you into him by the hips.

You hum softly as he kisses you, tilting your head up to deepen the kiss as you wrap your arms around his neck. You step forward, making him step back until his legs hit the bench seat on the boat. You’re quick to push him to sit, then you straddle his lap, your hips immediately moving against his. He groans as he feels your clothed core against his hardening length, and his hands stay firmly on your hips to help guide your movements. 

Your hands are on his face, but soon they’re trailing down his chest to his swim trunks, starting to fiddle with the string. His hips buck as he feels your hands ghosting over him, but as you’re about to move your hand under his waistband, a large gust of wind takes you out of your thoughts. 

Your hands still as you look up at the sky, then your gaze trails down to the waves surrounding the boat. You squeal as you jump off his lap, which makes him groan in annoyance, but he lets you pull him up anyway.

“We have to go in the water. The wavy days are the best days to swim.” you tell him with a wide grin, making your way over to the swim platform on the back of the boat. He tries to calm down as he makes his way over to you, his shorts still tight, his hard length rubbing against the fabric tantalizingly.

He chuckles as you jump in, shaking his head as you resurface with a large smile, urging him to come in. He gets to the swim platform and inhales a large breath as he raises his arms over his head right before he dives in, making you laugh at his dramatics.

Once he resurfaces, you swim over to him, wrapping your legs around his waist once he’s beside the ladder and has a hand firmly wrapped around it. His other hand moves to the back of one of your thighs, squeezing it softly as he holds you against him. You wrap one arm around his neck and hold the ladder with your other hand, not wanting him to have to tread water with your added weight, even though his grip on the ladder means he barely has to tread water at all. 

He takes in your features as you wrap yourself around him. Your lashes resting on your cheeks, small drops of water clinging to them, your lips parted slightly as you breathe, the sunscreen you picked making your skin glimmer in the sun. You were very excited when you found sunscreen with glitter in it, and although he was a little embarrassed to be wearing it, he loved the way it looked on your skin.

As you float in the water, the wind picks up more and more, until the waves are basically coming up and over your heads. You giggle as you try to keep yourself above the water, eyes scanning the waves around you. When you turn back to face Eddie, you see that he can barely keep his head above the water; him being slightly lower than you are with your legs around his waist.

“We should get out before these waves get any bigger.” you tell him softly, and he nods in agreement. You unwrap your legs from his waist, and he moves his hand from the back of your thigh to the small of your back, urging you to go up the ladder first. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t staring at your ass the whole time, but as the waves get larger, he pushes his impure thoughts to the side and pulls himself onto the boat.

As both of his feet land on the swim platform, a large wave hits the side of the boat, making it rock more than it has been. Still being wet, his foot slips, making him tumble back into the water. You turn as you hear the noise escape his throat and the splash, having already been drying yourself off with a towel, feeling the harsh wind stealing all the warmth from your body.

You laugh softly, but your smile fades as it takes him a little longer than expected to resurface. Your towel drops to the floor as you make your way to the platform, letting out a shaky breath as he finally comes back up. Your relief only lasts for a moment, however, as his head disappears under the water again, and all you can see is his hands flailing slightly above the water.

He was surprised when he slipped, and he didn’t have time to think before he inhaled a large breath as he hit the water. He feels his lungs tightening as he tries to resurface, but the water had went down the wrong way when he inhaled, and he can’t stop coughing as he’s still under the water.

You dive in, swimming over to him and grabbing him under the arms, heart dropping as you feel his body go limp as he passes out. You struggle to keep his head above the water as you bring him to the ladder, but you eventually get there, your legs already burning as you fight the waves. You loop his arm through a rung on the ladder to keep him in place, and jump onto the swim platform, then grab under his arms again and hoist him onto the swim platform. You don’t even think about how the hell you just did that, your adrenaline working in overdrive and allowing you to do something you think you’d never be able to do in a regular circumstance.

You start to give him CPR, chest heaving as you work. The seconds feel much longer as you keep working, watching him intently, hoping that he’ll wake up. You push down on his chest hard, keeping the required rhythm. Tears forming in your ears as he still lays motionless in front of you.

“Come on, my love.” You bring your mouth to his, giving him two short breaths, your tears falling onto his face as you move. You repeat your steps, mumbling soft pleas as you work, until finally, he lets in a big breath. 

His eyes shoot open, and then he starts to cough loudly, water falling from his lips. You push him onto his side quickly, rubbing his back as he continues to cough. You know that once he’s coughing, there’s nothing much you can do but wait. 

Once most of the water is out of his system, he sits up slowly, a groan falling from his lips. You’re torn. While you know you should give him some space, you want more than anything to hold him close to you.

After a few moments, when his breathing has slowed down a little, he looks up at you. He takes in your tear stained cheeks and your nervous expression, and he grabs your hand, silently pulling you towards him gently.

“I don’t know what I would’ve done if you didn’t wake up.” you get out through sobs, your tears flowing freely as you wrap your arms around his neck gently, the gravity of the situation suddenly hitting you all at once. He shushes you quietly, placing his hand on the back of your head. “It’s okay, mi amor. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.” You sniffle softly at his words, letting out a short laugh as you pull away.

“I should be comforting you.” you mumble, laughing softly as you look at him, still kneeling beside him.

He smiles softly and leans in to give you a tender kiss, a hand resting on your cheek. You pull back after a moment and stand up, offering him your hand to help him up.

“We should get back to land before the waves get any worse.” you joke softly, but there’s a hint of seriousness in your voice. Right now, you want to get as far away from the ocean as possible. He agrees and stands up, taking a seat on the bench seat as you start up the engine and make your way back to the marina. 

The water is much calmer once you’re back in the marina, and you easily tie up the boat again, not letting him do a thing. You grab all the bags and the cooler and start to make your way to his truck, ignoring his insistence that his arms still work. You get in the driver’s seat of his truck once the bags are in the back, wanting him to rest on the way back to his house.

“I’m never going near the ocean again.” you mumble after a few minutes, reliving the moment over and over again. Your brain is racing with all the things that could’ve happened, but his hand reaching over to rest on your thigh helps slow it down slightly.

“Honey, I’m fine. We’re both trained in CPR, which I wasn’t aware of. Where did you learn that, by the way?” His eyes are focused on you, frowning at your expression. He can tell your brain is running on overdrive, and he really doesn’t want you to worry about him. He knows it’s not necessarily his fault, but he also feels a little bad; all you wanted to do was show him a good day on the boat.

“High school. It was part of a class.” you reply, glancing over at him as you try to stay focused on the road. Your hands are still shaking slightly, and for a second you’re not sure if you should be driving, but the option of him driving isn’t one you’re willing to allow.

“Well, I’m glad for that. But, we’re not staying away from the ocean. Actually, I think we should go out next weekend too. If your friend will let us.” He remembers when Christopher was scared of the ocean after the tsunami, and he knows that it’ll be better for you to not avoid the beach.

“You’re that eager to get back out there?” you ask, your brows furrowed as you keep your eyes on the road. You can’t imagine why he’s saying what he’s saying. If it were you, you’re not sure if you’d ever want to see water again, let alone go in it.

“I like seeing you in a bikini, mi amor. I’d say the view is worth dying for.” He purrs, squeezing your thigh softly. You feel your cheeks heat up as you try to fight back a smile, but as you look at him out of the corner of your eye, you can’t help the smile that erupts on your face.

“I love you.” you speak after a few moments of silence, turning to look at him as you stop at a stop sign down the street from his house.“I love you.” he replies, meeting your gaze. And he really means it. He loves everything about you, and seeing you in a bikini was definitely worth everything that happened today.

notes: likes/comments/reblogs would be much appreciated if you liked this<33

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[captainofthetidesbreath]

Colin's build isn't as flashy as some of the others in the party, but he does have one that is interesting to me in terms of mechanical character. Just to take stock what he's working with first:

16 (+3) Constitution, highest in the party. Mathematically, i.e. on paper since we don't know actual hit points at this time, he easily paces with Delissandro on hit points.

16 (+3) Strength and 17 (+3) Dexterity, second highest in the party. His longsword uses Strength, and his dagger uses Dexterity (because it's higher).

15 (+2) Intelligence, second highest in the party as Karna, Raphaniel, and Amangeaux all tie for first with 16 (+3).

AC 17, second highest in the party. Very respectable AC for this level.

Rogue 2. Because rogue is listed first on his card, I presume he is a base rogue; this is notable because it grants him four starting skills (as opposed to two plus one from a rogue multiclass) and proficiency in Dexterity saves. He has Expertise in Insight, as he made a check that was natural 4 but 11 total. Rogue 2 also means Cunning Action.

Fighter 3. Fighting Style (which could be interesting depending on what his choice is), Second Wind, and one use of Action Surge.

Battle Master. He knows three maneuvers.

Feat: Mobile. Brings his speed up to 40 feet, and difficult terrain does not reduce it while he is dashing. Combined with Cunning Action, he can run 120 feet with a double dash: greater than the next fastest Amangeaux (30 base, 90 at double dash) and twice the speed of the rest the party at their greatest full dash (assuming no items modifying speed are in the mix). Mobile also allows him to neutralize attacks of opportunity: someone he makes a melee attack against, hit or miss, they cannot make an attack of opportunity against him for the rest of the turn.

