#quality hexagons

[beautiful-beautiful-hexagons]

Oh to be damned while surrounded by artists whos world is not big enough to see me tearing

i'm coming apart at the seams! 🐻🍯

[thestarmaker]

Got a tray for ice hexagons (instead of ice cubes) and there's fuckin. Shapes in my drink

[sajidhaji]

[kaijuno]

Fingal's Cave is a geological formation located on the uninhabited island of Staffa, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It is known for its extraordinary structure of hexagonal basalt columns, which were formed from rapidly cooled volcanic lava millions of years ago.

The cave is approximately 72 meters long and is notable for its natural acoustics, giving it a cathedral-like quality.

[tyrantisterror]

The Terf Queen said more heinous shit and listen I’m trying to channel my anger into writing so something positive can be made of it but it was just... really upsetting this time, I mean she did it two days before my fucking birthday it feels personal I know it’s not but jesus, so I’m going to make a bitchy post after midnight because fuck.

YOU KNOW WHAT SUCKS HARDCORE ABOUT HERBY PORBER?  HOW FUCKING BORING IT MADE WIZARDS.

Look at this.  Look at these fucking characters.  They look like fucking fashion models.  They look like they’re about to walk the goddamn runway.  There’s not an ounce of whimsy or fantastical shit here.  These fuckers look like they’re about to announce the start of Universal’s Dark Universe movie franchise, right down to the unnecessary appearance of Johnny Depp.

Wizards in Henry Pansly’s Adventures in Centrism are, with rare exception, people in mostly regular outfits who occasionally point a stick at things to zap it with a laser.  Everything about them is so... toned down and grounded, as if they’re afraid to let wizards look silly.

But looking silly is what makes wizards fucking awesome.

Look at that fucker, with his extravagant beard and big elaborate bathrobe, floating in fucking space over a dragon rising out of an exploding volcano.  It’s ridiculous, it’s ludicrous, it’s fucking awesome.

Pew pew sticks?  Fuck that!  An unleashed wizard floats on hexagonal geodes while shooting GODDAMN LIGHTNING from his GODDAMN FINGERTIPS!

Even mundane shit is rendered ridiculous and magnificent.  Look at this gaudily dressed son of a bitch as he ponders his orb.  Just hanging out with his cat looking at a cool sphere, no big deal, but the theatrics!  the drama!  It’s positively splendiferous, fuck!

Oh you thought I wouldn’t include some sick Rankin Bass pics while talking about aesthetics in fantasy fiction?  Shame on you, of course I was gonna pull out good ol’ R&B.

We gotta bring it back!  We can’t let this stand!  We can’t let wizards just be guys in vaguely fancy clothes with pew pew sticks!  They gotta be ludicrous and silly and over-the-top!  They need to shoot lightning from their fingers and cackle madly while holding glowing orbs and rising above a mountain into the heavens themselves while dragons fly underfoot burninating the countryside!  We gotta make them FUCKING CAMP!

I want to BEHOLD THE GODDAMN WIZARD!  I want wizards to feel like they belong on the side of a van of some shitty heavy metal band!  I want wizards who reside on black velvet paintings and in crappy pewter sculptures that cost as much as a used car!

I WANNA SEE SOME REAL, QUALITY WIZ BIZ!

[anim-ttrpgs]

The skill point allocation system in Eureka is very elegant.

Is the principle of evening out to 0 something that has often been used in ttrpg design? If so, can you name other games that inspired Eureka in that regard? Or did you come up with it for Eureka?

"All skills can be -n to +n with a cumulative total of 0" seems too usefull, too elegant, as to never been utilized before the year 2024.

I came up with it independently and have literally never seen it anywhere else. I have thought the same way about the Eureka! Point mechanic, though similar things have been done before in other RPGs, just never applied to mystery investigation gameplay. Why hasn't anyone done this yet?

I feel like it must have been used somewhere else at some point in the 50 years of TTRPGs that have been made, I've just never seen it. i agree it feels like too good of an idea to not, like, practically be industry standard, but then again, TTRPGs are not a very innovative industry. It's very stagnant. Most TTRPGs that have come out in the past 50 years have just been D&D clones to some degree or another, and most "innovation" I see has just been "what if we unknowingly reinvented the wheel except this time we made it hexagonal instead of octagonal," total Tesla cybertruck style innovation.

The industry is kind of uniquely set up for that. It's one of the most monopoly-dominated industries/artforms in existence, with one game (of greatly varying quality and thoughtful design between editions) completely dominating it for all 50 years of its existence and being allowed to basically fully define what a "TTRPG" is. The biggest alternative to D&D for the past 20 years has been Pathfinder, which is just like D&D but a little better designed, and before that its biggest competitor was World of Darkness, which, if you actually read their rulebooks, are also designed pretty much like D&D except for some text at the beginning which basically says "you can ignore these extremely dungeon-crawl-y rules to focus more on narrative, don't be like those dumb dungeon crawl players," which if you have been following this blog you know is a load of crap.

Call of Cthuhlu, another big veteran contender for the industry that is still going pretty strong, has been the standard for "investigation" gameplay for nearly 50 years, but it's just a Lovecraft hack of RuneQuest, which was designed for, you guessed it, fantasy dungeon crawling. That's why even though CoC adventure modules do tend to play pretty well with Eureka, most of them are still structured as a short line of like 1 or 2 clues to follow to get the PCs into a spooky scary enclosed dungeon-like monster-filled location as quickly as possible, and you have advice like (uncharitable hyperbole) "if the PCs get stuck, make evidence fall from the sky and land at their feet."

Plus, you have big "actual play" podcasts who really really champion the whole "ignore the rules when they get in the way of your pre-planned three-act-structure plot" and the mega-monopolgy with marketing money making it a selling point that if you ignore the rules enough "D&D5e can do anything."

TTRPGs are also a relatively young artform without a ton of mainstream attention until pretty recently (which, as I mentioned, has been eaten up by D&D5e, Pathfinder, and big "actual plays"), and they are a hard one to participate in because playing a single TTRPG requires a ton of time investment compared to most other popular art forms like books, video games, music, and movies.

