#(i also ordered a bunch of books i wanna read. most of them from japanese and korean authors so if i like the korean ones

[tardis--dreams]

Wow this really was terrible. I think I'll stay in university as compared to work it seems actually quite nice (:

[riddlerosehearts]

okay, i've got some things i wanna say about twst EN's translation of scarabia's story that i was originally typing out as part of a response to an ask, but then i realized i was going off on a bit of a tangent and was like "this could basically be its own post"--so now it's going to be its own post!

i'm a twst EN player, and for the most part, i do really like the localization. i don't speak japanese but i love learning about language and the process of translation and localization, so at one point after finishing books 1-5 i went and reread them all (and 6 as well, once it was fully released on EN) with a fan translation and the localization side by side to compare them. and from what i could tell as someone who isn't a japanese speaker, i honestly thought it seemed like they usually did pretty well? sure, there were a few mistakes like cater claiming to be an only child (this one, i think, has actually been fixed recently), or how in book 2 they removed a small mention of falena making it seem like he's never mentioned at all until leona's flashback and they also removed the numerous times that he said "be prepared" (at least they finally properly translated it in book 6, though!!). but i thought most of these mistakes were somewhat minor and could be forgiven... until book 4 (well, and book 5, mostly in regards to vil and epel's conflict and i'm not talking about them here, so).

see, i actually realized that something was off about the localization when i first played through book 4, because i have a weird memory and have picked up a bunch of random words and phrases from being into japanese media and reading so much about the localization process. and i also play twst with the sound on because i love to hear the voice acting. so sometimes i would hear jamil speak, i'd pick out the words "shujin" and "juusha" for "master" and "servant", and then the subtitles wouldn't include them at all. so i'd guess certain things about the actual intent behind the story based on that. take this message i sent to my friend when i was sharing my blind reactions to the game:

and she ended up telling me that apparently, what i thought he should say essentially IS what he originally said!! according to the fan translation on wiki.gg he said this instead:

i had wondered if maybe i was reading into things and assuming too much, but it turned out i was completely spot on! but most people who play EN would not be able to pick up on this and realize that jamil was born into servitude to kalim and has no escape, because as i later discovered almost every single mention of him being a servant at all was removed, in events and vignettes as well. which is actually really weird to me because they don't remove it entirely, they do in fact bring up the fact that jamil has to test all of kalim's food for poison during book 4 and they also left in a line where he says he "works as kalim's servant". but they only really mention these things once or twice and then they try to sort of play it off as jamil being a paid employee or something most of the time... seriously, during beanfest there's dialogue where jamil says it would be rude to refuse an order from his boss but i've read that that line was originally him saying a servant couldn't disobey his master. and in the scalding sands event he calls himself "a dedicated employee" of kalim's... what, am i supposed to assume he works as a butler by choice or something? yeah, no. also, one of his birthday vignettes, which are fully voiced so i could TELL he said, with a devious smirk on his face, that if he had a parrot the first word he would teach it would be "shujin-sama". "master". what did EN change this into?

the person i was originally writing all of this in response to said that sometimes people's takes on jamil make them wonder if people are reading a completely different story but also that part of that can probably be blamed on the way EN completely changed the context of his situation with these translation choices. and yeah, i fully agree with that assessment: more casual fans or people who just aren't that interested in the scarabia duo could be said to be reading a different story with this whole "boss" and "employee" thing that has jamil make it sound like the worst that could ever happen to him if he got in trouble would be getting a really stern lecture from his parents.

and it makes me sad because i really do love both jamil and kalim so much and i think their dynamic is so tragic and complicated and interesting to think about. i think they're both really complex characters who are trapped in an awful situation. kalim is so kind and loving and would never wanna hurt anyone but he hurts jamil just by existing as part of the fucked up society they live in. kalim thought he and jamil were best friends, he had no idea of the toxicity of their dynamic and the pain jamil was in, and people say jamil should've just talked to him about it earlier... but jamil's first memory as a child is of seeing his parents bow to the asim family. being a servant is practically all he's ever known and he's had it drilled into his head since they were both small children that he can never be himself around kalim, can never just treat him like a normal person because he's a servant and kalim is his master. and even if he did accept kalim's offer to start over as equals and be friends, what would happen when they had to go home to their families? they won't be at school forever.

and i just. augh. i hate what the localization does with them. if you try to water them down to just an employee who's super mad at his obliviously crappy boss, or just two childhood friends who needed to communicate better or something like that, then you take away from the complexity of both characters. you also lose extremely cool writing choices like how jamil is a character who was born into servitude but has the power to make himself the master with his unique magic. i see so many takes about how jamil is just a jerk who betrayed his best friend and how kalim never did anything wrong in his entire life and i hate it but i'm sure the localization's choices are in fact to blame for a lot of this.

so anyway jamil and kalim's actual dynamic is fascinating and lives rent-free in my head, no thanks to how the EN version gutted it.

[misc-obeyme]

I wanna ask what are ur headcanons abt what languages you think all the characters speak? hehe thank u if u do it 💗

Hmm well I personally don't have a lot of headcanons about specific languages per character.

But generally, I like to think there's some kind of ancient Demonic language, that's kinda like Latin in the human world. It's a dead language, but they still use it for stuff like spell incantations and what have you.

I suspect there's also a Celestial Realm language (Angelic? Celestial?) that all the bros speak. I like the idea that they used to speak it fluently, but after falling they don't use it anymore because ~memories~ so most of them have forgotten a lot of it.

However, there's also the question of what language are they truly speaking in the Devildom? If we assume that it's English for the sake of simplicity, why would the Devildom all speak a human world language like that? I don't think they adopted it just for MC because it's pretty obvious that it's the official language of the whole place. (And this isn't even getting into the concept of whether or not the language is actually Japanese and how that could change the reasoning behind it.)

But without getting into all that, here are my general thoughts.

Lucifer strikes me as the kind of guy who might take the time to learn some human languages, but he's also pretty busy so I don't think he's super fluent in any of them. I think he might be conversational in most.

Mammon is fluent in Latin because witches are always summoning him to the human world by chanting in it. I just really like the idea that he was like what are they even saying and accidentally studying it to the point where he ended up learning it all.

Levi would have to be fluent in Japanese. There's no way someone so anime obsessed wouldn't have taken the time to learn the language. He's been into it long enough and had enough time that I think he's fluent. (Assuming they aren't all speaking Japanese already anyway.)

I've always headcanoned that Satan took the time to learn all the languages from all the worlds. He just strikes me as the kinda guy who would do this and I believe it's canon that Solomon also taught him some ancient languages. I just think Satan would prefer to read books in their original languages. So this man at the very least can read every language (or most of them). I suspect his speaking skills might be lacking in some of them, though. (This is like me and French. I can read it, but ask me to say something and I'm over here talking about a big cat eating cheese in the sky.)

I think Asmo probably learned all the Romance languages because they're called the Romance languages. Like that is the only reason. But I also like the idea that Asmo learned languages of various human lovers he's had over his lifetime. Like I'm imagining him just falling head over heels for someone who only speaks their native tongue, so he learns it just so he can communicate with them. (I really like the idea that he learned ASL this way.)

Beel knows enough of every language to order food in it.

Belphie knows enough of every language to ask for a bed.

Diavolo has a whole company in the human world, so he had to have at least learned whatever language the employees of his company speak. I definitely see him kinda like Lucifer in that he's conversational in most languages.

Barbatos, due to being a being beyond the constraints of space and time, can speak all languages fluently. He taught Diavolo everything he needed to know language-wise.

Simeon has to be fluent in one human world language at the very least because TSL was published in the human world and Levi tells us it was translated into a bunch of languages. So it had to have been written in a human world language in order to be translated into other human world languages. Oh but I like the idea that Simeon wrote TSL in Celestial/Angelic originally and then translated it into a human language himself.

Solomon obviously speaks many human languages. I suspect that due to his age, he speaks most languages pretty fluently. I like to think he traveled around the human world for most of his long life, which means he likely learned most of the languages from immersion. If he was just stopping in various places and living there for several years before moving on, I think he'd pick up the languages pretty quickly.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this is what you were looking for or if you meant like actual specific languages, but I've only really thought about it in a more general sense. I don't think I could list specific languages because it really just depends on the circumstances in which they learned those languages. For instance, I think all the characters could learn specific languages from an MC who has a native language different from their own. It just depends!

[flufflepuffle296]

Heathers au: Beautiful Songfic

This is more centred around Veronica/Marinette so not really any mentions of Heather/Heather/Heather. Sorry if someone’s done this before I apologise I just got into Heathers like two days ago. Also I changed some lyrics and took others out to make it more “realistic”. Sorry I suck at endings, it’s 5:30am rn and this is my first fic so be nice please! (I’m on mobile so I can’t add the keep reading tag so sorry if you don’t like this) xxx

I brushed down my dress: I couldn’t give them anything to criticise me over. Everything had to be perfect. I had to be perfect. Chloé sat next to me, my beautiful fiancée, slipping on her kitten heels. She may be 3 months pregnant but no Bourgeois woman would be seen wearing flats. I was in a red floor length a line dress — I grew out of my childish pink years ago, before it even went out of fashion! My hair was twisted into two plaits that were knotted together into a stylish bun at the back. Chloé meanwhile had stuck to her white and gold aesthetic, currently in a slim fitting white dress, showing off her small baby bump, decorated with gold jewellery. I rummaged through my drawers, trying to find a lipstick, when a thin book toppled out. I picked it up, and laughed fondly when I saw what it was.

My old Collège and Lycée diary.

I flipped through it, landing on the page that stuck most clearly in my mind. It was the day my class reminded me of my current reality at that time, shocking me out of a bubble that had surrounded me during the summer holidays that year.

September 1st, 1989.

Dear Diary: I believe I'm a good person. You know, I think that there's good in everyone, but—here we are! First day of senior year!

And uh... I look around at these kids that I've known all my life and I ask myself—what happened?

I bit my lip. What happened? I knew darn well what happened. Lila Rossi. She came in, flaunting her friendships and connections, a new disability every other week to cry about, another rumour about me coming out every 3 days.

Alya ended our friendship, Adrien continued to cry about Lila’s feelings. Lila just kept doing what she did best. The class gave up on changing my mind and instead decided that calling me names would be better. Because logic?!

“Freak!” “Slut!” “Burnout!” “Bug-eyes!” “Poser!” “Lard-ass!” Were the insults they liked to yell daily. Yeah, they weren’t the most creative...

We were so tiny, happy and shiny. Playing tag and getting chased. Singing and clapping, laughing and napping. Baking cookies, eating paste.

Nino and Kim used to come over to the bakery when we were kids, where we’d gorge ourselves on sweets, before celebrating our sugar rushes by chasing each other in the park and then crashing on my sofa, cuddled in blankets and laying on top of each other.

Then we got bigger, that was the trigger. Like the Huns invading Rome. Welcome to my school, this ain't no high school: This is the Thunderdome. Hold your breath and count the days, we're graduating soon. College will be paradise, if I'm not dead by June!

But I know, I know, life can be beautiful. I pray, I pray for a better way. If we changed back then, we could change again. We can be beautiful...Just not today.

I scoffed at my optimism back then. Them changing? They never did, I don’t know why I bothered trying at that point. I should’ve moved on but hey! We all make mistakes. It’s just that sometimes you make 11 friendships worth of mistakes.

“Freak!” “Slut!” “Cripple!” “Homo!” “Homo!” “Homo!”

I cringed as I read their old “insults”. They would write homophobic messages across my locker, getting Alix to spray paint a few slurs across my work after I came out as bisexual.

Things will get better soon as my letter comes from Harvard, Duke, or Brown. Wake from this coma, take my diploma. Then I can blow this town. Dream of ivy-covered walls, no smoky French cafés. Fight the urge to strike a match and set this dump ablaze!

I had purposefully sent out applications to universities far away from these people, from Paris. All three schools accepted me, something I can’t say about my classmates, most of whom were rejected for essays on false information (sourced by Lila) and a quick scan over the Ladyblog meant not a single newspaper would even consider my ex-best friend. Gabriel Agreste, as I later found out through my internship in America, had to bribe several schools with double tuition to get even one to accept Adrien, after he got exposed as sexual harasser and disgraced hero “Chat Noir”. I turned back to my diary, having to peel off rock hard gum from the page that someone had smeared in “revenge”.

Le Chiên Kim. Third year as linebacker and eighth year of smacking lunch trays and being a huge dick.

“What did you say to me, skank?” He would yell, his fist raised in the hallway.

“Aah, nothing!” I then cowered. I may be Ladybug, but he was 150lbs of pure rage. No one can compete with that!

But I know, I know... Life can be beautiful. I pray, I pray, For a better way. We can be beautiful...

“Marinette! Wide load! Honnnnnk!”

He was the smartest guy on the football team. Which is kind of like being the tallest dwarf.

“Hey! Pick that up! Right now!”

“I’m sorry, are you actually talking to me?” He used to snarl, his hands covered in sauce from knocking my tray.

I stood my ground, I had been practising for this moment. “Yes, I am. I wanna know what gives you the right to pick on me. You're a high school has-been waiting to happen. A future gas station attendant.”

Kim then smirked, crouching down to eye level and pressing a finger to my forehead. “You have a zit right there...” he pointed out, causing the cafeteria to laugh at my expense.

I used to ask myself “Why... Why do they hate me?”

And hear Adrien whisper “Why don't I fight back?”

Watch as Max Googled “Why do I act like such a creep?”

Listen in on Lila stamping her feet in the bathroom asking “Why won't he date me?” Clearly frustrated.

Kim panicking as he wondered “Why did I hit him?”

And Chloé sob down the phone “Why do I cry myself to sleep?”

I would stay up late, screaming, begging. At my lowest points I would cry out “Somebody hug me! Somebody fix me! Somebody save me! Send me a sign, God! Give me some hope, here! Something to live for!”

I remember when I first met my real friends. The famed trio had gone into the bathroom and I followed after them, clearly my throat.

“Who are you?”

“Uh... Marinette Dupain Cheng. I crave a boon”

“What boon?” Chloé asked, filing her nails.

“Um. Let me sit at your table, at lunch. If our class think that you guys tolerate me, then they'll leave me alone...”

Chloé threw her nail file out and began circling around me, running her hands through my hair, commenting that “For a greasy little nobody, you do have good bone structure!” Before coming to a conclusion.

“And ya know, ya know, ya know? This could be beautiful. Mascara, maybe some lip gloss, and we're on our way. Get this girl some blush; and Kagami, I need your brush. Let's make her beautiful.” Sabrina and Kagami, chimed in, echoing her words.

“Let's make her beautiful...”

“Let’s make her beautiful...”

“Make her beautiful...Okay?” Chloé ordered, dragging me out with Kagami and Sabrina, driving me to her hotel. They sat me down, taking my hair out of its bunches and brushing it out. Kagami painted my nails a deep navy with surprising precision, manning my cuticles. Sabrina twirled my hair into a high bun, leaving a few pieces at the front to frame my face. Chloé came back from her wardrobe, throwing a blue blazer and grey skirt at me. I changed into my outfit for them, to which they clapped their hands in glee. They dragged me back to school, taking in everyone’s reactions to the new and improved me. This became my new daily outfit for the rest of the year — the class couldn’t find anything bad about it, and even if they did Chloé would threaten them with her father’s power.

