#( i've been working on this for centuries but for some reason i couldn't finish it )

[moved--naitfall]

@smokedanced asked:

❛   indulge .   find  my  muse  drinking  to  cope . +reverse / from dean

❝ Did you search long enough before you settled for this shithole? ❞ Levi took seat across the hunter, prying ice-cold eyes watching him lower his defenses, slowly stripped of his armor, with each drink he downed. Almost jealous of him he was, for having found, even temporarily, a way to ease his pain. ❝ This place is disgusting. ❞ Even if the bar didn't meet his cleaning standards (an obsession of him) he ordered a drink for himself anyway, having decided to join him whether he wanted him to be around or not. Keep an eye on him, in case he planned on becoming any more vulnerable, dull his reflexes any further. In their kind of profession, letting one’s guard down could be fatal. He may not be doubting the other’s judgement as a hunter, but offered his company as a chance for him to let go, find comfort in the lightness of mind — for booze to help him sink into oblivion, as he watched over him.

Why had he become a hunter in the first place? Why had he chosen to waste dedicate his life to killing what was inhuman? ( no life could be wasted, fulfilling its purpose no matter how trivial ) Some were delusional enough to believe they could make a difference. Others were driven by revenge, having lost what was dear to them and any other reason worth living for. Some sought power, an escape from humanity's immortality by defeating what was deemed superior. For a few, it was pure bloodlust.

In which category they belonged? Levi had an idea for the hunter before him, but for himself, it remained a mystery. It was the most difficult after all, for one to look at themselves in the mirror.

The last of his found family had died before him. Helplessly Levi had watched life fade from their eyes. His fault, a series of his decisions had led to their death — to his own death, for who he was perished on that day as well. His heart continued to beat, but on a different rhythm. One could say revenge had become his purpose to serve, the reason he chose to become a hunter, to kill the creatures that had murdered his family, but that couldn't be the case — for revenge had been his guide for the biggest part of his life. Revenge defined who he used to be — revenge for everything he didn't have, for everything he had to fight for ( his survival, his freedom, his humanity ), and his obsession for revenge was what got his family killed in the first place.

There wasn't a point in finding out. He would keep advancing forward, his life dedicated to killing and protecting. He didn't need answers, to do what needed to be done. The world stopped making sense a long time ago. Once, Levi sought freedom. Power, he had earned it (or so he thought), yet in his efforts to chase what he desired, he lost what was the most precious to him. A man of no will on his own he had turned into, whose life would earn meaning by saving the lives of others. He had come at peace with his nature, embraced his darkness and the empty void that rested within. Walking the path set for him, never looking back, never questioning where he was going.

❝ You seem to hold your liquor well. But how many exactly have you had? ❞

[happyunbday2u]

So I've seen some Hazbin Hotel role swap things like when the pilot first came out they were switching Charlie and Alastor, Vaggie and Angel Dust, Niffty and Husk and Cherri Bomb and Sir Pentious, one on where Charlie and Vaggie switch, one with a Statichusk, once the season came out I saw like one for RadioStatic and somebody even give out a full list on who is who which I loved BUT have ya'll considered this? And work with me here okay

Also I didn’t get a chance to finish the art since I did it on a school computer cause I don’t have my own and my phone isn’t good with digital artwork but I finished the designs

Angel Dust as Charlie: When his family died they were basiclly considered royalty since their family of mafia had gone on for centuries that when they went to Hell they were already covered, living in a goddamn palace with deseasd family members and others from the same mafia. Angel Dust while he really didn't care at first but then started hate whenever the extermination happened due to how many died, he was covered since his family had already had so much secirity and such but it began to seem like something everyone should have. That's when the hotel idea came to place. He tried telling his family about it but it didn't really work too well so he left to try and make it work and save everyone in Hell. His main weapon choice is guns but he really doesn't like resorting to violence, he removed his gold tooth as a way to symbolize how he left his family and the family business.

Husk as Vaggie: In Heaven there were two ways you could become an Exersit, one is by ending up in the Purgatory and having no choice in it, the second way is by being approched by one to ask for your help in secret and choose to become one yourself which was rare but some did choose to that path and Husk was one of them. Skilled with throwing knives and any small sharp object he was one of the best ones on the field, Lute was kinda jelous, and never EVER showed mercy... except for one time. He cornered a small child but found himself not being able to kill him so he let him run off and make it seem like he had managed to run away fast enough. Lute ended up seeing and saw him as a disgrace as she took out his eye and halo, she almost took off his wings but he fought back so she only ended up damaging them so he couldn't fly anymore. That's when he met Angel who showed him better kindness then his own people, he ended up helping him with his idea and is dating him. He doesn't trust most people but more speficlly woman, okay so I added that because you know how Vaggie doesn't trust men? My thought was because of Adam’s personality and holding a grudge for letting Lute remove her eye and wings so for Husk I made it because of Lute doing those things. His main weapon of choice is small knives but he works with cards and exploding dice. Also Fun Fact on the Fandom page, Trivia, it says that Vizzipop was saying that she wanted to make him Russian ended up deciding not to do it soooooooooooooooooo- To me he's canonlly Russian, oh and another fun fact he knows like 6 languages including Italian so now I can have the mental imagine of Husk and Angel talking to each other sweetly in Italian.

Niffty as Alastor: Okay yes this sounds weird but WORK WITH ME HERE! At first glance you'd think oh look at this lil woman but NOPE she is an bug eating Overlord, she's known as The Bug Demon for two different reasons. 1. Her obesstion/appitie for bugs and 2. In the 1940's a word to describe someone as insane was bug which is around the time she was born. She works on the radio. She's feared by all of Hell and anyone who hasn't met her will probobly know really fast why she is. She is absolute besties with and I'm thinking about replacing Mimzy with Baxter but I'm not sure, if you don't know who that is he's one of the characters made but hasn't been used yet. And like Alastor was a mama's boy she was a daddy's girl and is respectful to men UNLESS they are absolute bitches to people. Another reason I gave her Alastor's spot was so that they can still be crazy together and I can keep the mental imagine of them laughing mainaclly together.

Cherri Bomb as Angel Dust: Cherri Bomb sold her soul to Valentino (Or someone else? Give me ideas people, pls) thinking it'll be as simple as she seen others do, it was not, it was even worse since he ended up having her as a 'favorite'. She acts like she doesn't care but it really hit her deep and her escape, besides ya know all the drinking and such, is blowing things up. She came to the hotel simply so she wouldn't have to live in the studio but overtime ended up liking the people there.

Sir Pentious as Husk: He used to be known for winning any turf war until one day there was one he was fighing that was too powerful to defeat so he made a deal with The Bug Demon for help but it didn't end well. Yeah he won but at the cost of having to work for Niffty, he learned how to bartend over time and grew an alchohal addiction, he was forced to work at the Hotel by Niffty and while he did at first dislike Cherri he ended up liking her in the end.

Alastor as Niffty: A hyperactive always smiling through everything, you know Niffty stays smiling almost as much as Alastor, deer demon he's basiclly the world's best cook and basiclly butler of the hotel. He's just a chaotic tall little shit which is basiclly like before but less out there.

Charlie as Sir Pentious: The Princess of Hell hated her title and how she had to live as royalty so she tried to become her own person, key word: tried. She tried become an Overlord but she wasn't good at making deals, then she tried living like any other demon but they reconized her too easily, then she tried to join the Vees but even with her reputation they didn't let her become one of them so to get their attention she tried winning turf wars, one of her biggest rivals was Vaggie. And the Egg Boiz are replaced by the Goat Bois which are just Razzle and Dazzle look a likes In the final battle she did die and get redeemed. I don’t think people realize that Charlie does have a soul since her mom was literally the first woman and when she made the deal with Alastor it was confirmed, plus I want her to still meet Emily and be besties with her.

Vaggie as Cherri Bomb: A young fighter skilled with throwing exploding spears, literally just bombs strapped to her spears, and a turf winning champion. She used to be an angel but she was kicked out Heaven for being rebellious so when one of the exterminations happened they took her down with them but she put up a fight and ended up getting her eye cut out. She's besties with Cherri.

Molly as Lucifer: She was close with Angel the most when they were alive even though she was never in their “family business”. When she died she went to Heaven and knew that her family wasn't so to reunite with them she brought up ideas like visiting hours and such so that loved ones could reunite in dislocated places so that Angels were never at risk in Hell and Sinners didn't plan to raid Heaven. Dispite the court denying and denying she kept trying until she was casted out in Heaven for her ideas and came down to Hell as a fallen angel. She was happy tho, because she was going to be with her family until she saw how distant they all had become with eachother, nevertheless she tried rebonding with her brother. But when Angel Dust came to her with the idea of rehabilitating sinners she just simply believe that it couldn't be done, not that she didn't want to support him, it was just hard to believe that Heaven would accept them after all her ideas were thrown to the gutter and not long after they became distant and she blamed herself. When Angel called her for her help she was so estatic for her brother to actually WANT to see her. "My brother wants to see me! Take that depression!" "Molly, this is Husk! My boyfriend." "You like boys! Oh mio Dio we have so much in common, put it there Tusk!"

I haven’t decided should be in Lilith’s place but I’m debating on Angel’s dad or brother

Thank you for listening to my rant have a cookie

[featherstorm2004]

All For One's death

I am a little confused at some of the disappointment I've seen directed at the latest chapter or well chapters, more at how Horikoshi has handled All For One. Because, I don't see how this could have gone differently given the current circumstances but to organise my thoughts I will start with the first arguments I've been seeing.

