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greenwitchcrafts · 9 months

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Mugwort

Artemisia Vulgaris

Known as: Artemis herb, artemisia, artemisia herb, cingulum sancti johannis, felon herb, muggons, naughty man, old man, old uncle Henry, sailor's tobacco & St.John plant

Related plants: A member of the daisy family Asteraceae that consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within it such as chamomile, coneflowers, dahlia, daisy, dandelion, goldenrod, lettuce, marigold & sunflower

Parts used: Leaves & flowers

Habitat & cultivation: Common mugwort is native to Europe and Eastern Asia. Mugwort was brought into North America as early as the 1600’s for medicinal purposes. It spread throughout the Northeastern U.S. as a contaminant on ships and nurseries.

Plant type: Perennial

Region: 3-8

Harvest: The flowering tops of mugwort should be collected once they bloom or right before the blooms open. The leaves of mugwort plants should be collected before the plant flowers. Older leaves & flowers are significantly more bitter

Planting tips: Mugwort seeds can benefit from a special 1 to 2 week treatment called cold moist stratification prior to planting them & need cold weather to break down germination inhibitors. The seeds require light to germinate, so be careful not to cover them when planting. Mugwort does not like to be overwatered & is very drought tolerant. It is also an invasive weed & best kept in a container.

Medicinal information: Historically mugwort has been used in traditional systems of medicine in different parts of the world. Today, mugwort taken orally is promoted for digestive problems, irregular menstruation, and high blood pressure. It is also promoted as a sedative, laxative, anti-inflammatory & liver tonic. Mugwort lotion applied topically can aid in itching caused by hypertrophic scars & When being smoked, it exhibits mild intoxicating properties & strong relaxing properties.

Cautions: Mugwort should not be taken by pregnant people because it may start menstruation and cause the uterus to contract. Little is known about whether it’s safe to use mugwort while chestfeeding. Mugwort might cause an allergic reaction in people with pollen sensitivities

Magickal Properties

Gender: Feminine

Planet: Venus & Neptune

Element: Earth

Deities: Aida Wedo, Artemis, Diana, Isis, Lakshimi & St.John

Magickal uses:

•Place under your pillow to bringing peaceful sleep, prophetic dreams & aid in astral travel

• Add to incense for cleansing and clearing energy

• Place around scrying tools to increase their energy

• Add to herbal smoke blends to stimulate lucid dreaming, astral travel & visualization

• Make an infusion of mugwort to wash magic mirrors and crystal balls to aid in physic workings

• Burn with Sandalwood or wormwood for scrying rituals

• Carry in a satchets for protection and increasing lust, fertility & preventing back pain

• Throw mugwort in a fire during Midsummer for protection for the following year

• Keep under your doorstep to keep annoying visitors away

• Use in tea before bed to encourage lucid dreaming

• Hang mugwort over or on a door to keep unwelcome energies from passing through

• During a storm or when your life feels threatened by impending dangers, toss into your hearth fire or cauldron to keep you safe

•Wash your hands with a mugwort infusion to increase energy flow before tarot or pendulum readings

Sources:

Farmersalmanac.com

The Herbal Alchemist Handbook by Karen Harrison

The Book of Flower Spells by Cheralyn Darcey

Llewellyn's Complete Book of Correspondences by Sandra Kines

A Witch's Book of Correspondences by Viktorija Briggs

The Encyclopedia of Natural Magic by John Michael Greer

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer

Plant Witchery by Juliet Diaz

A Compendium of Herbal Magick by Paul Beyerl

Wikipedia

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dnpbeats · 1 month

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hey besties going to say something parasocial and also very morbid so apologies in advance. with things like phil's recent health scare, i wonder if that brought up talks of a legit official hard launch* or in some way expedited the talks (assuming a hard launch was already being planned). because like God forbid anything actually happened to either of them. but let's say something did happen to one of them... i am assuming at that point the other would stop gal palling it up when talking about their relationship, like for obvious reasons lmao. but like imagine how awful that would be, to be going through literally the worst thing in your life and you're trying to be honest with how much the person meant to you and then you have to inevitably deal with people reacting to the fact that you are confirming a relationship. and i'm not even talking about people being like "omg phan is real 🤪" in an insensitive way (though that would unfortunately happen), like i think it would also probably suck coming from people who are just factually giving information as in "this is the first time their relationship was explicitly confirmed" yk? like I'm not in any way trying to say that gay ppl need to come out asap in case they die tomorrow, and also ik phil said he was trying not to explore "what if" scenarios so idk maybe they actually didn't have any talks at all. but it's something I wonder if they've thought about and what conclusion they might've come to

*imo they have confirmed they are a couple more than once but y'all know what I mean. the kind of hard launch where it counts as a reliable source on wikipedia

#I was thinking about sufjan Stevens and how when he posted abt his partner passing away like every news article mentioned that it was his #first time being open about his sexuality. not in a rude way and it was by no means the point of any of the articles it was all just like #one or two lines mentioning it. but even still like idk! I just feel like that would kind of suck. because even with just one line it in #some way takes away from the point of the article. it's like 'this guy lost his partner oh and ALSO' when there shouldn't be an also #idk does this make any sense #dan and phil #phan #d&p #wordvom.txt

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morganbritton132 · 1 year

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obsessed w this new saga with David and the other teachers.... perhaps them either coming over again for a small party - "it's mostly family!!" Hence being even more confused when even MORE famous people show up (THAT'S brony Erica???)

I’m picturing the same cookout from this post.

There are three new eighth grade teachers this year. Including David, there is Marissa and Jordan. Then there is Kathy, who has been at the school for two years. They are all trying to figure out what is going on with Steve Harrington.

The man is a complete mystery.

He’s a walking contradiction in a math pun sweatshirt and he is often the topic of conversation when the four of them are alone in the breakroom. Jordan describes him as ‘onion-like’ because he has many layers and Marissa always replies with, ‘yeah, a fucked up alien onion where each new layer is weirder than the last.’

It’s a bit cruel but also, they found an article about Starcourt Mall.

Who is just in a fire? Who saves a bunch of children from a structure fire that collapsed on top of them and doesn’t make it their whole personality for the rest of forever? Who just never mentions it ever?

Steve Harrington, apparently.

After David (and Kathy) left Steve’s house more confused about the mild-mannered math teacher than ever, he went home and googled ‘Eddie Harrington.’ All he found was a link to a Facebook page for some dentist.

So, like, who the hell is he even married to, right? The guy has a Grammy but not a Wikipedia page? What’s up with that?

All David knows is that when Anita (the teacher that’s probably closest to Steve) invites everybody over for a cookout and says that your partners are more than welcomed, he’s going. When Steve asks if it’d be okay if Erica stopped by on her way to the airport and Anita said yes, he’s definitely going.

He is not going to miss the opportunity to see the kid that gave her dad psychic damage by introducing him to the fucked up parts of the My Little Pony fandom. No way.

Kathy informs everybody that she will NOT be bringing her husband, but she will bring booze.

David arrives too early and ends up helping in the kitchen. He’s slicing up tomatoes with the world’s dullest knife when Steve gets there. He can’t see the front door, but he can hear Anita ask, “Oh, where’s your service doggie?”

“It’s his day off,” He hears Steve joke, “Brought the human instead.”

And then David hears the man of mystery’s man of mystery himself because Eddie says with 100% impulsive thinking and 0% brain-to-mouth filter, “Yeah, he brought his service top instead.”

David just knows that Steve is giving Eddie the same dead-eyed look of unbelievable that is reserved for students that mix their chocolate milk with peas and dare each other to drink it in the silence that follows. Anita, bless her heart, replies as happy and clueless as can be, “Oh, that’s cute. Because you provide a top-notch service.”

“Never had any compl- ow!”

The first time David gets a good look at them, Eddie’s pressed up against Steve’s back, looking over his shoulder at the pictures of Anita’s grandkids she has on her phone. One of his hands is wrapped loosely around his waist and Steve is holding the other one, fiddling with the rings on it. They look so casual, like they’re always standing that close together.

David watches as Anita points in the direction of the drinks cooler and Eddie slips away with a kiss to the side of Steve’s neck and then another to his cheek. They hold hands until they absolutely have to let go. It’s cute. Marissa, next to him, scoffs and says, “Gag me with a spoon, they’re fucking adorable.”

Eddie returns to Steve with two beers and a Smirnoff Ice for Anita, gets another kiss and clearly calls Steve ‘sweetie’ when he clinks their bottles together. Steve throws his arm across Eddie’s shoulders and Eddie tucks his hand into Steve’s back pocket like it’s the most casual thing in the world.

David loses track of Steve and Eddie for a while, catching them in his peripheral as he mingles with everybody. He seems them steal a kiss. He sees them laughing at something Kathy says. He sees them holding hands as Eddie looks utterly lost during a discussion of the baseball season.

At one point, he sees Eddie stand up on the bench of the picnic table and get yanked down by Steve. They’re both laughing and Steve gives him a kiss that is not exactly chaste.

Cindy rolls her eyes at them and says that they’re always like that.

Him and Jordan are playing cornhole against Steve and Eddie. He’s almost positive that Eddie is not as bad at the game as he’s pretending to be, but just likes when ‘Stevie baby’ guides him through how to throw the beanbags. If it wasn’t for Steve excusing himself than he probably wouldn’t have noticed the big SUV parked in the driveway.

His first thought when he sees Erica is ‘oh, she must be adopted’ followed immediately by ‘wait, duh’ and then by ‘hey, wait a minute.’

Steve gets stopped by her bodyguard before he can hug her with a big threatening hand on his shoulder. David’s still trying to figure out why she looks so familiar when Erica says to the bodyguard, “Uh, excuse you. Do not touch him. He was my first bodyguard, have some respect.”

Steve scoffs, “I was your babysitter.”

“I’m sorry,” Erica says, full of sass. Eddie is a couple steps back, grinning ear to ear. He loves when Erica and Steve get into it. “Did you bleed for me? Did you fight for me? Did you, Steve Harrington, get tortured so I made it out safe? I think so. Bodyguard.”

Eddie finally greets her with a bow, “Lady Applejack.”

Erica gives him a flat look and tells her bodyguard, “You can tase that one.”

David is still reeling from the words ‘babysitter’ and ‘torture’ that he probably would’ve missed Marissa in his ear if she wasn’t so goddamn loud, “Holy shit, that’s a fucking US Senator.”

Jordan is quieter when she mutters, “Language.”

Later in the evening when the sun is starting to set and they should all really go home and prep their lesson plans for next week, Anita’s husband lights a bonfire. David is sitting across from the fire from Steve and Eddie and he so tempted to ask what Eddie does for a living when Steve whispers something to him and then stands up quickly.

He can’t even ask what that was about because Eddie gets up and follows him, almost matching Steve’s quick steps into the house. They’re gone for a while, long enough that David gets up to check on Steve. He looked pretty pale when he rushed out of here.

He’s halfway up the stairs when he hears them, and he stops. Steve sounds tired but reassuring as he repeats, “I’m fine. I’m okay. I’m fine now.”

He hears Eddie respond with, “I know, baby. I know, but rest with me for a minute, kay?”

When he pokes his head around the turn in the staircase, he can see the bottom of Steve’s Nikes hanging over the top landing. He can also see the bottom of Eddie’s boots where he’s crouched over Steve. His first reaction is to think he stumbled on them in a compromising position, but he can’t bring himself to move just yet.

“You just had a seizure, take your time getting your bearings, sweetheart. Do you wanna go home?” Eddie asks in a cacophony of jingling metal rings and chains. Steve makes a noise that Eddie interprets, “Okay, do you want me to give you space?”

“No, come –“ The sound of metal clinking together doesn’t get louder, just more and when David pokes his head around the corner again, Eddie is straddled across Steve’s lap. Steve’s hands are on his hips and then higher, pushing up Eddie’s shirt clumsily just feeling him. “Feel floaty.”

“I’ll keep you grounded, baby.”

David knows he should leave, or at least looks away, but he stuck frozen to the floor at the sight of the scar tissue running up Eddie’s sides and back. They’re deep and jagged, and old. It looks like he was torn open and sewed back shut, and it takes David a long time to get his feet to go back down the stairs.

