#zero tracks stats

[ceruleanmusings]

curve ball // inconsolable au

because @theblerdbox gave me the confidence to dive into writing more au ficlets/fics, this au happened. and that the last two paragraphs of stanley's "after cgl" section of his survival guide book when he talked about his life in high school exists. so thank you blerd and thank you louis sachar.

-------

Mickey sat at the top of the bleachers again.

It wasn't that he looked for her but, well, no one else was around so it was noticeable. She was noticeable. Even when she kept her head down, facing her drawn up knees where she doodled or did homework or something in the notebook she always had with her. She didn’t come every time, but every time she did he noticed.

Stanley messed with the brim of his cap, pulling it lower on his forehead, his curls puffing out from beneath it at all sides like a cloud. Though not quite like the light, fluffy ones dotting the blue sky above. People actually paid attention to those. Liked them, too.

Fidgeting with his hat again, he lowered the brim enough to block out the screaming glare of the sun. Unlike Zigzag who seemed to make it his mission to keep constant eye contact with the sun back in the outfield. Though he wasn’t alone in his idle distractions: Twitch gnawed on the excess lace of his glove as if attached to an infinite length of noodle and Barfbag lie back on the grass as if working on his tan. He may as well, they didn’t have much else to do while waiting for someone to get a hit.

So far all of X-Ray’s pitches hadn’t gone back to him, a feat he pointed out every time Magnet or Armpit whiffed with a loud guffaw followed up by some sort of taunt. Usually commenting how bored he is and if he wanted to give his one arm a workout he could just be spending his time at home. Squid stood quietly nearby, jaw working on the large wad of dark gum rolling in his mouth.

“We’re lookin’ at a power hitter.” Stanley nearly jumped when Hector spoke, even if his words were directed down towards the clipboard in his hands than up at him. They still commanded attention, only because words came so few and far between. Even though their tutoring sessions Stanley did most of the talking. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago Stanley knew Hector could speak at all. And that was to correct him on being referred to as Zero. The entire B-team bestowed each other with nicknames within a week after returning from a training camp. Judging by the stats collected in Hector’s small and tight handwriting, they would have benefited from less time ragging on one another instead. “Armpit’s good when he can land one, but otherwise...” Spelling and grammar may be difficult for him, but math and numbers all but poured out of his soul. They didn’t think twice putting him in charge of keeping track of stats, for them and their opponents.

Stanley nodded, going back to rubbing polish on the metal bat X-Ray insisted on using. There was nothing different about it compared to the others, though X-Ray claimed the bat length was just slightly shorter than the rest of the regulation ones handed out to their team, which meant his swing speed was superior than the others. If only that helped his lack of control on the hit. He could pitch well but he lacked when it came to landing hits in the right places, namely not directly into the opposing team’s gloves. His claims of his large glasses allowing him to see the field better than everyone else didn’t hold as much punch as it used to.

“C’mon man, let me have a turn,” Magnet said from where he leaned against the entrance to the dug off.

“Not until i get a hit,” Armpit replied, stomping his cleats into the dirt at the plate.

Magnet rolled his eyes. “So I’m never gonna get a shot then, huh?”

“Man, shut up.”

“Why don’t you give up? You’re never gonna get it. You’re always gonna strike out, like with that Tatiana chick.”

“Man, I told you to shut up!”

Magnet said something back in Spanish, which either wasn’t the right thing to say or Armpit just didn’t understand him; either way, the two ended up chest to chest within seconds, yelling in each other’s faces. Their coach could’ve intervened if their couch wasn’t passed out in his truck in the back parking lot. They didn’t have to check on him to see if that were actually they case, he was a coach in name only. The A-Team got the dedicated coach. The A-Team got everything, the better bus, the better jerseys, the better equipment, the school’s respect.

And the attention. Not that Stanley particularly wanted attention, he wouldn’t know what to do with it if he ever got it. People looked through him or past him so often it still surprised him if a teacher called on him in class. And attention from girls? That was a pipe dream. Besides, he didn’t even know what to do if one ever said ‘hi’ to him. They’d have to know he existed first.

“Bro, I’m takin’ a break,” Squid said, walking past X-Ray towards the stands. He spat out a long, thin stream of dark liquid as he went, the bulge in his cheek bouncing. X-Ray also left the mound, heading straight for Armpit and Magnet. Zigzag and Barfbag remained in the outfield but Twitch took off running, diving nearly headfirst into his bag once off the field to grab some sort of tubed candy. Not that he needed the extra energy.

“What do you think?” Hector’s large eyes bored into Stanley.

Stanley didn’t have a chance to ask about what—perhaps if they should forfeit the season before it even started?—when vibrating rumbles against the metal bleachers grabbed his attention and his breath lodged in his chest when he realized Mickey had descended and now stood nearby. She leaned against the fence, extending a gatorade in Squid’s direction, a half-open backpack hung off the crook of her elbow.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” he stated. The bite to his words softened a little due to the tiniest hint of a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth when he took the bottle. He downed half of the bright blue liquid in two gulps.

