#retired designs 2014

[jellycatsdaily]

Jellycat of the Day | 15th April 2024

↳ Muggly Anteater | 2014 Retired Design

"A nose for adventure!"

[darkforestwarriors]

um listen the last time i drew doc was literally in 2014 but i am coming OUT of retirement for hot hades doc lol

design by @mbohjeezart

[mostlysignssomeportents]

When parties fail, movements step up

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

Does anyone like the American two party system? The parties are opaque, private organizations, weak institutions that are prone to capture and corruption, and gerrymandering's "safe seats" means that the real election often takes place in the party's smoke-filled rooms, when a sure-thing candidate is selected:

https://doctorow.medium.com/weak-institutions-a26a20927b27

But there doesn't seem to be any way to fix it. For one thing, the two parties are in charge of any reform, and they're in no hurry to put themselves out of business. It's effectively impossible for a third party to gain any serious power in the USA, and that's by design. After the leftist Populists party came within a spitting distance of power in the 1890s, the Dems and Repubs got together and cooked the system, banning fusion voting and erecting other structural barriers.

The Nader and Perot campaigns were doomed from the outset, in other words. Either candidate could have been far more popular than the D and R on the ballot, and they still would have lost. It's how the deck is stacked, and to unstack it, reformers would need to take charge of at least one – and probably both – of the parties.

But that's not cause for surrender – it's a call to action. In an interview with Seymour Hersh, Thomas Frank (Listen, Liberal) sets out another locus of power, one with the potential to deliver control over the party to its base: social movements:

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/ordinary-people-by-the-millions

It's been done before. The parties are routinely transformed by power-shifts within their internal coalitions: since 1970, corporate Dems have consistently pushed the party to the right, making it the power of white-collar professionals and relying on working people showing up and marking their ballots with a D because they have "nowhere else to go."

Bill Clinton was the most successful of these corporate raiders, delivering the parts of the Reagan Revolution that Reagan himself could never have managed: dismantling tariffs and bank regulations, passing the crime bill and welfare "reform." He came within a whisper of (partially) privatizing Social Security.

This set in motion the forces that made Trumpism possible: when Dems told deindustrialized workers to "learn to code" and blamed them for the destruction of their communities, it opened a space for Make America Great Again, the (empty) workerist rhetoric of the GOP. The Dems' plan of putting "really smart people" in charge and letting them run things was a (predictable) disaster. "Really smart" isn't the same as "infallible" and really smart people can be spooked or bulled into doing the wrong thing – like Obama "foaming the runways" for the banks with the houses of mortgage holders, and leaving the bankers responsible for the Great Financial Crisis unscathed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/15/mon-dieu-les-guillotines/#ceci-nes-pas-une-bailout

"Really smart people" can't get us out of this mess. Instead, we need the kind of muscular political action – the "whirlwind" – that characterized FDR's New Deal: "complete reformation of the banking industry.. just about every other industry as well. Regulation. Social Security. Public works. Antitrust. Soil conservation."

FDR got there by alienating his former classmates and refusing the go-slow entreaties of his cronies. He got there because there was a mass social movement that made him do it ("I want to do it, now make me do it"):

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/i-agree-with-you-i-want-to-do-it-now-make-me-do-it/

Every time in US history where one of the political party duopoly listened to its base, it was because of a mass social movement: the farmers' movement (1890s), labor (1930s), civil rights and antiwar (1960s). As Frank says:

Social movements succeed. They build and they change the intellectual climate and then, when the crisis comes, they make possible things like agrarian reform or the New Deal or the Civil Rights acts of the 1960s.

Today, we see the seeds of those social movements: the new union movement. Black Lives Matter. Neobrandeisians with their "hipster antitrust." These are the movements that are creating "ideas lying around": ideas that, in time of crisis, can move from the fringe to the center in an eyeblink:

https://doctorow.medium.com/ideas-lying-around-33a28901a7ae

They are setting in motion another transformation of the Democratic Party, from its top-down, "really smart people" model to a bottom-up, people-powered one, kept in check by movements, not party bosses. As Frank says, "They require the mass participation of ordinary people. Without that, I am afraid that nothing is possible."

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/17/popular-front-of-judea/#speaking-frankly

[gxlds-doodles]

was thinking abt how much i miss the 2014-2015 era fnaf fandom and it's interpretations of the characters (oh vincent purple guy how i miss you.) so new au alert!! lil chibis of my vincent n phone guy <3 designs are very much inspired by the popular designs for them around that time (originally popularized/created by rebornica i believe - though these are completely separate from their au i am not associated with them in any way shape or form) 🎉✧ SUPER COOL EPIC LORE INFO UNDER THE CUT!!!!!!! ✧🎉

general lore ☆ basically a whole rewrite - not because i have issues with the story (i stopped paying full attention after sister location tbh) just for fun!! again very much based on me missing 2010s fnaf fandom that was PEAK to me ☆ i still tie in some pieces of the lore but for the most part. forget what u know abt fnaf this is a whole rewrite (ex. animatronics are sentient but not possessed by children - not possessed at all in fact!! except for perhaps a few exceptions but i'm working on it) ☆ these two have quite a lot of canon lore tie-ins but beyond these two it's different LOL ☆ set in or around 2014, timeline is a wip vincent dorian (formerly afton) ☆ italian on his dad's side, armenian on his mom's side ☆ william afton's only child, born while freddy's was open but doesn't remember it rlly - his father and henry emily were co-owners/business partners but split ways (aka william got fired bc henry found out what he did. why he didn't bring this to the cops i'm still working out) soon after he was born ☆ raised by william as a single father ☆ was forced to help his father kill since he was like 12 this guy's got TRAUMA. ☆ still deciding on why he's purple (boy why you ourple.) but ik that it's william's fault. idk if i wanna go the walking corpse route like with michael in canon yet ☆ cuts off his dad when he's 18 - moves out on his own, etc. ☆ still kills for reasons i am currently working on however he does NOTTTT kill children ☆ starts working at freddy's at 27 as a way to 'rebel' against his dad, even if he hasn't seen him in yeeears by this point ☆ night guard at first, eventual day shift guard and sometimes a technician when needed ☆ his hair is naturally still black - he dyes it purple bc he thinks it looks cool ☆ his red scrunchie matches the red of phone guy's head <3 scott emily ☆ THE DRAWING IS OF A VERY SPECIFIC POINT IN THE AU I HAVE YET TO FLESH OUT it's not the most reflective of his character overall ☆ puerto rican ☆ henry emily's only child - remembers a tiny bit about william, remembers being scared shitless of him ☆ gets caught in a fire set by william when he's 16. he barely makes it out alive ☆ henry makes him the phone head mask thing. it can *technically* be removed but it never is bc it keeps the scars that never quite fully healed from getting worse ☆ head somehow works like a real phone... don't ask i just thought the idea of him ringing when he feels strong emotions is rlly funny (henry makes sentient animatronics in this au he can do anything. everyone say ty plot device dad!!) ☆ has some sort of contacts made by his dad that allow him to see through the phone ☆ grew up with the restaurant, his dad managed the location he's currently at until passing the business and the manager position onto him when he was 25 and henry was ready to retire ☆ henry told scott the full truth about william shortly before retiring - including that he set the fire that he got caught in. it's made him pretty paranoid that he's coming for him or something's gonna happen to him, even if neither of them have heard from william since then and he's essentially off the grid ☆ always at the restaurant during opening hours but rarely ever seen bc he doesn't want to scare any of the kids with his phone head vincent & scott ☆ yes they're dating. everyone cheer!! early fandom purplephone was my SHITTTT i love them so much ugh they r everything 2 me ☆ ngl they remind me of poolverine (deadpool x wolverine). vincent is deadpool (VERY accurate.) and scott is wolverine (less accurate but their dynamic stands) ☆ scott finds vincent annoying at first but eventually warms up to him and now he loooooves him. he's still annoying but he loooooooooves him ☆ scott doesn't know vince is william's son at first since he changed his surname and looks completely different ☆ they're just rlly cute and deeply in love and got some angsty shit going on later but that'll be a surprise oooo

[artstar1997]

I thought of making this artwork after reading @imgonzoingrightnow’s graveyard revue AU and watching videos of the live shows, Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue and Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Mashup, which were already retired in the USA branches of Universal Studios theme parks and still alive in Universal Studios Japan. I wish I could see it so bad but they’re gone so here’s my artwork of Beetlejuice with the monsters in every show versions. I dunno if Lydia Deetz might approve about being dragged into Beetlejuice’s escapades with the band, but he needs someone to keep him in line.

