#railroad clock

[leafdoodles]

So ranchers in the same MCC.. and there’s a new western themed minigame.. yeah ok I’m normal about that.

[timetrek24]

🇺🇲 Step back in time to the fascinating world of horology with the Elgin B.W. Raymond Pocket Watch—a timepiece that embodies precision and craftsmanship!

🌟 The Elgin Watch Company has a storied history dating back to 1864, known for producing high-quality timepieces. The B.W. Raymond model, named after the company's investor and founder, Benjamin Wright Raymond, represents a pinnacle of American watchmaking during the early XXth century.

⏱️ The Elgin B.W. Raymond Pocket Watch was introduced in the late XIXth century and quickly gained acclaim for its accuracy and reliability. These watches were meticulously crafted with intricate movements and adorned with elegant designs, reflecting the craftsmanship of their era.

🕰 Benjamin W. Raymond's tenure as president of Elgin was marked by a commitment to excellence, and the B.W. Raymond Pocket Watch exemplifies this ethos. The watch was produced in various styles, including open-face and hunter-case models, catering to different preferences and needs.

⚙️ The movement of the Elgin B.W. Raymond Pocket Watch was celebrated for its precision. Many of these watches were equipped with high-grade movements, such as the 21-jewel and 23-jewel variants, offering exceptional timekeeping accuracy.

🚂 Beyond its technical prowess, the Elgin B.W. Raymond Pocket Watch holds historical significance. It was a popular choice among railroad workers, as its accuracy and reliability met the stringent requirements for railroad timekeeping.

⏳️ Today, the Elgin B.W. Raymond Pocket Watch remains a sought-after collector's item, cherished for its historical value and exquisite craftsmanship. Its legacy endures as a testament to the ingenuity and artistry of American watchmaking during the golden age of pocket watches.

📜 Whether displayed as a historical artifact or cherished as a functional timepiece, the Elgin B.W. Raymond Pocket Watch continues to captivate enthusiasts with its timeless elegance and enduring quality. Explore the heritage of Elgin and discover the allure of this iconic pocket watch!

[frankhightower]

Welcome to my world

This is a sequel to Mousetown Market, which Evian drew for me a year ago, and is honestly the first Artfight attack I ever conceived. I've depicted the canonical mousetown station, which is on the same line as the one in the Special Passenger YCH from the year before. I had to restart this one twice due to computer hardware trouble. Feels good to see it finished

[mthguy]

Grand Central Station, formally Grand Central Terminal, in New York City, was designed and built (1903–13) by Reed & Stem in collaboration with the firm of Warren & Wetmore. It is one of the world’s most beautiful railroad terminals.

A 14-foot-diameter Tiffany glass clock presides above the south-facing entrance and is atomically calibrated, so it always displays the correct time. Surrounding the Tiffany clock is the 1,500-ton, 48-foot-high Transportation statue.

The statue depicts three Roman gods watching over the people of New York. In the center stands Mercury, the god of merchants and travelers. On the left is Hercules, the god of strength and travel. On the right is Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and commerce. In choosing these three gods for the statue, artist Jules-Felix Coutan incorporated all aspects of travel and transportation coupled with artistic grace and beauty.

[retrocgads]

USA 1990

[my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction]

Pussy Magnet

Jake Lockley x GN!Reader • Rating: T •Masterlist• ao3• want to be tagged? | requestinfo• MK Bingo 2024 Masterlist• ko-fi •

Summary: Jake was always good with animals.

🌛For @moonknight-events MK Bingo Spring 2024 Event🌜

A/N: I'm so sorry I had to make this stupid joke, I'm-

Warnings: Terrible jokes, Jake stealing Steven and Marc's clothes, over use of italics, typos, not beta read, railroad sentences, please let me know if I've missed a warning!

Word Count: 567

You can’t help but smile as you glance over at Jake. You’re in the middle of speaking with your friend, whose home you’re currently in. She had invited you to a small barbeque, which had turned into an impromptu dinner party when the heavens had opened. 

There were only seven of you in total, so it wasn’t too overcrowded. 

While everyone else were seated on, or around the large armchair and settee in the living room, Jake was the exception. 

He was laying on his side, his hand outstretched under the bookcase, slowly coaxing your friend’s new kitten out of hiding. 

There was the largest, softest smile plastered over his face as the cat slowly inches forward and sniffed his fingers. 

He had been carefully befriending the kitten over the last forty minutes, taking it as a personal mission the second your friend mentioned she had a new kitten that was painfully shy around new people. 

She was a small thing, the runt of the litter, black and white with wide green eyes. Your friend and her partner had affectionately named her ‘Newspaper’.  

Slowly Newspaper crept closer to him, a few careful steps forward until she was completely out from under the bookshelf’s protection. She paused, watching Jake carefully before shuffling closer again. 

Your friend asks you a question and you turn back to her and the conversation around you. 

It’s about twenty minutes later that Jake comes and sits down next to you, grinning intently. 

You turn to him, raising an eyebrow playfully and his grin widens. 

He’s holding his shirt, a borrowed one from Steven, at an odd angle. Basically cradling it. Even if there wasn’t a bulge over his left chest it would be easy to work out why.

“What you got there?” You ask innocently. 

“Nothing.” He beams at you and leans closer, moving his shirt slightly to the side to show you Newspaper nestled against him and purring. 

You grin. 

“You think Marc’ll tell me off for getting cat hair on his t-shirt?” 

“Nah.” You shake your head. “He might tell you off for borrowing his clothes again, but not for the cat hair.”

Jake snorts. “Steven doesn’t mind when I do it.” 

You grin wider. 

“It’s Marc’s fault anyway for buying comfy clothes.” 

That makes you laugh. 

Newspaper moves a little in her sleep, tucking in closer to Jake. 

You pause for a moment, watching the kitten. A terrible joke pops into your head as if it was placed there by some unseen force. Part of you wonders if Khonshu is whispering in your ear, but then again Jake would have heard him too. 

