#also realistically she probably would shave but i don't want to make her </3 so i might allow her that form of a gender breakthrough

[oldbutchdaniel]

many yuri daniel thoughts in my head on account of when i saw lbf in 2x05 i looked at his pathetic leather jacketed little vibes and finally understood my gender. anyways i have thoughts on like. her carreer & gender expression & such. generally goes for a vibe of 'this is the butchest woman twitter can handle without getting scared' but after the second divorce she went fuck it and chopped off all her hair & such

thissssss exactlyyyyyy. she is so painfully obviously butch but she still wears a miniskirt or a little dress because she ""likes it"" and obviously not because she still feels socialized to seek male attention, okay? like she's literally a feminist. realistically though daniel younger than 50 is like 'this is the butchest woman daniel can handle without getting scared' 😭

[retlasute]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

THANK YOOOOUU @penny-lane-123 FOR TAGGING ME ❤️ and I'm sorry I'm late, I've had smoke coming out of my ears for three days

And I don't interact with many people here but I'll tag you @imalovelymoth because I'm curious and I'm just entrosando🫶

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? Currently 3, but I have another 2 works ready 

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? Nearly 300.000 words  

3. What fandoms do you write for? Only for hot jojo cowboys

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Turbinio with 340 kudos, itrmw with 70 and Change Partners with 20 if I'm not mistaken 

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? YES I DO! I love interacting with readers and I always take the time to read their comments, it really motivates me to keep writing 

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? None have been finalized and I don't want to give spoilers, but itrmw probably won't have as ''good'' an ending as Turbinio 

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Again, I'm not the type to make truly happy endings, but the most optimistic will be Turbinio 

8. Do you get hate on fics? Surprisingly I've never gotten any hate on my fics ?? I've always been a person who gets in trouble easily and always seeing wonderful comments on my fics is something that disarms me and makes me😳😳😭😭❤️❤️ 

9. Do you write smut? WELL I TRY 😭😭 I'm the last romantic and what was supposed to be a 1500-word erotic scene becomes a complete book and I'm sure that must annoy some people who read looking for cock and get 14 paragraphs of pure internal conflict 

10. Do you write crossovers? No, writing for something silly like steel ball run already takes half my gray matter, a crossover would kill me 

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? YES, but it was at a time when I was still writing stories in portuguese. A son of a bitch stole all my poems and my first jotaro fic 

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Noo 

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yesss and it was in 2020 in a ficwriter community (I fought with everyone and was banned from there) 

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM I would say gyjo but I'm too jealous so my favorite ship is Joseph x Caesar 

15. What’s a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? I don't think I have something that I'll never finish because I work with random peaks of energy, last year Turbinio was nothing more than a 2000-word one-shot and now it's 65 chapters long 

16. What are your writing strengths? I honestly don't know, I can only answer what I like to do best, which in this case is to describe the appearance of the characters. I like to imagine a more realistic picture of how the characters would look after 116 days crossing deserts and frozen forests, whether they would be vain enough to shave, wash their hair or simply sleep properly. I think details like dark circles under the eyes, pallor, unshaven beards and patched clothes are things that I miss when I read the manga and see that they always look so flawless 

I also love describing specific pains like the tight knots of a suture cutting into the skin, how the salt from tears stings an abraded face and things like that 

17. What are your writing weaknesses? irregularity and laziness. It takes me two weeks to write a paragraph, and then on a random day I make a caipirinha shake and write 5000 words and publish it the same day because I'm too lazy to read and correct it 

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I usually keep only slang and sayings. As the protagonist of Turbinio is practically polyglot, I like to add details to her speech such as a certain slowness or brief pauses, as if she's trying to remember how the word is in english (I confess that this happens to me all the time, so I make her say the word in spanish out of laziness to look up the translation) 

In some of the first chapters I also used to make the answers she gave Diego simpler or vaguer because at the beginning she really struggled to understand that british accent 

19. First fandom you wrote for? Diabolik Lovers 💀💀 

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? IN THE RICH MAN'S WORLDDDD i love this fic because it's a project i started in 2019 and it was SO DETAILED and full of nuances  

now I'm writing a much simpler version but still full of details that I'm really enjoying writing, even though Turbinio has a special place in my heart and I particularly prefer a good old latina protagonist 

[audreydoeskaren]

What do you think of the costumes on Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty?

