#And I KNOW they've got to still be there in the actual Japanese language because they wouldn't just rewrite shit wholesale

[cozza-frenzy]

Speaking as someone who loves Dungeon Meshi and usually watches subbed anime?

Watch the dub instead.

[slexenskee]

What is the international view on Dabi and Ru-kun? What about Otheon? Do they envy Japan for having him and f-ing it up? Or do they look at his chaotic gremlin self and think, thank god he's not here?

Thanks for the newest update! I appreciate your hard work and dedication! ❤️

Yes and yes 😂

Most countries would love to have him, but are simultaneously relieved to not have to deal with him. But he definitely has massive international appeal, being famous for American music and being a European hero, even if he's based out of Japan.

Honestly, Otheon lowkey loves him. He's a huge pain in the ass and a massive chaos gremlin, but he's their agent of chaos, you know? The rest of the EU feels similar, and I imagine people go to the ruins of the old Humarise bases in all the various cities like they're tourist attractions lol. That random Swiss cafe that Ru-kun would meet up with Clair at? They let you take photos at the table he always sat at 😂 Otheon definitely makes a killing peddling 'Official' Six Eyes merch.

I actually think the tables have turned when it comes to his identities, and all his fans are scrambling to keep up;

For Dabi content, Japan is still the #1 source for all info. So all his international fans wait on baited breath for info from their JPN counterparts, and crowd around fan-translators for live updates.

For No Scrubs stuff though, it's the opposite. Fans have had to beg the English speaking fans for translations, especially for the older No Scrubs songs that aren't released officially and only exist as fan-video uploads. And those same fan-translators have had to reverse translate for JPN fans/fans for other languages.

Also, I headcanon that No Scrubs has always been more famous abroad than in Japan, just because of the way they got famous from fan-uploaded online youtube videos of English music, so they've always had a very broad international audience and by nature of the songs being in English, a lot of appeal to English speaking countries. But of course you don't have to be from an English speaking country to enjoy music in English, and with the internet being what it is, it's always been a very global fanbase.

But this means that straight from the get-go Makoto has always positioned No Scrubs to maximize their global appeal (when they finally got serious about PR and stuff lol) so they've always done global releases and when they do interviews and stuff it's not just centered around Japanese media, so that stuff has always been easily accessible to the global public.

And now that both identities are public, it's become the Pepe Silvia meme with fan translators trying to put together the lyrics of certain songs to various interviews in both english and japanese, and it's a big ole' mess 😂

[murkystarlight]

I've always wondered how people made playlists for characters. Or an entire fandom. Or anything really(I'm horrible at it. Or maybe I just don't know enough songs)

But I did manage to think of songs the new order would sing at karaoke, or just singing skills. I don't actually have songs I think they would sing. But we do have what I wrote down for musical abilities! (This thing was in my drafts for months-)

Jesse

Good at singing. But not very good with rhythms(those darn quick time events don't help!! Arghah)

But like the few songs they've sung their entire lives?? Yeah. The rythm kind of got stuck in their brains. And can keep up to it.

Probably would sing something like... breakup songs, the most. But like, happy break up songs(like.. not happy. But you know.. the 'I broke up with you, but I dont care. You were crap anyways. I'm so out of your league' kind of breakup songs). Why? I thought it'd be funny. Okay? I don't know why-

Olivia

She's a good singer. But she doesn't really like singing in front of crowds. So like.. only with her close friends. But she has a really nice singing voice. Can't reach the really high notes, but manages most of them(even if they're not fully perfect)

I think she would sing more calmer songs.

I think she would know how to play the piano or violin (think she got a good musical ear)(I also thought of her having a dj board thing--)

Axel

He has a loud voice. He covers his weakness of singing with that loud voice. Can't hit a high note? Just scream! Scream the crap out of your throat. But his neck is fine. He screams often, and it takes more than just 'screaming to get a high note' to damage his throat. So he can hit the high notes... well, it does the job. He can get the high notes done. And speaking of high notes, he would sing Hatsune Miku a lot(I- don't know why😃)

If he was to play an instrument I'd say something like.. the drums?

Petra

She doesn't really sing. But she isn't horrible at it. Maybe with practice she'll be better? But when she does sing, she sticks to the easy ones. If there is a high note in the song, she'll just skip that part. Just- everything goes quiet all of a sudden. When the high note part ends, she starts singing again.

She sings anything as long as she knows the song(and likes it) and if it's not something too cheesy(either she doesn't like it, or she just has a big ego).

And for instruments(which.. I apparently also started writing down in this post), drums and guitar/base?

Lukas

I think. He would be able to hit high notes. Like.. really high ones. But the problem is, he can only do it in one song. Or the next day he won't be able to speak. He also has to take care of his throat before and after the song.

Think he would sing jazz for some reason. I have- no idea why. Or country. With a guitar maybe(I'm really just throwing things out there at this point). And maybe K-pop. Cause... I like that theory(also the reason why he can do high notes?)

Instruments; guitar. Maybe piano?

So, from here. I guess... dynamics?

After a while, Olivia, Axel and Lukas has to sit down and catch their breath(Olivia and Lukas mostly because they're tired, low energy. And Axel.. he can still go on. But he gets pulled down since he keeps trying to hit the high notes by screaming) So that leaves Petra having to deal with Jesse. Jesse wants to sing. While Petra... she's kind of tired of it by now.

Jesse likes singing duets(or more people) together. So everyone sings a duet with Jesse at least once if they go karaoke together.

Axel(most of the time) doesn't actually know the Japanese lyrics when he sings Miku. He just copies whatever he heard or sees on screen.

Lukas, actually knows the lyrics to the K-pop he sings. He reads books and stuff(yh. That's not a very good reason. Is it..). If he does like K-pop, he would've tried learning it. Other than that, I think he would know a lot of different languages. Even not fully. But know some words and phrases

Jesse and Axel would sing in the shower

Olivia once cheated during karaoke by messing around with the wiring. She got bored while waiting for her turn(the others only realized it after getting the perfect score three times in a row)

Annnnd I realized I didn't think of an instrument Jesse would know how to play. And I have thought of~ the flute. I was thinking of f!jesse. But imagine f!jesse and m!jesse being siblings and they both signed up to learn. F!jesse loves it amd m!jesse doesn't. But they've gone too far. He can't quit now

And that's all. Thank you 👐

[bonny-kookoo]

Jungkook/Namjoon:

Don't Play With Your Food

I'm which you've got to be fiund- no matter how.

Tags/Warnings: Angst, Black Panther Hybrid!Jungkook, Bunny!Reader, human!Namjoon, hybrid trafficking, hospital

Length: mid/long

<- Previous

A/N: Boo. ⛔️✨️👉There is no taglist.👈✨️⛔️

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Jungkook has been regressing ever since losing you.

Namjoon has never seen him like this before. The young man is hardly talking, communicating rather in sounds of either disapproval or agreement over questions he's asked, behavior more lead by instincts than ever before. It worries Namjoon; so much so, that currently, he's browsing on his phone for therapy spots in Seoul for predator hybrids like Jungkook. Even if he doesn't want to admit it, there is, after all, a chance of you not ever coming back- and he wants to be somewhat prepared for it.

A hybrid losing their mate is a traumatic thing, after all.

Namjoon himself has to function, put his own emotions aside, because he needs to support Jungkook down the line. He's promised that.

The black panther is currently napping on the bed in the hotel they've rented, a rare moment of silence giving Namjoon a moment to breathe. Jungkook doesn't know how much stress he's putting on his owner after all, and it's also nowhere near his fault for being like this. Trauma just affects hybrids differently than humans.

What pains him even more is the fact that even in this state, Jungkook is still Jungkook- he instantly became apologetic after scratching him by accident earlier today, becoming clingy and needy for reassurance.

Namjoon is looking at a remote therapy center when a call interrupts him, number foreign and unknown to him- and his first instinct is that it might just be the police with an update to the situation as he answers, while Jungkook stirs a little on the bed, stretching his limbs. The voice on the other line is foreign, and it takes his brain a second to recognize the language as japanese, before it switches to a female voice speaking korean. "Hello? Is this Kim Namjoon?" The voice asks, and Namjoon furrows his brows, absentmindedly running his hand over Jungkooks shoulder as the black panther hybrid growls a little under his breath.