“It’s not babysitting when you’re waiting on your ride,” she said.

Squid brushed the liquid running down his chin off with the back of his arm. “Speaking of, I gotta drop Zig off on the way back. That cool?”

“Fine. As long as he keeps his shoes on this time.”

“My car, my rules.”

Her head tilted back, amplifying her anguish. “Dude, I’m not drowning in boy stink again!”

Squid shrugged. “Open a window.”

“Your windows stick.”

“Well I’m sorry it’s not a horse-drawn carriage, Princess.”

“It’d smell better.”

A wicked gleam appeared in his eye. “Let’s compare.” Despite her shriek of protest, Squid lifted his arm and pulled Mickey’s face into the pit. “Yeah, get right up in there.”

“Oh my god, you’re so gross!”

Squid chuckled as she squirmed free, taking another big swig of gatorade just as the metallic smack of a ball vibrated across the field. Twitch dropped the bat by his feet and it rolled harmlessly away as the ball sailed through the air towards Barfbag’s position in the outfield. He jumped to his feet and shuffled backwards while Hector added new numbers to the chart on the paper he’d been keeping track of. Leave it to him to take even the practices into consideration. He certainly left no stone unturned.

Stanley lifted his eyes only to nearly drop X-Ray’s bat when they landed on Mickey only to see her looking back. Her face remained blank for a second, and then she blinked and she smiled. He turned, glancing over his shoulder, only to look back and see her eyes still on him, smile growing a touch wider, enough to carve dimples in her cheeks.

Air squeezing out his lungs, Stanley forced his eyes back to the filed just in time to watch Barfbag dive for the ball and end up crashing along the ground, head over heels.

The thudding of his heart against his chest jumped up, now sparked with a different kind of fear and something told him it had everything to do with Barfbag clutching his leg and Stanley was sure it wasn’t supposed to bend like that.

[genericpuff]

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[kittybroker]

was bored and since i remembered some asks a while back about the average kitty price, i decided to take a whack at it. according to the 108 valid entries (alt currency kitties, set deals, fake kitties, and outliers like sub-dollar and hundred-plus-dollar kitties were all excluded), the average kittybroker-d kitty costs around $22.50! (90 shiny kitty quarters. they are worth quite a few gumballs...)

This doesn't surprise me really given I sort of keep track of what the kitties are valued at. I would suspect the median is a little lower though and there isn't really need to exclude outliers with the median. Probably a bit closer to $15-18 if I had to guess. I haven't actually done any stats though and know a few other interesting things would likely pop up if you plotted it. One of the more interesting ones is which numbers are more frequent. Certain numbers roll of the tongue better so I know I use those more often. I rarely use anything from 0-10 cents following a number and numbers ending in zero are rare. Certain other ones like 0.49 or 0.98 are more common because of how typical market pricing works. There would also be a huge funny spike at 14.53 because I got a bit silly with it.

[starsandhughes]

Penalty Box— Trevor Zegras (Part Thee)

SERIES MASTERLIST

previous: two

next: four

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2023

PREGAME

yourusername

liked by trevorzegras, jamie.drysdale, and 3,677 others

yourusername welcome to my pregame penalty box update! Z is currently at zero games since he last sat in sin— let’s see what this afternoon brings! Game is at 10am PST, 12pm CT, and 11am ET! #FlyTogether

tagged trevorzegras, anaheimducks, masonmctavish23

view all 117 comments

user1 every game day i look forward to y/n’s posts

trevorzegras a good luck would have been sufficient

yourusername good luck baby!!

trevorzegras thanks babe😂

anaheimducks you’re giving us a run for our money on social media content!!

yourusername i’m sorry!!! (only a little)

jackhughes “sat in sin”

yourusername i said what i said

jackhughes ur my idol

yourusername i know ;)

user2 bally sports socal needs to give y/n her own pregame and postgame shows

user3 omg and she just gives stats of player’s penalty box streaks

yourusername sorry kids, i only keep track of trevor

trevorzegras @/yourusername stop lying to strangers

_quinnhughes i know you keep track of mine, what am i at?

yourusername two whole games without getting a time out!!! you tend to go longer i just find it hilarious

trevorzegras no fair

yourusername @/trevorzegras do better

trevorzegras @/yourusername if i did better where would you get your content from?

yourusername @/trevorzegras the faces quinn makes during games

_quinnhughes @/yourusername go back to bullying Z

yourusername @_quinnhughes bold of you to assume i can’t multitask

POSTGAME

yourusername

liked by trevorzegras, jackhughes, and 1,692 others

yourusername trevor zegras: #11 on the ice, #1 in my heart, and 1 whole game without a penalty! 🧡🖤🧡

tagged trevorzegras

view all 103 comments

jackhughes atta boy Z!

trevorzegras 🙄

trevorzegras i might as well embrace this. thank you my #1 girl 😘

yourusername you’re very welcome my love🥰

user1 #1 in goals for the ducks too!

yourusername and points ;)

jamie.drysdale our little boy is growing up

trevorzegras jimmy, i hate to break it to you, but i’m older than you

yourusername @/trevorzegras being our little boy is a state of mind zeGRAS

jamie.drysdale @/trevorzegras yeah zeGRAS😂

user2 way to go z!!!