Colin has a very physical stats forward build, in that Colin's best stats are all physical and all are at least +3, moreso than even Delissandro who has a higher Charisma than Constitution and Dexterity. (You can check all the stat cards from the first episode here.) The combination of Cunning Action and Mobile makes him incredibly difficult to pin down or corner and moves very fast with an ability to close on a target. A respectable AC and proficiency in Dexterity saves also makes him pretty dodgy at this level, and a good Constitution makes him hardy; he is a tank.

I find his build very interesting because it tells a story of someone who is very comfortable on the battlefield and is used to combat scenarios. It corroborates what he tells Delissandro ("Any other battle advice or anything you want from me, 'cause that's kinda my gear.") and is in line with him planning combat strategies when anxious or uncomfortable. An individual player can always take or leave the flavor of a subclass, but the narrative of the Battle Master leans heavily on someone who has been trained in military arts or has learned very well through experience in the field.

Base rogue with the Mobile feat very much tells a story. His respectable Intelligence paired with Battle Master does too. Altogether, his mechanics communicate to me that he is well suited to his job as a sellsword, and he is one of skill and experience.

A lot of this can also be augmented by class choices, particularly Maneuver Choices. I won't speculate too much on choices because there's so many good ones, but Evasive Footwork, Ambush, Bait and Switch, Disarming Attack, Riposte, Quick Toss would add to this sense of someone who is difficult to pin down, moves easily through combat, and has a good grasp of the rhythm of battle.

Colin's entire set of mechanics together give me personally a sense of someone who is very much a survivor and of someone who knows how to move through combat, both in the intellectual skill to calculate and the physical skill to execute.

[kcrossvine-art]

Γεια σας! Here we are at the Penultimate Redwall Recipe we're going to cover, and this ones a two-fer as most of the drinks are. Today from the Redwall Cookbook we're covering both Applesnow and Mossflower Mulled Cider!

(you can also find the original recipe at the bottom if you’d like to follow along)-

MY NAMES CROSS NOW LETS COOK LIKE ANIMALS

SO, “what goes in to an Applesnow?” YOU MIGHT ASK

Sauce apple (such as McIntosh or Cortland)

Ground cinnamon

Sugar

Eggwhite

AND, “well, what goes in to an Mossflower Mulled Cider?” YOU MIGHT ASK

2 cups apple cider

3 tablespoons sugar

4 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

Pinch ground allspice

2 slices lime or lemon

Applesnow is essentially applesauce but fancy-ed with the egg, you can cook more or less time for various applesauce consistencies, the time this recipe gives will have it be less mushy (or not cooked at all…).

AND, “what does each taste like?” YOU MIGHT ASK

Theyre both very simple dishes that pack a lot of flavor!

Applesnow is definitely best served chilled

Eggwhites, when beaten enough, have a good texture to them (youll need to beat them until theyre soft-firm peaks!!! Don't underbeat them!!)

Though the taste of eggwhites on the applesauce is….. Acquired. I did not like it, it tasted too savory/breakfasty

the cider is sweet and smooth, buttery

citrus adds a really nice tang to balance out the more complicated flavors

The english have some damn weird desserts

. doubled allspice amount in applesnow . doubled cinammon/cloves amount in cider

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From deciding to make both to having both completed and ready to eat, id say it took about an hour- most of this was me double checking recipes and waiting for my electric stovetop to heat haha.

Applesnow is a fascinating concept- you dont often see egg whites alone used in end results. It doesnt have a strong flavor on its own but the texture is very satisfying because its layered with the applesauce, and the applesauce is delicious because its spiced. Measure with your heart on that also. But whipping egg whites is quite a bit of work and i think i wouldve personally liked this better with vanilla bean icecream? Making it closer to a sundae than Applesnow.

The Mossflower Mulled Cider makes about one large glass, so id recommend making the recipe in a larger quantity just given how long it takes for spices to incorporate. Also, try to shoot for a tall saucepan! I made mine in the same pot i use for pasta and had it been just a wee bit shorter on the walls it wouldve been impossible to stir enough for the sugar to incorporate.

Really excited to get to the last redwall recipe next review! I have some closing thoughts on the book and hopefully it wont take me too long to come out with it. Thank you all so much for reading along this far, it really does mean a lot to me how much folks have enjoyed this series and seeing people save recipes for cooking later :')

I give Applesnow an 8/10, and Mossflower Mulled Cider a 10/10 (with 1 being food that makes one physically sick and 10 being food that gives one a lust for life again.)

🐁 ORIGINAL RESIPPY TEXT BELOW 🐁

Applesnow Ingredients:

1 large sauce apple (such as McIntosh or Cortland), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Sugar (or other sweetener), to taste

1 egg white (see Note)

NOTE: Raw Egg Whites For most healthy people, the risk of salmonella food poisoning from a fresh egg white is small. To minimize this risk, use the egg white directly from the refrigerator and serve immediately, or, to avoid all risk, substitute powdered egg whites. Follow package directions to reconstitute the equivalent of one white.

Method:

Place the apple slices in a saucepan with the cinnamon, if using, and add 2 tablespoons ofwater. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then cover the pan, reduce the heat, and simmer until the apple goes mushy, 5 to 10 minutes.

Transfer the apple mush to a bowl, add the sugar, and beat until smooth. Let cool.

Just before serving, beat the egg white in a mixer until stiff. Fold the egg white into the apple and serve.

Mossflower Mulled Cider Ingredients:

2 cups apple cider

3 tablespoons sugar

4 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

Pinch ground allspice

2 slices lime or lemon

Method:

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the cider, sugar, cloves, cinnamon and allspice and stir together until the sugar has dissolved. Continue to heat until the cider reaches a boil.

Take the pan off the heat, cover it, and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Strain out the whole spices and serve warm, garnished with a lime or lemon slice

[randomnameless]

Land 3 and 4 done!

Elves and furries!

Or the worst double standard with Alcina's tragick backstory while Gary eats scraps, and Reimann puts devoted Fodlan fans to shame with his bias against subhumans!

Elheim was...

Very green compared to Drakengard lol, however the interactions between the characters felt... stale.

I mean, compared to the constant back and forth + exposition from Virginia about how cities are different from Cornia, who is Gilbert, the people living in the desert and all, for the first part of the plot, we just follow Rosalinde, a dark elf, to meet her sister so she we can save her from the bad guys, and ask her where is the second magic mc Guffin ring.

Sure, we rescue some villages and characters along the way, but they aren't, imo, as integrated in their setting as the Drakengard ones. Still, we find former thieves/brigands/bandits Alain decided to spare in Cornia - and apparently they want to turn over a new leaf, so when their old gang wants to sell elf ladies (young and not so young) as slaves, they rebel and we deal with them.

I guess the difference in setting/atmosphere is due to Drakengard, well, being conquered by the bad guys, but it feels like they just conquered it and left it there, not really caring about it.

In Elheim, they're still around - it can be sort of explained by the fact that Drakengard was conquered 6 years ago (Cornia, Alain's home was done in 10 years and Bastorias was subjugated 8 years ago) when the conquest of Elheim is supposed to be more recent? - but I guess it plays/is due to the main boss of this area's agenda -

Unlike Cornia and the small villages here and there, or Drakengard and the large cities sprawled on mountainsides, here the cities are located kind of far from each other, with a lot of forests/green/lakes/small mountains around - it makes for long maps without a lot of stuff to seize, but at the same time, it means you have to check your stamina more frequently so it's different enough to be a regional difference compared to the previous setting.

The units are... something - all jokes aside, having units deal both magic and physical damage was a nightmare for my poor 0 res armors lol, but I reckon they can be kind of useful with the proper setup, too bad the "proper setup" was something I never found and actually, I like how the game still gives you "human classes" enemies too (from the evil empire, like a red loldier) so you're not only fighting against elves, but also against the same kind of enemies (albeit promoted) than you did before, and they use mixed teams like ones with elves and humans, to make you sure have to still rethink your strategies and can't send the same team you used in the former land and expect the same results.

The BGM though... is sort of there - a bit disappointing compared to Drakengard's but I got a newfound appreciation after hearing the final boss' theme The Witch's World, it's not the banger Heir of the Dragonlands was but the fantasy/dream TWW conveys made me realise what Elheim was all about (hell those titles have a meaning lol) :

Drakengard's final theme is all about Gilbert reclaiming his castle and being the true heir of his country, not by birthright but when push came to shove, he stood up and restored the country. Which is why Drakengard had some exposition and character drama centered on Gilbert, his family and helping him.

Elheim is, as sad as it is... all about Alcina's fantasy/dream, her downfall and a sense of tragedy, both because of what she used to be, and what she actually did for the sake of her dream.

Regarding Alcina, I'll try to keep the sodium levels to minimum but :

@megafan1993 I know your comment wasn't under an Unicorn Overlord post lol, but this is basically my feelings regarding Alcina, and the comparison with the boss of the following arc stings even more, all things considered.

Who is Alcina?

A witch who acted as the court witch/mage of Cornia (MC's land!) who has the "uses magic to not grow old too fast but will eventually" syndrome, and was around during the time of MC's grandpa, a dude named Gerard.

