#oblique pen

[twinsunsintatooine]

i need to nuke the pens management because this is genuinely getting ridiculous.

actually pissed tf off right now bc is it not clear as day to anyone with eyes that the roster is not the issue right now it’s the management????

and to obliquely throw a dig at geno (and the rest of the team) is fucking crazy because have you seen who is leading the team in assists right now? have you seen who is leading the team in points? ITS GENO

acting like sid wouldn’t go ballistic and retire if they traded geno🤨🤨🤨

[postsforposting]

when sex is violence, mercenaries are sex workers. soldiers are pledged monogamists to the government god. and the xmen, whose number one rule is no killing, are ascetic monks. virgins, preferably. they don't "have a go" at people. they're the church. who will take anyone, just like strippers and sex workers.

wade explicitly starts his own franchise. his own church. (we're the worshipers).

logan never joined the xmen. he wasn't taking a vow of chastity, of self denial. self denial is the avengers' definition of a team: "it's not about what you want, it's what other people need".

but it doesn't count if you do it over the clothes because there's no blood. no cherry involved. if you can't see the blood, it's not real, it doesn't matter, yeah? like wade's red suit.

red is pleasure, happiness. orgasm. mutant jesus cable knew what he was saying when he called wade a clown dressed up as a sex toy: it was literally true, and it was a COMPLIMENT. that was flirting. he was....having a go at him.

wade doesn't acknowledge it, lets it slide. oblique bodyslide reference to the cable comics. it's metaphorically sex and marriage.

i think wade's line "grower not a shower" is a reference to "don't ask don't tell": a grower is "not telling". but he IS a shower, a flasher, which is showing not telling in two ways. first is literally flashing, and second is he's verbally lying while having shown the reality. in the cable comics, one of wade's famous lines is that he and cable have a "don't ask don't tell" thing going on. which is why he's "not showing" aka not telling: don't kiss and tell. if wade's "not telling" and "not acknowledging".....what happens metaphorically and offscreen is where you find the real crack.

the meta layer--the power of the pen--is real for wade, who can see the fourth wall. cable's carrying a pretty big phallic metaphor. cable is also a jesus foil like wade. can he see the fourth wall? he certainly slides through time, the fourth dimension. i think he slides in and out just fine, and he's....not telling 😘

for the xmen, verbally attacking people doesn't count as having a go, as doing it for real. plausible deniability, justifiable, something they can let slide over the clothes: that's negasonic. it's why scissoring is fine because that's just sliding your bodies around, aka getting married, a commitment, what shiny jesus colossus wants from everyone.

if you wear a red suit that hides the blood, that's offering plausible deniability to keep going at it. he's hiding his orgasm to ask for more. to go again. both sex and violence are until "a little death" do you part.

[leiascully]

“I wish you would write a fic where…” — Scully is pregnant with (or has already had) baby 2, and Diana is somehow not dead & she comes back into the XF…. Set in either IWTB era (Mulder’s depression) or post s11 (the fall out of CSM and Jackson etc)

1/2

Here you go!

Scully’s in the office looking at pictures of baby Joy on her phone when she hears the knock. It takes her a moment to look up. Joy’s only been in daycare a few weeks, and the only person who ever knocks is Skinner. Instead, when she looks up, there’s a tall woman with an elegant grey chignon and a chic suit with a visitor’s pass clipped to the lapel. Scully’s breath catches in her throat. But it’s not Teena Mulder - it doesn’t even really look like her. There’s just something about the aura she brings that carries that same scent of graceful suffering, like a vintage perfume that’s spoiled somehow.

“Diana,” she says evenly. “Or is it Agent Fowley?”

“Hello, Agent Scully.” Diana gestures to a chair. “May I sit?”

“Be my guest.” Scully sets her phone on the desk, face up. Diana would know she’s recording their conversation. They’ve both learned to keep track of the evidence.

Diana glances at her screen. “She’s a lovely child.”

“Thank you,” Scully says without flinching. “She’s our little miracle.”

“Yes,” Diana says, “somehow they do find their way to you, these miracles. But I suppose you deserve them, after all you’ve endured.”

“Is it Agent Fowley?” Scully presses.

Diana demurs, sweeping away the idea with one hand before it returns to clasp around her crossed knees. “Fox might have returned from the grave to his former employment, but I had no wish to rejoin the FBI’s ranks.”

Scully smiles faintly. “That was a long time ago.”

“Another lifetime,” Diana says. There’s a glint in her eyes, a tension around her lips. Scully doesn’t respond to the jab.

“How can I help you, Diana?” She picks up a pen. “Assistant Director Skinner assured me they’ve upgraded the fire mitigation system, by the way.”

Diana doesn’t react. She seems to be thinking. “I suppose I came to talk to you,” she says at last.

“To me?” Scully tilts her head. “I’m not sure exactly what you think we have to say to each other.” She stares at Diana for a long moment, sifting through the memories. It’s been so long. Another lifetime indeed.

She remembers her last encounter with Diana, the oblique contact, the fear, the rage, the genuine sorrow. “I do owe you a thank you. You’re the one who left the envelope with information about where they’d taken Mulder.”

Diana stirs, as if she’s come back from the depths of her own mind. “Whatever you think of me, Agent Scully, I never wanted either one of you to die.”

Scully smiles, just a little. “Likewise.”

“I believed in the mission,” Diana tells her. “I believed it would save us all. I knew I was working for men in over their heads, but I didn’t see another way.”

“I know,” Scully says, and she does. She does, now that the world didn’t end. Now that the black oil has receded and the shapeshifters have vanished, now that the supersoldier project has been decomissioned, she understands the things Diana did, and why. She will never understand the rest, but she has that.

