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fdotaku · 2 years ago

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Game Review: Choukyou Suru Rinjin

Quick Info:

Creator: Murasaki Gankyuu Suisou Title: Choukyou Suru Rinjin (調教する隣人) Media: Visual Novel (TyranoScript engine) sold on DLsite Content: Humiliation-focused pseudo-consensual BDSM

Note: This is an untranslated Japanese visual novel, which has a story focus. If you can’t read Japanese and aren’t satisfied with machine translations, you’re out of luck, unfortunately. Also, it’s chock-full of heavy BDSM, so those who’re turned off by that should look elsewhere. …But if you play VNs in Japanese and you’re willing to embrace extreme femdom, please read on.

Introduction: What Makes It Special

So, what’s awesome about it? Well, it has:

A scenario that’s 9 hours long, which for reference is double the length of an Msize game.

All female characters fully voiced, by the artist-seiyuu Narukamitsuki Ria.

2 routes and 5 different endings.

Unique and likable characters. The heroines are multi-dimensional, with their own reasoned feelings and attitudes toward the male protagonist, not cardboard cutouts of sadists like you’ll find in many other stories.

Some of the best comedy I’ve seen in a femdom VN, which rivals Noukano games and Haruka’s route in Shinkon Seikatsu.

Plenty of extreme femdom situations. There’s blackmail, exhibitionism, golden showers and piss drinking, the male lead pissing and shitting himself, forced cross-dressing and emasculation, SPH and mocked phimosis, various physical tortures, and much more that I won’t spoil.

A fast-paced story. The scenes are all concise and well-written, so it never feels like sex scenes are deliberately padded. As a result, the amount of story is far more than you’ll normally find in a 9-hour Japanese visual novel.

A suspenseful story. Of the two main heroines, one is an unpredictable and mysterious character, while the other isn’t simple to gauge either. The constant risky exhibitionism, along with various plot developments which raise the stakes for the male protagonist, make it impossible to predict what will happen next.

30+ base CGs, which for reference is comparable to an Msize game.

I’ll state its one major flaw up front: the art style isn’t consistent throughout the game. Though the sprites are beautiful, the CGs vary a lot. The artist’s skill improved as she drew for the game, actually, so some of the later CGs look much better. It’s far from bad, and I definitely prefer it over a generic art style. Still, this aspect, along with the extreme-ness of the fetishes–and maybe insufficient marketing–are what have caused CSR to remain a hidden gem for a few years now.

Next, I’ll discuss the characters to give you a better idea of what the story is like, and how there’s a unique sense of character and plot tension. Lastly, I’ll talk a bit about the game developer (a two-person doujin circle) responsible for this hidden gem.

The Story

Heads up for those concerned about spoilers: in this section, I’ll discuss the early parts of the game, around the first half hour or so, as well as the overall flow of the story. If you’ve already decided you want to play CSR based on what I said in the introduction, and prefer to play blind, skip down to the section “The Circle” below.

The story’s protagonist is a college student named Akino Yasuo. He’s 19 years old, and lives by himself. He’s smart, hardworking, and has a decent face. He tries to deliver a cool impression to others, and generally succeeds at it.

That said, Akino has a hidden side. To others, he uses the first person pronoun ore which is confident and assertive, but in his mind, he refers to himself as boku which is more meek. He has a strong interest in femdom porn. And he has a hobby he can’t tell anyone about… exhibitionism. He lives in an apartment on the second floor of a building, with the first floor being a snack bar. Every once in a while, when he spots a random female passerby walk past his building late at night, he opens the shades of his room, turns up the volume of the porn he’s watching, and lets her see him masturbate. He derives a perverse pleasure from being exposed to people’s gazes.

One day, he does this again. However, it turns out as you’d expect from a femdom VN… the woman who sees him doesn’t just walk away uncomfortably like all the other women did previously. Instead, the woman with a suitcase glares at him… and walks into the building. She’s Kaede, and he didn’t recognize her because she only just moved in to the apartment next door.

Despite having crossed the line, the memory of her glare excites him. When Akino accidentally blasts from his speakers femdom porn later that night, Kaede interprets it as a deliberate act, and goes and confronts him. However, she’s far more ruthless to him than he could’ve imagined; she immediately blows past his comfort zone and blackmails him. And thus, his life is turned upside-down by her.

From that point on, the plot largely chronicles Akino’s attempts to live his life with Kaede constantly abusing him and forcing him to do things that are illegal, unsafe, or mildly terrifying. To a certain extent, at first, you may think, “Hey, isn’t this too convenient? He’s an exhibitionist, but when he was ‘caught’ by a woman, she’s beautiful and she forces him to engage in more exhibitionism? Isn’t this just wish fulfillment? How can Akino not be self-aware of this?” I had that feeling at the very start too, but then it quickly became apparent that Kaede’s orders are far beyond what a “normal” exhibitionist like Akino would consider wish fulfillment. Kaede feels utter disdain for him, and doesn’t hold back. Akino’s psychological conflict over how he feels about the situations he finds himself, which both excite and terrify him, and his stress and anxiety over Kaede’s influence over him are rawly conveyed in the narrative.

Everything ends up centering around Akino’s relationship with Manaka Shizuku, a cute girl he has a crush on. She goes to the same university as him; she’s even in the same year, and attends the same lecture. On top of that, she’s a part-time worker at the snack bar that occupies the first floor of the building he lives in. (A snack bar is kind of like a hostess club, but more toned down; a bar instead of a club, and the girls just serve drinks and chat casually at the tables rather than sit together on a sofa.) Akino constantly visits the snack bar to chat with her. He wants her to have a good impression of him, and look up to him as a cool and reliable guy, in the hopes that one day he’ll be able to ask her out.

As you’d expect, Kaede soon realizes the existence of Shizuku, and involves Shizuku in many of the humiliating orders she gives Akino. How Shizuku reacts to everything that happens between her and Akino, and how the relationship between Kaede and Akino evolves, are some of the focal points of the VN’s plot.

The Circle

Choukyou Suru Rinjin was created by a circle called Murasaki Gankyuu Suisou, which translates to Purple Eyeball Aquarium. That’s MGS for short. They sold their first work on DLsite in 2009, so they’ve been active for over a decade.

There are 2 people in the circle: Senhime, the writer with a unique style whose plots usually involve extreme situations and exhibitionism. And Narukamitsuki Ria, the artist whose ability has gradually improved over the years, and who’s responsible for the female voices in MGS’s works. They’re close in real life; Narukamitsuki Ria often posts short humorous comics that feature the 2 of them as chibi-style characters, and they also have a YouTube channel called Doujin Kurui (which could translate to Doujin Madness) where they humorously and insightfully express their experiences running their doujin circle. The majority of MGS’s works fall into the femdom category, though sometimes they’re more femsub, or even yaoi with a cross-dressing seme.

Back when Choukyou Suru Rinjin came out in 2019, MGS had been active for a full decade, but they had never put out a manga or a CG set. Until then, they had only ever put out novels and voice dramas. But ever since the VN Choukyou Suru Rinjin came out, the circle’s style has changed: Narukamitsuki Ria has put out 7 manga and CG sets, and the writer Senhime even learned to draw and put out two manga of his own. And they’re even currently working on a new game.

Choukyou Suru Rinjin has its roots in an 87-chapter novel that Senhime wrote. It’s still publicly readable on Pixiv and Nocturne. That’s only up to chapter 86; the final chapter, which is probably something of an epilogue, can only be read if you buy the illustrated compilation of chapter 63 onward. The name this VN was sold under is actually “Game: Choukyou Suru Rinjin” to distinguish it from the novel. Senhime worked on it for many years and wrapped it up around late 2018.

At first, I expected the game to be a shorter, more abridged version of the novel. That’s usually the way it goes. But the visual novel version of CSR is actually a superior version! The novel effectively only covers a single route. And when I compared the flow of the plot in both, I noticed that there were a number of scenes cut or subtly altered, and in every case, I felt that the changes made sense, helping to better ground the plot and the characters. And while only a small portion of scenes weren’t carried over to the VN, a much larger number of scenes were added to the VN. I would guess that the VN’s script is at least twice as long as the novel’s script.

Conclusion

There’s a lot more I could say about this VN. Like how much I love Shizuku as a heroine… How I love the contrast between Shizuku’s two routes… How I love the evolution of certain characters… How I like the voice acting in certain scenes. But I’ve chosen to avoid spoilers in this review.

The existence of MGS really cheers me up, because the works they create are inspired, enjoyable, and a breath of fresh air in this 2022 femdom doujin game scene that’s overloaded with irojikake and succubi. Their upcoming second game is once again based on a femdom novel from Senhime; the novel is called Dorei Tenraku Kitan, which means very roughly Slave Downfall Fairy Tale, and the game version this time will be called something different for clarity: Femme Fatale. It will also feature Live2D animated sprites, and major revisions to the novel’s story.

Side Talk

Time flies, and the next Msize game, after a year and half’s delay, is scheduled to come out at the end of December, assuming Riumu manages to wrap up the work in time. mortalvyses is also on track to finish their translation of Ikisugi M Lesson around then, so it'll potentially be a double dose of Msize!

Pixiv recently enacted some potentially censorship-oriented policies at the behest of international credit card companies. This won’t impact any non-paid Pixiv content (like regular artist galleries) but it will affect Fanbox (PIxiv’s Patreon equivalent) content. The new rules won’t take effect until mid-December, and it remains to see how strictly they will be enforced. I’m especially concerned about the ones that would target incest, because I appreciate imouto femdom scenarios.

A lot of people are interested in AI these days. There’s been a lot of discussion about chat bots and AI story generation in the Femdom Finder thread, with the apparent consensus being that while AIs will react to what you say and build upon it, so you can “train” them to act like a dominatrix, they’ll often “glitch out” as their apparent grasp of the situation collapses and, for example, they suddenly act like they’re the slave. Parts of AI-generated stories can reportedly be somewhat enjoyable, if you can learn to tune out at all the weird and contradictory elements that are thrown in. And of course, most AIs aren’t trained on porn, so often the content will stay relatively tame.

I’ve also seen a lot of Novel AI posts in Pixiv. Novel AI is an AI art generator that was trained from Danbooru (so, mostly Pixiv works) based off Stable Diffusion. In response to the flood, Pixiv created an opt-in feature that filters out AI art, but it doesn’t catch all of it, since it has to be tagged. As a fan of latex fashion, I’m impressed by a lot of the Novel AI art I see, but unfortunately, AI ultimately just mimics vast data sets and lacks a concept of the world; therefore, trying to prompt it to display an interpersonal action of domination, or otherwise display more than 1 person, seems mostly futile. Unless you train it with a lot of data for a specific scenario, but then why would you need it generated anyway? Probably the best you can do casually right now is, say, have a dominatrix pose with a whip, though sometimes it’ll fuse with her hair. In any case, the tech is certainly thought-provoking, and many artists are at least attempting to use it to speed up their work.

Until next time, and happy holidays.

#game #in-depth

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absolutebl · 4 years ago

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This Week in BL

April 2021 Part 4

it’s my birthday week! *raises a glass of pink milk*

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Second Chance Ep 4 - oh noes my babies are all so sad! Teen angst for the win. Tropes included: crying in shower, a very significant hand hold, & striped shirts. (At this point over half the cast has been in stripes.)

Love Machine Ep 1 - not gonna lie, I barely made it through the first half, this is a short run LOW budget experimental web series and it’s not good. Dropped.

Lovely Writer Ep 9 - I like it when LW gets serious because there are fewer dumb sound effects, but oof Aey, poor baby. How many Aeys have I known over the years? Rejected, broken, angry, lonely, and lashing out. On a different note, I haven’t see the “sex drug made us do it” plot device since 1980s Johanna Lindsey. Props to that cocktail rearing its ugly head. (yeh yeh) ZOMBIE TROPE ALERT. (Is this the point where I remind the world at a-play doesn’t have to hurt? Well, it doesn’t! Toys, prep, and lube people. Sheesh.) Anygay, zombie trope is put safely back underground. Please don’t let it rise again? (I KNOW, I’ll stop now.) So this was a rough episode, especially the back end. (Okay now I’ll REALLY stop.) Seriously tho, BL doesn’t do a massive coming out family drama scene often. I liked LW’s handling of this one. Hard to watch but compelling.

Close Friend Ep 1 (OhmFluke) - very cute snapshot into a LTR featuring an overworked music producer and his student BF. That’s the chassis for this whole series, each one has to do with the song & is a portrayal of that song’s message. Essentially, the theme of this one was remembering to make time for your partner. I enjoyed that. OhmFluke gave us easy casual familiar affection and a kiss, but no BL tropes, just romance.

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 3 - Pi is a total spazz & the ghost story bit was... well, it was something wasn’t it? Lots of tropes: fixing his clothes, wound tending, drag baby around, piggyback, head in lap, hand hold, and ending on a drunk kiss. I just noticed Pi uses guu/mueng with Mork, but Mork’s a year older. (So I have a new entry onto the linguistic brats list.) So rude and presumptuous. Also I gotta say this, don’t wear watches when you’re working on a cadaver, mmky boys?

Y-Destiny Ep 4 - look MaxNat have great chemistry, this ep had loads of great tropes (e.g. cheek kiss, rooftop, public claiming via phone), it’s not their fault I’m just not wild about these characters. I do like Nuea’s wanna-be idol wardrobe though. And Sun is sporting the red bag version of Tharn’s black bag that I wanted so bad in TT2. (I wonder if I can score a knock off when I’m over there?) Regardless, I basically grinned all the way through this installment, so that’s another thumbs up from me for Y-Destiny. Who knew I’d come around? Man would I love to see these two get their own series.

Brothers Ep 12 - teacher/student exposed! But the power of boys on phones will overcome all. No KhunKaow for me, so of course I found this ep tragically disappointing.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 6 - MuRen is officially a yaoi manga character in the flesh. H4′s outright mockery/subversion of tropes “don’t touch him he’s mine,” + “touch my lip & think of kissing” makes the fact that other (way more damaging) tropes are being blithely utilized without critique almost - dare i say it? - insulting. YongJie is trash but I’m the one who feels like trash because I want to forgive him. How aptly abusive & dysfunctional we all are. I don’t know whether to applaud H4 or start drinking. (Maybe this is the show I should invent a cocktail for? Who am I kidding? This is totally a jello shots show.)

Friend or Lover (Taiwan) Ep 2 - I thought this was only a microfilm but turns out it’s a web series. It’s cute. I’m enjoying it.

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 3 - subs take a while to drop but it’s still better than average. I like a secret identity trope, I love a grumpy/sunshine pairing, and the side couple is great but this ep was slow. With only 6 total (I assume) they better get the main couple together next ep or the improved quality of this series will be sacrificed on the alter of pacing issues.

Word of Honor (China) Ep 28-30 - slowed down to focus on bad guys (yawn...ooo Scorpion...yawn again). Then baby gets kidnapped, other baby goes crazy, and old friends turn up. We end on DOOM because mathematically this was an episode 11. All boxes checked.

