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hero-nerd · 5 months

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The Symbol of Peace: An Analysis of Masculinity in My Hero Academia

Izuku Midoriya runs through the city toward the site of a villain attack, excitement on his face as he knows what this means. He elbows his way to the front of the crowd and up to the very front line the heroes set up as they battle their foe, watching in awe and excitement as the heroes he looks up to are locked in battle.

This scene plays out in the beginning of the hit anime series My Hero Academia. Set in a fantastical version of Japan in which heroes are a part of every day society, the series follows the story of Izuku Midoriya, also known as Deku, as he strives to become a great hero using the power passed on to him by Japan’s number one hero, All Might. The first chapter of the manga series was published in Shonen Jump in 2014, and was adapted into an anime in 2016. Both the manga and anime are still in progress, and have a great level of popularity. According to Parrot Analytics, My Hero Academia is “ranked at the 99.9th percentile in the action genre, indicating that it enjoys exceptional demand compared to 99.9% of all action titles in the United States” (My Hero Academia YTV). Due to its outstanding popularity, I believe this is a relevant text to analyze.

From the very beginning scenes of the series, as Midoriya watches this battle unfold, the audience is shown what the image of a hero looks like. They are strong and powerful, with physiques that look like action figures. They are something for the ladies to swoon over. Notably, they are men. It is not until the very end of the fight we see our first female superhero, who is shown as “stealing the spotlight” from the men in her skintight suit, and immediately subject to objectification and sexualization by the media on the sidelines. To those who know comics and superheroes, these types of hegemonic masculine messages are to be expected. While these messages are seen as such a norm that it’s just a part of the superhero genre, there are real impacts to this. In a study conducted by Coyne et al. about the effects of superhero media on kids, research found that “early superhero exposure was indirectly associated with weaker egalitarian attitudes toward women and greater endorsement of the muscular ideal” (Coyne et al. 634). This shows that superheroes have a real impact and are worth studying. This analysis will look at masculinity in the world of My Hero Academia, as shown through the lens of All Might, the Symbol of Peace.

Who is the Symbol of Peace? All Might is one of the top heroes in the version of Japan this story takes place in, and has been for years by the time the series starts. He is rated the number one hero in the in-universe hero popularity polls, and has one of the greatest powers that citizens in that world have ever seen. As such an important cultural figure in this world of heroes, he is the ideal, the standard, the one everyone looks to when they want to see what it means to be a hero, and we know that what it means to be a hero in this world is to be masculine. That is why I have chosen All Might as the subject of this analysis, and to begin I would like to look at Kimmel’s tenants of masculinity. In his documentary Guyland, Kimmel breaks down four basic rules of masculinity: “No sissy stuff”, “be a big wheel”, “be a sturdy oak”, and “give ‘em hell” (Kimmel). Let’s explore what these mean, and how they are evident in the character of All Might.

When Kimmel says “no sissy stuff”, what he means is that there can be no sign of femininity or weakness. In societies where masculinity is seen as the ideal, femininity and weakness have become synonymous with each other when it comes to the measurement of masculinity. This is apparent in All Might’s appearance. He is the perfect picture of the classic superhero, with bulging muscles and a towering, hulking figure. When he speaks his booming voice resonates and shakes you to your core. It is not just his appearance that this is evident in, however. We can see this line of thinking, “no sissy stuff”, in the way All Might acts, especially toward the beginning of the series. In season one episode 3 “Roaring Muscles”, All Might passes on his power, known as a “quirk” in this world, to the protagonist Izuku Midoriya. As he does this, Midoriya’s eyes welled up with tears as the emotions of all of his dreams finally coming true overwhelm him, All Might says “Seriously! You gotta stop crying so much if you want my quirk” (My Hero Academia). This is a common theme, as Midoriya is very outwardly expressive with his emotions while All Might begins their mentorship with a much more hegemonic view of masculinity.

To “be a big wheel” means to have lots of money, power, and status. This is probably the tenet that All Might intentionally goes after the least, but that does not change the fact that he fully embodies it. As the number one hero in Japan he holds a very important status, and the Symbol of Peace is a name anyone in the world of the show knows. In season three episode 49 “One for All”, All Might is fighting against the main antagonist of the show in a large display that is being televised to all of Japan. He has lost the last of his power that allows him to stay in his superpowered form, but he continues to fight on despite this. His mentor urges him to stay strong, saying “No matter what you look like, you’re still everyone’s number-one hero!” This is just one of many illustrations of the status All Might holds in the eyes of the citizens of Japan.

Arguably the most prevalent of the four tenets in All Might’s story is “be a sturdy oak”. All Might specifically created the idea of the Symbol of Peace to be an unwavering force of help to those in need. This is evident even in his catchphrase. We see him use a variation over and over, a common theme throughout the series, going all the way back to his first appearance as a hero: “Fear not, citizens. Hope has arrived. Because I am here” (My Hero Academia season one episode one “Izuku Midoriya: Origin”). When Midoriya is talking about what he looks up to so much about All Might he says “There’s always a smile on his face, no matter how bad things get. Even when things seem impossible, he never gives up” (My Hero Academia season one episode one “Izuku Midoriya: Origin”).

The last of the tenets is “give ‘em hell”. This comes down to a reckless sense of daring, always throwing yourself in no matter the danger and being willing to do things no matter the risk. This is seen as bravery, the opposite of being a “sissy” as mentioned in the first tenet, even at the cost of the person performing these acts. We see this in All Might’s willingness to throw himself into any battle, no matter the cost to himself, and how he sees that as admirable. In his backstory preceding the events of the show, All Might was injured in a battle with All For One that left him only able to use his power for a finite amount of time each day. During the time All Might first meets Midoriya he has reached his limit on his power use for the day when a villain attacks a student. All Might is on the sidelines in his disguised form, watching this go down while cursing himself for not being able to help because of his limit. When he watches a powerless Midoriya rush in to help, All Might says “I have to do something, no matter the cost” before pushing past his limit to use his power. He tells Midoriya “Pros are always risking their lives, that’s the true test of a hero!” (My Hero Academia season one episode two “What It Takes To Be A Hero”). He uses his great power to blow the villain away with a single hit. After things have calmed down from this battle, All Might talks to Midoriya about this and what it means to be a hero. He tells Midoriya “There are stories about every hero, how they became great. Most have one thing in common. Their bodies moved before they had a chance to think” (My Hero Academia season one episode two “What It Takes To Be A Hero). This becomes a recurring line in the show when people talk about what it means to be a hero, and it truly highlights the reckless and daring action described by the tenet “give ‘em hell”.

These are only a handful of examples of how All Might embodies the tenets of masculinity in each and every episode. However, these tenets do not go without cost to All Might. We can see as his adherence to these tenets broaches the realm of toxic masculinity-”a particular version of masculinity that is unhealthy for the men and boys who conform to it, and harmful to those around them” (Flood).

In season four episode 67 “Fighting Fate” All Might tells his protege about that time from his past. His sidekick, a hero named Sir Nighteye with the power to see the future, warned All Might that if he were to keep fighting, he would die a horrible death at the hands of villains. All Might acknowledges this, but he presses forward despite the warnings in an attempt to uphold the Symbol of Peace. He says “For the sake of this world, I have to be able to say that I am still here” (My Hero Academia season four episode sixty-seven “Fighting Fate”). As he tries to uphold the tenets, particularly “be a sturdy oak” here, he only begins to break himself down and harm himself as he exacerbates his injuries and puts himself at risk again and again. This is often rewarded in the show, saying he is a good hero for doing these things.

This line of thinking gets passed down to his protege Midoriya as All Might trains him to become the next Symbol of Peace. Here we can see the effects of gender socialization on the story. As defined by Dipti, “Gender socialization is a process by which individuals develop, refine, and learn to ‘do’ gender through internalizing gender norms and roles as they interact with key agents of socialization” (Dipti 9). All Might passes down his ideas of masculinity, such as in the “no sissy stuff” point when he tells Midoriya he needs to stop crying so much. In season two episode 19 “The Boy Born With Everything”, Midoriya is competing in his school's sports tournament and is nervous for his upcoming battle. In his pep talk, All Might tells Midoriya “Whenever you’re scared or nervous about a fight, just try to deal with it by smiling!”, passing on the ideals of being a “sturdy oak” that never wavers even in the face of fear.

Midoriya internalizes these messages, and it all comes to a big culmination in season six. The main antagonist appears to be on the winning side, the world has fallen to ruins, and Midoriya is working as a vigilante trying to take on the world and save everyone himself. All Might was initially in contact with him during this, until Midoriya runs off leaving All Might behind to fight the main antagonist alone. In doing so, Midoriya embodies the traits of “be a sturdy oak” and “give ‘em hell'' by rushing off without regards to himself to take everything on his own, and makes sure there is no “sissy stuff” as he insists he is fine, shoving down any emotions and refusing to ask for help. These are all traits he learned from All Might, and in season six All Might has the realization that the messages he passed down to Midoriya were toxic. As Midoriya speeds away, too fast for All Might to catch up, All Might cries after him, saying “I get it! I know what a heavy burden this is to carry alone! Which is why I want to scream at you, ‘Don’t work too hard. It’s okay to take a break when you’re tired.’ Young man, I’m sorry” (My Hero Academia season six episode 135 “Friend”). Later that same season, Midoriya is confronted by his classmates and close friends in a stunning display of emotional vulnerability that warrants an analysis of its own beyond the scope of this paper. Toxic masculinity is broken down as the characters show that it is leaning on others and being vulnerable that shows true strength.

The vulnerability in this show was not lost on viewers. One article details the reaction audiences had to this scene on social media as people shared their thoughts and breaking down their own toxic masculinity. The article states “Many users openly expressed how much they sobbed wholeheartedly alongside Deku and the gang during this segment of the storyline, without a worry in the world about how ‘unmanly’ their confession may be perceived” (Chester-Londt). It is clear that audiences hold a place for this type of breakdown of toxic masculinity, even in superhero stories where that is perceived to be the default.

For a long time superhero stories have been a place of traditional, hegemonic masculine ideals, and My Hero Academia is no exception to that. The leading figure in the hero society, the Symbol of Peace, exhibits clear signs of all four tenets of masculinity talked about by Kimmel. He passes on these masculine ideals to his students, as evident through the character of Midoriya, and the strict adherence to these ideals proves to be quite toxic. What makes this series unique for a hero story, however, is the recognition of that toxic masculinity and a changing of messages saying it’s okay to rely on others, ask for help, and not always live up to unattainable ideals. We know from audience reactions that there is a want for these types of stories, and I hope to see more like it in hero media going forward.

Works Cited

Chester-Londt, Levana Jane. “My Hero Academia Is the Cure for Toxic Masculinity.” Game Rant, 1 Apr. 2023, gamerant.com/my-hero-academia-is-the-cure-for-toxic-masculinity/.

Coyne, Sarah, et al. “Making Men of Steel: Superhero Exposure and the Development of Hegemonic Masculinity in Children.” Sex Roles, vol. 86, no. 11/12, June 2022, pp. 634–47. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.dmacc.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s11199-022-01293-2.

Dipti. “Gender and Socialization.” International Journal of Recent Research Aspects, vol. 9, no. 2, June 2022, pp. 9–12. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=158174861&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Flood, Michael. “'Toxic Masculinity': What Does It Mean, Where Did It Come from – and Is the Term Useful or Harmful?” The Conversation, 21 Sept. 2022, https://theconversation.com/toxic-masculinity-what-does-it-mean-where-did-it-come-from-and-is-the-term-useful-or-harmful-189298.

Kimmel, Michael S., and Media Education Foundation. Guyland : Where Boys Become Men. Media Education Foundation, 2015, http://www.kanopystreaming.com/node/144408.

My Hero Academia, created by Kohei Horikoshi, Bones, June 2016.

“My Hero Academia (YTV): United States Daily TV Audience Insights for Smarter Content Decisions - Parrot Analytics.” Parrot Analytics, tv.parrotanalytics.com/US/my-hero-academia-ytv. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.

I hope everyone enjoyed!! I have so much more to say about this topic that I didn’t get to due to the page restraints on the paper. This version already goes over the page limit and still manages to cut out about two thirds of my initial points. So if anyone wants to discuss further with me, please do!!!! I love talking about this stuff!!

And for those who asked to be tagged:

@steh-lar-uh-nuhs

@anna-pre

@0im-kinda-dumb0

@ghostspace37

#my hero academia #mha #boku no hero academia #bnha #analysis #meta #my hero academia meta #mha meta #boku no hero academia meta #bnha meta #deku #midoriya izuku #izuku midoriya #all might #yagi toshinori

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princesssarisa · 7 months

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In Cinderella Tales From Around the World, I've now reached the versions from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia: Iran, Palestine, Nigeria, Angola, Sri Lanka, India, and Kashmir.