All this results in many, many people who play and even design TTRPGs literally never having played anything that wasn't WotC-era D&D, barely one or two degrees of separation from WotC-era D&D, or "it's not important if it's WotC-era D&D or not if you just ignore the rules!" Oh and PbtA and BitD players and designers, you're not immune to this! Those are just the "D&D5e can do anything!" of the indie scene and no they really really are not the best framework/engine for every single game ever!

For all the talent, study, effort, and respect for the artform across the A.N.I.M. team, not even we are immune to this. I haven't played nearly as many TTRPGs as I would like to have before calling myself a "learned" TTRPG designer. There might be some obscure game from 2004 I've never heard of that does some of Eureka's stuff already, that if I had read, I could have made Eureka even better by improving upon and learning from the mistakes of others rather than working in uncharted territory.

So, in conclusion, to use the film industry as an analogy, it's like if, during the past 10 years of every fucking mainstream movie being about superheroes, aspiring film makers, who have watched between 0 and 1 movies that weren't about superheroes, are having the "novel" idea of "what if.. a movie wasn't about superheroes!" and then trying to make a movie not about superheroes with no non-superhero experience or study. And Eureka: The Movie is good and innovative because A.N.I.M. Studios watched a measly 10 different non-superhero movies and studied film theory before making it.

[m1ssunderstanding]

Notes on Nowhere Boy

Finally posting the long version of the close-watch I did for @sleeper9's Fete zine. The bad thing about me is I hate spending money and love pirating shitty quality versions of movies. The good thing about the Beatles fandom is we're used to dealing with grainy pics. Anyways, here goes!

The opening ten seconds really do set the tone for the film, and here's why. It's the opening of A Hard Day’s Night where the boys are running from a hoard of screaming fans and George biffs it. John sees him go down, laughs, and keeps running. Only here, it's just John. George’s fall has been erased, making John into a cocky, if slightly insane, little lone hero. 

Mimi: do I ignore you? No. So please don't ignore me. Me: ummm, yeah you do ignore him, Mimi. Enough to leave deep psychological scars. But it's fine. Moving on.

Ugh, Uncle George is so sweet! I wonder how much of John's sweetness he learned from him. I wish we knew more about him.

Actually that was Jim that set up a cord running into Paul's room from the radio downstairs. But it fits Uncle George's character, so it works. 

Why did they make Mendips look a lot more working class than it actually was? No fancy iron fence, no pretty hexagonal outcropping, no stained glass veranda? 

Aaron Taylor Johnson is nailing it though. The laugh sounds very John, and this posture? Perfect. 

Okay but if that doesn't heartbreakingly encapsulate John and Mimi I don't know what does. Uncle George has just died. John goes to Mimi, wraps her from behind in a tight embrace and lets out a sob. Her response is to push him away. “Please, let's not be silly. If you want to do that, go to your room.” Alright, it's making me feel things, it's winning me over. 

John making his cousin Stan go and ask Mimi where Julia is is also extremely accurate. Always had someone to do the dirty work for them, all of them. 

Mimi's concern as John's going to visit his mother in the “bad” part of town is very good to have in too. “And you will be careful, hmm? Careful who you talk to.” And John's response, “it's only Blackpool, Mimi.” It's true. It could've been Speke, or the Dingle. Which Quarryman did I read saying Mimi didn't like John even leaving Woolton?

John's hurt little face when he finds out his mum, all this time, has been less than a bus ride away is a very clever way to show us his painful confusion about the whole situation. 

Trying to remind myself that this is a very anti-Julia pro-Mimi movie that will try to make me think she's crazy. But it sure is doing a hell of a good job. She hasn't seen him in years and suddenly she's hand feeding him desserts, kissing him every chance she's got, flirting all over the place. “Do you know what it means? Rock and Roll? Sex.” “Don't tell Mimi, alright? This is our little secret. Promise me.” And to a poor affection-starved boy, that's going to feel good. That's going to put thoughts in his head like “this is how it should be”. I mean I know she was wild and fun and sexy and irresponsible. And I know John did have weird thoughts about her. But I hope she wasn't actually this crazy. 

But the weird Freudian thing aside, he's got to be so terribly confused hearing the woman who effectively abandoned him declaring her love for him. Between Mimi and Julia, John would've had such a messed up idea of what that word meant. 

The Daily Howl, my absolute beloved!!

Nowhere Boy John watching Elvis: damn I've gotta get the girls screaming for me like that! Actual John watching Elvis: he's so beautiful! He's perfect! I'm in love!

Also I do not think sixteen year old John was that good at fingering. Just saying. 

This part always drops my heart cold into my stomach. Poor John. Poor poor baby. You can hear his little boy voice calling, “mum? It's me.” And she mutters, very annoyed, “go away.” Again. I have to remind myself that this is a purposely negative portrait of Julia. But then. It is true that she was a mostly absent and wholly undependable figure in John's life. 

Sometimes dialogue is absolutely perfect. Like this – “Aw, why couldn't God make me Elvis Presley?” “Cause he was saving you for John Lennon.” “Aw I'll get you back for that, God!” And this – “you haven't told Mimi, have you?” “No point going through her bullocks if I don't have to.” “Why? She has to go through yours.” “Yeah well I never asked her to, did I?”

Ugh this whole movie just hurts so bad! How he looks to Julia as Mimi is ordering him out of her house, just begging her to claim him this time. And she doesn't until he makes a stand for himself. And then, later. “How long can I stay?” Is met with nothing. Not even a fake “long as you want, love.” It really plays into the title of the film. This boy's got nowhere to call home. And then, the final straw. Look at his face as he hears Julia agree that he does in fact need to go back to Mimi's. If I did that kind of thing, I'd actually be crying right now. Fuck, why was I knit-picking, this movie is working so well. 

 As he's announcing he's leaving Julia's, John wants her to tell him to stay. To at least pretend it's not what she wants. And she doesn't even look at him. Imagine if they did something like this in the John biopic mirrored with a scene with Paul in the breakup?

He's just so adorable looking at that guitar like he can't believe it's real.

John's gathered the og Quarrymen in the bathroom and Pete goes “I take it we're not here for a communal crap.” Idk Pete, wouldn't put it past him. It's not far off what you all do already.

It's making the Quarrymen look kinda cool here, and I really want them all to be shit except John, just because that's what I get from Paul's description. Not that he's biased or anything. He could've been watching John play with Elton John and David Bowie and he'd still say everyone faded into the background. 