"I am upset that All For One went out the way he did"

This one I can kind of understand since with the reveal of his backstory, he has successfully (in my eyes) become one of the most complex and well thought out characters in bnha. However, due to the fact that it was revealed so late it meant that for the people who had just gotten attached to him or the people who had been craving this character development for a long time, it meant we had a short time to enjoy it and his character fully before he died.

And that kinda sucks and I get that, I wish that this backstory was revealed sooner like I would have had it revealed in the vigilante arc where Deku was exploring why villains are the way they are, maybe we could have had both All For One and Yoichi narrate it as Deku was getting used to his vestiges and Shigaraki and All For One were fused. But I understand why that didn't happen since it was clear that Horikoshi was experiencing burnout after writing the monster of an arc that was the war, plus I'm pretty sure he was dealing with a new editor/manager which couldn't have been fun.

In a perfect world Horikoshi would've taken a nice long break after the war arc and then started working on the next arcs but sadly that didn't happen. But I'm happy we got this backstory at all since it's clear he's been rushing to finish the manga as soon as possible (which I can't blame him for) and I'm glad to see he cared enough about All For One as a character to make it crystal clear why he is the way he is and that despite everything that he is in fact human.

As for the people who are mad that he's not the main villain, I'm not really sure what to tell you. Yes he is a really cool character/villain and it might have been cool to see him in all his big bad glory but this has never been his story; it's been stated over and over again that All For One and by extension All Might's time in the limelight is over, this is Deku and Shigaraki's story not theirs. Since the beginning it's been made abundantly clear that bnha is a story about successors and the legacies they carry and if you wanted a story about their predecessors then you're reading the wrong manga.

Which brings me to the next complaint I've heard, people that are upset that All For One was included in the first place.

I can understand this to a point, I too was upset when All For One barged in and tried to steal Shigaraki's thunder, it was frustrating I can admit that. But I also wasn't too surprised after all it was an incredibly in character thing for All For One to do and Horikoshi needed a believable way to handicap Shigaraki so the hero's had the slightest chance of winning, and vestiges had already been long established in this world.

But most importantly there needed to be a reason for Deku to believe that Shigaraki needed saving and to want to do so in the first place, and being forcefully possessed by the most evil man in history is a pretty good motivation to save someone.

And to be honest there was no way that Horikoshi could get away with not using All For One at all after there had been so many hints and foreshadowing to him eventually breaking out of prison, people would have lost their minds if he had never been included. Especially after he had been built up as this master manipulator who had warped Shigaraki's mind for years and had been pulling the strings of Japans underworld for a century.

It would've been seen as the worlds biggest missed opportunity so, I think Horikoshi handled it the best way he could've whilst keeping the integrity of his characters and the main theme's of the story intact.

And I think it was probably for the best that we spent that time deconstructing the myth that was the villain All For One because in my eyes he really didn't fit in the world of bnha; which has spent it's entire story exploring how people aren't born good or evil and that bad people can choose to change if they want to and that good people can also do bad things. So, to have this pure evil villain who was just born that way didn't really mesh well with the tone and message of the story, he needed to be brought down a peg or two to be made more human in order to fit in and I think Horikoshi succeeded in that.

Now that I'm thinking about it, that's probably the reason I never cared for All For One at the start as I could sense that he didn't belong in this world. And I didn't start getting invested in him until he started falling apart because suddenly he made sense in the narrative, but that's just my opinion. I'm not saying that pure evil villains can't be fun or thematically appropriate, just not for this story.

But yeah those are my thoughts of All For One's death at the moment I'll probably do more meta's about it later but I wanted to respond to the complaints I've been seeing.

[enlitment]

Books tag game time! Thanks @marcusagrippa for the tag ✨

Last book I read: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions

Confessions... not going to go into it in this post. It's a wild ride for sure. But if you're interested in mental health (issues) in the 1700s, it's a fairly interesting source material.

Book I recommend:

I've recently finished Carlo Ginzuburg's Cheese and Worms. It's an absolute classic! It's also a fairly quick read. I'd recommend it to anyone who's curious to see how modern historical research doesn't have to just be about famous kings or medieval battles (or if you want to read about an unhinged oddly progressive 16th century Italian miller. Menocchio is the best and I adore him!)

Book I couldn't put down:

That usually happens with murder mysteries, since I want to keep reading until I find out what happened. One of them is Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose (also a classic, and definitely an interesting spin on the genre),

the other is Stuart Turton's The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Nothing to do with history but it's so unique and so good! The best way I can describe it is that reading it feels like playing a video game, in the best way possible. It also opens up some interesting philosophical questions at the end. I've been (unsuccessfully) trying to convince my friends to read it for a year now 🙃

Book I've read twice:

I've read a lot of books multiple times for my final high school exams, but the two I know I've read twice for reasons unrelated are Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange (I rant about it any time I get a book ask, so I'll refrain from it here) and George Orwell's 1984 (I was obsessed with it in my early teens for some reason).

There are a lot of books I loved in my teens that I would be curious to read once again, to see if my perception has changed. It did happen for 1984 and Hamlet, so it would be interesting to see if it's the same case for other works as well!

A book on my TBR:

Gosh, so many. But one is Plutarch's Parallel Lives! I'm so curious about it but still haven't gotten around to actually reading it. I've only read short passages so far and I want to fix that! (Though good news is my grandparents actually have a copy in their library so I'll just snatch... um, borrow it at some point)

A book I've put down:

It used to happen quite a lot, but ever since I've started basing my reading on Tumblr... no okay, in all honesty, I've put down C. S. Forester's Hornblower and didn't get back to it for years. Although I love the tv series, I just couldn't get into the book. But I still kind of want to give it a go at some point in the future.

A book on my wishlist:

I've been obsessed with the Introducing Graphic Guides recently and I just want to collect them like Pokemon cards!!

They are very digestible and so, so good! I read one on Rousseau and Machiavelli, I bought one on the Enlightenment which I'm saving as a treat, but I need Žižek as well... and Foucault... and Romanticism...

A favourite book from childhood:

I know there recently was a movie that was... not good, but I loved Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines. It was this sort of steampunk-esque fantasy book which had a really interesting female protagonist. I mean I'm only just now realising how subversive it was that the main heroine was fairly unlikeable and very flawed but still someone you were meant to ultimately root for?

There was also a parallel about social darwinism – the world of the book had cities flying in the skies that were devouring smaller cities, robbing them blind and enslaving their populations. The governments had a flimsy quasi-philosophical justification for all this, but the heroes of the books were fighting against the status quo. Looking back, I still think the series was pretty cool!

A book you would give to a friend:

Recently borrowed Émilie du Châtelet's Discourse on Happiness to my friend after she went through a break-up. I'm hoping É's words of wisdom might help her!

A book of poetry/lyrics you own:

Catullus (a Czech and an English translation) of course!

I've also recently bought Ovid's Letters of Heroines in a second-hand bookshop and I'm looking forward to getting into it.

A non-fiction book you own:

A fair amount of biographies of old white dudes, to the surprise of noone...

but to give a little more interesting answer, I do own all the books by Jon Ronson. He's a British journalist writing about current issues and I find him to be both really funny and really insightful!

His books about the psychiatric industry (The Psychopath Test) and modern-day ostracism (So You've Been Publically Shamed) are especially good and I'd recommend them to everyone!

Currently reading:

Voltaire's biography - Roger Pearon's Voltaire Almighty. It may not be a prefect academic source, but his writing style is great and I'm really enjoying it so far!

I'm also on-and-off with Hilary Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety. I think I'll save it for once I start uni again.

Planning on reading next:

Denis Diderot's The Nun! I'm super curious because it sounds like a really interesting book for understanding sexuality and gender in the enlightenment era.

tagging @chaotic-history @my-deer-friend @theghostofbean and @iron--and--blood ! No pressure of course ✨

[elizabeth-karenina]

AY YO I GOT TAGGED

by one of my longest and dearest Tumblr friends, @octoberinflorence Thank you, Jen! Hope all is well with you, my dearest.

*cracks knuckles* A'ight, let's get into it:

LAST SONG: That's What I Want - Lil Nas X (I love that album, I'm not sorry)

FAVORITE COLOR: royal blue, royal purple, emerald green, and light pink.

CURRENTLY WATCHING: Well, I finished the second season of Interview With the Vampire last week; it's literally my favorite show! And now I don't know what to do with myself, AHHH! Except wait for season 3 (which I am SO looking forward to).

LAST MOVIE: I just saw Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings yesterday at a cook-out at my friends house, and I have to say, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I'm surprised a sequel hasn't come out yet.

CURRENTLY READING: The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice, since Armand as a character really intrigued me this second season. It's beautifully written, even though it's such a sad story already. I'm also reading The Puzzle Wood by Rosie Andrews. It's a creepy book about a woman going undercover as a governess to find out what happened to her sister.

I'm also re-reading Dracula by Bram Stoker (yeah...I'm very much in a Gothic horror state-of-mind, if you couldn't tell), along with some history books: Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered by Dianne Hales, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie, and Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser.

SWEET, SPICY OR SAVORY: Gonna reveal myself to be the truly gluttonous person ever and say the best combination is spicy and savory together, with something sweet to top it off.

RELATIONSHIP: Empress Elizabeth of Singledom, if you please. *extends hand for you to kiss*

CURRENT OBSESSION: continuing my Spanish and French lessons; Gothic horror; Renaissance and 18th century history; Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, and Assad Zaman (I have a three-way crush on them and I've reached a level of harlotry I didn't even know I possessed, LOL); Studio Ghibli movies (I've been re-watching them lately; and That's Spooky podcast, which is such a great podcast.

