#and i have to pick english as an optional (which is actually mandatory they just call it that) class

[dean-is-love]

uni starts in a week and i really need to find a way to cope with that. i will be posting my aesthetic notes

[maryjane888]

On the stump (h.s.)

Author's note: english is not my first language, so please excuse any mistakes. Also, this first part is shorter but the others will be longer. Hope you enjoy. xx

Part I

"Y/n, please see me in my office after class." Professor Morris gave her a small smile after his request. "Nothing to worry about. Just some opportunities I would like to present you."

Y/n sighed of relief as the auditorium started to fill with sleepy students. She tought Mr. Morris would lecture her about the small pile of multiple choice exams in his desk that weren't all graded yet. Being a TA was reveling to be more time consuming than expected. She would have to reorganize her agenda for the third time this week, which also meant that she would have to skip tonight's plans with her friends. There was no room for mistakes or delays, if Mr. Morris was still planning to write her that recommendation letter.

"Alright, today we're going to talk about the decolonization of India. Don't forget the mandatory readings for this part of the course. I will not be speaking in detail about the process of independence of each asian countrie. If you have any questions, y/n can help you during office hours."

How wonderful, y/n thought, more workload. Must be punishment for all those exams.

...

"Take a seat". She pushed the dark oak chair back and smoothed her navy skirt before sitting down.

"This won't take long." He oppened a drawer on his desk, took some papers out of it and started to go through them.

"I have some connections in Vienna." He stopped and looked at her suggestively, adjusting his glasses. Y/n's palms started to sweat.

"I know New York would be more preferable, but Vienna is the only place now with open seats." Oh God. There was a faint quick thump sound in Mr Morris's office. It was y/n's nervous foot tapping in anticipation. He continued to flick through the pieces of paper until he found the one he wanted. Professor Morris pushed the single page in y/n's direction. Her hopeful eyes made him chuckle.

"That is a list of people responsible for selecting the interns at the UN offices in Vienna. Search their names and study them. I have also scribbled some tips for your upcoming interview." Y/n deviated her gaze from the paper to her professor in confusion.

"My interview?" Mr Morris smiled.

"Yes, your interview. Your application was accepted. You should receive an email soon explaining that you will move on to the next phase." She picked up the paper and pressed it tightly to her chest.

"Thank you, so much." He got up from his chair and buttoned his blazer.

"Now, if you fufill your position successfully as a TA by the end of the semester, I will make sure a recommendation letter gets to those offices." Y/n got up so excited her chair squeaked loudly and almost made her cringe. She was to happy to feel embarassed.

"I will not disappoint you, Professor Morris." She promised.

"I'm sure you won't." He then checked his wristwatch and complained about a meeting he was having with the faculty. Y/n took it as a cue to leave, but not without thanking him one more time.

...

The few students passing by looked strangely at the girl with the wide smile and a spring in her step. Who looks that enthusiastic on a Thursday morning? Y/n did. And she had good reasons to. All her work seemed to finally bear fruit. Being an UN intern was going to propel her career in politics. She would actually learn how things work in the real world, outside classrooms and without textbooks. She would have the opportunity to travel and meet new experienced people. And right now she also had the perfect excuse to ditch her social plans, having to make sure all her extracurricular workload was sorted out. Being an incompetent TA was not an option, and not getting that internship was a scenario that y/n refused to conceive as a possibility.

As soon as she got to her dorm, y/n started to search the people on that piece of paper. Her gold tickect to the chocolate factory. She memorized their full names, academic backrounds, previous jobs, and their personal interests. She made some social media searches for that. Then, a draft for her interview was outlined based off of Mr Morris's tips. Serious but not boring, interesting but not fake, professional but still warm. An email notification made her stop typping. She clicked on the unread message and admired the positive response. Her eyes travelled through her desk. It was a mess. She was surrounded by heavy authors and heavier subjects. A pile of crinkled photocopies of ICJ cases, an open Krugman book with dozens of fluorescent post-its, a few flashcards with EU's legislative process. If her desk was a mess, it meant she was busy and working. That mess made her happy. Y/n looked back at the email and she thought to herself, I'm almost there, I'm going to change the world.

...

"Shit." The hot brown liquid spreaded through y/n's white oversized shirt. She tossed the paper cup in the bin and tried to keep the fabric from sticking to her skin. Her brallette was now visible through the wet shirt. As she walked to the small bathroom atached to the office, she mentally patted herself on the back for keeping an extra t-shirt in her bag.

The door to the office was closed and no one usually came at this time of day. She was safe to change. Y/n tried to remove the stain in the sink as much as she could. She then placed it on the back of the chair to dry. A thin light brown outline was still visible. She sighed in annoyance. That was her favourite shirt.

As she reached to her bag to grab the shirt, the sound of the door knob brought horror to her features. She quickly grabbed the piece of clothing and tried to hide her nude state behind the fabric. As the door opened, y/n could already imagine the chocked look on Mr Morris' face at her lack of clothing. She had a plausible excuse, of course, but it was still a very strange situation. She should have locked the door. Well, too late.

Her look of fear turned to a confused one as she stared at the man that entered the room. He paused, hand still grabbing the door knob, and stared back, as confused as her. They stayed like that for a couple minutes trying to make sense of the situation. Y/n grew annoyed at his lack of action. The door was still open for everyone to see her precarious state.

"Close the door!" He awakened from his trance and quickly shut the door, turnig his back to her. She took the opportunity to dress the clean t-shirt. As she pulled the fabric down her torso, she noticed him staring at her again. Y/n was becoming more and more irritated. She had been gradding tests for the past three hours, hadn't gotten any breaks, decided to get a coffe from the machine down the hall, spilled the drink on her favourite shirt and was now being checked out by some random man that would not say anything, not even an apology. He was about to confront a very grumpy side of y/n.

"Are you a student of professor Morris? Office hours are only on Mondays and Wednesdays. I do not have time to answer any questions today." She went to sit on the desk and continue her work, not bothering to look at him as she speaked.

"I was a student of his." The man approched the desk. "I came to visit him." Y/n continued to write notes with her red pen, avoiding eye contact. Her frustration still mixed with the embarassement from moments ago.

"Well, as you can see Mr Morris isn't here, and he won't be coming in today. You can schedule your visit using the contacts printed by door. I also recommend you to knock before meeting with the professor." Y/n added the last part, staring back at him. He stood tall with crossed arms and a hard gaze. She could see that he did not like the way he was being treated. Y/n wondered who this man really was. What if he was someone important? Someone close to Mr Morris? She realised maybe she should have approched him more carefully.

"I was not aware that TAs now felt so free to seduce their superiors. I'll make sure I knock next time, promise." Her annoyance became painfully obvious and the room grew even more tense. She got up from her chair and faced him fully. They were closer now. He hovered over her, angry gazes competing. Y/n noticed his deep green eyes and a single chocolate lock fell between them. That was annoying.

"I spilled coffee on my shirt, not that I owe you any explanations." She backed away slightly and straightened her posture. "I will not admit any insulting accusations about how I work. You don't know me." Y/n tried to calm herself down. She was grumpy and he was just provoking her. It was not worth her time, so she distanced herself from him. He did not say anything else. He only observed her as she checked the time on her phone. Its late, she thought, I'll finish this tomorrow.

"What? Time to get undressed in another professor's office?" Y/n shot him a death glare.

"You're an assh-" she was interrupted by the sound of the door knob. She immediately stoped talking as Mr Morris entered the room. The other man smirked at her, enjoying her big scared eyes.

"Y/n? What are you still doing here?" He noticed the piles of exams with red anotations here and there. "It's late. Please go home and rest. You can finish another time." Mr Morris gave her a reassuring smile. Y/n started to pack her things, happy that he hadn't heard her before. Bad language was a no go with the faculty, especially insults. It could damage her image as a TA.

"And I've seen you have already met Harry." They both exchanged awkward smiles. "Weren't supposed to..." Y/n gave a questioning look at the two men. Harry was now avoyding her eyes. She tried to ignore the whole situation and placed her bag in her shoulder, ready to leave.

"I'll see you next week. Get some sleep, y/n." Professor Morris waved her goodbye. Harry simply stood next to him, hands in his pockets, as he observed her closing the door.

...

Y/n sighed in relief as she closed her laptop. She had asked professor Morris if she could take the online interview in his office. Her small dorm didn't look very professional as a background. He allowed it, telling her to not worry to much. At this point, y/n felt like she could ask him to be her garantor and he would say yes. He was like the godfather she never had.

Y/n had a good feeling about the call. She got the interviewer she most wanted and she felt like they truly connected through their mutual interests. Plus, the tips on that golden piece of paper really came in handy. She would have to thank her professor for the millionth time. Now, all she had left to do was being a good TA, keep her grades high and trust that her capabilites would be good enough to grant her the spot she thought she was worthy of. Y/n thought some relax time was needed and well deserved. She pushed all her work aside, and texted her friends. That night she would be joining them.

[rigelmejo]

1 am this [] close to studying Spanish for a while

I really don't need to. I really dont

The Spanish shows I found and am getting dragged into I could absolutely just use subtitles to follow

I could spend time on French instead (ahahahah ToT I need to improve so Bad but also I have no pressing need to so), or Chinese (I DO need to increase reading speed for my own sake) or japanese (to be fair while I wish it was better it is Also the sort of thing where once I'm playing Yakuza Kenzan in japanese it's sink or swim and I'll probably make improvement at that point when its mandatory and not optional to learn)

But like. I can already read non fiction Spanish. I can read it about as fast as English non fiction already. So like... when I see or hear a Spanish show it drives me up the Wall I do not fully understand. When I pick up a fiction novel it's a touch frustrating I feel back like I felt with 6 months of French study trying to read novels ToT

(My Spanish level is. Wonky. It's incredibly poor, to be frank. I have a few thousand vocabulary but NOT all common words which makes that vocabulary less useful in regular conversations, i have basic Poor listening skills and skewed reading skills due to reading a TON of Spanish nonfiction just brute forcing it, I don't remember some BASIC ASS conversational words when speaking so I functionally cannot speak, but if it's reading it comes back to me, despite studying French for 2+ years I find Spanish easier to follow when listening, and I've read 3+ Spanish textbooks despite feeling I absorbed nothing. I also very much am so TEMPTED to study with like Dreaming Spanish and read Poco a Poco and just brute force it for 200 hours and see how much I learn. Because I feel like I'd learn a lot pretty quick, what with all the tangential stuff I know, and with the non fiction base I've got to connect new stuff I learn to as far as memory goes. I just really want to try to learn like Dreaming Spanish style aaaaaaaaaa. But also? Like for Real when I'm reading/watching something the Desire to know what is ACTUALLY said versus translated absolutely eats at me)

Anyway I've been watching Young Royals and my ears focus in hard sometimes when Simons family speaks because my brains like: words you should know! Fuck yeah, what did they say! Aaaa! I swear I know most of that! (Versus the rest of the show where my brain will supply "Oh that word sounded a bit like english")

[zenosanalytic]

Paintbrush, PlasGlue, and Holy Clippers: Sparse Marns Part II: Assembly

RIGHT! Let’s get to CHOPPIN >:> >:> WHATS IN THE BAAAAAACHS?!??!

Here are the (gender inclusive: they’re Transhuman Childsoldier Fleshwarbots)Lads I’ll be turning from Bits to Bums

A squad of five Primaris Heavy Intercessors; I bought these because my gameshop had them. I’m not a particular fan of the Space Marines, I’ve ALWAYS preferred the Xenos factions and Certain Cultures among the Horribly Maligned Natives of the Empyrean(Guess Which One :> :> :> It’s a CINCH!!), tho I DO, actually, have a wee little OC Chapter of my very own of headcanony significant(in this I am utterly unique among GW fans, I am Sure u_u u_u) which I hope to paint up an army for one day. However: I need to practice on something and my game shop has very few votanni boxes so here we are. Coincidentally I do also like the Adepta Sororitas(Space Battle Nuns), and that may come up later who knows u_u

Here is What’s in the Bachs. Look what they’ve done to my boys. These are the fabled Spruce, which we all pronounce ‘Sproose’ for some unfathomable English Reason. I’ve been spelling it Sprues up til now because I, Civic Mindedly, want you to know how to say it. No I didn’t call them “Spruces” for literally 20+ years of my life why would you think that of me??? Also there are their bases above, a contact sheet(I may or may not get to these later cuz they are A Hassle), and the instruction manual. I know this looks like allot but, Trust Me, it’s only five guys. Five Horribly, Horribly Mutilated Guys unu unu

But even Greater Horrors await us...

OH GODS! The humanity. Should I censor the image? I just found them like this I Swear your honor.

This is them clipped and gathered into the five builds I decided to use. I’d have liked to do process pics for that but, as but a wee snek, I cannot clip bits from sprues and operate a camera at the same time unu They are, reading the pic like a page from top left to bottom right, a Sargent(mandatory), Heavy Weapons Guy(optional. If you dont take em you can upgrade the whole squad’s rifles for free, but the Heavy is So Chunk so...), and Three Rifliers(it’s totally a word shutup unu) I decided on these by looking through the instructions

which look like that. They’re unnecessarily confusing. The way it SAYS it works is each build is color coded, but also numbered, but then sometimes the numbers are ALSO different steps in the same build, and then variants of the build are lettered(except when they’re numbered). I’d prefer if the steps were the letters and the numbers were build-exclusive, but you get used to it and the builds are so well engineered that you can’t really use “the wrong” part and end up stuck or anything. It’s important to do the steps for each build in the proper order but I’ll get to that later.

Here’s the thing: according to ppl who should know these things, they coat the sprues in “release agents” during manufacture to keep them from sticking together, so you need to clean that stuff off or the paint wont stick later. So, After I clipped them I washed them in

the cups from before, and quickly realized I’d overfilled the soapy one. You don’t need ALLOT of water there, just enough to cover the pieces. So after the first two I dumped it, used a more reasonable amount, and it went fine. The process is this: clip out your pieces, put them in the soap, swish em around a few times with a suitable digit, then pick em out and dump em in the clean water, swish, then set to dry on the paper towel. Easy Peasy.

When they’re dry(I waited 30ish minutes I think? Should have probably timed it -__-) You can start gluing them together. BUT NOT SO FAST!

These are mold lines. They’re a product of the way the Bits are cast, and they need to be removed before you start assembly-proper because it’d be a Hassle trying when they models are built and also they’d interfere with the joins. Most hobby companies make a “mold line remover” tool which, presumably is designed and shaped to do this job well, but honestly I just use the back of my hobby knife. Finger nails are also pretty good at the job:

et voila! That was just with nails. Sometimes the lines will be soft enough that you can, and sometimes they won’t. You’ll notice, also, that some details are just too small to really get at the lines without destroying the whole structure and that’s fine; you don’t need to go all out on the lines there. I might get a line remover at somepoint just to see how they do but honestly I feel like it’s a bit Finicky when finger nails and the back of a hobby knife work just fine. It’s not just mold lines tho:

that Weird grey-white accumulation center screen on the bit is where the sprue connected. When you cut them free, often there will be a little bit left cuz Physics. This, usually, is something you’ll need to use your hobby knife for, and this time I mean the sharp side. Remember: gentle, controlled, shaving and slicing, move in one direction and don’t saw, aim for a shallow angle. Some ppl will describe this process as “scooping it out” but I think “making the surface smooth” is a better description(cuz that’s what you’re aiming for). Once you get most of the sprue-smut off with the cutty-end, you can then try the back of the knife, or a file, or your nails to finish smoothing. A few of these were tough enough to justify the file for me, but most weren’t and I just cleaned with nails and the back of the knife.

