#brain no work only has BL in it atm

[jeriafterdark]

“your top 15 favourite tv shows can say a lot about your personality!”

Thank you @bizarrequazar for tagging me!

I love so many shows ;-; this is going to change depending on what I feel like at the moment so the ranking is pretty interchangeable

Steven Universe (+ Future) - still my favorite series of all time

Word of Honor / Tian Guan Ci Fu (Heaven Official's Blessing) -these are tied because they've both affected me in deeply positive ways

Parks and Rec - my go-to comfort show

Spy X Family - my favorite anime atm

Cardcaptor Sakura - my favorite CLAMP show and inspires the shoujo part of my art :')

The Untamed - after TGCF, I got pulled into MDZS and the Untamed brought me into the world of RPF :)

Avatar the Last Airbender + Korra - yes

The Simpsons / Futurama - Literally watched these everyday as a kid and I remember all the quotes

Pokemon - Indigo League! - I loved pokemon with my entire heart and soul

Shounen Anime - Full Metal Alchemist (brotherhood) / Naruto (early) / Bleach (early)/ One Piece

I Love Lucy - lots of sentimental memories watching this with my mom

That counts as 15ish with all the ties haha

Tagging @ezribex , @brigwife if you want to share! <3

[mikuni14]

4 Minutes - Ep 4

This ep featured some of my favorite tropes: when two lovers share a secret that requires them to choose between their loved one and a cause, family, work, etc., when one of them decides to side with and protect their beloved, even if it means opposing and endangering their own family. And also that, besides Great choosing to side with Tyme and the kidnapped girl against his own family, Tyme himslef also doesn't waver in his conviction about what's right like Tan, even if it could cost him Great.

I just like this kind of stuff. I think it's neat 💖 The only thing I miss is the development of these scenes, more of them.

Unfortunately, this is not possible for one reason, namely that we are probably watching it all from the perspective of the dying Great, so there are no extended scenes, "fillers", there is no conversation between Great and Tyme about what actually happened, who Nan is, what is going on, what happened to Tyme's parents and what's the deal with Great's family business.

I apologize to WinTonklaKorn fans, but I can't convince myself to invest my interest and emotions in them. Especially now, because messy love triangles ALWAYS turn me off. There is also a lot of focus on the physical element of these relationships, and I find myself turning my head away when that happens (and as a fujoshi I should watch it like a National Geographic cameraman spying on two endangered species having sex like 👀), and generally drifting away. This plot could have been interesting, with elements of toxicity, crime, mourning, ambiguity, but it looks like it might want to, but it comes out more and more like a cheap romance with unnecessarily emphasized pornographic elements. Again - sorry to the fans of this thread and this couple 🙇‍♀️, but that's how I see it. Tonkla's brother was murdered, and he's constantly shown in a sexual context, in relation to other guys who are into him, instead of in the family/ sibling context of someone who lost his brother in terrible circumstances like Tan.

The only interesting scene was how Great's changed "reality" affects Tonkla's reality. The moment when he hears his dead brother's voice was very moving. I won't hide the fact that I would rather see more of this Tonkla. I would rather see him follow Tan's path from DFF in a sibling context, than entangle him in love triangles. I would like to see him as someone who doesn't lose sight of the goal and isn't distracted by the pussies around him like Phee. Unless Tonkla has some plan for Win and Korn 🤔 but I doubt it atm.

Of course I must mention the love scene between Great and Tyme, and I assure you, I did NOT turn my head here 🤩 I have no complaints, Bible and Jes are super comfortable together, they kiss beautifully and their physical contact has a nice flow, is smooth and natural (has Jes ever acted in a BL production?). You can also see in this scene the feelings that Great and Tyme have for each other. And I love how Great is vulnerable and open to Tyme in this scene (as in every other scene).

I like how Tyme starts with "innocent" kisses, giving Great time to react and even say no. I like how Great is just as eager as Tyme, which he shows with his whole body (as a huge fan of equality in relationships, I pay close attention to whether the series shows that both MLs are equally emotionally involved AND want each other). I love the moments when they smile at each other, when they laugh, when in addition to obvious desire they also have FUN, gosh, it's so 💯✨👌

Bible's tattooed thigh will forever be burned into my brain.

Oh and this?

This is it people! This is what it's all about, this is the quintessence of them and a good BL series. This showing of every aspect of a love relationship, this joy and pure fun, these smiles, these tattooed thighs, this beauty. Just.. wow. Wow!

(this is the second version of the post, the first one didn't appear at all, probably because of the full screenshots and Bible's thigh area lol hence the second attempt with cropped photos. EDIT, the previous version was flagged! 🥳 This is my first flagged post in my life, what a special day, I think I'll get drunk in honor of it)

[aikoiya]

LoL - Realistic Ressurection Mechanics From a Storytelly Standpoint

Let's start off by saying that, in my hc, the Resurrection spell used in LoL, narratively, is only something that works within 5 minutes of death. In this way, it's not actually a Resurrection spell so much as a Resuscitation spell. Like magical defib/CPR.