The plot of the drama is a mess, but the costumes look pretty, btw I'm not an expert:3

Hi, thanks for the request. To be honest I don't watch the dramas I review beginning to end because I don't usually have time for 50+ episodes dramas but the costumes in this one are so good that I actually watched 5 whole episodes, before getting put off by the plot...

Please stick around for this one because it is really good.

Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty 梦回 (2019)

There is no English Wikipedia entry that I can copy and paste from for this drama (no love 😥) but it's basically about a modern working woman who time travels back to the Qing Dynasty and gets involved in court drama and romances. It's directed by Lee Kwok Lap and Chui Wai Hong (Rakuten Viki). I think in episode 4 or 5 they mention that the historical bits take place in the 45th year of Kangxi which is 1706. With a significant portion of the plot taking place in court, many characters should wear Manchu fashion and court dress. All the screenshots are from the Youtube uploads. The credits list Guan Qiwen as the stylist, Gu Fengxian as the costume designer, Lai Zhuping as the hairstylist and Ma Jingjing as the makeup artist. I wanted to credit all of them because as you will see, the entire team did such a great job.

Source here

I think the costumes look great, although they do lean more toward the mid and late 18th century than 1706. Finally for once a Qing period drama landed in the 18th century and not the 19th, this is a watershed moment in the history of Qing drama costuming ok? This is exactly what Story of Yanxi Palace and Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace should’ve looked liked but failed to deliver (they teleported themselves to the 1850s).

The construction of the 便服 bianfu (informal dress) robes here is extremely satisfying: they're collarless, they have the thin black binding around the neck, they have the horse hoof cuffs and they're in plain fabrics. The colors are also quite realistic and achievable in the early 18th century court. I do wish the male characters had less hair though; in the beginning of the Qing, men were practically bald with the exception of a teeny bit of hair at the back (about the size of a coin) which was grown into a pigtail. This is too much hair for me, although it is still a massive improvement compared to older dramas where the dudes barely shaved off any of their hair. The 褂 gua or coat the guy on the right is wearing is also very legit, it has the conventional five buttons and the sleeves that are looser and shorter than the robe sleeves. I’m super impressed!

Source here

Kangxi in a similar informal robe.

Source here

Kangxi in a similar coat.

The look on the right is highly questionable, maybe it was a specific type of uniform. I already trust the costume designer with my life so I’m sure whatever they came up with probably had historical precedent. The robe with a standing collar and the wide binding at the 大襟 dajin or lapel/front closure was something that existed, I’m just not sure if this particular color and pattern would be used.

Source here

Qianlong era portrait featuring a similar robe. If you look at the dajin you can see that binding was used.

Her mother’s entrance look is very intriguing: while all the other characters in this seem to be Manchu, she is wearing Han clothing with a Han hairstyle. From the description given in the show it seems that her family was originally Han but served the Manchu emperors and got elevated into the Banners (the Manchu aristocracy) so it’s not completely out of place for her mom to wear Han clothing I guess. With that said, this hairstyle is pretty interesting. It looks like they were trying to do the 1710s/20s hairstyle that looks like poop and they got it almost right, it’s just that the “poop” part could sit closer to the forehead. Her robe looks very late 17th century which makes sense for her age, though the collar could be taller and have two buttons.

Source here

Painting from the series 雍亲王十二美人图 showing the hairstyle they were referencing.

Source here

Closeup of the painting 乔园之三好图 by 禹之鼎 from the 1680s showing the back of women’s hairstyles. The giant pompadour front has fallen out of fashion in the early 1700s.

In this scene we see again that the Manchu women’s robes featured in this show have slits at the sides, which shouldn’t exist for 衬衣 chenyi. They also layered a robe on top of another, going the 19th century chenyi + 氅衣 changyi route which also wasn’t a thing in the early 18th century.

Here it looks like the mother’s robe is way too long to be a Han robe? Han robes were pretty long around this time but they would still show a bit of the skirt underneath. Her father’s outfit is great though, he has the wine colored robe with horse hoof cuffs and a coat with a 补子 buzi (square badge), which was appropriate for an official. I like that the buzi is also colorful, with waves and cliffs motifs and a single bird, which were the norm in the Qing. 

In this scene where the ladies go to court it becomes more obvious that the costume designer completely understood the difference between Han and Manchu women’s fashion at the time. The Han girls are wearing two piece ensembles whereas the Manchu girls wear a single floor length robe. They gave the Han girls white, heavily pleated skirts and hairstyles with swallow tails which were popular in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. I can’t really tell how the Manchu hairstyles are achieved but if they were indeed braided I need to give the hairstylist a trophy.

