#A old detailed meme I had forgotten about

[dawn-selfships]

Feeling once again weak for the red old man so Areos hc time

- I have a story in my head for how they got familiar the first time! :) I'll make a more detailed post on that when I get the time, but tl;dr, Eos found and saved an unconscious Ares who had been fighting a powerful enemy, and patched up his injuries as he was bleeding Ichor (celestial blood). Bam, Ares was lovestruck. Then, because Eos had broken her wing while saving Ares, Ares did a rare kind and gentlemanly action, and gave Eos a ride on his chariot UuU Both to help her spread morning dew over the lands, and to ride her back home to Olympus where they could get her wing healed.

- Eos was SO flattered and surprised! Most gods did not usually pay attention to her, since she is only a minor goddess whose whole job is to herald the arrival of the day, of Apollo's chariot. So of course she is most of the time overshadowed by his radiance. Besides...she would have never thought that Ares, the terrifying god of war, could be so sweet and considerate to a lady!

- Ares in the meantime, could not stop thinking about Eos for weeks after the incident - her luminous light, her eyes, her cheeky smile, and the way she had saved him and fought a monster for him. Boy was he down baaaaad. However this all is exactly he was awfully shy about talking to her again, and resorted to avoiding Eos for a while like an absolute loser. Until Athena practically YELLED at him to go talk to Eos again LMAO

- Ares is that super showoffy jock boyfriend who is always trying to impress Eos. Be it fighting monsters in front of her, bringing her war trophies, lifting heavy stuff, you name it. He's that meme of "this one's for you baby" *throws a basketball and it misses the basket*

- Eos giggles and flutters her wings while blushing madly, even when he absolutely fails, because he makes her feel so special. She's been so occupied over the years on just being the morning goddess...she had forgotten how it feels to be loved like this.

- Eos loves to impulsively scoop Ares into her arms and fly. Too bad most of the time he wears his heavy armor, so she struggles flapping her wings LOL but whenever he is rarely in a civil wear, like wearing his pajamas, she will absolutely bridal carry him!

- Due to morning dew, Eos' powers are mostly water based. She tends to playfully splash dew at Ares every now and then. If there's water nearby, Ares will answer by splashing back. Cue a chaotic water splashing fight where they both laugh loudly and Poseidon yells "I'M TRYING TO SLEEP"

- Of course, being the goddess of morning, she is great at cooking breakfast. Ares is usually the one out of the couple who insists on cooking for the family. The "healthy military meals", as he says. But when Eos wants to spoil him and her children, they'll be eating the most high quality shakshouka and wine leaf rolls.

- I haven't remembered to mention this, but Eos is AWFULLY clumsy, whether it's dropping stuff off Olympus by accident, or tripping on her own wings. Which gets dangerous whenever she wants to try Ares' weapons LOL

- Remember that scene in Shrek 4 where Shrek and Fiona bond by playfighting with heavy weapons? Yeah that's Areos energy right there

- Ares often calls her "you crazy woman". With the most lovestruck eyes in the world.

- Listening to "Wild Thing" from the end of Strange Magic always makes me think of Areos too bye

- Like I drew earlier, Eos has a whole army of romantic nicknames for Ares, each one sappier than the last. Ever since the other gods on Olympus heard that, they have been mercilessly pranking Ares over it. Once, when Ares arrived to the Olympus court meeting, his name tag on his seat was "BooBoo Bear". Ares broke the table with his fists

- Eos can be clingy. Every time Ares leaves for a battle, a journey to faraway lands on his chariot, Eos either asks if she can come along, or fusses over packing Ares all sorts of food, healing ambrosia, celestial bandages etc. Deep down, Eos is HORRIBLY scared that something bad will happen to Ares. She does not want to lose him like she lost Astraeus and Tithonus :(

- Often, she puts a happy smile on her face so Ares won't be too worried for her, as she does not want to hold Ares back. But sometimes, after Ares is gone, Astraea hears her mom breaking down into sobs in her room.

- Remember that Homeric myth where a bunch of giants managed to trap Ares and imprison him in an amfora for 13 months straight until Hermes finally found and rescued him?

- Yeah, when that happened, Eos ignored her morning goddess duties entirely, to hysterically fly around Greece and search for Ares, causing dawn to never break and for the world to be stuck in a permanent nighttime, as Apollo was unable to ride his sun chariot. When she could not find Ares, she started to fear that he had died... even the cold Boreas stopped being salty at Ares and went to search for him, once he saw the way his dear mother curled up and sobbed and wailed hopelessly, as Astraea hugged her and tried to comfort her.

- Ares in the meantime?? The myth describes him screaming, howling and thrashing endlessly in the amfora. And so he did, causing the Giants to cover their ears like "holy shit we should have kidnapped the god of calmness instead". The only thing bringing Ares comfort in this claustrophobic, merciless long prison, was thinking of his family back at Olympus... Athena, Eos, Fear and Terror, young Harmonia, the wind quadruplets, Astraea...in a rare moment of hopelessness, he'd sob, wanting nothing more than to be free and get back to them.

- Lmao this got horribly angsty BUT as said before, Hermes found and freed Ares!! Accompanied by Boreas, who ruthlessly, mercilessly destroyed the Giants with a devastating, raging cold hurricane. And then he huffed at Ares "shut up I'm just doing this for my mom, NOT for you"

- Needless to say the reunion of Eos and Ares was heartwarming and passionately romantic 💖💖💖 And of course, both Hermes and Boreas got a CRUSHING hug and massive sloppy kisses on their cheeks by Eos. Hermes also got a permanent access to Eos' storage of figs and olives as a thank you.

[sonic-love-island-official]

Rouge (Bio/Character design ramble)

Want to have a ramble about Rouge because I'm feeling particularly obsessed with her character design at the moment. So, might as well do a little bio and a ramble on choices made for her Love Island AU counterpart !

More under the cut x

Rouge is a 28 year old jewellery specialist from Central City. She joins the fray with the intention of stirring the pot, potentially finding a summer fling and the allure of the cash prize.

She's your girl that has a specific 'type' and sticks to it to a tee. She is loud and flirtatious, but can also be quietly cunning. Rouge is a girl who thrives off drama and does anything to get her way. She disguises many of her true feelings beneath flirting or angry outbursts. Despite being one of the older girls in the series, Rouge doesn't have a very mature attitude (or sense of humour 🤭), which plays a part in her character arc on the Island. Along with this, she is learning to unlearn her pre-established self-destructive behaviours in order to become a better person, friend and partner... Eventually.

External design choices !! (visual appearance - incl. formation of base sim, references taken, makeup choices, fashion style... etc.)

Rouge's translation into The Sims 3 was a hugely enjoyable trial and error process. She was one of a few handful of characters that ended up getting a minor overhaul to their designs, as we eventually came to the conclusion that they no longer fitted the vibe of the AU. But. She looks stunning now, so Rouge Version 1 can be forgotten. Not really, Rouge v1 actually became a meme so we kind of have to keep her 'round hehe.

Forming the base for Rouge's sim was quite easy, as I was already inspired from the get-go. She was made the same day I made Shadow's sim, as the intention was for them to enter as bombshells (as they rightfully should). A lot (but not all) of inspiration was taken from her Sonic Adventure 2 character model because I immediately fell in love with it the first time I saw her ! Her exaggerated bust and hips made her look so short and adorable in gameplay and I know her design was not intended to be perceived that way, but here I am. I don't remember if I made her before or after I was aware of and joined the 'Rouge is Latina' bandwagon (I do believe this is canon ??) due to the fact I made this sim over a year ago when newly into the fandom, but I thought it'd be worthy mentioning here that she is and it's something we wanted to keep as part of her character.

I kept a ton of reference Rouge's core features, such as her big blue-green eyes, her wispy white hair, her slightly more voluptuous figure (to the best of my ability, ts3 is piss poor at creating differing body types grr. Don't even get me started on how I wanted to give Rouge more of a tummy) and her warmer skin tone. She actually used to look more on the orange side of tan before we kitted our game with a mod that gave sims less 'potato'-like features, so her skin tone seems more natural and even and less Fake Tan than what she was originally, making her look a little more like her counterparts in later titles, but she looks far more stunning than she used to. A sacrifice had to be made and perhaps that was for the best. Additionally, I put in some of my own creative choices as well, such as Rouge naturally having dark hair, as seen through the regrowth in her bleach-blonde hair (I thought it was white but I checked in CAS and it turns out there's the tiniest yellow hint in there. Even I didn't realise the level of detail I went into). Her face and her features are quite slender, accentuating her big eyes and her lips (which we decided was cause of Botox later into the development process, because that just seemed like something she would do and it was very in-line with characters seen on Love Island).

The miscellaneous parts of her appearance are very one way or the other. As seen in her default outfit (2nd & 3rd images), Rouge's makeup is accurate to the tacky colours seen on her reference designs. The blue cut-crease eyeshadow, the pink lip colour... But alternatively, she is also seen wearing more Love Island appropriate makeup - more neutral, blended shadows, highlighter, winged liner, false lashes, lip glosses. Her outfits normally match whichever angle she's leaning towards during that particular episode and a few outfits of hers are actually inspired by (or are near replicas of) pre-made designs from various games/official artworks ! It's all in the little things 😉

*Did I,, did I forget to talk about her piercings ? Yes, I did </3 Beneath her hair is tons of little sparkly earrings she's adorned herself with over the years, because it's Rouge and she can't resist a bit of sparkle. She also has a belly piercing :)

Internal design choices !! (personality, characteristics, psychology etc.)