Beyond that initial 5 minutes, you're S.O.L.

If you do come back, it's as a vegetable.

—

If you're dead for longer than 5 minutes, which is the amount of time it takes for your brain cells to start dying. Then, once your body starts decaying, that's it. Nothing short of a literal miracle can bring you back.

Well, unless the medimagist is able to induce regeneration upon the patient, but even then, it's very possible that even regenerating the patient's lost brain cells will still result in some memories being lost.

At the same time, even within that 5 minute time frame, something to keep in mind is the damage that killed them in the first place. It's very important that a medimagist fix whatever was wrong before attempting to bring them back because, if they don't, then they'll likely die again anyway.

Like, if they died of bloodloss, then it's very important to stop the bleeding first by any means. Whether by stitching the wound closed or by cauterizing it.

These are all things one has to keep in mind.

So, greater than 5 minutes, but less than 24-72 hours, depending on the person. This I the most optimal.

Though, there are some bodies that just don't decompose for one reason or another & they tend to have the benefit of a much larger window of resuscitation.

At the same time, freezing a body in an attempt to prolong the resuscitation window actually makes resuscitation much more difficult. It's still possible, but more difficult.

You can only be brought back between 1-3 times (beyond the 5 minute timelimit), the difficulty of the procedure becoming higher & requiring more magic with each death, so upon being brought back, you can't overdo yourself or you could end up dying again almost immediately. Even then, it'll only work if the soul in question has the determination & desire to keep living. Without that, even performing the procedure perfectly (which is near impossible) will not bring them back.

Though, resuscitation within that 5 minute timelimit is something that can be done repeatedly, over & over again without much problem.

It's possible for someone to resuscitate a person (who's been dead for longer that 5 minutes) beyond those 3 times, but no one has yet to do so due to the level of difficulty & amount of magic required to do so. It's possible that adding more medimagists or healing magic specialists to the mix giving their magic might help, but again, there's only been, at most, 2 at a time in existence. So, it's just theory atm.

This is not something you can just do with healing magic (somamagy/corporamagy).

It requires dedication & deep study of both healing magic, medical science, chemtech, & alchemy. When these things are all paired together, it's called Medimagy. The medical branch of HexTech.

True Resurrection is literally the pinnacle of Medimagy. If you can manage to do this even just once, you are considered the best in the industry! Only between 1 & 2 people per every 7 centuries can boast this kind of accomplishment, at best!

If you can manage to do this consistently? You are automatically a fucking legend!

If you're just a doctor using HexTech, you CANNOT hope to ever perform True Resurrection. You MUST be a magicborn. If you try & you aren't, you WILL die & you won't even manage to accomplish your goal.

—

It's also not something someone can just come back from & get back to their daily life immediately like in games. They especially can't just jump right back into combat. They try &, guaranteed, they will die again.

You are literally pulling someone back from the jaws of death, there's gonna be some fucking damage. The kind that's actually really dangerous to try & heal with magic blunt force all willy nilly.

Anything beyond a cat with a magical purr or a Susurrecorder is too much, too sudden for the body. A Susurrecorder is a HexTech device that can mimic a frequency range of 25 to 150 Hz, simulating a cat's purr, thus promoting healing; the HexTech Gemstone in the device mixes magic into the sound, thus producing low-level somamagic & sonimagic (sound magic) energy, thus improving the effects. It was the very first step in Medimagy.

So, there is definitely a long-ass recovery time to heal & rest. No getting up until they can breathe normally again.

It's an extremely difficult procedure involving fixing the main damage of organs (including the brain due to brain cell death) but, even then, they still need time to let nature take its course. And even then, it's best to be monitored by a doctor, healer, or Medimagist.

If death was due to internal bleeding, then one's lungs & heart especially can not be overworked, or they will just collapse & drown in their own blood again.

The procedure is useless if the Medimagist can't get the body to a point where it can heal on its own. So, depending on what the actual damage is, it can be quite the task.

---

Those who have learned this technique are known to have both extremely long lives (between 2 centuries & a millennium depending on just how knowledgeable they are & that's just for humans), incredible self-healing & regenerative abilities (so long as their magic is full), & an immense amount of physical strength due to the amount of magical energy in their body.

So, think Senju Tsunade & Haruno Sakura from Naruto.

This often results in female Medimagists, specifically those skilled in Myomagy (muscle magic), coming out looking quite like a mix of Tsunade & Luisa from Encanto.

The True Resurrection Procedure is also immensely magically & physically taxing, so expect exhaustion afterwards. Be sure to have an experienced assistant there to catch you should you faint like a damsel.