“Jake…” You say as naturally as you can. 

“Hmm?” He glances up, clocking the silly expression on your face before you even get a chance to talk. 

You speak anyway. “You’re really good with animals…”

“Yeah.” He pins you with his deadpan gaze, ready for whatever corny joke you’re going to say next. 

“Some could say you’re a … pussy magnet.”

He snorts, breaking his nonchalant facade as quickly as he formed it and nudges you playfully in the arm with his shoulder. 

You expect an eye roll when he looks back at you, something along the lines of ‘that’s awful.’ But instead he smiles, silky smooth. “I have been told that in my time.” He waggled his eyebrows at you until you laughed and woke up the kitten. 

____________________________________________

Thank you for reading!

@pleasurebuttonwrites @raven-rk @campingwiththecharmings @alexxavicry @whatthefishh @romanarose @saturn-rings-writes @lonelyisamyw-0love @queerponcho @steven-grants-world  @eyelessfaces @angel-of-the-moons @minigirl87 @lunar-ghoulie @silvernight-m @autismsupermusicalassassin @apesarecuul @reallyrallyauthor @basicalyrandom @alwaysmicado @mangoslushcrush @marc-spectorr @soft-girl-musings @spxctorsslxt @novarosewood

If you'd like to be taken off the tag list please let me know here

[theresattrpgforthat]

Any low improv TTRPG's? as in low on the GM part, i would like to try some and see how it compares as I'm part of the improv scary crew

THEME: Low Improv Games.

Happy holidays folks! I'm going to try and get the last recommendation posts of the year out quickly, so you might get some more rec posts in the next two weeks!

As for this one friend, I tried to mix things up across game and genre, so I hope you find something you like!

Tunnels in White, by MeatCastle GameWare.

Old money siphoning new money from every corner of your city. An aging mansion, quiet and worn. An old corporation shifting its gaze from development to development, always hungry, always growing.

A warehouse bearing the name Singleton Solutions, small and unassuming in one of a hundred industrial parks like any other, takes in truckload after truckload but never sends anything out. It’s the same for the people. Sometimes, they arrive in towncars, other times in shuttle vans. None come out. Ever.

What you know is something strange is going on inside that warehouse and you are determined to discover what it is. What you cannot know is where and how far the mystery may take you.

Tunnels in White is an adventure for Liminal Horror, a modern-day horror OSR game about normal people being subjected to terrible things. A good number of adventures and mysteries written for these games come with locations, maps, factions, enemies and consequences for you to use as needed whenever your players enter a new location or attempt something dangerous.

I’m really interested in the use of these adventures for various OSR games, as the adventures seem to be what have most of the meat, rather than the rules. If you really want these games to sing, you’ll want your players to create characters that fit the kind of adventure that you’re presenting to the table - in this case, perhaps your characters all have loved ones who have gone missing recently. Once your players have character buy-in, they won’t need much prompting to delve deeper into the mystery, and the fact that Tunnels in White doesn’t have one single “correct” solution to the main problem means that your players’ actions will mean all the more.

I think I see this module as a stepping stone towards improv in that it gives you options to choose from, rather than a singular railroad to follow. What you’ll get out of this is a location that feels logically consistent and real to the players, while the story that happens will feel organic, and heavily dependant on what the group decides to do.

You can find more modules for Liminal Horror in the Tales from the Void Liminal Horror Jam.

The Doom of Macbeth, by leozingiannoni.

Famine. Execution. Oppression. Supernatural longevity that no one seems to quite understand or question. As King Macbeth’s reign approaches its 100th year, your knights receive a revelation in a dream.

It does not have to be like that. 

As an answer to prayers and cries, the god Lugh reveals to you the alternative realities that could be, if Macbeth is not allowed to move on with his coup. You wake up to 100 years in the past, before you were born. What will you do to stop this horrible future?

The Doom of Macbeth is a deep-dive into one of the most iconic plays of all time, where you fight  your way to avoid a future that seems inevitable. Using the Doomsday Clock mechanic found in Arc:Doom by momatoes, you simulate the feeling of the play creeping upon your characters, and must fight against it— or towards it. 

Using a narrative that is familiar to the GM and the players might be another way to enter a game without having to worry too much about improv. Even though this setting is only the size of a brochure, you and your crew can lean on your knowledge of the Scottish play to make things happen the way you want them to. In this version of the game, Macbeth succeeds in becoming a mad king, but you know that this can change, if you tweak the story.

One more thing: I think you might need Arc, by Momatoes, in order to play this game.

Kiss Me If You Can, by sdunnewold.

River is a notorious international art thief and cat burglar. Jules is a well-respected special agent in charge of art crimes. Jules is determined to find and bring River to justice. But maybe along the way… they'll kiss?

Kiss Me If You Can is a simple print and play two player cat and mouse romance game that you can play in under an hour. It features two unique decks of prompt cards, one for each character. Each turn you play a prompt card, answer its questions, maybe talk about a famous artist or painting, and get a little closer to justice and/or love.

Another two-player experience, Kiss Me If You Can feels very similar to games that are Descended from the Queen, in that the bulk of the game revolves around drawing cards and answering the prompts provided. You’ll come up with locations, personal motives, and reasons for your characters to end up getting closer to each-other, but the cards provide a lot of direction, so I don’t think I’d necessarily classify it as improv. If you want a cute romantic story about a will-they-won’t-they scenario, you might like Kiss Me If You Can.

Exalted Order of the Mystic Moose, by Jacob Marks.

The Mauvewoods. You can’t hope to see the crown of a mauvewood tree from the ground. It took a day just to climb to the top of the oldest trees. Look past the undergrowth and ghosts can be spotted on the old lumber paths. Every ghost you see used to live in a mauvewood tree. Knock on a healthy tree, and you just might hear a hollow wooden knock in answer.

This zine details a forest, a town, and a dungeon, all intended for use with the tabletop roleplaying game: Cairn. Explore a forest full of lumberjacks, maple syrup, and strange ghosts. Delve into an old mansion sinking into a marsh. Confront the Exalted Order Of The Mystic Moose.