Rouge does not get nearly enough credit for any of the internal workings of her character and having her in this AU gave us the perfect excuse to delve into Rouge's psychology a bit more in-depth. We decided to expand on pre-existing traits and add a few of our own in the mix, as to not take away from any of the brilliance Rouge already has as a character at least, in some of the earlier games she does... I've noticed that even though Rouge in this AU presents herself a little more immature, the way we've treated her character is far from that. Instead of being reduced down to what is essentially eye-candy, Rouge is shown to be a complex character of her own. She's witty, flirty, manipulative, materialistic, confident... all the common traits associated with her character, but she is also VERY guarded with her feelings. She struggles with vulnerability, commitment and the concept of actually being in love. It is possible she feels undeserving of good people in her life, hence why she seeks to ruin her positive relationships at any given opportunity. Alas... It is something for her to work out throughout the course of the series :) Like most of the main characters in the series, Rouge means well (some of the time) but is a right mess, and I like to think that adds to the relatability of her character 👍

Other fun little titbits I thought were worth a mention !!

Following a fairly popular headcanon (at least, from what I've seen, this is kind of the general consensus ??), Rouge is bisexual in this AU. She cracks on with the boys and has flirty banter with some of them, but also she expresses interest in some of the girls, too. Rouge being Rouge though, a lot of her genuine advances are dismissed for her 'joking', when in fact, that is not entirely the case. And Love Island being the show that it is, often prevents Rouge from fully pursuing any of the girls that caught her attention. Sure as hell doesn't stop her from trying though :)

Exaggerating one of Rouge's features, Love Island AU Rouge uses every pet name under the sun to refer to people by. She also loves making endearing nicknames for all the Islanders

[katyspersonal]

Alright, go crazy, go stupid ✌️

48. What’s your favorite physical/design feature for this character?

For the Bloodborne girl cast!

uhhh, Maria, Doll, Annalise, Henriett, Gratia, Queen Yharnam, Ebrietas, Rom, Flora, Kos, Arianna, Adella, Eileen, white church doctor, black church doctor, Fausefka, Iosefka, Old Lady lol, Viola, Gascoigne’s daughters, Mergo’s Wet Nurse, Vicar Amelia, Witches of Hemwick, uhhhhhhh, Yurie, Bell Women, Cainhurst portrait women, Dores, Adeline,…..uhhhh….well….dammit if I have forgotten someone very important then I apologize to all women.

(Ask from this ( x ) meme) Ohhhh boy, look who heard out my wish to discuss the design features!! Thank you very much!

48) What’s your favorite physical/design feature for this character?

ATTENTION: for some of these characters I might use my own headcanons on their appearances as an answer!

Maria and Doll: their lovely super pale eyelashes! As usual, common Fromsoft W putting effort into a detail that is hard to notice by normal means!

As for the distinct design elements (which in their case their clothes), for Maria I love the cute smaller broches by either side of her main one, and for the Doll I love her cute floral-patterned gloves!

Annalise: I love her big forehead. I am worried that I miss out this feature on accident sometimes in my drawings of her (just need more art skill), but I am mindful about it!

Henriett: I love that she either 1) is implied to wear a makeup (gotta stay class no matter what) or 2) just has naturally different color for brows and eyelashes? Common Fromsoft W on details no sane person would detect yet AGAIN. Close second is her awesome top hat that no one wears like her.

Gratia: I love her red hair so much. She has the most red hair in the setting. I love this so much. Hers is more red than Cainhurst red, even.

(From this ( x ) page with datamined corpse models, some of the following ones will also be from here)

Queen Yharnam: This is exclusive for her pregnant/boss variant, the one we interact with peacefully doesn't have them. But I love cute rose-themed decorations around her gown! Adorable detail!

Ebrietas: Her big anime girl green eyes, what else I can say? x) The very distinct feature, and they look like there are green cosmic nebulas shining inside them!

Rom: This is hard to choose because this IS the perfect female body, I think her existence alone should prove how useless beauty standards are dhfsdh I will never be her 😔 Her adorable tails is the close second, but I love that she is a forest. What grows on her back is more resembling of tree branches with glowing buds! This is not lumenweed, this is lumenWOOD! XD

Flora: The small wings. Of the 'skinny' type and not birdlike type, same as Ebrietas' and celestial children, but kinda damaged, or undeveloped? These wings tell a story. Feels similar to how Amygdalae have just lump of flesh in the place of wings, but their Kin, Gardens of Eyes, do have beautiful butterfly wings! It feels like a theme of needing humanity (?) to be truly fulfilled. Jealous Moon, eh?

Kos: I love her fins, especially the fin on her back! Well, it doesn't look very fin-like anymore, and there is clearly better look at it on the concept art! Just...... fish

Arianna: I love her purple eyes! Really stands out! I was really excited to find out she had such unusual feature!

Adella: Similarly to Henriett, I love how her brows and eyelashes color has a contrast with her hair color! Hers is paler!

Eileen: The only truly notable feature about her design is her unique mask, as Bloody Crow wears the same garb, and I feel like it won't really say anything.. The girl doesn't even have canon face data! So let me pull my own out uhhh..

I am quite happy with her beak! x) I needed the resemblance of 'crow' in her visual design, you don't understand! My initial idea for her design, though, was making her blonde in earlier life and then have silver, basically white hair in her old age, while still having skin dark because contrast is so good. It would be to symbolise a change, from "sunshine" to "moonlight".. I got discouraged when I was told it was 'unrealistic' feature for dark skinned people (and should not have listened, because Bloodborne already has two characters canonically who are blondes with dark skin). If I ever backtrack on that idea for her, consider the beautiful white hair and how it contrasts to be the answer!

White Church Doctor: In this case I will go for the obvious answer. This is her cute mole! I am so happy when other people notice it too!! When someone draws this character and does feature the mole, I am so happy ;-;

Black Church Doctor: I love the shape of her eyes! Interestingly though, she uses the same sliders as female preset hunter (in initial character creation), and her eyes are green like Brador's and have a similar shape, also her eyelashes are same color as his. Both Brador and Paleblood Hunter come from the same foreign land as their clothes lore suggest, so... same country? Or even relation to Brador? Hello....?

Fauxsefka and Iosefka: Eyelashes. Eyelashes. They use the especially long variant of eyelashes. I always enjoy drawing them, especially Fauxsefka's!

Lonely Old Dear: This is the hardest one yet, because there is nothing particular to point out. There are no other distinct old female characters we are shown in the game, nor her outfit is unique as there are many corpses in this outfit in Yahar'gul (and one in the woods). I do like the cute setting-appropriate hat, but I think a more fair one is to say that they bothered showing her eyes condition!

Viola: I love her red brooch! ...that we never do see on her in the game. But I think it is a really good detail for her design, and the best color to contrast with both her hair and clothes!

Older Daughter: This is an interpretation liberty, since this can and likely is a blood drop, but I like to think she has a spot on her forehead!

Younger daughter: Another case where I gotta use my own design! I like how her appearance mixes that of both parents rather than resembling one or another x) Gascoigne used to have auburn hair and green eyes, so hers mix those colors with Viola's blonde hair and blue eyes!

Mergo's Wet Nurse: Uhhhhh everything?? She is so incredibly stylish? fdsjfdshfd I fucking LOVE the absurd amount of heavily detalized trinkets all over her body! Get it.... because crows love shinies...... haha....

(Take a closer look at all her glory in wiki's gallery ( x ))

Amelia: Her very tiny tail. :3

Witches of Hemwick 1 and 2: The fact that!!!!! the eyes are all different colors??? How sick is this??? Look at this! Some also have iris whitening, same as what happened with Djura's eyes, and others have fully enlargened pupil!

Witch of Hemwick 3: Okay, you absolutely saw this one coming lol. I love how wide is her nasal bridge! Very distinct feature! (Also coming clear with my skill issue, as I do not give a justice to her eyes; in reality they're smaller and located wider from each other!)

Yurie: I really like her lips shape, actually! Very full, very smoochable.

Bell-Ringing Women: I love the decoration circling around their cape! This really adds to the design, it looks so much better this way than if it was just plain cape as is!

Cainhurst portrait women: Damn, they are all so beautiful! I guess as for Bell-Ringer resembling one, the previous point applies! Though she looks like she could be mother of Iosefka and Fauxsefka? And the knight woman has a very distinct nose shape! With Annalise's mother (I am not sure who else would wear a crown on portrait whereas not being Annalise..), I of course love how long her neck is x) Her posture is so regal, and this emphasises it!

Similar feature shared with the one who wears silver variant of the Noble Dress (basically Arianna's dress, and even identical shoes, but a bit more detailed in a couple of places). I'm gonna say though, I do love the silver variant more than burgundy one, especially with Forsaken Castle Ghosts whose hair became platinum! And the old lady has not only the necklaces, but also earrings and the bracelet which are quite modest and harder to see, but they are here! I love this attention to small details!

Dores: As iconic as her wearing a scalp of Pthumerian face like a mask is, but my favourite bit is, actually, the ungodly amount of tools dangling from her belt! My Mico in his Research Hall surgeon era can only dream about the same level of unsettling x)

Adeline: Again, she has the appearance of a Research Hall patient with the exception of larger amount of belts (she is feral!) and unique bandana around her neck! It feels unfair to point out either of these, because... yeah, sure. They just make her distinct. So I'll refer to my version of her and say that I love her hair buns and want to squeeze them every time I draw her. x) The bandana IS precious, though!

______________________

Okay that was WILD, thank you for letting me go mad dfhahds You HAVE forgotten Hemwick Gravewomen, Evil Labyrinth Spirits, Snail/Slug Women, Mergo's Chief Attendants and female Beast Patients though XD I've met Tumblr images limit so I have to combine into one image.

But, Hemwick Gravewomen have strangely elongated skulls, and I love this bit. Considering the bandage over their forehead, perhaps, they've found their own way to place eyes on their brain? With statue behind Memory Altar and in the dungeons featuring a stitch over forehead and Rune Tool being found in Hemwick, would not be surprising. And with Evil Labyrinth Spirits, I guess I love the cool feature that is only in the concept art, but didn't make it into the actual model?? The evil red spirits erupting from her belly area are so badass??