“I’m sorry for my part in what they did to you. But I wouldn’t change the choices I made.” Diana nods toward Scully’s phone. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you got your miracle.”

“Thank you,” Scully says, and she means it.

They gaze at each other, blue eyes and brown. At last they have taken the true measure of each other, and neither is found wanting. The betrayals of their younger years are old scars now. There isn’t any pain there. It almost doesn’t matter who was right and who was wrong. They moved through different worlds. Of course their paths diverged. Scully, who has loved Mulder and lost him and fought her way back to him a hundred times, understands the urge to reach for him.

Beyond this moment, she knows they will never see eye to eye. She knows Diana knows it too. This is the peace soldiers only find in the middle of the battlefield, when the war is over.

“Thank you,” says Diana.

“For what?” Scully is startled.

“For standing up to the Syndicate, at great personal cost. If their mission was just, their methods were not. Spender’s least of all.”

“Jeffrey came back, you know,” Scully says.

“Yes. He always had too strong a sense of justice to stomach the work.” Diana leans forward just a little. “Thank you for taking care of him.” She doesn’t mean Jeffrey Spender.

“You’re welcome.” Scully’s voice is steady, somehow.

“I can’t say I was deceived,” Diana tells her. “I went into the work with my eyes open. But the world shifted. The plans changed. Whether I couldn’t keep up or I didn’t want to is irrelevant. I wasn’t given the choice.”

“You were a pawn to them,” Scully says.

Diana inclines her head with a economy of motion Scully can’t help but admire. It’s neither agreement nor disagreement, just an acknowledgment of Scully’s own truths. “Well. I’m not any longer.”

“Good,” Scully says.

Diana uncrosses her legs and stands up. “There’s no need to tell Fox I was here.”

“I assumed you came to see him.”

Diana tilts her head and smiles. “No, Agent Scully. My unfinished business was with you.”

They don’t shake hands. Scully watches Diana leave. She taps her phone to stop the recording and then cups her chin in her hand, staring into space. She wonders if Diana will be on the security footage. She wonders if anything has gone missing in the last hour or two. Maybe respect can look like paranoia. Maybe the past can’t be entirely overwritten, but the book can be closed. Maybe this is what peace feels like when a ghost is laid to rest.

Mulder comes in half an hour later and finds her still thinking. He sets a coffee down on the desk in front of her.

“Missing our pride and Joy?” he asks.

“Hmm?” Scully says. “Of course.” She comes back to herself and shuffles the papers on her desk.

“What were you up to all morning?” he asks, settling into a chair with the lazy grace he’s never lost.

“Oh, talking with an old friend,” she says, and it hews close enough to the truth.

[peachdues]

PEACHIEEEEE!!!!!!! i am here, i am sat, i have a notepad and pen, and i am ready to hear whatever you want to share about setsuna. favorite food? does she have a sweet tooth? does she prefer hot weather or cold weather? cats, dogs, both, or neither?

if you've thought about her in a modern au/context: what would her job be? would she go to college? would she have tattoos/piercings? if she had an aesthetic what would it be? would she drink coffee?

basically i wanna know everything skjghddkshg

Hehehe thank you, Fallon!! My angel fr.

Setsuna’s favorite foods — girl has a MASSIVE sweet tooth. Like huge. While she’s described as having a ✨hint✨ of abs, she doesn’t have any definition beyond her oblique line. Why?? Because she likes to eat and she likes sugar (and Mitsuri does NOT help this).

Traditional favorites include somen (chilled dip noodles), imagawayaki, and yatsuhashi. When she was Sanemi’s tsuguko, he did bring her onto ohagi, though she finds it a little messy. After Sanemi is fired as her teacher, she still buys ohagi on the DL and acts like she has no idea why smh.

Setsuna’s father was a well-known merchant who dealt heavily in Western goods, which was incredibly advantageous during the Taisho era. As a result, Setsuna also had access to western style sweets as a child and developed a taste for them! Her favorite are western style cakes and especially a lemon taffy her dad used to sneak her behind her mother’s back.

She and Mitsuri bond heavily over their love of food and often pig out together. Mitsuri treats Setsuna more as a live-in best friend than a tsuguko, and sometimes gets in trouble as a result 😭 even after Setsuna becomes a hashira, they frequently stay at one another’s estate’s!

Favorite weather — warmer, but not summer. She loves spring. Hates the snow/winter, but that has more to do with the events of the prologue for Wind and Moon than anything.

Animals — LOVES dogs, hates cats. This is where she and Mitsuri butt heads lmao. Mitsuri once caught her hissing back at a cat.

And some bonus factoids no one asked for:

She despises the fact she’s a demon slayer. She wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and take over the family business. She is deeply unhappy to be in the role she’s in, and wishes she could leave/quit.

As her masters, both Sanemi and Mitsuri spoil her, in their own way. Sanemi because he lets her have a little free time every now and then and Mitsuri just pampers her.

The one year time skip in which she serves as Mitsuri’s tsuguko and ascends to hashira is the most healing for her. When Sanemi finally sees her again (after she becomes a Hashira) she is noticeably more at ease and smiles. He doesn’t know why that makes him feel embarrassed (yes he does lmao)

Hated her sword and honestly was overjoyed when it got blown to smithereens in the event that led to her being fired as Sanemi’s tsuguko. Doesn’t even care that it shattered her sword arm in the process, she was just so happy to be rid of it. Loves her naginata.