Cairn has a few editions now: the link I’ve added to this entry is for the 2nd edition Warden’s Guide, and you can check out Yochai Gal’s creator page for both the Player’s Guide and the First Edition. This adventure has oodles of locations, three main factions, and a 20 room dungeon for your players to explore. Cairn feels like a very traditional fantasy game at its roots, but the Exalted Order of the Mystic Moose feels like like a unique take, with some flavour that feels very Boreal Forest to me.

Like many OSR adventures, this isn’t a linear adventure - instead is a series of connected locations and a broad description of things that are happening when the player group shows up. The setting has a natural conflict that is happening separately from the players’ choices or decisions, which will make the setting feel more real and important to your play.

If you want to explore more adventures for Cairn, you can check out the A Town, A Forest, A Dungeon Jam!

Totally Killer, by bloodygorgeous.

When you were kids, all the girls—and, certainly, some of the boys—wanted a Chrissy, the only fashion doll to give Barbie a run for her money. Chrissy was designed to be the woman every girl dreamed of becoming: stylish, smart, independent, and, most importantly, a total smokeshow. For a while, shelves exploded with Out of This World Astronaut Chrissies. Protect and Serve Policewoman Chrissies. ’80s prom queen Totally Killer Chrissies. Chrissy could do anything, all while her boyfriend Ben waited at home. Chrissy could have it all. Decades later, as Chrissy fever descends again on Deep Lake, a murderer stalks the night. The police have their theories, but only the Latchkeys suspect the truth: that this killer has long legs, an unstoppable smile, and a passion for fashion. Chrissy has come to life, and she’s come to slay.

Public Access is horror-mystery found-footage style game that relies on pre-written mysteries to give the table an organic approach to role-play. While typically PbtA games are considered very high in improv, I think the mystery format of these kinds of games takes a lot of weight off of the GM’s shoulders. Typically these mysteries provide a very strong starting point, introducing the table to the mystery and some key characters to look to for hints and clues. The GM is also provided with a series of clues to drop into the game where relevant - perhaps a headless doll is found where one of the victims went missing, or a mysterious silhouette lurking in the distance.

These kinds of games also typically come with some kind of track to help monitor both the progress of the latch-keys as well ask heighten the stakes to encourage the story to keep moving. In other games, I know that this track is called the mystery clock. I’m not entirely sure what Public Access uses, but the core rulebook looks to have quite a bit hidden within its pages, so I’m confident that it contains everything you need to run your first game.

You can find more mysteries for Public Access in the Degoya County Public Access Jam.

Auctōrātus, by M. Allen Hall.

You know why you are here. You are not a criminal. You are not a slave. You are an auctōrātus, a volunteer, and you will be paid well for your performance. Make sure your mech is ready. Select your components. Charge your batteries. Be prepared for the fight of your life.

Auctōrātus��is a 1- or 2-gladiator game of mechs vs. monsters. The 3 files include the one-page (2-sided) rules sheet, the character sheet, and the map of the arena.

Battle monsters over six rounds to win the tournament. From the lowly Scale Wolf to the monstrous Crescent Wyvern, you will need to carefully choose your mech's components if you want to survive. 

Featuring a diceless, zero-luck mechanism,  Auctōrātus is an experiment in tabletop combat. Since this is a one or two-player game that focuses primarily on strategy, you might find a lot of satisfaction in simply immersing yourself in strategy. You can play the game solo and manage everything yourself, or play as two players who take turns playing the monsters in each person’s respective arenas.

A Good Plan Never Fails, by Deric Bindel.

A GOOD PLAN NEVER FALLS is a one-shot, gm-less roleplaying game for 2-5 players focused on infiltrating a TOWER and making off with THE GOODS held within. The group builds up with a tumbling block game, with each move taking everyone closer to collapse or success!

Over the course of play, everyone will create a member of the Crew from a set of Archetypes and receive a special Secret Agenda, dictating how they get their BONUS. You'll be bulding up the TOWER, dictating each obstacle and how you overcome them. When the TOWER inevitably COLLAPSES, it's time to shift from the HEIST to the GETAWAY!

A really strong feature of pulp-action genre games is that they’re typically heavily inspired by movies, like heists or cons. This means that the game has a pretty familiar structure, such as the infiltration or the getaway. You can rely on the hallmarks of these genres when playing these kinds of games to fill in the blanks, and it’s easy to figure out what happens next because the game builds each phase onto the last. In the case of this game, that means that the first part of the game, building the tower, leads into the second part, when the tower collapses.

Kill Him Faster, by Korvidae Games.

On May 8th, 2068, scientist Elisabet Rosenzweig answered the most pressing question in science fiction – “what’s the first thing you would do if you could travel through time?” - by killing Hitler. It took her precisely 5 years, 137 days, eight hours, and 12 seconds.

Fifteen years later killing Hitler is the hottest sport on the planet. The record stands at two weeks.

Competitive games are another great structure for play groups that want to build on something without needing a lot of heavy improv. In Kill Him Faster, the game is divided into three phases: pregame, game, and post-game, each composed of press conferences, the competitive portion, and interviews. There’s various additional phases for a longer game, including Trade Day (where athletes swap teams) and off-season vignettes, which allow you to slow down and focus on individual characters.

If you want a taste of the game before you buy, you can get the rules preview here.

Other Notes

A Complicated Profession by Always Checkers Publishing has a lot of guiding questions and a very structured order of play, and follows reformed bounty hunters running a cruise ship.

Tournament Arc, by Biscuit Fund Games, focuses on sports competitions, which may provide a structure that is easy to follow, as well as a more collaborative experience.

If you like what I do and you'd like to send me a token of your appreciation, I have a Ko-Fi page!

[loveinhawkins]

There isn’t a strike of lightning, no grand epiphany that clues Steve in.

It just comes down to this: he knows Dustin Henderson.