"Yes. Who is this?" He asks, when the voice continues.

"This is Tokyo Central Hospital, I'm calling because we have a hybrid here with the Tattoo Number 134340-" She asks, and Namjoon instantly sits up straight, knocking Jungkook's head off of his lap as a result. Instead of complaining however, the hybrid seems to realize the shift in mood right away, now leaning in closer to hear what's being said over the phone as well.

"Yes, I'm the owner, is- is she okay?!" He instantly demands, voice cracking a little midway in the sentence.

And his only thought is: Please don't say it.

"She's been brought to the ER today a few hours prior, but she's currently stable. Is there any way for you to come here? I know you live-" She, again, doesn't get to finish her sentence, Jungkook already having tumbled down the bed in his hurry to fetch his shoes, Namjoon having to harshly pull the hybrid's tail to get him to stay still for just a moment.

"We'll be there as soon as we can- is it alright if I bring along another hybrid?" He asks, and Jungkook swipes his tail from side to side aggressively, knocking over a pen on the table behind him.

The female nurse chuckles. "That's alright for us here, I think it would actually help a lot to have some people she knows around her, she's been quite scared." She explains, and Namjoon nods at Jungkook, finally letting the buzzing hybrid rush to get his shoes and jacket on.

"Thank you so much, we'll be there soon." Namjoon informs her, before hanging up, and rushing to grab onto the hood of Jungkook's sweater. "Come here, I won't risk losing another one." He scolds, putting Jungkook's collar on, before he takes a deep breath.

Time to bring you home.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"So, she is unconscious right now because we've given her a lot of pain relief-" The nurse explains, leading both through the busy department where patients are being treated. Namjoon had instantly asked to be explained what's been happening and what's going to happen, wanting, no, needing to know what's going on to reassure himself of you being fine. "-and she is a little bruised, but she's stable enough for now." She continues to explain. "I'd like for you not to crawl into bed with her to avoid causing anymore damage, we're still waiting for the results of the scans to come back, but you can hold her hand and sit close to her alright?" She asks Jungkook, who nods once before turning his attention back to his environment, as if to scan for where you might be. "He's not much of a talker, is he?" She chuckles, as Namjoon nods a little.

"He's usually a lot more controlled, but the situation had put a lot of stress on him." He apologizes almost, making the nurse nod in understanding.

"That's alright." She says, before she stops walking and pulls a curtain back. "Alright, come on in."

Jungkook is instantly at your side, almost tripping over the cables attached to you, the black panther instantly holding your hand, nuzzling the back of it to get his scent back onto you, whining quietly to himself. "I'll let the doctor know you're here." She simply informs Namjoon before she leaves, pulling the curtain shut again to give you some privacy.

In a way, everything becomes dull in the background for Namjoon.

None of the noises reach him, nothing that goes on around you can really come into focus as he sits down calmly on one of the chairs at the side, simply watching Jungkook cling onto you. You really look like you're only sleeping- apart from a couple of scratches on the side of your jaw, and all of the equipment hooked onto you to monitor your condition, you look almost relaxed. He can spot one of your ears being shaved on the inside, probably done by the medical staff to be able to read your ID tattoo properly. He can't stop simply staring for a moment, rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor calming him down somewhat, when a tall man walks in.

"Alright, Hello." The doctor introduces himself with his name and profession, before he laughs when Jungkook growls a little, the hybrid probably feeling threatened by the young and a lot taller male. "Well, hello to you too." He jokes, making Namjoon laugh a little as well. "So I just looked at her results, and it's thankfully a lot less than we initially expected." He explains, and while talking to Namjoon about what's going to have to be done moving forward, Jungkook is busy re-familiarizing himself with you.

There's nothing else on his mind at the moment than you, there, existing, alive.

"Jungkook- come here for a moment, they need to work for a second, okay?" Namjoon carefully tries, running a hand over the hybrid's shoulder. He shakes his head immediately at the prospect of having to leave you again, but at the sight of the nurses, he understands.

Though he can't help but side-eye the tall doctor as he walks past him.

But his jealousy is quickly drowned out as he watches several nurses move and prepare things. He instantly whines and struggles a bit as Namjoon holds him close somewhat on his thigh, very much just as distressed at seeing them move around. "She's got a collapsed lung on the left side, so we're going to insert a small tube to help re-inflate it. It might wake her up since it's quite an uncomfortable procedure, but it's necessary." A nurse explains, and Namjoon nods. "She won't be in pain, but she'll still feel it." She clarifies, and Jungkook hides his face in his owner's neck, who in return stares blankly at the way they work on you.

Surely enough, you do wake up from it, whining pitifully at the confusing surroundings and strange things done to you, nurses doing their best to reassure you that you're fine. It's quite an odd scene to be living through, but frankly, Namjoon is more so relieved that you're in the best care you can be for now.

"Kim Namjoon?" Someone asks, and he looks up at a police officer. "We're aware that this must be a distressing situation, but we'd like to fill you in on the situation at the moment." The man explains, and Namjoon nods. "She was found roaming around tokyo's subway station, security cameras show her being dropped off by a person we've already identified and taken into custody." He says, reading from a notepad. "According to him, he'd been told to 'throw her out' because she was never an intention target from the start. She was, unfortunately, at the wrong place during the wrong time." He sighs.

"Will they look into Seoul's lack of care when she was discharged as well?" Namjoon darkly asks, running a hand over his hybrid's back.

"Thats for the south korean police to decide- though I believe they're looking into it as we speak." The man offers. "For now I can tell you that, even if under unfortunate circumstances and not intentionally, she's been the lead we've been searching for for months. 136 Hybrids had been discovered this morning due to her showing up." He says.

"Thats good to hear." Namjoon simply nods, and the police officer excuses himself before he leaves you all alone again, everything having settled down quite a bit.

And then, your eyes fall on your family, and the dam breaks.

"We're right here love, don't cry." Namjoon immediately hurries out, walking closer with Jungkook who latches back onto your hand. "You'll be fine." Your owner says, and you nod.

"...joon?" You ask meekly, voice cracking a bit.

"Hm?" Namjoon asks, leaning in to hear you better-

But instead of talking, you simply peck his cheek-

And his tears flow freely at that.

[project-sekai-facts]

Regarding your post about censorship: I'm like 90% sure most of this is not censorship (they left the entirety of buddy funny as it was. I refuse to believe "partner" is where they draw the line). I've played tons of Japanese video games in official English; the usual standard for translation is, in practice, that it shouldn't be obvious it wasn't originally written in English. Imo, this is the actual difference between "the miles i fell in love with is so cool!" (Not grammatically incorrect but not how actual people speak) and the official. As for it having romantic connotation to begin with, lol you said you got that from looking it up but Google the same thing in English and you will still get only romantic advice because it just assumes you're asking when the appropriate time to say I love you in a relationship is.... It could've been a joke, or a gay allegation, an anime way of speaking, or even nothing. How would you know which? I absolutely do not mean this in a rude way and I'm really sorry if it comes off like that but. I don't think you can comment on the connotations of words or level of casualness without speaking the language yourself.

Same with minoharu; it's (unfortunately) not canon. If she actually said "I love you!!" Regardless of dictionary definitions, it will be read as a romantic confession by most players, and you often say the game likes ambiguity so I take it that's a no. "I like you!" Is rather an awkward thing to yell in english, though. So "you're the best" is what they substitute.

(Please don't blame the translators for stuff this insignificant tbh. Some things in early game may sound clunky, but they've really smoothed out over time in terms of word choice sounding natural (...event names notwithstanding). I've done translations between my first language and English for fun; if you linger on every last word and it's connotations, you will go /insane/ reallyyy quickly. Imo no two words in different languages have the exact same meaning, connotation, use case etc. Ever. Differences of this level are utterly inevitable when games have so much text.)

