#I have never enjoyed an AU or an analysis post exploring some possibility for an alternate redemption arc

[bonefall]

I know you're keeping Clear Sky as an antagonist (and he's very compelling as one in your rewrite), but I'm curious: if you absolutely had to give him a redemption arc, how would you go about it? (Besides not fridging his sister and wives, of course.)

If I was forced to give Clear Sky a redemption arc I'd slip a femur right out of my legmeat and beat someone to death with it

I'd never write a redemption arc for him, ever. It would be a completely different character.

Clear Sky's redemption arc is not even an idea worth considering; This an extremely consistent abusive family member who drives the entire plot, a predator who will leverage the love people have for him, whose defining characteristic is that he dresses up his megalomania as "Just Trying to Protect Everyone"

And I'd give that up?! for what?

I'd rewrite the whole plot, JUST like how the writers did with TWO born evil foreigner villains so their story wouldn't get boring, so I could prove the he could be a good boy if he wanted to? WHY?

It's doing the same thing the Erins do, totally uninterested in the story of his victims to write yet another plot centered around the pain of an abusive man.

Elder Bones is disappointed in you if you even think about it, actually. I am holding the femurbone in my hand as we speak. I'm gonna GETCHA

[thefrogdalorian]

The Best of Both Worlds - Chapter Four

Din Djarin x Female Reader Modern!AU

❁ Series Masterlist ❁ My Masterlist ❁ Read on AO3 ❁

Word Count: 6822 Rating: General Summary: Despite his reservations and against his better instincts, Din heads to a Star Wars convention that he was invited to. Although he fears that his cover will be blown, curiosity gets the best of Din and he can't resist attending a panel. But Din doesn't exactly find the answers he was looking for. Instead, he finds something far more precious. Something that he would never have expected... Content Warnings:  None! Author's Note: This was fun to write. Middle pic is one I took in a panel at SWC last year, just to set the scene. Din was down bad from minute one and honestly it's very cute to see him so flustered 🥺!! Also adorable how similar their experiences/reactions to the convention were! Anyway, hope you enjoyed! I can't wait to post the next chapter, hopefully coming on Sunday :) Thanks again @suresnips for being my beta! I appreciate your help so, so much ♡

4. Curiosity Killed The Cat (Din's POV)

To an observer with no background knowledge of Star Wars or its fandom, it would appear that most of The Mandalorian panel's attendees were merely a little bored. However, someone more familiar with the Star Wars world may have realised that the audience had been expecting something more profound. Maybe they had been hoping for some character analysis of the titular character or to participate in a larger discussion on how the show slotted into the wider Star Wars galaxy during this talk. After all, the panel was entitled: ‘The Man behind the Mandalorian: Exploring the Identity of the Galaxy’s Best Bounty Hunter.’

Instead, anyone who had sought out this panel surely would have found themselves bitterly disappointed, as the host had reduced The Mandalorian to nothing more than its violent action scenes. The host appeared to have a fixation on the fighting which occasionally took place in the show, at the expense of all other elements. 

Perhaps that was the reason why the audience, on the whole, looked so incredibly bored. Even one attendee, wearing an almost unbelievably realistic cosplay, seemed more entertained by the seams of his gloves than anything the panel had to say about the show he was surely such a huge fan of. His helmet was bowed towards the floor as his leg bounced up and down repeatedly, a sure sign of his restlessness and his keenness for this panel to be over so he could continue his day at the convention.

To outside observers – whether they knew everything about Star Wars or nothing at all – the man dressed in full Mandalorian armour was possibly one of the biggest fans of the show. After all, he had replicated Mando's costume in painstaking detail; it must have taken an unbelievable amount of effort and hours, borne out of the intense love for The Mandalorian that he surely had.

But Din Djarin was not a cosplayer… his armour was not a costume.

The suit that he wore had not been crafted due to his undying love for Star Wars, it had been cast in Beskar, according to ancient traditions, at a forge by the golden-haired woman who served as The Armorer for his tribe.

It felt strange to Din for him to sit there and be spoken about as if he was not present. Of course, to everyone else in the room, the notion of Mando being in the room with them seemed as likely to happen as it was for pigs everywhere to spontaneously begin flying. To all other attendees, Din had just cosplayed as his favourite character. Everyone else in the room did not have the faintest idea that they were in fact in the presence of the man behind the character they all loved. While the assembled group enjoyed Mando enough that they had made their way to the far corner of the enormous convention hall for this panel, they didn’t know that sitting amongst them was the man who portrayed the Star Wars character that they loved so much. Nor that the armour that they had seen so many times on their screens was right there, beside them. Close enough to touch, if they wanted to.

The thought of being amongst so many super fans almost dissuaded Din from attending this panel, which had caught his eye. After deciding to attend the convention the previous evening, Din had used his laptop to search through the events for the day as he lounged on the couch in his cottage, Grogu playing on the rug beside him. This particular panel had instantly stuck out to him, above all others that were advertised. Din had always harboured a curiosity about what The Mandalorian meant to people. But it was perhaps a more selfish interest that had motivated him to seek out this panel in particular: Din wanted to know whether the fans had any idea about his identity.

Din had intended to sneak in and hover at the back and watch the panel from there before exiting as discreetly as he entered. But things had not gone according to that plan at all. Din had never attended an event as enormous as this and had no idea how it worked – he felt out of his depth. It was a feeling he was unused to and uncomfortable with, as Din always liked to be in control and have a plan. 

Ironically, it was the very show which was being discussed that had first put cracks into his careful, considered nature. Relinquishing some of that control in signing up to be The Mandalorian had been difficult for Din, as he was required to be on set for a strict filming schedule in a brand new country. The stability and money that had been offered was something Din had struggled to refuse, especially given the fact he now had an extra mouth to feed.

But as Din sat there in the room where the panel was being held, he knew that coming here had all been one gigantic, terrible mistake. It was a stupid, nonsensical idea. It had been nothing more than a rush of blood to the head, Din just hoped he would be able to leave again having remained undetected. There was an old saying that Din had heard many times: ‘Curiosity killed the cat.’ Now, Din felt as though he finally understood that phrase. 

Din was furious with himself that he had put himself in the position to hear such harsh words about the show after he had tried so hard to keep himself away from all of the attention portraying a lead role in a Star Wars show brought. For a man who was usually so calculating and meticulous in his actions, this had surely been the most foolish decision that Din had made in a long while.

Even worse than Din's decision to attend this panel, he mused, was his decision to attend the convention wearing his armour. Being surrounded by superfans made Din keenly aware that if any one of their gaze were to linger long enough, perhaps they would realise that his armour was not merely a highly impressive cosplay. So in a bid to distract himself and calm his racing heart, he began fiddling with the stitching of the tips of his mustard-coloured gloves. It was a sign of the acute anxiety that he was currently enduring, but to anyone watching, his fidgeting probably indicated sheer boredom. 

Din mentally kicked himself for the ridiculous decision to attend the convention wearing his armour. The choice had made the entire event even more anxiety-inducing than it needed to be. Din lamented the fact that he could have come here with Grogu and simply blended in with the thousands of other families bringing their children to the convention for a fun-filled day. True, it would have still been an overwhelming experience and Grogu may have struggled with the crowds, but at least then, Din wouldn’t have had to constantly fear his identity being exposed when someone realised that his armour was a little too screen-realistic to be a simple cosplay. 

Indeed, it was the skill and dedication of other fans that had initially eased Din’s fears of detection when he had walked into the crowded hall and began moving with the sea of people to an unknown destination up ahead. Even if he wanted to choose his path, there was no way to; Din was lost amongst the endless sea of people. As he travelled down the main hall, his mouth felt dry underneath the helmet and his heart thundered in his chest as he had no idea where he was going. But once he had made it to the side and stopped briefly to orient himself, Din realised just how many fans there were cosplaying as Mando.

Din had been stunned by the many amazing cosplays he had seen. After collecting his nerves, he slowly began to move down the hall and gave a polite nod of the head to any other Mando cosplayers he passed. Most returned the gesture, in shared acknowledgement of each other’s craftsmanship. Progress had been slow, though, as Din was constantly asked for photos. Even worse were those that did not ask, but merely threw themselves at him. Some even touched Din without asking first, a gesture which made him flinch. It annoyed Din, just because he was dressed in cosplay did not mean he gave consent to be touched whenever others pleased.

Despite the host of incredible cosplays he had passed, Din knew that none of them truly lived up to his armour, his was a cut above the rest. There was no way to perfectly replicate real Beskar, no matter the incredible lengths that some of the cosplayers had gone to. He just hoped that no one would question it too deeply.

After a few minutes of walking around the main hall, Din had decided he needed some respite from the endless photo requests and eyes that Din felt watching his every move. Din found a quiet corner of the hall with some near deserted toilets and headed for them. He sealed himself into the stall and removed his helmet, grimacing at the way his hair clung to his forehead thanks to how much he had perspired due to his nerves. The helmet was climate-controlled, so the heat of the building should not have been an issue. It could not legislate for Din's emotions, though.

Each time Din moved to leave, he found that the anxiety he had felt while walking through the hall reared its ugly head. He kept telling himself that he only needed a few more minutes to regain his composure. That was until Din checked his watch and realised it was not long until the panel began.

So Din had unintentionally spent most of the time before the panel hiding away in the toilet stall in an attempt to repair his shattered nerves. At that point, it would have been so easy for Din to leave. But he knew that the curious part of his mind would never forgive him if he did not at least check out the panel. It was perhaps the best opportunity he was going to get to discover what people thought of the show, whether they liked the character and, most importantly, whether they had any theories on who The Mandalorian was.

Yet, now he was actually sitting there in the panel, he cursed not only himself for not leaving earlier, but Din also cursed Peli Motto for giving him such a stupid idea to attend this convention in the first place.

Many times throughout the panel – which was headed by a man called Jeff who wore a backwards baseball cap, despite looking as though he should have grown out of such a fashion choice several decades ago – Din had considered getting up and walking out. He had arrived pretty late as it was, only a minute or two before it began, as he hoped to sneak in and take an unassuming spot at the back. But the seats had all been filled back there, and an overly enthusiastic volunteer had guided him to a spare aisle seat about fifteen rows back from the front. 

Luckily, almost everyone had been too wrapped up in watching Jeff and his cronies fumble around with technology to pay him much mind, except for the people on his row who were in awe of his ‘cosplay.’ It would have been so easy for Din to just up and leave since he was on the end of the aisle. But he was fearful that it would have drawn too much attention to him. Thus far, he had pretty much gone undetected. Jeff had not bothered to look at the audience too clearly to notice the incredibly realistic Mandalorian that was currently in the room with him. Which was unsurprising, given how self-centred the man appeared to be. The panel really ought to have been retitled ‘The Jeff Show.’

Most of the panel had been pretty inoffensive, if a little dull. Din silently objected to the way that Jeff had reduced the show down to only its violent components, rather than engaging with it on a deeper level. At times, Jeff was so close to understanding what the action scenes demonstrated about Mando’s character and the wider politics of the galaxy. But then he would just make another crass comment about how good Mando was at killing and all progress would grind to a halt.

But then Jeff opened up the floor and invited the audience to step forward to the mic so he could hear comments from the fans. Din leaned forward in his seat, excited to finally fulfil the purpose of attending this panel and hear what others thought of the show that he had poured so much of his heart and soul into. But if Din was expecting to hear positive feedback, he was about to be bitterly disappointed.

Frustratingly, most speakers took their opportunity to address the audience to do nothing more than complain about never seeing Mando’s face or knowing his name. It was no surprise to Din that people felt that way, even if he was a little disappointed that people were so fixated on those two elements. Din knew it had been a concern at the beginning of the show, during early production meetings. But thanks to some input from Din himself, the character of Mando now felt more fleshed-out than he had when Din had joined the project.

Plus, Din felt as though viewers could understand enough about the character and his intentions without needing to know his name or see his face. It was a belief that was being challenged by the attitudes of the attendees of this panel. But Din was not too upset. After all, he was more concerned with whether any fans had any viable theories about his identity. Mercifully, none of them appeared to have picked up on any rumours. When the show's creators told him that no one suspected that Din Djarin was The Mandalorian, it appeared they had been telling the truth.

Fortunately, despite the name of the panel, there had been no speculation on Mando's true identity thus far. Despite the panel's title hinting that the man behind the Mandalorian would be discussed, that had so far not transpired. Things appeared to be looking up for Din; not only had there been no speculation as to his identity, but none of the audience had noticed the incredibly realistic cosplay that was sitting amongst them.

That was until a young man with brown hair, dressed in a Mando t-shirt and jeans stood up and moved towards the mic. His comments started positively enough, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love the show and all,” The man confessed, and Din smiled slightly underneath the helmet. However, he continued: “But I just feel like we don’t know that much about Mando. It’s as if we, as an audience, are being held back from connecting with him fully because of some diva’s selfish demands to keep his identity hidden!” The man exclaimed.

Din felt his blood run cold. He swallowed thickly, feeling bile rise in his throat. He should have known that this was a bad idea, that coming here was a mistake. But the man was not quite finished, yet:

“Seriously, the guy who plays him must be such an asshole. Imagine having to work with that guy!” He ended his tirade, to a smattering of laughter and applause from the room.

The accusations that he had thrown Din’s way, about him being an asshole or a diva – a charge that in particular made no sense, as surely a diva would want their name and face to be plastered everywhere – had been like a punch to the gut. And Din had endured many of them throughout his life to understand exactly how painful they could be.

Far from the kind words he had been expecting, instead, Din had been forced to listen to various people slander both the show and him as a person. Din’s heart ached as he heard the charges being levelled against him; it was one thing to criticise the show but to call his character into question caused a whole other level of pain. If they only knew why he had to keep his identity a secret, they would never throw such cruel accusations his way. 

Din wasn’t naive. He knew that by signing up for a Star Wars show, his life would change forever. It was not a decision that he had taken lightly. Especially given that his way of life was opposed to everything the mega-corporation that now owned Star Wars stood for. But it presented an opportunity to not only secure a consistent income and better life for himself and his son but also to showcase his culture to the world. It was an opportunity that Din really could not turn down. However, just because Din was prepared for his life to change in some ways did not mean that he could ever be prepared to be attacked on such a personal level.

At that moment, Din almost tossed aside his priority to remain hidden and not draw attention to himself as he debated walking out of the panel. After hearing such personal attacks against his character, Din was so close to just upping and leaving that room. He had heard enough. If there was even one more vaguely harsh word tossed Din’s way, it might have tipped him over the edge.

Despite the tough exterior that Din Djarin projected to the rest of the world, he was at his core, a fairly sensitive man. He knew that the things that he had already heard about himself would take him a long time to come to terms with. He couldn’t bear to hear any further unkindness.

Din planted his feet firmly on the floor and began to lean forward, preparing himself to leave. It seemed that in a war between his mind and body, his body had won… his subconscious was going to make him stand up and storm out of that room, against all rational thought.

In all of his anguish, Din had missed the girl who had stormed forward to the microphone, dodging limbs and hurdling bags, to stand before the room.

But then she began speaking and her presence became impossible to ignore any longer; her voice was shaky with nerves but there was absolute conviction and certainty behind every word.

And Din was frozen to the spot, utterly transfixed. Suddenly all thoughts of leaving exited his mind.

“I think tying Mando’s identity to his name and face is a pretty narrow way of viewing how we can understand who someone truly is inside and what exactly motivates them. I mean, I think I’ve connected to his character pretty well without ever seeing his face or knowing his real name. That’s because Mando has proved time and time again what kind of man he is,” The girl argued and Din found himself instantly relaxing and leaning back in his seat. “The way he has risked his life multiple times to rid the galaxy of threats and evil shows that he is committed to securing a brighter future, even if he is not around to see it. This man is willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Sure, we don’t know his name or face or a lot about his origins, but I think to us, that should prove that he has nothing but noble intentions. That human side of the man beneath all of the armour allows us to connect to him on a far deeper level than just seeing a face and learning a name ever could,” She finished and Din shut his eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. Unbeknownst to her, the kind words she spoke had soothed Din's soul. She had begun to heal the wounds that were opened by the previous speakers' harsh words.

Din noticed how nervous the girl seemed and the way she fiddled with her hands as she stood at the microphone. He marvelled at the way she had been up like a shot to defend the character, though. Plus, judging by how eloquently she spoke, Din assumed she was used to this. 

Din sat there and listened with a small smile on his face, shaking his head slightly in awe as she launched into a passionate defence of the character. Unlike all previous speakers, the girl understood just as Din did, that seeing someone’s true intentions and the qualities they possessed mattered more than knowing their name or what they looked like.

Suddenly, Din began to feel a lot lighter. People did care, people did love and appreciate the show and they understood Mando as a character. He was pleased by that fact. Din knew he would stay now. Even if the next speakers reverted to being less than complimentary, the girl had bolstered his confidence and soothed his bruised ego enough to stick around.

Din expected that the girl would retreat to her seat after giving her opinion. The awful man who ran the panel certainly seemed to think that was the case as he met her passionate speech with empty platitudes, which Din thought bordered on the patronising. 

However, what she did next caused Din’s jaw to drop beneath his helmet. The girl did not return to her seat. Instead, she spoke up and continued to defend not only the character of Mando but also the man behind him.

Din listened in awe as she started speaking up to defend the man who was, unbeknownst to her, sitting only a few feet away.

“Also, I know no one outside this room will probably ever hear what had been said at this panel, but I think attacking the character of the man who portrays Mando, simply because he wants privacy, is unfair. I think we should always talk about people, online and publicly, as though they can read or hear what we say,” She argued and Din almost snorted at that assertion.. if only she knew that he was right here. “We don’t know why he won’t say who he is, but I trust that he has his reasons. Even then, he doesn’t need to have a good reason. Everyone is entitled to their privacy for the simple fact of wanting to be private,” The girl appealed to her fellow fans. Din felt tears pool in his eyes at her beautiful sentiment. Until she came along, he had been about to leave, with his last memories of the panel, believing that everyone hated him and thought he made the show worse. Now, though, he was listening to a passionate, eloquent defence of his character.

The girl finished off her speech with a comment about the show. She explained how Mando respected everyone that he encountered in the galaxy and left the places he visited better than he found them. She implored her fellow fans to take the same lessons from the show, rather than focus on the violent, action scenes. When she was finished, Din wanted to stand up and applaud her, before rushing up to her and thanking her from the bottom of his heart.

It was clear that she understood exactly what The Mandalorian was truly about. The show was, at its core, about respecting others and learning to peacefully coexist. Mando was fighting for a better galaxy, a kinder galaxy and once people understood that, they would understand how important it was to respect the actor behind the Mandalorian.

Din had an overwhelming urge to make his way over to this stranger, to thank her from the bottom of his heart for standing up for Mando so passionately. He knew, given his cosplay, that he could easily pass as an enthusiastic fan. 

Then Din remembered who he was and settled on the upsetting reality that he couldn’t take such a reckless action.

If he spoke, she might recognise that the voice beneath the helmet was the very same one that she had no doubt seen on screen so many times. It was too great a risk and, much as Din would have loved to thank her, it now seemed as though their paths would diverge without her ever knowing how truly thankful Din was for her words and how much they had done to boost his confidence. Ultimately, although it was sad, Din knew that it was how things had to be. The risk was too great.

Although for the short time remaining that Din would remain in her orbit, Din was determined to commit every inch of her to memory, so that he would never forget the woman who had unknowingly done so much to him. Din was determined to impress her on his memory on the off-chance that their paths would one day cross in a scenario where he might be able to get to know her. After all, Din was a man, and he was not immune to the fact that she was a beautiful woman, perhaps several years younger than him. But her beauty was not just skin-deep; it was to be found in the way she spoke so eloquently. How she addressed the room with such maturity and wisdom. To Din, it appeared as though she had lived several lifetimes.

Now she had sat back in her seat, Din could only appreciate the back of her profile, though he had noticed the cute slope of her nose and her plush lips as she made her way back to her seat. Din focused on her hair. It looked so soft that he wondered how it would feel against his skin as he nuzzled into her scalp and pressed a soft kiss of gratitude there.