With Slug Women, I guess the only thing I can tell is which variant I like more... And it is the shell one, of course x) Or simply red eyes with female Beast Patients! But with Chief Attendants, the plate on their bellies features upturned wings, and this is my favourite detail! They could represent wings of Wet Nurse or Flora! I love the mystery hidden on the plain sight so much!! Why could not Bloodborne give us a way to farm armour from mobs so we could read the description that would explain... ;-;

Okay, now my brain is OFFICIALLY fried (in a good way), and this post definitely will help me as a good self-reference! This is, however, now one of my favourite posts by myself, because.. many women.

[ask-obt]

I feel like this question has already been asked but i can’t remember and I couldn’t find the answer by searching his tag, so: What was the role of Akio in the original OBT? From what i can tell he’s meant to be Rune’s son, but what about his father? Is there a chance he could appear in the current comic, or would he just be repurposed into a new character? (Sorry for long prompt btw)

// the explanation was a bit buried into this ask here (which also talks about other plot points from old OBT), but I'd be happy to give a more accessible version of an explanation as well as some extra context! so akio is the remnant of an arc I had in mind for rune from the very early era of preboot OBT up until I officially scrapped him in 2020. october 6th, 2020 in fact (happy die day you little freak)! in old OBT his role was to be the son of rune and some rando from the luxio tribe in a one night stand, mostly to stir drama between her and kodali. later on it turned out that luxio had the same name as one of my partner's characters (a mew named Xander), and we joked about Xander shapeshifting into a Luxio and blending into the tribe and getting together with rune... and then I made doodles of a vulpix with fun little mew traits, and got attached to the idea! around that time I was gearing up for the reboot of OBT, so he's... well, I was gonna say alolan, but this was actually my first doodle of that fire opal vulpix concept!

and then I thought "actually it'd be more fun if he was kantonian and also will help differentiate his design from rune" which is where you get the current iteration of his design that I use for memeing purposes

then with this being in the reboot timeline, it meant it started intersecting and butting heads with other arcs I had planned. I can probably go more into detail with that once we're a bit further along in the story, but basically rune was A Little Cringe for the circumstances she ended up with xander in the reboot, which would've ended up giving akio a bit of tasty insecurity as he got older and realized he resembled his dad in several ways he didn't like.

one of those ways being that he was flirty, but didn't want to commit to having a family

but that said... these were all headcanons for akio when he was older, aka either in the epilogue of OBT or in a potential sequel. which would've meant I'd have to carry around a baby character that I didn't really have any strong feelings about, a character arc for rune that was fitting with the story less and less over time, all for an epilogue or sequel that may or may not have seen the light of day. don't get me wrong, i still LOVE the idea of exploring this type of arc. but... does it have to be rune's son? she has a bunch of other arcs to explore, and her experiencing motherhood was just complicating the story in a way that wasn't fun to write. overall, it stopped fitting with the themes of OBT and needed to be cut in order to tell the story I actually wanted to tell. so nowadays, akio is a funny little in-joke with myself as a remnant of a long forgotten storyline, and is floating around my brain like a dvd screensaver. maybe someday he'll find a home in a story (he'd be more likely to find another life in my original project before OBT), maybe I'll use him in some sort of RP/collab, or maybe he'll keep collecting dust. only time will tell!

[sapphire-weapon]

I just wanted to say that as a person in their early 20s who only just got into resident evil after re8, it was so fun finding your blog and scrolling through all the little blurbs you’ve got. fandom elders always have the best resources and lore and make spaces a million times better, so thank u for mentioning all the little game details and fandom notes that would’ve been forgotten or missed otherwise to newcomers!!

on another note, i wanted to ask if you had any amusing/chaotic tidbits relating to the re fandom in its earlier days, whether it be speculations of scenes or character directions or interactions that people were so sure were going to happen in later re games that absolutely did not happen, fics that were really influential, insane fanwar stories, memes that used to be rlly prolific and now don’t really come up, etc. it’s something i love to discover about fandoms because it rlly is a “you had to be there,” type of information that people don’t document the way they would with canon developments that you can easily find on wikipages

Anon... I'm gonna fucking cry. 😭 This is exactly what I wanted this blog to become once I realized I was falling back into RE hell. Anything that I can do to make this canon more accessible to new people, I want to do it. I think I've said this before, but I literally cannot imagine what it must be like getting into this series this late in the game, because RE is terrifyingly huge and abstract and very old by video game standards.

As for the second part of your ask... Man, I have so many stories. I won't tell all of them, because if I try to, it'll be weeks before I can post this LMAO so let me just break this up into sections and I'll tell whatever the first stories that pop into my head are.

FAN THEORIES

So, historically, RE fandom was never big on fan theories. Fan theories and meta were something that Silent Hill people did, not so much RE people.

BUT there is one that refuses to die, and I have seen people scream about it as recently as Revelations 2.

People are convinced that Steve Burnside is going to come back. This drum has been getting banged ever since the original Code Veronica released in 2000, and even though it has literally never been hinted at at any point in the 23 years since then that Capcom even remembers that that was a possible thing that was set up, the fandom is still waiting for it to happen.

And it's all because Wesker stole his body and fucked off with it and was a complete asshole about it when he did it. That's it, that's the whole reason.

But then that also ties into the fact that there are still people who are convinced that Wesker didn't actually die in RE5 and that he's gonna come back any day now, guys, really -- and that's just a whole level of death denial I've never seen before. Dude got hit with two rocket launchers in the middle of an active volcano. YOU LITERALLY DO NOT GET MORE DEAD THAN THAT.

INFLUENTIAL FICS

Surprisingly, none. RE didn't have an "I Know What's Beneath the Snow Fields" or a "Walk This World." There were influential authors, though. I won't name them because I have no idea where they are now or if they're still around, but. I will say that there was one very influential fic writer in Cleon fandom who utilized literally so many headcanons in her fics that her characters were utterly unrecognizable. Some of the headcanons blatantly contradicted canon, even. But her writing style and her prose were so, so, so fucking good that it didn't matter. For a while, Cleon fandom almost became like a cult around her fics -- and, as someone who only dabbled in Cleon because my friends shipped it, but I had no personal stake in the ship myself -- it was really, really weird to watch this go down.

INSANE FAN WAR STORIES

I was going to go off on a huge thing about the Aeon vs Cleon wars, but seeing as how they're still fucking happening for some god forsaken dumbass reason, I decided not to.

So, we'll forget that. And while this isn't a war story, exactly, I do need to give a special shoutout to the Wesker wives of old.

If you are at all familiar with the stories of old school Final Fantasy VII fandom of girls who convinced themselves that they married Sephiroth on the astral plane -- guess what. RE fandom had those girls, too, and we called them Wesker wives.

There was one really prominent one on LiveJournal back in the day who used to get art commissioned of her and Wesker together, and she would post pictures of herself "in uniform" for him, and like. Would legitimately write as though she was actually married to the fictional character Albert Wesker. She'd answer questions from people and shit.

And she was really, really pretty, so everyone was just kind of stunned by this, because this girl very clearly took care of herself and worked out and knew how to do her hair and makeup -- she always looked really good -- and it was just like... how did someone like you fall so far off the reality wagon?

And then it slowly started to come out that she maybe had some nazi ideology behind her and kept referring to Wesker has her Aryan king or someshit, and that was about the point where my Jewish ass backed away from that whole trainwreck and stopped paying attention to it, so I don't actually know how this story ends.

MEMES

So, uh. If you've been on the fandom side of the internet long enough, you'll at least have heard of the "it's over 9000" meme, even if you're not into Dragon Ball or ever seen an episode of it in your life.

Well, the same guy who started that meme also left his mark on RE fandom, too. The whole "Jill sandwich" thing was always a meme in its own right, but "Hope this is not Chris's blood" was added onto it thanks to this video. So, "Hope this is not Chris's blood" was a big, big meme in the late aughts that I really don't see around anymore. It was used as a sort of... shitpost response to a shitpost, if that makes sense? Like, your friend sends you some obviously stupid bullcrap or a dumb meme and you just respond back "hope this is not chris's blood."

This cap from Code Veronica was a huge meme for a long time, too, and I DO NOT FUCKING KNOW WHY

And then.

There was this masterpiece. Do not watch this with other people in the room unless your willingness to let others bear witness to your own cringe is very high. It's also NSFW. And, actually, this video might be the single oldest meme in RE fandom history. The YT link I provided here is not the original source of it. It was some stupid fan edit that was making its rounds on Kazaa, and I'm not joking. I want to say this edit is no younger than OG RE2 (so 1998).

And I would negligent in my duties as a fandom historian if I did not introduce you to the glory that is Resident Evil 4 Days of Our Lives. I STILL QUOTE THIS SHIT, TO THIS DAY.

Like, this is me on plurk referencing this stupid fucking shit as I'm liveplurking my very first playthrough of RE4R:

There was a part of me that was honestly kind of upset when the two cops at the beginning of RE4make didn't actually say to Leon, "I hear no one listens to you. Is that true, Captain Cubscout?" because that is unironically the single greatest line of dialogue that was ever written to be said by any character to Leon Kennedy, and it was written by some fuckin college kids back in the mid aughts.

And that's all I can think of for right now.

Thank u for indulging my old person desire to ramble on about "BACK IN MY DAY........." I appreciate u.

ETA: ok like i know i said i was only gonna mention shit that i could think of at the time that i responded to the ask but there is one more meme that i would be remiss to not mention

[nodutra19]

I've Been Mulling Over Utena (SPOILERS)

Alright, if you're watching Utena now or are planning to do so, skip this post cuz I'mma spoil, like the whole thing.