Speaking of Setsuna’s naginata — some say, if you look close enough at the hilt, you’ll see not just a small moon charm (she’s a lunar breath user so obviously) but also a charm that looks oddly similar to the Wind Hashira’s sword hilt….wonder what that’s about….

I’m still working on modern AU Setsuna, but Fallon!! Thank you for asking!! Feel free to talk more, I will gab about her nonstop.

[weirdsatellites]

Manifest #69307 from NROL-82 (TS/SCI) 1. Buried Sedge Wrens 2. Oblique Pen of Fire

[tuxpaint]

Tux Paint 0.9.32 is available!

A number of new tools have been added! Download it today for Windows, macOS, Android, Linux, or Haiku!

⦬ 1-, 2-, and 3-point perspective

Three pairs of new tools provide ways to easily sketch drawings in Tux Paint using 1-, 2-, and 3-point perspective, as well as adjusting the different perspectives' vanishing points. The drawing tools are similar to the Line tool, except only certain angles are possible, based on the position of the line relative to the vanishing points. For example, in 1- and 2-point perspective, lines may be drawn vertically and horizontally, but diagonally they must always be angled toward or away from the vanishing point(s).

🧊Isometric, Dimetric, Trimetric, and Oblique

Another new set of tools provide ways to sketch drawings in an isometric projection, plus two other orthographic projections, dimetric and trimetric, as well as oblique. For the latter three, it's possible to adjust various drawing angles that each tool allows.

🟒Epitrochoid and Hypotrochoid

Two new tools have been added that draw "centered trochoid" curves — patterns created when one circle rolls around the inside or outside of another circle. The resulting shapes are similar to those created by devices such as the Spirograph. The radii of both circles, plus the position of the virtual pen relative to the moving circle, may all be adjusted.

Read more in our press release.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dartagnan at Daily Kos:

As anti-Israel protests have spread across many of the country’s most prestigious college campuses this week, several Republicans in Congress have sought to burnish their pro-Israel credentials by calling for the U.S. military to respond.  Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton exhorted President Joe Biden to send in National Guard units, while obliquely encouraging motorists to run over protestors. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley similarly demanded a militarized federal response “to protect Jewish Americans,” while Mitch McConnell and John Thune penned a letter, signed by 25 of their fellow GOP senators, calling the demonstrators “anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist mobs” and demanding that “federal law enforcement” respond.

Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson paid a visit to Columbia University’s campus on Wednesday where he was greeted by catcalls and boos. Upon leaving, Johnson also declared he would be demanding that Biden deploy the National Guard to quell the protests if they continued.  As Adam Serwer, writing for the Atlantic, observes, these reflexive calls by Republicans for a military response to protests seem to be less rooted in genuine concern that the protests pose a serious danger to the public or Jewish people than “because these powerful figures find the protesters and their demands offensive.” Serwer points out that school administrators have, when necessary, called in local police to address potential violence, harassment, and property damage, and thus far, the protests do not evince the kind of “mass violence and unrest” that would normally suggest the need for federal involvement. He also notes that such a deployment of federal troops would likely escalate the protests. 

Without debating the relative merits or lack thereof of the protests themselves, then, it’s important to note that these demands for a federal militarized response are coming almost entirely from one side of the political aisle. As Serwer points out, they echo the same sentiments Republicans expressed in 2020 in response to the protests by Black Lives Matter over the police murder of George Floyd. 

In other words, thus far we have seen a markedly asymmetrical, political response by Republicans to  campus protests this week. But we are also witnessing something else: an explicit acceptance of a militarized solution to protests where Republicans find it politically advantageous. Notably, another well-known Republican has also proposed sending the U.S. military and National Guard units to quell anticipated public protests, albeit of a far different nature, should he be afforded another term in office. That person is Donald Trump, and the people he proposes to target are those Americans he suspects would turn out in the hundreds of thousands to protest the policies he intends to implement.

Prominent Republicans such as Tom Cotton, Donald Trump, and Mike Johnson are demanding a militaristic response to end the pro-Palestinian protests across the nation's campuses as a way of burnishing their pro-Israel Apartheid bona fides.

Such a response would further escalate protests instead of quell them.

See Also:

Vox: Student protests are testing US colleges’ commitment to free speech

The Nation: The Crackdown on Campus Protests Is Happening Everywhere

[karmicbias]

Do you have book recommendations for someone wanting to have a good time reading

Depends on what you like! I used to work in a bookstore and the one thing I miss about it is being able to read as much as I wanted for free (we basically got library privileges unless we damaged whatever we were borrowing).

One of my very favorites (I have a tattoo inspired by the series, and visited some of the irl locations mentioned in the books) is the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. Urban fantasy, faerie detective/PI protag, but also an endlessly unspiraling delight of worldbuilding and character development, plus a expansive examination of what it means to be family. Seanan is a master architect and I love rereading to see the all the little hints that you miss until many books later when they become relevant again.

For what it's worth I love many other parts of Seanan's oeuvre, but Toby is my fave (well, the Luidaeg really, but y'know). So if this particular series isn't for you, another one may be! Don't miss anything written by Mira Grant (alt/pen name for genre delineation) if you like more science-y thriller type stuff!

Of course I'll always recommend The Locked Tomb books by Tamsyn Muir, especially to my Tumblr pals. Ultimately an exploration of the many terrible and complex ways that broken people love each other (and/or die trying). Hella queer in multiple dimensions, sometimes deliberately oblique and infuriating, and absolutely enchanting in audio format, if that's something you're into.