The costumes of the main monsters, The Frankenstein Monster and The Bride of Frankenstein, Count Dracula, the Wolfman, and Phantom of the Opera are a combination of the different designs with some enhancements like the frankenmonsters’ lightning bolt shaped accessories, Dracula’s jabot tie, and Erik the Phantom of the Opera’s violet vest. I kinda drew the Wolfman as an anthropomorphic wolf instead of his usual design because I’m used to drawing werewolves as literal furries.

I kinda made Hip and Hop’s designs to be separate pairs of dancers. The duo retaining their original looks and combined it with their USJ design elements while I made the cheerleader designs as separate characters, named Bette and Jesse. Unlike Hip and Hop, whom I designed as banshees, the two are zombies but both duos act as backup dancers/singers for the main band, alongside the dancing ghosts, who aren’t shown here.

The mummy character in the show is called Cleo in the 2014 edition of the show in Universal Studios Florida but I decided to call her Neferu instead, which means beauty in the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Neferu is an ancient Egyptian queen and a diva who became the new recruit in the group because of her love for singing and musical talents but she is also a skilled polyglot, has fondness for anything luxurious like gold, gemstones, and makeup, and can translate different languages. Despite her diva-like charm, all the luxury wouldn’t stop her from lending a hand for her bandmates, such as extending her mummy wrappings, and charm animals like snakes or other animals that are sacred to the Egyptian gods to using her glass breaking scream and casting curses to protect them from the villains or to correct them whenever any one of them misbehaves or cause trouble. Being the oldest member of the group, I can see Neferu as the regal, tough-as-nails type of fashionista.

I kinda see the Gillman from the Black Lagoon and the Invisible Man joining the group later on but I dunno what should they look like when they get their rockstar makeover from Beetlejuice like the other monsters.

PNG version:

[annieqattheperipheral]

NHLPA launches a new program to help players prepare for life outside of hockey

i.e. dad yelling at u to get a real job bc ur etsy shop aint be bumpin forever

the kids are getting a high school guidance counsellor and co-op term! what colour is ur parachute nursey

no wonder sabres on the rise oko's media hits so beautifully eloquent. they got smartypants mini gm at the helm

i just find this so interesting and wonderful ...and like if a big hockey butt wants to come hit me up for improv classes i'm not complaining🫠 imma make a union actor (nate. realistic) two time emmy winner (sid. dream on u don't have that ass) outta u

full article under cut:

Early in his time in the NHL, Darnell Nurse says he did not notice a lot of players talking about what to do after hockey. Going into his ninth season, the chatter is now normal.

“People are curious as to what there is outside the game and what you can do to prepare yourself,” Nurse said.

Plenty of players have taken it upon themselves to prepare for the future, like Zdeno Chara getting his real estate license and others finishing college degrees or exploring business opportunities. The NHL Players’ Association on Thursday launched a program that gives its members the chance to do a personality analysis and delve into real estate, business or other avenues while still in the league.

The hope is to help them develop interests outside of hockey while playing and ease the transition to life afterward.

“It’s something that’s been missing a little bit,” veteran center Lars Eller told The Associated Press. “It’s kind of well known that one of the struggles for a professional athlete is the transition on to the next thing once he’s done with his professional career. And this platform helps you with that transition, and it’s something you can start even while you’re still playing so you can sort of hit the ground running once you’re done.”

New union boss Marty Walsh made helping former players one of his top priorities. His arrival in March coincided with a process two years in the making, after player feedback indicated the desire for more assistance outside of hockey.

The result is the NHLPA UNLMT program. Retired defenseman-turned-psychologist Jay Harrison is available to do an assessment, and players can get involved with companies ranging from Money Management International to The Second City comedy and improv theater and institutions like the University of Florida and Stanford’s graduate school of business.

Former goaltender Rob Zepp, who’s spearheading the program as the union’s director of strategic initiatives, said an extensive survey provided the building blocks for something that was designed to be 1-on-1 and customized for players to figure out what might interest them.

“What we’ve seen so far it really runs the gamut: anything from enhancing one’s personal brand to starting a podcast to taking these certificate-level courses in real estate, in entrepreneurship, in business, in leadership, communication skills, networking skills,” Zepp said. “We have players that are interested in or are currently pursuing commercial real estate avenues or farming ventures or construction.”

Eller, Nurse and Buffalo captain Kyle Okposo are among the players who have tried UNLMT so far. Okposo has already graduated from Stanford’s business leadership program, while Eller has spoken with Harrison and taken some of the courses offered.

“They’re not waiting until people’s careers are over,” said Nurse, who is still in his prime at 28. “It’s something that you can dip your feet into and grab a hold of while you’re still playing and giving you resources and opportunities to kind of figure out what you want to do.”

Zepp got a degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the University of Liverpool the old-school way — tapes and textbooks sent by mail and tests taken in front of a proctor — while playing mostly in the minors and Europe before before 10 games with Philadelphia in 2014-15. He felt like having something to study made him a better goalie and understood there was plenty of idle time on the road.

Eller, who is a silent partner involved with helping start-up businesses, thinks the same way.

“We, as players, we have — not a lot of freedom once the season is starting — but we do have a lot of free time,” said Eller, who scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal for Washington in 2018 and is a pending free agent at 34. “It’s a huge positive if you have something else that you can take your mind off of hockey and do something productive with that time.”

Walsh got to know several Bruins alumni when he was mayor of Boston and has since talked to other former players and come away with a mandate to protect guys beyond their time on the ice.

“When they played, they gave it their all, and a lot of them didn’t really have anything after that,” Walsh said. “They didn’t make big contracts. They really didn’t have a strong pension system. A lot of them, even going back further than that, lost stuff. We can’t let that happen again.”

[firelance2361]

What If...Ant-Man And The Wasp Fell Through Time?

Here's a piece and a What If...? Scenario I did for the MCU's original Shrinking Superheroes Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, remixing in a few different elements of the MCU's past and future.

Apologies again if it's lengthy.

---------------------------

In this universe, in their attempts to thwart Elihas Starr's progress on the Quantum Tunnel, a misfire from one of the guards caused the tunnel to overload, sucking both Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne into the Quantum Tunnel and killing Starr and his wife in the process. Both Ant-Man and the Wasp fell aimlessly into the Quantum Realm, accidentally fall into a time vortex, landing 24 years into the future.

After waking up in a S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital room, both Hank and Janet quickly broke out and retrieved their gear, trying to escape the facility, only to be stopped by both Nick Fury and Bill Foster. Upon seeing Bill older than he should be, both Hank and Janet correctly assume that they were down in the Quantum Realm longer than they thought, surrendering themselves to gain answers.

---------------------------

After some time, the couple are briefed by both Fury and Foster about the past 24 years. When Hank and Janet went missing in 1987, Bill took in both Ava and Hope, looking after them from them on. While Ava was treated by Dr. Foster using their Quantum Technology, Hope went on to join S.H.I.E.L.D. as a field operative in Ava's place, becoming close allies with Nat and Clint.

The two then unfortunately learn that Hope was killed on an assignment with Nat outside Odessa by the Winter Solider. Her death led to them uncovering and exposing of H.Y.D.R.A.'s moles inside S.H.I.E.L.D. As both Hank and Janet grapple with the revelation of their daughter's death, Nat comforts them by telling them it wants their fault, and that Hope wouldn't want them to blame themselves for her choice.

---------------------------

After the pair return to their old home - kept as it was by Bill out of respect for Hope’s wishes - a grieving Hank and Janet agree to put the hero lifestyle behind them and just try to move on with their lives, as hard as it may be.

- [ ] Hank started up a new company with Pym Technologies, focusing on the mass manufacturing of Pym Particles for global usage. He eventually hired Scott Lang as his assistant, who also helped him with adjusting to the new time.

- [ ] Janet pursued a career in fashion design, starting up the Winsome Fashion line, quickly becoming a social icon. She spent some of her time whipping up some new suit ideas for her and Hank.

