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gragam · 2 years

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things about my unnamed robot guy (pictured below) sorry its long. ive never used a read more link this is so exciting

-in the future where the us military is just starting to experiment with fully autonomous android soldiers. the first generation are deemed unfit for practical use for various reasons

-no particular protocol for disposing of them so once the second generation is under way the majority are scrapped or deconstructed for parts but some are kept around military compounds as free labor or whatever

-my guy came from a base in arizona where he was being used for menial tasks, the people at the base liked to fuck around with him because he would do whatever they wanted

-at some point this led to his tracking system being broken so when he finds his way out (details unclear) they arent able to find him and apparently deem it not worth pursuing further (do not care about the implications of this not my problem)

-he ends up in a little desert town thats slowly dying (like figuratively), and mostly everyone there who hasnt already left is content to die with it. some time ago it was a factory town but since then there hasnt really been any reason for anyone to move there so its just been slowly deteriorating for decades upon decades

-he arrives in the middle of the night and the only person still out and about is an 18 or 19 year old girl walking around smoking a cigarette who sees him and thinks hes the coolest thing ever because hes a cool robot and she kind of monologues to him about her situation and the state of the town as they walk around together

-basically she lives alone here with her cat and she hates that the town is the way it is and that nobody wants to do anything about it but she cant afford to leave so she just spends her time outside of work wandering around daydreaming or whatever

-he understands spoken and written english but he cant speak, and he doesnt have much of a personality at this point so he doesnt react much beyond vague gestures (plus he doesnt really know that much about the world so he doesnt totally get it anyway) she likes this about him since everyone else just pities her. she also says he reminds her of a cat but he doesnt know what a cat is, this comparison becomes important to him as a symbol of the first time someone treated him like a person

-she takes him back to her house and he lives there for like a year and a half. at first he only communicates through vague gestures but over time she teaches him asl which she knows because her mom was deaf. when shes not working she takes him around town with her and teaches him things (she likes to dress him up when she takes him out), people dont seem to mind since nothing interesting happens there so everyone just knows him as the robot that hangs out around town with that weird girl. at this point robots are uncommon in day to day life but they do exist, nobody in the town has ever seen one in person but theyve heard of them so its only shocking because nobody would have ever expected to see one in a town like this

-he takes a liking to cats and starts wearing clothes and doing things on his own, through his interactions with people he starts to develop more of a personality and even emotional responses to things

-for a while he questions whether or not his inner world is authentic and meaningful or if its just his ai mimicking traits of people hes met but in the end he decides it doesnt matter either way because its real and important to him (sitcom awe sound effect)

-at a certain point the girl starts acting sort of distant but he doesnt have the emotional intelligence to understand that anything is wrong, and one day she just disappears without a word. nobody else knew her and she didnt have any family so nobody cares to look for her (kind of a parallel i guess). he stays in the town waiting for her and taking care of the cat for half a year but the cat is already old and eventually it passes away. he had learned about the way humans honor their dead from the girl and he gives the cat a proper burial

-he wanders around the town for weeks not sure what to do, he sort of starts to revert back to how he was before he met the girl because without her to talk to or the cat to take care of he feels like hes lost his connection to the human world. people around town start to notice that hes different and over time they reach out and help him recover, he starts to reconnect with other people in town and he goes around helping them out with whatever tasks need to be done (this time of his own accord as like a parallel to what he did at the military compound)

-eventually he gets a place to stay and once enough time has passed he gets another cat and names it after the girl, not as like a replacement for her but as a way to honor his memory of her. i dont have anything planned after that i think it would be weird if the girl just came back. i was also trying to think about how to deal with his battery running out i feel like that could be used to touch on mortality but i didnt know how to incorporate it plus im literally making this up as i go. so sure maybe that would happen eventually

to be honest im a little embarrassed to be posting this ive never taken writing seriously at all and ive never really been into making “““ocs”““ beyond like fun character designs but ive been thinking about this all day and i thought maybe it would be fun to actually do it. i dont plan on making this into anything btw and also i still dont have a name for him or the girl or the cat or anything and ive only drawn him twice (or 3 times if you count the roblox mouse drawing or like 8 times if you count the doodles of his head from different angles at various levels of detail in my philosophy notebook)

oh and a special little detail for people who read the whole thing or who clicked the link and scrolled past it anyway: he has a rotor inside his chest that spins faster when hes happy and it makes him sound like hes purring :)

#im not making an oc tag. ill just put it under my art #my art #robots #gurav

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red-dyed-sarumane · 4 years

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theres one main world i like to think about a lot & thats the psychic world which really isnt based on anything in particular but i guess maybe similar to raildex in ways?? like. not everyone has an ability, those that do don't inherit it, everyone's ability is determined just by them themselves. if you dont have one you can't really get one (sometimes people dont realize they have one for a while & theyre like 'oh i just got one!!' but its just they finally learned how to use it), if you have one u cant change it or decide what it is but its urs!! that said multiple people can have the same/similar abilities but like. its by chance & its. Extremely rare for people in the same family to have similar abilities. people who come into this world from other worlds also have a chance to get an ability but its based the same way as everyone else. there are people who will discriminate others based on if they have an ability or not but those people arent. well liked & for the most part both types of people get along well. its pretty common for strangers with abilities to pick fights with others for no real reason besides wanting practice or being bored. generally u have to make sure the other person has an ability & its a fair fight otherwise ur an asshole & the person Can get u in legal trouble if they want. but yeah most people like fights its like pkmn battles but with ur own minds. theres not any mainstream tournaments or anything for it tho. most of the time they are refered to as abilities but in some countries & languages its still called magic. abilities can range to pretty much anything as long as it has something to do with using ur mind in some way. (so like. u cant just naturally be super buff muscule man. but u can have an ability where if u focus u can turn into super buff muscle man)

the world has a lot of fun areas (? idk how i want to say this.) like. theres island chains that just float around in the sky. some of these have really big waterfalls and such on them. some islands are connected together by tree roots grown together into bridges. some are just big floating rocks. because they don't stay still no one's sure if all of them have been discovered yet. some of them only seem to appear in thick fog or cloud cover so its near impossible to actually reach it or find ur way back again. there are one or two small communities on certain islands but for the most part everyone agrees its too dangerous & uncertain to try.

theres really thick forests that seem to go on forever. the branches of the trees grow together so tightly almost no light can get through. in these areas there are rumors (that are true!) of creatures called gemstone deer. these are just really big deer with their antlers & hooves being a type of gemstone. they can sense people's intentions and will never appear to those ill-hearted or greedy & will flee if anyone tries to take pictures. when they do appear its often to help lost kids or kind people find their way back out of the forest again. in rare cases if they trust someone they will lead them back into the deepest part of the forest where they live. at some point the plants in the area start turning into the same gemstone the deer have on them. its a place of almost overwhelming calm & due to lighting and maybe some trick the deer themselves play its impossible for any person to stumble across these places without the help of the deer regardless of what ability they may have. & since the trees grow so tightly together people discovered its possible to walk across them. so often times there are treetop cities above these forests with occasional ladders down trees to go into the forest or down out to fields. its not uncommon to see small farms or gardens growing from the treetops as well since its essentially like ground made from tree limbs.

