#transistor prop

[stelera]

Fun fact! My full-sized Transistor prop weights a whopping 33lbs and is not great to be carried at a con, so when not in it's case (which also has wheels) it also has a little bracket with wheels mounted on it so it can be rolled around a convention floor without getting dragged.

The bracket isn’t like skateboard trucks though, it’s just a bit of wood with foam padding on it. There’s a hole through the bottom of the transistor that the wheels bolt on through. And the wheels are free-spinning castor wheels which makes going around tight corners and navigating crowded conventions a little easier.

Video game protagonist with a huge fuckoff sword, except the sword has a little spar with roller-skate wheels on it projecting from the distal part of the blade’s back edge so that you can let it drag on the ground behind you without fucking up the tip.

[stelera]

They want you back, I bet.

Well... so do I.

Parallel Play Week 2024

Day 1 - Fairytales

Woe, Parallel Play Week 2024 be upon ye! (For those uninitiated this is when I borrow the prompts of another ship week and play alongside them with my own blorbos because there's no one who will do a ship week with my obscure crossover ship and sometimes it's just nice to feel like a part of something. I will sit quietly in my corner and not disturb the ship week tags though.)

I searched for a bunch of different cultural fairytales that might have fit this prompt, but in the end I succumbed to my baser desires and made a Transistor AU, so it's more "Fiction" than "Fairytale."

I imagine the Akatsuki being the Camerata in this AU. Itachi is obviously Royce Bracket, Pain and Konan I think make a decent Grant and Asher Kendrell, and it would be really interesting for Sasori to be Sybil Reisz. You can insert any ship thoughts you would like in there, but I think he's the Akatsuki member most suited to being a flying multi-armed glitch monster.

[sablegear0]

Happy Transistor day to this baddie who still lives in my walk-in closet with his boyfriend (Greatsword of Artorias, left), their daughter (Hornet’s needle, far right) and their other adopted sword children (not pictured for clutter reasons but there are like 4 other foam/prop swords in this closet)

[vimbry]

[storiesfromafan]

His Girl - Cal x Reader

A/N: back with something Cal from The Bikeriders this time :) Forgive any mistakes or miss spellings haha.

I've been trying to work on my descriptive work, so these little under 1000 word one-shot's will probably be popping up as I go.

“Well, I guess you'd say

What can make me feel this way” you softly sang.

Currently you were laying on a blanket in the shade, one leg out stretched while the other propped up. Your baby blue – the same colour as your man’s eyes – transistor radio lying next to you playing My Girl by The Temptations. You were enjoying the late afternoon sun, lit cigarette between your fingers. You heard the crunch of grass under heavy feet, as they came towards you. You didn't think much of it, as you were at a Vandals picnic.

“My girl, my girl, my girl” you continued to sing softly, taking a drag from your cigarette.

A body fell beside you as you sang softly. They leaned over as you removed the cigarette and releasing the smoke, the pleasant sight of Cal coming into view. He was smiling lovingly at you. You smiled back, just like him.

“Talkin’ about my girl, my girl” he sang softly before leaning over to give you the briefest of kisses, then stealing your cigarette.

You watched him take a drag and then release it. How could he make it look so sexy? Seeing you staring Cal shyly laughed before laying on his back next to you. You both laid there, passing the smoke between you both. The radio and faint sound from those around, filling the silence between you both. Not that you'd have it any other way.

After sometime you turned onto your side, head resting on your arm as a make shift pillow. You studied his profile from his brow, down the slop of his nose and over his lips. How his jaw would move as he placed the cigarette between his lips, drawing in the nicotine and then letting it out, his attempt at smoke rings but failed. You were admiring the beautiful man beside you, your man.

Cal turned his head, his baby blues staring right into your own. The softest, dreamy smile forming on his lips from just looking at you. You smiled, shying away by turning your face into your arm. He chuckled at you now being the shy one. That was how it was with you both. One would get shy, then at another point, the other would. Back and forth, almost sickly.