- [ ] The two of them were temporarily pulled out of retirement due to the Battle of New York, in which they fought alongside the Avengers to defeat Loki, before they returned to their normal lives. They became close friends with the recently revived Steve Rogers, bonding over how the world had changed for them since their disappearance.

- [ ] Hank and Janet soon have a second child, Henry Pym Jr., who despite his young age, takes well after his father's scientific style.

---------------------------

In 2014, 3 years after landing in the future, Hank and Janet have so far managed to adjust to their new lives here with Henry Jr. However, things become complicated when Hank receive a call from Nick Fury about something found from Rogers' latest mission at the Lemurian Star.

After leaving Henry Jr. in the care of Scott, the two quickly suit up and fly over to the Lemurian Star, where Rogers, Barton, and Romanoff stand waiting for their arrival. The two of them lead Hank and Janet to the cargo hold, where they find a modified Cyrostasis Chamber containing someone wearing a black and red Wasp suit.

As Janet examines the tank, Natasha shows them the information they were bale to pull from the ship's database regarding the mystery figure, confirming her as an operative codenamed "Orphan." Their conversation is interrupted however, as the tank suddenly explodes, knocking everyone back. The others get up to see the Red Wasp in question now standing conscious, before shrinking and attempting to escape.

Hank and Janet give chase, following her through the ship and engaging with the foe as the others follow behind. During the ensuing fight, Barton manages to shoot the Red Wasp in the mask, knocking her back. The group looks in shock as the enemy Wasp is revealed to be a still alive yet brainwashed Hope underneath the mask.

Putting her mask back on, the Red Wasp flew upward, raining a barrage of resizing discs on the ships's compartments, forcing the others to jumped in the water to escape. As they resurfaced, Hope was gone, and both Hank and Janet knew this just got a lot more complicated.

---------------------------

Back at the Triskelion, both Hank and Janet confronted and berated Nick Fury about the reveal of their daughter's false death. Fury explains that S.H.I.E.L.D. tracked down any rumors of Hope's survival for years, but every lead they found came up dry.

Rogers asked how Hope could have been brainwashed if H.Y.D.R.A.'s Winter Soldier program was shut down. Romanoff suggested maybe the Red Room had instead brainwashed Hope and were using her as a pawn to commit their terroristic acts as revenge for Romanoff killing Dreykov. After coming to terms with the mission to save Hope from the Red Room, Hank asks what Hope's target was, to which Fury reveals it is none other than Bill Foster.

Down in the lower levels of the Triskelion, Dr. Foster is working with Ava to stabilize and reverse her condition, when Rogers, Barton, and Romanoff storm in, telling the both of them that they need to move before the Red Wasp gets to them. The moment was interrupted as Ava spots something in the reflection of her Quantum Chamber. Cap manages to shield Bill from a barrage of oncoming Widow Bites, before being knocked back by a resizing Hope.

Clint and Steve get Bill to safety while Natasha and Ava attempting to subdue the Red Wasp. Their attempts prove unsuccessful as Hope overpowers Natasha and flies away, only to be cornered by her parents. Hope, Hank and Janet then fought in the hallway as they attempted to reach their daughter attempted to through the wall the building and into the sky. Janet managed to then turn Hope's Widow Bites against her, incapacitating her as Janet and Hank manage to bring her in carefully.

---------------------------

With orders from Fury to trace this attack to it's source, Hank, Janet, Steve, Clint and Nat work to find a cure for Hope. Upon further examination of the transmission of the Lemurian Star, they find a secret message embedded within the transmission, with coordinates to St. Petersburg. They travel to the home of Melina Vostakoff, finding it in ruins.

The team slowly approaches the house. wondering what to expect, only to get surprised by a sniper on the rooftop firing a warning shot. Natasha steps forward telling whoever's there that they mean no harm, and that they received a transmission send them here. The sniper steps out from the shadows, unmasking herself a none other than Yelena Belova.

They quickly bring Hope inside the house and restrain her to the table, where Yelena fills them in on the whole situation. When H.Y.D.R.A. fell, the Red Room took whatever they could from the organization's remains, including Hope.

During her time as the Red Wasp, hope was paired up with dozens of Black Widow operatives, including Yelena herself. She says on a mission to retrieve the Red Dust from Oksana, Yelena was freed by none other than Melina, who then informed her that Taskmaster had ulterior motives for the Dust.

However, before she could tell her, both Melina and Oksana were killed by Hope, who Dreykov sent as reinforcement. Yelena attempted to use the Dust on Hope to free her too, but the Red Room's Pym Particle's effects on her brain chemistry prevented it from fully taking effect. After managing to escape by disabling Hope's wings, Yelena went on the run for sometime, using her skills to evade capture from the other Widows before ending up here.

---------------------------

Yelena shows them one of the vials leftover from her recovery mission, saying that she sent the secret encryption in the Lemurian Star's message to bring Hank and Janet here, as they may be the only ones who can help stop this.

Soon Hank gets to work on synthesizing the formula, using his expertise with the Pym Particle to isolate the properties needed to treat Hope's effects.

As Hank continues his work, Janet looks over the now restrained and unconscious Hope, feeling guilty for leaving her behind. Nat consoles her, telling her that all that has happened was because of Dreykov, and that she did all that they could to protect her.

Eventually, Hank finishes modifying the Red Dust, telling the team that it's time. After disabling her suit and making sure she can't shrink away, Steve, Clint, Nat, Yelena, ready themselves as Hank and Janet shrink down, flying into Hope's brain through her ear.

The sudden shock immediately wakes up Hope, who immediately begins fighting it out with the other the others manage to hold her down as Hank and Janet make their way to her brain. Once they finally arrive, Hank activates the modified Red Dust into her brain nervous system to free her.

However this doesn't fully stop Hope, as she continues to pummel Natasha until she has her in a chokehold. That's when Hank confirms there is an additional control device somewhere on Hope that's interfering with the process. That's when Clint spots finds a control hip on the back of her neck, using a taser arrow to short-circuit it. Hope then collapses to the ground unconscious as the Red Dust finally takes effect. Steve checks her pulse, confirming that she's alive.

---------------------------

After about an hour of watching and waiting, Hope finally awakens, free from the Red Room's influence. After sharing a tearful reunion with her parents and catching them up on everything they've missed, she tells them everyhting. She reveals that when Natasha killed Dreykov, his daughter Antonia survived, rising to become the Red Room's new leader Taskmaster. When the Winter Soldier shot her in Odessa, Taskmaster then kidnapped and brainwashed her, giving her a new alias as "Nadia."

Taskmaster sent her to retrieve the Red Dust in a plot to not only corrupt the its effects, but also use their reverse-engineered Pym Particles to evolve it into a widespread agent against possible Red Room rebels. When Steve asks why they sent her alone, they all suddenly soon realizes the answer. Looking through Hope's former control chip the team finds a tracking device Taskmaster installed inside the chip.

The lights then go out, with other Widows from the Red Room stunning and incapacitating the others. Te Pym van Dyen family attempts to fight off the Widows, only to be subdued by a barrage of Widow Bites. The last thing they manage to see until they are all knocked out is the face of Taskmaster, glaring down upon them.

---------------------------

The family awakens to find themselves in cuffs inside of Taskmaster's office, with Antonia standing menacingly over the three insects. Janet asks if they are in the Red Room right now, to which Dreykov confirms, welcoming back Hope into the fold as Nadia. Hope spits in her face, telling her that she used them to hurt her friends and her family.

Taskmaster retorts, saying it's retribution for her friends making her like this, brandishing her scars as a symbol of her past. Hank asks why she kept them alive, to which Taskmaster explains she saw the potential in the Pym Particle for the Red Room program, and that she allowed Yelena to send the encryption to bring the both of them here for her plan.

She then reveals her plot, and how she plans to use the Pym Particles to spread her corrupted Red Dust worldwide, saying that after so many years of being used like a puppet by her father, now she gets to be the puppet master. Janet tells her she'll never win, to which Antonia says she already has. She then whips out a vial of the corrupted Red Dust, spraying it directly in Hope's face to revert her to the Red Wasp. She struggles to fight off the corrupted Dust as her parents beg for Taskmaster to stop, watching in horror as their Hope struggles to fight back.

After some struggling, Hope finally stands, seemingly under Antonia's influence, who orders her to execute her parents.

