#at time of writing 5.55 has not yet arrived

[starrysnowdrop]

Random Lili Headcanons

So I’m still so shocked at how well the Lili x Krile gposes were received!! I’m going to take a chunk of it as Krile hype (and rightfully so! Krile has been sidelined for far too long!), but I’m very happy that y’all seem to be curious about Lili as well! I’m still ironing out the details enough to write up a full profile (and I might make Lili her own sideblog for organizational purposes, but I haven’t decided yet), but I figured it was time to share some of my initial headcanons for her and where I think I’ll go with her story. This will be a random list of things that just pop into my head, so I apologize if I start to ramble a bit.

Lili is the name she likes to be called, but her full name is Lilika Lika, and it’s not only a canon compliment Dunesfolk name (unlike Hali, heh), but it’s also my little nod to Final Fantasy X, because I think it sounds similar to Kilika Island.

Lili’s pronouns are She/Her, she is cisgender, and a lesbian. She has had relations with men in her past when she was finding herself, but she came out as a lesbian when she was 20 years old.

She was born in Ul’dah and she is actually the distant cousin of Hali! Lili met Hali when Hali first arrived in Eorzea and looked up information on Nanani’s family (Nanani is Hali’s grandmother and Lili’s great aunt who left Ul’dah to marry her husband and live in Sharlayan).

Lili is descended from a prominent family whose members almost always become involved in the Order of Nald’thal, with many members also joining the Thaumaturge Guild. Lili tried her hand at Thaumaturgy but she found herself woefully unskilled in magic. Instead, she joined the Pugilist Guild and eventually trained in the techniques of the Ala Mhigan Monk.

I plan on Lili’s main canon job to be Monk from ARR-EW, but perhaps she trained briefly as a Samurai before she takes up the twin blades of a Viper for Dawntrail.

Unlike Hali who never believed in any forms of religion and only understands religion in an academic sense as a Sharlayan, Lili does believe in the Twelve and has her faith shaken by the events of the MSQ and of course the events of the Myths of the Realm raid series.

Lili has had several casual relationships, including a brief fling with Tataru during ARR and HW, but she never had any serious romantic feelings about someone until she met Krile.

I’m still working out a timeline of the Lili x Krile ship right now, but I’m thinking about them confessing their feelings and officially being in an exclusive relationship around Post ShB to Pre EW. Sometime in the 5.3-5.55 range. They get together before Hali and Aymeric do at least.

Lili is represented by opposing symbolism to Hali, and they are a duality of forces. Hali’s symbols are water, ice, darkness, night, stars, spring, etc. whereas Lili’s symbols are fire, light, day, sun, autumn, etc. Hali is a magic user and Lili is a melee fighter. Hali is extroverted and highly emotional while Lili is introverted, practical, and usually in control of her emotions.

That’s all I’ve got for now! I’ll be working on a full profile for Lili in the meantime, so please look forward to it! Any feedback is greatly appreciated! 🥰💖

[storms-path]

Arenvald

Oh. Oh, I see. Here comes the anxiety train, choo choo~

How I feel about this character

He’s great. I really enjoy his relentless optimism, not only because he’s a wonderful ray of sunshine among the lesser-known Scions but also because his history shows that he’s seen the worst in people he should have loved and still chooses to see the best in the world and the people in it. I respect that a lot.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Honestly, Alphinaud is about all I can think of. Give the boy some time to get through elf-puberty and let the two see how far their hard-won friendship gets them. They’d be good for one another, I think.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Arenvald dragging Fordola kicking and screaming towards forgiveness and peace of mind is very good to me. Between him and Lyse, there’s a lot more hope for Fordola than she ever could have hoped for, and her own acidic realism works well to keep Arenvald’s feet on the ground and his eyes open. They’re two sides of the same battered coin in a lot of ways.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I… don’t really have one? I guess not wanting him and Fordola to hook up might be one? I dunno. He’s a good boy. He doesn’t need unpopular opinions weighing him down.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Please pull through, Arenvald. Please.

[itsworn]

Fuel Dragsters, Funny Cars, and Show Cars Costar in Famoso Raceway’s 27th NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion

Drag racing’s last great spectator bargain is NHRA’s California Hot Rod Reunion. You get a long weekend for about the cost of one day at the big show. Your hard-earned $65 (advance) or $75 buys a beautiful yearbook, access to one of Don Garlits’ favorite swap meets, continuous pit cackling, a vintage-photo contest, and a daily changing assemblage of street-driven cars and trucks that rivals most outdoor shows. You don’t get dinged for parking or assigned seating. The beer is cheaper, too. Arrive early to park close and “reserve” any seat that suits your fancy. Friday night’s honoree celebration and afterparty cackle at a Bakersfield hotel are free.