Source here

Closeup of painting 豪家佚乐图 by 杨晋 from the late 17th/early 18th century showing the white skirt with many pleats and floral embroidery.

Source here

Late 17th/early 18th century portrait of a Manchu lady showing her braided hairstyle and collarless chenyi with roundel motifs.

I just noticed that they did give the Manchu characters three earrings on each ear, a practice known as 一耳三钳 yi’ersanqian, to differentiate them from the Han ones, who wear one earring on each ear; that’s a nice touch. Ok I think the biggest problem with the Han women’s costumes in this show is the collar height and fit. It should be much taller and more fitted to the wearer’s neck. Oh and I love the embroidery on all of their costumes, they’re often in roundel patterns or at least follow the pattern distribution common to the early 18th century. The choice of florals and butterflies is also really cute and true to the era and season (this is probably springtime), in addition to adding contrast to the menswear which usually features plain fabrics or those with brocaded geometric patterns. 

This square necked garment is very interesting and does have a historical precedent, they got the construction correct even down to the wide facing at the collar. I don’t particularly agree with the use of fake hair for this lady because I think it’d be more authentic to braid her hair or use a turban to cover it (it’s also a little too big).

Source here

Early Qing portrait of a Manchu lady. You can see her hair is much smaller.

They did recreate the smaller hair with another character, who is Han but probably changed into Manchu garb for riding. I cannot tell you how much I respect their attention to occasion.

Usually I would stop at episode 10 but I really want to see the winter clothes featured in the promotional photos so I skipped ahead. The winter clothes did not disappoint. The black fur collar trim is completely correct and so is the white fur trim for the rest of the coat. They’re also wearing winter hats with fur. 

Source here

Winter clothing.

Omg this cloak YASSSSSS!! This might be the most legit early Qing cloak I have ever seen in a period drama. The construction is great because: 1) it doesn’t have a hood like in most period dramas, Chinese cloaks didn’t have attached hoods 2) it’s collarless, which is true to the early Qing 3) it’s pleated around the neck and most Qing cloaks were constructed by pleating or gathering around the neck 4) it buttons at the front with five buttons, which was conventional for Qing outerwear 5) it has no other shenanigans like openings or sleeves 6) it’s in a wool/felt fabric that actually looks appropriate for the season. I think 6 is particularly important and refreshing to me personally because fabric choice is something that’s very often overlooked in Chinese period dramas, like you would see people running around a field of snow in shiny silk adjacent fabrics and you’d just think “aren’t they cold in that?” Woolen fabrics, especially worsted wool which was waterproof, was usually imported from Europe to make rain coats and other outerwear and was quite unique to the Qing Dynasty, so I really appreciate the use of them here.

Source here

An artifact for early Qing cloaks. This one is pretty interesting since it also has a built in coat inside, but we can still see the construction of the outer cloak.

This Han look is very, very legit, and I love that it’s in a winter fabric too. The sleeves are a bit too short though, that’s also a recurring problem.

She’s probably wearing a 抹额 mo’e underneath her winter hat, which was a very popular accessory throughout the Kangxi and Yongzheng eras. Her 吉服 jifu robe looks pretty good too. I’m not sure if she would wear 朝珠 chaozhu (the bead necklace) for jifu though.

I leafed through 38 episodes and finally managed to get a screenshot of an outfit with the suspended kerchief. This is such a cool look that never got representation before this. You can see in many 18th century export paintings that sometimes Manchu women attached a plain white kerchief and other jewelry to the button at the dajin and just left them hanging there. My only quibble is that in the 18th century kerchiefs didn’t have this deliberately created rectangular shape yet, so they more than likely would just be loose and flowy instead of ironed and flat.

Source here

Late 18th century export painting showing the kerchief.