Anyway. Thanks for all the effort you put into this blog, it's a fantastic one and it's not my intention to be harsh, if it comes off like that please just delete this ask. Don't feel bad about something some stranger on the internet said.

to be honest I don't think it's all censorship either, i just kinda went off on a tangent about things getting removed in translation and i did put in the post reasons why these translations actually are valid (aside from Toya woao because they did leave that one in the card name so it was a deliberate choice to remove it from the story, thereby also removing the reference in the card name). That Asahi post is old and I have done more research into it since, because my JP isn't good so I've gotta make up for it somehow, and literally every dictionary definition and anything I can find for that word frames it as romantic. For the extra mile I checked Japanese dictionaries for languages other than English. I found one thing saying it can be used for an idolisation, but even in that instance the way it's framed in the story is still done in a way that could be viewed as ship tease. In other words, it's probably romantic. Even if he's just talking about the character and not Tsukasa, it has a romantic reading and removing it was a deliberate choice. "The miles i fell in love with is so cool" might sound a bit rough, but it could have still been translated to keep the original context no problem. You could've just done something like "well of course it was cool. i fell in love with miles for a reason" or "it was so cool! as expected of the miles i love". the thing is with writing for a game like this is sometimes people need to say things that in real life you would probably just say in your head. the POV character for this event is Rui so we can't just take a look at the thoughts of the characters, which is why what they're feeling needs to be conveyed through text even if it sacrifices a bit of the realism. especially in a visual novel styled game like this because the characters are limited to a 2D model with limited movement and expression. if this was an anime you could probably get more leeway with what they say because you can convey the character's feelings through various other means (eg: the animated MVs that don't have any dialogue but could convey a story and emotion much better than looking at the in-game version of the scene with no dialogue). Don't worry I don't think you came off as rude and I know I shouldn't really talk about a language I don't speak but I hope the research can at least kind of make up for it.

Minoharu isn't canon I know but it's very obvious that what Minori feels for Haruka goes into romantic territory, whether you like the ship or not. And sure, if you put "I love you" most people would probably read it as romantic by default, but that hasn't stopped the translators before. "You're the best" honestly is a valid localisation that still conveys pretty much the same meaning I just find it odd that "I love you" is removed here, a flashback scene from a point in time where minori and haruka didn't know each other, but is translated with accuracy in multiple interactions between An and Kohane in present day. If Minori and Haruka don't know each other it's slightly less likely that people will interpret it as romantic and slightly more likely that people will interpret it as a simple idolisation but with An an Kohane actually knowing each other and having a close and affectionate relationship the go-to is probably gonna be romantic (which isn't wrong considering the events of BFST and Wishing for Your Happiness, but still sticks out that they left this in here but change it for another couple with heavy romantic subtext).

I'm not blaming this on the translators, they're just doing their job and obviously with localisation you've gotta lose stuff, it's just that some of these are very specific things to cut (eg: any indication of Asahi feeling romantically towards Tsukasa's character and ambiguously Tsukasa himself is completely absent in the official translation). I'm blaming this on the higher ups at sega who get the final say on what is and isn't included in the translation. You can't translate everything directly because languages don't all work exactly the same, especially english and japanese. obviously due to these differences, you're not going to be able to translate everything directly and localisation is necessary (regardless of language) to make it accessible and easy to read for an audience outside the country of origin. but there are gonna be questions raised when a scene is localised to keep the same meaning as the original text aside from one line that removes notable queer subtext. because if they can keep the rest of toya's speech in line with the original but they specifically remove the part about him wanting to stay side-by-side with akito forever and change it to wanting to perform side-by-side, despite the fact they left in the "now on and always" part in his card name, that was removed from the story intentionally. they kept what asahi says to tsukasa with the same meaning as well, but any indication of asahi feeling romantically towards the other is completely gone. the issue is that sega seems to be intentionally removing queer subtext from the game.

don't worry anon this wasn't harsh, and localisation is something that actually interests me and i've read into quite a bit, so i enjoy the opportunity to talk about it. and thank you as well!

[archivalofsins]

Eyyyyy new Deco song-

Sooooo many good Mahiru third cover song options what a dilemma-

"Ack the dilemma is enorma, help me out, come on doctor, my emotion's a sticky glitter bomb."

"Mon-mon-monstrously in love in love. A monstrous dilemma!!!"

"The ever looming problem of "never enough"."

"Oh, snap, this melancholic mind awakened from its slumber- BAD Miss Disaster, party night."

22/01/17 (Mahiru’s Birthday) Mahiru: My birthday…… the day I was born…… But was there really any reason for me being born? Lately I’ve started to wonder that. Do you ever think about stuff like that, Yuno-chan? Yuno: Eh? Not really. I mean, Mahiru-san, you’re really the romantic type, right? Not that I have anything against that. But isn’t it a bit much to think that everything in life has a meaning? If it makes you happy to think like that then go ahead, but if it doesn’t, then isn’t that in itself meaningless? Mahiru: : ……you might be right. I’ve always just lived my life like this, so I don’t really know. Yuno: We’ve all just gone through a bunch of things in life that happened to lead us here. It’s nothing more than a coincidence. Definitely not fate or anything. Probably. Even if there isn’t a meaning, you can still be happy that it’s your birthday. That sort of thing’s all you need in life really. So happy birthday, Mahiru-san.

"My emotions are out of control, that’s inconvenient? I don’t care! Tell me, oh tell me why, won’t you just accept me?" - "Tell me, oh tell me why, can’t I just do it right."

"My emotion on rotation, like the daily special, here's a plate of my emotions champuru."

"My emotions are out of control, that’s inconvenient? I don’t care!"

"Gotta push again, don't you see? I've got no option but to push- This see-saw won't see-saw because my love's too heavy."

"Kiss good-bye to this feeling cuz it’s too heavy? I can’t, no way no way no way!"- "My love, it scored an own goal, destroyed my love and me with its weight. Tell me, oh tell me why, can’t I just do it right?"

"Ack, the dilemma is enorma, help me out, come on doctor, disappointment being born in the form of a glitter bomb. My head's on fire."

"Push down my feelings and take a moment to make you feel like "Hmmm, I want more". Adulting at a balance is what's called for, apparently. Like, "I'm so busy", psych! "Sorry, I was sleeping", psych! I just get so hopelessly confused ugh, RIP to me, seriously..."

"Even when I test you, even the times we do the breakup ritual is because I love you." - "I pretended to be a good girl, I don’t want to be “ok”."

"Is this A-OK-o?"

Do you really think you know what love is? If you do, let’s just overheat together!

"Giving you love to the point of pulling you down. It’s just because I still get worried, please forgive me." - "I just love you so much!"

"My heads on FIRE, Ha-ha-Hao of a love trifecta! Can you please give me the things you wanna do too?"

"I hate you, hate you so much, is that what you're thinking?"

"No way, Ha-ha-hao of a love trifecta what I'm coveting is to be oh so loved!"

"The things that I only want to say to you, and the things that I want from you is love."

And even a possible cute callback to her second interrogation answer?

Q.04 Can you speak any languages other than Japanese?

Mahiru: I picked Chinese as an elective subject at university but, well, I don’t think I can really say I speak it.

Well, It's a nice passing thought but I guess we'll see when we see. That's if she even makes it to her third trial though. Who knows what could happen.

Forgot because I was starving that it would also be fun for her to get this because it would parallel well with Futa getting Salamander this trial. in a Plus highlight the similarities between them in how they feel love and are heavily attracted to extreme emotions/ black and white framings. They're both either all in or out sometimes. I don't think it's a coincidence they've shown them subtly getting closer over trial two. Futa and Mahiru actually have a great deal in common just as Mahiru does with Kotoko as well.

[mr-laveau]

Darren•Darlin Headcanons

(Because I can and I want to)

Darren (he/they) is bi + poly (all my designs are poly, this is me we're talking about, that's like the baseline)

Darren's design, while evidently is influenced by the greaser subculture, is actually derivatively chosen based on the Yankii subculture that their parents both styled themselves with before coming to America. Darren however adopted the greaser look given that he wasn't as connected to his japanese roots which still somehow fell more in line given that the Yankii subculture is based on the greaser look.

Darren did date David before Gabe passed, after that he distanced himself from them and they broke things off.

He also was seeing Sadhil when they were in DAMN before disappearing with Quinn.

Darren's Jacket belonged to their dad before he passed and they've worn it ever since. David actually got his leather jacket look from Darren's father–Gabe was more of a button up shirt guy.