I was happy with my squad. Kagami taught us Japanese and Chloé taught us American English that she’d picked up from her mother. I taught them self defence, under the guise of learning it from my mum, unknowingly training them for the day I would rip Chat Noir’s miraculous from him, before slamming it into Kagami’s palm. I needed help that day, so thrust them bee and the fox miraculous at Chloé and Sabrina respectively. They became permanent heroes, Kagami under the name “Noirette”, Chloé under the new guise of “Buttercup” and Sabrina “Renard Rouge”. Akuma attacks have never lasted more than 15 minutes since we got rid of that alley cat, and we’ve been closing in on Hawkmoth recently.

I shook my head, snapping the crude book shut, throwing the diary in the bin. Today was going to be the day I made peace with all that happened, our 10 year school reunion. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna make up with anyone, just that I will finally leave everything behind. I found my lipstick and smeared on the crimson lip, smacking my lips together. I grabbed my clutch and helped Chloé stand up, though she wobbled a little in her heels. I slid her miraculous into her updo, blowing a kiss at her as to not ruin her makeup.

We met up with Kagami and Sabrina in the hallway, Kagami in a wine red suit with gold jewellery, and Sabrina was in emerald green to compliment her red hair. We stepped into the limo awaiting us outside and set off, arriving at the school 10 minutes later. We walked up the steps, hitching up our dresses and arrived in the courtyard. It had been lit up with fairy lights, with stands of food and drinks scattered around the court. Our old classmates were huddled in small groups, whilst Mlle. Mendeleiev’s was in a large group, enjoying each other’s company after 10 years apart.

No one noticed us, until Rose pointed at me and whispered “Who’s that with Chloé?” The group turned to stare at us, trying to place my face. Adrien looked up from talking to Lila, who seemed to be flaunting a rather tacky Gabriel engagement ring, and whispered,

“Marinette?!”

The class began gossiping amongst themselves, “Marinette? Marinette? Marinette?!”

I ignored them, their childish ways were behind me, and walked up to Aurore and Mireille, fawning over their relationship. They turned Kagami, asking her about her life and squealing over her Olympic medal for fencing. I grinned as I watched my old class, happy that they had moved on from each other — well apart from Alya and Adrien, who were still hooked on Lila. I was finally, content! I thought back on my diary, one particular paragraph standing out to me at this time.

And you know, you know, you know, life can be beautiful. You hope, you dream, you pray, and you get your way! Ask me how it feels, lookin' like hell on wheels...My God, it's beautiful! I feel so beautiful... And when you're beautiful...It's a beautiful frickin' day!

Chloé boasted my achievements, my business, my awards, and the entire of Mendeleiev’s class started chanting “Marinette! Marinette! Marinette!”, much to my embarrassment. I boasted her’s in return, Sabrina revealed how far she’d come as a lawyer, Kagami swung her prized sword from side to side as she listened to us all catching up, laughing at the memories.

It really was a beautiful day.

[theheavenlymoon]

I totally did this out of order, so let’s try this again!

I would like you to meet Uzuki Hanako! (うづき- Uzuki はなこ- Hanako)

(My first introduction was a hot mess, so I wanted re edit that one and put up this one instead!)

(I can’t draw for crap so I’m using picrew.)

This will basically be me talking about her rather than all the fandoms she’s in. I’m gonna be making post about her and the fandoms later, but for now it’s all about her!

First Name: Hanako

Last Name: Uzuki

Gender: Female

Race: Demigod

Age: ??? (Depending on the fandom, her age changes)

Birthday: December 27

Zodiac: Capricorn

Height: 6’3.3

Sexuality: Bisexual

JP CV: Ami Koshimizu

ENG CV: Amanda Céline Miller

FRENCH CV: Indila

(Couldn’t find a Greek CV 😔)

Nicknames: Shachi-chan (Floyd), Child of Hearth (Malleus), Ms.Herbivore (Leona), Princess, Wifey (Gojo)

Favorite food: Cheesecake, literally anything sweet

Least favorite food: Hummus, mushrooms, candy, and beans

Likes: family/friends, cooking, singing really loud to her music, working out, making clothes, nail polish, memes/vines, rain/cloudy weather, animals, purple, doing anything around the house, video games, anime, fictional books, roughhousing, and day dreaming about her crush/significant other

Dislikes: Fights between friends and family, Candy, crying in front of people, and bookshelves

Since I can’t draw I have to use picrew, but sadly some of the makers that I find have limited options so allow me to go into detail about her looks. (I’ll probably make another post about her abilities later)

Hanako has bright gold eyes and long lavender hair that goes all the way down to her mid thigh. She has two beauty marks, one under her right eye and one on the left side of her lip. Her signature hair style is space buns with the rest of her hair down in the back. Like I’ve said before, I can’t draw so I’m using characters I know as reference! This is what her body looks like.

(^ This is Flare, a character from fairy tail! I recommend watching it if you have time. Fairy tail is a very long series, but it’s really good!)

(I’m pretty sure you can look at almost all the women in Fairy tail and get the idea.)

Obviously I know that Hestia doesn’t have any demigod kids but demigods don’t have to be born the normal way. Hanako was born from fire and was given to her father. With that being said, when Hana was first claimed she was given a fire place poker but traded it in for a sword so she it could help control her pyrokinesis. (Her sword is disguised as a charm bracelet!)

As for her sword...

Hana’s sword helps her control her pyrokinesis a little better and it’s fun to try and see who can pick it up. Her sword can reach up to about 2000°F (1093°C). She has a few special moves but those are for another time.

Although Hana acts like her mom in some moments, she met Apollo and Hermes when she was quite young and those two have had a big impression on her personality. One moment she giving motherly advice, and the next moment she screaming vines across the room.

Random facts about Hanako 🌸✨

Since Hana means flower I use cherry blossoms and lavender to represent her.

Has a huge soft spot for children!

Hanako is super understanding and open. Wanna try something new? She’ll come with you, so you aren’t lonely and scared. Skydiving? What time are we leaving? Want to be left alone? Call her if you need something! Wanna try working out? She’ll be your personal trainer! Feeling down? She’s coming over with movies and snacks! Can’t make it to game night? It’s alright just be safe with whatever your doing!

Once Hanako falls, she falls hard.(Romantically speaking) She is a SIMP. She’ll wear the most giddiest smile after talking with them. Probably screamed in her pillows at least a few times. “They make my heart beat so fast, and they make me feel like the happiest girl in the world!!” - Hanako.

Attempts her best not to be obvious about her crush, and for the most part it works. Until anything other than platonic stuff comes up. Her face is gonna turn crimson if ANYONE mentions her crush in not so platonic ways, gods forbid anything even more intimate. Children of Hestia are so shy when the idea of sexual things is even bought up that they blush deeply and cannot articulate any coherent words, and any fire nearby also turns crimson as if it were blushing like the child of Hestia. This shyness is amplified if they are around their crush.

Gets kind of anxious when she’s beside a bookshelf.

She’s a smart ass. It’s gotten to the point where she does it automatically. It doesn’t even have time to process, it just comes out.

Hana is actually really good at acting and singing. She was in a few commercials and videos when she was younger but only as background characters.

Hana is amazing with kids. She grew up with 3 little brothers before she was moved into the orphanage, which meant even more kids to watch over. (she takes her big sister role very seriously)

Since she was born from fire, she can raise her body temperature up if she wanted too, and she rarely gets hot or cold. Heat based attack have no effect on her. Hana’s hugs feel like a warm blanket wrapped around you while sitting next to a fireplace, all in all just really comforting

Hana grew up around a lot of guys and so she calls everyone ‘bro’ and ‘dude’ a lot. She has a few friends who are girls but most of them are guys. That being said, she grew up rough housing and yelling.

Hana also comes from a very affectionate family. (Hugs, kisses, feeding food to each other, smashing food into someone’s face, etc.) So it’s not uncommon to see Hana tackle all of her friends into hugs and kisses.(platonically)

Hana also likes to tease a lot (curtsy of Hermes) so don’t be surprised when she tease about you burning food.

Is super flexible. I’m talking like, Mitsuri flexible. Her friends have at least saw her in the scorpion pose a few times. The more flexible she is, the easier it is to move in battle.

The woman is a tree. I’m pretty sure all of her lovers (with the exception of Gojo) are shorter than her.

She can not, for the life of her, wear heels. Anything above a 3 inch that isn’t thick, would make her snap an ankle. Besides she’s already tall enough

In terms of anger, Hana has the patience of a saint. She still gets annoyed here and there, but very rarely does she get genuinely angry. On the rare occasion that she is angry, she gets pretty violent. Veins showing from her forehead, her body temperature spikes, and she wears one of the most nastiest glare ever. (from what she’s been told) Only a select few have seen her mad.

When thrown into a new situation (or a new world-) that isn’t familiar, Hana will come off a bit sarcastic (more than usual) and aloof. She wants to get a feel for her surroundings before she can actually be herself. Give her some time to come around and she’ll be back to hyper and happy.

Hana has a bunch of hobbies. She plays volleyball and is known as the queen of the court. She loves to paint her fingernails and her toes as well. Her cooking is top tier! As a Hestia child obviously she would excel at anything that has to do with domestic and home type things.

She 100% would/will make her own dress. Once made a huge ball gown dress because none of the place had what she was looking for.

When she isn’t doing any of her hobbies she’s working out and practicing her pyrokinesis. Hana trained a lot back where she was from, so she could master her pyrokinesis and her sword. She’s gotten to the point where she can lift a car. Just because she’s in a different place doesn’t give her the excuse to slack off!!

Ironically her mother is a virginal goddess and isn’t married to anyone. Hana on the other hand, wants to get married and have kids. She shooting for 4 but it all depends on what her partner wants. (2,6,8 it just depends)

Hestia children can induce serenity and make tense situations a lot more calmer. Hanako has defeated a lot of enemies and monsters this way.

Hanako knows 4 different languages. English, Japanese, Greek, and French. She was taught Japanese by her father and Greek by her mother. She learned French and English herself

Even though Hana loves to do girly things, makeup is not one of them. She always thought it was pretty cool but she never had the time to sit down and practice it.

Thank you for reading✨ I had a lot of fun making this and I can’t wait to write more stuff about her! I’ll probably have to learn how to make a master post so her stuff is easier to access. If you have any questions about Hana my inbox is open, or you can message me in private, either way works!

I hope you stick around for more content with Hanako! 🌸🔥✨

[coolgreatwebsite]

Cool Games I Finished In 2019 (In No Real Order)

We’re here. The end of the decade. 2019 was a weird, turbulent year for me. Despite my cross-country move already being a year behind me somehow, nothing’s really settled yet. Living situation is still weird, still separated from most of my belongings, I left my full-time QA job for a contractor position at a mobile game advertising company that may or may not convert into a full-time position... everything about what’s going on with me still just feels like I’m completely winging it, and while that’s not a position I’m really comfortable being in for such an extended amount of time, everything seems to be working out okay enough despite it. All this is probably why I spent most of my time playing the shit out of a handful of games rather than playing a bunch of different games this year! Needed some sort of stability. Also when I did manage to pull myself away from the timesink games and play something else, a lot of them ranged from “okay” to “real bad”. But I still managed to play just enough stuff that I liked to where I can put out yet another one of these.  Here’s a bunch of cool games I experienced for the first time in 2019.

Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (PC, 2005)

I haven’t bothered to do two thirds of the story quests yet and have barely touched any Episode 4 content so this game technically doesn’t count for this list, but if I left it off I would be neglecting to mention an extremely large portion of my video game playing time this year. I fell back into PSO preeeettty hard this year after the surprise announcement of Phantasy Star Online 2 finally coming to the US. Guess what: game still rules. It feels stiff to play and it’s obviously far less expansive than it seemed back in 2000, but the core of Phantasy Star Online is still as fun as it ever was and the aesthetics are still entirely my shit. I love everything about the way this game looks and sounds, I love stumbling on a weird new weapon, I love participating in the custom seasonal events the server I’m on runs, and I love how oddly relaxing the experience of playing this game and taking it all in is. I will probably continue to play Phantasy Star Online into 2020. I will probably still dip back into it after PSO2 US servers finally launch. If I know you and you want to join my Discord server for PSO get at me. PSO forever.

Cookie’s Bustle (PC, 1999)

You ever play a game that just speaks to you? Even through a language barrier? A game so incredibly out there and bizarre in the exact way you love that you can’t help but adore it despite barely understanding it? Holy moly did I ever find that game. I learned about Cookie’s Bustle through a news story last year about some rare games leaking from a Japanese collector’s stash. Didn’t manage to get it to run back then, but my off and on attempts to get it working finally paid off in March of this year and I’m so glad I kept trying. I knew nothing of this game other than it had a weird name and was about a bear doing sports, and it turned out to be a fully voice-acted and mostly unsubtitled adventure game starring Cookie Blair, a 5 year old girl from New Jersey who sees herself as a teddy bear and has traveled to Bombo World, an island nation once visited by aliens and currently in the middle of a civil war, to participate in the Bombo Sports Tournament. Dead level, I probably shouldn’t have been able to genuinely love Cookie’s Bustle as much as I did. The only context I had for what was happening and what I was supposed to do was provided by a 20-year-old Google translated walkthrough with broken images, the game’s slightly higher than usual reliance on English loan words, and 30-ish years of video games and anime allowing me to halfway pick up on a handful of Japanese words. However, Cookie’s Bustle is dripping with an undeniable and off-beat charm that genuinely transcends language. Even if you can’t understand the words and specifics, you can understand the basic plot, characterizations, and emotions they’re going for. Cookie’s Bustle manages to both be completely off-the-wall bizarre and feel totally genuine and heartfelt at the same time, a balance very few games manage to successfully hit but many of my favorites do. One could say that’s why it seems to have resonated with a decent amount of other people this year, too. Games rarely make me feel sad that they’re over. but when they do that’s how I know they’re one of the good ones. Seriously, go look up a longplay or stream of Cookie’s Bustle if you (understandably) don’t want to go through the hassle of setting it up and figuring out how to play it, it’s impossible not to love.

Devil May Cry 5 (PlayStation 4, 2019)

Here’s something crazy to think about: Devil May Cry 4 came out 11 years ago. Aside from being a potent reminder that time is moving too fast and we’re all going to die soon, that means that there hasn’t been a DMC for over a decade. Devil May Cry 5 does not bare this fact even a little bit. Not only did they pick up right where they left off and manage to make another Devil May Cry game without missing a beat, they made arguably the best Devil May Cry game. I mean I still like the story and single-character focus of DMC3 the best, but DMC5 is the best playing game in the series without a doubt. Nero finally feels like he has a complete and complex toolset, Dante is the most mechanically dense and fun to play he’s ever been, and they even added a new guy that’s... neat to play as, until you start trying to S-rank the harder difficulties. Then he’s kind of annoying to play as. But it’s still cool that they tried something totally different and mostly got it to work! They also did something very stupid that I love and used this game as an excuse to make literally every single piece of Devil May Cry media canon. Like, characters exclusively from the anime and the books show up and act like they’re someone you already know and love? And they go out of their way to explain the most esoteric lore shit possible?? And despite it all they still intentionally give DMC2 as short a shrift as they can??? It’s so dumb, it rules. It’s just one of the many things about the game that show that even with so long of a gap between entries, no love for the series was lost by the people that make it. I don’t think the suits at Capcom expected this game to hit as hard as it did though, because despite there being clear areas where the game could be expanded on with DLC there still hasn’t been anything announced. I hope they’re maybe saving it for some sort of DMC3-esque special edition, or maybe just already working on DMC6, because even after getting all S-ranks I still wanted to play more. The game’s just that damn good.