---------------------------

Down in the holding cells of the Red Room, Steve, Clint, Nat, and Yelena are sitting silently, contemplating their next course of action. Soon, a squad of Taskmaster's Widows walk into the cells, prepared to end them only for the lights to flicker mysteriously as gunshots and shouts can be heard.

The Widows turn their weapons to where the noise came from, only to be taken out one by one by none other than Ava and Bucky, who free the team from their holding cell. When Steve asks where the Pyms are, Nat tells them they should be in Dreykov's office.

The team then splits up; Steve, Clint and Yelena go to retrieve the Dust, while Bucky, Ava, and Nat storm through the facility to get to the Pyms.

---------------------------

Back in Dreykov's office, Hope stands over her parents, readying her bracelet to execute them against their pleas. Despite Janet's attempts to appeal to Hope's humanity, Antonia tells them it's pointless, as her as long as her corrupted Dust can access her nerves, Hope will remain under their control.

With that information revealed, Hank gives Hope the signal, who turns her Widow Bites on Antonia, shocking her with a stun blast. After removing the stun disc from her armor, Taskmaster furiously asks how this is possible, to which Janet reveals Nat told them that Antonia might try this, so she and Hank shrunk down and secretly severed the nerve, preventing her from being infected by the Corrupted Dust.

Angered, Taskmaster sicks her Widows on the family, before retreating to escape. Despite their best efforts, the other Widows managed to pin them down, beating them to a pulp. Thankfully, they were soon saved by Bucky shooting smoke grenades filled with the Red Dust into the Room, freeing the others and the Widows.

After helping them up, Nat takes the other Widows to escape, while Hope reveals she stole Dreykov's ring during Taskmaster's threatening, using it to hack into the Red Room database to download their data and contact S.H.I.E.L.D. with their position before fleeing the scene.

---------------------------

As the Red Room's troops began rebelling and escaping the facility, Cap, Hawkeye, and Yelena manages to break into the facility's science center, stealing back the Red Dust before destroying all of Taskmaster's contaminated variant with one of Clint's explosive arrows.

The group then made their way towards the exit as they heard the sound of the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier overhead of them, engaging with the facilities defenses. However, they were soon stopped by Taskmaster, who shot at them with an arrow. Not amused, Clint grabbed the arrow and shot it back at Antonia as the three heroes engaged with the enemy, who managed to best them beat by beat. As she was about to crush Yelena's windpipe, she was then blasted back by a barrage of Wasp Stings and Widow Bites as Hank, Janet, Hope, and Ava enter entered weapons blazing.

Taskmaster engaged with the heroes, using every tactic at her disposal to gain the upper hand. But before she could stab Hank through his helmet, Ava was able to use her powers to phase into her brain to disorient her long enough for Hank to kick her blade and shield away and shrink them beyond use as both Janet kicks her away and Hope hits her with a resized undercut swing.

The team stands defensive for a moment before the wall of the room they are standing in gets blown open, as a jet flown by Bucky and Nat hovers closeby. Janet tells Antonia to back off as S.H.I.E.L.D. has the Red Room in their sights. Though vastly outnumbered, and angered about Barnes, Natasha and Yelena's desertion, Taskmaster demanded Hope's return, and provoked her by threatening to have her parents and baby brother Henry Jr. executed.

Hope leaped into the fray to battle Antonia, even as her father pleaded for her to stop. Eventually, Hope managed to use her sizing abilities to leap over and dislocate Taskmaster's arm. Antonia then goaded her, saying if Hope doesn't she'll never fully be free and if she does, she'll be no better then the parents who abandoned her.

Hope hesitates for a moment, but one look at her parents convinced to let Dreykov live, telling Antonia that she doesn't get to do anything family ever again. As she attempted to walk away, Taskmaster grabbed one of her spare knifes and leaped in to kill Hope for good, only to be knocked out by a resounding double-timed punch by Hank and Janet, leaving her unconscious on the floor.

The team finally board the jet and leaves the Red Room as S.H.I.E.L.D. overtakes the facility and arrest Taskmaster. While on board, the family finally reconciled their past, and Hank and Janet apologized for leaving her behind her, assuring her that it was finally over.

---------------------------

Sometime after this, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers have been taking point on the remaining Red Room, with Nat and Yelena leading the search for any remaining Widows under Taskmaster's command.

Hank and Janet have officially retired for good from the hero life, opting to make up for lost time with Hope, who has moved back into her old home and started to get along quite well with her new baby brother Henry Jr. However, not wanting to leave the Avengers without at least one shrinking hero on the team, Hank decides to leave the mantle of Ant-Man to Scott Lang for now, before making sure Scott was fully trained to use the suit, with some help from Hope and Janet.

And so, as one generation of heroes retires, another one arises into the ranks of the Avengers.

---------------------------

Sorry again for the lengthiness for this, but I thought it would be an interesting idea to explore in the near future. Plus it would be an interesting way to give Hank and Janet some more action in the MCU without disrupting anything in the main timeline.

Hope you like it!

[stateofcharles]

Did you see what Toto said post race to sky Italy: ⬇️

https://www.tumblr.com/dellovestorant/759799148222529536/toto-at-sky-italy-confused-max-with-lewis-and

He’s actually unhinged and full of red flags at this point. So much going wrong within the team and he’s just obsessed with Max and Kimi, at the expense of George. I genuinely think that George does not have a seat at that team in 2026, it will be Toto’s wet dream of a lineup.

Also a a side note I cannot bear the idea of Lando overtaking George in poles and wins, which looks likely to happen giving the performance of the McLaren & Mercedes….

ok so, let's talk about it seriously for once:

toto wolff wants max verstappen in his team, but a contract is two-sided, what makes him so sure that the latter will accept his offer? (is redbull in such deep shit? if yes, i'm throwing a party)

verstappen said just this weekend that he doesn't plan to stay forever in f1 like alonso is doing, therefore he might even have retired when toto gets to him, who knows

mercedes might have great history but it's thanks to lewis and who designed the car between 2014-2021, surely not thanks to toto. they remain incompetent when it comes to strategy and management - see today. if verstappen chooses to sign the infamous contract, he will likely find himself amongst idiots, he will not like it, will throw a tantrum (understandable here) but he'll soon learn that things are not like they are at redbull where everyone is at his feet, because toto (idiot) doesn't want to change his management. consequences: tension within the team, driver who will look elsewhere.

i already said briefly why i think the whole kimi-mercedes is not gonna work like everyone hopes, so who knows where he will be by 2026

(HUGE personal opinion) verstappen-antonelli is a dynamic that doesn't work in my head. don't ask me why, i can just sense it and i normally get it right on these things

george is a talented driver, that's beyond question. he of course needs to keep his options open. when the occasion arises, he will leave mercedes and go where he believes it's better. between him and mercedes there is not a destructive relationship that reaches the charles-ferrari level (fortunately, i should say), although it's true that he grew up in mercedes, aiming the spot he has now. i hope he knows that he's worth being prioritised and that mercedes (read: toto) right now is not doing it properly.

lastly, from a huge and proud hater, norris will never reach the level of george. just consider that a real talented driver would dominate every FP and grand slam every weekend with the current mclaren. what does he do? loses pole on turn 1 because he has not yet learnt how to start a race in 5 years?

(also, i like to remind that it was george (and charles and oscar🙃), not norris who won GP3 and GP2 back to back during his first year in the category, so everyone should think it twice before calling someone a generational talent❤️)

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

NASA's EXCITE mission prepared for scientific balloon flight

Scientists and engineers are ready to fly an infrared mission called EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) to the edge of space.

EXCITE is designed to study atmospheres around exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, during circumpolar long-duration scientific balloon flights. But first, it must complete a test flight during NASA's fall 2024 scientific ballooning campaign from Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

"EXCITE can give us a three-dimensional picture of a planet's atmosphere and temperature by collecting data the whole time the world orbits its star," said Peter Nagler, the mission's principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"Only a handful of these types of measurements have been done before. They require a very stable telescope in a position to track a planet for several days at a time."

EXCITE will study hot Jupiters, giant gas exoplanets that complete an orbit once every one to two days and have temperatures in the thousands of degrees. The worlds are tidally locked, which means the same side always faces the star.

The telescope will observe how heat is distributed across the planet, from the scalding hemisphere facing the star to the relatively cooler nightside.