Japanese is their first language since that's what their parents spoke often in their house, Darren just doesn't have the opportunity to speak it much since the rest of the pack doesn't know how to speak it fluently (Asher tried).

Darren's nicknames for people are all based on old cartoons, he calls Sam "Doc", Sadhil gets called "Tintin"/"Casper" and he refers to Alexis as "Betty".

Darren does have a house within pack territory where he keeps all his old stuff–the problem is that the house is where his parents ☠️ after an attack from a rival pack and he's not very keen on visits there.

Darren and Quinn both were in a relationship together after they distanced themselves from everyone else–in short, they were both horrible for each other and Darren brought out the worst in Quinn who did the same for him. They both believed their empowered status made them above the law so they acted out.

Darren and Hermes (Honey) were friends when Hermes was in college. They were the person Quinn attacked but Darren distanced himself from them after that incident was handled and their memory was modified.

Quinn almost turned Darr, it's referenced in Shattered Glass Makes a Good Weapon but it was directly after he attacked Hermes in Quinn's attempt to force Darren to see his perspective.

Darren is actually the second shortest wolf in the pack in human form but can rival David's wolf form in size and power.

As a result of being blood bound, Darren's eyes do turn silver under the moonlight in human form and red in wolf form.

Darren's design actually incorporates different fashion elements from different members of the pack; chokers from Asher, ripped shirts like Milo, leather jackets like David and gloves like Christian.

Darren owns two rats, they're named Thing 1 and Thing 2!

Darren is autistic and selectively mute, he doesn't talk much around most of the pack and has learned to sign for this exact reason.

Darren sounds like imperium Huxley actually but just add more a of a cali surfer/skater accent.

He doesn't own a vehicle, he actually skates everywhere casually and uses his wolf form to run in high stress situations.

Darren used to work for Alexis as hired muscle and they still do work occasionally as a temporary bodyguard nowadays but when they can, they do take on jobs with Shaw Security but they're mainly a photographer.

Darren does not have a middle name, their full name is Darren Lancer.

Anyways that's it, I'm going back to drawing now–

[hermannsprecursors]

Hetalia x Pacfic Rim AU official stuff yay!

HERE I HAVE ACTUAL REFERENCES FOR THIS AU INSTEAD OF JUST SCREENSHOT REDRAWS. PLUS SOME EXTRA STUFF. THIS IS GONNA BE A LONG POST. SORRY. LMAO. HERE. MERRY CHRISTMAS. PLEASE TELL ME IF YOU WANT MORE BECAUSE I HAVE OTHER CHARACTERS AND LIKE. ACTUAL PLOT ESTABLISHED. THESE ARE JUST THE MAIN GUYS

PILOTS

EXTRA STUFF: -Did I not tell you? This is an Ameripan au! Yippee! -Alfred has universal drift compatibility-- meaning they have the capacity to drift at least semi-successfully with everyone. However, he's had a pretty bad track record, and most of their drift partners have had serious accidents befall them. They quit for a year after his carelessness caused Lovino to get hurt. -Kiku went through a HEFTY breakup with Casper before being thrown into a partnership with Alfred (I'm not immune to nedpan propaganda, dear viewers). He is very bitter about it. -Kiku worked tech and development for about 7 months before being partnered with Alfred. -Initially, they were incapable of drifting. Alfred forced them to be able to. -Technically this au's Mako and Raleigh if you're keeping track of canonic similarity

EXTRA STUFF: -The two ended up really disliking each other initially. They've since grown on each other. -Initially, though, a lot of that dislike was just because of a language barrier-- that being Casper refused to speak anything but Dutch or occasionally Japanese and it just confused Matt. They're better now! -These lucky bastards have THE most recent model of Jaeger known to date, and by far have the fanciest tech. -Not only are they drift compatible, they're also compatible via star sign. Matt thought that was really funny when they first got together. -Roderich regrets pairing the two every single day. Alfred and Kiku may be this au's main couple but these two are the most chaotic duo and everyone hates it.

EXTRA STUFF: -These two are just. A mess. Both are absolutely RIDICULOUSLY traumatized and no one knows how they're still able to drift or how they're drift compatible but they make it work. -Nobody knows if they're dating or if Feli is just really clingy. It's very much so the latter, they're just besties. Feli just doesn't know boundaries. -Feliciano walks with a limp considering he has pins in his knee keeping it together via brace! Let's hear it for accidents while piloting -Also all of the burns and scars Ludwig has ALSO comes from accidents while piloting. Said accident kills his brother. Like I said, traumatized. -Literally NOBODY knows how they got put back in the Jaeger program. They literally just showed back up one day and Rod was like "eh alright, let's test them for compatibility because the world is gonna end in like 2 weeks"

SHATTERDOME STAFF

EXTRA STUFF: -And they're all married! (Well, Elizaveta and Roderich are married. Antonio is just there. Gilbert was also part of the polycule but he's dead lol) -Roderich has NO idea how he ended up in charge, but he's been the director of the Shatterdome since 2018 once he started to develop symptoms of MS and couldn't pilot anymore. -Elizaveta hasn't been able to pilot with anyone but Roderich and she's PISSED at him for it because she wants to PILOT AGAIN, DAMNIT -Roderich will greenlight literally ANYTHING, considering he has 8 months of spending, it burns up in about 3 weeks as of the starting date of this AU's story, and he has NOTHING to spend it on -Yeah Roderich is officially in charge but Antonio is really the one who makes most of the important decisions which is DEFINITELY for the best

EXTRA STUFF: -Science guys! (Which is SO weird considering Arthur and Francis used to be ACTUAL pilots. Like, plane pilots) -POINT AND LAUGH AT THE DUMB BRITISH MAN WHO'S DRIFTED SOLO WITH A KAIJU 3 TIMES (they're technically clinically insane at this point and Yao and Francis have no idea how they're alive) -Arthur was removed from active pilot duty after it was revealed they were exposed to radiation during early testing, as they were one of the test pilots in the Jaeger program, courtesy of the RAF. Francis was supposed to take their place but wasn't compatible with any open pilots. -Yao is HONESTLY the only sane one here and nobody knows how considering he's surrounded by FREAKS. -Also Yao was the only of his family to do the science-- all of his siblings went into actual piloting. -Yao and Arthur are technically the Hermann and Newt of this AU. Again, only if you're looking for like contingency with the actual plot of Pacific Rim

EXTRA STUFF: -These two aren't related in any way they literally just work here. Both are victims of Alfred's bad luck streak though! -Seriously. Alfred's trauma from previous drift experiences wrecked Ivan's psyche so bad he's incapable of drifting and had to move to munitions and Lovino was partially paralyzed after a mission gone wrong (same one that ruined his brother's leg) that Alfred couldn't be there for because they were ill. -Lovino gets to run missions for other people now so he just gets to sit and be petty over a microphone all day now. -Ivan WOULD have universal drift compatibility if he didn't undergo such psychological trauma. Plus he just really isn't well and should not be anyone's drift partner. -Lovino on the other hand only ever drifted with Alfred and her brother. In fact, Vino and Alfred were partners (both drift and romantic partners) for about a year and a half before the accident

YAY THERE'S CHARACTER STUFF! PLEASE TELL ME IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN ANY PLOT STUFF BECAUSE I LOVE PACIFIC RIM STILL AND I WANTED TO COMBINE IT WITH A FANDOM STILL VERY VERY VERY SPECIAL TO ME

[literaryreference]

okay so. aa6 is undeniably a mess. it is my least favorite aa game. i'm not trying to defend it. but i do think that when criticizing it, it is important to understand that khura'in is almost literally japan in a funny hat. like, even aesthetically, they are barely trying to make it look like it's not japan. and you might say, okay, well, they clearly did zero research for their "our great country bringing enlightenment to the benighted natives of a backwards land" narrative and that just makes it worse, but the "this is obviously just japan" aspect is so blatant that personally i feel it is probably on purpose. i think the racism of aa6 is instead, primarily, the racism of using another culture as window dressing for a commentary on your own. and that's still bad! it's just a different kind of bad.

