#Mu Variant

[pleuvoire]

why’d they name a covid variant after a star though. that’s such an odd decision

[jmeldog]

@milgram-valentines-exchange art for @verity-clover!

Sorry I took one-sided MuuRei angst and ran. + some variants

Attempt at explaining the flowers under the cut

I wanted to convey a message of remorse, pining, and “what could’ve been”—still tinged with feelings of jealousy.

I’m not very good at flower language, so please excuse me if there are any mistakes, misunderstandings, or misinterpretations. I tried to use mostly Victorian sources or some that I otherwise vibed with. Some flowers have other meanings that also fit, but I didn’t list here for the sake of keeping it concise-ish. Please interpret however you enjoy most 🙏

Asphodel

“My regrets follow you to the grave”

Bramble

Lowliness, envy, remorse

China Aster

Jealousy, afterthought, wishing things had happened differently

Gardenia

“I love you in secret”

Honey Flower

Love sweet and secret (and well, how could I not use the honey flower for Mu?)

French Marigold

Jealousy

Spindle Tree

“Your charms are engraved on my heart”

[thereadingaddic7]

It's a bit of a funny and sad mix, how much of a Lohrak around Dume's neck the Vahki are. Certainly Dume is meant to be flawed as a Turaga, a somewhat suspicious character and cranky old man who think Matoran these days need to learn to respect their elders, but ultimately he's a good guy who'd give his life for the cause while spitting in the face of whatever killed him (see him telling Vezok, Avak and Reidak to go do something anatomically improbable when they try to extort him with a Kanohi Dragon). And given how important Metru Nui is, and how dangerous the outside world was, yeah Metru Nui does need some sort of standing army/police force to ensure that shit like the Barraki rebellion or the Matoran Civil War doesn't threaten to kill Mata Nui and doom the MU to drift endlessly through space, but holy shit the Vahki are so insanely bad at it, it's hard to think he'd sign off on it.

As an army they're pretty okay, they're very mobile with two modes of walking and one flight mode, their equipment is also extremely good offensively (mind control, seeing through your targets eyes, you hurt yourself in your confusion, etc), as well as a Kanoka disc launcher for more direct combat, and they're smart enough to think tactically, all without risking any Matoran/Toa/Turaga in combat (and that's without getting into the elite versions). But for Police work... well, they're okay for a Police State where you don't have to give a shit about what your citizenry thinks, their borderline psychotic nature means they're very effective at terrorizing a population into compliance even before bringing in the Brain Hacking they can do, and they are supposed to be the Police for Makuta!Dume's Police State...

They just also happened to be the Police for Regular!Dume's (Police(?)) State, which is a really bad look for someone who's supposed to be Not Actually A Villain. Based on what we see of them, the Kralhi that preceded the Vahki were probably much better at police duties (given that after being driven out of the city by Matoran who tried to "shut them down" they were totally willing to aid and protect Mavrah without issue they clearly don't share the Vahki's abusive nature) without having to take a number of Matoran away from work to do the police work instead (and thus potentially imperil Mata Nui and the MU as a whole by having them not do the necessary work in his brain). If the issue with them was that they left Matoran too weak to do their job after being policed, then maybe all the Kralhi needed was an equipment overhaul rather than being completely scrapped?

I don't know, Dume is meant to be Flawed but Good, but historically he's just made such a baffling decision with the Metru Nui's police forces, spurred on largely I think by Out-Of-Universe needs than because it made sense in-universe, he kind of ended up accidentally being the BIONICLE equivalent of Sentinel Prime, but because it mostly happened off screen it's easy enough for the story to sweep that under the rug. A lore hungry fandom on the other hand is not so easy to shake and I'm left trying to come up with a reason why he'd agree to the Vahki beyond the incredibly unsatisfying "he doesn't really care about the Matoran" or "he didn't think it through" and variants thereof answers.

[lizhly-writes]

mu qingfang's horrible romcom SWEEP

YEAH OKAY.

“Yeah, well, I needed to pay you back,” Shang Qinghua said, and triumphantly presented Mu Qingfang with a qiankun pouch.

Mu Qingfang examined it carefully.  Inside was a varied selection of sectioned-off  cuttings, bulbs, and seeds, labeled in Shang Qinghua’s neat handwriting.  Steel-stemmed snapdragons, light-luring lilies, six-petaled soothing snowdrops, the list went on and on.  Mu Qingfang had certainly used some of these plants before, but they were usually in dried or powdered form. He’d never had access to the fresh variants!  If he could properly cultivate them on Qian Cao, that was opening a whole new world of research!  He’d be able to experiment with so many more things!  New salves, new tinctures, new remedies -- it could be revolutionary --

Shang Qinghua cleared his throat.  Mu Qingfang belatedly realized that he’d been staring blankly at Shang Qinghua’s gift for.  A while.  How long had he been standing there like an idiot?

“Ah,” Mu Qingfang said, and, as gracefully and quickly as he could, placed the labeled cuttings back into the qiankun pouch.

“So, uh,” Shang Qinghua said.  “Does that mean you... like it?”

and now, your bonus sentences from everything is fine:

Mobei Yi wakes up.  

It’s dark.  Dawn is yet to break; the digital clock at his bedside reads 01:44.  Too early.  Who in the world sets an alarm at 2am?  His own alarm won’t go off until 05:30.  He’s reasonably got at least another three hours of sleep left to go.

Sleeping doesn’t feel possible.

[sumerianlanguage]

silim!

i’m having a bit of difficulty finding the transcription of the term “humanity” found in the Eridu Genesis. i’d like to ask if humanity here would mean man (male), mankind (sumerian people), or mankind (all of humanity)?

and if possible, do you know where i can find any good cuneiform transcriptions of the surviving text of the genesis? my google searches have only been showing the Jacobsen translations with none of the original script :((

many thanks!