WARNING FOR MENTIONS OF SA, CSA, INCEST, AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE

A few weeks ago I finished Utena. I discovered it through one of Noralities videos, I think, and some time later ordered the Blu-Rays when they were on sale.

I really wasn't sure what I expected in all honesty. I had little to no preconception of it. I think by the time I got the Blu-Rays I'd completely forgotten everything Noralities or from whoever I discovered it had said; I even forgot about an old meme on my phone that puts Utena avis at the tail end of Communist.

I've been mulling over just what I experienced, and I think I have something of an interpretation of one element of the series, although I imagine the Ikuhara scholars have long beaten me to this conclusion.

I watched Noralities's video (don't bother informing me on drama or controversies, I'm too old to care about shit like that. I only care if they're bigots and have committed material harm, and I don't mean just property. If they're not like Vaush or any given alt-right YouTuber, I don't care) on Nanami since I really wasn't sure how to feel about her, and it definitely opened my eyes to things.

In my eyes, this series is very much about intimacy, particularly the ways our comprehension and expression of it can be warped to exploit us. Before Akio's sins are shown to the audience, we see Nanami's fixation on Touga, and one's response might be to either fetishize it or mock her and her behavior, but she's literally 13.

In a sense, a sibling is the "safest choice" of a "prince." Unlike the others bond in life, you don't have to forge it: the set-dressing is already there for you. There's a pre-established connection, especially if you're like Kazuo and Miki. It's an almost primeval love, a love one can stay in if they so choose, but like the chick they will only suffocate and die within its shell like the ageless members of Ohtori. This is at least from the point of someone like Nanami, and I say that as someone who was once similar to her.

I'm not going to get into details, but my abuser and I once played with such ideas. I 12, they 14. They shipped Ken and Minako from Persona 3, which should tell you everything. I was the "Ken" in her mind, and she did indeed infantalize me. Maybe I'm being too dramatic, but this was my experience. I was "into it," but shortly after we broke off, I came to realize how strange it was, and the whole sordid ordeal cast a shadow over me until I was 16. We started off as simply playing as siblings, me wanting a "Big Sister's Affection," and they a Little Brother to dote on, but things developed. I was pressured into dating, mostly through guilt-tripping, putting me in the position of a caretaker, as one who must clean the mess she makes, at one point her threatening suicide if I left, her cutting me off from my friends like all abusers do.

This was very much the theme in my experience.

The fixation Nanami has on Touga is the most explored and thus illuminates the disconcerting synchronicity the characters experience in their betrayals and troubles.

Kozue and Miki are a more disturbing mess of tangled intimacy and affection, and this could be attributed to the lesser age gap. Nanami can be curtly dismissed as a childish attachment, but the closer maturity between the Kaoru heightens how frightening such attachments can be, especially for twins. Their bond is embryonic, beyond primeval.

And by consequence of being like Nanami, this also means I was much like Tsuwabuki, a child who through unhealthy images disseminated in society comes to believe and perform ideals antithetical to his development, maturity, and health. Nanami, like my abuser, as Noralities points out, repeats the cycle she herself is blind to, and because her main example has been glamorous images of knightly princes at night and day atop pale horses eternally in love, specifically Touga, she unwittingly and subconsciously mimics him in her treatment of the younger compatriot who himself has been taught to tangle emotional and physical intimacy and perhaps even to suffer mistreatment.

Later on, Touga essentially assaults Nanami, and here Kunihiko and the crew clarify that what Nanami desires isn't sex or even romantic love. At first I was confused on what she wanted, but then an idea came: Nanami herself is confused because she's been confined to Touga and the imagery of men like him carved in stone and painted in art.

This has been me blowing out my ass despite how fancily I can write. I hope I was able to provide a long-time fan with some insight. I guess I've come to Nanami's defense, eh? I guess I was embarrassed of her because she reminded me so much of myself. Maybe that's her point.

Maybe I've been analyzing fantasms, I dunno, y'all tell me.

[daily-rayless]

Meme taken from @ringneckedpheasant

As always, while I would recommend most of these authors, I do not support everything each of them has ever written and in some cases object strongly to some of their stuff.

I enjoyed this exercise a lot. First lines, “hooks”, can be so iconic, and it's interesting to look at them in isolation.

Lady of Quality – Georgette Heyer: The elegant traveling carriage which bore Miss Wychwood from her birthplace, on the border of Somerset and Wiltshire, to her home in Bath, proceeded on its way at a decorous pace.

Haven't read this one yet, but this strikes me as a very Georgette Heyer opening line – you know it's going to be a fancy setting about fancy people. That being said, it's also extremely bland. I would take out the information about her birthplace (because why does it matter at the outset?) and replace it with something more energetic. Overall it, feels staid and, well, decorous.

Rating: 5/10

The Complete Fairy Tales of George MacDonald – In this case, the opening line isn't by MacDonald; it's an introduction by Roger Lancelyn Green: Once upon a time there was a poor farmer's son who lived in a little house in the north of Scotland, a house so small that he and his five brothers had to sleep in the living-room, in little box-beds built against the walls with sliding doors to keep out the draught and make it even more box-like.

The details about the beds are good. I can see a child (or an adult) reading that line and being intrigued by the boxiness. Is it a cozy box, tucked away, or a box where things are put and forgotten? The fairy tale style is also charming. My quibble here is that I would've broken it into two sentences somewhere around the north of Scotland.

Rating: 7/10

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis: Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.

Tidy, straight to the point, no gimmick. A bit boring, but it moves you along quickly to the more interesting stuff. But still, a bit bland. I've always believed in reading The Chronicles of Narnia in their publication order rather than the chronological order the American editions go with, and this partially demonstrates why. Lion was the first to be published, and its language can feel simpler than the other books.

Anyway, nothing special about this opening line. Lewis is lucky the book's dedication is so much more memorable.

Rating: 2/10

Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins: I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather.

Most of the books on this list are fairly old, so this highlights the stylistic change in more modern books. Immediately in the protagonist's head, brief language, an indirect hint at conflict. It's an effective opener, letting the reader know something bad has happened, leading into the explanation rather than trying to pack too much into the first line. Though the line comes after seeing the title for Part One, which is just “The Ashes” – so having the ashes immediately referred to reads as unintentionally funny to me. The ashes. There they are, on my shoes.

Rating: 8/10

The Luck of the Bodkins – PG Wodehouse: Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.

As an opening vault goes, the style is roundabout but the landing is pure Wodehouse. It's maybe a little too wordy before it hits the punchline, but I can't actually see where I'd cut anything to try to improve it.

Rating: 9/10

Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery: Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.

Merciful Providence, Maud, you are s t r e t c h i n g the definition of an opening line! This line spills out and babbles like a brook – like the book's heroine Anne. There's nothing wrong with that, I just don't understand why she went with semi-colons instead of periods. Was her typewriter broken? As a single opening line, it's ungainly. But the line about the brook behaving itself as it passes the Lynde house is golden.

I think it's interesting to see the famous Green Gables called merely “the old Cuthbert place”. Anne of the Old Cuthbert Place would never have sold fifty million copies worldwide.

Rating: 4/10

Singer in the Shadows – Irving Litvag: I discovered Patience Worth (or, as true believers in the occult would say, she discovered me) by the flimsiest of coincidences.

This is the only nonfiction book on the list, and the subject is fascinating. In the 1910s, a woman named Pearl Curran claimed to be the medium through which a spirit named Patience Worth communicated – and launched a successful writing career. I've read one of Curran's/Worth's novels, Hope Trueblood, and I wasn't very impressed by it. But Litvag's investigation of the supposed phenomenon is very engrossing. To that end, I would have clarified more of the wild premise in the first line – I discovered the ghost Patience Worth – or something like that, because otherwise it's a pretty tame opener.

Rating: 6/10

Spells of Enchantment – ed. Jack Zipes: It has generally been assumed that fairy tales were first created for children and are largely the domain of children.

This is a collection of myths, fairy tales, and folktales, so the opening line comes from its introduction. It is huge, and even though I've owned it for probably twenty years, I still haven't gotten all the way through it. Zipes' opener is fine, but basic. I feel like most people who pick up an 814-page fairy tale anthology already know that fairy tales weren't originally intended for children. But it works for what it is, implying a contradiction, egging the reader on to find out what the truth is.

Rating: 5/10

Shadow Scale – Rachel Hartman: Let us first consider the role of Seraphina Dombegh in the events leading up to Queen Glisselda's reign.

I love it when fantasy authors not only present the immediate story, but add scholarly meta commentaries on their own fantasyworld. This opener lets the reader infer that the heroine, Seraphina, is going to do stuff that's so important and remarkable, she's not just a protagonist, she's a figure in history. This is a good example of using a “spoiler” to actually spur the reader on to learn more; giving them a glimpse of the future doesn't mean that a plot twist is ruined.

Rating: 6/10

Forever Amber – Kathleen Winsor: The small room was warm and moist.

Not much of an opener. Forever Amber, one of many twentieth century historical sagas that tried to follow the success of Gone With the Wind, became a bestseller on the strength of its salacious, amoral heroine Amber. But this opening does nothing, not by itself. Whatever interest is going to be generated will have to come from the following sentences. Gone With the Wind, despite its serious flaws, does a much better job of setting tone and sparking interest in its opening line.

Rating: 2/10

If this interests you, consider yourself tagged!

[adamwatchesmovies]

Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992)

If you know your internet memes, you’re probably aware of the best scene in Tom and Jerry: The Movie. It’s got you wondering if there are other hidden gems within its running time. Could this movie be so bad it’s good? I'm sorry to say it isn’t. This animated musical comedy is an ordeal. The plot is worthless, the animation ok at best, the songs horrid, characters bland, and as a big-screen adaptation of the classic cartoon characters, it’s a knife in the back. The movie is fun to talk about, however. If you and your friends are bad movie sadomasochists, it may be worth checking out.