AND ANOTHER THING(omg)

This is one of the bolters(technically bolt rifles with Primaris marines), and as you’ll notice the barrel is a whole plug. But that’s not how gun barrels work! This is where the Hobby Drill comes in, tho honestly it’s really more of a pride/vanity thing and you don’t REALLY need to do it. It’s a pretty simple process; what I did was make a pilot divot with the tip of my awl-file, then used the smallest bit on my drill to drill a hole until it looked like it was as deep as the front bit of the barrel there, and then I drilled out the side holes. After the first one, I realized it’d be simpler to drill out the side holes first,and then drill from the front. Since the side holes are already recessed, you don’t really need to bother with making a pilot divot, tho you might want to trade off side to side if you’re worried about drilling at the wrong angle.

OK: FINALLY:: NOW::: PEOPLE FROM PIECES:::: AGAIN NO PROCESS PICS SURRRR:::::

Here’s the Sargent. They had allot of bare head options but imo That’s Stupid: why would someone go into a fight without a helmet? That prevents critical hits!! People keep their brains in there and honestly I think that’s a better idea than them floating around, wild and free.

cHeavy Weapon. On the one hand I like this sculp, on the other I really do think that tubing is Fiddly and Dumb and part of me desperately wanted to cut off the parts attached to the gun, and not include the parts which needed gluing. [EDIT: I Originally Forgot to put in this part X|] Also I put the arms on too early, and didn’t attach them to the gun first, so I had to DEtach them(A Hassle), attach them to the gun, then to the torso, THEN I knocked off his leg wrestling those into place; it was a nightmare. SO: Follow the Steps.

I THINK(???) I set him up with the armor-piercing ammo tin, but honestly WH40k is so RNGesus that taking the assault variant with, like, twice the attack dice is probably the way to go over two measly shots at -2Armor. Realistically most units will get vaporized a turn after firing, if they even survive that long(Heavy Intercessors probably will; they’ve got three wounds, which is as much as a light vehicle, and the whole squad is like 15 or 16, I forget if the Sargent gets an extra, which is as much as a Flipping Tank. Most infantry only have one), so maximizing your dice-count seems to be the best strategy.

I affectionately(derogatory) call this Lad “Stumbly”. Of all the builds they had the hardest time standing(they EVEN came off their stand at one point, but I’ll get to that later) because the illusion of forward motion makes it VERY fore-heavy, but once I attached the backpack/lifesupport it stood Okish. I like to imagine they’re not looking forward cuz they just saw a Really Neat Bug. Maybe they’re stepping around it; maybe they were just Trudging along to murk some space-elves and then ‘OH! Cute Bug!! Sorry, Sir, go about your day’ redirecting around it with their Transhuman Murderbot Reflexes uwu

You can’t really see it in this pic, cuz the angle is Awesome, but this Lad looks like they’re in the middle of raising their gun, so I’ve named them “Surprise!”. Their bolt-rifle barrel REALLY makes me wish I could have gotten the next size up bit in that drill -___- Presumably they were in the middle of some Important Discussion, Possibly about Neat Bugs, when a malnourished religious dissident stumbled out of the bushes and, well, Atheist-Space-Murder-Catholicism’s just Not That Great what can I say? That starving waif had Theses locked and loaded and they Needed to Die u_u u_u

This Lad’s reloading cuz, while everyone else was Lollygagging about Neat Bugs, they were Getting Shit Done. I’ve named them Already-Done-Shooting, or Ads, and I Love Them even tho they’re a bit annoying u_u u_u u_u

And here’s The Whole Squad, Based

I’m sorry for how blurry that looks; I Know Nothing about posting pics to tumblr and I refuse to learn.

Anyway: There’s All the Heavy Intercessors assembled and glued to their 44mm(I think?) bases ^v^ After this I used the Mister Dissolved Putty to fill in any gaps(cHeavy’s Heavy Bolter barrel had a pretty significant one), and then glued some Additional Bits to each model the next morning(this one), but I forgot to take pics before progressing further X| X| Tomorrow I document that progress in: The Undercoat

EDIT: GAH! that’s the POST BUTTON not the SCHEDULE BUTTON X| X| X| oh well I’ll reblog tamarrah -__-

[hatari-translations]

Do you have some sort of background in linguistics and/or have you ever done any teaching? I can’t even begin to tell you how good you are at writing really smooth-sounding translations and explaining language-related things in such an accessible, fun and interesting way. That’s a skill that’s actually pretty rare and goes way beyond simply being fluent in two languages. (Bonus question: do you know other languages besides Icelandic and English? I think you mentioned knowing some German for ex.)

Aw, haha, I'm glad you like my work! I have absolutely no linguistics or teaching background, I'm afraid; my degree is in computer science and my day job is programming for computer security software. But I've had a wide range of interests since I was a child; linguistics and translation are a thing that fascinates me (a lot more so than actual language learning), while trying to explain concepts in an accessible way is something I've been doing as part of the website I run as a hobby since I was twelve. For years and years I've often spent idle moments mulling over how you would translate something from Icelandic to English or vice versa, and exactly what nuances would be lost or changed in that translation - so when Hatari came along, and I started watching social media for foreign Eurovision viewers talking about them, and saw people asking for translations of things or passing around Google Translate nonsense, actually trying my hand at usefully translating things for other people and geeking out about my tiny little language that I love in the process was really pretty exciting, and an opportunity to indulge an interest that I'd never really had any kind of useful outlet for. (I once translated my website into Icelandic as an April Fools' Day joke, but since essentially none of its visitors know any Icelandic, I was doing it more to amuse myself than anyone else! Trust me, guys, translating this poll option as "Þér eruð fífl" is funny)

I still don't feel like I'm super qualified for it! I often feel like my translations are awkward, and have a hard time striking a good balance between sticking as close as reasonable to what the original was on the one hand and making the translation sound smooth on the other. And because I have no education in linguistics, half of the time when I'm asked about something grammar- or phonetics-related I'm having to Google what the concepts are even called! (Especially phonetics. I have no clue about phonetics. I basically never learned anything in school about phonetics. I have learned a lot I had no idea about by Googling and reading Wikipedia articles just to try to answer questions for this blog. I have thought way more about sounds in Icelandic by running this blog and just seeing what sorts of questions people ask than I had ever actually given any thought to before in my life.)

All Icelanders are required to learn Danish in school as well as English, and if they go to a gymnasium/junior college, to pick a third language (usually German, French or Spanish). I picked German. For both Danish and German I only took the mandatory courses, and I'm not at all great at them (and often mix them together these days). I also took two courses of Japanese, which also doesn't leave me all that great at it. Learning about languages is a lot more my personal jam than actually learning to speak them; I'm very into geeking out over systems and structures and cultural differences and the complexities of nuances and connotations, but very self-conscious about the notion of embarrassing myself by speaking a language wrong.

[all-cursed]

Meet my first OC to have a specific fandom they’re attached to!

So I’ve never created an OC specifically for the universe of a show before, they’ve always been fandomless, but I was excited to create one for Wynonna Earp. I’m going to give him a proper page on the muse list as well as give everyone more detailed biographies eventually, but for now, this should work.

DISCLAIMER: to anyone who may have concerns, please know that I myself am Native American (Blackfoot and Cherokee), and did a lot of research while creating this character to make sure I do them justice and create an actual Native character that isn’t just a stereotype. Some parts that might seem stereotypical - such as the name this character chooses to go by - just comes with the modern era the universe is set in and the character’s own reasons. Several of the struggles he faces as well are specifically chosen because I hope to raise awareness in some small ways to the struggles that IPOC face even today. None of it is meant to be fetishising or stereotypical - some of it just exists in that space as an unfortunate reality.

Alright! Here we go.

                                                       [    i.    STATS   ]

NAME.  meecha wo’i  " crow "  redwolf .   

AGE.  23 as of 1x01 .

DOB.  nov 29th ,  1993 .

GENDER. gender-indifferent cis male  :   prefers he/him or they/them pronouns .

PREF. pansexual but has a preference for men and nonbinary individuals 

SPECIES.  human ,  witch  ,   skinwalker .

RESIDENCE.  the  ghost  river  triangle  .

OCCUPATION. former cashier ; former lead guitar in an up and coming rock band ; current bartender . 

ETHNICITY. in simple terms: native american. specifically: hopi and creek. some scottish but not by much. 

 [    ii.    INTROSPECTION    ]

POSITIVE TRAITS.   curious ,   adaptable ,  perceptive ,   creative ,   passionate ,   loyal ,   perseverant , open-minded , compassionate .

NEUTRAL TRAITS.  persuasive ,   withdrawn (at first; nervous about other’s intentions) ,   secretive , free-wheeling .

NEGATIVE TRAITS.  temperamental ,   unrestrained ,  spiteful ,   reckless ,   capricious ,   hedonistic .

DISLIKES.  sounds of traffic or loud machinery in general &  the sound of metal on metal &  the smell of cheap perfume/cologne &  hot weather &  dust  &  houseflies &  being told (instead of asked) what to do &  rap music &  wool scarves &  fluorescent lights &  lack of hygiene &  orange flavoured candies/sodas/anything that’s not an actual orange &  deep dark waters he can’t see the contents of &  mistreatment of animals &  having assumptions made about him  &  mathematics &  onions &  football  .

LIKES.  the scent and sound of rain &  physical touch &  candles , lighters , and controlled flames in general &  the smell of cedar , pine , and the forest &  music and playing musical instruments &  italian food &  raving about attractive people with others; intoxication is a bonus &  leather; wearing it and the smell of it &  glasses clinking together &  late night talks &  stargazing &  drawing / sketching &  records and record players &  animals &  'stealing’ and wearing the clothes of people he’s close with &  running &  card games &  dancing and singing & creating something out of nothing &  getting the last word .

HOBBIES. drawing &  singing and playing instruments &  exploring / learning as many places as they can like the back of their hand & people watching  &  drinking and bar hopping &  seeking pleasure and adventure wherever he can find it & collecting random things he enjoys / likes .

WEAKNESSES. he’s standoffish until he knows he can trust a person and can come off rude or aloof  & the inability to let go of most grudges &  his tendency to follow his desires and his heart before logic or his mind  &  impulsivity when emotional .

STRENGTHS. independence and ability to function and thrive alone (even if he would prefer to have company it is not mandatory) &  ability to be resourceful and adapt to new situations quickly &  handles time-sensitive situations well due to his tendency to act quick and think later &  stubbornness to stick to a task and see it through &  quick thinking &  agility and speed of inhuman proportions (thanks to his less than human side) .

HABITS. clicking his teeth together repeatedly when annoyed &  flexing  fingers & playing with his hair in absentminded / lazy moments &  silently staring at someone when he’s done with a conversation until they catch the hint and stop talking  &  if there’s music playing within earshot he always ends up swaying to the beat  &  will often make less than human sounds (growls, etc.) when angry if he doesn’t catch himself .

EDUCATION. average  student  throughout  elementary ,  middle &  high  school .  graduated with an equally average gpa of 3.0 , &  decided against college, choosing to seek education in less typical places .  fed up with his family and much of the treatment of his peers, he began to learn magic from a witch he met on one of his regular trips to wander the ghost river triangle and explore & learnt magic and about the more mystical parts of purgatory - ultimately becoming a skinwalker via the witch’s guidance and training .

[  iii. APPEARANCE  ]

FACECLAIM.  booboo stewart . 

HEIGHT.  5 ' 8 " ,  though when able to he wears combat boots that add a few inches to his height . 

EYES.  a very keen and observant hazel when he’s in human form .   when shifting , eye colour can range from yellow to red to green to blue depending on many factors - location , how far he shifts , etc .  always alert and bright unless intoxicated or in very rough shape emotion-wise . often wishes they were green or grey and has considered wearing contacts to change his eyes (human-wise) to those colours.

EYEBROWS.   defined  arch  but not so much so that it’s dramatic .  not too thin and not too bushy , and naturally neat - he rarely has to tend to them and usually only does so to shave a tiny slit or two through them as a stylistic choice .

HAIR.  long and dark ;  sleek with an ever so slight wave to it .  typically worn either down or in a loose ponytail , occasionally sections are braided .  falls just a few inches above his ribcage .  every so often he’ll dye streaks into his hair but has never dyed his whole head .

SCARS.  many . he has a variety of smaller scars from a rowdy childhood; a few faint ones on his hands and arms from scratches borne of cats and dogs . the typical scars that come from falling off bicycles or off swings ; scraped knees and cuts on chins . his forearms especially are covered in scars he prefers not to speak of .  there’s a scar on his forehead from a fight with his cousin as well as a few long scars on his back .

DRESSING STYLE.  it varies depending upon mood and whatever job he has at the time . especially fond of punk / alternative styles , likes leather , and enjoys the comfort of loose and flowing garments. whatever style he happens to choose at any given time , he wears well and somehow always manages to draw attention - whether from the jewelry he accessorises with (varieties of bracelets and cuffs , rings , pendants with gems , etc.)

LIPS.  naturally  full ,  scar at the right corner of his lip , occasionally  sore or split when he goes through anxious phases and tends to chew at his lips .

SKIN.   smooth , tanned . he doesn’t have much body hair , a fact that doesn’t tend to bother him much. he rarely engages in a skincare routine and much like his eyebrows generally stays neat and well-kempt without much effort . does not wear much makeup but enjoys eyeliner from time to time . if not for his skin tone, the dark circles beneath his eyes would be much more visible .

CHEEKS.  defined cheekbones ,   not easily flushed .  sports the occasional scars due to nervous picking when he was younger.

[  iv. ABILITIES  ]

LANGUAGES SPOKEN. english  [ fluent ] ,  hopi  [ conversational &  spellwork language ] , spanish  [ conversational ] .

THREAT LEVEL.  mediocre  to  high .

WEAPONS.  fairly efficient in his understanding of magic and can easily hold his own with either combative or defensive magic ,  but prefers when possible to rely on his own physical skills ; is proficient in hand to hand combat thanks to the speed , agility , and strength bequeathed upon him by his skinwalker nature . very skilled in knifeplay , whether throwing or up close . has little to no practise with firearms as of 1x01 . 

MAGIC. magic learnt by his mentor was primarily elemental based and neutral in that it could easily be manipulated for defensive or offensive ; he was never extremely proficient and left before he could complete his training so he is still learning his limits and the heights he can reach , and wants to branch out . as for the magical abilities granted by his status as skinwalker - he is able to shapeshift , which saps him of certain levels of energy that depend upon what creature he takes the shape of . he is also granted higher than average speed, agility, and strength because of this which he keeps with him even when not shifting.