It will also determine how molecules in a world's atmosphere absorb and emit light over the entire orbit, a process called phase-resolved spectroscopy. Not only can this data reveal the presence of compounds—like water, methane, carbon dioxide, and others—but also how they circulate globally as the planet orbits its star.

NASA's Hubble, James Webb, and retired Spitzer space telescopes have collected a handful of these measurements between them.

In 2014, for example, Hubble and Spitzer observed an exoplanet called WASP-43 b. To collect data over the world's 22-hour day, scientists needed 60 hours of Hubble time and 46 hours from Spitzer. Resource-intensive studies like this on space-based observatories are difficult. Time is a limited resource, and studies must compete with hundreds of other requests for that time.

"During its first science flight, EXCITE aims to fly for over a dozen days from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility's site in Antarctica," said Kyle Helson, an EXCITE team member and a research scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and NASA Goddard.

"And at the pole, the stars we'll study don't set, so our observations won't be interrupted. We hope that the mission will effectively double the number of phase-resolved spectra available to the science community."

EXCITE will fly to about 132,000 feet (40 kilometers) via a scientific balloon filled with helium. That takes it above 99.5% of Earth's atmosphere. At that altitude, the telescope will be able to observe multiple infrared wavelengths with little interference.

"The telescope collects the infrared light and beams it into the spectrometer, where it kind of goes through a little obstacle course," said Lee Bernard, an EXCITE team member and a graduate research assistant at Arizona State University in Tempe.

"It bounces off mirrors and through a prism before reaching the detector. Everything must be aligned very precisely—just a few millimeters off center and the light won't make it."

The spectrometer rests inside a vessel called a cryostat situated behind the telescope. The cryostat cools the spectrometer's detector—once a flight candidate from Webb'sNIRSpec (Near InfraRed Spectrograph)— to about 350 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 210 degrees Celsius) so it can measure tiny intensity changes in the infrared light.

The entire telescope and cryostat assembly rests in a rowboat-shaped base where it can rotate along three axes to maintain stable pointing down to 50 milliarcseconds. That's like holding a steady gaze on a U.S. quarter coin from 65 miles away.

"Several different institutions contributed to EXCITE's subsystems," said Tim Rehm, an EXCITE team member and a graduate research assistant at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. "It's great to see them all assembled and working together. We're excited to do this test flight, and we're looking forward to all the future science flights we hope to have."

The EXCITE instrument was primarily built by NASA Goddard, Brown, Arizona State University, and StarSpec Technologies in Ontario, with additional support from collaborators in the U.S., Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

NASA's scientific balloons offer frequent, low-cost access to near-space to conduct scientific investigations and technology maturation in fields such as astrophysics, heliophysics, and atmospheric research, as well as training for the next generation of leaders in engineering and science.

IMAGE: EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) hangs from a ceiling at the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility's location in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The mission team practiced taking observations ahead of flight by looking out the hanger doors at night. Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

[journeytothewestresearch]

What "Bodhisattva" even mean? Are they like a messager or middle man?

They are an enlightened being who foregoes nirvana in order to save countless people from the suffering that keeps man trapped in samsara.

This is the official entry in the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (2014):

Bodhisattva (P. bodhisatta; T. byang chub sems dpa’; C. pusa; J. bosatsu; K. posal 菩薩). In Sanskrit, lit. “enlightenment being.” The etymology is uncertain, but the term is typically glossed to mean a “being (SATTVA) intent on achieving enlightenment (BODHI),” viz., a being who has resolved to become a buddha. In the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS, the Buddha refers to himself in his many past lifetimes prior to his enlightenment as a bodhisattva; the word is thus generally reserved for the historical Buddha prior to his own enlightenment. In the MAHĀYĀNA traditions, by contrast, a bodhisattva can designate any being who resolves to generate BODHICITTA and follow the vehicle of the bodhisattvas (BODHISATTVAYĀNA) toward the achievement of buddhahood. The Mahāyāna denotation of the term first appears in the AS˙ T˙ ASĀHASRIKĀPRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ, considered one of the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras, suggesting that it was already in use in this sense by at least the first century BCE. Schools differ on the precise length and constituent stages of the bodhisattva path (MĀRGA), but generally agree that it encompasses a huge number of lifetimes—according to many presentations, three incalculable eons of time (ASAM˙ KHYEYAKALPA)—during which the bodhisattva develops specific virtues known as perfections (PĀRAMITĀ) and proceeds through a series of stages (BHŪMI). Although all traditions agree that the bodhisattva is motivated by “great compassion” (MAHĀKARUN˙ Ā) to achieve buddhahood as quickly as possible, Western literature often describes the bodhisattva as someone who postpones his enlightenment in order to save all beings from suffering. This description is primarily relevant to the mainstream schools, where an adherent is said to recognize his ability to achieve the enlightenment of an ARHAT more quickly by following the teachings of a buddha, but chooses instead to become a bodhisattva; by choosing this longer course, he perfects himself over many lifetimes in order to achieve the superior enlightenment of a buddha at a point in the far-distant future when the teachings of the preceding buddha have completely disappeared. In the Mahāyāna, the nirvān˙ a of the arhat is disparaged and is regarded as far inferior to buddhahood. Thus, the bodhisattva postpones nothing, instead striving to achieve buddhahood as quickly as possible. In both the mainstream and Mahāyana traditions, the bodhisattva, spending his penultimate lifetime in the TUS˙ ITA heaven, takes his final rebirth in order to become a buddha and restore the dharma to the world. MAITREYA is the bodhisattva who will succeed the dispensation (ŚĀSANA) of the current buddha, GAUTAMA or ŚĀKYAMUNI; he is said to be waiting in the tus˙ ita heaven, until the conditions are right for him to take his final rebirth and become the next buddha in the lineage. In the Mahāyāna tradition, many bodhisattvas are described as having powers that rival or even surpass those of the buddhas themselves, and come to symbolize specific spiritual qualities, such as AVALOKITEŚVARA (the bodhisattva of compassion), MAÑJUŚRĪ (the bodhisattva of wisdom), VAJRAPĀN˙ I (the bodhisattva of power), and SAMANTABHADRA (the bodhisattva of extensive practice). In Western literature, these figures are sometimes referred to as “celestial bodhisattvas.” In Korea, the term posal also designates laywomen residents of monasteries, who assist with the menial chores of cooking, preserving food, doing laundry, etc. These posal are often widows or divorcées, who work for the monastery in exchange for room and board for themselves and their children. The posal will often serve the monastery permanently and end up retiring there as well (Buswell & Lopez, 2014, p. 134).

Also check out the Wikipedia article:

Source:

Buswell, R. E., & Lopez, D. S. (2014). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

[remapped-soul]

solar power

when marc can't take care of himself, valentino steps in.

a valentino rossi/marc marquez fic for beloved @carlosheinz <3 self care is hard but we're not alone and i hope you know that <3

read on ao3

(for tw check the tags)

Valentino can’t stand Marc.

It’s a constant feeling nestled between his third and fourth rib, but the intensity varies. On a good day, Valentino simply ignores Marc. On a bad day, Valentino wants to get his hands around his neck and squeeze until the tendons crack under his knuckles. He got a taste of it in 2014. He hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it since. What would have happened if there were no cameras around them?

Marc’s bad luck starts in 2020 and it doesn’t stop. A bad day for Marc means a bad day for Valentino. A bad year for Marc translates into a bad year for Valentino. It’s worse than 2015, more difficult to swallow than 2018. Valentino wants to scream until he runs out of breath and chokes to death.

2022 is the worst of it all. Marc moves to Madrid to speed up his recovery, and it leaves Valentino baffled and a little irritated. The big city won’t be able to replace the things he gets for granted in the countryside: the quiet, the nature, the clean air.

Marc moves to Madrid and Valentino follows against his better judgment. Madrid is fucking insane, but so is driving 20 hours from Tavullia. At least, when Marc doesn’t answer his phone, he is a 20-minute drive away from Valentino’s place in town, close enough to reach before Valentino’s desire to strangle him subsides.

+

Valentino can’t stand Marc when Marc doesn’t answer his phone. Sometimes Alex picks up when he’s around, saying that his brother is sleeping, eating, exercising. Marc is busy and he can’t come to the phone. Those are the days Valentino drops the car keys back into the glass bowl and gets back to his life. But Alex is not always with Marc, so Valentino gets in his car, he drives with fingers gripping the steering wheel until he parks a little crooked in front of Marc’s house.