LAST GOOGLED: For some reason, I Googled The Addams Family??? Who knows why my brain does the things it does at 2:00 in the morning, LOL.

CURRENTLY WORKING ON: Absolutely nothing, because my students are on summer vacation, and so am I! I don't have a care in the world right now and I'm savoring it. However, I'm starting to pack for my annual trip to the Hudson Valley in New York to visit my mom's side of the family. I'm leaving on Wednesday and I'll be back on Sunday, but I'll be in and out during that time.

Tagging: @1980s-jean-ralphio, @laprofesoratinacita, @becauseismellgood, @perpulchra, @shvkespearc, and @wifeofbath

[writeious-hand]

Holding Out for a Hero: Part 3

I agree with the comment, the last part got very serious. I have time, here is a little Easter gift for anyone who has liked the story thus far. I've started rolling a die for characters making checks (you'll see later) and using that for writing.

This section is more about Alariel and Xenk's past, do enjoy less angst. Links to earlier parts under the cut.

Xenk X Cleric!OC

No Beta, we die like men.

______________________________________________________________

"If it makes you feel any better, both Edgin AND Doric chewed him out."

Alariel looked up to see the muscle-bound woman, Holga, standing at the entrance to her tent. It had been an hour or so since she had met the barbarian.

"I stand by what I said. I cannot travel with you, not with him. Besides, with him here you really don't need me."

"I didn't come here to ask you to help us again." Alariel looked up at her in confusion. Holga sat down beside her on the cot. "I wanted to make sure you were okay. I know how shitty it can be running into your ex."

"Oh." She didn't know what to say. Maybe it was because she was used to doing all of the looking after. Alariel hadn't had someone to look after her in quite some time.

"So should we be calling you Alariel or Lyra?" Holga offered her one of the rolled calligrapher's tool sets that had been set out to be placed into her bag of holding.

"Either is fine. One of the younger children had some difficulty pronouncing my name, and it sort of stuck with the people of the community. It was sweet." Her hands stilled in packing as she smoothed the leather cover of a journal.

"You don't have to leave since we showed up. Don't wanna chase you out of your home." Holga looked closer at the young woman. She appeared to be younger than her, but it was always hard to tell with elves. If this one knew Xenk, she was at least 100 years older than her.

"No, this just gives me a reason to finally move on. Like I had said, I lingered here too long anyway." She took a stack of her journals in hand and continued her packing.

"If you don't mind me asking, where will you go?"

"I've been heading to the Sword Coast for a while now. I haven't been in a city in some time, so perhaps I will make my next stop in Waterdeep before heading up to Neverwinter. I know I could spend the next century in either place and never hear the same story twice."

"It's funny you mention that..."

And that was how Alariel learned that the odd band of adventurers who were looking for her help were actually the heroes of Neverwinter. By the time Holga had finished telling her version of the story, Alariel had to set out her Orb of Light and had practically filled a scroll with the details.

"This still doesn't make sense..." Lyra's brow was furrowed. "You are still being chased by these assassins?"

"We lost them most recently around the Goldfields. I chopped one up real good and threw the parts in the river." Lyra was both disgusted and impressed at the barbarian's work.

"But why isn't Xenk just smiting them?"

"Doing what?"

"Smiting. You know, holy radiance on the blade... thundering force... banishing fiends?" Holga still gave her a blank stare.

"I mean, his sword-dagger glowed when he was fighting that assassin in the Underdark?" Alariel gave a small shake of her head. Why wasn't Xenk using his paladin abilities? A soft glow to his blade could be compelled duel, but she had seen firsthand the brilliance of his devotion. Why wouldn't he have killed them the first time? Destroying the undead was part of his mission.

"Anyway-" Alariel knew she couldn't get invested in this new mystery, no matter how much she wanted to, "I think I've kept you up late enough as is. Humans need more sleep than elves do, yes? Thank you again for letting me record your story."

"No problem. I was curious after seeing how many books you had in your tent. What the fuck is up with that?"

Lyra shook her head, and laughed at the crude language of her new friend. "No wonder you all are so confident in my abilities to defeat Thay assassins. I'm no war cleric, I am a follower of Deneir."

"The Scribe of Oghma?"

"The God of Glyphs and Images?"

Holga's eyes lit up with recognition. "The candle with the eyeball!"

Lyra deflated and looked at Holga confused and a bit concerned. "How in Oghma's name did you know that, but not his domains?"

"My ex-husband used to frequent this bookstore, and it had a little shrine in the window. I asked one day who it was for."

Not long after their discussion, Holga left to meet with the other members of her makeshift family. They had found a section of the shanty town where they were allowed to pitch a tent. While Simon, Kira, and Doric were trying to get the tent out of the opening in Simon's bag of holding, Edgin still was pacing back and forth in front of Xenk, who looked to be meditating on a bare patch of ground.

"A note!? You left her alone with a note-"

Xenk seemed to be ignoring him at this point, but Edgin had said the same speech about 9 times.

"-You were engaged! How does this not come up in conversation, I mean really you think you know a guy.-"

Holga walked up to the tent-pitching group. "Hey bug, think your old man will run out of steam any time soon?"

"I don't think so." Kira looked between the paladin and her father, "Not only did he royally embarrass himself, but with love you know he's always had this sense of self-righteous honor."

"Well I for one," Simon interrupted, "would love it if he would stop. Maybe then I could finally concentrate on getting these poles to stay up."

Doric rolled their eyes, "Sure like that's the issue."

Suddenly, Xenk turned toward the outside of the village. Standing, he drew in a deep breath. Glancing around, he drew his sword,

"They have found us."

[veefuls]

2024-04-05 16:40

I have for almost 3 weeks been putting off finishing my English assignment for no real reason, I'm just for some reason not doing it. It's easter break so it can wait.

I've been meaning to watch "Tell Me That You Love Me" which is a South Korean remake of the Japanese show "Say That You Love Me". I made it through about 2 and a half episodes, but it started buffering and I couldn't bother reconnecting to the internet so, that's where I've ended up. I usually don't really enjoy shows about adults adulting, but this one seems good and emotionally loaded to the point where I'm partaking in it.

I have literally nothing scheduled for a while, but I'm excited for Japan's GP on Sunday. Will have to wake up at 7 in the morning, but it's fine I guess...

ALSO on Monday next week "선재 업고 뒤어" (Lovely Runner is the English title I think they've settled on) is premiering the first episode and I'm stoked. It's based on a WebToon that I would like to read, but I'm saving it for afterward to spare myself from any dissapointment while watching the show. Byeon Wooseok is in it (damaged Russian-Korean drug smuggler CEO in Strong Girl Nam-soon (shit show btw)) and my bff Kim Hyeyoon (of Extraordinary You fame). They have a 30 cm height difference though... for some reason Hyeyoon is always casted with guys five times her height. Anyway it's about this girl whose favorite singer dies, she goes back in time and has to find a way to reroute his path. Seems promising, will be watching because my favorite actors are in it lol.

Speaking of Byeon Wooseok, he has caused me grave emotional distress due to that gut wrenching movie "Soulmate" from 2023. You know, I was genuinely excited as he was getting more work after 20th Century Girl, but the actual heartbreak Soulmate caused me is unexplainable. I think about it all the time, anyway never ask me to watch a movie about two girls being friends I can't take it. I will not ever discuss 20th Century Girl so don't even bring it up.

On the 11th, the second season of Heartbreak High is coming out. I don't honestly know what I thought about the first season, it was too messy and not messy enough at the same time. Will be tuning in for this season though!

I've been thinking that I need to buy stuff. I've become too stingy. I put stuff in my cart and leave it there until it's gone out of stock. It's horrible I need to spend money. Either a vinyl or like an album of sorts, maybe a pair of jeans idk. RIIZE aren't releasing a physical album until June I think, so I have nothing to do on that front. Might check out Beyoncé's vinyls though...

Anyway, to wrap up, I'd like to recommend "Better Days" (2019), one of my favorite movies ever. I've watched it so many times, and each time I finish it I've learned something new. Music wise... Hikaru Utada's One Last Kiss. No reason just good song :) Will be having Chinese food for dinner.

Take care~~

[not-playable-character]

Some thoughts I've had after finishing Bayonetta Origins

Before my rambling mess of thoughts here's some general ones for those who don't wanna read.

Its a great game 8/10, the only issues I have with it are skill issue based and the parts the revolve around bayo 3, its beautiful and complex and I love finally learning some backstory (even if it's for my least favorite adult cereza) all the voice work and music are amazing. the art is amazing as usual. I'd highly recommend playing it if you haven't already. Also be wary for spoilers in the read more.

Ok so the rambles and game theories

This game made me realize (in my mind) why bayo 3 cereza was so... weak and emotionless. If the ending is to be believed, she left the village to travel the world. This means that she didn't have jeannes teachings and was more or less self taught (explaining the fact she can't use 2 different weapons) it also explains why she is so socially awkward, people on their own can lose those social skills and she's been alone for centuries. I do adore little cereza and her growth, but she wouldn't have the uh.. trauma that the others would have, if she left there's not reason for her to return for the war if anything she would stay far far away, and I doubt she would think her mother couldn't handle herself. Her dream at the end even shows her without the shackles so Rosa would be imagined at full power (which is very formidable). It also makes sense to me that since she is the arch eve origin she would be the worst so to speak, she was the origin everyone else deviated from her and gained new strength where she didn't. But this is all my own cracked out game theory and thinking too much about it (it's not that deep im just a hater of 3)

Now onto Lukaon, I hate him more the learn about him. why are we supposed to root for their romance when all he was shown to do was manipulate cereza and try to murder her closest friend, like yeah he was desperate but he was still an antagonist. They also just straight up made him a clone of cereza, I won't go into how much I dislike that trope but I didn't like it in stranger things dont like it here. They are just ruining Luka to me and I don't like that I enjoyed bayo 1 &2 luka but now he is a shell of what he used to be. I will say that due to being a hater, I did call lukaon being a villain from the beginning. What I didn't call was Morgana being evil and being his mom.