He goes back out to the fire a little dazed and later, it’s only Eddie that returns. He whispers something to Anita and then disappears into the night.

When Cindy makes a comment about Steve leaving without a proper goodbye, David tells her to shut up.

#I made one post about David wondering why Eddie Munson is and followed it up with a post where Eddie introduces himself as a Harrington #I think it’s infinitely funnier if David is trying to find info about this man but has the wrong name #Steve has his one-sided beef with Diane. Cindy has hers with Steve #This one is long and it sorta/kinda answers the prompt this time #This was a great prompt. I really enjoyed writing this #eddie munson tiktok saga #steve harrington #eddie munson

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sealpup9 · 2 years

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Internet Archive Live Hearing happens tomorrow: March 20, 2023

Here's a link to the Internet Archive's page, describing how you can participate and listen to oral arguments on Monday March 20th at 1pm ET

You may know the Internet Archive because of the Wayback Machine!!

The court case Hachette v Internet Archive is being brought to court and threatens to tear down the Internet Archive as we know it.

"The Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library, preserving and providing access to cultural artifacts of all kinds in electronic form. CDL allows people to check out digital copies of books for two weeks or less, and only permits patrons to check out as many copies as the Archive and its partner libraries physically own. That means that if the Archive and its partner libraries have only one copy of a book, then only one patron can borrow it at a time, just like any other library. Through CDL, the Internet Archive is helping to foster research and learning by helping its patrons access books and by keeping books in circulation when their publishers have lost interest in them."

This is so important because not only does the Internet Archive provide books that are long out of circulation and copies for people to borrow, they are also used as sources for things like Wikipedia articles! Imagine if suddenly, no one could access sources that someone cites for their information! Having access to information digitally today is a very important thing, and with all of the paywalls people face nowadays for news, imagine if you suddenly had to pay for access to any books. Websites like Amazon already are attempting to replace any sort of ebook rentals with paid services, when we have the right to borrow books online just as we do physically. The Internet Archive is extremely important and one of our rights- access to information- is actively being fought against.

REMEMBER: This will not JUST affect the internet archive. This could change how libraries in general work, and could threaten public access to information. Imagine how many youtube video essay sources would be null and void, imagine just trying to research an obscure topic at 3am-- If all of that was behind a paywall, only those with money would be able to access them! The harder it is for libraries to share books and archive information, the more the public suffers!

Please show your support! Read more about the case here: https://www.eff.org/cases/hachette-v-internet-archive

https://www.battleforlibraries.com/

I'm not sure how quick Tumblr will work on approving this blazed post but if the day/time has passed, please know that you can actively look into more information on this case and other info on the Internet Archive Blogs. You can also add your name to a list of supporters of Battle for Libraries Here.

Let's work together on making sure we have access to information! In this digital age, we deserve to access just as much online as we do offline!

#internet archive #Hachette v. Internet Archive #Battle for libraries #free speech #access to information #human rights #libraries #archive.org #wayback machine #non profit #signal boost #important #censorship #book banning #books #librarians #public libraries #public library #politics

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eggtrolls · 5 months

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haiku misinformation: a fact check

there's an post going around about haiku that has a lot of incorrect information about haiku, its terminology, history, etc. I will try to debunk some of the biggest inaccuracies here. everything in quotes is a direct statement from the original post. this is also really, really long.

"Haiku are made of 14 on, which are essentially the equivalent to Japanese syllabic structures, except the nature of how Japanese as a language is constructed versus English means that any given proper haiku could be translated in extremely and intensely different ways, each giving a subtle but distinctly different meaning."

Starting off strong - haiku are (usually) made of 17 on. It's the classic 5-7-5 pattern! 5+7+5=17! [possibly this is a mix-up with wakiku (脇(わき)句(く)) which is another type of Japanese poetry that does use 14 on but who knows.]

Definitions: an on is a phonetic unit, the equivalent to a mora (pl. morae) in English. this concept a) exists in English and b) like on, is related to syllables but distinctly different from them (i.e. ba is one mora but baa with a long vowel is two morae). On can be counted using the number of hiragana (phonetic syllabic characters) when the text is transliterated, so a word like Osaka that has the long O sound (made up of 4 kana) would be 4 morae or 4 on (o-o-sa-ka; おおさか). it's not really a syllabic structure at all, and more importantly has nothing to do with translation. idk where that last part comes from because that's really...not the point here. Yes, any given "proper" haiku could be translated in different ways with a subtle but distinctly different meaning but that's true of just...translation, period. check out Deborah Smith's translation of The Vegetarian by Han Kang for more on that.

Furthermore, haiku were/are not rigidly locked into the 5-7-5 on pattern. That's just not true, which is why I said usually above. Easy example: a 1676 haiku by Matsuo Basho that uses 18-on:

冨士の風や　扇にのせて江戸土産; ふじのかぜやおうぎにのせてえどみやげ; the wind of Fuji /I've brought on my fan/a gift from Edo <- that first line is 6-on!

2. "The best way I can explain what I mean is that in English a good poem can be defined as a shallow river, whereas a good haiku is a deeply-dug well."

Not dignifying this with a response. Deeply incorrect and untrue. @bill-blake-fans-anonymous can handle this assertion.

3. "The presence of the kigu. There is a specific series of characters/words which are used to imply a season, and specifically a specific aspect of a season which the haiku revolves around. The creation of a haiku is often done as a meditative practice revolving around the kigu--you're essentially contemplating on this particular natural feature (nearly always the temporal aspect emphasizes either ephemerality or the opposite as well bc Buddhist ideas of enlightenment and beauty begin coming into play) and building an evocative and purposeful point that revolves around it like a hinge. It functions as both ground and anchor."

First (and largest) problem: the word. is. kigo. kigo. It's ki (季; season)-go (語; word) = 季語. Both the English and Japanese language Wikipedia, or a 3-second google search, will tell you this immediately. I have no idea where the term kigu comes from.

Second problem: plenty of haiku, both traditional and contemporary, do not use kigo. these are described as muki (無季; seasonless). Matsuo Basho, the haiku-writing poet non-Japanese people are most likely to know, wrote at least ten seasonless haiku that exist today. Masaoka Shiki, the Meiji-era haiku poet and reformist, wrote hundreds of kigo-free haiku and as an agnostic, tried to separate haiku from Buddhism and focus more on the shasei, the sketches from daily life. you can actually, today, buy what are called saijiki, which are lists of words and terms that refer to specific seasons (in the traditional Japanese calendar, so there are actually a lot of "micro" seasons as well). some saijiki include a whole section of "seasonles" words - here's an article about non-season kigo in a saijiki.

so the claim that English-language haiku are invalid or not "real" haiku because they lack a kigo doesn't hold up, unless you invalidate a whole bunch of Japanese haiku as well. the op also claimed they would categorize a lot of English "haiku" as senryū which is...an opinion. Yes, haiku tend to be focused around nature (more on that below) and senryū tend to be more comedic or about human foibles but...that's it! it's a tendency! it's not a hard and fast rule!

Third problem: the claim that a haiku is as meditative practice revolving around the kigu kigo...yeah, no. the earlier form of haiku, the hokku, were the introductory poems of the longer poetic form, the renga and the hokku gradually became a standalone poetic form known as haiku. the hokku had a lot of purposes and we have a historical record of them going back ~1000 years to Emperor Juntoku where they were declamatory poems tied to events (births, deaths, etc.) or social events (moon-viewing parties) - not really meditative. haiku, if a genre can focus on a single idea, focus on an experience and that can be real or imaginary, direct and personal or neither.

Here's another Basho poem for your consideration:

夏草や兵どもが夢の跡 (natsukusa ya tsuwamonodomo ga yume no ato; summer grasses--/traces of dreams/of ancient warriors)

both the dreams and the grasses are those of Basho (contemporary) and of the warriors (ancient); it's about travel, it's about connecting the present to the ancient past, it's not really so much about the summer.

(Fourth, minor problem that I'm not really going to get into: you'd have to take this 'Buddhist ideas of enlightenment and beauty' up with haiku scholar Haruo Shirane but he explicitly says in the Routledge Global Haiku Reader (2024) that "pioneers of English-language haiku [such as D.T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, and the Beats] mistakenly emphasized Zen Buddhism in Japanese haiku".....so.)

4. "The presence of the kireji...it's a concept borderline absent from English because it's an intersection of linguistics and philosophy that doesn't really exist outside of the context of Japanese."

Let's begin with clarification. What is kireji (lit. a 'cutting word')? It's a class of terms in Japanese poetry that can do a few things, depending on the specific kireji and its place in the poem. In the middle of the poem, it can mark a thematic break, a cut in the stream of thought highlighting the parallel(s) between the preceding and following phrases. At the end of the poem, it provides a sense of ending and closure - it helps mark rhythmic division, to say the least, and it is seen as the 'pivot' word.

Two problems with claims above:

a. there are haiku that do not use kireji. For the hat trick, here's a Matsuo Basho haiku from 1689 AD that is kireji-free: 初しぐれ猿も小蓑をほしげ也 (hatsu shigure saru mo komino wo hoshige nari; the first cold shower/even the monkey seems to want/a little coat of straw) <- NB: I love this haiku so much

b. the idea of a kireji, as in a pivot word that provides an inflection point with rhythmic division and structure, exist not just in English poetry but in multiple different types of poetry across time and space! The caesura in Latin and Ancient Greek! The volta in sonnets! Whatever is happening in the third line of the Korean sijo!

final thoughts:

the op included language, which I won't quote here because it was messy and tied into other rbs, about Orientalism and appropriation in English-language haiku, which is definitely a real thing. but this blanket statement ignores that the relationship between haiku and "the West", much like Japan and "the West", was and is not a one-way street. Western writers were influenced by haiku and, in turn, those writers influenced Japanese writers who wrote haiku inspired by these influences - this process has been going on for well over a century. Furthermore, English and Japanese are not the only languages in which haiku are written! Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore was writing haiku in Bengali; other Indian poets were and are writing them in Gujrati and Malayalam, particularly by the poet Ashitha. the Pakistani poet Omer Tarin has written haiku about Hiroshima! The Spanish poet Lorca published haiku in, get this, Spanish, in 1921 and the Mexican poet José Juan Tablada published more in 1922! Italian translations of Yosano Akiko were published in 1919! any discussion of the idea that English/non-Japanese-language haiku aren't really haiku because they don't hold to the "rules" (which Japanese authors have been revising, adapting, critiquing, and/or straight up flouting for centuries) or because English/non-Japanese poetry is "a shallow river whereas a good haiku is a deeply-dug well" just shows a lack of knowledge around traditions and depths of...well, poetry itself.

my god this is so long.

in summary: this is a complex topic. If anyone would like some actual information about haiku, its history, common themes and forms, or a collection of good poets, the Routledge Global Haiku Reader (2024) and Haiku Before Haiku : From the Renga Masters to Basho (2011) are great references and really accessible in their language! hmu if you're interested and I can send you some pdfs.

#'99% of all haiku written in English might at best be called a senryu' is QUITE a take #the idea that kireji is a uniquely mysteriously super special Japanese term that has no equivalent and could never be understood. hm.#where have I heard that line of thinking before.....#haiku #Japan #long post

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1tbls · 9 months

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some rambling thoughts on shivers (red bolding mine throughout):

so shivers says this to harry after he has a dance-induced seizure in the church, right:

YOU - But who am *I*? Why are you talking to me?

SHIVERS - YOU ARE AN OFFICER OF THE CITIZENS MILITIA. *AGENTES IN REBUS*, WHEN YOU WEAR YOUR COAT, YOU WEAR MY SOUL.

SHIVERS - YOU MOVE THROUGH MY STREETS FREELY IN MOTOR CARRIAGES AND ON FOOT. YOU HAVE ACCESS TO THE HIDDEN PLACES. YOU ALSO CIRCULATE AMONG THOSE WHO ARE HIDDEN.

here's wikipedia on "agentes in rebus":

"The agentes in rebus were the late Roman imperial and Byzantine courier service and general agents of the central government from the 4th to the 7th centuries."

