#prototype poll kind of

[befrilled]

does anyone want to play shopping and dressing up with me through tumblr polls ????

i.e

then once selected it'll get more niche till u guys decide what i get?? could be cute ........

[hotvintagepoll]

Charles McNaughton (Treasure Island)—he is such a weird little weird pirate in this movie!!!! the whole movie is creeEEEEeepy at this point, weird characters showing up at the bar FREAKING jim hawkins ass out, but charles mcnaughton's black dog (the first of many weirdos) takes the cake for me.

Dwight Frye (Dracula, Frankenstein)—he's my babygirl please please please please please i want to baby bird feed him flies and spiders and pick him up and make glitter edits of him and give him gross forehead kisses like he's my cat. in dracula he was so incredibly creepy that he was typecast as madmen for the rest of his life and he fucking hated it but by god if he didn't do a fantastic job. he steals the show every time he's up on screen just because he's so fucking deranged. i need him

This is round 1 of the contest. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. If you're confused on what a scrungle is, or any of the rules of the contest, click here.

[additional submitted propaganda + scrungly videos under the cut]

Charles McNaughton:

Link to the entire movie of Treasure Island [1932]—McNaughton comes in at 12:02. I haven't seen the whole movie in a long time so go forward with caution for content warnings!

Dwight Frye:

He absolutely owns the entirety of Dracula (1931). Compared to the novel, his part is massively expanded and it's clear why. He's magnetically unhinged and his facial expressions are pure scrungle. And in Frankenstein, he begins the archetype of Frankenstein's assistant even if the character's name there is Fritz. He'd still go on to play other scrungly guys in later Frankenstein movies. But he's kinda the archetypal and progenitor of the scrungly lil guy.

The scrungliest guy ever to scrungle. He's pretty much the blueprint for every mad scientist's assistant, and he's the best part of every movie he's in. He manages to make you feel sorry for the creepy little dudes, even when he's eating spiders and crawling across the floor.

[editor's note: content warning for the "hunchback" stereotype and "madness" in the clips below]

the "Rats" soliloquy:

I saw him in Dracula and frankly he has me bewitched. I could watch him do his silly routine forever. The gay tension with Bela Lugosi onscreen was frankly unparalleled. Kirk and Spock levels. I am chewing on the furniture

Played the weirdo little guy in Dracula AND the weirdo little guy in Frankenstein in the same year. Iconic.

I honestly think it would be a crime to ignore Dwight Frye's scrungle factor. He played two of the prototypical creepy little henchman as Dracula's lackey Renfield and Dr. Frankenstein's hunchback servant Fritz, and I believe that his excellence in these roles absolutely shaped the future character tropes of the "Igor" type as much as Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff shaped the future understanding of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. He's got it all from the looks, to the manic energy, to the crazed laugh, I'm telling you right now that I think he could win the entire tournament.

The scrungles to end all scrungles! There's a reason why this man codified the manic vampire's familiar and the hunchbacked lab assistant for generations, because by God can this man be feral and scrungly: Whether he's soliloquizing about rats as Renfield, scurrying around Frankenstein's lab like a spider as Fritz, or skulking around dark alleys (and scaring the hell out of little baby me) waiting for a fresh heart to steal as Karl, if you want a scrungly little man for your classic film, Dwight Frye is your man. He has the range to play varying kinds of scrungle, with his wide eyes, his manic smiles, his soft, breathy voice, he is truly an undisputed scrungle master.

[mattapparentlystumbltourneys]

Welcome to the Cutting Room Throwdown!

Not every character gets their chance to shine, and finds themselves cast out of the narrative while it's still under development. Even if they do make it, the end result can be completely different from what was initially pitched. So...that's what this is! A battle for characters who technically don't exist!

Rules and criteria:

Submitted characters must either be characters cut from their intended media, characters from cancelled media, or characters whose initial planned portrayal (their "beta" version, if you would) differs heavily from the final product.

To help clarify what could count, here are the three characters who autoqualify and an explanation of why: - Sake (Tekken): A character who was originally proposed for Tekken, but was scrapped shortly after. While data exists for the character, they do not have a unique design, and all knowledge of the character comes from developer explanations. - Barrett (Mega Man Legends 3): A playable character to be introduced in the cancelled Mega Man Legends 3. The character has not appeared outside of a brief playable prototype, and has not been acknowledged by Capcom since the game's cancellation. - Woody (Toy Story - Beta): The first draft of Woody from Toy Story, with the character instead being an antagonistic ventriloquism dummy. The character was not well liked by the higher ups or Tom Hanks, and they were reworked into one of the film's two protagonists.

Any additional questions can be sent to the ask box. I"ll clarify when I can. I know this is a bit tricky to define.

Pilot characters may count, but it would be preferred if there was a significant difference to how they are portrayed in the final product.

Due to the nature of the medium and how sometimes they can be hard to define, OCs will not be included.

Characters from Harry Potter, South Park, and Hazbin Hotel will not be considered due to personal reasons.

Please do not spam a single character. Trust me. They will have a chance.

I'll do research on the characters before approval. But if you want to link any sources for the character regarding their existence or info regarding them, feel free to link it below.

Be kind. :)

With that, let's get into it!

Anyways bonus tags to boost!

@princess-polls @foundfamilyhq @blond-jerk-tourney @fairytale-poll @polls-showdowns @yall-hate-kids-tourney

[spontaneousglitterbees]

Click for higher quality! [AU Masterpost]

More Kokichi and Miu! I know K1-B0 is winning the poll but this made sense to me as a kind of preamble to that bit of exposition. Something about pieces of the people you've cared about staying with you.

So. Does Miu have a tattoo?

She's currently drawing it on with a marker every morning. Helps keep up morale while she focuses on building an entire android body from scratch. The machining on the parts alone is a pain in the ass, no matter how well you've mapped out the mechanisms. Hard to prototype with mostly-custom parts and very little patience.