_alexturcotte don’t lie you’re always rooting for a fight

yourusername yeah cuz him throwing hands is sexy

jackhughes @/yourusername you root for a fight in every game no matter who’s playing

yourusername @/jackhughes and you never give me one!!

trevorzegras @/yourusername you cried the last time i was in a fight?

jamie.drysdale that’s true i was there

yourusername stfu i’ll fight you both right now

user3 y/n bantering in the comments>>>

_quinnhughes just one game behind me!

trevorzegras i’ll make it to three out of spite

[simonalkenmayer]

I want to show you something interesting that was done recently. Something you can show your Trump supporting relatives.

Yale did a study with death stats that shows that prior to and during the pandemic, Republicans and Democrats were largely dying at the same rate. However once vaccines came out, Democratic deaths dropped at a staggering rate, while republicans continued to (and still are) die at a much higher rate.

The study looks at “excess death”—as in deaths occurring outside the normal death rates. It does not, however, tie into COVID related death tolls via the CDC, because there’s no real way to correlate that data without knowing individual medical history. So the study approaches the idea as best as it can.

You can see from the graph that death rates seem very even among the two groups, until you get to the moment the vaccines became available.

The vertical line is vaccine roll out. Horizontal line is zero. The spikes follow alao v with the waves of spread that the CDC tracks, when variants make rounds and spread. The stats deviate from one another prior to the introduction of the vaccine, when republican disinformation began telling people to return to normal life and participate in events. However, you can see the sharp divergence clearly, when vaccines became available. They continued to diverge as months went on. Currently, Republicans have an abnormally high excess death rate, at nearly double the Democratic death toll. Even with interaction between the two groups in uncontrolled settings, Republican death rates are higher than Democratic death rates., because of vaccine efficacy. I’m sure future studies will be done to further illuminate this phenomenon, but this is an excellent first glimpse.

This is memetic selection. They chose not to be vaccinated. They chose to have less protection. And so…they cease to exist. However, because this type of selection doesn’t act as strongly on younger people who are breeding, it doesn’t drastically shift future rates of potential Republican indoctrination. It does, however, drastically change the current electorate.

Whoops.

This is the GOP platform: no plan, take away equality, bodily autonomy, privacy, social security, medical care, benefits. No rule of law, lower wages, higher aggregation of wealth in top .1%, and a destitute dependent, undereducated populace. Disposable people who die when they’re no longer useful as misinformation spreaders to facilitate their control. 

This is the consequence of compassionless governance, in mathematical, quantifiable terms.

TL;DR COVID kills more Republicans than Democrats, at rates twice as high, because the party engaged in stupid misinformation on a communicable disease for the sake of retaining power.

[deeyaacademia]

june 07, 2024. | 03/100 days of productivity.

my legs have been so dead because of the gym I HATE IT SO MUCH but i will have to push through and will not stop (please send help)

i've been trying to eat healthy, sleep enough, find time for reading and working on my novel and maintain my jounal and i'm feeling so burnt out. i can hardly keep up with the ca classes and catching up on the backlog that i have zero time for any hobbies and if you know anything about me, is that I LOVE MY HOBBIES SO MUCH!!

yes, well that is making me upset but i just need to manage my time better and focus on one thing at a time (it's very hard).

never mind, today was okay-ish as i did all my classes, went to the gym (in pain) and even watched two old lectures of accounts and made notes for law!! YES FINALLY GETTING BACK ON TRACK.

hopefully i'll start stats from tomorrow because i've been hearing it's quite hard and i'm scared to begin 😭

also, i am watching bojack horseman currently and i've never felt so seen in my life. he is me, i am him. i also love diane <3

with love,

deeya.

[vendetta-if]

Shouldn't our kill count stat start off with more than zero since we kinda killed the men that were chasing us after the birthday dinner? (In my case, squished like a bug)

I didn't really count them because it was kind of out of MC's control and was an accident. Whether MC really wanted to kill them deep down or not, it's the fact that MC didn't really realize--or didn't really want that to happen in the case of the more Merciful MCs.

So, yeah, the kill count is keeping track of kills that MC does so deliberately and makes the conscious choice to do it.

[wariocompany]

My actual CVC headcanons written as I trudge through episode after episode in the hopes that I might see him for twenty glorious seconds (LONG)

Cookie Monster is his bestie, they hang out and act Strange together

He has phases of enjoying counting in certain ways. There are some days when counting zero of something is like hell to him, and others when it's all he wants to do.

His memory is borderline photographic; that's both how and why he keeps his counting diary. It helps him empty his head and show he's able to keep track of countable things that would otherwise be forgotten.

He moved to Sesame because he was getting sick of the same-same life of back home, restricted by whatever more ancient relics of count life were supposed to be; especially having to spend time talking to other Important People. On Sesame he gets to do what he wants and be like everyone else, even if he is different. It's also why he says his name is because of his hobby and not, like, the actual reason

He went to an international/accelerated school, where Matilda also went; it was indeed maths oriented, but the Count is exaggerating a bit when he says it was a "counting school".