The T-visor had its perks, as no one else in the room was any the wiser to how intently Din had affixed his gaze to her, much like Mando did when tracking a bounty. Din found that, even if he had wanted to, he could not look away from her. He watched quietly as her friend whispered excitedly to her. She was only a couple of rows in front of him and was almost close enough to reach out and touch. 

Perhaps that was how Din could make her feel his appreciation in a low-risk way, through a simple touch. He wondered whether he could put his hand on her shoulder on the way out and convey his thanks with a nod of his helmet the way Mando would. But that was another fantasy that would not come to pass, as Din knew that when this panel was reaching its conclusion, he had to make straight for the doors before he got swamped by any of the enthusiastic fans in here. He had seen the way throughout the panel that the number of people who had spotted his incredible ‘costume’ had increased. Din knew he was drawing many eyes.

Despite the overwhelming urge inside him to thank the girl, Din knew that he had to keep moving through the convention centre. Cutting a dedicated path, scything his way through the crowd like the methodic warrior he was.

So, when Jeff started wrapping up the panel, Din sprang straight to his feet and strode towards the doors, before a single soul could say anything. There were a few excited faces and murmured gasps as he strode purposefully towards the exit, but fortunately, no one was quick enough to stand up and thwart his quick exit. 

Bizarrely, even though he was unused to being around so many people and had initially found the experience overwhelming, Din found that after the panel, he felt far more comfortable in the larger, crowded spaces at the convention. In a small room, there was no privacy. Anyone and everyone could look at him, their steely, judgmental eyes burrowing into him. They know… he had been constantly thinking to himself throughout the panel. But of course, no one was any the wiser to his true identity. Even if the panel's attendees thought that the costume was realistic, the idea of the real Mandalorian attending a convention dressed as himself was too far-fetched to be real. Even the most imaginative fanfic writer could not come up with such a ridiculous plot.

So, Din found himself physically relaxing as he made his way back to the main hallway. His shoulders were less tense, his jaw unclenched. After he left the panel, Din had not intended to linger much longer. But as he found himself wandering around, stopping for more and more photos with eager fans who were so blown away by his ‘cosplay,' Din discovered that he began to almost enjoy the attention.

There were so many children here too. Some were not much older than Grogu. Din wished he had brought Grogu with him, but he knew that the convention would not have been a welcome environment for his precious son, especially given his nervous disposition. But Din knew with absolute certainty that Grogu was having a pleasant afternoon, he was being looked after by an elderly man named Kuiil, who was a babysitter that the studio had initially put him in touch with. Kuiil was always dependable and happy to help Din out whenever he needed him to take care of Grogu, no matter how little notice Din gave.

Din was gradually growing in confidence as he strode through the main hall of the convention centre. Now, when fans asked for photos or even launched themselves at him without asking first, Din found that he was less nervous. To every request, Din just nodded. When people thanked him, although they didn’t always – Din occasionally wished he could speak to remind them to mind their manners – Din made the same gesture. A simple nod said so much, without saying anything at all.

Din would never speak while wearing his armour. To most, it perhaps came across as an incredible amount of dedication to cosplaying the character – Mando, after all, was a man of few words. But the reality was that Din knew his voice could blow his cover. 

Ordinarily, Din rarely feared his voice would give him away as The Mandalorian, as his Mando voice was distorted somewhat by the helmet, so the difference was sufficient enough for Din to feel confident that no one would realise he was Mando. But surrounded by superfans at this convention, in the very helmet that would distort his voice to make him unmistakably sound the same as Mando, Din deemed it far too great a risk to take. 

After stopping for photos and fistbumps with enthusiastic fans of all ages, Din was finally ready to make his exit, much later than he believed he would have initially. Ultimately, Din was glad he had attended the panel and not rushed off earlier in the day when he had felt so overwhelmed that he had been driven to hide in the toilet. Although the panel had not been an entirely positive experience, it had been worth it just because of her.

And to think, Din was so hurt after the comments some fans had made about him at the panel that he would have missed out on feeling all the love and appreciation for Mando, had it not been for that girl who took a stand and raised her voice in defence of him. Her words had allowed DIn to feel lighter, freer and as though he wanted to open himself up to the love the fans were prepared to show him. 

The day at the convention had been an amazing, eye-opening experience. One that was far out of Din’s comfort zone, something that he never would have believed he could do for himself. But now he realised that he had also stayed far longer than he had been expecting. Din wanted to get back to his son. Grogu was usually settled and happy for the first few hours, but Din knew that it would soon begin to veer into the territory where a meltdown may be more likely.

Plus, Din had finally had enough for the day. He was accustomed to wearing his armour for long periods – it was like a second skin, after all – but he hadn’t sat down, nor removed his helmet for hours. Despite his increased confidence, the fear of being discovered lingered. The fear that his ‘costume’ would be sussed out set him constantly on edge and was draining him far more than a heavy suit of armour could. 

So Din began making his way to the exit through the expansive main hallway. He almost made it through without stopping, until he noticed a massive banner with a photograph of himself on it. Din stopped for a second, looking up at it as he remembered the day that photo had been taken. It had been a nerve-wracking experience for him, he was certainly not a model, but they had needed some promo shots. So Din found himself there, posing awkwardly in front of a professional photographer who was barking orders at him and wondering when arms and hands had become such awkward, cumbersome things. Din would rather have spent an entire day throwing himself into walls without a single break before repeating the experience and had informed The Mandalorian's creative team as much. So future photoshoots were completed with a body double wearing a copy of Din’s armour. The photo on display was one of the few that was him, though.

Din stood there for a few moments, smiling proudly at it underneath his helmet before a small voice caused Din to stop reminiscing over the gigantic poster and abruptly turn on the spot to face the direction of the voice.

“Excuse me, could we take a photo with you, please?” A timid voice said. In response, Din felt every hair stand on end as he instantly recognised the person who the voice belonged to.

It was the girl from the panel, staring at him with absolute admiration and adoration. He stood open-mouthed and gawked at her for a few seconds, stunned to be in her presence once again. But then her beautiful features changed. She frowned slightly and then Din realised he had been standing there, frozen, as he stared at her in disbelief. She had taken his silence and inaction as a dismissal and almost retreated before Din snapped out of his trance and nodded quickly. He wanted to tell her how wonderful she had been at the panel, how much her words had meant to him. But everything happened so fast.

Din felt his heart rate quicken as the girl moved to stand next to him. Her arms hung by her side somewhat awkwardly, just like Din’s had in the photo on the poster that he had just been admiring. She was too nervous - or perhaps polite - to sling one around his shoulder or waist. Din wouldn’t have minded though, there was something imperceptible about her that made Din want to be drawn into her orbit. She had a magnetic presence.

Din barely remembered to turn and look up at the girl’s friend who was taking the photo, his ordinarily calm and composed mind had been catapulted off its axis by her presence. The girl went to step away, but Din raised a hand just in front of her body to stop her from moving off.

“Wait, let me… pose properly,” Din choked out, forgetting his vow of silence in a moment of recklessness. He held his breath for a few seconds, but if she recognised his voice, she did not acknowledge it. Din released a shaky breath, trying not to be frustrated with himself. After all, Din had only good intentions. Out of everyone he had taken photos with today, she deserved the best out of them all. 

“Oh, thank you!” The girl laughed and smiled appreciatively as she took her place back by Din’s side.

Din placed one hand on his belt and leaned in towards her, hoping that the picture turned out to her satisfaction. They stood there side by side, almost close enough to touch. At that moment, Din wanted nothing more than to remove his helmet and bare his face to the alluring woman who had publicly spoken so eloquently in his defence and been equally polite in their more private encounter. But even if he had wanted to, they were out of time. Their few seconds together were over. 

“Thank you! Your cosplay is amazing, by the way! It looks so realistic!” She said with a shy smile as she stepped away. “I think there’s a cosplay competition at the Twin Suns stage this afternoon, you should seriously consider entering. I’m sure you’d win!” The girl said encouragingly.

Din nodded stiffly, struck by her manners and how genuinely excited and encouraging towards others she seemed to be. Both traits mattered deeply to Din. But there were also nerves behind his suddenly restricted motions as he once again feared his cover being blown. Din supposed that it would be unsurprising if it was the same girl from the panel who had shown such a passion for the character was finally the one to connect the dots.

Despite the momentary panic caused by her comment about how realistic his costume was, Din was still amazed by how sweet she had been. The way her eyes shone with genuine excitement as she approached him and yet, she managed to maintain that respect for him that other attendees did not. So many people rushed up to Din when he was in this costume, without even stopping to ask his permission for a photo, let alone take a second to look at him or politely thank him. The fact she had thanked him and complimented him and even spoken encouraging words about his cosplay proved to Din that she was one of the politest attendees. 

Din had a few more seconds to appreciate being in the girl’s presence as the friend she was with stepped up to have a picture with him. The girl’s friend seemed more confident than her in the way she posed, she seemed to know exactly what to do. But Din was paying her no mind. Instead, he glanced at the details of her face he could see from behind the phone – complete with Mando case – that she was using to take the photo. Din noticed the spark in her eyes, the way they lit up when she looked at him. She probably didn’t realise just how much Din could see in the helmet and that he was staring directly at her, noticing the look of awe she wore on her face.

“Thank you,” The girl’s friend said with a polite nod and the two walked off.

Din stood for a moment, watching them as they went. They flicked through the photos, jumping up and down excitedly as they looked at one. They were just out of earshot, but Din could tell how excited they both seemed by the pictures they had taken together. He smiled beneath his helmet. Knowing that he could bring such joy to others was a phenomenon he had lived in blissful ignorance of for most of the time since he had been cast as The Mandalorian, the only exception being when he had visited that children’s hospital a few months previously.

Today had opened Din Djarin’s eyes to the impact he was having out there, on so many different people. It was a debt that he owed to her, a debt that he knew he would, regrettably, never be able to repay.

Perhaps, in another reality, Din would have run after her, stopped her and confessed how appreciative he was of her kindness. He would have told her that he wanted to get to know her and asked her on a date if she was single. Maybe she would have been momentarily taken aback, given the bizarre circumstances of him wearing a full suit of armour and running up to her at a convention like that. But hopefully, she would have given him a chance.

They would have gotten to know each other, and gradually fallen in love over the next few months. Perhaps, if things went well, they would have lived a long and happy life together. It felt so real, for one fleeting moment, that Din could almost see their future together.

But that was ridiculous. In this reality, Din watched from behind his helmet as the outline of the girl he felt himself so drawn to grew smaller and smaller before eventually being swallowed up by the crowd.

She disappeared into the distance. Out of view, and out of Din’s life.

Next Chapter

Taglist: @toxic-seduction

[leportraitducadavre]

Naruto

Related content on my blog for cellphone users

Disclaimer

I’m not a shipper of any of the problematic four. I analyze canon and enjoy some crack-ships. Shipper to none.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING LINK IMAGES: The images provided in each post are subjected to manga4life's domain, the site modifies the server where the images are stored to keep them online if the prior server is threatened by anti-piracy attacks.

If you see that one of the images doesn't take you to the image and you have an "error" pop-up, try changing the prior link for this one: https://hot.leanbox.us/ [followed by manga/naruto/xxxx-xxx.jpg]

Naruto re-read

#posts - if this doesn't work, try searching the hashtag that follows: #naruto re read (spaces necessary)

Feminism

About feminism and my female characters critiques.

Inclusivity: The woke fandom's drug.

Female empowerment in the Naruto fandom and Feminism without feminists (a companion piece).

Fictional works vs. real historical events. Is it ok to use parallels?

The infinite “who’s strongest Kunoichi” debate and the sexist erasure/degradation of female characters. And a response to it.

Contradictory traits in a character = Bad writing?

Political review

Revolution! Is Internal Reform possible for the Shinobi System? Or is too corrupt to be changed from within?

The Curse of Hatred - or a poorly constructed theory based on bias.

The Chunin Exams -and their actual purpose

Naruhina/Hinata Hyuuga

Hinata’s suicide or why her intention to fight Pain wasn’t to save Naruto.

Hinata endorses slavery. A quick explanation of why.

NaruHina A full analysis of their relationship. Plus, could The Last have worked if it didn't reduce Naruto's character?

NejiHina or the possibilities of the pairing.

The Hyuga clan. And the Caged Bird Seal.

Sorry, no, Hinata never hit Pain.

SasuSaku/Sakura Haruno

Debunking the idea that Sakura was born into a “clanless” family.

SasuSaku a full analysis of their relationship, part one.

Sakura isn’t stronger than most characters. And a small addition. 

Sakura and Ino, an analysis of their relationship.

Sakura and Naruto, an analysis of their relationship. Part 1

Sakura as Orochimaru's apprentice and Sasuke as a Medic AU.

Sakura's personality. A defense of Kishimoto's writing. Additionally

Other pairings

ShikaIno. Why this ship has problems.

My opinion about the idea that Kishimoto "planned SNS".

Uchiha clan

How the Uchiha are perceived, a short exploration through Kishimoto's writing.

Were the Uchiha truly oppressed?

Minorities using violence, is it ok?

Sasuke Uchiha

Sasuke and Kakashi’s relationship. What went wrong?

How Sasuke and Obito surpassed their role in the manga (meta).

Sasuke as a Medic AU and Sakura as Orochimaru's aprentice.

Itachi Uchiha

About Itachi, his fandom, and moral standpoints.

Can Itachi's character be fixed? Spoiler alert: It's the fandom's perception of him that should change, not his character.

Debunking an Itachi stan

Madara Uchiha

Madara Uchiha and sexism.

Madara Uchiha’s characterization.

Obito Uchiha

Obito Uchiha. A character ruined by the fandom and his relationship with Minato.

Obito’s redeemers. A small debunk of their arguments.

Shisui Uchiha

Shisui Uchiha. A quick analysis of his participation in the manga.

Fugaku Uchiha

Fugaku Uchiha, the neglectful father.

Naruto Uzumaki/Naruto the series

The white boy, the hero. Parallelisms between Santiago Maratea and Naruto Uzumaki.

Naruto Uzumaki, an underdog or a genius?

Naruto Uzumaki and the hero concept

Other characters

Team Taka. Their relevance.

Kakashi of the Sharingan.

Shikamaru‘s Sexism. Analyzing Sasuke Retrieval Arc.

Minato. A fandom-perceived hero that might not be such.

Jiraiya. My thoughts against the fandom’s obsession with calling him a hypocrite.

Neji vs. Kidomaru. An analysis of their fight.

Yamanaka clan techniques. and a quick rambling of the clan.

Rock Lee.

Hiruzen Sarutobi

Tobirama Senju

Tobirama. The Scientist. An exploration of Tobirama’s academic status and a debunking of his COH theory.

Does Tobirama defy masculinity? No, he doesn't.

Fear and Racism - an analysis of Tobirama’s advocates.

Boruto

Sarada Uchiha and the non-importance of her MS. A small rant about why the quote "she awoke her MS out of love, unlike the others" is false.

[alfgifu]

Fic analysis 12. Showing them in words or deeds

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48460747

Word count: 3,862

Chapters: 1

First posted: 9th July 2023 

Summary: 

Cliopher has been able to sense his Radiancy's emotions since his first year working as his secretary.

This changes less than you might think - until the day it changes everything.

How and why this came about

In retrospect the couple of prompts I asked for and filled were something of a harbinger… at the start of July 2023 the wonderful elikabeha began to coordinate weekly Nine Worlds fic prompt challenges on discord.

These weekly themed prompts picked up on ideas that had some resonance with the fandom and the first was ‘Touch AU’, that is, fic where physical touch creates an empathic and sometimes telepathic bond (usually) between his Radiancy and Cliopher. The golden marks/burns that the emperor’s touch conveys in canon feature heavily. This whole subgenre was kicked off by SuninGlory with her lovely fic Touch, which is still one of my favourite comfort reads.

I was in a contrary mood that week and excited to have a prompt, so I decided to take it in as different a direction as possible - what if an empathic bond formed and these two noodles just never acknowledged it? Would it make any difference?

I started writing intending to sketch my way across the arc of canon until I hit a scene where even Cliopher Mdang couldn’t ignore the impact of an empathic bond with his totally normal boss. That took longer than expected.

What worked and what didn’t

I really really wanted this to be a quick response to a prompt rather than the start of yet another monster fic, so I was trying very hard to skim across events. That forced me to summarise tightly, which produced an interesting effect - a condensed but still readable account that runs from Petty Treasons through the first half of Hands of the Emperor and diverges only to explore the ways in which Cliopher might act differently if he could sense his Radiancy’s emotions.

What I learned from writing it

This felt like a gremlin option when I was writing it, but the joke was the premise not the fic. Perhaps because of that, and because I hadn’t planned the ending and just stopped the moment I found a scene that went substantially differently from canon with a different set of assumptions, I didn’t really think of it as a serious attempt at a story. I was surprised and remain surprised that it worked so well for readers. It’s been one of the more popular things I’ve written (it also got recc’ed on tumblr a few months after I wrote it, which probably helps).

So this was the first place I saw in practice that what appeals to me as a writer and what appeals to a reader doesn’t necessarily line up as expected.

This was also probably the first moment it really came home to me that my writing speed is pretty fast, most likely in part because I enjoy the process of writing so much that it can flood everything else. I’m autistic in a highly verbal way and my brain is only really happy when locked in deep concentration. Around this point I switched from using reading to using writing to channel my desire to be constantly ‘in the flow’. Conditions were pretty much perfect - the prompt challenges gave me a range of varied subjects to think about, the supportive community gave me a place to work out ideas and an ongoing source of validation, and the longer fic I was working on in the background meant that I always had something to think about.

None of this felt like a special skill. Writing well is a skill; writing fast is - for me - an attribute, a feature of the way my brain works, no more a choice than having blue eyes is a choice. But it did feel like a stroke of luck: this thing I enjoyed doing was something other people enjoyed reacting to.

Spoiler alert: this did not encourage a 100% balanced response in my needy little soul.

[gogysvisa]

no I've never sent an anon to blair nor do I plan to all my interactions with her were semi pleasant till they weren't and she went off the deep end

Forget anything else, this has me curious. What unpleasant interactions did you have with Blair?