Knows how he looks when confronted with a problem he desperately wants to solve.

“Fuck this,” he��s saying through gritted teeth, pushing down hard on the gaping wound across Steve’s abdomen; he’s doing everything right, Steve thinks with pride, but it’s not enough.

It’s not his fault.

Steve says as much.

But Dustin isn’t listening; he’s just muttering to himself, “Not again,” over and over.

And Steve suddenly feels like he did when dropping the quarter into The Indiana Flyer—the moment just before the song played, already knowing what he would hear.

“Not again?” Steve asks very quietly.

Dustin’s mouth snaps shut. His face is chalk white, and there’s more than just fear in his eyes; there’s guilt too, guilt and a responsibility he should never have to bear.

Steve wants to take it from him.

He lifts his hand, grunting with the effort, and ruffles Dustin’s hair. “Oh, bud,” he murmurs, “you’ve kept trying, huh?”

Dustin’s eyes fill with tears.

Steve tries to hush him, breathing turning shallow from the pain.

“Hey, you—you’ve g-gotta hand it to me, man,” Steve says through a faint smile. “Was… on the right track, y’know? O-obsessed with clocks.”

Dustin gasps out a laugh. It ends on a sob.

“Shut up,” he says, and that’s all—no clever comeback, nothing, even though he always has one.

Steve’s heart breaks for him.

“How many times?” Steve says, but he doesn’t need a reply; he knows enough just from the way Dustin is shaking.

“I—” Dustin swallows, shakes his head. “I don’t…” Oh, Steve thinks, his kid is tired.

“C’mere.” He cups the back of Dustin’s head. “Everyone… everyone else make it?”

Dustin starts to cry.

It’s an answer of its own.

“Shh. Hey. That’s… you can stop now.” Steve pats the back of Dustin’s hand, stills the pressure on his wound. “Listen. Just… just let it run this time. Hey, it’s okay, Dustin. It’s okay.”

“It’s n-not okay, Steve, how can you—”

“Shh,” Steve says again, and maybe this is as much for him as it is for Dustin; he doesn’t want their last conversation to be a fight. He looks into Dustin’s eyes. Smiles. “Christ, I’m so proud of you.”

It doesn’t cover everything he wants to say; there’s not enough time.

I loved growing up with you. I’m sorry. I wanted to be there for you forever.

“Fuck you,” Dustin says, young and angry and so afraid. “Don’t say you’re proud of me, asshole, just don’t—”

Don’t go.

“Okay, fine. You’re a smartass,” Steve drawls, and Dustin lets out a choked giggle before grief takes over again.

“God,” he says, “this isn’t fucking fair. I sh-shouldn’t have to choose—this is—”

“Bullshit,” Steve agrees. “That’s not on you, man. Not your fault if the game’s rigged.”

Dustin closes his eyes.

It’s not so bad, Steve tells himself. He can just… rest for a couple seconds, tell Dustin to get outta here, then…

A faint chime.

Dustin’s eyes open. There’s a sudden gleam to them, shining through the fatigue. Determination.

Hope, despite everything.

“Well then,” Dustin says, “s’a good thing I’m a smartass.”

And then he’s running.

Steve manages to lift his head up with a cry, gets to see Dustin reach a grandfather clock ensnared with vines, because of course he’s not gonna listen to him, he’s such a little shit, and Steve loves him so much—

Dustin reaches up to the glass in front of the clock face, smashes it with his hand.

The world turns white.

The last thing Steve sees is Dustin turning to him with a shaky grin, mouthing, “One more.”

And Steve’s still terrified, but he also thinks of the world’s most stubborn, brilliant kid with a wonky compass, of how many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys just trust me?

It’s a walk along the railroad tracks, stumbling into each other’s lives; it’s just get ready, and you die, I die; it’s being trapped under Starcourt, and Steve left with the one thing that all the drugs, all the pain in the world could not take away from him.

The absolute faith that Dustin would figure something out.

[chefkids]

The Bear's Magic Tricks: From Dreams to Love Stories to Trainwrecks to Alien Motherships

The Bear Episode 9 Apologies starts of with a montage of magic and movies. The scene begins with a black screen reflecting ourselves onto it. Because this scene is about addressing us directly, as viewers and observers of the show itself and the process of filmmaking and creating magical unexpected moments within the show. It's Martin Scorsese in an interview talking about the movie Hugo.

Hugo is about an orphaned boy living in a train station, who is in charge of winding up the clocks. He likes fixing things because he believes everything has a purpose. That life is like a machine and there are no extra parts, because everything has a role. He ends up fixing a machine that his dad left him, that draws a scene from his movie A Trip to the Moon. He finds that it was made by magician turned filmmaker Georges Méliès, a real life person, that is known for being an earlier adapter of cinema and inventing 'trick films' and special effects.

We then fall into Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo dream sequence and from there it blends into a dancing scene from The Red Shoes. Both of these scenes use 'tricks' and special effects to create the illusion of the man falling and the woman flying and being transparent like a ghost. Vertigo is about Scottie, a former police officer with a fear of heights, who is tasked with keeping an eye out on a wealthy man's wife, Madeleine. He falls in love with her and then witness her commit suicide by jumping off a church tower and is distraught because he feels like his fear of heights stopped him from saving her.

Then he encounters Judy, a woman that looks very similar to Madeleine, and he tries to change her to look and act more like Madeleine by buying her the same clothes and dying her hair. In the end he discovers that Judy and Madeleine are the same person and that Judy was part of a murder scheme for the real Madeleine and was tricking Scottie all along. But Judy also ends up falling to her death on accident.

The Red Shoes is about Victoria, a ballerina at Ballet Lermontov, who is told that she has to choose between her dance career and her love for Julian, a composer, when the director of the company fires him. She chooses Julian at first, but is unfulfilled when she has to give up dancing, so she goes back to the ballet to Lermontov, who is secretly in love with her. In the end she tries to go back to Julian, but dies by falling to her death from a balcony onto a train, because the red shoes are said to have a mind of their own and tricked her.