it some places there are old ruins that seem like abysses. most of them are concrete or marble or some other light colored stone that for the most part is 90° walls straight down until all u can see is fog. the only obstructions are the rather narrow walk ways & where the walls have crumbled & plants took their place. no one has seen or reached the bottoms besides the gods. no one knows who made them or why. these are scattered across the world but rather few in number over all. very large places though.

the main form of travel in this world is sky whale or other moving animal (horse etc) planes dont exist. cars exist but arent very popular. bicycles are decently popular. but if ur going any large distance in a relatively quick time u will be taking a sky whale. these are what they sound like. they are very big and just kinda float in the air & swim through it like water. most of them are trained specifically to deal with the public and are treated well. its pretty rare for people to own their own sky whale. what whales are where depend on what region theyre in. different species have different skills. there are some people who do have their own whales & enter them in competitions too. watching whale races & competitions is a pretty popular passtime.

money exists but isnt really that important. people do their jobs bc its things they like and enjoy not bc they need to.

its very common for kids to drop out of school around middle or high school. theyre encouraged to go out & find themselves. so, while its not recommended they go alone especially if they dont have an ability, its common for them to go on journeys across country & find what they like and where they want to be. many people keep traveling as adults as well. but it is risky between people and everything else in the world so theres a lot of emphasis on preparing if ur going to do this. theres a lot of open apprenticeships for various skills and also libraries & internet so learning what u need to isnt really a concern to anyone.

religions are usually animal based in this world. all of the gods exist somewhere in the world. (unless like ryuusei theyre in space but they're not a typical case bc they guard the space/heaven border so no one goes to the realm of the dead when they arent supposed to) gods do gain power from people believing in them but their abilities are just like anyone else's. its just the more people believe in or know of them the more controlled & potent they can become. they cannot die by traditional means. if u try to kill them they'll disappear for a bit & then suddenly come back like nothing happened. if everyone forgets about them they dont die they just disappear. if someone rediscovers them somehow they will reappear, however often very weak & disoriented for a while. theres no benefit to praying to the gods really? theres no like. heaven or hell concept really. ur not going to be eternally punished or whatever for anything u do. there IS a place for souls of the dead to stay which i call heaven for lack of a better word but like. its not really paradise or anything its just. a place. a half detached world i guess. if u do feel like praying to the gods tho u might get divine blessing if any of them like u. which is basically just u get more lucky in certain circumstances. gods often have multiple abilities at the same time & animal/animal-like attributes. they live in really obscure hard to find places most of the time, not that they dislike people, but its usually just easier for them. they do interact & come into average people's towns on occasion though, just for fun. the main religion in the country i focus most on is based on the seasons so theres (if i remember right) owl for winter, snake for summer, deer for fall, rabbit for spring, fox for balance & they control the coming & going of seasons as well as things related to the seasons like say renewal for spring, acceptance for fall, endurance for winter, etc. fox there to keep everyone in line & make sure its not like. winter all year & make sure everyones getting along. weather/seasonal oddities are often blamed on them not getting along or not being well.

ive been writing for like an hour so thats all for now

#akire being dumb #Akire's OCs #IM SORRY IM ON MOBILE IDK HOW TO PUT A READ MORE #i focus on this world so much & then do nothing with it #i mention bringing people from other worlds bc #some peoples abilities are traveling between worlds/timelimes & sometimes other people get caught in it and boop! theyre here now #its not /that/ common most people wont believe u if u say ur from another world but #it does happen sometimes #okay okay im done thank u if u read all of it

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starflyfarm · 4 years

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(hmgh the inbox is empty n im kinda bored so have sum incoherent thoughts n ideas abt lou under the cut)

(i think ive mentioned a few times tht lou likes singing but that is admittedly an understatement. he loves singing. he hears a song he knos the lyrics to and he feels incredibly compelled to sing tho his lack of confidence stops him in public spaces. u may hear a bit of humming when no ones paying attention to him tho)

(going off that there are certain kindsa songs he likes singing more than others, think its been mentioned that he likes higher energy music generally speaking so naturally thats the kinda music he likes to sing to but he REALLY likes songs he can just belt to it feels so satisfying to him. he is surprisingly good at adele songs)

(he cannot sing really rough throaty songs to save his life tho like just thinkin abt it makes his throat hurt. he likes a fair bit of metal and screamo n stuff but his voice is just too smooth to sing it. smooth but lightly textured. like vanilla icecream w the lil vanilla beans n stuff still in it. hes also not very good at whistling)

(hes mostly a tenor but he does have a pretty decent range and his falsetto is p decent tho it does hurt his throat)

(its also been mentioned that hes alright at guitar but i like 2 thnk inbetween whatever actual lessons he took the very first songs he taught himself were probably sum very embarrassing sappy little love songs w simple chords. u kno how it is when ur a repressed gay teenager)

(idk how any of yall read his voice but generally he talks kinda quietly, very much not a very loud or present person, which is good for not getting caught committing crimes but not very good for socializing as he has discovered.)

(his semi soft voice is decently reflective of his physical characteristics too, i think i mentioned like once that his hair is very thick and soft, but his skin is also p soft with the exception of some scars here and there)

(speaking of his more notable scars are a burn scar on his right forearm from when he was really young, no one remembers exactly how he got it but it had something to do with a kitchen accident, and sum cut scars on his left shoulder from shortly after he’d moved out of his mom’s house. he also has various minor scars on his hands and wrists from handling/playing with cats and getting into the occasional knife fight back in the city as well as a very small scar on his upper lip from a time a dog bit his face when he was young)

(u might not guess it but he is incredibly clumsy and does not have the best spatial awareness when it comes to like. objects. he does fine not crashing into people but hes probably bumped into a lamp post at least once)

(idk if its ever come across but he also does lots of hand gestures when hes talking. snapping his fingers or shaking his hands when hes tryna think trying to illustrate what hes talking about with vague motions. he does a lot of shit w his hands in general, tapping fingers on surfaces drumming his hands on his legs, doin peace signs n finger guns and playing with his fingers/clothes mindlessly)

(hes also the kinda person who has an idle animation™ when hes not distracted by talking to someone or just paying attention to something he’ll probably rock back n forth on his feet or bobbing up and down probably to the rhythm of a song stuck in his head or something, speaking of songs, again, humming is a thing he does too)

(if u read the previous 2 points and thought “that sounds like stimming” ur exactly right)

(he stumbles over his words a bunch when hes excited, even if hes trying to keep his cool stumbling and stuttering are some of the most tell tale signs of him being excited tho it also happens when hes anxious or flustered. id say it applies to strong emotions in general but it absolutely does not apply to stuff like when hes real angry or sad)