Moreover, the lion’s share of proceeds reportedly supports a most-worthy cause: operation of the NHRA Wally Parks Motorsports Museum, whose small staff conceived and developed, over a quarter-century, a reunion formula that successfully balanced all of the racing and reuniting. Perhaps coincidental to the heated departure of veteran NHRA competition director Steve Gibbs at the start of the tumultuous 2016 edition, that fragile balance is broken. Weary attendees are consequently questioning whether their favorite motorsports event is too much of a good thing; that is, the event has too much to cram into three days without dragging late into chilly October nights.

No such complaints were heard about the quality of competition in this fourth, final 2018 event. (Tulsa’s prior, scheduled series race was canceled due to a stormy forecast.) Sunday’s smallish crowd cheered Mendy Fry to her third Top Fuel win (defeating Rick McGee); Jason Rupert ruled Funny Car Eliminator (d. Rian Konno); Brian Hope, Fuel Altered (d. Rodney Flournoy); Drew Austin, A/Fuel (d. Wayne Ramay); John Marottek, Jr. Fuel (d. Don Enriquez); Steve Faller, 7.0 Pro (d. Brad Denney); Scott White, AA/Gas (d. Gary Reinero); Roger Holder, Pro Mod (d. Ed Thornton); Bernie Plourd, Nostalgia I (d. Jim Seivers); Robert Johnson, N2 (d. Jaclyn Jones); Lindsey Lister, N3 (d. Wes Anderson); Brian Rogers, A/Gas (d. Frank Merenda); Val Miller, B/G (d. Kevin Riley); Bill Becker, C/G (d. Mark Capps); Bill Norton, D/G (d. Larry Cook); Jack Goodrich, A/FX (d. Ken Moreland); and Alex George, Hot Rod (d. Mark Dyck).

Despite springlike weather each day, more seats than usual went unoccupied for the second year since the troubled 25th-anniversary edition erupted into the biggest crisis in the near-four-decade existence of serious retro racing (see Mar. 2017 Deluxe; Controversy Comes To NHRA’s 25th California Hot Rod Reunion). Saturday night’s 30 push starters were about half of the turnout in peak years. To NHRA’s credit, admission prices were not jacked up to compensate for losses in admission and cackle-car revenue. Instead, five lower sportsman categories previously omitted from CHRR generated approximately 140 additional entries at $125 per driver, $65 for crew, $50 for extra pit space, $100 for first RV, $150 per additional RV (ka-ching!). Inexplicably, Thursday was not added to accommodate the predictable overflow (as done by March Meet promoters years ago, solving the same problem). Considering that extra entry moolah, one more day of track workers’ pay and expenses seems like a small price to pay to keep customers happy and warm and coming back.

Nevertheless, NHRA seems intent on repeating that mistake, along with an older one. A painful lesson learned in early reunions was that November is often too windy or rainy for racing or watching, yet the three-day 2019 edition has been pushed a week closer to that risky month (October 25-27). Even if NHRA gets the memo and starts running on Thursdays, don’t leave home without your winter coat and plenty of patience.

King Cackle Saturday night’s incomparable push-start Cacklefest is undeniably the main event for many fans, particularly foreigners. Photographer Kleet Norris’s pan shot of the original MagiCar might be mistaken for a 1965 solo pass at Lions or Irwindale. Former driver Jeep Hampshire generously loaned his old seat, fire suit, and helmet to grateful crewman John Strom, who travels cross-country to assist owner-restorer Bill Pitts, the Father of Cackle Cars.

Hottest Rods of All The biggest annual meet for traditional AA/Fuel Altereds continues to present some of the same California teams that made “Awful-Awfuls” nationally touring attractions in the 1970s. Here, Randy Bradford’s Fiat and the Hough family’s Nanook, now driven by grandson Kyle Hough, perform a synchronized dance routine for the long lens of veteran photographer Paul Sadler.

Dad’s Doors This 354-Hemified street gasser is a rolling, snorting tribute to Lillard Hill’s late father. The shop’s logo and phone number are accurate for Alvin Hill’s former repair shop on old Highway 99 in nearby McFarland, California.