King Gerard knew how to use his sword very well - to the point of being called a sword saint! - and liked to use it "for the good of the people", but he was the kind of guy who didn't like doing King work, found his coronation a nice distraction and didn't like when his PM modified his bills/papers etc etc. Pissed with the life of a King, especially since he felt like he couldn't do what he wanted, he left the land, without warning anyone, to explore "Cornia" and see what her people needs, only taking Alcina with him : effectively ditching the country - but no worries, his father was still around !

Exploring the land, Gerard finds himself in an ambush/skirmish against Drakengard - the neighoubing nations with whom Cornia has had border issues/problems for centuries - and takes an arrow meant for Alcina, thus dies unceremonously.

Alcina returns to Cornia and people are starting rumours, like how she had been the king's "favourite" and how the situation sucks, because now Gerard left his kid daughter* (whom he never mentionned even once in all of his voiced lines) Ilenia (MC's mom) alone to assume the role of the ruler of Cornia**.

Now, Alcina was pretty much in luf with King Gerard, so much that when Ilenia faces a rebellion (aka the prologue) and asks for her help, Alcina accepts to help her, because Ilenia is King Gerard's daughter.

Then...

Ilenia is supposedly "dead", Cornia has fallen and the Gharnef-like Baltro tells her (or she deduces it herself?) that his magic doesn't turn people crazy, but use people as mediums to put foreign/other souls inside them and take control of the bodies. It's more like a channeling magic.

Seeing the possibility to be reunited with her Gerard-poo again, Alcina switches sides and joins with the evil Zenoiran Empire, but she has her own agenda you see?

Alain lived peacefully on a small island because Alcina, who knew where he was, never told anything to the evil Zenoiran Empire people. It's not out of the goodness of her heart, hell no. Alcina had an interest in keeping Alain alive... because she planned to use him/his body to channel Gerard's soul inside - with the added bonus that Alain is a pallet swap of his grandpa.

She knew Gerard would most likely despise her for using his grandson as a medium to bring him back (from the lines we got spoken by the guy, I doubt it, he never mentions his kid!children not even once, why would he suddenly care about his grandson?) but she just wanted to hear/see him one last time sad uwus

(which raises a fucking giant red flag, Alcina who knows this and knows Ilenia's body isn't around, would obviously have guessed she was too, used as a medium for a Zenoiran soul much like Renault and Hodrick! So, with that knowledge, she wouldn't have tried to find a way to save her? Especially since she came to her in her "direst time of need" in the first place! I guess seeing Gerard >>> saving his daughter, after all the man himself never gave a fuck about said daughter...)

I don't have the exact timeline, but Alcina then accepts to march on Elheim - which resisted the Empire because they elves protect their land with a magical forest, and only taught a select few humans they are friendly with and trust a lot how to cross it, but could never have guessed that Alcina would later turn on them! - and leads the evil empire there with a dude named Gary, the land is conquered and while Eltrinde, the current elf leader (the eng/european script comes up with a lot of "exclusive" elven words, in the script she's called a turenos (??) but the jp!audio just has her be a "miko", I guess mikos don't sound elvish enough to the western lolcalisers and of course they couldn't translate her title by the word "sibyl", aka her class name :/) surrendering to avoid casualties...

Nothing is heard about her, save for Rosalinde (Eltrinde's twin sister!) who worries about her, and we believe when we face her that she's also possessed like the other people we used to fight against (by, and it'll later be revealed, ancient Zenoiran souls channeled by Baltro's magic in those bodies) but no, Eltrinde was possessed by... Alcina herself!

"But why would she need an elven body? She already has hers!"

Apparently, given some clues here and there (Yana - Alcina's apprentice - rapport conversation with Rosalinde), we can surmise that Alcina wanted an elven body to get a longer lifespan without needing to use the dangerous "rejuvenation aka turning from a dried old fig to a stripper" spell.

Tl;Dr : Alcina wanted to have her romance/spend time with Gerard again, using Alain and Eltrinde's bodies as mediums, even if it means dooming the elven kingdom and the world in general -

And oh boy do we see the elves being doomed, because while the two other human countries had a suspicious "plague" going on, here Baltro - like our beloved Riev - drops any sort of subtelty behind his title as a necromancer, and revives elves he previously killed to fight the party, which enrages both Eltrinde and Rosalinde (a feat, because so far their plot mandated interactions where very lackluster, their reunion scene had no pathos or similarity to the Drakengard brothers or even Virginia reuniting with her long lost cousin!) and they swear to take him - and Alcina - down.

Ultimately, after Baltro rewarps away like the good dark mage he is, we fight Alcina - who saved both Alain and Eltrinde from Baltro and prevented a game over lol because she still wants their bodies for her uwu ritual - and both the map song (witch's world) + her various FB's and ultimately Yana asking her to rest in peace after she's killed participate in selling us the "tragic/doomed by love" vibe about Alcina, like, the tragedy is about her, this arc is about her, hell, the entire Elheim plot is about her.

I guess I already let some salt flow lol, but even if this isn't as hamfisted as Hresvelg Grey, I felt like this was a disappointment and a bit of a letdown compared to Drakengard's story.

Double-standard hour : I was loitering on redshit to find some stuff and I saw so many people trashtalk some dude called "Gailey" that I wanted to know what was his story and...

(FR-wise at least, "Gailey" is Gary lol.)

So, Gary was Unicorn Overlord's take on FE8's Carlyle, without the sympathy he had for Joshua.

Gary was very devoted to Queen Ilenia and part of her guard, when she "died" - pretty sure that if Alcina knew, she would never told him the truth - to him Cornia died, because there's no Cornia without Ilenia as its ruler.

So Gary accepts to work with Zenoira because his queen is dead, apparently he does this conquering stuff well enough to be distinguished during the Drakengard campaign, and is sent to Elheim with Alcina.

Alcina however is the main villain while Gary is a sidekick, and is relegated as such which pisses him - and he knows she is the one possessing Eltrinde! - but our party arrives, and he wants to take our head.

It doesn't work, apparently Galvius (the evil emperor who conquered everything and is the red emperor !) doesn't like it when his troops lose and Gary knows that if he returns to him, he'll be executed, but also can't remain in Elheim else the rebels will kill him and can't escape from that land due to the magic forest surrounding it (the one no one could cross save for elves and their trusted friends!).

To get rid of the magic forest, Gary thus decides to burn the "super magic tree" that gives power to the forest and fairies living inside who are also the source of power for the elves.

Alain's party finds Gary and kills him... or at least planned to do so, because he runs away after we rekt him and is actually killed by one of his soldiers (who wanted to bring his head to Galvius and explain that if the rebels got them, it's only because Gary was incompetent!). He has last words not to Alain, but to Jeigan Joseph and the other former members of Cornia's knights - they ask Gary why he betrayed and it's here that he tells them that he never betrayed Cornia, because Cornia died when Ilenia did, thus he had/felt no attachment/reason to fight for Alain.

He has the last word to Joseph though - who pulled a Finn when he escaped with kid!Alain while Ilenia fought (apparently to her death) to give him an opening - saying Joseph has no right to judge him, because when Ilenia was fighting for her life (and apparently died), Gary was by her side until the end (he was in her team) fighting for and with her, while Joseph ran away.

And we know - after Virginia's sidequest - that Joseph still feels guilty about having left Ilenia and escaped with Alain, wondering if their places couldn't have been reversed and if she should be the one alive, but he listened to her orders back then (something he doesn't reveal to Gary!).

In a nutshell, Gary had most likely unrequited feelings for his queen, did his best to save/protect her and fought with her, but when she died he felt like his world did and from that point dgaf about the world or what it was supposed to become.

Alcina... most likely had (unrequited ?) feelings for her king, felt like trash when he died and she couldn't save him, thus abandonned her job and while she did help his daughter at one time, in the end she was willing to see the world and her king's family burn to get another chance to live her love story with him.

They are pretty similar, but somehow treated differently when both did horrible stuff, however only Alcina gets the "tragedy sad uwus" framing when Gary dies unceremonously.

Yeah :/

Not find of that plot arc.

In their rapport conversations, the elves are more interesting than what their plot interaction led to believe and I liked the devs adding maybe like 70% of the elven npcs around being sort of assholish and quite biased because Alain'n'pals are "humans" and have a huge superiority complex regarding the rest of the continent (watermelon time for that one NPC who calls Bestrals "unclean" or "corrupted" like dude, what do you have against bunnies?).

-------

I heard Vanillaware rushed the ending of the game because they had a money problem or something, and well, Bastorias shows it lol.

We have maybe 5 plot quests - sidequests you are supposed to unlock way way later lol - and a cast of 3 characters who talk in turn, but don't really exchange or interact with the NPCs or the rest of the cast found there.

So yeah, I can see where the rush was lol

And yet, I still prefered the Bastorias arc -

First because while the maps are also as empty as the Elheim ones in cities and all, well I sort of prefer the "vast snowfields" vibe to the "large forests" one, even if I confess I really liked seeing/talking to the various people around - even if it was only for a sidequest (tfw a dude wants to sell Laguz slaves).

Second, because the BGM is both relaxing and yet foreboding/mysterious enough to keep you focused, even if I confess, I pressed + during some fights when wereowls were busy giving each other blue points lol

Oh, and werefoxes were... I won't judge people based on their kinks, but personnally, I was kind of weirded out by their sprites, like when I can crack jokes at F!Elven Fencers like "if they fall on their back they can't stand anymore like turtles if you flap them over", werefoxes are just... uh yeah. Not my cup of tea.