Silim! The version of the Eridu Genesis I use is the ETCSL, which instead calls it The Flood Story. I'm not sure of a source of a cuneiform tablet image, but the ETCSL has a transliteration here - if there's a specific section you want in cuneiform, let me know and I can back-transliterate!

The word in question is translated in the ETCSL as "mankind": it's namluulu, written 𒉆𒇽𒍇 in cuneiform. Lu 𒇽 is the basic word for "person" or "man", and is generally gender-neutral but most often used for male persons. Ulu 𒍇 has somewhat of an obscure meaning - Halloran (2006) lists it as "storm, south wind", but in context says it means "huge" or "numerous", while the ePSD2 lists it with "unknown meaning". The nam- 𒉆 prefix makes something an abstract noun, so if luulu means "(numerous) people" (as it's listed in Halloran), namluulu is "the abstract state or generality of numerous people", i.e. "humanity as a body, (all of) humankind". The ePSD2 translates this combined term (as namlulu, with a number of cuneiform variants) as simply "humanity". Halloran lists "people, populace, mankind, humanity; civil position, status, or origin" as possible translations.

In context, namluulu appears four times in The Flood Story. The appearances at the start of segments A and C are fragmentary; in segment A it appears as Namluulungu "my mankind", though it's not clear from context which deity this mankind belongs to. Later in segment C we see Numun namluulu halamede nambi batar , which the ETCSL translates as "A decision that (nambi) the seed (numun) of mankind (namluulu) is to be destroyed (halamede) has been made (batar)." An and Enlil make this decision, and then send the flood to destroy namluulu. At the end of segment E, we see mu ninggilimma numun namluulu uru ak "Because (mu) of preserving (uru ak) the animals (ninggilimma) and the seed of mankind (numun namluulu again)..."

Translation is an art, not a science, so "humanity", "humankind", or "mankind" (in a gender-neutral sense) would work as translations in The Flood Story in my opinion. The term certainly does not refer to the Sumerian people specifically, who do not yet exist at the time the flood in question takes place - in fact, the "seed of mankind" saved by Ziudsura settles in Dilmun, Sumerian name for the coast of the Gulf and particularly Bahrain, and not in Sumer itself.

Thanks for your question!

[yuk-tepat]

Diachronic change in Yuk Tepat

Yuk Tepat is often presented here as a fixed entity - “Classical Yuk Tepat” - but beneath that has undergone evolution like all languages. The following sentences both mean “A man I didn’t know came in.” The first represents the most archaic layer of old Tepat, and the second is a relatively modern colloquial version from the late Conciliarity period.

Ci niw yan-uk syow mi-yat ku hyew.

*[tsi niw ja nuk sju me jat ku hjew]

PAST enter person 1P REL NEG know to room

(Alternately: Ci niw yan syuk mi-yat ku hyew. (syuk = syu + =uk)

Hûq-khal yan i-wat ôl-yat mul nt’ôl-nyul hyew-iw.

[hɯʔ kʰal ja ni wɒ ɾl̩ jat mu ln̩ tl̩ nyɬ çø wiw]

one CLASS person of 1P PAST know NEG 3P PAST enter room CIS

Let’s unpack this. First, a couple of very notable things:

The modern sentence is much longer.

Only three words are the same in both sentences: yan, yat, hyew.

Digging deeper….

Ci was the normal particle expressing past tense in Old Yuktepat, but it has been replaced by ôl in the second sentence.

The second sentence begins with a subject noun phrase Hûq-khal yan i-wat ôl-yat mul, which is normal SVO word order. The equivalent subject noun phrase in the first sentence comes AFTER the verb. In archaic language, this is an acceptable ordering for INDEFINITE subject nouns (but actually, it would still have been unusual for a complex noun phrase like this).

The subject noun yan in the second sentence is modified by a numeral-classifier phrase hûq-khal ‘one.’ This kind of specification of number - such as ‘one’ for any old indefinite noun phrase - is more common in later Yuk Tepat.

The first person pronoun. In the first sentence, there is a clitic form -uk. In later Yuk Tepat, everything has been leveled to the invariable pronoun wat.

The subject contains a relative clause. In the first sentence, it is relativized by syow, in the second sentence it is relativized by i. I also means ‘of’ and has been generalized to all kinds of situations, while specific subordinating particles like syow - which is only used to relativize objects - have fallen out of use.

(Additionally, syow and -uk might occur together as a fused form syuk.)

The negative. The first sentence uses mi before the verb, the second sentence uses mul after the verb.

The second sentence contains a pronoun nat (contracted to nt) which follows the subject noun phrase, before the verb. Kind of like ‘The man I didn’t know, he entered the room.’

Niw and nyul ‘enter.’ Niw and nyul are the same verb basically. Niw is an older intransitive form. Most verb pairs of this sort have been leveled to only one form. In Yuk Tepat, the originally transitive form nyul has taken over everything.

The first sentence has a preposition ku ‘in, at, to.’ This is missing in the second sentence. ‘To’ is considered implicit in the verb nyul. Ku is no longer used except in fixed expressions.

The second sentence ends in a clitic -iw indicating motion toward the speaker. This is derived from the verb khiw ‘come.’

These examples are very different, but the reality may not be that extreme. Although only 3 words are identical, most words in either sentence are found in all stages of the language, although their usage may have shifted. For example past tense ci is still used, but it has a very archaic sound. It is used for DISTANT past, or in say, historical textbooks, but ôl is now the neutral past tense marker. Hence, either (written) sentence should be interpretable to someone from the other time period. Through this we also see one trend of the language’s evolution, that of reducing morphological variants to a single uninflected form.

[yxstxrdrxxm-a]

SYNOPSIS: Faes and humankind are never meant to be together, but Coviello has plans to prove that wrong.