*The Iranian variant, The Story of Little Fatima, starts out much like the Italian La Gatta Cenerentola, but then turns into a "mother as animal helper" variant, with a middle section like the Portuguese The Hearth Cat. At the beginning, Little Fatima's female teacher tricks her into murdering her mother (!!!) so she can marry her father, then abuses her. But the mother's spirit comes back as a cow and shows her daughter unconditional love by magically aiding her chores. One day the cotton she's supposed to spin falls down a well, and the cow-mother advises her to go down after it, where she'll meet a div who will urge her to do bad deeds, but to only do good deeds instead. She obeys, and the div gives her a glowing moon on her forehead and star on her chin. The stepmother wants the same for her own daughter, so she sends her into the well, but Little Fatima lies to her stepsister that she should do all the bad deeds the div orders. As a result, the div gives the stepsister donkey ears and a tail. From then on, the story becomes a standard Cinderella, with the cow providing Little Fatima's finery, except instead of a ball, festival, or religious service, the special event is the wedding of a princess, the sister of the prince who falls in love with Little Fatima.

*The Palestinian variant, Thaljiyeh ("Snow-Maiden"), starts out like Snow White, with the heroine named for her skin white as snow, and her mother dying in childbirth. As Thaljiyeh is abused by her stepmother, a kindly jinniyah (female jinn) in a well takes pity on her and fills her bucket with jewelry, but when her two stepsisters draw water from the same well, the jinniyah fills their buckets with mud, stones, and insects. So they take Thaljiyeh's jewels and finally throw her out of the house. Fortunately, she comes to the home of a poor old woman who turns out to be her maternal grandmother and who takes her in; but unfortunately (so it seems), on the way she loses a red leather shoe that was a gift from her dead father. But of course a prince finds the shoe, and we all know what happens.

*The Tender-Hearted Maiden and the Fish from Nigeria is much like the Portuguese Maiden and the Fish – the heroine gets her finery from a fish that was meant to be cooked but which she set free. But in this version, unlike the Portuguese version, there is a wicked stepmother, and the fish really is a fish, not an enchanted prince. The heroine's love interest is a king, and the festival where he falls for her is a celebration of Eid al-Fitr. After her marriage, the stepmother and stepsister sneak into the heroine's bedroom at night and cut off her hands (!), but the fishes magically restore then. When the stepmother and stepsister try to publicly mock the new queen for having no hands, they only make fools of themselves.

*The Angolan variant, Fenda Maria and Her Elder Brother Nga Nzua, is very unusual. The heroine is an orphan who lives with her older brother, but when he marries the Lord Governor's daughter, his wife turns her into a slave. But in a forest she meets an old woman with leprosy and nurses her, and as reward, the old woman gives her boxes full of riches and dresses. The ending is unusual too: the heroine doesn't marry. Instead, when the Lord Governor discovers that the elegant lady who came to church is his son-in-law's sister, he punishes the couple (at the heroine's request) by dissolving their marriage and giving his cruel daughter to another man. From then on, the heroine and her repentant brother live together in prosperity, thanks to her magically-given wealth.

*As for the Indian versions, they vary widely:

**One is basically Finette Cendron without the ogres – a poor man abandons his daughters, they find a deserted wealthy house and take up residence there, and the oppressed youngest finds finery to wear to church in the house – but with a post-marriage ending. The sisters' steal the heroines babies and make her husband think she gave birth to inanimate objects, which drives him to lock her in a dungeon, but years later her children come back as beggars, and milk miraculously flies from their mother's breasts to their mouths, revealing the truth and leading to a happy ending.

**In another, the heroine is a princess who lives happily with her father and younger brother, until a seemingly-kind widow neighbor persuades her to persuade her father to marry her. The king resists a long time, but finally gives in, yet he warns his daughter that if her stepmother mistreats her, he'll do nothing about it. Sure enough, the new stepmother sends the prince away to boarding school and treats the princess like a slave. But the princess is helped both by a cow, who secretly feeds her, and by her dead godmother's spirit, who brings her finery for a dance at another king's palace. After the princess marries and gives birth to a son, her stepsister drowns her in a well and takes her place, but as in the Grimms' Brother and Sister, the princess's spirit comes back every night to nurse her baby, and when her husband finally sees her and catches her by the hands, she comes back to life. The stepsister is brutally executed and the stepmother driven away.

**The Kashmir variant follows the "mother turns into an animal" formula, but with a few differences from the norm. The mother turns into a goat when she thoughtlessly breaks a magical taboo against eating when her husband isn't home, the Cinderella character is just one of several siblings who are all mistreated by their stepmother, and instead of losing a shoe at a special event, she loses a nose ring while washing herself in a river. The ring is swallowed by a fish, which is caught and cut open by the king's cook. The king searches for the ring's owner and marries the girl, which lets her support her siblings and free them from the stepmother.

*@faintingheroine – I think Nihal would like some of these variants. Especially the Indian one where the heroine is neglected by her father and her little brother is sent away to school, since it parallels her own situation, and the Angolan one where the heroine doesn't marry in the end but gets her brother all to herself again.

*It seems strange that this book includes so few Cinderella stories from Africa. There must be more that exist!

Coming up next: tales from East Asia, beginning with what may be the very first complete Cinderella story, Ye Xian.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @adarkrainbow, @themousefromfantasyland

#cinderella #fairy tale #variations #cinderella tales from around the world #heidi ann heiner #iran #palestine #nigeria #angola #sri lanka #india #kashmir #tw: violence #tw: murder

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fr-wiwiw · 4 months

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well, to indulge myself i'm writing this post to ramble and share a bit of my Gahan barbarian!au. it's going to be a bit of a long post i think, we'll see.

i saw noel's post about their gladiator!yohan & prince!gaon (check it here!) and it makes me miss writing the arranged marriage barbarian!au i have, it only has what.. 3 or 4 chapters I think. you can read it here.

i've always been fascinated by the visuals of medieval, historical, period era. even post apocalyptic future settings like Horizon Zero games franchise.

i think i started au bcs i've played too much Assassin's Creed Valhalla— i haven't finished it yet, too preoccupied with Monster Hunter World— but i have sketched my female Eivor several times in my sketchbook. this was when i'm curious and interested enough to draw human but haven't fully grasped the gesture, anatomy, shapes and all. i usually draw what i take interest on and it helps me tremendously, to keep on learning and push through my frustrations.

and of course.. my Gahan brainrot picked it up. hence the barbarian!au for TDJ born

i have sketches of Gahan in this au, i think i've shared them here too but i'll re-share here. it doesn't catch many eyes, i admit it's a bit of a bummer but I like the idea anyway. I used to imagined them before I went to sleep, now it's idol/celeb!gaon x mysterious husband!yohan that's occupying my mind. but anyways! here are the sketches.

1st sketch is me trying to see his body proportion in viking/barbarian attire. the upper left sketch was me wanting to see modern Yohan stripping off his clothes ig haha.. anyways, between Gaon/Jinyoung and Yohan/Jisung, it's VERY difficult to nail down his face. less lines doesn't resembles him at all and add some more lines he looks too realistic to my simplified version of Gaon/Jinyoung. it was hard trying to find the balance for these characters to be in the same picture and look like they belong in the same style. i want to do Yohan/Jisung's pretty face justice but i still struggled in this sketches. i think this was 2021? 2022?

2nd sketch— his long protruding neck lmao i haven't fully grasped how a person can pose naturally but it came out as if he has turtle neck syndrome going on. well done Yohan! you are a turtle apparently according to my hand. all jokes aside, this was me attempting to paint his face bcs i never really attempted to paint gahan. i doodled and sketched more than i paint/rendering and i'm on my way to learn more of rendering daily if possible, alongside with my daily sketches. you can also see i've tried to give some color to his attire and some medallion or such. do you see a braid there? i will get there, the braid is something significant in this story ;)

3rd sketch is basically me planning out his character design as a barbarian/viking chief. you can see bits of references cuts here and there, took me quite some time bcs i just started to really try my hands on concept character design properly— i love cloaks and capes and vikings has exactly just that, and the winter times are especially my favorite type of attire on them so i thought why not give Yohan polar bear fur as his official formal attire while still flaunting his wonderful body to the world be it summer or winter lmao. here's where you know it's fantasy. i'm sure people back then drink ales and what not to keep their body warm so they can go bare-chested in winter even but i'm sure the day after that they will regret it. but i make Yohan and his clan to have special abilities for living in cold places. doesn't mean i don't make them wear winter attire but this is only bcs i want him to be bare-chested xD the one I post here was before i dabble on the sketch a bit more. hopefully one day i can share it again with more updates for this au.

now.. onto Gaon's sketches.

he's a Prince in this story. his parents, the King and the Queen, arranged a marriage for him for political reasons. but they have special reasons as to why they pick Yohan, aside from political purposes, to be their son's betrothed and gave him away to Yohan's barbarian clan.

1st sketch (ignore the upper left, that's Jinyoung from his other drama). i want to see him in medium and long hair length. there's a purpose to this. he has his canon Gaon hairstyle when he was the Prince in the palace. but with time and some adjustments living with Yohan and his barbarian clan rubs off on him. perhaps it's due to that, or he's grown tired to cut it off again and again (he has no one to groom him properly now unlike in the palace), practical reason is to maintain heat around his neck while in winter, or it's his idea of adapting and blending in with the enemy. you can't blame him for being wary. he's whisked away from his comfort place and home and married off to a fearsome and famous barbarian on the land at that time, almost willingly got raped by Yohan on 1st chapter (yes, you read that right). other reasons why he grows his hair, as i mentioned the culture rubs off on him, is something to do with the hair braiding too. and personal reason is that i want to see pretty Gaon in long hair lol

2nd sketch on the left was him on early days on Yohan's fur beddings. the right was him perhaps laughing out loud by some surprising and amusing thing Yohan said after living with him for some months, you can see the different hair length there. gosh he looks unalive in here lol idk why.. my sketches were still rigid here

3rd sketch is them after establishing a genuine intimate relationship and Yohan has to be away to fend off some unexpected visitors. unfortunately it cost Yohan some of his men's lives. but he made it back to his clan and his betrothed. i make it as if Gaon was anxious waiting for him and one of the barbarian shouted for Yohan's arrival and he ran immediately. lunged at Yohan perhaps, the barbarian Chief managed to catch him but didn't quite have the strength to carry them both upright as the weariness sinks into him post battle & adrenaline wearing off of him. he's home now, in Gaon's arms.

now.. the hair braiding.

barbarians/viking has long hair and braids on their hair. styled cascading down or up into a pony tail or a mohawk and such. idk if this is historically correct but i'm winging most of this anyway but the idea of braids in this story is that it's significant to lovers. it's a mark between special intimate relationship (like lovers, spouses, soulmates). one can have a braid or braid their lover's hair should they wish to, it's very intimate and special for them. jeweleries might have certain status symbol for them and their ranks but I also prefer these barbarians have something simple to symbolize their intimacy. something that can get overlooked but enough for their significant other to know (and some people) what it means.

I like the idea of Yohan having accessories for his attire but his hair is clean from braids. clearly it's saying something if you've read this far and seeing my sketches for their different stages of relationship. over the years of them finally developing feelings and genuinely established a relationship, despite already being married an Gaon almost got raped by Yohan, they are lovers.

yet Yohan never really initiates anything about him wanting to have braid(s) or braiding Gaon's hair. he might have explained about what braids are to Gaon when the bambi was curious or off-handedly commented something about it. Gaon really finds out the real meaning from Yohan's ppl and he wonders why Yohan never asks or wants braids from him. then he realizes Yohan has always been respectful to him, even years after that night he almost raped him. always keeping healthy distance, outside of their sex and other intimate physical affections, he usually waits until Gaon ask first regarding intimate things. not that he never initiates things, he figures something as serius and committed as this is something Gaon wants to have an option to bail out from. they were arranged to have marriage for political reasons after all, Gaon has the freedom to not have feelings for him as long as he stays within the wedding pact rules Yohan make with the King & the Queen ( for Gaon's sake too). He never expects to have feelings for the Prince and he always keeps the option of Gaon falling out of love of him one day. it is only fair, he thinks.

but then Gaon asks him if he wants Gaon to braid his hair. the Prince never ceases to make him falter. it still shocks and amuses him, to have someone have this much effect on him. even with nervousness and blushing state Gaon is in now after uttering those words.. Yohan wonders what he has done to have this kind of luxury to have someone this precious in his arms.

and if his people noticed a single braid just near the back of his neck when wind swept his hair or if he pulls his hair into a ponytail on hot summer days? they will all grin smugly.. Yohan likes to keep it a bit hidden from view mainly bcs it's practical and he doesn't want ppl to accidentally graze it off when he's having friendly wrestle matches or axe practices. or even having people cut it off when he's at war. he doesn't hide it per se, it's visible when it's visible. Gaon smiles sweetly and adoringly when he finds this out bcs to him, it feels as if Yohan is unconsciously protecting it. protecting their relationship, protecting Gaon.

and if Gaon walks out of Yohan's tent, that days when he asks if he can braid Yohan's hair, with a braid or several on his hair? visible to everyone? the people cheer and roar in celebration. they throw a huge feast and toast to their relationship, congratulating the power couple. wishing the gods to give these two their blessings and to protect them. they're finally able to see their Chief have a partner that is equal to him. it's a memorable day

but if you think this story doesn't come with heavy angst, tears, pain and betrayal.. well think again ;))

i will stop here. thankyou for reading! i hope i can pick up this au again in my drawings & writings

#artists on tumblr #the devil judge #digital art #fris #fr wiwiw #digital illustration #gahan #kim gaon #kang yohan #fanart #tdj #the fawn and the chief #arranged marriage #i miss this au #i want to indulge myself more in this au again #but i have to focus on my drawings & commissions for now #i will come back to this au

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poorxsouls · 2 years

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THE GAME OF LIFE

art by MiotaOwO on YouTube and Nahida/rukkhadevata/Kusanali is owned by HV/Genshin/Mhiyo

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Based off Nova’s writing/fanfic and Nahida-writes’s writing/fanfic but different

( Nova is @noverenia and Nahida-writes is @nahida-writes, they both inspired this x reader hc)

Tw:demon,genshin sumeru character because what the fuck,Dottore/Zandik,academia being shitty,few sumeru spoliers,being mean,being fucked up,tsunderes??,semi spoliers but people already knew about Nahida/kusanali and Rukkhadevata

Cw: Nahida/rukkhadevata/Kusanali,Buer,Dori, Dottore/Zandik,Nilou,Candace(Kandake),Layla,Faruzan,Dehya,Wanderer/Scaramouche/Kuni(??)Cyno,Tighnari,Collie,Al-haitham

Nahida/Kusanali/rukkhadevata,Dori and are seen as platonic

Nahida/Kusanali , rukkhadevata , and Buer are all technically different

because Nahida/Kusanali is child version of rukkhadevata,rukkhadevata is adult version of Nahida and Buer is the demon version of them.