Conclusion

Phew this got really long. I absolutely loved looking at the costumes in this drama, words cannot express how refreshing and well made they are. Because this drama has such bad ratings I was expecting some sloppy costuming but this totally blew my mind. They pulled out some rare garments and looks that no other period drama (that I know of) has done before and executed them almost flawlessly, e.g. the suspended kerchief, the cloak, the square necked jacket, the fur trimmed winter clothing etc.. The differentiation between Manchu and Han womenswear was perfectly handled, in a lot of older dramas you couldn’t tell the ethnicity of the female characters at all where you should be able to. The construction and cut of the clothes are almost entirely period and I commend the costumer for not adding unnecessary details to “spice things up”. The attention to occasion and season is also remarkable, in spring the female characters wear clothing with floral and butterfly motifs and in winter everyone wears warmer, heavyweight fabrics. This is something that usually tends to be lacking in a lot of older guzhuang dramas which paraded their characters around in gaudy colors and fabrics regardless of weather and occasion. There is still the classic Qing court drama problem of the costumes being accurate to a different era; the Manchu clothes look more appropriate to the Qianlong era (mid to late 18th century) whereas the Han ones are more on point. A couple recurring problems also exist, such as the use of the not-yet-invented changyi, standing collars that are too low and sleeves that are too short. However, that does not at all detract from how much I want to give the costuming team a cookie----no, my entire fucking cookie collection. It’s such a shame that the plot was mediocre because the costumes really have the potential to make this show groundbreaking. I rate the costuming in this drama a solid 7/10 and I will be naming this the most historically accurate Qing drama to ever grace this earth until a worthy contender appears. Bravo.

[zombiiesque]

A Month of Nocturne Alchemy Samples: Week One

Originally published 3/18/2019

Hey y'all. I'm going to open myself up for a little judgment here, and show you my sample box. Hah! I've got a thinner box, different than the ones I use to store my full bottles, the photo on the right is the top of it. Pretty decorated box, and I bought it years back to store my samples/decants. Well, I'm not the best at organizing it - they usually just get tossed in there, and whenever I do organize it, it never stays the way it's meant to. Ah well, I love my box. I've got a smaller box that's shaped like a little coffin, that I picked up from the Dollar Tree during Halloween one year. It holds overflow, when I have it, or the scents I'm trying to remember to work with at that moment. Unfortunately, with these little treasures, out of sight is out of mind, and also, I have a tendency to hoard stuff that I know is discontinued or won't be coming back - I'm looking at you, Plumeria Sapphire and Kiskah Kashmir. Sigh. I really should just wear them. My friend Siri says the late, wonderful, perfumer of Possets, Fabienne, told folks to wear them and enjoy, and so, I am trying to do this more. Another Tent member, Thyra, mentioned she was doing a "Mini March", using her samples and minis because they get neglected. Yes, I had been trying to do this myself for a while now, so it gave me the inspiration I needed to get started. I'm going to try to be on top of this, and post once a week my thoughts on the samples I've used. Week One, here we go!

Vanilla Pumpkin: Pumpkin Accord, Pumpkin skin, Black Fig, Nutmeg, Clove, NA Crystalline Vanilla Absolute, Bourbon Vanilla Absolute, French Vanilla, Tahitian Vanilla, Ember Vanilla, Ember Burning Woods accord. This is one of two from a Chris Raimo Kickstarter project, and my friend Ld was kind enough to send me samples of these! This is a little reminiscent of a favorite I've been hoarding. Bastet made a Crystalline Burning Jack, based off the PC Burning Jack, and gave it out with NAlloween orders a few years back. Absolutely adore that! This is a little like that, but with fig. The spice is tempered with the vanillas, and the pumpkin and fig are really good together. This feels so fall, it has me longing for cooler weather and for summer to be behind me already. The drydown is so cozy.

Incense Pumpkin: Pumpkin Accord, Pumpkin skin, Black Fig, Nutmeg, Clove, Butter accord, NA Kashmir Incense, Frankincense, Myrrh, Amber, Nag Champa Incense and Black Amber. Ooo. This is the second Chris Raimo pumpkin, and I really like this one, too. My first impression is of incense and buttery pumpkin. It doesn't end up significantly foodie, however. How do they make that work so well together? I don't have Pumpkin number 31, the OP pumpkin blend, but this makes me think of that. This is a little similar to Vanilla Pumpkin, but the incense is a little more intense, and I really like it. I've worn this a few times, and I forget what I have on, and have to huff my wrist, I find it enchanting. Not that it matters all that much to me, but this could be considered more of an evening scent than its sister. I don't mark this one as overwhelmingly nag champa, either. It's a more complex incense.

Night Thoughts: Gold Santalum, Santalum Absolute, Papyrus accord, Indian Teakwood Essence, Bay Rum, Kobalt and Crystalline with a touch of Japanese White Tangerine Skin. Okay, this is from my first year collecting NA! Some of my first decants, from Art of Love - I got this from Laura, my good friend. Miss you, lady. This one veers into masculine on me, but I think it would smell good on my fiance. Or folks who wear more obviously masculine scents well, I can't quite pull it off, but I can do unisex. I like it, I'll have to try it on him to see if it works. I amped the bay rum, and that's a great note on him - and the teak. But I honestly can't remember the last time I tried this, so I'm glad I did!