Onto jeanne, her little side story has just made her death worse for me. You are telling me that she KNEW how she was going to die and just did nothing. Nah, this woman may be insane but she isn't stupid. She so into preserving the umbra legacy and having them live on, she would just accept her death.

Also on that note, the destiny thing. Platinum seems to be backpeddling on the themes of destiny. Bayo 1&2 were all about how you can change your destiny and that fate isn't set in stone but in 3 and origins they say you cannot change destiny and it will course correct if you do so it will always happen. Which imo is detrimental to the story cuz that was always a good message but whatever I'm not a writer (even if I try to be sometimes)

I've realized this is all me complaining and it makes me seem like I hate this game, I don't, I live it! It's just easier for me to put my complaints into words than just saying "it's great!" Over and over.

I will say I loved all the characters (minus lukaon) and I really wish they used the fairies instead of the lameculus, they were so fun and actually unique! But that wouldn't make sense in the lore (even if it still kinda doesn't, like why are there no good fairies that support the true royals??? Maybe they weren't as popular as lukaon said) anyway love the little guys. And the wisps! They were super cute. I do wish we had more of Cereza and Jeanne interacting as they were supposed to be best friends as kids but im not too upset as cereza was in the forest the whole time (maybe some flashbacks would have been fun) and here I go complaining in my positive section lol. Anyway it's a great game and it actually brought back my enthusiasm for the series

[silurisanguine]

Hoping to finish AC Valhalla before Mirage comes out, but my god is it a slog. It has to be the worst AC game i've ever played (and ive played them all).

The trampling over history. (i know Ac games arent totally accurate, the 30 second rule of 'can i google info about this fact in 30 secs' is normally used by the devs when writing about stuff. But this game takes the piss.)

*Some of it so far was unpleasant to play honestly, like the Briton/Mercia section. (It's a Welsh castle so every 5 seconds there must be a dragon statue????? and oh dear gods giving the blood eagle to Rodri The Great was offensive.)

*Plus the glossing over of how the Vikings (Dane/Norse invaders) were, showing them to be mostly heroic folk, the Saxons welcomed...yeah no.

See Viking income was determined through 2 main sources...trade and slavery. Aka if they couldn't take slaves from a community, they'd trade with them.

Slavery was a MASSIVE commodity to the vikings. Eivor and Sigurd would have had loads with their status. But slaves, or thralls as they were called, are barely even mentioned or used as small plot points (Odyssey, for its more fantastical nature, at least worked stories into the negative sides of Spartan and Athenian culture. )

I understand making Eivor's clan a nice one, with them not killing everyone in a raid, inc the monks and civilians. Eivor has to be hero after all...not like usual Vikings, because raids were also how Vikings easily got those thralls....Monks and peasants couldn't fight back.

*The Anglo Saxons are shown time and time again as weaker, unable to fight and pathetically voiced*. This is playing into the stereotype that Vikings were better warriors, when in fact they lost as much as they gained when they invaded. Yorvic, the most famous Viking settlement was gained and lost many times.

( *Dont get me started on the TERRIBLE voice acting of Npcs in this game...jeezus, they are like bad cartoons voices. They are so over the top and hammy, they often take you out of the story they are trying to tell.)

Then there is the dreadful research they did for Britain.

*The awful wildlife mistakes - giant lethal snakes ! The UK has one venomous snake, the Adder, that only if you are allergic or a child, would it be a problem and they are small and like to hang out on grasslands, not coiled with raised heads like cobras, sitting in wait in pots (They obviously just reused the model from Origins/Odyssey.)

*The countryside in game is full of only grey squirrels. Those were introduced in the 19th century! Before that ONLY red squirrels, our native species existed in Britain. Black bears never ever existed on British soil and brown bears went extinct around 500ad! I get wanting wildlife threats in the countryside but you already have wolves and lynxes which were native on British soil. Why make more up?

*Lunden is smaller than Colchester or Lincoln in map size. Lunden was MASSIVE even back then. It was the biggest city in England at the time. (It made me so sad seeing the incredible Roman ruins in the game, thinking what a game set during the Roman empire could have been like. Could have had Boudica and the sacking of Colchester!)

*Then the mechanics in the game are weaker than the previous. for example, for some reason they took away the ability to craft arrows. now you can only find or buy them. WHY??? Vikings could craft arrows....

*The charm of the games is missing in this one too, because the writing is so poor compared. I played the Odyssey/Valhalla crossover and the Odyssey part was a joy to play. Kassandra had charm and the interaction with her friends was natural and i frankly was teared up at the end because it was written well and i loved seeing her interact with Eivor, though the latter was an immature brat till the end. (Now we need Kassandra meeting other Assassins, like...AMUNET.) *The Intelligence is missing in the writing, in that the bad guys are telegraphing who they are long before the 'surprise' reveal to the point it's boring.

*The humour in the game falls flat so often. it feels forced with the 'comedy' world events hardly making me laugh. Mainly due to the again terrible voice acting.

I just pray Mirage is better written with less shit humour, more integrity to walking alongside historical fact rather than trammelling over it and BETTER Npc voice acting.

I certainly wont be bothering with any of the paid for dlc for Valhalla.

[nameification]

🌈💞💌 for the fic writer asks?

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

this one applies to both polaroids and the taken fic but like. for the taken one specifically I am so disappointed bc. I only did the chapter for ren and I really wanted to add the grian chapter but I just couldn't bring myself to do it and there's an entire scene where I use my knowledge abt 19th century clockworks and also what I've been told abt menory illnesses and just 19th century knowledge but I cannot bring myself to work on it no matter what. I also remember planning the etho chapter because I had Ideas for that. for polaroids I had like. a sort of corkboard in my mind abt just what to do and I wanna rewrite it and then ALSO This Place Is Not A Place Of Honor and I have like. one chapter written and a few illustrations already when I just. gave up

💞what's the most important part of the story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammer etc), the figurative language

OKAY SO when reading, it is always to me character and/or grammar. I've clicked off so many fics i thought would be interesting bc the characters were just Wrong. I can excuse grammar sometimes and if I can tell a fic will just have shit grammar I might click on it out of morbid curiosity (ahem that one time I liveblogged a fic in class) but I've built up enough resilience against subpar grammar to be. fine with it as a reader

as a writer, what I said above but also the figurative language because there's something about using a metaphor that hits just right for that specific character in that specific moment that feels so satisfying. when writing characters you don't want them to feel Off in a way that would make a reader unsatisfied and its okay to have a few grammar errors in fic (especially common ones, fic is free and beta readers are hard to come by) but just. be careful

💌share something about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited

OKAY so I actually have plans for some star rail fics but they're not fully realized yet and they're going to be infinitely more planned than what I have planned as fics for poor alhaitham but for now I wanna do clara & svarog fics where its just slice of life (and then a fic of when clara is grown up bc I write angst for a reason. robodad and his human child give me so much joy I love them So Much), a luocha and welt fic, a welt and void archives fic (copius amounts of Gay. old men yaoi. I have to finish apho 2 before this one because I still haven't done that) and also a fic with kafka (and maybe elio) in it (the heavens knows I'll be able to finish... one of those. maybe two)

anyways here's some snippets from wips wherein I hurt alhaitham the one on the left like. half-scrapped but only half-scrapped cause I still wanna work on it. it'll just take A While to do so

(I actually really like the writing style I chose for the one on the left cause its like. dottore's thought process and inner mind and. actually I want to show more I love how I wrote the first part so much and technically I can call it done but it would be injustice to the hurt part of hurt/comfort if I just stopped there)

I need to write in this style mor. it works best when the character is acting-to the beat of my vocabulary-Out There and Wild but a "softer" scene has been laid out by past me and I think I can utilize the way I write him to turn him into a threat even if 3rd person limited only limits us to outsider reactions of his character

actually just. about this fic in general is that I plan for it to have 3 really long chapters with the third being the longest (because thats where all the comfort will take place) and the first two are gonna be strictly in third person limited while the third one will also probs be 3pl except I change which character that perspective belongs to but I'm gonna try to limit myself to as few pov shifts as possible

oh god its 130am here. I like to ramble don't I. If I feel it I might ramble in the morning

[veiledfox]

An Unintended Metting III

Kyuushi's eyes were watching the Witch across from her. Green irises still trained on her, ringed by glittering gold, as the Woman reads into the binding that keeps the fragment of her Ancestor with her. It'd been a bit since she first started focussing in this manner, staring deep into the Kitsune's very being to figure out how things worked. She had finished her own bowl of stew a bit ago, while Cato took a little longer with the slowed and distracted pace.

It was... interesting, being observed so intensely. Almost felt as if she was seeing herself when she would find an object of mystery and intrigue when visiting another Realm. Didn't take long after she had begun her inspection for her to realize this Half-Elf was just as dedicated to learning the details of such binding, as she was about other Realms. She felt a bit more comfortable here than she had already, merely knowing they were similar in such manner.