Dottore , Zandik are technically different

Because of the difference in time period because Zandik was his name in the academia.

Part 1 - Sumeru cast

(4 lives are used up)

—————————

Day 1 ; sumeru cast!

(≧◡≦) ♡

First life - “My first life was so boring just forget mentioned it”

Fourth life - “In my fourth, I played piano but just didn’t have the eyes to read the notes”

Their so painfully sweet to you,not trying to be mean,not trying to yell,their like candy and IM AT MY LIMIT…but I guess it’s nice that they love you and treat you with respect.

Characters that fit this ;

Female —> NILOU,Candace(Kandake),Nahida/Kusanali/rukkhadevata(platonic),Layla,Collei.

Male —> KAVEN,Cyno,Alhaitham,Tighnari.

♡ (ง'̀-'́)ง

Second life - “And my second seemed to let me do all of the things my first life didn’t”

Third life - “Third life was a hateful man all poison to the bone”

Their like the 1rst life but somehow better!like their mean but their also nice to you,but anyways even though their rude to you they do mean the best they just don’t know basic feelings.

Characters that fit this ;

Female —>FARUZAN,Dehya,Buer(platonic),Dori(platonic).

Male —> AL-HAITHAM,Wanderer/Scaramouche/Kuni(??),Cyno,Tighnari,Dottore/Zandik.

—————————

Day 1 ; Sumeru cast!

Completed Nick’s Quest!

Your reward? ; Curshed hatsune miku dolls/figures!

Next up?

All so a mix of Inazuma,liyue,Mondstadt

What next lives are up?

Fifth life(5),Seventh life(7),Eight life(8)

nine life(9),tenth life(10),eleven life(11)

What will be posted next?

How to deal with a Dendro achron;

Nahida,rukkhadevata,and Buer headcannons

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pineapplerightsideupcake · 9 months

Note

From your debate with transmascpetewentz, you said that you experience dysphoria and alleviated it by not engaging with your physical body and approaching it from a detached, impersonal perspective. Do you think that this is because you find that current transition treatments won't get your body to become what you truly want it to be? Do you find it normal and expected that you do not feel comfortable in your body and that your body is something you must dissociate and detach yourself from?

Hi! This is completely incorrect! My body is not something I have to detach from. My body is my home. I don’t shower in the dark anymore. I can look at me in the mirror. I wear short shorts on really hot days and don’t worry obsessively about the male gaze or a stray body hair. I stopped shaving my arms, armpits, and bush. I mostly stopped shaving my legs. I don’t tweeze my eyebrows or slather on makeup!

Body neutrality is not dissociating, it’s the reframing of a sexualized and/criticized body as neutral.

Some of the exercises I did with my therapist went like this:

Therapist: okay name a part of your body you hate

Me: my legs. I hate them they’re fat and have cellulite and are too hairy for a woman

Therapist: okay but legs don’t exist to look good. What are some things your legs do for you?

Me: well I love going for walks/hikes

Therapist: great, so whenever you think about how much you hate your legs, remember what they do for you. Thank them and be kind to them

This is of course a VERY condensed version of things but we basically went over my body piece by piece and sort of anthropomorphized them. This worked because I am good at being kind to others but not myself and I didn’t want to be ‘mean’ to my legs

And then when I got used to all that, we put me back together. My legs only function because I have blood and skin and bones. I have the energy to move them because I have a digestive system. I have the balance to move because I have an inner ear. I know where to go because I have eyes. Etc.

And then when I got used to THAT, she hit me with- that’s you. It’s not a body you pilot. You are your body. Just like your legs and eyes are all part of a whole, you are not a consciousness apart.

Again I’m condensing years of therapy. Whole periods of time where we just talked about my trauma related to those issues. But it worked.

I don’t say I’m cured of dysphoria for the same reason I don’t say I’m cured of anxiety or depression- mental health is reffered to as “controlled or in remission”.

What radical feminism gave me is equally important. It gave me my anger back. It gave me my trust in my own perception back. It gave me pride in womanhood and a community of like minded women.

And I know this is already an essay but I want to speak to the idea that my main issue with transition is it wouldn’t make me enough of a man.

Every TRA needs to hear just how far into sci-fi territory their ideas are. Right now the best I could hope for is painful scar tissue around my repositioned breasts and a pit dug into my leg or arm to harvest flesh for a micro dick that doesn’t get hard without help.

That’s the BEST CASE. The worst case is I get so many painful and humiliating complications I DIE. One of the blogs I follow on here had exactly this happen to her friend. She got bottom surgery and it killed her.

Let’s say we get to the level of science that’s at least perfected the cosmetic aspects. I’d still have a dick and balls that would never produce sperm. My body would still have ovaries and a uterus to remove. My endocrine system would still be female. My skeletal structure would still be female. My lungs and heart and muscles and blood and hair would all still be female.

Your sex is decided at conception. You are built from a single cell around the absence or presence of an active SRY gene.

Imagine you built me a dresser and I came in and said “actually can you make me a wardrobe instead?” And demanded you only use the same materials you already had. What could you possibly make me when the wood is already cut to size and shaped?

#personal #anon asks #radical feminism

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pricechecktranslations · 1 year

Text

the heavenly yard blog infomine, part 1: Discussion of Daughter of Evil et al, Initial plot notes

For a while now I've been meaning to translate mothy's producer blog so that it's another piece of creator commentary and Evillious history that isn't locked behind a language barrier. Frankly though that's way too much to translate (and I don't find a personal blog particularly fun to translate anyway), so instead I am just reading the blog when I have the inclination and then writing quick notes on what's there (mostly when it relates to Evillious).

The purpose behind this is to give the basic information for those who find it interesting, and to give a guide to where the information can be found for those who'd like to examine mothy's words more closely but would rather not dig through years of blog posts to do it.

Click here to visit the blog yourself

Without further ado, here is the first round under the cut:

22 June, 2008 ~ 7th August 2008

----June, 2008---- 22nd

Starts blog to more easily give info about his songs and ideas

23rd Page 1

-mothy talks about 10 Minute Love (took him 2 weeks to make since he wasn't familiar with the programs he used)

-made it thinking a cute, girly song would get popular on NicoNico (it wasn't)

-lot of mistakes were made when making the video

-probably won't make a song like it again but he'd also kind of like to give it another shot sometime

Page 2

-mothy talks a bit about Wordplay (such as being a song he made for himself rather than for an audience)

uses Beethoven's 9th symphony in the climax of the song

drew the image himself

even though it wasn't very popular it's his favorite song so far

Page 3

mothy talks a little about the inspirations behind Clockwork Lullaby (such as following the trends of electronic music being popular on NicoNico at the time)

-suggests that Rin in the song as being the same one from Wordplay, making a song with the words she's discovered (or rather, he seems to think of her as just being Rin the VOCALOID rather than a separate character?).

-Drew a Len version of the song's image which he used as his social media icon

Page 4

-mothy shares the songs that he's made up to this point so people can download them

24th

-hints at his upcoming song (Reticent You, I think)

26th

-mothy talks about the leadup to making Daughter of Evil, how he wanted to improve as a producer and make something that would be seen and appreciated by more people.

-he decided the best way to do that was to make something that would be emotionally impactful

27th

-more discussion of the making of Daughter of Evil

-Riliane's laugh was inspired by Satoko's laugh from Higurashi: When They Cry (the anime), which was actually quite tricky to do because VOCALOID isn't made for talking. Her famous line was to make the laugh flow better into the song.

-basically the opening of the song was written before the rest of it

29th

-mothy expresses a desire to interact more with the broader VOCALOID community, but hasn't been able to just yet (still has his day job)

-also replies to some comments talking about his illustrations, his blog posts, if he's gonna get karaoke for his songs, etc. It seems he's quite busy

30th

-can't reply to people because he's working on a video

---July, 2008--- 2nd

-Might upload video tomorrow

4th

-Uploaded Girl of the Miniature Garden (part of the delays were because this is one of those videos that had multiple artists working on it).

-He tells people they can think of it as unrelated to his "of Evil" series, but hints he might make them connected eventually.

-Apparently this song was inspired by Rozen Maiden, even though he's never read it himself.

5th

-he returns to discussing the making of Daughter of Evil--he started from the main line and worked out from it that he wanted a Doronjo-esque, female villain protagonist who was also an uninhibited, Marie Antoinette-like queen ignorant of the ways of the world (but made her a princess due to Rin's age).

He also thinks Doronjo inspired the style of the song being a Showa-esque ballad as well.

he wanted it to have a solemn, orchestral feel, but also the cheap quality of a young girl performing at a musical festival (which is con-ven-ient because he lacked the skill to make it sound good).

first stanza was an introduction, he gave her a horse named Josephine because he couldn't give her a Road Roller due to time period. He made Len a servant rather than a prince because he didn't want his presence to reduce the feeling of Rin as the song's protagonist (at the time he didn't think much of Len as a program and wasn't planning to ever use him).

8th

-shares Servant and Daughter of Evil's rankings and answers some questions (used to be in a band, has diverse music tastes but likes Western (non-Japanese) music, etc).

-Someone asks if "Len" really killed "Miku" (because some fans seem to interpret him as secretly saving her), mothy hints that he'll be exploring that later but refuses to confirm or deny it.

12th

-more on making Daughter of Evil. Making the lyrics got complicated quickly, so he decided to come up with a basic plot writeup first and base the lyrics on that.

-Because of Len's inclusion he brought in other VOCALOIDS.

-He accidentally made too much plot for just the one song, and wound up creating 8 basic chapters. 1) Princess making a mess of things, 2) Famine, 3) Feud between swordswoman and princess, 4) jealousy makes a war break out, 5)The aftermath of "blue" and "green", 6) the revolution, 7) The ending, 8) the epilouge

-Mothy cut most of it for the song so it wouldn't be too long, but he would like to work with the full story someday. As such, he's going to upload his plot writeup to the blog, though he cautions people to view this as an in-progress plot rather than a final draft.

15th Page 1

-Mothy shares his notes on the song's first "chapter". The backstory for the kingdom is pretty much like his final version (king made country, died, queen took over and was great, died, daughter took over and was terrible, also had servant, etc etc). Most of this was just a bonus, he never intended to put it in the song.

It sounds like Rin's mother was always intended to be Sweet Ann.

Page 2

-muses on when he'll receive RinLen act 2, answers some misc questions.

-Encourages someone making a DoE PV to make the story how they want to rather than strictly adhering to his plot outline.

18th

-RinLen Act 2 came in, discusses how it sounds for a minute

20th

-The second "chapter" of Daughter of Evil. Again pretty much like the original--Rin is a queen in all but name, there was a famine, she was indifferent to her people's suffering, etc.

-mothy admits he made this part solely so he can have her say the "let them eat cake" line. He shares a Wikipedia quote that specifies that the original French for that quote actually says brioche, etc etc. (and of course brioche shows up in Servant of Evil). Also that Marie apparently never actually said that any of that.

-He wanted it to deliberately parallel the war to come later and her reactions to it, showing that she can't learn from her mistakes. In the end, though, all of it, including the famous line, got cut because it didn't fit in the song.

27th

-He's going to rerelease Daughter and Servant of Evil with RinLen act 2

28th

-does the rerelease for Daughter of Evil

31st Page 1

-does rerelease for Servant of Evil

-He got Gackpoid in and is thinking of using it.

-He got Adobe Premier Elements 4

Page 2

-Answers more questions. Apparently some people thought he was a woman, he clarifies he's a man (though not a beefcake or anything).

-another ask about JOYSOUND karaoke, which is still a no-go.

---August 2008---

1st

-discusses the third "chapter" of daughter of evil. Again very like the final story, has the captain of the guard from the previous monarch oppose the princess to relieve the famine (also intended to be Leon even at this early stage, though mothy notes he is nothing like the popular depiction of him). Princess summons him to her chambers at night, heavily implied her servant killed him, he's dead on the river the next morning. The girl in red, his daughter, vows revenge.

