#at a guess i'd say i have 30 threads?

[austerulous]

Tempted to post a tracker, but the thought of actually knowing the numbers makes me break out in a cold sweat. 🙃

[vinceaddams]

Early 18th (and late 17th) century fashions are so under-utilized in vampire media and I think it's a damn shame.

I don't actually think I've ever seen a single image of a vampire character in an early 18th century suit. Hardly any movies set in that era either, and hardly any historical costumers who do it. (Even my beloved gay pirate show set in 1717 takes nearly all of its 18th century looks from the second half of the century. Not enough appreciation for baroque fashion!!)

Yes I love late 18th century fashion as much as anyone, and 19th century formal suits are all very well and good, but if you want something that says old, dead, wealthy, and slightly dishevelled, then the 1690's-1730's are where it's at.

(Retrato del Virrey Alencastre Noroña y Silva, Duque de Linares, ca. 1711-1723.)

There was so much dark velvet, and so many little metallic buttons & buttonholes. Blood red linings were VERY fashionable in this era, no matter what the colour of the rest of the suit was.

(Johann Christoph Freiherr von Bartenstein by Martin van Meytens the Younger, 1730's.)

The slits on the front of the shirts are super low, they button only at the collar, and it's fashionable to leave most of the waistcoat unbuttoned so the shirt sticks out, as seen in the above portraits.

(Portrait of Anne Louis Goislard de Montsabert, Comte de Richbourg-le-Toureil, 1734.)

Waistcoats are very long, coats are very full, and the cuffs are huge. But the sleeves are on the shorter side to show off more of that shirt, and the ruffles if it has them! Creepy undead hands with long nails would sit so nicely under those ruffles.

(1720's-30's, LACMA)

Embroidery designs are huge and chunky and often full of metallic threads, and the brocade designs even bigger.

(1730's, V&A, metal and silk embroidery on silk satin.)

Sometimes they did this fun thing where the coat would have contrasting cuffs made from the same fabric as the waistcoat.

(Niklaus Sigmund Steiger by Johann Rudolf Huber, 1724.)

Tell me this look isn't positively made for vampires!

(Portrait of Jean-Baptiste de Roll-Montpellier, 1713.)

(Yeah I am cherry-picking mostly red and black examples for this post, and there are plenty of non-vampire-y looking images from this time, but you get the idea!)

And the wrappers (at-home robes) were also cut very large, and, if you could afford it, made with incredible brocades.

(Portrait of a nobleman by Giovanni Maria delle Piane, no date given but I'd guess maybe 1680's or 90's.)

(Circle of Giovanni Maria delle Piane, no date given but I'd guess very late 17th or very early 18th century.)

Now that looks like a child who's been stuck at the same age for a hundred years if I ever saw one!

I don't know as much about the women's fashion from this era, but they had many equally large and elabourate things.

(1730's, Museo del Traje.)

(Don't believe The Met's shitty dating, this is a robe volante from probably the 1720's.)

(Mantua, c. 1708, The Met. No idea why they had to be that specific when they get other things wrong by entire decades but ok.)

(Portrait of Duchess Colavit Piccolomini, 1690's.)

(Maria van Buttinga-van Berghuys by Hermannus Collenius, 1717.)

Sometimes they also had these cute little devil horn hair curls that came down on either side of the forehead.

(Viago in drag Portrait of a lady, Italian School, c. 1690.)

Enough suave Victorian vampires, I want to see Baroque ones! With huge wigs and brocade coat cuffs so big they go past the elbow!

[chronicsyd]

some of my favorite Arcane fics/recommendations: a thread.

If you're lookin for some fics to get you through the wait until season 2 airs, i have some favorites/recommendations that I'd like to share. now, basically all of these are from ao3 (which is the superior sight i won't be taking criticism on this) and a good chunk of them are popular so you might have heard of them but if you haven't, check em out. (also if you'd like to reblog with fics i haven't mentioned/think i should check out pls do) also I'm going to give a brief synopsis and if it's complete or not so I'm not gonna be spoiling the whole fic. with that, let's begin.

Hellhound of the Underground: basically this is a "what if" fic if Silco were to choose Vi instead of Powder that night and Powder ends up with Viktor, Jayce and Caitlyn up in Piltover. It's SO good, the only thing is that it's pretty dark (but hey, so is Arcane) and don't worry there's plenty of Caitvi for the soul. Last update: 2/18/2024 (Author kerosene_dream)

Makeout Lessons with a Boxer: Caitvi but in college, everyone is horny, pining and usless lesbians abound. Fic Completed (Author p0etess)

You Don't Own Me: Caitlyn works 2 jobs as a bookshop worker and has a stripper alter ego and Vi is a boxer who doesn't like talking to/doesn’t trust Caitlyn but likes talking to/appears to trust her alter ego. Last Updated 08/30/23 (Author snootka)

Stolen Sister: Powder again ends up as Caitlyn's "sister" in Piltover but gets kidnapped on Progress Day. Caitlyn enlists the help of Vi to track her down but neither knows that the "sister" they're looking for happens to be the same person. Fic completed, has an ongoing sequel (Author PiLambdaOd)

don't try to follow me (i would hold you down): Caitlyn and Vi meet as teenagers and Caitlyn discovers perspective about the storms and trauma of the Underground and Piltover. a "canon-to-the-left" treatment if you will. Last updated 05/29/22 (Author searchforthescars)

The Threads of Fate Tangle and Twist: five years into Vi's stay in stillwater, a topsider shows up raving about being a councilors daughter. that's it. all i have to say. fic completed (Author Misthios)

the perfect ache: soulmate fic where soulmates can feel each others pain. angst abound in this one and i think you can guess how the two find out about each other. Last updated 01/31/22 (Author Amandosh)

Astray: Teen Vi tries to steal from the Kiramman's and Cait catches her in the act. an unlikely friendship blooms. beginning is set before act 1. Last updated 05/12/22 (author TheReaderWrites)

In The Woods of Wolfcreek: Caitlyn escapes city life to a town where no one knows the name Kiramman. she falls in love with the town, and it's people. unknowing that some of the people are wearwolves. Last updated 01/22/22 (Author OFJ_Eden(OneJumpFromEden))

In the end, we're both terrible people: Caitvi high school enemies to lovers. Cait is the popular, closeted, accidentally turned mean girl and Vi is the misfit, outcast, out of the closet lesbian. the two hate each other until they kiss in the locker room. fic completed (Author loveshazel)

That’s all I’ve got for the time being, like I said, reblog with some I might have missed but these are ones I think are really worth checking out. Bye! :)

[junktastic]

I had a drawing months back that went kinda viral I guess, and it getting out of my normal sphere of followers meant that I got to observe how folks far outside of my twitter sphere interact with twitter and others. For reference, I am talking about this image:

The context, besides getting to draw my friend Jenny, was that I saw a picture that was of an anime girl that said "lets be in our early 30s together" and I was like "haha, I will make my own version of this." Part of it was also that I think aging is fine, and we need to stop stressing so much over staying young. "Lets be in our mid-thirties together" is not a joke, I sincerely wanted this image to be warm and inviting, to maybe give people hope that there will be friends and people who love you once you get to that age. I never thought I was going to make it to 30, and I just turned 35 this year, and I'm the happiest I've ever been.

Some responses were obviously teens/early 20s people saying they don't want to get that old, which is whatever. When you're that young the dirty thirty sounds so ugly. No one cool is in their 30s! Well, if you ignore the people who make all the things they like. These responses I waved these off.

I saw the typical twitter experience replies of "this doesn't apply to me?" Ok bitch! Go make your own like I did! And show me when you do, I'd love to see it!

There was a handful of people who were saying "retweet to scare a twink" which I felt was kind of rude. Not to me, but to the twinks out there. Aging doesn't make you less of a twink.

