#this is an ancient writing reposted from 2014

[toffie-tux]

Of Soap and Shampoo

Word Count: ~1,210 Fandom: Homestuck  Summary: It wasn't that Gamzee was ever really clean. No, there was always some manner of mess, some level of dishevelment, some form of dirt that was on the guy. Yet, as of late, it was getting worse; worse to the point that perhaps it was time he, Karkat Vantas, handled the issue.

"Dude, stop squirming. Seriously, I am going to end up hurting you due to the fact that, for some reason, the concept of staying still somehow manages to allude you. Besides, I wouldn't have to sit you down and do this, but for some horrifically inexplicable reason, you cannot regularly take care of yourself in even the most basic of fashions. Both hygienically and otherwise, " the Vantas groused, hands testing the soapy water that currently enveloped the clown. It was hot, admittedly, but it was a necessity. Judging by a few of the deeper scratches' puss-infused state plus the particularly nasty knot that was Gamzee's mane, borderline scalding water was needed. If the hissing and glowering was to be taken as a hint, then he was certain that his moirail wasn't enjoying the bathing session at the moment. Yet, brow furrowed and lips pulled back in a miserable attempt of a snarl, the Capricorn was more so a pathetic sight rather than a terrifying one when taking into account how drooping his sharp features were, how gnarled hair was all but soaked, and how ratty tendrils clung to bare skin.

                                     The guy was absolutely pitiable.

                                                            Really.

"Don't give me that face, Gamzee Makara, or so help me God, I'll give you a reason to pout like the overgrown wriggler you are." Karkat grumbled, rolling his eyes, before reaching out for the nearest container of soap.

"Motherfucker, you're here trying to boil a brother. Why you got to be all mean like that? Seriously, shit’s already nine kinds of hurt to me and to these wicked feelings I got for you."

"Well, I'm so sorry this hurts, but you, sadly, need some help. Seriously. A lot of it, apparently, and cleaning your technicolored ass up is the first thing on my list of 'Things to do for my number one Juggaloser'. What the hell were you even doing, anyways? Did you just go to the middle of the meteor, pile together our friends' corpses and roll around in it like some impulsive, psychopathic barkbeast? You stink, and on top of that, you have more knots in your hair than a ball of string thrown out into the midst of a tornado, then blindly strung back together by a person who has never seen nor heard, let alone touched something like it before; some of these knots are honestly--Ugh, is this Faygo?!"

Fingers, previously coated in the thick shampoo, had just began to attack the mange that was his friend's hair when a particularly sickly sweet, sugar encrusted gnarl caught his attention. Jaw set, he leaned forward, digits entangling in the wild curls as he attempted to scrub out the sap-like nonsense. Giving yet another hiss, Gamzee snapped, shoulders hunched.

"Ouch, man! Ain't no need to be so fuckin' brutal--"

"--Then start drinking your carbonated sugar-syrup instead of wearing it! How does it even get in the back?"

"The miraculous methods in which our blessed nectar cannot be contained by mere reason and shit is a mystery to all those who are unwilling to see, my bodacious buddy."

".......That doesn't even make sense, but instead of further questioning you about it, I'll think I'll just drop the topic since the current level of dumbass I have to handle is already at full capacity. Move your arm a bit."

At once, the Makara leans to the side, lifting his arm as Karkat's eyes rove over a particular nasty scratch along his ribcage; its ragged, indigo-purple line stretching from underneath his bloodpusher all along his side in a jagged, slanted manner. Clucking his tongue, he removes his attention from the matted hair to the wound instead.

"How did this happen?"

"Clothes kept gettin' caught on all them little loose screws and also kept making a brother all slick because it gets hella hot when you fuckers turn on the damn heat, so I took 'em off, y'know, because the shit was getting hinderin’. Anyways, some bent panel caught me, man, when I was movin' and trying switch ways."

"So, " Karkat replied, quirking a brow as he dipped a rag into the opaque waters, "You're telling me you that you were crawling around the vents sweaty and completely naked, then? Is this what I'm hearing?"

"Of course not, my precious little brother. Nah, I had some face paint on then. Can't be too scandalous, now can I?"