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korea) Ep 3-4 - how is this show SO DAMN CUTE & weirdly wholesome at the same time? Another one of those: Will Korea resolve this satisfactorily in 4 short eps? But I seem to say that half way through every Korean BL. These days, I have complete faith. Warm fuzzies for everyone.

Stand Alones

Color Rush movie is the same as the series. There is a stinger at the VERY end (untranslated) but which I’m assuming has something to do with the missing mother. Is this a possible indication of a 2nd season? Hopefully someone will eng sub the stinger and post it out into the universe. So yeah, Color Rush movie = To My Star style, sadly, not Wish You. That said, I did enjoy watching with different subs. The first version I watched was fan subbed, and they were better on English colloquialisms. Viki’s subs are better on Korean colloquialisms.

Breaking News

Bunch of new press on Thailand’s I Told the Sunset About You 2 AKA I Promised You the Moon. Here’s a master post on the subject with all the links you could ever want. It will start airing May 27th 8 pm (Thai time) on LINETV.

New Thai Bl Golden Blood got a teaser trailer. Stars familiar side dish Gun Napat (Techno from LBC) as a rich kid who needs a bodyguard. Yeah, it looks to be the Thai version of Where Your Eyes Linger which is FINE. I love me a bodyguard romance. DO EETTT Thailand. Trailer contains ALL the tropes: dry his hair, piggyback, cooking together, and more, plus good smooches. It looks GREAT. Also cheeper to make then KinPorsche and it might get funded due to of residual enthusiasm. Also GOOD TITLE.

Close Friend got another teaser trailer this one for Talay & Yoon (no subs).

Taiwan has a new BL coming out... eventually. Looks to be a new franchise like the HIStory series with different couple(s) each season. It’s the first Taiwanese BL from a major in-country network. The first installment is titled Be Loved in House: I Do (seriously Taiwan, could we talk about your titles?). It stars a familiar face, Aaron Lai from HIStory: My Hero. It’s a grumpy/tsundere boss/employee office-set BL with some forced proximity to push them together. (Nods to Japan.) No release date, but (unlike Thailand) Taiwan usually doesn’t make announcements without content & serious intent.

Gossip

Taiwanese BL NOVEL Miracle dropped a trailer, no subs or translation. According to YouTube comments it was supposed to be part of HIStory3 but MODC took on its slot. Still it’s kinda fun to see what might have been.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

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hanijunk · 4 years ago

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Alright boys, girls, and nonbinary folks of the world. It’s 5:36am (1/30 when I first started) as I decide to give up on my attempt to continue to focus on learning statistics, avoid studying for my two upcoming midterms, and put off my two actual essays for two different classes.

Instead we’re going into a dive about ✨ KazuFuuma ✨ . Is this me telling you you gotta ship it? No of course not, you’re entitled to your own ships! You don’t really gotta care about it as a ship. But I do want people to recognize it’s THERE canonically, and how disregarding it is extremely unfair to Kazuki as a character particularly. Also, I’m working on the assumption anyone clicking this at least knows the bare bones about what KazuFuuma (ex. You know they are a ship of Kazuki/Fuuma from Dolce, you know they are childhood friends, you know who Dolce is, you know about Honeyworks, etc.) I’ll be making references to specific things, but I won’t always go into heavy detail. Might just hope you know it or take my word for what it is, and go into analyzing it. Some I’ll put direct references to find, but some I’ll trust you can find it yourself. If you somehow read this MAMMOTH and want reference to a specific thing mentioned, hmu I can help you find it!!

Also I hate tumblr formatting sm if you legit wanna read this 7 page essay but hate tumblr format lmk I'll add it as a google doc link instead too. anYWHO

Before actually getting into the meat of things lemme preface some stuff.

Again it’s like almost 6am so this will be disorganized and very train of thought (and likely long due to the fact when I fly by the seat of my pants I’m known to get unnecessarily extensive). It’s definitely gonna be in large part why it’s important to recognize as a romantic relationship foundation and what about it shapes Kazuki’s character in particular. Maybe a bit of how it’s been built up and its general focus and implications. Dunno yet. We’ll see LMAOO

I say f*ck. Not a lot, just a handful of times. This ain’t something scholarly this is for my own enjoyment so if you don’t like that might not wanna read. And it’s not like spitefully I just curse a lot if you haven’t...read my tags before lol

Again this is through the lens of a Kazuki stan. Of COURSE I’m going to have some level of bias, but if anything that bias may help more than hurt because that means I become FIXATED and think a lot about Kazuki. Which plays into establishing just how important it is that Kazufuuma’s relationship is recognized, especially in a romantic light at this point. Lmfao.

I’ll have a few more prefaces about the actual content below but to keep this from getting too long if you wanna read come below the cut owo

I have extremely limited knowledge of Japanese just taking a few classes in highschool (so like 3 yrs ago) and live in America. This means a lot of my knowledge is gathered through the english translations of the super duper incredible and lovely people in the Honeyworks fandom who provide translations (delaix and takanenene esp have provided so much for me being able to understand Dolce) and my own limited Japanese paired with Google Translate for things that remain untranslated.

This only will be drawing on information I have come in contact with and have access to and making assumptions based on that, most (if not all) of which is in the public domain. So things like the Dolce Manga Volumes released via Animate, exclusive 4komas, and Light Novels are out of my area for the most part (apart from again snippets of translations thanks to this fandom’s godlike and generous translators).

I will not be drawing on anything from the first Dolce album with the exception of Nade Nade. From a meta standpoint, I consider those songs as songs made as performance media as opposed to character explorations. Nade Nade is the exception because (1) it was released a whole year before the album and (2) you can tell it’s explicitly an exploration of Fuuma and Kazuki’s interpersonal relationship even if it’s in a slightly more performance based context than the songs that came out with the Dolce LNs. Easiest parallel I can make to show this is if you held Non-Fantasy, Yume Fanfare, and Samishigariya up against each other, you could tell the difference in intended audience and intended purpose the same way the Dolce 1st album, Nade Nade, and the songs of the LNs do respectively. Even if there is some basis to ground Kazufuuma, for the purposes of this essay I’ll be acting under the assumption the 1st album falls under the Non-Fantasy equivalent category.

THAT WAS A LOT OF PREFACING CONSIDERING LIKE 2 PPL WILL PROBABLY READ IT I just have a tendency to anytime I do anything analytical lay down ground acknowledgements for myself to work on just...cuz it makes me feel less guilty for any accidental misinformation even if I’m writing towards my future self to read lolll IM SORRY WITHOUT FURTHER TO DO HERE’S THE BRAIN DUMP

First let’s go ahead and establish why it needs to be recognized as an important relationship. Again, I’m a Kazuki stan. He’s my favorite character not only of Dolce but also of the entire Honeyworks series, and as much as I love him for reasons outside the ship, whether you like it or not Kazufuuma is an essential aspect of his character and narrative. Of course there’s the fact that him and Fuuma are childhood friends, so that’s going to in part define their characters and interactions with each other and those around them. They’re both going to be relevant to one another and important to one another’s stories to an even greater extent than the rest of the members of Dolce. But on Kazuki’s side at least, it’s an EXTREME amount. A running plotpoint in Dolce Diary is the sheer amount of dedication Kazuki has to Fuuma and how much his thoughts and decisions are influenced by Fuuma, whether it be how he feels happiest spending time with Fuuma, how he decided to get his piercing to represent he wanted to protect Fuuma, how he doesn’t want to dislike food so he can eat what Fuuma dislikes, etc. Not to mention running jokes about his borderline overprotectiveness and downright possessiveness of Fuuma, how proud he is when Fuuma gets praised, or that one 4koma that literally explicitly states he can read Fuuma’s mind when he thinks motherfucking ‘dirty thoughts’ about his childhood friend (Fuuma). I still don’t know what the fuck to make of that last bit. Genuinely. Or the fact it’s a fucking running joke. As in it’s not a one off. It’s been brought up multiple times. Kazuki what the fuck.

That’s not to say that he doesn’t have character outside of Fuuma or he doesn’t interact with people other than Fuuma. He’s great friends with Sara, Girisha, and Kippei and is shown time and time again to have fun interactions with all of them, generally acting as the best support friend for every member of the group, not Fuuma alone. For instance how he helps Kippei with his self confidence issues or stays over at Sara’s to protect him from a cockroach (which he fails at lol). Nor is that to say all his interactions involving Fuuma focus solely on his devotion to Fuuma, especially in instances where the manga focuses on Dolce as a group dynamic (though even in that setting there are times where jokes about his devotion are thrown in). He’s kind, he’s stupid, he’s friendly, he’s an amazing character in his own right, and I love him for all those reasons. But that doesn’t change the fact a major part of his character and his character interactions are rooted in Fuuma, and arguably some of his most interesting, eccentric, and notable behaviors and traits revolve around Fuuma (again the mind reading for example).

Hell let’s take it one step further. If you look at the character bios of the Dolce members, you get everyone’s motives for being an idol and interests. Of them, Kazuki is the only one to have another character mentioned directly, not to mention that supporting Fuuma is explicitly stated to be his primary motive as to why he became an idol. Not even Fuuma’s sister is mentioned, though two arguments can be made for this. The first would be that Fuuma’s backstory about wanting to fulfill his dream for himself and his sister was decided later to explain Fuuma’s choice to crossdress though it can be argued it was intentionally done to leave it as a reveal at a later date, to which I would argue I don’t think this backstory was a choice in post. While Fuuma’s dedicated Dolce Diary extra exploring that backstory was released a little less than a year after Dolce was revealed, the preview to set up Fuuma’s backstory was actually the first thing released after the character bios on the Dolce Official Twitter page if you exclude a drawing of Dolce from Yamako. The second argument could be that information about his sister was intentionally withheld to set up the reveal when Fuuma’s extra released to explore it. However, going by that logic (which I do agree with), that would also mean that Fuuma’s inclusion and importance in Kazuki’s character bio also set up his dedicated extra, which I don’t think would be incorrect to assume considering what his actual extra turned out being.

Which brings me to the thing that makes it inexplicable to write off the romantic implications behind Kazufuuma: Kazuki’s dedicated Dolce Diary extra, Suki. I shipped Kazufuuma before even knowing of Suki, sure. But the fact that Suki even exists is a shock to me and drove into me the fact that Kazufuuma wasn’t just my own projection. Again, it’s not a surprise that Fuuma shapes Kazuki’s life. They’re childhood friends, of course they’re going to be important to each other. But this extra explicitly brought Kazuki’s feelings towards Fuuma under a direct spotlight. At first I was thinking oh, this extra was just to acknowledge the fact that Kazuki and Fuuma’s relationship can have romantic implications, but the end of it the conclusion that we got was that it didn’t matter what type of “like” he felt for Fuuma. Originally, I thought it wasn’t anything more than saying there are all types of like, and it doesn’t always need to be explicitly defined, but I appreciated the fact they were aware that they were writing Kazuki in a way that conveyed romantic implications.

Then I thought about it because, again, I love Kazuki of course I’m going to think about his character extra, and realized...that’s not how these character extras have worked. There are only three character extras out as far as I know and have read: Fuuma, Kippei, and Kazuki. If we look at Fuuma and Kippei’s, each extra had a conclusion, sure, but they didn’t have a resolution. Rather, they were simply setting up explicitly what each character’s primary character arc and conflict were. Fuuma’s extra brought attention to the fact that he’s particularly a crossdressing idol by exploring the motives behind it. His choice to be a crossdressing idol is constantly under fire both by himself and the world around him. He’s not immune to those who consider his crossdressing strange, and a part of his story is both finding people who accept his decision to crossdress and to succeed for himself as a crossdressing idol. It’s an essential part of how we understand and define him as a character and it’s a central part of how he interacts with the world around him. For Kippei, it lays the severity of his insecurity under the spotlight and his journey and motives for improving himself. Again, this isn’t something isolated and resolved in the extra; his extreme insecurity and negativity is constantly affecting how he interacts with practically everyone from his fellow Dolce members to his fans despite the fact in all honesty? He’s fucking insanely talented in his own right, his own brother mentioning how smart he is and how he has amazing reflexes. For Kippei, his negativity is an essential part of how we understand and define him and central to how he interacts with the world as much as Fuuma’s decision to crossdress is to him.

Which brings us back to Kazuki, of course. In his dedicated extra, in the chapter that’s supposed to explore and establish and bring attention to an essential part of his character, the aspect of himself under investigation is how he feels about Fuuma. It’s not just how he behaves around Fuuma, it’s explicitly an exploration of his feelings, on top of the fact it’s explicitly an exploration about whether or not he likes Fuuma r o m a n t i c a l l y. Literally the conflict is spurred on by someone outright asking “Do you like him?” and having to clarify “I mean romantically.” What they decided to focus on for Kazuki’s character and emphasize and establish is that Kazuki’s like towards Fuuma toes the line between friendship and romance. His ambiguous feelings towards Fuuma (if we leave them inconclusive as Suki did) are just like Fuuma’s crossdressing and Kippei’s insecurity in the sense the weight of whatever those feelings may be are seen in how he interacts with the world around him and influences his behaviors. It would be another story if they introduced the potential and shut it down all within the extra, because then his central conflict would to me be less directly open to romantic potential and more simply about how his arc was meant to explore the dynamic of the behavior of an extremely dedicated best friend. The fact that he may be romantically attracted to Fuuma or may be only platonically dedicated to Fuuma is instead something that looms over Kazuki in the same way Fuuma’s decision to crossdress constantly looms over him. It’s what Dolce wanted to point to and say this is Kazuki’s central character conflict and central arc: exploring what type of feelings he has towards Fuuma.

Sure, it can be argued that there’s only three Dolce Diary character extras, there’s not enough to be sure about that being the purpose of the extras unless we get the other two’s extras. First, at this point I honestly don’t know if or when they’re going to release an extra revolving around Sara and Girisha just because not only has it been over a year and a half since the latest Dolce Diary Character Extra (Kazuki’s) was released despite the gap between the first and latest Dolce Diary Character Extra (Fuuma’s and Kazuki’s) were within a year of release but also because the Dolce 4komas and comics they’ve been posting to Twitter have decreased (last one being over half a year ago) potentially due to them deciding to focus on releasing Dolce manga content through the purchasable volumes instead. (This is not particularly related to the Kazufuuma argument, just wanted to put out there my two cents on what Sara and Girisha’s extra/focal arc would be. Based on a large part of the Dolce Diary in conjuncture with Can’t an Idol Fall in Love, I’d argue Sara’s would be his journey to regain his passion for performing, and if it’s not that I’d say it’d be coming out of his self-imposed isolation and opening up to people again. As for Girisha, I have less of a concrete idea but I’m assuming it’d be something pertaining to how people often misconceive him whether it be in tandem with his determination, his optimism and sociability, or his stupidity/ability to ignore those misconceptions and work past them. But Girisha is treated like the comedic relief 90% of the time so I’m not entirely sure, but his primary conflict is definitely rooted in misconceptions of him being his roadblock imo. #MoreGirishaContentPlz) That being said, I personally feel like the three are already enough evidence, especially considering it would be honestly even more cruel for Kazuki’s character-centric extra to be focusing on something that wasn’t essential to his character and character arc, anyway. And though it’s not explicitly stated that these chapters are extras exploring a central character, you can kind of tell based on how they are (to my knowledge) the only Dolce Diary updates with cover/title cards each which include their focal character front and center. So working off that fact, the Kazuki-centric chapter established that a pillar to his narrative was his feelings towards Fuuma and that those feelings are still open to romantic potential.

