#submersive productions

[moodboardmix]

Jet Shark !

Rob Innes and Dan Piazza / Innespace Productions

[kusumasposts]

Enjoy the best products deals on halfpe.com

[juyangpumps]

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[lisa-and-shadow]

I'm going to add this excerpt from the wiki for one of James Cameron's earlier films, 1989's The Abyss. This was after Aliens and the studios were looking for another big budget sci-fi thriller. James was looking for a way to have producers pay him to fulfill his submarine fetish.

Yeah, he has been fascinated with subs and underwater exploration since he was a teenager or earlier.

Everyone- eat the rich! everyone on the Titan was a self entitled rich person (except that poor kid rip)! They shouldn’t have exploited the victims of the Titanic!

News sources everywhere-

Why do I keep seeing James Cameron all over my news (I know these are both Insider, but I have been seeing James Cameron in the news for days from several different outlets, I’m just lazy) Listen, I know he did the time and made the movie but how is he any different? Rich white guy? Profited off of the exploitation of the tragedy of the Titanic? Self entitled expert? Bleh I’m over seeing his crusty wannabe Saruman face all over my phone. Go back to the Avatar movies and think about what you’ve done.

Image descriptions- two news articles, one titled “James Cameron estimates he’s spent more time with the Titanic than the ship’s actual captain after 33 voyages to the wreckage” and “The Titan sub was likely trying to surface and the passengers probably knew the hull was starting to crack before it imploded, James Cameron says.”

A news article titled James Cameron on Titanic Submarine Loss: “Struck by the Similarity of the Titanic Disaster Itself” and a lovely hands rubbing meme with the text “James Cameron eyeballing the opportunity he never thought would come: Titanic 2”

[civildisorderstream]

2023, The Year of Self-Sabotage

Has anyone noticed the trend businesses have been on in 2023? There's a LOT of self-sabotage going on in the business world. Throughout my life, and everyone else has their own observations too, once in a while you see a company make a boneheaded decision about their product or service. And once in a while you'll see a decision get made that is bad, but maybe it at least has some justification (even to an anti-capitalist goober like myself). But this year has been nonsensical moves of greed or product/service sabotage that make no sense for longevity or harm what's in the best interest of the consumer.

Activision-Blizzard: The Overwatch debacle, and Diablo Immortal's scummy practices.

Netflix: The account sharing debacle.

Twitter: Maximum divorced loser Elon Musk destroying its functionality and branding and we still call it Twitter.

Reddit: Inspired by Musk's stupidity, the API tools debacle. Shame on the Reddit communities for not knowing how to strike btw (you don't put a time limit on it).

Hollywood: Pulling shows and films from streaming services to declare them as failed products and somehow get a tax write-off for it.

Also Hollywood: Willing to take quarterly losses greater than the annual cost to meet the demands of two striking unions put together.

Unity: Announced in the past day that it will charge developers a fee for installations because greed.

Titan Submersible: "Safety is for losers" says billionaire who proceeds to use his shoddy tech to do a murder-suicide.

Starbucks: Breaking ALL of the labor laws to try and stop unionization. Admittedly a reach to be on this list but the situation (like all the others) is ongoing and can compound.

Embracer: A massive corporate company that bought a bunch of smaller companies. Thought a 2 billion dollar deal with the Saudi government was a sure thing, so they spent 2 billion dollars on stuff. Deal falls through, so they start closing companies they acquired.

That's just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. These aren't business decisions done for the sake of consumers. These are all decisions done to spite consumers or the workers who produce the products and services.

People try to remember years as being the "year of" something. And it's a thing I do too. For me, 2023 is the year of corporate self-sabotage.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Hi Derin! Sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm amazed by the vast array of cultures and gender norms in TTO:U. How did you come up with all of it?

I just thought "hey wouldn't it be funny if there was a little guy" and then made them, and thought "hey what norms would exist in a culture under these conditions" and then made those.

In all seriousness, most of my worldbuilding comes down to tearing down assumptions. Brennans exist because I fucking hate gender and I'm sick of seeing the gender binary or "gender binary Plus Nonbinary Extra People (who still live in a world that assumes a gender binary)" as some immutable natural law that all societies will forever cling to, and I wanted to make a society that was harder for readers to inevitably sort into a binary as they always, always fucking do. (Partial success; I have seen some absolutely rancid takes on the TTOU gender ternary that make me want to break my computer.) The array of different cultural family structures exist because those are different ways that societies can be built on smaller units. The Arboreae and the two space elevators and the Khemin exist because that is a potential response to a critical climate crisis.