Hypnospace Outlaw (PC, 2019)

I expected very little from Hypnospace Outlaw. I backed the game on Kickstarter solely because it looked cool and I thought a game about fake GeoCities was neat, and then I immediately forgot about it until it released. Admittedly my lack of expectations stemmed mostly from the fact that it’s kind of hard to set expectations for a game you never really thought too hard about, but even in the brief period of time where I considered it enough to give it money, I never expected it to be much more than a pretty-looking 101 Great GeoCities Jokez delivery vehicle. Boy was I wrong. I mean, it is incredibly good at that, but Hypnospace Outlaw is so much more than a funny period piece. The basic premise is that you’re in alternate universe 1999 and have just become a community moderator for an Internet service provider that allows people to connect to the Internet while they sleep. You’re tasked with browsing the game’s weird fake Internet and issuing demerits to users who violate the five basic Hypnospace rules, but it quickly evolves into something way bigger. Hypnospace Outlaw’s greatest strength is its exceptional ability at weaving together subtle world building, small and engaging character arcs, esoteric microjokes, and a genuine sense of mystery and discovery into an incredibly cohesive and engaging package. It’s as much a game about the people that use and run its weird fake Internet as it is about that weird fake Internet itself. And a lot of the problems both face echo the problems we face with our real world Internet today. When I was mapping out writing this article like a month or two ago I was prepared to go on about how at its core, Hypnospace Outlaw is an incredibly poignant story about how uncaring tech corporations actively harm their users and always have, but then a couple of days ago I read Colin Spacetwinks’ game of the year list and his #1 entry put most everything I would have said about that topic down in a way more eloquent and well-written way than I ever could have. And then I remembered that Friend Of The Site Heidi Kemps covered some of the same angle but from the perspective of the early Internet in an article earlier this year, again way better than I could have. So I highly recommend you read those when you’re done here. What I wanna bring up instead is just how effortlessly surprising and interconnected a lot of stuff in Hypnospace feels, using a mildly spoiler-ish late game example. Two of the first “zones” you’re allowed to moderate when you start Hypnospace Outlaw are Teentopia and Goodtime Valley, which are essentially alternate universe Yahooligans and a little slice of Hypnospace just for Boomers respectively. On Teentopia you’ll see a bunch of kids that are wild for Squisherz, Hypnospace’s alternate universe version of Pokémon, and over in Goodtime Valley you’ll see (much like there was back in real world 1999) a few pages made by religious fundamentalists convinced that everything the kids like these days is the work of Satan. This of course includes Squisherz, and you can find a page by one organization full of crackpot conspiracy theories with flimsy evidence that TOTALLY DEFINITELY backs up their claim. Squisherz contains a wolf, which the Bible warns about many times! This giraffe monster CLEARLY has a pentagram in its design!! And the eye of this snake-like Squisherz is the eye of Horus, an Egyptian occult symbol and NEED I REMIND YOU that Lucifer took the form of a snake in the Garden of Eden!!! It is very clear what this page is goofing on and throughout the course of the game it doesn’t get updated at all, so it’s very easy to laugh at it and forget about it. Very late into the game, you get an optional sidequest. Adrian Merchant, one of the CEOs of Merchantsoft, the company that created Hypnospace, was found out to have logged traffic indicating he was a frequent visitor of a website called Children of HORUS, and a call is put out to investigate what that even is. You can easily find the website, but it asks you for a password if you click the Enter button. Adrian Merchant is consistently portrayed throughout the game as a complete idiot, and the solution to this puzzle has you capitalize on that. Another early game objective ended up with you finding a list of cracked passwords, and one of those passwords happens to be for the instant messenger account of Adrian Merchant. If you can remember that he was even in that text file from forever ago, and then put two and two together that of COURSE that dumbass would use the same password for everything, you just punch in his messenger password and you’re granted access to the Children of HORUS page. It turns out that HORUS is an acronym that stands for Hiding Occult References in Utmost Secrecy, and the page itself is a basic leaderboard with a list of names and two numbered columns reading “Hidden” and “Found”. In that list of names you’ll find A. Merchant, along with the names of various other CEOs and celebrities you might have read about elsewhere in Hypnospace. One of the other names on this list is F. Kazuma, the CEO of Monarch, creators of Squisherz. The funny conspiracy theory website from the beginning of the game that you most likely forgot about was, about this one specific thing, correct. There was an eye of Horus hidden on the snake from Squisherz. Not as any sort of Satanic plot, mind you, but only as part of some weird millionaire dickwaving contest. This dumb tiny revelation is not called out by the game at all and nothing comes of it, it’s just there for you to notice if you’ve been paying enough attention. Hypnospace Outlaw is LITTERED with stuff like this. Weird small interconnected things you wouldn’t expect to be interconnected. Little dumb things you wouldn’t expect to have any sort of payoff but somehow do. And it’s also just as chock full of big things. Having all the pieces fall into place at once to where I was able to access Hypnospace’s equivalent of the dark web was the best sequence in a game this year for me, even beating out the outlandish shit in DMC5. Getting and solving the final case was a rush. Hypnospace Outlaw is full of incredible moments big and small. It’s genuinely engaging and affecting, which is so much more than I was expecting from a game that was pitched to me as “Funny GeoCities Cop”. It almost has no right being so good. But it is. Hell, even the music rules! I didnt even get into that! I don't have enough time or space to get into that now! The music is so goddamn good! I know I started these lists because I had no interest in ranking games, but every year I sort of jokingly-but-not-jokingly say “haha this game sure would be my number one if I did that!” for at least one game. It’s time to fully lean into it. I don’t gotta rank ‘em all, but I can pick a favorite. Hypnospace Outlaw is my favorite game of 2019 with a goddamn bullet.

These games were also cool, I just had less to say about them:

Etrian Odyssey (Nintendo DS, 2007): Man, this series just started out good, huh? I dabbled with the first two games in college when I got a DS flashcart but never really dug in until EO4, and the first game is enjoyable in just about every way the modern ones are. Definitely more barebones and punishing though. Kero Blaster (PlayStation 4, 2017): This is a game by the creator of Cave Story that does not aim to be Cave Story, and that’s fine! A fun little shooter in its own right, though I do think the shooting in Cave Story felt a little better than it does here. Space Invaders Extreme (Nintendo DS, 2008): I played the shit out of this game in college thanks to that flashcart I mentioned before, but I never finished a playthrough in full until this year for some reason. Still way stylish and way fun! I need to get a copy of the second one... CROSSNIQ+ (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Incredibly chill puzzle game that can be as hard or easy as you want it to be. Almost uncanny in how well it emulates the style of late PS1/Dreamcast games. Super Mario Maker 2 (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Mario Maker 2 is kind of weird for me. It’s a solid improvement in a lot of aspects, but a clear regression in a lot of others. Also the online multiplayer is the second least amount of fun I’ve had with a video game this year (Secret of Mana swooped in and stole the number one slot near the end). Still, I had a lot of fun with it and I’ll probably end up going back to it eventually. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Nintendo Switch, 2018): The original Katamari Damacy is still every bit as fun and charming as it was upon its original release. This port is weirdly based on the Japanese version with the English text inserted, which means no English voice acting and Wanda Wanda only plays in the multiplayer mode. The Joycon sticks also aren’t the greatest for doing charge rolls. But none of these faults detract too much from the game. Bring on We Love Katamari Reroll! Earth Defense Force 5 (PlayStation 4, 2018): Sandlot somehow keeps finding ways to make each new EDF bigger and explodier, and EDF5 is the biggest and explodiest yet. I think the mission design in 4.1 was more solid overall, but 5 feels the best to play and has the most fun tools. Also the dialogue is the most absurd its ever been, and the final boss goes for it way harder than the series ever has. Pokémon Shield (Nintendo Switch, 2019): This game is honestly just okay, but leaving it off would again be neglecting a game I put a ton of time into this year. Pokémon Sword is fun in the way most Pokémon games usually are, and extremely half-baked in basically every other aspect. I’m still having a good time putting together teams and finding shinies and doing The Pokémon Thing regardless.

And that’s 2019 (and this decade) in the bag! I don’t know where anything’s going from here, but I’m going to ride it out as best as I can! I hope you do too! As always, thank you so much for getting to the bottom of all these words. I’m hoping to be in a more stable place mid-2020, and then I want to get back to all the things I haven’t had time to do. I want to get back to streaming, I want to write more dumb articles like The Best Babies, I want to do it all! I hope I will be able to do it all. Until then!

[megers67]

The Great Erasermic Road Trip

I was talking with @ibelieveinahappilyeverafter and there's so much to be had here. But both of us are too busy to actually make a proper fic of it (because it could easily be a multi-chapter fic or a long series of vignettes). But I want to share with y'all so here's a bullet point version of what we came up with. Since we're not likely to use this ourselves beyond headcanons, if at all, you are free to add some of your own and use any of these (I would like to know if you do end up using them because I wanna see!!).

There are a lot of these so they're under a Read More.

They go when they're 21 because they're young enough that they're not incredibly busy (since their careers have only barely started), but old enough to have saved enough money to take at least a month off and old enough to drink in the USA.

Though they're only licensed to be heroes in Japan, not internationally. Because of this, they weren't allowed to bring weapons with them. After this trip, Hizashi works on his international certification so if he travels outside of Japan for his radio/music career, he can still do hero work when necessary. Shouta does as well, but unrelated to this trip (more to do with undercover work in Korea and China).

They go in the late spring/early summer.

Shouta had to learn to drive, specifically because of this trip. So he only actually knows how to drive American-oriented cars and with American driving rules. He hasn't needed to drive in Japan because of public transport. Hizashi already knew how to drive and took some time adjusting to American road rules but then had trouble getting back to Japanese when they returned.

They don't really have too many plans. They just kind of pick a direction and go. Even still, Hizashi brought a bunch of guide books and tries to plan what he can or at least multiple options for Shouta to choose from. It's not that Shouta doesn't care, but he surprisingly spontaneous about it and willing to just go wherever life takes him on this trip, fine with basically anything. So if there are any things that he even slightly expresses interest in, then Hizashi will immediately divert things to accommodate it.

They spend most of their time in rural America rather than larger cities. Hizashi says this was the more real America, but it's at least partly because they just had unexpected fun out there and forgot about their plans in the larger cities other than entering and leaving the US. They have plenty of cities in Japan, and while they're very different, rural America is REALLY different.

Even still, when they were in the cities, they ended up off the beaten path in order to avoid crowds.

They try to do the thing where they're continually driving and just taking it in shifts, but this only lasts a couple of days because it meant that one of them was always sleeping so it wasn't as fun. They start sleeping in cheap motels, but they end up sleeping in their car most often.

In one of their motel stays, they meet a group of four friends who are also taking a road trip before starting careers as heroes. Drinks happen and next thing you know, they're having an impromptu, drunken tournament in the middle of an abandoned field nearby. One of the Americans wins, but Shouta got 2nd. Much respect is had by all.

Hizashi and Yamada go to a pop-up carnival and get stuck at the top of ferris wheel. They get down on their own and help other stranded riders. They are praised for their efforts, but are lectured to NOT do that again because they're unlicensed.

At that same carnival, Shouta ends up doing well in quite a few of the games. Or at least the ones that aren't rigged. I bet the carnival has ways to prevent quirk use on their games, but Shouta's ninja-like agility, balance, and precision doesn't come from a quirk. Shouta wins a big fuck-off prize and now they have to lug it around the rest of their trip. It's a giant, neon yellow, monkey with a banana. Over the course of the trip it gains a baseball cap for some local sports team, tacky souvenir shirt, goofy sunglasses, and boxers from Buccee's. Hizashi still has it.

Hizashi likes stopping at those niche museums and roadside attractions because they're so unique. He takes so many pictures. Not just the ones at the various locations, but also of nature and candid shots of Shouta driving. One of these pictures is one of Hizashi’s all-time favorites and he keeps it in his wallet.

Shouta looks like a really typical dad on this road trip at the ripe old age of 21. Socks and sandals and everything. That dork. He likes the more typical tourist attractions, but not the crowds so he also ends up preferring the weird stuff too because there aren't a lot of people.

One thing they were least prepared for was for how varied the weather is in the US.

Because of the timing, they end up running into tornado season. Hunkering down in a random ass basement and meeting this really nice family in the process. The Thompson family I have now decided. They met on the road while the dad (Robert) got last minute supplies and was like "WTF are you two doing without shelter, come home with me because you could legit die out here" as they wait out the storm.

The mom (Linda) and dad are older folks and have two adult children. The older one is a son (Richard) who has basically taken over the farm by now. The daughter (Margaret, but goes by Margie) is Hizashi and Shouta's age and also has radio aspirations. She and Hizashi become really good friends and even become pen pals for years after. She invites them to her wedding years later and while they can't attend, they still send her a gift.

As thanks for the shelter and because the mom and dad basically immediately adopted Hizashi and Shouta, the two of them help out on the farm the next day since the son is helping with more heavy-duty repairs. Shouta is convinced that he was almost killed by a cow. She's just a sweet dairy cow named Delilah.

There is a really awkward moment when they encounter a villain because they're not allowed to intervene and they have to figure out what they're going to do. Like they want to help but that would get very messy VERY quickly as it would be a major crime for them. Then a corn quirk hero who specializes in rural America barrels in from out of nowhere on a fuckin horse. And it is the most obnoxiously American thing either of them have ever seen before or since. He turns out to be Margie’s boyfriend (and future husband) and is actually pretty chill outside of his persona. All Might's mannerisms and American references reminds Shouta of this Corn Hero.

Shouta's most embarrassing moment was when he got rescued by a local hero (completely different location from the Corn Hero) in a situation that arose because Shouta wasn't entirely fluent in English and accidentally started a bar fight via an insult.

Hizashi is convinced that he had an alien encounter while Shouta was asleep. He is frustrated to this day that Shouta doesn't believe him.

Shouta's favorite moment was seeing the crazy amount of stars on a clear night miles away from the nearest sign of civilization. They ended up not sleeping that night because they spent hours having a heart-to-heart instead. They sleep until noon to make up for lost sleep.

They get really competitive over those dumb car games.

They want to go to a baseball game because it's one of the sports they're actually somewhat familiar with. But there's not a lot going on so they end up at some high school game. At first they get weird looks because why the fuck are these random guys here for a school game, but once the crowd finds out they're Japanese tourists, they actually get pretty into it and both teams' parents try to get them to support their team. It ends up being a really close game and it was a rival game on top of it. They get a hat for each team. The one Hizashi wears was the one that ended up winning, beating out Shouta's by a slim margin.

Shouta gains an appreciation for jerky on that trip and strives to try as many different types as he can. He is saddened that he can't get any of it in Japan (and it tends to be confiscated when you try to take bring it in).