"Being outside the control of the provincial governors, some agentes ... were appointed as inspectors ... for which they gained a reputation as a secret police force. As their routine assignments brought them into contact with matters of great concern to the court, and as they reported back to the court on everything they saw or heard on their varied missions, the agentes can be seen to have had an intelligence function ... This role, as well as their extraordinary power, made them feared: the 4th-century philosopher Libanius accused them of gross misconduct, terrorizing and extorting the provincials, "sheep-dogs who had joined the wolf pack". Nevertheless, the vast majority operated quite openly, and the claims of the agentes operating as a modern-day secret police are certainly exaggerated."

hey shivers. why are you invoking the RCM as your secret police, via a term not just associated with collection of information, but with corruption and manipulation of power.

and, if you fuck up the dance check and call kim a slur, she says:

"SHIVERS - BY THE WAY, APOLOGIZE TO YOUR PARTNER AT ONCE. UNITY AMONG THE RANKS IS PARAMOUNT."

which sticks out to me, because earlier we have this encyclopedia check with noid:

NOID - "A life is true if it's free from fear and internal division among oneself. And others -- mankind has seeds of greatness in it. A germinal will come, a return to trueness. It will be hard core."

YOU - "How would you go about *returning* to this true life?"

NOID - "Beats and bright lights to shatter falsehoods. Nerve impulses for the collective body. We are very much alike in basic structure. A hard enough beat would awaken everyone to a truer calling -- in unity!"

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Rejection of the right-left axis, emphasis on *unity*, appreciation of some primordial mode of being -- what does that remind you of?

YOU - "Sort of like fascism then?"

now, i don't think either noid or shivers are outright fascist :p but i do think the purpose of this encyclopedia line is to highlight how those criteria are flawed and damaging, how they are red flags, whatever the intention.

some comparisons:

1. return to trueness. le retour. the return of... what? in both cases, truly quite vague except for the idea of some dramatic upheaval of the current order, the idea of "returning" to some idealized past state or event.

2. nerve impulses. shivers. "appeal to nature" type fallacy, appeal to a baser instinct... invocation of physical reactions as metaphor for political reactionism, perhaps?

3. unity. on the surface, shivers telling harry to make things right with kim is touching, certainly. but specifically "unity among the ranks" is an interesting framing 🤨 as though the crucial thing is that their forces are not divided for what's to come, regardless of kim's feelings, regardless of harry's potential racism.

likewise, noid's call for unity addresses... nothing at all. simply that everyone would be awoken from their petty, false divisions into unity. neither this nor his criticisms of left vs. right acknowledge that the division is not equal, that one side in most social power conflicts is invested in stripping the rights of the other... because that is simply not on the radar when the priority is unity above all else. in its way, unity is authoritarian where it does not abide difference or dissent in the interest of the of the stasis/power of the institution.

this is all to say. hey. let's talk about the inherent nationalist nature of la revacholiere, my problematic wife ♥️

#de tag #disco elysium #i feel like i could make this more coherent / essay-like but i just cant be bothered #im certain there's other shivers lines like this that had me like <__< girl........#racism ment /

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itsgodepi · 1 year

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If I lose my mind | Ch. 5

Series summary: When you're buried under a mountain of problems and can’t seem to catch a break, it might feel like you need a complete reset. But did it really have to come with a one-way ticket to a new dimension? Surely, a little problem-solving would’ve done the trick. Or, one day you go to sleep as a normal person and the next you wake up as a Formula One driver. You've never been a fan but isn't it like, one of the most exclusive sports? Pairing: CL16, LH44, CS55, DR3 x fem!reader Chapter: Previous | Next Word Count: 3k Also on AO3

Reading your own Wikipedia page is quite a strange experience. Paragraph after paragraph of your life written on the internet for everybody to see, from the day you were born all the way to this very moment.

You do not know if the fact that none of it is true is for better or worse.

Some parts are accurate, information about your hometown, date of birth, relatives' names and... that’s about it really. According to this biography, not only have you been the runner-up for a Formula 3 championship, but you are also a Formula 2 champion, which is good you guess, for someone that did not even know those kinds of competitions existed. As of two hours ago, Formula One was the only championship with those kinds of cars you had ever heard about, but there are so many. Too many actually. In a section of your page named ‘junior racing career’ —which is in itself a crazy sentence to read—, it even says something about karting’s championships and an academy thing, concepts you are not sure if you want to understand.

Oh, and the most important part, you are a Formula 1 driver, a statement endlessly repeated throughout the text. They even claim this to be your second year on the motorsport, ‘not a rookie anymore’ they say, as if yesterday’s race was not the first one you have ever watched from start to finish.

Still, if being pushed into a Formula One car and a whole Wikipedia page was not enough of a confirmation, you can find a million articles online that certify your participation in the sport. Webs filled with photos of you with the cars, dressed in full gear and with that stupid blue helmet, the situation getting worse and worse with every tap of your finger.

How is any of this possible?

The rabbit hole that seems to be your ‘life’ keeps you awake night after night, new information slapping you in the face every two minutes while you try to navigate what appears to be a Formula One driver’s normal schedule. Nick makes sure of that last part at least.

The first step on that agenda had been to fly out of Austria, a place you cannot comprehend how you had arrived to when you were in Spain just yesterday. It is not like you were having the best time of your life there, finishing the third month of your external internship in a city you thought was already too far away from home, but this change looks a bit excessive. The possibility of being in a completely different country had seemed so absurd at first, when a list called Austrian GP came up as one of the top results in your research, and yet with a simple look to the navigation app, your worst nightmare had been confirmed. From your trip to the airport, to the arrival to another country, France, and to a new hotel, Nick walking you through every step of the process and only leaving you alone once you are back in the hotel room.

The next few days follow a similar dynamic, mornings spent trailing behind Nick without a clue of what happens around you and long nights glued to the phone, the date for the next GP —or whatever they call it— getting closer and closer.

You are not ready to repeat last Sunday’s events, an engine failure had saved you from the inevitable end, but you might not be so lucky next time. There is no way you are stepping into that car again, that is for sure, and even less so when you have not figured out what brought you here in the first place.

Although you had drowned yourself in information about your supposed life the first nights in France, the need to discover what was happening to you had quickly managed to overpower that curiosity. From the moment Nick knocks on your door early on the morning to the hours you lay awake on bed looking for anything that could explain this madness, you spend every second of the day looking for an explanation.

A kidnapping had been the most credible theory from day one, the way you had woken up to all those screams and the men surrounding you, how Nick had come into your hotel room that morning and pushed you to drive with no regard for your safety. It made sense. However, the articles posted all over the internet told a very different story. There is too much information about you, some posts even dating back to when you were a child, photos and videos that cannot be simply edited and uploaded to make you believe you have gone crazy. You have driven a Formula One car on an official race, for crying out loud, that is not something anybody can orchestrate.

To be honest, the whole Formula One thing had knocked down quite a few of your guesses. What could someone gain from making you, a nobody, believe they are a motorsport driver?

In fact, the only theory that could easily explain everything that had happened to you in the past few days is that: none of this is real. A dream. You can vividly remember dozing off on your bed, that sensation of falling down and then suddenly waking up in that unfamiliar place. It could be the reason why you had blacked out when the car exited the garage, why everyone knew you, and could also explain the existence of all those false stories on the internet.

You had made all of this up.

That had indeed been one of your first assumptions, or at least had been an easy way for your mind to let go of all the worries in such an unnerving situation. If this was not real, there was nothing to stress about, no danger in sight. Your alarm will go off any moment now and you will be one day closer to ending this internship and going back home. Tomorrow will be a new day.

Despite this, as time goes by, it becomes harder and harder to hold onto this happy thought.

Stepping foot into the new track is a breaking point. It is Friday, five days have gone by and nothing has changed, the countdown to the next race weighting down on your mind as you walk through what Nick had called the paddock. It is that strange street again, the one lined by those colorful buildings but in a completely different country —another clue that this was indeed not real, you were clearly lacking imagination to be recycling sceneries like this.

They had brough you here yesterday as well, for a tour around the track that had set your nerves alight. Thankfully, you had done nothing but wander around the circuit for a while, be surrounded by a couple cameras, have a meeting with the engineers and go back to the hotel for another sleepless night.

Maybe you should sleep more —which sounds quite contradictory when you are supposedly already dreaming— because, when the events of last Sunday start repeating themselves, you do not even have the strength to push back. Nick manages once again to lure you into the white building and prepare you for what he calls practice, but the reality is that just the sight of that Formula One car on the garage makes you heart drop to the pit of your stomach.

“Don’t worry about times,” a man who has been following you all day says “Let’s see if everything feels good first and we’ll talk things over for FP2”.

A lot of changes had been made to the car since Austria, that is what all the meetings had been about. You had silently sat down through all of them, nodding along to the engineers’ words as if you understood any of it.

Now that you are seated in the car, blue helmet and jumpsuit on, you can only wish that whatever broke the car in Austria has not been fixed. That the engine won’t even start, and you will have to retire again. It is hard enough to listen to the rest of the cars exiting their own garages, their engines revving like they might explode.

How they have managed to put you on the spot yet again, that you do not understand. And it is not only a one-time thing, but they easily make you jump in the car later the day for a second practice.

When you are finally helped out of the car the second time, body uncontrollably trembling and a static sound filling your ears, you feel an unusual sense of calmness. The whole ride had felt like such a clear sign that none of this is real, it can’t be. Both practices had gone by in the blink of an eye, just like it had happened in Austria, a fade to black and you are back where you started. You do not even remember seeing other cars on the road or how you got back to the garage. Nothing. The only proof that you had driven around for hours being the fatigue consuming your body, something that backs the dreaming theory up so perfectly.

They say you have done great though, so that is something.

Nevertheless, it feels nice to be back on normal clothes, like there is less of a target on your back for the cameras and other strangers, but it is still difficult to keep a low profile when you are walking through the paddock with the team’s merchandising. Nick is guiding you out to the last meeting of the day, after you have fulfilled all the media duties and team reunions that have kept you on the track since your arrival this morning. He says this driver’s briefing thing should not last long, that it is quite late already, and they are probably thinking more about going back home than anything.

The meeting is on another building, one you had not even noticed in your two days here, Nick leading you inside and up some stairs until you find the meeting room. When he opens the door, you realize there is already people seated inside, the sound of their mixed talks now filling the long corridor. You recognize some of them, not from the team meetings but from Austria, other drivers.

The room is furnished as a classroom, a projector on the right wall and the rest of the space filled with rows of chairs. There are not many people in it yet, Nick had said it would be better to get there early before people start crowding the entrance and now you understood why. Your gaze instantly zeroes in on Lewis, a tiny smile pulling at your lips while Nick guides you to some seats, deciding to leave your things with him and go say hello. You have not seen him since Austria, after you had spent the entire pre-race ceremony talking to him, and now that you have kind of ruled out the possibility that he is a kidnapper, you have realized that maybe he was just being nice.

Yet, before you can take more than two steps away from Nick, you feel someone pulling at your hand. You come to a sudden stop, looking back to see a man seated in the row in front of you and Nick’s seat regarding you with a huge grin on his lips. He has dark hair and big brown eyes that seem to be staring into your soul.

“Oh c’mon, you’re not even going to say hello because I didn’t get you cookies last week?” the man chuckles, tilting his head as he looks up at you like he cannot believe what you were about to do “Isn’t that too much?”

Even though his tone is light and jokey, you cannot help but frown at him. Why would you greet him when you don’t know him in the first place? And why is he holding your hand?

Instead of letting go when you stand there in silence, too stunned to react to his words, he decides to pull you down into the seat next to his “Didn’t Charles get you some? You are being greedy at this point” he jokes once you are seated, not a word leaving your lips.

Oh, Charles, you remember him from Austria as well. Actually, he was wearing the same exact red shirt as this man, a detail that the abrupt start of the conversation had left you blind to. The Ferrari logo in both his chest and cap are even more of a telltale of who he must be. Charles’ teammate.

“They were nice...” you respond, crossing your legs and relaxing back on the chair now that you have gathered your bearings. It is true, you had been munching on those cookies throughout the race after your disqualification, Nick bringing them over to you as a treat to distract you.

The man shakes his head in disbelief, smile widening as he assures you “I'll get you a full basket next time, don’t worry”

The promise genuinely makes you smile, he seems nice.