On top of that, most of my ideas are stolen. I once read a short story about people who lived under the ocean on an alien planet and spent most of their time just cruising around the ocean in big bubble-like biological submersibles and that was their job, because their submersibles cleaned the water by feeding on things in it; they were employed to be part of the ecosystem. The Khemin, wandering about the ocean as both environmental monitors and trash-gatherers, were inspired by this; from there, I just thought on what sort of family structure and traditions such a group would develop for a stable society. When I was a teeny tiny child I saw a guy on Ripley's Believe It Or Not who was trying to build a self-sustaining floating island to sail around the world on. Absolute disaster of a plan, man knew shit about ecology or farming, but a bit later on I got really into swamps for awhile and started thinking of using plant roots as water filtration systems and, with an eventual biotechnology degree, multiple years hyperfixating on ecology and evolution, and touch of Magic Future Genetic Engineering, that eventually became the Arboreae. The social structure of Hylara is somewhat inspired by CJ Cherryh's azi, particularly the way that Florian and Catlan are raised in Cyteen. The Hylarans are very much not azi (the azi being slaves brainwashed from birth via hypnosis) but the way they are raised fed into building a society batch-raised by robots and each other with no natural family unit. You can just steal concepts from the real world or from scifi and build them into your own thing it's fine.

Anthropologically speaking, the golden feature of any social structure or cultural practice is *stability*. This is the one feature upon which everything is judged. Just or unjust, productive or unproductive, authoritarian or free, structured or unstructured, when developing a society your key thing to worry about is "is this stable? Would a society survive for multiple generations on this norm?" and if your Weird Idea isn't stable, either ditch it or -- far more interesting -- adjust it and your parameters until it is. Different norms will be stable in different environments and built on different histories -- Khemin and Hylaran norms are not interchangeable because of the environments, tech, political climate and reproductive methods the two cultures have. But if it's stable, you can throw in whatever weird shit you want.

[victorgrwrites]

Gortash Age/Timeline

For my prelude, see live footage of me at work below. (PS: Mac on the right there is basically my wife, she was very kind to let me ramble about this.)

Here we go. And I think it goes without saying, but spoilers ahead.

So, we have a better idea of Durge's timeline than Gortash, which is helpful since we know that they knew one another before the events of the game. On top of that, we know what each was doing when the other was doing something else. At least, to a point.

We'll start with Durge.

Exhibit A: We know that Sceleritas Fel appeared to Durge on their "age of majority", which is generally accepted to be 18. Could be 16, but we're going with 18 for the timeline.

---

Exhibit B: We know that in the prequel Blood in Baldur's Gate, the main antagonist is Dark Urge, and Sceleritas himself appears multiple times in the story. We also know for a fact that this happens in 1477, 15 years before BG3.

Therefor, we know that Durge CANNOT BE YOUNGER than 18 in the year 1477, and therefor cannot be younger than 33 in BG3.

It's important to note for later on that at this point in Baldur's Gate in 1477, it is very likely Durge has already started the cult of Bhaal or is on the verge of starting it. --- Like I said, easy as Hell, now on to Gortash. Cause he is definitely trickier; we'll be needing to work backwards for this guy. Exhibit A:

Gortash is intent on making a memoir of his life, and has given us a helpful order of events, if without dates and such.

Exhibit B:

We'll start with the heist at the House of Wonders. If you don't know what the House of Wonders is, imagine a giant museum/research university run by NASA. It's a big fuckin' deal, and holds some insane things.

We don't know everything they stole, but we do know some. 1. A Bhaal torture device and some preserved Bhaalist bodies (unimportant for our conversation), and 2. Schematics which served as the basis for the Steel Watch, as well as the submersible.

((I can't find the specific screenshot for the Steel Watch schematics, but just trust me, it exists.)) We can assume that Karlach was sold right around this time, maybe before, most likely right after. The reason why she was sold around this time is because... ---

Exhibit C:

Karlach is a proto-prototype Steel Watcher, or at least of the infernal engines the Steel Watch use. What Gortash most likely got for Karlach were plans/materials/development for the infernal engines.

So let's recap. We now know that ten years ago Durge and Gortash pulled their heist, traded Karlach, figured out infernal engines, and started production or development on the Steel Watchers. Neither were the chosen of their gods yet, and the Crown of Karsus wasn't even on their radar.