Arcane Masterlist

Aikoiya's Writing Tips Masterlist

[jo3ydr3w]

System ask game by @/thehuman-ish

📻

🍄 - how did you get your system name?

Someone we used to know suggested Ink Blot.

👾 - funniest out of context system quote?

Literally SO many.

Post by Marcas of some of the funniest ones.

"U beter take yer cake 'n' leave!" - Jojo, when no one had any cake is probably one of the best, 'cause she's four years old, so she just says shit that makes ZERO sense.

🎉 - favorite system holiday?

Birthdays are probably one of them, but another is October 18th, our 1953 poker night anniversary.

🌙 - do you have subsystems?

One. Anti's Bitches.

☕ - what is switching like for you?

It's usually our eyes going unfocused then going into refocus to trigger a switch, unless we just woke up 'cause then we're still half asleep, which makes it a lot easier 'cause our brain isn't awake yet.

💫 - are there any hobbies you all have?

Doll collecting and writing!

💾 - what's your headcount?

No one literally knows. We have a lot of alters we don't know about or barely have heard, but haven't seen, or know are up there by shit laying around, but no one's seen them. My guess is 100 something.

👻 - do your alters/headmates have different voices or speech patterns?

Yeah, we all do. I got a mix of a southern accent and a New York accent. I don't know how it happened either, hun.

🎨 - does anyone in your system like art?

Yeah! We LOVE source art especially!

🥀 - how easily does the system split?

Very, but to be fair I think it's mainly discovering alters that were there for a long time that we didn't know were there.

🦖 - is your system fictive-heavy? factive-heavy? neutral?

Fictive heavy. Only 6? alters that aren't fictives.

🎵 - what songs remind you of your alters/headmates?

So many...A lot of us have playlists on YouTube lol

❓ - how much amnesia do you experience?

So much. We can't remember anything. So when we want to do something we can NOT switch or else we'll forget.

🎮 - what do your alters/headmates do in their free time?

We watch a lot of video essays on nostalgic stuff, tv channels, toylines, tv shows, etc.

🪐 - what is headspace like for you?

It's VERY complex. We'll have to upload our innerworld map at some point. Shit is insanely connected and vast.

🍐 - are there any non-human alters/headmates?

Only humans really are our factives.

🪫 - what do you all do to recharge?

Lay in bed and cry to Olivia Rodrigo.

🌧️ - how does the system cope with stress?

See above answer.

🔦 - how did you discover your system?

Joey heard Jojo outside of age regression a few years ago and went "WHAT"

🌟 - do any alters help out with school/work?

Whoever is fronting at the time.

🌊 - who are your frequent fronters?

Don't have any atm, but last year when BL was a thing, Ethan and Jack were pretty frequent, they got front stuck a lot 'cause of it, I don't think they know that, though. They also tend to front with Mark, ofc, when we're sick.

��� - have you ever bought your alters/headmates things?

Constantly, we spend most of our allowance each month, if not all of it, on stuff for our alters.

☘️ - what are your introjects/fictives usually sourced from?

.....Markiplier's anthology series. We started watching before Dark was even a concept, so it's been a pretty big comfort in our childhood, so over 50, probably 70 or maybe more, of us are sourced from it.

[vinyls-and-valentines]

👀Ghoul backstory?

Ghoul backstory:

born ever so slightly before Battery City was created (like. 3-4 years i think, but i can’t really check atm because the notebook that has timeline stuff is buried under something somewhere) in a family of Better Living scientists;

because of their family’s standing there were, of course, perks they enjoyed- like going to a private daycare, adults fussing them a little more in hopes to get on their parents’ good side etc- but also downsides like generally having very few interactions with their family and the ones they did have were...most often than not less than pleasant;

their parents opinion of them seemed to range somewhere between praise for doing something above their level, acting like they’re purposefully trying to make them look bad or ruin their work as revenge (which like. they were 4?? what 4 year old is out for blood?) or just lukewarm “i am supposed to tend to you”. Not a lot of emotional availability, but a lot of basis for holding themselves at standards even higher than their parents’;

they went to public school for about a year before being pulled out because they were really struggling with reading and writing. Turns out they had dyslexia, but with the help of our friendly neighboring Better Living Industries that got swept under the rug of experimental tech meant to erase disabilities rather than accommodate those who have them. Ghoul still struggled with this stuff pretty much their entire life, but now it was passable as them “not trying hard enough” rather than “they can’t tell these two words shapes apart” and “similar letters get mixed up sometimes” with a side of “they’ve read this paragraph 10 times now and they’re about to start bawling ‘cuz they understood nothing”;

at 9 they get sent to The Academy- which is the gifted children program, but on steroids- because they showed an interest in chemistry (it’s short-lived, but you get sent to the Academy for one thing there’s no going back from there) and because their parents are Better Living’s best scientists they’re expected to excel in all their classes which, for the most part they do!