(when hes real angry or sad his speech tends to actually be much more concise, he’ll speak slower and take time to really consider his words. when he’s angry both his expression and the words he chooses have the potential to cut like a hot knife thru soft butter, and when he’s sad hes more considering his words to try and keep from bringing the person hes talking to down)

(ive drawn him with a sketchbook a couple times but he probably has a journal with some writing in it too, nothing serious just thoughts he has sometimes phrased with flowery words but its not like. super amazing poetry or anything. hes no elliott)

(speaking of sketchbooks he absolutely draws his friends from time to time. hes incredibly embarrassed by it and hed never show anyone but he does it. a lot of his doodles are accompanied by lil thoughts and comments he has while makin em)

(back when he worked for joja i like to think he was like a phone operator for like. the joja help line or smth which is an oxymoron and he probably spent most of his work day getting yelled at by ppl over the phone. he does not like talking on the phone. much prefers texting)

(idk how clear ive made it on the blog but he absolutely hates morris. morris is probably the only person in town who hes like physically threatened. morris has thusly elected to avoid fucking with him as much as physically possible)

(i think its been mentioned he carries some kinda pocket knife on him at all times but he also likes to carry one a those novelty combs that looks n acts like a switchblade but its not. mostly just to fuck w ppl. pull out what looks like a switchblade then open it and hah uve been fooled it was a comb all along)

(speaking of combs bcus his hair is thick and wavy as mentioned before hes gotta take real good care of it or it gets. Unmanageable. when he was a teenager he didnt take care of it for a while n it got so long and tangled it broke like 2 combs it was awful)

(that in mind he is prone to getting wicked bed head. catch him when he first wakes up and its like a rat king was planted on his head)

(also did i mention he has several knives? pocket knives switchblades hes probably got a decorative dagger in a box somewhere, and ofc his monster fighting sword. he probably has a pair of brass knuckles somewhere too)

(its defintiely been hinted at more than a few times but lou is a huge foodie. he is always hungry and loves food but he cant stand mint or bitter tastes sometimes he has a hard time w sour stuff too. he likes spicy and savory/umami/w/e foods best, and while he does have a decent sweet tooth he can make himself sick off sugary stuff pretty easy especially w really dense sweets like fudgy brownies n shit)

(the reason hes not so good w mint and bitter things is cus his senses r very keen and bitter and mint are very unpleasant to his mouth and nose. theyre intense and stick around much longer than theyre welcome and it just feels bad ykno. this in mind he could not explain to u why he likes spicy stuff as much as he does)

(hes also really sensitive to like actual temperatures, especially heat. if it gets too hot and humid it can make him real nauseous n give him a migraine, hes better in the cold but even then it makes him really sneezy n sniffly. this is moderately ironic considering the previous point)

(jhjh im gonan stop here bcus this is getting super long but this is absolutely not all the stuff ive thought of. its mostly just the more lighthearted n mundane stuff that i could remember off the top of my head lmao)

#ooc #not asks #sdv oc #(this is incredibtyl random n probabyl incoherent but w/e)#(its MY blog and I get to choose the content hfjghjd)

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feralhogs · 5 years

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1-50 ho

you got it ho

1. What’s your favorite candle scent?

I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED. ive been Purchasing various smelly candles for my gay divination activities, and i have a few nominees. i first thought of the candle i have now, a pink one with a very sweet vanilla smell, i love very sweet smells because it makes me think of candy which i tend to try to fill my inner void with. however im going to go with the first candle i bought, a dark orange one with a citrus smell. citrus scents are my next favourite and specifically this one reminded me of curiously smelling candles at my piano teachers apartment when i was very young.

2. What female celebrity do you wish was your sister?

idk. ive been listening to her lion king stuff lately. dont judge me i needed to hear remixes of lion king music i was lost in that sauce in high school. and i just think shes neat. i dont think she would aggressively make me feel bad about everything, UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE

3. What male celebrity do you wish was your brother?

Look……. i really don’t know???? what is the criteria?? do they need to be like my siblings? dare i criticize my arguably criticizable siblings by picking out my ideal siblings? if i pick an ideal sibling, what does that say about what im lacking in my life? do i pick celebrities i hate so theoretically my family shames them into becoming silent and self-defeating

4. How old do you think you’ll be when you get married?

50. i think im going to have to figure myself out for a long time, and achieve some personal goals first. thats my excessively confident prediction and PERHAPS educated guess

5. Do you know a hoarder?

nnnnnoooooooo????? not a real, cant function because of hoarding hoarder. i can see in a few family members, including myself, liking to hang onto things that maybe become sentimental/unnecessary clutter but that sounds like something many non-hoarders experience?

6. Can you do a split?

lemme try one sec

7. How old were you when you learned how to ride a bike?

Idk maybe 7? Or 11? i think my parents taught me at a children age and then i started biking for fun like, later, like pre middle school?

8. How many oceans have you swam in?

1. i dont really remember swimming in an ocean but i may have faded childhood memories of salty water and seaweed

9. How many countries have you been to?

2… i went to idaho for a band trip… my dad really doesnt like travelling

10. Is anyone in your family in the army?

HAHAHA

NO. ACTUALLY YES. but its funny because the specific brand of christianity we are supposed to be is super pacifist so ive heard. but then i remembered one dude apparently who joined the us military?????? it seemed like it was… an unusual choice. i dont really know anything else about this guy, not even his name

11. What would you name your daughter if you had one?

🙏 *inhale* buddy. oooooohhffffff i want to say something gender neutral honestly. i dont want to rock the boat being unconventional or something but im just thinking of all those years trying to live up to a feminine name

12. What would you name your son if you had one?

same i guess… why have i never thought about this????? was i preoccupied naming myself.

13. What’s the worst grade you got on a test?

hmmmmm hmmmmm trying to unlock the vault. i think i remember a 1 or a 0 on a math quiz. i think i got 30% or something very very bad (i dont even want to know) on my last english exam, but to be fair, i was having such a bad mental breakdown my professor did an intervention

14. What was your favorite TV show when you were a child?

like a very very small child? i was obsessed with the save-ums (?!?!?) for some reason. i would sing the anthem… no. theme song? i dont know. i guess it was catchy and there were lots of fun characters. OHHHH I SEE WHATS WRONG

ITS BECAUSE WE ONLY HAD A TV TILL I WAS LIKE 5 OR SOMETHING. what are you cultured people watching as children? what are the shows?

15. What did you dress up as on Halloween when you were eight?

>:(

My Halloween experience:

i dont even remember i probably had some kind of fairy wings? i think i remember fairy wings. we went to one (1) house. later on, since we werent allowed to go trick-or-treating, we were each allotted a certain amount of candy, and if we ate more than a designated amount per day, we were in trouble and wouldnt be allowed anymore. i do remember getting in trouble for this. i think i stole someones candy. sibling against sibling. finally we were allowed to go trick or treating, i went with my younger brothers and by then, was a teenager and felt too tall and really uncomfortable

LMAO I JUST REMEMBERED THAT LAST TIME WE WENT TRICK-OR-TREATING NOT IN A RURAL AREA, my dad drove us around in a van and watched us like a hawk i believe. it was very tense and methodical.