Also Mimi would Not have been there. Not on her life. 

Okay now we're sort of seeing them from Paul's perspective. Bunch of losers surrounding this inimitable shining star. 

Accurate that the first thing John says to Paul is about jerking off. 

The dynamic in general is just so well-done in this first scene. John instantly testing Paul. How much shit will he put up with? And Paul instantly having none of it, showing off, and winning John over. 

All the other Quarrymen just know it's time to dust off the ole resume. 

But! Paul's fete “audition” is so toned down for this film. Although of course, accounts vary. He did 20 flight rock, yeah. But he also did it on someone's borrowed right hand guitar turned upside down. And he did little Richard and played the piano, and tuned John's guitar for him. In one telling of it, John says he asked him to be in the group right there on the spot. So. Yeah. 

But either way, watching John watch Paul is just gorgeously gay. It's giving extreme “Oooooh, he likes hiiiiiim!” It's actually illegal not to queerbate using Lennon/McCartney and I'm glad all moviemakers seem to understand the law.

Cut to “John, your little friend's here!” Can you imagine if they'd showed the “chalk and cheese” whirling dervish moment? Or Mimi making Paul use the back door? Those might change some thoughts and feelings in this movie. 

And then we get the reciprocated “Oooooh, he likes hiiiiiim!” Moment as Paul's too busy checking out John’s buddy Holly Look to remember where he is, let alone what cord they're on. And it's so sweet because Paul's the first person who gives John the idea that his real self is actually cooler than his tough-guy act. 

The little matching feet tapping?? Eee it's so cute! 

But why miss the opportunity for them to sing in harmony here?

Sometimes the dialogue is extremely inaccurate. “So mummy’s cool about baby Paul wanting to be Elvis?” “Oh she would've loved it.” Like hell she would've. She would've been as disapproving as Mimi. Then again, maybe it is accurate for Paul to be lying about that.

“Well she – she sort of – died. You know, em. If we're gonna do this we should write our own stuff.” Okay yep there he is. That's Paul. 

Also love how John gets his first calluses after Paul the bossy taskmaster comes into his life. (You know. And the reason to push himself and a person who cares enough to take the time to show him things and it makes John all dreamy staring at the stars that night etc) Anyway. It's perfect. 

And the first gig we see after Paul joins is in a venue on a real stage with a much bigger audience, and the matching suits of course. 

Mimi selling John's guitar because of a bad report card is like the lighter, kinder translation of what happened in reality when she had his dog put down while he was staying at Julia's. 

So they kinda make up for not letting Paul sing etc by having him nail the guitar instead of screw up at this gig like he did irl. 

And he's stealing Julia's attention, which is clearly Not okay with John. Reminds me of that quote of Paul's about how they were both in love with John's mum. 

George is appropriately infantile. Good. Cutie. 

The Quarrymen playing “That's Alright, Mama” as John's making up with Julia since she bought his guitar back for him. Okay. Very clever. 

Paul does Not like John disrespecting his mother after the show for obvious reasons. (“I said something wrong now I long for yesterday.”) But clearly he doesn't have the full picture here. I wonder at what point irl Paul got a full run-down from John on his messed-up family life. Or did he just have to pull it together piece by piece over the years?

And of course he jumps to light Julia's cigarette. Boy was patting his pocket for a lighter like it was the race of his life. Mister steal your mum.

Here we are, ladies and gentlemen, Paul McCartney’s number two complaint about this movie: John was Not taller than him. How dare they? Slander.  

That's one hell of a jacket.

At the party, John's of course pissed to find Paul serenading Julia in the kitchen. But Paul just wants a mommy so bad, John. Why can't you just let him have yours since you clearly don't want her? Right, because you really, really do. More than anyone can understand. But when you showed her that – how bad you wanted her to be your mum, not just a friend – she hurt you. Forced you to go through your abandonment all over again. So now you can't show that anymore. 

The washboard over Pete's head is almost exactly accurate, isn't it? John does not handle people leaving him well. 

Ugh his little voice cracking on the word “mum.” John Lennon is a poor poor baby and I will die on that hill.

I wonder how John did find out about Victoria and the real story of why he was with Mimi. No matter how, though, that's certainly a lot of mess for a young man to be carrying around with him all the time in his head. 

“When your father came back from the merchant Navy, he wanted to try and save the marriage, but your mother would have none of it.” I do feel like we're going with Alf’s version of events here, the one he sold John in order to get into his good graces after he was famous. Which is, again, not fair to Julia. I wonder how little Julia feels about this movie. 

In fact, I think this part –  “who do you wanna be with, John? Do you wanna be with me or do you wanna be with your mum?” – has been categorically disproven. But it certainly does make for some high drama. And John himself did believe his father's story, so there has to be at least some emotional truth there. 

Nowhere Boy John: There's no point in hating someone you love. I mean really love. IRL John: How do you sleep, you cunt?!

There he is. Art School John. Though he fell in love with every iteration of John, I think this one never left his head because he was one of the earliest Johns, and he was a John Paul had to fight for, you know, with all the Stu business and dead mother anger.

He really does an excellent job of playing John, though, when he's written right. “Woman took her kit off and we painted her breasts. Not actually physically. I got my eye on you two.” Ridiculous. Charming. Off- putting. Adorable. 

Ignoring the fact that I prefer to think of “Hello, Little Girl” as being about Paul (“you never seem to see me standing there”) and they're making it about Julia, this is a lovely scene. With John somewhat unsure still of his songwriting abilities and Paul looking up at him from the floor full of admiration. 

Oh he's gonna murder someone. To be fair, I think playing Julia's banjo at her funeral is exactly the type of insensitive thing Paul would do, because he just thinks and feels in music and it makes Sense to him even though of course it's going to piss John off. 

Hilarious, and probably accurate tbh, that Paul's pissed John off so he gives Pete a bloody nose.

But here we go, the number one complaint about this movie from Paul, which I think is actually valid. John never hit him and that was important to both of them and it's disrespectful to portray it and play into the myth of their rocky, angry relationship. 

But maybe in 2009 that's what it took for them to be able to show John Lennon and Paul McCartney in a genuine, loving embrace, crying into each other's necks about mothers. It has to be preceded by John punching Paul in the mouth. 