-even here mothy has omitted some of the story to preserve some suspense (like how the servant killed the guard). the girl in red is implied to be Meiko.

-Most of this was cut for a variety of reasons, but one that he gives is that it was more about Len than Rin (and also that it was weakened by cutting chapter 2).

2nd

Page 1

-now it's "chapter" 4, again very similar to what comes later. Princess falls in love with the "blue" Prince, she sends a minister to propose (I guess they weren't already engaged in this version of the story), he rejects her because he loves a girl in the "green" country. Princess goes mad with jealousy and, not knowing WHICH green girl was his love, has all of them killed. She isn't bothered at all.

-mothy refuses to elaborate on the "blue" and "green" people, but he does have specifics in mind for them.

-I'm a little confused by this next bit, I think I'm misunderstanding it. He says that he wrote a little side story for the minister who shows up in this chapter that has him as the protagonist while he was gathering illustrations for Servant of Evil after uploading the song on Piapro? I think he's referring to Twiright Prank, maybe?

-The most important part of this chapter is Riliane going "Oh, it's teatime/snacktime" at the end (which was originally supposed to contrast with "then let them eat cake" from earlier).

Page 2

-"chapter" 5 of DoE--again not much different here. green country is destroyed, but the "green girl" is alive because the servant sheltered her in a well (as he too loved her) thinking he could just hand her over to the "blue" man to keep her safe once things had cooled down. princess uses a wish in a bottle to tell him to kill the girl (and it was him who taught her the legend that caused her to start doing that). Later "blue" guy sees his love dead in the well and vows revenge also.

-again mothy keeps things hidden for tension. He suggests that people came make up their own answers if they want to. He also makes a comment about the glass bottle which makes me think it's some kind of obscure reference or in-joke or something.

-Though he cut it, he really liked this part which is why it wound up in the next song after it.

Page 3

-Now it's "chapter" 6. Basically the same again, a rebellion starts led by the "blue" man and "red" swordswoman. They overwhelm the tired army, surround the palace, and capture the princess, who was abandoned by her ministers.

-He cites this as the climax of the story. He makes a veiled reference to the twin switch that happens here.

-He's happy he got to redo the "You isolent thug!" line with RinLen Act2 since it was very poorly delivered with Act1

4th

-on "chapter" 7 of DoE, it's pretty much the same as the end of the song. princess gets executed publicly with bells ringing, gives her "teatime" line rather than any apology or begging, everyone thinks she's dead etc etc

-apparently he struggled a lot with whether to write "her" or "princess" in the lyrics (they're very similar words in Japanese) and what that would imply tonally. during the reprise at the end he also made her reign past tense as well (it's present tense in the first stanza), which he's really chuffed about having done.

7th

-we're finally on "chapter" 8, the epilogue. It seems that originally it was supposed to be a reveal at the end of Daughter of Evil that Rin pulled a twin-switch with Len. It got cut from the song because (in addition to the issues of length that plagued the other chapters), he figured her execution was a better ending for it as a standalone song. Naturally he does end up making it the subject of Servant of Evil.

-mothy discusses the twin switch idea a little, noting it's pretty common and citing Eve and Alexandra from "Master of the Game" by Sidney Sheldon as a particular inspiration.

-Anyway, the plot chapters he's shared are what he used to craft the lyrics for Daughter of Evil.

He has more to tell on the series, but I think that's a good stopping point for this infomine for now.

#()mothy blog posts #forgive me if i've mistyped or anything #even though i find most of these tidbits interesting #this kind of stuff grinds on my focus pretty badly

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lesewut · 2 months

Text

Farewell! My unfinished song!

Aitmatov, Chingiz: ‘You my poplar in the red headscarf' was originally published in 1970, this version was translated into German by Yuri Elperin in 1986.

'There was only us, our happiness, the sky and the path. I opened the door, let her take a seat and got behind the wheel. We drove off without a destination. But what did it matter, it was enough for us to sit next to each other, look into each other's eyes and hold hands (…) The car flew along as fast as an arrow. The whole world was in motion, everything was rushing towards us: The mountains, the fields and the trees. The wind whistled in our ears, the sun shone in the sky, we laughed and breathed in the scent of wormwood and tulips. A steppe vulture, perched on the ruins of an old Kümbös, took off with a few beats of its wings and glided along the path as if it wanted to race us.'

One of the most touching memories of my childhood are the old Turkish films from the 70s that I watched with my mother. I particularly remember the film adaptation of the book ‘Al yazmalim’ and when we watched the film again two years ago, we both cried and mountains of handkerchiefs sprang up on our laps. It's been a long time since I read a novel, but I devoured the letters to the end in one go and the tears kept blurring my vision. The contrast between the impetuosity of the protagonist and the fair grace of ‘his chulpan’, his morning star, with the uplifting description of the steppe in connection with the landscape of his own soul was an indescribable experience. Through the life in the Kyrgyz Ail and through his grandmother, with whom Aitmatow grew up for a time, he was deeply rooted in the life of the nomads and learnt about the extremely rich oral storytelling tradition of the Kyrgyz. In his narrative, he shows the colourfulness and pronounced solidarity of nomadic life, which takes on a new meaning under the changed conditions (the side effects of modernity, changed infrastructure and systematisation). His basic humanist attitude is reflected throughout, and he is particularly critical of the problem of marriage, which fundamentally ignores the female part and places decision-making power in the hands of the parents and the future husband.

‘On the day I left, I went to the lake. I stood on the hill close to the water and said goodbye to the mountains of Tienshan and Issyk-Kul. Farewell, Issyk-Kul, my unfinished song! How I would love to take you with me, with your blue water and your yellow shores, but that is denied to me, just as I cannot take the love of my nearest and dearest with me. Farewell, Asselj! Farewell, you my poplar in the red headscarf! Be happy!’

youtube

#literature #bookworm #book #book cover #world literature #love story #love #unlucky love #al yazmalim #Aitmatow #kyrgyz #kyrgyz literature #steppe #Tschingis Aitmatow #Türkan Soray #Kadir Inanir #Yesilcam #Youtube

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restlessmaknae · 2 years

Text

silenced

After your best friend disappears and the government doesn’t want to help, lies are discovered and the truth slowly unveils itself as you see your art-rid country for the first time for what it truly is: a land of manipulation, lies and total control.

➳ Characters: Insurgents!Ateez x female!reader/you (best friend!Yeosang and subtly implied love interest!San)

➳ Genre: dystopian, action, the movement-inspired au

➳ Words: 10.2k

➳ Warning: mentions of blood, being shot, guns, protests, manipulation, brainwashing, bullying, corruption, being orphans

➳ Dedicated to: @lily-blue. Have the happiest birthday, my dear! I’m so happy that we can celebrate this day together again ❤️

➳ Ateez taglist: @dat-town, @tranquilpetrichor, @effulgentfireflies, @americanokisses, @kuleo26, @anime-lover-2020, @wccycc, @littlestartonightsposts, @koishua, @squiishymeow

“It’s a lie.”

Those were the last words of your father’s that you could remember. You faintly remembered the creases on his forehead, the sharpness of his jawline, the dark, almost midnight black shade of his eyes and the firmness of his grip before he let go. Had to let go, to be precise.

At least, you liked to think that it wasn’t an illusion, that he was real and not just a made-up version of your father in your head. However, sometimes you believed that this scene was just a reoccurring one in your dreams because according to the ones who had taken you in at the orphanage, you had been abandoned by your parents at the age of 4. The reason for that had been that your parents had been Insurgents, and couldn’t have cared less about a child. Insurgents were the ones called by the government who went against the most basic rule: no art in any form. No music, no dance, no paintings, no poems, nothing of that sort.

Since the Great War of Art when artists and art lovers had gone against the ruling party, leading to great losses including innocent people, the government had banned all forms of art, and did everything they could to detain any last piece of art and silence any hum that could be turned into a song. You could only see art pieces in history books, so that you would know what to look out for to tell the police, but music had long been gone from your country. It was said that art was a fabricated lie; that art pieces only contained misleading, anti-government messages and tainted the truth.

It was a disgrace to be the children of Insurgents, so you had been an outcast at the orphanage and no family had come to pick you up. It had been fine as long as the kids who had known what your parents were had been adopted, but the stigma still lived with you up to this day. There had been only one person who hadn’t cared about that, and that had been Kang Yeosang, a similarly abandoned child of Insurgents. He had come 2 years after you, and he had cried in a closet at nights, muffling his sobs, so that no one else could hear him, but you had, and that’s where your friendship had blossomed from: mutual understanding, shared pain and a sense of belonging.

You two had grown to become best friends as years had gone by, and after turning 18 with still no parents, you had joined the government’s adult orphan program which provided you with a shared flat with someone else - in your case, it was Yeosang - in exchange for you working for the government. You and Yeosang were both administrative specialists, though under different institutions, and had continued living together. Since your housing was taken care of, you had enough to live by and you believed that there was nothing more fulfilling than working for the government that took you under its wing despite who you were.

You believed that until one day, your best friend went missing, and even the government didn’t want to help you find him.

Each morning, you started work by listening to the government’s agenda which emphasised why art was toxic, how the government tried to protect you from the lies of art, and how you should always believe in yourself for you could do so much, the government would always be there to help you - to rid of pain, to erase the small cracks in your perfect world, to ease your worries.

However, when you went to report Yeosang missing after you hadn’t been able to reach him for two whole days, he hadn’t come home for the night and he hadn’t left behind anything, the officers didn’t want to help.

“There are no missing people in this country,” the officer told you sternly. His tone was professional, and you knew that you were using this tone while working because it was the guideline, but right now, his emotionless state bugged you. “Everyone has a direction, everyone has a plan, everyone belongs somewhere. If he did leave, he would come back sooner or later.”

“He didn’t tell me anything as to why he would leave, that’s why I’m worried,” you reasoned, keeping your voice stable. You didn’t want to cause a scene, but Yeosang’s disappearance moved something in your heart. He was the closest thing you had to family, and losing him after being an orphan all your life seemed like drowning yourself would be a less painful experience.

“I am sure he will come back. If he does not come back after a week, he has somewhere else to be. People come and go in our lives, that is part of how we grow,” he continued in a practised, calm manner, bobbing his head to emphasise his words.

You let out an aghast sigh in return, not being able to digest the fact that he would leave without saying anything. The flat was intact when you had gotten home the day before after work, so there could have been nothing as outrageous as someone breaking in or kidnapping him. Since the Great War of Art, crime had been nullified, so that could have happened only in the worst case scenario, and Yeosang was no one special - in the most positive way. Thus, rationally speaking, no one could have come to get him.

“Should there be anything else I could help you with, please, let me know. If not, would you be so kind as to let the queue move?” The officer dragged you out of your concerned thoughts and pointed at the line of people behind you. Most of them were probably here to report an Insurgent, pick up their newly printed official documents or register for one of the many exams the government held to help people enter the workplace or higher education.

“Sure. Thank you so much for your assistance!” You bowed out of respect, left your waiting number on the desk and walked away from the office, your heart still as heavy as it had been when you had walked in.

The government had to be right. It was always right, you shouldn’t have doubted them, doubted yourself. Maybe Yeosang had indeed needed to leave somewhere, but he had had a difficult time saying goodbye. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to make you sad, to cause pain. Here, people lived to make this place better and to make each other content. Not happy because happiness was fleeting, it was an illusion often portrayed by art that couldn’t be reached in real life, but content. Contentment ran the offices, the institutions, the systems, and contentment suppressed anger, fear and pain. Contentment was the reason crime was almost non-existent in your country.

At least, that’s what you had learned. That’s what you had been taught. That’s what you kept hearing each and every day by sitting through the government’s agenda before work.

However, there was a tiny voice in your head that told you that either Yeosang had gotten into trouble - maybe by the Insurgents, maybe by something that had caused a crack in the system - or he had indeed wanted to leave. If it had been the latter though, you couldn’t have believed that he had just left without a word, especially after the last conversation you had had with him.

“What would you do if you were free?” Yeosang had asked at the dinner table, over the plate of your government-assigned food. In order to keep people’s health in check, everyone was assigned their own diet and daily menu, picked up in the morning at work and aimed at leaving nothing behind at the end of the day. Your health was monitored monthly by your own set of doctors, and this system proved to elevate the overall wellness in your county, hence promising a longer life that didn’t need so much medication and so many hospital visits.

“What do you mean? We are free. We are out of the orphanage, having a flat, having a job and food on the table. What more could you want?” You had quirked an eyebrow at the boy, not accusing, merely curious. This was your definition of freedom. Wasn’t it his?

“I mean… if you could have any job and live anywhere, wouldn’t you want to do something else?”

“No, Yeosang. The government is working so hard for us to keep such a balanced system. I’m thankful that they’ve given us a new chance after being abandoned by our Insurgent parents,” you had reminded him in case he had forgotten. There had been something passing through his features, but you couldn’t have pinpointed what it had been. It had definitely not been contentment.

“You’re right,” he had said and proceeded to eat. You had left it at that, and asked him about his day at work instead.