An incomplete list of Kokichi's Room details under the cut:

This was during the game, for the record; his HPA room is also a mess, but it is a different kind of mess

The minimization of floorspace with wrappers and crumpled papers, despite his having a wastebasket, because they make noise when stepped on and it will be that much harder to try to kill him in his sleep

His contact case on the side table

Put up a drawing to hide his initial notes on the wall; he didn't fully realize they might be able to see him even in his room for a bit and then couldn't stop thinking about it

Books for Research Purposes and stray pencils, since even though he has a desk he usually lays on the floor to Scheme

Key stays in the desk drawer with miscellaneous junk he picks up around the school; he picks his lock open to keep tabs on whether or not anyone else has tried the same thing from the sound of the tumblers. this is why he's noticed miu's lock starting to fatigue

Tendency to Stack Things on Other Things (boxes, cup-stain on those boxes from setting drinks there while he draws on the floor, totes of miscellaneous items that make the room harder for not-him to navigate, beginnings of a Laundry Chair)

Probably sleeps in that chair more than the actual bed-he-does-not-make, thus it also being where he hoards soda from the cafeteria (it's right in front of the whiteboard, which isn't in frame but is there)

The horsehead goes under his pillow when he isn't there (unless he's presenting his room to be found after his possible death, of course, in which case adjacent his 'this-is-not-a-will' he also makes his bed)

Hides his monopad and a flashlight (flashback-light? unclear) in/next to the frame of his bed. Also snacks.

Mementos from each case and each killer, bold are canon:

Kaede's hairclips, the camera, the drone (offscreen), the last pictures of Rantaro

Kirumi's glove and the innertube (and those might be the piranhas in the white totes? i couldn't confirm)

One of Kiyo's many masks, the séance book, wax Rantaro

Gonta's glasses, a VR headset, the bottle of poison Miu tried to plant on him

No chapter five, since well. Well.

THOUGH the pattern has continued! In the form of Kaito's jacket, which he wears occasionally.

[best-non-english-word-torunament]

Round one: Haikea vs Fika

(poll at the end)

Haikea (Finnish)

[ˈhɑi̯keɑ]

Translation: A feeling of quiet, melancholic, sometimes even mournful longing. "Wistful" comes fairly close as a translation, though it's not exactly the same.

Finnish is an Uralic language belonging to the Finnic branch spoken by 5 300 000 people in Finland, where it is one of two national languages (the other is Swedish though it is less used, Finnish is the main language).

Motivation: It's one of the most beautiful words to say in Finnish, IMO; it has a beautiful flow to the vowels, and it almost sounds like a sigh. It's also an emotion often associated with a lot of Finnish art, literature, music and culture in general, and thus it's a strong part of Finnish identity.

Fika (Swedish)

[fi:ka]

Translation: A light meal in between real meals, usually in the afternoon (before lunch it’s förmiddagsfika (late morning fika) and after dinner it’s kvällsfika (evening fika), you can say eftermiddagsfika (afternoon fika) but it’s implied without specification), usually consisting of something to drink and a baked sweet (cinnamon bun is the classic idea of fika). A prototypical fika is a social occasion and/or a break, some translate it as coffee break but that’s not it. Coffee is not needed. It doesn’t even have to be hot like tea, you can drink syrup or water! Anyway, it’s common to eat some kind of baked sweet for the more social occasions, but for the everyday fika (as in, it’s afternoon and you’re hungry) you can eat a fruit or sandwich alone and call it fika (or mellanmål). You don’t have to eat either, as long as you drink something with others. Taking a fika in a café is a common way to socialize.

Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic/Scandinavian branch. It’s the national language of Sweden and spoken by 9,4 million people there, but 13 million people in total, many of them in Finland. Since Finland was part of Sweden for a long time, there is a big community of Swedish-speaking Finns, making it an official language taught in Finnish schools.

Motivation: I just think it sounds nice and is a nice concept

Note: The translation is entirely mine, as I am Swedish and the submitter is not (it was explicitly written in the submission)

[skelevision]

heyyy 🎨 :-) i need to draw

polled my friends in the server too but i also wanna poll here.....

doodles for reference (some of these are really old) and some info on each under the cut........... (sorry if theyre underdeveloped or sound like a 16 yr old made them i have like 100-200 ocs and many of them Are from when i was a teen. not that my ocs are better now though LMAO)

auri: cloned pilot who relies heavily on the support system in his mech for emotional and mental stability (doesnt work). short description but i love this guy i could rant about him for hours (i wont, embarrassing)

calin: stole his mech (starstrider) and deserted in his teens. does whatever now trying to get by. he's uncomfortable outside of starstrider most of the time but when he's not stressed he doesn't mind being outside of it, so long as his harmonizer can still connect. he likes seeing new things. i gave him a big comfy coat thats as hot or cool as he needs it to be because thats my dream. he's in the magic world i have actually

EVE: lab grown pilot who is usually connected to giant genetically identical meat mech ADAM. therin isnt here but hes a biomechanic and hes trying to befriend EVE. i did make them A While Before i watched evangelion if anyones wondering

morgan/knife: idk these guys started as spiderverse ocs but then i remembered i dont rly care about spiderman. theyre on earth after an alien corpse drifted into orbit and the research trips to and from it brought all kinds of freaky diseases to earth and caused something like an apocalypse (altho it also kickstarted space travel). knife was a prototype soldier who escaped the lab in his preteens and met morgan on the road. theyve been travelling together for 8+ years idk knife pair-bonded with morgan so make of that wjhat you will

leo/jinx: work at private anomaly control company. that doodle is really bad. leo has a deal with a faustian anomaly for power and jinx (who i kinda wanna rename) basically just weakly shocks anything he touches. and they kiss. badly ‼️

nettle: (the doodle is from when these were ocs in the sims theyre like. a lot different now) host to parasitic anomalous plant. hes nervous all the time. adoptive brother of end and dating alora. his dad got a government job in the anomaly control sector after nettle was parasitized as a child and taken into govt custody

alora: shes very normal actually. supportive parents and loving household. no special abilities, joined wanting to help people, eventually becomes disillusioned to the reality of anomaly control, especially as a government agency

end: self-proclaimed demon of the void. can eradicate up to about 3 square feet of matter at a time. they dont get along well with people but hit it off with most animals immediately, except dogs. nettle's dad basically adopted them after they met

the homosword (other guy not pictured): ancient weapon with a kind of sentient computer in it (i really gotta redesign the sword i dont rly like it anymore). other dude is a type of human that can both endure very high temps and can get really hot with emotions (to the point of possibly burning to death when something like grief or rage is experienced), lives in what is essentially a country-sized junkyard pretty much constantly on fire with his nomadic people (avoiding the Great Firestorm). finds the sword and uhammmmmm ... adventure (and gay love.......)

daisy: anomalous humanoid creature. hes carnivorous and used by an organized crime group to dispose of bodies. not very well taken care of. he might end up as a side character but i like him a lot. older oc, new doodle so u can see him

[rununcal]

I have limited energy every day to do things but I really do want to make this game at least some semblance of real! Even if that means a prototype where the player can move correctly. So I’m thinking I should focus most of my few hours on something specific and not the whole. Baby steps kind of. Here’s a poll for that!

