#actually i should have a dedicated tag for this

[imgayvery]

hey not to sound like i'm saying you shouldn't do the above because. well. fuck yeah you should but. if you're interested purely in efficiency and in actually always having your music, digital files are your way. CDs, especially burnt CDs, have a limited lifespan. i think CDs are cool, heck i even record onto cassettes for use in my car. but always have a digital backup too. and like listening to mp3s can still be cool and sexy by the way like. have you heard of ipods? i will be keeping this 21 year old pocket brick in use forever - unlike modern apple devices the old big ipods are actually very easy to work on and there's a dedicated community to keeping them alive for decades to come.

also you don't need to use the aux cable trick mentioned for most stuff these days. learn to use a command line tool like yt-dlp (or https://cobalt.tools if that sounds too scary) and maybe a tagging tool like Musicbrainz Picard and you won't regret it.

HOLD THE LINE!! KEEP PUSHING!!!!!

[syrupsyche]

Starting off Les Mis Letters but Chinese strong by finishing 1.1.1 💪 here are some Chinese names:

Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel

查理·佛朗沙·卞福汝 米里哀 / Chá lǐ • fú lǎng shā • biàn fú rǔ mǐ lǐ āi

Baptistine

巴狄斯丁 / Bā dí sī dīng

Magloire

马格洛 / mǎ gé luò

I also really like how they translated Myriel's response to Napoleon (written by Hapgood as "You are looking at a good man, and I at a great man. Each of us can profit by it."), which is:

“您瞧一个汉子，我瞧一个天子。彼此都 还上算。”

which roughly translated to English is:

"You look upon a man, I look upon an emperor. Both are worthy of each other."

I like how man (汉子) and emperor/son of Heaven(天子) retains part of the good man/great man (bonhomme/grand homme) parallel with the 子 use, and Kit and @claireverlasting from the Les Mis Letters server also pointed out how 汉子 is used more casually, like dude or chap, in comparison to the very obviously Heavens-associated Emperor. Idk, I just like how these minor, but important inflections are still able to be translated over into Mandarin :DD

[filurig]

sekuuti and akestur, deities of the rau-kakse and crakam

LONG ASS CREATION/ORIGIN STORY OF THE RAU KAKSE AND CRAKAM HERE

the sun and moon both have important roles in northern basilisk religion, and are interpreted as two deities: sekuuti (sun) and akestur (moon).

both seen as patron deities of their respective people (rau-kakse aka basilisks and crakam aka harpies). their eggs were originally stars in the sky that fell and hatched in the world below.

at first, there was only pure spirit. something known as "tukaarti" (which is an unconscious but all powerful driver of all things) - the "natural force", arose, and began create shapes from this spirit, polarities, warmth, energy eventually the forces shaped this spirit into The World, which was barren at first, amorphous, but this shaped energy began to solidify, first into mountains, then into lakes, rivers, flora etc etc. but the water did not stay liquid long for after the formation of these things, and a brief flourishing period, the World cooled down, and fell under a great winter, as it had no sun. the sky is basically where tukaarti resides in its rawest form still, and stars are "concerntrations" of it, and the only light source. the stars began to fall eventually on occasion into the world, and that would spawn Creatures. early on when the world was still fresh after this was when the eggs of sekuuti and akestur fell, they were among the last creatures to fall onto the world. prior to them similar animals had hatched from other eggs, but they all perished trying to survive on their own.

both sekuuti and akestur were lonely and struggled on their own - persecuted by hostile ancestors of other creatures. not only was it difficult, most of all, it was lonely.

sekuuti was so lonely that she desparately wanted children, but as she was the only one of her kind she prayed to tukaarti for a way to achieve that company she desired. she was heard, and granted the ability to shapeshift to any creature that she found. this also was something tukaarti needed, as it lacked a way for spirit to go from the World back to tukaarti, and by "collecting" bodies to learn as forms, sekuuti would also return their spirit to tukaarti. with this ability, she resorted to courting different birds that she transformed into and bearing their young. and she did successfully hatch them. her children would not only inherit a lot of her features and shapeshifting ability, but they also inherited the plumage and some other traits from their other parents, and she loved them all the same. this also means that according to rauk-kaksian lore sekuuti "has no comparison" and doesnt look like an extant bird in particular, but interpretations vary. these children were the first "rau-kakse". the most important established trait of her depictions though is that it seemed that the glow from her egg ("star") never faded, and her plumage glowed strongly and brilliantly.