Uh, lets see

tldr; just said some batshit insane stuff about dream and George which isn't bad because I enjoy that stuff, but it just got weirder and weirder until it got DEEPLY concerning, and it felt like I was looking at a young teenagers mental spiral through dream and George puppets? and it didn't help that the adults around her goaded her and fed into it to degrees that made me personally uncomfortable Ill post most of the stuff under a readmore because I've been sitting on it for a while, this isn't a critique of blair because she's already been critiqued to hell and back but mostly just my POV about how dangerous and batshit internet cults can be

I think I was around since almost the start right after she posted the dream and George chart analysis, I wasn't particularly in her inner group or anything, but like I said I enjoy batshit, she is actually quiet knowledgeable about astrology at such a young age and I was impressed and interested so I kept an eye out astrology wasn't where her interests in esotericism ended she was pretty much a standard internet young esoteric, enjoyed tarot and pendulums and of course if you followed her you'd know all about this mystical "rock" that her friend owned that she got answers from, I am still not certain if it was a pendulum or just a very strong LSD tablet so she'd use all these avenues along with all the other people in her server to divine certain futures for DNF basically, au's that they -me included- treated as reality because why not, its fun exploring stupid scenarios -vis a vis dream gay- but a lot of these scenarios were stupid and not really based on anything in reality or analysis just literally someone draws a card and suddenly everyone is mourning DNF's death or whatever, which, upon asking some of my friends who are into divining and tarot is not how this should be done anyways so I guess they just enjoyed projecting their shitty feelings and having people mourn with them just as a start to this paragraph, she was 16 at this point, with every coincidence she got right people went insane over her, I still vividly remember in 404cord where she put out a couple of dates based on transits that were interesting and she said something will happen in one of this dates, and one of those dates happened to be the Quiz Night and suddenly everyone was holding on to EVERY word she will ever say from that point, a huge sizable chunk of her cult basically came from 404cord. I don't use the word cult lightly btw, seeing how people interacted with her, the only correct word is her word, every other divination that Blair didn't agree with was cast aside even if people were once agreeing with it, the people around her either were mocking her or hooked onto every word hook line and sinker and some of the AU's she explored as if they were reality were very concerning starting with, the suicide fic, which she co wrote with an adult friend of hers, I sadly don't have an archive of it specifically but I do have screenshots of the day she started going insane about it

I am not critiquing the weirdness of this so much so as the ENVIROMENT that birthed the fact that they were talking about dream committing suicide as if it were a reality and blair was encouraged to continue? so much so to fully write it out?

the outline of the fic goes something along the lines of, dream compulsive straight, george is in love with him, they aren't together, dream gets married and has kids, kills himself because of straight pressures and george has to raise the kids which is hilarious out of context but concerning seeing it being treated as a feasible very possible alternate reality. She tends to hide behind "its not real" as a defense, and likes to illustrate they are "just talking as if its real" but that's just a common tactic in communities like these ones to try and appear more normal, trust me I am very sure she along with the people closest to her truly believed, genuinely, that there was an alternate universe where this is possible

they'd say shit like this all the time, and call themselves delusional and crazy, but just like people in this fandom tend to go "haha dnf dating haha im so crazy and delusional" yet still 100% believe it? these guys were the same, its partially why I stopped calling myself delusional, because I was faced with true delusion. they explored multiple scenarios like the suicide fic one but this one was the one that made me go Oh No... next up! all the insane adults around in her inner circle! messiah, van and iceglade come to mind immediately but I remember a couple others including obaba the 40 year old nice lady in the fandom, obaba I think genuinely thought they knew it was all fanfic so I don't think Ill go too hard on her and I have a feeling she felt bad for blair because of all the bullying she got from the fandom but the other adults were as insane as blair or even more blair would explore multiple nsfw scenarios with them and start hinting at them in the server, she would never say any of that stuff in the server because you know...16 year old... talking to 18,23,21 year olds about nsfw scenarios and then coming to this server which is mostly adults to also hint at that crazy shit

nothing was more surreal than seeing all these grown ass people literally believe the words of a 16yr old kid when she tells them that dream and george are into scat the whole adult thing was the biggest ick to me, seeing how she interacted with her inner circle and how they like, took advantage of her popularity to talk insane sexual scenarios about dnf with her was just....ew on so many levels I sadly don't have an archive of this because blair made sure to delete the nsfw stuff she said precisely for this reason, she'd also censor herself and such and I am personally not going to moral panic pander over a 16yr old being horny because who wasn't, at that age, but I am going to harshly judge all the adults around her who take advantage of that this thing is already long by itself, and honestly a lot of this stand alone big picture isn't the worse thing there is out on the internet or in this fandom, I know a lot of these people have moved on from the fandom or such but seeing all that in front of me an experiencing it just made me go "oh god I feel like I'm in a wild zoo documentary" and I wanted to share my POV/documentation of that wild ride because I am also a certain level of mentally ill

edited: removed the screenshots

[angry-slytherin]

We Really Like Fluff

a totally incomplete guide to dousy fan fictions that are a must:

according to me, anyway

no idea where to start? looking for a fic you read a year ago? I’ve got you.

help me find the tumblrs of those not tagged (if they have one)!

all we do is drive. (romantashas) @romantashas

Daisy has missed the open road. She used to always love taking her van out and just driving. Los Angeles was where she liked to stick around, but she would always go on these road trips just because she wanted to explore somewhere new.

She's always liked running away from things.

It was different, having someone with her.

In which Daisy Johnson helps Daniel Sousa explore the modern world by taking him on a cross-country road trip in a van. Post-Finale road trip AU with MCU tie-ins.

the first beloved fic by this fandom. completed in august 2020, it strays from canon somewhat at S7E11, but the characterization makes you forget that anything is different at all. truly a masterpiece, and definitely a must-read.

6/17/55 (lazyfish)

6/17/55.

She never thought it would mean 1955.

(Spoilers up to 7.06.)

one shot. soulmate au. beautifully written. it’s only just under 2k words but one of the most popular fan fictions under the tag on ao3. absolutely adorable and you’ll feel your heart flutter for them.

One Year Later (marvelsquake) @marvelsquake

Set right after the series finale's 'one year later' part where Daisy stares into space with Sousa and Kora.

Inspired by the 'anatomy analysis' bit Jemma says to Daisy.

there are so many amazing “anatomy analysis” fics out there. that is one of those “if you know, you know” things;) this one is really thoroughly written, and marvelsquake took their time to make every detail perfect. really, just excellent.

Stay (SteeleHoltingOn) @steeleholtingon

Not everyone knew she could feel heartbeats. Sousa’s sped up every time he looked her way.

His reaction wasn’t particularly unusual, and Daisy was an expert at fending off unwanted advances. But that was just it: Sousa hadn’t actually made any advances, and if he did, Daisy wasn’t sure she’d ward them off.

Her heartbeat, it seemed, liked to match tempo with his.

this one needs little introduction. it has been recced(??) to death, and rightfully so!!! the author is this incredible genius and I love them for giving this to us. it’s over 150k words, so be ready to commit some much deserved time to this excellent character study on both Daisy and Daniel.

Feel Good(I Like It) (enigmaforum)

It's not the the first time she’s felt something for someone since Lincoln but it’s the first time she felt like it had the possibility to actually turn into something. Something Good.

I’ve always loved the title of this fic, but that’s besides the point. enigmaforum is a very talented writer who does plot AND characterization like a pro. definitely an A+ in terms of quality. also part of a series with some other excellent works!

Exposure (agentquakingskye) @blcssqvake on instagram

Dying in a half-second blast of radiation wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be.

Dying all over again, slowly, because of that half-second of radiation?

That was worse.

okay I lied. we also love angst and this work is angst central. it’s a cancer AU following the finale, but it’s just as happy as it as sad. prepare your tissues, but also prepare for some seriously good writing.

A Week After Death (manoutoftimeandquake) @puddle-of-awesomeness

An explosion in an alien junkyard sends Daisy, Sousa and Kora back in time to meet some people from Sousa's past.

the astro ambassadors sent back in time to meet the AC cast(essentially). such a fun, action-packed, hilarious work. such a classic. go read it now!!

Where I Need To Be (JennaPotter)

This is set from Episode 7x03 onwards and follows the story of Daisy Johnson and Daniel Sousa, and how their relationship has been developing throughout this amazing season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.! This story mostly follows canon but is interspersed with missing moments between Daisy and Sousa that I imagine could have happened off-screen.

almost 200k words of absolute beauty. it’s incredibly detailed and excellently written. it’s like reading a published novel!! but with dousy!!

you’ve got that power(over me) (romantashas) @romantashas

"It's you," Daniel whispers. He's in awe, looking at Quake. She steps back away from him. "Let me help you," he says, reaching out toward her injured arm slowly.

Daniel only gets a moment more to admire her glowing eyes and her purple hair before she turns and runs away, her hand slipping out of his.

In which the superheroes of the Marvelverse actually try to keep their identities a secret and Daniel Sousa is determined to figure out who is behind the mysterious Quake mask. Superhero AU with MCU tie-ins.

yet another classic(I’m definitely misusing that word… it’s deserved by these authors) work by romantashas. the description gives the gist of it, but it’s one of the best dousy AUs out there.

get ready for the shameless self promo…

Your Heartbeat On The Highline(Once In Twenty Lifetimes) (doctorsimmonswilson) @angry-slytherin

He’s a man out of time and she’s an orphaned superhero. They’ve just got to figure out what to do next, after the mission is over.

[aka Daisy and Daniel’s story post finale]

welp… I included my own story. honestly it’s because it is one of the most popular in the tag(I’m sifting through too kudos and top hits). I’m really super proud of it, so read it if you’d like. it’s canon compliant (and extremely fluffy for the most part:)

somebody hurt you(but you’re here by my side) (agentmmayy) @agentmmayy

Daniel doesn't leave Daisy's side, even when she's out of the healing chamber.

very popular, and for good reason. such a sweet, nice fic. I very much enjoyed it and it’s a quicker read than most on this list!

and here’s to the question marks

aka: unfinished works that are beautiful and deserve your attention

want you(to unravel me) (IzzieBee)

Daisy never wanted to be rescued, by anyone. She never wanted to owe someone that debt, but especially not to a handsome WWII Vet, traveling through time. Daniel, who was brave and decent, and kind of funny, and who she could easily depend on, which was way too dangerous to consider.

OR

Daisy really wasn't ready for Daniel Sousa.

sexy, fun, well-written… what more could we ask for? it’s missing the last chapter, but the brunt of the story is there, and it’s satisfying either way.

A Truth Stranger Than Fiction (wordsmithraven)

Daniel Sousa was having the worst day of his life...and he’d lived through a war. Service had always been something he’d understood. Honor. Sacrifice. Duty. He’d just never thought his journey would mean leaving everything he loved behind.

a lot of daisy and daniel getting to know one another… a little bit of season 7 adventure… a whole bunch of fun.

Loving The Journey Together (manoutoftimeandquake) @puddle-of-awesomeness

Moments in the lives of Daisy and Sousa (and Kora) after the end of the team's final mission.

this one is a WIP(being updated currently). manoutoftimeandquake has some amazing snippets/slices of life waiting for you in that work!

it’s in the subtext (eggsaladstain)

Snippets of the relationship between Daisy Johnson and Daniel Sousa through the words they said and the ones they didn’t.

SO. FREAKING. GOOD. just go read it, okay?

and finally, some links to some authors who’ve written a bunch of amazing stuff.

romantashas

manoutoftimeandquake

enigmaforum

@hecckyeah

lazyfish

hereforthephilindafics

dearemma

seriously, there’s so many more amazing fics in this tag. I didn’t have the energy to include all 800+. these are just some that are most popular and/or deserve your attention.

thank you for taking the time to read through all of this! I hope you’ve found some things to bookmark(or binge-read;)

[thewhitefluffyhat]

Featherine Augustus Aurora

What is this guide?

<< Previous (Lambdadelta)

Reading List: Highlights

Umineko Episode 6/Dawn “??? Tea Party” [ Video / Text ]

Featherine requests her old miko return to her service once more. (Everything to know about Featherine’s personality in one scene)

Umineko Episode 6/Dawn “The Witch of Theatergoing” scene

Video [Scene starts roughly 6:20 and continues to the end of the video]

Text [Search on “Amakusa ran his finger down my cheek.” Scene continues to end of the page.]

[Spoilers - this references several major twists from the previous two Episodes, though not the truth of the mystery.] Featherine ropes another human into acting as her miko. (A demonstration of the way Featherine/Hachijou blends the mundane and the magical worlds.)

Umineko Episode 8/Twilight “Magical Battle” scene

Video [Scene starts roughly 38:40, stop before 53:35]

Text [Start at top of the page and stop at the screencap of the key.]

[Spoilers - this is one of the battles at the climax of Umineko! It doesn’t involve the core mystery, but it will spoil which characters ultimately side with the protagonists.] A scene for if you’re curious what happens when Featherine gets serious.

Reading List: I want it all

(These are all repeats from the list for Bernkastel.)

”Whose Tea Party?” [ Video / Text ]

Bern gets invited to a tea party. (A simple and silly scenario, but also a window into the differences in how Featherine and Lambda think of Bern.)

”Bernkastel’s Letter” [ Video / Text ]

Bernkastel writes a letter to (maybe) Featherine, explaining what she’s discovered about the rules to Beatrice’s game. (This is a bit of a strange one - to me it feels like some details of Bern’s relationships in this early work were retconned by the time of Umineko Episodes 6-8.)

Umineko Chiru (Episode 6/Dawn, Episode 7/Requiem, Episode 8/Twilight)

Umineko Saku’s Last Note of the Golden Witch involves Featherine somewhat. Blink and you’ll miss it, but she’s in 07th Theater too.

-...And that’s it! On the plus side, it’s easy to read all there is of Featherine, since there’s so little. Unfortunately, as you can see from the Highlights, what does exist is often neck deep in spoiler territory…

Wiki Links

https://07th-expansion.fandom.com/wiki/Featherine_Augustus_Aurora [Some spoilers, though only the same as in the Highlights links above.]

Quick Facts

-As Hanyuu is in Higurashi, Featherine is the closest being to a god in Umineko.  However, while gods in Higurashi are related to Shinto concepts (plus parasites and viruses and aliens), Umineko’s godhood is based on the idea of an author being god of their story, summoning universes out of the nothingness of a blank page.

-Featherine’s unusual name is probably a reference to Hanyuu. The kanji for Hanyuu (羽入) are “羽=feather” and “入=in”. And Augustus Aurora = Hanyuu’s “Au au” catchphrase. Hachijou (八城) can also be read “yashiro,” as in Oyashiro-sama.

-Physically, Featherine appears as an elegant adult woman whose exact age is hard to place. She does not have horns, but she does have that suspiciously horn-like memory device floating around her head.

According to that Umineko Episode 8 battle scene linked above, Featherine’s memory device once was damaged, leading to Featherine having a different personality and appearance for a time.

(As it so happens, Hanyuu has a chipped horn and a very different personality from Featherine, what an intriguing coincidence...)

-Long before the events of Umineko, Featherine ascended to the realm of the gods and returned. She also goes through a cycle of sleep/death and rebirth which can last centuries.  All aspects that call to mind that ascension Hanyuu mentions in Saikoroshi.

-Outside the Meta-World, Featherine’s double is a mysterious and reclusive author who goes by many names. (Hachijou Tohya is just one of them.)

-Remember how Ooishi and Akasaka write a book called “Higurashi no naku koro ni” in-universe? Umineko does something similar, but explores the idea even further. Hachijou is the supposed in-universe author of some of Umineko’s arcs, and as such, some fans consider Featherine/Hachijou as a stand-in for Ryukishi07 himself.

Personality

-Much as Bern’s personality is similar to “dark Rika” but kicked up to eleven, Featherine’s personality is similar to Hanyuu when Hanyuu acts as a god. She’s calm, serious, and refers to humans as “child of man.”

-Lacking Hanyuu’s shy and childish mannerisms, Featherine comes across as intimidating and rather condescending. Though she’s more polite and reasonable than the average witch. (Which honestly says more about other witches than her, really...)

-Bern and Lambda are very fey-like, tricking and tempting mortals into doing what they want. Featherine, in contrast, doesn’t use tricks or threaten violence because she doesn’t need to. Asking for consent from mortals is a gesture of respect from her - you don’t have the ability to refuse.

-In almost the inverse of Hanyuu, Featherine has no problems getting other characters to perceive her; indeed, she’s subtle but often quite forceful about dragging others into conversations inside her realm.

-Also unlike Hanyuu, Featherine has no particular love of sweets (that’s Lambda), and does seem to enjoy alcohol.

-Featherine, an ancient being, suffers from the “disease” of boredom. Entertaining herself with stories is the only medicine for this ailment, and the relief it provides is only temporary.

-As such, Featherine enjoys stories as deeply and thoroughly as possible.  Meaning, she doesn’t just appreciate mysteries and characters as they’re first presented - she also likes to “tear out the guts” to see what makes them tick.

...Not with her own hands of course!  That’s Bern’s job.

What, did you think you were done with the Watanagashi imagery when you finished Higurashi?

-At several points in Umineko, Featherine a gets called a monster. While this may be yet another callback to Higurashi, unlike Hanyuu who hates that label, Featherine takes it as a compliment.

-So… is Featherine evil? Many characters, and even Ryukishi07 himself in interviews, call her such. That being said, in Umineko, Featherine can be callous, but she doesn’t revel in sadism the way other witches do. Although, presumably she was much worse in the past...

Abilities

-Featherine is the “Witch of Theatergoing” - she is primarily a spectator to the events of Umineko, rather than a player on the stage. (Just like Hanyuu.)

-Bern’s “Theatergoing Authority” may derive from her. She also has the ability to instantly promote a character to the position of Game Master.

-Featherine is an author and therefore a “Creator,” surpassing the level of even powerful witches like Bern and Lambda. Her powers function as her breaking the fourth wall and literally writing the rest of the script on a page.

-Like Hanyuu, Featherine can stop time. Though unlike Hanyuu, Featherine can act in the frozen time, including that aforementioned reality writing.

-Featherine’s home is the *deep breath*  “Great Witch of Theatergoing, Drama, and Spectating's Noble City of Carefully Selected Books” - an impossibly large magical library filled with countless stories, each a universe of their own like a Fragment.  (Everyone just calls it the “City of Books.”)

-Featherine’s servants are the main characters of these stories, now in the form of black cats.

-Featherine’s relationships with her mikos are also through the lens of an author. Featherine’s mikos are also known as “Readers” - they narrate the events of a game board to Featherine. As an author is a god, a reader is also able to put their own interpretation on the story they tell.

Featherine and Bernkastel

-As Hanyuu is to Rika, so Featherine is to Bern... more or less. They’re still a god and her miko.

-Unlike Rika and Hanyuu, Bern and Featherine do not share their senses.

-Rika and Bern have both lived beyond a normal human’s lifespan, but they both still consider themselves young in comparison to Hanyuu/Featherine’s ancient existence.

-When Rika would bully Hanyuu, Hanyuu did little but cry and complain.  Bern still backtalks and is generally disrespectful of Featherine, but the result is different - Bern’s the one acting defensive and scared while Featherine is merely amused by it.

-Bern is also distrustful yet subservient toward Featherine in a way Rika never was to Hanyuu.

-However, when Bern is in danger, she will demand that Featherine help her, much as how Rika did the same to Hanyuu once in Matsuribayashi.

Featherine and Lambdadelta

-Featherine and Lambda appear to be on amicable, if not especially close terms.

-On Featherine’s side, she primarily seems to know Lambda as Bern’s friend and playmate.

-On Lambda’s side, she knows she’s completely outclassed by Featherine, and is very afraid of crossing her.

-Lambda does know quite a bit about Featherine - including that tidbit about Featherine’s personality change in the past.

Featherine in Higurashi Gou?

Is this Featherine? And what does that mean for the rest of Higurashi Gou? 

Well, after reading this guide, what do you think?

Regardless, this is as far as I can guide you with my knowledge of Umineko. If you wish to go further, you’ll have to forge that path yourself, through the ravenous wilderness of unconfirmed theories and dangerous speculation.

Good luck!

PS: If you’d like a rough map of some popular destinations, I also have an old Bingo Card of Umineko-Gou connection theories.

PPS to folks from Reddit: If you liked this guide, I also do episode analysis/theory posts too.

[jadeeskara]

Kinnikuman NanoWriMo

I made a throwaway account teasing a 50k+ Kinnikuman Nisei au. We all grew up on not-even half finished Ultimate Muscle fanfics. The worldbuilding and characters were always so good; you knew the author had more but never posted it. So much of it has been taken down. As a young queer kid, I found representation of myself for the first time in those stories and I miss them. Some of it was like really problematic and scarred me because I was too young to be reading porn. But some of it was really soft and sweet. Like I remember one fic where they snuck out to a bar or something and the one who informed them ("Them" being Mars (and possibly Kevin?)) was Jade. Jade took one sip of his beer, pushed it aside, and snuggled into Mars. I loved that. It was like two sentences in a moderate-sized drabble but it literally affected my life. That is who I am, and it's so nice to have someone else in this world even if they are fictional to look back on and say, yes. I can be a snuggly gay boy who goes out to bars he doesn't like with people who don't speak his language just to spend the evening wrapped up in his love's arms.

The world made me forget that that life is possible. It's not just a dream. Anyway, I have been working on the character analysis (lol that's my snobby way of saying ridiculously long fanfic), but uh... that was a rough year, huh?