Im just seeing if polls like this work for my motivation!

[ikeromantic]

Alice in College pt 4

An IkeRev Central characters AU! Written for my IkeRev 1K Celebration, a boarding school AU was the poll winner. Approx. 3800 words. 4/6

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

“I am an idiot. I always give myself very good advice but do I take it? Nooooo . . .” Alice stood in the empty dining hall, wondering again why she’d decided to come. The reason was simple. Curiosity. But on balance, it wasn’t exactly a great reason, or even a good one. 

The door swung open, and Alice startled. “Da- oh.” It wasn’t Dalim standing there, but some stranger. A student she had not met. He was tall and lean, with dark brown hair and wide, grey eyes like a stormclouds. Oddly enough, he had a similarity to the kid Blanc and Loki hung out with, right down to wearing a matching top hat. 

“You.” The guy crossed his arms. “You do realize dinner was over an hour ago?”

“Umm. Yes?” She frowned. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Alice.”

“And I don’t have time to introduce myself to an idiot.” He looked around. “So. Why are you here after hours? It’s against the rules.”

Alice sighed. “I’m waiting on a friend. But if you’re going to tattle on me, I can just leave now.” 

He held up a hand. “I didn’t say I was going to tell on you. Just be careful. There are worse things than detention with Mousse.” 

“What, like Dean will turn me into a frog for a year?” She grinned. 

“Dean won’t, no. But he isn’t the one in charge.” He paused, his gaze narrowing. “People have gone missing here. Or died. People like you.”

Alice felt a flutter of fear in her belly, but didn’t want to let him know he’d scored a point. “Yeah, well, if it’s so scary, what are you doing here after hours? You could be in danger too.”

He gave a bark of laughter. “Me? No. I’ll be fine. I’ve got defenses. But you? You should stay where it’s safe. Where the lights are on and the rest of the students hang out.”

“Look, I’m not going to let you scare me. I’m not defenseless either. I know how to protect myself.” Alice tried not to think back on London and the times she ducked into a shop or ran home to get there before dark. She’d never been very brave, but she wanted to be. 

“Your head really is full of hot air, like a balloon.” He took a long breath, clearly not buying her bravado. Finally, he reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a powder compact or small mirror. “If you aren’t going to be sensible, then take this.” He handed it to her. “If someone - or something - bothers you, just point it at them and twist.”

Alice looked down at the thing uncertainly. “What does it do? I don’t want to hurt anyone . . .”

“It puts them to sleep. What did you think?” He snorted. “You really are such a dummy.” 

“And you’re mean and rude, so I think between the two of us, I’ve got it better.” Alice stuck her tongue out at him.

“Pfft, and people think I’m a kid?” He started laughing.

Alice couldn’t believe anyone would confuse him for a child, even if he slung insults like one. “Anyway, thanks for the - the thingamajig.” She pocketed it. 

“I haven’t named it yet, but I was thinking about calling it a sleep stick. Catchy, right? It’s a prototype, so be careful with it. And with yourself.” He added the last bit in a quiet voice, his expression going serious. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Alice. And don’t forget. You owe me one now.” 

“Hey! I don’t owe you anything! If it’s like that, take your - hey!” Alice called after him, but the guy was gone. And he hadn’t even told her his name. “What a weirdo.”

“The school is full of them,” said a voice just behind her. 

Alice leapt and spun, her heart hammering in her chest. She held the sleep stick out like a tiny baton. 

Dalim grinned. “Whatcha going to do with that, princess? I’m not in the mood for a nap.” His smile hinted at all kinds of things he was in the mood for. 

Alice lowered her odd little weapon and tucked it into a pocket. “You really shouldn’t sneak up on people. And you should stop calling me princess. You know my name.”

“Yeah, but you’re too beautiful for such a simple name. Calling you princess is the least I can do to respect your charms.” He said all this with a straight face, and every word of it put another degree of heat into Alice’s inflamed cheeks. 

“You can stop flirting with me too. That’s probably the same line you use on every new girl.”

Dalim chuckled. “Only the gorgeous ones.” But he did look somewhat chastened and his smile relaxed into something more natural. “Thanks for meeting me here tonight. I half expected that you wouldn’t show.”

“I shouldn’t have.” Alice frowned at him, but her heart wasn’t in it. “So . . . what are we doing? Nothing against the rules?”

He shrugged. “Not explicitly?” She didn’t say anything to that, so he went on. “I thought we could hang out. And . . . I have some contraband from town.” Dalim’s grin widened. “Amon and I were saving it for a special occasion, but spending time with you is pretty special.”

He was at it again with the cheesy pick-up lines, she thought, but it was kind of endearing. “Alright. But if I get in trouble again, I’m never forgiving you.”

“Understood.” 

Dalim led her to the boys’ wing of the school. This was where all the guys bunked in single and double dormitories. Most of the room doors were wide open, with guys shouting to each other across the hall, tossing balls back and forth or shooting each other with paper wads. A couple of people she’d met in class waved at her as they passed.

They stopped at one of the closed doors and Dalim knocked. A moment later, the door opened a crack, and Amon peered out. “There you are.” That was all he said before opening the door just wide enough to let the two of them in.

Amon wasn’t in his hoodie or scarf, just a loose black t-shirt and thin black pajama pants. He gave Alice a thin-lipped smile. “I didn’t think Dalim could talk you into coming.”

“I’m very persuasive,” Dalim laughed. He shut the door behind them as Alice stepped inside and looked around. 

She’d expected the room to be about the same size as her own and the ones she’d seen in passing, but it was quite a bit larger. There was room enough for a small, worn leather couch, a bookshelf, the two beds, and a table. 

“Corner space,” Dalim said, before she could ask. “Amon’s family pulled some strings for us.” 