TW/S: Yandere behavior, non-canon to original Coviello, variant of twst! Coviello (huge inspo to Malleus from twst!), stalking, somno but not the sexual kind??, major character death/s (debatable but if you squint, you can see it), huge reference to the original cover of Once Upon a Dream by Lana Del Rey, delusional mindset, lol they're pulling some sleeping beauty shit here.

NOTE: Coviello is not from me, its from Meirin (@zhongrin/@meimeimeirin)! Also, this was something that hit me so hard after hearing the cover of once upon a dream... And drawing Coviello as Malleus did not help my delusions.

As a dragon fae, Coviello is no stranger to the waking of death.

They have attested this by seeing how humans can only live for so long, be it by decades... Or a few years, if they were unlucky. Some were even unfortunate to have their lives snuffed before they were given the chance to live.

To them, they were birthed from an egg, and although they had the temper worse than of a common fae, their family took care of them. At least... To the best of their abilities.

As they grew up, their eyes have witnessed tragedies. Some fell on their kind, while others fell on themselves.

It was when they achieved their signature spell: one that is so tied to the song that they heard their mother sing. However, there was a catch to that spell.

That is... Coviello must know the person's name, for this spell needs it as a payment of it's own.

If it doesn't... Well, they didn't need to remember. They knew what the payment was in return of the lack of name. Who's to say they didn't experienced it themselves?

And so, they lived on. They've watched as times change, but they remained the same. If anything, they were quite displeased with how things seem to happen so quickly.

There was nothing to catch their eye. Nothing that could make them slow down, to admire, aside from the sweets they get or from admiring the simple scenery... Or even with their animal companion.

That is, until they met you.

Housewarden of Ramshackle and Crowley's little helper.

You were the light of their life, something that made them stop to look twice.

And you two met at a time where they thought it was impossible, which was Night Raven College.

At the time, it was a simple nightly stroll for Coviello. They were out to see the abandoned ruins of Ramshackle, to simply get away from the chaos of Diasomnia. And in such a time, they had simply thought they would get a sliver of peace.

However, they were displeased to see that they weren't... And it was because of you.

Still, they held their tongue and became cordial. In their mind, you were simply there to be like them: to escape from whatever dorm you were stuck in, or to get your bearings over something else before heading back to rest.

However, they were gravely mistaken. They realized that, no, you weren't doing that... And you were an insomniac.

That, and you LIVED in that abandoned, dilapidated of a dorm.

Coviello had to reel in the urge to ask you to repeat yourself. That was a shock they never expected, and they were one to have witnessed the horrors of it all.

And yet, from the look in your eyes, you weren't kidding. And you were even more bold to ask them of their name.

In the folklore and basic knowledge of faes, one mus not tell them your real name. This was so to limit the possibility of them taking some form of ownership, a title of their claim on you.

However, Coviello what they didn't expect was for you to willingly give up your name, and even give them a nickname of your own.

You called them 'Vii'. A playful iteriation of their name, but they had no heart to correct you.

You were a peculiar being, but maybe... It was better you stay oblivious.

For their sake.

That day, Coviello was not the same as others had noticed.

If anything, it would seem as though they changed. The once feared leader of Diasomnia had their heart softened over someone that no one knew, but those who did were left confused.

Who knew that one human could make them feel like this? And yet, they did.

Every time Coviello was with you, you made it clear that it was simply to be with them as a friend. You weren't going to restrict Coviello for what they should or shouldn't do, and you were there to support them.

You made the fae feel human. Someone who was worth hearing out for.

And for them, they got addicted.

However, it wasn't long till they have witnessed your struggles. You were still human, so it was clear that you had your own issues, too.

One was how people took advantage of your kindness.

You have your heart on your sleeve far too many times, and Coviello had to witness that happen. It was almost like you never learned how it feels to be used, and when you did... You were hurt.

They hated it. They hated seeing just how miserable you are sometimes. And they hated how you seem to act like your misery was not a big deal.

Still, you trudged on, just like a soldier is to the sight of a war.

As for Coviello, they stayed... Waiting.

Waiting for your walls to crumble.

What they lacked back then was patience, but oh, Coviello had enough time in the world to remain patient. They knew in themselves that the time will come that you'll admit defeat.

And each time that things happened, the burden was placed on you. Each time you try to justify it wasn't your fault, people never believed you.

You were a magicless human. You don't deserve to have a voice, they told you.

And each time, you swore to yourself that you felt someone was on you. Someone who kept watching you from a distance, far from your untrained eyes.

Coviello truly didn't mean to scare you, but they were curious. They wanted to see if you were able to understand the predicament you were under, and how each one of them would let you take the blame.

They were all cowards. You and Coviello knew that. But did you believe them?

No. No, you didn't.

And to see them resort to it after all the warning they gave you was... Disappointing. But maybe it was worth for the beauty that they've seen.

That in some way, you were stubborn to prove their words wrong.

However, Coviello has seen it. Each time that you went through it, they could see how difficult it is to remain the same perception.

Which leads them to now, with cradling your body in their arms after they had the entirety of Night Raven College under their control. Under their power, slumbering as peacefully as they can.

"... But if I know you, I know what you'll do," they whispered by your ear, pulling your body closer to them. "You'll love me at once, the way you did..."

"Once Upon a Dream."

And just like that, your body went limp, your rushed breaths becoming quiet. Coviello could only imagine what pleasant dreams you have under their spell as flowers bloomed, traversing to cover your eyes to keep them 'closed'.

Once Upon a Dream— a signature spell only they can wield, which renders whoever hears those words in a deep slumber. And the worst part?

All they need is a name of the recipient for it to work.

@.throw-letter-away | do not republish or repost my works anywhere | 2023

[thelaithlyworm]

META The King Mu of Zhou/Iron Mask Scholar Theorem

[ID Head-and-shoulders of a man in a fancy hat looking with satisfaction at a pill taken from a small box. Below him, a man in alchemist’s robes bends over a recumbent form that looks like a large jade figurine. The right side of the picture is filled with curlicule ornamentation.]