japanese media does of course sometimes contain colonialist apologism on purpose. but these narratives tend to be based on long-term occupation and/or administrative control. "we built them roads! we educated them! sure we also tried to destroy their culture and language but look how much better off they are! why aren't they grateful?" aa6 doesn't really hit any of the talking points i would expect to see out of imperial japan apologia. instead it's acting out something that looks a lot like the usa's late-20th-to-early-21st-century imperialist narrative of "we'll just drop in quickly, fix things, and then leave." and that's not really the shape that japan's imperialism has taken, which i think makes it less likely to be intentional.

i think that in aa5 the writers got a little overly self-indulgent and decided they didn't want the protagonists to keep struggling to wring individual victories out of a defective system like in real life, they wanted them to be able to fix it, to win in a definitive way. but then they've got another game to write. and they've painted themselves into a corner because the end of aa5 takes most of the themes and concerns of the series to date off the table. and since the permanent fix in aa5 isn't reflective of anything in real life, it's not like those themes and concerns aren't still relevant, and there's not an obvious new angle to explore. so what do they do? they make a country that looks uncannily like japan, that is named after maya's japanese hometown, and they put funny hats on everybody. now it's a different country that happens to still have the same problems! easy fix.

of course, the better move would have been to just, you know, not do that in aa5. (i don't know if they knew there was going to be an aa6 at the time, but idk, i didn't love the permanently-fixing-the-system angle even in gaa/dgs where it happened at the end of the duology. it just feels a little too pat.) so again, i'm not really defending the writers here. and the fact that we are pretending that khura'in is not japan means you do end up with a narrative where the pcs go into a different country to fix the other country's problems and that has unfortunate implications regardless of what the intent was. but i do honestly believe that the "our great country bringing enlightenment to the benighted natives of a backwards land" narrative is an unintentional byproduct of bad writing choices and that the writers are not trying to claim any actual moral high ground for their own culture.

[formula-fun]

I just wanted to come by and say I absolutely loveee your writing, especially the relationships between the characters💕 Now, idk if it's a spoiler, feel free to not respond, but i loved Charles and Pierre's friendship and now I'm really surprised how much I ship Pierre and Yuki and how wholesome Charles and Yuki's interactions are. I was wondering if you have given any thoughts abt P/Y future and maybe how they/Charles might react to them being pregnant/having a baby?

(2) Also, not to be annoying lol, but do the pack get to know at some point abt Charles and Max's baby? 👀👀👀👀 they're all such a mess of emotions, I imagine how would that go

Hi! Thanks so much, that's so sweet <3 I put it under a read more because it's really long, sorry!!

First off so glad you like the vibes because I knew the pack dynamic was a little unusual, but I've kind of had fun writing it! Charles and Pierre are what would traditionally be the 'pack leaders' except they're romantically not compatible, and while they both are in relationships with other people those other people aren't really in the pack per se--Yuki is friends with everyone but he didn't grow up with them, so while he ends up being close with them over the years he still has another pack back home. But he and Charles are still bros and they have a good influence on each other since Charles helps Yuki feel more included, Yuki helps Charles feel less isolated about his secondary gender, and they can both bitch about Pierre together <33

I haven't thought about Yuki and Pierre having kids a lot to be honest but I know irl they both want them, so they'd probably have them somewhere down the line! In my head Yuki is really casual about everything even when he's freaking out about it (he asked Pierre to be his mate over breakfast while on his phone and didn't so much ask him as just say "I think we should be mates" and then had the audacity to look startled when Pierre choked on his smoothie), so I think one day after they've both retired from racing he would tell him he thinks it's time for them to have kids and he's ready to come off birth control. To which Pierre again chokes on his smoothie.

Max and Charles have a good number of brain cells between them but all of them are devoted to motor racing, which is not the case with Yuki and Pierre whatsoever, so everything they do is planned. Pierre is much more insane about it. Yuki has finally opened his restaurant in his retirement, and he's happy to wait out the nine months sitting at the bar eating sorbet and sorting through bills and invoices. Pierre is the one who listens to about thirty parenting podcasts while doing core workouts at the gym every day so that he can easily lift his small child when the time comes. It's excessive. He's squatting 190. A baby weighs like...3 kilos. Every time someone asks him he gives this speech about mental and physical strength. His brothers are a little worried about him.

As for Charles, he's as laissez faire about the whole thing as Yuki is, which Pierre finds extremely annoying. Small spoiler, but at this point Charles is still racing, as is Max, and they're both seasoned parents. They've got two already with a vague idea to have a third once they retire for good, so unfortunately for Pierre and Yuki this means they're given babysitting duty much more often because "it's good practice" and "it's not like you're still working" and "now you can finally put all those parenting podcasts to good use" etc etc. The Verstappen/Leclerc children are 5 and 7, are extremely loud and have the added ability to throw tantrums in four languages at once. Yuki teaches them lots of Japanese swear words so they can add a fifth. They're very adoring of the baby when it's finally born, which Pierre claims is a good sign they're not actually psychologically damaged and tries to give Charles a lecture about the importance of a diverse age range in early childhood friendships immediately after the 2031 Vietnamese Grand Prix podium, when Charles is too exhausted to escape. Charles retains exactly none of that information.

(Pierre ends up calling Max in a panic late at night a lot, because Max is the only one who really sees his side of things. Max wasn't terrified of fatherhood until the instant an exhausted Charles placed their equally exhausted newborn into his arms, and then it slammed into him like brick to the face. He had to get over it fast. He was the stay at home parent and things weren't easy that year, so he had to learn very very quickly how to be a father--the kind of father he wants to be, anyway. He's still trying and there are no real guidebooks for these things, but their kids seem to be alright so he can't be fucking up too badly. Sometimes that's all Pierre needs to hear.)

As for your second question, I can't give you specifics but they'll all learn about it before the fic is over!! It'll happen very soon and I promise they will be suitably messy about it. Thanks so much for the asks, these were so fun to answer! <3

[moonlit-orchid]

Headcanons because Yugioh is such a hyperfixation.

-Quattro and Trey practically grew up in foster care and stuck together for quite a few years. As such, these two are extremely close. I feel, in the Japanese dub, they’re part British and in the English dub, they’re part Italian. So, these two will speak in their foreign languages all the time. Trey will be talking to Yuma and co post Season 3, be like “sorry, my brother’s calling.” And then speak a different language on rapid fire.

-Yugo is incredibly street smart. He spent most of his life in the worst part of his city. Kid probably was armed wherever he went, ate food when he got it, slept with one eye open.

-Yugi, simply for shiggles, will occasionally mess with Jaden and Yusei. Like he’ll go to Duel Academy, or leave something in an interview he knows they’ll see one day.

Ok, anon, I absolutely LOVE these.

Trey and Quattro, as the youngest two, would naturally be closer to each other. And of COURSE they'd be bilingual and use their second language to communicate to each other! And Quinton would absolutely scold them in that language too. If he gets mad, he will switch to English/Italian and the brothers will know they're done. Same for the other two, if they're mad they'll curse in their other languages! Although English curses can be pretty bland, I'm not sure about Italian ones. Honestly I adore this headcanon because I'm bilingual too and recently I've been talking a lot more in my second language (sorry mum, but English is technically my first language lol) and I can imagine the brothers going rapid fire in their other language too just like I do! And as someone with experience, the "foreign" language comes out when the parent (or in this case the Quinton) is mad (my dad is also the same ethnicity as my mum but he grew up in the uk and will always talk to us in English-if he's using our other language it means he's either talking to my mum or if to us then he's serious or mad. I also sometimes when REALLY mad will snap in my other language too)

I haven't seen much of Arc-V, but I do know enough to know Yugo would be very street smart. Post series (I'm not looking at the ending i am not looking at the ending it did not happen ok it did not happen) the others would just find his weapons randomly stashed everywhere, or he'll surprise everyone by having a knife with him on like a school trip! At some point it becomes a written rule that Yugo just can't carry weapons on him, but he will still have one somewhere. Is it understandable why he has this habit? Yes. Is it also the reason why they've been stopped in so many places? Also yes.

Yugi being a cheeky lil' gremlin YES! Of course, this is Yugi, so even though he thinks it's Oh So Terrible And Naughty, the things he leaves are actually very cute and silly. For example he visited Duel Academy when it was being built and drew a winged Kuriboh where he knew Jaden's dorm would be and thought "oh this will scare him haha I'm so terrible >:3" but he didn't realise Jaden wouldn't question it.