When they return, Hizashi laments that he hasn't been able to find BBQ sauce even remotely like that one hole-in-the-wall they found in Bumfuck Nowhere, Texas. And they can't even remember the place because it was one of the times they were lost and they just chose the first place they found when they were just too hungry to continue.

Hizashi makes an effort to at least try to remain in contact with most of the people they encounter on their trip. The Thompson family keeps contact the best.

This trip has produced a plethora of inside jokes. All Might has the best chance of their coworkers at understanding in any capacity since he's traveled the US as well. It makes Midnight facepalm because she's been hearing these inside jokes for years and isn't any closer to understanding any of them.

After Aizawa's current 1A students graduate, they want to go on another road trip, because honestly he could use a goddamn break after what this batch of students had put him through. There are a few differences. For one, they will bring their kids with them. They will also make stops at several radio stations since Hizashi is a bit more well-known of a radio personality this time around. He will definitely include Margie's station among these where he will be on as a special guest for a full show (instead of just an interview like at the other places). They will also be visiting that family in general. Because they have specific stops and their kids, the trip will be a lot more structured this time around.

[mars-the-4th-planet]

"Day three - I have no idea what I am doing"

Natsuki sat under the shade of a tree, writing her diary. "I have evaded recapture for three days straight. I saw a girl yesterday, she was really cute and distracted dad for me. She didnt wanna play unfortunately. :("

"Im out of food again, but what else is new?"

"On my map there should be a hiking trail rest stop. There I can drink the free water and beg for money. I am hoping there are some generous people there, or I will be in a seriously desperate situation... In other words, if I dont get any food, im fucked.""

Natsuki stopped writing and chewed on her eraser for a bit, before erasing "fucked" and writing "screwed" in its place.

"There!" She thought. "Now if someone finds this, they can give copies to kids!"

PISHH

A thick layer of leaves crunched as the small Finland rocket, Kuusi Palaa, crashed into them in order to land. "Holy cr- oh, um, konichiwa!" natsuki said politely.

Kuusi Palaa dragged herself out of the leaves, and waved to Natsuki. She was smiling but not saying anything, as she assumed extremely few people in this country speak Finnish. In fact, most Americans had no idea where Finland even was. Or anything about it.

"Omae owah, de shinderu!!" Natsuki cried out, drawing her toy katana. Kuusi Palaa immediately shook her head and held her hands up.

Natsuki narrowed her eyes. "...Nani?"

Kuusi Palaa did not understand what on earth she was saying so she tried to communicate anyway. "Hijoy malaa polkken sijarven min kioski daa." She explained. "Kyoo musui?"

"Uh..." Natsuki Nagasaki could only shrug at that. Then she sheathed her katana and tried to give Kuusi Palaa a handshake. But she ended up just shaking the whole upper body of the Finn.

Then natsukis stomach growled, and she rubbed her belly while making sad noises. This struck a bit of sympathy from Kuusi, who went to go bring her something to eat. She motioned for natsuki to stay there, since Kuusi Palaa might otherwise be unable to find her again. Then she darted off.

...

Some criminal actives later, Kuusi Palaa returned with sandwich of cheese grill. Natsuki was dozing happily under a tree. In her lap was the manga book "Dino in Kyoto! (5)" with a picture of two dinosaur girls dressed in cartoon caveman outfits. One seemed to be representing an Allosaurus, who was playfully nibbling on a Tetradon. There was also a pterodactyl girl flying about in the background, but she wasnt important to the story and was mostly there for fanservice since she often flew at an angle to the POV so that you could catch a glimpse of her-

Wait, I am going into much too much detail about a manga book Natsuki Nagasaki likes.

Plop!

The sandwich fell on natsukis head.

"Kuo! Nani?" Natsuki Nagasaki picked it up. She smiled at the Finn who was still flying around. She wanted to thank her, but was not sure what "Thank you" in Japanese was so instead she shouted "Sugoi!"

Kuusi Palaa did not know what that meant, but she was having trouble finding a nice spot to land. The leaves from before were scattered and too spread out to safely slam into.

She knew that Natsuki Nagasaki would help her if she could, but Kuusi Palaa had no way of asking for help. She could show distress, but how would her friend know what the problem was?

Kuusi Palaa did not have the fuel to just keep flying on and on, so she had no choice but to crash into the one potentially soft thing around: Natsuki Nagasaki.

She cut the throttle of her engine, and swooped down towards her. She closed her eyes and wanted for the impact.

Instead of landing on Natsuki, however, she landed on the ground next to her and was consequently knocked out.

Natsuki Nagasaki snorted and started giggling, thinking it was a joke. Then became seriously concerned because Kuusi Palaa wasnt moving. She gave her a light poke, but the Finn did not budge. Then she waited for a few seconds, but nothing. Then she picked her up and examined her and realized with a shock that she wasnt sure if Kuusi was breathing, so she still needed something. But what? Then Natsuki realized: Now was the time to give CPR!

Kuusi Palaa was quite tough for such a small rocket, and came to quickly while natsuki tapped her chest. The first thing she saw was natsukis cupcake-chomping mouth looming towards her.

She immediately screamed in pure "Oh god not this again" terror and throttled her rocket back on, flying straight out of natsukis hands (thankfully without hurting her.) and into a bunch of branches in the tree above, where she got stuck. Her rocket flame lit the branches and leaves ablaze, and with a terrified yelp thrashed her way out of the tree and plopped down onto natsukis lap. The flame burnt out, unable to spread on the damp spring leaves and branches.

Natsuki Nagasaki began petting her and making conjoling noises, realizing that she must have thought she was trying to bite her. At the same time Kuusi Palaa realized that she must have been attempting to preform CPR on her, due to the chest tapping involved.

The two them read Dino in Kyoto! (5) together, neither understanding the words but both somehow enjoying it anyway. Neither of them knew that they were both being hunted by seperate parties still.

[gloomstudy]

11 (jk actually 33) questions tag!

rules: answer 11 questions, make 11 of your own, and tag another 11 people.

tagged by @piiess, @narglestudies, @orangeblossomstudies, and many many many others! i can’t find all the other ones that i was tagged in, but i know i was tagged in a bunch of them these past few months and i never got around to doing them ahhh i’m sorry ;; and hoooo boy, it’s been a while since the last time i’ve done a tag on here. hopefully answering these 33 questions will help you all get to know me a little better!

questions from pat:

1. who do you stan and why?

you guys already know that i stan bang chan from stray kids, so i’m gonna talk about someone else. i stan iu (lee jieun)! she’s so pure and gentle, and her vocals are so amazing and heavenly. she’s basically how i imagine what an angel sounds like. it would truly be an honor to meet her someday!

2. how are you today?

i’m alright! i got up kinda late today lol. not much has happened aside from eating breakfast and lunch, watching youtube videos, and setting up my queue for my blogs. now i’m answering these questions!

3. your regular order at the café?

i’ve actually never been to a cafe before, but i’ve been to a few boba places! i either get an ice cream green tea, or a matcha latte. for both, i get 50% sugar, no ice (the drink is usually already cold), boba, and soymilk if it’s available.

4. mint ice cream, yay or nay?

yay, if it’s made well.

5. recommend a place to visit if i were to travel to your state/country?

aside from disneyland, uhhh...come visit my school? ahaha idk. i’d be happy to be your tour guide! afterwards, we can go to daiso since it’s only 2 blocks away from campus, hehe. ^_^

6. favorite prompts/au?

flower shop au will always be my most favorite au and the most wholesome au. i dare you to fight me on this. jk pls don’t actually fight me.

7. top 3 otp’s and brotp’s?

otp’s: scira (teen wolf), finnrey (star wars), gallya (the man from uncle)

brotp’s: changlix (stray kids), woochan (stray kids), iwaoi (haikyuu!!)

8. have you ever visited a dog/cat/animal café? if not, would you like to?

no, i have not. yes, i would love to! there’s this shiba cafe in japan that i really wanna visit someday. :’)

9. opinion about minimalism?

it’s good, and i’m slowly working towards it. you can probably tell in my original content that i usually like to keep things pretty simple and minimal!

10. how is your workspace like?

the other day, i had 5 bottles on my desk with varying levels of water lmao. but now i’ve cleaned them out and put them away, and now my desk is pretty clean and organized! i wanna change up the photos on my wall, though.

11. if you had a superpower/magic, what would it be? and would you become a hero, a villain, or a normal person who use their power in daily life (like… you had magic and you use that to do your housework or sth bc you’re too lazy lol)

i’d like to be able to freeze time! i’m not sure how it would be useful as a hero, so i’d probably stay as a normal person and use it in my daily life. i’d like to have more time to get things done, ahaha.

questions from esther:

1. hogwarts house? (if you haven’t been sorted, describe yourself in 3 words)

hufflepuff!

2. harry potter, percy jackson, lotr, or asoiaf / game of thrones?

percy jackson.

3. favorite book genre? (e.g. fantasy, mystery, romance, etc.)

dystopian, or sci-fi.

4. top travel destination?

someone pls drag me to japan or south korea.

5. your happiest moment this month?

hanging out with my brother at a museum, followed by dragging him with me to muji and buying new stationery, followed by getting milk tea + boba and walking around in a mall. it was a good day. ^_^

6. favorite summer activity?

swimming!

7. how do you stay productive during the summer?

this summer, i’m studying for the gre, picking up japanese again, and practicing violin for my upcoming audition in august. and of course, i’m also working on some new living room sessions, which will be posted soon!

8. an interesting fact about yourself?

i used to do ballet, tap dancing, and gymnastics! unfortunately, now i’m no longer as flexible as i used to be ;;

9. tea or coffee?

tea~

10. favorite food?

sushi!!

11. crazy fast and loopy rollercoasters - yes or no?

YES ABSOLUTELY, but i haven’t been on one in a while.

questions from micky:

1. what’s your favorite flower?

hydrangea!

2. are you currently reading a book? if so, which one?

no :( i haven’t read a book for leisure in a while. i’d like to get into all for the game, though!

3. what’s one goal you have for the coming school year?

stop procrastinating on writing papers lol.

4. what do you do on rainy days?

stay indoors, listen to lo-fi hip-hop, mindlessly scroll through tumblr, watch youtube videos and anime, and drink a hot cup of tea.

5. what’s a habit you can’t stand?

people who chew with their mouths open :/

6. what’s your favorite genre of book or movie?

dystopian and action!

7. what’s the best thing that happened to you last week?

watching the fireworks on the 4th of july!

8. what’s something you are self-conscious about?

my skin :/

9. what are you most looking forward to in the next 10 years?

being done with school, and hopefully achieving some of my goals!!

10. what stereotype do you completely live up to?

a musician who wears black often lol. i own more blue jeans than black jeans, but i wear my black jeans more often since they go with everything! also, my raincoat and the majority of my winter coats are black, ahaha.

11. who inspires you to be better?

family, friends, and you guys!!

my 11 questions for you!

what’s your aesthetic?

which city in the world would you choose to describe yourself and why?

what kind of music do you like to listen to?

what did you have for breakfast today?

what song has been stuck in your head lately?

if you could live in any movie or tv show, which would you choose?

do you play an instrument? which one(s)? if not, which instrument would you like to learn how to play?

quick! name the first meme that comes to mind.

what’s your best piece of life advice?

who are some people you look up to?

are you having a good day today? (if not, i hope it gets better, and tomorrow is another chance to try again!)

tagging: @lavietudier, @ceesdesk, @adelinestudiess, @jynsdesk, @diaryofastemstudent, @ryustudies, @studytune, @moonshinestudies, @hannybstudies, @pltuo, @ahsteria, and anyone else who wants to do this! (sorry if you’ve already done this, and you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to!)

[btssavedmylifeblr]

Do you have any advice on traveling to Korea alone? Like how hard it was to get around, I can read hangul but don’t understand a lot just yet, and I am still learning to speak it decently. Did you have trouble finding places to go and traveling? I can’t believe you went alone that is so brave and I’m honestly inspired. I think it’s very cool. Any advice and also explaining your experience would be wonderful~

Oh my gosh, I am so excited about this ask!!! Thank you! I probably got a little carried away in my answer. 

I had such a wonderful time in Korea. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. The people are super nice, the country is very safe, and they have a great transportation system.  

Best Kpop things I did while there: went to a DAY6 concert, went to a taping of M!Countdown, and met MIN YOONGI’S OLDER BROTHER!

This post got crazy long, so I am placing a cut here.

On Traveling Alone

If one is going to travel alone, I think Korea is probably one of the very best places to do so. Everyone is very friendly and the country is incredibly safe. There is almost no crime. It actually took some adjustment on the part of my paranoid American self to calm down about things. For instance, people have way less personal space in general, so they would stand really close to you on the subway or follow you really closely when walking, even at night. In a major US city, this would be a sign that someone was trying to rob or assault you, but it is just normal behavior in Korea. People also would routinely take my phone when checking tickets or giving me directions and then just hand it back. I even had a man happily carry my suitcase up two flights of stairs in the subway and  then not run away with it. And this wasn’t just me being a naive tourist. I routinely saw people leave laptops unattended in cafes for hours and leave purses on bookshelves at the front of cafes while they sat and had coffee. Nothing ever got stolen. 

The only places that seemed dodgy were some of the clubs in Hongdae where men would try to get women to come into the clubs, often by physically grabbing them or blocking their path. I wouldn’t recommend doing the bar/club scene in Seoul by yourself, but that is probably good advice for being a woman anywhere in the world. Everywhere else was very safe. 

The only other thing that was hard about traveling alone was finding places to eat by yourself. While it can also be awkward to eat by yourself in the US, at least food is served in single portions. But most formal sit-down restaurants in Korea only serve things family style, so you really can’t go by yourself. I mostly stuck to cafes, street food, convenience store ramen, and lunch places that catered to students/single working people. I would usually wander around until I found a place where there were Koreans eating alone and then would go there.  More advice about that down in Practical Tips.

Ease of travel-wise, Korea has the best subway system I have ever seen. It was clean, air-conditioned and incredibly easy to use. You could always get from anywhere in Seoul to anywhere else in Seoul in less than an hour. There was also a high speed train to and from both airports. More advice about that in Practical Tips. 

On the Language Barrier

It was really easy to get around Seoul, despite speaking very little Korean. I actually remember being disappointed that everyone’s English was so much better than my Korean, because they would just speak in English to me and I didn’t get a chance to practice much Korean. People were always happy for my attempts to speak Korean though, so don’t go expecting to only ever speak English. Also, being able to read hangul is really important. The subway system translates everything into English, Japanese and Chinese, but maps and street signs are often only in hangul. It is also much easier to order off of menus if you can sound it out in Korean. Saying “I would like an orange juice.” does not work as well as saying “I would like an orenji juiseu.” I highly recommend this video series for learning hangul. It’s only an hour and a half. It does a really nice job explaining how the letters relate to mouth shape in a way that makes it much easier to remember which letter is which sound. 

Also, when I ventured outside of Seoul, to Busan, Gwangju, Daegu and Jeju, there were fewer people who spoke English. But I had been in Korea for three weeks at that point, so I could get by on the little Korean I knew and gesturing. 