Okay okay okay, I wrote a version of this with quotes and chapter references but it’s quite long so I suspect not many people have read it. (No judgement, I know it’s long, I feel it.) But this definitely is something I want to talk about, so I’m doing a paperplane version for tumblr.

So! The very first adventure in this series, Wu Xie encounters a double-layer tomb with a (living) man wrapped in jade armour who is promptly murdered by Zhang Qiling. The closest thing we get to an explanation is:

– Lushang-wang raided a Western Zhou tomb for immortality secrets, then built his own tomb over it so he could peacefully bake in the armour for a couple of thousand years, to finish the immortality process.

– Lushang-wang murdered by his advisor, a fengshui expert named Iron Mask Scholar, who also put on the armour.

– Iron Mask Scholar killed some time later by Zhang Qiling.

– The map to this tomb is one of a set of famously-encrypted documents sometimes known as the Warring State Silk Texts or more specifically the Lu Yellow Silks, or some variant in-between.

[ID Overhead view of a sarcophagus under a great tree, with various lids and layer scattered around it, and inside – and sitting up – is a body dressed in armour made of laced-together plates of dull jade. Wu Xie etc. recoil in alarm. End ID]

Come Vol. 4 Snake Marsh Ghost City, Wu Xie explicitly identifies the author of these Lu Yellow Silks as Iron Mask Scholar. He describes him as “the Leonardo da Vinci of Lu State” who encrypted documents to get important secrets distributed against the wishes of a higher power. (This is also the book that introduces King Mu of Zhou as a relevant historical figure, in the form of a stone mural which heavily implies his account of a diplomatic visit to the Queen Mother of the West was an outright lie.)

There are some bits and bobs throughout the rest of the main book series, specifically, part of the history of the Jiumen going on a super big raid to find a whole stash of Lu Yellow Silks to decipher for secrets of immortality on behalf of their current patron. The novel version of this arc doesn’t really dig into who wrote them and focuses on the effect they had in the 20th century. The Ultimate Note version changes the author to King Mu of Zhou and brings in a story initially written for the Sand Sea novel – King Mu of Zhou obtained an immortality elixir from the Queen Mother of the West but didn’t want to stay in her country to complete the process by sleeping in jade. Instead he made jade armour of his own and… put a baby in a jade box: “He built two figurines with jade meteorite. One figurine to contain himself, with another to contain a baby. After taking the pill, he planned to break the figurine in a few years under certain conditions. He would be reborn as a baby and attain longevity.” (UN, Ep 35, iQiyi subs).

[ID A painting of a great cavern with rough pillars, with the irregular shape of what might be a meteorite in the background. In the midground are two upright lumps of jade of equal proportions. Vague shadows inside indicate an adult in the left one, and a child in the other. End ID]

Skippy skip through some Jiumen stuff and some Tibetan Sea Flower stuff that suggests Zhang Qiling was the baby in the box… we get to Sand Sea proper, in which the chief antagonists are the Wang Family, descendants of Wang Zanghai from the Ming Dynasty.

But, say the Wang Family, we didn’t start this. Actually you need to go back thousands of years to King Mu of Zhou. The drama version of this revelation is a very clipped lecture, albeit with some interesting art, which mostly focuses on the snake eyebrow copper fish and the snake pheromones etc. etc. (It’s a fair call – sometimes you just gotta focus.) The novel version is very, very long, placed in the novel where you would normally expect the big climax/plot resolution/massive multiplayer final action scene to be. Some key points:

– Wang-laoshi keeps explaining that he isn’t lying but he is leaving gaps in the story for his student to figure out.

– We go right back to the story of Lushang-wang raiding a Western Zhou tomb, this time specifying that it belonged to King Mu of Zhou himself. Also that Iron Mask Scholar incited Lushang-wang to take up graverobbing from the start. He wasn’t an opportunist but a strategic planner who provided a “ghost edict” in King Mu of Zhou’s handwriting explaining that it was totes okay to dig up his tomb, the ghost of King Mu of Zhou thought that was fine, break out the shovel, kid.

– Story interrupted by a student explaining that for the handwritten edict to exist, King Mu of Zhou must still have been alive somehow to write it. (No forgers in Ancient China.) The teacher agrees, explaining that King Mu of Zhou took the Queen Mother of the West’s immortality elixir but could not by himself find jade armour to neutralise the deleterious side effects.

– FROM THEN ON Iron Mask Scholar is not in this story. This is now a story about King Mu of Zhou manipulating Lushang-wang from the shadows, creating the mechanism of a baby in a small dragon-pattern box as a timer and synchronous key for his own coffin, creating the Lu Yellow Silks which as we know were written in the Warring States Era and explicitly attributed to the guy who hid his face all the time………

– In addition, the rather odd (but fun) movie Time Raiders also features Iron Mask Scholar as a key player, this time writing his secrets on copper tablets not silk and also creating a box which is both a timer and a key, like that dragon-pattern box attributed to King Mu of Zhou.

My Conclusion:

King Mu of Zhou and Iron Mask Scholar’s deeds were so often conflated because they were the same guy. This is the truth hinted at by Wang-laoshi and Xu Lei.

(to be continued)

[onepiece-oc-archives]

Oda-approved questions to help build your OC

If you head to the One Piece Wiki page of the Straw Hats and take a look at the Miscellaneous section, you'll find a lot of trivia questions about the Straw Hats that Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece, has answered in the Q&A portion attached to some manga chapters, called an SBS. I like to call those answers "Straw Hat Fun Facts" and I love them, because they work really well if you want to flesh out your OC and give them a bit more life and depth.

So, even if you're not planning on making your OC a Straw Hat, these questions might still be helpful for you to think about.