Lots of people were sending it to their significant others or saying they hope to find someone to be in their mid-thirties with, which I love. :3 It makes me happy!

The one kind of response which is what I made this post for and I'm so sorry that I've been rambling, that I found weird was the people who will reply to just you. The OP. As if they are replying to everyone in the thread. I'm not talking about in QRTs, just straight in the replies. "Don't forget how tired she looks in this." Brother I drew the picture. I know. And ever since then I feel like, as someone who loves to read the replies on other people's tweets, I notice this a lot more often. Who are they talking to? Is this what people are referring to when they say "Main Character Syndrome?" Or should I be lumping these together with the "why isn't this about my exact personal life situation" people?

My fiancé says I'm thinking about this too hard (I got engaged last month btw), and he's probably right. I can't help but be curious about how other people choose to interact with the internet and images and people on it. And, I guess, am I supposed to reply? How should I feel about these. I guess I have to decide that on my own.

For the record, you are all very normal/understandable when it comes to what you guys tag my stuff with. That you love the girls (same!), that they're very gender (love this), or wow is this [insert fetish](not my intention but that's the internet). I feel like the slime girls get the "gender" comment the most and you are all so right for that. Every time I see people reblog my ocs I think "Thank you for loving [name]."

That's all! This was a pointless post but I'm unemployed right now so I have too much time to overthink things for no reason. How do YOU feel about how people interact with your posts? Are they weird? Or are they normal about it.

[commodorez]

Hi! I'm so sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm completely clueless on computers, but I want to learn about them. Any places you'd recommend starting for bare bones beginners? I'm also interested in early-mid 90's tech particularly too. I'm guessing I have to figure out the basics before I can move onto specific tech though, right?

You're really knowledgeable and nice so I figured I'd just ask. Any help at all would be appreciated. Thank you! :]

That's an excellent question, I don't think I've been asked it before in such a general sense. I was raised with the benefit of being immersed in computers regularly, so providing a solid answer may be a bit difficult since for the basics, I never had to think about it.

I had computer classes of various types throughout my school years. We learned how to use a mouse, typing, word processing, programming -- and that was all before middle school. We got proper typing, html, and general purpose computer science courses in middle and high school, and you can bet I took those too. I also have the benefit of a bachelors of science in computer science, so you'll forgive me if my answer sounds incredibly skewed with 30+ years of bias.

The biggest suggestion I can give you is simply to find a device and play with it. Whatever you can get your hands on, even if its not that old, as long as it's considered past its prime, and nobody will get upset of you accidentally break something (physically or in software). Learning about things with computers in general tends to have some degree of trial and error, be it programming, administrating, or whatever -- try, learn, and start over if things don't work out as expected the first time. Professionals do it all the time (I know I do, and nobody's fired me for it yet).

Some cast-off 90s or early 00's surplus office desktop computer running Windows would be a good start, just explore it and its settings. Start digging into folders, see what's installed, see what works and more importantly what doesn't work right. Try to find comparable software, and install it. Even the basics like old copies of Microsoft Office, or whatever.

I recommend looking through the available software on winworld as it's an excellent treasure trove of operating systems, applications, games, and other useful software of the time period. I'd link it directly, but tumblr hates links to external sites and will bury this post if I do. If you're a mac fan, and you can find an old G3 or Performa, there is the Macintosh Garden's repository of software, but I'm not the right person to ask about that.

Some of you might be like "oh, oh! Raspberry Pi! say Raspberry Pi!" but I can't really recommend those as a starting point, even if they are cheap for an older model. Those require a bit of setup, and even the most common linux can be obtuse as hell for newcomers if you don't have someone to guide you.

If you don't have real hardware to muck about with, emulation is also your friend. DOSBox was my weapon of choice for a long time, but I think other things like 86Box have supplanted it. I have the luxury of the real hardware in most cases, so I haven't emulated much in the past decade. Tech Tangents on youtube has a new video explaining the subject well, I highly recommend it. There are plenty of other methods too, but most are far more sophisticated to get started with, if you ask me.

For getting a glimpse into the world of the 90s tech, if you haven't already discovered LGR on youtube, I've been watching his content for well over a decade now. He covers both the common and esoteric, both hardware and software, and is pretty honest about the whole thing, rather than caricaturish in his presentation style. It might be a good jumping off point to find proverbial rabbits to chase.

I guess the trick is to a find a specific thing you're really interested in, and then start following that thread, researching on wikipedia and finding old enthusiast websites to read through. I'm sure there are a few good books on more general history of 90s computing and the coming internet, but I'm not an avid reader of the genre. Flipping through tech magazines of the era (PC Magazine comes to mind, check archive dot org for that) can provide a good historical perspective. Watching old episodes of the Computer Chronicles (youtube or archive dot org) can provide this too, but it also had demonstrations and explanations of the emerging technologies as they happened.

There are so many approaches here, I'm sure I've missed some good suggestions though. I also realized I waffle a bit between the modern and vintage, but I find many computing troubleshooting skillsets transcend eras. What works now can apply to 10, 20, 30, or sometimes even 40+ years ago, because it's all about mindset of "this computer/program is dumb, and only follows the instructions its given" . Sometimes those instructions are poorly thought out on the part of the folks who designed them. And those failures are not necessarily your fault, so you gotta push through until you figure out how to do the thing you're trying to do. Reading the documentation you can find will only take you so far, sometimes things are just dumb, and experimentation (and failures) will teach you so much more about the hard and fast rules of computers than anything else. I'm rambling at this point...

So, let's throw the question to the crowd, and ask a few other folks in the Retrotech Crew.

@ms-dos5 @virescent-phosphor @teckheck @jhavard @techav @regretsretrotech @airconditionedcomputingnightmare @aperture-in-the-multiverse -- anything big I missed?

[roo-bastmoon]

After having a long think...

Even though I keep saying I'm going to go rest and stop obsessing about this, I guess I can't. I just suck at sitting still and being chill. My thoughts are under the cut out of respect for folks in the tags who don't want to engage in any drama around Seven.

Here is a list of all the push for Seven that has been noticed in the first two days (the thread is currently 30-posts deep but please do take a look):

Note: I haven't vetted any of those comments. I just scrolled through them and felt so overwhelmed. It just doesn't look good, but I bow to any industry experts who have real data and experience.

Update: Artie has a good post here about Jimin's debut numbers and playlists. Also here about how Seven being promoted to radio isn't necessarily proof that it was payola and they have the numbers from credible sources to back that possibility up:

I'm just going to come right out and say it: I find payola dishonorable. It's not just advertising; it's basically bribes. And ads should never replace real people's streams.

I deeply respected that BTS and ARMY found such success without that stuff. It used to be about passionate artists, making their own music, which resonated with real people, who worked hard to promote it. It was about mutual respect.

JK's numbers don't look completely organic to me, but I don't think he had a hand in that.

I have such serious misgivings if this the direction Hybe is going in for JJK1, and have no clue how the group survives if the company picks and chooses their favorites for that kind of push. If this is the strategy for all BTS projects now, I have no idea how they can afford it. I'd really appreciate if they could come to us and try to explain how it could ever be on the up-and-up because I don't think it can.

I confess I will not be working hard at all for anything that seems inorganic. This project just looks like Scooter weaponizing Jungkook to win a dick-measuring contest with Taylor and others. I hate it.

That said, I've always been very clear that Jimin is my guide.

Jimin adores Jungkook. Jimin is working with and hanging out with Jungkook even as I type this. Jimin is choosing for now to stay with Hybe. Jimin is flying all over the world on Hybe's time and dime to work on even more projects. Jimin has more music to share with us, that Hybe is investing in. Jimin seems happy for the most part.

I will support Jimin and never move against the people Jimin loves.