Something else is existing there, I don't know what. But there's something happening, it's not part of our normal day, literal nature of how we live.

We then see another shot from Vertigo, of Scottie spying on Madeleine at a flower shop, that places us viewers once again like voyeurs within the episode. Then a shot from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a movie about UFO sightings and alien abductions, where a man, Roy, witnesses a UFO at a railroad crossing.

The shot from Vertigo is of Judy in her hotel room after Scottie took her to dinner and brought her home. In that scene she calls him out on only being with her because she reminds him of Madeleine. The scene from Close Encounters is when the aliens return the people they took from Earth. At the end of the movie Roy leaves with the aliens on the mothership because he wants to learn more about them and what is really happening. The Red Shoes and Vertigo are both love stories filled with deceptions and surrealist moments. But we are like Roy, witnessing something that we can't completely explain, that is out of the normal, that not everyone can see or believe in. But Roy from the very start of the movie told us that he enjoys magic.

But we're trying to create something different.

Then we see a shot of Méliès' A Trip to the Moon as it turns into a coin spinning, Victoria from The Red Shoes turning while dancing in the spotlight, Madeleine from Vertigo's hairstyle that spirals onto itself, a UFO sighting from Close Encounters, the staircase from Vertigo then Scottie waking up from his dream sequence. Like the very first episode when Carmy wakes up from his nightmare to a bright circular light.

The symbols of Vertigo's spirals and The Red Shoes ballerinas can be seen in Sydney's own t-shirts in Season 2 and 3.

We then see a series of magic tricks and illusions like a man standing on woman's hand, levitating a table and a woman, and boots walking themselves away and a lot of other clips from Méliès' trick films. There's a shot from The Red Shoes of a dancer turning into Lermontov then turning into Julian, then Victoria runs into him, as she is torn between choosing between her career and love, it creates the illusion of her being in front of the movie screen as she runs towards him, breaking the fourth wall within the movie. The Bear is being upfront and honest to us about what tricks they are trying to pull right in front of our faces. They are telling us they have been tricking us.

The Red Shoes is essentially the journey that both Sydney and Carmy are on, but in different ways. Carmy believes he has to give up amusement and enjoyment and love in order to be successful as a Chef and get a star, but he is also trying to get a star out of love for Syd that he isn't fully aware of or willing to admit to himself. Meanwhile Syd is stuck trying to decide if it's worth leaving people she loves in order to be more successful at her career and make a name for herself. Like Vertigo, The Bear itself is trying to make one woman (Claire) fit the mold of another woman (Sydney) by dressing her the same and having Carmy give her what Sydney likes and take her where Sydney has been.

This magic dream like sequence is really an explanation for this entire season and previous ones. They are telling us directly as the audience the tricks they have up their sleeves. Carmy is stuck in a dream weave.

More on clocks, trains, dream weave, ghosts, hauntings, the fourth wall, sleight of hands, Hugo, Vertigo, The Red Shoes, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to come...

[museofthepyre]

I am thinking about trains… how they’re often used in literature to symbolize a transitional period… how some sources, like Over The Garden Wall, use them to represent the transitional period between life and death.

Thinking about the train in The Clock of Meantime…

The one Jedidiah stands watching alongside the conductor… the same day train which had been rushing by for hours, long and unending, too many train cars for Jedidiah to count without losing track…

The symbol of a transitional period which never ends…? A train in perpetual motion, never stopping, stuck in a liminal state between destinations? And the conductor, an agent (?), with his “railroad uprooting eyes”…

Hmmmmmmm…

Centipedes kinda remind me of trains. With their many segments strung together in a single file line, chugging forward on many limbs/ wheels… hmmmmmmm….

[thebeast-dennis-etcetera]

Girls Night

“You owe me 200!”

“Fine! Just take all my money!”

You laughed, throwing the paper money at her and taking a sip of your wine. It was safe to say that you sucked at playing Monopoly. Ellie had ownership of all the railroads and utilities, Abby had at least 2 hotels on each of her properties, and Alex spent most of her time in jail.

It still wasn’t a match for you, who had 25 dollars to your name, 2 properties that only generated around 30.00 total in rent, and would miss the free parking space every chance you got. When your time came and you rolled the cursed dice, the Monopoly Gods decided to end your pathetic gaming reign by putting you in jail.

“Alright, well I’m out,” you stated defeatedly, taking a long sip of wine as your confirmation.

“Aw, it’s alright Y/N. Maybe you’ll do better the next game!” Abby tried but you shook your head with a quickness.

“Absolutely not. Not only is this game rigged to make me realize how terrible of a homeowner I am, but it lasts forever! Alex knows, she’s been in jail for the last three turns.”

“Hey, I don’t mind it. I just collect all my rent money while I’m in here,” Alex retorted.

You laughed as you heard the front door open and saw Jethro walk in with a grocery bag and a bottle of whiskey. You got up from your spot immediately, happy to see him home finally and walked over as he set the stuff down on the kitchen counter. He had let the team go home earlier in the night but told you he needed to stay behind to do some paperwork on their latest case. Abby was the first one to suggest the girls game night and it didn’t take much convincing of Ellie or Alex when the promise of wine, snacks, and a warm fire were included.

“Hey hun. You just missed my embarrassing defeat in Monopoly. Remind me to never play this game with your team again, they’re entirely too good. And I think Abby’s been hiding all the good chance cards up her sleeve.”

He chuckled as you gave him a welcome home kiss and started noisily poking around in the goods he had brought home.

“Ooh. Chips, dip and whiskey? You trying to butter me up sir?”

He smiled and pried the bottle from your hands. “Whiskeys mine. And it sounds to me like you’re already buttered up,” he teased softly, not wanting his special agents to hear your two’s playful PDA. With another small kiss, he walked out to the group of girls and surveyed the real estate war.

“Doing well Abbs. Bishop, I like your strategy. And Quinn, stop hiding in jail.”