If I was John's writing partner, my biggest beef with this movie would actually be the scene where they're recording ISOATD and making it look like John wrote it and played the guitar solo. But Paul's never even mentioned it. Which I guess really shows he cares far more about the legacy of his relationship with John than his career legacy. Which. If you mean more to Paul McCartney than his fucking music? Well then you must be just about important enough to have your own movie. 

This is really the Vote for Mimi Smith campaign, isn't it? Putting across the screen the fact that John called Mimi every week until he died as “Mother” plays in the background is brutal. Ouch. But it's true. “It's Mimi time.”

[binah-beloved]

Arbiters Do Not Believe in Tears

Binah x Reader Android AU Pronouns: Gender Neutral Warnings: Descriptions of small injuries and death

~ * ~

Androids do not feel. It is not an opinion, it is a fact, told constantly to everyone and anyone. Androids do not have capacity for emotions. They are here to use, to be used, to serve those who bought and own them because they can never be anything but owned. You know this. The world knows this. Everybody knows this, and those who believe otherwise are called foolish, tearing an inevitable cackling laugh from people’s throats as they slap the table, how stupid and silly, how naive! They’re words you ponder as you continue your life’s work of creating and welding and repairing, your dingy house filled with bits of metal, bobs you found tossed aside. One person’s junk is another’s treasure, although some would call you an idiot for thinking you could make something out of nothing. But nothing is never nothing. And perhaps you are an idiot, or stupid, or silly, or foolish or naive, or perhaps some combination of everything, when you pull a discarded android out under the scrapheap.

Black, gold, and porcelain, once pristine and now tarnished. The interlocked hexagons immediately mark the android as an Arbiter class, models only available to the wealthiest and most influential people. Yet this one has been thrown away and left to rot, rust decorating her elegant features, and a frown flits across your face. Someone must have been very frivolous, or perhaps very cruel, to toss aside an Arbiter android without a thought. It’s not surprising. Those types are all fat old fools, after all. Nothing to it but resources, you try to tell yourself. But your hands lay flat on the android’s shoulders and refuse to curl, taking not one bit of metal from her. The gears in your head turn, fingers tracing and examining every patch of rust and severed wire and those closed eyes, neutral and silent. “Fixable.” Your voice comes out in a whisper, carefully hefting her onto your back and hurrying away, just as the sun begins to set.

It becomes a personal project of yours, an attempt to repair a disabled Arbiter as you scrounge around for different parts to use. You’re not even sure what metal she’s made of, something high quality and cold and much, much too expensive for you to even have a chance of glimpsing, but slowly your list fills with checkmarks and new cuts join old scars on your hands from your work. Gloves cost too much, and your fingers are essentially dead in feeling anyways. The android sits on your workbench, the corpse of an effigy, and doesn’t move. In truth, you’re not expecting her to be alive. The rational part of your brain keeps repeating the facts, over and over. Clearly, she was shut down. She can’t be repaired. She will never wake up. You’re excellent at not listening to those thoughts, letting your body methodically move while you keep your mind blank apart from the spark of hope twinkling in the center. Maybe, just maybe, your skills will suffice. Maybe. There’s a twitch from her fingers, and you pause, breath dying in your chest. They move again, more this time, slowly curling and uncurling into a fist before the android’s body jolts and clicking whirs fill the room as symphonic noise. Slowly, she sits upright, and slowly, you take a few steps back, unable to keep yourself from staring as her golden earring sways. Her eyes open like a splash of midnight, and she’s staring directly back at you, voice coming out flat and cold.

“I am Arbiter model 008, designation Garion. What are your orders?” You open your mouth, then close it again, not her original owner nor another member of the elite. You could say nothing. You could simply keep your mouth shut, and she would leave as an Arbiter to find a new directive. You could turn your back and pretend like you saw nothing. But you know and she knows that there’s nowhere for her now. “…Stay a while.” And she does. She becomes a constant shadow, watching you silently from a corner in your little, decrepit house. For several days the android simply stands there, doing and saying nothing but observing your every movement. Occasionally you look up from your work, meeting her bored black gaze, and you wave. At first there’s nothing, but gradually her head tilts at your small actions and the kind smile you give her. One day, she waves back, stiff and a little awkward, but it makes you perk up nonetheless. She moves closer, more freely, beginning to explore the house when you’re bent over pieces of metal and solder, before standing directly behind you and watching you work with a flicker of interest, although she rarely answers to her designated title. Something is disconnected, unfitting, and you take to simply calling her “Dear” from the pool of sweet sincerity in your heart. You answer when she asks questions, not berating or sneering but giving her a nod and swift demonstrations and free reign to examine anything she wants. So she sits, the nameless android, and reads every book you have to offer, cold fingers tracing over one word again and again. It’s that word she holds close to her when she approaches you one day, a hint of apprehension in her eyes. 

“…I would like for you to call me Binah, from now on.” She’s amazed at her audacity to request something as an android, a tool, a weapon to be used. What’s more incredible is your response, a nod and a gentle agreement that it suits her. For the first time, Binah smiles a little. Binah is never apart from you after that. Wherever you go, she goes, even if it’s simply to find more supplies or to watch the stars come out. She’s always there, a quiet, constant presence by your side. There are flashes and glints of feeling, slowly, as she begins to separate things she likes and dislikes and learn, always learning more and more with keen interest. She likes the night sky, books, the scent of tea. She despises too much noise, too many people, those who never listen. You, she finds, she likes immensely.

She never tells you this verbally, but you know when her fingers curl around yours and your hand presses against her cool cheek, eliciting a shudder as she practically melts against your touch. Some people ask if she’s yours when they see her behind you, carefully watching for any threats. You always deny it, every time. The thought of being Binah’s owner makes your stomach turn, seeing and accompanying her during her growing sentience and awareness as an individual. But she interrupts you one day when that familiar question rises again, answering with a monotonous yes and an icy glare until the person who asked runs off in a panic. You blink, turning to look at her only for cool, heavy arms to wrap around your waist, her hand over your beating, human heart. “I am yours, and you are mine. If you will have me.” Her words are firm and laced with certainty, the gentle touch of her fingers betraying her hidden, developing emotions. You stare at Binah and merely nod, and she softens briefly to bump her forehead against yours.