Cal flicked away the butt of the cigarette, before leaning into you. The smell of cigarette fresh on his breath, mixed in with the smell of grease and gas. He moved his free hand up to push some hair away from the part of your face he could see.

“Now, why ya shyin’ away from me sweetheart?” He asked teasingly, hand running along your jaw.

You giggled. “No I'm not".

Cal smiled, “yeah, ya are baby".

You moved your face so that he could see it all, his eyes roaming over every inch. Taking in how sweet you looked and were. Your piercing eyes, cute nose and dusty pink lips. Over all a temptation for him. But you were his temptation.

Being bold, you rose up a bit before leaning over to your man, and planted your lips upon his. A sweet kiss to begin with, before Cal drew you closer to him. He moved his head to a better position, before running his tongue along your bottom lip. Without hesitation you opened your mouth, allowing his tongue to explore. And it did, finding your own. Together they moved a slow, tender dance. Both caressing the other.

When it came time to part for air, reluctantly Cal freed your lips, his arm moving to allow you to move back. Rather then moving back to your previous position, you chose to drape yourself over Cal's body. Head placed upon his chest, hearing his breathing and steady heart beat. The suns rays warming you both, enjoying this moment of peace together.

[drstonetrivia]

Chapter 225 Trivia

POV: you are baby Ryusui and you're about to get fed mushed peas and caviar on a silver spoon. "Here comes the rocket! Nyoom!"

The other half of the SSVP docking system! Look at that little probe, doing its job.

(I guess Stanley is doing his job too, but the probe helps him do those final tiny adjustments.)

We already knew some English survived through the Hundred Tales. They mostly seem to be interjections of sorts, like "freeze!" or "congratulations!", and of course, numbers, as was shown in Kohaku's introduction.

So ground control (Xeno and the others) can hear what's happening on the rocket, but the rocket can't hear anyone from ground control.

This shouldn't be permanent since the lunar lander Ryusui is on has a radio, and possibly the space suits have them as well.

There's also still a fifth part of the rocket to be sent up, so if ground control doesn't attach the spare circuit board that they know the astronauts need from overhearing them over the radios, it'll be a bit silly.

Kohaku is on a space walk to remove the shielding from part 2 of the rocket. She props all the panels up, then it detaches & takes off away from the main rocket so there's space to attach part 3.

The cylindrical shielding was necessary to protect it on the way up (aerodynamics!)

Stanley succeeding to dock the spacecraft with only half a screen is nothing short of incredible, especially since he'd only done it for real once before.

If you want to try docking like Stanley, play this simulator with a piece of paper over your screen!

It's unusual for all the astronauts to be out at the same time, even if there's a lot of work to do outside the rocket. Normally astronauts only leave in pairs for safety reasons, like what they did at the sulfur lake almost 200 chapters ago.

Since the petrification stone is mostly made of iron & gold, it seems that it's also conductive, which is why this problem only appeared after the hair was petrified. It connected two capacitors (2 legs) to a transistor (3 legs).

Normally I'd expect one of the capacitors to overload and explode, but in this case it looks like the hair exploded instead. This could be because one of the capacitors unloaded its stored charge into the hair, causing it to explode, like this.

Even though they look undamaged, the unexpected current passing though could have killed the components, so putting them back together may not work. Another problem is that there are conductive pieces now floating around the rocket, ready to do the same to other circuits.

None of these labels seem to be real transistor/capacitor part numbers.

There also seems to be a little inconsistency with where the hair passes between the transistor's legs at the bottom.

Senku's comment here is that they should have been petrified away from the rocket, and then brought onboard as statues to avoid random pieces of person getting petrified exactly like this.

Hindsight is 20/1.8!

A condenser is the same thing as a capacitor, it's just an older word for it.

The reason Senku can't just replace the capacitor is because other parts may have been damaged, and they don't have the time (and maybe not even the tools) to know what's broken.

So Ryusui made it to space with no space suit and without being petrified, and then almost immediately had to do some never-before-done maneuvers to reconvene with his fellow astronauts.

He probably weighs only 1/100th of the lunar lander he's piloting, so I suppose it's good he only needs delicate movements.