It's based on my Love Torn series, exploring Jade's relationship with Mars. I want to be clear that I'm trying to explore a difficult topic responsibly but with the entertainment (porn? humor?) of fanfic. Sometimes I might overstep or whatever, so let me know if something bothers you or I miss a trigger I should have tagged. I'm new to posting stuff and it's a bit too overwhelming sometimes. I have always had a hot/cold relationship with Jade/Mars because I could never get ahold of the volumes that showed them together after the initial Gen Ex saga. I've gleaned that the manga doesn't really explain how Jade forgave Mars and I want to know more. The more I explore my interpretation of Jade's character (which is I'm sure largely inaccurate due to his minimal appearances), the less I can see their relationship NOT being romantic. Maybe it's the gay in me idk. The story itself, however, was inspired by coworkers once I moved back to my hometown after college. I'm from a rural place, so most LGBTQ+ folks haven't come out yet. Or haven't found out yet. We have high rates of domestic violence, abuse, depression, alcohol abuse, etc. The Chojin were also raised in environments like ours because they interbred with humans like us. Imagine dealing with the easily accessible drugs today in a 250lb body that is pure muscle just naturally. Plus they make a living (idk is it conscription? do they get paid? Slave soldiers? I really don't understand their world) as a wrestler, so they work out. As a gay man, I don't love what puberty did to me. I was raised Christian so my sexuality has been a struggle for me. So the puberty of a Chojin? No thank you. We're gonna explore some problematic things but I hope we can have some fun along the way. The sex scenes that I have written (mostly thus far unposted), I've written with one hand over my eyes. I struggle to write porn. If you'd like to write porn within my universe, I for one would be happy to see it so like tag LoveTorn or whatever! It's exciting that the fandom is started to grow again after things disappeared. EDIT: Due to recent events, I do want to specify that if you want to play within my universe, I do ask that you credit me wherever you post it, and please send me a link so I can enjoy too :) JadeEskara on Archive of our Own. I'm starting to drop bits of world-building pieces. I guess I'll figure out how to open asks so you can ask about any explanations you need or thoughts if you have any.

[autumn-foxfire]

I think you're really sweet and really love that you're so polite about people's opinions but something you (and other anons) don't seem to be aware about is that we KNOW some ships are toxic. I myself ship dabihawks and I know realistically it would be the most toxic shit ever but that's exactly why it is, y'know, kept in fiction. It's not about condoning abuse or excusing toxic behavior- we all know it's wrong!- but more about playing into a fantasy. We all have kinks so I kindly ask that even if you don't agree with a particular ship because it would be toxic in a realistic setting, don't shame anyone for it. Please don't shame people for making silly AUs or having absurd headcanons, they're nothing more than fantasies and I think we all should be allowed to like what we like without being discriminated (as long as nobody is being harmed!). Our ships might be toxic but that doesn't mean we're toxic people nor that we condone abusive behavior in real life- we really don't!

Anon I’m really confused what prompted this to be honest.

I have nothing against people shipping or exploring toxic relationships in canon, half of my own ships fall into that category too (I shipped DabiHawks too, in fact you can check the tag full of content for it on my blog. And I’ve never shied away from hiding the fact I love enemies to lovers and similar ships).

I don’t shame people for ships, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever shamed anyone for a ship. I’ve commented on ships I don’t enjoy like Endhawks but have always ended it with a “you do you, it’s just not for me”. If you’re talking about the DabiHawks rants I’ve posted in the past *with a tag so people can filter them*, they were posts inspired by myself as a shipper for them being annoyed at how the fandom writes them. They were posts about what I, and like-minded anons, wanted to see from the pairing

The anons I usually get on this blog are usually about how people in the fandom act like their HC’s and previous interpretations of characters that have been proven wrong by canon are actually the canon charactization and then insult the actual canon. We don’t care about people’s fanon interpretations and what you want to imagine for them in fanon, we’re just tired of it leaking into canon analysis and meta.

Anon, you may think this message is polite but it’s not. You’re accusing myself and my anons of something we haven’t done, claiming we’re shaming people for their ships and preferences when we’ve never done so.

I really don’t know what prompted this ask but I’ll tell you now, I don’t care how you write DabiHawks, if you want to imagine them as fluffy or if you want to follow canon and write them as toxic as possible then go ahead.

But I’m still allowed to talk about my preferences and annoyances with my ships and what I would like to see more on my blog and you don’t get to tell me otherwise.

Please, if I’m upsetting you so much, block me. I’m not trying to be rude but I honestly think this is the best solution for you if you don’t like what I post.

[lirlovesfic]

The Choice

A Doctor Who fanfic

Summary: After GitF, the TARDIS brings the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey back to the estate to solve a problem involving the TARDIS herself. But when they see a familiar face, the face of someone who should not exist, they realize the problem is deeper than they thought and could endanger the Doctor’s very existence. Primary characters: Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler. Genres: Romance, mystery, adventure, drama, character study, HN AU, fobbed!Nine, sick TARDIS. Pairings: Nine/Rose, Ten/Rose Rating: Adult

Warning: none for this chaper

a/n: I am currently working on editing this chapter-by-chapter, with the hopes of completing a chapter a day until I catch up with myself. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m doing it to try to get back into the swing of writing and to build some momentum in order to finish this. Also, there have been some tiny things nagging at me for a while (grammar, punctuation, etc.) so I’ll be correcting as many of them as I can find as I go. The story will not change. In fact, most of the changes are going to be so minor that I doubt anyone (besides myself) will notice. But to keep myself on target, I’ll be posting it all here as I go, with links to the other websites it’s on. I hope you enjoy it.

Catch up: on AO3, on TSP, on ffnet

This chapter: on AO3, on TSP, on ffnet

Chapter Twenty-Three—London, 28 July, 2007

As John finished getting dressed for the evening, he spotted the latest piece of filth that had shown up in his cat flap that morning still sitting next to his computer. With a disgusted sigh, he crumpled it and tossed it in the bin in his kitchen.

Over the past two weeks, John had received almost a dozen nasty notes, usually shoved through the cat flap in the middle of the night. Like the first one, they were in an almost illegible scrawl. And like the first, he'd thoroughly examined them for clues that would point to the author.

But the notes had defied deep analysis. Oh, he'd been able to determine that the note writer was local—most had been written on the backs of adverts for local pubs or takeaways—favored black ball point pens, and was probably drunk when the notes were written, but beyond that, nothing. Not even why the note writer was upset with him.

What John had been able to make out were mostly misspelled profanities and comments calling into question his sexual preference, his virility, his intelligence, his looks, even his parentage. He rolled his eyes at the messages, although he didn't necessarily disagree with the description of his appearance. He also had no idea if his parents had been married when he was born, although why that would matter he had no idea.

It was only through other means that he'd been able to narrow the note sender down to two people: Rita's ex-boyfriend Chuck and Rose's ex, Jimmy. He'd been able to exclude everyone else on the planet because no one else he knew, neither in his block of flats nor at the garage, seemed upset with him for a change. That was a true rarity, since he knew that with his abrasive personality he seemed to piss people off wherever he went.

After narrowing down the note taker to Jimmy or Chuck, he'd questioned almost everyone he knew to see if any of them had seen either man recently. Although everyone seemed to know who they were, no one had seen Chuck since his last fight with Rita, and most were surprised to find out Jimmy was out of prison.

There were only three people he knew on the Estate that he didn't ask: Rose, Jackie, and Rita. He told himself he didn't want to ask Rose because he didn't want to worry her, but really it was because he didn't want her involved in whatever this was. Both Chuck and Jimmy had a history of violence, and he wanted her as far out of it as she could be if this happened to take a bad turn. And Jackie he didn't ask because she had a big mouth. He was sure the moment Jackie found out about the notes Rose would know, not because Jackie would want to tell her, but simply because she wouldn't be able to help herself from letting something slip.

Rita he didn't ask for the most obvious reason; he didn't know where she was. After she had left the flat with her brother the morning after the fight, she seemed to fall off the face of the Earth. If anyone knew where she was, they weren't saying, which was probably a good thing, John thought. If no one on the estate knew where she was, Chuck probably didn't know either. He hated to think what that piece of slime would do to her if he found her.

But beyond analyzing the notes when they arrived and asking around about Chuck and Jimmy, for the most part he didn't give the passive/aggressive note sender a lot of thought. Since whoever it was left notes in the middle of the night instead of confronting him in the light of day, it was obvious that he was a coward, and an illiterate one at that. John had better things to do than worry about the stupid ape.

Like spend time with Rose.

Which he did every chance he got.

In addition to walking back and forth to work, which they did every day, on the weekend she went with him when he was repairing things around the Estate, handing him tools and just generally keeping him company.

When they weren't at the garage and he wasn't doing repairs, they usually went out, tramping all over London. Rose took him to all her favorite places in and around the city, some well-known tourist spots, others far off the beaten path. He could tell she enjoyed playing tour guide with him. Her eyes would sparkle and her grin widen while she told him the history or significance of one place or another. At some point while wandering the Tower of London—a place that seemed entirely too familiar, particularly since he didn't recall ever being there before—it occurred to him that while she'd traveled with the Doctor, the man had probably always been the one showing her around. It was obviously fun for her to be the one showing someone around instead.

But they didn't spend all their spare time wandering London. This July was particularly chilly and wet, and when it was raining hard they stayed in, eating takeaway from one of the nearby restaurants and watching films on telly, everything from implausible thrillers to bad sci fi to Disney.

The only time they didn't spend together was over the lunch hour. The day after their first official date, he'd gone into the office to ask her to lunch only to be told that Rose had already left. Later he spotted her getting off the bus right before she returned to work. The next day was the same, as was every other day when it wasn't raining. She never volunteered any information about where she was going or what she was doing.

Despite his curiosity, after days of deliberation he decided not to ask her about it. After all, it wasn't his business, he told himself firmly, and he didn't want to ruin the fragile relationship he had with her by prying into her personal life.

After one quiet evening spent eating a curry and watching the first Harry Potter film, he tried kissing her again but at the last second she turned her cheek to him, neatly deflecting it. He gave up after that, figuring that she didn't want any more out of the relationship than they currently had. He didn't blame her; he wasn't exactly a prize. He had a disturbing tendency to be rude, not to mention he was broke, not particularly attractive, and much too old for her. After being initially disappointed by her reaction, it had taken him exactly three and a half seconds for him to decide that he'd rather have her in his life as a friend than not in his life at all because he had pushed things too far with her.

But in that three and a half seconds he'd wondered if it was even possible for him to just be her friend. Because he wanted her. Wanted her so much he ached, both in his heart and in his groin. Wanted her from the moment he saw her run down the stairs of her building every morning. Wanted her when he heard her voice while his head was buried under the bonnet of every vehicle he worked on in the garage. Wanted her while they walked home hand in hand after work. Wanted her while they explored London together. Wanted her while she snuggled against him while they watched telly.

Wanted her every time she smiled at him, whether in delight or teasingly, the tip of her tongue peeking out between her teeth.

He wanted to be surrounded by her intoxicating scent with the taste of her on his tongue and the feel of her skin on his lips while her mouth was on him or with him buried deep inside her.

But his desire for her was far more than sexual. He wanted to wake up with her in his arms. He wanted her face to be the first thing he saw in the morning. And he wanted to hold her in the middle of the night after dreams filled with screaming and fire.

But if it wasn't to be, it wasn't. He would take, and gladly, anything she was willing to give, even though every second of every day he wanted more. He was a big boy. He could cope with it.

But tonight would definitely test his resolve, he thought, as he grabbed his leather jacket and headed out the door.

~oOo~

In the tiny bathroom of her mother's flat, Rose carefully traced her eyes with eyeliner.

"Aren't you done yet?" Jackie called impatiently.

"Almost." She switched to mascara, thickly coating her lashes with the stuff.

"You know, you could do that in your room."

"The light's better in here," she answered.

"Well, hurry up, because I need a shower before Stuart gets here."

Rose ignored her. Although she always tried to look her best with hair and makeup, since they were headed to Susie and Rob's wedding, tonight was special and she wanted everything perfect. Hair up and sprayed in place, makeup a little more dramatic than normal but still not as heavy as she had worn as a teenager, a sleeveless pink chiffon dress, matching heels. She had decided to forego the hat, partially because most of her friends wouldn't be wearing one, and partially because she couldn't afford the extra expense. She'd been lucky to find the dress, and on sale. She hadn't brought one from the TARDIS—it hadn't occurred to her that she'd need one—and for the first time she realized how spoiled she'd become having access to the TARDIS's huge wardrobe room.

"Hurry up, Rose!"

She rolled her eyes. Her mother usually spent twice as much time in the bathroom than she ever did. After putting on lipstick, she checked her teeth. Perfect.

She opened the door.

"It's about time," her mother said.

As her mother entered the bathroom, Rose returned to her bedroom to finish getting ready. First, a tiny bit of perfume on her throat and wrists. Then on went the hoop earrings she always wore and a gold colored bracelet around her wrist. Finally, the one luxury she'd packed in her rucksack before leaving the TARDIS, a pendant with a pink tinged stone that the Doctor had bought for her on a planet whose name she couldn't pronounce. The necklace looked far too expensive to be owned by a girl from the Estate, but it went perfectly with the dress and she couldn't resist wearing it.

At the knock on the door, she grabbed her TARDIS key off the dresser. Normally she only took it off to shower, but she hadn't put it back on because she couldn't wear it in this dress without it being noticed. But there was no way she'd ever leave it behind. After briefly considering putting it in her handbag, she finally tucked it into her bra.

When she opened the door, her jaw dropped. She figured he'd dress up a bit for the wedding, but she hadn't expected this. Blue Oxford shirt, black trousers, his leather jacket… and a tie. She'd never seen this Doctor in a tie.

She'd always thought he was attractive, handsome even in an unconventional way, but she realized she'd been wrong.

He was gorgeous.

She stared at him, thinking about how the color of his shirt brought out the color of his eyes, making them a brilliant blue.

He was staring at her as well, eyes wide, mouth slightly slack.

"You look… beautiful," he breathed.

And he hadn't even qualified it with a "considering".

Suddenly shy, her heart pounded with nervousness, and the desire she had always felt for him and that she'd been trying to ignore over the past weeks rose to the surface with a vengeance.

"Thanks," she replied automatically, unable to tear her eyes away from him.

She blinked, forcing herself to the present. He was still John. He was her best friend. There was no reason to be nervous, not really, no matter how gorgeous he was. And she could ignore how attracted she was to him, no matter how hard it was. After all, she had to.

She grinned at him mischievously. "Once you change out of that work shirt of yours, you clean up pretty good too."

It was evidently the right thing to say, because he laughed.

"Thanks."

~oOo~

The ceremony was brief and to the point. Rob and Susie stood at the altar, the vicar said a few words, they said their vows, and they were married. They were in and out in fifteen minutes. John got the impression that all in attendance, including the bride and groom, considered it a warm up act for the main event.

The main event, of course, was the reception. Held in a large room over the pub where the groom's mother worked, the long head table stood along one wall with smaller tables crowded around it. Near the stairs was a rectangular table filled with gifts, and at the other end of the room there was a small dance floor.

With his hand on the center of her back, John attempted to escort Rose across the room to their table, but on the way Rose kept stopping to talk to people. Slightly frustrated, he reminded himself that mingling was considered an important part of these sorts of things.

To his surprise, he found that there were a lot of people he recognized, and a number he actually knew, both from his block of flats and from the garage, despite never having met either the bride or the groom. Between conversations, he mentioned it to her quietly.

"Everyone knows everyone on the Estate," Rose whispered back. "If you're there long enough you will too. Plus Rob used to work at the garage for a while."

Eventually they arrived at their seats. He was relieved to find that they'd been given a narrow table for two shoved against one wall; he really wasn't one for small talk and he'd already had his fill.

Later, John frowned thoughtfully as he sat back and watched the newly married couple have their first dance. Through the mingling, through the nibbles and the mediocre dinner and the best man's speech, John had had a sense of… oddness. Everything—the wedding and the reception, the speech and the presents, the room with the masses of flowers and the dance floor—all seemed unfamiliar, even alien, to him, like he had never attended anything like it before. The feeling was almost the exact reverse of déjà vu; instead of feeling like something was familiar that he didn't remember, he felt like something was unfamiliar that should be. It was weird. He had assumed that due to his age he'd been married at some point. Even if he hadn't, he figured that at least somewhere, at some point, he must have at least attended a wedding, but maybe he hadn't.

It was definitely a puzzle that needed solving.

Rose must have sensed his thoughts because she reached over and took his hand. "You all right?"

He plastered a wide grin on his face. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"I dunno. Just figured this whole thing might be a little too domestic for you."

His brow furrowed. She'd said it again, called something domestic and suggested it was too much for him. She had done it several times in the past weeks, and each time he'd wondered why. Not that she was wrong, mind, she was right actually, but how would she even know that? He had meant to ask her but had never got around to it. Now was as good a time as any, he decided.

Just as he opened his mouth to ask her about it, the song changed. She stood up.

"Dance with me."

He snorted. It hadn't been a request. More of an order, actually.

"Rose, I don't dance," he told her.

"Yes, you do," she insisted. She dragged him to his feet.

He looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to them. No one was. He leaned towards her.

"Rose," he said quietly, "I don't think I know how."

She stared at him, surprise written all over her face. She opened her mouth and then shut it, as if she was going to say something and then thought better of it.

"Well then, I think it's high time you learn," she said finally.

"Rose," he protested, but he allowed her to pull him to the crowded dance floor.

To his relief, although the music was loud, it had a slow beat. He didn't think he'd be able to cope with a fast song straight off, if at all. As it was, he still wasn't quite sure what to do, so he just stood there, staring at her. She looked up, and as their eyes met, time stopped. The music, the laughter, the other people on the dance floor all faded into the distance. All he could hear was his own heartbeat, and all he could see was her: blonde hair threatening to escape from its upsweep, dark brown eyes looking into his soul, soft pink lips begging to be kissed…

She was so extraordinarily beautiful.

She licked her lips and looked away, and the moment was lost.

"Well, we can't just stand here," she said.

She took his hands and placed them on her waist before putting her own behind his neck. She looked back up at him. She seemed to be waiting for something.

"What?"

"Uh, you need to move your feet."

"Oh. Oh, right."

Without conscious thought he pulled her close, and they began to sway to the music.

It was fantastic dancing with her, with her in his arms and her body pressed against his, her head on his shoulder and the scent of her perfume surrounding him. Why had he thought it was a bad idea? It was an absolutely fantastic idea.

They stayed that way for song after song, only stopping when a fast song began to play. When she began to pull away from him, he reluctantly let go of her.

"Sorry, I need the loo," she said.

"I'll go get us some drinks."

John went downstairs to the bar and placed his order. While he waited for their drinks, he grabbed some mixed nuts out of a bowl on the counter and turned around to lean with his back against the bar. He tossed them in his mouth and looked idly around the room. To his surprise, he saw Rita standing at the other end of the bar. She must have arrived late, he thought, because he was sure he would have noticed if she had been at the reception earlier. He scanned the room. No sign of Chuck, thank God, although he spotted her brother sitting with a girl at a table on the other side of the pub.

Rita was chatting with the bride and the maid of honor and didn't seem to have seen him. He began to cross over to her to say hello but stopped when he heard them talking.

Susie, he suddenly remembered. That was the bride's name. But he couldn't for the life of him remember the name of the other girl.

"So, who's that she's with?" Susie asked loudly. Although it was quieter down here than upstairs, it was still more than a bit noisy.

Not above a bit of eavesdropping, he moved back to where he had been. With his ears, he still could hear them clearly.

"Didn't you meet him?" Rita asked.

"Yeah, for just a second but I didn't catch his name," Susie answered. "You think it's that bloke she was traveling with? Didn't Keisha say she'd been traveling with an older bloke?"

"You mean the Doctor?" the maid of honor asked. "Could be."

"What's he look like?" Rita asked.

"I didn't really get a good look at him," Susie answered. She turned to the maid of honor. "How 'bout you, Shareen?"

"Tall, short dark hair, blue eyes. Older," Shareen answered. "Kinda big nose and ears, but good lookin' anyway, if you like that sort of thing."

"And you do," Susie said.

"Shareen likes 'em any way she can get 'em," Rita said. "She likes everyone in trousers, particularly when she's got a couple of drinks in her."

"Oi!" Shareen protested. When they turned to her, she grinned. "When I've had a couple of drinks, I like 'em without trousers."

They all laughed.

"Anyway, you think it was that Doctor bloke?" Susie asked.

"I thought it was," Shareen answered. "You saw the way they were dancing."