The Bower Garden: Black and Red Currant Essence, Dragon's Blood Resin, French Syrah Red Wine Accord, German Lilac, Egyptian Fig and Sandalwood Musk. This decant was actually a gift from my friend Adrienne! She loves fig as much as I do. I really enjoyed this one, I might have to hunt down a full bottle of this. The berry combined with the dragon's blood and sandalwood musk is just so me. And I always love how they do their wine notes. I feel like the lilac adds a wonderful freshness to this blend, I really like it - I love love love lilac, it's one of my favorite flowers, and I've never tried NA's lilac before - I honestly think I will have to try more, now. It's very realistic. All of the notes play beautifully together, and I'm a little swoony over this. It has a very spring feel, and the dragon's blood adds a good grounding note here, it's a tad spicy/incensey. Mmm. Total win. It might be my favorite this week.

Thoth: Nile Ozone, Papyrus, Cream of Strawberry accord, White Incense and Alexandrian Sea Salt accord. This is such a clean, bright scent. It's serene. It was a little powdery on me when I first tried it, but as you know, they change with age. This could be a staple scent for summer. Also, I find it to be very unisex, not overtly masculine nor feminine. I'd try it on Jody, but I'm not sure it's one he would go for, he usually goes for the darker stuff, but he likes these on me. I don't really notice the cream of strawberry, it's probably a supporting note. The incense is soft and not in your face, and provides a really nice balance to keep this from being too clean, if that makes sense I definitely want to upsize this. I bet it would be really awesome with a little Santalum White, too. A very beachy scent, it feels blue. This is from the PC, the Gods, Goddesses and Deity subcollection.

Pakhet Amber: Pakhet Amber is a perfume created from Amber Resin transformed over time in the Studio into a beautiful enhancing Royal Amber oil experience, Amber Resin imported from Alexandria and lit from the truest essential oil of Rare and Exotic Guiacwood and Crystal Benzoin and Crystal Frankincense. Using the base of the Amber described above the resin has been turned into a fossilized perfume resin from ancient recipes and then turned back into perfume oil diluting nothing only the use of Alchemy and inspiring this scent to be made and created for the Goddess Pakhet. Warrior, protector, and huntress. Pakhet Amber infuses rare spices of Blue Peppercorn, White Clove Bud, Virgin Nutmeg Shaving over the warmth of Ambers from Nepal and Egypt and sifted through Sapphire (Amber Musk) to create a spiced amber that changes over time on the skin. So Pakhet Amber is from the PC (Permanent Catalogue), in the Royal Amber section. This is honestly one of my favorite sections, a few years ago I did a good sized PC order with a bunch from this section. I avoided Pakhet Amber though, but someone sent me a sample, and I haven't worn it. Right out of the gate on me, this is all clove. I can wear spices on occasion, even clove - I have and love Polichenelle, also from the PC. But sometimes, I just amp the spice, and all I can smell - or anyone else for that matter - is that. Unfortunately, Pakhet Amber does just that on me. Bahhhh. I get sad when a fan favorite is something I can't do. The clove just went to powering out any of the other notes here. Skinistry is such a crazy thing! It will have to go to the gift pile, hopefully someone else will have better luck than I did with it. It sounds divine, and I really loved what I could smell in the vial. Sadface.

NA Purpose Oil: Strength: Sky Musk, Solar Amber, White Patchouli, Egyptian Dragon Blood Resin, Kobalt Vanilla Resin (Vanilla Orchid of Cairo), Bastet's Blue Incense Accord, Orange Zest and Lavender Buds. I have a full bottle of their Purpose Oil: Protection, and I just love it. It's very special. I haven't actually worn this Purpose Oil before, though. I've been meaning to test them all, so this is a good push for me to do that this month. This starts out with a dose of lavender, citrus, and amber burst. It's fresh, and the lavender feels a little herbal, and not too strong. Ooo, this is really a pretty combination. I've never smelled anything quite like this, it's appealing to me. The lavender is balancing out with the other notes as they appear, so it's still working for me. I love the musk here with the incense, it's so pretty with the lighter, brighter notes. For me, I think this is an excellent oil for Strength - it gives a breezy confidence. I like this quite a lot, I wasn't sure if it would work on me but it definitely does.

So, that wraps up this first week of samples. That was a great motivator, and I should honestly make myself wear them far more than I do, there are a lot of treasures in that box. Have a good Monday, folks!