Don’t be a jerk - On a related point, Korea is very ethnically homogenous. Even Seoul, which is by far the most cosmopolitan of the cities in Korea, is still 97% Korean. Almost everywhere I went, especially outside of Seoul, I was the only Westerner there. On more than one occasion, I had school children run up and ask to take pictures with me. In a weird way, you are kind of representing your whole country. Being angry that people don’t speak English or being picky about your food or assuming that Korean people should adhere to the cultural norms of where you come from, are all incredibly rude and give all foreigners a bad name. Be friendly, be accepting of differences, be adventurous, and try to speak as much Korean as you can. 

Best Kpop things I did

DAY6 Concert - I went to the DAY6 concert in Seoul at the end of July. I had purchased my tickets in advance before coming to Korea. The tickets cost around $90 USD. It was a really nice venue, large enough to have space for a great show, but still intimate enough to hear everything well and see the boys clearly. It was a phenomenal show. Confetti and fireworks. Lights and video. The live music was great and they all played and sang really well. Each member had at least one solo part and they frequently paused to chat with fans. Obviously, this was all in Korean and there are no subtitles on live events, so I was only able to follow some of it. And of course, the show ended with a video montage and heartfelt speeches about how much they love their fans. The Korean Kpop fans are awesome. They know all the fan chants perfectly and are very friendly. 

M!Countdown - Through this tour, I was able to go to the August 9th live taping of M!Countdown. I was able to see EXO, the JJ Project, Girls Generation, and the debut performance of Wanna One, along with several others. I am somewhere in the screaming audience of all those videos. I got to be incredibly close to the stage and got to see a huge variety of groups, so it was a ton of fun. The only thing that is tricky with this tour is that you have to sign up a couple months in advance, but they don’t know which groups will be performing until a couple of weeks before the show, so it is a gamble about who you will get to see. If you really want to only see one specific group, you are probably better off trying to get tickets through that particular fandom, but then you will only see that group’s performance.

Yoongi’s Family Cafe in Daegu - For the last two weeks of my trip, I met up with a fellow BTS fan that I met here on Tumblr and we went on a BTS-pilgrimage to Gwangju, Busan and Daegu. One of the highlights of this pilgrimage was our trip to the cafe owned by Suga’s family in Daegu. Sadly, this cafe is no longer owned by Yoongi’s family. They have relocated to Seoul. 

We went to the cafe on a Wednesday around lunch time. As my friend and I were taking pictures of the outside, a young man was watching us from inside the restaurant and came out to open the door for us. He was really cute and gave us a big smile when he saw us. As soon as I walked over to him, he asked in English where we were from and if we were BTS fans. I nodded enthusiastically. He smiled and nodded, like “I figured.“ I told him we went to their concert in Newark and how fabulous it was and that’s when he volunteered “I’m Suga’s brother”. At first, I was worried that we would seem like crazy stalker people for having found this cafe, but the cafe was definitely not hiding its BTS connection. The walls were covered in BTS merchandise and a giant picture of BTS with Suga’s mom. They also only played BTS music the whole time we were there, which made it really hard to contain the fangirling, especially when Cypher Pt. 3 came on. 

We both got the soup, which was boiling when it arrived. I was too excited and accidentally stuck a whole piece of boiling blood sausage in my mouth and then didn’t dare spit it back out out of fear of offending Min Yoongi’s whole family. Instead, I coughed and chugged a bunch of water. Later, when we were paying, Yoongi’s brother teased me about how I had started to eat the sausage while it was still burning. “You ate so passionately,” he said. “It was hot and you had to drink the water!” And then he laughed a lot. He was very amused that two western girls would like blood sausage so much. 

I also did a bunch of cool, non-kpop things like visiting museums and language cafes, going for a bike ride on the Han river, and taking some Korean cooking classes, but this post is too long already. 

Practical Tips

Airbnb - I booked my accommodations for my whole trip through Airbnb. It was  half the cost of staying in Western-style hotels and put me in touch with locals who made sure I arrived in one piece to wherever I was supposed to be staying. This turned out to be really important when I accidentally took the wrong train in my attempt to get from Seoul to Gwangju.  I also purposefully booked a room with a host for the first week, so I would have someone to help me as I figured out the basics of getting around. I also highly recommend the Airbnb experiences. They are designed to assemble groups of people traveling by themselves to do different activities as a group, like get Korean BBQ or learn how to make bibimbap. I met so many awesome people and had such a great time. Both the hosts and the other travelers were a ton of fun. 

Subway App - This is the greatest subway app that exists on the face of the planet. Even if you never plan on going to Korea, you should download it to admire the amazing feat of technological prowess and efficiency that it is. It has maps for every major city in Korea and is available in English. It knows exactly when every train is coming, exactly how long it takes to walk between connecting trains, and even which car of the train to stand in to maximize the efficiency of your transfers. It made the subway system infinitely easier to deal with. Older people on the subway would often ask me where I was going, out of fear that I would get myself lost, and I could just hold out my phone and show them. 

Google Maps vs. KakaoMap - People in Korea claim that Google maps doesn’t work at all and one person even told me that it was a vast conspiracy by the American government to hide the location of military bases from North Korea. Based on my experience, I think it is much more likely that Google just hasn’t bothered to invest the time to make Google Maps work very well in Korea because Korea already has the excellent KakaoMap which works really well. That being said, KakaoMap is not available in English. My strategy ending up being that I would search for a place (like a cafe or SM town or Bonguensa Temple) in Google Maps and find the address, then copy and paste the Korean address into KakaoMap and follow its directions. 

Go in Spring or Autumn - Koreans are not messing around when they say that Korea has four seasons. I went in July and August and it was incredibly humid and incredibly hot (and I am from the American South, so I have experience with hot and humid). Everywhere I went, I instantly became a sweaty disgusting mess and ended up showering like twice a day. Winter also gets incredibly cold. I don’t have a lot of flexibility over when I can travel due to my work, but if you can go at anytime, I suspect fall and spring are the nicest times to go. 

Hope that was helpful! Thanks for asking!

[arimayusa]

thoughts on the tokyo ghoul movie

so I saw it yesterday and woAH the movie was amazing, but I ended up knocking out before I finished typing up all my thoughts, but now that i'm done with all my work for today, it’s time to post my opinions about the live action tg movie!! :D

(this is really long and includes a bunch of spoilers about the movie so it will be under the cut)

Masataka Kubota is an awkward adorable dork, case closed & Hide was really well casted too! 

his cheerfulness and loud attitude really emphasized how opposite and introverted Kaneki is in comparison

I was happy to see that Kaneki’s desk was littered with books (like a crap ton of books), basically mplying he was a literature major without actually stating so + showing his love for books

SEN TAKATSUKI!!!! (sadly she wasn’t there but at least her name was mentioned)

omg Kaneki had such a stupid grin after looking at his calendar marked with "date with Rize"

only noticed it cause I saw it at the TG cafe, but Kaneki had a picture of him and Hide in elementary school taped on the top of his desk

the whole date with Rize was super awkward (especially the pasta part lol) but I think it created a strange (in a good way) tone leading up to the surprise of Rize’s reveal

omg the actress who played Rize was so good too :0 like the the shift in the pitch of her voice from shy and cute to the deeper, sensual one like in the anime when she revealed that she was a ghoul was so gooood

pretty sure the two people I went with were weirded out by how much I was giggling as Kaneki got flung around like a ragdoll by Rize

I thought the funeral scene was a nice touch, showing how Kaneki's been alone for so long (except for Hide of course)

Hide's drawing of a ghoul from the manga was still included even though it didn’t happen in Anteiku in the beginning (instead it was by on Kaneki's Campus notebook which was also on display at the TG cafe)

when Kaneki hallucinates Rize in his room, her shadow was a centipede on the ceiling!!! 

that was a neat reference thrown in for the fans since we don't make it to Aogiri arc in the movie

that was one of the many things that only manga readers would've understood (which made the movie even more fun for me since that means if was made with that intention and care)

askdflkef when Touka threw cake at Kaneki after getting pissed off I was just like "lmao he's gonna get you a cake for your wedding later you know"

once again, of course Nishiki was perfect casting

I laughed a little too hard when Kimi was embarrassed & Nishiki kept staring at her chest with a blank stare while Hide and Kaneki just kinda stood at the door to his room

the Kaneki licking Hide's face scene™ was so funny (there’s all the Hidekane we gonna get y’all)

one thing that was real cute (cause it happened several times throughout the movie) was Touka telling Kaneki that he was an idiot and to stop crying and after the 1st time (when he learned he could drink coffee), Touka started saying it in a teasing tone rather than an angry one

the scene where Mado and Amon were introduced was actually pretty intimidating, it was right after they killed Hinami’s dad and Mado had Amon smash the ghouls hands with a rock that got bloodier as he continued (luckily the hand was off screen) in order to open

Amon's actor whoo boy (even my mom thought he was hot lmao)

oh my the scene where Mado held up the donut and asked "can you fall in love with this,” Amon was just staring at the donut (but we all know he was nodding inside guys)

(ok now this is me writing the day after aka today and I'm already forgetting the order of certain scenes so this may be slightly out of order rip)

Yoriko was so cute!!!! her actress was really pretty I wish we saw more of her... 

I thought the food scene was kinda awkward though since it's wasn't at their school, but it was funny when Kaneki asked to have some too and Touka wouldn't let him have any

I was trying to look for Touka's bunny charm but I didn't notice it!! I did see something on Yoriko's bag though???

the “shuu” kanji scene was done a little differently but I liked it more

lol Hinami first asked Touka how to read the kanji but she didn’t know (because Touka-chan is bad at Japanese) so Kaneki explained

then Touka was just like "haha yeah that's it" pretending that she had just forgotten and Hinami straight savage calls her out, saying that Touka didn't know in the first place

Kaneki and Hinami both giggled at Touka and ahhh it was so cute, they felt like a family

the process in which Amon, Mado, and Kusaba determined who Ryouko and Hinami were made A LOT more sense in the movie than the animeit showed almost the entire process of them finding evidence starting from simply a string of fabric left behind on Hinami’s father’s clothes

*winks aggressively at Ishida and the director for the graffiti of a scythe and XIII in the background*

Hajime made his cameo the same way he did in the manga (and BOY DID I WANNA SLAP HIM RIGHT THERE that kid has a shady look on his face already I stg)

oh yeah the kagune! I thought they looked pretty decent actually

I liked how the scales shimmered and stuff, but of course some scenes kinda looked too CGI-y (especially the fight with Nishiki)

#blessed that they included the "I would be sad if you died Touka-chan scene"

the training montage with Kaneki and Touka / Amon was so cooooool (ok stfu Alyssa you just loved it cause you got to see strong Touka & shirtless Amon)

omg Kaneki apologizing after landing a hit on Touka for the first time was adorable ok

Touka's overalls when they went to HySy were really cute. I want to draw it when the movie comes out online later

idk why but I kept laughing at the little wrist watch radios that Amon and Mado had on their arms to contact each other???? it was just really weird and funny to see for some odd reason

ohh ok probably one of my favorite scenes was when Kaneki just started fucking speeding towards Amon's car which caused him to jam the brakes (bc some random hooded dude is just sprinting towards you in the middle of the street what else would you do)

then Kaneki just freakin jumps on it all slow mo and flips it over because he's dramatic like that

idk if this was in the manga but Doujima rotated and grinded Kaneki's kagune during the fight (which made more sense then a lollipop that Amon just swings around)???

besides some of the awkward shots in the movie, my only other criticism was that some of the fight scenes were drawn out way too long

Amon and Kaneki's was ok for the most part, but Touka and Mado's fight felt REALLY drawn out. they kept just standing and talking a lot

I tried it on when I was at the cafe but seeing Kaneki wearing the mask during his fight was way cooler and the shot of him unzipping it was noice 

when Kaneki started losing his sanity during the fight with Amon, Kubota had this really psychotic laugh that made me giggle a lot ahhh

yo guys there was a bloody tear from Kaneki's ghoul eye that dripped onto Amon's right eye (his future ghoul eye)... like much wow such foreshadowing director/ishida

near the end, Amon brings flowers to Mado’s grave, but sadly Akira doesn’t show up cryy

all in all I thought it was a very enjoyable, pretty accurate adaptation (definitely one of the best anime live actions & *cough* better than the anime)

I went with two people who knew very little about TG, except for it’s premise, and they thought the movie was really good themselves (although a little too much blood in one of their opinions). Throughout the movie there was a bunch of hidden stuff for fans & probably a bunch more symbolism that I missed so I can't wait to rewatch it in the future (I wish I could go see it again this week tbh) and find even more stuff!!

oh one more thing! the credits were really pretty with BANKA playing in the background and there was some cool art during the scroll

I got pictures of three of them: the Owl/Dog/Ape, Touka's kagune, and Hinami's kagune!

[star-trashinum]

Shine for you, Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - A Faint Sparkle

Characters - Ruby Kurosawa/Mari Ohara

Tags - Slow burn, Romance, tags to be added as chapters progress

Description - Childhood friends, a puppy crush, blossoming into love.

Word Count - 2075

Notes - This will be my first multichap fic that’s more than just 2 chapter, and will also be about my own personal favourite rare pair.

I hope you enjoy it; comments and feedback would be wonderful!

(Italics indicate Mari’s English, and bold indicates texting

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Te o nobase! Sore kara nayame!

Te o nobase! Sore kara nayame!

         Mari flops down on the floor, much too exhausted for a spoiled rich girl after a particularly grueling Aqours practice. “Very exhausted!!!~” Mari screams, before rolling over to press her face to the concrete, hoping that the lack of sun in her eyes will help her cool by some magical feat. She feels a small tap on her shoulder, which she verifies is not a spider by the fact that she only feels it for that fraction of a second. Rolling back over, she looks to see a pair of big green eyes staring at her, which could have been one of two people. The bright red pigtails and the fact that she was closer to the ground gave it away, though.

         “U-Umm… Mari-oneechan… could I ask for something?” Ruby asks, recoiling the hand that poked Mari’s back as she turned over to face her, “I-I need your help with school.”

         “Why, of course, dear little Ruby!~” Mari exuberantly replies, sitting right back up, “what seems to be ailing you, little child; does someone need to be taken care of?” Mari’s question was more comedic than serious, but knowing her status and what she had power over, it was scary to think about the things she actually could do.

         “W-Wha-- N-no no; no one needs to be taken care of!!” Ruby explains, wondering in her head what the whole ‘taken care of’ thing meant, “I meant t-that I needed help studying; everyone is really busy, but Ruby knows that you speak English, a-and she wanted to ask… if you could help her with homework…” Mari blinks astoundedly for a second; sure, she was chairwoman, but… school tended to be a ‘do it last minute to barely pass’ sort of thing. Oh well, Ruby was quite cute about it, and it was true that she was at least passingly familiar with English to lend a hand.

         “Why of course, my dear Ruby; mama Mari’s always here to help!” Mari happily tells her as she pulls out her phone, pulling up a calendar, “Hmmm… I should be alright at any time on days we don’t have practice, chairwoman things can always be adjusted; just text me when you’re free!”

         “O-Ok Mari-oneechan… thank you.”

---

Ganbaruby -

- hey mariiii

- im free tomorrow do you want to meet somewhere; i need help with understanding my homework for an upcoming test

Shiiiny -

- of course!!!