But if you follow me, this is why up until Can’t an Idol Fall in Love With Another Idol’s release, I was terrified of them writing that off. I would have been ok if it was just an arc that was given attention then continued to actively work in the background, as all the character arcs have been over all of Dolce’s content. The fact that they might be giving Fuuma a love interest and giving Fuuma a love arc while Kazuki’s feelings were still up in the air and were still the primary highlighted narrative for him would have been fucking scuffed. To me, it would be like… why would they make him so Fuuma-centric to the point that even his dedicated chapter was not just focused on Fuuma but focused on the ambiguity and potential of him having romantic feelings for Fuuma, yet reduce him to being Fuuma's designated right-hand man. Don’t get me wrong, friendships are just as important as romantic relationships. But again, rather than conclude Kazuki’s answer in Suki to be that his feelings were of friendship, they left it open ended and allow audience members to be actively aware that Kazuki’s feelings towards Fuuma still had potential to be romantically coded. It would just be so weird to quickly close off that narrative by giving Fuuma a love interest as opposed to letting Kazuki conclude it himself. It would be fucking beyond frustrating for me, at least Eventually, I kept trying to drive my hopes that they would explore Kazuki’s narrative at all down to the ground because it was a Fuuma-centric novel; maybe if anything they’d explore those feelings in his own novel after the fact. But then they kept having little drops here and there of Kazuki being even the slightest bit relevant and I’d go back to questioning “Are??? They??? Is this on purpose??? Do they know what they’re doing or are they just doing this because Kazuki’s just so important to Fuuma as his best friend that he’s there as his right-hand I genuinely can’t tell???” And um. Welp.

Safe to say Can’t An Idol Fall in Love sold me on the fact that they know what they’re doing LOL. And to anyone who thinks that Kazuki’s feelings can still be read as ambiguous in CAIFILWAI as opposed to explicitly romantic - whether it be due to a fear they may pull the “I like him as a friend” card or due to the disbelief that they have an explicit mlm main character in the Honeyworks series - I’d like to cover any bases that may make you think this way. If you think it’s just Kazuki acting like a protective friend, why do you think he calls Yui a rival? If you’ve only seen the MV and think it’s ambiguous or can be taken as the "likfe" for friend, then does that mean you think Yui’s feelings toward Fuuma are also ambiguous or as a friend? With the way Yui responds, she is trying to rival Kazuki’s feelings towards Fuuma. She and Kazuki recognize whatever feeling it is that they hold towards Fuuma, both of their feelings are the same type. I don’t think most people would argue that Yui’s confession about Fuuma was one of pure respect and friendship. Plus, if anything I’d argue of the three characters in the MV, Fuuma is the one whose feelings are left the most ambiguous despite him being the central character. It’s heavily implied that he may be forming feelings for Yui, but nowhere is it established either in the song or in the MV, especially if you compare it to Kazuki and Yui’s declarations or if you compare it to Sara’s feelings for Uru in Can’t An Idol Fall in Love. Fuuma’s romantic narrative here is trying to figure out how he feels for Yui, while for Kazuki and Yui they’ve established a rivalry because they both have mutually established they like Fuuma romantically.

If the MV isn’t enough for you and Suki isn’t enough for you for...some reason…??? You can check out the snippets of the light novel which the wonderful takanenene translated: one which revisits the conflict set up in Suki and one that covers the confession scene in the MV in more detail. If the fact that the conflict set up in Suki (aka the lurking feeling of not knowing if all he felt for Fuuma was only platonic or more than platonic) was specifically reestablished in the LN for anyone who didn’t keep up with Dolce Diary didn’t tip you off that it was something important, his behavior in the confession scene as depicted by the LN definitely should have. He’s possessive about his spot by Fuuma’s side. He doesn’t want that spot to be taken by anyone else. Even if he knows that they can help Fuuma, he wants it to be him. And this line: “Kazuki then trails off his words, quietly saying ‘That’s why…’ and then gave Yui a slightly painful smile, his cheeks turning red,” before he declares Yui a rival and states he likes Fuuma. If you can tell me you read that line and are still on the fence about Kazuki’s “like” towards Fuuma being romantic, please message me and I will see how I can get through to you. Like it wasn’t even just a romantically coded confession. It’s just a romantic confession. That “like” is romantic. And I’m so proud that he’s not only come to understand for himself how he feels, but that he’s confident enough to ask the person he sees as a romantic rival to speak in private and not only clarify her feelings for Fuuma but before she can even do that firmly establishes that he loves Fuuma with conviction. Kazuki my boy I’m so proud of you. *sniffs*

And that’s it for establishing Kazufuuma as at least canonically one-sidedly canon and why there’s not only no reason to deny it but also why denying it is a fucking disrespectful move towards Kazuki. He’s a character, sure, but that doesn’t change the fact you shouldn’t write off his struggle to come to be convicted enough to say it out loud. This has been something weighing on him at least a year, if not more (all I know is it started when both he and Fuuma were in some year in middle school). And as a character in a piece of media, I’ve been saying this the entire time, but brushing it off as non-romantic is literally chucking a fucking pillar of his character’s story into the gutter. And to those who may be saying Kazuki’s confession came out of nowhere and is pandering reread this entire fucking essay again I dare you to do it and tell me to my face it’s pandering. Again. Writing off the buildup as pandering is disrespectful to him, disrespectful to his character and narrative, and disrespectful to the wonderful people who have been creating Dolce so diligently and have crafted this narrative for us. Saying his “supposed feelings” and “ambiguous confession” is pandering is like saying Fuuma’s crossdressing is pandering which. If you say either of those I will find you and I will shank you in the fucking gut. Even if you’re not fully into Dolce, recognize these characters are actually very well developed and executed amazingly, as per every Honeyworks character that has come to exist. I don’t blame you if you weren’t aware of the weight of Kazufuuma, but now that you read this I hope you are. That’s mainly what I needed to get out there, but as follows will be me more exploring how Kazufuuma has been built up and generally waving my hand off at where it may be going. If you want you can dip, thanks for reading up to here because I know I repeated a lot because it’s just. So important to drill into your head and has been something I’ve been hung up about constantly. LOL

As for where exactly they’re taking it from this point on, I honestly don’t know. In all honesty, I didn’t even expect them to take it the direction they did. But honestly, I think the direction they went with it is really interesting and better than I could have imagined, in my opinion at least. Honeyworks never ceases to amaze me with their storytelling and narrative choices, and I don’t think there’s any that stand out to me as being severely questionable that they haven’t reapproached at some point down the line. And, again, I think they’re treating this with a lot of care and deserved respect. So I’m just gonna be gushing about how smart they set it up and how smart they’ve been executing it and maybe my own hopes on the direction it could go.

Whether they make Kazufuuma reciprocated I have no real clue or bearings, but to me my gut reaction is they will. Of course, I’m biased, but again if you trace things all the way back to 2018 and step through Dolce’s content and growth from there, I’d say even if they didn’t know if they could execute it like this and see it to fruition, I’d argue that Kazufuuma has been at least heavily implied since the beginning as a relationship they wanted to explore from both sides of the relationship. Obviously I brought up Kazuki’s character bio already, but if you look at the *goes to count* 5th Dolce Diary update already has a joke jabbing at the fact that Kazuki is technically Fuuma’s type (and the way Kippei and Kazuki excitedly react is so cute). The fifth update. And as stated before there are tons of Kazufuuma moments in Dolce Diary, whether it’s played for comedic effect or played straight (and this is post Suki but oh my god I’ve said it before I’ll say it again get yourself someone who looks at you the way Kazuki looks at Fuuma oh my jesus). But song-wise, I mentioned the one Dolce album song I would bring up is Nade Nade and this is where it comes!

Not only is Nade Nade specifically focused on Kazuki and Fuuma’s relationship as opposed to the whole of Dolce despite being the first song, it included the setup/preview of the Fuuma-centric extra prior to the full release of the Fuuma-centric extra itself and was released early as fuck. Literally between the 6th and 7th update to Dolce Diary. Sure, it could be to isolate them as a duo for marketing purposes (they’re very often the two promoted idols together if the whole of the group aren’t included), but the way it’s established as a perspective song as opposed to a general idol duet is what fascinates me. Anyone who didn’t know about Dolce prior and only followed Honeyworks for music would be first introduced to these characters through this song alone, and maybe this is where my Kazufuuma bias comes from but I was one of those people LOL. I thought it was just a cute one-off relationship that they had set up for the purpose of a song and that it was an implied friends-to-lovers story that would never get a conclusion. Also I mistakenly thought Fuuma was a girl oop-. In the full context of Dolce, this song in part helped establish Fuuma and Kazuki more solidly as a unique duo out of all of Dolce, but it also specifically explored through Fuuma’s eyes just how much Fuuma recognizes and appreciates the unwavering support Kazuki gives him to follow his dreams as he wishes. For Fuuma, he loves Kazuki too, though whether it holds any romantic potential in the same way Kazuki loves him has never been explored to nearly the same extent. But Fuuma appreciates how Kazuki’s remained by his side and does everything he can to support him, so Nade Nade explores how his way of expressing his love and thankfulness to Kazuki is by never saying that he needs Kazuki by his side. He’s glad Kazuki’s always been there for him, and his reciprocation takes on the form of being ready to unwaveringly support Kazuki and not ask for more than he already has, even if it meant Kazuki would be leaving his side, despite the fact that he really does wish they could remain together forever just as Kazuki does. The one point he lets himself say something vaguely close to always wanting to stay together, he gets a surprised expression out of Kazuki and says an ambiguous “suki dayo.” Of course, this it much less romantically coded than what we get from Kazuki in Suki and CAIFILWAI, but there is an interesting emphasis put on it nonetheless. Keep in mind, this is all established through the song, which released long before not only Fuuma’s character-centric extra released but also Kazuki’s character-centric extra released, so there is at least a substantial setup for Fuuma’s feelings towards Kazuki’s being strong as well and possibly grow to be reciprocated one day.

I think for me the most fascinating part about Nade Nade is how they tied it back around to Can’t An Idol Fall In Love with Another Idol. Again, without remembering Nade Nade, I still thought CAIFILWAI was brilliantly explored and executed, even if some people would have preferred no love triangle. But honestly, revisiting Nade Nade makes me trust even more the direction they’re taking with this. Whether or not they make Kazufuuma canon mutually (which. Even if they for some inexplicable reason didn’t I’m going down with this ship.), I’m sure they’re putting a lot of thought into the story, because the last bit of Nade Nade directly parallels the misunderstanding that arose from Fuuma mishearing the Kazuki and Yui. Fuuma is resolved to support Kazuki in any area he’s given the chance, and that explicitly includes if Kazuki had some girl he liked, which is what he assumes is going on. The fact that they tied this back around in the form of a misunderstanding was really really smart and Honeyworks is always so good at parallels and references back to their older songs, but for some reason I didn’t expect this. I don’t know how to say why, but the fact that the song that started it all, kicked off both Dolce and Kazufuuma, was directly referenced both visually in the MV with a cameo at the start and narratively despite the central dynamic being predominantly explored in this story in particular was that of Fuuma and another potential love interest and involves said potential love interest for some reason makes me think that (sorry Yui) this is all planned out for Kazufuuma in the grand scheme of things. That being said, I don’t know if me thinking it was planned all along is just me with shipper goggles, but the idea it’s come full circle nearly 3 years later is not shipper goggles and a very very well done parallel in my opinion, whether this trajectory was their plan for Kazufuuma from the beginning or not. Just wanted to gush about that some more.

There’s more I could go into especially if I went into specific details about interactions or specific implications established in Honeyworks' Dolce content about different characters that would be fascinating to explore in relation to and under the lens of Kazufuuma, but I think this is uh...plenty long enough. Plus, I doubt you'll stop seeing Kazufuuma posts from me so those ideas will probably just be miniposts or somethin.

Back to the overarching point of this segment, idk what they’ll do with this story in the end, but do I think Kazufuuma will canon? I’m used to looking at ships that aren’t explicitly apparent with a sliver of skepticism, but all things considered (as I stated before) yeah. I don’t see reason why they wouldn’t now that they’ve explicitly identified there is a romantic dimension to it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Like to me, the setup isn’t something that would be written off as unrequited? And this doesn’t have to play into why I don’t think it will canon, my personal opinion on the Fuuyui relationship (again albeit through the lens of a hard Kazufuuma shipper lmao) has it’s own merits and is really cute, I find it cute in the way I found Koyuhina cute. I personally never really shipped Koyuhina, and especially since they slipped Kotarou into Ima Suki Ni Naru I was more curious about who this kid was and how he played into things I didn’t really see Koyuhina as something that would come to fruition. Similarly, there’s more importance in the overall sense on Kazuki than there is Yui (considering he’s one of the 5 original and focal members of this generation of idols, this would be natural), as well as the fact there’s just way more foundation and exploration in Fuuma and Kazuki’s relationship than there is Fuuma and Yui. As for how much of a balance there is inside the LN itself, the fact that they seem to have spent a substantial amount relaying the foundation of Fuuma and Kazuki’s relationship and re-exploring it (at least in Kazuki’s perspective) at all on top of how much content there is covering their relationship prior to the LN ever since Dolce’s origin just feels like that relationship holds more weight. Pretty much Kazufuuma feels more established as a priority in general. The way I personally hope Fuuyui plays out is whether they wind up holding mutual feelings or not or whether Fuuma doesn’t feel that way towards Yui is they get a relationship akin to Kotarou and Arisa. Albeit, Kotarou and Arisa never viewed each other in a romantic light, but they had mutual respect and solidarity. That’s the type of friendship I hope comes out of Fuyui. And considering there hasn’t been a break-up in any Honeyworks’ canon relationships (nor do I expect there to be… they’re all perfect for each other LMAO) it would actually be interesting if Fuuyui get together but don’t endgame and Kazufuuma is established as the inseparable endgame after some realization or another, though I don’t expect them to go that route nor do I know if that’d be the best way to go about it anyway. Also final point, Honeyworks seems to have a thing for childhood friends trope anyway soooooo owo All in all, don’t know where they’re taking it, just excited to see where it goes.