Plot-wise, Alain wants to get rid of Zenoira in this region too so it will diminish their forces (ludonarrative point : if you don't do Bastorias and go to the final map, Reimann pops us as a reinforcement unit with the feral plot characters you're supposed to meet in Bastorias, aka feral!Ramona and feral!Morad :( I guess Yunifi died alone, I hope she wasn't killed by her adoptive parents !) but everyone realises that there's some "illness" or stuff that makes some Bestral go mad/feral (does this remind you of something?) and while some pop up as yellow units who attack everything on sight, through the plot we later learn that it's not "illness" at all!

Much like the best Gharnef out there (sorry for your poll @crushednugget, but I believe science should have won!), Reimann - a former Cornian noble who was part of the band of traitors who sided against Ilenia in the prologue - uses his science + a magic rock to turn the animal people in feral versions of themselves to control them, and calls himself a genius while also revealing that this magic rock that those lowly subhumans only thought was a shiny rock that belonged to the lion (thus royal) tribe was actually the magic rock that makes people able to control the Bestrals (the subhumans).

We even have one rapport conversation from Joseph, that suggests that Reimann might have been involved in trafficking/enslaving/experimenting on subhumans before the game's events, as he was already trying to get his hands on Bestrals during Ilenia's reign!

Unlike Izuka though.... Reimann is betrayed by one of his "allies" - much like Gary! - who was... under his suit of armor... a bestral himself!

(Cucumber lolcalisation point : Eligor, when first met is talking to this place's Batta the Beast and at one point is pissed/haughty/upset and calls Batta a human - but in the jp!audio, I didn't hear any "ningen" mention at all. Eligor blows his cover in the us/eu script, but not in the jp version!)

Eligor is a rat bestral, and Bastorias has some sort of hierarchy/class system based on which kind of Bestral you are - cats are fishermen, owls are the "wise mayors", bears, foxes and wolves are fighters (but polar bears are selling weapons!) goats are innkeepers etc etc.

While it's upsetting that we never hear anything from the numerous NPCs around about the "rat tribe", given how Bastorias is presented we it's not that farfetched that rats were indeed seen as lesser or not as important/valuable as lion bestrals.

The Rat Tribe was captured by Baltro who used them for experiments to make them sturdier/stronger, everyone lost their mind save for Eligor who seems to be thankful to Baltro-sama to give him the means to reach his dream : become the King of Bastorias even if he is a member of the rat tribe.

As Morad (a lion!) tells him though, while his dream and ideals about making Bastorias a place for everyone to live with pride etc etc, he still tells Eligor that he resorted to stupid/ridiculous methods (aka mind controlling and sending hundred of bestrals to death fighting against each other and being a fucking member of Zenoira!) and would have prefered if they worked together, to which Eligor tells him that he dgaf, because even if it only lasted for the duration of the final battle, he finally got what he wanted being the King of Bastorias and commanding people thanks to the shiny magic rock.

No uwu sobest for Eligor unlike the gallons of tea we had to drink for Alcina though, maybe that's why i can appreciate this arc more lol

I think the nod to the reveal about Eligor being a rat and this arc wasn't the lolcalisation adding shit, but the sidequest with the... Rock Rats - former bandits Alain spared in Cornia lol - when you recruit/want to recruit the leader who's basically Robin Hood, he tells you that even if Alain started his quest with 5 people and thus isn't like the other evil Nobles (tm), you should always worry about someone who started from scratch and managed to become a leader, because they will cling to power and forget why they wanted it in the first place.

...That's basically Eligor's story, as told by another, metaphorical, rat!

Battle theme a Fleeting Dream is the general Bastorias overworld theme, with imo, the earlier feelign of something ominous being played/schemed and its climax - it's the same mystery/foreboding feeling we got in the overworld map, but with a feeling that "something is going on". A good catch for Eligor's plot and this arc in general, even if it was rushed.

Anyways after his death, more plot reveals - Morad the friendly (uhh) lion we met who acted as one of the main characters from this arc was actually a human changed in a lion with the power of the shiny magic rock, and the human girl, Yunifi, who was adopted by Ramona (owl mom) and Morad (lion dad) is very heavily implied to have been a lion princess herself, but turned in a human!

Nod to Fodlan discourse : upon finding Reimann's notes and researches about how to use the shiny magic rock to control bestrals - everyone in the cast agrees with Ramona's suggestion to burn those notes!

No "uwu censorship BaD" or "creature masquerading as a human is attempting to hide knowledge to keep humans ignorant!" -> those "researches" are basically some "how to perform mindcontrol and turn people against each other in 5 steps" lessons, so they are destroyed for the sake of everyone, the shiny magic rock will forever remain a shiny magic rock, and not a tool to control the minds of anyone else.

Gameplay wise :

The Bestrals have a gimmick where they are more powerful/get more mobility during nighttime, but some of their classes are more similar to the human ones than the elven ones.

I still have to use/play around the werefoxes and the werewolves, so far I only used the lion, the bear and the owl and while I know Yunifi has an unique class and can be built in a certain way to be completely broken...

I don't have enough medals to make more than 3 teams of 5 characters rofl - but I'll definitely try to play with some builds!

----

Oh and in general, I guess i forgot to mention in the "this was rushed" part, but while we can see the rush - I still am flabbergasted at some details the devs added like, hm, the fact that when you use a skill that summons rain in Bastorias - aka tundra land - you don't get rain but snow!

Or the completely random stuff I just noticed today (tfw after 50h you still notice and learn something knew), when you pick a squad captain, the sigil/banner for that squad in the "battle screen" is the one of the "captain" of that squad!

So yeah, even if they're fighting in Alain's Liberation army, some characters still retain their identity and banners - Gilbert's team has the Drakengard sigil, Eltrinde/Rosalinde has the Elheim one and... Travis has the Tricorns (his bandit/merc group!) one lol

*Given how Virginia is Alain's cousin and Ilenia's niece, it means Gerard must have had two kids, assuming primogeniture works, Virginia's parent, must have been younger than Ilenia which means Gerard basically left his two children and role/duties as a king behind him because he was upset that people were disappointed in him/kept on meddling with his duties as a king.

**Through various supports and lines popping up here and there, we learn that while some people loved Ilenia and thought she ruled wisely and justly, some other people were very critical of her, given how she became Queen young and wasn't as battle-hungry as her dad before her : Tl;Dr, dying like a moron after ditching his throne, Gerard abandoned his daughter who had to face the same adversities - if not more - than he did, but she pulled through. I'll have to check the audio when I'll reach that moment to see if there's hidden salt, but she has a line to Alain in the True Ending where she's basically all "I'm not going to miss my son's coronation" and, well, with the knowledge that Gerard was crap, I wonder if Ilenia resented him a bit lol

[cynthiav06]

In which scenes do you think they should have given Klaus and Hayley a kissing scene?

Let's say we disregard the entirety of season 1, let the whole Elijah thing blow over.

Firstly, in season 2, when Klaus is consoling her after explaining the realities of being a hybrid, in the real moments are vibrant scene or even when he takes her out to kill witches, they could have given us a forehead touch in the for the former and a kiss for the latter part.[Both consumed by bloodlust mostly Hayley as Klaus can control it, she accidentally(definitely intentionally while acting on her true desires) kisses Klaus and he is so enamored he can't help but reciprocate.

I trust you, more than you know scene should have definitely evolved into a kiss. Klaus can't help the jealousy and the feeling of fear that arises at the thought of her marrying Jackson (yes, yes, he is also worried about Hope's existence being revealed, but there's obviously more) and after hearing Hayley's words he wants to convey to her that he does trust her and care for her so yeah a kiss there for sure.

In season 3, Hayley turns back and is fighting Klaus but breaks down after seeing Hope and then hugs her? I think that scene should have also had Klaus hugging them both, maybe to symbolise his apology or other but not a kiss, but at least a hug.

After he saves her from Lucien, we really need a scene where he hugs her, and then she kisses him because she needs to feel that he is real and they are both alright. Klaus kisses her back equally fervently to assure her that she is safe as she is both afraid for Klaus's life and her own so he can feel her fear and relief now that Lucien's dead. That should have definitely been added. (So many missed opportunities for the building up to probably the most compatible and perfect couple you would think they didn't do it just to not brutally destroy the previous Klaus or Hayley ships. Oh shit that's exactly why)

When they are alone in the wood clearing, and he says, "I have given you a thousand reasons to abandon me, but you haven't yet, thank you?" A kiss would have gone really well with that.

Maybe a scene where Hayley shows off her karaoke skills, and Klaus is so amazed he kisses her? That would have been perfect.

When he goes to Marcel to sacrifice himself for Hope, Hayley and his family, a parting kiss

When Klaus, Hayley and Hope unite and Klaus and Hayley see each other's struggles they can't help but kiss because Hayley has missed Klaus's presence, his words, his protection and Klaus has missed his little wolf and littlest wolf dearly, moreover Klaus can't help but marvel at her strength each time for whenever he thinks this might just break my little wolf she perseveres through it and he has been wanting to kiss her since they last parted and as she was one of the few who broke him out the want only doubled.

A lots of kisses during that time cause two people don't go to such lengths for each other if they don't love one another like crazy.