I trust Jimin and give the benefit of the doubt to the people Jimin trusts.

When planning his first album, I do not believe that Jimin was told about decisions to split tracks, or skip play-listings, or what would get restocked, or if they'd buy ads for smoother streams on YouTube and Spotify or not, or what kind of articles would be written about him.

I believe Jimin had plenty of input on the design, look, feel, sound, tracks, cast, choreo, performances--all the creative aspects of his album. I think he was able to say what he needed to say and get Letter hidden on his album for Jungkook. But I don't think he was roped into strategic plans and profit and loss statements and marketing roll-outs in any great detail. I arrive at this idea based on my own experience in the entertainment industry--I could be wrong.

And so I think the same for Jungkook. I think Jungkook had input on some of the creative aspects of this single (and likely had suspicions of what working under Hybe America and Scooter might entail). I have no idea the conversations and pressures he faced around this topic, or if he simply trusted Bang PD to handle it. I don't know what all he talked about with Jimin and the hyungs.

I do know there was a time this year when he came to us on lives deeply depressed and almost lost, despondent. I know there was a group dinner where many things were discussed. And then there were many times he came to us on lives, inspired by and enamored with Jimin, memorizing and hyping up his work with such pure adoration, even as their own company refused to even mention Jimin's successes.

So I ask myself: does Jeon Jungkook really have it in him to steal Jimin's ideas or push himself out ahead of his hyungs, embracing unequal treatment and unfair advantages, just so he can be the one to make it big in the West?

And in looking for that answer, I'm reminded of this clip:

No. I don't think that's who Jeon Jungkook is. At least, it isn't the Jeon Jungkook I knew.

I am sad to say I think that is exactly who Scooter Braun is and who Bang PD has become. That is what the company would do. But not our Jungkook. Not unless everyone in the group was on board with it, somehow.

Jimin is standing by Jungkook. So I am standing by Jungkook--as a person.

But I've bought Seven once and I've added it to my night playlist and that's all the moves I'm making on that project. I will not be setting alarms to vote or using extra accounts to buy or hash-tagging anything, nor getting any merch, nor requesting local spins, none of that. It's a catchy song but as the thread I linked to above shows, it is a guaranteed "success" even without me. So I'm using my energy to support Jimin and other BTS projects that resonate with me and need me.

My stance on this might offend you, and I respect your feelings. I do not identify as a solo or anti. I still think of myself as aJimin-biased Jikooker who loves the members. I am probably toeing the line of being a manti, as I feel this company has broken faith with me. Not the creative or administrative staff, but the executives. I feel like they've ended our ten-year legacy in shame.

If it gets much worse, I may just dip out of the fandom after Jimin goes into service. I don't know. Probably I will have to see how things work out for the other solo works and plans for the group for 2025. At the moment, I have far bigger things to worry about, like colitis.

I can't lie, what I've seen so far with this rollout really shocked me, gave me a bit of an identity crisis, as ARMY. I don't want to assume the worst; neither do I want to bury my head in the sand for the sake of my ship or my favorite songs.

I will always act in accordance with my own conscience, based on the limited information I have. If I get better information, I will of course update my viewpoints. If at any point that causes anyone who is friended with me distress, I will understand completely if we need to part ways. I never, EVER wish to cause anyone harm.

But I'm too sick to argue and debate too much, too long. Boraland was supposed to be a place to unwind and feel inspired, not get more stressed. These past few 1.5 years months as ARMY has been exhausting in every sense of the word. So I'm choosing to put my energy into the things that bring some joy in my life.

I'm choosing to trust and follow Jimin's lead, for now.

[ghostofasecretary]

ok, let's keep this quick

- so like. i haven't had a day with No Obligations since the 18th. that's 10 days. tomorrow and the day after i'm working. i need A Break because i am Tired

- aaaaaaaah grad schools why do people keep telling me i'm cool and promising and they're enthusiastic about me and then i DON'T GET MONEY (or. well. i turned a place that gave me money down because of a potential supervisor leaving)

- i have so many loose threads. emails unanswered for months. i spent a fuckload of money on some stuff with the intent to make it back and Have Not Taken Steps to do that which is crappy, actually!! feels REALLY BAD! all the time bad! bad for months!

- i fucking hate letting things fester and my whole day except for poetry and a text convo has been festering

- which feels like a microcosm of my fucking life. which is unfair, probably, but. ya rab

- i straight up just? dissociated almost all the time between 6:30 and 10am??? that's not great!

- my job is getting me money, yay, but it's part time and also i keep going wildly between "i am winning" and "i'm so miserably bad at this and probably no one wants to work with me i keep fucking up i hate myself" and "hey now stop beating yourself up" and boredom and misgendering and "Holy Shit Man I Hate Your Politics So Much but i do care about you as a person! so! guess some of the Christianity stuck!!! hahahahahaha fuck my life"

- i don't know if i can a) get a job and b) move in time to maintain the illusion that grad school worked out for me but 1) i need to move yesterday, i haven't hugged a friend since fucking January, and 2) i was really hoping August would work out and i don't want to work longer. my whole year has been "well maybe i'll get answers and know what i'm doing next month!" and by year i mean. since. like. december 2023. although Applying To Grad School sure ate all of my energy for a long fucking time. so i'd LIKE to get a job and move in late August/early September. but also holy shit man

- i feel some duty to myself to still apply for more grad school jobs but i haven't had a spare afternoon with emotional support since. like. the first weekend of June. (i have had mornings with emotional support (thanks babe)) but i have been mostly using those for homework (and fugue states of misery (sorry.)) so, like. aaaaaa??????

- i'm so mad and scared and also, like, i don't have TIME to be mad and scared, i'm behind on things and also this is my short and precious life! there's people to talk to and good food to eat and nice clothes to wear and fiction to read! i don't want to waste it being upset! i've been upset since 2022, basically, and i'm really fucking tired of it!!!

- what if nothing ever works out and i'm broke forever and rely on my parents like my sister does and am an even worse resource drain and they don't get to retire and I DON'T MEET MY SELF IMPOSED DEADLINE FOR. LITERALLY 40 MINUTES FROM NOW.

- and tomorrow i have/want to be fucking chipper at people! because goddamn it, i actually genuinely want people to have their days be a bit more pleasant from interacting with me and i like running a smooth ship! when i'm not making mistakes, which i make more of when i'm tired and upset!! gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

so. that's a lot of self-loathing and fear and frustration. uh. i don't know that this. resolved anything, aside from me saying the crazy out loud (and yes, i DO KNOW where the crazy is, but going "well don't be crazy" to myself is deeply unhelpful since it turns into another beating stick so. alas)

but i guess now i'll. work on my goals????

[saspitite]

The Hint

On February 6th, 2024, a thread on KauKoBoard made by user HedoniSt0rm had been suddenly updated after going silent for nearly five years.