“I’m not hiding! I’m just taking my time,” she defended as everyone laughed.

“I’ll be downstairs if you girls need me. Good night.”

They called out their farewells as he made his way into his little woodworking dungeon and you took your spot back, bringing the new snacks with you.

“Alright Banker Abby. I need a loan,” you pleaded.

————

The clock read 11 pm once the girls left and you cleaned up your game space. In the end, it was Ellie who won, most likely due to her incredible NSA analysis skills and you had ended up with at least more than the small loan Banker Abby gave you. Once you put all the furniture back and glassware in the dishwasher, you made your way downstairs to see Jethro.

There was light country music and a muted tv playing as you watched him slowly move the sandpaper over his newest project. He had finished the boat a while back and offered to build you some beautiful planter boxes for the garden you wanted to start once spring came around.

It was always a treat for you when you watched him work. His movements were smooth and calculated, knowing just how much pressure to apply or what angle to use and seeing him wearing his tool belt and covered in sawdust just did it for you.

“You gonna stand there all night?” he called out with a smirk.

Walking over, you hopped up on one of the counters and took a small sip of his mason jar whiskey, slightly cringing at the taste.

“You know who would be really great for Ellie? Nick. I think their different personalities would really even each other out.”

“Rule number 12, sweetheart.”

You rolled your eyes at his comment. Since when do any of his subordinates follow it, including himself. You knew all about his past with the director and Sloan, he wasn’t fooling anyone.

“Rule number 83. Don’t be a hypocrite,” you quipped, making up your own rule.

He gave you the look that you see from him to his team all the time but it didn’t work on you so you just smiled cheekily back at him. He stopped sanding and came over, taking the glass from your hands and finishing the awful brown liquor, your arms snaking around his neck. He smelt like a lumbermill mixed with a distillery and you loved it. You loved it even more when you pulled him in for a kiss and tasted the leftover vapors of his whiskey on his tongue. The effect of drinking your 3 glasses of wine had you feeling warm and fuzzy and made Jethro’s touch electric.

When you two pulled away, he tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear before speaking. “Let’s go to bed.”

Not needing any convincing, you nodded and he helped you down, taking off his toolbelt and carelessly dropping it on one of the tables before following you back upstairs.

[yoursweetvalo]

List of books and movies mentioned by Acchan!

Might post an anime version of this soon <3

BOOKS:

仮面の告白 “Confessions of a Mask” by Yukio Mishima (1949)

生きるヒント “Living Tips” by Itsuki Hiroyuki (1993)

斜陽 “The Setting Sun”  by Osamu Dazai (1947)

“The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde (1890)

こころ”Heart” by Natsume Soseki (1914)

“Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)

人間失格“No Longer Human” by Osamu Dazai (1948)

死霊“Death Spirits” by Yutaka Haniya (1948)

猫鳴り “Neko Nari” by Numata Mahokaru (2007)

“Coin Locker Babies” by Ryu Murakami (1980)

グロテスク “Grotesque” by Natsuo Kirino (2003)

“Notes from Underground” by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1864)

“The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1879-1880)

“Salomé” by Oscar Wilde (1891)

破局 “Catastrophe” by Tono Haruka (2020)

新宿鮫 “Shinjuku Shark” by Arimasa Osawa (1990)

堕落論 “Discourse on Decadence” by Ango Sakaguchi (1946)

五分後の世界 “The World Five Minutes from Now” by Ryu Murakami (1994)

*Manga*悪魔の花嫁 “Bride of Deimos” by Etsuko Ikeda, illust. By Yuuho Ashibe (1974-1990)

九月が永遠に続けば “To Continue Forever in September” by Numata Mahokaru (2005)

彼女がその名を知らない鳥たち “Birds Without Names” by Numata Mahokaru (2006)

銀河鉄道の夜 “Night on the Galactic Railroad” by Kenji Miyazawa (1927)

怒り”Rage” by Shuichi Yoshida (2014)

悪人 “Villain” by Shuichi Yoshida (2007)

MOVIES:

The Green Mile by Frank Darabont (1999)

Bohemian Rhapsody by Bryan Singer (2018)

The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola (1972)

Pierrot the Fool by Jean-Luc Godard (1965)

The Elephant Man by David Lynch (1980)

老ナルキソス Old Narcissus by Tsuyoshi Shouji (2023)

時計は生きていたThe Clock was Alive by Seijiro Kouyama (1973)

The Mission by Roland Joffé (1986)

Poongsan by Juhn Jai-Hong (2011)

Midnight FM by Kim Sang-man (2010)

Pusher by Nicolas Winding Refn (1996)

Misery by Rob Reiner (1990)

From Paris with Love by Pierre Morel (2010)

異人たちとの夏 The Discarnates by Nobuhiko Obayashi (1988)

Purple Noon by René Clément (1960)

Bonnie and Clyde by Arthur Penn (1967)

狂い咲きサンダーロード Crazy Thunder Road by Gakuryuu Ishii (1980)

Undo by Shunji Iwai (1994)

犬神家の一族  The Inugami Family by Kon Ichikawa (1976)

The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont (1994)

The Brave by Johnny Depp (1997)

Antartica (Nankyoku Monogatari) by Koreyoshi Kurahara (1983)

Here is the link to my actual twitter thread, I update it every time I run into a new book or movie he has mentioned! The information to make this list was taken from several inerviews, radio programs, and even some of the Fish Tank Bulletins. If you know any other book/movie he has mentioned but is not here, do not hesitate to let me know!

ENJOY!

[timetrek24]

🇺🇲🤝🇨🇭 The BALL Trainmaster Standard Time is a timepiece that merges classic elegance with modern functionality! Crafted by BALL Watch Company, it pays tribute to the iconic railway timekeeping systems that once governed the schedules of trains worldwide.

🚂 Currently BALL Watch Company SA is a Swiss luxury watch company based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. But originally it was founded in 1891 by Webb C. Ball in Cleveland, Ohio, and is deeply linked to American railroad history.