When he has to leave with the hollow's essence, a sorrowful but desperate kiss. Yet again, parting ways and this just might be permanent.

I like to think Hayley gave him individual visits to check on him when Hope was grown enough and was in school and they kissed and everything.

Lastly when Klaus saves her from Greta, the Hollow's defeated and its all good for the rest of them, after Hope's taken back, passionate kissing and make out scene that results into another miracle baby is exactly what we deserved. [This is what I believe would have actually happened if the writers weren't bloody fools and also so I don't wallow in misery at the unfairness of it all for both of them]

[thestudentfarmer]

Smallish post for the moment, to reply to some questions and comments made on prior posts :)

I've been asked a few times over the last couple of months about where I live as well as the grow seasons in my area.

I'm in a fairly populated area of the US, largely in usda grow zone 9-10.

Where I'm at in particular doesn't get snow, but further upstate does. (Those areas can't grow yr round, not without some adjustment such as greenhouses.)

Technically, I can grow almost all yr round. But once the Temps start hitting 100*f regularly it's too hot for us and most plants stop flowering or fruiting (pollen starts getting damaged at 95*f, but multiple 100*f days is bad for both plants and most pollinators) so we end up just letting what can struggle along till its cooler or we take everything up and solarise (Personally i Iet the plants that'll grow grow, keeps the soils covered, where it belongs and gives a fresh food source for my chickens that isnt trucked in everytime.)

In winter, we do get cold, but not too many frost days. When we do have frost days, often I can toss a few thin blankets over most crops at night and be good till the next day. If I only plant winter crops, I don't even need to do that.

I also do not follow a lot of the planting guides available. I often use them as a rough draft (like starting tomatoes in pots/grow cells in November around Thanksgiving. So their ready to be planted around valentines day).

Side note, 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌻🌻🌻 If your looking into starting gardening or farming and are in the USA, I 1000% would say check with your local county extension office or county extension ag office. Some of the larger state collages as well have offices dedicated to answering plant questions. You don't even have to be in the same state

I've asked for help with potatoes through 3 different counties (including the state I live in) each one has given valuable info, advice and several different answers. They are amazing resources if you don't have someone to buddy up with!

Sadly, I cannot give much info for such programs outside the states as im unknowledged in the possible resource shares. I believe most countries do have a similar equivalent though. 🌻🌻🌻🌱🌱🌱

Because I'm in an urban area (surrounded by neighbors and city), it does mess with the microclimate a bit. This means some crops do way better at different times than expected.

For examples, armenian cucumbers do great yr round.

Regular cucumbers? Only winter/fall. I don't grow them much, though cause they've tasted terrible.

Carrots are more a fall crop here and are much tastier and sweeter. Spring/summer carrots are hit or miss. Edible but less enjoyable.

Spinich? Haven't had any luck in either season yet. Either in ground or in raised bed or pots.

Regular potatoes? Soils too hard in the ground and the raised beds I've tried so far get too dry or too wet. :'( next try i intend to try a raised row/straw method.

Sweet potatoes? Vines grew and flourished well throughout the whole summer! I've yet to see what the spud harvest will look like yet, but I've gotten around 10 lbs of greens, plus a few pounds of vines that the chickens demolish quite eagerly. To me, that's a win, plus the vines trellis easily and can double as a nice shade structure when trained on trellis.

@oh-he-grows carrot seeds do smell fantastic! I was quite suprised how nice they smelled! Tbh I've been a little interested in collecting some umbells before they open next time and seeing if I might infuse some olive oil for a soap batch.

@tinyshe Thank you for your encouraging words! I hope as well to encourage more people to look into growing gardens, saving seeds, doing more small scale things to eventually make a positive difference for future and current generations :)

And to wrap up today a lil appearance from two of our lovely gals :)

🌻🌻🌻 Happy Homesteading🌱🌱🌱

10 8 2023

[episims]

Making Less Conflicting Object Defaults

First of all: there's already a perfectly good tutorial for this by @celebkiriedhel. I'm mostly going to repeat what's written there.

The reason I'm doing this is that I've lately seen a lot of object defaults done with a custom group. When done like that, they unnecessarily conflict with both mods and other defaults.

So what do I mean by done with a custom group?

I mean this. Above you can see a mesh and a texture default replacement for the espresso cup. Since it's done with the custom group, the file includes the whole object – not just the mesh and the texture it's supposed to replace. It only works as a ‘replacement’ because of a GUID conflict.

It also overrides much of the code espresso cups use with its own custom code. So if you install this default, all the mods you have related to espresso cups will likely stop working. Defaults done this way are also incompatible with any other defaults for the same object, even if they replace a different part of it.

Here's the less conflicting way:

1. Seek the object you want to replace from the Object Workshop (I'm defaulting Espresso Cup, but it works the same for any object)

2. Clone the object, but only leave 'Create a stand-alone object' ticked!

After cloning, you should end up with something like this. See how the group isn't 0xFFFFFFFF anymore? These resources directly replace the ones in game files, instead of indirectly overriding them.

As you can see there are now even more resources than before. But not for long!

3. A super important step! Go through the resource types and delete all you don't plan to replace

For this tutorial, I only wanted to keep the mesh (GMDC), the texture (TXTR), and the material definition (TXMT) of the espresso cup.

If your new mesh has more or fewer groups than the one you're replacing, you'll also need the shape (SHPE). In that case I'd also recommend keeping the resource node (CRES) in the file until the groups are done – that way you can use the scenegrapher for troubleshooting.

4. After all the unneeded resources are crossed over, save the file

And just like that, you're done! Now you have a template you can use for replacing the espresso cup's mesh, material definition, and texture.

After you’ve replaced what you want to replace, it’s good optimizing to double check if your file includes any resources that you didn’t edit, and remove those before sharing. For example, if you replace the texture and the mesh but don’t end up touching the material definition, just delete it.

It adds to the compatibility: if someone makes a texture replacement for the espresso cup's coffee using the same method, it'll work together with this cup default as we didn't include the material definition of the drink.

Something you should know:

Never ever use Fix Integrity for templates done like this. It changes the group to the custom one and the default will stop working, as there isn’t a complete object included in the file.

If you need to add resources, simply clone an existing one, give it a unique name, and press Fix TGI from the resource itself. Please be aware that there still might be references within the resource that you'll manually need to edit.

Fixing TGI also needs to be done every time a resource is renamed, as it makes the resource's instance correlate with its name.

[skydigiblogs]

i'm just gonna go ahead and paste what i sent to a friend about my thoughts for chapter 3 and the bit of 4 i got to today

this is extremely long, and still primarily a lot of criticism since while i enjoyed chapter 3 more than the first two chapters, it failed to address a lot of my core concerns with the writing of chapters 1 and 2.

for people who missed my chapter 2 thoughts, Sad White Boy is Leon

i typed most of this on my phone without being able to reference the spellings of any of the names i was hearing so it isn't until the end that i'm able to double check the name of Shuu/Xu Yulin. any time i am referring to Professor Suspicious Eccentric, it's Professer Ryusenji. agufridge is Saya.

you can also see kind of where i got to certain plot points between breaks lol.

[Okay chapter 3 is going along way more smoothly to us but also we officially have a never before seen phrase because the best way I can put it is that all three main factions have the same Agumon-fridged wife/daughter/friend fueling their obsession with the digital world]

[All of the world building so far has also been exclusively around the tragedy that set in motion all three factions going about their way and it's more clearly establishing a theme of, like, the ways paths diverge in life. First there was Eiji and Sad White Boy, now Professor Suspicious Eccentric, his would be son in law Tartarus (who I know is going to pull some villain shit after glancing at the wiki for something yesterday), and Cop Lady (who, while being a cop, I do actually like the characterization she's been given. Shame about the being a digicop though.).

Tartarus's fiance went DMIA while mind linked to what I'm guessing is the BlackAgumom SOC has a stupid high bounty on, hence me saying there's an Agumon shaped fridge

At least I don't have to deal with Sad White Boy

Who is in a Kazuchimon shaped fridge I should specify but like. It doesn't feel like fridging when you give a whole quarter of you narrative to establishing a character as opposed to like. An hour on Agufridge.]

[At least I have something other than Eiji to look forward to in this novel lmfao

But also man. They really are leaning heavy into Eiji having a huge amount of regret for what happened to Sad White Boy and like. I think we're meant to see it in parallel to Agufridge, but she was established to be RECENTLY AND PROLONGEDLY CLOSE with all involved parties affected by her fridging.

And I just don't buy it even if SWB saved Eiji's life from drowning in a river when they were kids.]

[i also realized a succinct way of putting why he feels so gross to me is that his whole plotline really edges into "white savior complex" territory, if that makes sense?

fully convinced seekers is just flat out better without SWB

because like it has its problems but damn if SWB isn't just a walking sandwich of them all in a single succinct package]

one real world "i got home from work" later

[Okay so this observation I made about almost all of the Digipol forces being members of the D-Brigade (most are literally just commandramon) made me a little bit frustrated with an element I see as missed potential in seekers that I doubt will be capitalized on. The only members of DigiPol with fully realized characters are Satsuki (Numemon's partner) and Shuu Yulin (Ryudamon's partner, Cop Lady), who are both high ranking officers, and were this not really struggling to decide whether it wants to condemn or fuck the police, I think it would've been a missed opportunity not to at least show the experiences of one of the lower ranking officers. Shuu, while being the head of the DPol, was formerly a hacker/code cracker before going on to do white hat hacking with the police and rising to her position.