“Nice.” She sat down on the couch and was surprised when Amon joined her. 

He studied her face in silence, as if waiting for her to do something interesting. 

Dalim grabbed some glasses and a bottle from a box under his bed. The bottle was smoked glass, and some liquid moved beneath the dark exterior. It was a little bigger than a wine bottle, and similarly corked. “The cups don’t match. Sorry about that, pri- Alice.” 

“I’m not fancy.” She averted her gaze from Amon, who was still watching her. “So what is it? What’s in the bottle?”

“Wine bottled from fruit gathered in the magic forest. Grown near naturally occurring magic crystals. They say it has all kinds of extra qualities.” Dalim raised an eyebrow. 

Alice peered cautiously at the bottle. Things in Cradle had a habit of being more dangerous than they appeared. “What kinds of things?”

“We’ll have to find out,” Amon answered for Dalim. “It’s our first time trying it too.”

“What he said,” Dalim agreed. He pulled the cork and began to pour. The wine, if that’s what it was, glimmered in the lamplight. It was gold in color, opaque and a little cloudy. The scent was sweet and reminded Alice of roses and honey, an aroma that grew stronger when Dalim handed her a cup.

“To new friendships,” Dalim held up his cup.

“Friendships,” echoed Amon.

Alice clinked her cup against theirs and took a sip. Whatever was in the glass, it wasn’t wine. That was her first thought. Her second was that it was amazing, and her third thought was that she wanted more. The drink tasted like summer felt. Warm and lazy, humming with life and light. It suffused her with a sense of wellbeing and nostalgia. 

“Kinda makes me feel like a kid again,” Amon said. He smiled at her again, and this time it didn’t look forced. “Just the good parts.”

Dalim nodded. “Yeah.” He gave Alice a questioning look. “Do you like it?”

“I think so. It’s really odd, but good.” She took another careful sip, wanting to hold onto this strange feeling for as long as she could. 

“What does it make you think about?” Amon’s eyes were on her, the strange topaz color shifting just like the cloudy drink in her cup, sparkling in the light. 

He was kind of cute, she thought, when he wasn’t scowling. His long, pale hair curled behind his ears, silky and fine. “Ummm. It reminds me of summer? I guess? Warmth and that feeling of just . . . not needing to be anywhere or do anything.”

“I think that’s a good description. It’s warm and sweet. Like a gentle kiss.” Dalim settled on her other side, sandwiching Alice between him and Amon. 

She laughed. “There you go again, trying to flirt.”

“I sense it isn’t working.” He sighed.

“Just lay off, Dalim. Let her relax.” Amon leaned back, giving her a little more space on his side. 

Alice was silently grateful for his comment as Dalim also leaned back. “So, what do you do for fun around here?”

“Other than flirting with lovely ladies like yourself?” Dalim chuckled. “There are plays, dances, festivals . . . I like to read. And Amon has his experiments.” He shrugged. “If you mean at school, there’s not much. A few clubs, sports.”

“What about you, Alice? What do you do when you’re at leisure?” Amon asked without looking at her. His eyes were unfocused and staring up into the rafters of the high ceiling. 

“Well . . . at home I would bake. Or write out recipes I had an idea for. I worked at a pâtissière, so I was always trying to come up with new ideas for sweets we could make.” She sighed. It seemed like ages ago, even if it was only a month. “I miss it sometimes? But I like Cradle. I chose to stay afterall.”

“Hm. Didn’t have anything to go back to?” Amon was paying attention now, his eyes as sharp and cold as gemstones.

“I - well, no. Not really.” She took a breath, wondering how much to share and whether she ought to say anything at all. “I had my job. My boss was very nice. And I had a roommate. But no one I needed to go back to.”

Dalim set a hand on her shoulder, a gentle caress. “That’s awful.” 

When she turned to face him, expecting his usual flirty smirk, she was surprised to find an expression of genuine commiseration on his face.

He seemed to realize it and let his hand drop. “It’s just, such a lovely lady deserves better than that. Don’t you think, Amon?”

“Yeah.” Amon was still focused on her, his full attention almost a pressure at her side. “You know, we could be like family. Me and you and Dalim. Friends, anyway. And that’s better than family.” He said the last bit with more passion, a flare of anger burning in the depths of his cold gaze. 

“I like to make friends. And you guys seem . . . nice? Nice enough, anyway.” Alice gave him a small smile. 

Dalim put a hand to his chest. “All that and I get ‘nice enough’? I am losing my touch.” 

“Maybe you are.” Amon threw a pillow at him. “Let’s stop talking about serious stuff and play a game.”

Alice perked up. “I love games! What will we play? Cribbage? Dominoes? I’m pretty good at checkers.”

Dalim and Amon exchanged a look that Alice didn’t catch. There was glee in Amon’s eyes and a certain wariness in his friend’s. 

“This is a special Cradle game. It’s played with magic.” Amon slid bonelessly to the floor, his back against the couch now. “We’ll teach you how to play.”

Alice helped herself down as Dalim found a spot nearby. “Ok. So what do we do? How does it work?”

“It’s really easy. I’ll use this magic crystal to make a little ball. And you will use your crystal to catch it and toss it to Dalim.” Amon handed her a small, glowing crystal. “On every pass, we’ll make the ball a little bigger until it pops. Whoever it pops on, loses.”

“Ok. I - I never did anything like that before but I can try.” Alice looked at the magic crystal in her hand. It was smaller than her pinky, and glowed with a faint blue light. 

Dalim leaned close. “Don’t worry, it’s not hard. When it’s your turn to catch, I’ll help you.” 

Amon gave a shrill laugh. His eyes turned red, like a bloody film drawn over them. The crystal in his hands dimmed for a breath and then a crackling ball of lightning appeared in the air just above it. “Impressed yet, Alice?”

“I am, actually. That is amazing.” She leaned closer and felt the hair prickle at the static surrounding the orb. “Is it safe to touch?”

“You might get a little zap if you. I don’t recommend it,” Dalim put a hand on her arm. When she leaned back, he let go. “So - to play the game, close your eyes.”

Alice did as she was instructed, though she didn’t want to. “And then?”

“Focus on the crystal in your hand. See it in your mind. Feel the pulse of magic in it, constrained by the structure. Eager to be let out.” Dalim’s voice was low and easy. 