“How’s the car doing?” the man queries, crossing his arms over his chest as he looks around

You can almost feel the media training kicking in, pre-made phrases hanging off the tip of your tongue, they have been putting a microphone in your face and asking you about it all morning. Nonetheless, you manage to push it all down, it finally feels like you are having a normal conversation after this stressful week, you are not about to parrot the engineers' words for the millionth time “Well, it hasn’t caught fire yet...”

The man seems to like that answer, letting out a giggle and a “That’s an improvement” while he nods in understanding. There is a moment of silence that follows, his eyes set on your face as if he was waiting for something that does not come. Is he expecting a more in-depth response or something? Yet, before you can decide on what to do, he finally wills himself to say what he has been thinking ever since you entered the room “So... are you feeling better?”

The question catches you off guard at first, the conversation taking a more serious turn than you had expected —or wanted. Should you say you are great, just to shut down the topic entirely? The room is filling up with people by the second and it is not like you are about to open your heart to a total stranger. Or are you supposed to give the same response Nick had made you repeat over and over again in front of the journalists? ‘I’m perfectly fine now, it was pure exhaustion’.

“I’m-” you start saying, mind not really having decided on what lie to tell, when someone pats your head.

You rise your head to look behind you, both to see who it is and to get away from their touch —what is with this people taking such liberties?—, the man by your side doing the same. Standing tall behind your row of chairs is none other than the man you have spent day and nights thinking about: Daniel.

“Ready for the two hours briefing?” he sighs with a raised eyebrow, his hand traveling down to your shoulder when you turn your body around to talk to him. This is the first time you have seen the man out of that bright orange jumpsuit, now sporting a shirt of the same color instead, logos drawn all over it. He is still wearing that matching cap though.

“So dramatic...” the man seated by your side snickers, the previous chat seemingly forgotten “We should do a twenty-four-hour briefing just for you”

“Mate,” Daniel says with a half-smile, pointing at you with a tilt of his head “she wasn’t here last year”

That must mean something you do not understand because it is all the man in red needs to groan out loud, his face falling in defeat at the prospect of having to sit through such a long meeting. On the other hand, you can only sit there with your eyebrows furrowed, Nick had assured you would be out of here in no time. And of course you were not here last year, or ever, you have not- but your inner monologue gets suddenly interrupted by the one phrase you have been telling yourself all day: none of this is real, you’re dreaming.

“What? No, she was driving here last year” another voice joins the conversation, his statement sharp and direct. You lean your body forward to see who it is, he has taken a seat on the other side of the man in red and his body is blocking the stranger’s face, eyes widening when you recognize him. Charles.

“It was still Mazepin in France, he almost crashed into Kimi remember?” Daniel corrects him with a side grin “She started after the break in... was it Silverstone?”

Daniel looks at you for confirmation on this one, the other two men also lowering their gaze to yours, waiting. You are so overwhelmed though, it feels so strange, the fact that they are talking so categorically about things that have not ever happened. What is Mazepin? Kimi? And Silverstone? What break? The pressure of the situation getting to you in the worst possible moment.

So you end up doing what you do best, nod along to whatever the other person says even though you do not understand anything. That is what you have done to the engineers, to the media, to Nick and now to these three men before the start of a briefing that you won’t understand a word of either.

Afterall, none of this matter, this is only a dream, right?

Next Chapter

___

Author's note: Thanks a lot for all the hearts, comments and everything! I'm so happy you're liking the fic

Taglist: @purplephantomwolf @raye2000 @yuiiimd @drezzerk33 @leclercdream @homie0sapien @minkyungseokie @carlossainzwho @rewmuslupin

#formula one x reader #f1 x reader #f1 fic #lewis hamilton x reader #daniel ricciardo x reader #charles leclerc x reader #carlos sainz x reader #f1 x you #formula one x you #carlos sainz x you #charles leclerc x you #lewis hamilton x you #daniel ricciardo x you

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jellyfishoreo1206 · 3 months

Note

hey dude! really like ur work lol :3 can you write a tf2 medic with a fem or gn reader who is alternative (like punk/goth?) it can be headcannons or a drabble or whatever u want :) thanks bud!

Medic with an Alt! Reader (gender-neutral)

Notes: Of course! Again, I'm sorry if it seems like I ignored your ask! For that, I'll attempt to make it extra long :3 Please correct me if I get anything wrong about the history of Alternative fashion/music, I mostly referenced Wikipedia, but I don't think there was enough information for me to go on. I didn't know if you wanted this to be a romantic pairing or just platonic, so I'm doing both!

So coming back to this, I realized that the first half of this is talking about Alt Reader, but then the next half it's literally just romance head cannons that have nothing to do with the ask. I've been carried away by the amount of ideas that have been flooding my brain at night that I completely forgot what I was doing in the first place. At this point, I'm just rolling with it, I'm sorry Anon

Warning(s): Medic being medic, cussing, mentions of reader smoking, slight spoilers for the TF2 Comics.

M/C = Merc Class

---

Platonic

Considering that this is the late 60's (and alt becoming a thing somewhere in the 1970's or 80's), Medic would take a keen interest in you.

Whether you take interest in Emo, Goth, Hip-Hop (which apparently is a form of Alt fashion! Good to know), Punk, Rocker or Grunge fashion; all of them have a few things in common, they all stand out from the mainstream fashion going on in that time, some are more artistic and attention-grabbing, and some coming to be as a break from beliefs.

I'm not going to lie to you, at first he thought it was some type of disorder

"I want to find out what's wrong with them" That's what's going through his mind 😭

He's so curious, you're going to be his new subject of interest until he has studied every inch of you

Whether that be operating on you or studying how you behave from afar.

---

Several days have passed since you've joined the mercenaries. You seem to be adjusting well enough to the team, getting along semi-okay with your teammates (if you ignore how the on your first day Soldier nearly killed you because he mistook you as a demon, shouting absolute nonsense). Engineer has been one of the most welcoming out of your teammates, offering to show you around and letting you know what to watch out for.

But there is one teammate that you can't even bring yourself to being around. The Medic.

God, you would think that the Engineer would at least warn you about him and his behavior, dude is seriously all kinds of creepy.

Ever since you got here, he's been watching you like a hawk. Always seeing him out of the corner of your eye, conveniently always being in the same room as you; Hell! Even following you out in the battle field. You even think you woke up to him crouching menacingly in the corner of your room, watching as you slept with a creepy smile on his face and an insane look in those eyes of his. (Desperately wishing that it was some kind of paranoia-filled nightmare and praying to whatever god that is up there that it wasn't real.)

"I swear! Was it something I did??" You decided to express your concerns to the Engineer, considering he is one of the more reasonable one's out of the mercs, and being the first person you hit it off with when you first arrived. He hummed in thought—putting down the sentry gun that he was tinkering with—turning to face you as he pushes his hard-hat back into place.

"Medic is a strange fella, I know tha'. But I don' think I've ever heard him act like this..." His response only seemed to add on to your distress, sitting yourself on the floor of his workshop with a loud groan. Great, so even he doesn't know what's going on either. "I'll hafta talk with him la'er, see wha's up with 'im."

"I appreciate it, Engineer."

"Please, call me Engie."

---

When the Engineer brought up the Medic's behavior to him, he just laughed it off

"Oh Herr Engineer, you must know as a man of science that this is simply an observation!" "...What exactly are ya' observin'?" "Haven't you noticed? How they dress! Is it a form of trauma? Or a type of disorder! I must find out!" *Cue him holding a bloody hand saw in the most menacing way possible* "Then..why don'tcha jus' ask them up front?" "I like my methods better."

Yeahhhh, he has a really bad case of autism

When Engie told you what the Medic told him, you just got even more confused.

What would the way you dress have anything to do with your mental state?

I mean, yeah, you've turned heads whenever you went out to do mundane tasks back home (such as picking something up from the store or returning something to a friend), and you had several people tell you that'll they will pray for you, but you've never had someone assume that it was straight up a disorder??

The thought itself just confuses you

Engie was right about him being weird..

---

A month has passed, and it seems like the Medic's behavior has calmed down a bit. Emphasis on a bit.

He stopped following you around out in the battlefield as much and seems to be getting back into his regular schedule of being the medic for the team; but you're starting to notice something else...

It seems he's attempting to talk to you! The whole entire time you've been here at the base, you two never actually had a proper conversation (mainly it was because you were attempting to avoid him as much as possible at the start, and Medic because he just saw you as another subject). The first time it happened was late at night, almost the early hours of the morning. You were in the kitchen, making some coffee for yourself and the Engineer (who has yet to go to sleep). You were pretty sure it was only the two of you awake at this time, since you didn't hear anything else other than the distant clinging and clanking of the engineer's machinery.

With both hands occupied with a mug of hot coffee, you were about to make your way out of the kitchen when you felt your heart drop. Jesus FUCKING CHRIST, HOW LONG WAS HE STANDING THERE????

Might as well be called The SPY instead with how fucking quiet he was.

You both made awkward eye-contact—awkward for you anyway—he seemed tired, but that didn't stop him from smiling at you—teeth and all.

"Ach, guten morgen!" He offers a small wave, his voice cheery despite his obvious exhaustion.

You didn't say anything, you bolted out of there.

Nope nope nope nope nopenopenope-!

---

The Medic didn't seem to take that reaction personally

If anything, it made him more curious

So he attempts to strike up another conversation, but this time with company around, since he was scolded by the engineer the very next day

Whether it was during dinner-time, before a match, or even game-nights (as chaotic as they can be); he always attempts to strike up conversations, whether you don't respond or you give one-word responses.

Going on to long rants about any topic that comes to mind, whether you want to listen or not; most of them are usually about the human biology or his previous experiments

You wish you could erase the memory when he told you he got a man pregnant with baboons.

When you asked why he wanted to talk to you, he merely gave a shrug and a almost sheepish smile

His response?

"Oh for no reason, I just got bored when I realized there were no results in my observations."

Yeah

You kept your distance as much as possible, still feeling a bit uncomfortable around the man

Though it eventually started to slowly fade away when he kept attempting to talk with you, a big part of it was also due to his birds perching themselves on you whenever you needed something from the medbay, cuddling up to you in a mass of feathers

You actually started to enjoy the conversations when he asked why you dressed the way you did

---

"Let me give you a brief summary," You start, sitting on the worn-out couch with the Medic on the far-end, a freshly lit cigarette in-between your fingers, "-there's a small community of us, people who also dress like me. But like I said, small community, not many of us." Taking the first drag of your cigarette, you see from the corner of your vision Medic holding a scolding look, eyeing the cigarette in your hand with disgust.

Blowing the smoke out in small puffs, you continued, "But, the reason why we dress the way we do, there's several and it varies from person to person."

"It could be a way of self-expression, a break from the mainstream style, or...damnit, I always forget the last one's. But there's many reasons why is what I'm trying to get at."

"What was your reasoning?" The Medic finally spoke, crossing his legs as he (un)discreetly takes out a notepad, writing down the information that you have just stated. The question processes in your brain, taking a long drag, repeating it over and over until an answer formed.

"Mm, nearly everyone dresses the same, no variety in their fashion." Finishing the last of the cigarette, you put it out in the ash tray atop the coffee table, leaning back into the couch with a stretch. "Everyone is always expected to dress the same. I wanted something different."

"Interesting..."

---

Romantic

Now for the romantic part of the relationship, it would take him FOREVER to figure out that he likes you

YEARS if nobody brings it up

He would just brush it off as excess adrenaline from the battles (even if there was a ceasefire)

He would also began to show a certain type of favoritism towards you (his birds especially)

Whether that be storing a jar of lollipops in his office for you to take from (and only you), telling you a in-depth explanation/step-by-step of his experiments before anybody else, scolding you whenever you do something that's unhealthy, or just treating you like a normal doctor whenever it comes time for the yearly check-ups (like not experimenting on you/doing a random surgery or injecting random chemicals into your body to see what effects it'll have on the battlefield.)

---

"Aye, doc! How come you only give M/N loli's!" For what seemed to have been the tenth time that day that Scout has complained about the same thing—over and over again—it was starting to get on the doctors nerves as he attempted (emphasis on attempted) to rescue his beloved bird that has somehow snuck his way inside of the scout and got himself tangled in the intestines while the Medic was preforming surgery.