But like, something Satsuki's said during the first hour or so of chapter 4 made me wonder something because there are members of the DPol that Mind Link. At least two of them with Commandramons, which puts them in the body of their Digimon. Satsuki calls what they're doing in Chapter 4 a "war"--- they're fighting against SoC and Wall Slum (local) Digimon alike because the SoC is trying to break open the gate into the Actual Digital World (basically everything humans have seen is the outside of an eggshell). I don't think Seekers is self-aware enough to realize that this act of the DigiPol imposing their forces on the Wall Slum is akin to digital imperialism, so I really doubt it would have tried to interrogate that at all.

The thing I was thinking about that might have been interesting (but absolutely could not be trusted to Seekers) is that like… all of the DPol Digimon are Commandramon, whereas the brass have Special Partner Digimon. I would have loved some interrogation into the way that being a cop (or military in general) seeks to depersonalize someone, stripping them of their individuality in order to make them more a tool than person. Commandramon could have been a very useful way to tell that story, especially since anyone MLed to a Digimon always has to wear their Digimon Linker. That means they are always burdened with the reminder of their function in the force. MLed partners are also the only ones to experience the Wall Slum with the five human senses. What does it do to someone to see through the eyes of just one of hundreds of Commandramon, all literally looking the same to an untrained human eye? You're literally nothing but the tool you embody at that point, only so useful as you can wield your Digimon like one. MLed Digimon are also the only ones that can talk to humans. Do you think the Commandramon who aren't MLed wish they could talk to their partners, express anything beyond following the commands the code running on them like dog training tells them to enact?

What is individuality to a Digimon who is a soldier? What is individuality to a soldier who is only as good as their Digimon, one of a thousand like it raised only for warfare?

It just bugs me so much thatt we don't even get an inkling of individuality from the Commandramon, which really heightens the militaristic feel of the D-Pol to no positive favors.

And since I can'tt tell if Seekers wants me to like the DPol or not, it's hard to judge whether that is a failure or intended attribute of the writing]

[i really hope i have more things that i can say i actually like about seekers but man oh man the bad is so hard to get through

like, for example, i really find the structure of the digital world interesting in this series! and mind linking is an interesting way to get characters involved in the digital world without having the barrier breached (while also introducing stakes). even if i am a little sad that the humans get stuck as fancy holograms in the digital world.

the digital world in seekers, like i said before, is basically an egg, with the network of the human world floating high above it

data falls from the human world onto the egg's surface, but the barrier is functionally closed off

digimon that have been in contactt with human world data are forced to live on the outside of the digital world, unable to return to the Actual digital world

this is the Wall Slum

and like, on occasion little pockets of open data storms, breaches in the eggshell will appear--- they're called vortexes

we don't find out what's in them until when sad white boy martyrs himself but like, anynthing that enters them gets presumed deleted

SWB's death is how we find out that it's because a royal knight will pop up to erase anything trying to breach the vortex

(they also keep describing the RKs as their relationship to "yggdrasil" so like. god help me i'm holding my breath and praying i don't have to go into that.)

they haven't talked at all and seem to be regarded as "angels of death" to those on the shell of the digital world

bringing it back around to how it's introduced, though, i think about that self-oblivious introduction to the digital world and digipol where humans (possibly the implication was supposed to be just code crackers but idk) through their interaction with the digital world, have brought impurities to the digital world. they even repeated during chapter 3, in the extended flashback to project tartarus and the first DMIA candidate (miss agufridge), the comparison to "15th century seafaring explorers" or something which. hm. are you self aware enough to really be pulling that comparison twice? i don't think you are.

so like, even when i'm enjoying the shit in seekers it inevitably ends up ruined by the story's own lack of coherent nuance (or functional attempt at it)]

[peerbear]

Saint Catherines THE SHOOT

The shoot for Saint Catherines was a very heartwarming experience.

We started out checking the equipment at Craglockhart Kit Stores where I colour-coded every character's lavalier microphone so that I could quickly and easily differentiate between transmitters and receivers on set and also know immediately whose was whose and thus where to connect it on my MixPre 10 on which I gave each character a channel each. The boom was 1, Phoebe 2, Harry 3, Jo 4 and Sara 5. The colour choices were Phoebe blue, Harry red, Jo yellow and Sara green. I also in a previous session where I had booked out the MixPre 10 to go over settings, learned how to use the WingMan App's reports (using a Youtube video), which is a log of the notes you make on each take on set, which is super helpful for post-production. This was the first time I used the MixPre 10 on set with so many channels and the first time I recorded a 4 people simultaneous setup.

We had also been introduced to the Tenacle Sync which syncs the timecode for camera and sound and saves time in the edit. I took it upon myself to set this up every day and coordinate with camera because they had so many other things to worry about. We had had a brief previous session going over how to use it and I messed up because I had put a cable in the wrong port of the MixPre I did not realise this until the last day, so the tentacles were synced but the MixPre was not receiving the timecode, but the camera was. So we only had the last day synced automatically, which took away time from our editor, Alyssa, but she had factored this into her edit window anyway. I still felt guilty and this was a massive learning curve for me. It will never happen again!

Here is a photo from the session of how it should have been and I forgot to double-check the photo, rookie mistake:

Back to Craiglockhart Campus, after checking all of the equipment, Katie, Eva and I helped Orla load up a van with the equipment and once we had done this she drove off to Saint Catherines. I then drove myself and some of our crew (Katie, Eva, Alex and Sophie, our continuity supervisor) to Saint Catherines.

From here I won't go entirely in chronological order because so many things happened, so I will just give some key highlights and summaries of what happened. Every day we would shoot from about 9 to 5 and in the evenings we would relax and play werewolf which became a proper daily ritual.

Before the shoot, I had been quite nervous about being in charge of sound mixing and recording because I usually find this very hard and run into many issues. After all, there are always issues when recording sound that in some instances are out of your control. But on the shoot, I fell in love with sound recording and found myself getting into the groove and getting more and more comfortable with it. Something I have to say is that when I listen back to my recordings and see photos of me on set I hear and see how serious I am! I think this will be my nerves coming out and me wanting to do my best, it must be the German in me or something because I am never so to the point and sharp. With the expressions, I am not as worried because I know I have a bit of a resting bitch face.

As we were recording both inside and outside I found the struggles for these were very different. Inside the mics were more sensitive in the smaller space and the lighting setups created lots of whirring sounds. Outside cars were extremely loud as we were situated right next to a main road, something I had been aware of on the location recce, but it had seemed like a much quieter road at the time. There was also a construction site where someone was building a house, but somehow this did not interfere with dialogue too much.

Something I learned about dialogue was to do with recording overlapping dialogue. When so many people are on set it is very hard to avoid having actors not interrupt each other during takes. Usually, they will and this will be what is used in the final picture edit because it is a natural performance and what is required of them but in sound, this means the different character's dialogue are not separable from each other which means it is less manipulatable and hard to get rid of. Usually, dialogue is separated into each character but when there are interruptions this is harder. However, overall my dialogue was mostly very clear and I had fewer problems with it than I expected. While on set I was most nervous about scenes 8 and 11, which are the confrontation scene and the support and reconciliation with a friend scene. These are arguably the two most important scenes of the film. Sadly when I got to the sound design I found these were the hardest to work on and contained the most affected dialogue due to loud wind, waves, and traffic.

On this project I learned a lot about micing up the cast, I looked into it and found that placing the mic between the dip in their chest proved to provide the best and smoothest audio. For women, this dip is in between their breasts and I found this was a very new situation for me to navigate. I was told by friends that on their sets women had to lav themselves up, but the actresses had no idea how to do this and I did not find it fair to ask this of them, nor did I want to risk having bad dialogue. But we were lucky, who knew being gay can pay off in the workplace. I would lav up the actresses while my boom op George would lav up the only actor. I would navigate this by ensuring actresses felt comfortable and most of this involved them moving the microphone through their clothes themselves and even holding it in place in the necessary dip. My main point of contact was applying the mic to their chest with medical tape that I had procured before the shoot. What I also had to take into consideration was costume. Different costumes required different lav positioning and these also required different housings made out of tape, something that I learned from Tom in the test shoot and then adapted to fit my own needs. These housings lessened contact between the lav and the costume. Laving up the actresses would get quicker each day and we quickly found our rhythm and a way to make this work for each of them. From the second day after having a noisy necklace on our lead I would speak to costume and as much as possible ask for changes if they were detrimental to sound. This of course did not always happen, but I found solutions along the way.

I was absolutely blessed with Orla, I feel we worked really well together and she always left space for sound. This was something we had spoken about previously and I had requested extra room for not only time for room tone but also wildtrack sound takes of actions and sometimes even dialogue, especially where there had been interruptions previously. This meant I had many options in the design for when things had gone wrong in the actual takes. As Orla is a sound person as well as a director this is something she pushed for so I got nearly every sound recorded in the space where we shot it. They would call wrap for camera and then me, George and the actors would record whatever was on my sound shopping list for that scene. Every afternoon after shooting George and I would go over what we were shooting the next day to make sure we had everything on the shopping list that was needed. Overall I was super happy with clear dialogue and production sound. I know the actors had also never taken part in wildtracks before and I am aware I was in a very lucky position and I am very thankful for it, I think it really paid off in the sound design edit.