After her father disappears during a Tibetan expedition, 8-year-old Robyn Starling (voiced by Anndi McAfee) - and her family’s fortune - are given to her abusive guardian “Aunt” Pristine Figg (voiced by Charlotte Rae). She conspires with her lawyer, Lickboot (voiced by Tony Jay), to keep all of that beautiful money for themselves. When Robyn runs away and bumps into Tom (voiced by Richard King) and Jerry (voiced by Dana Hill), she brings them back home and learns her father may still be alive somewhere.

Let’s begin with that title. This is hardly a “Tom and Jerry movie". For one, the cat and mouse are not the main characters. I wouldn't even call them important to this plot. Robyn is the protagonist. Without her, there is no story, no conflict, no villains. This means films like Tom and Jerry and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory or Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz - in which the titular duo are dumped in a plot they have little impact upon - are proudly upholding a tradition that began in 1992. It’s a shocker - almost as much as the scene in which the characters begin talking. They rarely - if ever - spoke in the cartoons. That was part of their appeal. It was all about these opponents trying to violently kill each other. Here, they sing a song about how good a pair of friends they are.

This movie wants to be ‘90s Disney so, so bad. To stretch its paper-thin plot (which is essentially ripped off from The Rescuers) we have one bad song after another. Each of these tunes is destined to be forgotten the second they end. That’s a relief. The rhymes and lyrics are so awful you’d curse yourself for remembering them if you did. However, this does bring us to the one - intentionally - good moment in the entire film: the villain’s song. (Money is Such) a Beautiful Word is exactly what you think it is. Minutes upon minutes of bad rhymes detailing how greedy Aunt Figg and Lickboot are. It’s pretty funny to see, but only if preceded by Tony Jay saying “We’ve got to have… money!”. The irony is that this blatant acknowledgment of greed is exactly what the executives must’ve told their lackeys when the film was green-lit.

There are obvious flaws in every scene. At one point, Robyn nearly drowns and is rescued by Captain Kiddie (voiced by Rip Taylor), the owner of a deserted amusement park whose right hand is always busy manipulating a puppet - an avatar for his split personality. Every sign points towards “child molester” but that wasn’t the intention, which is also pretty funny. When he's introduced, Aunt Figg and Lickboot desperately want Robyn back, so they're offering a $1 million reward to anyone who can find her and plaster her photo onto milk cartoons to spread the word. They do this on the same day she goes missing, which is impossible, but even the “we don’t care” team of director Phil Roman and writer Dennis Marks had to realize distributing these cartons would take a while, which is why Captain Kiddie explains to Robyn that she’s been out cold for 6 days. Anyone else would’ve called the police but evidently, he’s planning on chaining her up in his dungeon. Cut to a scene where he offers to pour Robyn a glass of milk. You can see where this is going. The carton has her picture on it, prompting his stupid bird to go ballistic and dollar signs to flash before his eyes. Here’s what I’m wondering. When did he buy that milk carton? Did he not recognize her before this very moment?

Another mistake in this train wreck is the character designs. They’re all over the place. When Tom and Jerry find themselves homeless (don’t ask), they meet a dog and his best friend, a flea. Both are dressed in real clothes and look like they come from a completely different movie. The next animals we meet are a gang of tough cats, who are also clothed and look as different from Puggsy and Frankie da Flea as. they do from Tom & Jerry. They also look nothing like Mrs. Figg’s dog, an ugly creature so fat it can’t even walk. It’s like a bunch of rejects from other animation studios were brought together to help fill space.

There’s a lot to complain about if you've seen Tom and Jerry: The Movie. This does make it sort of fun to tear apart, though to do so you’ll have to waste your time by watching the movie. I can’t say I’m sorry I sat through this mess - the “We’ve got to have… money” scene is funny enough that I will treasure it - but I doubt you would feel the same. (April 23, 2021)

[arcxnumvitae]

P E A C H (Iomhar)

@lunarxdaydream || Sexy ABCs

P ─ Public. Have they ever done it in public ?  Were they caught ?  Do they have a favourite public place to do it ?

Hoo boy, has he. Iomhar loves public sex, and the riskier, the better. Rather than whatever reaction it elicits in him (because there is no worry about him being caught) what makes it enjoyable for him is when his partner is the one worrying about getting caught. Their reactions, their slight panic, the way it turns them on regardless, he just soaks alllll of that in.

Sometimes he's engaged in things in a public place intentionally, and others it just occurred by happenstance. Considering how much he has sex and how many years he's been around, getting caught a time or two is pretty inevitable. Sometimes it ended with one or more party getting flustered (never him though) and the third person excusing themselves. Other times it's actually ended up with the newcomer joining things. Truly, to live a day in the life of Iomhar's wacky hijinks.

Maybe it's the fae in him but he likes doing it in nature, even if the danger isn't as present as more populated places. I don't know, he just thinks that the backdrop of the greenery and trees accentuates the beauty of the person he's with, triply so if it's in Seelie. Barring that, nothing like a good old fashioned nearby alleyway or bathroom if he's feeling especially impatient.

E ─ Experimenting. Are they willing to experiment new things ?  Is there something they’d like to try with their partner, but haven’t had the chance yet ?  Any experiments gone wrong ?

I've joked before and I've joked again, what isn't he willing to try? Iomhar mainly derives his pleasure from how good his partner is feeling, so if they want to try something that would really get him going, barring a few absolute no's, Iomhar's likely going to find it hot in the way it makes them react. At this point there is absolutely nothing he's been curious about that he hasn't managed to try out hahaha.

And of course things have gone wrong, be it someone moving past an established boundary or they themselves realizing the thing they were trying out wasn't working for them like they would have thought. Barring any actual malice or ill intent on the part of another though, Iomhar had always been pretty good with chalking the experiment as a no and moving on to the next thing.

A ─ After care. Do they take care of each other after sex ? How ?

Also another thing where whatever his partner wants, he'll provide. Iomhar himself has no particular needs when sleeping with casual flings. If they want to cuddle, he'll cuddle. They want a bath or a shower, he's up to run the water. They rather he head on out while they clean themselves up, sure he's already gone. He's the chameleon of sex I guess.

C ─ Condoms. Do they use them ?  Do they have a preference ( color, flavour, etc… ) ? Have they ever had an accident ?  Would they continue anyway, if they’ve forgotten/run out of them ?

Oh absolutely. Nothing panics Iomhar more than the thought of a surprise kid for reasons that are too detailed and slightly heavy to get into during this casual headcanon meme response. He always insists on using protection, and so to that end when he's with someone who could get pregnant then unprotected sex is not happening. There have been a few whoopsie moments, but thankfully, helped probably a huge part in his fae genes, nothing ever came from them.

As for different types of condoms, he find the variety a hilarious human innovation. It's just so funny to him, they made one taste like artificial strawberries! Just for the fun of it, he likes trying out different kinds if he ever comes across a new one.

H ─ Humour. Are they the kind to share a laugh during sex ?  Has something funny already happened to them ( breaking the bed, one of them falling off the couch, funny noises, etc… ) ?

Answered here!

[fandommemequeen]

my 2022.

alright gamerz itz that time of year again 4 Gamerz Yearly Retrospective!!!

so uhh im not gonna sugarcoat it: this year rlly sucked. a lot of stuff went down this year that id rather not go into detail abt here, but its been rough and unfair and sometimes i felt like it was never gonna get better. add onto that skool being mega rough, facing tons of imposter syndrome over my identity, anxiety, World Events, and fricktons of executive dysfunction, and youve got urself a total recipe for disaster.

but amidst all the doom and gloom.. i had better days. i played videogames and arcade games, i hugged the stuffing out of plushies, i anticipated release dates for new videogames, i got my hands on the g3 monster high dolls and relieved my childhood, i still luv siivagunner and wii deleted you and invader zim and deltarune, i got into just shapes & beats, i discovered the tourney community through mashup week: megamix and made some amazing friends, i got into creepypasta and yfm and osu and taiko no tatsujin and arcane and tmk, i got kirby and the forgotten land and splatoon 3 both on launch day and have had SO MUCH FUN with both of them, i luved watching ghost files and puppet history s5 after school and catching new toh and g3 monster high episodes,,

ive also acomplished some milestones too. first time getting an award for one of my cosplays, coming out as arospec [and proceeding to fall in platonic luv with my irl bestie xd], getting a compression top/binder, getting the awesome short emo hair i wanted for months, first time cosplaying at a convention, getting diagnosed with adhd and finally confirming what i had suspected for so long but never outright said due to self-doubt and fear of faking, starting medication, being in counseling/art therapy, trying sodas and monster energy and starbucks frappucchinos with no coffee, and learning to luv being "cringe".

but overall the best thing i did to make it through 2022 was,, just being me. i wrote. i drew. i roleplayed. i cosplayed. i scrolled through social media and chatted with friends far away from me. i read and wrote fanfics. i crafted. i brainstormed. i coded. i listened to music and cranked the volume on my gamer headset with cat ears. i was so very Not Normal about fictional characters. i made new friends and still kept up with old ones. i revisited old fandoms. i vibed in the front yard while listening to music. i checked the mail pretty much every day, secretly hoping one of my pieces of fandom merch would be there. i supported my family through the hard times, and they always supported me. i imagined scenarios and animatics and animation memes while listening to music. i listened to fandom lofi while trudging through overdue assignments. i rocked out to skrillex and monstercat and camellia playing beat saber at 8 in the morning for my virtual p.e. class last year. i learned the absolute beauty of platonic love. i started making unironic mary sues just for the heck of it. i felt so many emotions. i cried of happiness and of sadness. i hugged. i made vent art on my phone. i had complicated feelings. i felt like a faker at times. i was [and still am] learning to overcome climate doomism and death anxiety. i was weird, i was imperfect, i was cringe... but i was so cool for embracing my weirdness, my imperfection, and my cringiness, and i wouldnt have it any other way.

i know i can survive whatever life throws at me. ive got my friends and family by my side, and just being me in the face of.. well, everything, is the strongest thing i can do. im tired of lying down and just taking it. im tired of feeling hopeless. i will fight. i will persist. i will find ways to cope with anxiety and executive dysfunction. and above all, i will continue to love. i will love my family and friends who always have my back, i will love my interests and hobbies, no matter how weird they may seem to others, and i WILL learn to love myself.

after my 2019 retrospective post, i always hesitated a bit to look to the new year with confidence and resilience and hope, in fear of my hopes being crushed and being miserable. now i see that no matter what, lifez gonna be hard sometimes, but i am strong and i will NOT BACK DOWN.

so, for the first time in years, ill say it again. and i rlly, TRULY mean it when i say this:

BRING IT ON, 2023. this scenekid and tourney-obsessed geek can and WILL handle WHATEVER U THROW AT ME!!