Well done Ryusui!

Instead of those awful space suits the others had, Ryusui is wearing a completely new outfit based on the titular Space Pirate Captain Harlock, a manga series from the late 1970s which was later animated.

He's also got a revival watch on his left wrist.

I'm sure most of you have heard of Newton's third law, "every action has an equal and opposite reaction". This is exactly what's happening here:

Ryusui is spinning himself around the craft to adjust the trajectory, though it may also be that he gave himself an impulse and is actually just starting and stopping the spin by grabbing on or not. Doing this manually is very difficult since a person's movement isn't balanced.

Senku's E=mc^2 is back again!

He obviously missed and poked himself a few times trying to draw it, I wonder if the ink bled through the fabric onto his skin too haha!

I hope the irony of Ryusui's actions here isn't lost on him.

The rocket not being able to hear what's happening on Earth sounds like a really good reason to have something bad happen down there… 👀

[paaperboats]

"Red.. hey, Red. Wake up."

Despite the wailing sounding in the distance, the woman wakes with a gentle stir; blue eyes slowly blinking open as she raises a hand to rub at them. What a strange noise.. she couldn't be sure what was going on in that moment, exactly; but there was always something strange happening in the city, wasn't there? Though if the Transistor was calling to her, it was probably important that she be present for it; eventually finding the strength to sit up in her bed.

It took a moment to collect her surroundings, but once she had.. Red noticed something particular about the scenery outside her bedroom window, blinking a few more times as if to fix her obscured vision. Since when was the sky that shade of teal..? Almost like back in Cloudbank.. wouldn't it be strange, then, if their green and white moon appeared as well?

... ?!

Just as soon as she thought of it, suddenly, it also appeared in the sky; shining down it's oddly comforting light to the city below. Red jumped to her feet in that instance, reaching for the Transistor's hilt to find some way to ground herself.

.. but it wasn't there. It should have been next to her bed, propped next to her like he always was. Panic filled her suddenly, searching the floor, all corners of the room, before she turned around--

-- and suddenly, the breath held in her lungs disappeared all at once.

Standing in the doorway was a man. A man that, for a moment, she swore couldn't be real. But in his hands were two cups of steaming coffee; leaning against the frame, with the most gentle look on his face, that she could never mistake for anyone else.

His eyes that shone like the sun. The wrinkles in the corners caressing them, the dark circles that drew her in.

The smile that she'd missed.. the one she could never, ever forget..

"Boxer..?"

Without thinking, his name slipped from her lips. Her own voice echoed in the room between them, and instantly, tears burst from the deep seas of her eyes. As Boxer placed their coffees down, Red ran into the arms of the love of her life; crying, laughing, kissing his face over, and over, and over.

"Auden.. Auden..! It's you.. it's really, really.." she whispered his name as familiar hands found her, caressing her back and pulling her so close. Lips kissed the top of her hair, bandaged hands reaching to cup her face into his palms.

Was she dreaming? Were they home? Was any of this real..?

But as he looked at her, smiling from ear to ear, Red suddenly didn't care. Whatever the reason, he was here. That was all she ever needed.

"Hi," was all he said, a gentle laugh gliding through his greeting as tears began streaming down his own face.

".. hey," she spoke in return, tilting her head to allow their lips to finally meet. If time would let her, she could stay in this moment for the rest of her life.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Sloppy Heads - TV Eye, Ridgewood, New York, January 27, 2023

Is there a new Sloppy Heads record out? Yes, there is a new Sloppy Heads record out! Sometimes Just One Second just dropped on the Shrimper label and — dare I say it — it's the best Heads yet! Ariella Stok, Bill the Drummer, and Jimmy Jumpjump (AKA your friend and mine Jesse Jarnow) have crafted a sprawling masterpiece this time around: 75 minutes of sweet jams, fuzzed-out pop, cracked balladry and even a delicious Dead boogie.

Extra props to Yo La Tengo's James McNew, Ladybug Transistor's Gary Olson, Pee Wee's Playhouse artist Gary Panter and legendary animator Al Jarnow for making this a truly special collection. For a little more detail, check out this recent Jarnow + Jarnow Q&A on Aquarium Drunkard.