16. Have you read any of the Harry Potter, Hunger Games or Twilight series?

i read the harry potter series (I WROTE SIBLIGS LOL) more times than i could count while growing up. i read the first hunger games book and didnt fancy it for whatever reason, and i had an obnoxious twilight-hating phase.

17. Would you rather have an American accent or a British accent?

sometimes, though, im really genuinely worried about what accent i do have. im worried i read so much harry potter growing up, it rubbed off on me. when i was a server, people would ask about an unusual accent i apparently had, and once, when i was talking to a super british guy who called me luv at walmart, he was like STOP. WAIT. YOU HAVE A BRITISH ACCENT. and i was like WHAT UHHH BYEBYE AND HE WAS LIKE NO. I HEARD YOU. STOP and i was like that michael jackson meme where he covers his face running away and everyone else in the line was staring

18. Did your mother go to college?

i believe she went to a bible college where people put a grand piano on top of the roof.

19. Are your grandparents still married?

all of my grandparents are dead.

…. hmmMMMM yow. ok. my grandparents who werent estranged stayed married for as long as either of them were living… however, my OTHER grandparents, i mean the fucking kidnappers, my abuser grandpa… remarried? when he was… really really aging. im judging him for it because i know what kind of person he was.

20. Have you ever taken karate lessons?

I WISH. my parents didnt seem to like that sort of thing (surprise). im interested in it now but… as usual… i feel like its too late, im too old.

21. Do you know who Kermit the frog is?

….. i… i thought i did… hes blessed… thats all.

22. What’s the first amusement park you’ve been to?

ಠ_ಠ

*crickets*

how could you ask me this?

no wait! i went to the waterslides. then, later on, i was never allowed to go to the waterslides.

23. What language, besides your native language, would you like to be fluent in?

Spanish. ive been “intending” to learn for a long time, and a lot of people who have been really good influences on me and been genuinely kind to me speak it, id like to learn it

24. Do you spell the color as grey or gray?

grey

one sec

yup thats canadian!

25. Is your father bald?

on the top of his head, yes >:(

26. Do you know triplets?

no?

27. Do you prefer Titanic or The Notebook?

no? what is this straight stuff? i listened to the dramatic titanic song and felt nothing.

28. Have you ever had Indian food?

i guess so, at a friends house! i dont think otherwise ive gone to a restaurant and actually had indian food

29. What’s the name of your favorite restaurant?

*gazes tearily at my OWN FUCKING OLD WORKPLACE

the food was sO GOOD MAN. IT WAS SO GOOD. im just not saying because despite how stalkable i probably am already, i dont want to be specific

30. Have you ever been to Olive Garden?

no whats that

31. Do you belong to any warehouse stores (Costco, BJ’s, etc.)?

belong? whats bjs? whats a warehouse for?

32. What would your parents have named you if you were the opposite gender?

i decided at one point they would never tell me this and it was no use asking. i do know they almost named my brother a very fusty old fashioned name fitting in with the thomas the tank engine theme

33. If you have a nickname, what is it?

G is the ONLY one i will accept so far.

34. Who’s your favorite person in the world?

i……… hmmmm…. i really dont like picking favourites. each person in my life has a unique relationship with me (even though a lot of them arent very warm, trusting or close). because of unhealthy middle school friendships ive grown an aversion to ranking relationships as if they have material value.

35. Would you rather live in a rural area or in the suburbs?

rural, i think. i need nature in my life!!! but i also need to be able to have connections to people.

36. Can you whistle?

yes, but not very loudly or accurately

37. Do you sleep with a nightlight?

no, but ive always wanted a nightlight

38. Do you eat breakfast every morning?

ive started to, yeah! this morning i made a whole thing with bread and mushrooms and eggs, and coffee, and i ate it outside watching the traffic. im really trying to treat myself nicely you see. its what id do for someone else.

39. Do you take any pills or medication daily?

THAT

BOY

JUICE!

WELCOME TO MY BUILD A BOY WORKSHOP!

SHOTS!SHOTS!SHOTS!

and im really fortunate to be in pretty good health, and have access to things i do need

40. What medical conditions do you have?

I dont think… i actually have any. id say gender dysphoria but i think it was informed consent. (im VERY lucky)

im pretty sure there are SOME mental conditions running around undiagnosed. MY BRAIN IS NOT WORKING PROPERLY

41. How many times have you been to the hospital?

for myself? once… when i got hives and started swelling up all over, but otherwise was fine. i really wonder what that was. other times was visiting sick/dying relatives which has made me feel sad and apprehensive whenever i enter a hospital or smell the food

42. Have you ever seen Finding Nemo?

yes! i had a gerbil named nemo!

43. Where do you buy your jeans?

i dont … remember … really nowhere special i actually have yet to find some jeans i LOVE. sometimes there is a pair of jeans that sparks joy. i do not have such a pair

44. What’s the last compliment you got?

my sister said my pants looked good on me. they are actually their pants, which they left on the floor in my room for an unknown reason, and they want them back. of course.

but because im excited about it and want to brag, the real compliment was when i made borscht and my sister not only ate it faster than me, but wanted a second helping. and my roommate stuck his face in the steam and said it smelled good. hell yes. i put fucking cilantro in it. fcking beast mode.

45. Do you usually remember your dreams in the morning?

yes. theyre usually really emotional and symbolic. if ive been talking to my parents, theyre usually nightmares. ive been reading about dream interpretation for a long time to deal with some of the ominous images that can come up

46. What flavor tea do you enjoy?

red rose reminds me of wheni was little my mom would make really sweet sweet red rose tea for me (thats the kind she drinks all the time) and it brings me those good feelings. otherwise licorice spice really appeald to me for some reason.

47. How many pairs of shoes do you currently own?

LMAO UHHH…brb

six. because of social pressure.

48. What religion will you raise your children to practice?

i never thought about this kind of thing…. i really don’t know….. id just want them to know how to be kind to others and themselves and thats literally it.

49. How old were you when you found out that Santa wasn’t real?

i was one of those edgy kids trying to spoil it for everyone. guess what other common fun thing my parents didnt do

50. Why do you have a youtube?

i dont! so i dont know what this question means! :)

HOLY SHIT I MADE IT THRU HIGH FIVE

#rambling #WOW #bug

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the-desolated-quill · 5 years

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Quill’s Swill - The Worst Of 2018

Congratulations dear reader. You survived 2018. And you know what that means. It’s time for another best of/worst of list. Welcome to Quill’s Swill 2018. A giant septic tank for the various shit the entertainment industry produced over the course of the year. The films, games, TV shows and various other media that got on my bad side. As always please bear in mind that this is only my subjective opinion (if you happen to like any of the things on this list, good for you. I’m glad someone did) and that obviously I haven’t seen everything 2018 has to offer for one reason or another. In other words, sorry that Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald isn’t on here. I’m sure it is as terrible as some have been suggesting. I just never got around to watching it.