TL;DR of this *counts* 7 page essay, stan Kazufuuma. Not gonna proof this. Maybe I’ll edit and repost but yall are getting a confusing clusterfuck of ramblings over 2-3 hr periods of me writing across 3 different days at around 5am each day. Uh. If you got this far like and subscribe and-- jk plz reply to this mammoth anywhere you see fit or tell me if you have stuffs to add or counter or whatnot I like hearing people talk about Kazufuuma ;w; I am Kazuki and Kazufuuma brainrot can you tell after reading this? No? Lemme just remind you I’m K--

#honeyworks #dolce #kazufuuma #kazuki haiga #fuuma shirayuki #long post #analysis #character analysis #kinda?#nobody cares trash #also keep in mind this is PURELY for self satisfaction LMFAO read it if u wanna dont if u dont idgaf either way #anyway kazufuuma canon fight me #or have intellectual conversation with me #if you want it on a google doc bc it's easier to read hmu #if you can't tell i think about kazufuuma too much #how much of this is repetitive? probably a lot...

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tauremornalome · 4 years ago

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tagged by the amazing @thiswaycomessomethingwicked (go check out their writing!) in the First Line game

The rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line.

tagging: @alessandriana, @ajcrawly, @simaraknows, @koscheyyy, @selkiebinch, @writingat-night and anyone else who wants to do it!

The problems with my writing being 1. that a lot of it is embarrassing historical hetalia stuff, 2. that i hardly ever write with the intention of publishing, it turns out that often my fics don’t have a set fist line? cos they tend to come in the form of a collection of loose self indulgent little scenes. So this is definitely not going to be 20 of them. Untranslated Polish versions in the brackets.

1. wildfires and weeds (mdzs, wen ning & jiang cheng, vaguely pre-slash): Courtesy of Wen Ning's heightened fierce corpse senses, and Jiang-zongzhu's being likewise sharp thanks to his high level of cultivation, they manage not to run into each other even when they find themselves in the same general places at the same time - official joint nighthunts mostly, these days, since Jiang Wanyin has enough political awareness and faith in his nephew's abilities not to follow him on the more private ones.

2. provisional title “spiderman meme lol” (legend of fei, xie yun/zhou fei/wu chuchu pining): After parting with Yin Pei and burying Ji Yunchen the three of them leave together, and Xie Yun - well, he already knew he was absolutely, irrevocably fucked, but it takes him another two days to notice that he is not alone in his misery.

3. the crack-treated-seriously heist fic (mdzs, jiang cheng & jin guangyao): He had already sealed the room shut months before, so he didn't toss the damn flute along with the last shards of his sanity there when he first came back from the siege, broken and bloodied and still furious.

4. Najjaśniejsza, Serenissima, Świetlejszaja (historical hetalia, poland & grand duke constantin): "Ha!" The duke gestured wildly with his open hands. "I am a fool, Kuruta is a fool, and so you are a fool, too, Felya, even though you have yet to learn to admit it." [- No! - Wielki książę uderzył się dłońmi w uda. - Ja durak, Kuruta durak, i ty też durak, Felja, tylkoś się jeszcze nie nauczył przyznawać do tego.]

5. Pour Away The Ocean (tma, lonelyeyes): The Apocalypse nearing or not (oh, it's coming alright: he knows Jon will get the statements soon, so it's a matter of what? days?), it would be a shame to refuse a rarity that is an actual invitation to a Lukas family funeral. The last Lukas family funeral to ever be held, perhaps, though he doubts the hosts know about that. Peter had never been an overly sharing conversationalist.

6. untitled anti-dior rebellion fic (the silmarillion, doriath after thingol’s death): The change can be felt at the exact moment when the door to Lady Melian's chamber closes behind Mablung, the king's dead body in his arms, and everyone seems to understand immediately what it means. It is as if the thin thread bonding the queen to the mortal world broke, cut on the edge of that door-frame. The last time Lalorniel left the Girdle’s protection was before the first sunrise and now, several hundred years later, the feeling of being exposed to the whole world throws her off her tracks. She looks to the side and sees that Medlindir felt it too, and she wants to reach to him with her mind, but she doesn't - the world around them has suddenly gotten very big and some irrational part of her fears her fae could get lost in it. [Zmianę czuć już w momencie, w którym za niosącym skrwawione ciało króla Mablungiem zamykają się drzwi komnaty Meliany - i każdy chyba od razu rozumie, co to znaczy. Zupełnie jakby to nić wiążąca królową ze światem cielesnym pękła, rozcięta tą framugą. Lalorniel poza Obręczą bywała ostatnio jeszcze w czasach przed pierwszym wschodem słońca i teraz, po kilkuset latach przerwy, uczucie bycia odkrytym przed całym światem wytrąca ją na dłuższą chwilę z rytmu. Zerka w bok i widzi, że pełniący razem z nią straż Medlindir też to odczuł, i odruchowo chce sięgnąć do niego myślą, ale nie robi tego - świat wokół stał się nagle za duży i irracjonalnie boi się, że jej fae mogłaby się w nim zgubić.]

7. dwóch ołowianych żołnierzyków (historical rpf, prince poniatowski): Years later those who choose to believe this sort of thing will be telling stories of a ghost that supposedly visited the prince one night in March of the year 1813. An angel with black-and-white magpie wings. Unnamed white lady from the portraits covering the walls of the Copper-Roof Palace. [Lata później ci, którzy wierzą w takie rzeczy, będą opowiadać historie o zjawie, która miała się księciu ktorejś marcowej nocy roku 1813 ukazać. Anioł o czarno-białych sroczych skrzydłach. Bezimienna biała dama z portretu wiszącego w jednym z pokojów Pałacu pod Blachą.]

8. provisional title “DepTaj Margrabiego!” (the year 1861 in warsaw except its set in a harry potter-style ministry of magic. don’t ask me.): The margrave transfigured his bed back into an armchair and gestured with his wand at the coffee machine, praying quietly for someone up there to send them some kopi luwak with the next supply package. [Margrabia przetransmutował łóżko z powrotem w fotel i machnął różdżką na ekspres do kawy, modląc się w duchu o to, aby ktoś na zewnątrz był na tyle domyślny, żeby w następnej paczce nadesłać zapas kopi luwak.]

9. the year 1861 in warsaw again except now there is a zombie apocalypse going on (once again, don’t ask me. ocs and some hetalia elements.): "Swear," Sergey hisses with fury as he struggles to push the heavy dresser. [- Przysięgajcie - syczy Siergiej wściekle, szarpiąc się z ciężkim kredensem.]

10. time will say nothing (historical hetalia, poland/france/pauline bonaparte): Pauline is the one to fall asleep first, as always, not wearing anything else over her thin nightgown - so it can be expected that she will usurp all of the bedsheets to herself during the night. Feliks, who lies in the middle, succumbs to sleep soon after, his face turned to France, mumbling some apologies about not having the energy to move to the other bedroom, which earned him a soothing shush from François. [Paulina zasypia, jak zazwyczaj, pierwsza, nie zarzuciwszy na cienką koszulę nocną drugiej warstwy ubrania - można więc spodziewać się, że w ciągu nocy zauzurpuje sobie całą kołdrę. Leżący pośrodku Feliks pogrąża się we śnie niedługo po niej, twarzą zwrócony w stronę Francji, wymamrotawszy przedtem jakieś przeprosiny za to, że nie ma siły przenieść się do drugiej sypialni, na co François uciszył go uspokajająco.]

11. Minąwszy przeznaczeń mielizny (oc, hetalia-adjacent): Sergey wakes up with his cheek pressed to the travel briefcase, a little surprised with the fact that he had apparently managed to fall asleep despite the train's hellishly loud noises. The curtains in his compartment are closed, but he knows that outside it must be even more dark than in here - nothing less should be expected in this part of the world in December. [Siergiej budzi się z policzkiem przyciśniętym do teczki podróżnej, lekko zaskoczony faktem, że oto jednak udało mu się zasnąć w hałasującym niemiłosiernie pociągu. Zasłony w przedziale są zaciągnięte, ale wie, że na dworze musi być jeszcze ciemniej niż w środku - niczego innego nie należy się spodziewać w grudniu w tej części świata.]

I am very fond of the opening lines to the doriath fic and the zombie fic (there is a dialogue happening as they are barricading the door and running up the stairs). As for the patterns, I already knew I had the Sentences Too Goddamn Long Disease, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I also like to open with dialogues, which might not be very visible here, but is objectively the truth. This list sadly does not include my 30 minutes shitpost drabbles (which are mostly crack hetalia anyway).

#l9 #oof

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mahiru-no-haato · 6 years ago

Text

Dankira English Guide

This is a guide for the newly released Japanese mobile game Dankira!!! Boys, be DANCING! This guide is to help those of you who cannot understand Japanese navigate and play the game. It has images of (almost) every menu in the game with translations on them and explains what they do. My ask box is also open if there’s something I missed or you just need help with something!

Some Images will have certain points marked with a pink circle, these are areas that I was unable to translate the text (I will still explain what the button does) or there was simply no text to translate, but I still want to talk about what’s marked.

Just in case tumblr compresses these and makes some of the text unreadable, this post is also available in an imgur gallery here.

Starting with the home screen, this menu is actually pretty self explanatory. The main buttons you will be using here are nicely labelled in English.

In the top left we have your coach name and title. Below that is the news, present box, and your missions (I will talk about missions more later). At the top of the screen you have your coach rank, stamina, and your aqua.

Right above the Dance Battle button, you have your duty button. I unfortunately have a 12 hour one currently running so I am unable to take a screenshot of what that menu looks like, but it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. While you have one running, the time remaining to completion is nicely displayed on the button for you. It displays the hour first, then the minutes, so I have 10 hours and 55 minutes remaining until its completed. The two characters you chose in this menu will have their Soul Link level increase when it’s completed.

Finally in the top right, we have our menu button. I labelled this one in pink as it has no text on it, only the three dots. This button will be on your screen in almost every menu, and is a convenient way to move around to different menus. When you tap on it, it will open and take up about half your screen.

At the bottom, we have the same 5 buttons from the main menu, except they don’t have English text on them anymore. Above that are the home and dance battle buttons.

You might notice that there are two buttons here that aren’t translated. Unfortunately I cannot understand what they say, and after tapping them I don’t really understand what they do. These will require your own testing, or someone else’s explanation.

This is your Mission menu, accessed from the home screen. On the left, you can see there are daily, weekly, dancer, and coach missions. On the daily tab at the top, the black text is telling you how long until the reset occurs. In this screenshot it will reset in 8 hours and 48 minutes. In the same location in the weekly tab, it will tell you how many days until reset.

Here’s the story menu. This one is pretty easy to navigate so I won’t go into an explanation on how it works. You have your main, killer trick, soul link, card, and event stories. The stills/cgs button is, well, stills/cgs you have unlocked.

The dancer button will take you to a menu with the teams on it. It doesn’t really have text that requires translating on it so I’ve left an image of that menu out. Slide left or right to go to the next team, and you can tap on the boys name or image to come to this menu.

This is your Dancer menu. It starts you on his profile. Selecting killer trick shows the killer tricks you have unlocked for him. (I will explain this a bit more later). You also have your voice menu, this one is pretty self explanatory. It displays all the voice clips you’ve unlocked for him, and you can tap on one to hear it.

Right underneath him you can see there’s an outfit button. Here you can preview every outfit that your cards of him are able to unlock. When you have an outfit you don’t yet have unlocked selected, there’s a little green button near the bottom of the screen that will take you to the dancer tree that unlocks the outfit.

Next to that is the soul link button, which has its own big menu.

Soul link is pretty much your character’s bond with each other. It increases from doing dance battles with them, but this menu is the easiest (and fastest) way to increase it. You earn rewards like stories, voice clips, and aqua from leveling this up. At the bottom you can tap the rewards button to see exactly what you will earn.

You can get presents from doing missions. The weekly missions work in a sort of rotation, so you will receive a different dancer’s favorite gift from a different dancer every week.

The character on the left of the screen is the character giving the gift. So in this screenshot Mahiru would be giving a gift to Oboro. The swap sides button will make them, erm, swap sides, making Oboro the one giving the gift. The change recipient button just changes the character on the right.

Back from the main menu, the team button will take you here. At the top you see your team name, which you can easily rename by just tapping on it. Mine is just the default チーム１as I cant be bothered to change it lol. Your first team is the characters that display on your home screen.

Labelled in pink, we have the killer trick button. This changes which killer trick this character will perform when you use his killer trick.

Under that is the change outfit button. This one is pretty self explanatory, but this changes the outfit on the home screen (if its your first team) and the outfit he wears in dance battles.

At the bottom left we have the soul link button. This one just opens a neat little graphic that shows the soul link between the boys on your team.

The button to the right of that is untranslated as I can’t read what it says, but just give it a little tap, it’s a really small somewhat insignificant option.

Underneath that is the lovely, wonderful, osusume button. This is basically the “do it for me” button. Most people who have played Japanese mobile games before will know what this button does.

But, for those of you who don’t, here’s the osusume menu. The main buttons are the all types, body, technique, and spirit buttons. Confirming with the all types button selected will give you your strongest team in pure numbers. Selecting body will give you your strongest body attribute team etc etc you get it.

The button marked in pink is the same team button. What it does is, when selected, it will not change the members on your team. So if I wanted to make a body focus team with my 3 favorite characters, all I have to do is put them all on a team, select body, and confirm and the game builds that team for me.

Back from the home menu again, we have the Training menu. This doesn’t have much that requires translating or explaining. The status button changes what information is displayed on the bottom half of the card.

The sort button opens this little menu. The two top buttons are whether you want it in ascending or descending order. You can sort by level, rarity, or the untranslated one. I’m honestly unsure what this button does. I think its sorting by date received but I can’t say for sure because I can’t read it.

Tapping on a card will take you to this menu. Here you can see your card title, character name, exp, level, your body/technique/spirit values, and your center skill. The text marked in pink is how many duplicates of the card you have. I can’t read what the text says, so I can’t translate it but that’s what it is. I only have one copy of this card so I have 0/4 dupes. Getting a duplicate of the card increases its max level and unlocks more of its dancer tree (possibly other things too, im unsure).

This is the training menu. This menu actually confused me when I saw it for the first time I might just be brainless idk, but I’m going to explain it even though it’s not too difficult to figure out.

So as you can see I have 0/30 of the first training notebook selected. This means I have 30 of them that I can use. Right under the cancel button there’s a plus and minus, this is toggling whether you’re increasing or decreasing the amount of notebooks you’re going to give him. This menu is pretty easy to get after that. It displays how much exp he’s going to get on his exp bar, so you can tell how much you need to give him.

Moving on to the dancer tree. This is a menu that probably looks really familiar to those of you who have played Enstars or Utapri Shining Live (and many others I’m sure).

This menu has a lot of little nodes on it that when unlocked have different effects. The ones that have an attribute like bo/te/sp just increase that stat. You can also unlock stories, voice clips, killer tricks, and card artwork here. At the bottom you can use the shortcut buttons to take you to the next unlockable one of whichever you tap.

At the top you can see your little jewels (idk what they’re officially called) that you use to unlock the little nodes on the screen here. The 4th rainbow set of them can be used in place of any of the other ones. So if I required 5 of the blue small jewels to unlock something but I didn’t have any, I could use 5 rainbow ones instead.

Moving on to the final menu I think needs explanation, we have the team selection menu. This will appear when you select dance battle. Most of this is pretty easy to understand, but I’m still gonna talk about it a little bit.