Let's keep going. --- Exhibit D:

The first and second listings in Gortash's memoirs are him founding the Bane cult, and then discovering that there was a Bhaal cult already started. I would posit that Gortash established the Bane cult right around the time of the previously mentioned Blood in Baldur's Gate. At the bare minimum we know that Durge had to have been already active and Sceleritas already trying to guide him. So we can likely say that Gortash established the cult of Bane in 1477. Which means he was not in the House of Hope any longer in 1477.

The Crux of the Issue:

Here is where we get into speculation, and there's several questions we have to answer that don't have a clear answer. 1. How old was Gortash when he was sold off?

2. How old was he when he escaped the House of Hope?

3. How long after that did he establish the Cult of Bane?

I'll give you my answer for these questions, and my reason why.

Given my previous post, you might know that I subscribe to the idea that Gortash had a knack for artifice when he was young. There's no way a devil/warlock would pay even a small amount for a useless kid. So, at what age is a kid "useful" while still being a kid? My guess would be as old as ten, as young as eight.

Based on the conversation with Nubaldin, I would say he was still fairly young when he escaped. The way he talks about Gortash establishes that the jailor remembers Gortash as a 'sniveling little shit' and 'mischievous little blot of a boy'.

I would put him at about sixteen, absolute tops.

3. I believe he would have started the Bane cult very, very soon after leaving the House of Hope because I have a sneaking suspicion that Bane's influence started at the House of Hope. Might be how he escaped in the first place, or maybe he heard about Bane while there. Either way, I don't think he took very long.

In my head, he's probably around 17-19 when he starts the Bane cult. But also, if there's age discrepancies, this is probably where they come in.

---

And there you have it. I don't focus on his in-game model much, because looks can vary so wildly. Especially when there's years of demonic torture, obsessive artifice study, and dead god cults. The game narratively describes him as a young man, so I generally erred on the side of "young" when figuring out this timeline.

If you've got questions, comments, additions, go on and lay them on me.

[crispywisp]

hey guys, the trailer for Submersed, a 2d/3d hybrid sci-fi short film im animating for, just dropped! our team has been hard at work for the past year, we're super excited to finish it all up!!

these are 2 shots in the trailer that i did the rough animation for:

7/7/24 update: noticed an uptick in notes for this post, just wanted to give a heads up that the url in the yt description is outdated, here's the new website location for submersed!

[driftward]

FINAL DEPTH XIV: FATHOMDOWN

~An Absolute Complete Beginner's Guide To FFXIV Submersibles~

So, you've heard of submarines in Final Fantasy XIV and you want to get started on a fleet of your own, but have no idea what to do where to go or even how to start. Well don't worry there sailor, we'll get you from landlubber to salty sea-goer. This is an -absolute- beginner's guide, so we won't go into deep details, we just want to get your first submarine out the dock. It's not particularly difficult to get started, but there are a lot of steps, so take your time.

Actual guide beneath the cut

So, to get started, you will want to be part of an Free Company, and that Free Company will need to have a house. If this is not true, then submarines are not yet for you. I won't cover how to fix that, but you're all lovely people who can undoubtedly find a group of fellow maniacs willing to pal around with you.

If you are part of a Free Company, you will want to have a Rank in it that has pretty much full Company Workshop access. If your FC does not yet have a Company Workshop, go into the house, and find the door which allows you to buy rooms.

Company Workshop will be the first option. If your Free Company does not have one, an officer with the correct rank can buy one for some amount of gil. Once you have a Company Workshop, you will want to get 6 Mahogany lumber (gather Mahogany and turn logs into lumber, or buy it off the marketboard, just trust me on this we'll get to that in a moment). Go ahead and head inside, look around, get familiar with the place.

This is one of the first things you will want to take a look at, the Schematic Board. The Schematic Board is used to create recipes that the fabrication station will be able to use. Those 6 mahogany lumber will be useful now. I highly recommend using the schematic board, and going through the menu to find the Submersible Prototype I recipe, and go ahead and complete it. This will unlock the first submarine parts to be able to be constructed.

Right, so you hopefully have submarines unlocked. Our next destination is this, the fabrication station. This is what is used to actually make submarine parts. We will want a full Shark build.

This is going to be a LONG step, and I consider it the most complex logistically. To make a submarine, you will need a Submarine Hull, a Submarine Stern, a Submarine Bow, and a Submarine Bridge. If you put the 6 Mahogany Lumbar into the Schematic Board earlier, you should have access to the Shark parts for each of those subsystems (I have a lot more on my screenshot because I have been at this for a while). Go ahead and start building the Shark-class Pressure Hull.