⌚️ Inspired by the golden age of rail travel, the Trainmaster Standard Time embodies the spirit of precision and reliability. With its distinctive design and timeless aesthetic, this exceptional timepiece captures the essence of vintage railway pocket watches, exuding sophistication and charm.

⚙️ Engineered to withstand the demands of the railway environment, the watch features a high-precision movement, ensuring accurate timekeeping even in challenging conditions. Whether worn by contemporary explorers or enthusiasts of horological history, this watch seamlessly combines tradition with cutting-edge technology.

⏱️ The name "Standard Time" harks back to the introduction of standardized timekeeping practices in the 19th century, revolutionizing the way people synchronized their schedules and travel plans.

🌟 Whether adorning your wrist on a daily commute or a grand adventure, this exceptional timepiece stands as a symbol of precision and sophistication.

[rockyteriyaki]

TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES 👯

s/o to @powerful-owl for starting this meme and @disarmd for the insanely funny contribution, it’s such a delightful thought exercise! here’s my attempt:

MASCOTS!

american sports have hella mascots, so every team is tasked to create a marketable mascot that could represent them for u.s fans. they also have to build a little model to pitch the concept. there’s the williams whale sharks. the aston martin martinis. lando and oscar devise a walking papaya named penny who looks so much like a vulva oscar backs out almost instantly.

GUESS THE GRID based on clothing choices: drivers assemble an outfit they’d wear and then everyone else tries to guess who picked what. the catch is that the f1a girls did the same challenge and their answers are mixed in as well. everybody thinks doriane’s mercedes-themed picks are george’s and maya gets confused for charles even though there’s no ferrari branding to be seen. chloe’s picked a haas cap with a black skirt and we watch nico hulkenberg go through every emotion known to man trying to figure out why kevin would—???

(meanwhile the academy grid is absolutely ripping everybody’s style choices to shreds, accusing hamda of being the most basic bitch on the planet bc max chose to wear basketball shorts, etc)

PADDOCK SCAVENGER HUNT

5 teams are in on it and the other 5 can’t know what’s going on, otherwise they lose points. charles pretends that he’s too tired to walk when pierre catches him searching the top of a cabinet on carlos’ shoulders. oscar distracts williams while lando tries to get a picture of logan with red, white and blue objects in the background. yuki gets stranded on top of the rbr motorhome because daniel won’t stop using him for reconnaissance and the whole thing gets called off because max sees them squabbling on the roof and thinks the rapture has arrived.

GEORGE AND ALEX MAKE GRAPHICS

ib george’s natural talent for graphic design. the audience gets to see what a communications team actually does in motorsport (educational!) and george and alex get free reign of the entire library of press photos of eachother. george is hunting for a terrible picture of alex to edit onto a podium but ends up having a very verbal crisis about how none of the pap shots are appropriately bad and then spends the next half an hour digging himself into theeee deepest hole talking about how it’s just not as FUNNY if alex looks TOO GOOD on the podium! it would be UNFAIR! alex is squirming and trying to remember where tf he was planning on going with this zoomed-in great-gatsby-esque picture of george’s eyelids on his screen right now. george silently edits alex’s teeth out of his mouth and tries to erase the fact that he just called alex handsome like 47 times.

MARIO KART SIM RACING

im talking full immersion. sherbet land is ice fucking cold. every time they drive over some kind of giant clock or railroad or something the sim porpoises like a jackhammer. someone is standing behind them with a full tank of water for the splash sections. there’s a legitimate epilepsy warning at the start of the video. bowser puts the fear of god into lando norris.

MAX AND DANIEL DO TEMPORARY TATTOOS

i’m hesitant to allow them access to a bowl of water but i have an extremely clear vision of daniel slapping tats all over the blank spaces on his skin to the point where they overlap and he’s just got shiny plasticky tattoo skin everywhere. max would find this unappealing and also stupid until he realizes all the fake tattoos on his side of the table are replicas of daniel’s actual ones. cut to: daniel with a snake tattoo stuck in his eyebrow hairs hiking his shorts up so max can mirror the placement on his own inner thigh. daniel resembling a concussed post malone, watching max’s careful application of the ‘3’ tattoo. max does a horrible aussie accent and daniel looks like a chimpanzee seeing its own reflection for the first time. cinema.

[mollywog]

🦮 Sinister Innocence

I loved your summary for this fake fic and I'd love to read a snippet if you're inspired!

So glad you asked @thesunpersists!!

Summary: When an ill-fated camping trip results in the death of Sylvia Fox, Attorney Katniss Everdeen must prove that Sylvia’s death was a result of a series of unfortunate events and not the calculated planning of her boyfriend, Peeta Mellark. But as court case heats up, so does the tension between attorney and client. Can Katniss prove to the court (and herself) that Peeta’s an innocent man or will she be his next victim?

~~~ Snippet 1 ~~~

“Fucking idiots,” she mumbles into her bite of English muffin as she watches the news where the anchor reports about a pair of campers missing in the Appalachian mountains. They must have gone off the beaten path to get the ‘real experience’ and gotten lost. Happened all the time… but usually not to the granddaughter of a old railroad tycoon so this was getting attention.

She half listens as the reporter ambles on: They’d left on a Saturday and when they hadn’t returned for work on Monday an all out manhunt had begun. Searches had been hindered by the relentless spring rain.

Katniss had little hope for the pair, and quiet honestly little sympathy: Some people just weren’t meant for the wilderness.

But then a picture of the pair flashes on the screen. She fumbles for the remote, pausing the program before the image disappears. The man’s face fills her screen.

Oh no. Not him.

~~~ Snippet 2 ~~~

“Peeta, you’re going to have to work with us here,” Haymitch says. “You discover your girlfriend is cheating on you and your answer is to propose?”

“You don’t understand what it was like with her — with us,” Peeta pleads.

“Please explain then, because I doubt a jury of your peers will understand either.”