He gave a leering smiling, winking, before abruptly hissing as the soap-and-water drenched cloth was pressed against the stinging cut. Shooting a glower over at the Vantas, the clown lapsed into a momentary, pouting silence while his friend continued to wash away the crusted scab along the shallow, possibly infected gash. Then, after the moment of gentle scrubbing passed, Karkat leaned back once more.

"You're an idiot. You know this right? Look, from now on, while in the vents, we're making a rule that says you have to always be dressed no matter how hot or cold it gets. I'll try and keep better track of the temperature so you aren't being cooked alive, but if the heat gets too bad, you can hunker down in my block anytime. Honestly, I don't mind so long as you keep your stupid horns off the floor and wash your face before you try to hug me or something. Funnily enough, I don't like having that clown sludge on me. It's probably toxic and literally stains everything."

Returning to the other's curls, he continues his efforts to detangle the majority of it by hand. Perhaps, once the Makara was at least partially clothed and somewhat dry and bandaged, he could take an actual comb to it. Truly, how did it even get this bad? Shaking his head, the ministrations were slowed as fingertips worked the soap down into the pitch locks further. A hum in response was all he received in response to his offer, though the gangly Highblood came to lean back into the massaging motion, nuzzling Karkat's hand whenever it ventured too close to his eyes or mouth or just his face in general. The bathing process continued in comfortable silence. Blood, crusted or freshly dripping, was washed away. Grime, dust, and dirt was scrubbed off and into the water. Knots were, eventually undone by the constant attack of stubborn digits and globs of scented shampoo. In the end, as the Vantas was drying his hands, did Gamzee break the quiet.

"Yo, Karkat?"

"What, Gamzee?"

" 'M pale for you."

"Yeah, " a slight smile graced Karkat's features before he muttered, "Pale for you too."

Rolling forward, the Capricorn extends his hand, fingers spreading to form half of a diamond. Dripping, grinning, and so flawlessly relaxed, it was hard to not return the gesture. Relenting, Karkat stepped back over to the fellow and, with a firm nod, finished the other half.

"Moirails till the end?"

"Till the end, Karbro."

[behindthestrings]

KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER. REPOST DO NOT REBLOG !!

NAME: Vix

PRONOUNS: They/Them, Ze/Hir (if you know how to use it)

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: Discord!

NAME OF MUSE(S): Szayelaporro Granz(main), Senjumaru Shutara (main), Kisuke Urahara (main), Uryuu Ishida (strong, but usually on my group blog), Emilou Apacci (secondary), Kaname Tousen (secondary), Many secret muses

RP EXPERIENCE / HOW LONG (MONTHS / YEARS?):  From 2014 on.  Fanfiction author before that starting in the early 2000′s so was never new to writing.

BEST EXPERIENCE: Finding so many amazing people.  I literally have friends across the globe and have actually met a HUGE number of them in person.

RP PET PEEVES / DEALBREAKERS: Elitism.  Cliquishness.  Believing that you “own” a character/ deserve it more than the creator (look...I lived through the Ann Rice bullshit...we’ve had people pay for your freedom to write a muse in the courtrooms...so if you do this, and are around my age especially, you are a fucking ungrateful ass).  People who use their public blogs to brag about private RP.  Single-shipping in a common verse in most cases (I’m aro and romance repulsed--you do you, but if I have to acknowledge your ships in my RP with you?  I’m out.)

FLUFF, ANGST OR SMUT: All 3 please!  Or mix some of them together!

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: Depends.  I’ve been on discord a lot lately and that’s shorter in form.

BEST TIME TO WRITE: Whenever I can.  I have very limited time.

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S): Sometimes.  People see more similarities between my muses and I than I do.  XD.  I’m a scientist like Szayel and Kisuke.  I’ve got resting bitch face like Shutara...and I’m an ostentatious dresser as well.  I have pink hair like Szayel.  I’m a fandom ancient like Shutara.  I’m resourceful and adaptive like Kisuke.  I have a sense of humor that ranges from pervy to absurd like all 3.  Also...we’re all just kind of odd...and NOT for everyone.  <3

TAGGED BY: @candyhawks (thank you so much!  I need to come bother youuuu)

TAGGING: anyone who wants

[unperfectheart]

This Libby Heartaiddle...