"And for the last time, Scout." A sharp snap fills the tiled-room, a small piece of the Scout's rib cage in-between the Medic's gloved fingers, throwing it somewhere behind him without much concern for it as he continues with his current task at hand, "They aren't such a nuisance, unlike you."

---

That's his only excuse whenever someone asks really :/

He always seems to enjoy your company the most out of all the mercs and is seen with you more times than anybody else on the team

It's until one of the mercs bring up his favoritism from another point of view that he begins to think...differently

Not a bad differently, but a "What do I do" differently

Like that's the moment when he begins to realize his affections for you

Personally, I believe that man has never been in a romantic relationship/had romantic feelings for someone

So him being in love for possibly the first time in his life, he's stumped

Like what does he even do in a predicament like this???

Would probably go to Engie or Heavy about this predicament for some sort of guidance.

His behavior around you would change a bit

He would still act like his regular self

But with you around he could be seen fidgeting with whatever he has in his hands and stumbling over his words more often, maybe even calling you pet-names in German

There will be times where he'll have a red flush seen on his normally pale face whenever you do something he sees as attractive/adorable (whether that be ruthlessly killing the other team, laughing at something one of the mercs did, cooing at Archimedes, etc.)

Like, flushed to the tips of his ears down to the nape of his neck type of blushing

You can tell he's blushing whenever his glasses fog up <3

---

"Who's a pretty bird? You're a pretty bird!" Said blood-covered dove cooed at the various praise he was receiving from you, flapping his wings in a joyful matter. You came to the medbay to ask Medic for something that the Engineer needed but quickly got sidetracked when a certain dove flew down from his perch and decided to greet you.

Bringing a finger up to the dove, you give him small gentle scratches atop his head, continuing to coo at the bird with a big smile stretched across your lips.

Medic watches as the whole thing happens from his desk, a look of adoration in his eyes as he watches the on-going interaction between you and his bird. A feeling of warmth began spreading across his face, the beating of his heart increasing just from the sight alone.

He's absolutely clueless on what to do—the well-composed Medic, the man who has made a deal with the Devil and tricked him, sowing 8 souls to his very own, and has done many experiments that should be impossible to achieve—is confused on how he should proceed with his arising feelings for someone he considered a colleague and friend.

What a very troublesome situation.

---

He would probably be a bit straightforward when he decides to confess to you, probably in a private space like in the Medbay or when it's late at night so nobody is awake to walk in on the two of you

When I say "a bit straightforward", I mean like he'll beat around the bush for a brief few seconds before just going for it, and keeps eye-contact throughout the whole thing

If you accept his feelings; he's ecstatic! But he doesn't know how to act, to say.

'What do couples do??' 'How does one act when they are in a relationship?' Mainly the questions that are going through his mind

If you reject his feelings; he'll become quiet and distant around you. He might even be a bit mad at himself, whenever he's by his lonesome; staring at his reflection on his bone-saw as his birds attempt to comfort him

Like, you guys will still talk, but it'll just be awkward—a tension between the two of you

Okay moving on.

Once entering a relationship with the Medic, it's best if you take things slow; discuss boundaries with one another, what to do and what not to do, etc,.

Would probably become a bit more touchy? Like, small brushes against your hand or one of your limbs, holding you hand or just linking pinkies with you whenever the two of you are alone

Like those kind of touches, soft.

Kisses would probably start off small too; small kiss to your knuckles or a kiss to the palm of his hand to bring a flush out of him (Though he prefers both of these in private)

Would absolute want to attempt to do your hair and make-up

I feel like he's either the kind of person to keep his love life private, but also not? Like, he would drops hints that he's in a relationship with you, but they are so subtle they fly over a few of the mercs heads

---

Again, Anon, I'm sorry for going off-topic

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #tf2 medic #medic tf2 #tf2 x reader #team fortress 2 x reader #medic x reader #tf2 medic x reader #alt reader

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octomae · 2 months

Text

okay

so i saw a post about Lemuria Hub and the Deepsea Metro having ties to each other, and i have a conspiracy theory that's been rotting in my brain ever since i saw the Deepsea Metro map in Lemuria Hub

here's all your proof of that:

plus, the eye posters from Kamabo Co. being present in Lemuria Hub as well. it's pretty obvious from these that Lemuria and Kamabo are tied together.

we all know and remember Tartar's goal: bring back humanity. but the name "Lemuria" holds a lot more weight than most casual splatoon players might realize.

because i am a nerd, i looked it up.

From the Wikipedia page:

Lemuria, or Limuria, was a continent proposed in 1864 by zoologist Philip Sclater, theorized to have sunk beneath the Indian Ocean, later appropriated by occultists in supposed accounts of human origins. (...)

The hypothesis was proposed as an explanation for the presence of lemur fossils on Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent but not in continental Africa or the Middle East. Biologist Ernst Haeckel's suggestion in 1870 that Lemuria could be the ancestral home of humans caused the hypothesis to move beyond the scope of geology and zoogeography, ensuring its popularity outside of the framework of the scientific community. (...)

The theory was discredited with the discovery of plate tectonics and continental drift in the 20th century.

this (now disproven) theory ties in pretty neatly with Tartar's goal. "Bring back humanity". the implications of Lemuria Hub being tied to Kamabo Co. very likely means that Tartar's hypothetical new age of humans would have originated from Lemuria. Splatoon 3 seems to like a focus on origins, because we also get the origins of marinekind in its storymode, Alterna and the Return of the Mammalians.

but there's something else that caught my eye too.

SashiMori.

with the release of Lemuria Hub, nintendo brought back the fictional band, SashiMori! which is great and fantastic, but im pretty damn sure that they didn't bring any other bands back from Splatoon 1 or 2 completely unchanged for Splatoon 3. sure, OTH was brought back for multi-player OSTs, but in the form of Damp Socks. (and the idols are a sort of special case anyways.) Squid Squad returned only as Front Roe. Yoko from Ink Theory returned only in Yoko and the Gold Bazookas.

but nintendo didn't change SashiMori's presentation at all. the only thing that did change, and was notably very mentioned, was the fact that SashiMori's DJ Paul was older now. that's it. (nintendo also didn't change Acht. this is an important detail, but ill get to them in a minute).

Paul is pretty interesting when you look at him. there's very little information, but what we do have about him ties in pretty nicely with Kamabo Co., Tartar's association with humanity, and Lemuria Hub. for starters, Paul's DJ mixing for SashiMori is hailed as unique in universe, for incorporating human voices into SashiMori tracks.

From the Splatoon Wiki page on SashiMori:

Paul is the band's DJ, an Octoling. He is 10 years old in Splatoon 2 and 16 years old in Splatoon 3, and his favorite foods are kelp and biscuits. He remixes from sources including DJ Real Sole, DJ Octavio, and various ancient records, and is surprisingly talented for his age. Originally, SashiMori had a traditional vocalist, but they were replaced due to their self-centered personality, after which Paul was recruited through a tweet. According to the Japanese Family vs. Friends dialogue, he is friends with Marina.

(...) This music has vocals but no vocalist! Through the genius of DJ Paul, all the vocals have been sampled from a collection of ancient vinyl.

so, Paul and SashiMori are associated with humanity because they literally use human voices in their tracks.

here's the final nail in coffin to make it all tie together. it's a pretty popular theory that Paul and Acht "Dedf1sh" (who was sanitized by Commander Tartar and composed all the Octo Expansion soundtracks) are blood relatives.

Here's their designs from Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3:

Acht and Paul have the same symbols on their hats. their ink color even matches (from before Acht was sanitized). Acht has blue tentacles and red tips, Paul has red tentacles and blue tips.

even from the wiki trivia section of SashiMori's page:

In-universe, Paul and Acht are speculated to be blood relatives. They notably have the same symbol appearing on their hats, wear black clothing, with Paul wearing black T-shirts in both album artwork and Acht wearing a black dress, have three tentacles for their hair, and Paul's ink color looks similar to Acht's ink color before they were sanitized.

so what does this have to do with Lemuria Hub?

following nintendo's trend of splatoon artist releases with each season, they bring back an old artist and repurpose them into a new band or presentation. for Sizzle Season 2024, the band they brought back was SashiMori, but completely unchanged. (tangentially related, for the release of Side Order, they brought back Dedf1sh, also completely unchanged.)

the return of SashiMori completely unchanged breaks nintendo's pattern. alongside that, the stage released this time was only Lemuria Hub, and no other stage. (with the exception of Drizzle Season 2024, which released only Marlin Airport,) the trend has been to release two stages per season. this time, it's only one stage.

TLDR:

Kamabo Co.'s goal was to bring back humanity via testing and blending marinekind through the deepsea metro. Acht "Dedf1sh" was the musician of Kamabo Co., and sanitized in the name of this goal. Paul from SashiMori uses human voices in his tracks. Acht and Paul are very likely related. Lemuria Hub has Kamabo Co. posters and its deepsea metro map on display. the name "Lemuria" is associated with the origins of humanity via a (now disproven) theory. SashiMori's new music was released alongside Lemuria Hub.

SashiMori's new songs, with human voices mixed in them, playing over the train station of Lemuria Hub, which was likely an access point of some kind or tied in to Kamabo Co. somehow, is an EXTREMELY POWERFUL AND INTERESTING IMAGE. Lemuria Hub is hearing human voices for the first time via SashiMori's new songs, and it's been taken over for the one thing Tartar hated the most about marinekind: Turf War. (in a twisted way, Lemuria Hub hearing human voices is probably what Tartar wanted, but I doubt it wanted it like this. very ironic, i approve.)

so what does all of this mean? well... we can only speculate at this point. the themes of humanity in Splatoon 3 are matched in quantity only by Salmon Run lore (but, that's a whole other essay post, i won't get into it here). i personally think it means that we're going to see some kind of connection to humanity, OR salmonid development/lore in the next game. and with the FinalFest theme for Splatoon 3 being "Past, Present, or Future", im REALLY excited to see what it could mean. maybe Tartar's alive somehow, or maybe we'll get to look back at the evolution and development of marinekind, or maybe Lil Judd will finally snap since he's taken over Grizzco and the salmonids will have their apocalypse.

(as a final ending note: there's also a TON of association from all of this... with Off The Hook. OTH is associated with nearly everything here; its speculated Pearl was SashiMori's original vocalist before they got Paul, Marina is friends with Paul, OTH helped 8 break out of Kamabo Co., Pearl herself murdered Tartar with her voice; Off The Hook changed the world with Chaos vs Order, and Off The Hook is representing "the present" in the FinalFest. coincidence? maybe. who knows?)

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #deepsea metro #octo expansion #splatoon 2 #commander tartar #splatoon theory #splatoon lore #paul sashimori #sashimori

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thepersonperson · 1 month

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How old do you think lived to be in the Heian era?

Also do you think the marks on his body are like birthmarks or tattoos to mark criminals?

Not a clue about Sukuna’s death age. The Buddha reached enlightenment at age 29. Sukuna is “enlightened” so I’m going to put him at 29+ years old at death.

I’ve been meaning to do a Sukuna Tattoo post so I guess I’ll use this as an excuse. They aren’t birthmarks that’s for sure.

Sukuna's Tattoos

Notes before we start.

1) I will be mainly using the TCB scans for the manga because of their accessibility.

2) Written as of JJK 267.

(Click images for captions/citations.)

Preface

I'm drawing from a lot of sources here because documentation of Heian Era specific tattooing customs is not something I could find. The reason I’m comfortable using non-Heian sources as a reference is due to Sukuna borrowing both language and arts from other periods.

For example, Sukuna scolds Yorozu for not using a Haiku properly. The form of Haiku that Yorozu uses did not exist until the late 17th century. A good 500+ years after the end of the Heian Era (794 to 1185). The Haiku is actually derived from Waka poetry that became popular during the Heian Era. (Very short summary: Waka (Sedoka specifically) -> Renga -> Haiku)

It should also be noted that Chinese influences greatly shaped the development of arts and social attitudes in early Heian Era Japan. These influences declined over the this era as Japan looked towards itself for cultural development. Since the Heian Era was from 794 to 1185, most of the Chinese influences came from the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907).