[24/02/06 19:13] HedoniSt0rm: Hello everyone. Sorry it's been a bit, I got busy with life and had to distance myself from online matters. I hope I didn't worry anyone, though- I know there's only like, 80 people here? So it's pretty easy to remember most everyone and notice when somebody leaves. Either way, I'm back, and with something I think you guys might like. [24/02/06 19:22] Milli_Best_Pilli: TORILLE PERKELE!! welcome back man, we missed you so much! :D you doing alright? [24/02/06 19:24] HedoniSt0rm: Doing just fine, thanks! :]. [24/02/06 19:25] notawolf: what did i miss??? hedoni's back???? talk about the second coming of christ lol [24/02/06 19:25] notawolf: in all seriousness i'm happy you're back dude. what's the thing you wanted to show us? [24/02/06 19:26] HedoniSt0rm: Glad you asked. Hope everyone still has their detective bones in them like the good ol' days, because this was an interesting encounter. Remember what I said before I left? It was the last update I made in this thread. [24/02/06 19:27] notawolf: no fucking way. [24/02/06 19:27] Milli_Best_Pilli: ...do i need to grab some popcorn [24/02/06 19:27] HedoniSt0rm: Yep. I talked to the Kauhukorppi. [24/02/06 19:28] notawolf: DUDE [24/02/06 19:28] HedoniSt0rm: Sit tight, I still have to upload all the photos to my computer- then I'll explain. [24/02/06 20:14] HedoniSt0rm: Alright, everything's done uploading and nothing got corrupted (too much). So, I had gone to a Hevisaurus concert earlier and remembered my hypothesis of potentially communicating with the Kauhukorppi. It felt a bit strange in practice, continuously taking photos while the band wasn't even playing, but I'm sure nobody noticed me amongst all the excited kids. My plan was to keep taking photos periodically until I "caught" him, and then find ways to communicate from there. Yes, it sounds extremely unplanned, but it turns out I didn't really need much of a plan at all. It turns out that the Kauhukorppi can read minds, too. Below is the first photo I had taken which captured the Kauhukorppi. What was interesting was the "..." clearly visible above his head, along with the fact that he wasn't staring into the camera like he usually does. He was definitely aware of me- but specifically aware of the fact that I was trying to get his attention...

[24/02/06 20:16] HedoniSt0rm: My suspicions that the "..." held significance ended up proving true with my second photo. He was now communicating with me directly, stating that he could "hear me"- my thoughts.

[24/02/06 20:18] HedoniSt0rm: I then asked the Kauhukorppi if I could speak with him. He stated that he would be delighted to. I'm unsure what the "just don't blink" statement specifically meant, but it was possibly referring to the photos I'd be capturing from then on.

[24/02/06 20:21] HedoniSt0rm: I began by notifying him of his presence in the real world, and how he had garnered a community online. I was surprised by his answer- he was aware of it, and even went on to say it was his "purpose" to be known.

[24/02/06 20:24] HedoniSt0rm: Upon asking for more clarification, it seems the Kauhukorppi became a bit agitated, mentioning some kind of nebulous "them".

[24/02/06 20:25] HedoniSt0rm: I took a wild guess and asked if he was referring to the Sony vs Hevisaurus incident. What I got in response was, bizarrely, silence. He had looked away again.

[24/02/06 20:28] HedoniSt0rm: I took another photo and he finally answered. It seems I surprised him.

[24/02/06 20:30] HedoniSt0rm: And then, he made a shocking offering to me. There seems to be much more we don't know about the Kauhukorppi.

[24/02/06 20:33] HedoniSt0rm: And as I asked just how much there was to uncover, the distortion of the photos began to strangely lessen, and he said this:

[24/02/06 20:35] HedoniSt0rm:

[24/02/06 20:37] HedoniSt0rm: This last photo unfortunately still has issues with excess corruption. I am not sure how to decipher the meaning left in this one, as it's too broken on my end to understand. Help would be appreciated. Thank you. I will be signing off, now. -Hedoni

[alovelyburn]

Is griffguts popular? Does Miura knew about the shippers? Was he shocked? You always have sources

It's kind of hard to gage what is and is not popular, especially when you're talking about a community of people that mostly stay away from the main body of Berserk fandom, but here's my general experience and understanding of things.

-In the Western fandom, the vast majority of active fans have what I'd call the western standard perspective: Griffith is a sociopath who may or may not have cared about Guts but if so he still didn't care about anyone else, Guts and Casca are soulmates and he lives for her and hates Griffith, the end.

Now I say active fans because my personal experience with running into people who like Berserk in the wild has been that many of them were fans of Griffith/Guts but unwilling to engage with the fandom at all because, well, of what I just described up there. But of course this is going to vary depending on where you go. In media fandom circles, like artists and writers and such, it's more popular than with say random people on a general anime discussion board.

In more recent years, since the OVAs I guess, there has been more movement around the relationship vs. say when I was in the fandom the first time when there were active efforts to drive fans of the relationship (or even just of Griffith as a character) out of the fandom entirely.

-In the Japanese fandom, there's a much wider variety of views on Berserk in general, and I notice a lot of I guess casual acceptance of Griffith and Guts as potentially a romantic connection. Even just in random threads on 2chan or whatever or replies to news posts you'll see references to it. And if you say go to pixiv or something, or look at doujinshi or whatever, the G/G fans are by far the most active of any pairing fandom, in any case.

And when I talk about things like the casual acceptance even by people who aren't really like pairing fans as such, I'm including things like... how the OVA scriptwriter directly referred to them as having romantic feelings for each other (among other feelings). The writer probably wasn't there pumping his fist and rooting for them to get together, but it was just a thing he knew and understood about the characters. This is kind of unsurprising because Guts and Griffith do have a particular kind of relationship dynamic, and honestly particular kinds of visual design, that are often used in manga or anime to evoke homoerotic relationships. And manga and anime in general has a lot more like subtle or casual homoeroticism than say random western stories anyway.

All of that said, the main takeaway I get from Japanese fandom is that they don't talk about romance nearly as much as English fandom does, and that applies to Griffith and Guts or Guts and Casca or anyone else. Couldn't tell you why.

As for Miura, that's an interesting question. That one 30 page article from the shojo studies book that was the source of the quotes that recently hit the fandom had been partially pseudo-translated before by a fan who said Miura had said he didn't like that interpretation, but they also said they had a hard time with that line, so I've never been sure whether that's actually what he said. At the time that I was told this I was surprised (for reasons I'm about to get into), but also not surprised (for reasons I will also get into).

But the matter became more muddled when Kojion@twitter began posting translations of the same article because there was nothing in there about not liking them to be interpreted romantically... but there was one line that seemed to correlate to what the fan had said that Miura said about Griiffith and Guts (that he didn't like it and liked relationships like rivals), but like, he was talking about his taste in movies at the time? Because he said he liked movies about men's relationships, and then clarified that he meant rivalries and such. So I kind of wondered if they misunderstood the context since they were having a hard time with the line anyway. Can't be sure though, since I don't have the book itself yet.

And now, the reason I was surprised when I first heard that:

-there's literally a line in an interview about how Griffith was designed after people he knew who can't love women and focus on men (romantically or platonically) instead.

-there's also this line where he refers to Griffith as not being one to "fall in personal relationships" with Guts being the exception which like, I understand that he's not saying anything directly, but you've gotta understand the word he used for "fall" is 落っこちる, which is commonly used to mean "fall in love" (actually it is the second dictionary definition, and the first means physically fall off a roof or fail an exam, so you know).

-he spoke openly many times about his interest in gender and sexuality, stated that he felt like androgynous characters should have both male and female love interests, that most androgynous characters in manga fall in love with men, and that he felt like he had to be ready to commit to that if he was going to write an androgynous character (he was discussing the lead of Duranki to be clear. But it's interesting, if you... look at Griffith at all).

-he also listed many lgbtq stories as major influences in his creation of Berserk, including Devilman (one of his biggest influences which is extremely obvious), Guin Saga (which helped create the BL genre and which he has stated was his single biggest influence), Rose of Versailles and Kaze to Ki No Uta (which is literally a classic boylove manga).

-but mostly just because he... wrote the manga. Which I'm bringing up because there are moments that are very difficult to read nonromantically, including a panel where the BoD heavily implies that Guts is in love with Griffith.

The reason I wasn't surprised:

Because it was a 20+ year old interview and he seemed a lot less comfortable with the topic than he eventually became.

One thing I noticed during my time tracking this manga and also obsessing over Miura interviews is that the early interviews are more conservative with his influences and intentions whereas as time went on he started saying yes Berserk is a shojo and then yes, I was influenced by "Go Nagai's style" and then "yes, I was influenced by Devilman specifically."