You were told that androids couldn’t do a lot of things. They don’t feel, don’t form attachments, don’t understand bonds or gentleness. Everything is proven wrong, to your delight. It has never felt so good to be wrong, wrong about each “fact” that tried to force its way into your head. Wrong, except for one. Androids cannot die. Not in the way that humans do. Everyone knows this. Binah knows this. You knew this. They could be shut down, or lose their directive, but Arbiters were made to survive. You had told her about death, your fingers laced with hers during your evening walk. “Humans rot underground, but I like to think that eventually we grow into flowers again. Wouldn’t that be nice?” Yes. It would be nice. Her words go unspoken.

Binah stands in the rain, wrapped in the coat you made for her after she discarded the golden hexagons to remain with you. Of course, there’s no cold to her, but you loved and she loved the fabric, the way you would tuck yourself into the front while she was still wearing it. She idly twists her rings; one, two, three; resting on her favorite on the left hand. “I am Arbiter model 008, designation Garion. What are your orders?” Her voice is as apathetic and even as the day you first met, drizzle clouding her vision and wetting her synthetic hair. You always told her it was soft and smooth, and she couldn’t help but lean against your hands whenever you pet it. “…I am Arbiter model 008, designation Garion. What are your orders?” Her fingers lace together and grip hard, the same crushing force that has killed countless people, yet treated you so gently. She always was fond of caressing your face, feeling the way your skin dipped under her careful touch. Fascinating. Wonderful. Human.

“…I am Binah, your android. Please…” Instinctively, she reaches out for your presence, trembling minutely and unable to keep the repressed waver out of her tone. “…What are your orders…?” Androids also cannot cry. Almost none of them are made with it in mind, even less so Arbiters who are made to kill and maim. But Binah feels, and wishes that she could so. “…I miss you.” The rain weeps in exchange, and a lone android sinks to her knees in the flower field where you’re buried. 

[windyboi101]

Cyn Headcanons

Cyn won the poll I hosted! I also got WAY more notes than I expected so I am only during 30. Sorry, but its the only way to keep me from writing duplicates, low quality HCs, etc. Please like and reblog if you enjoy, as it lets me know I am writing content people enjoy, and it helps to spread my posts around! The more viewers, the more feedback I get, which is the most valuable resource to me.

So, without further ado,

30 Cyn Headcanons (Some serious, some silly)

Serious Headcanons 1. Prior to her disposal, Cyn worked as a toy assembler/demonstrator. This is why she would overexplain her actions, since toys can't exactly speak. This would later go on to influence the Solver's outlook on humanity and how it should be treated.

2. Cyn's cause of fatal error was not a workplace accident, but execution (murder) from a higher up at the company she was employed at. Reason? Up to you, whichever makes it most tragic :)

3. The Cyn we see in the show was only partially controlled by the Solver for some sections. When she was first brought home, barely noticeable influence, like 10% controlled. By the start of episode 5, about 70% of her was controlled by the Solver, but the excitement about Movie Night was genuine!

4. Solver-Cyn left Tessa for last on the night of the Gala Massacre. She had warned Tessa to not come, which shows that she didn't want to have to kill her.

5. While J was the first to fall under control of Cyn's Solver abilities, J was the last to be 'modified'.

6. While the Solver is fully in control of Cyn by the time the events of the show start playing out, Cyn is still within the consciousness of the bodies the Solver takes over. This includes being witness to Uzi's first transformation and Doll's mind.

7. Cyn was certainly younger than the other drones, and due to this she was never switched out of 'Parental Guidance Mode' that censors swearing (Like Uzi being unable to see Nori's crude writings). This is why Cyn couldn't fully swear when she lost grip of N's core.

8. The Cyn part of Solver has abandonment issues. This is why she was willing to clone the main cast of Disassembly Drones rather than see them as just tools. It is also why Cyn was willing to leave them alone if they obeyed her orders, despite her plan that consisted of consuming all matter possible. If she could keep them as friends, she would.

9. While still herself, Cyn had OCD and was very meticulous about her tasks. For the short time she was 'employed' at the Elliot Manor, she was particularly good at stacking and arranging of objects. Unfortunately, this would become arrangements of triangular hexagons and other mysterious symbols shortly before she was deemed too damaged to work.

10. Cyn did not create a solution for the Murder Drones to not burn in the sun because she sees it as a way to keep them restrained. The less time they can be out doing whatever they want, the less likely they are to figure out any sort of deception or way to usurp her.

11. If Cyn did not have to take a more direct approach for her plan to succeed by the end of Episode 7, she would have a fear of Sentinels while not in her 'blackhole' form after the events that transpired in Episode 6.

12. Cyn's 'birthday' was April 14th, 3052.

13. Cyn seems to have an infinite supply of bows. Nobody knows where she gets them from or how she keeps making them.

14. Post-Finale, Cyn would constantly be trying to hijack pieces of technology to gain more power. Fortunately, none of these attempts would get far due to Uzi's capable technological skills.

15. What would keep Cyn docile would be allowing her to hijack weak and limited pieces of technology, like an old game cartridge or a singular floppy disk. However, this ruins any sort of data stored on the item in question but would definitely create the closest example to those early 2000 creepypastas like 'Sonic.exe' and other 'my video game was hAuNtEd' types of scenarios.

Silly Headcanons

16. Cyn genuinely enjoys tea. Unfortunately, she does not know how to drink it properly.

17. If Cyn got an animal plushie of herself like Uzi, N, and V did, it would be an Octopus.

18. Cyn wasn't one to be impatient or throw temper tantrums like in Episode 5, that was all the Absolute Solver.

19. Cyn could have been knocked out for a few hours if you threw a big enough weighted blanket over her.

20. Cyn would host 'oil tasting parties' as a crude way of replicating the activities of her former owners.

21. Cyn's 'startup message' is not "Hello World." It is instead "Violence is the question and the answer is yes."

22. If you gagged Cyn's mouth in any way, she would use sign language to be able to communicate her actions in excessive detail, just like she does when she speaks. ("Light sip" or "Shuffle. Shuffle. Shuffle.")

23. If you gave Cyn a YouTube channel, she would market it like those "Spiderman Elsagate" videos completely unironically, but then have the content be very in-depth analyses of complex equations and theories.

24. Cyn does NOT know what sex is. She thinks humans reproduced by being delivered a child via Stork.

25. Cyn's knowledge of emojis (her last reaction in Episode 8) comes solely from what she could hijack from V's mind when she still had control, since V was texting Lizzy at some point in time.