I like the RIYL that came along with the Sometimes Just One Second promo, so I'll just reprint it here:

RIYL: WFMU, Mutant Sounds blog, Half Japanese, Yo La Tengo, The Fugs, Seastones, Kluster, Crazy Horse, The Godz, Yoko Ono's Approximately Infinite Universe, Bonzo Dog Band, Pep Lester, Spotted Dick, X, Jefferson Airplane, The Vaselines

You like all that, don't you?! I do. I also like this short live video via the great Roolin YouTube channel of Sloppy Heads out in Ridgewood. Loose as a goose, right as rain.

[boxeboxer]

Good luck with your oc wiki RJ! Props to you I change small bits of my oc canon so often thinking of sharing the full summary stresses me out how frequently I'd have to update it lol. Perhaps once I'm more accustomed to tumblr I will join you in spreading the robot sf propaganda 🫡

I do have an actual lore ask! What period of retro tech inspired Ouro/ what era exactly is the technology based on? What's the personal computers vs super computers situation like if tech such as krtrim exists? That is to say were krtrim a large advancement or is the surrounding world technologically advanced in daily life?

THANK YOUU 🫶 i feel the same way lol i'm constantly changing stuff in my head so some parts are left intentionally vague that way i have some wiggle room. but atp i'm also like fuck it who cares. look at my complicated lore boy.. the robot sf agenda starts effective now effective immediately

the tech is mostly based on 80s-90s era computers! semiconductors are more scarce in-universe, so while they do have transistors and aren't using vacuum tube logic boards, processing speed is notably slow. SSDs/flash memory isn't a popular choice for this same reason, and HDDs remain the primary way to store non-volatile data. CRT monitors are favored, and LCD screens that do exist are pricey and usually only seen in small applications

high-end personal home computers are pretty clunky and about as fast as an crappy early-2000s laptop. while transistor parallelism has stagnated, memory capabilities are on par with what we can achieve today. supercomputers are a huge money sink and are usually only owned and operated by universities or government agencies. since the transistor is a bit of a novelty, scientists haven't had the chance to miniaturize them to nanometer size, so these computers will easily take up a whole building and don't come close to the processing power of supercomputers we see today

krtrim aren't "computers," rather they are electric entities that operate computers. with their current technology, artificial intelligence is still in its very primitive stages, and they view it in a similar way to how we thought of "sentient machines" in golden age sf (almost grandiose and fantasy-like, whereas now we know these are unrealistic). "AI" tends to be used interchangeably wrt krtrim, but its definition is different from how we define it in our world. it's why the official term for them is "computational human phantom" instead!

all that to say when krtrim were first introduced people were definitely surprised LOL.. they're out here using giant dinosaur PCs and all of a sudden there's sentient robots walking around

[bigbooenergy]

this is a nice thought, but it really clashes with my experience working at one. we had one of the better parts sections in our region, and our sales figures on those would be like $20 in a month sometimes. the parts were never a money driver, they always made their money on personal electronics. but the parts showed that we knew what we were talking about when it came to electronics.

you didn't come to RadioShack for a transistor; you came to buy a radio from a guy who knows what a transistor is.

but RadioShack's big bet off the back of that reputation was that they'd make money by becoming a cornerstone in every community. their goal was to have a store within 5 miles of anywhere in continental America!