Last but not least, if you're willing to tolerate a certain amount of faffing about and sometimes awkward writing, I do love The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It was the first of his stuff I'd read, never really being into horror. But it's much more fantasy, though there's definitely horror elements. I had the wildest dreams the first time I read them! Also good in audiobook format though most people are partial to one narrator over the other (they recorded with one guy and then he died before reading all of them).

Or if you don't want to commit to visiting the Tower just yet, 11/22/63 is probably the best modern King, imo. With a hat tip to Joe Hill for the ending, of course. (We love Sai King but endings aren't his strong suit, shall we say)

Thanks for the excellent question! I hope you might find some good recs in here. :)

[hbogirls]

Riverdale characters as taylor swift albums?

THANK YOU!!!!!!

cheryl - okay it might seem obvious to say red for cheryl because she invented red and is red etc etc etc BUT consider for a moment: evermore. it deals in many kinds of loss and change, from romantic to familial to historically-tinged tangents that implicate the narrator in a sort of oblique but no less interesting way. ivy stands out as the main reason for this choice (it's a goddamn blaze in the dark! my little gay pyro!!), but i also think it applies throughout. evermore is an album about drama, and it's also the album with the closest aesthetic nod to tapping maple trees for sap, which is a secondary consideration but no less relevant to me here.

archie - 1989! it's kind of tempting to say rep for archie because of the way he is always fighting back against a fate that has befallen him, but 1989 captures his essence more. it's very stripped-back lyrically, which leaves it sort of unable to be characterized as a breakup album or an album of love songs or anything else. it simply is 1989 in the same way archie is a firefighter and a poet and a miner and a boxing gym owner/youth outreach coordinator (among other things). like archie, 1989 brings all of these together into something cohesive and motivated by the same ideals. it's also very flashy and optimistic! sad songs are disguised as upbeat pop numbers. this is very archie, too, as he is generally darling and sweet in the face of torment. also, archie is always somehow just learning about bisexuality for the first time, and that's pretty much also what 1989 is about.

betty - rep!! i could simply point out the fact that her little black bob wig is not dissimilar to taylor's small aesthetic shift toward edginess during the reputation era, and that would be enough. BUT! the album itself is also very betty. she believes herself to have an inherent evil inside of her that must be exorcised, but she's actually outwardly very normal. like she ultimately is falling in love with people and living her life as the girl next door, and then every once in a while she does snap and is like by the way i am still kind of a violent and angry freak!! and you're like oh yeah!! taylor very much entered the rep era feeling like she was a dangerous, unloveable liability, and that's also how the serial killer gene makes betty feel. even during season seven she feels something growing inside her that is strange and inherently destructive to a provincial, buttoned-up way of life, and then it turns out to just be sexual desire, specifically bisexuality, which is also very rep.

jughead - i mean .... he's THE tortured poet. ttpd. like taylor writing ttpd, he's incredibly aware of the narrative surrounding him and the way his pen can influence it. he's a little pretentious and maybe a little too reliant on literary allusions, but real fans get it. one of my favorite things about ttpd that is misunderstood by a lot of people unwilling to give taylor the benefit of the doubt is how tongue-in-cheek and ironic a lot of it is, a fact that is also true of jughead's magnum opus (riverdale).

veronica - can i say something shocking? lover. the man is the obvious jumping off point here, but yntcd is very aligned with our first ten minutes with veronica in the pilot when we hear the exchange "kevin is...." "GAY! thank god." lover is also very sure of itself aesthetically, and it outwardly presents itself as in love and put-together, ready to enter a new adult chapter of, like, guest judging on the voice or whatever. but hidden not too deep below the surface is a churning sea of insecurity and fear about both romance and career. i believe this, too, is what motivates veronica. she's terrified that she'll become her father, but she's also terrified to not be like him at all. she can never quite find a love where she feels totally secure. archie will always have a thing for betty. reggie will never quite meet her needs. veronica really is kind of a lover girl at heart, and she's always making sort of suspect decisions in the name of girlbossery, which is very on theme.

[blackjackkent]

Hector made a quick stop with a sad family on the docks who didn't have enough money to get all four of them on a boat out of the city; paid off the father's passage as well so the whole family can go safely. Yay! (And Jaheira and Minsc both approved.)

And now back to camp to see what crucial intel Volo has dug up.

"It is splendid to see you again, my friend! If you hadn't saved me from that mob, I'd be penning a Guide to the Afterlife, based on first-hand experience. Perhaps you would hazard a guess as to why the mob turned on me?"

Several options for guesses here - he could have easily pissed off Orin, Gortash, or the Absolutists. Hector, though, suspects Volo is going to tell him anyway, in great detail, so he allows himself a flash of humor instead. "I just assumed decades of spreading lies and misinformation had caught up with you," he says dryly.

"Nonsense," says Volo stoutly. "It is my dedication to *truth* that endangers my wellbeing, and I have uncovered the most startling truth imaginable!" He spreads his arms wide and declaims in a dramatic shout, "The Lord of Murder has returned! As he did a hundred years ago, Bhaal has set his accursed sights on Baldur's Gate, and his temple runs red with the blood of the innocent."

Hector looks at him expectantly. Yes, and...? They've known about Bhaal's involvement in the Absolutist plot for quite some time. This is troubling, but it's not news.

"Orin is his Chosen," Volo goes on earnestly. "And like Sarevok before her, she is able to take on the savage form of the Slayer! If the Slayer is not stopped, it will slaughter every living thing in this city. As one of those things, I'm particularly eager to stop it!"