This is a very long step. The fabricator will switch modes to construction, and submarine parts take a LOT of material. For the Pressure Hull, you will notice it takes 18 Walnut Lumber, 18 Spruce Lumber, 18 Iron Nails, and 18 Cobalt Ingots. That is just for the first phase. Each material has to be put in in chunks that are equal to 1/3 of the final desired size. So, for example, the Walnut Lumber will need 6 Walnut Lumber put in 3 times just for phase one.

When you finish a phase with all of its materials, the fabricator will ask if you want to advance to the next phase. Do so, and it will give you a new list of materials you will need to put in. At the end of the last phase, you can collect the submarine part.

This is an activity meant to keep an entire Free Company's worth of people busy, and will probably not be fast! If you do not want to deal with it, you can try your hand at just buying submarine components from the market board, but be warned. They're expensive!

You can gain some minor XP from doing this for your crafting jobs. I wouldn't bother. Also, you can put in HQ materials. Whether or not you do will not affect the final product in any way, shape, or form. The only thing it affects is that you might get a discount on later phases if you use HQ materials for earlier phases.

This is generally not worth the effort.

So, build or buy your submarine parts! Once you have a Shark Hull, Shark Stern, Shark Bow, and Shark Bridge, you're ready for the next step.

But first.

Somewhere in your FC housing area will be this guy, the Resident Caretaker. You will want to visit him to purchase some Ceruleum Tank (these an also be purchased from the mammet in the Company Workshop). Just buy a whole lot, you'll be going through them quickly. You will also want to buy a Dive Credit (possibly up to 3 Dive Credits for the first submarines, I actually am not sure).

Okay, back to the company workshop. We are now ready to make the magic happen.

Go ahead. Click it. You know you want to. You will see two options, Airship Management and Submersible Management. We want Submersible Management. Open that, and use your Dive Credits to purchase your first submarine slot.

If you have all four submarine subsystems in your inventory already, congratulations! Go ahead and equip them on that first submarine slot. If you already have ceruleum tanks, you can even send it out. All my submarines were out at the time I made this guide, so I have no screenshots of this step for you, but go ahead and mess around with it a bit. You won't be able to go very many places, so you can just make a route and send the submarine out.

And that's it. You are now a salty undersea going sea dog! Your submarine will take about a day for every trip it makes. Longer trips take longer. There is a lot to say about submarine stats and whatnot, but that's for more advanced guides. When the submarine comes back, it will probably bring back some loot. Take the loot, and send the submarine back out. Rinse, wash, repeat.

One final word - never ever disassemble a submarine. As your submarine increases in rank, it will have more capacity for more, better, and different parts. You can research those parts at the schematic board (more advanced schematics will require the stuff your submarine brings back from voyagers), and then build those parts in the fabricator, same as the first time. While a submarine is not deployed, you can reassign parts. But again, even if you are going to replace every single subcomponent, DO NOT DISASSEMBLE YOUR SUBMARINE! You will lose its rank and all of its bonus stats, and there is no reason to do so, ever.

Hopefully this guide is useful to someone! There are more advanced guides elsewhere that I will link if anyone is interested, but for now, this should be enough to get you off the ground. If you have questions, reblog them, put the questions in the body not in the tags so everyone can see, and I will reply with a reblog, and hopefully this will be a fruitful chain of launching many a naval career.

Happy submarining!

[keepingeahalive]

Apple White Headcanons

Her full name is Princess Apple Atalanta Eve White. 

She used to be a chubby kid. Her mother would constantly point this out, even after Apple eventually grew out of her baby fat. 

Snow White would dye Apple’s hair black when she was little, but it never lasted. She eventually stopped before Apple’s hair had to be cut off, because it had become so damaged.

Raven was her first real crush. But she didn’t realize it until after a year, and Raven had already gotten together with Dexter at that point. 

Apple hates going to the beach. She’ll go with her friends as long as she’s 10 meters away from the water and in complete shade.

She was taught to sing opera. She purposefully sang worse in front of Raven in order to annoy her into poisoning her. 

She is trained in classical piano.

For a split second, Apple had thought Raven had woken her in Dragon Games. 

Apple keeps herself on a strict diet to maintain her figure. She has a constant fear of gaining weight and steps on the scale every morning to make sure she hasn’t. 

She met most of her friends at family galas. She was encouraged to make friends with as many fairytales as possible, but this was merely a method Snow intended to build political alliances. Apple was unaware of this and just wanted to make friends. 

Snow White owns a successful enchanted fashion line. She also has a line of plant-based cosmetics and beauty products. Her husband, King White, is responsible for creating the formulas and recipes for these products. Apple is often used to market and promote these products.