It had been nothing out of the ordinary, but maybe that conversation should have meant that he had been indeed intending to leave? You couldn’t have understood the reason why, but you had trusted him that he had made the right decision, and so, you had given up on searching for him.

A few weeks had passed by since Yeosang’s disappearance, and you had convinced yourself that the officer had been right: he had left on his own accord and he was doing fine. Otherwise, you would have heard of him, right? Someone would have called you on his phone that was still unreachable.

Instead of worrying about him, you continued living your life how you had done prior to his disappearance. Working, eating, doing the household chores, sleeping and volunteering to tend to public gardens on the weekends. Listening to the news of the country’s cities becoming more and more prosperous, companies doing well and more people taking the workplace entry exams than a few months before made you a proud citizen. It was a good place to live in. It was where you belonged.

However, the next Monday when you went into work, something happened. The government’s agenda was interrupted. It was usually screened and you listened to it through earphones as well, so you could see and hear your leader as well as possible. This time though, the screen glitched and only jumbled words could be heard through your earphones.

As usual, people didn’t panic at first. You were told and trained to keep calm at all times, and this was no different. However, the more this continued, the more fidgety everyone became.

“Stay in your seats, please! I will look into the matter. I am sure it is just a system error,” the supervisor in the room noted with a rigid edge to his words, then left the room. Everyone became a bit more relaxed, and a lot of them put down their earphones.

However, you were frozen in place, not just by the situation itself but also by what you could hear through your earphones.

“It’s all a lie.”

It was a robotic voice, nothing like the voice you remembered from your memories (or dreams?), but it still struck you as if you had heard your father’s words.

“Do doubt yourself. At all times. The government isn’t here to protect you. It’s here to isolate you from the truth,” the voice continued, and the way it said the complete opposite of the government’s agenda troubled you. Who was this? What was going on? Was it the Insurgents’ doing? But the government said that they monitored them all the time, that they couldn’t disturb the public anymore… So just who was this? Why were they lying?

Despite the racing thoughts in your head, the voice continued.

“The movement is here. You should prepare yourself. Brace yourself to face the truth, and remember: doubt yourself. At all times. Doubt the government.”

The voice was cut off, and suddenly, the screens were replaced with images of art pieces in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colours. You could only wear dull colours - black, white and grey -, so to see art pieces like in those history books of yours in vivid, almost blinding colours made you feel uneasy. Then, you saw people moving in an odd way. It was as if they were possessed, doing the same thing at the same time with the same preciseness. Sounds could be heard too, but they were odd. It was as if they connected. As if there was a flow to them, and absentmindedly, your fingers tapped to the beat of the sound. Could it be music? You had never heard anything as disturbing as this before… Yet, you had never heard anything as touching as this before. It wasn’t even just contentment that you felt. It was something else, too. Something new.

The next sound that registered in you wasn’t coming from the screen or your earphones. It came from outside, and despite the supervisor telling you all to stay in your seats, people rushed to the windows and peeked out by pulling the curtains to the side.

“This can’t be happening,” you heard someone whisper, and as you stepped closer to the window, you realised what she meant: the flying drones that monitored the city at all times were up in flames and falling to the ground, hitting it with muffled sounds.

“Is it the Insurgents?”

“What are we supposed to do?”

“Are we safe?”

The panic that had been long gone from people’s voices since the stabilisation of the system was back, and you had this gripping feeling in your heart for it reminded you of how your father had sounded before he had let go of you in your memories. No. This couldn’t happen. This system was foolproof. There had to be an error, a human error, it couldn’t have been caused by the Insurgents.

However, in between the smoke and flames caused by the falling drones, you could see blue… Blue capes. Those… Those weren’t allowed. You could say that your eyes were playing tricks on you, but you were on the first floor, you could see it well for yourself. Those were blue ones.

In the next moment, one of those who wore the blue cape turned around and looked up. You felt the ground open up beneath you, the sight rendering you speechless. Your eyes must have been playing tricks on you. It couldn’t be… Yet…

It was Yeosang. It had to be. The same warm brown eyes, the same jet-black hair, the same softness to his cheeks, the same dimples hiding behind his lips. However, the confidence he wore was unfamiliar. Or maybe it wasn’t even confidence… but rage?

As he was about to turn back, you didn’t think twice. Even though you had been told to stay in your seat, you had already broken that instruction, and now Yeosang was there, and you just couldn’t let him go without an explanation. So you ran downstairs, out of the building, passing by people asking you to stay inside and stay calm, and ran after the figures in blue.

You coughed constantly through the smoke, and you needed your eyes to adjust to the grainy, hot air, but eventually, you caught up to one of the blue caped figures. However, when you tapped his shoulder and he turned around, he wasn’t Yeosang. These were more fierce eyes with a piercing stare and a darkness sitting in his features that was nothing like Yeosang’s.

On the other hand, when a piercing sound could be heard, you saw a figure falling to the ground, and as he fell back, the hood of his cape fell off and revealed Yeosang.

“No!” You heard yourself cry out even though it seemed unfamiliar - both the emotions in your voice and the high pitch of it. Instinctively, you crouched down to the struggling Yeosang whose hands were going to his bleeding leg.

The sight made you so confused. He had been shot. But by whom? Guns weren’t allowed to the public, only to the government. Why would they shoot him? While it was true that he was wearing blue, he was innocent. You didn’t know who these people were in the blue cape, but he couldn’t be one of the Insurgents. You had known him most of your life. He couldn’t have been one of them, so why had they just shot him?

“It’s okay. It didn’t go too deep,” Yeosang mumbled with a feeble smile as he looked up at you. You didn’t even remember the last time he had smiled at you like that, and it felt so wrong for him to smile at you in such a situation. The sight made you freeze in place. Maybe he wasn’t the Yeosang that you knew.

“We have to go, they are here,” someone behind you prompted, and helped Yeosang to his feet who was seemingly able to walk even though he was limping and he was wincing from the pain.

“There’s a hospital down the street, you should…”

“Do you think they would treat him at the hospital after shooting him?” The earlier boy with the piercing gaze asked, and you were so shocked by his statement that the words you were trying to say died on the tip of your tongue.

After that, it was a mess of screams and smoke and noises that seemed close yet far at the same time, and you were struggling to see well due to the little bursts of fire around and the continuously steaming smoke from the damaged drones. What you saw was nothing like you had ever seen on tv: this was similar to the pictures you had seen in your history books instead. This should have never happened, not just the fire, but the system glitch and of course Yeosang…

You were so conflicted as to what was going on that you couldn’t move. However, someone reached for your arms and started pulling you with them. When your eyes adjusted to your surroundings yet again, and you caught a flash of blue, you stopped.

You couldn’t go with them. It wasn’t right. This was violence. You weren’t a part of this. You had nothing to do with violence.

“Come on! You can get shot here,” a deep-voiced guy told you, and pulled on your arm.

“They won’t shoot me. I’m innocent.”

“Do you think they care at this rate? The moment they saw you crouch down to Yeosang, you became their target, too.”

“But I’m not one of you,” you insisted, still trying to keep your voice calm and void of any emotions even though what you were feeling now was far from contentment. No matter who they were, you weren’t like them. It wasn’t just the blue cape, but the fact that they were out here when everyone was told to keep inside. You should have listened to the supervisor. You had broken the instructions. You had doubted the government.

“They don’t care. Come on!” Yeosang winced as he said the words out loud, and it took another gunshot fired close to you to prompt you to follow them. Despite not knowing what they were or where they were going or why they had Yeosang, seeing the only person in your life who you would call family in pain because of someone who was shooting around here, you followed them. It didn’t feel like it was you though. You were too occupied by the guilt of breaking the supervisor’s order to care.

The place you ended up at was nothing like your government-assigned flat even though it looked like one from the outside. From the inside, it was muddy, no one seemed to take care of it well, and there was such a disarray of things - maps, pictures, newspapers and such - lying around that it unsettled you. Both the sight of it and the thought that you were close to anything as messy as this place. An order was set for a reason everywhere you went; it was to avoid chaos that led to the lack of contentment and that led to the lack of an organised, thriving, flawless system.

They were prepared with a first-aid kit though, so they could take care of Yeosang’s bruise while you were watching in silence, still trying to process what had just happened and matching the names that were thrown around to the faces around you. It was a bit like an out of body experience, so what happened around and what was said, it all seemed like it happened to someone else, not you.

“It seems they aren’t scared to use weapons in public anymore,” the orange-haired boy - Mingi - mused out loud as he was sitting in a chair, occasionally glancing in Yeosang’s direction and also yours. You had never seen anyone with dyed hair, but you doubted that it was his natural colour because the roots of his hair were still black. How did he even colour his hair?

Even though all of these boys looked at you suspiciously, they didn’t voice it out and carried on as if you had always been there. You had no idea whether that was because Yeosang had told them about you or because they were waiting for you to speak up, but you were still so confused about the recent events that your thoughts were more occupied by the questions that the things you had seen triggered in you than the expressions on their faces.

“There weren’t a lot of people around though. It still seems that the government is keeping them under control, and they listen to them,” the leader-like figure - Hongjoong - concluded as he was putting a dressing strip around Yeosang’s bruise. Hongjoong had said after examining it that if the bullet had gone deeper, Yeosang might not have survived because he would have lost too much blood and because the bullet had been too close to his kneecap. In this case though, the blood loss was manageable, yet he would need a few weeks of rest to avoid putting too much pressure on his injured leg.

“Not everyone though. I saw people picking up the leaflets we left behind,” Yunho - a boy with surprisingly soft features to his wide built - mentioned, and you wondered if you had seen leaflets before. Some papers had been flying around, but you had assumed that they had been from the streets in general. It seemed it had not been the case.

“Good. We’ve raised even more awareness, now it’s time to plan the next one,” San - the guy with the piercing gaze - announced as he glanced in your direction for a few seconds. Then, he averted his eyes to Yeosang’s features, and there was such an indescribable expression on his face that you had no idea what to think - what was he thinking? -, but your stomach twisted nevertheless.

“Easy, tiger,” Wooyoung chuckled as he threw his arm around San’s shoulders who casually shrugged him off. “I think we have something else to take care of first,” he added, and now all eyes were on you.

You were not used to the attention of so many people when you didn’t know their intentions. At the orphanage, people hadn’t cared after a while because you were the child of Insurgents. At work, you were just one of the many employees doing the same job, you were no one special. Right now though, you couldn’t decipher whether they were looking at you as if they had wanted you gone or as if they had planned on using you.

However, before anyone could speak up, the door opened from a nearby room and a boy with chestnut-brown hair walked out of it.

“All the cameras are taken care of. No traces are left behind,” he announced surprisingly beamingly, though when he caught sight of the big bandage around Yeosang’s bruise, his smile faded. “Now, that was not a part of the plan,” he hummed, looking a bit more concerned, but it was still subtle compared to the way his eyes widened when he saw you sitting between Yeosang and San. “Nor was she as far as I know,” he looked around, confused, and it took a bit of time on everyone’s part to recall the previous events in order to explain the situation.

“Oh, so you’re the girl from the orphanage Yeosang keeps talking about,” the guy put the pieces together after the explanation, and he spoke so lightly as if Yeosang hadn’t even been there with you. Now it made more sense though why everyone acted so casually around you - Yeosang had talked about you to them. So why had he left without saying anything? “I’m Jongho, by the way.”

You didn’t see a reason to introduce yourself since everyone had already known who you were, so you kept quiet. Not that Jongho seemed to mind because he casually plopped down on one of the unoccupied chairs and bore the silence that weighed on all of you before Yeosang decided to break it.

“Why did you run out of the building back there?”

His question was very much reasonable for you had gone against what had been asked of you. However, as he was looking at you like that - like the person you had grown up with -, you were tormented just yet again if it had been worth it. How had he ended up here with these guys?

“Because I saw you, and you left without saying anything, and I just felt like… I have to see you,” your voice came out hoarse, and you were quieter than you had intended, but there was no judgement in Yeosang’s eyes, there had never been.

“Weren’t you told to stay inside?” Seonghwa mused out loud, and despite his neutral tone, you felt something light up inside of you. It’s not that you had been dragged here against your own will because you hadn’t; you had actually escaped with them because upon the severity of the situation - Yeosang being shot -, you had feared of something happening to you as well. You had never been afraid of death for it was a natural part of life, but in the midst of smoke and fire and the sound of gunshots, something in you had been switched on.

They might have been right; out there the government couldn’t have known that you were innocent. On the other hand, you weren’t even that innocent at all. After all, it seemed that Yeosang had gotten into trouble, and even though these boys might not have been Insurgents, they were surely rebels. Rebels that you should have never ever crossed paths with.

“I was, and now seeing what you’re doing, I regret it. I should go and turn myself in for breaking an order.”

“You did the right thing.”

“What?” You shrieked upon San’s compliment. You couldn’t even take it as a compliment for it was all too wrong to have done something like this. “What I did was outrageous.”

“It was brave. Brave because your feelings for a lost friend were stronger than the brainwashing you had been through, and this is exactly what we need,” he continued, keeping the eye-contact with you, and no matter the fact that Yeosang was on your other side, you couldn’t avert your eyes to look for assurance in your best friend’s eyes because the way San looked at you was pinning you to the ground.