Okay everyone. Grab your breathing masks and put on your rubber gloves. Let’s dive into this shit pile.

Hold The Sunset

The news that John Cleese would be returning to the world of BBC sitcoms was incredibly exciting, being a massive Fawlty Towers fan and all. Unfortunately Hold The Sunset was not quite what I had in mind. It’s one of those rare breed of situation comedies that chooses to offer no actual comedy. It’s not a sitcom. It’s a sit. Like Scrubs or The Big Bang Theory.

An elderly couple plan to elope abroad only for Alison Steadman’s son to barge in, having left his wife, and forcing them to put their plans on hold. Hence the title ‘Hold The Sunset.’ It’s like a cross between As Time Goes By and Sorry, but if all the humour and relatability were surgically removed by a deadpan mortician. The characters are weak, the plots are thin on the ground and the humour (hat little of it there is) feel incredibly dated. The middle aged mummy’s boy is something that hasn’t been funny since the 90s. It’s an utter waste of great talent and what hurts even more is that this tripe is actually getting a second series. I can only assume the people watching this are comatose. Either that or there’s an epidemic of people in Britain who have lost the remote.

Avengers: Infinity War

Yes this is one of the worst movies of 2018 and no I don’t regret saying that one little bit. Avengers: Infinity War was fucking terrible. Period. There were too many plots and characters going on, which made the film hard to follow (and what staggers me is that the so called ‘professional’ critics have condemned movies for having too many characters and plots before. Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice and even Deadpool 2. But because this is an MCU movie, it gets a free pass. Fuck off). The characterisation was weak due to sheer number of characters they try to juggle, resulting in characters coming off as one dimensional caricatures of themselves and scenes where characters such as Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Star-Lord sound completely interchangeable. The villain, Thanos, is a stupidly and poorly written villain, but that’s hardly surprising considering what a shit job Marvel have done building him up over the course of these 20+ movies. And let’s not forget that pisstake ending. A bunch of prominent Marvel characters die and it’s all very, very sad... except all these characters just so happen to have sequels planned, which makes this ending fucking pointless and have less impact than a feather on a bouncy castle.

I don’t know which is more shocking. That Marvel and Disney think their audience are that stupid and gullible, or that their audience are actually validating their view. Fuck you Disney.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

I’ve always wanted a Harry Potter RPG, where you could customise your character, choose your house and actually live a full school life at Hogwarts. This year, Warner Bros and Jam City gave us just that.

That was a mistake.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is the epitome of everything that’s wrong with the mobile gaming market right now. The gameplay is boring and involving where you just tap images on a screen until a progress bar fills up. Wizard duels are little more than rock-paper-scissors challenges that require no kind of skill. Bonding with friends and caring for magical creatures just consist of pathetically simple pop quizzes and yet more boring tapping. Oh and of course you only get a certain amount of energy to complete these tedious tasks. If you run out of energy, you wait for it to fill up... or pay up for the privilege. So determined are they to extract your hard earned cash from your wallet, there’s actually a bit where Devil’s Snare strangles your eleven year old avatar and the game effectively tries to guilt trip you into paying micro-transactions to save them. It’s sleazy, gross and manipulative. Honestly, you’re better off just playing Candy Crush.

Agony

When the developers of this game said they wanted to give the player a trip through Hell, they had no idea how true that statement really was. Agony is dreadful on a number of levels. The design for Hell itself, while visually interesting at times, is often not very practical and gets quite dull and repetitive after a while. The stealth mechanics are a joke and the AI of your demonic enemies are pitiful. All of this alone would have been enough to put this game on the list, but then we also have the casual misogyny. Agony is a gorefest trying desperately to shock the player. We see men and woman get tortured, but it’s the women that often get the extreme end. The violence inflicted on them is often sexual in nature and the game seems to go out of its way to degrade and dehumanise women at every turn. The orgasmic cries of ‘pull it out’ quickly become a staple of the game’s experience as we see naked women raped, tortured and murdered, all for the purposes of ‘entertainment.’

I would call Agony sexist, but honestly that would be giving it too much credit. Agony is like a little child trying desperately to be all dark and edgy in a pathetic attempt to impress everyone around him, and we should treat it as such. Go to your room Agony. No ice cream for you.

Peter Rabbit

If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of Beatrix Potter rotating in her grave.

Yes we have yet another live action/CGI hybrid, but instead of something innocuous like the Smurfs or Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sony instead decides to adapt Peter Rabbit, with James Corden in the title role.

It’s about as bad as you’d expect.

Their attempts to modernise the story are painful to say the least with pop culture references, inappropriate adult humour and twerking rabbits. Plus rather than the gentle, but slightly mischievous character we got in the source material, here Peter is a sociopathic delinquent who seems to revel in making the farmer’s life a living hell. He’s unlikable and unwatchable as far as I’m concerned and the film doesn’t in anyway earn the emotional moments it tries so desperately to sell to the audience. And the worst part is it’s getting a sequel.

Wait. Do you hear that sound? That’s the sound of Beatrix Potter tearing out of the ground, ready to kill whatever idiot came up with this shit.

Fallout 76

I was excited for Fallout 76. A MMORPG where players band together to rebuild society after a nuclear apocalypse. Could have been great. Pity it wasn’t.

Fallout 76 is a dreadful game. Not only is it a buggy, glitchy mess that requires a constant online connection to play, which could result in you losing hours of progress if your WiFi went down, it’s also unbelievably tedious, and that’s because there’s nothing to do in the game. There’s no other characters to interact with, the various robots and computers you come across are really little more than quest givers, there’s no actual plot so to speak, and because of the sheer size of the world and the number of players allowed on a server, the chances of you actually meeting any actual players is remote. And let’s not forget all the behind the scenes drama. Bethesda falsely advertising Fallout themed canvas bags and players getting shitty nylon ones. Bethesda accidentally releasing the account information of various players trying to get a refund for said bag. Bethesda failing to program the year 2019 into the game code, meaning that the game’s nukes don’t work.

Maybe there’s a chance that Bethesda could pull a No Man’s Sky and fix everything over the coming years with various patches and DLCs, but the damage has already been done. It’s incredibly disappointing. The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to have be fucking incredible to win everyone back.

Mama Mia!: Here We Go Again

I can’t stand jukebox musicals anyway, but Mamma Mia was always one of the worst. Its boring, meandering story with its one note, obnoxious cast of characters screeching out ABBA songs like they’re at some drunken karaoke session at some poor sod’s hen party has always grated on my nerves. So imagine my delight when they announced we were getting a sequel. Ever wondered how Meryl Streep met her three lovers and founded her hotel? No? Well tough shit, we’re going to tell you anyway.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is basically just Mamma Mia again. The actors still can’t sing, the characters are still annoying and story is still boring and meandering, completely at the mercy of the chosen songs rather than the filmmakers using the songs to compliment the story (you know? Like proper musicals do?).

How can I resist you? Very easily as it turns out. Gimme, gimme, gimme a fucking gun so I can end my misery.