26. Cyn sees William Afton as a role model.

27. Cyn's choice of play in GTA would be using mods to make everything fly around at high speeds and explode at random.

28. If you slapped Cyn across the face, her head would spin around on her neck until the momentum fully stopped.

29. Cyn is the kind of drone to taste-test a footprint and be able to know where somebody went.

30. A McDonald's sprite would be enough to kill Cyn.

[novaurora]

the following post was made in collaboration with @catboy-autism ! this post is also an entry for the first prompt of @rwuffles & @vampitsm 's team up event !

rainy season & winter conceptkin flags!

The rainy season, also known as "wet season" or "monsoon season," is during the time of year with the most rainfall within the region's standards. The most common places to find rainy seasons are the tropics and subtropics. Rainy seasons can be associated with improved fresh water and air quality, floods, and the amount of water erosion increasing.

Winter, the coldest, and darkest, season of the year. It occurs when the earth has tilted enough to allow for a limited amount of the sun's light to hit the region. Winter is typically associated with snow, ice, and freezing temperatures.

[ID: A 7-striped flag. From top to bottom the colors are dark navy blue, grey-blue, steel blue, white, green, darl teal, greyish-green, and dark grey-green. The 2nd, 4th, and 6th stripes are thinner than the rest. In the center is a white-blue circle, and within it is the conceptkin symbol. The symbol is a gradient navy blue to dark grey-green hexagon within a ring, its corners curl out and loop slightly outside the ring. ID End]

[ID: A 7-striped flag. From top to bottom the colors are dark navy blue, grey-blue, steel blue, white, green, darl teal, greyish-green, and dark grey-green. The 2nd, 4th, and 6th stripes are thinner than the rest. In the center is a white-blue circle, and within it is the conceptkin symbol. The symbol is a gradient navy blue to dark grey-green hexagon within a ring, its corners curl out and loop slightly outside the ring. ID End]

[saltminerising]

the only redeeming quality of g&g is watching that cartoon bug's life flash before their eyes when you click on the hexagons they don't like

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Hexagons of hexagonal boron nitride join up to form 2D insulator for next-gen electronic devices

A method that can grow a useful insulating material into exceptionally high-quality films that are just one atom thick and are suitable for industrial-scale production has been developed by an international team led by Xixiang Zhang from KAUST. The work is published in the journal Nature Communications. The material, called hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), is used in semiconductor devices and can also enhance the performance of other two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Researchers can combine 2D materials to build tiny electronic components for quantum computing, electronic communications, and other applications. While most 2D materials conduct electricity, hBN is one of the few that is an insulator, making it an indispensable component within many of these devices.

Read more.

[stylo-90]

a guide to buying writing pencils as a gift

this is a guide to buying wooden writing pencils for someone in your life. why? just because! they're a nice little gift and way cheaper than most stuff you might be interested in buying. definitely cheaper than other fancy stationery like fountain pens. and they made John Steinbeck very excited...

Just the pure luxury of long beautiful pencils charges me with energy and invention.

- John Steinbeck

1. Vibe Management

Picture the recipient. Who are you buying these pencils for? Are we going for more of a classic Americana, 'analog living', rustic kind of vibe? Or is this person more of a stationery geek? Someone who's more artsy or more businesslike? We are focusing on writing pencils here but they have different qualities, hard and soft, subtle and dramatic, thick lacquer or thin paint. This is an analog object and the sensory qualities are important.

2. American or Japanese (or Other)

The two main countries you may be interested in are the USA and Japan. If you're an American looking to deliver some #2 nostalgia with the eraser on the end, or chasing the Steinbeck thing, you can't go wrong with an American manufacturer like Palomino (CA), Musgrave (Shelbyville, TN), or General's (Jersey City, NJ). But if your recipient is more into high-quality stationery goods of all kinds, they are probably already a fan of Japanese stationery, which is a much more discerning market than the USA when it comes to quality products. Manufacturers to check out here are Tombow and Mitsubishi Pencil (uni).

Bonus: Indian pencils. The pencil scene is big among Indian schoolgoers, and so they have a variety of different brands of pencil. The black and red Nataraj is the primary-school classic, but don't sleep on the internet fave Apsara. (Both are manufactured by the same company, Hindustan Pencils)

Ah, but aren't there different hardnesses of pencils? Nothing wrong with a classic HB/#2, but you'll find that many prefer a slightly softer and darker lead for writing - more like a B or 2B. The H end of the spectrum is harder and lighter leads more suitable for drafting than writing. An F is a nice middle ground (just a bit harder than HB). Japanese pencils also tend slightly softer and darker than American pencils of the same grade. Softer = smoother, harder = scratchier (generally speaking.

Personally I can't use leads softer than B because the dust triggers my asthma. Hadn't thought of that, huh?

3. Just Give Me the Recommendations Already!

The pencils everybody* has heard of:

Tombow Mono 100 and Mitsubishi Hi-Uni are historically the 'premium' Japanese pencils. Thick lacquer, carefully selected graphite. A single pencil will be in the $2.50-3.00 range, and a dozen will be $22-23. I recommend these in HB or (for Tombow) F.

In the Japanese 'good but not premium' category, I highly recommend the Tombow 2558 in HB, which has been called the greatest yellow pencil ever made, with one of the best erasers. The Mitsubishi 9850 is similarly a beautiful and high-quality pencil that isn't expensive. We're talking like $1.40 a pencil.

Going to American pencils, the Blackwing 602s are world-famous (among pencil people). People say the current Palomino-made ones are inferior to the Eberhard Faber ones that John Steinbeck used, but how would they know? I would stick with the 602's but go with the Naturals if you want more firm lead, or Pearls for softer lead (not for me). These will be $30 for a dozen - I guess you pay for the name, and you can't get them as singles, unless you happen to see one at your local stationery shop. But they are, indeed, very good.

Musgrave Tennessee Reds are one-of-a-kind, made from fragrant Tennessee red cedar, and with a smooth dark lead. Highly recommend, and only $14 for a dozen. But for a more affordable alternative, the Harvest 320s are $8.50 for a dozen and I think they're beautiful, with gold foil lettering and a crisp hexagonal body design with thin lacquer -rare among pencils nowadays.