The way I'm gonna structure this post for the sake of avoiding spoilers is I'm gonna list all current LA Straw Hats with their facts and all future confirmed Straw Hats will have their facts mentioned without their name, if it makes sense to mention them. That way you can avoid duplicates within the crew if you want to do that and still have no clue about who's gonna join. I'm also gonna comment on how the various fun facts apply to the live action adaptation wherever applicable.

If you're looking for people's birthdays, I'm gonna make another post about them, don't you worry. But you won't find them here.

Animal Resemblances

Luffy: Monkey

Zoro: Shark/Tiger

Nami: Cat

Usopp: Armadillo/Chameleon

Sanji: Duck/Bighorn Sheep

Others: Reindeer, Red Panda, Crane, Falcon, Bull, Rhinoceros, Horse, Giraffe, Whale Shark, Bear

I don't think any of them were mentioned or referenced just yet in the live action, aside from Luffy's name having the word Monkey in it, but that doesn't count. I'm pretty sure we'll get some hints in the future though since these just have such great potential for easter eggs.

Specific Numbers

Now, this is a category that's a bit more complicated because each Straw Hat has at least two signature numbers, for very different reasons. Everyone has a main number based on when they joined, with Luffy being number 1. The second number is the same but it skips Luffy, making Zoro number 1, but this version is rarely used, if ever at all. Then there's the possibility of a Straw Hat getting a number assigned to them based on a pun, whether that be based on their name, their devil fruit, or something entirely different. I'll explain pun numbers in a bracket.

Luffy: 01, 56 (go-mu)

Zoro: 02/01

Nami: 03/02, 73 (na-mi)

Usopp: 04/03

Sani: 05/04, 32 (san-ji), 59 (ko-kku = cook)

Others: 06/05 - 10/09, 110, 87, 26, 43

Now, you may ask: "Evie, I wanna have a pun number for my OC, how do they work?" I got you, buddy. You can make your own pun numbers using a technique called goroawase, using this handy chart I made based on a Wikipedia chart. Everything I added is in (brackets) and consists of variants that would technically be possible due to my own understanding of goroawase, but might not be commonly used.

On a very basic level, all you have to do to create your pun number is to grab the readings from this table and glue them together. I took some work off your shoulders by adding the phonetic changes you can use, indicated by the arrows. You can also only use the first syllable of a reading or add or remove an n at the end of readings that end in vowels or n's. As you can see whith Sanji's ko-kku, you can duplicate consonants, and you can also turn short vowels into long vowels (tsu -> tsū, for example), both for spelling reasons. If you need to transcribe a c, either use an s or a k (or whatever else fits), depending on the pronunciation.

Here are some examples with my OCs:

Cora: 96 (ko-ra) or 25510 (a-ka-i-to - would be very unusual due to its number of digits, but I think I'll use this as a plot device in a future fic!)

Luna: 67 (lu-na/ru-na)

Inari: 576 (i-na-ri) or 53 (ka-mi)

Create away!

Specific Colors

This was in the live action! And I think we'll definitely see something similar again later.

You can't really see it that well but here are Luffy, Nami and Zoro lit up in their respective colors - red, orange and green respectively! I tried to take a better screenshot but, alas, Netflix will not let me.

Luffy: red (aka)

Zoro: green (midori)

Nami: orange (orenjī)

Usopp: yellow (kiiro)

Sanji: blue (ao)

Others: pink (pinku), purple (murasaki), light blue (mizuiro), white (shiro), black (kuro), ochre (ōdoiro)

As you can see, we pretty much have the whole rainbow here, which makes picking a unique color for your OC pretty hard, BUT it's completely allowed to use different shades of the same color (see: blue vs light blue), which is why I listed the Japanese color names for you. I did some digging and it turns out that these are the names of some of Japan's traditional colors. Those traditional colors don’t always match up with what my impression of the character's color is, BUT I made this handy little graphic for you:

In case there are any animal-related characters around and for those of you who like describing smells in their fanfic (me too, me too), this might be very useful!

These are all of the Straw Hats' specific colors (top row) according to the overview of Japanese traditional colors I linked for you above, their color names underlined with my perception of what color Oda might actually have been referring to, in modern terms. As for the grey names beneath orange and pink, those are the traditional colors from the overview that I used to replace the romanized English colors, based on what the first translation that popped up was. The columns directly underneath are a selection of different shades of the same color, also with their names. It just goes to show that you have a huge variety of colors to choose from for your OC - Japan's traditional colors alone are about 1,000 different colors and you can definitely play with hex codes some more. So, go wild!

Specific Smells

Luffy: meat

Zoro: steel (and probably blood, let’s be honest)

Nami: mikan (tangerines, essentially) and money

Usopp: gunpowder

I'd say everyone smells of the sea at least a little bit, realistically speaking, since they are pirates.

Sanji: cigarettes and seafood (and I'm willing to bet he wears some type of cologne or aftershave or something)

Favourite Type of Island and Season

Luffy: summer but he also loves snow, basically everywhere with meat

Zoro: autumn on an autumn island

Nami: summer on a spring island

Usopp: summer on an autumn island

Favourite Food

Sanji: a spoilery gag, so get creative!

We either directly see some of these in the live action or can easily guess.

Luffy: any kind of meat

Zoro: white rice (specifically in the shape of onigiri aka rice balls), sea beast meat, any food that compliments sake (though he's also pretty fond of beer, at least in the live action)

Nami: mikans (tangerines) and most other fruits

Usopp: pike from an autumn island and other fish of the season

Sanji: spicy sea food pasta, food that compliments black tea

Others: not really relevant but maybe interesting; cotton candy, chocolate, sweet stuff in general, sandwiches, not-too-sweet cakes, food that compliments coffee, basically anything that you can find at McDonald's, curry, mozoku seaweed with vinegar and fruits

Basically, Sanji gets to juggle around a whole lot of different flavours and cultural influences - and he does it really well and finds a way to make everything special, by the way! He generally favors the ladies in his cooking though.