Snow White keeps her husband working constantly so she can raise Apple herself. King White lets this happen because he trusts Snow to raise their daughter right, but Apple misses having her dad in her life. The only time he’s allowed off-work is during a publicity event where he is “encouraged” to show off to the press.

Apple gets her genuine softness and love of chemistry from her dad. Her competitiveness and steadfast nature comes from her mom.

She didn’t find out who woke her until after the summer. 

Apple was definitely one of those people who didn’t think Dexter would be a good match for Raven. She made all kinds of excuses like “he’s not evil enough for her” or “He’s not charming enough for her”. In reality, she was super jealous and too much of a comphet to realize it.

She loves boy bands. Her favorite band is One Reflection, but she also loves The Hunted, Bookstreet Boys, and the Thronas Brothers.

She has a hidden adventurous spirit and penchant for helping people. Unlike Darling, she channels it passively and invests her time in philanthropy and community service.

As a child, she was sent to a woodland camp during the summer. There she had no servants to take care of her, so she had to learn to cook and clean for herself and her dwarf caretakers. 

Apple’s fear of water is so great that she is afraid to step into a bathtub. She takes showers. But if there is a chance of submersion, she won’t step foot in it.

She’s very sporty, but she participates in what she views as “princess games” such as croquet and Dragon Games. 

She hates pears.

Even though she hates them and thinks they hinder her from being the perfect princess, she wishes she could wear her glasses. She gets constant headaches and her eyes hurt from always squinting. She keeps telling herself to wait until she’s 50, when it’s “socially acceptable”. 

It took her a long time to get over Raven. Darling helped her through the process (partially because she knew what it was like) and the two became closer. This was before Apple found out Darling had woken her. 

After the Dragon Games, Apple put in a considerable effort to better herself. She knew that she was acting out of selfishness and cowardice, and she realized that her destiny was different than what she had been told. She decided to take hiatus from being Royal Student Council President and work on rebuilding trust with her friends. 

[milkywaydrabbles]

21. threesome with soft!dom!Rindou and soft!dom!Kakucho (Bonten), please and thanks.

They are my favs. 😊

A/N: SOFT DOM BONTEN SOFT DOM BONTEN SOFT DOM BONTEN I could kiss you I love the Bonten boys sm. This was so nice to write, ty for requesting and I hope you like it mwuah

CW: Pet names, use of term daddy, threesome, oral (f! And m!receiving) Eiffel tower this bitch

Threesome x Kakucho, Rindou

"Come on, beautiful, you can give us one more can't you?" You nodded furiously, although tears had been running down your face for the last hour. Kakucho wiped away your tears and kissed your forehead, Rindou in between your legs. It was thrilling, having two of the most dangerous men in Japan at your neck and call. Or at least that's how it felt in the beginning of your arrangement. Until you realized they'd peel away your layers bit by bit. With affection, adoration, prais. You were a crying mess for them every time they paid for your services. "Daddy, it's too much" you hiccuped, wiggling away from rindou who grasped at your thighs and gave you a small warning bite. "Nu uh, baby girl. You promised kakucho one more. Daddy just wants to make you feel good." He mumbled from underneath you, licking up your juices from your tight cunt. 

You let out a broken moan as another orgasm was ripped from you. "R-rin!" You gasped, pushing at his head trying to get him away from your swollen pussy. Kakucho kissed around your face as you rode out your orgasm, juices spilling onto Rindou's face. "There you go baby, there you go. You're so good." Kakucho's praises we're making you dizzy, preening at the sweet words he'd use. 

Rin slapped your pussy to snap you out of your stupor, and you yelped, closing your legs. "You can't think we're done can you?" He teased, helping you flip over on your stomach. "Please, daddy it's too much." You pleaded with Kakucho this time, eyes shining with more tears. He pet your head, cooing. "Do you want to use your safe word?" Rin and he both stopped, giving you a moment to stop the whole production if you wanted to. But you shook your head no. They were both on you immediately after that, petting you, touching your body, giving you kisses. Rin bent down to give your ass a few kisses and experiment bites. You wiggled your hips at him, begging for more. No matter how many times you'd say it's too much or you can't do it, you'd always continue for them. 