There are also a bunch of specialized pencils for a variety of purposes - ones for test scoring, doing crosswords or marking up sheet music, songwriting... JetPens sells pencil samplers, while you can get variety packs from Musgrave and Blackwing. I wish I could recommend General's pencils but I haven't tried any that made an impression.

Here are the two pencil sharpeners I own and recommend:

Mitsubishi Uni KH-20 - a desktop crank sharpener that turns out a nice long point, $32

KUM No. 400-5L Stenographer's Long Point - like the name says, a tiny handheld sharpener with a long point, and dirt-cheap

For erasers, either use the one on the end of your pencil, or (since many fancy pencils don't come with erasers) take your pick. Most vinyl/plastic erasers are more than good enough, and easily better than a typical end-of-pencil eraser. Personally a simple Pentel Hi-Polymer has always served me well.

The only other accessory you might want is a pencil cap/point protector - an underrated way to keep your pencil sharp when you leave your pencil around or want to take it somewhere. EDC pencil? You better believe it! You might not give this as a gift, but I find it increases the 'usability' of a pencil in day-to-day. I like this Kutsuwa aluminum one.

Since we're gift-giving, you may be interested to know what some nice gift boxes might look like:

Musgrave has several fun variety packs, including one that looks like a pencil. They also have a $75 box made of fragrant Tennessee red cedar for their red cedar pencils, if you're like... rich. And have exquisite taste in woods.

Meanwhile, Blackwing likes to do the limited edition thing, and has "volumes" honoring this or that famous person. These are just their standard leads with fancy art on the pencil lacquer, don't buy the hype. (Unless you want to, I mean. I have a pentagonal Blackwing Vol. 10001 that I bought as a loosey at a local stationery shop and I really enjoy it.) Even if you just buy a normal pack of 602's, they are 'fancy' enough that your recipient should appreciate it, if they are the type of person you would buy pencils in the first place.

"but tumblr user stylo-90, how do I choose?"

whichever one looks prettiest to you! don't think too hard about it. (i understand the irony of saying this now)

[iamarealkat]

Kind of couldn’t let humanity forget about this.

About Hannibal’s drawing pencils…(Decided to make a whole separate post about Hannibal Lecter’s drawing supplies to keep all the things I figured out after really attentive, extensive and obsessive research & viewing. Thanks to @existingcharactersdiehorribly for signal boosting my original questions! Sharing the fruit of my labours for the good of all Fannibals.)

1. Free range psychiatrist drawing habits

Hannibal DOES, in fact, draw with Tombow MONO graphite drawing pencils! (Originally, I just tossed the idea out there because these beautiful Japanese pencils seemed to fit his style, and it was an accurate guess.) These are professional drawing pencils, high-density graphite, strong point, smooth line. Hannibal has several at hand when he is drawing (which makes sense since his drawings have different values): in one scene, he’s shown with four different pencils while working on one sketch.

In case you want to sketch like Baltimore socialite Hannibal, this is a Tombow MONO.

He sharpens them with a scalpel (again, makes sense, a blade is preferable to a pencil sharpener for a better point).

Hannibal doesn’t seem to use a kneaded eraser, which is strange, nor have I spotted a blending stump (tortillon), but he has an ergonomically shaped triangular eraser. It looks like one of Faber-Castell grip erasers, the one Hannibal uses is the triangular shape but in a dark colour, possibly dark green (?). He also has a brush (to brush off the bits of eraser from the drawing).

2. Cooped up BSHCI resident drawing habits

Apparently Dr Alana Bloom provides Hannibal with quality drawing supplies. Unlike his usual set of hexagonal graphite pencils, Hannibal is seen with a single black round one. The lead is very black, suggesting a mix of charcoal and wax or charcoal and lead. It would have a soft matte finish. After squinting about 1001 times watching it roll over Hannibal’s table for half a second, I am certain it is Sanford Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencil, 935 Black, which is actually much more expensive than a single MONO drawing pencil (rough estimate: approx. $6.50 for 935 Black vs. approx. $1.50 for a Mono?). Alana is really pampering Hannibal.

In case you want to sketch like Hannibal in BSHCI, this is a Sanford Prismacolor Premier 935 Black.

(NB: Hannibal also uses a different pencil while in BSHCI, specifically, during the coversation with Alana about his insanity plea. The non-drawing tip is similar to the Tombow MONO, but I can give no definitive opinion yet.)

So far I haven’t been able to identify Hannibal’s drawing paper (loose sheets). He seems to use at least two types, one which appears heavier and with a warm tint (example), the other less heavy, smooth and prone to minor creasing (example), probably for looser preliminary sketches? But there’s also an unfinished study of a woman on a warm-tinted (or perhaps yellowed with age?), thinner, slightly creased paper (this one). Examples from NBC Hannibal site.

If you have any ideas about the grain, weight, tint, and brand of Hannibal’s drawing paper, or any observations of his use of erasers and blending stumps, please let me know! Or just chime in if you, too, care about Hannibal’s drawing supplies.

cc: trobador (banned I think?)

[lqtusxtearz]

Florist

Summary:

A florist in their hometown is known for being kind and cheerful. A large luminous hexagon emerges in front of their business one night, and a tall guy, Miguel Ohara, enters and hands them a flower. They are taken aback and inquire whether they are Y/N Mendoza. Miguel is taken aback and asks if they may stay in his store for a bit to repair his gadget. They become friends and spend time together, behaving as though they are married.

They finally fixed his gadget after a month of being with Miguel, and he doesn't want to go. Miguel informs you that he must return because someone need his services. You don't take it well, but you also don't make him stay with you. On

You are a florist in your home town, and you are well known as a kind and bubbly person.