Least Favourite Food

Even Sanji can't make them like everything. Their reasons for not liking something are very different, so they probably still eat it, especially if it's used in something Sanji prepared because he's their cook

Luffy: Cherry pie

Zoro: Chocolate (yes, chocolate! Adds a lot more depth to the scene of him eating Rika's rice balls, doesn't it?) - it's too sweet

Nami: orangette (candied orange peels) - she prefers actual fruit

Usopp: mushrooms - he got sick once

Sanji: konjac (Japanese konjac gel is usually made by mixing flour from the konjac plant with seaweed; it pretty much tastes like nothing and is used mainly for its texture) - it's not nutritious

Others: anything spicy, chewing gum, marshmallows, lemons, parfait

As a Family

This is part of the reason why Oda said there would be no romances within the crew in canon - but this is fandom, he has no power here. Feel free to ignore any of these roles and substitute canon with your own

Luffy: fourth son

Zoro: first son

Nami: daughter

Usopp: third son

Sanji: second son

Others: another child, parents and grandparents

Real-world Nationalities

Now, this is interesting, because these played a part in how the Straw Hats were cast for the live action!

Luffy: Brazilian (Mexican in the live action)

Zoro: Japanese

Nami: Swedish (her actress is American, but she was kept as white)

Usopp: unspecified African (his actor is Jamaican-American, so it sort of checks out)

Sanji: French (Sanji's actor is very international, but he's not French - I do believe Sanji is still supposed to be at least part French in the live action though, at least he still has an affinity for the language and he may very well have grown up multilingual)

Others: Canadian, Russian, American, Austrian, Indian

Inner Brain

Basically: What are the five words their brain/subconscious circles around?

Luffy: meat, meat, meat, meat, pirate king

Zoro: sword, sword, strength, train, sleep

Nami: money, money, money, money, beauty

Usopp: warrior, lies, lies, run, run

Suited Flower

Sanji: You guessed it, it's a spoiler-y gag. But, to summarize, he thinks about cooking and women

These were actually answered by one of the voice actresses for the anime (except for Luffy and Zoro's alternates) but they're Oda-approved! I know fanfic writers love flower language, so rejoice!

Luffy: cosmos, sunflower

Zoro: thistle, wisteria

Nami: sunflower

Usopp: daisy

Sanji: delphinium

Others: tulip, casablanca, anemone, rose, peony

Blood Type

-> this is a topic for another post since it's more of a life fact than a fun fact, isn't it? Maybe, I'll put the blood types in with the birthdays and make a sort of Straw Hat info post?

How often do they bathe?

Bathe, not shower, I would assume. Zoro showers after training... right?

Luffy: once a week

Zoro: once a week

Nami: every day

Usopp: once every three days

Sanji: every day

Typical Hours of Sleep

The only reference to this we have in the live action is Zoro's habit of napping. An interesting thing to note is that the Straw Hats' sleep schedules largely coincide in just such a way that someone is always awake - except for during one hour. Maybe this really is a coincidence or maybe this is a habit they built while travelling together. They do still have night watches though, I believe. But that means there's usually always someone to keep the night watch company :)

Luffy: no set time, but usually sleeps around 5 hours

Zoro: 4am to 7am (3 hours) + naps

Nami: 11pm to 7am (8 hours)

Usopp: 1am to 8am (7 hours)

Sanji: 12am to 5am (5 hours)

In conclusion, more than half of the crew has no idea what a healthy sleep schedule is. This is a pattern that's gonna continue, by the way...

Suitable Careers

Basically what careers they would have if they weren't pirates. Their actual careers in-universe also don't count.

Luffy: firefighter

Zoro: police officer (I will not accept this slander)

Nami: childcare worker

Usopp: graphic designer

Sanji: beauty salon worker

Others: elementary school teacher, cabin attendant, pilot, detective, train station attendant

Cooking Specialities

What are they best at cooking? According to Usopp in the live action, none of the guys besides Sanji can even boil water, so I'm willing to assume Sanji may have taught them a little. A lot. Not Luffy though. He's still a disaster.

Luffy: raw meat on a plate

Zoro: sashimi - a dish consisting of variously cut raw fish and meat

Nami: roasted duck with mikan sauce

Usopp: fish and chips

Sanji: literally anything, but he prefers seafood

Who would win a 50m sprint?

Only the current Straw Hats count here.

Fifth: Nami

Fourth: Usopp (he's already fairly fast, mind you)

Third: Zoro, slowed down because he got lost (but I still don’t think he could beat the people ranked higher than him, I'm sorry, Oda)

Second: Luffy

First: Sanji

Alcohol Tolerance

Another very useful one for fanfics! Tolerance doesn't equal how much they like drinking, by the way. I'd be willing to bet that the Straw Hats' alcohol tolerances got toned down in the live action, or at least Zoro's, judging by him stating how he woke up under a table once. With his manga-level tolerance, he would have had to drink gallons worth of alcoholic beverages before that happened. Still, I think the ranking holds up.

Fifth: Luffy

Fourth: Usopp

Third: Sanji

Second: Nami

First: Zoro

And finally one last bit that doesn't really fit anywhere else:

Sanji is currently the most qualified to give the crew a haircut. This makes sense if you read about his alternative career choice earlier and due to him generally putting a lot of thought into appearances.

So, that's it! Hope these help you!

[yourultraarchive]

i love love love your blog!! you have a few posts about japanese names, like how to make them and where they fit in but,,, i was wondering how an american name would fit in (like class number, alphabetically, etc.) or how to translate one, if at all. and do you think its a good idea to have an american oc actually attending UA at all? i know you've said you're not an authority, so its totally fine if you dont know. thank youuuu! your templates are amazing btw

Hi, sorry for the late reply! (I actually haven't been on tumblr in like... months. Life and all.)