Hector's skeptical eyebrow lowers slightly. This is news - and also troubling. He has read in some of his history tomes about Sarevok's near-reign of terror, about the Slayer form he could take as an offspring of Bhaal - and about Caden, who was also able to take that form although he rarely did. It's said to be a powerful transformation, a manifestation of the darkest of divine magic... and if Orin has control of it, that is bad news indeed.

Volo perks up, seeing that his message is starting to get through. "And there is a way. I have a study of the beast, penned by the wizard Irenicus himself. It contains all of the knowledge needed to slay the Slayer."

Hm. Concerning.

Irenicus was the big bad of BG2, responsible for (among other things) torturing Caden and Imoen mercilessly and ripping out their souls in pursuit of the Bhaalspawn power in them, as well as killing Jaheira's husband and Minsc's Wychlaran and just generally being an insane megalomaniac. Hector (presumably) knows at least some of this, certainly enough to recognize the name, and is more than a little skeptical about anything that might have come from the mad mage of Amn.

On the other hand... they need to fight Orin no matter what. And any scrap of information is potentially useful.

"Now," Volo goes on pointedly, "I just need a brave adventurer willing to face Bhaal's Chosen and to put the knowledge into practice."

Hector lets out a heavy breath. Well, then, I'm your man, I suppose, he thinks wryly. "I'll do it."

"Wonderful! I can scarcely think of anyone more suitable. It will serve you well - 'A Study of the Slayer' penned by Jon Irenicus. It's a one-of-a-kind, so do try to keep it away from the inevitable bloodbath."

-----

Eeeeeenteresting. Hector has a few follow-up questions he can ask, although they're mostly just exposition for people who didn't play BG1/BG2. Oblique reference to Caden which is always nice to hear.

"This is a daunting task," Hector says quietly. He knew all of this lay ahead of him already, more or less, and yet somehow talking to Volo about it makes him feel rather more exhausted than he already was. "I should begin my preparations now."

Volo looks at him with a sudden, uncharacteristic air of calm intensity. "I am a living witness to Bhaal's defeat, those hundred years ago," he says, "so I know your battle against him his not futile. He can be stopped."

Hector tilts his head, and then smiles very slightly. It's a heartening, encouraging thing to hear - something he badly needed. But, unfortunately, Volo is still talking, and the finish to his little speech makes Hector's blood run cold.

"But not all of those who stood against him survived - and those who did were never the same again. I wish you luck, my friend. And I hope that when I see you again, you'll be in one piece. Two or three, at most."

[daftpatience]

I am politely autism creature lurking at your fountain pen posts bc I love them as well. The lure of fountain pen inks and Jetpens really hooked me. And I've bought the disc elsuim soundtrack

To stay on theme for blorbo matching, how about the insulindian phasmid?

i'm imagining something long, thin, and woody, like a calligraphy pen!

this is the ziller oblique wood nib holder! yum yum!

[jwinsorart]

Descending loop calligraphy drills with pointed pen. I always meant to learn my drills with dip pen but I just never got around to it. It's a very sloooow process. But I did it today! It's amazing how much steeper the learning curve is with a nib and ink. I use mine so randomly that I never really bothered to do the fundamentals. Hopefully this will help with my future pointed pen projects.

🖋@jetpens Brause 361 Steno Blue Pumpkin Nib

@speedball_calligraphy Oblique Nib Holder

🎨 @kuretakezig_usa Black Sumi ink

📜 @cansonusa Marker XL

[ntrlily]

I want to try an oblique penholder but all my usual places for buying pen stuff only have a speedball one which isn't moddable or designed for use with Japanese nibs (or just like, other non speedball western nibs) so I gotta find somewhere else...

[puellafuriadarkmagica]

So it's been a week, exactly as promised. It's just that it's also been some other weeks on top of that. I'll explain why at the end of this post, what I plan on doing about it, generally where my efforts have been lately, and how YOU (yes YOU!) can get involved.

Chapter 5: The Best Venue in this Small, Pathetic Town

From The Chats - Keep The Grubs Out. I mentioned before that my brother got me into The Chats. They're a world away from the kind of music I'm normally into, but they happen to be really fucking funny. That's generally enough for me to make an exception. Check out the music video to their big hit Smoko and try your damnedest to convince me this isn't one of the greatest music videos ever made.

"Oh, Kimmie, me 'n' Kel had the time of our lives. We had twenny-four hour room cervix, eggs derelict for breakfast..." the television blared feebly through its blown-out stereo system.

I've said it before but one of my favourite differences between our world and that of PFDM is that somehow the existence of magical girls has resulted in Kath and Kim still being on the air in 2009.

Fuck, I miss Kath and Kim.

"You, and me, we have an opportunity / And we, can make it something really good…" Zoey hummed from somewhere in the kitchen.

I also remember mentioning that this passage is included to remind people that despite her generally matronly(??) role to the rest of the cast of Part 1, Zoey's only in her mid-twenties. Bit sad, innit?

Thunk. A metal rail, roughly forty centimetres long, sailed neatly past Marie's head, drove itself clean through the skull of the Incubator perched on her shoulder, and dug itself into an oblique resting place in the pavement behind her.

Oh my God.

Oh my God!

They killed Kyubey??

"Introductions aside, have you run this past Lara yet?" "The thing is I think I've got to… warm her up to the idea first?" Danika smirked. "You can say she's too stubborn. It's not a crime, you know." "She's not as bad as you guys say she is, you know!" "Too right!" Hope leaned forward and coughed into a fist. "See, she's actually worse."

She's actually soooo cool and nice with it.

Hold on.