akestur, meanwhile, sought company with birds in a different way. he found flocks of corvids, flocks of nightjars, and found certain comfort with them. but he was frustrated with the fact that they could not communicate, he prayed for the ability to "hold a conversation" with his new contemporaries. and the tukaarti granted him his wish - the flocks that he had become familiar with were granted a blessing, but with that blessing, they also changed in morphology - they became harpies (crakam), and gained sapience. he was reminded, however, that he had gotten this wish without cost - and that the forces counted on him to do what they wished in return if they so needed it. they only cryptically let him know to "not keep his eyes off of the flame". akestur is thought to have looked like a harpy slightly, but with a different face, black as night, but with brilliant glowing white eyes.

again, the world during this time was pretty barren and harsh due to an eternal winter, as they had no sun. sekuuti, while having found comfort in her kin now, was unhappy with the state of affairs - especially as many young would die in the harsh conditions. akestur, too, hated seeing his new contemporaries suffer.

the two groups would meet one day, sekuuti and akestur leading them. the two were fascinated by one another - sekuuti brought warmth to akestur and the crakam, while akestur brought a certain darkness, that while somewhat discomforting at first, also shrouded both groups from other hostile creatures, theyd come to find out. there was safety in his darkness. sekuuti and akestur grew very close and became partners (according to most legends).

sekuuti wanted to change the state of the world and set her eyes upon the sky, wanting to become a sun and bring warmth to all and end the eternal winter. akestur was hesitant, for he did not want to lose her, and her children needed her. when seeking the guidance of tukaarti - they discouraged her from it, urged her to stay and perform her duty as a bringer of spirit from corpses of this plane back to tukaarti. but she was insistent, and one day, decided to simply go for it. she flew so fast, with such force, that she caught flame, but her will was so strong that it didnt bother her and she became one with the flames eating her as she flew up to the sky.

akestur was too late, and only realised she was gone once she had lit up the sky. betrayed, upset, but most of all - realising that he had failed tukaarti. he had let his eyes off his flame. as a punishment, tukaarti undid the blessing it had granted his people for half of them, leaving half of them as regular birds again.

sekuuti lighting up the world had done something - it had taken away the eternal winter, but the problem was - sekuuti had nothing to temper her up there. the world was beset by a devastating drought with no end in sight. akestur, trying to lead his people as well as the basilisks, then realised what he had to do.

before leaving his people, he urged them "to not take their eyes off the flames", meaning the basilisks in this case, and then, he also set off for the sky. instead of setting ablaze, his eyes seemed to burst with the pressure of the speed of his flight, engulfing him in a cold, bright light. once he joined sekuuti in the sky - the heat was finally tempered.

however, sekuuti, both overwhelmed with love but also guilt and shame over abandoning akestur, fled him. but he, loyal and also overwhelmed with love, began to follow her. and basically, the day/night cycle is their eternal chase after one another - and on occasion, they meet, during eclipses :,) perhaps they also realised that their chase is what brings the world balance. and perhaps its a bit of a punishment from tuukarti for disobeying it.

[fishareglorious]

Jessica is on the chat, she's just too busy asking Blonney what 'gay' means.

[katabay]

original thief series basso & garrett :)

ngl, it's about quality over quantity for me. an npc can have a total of three minutes of screen time, but if they have a cool name, they can live rent free in my head and I'll spend several hours trying to decipher drawable features from a blurry screenshot of pixels

there is a vague hint of a story here, and that's because every time I try to play thi4f, I get incredibly frustrated with how Not Fun the game play is. like, is the story good? well. but it has a PLAGUE. that should've given it instant 'I'll replay this once a year' status in my heart, but the game play sucks so bad that I've never finished it. I can't believe Not Fun gameplay beat out my obsession with narrative plagues.

anyway, the idea is basically if the original era had a game with a plague centric narrative and some other stuff I liked out of thi4f thrown into a narrative blender, with a heavy dash of horror thrown in because some parts of the thief games were scarier to me than entire dedicated horror genre games.