"Go ahead and take care of Kakucho pretty baby. He's been treating you so nicely." Rin spoke as he lined his cock up with your wet cunt. He teased and prodded, slipping just the tip and giving a few shallow thrusts before slipping out again. You whimpered, taking Kakucho's thick cock in your hand and giving him a quick pump before licking the pre cum oozing from his tip. He groaned above you, hand digging into your hair but letting you go at your own pace. "So good for us pretty. Make me feel good, beautiful. Suck me off." The low timber of his voice sent electricity through your veins, and you pushed yourself down onto his dick, swallowing as much as you could before gagging. It always took some time to take all of them in your mouth, but you were so eager to please you rarely gave yourself that patience. Rindou slipped into your cunt with ease, squelching with each thrust. He moaned behind you, and in turn you moaned around Kakucho. "Fuck this pussy is so good, always so fucking tight and wet for us." You clenched around Rindou's cock preening at the praises. 

In front, Kakucho gave shallow thrusts into your mouth. He couldn't help it, your mouth was so warm and your throat felt so good around his length. You choked for a moment, the man shooting you an apologetic glance. "Sorry baby, mouth feels so good" he cooed, letting you go at your own pace. You couldn't help but try harder for him, submersed in subspace you didn't want to let them down. Tears slipped from your eyes once more, breathing from your nose and letting your throat relax, you pushed Kakucho's dick deep into your throat, not stopping until you felt the tickle of his pubic hair at your nose. You swallowed around him, tongue sticking out of your mouth as you covered as much as you could. "Ah fuck!" He yelled out of pure pleasure, keeping your head in place for as long as you could hold it. "fuckfuckfuck baby, not gonna last long" he continued to whisper sweet words to you, talking about how good your mouth is, how you're always such a good girl, their sweet baby. His words spurred you on, tightening your cunt around Rindou and bobbing your head faster around him.

Rindou's nails dug into the fat of your ass, balls slapping against your clit as he quickened his pace. You met his thrusts as best you could, eyes rolling to the back of your head. "this is the best pussy, I swear baby. You're so good, aah fuck." Their sweet words pushed you over the edge, crying and clenching around their dicks as you sprayed clear liquid onto Rin's thighs. Seeing you lose control had them spiraling, crying out praises as Kakucho came into your mouth, and rindou into your spent cunt. Their cum filled your holes so deliciously you couldn't get enough. Slowly they pulled out and Kakucho was the first to scoop you into his arms and kiss away the tears that flowed. "You did so good baby, so good for us." He whispered, Rindou following suite with a damp rag to clean you up and his own words of encouragement. "You're such a good girl, so obedient. Can't get enough of you."

Yeah, the Bonten boys might be the most ruthless of the country, but you had them wrapped around your pretty finger.

[huandamonia]

Okay, there is something that is genuinely annoying me about the OceanGate discussion. It's that so many people are calling Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, one of the people that died in that submersible, a conman who was scamming people.

Listen.

If he was actually a conman.

If he was actually scamming people.

HE WOULD HAVE NEVER GOTTEN IN THAT SUBMERSIBLE

Calling him a conman is giving him too much credit. A conman is someone that at least KNOWS their product is crap. And someone that knows their product is crap never uses it themselves. Stockton genuinely believed in the submersible idea enough that he was willing to subject himself to the same thing he was subjecting to others.

Stockton Rush wasn't trying to con anyone with OceanGate. He was just that stupid

[see-arcane]

I’m glad it isn’t someone else.

I’m glad it isn’t another loss of the desperate, the poor, the threatened, the forsaken masses scraped off the consciousness and consciences of those steeped in wealth and power who couldn’t be bothered to care as they drowned.

(Thousands have died and disappeared in the waters of migrant routes. Some make it to the shore. Some are sequestered in camps. Some of them are forced back out and abandoned on rafts in the middle of the sea. Where are their spotlights after the flavor of their misery fades in a day?)

I’m glad it isn’t a brave group there for a good cause rather than a VIP in-person death tour of a submerged mass grave of the unfortunate and abandoned, a trip embarked on only for the sake of its exclusivity.

(Any commoner can look at the pictures of the site on a screen. What’s the point if just anyone can do it?)

I’m glad it isn’t people who had no idea what they were risking, who didn’t have a slew of repeated ignored warnings from experts, repeated ignored signs of danger, repeated ignored near-misses leading up to the sight of the vessel itself, sat inside a tin can that bolts from the outside and steers with a shoddy knockoff of an outdated toy.

(They paid enough per person to save lives. Enough to cover a year’s expenses for whole families. Enough to do something, anything better, for personal pleasure or for the paupers. $250,000 a seat. On a whim. For a little jaunt. In that. Which they saw with their own eyes before ever taking off their shoes and crouching inside. With the ink still wet on the waivers.)