"That's why I wasn't sure," Susie answered. "Because Rose said she and the Doctor weren't like that, remember?"

Shareen snorted. "And you believed that?" She shook her head. "It's amazing you're in the condition you're in, being so innocent an' all." She nodded her head at the bride's belly. "What was it, an immaculate conception?"

They laughed again.

"But seriously, you think it's him?" Susie asked.

"Sounds like my neighbor John to me," Rita said. "All but the hair. After all, I know they've been hanging out together."

"Oh, but what if John is the Doctor?" Shareen said excitedly. She waved her hands around, almost spilling her drink in the process. "Ooo, ooo, they've come back, but he's in trouble for some reason, so he's hidin' out here on the Estate and Rose is lookin' after him."

"How many of those have you had, Shareen?" Rita asked. "Somebody needs to cut you off."

"Mark my words," Shareen said solemnly. "I'm right. I know I am."

"You're an idiot, Shareen," Susie said.

"I may be an idiot, but that doesn't make me wrong."

"Sir, your drinks are ready."

John started at the sound of the barman's voice. He was standing opposite him and in front of him there was a whiskey and a glass of wine. John pulled out his wallet and passed the barman a couple of bills.

As he walked back up the stairs with the drinks, he wondered about what he had overheard. Was Shareen right? Was it possible he was the mysterious Doctor Rose had run off with?

He rolled his eyes at even considering the idea. Shareen had been more than halfway to being completely pissed. She'd have to be, to come up with that crazy story. The whole idea was ridiculous. Him, Rose's Doctor?

"Nah," he said.

[peachymess]

I don't know about this, but I've noticed that Fanon Eremin is usually portrayed as Eren gushing about Armin's greatness. I love that so much and it's amazing. But, I just really want to see Armin gush about Eren in future fanworks in the Eremin Fandom. I mean, isn't Eremin about equality? (Also what are your opinions on this?)

Hello, anon! I really can’t answer for other people than myself, but I’ll tell you what I believe, since you are asking for my opinion. 

If I go by my own stance on this, and apply that logic to the (majority of) the rest of the eremin fandom, I think there’s a really easy explanation for this - however, like I said, this is not the “answer”, just my theory on the matter: the same way that people have favorite and secondary ships, they also have favorite and secondary headcanons for their ships. This is the case for eremin as well; the most popular eremin headcanon/dynamic, is that of dom!Eren/sub!Armin. And I call them that not in the seme/uke way, but rather in the personality dynamic sense. On the surface, you see, it’s not incorrect to say that Eren is the more self-assured of the two, while Armin appears to be insecure and in need of positive affirmations from outside sources. Of course, we can analyze the depth of their characters separately - as well was their bond - for ages (because we all know there’s more to them than this), but this is a generally accepted surface-value for these two and eremin. It’s not wrong, and it’s perfectly fine to enjoy this dynamic (although it’s enriching to explore them more, hence why you’d appreciate a shift in the default). However, it has raised concern that this is the sole perspective being represented; if you saw them portrayed at dom!Eren/Sub!Armin for the first time today, you wouldn’t react - but as soon as you notice a pattern, you might. - And you’re not alone in doing so! I’ve heard this complaint many, many times in the last year or so! And I definitely second the notion that different takes on eremin would be refreshing - however, I do not share the idea that an overrepresentation of D!E/S!A* is a sign of people not appreciating Eren or neglecting him in their minds. What I believe is instead the cause behind this symptom, is that people can only “art” so much; I’m using my self as example here: I produce perhaps seven pieces of art in a year. And ever piece costs me a lot of effort, time and stress. Not to mention I’m doing it for free. I think most fandoms’ artists consists mainly of young artists, insecure artists and other artists making fanart in their spare time for free. What I mean by bringing this up, is that for the majority of fandom artists, the situation is this: for every one piece they produce, there are at least five piece ideas they wish they could make but can’t (for one reason or another). In other words, only the tip of the ice berg ever gets made what art is concerned. And when people know that their quota is limited, they have to pick and choose which very, very few of the ideas they have, they’ll get to make. Bringing it back to me: when I know I can only make five pieces in a year, I want to spend those slots on my favorite dynamic (D!E/S!A). Not because I don’t like S!E/D!A, or that eremin is the only ship I want to draw for (oh, all the ships I want to draw for but never get the time to, sigh), but simply because it’s my favorite dynamic of my most OTP’d ship. There’s a reason there’s a lot more talk about wanting S!E/D!A art, than actual art of it; we all agree that it’s toptier (I’ve never ever seen anyone say they have anything against this dynamic, in fact), but many of us are not at a stage where art is easy to produce, and therefor we’re still working on our #1 dynamic for our #1 ship from our #1 series. While the fandom may be oversaturated with it, our individual art is not (I don’t feel like five pieces of D!E/S!A is an overbalance, for instance). Now, some admirable artists take it upon themselves to work on pieces that there is a demand for instead of what they’d perhaps personally prefer, but for most of us, I think there’s the idea that “I will definitely draw for that ship/dynamic/series/etc - I just have to get better/more practice/make this one idea first”. And that is perfectly ok! Nobody owes anyone any particular kind of art unless you’ve agreed to take payment for said art! And I actually think that while wanting more S!E/D!A is important, spreading the idea that the lack thereof is a symptom of lack of appreciation for Eren is toxic. It can make people feel awful for preferring it the other way around, or feel demotivating or anyone working on the “problematic dynamic”. 

My opinion of this is thus, simply put: I wholeheartedly agree that Eren is worth fawning over, and eremin is beautiful for its balanced dynamic, but I have a problem with the spreading consensus that the imbalance in representation means Eren is mistreated or not cared about. Because for most of us, I don’t believe that’s true at all. Because I doubt I’m the only one who’s sitting on a bunch of ideas they’ll never fulfill. And because I know it’s possible to care deeply about other things than just the #1 thing that you end up blogging about. 

That being said, I’d love to encourage people to explore the S!E/D!A dynamic more. Due to it being so unexplored (compared to the opposite), there’s a good chance any one of you could be the “first” what ideas is concerned. Make a list of popular AUs: more of them are untouched in connection to S!E/D!A than to D!E/S!A - in all departments (art/fic/other). So who knows, if you jump the chance, maybe you’ll even start a trend! And for anyone worried that the imbalance is a sign of uncaring fans: I’d like to encourage a more relaxed state of mind where you can entertain the possibility that what you see, is just face-value (like eremin), meaning there’s more to every blogger than what posts/art makes it onto their blog; there’s love for characters that aren’t mentioned as often, there are more hobbies than anime analysis, and there’s appreciation for more things than one.*In this case, D/S refers broadly to how much emotional support the character needs, with dominance meaning independency what others’ feedback is concerned, and submission meaning a dependancy on external support to remain assured.

[allenmendezsr]

Nihongo Japanese Video Lesson

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/nihongo-japanese-video-lesson/

Nihongo Japanese Video Lesson

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These NIHONGO Japanese lessons have been very enjoyable and very helpful in learning the Japanese language.

I cannot wait to check the rest of them! I would recommend NIHONGO Japanese lessonsto anyone who is interested in learning to speak, read, or write Japanese.

Keep up the great work! You guys are the best!

Scott

“Dear Takanori Tomita

Thank you very much for your great work.

It really learned a lot about the Japanese language. The context is clear and understandable.

The learning Documents you provide are really well done and I could easily follow them.

On another point, the audio really helped me a lot with getting the pronunciation under control.

This was one of the best choices I made, and especially now that I’ve tested my japanese knowledge with native speakers.

It was a great success.

Thank you very much”

Mario E.

“Dear Takanori Tomita ;

Thank you for your NIHONGO Japanese lessons.

I think they are useful for anyone who want to learn Japanese, I also think the lessons are very good,

because they help me repair the errors I get while practicing the pronunciation and I can listen as much as possible I want .

Once more I thanks you for your useful lessons.

Regards��

NGUYEN THI AU

Dear Takanori Tomita:

Although learning another language is hard (it always is), this system is the best approach i have used in learning a different language,

and even though it can be overwhelming at times, your system breaks the Japanese language down to be easier to understand.

I’m glad that I stumbled upon your site!

Sincerely,

Hope Chantal Dolan

Takanori San, Konnichiwa,

The lessons are going very well I’m doing a little bit most days.

I’ve even started learning some hiragana which I steered clear of at first because it looked so confusing.

I’m enjoying the lessons very much, as far as I know we’ve only got one Japanese restaurant here in Liverpool where I live, my immediate aim is go there and try out what I’ve learnt,

I don’t think I’m too far off where I want to be, thanks for a great cause and all the follow up e-mails and help you’ve sent since I bought it.

I’ve attached a picture of me after I received my Ju-Jitsu black belt, its a few years old 2001 I think, but I have been told I haven’t changed much.

Sayanora.

Tony

Hello

I have started using your program in conjunction with another popular computer Japanese course. I am very happy with my purchase so far.

I really like your practice writing portion.

I managed to print out my current lesson and using a dry erase practice my hiragana.

I was very excited to find that I was able to read a lot of the hiragana portion in the other program I havebeen using.

I am very excited about going through you’re the rest of this course.

In a very short time I have been able to read and write some very good stuff in only a few chapters.

Adam

Dear Takanori

It’s Sean mcglynn here.

i think the japanese lessons are very good and i enjoying learning japanese your methods are very good for teaching people

because japanese is a difficult language to learn so i thank you for creating this great way to teach people .

Sean Mcglynn

p.s i add my picture as well in the attachments

From: Takanori Tomita Thursday, 1:28 PM

Dear Friend,

Why do you want to learn to speak Japanese?

Are you traveling to Japan and want to talk to Japanese people?

Are you a home-schooled student who wants learn more quickly and easily?

Are you a student who wants to get an A+ or VHA in Japanese?

Have you learned Japanese before and want a fun refresher course?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then this might be the most important letter to you.

Because today, I will share with you some shortcuts to Japanese success. Shortcuts that make learning Japanese easy, perhaps easier than you ever thought possible.

Imagine traveling to Japan and chatting with the locals and easily being understood.

You walk up to a complete stranger without any fear to speak in Japanese, you just say what you want to say and your words are immediately acknowledged.

It changes the way you travel and the way you relate to people.

In 30 days or less you could be communicating in Japanese, ordering meals, reserving hotels, asking questions, getting your point across and understanding what they say to you.

You can even get away from the over priced tourist traps and explore markets, meet villagers and go where the locals go as you draw on your command of conversational and functional Japanese to interact with them.

That’s the best part of learning the Shortcuts to Japanese, you learn Japanese you can use right away on a variety of subjects to communicate in most situations.

I’ll Show You Exactly How to Get through the Traps That Stop Most People from Finally Speaking Japanese

Konichiwa.

My name is Takanori Tomita, that’s me on the left

I’m a native Japanese, and have been living in Japan for nearly 30 years. Currently, I work as a Japanese translator and also teaching Japanese online, with other Japanese teachers.

I know what it’s like to learn a second language. Because, when I was fourteen years old, I went to Australia, and I had to learn English from scratch.

From my own experience, I know that speaking another language can seem like an impossible task when you’re faced with a mountain of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

I’ve experienced first hand just how useless all the theoretical babble is when you just want to be able to get by in Australia.

The good news is that learning a second language doesn’t have to be a struggle at all. After years of investigation, I have discovered ways that make it possible for anyone to communicate in any language.

It is so simple!

So, I’ll show you a completely different system that makes communicating in Japanese easy.

Once I show you how to speak Japanese, you’ll wish you had learned this way in the first place. If you had started this way, you’d be speaking Japanese by now.

[Warning!!] If You Are Serious About Communicating In Japanese In The Real-World You Must Avoid These Mistakes!

Many people who want to speak Japanese end up not being able to speak at all. A lot of people can’t string a Japanese sentence together after many months or even years of study.

Do you know why?

Because many textbooks or CD they use to learn Japanese teach you only the usual ghastly grammar methods and the Japanese writing system that make learning so dull and boring.

Also, many people start to learn Japanese only from writing and grammar.

The biggest mistakes people make is learning fake language that you will never use in any situation.

You know, most courses teach you grammar in chunks.

Most of the time, you learn adverbs and qualifiers today, the subjunctive tomorrow, the progressive the day after that.

So, you’re just confused.

I was so, when I was learning English.

You never make free flowing sentences, and if you do manage to speak at all, it feels unnatural and stilted.

Not only is this antiquated method of teaching grueling for the students, it’s horrible for the teachers as well.

You’d be amazed how many teachers hate grammar based methods. Yet, they have to teach it, because it is part of the curriculum.

Worse, it almost never works.

If it did work, millions of people would speak Japanese as a second language. Yet, very few people are able to use their classroom Japanese to communicate.

In fact, studies show that 92% of all Japanese language students discover that learning how to write Japanese isn’t as easy as they thought it would be.

You would think that learning Japanese you can use right away in the real-world would be where all Japanese courses start.

Unfortunately, real-world, immediately usable Japanese is rarely taught.

Every method that these kind of teaching materials do not little to help you in real conversations. Some methods even seemed to suffocate your ability to communicate.

If you keep using the same old time wasting strategies, drills, boring exercises that other people use, you’re even worse off!

The reason you can’t yet communicate in Japanese has nothing to do with memorizing another verb tense and all its conjugations, learning the subjunctive, the Japanese verb to be, or any of that grammar stuff.

Non of that will make a scrap of difference in your ability to communicate.

If you are a beginner, learning ONLY grammar may even make your communication worse. You see, with too much analysis of grammar you become hesitate when you speak. Your mind focuses on rules instead of flowing along with the conversation.

Fortunately, with a few simple and easy changes in your approach, you can effectively speak Japanese that you can use in the real-world.

There is a simple formula that virtually assures your success.

The Secret To Learning To Communicate Effectively In Japanese

If you have ever been frustrated trying to make head or tail of Japanese lessons, I know what it’s like, I have been there too. I assure you, there is a much easier way to do this.

Even if you feel like you have some kind of mental block with Japanese, this time everything is different. After all.

You need to listen to how a native Japanese person speak words and phrases which appear in the real life conversation, and repeat what they say.

So, for making rapid progress and learning useful Japanese, focusing on listening and speaking skill for real communication is the way to go.

You need to listen to and speak lots of Japanese words and phrases from native Japanese speakers, to really power-up your Japanese learning and fluency.

And, those of your who wish to learn reading and writing skills should try to read what is written in hiragana, katakana and kanji, and refer to the Roman alphabet for correct pronunciation purpose.

And, If want to learn the Japanese grammar as well, you really need to take the Japanese grammar method that is useful for real communication.

I am sure you will agree. It makes so much more sense to take full advantage of Shortcuts to Japanese than the usual way Japanese is taught?

NIHONGO Japanese lesson is a new method for non-Japanese who wish to start studying the Japanese for real communication!

Introducing NIHONGO Japanese Lesson, a new method of learning conversational, ” street-level” Japanese that helps non-natives achieve real communication quickly!

With NIHONGO Japanese Lesson, you are going to learn Japanese rapidly, effectively, and easily.

You will be able to be able to speak at a Japanese restaurant, at the Narita airport, with new Japanese friends… in basically every situation you can think of!

Imagine ordering meals, reserving hotels, asking questions, getting your point across and understanding what they say to you… all in Japanese!

You can even get away from the over priced tourist traps and explore markets, meet villagers and go where the locals go. You’ll easily interact with them because of your command of conversational and functional Japanese.

NIHONGO Japanese lesson will teach you how to speak Japanese naturally in the easiest way possible, because we use many well known words and phrases to guide your learning right from the start!

We’ve made each lesson bite-sized by breaking them down into smaller parts that are easier to digest, so you can practice each part individually and then put it all together — multiplying your effectiveness.

Each lesson is intended to be completed in 10~20 minutes. As you work through each lesson, certain aspects of the grammar will start to soak in, which means… in a very short time…

you’ll be communicating in Japanese without thinking about it.

You will discover that you can take what you have learned and use it in real life situation and settings.

As you complete each easy step you’re confidence will grow.

Before you know it, you’ll find yourself easily understanding native speakers and will automatically know what to say. What’s more, you’ll be speaking with the correct pronunciation.. just like a native-born Japanese who’s been speaking the language all their life.

Only, you’ve accomplished it in a few short weeks.

Here’s What You Will Receive In Your NIHONGO Japanese Package

The entire course comes with a 170-page Japanese textbook (10 Japanese lessons), 10 Japanese conversational audio lessons,as supplement materials for practicing the pronunciation.

All in all, you’ll have everything you need to quickly begin speaking conversational Japanese.

Let’s take a look at each component in detail

Component #1: Japanese Textbook (ebook) [10 Japanese language lessons]

Learn Japanese For Real Communication!

There are 10 Japanese lessons, which consist a total of 170 pages as a total. The textbook is an ebook, so you will need to download it to your computer. (not hardcopy, as our office is in Japan)

While learning all the basic constructions, grammar notions, and their associated mindsets, you can steadily acquire listening and speaking skills through drills, exercises, listening comprehension tests and utilization practice.

Each of 10 Japanese lessons consists of the following sections:

  These real life conversation part always take place between 2 people. In this part, we have also added pictures that makes memorization easier.

Rather than trying to remember by staring at text, you can make strong connections to picture.

It is expected that all the conversation converted in each lesson will be practiced a number of times.

So that you may memorize all the lines to carry out the conversations naturally.

    Additional comments are made about certain vocabulary items where necessary, and also provides the background for each real life conversation part (1).  

There are two types of exercises.

One is listening and speaking Japanese, and another one is writing Japanese.

Listen to the recorded audio files, which are covered in the real life conversation part (1), to practice your speaking and hearing.

Also, learn to write those Japanese vocabularies mentioned.

Component #2: 10 Japanese Audio Lessons – MP3 Learn to speak Japanese naturally and fluently!

Along with the Japanese textbooks, 10 audio files are included for you. So you can practice speaking the Japanese conversational phrases which are covered in each lesson.

You’ll also learn how to properly pronounce each word and phrase like a native of Japan, because we recorded a native Japanese teacher’s conversations.

The Japanese audio files average over 3 to 5 minutes in length – that’s about 1 hour audio lessons that you can listen to time and time again!

The Audio files are MP3 format, so that you can listen to it with you iphone or any smart phone too!

Click here to Download this NIHONGO Japanese lesson immediately to your computer

To Sum it All Up.. The whole Japanese Learning materials Can be Yours in Just a Few Minutes..

You’ll be speaking Japanese in no time with our innovative Interactive Audio course, and you’ll also get plenty of supplementary resources to help you learn Japanese like a diplomat!

The NIHONGO Japanese lessons will teach you to understand Japanese in an easy way.

We use many well known words and phrases and situate them in realistic everyday contexts. We’ve made each lesson very easy for you to learn by breaking them down into small parts, so you can practice each part individually and then put it all together..

Easy-to-apply memorization tips and tricks to remember Japanese words better, including kanji symbols

How each of the letters in Japanese is called, how each one of them is pronounced, and some audio lessons for practice.

How to pronounce different Japanese words, and phrases correctly.

Easy and simple ways of creating grammatical and sensible Japanese sentences

Basic greetings and everyday expressions in Japanese

The difference between describing with Japanese and English adjectives. Numbers, days, months, time, etc. in Japanese How to identify formal and familiar situations in order to use the appropriate expressions. The easiest way to identify the gender of Japanese nouns List of Japanese prepositions and example phrases. How Japanese nouns form their plural counterparts. What to say when ordering food, shopping, hiring public vehicles, checking in at hotels, and in other usual situations using the Japanese language

Here’s What A Few Satisfied Students Have To Say About Our Nihongo Japanese Lesson…

“Dear Takanori Tomita,

First I would like to thank you for the chance to learn Japanese and secondly for checking on how I am doing.

I haven’t had any trouble so far with getting the web site or downloads to work. Its all good.

I am a very slow learner but I am enjoying every moment of it.

I have a friend at work who is learning Japanese from books and cd’s. We have started learning at the same time.

So I have someone to learn with. We teach each other things we have learnt and we both progress we will be able to have conversations with each other and help each.

He said that he may join this web site in the future as it shows, gives and teaches more than the books he has paid so much money on.