For all these reasons, most of this tattoo analysis draws from the Tang Dynasty in China and the Edo Period in Japan. However historical Chinese tattooing in general is referenced more due to its availability.

Anyone with more historical Japanese or Chinese knowledge are free to correct me if I get something wrong.

Facial Tattoos

Let's first compare the facial tattoos on Yujikuna Megkuna and OG Sukuna.

Yujikuna and Megkuna have identical facial tattoos, but OG Sukuna lacks the markings over his nose and forehead. I think this is because those markings have something to do with Kenjaku's vessel creation. When Kenjaku casts Idle Transfiguration to wake up the Incarnated sorcerers for the culling games, they also have markings on their foreheads.

Sukuna's vessel markings might be different because his incarnation occured outside of the culling games. It could also be from his cursed object’s division into multiple pieces instead of just one. Whatever the reason, these forehead and nose tattoos prpbably hold more information about Sukuna’s relationship with Kenjaku than his past in general. All 3 versions of Sukuna share the chinstrap markings, so those tattoos likely have significance outside of Kenjaku.

Now onto what they could mean…

Sukuna has already demonstrated that he knows his Chinese literature and wordplay via Enchain/契闊 (Keikatsu). (The person who brought this to my attention may or may not have their account nuked. A doctored version of the Tweets is screenshottes here). What's important for this analysis is knowing that Keikatsu comes from a Chinese Poem.

The poem referenced belongs to the Shijing or The Book of Odes. This book is a part of the Wujing or Five Classics, a series of documents believed to be compiled by Confucius that has greatly influenced both China and Japan. Amongst the Five Classics is the Shangshu or Book of Documents that cites the use of punitive tattooing. Quoted directly from Wikipedia:

"It lists the "Five Punishments": the five primary penalties employed by ancient Chinese officials on criminals. The first (and least severe) of these punishments was the tattooing of the criminal's face with indelible ink."

In the Edo Period of Japan, the criminal markings on the face seem to only appear on the forehead. These were given to any lawbreaker as a punishment and a warning because they didn't have prisons. (Source)

These sources both suggest the facial markings are for criminals. However, there are alternative meanings that should be considered.

Kenjaku’s vessel markings are on the forehead and many of the culling game players consider themselves to be manipulated by the promises of incarnation. It’s also odd that the strongest sorcerer is unable to incarnate properly due to Yuji acting as a cage. Kenjaku is all but outright confirmed to have done that on purpose.

For these reasons, I think the following historical tattoo practice from the Chinese Song Dynasty (960 to 1279) should be considered. Quoting directly from the source:

“Tattoos for slaves were things like a label of ownership, or a brand on the forehead. There are some examples of slaves, and concubines, receiving tattoos as punishment for things like trying to escape…”

Uro is a former slave, a military slave to be exact. I go more into detail about this in my Initial Sukuna Backstory Theory. There is also the fact that Kenjaku sees the incarnated and has access to their lives/bodies like this...

They're essentially toys with built-in tracking devices for Kenjaku to monitor and tinker with as needed. The forehead and nose tattoos on Yuji/Megkuna can therefore be seen as a mark of ownership by Kenjaku. And maybe this is why Choso has one across his nose too.

There is one more meaning I can propose for the facial tattoos, though it mostly applies to the chinstrap.

Within China there are tribes that used facial tattoos for other purposes. The Dulong women had their faces tattooed to make themselves look undesirable to invaders that would abduct them for slavery and rape. (If you've read that one revised Sukuna backstory of mine, this is significant.) But more commonly, these markings became a tradition for girls coming of age.

The Ainu women in Japan also used facial tattoos for coming of age, beauty, and preparing for death. I bring up the Ainu because they’re mentioned as a non-Japanese group of sorcerers. There's also this Yuji is of Ainu heritage theory to consider. (This could link Sukuna to the Ainu by blood.)

The tribal uses are discussed here because Sukuna’s tattoos are vaguely tribal in appearance. Though tribal tattoos tend to be more detailed, his feel like a simplified version of them. I think that works well with Sukuna being labeled an unwanted child at birth. Japan has wiped out a lot of its indigenous populations and customs (see the Emishi). After all, what minority group practices haven’t been demonized and associated with criminal activity by the majority?

So the facial tattoos for Sukuna may be a marker for his vessel status, a claim of ownership, a punishment for being a criminal, a deterrent for sexual assault, or a signifier of belonging to a tribe. You can come to your own conclusions about this, after all none of this is confirmed.

Chest and Belly Tattoos

Comparing the versions of Sukuna again. (All these sections are going to start like this.)

Yujikuna and Megkuna once again have the same tatts. OG Sukuna has “C” hooked markings over his pecs instead of the “S” hooks of the other two. He also lacks the belly markings entirely. Since his belly mouth seems to be replacing the belly tattos, I think those markings on Yuji/Megkuna are a stand in for that extra mouth. The pec style differences I have no explanation for.

Due to the chest tattoos extending over Sukuna’s shoulders and onto his back, I won’t looking for possible meanings until the back tatts are addressed.

Back Tattoos

The tattoos running down Sukuna’s back appear to be the same for all 3 versions. Differences are slight enough to be considered inconsistency in the art and not deliberate.

The neck tattoos between Yuji/Megkuna and OG Sukuna differ slightly however. The bands of Yuji/Megukuna remain separate while OG Sukuna’s fuse together and extend further down his back. I don’t really have an explanation for this difference, much like the hooks differing on his pecs.

Back and chest tattoos are associated with criminal activities in Japan rather than criminal punishments because they are hidden under clothing. (Well not in Sukuna’s case, but you know…) Most notably the Yakuza have very intricate chest and back tattoos.

But going back to China, tattoos were also used as dog tags for military members and could signify loyalty, mainly during the Song Dynasty (960 to 1279, which is still within the Heian Era). Despite this, cultural opinions at the time seemed to be conflicted due to tattoos sharing an association with criminals. Quoted directly from the source:

“According to Yue Fei’s biography, when the legendary general was slandered and interrogated for treason, he tore the shirt off his body, exposing four characters tattooed on his back: “Exhaust one’s loyalty in service of the state.” This study looks at two components of the Yue Fei story—patriotic tattoos, and tattooed generals—and examines their meaning in the broader stretch of Song dynasty history. Yue Fei was not the Song dynasty’s only tattooed general who came to a tragic end.”

“This study shows that underneath the nationalist historical narrative of the Song dynasty, of which Yue Fei is a famous example, there lies a different story of social conflict within the Song state. Rather than a story of Chinese fighting non-Chinese and of traitorous and cowardly officials struggling with loyal patriots, this study offers a narrative of a social conflict between high-born clear-skinned officials and low-born tattooed military men.”

Now that sounds a lot like how the higher ups clash with the Jujutsu Sorcerers who do all the actual work. This mentality existed even in the Heian Era, where Uro was exploited as a military slave by the Fujiwaras. And since Uro is a Sukuna parallel, these tattoos could also indicate a similar type of exploitation.

There are still tribal purposes to consider. Drawing more from Chinese sources, the Dai men had body tattoos as a symbol of strength that would accentuate their muscles. Sukuna’s chest and back tatts really draw attention his brawn. The Li women had body tattoos as a right of passage and as identifiers. Sukuna’s neck tattoos in particular are similar to these ones.

So my spattering of explanations this time around for the chest and back tattoos are criminal organization affiliation, military “loyalty” claims (this is a form a slavery), decorative pieces to accentuate the muscles, a right of passage, and an identifier.

Arm Tattoos

Remember how I theorized that the belly markings on Yuji/Megkuna were a stand in for OG Sukuna’s extra mouth? That’s what I think is going on with the arm tattoos as well. The double bands and circles on Yuji/Megukuna represent the extra limbs on OG Sukuna. When this fusion is pulled apart, you get the single bands and dots on the 4 limbs.

As for their meanings? There’s the criminal markings of the Edo Period that indicate where the particular criminal is from. (Courtesy of this Reddit post.)

Since Yuji/Megkuna tattoos are more related to Kenjaku’s vessel creations, this could hint that their deal took place in Nara, Oosaka, Koufu, or Edo. (Nara is most likely because of its significance in the Heian Era.) For OG Sukuna, this is more indicative of where he first got them.

However, the single band is not for a location but rather a status—Hinin. These are the undesirables and social outcasts that were marked for their uncleanness. Sukuna was born a conjoined twin and unwanted. It’s likely these markings directly correspond to that fact.

…

(An unserious suggestion. On queer men in the US, double rings on the arm can represent how far they can fist someone.

I don’t think Gege is referencing this at all. This is just an example of why cultural context is very important to consider.)

...

There are some other meanings to be drawn from armbands specifically, but those are easier to group with legs.

Leg Tattoos

Differing from the other sections, the leg tattoos have only been seen on Megkuna and OG Sukuna. As referenced in the image below, we have the ankle of Megkuna (top left), the upper thigh of Megkuna (right), and ankles of OG Sukuna (bottom left).

Instead of having the double rings, like on his arms, Megkuna only has a single band, which matches OG Sukuna. (It’s reasonable to assume Yujikuna is the same and that OG Sukuna has the upper thigh bands too.) This further supports the idea that the double bands and shoulder rings represent the fusion of the extra limbs. Sukuna never had extra legs so there’s no need represent missing limbs.

For what they mean? I have only the non-Japanese/Chinese sources to go by. Gege may be a fan of non-Japanese cultures, but I'm not sure if that means Sukuna's design elements would borrow from them.

In other cultures, armband tattoos can represent mourning. Which ones exactly I have no idea because all the sites making this claim don’t specify them in detail. (Source 1, Source 2, Source 3) It’s honestly pretty infuriating. If you’re going to “borrow” designs from “cultures” to sell, at least cite your got danged sources.

But if we are to read these as indications of mourning, I don’t believe they’re for a person. Throughout this analysis, tattoos recurrently are associated with some form of oppression—slavery, uncleanliness, social damnation. If Sukuna’s bands are to be read as mourning, I think it’s for the loss of his autonomy and personhood.

What does it all mean?

Sukuna's tattoos are permanent marks that appear to be directly linked to his soul. How he acquired them is currently unknown. Traditional means of application can be quite painful, using metal or bamboo rods to carve skin and fill the abrasions with ink. (Here's a video if you want to watch it be applied.)

If we consider Kenjaku’s use of brands to mark and control vessels, it could be assumed that Sukuna’s tattoos are ones others put on him through binding vows for his control. They could also be symbolic in nature, hinting at his heritage and origins, indicating that he was branded an outcast at birth or even blessed by deities for protection. Perhaps Sukuna wanted the tattoos himself as an act of rebellion against the changing social norms. Whatever the reason, one thing is clear, these tattoos separate him from other humans.

Existing on the Border

I think the ambiguity behind the purpose of these tattoos this fits nicely with Sukuna and other people not knowing how to categorize his personhood. He's so strong and different that he might as well be something other than human. But he's not a curse, he wouldn't be able to used Reversed Curse Technique if that were the case. Is he a monster? A natural disaster? A god? He's kind of all these things at once by way of projection. Other people assign these labels to him and Sukuna doesn't correct them. There's something profoundly gender about it all.

And if you noticed, tattoos in ancient China and Japan have purposes that differ by gender. For women they were used for beauty and protection, while with men they were used to mark ownership and criminality. Sukuna has a melding masculine and feminine elements which is why I consider the tattoo meanings for both with him.

That sounds kind of crazy given that Sukuna very much embodies strength born of toxic masculinity. However, he actively wears women’s clothing and seems to have no qualms with being associated with feminine things. (Godbless marketing team for leaning into that.) He may have a rough and masculine speaking style, but he loves poetry and flowers.

(Sukuna is lying when he tries to deny it. Megumi's hobbies have everything to do with animals, not flowers.)

The earrings he wears, though a direct reference to the Buddha (basically it’s shorthand for how Sukuna isn’t truly enlightened yet), are another symbol of Sukuna's non-conformity. Earrings are something the Japanese government went out of its way to ban for Ainu men during the Meji Restoration after it decided they were only for women.