Basically by 2019 he was out there talking about reading BL manga and such. So even if he had said it, which I'm not sure he did because of the movie thing, I would probably attribute it to not having become comfortable with the topic yet.

Anyway, did he know about it, I'm sure he did.

Was he shocked, probably not given all of the above. He's the one who chose of his own free will to modify the meaning of 渇望 (thirsting/craving) with furigana that says こがれ (crave because you're in love with) in that BoD scene.

No one told him to do it. He knew what the words meant.

[versilperihelion]

alright i don't tend to post stuff if it's not already part of an existing thread cause i don't believe people would care but i promised @demifiendcruithne i would write this up as a separate thing if anyone asked about it, and well @pteren did so here we are.

if you come across this and don't like math, this is your cue to move on to the next thing on your dash.

the context is that for pteren's month-long physical challenge i decided to also find some fun properties for each daily number of reps i do. and for 37 there were three such properties:

if you take any 3-digit number that is divisible by 37, and you shuffle its digits one space to the left (so e.g. 148 → 481), you'll get another number divisible by 37 (yes shuffling them to the right also works but it's the same as going left twice so it's just one of those cases that matters)

if you take any number divisible by 37 and insert into it a string of three of the same digit (so e.g. 148 → 147778, or 166648), you'll get another number divisible by 37

if you take any number divisible by 37, reverse it, and add a zero between every digit (so e.g. 148 → 80401 or 1147 → 7040101), you guessed it, you'll get another number divisible by 37

so i said there's already enough math i'm putting into the physical challenge thread so if anyone's interested in how to prove something like that, i'd put it into a separate post. so here we are. this is what i got myself into.

note: there will be quite a lot of images here. all of them, every single one, will have some math formulae and nothing else, cause it'll be much easier to read if that math will be neatly formatted and such using latex (the math kind, not the kinky kind) rather than somewhat put into plaintext of a text post. all those images will have added alt text but i have no idea how to best do image descriptions for that, so i'm kinda winging it. i know i said i doubt people would read this, but i'm still not gonna half-ass trying to maintain accessibility.

in fact there are enough images that i need to split it into the main post and a rb with the second half cause the limit is apparently 30. if for some unholy reason you came across this before i paste in and format the second half, and for some even more unholy reason you decide it's something you want to rb, please just wait until i add the second half. if there was a way to make a draft and an immediate rb of said draft, i would've done it.

also note: i'll be using the letter i as the index in a sequence. there will be no imaginary unit mentioned anywhere or needed for anything. there's no calculus either, the most complex arithmetic involved is knowing that if you multiply two powers of the same base, you get the sum of the exponents (2^5 x 2^2 = 32 x 4 = 128 = 2^7). and even better than that, basically every single number featured and labeled with a letter will be a positive whole number. we're not even going into fractions here.

also also note: i'm not gonna try to be 100% rigorous here. that's for academia, i was just bored with hellsite access.

so, given this includes some fuckery on the digits of a number, i think best to start by something we don't consciously think about too often: what does it mean for a number to look some way in base 10? let's take, say, number 1438:

1438 = 1 x 10^3 + 4 x 10^2 + 3 x 10^1 + 8 x 10^0

almost exactly the same way we'd pronounce this in english, it's one thousand (10 to the third power), four hundreds (10 to the second power), three tens (10 to the first power), and eight ones (10 to the zeroth power - anything other than 0 raised to 0th power gives 1. we are not getting into why not 0 here).

so in general we can write what this means, symbolically:

where x_0 is the ones digit, x_1 is the tens, and so on, which can also fancily be written using the sigma notation which if you have any programming experience, is basically just how in math you'd write a for loop: for i that goes from 0 to k (including k), where k is any natural number you feel like, add together the digit at the i-th position times 10 to the i-th power.

kinda seems like overcomplicating it, but this can be applied to any number base other than 10 (and the capital sigma notation helps avoid writing too much because laziness is the source of inventions).

many people will already have known all this, but it's still useful foundation to lay down before we start fiddling with the digits, so we are actually aware of what we're doing. now we can move on to the first thing to prove.

------

a) the first thing was that if we take a 3-digit number that is divisible by 37, such as 148 (it's 4 x 37), and we shuffle the digits one space to the left, wrapping back to the ones space, what we get is another number divisible by 37, such as 481 (it's 13 x 37. leet).

so let's write down some general number we're starting from.

i called this number a_s because it's the number we start with for proof a). subscript s for start, n for new.

x_2, x_1, and x_0 are just the digits in the hundreds, tens, and ones places. this starting number is a multiple of 37, so it's 37 times some natural number n. we don't really need to know or care what n is, only that it's a whole number. it's all whole number turtles all the way down.

how would we then write a_n, the new number we create from our shenanigans?

should make sense. we move the tens digit to hundreds, ones to tens, and hundreds to ones. cool. but how do we go about proving it's divisible by 37? we can't really reason much about what we have there so far, so we should try to rearrange it so we can find several parts in there that each is divisible by 37 - a multiple of some number plus another multiple of it gives you yet another multiple of that number, like 30+70=100, 30 is 6x5, 70 is 14x5, and 100 is (6+14) x 5, so 20x5. and same if we were to subtract them. so lets pull a fast one on that number and add and subtract the same thing to it.

(at this point i must also note that the interface for making a new post is incredibly stupid for short wide images where the cancel button is overlapping the button where you go to add image description. hellsite, pay your qa department more)

we added and subtracted 1000 times x_2 so we still have the same number. what was that for? if you look at the first three terms, they are in descending order in both which digit it is, and what power of 10 they're multiplied by, which looks just like our original number, but all times 10. meanwhile, the other two terms both have x_2 on them. so we can extract the common factors there.

in the parentheses of the first part we have that original number a_s, so this whole first half is divisible by 37, cause that was our premise. the other half is some single-digit number x_2, multiplied by 1000-1. so by 999. well, it just so happens that 999 is a multiple of 37, being 9x111, and 111 is 3x37. so we have

so here's the secret: this is not really a property of 37.

it's a property of 111. the reason it works for 37 is exactly because 111 is a multiple of 37, so when it works for 111, 37 just tags along for the ride. in fact you might note that it works the same for the other divisor of 111, 3. as you may know, a number is divisible by 3 if (when written in base-10) the sum of its digits is divisible by 3. when we shuffle the digits around, the sum doesn't change, so the new number is still divisible by 3.

and you can show the same way that the other two properties work for 3 just as well as they do for 37. if we reverse the digits and sprinkle some zeroes in, the sum stays the same, so new number is still a multiple of 3. if we insert three of the same digit somewhere in the middle, we're adding 3 times something into the sum, so the new sum is still divisible by 3. sneaky.

but let's show that the other two properties work for 37. spoiler alert: 111 is the key player in those as well.