The Cloverfield Paradox

A lot of people were unhappy about the direction Cloverfield was going. They wanted a continuation of the found footage, kaiju movie from 2008, not an anthology series. I was personally all in favour. Partially because I thought the first Cloverfield was a tad overrated, but mostly because I thought it would be a great opportunity for more experimental film projects and could be a great launchpad for new writers and filmmakers. 10 Cloverfield Lane was a great start. Then The Cloverfield Paradox happened.

The Cloverfield Paradox is basically JJ Abrams trying to have his cake and eat it too. Maintaining the anthology format whilst connecting everything together in a ‘shared universe’ (yes, yet another shared universe). The result was a cliched, poorly edited and idiotic mess of a film that actually took away from the previous two films rather than added to them. Everyone hated it and, as a result, 2018′s Overlord, which was totes going to be part of the Cloververse, was made its own standalone film and Abrams double pinky promised to make a true sequel to the original Cloverfield. A complete and total disaster. No wonder it was a straight-to-Netflix film.

The Handmaid’s Tale - Season 2

This is probably going to be the most controversial entry on the list, but please hear me out because I’m not the only one who has a problem with this season.

I was reluctant to watch The Handmaid’s Tale simply because of how gruesome the original book was, but I forced myself to watch the first season and I thought it was pretty good. It remained faithful to the source material for the most part and included some nice additions that helped to expand the story and mythos. If it was just a one off mini-series, everything would have been fine. But then they made the same mistake as The Man In The High Castle and Under The Dome did where they commissioned another season and attempted to tell a story that goes beyond the book.

There’s a reason why the original story ended where it did. The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t meant to be an empowering story about women sticking it to the patriarchy. It’s a cautionary tale about how fragile our civil rights truly are and how easily they can be taken away from us. It’s designed to shock, not to satisfy. So seeing a handmaid blow herself up in a suicide bombing feels very incongruous and just a little bit silly. It would be like doing a TV adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 where the first season followed the source material and then the second season turned Winston Smith into this heroic freedom fighter trying to overthrow Big Brother. It would represent a fundamental misunderstanding of what the book was about in the first place.

And then of course there’s the increased level of violence in Season 2, which many have complained about. In Season 1 and the original source material, the violence was justified. In Season 2, the motivation behind the violence has gone from ‘how can we effectively demonstrate how easily a fascist patriarchy can happen in the West?’ to ‘what brutal act can we inflict upon Ofglen to shock the audience this week?’ It’s purely for shock and nothing more. And with the showrunner (who I feel I should mention is a man) announcing that he has planned ten seasons of this, it seems that The Handmaid’s Tale is going to go even further with this depravity until it effectively becomes the equivalent of a Saw film.

The Handmaid’s Tale exists as a way of shining light on and critiquing misogyny in its most extreme form. Season 2 however demonstrates that there is a serious risk of it becoming the very thing it’s criticising in the first place.

The Predator

I love the Predator franchise, but The Predator is the worst.

People thought that this would be good because director Shane Black had actually starred in the first Predator movie back in 1987. Instead we got this bloated, confusing, obnoxious and insulting mess of a film that seems to go out of its way to ruin everything that makes Predator so good. There’s no tension. No suspense. No intrigue. Just a bunch of gore, explosions and shitty one liners from annoying and lifeless characters. They essentially took this big alien game hunter from outer space and turned him into a generic monster from a bad summer blockbuster. It no longer hunts for sport. It wants to take over the world and splice our DNA with theirs. But don’t worry, a rogue Predator doesn’t want to kill humans (even though he himself kills a bunch of humans), so he gives us a Predator Iron Man suit to set up a sequel that will probably never happen because this movie was a box office bomb and it fucking SUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKEEEEEDDDD!!!

This film also has a very nasty streak towards those with disabilities. There’s a lot of jokes at the expense of a character with Tourette’s and it has an extremely ignorant and patronising view of autism, portraying the main character’s kid as being a super genius who can decipher the Predator language and even going so far as to say that he represents ‘the next stage of human evolution.’ Presumably the Predators want social communication difficulties because apparently it helps them hunt somehow.

What with Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox, the future of both the Alien and Predator franchises were very much in question. This film needed to be a success in order to make a case for Disney to keep making more of them. It wasn’t. Congratulations Shane Black. You might have just killed off this franchise for good. Thanks arsehole! :D

So those were my least favourite stories from 2018. Join me on Wednesday where we shall discuss something more positive. Yes, it’s awards season. Who shall win the coveted Quill Seal Of Approval? Watch this space...

Or don’t. It’s up to you. I don’t want to force you or anything. It’s a free country.

#quill's swill #quill's swill 2018 #worst of the year #review #opinion

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yeoldontknow · 6 years

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do you have any tips for writing? Your writing is the best i've ever read, and I'm not exaggerating. I really want to be better, but i don't know how to improve. Is writing something you can improve in or is it just something you're born with?

hello anon~~

heres the thing: some people are born with a natural proclivity towards a certain skill. like you can be born with a good singing voice if it runs in your family or something - but that does not necessarily mean you are born being celine dion. you still have to work to hone your craft, practice, engage in ongoing trial and error. every talent or craft is something that needs to be continuously worked on - like a muscle! if you dont do the thing for a while, itll revert back to a previous state you might not be happy with. so, while you CAN be born skilled at something, no one is born perfect. AND YES. there are many things you can do to help yourself improve

- read. honestly, most of the authors/writers i admire are also avid readers. when you read a book or a fic or something, your vocabulary naturally expands. certain authors use certain words to describe things, others have various stylistic choices that determine how their story is paced. someone like hemingway might use very brief, short sentence with words that have high impact; while someone like isaac marion might use many sentences to get the same feeling across. its important you read BOTH authors because this will help you develop a style in your own writing, will help your own vocabulary grow - hemingway might say ‘the red seat looked like a feast’; isaac marion might say ‘the seat looked as though it were bleeding, and it made R terribly, terribly hungry.’ same sentiment - different way of explaining something (*note: those are not actual quotes, im just using an example idk)

reading also helps your imagination expand!!

- consume various forms of media/art. what i mean by consume is just engage with different types of arts. listen to music - music ALWAYS helps me get inspired, either in the sound or in the lyrics. and its to a point where i cannot write if the music/soundtrack isnt right. watch tv or films - i can assure you that hero is only as gritty as it is because i was watching sense8 while writing it. show is dark and foreboding constantly, and it definitely helped me structure my mindset to be in that world.

for both reading and tv and music - i dont mean copy the work. dont ever do that. that is plagiarism. but these things all help a person get inspired or feel creative or help them visualize a certain thing for their story.