(I think they achieved 50 miles at their height, but it's been a while, and it was just spin at regional meetings, really. I couldn't tell you if they had, like, a store in Yellowstone or Death Valley, but I kinda hope they did. you never know when an eagle might need a type-N to BNC adapter.)

but then shopping trends turned toward huge indoor malls, then big box stores, and then the internet. they already couldn't outgrow the rise in real estate prices, but with shoppers less tied to their local shops, every store was now competing with *every other RadioShack* in the same region.

to prop up sales and get people in the door, they availed themselves of trendy products from cheap overseas manufactures, but it was basically always something that already hit big somewhere else, so peak sales were declining - or a knockoff version that was about as expensive, but broke way faster.

hell, this wasn't even limited to trendy products. there was this one cheap DVD player that was always in stock because somebody would buy one and immediately return it, either because they didn't like it, or they found out Best Buy sold exactly the same one for twenty bucks less.

then they lost a bunch of money on bad cellphone kickback schemes, and lost contracts with the best cell carriers, who all found it more profitable to open their own stores.

but I still remember the meeting where they announced they were essentially ending the (already cut!) commission rates, and replacing it with perks on only a few categories of items. it basically pushed out anyone who knew what they were doing, the career salespeople who knew their electronics and drew regulars to the stores. to me, that's when it hit that the place was really just Dead.

Does anyone remember what happened to Radio Shack?

They started out selling niche electronics supplies. Capacitors and transformers and shit. This was never the most popular thing, but they had an audience, one that they had a real lock on. No one else was doing that, so all the electronics geeks had to go to them, back in the days before online ordering. They branched out into other electronics too, but kept doing the electronic components.

Eventually they realize that they are making more money selling cell phones and remote control cars than they were with those electronic components. After all, everyone needs a cellphone and some electronic toys, but how many people need a multimeter and some resistors?

So they pivoted, and started only selling that stuff. All cellphones, all remote control cars, stop wasting store space on this niche shit.

And then Walmart and Target and Circuit City and Best Buy ate their lunch. Those companies were already running big stores that sold cellphones and remote control cars, and they had more leverage to get lower prices and selling more stuff meant they had more reasons to go in there, and they couldn't compete. Without the niche electronics stuff that had been their core brand, there was no reason to go to their stores. Everything they sold, you could get elsewhere, and almost always for cheaper, and probably you could buy 5 other things you needed while you were there, stuff Radio Shack didn't sell.

And Radio Shack is gone now. They had a small but loyal customer base that they were never going to lose, but they decided to switch to a bigger but more fickle customer base, one that would go somewhere else for convenience or a bargain. Rather than stick with what they were great at (and only they could do), they switched to something they were only okay at... putting them in a bigger pond with a lot of bigger fish who promptly out-competed them.

If Radio Shack had stayed with their core audience, who knows what would have happened? Maybe they wouldn't have made a billion dollars, but maybe they would still be around, still serving that community, still getting by. They may have had a small audience, but they had basically no competition for that audience. But yeah, we only know for sure what would happen if they decided to attempt to go more mainstream: They fail and die. We know for sure because that's what they did.

I don't know why I keep thinking about the story of what happened to Radio Shack. It just keeps feeling relevant for some reason.

[spirestar]

@heartinhands : the transistor can be a katana right / vergcam

When the world snaps to darkness, utter and sharp, her last thought stabs like a knife: Is that it? Is dying so empty, so meaningless and immediate, that she can't even watch it pass over her like a cloud? There's no flash of vivid memory before Cam ceases to be, no moment of acceptance or second to fight back. It's over. All the work she's done, the power she's fought so hard to hold, is gone faster than anyone could ever blink. That's why it's so disorienting--Being recreated.

Her corpse rests just a few feet from where she was standing only moments ago, shoved backward by the sword skewering her against the alley wall, propping her up like a sad sort of puppet. She's a limp mass of dark and red: The blade passes through her throat and pokes back out in the middle of her back. For a taller person, the intended target, it would've pinned their chest to the wall instead, held them long enough for their consciousness to entirely upload into the weapon, for their power to soak into it like a sponge. It's too bad.

Within the milliseconds that pass, her body in the real world starts to slide and sag as the tech tries to gather what bits of her are left as she dies, and then the process starts. Because that's what it is. The Process. Cam isn't useful for this--Isn't what they want. But she's what they'll get.

A full-on reboot, systems scrambling to find enough to fill in the gaps in her being, to implement some root of her being so her trace doesn't fizzle out. Cam was only human--She's less than what's expected. Still, it's her voice that shudders from the glowing weapon that protrudes from her dead, cooling chest.