I felt we worked incredibly well as a team and built some close working relationships and friendships. Everyone put in so much and without each and every person we would not have been able to make the film that we made. Katie and her camera department were incredible, I have described them as a well-oiled machine and they were just that. Also working with Katie has been a creative experience that I really enjoyed because I feel we connected really well and worked hard together. Having Eva on set was such a relief, she is so near and dear to my heart and it was nice to see her excel and be such a strong support for the camera team. She was also a big support for me as sets can be stressful and having her presence around meant I had something and someone from home and it was nice to also work on a grad film together. George as my boom op was my saviour coming on board very last minute and being an incredible boom op, he has his own separate post coming up. One day as a treat I let him sound record because I was going to do on set folley footsteps to the water's edge to replicate Phoebe's steps towards the water. He again excelled. Orla was an incredible director and made an incredible space for everyone on set, she looked after all of us so well and kept us on the right path. We all felt we were in safe hands and we definitely were. The cast was really well picked and as the days went on they fell deeper into their characters and we all very quickly believed who they were. The whole crew was great to work with and helped provide a positive atmosphere on set.

My one issue on set was the bathroom and shower issues that we had, but this was unavoidable as we were so many people and our lodgings were not used to this. As an IBS girlie, I had multiple evenings and mornings where I would run to the car drive from the lodge to the caravan carefully to then barge in and use the toilet. Cold showers were not an issue as this is something I do regularly. I was a bit cheeky and had these every day as I am unbearable to be around when I am unshowered so it was best for everyone that I broke this rule. Or at least that's what I am telling myself, but I know I get insufferably grumpy when I feel unclean.

I did find I had to manage my stress and my resting bitch face, but with time both eased and by the end I felt completely in my element as if this was something I had been doing for a long time.

So at the end of the shoot, I found myself as a happy sound girl, as we say, I fell in love with sound recording and felt comfortable and in my element. We all made it back to Edinburgh in one piece and so did our equipment, which myself Orla and the camera department helped unload.

Here are some shots and even a little video from all of our days on set, as you can see we had a blast:

[bananahoneycomb]

Other signs Eddie may return in S5: Eddie has a lot of Jesus parallels

tw: christian religious talk

I think they could bring Eddie back and it would work beautifully with the narrative of both the show and book.

I do enjoy the Kas theory, but there are other compelling things that may point to him coming back.

I am not religious currently, but I used to very much be and some things just jump out to me: I see a lot of Jesus parallels with Eddie.

From the recent book and the show we know Eddie has been persecuted by by the town in general and in particular as part of the Satanic Panic. However, Eddie demonstrates far more moral fiber and kindness than any of those who wield a cross as a weapon against him. Now, Eddie being good and a far better than those who hate him by itself isn't a clue but when I add it to the other things I see it becomes one.

The metaphor of his 'sheepies'. This one is a big one for me because of how often Jesus is referred to as a shepherd and how many parables he gives of taking care of his sheep.

He dies willingly to save one of his sheep

When the bats get him he is spread out on the grown, not in an exact crucifixion position, but very close with his arms laid wide. He hasn't had anything in his hair until this battle started and now there is the bandana like a crown (of thorns).

The injury that is implied to kill Eddie is the bats biting on the side of his abdomen/flank. The placement is the same as the spear Longinus which was the killing wound to Jesus on the cross. A spear was also the weapon he carried.

Eddie making Dustin promise to look after the sheep is reminiscent of Jesus's talk with Peter, the rock of the church

He is literally forsaken by his father. (Father, why have you forsaken me?)

Has alternative father figure in Wayne akin to St. Joseph

Skull Rock is sort of a temptation of Jesus on the mountain in which he is asked if he wants to stay or go forward and he chooses to go forward

I need to double check this, but 3 people when asked about about Eddie/Hellfire pretend not know Eddie or be associated with Hellfire: Lucas when asked by Jason and the basketball team; Dustin, Max, and Lucas when questioned by the Sheriff in front of their parents (and Erica) after they are caught by Lover's Lake; This reminds me of Jesus being denied 3 times (even if that was 1 person for Jesus).

This is not religious symbolism but I'd like to point out that Jason foreshadowed his death with 'first hangover makes you feel like you're going to split in two'. I think Eddie foreshadows his death and resurrection when he pretends to die and fall on the ground when he meets Chrissy in the woods.

The irony of the character being hunted by zealots in the Satanic Panic being Jesus coded is so satisfying to me, particularly because I know someone who was hit by the Satanic panic and was so so much kinder of a person than any of the assholes wagging their tongues and backbiting him.

Anyway, it's been a while for the religious stuff for me but it's still in there, hope you find it interesting. I think it makes for an interesting 'Eddie gets resurrected' build up alternative to Kas. Although, with popular vampire mythos the Jesus tie works with vampire!Eddie too.

[istherewifiinhell]

anyone wanna get emotional about collaborative art with me?

[Mirage 19 Story: E&L, Layout: Eastman, Pencils: Jim Lawson, Inks: Laird, Letters: Steve Lavigne]

ID from alt: Cropped section of the page annotations by Laird, (relevant) text: Page 18 is also the beginning of what I think of as "Brick hell" - Jim drew so many panels with hundreds of bricks in them, and I felt obliged to ink them all in. That was a LOT of bricks." Left is a panel showing Raph running down a curving brick tunnel, the wall is drawn with individual bricks, uncountable amounts of lines that illustrate the curvature.

If not, enjoy brick hell instead (I'll leave, just a doozy of a brick hell image at the end)

(this issue has beautiful layout paneling, which little snippets of could never replicate. great one to check out. imho)

come one come all to the worst barn party of the decade...

[IDS AND ALTS THE SAME]

ID: Jones family barn interior. Mike and Don speaking to Raph (off panel). Mike, in an open gesture: Life is good here... It's given us time to heal, to accept what's happened. Leo's needed this time, too--. Don, by his work table, no mask, wearing an apron. More neutral: We're not the guardians of society, Raphael... we never were. END

ID: Three panels, Raph pushing Leo around, yelling at him. The background moves from uninked, to midtone, to dark tone, as they both get more angry. Raph: No-- You're hiding out here... scared to face facts... And you're dragging all of us down with you! Fun and games are over, Chump... Look at yourself! END

ID: Two panels, Raph looks down to a wooden sword Leo (off panel) has held up in his way. He looks at it, unimpressed. Then looks up, pissed off and says only "Mistake." END

1. Three panels, Leo in the forground, just his leg seen. Raph on the floor against a wall. He whips his chin, saying "You were always good, Leo...". Close up, spit hangs from his mouth, continues "... One of the best..." He stands and finishes "...Which makes life here even more of a crime."

2. Four panels, Leo has Raph in a choke hold, holding him from behind, they are on the floor. Sweaty and teeth grit with exhertion. Leo says "--Do you hear me?!" Raph starts throwing punches to Leo's head, just above his own. As each one land we close in on Leo's face. END

Well. Thats great. Ill eat my own heart out how abouts.

AND ANYWAY. My favourite favourite effect.

ID: 1. Four panels, Leo, Mike and Don, run along a roof top, grab some fire escapes, and make their way to street level, skirting the edge of a street lamp's glow. The entire set is pen inked normally, and washed completely with the mid tone, save the small circle around the lamp, glowing white.

2. Large panel. Raph, 3 point lands, kicking up dust in the center of a spot lit section of sewer. The tail ends of a hood he wears trail up with the motion. Very little double-tone is used on the page, instead the shadow is communicated by increased hatch lines still following the shapes of every object in shot. END

ID: Raph sits in the tattered remains of the turtles lair, his brothers shadowed in the foreground. Raph, not very warmly says "Welcome Home." END

Okay okay. cry forever and every. please for the love of god. read comics. now. more brick hell

ID: Three panels, showing the entrance of a sewer tunnel into a larger area, closed and open pipes along the wall. The shot holds empty for two panels, then with the inclusion of Raph jumping out the exit in the third. If you are to look carefully. You can tell, though the scenery remains the same, in each, the intricate pen inked brick work and shadows have been done three separate times. END

LIKE. I KNOW ITS TRADITIONAL MEDIUM COMICS. But sir.... SIR? Another annotations from Laird specifically. Have mentioned using the copier to place certain things in backgrounds.... i just.... SIR?

[cinnamonest]

hello! can i ask which textbooks/books did you use to learn chinese? or was it something another? maybe, some kind of a special methodic? it would be nice if you could tell, but if not, it's okay!! have a nice day/evening <3

Ah well I recently completed my BA in Mandarin, so I was being taught directly in a university setting. However, we did use the Cheng & Tsui publisher's "Integrated Chinese" series. The only issue is that it's a bit pricey, like $70 USD which is actually surprisingly not expensive for a college textbook, but it is expensive generally speaking. As an alternative, there's a lot of free or cheaper resources, but to be honest I don't think I can assuredly attest to any of them since I haven't used any of the other ones, sorry, but I know usually there are google reviews available for textbooks as well.

For resources though, Pleco is a great resource. It has saved me a lot of time and grades.