- destroy the blank word doc. its easy to fear a blank document. EVERYONE fears the empty word doc. something about all that white is terribly imposing and threatening and you immediately start to doubt yourself. its like looking into a void. so how do we combat that? put down a sentence or three. WHO CARES IF THEY ARE GROSS? the void certainly doesnt, the void is just like ‘wtf these words are so itchy’ and youre like ‘fuckin...deal with it.’ put down sentences for your story and get rid of that blank page. these are not final sentences, you are going to edit them. do you know how many times chapter 13 of hero has been edited? literally, over 5 at this point. i cant seem to get it right AND THATS OK!! because i will! and you will too! just throw some shit onto a page and then go back and change it. (more on this later)

- start in the middle. while its also easy to be intimidated by a blank word doc, its also easy to be intimidated by not knowing where to start. if you have a great idea of the middle of your chapter - WRITE THAT PART FIRST!! if you get inspired by a dialogue or by a vision you have, you will kill it almost instantly by going ‘ok but i have to get them there first’ and then trying to wrap your mind around it. immediately, the mood dies and it feels like pulling teeth to get some words down because thats not what your muse wants you to be thinking about. so, write that cool scene first. i PROMISE once its out, more will come. the ending of chapter 7 for hero was written before chapter 6 AND before even the start of 7. WRITE WHAT INSPIRES YOU AND I PROMISE MORE WILL COME!!

- edit, edit, edit. so. you started in the middle, drafted your Cool Scene and burned the white doc down. AMAZING GO YOU!! but youre not done. you have to edit that. the first thing your mind brings forth will not (not saying it cant but when youre trying to burn down a doc it likely isnt) be the final thing you release to the public. once you have your cool scene down, go back and edit. fill it in. make it better and pretty. change some words, fix your typos. when you think its great, move onto something else and THEN GO BACK. AND FIX IT AGAIN. i edit at least 3 times before i post something. no one ever puts a perfect thing down that they like first time round, and the only time thats ever happened to me was when i wrote pusher in a fit of GLORIOUS INSPIRATION THAT LIKELY WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.

- have a friend read your work/be a hype man. rome was not build in a day and certainly was not built by one man alone. if you have a friend in the fandom or community, or even just a friend you trust enough to share work with, SHARE IT WITH THEM. my housemate likes kpop, but does not care nearly enough about it as i do, and also has no inclination to write fanfic whatsoever. BUT. hes super supportive of me and LOVES reading whatever i write - especially hero. sharing your work with a friend to get their opinion is the most vulnerable you will ever be but its EXCITING. i shared hero with him and all at once he was giving me tips on weapons and how the ear responds to gunfire and like his random interest in military strategy has helped guide hero so much. so while you might be shy, your friend might be dumb excited and become an incredible plot bunny.

and lastly the biggest tip i can give you is:

do not compare yourself to other writers. EVERY SINGLE PERSON has a different life experience or reason of interest that drives them to writing. for me and a few others, its therapy. for others, its simply a way to pass the time. for all of us: it is fun. keep this fun. comparing yourself to someone else almost instantly ruins any enjoyment you can get out of it. if i walked into this fandom expecting to be The Best, i certainly would not ever be that (gross, who does that anyway) and i certainly wouldnt be having fun. comparison pressures you unnecessarily and also taints your enjoyment of the fandom. write, enjoy what you write, DO NOT WRITE FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF PLEASING OTHER PEOPLE, and accept the fact that sometimes its going to be hard. BUT IT WILL ALWAYS. BE. FUN. so pls dont compare yourself. im an old fart who has been writing for a long time. walking in here and going ‘omfg im not that i cant be that jesus’ is not good! no, my hun. you will not be me. YOU WILL BE YOU. AND THATS EVEN BETTER!!!!

i hope this helped you dove

#the cutest anons #writing advice #Anonymous

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tumblunni · 7 years

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Still brainstorming names for game, aaaa... I can never decide this one damn thing!!

Monster Market, Beast Boutique, Fiend Fondness... Monster Mom... Deadly Dad... (S)caretaker?? XD

god i just DONT KNOW its a game where you catch goddamn monsters pretty much every name for that concept has already been done!

Book of Beasts? Phantom Farm? God, why are these ideas all so GENERIC I cant think of something that actually describes the product without sounding like a horrible iphone pokemon ripoff or something

Hustle Beast Haggle Beast ...Goblin Market is already taken... GAHHHHHHH something market? something market??? God why is a catchy name so hard. i cant just name it anything! it has to actually sound like an interesting game! and not be too undescriptive but then literal descriptions sound boring and aaaa i am bad at synonyms...

Also I was thinking another possibility for where the monsters come from! An interesting worldbuilding for this would be nice, even if ultimately it wont affect the gameplay or story. So I was thinking maybe... homunculi! That would explain why monster raising became a sport for rich people only, if they were created through alchemy specifically for that purpose. And why its so easy to enforce the class divide! i’d imagine it’d be quite expensive to create your own monster cauldron setup, and pretty hard to keep it secret if you’ve just bought a big pile of magic ingredients and have a plume of purple smoke coming out your chimney. Also it could just be cute to imagine that when a mommy and a daddy monster love each other very much, they go to their human owner and ask them to make a new baby. Maybe you take a hair from each monster and mix them into the cauldron to make a kid that resembles them! Or maybe when monsters pass away they leave behind a crystal that can be used in future monster creation. I mean, in Monster Rancher you can also only breed monsters when theyre dead, basically. or when you’re smashing their cryogenically frozen corpses together so they fuse into something new. (YES THIS IS REALLY A THING!) So you could never really make the perfect monster from just an ordinary recipe, you have to raise monsters and then basically get rewarded with better ingredients for future recipe-ing depending on how well they turned out. Or maybe combine the two things by saying monsters produce a crystal when they reach breeding maturity, without actually having to die. or maybe its a different thing for each monster, like a bird could grow a glowing tail feather or something? And they’d be limited on how many times they could regrow that thing before they basically have monster menopause, rather than only being able to breed the same monster once. (Why do so many monster breeding games do that? I think pokemon is the only one i know that doesnt!) Oh and also it would be a good limitation maybe, cos that crystal/feather/egg/whatever would only carry an imprint of the monster’s stats at the moment they first reached breeding maturity. Monsters can still live long after menopause and have quite a while before they need to retire, so their fusion materials would be capped at around half the max stats they’d ever get. And you could still hypothetically raise a monster to have a certain stat build for breeding, and then turn around and raise totally different stats afterward, for the competitive battling scene. I dunno lol, I’m thinking way too much about this! It might be too complicated!