[bytedykes]

[ID: Four stickman memes. They are: a crying stickman laying on its back in a pool of tears, hands over its face. A stickman grabbing another's cheeks and screaming in their face. A stickman biting its own arm bloody. A red-eyed teary stickfigure grimacing and holding up a thumbs up. /end ID]

^ just finished twatf moodboard. my thoughts under the cut

genuinely so good. i am sick. i am wailing. i am going to throw up.

ok i lied it wasnt like, groundbreaking, but i did enjoy it! and it did give me new kinds of mental illness. im not typically into the "overpowered protagonist" trope at all but i feel like in this case it was more of a vehicle for the philosophy of the novel than the actual. point? im not a literature analysis person haha

i doubt i would have read this novel if it weren't by singshong. it is just generally not my thing. but im glad i did! i liked the character and i thought it was quite clever and funny, the world building was interesting (despite how overly complicated it is) and some parts made me so. oughhhbg. tearing my hair out

i also really enjoyed looking at this from a "how it compares to orv" standpoint (that's also the main reason i decided to read it). i liked seeing the "prototype" ideas in here that resemble parts of orv that were more developed/refined. and i liked the most specific messages that resembled orv's! there were a few bits regarding walls and connection that made me want to erm shrivel up and die

i guess i didn't really understand the ending but i don't think it was awful. those last 3 chapters are honestly what was worst to me, if i had stopped reading on chapter 244 i might have been happier with the openness of it. seeing all of jaehwan's friends dying and sirwen being left alone in the world was depressing as hell and didn't really feel necessary

orv is known for having everything in it and managing to pull off the most unhinged plots and details so i enjoyed seeing that same principle in twatf dsdjskks it threw a lot of things that i didnt expect at all and a lot of them were absurd but all together i think it made it work

goddd some parts just hit very close. maybe not the overall themes but some specific sections made me put my phone down and stare into space... the fall of time arc... the conversation jaehwan has with the long lived race after he's figured out the unclothing... what andersen tells him before she chooses to fight myad... many such cases

some of the criticisms for it that ive seen online are about the bad translation which is fair but i dont think that necessarily reflects the quality of the actual novel? idk the crappy translation and many typos did make it harder to read but i was still able to mostly understand what was happening and i got used to it pretty quickly. i do wish that the side characters were more developed, i was really interested in them and it felt like a lot of their development was dropped or forgotten, but i did love what growth was shown

i liked jaehwan!!! he is such a sopping wet silly guy. guy who is in the horrors forever. guy who is a billion years old but not actually but yes he is. guy who is so autism eyes incarnate. i liked him as a character and i liked following his journey even with his at times repetitive ideas and simple op solutions to everything. it was fun!

i enjoyed the characters in general, karlton grew on me for some reason lol... i liked anderson and runald a lot also... i liked how despite his identity as a lonely existence that works alone, jaehwan did actually forge so many bonds with people he met and did reciprocate them! him and yoonhwan, him hiring claire and meikal for govt positions when he became master of gorgon, him training with chunghuh, his care for runald and anderson, him verbally calling the fallbringers his friends when they reunite, even eventually his friendship with beastlain! i wasn't expecting him to make so many connections because of how set he is on doing everything alone, so i was really happy to see that he does consider them friends and isnt just coldly moving through the world alone, despite what his actions say

really liked the whole lore about [clothes]. i thought that was really cool. did not like the repeated instances of sexual harassment and pervy lines throughout the book

ive been telling people to read orv left and right, but in contrast twatf is a kind of novel that i dont think i would necessarily recommend to anyone (especially not to anyone who wasn't already an enjoyer of this genre and/or more "out there" plots in general) but i did enjoy reading it myself. however i would say that it provided some cool/valuable/fun insight into orv and singshong's writing in general so maybe i would recommend it to someone who has already read orv and wanted to expand on that

overall i did like it!!! i dont think ill be rereading it any time soon but i had fun reading and stewing over it :)

[introvertbard]

#‘the lifecycle of various lichens is not divine it is not spiritual’ speak for yourself yes it is #and ‘whether it is possible to do something becomes synonymous with whether it can be done ethnically’ seems uhhh really good and useful #animism #science

Reblogging again for the tags, and also because I realized that my first reblog was fucking BLANK!!! I just wanted to save it as a draft!!! :(

Anyway, my family is ALSO from a live and breathing culture that has animistic beliefs (Filipino, and Tagalog specifically). We are notorious for being “superstitious” and asking permission to do stuff from basically everything outside of the house, for fear that the trees/water/etc might turn hostile.

And even the house can turn hostile, if you don’t cut down the trees for building it before apologizing to the diwat that live in them.

The atheist up there has some major energy of “a Spaniard who ‘lets’ their Filipino servants talk about their religion--even asks for more details if they have some spare time, and they gobble it up because it’s so exotic and weird. But at the end of the day, these are Untrue Superstitions From Dumb Locals, and they’ll laugh about it to their family at dinner.” I unfortunately have a translation of the Boxer Codex because that’s one of the few things I can read about precolonial Filipino culture, and the condescension and dismissal is fucking EVERYWHERE.

(Of course, the Spaniards would then pray to their Totally Real And Logical Sky-Daddy, but atheists wouldn’t.) People don’t have to respect something to find it fascinating, thought-provoking, or just convenient-to-them, and this seeming contradiction of “I LOVE ANTHROPOLOGY!” and “lol, animism is spiritual woo-woo” is probably how we get fetishization and cultural appropriation.

I have heard a lot of Christians and Catholics muse that “before we had the Bible, our ancestors lived IN CONSTANT FEAR OF THE SPIRITS!!!1123@!!!”, and I find that to be pretty hypocritical, considering that so many people use “God-FEARING” as a positive descriptor. So it’s okay and even encouraged to fear God, because if you don’t, you are arrogant/tempting-fate. But apparently all the creatures and plants that He made are just... lying around, doing nothing important without us?

(Note, this is from extremely old childhood/teenage memories, because I have not been Catholic for years. I have most likely forgotten something important.)

There was a meme going around where people noticed that the Irish and Filipinos can quite similar in their fairy-faiths and often go, “we don’t give offerings to fairies to be NICE or to ATTRACT THEIR ATTENTION! We just want them to eat breakfast and leave!” and that energy is much more akin to “paying off the local gangsters so they don’t shoot up your store.” 

Let me tell you, I have a strong suspicion that if my shithole country’s government believed that the trees/rocks/water were organized-crime clans, who would retaliate AT SOME POINT if The Proper Traditions were not followed, they would be a lot faster to end capitalism and pass country-wide environmental procedures, not just sit on their hands or cry about “but muh profits!!!”

Was reading on wikipedia about how lots of ancient cultures had beliefs and traditions where you had to offer prayers and/or sacrifices if you wanted to cut down a tree because you were basically killing the spirit that lived within the tree and if you did that without good reason bad stuff would happen to you

we should bring that back. if you want to clear cut a forest you have to pray and sacrifice on behalf of every single tree

[zudz]

MMO thoughts.

About a million years ago, I was reading PVP-online and Jade was telling another character about meeting some player in game at the battle of someplace or another. The details are blurry (and I don't have access to the archive), but the underlying comment stuck with me. It implies a level of dynamic play that ... simply doesn't exist in MMOs. MMOs are largely static playgrounds for player avatars to accumulate power and cool stuff in. You'll never find yourself in a crowd of adventurers assaulting Crushbone Castle while an army of orcs gathers to defend their emperor. They're not programmed to do that, and you only need like 6 people to kill the whole area once you're level ... 12? Maybe 16. It's been a long time since I was in the Faydark.

Anyway, I wanted the reality that Jade sold with that comment. I still do.

Later, I watched some WoW machinima about a guild called Illegal Danish. Over the course of the videos, one of the guild members explains that the guild exists because some royal choked to death on a danish and they were outlawed. So the guild formed to protect the last danish. The Illegal Danish.

This, of course, is also not how MMOs work. Guilds form so you can have chat channels, and work together to kill monsters and take their stuff. I want the world sold by Illegal Danish.

The common trait of both of these situations, besides the fact that they were really just there to facilitate comedy, is they're the kind of thing that might work if an MMO was really a big tabletop RPG. It makes me think of the old "Living" shared campaign world (Living Greyhawk or Living Forgotten Realms). It might work there, or if your D&D game was run by several local GMs who coordinated their world states closely.

That's a lot of work, though. So I guess what I really want is a tool in my next MMO that lets me form better guilds. Let me have a guild with a reason to exist. I'm envisioning a tool like the clue/conclusion wheel from Detective Grimoire. "This guild exists to:" fight/protect/collect/discover/special interaction "the" Goblin clan/bears of surefall/mysterious coins/etc. I'd also like the ability to like... open a map and go "This guild exists for the sole purpose of keeping this specific hill free of snails." or whatever. Just "This is our cause! Won't you come to Danish Hill and help us proliferate baked goods across the land?"