He did actually catch a bit of an Australian accent from Matilda as a child, as she was his main source of English speaking, but it faded after she moved; all the teachers were either American-accented or had accents like his

He actually has no negative physical reaction to sunlight, he just doesn't like it because of the 'tism

He actually needs the monocle, it's a glasses lens, he read way too much in the dark as a kid

He didn't realise that hyponotising people for his counting purposes could upset people and had to be informed of the fact; but of course, this happened quite quickly, which is why it only happened a few times.

He loves watching sports and pays a great deal of attention to the stats. He especially loves sports analysis shows with "360" in the title. Book keeping etc has also, of course, always been of great interest to him, as well as anything else stats-based in pop culture, such as the census (as we know), elections, algorithms, and so on.

However, he isn't some sort of betting wizard. He is certainly good at counting up things, but putting them into practice and making an analysis of them takes more effort for him, especially if it's a synthesis of a variety of factors.

While he doesn't need a steady job these days, he does do odd accounting jobs during tax time to get himself something nice

He can do all sorts of mathematics, but he simply finds the most interest in counting (and by proxy smaller multiplication tables). He can help you with more challenging maths if you ask him; however, it isn't very interesting for him and he only knows it because of his time at his cute little special boy school

He and the Countess do speak Hungarian reasonably frequently, but not all the time

They knew each other before they met on Sesame, but only vaguely, through friends of friends of friends as children

He was nocturnal for a pretty long while but after he made more friends on Sesame he started to change his sleep schedule for convenience

^ In general, a lot of his vampirisms started to naturally go away after he made friends, and a healthy dose of counting every day keeps him hunky dory.

34,696 was only his favourite number on the day they asked; it changes constantly

He has one of those birthday cake books which teach you how to make numbers for kids' birthdays and we frequently bakes them for friends' birthdays as well as for whenever CM comes over

I'll add more later

[catwalkvivi]

well hey, since hardly anyone's looking at this corner of the website anyway I might as well take the opportunity to vent (it's annoying to do it on twitter with the character cap)

Man, social media is hard.

I see so many people posting regular content consistently for years and years without even seemingly breaking a sweat, while it's always been so difficult for me... Calculating engagement, deciding the best times to post, or, hell, even just sharing what they think/feel/made/fucking ate that day just seems, like, so easy and second nature for pretty much everyone around me. It's genuinely incredible to me that somebody can share what they've learned about idk shitty impractical tanks made in WW1 on this website and make it such an interesting read that hundreds of people engage with it!

But I've tried keeping social media accounts for art and stuff so many times now, on here, on Instagram, on Artstation, on Xitter, and eventually it just- kinda- fades away, it just feels so exhausting to keep track of all the things necessary to Chase the Algorhythm™ if you wanna have any relevancy. Is it a charisma thing??? Where do I grind to get a stat boost on my Cha???

I'd love to say it doesn't matter to me, since I've been drawing shit for myself for years now, but unfortunately artists do need social media presence if they wanna get work. Not to mention, well, I wanna reach people with the stuff I do! I want people to react to what I made, to say what they liked about it, or how it made them feel, and then when I post something I worked on for hours only to get, like, almost zero visibility? idk, man, it just kinda hurts. It's probably selfish and immature for me to say it, I know that it takes time and effort to build an audience and all that, but damn I get happy when people show me that something I've made has affected them positively. I like the connection, I like the conversations, I like meeting people who enjoy the same nerdy trash that I do!

(I was very fortunate to have an art post of mine reach a lot of notes here years ago, which was amazing, but it's such a rare thing)

God, and, like, there's all these weird unspoken rules about interacting on social media too.

The other day a friend of mine came up to our friend group and was like "oh my god this girl liked my stories on instagram it means something does she like me" and I was SO confused and then they were like "well, when somebody not on your friends list likes your stories, it means they're interested in you"

Then some time later another friend was telling me that somebody stopped liking her posts and unfriended her and how that is a horrible offense and my fucking brain hurt, like- okay I get the unfriend part kinda but there could be a hundred reasons for it??? it's not like you have a deep personal connection to all 300 friends you have on your account???

Then I see so many people out there simply sharing something they think or did only to have some rando twist what they said and come at them like they're the shittiest person on the planet that deserves everything bad in life actually (except the ones that are willingly spouting/promoting hateful shit to begin with. Those can rot in hell and I shall not mourn their demise)

Like??? It might be the Power of Autism™ in me but it always feels like I'm one step away from either making a fool of myself or offending twenty different people or both. It's both the fear of having hundreds of thousands of eyes on me and the fear of having none at all. And that makes it really difficult to share anything on the internet for me. I already have to deal with my entire existence as a trans woman making some cunts around the world mad, it sucks that I have to risk it in places where I just wanna post dumb drawings and talk about dumb things that make me happy with others.