However, as comforting as such was, this had been going on for a fair bit. It made her wonder if anything had been discovered, or if the binding was just so intricate that it needed such time to detail it. Kyuushi was beginning to feel just a little bit restless, considering it all, raising a hand to scratch lightly at the side of her neck, over the bite mark from the Guuji, as she leans back in her seat. Waiting a moment longer before...

"Everything alright?" Appeares between them, typed out in the air in illusory text. The presence of the querry seeming to catch Cato's attention and snap the Woman from whatever trance she had fallen into. Eyes, initially, glancing over before a blink ends the golden ring around her irises.

"Apologies," she begins " it was just rather captivating and intriguing, getting to see a binding placed by the Crimson themselves. Not directly, of course, and it's rather intricate so it's a little hard to read, but from what I can tell it's essentially bound to your bloodline. Moving to the newest member of your lineage each time one is born, after having been with the predecessor prior."

It was a little surprising to hear for Kyuushi, that her Mother would've dealt with some of these things, and her Grandfather before her. For some reason she hadn't expected it, yet she had some sort of feeling that it might have been the case. Made more sense to her now how and why the fragment of her Ansector was with her at all in the first place. It had been millenia since they passed.

"However, I've not seen a binding like it before. I see aspects of other forms of binds, the kinds that have been in use for centuries. Yet it's a rather... complex mixture of them, with some touch of a binding I've not seen before. It's... I almost want to say otherworldly."

"Makes sense." The illusory text the Kitsune was willing to being almost instinctively changed to reflect a response. She could see a raise in Cato's brow in curiosity and surprise, and she couldn't blame her, she was surprised too. Though for a different reason. Still, however, supposed she needed to explain further now. Willing the text to change further to do so.

"Our family has been able to travel to other Worlds, other Universes entirely beyond just variations of this one, for millenia. Different laws of existence, different existences entirely From the little info I've learned of the Crimson, it's known that they gathered power for a while, but not even my Family has known much about them. I assume they utilized such travel to gather those powers.

Between how eldritch it's said they became, and some... experiences I've had... it makes the most sense to me. I've acquired some myself in a similar manner, though by a very different and much less... gruesome method than what I expect they did. I'd not be too surprised if the unknown aspect of the binding you're seeing is due to that."

"Truly...?" The information seemed to hit the Witch rather hard, her eyes wide as she leans back in her seat and slumps down a bit. Taking a moment after to rather clearly just process such information. The idea of multiverses had been well known theory globally for a long time, and in the Mythos community it's not been unheard of that beings could travel between the different variants of the World. To go to others entirely, however?

"Have you seen the footage of that fight over Tokyo?" The text quickly changes.

"Yours, against the Necrotic Dragon?"

A nod.

"Last I was in the area I did find a video of it, yes."

"The times I was enveloped in light, my outfit and weapon changing due to it, is because of my time in one of those other 'Realms', I call them." Reaching down to a pouch on her hip to retrieve a ring with over a dozen framed crystals of different colors and shapes with different symbols hanging off of it from within. Setting the ring onto the table in front of her to allow the Witch to see it.

"These are Soul Crystals, from a world called Ethyris. They have nothing to do with the soul itself really, but they memorize information and powers from each individual that has ever owned it. Granting the current owner access to the power of those before them, allowing them to further develop such power, then recording that for the future owner. They also memorize the current owner's equipment when attuned to it, allowing them to instantly re-equip it all when they attune to it again."

As if to display such power, Kyuushi briefly attunes to one of them. A dark red crystal, shaped almost like a heart with multiple spiked points, and a symbol of a star-like formation with a triangular shape below. The crystal shinning as she attunes to it, her form enveloped in a swirl of soft blue light briefly before it fades again. Leaving the Kitsune who was dressed in more modern clothing, a sweater and sweatpants, now dressed in something entirely different.

A long blue Haori, with floral patterns in white and jade and black and gold trim, draped over her shoulders with an open front. Her chest wrapped by cloth bindings to keep it covered, secured, safe. A pair of Hakama on her lower half in the same blue as the Haori. Hands now enveloped in black gloves with jade green lining and golden accents. The brief glow of the Soul Crystal has subsided, but the Crystal itself still glitters a bit with a gentle light within, displaying it's active attunement.

However, that very same light fades after a few seconds longer. Kyuushi ending the attunement, disconnecting from the Soul Crystal entirely. In doing so, the same swirl of light engulfs her again. This time, as it fades, her clothing is back to how it had been a moment prior. The display had the other Woman's eyes practically shining with intrigue and awe.

"Before you ask, it's fine that I show this here and now. Others from our Realm would be unable to utilize them as I can, because it requires the body to produce and be able to manipulate the same kind of Aether as those on Ethyris can. The Aether or Mana in our World is different, and incompatible. Those of my bloodline who have been able to travel to other Realms, our bodies adapt to those Realms while we spend time in them. Thus, my body now produces both forms of Aether, making me compatible with the Soul Crystals."

"I see..." Cato speaks up in response, sitting forward in her seat again now after the display. Arms propped on the table atop elbows, hands interlinked, chin rested on their backs. Scanning the crystals for a moment with her eyes, that ring of gold now circling her irises again.

"Certainly explains the unfamiliar aspects of the binding, then, if it's from another World entirely... I'm assuming you wound up coming across my hut by some form of Fate, wanting that bond broken for one reason or another. Unfortunately it'll take time for me to figure out just how I can even manipulate it, with how complex it is, let alone break it..."

Silence falls for a moment, Kyuushi's ears easing backward hearing such from the Witch. It was true she was hoping to find a way to be freed from her Ancestor's constant presence, after having spoken with Brant. Though she hadn't initially set out with intent for any of this to happen, she couldn't deny she had gotten a bit hopeful upon hearing of what Cato specialized in. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised, however, that it would take a while to figure out this binding.

"Would you mind giving me a little bit of your hair?" The other Woman speaks up again, earning the gaze of the Kitsune with a raised brow. "I know, a little odd to ask, but I can use it to contact you or find my way towards your area of Japan should I figure something out. I'll give you something that'll let you come straight to my hut too in return, because I want to help you with this. It's been a while since I came across such an intriguing binding, and it's got my brain churning wanting to figure it out."

It was understandable, such exhilirating excitement and motivation. To hear she would be so willing to help, and to remain in contact to some degree even, as someone who was clearly so protective of their isolation. It was quite the relief to Kyuushi, one light amid such a dark time, to know she had gained a new ally. Nodding her understanding and agreement to such a request from Cato.

"Of course." Her illusory text forms quickly. One hand reaching up to her hair, she finds a few strands and follows them toward the top of her head. A quick tug pulling them free, five or six strands about four feet long now freed from her body. She gathers them together, wrapping them 'round her fingers into a more compact bundle before setting them on the table's center.

At the same time as she does, Cato presents a small stone carved with a slew of different symbols, emblems, and sigils, framed in silver and wrapped with leather. Placing it in the center of the table as well, as an exchange. Kyuushi takes the stone in hand after having set her offering down, bringing it back to inspect it a bit more closely. Already feeling the strong magic imbued into it.

"I'll keep take care of this and keep it close." Her text changes again, looking across to Cato again.

"As I will do the same with your hair. I'm glad we've met, Kyuushi, and I hope things start to turn around for the better for you soon." The Witch responds, standing and reaching her hand across above the table for a handshake. A gesture quickly recognized, and reciprocated by the Kitsune.

The two part ways, Cato seeing her off as she steps out from the hut after getting her footwear on again. Kyuushi watching as the door then closes, the light of the lantern flashing and both vanishing from the space where they had been. Then looking down to the token she had been given again, with a soft smile taking her face, before she turns to take a step and call out to the Tori.

[garaksapprentice]

Oh boy. I think you know not what you ask. I've been pickling my brain in textiles for years.

I will preface this by saying I don't think these are necessarily the best, or even the most accurate, resources out there - this is just what I've managed to get my hands on. As always, do your best to check sources, and side-eye anything that doesn't tell you where it got its information.

When I say "the historical devaluation of textile labour", I mean it in two different ways. The first is "for pretty much the entirety of human history up until the Industrial Revolution, materials were expensive and labour was cheap". That doesn't mean people couldn't make a living wage as a textile worker - in many places, times and jobs, you could live reasonably well. In quite a lot more, though, textile work was a subsistence practice that added to the household economy. When it wasn't being done by slaves, that is - a depressingly common practice from the Bronze Age all the way through to today.

The second is "fast fashion brands worked hard to rewrite the textile landscape and have completely broken the modern consumer's idea of what clothing 'should' cost". They did this by leveraging economies of scale to make the materials cheap, plus continuing the fine Victorian tradition of using near-slave labour in the factories.

Time and Money

Honestly, I encourage everyone to time their own work over at least one project. Money is not the only currency in the world, and I think it's important to recognise our contributions to our own happiness. There's just something about being able to say "It took me 12 hours to knit this pair of socks" (my current average on 2mm needles, with no patterning) that, for me, helps drive home the true worth of non-monetary activities.

I know that that's not easy or accessible for many, though, so here are some other tidbits.

Matsukaze Workshops is an SCA member recreating historical garments, who tells you the time and materials cost on just about every project. (Note that we modern humans are almost certainly slower than period humans would have been because we 1) have different attitudes about our clothes and the level of workmanship we expect, 2) don't spend anywhere near as much time doing it as our ancestors did, and 3) don't have the pressure of "if I don't finish this in time we will freeze to death" to motivate us.)