She tried to feel for the pulse, reaching toward a power she didn’t quite understand. For a long moment, there was nothing but her own racing heartbeat. The crystal was cool in her palm, no different than any pebble she might pick up. A tension built between her eyes, and the mental image she had of the crystal wavered. When it did, she felt the first stirrings of the power within it.

“It hums,” she said softly. 

Amon laughed again. “Yeah, it is kind of a hum.”

“You’re doing great, princess. Now hold onto to that feeling, and open your eyes.” Dalim guided her to the next step with practiced ease. 

Alice slowly opened her eyes while still clinging to the tuneless hum of the magic crystal. Dalim and Amon swam into view. They were both staring at her. 

“You got it,” Dalim smiled. “I can tell because your eyes are as red as Amon’s” 

“S-so now what?”

Amon answered. “When I toss this lightning at you, you’re going to reach for it. But you’re going to use the hum you’re feeling in that crystal to reach out, not your hands.” He hunched forward, anticipation in every line of him. 

“Ready, princess?” Dalim gestured toward Amon. When he did, the pale-haired boy lifted the ball and lobbed it toward Alice. 

Her eyes went wide as she saw the roiling, crackling ball of lightning float through the air toward her. It seemed much larger than it had when it was just sitting above Amon’s hands. Her hair crackled with the static rolling off of it, and her skin prickled uncomfortably. She tried to reach with the hum of the crystal, to stretch out that vibration toward the ball, but the magic didn’t budge. 

Alice tried again as the lightning drew ever closer to her. She didn’t want to get a painful shock. Whatever she did, her connection to the crystal snapped, the hum disappeared, and the ball was almost to her. Panicked, Alice threw out a hand. “No!”

The ball of lightning winked out of existence.

Amon and Dalim stared at her, open mouthed. 

“W-what just happened?” Alice looked from one to the other.

“I told you she could do it.” Amon grinned widely. 

Dalim grimaced. “You broke the spell.” 

“Is that bad?” 

Amon took her hand. His skin was almost fever hot to the touch, dry, and soft as sin. “It’s fantastic. Truly.” His eyes were ablaze with unexpected passion. “You are the only person I know that can break a spell like that. Not counter it. Not block it. But break it.” 

“It’s a power from the Land of Reason. I wasn’t sure you could do it, but Amon thought if we pushed you, you would.” Dalim shrugged. “Good job.” He didn’t sound entirely pleased. 

“We should test it,” Amon said, his grin so wide it looked like it must be hurting his cheeks. “Practice with it.” He was positively gleeful, and his mood was catching.

“Yeah! We can see what sort of spells I can break. It’s like my very own super power.” Alice was getting excited now. She’d never had any kind of specialness to her - never excelled in anything. And now she had a special power no one else had. Well, no one in Cradle anyway. 

Dalim tugged her hand away from Amon’s grasp. “Sure. But not tonight. We need to plan it out. Figure out what we want to test for, what kind of challenges you need.” 

Amon’s gaze narrowed as he looked at his friend, but after a moment he nodded. “Fine. It can wait on proper planning. But let’s not put it off too long. We need to know if we can con- if she can control it at will.” 

“And we will. Later.” Dalim stood and helped Alice to her feet. “I think this is enough for tonight.”

She nodded. “I am excited but he’s right. Let’s get together tomorrow and decide what we want to test and how it works. I don’t want to be caught by surprise again. If I’m going to be your guinea pig, I get a vote on what we’re doing.”

Amon scowled, but after a moment, he nodded. “Fine.”

“Great. So we’re all in agreement.” Dalim still held Alice’s hand. “I’ll walk you back to your room, ok?”

“I can get there on my own.” Alice grinned. “Oliver helped me with reading the map, so it’s a lot easier to get around.” 

“Oliver, huh?” For a moment his smile fell, then it was right back in place. “Alright. Then I guess this is goodnight, huh?” He lifted her hand to his lips, brushing the lightest breath of a kiss across her knuckles. “Goodnight princess.”

Alice tried to hide the little shiver he gave her. It was really quite unfair, this flirtation. She liked Dalim, but he was too smooth. Too . . . polished. On the outside, anyway. She felt like there was more, but he hid it under this playful guise. “Goodnight, Dalim. Amon.” 

Dalim let her go and waved as she stepped out into the hall. The door closed and she was alone again. Well, as alone as one got in a hall of raucous boys. It was quieter than it had been, but there was still plenty of laughter and chatter as she passed on her way back to the girls’ dorms. 

Just as she passed from the well-lit and noisy corridor into the quiet stairwell, Blanc came into view. Alice felt inexplicably glad to see him. There was something about him that put her at ease. “Blanc!”

“Alice.” His gentle smile greeted her enthusiasm. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

She grinned. “I was visiting with some new friends. Amon and Dalim.”

Blanc nodded. “Lovely. I am glad you’re making friends.” He fell into step beside her. “I hope you don’t mind my accompanying you? I am headed in the same direction.”

“I don’t mind at all. I like your company.” 

“And I, yours.” His eyes glinted in the low lamp light, reflected flames flickering warmly behind the rectangle of his glasses. 

Alice had the most absurd urge to reach out and tuck a strand of his messy, pale hair behind his ear. Such an intimate gesture and yet the feeling between them seemed to welcome it. Still, she kept her hands to herself. 

“I hope that wasn’t too forward,” Blanc said after an awkward silence. 

“No! No, I said it first. I like that you like me too. Or, my company? You like my company. I like yours. Too. Company. As well.” Alice fell silent again, feeling like an idiot. She was babbling and now Blanc probably thought she was an idiot. 

Blanc laughed, a soft breathy sound that made something inside her uncoil pleasantly. A tension she hadn’t even realized she had. “Perhaps I can persuade you, then, to join me for tea? I’d like to enjoy your company even more, if that’s alright.” 

“I would like that.” Alice couldn’t read the expression he wore when she said yes. A mix, she thought, of delight and some faint melancholy or regret. She wondered why he held onto that trace of sadness and where it had come from. Blanc was a mystery to her, with his reserved politeness and his warm smiles. She wanted to know everything about him. 

“Excellent. Then, instead of supper tomorrow in the dining hall, you and I will adjourn privately for tea. Just the two of us.” 