I dunno. Word vomit I guess. Social media is hard. Interacting with humans is hard. Sharing stuff is hard. I prefer Pokémon

[aprilias]

just got into the fandom side of motogp, was wondering what's your beef w miller? me and my dad don't like him bc of like vibes but I saw your stats post (fucking incredible job dude truly inspiring level of hating, like casey stoner would be proud) but what did he say or do that motivated this??

Again amazing jobs on the stats, my dad rlly appreciated data proving why miller sucks

Hi Anon!

Haha thank you so much! Honestly that post was inspired by having nothing better to do and an entire year’s grudge after some of his comments, and also the feeling that some of my faves stuck on terrible bikes would do a better job on KTM.

Now I wanna say that I have met Jack Miller and in person he does come across as a very nice guy, so as a person I don’t have an issue with him, it’s more as a rider, in the sense that he’s had the machinery to get better results than he has, and just hasn’t done it. He’s also been in the premier class for 9 years and still hasn’t grasped the concept of tyre management, which is so frustrating especially when he’s meant to challenge other riders I dislike out front lmao.

That being said there have been a few issues with some things he’s said off track in the past.

The comments I personally have an issue with are ‘borderline’ misogynistic comments - if I remember rightly when I first started watching MotoGP, he made a comment comparing his bike being temperamental to a girl on her period (something his teammate at the time had done before too), I can’t find the receipts though so I could be confusing him with someone else on that one.

There was also the jumping to defend Pecco when they were Ducati teammates in 2022 after Pecco’s drink-driving incident. Ducati actually blacklisted journalists who tried to ask Pecco about it and in the pre-weekend or post-quali conference (not sure which) Jack basically shut down any question on the DUI from journalists on Pecco’s behalf. It doesn’t sit well with me because

1.) I would like to know from our eventual double world champion why he thinks its acceptable to do that and also face zero repercussions for it.

2.) because if Miller is that strong on someone not being questioned about a DUI and doesn’t think it’s a big deal for the current face of MotoGP to be doing that, then it raises some red flags about Jack tbh.

He also seems to have a massive agenda against Marc Marquez. As I mentioned in the stats post, he ranted about Marc (and Fabio) complaining about his bike, and called him a princess for explaining how bad the Honda was, which wasn’t an exaggeration it was (and still is) clear for everyone to see how bad that bike is. I’ve read while looking for the comments that I mentioned above that apparently he’s also spoken about the Marquez clan “running the paddock” and allegedly refused a handshake from Alex Marquez at Valencia in 2015, which I didn’t know about but it feels like one-sided unwarranted beef against an entire family.

But yeah that’s basically all. He has a very abrasive personality which I suppose you can like or dislike, but personally it’s not for me. I also just think in comparison to what others could do on that KTM, he just doesn’t deserve to be on this grid.

Sorry for the long post but there’s quite a few things that came to mind while writing so hopefully this is helpful!!

[tobiasdrake]

Today's the day. To the House of Change.

It's exactly the size that I thought. You can see it from town, Isa. Pay attention to things.

Was that in doubt? Did we go on this entire quest to find the Orbs without anyone ever checking if the door is even locked?

There is a non-zero chance that we are all clowns. This does not bode well for our chances today.

It's a good thing that magical keys levitate because I do not envy our chances of physically reaching those upper locks.

In any case, no going back now.

Oh, so THAT'S a Sadness.

...is not a thing I should be saying this deep into our adventure but. Like. You don't understand. It was lemon-flavored. I accept the consequences of my possibly-hallucinatory actions.

I'm so fast, I've already thrown Scissors before anyone even thinks of throwing Rock.

...which. They then. Proceed to do.

...

I think I just figured out why I'm always the one on chore duty.

Unfair that she gets two different types but she is the Chosen One main character of our epic fantasy adventure. She gets Chosen One privileges.

You mean the fact that they're already throwing Scissors and we haven't even started attacking yet?

...

Oh, shit, does that mean they're faster than me? >_< Odile, this is your fault. You made us slow down. I need to hurry up and throw Scissors now!

Trick question. Nothing beats Scissors because it is the superior sign. Cuts through Paper. Cuts through Pillow. It would be weak to Rock but Rock has the Infatuated status ailment so it has a 50% chance of losing its turn each round.

Also the Chosen One is half-Scissors so. Like. Scissors's superiority is unmistakable.

That's honestly a good idea. Item Duty is perfect for the tagalong kid.

Nah, I get that. When I was younger, I'd drink bad coffee on purpose because that way the coffee would make me more alert. I don't do that anymore because life should be spent enjoying things, but the logic holds all the same.

Is it bad if this is my favorite thing of the items I've picked up in here? There are a lot of uses for going ding-ding. Entertainment. Distraction. Entertainment. Ruining stealth missions. And entertainment.

I have an established track record of putting questionable things in my mouth. She is right to fear me.

Hey, that would have worked if you hadn't stopped me! Guaranteed stat increases across the board with only a moderate chance of heart explosion.

So the group can't see the Star. Probably because they haven't ingested one, so they're not gifted with the same hallucinations that I am. Good to know.

Oh cool! Time to do my job as the Trap Pincushion. Here we go!