Thank you once again“

Leanne x

“I am very happy so far.

I just returned from 2 months in Japan and plan to return again.

Having this as written text and audio lessons is very helpful.

And you speak clearly and slowly enough for me to grasp much more.

Domo Arigatou“

Kasia Wilk

“Dear Takanori,

The Japanese lessons are going great.

It is a lot easier to learn from your product than the one I had originally bought. The speaking section is what helps me the most.

Sincerely“

Michelle Morgan

Ohayou Gozaimasu Takanara-san

I went through the nigongo material you provided. I found it was helpful. If i had to rate out of 10 your audio service, i would give it a 10 out of 10.

Simply because its done with visuals and though i never thought that would help it really does and the fact that the pace the teacher goes at is slow so you don’t miss a thing.

I hope this has been helpful in what you required for review able assessment.

Soner-san

I just wanted to say: Arigatou Gozaimasu!!!!!

You are the BEST teacher for Japanese I have ever had.

I don’t know what it is but it really gets through to me. I understand it like I’ve known it my whole life! So thank you.

I plan on visiting Japan some day and thanks to you, I will be able to talk to people.

Your an amazing teacher.

Thank you again.

Alex

Dear Takanori sensei,

I will be happy to write a comment for your NIHONGO Japanese lessons.

“I am very happy with the NIHONGO Japanese lessons, they are easy to follow and fun to do.

Having the lessons taught by three Japanese people means that the pronunciation of words are authentic, while very practical conversation skills are taught so that you can practice on your Japanese friends.”

– Kelwin Wong

Get NIHONGO Japanese Lessons Instantly.. No Wasting Time or Waiting For Mail.. (You can also get the normal book version as well)

The NIHONGO Japanese Lesson is available via instant download (PC or Mac),

Yet, there are several advantages to you ordering the download package..

No waiting time, forget having to wait weeks for postal delivery.

No risk of products lost in the mail or damaged.

Cheaper than the hardcopy version

Most importantly.. You can be learning Japanese in minutes!

My 100% Satisfaction Guarantee!

I personally guarantee that NIHONGO Japanese Lesson is the absolute best value for a language course on the net!

How can I be so sure? I have checked and researched lots of Japanese language sites and products and I am confident that NIHONGO Japanese lesson is the best priced for the features..

So, will I put my money where my mouth is?

Sure! I am 100% sure that this is the best self-study program out there for learning to speak Japanese. So, if for any reason you don’t find NIHONGO Japanese lesson lives up to your expectations, simply email me and I will cheerfully issue you a 100% refund! No hassles, no problems.

So, how much is the Nihongo Japanese Lesson?

Now, think about going to a Japanese language school to learn the same thing and taking a private lesson each month.

You know, a private Japanese tuition can cost $20 – 30 an hour and up.

Imagine if you did not need a Japanese tutor at all, how much would you save?

If you went to a Japanese tutor for just two hours per week for three months, you’d already be spending $480 – $720!

Moreover, going to a Japanese school would cost you much more! Taking a class just one time would cost you at least US$195 as an enrollment fee, plus travel, and the time away from your work or your family – certainly several hundred dollars or more.. and that’s every week!

But, with Nihongo Japanese Lesson you get the same quality course taught in expensive schools. PLUS you can listen and learn at your convenience.

All for only $79.95.

But, wait!

Here’s the limited time special price offer for you!!

You can get the Nihongo Japanese Lesson only for US$79.95 – – ->> $19.95 (special price offer for a limited time).

Click the following “Order Now button” to Download the NIHONGO Japanese lesson Here!!

US$19.95 – for a limited time Offer Download the NIHONGO Japanese textbook with 10 audio lessons to your computer immediately.

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Wait, here is another special offer for you! 2 Special Bonuses are included!

As a special free bonus for acting immediately I will also give you 2 special e-books!!

Join now and you will also receive $139.95 in amazing bonuses absolutely FREE!

You would normally have to pay $139.95 for these if you join now I will include them at no charge.

Bonus 1: “Japanese Kanji Dictionary: 30 Kanji symbols which are based on the way of SAMURAI”: 30 Different Japanese Kanji Symbol designs are included in this book. You can use them for your tattoo, logo, hanging or jewelry design.

Bonus 2: “100 Japanese Kanji Symbols: Unique, Beautiful and Authentic Japanese kanji symbol design” All the images are designed with calligraphy fonts and stencil outlines. This is a $100 value.

Well, there you have it. With these 2 bonuses, and the Nihongo Japanese Lesson, you can learn to speak Japanese for real communication!

Together these Three free bonuses are worth more than triple your investment in the NIHONGO Japanese Lesson.

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P.S: Remember, in just a few moments you can have everything you need to start speaking Japanese Like a Diplomat. The price of the download version is an incredible value. You simply cannot get a BETTER course on quickly learning Japanese.. and at an amazing bargain!

Just imagine.. you can be on your way to communicating in Japanese in just minutes.

Native Japanese teachers have developed all of the lessons to guarantee that you learn the Japanese that Native Japanese actually speak – NOT the too-formal-Japanese taught in textbooks and other Japanese courses.

Learning NIHONGO Japanese lesson uses a method to learn Japanese which is so fun and so natural – the same way that we all learned how to speak our native language.

And all of the speakers in the recordings are Natives of Japanese people. They are also all college-educated. So you can be sure that you also develop a real Japanese accent that sounds just like a college-educated native.

And you’ll be learning real conversational Japanese for real communication. You’ll be speaking Japanese so well that people will almost mistake you for a native!

Start Learning Right Away. Get instant access to the entire NIHONGO Japanese Lesson’s package in just minutes from now!

Plus the course has a 100% no hassle guarantee, all you have to do to get a refund is say “I want a refund”.

P.P.S Remember, in 30 days or less you will know how to speak Japanese for real communication.

That’s the best part of learning the Shortcuts to Japanese… you learn Japanese you can use right away on a variety of subjects to communicate in most situations.

NIHONGO Japanese Lesson is the shortcut that makes learning Japanese easier than you ever thought possible.

Sincerely,

Takanori Tomita Nihongo Japanese Lesson

Click the following “Order Now button” to Download the NIHONGO Japanese lesson Here!!

US$19.95 – for a limited time Offer Download the NIHONGO Japanese textbook with 10 audio lessons to your computer immediately.

(Order now through our Secure Server, and get instant access!)

[goodguyjean]

Some Thoughts Jean’s Character Development (Prompted by the HS AU).

CW: Bullying and the molestation scene.

So, in keeping with the rhetorical principle of kairos (timeliness of an argument), I think the time is ripe for a (re?)consideration of Jean Kirstein’s presentation in the Attack on Titan manga. I noticed that a bit of a discussion about Jean’s character popped up in the wake of the High School AU fake preview for volume 22 (one which I’ve already participated in a few times) and since we’ve just had a massive time-skip in the series to kick off the final arc, I feel like we can examine the development of the characters from the fall of Wall Maria to their journey to the ocean as discreet units. In fact, it may be useful to look at where some of them have ended up and how they got there before launching off into the new arc, so if you like what I have to say about Jean please send me suggestions for more character analysis like this!

The reasons I want to talk about Jean are twofold. The first is obviously personal interest. I’m discussing Jean regardless of whether or not anyone else really wants to read it because I find his portrayal and development intriguing xD. But my jumping off point is a little bit more specific, to come back to the question of kairos. The High School AU, however silly or tongue-in-cheek, has raised questions in fandom about whether or not Jean is a bully in canon or would be one in an AU that I would like to address.

Although I’m taking an AU’s depiction of Jean as the starting point of my inquiry, this post is pretty much only concerned with the canon material of the manga (not the anime: I have already discussed discrepancies between the manga and the anime’s portrayals of Jean here). Even though Isayama drew the High School AU and therefore it probably has value as meta, I feel strongly that the Jean depicted therein has little in common with Jean in the manga. I’ve been attempting to follow up on an interview which was mentioned to me, where Isayama supposedly said that in any other universe Jean would be one of Armin’s bullies (I’d appreciate any help in locating it! So far I’ve only been able to find other people mentioning it in their posts but no source). I find this kind of blanket statement on Isayama’s part a little bit more troubling—how did he come to understand his character this way? I guess it doesn’t matter to a certain extent, because authorial intent or understanding is by no means the end-all be-all of interpretation—and therefore I would like to further explore the question of Jean’s canonical presentation to attempt to answer the question: is Jean Kirstein ever, at any point, a bully?

My answer, as you may be able to guess from the fact that my blog is Jean themed, is a pretty hard no. In fact, within canon I would argue that Jean is one of the more empathetic and morally astute characters, and that the development he undergoes is less of a complete ethical realignment and more of an adjustment of his goals and strategies. He doesn’t begin cruel and transform into a kinder person; he starts off as astute but self-centered and his development revolves around using his skills to protect and champion others rather than just himself.

I would say Jean actually starts off as a bit of an outsider among the 104th (a facet of his personality that the original draft of the HS AU actually preserves) and that Eren generally has more clout than him; in fact, trainee Eren would probably not be a compelling target for a bully, all things considered. Jean’s fights with him don’t seem to come from a place of maintaining dominance over someone weaker and instead take the form of pretty mutual brawling. Indeed, he may be at a bit of a disadvantage when fighting against Eren physically, as demonstrated in this scene.

Chapter 3. Jean is “punching up” here, as it were. After a battle of words, Eren and Jean hit each other simultaneously and initiate a fight in which, according to Reiner, the odds may be slightly against Jean. Mikasa also implies Eren picked this fight after she intervenes. Also I just noticed that dude giving peace signs in the far left corner lol.

All in all, Jean is never depicted as picking on someone weaker than himself to establish dominance at pretty much any point in the series, as far as I can remember (in fact, he’s the only one to stand up to bullying in some situations, as will be discussed below). Isayama shows Jean hassling Marco, teasing Sasha, and picking fights with Eren (the first of whom has some pretty naive worldviews and the latter of whom give as good as they get and even start said fights). Jean’s so irritating to Eren--at least in the manga, I know they nerf him considerably in the anime--because he’s astute and quite often actually has a point. He’s not, unlike Armin’s bullies in the series, calling Eren a heretic for even thinking of going outside; rather, he seems concerned that Eren is going to drag other people outside to killed along with him (particularly Mikasa, initially). He can be rude and he has a short fuse but he’s not seeking people out to hurt them and enjoying it. He has a sore spot about Eren, but that’s really more of a fight between equals--they make each other mutually uncomfortable because Jean reminds Eren of the stakes involved in achieveing his goals and Eren provokes action from Jean. 

In fact, I’d say Jean’s commitment to the truth aligns him a lot more with Armin than his bullies or even with the other members of the 104th. For instance, as this post points out, they both get themselves into trouble by speaking their minds as kids. 

Armin in chapter 1 and Jean in chapter 16. I still can’t get over Jean calling Eren “eloquent”; regardless of Eren’s good intentions, I think Jean is very right in pointing out how Eren’s rhetoric doesn’t sound all that different from the story the higher ups told about the cull. But I also find it super interesting that there is no bad intent in Jean’s speech here; given the “truce” they call afterwards, I think he’s serious that he doesn’t mean to attack Eren. In the anime Jean doesn’t get this line about eloquence in and the scene is much more hostile.

Which brings me to my point about his development. The way I read it in the manga, Jean’s journey is not about transforming from a cruel person into a kinder one (since he is never depicted as cruel in the first place), but from a self-centered individual into a responsible one: specifically, a person tasked with championing the weak. Jean has always seen the problems with the government--he talks about the cull of twenty-percent of the population as a suicide mission, he pokes fun at the rhetoric of calling the people who are forced to settled in outskirt towns “heroes”--but instead of attempting to do anything about it his initial impulse is to play the system so that he survives as long as possible.

Chapter 17. They stand up to start fighting simultaneously immediately after this. Eren is sweating here, implying nervousness, and his eye is twitching; Jean’s pretty calm now, but in just a few panels his jealousy over Eren’s friends will get him into trouble. 

In fact, Marco thinks Jean’s pragmatism and desire of self-preservation put him in a unique position to stand up for the weak--the opposite of picking on them.

Chapter 18. This memory comes to Jean when he’s trying to decide how best to protect his comrades from further death and devastation.

Marco’s point is that Jean has a unique combination of skills and personality traits which he can utilize to protect the weak, both from the titans and (eventually) other humans who are seeking to oppress them. Jean’s “weakness” leads him to value life, so he’s not going to take certain risks unless he has to--and he’ll be honest it about it with his soldiers, so they’ll know he has their interests at heart. He only makes sacrifices reluctantly, when he must in order to preserve a larger number of people (as seen in Trost). He’s also astute: he’s suspicious of empty rhetoric (like the government deals in--it’s so weird that Marco is the one implying some of this, given his fondness for the king; perhaps it’s just that the society views these attributes as weak, given how messed up it is) and he can take in any situation pretty quickly. He’s aware of the systems of oppression that govern the Walled World (culls and bait towns), and his development seems to center on widening the scope of how he resists those systems rather than his awakening to their existence: he needs to look out not just for himself, but others or else he is complicit in their suffering. So he joins the Survey Corps, not because he sees Eren’s vision of “freedom, no matter how high the costs” but because he wants to protect his friends.

Chapter 18. I don’t think bullies worry so much about others. There’s a sense of camaraderie that seems to include Jean expressed at other points in the manga--like, yeah he’s a bit rude sometimes, but he’s our rude guy and we like him that way. No one seems to have a serious problem with him. 

This seems to be how others understand Jean’s change of heart as well. Everyone is weirded out by how “responsible” he is now, rather than how much kinder--implying they didn’t really see him as cruel in the first place. No one comments, for instance, on Jean personally supporting Connie or Armin after some of their difficulties, but they do notice when he speaks up for helping others more generally, particularly at great risk to himself. 

Reiner in volume 6, when Jean suggests buying time for the platoon to retreat after the Female Titan devastated their forces.

Connie, Eren, and Armin commenting on how Jean’s changed in volume 13. I’m not quite sure about Armin’s comment here; was Jean ever really a “bad guy” or just a bit of an asshole sometimes in the course of disagreeing with Eren?

And I think Jean takes his newfound commitment to others seriously, which leads to some of his struggles during the Uprising arc as he tries to distinguish the most ethical course of action when the metric of “human versus titan” fails. He always attempts to voice his objections within the parameters allowed to him by the military, although not always in the most productive ways (think about that joke about stabbing incompetent commanders in the back . . .). In fact, he’s even willing to challenge the SC when he thinks they’re going too far in the name of the coup: part way through my initial read through of the series, I started looking to Jean for commentary on the morals of a coup that stems from within the military rather than from the will of populace. 

Jean voices his objections to torture, volume 14. Surely someone with a cruel streak or the impulse to bully would be able to think of some justification for torture.

Everyone is upset over Levi’s treatment of Historia, but Jean’s the only person who actually says anything, volume 14.

Jean is the first and last person to raise objections about the coup’s methods in this scene, volume 14. He feels so strongly about it he considers defying orders.

And I don’t necessarily want to get too much into the molestation scene from chapters 52 and 53, but Jean seems to object to being asked to participate in the “bait” scheme, because it makes him somewhat complicit in what happens to Armin. While presumably other members of the 104th comforted Armin after his trauma, we only see Jean doing it. In fact, he’s the only one who speaks about it apart from Mikasa, who alludes to the molestation once on the rooftop while she and Levi are setting up the trap.

Jean struggles with the tenants of the mission, which is to act as bait until they can spring a trap for the big boss of the Reeves’ company, volume 13. The implication seems to be if he were not compelled to be “Eren” at this point he could do something about what is happening to Armin.

From volume 13. Unfortunately, it also seems like Connie and Sasha are laughing here. :(

Of course, even at this stage of his maturation there’s still room for Jean to grow. For example, Jean’s response to Armin’s second “gesumin” moment, wherein he suggests fooling the masses in order to get them on the survey corps side, is to blame Armin’s unethical proposal on his recent trauma.

Volume 14.

This is not Jean’s finest moment, but I read it as him (however problematically) trying to make sense of Armin’s suggestion; a suggestion which involves manipulation and lying, two things antithetical to Jean’s own values. This ableism doesn’t belong just to Jean, but is pervasive throughout the world of Attack on Titan (many people toss around insults related to intelligence and mental health), so I read this also as a bit of a knock to their society; they could all do better. This is not to excuse Jean here, but to just acknowledge the systematic nature of the problem.

Overall, however, Jean’s the only person who’s attempting to help Armin (that we see, obviously) and I think these scenes are where we get a fuller sense of his empathy; an empathy that also leads him to try to help Eren (again, in his own blunt and awkward way) after the events of the Reiss chapel. It’s the same empathy, I think, that Marco alludes to when he says Jean understands the weak and should endeavor to help them. We can read that empathy back into his concern for his fellow soldiers, who are constantly asked to risk their lives for causes that may not even have their best interests at heart. Whereas Armin’s analytic nature leads him to discover people’s secrets and predict their movements, Jean’s empathy grants him perspective on their feelings--he can see the human in pretty much anybody, which I view as his main strength.

Over the course of the coup, Jean becomes the main voice of dissent. Although Sasha and Connie often nod along with him, he’s usually the one who either speaks first or speaks at all, and Levi realizes that he’s going to have to convince Jean eventually if he’s going to maintain order in his ranks.

From volume 14. I think it’s so interesting that we’re looking first at Jean from behind and then at him through Levi’s eyes. It’s almost like we’re meant to be identifying primarily with Jean and Levi’s looking at us--Levi has to convince us he’s right, in addition to convincing Jean. He’s also centered here, suggesting his leader status among the other recruits.

Jean’s biggest development during the coup stems from struggling with the idea that there’s no way to be ethically pure. He joined the Survey Corps in order to help others after Trost made him fully aware of the stakes but sometimes that’s a murkier process than it initially seems. Jean decides after Armin kills someone for him (sacrificing his own innocence for Jean’s life), that the best he can do in his current situation is to protect his comrades. And he takes that mentality with him after the coup, as demonstrated in this scene where he lectures Marlowe.

Chapter 72. Jean’s trying to tell Marlowe not to get swept up in the rhetoric of self-sacrifice.

Yet I like that Jean doesn’t come out his experience completely cowed by Levi (who, admittedly, does not want Jean to be cowed or even want Jean to think he’s always right, based on their discussions), as we can see in this scene where he encourages Historia to keep her promise to Boss Reeves and punch Levi in revenge for his violence towards her.

Chapter 70. Eren thinks she should let it go but Jean cheers her on.

So, in summation, Isayama can reinterpret Jean as a bully if he wants to in his AUs for comedy, but I think that’s an oversimplified and even quite inaccurate reading if we want to take it seriously, even of pre-development Jean xD. Jean starts off as an observant but self-centered person who doesn’t intimidate the weak but doesn’t champion them either; he just wants to survive. But Marco’s death makes him realize the full extent of the care he feels for his comrades and he sets out to protect them and support them, even in defiance of his commanders. He questions the rhetorical maneuvering of the powerful and seeks to live honestly. None of that sounds like a bully and certainly none of that sounds like it would develop into a bully in a different world where there were no titans or no totalitarian government. And those are my two cents xD

[kandrakelsier]

Fandom Fic Rec

Alrighty, so this is apparently a thing, and I’ve been meaning to do recs for a while so... here’s a long list of my favorite fanfiction works, with links to each of them. I recommend all of them.

Hanover Chronicles-Katriona_Subasa (@agronadb​)

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka No Ken, Fire Emblem 6- Fuuin No Tsurugi

A series of four fics, spanning just over a thousand years of history in the Fire Emblem world of Elibe. This series is one of my favorites; the characters are well developed, there are little tie-ins and easter eggs between fics, the writing style (particularly the dialogue) feels super realistic, and the pacing is excellent. Also would like to point out that the series is approaching 1 million words, so if you start, you’ll have plenty of material to keep you going, particularly since the last fic is still in progress.