- Do you want to meet up at one of the cafes near the hotel? The whole thing will be on me; i just wanna help you study \owo/

Ganbaruby -

- O ok thank u so much

- ill see u then!!

---

         Getting off the bus, Ruby quickly makes her way to the massive seaside hotel, still not used to the sheer size of it and how her friend just… casually lived in it… because she owned it. Making her way through the massive and heavy glass doors, she surveys around the foyer, before finding an elegantly designed sign above a door, reading ‘Cafe - Cazzo di Caffetteria’. The cafe’s decor is quite rustic and simple, but its elegance speaks volumes; polished and meticulously built wooden furniture dots the floor of the cafe. Low hanging lamps with yellowed bulbs cast the most beautiful of shadows on the brick-walled room, giving off an extremely home-y look. State of the art espresso machines, French presses and hand-cranked grinders make up the front station, along with an array of shelves filled with coffee beans, cutlery and anything you’d ever need and more for a cafe. A curved glass display case houses an assortment of small cakes and cookies, along with sandwiches for people looking for a small snack. The dimly lit and warm tones of the room, along with the menagerie of hotel guests gives an extremely fancy vibe, and Ruby is almost too intimidated to enter before a familiar, shrill voice calls to her.

         “Oh, I’m here, Ruby!!~” Mari calls out, waving incessantly as she distracts some of the customers near her, “Now let’s get started on your work, and let good ol’ Mari here help you with your work!” Ruby walks over towards Mari’s table, setting her bag down beside her chair as she sits down onto the chair; wooden and heavy, contrasted with a lovely plush seat cover. The heavy cardstock menu is overflowing with menu items, a literal half of the menu dedicated to just different ways to take your coffee. The items have their English names written in beautiful painstakingly drawn calligraphy, and Ruby can barely make out the word ‘Coffee’ before giving up to read the Japanese titles given on the menus. “See anything you like, Ruby-chan?” Mari kindly asks, gesturing to the menu that Ruby is meticulously scanning through, “since this cafe is part of the hotel, you can order whatever you’d like on the menu, in the house!~”

         “M-Mari-oneechan… isn’t the saying ‘on the house’?” Ruby responds, confused now by both the large assortment of coffees and Mari’s english, “a-and i have my choice, s-so we can order now.” Mari looks into mind, realizing that, yes, the term ‘in the house’ is very incorrect; blushing at the embarrassment of messing up the language she was about to teach Ruby. Mari waves over to a barista that’s currently polishing one of the coffee cups, and clears her throat as the barista pulls out a pen and notepad from her apron.

         “What can I get you two today?”

         “Y-yes, can I get a dark roast with three sugars and two shots of espresso and a lemon tart,” Mari responds, giving the barista her usual order; tailored perfectly to the eccentric, energetic blonde, “and what will you have, Ruby?”

         “Oh… um… right… c-can Ruby have a warm milk tea… green tea please… and a s-strawberry shortcake,” Ruby calls out, making sure to check over her order multiple times, before nodding to give the barista the OK. The barista finishes jotting down the order before heading back to their station, starting up their order. Wanting to get down to buisness, Ruby reaches down to her bag, pulling out her English textbook, along with a pastel pink notebook, covered in little doodles of flowers along the front page. “S-So, the test I have upcoming is about verbs and adjectives, and I have a bunch of practice problems, s-so Mari-oneechan can help with those…” Ruby explains, opening her textbook up to a set of problems, “will that be OK with you?”

         Mari looks at Ruby’s book; sure, she knew what all the words meant… sorta… but putting them together into well-crafted, organized sentences? That wasn’t Shiny enough. To be shiny was to express yourself in how shiny you were, not some grammatically correct nonsense that wouldn’t dare to capture the shininess of it all. She would manage, though; helping little Ruby would have to come first.

"Of course!! You know, I'm very good at English, if you could tell," Mari reminds her, flashing up her trademark 'OK!!~' symbol with her hand, "let's get one of these questions done so I know what we're working with, no?" Ruby nods in agreement, flipping through the textbook to a pre-bookmarked page, preparing herself by taking out a silver-colored mechanical pen. "Y-Yeah, that sounds good… O-OK, here’s a good one to start with,” Ruby begins, hovering the pencil towards the instructions, then to the first sample sentence, “add an adjective that best fits the sentence; ‘The kitten is very ___.’” Ruby looks towards a box of sample words on the bottom of that page, trying to think of the word that would best fit a small animal. “Do you think ‘cute’ would describe a kitten, Mari-oneechan?” Ruby asks, cocking her head to the side.

“I think the kitten would be shiny!” Mari answers, feeling confident in her words before looking towards a very confused Ruby, “Think about it; both you and the kitten are small and adorable, and Ruby is very shiny, therefore; ‘The kitten is very shiny.” Mari puts on a high and triumphant face, closing her eyes to appreciate how concrete her reasoning was for the kitten to be shiny. The self-appreciation goes away quickly as she looks to her pupil, who is bright red and almost shaking in embarrassment. Mari leans in to look at the embarrassed mess in front of her, realizing that she had just accidentally hit on one of her childhood friends, more specifically, the little sister of her very protective childhood friend. “Y-You alright, Ruby?” Mari sheepishly questions, trying to gauge how she should handle the immense awkwardness sitting right in front of her, “sorry that I just said that all willy-nilly, did I frighten ya?”

“Y-Yeah... I'm all good, y-you just caught me off guard, t-that’s all…” Ruby tells Mari, fidgeting, as if to say something,  “It’s just... all the words come from a word bank… and the word shiny isn't in there, Mari-oneechan.” The two sit in a state of deafening silence, not able to form any coherent words until the barista comes with a large platter with their orders.

“An order for Miss Ohara and her friend,” the waitress announces, before setting the dishes on the table for the two girls, “if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask, Miss Ohara.” Mari gives the barista a nod, before giving her a wave of thanks; she would be sure to ask later to take the dishes away, if she could remember what her name was. There were a lot of staff members at the hotel, and brown, short hair was all too common. She purses her lips, only coming to the conclusion that her named started in an S.

Ruby clasped her hands together, eyes shining in delight as she looked at her order, “Wow Mari, this all looks so exquisite; it looks almost too good to eat!” She gives a silent nod of thanks before taking her fork to the cake, parting both the spongy cake and the decadent filling to make a small piece for herself. Stabbing the shortcake, Ruby’s eyes light up at she takes her first bite, a mumbled squee of approval as she chews and takes in the flavour of the treat. “-chew chew- It’s so sweet and fluffy Mari, you should give it a try!” Ruby exclaims, cutting off another small piece of her cake, as she extends her arm to hand her a piece of her dessert. Truth be told, Mari had tested every single item on this menu, but Ruby's request was so cute that she couldn’t resist. Momentarily blushing, Mari leans over as she takes the small piece off the fork with her lips, remembering full well how delicious that particular cake was.

“Fluffy and cute, and particularly sweet too, just perfect for Ruby,” Mari thinks, finishing up the small bite, before realizing exactly what she had thought, “wait what am I thinking she’s like a sister-- oh god I used her fork for that Dia will kill me.” Mari momentarily panicked, hoping that Ruby wouldn’t notice the indirect lip contact as the girl took another bite out of her cake. Taking a sip from her dangerously caffeinated beverage, Mari watches as Ruby cutely furrows her brow in concentration. She looks back and forth between her notes and the book, before letting out a small huff.

“Is everything alright, little Ruby?” Mari worriedly asks, concerned by Ruby’s somewhat upset face.

“Y-Yeah… just confused on how you would use some of these words,” Ruby admits, writing a sentence out, before erasing it shortly after, “M-Mari-oneechan, could you help Ruby out here?”

Ruby actually really trusted in her to teach her, huh?

If it was one of the members of her subunit, they would've already known the pretense that working Mari brought; but Ruby really depended on her, probably because of how long they've know each other.

That was it, right? Mari gives a small chuckle,as she stand up out of her chair, causing Ruby to look suddenly up from her book as she sees Mari turn around to pick up her chair. With a newfound, confident stride, she walks the wooden chair and places it beside Ruby, before sitting back down. "Sorry for joking around earlier, little Ruby, this time good ol' Mari-oneechan is gonna really help with your homework, ok?" Mari announced, watching Ruby give a smile in response, "Good; let's get to it, shall we?"

[victor-v]

so yesterday i finished all for the game for the second time in my life (weird thing i've never read a book or series twice) and it wrecked me for the second time. it was unexpectedly nice that i actually understood everything with so much clarity, but that makes sense i've got lot of practice in reading english since then. also, i wrote my thoughts on the book this time.

i can't understand how a book can have such an impact on me, i hate that and i love it, everything else that crossed my mind is under the cut

★huh andrew really bullied aaron into dressing identical to mess up with neil

★"i don't swing either way" is the phrase that made me feel more valid that the whole queer community ever

★neil is pure nihilism

★how can i EVER forget neil wore a tight long sleeved TORN tshirt that andrew bought this is way too much

★seth is dead and all kevin can think about is the line up tbh i do that often

★they are making a scandal about how they sit

★kevin telling neil "destroy him" filled me with power

★the most unreal part is neil ALWAYS keeping his roots another colour the guy must dye his hair every fucking week

★how did neil buy andrew's promise to protect him from the japanese mafia's professional murderers when the only people he physically bullies is an obsessive young adult with anxiety, a princess in high heels and his sunshine sister in law

★wait a fucking minute andrew saw neil filled with terror while holding the phone and immediately gave him the car keys so he could be alone fuck

★nicky fucking hemmick attended to improv class

★ according to dan few athletes were crude enough to start trouble at an ERC event, you mean as crude as neil?

★how to take care of your teammate while he's in a crisis according to: andrew→show concern and reassure him. wymack→10 seconds of vodka

★"hey, jean. jean valjean" is peak comedy

★the ravens walking in v formation is genuinely the most cringy thing you can think of

★neil first finds out the only possible person to date him is andrew because he was jealous of renee are you kidding me

★andrew only missed 13 from 150 shots on goal for fucking real what a Man

★renee is an angel, she's specifically andrew's angel

★neil truly is a watcher

★bee wearing a bee costume is the only good thing on this world

★dan and matt dressed like greek gods!!!!! they can adopt me already

★can you believe nicky is the one who got into neil's brain and planted the idea of realying on someone, and since then neil actively pursues an investigation on andrew's relationship status how on god's name i missed that HOW he's not even subtle about it damn

★he first worries about renee now about kevin goddamn it josten how can't you se how much you care about him

★it's funny how sexuality is such a heavy topic between them when they sure as fuck have some pretty huge stuff going on you know like dying in the hands of the mafia or being tortured

★i imagine andrew running to renee all bonkers like "listen if the cute guy asks, for fucks sake tell him i'm gay but make it ~casual~ maybe this way he'll get it"

★the sole mention of thanksgiving dinner makes me want to die

★kevin is checking the scores in a newspaper I forget this book is so 00's

★they should have spent the day eating turkey and frozen pie at abby's fuckkkkkkkk

★are you kidding me they are in the middle of a conversation and andrew casually chokes neil a little but it's ok they carry on wtf

★"we are all going to regret this" is the fucking worse piece of foreshadowing in this book

★neil interrogating andrew the same night he was raped what kind of fucking piece of shit does that

★i can't fucking believe neil went ahead and shoved andrew's hand under his tshirt in front of kevin, wymack, betsy and two fucking lawyers are you kidding me

★neil asking "are we? friends?" to nicky is so relatable because i also would have an aneurysm if someone told me i am their friend

★someone else tries to flirt with him and he immediately considers andrew how i was too ace to see it the first time i read

★jesus fucking christ riko is one truly fucked up sociopath and neil is the bravest motherfucker on the land

★how can he face riko like that in the nest and be extremely pure in other occasion

★"are we watching the ball drop? i want to make a wish" he wants to make a wish and i want to die thanks

★i can't believe the whole if it means losing you then no and side effect of the drugs shit it's unreal fucking unreal how oblivious neil is too ace to realize anything SOMEONE JUST CALLED YOU "DREAM" THE LEVEL OF ROMANTICISM

★the amount of heavy staring in this trilogy is ridiculous and all i can think about is twilight

★these books made me see how far from the 00s we are, for many reasons, but mostly for some jokes that can't let slide; like calling neil a battered wife, domestic misogynistic violence is not a joke

★i can't believe from all people, wymack was the first one to get andrew was into neil

★"that doesn't mean I wouldn't blow you" is such a funny phrase to be said casually why is it

★"you are a racoon, not a fox" oh andrew

★it only took andrew admitting he had a crush for neil to be all sentimental and shit, and that disarmed andrew too

★they are like some kind of animal that while you think they are fighting, they are actually mating, that's exactly what nora meant with feral

★half of last book is neil mooning over andrew jfc

★nicky made neil smile while distracting him from riko im gonna throw myself off a cliff

★i can't quite believe neil goes through a detailed monologue about andrews memory the man is impressed and borderline turned on about every talent on his crushe's shelf

★i literally can't follow and will never understand the quarrel/promise/agreement between aaron and andrew what a bunch of pretentious idiots

★every time neil's phone buzzes all i fear is the fucking countdown

★i thought "i want to see you lose control" was a collective fever dream i can't believe it's written on the books

★if i was nicky i already have told andrew to stop his freaky pretentious shit towards me

★neil to the upperclassman: ha ha fellas is it gay to unthinkingly call andrew in the middle of a anxiety breakdown

★"you gave me a key and called it home" is as soft as heartbreaking i want to jump off a cliff

★"i won't be like them, i wont let you let me be" is actually pushing me off that cliff andrews feelings are a fucking storm

★neil was kidnapped and tortured the day of my bday and that's not a coincidence

★neil's talent to twist the truth in order to convince andrew of anything is outstanding

★excuse me they have no right to be this soft i hate them

★they miss so many opportunities to be funny about the whole "protection" thing

★did he really had a mental breakdown over where to fucking sit on the bus lmao

★"don't come crying to me when someone breaks your face" is the second most awful piece of foreshadowing

★lets be honest for a second andrew should be a fucking writer because all those things he says? edgy myspace pretentious poetry

★im sorry but i don't care about literally anything except neil smiling onto andrew's neck bye

★andrew ghosted a kiss across neil's hip im dead for real

★abby kissed neil's forehead farewell after cleaning all his injuries i have no words he's recieving all the affection he deserves

★cant believe you don't see aaron is fucking worried neil is taking advantage of andrew

★i mean yeah ok don't talk love but neil is sad that nicky thinks it was only hate sex, and he immediately acknowledged it meant more than that to him bc his demi btw wtf does hate sex mean i can't believe you hate someone so much you wanna suck his dick

★they all went horseback riding when will i have a group of friends like that

★"who's humanising who in that relationship" i know right nicky

★kevin locking himself to have a panic attack is the most relatable thing

★the car encounter with ichirou holds the same tension as a mr robot scene

★the proposal of playing olympics and being unstoppable feels like marriage or smth

★neil is literally having his hot girl summer

★i adore neil's overflow of emotions after swallowing everything for so many years. represented, thanks.