------

b) if you take a multiple of 37, and insert a string of three of the same digit somewhere in the middle, the new number will also be a multiple of 37.

new year, new me, new starting number, just that it oddly looks exactly the same. except this time we are not restricted to just 3 digits of the starting number, so we need to consider any number of digits, so the laziness notation comes in

so how would we write the new number?

so i don't know if there is a proper notation but i went for square brackets here to mean "i'm not multiplying those together, those are just digits arranged from highest power to lowest". so we have the original digits going up from index 0 (right to left cause that's how we write numbers), and then three of this new digit y plopped in the middle, displacing the l-th digit and each next one up to index k three spaces to the left.

next we can write this as a sum as before, but because there's more terms it'll be useful to immediately split it into smaller, more manageable pieces.

because we added the three extra digits, everything to the left was effectively multiplied by a thousand, so the powers of ten there each grew by 3, while everything to the right is unchanged. so, as before, if we can show that each of these three pieces independently is divisible by 37, we'll have succeeded. and we'll start with the inserted part, b_insert, cause it's the simplest and i imagine some of yall already see where it's going.

that one was simple, it was straight out 111 times that digit y times some power of ten. so that's one place where 111 showed up. now, we can probably somehow get the original number somewhere out of the remaining two pieces to leave us with just one last bit to prove, if the previous proof is any indication. b_rest looks like it'd be useful but it's missing some terms, so let's look at b_front. there we'd have a neat match if not for all the powers of 10 being 3 bigger than the corresponding index. so, let's extract the common factor from all those.

now the stuff in parentheses is what we'd need to add to b_rest to complete the original number. it's just that there's a thousand of it, when we need just one. so let's separate one from the thousand and-

oh hey, and what we're left with is 999 times something, which we already know is a multiple of 37. let's call it 37 times m where m is stuff in brackets times the pieces of 999 after we pulled 37 out of it. cause we don't need to write it any more than that if we already know it's good. "i don't care" is a very powerful statement to use in math.

and now we can put those back together again.

and as a final cherry on top,

yay. so, just one left. should be smooth sailing, right?

yeah to be honest for this next one i needed some time to get one specific insight, and the road there lead through first proving something simpler, which is quite an effective problem solving approach. let's go through it and see.

------

c) if you take a number that's a multiple of 37, reverse the order of digits, and then put a zero between every two digits, you get another multiple of 37.

so a good place to start will be once again defining what we mean in math symbols, cause while we can put it into words and write an example, those math symbols have been quite useful in solving this.

nothing new here but this time i also wrote the sequence of digits cause it'll be useful in building up the new number. so we flip the order and then add zeros.

so reading this from the right, in the ones place we have x_k. then we skip tens. then in the hundreds we have x_k-1. we skip thousands, and in ten thousands we have x_k-2. that's 10^0, 10^2, 10^4, and so on that have a digit from the original sequence - the even powers of ten. the number of original digits didn't change, but we doubled each power of ten used, so the highest power should be 2k.

yeah it got a bit more complicated, with the indices all the other way, and the exponents doubled, nice mess we got ourselves into. if you can already see where the proof is going, that's great. quoting Grant Sanderson of youtube channel 3blue1brown, pause and ponder. if you don't, fret not, it took me a while too. so how about for now we ignore this bigger problem and solve a much simpler case.

------

d2) same as point c, but we're looking at two-digit starting numbers. there is no point d1, i gave it a 2 cause 2 digits.

there are only two numbers that are 2-digit and are multiples of 37 - 37 itself and 74, so we could just plop 703 and 407 into a calculator and see what they divide into, but we should do it in a general way like we did before. we're already deep into the math, might as well

so, we swap the digits, double the exponents, and add a 0 in the middle just for now to remember it was there.

last time we were in a situation like this (back in case a) we added and subtracted one of the digits times 1000. let's do it again.

looks familiar. let's extract 10^2 from the first two terms and -x_1 from the other two.

yep, that worked, and we got the original number and 111 in there. that's promising. let's try three digits.

------

d3) same as d2 but the starting number has 3 digits

okay, so last time, and back in case a, we were able to restore the original number in the correct ordering of digits by adding and subtracting one term, and we did that in d2 as well. here we'd need to add and subtract two terms each. you know, worth a shot.

so we can do that, and the stuff we subtract each can pair with one of the remaining terms. let's do the usual and see what we're left with

so we got two of those as freebies, what about the last one? 10^6 is one million, so the brackets equal 999,999. is this a multiple of 999? why yes, it is, and the comma used to bunch digits of large numbers into groups of three helps us notice. and, well, so does saying the number out loud. 999 thousand, 999.

alright, i think we're warmed up enough to get back to our general case

which as i mentioned before i need to split into a separate followup post. 2/10 literally unplayable. i know there is the option "post privately" and there is the queue and schedule, but i'm sure as hell not gonna experiment when if something goes wrong i need to either redo the whole thing or have to wait to add the second half or whatever, i just want to drop it and move on.

[short-black-diamond]

unfortunately I am not 💘 anon but I'll manifest for them to drop an ask for you too 😭😭👍🏼

so yeah about my housemates, they're all really nice and sometimes we do stay up late and gossip about people from our uni (for example, there was this senior that was extremely rude towards one of my housemates so she ended up shit-talking that senior for 30 minutes straight)

but really, I don't think any of them are fake yk. sure, they have some annoying ass habits like not cleaning the room properly, not switching off the kitchen light and the one I hate the most is when one of my housemate (we'll call her N) brought her friend from another section of the hostel to our house without telling us💀 like, the other day, someone knocked on our door and I thought that was one of my other housemate (this one we'll call her H) that went outside to buy food. so imagine my face when I opened the door and boom, some random girl asked me "where's N?" without even a proper greeting. tbh, I don't mind if you bring your friend from other section to our house as long as you inform us. but girl, I was literally only wearing my nightgown and my hair is a mess when this random girl appeared like??? 😭😭💀

aaaaaanyways, sorry for "trauma-dumping" on you but *sigh*, yeah when you live with people, that's when you'd know their true behaviors. ok so about blue lock!

I've been seeing people on tiktok saying that kaiser will most likely get benched because of how irrational his plays are becoming in the recent chapters (him trying to steal the ball from isagi etc.) but some people said that noa wouldn't bench kaiser bc he's extremely important to bm so I'd like to know your thoughts.

in my opinion, I think noa might bench kaiser bc before the ubers vs bm match, noa had already warned kaiser that he wouldn't tolerate anymore irrational plays and him being obsessed with isagi and guess what kaiser did? make irrational plays and get obsessed with isagi! also, I think it'd be soooo funny to see kaiser's reaction when he gets benched LMFAOO bros already hanging by a thread when isagi managed to beat him in the manshine vs bm match so imagine how kaiser's gonna be like once this ubers match is over

btw I actually love kaiser but I also love seeing kaiser slander😭 I'll never forget how bro invaded isagi's personal space and made isagi have multiple mental breakdowns in the middle of a match without any remorse

- 🌷 anon

damn I hate unannounced visits from strangers too, I hope you'll be able to withstand these things, my blossoming tulip. But couldn't that girl really not say hello??? tsk, tsk, tsk, inpolite people...especially to MY BLOSSOMING TULIP

I also wish you good luck and much fun in your studies and that you won't have any bad things happening to you, my love.

About that benching stuff, damn I forgot Noa actually warned Kaiser, but yeah, it would be so much fun to see Kaiser get benched because of that. I actually also wanted Kiyora Jin to play, but Hiori was a better option according to Isagi.

however, in the latest chapter, they couldn't really do much because Oli and Kaiser messed up his goal.

Also, I hope that Hiori won't become like ness because Isagi sees Hiori as also a key to his goal, but they still miss a piece, and that makes me wonder if Kiyora wouldn't have been a better option?

There's so many what-ifs and not enough answers, my gorgeous tulip, that we'll have to wait for answers or ask other people.

Also I deleted Tik Tok because I got addicted to it lol.

-your diamond <3

[zeldaelmo]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

Tagged by my wonderful friend @bahbahhh.

__

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

77

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

484,215

My goal for 2023 was to hit the 500,000 and I'm positive I'll reach it.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Legend of Zelda, all games apart from Zelda I, II, and Minish Cap (because I haven't played them so far)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

How to name a royal child

Stolen Kisses

Strangers in the Night

It's in his Kiss

Flour, water, salt, yeast, love

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Uh... in theory, I do. I love getting comments but I often feel stupid saying ten times 'thank you' in a row, so I end up answering mostly when I have something to say.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

That would be Lonely at the Top. I don't really write angsty endings, but this one is hurt/no comfort as it tackles Link visiting the Light Dragon who doesn't even react to him.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hm...I'm not too fond of the fanfic version of the perfect happy ending, namely, proposal, sappy wedding, and omg, twins!, mainly because I love the nuance life teaches us. What a happy ending for a fic and a character is, is so often much more different than the fairy tale version.