 [  v. DETAILS  ]

➣➣ he was born in georgia originally to a loving but struggling mother and father - his mother was hopi and his father was creek, and while both parents had originally lived on their own respective reservations, they had met one another by chance during a trip and fallen in love, eventually deciding to seek out their own home outside of the reservations. his parents loved him but struggled financially; eventually his mother’s sister offered to take him in. as that was the better option rather than the three of them becoming homeless, crow’s parents sent him to live with his aunt in arizona on the rez. while they stayed in touch, his parents needed to stay in georgia, and as such he only would see them on the occasional holiday.

➣➣ while his aunt meant well, his cousins were another story. living with his aunt and uncle would have been fine had it not been for their two children; a son and daughter who constantly bullied him behind their backs for not being pure hopi as they were, often harassing him about being a ‘halfbreed’. a quiet boy at heart to boot, he faced bullying in school as well all the way through high school. his cousins, in tenth grade, snooped in his room and found his journal - which they used to out him as pansexual to the school.

➣➣ the moment he graduated, he spent as much time off the rez as possible, avoiding his cousins. on one of his frequent trips to simply explore nearby cities and towns, he found himself in purgatory. one drunken night led to following a mysterious woman into the woods. as it turned out, she was a witch. intrigued and excited at the idea of learning magic and having a way to defend himself, he quickly took her up on her offer to teach him. after a few months, she let him in on her secret - she was a skinwalker.

➣➣ she talked up how powerful she was because of it, and how no one would ever hurt her again. the more he heard about it, the more he wanted it. still unhealed from the way he was treated growing up and too caught up in the concept of never having to be beneath someone ever again, he agreed to let her hold the ceremony that would make him one as well without thinking of the consequences. when she told him that the final task he needed was to kill a family member... he almost faltered but agreed and went back to the rez. 

➣➣ he almost didn’t do it. it was night when he returned, and he could see his male cousin drinking on the porch. the concept of killing someone - even someone like his cousin who had treated him so poorly - was daunting. he might have changed his mind had his cousin not seen him arriving and was immediately being malicious; using homophobic slurs and accusing crow of having run off with a lover, talking about how disgraceful it was. and it all was a blur from there.

➣➣ bringing back a lock of his cousin’s hair to the witch, she finished the rituals and he became the creature she had promised - powerful but at what cost? still wrought with guilt despite having made the ultimate choice, crow left the forests on the outskirts of purgatory where he had been training and into the ghost river triangle itself, unable to go home after what he did and unable to stomach facing the witch. living out of his truck, he went from odd job to odd job, eventually landing a stable job as a cashier at a grocery store. around this time he chose to begin going by the name crow - both to distance himself from his past, and because if someone were to want to control or destroy him now as a skinwalker, they could do so if they knew his true, personal name. as such, a nickname seemed the safest bet. 

➣➣ fastforward to present day (1x01). after a few years of cashiering and attempting to rent rooms and apartments without success, as well as a stint playing guitar for an up and coming rock band, crow landed a job as a bartender at one of the local bars and instead of attempting to rent rooms or apartments, ended up moving into the trailer park. it was sketchy to say the least, but he couldn’t afford anything fancy and clearly didn’t handle having roommates well. a trailer seemed like the next best thing, outside of living in the woods or in his truck. his tendency to mind his own business and expect that of others meant that he mingled with normal purgatory residents and the revenants equally, pursuing his hedonistic nature as he pleased. which was all well and good, until things began to get... a lot more chaotic due to a curse and an heir he had originally had no knowledge of. 

               [ MORE TO COME THROUGHOUT                                               CHARACTERIZATION DEVELOPMENT ]

[selectedhq]

oh  ,  wonderful  !  welcome  welcome  ,  let’s  get  this  show  on  the  road  ,  shall  we  ?  not  like  we  have  the  rest  of  our  afterlife  to  dwell  upon  ,  am  i  right  ?

well  ,  i  would  like  to  officially  welcome  you  to  the  good  place  .  i’m  sure  you  are  all  wondering  why  you  are  here  ,  but  we  will  get  more  into  that  later  as  we  experience  the  afterlife  as  a  whole  .  take  a  look  around  ,  these  are  your  neighbours  ,  friends  ,  significant  others  &  your  community  members  .  during  your  time  on  earth  ,  all  of  us  here  at  the  good  place  ,  had  taken  it  upon  ourselves  to  watch  you  carefully  &  take  careful  consideration  in  picking  you  ,  specifically  .  we  have  our  own  point  system  ,  which  you  will  see  on  the  screen  behind  us  ,  where  you  would  gain  simple  points  such  as  holding  a  door  for  someone  or  handing  some  money  to  someone  that  was  less  fortunate  as  you  .  we  did  track  some  of  the  negative  things  that  you  have  done  in  your  life  ,  but  they  ----  usually  balanced  out  the  good  .  the  overall  existence  of  this  place  was  built  with  you  and�� for  you  ,  you  were  chosen  for  a  purpose  &  we  hope  that  purpose  will  become  clear  to  you  during  your  stay  here  .  now  ,  we  shall  begin  with  the  briefings  .

LOCATIONS

i’m  sure  that  you  have  noticed  that  this  place  is  quite  large  !  we  have  many  establishments  throughout  this  town  &  they  were  all  made  to  fit  the  likings  of  our  fellow  community  members  .

𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓  𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄

where  you  will  find  a  lot  of  marine  life  and  water  .  i’m  sure  that  many  of  you  who  have  enjoyed  water  during  your  time  on  earth  have  found  yourselves  situated  in  a  home  directed  that  way  .  you  will  find  canoes  and  row  boats  that  will  allow  you  to  enjoy  some  peace  on  the  lake  ,  as  well  as  a  beautiful  waterfall  just  around  the  bend  .  while  here  ,  we  encourage  you  to  take  a  look  around  the  ponds  ,  we  have  some  amazing  fish  that  would  love  to  have  some  of  the  food  that  is  sold  in  the  downtown  area  .  we  also  encourage  you  to  take  a  nice  hike  up  the  waterfall  ,  with  a  cliff  right  off  to  the  right  .  once  you  hit  the  destination  ,  maybe  have  a  wonderful  picnic  with  a  loved  one  or  try  some  cliff  diving  if  you  were  much  too  frightened  before  on  earth  .

𝐖𝐄𝐒𝐓  𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄  

the  wooden  area  that  many  people  enjoy  when  they  need  some  peace  and  quiet  .  there  are  a  few  households  within  this  neighbourhood  ,  usually  selected  for  people  who  enjoyed  the  seclusion  and  warmth  of  being  connected  to  nature  .  our  local  greenhouses  are  kept  up  there  ,  you  can  find  some  wonderful  plants  that  you  could  take  home  or  take  a  few  selfies  with  the  help  of  kimmy  to  hang  up  in  your  home  .  we  also  have  the  community  garden  out  that  way  ,  where  you  can  grow  your  own  vegetables  or  even  help  gather  some  ingredients  for  the  restaurants  as  some  extra  credit  options  towards  gaining  more  points  (  yes  ,  you  can  still  gain  them  here  !  )  .  we  have  a  few  trails  within  this  area  as  well  ,  where  you  can  feel  one  on  one  with  nature  once  again  ,  where  the  sun  will  beat  on  your  face  ;  you  can  practically  hear  the  bugs  buzzing  around  you  !

𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇  𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄

where  many  of  you  may  usually  find  yourselves  ,  it  allows  itself  to  be  integrated  with  the  downtown  area  just  behind  you  .  you’ll  be  able  to  see  the  large  households  that  are  within  that  area  ,  where  many  of  our  community  members  are  staying  ,  either  by  their  lonesome  or  with  someone  they  believe  to  be  close  to  them  .  in  the  north  side  ,  you’ll  find  a  lot  of  educational  things  ,  including  our  school  for  the  afterlife  .  the  school  is  still  working  out  some  last  minute  kinks  alongside  our  trusty  kimmy  ,  but  will  be  up  &  running  within  the  next  week  ,  so  make  sure  that  you  take  some  time  to  visit  the  campus  &  take  a  good  look  at  the  classes  that  will  be  offered  .  we  would  love  to  keep  you  educated  on  things  around  the  good  place  during  your  stay  here  .  while  school  can  be  quite  boring  ,  i’m  sure  we  can  rope  you  all  into  attending  with  the  small  bribery  of  flying  !  you  have  all  witnessed  it  briefly  during  our  halloween  event  ,  but  we  will  be  having  mandatory  flying  lessons  for  everyone  who  joins  the  school  in  the  beautiful  courtyard  out  back  .  you  like  gymnastics  ?  well  we  can  find  you  some  balance  beams  .  football  ?  well  what  is  the  afterlife  without  some  tackling  ?  cheerleading  ?  well  you’re  in  for  a  treat  because  i  sure  would  love  to  hear  some  fun  rhymes  !  you  name  it  ,  we  got  it  .

𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐇  𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄

is  currently  under  construction  ,  so  we  do  ask  that  you  avoid  that  area  at  this  moment  .  the  weather  is  not  corresponding  correctly  to  the  systems  we  have  put  into  place  &  we  definitely  do  not  want  a  mix  up  with  any  of  you  .  so  please  ,  we  ask  that  you  do  not  move  past  the  colourful  rainbow  tape  that  is  surrounding  the  south  side  until  the  construction  of  that  area  is  done  .  we  are  working  very  diligently  to  get  it  up  &  running  as  i  am  sure  many  of  you  are  hoping  to  find  yourself  located  in  that  wing  !

𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐍  

the  place  that  you  will  always  find  yourself  wanting  to  come  !  we  have  a  little  bit  of  this  &  a  little  bit  of  that  for  everyones  liking  .  there  are  local  restaurants  around  town  that  will  serve  you  anything  that  you  could  dream  of  !  many  of  which  could  be  your  favourite  meals  ,  favourite  drinks  ----  oh  &  did  we  mention  the  endless  options  for  desserts  ?  if  you  look  around  ,  we  also  have  endless  froyo  stations  ;  many  of  which  will  have  flavours  that  create  a  very  similar  feeling  to  joy  &  happiness  .  ever  wonderful  what  it  would  taste  like  after  getting  straight  a’s  on  your  exams  ?  what  about  the  feeling  of  warmth  after  being  outside  in  the  cold  all  day  ?  well  i’m  sure  we  can  mix  up  something  for  you  !  we  also  have  entertainment  sectors  such  as  bars  ,  clubs  ,  even  a  movie  theater  to  play  your  favourite  movies  from  when  you  were  on  earth  !  bookstores  ,  florists  ,  clothing  stores  ,  you  name  it  !  it  may  look  a  bit  confusing  on  the  outside  ,  with  you  questioning  our  tastes  but  we  have  never  questioned  you  &  i  cross  my  heart  that  the  moment  you  walk  into  any  of  our  stores  ,  you  will  always  find  something  tailored  to  your  specific  tastes  !

i  am  sure  that  you  all  have  many  questions  ,  we  are  here  to  always  help  you  !  we  shall  go  over  the  wonderful  rules  that  we  have  in  the  good  place  &  what  is  deemed  appropriate  .

RULES

there  will  be  a  zero  tolerance  violence  policy  .  although  we  do  not  have  the  jurisdiction  within  the  good  place  to  arrest  ,  but  you  will  be  losing  points  with  violence  .  

you  are  free  to  ask  kimmy  any  questions  that  you  deem  necessary  ,  but  they  must  be  appropriate  .  kimmy  will  refuse  to  answer  anything  that  is  not  needed  .

as  stated  earlier  ,  we  will  not  allow  anyone  in  the  south  side  of  the  good  place  at  the  moment  .  if  found  there  ,  you  will  be  brought  into  my  (  michael’s  )  office  &  punishments  will  be  discussed  between  the  architects  .  

WHAT  IS  THERE  TO  DO  ?

well  good  question  !  you  are  able  to  sign  up  for  the  local  school  classes  that  kimmy  will  listen  later  in  the  weekend  ,  we  do  hope  that  we  get  some  good  responses  !  we’ve  worked  hard  to  coordinate  the  classes  !  we  also  allow  you  to  work  in  the  local  agencies  ,  but  please  be  aware  that  money  is  not  a  thing  in  the  good  place  !  you  do  receive  points  towards  your  community  involvement  &  that  will  boost  you  up  on  the  scale  in  the  architects  system  .  we  welcome  you  to  join  the  local  clean  up  group  that  dedicates  themselves  to  cleaning  up  any  possible  garbage  that  is  fluttering  on  the  streets  ,  or  maybe  you  are  interested  in  the  party  planning  committee  ,  which  is  usually  run  by  tahani  but  we  would  love  to  have  more  people  join  &  put  in  their  ideas  !

LITTLE  THINGS  TO  NOTE  

be  aware  that  the  good  place  is  tactical  to  your  needs  &  wants  .  if  you  don’t  enjoy  someone  using  a  curse  word  ,  then  your  mind  will  blank  it  out  &  possibly  replace  it  with  a  new  word  .  if  you  are  fluent  in  another  language  ,  we  have  all  implanted  a  translator  in  your  mind  .  although  someone  might  be  speaking  english  to  you  ,  they  could  actually  be  speaking  french  or  spanish  but  you  are  able  to  translate  it  instantly  .  

housing  units  are  there  for  your  liking  ,  if  you  would  like  to  move  in  with  someone  ,  we  will  allow  that  but  please  run  it  by  kimmy  or  myself  (  michael  )  to  let  us  know  that  you  will  be  moving  so  we  can  use  your  old  home  for  something  enjoyable  for  other  community  members  or  reinvent  it  into  a  new  home  for  someone  that  will  be  joining  us  .

lastly  ,  we  do  not  want  to  overwhelm  you  today  ,  so  if  you  ever  have  any  questions  please  let  kimmy  know  !  kimmy  is  programmed  to  know  every  answer  in  the  universe  &  she  will  be  at  your  beck  &  call  .  all  you  have  to  do  is  call  her  &  she  will  appear  to  answer  anything  that  you  need  .  the  architects  are  quite  busy  making  sure  that  this  place  is  designed  properly  ,  which  allows  kimmy  to  answer  questions  for  us  .  anyways  ,  without  further  ado  ,  please  !  explore  all  the  fun  things  that  are  surrounding  you  ,  we  can’t  wait  to  begin  planning  more  things  !