From Cornish Guernseys and Knit-Frocks by Mary Wright, we learn that contract knitters in the 1800s were fast - much faster than the average knitter today - and if you were good at it, you could earn more through knitting than by going out to service:

At the beginning of this century {the early 1900s}, women were paid 3s. 6d (17.5 pence) for a 'fancy' knit-frock; 2s. 6d (12.5 pence) or 2s. 9d. (14 pence) for a plain one. An eighty-year-old lady pointed out that only 2s. (10 pence) was paid if a fault were found in the knitting. The yarn was received in 2lb (900g) hanks (cost 4s. [20 pence]) and was wound by the knitters. An experienced contract knitter could complete a guernsey in about a week. Comparative wages in the late nineteenth century were 'Bal maidens at £10-£11 per year; a 'thoroughly competent and experienced woman servant at £8 per year', and 'domestic servants at 9d. (about 4 pence) a week'. (--pp21-22)

Unfortunately for a lot of poor families, that didn't last. Hazel Tindall, one of the fastest knitters in the world, talks about contract knitting in the Shetlands in the 1960s in this YouTube podcast. She doesn't give figures, but she does mention that she knit the yokes onto machine-knit bodies, usually finishing an adult jumper in about three hours. It didn't pay much, but many knitters were from poor households who didn't have much choice but to knit for what little they were given.

We also have a section from The Costume of Yorkshire (1814), excerpted from this V&A article:

A woman by the name of Slinger who lived in Cotterdale was accustomed regularly to walk to market at Hawes, a distance of three miles, with the weekly knitting of herself and her family packed in a bag upon her head, knitting all the way. She continued her knitting while she stayed in Hawes, purchasing the little necessities for her family, and worsted for the work of the ensuing week. She was so expeditious and expert that the produce of the day's labour was generally a complete pair of men's stockings.

I've seen a few places reference the charity schools of the Victorian era as well, stating that a child needed to be able to knit a stocking in a week before they were allowed to attend. I haven't been able to confirm or deny that via reputable sources, though. (I should probably ask on r/AskHistorians, one of the few genuinely good subreddits for history. It's heavily moderated by actual historians and all answers must be in-depth and properly cited.)

Reading/Viewing Recs

🎥 Fast Fashion is Hot Garbage: A decent 15 minute, high-level overview of all the ways fast fashion is terrible, ending with how we fix it (spoiler: it's policy change. It always comes back to pressuring politicians.) There's a good list of references in the video description too.

Overdressed by Elizabeth Cline: One of the first popular books that drew attention to the rising problems with the fast fashion industry. While it was written in 2011, it's still depressingly relevant today. Elizabeth has also written a book on ways to more mindfully/ethically engage with fashion, called The Conscious Closet.

A Short History of the World According to Sheep by Sally Coulthard: This is a pop-history grand tour, but its chapters on the English wool industry from medieval times through Industrialisation are a good summation of how textile workers were both the backbone of the economy and also just ... not treated particularly well in the aftermath of the Black Death in the 1300s. This quote about the woollen mills in Bradford post-Industrialisation is particularly telling:

In 1843, one health commissioner declared Bradford to be the ‘dirtiest, filthiest, worst regulated town in the kingdom’ while Georg Weerth, a radical German pamphleteer and good friend of Karl Marx, famously wrote in 1846, ‘Every other factory town in England is a paradise in comparison to this hole […] in Bradford, however, you think you have been lodged with the devil incarnate. If anyone wants to feel how a poor sinner is tormented in purgatory, let him travel to Bradford.’ Things were bad, even by the standards of the day – average life expectancy among textile workers was just eighteen years of age.

Keep in mind that when Marx was railing against the evils of capitalists, he was talking about places like Bradford. The factory owners routinely locked people inside for 16+ hour shifts, paid people to kidnap children to work the factories, and waged fierce propaganda campaigns along the lines of "we're giving the poor city kiddies fresh country air and gentle exercise while they earn a living, we're the good guys actually".

Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber: link is to the 30th anniversary edition coming out this year; I have the original, which you can also borrow/read online from the Internet Archive with a free account. This book covers a lot of ground, as you can imagine from the title. I think the biggest takeaway for me, though, is the fact that neolithic societies generally put way, way more effort into making their textiles fancy than they "should" have, by modern notions. Take Stone Age Europe, 5,000 years ago:

All over central Europe women were inventing more and more elaborate textiles, regardless of modern economists’ models. One of the key issues to understanding this “extravagance” is time. Not only were there infinitely fewer entertainments tugging at one’s attention in a preindustrial rural setting, but expenditure of time was viewed very differently from the way it is within an industrial economy. To us, time is money ... For them, money was irrelevant because it hadn’t been invented yet, nor would it be for another twenty-five hundred years. So there was nothing to weigh time against; it simply was what it was... Time was thus constantly available for use to promote survival, whether directly (e.g., by preparing food and building shelter) or indirectly—that is, by trying to elicit symbolically what was wanted.

This is something that many of us can relate to, when we're making things. Why else would sock knitters use fancy indie dyed yarns, or complex colourwork, or allover cables or lace patterns? We do it for us, because we know the value of the thing we've made for ourselves.

Our ancestors were no different. The Minoan women, for instance, had fantastically complex patterning on their attire -

What were the pretty patterns the Minoans liked so much to weave? The first favorite on exports to Egypt, to judge from copies painted there from around 2000 B.C. onward, consisted of blue heart-spirals set point to point (much like the design typical today on a wrought-iron fence) with a red diamond between each pair of double hearts, all on a white ground (fig. 4.4). It must have been stunning. At any rate, the women of Crete wove that design for at least another thousand years, for we catch glimpses of it here and there both in Egypt and in Crete, all the way down into the Iron Age long after the fall of the Minoans.

And just like today, you got both worse and more boring results when bosses told you what you had to make:

Working within a quota system of production is not like weaving for oneself. It is no longer fun, nor does the weaver get the benefit of extra effort put in. Mass production is not at all like making single pieces at will; there isn’t time to do a careful job. This economic principle is illustrated many times in history... The same effect is visible in Cretan textiles made for the central palaces, under Mycenaean rule, as they rapidly became plain with at most a fancy edging. Elsewhere on Crete, however, in remote areas that the Mycenaeans failed to subjugate, the Minoan women continued to make their elaborate fabrics all the way down into the Iron Age.

As I said above, r/AskHistorians is a surprisingly good resource for specific queries. The subreddit has a massive archive to search through. This ask about that "spinsters in the middle ages were empowered girlbosses actually" meme that was going around a while back is relevant here.

A Bunch of Stuff I Haven't Tracked Down Yet But I'm Told is Very Good

The Valkyries' Loom: the Archaeology of Cloth Production and Female Power in the North Atlantic. "While previous researchers have overlooked textiles as insignificant artifacts, Hayeur Smith is the first to use them to understand gender and economy in Norse societies of the North Atlantic. "

This Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History. "Exploring the enduring association of textiles with 'women’s work,' Kassia St. Clair 'spins a rich social history . . . that also reflects the darker side of technology'".

Blood in the Machine: Juxtaposes the history of the Luddites and their fight against factory owners with the fight we're all currently in against Big Tech and AI. Cory Doctorow reviews it here. As he says: "To be a Luddite is to demand a say in the future. It's not enough to ask what a machine does - we have to ask who it does it for and who it does it to."

There is almost certainly more that I've forgotten or have lost links for, but hopefully these help!

Can someone please explain to me WHY no one can accept that I knit for pleasure?? Every time someone compliments me on my knitting they ask me if I've thought about selling it. NO GOD DAMMIIT NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE A SIDE HUSTLE

It would take all the pleasure out of it.

Bring back people doing things for fun. Jesus.

[naughtsonidhi]

Adiós hermoso viaje!

Well, here we are about to finish another 365 days, 5 hours and 59 minutes on Earth. Congratulations! for triumphantly eating and excreting, great job you mortal creatures, keep going y'all.. aight chill I'm not going to start ranting about my philosophical frustration (I'll save it for next time). I'm here to tell you that I'm equally glad too, this year was perhaps like a blessing in disguise.

When the year started, I made few terrible and good resolutions, lets keep the terrible ones aside and go through the good one (Yup, there's only one), I planned to finish reading one book per month, and let me tell you about some of them, also please note that I'm no Bill Gates, I am not trying to tell you that you should read them too, the only reason I want to share about them cause I am kind of overwhelmed by how I stumbled upon these good books.

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari : I read 'Sapiens' last year and was blown by the history and evolution that Harari explained to my naïve mind, but this one slapped my leftist beliefs, he articulately brought a bigger picture of human civilization, right from religions to politics, Harari fed me so much of perspective.

The Prophet by Khalil Gibran : I remember reading this one in almost two days cause it was short. I wasn't amused though, it was poetic and full of wisdom but I couldn't consume enough or was very rigid to grasp his simple writing.

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernst Hemingway : Hemingway was long due on my reading list, finally had my hands and mind on it, good story but I felt I was too old for fictions.

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus : I can keep talking about Camus all day but for now lets keep it short, so this one was a gift to myself last year, it took three damn attempts to reach the actual essay of 4 pages, Camus gave me hard time with all the details he connoted on philosophical suicide, but since then I've managed to imagine Sisyphus happy.

21 Lessons for 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari : I bought a cheap original hardcover book, and damnson! it was totally worth it, Harari questions everything, morality, faith, future and our actions and he does it so gracefully. Also, I feel so proud for keeping up with all 3 major works.