However, the term ‘brainwashing’ triggered something in you, and you bolted to your feet. You hadn’t been brainwashed. It was them who were in the wrong. You couldn’t stay here. It was dangerous. They were dangerous. They were against the government who had raised you.

“No matter what your intentions are, don’t count on me. I’ll leave and tell them about what I’ve done, what you’ve done and…” You warned them as you started walking towards the door you had entered through. You were already reaching for the doorknob when Yeosang’s voice stopped you in your tracks.

“Do you know how your parents really died?”

You turned around, your response automatic. It was a reply you had prepared for anyone asking, and Yeosang should have known better than anyone. You didn’t even see the point in answering, but you did nevertheless.

“They were taken away by the government because they were Insurgents, so I suppose they died afterwards.”

“They were executed for saying the truth, for standing up for themselves. I know you won’t believe me, but you will believe this,” he counter-attacked as he turned to Mingi and told him something about a footage of a particular day. Mingi was searching for the tape for a bit, but then, he put it into the player and the lifeless TV screen came to life, showing people marching down the streets.

You had only seen such a scene in history books, but those were black-and-white, and to see the actual colours made you feel nauseous. People actually wore colourful clothes. People had colourful hair. They had paintings in their hands and they were singing - or at least you guessed so because it wasn’t like talking. It was rhythmic, it was powerful and it was undoubtedly beautiful. The way all those different voices became one. As opposed to the pictures in your books, they were peaceful. No one shouted over the other, no one pushed the other. They were just marching.

“It was taken on the day you said you had been taken to the orphanage. There was a mass protest, and if I’m not mistaken, you’re also there,” Yeosang woke you up from your stupor, and rendered you speechless.

No matter how much you would try to deny, he was right. As the camera zoomed in on the people, you saw him. Your father from your memories. He was holding the hand of a woman and a little girl. You.

You three were content, and you too, you were singing along with them. The way you looked at each other was loving, and seeing the woman by his side - your mother, you could only guess - made your heart churn. You looked so joyful. You had never seen others around you so free, so happy. Yes. Not just content but happy.

Then, gunshots were heard and the idyllic moment was interrupted, panic rose from the rows of people around. The camera zoomed out to show massive cars making a way through the crowd and shooting. Screams and cries could be heard. Groups of people were torn apart. Bloodspots started painting the ground.

“No. This must be manipulated,” you whispered in confusion, looking at the boys around you one by one, but all of their faces were calm as if they had already made peace with the fact that it was true. “Where did you get this?”

“From a neighbouring country’s TV channel,” Jongho explained sternly, and you furrowed your eyebrows.

“But it’s illegal to stream the neighbouring countries’ TV channels.”

“Why do you think that is illegal?” Seonghwa raised an eyebrow challengingly, but before you could answer, he continued. “Because the government doesn’t want you to see the truth. The truth about what happened even before the Great War of Art, the truth about how we’re actually stuck here and other countries around us are thriving, the truth about what art truly means to people.”

The more he talked, the more confused you were. While it was true that it was illegal to stream the neighbouring countries’ TV channels and to travel beyond borders for that matter, you believed that it was because this is what everyone else did. This is what was the norm. However, when Mingi switched to an actual news report about your own country, portraying the employees sitting through the agenda each morning, people walking down the streets void of colours and such, you were totally speechless.

“I don’t understand. Then, why do others know about this and don’t do anything?”

“For the same reason you’re not leaving this country and you rather believe in the government. Because they fear the government here. Because they see what happened to people who were trying to fight for democracy, and because just by having these footages, they are also risking their lives,” Hongjoong elaborated patiently, but you felt like the room around you was spinning.

It was just too much, too much to take in when what you saw on the screen and what you had been told were complete opposites. Then there was the picture of your parents and little you engraved into your head, and suddenly, your father’s words of it being a lie made so much more sense. You had probably been taken away from them during this protest, and that’s how you had ended up at the orphanage on this given day. Still, the fact that the version of your father in your memories was actually real and not just a dream made your stomach drop.

“We’ll give you some time alone now,” Hongjoong broke the tense silence that fell upon the nine of you, and prompted the boys to follow him to the room Jongho had come from. You watched them leave, except Yeosang, still unable to form coherent words, and burst into tears only when the door closed behind them.

You had so many questions - too many questions -, and it was just too much at once. The last few hours from the organised system error, Yeosang being shot, the escape from the chaos on the streets, the footage of your parents and you and everything the boys had said seemed so unbelievable, yet your eyes couldn’t betray you. The missing holes in the government’s messages about the neighbouring countries, the restriction on travel, the intention behind art pieces, the way they had shrugged off a missing person’s whereabouts all seemed to come together, but still, it was difficult to see everything through a new lens; a lens that had been said was wrong.

So may your tears be because of the absurdity of the situation or the fact that you could see your parents for yourself and realise that the scene in your head with your father was actually true and not just an illusion or a dream, but Yeosang didn’t say a thing about them. Even when you apologised because crying was a sign of discontentment and in your country, everyone was supposed to be content, he told you that you were allowed to cry, at least here, with him you were.

“How long have you known about this?”

This meant a lot of things in your case: the footage with you and your parents, the government’s wrongdoings, the truth behind Insurgent family members dying… However, Yeosang was patient enough to tell you everything. Since he had been a bit older when he had gotten to the orphanage and he had come a year after the Great War of Art, he told you that he remembered snippets of music at home, of his mother singing to him at nights and his father keeping some paintings in their basement. They had tried to live a double life - still making art while complying with the government’s regulations -, but they had gotten caught, and that’s how he had been separated from his parents. The government had tried to manipulate him into thinking that it hadn’t happened that way, but he still remembered, and that’s why he had been crying so much at nights - because the memories with his parents didn’t align with what the staff at the orphanage had tried to tell him.

So deep down he had always known, but the trauma of a child watching how his parents are forcefully separated from him and then never seeing them again lingered with him, and he had kept his mouth shut. Until he had met Hongjoong by chance, and after that, he had kept meeting the group, and decided to leave his life behind once and for all - knowing the consequences all too well.

You didn’t need to ask why he hadn’t told you about this beforehand; you knew that you might have even reported him for being an Insurgent a few hours ago, but the recent events had shaken you enough to be cautious. He also briefly talked about others’ stories - how Hongjoong was actually one of those who made drones for the government, hence he knew how to attack them as well; how Jongho got to the databases through Yeosang’s access to the government sites; how Mingi’s parents had moved abroad illegally after the Great War of Art when he had been really young, but he had come back to join The Movement here to open people’s eyes to the brainwashing -, but it was still a bit unbelievable to you.

“What’s The Movement?” You inquired at this point, though you faintly recalled that you had heard of it when they had hacked the agenda video.

“The Movement is what we’re doing, what we’re planning. Ultimately, we want to show people the truth, but the only way we can do that without violence is through actions like we did today. We attacked the drones and not people because we didn’t want to hurt anyone in the meantime,” he explained confidently, and this was such a new side of him. Yeosang was usually quiet, reserved and shy, but he had a certain - different - aura around him this time.

“But then why did they shoot you today in broad daylight?”

“I think they’re sensing that we are powerful enough to do something like this, so they also have more powerful responses. Plus, it’s not like they would show it on TV, or the ones witnessing the scene from the nearby buildings would believe that it’s for anything but their protection,” he elaborated bitterly, but you had to give it to him that he was right. A few hours ago, you would have thought the same.

“Is it safe to be here then? Can’t they track us all the way here?” You blurted out as it dawned on you just how casual they were being here. As if no one could have caught them.

“It’s a building of Seonghwa’s father’s. His father is a government official, and Seonghwa uses the upper floors as his flat. We use the basement as the base of our group, otherwise, his father thinks he uses it as a storage. No one would suspect anything because Seonghwa’s father trusts him and because there are no cameras, no drones here. The privilege of being a government official’s son.”

There was no malice in his words this time, though you could sense that it was more out of respect towards his friend than anything else. It was also very eye-opening to you that there were so many of them actually working for the government or being close to the core of the government and still getting through with The Movement. Just how blind everyone else was - including you - that they couldn’t see the signs, yet these boys could?

You couldn’t ask more because the door of the nearby room opened and Seonghwa walked out of it as if he had heard that you had been talking about him. As opposed to that though, he merely announced:

“I’m going to make dinner. Don’t mind me,” he said as he walked across the room to get to a door that led to a stairway. Oh, so that was how he could move between the floors inside. You remembered getting to this part of the house through a door that was at the end of a downward slope and under some bushes. Very smart, you had to give it to him.

Before you could ask, Yeosang explained that since Seonghwa’s father was influential, he didn’t need to follow his government-assigned meal plan strictly. He could buy as much food as he wanted and make as much food as he wanted given that he still went for the medical check-ups.

“Are you done, lovebirds? Can we get out of here now?” Wooyoung poked his head out of the nearby room, and you had no idea what to do with the implication. On the other hand, Yeosang just laughed at his friend, and it was such a foreign yet warming feeling that you were struck. He reminded you so much of your younger self in the footage that it hurt; was it worthy on the government’s part to create a world void of laughter in exchange for total control? That was when it struck you yet again just how badly you had been brainwashed into thinking that this was the way to live - void of laughter, happiness, art, colours.

“If you’re comfortable with having them around,” Yeosang turned to you, his eyes carrying worry. You still felt a bit numb to everything that was happening around you, so you didn’t actually have any feelings - neither negative, nor positive - to hold onto, so you nodded.

Afterwards, something that you thought couldn’t happen actually happened: you felt comfortable around these boys. They were laughing and joking around, sharing stories, stealing food from each other without actually getting angry and making sure that you felt involved despite not pushing you out of your comfort zone. Seonghwa’s cooking was also excellent, you didn’t even remember if you had ever eaten something so flavourful and truthfully, after the events, you were quite hungry.

You still didn’t trust them fully and you were still shaken up, but they helped you plan ahead because just like Yeosang had been on a secret wanted list that Jongho had discovered ever since his disappearance, you had also made your appearance on that list after today.

“So either you stay here with us and don’t go out there again because they might be coming for you. Or you can act as if we had kidnapped you and still say that you don’t know where our base is because you couldn’t see it well and start a new life. If you feel more comfortable with the latter, we might not be able to protect you as much as we could if you decided to stay with us,” Hongjoong mapped out the possibilities, and there was no point in disagreeing with him.

After all, he was right: you had gone after them, you had gone against what the supervisor had told you, and it seemed that you were on their list that they hadn’t told you about when you had been searching for Yeosang. Alas, you had been the stupid one to ask for their help, though you hadn’t known better back then.

So you decided to stay for a night at least, but little did you know, it was more difficult to fall asleep than you would have thought so.

After tossing and turning on the mattress they had provided for you for some time, you decided to leave the room and not disturb the others. You were in a room with Yeosang, Hongjoong and Jongho while Wooyoung, San, Yunho, Mingi were in another one, and Yeosang saw it more fit if you stayed beside him (and away from Wooyoung who kept calling you two lovebirds). Seonghwa had also offered to let you sleep in his bed on the upper floors, but that would have been more uncomfortable than this.

The two rooms were neater than the main lounge area with the maps and all, everyone had their own mattress and bedlinen, clothes were semi-organised on the shelves and all the boys had a part of the drawers, so they could store their stuff there. Since you had arrived with basically nothing, not even your phone or your bag, you didn’t have anything to put away, and you could sleep in a change of clothes only because Seonghwa landed you some of his oversized clothes that were clean and smelled of lavender, and since his house was fully-equipped, there was everything for you to wash up properly and all. He also seemed to have a spare one for every item.

You tried to walk out of the room quietly, making sure to close the door behind you with as little noise as possible. Then, you made your way to the couch in the lounge area, and almost sat down on it, but through the dim-light from the nearby lamp that was on, you noticed a figure already there and almost tripped as you took a few steps back. The figure reached for your wrist and steadied you as he rose from his seat.

“Are you okay?” San inquired gently, and since he couldn’t see that you nodded, you mumbled a quiet yes in return. The boy let go of your wrist as soon as he heard your answer, but before you could take that as an offence, he actually turned the nearby lamp to a brighter level, so you could see his features better, not just his outline.

He kept his eyes on you while your eyes were adjusting to the light and your surroundings, then moved to the end of the couch, indicating that you could sit down beside him. You tilted your head, pondering about what he was doing here at this hour, but decided to ask about it while contemplating whether to go back or stay here.

“Are you sleeping here?”

“No. I can’t sleep, so I came out here to let my thoughts race,” he answered genuinely, his voice coming out hoarse. The piercing gaze he had given you the first time your eyes had met was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he seemed a lot more vulnerable and weary. There was a certain degree of softness to his features, yet, there was firmness in them - a growing boy shedding his adolescent self while his more mature features were coming through at the same time. Maybe it’s because of the severity of the recent events, but it surprised you how young he was, and well, how young they all were.

You bobbed your head, taking in his answer as you sat down beside him. Even though you were practically strangers, there was just something comforting about him - about the way he had caught you just a minute ago and how he had just sat there, thinking.

So even when he asked about your reason for occupying the lounge room, you didn’t take it as anything more than genuine curiosity. Despite the fact that you were still fighting with the thought of everything being a lie, you couldn’t deny that they had been looking out for you ever since you had run out of that building.