Additionally, although of course it's best to try on your own, you'll inevitably make use of translation apps sometimes (and can be a good way to double-check, even if you worked out a sentence on your own). For this I would strongly recommend you use Yandex Translator and not Google translate. Google translate can listen to audio and transcribe it a bit better, but Yandex Translator gives more accurate text translations in my experience (especially as it more accurately recognizes some colloquial phrases, whereas Google translates them literally).

Study wise, I have a small dry erase board I would just drill characters with over and over, it really helps. Also try to learn radicals (small parts that make up bigger characters), as characters can be broken down into the same radicals, and it makes memorization a lot easier.

Finally immersion - I have a lot of Mandopop, Chinese dramas etc, I also have my phone's UI and my PS4's UI in simplified Chinese. Also, for the last two years, funny enough I've been using Genshin to study. I switch back and forth between English text with Chinese voiceover and Chinese text with English voiceover, or both in Chinese sometimes.

[wolves-etc]

thoughts on The Last Of Us episode seven, largely in the order I had them:

[thoughts on: 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | X | 1.8 | 1.9]

— it took me a while to realise that the shapes at the end of the credits are ellie and joel. it's grim - two figures, alone, growing out of this infested world.

— she can't be actually about to leave joel?? splitting them up at this point isn't allowed, what the shit

(unless she can get there and back quickly enough to bring him medical attention in which yes please)

— first glimpse of the military school!! it's a little odd to realise she had more access to music than joel did. I can't quite remember ellie's first mention of her friend, either - it might've been the first episode?

— did not expect a dressing down in a military school to begin with "what's going on?", gently spoken

— captain kwong I actually really like you. he's an inherently manipulative bastard and I don't trust him but this is another adult talking to ellie honestly and giving her options rather than just making decisions for her, and it's nice to see, in a messed up way.

— and ellie's also not scared of him - or she doesn't look scared. she did tell sam that thing about being scared all the time and I don't think that was a joke. not cowed by him, then. and okay, maybe it's on purpose, maybe he's deliberately avoiding crushing her spirit because they don't just need grunts, they need officers too - but he's still not crushing her spirit entirely, and it's a relief.

— …he really believes they're what's holding civilisation together, too. he's genuinely scared and doing what he can to try to keep things going.

(and still, he has to know that there are abuses of power under a military dictatorship. he has to know, and he's justifying them, because he believes the work they do is that important. I really don't agree with him but I sort of don't know where exactly to fault him on his reasoning, and that's chilling.)

((and I'm doing a LOT of speculating about a character we only see briefly, when he's manipulating a teenager for the cause. but still.))

— gosh, I know ellie got culture shock looking through the teenager's bedroom in jackson, but this is such a normal teenage bedroom too. I mean, almost. one with the vibe of a cell or a ward. but we get a glimpse of everything up on the walls, the drawing of the dinosaur, the mortal kombat poster.

— okay an awful thought is occurring to me. I had to look up transcripts to double-check what ellie said about her friend first: when ellie calls marlene a terrorist, marlene says "was riley a terrorist?" and the past tense there and ellie's expression both felt... significant.

so we can guess her friend died tragically. we know ellie killed someone and doesn't want to talk about it. and it's awful, it's so awful, but if she had to kill a friend who got infected, that could answer it. and it'd add extra angst to her trying and failing to save sam, too - because hey, she didn't even know to try before, maybe she can manage it this time! and then she can't.

— OH GOOD, RILEY'S A SHITHEAD TOO

— she has a good grin.

— "turn around." "you're so weird about that." <3

— uh oh this doesn't bode well

— okay maybe it bodes fine. is it even a girls' night out if they don't see a corpse and have a laugh about it

— ellie and riley are bad influences on each other and also very cute

— riley I've known you for five minutes and I know you should be smart enough not to go into a mall that's only allegedly full of infected. "if it's sealed off then why isn't it sealed off" THE CEILING CAVING IN DOESN'T MEAN THEY WERE LYING about this specific thing at least

— the moment riley said they were on a mission I just. sigh. nonzero chance this is an actual firefly mission.

…fuck, is this gonna be where they both get bitten

— you know, ellie cutting and killing that infected in the cellar where joel stopped to pick up a cache of supplies? that makes much more sense if it was revenge for riley's death. because she hasn't been quite that brutal since. but like, the chance to safely look into the face of the thing that should have killed her, that killed her friend, and get to know it a bit, then quietly regain some of the control she lost? that makes sense.

— …riley directing her into place so she can watch as the mall flickers to life, oh gosh. oh that's beautiful.

— THE FOUR FIVE WONDERS OF THE MALL. STARTING WITH ELECTRIC STAIRS. OH GOSH.

they're so gonna end up at the arcade.

— shoutout to whoever took the time to put lipstick on a glasses advert when the world locked down

— and dawn of the wolf part 2 is definitely a twilight movie equivalent

— environmental storytelling </3

— you know when you feel deep fondness but also your heart breaking a little but it's not sad, it might not even be bittersweet but that's the closest match? yeah. ellie checking her reflection in the victoria's secret window.

— hi this scene is just so soft and so pretty and so sweetly ow

— ARCADE TIME, I KNEW IT

— "you asshole." "yeah, I'm the same asshole that spent an hour yesterday breaking this fucker open." okay riley put so much effort into that night oh heck

— I'M SORRY THE MILEENA VORE IS AN ACTUAL THING. SHE ACTUALLY BARFS BONES. why am I even surprised

— can the camera not zoom out ominously please. this is sweet this is fun let's not do this right now

— ellie's attempt at a goodbye that was also an "I don't like you enough to leave the school and join the fireflies with you," but they both know that, it's not a surprise, fuckin' ouch

— "how does a computer get drunk? it takes screenshots." "what are screenshots?" "I don't actually know."

— (listen I used to write in what was technically a postapoc setting, though the worldbuilding was crap so we mostly ignored that, so I keep wanting to go back and incorporate ideas, it's terrible.)

— riley crashing at that mall with at least one ticking timebomb just chilling in one of the shops, turning the lights on and playing loud games multiple times, I really really don't like this

— oh this hurts. it was set in stone from the start but it still hurts.

— OH SHIT MAYBE NOT. fake screams wtf that's mean, show.

— "maybe the fireflies aren't what I think they are but they chose me. I matter to them." "you mattered to me first." heY OW

— seriously these are baller lines. these lines alone I could see people going feral over. this is the good angst that people write fics about.

— do they have to have this incredibly cute dance party in a shop with lots of faces and figures in the background while we know there's an infected in the mall, please I am suffering

— oh they're so cute and also so doomed

— we still don't know who ellie killed.

— "we can just be all poetic and shit and lose our minds together." yeah, I mean, ideally you could, that's a really sweet and tragic sentiment-

— present-day ellie? is a fucking badass. and I say that not to negate the fact that she's a scared kid trying to keep her caregiver alive, but rather because she's a scared kid and she doesn't know what to do and she's trying even though it's so, so hard.

— the face of someone who's not gonna lose him too.

[ambrosiafaery]

Hello again I have more book of hours beta thoughts and knowledge :)

There's been a lot of bugs so far, some I think I completely missed in the moment though I've been able to capture a good number of them on stream. It made it difficult to realize a few things until they started working in my game

- visitors actually stick around for quite a while! Lately I've been getting closer to a 15min timer

- I am NOT SURE if this was a bug, but one of my visitors refused the skill I had that matched one of the principles they wanted. I've sent this into support because I think it might be, but possibly the principles may simply be a hint towards the kind of skills and books wanted and not the only requirement

- Mr and Mrs kille can both be spoken to, but I was having a confusing time trying to speak with Mr kille for a while there. Need to double check if both his principles were working, so far only Wist has worked

- in addition to the villagers and the seasonal Sweet Bones helpers, there's an assortment of random followers you can hire for the day by putting both an element card and a pence card into sweet bones! The element of the soul is used, the money is not. I think this is to discourage rerolling too much without eating your entire funds for RNG. These followers currently are more powerful and you can see the 3 principals they'll have just like the seasonal helpers before you hire them

- Lessons do not disappear like other memories at dawn. You can hold onto them if you get too few to boost a skill

- don't be deceived like I was at first - skill cards level up the number of each principle on them based on skill level, not the level of the attributes you contribute through memories. It took me getting a skill to level four to realize this LOL

- entering the hush house is probably the most annoying check right now. You can open the gatehouse pretty quickly, but so far it's gotten into summer by the time I've done that and the second check is knock 2. The rector only has knock 1, and the only memories I've found so far with knock are memory: storm, and the weather pattern fog in fall. Memory: storm is a very low drop chance from speaking with a helper, and trying to get the nun(random helper) early is also pretty low chance, but may be the better bet

- you have to pay attention to the wisdoms on your skill cards. Save any with the wisdom you want to master, and catalog those with wisdoms you don't need right away. Each time you add a skill to a wisdom, the next one must be a higher level skill, so you want to save ones that are easier to level and use the more difficult ones at lower levels (heart moon and lantern definitely feel fairly easy currently, while knock is the hardest)

- failing a mystery check on a book still gives you a chance to succeed. You get 3 random opportunities that can repeat types to add more of the principle - so far weve found furniture, comfort, wall art, weather, memory, element of the soul, and helper checks as possible opportunities. If you use an item it's not destroyed currently, but unsure on helpers. Memories and elements of the soul are used whether you pass or fail.