Reprise-Elfpen

Fandom: Star Wars

A series of time-travel fix-it fics where Obi-Wan is sent back in time after his duel with Darth Vader on the Death Star. The humor is great; imagine Qui-Gon trying to deal with two Obi-Wans at once. There’s also cameos from characters in the True EU, which was fun to see, and some great philosophizing about the nature of the Force. Lots of good meta, and overall just very well written.

Messenger-HundredHanded (@hundred-handed​)

Fandom: Overwatch

An Ancient Greek AU. Angela travels with Reinhardt as he tries to take down Talon, and Fareeha is a bodyguard. Very clean writing; you can tell a lot of research went into this one. No character feels out of place, even if the entire thing takes place in Greece, and the names are absolutely brilliant. Good fic, good pairing.

Beneath the Stars-StarlightWalking 

Fandom: LOTR

A finished fic covering the travels and life of Tauriel after the Hobbit and through the War of the Ring. Really fleshes out the brief relationship between Tauriel and Kili. Provides a lovely conclusion to her story, which was more or less left hanging at the end of the movie. Shout out to TolkienGuardians for always posting updates on this so I could go read new chapters. 

Knight-Errant-Zinjadu 

Fandom: Star Wars

A canon divergent fic covering the Clone Wars, where Ahsoka wasn’t expelled from the Jedi Order and instead was promoted to a unique position. Proceeding relatively slowly, but has a lot of material, and each one is well done. Covers battle, politics, and slices of life, which very few other sources do. Contains a whole bunch of fics, so pick your poison.

Love, Life, and Peril-LiamReyes

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka No Ken

A unique take on the story of FE7, involving a tactician with a checkered past. This is an older fic that is progressing slowly, but is well written, with enough AU tossed in to keep the story fresh. The background adds a nice twist to the story, and some character deaths are left out, which I think makes the fic much better,

A Fresh Cup of Coffee-Lydia_Rogue (@marykay91​)

Fandom: RWBY

Hoo boy. Another favorite fic of mine, involving the formation and adventures of Team CFVY (You know, the ones that got maybe ten minutes of screen time?). Super well done, and covers some serious issues within the show that the actual series does not (Racism, Ableism, etc). Bonus points for having the team be in a super cute poly relationship, and for fully fleshing out the most badass team on the show.

Overwatch Emergency Communication Channel-ArcaneAdagio 

Fandom: Overwatch

This is... a legendary crackfic. Just, imaging the entire Overwatch team on a chat server during day to day life. Absolutely hilarious, and the format is great. Lots of pairings, lots of shenanigans. 

It's Basically Discord-Hanzo Shimada (Ubercharge)

Fandom: Overwatch

Same as the last one, another crack chatlog fic. This one starts in the days of Overwatch before the fall, so you get to see some of the interactions between the old soldiers when they were still young and snarky.

Reaping Dragons-MegsBlackFire 

Fandom: Overwatch

A series featuring genderbent Reyes and Hanzo, and covering their recruitment into Overwatch before the fall. McHanzo and Reaper76 feature prominently, and there’s plenty of OC characters to help flesh out the story. Well written, and ongoing through the current storyline of Overwatch (Whatever that is Blizzard’s timeline is so messed up)

The Young Never Sleep-CerealMilk (@cerealwatch​)

Fandom: Overwatch

A much, much darker fic, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Details D.Va’s life and current status in Overwatch, and explores how being a child soldier who’s been fighting omnics for years might fuck you up a bit. Lots of triggers, read the description before you start. Goes a lot into recovery and in how D.Va deals with life and death, and doesn’t treat her like a child. Basically the anti-gremlin D.Va; Hana Song and D.Va are very much not the same person here. 

Sorrowful and Immaculate Hearts-Unpretty (@unpretty​)

Fandom: DC

Ah yes, another legendary series of fics. You’ve probably seen at least one of these floating around. Covers a wide range of topics, mostly Batman related, but all of them are well written, and most are hilarious. Hard to sum up this one since there’s so many fics, but all of them are worth a read.

The Stars Our Destination-CommanderRoastedWolf 

Fandom: Overwatch

A fantasy AU centering around Pharmercy, with Pharah as knight and Mercy as priest. Gorgeous worldbuilding and character development, and I love how other characters are portrayed. Ongoing, updates fairly slowly.

Imagine the Ocean-Damkianna

Fandom: AtLA

An Avatar AU where Katara is the Avatar, instead of Aang. Supremely well written, and adds touches of details to the original that improve the already incredible story. A few OCs provide some nice contrasting points of view.

Kingdom of Rust-Colms (@kelsiers​)

Fandom: Cosmere

Ah yes, this was a fun one. Wayne and Marasi go do shooty-shooty stabby-stabby detective work. I love this one because the writing style is so similar to Sanderson’s; the dialogue is spot on, and the plot fits right in with canon. Love the characterization of Marasi, who I at least feel is slightly underdeveloped in canon. 

Equilibrium-Caesurae 

Fandom: Overwatch/Pacific Rim

A crossover fic with Angela as a Jaeger pilot. Has both Pharmercy and Gency, and most of the other characters make appearances at one point or another. This one is plenty long, and the style/viewpoint of the writing is unique and makes for an interesting read.

Once There Was-Peradi 

Fandom: Star Wars

A series that examines the fall of the First Order from within, inspired by the actions of Finn when he dared to break off and become a traitor. Written almost like poetry, this one strikes deep and is a good read for fans of Star Wars from any era; it applied regardless.

In Loco Pirates-IzzyTheHutt 

Fandom: Star Wars

So what if Hondo (Yes, that Weequay pirate with impeccable business sense and a great sense of humor) ran into Luke Skywalker and then sold helped him reconnect with his father? Good stuff. Definitely AU, but so far everything is believable. Does some great character analysis of Darth Vader and Palpatine as well.

MaftWaft-Oddport

Fandom: TF2

A TF2 fandom? In 2017? Yep. An AU where the fem!mercs end up in the canon universe, and the two teams join forces to take down Grey Mann. A fun read, with all the characters behaving about as you’d expect them to when confronted with themselves. Lots of adorable couples too.

Wayward Son-Gunlord500 

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka No Ken

Hoo boy. This fic. Over a million words across (I believe) six years and almost eighty chapters. In universe, it covers a few hundred years, following the story of a single enigmatic man as he lives, fights, loves, and dies. Very interesting backstory on one of the most mysterious characters in the canon, and contains loads upon loads of philosophy and religion that I, at least, found very useful.

The Last Red Shoulder-Gunlord500

Fandom: Fire Emblem 6-Fuuin No Tsurugi

In the same universe as the above, covering a side story about corruption and a horrifyingly evil artifact. Same praise as the above, basically, and well worth the read. Would recommend reading Wayward Son at least to about chapter 50ish first though, as there is some backstory that you’ll be better off knowing.

Six Shots to Go-CourierNinetyTwo 

Fandom: RWBY

Another CFVY fic, covering all six possible pairings in the team. Each one is explored in detail, and seems true to the characters from what we know of them. Overall, a cute fic (I think there might be some NSFW in this one, careful)

Silly: In Defense of Parvati Patil-DirgeWithoutMusic 

Fandom: Harry Potter

A look into life after the books, focusing on Pavarti and how she deals with the trauma of going through a full blown war before the age of eighteen. Fills in the gaps that JK Rowling left behind, and offers a much more realistic view of what life would be like after seeing your friends die.

Sealed In Silence-MorriganFearn 

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

A look into the life of the Eight Heroes, focused around Bramimond, the Dark Druid. It’s told as a series of small interactions between Bramimond and the other heroes. An older fic, but it has aged well.

The Dusk of Our Revolution-LittleGreenBudgie 

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

An AU where Matthew is trying to escape the Black Fang gang; a well written side fic that covers one of my rarepairs from this ancient fandom. Each of the Four Fangs makes an appearance as well, as do other characters, and the whole thing fits neatly into the new setting.

Clandestine-LittleGreenBudgie 

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

A quick meeting between Matthew and Leila. This is the rarepair I mentioned above, but it’s cute, and this little fic covers their interaction very well, I think.

End of An Era: Unholy Alliance-LordHippoman 

Fandom: League of Legends

The League falls to a combined assault from the Void, Noxus, and the Shadow Isles. An older fic that I read back when I played League super regularly, but it’s a good read overall.

Another Hope-Rose of the Nile

Fandom: Assassin’s Creed IV

This beautiful fic is another time travel fic, where Edward is sent back in time after the events of AC4. Knowing what he does, he tries to fix his mistakes. This one made me happy mainly because of the pairing and improved character development, and is a great read for anyone who loved Kiddway as much as I did.

Deep Breaths-CrimsonNoble

Fandom: League of Legends

An AU fic with Riven and Irelia. Basic Cop and Gang fic, with each of the major factions being a different gang member. Older fic, but done well, with interesting perspective shifts and descriptions.

More Than Words-Kitten Kisses 

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

Sadly, this fic was taken down, but you should be able to email the author for a copy. A post game fic where Hector and Farina get back together. Very fluffy and angsty; poor Farina doesn’t catch a break in this one, but it all turns out lovely.

The Ice Girl-Meelu the Bold

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

Linus and Lloyd save Nino when she’s abducted by faeries; bit of a strange premise, but it leads to some classic puzzling and hack and slash action. Very old fic, but a good read.

[allenmendezsr]

Nihongo Japanese Video Lesson

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Do you know why?

Because many textbooks or CD they use to learn Japanese teach you only the usual ghastly grammar methods and the Japanese writing system that make learning so dull and boring.

Also, many people start to learn Japanese only from writing and grammar.

The biggest mistakes people make is learning fake language that you will never use in any situation.

You know, most courses teach you grammar in chunks.

Most of the time, you learn adverbs and qualifiers today, the subjunctive tomorrow, the progressive the day after that.

So, you’re just confused.

I was so, when I was learning English.

You never make free flowing sentences, and if you do manage to speak at all, it feels unnatural and stilted.

Not only is this antiquated method of teaching grueling for the students, it’s horrible for the teachers as well.

You’d be amazed how many teachers hate grammar based methods. Yet, they have to teach it, because it is part of the curriculum.

Worse, it almost never works.

If it did work, millions of people would speak Japanese as a second language. Yet, very few people are able to use their classroom Japanese to communicate.

In fact, studies show that 92% of all Japanese language students discover that learning how to write Japanese isn’t as easy as they thought it would be.

You would think that learning Japanese you can use right away in the real-world would be where all Japanese courses start.

Unfortunately, real-world, immediately usable Japanese is rarely taught.

Every method that these kind of teaching materials do not little to help you in real conversations. Some methods even seemed to suffocate your ability to communicate.

If you keep using the same old time wasting strategies, drills, boring exercises that other people use, you’re even worse off!

The reason you can’t yet communicate in Japanese has nothing to do with memorizing another verb tense and all its conjugations, learning the subjunctive, the Japanese verb to be, or any of that grammar stuff.

Non of that will make a scrap of difference in your ability to communicate.

If you are a beginner, learning ONLY grammar may even make your communication worse. You see, with too much analysis of grammar you become hesitate when you speak. Your mind focuses on rules instead of flowing along with the conversation.

Fortunately, with a few simple and easy changes in your approach, you can effectively speak Japanese that you can use in the real-world.

There is a simple formula that virtually assures your success.

The Secret To Learning To Communicate Effectively In Japanese

If you have ever been frustrated trying to make head or tail of Japanese lessons, I know what it’s like, I have been there too. I assure you, there is a much easier way to do this.

Even if you feel like you have some kind of mental block with Japanese, this time everything is different. After all.

You need to listen to how a native Japanese person speak words and phrases which appear in the real life conversation, and repeat what they say.

So, for making rapid progress and learning useful Japanese, focusing on listening and speaking skill for real communication is the way to go.

You need to listen to and speak lots of Japanese words and phrases from native Japanese speakers, to really power-up your Japanese learning and fluency.

And, those of your who wish to learn reading and writing skills should try to read what is written in hiragana, katakana and kanji, and refer to the Roman alphabet for correct pronunciation purpose.

And, If want to learn the Japanese grammar as well, you really need to take the Japanese grammar method that is useful for real communication.

I am sure you will agree. It makes so much more sense to take full advantage of Shortcuts to Japanese than the usual way Japanese is taught?

NIHONGO Japanese lesson is a new method for non-Japanese who wish to start studying the Japanese for real communication!

Introducing NIHONGO Japanese Lesson, a new method of learning conversational, ” street-level” Japanese that helps non-natives achieve real communication quickly!

With NIHONGO Japanese Lesson, you are going to learn Japanese rapidly, effectively, and easily.

You will be able to be able to speak at a Japanese restaurant, at the Narita airport, with new Japanese friends… in basically every situation you can think of!

Imagine ordering meals, reserving hotels, asking questions, getting your point across and understanding what they say to you… all in Japanese!

You can even get away from the over priced tourist traps and explore markets, meet villagers and go where the locals go. You’ll easily interact with them because of your command of conversational and functional Japanese.

NIHONGO Japanese lesson will teach you how to speak Japanese naturally in the easiest way possible, because we use many well known words and phrases to guide your learning right from the start!

We’ve made each lesson bite-sized by breaking them down into smaller parts that are easier to digest, so you can practice each part individually and then put it all together — multiplying your effectiveness.

Each lesson is intended to be completed in 10~20 minutes. As you work through each lesson, certain aspects of the grammar will start to soak in, which means… in a very short time…

you’ll be communicating in Japanese without thinking about it.

You will discover that you can take what you have learned and use it in real life situation and settings.

As you complete each easy step you’re confidence will grow.

Before you know it, you’ll find yourself easily understanding native speakers and will automatically know what to say. What’s more, you’ll be speaking with the correct pronunciation.. just like a native-born Japanese who’s been speaking the language all their life.

Only, you’ve accomplished it in a few short weeks.

Here’s What You Will Receive In Your NIHONGO Japanese Package

The entire course comes with a 170-page Japanese textbook (10 Japanese lessons), 10 Japanese conversational audio lessons,as supplement materials for practicing the pronunciation.

All in all, you’ll have everything you need to quickly begin speaking conversational Japanese.

Let’s take a look at each component in detail

Component #1: Japanese Textbook (ebook) [10 Japanese language lessons]

Learn Japanese For Real Communication!

There are 10 Japanese lessons, which consist a total of 170 pages as a total. The textbook is an ebook, so you will need to download it to your computer. (not hardcopy, as our office is in Japan)

While learning all the basic constructions, grammar notions, and their associated mindsets, you can steadily acquire listening and speaking skills through drills, exercises, listening comprehension tests and utilization practice.

Each of 10 Japanese lessons consists of the following sections:

  These real life conversation part always take place between 2 people. In this part, we have also added pictures that makes memorization easier.

Rather than trying to remember by staring at text, you can make strong connections to picture.

It is expected that all the conversation converted in each lesson will be practiced a number of times.

So that you may memorize all the lines to carry out the conversations naturally.

    Additional comments are made about certain vocabulary items where necessary, and also provides the background for each real life conversation part (1).  

There are two types of exercises.

One is listening and speaking Japanese, and another one is writing Japanese.

Listen to the recorded audio files, which are covered in the real life conversation part (1), to practice your speaking and hearing.

Also, learn to write those Japanese vocabularies mentioned.

Component #2: 10 Japanese Audio Lessons – MP3 Learn to speak Japanese naturally and fluently!

Along with the Japanese textbooks, 10 audio files are included for you. So you can practice speaking the Japanese conversational phrases which are covered in each lesson.

You’ll also learn how to properly pronounce each word and phrase like a native of Japan, because we recorded a native Japanese teacher’s conversations.

The Japanese audio files average over 3 to 5 minutes in length – that’s about 1 hour audio lessons that you can listen to time and time again!

The Audio files are MP3 format, so that you can listen to it with you iphone or any smart phone too!

Click here to Download this NIHONGO Japanese lesson immediately to your computer

To Sum it All Up.. The whole Japanese Learning materials Can be Yours in Just a Few Minutes..

You’ll be speaking Japanese in no time with our innovative Interactive Audio course, and you’ll also get plenty of supplementary resources to help you learn Japanese like a diplomat!

The NIHONGO Japanese lessons will teach you to understand Japanese in an easy way.

We use many well known words and phrases and situate them in realistic everyday contexts. We’ve made each lesson very easy for you to learn by breaking them down into small parts, so you can practice each part individually and then put it all together..

Easy-to-apply memorization tips and tricks to remember Japanese words better, including kanji symbols

How each of the letters in Japanese is called, how each one of them is pronounced, and some audio lessons for practice.

How to pronounce different Japanese words, and phrases correctly.

Easy and simple ways of creating grammatical and sensible Japanese sentences

Basic greetings and everyday expressions in Japanese

The difference between describing with Japanese and English adjectives. Numbers, days, months, time, etc. in Japanese How to identify formal and familiar situations in order to use the appropriate expressions. The easiest way to identify the gender of Japanese nouns List of Japanese prepositions and example phrases. How Japanese nouns form their plural counterparts. What to say when ordering food, shopping, hiring public vehicles, checking in at hotels, and in other usual situations using the Japanese language

Here’s What A Few Satisfied Students Have To Say About Our Nihongo Japanese Lesson…

“Dear Takanori Tomita,

First I would like to thank you for the chance to learn Japanese and secondly for checking on how I am doing.

I haven’t had any trouble so far with getting the web site or downloads to work. Its all good.

I am a very slow learner but I am enjoying every moment of it.

I have a friend at work who is learning Japanese from books and cd’s. We have started learning at the same time.

So I have someone to learn with. We teach each other things we have learnt and we both progress we will be able to have conversations with each other and help each.

He said that he may join this web site in the future as it shows, gives and teaches more than the books he has paid so much money on.

Thank you once again“

Leanne x

“I am very happy so far.

I just returned from 2 months in Japan and plan to return again.

Having this as written text and audio lessons is very helpful.

And you speak clearly and slowly enough for me to grasp much more.

Domo Arigatou“

Kasia Wilk

“Dear Takanori,

The Japanese lessons are going great.

It is a lot easier to learn from your product than the one I had originally bought. The speaking section is what helps me the most.

Sincerely“

Michelle Morgan

Ohayou Gozaimasu Takanara-san

I went through the nigongo material you provided. I found it was helpful. If i had to rate out of 10 your audio service, i would give it a 10 out of 10.

Simply because its done with visuals and though i never thought that would help it really does and the fact that the pace the teacher goes at is slow so you don’t miss a thing.

I hope this has been helpful in what you required for review able assessment.

Soner-san

I just wanted to say: Arigatou Gozaimasu!!!!!

You are the BEST teacher for Japanese I have ever had.

I don’t know what it is but it really gets through to me. I understand it like I’ve known it my whole life! So thank you.

I plan on visiting Japan some day and thanks to you, I will be able to talk to people.

Your an amazing teacher.

Thank you again.

Alex

Dear Takanori sensei,

I will be happy to write a comment for your NIHONGO Japanese lessons.

“I am very happy with the NIHONGO Japanese lessons, they are easy to follow and fun to do.

Having the lessons taught by three Japanese people means that the pronunciation of words are authentic, while very practical conversation skills are taught so that you can practice on your Japanese friends.”

– Kelwin Wong

Get NIHONGO Japanese Lessons Instantly.. No Wasting Time or Waiting For Mail.. (You can also get the normal book version as well)

The NIHONGO Japanese Lesson is available via instant download (PC or Mac),

Yet, there are several advantages to you ordering the download package..

No waiting time, forget having to wait weeks for postal delivery.

No risk of products lost in the mail or damaged.

Cheaper than the hardcopy version

Most importantly.. You can be learning Japanese in minutes!

My 100% Satisfaction Guarantee!

I personally guarantee that NIHONGO Japanese Lesson is the absolute best value for a language course on the net!

How can I be so sure? I have checked and researched lots of Japanese language sites and products and I am confident that NIHONGO Japanese lesson is the best priced for the features..

So, will I put my money where my mouth is?

Sure! I am 100% sure that this is the best self-study program out there for learning to speak Japanese. So, if for any reason you don’t find NIHONGO Japanese lesson lives up to your expectations, simply email me and I will cheerfully issue you a 100% refund! No hassles, no problems.

So, how much is the Nihongo Japanese Lesson?