...

...

Well, here are the possibilities.

1 - There's no traps. 2 - The traps are so cleverly hidden that even my best Trapfinding rolls couldn't locate them. 3 - I'm so fast and so good at my job that I disarmed all of the traps before even I was able to notice.

Personally, I'm leaning towards Option 3. It's easily the most plausible, as well as a valuable reminder of the important assets I bring to this team.

Is it possible that somebody died here for reasons unrelated to traps, and it simply developed a reputation? Like, someone dropped dead of a heart attack or something? And they were just like, "Oh, don't go in there, that's the Death Corridor"?

It's cool. You can be a little high-strung but that's just part of your charm. Let's all just take this as a valuable lesson in not giving too much weight to eavesdropped rumors and--

NO FUCK YOU THAT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A PUN

Oh god, I died a clown.

[bunnieshoneys]

thoughts on ocon and alpine, and silly season

alpine is an actual dumpster fire. on god.

I don't know much about the internal politics of alpine, but all the fans accuse the team of favouring one driver over another and I can't be fucked to learn the lore, but on paper these two are very, very evenly matched in their run as teammates. their stats are here, for anyone interested.

that being said, ocon's been outperforming gasly so far in 2024, especially in quali. its 6-2 to ocon right now. ocon scored the team's first point in miami. in my opinion the reaction in monaco was insanely disrespectful to ocon, given teammates in the midfield squabble all the time, not just the alpine pair, and gasly had, looking at the onboards, also tried a stupid move on ocon in the previous corner, just without contact. i understand a race where both cars are on for points is not the place to do this, but jfc it was an overreaction to threaten ocon with a rookie replacing him.

something's rotten at enstone, tbh. they keep losing people, and they need a major overhaul to fix it. gasly will likely renew now, and he'll be joined by doohan or schumacher (less likely than doohan) most likely. i just dont see yuki leaving RB or kmag getting that seat, and sargeant isnt doing well enough.

as for ocon, he's likely to end up at haas, probably alongside bearman. even before this year, bearman was a pretty sure thing for haas, and he's incredibly talented, despite his results on paper looking like ass. the team has already stated his f1 tests will have more bearing on his seat, and now he delivered for ferrari in jeddah, with zero practice and on one of the toughest tracks on the calendar, i think he's in f1 next year. haas doesn't seem to keen on kmag, anyway, and hes not performing like hulk is. after his stunt in monaco, it seems even less likely that he will stay.

tsunoda will stay at RB, likely on another one-year renewal to keep his options open for 25 and 26. ricciardo looks secure too (for some reason) so that lineup will likely remain unchanged. lawson will be released as a result and i hope someone scoops him up before its too late (williams, potentially). sargeant, kmag, bottas and zhou are the drivers most at risk for leaving the sport at this point. i think sargeant and kmag are almost definitely gone.

shock things that COULD happen as a result of this: ocon to merc, which would probably result in antonelli to williams. schumacher back in the sport. yeah. uhhhh anything could happen this silly season is too silly.

probs gonna do a post on tsunoda at some point and on sainz but idgaf!!!!! about sainz! at alllllll lol (i still think he'll end up at audi/sauber, but that being said the deadline may have passed? I'm not keeping up with it.)

[amymon-arachne]

Progress on this has been slow. I started this one in 2022 and it’s maybe 2/5 of the way done?

It’s all just black so it’s not the most exciting piece to work on, but it requires zero brain power and sometimes that’s what I need.

I don’t track stats for this one, which makes things a lot easier, but it’s also difficult to see progress when it’s all one colour.

I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by all my WIPs lately so I’m hoping I can finish this one by the end of the summer, or at least make decent progress.

[coffeeghoulie]

Cumulus and Sunny my not-so-secret beloveds for #7?

#7: to shut them up

sunny's a nerd and cumulus loves that for her, hope you enjoy <3

from this prompt list

It's a quiet Saturday in the band ghoul den, a rarity, and Cumulus means to take advantage of the temporary respite from the chaos. She curls her legs under her in one of the large armchairs in the common room, turning a skein of yarn over in her hands.

It's impossibly soft, a variegated thing that fades from deep, rich navy to a light silver, and she thinks it would be perfect for a scarf for Rain. The poor thing doesn't fair well in the cold Abbey winters.

She pulls one of her hooks out from where she tucked it behind her ear and pulls up a video on her phone; she'd been meaning to teach herself a new stitch. If it didn't turn out quite right the first time, oh well, she can always frog the thing.

Cumulus chains for a few moments until it's long enough for the short side of a scarf, pausing the video as the woman explains how to form the stitch, how many chains to skip and where to work the next one. She hums, following along slowly until she begins to get the hang of it.

It doesn't take long for the peace she's taking advantage of to be broken. Pounding footsteps echo down the hall, and if Cumulus couldn't pick up the citrus and fresh air smell of one of her packmates, one of her girls, her hackles would have raised, ruffled feathers and pinned back ears.

Instead, Sunshine bursts into the common room, copper curls bouncing as she looks around, eyes alight as she makes eye contact with the air ghoulette.