“I can’t sleep either. Yesterday’s been… a lot,” you concluded quite briefly, though there was so much more you could have added. It was just that you were so used to not complaining since it was seen as a sign of discontentment and that was something the government was trying to suppress, you would have felt guilty for going on about your feelings.

Instead, you let silence take over the two of you, covering you with serenity and empathy. San didn’t push you for more answers, nor did he want to ask you about anything else. Instead, he started talking about himself in hopes of making you feel more comforted (you could only guess).

“I can understand that. I was like that once. When I met Hongjoong, I was angry and wanted to give him up even though he saved me when my classmates bullied me,” he admitted with a resigned sigh, but you furrowed your eyebrows in question.

“But bullying is illegal…”

“Not if you’re the son of a government official, and they were,” he pointed out with gritted teeth, his bitter memories dripping off his words. There was so much rawness in his voice and in the way his shoulders tensed as if he was recalling those days, ready to fight back, that you had no reason to doubt him. Bullying was a serious issue, something that was severely punished by law, but if the children of government officials had targeted him, it seemed that they could have easily gotten away with it. You could have easily questioned San, but seeing how Seonghwa hadn’t been caught hiding his group of friends in his basement, you could believe that it was true.

“My parents were once rich too, but they had to turn their art academy into a general study academy due to the war. That was still not enough for the kids to not pick on me even though my parents had never brought up anything art-related since. And kids can be cruel, it’s just that the government doesn’t want you to see the ugly side of schools. My parents also told me to keep quiet. When I didn’t, the next thing I knew was that the academy was gone and so were my parents. No goodbye, no letter, nothing, they just disappeared.”

One could have said that the boy’s words were cold, but you could see those microexpressions that gave him away - the frown deepening on his face, the way his lips twitched at the mention of his parents, his eyes taking on an even darker, deeper shade and his shoulders not easing up.

“And the government didn’t want to help, right?” You could only guess based on your experience, and the boy didn’t even disagree. Which just made everything even more heart-breaking.

“No. They’ve said I was better off without them and put me up for adoption. That was just one more reason for the kids to bully me, and that’s when I met Hongjoong.”

You didn’t know whether you had any right to ask about his life, but he didn’t seem to mind doing so. It was really difficult for you to accept that someone could be so open about his struggles like him because not even Yeosang had shared about his concerns as he knew that you wouldn’t have believed him, and in your society, talking about your struggles was seen as bashing the system. If there was something wrong with you, it had to be because the government-assigned diets didn’t work or the work system wasn’t successful enough or such, and so people didn’t complain or vent or anything of the sort.

However odd it was, it dawned on you that you didn’t mind listening to his story. It gave you a better picture of what kind of backgrounds these boys had.

“So did you grow up with him?” You mused out loud, not exactly knowing where this fit into his timeline with the others.

“Sort of. It’s not on paper, and he’s only a year older than me, but I did. No family adopted me, but Hongjoong always came by my school to check on me and he also showed me how to fight, how to make stuff and fix objects.”

In a way, it was like how you and Yeosang had found each other despite not being blood-related. It seemed that the children of Insurgents or those who had been wronged by the system somehow found each other. You just had a difficult time believing that it had taken you so much time to see the truth for yourself and believe it.

On the other hand, San didn’t bash you or comment on your past. If anything, his words were comforting and his stories helped you have a better understanding of the boys and how they were working on The Movement. The Movement was a nation-wide chain of organised events with the aim of showing the truth to the public. There had been other instances not just in your city but across the whole country as well, but just like you had never seen anything bad reported on TV or news sources, you hadn’t heard of it before. The previous day would probably not make it into the news either. However, the boys knew that they were growing stronger and stronger because more and more people were searching for the truth, showing up at their events and joining them.

These events were connected, and usually, they left behind clues about the next one - where it would take place and when -, but a lot of times they were merely putting on banners from afar or destroyed drones like today - which could be done from the privacy of Seonghwa’s house just like the day before. However, to make sure that the clues were left behind, some of the boys always went out in their capes. Since Jongho took care of the cameras and drones, their faces couldn’t be seen either, but it was their symbol nevertheless.

The thing was, the government scarcely could prepare for their attacks because just like you had been told earlier, no one would have suspected Hongjoong who was working on the drones for the government, Jongho who was monitoring the system security or Seonghwa who was a government official’s son. There were many others like them scattered around the country, and it was almost ironically easy to destroy the system from within this way.

That night though, you merely took these stories and connections with you to sleep, you didn’t act yourself. However, that seed of rebellion was planted in your heart.

During the next few days, you were still torn over the things you had known (or you thought you had known) and the contrast with reality. Your emotions were all over the place as well, and it was so unlike you to act so troubled that you felt guilty. However, the boys were understanding and patient as they knew that it was part of the process of coming face-to-face with what was going on in your country. So they didn’t take it to heart when you were throwing accusing sentences at them and they didn’t get fed up with your sudden outbursts. If anything, their support throughout this period showed you just how well they knew this feeling, and it showed you that here, with them, you could be yourself with all your different sides and many different feelings.

They were also working on finalising The Movement and its upcoming events. You learned that there were so many groups of Insurgents scattered around the country, and they were using their own phone line to communicate - perks of having someone work with them who knew such things -, so they always knew what was going on in other parts of the country because otherwise, they would have no idea. That was just what the government wanted though.

For instance, Bang Chan and his group of Insurgents were planning on interfering with the public transport a few days later, and they were in your city as well. However, in other cities, there was Keeho and his group who were about to screen some real footage from the past on bridges and at traffic lights where usually traffic information was shown, Sihyeon and her group were about to disrupt the monthly public service exam where usually hundreds of people take part whereas Chaewon and some other girls were testing out displays close to the border that would connect to the nearby country’s TV channels and show what they were screening about your own country. There were all kinds of events going on, you just wished every one of them would go according to plan and they wouldn’t end up in any casualties.

Now that you saw everything from a very different point of view, you could put the pieces together, and realise that having been rid of art, colours and all sorts of freedom of expression - let it be your clothes, your diet, your hair or the way you live - was so that the government could have a better control over the people. Since discontentment was seen as something bad, people feared speaking up even though they might have been struggling or wanted to have a better tomorrow - just like the boys around you and the groups of Insurgents around the country.

“Are you sure you want to be a part of it?” Yeosang asked the day before you were about to join them on their upcoming protest where they would use footage to show government officials’ houses, bullying scenes at school and higher-ups threatening their employees - something that could only happen because these were areas without cameras. However, Hongjoong had directed minuscule flying cameras to these places to record what was going on. They would show these on billboards because it was very likely that they would make citizens angry or at least frustrated as to what was going on.

“Yes,” you bobbed your head, your decision in joining them more firm than ever. You had felt so wrong for how oblivious you had been - for understandable reasons - and for being a puppet to the government when people were rid of their freedom, their money, their dignity and their life around you just because they knew what was the truth.

“It’s unlikely that anyone will notice you, but stick to San. He will help you out should there be any disturbances,” he advised gently, and you let your lips curl upwards. Yeosang had never stopped worrying about you since the day you had run after him and even before, he had been worried that you might end up getting hurt because of his disappearance. However, he had felt like he needed to leave because that was the only way he could be true to himself, and it was best if he hadn’t dragged you into this.

On the other hand, you had stayed on your own accord, and so, he had done his part to look out for you despite still limping and needing rest. All of them did look out for you actually, and more often than not, you found yourself having conversations at night with San who seemed likely to have trouble sleeping for he had too many worried thoughts. Due to his traumatic past, you couldn’t blame him. He had always been shamed for who he was, and just like you, he had been brainwashed into thinking that his parents were terrible people, and that he should have been glad that the government hadn’t disregarded him.

So you trusted San and that he would watch over you because Yeosang had been the one going out with him, but he couldn’t do so now due to his leg. They didn’t even ask you to take his place, but you wanted to. You wanted to do something.

“I know,” you mumbled to Yeosang, glancing in San’s direction who was currently listening to Wooyoung’s whining regarding the T-shirt that had shrunk in Seonghwa’s washing machine. You had no doubt that San would protect you - he had the built for it and he also had the determination -, but it felt odd actually being under his watch. It was odd and unfamiliar, but not in a negative way.

You were ready for this, and now more than ever, you felt like this was the right thing to do.

In a world where there were no vivid colours, it was like seeing the sunrise for the first time when they were slowly re-introduced, the palette spectrum growing wider and wider.

In a world where there could not be anything but contentment, joy, sorrow, disappointment, excitement and curiosity made their way into people’s every-day life, re-colouring their emotions.

In a world where the rich could do anything and the poor were looked down on even for whose children they were, the right social system had to be introduced, treating everyone as equal, and helping the less fortunate.

In a world where art was suppressed, hearing San’s lullabies at night was like a gift of its own, a treasure passed down from mother to son and then onto the other loved ones.

In a world where everyone was put into boxes, where you couldn’t be yourself, where you couldn’t express yourself, the freedom of finally being accepted and even cherished for your uniqueness was unfamiliar, a little scary, but ultimately, something that you would never take for granted again.

Because a new world has to come to erase all the pain, suppression and manipulation, but alas, the past couldn’t be undone, yet the hope for a new and better tomorrow was still there. In unity, in freedom, in love.

Soon, the expression ‘Insurgents’ was celebrated, not punished. Soon, you could be all free. Through months and years of constantly growing efforts, a new world came, and you, you were a part of making it come true.

This was what The Movement was all about.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading the story! It means a lot to me.❤️

If you want to read more stories of mine, let it be for Ateez or for other artists, consider signing up for my taglist here.

Have a lovely day/night!

#ateez #ateez scenarios #ateez imagines #ateez x reader #ateez x you #san scenarios #san imagines #san x reader #san x you #yeosang scenarios #yeosang imagines #yeosang x reader #yeosang x you

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invisibleicewands · 10 months

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I happened to see the hilarious AL photoshoot so I've been poking around and found your blog. Sorry for the anon! Anyway, um, I agree with you that MS doesn't seem to want anything to do with staged (and more specifically GT and AL) anymore. Maybe even GO. He's gotta be exhausted by keeping up the whole schtick. I mean how long can GT and AL possibly milk attention from the fandoms? (If Staged even has a fandom outside GO fans)

Hi, Anon!

From the beginning I had the feeling that MS wanted almost nothing to do with Staged. It was a project born to do something during the pandemic with the two families together, it was well received from the audience but I'm not sure it's one of his best works and maybe he knows it. They continued it to milk all the possible from it and to give a showcase also to the female partners (this was one of the main reasons IMHO), but you can feel he was not enthusiastic, he never promoted it, just few words during the interviews or nothing at all. Basically he left doing all the promo work to DT/GT/AL. Sometimes I think that AL and GT keep talking about Staged because they've the idea to do a 'female' version of it, I don't know. It could work or not, time will tell, but honestly, without MS or DT beside them, they're not so interesting or good as they think they are.

Anyway, the fact that they're still promoting old projects (see also LTTC) is a sign that they have not so many job offers.

#Anonymous #Staged

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humblefryingpan · 3 months

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(I made a speech and rlly messed it up so I'm putting it on here. It's basically about cool women being left out in history/school curriculums)

Historical Acknowledgement of Women

By @humblefryingpan

Good [morning/afternoon] and thank you for coming to listen. I have brought you here to talk about the absence of female lives, achievements and inventions from the school curriculum.

Over the course of history, women have been valued less than men. Even now, while we’re much closer to equality than ever before, women continue to be forgotten and undervalued. This is a huge problem for multiple reasons.

Firstly, we are receiving a tainted version of the past that changes key information. A common example of this would be Rosalind Franklin’s discovery of the double-helix DNA structure being credited to Watson and Crick. Instead of teaching us about Franklin, exam boards focus on the people who stole her work. While this fact is becoming more recognised lately, it is still not on school curriculums. Plus, in standardised tests, she will not be mentioned in any question about her discovery.

And secondly, the presence of women in history is important because children and teenagers often look to historical figures for inspiration. This can shape lives and change how kids see the world and for women there is an extremely limited choice of role models.

When I was a child, I idolised Marie Curie because she was one of the only women I had heard of that invented something. I don’t want to be a scientist, but there weren’t many female achievements that would be known to children. I knew of a few artists, because of my family. I knew some authors, because I liked to read. But most of these women were women I had found outside of school, I hadn’t actually been taught about them.

People try to make science more appealing to young girls. People think that if there is a problem, it’s that women don’t want to do science. People think that because you never hear about female scientists’ discoveries, but this isn’t because women don’t want to be scientists, its because when they are, they might as well be invisible.

Without the internet would you know that without the actress Hedy Lamarr inventing frequency hopping during World War two, we wouldn’t have Wi-Fi, GPS or Bluetooth? Her invention is currently valued at around $30 billion but she didn’t get paid anything for her patent. We never learn about her despite the fact she changed how the world currently runs. Without women we wouldn’t have dishwashers, circular saws, car heaters, lifeboats, windscreen wipers or even home security. And most people don’t know about any of those women.

Women’s work gets credited to men. And when it isn’t, it doesn’t get recognised at all. There are women who have done incredible things, invented things that changed the world, done things that saved thousands of lives. But nobody knows who they are. A study has shown that women in science are 13% less likely than men to receive authorship credit for their work. Additionally, women are 59% less likely to be named on patents, even when they work on the same projects.

