#the slabs

[empyreansentinel]

Hiiii I remember u sawtooth posting a bit ago and I got so excited <- Sawtooth canyon fan number 1

You saying Brick was a bad bandit leader and asking why the Sawtooths dont just overthrow the Slabs is so fucking real honestly. I've been thinking abt that ever since I first beat this game a year or two back, and thought "Why doesn't Brick care about the bandits he's leading, that's basically his workforce..... Is he stupid", but it does make sense in a way ? Cuz Brick isn't a bandit from Pandora specifically, he's (a vault hunter) from Menoetius, so he doesn't actually know shit Bout crap when it comes to actual bandit hierarchy or grouping. Say what you will abt the moralities of Flanksteak,or the Flynts or any other bandit loed, but they at least care enough about their groups to know they need to keep their numbers up. But I think the other slabs just stick around to him and tolerate his inability to lead because they know the Sawtooths would completely crush them if they didn't. And there's a really important reason for that also:

Brick is not only built like if a muscle came to life and started talking, but he's also (or used to be) a vault hunter. A vault hunter that, Very Specifically, is allied with the crimson raiders, which is built from a bunch of members from the Lance + other vault hunters. They're not trying to start a fight with the maniacs who massacre entire towns worth of bandit camps for one reason or another. They have acquired enough territory to be considered a super-power in comparison to say, Nine toes' group from the first game, whose group was very small and contained to being near Fyrestone. My theory is they're willing to put up with whatever the Slabs do on their side of the territory so long as it's contained There, because they know if they did anything their leader would get a whole other array of problems involved. Which is literally what happens in-game because Brick calls the vault hunter group the second they even remind him of their existence, and they in turn kill a whole bunch of people about it.

Im rambling atp but Bandit politics is interesting and I love how you go about ittttttt

BRICK IS JUST....hes a very frustrating character to me. he’s written as this big dumb himbo character who loves his friends but a lot of the choices he makes in 2 paint him as just being reckless with the lives of his men. hes stationed the slabs directly in the middle of hyperion territory. their entire point of being is to put a wall of bodies between handsome jack and the rest of pandora, and its been that way for years. and it is not a fight they are winning, the best they’ve managed is a stalemate, which could be quickly overturned if jack used more than 3% of his brain power and razed the place like he did lynchwood and new haven. but that for some reason isn’t enough to occupy him. he also instigates fights with the sawteeth and lynchwood as well. lynchwood is on the defensive, its not going to go out of its way to start shit with the slabs because its primary purpose is being a source of eridium, not a military base. the whole deal with the sawtooth clan is even worse, because Brick is still the one picking a fight, with the excuse that the sawtooth have been selling out VHs to jack for money. which 1) WOMP WOMP and 2) further proof he still considers himself a VH and not a bandit. he sends you to cut through sawtooth cauldron and kill dozens of people for explosives. to uh. clear a bridge, if i recall. that can be crossed by buzzard. which the slabs have in abundance. whatever. all of this to say: yeah, you’re right. he SUCKS as a bandit leader and I think a lot of the slabs are with him out of necessity. because even after being ousted by the rest of the crimson raiders and mostly cutting contact with the BL1 VHs, he still values them as people above the slabs. hell he values the BL2 VHs, total strangers, above the slabs and that was before he even knew they were with the raiders. the biggest sell for me is his dialogue after you kill mortar. he questions why the sawteeth are still fighting, and calls them stupid for doing so. like he doesnt understand at all.

[godbirdart]

MAY I ASK WHAT A BRUTALIST BUTT PLUG WOULD LOOK LIKE.

this

[athanmis]

PET postal!!!!

[claypigeonpottery]

I gotta say, this is one of my favourite mugs. the green might turn out more black than expected, it was a mix of a few things and ...who knows. I can't wait for this to get out of the kiln

[starcrossedandstupid]

Just saw Etho’s TCG card and. Oh my god

Now you may think ‘what are you talking about that’s just etho at his base?’ But no, you silly man. That’s Joel’s base. The Etho statues in front of that style of arch? With the cherry blossom tree? That isn’t Etho’s base. He made the conscious decision to do that. I will NEVER be over this bit.

[chillyfeetsteak]

I first became fascinated with it a few years ago when I noticed it out an airplane window on a flight from Texas to Southern California. In an expanse of endless desert, suddenly, a vast body of water. When I got home, I immediately looked it up on a map. The Salton Sea.

It’s the largest landlocked body of water in California. It sits right on top of the San Andreas Fault at over 200 feet below sea level. It is more than twice as salty as the Pacific Ocean. It is completely toxic. And I had never heard of it before then.

(photo essay under the cut)

In the early 1900s the Colorado River was diverted through a series of irrigation canals in order to provide water for the farmlands of Imperial Valley. One of the head-gates broke during a flood, and the desert basin filled with water for 2 years before it was fixed. The unexpected lake soon became a popular vacation destination; it was stocked with fish, and resorts and hotels popped up along its shores. It became known as a great place for sport fishing, waterskiing, and yacht parties. Big name celebrities visited. At one point, it had more annual visitors than Yosemite.