He huffs, “Sylvia wanted an engagement, had given me an ultimatum and deadline. The thing with Crane was just to show me she was serious this time— that she already had a backup plan for if I didn’t come through. She always played these games. I mean we all know her grandfather.”

“And you were volunteering for that till death do you part?” Haymitch mocks.

Katniss watches as Peeta’s eyes flash and nostrils flare. He drops his gaze down to the coffee cup he’s gripping dangerously tight.

She knows Haymitch has clocked it as well; it’s part of his process. He’s usually so easy going and mild despite the circumstances and Katniss wonders if there’s enough of that anger under the facade to have really killed Sylvia. Haymitch says it doesn’t matter, except in that they’ll need to work on it If Peeta wants to testify in his own defense. But Katniss wants to— no, needs know for certain.

Peeta takes a few breaths before continuing, “I know how stupid this all looks— how stupid I look. I’ve had to a lot of therapy since then and can see how wrong it all was, but at the time I just thought: When you love someone you take the good with the bad.

“I thought if we got away; from Crane and her grandfather’s influence and if I did what she wanted, we could reset.”

~~~ Snippet 3 ~~~

She heads towards the conference room. The past few days of prep had gone well. She and Haymitch had been grilling him in preparation for the cross examination and were in a groove.

But Haymitch is waiting outside the door. “Hold up sweetheart,” he says blocking her entrance. “Kid’s asked to prep with me alone.”

~~~ Snippet 4 ~~~

She’s feeling good about the case… hopeful even. Like they may be able to win and that maybe, just maybe there might be a future afterwards.

She’s lost her place in her brief, daydreaming when her ringing phone jolts her back to the present.

It’s Beetee from the lab and when she answers he begins without preamble, “Analysis of Miss. Fox’s stomach contents are in: Dried meat and fruit, nuts.”

Perfect - Everything checks with Peeta’s account. All good news.

“but there was one interesting thing. We also found: [latin plant name].”

Katniss’s stomach drops, her mouth goes dry. “Nightlock,” she whispers.

“That’s right; So you’re familiar? Highly toxic. Victim was likely dead within moments of swallowing.”

“But her toxicology came back normal?” She reasons.

“Toxicology only covers the usual things unless otherwise ordered. I’ll put in a request now to confirm.”

“Put a rush on it and call as soon as you know.”

Katniss slumps in her chair. So Sylvia was dead before she’d ever left the cliff ledge.

[dcwildwestfest]

The Prodigal

By FriendofCarlotta | @friendofcarlotta Art by aggiedoll | @romachebella

Coming to Ao3 on April 18th, 2024

Rated E | 19,500 words | No Archive Warnings Apply

Dean Winchester travels the wide-open country, looking for bounties to collect and doing odd jobs to make ends meet. Usually, he rides with his brother Sam, but they’ve had a falling-out and now Dean’s all by himself — until he meets Cas Novak, a preacher’s son in search of his missing father. Cas believes his notorious outlaw brother Luke knows something of their father’s disappearance, so he asks Dean’s help in tracking Luke down. Dean figures there’s no harm in helping out, and he might earn himself Luke Novak’s bounty into the bargain. All Dean needs to do is keep a lid on his growing feelings for Cas. (aka Free to Be You and Me, rewritten as a Western)

[Keep reading for a sneak preview!]

When they locate the sheriff’s office, they find the jail cell empty and the lawman tossing playing cards into his hat, which is sitting upside down on a chair across the room. A couple of Wanted posters are tacked up on the wall, edges curling up in slow rebellion where the glue’s gone too dry to hold them.

“Afternoon,” Dean says, with a nod and a tip of his finger against his hat brim. “Slow day?”

The sheriff shrugs, unperturbed at having been caught slacking off. “Every day’s a slow day ‘round here, brother.”

Cas pipes up from next to Dean with a breathless, “It’s an honor to meet an esteemed colleague. Being a man of the law myself, I mean to say. It’s an honorable profession, albeit a—”

“He’s new,” Dean says, desperate to cut off Cas’ nervous rambling before it rouses even this sleepy small-town lawman’s suspicions.

The sheriff emits an acknowledging grunt, eyeing Cas dubiously. “Name’s Lafitte. How can I help y’all ‘esteemed colleagues’?” He grins at them, sun glinting off a gold tooth.

Dean arranges his face into an expression of pained concern. “Our town’s preacher went missing some weeks back and we’ve reason to believe the outlaw Luke Novak is the one who took him.”

Lafitte’s eyes flick back and forth between them. “Where did y’all say you were from? Gotta be a mighty big place, to be able to spare both the sheriff and a deputy so’s they can chase after a preacher.”

Damn it all. Lafitte is much more shrewd than Dean expected a small-town lawman to be. “Hatsville, Missouri,” he improvises. “New town. Lots of railroad money.” Cas seems inclined to weigh in as well, perhaps to expound on the various attractive qualities of the fictitious Hatsville, so Dean hurriedly changes the subject. “About Novak. Heard he mighta passed near here recently. That true?”

The sheriff weighs him with a lengthy glance before he allows, “True enough. Didn’t come through Jubilee, but they say he robbed a train no more’n three miles from here. Most excitement we had in town was that no-account drunk Walt, claimin’ he met Novak on the trail and got his poker winnings taken. You ask me, it’s likely as not Walt stole the money in the first place. Wouldn’t be the—”

“Where can this Walt be found?” Cas asks, with the eagerness of a man who’s new to the hunt and getting a taste for it. Dean bites down on a smile.

Lafitte regards Cas with some disfavor, obviously not best pleased at having had his account interrupted. “Chances are, he’s at the saloon, trying to talk his way into a bottle of whiskey on credit he ain’t got.”

A man with information they need, desperate for a drink — hard to do better than that. “Much obliged,” Dean tells the sheriff and, with another tip of his hat, leads the way back outside. Somewhere down the street, high above the low-slung rooftops, the town clock strikes two.