Also Yugi once requested that a duel monster be made named Milkbike, with a guy on a motorbike drinking milk. Years later, Jack saw the card and bought it to give to Yusei as a joke because it was way too accurate. So accurate that Yusei took it, took one look, and immediately knew it was Yugi. He didn't know whether to be mad that a ghost from the past made an entire card to last through time for the exact purpose of pulling a prank on him, or to be honoured and touched that Yugi wanted to engage with him so much.

[baratrongirl]

I keep having random dreams featuring Klavier Gavin. The other day I dreamt I was visiting some city I'd never been to before, it was 10pm or so, we were waiting for our suitcases to be unloaded from the tourist bus, and I saw Klavier rollerblading down the street.

He was wearing a black beanie, had his hair down, glasses, a purple jacket, a long black skirt, and rollerblades - and was pulling a purple suitcase on wheels. Like he was a tourist too.

And I called out to him, "Hey Klavier, I didn't know you knew how to rollerblade!" He replied, "I learned how to ice skate in Germany, this isn't so different!"

So that was weird, but he was only in the dream for a couple of minutes. It wasn't actually a dream ABOUT him. Nor did it have any particular message.

The dream I had last night was different. And I'm trying to decide what it means. I don't think it's a message for me, necessarily, but it's definitely an important message for someone.

I dreamt that I was Klavier's manager? Tour manager? Record company executive? Some kind of person with whom he had a professional relationship due to his music, except we were actually friends as well. And there had been some sort of competition to come up with light and staging concepts for his solo tour. We'd weeded through a bunch of video proposals and got them down to five or six artists to interview.

Klavier wanted to make sure that he would actually get on with the artist, that they shared a vision, and that there wouldn't be any more Valant Gramarye-style surprises. (Like, really! The man was still at the very least a witness in an unsolved murder trial - if not the suspect!)

So we were meeting these two Dutch kids. They were very young, like 18/19, so we were meeting them in one of their houses with parents present. The parents were very polite to Klavier, asking him what languages he spoke, and he told them, "I'm fluent in German, English, and Japanese, and I know some Borginian, Spanish, and Khur'ainese." They didn't ask me what languages I spoke because they just assumed I could only speak English because I was British.

Klavier was sitting on the sofa being really rockstar cool in dark glasses. He wasn't being charming and warm like usual because he didn't want to get any of the artists' hopes up. (If that makes sense? Like, if he was too friendly, they might assume they've won the competition/commission based on his attitude towards them.) So he was being cool and aloof, not talking too much and getting me to do most of the talking.

Because I knew him, it was obvious to me that he REALLY liked these kids' art but was worried about hiring them because they were so young, and he'd had the experience of becoming famous in his teens, and wasn't sure if it was the best idea for anyone.

After they'd done their presentation and talked about music a bit, the parents called us to another room where there was a dining table set up with drinks and snacks. We all sat down there and the parents asked Klavier what the kids' chances of getting the commission were. Klavier was cool about it, said that we still had several more artists to see, and we couldn't promise anything to anyone yet.

So the dad, who was an asshole, said to his son, in Dutch, "I knew he wouldn't like it, now you can go back to studying like you should be." And it was SO rude, they WERE studying, but they were studying art and not a "real" career. He couldn't affect the other boy's choices but he could make his own son feel bad.

Except in the dream, I understood Dutch. (I don't in real life.) Between seeing the boys' reaction and my reaction, Klavier figured out what had happened, because it was such a Kristoph thing to do, to put your younger relative down in front of others using a language you know they don't speak.

Klavier got angry, and his anger broke through the rockstar cool façade that he was trying to do. He said, "Actually I like your son and his friend's art very much, and if we didn't still have more artists to see, I'd give them the commission now."

The asshole dad was like, "How did you understand what I said? I thought you didn't speak Dutch."

Klavier said, "I don't, I only know a few important words like stroopwafel and speculaas. But I had an older brother who felt about my music the way you do about your son's art. And which of us was right about that - him, who thought it was a waste of time, or me, who has sold millions of records?"

It just feels like a really important message.

[uncleweed]

Finding the Conch by DC written and put on site 5/31/04

Journeys bring power and love back into you. If you can’t go somewhere, move in the passageways of the self. They are like shafts of light, always changing, and you change when you explore them.

- Jalal Al-Din Rumi:

On a mid January mid-afternoon, amid the 747 (tons?) surrounding me, light as a ballerina, the silver behemoth miraculously slid down on one of Narita airport’s heavily guarded runways. Meanwhile, I peered out the window hoping to catch a glimpse of furious farmers and ageing radical youth scaling walls, still trying to sabotage this sprawling encroachment. They've been fighting this airport for decades. I think. Or have they given up.

Giving and receiving thanks to and from the friendly, hard-working crew and captain, I deplaned, a word I frequently think about when leaving an airplane, deplaned to the gate’s metal-walled passenger loading corridor thus entering atmosphere the nature of which I’d completely forgotten in the months of travel in Southeast Asian tropics, North Indian autumn, and even Western Australian winter – the brisk waker-upper of clinching cold.

Brimming with excitement at being back in my home-away-from-homeland, I bounced through unwary customs, money change, baggage retrieval, baggage storage, baggage delivery, and the JR (Japan Rail) office. At the latter I received the two week rail pass bought in Kuala Lumpur (can’t buy them in-country) plus a schedule and reserved seat on the next train to Tokyo. Each transaction went efficiently, smartly, pleasantly to me to be again with those who humbly take such pride in their duty. And, though I had forgotten a lot of what Japanese I once knew, I could still communicate with them in their own language if that was needed which it was at baggage storage and baggage delivery. At these two adjacent counters I learned it cost half as much to ship my unneeded stuff ahead to Rinsoin and back as to leave it there on a shelf.

Baggage delivery – takyubin. I love it. You see straining tourists with all their luggables and nimble Japanese with mere shoulder-bags and purses because the locals send their heavy items ahead. It’s like UPS but much cheaper and more widespread. So I crammed everything I could into the rolling rectangular shopping bag I’d bought in Singapore’s Chinatown for $12. Even got the bulk of my combo backpack\rolling suitcase in there, after zipping off the smaller backpack from it to hold what I’d need for two weeks in Japan. Actually, it doesn't roll now. Indian Airlines owes me - since the flight to Delhi in late September. Ah, light travel – a skill I’d honed well for half a year. The perky uniformed young lady brought out a form and asked me where the shipment was going and when I said, "I don’t know," she and her co-worker stood silently smiling. I thought I’d brought my Japanese info from America but I hadn’t been able to find it. But I knew the name – Rinsoin in Yaizu, Sakamoto district as I remembered. Maybe it's 1400 Sakamoto. The abbot’s name – Hoitsu Suzuki. While they checked their Japan-wide address book, I went off to the ATM way down at the other end of the third floor. When I returned, yen bills in hand, they had the form all filled except for my name. They’d even called the temple so now the Suzukis knew I was coming. I’d wanted to call them myself but, oh well, they’re used to visitors. And now I had Rinsoin’s phone number.

On the way to the train I passed through the new corridors and echoing vast chambers. Narita is one of the less impressive big city airports, but it was much improved from ten years before when they still had only one big room with no seats and, I believe, only one runway. Now there were two terminals. I wished I’d flown into the new Osaka International which I hear was voted by some prestigious architecture group one of the ten great structures of the twentieth century. But Narita was Japan so I was happy. Narita must also be further from the city it serves than any other major world airport – it used to take three or four hours to get into Tokyo. Now there's an express train that stops at both terminals inside the airport.

I reached into the breast pocket of the tan zippered lightweight jacket that Clay had given me for my birthday the year before and which had well served me on the cool moments of this trip, pulled out the blue rail pass and opened it up to expose the inner details to the attendant who waved me on. Carefully I returned it to its rightful place, aware of its irreplacability and high value. It cost about $400 but would save me half that much as long as I hung on to it. I’ve heard of people who’d lost them the first day. Ouch. I checked my other precious items – the reading glasses in the thin gold-colored metal oval case that I’d cherished all the way from Delhi, my flat Guatemalan? cotton cum Velcro money and passport pouch tied to my belt and hanging inside my pants, pen and small notebook in shirt pocket.