On the right of the screen we have the auto ticket option. I have never used this but I assume it just plays the dance battle for you. In this screenshot I have 11 auto tickets available to use.

Above that is another option marked in Pink. This option says Dankira something... I can’t read the kanji in this one haha. Tapping on one of the 3 little slots opens a menu where you can use a little attribute booster. I also haven’t used this option but I assume it only works for one song.

And with that I will leave you gremlins to enjoy the game! If there’s something I didn’t explain, or something you just want extra help with please feel free to shoot me an ask (I also have submissions on if you want to send an image along with your question). Anonymous asks are available, and I will answer questions privately if you want! (Just let me know if you want your ask answered privately, I will answer it publicly otherwise).

#dankira

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shuusuis · 5 years ago

Text

[ENG] Mukanshu Main Story 1: Island of Ice and Fire

Mukanshu （夢間集）Main Story 1: Island of Ice and Fire, Scenes 1 - 11.

Read below ↓

* Specific notes for each scene are at the bottom of that scene.

*Some general notes: I’ve left the character’s names untranslated, but have opted to translate the location names since they provide context (and are translated in the novels). For more information on the characters introduced thus far, check their profiles.

Scene 1: The Journey Begins

Player(1): (Where am I......?)

I stop before a stone wall, feeling a slight warmth with my right hand. I gently trace my finger over the wall’s engravings, as if being guided by some unseen power.

Stone Wall’s Engraving: “Under heaven, no one could be my equal-- unbearable loneliness is my destiny.(2) The bravery of youth, the tranquility of adulthood, the complacency of old age- once these have passed, there are no further boundaries to be crossed!”

As my finger brushes over the final line of the engraving, a light is emitted for just a moment, and I involuntarily close my eyes.

[Scene change]

Ryoku: “..................hmm?”

Suddenly, a young man stands before me, blinking and smiling.

Player: Who…...are you……?

Ryoku: Huh? Don’t look at me like that. I don’t look like such a bad guy do I…… There’s no need to be scared. I’m Ryoku(3), a renowned treasure. Ah, but truth be told, I don’t exactly know why I’m here. When I woke up, I was here beside you.

Player: Well, where are we?

Ryoku: We’ll talk later. This area is full of demons and monsters(4). I absolutely won’t let anyone get hurt while I’m around. Since I can handle these monsters, you should come with me for now!

Monsters: Grrrrrrrooooooooowl!

Ryoku: Well, speak of the devil! I guess there’s no avoiding it, here we go!

Notes:

(1): Player character is...you! I forgot what the default name the game enters for you is, so I’ve just left it as player for now.

(2): This quote is at least partially adopted from the inscription on one of the character’s in Jin Yong’s novels, undefeated swordsman Dugu Qiubai’s tomb. The full quote can be found here and reads: “Having roamed the jianghu (martial artists' community) for more than 30 years, I have killed all my foes and defeated all champions. Under Heaven no one can be my equal. Without any other choice, I could only retreat and live in seclusion in this deep valley, with only a Condor as my companion. Alas, all my life, I have sought a match but in vain. Unbearable loneliness is my destiny."

(3): His name literally means “Green”. He’s a weaponized bamboo stick used by members of the Beggar’s Sect in Jin Yong’s Legend of the Condor Heroes.

(4): They use the term 魁魅魍魎 (lit. mountain monsters and river spirits). It’s a fairly broad term with a lot of historical context, read more here.

Scene 2: Mysterious Amnesia

Ryoku: Whew, what a dangerous place! Are you alright?

Player: Yeah, I’m fine.

Ryoku: It’s a good thing I’m here otherwise you probably would have been eaten by now.

Player: Thank you. This place ... Why am I here?

Player: (The only thing I can remember is that dream from before. My name is….. ) Player: I’m sure I…… I have to go back to that place……!

Ryoku: Hmm? You’ve got some place you wanna go? Well, let’s get out of here first!

As Ryoku finished speaking, the ground suddenly began to shake.

Ryoku: Follow me! Let’s get out of here fast!

Notes:

If you’re playing along with the games audio (which I recommend!) you’ll know that there are small battle between these scenes, which is why the cuts between stories is so sudden and why (in the future) new characters may join during battles. Also, the separation of scenes with battles is also the reason some scenes are so short (like this one).

Scene 3: In Search of a Dream

Ryoku: They’ve got us surrounded. This might be a little tough by myself.

Player: (I felt a familiar power in that dream …)

(If I could return to that place….)

(I’m pretty sure…. Ryoku will be helpful.)

[Lights flash]

Player: (I’ll search for it!..... That dream from before….)

Scene 4: Wandering Bell’s Chime

Kinrei(1): Where are we?

Ryoku: Here? This is the Island of Ice and Fire.

Kinrei: The Island of Ice and Fire? I’ve never heard of it.

Kinrei: Hmm, how do you intend to get out of here?

Player: We were just looking for a way out of here. Why don’t we search together?

Ryoku: Sounds good!

Standing before Ryoku, Kinrei continues to eye him suspiciously.

Player: Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you.

Kinrei: ……. There are many cunning, vile people out there, I can’t trust you so easily.

Ryoku: It’s not like we’d gain anything from hurting you. Besides, don’t they say “two heads are better than one”(2)? I don’t think it’s such a bad idea. You think so too, right?

Kinrei: …………… Fine, I understand. But what I said earlier still stands-- once we get out of here, we’re complete strangers. I won’t care anymore.

Ryoku: I figured Kinreicchi would agree after all!

Kinrei: Ki….kinreicchi? What’s with that nickname?!

Ryoku: Ahaha! Now then, I wonder who’ll show up next~

Notes:

(1): Kinrei literally means “Golden Bell”. In Return of the Condor Heroes, the heroine Xiaolongnu uses a sash strung with golden bells as a weapon.

(2):「三人寄れば文殊の知恵」a phrase that literally translates to “Three people together have Manjushri’s wisdom”. It is the equivalent of phrases like “two heads are better than one” or “the more the merrier”, indicating that having more people in a group benefits the whole.

(3): Kinreicchi: Ryoku added a cutesy-sounding ending to Kinrei’s name.

Scene 5: The Heavenly Sword Appears

Ryoku: Whoooah! Jackpot! Who woulda’ guessed that the legendary Iten (1) would show up! *whistles*

Kinrei: I’ve certainly heard the legend: "The powerful and honorable weapon: the Dragon Saber; It can slay the Dragon. Use it to command the world. Who dares to disobey orders? If the Heavenly Sword does not appear, what weapon can go against the saber effectively?"(2)…Since Iten has shown up, it stands to reason that Toryuu(3) may soon appear as well, right…?

Monsters: Grrrrrrrooooooooowl!

Ryoku: Those nasty monsters don’t know when to give up, huh!

Iten: I sense the presence of evil…!

Notes:

(1): Iten literally means “Heavenly Sword”, sometimes translated as “Heaven Reliant Sword”. He is one of titular weapons in the novel “ The Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Saber”.

(2): The mantra that kinrei recites is straight from Jin Yong’s novel; this English version can be found here along with the context for the surrounding lore.

(3) Toryuu literally means “Dragon Saber”. The second legendary sword from the same novel as Iten.

Scene 6: Island of Ice and Fire

Once again, the ground began to shake and continued rumbling for a while.

Iten: Where is this place? The terrain seems so unstable…

Ryoku: We’re at the Northern Sea of the Island of Ice and Fire. The island’s name is derived from the cycle of ice and volcanic eruptions that have been ongoing for millions of years.

Iten: The island of Ice and Fire…

Kinrei: Huh? You know this place?

Iten: Yes. I’ve heard stories of it before, but this is my first time actually being here. However, this place is brimming with evil spirits. It would be best to leave as soon as possible.

Ryoku: If Bro Iten says so, then we better hurry up and find a way out of here!

Scene 7: Iten’s Old Friend

The shaking of the ground violently intensifies, seeming as if it could collapse at any moment.

Iten: That’s strange… that guy should have immediately known that I had appeared here… why hasn’t he shown up yet…?

Kinrei: “That guy”? Are you acquainted with someone else on this island?

Iten: Well, it’s more like we’re stuck with each other…(1)

Kinrei: Could it be...that you’re talking about Toryuu?

Iten: Right… well, you don’t have to worry about him.

Kinrei: You’re right. For now, let’s find a way out of this place.

Notes:

(1)“we’re stuck with each other”: Iten literally says “腐れ縁”, lit. “rotten affinity” meaning an undesirable, yet unfortunately inseparable relationship.

Scene 8: Heart of Ice and Fire

The coastline of the island is compacted with ice; within the center of the island, a volcano rises. There isn’t a single way to get across.

Ryoku: There’s no way out of the island even along the shoreline….

Kinrei: It’s possible that there could be a hidden pathway somewhere….

Ryoku: We’ve searched the island’s perimeter already, I guess we’ll have to head for the island’s center now.

Kinrei: Seems like the closer you are to the center of the island, the stronger the presence of monsters and demons.

Iten: I sense spiritual energy concentrated in the center of the island…. It’s possible that there’s something inside.

Kinrei: I suppose that means it would be worthwhile to go there.

Monsters: Grrrrrrrooooooooowl!

Ryoku: It wasn’t just your imagination, the number of monsters really is increasing! Everyone, be careful!

Scene 9: Cursed Mirror

An enormous monster appeared before us when we reached the center of the island. It gazes down at us from its perch atop a mirror that emanates a dark aura.

Player: This one’s the same sort of monster?!

Kinrei: This monster is made up of many evil spirits…. For one to reach such a massive size, how much evil energy must accumulated inside its body…

Ryoku: Whooooah, that thing’s freakin HUGE! Don’t tell me we can’t beat it...

Iten: The blade of this heavenly sword shall not return to its scabbard until every last drop of blood has been drained! A monster of this level is nothing to fear.

Player: Wait a moment! There are smaller monsters surrounding it too. First we should exterminate them, then focus on getting rid of the enormous spirit!

Scene 10: Shards of the Cursed Mirror

Just as the defeated monster fell, the mirror emanating the evil aura fell as well.

I pick up a fragment of the mirror and notice three characters inscribed on it: “Soul Stealing Mirror”. I feel as if I’ve seen patterns like this before…

Ryoku: Would you look at that! Now that the snowcap has collapsed, we can see a way out of here!

Iten: It’s possible that the entire island may start to collapse…

Toryuu: Hurry, this way!

In the midst of running, the fragment I was holding slips from my hand.

Panicking, I stop in my tracks and stoop down to search near my feet.

Kinrei: What are you doing!?

Ryoku: Hurry! Cracks are forming in the ground…..!

Player: But ... that mirror’s shard…. I have to find it!

Toryuu: You idiot...!!

I’m stunned as Toryuu grabs my hand and begins to pull me ahead.

Scene 11: Within the Dream World

Ryoku: (panting) We somehow escaped…?

Iten: What were you waiting for back there?.....We narrowly avoided death.

Iten turns his gaze on me condemningly.

Ryoku: What were you searching for earlier?

I tell the other how the inscription on the mirror was similar to the engravings I saw on the stone wall within my dream.

Ryoku: What was the place in your dream like? Maybe someone there would have a clue as to what’s going on.

Player: Whenever I try to remember the scene within my dream, my right hand starts to feel warm again.

[dream memory]

Player: Over there is… a cold, secluded place...where many weapons are buried….Around there is a stone wall with an old inscription that reads:

“Under heaven, no one could be my equal-- unbearable loneliness is my destiny.The bravery of youth, the tranquility of adulthood, the complacency of old age- once these have passed, there are no further boundaries to be crossed!”

After listening to me recount my dream, Toryuu and Iten speak up at the same time.

Toryuu and Iten: That’s the Tomb of Swords!!!

After briefly making eye contact, the two avert their gazes once more.

Kinrei: What do you two know about this Tomb of Swords?

Toryuu: I heard a story of such a place long ago…. It seems quite similar to the place that you described in your dream….

Player: The “Tomb” refers to all those graves. I’m certain there are many weapons buried there. It may be just as you say.

Ryoku: I know that you want to go to that place, so why don’t we head there together? I can escort you to the Tomb of Swords

Toryuu: If the inscription on the Soul Stealing Mirror has a connection to the Tomb of Swords, it’s a good enough reason for me to go there too.

Iten: Do you think that person would still be in the Tomb of Swords?

Toryuu: I’m interested in that as well. Looks like you and I have decided to take part in this journey too!

Iten silently nods his head in agreement.

Ryoku: What about you, Kinreicchi? Aren’t you gonna come with us?

Kinrei: Huh? The place I want to go is… (sighs)... well, I’ll accompany you for a while.

#mukanshu #夢間集 #*translations #mjj #meng jian ji #梦间集

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asmolbirb · 5 years ago

Note

for the writing notes: 5 E, pretty please? :)

Prompt:

Anon I’m gonna break into your home and replace all your silverware with sporks

This prompt was SO HARD to fill, because I had, like, NOTHING in the note, literally what you’re seeing in that screenshot is ALL I HAD, and it’s surprisingly difficult to write 1000 words on nothing

Nonetheless! I’m super proud of what I managed to put together! I’m sure literally all of these tropes are overused but I don’t care because I put them together in this order all on my own! Excerpt + further commentary under the cut

Word count: 1105

Excerpt: When the spring rains triggered the first rockfall on the mountain that loomed above the village, sluicing away boulders and shrubbery to reveal a piercing eye twenty times the size of a human’s, the chieftain spared only a moment to sigh in resignation before sending Lana to assemble the Council.

“The bindings are weakening. The curse of the Fallen Ones rears its head once more,” the chieftain said in a low voice that evening. She was hosting the Council in the central courtyard around which the house had been built, but her voice carried easily to where Lana sat in the bedroom, mending a torn tunic. “It is time to begin our own preparations.”

“How long do we have? Do we have any hope of victory?”

“No more than a moon,” replied the chieftain. “And this is not a matter of hope - we must emerge victorious, to secure the safety of our children and our children’s children as our ancestors did for us.” The fire flickered, setting the Council’s shadows dancing across the sliver of floor visible through Lana’s door. She looked away from her mending and fancied she could make out her mother’s figure within the amorphous darkness. “Tomorrow morning, I will ride to seek the help of the Casters. Greta, mobilize the archers. We’ll need to prepare arrows strong enough to puncture stone…”

As the talk devolved into discussion of strategy and inventory, Lana lost interest. She finished with the tunic and clambered into bed, but sleep was a long time coming, her head abuzz with thoughts of giants and battles and arrows streaking across the sky.

She woke the next morning when her mother pressed a kiss to her forehead and swept her hair away from her face. “I’m leaving for some time, sweetheart,” she murmured.

“To fetch the Casters,” Lana replied in the same low tone, her voice scratchy with sleep. “I heard. What is the curse of the Fallen Ones? Are the Fallen Ones the ones in the mountains?”