Now, think about going to a Japanese language school to learn the same thing and taking a private lesson each month.

You know, a private Japanese tuition can cost $20 – 30 an hour and up.

Imagine if you did not need a Japanese tutor at all, how much would you save?

If you went to a Japanese tutor for just two hours per week for three months, you’d already be spending $480 – $720!

Moreover, going to a Japanese school would cost you much more! Taking a class just one time would cost you at least US$195 as an enrollment fee, plus travel, and the time away from your work or your family – certainly several hundred dollars or more.. and that’s every week!

But, with Nihongo Japanese Lesson you get the same quality course taught in expensive schools. PLUS you can listen and learn at your convenience.

All for only $79.95.

But, wait!

Here’s the limited time special price offer for you!!

You can get the Nihongo Japanese Lesson only for US$79.95 – – ->> $19.95 (special price offer for a limited time).

Click the following “Order Now button” to Download the NIHONGO Japanese lesson Here!!

US$19.95 – for a limited time Offer Download the NIHONGO Japanese textbook with 10 audio lessons to your computer immediately.

(Order now through our Secure Server, and get instant access!)

Wait, here is another special offer for you! 2 Special Bonuses are included!

As a special free bonus for acting immediately I will also give you 2 special e-books!!

Join now and you will also receive $139.95 in amazing bonuses absolutely FREE!

You would normally have to pay $139.95 for these if you join now I will include them at no charge.

Bonus 1: “Japanese Kanji Dictionary: 30 Kanji symbols which are based on the way of SAMURAI”: 30 Different Japanese Kanji Symbol designs are included in this book. You can use them for your tattoo, logo, hanging or jewelry design.

Bonus 2: “100 Japanese Kanji Symbols: Unique, Beautiful and Authentic Japanese kanji symbol design” All the images are designed with calligraphy fonts and stencil outlines. This is a $100 value.

Well, there you have it. With these 2 bonuses, and the Nihongo Japanese Lesson, you can learn to speak Japanese for real communication!

Together these Three free bonuses are worth more than triple your investment in the NIHONGO Japanese Lesson.

Click the following “Order Now button” to Download the NIHONGO Japanese lesson Here!!

US$19.95 – for a limited time Offer Download the NIHONGO Japanese textbook with 10 audio lessons to your computer immediately.

(Order now through our Secure Server, and get instant access!)

P.S: Remember, in just a few moments you can have everything you need to start speaking Japanese Like a Diplomat. The price of the download version is an incredible value. You simply cannot get a BETTER course on quickly learning Japanese.. and at an amazing bargain!

Just imagine.. you can be on your way to communicating in Japanese in just minutes.

Native Japanese teachers have developed all of the lessons to guarantee that you learn the Japanese that Native Japanese actually speak – NOT the too-formal-Japanese taught in textbooks and other Japanese courses.

Learning NIHONGO Japanese lesson uses a method to learn Japanese which is so fun and so natural – the same way that we all learned how to speak our native language.

And all of the speakers in the recordings are Natives of Japanese people. They are also all college-educated. So you can be sure that you also develop a real Japanese accent that sounds just like a college-educated native.

And you’ll be learning real conversational Japanese for real communication. You’ll be speaking Japanese so well that people will almost mistake you for a native!

Start Learning Right Away. Get instant access to the entire NIHONGO Japanese Lesson’s package in just minutes from now!

Plus the course has a 100% no hassle guarantee, all you have to do to get a refund is say “I want a refund”.

P.P.S Remember, in 30 days or less you will know how to speak Japanese for real communication.

That’s the best part of learning the Shortcuts to Japanese… you learn Japanese you can use right away on a variety of subjects to communicate in most situations.

NIHONGO Japanese Lesson is the shortcut that makes learning Japanese easier than you ever thought possible.

Sincerely,

Takanori Tomita Nihongo Japanese Lesson

Click the following “Order Now button” to Download the NIHONGO Japanese lesson Here!!

US$19.95 – for a limited time Offer Download the NIHONGO Japanese textbook with 10 audio lessons to your computer immediately.

(Order now through our Secure Server, and get instant access!)

[allenmendezsr]

Nihongo Japanese Video Lesson

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/nihongo-japanese-video-lesson/

Nihongo Japanese Video Lesson

 Buy Now    

These NIHONGO Japanese lessons have been very enjoyable and very helpful in learning the Japanese language.

I cannot wait to check the rest of them! I would recommend NIHONGO Japanese lessonsto anyone who is interested in learning to speak, read, or write Japanese.

Keep up the great work! You guys are the best!

Scott

“Dear Takanori Tomita

Thank you very much for your great work.

It really learned a lot about the Japanese language. The context is clear and understandable.

The learning Documents you provide are really well done and I could easily follow them.

On another point, the audio really helped me a lot with getting the pronunciation under control.

This was one of the best choices I made, and especially now that I’ve tested my japanese knowledge with native speakers.

It was a great success.

Thank you very much”

Mario E.

“Dear Takanori Tomita ;

Thank you for your NIHONGO Japanese lessons.

I think they are useful for anyone who want to learn Japanese, I also think the lessons are very good,

because they help me repair the errors I get while practicing the pronunciation and I can listen as much as possible I want .

Once more I thanks you for your useful lessons.

Regards“

NGUYEN THI AU

Dear Takanori Tomita:

Although learning another language is hard (it always is), this system is the best approach i have used in learning a different language,

and even though it can be overwhelming at times, your system breaks the Japanese language down to be easier to understand.

I’m glad that I stumbled upon your site!

Sincerely,

Hope Chantal Dolan

Takanori San, Konnichiwa,

The lessons are going very well I’m doing a little bit most days.

I’ve even started learning some hiragana which I steered clear of at first because it looked so confusing.

I’m enjoying the lessons very much, as far as I know we’ve only got one Japanese restaurant here in Liverpool where I live, my immediate aim is go there and try out what I’ve learnt,

I don’t think I’m too far off where I want to be, thanks for a great cause and all the follow up e-mails and help you’ve sent since I bought it.

I’ve attached a picture of me after I received my Ju-Jitsu black belt, its a few years old 2001 I think, but I have been told I haven’t changed much.

Sayanora.

Tony

Hello

I have started using your program in conjunction with another popular computer Japanese course. I am very happy with my purchase so far.

I really like your practice writing portion.

I managed to print out my current lesson and using a dry erase practice my hiragana.

I was very excited to find that I was able to read a lot of the hiragana portion in the other program I havebeen using.

I am very excited about going through you’re the rest of this course.

In a very short time I have been able to read and write some very good stuff in only a few chapters.

Adam

Dear Takanori

It’s Sean mcglynn here.

i think the japanese lessons are very good and i enjoying learning japanese your methods are very good for teaching people

because japanese is a difficult language to learn so i thank you for creating this great way to teach people .

Sean Mcglynn

p.s i add my picture as well in the attachments

From: Takanori Tomita Thursday, 1:28 PM

Dear Friend,

Why do you want to learn to speak Japanese?

Are you traveling to Japan and want to talk to Japanese people?

Are you a home-schooled student who wants learn more quickly and easily?

Are you a student who wants to get an A+ or VHA in Japanese?

Have you learned Japanese before and want a fun refresher course?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then this might be the most important letter to you.

Because today, I will share with you some shortcuts to Japanese success. Shortcuts that make learning Japanese easy, perhaps easier than you ever thought possible.

Imagine traveling to Japan and chatting with the locals and easily being understood.

You walk up to a complete stranger without any fear to speak in Japanese, you just say what you want to say and your words are immediately acknowledged.

It changes the way you travel and the way you relate to people.

In 30 days or less you could be communicating in Japanese, ordering meals, reserving hotels, asking questions, getting your point across and understanding what they say to you.

You can even get away from the over priced tourist traps and explore markets, meet villagers and go where the locals go as you draw on your command of conversational and functional Japanese to interact with them.

That’s the best part of learning the Shortcuts to Japanese, you learn Japanese you can use right away on a variety of subjects to communicate in most situations.

I’ll Show You Exactly How to Get through the Traps That Stop Most People from Finally Speaking Japanese

Konichiwa.

My name is Takanori Tomita, that’s me on the left

I’m a native Japanese, and have been living in Japan for nearly 30 years. Currently, I work as a Japanese translator and also teaching Japanese online, with other Japanese teachers.

I know what it’s like to learn a second language. Because, when I was fourteen years old, I went to Australia, and I had to learn English from scratch.

From my own experience, I know that speaking another language can seem like an impossible task when you’re faced with a mountain of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

I’ve experienced first hand just how useless all the theoretical babble is when you just want to be able to get by in Australia.

The good news is that learning a second language doesn’t have to be a struggle at all. After years of investigation, I have discovered ways that make it possible for anyone to communicate in any language.

It is so simple!

So, I’ll show you a completely different system that makes communicating in Japanese easy.

Once I show you how to speak Japanese, you’ll wish you had learned this way in the first place. If you had started this way, you’d be speaking Japanese by now.

[Warning!!] If You Are Serious About Communicating In Japanese In The Real-World You Must Avoid These Mistakes!

Many people who want to speak Japanese end up not being able to speak at all. A lot of people can’t string a Japanese sentence together after many months or even years of study.

Do you know why?

Because many textbooks or CD they use to learn Japanese teach you only the usual ghastly grammar methods and the Japanese writing system that make learning so dull and boring.

Also, many people start to learn Japanese only from writing and grammar.

The biggest mistakes people make is learning fake language that you will never use in any situation.

You know, most courses teach you grammar in chunks.

Most of the time, you learn adverbs and qualifiers today, the subjunctive tomorrow, the progressive the day after that.

So, you’re just confused.

I was so, when I was learning English.

You never make free flowing sentences, and if you do manage to speak at all, it feels unnatural and stilted.

Not only is this antiquated method of teaching grueling for the students, it’s horrible for the teachers as well.

You’d be amazed how many teachers hate grammar based methods. Yet, they have to teach it, because it is part of the curriculum.

Worse, it almost never works.

If it did work, millions of people would speak Japanese as a second language. Yet, very few people are able to use their classroom Japanese to communicate.

In fact, studies show that 92% of all Japanese language students discover that learning how to write Japanese isn’t as easy as they thought it would be.

You would think that learning Japanese you can use right away in the real-world would be where all Japanese courses start.

Unfortunately, real-world, immediately usable Japanese is rarely taught.

Every method that these kind of teaching materials do not little to help you in real conversations. Some methods even seemed to suffocate your ability to communicate.

If you keep using the same old time wasting strategies, drills, boring exercises that other people use, you’re even worse off!

The reason you can’t yet communicate in Japanese has nothing to do with memorizing another verb tense and all its conjugations, learning the subjunctive, the Japanese verb to be, or any of that grammar stuff.

Non of that will make a scrap of difference in your ability to communicate.

If you are a beginner, learning ONLY grammar may even make your communication worse. You see, with too much analysis of grammar you become hesitate when you speak. Your mind focuses on rules instead of flowing along with the conversation.

Fortunately, with a few simple and easy changes in your approach, you can effectively speak Japanese that you can use in the real-world.

There is a simple formula that virtually assures your success.

The Secret To Learning To Communicate Effectively In Japanese

If you have ever been frustrated trying to make head or tail of Japanese lessons, I know what it’s like, I have been there too. I assure you, there is a much easier way to do this.

Even if you feel like you have some kind of mental block with Japanese, this time everything is different. After all.

You need to listen to how a native Japanese person speak words and phrases which appear in the real life conversation, and repeat what they say.

So, for making rapid progress and learning useful Japanese, focusing on listening and speaking skill for real communication is the way to go.

You need to listen to and speak lots of Japanese words and phrases from native Japanese speakers, to really power-up your Japanese learning and fluency.

And, those of your who wish to learn reading and writing skills should try to read what is written in hiragana, katakana and kanji, and refer to the Roman alphabet for correct pronunciation purpose.

And, If want to learn the Japanese grammar as well, you really need to take the Japanese grammar method that is useful for real communication.

I am sure you will agree. It makes so much more sense to take full advantage of Shortcuts to Japanese than the usual way Japanese is taught?

NIHONGO Japanese lesson is a new method for non-Japanese who wish to start studying the Japanese for real communication!

Introducing NIHONGO Japanese Lesson, a new method of learning conversational, ” street-level” Japanese that helps non-natives achieve real communication quickly!

With NIHONGO Japanese Lesson, you are going to learn Japanese rapidly, effectively, and easily.

You will be able to be able to speak at a Japanese restaurant, at the Narita airport, with new Japanese friends… in basically every situation you can think of!

Imagine ordering meals, reserving hotels, asking questions, getting your point across and understanding what they say to you… all in Japanese!

You can even get away from the over priced tourist traps and explore markets, meet villagers and go where the locals go. You’ll easily interact with them because of your command of conversational and functional Japanese.

NIHONGO Japanese lesson will teach you how to speak Japanese naturally in the easiest way possible, because we use many well known words and phrases to guide your learning right from the start!

We’ve made each lesson bite-sized by breaking them down into smaller parts that are easier to digest, so you can practice each part individually and then put it all together — multiplying your effectiveness.

Each lesson is intended to be completed in 10~20 minutes. As you work through each lesson, certain aspects of the grammar will start to soak in, which means… in a very short time…

you’ll be communicating in Japanese without thinking about it.

You will discover that you can take what you have learned and use it in real life situation and settings.

As you complete each easy step you’re confidence will grow.

Before you know it, you’ll find yourself easily understanding native speakers and will automatically know what to say. What’s more, you’ll be speaking with the correct pronunciation.. just like a native-born Japanese who’s been speaking the language all their life.

Only, you’ve accomplished it in a few short weeks.

Here’s What You Will Receive In Your NIHONGO Japanese Package

The entire course comes with a 170-page Japanese textbook (10 Japanese lessons), 10 Japanese conversational audio lessons,as supplement materials for practicing the pronunciation.

All in all, you’ll have everything you need to quickly begin speaking conversational Japanese.

Let’s take a look at each component in detail

Component #1: Japanese Textbook (ebook) [10 Japanese language lessons]

Learn Japanese For Real Communication!

There are 10 Japanese lessons, which consist a total of 170 pages as a total. The textbook is an ebook, so you will need to download it to your computer. (not hardcopy, as our office is in Japan)

While learning all the basic constructions, grammar notions, and their associated mindsets, you can steadily acquire listening and speaking skills through drills, exercises, listening comprehension tests and utilization practice.

Each of 10 Japanese lessons consists of the following sections:

  These real life conversation part always take place between 2 people. In this part, we have also added pictures that makes memorization easier.

Rather than trying to remember by staring at text, you can make strong connections to picture.

It is expected that all the conversation converted in each lesson will be practiced a number of times.

So that you may memorize all the lines to carry out the conversations naturally.

    Additional comments are made about certain vocabulary items where necessary, and also provides the background for each real life conversation part (1).  

There are two types of exercises.

One is listening and speaking Japanese, and another one is writing Japanese.

Listen to the recorded audio files, which are covered in the real life conversation part (1), to practice your speaking and hearing.

Also, learn to write those Japanese vocabularies mentioned.

Component #2: 10 Japanese Audio Lessons – MP3 Learn to speak Japanese naturally and fluently!

Along with the Japanese textbooks, 10 audio files are included for you. So you can practice speaking the Japanese conversational phrases which are covered in each lesson.

You’ll also learn how to properly pronounce each word and phrase like a native of Japan, because we recorded a native Japanese teacher’s conversations.

The Japanese audio files average over 3 to 5 minutes in length – that’s about 1 hour audio lessons that you can listen to time and time again!

The Audio files are MP3 format, so that you can listen to it with you iphone or any smart phone too!

Click here to Download this NIHONGO Japanese lesson immediately to your computer

To Sum it All Up.. The whole Japanese Learning materials Can be Yours in Just a Few Minutes..

You’ll be speaking Japanese in no time with our innovative Interactive Audio course, and you’ll also get plenty of supplementary resources to help you learn Japanese like a diplomat!

The NIHONGO Japanese lessons will teach you to understand Japanese in an easy way.

We use many well known words and phrases and situate them in realistic everyday contexts. We’ve made each lesson very easy for you to learn by breaking them down into small parts, so you can practice each part individually and then put it all together..

Easy-to-apply memorization tips and tricks to remember Japanese words better, including kanji symbols

How each of the letters in Japanese is called, how each one of them is pronounced, and some audio lessons for practice.

How to pronounce different Japanese words, and phrases correctly.

Easy and simple ways of creating grammatical and sensible Japanese sentences

Basic greetings and everyday expressions in Japanese

The difference between describing with Japanese and English adjectives. Numbers, days, months, time, etc. in Japanese How to identify formal and familiar situations in order to use the appropriate expressions. The easiest way to identify the gender of Japanese nouns List of Japanese prepositions and example phrases. How Japanese nouns form their plural counterparts. What to say when ordering food, shopping, hiring public vehicles, checking in at hotels, and in other usual situations using the Japanese language

Here’s What A Few Satisfied Students Have To Say About Our Nihongo Japanese Lesson…

“Dear Takanori Tomita,

First I would like to thank you for the chance to learn Japanese and secondly for checking on how I am doing.

I haven’t had any trouble so far with getting the web site or downloads to work. Its all good.

I am a very slow learner but I am enjoying every moment of it.

I have a friend at work who is learning Japanese from books and cd’s. We have started learning at the same time.

So I have someone to learn with. We teach each other things we have learnt and we both progress we will be able to have conversations with each other and help each.

He said that he may join this web site in the future as it shows, gives and teaches more than the books he has paid so much money on.

Thank you once again“

Leanne x

“I am very happy so far.

I just returned from 2 months in Japan and plan to return again.

Having this as written text and audio lessons is very helpful.

And you speak clearly and slowly enough for me to grasp much more.

Domo Arigatou“

Kasia Wilk

“Dear Takanori,

The Japanese lessons are going great.

It is a lot easier to learn from your product than the one I had originally bought. The speaking section is what helps me the most.

Sincerely“

Michelle Morgan

Ohayou Gozaimasu Takanara-san

I went through the nigongo material you provided. I found it was helpful. If i had to rate out of 10 your audio service, i would give it a 10 out of 10.

Simply because its done with visuals and though i never thought that would help it really does and the fact that the pace the teacher goes at is slow so you don’t miss a thing.

I hope this has been helpful in what you required for review able assessment.

Soner-san

I just wanted to say: Arigatou Gozaimasu!!!!!

You are the BEST teacher for Japanese I have ever had.

I don’t know what it is but it really gets through to me. I understand it like I’ve known it my whole life! So thank you.

I plan on visiting Japan some day and thanks to you, I will be able to talk to people.

Your an amazing teacher.

Thank you again.

Alex

Dear Takanori sensei,

I will be happy to write a comment for your NIHONGO Japanese lessons.

“I am very happy with the NIHONGO Japanese lessons, they are easy to follow and fun to do.

Having the lessons taught by three Japanese people means that the pronunciation of words are authentic, while very practical conversation skills are taught so that you can practice on your Japanese friends.”

– Kelwin Wong

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Just imagine.. you can be on your way to communicating in Japanese in just minutes.

Native Japanese teachers have developed all of the lessons to guarantee that you learn the Japanese that Native Japanese actually speak – NOT the too-formal-Japanese taught in textbooks and other Japanese courses.

Learning NIHONGO Japanese lesson uses a method to learn Japanese which is so fun and so natural – the same way that we all learned how to speak our native language.

And all of the speakers in the recordings are Natives of Japanese people. They are also all college-educated. So you can be sure that you also develop a real Japanese accent that sounds just like a college-educated native.

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P.P.S Remember, in 30 days or less you will know how to speak Japanese for real communication.

That’s the best part of learning the Shortcuts to Japanese… you learn Japanese you can use right away on a variety of subjects to communicate in most situations.

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Sincerely,

Takanori Tomita Nihongo Japanese Lesson

Click the following “Order Now button” to Download the NIHONGO Japanese lesson Here!!

US$19.95 – for a limited time Offer Download the NIHONGO Japanese textbook with 10 audio lessons to your computer immediately.

(Order now through our Secure Server, and get instant access!)