★andrew terrorising katelyn who the fuck does he think he is what an annoying asshole

★"did you know i've never been skiing" is the most epic line

★i cheer to the sole mention of laila

★alvares can deck me right now and i would say thank you

★"war is profitable" aaron knows what's up

★sometimes i want to slap them is2g

★that scene at eden's where they are all discussing how roland found out and aaron ends up being the only straight one lmao boy it's your punishment for being so homophobic

★the whole "deadliest piece on the board" spech is 100 times better when you consider kevin was wasted and overly exaggerating every word and gesture

★can you imagine those few fans supporting kevin's new tattoo screaming YAAAAASSSSS QUEEEEEEEEEN while snapping fingers i'm cackling

★matt in court body slamming into anyone that's been a problem to the foxes: VIBE CHECK MOTHERFUCKER

★neil kissed andrew in castle fucking evermore the audacity i adore him

[authorsdenbyorihime-may]

How I Write Baybayin (Handwriting and Straight-cut Nib Calligraphy) Subtitle: This is a freaking long-ass post so be warned now

You can read the entirety of this post as is, or you can go straight to the calligraphy portion. It’s at the end of the post (sorry dunno how to link that portion here).

Writer’s Note: First and foremost, I will advise everyone who reads this somewhat master post that I am not an authority when it comes to how baybayin is written, as what you shall be reading is just based mostly on my own experiences on how the characters are written and comparing them with other writing systems that are based on syllables rather than individual letters, like the Japanese Kana and the Korean Hangul, among others. This is because baybayin are not technically letters (individualized, can’t stand alone, only comes either as vowel or consonant but not both, you get the picture), but rather are syllables (i.e. the consonants have free vowels with them lol) that form words.

Also, as far as I know regarding how the baybayin texts are originally written pre-Hispanic colonization era, some of the written texts in the Philippines (or at least, those that survived, or I remember seeing in old history books) were written from right to left, top to bottom. This also coincides with other writing methods in some parts of Asia that also read from right to left. The technique of writing and reading from left to right may be a Western invention, in my opinion so I just did some of the strokes in the baybayin characters go from right to left, except for the straight-cut nib section. Again, I am no authority so I’m just doing what I think makes sense to me, as there is no existing ANCIENT written rules on the stroke order of the baybayin. Other people may disagree with my stroke orders here due to various reasons, but if you’re into what I did then feel free to learn from them, for free. *heart*

This author’s other notes: I won’t be elaborating the history of baybayin here because that would take around (counts how many years I spent in school) 5ever as it basically intertwines with the “current” history of the Filipino people. I put quotes on “current” because every decade or so, some written histories get re-written based on some evidences or what, and I totally respect that. It’s like in scientific papers: legit today, debunked tomorrow. And it’s completely OK, because THE MORE YOU KNOW~

Also this author’s note: I keep calling baybayin alibata, because that’s what they were called when I was a kid and how it was taught by history teachers before the process called “being politically-correct” became the norm. It’s because alibata was supposedly an incorrect term which signifies that the characters were letters based on Arabic, but apparently it wasn’t so.. Yeah. I’m just saying, so the kiddies would know. And if you’re like me who also refers to baybayin as alibata, let’s get a high-five! (Cause you’re also old, but gold =D) Some biased history FTW lol ok let’s get started.

Handwriting Alibata Baybayin Strokes with a Bamboo pen (or Ballpen, or Pencil, w/e floats your boat)

OK, before I start I would be first putting here the somewhat traditional ordering of the baybayin, which is:

A BA KA DA E GA HA I LA MA NA NGA O PA RA SA TA U WA YA

As well as the borrowed/loan syllables (which correspond to C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X, and Z were apparently added some 6-7 years ago, in which I didn’t get the memo x__x)

CA FA JA ÑA QA VA XA ZA

OK, now that’s out of the way, it’s time for the actual stuff. For ease of practice and recall, I’m grouping the letters based on how I write them and in turn, their forms. This would make sense as the pictures move along, don’t worry. The forms are built sequentially, I tried making that a bit obvious in the diagrams, but there are red arrows in case I wasn’t that clear. For those that only have one picture or arrows in the sequence, I would be implying that the form is built on a single stroke.

Group 1: A, MA, PA, YA, FA, JA, VA

OK, let’s start with A:

Then MA:

PA:

YA:

FA:

JA:

VA:

Group 2:  E/I (more on that later), KA, DA, HA, RA, CA, QA, XA

I’ll start with HA because it’s a foundational stroke:

E:

I looks structurally like E, but only with a vertical stroke on its hat.

It’s because originally, E and I were the same character and whether it should be read as a syllable from the E or I line depends on how the reader would read it and the dialect used in writing the words, like it’s a fill-in-the-blanks kind of thing.  It’s also the same with O and U, so if you see that part yeah they look alike. This is also the reason why revisions on writing the E-I and O-U consonants were made, but that would be for a later part. Just be patient for now. =D

Ok, moving on, we’ll go to KA:

DA:

RA:

A short note on DA and RA: In olden times, these two were only one character, and are used interchangeably based on word usage, thus for words such as doon/roon, which both mean way over there one is used for passive and one is used directly (sorry not a speech comm person). This is also the case for marami and ang dami (both meaning “there are many/there is much” but one is active and one is passive. Madami is, IMHO grammatically incorrect. But then again, I’m not a speech comm person so sorry if these are wrong. I’m just saying).

CA:

QA:

XA:

Group 3: O/U, GA, SA, ZA

Just like in E/I, O and U are also structurally similar. To make an O:

To make it a U, just put a vertical line on the right side:

GA:

SA:

ZA:

Group 4: LA, NA, TA, ÑA

I grouped this bunch based on having a downward stroke in the middle of the form. The initial strokes are written as a single stroke from left to right, like in the first group.

LA:

NA:

TA:

ÑA:

Group 5: I have no idea where to put BA, NGA, and WA so I just made a miscellaneous group lol but they deserve just as much love OK?

BA:

NGA:

WA:

How the E, I, O and U lines are written:

In writing E, I, O and U (as in the case for the example below, which is GE, GI, GO, and GU), the original positions of the additional marks (such as the vertical lines for I and U) were kept but in order to differentiate E from I and O from U, the marks were made to be further distinct. For instance, GE is basically GA which has a horizontal line above it, while GI has a dot above it. As for GO, it has a dot below and GU has a horizontal line. 

GI and GO can have either a hollowed dot like in the sample, or can also be filled like the samples below. It’s based on personal preference. Also I used G for the samples because it looks nice, fun to write, and most other examples of alibata on the internet use BA as their examples for this portion. Whoops, I meant, baybayin. XD

Vowel Killers: Invented by People who Needed It

I’m not entirely sure why vowel killer was the term used but it does tell it exactly what it does: it silences the vowels in the characters (because baybayin is composed of syllables) in order to make separate letters. It was invented by some Spanish friar who couldn’t properly write the native words because words that have consonants at the end were written incompletely. I.E. the word DOON (over there) was written as DO-O in baybayin. It was such a drag that he decided to introduce the Spanish/Latin alphabet by making baybayin characters that acted as alphabets, which is essentially killing all the vowels and leaving the consonant behind. So instead of using dots, the friar made a cross underneath the symbol which they called a kudlit (for obviously non-secular reasons), so that the words with consonant ends can be written and read as they were. As per the revision that was instated a few years ago, in order to make the baybayin a bit more secular, more forms of the vowel killers were made, which in my opinion look better than the original kudlit, because they look more organic with the forms.

As you can see in the pic of the letter G above, the first on the left is the original kudlit, which is shaped like a cross. The next one has an X, or sinawali (it’s literally based on the patterns of hard, woven rattan walls called sawali which look like X’s), the next one is called a kawil (sorry dunno where that came from) and the right-most one has a pamudpod (which may have come from the word “pudpod/pudpud” literally meaning grinding or repeatedly striking something on a hard surface or on a whetting stone till it disappears or becomes flat/dull, so pamudpod is the surface that makes the item pudpod like a used pencil or eraser. Do I even make sense anymore? Oh well, YOLO).

Stringing them All Together

My personal preference is using a kawil on horizontal writing (left to right) and using a pamudpod when writing vertically. I think the overall impact is better. But then again, it’s just my personal idea. Using any of the vowel killers are, like the filled or hollow dots on I and O are personal preferences, as long as there is consistency in usage.

If you can read the above and understand where the reference came from, you probably also call baybayin as alibata, and we should totally get some tea together. XDD It pretty much means “What is there, yonder?” smth idk but yeah, it sounds like that. Old and formal Filipino/Tagalog.

Langit -  sky or heaven, Lupa - ground or earth, Araw - sun, and Buwan (or Bulan in Ilokano) - moon

Soliman - A variant of the name Sulaiman/Solomon 

Amihan - the northeast monsoon, the nice wind that brings in cool, dry air around November-March. Or if you watched the old and new Encantadia, she’s the protag. XD

The third sampler is a phrase (I ran out of space it was supposed to be a sentence), and vertical double bars are used to end the sentence. I just made them into diagonal slashes to make them look cool. Also I ran out of space. x__x It’s transliterated as a wailing mom looking for her child: Ai anaku (bunga) - Ah, my child (fruit). No space for fruit so it ain’t there.

Author’s extra rant note: Of course, some early Filipinos didn’t wanna use the kudlit due to being comfy with whatever they had at that time, but eventually they gave in. Fast forward to a century later and the baybayin was pretty much dead, as it was for the next 4 centuries or so. Romaji became the norm (except for some of the native tribes that have their own awesome writing systems), but then again some Filipinos didn’t forget it entire time, as many of the revolutionaries’ battle flags had the syllable KA, which is the first syllable of Katipunan, their group which can also be transliterated as “the entire group of the people who meet and come together”. I can’t say more because this is a long-ass post and it’s not about Philippine history. But we can talk about that if you want. Just hit me up with an ask. Warning though: I might just say “thanks for asking but please ask something else” lol j/k XDD

Writing Baybayin using a Straight-cut Calligraphy Pen/ Dip pens with Straight/Oblique Nibs

For this portion of the post, aside from posting pictures of the baybayin in black and white ink I would be pointing out that the techniques I used here are based on Western traditional calligraphy techniques used by scribes of the past, so some of the stroke patterns would be a lot different from the handwritten strokes above. But then again, if you clicked the link to get here straight away instead of reading the previous portions, well you won’t be having that much problems then. Also I will assume you already learned how to write baybayin so I’ll leave you at that. For the black baybayin, I used a calligraphy fountain pen with a 2mm straight-cut nib from the Visual Deck Set – Calligraphy box, not sure where you can buy it online but I bought mine at the National Bookstore because nobody wants to buy it. (Should’ve also bought the other calligraphy set while they’re on sale. LOL Just saying XDD). The surface is just the back of old calendars because I was just testing the strokes. For the white baybayin, I used a Speedball™  C-2 oblique-cut nib and for the ink, it’s glittery silver poster paint from Reeves™ (diluted with dH2O), and the surface is some random paper with nice surface and sizing which my father got from the office. (Apparently you can’t print anything on it so it aged well there until my father disturbed the papers’ sleep and brought them home. Now I ran out of both the calendar and the weird red paper so business is halted for a bit. XDD) Again, these are all based on how I write stuff so it’s pretty much a personal opinion, it’s not absolute but it certainly works for me so here you go.

Group 1

A:

MA:

PA:

YA:

FA:

JA:

VA:

Group 2:

E/I: I’m just putting I here because E and I basically have the same strokes. To make E, just omit the final vertical stroke.

DA:

HA:

RA:

CA:

QA:

XA:

Group 3

O/U: Same with E/I, I just placed U here because O is practically the same, minus the vertical stroke on the right.

GA:

SA:

ZA:

Group 4

LA:

NA:

TA:

ÑA:

Group 5

BA:

NGA:

WA:

E, I, O, U Lines

Vowel Killers

I didn’t make any full sentences or words because I ran out of nice papers, so maybe I’ll post some next time. Sorry. ._.

Author’s final note on writing using baybayin: I’m still on the fence in using the loan letters C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X, and Z because in my opinion apart from having redundancies with some other letters, they were just invented to spell out proper nouns that are foreign in origin. I wouldn’t even spell my full name using baybayin, except my nickname and would just rather use the Romaji/Latin Alphabet for ease. As for using baybayin to write foreign words, well, that can be as tricky as using kana to write foreign words. Both methods boil down to localizing a foreign word into how it would be pronounced based on the original language that the writing system belongs to. For instance, the Japanese waifu (as in “My waifu”) is the Japanized form of the English word “wife”, but because their spelling system is a bit different they had to estimate which kana would be suited to approximate how the word would be pronounced and in turn, be spelled. It is also the same case for some Filipino loan words that got Filipinized (and bastardized because long words are hard lol not kidding tho) such as the word istambay which originally came from “standby” and is now shortened to “tambay” which means “just loitering and doing nothing” or in how the young ones use it now: to hang out with friends (and probably just loiter and do nothing lol don’t kill me ok?). Thus, the usage of baybayin (or kana, or hangul, or Arabic because I think their writing is very lovely or whatever writing system you like that works as syllables more than letters) in writing words from another language would take extra steps such as following the rules of the written language or localizing the word first before writing them in whatever letters or syllables that you want. It’s like using what you have then making do with it/winging it out.

The End!!!! No just kidding. But it’s the last part.

To be honest there are a lot of stuff in the internet about baybayin so I’m not that entirely sure if what I have here is pretty much redundant or not. There are a lot of sites so just use your Googling skills to find what you need, although it may be a bit difficult for readers/users who simply try writing and not understanding the entire language so just use with caution. It’s hard to end up with THAT tough guy who has a kanji tattoo that actually spells “poop” instead of whatever it was supposed to be. I actually saw a guy sporting a tattoo that reads FUUBEN in Japanese, which translates to inconvenience. I lol deep inside but the guy seems happy with that so I just let him be.

Well, I hope this long-ass post helped you a lot, or at the very least the stuff made sense to you and it was worth your time reading. Please leave an ask if you have other questions, I’ll try to answer them if and when I can. Have a great day and may the force be with you. =D

[red-dyed-sarumane]

I ALMOST MISSED THAT ASK THING hhdjjsjfkf i can't just pick a few u should do all the even numbers (or as many as u can)

2. what would you name your future kids?

my what now

4. what are you looking forward to?

honestly mafu’s solo album 

6. is it hard for you to get over someone?

depends. but i guess usually yeah

8. have you ever cried because you were so annoyed?

many m,any mnay many times

10. are you good at hiding your feelings?

APPARENTLY everyone says i look mad a lot when really im thinking of something dumb & really i only talk about things i see as positive if i talk

12. what is something you want right now?

if it can be something to do then i hella wanna go to the mono palette live later but if u mean like something physical then idk im indecisive 

14. when was the last time someone of the opposite sex hugged you?

prob on the 6th when my grandfather went back to his place

16. have you ever wanted to tell someone something but didn’t?

buddy thats the title of my autobiography

18. do you miss how things were a year ago?

to an extent. sketch was still active & i still had freetime & open weekends

22. description of crush.

relatively calm quiet person usually but they get super excited about their interests!!! tbh i really like it when they have something they want to yell about for hours that kind of excitement is refreshing and they always try their best they’re always careful with their words and try to say things fitting to the situation & are great with support. they’re a big meme and come up with great jokes and quotes i have a bunch of screenshots of conversations. will call me mr krabs when i type me instead of my & its super funny. loves dogs i wish i could take them to pet all the dogs in the world. overall a genuinely good person & a few words from them is all it takes to completely change my mood for the better lmao. they’re amazing

24. height

5′4″? 5′5″?