Briefly, Lana’s mother’s lips stretched into a frown, before settling back into a neutral expression. “The Fallen Ones were cast out from God’s kingdom eons ago,” she said slowly. “They were halflings, not fully divine and not fully human, and so they were deemed impure. They sought refuge with the ones who had cursed them with existence, the mortal mothers and divine fathers, but both turned their backs. Their resentment grew, and they declared war on God’s kingdom. For their insolence, they were punished; they sought war, so war they received. God sent divine forces to fight the Fallen Ones, knowing fully well that the Fallen Ones had no hope of victory. Once the Fallen Ones were teetering on the edge of extinction, God relented, allowing the remaining Fallen Ones to fall back and recover under the guise of mercy. But when the Fallen Ones created their own society and regained their strength and numbers, God sent the divine forces once more to lay waste to them an the children they had birthed. It is a war that has been passed down among the generations, each seeking revenge for the ancestors who were needlessly culled in ages past. Every century, we battle the giants, and bind them again to the mountains, in a cycle of destruction and hatred as old as time.”

“All for wanting a home?” Lana asked, aghast. “Surely there’s a way to end the bloodshed!”

Her mother didn’t reply. Instead, she smiled softly and pressed another kiss to Lana’s forehead. “If all goes well, I’ll return in a week. Let Bridget know if you need anything, and stay out of trouble, you hear?”

One final kiss, and an “I promise” from Lana, and the chieftain was gone.

Over the next few days, their once sleepy town erupted into a gale of activity. Every morning, the archers and swordsmen could be heard running drills in the far fields. Construction began on barricades and simple weaponry. A watch was set to keep the Council informed on the progress of the unearthing of the giants.

By the second day, the eyes of four other creatures had been uncovered. Their gazes remained fixed on the village, never moving, never blinking. On more than one occasion, Lana wondered if the creatures were truly alive, or simply stone carvings. On the third day, the first hand was revealed, with fingers thick as tree trunks; the fifth day brought an avalanche that left in its wake glimpses of still more giants, some standing, some crouched as though preparing to shoot into a dead sprint. When the chieftain returned on the eighth day with a cavalcade of cloaked Casters trailing behind her, a dozen giants were painted in sharp relief across the mountain face.

(Transition)

The cavalry was lined in rows facing the giants, and the archers stood behind them, bows strung and arrows knocked. The Casters gathered in a tent near the command post where the chieftain and Lana were stationed. They had already begun incanting in the language of God. The strange words unsettled Lana, though she didn’t know whether this was because of their unfamiliar sounds or because of the power imbued into the chants by the Casters.

They watched the giants shake off the last of the dirt and unfurl to their full heights. As they rose, the giants spoke to each other in rumbling tones that mimicked the sound of earthquakes and rockfalls, the words as foreign to Lana’s ears as the Casters’.

As the sun reached its zenith, silence swept across the field. Then, as one, the giants attacked.

The frontline of giants swept through half the cavalry in their first rush. Though they carried no weapons, their limbs were powerful as bartering rams, and they simply swing their fists and feet in devastating arcs through the army. The archers rallied then, letting go of volley after volley of arrows, but they were largely ineffectual, simply bouncing off the giants’ sturdy bodies.

The chanting emanating from the Casters swelled in volume and intensity, and finally the giants slowed in their assault. They began to strain as they pushed forward, as though grappling with an immense backwards force. But even as the magic began to take hold, swaths of villagers fell victim to the giants’ sheer brute force.

Lana watched the carnage unfold in horror. “You said we would win,” she couldn’t help but whisper. “You said they would be decimated, left to lick their wounds for another century.”

The chieftain smiled, but it was a grim facsimile of her usual kind expression. “They aren’t the Fallen Ones, Lana. We are.”

Director’s cut commentary: Inspired by the concept of nephilim, more specifically the following line from wikipedia: “The word [nephilim] is loosely translated as giants in some Bibles and left untranslated in others. The "sons of God" have been interpreted as fallen angels in some traditional Jewish explanations.”

And then, me being me, I had to find a way to subvert the idea of the giants being the nephilim/fallen angels.

I’d originally challenged myself to write a piece of microfiction that didn’t exceed 1k words, and this was my attempt at that. Clearly, I failed (lol), but I think I could a completed version of this down to 1.5k, so it’s not a total disappointment. Still, this is far from my best writing, probably because it’s 4:30 am and I only started writing this 2 hours ago because I couldn’t sleep. I’d like to add more details/descriptions, and I definitely need to flesh out the lore, and I’d like to find a way to eliminate the clunky expository loredump. But for a 2-hour word vomit session, this isn’t half bad imo.

Anyway, I hope this meets your expectations, anon! Thanks for the challenge, and for forcing me to stretch out my creative muscles!

#ask #anon #neko makes words #writing #original writing #my writing #fantasy #folklore #mythology #i'm gonna reblog this post like 4 times because i rly like this short piece tbh!#sorry in advance for the spam!

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bxstxrd-king · 6 years ago

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Let’s talk about Saiha (under read more because idk how long it will be) since he’s gonna be added as a muse and he’s pretty odd to understand. Also don’t expect it all to be in order I’ll just write in shit as I remember it.

Saiha is from a webcomic called sex ♂mens, which you can read for free the untranslated version on comic here http://www.comico.jp/articleList.nhn?titleNo=2038 there is currently no translated version but me and my friends who do indeed love the manga tried to translate a bits here and there. Thus why I’m about to explain him. Also if the art looks familiar it’s because it’s done by the same person who created Nanbaka.

Saiha is neither the protag or the antagonist but throughout the manga it is hard to determine exactly what side he takes.

In the webcomic Saiha is around 16/17 and is part of (and mostly the only member) of the medical club.

The school he attends I think is called Snake high and it has been known through the other schools to have an unbeatable dangerous man so lots of different schools have been known to turn up to challenge such a guy, turns out it’s Saiha.

The first time he meets the main character of the story he beats him to near death as seen here.

This is the main protag, his name is Takumi (cherry boy to Saiha) and is someone Saiha is interested in, it’s hard to tell if it’s romantically or not so early on (yeah Saiha is canonically gay)

This is how he usually looks.

Ever since Takumi joined the school, Saiha tends to force him to partner up with him to fight those who try and challenge him, so far neither of them have lost yet and the very first chapters show the two of them have a decent coordination even when they’ve barely interacted.

Saiha’s favourite weapon of choice is a whip but he’ll use other things like scalpels, candles and any torture/sex weapon. He’s truly a sadist.

Saiha is a dominatrix/sadist and often not wears extremely revealing clothing

source

Saiha also drives a motorbike, the first time he destroys it but on Pixiv it shows he takes pride in it.

For the most part Saiha is just full on op and not someone to be fucked with.

Although the webcomic has finished on comico, Shou has continued it with some sketches and a side comic on her Pixiv here https://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=1411484 (please be aware there is a lot of nsfw)

Saiha in these comics now ranges between the ages of 18-20ish and I think he is a qualified doctor, or he still does it as a hobby.

His attraction towards Takumi is more evident now, showing jealousy when someone tries to flirt with Takumi or spending time with him (my favourite is honestly asking Takumi to rub sun screen on him and Takumi loses it)

Takumi himself is also showing minor interest in Saiha but is still extremely terrified of him as Saiha is still op and dangerous as hell.

Saiha is also shown to get aggressive when working on a patient and is interrupted by anything or anyone. my personal headcanon is he puts his patients above anyone else no matter what they’ve done, if they need saved he’ll do it but once he’s done he dosn’t really care what happens afterwards.

Saiha is German and has been hinted to have a brother who well isn’t on the good side if you catch the idea. I don’t know if Shou dropped this idea because of controversy but again my personal headcanon is Saiha despises him.

In future pictures of himself on Shou’s twitter he has been shown to be a much older doctor (maybe 25-30?) and Takumi who also followed Saiha and became a doctor himself. It’s hinted the two are married at this point.

So basically the run down, Saiha is an op sadist and he will never bottom.

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page-of-tales · 6 years ago

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Story: Faith in Humanity II

Surprise, it’s a sequel. You can expect another two.

Word Count: 2001

---

“Whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved the whole world.”

-Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a

“I don’t care how its done, just get it done!��

Senior Agent Barann slammed the communicator on his desk. As head of the Human Department in the Bureau of Alien Contact, he was supposed to minimize the influence of aliens on his people. Ensuring order, stability, and obedience. A week ago he thought he had successfully deleted all traces of the series of human sourced viral videos which had sowed seeds of dissent. The material classified Faith in Humanity had been targeted for automatic censorship and deletion after sampling of each video was archived. Warnings had been distributed as well as fines. Charges against the most prolific distributors had been set in motion. It should have been another mark of success for Barann.

But a chance discovery by one of his subordinates had thrown that out the window. Multiple variations of Faith in Humanity had been discovered. The most prolific being a series titled, Faith in Space Humanity. Attempts to consolidate the total number of harmful material was still in progress. The best they could do was attempt to censor and delete each instance individually. But it was an uphill struggle against an opponent who really didn’t care.

Barann had confirmed after lengthy tracking and investigation that the humans who produced these videos were amateurs unaffiliated from any larger organizations. The Federation had simply shrugged its shoulders saying they had no control over what the Ergotoids watched on the net. Barann glanced over at a notification on his display. A new video had been found. This time formatted in an alien format code with alien title, obviously the Ergotoid were not the only purveyors of humans.

Keller Station: Research Block D- Camera- 02

A nondescript room. Unadorned with any markings or features. A test chamber not in use. A panel on the far wall opens up. 12 individuals are forcefully pushed in. The door sealing closed behind them. The individuals of varying appearance and species cluster together. Most of them are in states of half dress. The garb when identifiable is that of scientists and researchers. One of them speaks out, tentacles wringing in anxiety.

“Pirates out here? I thought we would be safe.”

“Shh.”

A hand is pointed at the camera. The others glance at it, and continue in hushed voices. The whispered conversation just barely caught by the camera microphone. The tentacles continued to wring, now slightly wet with secretions.

“What would pirates want with a science station? We aren’t military.”

An alien who appears to have either slept fully dressed or was awake long before the others replies.

“Chemicals, technology, rare materials. Anything they can sell or use.”

One of the aliens begins to sob, a muffled chitter. Another rubs their arm reassuringly. The next query is directed at the largest alien in the group.

“They probably won’t do anything to us right?”

Anxious glances are split between the door and the camera.

“Probably not.”

Of all the aliens they are the only one to be restrained. Tensing against the restraints the alien speaks with careful levelness.

“Scientists aren’t worth much to pirates. Do as they say and we will make it out.”

The larger alien individual, who the group seemed to look to as a leader, looked over to one of their companions.

“Allan what are you looking at.”

Dr. Allan, the single human in the group, looked up. Raising his arm to show off a device wrapped around his wrist.

“Checking the time.”

Everyone turned to look at Allan. A brief silence blanketing the room. The moment broken by a question.

“Why?”

“It’s feeding time.”

Something small falls from the ceiling onto Allan’s shoulder. The aliens react in surprise, a variety of behavioral reactions on display. Allan scratches the little furred creature, who chirps in response. The large alien steps forward, leaning in to get a closer look. The creature squeaks in alarm, and is calmed by Allan.

“Is that, is that one of your specimens?”

Allan nods, and points to the door. The creature chirps and leaps off of Allan’s shoulder, bounding between the alien’s legs. It goes up to the panel and hangs off the wall. It appears to sniff at the panel.

“Specimen T-8. Little guys are smart enough to escape containment, not smart enough to find their own food.”

There is a fizzling sound and the door opens. Several more tiny fur balls enter the chamber. Crawling about. Sniffing and exploring the new area. Allan peers out the doorway, gesturing for the others to go ahead.

“From here we can make it to a shuttle bay and get out.”

The aliens quickly file out. Several of the specimens climb onto Allan, who distributes treats from his pocket. As the last alien exits Allan moves to leave but turns back. He points to the camera and the furred creatures leap off. A moment later the camera goes to static.

The next clip features footage from what appears to be a drone. Flying overhead of what appears to be a disaster zone. Water flows in the streets and mud coats the walls. A burned out building partially collapsed. Roof caved in, rubble spilling into the street. Aliens pick through the wreckage. Clearing a path through the street. Digging out wounded and dead.

The drone takes a position to survey a narrow street. Like the others it shows sign of damage. And in addition in the middle sits a large obstruction. A lost child, a Komus child. Though still an adolescent it weighs several hundred kg. Its sizable mass blocking the street. Its bellowing wails reverberating against the buildings. Covered in mud, and sitting in the water it makes for a moving sight. A group of aliens circle the alien at a distance. Hesitant to approach.

From the crowd a long figure steps forward. Garbed in a full suit it’s identity is obscured. Standing beside the Komus child the unknown figure is dwarfed by the alien. When it extends a hand it can only reach the child’s knee. Whatever it says calms the child. Who stops crying to peer at the figure. It lifts its mask to show its face. The child seems comforted, and taking the hand of the figure, follows them out of the camera view.

Travel Control Room: Insurance Mandated Recording

Large screens displaying radar readouts, time tables, and a bustling hub of alien activity. This is what the inside of a control room looks like for a major interstellar hub. Dozens of controllers coordinate the paths of hundreds of starships. Flight paths are simulated in a big tank from which the supervisors can ensure safe travel of all visitors. One of the controllers raises a hand. A supervisor steps from the tank to the row of controllers.

“Problem?”

“Ship. Approach. Problem.”

Some of the other controllers turn to glance at the pair. Checking the board shows a line labelled Blue Serene on approach, its course vector now marked in a harsh purple. Other readouts that should be automatically listed are absent.

“Specify.”

“Crew. Dead. Ship. Hurt. Pirates.”

Other routes are diverted to give the Blue Serene a wide berth. The fervor of activity increases. The Blue Serene has now been scanned fully. A high mass, a large ship. Hundreds if not thousands of passengers. Fluctuating systems across the board. Parts of the ship entirely absent.

“Control. Who?”

“Humans. Control.”

The Blue Serene continues to move, its path a large circle. Its speed unchanged. Other ships are diverted to clear the path for the ship with no control. A rogue ship like that posed a threat. If not handled the controllers would be well within their right to order it destroyed. But they hesitated.

“Humans. Specify.”

“Humans. Passengers. Control. Bad. Help. Give?”

The two aliens observe the Blue Serene as it flies past the window. Then turn back to their controls.

“Give. Help.”

Over the course of 30 minutes the aliens are eventually able to instruct the humans how to slow the ship. The last frame of the footage is of the controllers performing a cheer at the window from which the Blue Serene can be seen adrift.

An alien newscaster relates a story. A small vessel had lost control of its engines and had gone hurtling into space. It had been presumed lost with all hands aboard. A memorial service would be planned, with numerous dignitaries attending. The loss of the craft represented a great blow. Their first effort at manned FTL travel, a failure.

The vessel was small and had not been given a name until it completed its first voyage as was tradition, though the crew of six had planned on calling it the Little Leaper. Condemned to their ship, they could only watch themselves flash past star systems that had been pin pricks of light in their night sky. It had been a month since the accident, and they had traveled far beyond their known space. It hadn’t been a terrible journey, the things they had seen were truly wondrous. It was only a great shame they could not tell others. The supplies they had stored were beginning to run out, and the captain wondered aloud how she would tell the crew to prepare for last rites. Her thoughts wandering on the recording as she made another log. Captain’s Log # 44-ish.