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app

[aleki-lives-here]

[radioroxx]

What do you think Odile does for a living? She feels teacher like to me. What do you think she would do post canon?

HMMMM THIS IS GOOD QUESTION…

ive seen a lot of people hc her as a teacher / professor so i!! think that suits her pretty well. specifically as someone who studies + specializes in different types of craft (that would be why shes so proficient in multiple craft spells. also how she was able to figure out the loops stuff, AND to find something that could prevent siffrin from looping back).

post canon i am not sure… i am always torn between how the party would handle things post canon. obviously they would keep travelling for a bit, odile alongside her family without the stress of. constant sadness encounters + a king to kill lol. i think maybe she would get to take her time, reeaally get to know vauguardian culture when not within. a crisis. as was her original intention.

eventually. EVENTUALLY. when the family settles down somewhere (i am a “they all get a big house together” believer lol) she would get back into craft stuff. maybe go back into teaching too—surely people would be eager to hire a saviour. especially though i think it would be neat of her to try looking into wish craft etc, as a long forgotten form of craft. to satisfy her own curiosity, for siffrins sake, or just as a way of preserving the countries culture in whatever ways possible.

[cobaltfluff]

"Being in the snow with my lover like this immerses me in a special feeling. I like it."

[hacksawboy]

daily tf2 doodles day 8! this is both lazy and extremely late sorry minecraft is one hell of a fucking drug dude

drew demo and soldier because theyre the bestiest besties ever and it just so happens that its my bestiest bestie's birthday today ! hes like a brother to me and theres a good chance he'll see this so even though the days about to end i love you man, i hope u had a good bday ( ´﹀` ٥ ).｡Oஇ

speaking on soldier and demo as a relationship i am very very on the fence about them as a ship. on one hand theyre a little bit gay sometimes but on the other hand they do remind me of me and my bestiest friend ever sometimes which is why im so mixed on it . soldier and demo are really good at encapsulating the experience of 2 absolute dumbfucks being attatched by the fucking hip lol theyre like spongebob and patrick tbh

these might get lazier and more infrequent because if youve ever had a group mc server than you know how time consuming they are lol theyre really good at taking over your life. if this happens than bare with me

anyways gonna gi to sleep soon my 50 mc pets need me . i miss my chicken already

[giantkillerjack]

Uh-oh! You are like, SOOO awkward!!

You're so awkward that it is occasionally mildly uncomfortable for people!

You're so awkward that sometimes people are confused by you and then there are awkward silences!

You're so awkward ...... that ultimately no one is harmed!!

Oh damn!!! What a vile crime you have committed! What an unforgivable thing it is to make a fellow human briefly confused!

Why, if *I* were ever briefly confused and kind of uncomfortable as a result, I'd be devastated.... by the absolute net zero change in my happiness and health! - From which I might never recover!! Yes indeed! No punishment can ever be enough for you!!

So you better absolutely hate yourself for it.

Better be SO MEAN to yourself about every single missed social cue so you don't forget your horrible crime! Meaner than you'd ever dream of being to someone else for the same thing! This is YOUR responsibility!

You need to show the world that you KNOW you are bad by punishing yourself constantly! After all, think of all the people who BENEFIT from you punishing yourself! - No, really! Think about it! Think about who benefits from your pain.

Think of alllllll the definitely-good people that your definitely-necessary self-torment definitely helps! I mean, you can't just cut off their definitely-life-sustaining supply of your suffering, right?? Sure, everyone else has a breaking point, but you're probably the only person in human history who doesn't, right? Best not to question it probably. Sure, it's a symptom that billions of people with trauma have had, but who knows? You could be a one-in-seven-billion exception. Anything's possible!