Treads : A poetry book from Surat's Moonstruck Café, a soothing read. I don't know how I ended up being into poetry but poems are intricate way of expressing and poets are humans full of notions. This book had wonderful sketches and illustrations, felt like an ode for the eyes and heart.

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson : I must tell you, I was hell skeptical about this one, my homie and I had been to Kitab Khanna and he offered me to pick any book I like, it was on him, so like a crazy Camus fan, I searched the whole place for his work and was disappointed to hardly find any, so he ended up by picking this one, when I completed this one, it felt like a breakthrough of my life, it was truly good.

Free Will by Sam Harris : On my solo trip to Jaipur this year, I stayed at Zostel and I found this book in their shelf, although I had carried a book already in my bag I couldn't help my self from picking this one, I literally held my self from sleeping that night, I thought I could simply complete it before I left (which I did), so that I wouldn't have to buy it later (yeah so gujju of me). This one was a bit nerve opening (hah! if you know what I mean), the scenarios that Harris presents are unanswerable, we (humans) are truly complex in nature, also yes there is no free will biochemically.

The Power of your subconscious mind by Joseph Murphy : Back in 2019 my biological brother gifted me this one, I kept procrastinating to even start, I feel so stupid for not considering as a decent book, but this year I wanted to get it off my list, and when I did, it felt like a relief, it was like a band-aid on my scar and as I believe, better late than never. I am just glad I could finish it with an open mind.

So, yeah I'm only 9 (books) down this year, people often tell me I seem like a person who reads a lot, but that's barely true, I just attempt to, cause books give purpose, there is so much to learn, feel, and fathom. I was adamant on reading self help books and so far was engrossed with philosophical ones, but here I'm open to all of it out there, so this year even though I couldn't keep up my resolution of reading 12 books, I feel like I've still made it. I also tried reading Orwell's 1984 and Shakespeare's A Midsummer's night dream and even Julius Caesar but I put them down from halfway, maybe when the right time comes I would complete them.

So to all my homies who share, suggest and encourage me often. Right from reading Aeon essays together, to gifting me great books, letting me share books with a note on it (that's my absolute favorite thing to do), also, sharing articles, passages, quotes' and even standing by me when I buy books, I'm grateful that y'all exist. Also to someone who is probably living in minus 3 degrees, my muse for reading and my reading list is inspired by you, so if the universe can conspire my message, I'd thank you.

Its been a wonderful journey, each book has mended me, held me, questioned me and consciously changed me.

[flightlesslawnclippings]

Sirens Song

Fandom: Ikemen Vampire

Pairing: Comte x reader

Prompt: Day 7 - Against the wall /Table sex, "Can you feel what you've done to me?"

Word count: 1813

Notes: This is my contribution to @xxsycamore #kinktober2022 challenge! (I am posting a little early - sorry!) It is also the first fic I've ever posted online, so please let me know if you like it! I usually write for myself so it feels a little scary to share, but this is basically my love letter to Comte.

(The song that I primarily had in mind for this was The Love You Want - Sleep Token)

WARNINGS/SPOILERS: NSFW, smut, 18+ minors DNI, Comte's first name, angst, fingering, biting (light, no turning), sex

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The way the golden sun streamed in the windows it was easy to understand why everyone went out today. It was probably the last warm day before the bitter cold of winter. Sebastian stood in the front doorway and turned to look back at you "Are you sure you don't want to come with me? It's too nice outside to stay cooped up all day."

"Thanks but I'll be alright. I'm looking forward to a little time alone actually."

"Well, if you're sure.." he said giving you a sheepish smile "Since you're staying in can you put the clean dishes away before dinner?"

You gave him a gentle push out the door "No problem, now go! Have fun!" He turned and walked off with a wave as you closed the door behind him. The mansion was so quiet now. Quieter than you had ever heard it before. You stand there with your back to the door and take a deep breath absorbing the stillness that was so very rare. You let out a sigh "I suppose I should get that done before I forget." you say to yourself as you walk toward the kitchen.

You look at the mountain of dishes to put away from the banquet the previous night with a new determination. Still in a good mood despite the work, you start singing aloud some songs from the 21st century. It's been some time since you heard them as your phone died many moons ago, but you still remember the lyrics of your favorites almost as if you could still hear the music clearly playing in your head.

You return all the assorted pots and pans to their proper places first. Next the plates and glasses. You managed to get everything put away fairly quickly thanks to you being so familiar with the kitchen. As you were sorting the last of the flatware into the drawer -

"You have a beautiful singing voice, you know."

Your stomach hits the floor and your head snaps up to the sound of the voice, you see him standing, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. Looking more casual then you had ever seen him before, without his overcoat, tie, or even shoes, le Comte has appeared as if from thin air. He tilts his head slightly staring directly into your eyes. Your whole face floods with heat "When- How- I- I thought everyone went out today?" you finally manage to stammer out.

"Oh they did. However, I chose to stay in and catch up on some of my letters and enjoy a little peace and quiet. Seems you and I had similar thoughts." he chucked to himself.

"I'm so sorry, if I had known- I wouldn't have been singing so loud! I-I'm sorry if I bothered you, I can-"

Before you could finish your flustered apology, he cuts you off "Tis not a bother, ma cherie. In truth, your song called to me reminiscent of the way sirens call to sailors. I was entranced, but I must confess I do not recognize the melody."

Just when you thought your face couldn't get any redder, a whole new wave of heat spreads across your cheeks. "Oh." you said shocked, but still embarrassed, "It's just some of the music I used to listen to in my time.. Um, would you like some tea?" You asked trying to change the subject. You turned to the cupboards, happy to have a reason to break the intense eye contact. There is something different in his eyes today. Something almost wild. You had noticed in the past that his eyes tend to follow you, but you tried not to read too much into it. After all, you are certainly not anyone influential or of great historical importance.

"I'd love some" You didn't hear him move but you suddenly felt his closeness. You put the kettle on the stove and turned around to push yourself up and sit on the counter. If Sebastian knew you were sitting on his counter he would surely flick you. You felt like being at eye level might help you relieve the awkwardness you felt, but it ended up giving him a chance to get even closer. You weren't exactly sure how it happened, but he was now very comfortably positioned standing between your knees, his liquid gold eyes searching yours. Saying nothing, he reached up an gently placed a stray lock of your hair behind your ear, fingers just barely ghosting across your skin.

Heat. Everything felt hot. His eyes seemed to melt every part of you. Feeling the heat start gathering in your belly under his honey gaze gives you a shred of confidence. Why else would he be this close? He wouldn't be standing like this if he wasn't interested, right? You slowly leaned forward, and when he didn't move away, you leaned in further delicately placing a kiss on his lips. He presses into you returning the kiss, and you feel one of his hands run up the side of your thigh. Just as you started slipping your tongue into his mouth, he pulls away.

Oh no. Feeling instant regret and shame, you knit your eyebrows together and look down at your hands in your lap.

"Cherie.. are you sure.. is this what you want?" you hear him say in a low breathy voice. "Are you sure you want.. me?"

Your eyes dart back up to meet his, surprised at his sudden confession. You can see something akin to  loneliness in his eyes that leaves you heartbroken for a moment. How could he not know your true feelings? How could he not see that you've only ever had eyes for him? "Comte," you say softly "How could I not? You are the sweetest, kindest man I've ever-" Before you could say anything more his lips were crushed against yours again, full of desire. Pushing his tongue past your lips, you grab handfuls of his shirt. His hand continues its journey up your thigh to your hip and his other hand wraps around your back, pulling you tight against his chest. You pull your legs up and lock them around his waist. Your fingers start frantically unbuttoning his shirt when you feel him lift you. Still kissing you hungrily, he carries you out to the dining room and sets you on the table.

You pull back and look at him perplexed for a moment, and as if reading your thoughts he answers in a low growl "My bedroom is across the house and I simply cannot wait that long." After that his mouth is on your neck, tongue lapping at your pulse point, his skilled fingers working to open your blouse. Your whole body feels like it's being consumed by fire and you bite your lip, struggling to stifle a moan. His mouth travels lower, across your collarbone, and lower sucking on your breast and cupping the other in his hand. You hear him muttering something in French as his other hand wanders ups your skirt on your bare thigh, leaving a trail of goose bumps in its wake. His fingers find the top of your panties and he practically rips them off you. Suddenly the ceiling is in view and the weight of his body on top of your own, you can feel his length pressing against the inside of your thigh being constrained by his pants. Kissing you again, his fingers find your already wet center, and he works two of his fingers inside, his thumb teasing your bud. You couldn't help but whimper at the sudden sensation. Your hands move on their own to his pants trying free him, wanting more. He removes his fingers from you and you feel the loss of them. He pushes himself up, blond hair falling in his face and you get a full look at his bare chest. His skin pale, muscles lean and yet somehow toned but absolutely gorgeous. You open his pants and his cock springs out, larger than you were expecting, but you are ready.

"Be sure to tell me if there is pain, ma cherie." You nod, then grip the edge of the table as he lines himself up. He leans back in to kiss you as he slowly pushes himself inside you, carefully, feeling how your walls stretch to accommodate him. His breathy groan against your lips as he goes deeper and deeper is heaven to your ears. Once you are full to the hilt, his hands start exploring your every inch of your body, one coming to rest on your ass.  You put your arms around his back as he starts moving his hips rhythmically, you feel yourself start winding up already. Now you really can't help but moan as he starts licking and nipping your neck again breathing heavily, while he slams into you again and again. His fangs scrape the delicate skin but he is careful not to break it. Your fingernails start digging into his skin and you know you won't last much longer at this rate.

"I'm.. so close" you barely manage to whisper out.