Foreign/non-Japanese OCs attending UA wouldn't be weird at all--there are canonically at least 3 foreign exchange/transfer/descent/immigrant students (or something of the sort)! Aoyama from 1-A and Pony and Rin from 1-B are all foreigners in some capacity.

As for how they'd fit alphabetically--well, it'd be just like any alphabetical order you'd think of, it's just that it'd be based on the Japanese alphabet instead of English. Here is a good reference for the general rules of that order, including voiced consonants:

In Romaji, these kana are phonetically ordered as: a, i, u, e, o, ka, ga, ki, gi, ku, gu, ke, ge, ko, go, sa, za, shi, ji, su, zu, se, ze, so, zo, ta, da, chi, di/ji, tsu, du/dzu, te, de, to, do, na, ni, nu, ne, no, ha, ba, pa, hi, bi, pi, fu/hu, bu, pu, he, be, pe, ho, bo, po, ma, mi, mu, me, mo, ya, yu, yo, ra, ri, ru, re, ro, wa, wo, n (This is ignoring "little" variants since those are never going to be at the start of a word, but it does determine the order of words that do have them in the middle somewhere.)

It may look weird to people used to the English alphabet (you may think it's strange that "pa" comes before "bi" right?) but do keep in mind that Japanese is... well. Not English. This is normal to them!

For a name that doesn't easily fit the Japanese phonetic structure, you'd have to sound it out with kana (and write it out with katakana, since it's a foreign name). Some examples:

Pony, written as ポニー, is read "po-ni-i" (since long vowel sounds are translated in katakana as a long dash), and since it's a name starting with a voiced consonant (po), it would go after names starting with "he" (and its voiced versions) and before names starting with "ma". (If we were sorting characters by first name anyway.)

Peter Parker, written as ピーター・パーカー, is read "pi-i-ta-a / pa-a-ka-a" (again with long dashes translating as long vowels), and would alphabetically go before Pony (in either case of first or last name, since "pi" and "pa" both come before "po"). Also, in case you didn't catch the pattern, the "er" ending in English is most often translated as a long "a" sound!

Richard Grayson, written as リチャード・グレイソン, is read "ri-cha-a-do / gu-re-i-so-n". This is an example of sounds like "gr" that don't translate well in Japanese, so you kind of have to squish two syllables together to get it, with the vowel in the middle being somewhat "silent". The most common "silent" character in Japanese is "u", but I've seen "o" a few times too (see next example).

Mytho or Mute, written as みゅうと or ミュート, is read as "myu-u-to", and can be translated as either of the aforementioned "English" names (because translations aren't a 1-to-1 thing after all). In the example of the "Mute" translation, the silent "o" just kind of sounds better at the end than a "u" does in cases like this.

Thanatos, written as タナトス, is read "ta-na-to-su", and is an example of a name with that silent "u" at the end.

Anthony Stark, written as アントニー・スターク, is read as "a-n-so-ni-i / su-ta-a-ku", and is another example of translating sounds that don't exist in Japanese ("th" in English becomes "s" or "z" in Japanese, and "st[x]" becomes "sut[x]") and the silent "u".

Jason Stryker, written as ジェイソン・ストライカー, is read as "je-i-so-n / su-to-ra-i-ka-a", and is another example of translating sounds that don't exist in Japanese, with "Stryker" showcasing that it uses the "st[x] -> sut[x]" rule AS WELL AS a silent "o" rather than the usual silent "u".

Class number is just based on where they are in the alphabetical order (ie. Aoyama is No.1 because he has the earliest alphabetical character in his surname, "a". Ashido is No.2 because, while she also has an "a" surname, "shi" comes after "o" in the Japanese alphabet).

So for instance, if Richard Grayson was added to 1-A, he would have a seat between Kirishima and Koda since his surname starts with "gu" (in the Japanese writing system!), and his class number would be No.9! Koda and everyone else after him would have their number pushed accordingly. If Peter Parker were added to this same class, he would be between Bakugou and Midoriya!

I hope this helped, and will help others too. Thanks for the ask! (Also thanks for saying so, I feel like no one actually uses the templates at all...)

Anyway, plus ultra and all that!

[willowreader]

Story out! An albumin fused ACE2 design that blocks all SARS-CoV-2 variants. The design has a long plasma half-life and can be delivered in a needle-free manner across mucosal surfaces.

This is fantastic news. A COVID blocker is exactly what we need.

[noxporium]

What Does The Deck Say? August 21, 2024

"It will be difficult to accept the help when it appears. After all, the person that delivers the much-needed assistance isn’t exactly known for their goodwill and altruism. But while the offer is legitimate, it will not be available forever. Feel free to scrutinize the offer, and also feel free to make your own conditions for acceptance, but don’t just take it at face value. Remember how they came into their position, and make sure that you aren’t making yourself another place for their feet to rest."

A Baraja Española deck, the Baraja Azteca is a 48 card deck of playing cards used for such games as Brisca, Tute, and Mus. This 48-card variant of the deck contains four suits; Oros (Coins), Bastos (Clubs), Espadas (Swords), and Copas (Cups). While the deck is made primarily for play, it functions well as a divination tool. Each reader uses their own personal understanding and intuition to interpret the cards.

“What Does The Deck Say” is a weekday series of 3 card pulls from a cartomancy deck. No context or query is given to frame what the cards say as the posts are reading samples and not personal instruction. The result is sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, and usually surprising. All readers are invited to leave a comment about what they perceive in the random spread as each person will interact with the cards in their own way.

Personalized, direct, and private cartomancy readings are available via Ko-Fi: Noxporium.

[almonddirge]

She’s not Himeko Murata.

Probably, anyway. New Natlan teaser dropped and when I checked the VA section for the Chinese version none of the VAs seemed to be Himeko Murata’s. Not even the one who seems to be the archon.