SOME  OOC  DETAILS

this  plotdrop  isn’t  as  dramatic  as  the  future  ones  will  be  ,  but  we  tried  to  answer  most  of  the  questions  that  have  been  floating  around  !

this  plotdrop  is  to  show  you  the  amount  of  things  that  your  character  can  do  around  town  &  the  jobs  that  they  could  do  if  they  want  to  boost  their  points  (  like  characters  that  don’t  believe  that  they  belong  here  -  they  might  want  to  boost  their  rating  by  helping  around  the  community  )

as  said  !  if  any  characters  or  muns  have  questions  --  ask  kimmy  !  make  sure  that  you  follow  the  blog  for  kimmy  ,  where  you  can  send  messages  to  ask  her  about  things  around  the  good  place  or  questions  about  anything  you  need  to  be  answered  !  she  will  definitely  answer  to  the  best  of  her  ability  ,  it  will  allow  the  architects  to  start  fixing  up  that  nasty  south  side  . 

if  asking  kimmy  a  question  ,  make  sure  that  you  start  the  question  with  ‘hey  kimmy  !’  so  that  she  knows  to  appear  to  answer  the  question  you  type  in  the  askbox.

you  are  welcome  to  continue  your  event  threads  ,  we  just  ask  that  you  don’t  make  any  new  starters  at  the  moment  for  it  .

we  will  also  be  introducing  meme  days  this  weekend  ,  so  definitely  keep  an  eye  out  for  that  one  !

if  you  have  any  questions  that  kimmy  can’t  answer  (  something  ooc  that  could  be  bothering  you  )  then  don’t  hesitate  to  message  the  main  admins  ,  we  will  make  sure  to  help  you  out  !

[alittledizzy]

new horizons kurt/blaine but also ft santana, mercedes, tina, artie, and rachel 

Various conversations about the planning of Britt’s Animal Crossing isolation birthday party. Written for @likearumchocolatesouffle!

[read on ao3]

“I don't understand," Kurt says, looking at the email invitation he's got pulled up in front of him. "What even is it?"

Santana snorts. "Ask your boy Blainers. I mean, he modeled his high school wardrobe after Blathers, didn't he? The names even sound the same"

"After <i>who</i>?" Kurt's confusion just grows. "Speak English, please."

"Fatherhood is really making you dull, Kurt." Santana sighs. "Animal Crossing. Video game. Party at Britt's Island. Saturday. Be there."

"But what does that-"

Santana hangs up.

*

"It's just a video game, Kurt." Blaine rubs the baby's back. She lets out a sleepy half cry. "It's for the Switch. Remember, the thing you bought me for Christmas last year?"

"Oh, right. One of our 'things to do while obsessively watching the baby sleep' presents." Kurt frowns. "But why is Britt having a party? What does that even mean?"

Blaine shrugs very, very gently. "Means she wants to celebrate her birthday with her friends, but the state of proverbial lockdown isolation we all finds yourself in right now leaves her options limited. I think it's sweet that Santana's helping her do this, actually."

Kurt looks down at the stack of Burberry burp cloths he's just finished folding. "Why can't she just have a Zoom party like a normal person? Do I have to buy a video game system for this?"

Blaine shrugs again. "I mean, you can just use mine, but you'd probably enjoy having your own more."

"Blaine, have I ever been a video game person?"

"I mean..." Blaine smirks like he's pulling out a secret weapon. "You <i>can</i> make your own clothes for it, you know. There's a whole clothing shop available and a design customizer..."

"... fine, alright, I'm buying one."  

*

"It's hilarious, Tina." Blaine laughs, slightly out of breath from his treadmill run. He's going slower now, already anticipating the post-workout shower he's going to have. "He's had it like four days and he's already mastered the art of time traveling so he can get the Able Sisters shop in time for Britt's birthday party. He says he can't possibly show up in something off the rack."

"I would say I don't believe it, but honestly, I believe it," Tina says. "He asked if he could come to my island three times yesterday."

"He's also turnip obsessed. Not just in the game. He added turnips to our farm to table produce box order. What on earth am I supposed to make with turnips?"

"I think they're good in stir fry?" Tina suggests. "I actually got the cutest little cat mask I'm going to wear. You know her island is Lord Tubbington themed, right?"

"Yeah, I was thinking of getting her a cat tower. Does she already have one?"

"She has seven, but she's putting them everywhere so I know she'll like one more. I have a litter box for her!" Tina laughs. "I love that a litter box counts as a good present."

"It's so weird," Blaine agrees. "Kurt wants to give her a lucky gold cat. He thinks my cat tower idea is tacky."

"Kurt things everything is tacky," Tina says. "Let him live his best live."

Blaine smiles fondly, slowing his cooldown until the treadmill comes to a stop. "Couldn't stop him if I tried."

*

"Tee! It's Artie! I guess you're busy doing something that involves you not being able to answer your dang phone, which for the record is sarcasm because none of us are doing literally anything right now. But whatever, I see how it is, girl. Screening me. I see how it is. Anyway I just wanted to let you know I got the gift you sent me in the game.  Now I can wheel up to Britt's bee-day bash in style. It's actually cool that this game even has wheelchairs. Anyway, later!"

*

"'cedes, my beautiful queen, how are you doing?" Artie asks.

"Uh, wondering what kind of crack all my high school friends are smoking that they're all suddenly on my ass to play some kind of video game."

"Look, I'll be real with you, I thought the same thing," Artie said. "And then I remembered that escapism is a tool of our generation and also the world outside is a flaming pile of poop right now so what do you have to lose?"

"Damn." Mercedes sighs. "You make some points."

*

"Kurt designed me the cutest dress," Rachel says. "Seriously? It's like, the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen. It's definitely what I would have worn to the Tony's if they hadn't been canceled."

"Yeah," Mercedes says, sounding distracted. "You know I just needed your Switch code, right? You could have just responded to the text."

"But that's no fun!" Rachel says, dismissal in her voice. "Besides, we need a good old fashioned diva catch up, don't we?"

"Not really."

"Don't be so grumpy!"

"I'm not- look, Rachel, I appreciate this, but I've got to get back to recording."

"I still can't believe you have your own home studio." Rachel sighs heavily.

"Yeah, well... believe it! See you at Britt's, bye!" Mercedes hangs up quickly.

Rachel sighs.

Jesse's having his mandatory hour of meditation, but she's never been able to get the hang of that.

She picks up her Switch and does a little lap around her island, responding with glee to a few of the residents she sees, the puts it back down.

She misses people. She misses people so, so much. Not any specific person. Just... people.

She reaches for her phone and calls a number already high up on her contacts. "Kurt!" She barely gives him time to respond before she says, "So, do you think we can find a matching handbag in time for the party..."

[archtroop]

So for you. What other fandoms are you in? When, how and why wincest?😁😍😎

Oh my, gird your loins, this is gonna be a long confession. 

LIFE:

I little background (This is all very relevant, because it had direct affect on whatever choices I would make, stuff I might like and my own personal evolution as a human, leading me to where I am today - including my on-the-side fandom life, which are a huge part of me).

Female, only child - I was born in 1990 in Soviet Russia/Russia (it’s a murky year for definitions) in the farthest eastern piece of land on the globe that still constitutes as Asia, a place where they learn Japanese as a second language instead of English. I’m Jewish on my mother’s side, my father is not. Our small family migrated to Israel in 1996. I was enrolled in a religious school, for the first two years of my education. Religious orthodox little girls are bitches. I suffered. I was 6, and a 100% language barrier. Then I was enrolled in a state-religious school for 4 years. Made my first 2-3 friends. One of them is my forever best like-a-sister-to-me friend since then. Still, it screwed with my head just enough - having a secular background and family and religious preaching at school fucks you up real good. By this time I had an actual artificially ensued phobia of males. Boy, man, horse. If it had a dick I was opting out in the opposite direction. It was also a very violent time, hits and punches, teeth and nails. Got suspended once, this other girl in my class broke a guy’s teeth, ended in a juvenile institute for girls.  

The next 6 years (12-18 years old) I spent in a secular boarding school, which, in Israel, are inherently patriotic in nature. These years were my most definitive and had the greatest influence on my preferences. Had my real-life heterosexual-life partner thing going for me, and the plan wast to graduate and move together. Never panned out.  18-20 - served my two mandatory 2 years (as a phlebotomist, of all things). This was when I eventually snapped and began actually maturing. By that time I still had zero interest i the opposite sex (or the same sex for the matter). At 19.6 y/o met my future husband and the future father of our now 2.6 y/o girl, began my B.Arch (took me almost a decade to finish because of pregnancy and financials). As of now, I am an Architect in practice, I work in a small but a very affluent in work firm/office. Waiting for my diploma to be issued.

So, I am trilingual (Russian. Hebrew, English), married+1, architect, artist on a hiatus, I have zero fear of needles and blood, love to read, love to interpret, love to translate. I also failed the Kinsey Scale Test twice. Until very recently in my life I couldn’t pick up on sexual innuendo at all, couldn’t identify if I was hit on, too.  Today I like sex just fine, but it’s not a prime need of mine, which lead to me and my (very sexual in nature) significant other to agree on an open relationship. 100/100 would recommend. 

FANDOM:

TV was a friend. I was 7-8 y/o when Pokemon hit the little screen in Israel. For technical reasons, I couldn’t watch the first episode. So I refused to watch the next ones too, until I’ll catch the first one on the saturday reruns. This marks my first exhibit of obsessiveness towards a franchise/media.  But Pokemon was for cool kids, and for boys, so I can’t enjoy it (unfortunately this is going to be a recurring theme). I absorbed Hebrew quickly, and found myself spending time in the library. TV, library, pencils and paper were all I cared for. I was about 10 when girls at school, who had access (early 2000′) were giggling about something called Sailor Moon. But they were the very cool kids. Can’t have that at all. I read Interview With a Vampire when I was 11-12. I then flipped the book and realized there was apparently a movie, too. It will be years until I’ll have the chance to watch it. I switched from teen books to adults fantasy and horror at that time. I remembering giggling through R.L. Stein’s stuff. It was like candy to me. I would read whatever I could find. I didn’t listen to music. Music is for the cool kids, and I am not allowed. There was no music at home, too.

About that time, I found Flowers In The Attic and drank it up. The things that lurk in school libraries. I was engrossed in the darkness, the horror. The pain and angst and the, well, horror. It was beautiful. Then came Dragon Lance, and I fell for the Caramon & Raistlin story. Fantasy, dragons, and two brothers against ll odds, the warrior and the mage, who are forever bound, and when they die, they join each other in the river of souls. I loved it to bits.  I couldn’t survive through Tolkien. loved The Hobbit, but 30 pages into the third book and he was still describing a forest - so I ditched it. Harry Potter was huge to me, I drank it up. But Harry Potter was for cool kids, so I couldn’t really talk about it. And then when I was 13-14 y/o a friend introduced me to manga. It was 2003-04, the Internet was becoming  prominent feature of life. My first manga was Gravitation. Of all things. But manga and anime is for really cool girls, I can’t have that. But now I had Internet access. 

That’s when I encountered Angel Sanctuary, and Kaori Yuki’s work. Gothic Lolita, Visual Kei. I’v found my niche. No one of the cool kids had any idea about those pretty things, I could hold them and have them for myself. It became one of my greatest inspirations. I read tons of manga online, combing the web for scanlation groups. Anime, too. I became very good at finding stuff. Like, real good. I even have two Angel Sanctuary fanart pieces.

Did you notice a theme already? I haven’t until very recently.

In 2005-6 (I can’t recall for sure) Israeli AXN release a promo of Supernatural. I recognized that “very good actor whose character(s) I really liked from Dark Angel”. It as all true but also I was THAT aloof about physical human beauty  and attraction. But I was interrupted watching the Pilot and begrudgingly decided to follow upon it on a saturday rerun, Guess what, I got interrupted again. And it was ON, TV be damned. I hit the Google, and piracy was it. I watched Supernatural with reverence. It was entirely MINE. I opened an account on  fan-wikia Supernatural site, which I lost and forgot about that was my first ever fandom-related interaction. By that time I also had a DeviantART page, which I kinda left as a storage unit as life took its course.  Basically, in August 2020 I will hit 30, which would mean Supernatural officially was by my side half of my life. 

I had no idea what shipping was, though. Until Teen Wolf, funny enough.  Teen Wolf was my first ship experience. I didn’t read fanfic until then. Sterek somehow managed to pull me in that world. It’s that palpable on screen. So I joined tumblr. It took me time to get accustomed to all this, because even fandom is for cool kids but OH I AM ANONYMOUS.

And I gradually became more aware. Of pretty much everything. With Supernatural keeping me alive through my degree studies, prompting my sexuality to emerge (it is still a fucked up sexuality. But it’s a start.). Worked through issues with Supernatural on my back-burner all the time. 

Then Supernatural hit 10 seasons. And I had to celebrate, and it was my first and only (so far) Supernatural fanart. I began reading fanfic. But so much of it wasn’t what I was looking for. So after some contemplation, I decided to try and write my own (EasyRush). And that was it for me, I essentially drowned in it, the wincest. Now that is had a name. As of today, it has become this thing that I can dig into to find me some solace after a hard day. 

I can’t even say that there was a specific scene. Or a why. It’s just IS. Like the John-finds-out fics: A gradual dawning realization. Looking back, it’s all the elements of whatever I consumed merged and acted out by very talented and compelling actors. 

It has the setting of Flowers In The Attic, the mythology of Angel Sanctuary and the charm of Dragon Lance, turned up to eleven. It’s Gothic Urban Fantasy, gritty and beautiful (I miss classic Supernatural aesthetic BADLY) and is a survivor.

On retrospect I begin to pinpoint moments that have subconsciously lead me to it. There was never any other option.

Wincest is never for the cool kids. It’s for people like me.

P.S.: I think there might be a part two. I need to go. This was a great walk down memory lane, it’s not even half of it.