There it was again, she thought. That secretive smile that seemed to promise so much without giving away a thing. The sensual curve of his lips, the slight lift of his brows, and the heat in his rose petal gaze made her skin prickle pleasantly. “Alright. That sounds good. Should I bring something?”

Blanc reached out then, his gloved fingertips almost touching her cheek. “Just your lovely self.”

Alice nodded. Somehow, that almost-touch was more enticing than all of Dalim’s obvious flirtations combined. 

The door below them clattered open as a group of students passed through the stairwell and onto another floor. The chatter broke the moment, and Blanc’s hand dropped to his side again. Neither said anything as they made their way into the women’s dormitory. Alice wasn’t sure what to say and Blanc seemed lost in thought.

He stopped at her door and she stood beside him, not really wanting to go in yet, but lacking an excuse to stay and talk. 

“I believe this is goodnight,” he said, sounding as reluctant as she felt. “It’s silly, I suppose, but I feel as if I could sit and chat with you for hours. We’ve only really just met and I’m already prepared to talk your ear off.” Blanc gave a self-deprecating laugh. 

“I wish you would,” Alice said, and then realized how that sounded. Her cheeks went hot as she tried to find a way to mitigate the damage. 

Blanc smiled. “I will see you tomorrow, Alice. Until then.” 

She managed a passable goodnight of her own and then went in, not staying to watch him leave. 

Part 5

[youngestdaughtersyndrome]

The real poll is too long so i will just give my opinion here. Finding out im secretly a robot would be a relief frankly ive had my suspicions and itd be nice to have a reason to point to when people get weirded out by me (frequent occurrence) and then maybe i could do some cool shit. Itd be a little weird because robots typically exist for an certain purpose and i dont really do anything but i guess if i was getting blade runner-ed the purpose would be "can a robot be convinced of their own humanity/become human?" so there is that. Finding out im a clone would also not really freak me out but it would freak me out a little more than a robot would because theres more intention there if u know what i mean. Theres prototypes for robots and you can make an imperfect robot but a clone is deliberately an exact replica of someone else, meaning that either the parent clone had a trait so desirable that the flaws are dismissible or that someone intentionally created me to be this way which is honestly the most terrifying thought of all. And of course the horror of nothing ever being yours including thoughts and body and whatnot which is also scary even though ive kind of come to terms with that just being the nature of existence as a human. I also feel like (within the context of being told youre a normal person yr whole life) a clone has much more sinister implications ..... trying to convince a robot theyre human is like a classic trope at this point but someone intentionally creating a clone of someone else means theyre using u in some way or another yknow? That person served a purpose (emotional, physiological, etc) to them and theyve created you to try and replicate it which just seems more fucked than a robot

[gay-edwardian]

Iconic ABBA costume poll

Right. Kinda what it says on the tin. Pick your favourite or whichever you think is the best, don't worry too much about it. There are so many great/iconic outfits, I know I didn't get them all, I even left out some of my personal faves.

Photos for reference and some fun facts (if I know any) beneath the cut.

Mamma Mia

Fun facts:

The jumpsuit Agnetha's wearing helped her win the accolade "sexiest bottom in pop music," I title that would haunt her for years.

Owe Sandström, who designed the outfits, said the following about Frida's skirt: "This is truly mother-of-pearl sliced into thin slices, and it was just like the rooftop of a carousel. And I asked her, 'Frida, don't move too much because they would be stretching out and, well, expose perhaps a little bit too much?' I can tell you, she was spinning like a spinning wheel definitely all the time" Source

Waterloo

Fun Facts:

According to the photo book Frida saw a jacket in a shop window that "had chains and sequins and looked butch. I took Agnetha to see it and then the others. That jacket was the prototype for the Waterloo costumes."

Poor Björn could barely sit down in his pants because of how tight they were

Ring Ring

Wildflowers

Fun Facts:

These outfits were designed by Owe Sandström. Each of the four members has a different flower (some sources say specifically Swedish Wildflowers). According to the Web Shop, Agnetha has the hundkäx or cow parsley, Björn wears the columbine flower, Benny has a fictional heart-leafed flower (to reflect his  talent, creativity, and knowledge), and Frida's is (apparently) a kind of weed when seen under a microscope (however it may just be cornflower or some other type of wildflower)

Gold/White (Europe/Australia Tour)

I could've gone looking for a high-ish-quality, in-colour lineup that included the boys. But I didn't feel like digging for too long. Sorry. Take two pictures of the girls instead

Fun Facts:

Frida's shorts were shorter in Australia than they were in Europe for... reasons?

There was a costume change! There were multiple costume changes because they had hats and scarves and capes that they took on and off through the shows, but towards the end of each performance Frida and Agnetha would change into matching costumes and wigs for The Girl With the Golden Hair. One time while dancing, their wigs got tangled together and when they moved apart, Agnetha's wig came off.

Watch this performance of Why Did It Have To Be Me from the movie. It's not a fun fact or anything, Frida just does a really good job at. Everything in it. She totally steals the scene.

Blue Suits

Cat Dresses

Fun Facts:

Longer versions of the cat dresses were necessary for places that didn't like the fact that the normal versions were very. very short

The dresses happened because Frida reminded Owe Sandströrm of his cat, they "were both beautiful and a little wild"

Velvet Jumpsuits

Fun Facts:

They're wearing these in the Dancing Queen music video. It's hard to see because it's dark, but they are

Pink & Purple Suits

Ok so Björn's in blue, it's purple-adjacent

Live At Wembley

Fun Facts:

In the ABBA Official Photo Book, Frida says that "My favourite [outfit] was a body stocking with a little dress cut diagonally. I thought I was elegant and sexy in it." I don't know if it's these outfits, but it might be!