Even the short hair both he and Uraume wear are quite rebellious for those times, if not an indication of their lower standing. Regardless of gender, long hair was seen as desirable, high-class, and attractive during the Heian Era. (Source for men and source for women.) Most of the Heian characters wear it that way.

Notice how the servant has her hair cut shorter. Sukuna and Uraume's is shorter than that. It would be considered ugly and possibly dehumanizing. And yet when Kashimo sees Sukuna's true form, he calls him beautiful. He uses 美しい (Utsukushii) to do that.

That kind of beauty is a bit deeper than the English language can get across. From the words of someone else, "...utsukushi can express the beauty of something that catches your heart."

Kashimo isn't really wrong, but he's also not entirely right. For every panel of Sukuna looking like an ethereal god, there's another of him being an amorphous creature or a rabid goblin. All of these types of faces for Sukuna occur within JJK 253 alone.

These contradicting elements that somehow fit together are what make Sukuna, Ryomen Sukuna. He both participates in and rejects beauty. He’s crude and classy, violent and merciful, masculine and feminine. That duality, that two-faced nature is Sukuna.

I think his tattoos reflect this. Directly quoted from the source:

“Tattoos have many different symbolic meanings in Japanese culture and can denote where an individual ranked in society or serve as a permanent means of defense against evil forces or perhaps members of the animal kingdom. With the arrival of the seventh-century, the idea of tattooing one’s body in order to make it more beautiful began to lose its appeal due to the strong influence of Chinese customs in Japan—specifically when it came to identifying and tracking criminal activity. Around 720AD during the Nara Period, it appears that tattooing as a form of punishment began to infiltrate Japanese culture. Once the dawn of the Edo Period began the art form was more widely used as a punishment for criminals as at the time there was really no such thing as a prison to send lawbreakers off to.”

The purposes and attitudes towards tattoos in the Heian Era morph in the way Sukuna morphs both physically and in perception. Since Sukuna is the Fallen One, that means he must have been Honored One first. What caused him to fall remains a mystery, much like the meanings behind his tattoos.

One last thing...

A small caveat in relation to everything else, Sukuna referring to himself as The Fallen is the only time he has introduced himself.

He’s not given someone his name nor identified himself as anything other than a former human (which was internal). Combined with the ambiguous nature of his form, tattoos, and origins, I don't think it would be wrong to read him as someone who has transcended gender.

#cactus yaps #Wow I went down a research rabbithole for this.#I don't think this counts as weeb posting. This is more in line with Erika Furudo. Yeah I'm Erikaposting now.#Beatoposting is when I suggest Sukuna lacks a gender.#Where's that one meme that's the enby flag but with a hyper masculine bearded dude in front of it going “Any Pronouns Lmao.” That's Sukuna.#I am once again asking what the hell happened to Sukuna and how much of it is Kenjaku responsible for.#Read Umineko btw.#ryomen sukuna #jujutsu kaisen #jjk asks #asks #jjk spoilers

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megamindsupremacy · 7 months

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Stewjon is Space Scotland: Names and Naming Conventions

For context, I designed an entire naming system for my Stewjon is Space Scotland AU. I'm still trying to work out the cultural logistics of it, but the actual practical logistics I have down.

To break everything down:

Stewjon is a clan-centric society, with clans and clan names having a hugely important role in the culture. I therefore had clan names feature in both the first and last name of Stewjonis.

-The last name (Kenobi) is the family/clan name, and is passed down the family paternally. This is both because I'm from a western culture with a paternal naming tradition, and also because I liked how his parents names sounded when the last names transferred paternally but not maternally. "Ken" would translate to "Clan" (I don't know if this is accurate to Scots English or Scots Gaelic, but I'm working from canon Star Wars names and trying to worldbuild from nothing so work with me here), and then the clan name "Obi" is attached, so "Kenobi" translates to "Clan Obi" or "of Clan Obi"

-The given name (-Wan, but we'll get to "Wan" in a second) is one to two syllables. All of these names are (according to Wikipedia) actual Scottish names, which I picked from the list mostly based on how well they'd sound next to the clan name.

-The prefix clan name (Obi-) is the interesting part. All children are given the father's clan name as both their first and last clan name. Therefore, Obi-Wan Kenobi, son of Ito-Benneit Kenobi, has "Obi" in both his first and last name. However, upon marriage, the couple swaps their prefix clan names to signify the tie between their clans. Therefore his mother Ito-Ceit Kenito and his father Obi-Benneit Kenobi became Obi-Ceit Kenito and Ito-Benneit Kenobi upon their marriage.

-Originally I was going to do something with the fact that "Obi" means belt in Japanese, such as making the clan names signify professions in the same way "Miller" or "Smith" would in English surnames, but I gave up because Japanese is so different of a language from what I understand that I would have just made myself very confused and everyone who understands Japanese language and culture very mad. So I just went with a vowel-consonant-vowel pattern for all the clan names and called it a day.

-Remember how I said we would come back to "Wan"? Obi-Wan wasn't born Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was born Obi-Owen (Owen is a whole 'nother thing and I decided to just give myself a freebie on it), and his name was anglicized (basic-icized?) upon being brought to the Jedi temple. Not on purpose, but it did happen. So technically the chart above should have him listed as Obi-Owen Kenobi, but I already took the screenshot so this is what we're working with.

-Culturally, it's respectful to refer to someone by their full name (Obi-Owen Kenobi). The full name stands until two people are fairly close to each other, platonically or romantically. The informal, friendly version would be their full first name (Obi-Owen). So you wouldn't call your new friend "Obi-Owen" until you're quite close, even if you're social equals. Technically you could refer to someone by their given name only (Owen), but it's awkward and Stewjonis don't really see a reason for it. All of this highlights the cultural emphasis placed on clans and clan ties in Stewjoni society.

The Family Tree

THE KIDS

Starting from the bottom, we have the four Kenobi siblings. Obi-Conn is the oldest, and he marries Yana-Eóin Kenyana, becoming Yana-Conn Kenobi. None of this happens in the story but I wrote it in the chart anyways. Obi-Eóin is nonbinary, which is why their square is white instead of blue or pink.

Obi-Mór and Obi-Pál are twins and approximately four years younger than Yana-Conn. Obi-Mór is ambiguously disabled (she has some form of muscular disability, but the specifics weren't relevant to the story). Obi-Pál is just some guy and I love him for that.

Obi-Owen is the baby of the family. He's twelve years younger than the twins (16 years younger than Yana-Conn) and was definitely an oopsie-baby. I don't need to say anything else because he is also one of the major characters of the Star Wars franchise. You know him.

THE PARENTS

Obi-Ceit Kenito and Ito-Benneit Kenobi are the Kenobi siblings' parents. I don't have much to say here other than that Ito-Benneit shortens his name to Ito-Ben, to avoid the repeated "eet" sound in his full first name. I'm sure that doesn't affect Obi-Owen's future nicknames in any way!

It is Ito-Benneit fault, by the way, that I made clan prefixes instead of surnames to be switched upon marriage. Culturally, it would have made more sense for the more commonly used first name to hold your birth clan and your less commonly used surname to indicate your linked-by-marriage clan, but I needed Obi-Benneit to marry into the name Ito-Benneit so that I could shorten it to Ben. Goddammit.

THE GRANDPARENTS

Ito-Ben's parents are entirely irrelevant so they don't exist. Sad!

Technically I didn't have to name Ito-Lili Kenuna, but I felt bad having her up there as an unnamed person. Una-Owen Kenito, as you may suspect, is where Obi-Wan's name comes from. I really wanted to highlight his Stewjoni heritage in this fic, so giving him family ties through his whole name was important to me. Obi-Ceit names Obi-Owen for her father because Una-Owen was a strong fighter, and she wants to pass that resilience to her son. Which, uh. Well he sure is resilient to things trying to kill him!

Feel free to come yell at me in the askbox about Stewjon's worldbuilding!

#mads posts #stewjon is space scotland AU #star wars #obi wan kenobi #obi-wan kenobi #stewjon #i have without a doubt spent more time researching for this fic than i have writing it #but honestly thats where im having the most fun #hey can you tell i took a cultural anthropology class last semester and there was a unit in family + naming conventions?#can you tell im taking a linguistics class this semester?#i dont think its obvious. it's probably really super subtle and sprinkled lightly throughout the post right #right? guys? right?#this fic started out as an excuse to write about textiles and its turned into a scots gaelic linguistic deep dive <- this user is autistic #something else about the naming system that I didnt get into the post is that it reinforces a hetero+allonormative society #because marriage is hugely important to naming practices and clan names are based on the father's clan #which presupposes there even being a father in the marriage #or even a marriage #I dont know what yana-conn and Obi-eóin will do with their kids. theyre part of the younger generation and obi-eóin is being nb is a very #strange concept for many of the older generations #given that this is star wars and xenobiology exists i dont think there would be a huge backlash #but stewjon is a human-centric society so they're not as used to non-binary *human* genders #aliens? sure. humans? uhhhh we didnt know you could do that. weird.#obi-eóin's name is never even fucking mentioned in the fic btw im just going insane over here with worldbuilding #long post

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valentoru · 2 months

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|| Limitless ||

[CHAPTER 8]

SYNOPSIS: Gojo Satoru, a big time artist, who’s known for leaving a trail of broken hearts in his wake wherever he goes. And you, the lead guitarist of an upcoming band, who’s absolutely certain that no one will ever love you. Through an accident in which you happened to kiss Gojo in a frantic state, you both decide, via convenience alone—and zero regard for both of your managers—to pull a fake dating stunt what could go wrong? Any press is good press…right?

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Three days later you found yourself stood in front of Gojo’s office again.

You’d never been there before three days ago, but once again you had no problem finding it. The staff scurrying out of it with misty eyes and a terrified expression was a dead give away. Not to mention that Gojo’s was the only one in the hallway completely void of pictures of kids, pets or significant others. Not even a copy of his album cover with the hit song that had won him a Grammy. You knew about all the awards he’d won from a quick google search you’d done the previous day. Just dark brown wood with a metal plaque that read; Satoru Gojo.

You had felt a bit like a creep the night before, scrolling through his Wikipedia page and going through as much information you could find out about him. Unlucky for you, he was reserved and didn’t let the press know much about him. Still you’d quashed yourself the feelings, telling yourself that a thorough background check could be considered mandatory before embarking on a fake-dating relationship.

You took a deep breath before knocking and then another between Satoru’s “Come in” and the moment you finally managed to force yourself to open the door. When you entered the offices he didn’t immediately look up and continued to type on his PC. “My office hours were over five minutes ago, so—“

“It’s me.”

His hands halted, hovering and inch or so above the keyboards then he turned his chair towards you. “Y/N.”

There was something about the way he talked. Maybe it was an accent, maybe it was just the quality of his voice. You didn’t quite know what, but it’s was there, in the way he said your name. Precise. Careful. Feel. Unlike anyone else. Familiar—impossibly so.

“What did you say to her?” You asked, trying not to care about how Satoru Gojo spoke. “The woman who ran out crying.”

It took him a moment to remember that less than sixty seconds ago there had been someone in the office—someone whom he clearly made cry. “I just gave her feedback on something she wrote.”

You nodded, silently thanking all the gods you were not a member of his staff team and never would be, and studied your surroundings.

He had a corner office, of course. Two windows that together must total who knows how many square metered of glass, and so much light, just standing in the middle of the room would cure twenty people’s seasonal depression. It made sense. With all the money he brought in, along with the prestige, that he’d be given a nice space. You on the other hand, didn’t even have your own office or filming booth, you just went where you were told and nine times out of ten the booths would smell of sweat and the offices would be with other people you didn’t know.

“I was going to email you. I talked to my publicity manager.” Satoru told you, and you looked back at him.

He was gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. You pulled it back and took a seat.

“About you.”

“Oh.” You stomach dropped. You’d much rather his publicity manager didn’t know about your existence. Then again, you’d also rather not be in this rooms with Satoru Gojo, have to go to shows, have climate change be a thing. And yet.

“Well, about us,” he amended. “And social media regulations.”

“What did they say?”

“There’s nothing against us dating—though they don’t recommend it—and we are free to keep it a secret. Unless of course it’s gets out then we don’t have a choice.”

A mix of panic and relief flooded through you.