Instead, better just accept that idea that bullies carry like guns in holsters - the idea that people who have trouble with social cues deserve to suffer. Better carry on the burden they placed on you until you drop. Aid the cause of the callous by enforcing shame and suffering upon yourself extra hard; try your best to do their work for them. They're very busy.

Better not recognize that you need patience and kindness to heal from your trauma. Better not find out that it was trauma rather than personal weakness filling your head with self-hating thoughts. Better not find out it wasn't your fault.

Better not find out that awkwardness is not inherently harmful or unkind, and, in fact, the people who act like it is *are the ones enacting harm and being cruel.*

Better not get righteously angry when you realize just how much unnecessary damage this has done to you. After all, if you get mad, you might realize you deserve better. You might even feel brave enough to DEMAND better! You might build boundaries that keep you safe! You might make other people think they deserve to feel safe too! And we obviously can't be having that, so...

Better not show yourself even a little kindness a little bit at a time.

Better not make a habit out of it after all that practice.

Better not get confident.

Especially if you can't first wipe out every trace of awkward. (And you probably never will. Because people who experience absolute social certainty at all times tend to be insufferable assholes that enforce the status quo. And you just don't have the stock portfolio for that.)

Better not be confident and awkward because then you might confuse and delight people

- you might accidentally end up making other people feel less shame for their social difficulties

- you might make isolated, traumatized, and shy people feel like they deserve to be included in social situations

- you might even make them feel they can be themselves around you

- you might start loving the effect you have on a room

- you might enjoy conversations more

- you might forgive yourself and bounce back from shame more easily and frequently

- you might come to enjoy some of those moments of harmless confusion you cause because NOBODY expects the Confident Awkward, and that can genuinely be an advantage in social situations

- you might stop apologizing so much.

- you might find that socializing is like a video game: it requires practice but also a safe space for it to be fun and positive.

Or if you can't become assertive and confident, better not remain awkward and shy and quiet, and then love and forgive yourself anyway!

Why, it would be carnage!!

In either scenario, you run the risk of finding out that it's not your fault that safe spaces full of kind people can be really hard to find, create, and nurture. You could end up building a skillset that helps you do those things if you're not careful!

If you start giving yourself even the tiniest amount of grace at a time, you will find that you've accessed a gateway drug with extreme long-term side effects:

- You might realize that it was never your fault that it took so long to like yourself.

- You might realize that you were always worth talking to, even when you didn't like yourself and communication felt impossibly difficult.

- You might realize that you'll still be worth talking to even if communication becomes harder as you age and/or experience disability.

- You might come to know that you deserve to be heard even on bad days when words come slow and blurry.

You might discover that you were always deserving of kindness, first and foremost from yourself.

So. As you can see, it's FAR too much of a risk to start granting your awkward self free pardons for your many heinous and harmless crimes. Better to just leave it there.

[hold-him-down]

🍉

For... anyone who you think has the funniest/best pet peeve lol

answered here and I think it's Link's! :) Excerpt below.

"I don't think either of them get under my skin all that often," he says. "For River, I guess it would be when he refuses help, even from Felix. Watching it from a distance can sometimes get really upsetting, even if it's understandable." He pauses, considering. "For Felix, hmm. Maybe when I come home and he's reprogrammed the remote to all these random documentaries and weird apps that he's found."

River, arms wrapped around his legs on the sofa opposite him, says, "That can't be a pet peeve. It's funny when he does that."

"I'm not saying it's not funny," Lincoln says, only a little defensive, "but when I get home at midnight and try to watch a game and he's got it programmed to bring me to some panda live-stream in Beijing, it takes a few years off my life."

The corner of River's lips twitch, just the smallest amount.