I know this would result in dumb meme guilds. Someone's going to make the Goblin Slayer Guild, and they'll just murder low level mobs forever. And someone's going to make a guild where you have to dress like Pepe, and change your font to be green. But like... that sounds fun? Because someone's gonna get mad and go "This guild's purpose is to kill the Pepe guild!" and isn't that exactly the kind of thing that would happen if you ran a really big TTRPG? The Pepeists will be driven underground, and the Frog Slayers will eventually find other causes to champion, and all the rest of us can go "Man, remember the time when Pepe the Guild was the biggest thing happening on the server for like two months?"

I would probably actually sign up for an MMO again if they had that kind of creativity.

[condohavenoking]

Aaaaa thank you sooo much for the tag, my love. Sorry it took me a while to get to it.

Do you make your bed? I try to as much as I can but I tend to spend most of my time in my bedroom in the winter (because it's warmer than the rest of the house) so I might not always made the bed!

Favourite number? 3. I don't know why but it's 3.

What's your job? Without getting into too many details, I write for a living. It's a fast-paced job and I love it!!

If you could go back to school, would you? No way! I had a really bad time at school. I wake up every morning grateful I'm not back in secondary school.

Can you parallel park? Nope. I have a driver's licence but haven't used it in 14 years.

Do you think aliens are real? I believe there is extraterrestrial life beyond Earth but whether they're little grey Zeta Reticulans remains to be seen.

Can you drive a manual car? I learnt to drive a manual but again, I haven't driven in 14 years so I've forgotten everything.

What's your guilty pleasure? I don't feel guilty about any of my pleasures lol

Tattoos? I have two — an LOTR one and one of my old cat who died a few years ago. I miss him so much.

Favourite colour? I'm going to cheat and say red, purple, and pink.

Do you like puzzles? I love to play puzzle video games (like Portal and the Talos Principle). I haven't done a jigsaw puzzle in ages but I think I'd enjoy it. I do the occasional crossword.

Any phobias? Hate spiders, big machinery, and narrow spaces. Cave diving videos make me physically ill.

Favourite childhood sport? I wasn't much of a sports gal but I LOVED playing badminton!

Do you talk to yourself? All the time! I sing to myself, repeat memes to myself, and have whole conversations with myself.

No pressure tags:

@spinnenpfote6, @crimson-synths, @wastelockwoes, @moogleterra, @master-gatherer

Lore Drop

I was tagged by @lord-aldhelm Thank you!!

Do you make your bed? Nuh, never. I'm too lazy for that and the look of a neatly made bed gives me too sterile vibe lmao

Favorite number? Two I guess

What’s your job? I'm currently unemployed, trying to make my way through in web design

If you could go back to school, would you? I love my school years more than my adult life lmao so I probably would. If we talk about going back in time lmao I would not go to school at my current age

Can you parallel park? I can't drive so no

Do you think aliens are real? I absolutely do think aliens exist. We don't even know how many universes are out there, so...

Can you drive a manual car? Nuh

What’s your guilty pleasure? Idk shitty tv shows??

Tattoos? None, but I want some

Favorite color? Black. And grey for the nature, like have you seen the sky during the storm?

Do you like puzzles? I do! It's our family activity at our summer house, we always do some huge ass puzzles together, it's fun

Any phobias? I have bathophobia. Everyone always laughs at me, cause I was a pro swimmer who's afraid of depth, but like, yeah sorry can't control it. If I go into the water and suddenly there's nothing under my feet I start panicking real hard. And if I'm diving to check how deep the water is and there's no bottom in like 20 cm I also panic

Favorite childhood sport? Skiing. I loved skiing. I was the only child from the whole parallel in school who wanted to do skiing in our P.E. classes during winter

Do you talk to yourself? 🤔🤔🤔 Not really. Only if I'm daydreaming lmao Not talking to myself about daily stuff tho

No pressure tags:

@ulfrsmal @persephones-journey @ladyinred2248 @whitedarkmoonflower @beenovel @levithestripper @lllostgirlll @kingslionheart @bilbotargaryen @emmanuellececchi

[wrongarmofthelaw]

Character “About” Sheet: adjust as needed

QUOTE

None.

BASIC

NAME: Fiona Margaret Arabello NICKNAMES: Fi AGE: 31 BIRTHDAY: March 26, 1985 SPECIES: Human GENDER: Female PRONOUNS: She, Her.

FAMILY

MOTHER: Samantha Arabello Nee O’Brennan, deceased FATHER: Robert Arabello, deceased Grandparents: Allanah and Bevin O’Brennan (Maternal grandparents, deceased), Luca and Benigna Arabello (Paternal grandparents, deceased) FAMILY: Various aunts, uncles, and cousins. Matthew Cordell (fiance, father of daughter), Samantha Maria Arabello (daughter). SIBLINGS: None.

PHYSIAL ATTRIBUTES

FACE CLAIM: Heather Doerksen RACE/ETHNICITY: Caucasian (Italian and Irish descent) NATIONALITY: American HEIGHT: 5′8 WEIGHT: 145 lbs BUILD: Tall, slightly muscular. HAIR: Short bob haircut that fits under her motorcycle helmet. FACIAL HAIR: None. HAIR COLOR: Dirty blonde EYE COLOR: Green SKIN COLOR: Fair, tans often due to outdoor occupation. DOMINANT HAND: Left ANOMALIES: Eyepatch over right eye. Eye damaged beyond repair by a gunshot, surgically removed. SCENT: Jasmine perfume. ACCENT: New York accent (Queens dialect). PHYSICAL DISABILITIES: Depth perception is weaker due to loss of right eye. LEARNING DISABILITIES: None. ALLERGIES: None. DISORDERS: Recurring nightmares due to mental and physical trauma during a drug sting sabotaged by corrupt officers. Rage issues at times. FASHION: Casual when not on duty. Jeans and t-shirts during warmer months, sweaters and corduroy pants in the fall. NERVOUS TICS: Rubs forehead with fingers when frustrated. QUIRKS: Takes strange situations in stride, uses humor to get through difficult situations.

LIFESTYLE

HOME ADDRESS: Fiona keeps her address private to protect her family. RESIDES: Sunnyside, Queens, NYC. BORN:  Same as residence. RAISED: Same as residence. VEHICLE: 2013 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Touring motorcycle, a 1974 Plymouth Satellite  patrol car belonging to her fiance when not on duty. PHONE: LG Google Nexus 5X LAPTOP/COMPUTER: Macbook Pro 13 inch 2017 model PETS: Big Dipper (adult German Shepard)

HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION: High School Diploma. COLLEGE EDUCATION: Graduated. from the New York City Police Academy with honors. MAJOR: Criminal investigation. MINOR: Computer programming. CAREER: Police Officer (Motor Officer, New York City Highway Patrol Unit #3) EXPERIENCE: 7 years as a beat cop (2005-2010), 5 years as a motor officer. EMPLOYER: New York City Police Police Department. City of New, York, New York. YEARLY SALARY: $55,356 BADGE NUMBER: 32804 TRAINED IN: Criminal investigation, Conflict deescalation, vehicle inspection, moving violation assessment, computer programming, marksmanship, pursuit of and apprehending suspects on foot, pursuit of vehicles and apprehending suspect drivers and passengers. OTHER: Works as a peacekeeper for the supernatural and science-altered communities of NYC. Vigilante taking on human crime that slips through the cracks.

POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Independent. RELIGION: Agnostic atheist. BELIEFS: Believes in the supernatural due to her many encounters with it. MISDEMEANORS: None. FELONIES: None. (Has committed many, but was never arrested or convicted). TICKETS AND/OR VIOLATIONS: Speeding tickets on a rare occasion when off-duty. DRUGS: None. SMOKES: None. ALCOHOL: Cheap beer, daiquiris, margaritas. DIET: Avocado sandwiches, lean turkey breast, salads, cheeseburgers, chocolate chip muffins, and cannoli as occasional treats. Sprite, water, orange juice, coffee, herbal teas.

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Heteromantic SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Heterosexual MARTIAL STATUS: Engaged CHILDREN: Samantha Maria Arabello (biological daughter) AVAILABILITY: Taken LOOKING FOR: None.

LANGUAGES: English. Some Italian. Rusty in Spanish.

PHOBIAS: Animatronics. HOBBIES: Video games, reading comics, watching movies, going to zoos and parks with her daughter and fiance. TRAITS:  Intelligent, kind, compassionate, loyal, courageous, forgiving, loving, playful, leader/take charge attitude, persistent, resourceful, vengeful, angry, violent, manipulative, brooding, stubborn. SOCIAL MEDIA: Has a Facebook page, but is cautious about what she posts or comments on. Frequents forums for police officers.

FAVOURITE

LOCATION: Her apartment. SPORTS TEAM: New York Knicks GAME: The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim MUSIC: Techno/Dance music SHOWS: Agent Carter, Comic Book Men. MOVIES: Superhero films (particularly the MCU) RADIO STATION: WNYU (New York University) FOOD: Cheeseburgers BEVERAGE: Margaritas. COLOR: Purple

CHARACTER

MORAL ALIGNMENT: Neutral Good. MBTI: ESFJ-A MBTI ROLE: The Consul ENNEAGRAM: Type 1 ENNEAGRAM ROLE: The Reformer TEMPERAMENT: Sanguine WESTERN ZODIAC: Aries. CHINESE ZODIAC: Ox PRIMAL SIGN: Hippopotamus HOGWARTS HOUSE: Gryffindor. ILVERYMORNY HOUSE: Wampus TAROT CARD: Justice TV TROPES: New York City Cops, Cowboy/girl Cop, Famed In-Story, He/She Knows Too Much, Killer Cop (though her actions lean more towards Vigilante Man/Woman). SONG: Fight The Good Fight -Triumph

IDEOLOGIES: Believes in second chances, doesn’t necessarily agree with the laws she enforces, believes in bending or breaking laws to do the right thing, believes everyone is a person regardless of being biologically human and deserves the same rights and protections as humans.