I’m glad it isn’t the story of five people who didn’t know better, who were on a mission, who did not make their respective livings on monetizing a tragedy with exorbitant fees for a ride in a vessel proven again and again to be unsafe and cheaply built, or selling private jets to those wealthy parties who see personal planes as a little treat that’s well worth the cash and carbon emission, or being a billionaire and his college-age son sitting at the head of a company with a stranglehold on energy, fertilizer and chemical production, or being an apparent expert on deep dives and submersibles and having an entire career built around being ‘Mr. Titanic.’

(Five whole lives in that sinking can. Five lives untouched by any of the hundreds of pains and evils and clockwork despair that afflict the majority of the world’s population simply because they did not have money or privilege enough to be permitted a life that isn’t a constant struggle, let alone one of safety or happiness on demand. (No, of course you can’t buy happiness. But the items and actions needed to get to happiness all seem to come with a price tag.))

I’m glad it isn’t yet another update on how yet another group of people who luck never bothered with are suffering and dying for no other reason than their own disposability in the eyes of those who could simply cease to worsen the lives of anyone not themselves, and choose not to.

(Prince Prospero and his friends are safe in the palace and its endless party. The poor are locked out and the Red Death—all Death!—is barred with them. Life has proven they are blessed. Wealth has, anyway, which is just the same. Have enough of it, and nothing can hurt you. Nothing at all. (Who is that gauche man in the bloody mask?))

I’m glad it isn’t someone else.

(It is horror in itself to imagine. The most merciful thought is that implosion made it quick. The unfit window gave way and the crush of the ocean took them all too fast for them to know what happened. Painless. They’re already so much whalefall and the opportunists in the water will leave no scraps of them. But if they are alive?

(It’s too much. Far, far too much.

(No contact, no response. Perhaps even a power failure. It could be they’re sitting in perfect darkness. Even the vacuum of space has starlight. But there’s nothing down there, where they remain too deep for the sun, too high for the twinkle of bioluminescent fish to trundle by the glass.

(Can they steer? Can they move at all? They would come up if they could. They haven’t. Forward, then? Back? Or just endlessly down and down and down until they meet the carcass of the ship they risked their lives to visit up close? Would it be better or worse if a current knocked them along and away from the site? Irony might be a knife too many down there, their lives dwindling away in the extravagant paupers’ graveyard the sea has kept private to all but those endowed enough to come and gawp.

(Even if they reached the surface, even if they survived the nigh inevitable attack of decompression sickness, even then, the only way out is bolted shut from the exterior. They could sit like a bottle on the waves, peering out at the sky and the air and the seabirds, still waiting. Still dying. Clawing at a door that will never budge without somebody to open it for them, as doors have always been opened for them.

(The air is thinning. How much have they dared to waste on talk? Screams, shouts, sobs? Can they even muster the nerve to void their bowels in the convenient plastic baggies that stand in for a toilet when it risks the stench of waste crowding the oxygen? Did they eat before they descended? Or did they hold off, daydreaming of an ample seafood buffet when they returned to shore, filleted and steamed and ringed with little dishes of sauce and butter? Is there food aboard, or was that disregarded as too much clutter, too much risk?

(If they are alive, they are stranded. They are suffocating. They are starving.

(And if they are very desperate, very angry, and very aware, all at once, of what their host—the CEO wielding the off-brand toy with a history of defective operation as their controls, who sued the employee who tried to warn them of the vessel’s faults, who insisted that safety was a waste, who bolted them in a coffin he himself must have trusted to bend the rules of physics and regulation and reality itself in his favor as every other factor of life had bent for him before—has damned them to, perhaps there’s at least one less set of lungs to worry about.

(It's a horrendous idea, of course. Unthinkable. It always is until it isn’t.

(Just like it would be unthinkable to be in the situation those five are in, if they’re alive enough to have any situation now.

(Just like it would be unthinkable to have anyone else in that situation.

(Except.

(Who would that anyone else be, if not these million-and-billionaires?

(Other wealthy travelers lost under water and waivers? The ship up top waited hours before contacting the Coast Guard after they lost contact with the submersible, and that was with the CEO onboard. How long would they have waited for others? Would they have told anyone if they didn’t know there was important kin and associates waiting onshore for news?

(Or perhaps it would be those passionate enough to save and save and save for the chance, for one single extraordinary moment, burning what would be a fortune to them and pocket change to the sunken five, just for all that patience, work, and frugality to be repaid with this? Another handful of nobodies lost to a tragedy born of carelessness and callousness. A lawsuit would ensue, perhaps. No less, no more.