ANYWAY just imagine THE ADORABLE like a fully formed puppy popping out of a cauldron! ooh, or maybe they all start as ‘eggs’ that’re literally just a regular rock pick a rock up off the ground and enchant it to turn into a puppy :D or maybe you enchant various things with the recipe and thats why monsters are split up into elemental types? burn a lil candle and the flame forms into a puppy! plant a seed that grows into a puppy! and the regular cauldron stew thing could be for water types, of course. Huh, I dunno how to explain light and dark types tho. I mean light would either be fire or electricity instead, depending on how its made. Maybe you just get a small chance of getting a light monster instead, when you try for those ones? Or since light is more like ‘holy element’, maybe its something involving a hymn? Sing your dog into being! And I dunno, dark would form from the shadow of a poppet-esque magic charm you make? Actually, I’d imagine lightning types would probably be the hardest to make, with a traditional medieval times JRPG setting. You’d have to make a lightning rod and just hope eventually that a storm happens! So i dunno, maybe instead lightning monsters are made from a metal ‘egg’. like, you just make an enchantment that conducts the life energy well. Oh, that could be a nice excuse to make the lightning monster be a kamaitachi! A speedy wind monster that also has big ol stabbity knife hands! And maybe some minor frankenstein’s monster aesthetic cos of how they’re made, lol. maybe all the sub-breeds of this monster could be references to different old timey horror movies? Oh and maybe this could also be a reason for some rare monstr types to be locked off at first! Its just that their recipe for being made requires more specialized equipment. Lightning rod thingie probably needs a professional technician to come install it, but you could make a fire type just by burning your monster recipe with any old candle. Man, it would be so cute if these different ‘eggs’ got little animations of the protagonist working on them for a while before they ‘hatch’! lil tiny cauldron in a nest, parent monsters cuddled up to it~

#monster shop game #i think ive tagged it differently every time #i cant even think of good tag names

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royalhopper · 7 years

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Noise is a statement in Sin City

By Royal Hopper

You see them approach the elevator in the decades old monument to gambling and vice in perfect matching pink polos and matching designer pale blue pants like some middle aged prep school drill team. The stop and smile as they approach certain that they look like the coolest thing since Elvis and as they approach you in perfect smiling unison. So they stop and prepare to speak…to each other of course not the non polo prep drill team humans around them the tensions build (not really it just sounded cool) and one thing echoes across the many thousands of times polished marble …everything in this city is noisy.

Sign holders all over the city. This one was dancing up storm on a Sin City street corner advertising a Barber Shop Photo by Royal Hopper

The inane conversation of the polo drill team is suddenly drowned out by a blaring radio, a couple arguing and a pre-programmed digital announcement casting a glare on the thousand square feet of polished white marble in the long gilded hallway and the fall out of a nearby neon sign. Everything here is noisy in some way sound, distracting visual stimulation and social differences that would shock those from less enlightened.

When I first arrived in Las Vegas in mid 1989 I just out of the US Army via SE Texas both places of intensely enforced and predictable social order where people are loud at appropriate and rare moments like at football games and when you are shooting heavy machine guns but not when they are eating lunch it was a shock to say the least. The noise alone and the jungle of neon signs. Needless to say the first time I saw two men holding hands or two women kissing it was a shock. It isn’t such a big deal in this city and it shouldn’t be…. First remember there is no such thing as absolute silence in the normal world. A normal human body generates several decibels of sound by just working, breathing heart beating ect ect. ect. I remember once actually being asked by a customers at a casino i worked at. “Can you do something about the volume,” she said pointing at something I could not see. I looked around thinking she was talking about the music on the PA or a band playing nearby. I looked in the direction she was pointing and saw nothing but sky. One of the rare desert rain storms was dancing across the desert sky drenching the dry terrain and creating a racket as the rain drops crashed onto the oily dirty concrete and asphalt. “I will see what I can do,” I said as amiably as I could manage. Incidentally about that time the rain let up. Just mother nature taking a break. The woman smiled a surprised sleepy smile and said “Well thank you,” and half giggling skipped away down the walkway toward the Sin City sidewalk to look at the drenched landscape.

Sign holders all over the city. This one was dancing up storm on a Sin City street corner advertising a Barber Shop Photo by Royal Hopper

It is said that whispering between two people can generate 30 decibel of detectable sound and a normal human voice as many as 60 decibels. There is visual noise as well. Huge mountains in the background dominating the skyline and down in the valley miles of neon signs some 30 feet tall flashing every attraction know to civilized man. On the quietest day in this city there is still music every where. There is still a neon cowboy flashing his welcoming wave somewhere. There are still people dressed like Big Bird and Power Rangers posing for pictures somewhere. There are still people holding signs telling about aliens or ninjas or just saying they are hungry. There is something somewhere all the time. That is life. Its never really completely quiet here or anywhere else either in sound or vision but here the loudness is obvious and constant. It is easy for people sensitive to such things to feel overwhelmed by all the visual and audio noise or in a twisted way somehow protected by it _ as if with all the noise no one will notice them. Perhaps that is why many people come to this town to end it all. I once had a fairly tough looking man confess to me he couldn’t stand the noise of the place any more and couldn’t seem to clear his head. I half jokingly told the man about Zion National Park. “The wife and I have been several times it beautiful.” Go somewhere safe and isolated. Play only music that calms you and makes you think. Look at things that make you calm like sunsets in the mountains and only be around people who calm your mind and soul. You cant get away from the noise it is everywhere so only be around the noise that calms you and helps you think. Your mind will figure itself out when it only has to deal with noise it likes. Quiet is a myth. “Wow yeah,” he said with a look of resigned determination coming over him. I turned to look at the man and continue our conversation but he was gone. I saw him a few minutes later with abag on his should and a paper ticket of some kind in his hand…”Thanks man,” he said as he hurried on his way, “Thanks.” I never saw him again. I hope he is okay, Whatever the reason the constant noise audio and visual and social is why so many people who come to live here or even visit a lot , try to generate their own noise pollution _one of their own choosing ..Their own City of Sin Cammo Cover..there own weird noise to protect from the bombardment they constantly face. Just imagine a huge building full of people drinking, talking, yelling sometimes, music playing in the background, thousands of slot machines with exotic themes each making several decibels of noise each playing what modern folks call a cut scene to entice people to play. Now imagine a city full of them surrounded by a natural environment that is full of noise. I remember once years ago having to wait several minutes for a group of coyotes to cross the road while they constantly yelped and yipped. Add to that the thousands of vehicles traveling the byways of Sin City roaring from their overpowered engines blasting music from their collective stereos and lets no forget the desert wind roaring down out of the mountains. Even the neon signs this city is famous for generate multiple decibels of noise and the juice that keeps them bright hums and sparks the night away. I remember once when I was working at the poor doomed Riviera having a contingent of bikers roar by in groups of 100 followed by a huge truck with a broken muffler, two more trucks blaring adds for local shooting ranges and tour bus with a group of students shouting and screaming and exposing various body parts. The noise was louder than the Metallica concert I saw in the 90s and the man sleeping in the planter near the road never even woke up.

A corner of the neon jungle _ Photo by Royal Hopper

It is the Sin City way…Sometime there are screams. Sometimes howls of laughter and debauched glee. Sometimes the sound of couples laughing, arguing and doing other things couples do. http://www.decibelcar.com/menugeneric/87.html https://www.alpinehearingprotection.com/wiki/5-sound-levels-in-decibels/

One of the things you notice about LasVegas , the City of Sin if you come to it from the worlds smaller more tranquil locations is _ It is loud. Thats life in the City of Sin Sinners Love you guys

Noise is a statement in Sin City By Royal Hopper You see them approach the elevator in the decades old monument to gambling and vice in perfect matching pink polos and matching designer pale blue pants like some middle aged prep school drill team.

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