Salton Sea has no outlet, and is only filled via agricultural runoff. As the water evaporated in the hot desert sun, the lake became more and more saline. Chemicals began to build up from the run off causing toxic algae blooms, and mass die-offs of fish and birds started in the 80s. By the 90s, the beaches were littered with fish gills and bird bones and the resorts were abandoned. The lake began to dry up as irrigation run-off was diverted away. The exposed lake bed is also toxic, and the high desert winds kick up the dust, making the air poisonous. 

Despite the unpleasant odor, the noxious air and the summer temperatures regularly reaching 120°, a renaissance of sorts began in the early 2010s. Artist and nomad colonies began to spring up around Salton Sea. Bombay Beach, once a popular resort destination, is now mostly a ghost town, but the folks who remain have turned the ruins on the shores into an outdoor art installation gallery where the found-art sculptures are cyclically destroyed by the elements and then replaced with new ones. Many of the houses and RVs in town are themselves art pieces.

In nearby Slab City, a settlement of off-the-grid lifestylers, you can find even more folk art. Salvation Mountain is a manmade hill painted with bright colors and bible verses and maintained by a community of volunteers. East Jesus is a sculpture garden and art installation. 

This past weekend my partner and I finally made the pilgrimage to the Sea. California has the benefit of being home to a huge array of biomes. In just a couple of hours you can travel from snowy mountain peaks to lush oases to endless sand dunes. Driving the hour or so south from Palm Springs towards Salton Sea is like driving towards the end of the world.

Bombay Beach especially enamored me. The beach is crusted with salt and millions of tiny shells and bones. It smells awful, like sewage and chemicals and low-tide and rotting fish. You drive out onto the beach and park anywhere amongst the sculptures and deteriorating resort ruins. The art feels raw in a way I haven’t experienced before. It reminds me of seeing paleolithic cave art. Humans made this, with no motivation other than to create something intriguing or beautiful or sad. Not much can live out here, but what you find fills me with a great adoration for humanity. Despite the asphyxiation of the natural world, the human spirit persists.

[will41n]

i just skipped pe chass to draw him are you guys proud of me

[vizreef]

Bang & Olufson Beocom 1000 (Denmark, 1986)

[st4r-fruitz]

ethos day out

first he went to the arcade, then sat at home trying not to get taken by the big yellow hand

[adventure-kath]

snail pngs!

i might be a bit obsessed with them here have some pngs. they are not all as good because i did not have a lot of good screenshots. and i sadly dont have everyone but i have this for now enjoy!

[bdoubleowo]

this post made me immediately pick up my tablet and start drawing

[ghost-y-toast-y]

Some of these do you like stars things. (Edit: ended up refining them! ^^)

Og and flat colors under cut

[mbohjeezart]

Hermit a Day May: Day 17, Etho, Silenced Genius...?

And here's his full portrait without the text and background:

[claypigeonpottery]

sold

some actual pictures of the mice bowl

and here’s the outside

[r3nrit]

(2/2) Hallo here’s the last half of the hermit fannon swap suggestions I got from twt :o3

(Click for better quality)

Here’s Part 1 I uploaded yesterday !!

[swiggity-swexual-i-am-asexual]

As per usual, it’s DP crossover with (probably) DC, although you could probably adjust it for other fandoms

ANYWAYS

A little kid and his mother are trick or treating in another city, perhaps at some kind of event rather than knocking on doors, and the kid is dressed as Phantom. It’s very adorable, with his little ghost-shaped bucket and clearly homemade and already stained costume—listen, white only works if you can just fly over street grime or phase it out of your clothes—and his slightly I’ll fitting wig. The kid is SO happy to be out and about dressed as his favorite, and maybe even showed it off to Phantom back in Amity Park before his family left.

The hero, insert whoever you wish here, is probably in civvies and just enjoying the event. The kid, meanwhile, is so glad when people ask who he is so he can explain, and so- the hero gets to hear ALL ABOUT the local town hero who is probably pretty small time despite the kid’s clearly exaggerated stories. The hero certainly never heard of him, but the kid’s mom confirms that Phantom really was the town hero, despite some mixed reviews of the poor guy.

“Did you manage to show him your costume?” the hero asks.

“Yeah! We went down to the cemetery to leave flowers and I got to show him my costume.”

Wait. Cemetery? Maybe it was part of theme, because Phantom had to be named that for a reason, but… it sounded like…

The kid ignores the suddenly VERY still hero and instead turns to his mom. “Momma, do you think we should bring him candy? He doesn’t get to trick or treat like we do, and I can work super hard to get him a bunch!”

The kid’s mom just smiles. “We could, but maybe we should bring him something homemade. I bet he’d like something more filling, teen boys like him have a hollow leg.”

The kid wrinkles his nose. “Like Vernie with the pizza bagels?”

“Like your cousin, yes. We can make some cinnamon rolls and take them to his memorial, maybe bring some of the apples from your grandpa’s garden…”

The hero is pretty much forgotten as the two-part family wanders off, not quite intentionally forgetting the hero is there so much as the hero somewhat accidentally ended the conversation when they just froze and didn’t ask anything further.

Not that the hero didn’t want to. But they’d learn something very serious.

One—there was a small town hero they’d never heard of. Two—that hero was apparently a teen. Third—most pressingly, the teen hero was both beloved enough to have kids dressing up as him and dead enough to have a grave.

This… might require some phone calls.