26. idol(s)

(im sorry) Mafumafu, Sou, Yukimi, Isubokuro, Silvana, Risru, Soraru are my mains

28. i’ll love you if….

u leave excited or kind tags on my stuff (rlly just,, dont make fun of me to be mean,,, if its a joke that fine)

30. favorite tv show(s)

??? i watch tv like once a year so im just gonna say like Friends or something to put something here

32. are your friends mainly girls or guys?

mainly girls

34. most embarrassing moment

okay so i rarely get embarrassed anymore since i just make fun of myself but in first grade i thought this logan kid was cool and this britney kid was a bitch so i wrote Logan rules and Britney Sucks on a paper and they found it and so did the teacher and the teacher made me apologize (britney is still a bitch btw she came in to order ice cream the other day & didnt recognize me thank fuck)

36. 3 dreams you want to fulfill?

1. meeting sketch would be great also other internet friends2. i wanna get to be fucking fluent in japanese its been almost 7 years gdi im try in g3. I WANNA GIT GUD AT ART PLS

38. favorite comedians

John Mulaney.

40. favorite memory

THE PIGEON STORY PROBABLY BUT IVE TOLD THAT ALREADY SO last week. this one coworker likes to say things like “way to be” and “you got this” to people so when he was making a peanut butter shake & i didnt have anything to do i said “do your best i believe in you” and he said “thats,, thats really  too patronizing. if  you said them seperately it would be fine but when you say them together like that you sound like some soccer mom taking your wimpy little 5 year old to play football or something with the 9 years olds and you say ‘you got this sweetie i believe in you do your best!!’ and he gets fucking plowed over by the bigger kids” honestly that was the best thing that night its like an inside joke at the dairy bar now

42. favorite books

i like!!! the legend trilogy!!! Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children series!!!! i liked All Our Yesterdays when i read it too a few years ago AND OF COURSE the shuuen novels cant forget our dead kids

44. age you get mistaken for

15/16

46. what my last text message says

“i wanna go up to my 14 year old self and say ‘just so you know. in about 3 years ur gonna think a chair, a very specific chair, is attractive’ and just watch her be like ‘what the FUCK i would NEVER be attracted to a chair!!! what the FUCK is wrong with you!?!”

48. turn offs

yeah

50. favorite picture of your idol

i hate reposting but i dont feel like finding the link & i was gonna say the one with cat whiskers from after his solo lives but its definitely this one which is SoraMafuUraSaka if i remember right

52, something im talented at

staying quiet, losing things ( i once lost an entire huge ass oops eraser like those for Big Mistakes but it was green and said oops and i lost it in school how do u lose a f uc ki–)

54. something thats worrying me at the moment

f u t u r e

56. favorite food(s)

i dont really like food tbh but raspberries are up there

58. description of my best friend

sometimes loud and easily emotional but overall fun to hang out with and come up with some great jokes some great ones being the solo yolo rap and “they just keep sagging!!!!”. go along with it when its 4am and im yelling like “MONO PALETTE JUST TRIED SECRET ANSWER EVERYINE IS SCREAMINF AND AGAIN IS TRYING TO RAP” & they’re like DAMN I WISH I COULDA HEARD at 3 pm (there are 2)

60. Adri U Shit U Said Even Numbers & Didnt Give Me Anything For 60

[comicteaparty]

November 5th-11th, 2018 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from November 5th, 2018 to November 11th, 2018.  The chat focused on Cloverlines by Wednesday Ash, asteRiesling, Nachocobana, and Nadikusmo.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Cloverlines by Wednesday Ash, asteRiesling, Nachocobana, and Nadikusmo~! (https://tapas.io/series/Cloverlines)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PST), so keep checking back for more! You have until November 11th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 3. What do you think happened between Damon and Karen that caused such a rift in their relationship? Will Karen sign the divorce papers or is she going to continue to cling to Damon? How will this affect Damon’s future?

QUESTION 4. Several characters mentioned that Aimi is a “failed idol.” What do you think happened that caused Aimi to fail as an idol? Do you think this will have consequences for Aimi and/or the band at some point?

Ash

Hey guys, I'm looking forward to reading all your thoughts about Cloverlines

snuffysam

1. Aimi pulling the strings to get Yuuki into the band was my favorite. Just how she goes from being some spoiled brat who uses her charms (aka the PHEROMONES she puts on for her live performances!!!) to get free meals to being surprisingly sweet towards Yuuki.

2. Commenter "TrAsh" said it best - Damon truly is "daddy material". In all seriousness, it was hard to pick between him and Aimi, just due to how much I love Aimi's surprisingly brilliant trickster personality but... I just feel so bad for Damon, I want to give him a hug

3. Have you met Karen? Hmm... I suppose it could be some major argument, or Damon wanting to focus more on the band, but it may just be that they grew further apart as people...

4. (has anyone besides Monica actually said this? i don't recall) Anyway, I think Aimi failed as an idol because she sabotages every piece of equipment in sight if she doesn't like some aspect of the performance/recording session (the songs, the people she's working with, etc). Was she justified in ruining a bunch of careers (including her own) like that? Well... idol industries in the real world are pretty exploitative, so probably.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. Do you think Yuuki will adjust to his new life on Earth and the band in general? Will his addition to the band be good in the long run, or will Yuuki continue to cause problems in his own way? Also, do you think Yuuki will become homesick?

ShaRose49

I read the first two chapter so far lol. I thought Aimi was the cutest thing

I doubt Yūko will become homesick cause earth is the best

Yūko

AAHG, YUKII DANGIT

Oh wait is it yuuki? Sonuva...

RebelVampire

its okay names are hard. i look them up a lot to make sure im spelling them right XD

ShaRose49

Haha yeah but it was also dang AUTO CORRECT lol

Japanese names are hard but here so cool I have a few in my comic. Is this comic cloverlines what you would describe as a sci-fi comedy or rom-com?

snuffysam

there's not really much romance in comic

there's a divorce, does that count?

ShaRose49

Nope! That’s just drama

And no worries I don’t mind romance unless it’s super sassy or steamy and non-stop

I looooooooove scifi

BTW snuffy I think I recognize your name from Comic Fury hi!!

snuffysam

hi! yes, I recognize you too!

ShaRose49

Awesome which comic did you do again? (Or are you a reader whups)

snuffysam

that's something we should probably talk about in #general ha ha

ShaRose49

Oh yeah okay tell me there!

snuffysam

i think yuuki has already adjusted pretty well to the band. though aimi might be a bit of a bad influence, given that he wasn't exactly nice to monica...

ShaRose49

I love the art in Cloverlines it was so cute. Maybe this is random but the face she made when she said she spent all her money on delicious meat was to die for SO CUTE

I’ll take a peek at another chapter before I fall asleep lol

snuffysam

how far have you gotten so far? just the first two chapters?

ShaRose49

Just read the third

Man they beat the crap outta poor yuuki

I love that it’s set in Tokyo and starts at kind of a rock-bottom thing. Nowhere to go but up!!

snuffysam

you say that, but they seem to have trouble with that regard

constantly getting negative press

ShaRose49

Who? I don’t follow but maybe it’s cause I’m tired it’s late where I am

snuffysam

the band

brought in a new guy who played super weird

then played a near-blasphemous song on live tv

ShaRose49

Oh yeah. They were just about to bring him in probably where I left off

snuffysam

oh, I thought you said you read through chapter 3?

ShaRose49

Blasphemous?!

Yeah I did...hang on lemme check

The third chapter just has those two band guys arguing over a solo career and then they find Yuuki getting beat up outside

snuffysam

ah i see what you're saying. you're talking about the third update on line

ShaRose49

Yup.

Webtoons

I forgot it’s on other places too

Why was the song blasphemous was it really inappropriate or something?

snuffysam

well, that's a bit spoilers for the real third chapter, ha ha

which is two chapters away from where you are

ShaRose49

Well I don’t wanna read something super dirty or anything not my style

snuffysam

oh no, it's not dirty

religious blasphemy

ShaRose49

?! Like they make fun of a religion?

RebelVampire

fictional religious blasphemy

snuffysam

^

ShaRose49

Aww-has-has okay gotcha

That’s probably not so bad then

snuffysam

not for us it isn't

for the fictional people it's a bit of an issue ha ha

ShaRose49

🤭yeah poor them lol. It’s nice to have things that don’t exist IRL sometimes so that nobody’s bothered . I’m usually a sucker for real stuff though along with cartoony tropes

Anywho I gotta get to bed, thanks for chatting I will return!

snuffysam

yeah me too, talk to you later!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 6. Cloverlines has suffered several changes in band line-ups. Do you think Aussie might try to return to the band? Alternatively, how might his solo career affect the group? What about Monica? Will she manage to stick with the band despite tension?

Ash

would like to chime in for a bit above: having it be a fictional religion allows for less baggage when depicting its effects i feel, cause I wanna show what are the effects of it, without any risk of offending reasonable people otherwise

it's good to have an objective view on something inherently subjective, and fictionalizing the aesthetic elements allows a way for that

ShaRose49

Yeah for sure, things are safer with fictional concepts but I think real ones can be good to depends I guess. It’s super fun to make up stuff though

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Despite the band focus, the world in the story keeps turning. How might the recent terrorist events affect Cloverlines or other bands? Who do you think Mirai was? What others aspects of the world caught your attention?

RebelVampire

okay time to answer some questions. 1) My favorite scene so far is the one where Damon and Karen have dinner. I really liked all the subtle and not so subtle ways it showcased the state of their relationship. this is not to mention that i liked it wasnt even technically about their relationship, it was about Rinne. the fact it became about their relationship felt both very realistic and very revealing. 2) Damon. I think he has the most compelling of the conflicts and hes the most sensible of the group. He provides an essential grounding influence in the fact of everyone else being a bit more exaggerated, and if anyone is gonna make the band succeed, its damon. also, he has great hair. 3) I assume what happened is exactly what we saw at dinner: they have a personality clAsh. In the end though, I'm gonna theorize that Karen probably pushed Damon a bit too hard..maybe to succeed in music, and Damon just bailed because it wasn't the way he wanted to do it. overall, though, i think the route of their problems stems from the fact that damon is ambitious and laid back while karen is ambitious and aggressive. i think karen will sign the divorce papers eventually. but she's definitely going to cling for a while. however, i think shell slowly ease off as stuff with rinne starts to happen and changes some of the dynamic of the story. 4) Have you met Aimi? XD That is what happened. Aimi is 1000% not the type to follow orders and will do whatever she wants. Thus, this would make her a poor idol since shed be told constantly where to go and what to wear for her image. Damon is a saint for not having fired her. XD Overall, though, the fact she might be a "failed idol" is irrelevant i think. at the end what will have consequences is aimi continuing to do as aimi do.

5) Yuuki seems pretty well-adjusted as is, so he'll probably be fine. I do think there's gonna be more issues with Yuuki as part of the band though. Cause they basically hired him out of desperation and of the two gigs weve seen, we got weird guitar sound one and blasphemy one. so i think as a whole we havent gotten to see a good demonstration of whether yuuki is good or not. so it might take a while for him to fit in with the band. but to be fair, id say this about most of the members. they really need to work on their synergy as a band imo XD. i think yuuki will only become homesick if his fleet comes near enough he could viably go home. cause then its a tangible goal versus some theoretical could do it thing. 6) Idk if will, but I do think it'd be interesting to see Aussie go "i want to come back." Create some drama where the group has to pick between Aussie and Yuuki and test the limits. Solo career wise I think it might actually help the group. If Aussie is successful and is like "i was in that band" others might take more of an interest. As far as Monica goes, she'll probably stick around. I think the worst of the tension already came and went. 7) I assume the terrorist attacks will keep up and they will inadvertantly expose Rinne and cause all the scandal. Though given the comic's tone I can't really forsee any serious consequences. As for Mirai, IDK. Good question. I assume it was a real person who did something significant which is somewhat interesting to consider. For the world in general I'm really curious about how spread out the population is. Cause the galaxy is a big place. And the astronomy nerd in me wonders what the travel technology is like.

ShaRose49

I didn’t get to the terrorists yet I can’t wait!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 8. Rinne, a robot, has a strange vision and keeps asking if Monica is Mirai. What do you think is happening to Rinne? Is Karen right to be worried about Rinne’s sentience? What is Rinne supposed to “create?”

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. Do you think Cloverlines will manage to succeed as a band in general? What do you think has to happen for that to be the case? Alternatively, what other hiccups might they face as they aim for stardom?

snuffysam

step 1: fire aimi

question. does it say anywhere that this civilization spans the whole galaxy? or just the solar system? because the furthest from Earth I remember being mentioned is Pluto

RebelVampire

i think its somewhat implied

because in the opening earth is described as the entertainment of the galaxy

not to mention theres aliens

snuffysam

ah yes

RebelVampire

and last i checked there are not aliens in the rest of the solar system

snuffysam

it's been a while

since i've checked, that is

RebelVampire

but tbf how much of the galaxy is colonized is up for debate. i think its at least implied it goes beyond the solar system tho

so it might not be the whole galaxy. cause i mean galaxies are pretty huge

snuffysam

the nearest habitable planets we've found so far are like 30 light years away? and the milky way is over 100k light years across

anyway my guess is that Mirai is just some robot's rights revolutionary dude, and any surviving sentient robots seem to treat them like some sort of deity. don't think Monica is Mirai though. Rinne just gets confused easily.

also what does Rinne create? sick beats! next question!

RebelVampire

omg XD sick beats is a good answer

cause that does seem the direction its gonna go

Ash

well be exploring the larger space in coming eps

RebelVampire

QUESTION 10. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

snuffysam

i want to see them do more shows! yuuki doesn't have all that much experience under his belt and... honestly, I just want to see a performance where he isn't playing a song ten seconds after finding out about it

RebelVampire

i second that. id also like to see him do a show that isnt buried up to its knees in controversy

RebelVampire

8) I definitely don't think Monica is Mirai. I'm starting to think Mirai is an artifical intelligence maybe. Or was a person who made artificial intelligence which is kind of a big deal. but this is what's happening to rinne. she's tapping into some sort of programming that expresses mirai's ultimate desires for her creations. that being said, i do think karen is right to be concenred. not because rinne is dangerous, but because shes right. if its illegal, their band is gonna be screwed if they get discovered. 9) i somewhat agree with the joke answer that they gotta do something about aimi. i feel they wont succeed as long as they continue to tolerate her impulsive willfulness. not to say theyll have no success, but theres a diff levels of success and theyll never become top tier if her shenanigans continue to bury them in controversy. 10) as i said before, i really would like to see more concerts with the band in general. cause i think its an important experience for them to bond as a band and as characters. i also look forward to karen moving past damon because i think itll be interesting to see how she finally matures enough to reach the conclusion.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Cloverlines this week! Please also give a special thank you to Wednesday Ash, asteRiesling, Nachocobana, and Nadikusmo for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Cloverlines, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below! Read and Comment: https://tapas.io/series/Cloverlines Cloverlines’ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wednesdayAsh