[billdenbrough]

WIP Game

Rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs

thank you @naturecalls111 @moondal514 & @merceyca for the tags!!

fyi, i am using the titles they have in my trello board just bc using docs would mean we’d have literally six things titled Untitled document. which isn’t a problem except for the fact i will absolutely not remember which one is which. lmfao. also ftr these are not all aftg (there's at least two other fandoms in there) but also i do have more non-aftg wips they're just not on my trello board yet

kevaaron old man shrug emoji

fem kvar

kvar 3+1 hand mouth behaviour

kevaaron kirby

kevaaron reunion / bang fic

kevaaron road trip

specificity

jean gets a sex toy

kvar breakup/makeup (this was 5 separate ones bc it is 5 separate parts—1. golden hours; 2. dissolution; 3. aaron + andreil; 4. kevin in california; 5. reconciliation—but five listed items looked so egregious lol)

aaron & neil - hospital overnight

andreil oranges

kevaaron(jean) timeloop

kevin vs aaron dating men

nsfw foxboy kevin kvar

andreil cat divorce rom-com college au

achy kvar can i bite your tongue like a bad habit

omigiri atskg fake wedding date au

kvar goose fic. unbelievable

professor kevin: the rom-com, aka aaron minyard has gay sex for the first time and is unreasonably endeared despite all the reasons (mostly supplied by neil) he shouldn’t be

kevaaron diner collab

kevaaron stock photo celeb au

kevaaron aaron damaged foot

kevaaron dream-walking (apov)

kvar aaron teasing/testing/tempting

four times aaron’s awful friends and relatives objectified his hot asshole roommate, and one time aaron could no longer claim immunity to kevin day

idr who all has been tagged and i suspect some of y'all have by now, but i tag again in case you haven't posted yours yet so that you tag me also when you post and i get to see your list hehehe. anyway i am allergic to tagging 25 people i am too shy (i culled a bit and was gonna cull this wip list down further to be a normal # but mina was like no wtf post it as is) but i will tag some & also if u wanna play, please do!!

tagging @seasy33 @decaflondonfog @awildtei @poetic-ivy @ereana @emdashingly @cubistemoji @xandersfishfloatie @snowandfires @zukkacore

[icewindandboringhorror]

Apparently I can meet my goal of roughly 400,000 words in 6 months if I just somehow write at least 2,200 words a day ghbjh... Almost 2,500 today... huzzah...

[maskofenigma]

another fallen london essay ramble whoo boy (i dont plan these btw) (spoilers for firmament and light fingers in particular plus general spoilers)

ok so do yall remember that one line in Firmament Chapter three where Summer drinks moon milk and looks directly at the player character and nothing happens? if not i get it, that section was pretty hard to follow and it was ultimately inconsequential and also optional so here it is

(from the fallen london wiki - Suggest Summer do it instead)

anyone whos played Light Fingers or is familiar with that plotline knows that this makes zero sense. even normal moon milk has extreme effect if ingested. and unless we're going to have some kind of toxic romance arc with Summer (which would be great but given the lack of foreshadowing and other aforementioned reasons is highly unlikely) we can chalk this up to sloppy writing and unfamiliarity with that ambition on whoever wrote this. such frustration seems to be the consensus on this chapter, at least on here

But! ive been following some liveblogging of early Light Fingers, reminiscing etc etc, when i remembered one other odd tie in to moon milk, in the cave of the nadir. now analyzing the nadir is similarly difficult to zenith because its very vauge and theres a lot of disconnected elements in there all in service of making a place thats confusing and dangerous and unknowable and whatever so take this with a grain of zalt. im sure theres some juicy deeplore in there but what i want to focus on is this

(from the fallen london wiki - "It was the milk... it was the milk, wasn't it?")

this is a weird callout, right? afaik thats one of the very few connections to an ambition in the nadir, alongside whatever the frost moth does in nemesis (havent gotten there yet). so like what gives? its not an especially rewarding action, and it doesnt progress the ambition or anything. its possible, given this comes after the orphanage section, that these two are like escapees of the orphanage after the fire / riot, but it could also be some disconnected memory its all very difficult to discern. and even if that is the case it doesnt really tell us much except maybe foreshadowing for Hephesta's situation. the best i can say is that, taken in context with the other options on that card, maybe its a parallel to Clarabelle's situation, with the references to eggs? there has to be some reason behind this reference, and if there isnt one, than at least let me headcanon this