When Marc doesn’t answer his phone it means he didn’t get out of bed in the morning, so Valentino has to do it for him. He is annoying like that. Valentino knows where the spare key is, hidden under a fancy pot with fancy hydrangeas around the corner. Of all the windows the house has, there is only one door. Valentino grabs the key and unlocks the door, lets himself inside.

“Sono a casa,” he yells to the empty hallway, the empty living room and the empty kitchen.

The air smells like dust and engine oil, things thrown hazardously around. Valentino stands in the middle of the living room, surrounded by the big couch and the big table, and looks around with his hands on his hips. He’s listening. The house is quiet.

“Brat,” he mutters under his breath. He gets to work. He opens the windows, lets the fresh air in. He gathers the clothes and redbull caps and puts them in one place, fluffs the pillows and loads the dishwasher with dirty plates and cups of coffee. Il dottore turned housemaid. If this is what retirement is about, he doesn’t want it.

When the place looks less like a dumpster and more like a place designed for humans, Valentino sends a prayer to whoever is listening and goes looking for Marc in his bedroom. He opens the door, steps inside. It’s dark, claustrophobic. This time, Valentino doesn’t pull the curtains apart, doesn’t open the windows. He makes his way to the bed, where the blankets sit still, a bump in the middle the only indication there is a person underneath it all. Valentino sighs.

“Sun will do you good, moccioso viziato.”

Marc’s head pops up, unruly curls and unruly smile. “Vale?” His voice sounds hoarse. It hurts Valentino’s brain just hearing it.

“Shhh,” he says as he climbs in bed, slipping under the blankets. Marc is on his good side, his injured arm placed carefully on top. Valentino settles behind him, head tucked into Marc’s shoulder, arm around Marc’s waist.

“Sono qui,” he says before he presses a kiss to Marc’s neck. Marc melts in the embrace, breath stuttering out of him in a hiccup.

“Vale.”

They will stay like this for a while. Then, Valentino will pull Marc out of bed. He will clean this room too, and take a walk with Marc in the garden, force him to a light run because only his arm is broken, not his fucking legs. Valentino will help Marc stretch his muscles, wash his hair, and at the end of the day he will ask for a hefty compensation because he is Il dottore, not a fucking maid.

+

Valentino hates speaking Spanish and he hates Spanish food, but when Marc refuses to eat, Valentino cooks for him. He speaks in stilted phrases to the women at the market, Tias and Tios that have no idea who he is because this country worships a different kind of God. He learns how to cook escudella and callos a la madrileña because Marc is a spoiled brat and doesn’t want to eat unless it’s his grandmother’s recipe. One phone conversation with Juliá about Marc’s favourite dishes is one conversation too many. But he makes the call anyway and he listens to Juliá’s guidance over the speaker phone as the stew bubbles on the stove. The house smells like meat and vegetables for a long time after, rich and savory that it almost makes Valentino’s mouth water. He’d eat a bowl if it wasn’t for the soft texture of the carrots he despises so much. Marc stops being annoying for a second, he eats two bowls of escudella sitting with his legs crossed on the wooden floor, Valentino next to him munching on a piece of bread. When he’s finished, his smile kicks up a notch before he lunges for Valentino and presses his sticky mouth to Valentino’s cheeks and neck and mouth, wherever he finds skin. His giggles rattle Valentino’s ribcage where they are pressed together.

“See if I ever cook for you, brat,” Valentino tells him when Marc runs out of steam, slumping against his chest on the couch.

“You will,” Marc smiles at him, chin resting on his hands, feet kicking up in the air. Marc is tolerable when his arm behaves and he forgets about the pain for a while. Valentino doesn’t want to break too many things if Marc offers him his smile constantly.

Valentino gets his hands into those curls, tugs at the roots until Marc’s eyelashes flutter. He doesn’t say anything, because they both know Valentino will break his promise the next time Marc refuses to eat. He will cook for Marc again. It doesn’t matter if he hates the process when he loves the result.

+

Marc is the most infuriating when he can’t stop talking. Valentino doesn’t think Marc is aware of it. It happens when he least expects it, when they’re doing the most mundane shit.

They’re running around the track in Tavullia, and between one ragged breath and another, Marc says. “Maybe if I trained harder, maybe if I worked harder, I’d get better. I’m not doing enough. It’s never enough.” It’s random and unexpected and it distracts Valentino so that he almost trips over his legs and face plants the ground.

It happens when they’re cooking when Valentino is making fresh pesto and Marc is dicing the zucchini. It goes well until Marc tries to dice his fingers too. He nips the tip of his index with the sharp blade, starts swearing up and down, “You can’t do anything right. Idiota.” Valentino almost sticks his own hand in the boiling pasta water because self-inflicted pain is easier to bear than whatever shit Marquez is saying. He doesn’t. Instead, he grabs the first-aid kit and tends to Marc’s tiny wound.

By now, Valentino learned to expect this kind of talk from Marc, but he has yet to learn how to deal with it. He either gapes like a fish as Marc smiles through his horrid words or Valentino leaves the room, fuming, because he can’t yell at a person who thinks they deserve to be yelled at. The crash in Jerez must have damaged more than Marc’s bones. There are enough doctors around Marc to take care of his injuries for him, but who’s taking care of the nasty voices inside his mind? Valentino doesn’t think he is equipped enough for it, not when he can barely stop himself from pressing his fingernail to Marc’s wound in an attempt to make him realise that maybe his way of dealing with the recovery process is not the best one.

“It’s just a scratch, Marc, not the end of the world.”

Marc shrugs, not lifting his eyes from the chopped zucchini. “Then what do you call Jerez 2020?”

Valentino raises an eyebrow at him. “An accident,” he says in English. “Un accidente. Un incidente. If they invented another word for it, I don’t know it. ”

“Only idiots make accidents.”

“Would you tell that to Jorge?”

Marc inhales sharply at that. Fabio would probably knock him over at the next race if Marc called Jorge Martin an idiot.

Valentino smiles. “That’s what I thought.”

Marc frowns. “Te odio.”

“No, you don’t.” And to drive his point home, Valentino grabs Marc’s hands and bites his knuckles until Marc’s face smooths into a laugh and he forgets how the word idiota sounds in his mouth. If Valentino still hears the echoes of that words weeks after, it’s his problem to deal with.

+

Everything comes to a halt when they are doing laundry and Marc looks at a pair of pants and says, “Maybe I shouldn’t be left out on the track if I keep crashing like this.”

Valentino sees red. He tries to understand most of the time, but his understanding has a limit too. Now all he wants is to scream at Marc to shut up, shut up, shut up. There must be something visible on his face because Marc takes a step back as Valentino turns toward him, hands held high in front of him as if Valentino will attack any minute.

“What?” Marc says, shoulders raised to the ears. “I haven’t seen you this angry since Sepang 2015.”

Valentino ignores him. He grabs Marc’s face in his hands and says, “Amore,” because Valentino never uses pet names unless he wants to distract Marc. It works well this time as well. Marc shuts up and blushes a pretty red, dropping his hands to rest in the crook of Valentino’s elbows. “I’m breaking up with you if you don’t win your ninth.” He says it in Spanish too to drive the point home.

Marc frowns, his brain registering the words. “In case you haven’t noticed—“

“Bodies heal, that’s what they do. Unless you’re dead, there is no reason for you to think otherwise.”

Marc’s frown deepens. “But—“

Valentino presses his lips against the wrinkle on his forehead, down at the corner of his eye, on the edge of his jaw. Marc shudders in his arms.

“You once told me you can be faster than me.”

“I am,” Marc says, eyes closed, breathing hard against Valentino.

“Faster than you, I mean.”

Valentino smiles. “Not sure I believe you.”

For the first time in months, Marc’s eyes twinkle with hunger. “I am. I’ll prove it to you.”

“Good.” Valentino kisses him hard. “You can start doing that, but after you’re done with the laundry. I’m not your maid.”