Actually, there’s an entire Reddit post from quite some time ago debunking the pyro archon being Murata. The conclusion they came to was that it was a mistranslation and Vennessa should’ve been referred to as “Mu Natlan”, not “Muratan”.

I do like Himeko in all her variants I’ve seen but personally, at this specific point in time, I don’t think she’s Mavuika.

[ephemewra]

Media: Tokyo Mew Mew Real Figure Collection Cards Source: Personal Collection Full Resolution Download: ♡

Commentary: These are scans of the cards that come with the Tokyo Mew Mew Real Figure Collection, showing a photograph of each figurine. A weird little bit of trivia ... The monogram that appears in the border is actually a vertically flipped variant of the Greek letter Omega. Greek lettering is used one of Mia Ikumi's illustrations (×), and the Greek letter Mu tends to show up in the anime depiction of the Mew Project scientists' software, too (×,×).

[dawns-beauty]

Re: current mod plans:

I still don't feel too excited to return to modding. There are plenty of things I could fix, but I just don't feel like it any more.

If it ever changes, I plan on:

Releasing the full version of Lunar Lattice Tweaks. I still have a bit of work to do on it, but @/littlemissf has been kind enough to go through and fix a bunch of stuff!

Adding CBBE/Himbo support for the Dark Lunar Armor in Khajiit Has Wears

Potentially rebooting Project ja-Kha'jay with a new system that allows for better compatibility with mods that edit the Khajiit race. It would also allow for simpler editing. Also, nicer assets. See after cut for details

I don't know about my ideas for humanoid overhauls (like Elderly Elves.) I just don't want to deal with the crap I dealt with for my orc overhaul.

TL;DR: Redoing PJKJ will give mod users who want to put in a little work an easier time editing things.

-

Will call the reboot Children of the Moons, because to heck with it. Let it match my other NPCs mods.

It will not be a direct update to PJKJ, I don't want to break a gazillion patches/LOs etc.

Will require (at least) two additional mods:

Mu's Skeleton Editor and Dynamic Armor Variants

Why Mu's Skeleton Editor (MSE):

It will allow me to use separate skeletons for a single race. This way, I can keep all Khajiit types the same, default Khajiit race. This will be done by assigning keywords to each NPC that determine a few things, including what skeleton they use.

The real beauty of MSE is that users can create their own edited skeletons in RaceMenu and export them and then replace the undesired skeleton file with their own (OR another modded skeleton, like Bestial Beast Races, etc.)

Optionally, they can edit the .ini file and remove the undesired skeleton from distribution completely.

Why Dynamic Armor Variants (DAV):

DAV will let me distribute digitigrade feet to toe-walking Khajiit and simply replace their shoes with their bare feet (since boots look pretty bad with digitigrade skeletons). This is also easy enough to edit/remove via DAV's .ini.

It will also allow me to force Ohmes/Ohmes-Raht to use humanoid armors without changing their race (theoretically. I need to test this.)

Caveat: modded armors may need to be added. I believe the use-case for this is pretty rare: most variations from humanoid to beast race are in helmet shapes, not the torso part. Most Ohmes/-raht Khajiit NPCs I've edited don't use helmets.

I do plan on adding compatibility for Lunar Guard Armor and Moon Monk (both have tail edits.)

Better Assets

I will replace the Ohmes/-raht with High Poly Heads, and play around with sliders again, as well new eyes, that are able to have proper glowing irises while having proper reflections.

Nearly all of the bestial heads (outside of the serval-like Tojay and 'regular' Khajiit, like Kharjo) will be replaced with versions based on the high poly Khajiit Overhaul heads. I just think the older assets look awkward and don't emote super great (anger looks particularly silly on most of them.)

Additionally, I want to play around with KCCE, and I've also come up with a few complete redesigns. ideas. Heights will be assigned directly in the NPC records (easily tweaked via SSE Edit)

[zyuna-arts]

💙 UNDER THE SEA 💙

Had the idea for a long time of drawing all my current Ikea plushies in an underwater scene and finally did so while at work ✨ Kept it deliberately stylised and simple and I'm thinking of turning it into prints 👀

Second image is a collage I made using my own photos of the plushies featured in the artwork 🐟 Background is a photograph of the sunset sky at sea I took in December 2022 during a cruise trip 👁️ The hamster on the trio of Kosig Mus in the photo collage was my lil gremlin Storm, who passed away in April 2020. He was already an elderly ham when that photo was taken but still acted like a youngun full of energy 🔥

I got Kosig Mus as a 'rat family' a long time ago in the 2000s/pre-2010s. Mine came with all three mouse tails tied together in a knot and each mouse was sewn together by the paws so they can't be separated. I liked them a lot as a kid!

Fast forward to the present time and Blåhaj took the world by storm - I was no exception to their appeal. However, I chanced upon a small grey dolphin named Genomblot that was on sale and bought one for myself and some friends, later finding out this design had been discontinued. Afterwards I got the large Blåhaj variant and searched everywhere for the smaller ones until an outlet stocked them 👀

Blåvingad was my latest addition to my Ikea plushies and is the name given to a collection of children's products based on various sea creatures. My bed is now occupied by only sea creature plushies and I had to evict previous occupants like a large Shiba Inu plush and a cafe/butler Alpacasso I got from gacha machines 😔🙏

NAMES: 🦈Blåhaj (100cm): Finn 🦈Blåhaj (55cm): Finn Jr. 🐬 Genomblot: Wave 🐼🐬 Blåvingad (orca): Manta

Finn and Wave are shark and dolphin characters in a childhood comic I made called Dolphin Island, while Manta was inspired by the stingray-like monsters in Code Lyoko called Mantas!

SOCIALS: Linktree

Art © zyuna

(DON’T REPOST/USE MY ART & OCS)