You are an average person who takes care of the flowers until one night, as you close your shop, a big glowing hexagon appears right in front of your shop. You were about to scream, but a big man who is around 6'9 tall who would not freak out when there's a man come out of the portal and just covers your mouth to prevent you from screaming? The tall man shook you and forced you two to get inside your shop, and you were just standing there looking at the man with petrified eyes. He saw this, and he sighed. He walks toward you and gives you a flower that you are not familiar with. You look at him, confused, and he looks at you, waiting for you to take the flower. You take it and look at the tall man and ask, "What are you? Who are you?" you said to him, not taking your eyes off him. You might now know what this man's intention is, so you grab the nearest thing that you can hold and just hold it. In the meantime, he saw this and sighed, "By any chance you are Y/N Mendoza?" You were shocked because he knows your name. You raise an eyebrow, looking up and giving him a judgmental look, and shake your head as a no. He groans, nods, and looks around. He checks his thing on his wrist, and you look at it confused. He grumbles in Spanish and is pissed, causing you to get scared and raise the thing that you held minutes ago for defense: "Hey..uhm, can I stay here for a while until I fix my gizmo?" he asks. You were about to say no, but your brain just said, If you say no, he will just stay here, but this time with a body to burry, so you automatically nodded and smiled weirdly. He looked at you confusedly and nodded.

So that's how you met Miguel Ohara; he's been staying for a week fixing his gizmo, and you two have been slowly getting close by Chatting for an hour or more, cracking jokes, and even baking a cupcake once for him. He is also helping you in your shop by entertaining your customers and helping you wrap some flowers. One time, when you were cooking adobo, you cut your hand because of how clumsy you are. You are more focused on your favorite series on TV than your work, causing you to cut your hand. When Miguel knew about this, he went full-time and scolded you about how you should be more focused on your work than your Series on TV, and since that day he has been with you in the kitchen, helping you and reminding you to focus on your work. There's one time when you are at your shop and you like to listen to your customers cute moments with their husband or boyfriend. It makes you happy and even fangirl when the quality time is wholesome. You heard him chuckle at the back, looking at you with loving eyes. "Wanna recreate it?" he said, looking at you, waiting for an answer, and well, you are flustered. "Just go back inside and watch something, you said, chuckling a bit. A week has turned into months, and you love spending time with him. You two act like a married couple, and sometimes the locals misunderstand that you two are married. "Ikaw Dai Ako pana e kasal na nako siya tanawa murag mo Bana ug Asawa aguy! "The old woman said to you as she bought the flower for her husband's grave, and what she said made you blush hard enough for the red to get Visible and giggle a little.

After a month of staying with you, Miguel finally fixed his Gizmo, but he doesn't want to leave you after all. You two got so close, but he has to return because someone out there needs him. He told you, and well, you didn't take it too well, but then again, you didn't force him to stay with you, so you have to learn to accept it. On the day that he was going to leave, you cried so much that your eyes are now puffy. "Don't worry, I promise you I'll visit, okay?" he said to you, which made you happy that he would visit, so you nodded, not able to stop your tears.

Once he was gone, your shop became gloomy, and your regular visitors asked where he was, but you always said that he went back home. At night, you waited for him every night, expecting him to come back into your arms again, but after days of waiting became weeks, weeks turned to months, and months turned to years, and on July 23rd, you gave up and tried to forget him, and you asked yourself, Why do you always wait for him? Why do you always have hope that he will actually come back? why? You ask yourself that, but the answer is quiet.

Miguel, in the meantime, once he is back at the headquarters, he tries to get back to you, but he can't, and he doesn't know why. He tries to find your Universe, but he can't for some reason. He even asks his AI, Layla, but even she can't find it. No matter how hard she tries, she just can't, but he doesn't give up; he asks Spider-Byte, even though she doesn't know until Spider-Byte has said something that pissed Miguel off.

"Maybe this Universe that you are looking for doesn't exist, or maybe her universe Vanished like a big crunch?"

He looked at her, pissed. "That's impossible! That universe exists! I even stayed there for a month! That's impossible!"

The truth is that he is scared. Maybe what she said is the truth; maybe your universe died; maybe... It vanished. He is scared, so he keeps trying until July 23rd, 3:45 a.m. He found the universe that you live in, but you were dead. You were stabbed to death late at night. because your door is not locked and you were sleeping on the couch, and you had your plate ready at the table near you waiting for him, but instead of Miguel, it was something else. It was death.

[vanchovvy]

uoouwwwgghhhthis kinda suucks but its ok. Hey guuys do u still rememebr acohnm@..????(these doodles are a bit old)

this was originally supposed to be shown to like 2 people bur i NEED people to see my baby theyby April Squar…… rrhg

sorry 4 bad quality…..gyulp!😓😓😓

also for context….

"writers love nota bene" is a reference to the "winners love winning" thing (wlnb and wlw) and its just women love nonbinary ya ya does that make sense?📝📝📝📝

lithios is april squares husband that ill elaborate on a future post (i probably wont) (#procrastinationsquad)

francis is the hexagon character

jasper is the 4th dimensional "tesseract"(actually a rotated tesseract iirc(i forgot what i was thinking when i was designing xem(they use he/xey)))gyeah hes part of the yuri squad

the 3 humanlike fellers at the top are eiren, april, and dorian if u couldnt tell

çiğdem is the 5th dimensional. thing?? question mark..?????? i havent written about çiğdem yet but i need to dothat. Umm

on the bottom left. i split dorian into 2 characters for fun. theres d cuboid and dorian cuboid. d cuboid is dorian if i took him seriously.

ohgyeah also a little note about dorian,,,yes the flaltland fixation was so strong i went thru and looked at all of the details. yes i know z sphere exists and they were the uhh. the actual guy that sent the raid hyeah.

ok so dorian actually INDIRECTLY effd up the y axis by ticking off z sphere or something i dont relly know how i forgotr…..or maybe z sphere was on his spheriod🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫(period)(sorry that was unfunny)

also some more doodles ^_^(these are more recent)

and this extra 2 bajillion year old squaresphere… sphuare……. quadsphWHATEVER YOU CALL IT THE A SPHERE X A SQUARE

ignore that its. tinted yellow/green??? not sure why it did that

and ybeah my a sphere headcanon design is different now cuz he just didnt give enough wacky iykwim

(he reminds me of teagan from dandys world here?)

somewhere in this post i have made a non deliberate mistake in an attempt to sound professional that i cannot fix and it will permanently stay in my head until the day i evaporate…… (cough coughthe first flatland post i made😓😓😓😓 sorry directed user….. *alternate* was NOT the right word)(also references under the ummmhh what do you call ittt the uhhh the keep readin g thing)

this post is too big and fat imo

sighssssss again with themistake. sorry i,mmmm still kinda nervous about posting on tumblr hahahahaaa…..(i say…loudly chewing on a cereal box)

Ok bye!