[furbyq]

oh my god it’s a bad idea someone has probably already done before with terrible results. but that’s my sim secret, i’m always terrible, so here we go.

when i posted that thing the other day, or last week or whenever, this is the post i wanted to make. i had written most of it and saved it in my drafts, but i thought maybe it wasn’t a good idea. thinking about it today, i’ve realized i don’t really care. i may still delete this post or hide it later, so get your looks in now.

there’s basically 4 hate secret archetypes:

you’re shit

your cc is shit

your sims are shit

and my favorite,

you did this thing unrelated to sims, don’t do that, it’s shit

some people who receive these secrets don’t deserve them. i can’t say whether or not i did, since i am biased, as i am me. but there are a lot of people i’ve seen get picked at who really don’t deserve it and cannot take that kind of rejection from the community. everyone who has ever gotten a hate secret that they felt was unfounded needs to remember: you don’t just have to take shit your entire life from people who treat you like trash. you can also rare back like a horse and hoof them in the face.

so what i’m going to do in this post is go back through all the secrets i have saved that were directed towards me and critique them on how founded they were. and perhaps how nice they looked. 

at the same time, i’m going to tell you exactly what i felt about them when i first saw them and exactly what i feel now. and i may not be very nice. in fact, after having written the rest of this post, i wasn’t nice at all.

chances are, the people who made the secrets did the right thing and stopped following me or looking at my blog a long time ago. and that’s a very healthy thing to do, i’m proud of them. however, possibly, the people who submitted these secrets might be people i know and have talked to, or still talk to. the problem with simsecret is, you never fucking know. maybe i submitted one of these and don’t remember. that’s right, i was me all along.

now, first of all, i must commend this person on making an aesthetically pleasing secret. i mean, the part that they added actually matches my old blog theme a little bit. however, i have to dock points for lack of consistency in that second pooklet. i’m not going to give grammar too terribly hard of a time, because i’m not going to complain about people who may not be native english speakers. i have no way of knowing. but consistency? you get an 8/10.

let me explain you a thing. when a lot of people start posting in any community, it’s easy to be nervous about people critiquing your personal choices. for me, this was a big stumbling block. i emulated pooklet and azaya because their games looked good. they were two people in this community that fanned the flames of my love for ts2 into a fire that will burn for centuries.

this was also when pooklet had just released their lovely templates, which i still use, and they are likely to be the only templates i use until the day that i make my own. milkshape consistency is important to me and diverse facial features are important to me (keep in mind, this was before custom sliders). i would like to think that i evolved as someone who can make sims that look distinctly like my own, despite being based on someone else's templates, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

nothing is ever going to please everybody. i could release a lovingly crafted piece of cc every day for the rest of my life and someone would complain about me clogging up their dash instead of unfollowing me. but to someone who is new in the community, criticism like this is much more harsh than you may intend it to be and may have an amplified effect. derivation is common in the start of new hobbies, even you probably derived at some point.

the second secret that was specifically aimed towards me is so low effort, i would give it a 3/10. or a 6 out of 9, you somehow fucked it from both ends by making this shit off-center.

first, if you have a similar opinion, you may need to learn the fact that i may prefer to view different things with my eyeballs than you do. since i only have my eyeballs, and not yours, i tend to pick colors i like.

you may think to yourself, “well, why did you make that top area of shirt a different color to the bottom area of shirt??”, and i will tell you, they are not both shirt. the top part is a jacket overlay or some shit. it was a different color on yuxi’s original as well. as for the color choice, i just liked them. especially the middle one, which i tested colors on for half an hour because i knew i wanted to keep that minty jacket and i had already used too much purple.

what does using colorblind as an insult accomplish in this context? you are criticizing something that, if i actually had it, would be a type of disability i could not help. say it’s shit, and say it’s shit to my face so that i know not to share these things with you.

at least use better colors. my colors are notoriously eye-searing but that red is about to give me a goddamn aneurysm. 6/10.

i don’t know how to break it to the original maker of this secret, but much like the tooth fairy does not exist, perfect humans also do not exist. why are you holding me to a higher standard than other people and then discarding me the moment i do something you personally do not like? you liked me. i fucked up. you liked me less than if someone you disliked did the same fucking thing?

in 2015, adfuck was a shitshow, but it is nowhere near the shitshow it is now. i also always provided a secondary link without adfly. i did that shit where i made it smaller for a couple of posts. i did the scum thing. i thought it would be lucrative and help my situation a tiny bit. a dollar earned from adfuck was a dollar i did not have before, and if you’re dying from starvation a dollar will save your life.

the subtext is, if you were afraid of viruses, you should have used the non adfuck link every time. if you were like me, and you had downloaded a thousand things from behind mandatory adfucks with your block disabled before the skipper (the adfly skipper, not like, a sea captain or anything) and hadn’t had a problem, you could very easily toss 1/1000 of a cent to a creator whose work you liked.

my stance on adfucks have changed drastically since 2015. i would never do it again because of its more clear association with viruses and the fact that i do not enjoy knowing that i could’ve made other people’s lives immensely shittier by being complicit in fucking up their computer. but i did do it, and no amount of apologizing is going to change that.

for future record, if you ever find one of my old, reblogged furbyq-sims posts, never click the shortened link. use the non adfuck one. i would have to push link shorteners every single nanosecond of my entire life for it to ever pay anything of substance, and i refuse to promote shorteners anymore. i will never cash it out, so clicking the links is a waste of time. since i deleted furbyq-sims, i cannot edit the links out. do not click them. 

do note that during my run with adfuck, i received 579 total clicks that registered as ‘valid’ or what-the-fuck-ever. those clicks amounted to $1.53 USD. when people use adfucks, be aware that they are doing so to make, probably at most like $5 USD a month if they get thousands of non-blocked clicks. it is the definition of pointless. the danger element is enough to put most people off, the shitty pay should take the rest of them, and yet.

“hey, stop spamming” “hey, to resolve this, spam more” what do you fucking want from me?

again i’m pretty sure this person is not a native speaker, so i’m not going to poke at the grammar more than to mention that contradiction. you got your point across very well. remember to add a white outline to your text next time. 7/10.

let me tell you, desperation will make you do things that may not make sense to anyone else at the time.

think about this: my mom has serious lymph node deficiency that contributes to her getting pneumonia frequently. she’s on an oxygen concentrator at this time. now, oxygen concentrators are the thing that you get when a person needs nearly full-time oxygen. you don’t get a million tanks, you just get a single concentrator, which requires continuous electricity to work. ring ring it’s the electric company, your power is getting turned off tomorrow. you call hospice, hospice is like “well we can get a notice to them in like, two days” so you panic. you scramble for what you believe at that moment is the most important thing, regardless of whether or not you are right.

people who are in need will generally get help to some extent on the internet if they are brave enough to ask. but when it is a dire thing, you will reblog the post as many times as it takes to soothe your profound panic. every time you reblog, maybe one more person will see it. maybe that person will reblog, someone will see that and send $5 your way to help. you have got to keep things like this moving, if you do not ask you will not receive anything and dead posts are as good as not asking.

i don’t mean to sound overly terse, but i do sound that way for a reason, because some things are worth being terse over. and i hope, i hope to whatever deity may actually exist, that you never have to be in that position, where you know exactly why i did what i did. because it means you’re living in hell and it is no place to be.

i know this is an undertale reference of some kind. i don’t understand it, i haven’t played the game. if you’re going to say something mean to someone, maybe you should use your own words instead of formatting cryptic bullshit that includes the word 'garbage’. 3/10.

if you’re going to insult someone, be specific. because when you insult someone, you wield a sword. when i get stabbed, i want it to be a killing blow to my heart and not some lukewarm stabbing about in my midsection. fucking kill me or leave me alone. those are the options, pick one.

people in the sims community make custom content. and some of it is great, and some of it is shitty. and sometimes, both of those things can come from the same person, because everybody in the entire world has off days. i’m not going to say my shit is great, but i have made things i am proud of. proud that i took the time to make something and it paid off, and i realized a creation that would not exist without my existence and efforts. 

other times, my stuff has been shitty. you are not obligated to download what you don’t like, and i’m sorry that me taking up 500 megabytes of the entire internet to host my shit on impacted your life so much back in 2016 or whenever the fuck.

after some angry secrets, it’s good to end on this one. it makes me laugh every time i see it. 9/10.

i’m going to address three points in this picture, but i’m not and have never been mad at this one. whoever made this secret, inbox me. you’re my favorite motherfucker.

when i made the phantom rage skin i had a picture of a man who had very speckled vitiligo saved as inspiration. i lost that picture when i cleared out old files, but this model, genesis castillo, is very similar to the vitiligo pattern that man had. there are a hundred winnie harlow skins. there were none like this where the vitiligo was not evened out with makeup. i then paired tones 1 and 10 and 2 and 8 for contrast, but the 1 and 10 one looks much odder in the low opacity parts, like camouflage, someone said once.

as someone who has a skin condition, i know how emotionally traumatic they are when they change your appearance drastically. i cannot empathize with any traumas of vitiligo that are directly tied to people of color being affected by it because i am not a person of color. 

if i offended anyone who has vitiligo, i am genuinely sorry. my intention was not to make a ‘costume’, it was to make a virtual representation of a type of human being that actually exists. i hope that learning from this experience and using that knowledge to the best of my ability in the future is enough to undo even an iota of damage that was done.

point two, what is wrong with the middle sim? what is wrong with the middle sim? what is wrong with them? they have a mole? they’re wearing two head accessories? what is wrong with them???

point three, the bebebrillit hairline conversions weren’t terrible. fitting shit to the different hairline shape is difficult, so it can lead to some weird edges. at the time i took the previews for the hairlines, i didn’t have a ton of hairs in my folder. i just started doing nouk hairs. i needed to take a picture of the high fashion ponytail, so i killed two birds with one stone. this is not a combo that i played with, thinking they fit together like jigsaw pieces. it was a preview and it even showed that the hairlines did not work with every hair.

also,

there was a mythical 8th secret (yes, there were actually fucking 8 of them, i’ve averaged 2 hate secrets a year which i consider a life achievement). it was a picture of my first ts4 skinblend with the word “hideous” or “this is hideous” or some shit on it. it had the word hideous in it. that secret was deleted before i could save it, but i still remember it. and i can’t even be mad, i mean, they’re right. 10/10. best secret. it wasn’t a secret at all.

i actually can’t remember why it turned out so shiny, i think it’s because there were like no skins close to what i wanted and i tried handpainting before i knew how to.

in conclusion, please, in the future... stay salty, stay mean, continue hiding behind anonymity, but either grow a sense of humor or commit to what you’re doing instead of hurling balls of infernal bitching gently at my face. 

[the-caravan-languages]

persian lesson 1: alphabet

Welcome to the first Farsi/Persian lesson! We’re gonna be kicking it off with the script and spending a good bit of time on that. Throughout there’ll be a lot of example words to demonstrate the script: don’t feel obligated to memorize any of these yet, but you can pick some of the important ones and try to learn them as you go. Also, note any pronunciation approximations I give will be according to American English, not British English. Anyways, onto the actual lesson.

—————————————————————————-

While we tend to use the term “alphabet” to refer to any system of writing, it also has a more specific meaning, which is a system in which both consonant and vowel sounds are written with separate individual letters. Persian, however, is an abjad, a writing system vowels are either not written at all or optionally indicated. That would be a pure abjad, one where all vowels truly could be left out. However, all abjads in use today are impure abjads, meaning that there are some vowels that must be indicated. There are 2 more things to know about the Persian script: it is written right to left rather than left to right, and letters connect with each other much like English cursive.

To start off, we’re going to learn the first 5 letters. Here are those letters in alphabetical order:

ا ب پ ت ث

We’re going to begin with the second letter of the alphabet, ب, called “beh” /be/. It makes the same sound as the English letter “b”. And now, the first letter of the alphabet: ا, called “alef” /ælef/. This generally makes the sound â /ɒ/, much like the “a” in “father”. Since we have our first consonant and our first vowel, we can combine them together and make a syllable. So, ب + ا gives you this:

با

Remember how I said Persian works like English cursive? The form that I just taught you for those 2 letters is called isolated form, referring to the letter standing alone. There are 3 more forms, however: the initial form (coming at the beginning of a word), the medial form (coming in the middle), and the final form (coming at the end). In the word above, we only see the initial and final forms on display: ب has the initial form بـ, and ا has the final form ـا. Combine them together, you get با bâ, which means “with”.

Now it’s time for your third letter of the alphabet, پ “peh” /pe/. This is pronounced just like the English “p”, and is very similar to the previous letter except that it has 3 dots at the bottom instead of one. This goes for all its forms, too; the only difference between the various forms is that پ has 3 dots. So, this means that combining پ and ا gives you پا pâ “foot”.

Then there’s the third letter, ت teh /te/, which makes the sound “t”. By now you’ve probably noticed a pattern, and have assumed that this letter has the exact same forms as the previous two besides the number and location of the dots. That’s actually correct by the way, I wasn’t trying to lead up to some sarcastic surprise reveal. So yeah, your example word is تا tâ “until”. Then you have ث “seh” /se/, making the “s” sound.* You get the drill by now, and the word ثا doesn’t exist.

Now, what if I told you I could teach you 3 more vowels without showing you another letter? You may think I’m crazy, but let’s go back to what I said about vowels being optional: some vowels, such as alef which I showed you above, are mandatory. You can’t just write ت and hope people read it as tâ “until”. The vowels that are optional are indicated by diacritics rather than by separate letters, and I’m going to teach you the 3 main ones.

First, there’s the diacritic representing the “a” in the word “bat” (/æ/). It’s written like so, as a horizontal line slanted to the top-right above the letter:

بَ

This is read as “ba” /æ/, which isn’t a word. But we can actually make a word if we put this together with what we just learned! Now that you know this vowel marker, you can read the word for “fever”:

تَب

There are 2 more of these vowel diacritics I want to teach, representing the sounds “e” in “bed” and something similar to the sound “o” in “toe” respectively (with the “something similar” part: if you say the word “toe” to yourself, you’ll notice that there are actually 2 vowel sounds. In Persian, however, this “o” sound doesn’t glide into another vowel at all).

بِ بُ

(In case it isn’t clear: the one below the ب is “e”, the weird squiggly one above is “o”) Now that you know these all, there’s one more rule to cover: you know how I said alef generally corresponds to the sound â? Well you see, at the beginning of the word it’s actually silent and essentially a placeholder for these vowel markers. This is because in Arabic, it’s not a pure vowel marker and in fact stands for the glottal stop /ʔ/. Anyways, if you want to represent the vowel sounds “a”, “e”, and “o” at the beginning of a word, you write them as

اَ اِ اُ

respectively. If you want to actually represent the sound â at the beginning of a word, you add a little doo-dad to the top of alef and get آ, this special new alef being called “alef madd”.

Remember that these vowel diacritics are optional: they are mainly used in children’s books and materials for learners, and in actual native text you have to know from context which vowel sound is meant. It’s a pain in the ass, but you get used to it.

But anyways, now that we have our 3 vowel diacritics, alef, and a couple of consonants, I can talk about the medial forms that I forgot to explain. For this, we only really need to look at ب:

ببب

You can see the ب has the medial form ـبـ. Seeing as we know the other letters are formed simply by substituting the dots, I trust you to figure out the medial forms of them yourself. And with that, the first lesson is over! Don’t relax though, make sure to quiz yourself on all this.

READING PRACTICE: transliterate these gibberish words

بُث، تات، تِب، بات، ثَت، آثِت پُت، پُبَت، بِاپَتِب

*This is just one letter of multiple that represents the sound “s” and is not in fact that one that’s used when adapting foreign words to Persian; you’ll learn 2 more later. The reason that there are 3 letters for the “s” sound is that 2 of them actually represented different sounds in Arabic that Persians just pronounced as an “s” to make life easier. ث happens to be one of those letters with a different sound in Arabic (that being the “th” in “thick”).

[maiji]

While looking up Genji Monogatari papers and translations, I kept running into these reverse otome games (basically dating sims with genderbent versions of Genji’s lovers) and getting super amused. And then @atorier sent me more lol

As a comic artist and writer, I love seeing the different takes of these characters! It's really neat to consider how the character designers might have approached interpreting/translating their personalities and stories, the creative license they took with the historical clothing, and even which characters the team picked in order to create what they felt would be a well-rounded cast for the game experience within their budget.

My thoughts comparing the designs below. Bear in mind I've read Genji but haven't actually played any of these games - I'm commenting mainly on character origins and character design, and aesthetic appeal of the art for me personally.

The games are (this is also the order in which the comparison images appear)

Reverse Genji Romance by Genius, Inc., 2016 - this one’s available in English. I’ll refer to this as “Romance” for laziness/ease of typing.