She again noted that the attempt to fix the engine had failed. It was only through that faint hope that any of them were still alive. But now their time seemed to run out. Without supplies they would die. As the Captain scrolled through a manual looking for the self destruct mechanism. There was a loud interruption. An alien voice booming untranslated through the ship.

“Hailing, unknown ship. Do you require assistance?”

The Captain paused, unsure if the voice was a hallucination. Her first mate intrudes, decorum dropped at the elation of contact. The voice comes in again.

“Unknown ship, this is a STAR vessel ID: EM-225. We are preparing to perform docking maneuver. Brace for… turbulence.”

The video log continues to roll even as the captain moves away. After a moment the ship shudders as something large makes contact. Then the red lights go dark.

---

Barann leaned back. Watching these videos had become something of a habit now. Even he was beginning to feel a toll. There was an emotional pull to these videos. An infectious influence which he could only hope would be broken. The higher ups were leaning in on him, pressuring him to handle the problem. To reverse the trends, and break the hold the humans were gaining. He had requested for more people, and more resources.

But it all felt like a losing battle. The revelation that these videos were present in other alien encodings provided another swathe of data to be searched. More videos to be censored, and more work to subdue the illicit influence.

The only practical solution that had been decided was to sever off connection to all alien nets, but it was no small task to cut off every node of a network with an interstellar spanning infrastructure. The Bureau of Networks should have had the power to do that. However over time they had gotten sloppy. Left too many unregistered connections form. However if the connections couldn’t be cut, then the whispers of the people might rise into something louder. That was something that could not be allowed.

#story #writing #page of tales #hfy #sci fi #short story

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lord-trevor · 3 years ago

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I'll pin this post so that people can see what kind of books I love 😊

1. I didn't count :/ around 70-80

2. I had a 30 books reading goal in the summer break and I think I completed it.

3. I guess Frankenstein??

4. Either The Bedlam Stacks or The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley.

5. The priory of the orange tree

6. Coraline

7. Oldest as for when was it written? Then Tom Jones

8. The nobleman's guide to scandal and shipwrecks

9. Six of crows

10. Hmm this is hard, I pretty much liked everything. Maybe The Queen's Gambit

11. Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe. Realistic YA romance is usually a big no no for me, even if it's lgbtq. I liked it though

12. Aristotle and Dante again😂 I unexpectedly found it in small bookshop in the nearby town. I didn't even know they sold English books and that was the day I realised they have a whole floor for them

13. The nobleman's guide to scandal and shipwrecks

14. The priory of the orange tree and The lost future of pepperharrow

15. Dark rise

16. Dark rise😂

17. 1. The priory of the orange tree

2. The ballad of songbirds and snakes

3. Dark rise again

4. The alienist

5. The queer principles of kit webb

(not in particular order)

18. Carry on, Caraval, idk more, I liked the others

19. Aside from my textbooks, I don't really think I read/finished any non-fiction 😅

20. The priory of the orange tree

21. My textbooks? Xd

22. Idk

23. The watchmaker of filigree street

24. The ballad of songbirds and snakes, maybe. Idk what makes a title the best

25. Yes; Natasha Pulley, Samantha Shannon, Leigh Bardugo, just to mention some of my most recent new discoveries

26. Non-modern set (queer) romance for certain

27. I discovered that I like fantasy genres too

28. I started many series which don't have an ending yet :(

29. The Broken Sky trilogy

30. The Captive prince trilogy

31. Yes, but I usually like to read in untranslated English

32. Numerous classics 😅

33. Yes, multiple things unfortunately, for example Caraval and Tom Jones

34. Idk I don't really share with people what I read so I don't really recommend either

35. No, partly because I've been infected with the Desire To Buy Every Book I Read and partly because I like to read in English, not my native language

36. Idk, around 50? But I'm not sure

37. Six of crows and at least one of the books I got for Christmas

38. Hopefully Dark rise 2

39. She who became the sun, The secret history, Maurice, Interview with the vampire, Under the whispering door

40. To find as many as possible historical fiction with lgbtq characters who get a happy ending 😂

end of the year book asks

How many books did you read this year?

Did you have any reading goals? if yes, did you complete them?

What was the first book you read this year?

What was/will be the last book you read this year?

The longest book you read this year

The shortest book you read this year

The oldest book you read this year

The newest release of the year

A book that was better than you expected it to be

A book that didn’t live up to your expectations

A book that was most out of your comfort zone

What was the most unexpected book you read this year?

The funniest book you read this year

A book that made you cry

What was the book you were most excited about before you started reading it?

A book you already want to reread

Top five books of the year

Least favourite books of the year

Best non-fiction book(s) you read this year

Best fiction you read this year

Best book you read for uni/college/school

Worst book you read for uni/college/school

The book with the prettiest cover

The book with the best title

Did you discover any new authors?

What was your top genre for the year?

Did you discover any new genres?

Did you start any new series?

Did you finish any series?

Did you reread anything?

Did you read any translations?

Were there any books you planned on reading but didn’t end up reading/finishing?

Did you DNF anything?

What’s a book you’ve recommended the most this year?

Did you use your library?

How many books did you buy?

Are there any books you want to finish before the year is over?

Releases you’re looking forward to next year

Five books you absolutely want to read next year?

Do you have any reading goals for next year?

#This was fun #I love talking about the books I read #But only on the internet xd

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margridarnauds · 6 years ago

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2, 8, 9, 20, 30, 31, 32, 40, 51 (for the abominaton)

Thanks!

2. Favorite part of writing.

I love the feeling that comes with putting the thoughts that I’ve been visualizing in my mind on the page, I love getting to work with characters that I love dearly and putting them where normal circumstances wouldn’t, I love dealing with a wide cast of characters that help me learn more about myself.

8. Favorite trope to write.

In general, I like to write emotionally constipated characters dealing with their gay emotions for the first time. Also, I tend to work with straight-up fix-its or dealing with post-canon events (and, when I say “post canon” I mean “post my very, very specific version of canon).

9. Least favorite trope to write.

This is probably surprising, but I tend to not be fond of actually writing depressing endings. Like, even in the universes where I kill characters off, I like to at least give them some closure, even if it’s an afterlife AU. (Which…the Afterlife AU for Pour la Peine is going to be fun if I ever get around to it).

Also, I don’t like Modern AUs all that much, even though I have numerous ones for 1789. It’s probably mostly a matter of translating 18th century politics to the modern age. That and I hate writing anything set in the modern age on principle.

20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on.

Tw: References to animal abuse, bullying, and Lazare being a 13 year old with slightly homicidal tendencies (BUT HE’S STILL VALID)

Lazare didn’t know how he got involved. One moment he was gritting his teeth in anger at them, his rage reaching a boiling point after one of the punches caused Ronan to cry out, the next one of the bullies was on the ground crying, Ronan was putting another one on the ground nearby him, and he had his hand wrapped around Denis’ throat, feeling his fingernails tighten around skin that had never been bruised before. All those military exercises his grandfather had made him run had their uses, he thought, as a strange thrill ran through him. Thibault Denis couldn’t do anything now, couldn’t hurt anyone; he was completely under his control. No matter how much he tried, flailed, choked, the little pretend tyrant was weak. So this was what authority meant. All that time when his grandfather had tried to explain it to him, and he’d never fully understood it.

“Lazare!” He was vaguely aware of Ronan shouting, and that was enough for him to release his grip. The boy fell to the ground, looking at him like he was Death incarnate, all widened eyes and quick breathing before he ran as fast as he could, his legs barely supporting him. The others followed suit, and it was just him, Ronan, and the cat. He flexed his hands, remembering the touch, looking at Ronan, wondering how he would look at him now that Lazare had hurt one of his own, but if he’d seen anything unusual, he hadn’t noticed, lavishing attention to the cat instead.

“Why would someone do something like that, huh? It’s just a cat, it wasn’t harming anybody.” Ronan held the wretched thing in his arms, petting it, with its torn ear and matted, faded fur and bony spine. “It probably just wanted to make friends.”

“The world can be cruel.” It had been the first thing he’d been told, when he was left on the steps of the Chateau de Peyrol and greeted by a stern, sharp man who introduced himself as his grandfather, and it had been something that he’d made sure he’d remember. The world had been cruel since time began, it would remain cruel. All that was important was ensuring that he himself did the best he could in the role he was given and to support the Crown in its efforts to keep order amidst the destructive forces that would bathe the world in fire otherwise.

Ronan shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be.” He held the cat a little closer, letting it burrow its face into his chest weakly, its pink tongue flicking over his fingers slowly. “It doesn’t have to be.”

30. Favorite line you’ve ever written.

There was a sadness in du Puget’s eyes, and Peyrol felt like he was a schoolboy again, missing some obvious point that he had just explained to him in vivid detail. Only instead of the immediate reprisals, he got this. A beating he could deal with, scorn he could deal with, pity he could not. “We are all human beings, Monsieur de Peyrol. We are all human beings with a child’s longing for the companionship and love of our fellow man. If you cannot do that basic amount for him, then you will never deserve his trust or his love, no matter how many livres you pour into it.”

31. Hardest character to write.

In general, any of the kid characters. I HATE writing children in general, and in the first part of the Abomination in particular SO MUCH rests on selling the kid versions of Ronan and Lazare and their relationship because literally the rest of this universe depends on them. I consider having to type “How do children make friends” and “What do children do with friends” to be on par with me trying to think about how long it’d take me to bang the man who (hypothetically) killed my father as far as Signature Abomination Moments.

For the non-historical characters of 1789, I’ve talked repeatedly how hard Solene is to write because of how little we get on her and how downright contradictory a lot of it is (see: her talking about how ambition and bloodlust have blinded Ronan…while she and the girls lynch a baker and march to Versailles. You go girl?) And you want to do a solid job with her, especially since her storyline touches on subjects that are STILL pretty damn sensitive, but you also don’t want to accidentally put her into any of the contemporary stereotypes of The Fallen Woman, The Victim, The Fury, etc, or any of our modern stereotypes when it comes to what a sex worker should look like and behave. That and trying to develop her relationship with Olympe is going to be slightly harder than usual, given that I still…need to figure out how they’re going to meet. With Pour la Peine, it was easier, since they had an easy way to meet up (Ronan’s funeral, RIP bro), but here, this is taking place in the canon era.

On a larger level, writing ANY of the historical figures that we have a decent amount of documentation for is hard, since these are people who are still highly controversial to this day and who can kind of….shift between different sources. Not necessarily the ones they wrote themselves, but, like, if you ask ten different people about Robespierre, you’ll get ten different responses. You’ll think you’ve caught onto him, and then he slips away. Likewise for Antoinette or Fersen or De Launay. Even Papa du Puget is rather hard for me to grasp, not the least because I know that the sources I need are locked behind an archive in France, untranslated and mostly obscure. (Funnily enough, the easiest for me to grasp is the Marquis de Sade, because the man’s just a dick. I will proudly proclaim the man’s a dick. He deserved to spend the rest of his life rotting away and I consider it an eternal tragedy that far better men than him in every way died during the course of the Frev while he managed, despite himself, to survive.) With some characters, like Danton and Desmoulins, I sense that my interpretation of them is going to be much different than the normal interpretation of them.

Basically, there’s a lot of pressure with them that isn’t necessarily there with the canon OCs, I don’t have as much freedom, and it can be damn hard to put them into a given situation to see how they’d react. (Incidentally, I’m going to put a tentative guess that they won’t react well to L/R. Just a guess. Though I’m sure Lazare can win them over with his A+ social skills, charm, and tact.)

32. Easiest character to write.

Laz and I get along very well at this point, even as I torture him.

40. Original Fiction or Fanfiction, and why?

Fanfiction, actually.

With original fiction, there’s a lot of pressure when it comes to constructing the world you’re working with and the characters and how they interact with it. And, believe me, it’s a lot of fun, but it’s also damned hard to visualize it. Like, I fucking specialize in Early Irish Lit, and yet my retelling of CMT is hard to write 90% of the time because I have a hard time working with this world and how it works (which…given that the rules themselves weren’t concrete in the original lit, I don’t feel all that bad, but still). To tell you the truth, even after looking at tons of pictures of longhouses and hillforts and costumes from the Book of Kells, I still can’t get a decent idea for this stuff. It’s even harder for the main WIP, where I have to do a lot more construction, working with inspirations from multiple time periods, and it’s a real mess because I’ve never entirely gotten those inspirations under control and the characters keep shifting out from under me.

With fanfic, on the other hand, you have characters, you have a setting, and you have a decent idea with how the world works. Now, you can always do what I do and completely throw canon out anyway, BUT you still have some basics. No matter what, I have some baseline for the characters and some baseline for how the world works and I can build my research off of that.

51. Describe the aesthetic of your story _______ in 5 sentences or words.

Doing this for the first part because it’d be literally impossible to do it otherwise.

A gloved hand on a black walking stick, a slightly bent, silver wolf’s head gleaming from the top.

A sea of golden wheat over flat land as far as the eye can see, a sharp blue sky hanging over it.

An old, faded book with a decrepit spine.

A blue parrot locked in a gilded cage.

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Biomed Grid | Origin, Phylogeny and Natural Behavior of Mice: What is Their Influence on Welfare During their Maintenance in the House Facilities?

State of the Art

The mouse is an extremely interesting species. Its image has historically been associated with a plague (or pest) and a disease transmitter. Paradoxically, it has a high empathy for children, where we can find various entertainment products using the image of the mouse (toys, cartoons and others ...). However, his animal has a remarkable capacity for adaptation and survival that are extremely important for the discovery and treatment of diseases, especially for humans [1]. Currently, the number of publications indexed using the term “mouse” (or the keyword Mouse) on the PubMed (US National Library of Medicine Institutes of Health) website was 1.628, 275 publications, together with the “rat” (Rat = 1.690, 355 publications) the bio models with the highest number of scientific productions compared to other rodent species and lagomorph models:

a. Hamster (125.711 publications).

b. Guinea pig (149.049 publications).

c. Rabbits (348.520 publications) (Access: September 2019).

Highlight that the use of any animal species, including the mouse, is an activity that requires a thorough knowledge and study of ethical basis, in addition to the knowledge and with the legislation of each country, regarding the use of animals for purposes didactic and scientific [1]. In general, in all countries, the objective of applying ethical principles and legal regulation is primarily aimed at replacing animals with validated alternative methods that may replace their use. If this is not possible, the development of equipment, techniques and methodologies that can refine the use of animals should be emphasized, and all efforts should be related to the maintenance, promotion and elevation of animal welfare during biomedical assays [2]. In Brazil, our legal framework in the area of laboratory animal science, after 12 years in the National Congress, was the approval of Law No.11.794 [2]. Through this law the National Council for Control of Animal Experimentation (CONCEA) was structured on 2015 [2].