All-White Ensemble (no not that one, the other one)

They had a lot of all-white looks. These are the ones on the album cover for Arrival

[myfaveisfuckable]

Rants under the read more

Tom/lore: where do i begin. this is the Evil Clone ship from star trek tng. basically there are two main characters of that show, will riker and data, who are very sweet to each other and a small portion of the fandom ships them heavily (but they’re generally overshadowed by other ships with one of them and a different character). and me and my friend who love daiker at one point thought, hm, they both have ‘evil clones’! data has an ‘older brother’ who was an early, unstable prototype of him, named lore, who is a beloved antagonist in the show, and riker has a two-off clone named tom riker who struggles to find his place in the world, then disappears and returns as a terrorist. both characters are actually quite similar—they both have strained relationships with their fathers that their ‘brothers’ tried to repair, they both feel neglected and second best compared to their brothers, they’re both angry that their brothers don’t care about them more than their jobs… and unfortunately they never met. however i believe that they should and also they should be gay. neglected twins being gay and doing crimes together.

also lore is an android, so it’s a super fun dynamic. the ‘unstable’ android that nobody trusts and the one human that he might actually kind of care about because he reminds him of himself? of course there’s so much denial. and also crimes. but they’re perfect. and also they’ve gone through so much alone, all each of them needs is someone that understands them. each other <3

Mr Green/Wadsworth: The inherent homoeroticism of throwing a man to the floor... Being annoying... Both r clearly gay anyway... I think they have hooked up and are denying feelings tbh

[demonic-energy]

Okay, time for an in depth explanation about the shop post and my plans moving forward, this will be a long post and im going to pin it so folks see so apologies

First i want to thank everyone again for the amount of love that initial post continues to recieve! I really didnt expect it to get as many notes as it did, and i appreciate the support.

That being said, I'm a disabled person who works more than they should, so i haven't had the time/energy to put any work into getting the shop started. I'm also struggling to find myself a house within a certain time limit, so i have not been able to budget for supplies. I don't have a current time plan, but I'd like to go into depth about some of the items folks were excited/asking about. I welcome any suggestions or questions in the notes or asks!

So by a landslide the most popular thing people were excited about were the wing jackets. I plan on having two different "types" to accommodate for different budgets. The jackets themselves will be thrifted, and I do plan on including vests however for ease of typing i will be referring to all of it as wing jackets. And yes, I do plan on doing multiple wing types, not just feathered. The jackets will feature either sewn on wings with patterns of my own making, or painted on wings. The rest of the jacket I hope to leave customizable, with options for more painted designs or handmade patches. They may also feature a spot to hang tails, or an option to include such. 8/5/24 example poll is up!

The first product prototyping will happen on wing jackets, tails, and collars/tags. I will be able to test out painted jackets the soonest and will release an update when that happens, but i wont confirm a timeframe on said updates.

All of that said, thank you again to everyone for your patience and kind words. I do hope my situation gets settled soon and i can begin work.

[qugre]

“holy but sinister” is literally my favorite of all possible character aesthetics so lumio is basically living rent free in my head now (though all of the other designs are EXTREMELY good too). id be delighted if you took this project all the way. i for one would definitely be interested in backing something like it.

hey, well thanks!! i think id only wanna start up a ks type thing after ive put together some kind of prototype or something, but the idea is deeefinitely in my head..!

endgame goal would definitely be like.. a dlc character poll to see who else people would want, just cuz theres like. 18 more that aren't in that lineup, only around 5 of which i've shown fully on my main accounts

but yyyyeah! that would definitely be cool someday lol

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

The Embodiment Of Weirdness Sigil (2024)

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[Note: the embodiment of weirdness sigil in this might end up as a prototype and might end up making a new one in the future.]

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I want to make another poll after making that one that I posted before posting this one up...but with how I'm feeling at the moment, I think maybe I will wait a week after all to make another poll, and that means I'm gonna wait for that new poll to get a winner.

I can always check next time to see if it's possible to make two polls on the same day...anyway not everyone has to be interest in this.

it might be best to click on this to make it bigger, but I do wonder if ya do, will the words that are much smaller than some of the other words, be able to be read very well...or not...?

I'm gonna try to do that magic spell that is suppose to let you travel to other worlds while you sleep, I know I had been having trouble with that....and I did try to make my own spell that is suppose to do the same thing, but it doesn't seem to be working, so I'm just gonna try that spell I found before along with another one...

like if I use more than one, maybe it will have better results...

reasons why, to get the frag as far away from the Toxic-Masculine (even the small bit of Toxic-Feminine...) even if it is in some form of dream that might only last for a hour or few hours, it be worth it.

and yeah the "Magick Abilities" that is wrote in this that has that weird Sigil, or Symbol.....if it isn't much of a Sigil, then maybe it can just be called a symbol.

it is suppose to have to do with some stuff that has been going on with me...like one of the reasons I keep wearing my Gem-Bracelets is to both protect me and also put some abilities that had awaken in me, to have sealing charms and limiters, of course I had to use that food salt on and prayed for them to work that way.

and there is that whole praying for the dream-catcher on my door to act as a Protective Barrier to keep that Toxic-Lust Energy out, because of that whole three close calls that happen...and I don't think I feel like explaining about that again right now...

and yeah, one of the Magick Abilities that I listed on this, is the whole Dream-Walking and how it can be caused by Toxic-Lust Energy...

it could be possible there is some kind of sub-space astral plane.

also the reason why one of the tags is "mature audiences only" is just to be safe...even if this isn't really 100% mature but it's just in case...

so yeah, this is suppose to be like a embodiment for a earth angel...

there was another drawing I wanted to post today, it has to do with a Crossover story, that happens to have Steven Universe...

a part of me wants to wait until either tomorrow or in a few days, but maybe I can see about posting the drawing in a little while...

I'm going to lay down for a few, but I'm gonna stay on of course...

but after I do post the drawing up, I'm gonna just go and watch some episodes of some shows and maybe even a movie....but if I don't feel like doing those first, I will just go back to laying down to just relax and if I fall asleep then I'm okay with that, too.

also yes, I think I'm starting to have one of those days, lucky it doesn't happen very much....plus I might be a bit tired as well, so maybe sleeping it off will be okay....yeah I'll just lay down for maybe a few and then I will post the drawing, then log off and just go to sleep...then after I wake up, I'll watch some episodes of shows I like and then later I will watch a movie, maybe that FNAF Movie or one of the other movies we have...anyway once again, this one might end up being a prototype and I might make a new one sometime...

still gonna call it "Embodiment Of Weirdness"...

it be freaky if this turns out to be slightly similar to any other sigils....which could give me another reason to try to make a new one.

anyway I'm gonna go lay down now, I will post the Crossover drawing I have in mind to post up in maybe a hour...