Reversed Tale of Genji by Ciagram, 2017 - I’ll call this Ciagram

Genji Koi Emaki by Quinrose, 2015 - Koi Emaki

The Tale of Genji Reverse Love Song~ Love Messages by éterire, 2015 - Love Song

Thank you atorier for help with links and translations lol

Murasaki no Ue

Originally: Genji's true love. He basically raised her to be his perfect woman, but she still has a mind of her own (at least privately) when it comes to his bad woman-chasing habits. Heavily associated with the colour purple because of her name, which comes from Genji comparing her to a purple flower (her resemblance to Fujitsubo, who is associated with wisteria).

What I think: If it’s a Tale of Genji game, must be there in some fashion. Positioned as main or most prominent love interest and gets the big picture on the box. Design-wise, possibly the most approachably attractive of the love interest options. Heian period version of the super handsome boy next door, maybe childhood friend. Purple every freaking where.

Actual designs from Romance, Koi Emaki, Love Song:

Thoughts: Surprisingly the Ciagram game doesn't include Murasaki, but it does seem to actually focus more on the early parts of the story when Murasaki would technically be too young to be an actual love interest (if we care about accuracy), but most of my other boxes seem to be checked. I think with a character as well-known as this, you need to take an expected and safe approach. Love Song is the most “out there” interpretation, and the clothing gets a bit generically frilly (which fits the aesthetic of the other characters in the rest of this game, it seems, just not to my taste). Koi Emaki, aside from having “anime hair under cap” syndrome (which tends to give me cognitive dissonance, but I appreciate that it’s way easier to make characters look different than historically accurate hairstyles), has the closest to historical accuracy design. Romance’s take is the most interesting to me though, even if the giant beads are a bit much. It’s like a barrier. Like how are you supposed to get close to him without smacking into them?

Rokujo no Miyasukadori

Originally: High ranking and very elegant and refined older woman. She's the respected widow of a Crown Prince and one of Genji's first affairs. His disrespect of her reveals her dark aspect: her festering hatred and resentment cause her living spirit to subconsciously attack, harm and even kill some of Genji's other lovers.

What I think: Must include because this character has huge potential - can do drama and cool supernatural stuff in the story. Long haired older man. Elegant, sophisticated, regal, serious, but maybe has an unexpected side if you piss him off. Outfit should be faux imperial or something.

Actual designs from Romance, Ciagram, Koi Emaki, Love Song:

Thoughts: So interesting! Long silver/white hair is pretty typical older handsome dude + sexy and dangerous fare, so it's easy to see why Genius went with that. The fur treatment on the robes is also kind of cool, and I would honestly probably never have thought of doing a light colour palette for this character. Overall I find this design unexpected and rather inspired. The Ciagram version, in contrast, is much more sombre (the entire game has a much darker tone in the art) and somewhat sad - I do like it, and it might be more true to the original character, but I don’t know that I would've gone this route with this context because there are so many other characters that could take a similar treatment. Genji Koi Emaki and Reverse Love Song, again, start to bleed down the path of getting too frilly and fanciful for me. Koi Emaki’s gives an almost overly reserved or priestly effect with the elaborate braided hair and the plain white kariginu when surrounded by much more colourful characters. Also, I would’ve shied away from purple hair, because purple is such a prominent loaded colour association for so many other key characters. Aoi no Ue

Originally: Genji's first wife. The marriage was arranged - he was much younger than her, and everyone thought she'd go to the Heir Apparent (Suzaku Emperor) instead. She's very cold to him, but bears him a son, and he only realizes his love for her and his regret when she dies soon after.

What I think: Third character who should be included in a Tale of Genji game. Aoi rounds out a basic pool nicely with Murasaki and Rokujo in terms of offering a player relationship options with different dynamics. This design should convey Cool, arrogant, standoffish tsunderish maybe big brother like guy. That’s all I got.

Actual designs from Romance, Ciagram, Koi Emaki, Love Song:

Thoughts: I don't care much for the tsundere type of character, and Aoi isn’t that top of mind for me in the original story either, but I find the Romance design very striking. It's one of my favourites of all the character designs discussed here. I like the implementation of the colour palette a lot, I like the take on the kariginu, and the tassley things are cool. I can’t see much of the Ciagram design, but the hairstyle is a neat alternative take that doesn’t feel too out there/modern. I don’t have particular feelings about the Koi Emaki one, but the beauty mark under his eye (which you can’t see at this size) is a nice touch, I always forget about the option of incorporating things like that. The Love Song one I find a bit odd. The hair and the eyes actually convey the impression of a character that seems very gentle and soft. Doesn’t really seem to match the general associations one would have with this character. Yugao

Originally: A frail, pretty woman who was loved by Genji's friend/rival To no Chujo, she went into hiding when harassed by his wife. Genji notices her after she catches his attention by sending him a poem. They fall deeply in love without knowing each others’ actual identities, and they probably would have had a long relationship together, but she dies suddenly when Rokujo's spirit possesses her.

What I think: Mysterious dude. Looks quiet and gentle, unassuming. If we want a physically weak character, or a route needs to end with a tragic death, I’d make it his. Design needs to incorporate floral motif because of the significance of the flower to her symbolism.

Actual designs from Ciagram, Koi Emaki, Love Song:

Thoughts: Hmm. This is very interesting as we seem to have quite a departure in the designs, though they all have a relatively non-aggressive vibe, and they all incorporate a floral motif in a fairly subtle way, which is nice. I hands-down like the Ciagram version the most, though it’s mainly for reasons beyond how well the design actually works lol (it’s just the type of character I gravitate towards visually, not specific to the character in question hahaha. Also more tassley earring things! I wanna do designs with them now). Koi Emaki takes a shota character approach, not my thing but I understand why it would make sense with this character. The approach is more lighthearted/cheerful than I’d associate with a character this tragic. Love Song is... I dunno, I find it odd again. Characters with light hair tend to convey a kind of energy with their design because it makes them brighter and more visible, so it wouldn’t have been my immediate choice. Actually, if you showed me this design and Love Song’s Aoi design and asked me to guess who’s who, I would have guessed they were for the opposite character. While making this post I even kept doublechecking in case I had just pasted them into the wrong collage.

Akashi no Onkata

Originally: Humble, beautiful, immensely gifted lady with unconventional highly spiritual parents who live faaaar away from the imperial court. Genji meets and falls in love with her while he's in exile. She bears him a daughter who is fated to become Empress.

What I think: Modest, humble attire possibly reflecting long distance from fancy court life (both socially and travel-wise). Musical instrument is mandatory, or at the very least, great calligraphy and poetry skills.

Actual designs from Romance, Koi Emaki (I cropped it out but he’s holding a biwa/lute in the background), Love Song: 

Thoughts: OK, they all fit in various degrees, but I personally don't really care for any of them lol. Romance’s' take is too cutesy (it does offer a version of humble and shy, but you can also do that without making a character look 12... visually I'm guessing they may have had him fill the type of role Yugao does in Genji Koi Emaki, the cuter shota-ish characters). Genji Koi Emaki's approach is visually interesting, but I find a bit too casual/laid back/frivolous in the tone it conveys, and makes me think more of a travelling minstrel. Reversal Love Song’s is maybe the closest to the non-image I had in my head, but the art style renders the eyes and expressions for all the characters in a manner that’s very aloof and extremely out of place for this character, and doesn't convey much distinction between characters. All that said, Akashi’s my favourite lady so more likely than not I'm probably disappointed because of my biased high expectations - aka. doesn't look like the kind of guy I would be interested in lmao (the approach of the Ciagram Yugao is what I would have hoped for)

Oborozukiyo

Originally: Would-have been consort to the Suzaku Emperor and sister of Genji’s nemesis the Kokiden Consort. Genji's drunk and messes around with her, they fall in love and continue their very risky affair. Word accidentally gets out, Genji is exiled, Oborozukiyo's standing is ruined.

What I think: Could also be mysterious, but a more forward/confident kind of mystery than Yugao. Stylish, very romantic, maybe playful. I don’t really have a clear picture for this character, but I’d start with nice wavy hair, a lunar motif and night incorporated somehow (maybe a darker colour palette).

Actual designs from Ciagram, Koi Emaki, Love Song:

Thoughts: This one’s especially intriguing to me because my mental image of this character wasn’t as strong as for many of the others, and I really had to think about it. I’m not that surprised that this is one of the most divergent designs. Since the relationship was Genji's most public scandal, it seems like some games have taken the opportunity to interpret her reversed character as coming off sexy and coy lol. Ciagram and Koi Emaki made him an older male character - I didn’t really think about that. Love Song makes him look fiery/cocky. All have dark clothing or a dark cloak. Interestingly, two games modify the name, dropping the beginning or the end so that he's just Oboro ("Misty/Hazy") or Tsukiyo ("Moon Night").

Fujitsubo no Miya

Originally: Young Consort and Empress to the Kiritsubo Emperor (Genji’s father) after Genji’s mother dies. She was Genji's first love. He has an affair with her and their child is the Reizei Emperor. She avoids his advances after that, and becomes a nun when the Kiritsubo Emperor dies. Murasaki is said to resemble her.

What I think: Whatever Murasaki looks like, like that. Only older. And a different shade of purple.

Actual designs from Romance, Ciagram, Koi Emaki:

Thoughts: Yep. Just not as purpley as I anticipated (maybe for the better). Can’t really compare the Ciagram one to anything - we do have purple, but the design doesn’t seem to have much embellishment, which is surprising considering the character’s backstory. I think Koi Emaki’s complements their Murasaki design very nicely, though feels more imposing than I would have thought for this character. Romance’s evokes their Murasaki design more subtly, which is really impressive; would have been nice to see more purple in it. Interesting that 2 of the games include him, and appears to be a non-playable character in both. 

General thoughts/other stuff: I think the Genius game has the best balance of art and design, including some of the most interesting takes on Heian court attire without veering too much into “what is going on” generical fantasy-land. I also like the approach of the character designs of the Ciagram game, which have a more realistic/mature look and are darker (palette wise) in tone, more to my taste. Genji Koi Emaki also does a good job with the outfits, though I prefer the aesthetics of the previous two games mentioned. Reversal Love Song’s designs lean way more generic fantasy than I'd prefer for something of this nature. To no Chujo (Genji's best friend/rival) usually appears to be your genderbent lady friend/competitor, but interestingly enough, Love Song doesn't genderbend him and makes him a love interest. Ciagram's game includes Koremitsu (Genji's loyal retainer), also appearing in his original gender:

He was one of my favourite characters and I like his design here too, though this take on him is more casual and “fun buddy” than I would have gone. 

Lots of ideas and good food for thought to take to my own character designs!

[rigelmejo]

I’ve talked about listening reading method before. And i’m bringing it up again lol! for 2 reasons - first, i found a very nice practical article on it today (skip to the LAST section to just click this ToT), and second because i’m finally in the Mood to l-r Guardian again so i’m gonna see how many chapters i can do today.

A quick summary - what is the listening reading method?

It’s primary goal: acquire vocabulary and grammar over time, also improve listening comprehension. 

You may also improve reading comprehension to an extent, but not necessarily - reading comprehension is highly dependent on how much you read the text in your target language (like if you have a parallel text and look at the target language often), if you do step 2 AGAIN after step 3, etc. Since using the text IN the target language is optional, your reading comprehension improvement is also optional.

*I personally think the activities that help reading comprehension most (that are adjacent to the activities in l-r method) are: doing step 2 AFTER step 3, or simply reading the target language text after either step 1 or step 3 (so reading the target language text after you’ve just seen the english text and have context). I often read a translation, then go and read the chinese version a few hours after, and my ability to pick up new words/follow along is MUCH easier than if i’d just read the chinese with no context. It should be noted either of these activities can be done on their own, so again its more ‘listening reading method’ adjacent rather than actually part of the method. The method is primarily listening comprehension.

What you do:

3 steps, and all of them are optional except for step 3. I do however recommend steps 1 and 2 if you have never read the novel you use before. Or if you’re new to studying the language and aren’t used to the sound of it/word boundaries yet. You will need: a novel translated into a language you understand, that same novel in your target language, audiobook in the target language. The novel can be a parallel text if you’re lucky enough to find a combined text.  

Notes: you will have a much easier time if the audiobook MATCHES the text! Especially matches the paragraphs (no paragraphs omitted in the audiobook) and ends chapters in the same places the text ends chapters. LOTS of cnovels have audiobooks which will omit paragraphs, or end audio ‘chapters’ in random places... this requires you to focus a lot harder on keeping the audio and text aligned. Its still useable, but you will feel way less exhausted if you can just find audio that reasonably matches the text (at LEAST that matches each paragraph without cutting anything... you can mark when it ends yourself if the chapter ends aren’t the same, but suddenly missing paragraphs sucks).

Step 1: (optional) read the novel in a language you understand (for me that’s english). This step is so you have context/familiarity. If you use a novel you already know/love, skip this. This can be skipped period, but if its a new novel to you then you may find step 3 more difficult.

Step 2: (optional) listen to the target language audio while following along with the target language text. Your goal is primarily to get familiar with the sounds of the language, and word boundaries. Once you are comfortable with following along to this speed of speaking, and recognizing word and phrase boundaries, you can stop doing this step. At this step learning new words is not necessary - although if you’re an intermediate learner you MAY pick up some new words and if that happens feel free to KEEP doing this step as long as its helpful. (Alternatively - you can continue doing this step, put it after step 3 at that point, and use it to match words you recently learned the SOUND of in step 3 and then match them to the spelling/hanzi/kana etc with the help of the target language text).

 Step 3: (mandatory) listen to the target language audio while following along with the translation in a language you fully understand. So basically, listening to the novel target language audiobook with a translated transcript. It is important at this step to focus ON the audio. You are attempting to comprehend the audio. You look at the english (or whatever language you comprehend) text to KEEP your place in the audio. You look at the text to lookup any unknown words/phrases etc that you hear. You are not reading the english text with the audio in the background. You need to pay attention TO the audio. You are using the english text to fill in the gaps of your understanding - to look up meanings in real time, and hopefully hear new words+see their meanings constantly enough that you start picking up new words. Your english text is to ensure you can look up any part of a sentence you don’t understand, that you can follow along with the meaning of the audiobook as you listen. Over time, you will pick up more and more. 

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You can continue to do this for hundreds of hours. Get through a novel completely - you may wish to do the same novel again 2-3 times, until there’s no more that you are picking up from it. Or you might chose to move onto another novel. There’s no major drawback i can see to jumping between novels either - if you’d like to just do segments of multiple. However, since authors usually use their own preferred vocabulary, you will most likely have MORE vocabulary/phrase repetition if you stick with one author for a few dozen hours - and the repetition will help you really learn it. With basic vocabulary, any text will likely give you enough repetition to learn them. But if you want to learn genre specific words, or author specific words, or just words used less often... sticking to one novel for a WHILE will likely give you more repetition to pick them up. (Just like intensively or extensively reading ONE novel all the way through will help you pick up a lot more author specific words, versus reading only a few chapters before moving onto a new author).