Marc does not finish the laundry. Neither does Valentino. The sunset catches them in bed, sheets draped all around them as Valentino presses his grievances into Marc’s golden skin until the room lights up with Marc’s giggles, with promises of being kinder to himself in the process of healing. Marc will probably forget come morning. He is infuriating. But Valentino knows where the spare key is and how to cook escudella and calçotada the way Marc likes them. If Marc forgets a thousand times, Valentino will remind him a thousand times.

After all, there is still a race to win.

[jellycatsdaily]

Jellycat of the Day | 24th August 2023

↳ Dinky Blue Dino | 2014 Retired Design

"Who’s that stomping down the street?"

[vocalsynthbdays]

happy birthday rana(vocaloid 3), natsuki karin(cevio ai and synthv studio), daisy(alter/ego), and recu(utau) !!!!!

rana(v3)

natsuki (cevio)

daisy

recu (song)

rana is a japanese synth originally developed by We've Inc. in collaboration with Internet Co., and released on 9 sep 2014. her vp is Ai Kakuma, and illustrator is Shindo Kamichi. rana was originally only available through a japanese magazine called "Vocalo-P ni Naritai!" (which translates to "i want to be a vocalo-p" i think), due to this she was only available in japan. however when her v4 released on 1 dec 2015 she became accessible to users world wide. shes also available on the mobile vocaloid editor. rana was intended to be a beginner friendly vocaloid, as the vocalo-p ni naritai magazine was designed for begginers. rana is 0yo, and 150cm tall (153cm with shoes). her character birthday is the same as the vps birthday, sep 9

Natsuki Karin is a japanese synth developed by TOKYO6 ENTERTAINMENT in collaboration with AH-Software, and released on 13 apr 2022. her vp is Miyu Takagi, illustrator is Teshima Nari, and 3d modeler is tumidango. natsuki was released for both cevio and synthv on the same day. she is also available in pitagoe. her character birthday is sep 9. she is a third year student of the ficitonal Otaru Shiokaze High School, which would make her around 17-18yo, though she doesnt have a canon age. she is 164cm tall. her plush companion is called Ekaterina

daisy is an english and japanese synth released on 9 sep 2015, as was alter/ego itself. her vp is Crusher-P, and illustrator is Pixoshiru. daisy was the first vocal released for alter/ego. she was later retired by crusher, who holds daisys copyright. the original download link for daisy has been removed, and Bones replaced her as the default vocal for alter/ego. crusher has said to be uncomfortable with users still using daisy

RECU is a japanese synth released on 7 nov 2015 (or maybe 17th, his website says this but vocadb and utaudb say 7th). he is voiced and manged by yauta. recus illustrated by yauta, G.M.kimchee, and 夜千世 (help sor idk what it is in english), but i have no idea who drew which art

i was going to write more, specifically about daisy and recu, but i hit the discord text limit and i write all my captions in there, so ples look into them all on their wikis and sites if you have time !!!

v4

ranas companions Sacchan/Sakiko and Jasmine Kenkyuuin

ranas companions Morio Shishou and Kouhei

logo

natsuki synthv

Ekaterina

logo

daisy in chipspeech

recu talk and tachie

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2024: #35

35. ALBANIA Besa - "Titan" 34th place

Decade ranking: 138/153 [Above Vasil, below Mia & Dion]

Besa, darling, this is some GARBAGE.

There you go. My instinctive pavlovian response every time I think about "TiTAN" (*sigh*) since its revamp. End of write-up, the rest is just filling in the dead space. Each time Albania announces a revamp that goes English, the NQ energy comes out.

Sometimes, it's a bit unfair to immediately dismiss a English FiK revamp. Not all of them were without merit, and most still offerend something of value because they were based off good songs.

"Zemrën n'dorë" for ex; was perfectly fine even if the fandom held it in contempt for being "generically Albanian". It was still fun? Besides, "generically Albanian" is like what - Karma or Duje? There are worse places to be, surely. Both still made the final, and were enjoyable in their own right.

If anything, I got a small chuckle out of both of Besa's FiK performances because they underlined Besa's penchant for extra outfits - In the first performance Besa strutted around in badly designed fantasy armour <3

"Every tear's gonna ricochet indeed."

which she then followed up with this Statue of Liberty waifu cosplay

Working her two best assets <3

Sadly, I don't think "Titan" can be ranked amongst the okay revamps of 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2022. It was a fall from the shajte. She took an average song with interesting elements and got rid of the interesting elements, which she then replaced with one of the WORST drop breaks I've ever heard in any song, ESC or not.

The second any of us heard "Titan" in full we knew it was dedge with near certainty, and that was precisely what happened. There were no miraculous turnarounds as with Bambie or surprise outsells as with Aiko and Megara. "Titan" remained uninspired and dull. Even when she was performing it in the semi all I could think about was how hopeless it was. None of the outfits Besa wore in Malmö were particularly inspired and the act was hopelessly stuck in 2017. It's been seven years since Artsvik. Time to move on from the "Hand Choreo into Wideshots" acts, mayhaps.

So, Besa was unremarkable fodder, what's the worry? Why this low a placement? Shouldn't she be ranked amongst the Vladanas and the Ukus?

Well, semi 2 happened to be quite good and even though "Titan" was without question the biggest dud within its line-up, but thanks to its drop and awful act it still managed to stand out as SHIT to me. Which might be worse than not standing out at all. It's one of the two for each one of us, so decide for yourself which one is worse. The fact that "Titan" can easily be forgotten about is its only saving grace, which is the true halllmark of its badness. Once you do pay it even a smidge of scrutiny (which requires considerably more concentration than I'm willing to throw at it), out come the exclamations of "THIS IS NOT IT, BESA."

So in the end, the results spoke for themselves. Besa should have been last place in Semi 2 and that would have been the verdict if she hadn't been the biggest name Albania had sent in years. Even with HER RECOGNITION AMONGST ALBANIANS, she still came second last, with 14 points, the same amount as Victor Vernikos last year, with only a smatting of points from the expat countries, a single point ahead of last place. it was as close a result to nilpoints that Albania could have realistically mustered under the current system, and I can't say it wasn't deserved.

BESA KOKËDHIMA, IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO RETIRE!!!

CAN YOU IMAGINE IF THE OLD FiK SYSTEM HAD STILL BEEN IN PLACE AND THE FIK WINNER HAD GONE INSTEAD?!

This Donkey Kong/Gaston hybrid <3 All he had was arms, a song and a dream. 😭 and I do mean that literally because the one thing Mal didn't have was performance talent. Throwing partitures around ♥ flexing ALL the time ♥ the adlibs, the shrieking, the "fucking hell" ♥ All while sounding like someone throttling a turkey ♥ How did this win a JURY VOTE ♥ Mal would have NQ'd too but it would have been FUNNY and ICONIQUE and MEMORABLE, all traits "Titan" did not have. 😭

HOORAY, we've already made it out of the ~Dislikes~. Yep, only *three* reds/oranges this year. Told you this year's entries were good. Time to rank some bores, mediocrities and mixed bags for the next few days, I guess.

THE RANKING

[cryptiam]

Looking back over a decade of content:

You never really got to know me and this blogs around 5 years old.

I've been around online for a while but this is my most known and last active account now.

2011: A literal child - making shitty lego stopmotion videos now long lost on YT servers. I would paint mini-figures cause I couldn't get new sets at the time.

2014-2016: - Sevoss/Sevok/Sevokiam (original alias I deleted years ago): My FNAF and MLP years

Music to set the mood:

During the peaks of the MLP fandom I found out about SFM. There's a handful of more posters from back then, might post more if people are interested.

I got out of the fandom around high school starting and with the decline of the show I deleted my account. I still have some fond memories of the early community though but needed to move on.

2016-2018 (lost years): Learned some game design stuff and moved around a lot. Stopping me from posting anything for a few years, leaving most of the work in my sketchbooks.

2019: First post on Cryptiam with P5:ECv1 entirely made up of retextured TS4 outfits. Likely this was the pack many of you found me from over the years. The pack itself was first made over a few months, with later additions.

2020: The end of the world I once knew.

2023: I learned how to convert the models to TS4 and set out on finishing my 4 year goal of bringing Persona to The Sims.

2024: I soft-retired from being a Sims 4 CC Creator. I still do the odd cc project though.

Things will inevitably change content-wise, as you've already seen in this post.

Thank you for taking the time to explore my past a bit.