During the second world war a woman called Irena Sendler worked in the Warsaw ghetto so that she could sneak children and infants out in burlap sacks. She was able to save over 2500 children before the Nazis caught and severely injured her. She had kept the names of every single child in a jar buried under a tree in her backyard, and after the war she located all the parents that had survived, the other kids being placed in foster homes or getting adopted.

In 2007, Sendler was nominated to win the Nobel Peace Prize but lost to a man named Al Gore who created a slideshow on global warming. Without her risking her life and safety, all those children would have been killed but she still got less recognition than a man’s slideshow.

Women have always been doing things as remarkable as men have, but we only ever learn about the male side of the past. When we learn what women’s roles were, we learn about housewives and mothers and while these are also valued lifestyles, we don’t get the full truth of what women have been doing since.

If we only knew the women we learnt about in school, we’d probably believe they never left the house. That they weren’t as clever, weren’t as brave, weren’t as interesting as men and that isn’t true. Women have always been working as hard as men do and when people say they were working ‘behind the scenes’ it is simply because historians pointed the cameras away from them.

Women deserve to learn about other women. Everyone deserves to see somebody like them that is presented the way men got presented. More female achievements need to appear on the school curriculum. Thank you for listening.

#speech #thank you for coming to my ted talk #women #women in history #women in stem #marie curie #hedy lamarr #educate yourselves #education

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ideas-on-paper · 5 months

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Monster Hunter Tri Diary, Part 5: Slaying Jaggi(a) & supplies for Kelbi horn medicine

For previous entries, search for #monster hunter tri diary

I've only realized now that "Moga Woods" is the proper name used in English instead of "Moga Forest". It's technically not that much of a difference, but I went back and edited it in my other entries to avoid confusion.

Also, I've summarized everything interesting from the villager conversations under "Village Talk".

Disclaimer: Text is paraphrased from my localization and might slightly deviate from the English version.

Quest: Farm Aid

Before starting out with the quest, I cleaned up my inventory a little. I threw out the harpoons and the BBQ spit, so now I only have potions, steaks, bugnets, and pickaxes in my bag. As for the whetstones, I know where to find those on the Deserted Island, so I can gather them myself if I need them.

I could already upgrade my Iron Sword+ into a Buster Sword, but since the second path with the Rugged Great Sword gives more damage and sharpness, I'll wait for now. (For the upgrade to the Rugged Great Sword, you need Great Jaggi Claws, so I'll have to hunt a Great Jaggi first.)

Head Farmer in the quest description: "A stubborn herd of Jaggi has infested my farm!" Hilariously, the actual quest is about hunting Jaggia, not Jaggi (if you don't take the subquest into account). I guess technically, Jaggia are just female Jaggi, but it's still a bit odd since the Head Farmer insisted they're having trouble with Jaggi.

"The vermin eats whatever it can find - roots and stuff like that." Whaaat? Now you're just pulling my leg - why should carnivorous bird wyverns eat roots? All of this seems kinda fishy somehow... (Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the Jaggi attacking the farm is just an excuse to get rid of them. Like the villagers were annoyed by the Jaggi, submitted some vaguely plausible reason to the Guild why they want them gone, and the Guild approved of it and made it into a quest.)

Man, these Jaggi got skills - one of them just attacked me, spun around in my direction and bit me! They must've been training while I wasn't looking.

When all the Jaggi in area 2 are dead, the Aptonoth return. Sweet - I guess they feel safe now that there aren't any carnivores around.

Jaggia are tough - I need so many hits with the Great Sword until they go down. Good thing I already upgraded it once!

It's cute how some of the small monsters share moves with their big counterparts. For example, the Jaggia have the same hipcheck as the Great Jaggi, in miniature format.

And there we go - kill quests are usually over pretty fast. xD Still, I always like to use the opportunity to snatch some other stuff from gathering spots as well. If you can't carry everything, make sure you at least pick up the stuff from the blue ones.

Return to Moga Village (day)

Head Farmer: "The Guild informed me you've taken care of the Jaggi herd. Nice of them to make it official and all that, but I rather would've liked a visit from the cute receptionist." Wait... Is that? This old geezer just was lovesick for the Guild Sweetheart (whatever you may think of that), so he made up a quest and hoped she’d come over? Jeez...

And then he just hands me some bomb casings as a reward. I mean, I'm grateful, but... How did you get these? Why do you even have them? Couldn't you have used them to make something to scare the Jaggi away yourself? (What are you hiding from me, Head Farmer?!)

And the biggest disappointment: I didn't even get any new Felynes (I would've at least expected that, since the Head Farmer claimed it would make them "feel better".) So basically, I just killed a bunch of Jaggi(a) because the Head Farmer wanted a date with the Guild Sweetheart he didn't get anyway. Great.

Btw, the "rarer" plants also cost more resources to cultivate. Waterblock Seeds cost 20 resource points per cycle, and Might Seeds cost 80 per cycle (in fact, if I were to cultivate Might Seeds for 3 cycles, it would use up all of my current resource points).

Out of curiosity, I carried the Poogie to my house before the last quest to see if it would stay there. Turns out it doesn't - I suppose I'll always have to go to the farm before setting out on quests to cuddle my Poogie, then. (Because even if it's just a rumor, we will religiously cuddle our Poogies to get that bonus chance for rare quest rewards.)

Also, I bought the first Book of Combos from the item shop. The irony is that when I had the book in my box, I actually failed to combine a Bugnet once and an Iron Pickaxe twice. xD (Considering this, it's almost miraculous how I managed to combine an iron pickaxe in the field twice, with just 75% success.)

Quest: Prescription Pick-Up

For the purpose of this quest, I'll bring along my Sword & Shield again so I can stun the Kelbi (even upgraded it once for a little more damage output). Also, I threw out the potions for now, since the first-aid meds should be enough and the Kelbi most likely aren't going to tear me to pieces.

Medicine Man: "Congestion, back aches, performance anxiety - my patients are going to the dogs! Two Kelbi horns would cure all of them." I thought Kelbi horns only helped against stomach problems. Now they're said to work against back aches and psychological stress as well? What kind of wonder drug is this?

Guild Sweetheart: "Come back safe and sound, alright?" Aww, don't worry - I will. :-)

I only realized now that you actually get 5 first-aid meds from the supply box instead of the usual 3. Very generous.

You only get Warm Pelts if you slay the Kelbi. Makes sense, since you can't skin them without killing them.

However, stunning them also adds to the kill count, apparently? (At least the Kelbi I stunned were counted as "kills" for the subquest.)

There are lots of Kelbi in area 7. Time to farm some Kelbi horns for my own stock, now that I've got the two required for the quest safely in my bag. (As the Guild teaches us: Never help someone without taking something for yourself.)

If you hurt the female Kelbi, they just try to run away. Meanwhile, if you attack the male Kelbi, they actually fight back. I guess that's because male Kelbi are more aggressive when provoked? (They are MH's deer, after all.)

After farming some horns and materials from the Kelbi (and probably almost driving the Moga Woods’ population to extinction), I'm gonna do my usual round to gather some items for extra cash. (The Red Coral Stones you find in the underwater areas are - as their description says - a great way to make quick money. You almost always get some from piles of bones strewn across the ocean floor, so you can easily get a stack of ten which is worth a good sum.)

Funnily enough, touching the tentacles of the jellyfish (like swimming below them) doesn't do any damage.

Contrary to their description as "submissive herbivores" that "panic when danger is present", the Epioth defend the other members of their flock if you attack them! (They'll give you one swipe with the tail, then swim away.)

If you're fighting close to the surface and the camera is positioned outside the water, the fighting sounds are actually muffled. I gotta say, that's a really cool detail!

If you stay around for a bit, you can watch the Epioth grazing on the ocean floor. Their description does say they "subsist on water grasses and moss", so I suppose they're something like the manatees of the MH world.

Another thing that's great about the subquests is that especially during the early game, they're a great way to earn some extra money. I've got 1100 zenny from the total quest reward, as opposed to just 500 from the main quest. (Plus 2450 zenny from all the account items I gathered.)

Village Talk

Guild Sweetheart: "How's the hunt going? I was super busy around here. Taking a walk, yoga... Oh, and I played with the piglet on the farm. Such a cute thing! Yeah, this was really an exhausting day." Yeah, relaxing is really a tough job. (Also, Idk, but it's hilarious to me that she seems to go to the farm pretty regularly. So, you know, it shouldn't be such a rare thing for the Head Farmer to see her?)

I gotta say though, the Head Farmer gives off serious grandpa vibes. He just forgot about what the special fertilizer does and says "I'm getting too old for this..." xD Maybe you should just start drawing your pension, eh?

Village Chief: "Hold on! Don't say anything. I can read it in your face: "She wants me to pluck mushrooms!"" Well, he obviously knows how things work in the Hunter's Guild... xD

"Don't forget that the Lagiacrus out there is still a danger. You never know when it shows up and... HELP, BEHIND YOU! Haha, just kidding, hunter!" Very funny.

"Everything can happen on a hunt, so you've got to be ready for anything." Perfect summary of Monster Hunter, actually. (However, more often than not, "be ready for anything" actually means "be ready for all kinds of exceptionally stupid coincidences".)

The Chief tells us that the farm is situated on a "cliff near the village". That actually makes sense, since you can see a panorama of Moga in the background at the farm's entrance; so, it can't be in the immediate vicinity of the village. Still, since there doesn't seem to be a path directly connecting the village and the farm, I wonder if they also go there by boat?

"The Outfitter only thinks about the ultimate weapon. If there really was something like an ultimate weapon, of course every hunter in the world would use it. Actually, it's only about preferences. Somewhere out there, there's the ideal weapon for YOU, and that one you have to look for!" Nicely said. Everyone has a different playstyle, so the weapon which is ideal for you might be entirely unfitting for someone else. It goes even farther than that, too: The definition of "ideal" is literally different for every person, so although it might sound cheesy, you really have to listen to your heart and do what's fulfilling to you.

Chief's son: "These torches from the fireplace are for the villagers, but... It's too dangerous bringing them into the village. Do you want to burn everything down?" Would you care to tell me, then, why there's a large torch standing right behind you?

"These buzzing Bnahabra are so annoying." Oh, trust me, they're not nearly as bad as the Vespoids from the 1st and 2nd gen. The Vespoids paralyze you, like, with every second sting - until now, the Bnahabra haven't paralyzed me once. (Tbh, I have a feeling the Bnahabra might be the response to MH fans raging over the Vespoids; so, Capcom just decided to make something like a "Vespoid light".)

Item vendor: "You can use barrel bombs underwater, too. A triumph of science!" Now that you mention it: It actually is noteworthy that you can use barrel bombs underwater. Back in Freedom Unite, you literally couldn't use them if it was raining in the jungle at night. Considering that Large Barrel Bombs are made with gunpowder, this actually makes sense, since gunpowder won't ignite if it's wet. I suppose they finally figured out how to put the gunpowder in a waterproof capsule, then.

"A Needleberry works wonders against stress at acupuncture points." So Needleberries are used for acupuncture - nice to know.

Gossip Lady: "Whenever monsters get to close to the village, we scare them with bombs." Since you're all so adamant about not bringing any torches/fire into the village, the same would probably go for bombs. So, if they're blowing up any bombs, they're most likely doing near the entrance to the village in area 1 (where you start out if you go hunting in the Moga Woods).

So, the Gossip Lady tells me about stunning Kelbi to cut off their horns (a little late, but thanks anyway), and there's a little pun at the end where she says "You don't know if the Kelbi are "down" for it? I don't get it." (Funny that she doesn't seem to understand any wordplays aside from her own. xD) I'm not sure if my translation above is accurate, but this line is actually pretty funny in my localization: It uses an idiom that means "up for it", but the literal translation of the word would be "buck", as in roebuck (the closest English adjective I can find to it is "horny", but that has kind of a different implication... xD).

Smith: "All products that leave my artisan shop have a hundred years gurantee!" Well, I hope so - I'll make sure to hold you to it.

"Be careful about storing iron equipment! It rusts in the salty wind!" I believe that - also, it's gonna make the job of my Felyne housekeeper so much easier if I take good care of it myself.

Chamberlyne: "I make your bed every day so you can always take a nap. And then there's the laundry and cleaning everything up... You're lucky that Felynes love cleanliness!" You know, if it was up to me, you'd get a medal for "employee of the month". Housekeeping may not be the most popular job, but without the help of our trusty Felyne, our daily routine would most likely be a mess. (That Felynes love cleanliness is kinda a cute detail, though; it definitely shows they're cats. xD)

"Did you see the large windmill over there? It's my job to repair it if it's broken. Quite a lot of work." What?! Not only is the Felyne charged with doing all the housekeeping for me, they're also obliged to step in as a construction worker if need be? Seriously, give this kitty a break...

Meanwhile, I can't afford to take a break since I still have some quests to do. Next time, there's gonna be some more aquatic action when we tackle the Sunken Treasures and Goldenfish quests. See ya then!

To be continued

#monster hunter #monster hunter tri #monster hunter tri diary #gaming diary

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