i think the two instances above tell us very little on their own, but taken in together have fascinating implications. irrigo and violant are thematically opposed colors, forgetting vs remembering, and zenith / the nadir are explicitly connected both textually and in their names (zenith means the highest point of a space or object, nadir means the lowest), so that they both reference moon milk is interesting to say the least. I think this could be telling us that moon milk has different effects when under these two neathbow colors. Moon milk induced obsession seems to be resistant to the psyche destroying affects of the nadir, persisting for the two people in a place where memory is actively unravelled. the woman, even as she tells her companion to forget her, still clearly recalls the affect of the moon milk and her newfound obsessions. maybe this is somehow due to the milk's affect of overwhelming the victims previous life, in essence forcing them to forget what was previously important to them. or maybe, given irrigo's connection with lack of perception and drawing inward, the idea is that when the victim has nothing else to cling to in the nadir, the love instilled by the moon milk persists as a sort of internal source of comfort. in zenith, the violant light seems to dull or entirely nullify the milk's effects if that moment with Summer is to be believed. its stated that the violant forces the player character to be aware of every detail at once, able to perceive even distant objects with total clarity, splitting your attention everywhere at once. the way moon milk works is just an extreme version of a classic love potion: a victim falls deeply in love specifically with the first thing they see. maybe, because one perceives everything at the same time, the moon milk cannot properly take effect. or maybe the violant is just too oppressive, preventing the milk from occupying a victims thoughts as they are overwhelmed by the light.

whatever the case may be this is a very odd pairing. for a section so filled with moon misers, firmament has very little by way of references to Light Fingers, odd given thats one of the main places one would encounter a moon miser. no comment. and that moment in the nadir has always struck me as peculiar, if only for it being seemingly out of nowhere and disconnected to everything else. but moon misers are linked to apocyanic light with some degree of regularity, so i dont think its too great a stretch to connect them to other neathbow colors as well. one wonders how everyones favorite roof beetles might be affected by the other colors of the neath. even if im totally off base and disproven by some text in the high sancta or sunless skies or whatever there has to be something here im sure of it. or maybe ive lost it who knows certainly not me okay bye

[mygraine]

MOTHER GOT ME COLD BREW COFFEE THIS IS SUCH A HUGE W FOR THE MYGRAINEVERSE

[cold-neon-ocean]

💚

💚 for fic bits!

A little longer of a snippet than I had intended but I wanted enough context + the dialogue :'D I wrote this very recently trying to shake off some rust so it needs some polishing. The whole thing is intended to be relatively short just in an exercise to actually finish something but as usual I run rather long lol

-----

"Was anyone else hurt?" She asked, choosing to distract herself with trying to be a decent, unbiased leader.

"None too bad. The train got it worse than anything I think. We're gonna be stopped for the night at least until I can get it going again." He leaned back in his chair, staring at the tent wall, and Kuvira imagined he was writing plans on it in his mind for all the things he needed to do. "We should be able to leave tomorrow."

"At the cost of you sleeping tonight, or~?"

He closed his eyes. Which meant 'yes'. "Better than sitting on the tracks exposed like we are now."

Kuvira couldn't argue with that. A shame, as she loved cozying up to him when she didn't feel well. A practiced habit from when they were young and she was hurting from a fall during dance practice, or her abdomen was cramping. His heartbeat at her ear was the only thing that really soothed her enough to sleep. But she knew the train was his area of expertise, and he'd know better than anyone how to get it back on its wheels as soon as possible.

She wanted him to smile real quick, just to be sure he was doing a reasonable level of okay to put her own mind at ease. "Was Varrick with you? Where is he?"

"I put him in charge of seeing to any equipment on board that was damaged." Expressly to things at the back of the train, so he shouldn't be all that busy. Or have to touch much of anything.

"So he's fine then?" She clicked her tongue, "Aw, well I'm sure you'll think of something next time~" she joked, then rubbed his shoulder pityingly, "Perhaps something a bit less theatrical than a bandit attack. And where I don't get caught in the crossfire perhaps." That had become her favorite running joke, that any time they came under threat it was an elaborate attempt on Baatar's part to dispose of his engineering colleague.

And it always worked, the grin forced its way onto his face, "Yes, perhaps next time."

-----