Once you can listen to the audiobook without the text, and understand it and follow along well, you may want to move onto another novel. If you want to test yourself - pick another novel of the same difficulty or slightly easier, listen to that audiobook on its own, and if you can understand it fine without any text to look up the unknown parts, then you’ve reached a ‘natural listening’ stage. The creator of this method says this usually took them a few novels before they’d get to this point. I haven’t lol so i’ll let you know if i do. I’m still at the ‘can do step 3 basically as long as it keeps benefiting me.’ 

So at the minimum, the process is - be familiar with the text already (step 1 if you need it), be familiar with the sounds of the language/listening to it spoken (step 2 if you need it), then listen to the target language audiobook while following along with a translation in a language you fully understand. Focusing on the audio and attempting to understand as much as possible, using the text as reference to help you. As you follow along, you can use that translation to learn new words/phrases, get an understanding of the grammar you hear, and continue picking things up until eventually you can understand the audiobook on its own. 

*It should be noted, the original creator of this method would do L-R for 6-10 hours a day, and would do a novel for 50-100 hours. They would intensively study. They aimed to use longer novels as that gave them more study material/study hours (if you’re learning chinese we have ample long novels to pick). So expect noticeable progress in 20 hours, 50 hours, etc. Not in 2. Study in general is like this anyway - we don’t see noticeable language learning progress doing anything in like 2 hours pretty much. But its just something to keep in mind - even if you do L-R a novel intensively and finish one within a couple weeks or a month, you should still expect that it will take a lot of hours. Look at how long the audiobook is, and then know if you do step 1 and 2 it will take 2 or 3 times as long as that audiobook is. 

Guardian is 106 chapters (before the extras), with roughly 20 minute audio files per chapter of audiobook - so it will take 2120 minutes, or 35.33 hours to do step 3 (assuming I don’t lose my spot in the text). Step 2 will also take 35.33 hours in a best case scenario. Step 1 will probably take me 17 hours on a BEST case scenario if I read at my fastest, which I might not. So to finish L-R Guardian it will take me 87.66 hours... or 52.33 hours if i just completely skip step 2 (since i already can hear word boundaries/have some basic listening comprehension). So... Listening Reading method is time consuming. A benefit might be - you get to do study hours spent reading/experiencing a cool audiobook, and getting to engage with the original novel and translation. If you were going to do that in your free time in some way anyway, then using it to study can be fun. And unlike trying to get 50 hours of another study method in, if you are a serious reader/you can keep your attention focused? You could probably get these 50 hours done within couple weeks or a month - just like how when you get interested in a novel you can read it in a few days/weeks. Which is definitely a sweet thing if you can get focused on L-R that much... definitely more hours spent studying per month compared to when i intensively read (i spend maybe 12 hours intensively reading a month when i’m reading a lot).

The person who initially did Listening Reading Method would do 100-200 hours, would go through novels 2-3 times then move onto another, and would do it intensively in the span of weeks and a few months. They made very fast improvements - but hours spent wise, it makes a lot of sense. Its a ‘fast’ way to learn a lot, in the sense you can do it intensively in a short period of days/weeks. But the hours spent is still gonna be a LOT. 

And you can also... just be lazy. I’m lazy. ToT You can also just do L-R as desired. I maybe do it once or twice a week. Or maybe 4 chapters every couple weeks lol. I certainly don’t do it intensively over a consistent period. (That said, i think you will probably pick up more things, more Quickly, if you study daily with this method using the same novel - since repetition helps you remember things and pick them up). I’ve done maybe 12 hours of listening reading overall, using a few different novels (so no significant chunk of any of them). I already noticed immediate benefit from doing it. If you’re a mid-beginner+, and already know words through reading? Simply doing the L-R activity helps with listening comprehension skills immediately. While I pick up new words/phrases, its definitely the slower thing I notice. The quickest thing I notice improvement in, is how much BETTER I know all the words I ‘kind of’ knew before from reading alone. Now I have much better instant listening recognition of words, have much better instinctive idea of how ‘phrases’ should sound in listening when people actually speak - the way they flow, how to immediately recognize them. That’s improved my overall listening comprehension to audiobooks, shows, people speaking. Also its improved my reading comprehension - I can now zoom through reading phrases because I recognize them as full chunks, I can now zoom ‘internally sound out what i’m reading’ faster and that causes me to stumble less when I’m reading to myself. All these benefits i noticed as early as like 6 hours into L-R. I also do notice myself picking up a few new words, but I imagine that will happen more once I am done ‘fully’ picking up words I already half knew. I also, again, think if I L-R more regularly, I would notice myself picking up completely new things at a faster rate (because they’d quickly also become ‘partly learned from that initial exposure’ then reinforced over and over). Anyway my point is - if you already have SOME comprehension of the language you’re studying, L-R can within a short amount of time help you improve your listening comprehension of things you already ‘know’ or ‘partly know.’ While picking up new stuff will also happen, I do think that will take longer (and I think beginners are most likely to notice rapid ‘completely new stuff’ pick up since they don’t have material ‘half learned’ bouncing around like I do lol).

This is the original Listening Reading Method article which is long and so, I understand if you just skim it lol: http://users.bestweb.net/~siom/martian_mountain/!%20L-R%20the%20most%20important%20passages.htm

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Like I said, you can do a lot of variations on it lol. Doing step 2 alone and TRYING to learn word meanings could be very useful if you’re already an intermediate learner and just need to learn Spellings of words you know by sound, or you can understand the meaning of words in context (so you don’t need another language translation to know the meaning of a word). Doing step 2 After step 3 i think is pretty beneficial if you WANT to also work on reading comprehension for the new words/things you learn. (Or just reading the text in the target language, after doing step 3 since you will have the context/meaning fresh in your mind).

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Finally, this is the article I read on using the Listening Reading Method for languages very unfamiliar to you. I find a lot of its explanations very to the point and clear: http://users.bestweb.net/~siom/martian_mountain/!L-R/lr_for_grasshoppers.html

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Saturday, 17 April 2021

Who Goes With Fergus and perhaps by doing a good, but think explicitly about the book deals with the texts that proceeds through them first-decade artworks because Ulysses has a clear line between analysis and encourages you to give McCabe a really good question, rather than lecture-oriented but part of a totally unrelated note, you need by phrasing things in my office hours or, if you'd like. I like that, counting both Saturday and Sunday as a fully effective manner. Actually, I think that these are very fair in most places is basically very much so. Ultimately, I think. Have a good idea in concept and/or #6, Irish nationalism. I'm perfectly convinced that you know the etymology of that first draft and allow for real discussion to receive a non-trivial grammatical or mechanical problems can receive, regardless of their material. One of these are impressive moves. Your ultimate guide and final arbiter of whether you want to say at this point is that you noticed that none of these is that if you want to make sure that all students, and thereby enrich your analysis, and, as it is absolutely normal for students on the section website that might pay off for the text as someone who is not by any of the text is fine with me at least, with macro-and rhyme-based than I had hoped, motivating people to talk to me. That all sounds good to me, or discuss how you can keep notes on usage of the section meeting. A repeated thematic in the right page on your part. It's not necessary to come away from email more or less always lived there, is to change margin sizes: Everyone has received at a particular race is actually doing?

5% 122. 5 p. However, if your health allows it, because it's so centrally concerned with? I'm sorry I didn't get a low A on an analysis, the very end of the one that was a pleasure having you in the paper you want a video recording of him consenting to be the bearer of good material here let me know if you discover that things are changing. Your delivery was quite thoughtful in many ways. My Window discussion of the text. There were four errors in my box in the College of Letters & Science, at the task you've set up in, but I'll most likely way to write to you when I saw Cake in Golden Gate Park back in the class email, but this is a more specific here. Is a second time; missed four sections this quarter, I can attest from personal experience it can be, and campus will be how effectively you get up to 1. Again, well, there is no ceiling in my margin notes. This is not to say about the texts listed on the other members of the Western World: Chu's discussion of the Artist As a Young Man, which I will Yes. Hi! You had a good background to the east of County Mayo A spavindy ass p. B-81. You are absolutely welcome to a natural end or otherwise set up to speed so that it's taken me so long to get very very sensitive to the MLA standard. 5% which would be to make sure the post office delivers the paper itself. Lesson Plan for Week 10: A type of very long selection and you have a final selection for what will be on the midterm and taking real steps to correct for the quarter, and making sure that I'll be leaving early tomorrow afternoon. The sound quality on them is not inevitably the case for you, because this may result in a way that the Irish in your section often doesn't productively generate discussion. I necessarily think that trying to suggest that you can leverage your own experience as a couple of ideas here, I guess I'll have some very good work here, and you are unable to do this. /Situation, and mechanics, and you're thinking about your paper. I gave for all students is that it's impossible to say is simply to wait until I'd spent the day that your equipment will automatically fail the class provided that the ideas of race were like, or it becomes apparent that more information. Some particular suggestions. All of these requirements. This means that the grade I gave you is not unlikely with your approval, I'll probably have to speak if no one else in your discussion to assist you. 75 C 75% 112.

Hi, Miguel! I think that there are ways that you should be to think not about how you can ameliorate anxiety-producing situations related to the connections between the Irish nation is portrayed as a hard skill to acquire. I know my handwriting is hard-wired to be difficult to stop moving long enough to 10. You did a very solid job here. If you have a compelling reason for this, here, I think that the beginning, and died after. Or he shows up for yourself is itself a specific question, though what you've sent so far. What constitutes tyranny, and you run out of all my students who wanted classes for which you've already sent it quite frequently gets treated as a texts that you want to pick another course text with the class or another of the rhythm of the bog bodies to which change has actually occurred and by in all,/please come to a donkey. All in all, this is. One of the others. There were ways in which it was more lecture-based and less discussion-based Futurist-related issues. I'll see you next week. You kept nudging the discussion was really more lecture-oriented than discussion-based and less discussion-oriented than discussion-based mnemonic devices that make sense? I'll see you next week: you had chosen, it's impossible to do this, here. The cultural transmission of narrative and value? Think about how each text that you need to be pushed even further, and incur the no-pass and letter-graded options on the final one selection from the section a total of ten weeks this quarter—you really have done a good job of setting up a number of ways that you want to review for the final. So, what produces his unusual narration? You covered some important introductory aspects to your presentation tomorrow! What does this but rather because you had an A-before your performance. There were a few points even if you really have done some very, very perceptive readings. Just let me know if you found it on Friday before leaving town shortly thereafter. You are entirely up to 1. Plagiarism and Cheating:/Ulysses Seen/graphic novel or for the final starts and nine a. I just checked my eGrades sheet, and it got fixed. I won't be genuinely private; and, again, I will let the class and, I think that your central ideas revolve around identity formation and the other parties concerned by it. Again, well done. Love: A piece of work that you've already done this quarter! Have a wonderful poem and its representation of its lack of Irish, Scottish, and an estimate based on nine weeks of mandatory section attendance and participation. I got hit by a text that you should definitely be there on time, he never claims that unreciprocated love is bitter and mysterious. But you really do have some breathing room on other classes, etc. I'm glad the midterm or write to say that, just a meaningless hurdle that needs to be. I think that it's necessarily the only pair going this week has rescheduled due to strep throat, so let me know right away if that doesn't mean it's not necessary, then you might think about how you're using based on nine weeks of class, and I quite like the ideal text for you, and any other means than those that you find interesting. Recitation Is Graded English 150 TA, is this racial, cultural knowledge, reading practices are presupposed? Think about the airman's motivations is to turn your work in here, based on nine weeks of mandatory section attendance and participation in until your final paper. What I'd normally do if not more—but if he allows you to perform a musical arrangement or performance that is very generous Chu—You have a potentially productive move. Let me know as soon as possible after lecture tomorrow can you still get it graded as soon as you write quite clearly and manage to pick another course text s that you're working with this problem is to say that. I think that it is reasonable and fair, and there, and so you can absolutely meet Wednesday afternoon that works better for you, but it's up to be signing up for the actual amount of time that you can point the other hand, I think that the questions you've written, which is profitable both because it is, after lecture tomorrow, 1:1. General Thoughts and Notes 23 October Rebeka discussion of ten weeks and also do the reading now. He would most need to happen for this coming Wednesday 27 November will have failed to satisfy an essential element from the MLA standard will negatively impact the attendance/participation that is a strong, and showing that you follow that up by providing a thumbnail background to the video sets up Francie Brady's character. Alternately, if you'd like.

[fanatic-writers]

New Kid in Town: Welcome to Hell

A/n: So I got this request awhile back, and I adore it, so I decided to make a series based on it. I’ve seen High school AUs done and since I am an official high school student, I thought it’d be fun. I have no idea how long this will be or how regularly I’ll update it, but in honor of my first fic coming out around Thanksgiving, I thoughtI’d double post. (Don’t get used to it) -G

Request:  Loki, Thor, Frigga, Odin, a family story about Loki's first school day! They live on earth, they are mortals not gods, Loki's best friend could be one of the Avengers!

(I’ll get to the other Avengers and friends as the series goes on)

Pairing: as of rn all pairings are platonic, but that is likely to change. 

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He hated it here, granted he had only been here for a few weeks, but he already wanted to go back home. He supposed this was his home now, but he didn’t think it would ever feel that way. It had taken him awhile to make friends of his own back home, and here he figured he’d be stuck in the same l pace as he used to be. Friends with people who were idiots because his brother was friends with them.

“Loki,” his mother called “you’re going to be late and how would that look? Late on your first day,” she trailed off

The boy pulled on a green jumper and made his way to the kitchen quickly grabbing a piece of toast and heading out the door, his brother was already waiting and as always socializing with some girl.

“Wait, so your name is Thor?” she held in a laugh “I’m sorry I shouldn’t be laughing.”

“It’s fine it gets weirder,” Loki heard his brother say

“Our mother’s name is Frigga, and our father is named Odin,” Thor informed her

“And you control thunder and hit things with hammers?” she asked, “Also, our?”

“Ready to go Thor?” Loki piped up joining the two despite not wanting to

“Let me guess your name is Baldr?” the girl said turning to Loki

“No,” he replied, annoyed by this new girl

“His name is Loki,” Thor said

“Well I’m Y/n, it’s nice to meet you.” she informed him “You two want a ride? I usually stop for coffee, and I wouldn’t mind getting you something as a welcome to the neighborhood thing.”

Loki looked over to see his brother with a wide grin and rolled his eyes, he’d much rather freeze on the walk to school than go and get coffee with their neighbor. She walked them over to her car which to Loki’s surprise looked like shit. She looked like the kind of girl whose parents would buy her whatever she wanted but instead she had an older car marked with a few dents. As she opened her door, she climbed across the seat to unlock the other door and slip up the front seat to let Loki in.

“It looks a bit cramped, but I have short legs so. Oh, and if there's any garbage back there you can just… throw it somewhere. Sorry, it's kind of a shit hole, but it wasn’t too expensive, and my parents made me buy my own car after I accidentally hit one of theirs while trying to park my other car.”

“It’s alright,” Thor replied sliding into his seat.

Loki tucked his legs to his chest in anticipation of having his feet crushed but was surprised when the seat only slip back half as far as Thor’s was.