[hardynwa]

What INEC BVAS Should Have Done And Nigerians Will Love It

Most Nigerians are angry today because of the impact of the INEC's Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS. The device was so hyped by INEC that even some Nigerians thought God himself would be transmitting the results to INEC headquarters. BVAS started trending on election day, just as it did at the National Assembly just because some politicians thought it would be difficult for Nigeria to use such a complicated device. Again that was when the issue started. I think most of these politicians knew what they were doing when they were apparently fighting INEC shadows to make Nigerians think there was something serious coming, but at the end of the day, I ended up on the list of dumb Nigeria. We missed the ‘ACCREDITATION in the name Our secret society nature got us here because no one actually explained these things properly to Nigerians. We had all thought that INEC had brought one device that would eliminate a lot of paper collation, but that was never the case because the device is actually called Bimodal Voter Accreditation System -  emphasis on accreditation. It was simply supposed to accredit and that was, the transmission function to INEC IReV was never too important as we have come to see.  Who got accredited and who voted is not important as long as the result tallies with the actual number of accredited voters. This is the same as when the result sheet was uploaded. Prototype of INEC BVAS result submission interphase by Chinedu Hardy Nwadike Why upload paper and still write on paper? BVAS ended up being a case of using an analogue solution to solve a digital problem. I even got tired of downloading documents on my phone. Do we deserve this kind of stress? The answer is no, but INEC chose that option even when Nigeria is blessed with a countless number of programmers who can do better. That brings us to the joke because BVAS is actually an android version of what used to be with a slight upgrade. As someone who can create a simple data collation form on the internet, I think the complication created by INEC in the BVAS is not necessary. The back end for Presiding Officers would have been simpler and more efficient. It would have been easier with a simple field stating the election (Presidential or just whatever); the state; Local Government Area; Ward and lastly Pooling Unit. The total number of registered voters in the pooling unit should not be editable and same with the number of accredited voters which should automatically add up as electorates are being accredited.  Should we insist on paper ballots, the number of votes will be entered for each party alongside the name of the Presiding Officer. Signatures and the result sheets will also be applauded. After clear verification by Party agents, the PO will submit the result with a one time password to the server. The total number of valid votes will be calculated automatically from votes added to political parties, while the remaining will go to invalid votes. These two fields will not be editable.  It can stay in cache where there is no internet connection, but can never be edited once submitted. How to avoid paper collation It is still a big shame that we see papers on National Televisions and funny again that excel sheets are seen as well. The results submitted by the Presiding Officers are supposed to be arranged in a database that can be exported  as comma-separated values CSV or excel sheet.  INEC can have an uneditable backend where these results can be sorted by polling units, wards, LGA, party, etc. at the state or local government headquarters. The printout or what should have been displayed on National TV should simply be a kind of data display interphase, while the public will be able to see the same in a different format or interphase. Nigeria cannot be this dumb Smart people and organizations around the world actually do nothing but apply smart solutions in their operations, but we have chosen to fail again. It is funny to see that calculators are being pressed on our national televisions and that individuals who have been with results for days come on air to see that they have calculated rubbish. We can do better than this because we have a good number of smart people but the political class believe that if we do better they will be forgotten. It is showing in many locations as the phrase ‘deliver your pooling unit’ will soon go extinct because no single person owns the unit, but it belongs to the people. Simple processes like this can restore confidence in our electoral system, but it all lies on INEC and members of the National Assembly who might not want ideas like this to see the light of the day. My name is Chinedu Hardy Nwadike, I am a media and tech consultant, writing from Owerri, Imo State. chinedu@otowngist.com Read the full article

[senzacaponecoda]

Poll Conlang: Obstruents part 1

5 votes in 5 different places... But I can pick a winner based on how the subcomponents played out.

Three of the votes were in the minimal nasals category, compared to two in the max. So so far we have /m/ and potentially an assymilating /n/. I'll write those <m> and <n> for the time being.

The other option was relatively well distributed; the only category to get two votes was no liquids. Typologically that's kind of rare and implies our /n/ might have some liquid properties as the nearest kind of sonorant. Maybe our n can be a nasal tap?

--

So obstruents are where a lot of the meat of consonant information lies.

Obstruent stops are kind of prototypical. If we don't have any other kind of obstruent we'll have stops.

Almost all languages have a sibilant of some kind, /s/. For physical, phonetic reasons, the sibilant often can be completely invisible to the sonorant hierarchy, allowing it to often form clusters in languages that otherwise avoid clusters. The sibilant is prototypically a (front, i.e. dental or alveolar) coronal (it makes its characteristic sound by directing air stream to the teeth) and often, if voiced, is only voiced secondarily, for example between vowels or by assimilation. Sometimes neighboring sounds, like /z/, or the back coronals end up acting like the true sibilant, but usually this is more for historical reasons (inheriting a sibilant's information load) than phonetic. We (I guess I and one other person) decided against having back coronals, however, and the exact phonetics of /s/ can be decided on on a later date. So for now it's pretty much just a binary choice, have a sibilant or not.

Maybe the second most important question is whether to contrast non-sibilant fricatives and non-fricatives. Many Australian languages do not and many Dravidian languages do not. Of the world's languages, about 9% lack them entirely, altho most of these make an except for /h/, which is usually just a debuccalized something else and not a true fricative.

It's kind of a thing statistically that /p/ is less common in languages spoken by people living an agricultural lifestyle, often shifting to /f/. This has been attributed to recent shifts how we use our jaws and the evolutionary pressures on them, and does seem to be statistically real. But, eh, I don't know how much stock I put into the hypothesis.

It's rare to have fricatives without sibilants. I don't even know of any truly; Turkmen has /θ/ where other Turkish languages have /s/ but in practice /θ/ just acts like a sibilant and as far as I can tell is maybe best understood as just a dental s being a little extra.

Obstruents usually come with degrees of secondary phonation; many languages have 2~3 series of stops and a similar number of non-sibilant distinctions. Because that's a large number of choices to compound and compounds with fricatives, I'll leave it to next time.

Another question is affricates. But what are underlyingly palatal stops usually just get realized as afficates phonetically for physiological reasons. Usually when there are others it's because they come from palatals, such as shifting tʃ -> ts. If we have no sibilant, there'd be strong pressure on one of these to become it. Probably something we can decide once we clean up whether our front or back dorsals are palatal or uvular.

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