The train pulled out of its airport cave and swiftly entered the last hour of daylight. In regal comfort I watched the factories, houses, roads, and farmland whoosh by as we headed on to Shinjuku, the first of two stops. A woman with a cart came down the isle and I bought some squid and sake. The dark business suited man next to me nodded in sleep. I retrieved a pocket Japanese language book I’d bought at the Singapore Airport and reviewed vocabulary and phrases from the point I'd left off up in the sky. I took out my notebook and reviewed the info on where I was headed.

After changing to another line at cavernous bustling Shinjuku Station, the doors opened at Kokubunji Station, so named for nearby Kokubun temple. Cold, cold, cold. Nippy, invigorating. Street not too big - mainly memory presents waves of Japanese people walking by in the nightness. There were shiny cars and taxis and bicycles too but not too much for the narrow streets that ran off here and there from the main two lane one before me. Seeming to lean in from all sides were low rise buildings sporting brilliantly glittering and colorful lit signs at every level - say up to ten stories. All I knew was that I was looking for a guy named Hiro who ran a bar named Horagai near this station. I realized for the first time that finding this place was going to be no easy task. I’d had a simple unquestioned image of a place across the street from the station which the first person I asked would point to and with a sign I could read. It was more of a haystack than that. Which of all these streets jutting this way and that would it be, and on which floor – some buildings had a dozen bars with a dozen signs. It could be blocks away. Was I even on the correct side of the station? I realized my task was like looking for a noodle in a dumpster. So how could I narrow it down? I reviewed the facts I knew, the relevant and irrelevant history.

I’d met a Japanese hippie of my age name Nado San in Veranasi. He was traveling with his son of twenty. They didn’t speak much English so we spoke in Japanese. After we’d talked a while I asked Nado if, by chance, he knew Nanao Sakaki who is sort of the godfather of Japanese hippies. "Ah! Yes!" he replied with enthusiasm, "He is my dai sempai!" [great senior – like a revered older brother in some fraternity or school or group] It turned out that Nado and I had other friends, or people whose names we at least knew, in common, such as Sogyu in Kyoto who I’d been told could lead me to Nanao. But Nado said that all I’d have to do is go to Horagai, an old hippie bar started in the sixties and ask Hiro, founder and owner, how to get hold of Nanao. He said it was near Kokubunji Station. That sounded like a good way to start off Japan. I stared into the sign-cluttered streets.

Of course, if I failed to find it after a while I could say, go back to the station and ask them to look it up in the phone book, but that's a little harder to do in Japan than in America - they tend to number buildings chronologically rather than according to location and streets don't always seem to have names. Sometimes addresses seem more like directions (as in "would you please give me directions to Horagai?"), I always feel like it's all jumbled but they get where they want to go and so do I. Usually.

I walked down to the street and started eyeing people as they passed. I’d heard from friends that Japan had changed since I lived there, that since the economic bubble burst the young people exhibited more individual expression and less conformity. That seemed to be true on this street too – still a pretty conservative, quiet, crowd with a lot of black clothes and short black hair but more colors and variety in the way they dressed, more originality and variety in hair styles, and, I was to learn, they were more open. I’d noticed this in the students I’d met in America in recent years as well. They were more open and also they spoke much better English that I had encountered when I’d lived there from ’88 to ’92. I also realized that there seemed, at least in this cross-section of the population, to be fewer traditional older folks. Made sense. Disappearing like WWII vets. Will there some day be none to remind us of their much-to-cherish past? I stopped a handful of young people who looked to be in their twenties and asked if they knew of Horagai. None of them knew, but I was just as interested in checking them out. A couple of them did answer in pretty good English. They seemed not as intimidated by a Westerner as in the past – less shy. I don’t shy away from first impressions. These sorts of sociological observations are often best made at the first of a trip. Soon I’ll forget that they’re Japanese and I’m American and the basic similarity of people deeper down and uniqueness of each person will dominate the cultural distinctions. After a while, were all just folks. That may be why a lot of good travel writing is said to be done by people who go to a country for a couple of weeks.

I took off my small backpack and got my one sweater out, a black one of medium thickness, and put it on and zipped my jacket up over it. My ears were cold. My hands were cold. Enough sociology, meteorology prevailed. I looked at the passersby with a new intent. I decided I should watch out for someone older who was the hippest I could find. Ah, a Grateful Dead sweatshirt – no, too stylish. And then a guy with slightly long hair and a heavy jacket came by and I begged his pardon. "Excuse me," I said - in Japanese of course, "but do you know of a bar in this neighborhood named Horagai?"

"Horagai?!" he answered with enthusiasm, "I’m forty-three years old and I’ve been going there since I was sixteen!"

He took me off with him down the street telling me what a great place it was and all the interesting people he’d met there through the years. He led me about four short blocks away into the catacomb of streets and stopped at a door on a side-street with a tiny unlit sign and said he’d love to come in with me but had a date to keep. I opened the door and walked up a dark stairway to enter a small dark establishment with old wooden tables and chairs and a casually dressed man around my age behind the bar washing glasses in a sink. There was no one else. I took a stool and we exchanged pleasantries which is a good word for greetings and light conversation with Japanese.

He was indeed Hiro. I told him that Nado had sent me.

"Oh, Nado San! I hear he’s back from India. He’s at home in Shikoku now but he’s coming up here for a poetry reading next month."

So we talked about people and names and places. How was Nado and how was India and about translator Shin Yoshifuku and Etsuko in Hawaii and wild man monk Ryuho Yamada terminally ill with cancer in California and Soho had died and he’d heard of translator Tanaka but didn’t know him and he knew Sogyu in Kyoto well and yes he knew where Nanao was. Nanao, a poet among other attributes, would be coming to the poetry reading too - and reading too - but I'd be gone by then. Hiro got on one of those neat, old-fashioned plump pink piggish pay phones - though he didn't have to put money in it - and made a call and soon had arranged for a friend to help me get to Nanao the next day. He offered his phone for any calls I needed to make so I called up Rinsoin and talked to Chitose, Hoitsu’s wife, and she said she’d been so surprised to get the call from the airport earlier that day to say my stuff was on the way and when will I get there. Hiro asked me where I was staying and I said wherever and he invited me to stay with him and I accepted with gratitude. I ate and drank and he made little dishes and we jabbered. I learned that horagai means conch shell.

At about seven other people started to arrive and Hiro put some blues on. He poured me shochu, clear distilled potato (or sometimes rice) spirits stronger than sake which they often call nihon-shu (Japanese sake – sake just means spirits) and he kept giving me oden to munch on – boiled salty vegetables and fish cake – and other down-home local munchies. And there was endless talk about – I can’t remember, they’re more into good feeling than information – but I have a vague memory of people and places and things and events and Bush who they thought was crazy and 911 and Iraq where they didn’t want their soldiers to go and the Japanese economy which they said was way down and poetry and books and music and movies and philosophy and anything anyone wanted to say. I ran off for an hour and a half to an internet place they told me of to check my email and see what was new in the world and it was a fascinating side-trip of Japaneseness surrounding me and I returned there were more people and there was more shochu and gnoshes.

At one o'clock Hiro closed up and refused to take any money and took me with him to his tiny little apartment. We sat at a low table on the floor and he brought out squid and rice cakes and sake and we talked till three in the morning. His girlfriend, a singer, was sleeping in the bedroom, the only other room, and he got a futon and sheets and soft fat comforter and pillow out of a closet and made me a bed.

As we’d agreed, he awoke me at eight in the morning and we drank green tea and then he walked me to the train station. On the way we had coffee and croissants and finally I could pay for something. At the station he wrote out a schedule for me in kanji, Japanese Chinese characters, and romanji, English letters, with a bunch of different trains and one bus I had to take to get to the south end of the Izu peninsula. It wasn't that far away and it was not much out of the way to Yaizu and the Suzukis. But there were a number of transfers to be made and it would take all day. I thanked him profusely for his generosity and kindness and went off to the platform, buying a copy of the Japan Times on the way. All day I rode trains and read the paper and studied Japanese and talked to people and ate and drank tea and looked out the windows and walked through stations asking directions to the next platform. I’d go to Japan just to do that.