"Wh-where?" She died--She knows she did. It's all worth nothing at all. She can't see her own hands, her feet, can't feel them in the void of nothing that is the device's insides, soaked up inside like dust in a vacuum. Her not-body screams and she can't catch her breath, voice ragged as she calls out into the world she can't see anymore / Can't even know really exists anymore. "Ver--Vergil? Nggagh," only the glowing of the blade indicates who's speaking. Her body is stock still. Everything feels like being CUT APART. She's alone nowhere, dead and never going to die. Wouldn't it be better to die than be like that?

"Please, I--" The light goes fuzzy around the sword, her not-hands reaching out to search the space for things she can't know she's still near. You're dead, she thinks again, and this must be Hell. To finally find it like this is laughable. He must be laughing at her. If he even understood what she wanted to begin with. "A-are you there? Don't--Don't--" Leave me like this. The pain can't make her say it. Far away traces of blue fade into view in the corners of what can only be described as her vision: A display where the sky should be. Empty, empty all but for that bit of blue. It makes her wish she could tear herself apart--Nothingness forever except for one thing. One person. She knows that blue.

"Can you hear me?" She sounds more sure this time, agitated beyond measure and wringing out her voice painfully to keep from crying out as her throat refuses to make any other noises for several seconds. Awful rasping. It's split open, after all. Or, was. Is destroyed. "Agh---G-get up!"

[saskiamcc]

Prop collection so far

One of the most important props in this film is the radio, that Cam has John fix to distract him from the awful situation that they're in. I had a few ideas of what I would like it to look like and after discussing this with Duncan and Alfie, I knew we were on the same page. We want the radio to be an old transistor radio which is battered and broken, preferably with an antenna - this would mainly be for the aesthetic. Alfie suggested that the radio have some sort of screen that lights up to show that it was capable of working, however I suggested that maybe a better way of showing this would be through sound design (crackles etc.). Also I think the screen lighting up may clash with the idea that they want an emergency light to flicker in the room throughout tense parts of the film. To find this radio, I had a browse through EBAY, and found a few which looked like they could work really well. Unfortunately quite a lot of them blew our budget, however I found a few gems and sent them to Alfie, Duncan and Finlay. A lot of these were bids so I had to spend a lot of time watching them and ensuring that I was the highest bidder. The first radio we found was perfect for us and for about 5 days I was the highest bidder, however right at the last minute we lost the bid :(

the radio we lost the bid for :(

Aspects I particularly liked about this radio was the brown colour, and the big knobs on the front which created a lot of dimension and made it very visually interesting. 

I did not want to give up so I did a lot more digging into vintage radios and came across two whose bids ended the day i found them. One was £11 and the other was £5.99. I actually much preferred the cheaper one because it had similar sort of qualities I was looking for that the first one we lost had. I called India, and asked them which one they preferred and we agreed on the cheaper one. I put bids on both just in case, however I watched the one we discussed very closely, and at the last 15 seconds, I put a bid in of £6. Luckily, we won this bid and I double checked with Finlay that it fit in budget and got the ok to buy it. :)

I'm very happy with this purchase and I think with a bit of (temporary) tampering and additions of loose nuts and bolts, we can make this radio look as if it is being torn apart and repaired.

After some discussion with India, we knew there were a lot of props on the list that we already had at hand. For example, we already had some agreements to borrow some sleeping bags, tins, pack of cards and even a chessboard. Some other props such as the backpacks I need to think a bit harder about.

The initial image I had for the backpacks were khaki canvas rucksacks with no branding, slightly ripped, damaged and stained, that looked timeless in the film. However, I knew that with the time and budget we had I would have to be a bit more open-minded.

inspiration: Stand By Me (1986), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

I then looked at some of the films that had inspired Alfie and Duncan for this film and took inspiration from them. I looked at media such as The Last of Us, Black Mirror, etc and from there, branched out for more inspiration. I found that I could still make them look used and incorporate them into the film in a way that doesn't look out of place.

The Last of Us, The Maze Runner, Black Mirror

My plan for the backpacks is talking to the cast and crew, show them my inspiration and see if anyone has any similar to what I am looking for.