[demonslayedher]

Hello hello, Senpai!! How are you doing? I hope everything is going well for you! ^^ <3

I just have one question for you (though it might be a bit long for you to answer, so I apologize in advance 😅): could you please analyze the names of all my babies the Lower Moons (+ Kyōgai)? I tried doing that myself to potentially find out more about their powers or what the origin of their namesake is, but since I'm still a beginner in Japanese and I don't have/know of that many resources yet, I felt like asking you would be the best option.

We don't know anything about the Lower Moons that Muzan himself killed, except for their appearance, their names, and their order in the Lower ranks, but despite this I grew attached to them (especially Mukago 💝) and would like to be able to bring more love and attention to them in the fandom. Because everyone always talks about the Upper Moons and they forget about my poor children in the Lower ranks 💔

I'm sorry for the lengthy ask, I got a bit carried away 😅 But thank you in advance if you decide to answer this!! Take all the time you need with this and all your other asks, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!! 💖

I feel like Muzan would follow that old meme and be like, “I love all my Lower Moons,” and check the handwritten notes in his palm and just be like, “…Rui.”

But let’s do it! Let’s give each of these Lower Moons, as well as some honorable mentions (we love you, Kyougaaaaiiii) some love and dive into their names! Yahaba: 矢琶羽 Dart-Lute-Feathers, I love how catchy this name is (with 矢 clearly being the operative “arrow” meaning, though I wonder if Nakime dislikes him edging in on her lute thing). It often goes forgotten that Yahaba had tastes for staying clean and tidy, which goes to show that the demons were all possessed of their own complex personalities and had richly detailed lives of their own before those demon hunters came in and chopped their heads off. Like how he and Susamaru chatted and became friends while on the way to finding the boy with the Hanafuda earrings? That’s adorable. Also, in Kimetsu Academy, he famous runs a tofu shop and I love tofu so I hope his family’s business is going well. It’s so innocuous and I feel like the innocuous sides of Yahaba should be appreciated.

Susamaru:  朱紗丸 Vermilion-Gauze-Round/Ball, another catchy and wonderful collection of good name kanji.  The color reference starts her off with name full of vitality without crossing quite into the glowing reds associated with Red Blades. That 紗 is one that does get used in real life as a gentle complement to rest of the name when parents are looking for a ‘sa’ sound with an auspicious number of strokes to write it (though it’s the stroke order of the entire name typically taken into account), but concluding a name with 丸has distinctly old-timey masculine feel to it. As she presents very feminine, even on the hot edge of Taisho fashion, I love the juxtaposition. That said, in Kimetsu Academy, Susa become her very refreshing sounding last name while 丸 becomes a very cute, feminine personal name when left on its own. It’s also cute because it's the part of her name that has the most personal significance for her, as when she was a human, her father bought a toy ball for her and it remained important to her when she was a demon.

Kyougai: 響凱 Sound/Reverberation-Victory Song. A name that big goes to show how high Muzan’s hopes were for you, Kyougai! And seeing as he was inspired by the epic “Satomi Hakken-den,” Kyougai wanted to write a story that was just as big, with expansive world-building and deep allegory. That being said, Kyougai was totally more of a sensitive Hans Christian Andersen at heart, huh? Being so absorbed in his idealistic dreams for his literature, Kyougai even used a literary personal pronoun often reserved for written form (Literature, gotta be one of my favorite genders), and with his perpetual pouty-face, I can totally see him laying face down in a more successful demon’s yard to cry about how Muzan only likes him for his drum skills instead of his writing skills. (That demon was probably Nakime, and she was probably just as peeved as Charles Dickens.) Kyougai is so sensitive and deep in his literary fantasies that he was ultimately defeated by how moved he was by the literary symbolism of Tanjirou avoiding stepping on his written works, a kind demon slayer who takes heads because he must but will not trample on a demon’s heart. Also, might I say how sad it is that he’s the music teacher in Kimetsu Academy, probably because he still can’t make it as an author!? Kyoooouggaaaaaiiiii!!

Nakime: 鳴女 Sound (anything from an echo to birds chirping to a ringing noise to a honk)-Woman, doesn’t seem very creative on the surface because clearly she is a woman who works with sound (and is clearly more talented at it that Kyougai, get wrecked, is what she’d probably say to him if she bothered saying any more than necessary to the other demons). Muzan might had thought he was clever for this one, though, because ‘me’ is also the same sound as ‘eye’ (目). Maybe he even called her that at first, until she gave him stone-silent response, so instead of being embarrassed for being overly basic he chose to say it was written with the character 女 instead, because duh, she’s a woman. The name had nothing to do with her face. EDIT: HOLD IT, WAIT UP. @lalunaticscribe rightly pointed out that this was the name a pheasant in Shinto mythology, which totally forgot about. Although it can be writing in different ways for "crying out woman," this was a messenger sent by the heavens to Amewakahiko, who was supposed to be doing the heavens' bidding but had put them on read, essentially. The pheasant was supposed to check up on him, and he literally shot the messenger with an arrow. The arrow went all the way to the heavens, the heavens were alarmed, but still wanted to give Amewakahiko the benefit of the doubt, so they threw it back saying, "well, if he's guilty, it'll strike him, if not, it'll miss" and it struck him and he died.

Hairou: 佩狼 Wear (a sword)-Wolf. Muzan must had known he was a Shinsengumi, as they were called the ‘Wolves of Mibu’ (an area of Kyoto they policed). Hairou had a complicated relationship with swords and how ultimately they lost out to more powerful guns, which he relies on after that. He can’t totally forget his affection for swords, though, as the Taisho Secrets Hirano-sensei wrote into the Rengoku Gaiden state that he collects things like handguards from defeated enemies’ swords. Tokens of his victories, nothing more!! He doesn’t admire swords, okay, he’s fine with guns!! Gunpowder is way more effective that silly swords! Nevermind that his name still implies he’d wear one!

Kamanue: 釜鵺 Iron Pot/Kettle-Nue (a Chimera sort of ghastly beast). Given that name, fresh new Lower-Moon-Six might have had the most interesting potential for a stand-off with Kamado Tanjirou, as the hearth (kamado 竈) and iron pot/kettle heated over it (kama 釜) are closely associated. Perhaps he could had been yet another character foil to Tanjirou, another former humans with family ties to working with fire and heat? If he had those orange streaks at the ends of his hair as a human, could he also had been a Kakushaku-no-Ko, but not auspicious ever happened to him and he was forced to take the path of a demon? What’s even more interesting is the ‘Nue’ part of his name, as these were fantastical creatures who plagued the nobles of Kyoto, cursing them with illness by their presence and requiring Heian era demons slayers to go hunt them down. It’s classic and I would had loved to see how that might play into Blood Technique. Was he a shape-shifter, perhaps?

Rui: 累 Continuity/Involvement. This was a name given to him by his parents, who probably wished to keep a healthy baby boy involved in their lives for a very long time. Ouch.

Mukago: 零余子 Nothing-Surplus-Child. Mukago really does leave the most impact for her character design, doesn’t she? It’s the classy symmetrical horns that do it for me, but it’s the feather/fur boa that totally seals the deal. As Muzan called her out for always avoiding strong demon hunters, I get the sense she could be pretty wily with who she choose to target or how she chose to slip away. As for this name, though, the jarring juxtaposition makes me think she’d have had very strange and unusual Blood Techniques, perhaps flirting with the divide between ‘existence’ and ‘non-existence.’ I have no idea how that would work, and her victims probably all regretting finding out.

Wakuraba: 病葉 Sick-Leaves. This one makes me curious, as Muzan probably didn’t like associations with illness. However, taken as a whole, perhaps it was in reference to blight. Were his abilities something that could spread and kill a large number of people in a given area, or did his Blood Technique spread through trees to slowly poison people through the water or attack directly with poison leaves and an evil root system throughout the forest (I wrote that into a fanfic, haaa)? He’s got a pretty unassuming appearance, wearing a kimono pattern used a few times throughout the manga, and only one simple scarf for accessory, but the scars on his face keep him from being able to blend into a crowd. How’d you get those scars, man? What is your story? Did they remain from your human life, something that no amount of demon regeneration can ever erase from you?

Rokuro: 轆轤 Potter’s Wheel/Pulley. Now this is an assuming character design. That’s totally a craftsman’s attire for working in his studio, crouched over a spinning pottery wheel all day. What was your Blood Technique, sir? Did it astound victims for how they never would have suspected you of anything, much less noticed you? Is it like a spinning mechanism, full of potential for a truly horrendous death, or do you trap victims under giant interdimensional tea cups? Does Gyokko hate you for this and want you to stop stealing his shtick? Also, the facial hair makes me think he was a Meiji era human, as it was back in style then. That would make him not a terribly old demon, at his oldest, a bit younger than Hairou (whom he replaced as Lower Moon Two) and the Hand Demon.

Enmu: 魘夢 (To have a) Nightmare-Dream. Muzan wasn’t feeling very creative that night but it does have a nice ring to it. Had he been promoted to an Upper Moon role like he hoped, maybe a name change would had been in order, like “The Enmu Express.”

And good luck with your studies! While a language cannot be learned with dictionaries alone as all languages are contextual (Japanese especially), I do use a collection of different dictionaries when I do translations (even if they pull from similar sources), as they may present slightly different nuances or methods of look-up or examples. ALC (aimed at Japanese speakers, extensive specialized vocab and examples, albeit not well explained) Tangorin (my favorite for overall user-friendliness) Weblio (aimed at Japanese speakers, has more of a human touch than some of ALC's weird examples)WWWJDIC (the handwriting tool usually works well) JapanDict (when Tangorin fails me due to slow loading)