ᴵ'ᵛᵉ ᵗʳⁱᵉᵈ ᵈᵒⁱⁿᵍ ᵗʰⁱˢ ᵖᵒˢᵗ ᵐᵘˡᵗⁱᵖˡᵉ ᵗⁱᵐᵉˢ. ᴵ ᵃˡʷᵃʸˢ ᵉⁿᵈ ᵘᵖ ᵈᵉˡᵉᵗⁱⁿᵍ ⁱᵗ ᵇʸ ᵗʰᵉ ᵉⁿᵈ ᶜᵃᵘˢᵉ ʷʰʸ ˢʰᵒᵘˡᵈ ᵃⁿʸᵒⁿᵉ ᶜᵃʳᵉ ʳᵉᵃˡˡʸ.

[juni-bug-666]

TQBF ALIASES:

The quick brown fox, Mayhem, Jackal Queenston, Renard Queenston, Kitsune, Rotteen, BANDETTO and Emoticon are all of the characters

He has over 334 releases under multiple different aliases such as: LAPFOX, Jackal queenston, Renard, Hailey Labs, etc.

(It’s loud furry music)

With his different ‘Fursonas’, and aliases he releases different music styles under each one

Renard Queenston:

Raggacore, Breakcore, Experimental

Jackal Queenston:

Jungle/Drum and bass

Mayhem:

Electro house

Rotteen:

Hardcore fusion

Kitsune:

Chiptune/Chipcore

Quick brown fox:

Speedcore

BANDETTO:

Gabber, happy hardcore

Emoticon:

Oldskool happy hardcore

More about Jackal Queenston:

SPECIES

Jackal/German Shepherd hybrid

GENDER

Male

GENRE

Jungle/Drum and Bass

DATE CREATED

May 2008

CHARACTER DESIGNER(S)

Em Essex, Timmothy Sewell, Squeedge

STATUS

Retired

Jackal Queenston was an alias under the Halley Labs label. He is a hybrid of a jackal and a German shepherd, who was often seen smoking and wearing attire originally inspired by the Nazi Party and other WW-II era uniforms, as time went on, JQ's outfit would slightly change to reflect less of its original appearance, with the Nazifur symbol being replaced with an X as a homage to Metal Slug, to the armband and hat badge being completely removed. He typically produced drum and bass, characterized by heavy bass lines, fast drum breaks, and dark themes alluding to violence or power.

Jackal Queenston originally debuted as a new character for the Mungyodance series, with songs first appearing in an official Addon Pak for MGD 2 and then MGD 3: The Third Rave, released on August 23, 2008. His first album, Rise, included several songs originally made for the Addon Pak.

Due the rise of Neo-Nazism on the internet, no possibility to redesign this character without connection to offensive content, and the restrictions of the alias's sound, Jackal Queenston was retired around the end of 2020.

Rise (May 2008)

Poison in a Killer's Sketchbook (October 2008)

Slop (June 2009)

Conquer (June 2009)

Smal Nästa (September 2009)

EPs

Cursed (2008)

Laugh at Life Remix EP (September 2008)

Jakkaru (October 2008)

Poison (October 2008)

Soulcrusher + Heartsifter (With Sonitus Vir) (November 2008)

Robo EP (December 2008)

Down Here EP (March 2009)

Slop EP (April 2009)

Primo Gusto (May 2009)

Fire Planet EP (May 2010)

Midwich / Toluca (June 2013)

Meat Machine EP (April 2019)

The State of DNB 2020 (June 2020) (with deuteronomy)

Singles

King Vicious (June 2008)

Mechanized (September 2008)

You're Already Dead (September 2008) (vs Emoticon)

Injection (2008)

MilkshakeManCP - That's Disgustingly Beautiful (JQ Remix) (August 2009)

Panic (December 2009)

Sleep Tight (December 2009)

Infamy (April 2010)

Raatid Fiah! (January 2011)

The Road (March 2013)

Mixes

Painajainen (August 2008)

In Strange Care (April 2010)

The Killer's Notebook (August 2010)

Compilations

Singles Collection (June 2008)

Don't Stop Moving (November 2011) (with NegaRen)

Other appearances

Furries in a Blender - Dig. Trax (2008)

Kitsune² - Squaredance (January 2008)

MGD Sound Team - End of Days (August 2008)

Kitsune² - STRIKER (August 2008)

Dig. Trax III: 2008 Year-End Mix (Limited Edition) (December 2008)

Mayhem - Dig. Trax IV (December 2008)

Adraen - Your Roots Aren't Showing EP (January 2009)

PHYZ TRUX KOLLEKSHUN (January 2009)

Azrael - Overdead (June 2009)

Furries in a Blender - The Best! The Best! (June 2009)

Klippa - Turn Back (June 2009)

Renard - NO. (July 2009)

ON Trax Vol. 1 (March 2010)

ON Trax Vol. 2 (March 2011)

Lapfox Anthology (July 2011)

Darius - ERGOSPHERE (August 2011)

Renard - Old Undesirable Audio Files (March 2012)

ON Trax Vol. 3 (March 2012)

ON Trax Vol. 4 (September 2012)

ON Trax Vol. 5 (December 2012)

RAKUGAKI (July 2013)

ON Trax Vol. 6 (December 2013)

ON Trax Vol. 7 (April 2014)

The Queenstons - dethrone (December 2014)

LFTHHC SQUAD - FIRST❤REFRESH (March 2015)

Rotteen - Bon Voyage (October 2015)

DJ Snaggletoof - THE FUCKDEST JAMS (November 2015)

B-SIDE U: 2015 (December 2015)

B​-​SIDE U: 2016 VOL. 1 (May 2016)

ON TRAX: THE ABSOLUTE (September 2016)

Patreon Exclusive Series (2014 - 2016)

B-SIDE U: 2017 VOL. 1 (July 2017)

HALLEY LABS SOUND CREATION - AKUMA NO AKUMU 〜AR EQ-KUA ER SETA〜 「FIRST DREAM」 MINI SOUNDTRACK (October 2017)

B-SIDE U 『𝟚𝟘𝟙𝕏 ø۷ﻉɼिɭ๏ฝ』 (February 2018)

B-SIDE ME 2018 (July 2018)

Rotteen - it's an EP! (October 2019)

EVERYDAYS02 ~february~ (February 2020)

B-SIDE the WAYSIDE (March 2020)

FD04 ANOTHER VERSIONS (May 2020)

Mungyodance discography

Mungyodance 3: The Third Rave

Amber Starlight

Amber Starlight EX (with Renard)

Funky Rhythm (feat. Dean Gamin & Haiku)

Killing Fields (with D-Mode-D)

Killing Fields EX (with D-Mode-D)

Osiris

Sunrise (Jackal Queenston Mix)

The Holders

Fun facts :3

Jackal Queenston is 5'7" and weighs 150 lbs. [citation needed]

The 'X' insignia seen on Jackal's armband is an homage to the Rebel Army from the video game Metal Slug.

This change was made by Squeedgemonster, who eventually removed the armband in other art. Em agreed to these changes. [1]

Before Squeedge's Metal Slug homage, in older artwork it is seen that Em wanted Jackal's armband to have an paw insignia, depicting that Jackal is a Nazi Fur.

Jackal's markings used to be that of a golden jackal, but were changed later on to show more resemblance to a German Shepherd.

Jackal may hold the record for songs that were later attributed to another alias, with Amber Starlight (re-attributed to The Queenstons), Sleep Tight (re-attributed to Adraen), Soulcrusher + Heartsifter (both re-attributed to G-DARIA, Darius' stylistic predecessor. They were originally collaborations with Sonitus Vir). Poison & After Effect (both re-attributed to Azrael, as collaborations between the two), and My Wolf Eats Preps (re-attributed to Renard). Humanoid was originally a Jackal song (It is still available on ON Trax Vol. 1), but it was later re-released with vocals on The Queenstons' album Figurehead.

Em has expressed that Jackal Queenston is due for a design overhaul to completely be rid of looking like a Nazi. [2]

Full name: Jackal A Queenston

Sex: Male

Date of Birth: April 20, 1986

Blood Type: O

Country: Germany

Province: Saxony

City: Dresden

Artist type: Nazifur (before Metal Slug redesign)[1]

Lmk if u want more TQBF STUFF BBG😘😘😘💣💣💣

H U H

You scare me pookie 😰😰