YoinkTober 2023 - Tenth Anniversary Edition

[Mirasol]

Some truly chilling stories recently! I enjoyed them all a lot, but I´m too tired to write individual comments right now... ^^'

I´m still here, just having a crazy busy week, so you get three pictures today:

7: Sigrun

Happy Birthday once again, Sigrun!
And another first, I tried out acrylic markers here. I drew on the wrong side of the paper accidentally (one is sealed and one is not), so it fell apart a little bit, but I don´t think it´s too noticeable... Aside from that, these markers are really fun. You can freely layer them and they stay opaque (mostly). But they don´t mix at all, they dry way too fast. Very different from the alcohol-markers I usually draw with here.



8: 10-yearold Child

I must admit, I had no clue what to draw for this. So I asked my brother once more, and he once again answered "Pokémon". Incredibly fitting though in this case, after all, Ash Ketchum is pretty famous for managing to stay ten years old for seasons over seasons of Anime.
This is a redraw of a frame from the Anime. I repeated my Acrylic Markers-experiment, this time on the right side of the paper and additionally with a slightly thicker than usual fine liner to do the outlines.



9: 10 functionalities of the Cattank

This was supposed to be entirely different and way more complicated and well-thoughtout, but then I had a headache yesterday and couldn´t be bothered...
Oh well, so you get Tuuri ranting to Emil about all the cool things the Cattank can do instead. I mean, she would know what they are much better than me anyways.

[dmeck7755]

Dmeck, those are some nifty places to have post-apocalyptic adventures in! Are any of them real?

Actually all but the Library are real.  (The library is AI.  I just really liked the picture.  The dead animal may be AI also)

1. The first picture is from an on line reseller that sells beans.  (They are known for selling heirloom varieties)
https://www.baersbest.com/store/beans/

2. Independence Center mall in Independence, Missouri.  Apparently this part was supposed to be a play area.  The mall is barely active, but this part is closed.

3.  The abandoned new world mall in Bangkok Thailand.  It is teeming with fish. (https://www.daxward.com/New-World-Mall-Bangkok/)

4. It is supposedly a real place in the US south, but from the artist;s comments I am not too sure https://www.instagram.com/p/CpiF_I5pC6v/

5. Roadside pickles Yes this is real.  The Missouri highway department keeps removing them and they magically come back.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-pickles-highway-missouri

6.  This was an old commercial rose greenhouse (I am thinking PA) https://www.flickr.com/photos/trepan8/albums/72157622093418895/page1/

7. “Cosmic Greenhouse”, somewhere in Germany, exact location not given. https://www.messynessychic.com/2015/01/15/a-compendium-of-abandoned-greenhouses/

8.  This is the saddest of them all.  This is the road heading into Centralia PA.  A fire was set to burn trash.  It was not put out fully, and an old coal seam caught fire.  The town was eventually raised and the people were forced to leave (Not all apparently) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania https://www.centraliapa.org/

9. A cat relaxes against one of the ruins of the 2,000-year-old archaeological site of Ephesus, an ancient Roman port city in modern-day Turkey.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/street-cat-grand-odyssey-photos-morandi

I will comment on the rest in a bit.  Had company over the weekend

[thorny]

Thanks, Jitter and wavewright!

And thanks, wavewright, for also writing us into the world.

[dmeck7755]

Thank you all!!  I finally caught up.  The artwork, stories are all awesome and i am very happy to see/read all of them.  I am a bit behind as it seems...

[thorny]

Number 10 Downing St:

Belongs to us, finally.

All of those years, the humans thought it was theirs. They'd only allow one of us at a time. That one was well treated, of course -- humans always want to impress other humans; and many humans, quite properly, are impressed if humans know how to take proper care of a cat.

Two sisters moved in right after the Change. They let the resident neutered tom stay and live out his life; he was doing no harm, and washed their ears quite nicely; and when the full toms came to visit, they chose one to stay who wouldn't bother him too much. Then of course there were kittens; but we found we could choose when to have them, and how many. So there are indeed many of us; but not too many, and no one exhausts herself bearing more than she can easily feed.