"Lu! Songbird!" She calls, grinning ear to ear and giving Swiss a run for his money.

"Hi, sparky," Cumulus says, eyes flicking back down to the yarn in her hands, not quite confident enough to do this new stitch blind. "You're done for the day?"

Sunny bounds over, tail wagging like an over enthusiastic labrador retriever. "Yep, just finished session zero, everybody's got their characters made. We start actually playing next week."

Cumulus hums politely. She knows that Sunshine's playing Dungeons and Dragons with some of the other ghouls; Special running the table and Cowbell one of their regular players since before she had been summoned. But in recent years, Sunshine's joined in, as well as two especially brave Siblings, and their newest player, Aeon.

"I'm playing a wild magic sorcerer named Aveline, she's human but that gives me a plus one buff to all of my ability scores-" she rambles, clambering into Cumulus's lap like an excessively needy cat, nudging the top of her head underneath Cumulus's chin.

The air ghoulette laughs, reaching around her lapful of multighoulette to pause the video on her phone as Sunshine keeps talking. "Aeon's got a half-elven rogue named Vox, stereotypical, I know, but it's easy enough for them to keep track of, no spell slots to worry about, just gotta get behind people and rack up that sneak attack damage."

Cumulus hums, grinning as she tucks her hook back behind her feathered ear. She watches for a moment as Sunshine gestures loudly as she keeps talking, rules and stats that she's explained a dozen times over but Cumulus has never been able to keep straight in her mind. Her eyes go soft as Sunny keeps talking, tail wagging so fast the spade thumps against the armchair, nearly knocking Cumulus's phone off of the arm. Something warm swells in her chest, a feeling that's never far off when Sunshine enters the room.

Cumulus can't take it anymore, acting on that warm feeling and grabbing Sunny's cheeks, pulling her down to cut off her ramble with a big kiss. It's worth it to see Sunny's brain shut off, train of thought completely derailed. Her feathers ruffle with a smug grin at the dumbfounded expression on her face.

"What was that for?" Sunny complains, whining. But Cumulus knows better, wrapping her arms around Sunny's waist and pulling her more securely onto her lap.

"I love it when you're passionate, Spark. Tell me more."

Sunny, ever eager, is happy to comply.

[that-girl-with-the-blue-dress-on]

it is Time

for the post no one asked for but which i shall write nonetheless

now that Voyage has had time to settle, i am ready to put my thoughts into words that make some kind of cohesive sense, for my own benefit and hopefully some enjoyment for others

these are impressions gathered from the previews that Apple Music had available prior to album launch, my first listen-through during the twitch livestream with JD, as well as how all that has gelled over the last week and a half.

The Llandoger--first heard on the Jingle Jam stream and then the JJ concert, this one continues to be sheer fun. the Robbie energy is off the charts, the warmth of that refrain "we'll all be well tonight" really hits in the recorded version with the full chorus echo effect and feels like I'm hearing it live in a concert with the audience singing around me (which. will be made reality in less than three months AAAAH), there will be DANCING.

Whiskey Is the Life of Man--the banjo and the harmonies in this one are driven and intense and I really like that, but the overall sound is more growly and hard-drumming than my tastes generally lean toward. the "recording" sound effects in different places are pretty cool, and did i mention the harmonies. as;lkdjf for being my last favorite song if i were forced at plank-walking-point to rank them, I still admire the craft that went into it!

Proud Mary--this was one of the songs they did a YouTube version of that I would have been clamoring to be on the Kickstarter-unlocked studio sessions album if it hadn't already been on the Voyage tracklist, and the Voyage version is even richer. Instant head bopping, 10/10 no notes very excited to have this on my Spotify playlists now <3

Leaving of Liverpool--starts with a bang and loses zero of that energy. Some great a capella sections and again, very dancy. HYPED to hear this one live!

Mutiny--when I heard the preview on Apple I was happy for another comic Robbie song, and the full does not disappoint. Delightfully ironic, classic waltz with definite Sea of Thieves vibes (I say knowing only the SoT songs they've covered). I don't have a lot of words for this one but it's one of my favorites. Simply darling.

Skadi's Hammer--the Apple preview did NOT prepare me. I thought it was going to be a weird little dark song I wouldn't particularly care about beyond being happy for Andy's songwriting credit and. well. we all know how THAT turned out. you've already heard my livestream-night frothing at the mouth and I have since mostly overcome the full-body petrification that would strike me the first several times I listened to it, but AAH. the swooping shh and the drum and the harmonies and the imagery it's SO COOL if they're all going to be entirely immersive sensory experiences i need more andy songs in my headphones STAT please and thank you.

John the Red Nose--we joke about BIG HATCHETS AND CLEAVERS but that's really so fun and then the way it softens down for the last verse, giving the spare ribs to the poor? CHEF'S KISS BEAUTIFUL STRUCTURE the building and building and climax and then that gentle bit of kindness and charity als;kdjf again the ARTISTRY in the songs that couldn't even fit into my top say five or whatever is mind-blowing. the fiddle background is wonderful and the cold winter forest vibes are settling in properly after Skadi's harvest time.

