Mini Break and Sixth Anniversary Celebrations!

[JoB]

Perhaps a bit inscrutable, but my contribution for the night (experimenting with a brushpen).

... ok, that's actually two cats, one striped white one looking straight at us and a black one strutting along the walltop right at the right edge.
[puts magnifying glass away]
And if that was the purpose of your using a brushpen, their tails look quite bottle-brush-y, especially the black one's.

Spoiler: show

The "Blessed Felines" info pages don't explain them shown to stroll through ruins, though. Nor do the "Cleansers" info pages, as they are supposed to have demolished any leftover structures in phase 2, one winter before the cat squads get deployed in phase 4. Are we looking at someone's P.S. for this info page, mayhaps?

[Jitter]

JoB, is #4 shirtless gardening

Spoiler: show

this page: http://sssscomic.com/comic2.php?page=32 Particularly the last... bubble, and the guard is making sure the worker doesn't steal any food?

Wave, are the cats

Spoiler: show

Cleansers, working with the Purge squad? http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=118

Oh JoB already suggested this. But I didn't notice that before I did.

BTW I also first thought it's a person with a high hat

This is a fun game! And I'm glad JoB is participating with the riddles - a new medium for the fillers again

[thorny]

Jitter, isn’t there something similar to a raft city in Ursula le Guin’s ‘Earthsea’ books? I’m sure I remember a scene where Ged spends Midsummer night celebrating with a Long Dance among the people who live there, dancing from raft to raft through the night.

Yes, that's right. It's in The Farthest Shore: the Children of the Open Sea, who only come to land once a year, to cut wood and refit their rafts. It's the source of the image about 'dancing above the abyss', which we are all doing, even those of us who live on land.

BTW I also first thought it's a person with a high hat

Me too. But on second look I do see the second cat.

[JoB]

JoB, is #4 shirtless gardening

Spoiler: show

this page: http://sssscomic.com/comic2.php?page=32 Particularly the last... bubble, and the guard is making sure the worker doesn't steal any food?

Spoiler: show

I suppose that guards would still primarily be posted to prevent outside people from intruding and stealing food, but sooner or later, someone would whisper into their ears that the gardeners' families live somewhere out there in the times of famine, too, so. Also, there's this massive fence all around the facility - thanks to huge sea beasts for making the fences+walls industry forget about the el-cheapo "keeps out 95% of all humans" product lines and grace us with some all-out gigantism! - making intruders an exceedingly rare sight, so what plausible threat is there for a guard to focus on all the time. And of course the guard, unlike the gardener, is fully clad because he's not allowed inside the greenhouse unless there's an incident he needs to handle (and submit a boatload of paperwork for extensive review about) ...

... to cut a long story short, yup, correct.

[JoB]

... to submit someone else's artwork as an (unintentional) info page allusion, or not to submit it, that's the question ...

[Jitter]

Here's some more on the floating city for Grey. I'll put these under spoiler now and promise if I come up with more I'll PM him. But some of you may like some of these!

Spoiler: show

Swimming Cities (art project): https://www.todseelie.com/swimming-cities (click on the photo to get more). The same photographer's other projects and events are also interesting. Here's also his blog: https://blog.todseelie.com/
More of the same project: https://www.flickr.com/photos/caseorganic/9391866510/in/photostream/

The Uros people of lake Titicaca have built their villages on floating islands for defensive purposes. They aren't quite as cool looking, but still, see here: https://www.globeguide.ca/uros-reed-islands-lake-titicaca/ and herehttps://www.123rf.com/photo_38985653_lake-titicaca-floating-villages.html for example. They seem to have a slightly more Finnish approach to division of space https://fineartamerica.com/featured/floating-islands-of-uros-lake-titicaca-peru-ashwin-atre.html (although nowadays the villages are kinda touristy)

Sausalito has a congregation of houseboats: http://luneblog.com/blog/2015/8/20/houseboats-of-sausalito

Here is concept art for the game Flotsam (I think it's the same game you linked): https://www.behance.net/gallery/24057421/Flotsam-Environment-Art

Random fantasy art:
https://fi.pinterest.com/pin/591167888568228414/
https://www.goodfon.com/wallpaper/risunok-gorod-zdaniia-fantasy-art-fantastika-concept-art-ste.html

As for plausible materials, there are no great big cruise ships on Saimaa, but there are some:
https://www.gosaimaa.com/fi/Tekemiset/Risteilyt/Risteilyt?n=MS-Carelia---Saimaa-Travel&id=7a186e33-007e-4b7b-a9ec-526825f0dda8
https://www.gosaimaa.com/fi/Tekemiset/Risteilyt/Risteilyt
https://visitsavonlinna.fi/sisavesiristeilyt/

The Joensuu deep harbour has a deep shipping lane into it, cargo ships of this size go there: https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/RMS-SAIMAA-IMO-9313694-MMSI-304832000
https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/BALTIC-SKIPPER-IMO-9138185-MMSI-236039000
(these are of course limited in where they can be moved to)
There are also ice breakers stationed on the Saimaa system: https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/icebreakers_punch_through_saimaa_canal/11282087

An ice breaker would make a cool centerpiece for the village!

As for the natural setting, it can be open water, nestled among islands, connecting to a section of old road, there can be small flat islands or high rocky cliff islands...