“However there are some issues to consider. Any of the members of staff in this building could sell us out. Equally, if we get spotted, press may sell us out, which means we simply have to be cautious.”

You nodded. “Fair enough.”

“And I absolutely cannot collaborate with you until this is over.”

You huffed put a laugh. “That won’t be an issue. I wasn’t planning on asking you to collaborate with my band anyway.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why not? Your band does the same music as I do.”

“Yeah.”

“Then we would collaborate perfectly.”

“Yeah we may, but we don’t plan on collaborating any time soon. Plus, there are millions of people who do our genre music, and if we were going collaborate, I’d argue against it being with you. I’d like to finish the song ideally without crying in the bathroom after every meeting.”

He glared at you.

You shrugged. “No offence. I’m a simple girl, with simple needs.”

To that he lowered his gaze onto the desk but not before you could see the corners of his mouth twitch. When he looked up again, his expression was serious. “So, have you decided?”

You pressed your lips together as he watched you calmly. You took a deep breath before saying, “Yes. Yes I…I want to do it. It’s a good idea actually.”

For so many reasons. It would get Maki and Yuta off your back, but also…also everyone else. It was as if since the rumour had begun to spread, people had been too intimidated by you to give you the usual shit. The staff had quit trying switch the bands nice 2pm sessions with their nasty, horrible, life-sucking 8pm ones. People had stopped cutting in front of you at the coffee shop next door. And two different staff members had been trying to get ahold of you to potential work under your band as well. It felt a little unfair to exploit this hugged misunderstanding, but this was lawless territory and your life had been nothing but miserable for the past two years. You had learnt to get away with whatever you could. And if some—okay most staff looked at you suspiciously because you were dating Satoru Gojo so be it. You friends seemed to be largely fine with this, if a little bemused.

Except for Megumi. He’d been avoiding you like you had the pox for three solid days. But Megumi was Megumi—he’d come around.

“Very well then.” He we completely expressionless—almost too expressionless.

Like it was no big deal and he didn’t care either way; like if you’d said no, it wouldn’t have changed a thing for him.

“Though, I’ve been thinking about this a lot.”

He waited for you to continue.

“And I think that I would be best if we lay down some ground rules, before starting.”

“Ground rules?”

“Yes. You know. What are we allowed and not allowed to do. What we can expect from this arrangement. I think that’s pretty standard protocol, before embarking on a fake-dating relationship.”

He tilted his head. “Standard protocol?”

“Yup.”

“How many times have you done this?”

“Zero. But I’m familiar with the trope.”

“The…what?” He blinked at you, confused.

You ignored him. “Okay.” You inhaled deeply and lifted your index finger. “First of all, this should be a strictly in the work place agreement. Not that I think you’d want to meet me out of work but I’m worried about the press. And just incase you were planning to kill two birds with one stone and being home a date for Christmas—”

“I wasn’t.”

“Huh?”

“I wasn’t planning to ask you to celebrate Christmas with me. But also my family don’t really celebrate.”

“Oh.” You pondered it for a moment. “That’s something a fake girlfriend should probably know.”

The ghost of a smile appeared on his mouth, but he said nothing.

“Okay. Second rule. Actually it could be interpreted as an extension of the first rule. But—” You bit into your lip, willing yourself to bring it up—“no sex.”

For several moments he simply didn’t move. Not even a millimetre. Then his lips parted, but no sound came out, and that’s when you realised you had just rendered Satoru Gojo speechless. Which would have been funny any other day, but the fact that he seemed dumbfounded by you not wanting to include sex in your fake-dating relationship made your stomach sink.

Had he assumed you would? Was it something you’d said? Should you explain you’d had very little sex in your life? That for years you’d wondered whether you were asexual and you had only recently realised you might be able to experience sexual attraction, but only with people you trusted deeply? That if for some inexplicable reason Satoru wanted to have sex with you, you weren’t going to be able to go through with it?

“Listen”— you made to stand from the chair, panic rising in your throat—“I’m sorry, but if one of the reasons you offered to fake-date is that your thought we would—”

“No.” The word half exploded out of him. He looked genuinely appalled. “I’m shocked that you’d even feel the need to bring it up.”

“Oh.” Your cheeks heating at the indignation in his voice. Right. Of course he didn’t expect that. Or even want that, with you. Look at him—why would he? “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to assume—”

“No, it makes sense to be up-front. I was just surprised.”

“I know.” You nodded. Honestly, you were a little surprised too. That you were sitting in Satoru Gojo’s office, talking about sex—not only the meiosis kind of sex, but potential sexual intercourse between the two of you. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make things weird.”

“It’s okay. This whole thing is weird.” The silence between you stretched, and you noticed that he was blushing faintly. Just a dust of red, but he looked so…you couldn’t stop staring.

“No sex,” he confirmed with a nod.

You had to clear your throat to shake yourself out of inspecting the shape and colour of his cheekbones.

“No sex.” You repeated clearing your throat. “Okay. Third. It’s not really a rule, but here goes: I won’t date anyone else. As in real dating. It would be messy and complicated and everyone and…” You hesitated. Should you tell him? Was it too much information? Did he need to know? Oh, well. Why not, at this point? It wasn’t like you hadn’t kissed the man, or brought up sec in his place of work. “I don’t date, anyway. Yuta was an exception. I’ve never…I’ve never dated seriously before, and it’s probably for the best. This job is stressful enough, and I have my friends, and my music, and honestly there’s better things to use my time for.” The last few words came out like more defensively than you’d intended.

Satoru simply stared, saying nothing.

“But you can, of course,” you added hastily. “Thought I’d appreciate if you could avoid telling people in the—well anyone—just so I don’t look like and idiot and you don’t look like your cheating on me and rumours don’t balloon out of control. It would benefit you, too, since you’re trying to look like you’re in a committed relationship—”

“I won’t.”

“Okay. Great. Thanks. I know lying by omission can be a pain, but—”

“I mean, I won’t date someone else.”

There was a certainty, a finality in his tone that took you by surprise. You could only nod even though you wanted to protest that he couldn’t possibly do that, even though a million questions surfaced in your mind. Ninety-nine percent of them were inappropriate and not your business, so you shooed them away.

“Okay. Fourth. We obviously can’t keep on doing this forever, so we should give ourselves a deadline.”

He pressed his lips together. “When would that be?”

“Im not sure. A month or so would probably be enough to convince Maki that I’m firmly over Yuta. But it might not be enough on your end, so…you tell me.”

He mulled it. Then nodded once. “May twenty-ninth.”

It was a little over a month from now. But also… “that’s a weirdly specific date.” You racked your head, trying to figure out why it could be meaningful. The only thing that came to mind was that you’d be in Boston that week for a charity show.

“It’s the day after my contract is reviewed. They will be deciding whether they are going to renew it or terminate it.”

“I see. Well, then, let’s agree that in May twenty-ninth we part ways. I’ll tell Maki that our breakup was amicable but that I’m a little sad about it because I still have a bit of a crush on you.” You grinned at him. “Just so she won’t suspect that I’m still hung up in Yuta. Okay.” You took a deep breath. “Fifth and last.”

This was the tricky one. The one you were afraid he would object to. You noticed that you were wringing your hands and placed them firmly in your lap.

“For this to work we should probably…do things together. Every once in a while?”

“Things?”

“Things. Stuff.”

“Stuff,” he repeated dubiously.

“Yep. Stuff. What do you do for fun?” He was probably into something atrocious, like cow-tipping excursions or Japanese beetle fighting. Maybe he collected porcelain dolls. Maybe he was an avid geocacher. Maybe he frequented vaping conventions. Oh God.

“Fun?” He repeated, like he’s never heard the word before.

“Yeah. What do you do when you’re not at work.”

The length of the time that passed between your question and his answer was alarming. “Sometimes I work at home, too. And I work out. And I sleep.”

You had to actively stop yourself from face-palming. “Um, great. Anything else?”

“What do you do for fun?” He asked, somewhat defensively.

“Plenty of things. I…” Go to the movies. Thought you hadn’t been since the last time Megumi had dragged you. Play board games. But every single one of your friends was too busy lately so not that, either. You’d participated in a volleyball tournament, but it had been over a year ago.

“Um. I work out?” You would have loved to wipe that sumg expression off his face. So much. “Whatever. We should do something together on a regular basis. I don’t know, maybe get coffee? Like, once a week? Just for ten minutes at a place where people, not the press but people we know, could easily see us. I know it sounds annoying and a waste of time, but it’ll be super short, and it would makes the fake dating more credible, and—“

“Sure.”

Oh.

You thought it would take more convincing. A lot more. Then again, this was in his interest too. He needed his contractors to believe in their relationship if he was to cajole them into renewing his contract.

“Okay. Um..” you forced yourself to stop wondering why he was being so accommodating and tried to visualise your schedule. “How about Thursday?”

He angled his chair to face his computer and pulled up a calendar app. It was so fully of colourful boxes and your felt a surge of vicarious anxiety.

“It works before eleven a.m. and after seven p.m.”

“Ten?”

He turned back to you. “Ten’s good.”

“Okay.” You waited for him to type it in, but he made no move to. “Aren’t you going to add it to your calendar?”

“I’ll remember.” He told you evenly.

“Okay, then.” You made and effort to smile, and it felt relatively sincere. Way more sincere than any smile you’d ever thought you’d been able to muster in Satoru Gojo’s presence. “Great. Fake-dating Thursday it is.”

A line appeared between his eyebrows, “why do you keep saying that?”

“Saying what?”

“‘Fake dating.’ like it’s a thing.”

“Because it is. Do you not watch rom-coms?”

He stared at you with a puzzled expression, until you cleared your throat and looked down at your knees. “Right.” God, you had nothing in common. You’d never find anything to talk about. Your ten minute coffee-breaks we’re going to be the most painful, awkward parts of your already painful, awkward weeks.

But Maki was going to have her beautiful love story, and you wouldn’t have to wait ages to finally do a Cancer Awareness Campaign. That was all that mattered.

You stood and thrust your hand out to him, figuring that every fake-dating arrangement deserved at lead a handshake. Satoru studied it hesitantly for a couple seconds. Then he stood, clasped your fingers. He stared at your joined hands before meeting your eyes. And you ordered yourself not to notice the softness of his skin, or how tall he was, or…anything else about him. When he finally let go, you had to make a conscious effort not to inspect your hand.

Had he done something to you? It sure felt like it. Your flesh was tingling.

“When do you want to start?”

“How about next week?” It was Friday. Which meant that you had fewer days than seven to psychologically prepare for the experience of getting coffee with Satoru Gojo. You knew that you could do this—if you had worked your way up to being in a band and kicking your stage fright in the ass, you could do anything, or as good as—but it still seemed like a horrible idea.

“Sounds good.”

It was happening. Oh God. “Let’s meet in the downstairs coffee shop. It’s where most of the staff and well—anyone who comes here at all—goes to get coffee. Someone’s bound to spot us.” You headed for the door, pausing to glance back at Gojo. “I guess I’ll see you for fake-dating Thursday, then?”

He was still standing behind his desk, arms crossed in his chest. Looking at you. Looking entirely less irritated by this mess than you’d ever had expecting. Looking…nice. “See you, Y/N.”

TAGLIST(25/50): @bbmsxlene @lunavelha @satoryaa @tranzumaki @k-kkiana @luvkvni @lysaray @kalulakunundrum @arysbruv @r4veeen @stillnotherapy @catobsessedlady @colortheoryrocks @minzxec @dazqa @packsvlog @luvvmae @simplysm1le @mintfyi @fushism @angstmuncher @fackeraccount @astro-stars @lavender-hvze @miizuzu @rayrayline @kanaojacksonofc @letsmyy

AN:

I have so much in store for this fic I’m genuinely debating making a discord server so that I can pester you guys with spoilers and talk to you guys about stuff bc there’s literally SO MUCH to tell

ANYWAYYY aurkurad chapter🔥 Y/N WHY WOUKD YOU SAY THAT GIRL

#⤷limitless #jjk smau #jjk #gojo satoru #gojo x reader #jjk x reader #jujustu kaisen #jujutsu gojo #jujutsu kaisen smau #maki zenin #yuta okkotsu #yuji itadori #megumi fushiguro #kugusaki nobara

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