When did "such-and-so with it" re-enter common parlance? I remember it being a pretty ubiquitous way to suffix an adjective back in the late 2000's, and then it disappeared. And now it's back? Where did it go…

"Cool, cool. Hey, would you mind if I just confer with my friends about some stuff? I'm pretty new to what I do, and if we brought you on board that'd be a pretty major undertaking for both of us." "It's okay," Phoebe protested. "I can train her!" Hope shrugged. "Yeah, that's fair. Now it'll be a major undertaking for three of us."

Taking so long to reread this stuff presents the side-effect that I do find myself laughing at my old jokes that I'd forgotten I'd written.

Phoebe shot to her feet and clutched her skull (still contained within the flesh of her head, of course. Only one person with even the most tangential relationship to her life is intense enough to do otherwise). "I can't deal with you people! I can't… I'm… I need some air."

What?

Holy hell, what?

There's no way I foreshadowed Alex burning off her flesh this far in advance. Are you serious?

We've only just recently learned that she will be doing that, what, 45 chapters later? 46?

Hope's jeans pocket blared a harsh, percussive synth monotone. She noticeably flinched before practically ripping her phone out of her pocket and putting it to her ear.

Back when I wrote this, I said it was probably The Presets - My People. More recently I've locked that in. I was going to write that it's one of the few radio hits that's actually good, but then I realised my vision was completely clouded by nostalgia when I began to pen that. The past half-decade or so has been kind of nuts for mainstream pop. Charli XCX has got a couple tracks joint-produced by AG Cook and Hudson Mohawke on her new album, for crying out loud. Death's Dynamic Shroud is getting mentioned on the same electronic pop lists as fucking Beyoncé. Porter Robinson's… well, he's Porter Robinson. How did we get it so good? Should I be thanking Missy Elliot? Daft Punk? Dylan Brady?

Wait. I'm supposed to be talking about PFDM.

"Sure thing." Marie responded with a thumbs-up goodbye, like some kind of absolute mutant.

Not long after I wrote this passage, I did actually give someone a thumbs-up goodbye. Mind you, I was having an absolutely shit day and was pretty distracted, but I've still gotta live that down, on the inside.

"I'll get it," Hope announced. She opened the front door, saw who was behind it, and closed it again. Lara jammed her foot in the door before it could close. "Evening, Fearnley," she cooed. "Would you mind if I popped in for a chat?" "If I said no…" "I'd find other, less courteous ways to open this door, don't you worry."

I've barely started watching Utena, but she's Nanami, isn't she? She's totally Nanami.

"Shame. What's say you and I underthrow Deckard and find a new girl ourselves instead?" "Under… throw?" "It's like overthrow, but she's our inferior. She's really, really inferior, actually. You know how she spends her time? Going on witch hunts with this new girl just for kicks. I hear Woodward - not the dead one, of course - is third-wheeling whatever it is those two have got going on now."

"Underthrow" is one of my favourite Lara-isms, but it doesn't hold a candle to…

"Well then, why would I do that?" She smirked. "Face it, Fearnley. If I needed to psychologically outplay you, I wouldn't resort to spreading rumours. I've got a rapper wit." "You mean a rapier." "A what?" "She said rapier," Zoey huffed. "That's the expression. Rapier wit." "What, like a sword? That's stupid. The only thing a sword ever thinks to do is cut something, and that's only because somebody else tells it to. A rapper, on the other hand-"

"Rapper wit" is potentially my favourite malapropism of all time, and I came up with it. Thanks, me! Why, you're very welcome.

The Citadel, like all things, is metaeclyptic with an infinity of other things, places, times. One of these things happens to be a lighthouse on the west coast of Ireland, operated by a young man named Douglas Murphy. Though neither of them knew it, at the exact moment Audrey Wong lost her blue socks, he found a pair of green socks he had lost four months ago. The strangest part of all this, he would remark if he understood his circumstances to any meaningful degree, is that his role as a textbook example of metaeclypticism is, in fact, the only meaningful reason for his existence at all. The speaker god has, as it happens, written a proverb pertaining to this feeling of existential ennui, which goes as follows. From here until the end of the last chapter. It also goes as precedes, until the beginning of the first. Due to the impracticality with which one might quote it, it is considered a very unpopular proverb.

This is one of the passages which I think best encapsulates the style of PFDM, and hopefully my writing on the whole. It's definitely one of those key early moments where I Locked The Fuck In.

Well, that was a pretty short chapter, all things considered. I forgot how little time I actually need to write one of these. Maybe I should try for one a week, but given my track record regarding things taking a week, I don't think I can promise anything.

So what happened?

Life got busy again. I've got a job now, which does pretty much drain the life out of me. But it also gives my time some long-needed damn structure, so three cheers. Also, I've gotten a little carried away on an original webfic I conceived of last year and have been tinkering away at the planning stages of ever since. Actually, let's talk about that. And let's call it Project Anubis for short for now, in a pointless attempt to hide its true name - an aspect of the webfic I'm still uncertain about. It does have a name, and I am sort of leaning in-for-a-penny on that, but for now it's Project Anubis.

Sounds cool. What's Project Anubis?

Nothing!!! It doesn't exist yet, and won't for a serious while! Don't rush me here, okay?!?!

Actually, I'm going to talk about it here with you guys because there's like half a dozen of you maximum and I don't want to talk about this publicly yet. You won't see this on my main Tumblr. Anyone who reads that and doesn't read this, who I want to have see this announcement, already knows what this project is, and, in fact, what it's called. I mention it now, because I'm trying to open the doors to my friends who I know would be available for this, and frankly if you've spent the past… I don't even want to think about how long, conversing with my borderline manic ramblings in the comments section of my own anime fanfiction, well, are we not then friends?