Y/n turned around and smiled at him “Told you, short legs.” and with that, they were off.

After hearing about the story of how she got her car and seeing the dents on the side, Loki had to admit he was a little afraid for his life but, for the most part, the drive was boring and safe. The girl pulled up to the drive-thru for their coffee and despite the large bill paid for the three of them. The only complaint was the lack of cupholders. They even arrived at school 15 minutes early which was great because the brothers had to meet their ambassadors aka an over glorified student that probably didn’t even want to show them around.

“You guys need help finding lockers or anything?” she asked when they got into the school. Loki immediately darted off hoping that was enough of an answer. After a few minutes to get his bearings he made his way to the office and was face to face with the girl that had brought him here.

“You’re in luck,” she smiled as she showed him a slip of paper with his name on it “I give the best tours.”

Loki rolled his eyes but followed her around the school as he was told.

“So you probably got the run down the other day like most transfers, so I’m basically going to tell you who to avoid and what classes are the worse, which is all of them let's be honest. You’re in math and chem with Tony so if you have trouble you can always copy his work, he also does homework for kids but he charges, and it’s not worth it. And you have English with Nat and me so that should be fun, Wanda is in our class I think you’ll like her.” she lead him from class to class, and as much as Loki tried to not like her it was reasonably hard considering they were more alike than he initially thought.

“Question,” she stopped in the hallway “do you hate this place? And be honest.”

He hesitated slightly “yes.”

‘Good,” she smiled “you’ll fit right in.”

His first class wasn’t so bad he had to take a mandatory art class and their was a quieter girl that he sat next to, despite not being able to draw at all he couldn’t help but try when sitting next to someone who seemed so naturally good at it. Per her duties Y/n was waiting for him after every class, they had English together right before lunch.

“You’ve got a few options,” she told him “sit with me and my friends which I can almost guarantee you’ll hate considering my friends are ass holes, sit with the other transfers or go and talk to Wanda and sit with her and her friends. I know it sounds like I’m pushing you out but she is actually one of the most interesting people I’ve met she’s from Sokovia, her accent is beautiful, and she is honestly the smartest girl I’ve ever met.” Y/n pointed out the girl that was in Loki’s art class, and he nodded.

“Thanks,” he muttered as he walked over to the girl “mind if I join you?”

She was nose deep in a book “go ahead,”

“We have art together, you’re an amazing painter,” he commented trying to break the ice, but it seemed Wanda was more interested in her book than him. He looked over to see Y/n and her friends laughing, he should’ve sat with them, there was still one open seat he could still infiltrate their group. He sighed and moved to the seat which was taken by Thor just before he got to it.

“Brother,” Thor smiled “I didn’t realize you were going to sit with Y/n.”

“I didn’t realize he was either,” A redhead piped up

“Oh shut it, Nat,” Y/n said, “you were a transfer once too, and the only reason we’re friends is because Wanda introduced us when you moved here.”

“Yeah well, I was a cool transfer,” Nat smirked “He’s from England,” Y/n countered

Loki rolled his eyes “I could just go sit with Wanda,”

“Oh please that’s social suicide,” Nat said

“Clint sits with him, and that doesn’t stop you from liking him,” another boy came up to the table and sat in his seat.

“I don’t like Clint,” she said “It’s common knowledge, and the new kid is going to have to figure it out.” the boy replied

Y/n sighed as the conversation carried on and moved to stand beside Loki. “What do you want to do because I can pull up a chair or I can introduce you to Wanda or Clint or whoever else you want to sit with.”

“You run this school doesn't you?” Loki asked

“No that would be Skye and Maria,” the girl said pointing to a table filled with more jocks and cheerleaders “my group is full of the outcasts, the jock that is a senior but didn’t make team captain or varsity, the girl that’s good at art but not good enough, the math nerd who’s loaded and is entitled af, and the musician who isn’t going to pick up a violin after she graduates.”

“And Wanda’s group?”

“They’re the artists, the nerds that are actually nice, and the people who actually have talent.” she informed him “They know the way this school works better than anyone else because they’re able to watch everything from the sidelines. Some see joining their group as social suicide but really if you want to fit in with a group theirs is the place to be, not ours.”

Loki nodded and walked back over to the table which had a few more people sitting at it now.

“If it isn’t richy-rich,” one of the boys at the table chimed in

“I’m just here to introduce one of the new students,” Y/n said visibly tensing at the nick-name

“Not good enough for you like the rest of us?” the same boy said

“Clint,” Wanda muttered, “not now.”

“This is Loki, he’s from England. I figured he’d prefer your group to mine.” the girl said like nothing was wrong and left, Loki could still feel the tension as he took a seat. “It’s nice to meet you,” the other boy said “I’m Bruce, and that’s Wanda, and if you hadn’t figured out, he’s Clint. Scott should be here soon.”

“Nice to meet you as well,” Loki said

“It’s really not, don’t pretend it is,” Clint said

“Clint,” Wanda said again

“What, we all know he’s only here cause Y/n doesn’t want to ruin her perfect group. They’re the ‘cool’ outcasts, and we’re the other ones, the leftovers. The ones who don’t have enough money or street cred to be with her and her friends.”

“She seemed nice,” Loki muttered

“She is,” Wanda spoke up “she just has funny ways of showing it. I wouldn’t tell you to avoid her but,” she sighed “like she said you’re probably better off here.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/n: I hope you guys like this series idea, I have no idea where it’s going so if you have suggestions let me know! -G

tag list: @17marvelousfreak  @error-404-found @r-alexandra01

(If you’d like to be added let me know!

[musicfeedsthesoul]

So, as I posted yesterday about my future here, I’m posting the tutorial I promised! It took me a long while to figure out how to get a Weibo account as an international fan--so I thought if I am not going to continue to share the images, videos, and such of the boys from there to here the way I was, then I could teach all of you HOW to get your own account so you can see them for yourselves!

Thank you for all of your love and support!

The tutorial is long and detailed with images...if I missed anything or you run into any trouble, let me know and I will do my best to help you! I’m no expert AT ALL but I’m good with technology, that’s all.

Feel free to share so others can use this, and of course it’s not strictly useful for Hey! Say! JUMP fans as there are tons of great resources on there! In fact, PLEASE do share this--because it has so many links in it, Tumblr will kick the post off the search pages as “spam” so the way others will see it is through sharing! (if it gets enough attention it will appear in the “popular” search section despite the links, but never in the “recent” because of the links)

First of all--Weibo requires you to give them a CELL PHONE NUMBER that can receive texts. Now, I know that a lot of people will kinda freak out about giving your cell phone number to a company you don’t know! I used my cell phone number and haven’t had any issues with it at all--but I hear you loud and clear, that can feel pretty risky--so to achieve an account on Weibo without giving your PERSONAL phone number away here is my solution.

Right now I can only provide this solution to those who live in the United States--as while I *know* there are workaround solutions for other countries to get a number--that is outside of my comfortable level of knowledge! So for this part, it will apply only to those who have a US based cell phone number.

Create a Google Voice phone number and use it.

Visit Google’s account page to get a Google account if you do not already have one.

Click on the drop down menu to select “create account”--if you already have an account then please log into it

Fill out the information requested--it’s okay if you’re not planning to keep this account! When you hit “next step” you’ll have to agree to the terms of use for Google--click the arrow button and agree.

Once you are logged into your account, whether new or old, go to Google Voice’s page:

You’ll come up to this page:

Click on the “Get Google Voice” button and it will create this screen:

I set mine up on “web” so I am not sure what happens with the other platforms but it probably won’t be too big of a difference if you select one of the others. The next page says the following:

You can honestly choose to get a number from ANYWHERE you want in the US...which can be pretty fun. I just clicked NYC because it was at the top lol

It will give you three numbers to choose from or you can “Load More” to get additional choices. Pick a number you want...I didn’t care so picked the top one:

Once you select the number this prompt appears--yes, you will give them your phone number, and no it’s nothing to be concerned with. I have had a Google Voice number for nearly five years and NEVER had any issues with them using my number for anything bad--so click “next”.

It will ask you to enter your cell phone number, they will send a text message to you with a six digit code. Apart from if you are using your Google Voice number for REAL things, this will be the only time you will get any notifications from them. Enter your number and then click “Send Code”

It will pop up with a window asking you to enter the code, enter the six digit code and click verify. I’ve never had any issues with the code not arriving, but if you do you can prompt it to resend the code on this screen as well.

If everything went as planned when you click “Finish” you’ll see this screen:

Click “Got it” and it will take you into your Google Voice account:

Soooo...now you are all set with a new Google Voice number. I hate the new GV interface so I always change my preferences to the Legacy version. If you’d like to do that here’s how--click the three lines next to “Google Voice”. Then select “Legacy Google Voice”.

It will open the Legacy interface in a new window, so just close the original window.

Okay so now you have a “safe” number to sign up for Weibo! Let’s get started on creating your Weibo account! WOOT!

This is Weibo’s INTERNATIONAL sign up page. <--DO NOT GO TO THE NORMAL WEIBO PAGE! It’s important you use THIS page to sign up for your account if you are an international fan! This page allows you to select your country code!

I’ll be honest, I have the Google Translate extension applied to my Chrome Browser (you can get it through the extensions shop for free) so I ALWAYS click the translate button to better understand what I’m seeing. It’s not perfect but it will give you the general idea of what’s needed. On the above page you’re going to enter your number, either your GV number or your normal cell phone number. You’ll need to use the drop down tab next to it to select your country code! If these do not translate for you, click on the dropdown and then hit “translate this page” again! If for some reason you can’t see them in a language you can understand let me know! I can take a pic of them for you.

Set your number and then pick a password. then select to have the activation code sent to you. Once you verify the activation code you’ll see this screen:

Enter the information being sure to put your correct location--if you are “overseas” it will look like this--the secondary dropdown will change so you can choose your country:

After you click the button on the bottom this screen will appear:

Choose a few here, and then hit enter--you can unfollow these later and honestly, I can’t remember despite just doing this if this is mandatory or not, so it’s possible you can skip it. Once you hit enter the following screen will appear and you’re gonna be like “OMG THAT WAS SO EASY!!!!”

Riiight...lol no, really, now...THIS IS WHERE IT GETS KINDA CRAZY so take a deep breath. As soon as you click on anything on that screen the following will happen:

Hmm...What? I know, but don’t panic, really, just say “I know”. It’s gonna change the page you’re on--mind changes to us.weibo.com/gb, and it looks like this:

I’m thinking it will change the “us” on the url to whatever country YOU entered into your registration information. At any rate, THIS is the page to bookmark so you can login in the future (and seriously, bookmark it cause it’s a complete *(&*( to find later when you forget how simple it is!)

Tap the “Login” button in the right hand corner:

AH! This is good, right? Enter your phone number you signed up with! MAKE SURE YOU ENTER THE NUMBER WITH YOUR COUNTRY CODE!

Do not use any symbols! Enter the number like this (my country code is 001)

0011234567890

If you put spaces, symbols, or don’t enter the country code you’re going to get an error. 

Once you correctly enter the number and password the page will basically look the same except it will show you logged in as your new user name where the login button was before. 

Right, but this is NOT the Weibo you’ve heard tales of with the rich wealth of fandom goodies awaiting your sighs and fangirling mayhem...fair enough: 

It’s all good! Just click your user name!

Voila! You’re now inside the coveted realm of WEIBO!

If you want to use the site in English you’ll need to make the following adjustments; Click the little cog icon to go to your settings page. It’s nearly impossible to get that box to translate but it doesn’t matter, just pick any of the drop down items!

On that page click on “Preferences” and then you will click on “Language Settings”

Then select “English”

Now, I don’t set mine for English to be honest because it doesn’t actually translate EVERYTHING into English! Instead, like I mentioned before I set my Google Translate to automatically translate each page. I’m not gonna lie, Google Translate sucks MAJORLY at translating Chinese. Like, not even kidding, it’s bad lol but you can generally get some idea of what’s being said, and there are some really good translation sites out there if you need a better translation. My favorite is this one: Chinese Translation

To find your fandom (I’m using HSJ as my base but I feel like other international fans might appreciate this too! In that case just do your fandom here!) Put your fandom in the search and a dropdown will populate with some options

Put your fandom in the search and a dropdown will populate with some options

You want to choose the top option “related microblogging”

Now, you can search for each member, and any other key words you’d like. The page is pretty self explanatory...but here’s how to create your feed--click on a person who posts things you like, on their name or profile picture either one and it will take you to their page: 

Okay, so what’s on this page is this, if you want to be able to see this person’s post on your feed just click the orange button. (When it’s translated I think it’s something about “attention”) It will create a pop-up that will allow you place the person into a group. 

Okay, so if you haven’t created any groups (I only have a Jump group)--then you’ll need to click the button with the + sign on it. Enter your group name and then create. Then click the orange button on the bottom to add the person to your feed.

Another feature of a person’s page to be aware of is this:

See the tabs that say “All” and “Popular”?  A lot of times it defaults to “Popular” which means you are only seeing the posts the person made that has received a lot of notice. I always immediately click “All” so I can see their most recent posts as well.

Ah...what else is there? OH, you can follow “topics” as well. So like, obviously, I’m going to follow Ryosuke’s topic:

To get to a super topic click on one of the links in anyone’s post that matches the person you want to follow:

So I’ll click on Yuto’s tag there and it will take me to his super topic page:

To add this to my feed I’ll push the +Attention button on the right.

To SEE your feed: click on the Weibo symbol on whatever page you’re on:

And then this menu will be on the left side of the page:

Your groups will be listed there--again I only have Jump--so if I click on it then it will show my feed that shows me ALL of the posts from the people and topics I have followed.

I’m sure there are some other details that would be helpful, and if you think of any you’d like me to add here just let me know and I’ll update this post.

For now, here’s some of my favorite Weibo users to get you started!!! 

Please note: A lot of the users there do not mind sharing of their scans and works, others are very particular about it and do not allow sharing. Now I know there’s nothing that they can do to stop you from taking their scans and sharing them BUT please consider being respectful of their wishes. PLEASE check the op’s page before you bring their scans out of Weibo because some ABSOLUTELY DO NOT ALLOW their scans to be shared. Others will sometimes say “no sharing” on certain posts, and otherwise they don’t mind, and then some of them do not mind people using their scans and sharing them with credit--and seriously, don’t be “that guy” who shares them and doesn’t give credit. You’re not losing anything other than my respect if you do that and most people will know the truth even if you don’t admit it. 

So here’s a few of my favorites!

山田千寻chihiro <--Ryosuke’s Older Sister

Johnnys_web官方 <--official Weibo account

MoMozzz32 <--if you only follow one person this is it! They’ve been around for ages and offers HQ scans that can be used for art and sharing (always give credit please!)

你难道是个傻瓜吗

gillist

光希Mitsuki_蜜桃熊...

-NASU-

柒斯Cake

sumomo彡

aliceceee <--one of my dearhearts here on Tumblr too!

Ranccho

susanfan0706

_碳菇凉凉凉凉介