That being said, I'd still go with Strangers in the Night, just because the two worked so damn hard for their happy ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Hate is a big word, but I get negative comments and sometimes they are even personal, yes. Most people are lacking reading competence and/or don't understand how stories work. I mostly ignore those. Sometimes I complain on discord if it's very annoying. If someone insults me, I block.

I don't think that has to do so much with me, though. I have 1,346 comment threads on my stories. Of course, there are some idiots among them, that's life.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes, occasionally. I think ten of 77 fics are explicit. Look, the thing is, I'm a story teller. So if the smut doesn't add to the story, I don't tell it. Rule of thumb is, that I keep it to a T-rating if possible to make the story accessible to most people. I only go for explicit stuff if I want to deliver some part of the character development/plot with the intimacy (or the lack of lol) that the smut offers.

Does that get me the most Kudos? No. But I'm not here for that or I wouldn't bother writing for 30 years old games. I'm here to tell a good story and have fun. :)

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No. If you've read so far, I can tell you a secret as a reward: I find crossovers pointless. Ooops.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I am aware of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I am aware of! But I'd love to! Big fan of accessibility!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I've seen a few writing collabs end in fandom drama or otherwise go awry, so I decided that I only collab with artists. I might try with something short one day, but nothing novel-length.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Take a guess.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Ah, so I have a half-written novel in my drafts. A story about writer!Zelda and fanartist!Link who are also princess and beloathed bodyguard. I'm very determined to go back to that one after I finished The Promise, but I'm a little scared. The story is complicated and my thoughts are chaotic. I already asked @mistresslrigtar to help me work it out next year, so I hope we'll manage.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and showing what's going on in the character's head who's not the POV character.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I struggle with simplicity sometimes, mainly because of the language barrier. I write something that's horribly complicated and I just know there must be a better way to put it, but I can't figure it out. Grammar is hard, lads.

I also have a weird relationship with descriptions. I love having characters interact with their environment but I loath big chunks of description. I plan to work on this during my traditional holiday self-study break.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

This is a weirdly specific question, but ok.

If you don't happen to write a book that's supposed to teach beginners the other language, then don't. You might end up othering the person who's speaking and that's something you don't want to dabble with lightly.

I already talked about accessibility: You will exclude people from your writing and you don't want that just to sound cool. If you must for plot reasons, make otherwise sure everyone is on board. Slightly different case if you actively hide something from your readers (and other characters), but that's probably not the most common case.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

LoZ

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

I refuse to answer this. 77 fics are too much to choose from. I love most of them.

_

tagging: @mistresslrigtar, @airplanned, @jenseits-der-sterne, @silentprincess17, @deiliamedlini, @skyyknights

[omentranslates]

Owari no Seraph chapter 127 english fan translation

hi welcome to the tumblr experience since i'm not risking a 30 post thread on twitter right now

the official is already out on manga plus, i usually only leave the link over there but since it's a special occasion

just for fun as usual so thanks for reading

Chapter 127: Loyalty and Love

Color page text: No matter what happens, I won't let go of your hand.

Energy top-up for exploring the past...!!

Yuu: Haaah....I get SO hungry. And I hit limit-break at the best times. Reliving the past is no small deal.

Yuu: Oh. Great, after this cola I'm all full. Mika, I'm coming back. Hope I make it in time.

Yuu: I'm back

Mika: Shh

Angel Mika: Yuu, guess what. Father says we're gonna have a picnic together! I can't wait...Yuu, you should come with us, ok!?

Yuu: Oh, someone's coming.

Mika: Yeah

Angel Mika: Huh? Did Father come back in?

Yuu: No...

Paimon: *coughing*

Yuu: It's Saitou.

Paimon: *coughing and hacking*

Angel Mika: Oh....

Paimon: You're in my way.

Angel Mika: YUU!!!

Paimon: Die.

Angel Mika: I won't. What...is the meaning of this?

Angel Mika: Leave. Now.

Paimon: SHIT!!

Bael: Paimon

Yuu: ANGEL MIKA'S GOT HANDS!

Paimon: You truly are the King's child...There's no time for this. I'll have to bring my best as well.

Angel Mika: WAIT, JUST WAIT A SECOND! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? WHY ME? ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL-...

Angel Mika: *echoing voice* O, Light

Paimon: ..........shit. You're so strong even just having been born. If I leave you alive here, there will be no hiding you from God's sight.

Angel Mika: I'M TELLING YOU TO JUST WAIT A SECOND. Aren't you Father's closest aide? You're Paimon, the angel Father always speaks so highly of. So why are you of all people doing this? Hey, tell me why you're doing this.

Paimon: There's no time. I'm ending this now.

Angel Mika: I'm just going to lay this out for you. I'm stronger than you. I've been holding back. So your knife there is useless on me.

Paimon: So what?

Angel Mika: So I'm asking what you're doing this for if you understand that already. Your intention is to die with this next hit, isn't it? But I'll counter it, so are you sure you want that death?

Paimon: My death doesn't matter so long as I kill you...

Paimon: *coughing fit*

Angel Mika: What for?

Paimon: ......for the King.

Angel Mika: What? What are you saying...

Paimon: Your existence touches upon the forbidden. The King will be punished for you.

Angel Mika: What? But-

Paimon: Did he tell you he would heal your illness? He's forbidden from that. He created you, he was also forbidden from that. He told me he would cure me too, it's forbidden.

Angel Mika: B-but...Father said I'd get better.

Paimon: You might, but the day you do will be the King's last. And that punishment will not be satisfied with just his death.

Angel Mika: But, Father said we'd all go on a picnic together.

Paimon: He was lying. The King plans to fall alone into Hell.

Angel Mika: But Father said we could always be together.

Paimon: It's all lies. He's going to accept his punishment to protect you.

Angel Mika: He couldn't....

Paimon: But I'm not going to let that happen, I'm going to protect the King from you. Because....I am his most beloved aide!!

Angel Mika: No, dying is.....

Paimon: DIE.

Angel Mika: I DON'T WANT TO, IT'S TOO SCARY!!

Angel Mika: LIGHT

Paimon: O, LIGHT

Yuu: Whoa...

Angel Mika: Oh, oh no...oh, what do I do, I'm so sorry!

Paimon: Ah damn it...you're strong. I couldn't have beaten you.

Angel Mika: What do I do what do I do what do I do......Father, I-I've gotta call Father!

Paimon: Wait, don't. Seeing us like this would hurt him.

Angel Mika: This isn't the time for things like...!

Paimon: I want you to listen to me. I'm thinking about something.

Angel Mika: Thinking? What could you possibly be...?

Paimon: First of all, you don't need to worry about this. I came here knowing I would lose to you. Take a look at these hideous blackened wings. My disease is progressing, I was going to die soon anyways.

Angel Mika: What...

Paimon: But the King refuses to give up on me. He's going to keep trying to save me, even though it will be his end. So then, what should I do?

Paimon: I want you to tell me, child of my King. What can I, in the way that I am, do to leave proof of my love for my King? I just want to protect him.

Angel Mika: You say it like that, but...

Paimon: Do you love your father?

Angel Mika: Huh?

Paimon: Do you love your dad, from the bottom of your heart? That's what I wanted to know. Because if you do, it makes us the same.

Paimon: Light upon the King....and the future of this land....

Angel Mika: Ah....ah....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

Angel Mika: It's not true, how can this......why.........

Angel Mika: *cough*

Angel Mika: *cough cough*

Angel Mika: .....so my illness....is going to hurt Father? My existence....it's causing him problems? Is that it, Paimon?