"Sing. Sing for me."

As if the words themselves were what pushed you over the edge, you arched your back up into his chest, head thrown back and you cry out. Your mind goes hazy as your walls clamp down and you feel his bucking hips start stuttering as he rides out his climax as well. Taking ragged breaths, his whole body now laying on you, his head on your already heaving chest. Your fingers find their way into his soft hair.  You both lie there for a moment comfortable, catching your breath.

"Can you feel what you've done to me?" he asks in a quiet voice. He lifts his head to meet your eyes, looking into them like you are the most precious and rare treasure in the world.

"Comte.."  you say somewhat timidly.

"Abel."

"Abel?"

"That is my name. I want you to know it."

"Abel." You say softly, in a voice barely above a whisper, and a smile more beautiful than the day itself blooms across his face.

Sometime later - You've changed the tablecloth and start setting the places for dinner, as most of the residents have already arrived home. Sebastian hurries through the dining room, rushing past you "I'm sorry I'm late, the shops were running low on some of the ingredients I needed, so I had to go way out of my way" he states trailing off into the kitchen. You smile to yourself and continue setting plates, lost in your own thoughts. Not a moment later, you hear him loudly yell from the kitchen "WHO WASTED MY GOOD TEA!?" You weren't sure, but you could have sworn you heard Abel chuckle from the other room.

~~Thank you for taking the time to read this! i hope you enjoyed it! :)

[ivettel]

behind the curtain ep 4

bit late with this one but i wanted to finish laundry first so here we go.. notes on this bitch

right off the bat, yes! i did rotoscoping!

what! after avoiding it since 2017!! shoutout to jennifer @antoniosvivaldi for inspiring me to do that, btw. you should absolutely check out her stuff if you haven't already--her style is so unique and refreshing!

for the most part, i think they turned out swell--after effects behaved itself for once, which like, thank fuck, because i was on a call with fio @maranello and others at 1 in the morning like "haha! i totally know what i'm doing!" narrator voice they did NOT know what they were doing, they were making educated guesses based on past horrible experiences (hence avoiding rotoscoping for years 💀).

but this is meant to be educational lol so! what is rotoscoping? simply put, it's a tracing technique. it has its roots way back in animation when tech was starting to pick up in like the 1920s and artists wanted a more efficient way of animating. rotoscoping is one of those tools that've been used differently from how it was originally intended, which is actually? so cool from like, a media arts study perspective?? because it's commonplace to use it for live-action film and vfx work as a way to mask scenes out and isolate them in addition to its original use of mapping things to isolated scenes. i won't bore you with the stuart hall encoding/decoding stuff, but just know that i find the development of digital art circa adobe dominance fascinating. i am using this century-old animation technique to impose my blorbo upon the eyes of thousands.

ANYWAY. i really liked this particular mask--it has a lot of movement but still manages to flow nicely?

me: [cuts off luke's arm] fio: i think that's his arm me: oh... my god

next up: the lightsaber

goodness. where do i start. well first of all i had a vision of something much more 2d when it comes to lightsaber anatomy, lol. but i extended my subscription for maxon and figured--why not take full advantage of this while i've still got it? so i got this 3d model of luke's lightsaber. it's untextured and unrigged and clunky but thankfully it had most of the inner parts so as far as i'm concerned i struck GOLD.

idk what i can really say in terms of like What Is 3d Modelling, because i think people have an understanding of that. so we'll go instead thru my process!

i added materials and added a null object (does that count as rigging? for something as straightforward as this?) to do a simple rotation animation on the first day...

and then i had an idea before bed to separate the parts like that one scene in the clone wars where they show how a lightsaber is assembled, except i haven't watched the scene so god knows how they animated it NKJFGNDFKJGDF. anyway the day after, this was kinda where i got:

keyframing on c4d is a Bitch because u can't just Access The Graph Editor you have to go through the dope sheet and change ur views and it's just. annoying!! coming from an after effects standpoint! but i can see how it's optimized for Actual Animation work so ughgh. we deal. onwards..

asked the team over at usergif and natalie @kenobiis suggested putting in a kyber crystal to fill out the middle. i ended up taking the og "laser" cylinder and modifying/animating it because uh THIS is the real inside of a lightsaber and i am not putting all that into a 3 second gif LMAO. but yeah i fine-tuned the animation and plopped it in after effects, then fiddled with video copilot's saber to make luke's blade.

u might notice the motion blur--that's re:vision's RSMB! i also added a little bit of depth of field with frischluft, but it doesn't show up well in gif form. speaking of things that don't render well:

there is A FUCK TON of aliasing going on. i couldn't make any anti-aliasing settings work for some reason so i ended up trying to smooth it out in ae.. to probably not a lot of effect. i got the very edges around it smoothed out with the classic gaussian blur and a matte choker method, but the black rings are killer. ugh. it's whatever, i figure i'll work something better out for the next time.

finished animation in c4d + the final gif:

the rest

everything else is fairly basic and intuitive i think? obviously used shape layers + alpha mattes, my beloved. i fucked up a little on the text because i think i made my offset keyframes backwards somewhere in the middle of the process but at that point i was too lazy to go back in and fix it. oops!

anyway if u got this far hello thank u i hope this was informative in some way. if u have any questions don't be afraid to ask :D

[knockknockinginthedark]

▪▪▪ Sottarfar wrapped an arm around his beloved, holding her close and soaking in her company. He adored their time together, especially after dealing with classes, lectures and the occasional accident from a student who couldn't bother to heed the written warnings. Her presence was a soothing balm that made all the work of the day melt away.

█"At least when your students get sick, it is usually from squeamishness, not stupidity."█ Sottarfar cracked a small, amused grin in return. █"Hmhm, at least you know better than to think my classes are easy. But they will find out one way or another. I am sure those students will be weeded out before the end of the semester."█

It wasn't uncommon for his class to end up far more sparse by the end of the semester because of that reason. He would've thought that word would've gotten around the student body by now about the fact it wasn't an easy class, but alas.

He let out a pleased hum as she kissed his cheek and he felt the weight of her head upon his shoulder. He turned his head to listen as she admitted she hadn't been taking the best care of herself - for an experiment, as expected. It was the common flaw among the doctors there, once they sunk their teeth into a project then that was what they toiled over. Sleepless nights, skipped meals, it wouldn't matter if they were successful in the end.

█"Are not all the best experiments the risky ones?"█ He asked with a laugh, █"Well, I hope your experiment goes well and you get a breakthrough with it soon. Until then, I will just keep spoiling you and making sure you take care of yourself now and then~"█

The treats he made for her were special, and not just because they were made with love. They were laced with cannabis, the "miracle drug" of the century, used for so many ailments and problems. If anything could help encourage her to eat and at least take a nap, it would be that.

█"Other than the issue with the student, my day has been fine. Same old, same old. I've been working on my own project between classes, listening to the gossip students and other professors talk about in the halls. There's a new soon-to-be medical doctor touring the college today, wanting to finish his studies and figure out his residency options. I guess he inherited a fortune recently and moved here? At least that's what all the students were saying. I bumped into him this morning, he seemed quite pleasant, very polite and humble sort. He was actually interested in getting to talk to you at some point, wanted to meet the lady doctor and finish up the remaining classes with you come next semester. I miiiight've gushed about you a little bit."█

Of course he was going to gush about her, and the fact the new soon-to-be student wasn't an ass about her being a woman just meant he gushed more. He let out a sigh, thinking over the rest of the day and trying to think if there was anything else noteworthy.

█"And on the gossip train, people are starting to wonder about your cousin. He seems to be...off. And not in the typical 'he's deep in a project' kind of way. Dr. Siddall says he's been having trouble getting him to show up for his therapy sessions even, which seems terribly unlike Al. Has he said anything to you?"█▪▪▪

█ ▌Waverly curled up beside Sottarfar on the sofa, her legs pulled up as she leaned against his side comfortably. After a long day of study, class, and demonstration, she was soaking up his attention and comfort as her day finally came to an end.

It was clear that something had been bothering her lately, but not in a predictable sort of way. When she was upset, it was easy to tell. But this time around, there wasn't that dark cloud hanging over her. Instead, she seemed agitated in a more focused way, as if her mind was preoccupied by something extremely important. It was easy to figure out what was happening. She was a woman in a male-dominated field, a woman who had been refused the honor of being called a 'doctor' even after all of her colleagues gained their titles. There was great pressure for her to discover something truly remarkable and force her superiors to recognize her genius...she just had to make that discovery before someone else beat her to it.

She giggled when Sottarfar mentioned his fussy, careless students.

▤ "Seems like students getting sick in our lectures is now something you and I b-b-both share, my love," she crinkled her nose sweetly when she grinned. "But you made the rules very clear. It's not your fault if one of the students breaks them...Still, I f-find it very funny when students assume your class will be easy. I've sat in enough of your lectures to know for a fact that botany is anything but simple."

She smiled warmly when he offered her the box of snacks. He was always spoiling her like this, taking care of her and watching out for her because he knew that she often didn't take care of herself. She wore a sympathetic pout as she kissed his cheek, leaning her head on his shoulder.

▤"You are far too sweet to me, mo chroí. And you are right, I have been neglecting my...b-b-basic human needs lately. But for good reason! I have been hip-deep in a new experiment. It's...well, it's a work in progress. And perhaps a bit risky. But don't worry your handsome self about me, I can handle anything~" From her tired eyes to the way her hair was slightly frizzy and falling out of her bun, it was clear that wasn't the whole truth. "...And how was your day, darling?"