So it's ours, now. Cats in all the rooms, going in and out all the broken windows. So many cats that the new monsters stay away, seeking easier prey; and because they stay away, mice and squirrels and rabbits come to hide from them, and all of us eat well.

We're a bit more generous than the humans were. We allow one entire human family; guiding replacements in when needed, held safe within a crowd of cats on a sunny day. We like to have our ears properly scratched, after all. They keep a garden, and set snares for game (giving us our share, of course), and there are plenty of books in the building for them to stare at (and for us to sit on.)

But the humans don't pretend they're in charge, any longer. About time they learned that lesson.

[wavewright62]

YUSSSSS thorny!  Purrfect.

[dmeck7755]

Thorny.

meeoow!

[Jitter]

Thorny, I love it! And the human family must truly think the felines are blessed!

[thorny]

Thorny, I love it! And the human family must truly think the felines are blessed!

They might have mixed feelings. On the one hand, they're alive, comfortable, and protected; suitable new humans get brought in occasionally; and they get to pat cats, and they and the cats must be genuinely fond of each other. On the other hand -- the humans might feel trapped. They're in the middle of London, and almost certainly don't dare leave the premises without the assistance of a crowd of cats; which they probably won't get, because the cats want them to stay home and scratch ears.

(And thanks for the compliments, all!)

[JoB]

suitable new humans get brought in occasionally

[wonders whether the catpedition, after going all the way to the countryside, would return pushing a repurposed pet carrier or somesuch, or establish proof that while humans herding cats may be nigh impossible, reversing the roles works out quite nicely?]

[thorny]

I envisioned them just surrounding the person. First there's a cute cat in front of you, wants to be patted. Then that cat moves off a little, rolls to attract patting, gets the person to follow. Then when the human thinks that's far enough and starts to turn back, they find they're surrounded -- and the cats in front are friendly, but the ones in back threaten if the human tries to go back.

A human who tries really hard to break out of the cat ring would probably just not be considered a good candidate. Find somebody who's at least somewhat willing to go; even though they probably wouldn't understand they were going permanently -- they might think that the cats were just trying to take them to someone (feline or human) who needed help. The cats are going to want humans who are willing to cooperate with cats.

Despite this three-in-a-row, I'm not going to be able to do one every day (though I do have at least one more, for a day later in the month.) But here's today's. (Italics are meant to indicate things thought but not said.)

10 years together

"I didn't like you when I first met you."

"Well I didn't like you when I first met you!"

"You were a crybaby fool who thought the whole world ought to bend around you . . . But you were trying your best to take care of your cat." (And your family had a farm you could go to -- )

"I thought you were a low-class uneducated fool or you wouldn't have had that sort of job. And you were mocking me, and trying to tell me what to do! -- but Magnus liked you." (And you knew how we could get to the farm, in all of that chaos -- )

"Magnus loved you. And you were right, you were terrible at farming. But you kept trying, at least. And then it turned out you could cook." (And we both needed comfort, and so we held each other.)

"I never thought of cooking as important before. Let alone respected. I just wanted something fit to eat. But once I started putting those meals on the table, everybody started treating me differently." (And we both needed comfort, and so we held each other.)

"And it turned out that not only do I love cats, but I love sheep; and I'm very good with them.

We both thought we'd hate this life. And we both thought we'd hate each other. And we were both wrong, about both of those things. -- Want to keep on doing this together?"

"Get married, for our tenth anniversary? Yes, let's!"

[dmeck7755]

Thorny..so sweet. 

[Jitter]

Thorny, I knew who it was from the opening line I love them, and your story!

[thorny]

Did the gradual shift from using each other for practical reasons to learning to respect and love each other come across?

[Jitter]

Oh yes! And it goes pretty much like I would imagine it did. Or would. Not sure what the correct tense would be here