(And the world wouldn’t have batted a lash. Not for lack of care, but for it’s very mundanity. 

(Every day. Every day. Innocent people, good people, people living on tightropes and tripwires of varying levels of menace just because they exist in circles that have never and will never graze the gilded impenetrability of the 0.01% who own and choke the planet, they fall to pain and destruction like meat into a grinder. All while that blessed 0.01% rarely, if ever, have a brush with silly things like hardship or consequences or consideration. There are no real Ebenezer Scrooges.

(Though I would like there to be. I’d like a whole miraculous gaggle of them to be rescued from the sea. I want them to come stumbling from their carbon fiber casket, alive and altered. I’d like to see the CEO, the architect of said death trap who has sent multiple people down to those depths without thought to safety or science, to be skewered by his passengers, by the press, by a lifetime of reprisals for all he dared to tout as an enterprise far too innovative to bother with regulation or care for human life. I’d like to see revelations and second thoughts blossom in the survivors and the naysaying corporate heads who sneer at the lag and cost of proper safety measures, of the well-being of people other than themselves, of the powerful reality of nature.

(I’d like a miracle. But if there isn’t?)

I’m glad it isn’t someone else.

[ofsunnydays-and-moonlitnights]

Instructions on cleaning the Sun daycare attendant.

Use Fazbear SunShine gentle multi-surface cleaner, or SunShine soap for tough dirt and grime. If these are not available please order them at Fazbear.org/shop/staff/cleaning/dca using your staff assigned code. In the meantime these suitable substitutes should be used (in order of most suitable to least): SunShine bubble bath, SunShine hand soap, SunShine shampoo, SunShine laundry soap, SunShine dish soap, SunShine wood polish, any SleepyTime products suitable for the moon DCA, regular dish soap, or any Gentle multi surface cleaner (preferably from the Fazbear brand).

CAUTION!! Avoid harsh chemicals to avoid damaging the daycare attendant or irritating the skin of any children coming into contact with the daycare attendant.

Never use bleach!

None of the SunShine kitchen or toilet and bathroom lines of cleaning products are suitable for cleaning the DCA.

Always use warm water and a gentle cloth or sponge. Never use a scourer or brush to clean the DCA. A soft childrens tooth brush may be used in the case of hard to get to grime in the crevices of the DCAs design.

Wash all fabrics in SunShine laundry soap or spray with SunShine fabric freshener for a quick refresh.

Elbow grease is all you need, just wipe away any and all visible dirt, dust or grime.

Do not submerge the DCA in water for long periods of time. Do not use a shower or bath to clean the DCA. If submersion occurs turn to page 656 for advice on water damage.

[sniperct]

Some highlights

Given the prevalent flaws in the previously tested 1/3 scale model, and the visible flaws in the carbon end samples for the Titan, Lochridge again stressed the potential danger to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths. The constant pressure cycling weakens existing flaws resulting in large tears of the carbon. Non-destructive testing was critical to detect such potentially existing flaws in order to ensure a solid and safe product for the safety of the passengers and crew. The counterclaim also details a meeting at OceanGate’s Everett, Washington, facility with engineering staff where “several individuals had expressed concerns over to the Engineering Director.” The OceanGate CEO, Stockton Rush, asked Lochridge to conduct a quality inspection of the Titan. Per the complaint:

Over the course of the next several days, Lochridge worked on his report and requested paperwork from the Engineering Director regarding the viewport design and pressure test results of the viewport for the Titan, along with other key information. Lochridge was met with hostility and denial of access to the necessary documentation that should have been freely available as part of his inspection process.

And these parts are damning:

At the meeting Lochridge discovered why he had been denied access to the viewport information from the Engineering department—the viewport at the forward of the submersible was only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters. Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to experimental design of the viewport supplied by OceanGate, which was out of the Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy (“PVHO”) standards. OceanGate refused to pay for the manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters. Paying passengers wouldn’t know or be informed about Lochridge’s concerns, according to his complaints. They also wouldn’t be informed “that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible.” Lochridge expressed concerns about the Titan again. But OceanGate didn’t address those concerns, and Lockridge was fired.

[quietsea]

I made a paludarium. The land area is composed of great stuff foam on an egg crate light diffuser. After curing and carving, I used aquarium safe silicone, and covered it in lava rock/sand. I then added a submersible pump for the water feature, the Driftwood, and planted the plants in a mixture of fluval aquasoil and sphangum moss.

You can see the setup and initial planting on the bottom and the final product after two weeks growth and added moss on top. Hopefully will be stocked with Youkihi Medaka and cherry shrimp!