What initially gave me the idea for the mismatched and broken chess set were shots from Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Fleabag (2016), and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001).

The scene from Moonrise Kingdom gave me the idea that our characters could be playing lots of different games on the chessboard to pass the time, with what they had.

This shot from Fleabag gave me the idea to use other objects in place of chess pieces to make it look more visually interesting, and also add more underlying narrative to the story. Our characters have just found this chess set, and due to the apocalypse, they have not been able to find all the pieces, so they make do with what they have.

And finally, I thought it would be even more visually interesting to have some of the chess pieces be broken, like wizard's chess in Harry Potter. This also foreshadows the tragic death of John, who is killed by Cam using the radio.

I have a chess set which I know I can use so all I need to do now is do a bit of searching to find some loose chess pieces, and other objects that i can use instead.

[paaperboats]

[ Well, at least one thing hasn't changed around here. 'Wonder if they still carry the wine you like. ]

Red was never a heavy drinker back in Cloudbank, but there was no denying that she would indulge herself from time to time; especially now, when she had been thrown back into this place in the middle of her whole town falling apart. All of the buildings were turning white; hardly anything was recognizable from the top of the Camerata's headquarters.. and to say she wasn't frustrated about barely missing her chance to confront Grant Kendrell would be a lie. Though Spirale had thrown her through trial after trial, the woman still held much affection for this place in her heart.. but it would take time for Red to learn how to relax again, after facing a war she'd never asked for.

So, she thought, maybe the pub would be a good place to start. It looked almost exactly the same on the inside, save for the ever-changing patrons.. and even some of the staff. Taking a seat at the bar, the woman propped the Transistor against her stool; lifting a hand to wave someone over.

But, of course, the voice that called out was not of her own.

[ Hey, sorry. We'd like to order when you've got a minute. ]

▽* :   —   ( @geidonteispostergirl )

[laurencodyblog]

Daddy, I’m afraid...

The sky turned black as midnight in just a few moments. The wind was howling, and clouds were spinning. Rain was falling so hard you couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of you. Thunder shook the house, and lightening bolted across the sky every few seconds. From my perch on a chair by the living room window, I was bent nearly in half trying to see the sky - looking for funnel clouds.

These spring storms in Texas would pop up out of nowhere, and in the 1960′s, we didn’t have the advancement in weather technology and warnings that we have today. I wasn’t much bigger than a toddler, and terrified of storms. Even the slightest rainfall would send me into absolute terror for fear of a tornado that I knew could destroy our family and our home.

This storm was a bad one. The power was already out, and a transistor radio was blaring static-y warnings in the kitchen. Everyone in the family had a flashlight (except for me), and my mattress was already propped up in the hallway outside the bathroom, while the tub was lined with blankets.

Mama was fussing around gathering everything together that needed to be moved to a safer location, and Wally and I watched on with rapt attention. Daddy had been outside on the sidewalk in the rain watching the sky. I was scared for me, but I was more scared for him. I was crying uncontrollably, and yelling for him to come back inside the (presumed) safety of the house to bunker down with the rest of us and wait out the storm.

After a few minutes he rushed back in and gave Mama a nod - and she quickly started barking orders in her ‘drill sergeant’ voice - to take shelter. ‘Get in the bath tub now!’ Wally immediately ran to the bathroom, and all but jumped into the tub. I on the other hand, had a complete and total 4 year old meltdown, frozen in place crying and screaming while the lightening and thunder increased and tornado sirens blasted through the neighborhood. I was immediately scooped up in Daddy’s strong arms, and he clutched me tightly to his chest and put me in the tub. I can’t remember if Mama got in with us or not, but Daddy didn’t. He put the mattress over us, and held my hand - crouched down beside the tub. I was still terrified and crying, but he held my hand with one hand, and cupped my face with the other.

He lifted the mattress enough for me to see him, and looked right into my eyes.

‘Daddy, I’m afraid!’

He smiled at me - even during a desperate situation, and said - ‘Lauri, baby girl, do I look afraid?’