Drawing done by me (Rose)

Ask to reblog or repost, this my artwork please respect that.

She's very precious to me... She is one of my frist Lego OCs... back in 2014 when I was harshly into Lego. She has a lot years under her belt with me... she has been though alot with my stories and emotional ups and downs...

This a short description on her here in this post...

Came from an ancient time and is a species that has something to do with space and time called Tidroms. They are immoral like beings...thousands of years old, she is... it's awhile before Kenneth is born...

Cook is her occupation. Her special heart necklace that was in design from the beginning, holds it dear to her. She married to Business later in the years...

Confused?!? My writing usually is...

[devandahlcourte-work-in-progress]

I am reposting these first eighty-two chapters (in 22 sections) plus the prologue and the preface.

These posts will be the updated versions from my DeviantArt account, and since Tumblr may not display all the text correctly (it destroys anything I had in italics or underlined) I would still recommend reading everything there, on DeviantArt. They will also include internal links that navigate between the chapters on DeviantArt and will take the reader off Tumblr if clicked.

This came about because I noticed search engines were finding random sections of my book and displaying them along with some other people’s blog posts.

Okay, so that’s why I installed those internal links in each one… so that if anyone gets to a random section by way of a search engine and would like to read the story from the beginning, they can.

Only then did I realize that it wasn’t getting it’s search results from DeviantArt, but from old Tumblr.

There’s another problem at work here besides unrefined searches…

There is a new species of virus on the internet that likes to eat ancient Tumblr posts and barf them back up infested with adware - spyware - malware etc. The virus goes by names like TumGIR, TumBIG, TumPIK, or Tum(anything else but ‘blr’). The caps were added by me for emphasis so that maybe you can double check in case you’re not looking at an actual Tumblr post right now but one of these so-called “mirror” sites.

If you’re looking at this text through one of the counterfeit Tumblrs that I mentioned, then no link you click (assuming it even copies it with my links intact) will take you out; it will redirect you and show you all of the spam ads it wants to. So read carefully what url is showing on your browser right now.

If it is one of the untrustworthy ones I would suggest closing your browser window and doing whatever else you normally would in order to reset settings.

As far as my science fiction novel entitled “If And Only If,” the safest way to find it is by going to my Instagram:

@michelle.de.vandahlcourte

From there you can click on the link in my bio. It will take you to the beginning of the story on DeviantArt… the safe one! No malware.

P.S. None of this is Tumblr’s fault! It’s the malware/adware/spyware developers who are stealing people’s tumblr posts.

The actual content of this page appears below here👇

Preface

If And Only If: Time Tear

Click on link here 👆to just go directly to the story.

If And Only If: The Time Loop

If And Only If: Ripped Space

If And Only If: Citizens Of Time

If And Only If: Out Of Body

Returning again to the subject of Stalko-Taco:

This is another update, as I prepare to upload about 70 to 80 chapters in the form of 22 posts, which I am including merely to aid my anterograde amnesia-impaired mind (see second journal entry for more detail) and so I don’t have to scroll quite so much to review my old thoughts. The original text appears below:

I posted on this yesterday and promised myself to write more, for the usual reasons, i.e. as a safeguard against my anterograde amnesia mostly; this is still background and none of the actual story yet.

In the summer of 2014 Cloe had still not decided to go dairy-free and was eating occasional ice cream snacks. One of them which she discovered at a Dollar General or Family Dollar store in Austin in the small snack freezer was an ice cream confection called a Choco Taco. As we hit the road for California that summer, and stopped frequently for snack foods, she looked out for Choco Taco to see if they had it. And oddly enough most places did. By the time we got to El Paso I looked up the history of the snack food. It goes back to the mid-80s. Originally from Philadelphia. But it didn’t appear nationwide until about ‘96; three years before my daughter was born. So it had literally existed for her whole life, and more than half of mine. Perhaps because I was vegan I never noticed the thing before. But it seemed odd to her that she went her whole life – a person who very much likes ice cream and snack foods – and never saw it once. Anywhere. Then all of a sudden, after spotting it at that one place in Austin, it was everywhere. A trend that continued all the way to LA.