Royal Table What other hotel restaurant routinely fills with hot-rod heroes as diverse as engine-builder Ed Pink, accompanied by wife Sylvia (left), and the Rodfather and Rodmother, Andy and Sue Brizio? The royal couples were spotted prior to the NHRA Museum’s yearly presentation of lifetime-achievement awards at Bakersfield’s DoubleTree. Both men were early reunion honorees.

Main Attraction One brand new build or another never fails to draw intense attention in the Famoso Grove. This year’s main attraction might have been Vic and Debbi Hager’s Model A, the local couple’s first ground-up project. Five years ago, Debbi paid $400 each for the ’28 body and frame as a 60th birthday present for her high-school sweetheart. Thus began a five-year joint effort that involved learning how to do an old-school paint job outdoors, and discarding four flatheads before finding a French block suited for this Merc’s big bore and stroke. Read all about it in an exclusive HRD feature soon!

Show-Off Piece That’s how Roger Burton describes his nailhead-powered ’28 Tudor that he and his wife, Mary, brought to the CHRR all the way from Hoquiam, Washington. “I didn’t come here to drag race. I came to show off my toy,” Roger says. He built the Model A around the ’56 Buick engine that was “just too neat a piece not to use.” The 0.030-over, Hilborn-injected 322 had some Bonneville and drag-race history before the Burtons bought it a dozen or so years ago. It is mated to a ’37 La Salle trans and a ’57 Olds rearend, both mounted to a stock A frame. Roger bought the sedan body “from a kid who was making a street rod” and built the car’s cage around neat 1948-vintage seats, “either from a B-29 or B-50,” that he found in an aircraft wrecking yard in Tucson, Arizona. “It’s an exhibition car, just for sh*ts and giggles. I’m having more fun making 13-second passes than 9.50 passes.”

The Lady Is a Champ Top Fuel winner Mendy Fry, the 30-plus-year veteran who dominated fast-street-car racing and briefly held NHRA’s Top Alcohol Dragster national record as a teenager, is the first female season champion of any nostalgia-fuel category. She went to all four Hot Rod Heritage Series finals and won all but one round this year (reminiscent of Don Prudhomme’s single-loss, eight-event 1976 NHRA campaign). A perfect outing in Tom Shelar’s slingshot saw her sweep the qualifying pole (5.59 seconds) plus low e.t. (5.55) and top speed (261.62) of the meet.

Hotel Unrest Pity the unsuspecting traveler who retired before the fuelers fired. Friday night’s static cacklers included Bob Contorelli, who flawlessly restored the Speed Products Engineering beauty that Roy Fjasted originally built for Prentiss Cunningham near the end of the first slingshot era. Famed nitro tuner Mike Kuhl helped get the Hemi together and flaming. Veteran freelancer Bob McClurg, who photographed this car when new, came full circle nearly half a century later in the DoubleTree parking lot.

No-Bagger We were glad to see our favorite ’48 Dodge custom return from a piston-induced absence that might have proved permanent had a Bakersfield mechanic and former stock car racer not been willing to tackle its flathead-six. Mark Wilson topped off his rebuild with an aluminum cylinder head and a rare Moon fuel injector that he enjoys tuning as he rolls. A Wilcap-adapted GM 700R slushbox delivers sufficient overdrive to retain the stock rearend (“Chrysler’s long, skinny rods don’t like rpm!”). Ronnie Beam did the scallops, and Kyle Gann laced the lid. Airbags seem like cheating to Wilson, who mechanically lowered his frame to the ride height shown.

Twice As Nice The third cacklefest of every CHRR weekend occurs in front of the first grandstand on Sunday morning, just prior to eliminations. Maybe it was the double dose of methanol that brought tears to old photographers’ eyes as the highly competitive Brunelli & Dunn Pro Comp/Top Alcohol car roared back to life. The late Leo Dunn’s daughter, Vickie Larrow, led the restoration, assisted by husband Chris and friend Wesley Sewell.

Sharp Humor Greg Sharp, the NHRA Museum’s curator and invaluable HRD contributor, interrupted his reunion duties to yuck it up with former Car Craft staffers and multiyear Modified Eliminator division champions Norman Mayersohn (right) and Rick Voegelin. Mayersohn, who went on to a writing career with the New York Times, attended his first NHRA reunion on assignment for Autoweek (Nov. 19 issue). Voegelin was among the honorees awarded lifetime achievement awards.

The post Fuel Dragsters, Funny Cars, and Show Cars Costar in Famoso Raceway’s 27th NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network https://www.hotrod.com/articles/fuel-dragsters-funny-cars-show-cars-costar-famoso-raceways-27th-nhra-california-hot-rod-reunion/ via IFTTT