CONCEA Normative Resolution (RN) No 25 which describes the “General Introduction” chapter of the Brazilian Guide to the Production, Maintenance or Use of Animals for Teaching or Scientific Research Activities [3] and RN No 30 (2016), which establishes the Brazilian Directive for the Care and Use of Animals in Teaching or Scientific Research Activities (DBCA) which presents the principles and conducts that ensure the care and ethically correct management of animals produced, kept or used in teaching or scientific research activities in Brazil [4]. Finally, RN No 33 (2016), which proposes the chapter “Procedures - Rodents and Lagomorphs kept in facilities of educational or scientific research institutions” of the Brazilian Guide to the Production, Maintenance or Use of Animals in Animal Activities. Teaching or Scientific Research, in which it describes and guides animal welfare strategies in animal houses, such as care to consider for the welfare of rodents and lagomorphs [3,4]. In all this report, especially in RN No 33, we emphasize that the relationship between the performance of procedures and the welfare of rodents and lagomorphs, in our case highlighting the Mus musculus biomodel, imparts in certain sections that: “It is essential to know the biology of the species, race, lineage to work with, since the basic needs (physical, emotional or behavioral) to be met are not the same for all animals.” and “… promote the expression of speciesspecific natural behaviors and a decrease, if not the disappearance, of abnormal behaviors.It should be based on promoting a positive effect on the physical and psychological welfare of the animal “[3].

We emphasize that the excerpts “to know species biology (physical, emotional or behavioral)” and “promote the expression of species-specific natural behaviors and a decrease, if not disappearance, of abnormal behaviors” were the motivating factors of this work [3]. Our aim was based on the question: How to know the physical, emotional or behavioral needs and the possibility of the expression of species-specific natural behaviors in order to provide the welfare of mice in the house facilities? Thus, we carry out a detailed bibliographic from the mouse origin of the species and its phylogeny, the knowledge about its geographical distribution, its habitat and natural behavior until the beginning of the controlled creation for the use in the scientific assays so that we can demonstrate, through scientific results, how we can approach the physical, emotional and behavioral needs of the space- restrain mouse in our animal house facilities and during biomedical trials by maintaining or enhancing animal welfare.

Mouse: Origin of the Species

Some authors state that there is a divergence in paleontological and phylogenetic studies regarding time estimates when dealing with lineage diversification rates, evolutionary patterns and historical biogeography, among other factors [5,6]. Fossil data is the most common type of paleontological calibration used to estimate the time period of the descendant in the phylogenetic tree. However, as described by Graur & Martim [7], Dos Reis & Yang [8] the incorporation of fossils for phylogenetic tree structuring can present difficulties such as:

i. The integrity of the fossil record

ii. The accuracy of the age of fossils

iii. The correction of the placement in the phylogenetic fossil calibration [7,8]

Kimura et al. [9] Describe that for a more reliable determination of time and fossil descendants may be the use of a methodology based on the study of the first upper molar teeth (M1). In this study the researchers used murine fossil specimens collected from northern Pakistan and examined by digitizing dental images and using tests such as Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) and Goodman- Kruskal’s gamma [9]. The questions evaluated in the teeth were the change in frequency distribution of the size and inclination of the region called metacone in relation to paracone and the inclination of the respective axes [9]. However, [10] used a refined set of fossil calibrations that were used to reconstruct a murine family dated phylogeny using a multilocus dataset method (six nuclear and nine mitochondrial gene fragments) spanning 161 species and 82 murine genera from four existing subfamilies (Deomyinae, Gerbillinae, Lophiomyinae and Murinae) [10].

Therefore, regarding muridae family speciation, several types of genetic markers can be applied to peripheral populations:

i. C-band chromosomal patterns [11,12].

ii. Several nuclear autosomal genes studied by protein electrophoresis or by RFLP DNA [13,14].

iii. Use of RFLP rDNA untranslated spacers [15].

iv. Immunoglobulins [16].

v. Satellite DNA [17].

vi. Antigens studied by serology [18].

vii. Some sequences of the Y chromosome [19] and mainly mitochondrial DNA [20].

The oldest known fossil murine, Antemus chinjiensis [9,21], was recorded in the region called Indo-Pakistan in the middle Miocene 14Ma (Millions of years ago), followed by Progonomys hussaini in the upper Miocene, which had a distribution including several regions in Asia, Europe and Africa. The Mus auctor, who represents the first specimen named Mus, also appeared in the subcontinent region of India and is also dated in the Miocene with about 5.5Ma [22]. From the specie M. auctor, the data suggest that there were several successive levels, with temporal proximity, of speciation events. The first level corresponds to the separation of the genus Mus from the other genres. This fact suggests that it occurred about 5 Ma where the genus Rattus, Apodemus, Nannomys (similar to fossils found in Africa 3Ma), Coelomys, Pyromys and Mus subgeneras such as M. cervicolor, M. cookii and M. caroli. The second level, not yet scientifically confirmed, suggests the division between the Indian branch of the genus Mus. This level of speciation refers to the separation between the Indian pygmy mice species as M. dunni and M. booduga (the so-called Leggada).

The third level corresponds to radiation from Asian species, which probably also occurred in India at approximately 2Ma. The fourth radiation step is the separation around 1Ma of western paleartic species, which migrated west to east Asia (Mediterranean), North Africa and Southern Europe. Speciation of M. spicilegus and M. macedonicus clearly occurred very recently, but their ancestor diverged almost simultaneously from M. spretus and M. musculus subspecies. Finally, the fifth radiation level, corresponding to the individualization, around 0.5Ma, of the main M. musculus subspecies, which probably originated from the Indian subcontinent, M. m. bactrianus, M. m. castaneus, M. m. musculus and M.m. domesticus [23].

Geographic Distribution of Mus Musculus

Through fossil studies (by various approaches), the most straightforward ancestor of the Mus genus is the Mus auctor, from the Progonomys class of origin in central Eurasia, mainly northeast India and Pakistan. Despite all the molecular, genetic and paleontological tools, it is very difficult to pinpoint the emergence and differentiation sites of existing species and subspecies. It is possible that the onset of subspecies division occurred during the expansion of India, however it is correct to state that radiation or geographic expansion of the M. musculus species occurred mainly through commensal behavior with humans [23]. According to biogeographic, genetic and archeozoological results, the M. musculus species has expanded from central Eurasia through two pathways, mainly according to human historical patterns. In the Middle East during the “Bronze Age” were found fossils of the genus Mus, but there are also records at the same time of fossils in other places such as central and northern Europe of this genus. This fact suggests that at least two routes were used by these animals to expand between Asia and Europe. Later, in the “Iron Age” we can infer that the species M. musculus colonized northwestern Europe [23,24].

Through the study of mitochondrial DNA four subspecies of M. musculus were defined

i. M. m. domesticus

ii. M. m. musculus

iii. M. m. castaneus

iv. M. m. bactrianus [24,25]

Mus musculus domesticus can be found in Western Europe, North Africa and the northern Mediterranean. It has the commensal habit but is capable of establishing wild populations. Mus musculus musculus presents its habitat between eastern Europe and northern Asia, is able to establish a permanent wild population where winter is mild and can be found as in Central Europe, where it forms with M. m. musculus a hybridization zone 30 to 40km wide. Mus musculus castaneus is a subspecies of Southeast Asia but can be found in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent throughout Southeast Asia. It is known for its interrelationship withM. m. musculus in China/Japan and has formed a hybrid population called M. m. musculus. Finally, Mus musculus bactrianus can be found in southern Himalayas, in the mountain basins of Iran and northern India [25,26].

Habitat and Natural Behavior

One of the main characteristics related to the habitat and natural behavior of the mouse is its commensal relationship with humans. But commensalism must be accepted as the only one theory [23]. In its origin, the genus Mus was related to arid climatic conditions (Eurasia - Indian Subcontinent), with low humidity and variable temperatures. However, during its evolutionary biology and speciation in Mus subgenus, we can observe a migration of Mus musculus subspecies to various regions, with different geographical and climatic conditions. Probably, this colonization factor of habitats with different characteristics can be considered as selective pressure factors for their speciation [27]. Potter in 1978 didactically suggested the division of the subgenus Mus as wild and the subspecies of M. musculus as commensal by their habitat type and the natural behavior of the animals, as described in Table 1 [28].

Table 1: Habitat division between subgenus and subspecies.

However as described by Sage in 1981, the static classification between subgenus/subspecies wild and commensals should be considered with prudence. Migration of the subgenus Mus (often associated with passive transport with humans) and colonization on several continents may have been an important component in the process of speciation of M. musculus subspecies and demonstrating a flexible relationship between species that maintain their wild or dinner habit. This flexibility would be primarily related to food supply, population density, territorialism and reproducibility. A wild species can become commensal, such as several species that have been domesticated for laboratory use while for example M. m.musculus, characterized as commensal, can become wild, competing with other species for territory and food [28]. This competition feature illustrates one of the key behaviors of the mouse in nature that is aggressiveness, especially from male M. m. domesticus. This aggressiveness is so imposing that this subspecies is able to dominate males M. m. musculus [29].

Aggressive behavior is a hereditary trait, with complex genetic, epigenetic and environmental determinism. In addition, aggressive behavior is likely to be subject to natural and sexual selection [30]. Variation in the intensity of aggressiveness between subspecies may be the result of environmental conditions (territory, food and reproduction). This fact highlights another striking feature in the natural behavior of mice that is adaptability and, more specifically, social flexibility and has been suggested as a possible explanation for their evolutionary success. It is suggested that the emergence of commensal behavior with humans occurred in the search for a safe environment and the supply of food, which is constantly being supplied, thus reducing competition between subspecies, predators and climate pressures [31]. Food disponibility promotes high population density, there is an organization of access to food (developing omnivorous habits with varied diets, including grains, seeds and insects) through a hierarchical population structure [27].

Territorialism remains, both in the wild and during the commensal habit, an important aspect for social organization. The hierarchy is mainly composed of a dominant and breeding male who exhales varying amounts of pheromones such as brevicomin (2,3-dehydro-exo-brevicomin) and thiazoline (2-sec-butyl-4,5- dihydrothiazole) [32], few subordinate males and the remainder females. The group does not exceed 12 individuals. Behavioral observations have suggested that new individuals are not always readily integrated into the group, possibly due to genetic signaling expressed by pheromones, possibly due to caution in maintaining social cohesion. However, the integration of new individuals into the group can produce high genetic diversity, essentially due to extinctions in some situations of the dominant male reproductive. The acceptance of new group members, both male and female, has a successful trait when it induces genetic variability in the group. These animals, despite commensalism, have a very short life, rarely exceeding 7 months. Therefore, this rotation of individuals in the group can be considered beneficial for the maintenance of individuals and the genetic and evolutionary structure of mouse populations [23].

Interestingly, female mice prefer males who have higher levels of these pheromones [34]. Soini et al. [35], demonstrated that the absence of thiazoline in M. spicilegus, which is a non-commensal, wild species described as monogamous, presented aggression levels similar to M. m. domesticus. Therefore, low thiazoline levels may not explain the lower aggressiveness of M.m. musculus compared to M. m. domesticus [35]. However, low levels of brevicomin may be part of the explanation. In addition, M. m. musculus and M. spicilegus share much of their distribution in Southeast Asia and may have experienced similar selective pressures, resulting in part in convergent changes in their pheromone patterns, although similarities may also have evolved by chance [35]. In addition, the M. m. musculus have higher selectivity of mate selection when compared with M. m. domesticus. This low selectivity corroborates its promiscuous polygamous mating pattern. The high selectivity in M. m. musculus does not indicate that this subspecies is monogamous like M. spicilegus. Intermediate systems are believed to exist between these two extreme types of mating system - promiscuity and monogamy - probably related to the genetics of each species or subspecies and the factors already described such as: habitat, nutritional availability and population density [36].

The relationship between the welfare of mice in the house facilities, their genealogy and natural behavior

The question that motivated this work was: “What would be the natural behavior of the mouse, especially the subspecies M. m. musculus in its habitat, considering from its origin? “ The relevance of this question is primarily based on the national legislation and regulations where one can find the suggestion that the welfare of the mice is related to the possibility of providing during their maintenance in animal facilities for scientific and didactic use to express their natural behavior [1]. By conducting a thorough and detailed bibliographical survey on the genealogy, phylogeny and the few data on the natural or wild behavior of mice, we were able to delineate an interesting and complex set of remarkable characteristics of this animal, which can undoubtedly directly influence the welfare of mice under restricted space in animal houses. Several points drew our attention about this animal, such as its origin having occurred thousands of years ago, having come, where it can be studied from an ancestor that branched into several species, such as the rat, gerbil and others [9]. While the mouse in its pedigree continued to improve its characteristics, under intense forces of natural selection and with remarkable evolutionary success, it can be found in the most varied regions of the world, from desert to arctic environments, varying their subspecies, but maintaining its primordial genetic characteristics [23].

In our study we can point out some points that will be important to reflect on your welfare in animal houses

i. We can consider these animals prepared physiologically for stress situations, especially the fight and flight system. It is important to maintain a routine and conditioning of management and procedures not to make stress harmful to the animal.

ii. They have a tremendous ability to adapt to harsh environments and conditions as long as there is time for them to adapt and maintain their routine

iii. Commensal behavior with humans is extremely beneficial for the mouse. Initially for the supply of food, but we can also observe that although stealthy, the proximity to the human increases their social flexibility

So, what we can say is that the relationship with humans was a path that these animals found given the ease of access to food and their ability to hide and escape risk situations. In addition, they are naturally non-isogenic animals with a natural control of variability and genetic perpetuation carried out through groups and the integration of new members to the group, mainly males and with high turnover, due to the low life expectancy of the dominant group. We may reflect that the welfare of this animal is much more tied to its own choices or preferences than when we try to relate our welfare state to that of this animal. Furthermore, we cannot compare our stress with the stress of this animal. It is an animal that already has a system, we can say, in stress. At this point, we believe that comes your ability to adapt. The suffering and discomfort of this animal start from the space restriction and its impossibility to move or seek a place of its choice (we believe more stable and safer). Therefore, we must look for ways to raise the welfare of this space-constrained animal so that its adaptation is close as possible to its preference and it is our obligation to maintain a routine and management always close to what the animal is adapted to avoiding the sudden changes as Ambiental variation in the house facilities.

We have learned from the genealogy of these animals several interesting features, such as their great strength and adaptability to selective pressures. His commensal relationship as a human being that completely changes his behavior, however, comes from his need for access to food, but we can say that his relationship with the human being does not cause suffering or stress to the mouse. So, to promote the welfare of mice in animal houses facilities, it is necessary to find out what is the animal’s preference in all aspects, whether in cage size, group composition, floor type, room temperature, food offered, etc. These animals into stable conditions demonstrated adaptability and flexibility in the life routine. The natural behavior it´s aggressive behavior. Groups formed after weaning form a fraternal relationship, decreasing the incidence of aggression in males in adulthood. Them can be consider that stress and discomfort will only occur disruption of its routine or its adaptability to the environment, even if in space restriction and if possible, no doubt offer elements that can encourage the animal to express your natural behavior such as foraging, sheltering or nesting through environmental enrichment.

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