It was at a place called Mel’s Drive In, in Hollywood where we had the conversation in which she said that she was “being stalked by Choco Taco.” It was just that moment that her cousin walked up and overheard and asked, smiling “did you say you were being stalked by a taco?” We laughed at that a little, explained the Choco Taco thing, and she agreed that it sounded delicious but also said she’d never heard of it before.

Well, my daughter was already into creepypasta stories at fifteen, and although she had a crush on Jeff The Killer she found the sillier ones to be entertaining. It was a couple of weeks later that she asked me, during one of our creative writing sessions as I homeschooled her, if a “giant taco” could come to life.

Not that she was literally asking the question, scientifically, like: do platypuses exist, or can sheep be cloned... but in the context of fiction or science fiction, is there a way that it could possibly happen? I took it on as a thought experiment / creative-writing moment of my own. We often bounce ideas back and forth during creative writing.

Within less than a minute this is what I came up with:

Since she was talking about the actual food product and not a person in a taco costume –but scaled up, larger than life, maybe 10 feet tall or more, and wanted the thing to be stalking somebody in her creepypasta story...

The first thing to pop into my head was a Star Trek episode from the original series called “Shore Leave“ and a lesser known movie with pretty much the same technology-plot called “Sphere.” The unknown movie had a pretty good cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah (whom they wasted too early-on IMO), and Sharon Stone among others. It just didn’t evoke the same kind of fun mood as the Star Trek episode. Most people I’ve talked to can’t remember ever having seen it or heard of it- Sphere. Probably because it didn’t have Alice In Wonderland + the white rabbit, female crew members dressed as damsels and knights in armor killing crew members with lances, Sulu getting attacked by a samurai, etc.

Anyway, the technology works the same way:

Some advanced beings who have figured out how to do matter transmutation and read minds have combined the two tricks, and can take whatever thoughts a particular being is having and turn them into reality. But of course the hapless inferior humans who stumble upon the thing won’t know what’s going on until some weird stuff starts happening.

The format is

A. Humans find alien tech that does this stuff,

B. a bunch of freaky shit happens,

C. the light bulb goes on and someone says “hey, I was just thinking about ______,” resulting in:

D. They figure out what’s going on. And then I suppose,

E. they must make a decision about what to do with the alien technology.

In Star Trek: Shore Leave they agree with the friendly alien that it’s okay for humans to come back and use the place as an amusement park again as long as they observe some precautions. Since having to travel back to the Delta Omicron system each time they wanted to have some fun… would have been tedious, i suppose? They incorporated the idea, as The Holodeck, into the Enterprise for the animated Star Trek cartoon series in the 1970s and then again for The Next Generation in the 1980s and in others perhaps. In ‘Sphere’ they simply agree to modify their minds with the technology so as to make themselves forget everything. Because it’s presumably too much power for humans to be trusted with. Then the sphere flies off into space when it realizes it’s services are no longer needed.

So the question then became: why would someone want to make a giant taco that comes to life and stalks people?

Drugs? Someone who was really stoned when they encountered this alien device? Maybe that’s not what they really wanted. So we have our “step B” in the generic formula which I listed above. So someone is wasted enough to be hallucinating a taco coming to life and thinks it’s funny? I suddenly flashed back to most of the underground raves I went to in the early 1990s.

The novel series entitled: If And Only If which I listed at the top of this post, will follow in these posts eventually. The standard copyright disclaimer below is pertaining to that novel series. It also applies to the portions of the preceding paragraphs that describe my ideas and obviously not to Star Trek or the Sphere movie, which I cited and are not my creations.

If And Only If: Time Tear

(this link is the same as the one from the beginning of this post. It will take you to the prologue plus the first twenty-two sections of the story, which should appear in order.)

If And Only If

Copyright 2015

by Michelle Viviénne de Vandahlcourte

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

First Edition. © December 16, 2015.