Angel Mika: Aah, what should I do....? Father...it seems like I'm really a burden on you, huh.

Angel Mika: God's punishment.....

Yuu: No, Mika don't

Angel Mika: Aah, I'm scared, Father. I don't think I'm brave enough to do this.

Angel Mika: but...

Angel Mika: I really love you too, Father.

Shikama: What the......

Shikama: Mikaela....Paimon.....it....it can't be....

An instantaneous tragedy.....

[literaticat]

Hi, Jenn! Editors have been saying my Adult books seem “young.” I’m not really sure what that means. It’s just not literary enough? What makes something seem young? (Sorry, I know you’re not an Adult agent!!)

If I had to hazard a context-free guess (which might be completely wrong, I haven't read your book!) -- I'd say one or more of these might be the issue:

-- Maybe your characters read young. Like maybe you say they are 30 (or whatever), but they seem to have the concerns / mindset / voice of teenagers.

-- Especially if you are writing SF/F or something of that nature, maybe your world-building is not complex or "deep" enough seeming? Like, for example, sometimes you have a YA dystopian called ESCAPING THE DOME, and it's like "Clarizee lives in this world that is under a dome, the world outside the dome is uninhabitable, everyone in the dome is assigned a job at birth and their life partner at age 15" -- and that's basically all we need know about the world, then it's a plot about how Clarizee doesn't WANT to be a zigko farmer or to marry Baxx next week! So she's gonna escape the dome and figure it out, with the help of her mutant dog and an unlikely ally from the Forbidden Zone! -- but if it was an adult book, we'd know when and WHY the dome was put into place, what the political and societal ramifications of the dome are, how the dome even works, what medicinal properties zigko has, where the corrupt president of Dome City gets his pickled herrings, who ELSE wants to escape the dome, more about the Forbidden Zone and its people, or whatever, and while the Clarizee escaping plot might still exist, the fabric of the whole world would be more complex and Clarizee's teen angst would not be center or the driving force of the story, but rather one thread among many.

-- Maybe, as you suggest, your prose is basic or "just not literary enough" -- but a nicer way to say that is, maybe your prose is tonally more commercial than literary. That isn't to say that books for young people can't be literary, beautifully written and intricate (they often are!), or that books for adults can't be written in a commercial, straightforward and easy-to-digest way (they often are!) -- but rather, perhaps your book seems like it SHOULD be literary, but the writing feels more commercial, or vice-versa. Like Dan "DA VINCI CODE" Brown writes in a highly commercial (simple, punchy, "gettable") way for highly commercial stories -- he's not trying to win a literary award, he's trying to sell a shit-ton of books at the airport. That's not an insult! His writing is perfect for the kind of book he is writing, and his massive success is a testament to that fact. George "LINCOLN IN THE BARDO" Saunders writes highly innovative and finely crafted fiction and wins loads of literary awards -- he isn't trying to write mass market thrillers for the airport crowd. So a George Saunders type book with DB type writing OR a Dan Brown type thriller with GS type writing might be a tonal mismatch -- they wouldn't speak to the audience for which the books are aimed.

[afraidofchange]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN.

respond to the prompts out of character!

what made you pick up the current muse(s) you have?  I love women? Basically I just love all my female canons and my female OCs are just the Lexie Extended Universe (my mind). But Rama Wolfbluff is my long-standing D&D character and I love her dearly - more so as I play as her in BG3.

is there anything you don’t like to write?   I guess just anything getting into 'dead dove don't eat' territory; it's not for me, and some subjects imo really shouldn't be roleplayed on this platform e.g. S.A. etc.

is there anything you really enjoy writing?  Romance. I eat that shit UP!!! Whether it's slow burn or something quick from chemistry. I love it.

how do you come up with headcanons?   Whatever comes to mind, or if there's a prompt on the dash. It helps if I'm playing an OC (like Rama) in a game like BG3 where I can think on what her decisions would be/what dialogue she would take.

do you write in silence or do you play music?  Music!!! 95% of the time, anyway. I usually get inspiration from one song and keep it on repeat while I do a single thread.

do you plan your replies or wing them?   I usually have a general idea of what I want to respond with / what I want to happen. But in terms of drafting out ideas like I would an essay? no, lmao.

do you enjoy shipping?    Absolutely!!! I lean mostly to f/f ships of course, but I have a few m/f pairings that I enjoy (Ashley/Owen, Miranda/Aiden, Ana/Reinhardt, Nikita/Vernon/Job, to name a few!).

what’s your alias/name?   Lexie - it's just a nickname variation of my government name, lmao.

age?  30!!!

birthday?  Feb 5!

favorite color?  Red!

favorite song?  Landslide - Fleetwood Mac, probably.

last movie you watched?  Drive Away Dolls in theaters w my gf. We're going to see Love Lies Bleeding tomorrow!!!! gay movies!!

last show you watched?  The Sopranos

last song you listened to?  Fleetwood Mac - Silver Springs - May 1997 live performance where Stevie Nicks stares straight into Lindsey Buckingham's soul.

favorite food?  Love me the classic medium rare steak and baked potato, served with asparagus type meal.

favorite season?  summer!

do you have a tumblr best friend?  I certainly have friends that I've known for a very long time (some for 11-12 years!!), so I'd say definitely a few!

tagged by :  No one, I stole it.  tagging  :  you!

[seolhe]

Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag 2024

Wasn't tagged or anything, just thought I'd give this a go. Books read so far: 55 1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2024? Probably gonna have to give that to Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb. While I still vastly prefer the Farseer trilogy over the Liveship Traders, her writing and character work are just far superior to most of the books I read in any given year.

2. Best Sequel you've read in 2024 so far? In truth, I would probably have to repeat my first answer, but because I'm not repeating answers, I'll say In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan, book four in her Memoirs of Lady Trent series.

3. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to? Hm... I had to go through my tbr list, because nothing really jumped out at me, but a few 2024 releases on my radar include The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo, An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson, The Missing Thread by Daisy Dunn and Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of 2023? The only one that comes to mind is The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri, the third and final part of her Burning Kingdoms trilogy.

5. Biggest disappointment? Probably Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan, the fifth and final(ish) book in the Lady Trent series. Because I had loved the entire series, I was really disappointed by the turn this book took. There's a big revelation in this one, and while it wasn't a big surprise, I really didn't like it. Not the worst book I read, but probably the most disappointing.

6. Biggest surprise? I would probably say What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher. I mean, I tend to really enjoy her books, so that wasn't a surprise, but I really didn't think What Moves the Dead needed a sequel, so I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked for me.

7. New favourite author? I don't know if I have a new favourite author per se... I would say the best new (to me) author I read was Octavia Butler.

8. New fictional crush? I don't get fictional crushes

9. Newest favourite character? Oh, hm... I don't know if there were any "new" characters that really stood out to me. All the characters I liked the most were from series I started reading prior to 2024. I guess I would say that Kennit from the Liveship Traders really grew on me in book two and three. I didn't love him in the first book, but he certainly grew to become a favourite as the series continued.

10. Book that made you cry? I don't know if I actively cried, but Night by Elie Wiesel was devastating. I read it in one sitting, but more than once I had to put it down just because something hit me so hard I needed a moment to process it and collect myself.

11. Book that made you happy? This is a little bit of a cheat, because I usually don't count rereads, but because this is a book I haven't read since my teens, I think it counts. I reread Pawn of Prophecy, the first book of the Belgariad by David Eddings, and it was such a delightful little nostalgia trip! I was absolutely obsessed with this series when I was like, idk, 13-14 year old, so it was great revisiting it now in my 30s.

12. Favourite book to movie adaptation you’ve seen so far this year? Nimona, definitely.

13. What book do you really need to read by the end of this year? He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan, for sure! There are other books I really want to get to this year, but I *need* to read this one.