A friend of my mother’s just got back from being in Tokyo and she said that people were rude and she kissed the ground when she returned but I don’t experience it that way at all. Morning rush hour in Tokyo is famous for the crushing crowds and people are sleepy and impersonal and push up against each other a lot, but they are perfectly at home in a crowd and if one goes with the flow one can experience people being together in a quite harmonious flow that does include getting squeezed and pressed along. Like being in heavy traffic, one has to watch where one is going and weave in and out and stand up a lot on the local trains, but these people are pros at it and I quite enjoy being there with them in such sardinish conveyance in which I loose myself.

From Shinjuku station there was the other side of Japan rail travel – the joy of the Shinkansen, the bullet train – and the joy of having a rail pass which covers getting a designated seat in a reserved car. And on the Hikari Super Express I smoothly flew out of the megatropolis south on the slightly above the elevated unimpeded tracks looking down on countryside and villages. I like the slower trains too and just at dark one of them dropped me off at a seaside hot springs resort town where I bought a telephone card, slipped it in the phone's slot - much more convenient than having to dial all those numbers with other countries phone cards - and placed a call to a number Hiro had given me. I’d be on the next bus to the end of the peninsula and a man named Kenji at the other end told me which stop to get off at. I bought a glass of sake at the station and drank it while sitting on a bench waiting for the bus. The driver told me when to get off and there was long-haired friendly Kenji waiting. I got in his van and he drove me into the hilly countryside past orchards and woodlands up a narrow drive with occasional mirrors to aid in seeing approaching cars. He took a driveway into an estate with lovely landscaped gardens to an old wooden building which he said was a pig barn. He called out, opened the door, and there was Nanao standing on an earthen floor, long gray beard, bright eyes, and a big welcome. He had no phone and no idea I was coming. He smiled broadly.

[sacred-stanning]

Chapter 14 Part 13: Something is rotten in Grado

After Lyon disappears from in front of Ephraim, this soldier comes along and announces that they've found someone who was being held in a jail cell in the castle.

Ephraim goes to meet the prisoner, and it's some hapless guy named Knoll.

"Perhaps...has my execution date been moved up?"

Once Ephraim has made it clear that he's not with Grado, and he's not here to carry out Knoll's execution, Knoll tells them about what he knows of the changes in Grado.

He starts by saying that the story starts one year ago, with the death of the emperor. (Japanese language note: He uses this word "hougyo" which is a very formal word specifically referring to the passing of an emperor or some other royalty.)

After he says that, Ephraim interrupts and says, "But one year ago would be before the whole invasion of Renais even began!" His confusion is understandable given that he also, you know, just saw the emperor in the throne room.

Knoll assures Ephraim that he's aware that the timeline doesn't sound right, but that he'll explain.

He talks about how shocked Lyon was by his father's death, and how he was determined to bring his father back.

Knoll reminds Ephraim about how Grado's sacred stone was the one that was used to trap the demon king long ago.

He continues with how Lyon dove into his work, practically without food or sleep, and eventually succeeded in creating a second stone from Grado's sacred stone...

The scene then flashes back to Lyon meeting Knoll and telling him that he has good news: he has revived his father!

Knoll is shocked, and asks how it's possible, and Lyon explains that the Demon Stone that he has has even more power than the Sacred Stone.

After the flashback, Knoll continues to talk and explains how the emperor invaded Renais according to Lyon's wishes.

He also tells how anyone who opposed what was happening got in trouble, and that Lyon even killed father McGregor (his and Ephraim's former teacher, who has been mentioned in other cutscenes) with his own hand.

Lyon then reveals that there are 2 sacred weapon that are still in the castle. One is Gleipnir (which he refers to as a "maden", which I guess could be interpreted as "demon text", or "dark text", or something like that), and the other is the "black axe" Garm.

Ephraim sadly remembers how he learned about these sacred weapons from Lyon back in the day...

And we get them! Like the other sacred weapons that will come later, both are S rank weapons. I don't have anyone with S rank in either dark tomes or axes right now, so I can't actually use these yet.

Gleipnir is a very heavy (20 weight!) tome with 23 might. It also adds +5 skill to whoever is wielding it.

Garm is a 20 might axe that adds +5 speed to whoever wields it.

I don't remember Gleipnir being very useful. It's super heavy, and most magic users don't have much con, so it's guaranteed to slow the user down. There also just aren't that many units who can use dark magic, and the dark magic class line includes the summoner class. Given how useful the summoner "summon" ability is, I rarely even have dark magic users attack in this game once I've promoted them to summoner.

Garm is a bit better. It's only 13 weight, which is less than some basic axes like hammers for instance. And there are plenty of axe users with decent con. And the +5 speed is actually pretty useful too.

After getting the sacred weapons, a Frelian messenger arrives.

Eirika and Innes are both in Jehana now, and they are being attacked by two of Grado's generals, "tiger eye stone" (which is called that in English too) and "moon long stone" (which appears to be just "moon stone" in English). These are the nicknames for Caellach and Valter.

Seth worries that they won't make it in time, and Ephraim declares that they will make it, because as Eirika's brother, he won't allow her to die!

And we're off to Jehana!

Next time: Eirika's back!

[darkestrellar]

What song does the muse think fits the mun and why?

Does the mun what to learn a different language? 

Muse speaks about the mun

19. What song does the muse think fits the mun and why?

"I JUST did this one! Do I really have to do it again? Look, I'm gonna cheat and pick one they've thought voices how they feel sometimes. I won't say it's one that applies all the time, but it's been relevant to what they do here. This one. Neither of us like explaining stuff like this very much, to be honest, but if you want a hint, I'm one of the pieces, or the children that they hide. Use your imagination and speculate up all the rest yourself."

20. Does the mun want to learn a different language? 

"They're trying to learn Japanese, actually. They've been at it for the last... how many years now? Whatever, it's irrelevant, just know that it's real slow progress because they keep going ages without practising. At least they've got the hiragana and the katakana burned into their memory from way back when... even if they're still basically illiterate."

"They also have idle daydreams about learning Hungarian and Chinese. It's relevant to their family history. Who knows, maybe by the time they're forty they'll have a basic grasp of one or the other..."

[ryoumensan]

i'm NOT keeping this in the replies because i would then turn it into a mess of an infodump so i'm taking my replies and adding MORE!!!! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/66XDBkuHnbgTuEzCMikKDC

that's my playlist i've compiled of my personal favorites, most of these songs should be beginner friendly. it's got a good mix of genres. as for producers, i suggest hachi, pinnochio-p, neru, kanaria, and kemu for some good starters and some of my personal favorites (pinnochio-p and neru actually got me into japanese vocaloid)

but if you're more fond of english language producers i suggest circus-p and kira, since they seem to be quite popular, have been producing for a while, and put out great music. i also suggest ghost and pals, i'm not big on their music as much as i used to but again, they're super popular, has been making music for a while, and put out some good songs especially their newer pieces 🙏

also keep in mind not every vocaloid song you're going to find is going to have voices in the vocaloid program. utau, cevio (kafu specifically), and synthesizer v voicebanks tend to be very popular too, and synthesizer v is more popular than ever because kasane teto (originally for the utau program) got ported there.

if you're looking for hatsune miku specifically, i've got some producers. kairiki bear, mitchie m, and kikuo all have a very different style but the one thing they have in common is their primary use of hatsune miku. they're great artists to start exploring early because they're quite different and also because they've made so many songs so you can see how their music's changed since they started. they're all a bit experimental (mitchie m you could say less, but he still plays around with things quite a bit) with their work but in quite different ways, and they have large (or large enough) repertoires to get to know their styles very well

if you want classics i say ryo, livetune, deco*27 (basically vocaloid's taylor swift), wonderful*opportunity, and hajiochi-p.

i really recommend you listen to powapowa-p/siinamota, wowaka, and samfree's music because sadly they're no longer with us and their works are beautiful. powapowa and wowaka lean more on the sad side but samfree is just pure fun.

and the thing is there's so many genres people work with! want metal? utsu-p. jazz? oster project. electronic? giga-p!!!

i could go on forever but the entire thing with vocaloid is that you can take people's recommendations and then proceed to fuck around and find out what you like.

I really want to get into vocaloid music but gave no clue where to start!!

Does anyone have any good playlist/album recommendations???