[finishinglinepress]

FLP POETRY BOOK OF THE DAY: Kekekabic by Eric Chandler

TO ORDER GO TO: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/kekekabic-by-eric-chandler/

RESERVE YOUR COPY TODAY

Eric Chandler is the author of Hugging This Rock: Poems of Earth & Sky, Love & War (Middle West Press, 2017). His writing has appeared in Northern Wilds, Flying Magazine, Grey Sparrow Journal, The Talking Stick, Sleet Magazine, O-Dark-Thirty, Line of Advance, Collateral, The Deadly Writers Patrol, PANK, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, and Columbia Journal. Chandler was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2014 for creative nonfiction. He’s a three-time winner of the Col. Darron L. Wright Award for poetry. He’s a member of Lake Superior Writers, the Outdoor Writers Association of America, and the Military Writers Guild. Eric is a husband and father who cross-country skis as fast as he can in Duluth, Minnesota.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Kekekabic by Eric Chandler

Whether on haiku treks about town, or bushwhacking across the Boundary Waters wilderness with his loyal dog Leo, pilot and poet Eric “Shmo” Chandler shows us how to be easily present while moving through the world: Take notes. Reflect on small moments. Enjoy the ride. “You’re only lost if you don’t / know what to do next.”

–Randy Brown, author of Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire

Kekekabic is a curious exploration, a travelogue full of wit and humor, a chance to see the world with new eyes. Chandler has the rare gift of finding the extraordinary hidden within the everyday.

–Brian Castner, author of Stampede: Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike and The Long Walk

In Kekekabic, we experience the runner’s high, those moments during and after intense exertion when the things of this world—including our own thoughts—blaze up into new being. This focus is further intensified by Eric Chandler working in haibun, an ancient form developed by another great wanderer, Bashō. In these poems the speaker runs, cross-country skis, roller skis & walks (but mostly runs) as a kind of physical and mental exercise. Eric Chandler writes in his introduction: “These haibun help me find more.” May they, dear reader, do the same for you.

–Ryan Vine, author of To Keep Him Hidden, WARD, and Distant Engines

Chandler is on the move. As he crisscrosses the continent, his observations on the interplay between humans and nature take vivid shape in his use of the haibun. He invites us on an examination as he works out, and works through the meaning found in the scenery only visible to the searcher or traveler. He knows that these two worlds “reach toward one another at the border” and he dances between both while skiing, running, and hiking. His meditative state penetrates the world around us, and his poetry reminds all that regardless of the question, “the answer is yes.”

–F. S. Blake, author of The Few Drops Known, Terminal Leave, and Above the Gold Fields. Blake was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018 and is the co-founder of the Colonel Darron L. Wright Memorial Writing Award.

Please share/please repost [PROMO]#flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry

[ezzmonem]

#Repost @kingsartistrun ・・・ KINGS open today 12-6pm. Come and See Ezz Monem's astonishingly good show 'The Pyramids Postcards: Following the Policemen' . In 2014 Google documented the pyramids and various historical locations in Egypt accompanied at all times by a policeman. The policeman thus appears in all of the images on Google Street View, seemingly accompanying the viewer. Ezz Monem has edited all other people from these images leaving a lone policeman traversing the ancient site, the watcher now being watched. Furthermore, Monem has created postcards from these images and hand delivered them to people in Egypt with the direction to write on the back about their relation to Egypt as home and authority, and return the postcard without an envelope. The postcards were documented before they were put in the Egyptian post, as local surveilling bodies may intercept the postcards and Australia prohibits the entrance of mail from Egypt. The project unpacks the complexities of local and web based surveillance, global mobility and communication. . On until the 19th of October @ezzmonem Photo: @quisbie (at KINGS Artist-Run) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3ORirUn8LX/?igshid=cvc1rkwm49q

[okaajira]

A wonderful peace done by the fantastic artist @kevanhom, who has given me permission to repost this here, with a little drabble I thought up! A link to the original post may be found here. 

Please do not remove the source!