Okay, but really, what is it?

Not too thematically dissimilar from a lot of the themes I've been spinning in PFDM. If you liked the oddball humour, the overly-researched science fiction, and maybe the weird underlying philosophical thriller, you probably will like this. If you were only into PFDM for the sprawling cosmology, the fight scenes, and the fact that it's Madoka Magica, you're gonna outright detest it. It will not be for you. Of course it wouldn't be. It's for me.

So what do you want from me?

I'm glad youu asked, line of bold text I put before this paragraph! Basically, I want anyone who knows a damn about more or less anything to give me a holler. I've got a lot of research to do for this, and anyone who can point me in the right direction would be a massive help. If you know anything about any of the following:

Speculative biology

Computer science

Feng shui

Biosemiotics

Astronomy

Gestalt psychology

Puzzle design

Card game design

Printing

Logograms

Conlang development

Chances are I'm gonna be coming to you for a lot of help. If this has legs, I might start hiring people to help me make it, too. If not on a stable income I can bankroll a team on, then at least on commission. If you're a visual artist who can illustrate things other than people with weirdly specific demands regarding colour palette and image composition, you're a writer and you feel like you can jive with my style (the more naturalistic, less-uranium-dense parts, at least, because this will not be the fuckin' slog that PFDM deliberately makes itself sometimes), or an actor - even if just for voice or photos - let me know that too. But don't expect anything to come of it, and definitely don't expect anything to come of it any time soon. Right now, I'm just trying to keep track of who I know who has X field of knowledge or Y specific skill. Gimme your email or your Discord or something, or just let me know if I can DM you here on Tumblr.

Why "Anubis"?

I had this idea for a gag in something where the main character dies and meets Anubis, who would be depicted entirely with photos of James Earl Jones. Anubis would then explain that everyone has a celebrity lookalike, and the gods themselves aren't excepted from this. Anubis just happens to bear a striking resemblance to James Earl Jones. I don't think this joke is going to be in anything, but I've been thinking about Anubis ever since.

What does Project Anubis mean for Puella Furia Dark Magica?

I dunno dude!!! I just work here!!! Maybe nothing? Maybe a hell of a whole lot? Maybe PFDM gets delayed for YEARS! Maybe the remaining chapters all mysteriously appear online tomorrow! I really don't know! I've just had a hell of a good idea and now I have to make it. I go crazy if I don't. I go. Crazy. If. I Don't!

Anyway see you all maybe next week I don't know? Bye

[hindisoup]

Do you think you can explain in simple terms and with examples (from Hindi) , what the oblique case is, and where it is used?

I've found explanations but they all make no sense to me

In Hindi, there are three main noun cases: nominative, oblique, and vocative.

Nominative is the basic form of the word, used as the subject of a sentence: लड़का दौड़ रहा है - The boy is running.

Oblique is used whenever an explicit or an implicit postposition follows the noun: लड़के ने एक सेब खाया - The boy ate an apple.

Vocative is used when addressing someone directly: अरे लड़के! - Hey boy!

The oblique can be thought of as the essential building block we need, when we want to use Hindi nouns in any other case than in the basic nominative case. With the combination of an oblique noun and a correct post position we can form the dative, accusative, genitive, possessive, ablative, instrumental, comitative and locative cases we're used to in many other languages - and the ergative case that is more rare but not unique to Hindi.

Here's how it works:

Dative (indicates the recipient or beneficiary of an action)

मैंने लड़के को सेब दिया - I gave the apple to the boy.

Accusative (indicates a direct object of a transitive verb)

कुत्ते ने लड़के को काट लिया - The dog bit the boy.

Oblique + को is used with all animate direct and indirect objects. The postposition को is optional when talking about inanimate objects, they can remain in the nominative.

Genitive (possessive) (indicates an attributive relationship)

यह लड़के का कुत्ता है - It's the boy's dog.

Ablative (indicates motion away from somewhere)

लड़का घर से निकला - The boy came out of the house.

Instrumental (indicates a noun that is used as an instrument)

लड़का कल�� से लिखता है - The boy writes with a pen.

Comitative (indicates an action done together with someone)

लड़का एक लड़की से बात कर रहा है - The boy is talking to a girl.

Locative (indicates location)

लड़का स्कूल में है - The boy is at school.

Ergative (indicates the subject of a past tense transitive verb)

लड़के ने बहुत कुछ सीखा - The boy learned a lot.

What I am trying to do here is to demonstrate that the oblique + postposition is the way we can use Hindi nouns in various scenarios beyond the nominative case - it is not necessary to learn the names of these cases - it is more important to study the different postpositions and their various uses.

Here’s the basic rule: If there's a postposition after the noun, switch the noun to its oblique form. The oblique form varies depending on the gender and number of the noun but a common transformation for masculine singular nouns is from आ ending to ए: लड़का > लड़के.

Even the nouns that do not change in appearance (eg. consonant ending masculine nouns) are still considered to be in the oblique form before a postposition (like घर in घर से).

With adverbs of time and place the postposition is often dropped and the oblique form alone indicates adverbial use:

मैं पिछले हफ़्ते वहाँ था - I was there last week.

हमारे यहाँ आओ? - Come to our place?

The conclusion here can be that the oblique alone doesn't really mean anything but it is an important indicator that the noun that is in the oblique has some kind of a special relationship with the other nouns or verbs in that sentence. Using it correctly ensures clarity in the relationship between the nouns and their actions or descriptions.

Hope this is of some help. Thanks for the ask and happy learning!