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-5340393
https://retkipaikka.fi/kattaus-kauneinta-saimaata-puumalan-norppapolulla-paaset-heti-ihanuuksien-lahelle/
https://retkipaikka.fi/ehkapa-suomen-komein-linnavuori-sijaitsee-saimaalla-tallainen-on-pisamalahden-eli-sulkavan-linnavuori/
https://retkipaikka.fi/rokansaari-melojan-kesaparatiisi-saimaalla/
https://retkipaikka.fi/sieva-hiekkaluoto-keskella-saimaata-tallainen-on-piskuinen-hiekkapakka/
https://retkipaikka.fi/sauna-silokalliot-ja-saimaa-luonterin-saarissa-on-kaikkea-mita-ihminen-tarvitsee/

This just because it's gorgeous: nature's ice art on Saimaa: https://retkipaikka.fi/jaataidetta-pien-saimaalla/

[Alkia]

Just read through this thread, and wow, there's so many charming stories and artworks here!!!
Jitter and Grey, I especially like the idea of a floating village/city-- I'm thinking it would be cool to combine Uros-style houses made of natural material with things like sailboats or icebreakers, and give it a fun, mismatched diversity (I might have to join in with drawing that if that's okay )

As for my contribution to this little chapter break thingie, here it is (it's probably pretty obvious what info page i drew inspiration from )!!

[Jitter]

Alkia, we’d love you to join! If we can make it a collaboration project I think it’s best to make a thread for it, but we’ll see how ambitious plans Grey has (and whether he’ll be able to go through).

And your art is probably

Spoiler: show

Månegarm

[thegreyarea]

Wow Jitter! That's a lot of valuable information to process! I'l have to read and look at it later... Meanwhile I've been thinking and, considering what you wrote, I believe that our floating village would be more like a cluster of small "islands" close to each other but without touching, that would be the residential areas, grouped around a central. bigger "island" that would contain the market and other public areas. I was also thinking that it would be great to have a single connection to land, including a drawbridge+watchtower.

And Alkia, as Jitter said you are of course welcomed to join us, as are all the other minnions that feel inspired by this. BTW your nice little dog is great! I hope I manage to be up to the task, as I don't recall anything about floating city design at University

Changing subject, this time I'm sure that the info page connected with my next contribution won't be hard to guess...


I was thinking on how those rules would be passed to the arriving guests, and than it occurred to me that one image is worth a thousand words...

[Jitter]

Hahaa Grey! Is the one on bottom left to not take cookies from squirrels or not give cookies to squirrels?

Also... no swimming because of crocodiles? No riding on the dinosaurs? This lehto surely is rich in biodiversity! (Ps it’s unfair to offer a sauna and then prohibit swimming!)

Pps there are also several ferries in Saimaa in places where the crossing is a bit long or otherwise difficult for a bridge. These are free and basically a part of the public road. They are yellow, about 35 m long and 7 m wide and flat with a high bit / tower in the middle to one side. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:H%C3%A4tinvirta_ferry.jpg

And Grey please don’t feel overwhelmed! It’s just inspirational, I’m no demanding you to use all or any of it

[Grade E cat]

For JoB's "stolen" artwork: Distances of risk, 437.

[wavewright62]

Woo-hoo!  Yes, I was working from the Cleansers page.  The cats (tabby and black) ended up too small for details with the brushpen, oh well.  The tiny touches of green were intended to evoke bits of spring coming to the burnt rubble, with the cats having found a nest that survived (aaaand the Demo squad wasn't very competent).  I realised it wasn't very clear, but posted it anyway, in my ongoing commitment to eschew 'perfect or nothing'.

Alkia, that is a most lovely (agreeing with Jitter), I love the corona composition! 

Giggling over greyarea's sign!  Not only can we not interact with the squirrel cookies, but fishing in the air is also prohibited!  Better warn Emil and Lalli.  And I know the eyeball icon is meant to prohibit kade possession, but to me it also evokes 'no conspiracy theories'.

Totally agree with Grade E Cat's analysis.

[thegreyarea]

Hahaa Grey! Is the one on bottom left to not take cookies from squirrels or not give cookies to squirrels?
Also... no swimming because of crocodiles? No riding on the dinosaurs? This lehto surely is rich in biodiversity! (Ps it’s unfair to offer a sauna and then prohibit swimming!)

Giggling over greyarea's sign!  Not only can we not interact with the squirrel cookies, but fishing in the air is also prohibited!  Better warn Emil and Lalli.  And I know the eyeball icon is meant to prohibit kade possession, but to me it also evokes 'no conspiracy theories'.

Thanks, Jitter and Wave! It's good to make my friends smile!
Jitter, do you realize that we minnions are probably the only ones who would consider that "Don't accept food offered by squirrels" is an option? And that was, indeed, my intention. I adapted a "Don't feed the squirrels" sign, that do exist (!), inserting those two suspicious squirrels cookies (They may look just like Oreos, but they are not!).
As for the crocodiles... well, I tried to adapt the crocodile to look more like a water beast, but it seems that it was not enough... Dinosaurs and Elephants... who knows what we will find in this strange new old world?
(BTW I didn't create those signs. The only one I created was the "Don't Look at the Kade" sign, all the others are used as they exist or with small adaptations like the cookies or the fact that, for some unknown reason, all signs with mosquitoes depict them with a yellow background...)
Last but not least, I see your point about the "No Swimming" rule, but the Lehto page says nothing about protected waters or Vellamo, so I believe that sauna users will have to live with some nearby water tank.
Wave, didn't thought about the air fishing! That sign, unlike others, does not have, indeed, any water symbol... Better talk with the boys before they go to sleep! And I see your point about the conspiracy theories...

[Vulpes]

Can't keep up... too many pretty/funny/clever things. Well done, everyone.

[Grade E cat]

Giggling over greyarea's sign!  Not only can we not interact with the squirrel cookies, but fishing in the air is also prohibited!  Better warn Emil and Lalli.  And I know the eyeball icon is meant to prohibit kade possession, but to me it also evokes 'no conspiracy theories'.

There are also two different signs that can be read as "no explosives", so Emil needs to be warned about that too.