Greenland Whale Fisheries--new harmonies! more deaths! a breath of fresh sea air after our visit to the forest! all good things in their familiar a capella trad style we love to see it

White Frontier--and now the seas have turned cold and the wind has picked up and the drums drums in the deep wait sorry wrong lore. the chorus absolutely slaps despite being about a lot of death. this doesn't quite hit my top tracks when I sit down and think about it, but it sure gets stuck in my head more than you'd expect for all that...xD

One Hundred Feet--a;sldkfjas;ldkfj;sadlk skadi's hammer hit me physically, but this one hit my feels. classic TLJ vibes. a pleasure to the ears, a wringing of the ol' heartstrings. i'm in love. there's something so comforting about Robbie's sad singing, isn't there? and the harmonies on that one change-up bit in a chorus near the end are absolute perfection. can't sing this one's praises enough.

Willie Taylor--girlboss time ft. some fun sound effects! dally dilly dumm dilly dumm dum dum dum dally dilly dum dilly all the wayyyy. a little funky for my tastes in places but not much more than Bonny Ship the Diamond which I sometimes have a hankering for regardless. I'm not clear on whether she killed Willie's new bride-to-be or not but I'd rather not know. Nicely eases you out of sad feels and gets you ready for funtimes.

Maggie's Ship--I believe this is what the people call a 'banger'? heavy on the cymbals but the slap bass goes hard. cacophonic in places, especially the end but. survivable. And a fun character sketch, Dave's lyric work here is delightfully twisty!

Shawneetown--what can I say. harmonies. stompability. pure joy. never gets old love love love.

Paddy West--THE closer of closers. restful without a jarring drop of momentum, engaging and funny to keep up the positive vibes of the last few songs, and the gradual attenuation at the end is BEAUTIFULLY done.

Overall I really admire how there's songs for such a variety of tastes on here, the artistry on display within that variety, and how structured the flow of the songlist is. It feels just like its name--truly a voyage in song.

[drafthearse]

KATZ WRAPPED 2023

spotify wrapped is fine and all but i have calculated some stats and rankings of my own, many pertaining to my sick and twisted list of albums to get through during the year.

overall, i crossed 429 albums off my list in 2023.

some of these were albums i had listened to in full years ago, but wanted to revisit because i had a feeling i'd enjoy them more (ex: in keeping secrets of silent earth: 3, year zero). many were albums where i was familiar with one or even a handful of tracks off them, but had never actually listened to them in full (ex: magma, living in darkness). but probably the majority of albums on the list, i had never heard at all (ex: angelfish, spanking machine). the math brings me out to 8.25 albums per week!

i added 779 new tracks to my music library this year, which is the most music i have ever added in a year. the first track i added in 2023 was "Diet Pill" by L7, and the last was "Double Decker" by Skating Polly.

my overall artists of the year were Sleater-Kinney, Jimmy Eat World, and Bad Religion.

i got to see Bad Religion live in 2023!

i also saw Backyard Superheroes, Joker's Republic, Save Ferris, HXLT, Death From Above 1979, Sunsetter, Cam Kahin, Anyway Gang, Tim Kasher, Sparta, Koyo, Thursday, '68, Thrice, The Upstart Crows, and Speed of Light! and i took terrible photos, as always!

my favorite artists that i really discovered this year from the list were Mary Timony, Bayside, and PJ Harvey!

my overall favorite track from the year was "Denise" by Fountains of Wayne!

my favorite track that i only discovered in 2023 was. also "Denise" by Fountains of Wayne

my overall favorite albums of the year were Coral Fang by the Distillers, Still Searching by Senses Fail, The Artist In The Ambulance by Thrice, and Futures by Jimmy Eat World.

relatedly, i got so fucking jumpscared while watching Pushing Daisies.

my favorite albums discovered in 2023 were Ghost Notes by Veruca Salt, Billy Talent II by Billy Talent, Becoming Something Else by Sugarcoma, and Sweet Weaponry by Cruiserweight.

my LEAST favorite albums discovered on the list were Tomorrow Is Nearly Yesterday, And Everyday Is Stupid by Crywank, The Silver Scream by Ice Nine Kills, Song and Legend by Sex Gang Children, and Lobes by We Are Scientists.

in total, i spent about 1163.5 hours listening to music in 2023, about 3 hours a day. this is lower than previous years, probably because i spent a bit more time listening to podcasts than usual. when i worked at a reptile and insect-focused pet shop, i would listen to Behind the Bastards for almost the entire workday.

in 2023, i created three new playlists to organize my music:

CONTROL is how i imagine Jax and Jim's hypothetical band might sound.

one two is a recommendation playlist for people who want music that sounds somewhat like The Mad Gear and Missile Kid by My Chemical Romance

fake emo is a massive compilation of songs that i consider to be Emo; not too much emotional hardcore, not too much pop punk. hopefully falling somewhere in between. emo purists please do not make fun of me.

thank you for reading. and now i shall begin the process of compiling the list for 2024.