*The following journal entries were found within the travel journal of what appears to be a trader or fishermen in the beginning of the Edo Period of Feudal Japan.*

*Edo, Entry #1 dated 1654, 25th of October-* "Today, the mountain moved, the earth itself shook, trees were felled, and the birds halted their songs as they fled. As we passed the landscape, we watched it lumber along the banks of the river opposite us. Every step it took shook the ground beneath us, the waters rippling in submission. My dearest friend seemed terrified beyond words. I have never seen another man, much less him, tremble so, not before today. It seemed as thought the mountain lumbered toward the sea..."

*Entry #2, dated 1654, 29th of October-* "On this evening, we heard the voice of the mountain. The call was loud, deafeningly so. It had to have been no less than five hundred meters away, yet it sounded much closer! The fog is dense and obscures all but the mountain's shadow, but we could tell it was not alone today... It must be fighting with a rival... A shrine will be built in the coming days to appease and praise this mountain god."

*Entry #3, dated 1654, 1st of November-* “The living mountain, again today, was obscured by the mist, but its shadow was clear. It slumbered peacefully near the shores of the vast ocean, waves gently crashing against it. It seems it is resting before its great journey back to the seas. A few children foolishly wandered too close, yet the mountain god seemed to be impartial, letting them do as they pleased. The children said it had been wounded, possibly in the clash a few days prior... We are praying for its well-being."

*Entry #4, dated 1654, 3rd of November-* "The entire village saw it off. The mountain god gave one last great cry before wading into the waves and diving beneath them. Children cheered and waved, and the Elders prayed. The land has been blessed by the presence of this god, and we seek to live enlightened lives. Perhaps, one day, the mountain god will return, and once again grace us with its presence to remind us that the gods are watching..."

This small thing was brought on by my personal fascination with the concept of kaiju being present in ancient history and living along side of humans many centuries ago, who hailed them as gods. Gojira would be a great candidate for that, especially the 2014 rendition, with how passive it seemed to people. The above story is about as historically accurate as I can make it while still being vague and unique to its own lore. Were the onlookers locals? or travelers from a nearby country? The ships in the image seem to be Junk ships, mostly utilized by China, and given their history for travel and trade, it is not unlikely merchants and traders would stumble upon the local god himself. Extreme kudos to the artist for producing this wonderful masterpiece, and I hope my writing compliments your own talent!

[brakerbreaker]

History of Media- A Post about Tumblr

Assignment: Write 250 or so words comparing a current social media practice to an ancient one.

 Since I personally spend quite a bit of time on the social media platform of Tumblr, I have decided to compare Tumblr to social media practices of the past. Tumblr is an interesting platform because it can be seen in several of the ancient social media practices. Personally, I use Tumblr for mini blog posts for school. Used in this way, Tumblr is reminiscent of the Coffee Houses. There is a bond created between students in my classes and I as we all write under the same prompt and read what each of us had to say about that topic. We can comment on each other’s ideas or support them by “liking” them. It is funny also that the Coffee Houses were denounced for being “‘a vast loss of time grown out of a pure novelty’ and ‘great enemies to diligence and industry’” (Standage, 245). This is very similar to what my friends, parents, and society tell me about going on Tumblr too often. Its very true that Tumblr is a black hole that people can get sucked into and never return from. I believe that its an enjoyable black hole though. Longer blog posts can also be seen as pamphlets from the era of the printing press. Its particularly easy to share them with others and your friends. No need to physically send or hand a friend a pamphlet in these days, one must simply press the share button. Personally, I see the biggest similarities between Tumblr and Commonplace books. After reading the chapter about Commonplace books in Writing on the Wall, I got very excited and decided to start a Commonplace book of my own only realize that I already had one in Tumblr. Only on Tumblr is it feasible to still have followers and do nothing but repost other people’s posts. I have on my Tumblr wall quotes, writing advice, writing prompts, and most importantly the Harry Potter fandom. I have friends who I follow who only reblog pictures of nature or architecture or political messages. This act of reblogging is the same as having a physical book and writing the ideas down in ink. Honestly, this blog post has just made me appreciate Tumblr even more than I already did. Thanks Tumblr.

 Works Cited

Standage, Tom. Writing on the Wall: Social Media- the First 2,000 Years. Bloomsbury, 2014.