I looked deeply into his light blue eyes, looking for traces of fear. In the next moments that passed, I never saw anything resembling fear at all. He was calm, at peace and fearless. ‘No Daddy. You don’t look afraid at all’. His next words would turn out to be words that I would never forget… ‘Baby, when you see me afraid, then you can be afraid.’

Dear Daddy,

I know that the disease that has ravaged you - torments and plays tricks with your emotions. I know you are so confused and fearful of what lies ahead. During the last 6 months you have beaten all odds and have even improved far beyond what the doctors can explain. But I also know that despite my prayers to the contrary, God isn’t going to let us keep you with us. It simply wouldn’t be fair to you. He has graced us with several more months of beautiful moments and new memories of an amazing father who simply won’t give up. And we will cherish these days until we are reunited with you again in Heaven. What a day that will be.

I know you are afraid. But after praying to my heavenly Father today about my earthly one…. He reminded me of how your strength and words of assurance kept me through that storm so long ago. You gave me the courage that day to lay down my fear and pick up your faith.

So I am repeating your words that you can’t possibly remember back to you today. Daddy, the next step in your journey is secure. I know what comes after the storm, even if you can’t see it. And even at 80 years old, end stage Alzheimer’s, and recurrent kidney failure….your future has never looked brighter.

When you see me afraid…. then you can be afraid.

And I am not afraid…

#alzheimersawareness #daddysgirl

[txttletale]

my favourite things about pyre and transistor (and to a lesser extent bastion) were the unique worlds they conjured, the spectacular art direction, the incredible music and vivid characters. and hades is really lackluster in all those departments because of the constraints of genre and premise. like, every environment in pyre and transistor and bastion is beautifully and carefully designed:

the environments in hades can't be this unique and distinct and memorable, because 1. the art direction is tied to the pop-culture understanding of 'greek mythology' (columns, columns everywhere!) and 2. the game has four levels which each contain randomized rooms -- the props and environments of those rooms have to be generic and unremarkable enough that they'll look good in any randomized combination, and uniform enough that every randomized room on any one floor has the same aesthetic.

the same is true about the music -- a track like dread design or thrash pack or _n C_rcl_s or spike in a rail can be unique and weird and standout because it'll play at a specific moment or area of a game. the songs in hades (apart from the few vocal tracks for special story moments) all have to play dozens or hundreds of times so of course they can't afford to be as unique or memorable because they could quickly become grating -- they need to be able to fade into the background. this serves the needs of the roguelike gameplay model but ultimately makes for a worse soundtrack.

as well as having a boring visual identity, the world of 'hades' just isn't interesting to me. the worlds that bastion and transistor and pyre invented were otherworldy and bizarre and drew you in with a sense of wonder and mystery. the world of 'hades' is just the standard pop-cultural take on greek mythology--totally uninterested in situating it as mythos or folklore or understanding it as something produced from a cultural context, engaging with it on a pure surface level, deploying the gods and goddesses as pop cultural stock characters--that we've seen a hundred times. and it's a waste of the writing talent that invented the downside and caelondia and cloudbank to rehash the same tired tropes about 'what if hades had to deal with bureaucracy' and 'what if cerberus was a cuddly dog'.

this v. boring take on greek mythology, as well as stifling the art style as i previously mentioned, also means that the characters are a lot weaker. the roguelike format doesn't help--the gameplay structure necessitates that no character except zagreus have agency, which makes it very difficult to get invested in any of them. zagreus is a very likeable and well-written (and acted) protagonist, but he alone can't carry the game to the point of something like pyre, which had an entire cast of engaging and lovable characters

so--yeah. the gameplay is good. the writing is definitely at least interesting in how it tackles the challenge of telling a linear story in a roguelike and it does some cool and interesting stuff--but in terms of what i actually loved about supergiant's other games, none of it is there.

hades is the worst supergiant game and it sucks that theyre making hades 2

[faroutgardengirl]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Re-Ment Peanuts Snoopy’s Art Studio Blind Box - Art Book.