[gant-eyed-warden]

The Rite of the Lily

After the conclusion of the Railroad, Warden ended up taking Mr Transport to the Baroness at the Evenlode for a long list of reasons. Mr Pages had given them a single useful piece of advice, which was to remember that safety is not the same thing as happiness. So knowing the Masters are a hot mess, and knowing the High Wilderness is a pretty cruel place, Warden went with the Baroness, who at least seemed to want to make it happy and not just useful.

I thought for a long time on her parting line after you hand it over, in particular the reference to the Rite of the Lily. It's been an oblique reference in a few places I know but its actual function or purpose was a bit elided, at least until now.

Spoilers for City in Silver and Mr Transport.

The Baroness and the child exchange a glimmer of recognition when they finally see each other. "After Mr Spices and I parted ways, I did not expect to see this day." She takes the infant into her arms. Being free of it is a reminder of how shockingly heavy it was. "I assure you that this is for the best. The circumstances of the Masters are not ideal for the raising of a child. And familial affection is difficult, for their kind." Clinging to her shoulder, the infant burps – and a tiny fig wasp flies its way out of its mouth. Mr Transport seems unconcerned. It looks back at you with practised indifference. "There's no joy in remaining as you are. I trust that you understand this, by now. Perhaps one day you, too, will take up the lily." And with a smile, she retreats into the Magistracy – for a rite that you are not permitted to see.

In the Tracklayers' City we get a lot more information, not just about the Rite of the Lily but about the Baroness herself. We learn she has undergone the Rite of the Lily many, many times, in very exacting and expensive ways.

When you indicate that you are acquainted with the Solicitor-Baroness, she pulls a slim volume from the many that line her shelves. The pages are thin enough to see through, layered with infernal diagrams. "A record of her progress," says the Martagon Deviless. "We note what she changes in each Rite, the sigils required in each." The bottom page is complicated, contradictory, displaying many weaknesses. The next layer repeats only some of the sigils beneath, and the layer after that fewer still. For many consecutive lives, the subject's character is simplified into one that can properly serve its client. "The cost in candles was phenomenal," remarks the Martagon Deviless. "The Lilymire was less productive then; she was claiming almost the whole of its harvest, but none in Hell wished to refuse her, because of our agreement with the Creditor." Only a few layers ago, it seemed as though the Solicitor-Baroness had reached equilibrium; the changes from one sheet to the next were trivial indeed. But then, something almost wholly different was introduced. "A new spice in her character," says the Martagon Deviless slyly, and snaps the volume closed. "Now go," she says, tilting her head at you birdlike. "I've told you more than you deserve."

In Pilgrim's Citadel the devils bring a wax effigy of Furnace into town. Though the tracklayers by and large find this gross, the devils invite the tracklayers to write on the wax what of Furnace they would see kept, and what they would see left behind.

They do.

A tomb colonist – and at this distance you cannot be absolutely sure who it is – comes to consider the wax effigy, which is sculpted to include both the faces and the helmet of Furnace. Then it takes a metal pen and heats the nib in a candle flame, and writes deeply, scoring the candle with anger. Share the weight. Share the weight. Share the weight. You greedy fool.

Verity has a little to say about it. Mainly that this is yet another form of rebellion, this time rebellion of the soul.

"It offends the stars," she says. "It invites other creatures to cross the borders set by their own nature, and to share the dignities of Hell, if they have the skill. And it usually perturbs a soul in an interesting direction." Verity tells you then a story of Saint Trezigor, who was not always as he appeared in his late days. But he had a message for Hell, and rather than leave it silent, he transformed himself in order to become its messenger. His followers suffered the consequences, perhaps, but all transformations have a price.

(I should really play her ES.)

It is a very esoteric branch of the Red Science indeed that dares to treat the subject of souls. You work through proofs: proofs by contradiction, proofs imagining an infinity of souls and the smaller but still infinite set of souls altered by the Rite of the Lily. When you come to yourself, your cheek smudged with violant ink, you have arrived at an abstract of what draws devils to humans, and why both are necessary, and why the Great Chain is something more like a chain mail, link on link in all directions. No one will ever publish it. But perhaps that was not the point.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, having your soul winnowed into a different shape hurts.

The Rite does not require poisons. It is enough to inscribe the wax with a metal nib. Even the application of ink will do. But your method is more comprehensive, and more precisely targeted: ridding the Furnace-city of some residual flaws and vulnerabilities that arise from having been human. Old appetites, old scars, will be sloughed away or chemically burned out. When you leave the hall, you shut your ears to the hoarse screams. That too is a portion of the rite.

All transformations have a price.

The last dimension of the Rite of the Lily we see for now is with the Dying Tracklayer.

His disease is fatal, but the Martagon Deviless has let him hope that his death will not be wasted. There is a woman he wants to marry, but her faith is not his. She will not marry out of her religion; he cannot bring himself to convert. And so he hopes to use the Rite of the Lily, and return different from the Boatman. After he has died, he hopes he will be able to become one of her people.

This is the most devilish application of Kataleptic Toxicology: testing another, and finding the reagents within. Doctrine is irrelevant. The Dying Tracklayer is not a student of creeds. He has no beliefs that forbid him from following another's faith. He considers his beloved's practice homely and kind. He longs to walk down into a valley of people celebrating, and to take his place among them, singing their blessings with them from memory. His beloved's family offers this with an open hand. Come and be one of us, they say without restraint. Yet the warnings of the Church wake him in the night: that if he strays he will be repudiated by a god who might not exist. And here it is, the equation that he has not understood. Which is more sacred, the welcome or the threat? So advised, he knows what to write on the wax brow of his effigy.