their academy years are both some of the best and worst because they got to be away from their parents for 4 years, but they also had to keep up with classes and extracurricular activities they were signed up for with absolutely forewarning; namely calligraphy (so derogatory) and french;

they still know french because their teacher was fucking terrifying, but also because they also associate it in part with an old friend who used to help them avoid the wrath of said teacher. I’m getting ahead of myself, though;

at 10 years old they run away for a night to the Lobby because they’re scared out of their mind of a test they couldn’t physically bring themselves to study for. Some jackasses pick on them, they get rescued by some juvie kids and by the end of the night those kids end up becoming their friends;

they don’t absolutely tank their test like they thought they would and their escapades into the Lobby continue- sporadic at first, only to slowly become a one/twice per week trip after nightfall;

by this time, however it became quite obvious Ghoul was neurodivergent, so BL/ind put them on pills that, unlike most of their products, actually helped them focus and be able to do more things than before, though since they were introduced so early they kind of fucked up Ghoul’s brain a little. There’s a reason they refuse to drink and have the lungs of a coal miner despite being only 20 at the time of their death(s);

by 11 they kind of begin to catch on that the other kids are purposefully avoiding them, so they decide “screw it, i have real friends down in the Lobby, so who the hell cares?”;

they had an absolute blast with said group of friends ever since they started hanging out and one year later it only seemed fitting to choose an official name- before that they went by “Angel” which was the nickname the friend i mentioned earlier gave them- and named themselves Ghoul;

like, halfway through being 11 they hear one of the older trans folk casually talk about being trans and go, “wait, there a word for that??” which was a fun time. Turns out wanting to be kind-of-sort-of-a-boy-but- not-quite is not an universal experience. Shocking! /s /lh;

at 12 they meet Kobra and they’re both. Understandably, weirded out by each other because students with different majors aren’t explicitly forbidden from occupying the same space, but it’s generally not a thing that happens. Alas, they were both too awkward to walk away so they cornered themselves into becoming friends, pretty much;

for a year and some months they both go together to the Lobby and have shenanigans that build Kobra some character other than “scary crow cadet that will deck you if you look at him funny” and those are some of Ghoul’s fondest memories from the City;

ranking high on the list of their least fondest memories is Better Living trying to convince them to end their friendship with Kobra because they were “distracting him” when they were both 13. No matter what threats they used or what extra work they silently handed them over, Ghoul simply refused ending their friendship until they threatened to send them back home and tell their parents about their little escapades to the Lobby;

that night they got into their first and only serious fight with Kobra because he could tell something was wrong, but Ghoul wouldn’t tell him and there was a lot of shouting that ended with Ghoul telling Kobra to get the fuck out of his room and cried for about an hour before leaving to the Lobby without him because that had become their safe place;

not safe enough though because it turns out one of their friends got shot trying to escape the City and all they had left was a stupid little lockbox they threw as far as they could off the sky train station platform;

they get about 3 hours of sleep before Kobra wakes them up absolutely fuming and tells them he knows everything and that they’re getting the fuck out of the City. Ghoul doesn’t have the energy to even think it through as they throw a bunch of clothes and some random trinkets in a bag and the two teens are off into the night;

some part of them is almost upset with how easy they got away, but they don’t have time to dwell on it for long as they crash in one of the car wrecks at the Junkyard Motel;

the Zone 2 mailbox is just outside the Junkyard, under an old dead tree, and hung from its branches they find a key necklace that belonged to their old friend. A key they were supposed to use on the lockbox they chucked away in a fit of “everything sucks ass”, but took regardless of that they weren’t supposed to only have the key. That was the beginning of what’s often referred to as “Ghoul luck” at the Diner because they simply have unbelievably bad luck;

their next pitstop is Tommy Chow Mein’s storefront at the Paradise Motel in inner Zone 3 where Kobra picks a fight with Cola who just. Kind of makes sure he doesn’t hurt himself or them and waits until he tires himself out. Cola offers to take in Kobra who refuses because there’s no way he’s leaving Ghoul and then Cola offers to take them both in which Kobra reluctantly agrees;

one truck ride later and Cola drops them both on WKIL’s doorstep, thus uniting the Fabulous Killjoys for the first time. The end.

[natsunoomoi]

So sometimes I check wikis to like look things up about a show or series that I don’t have time to read or watch the whole thing fully cuz that’s a time investment I just don’t have but I have questions I just want a quick answer to.

The problem is, wikis are of course, made by like regular people with varying levels of biases and also sometimes selective memory of events. As can be seen in my more recent posts with SVSSS and MXTX’s works I’ve been on those wikis, but sometimes the explanations of plot points and a bunch of other stuff are really confusing and circular. SVSSS’s is being more cleaned up recently, but it still has some things that it says happened, that I couldn’t find at all when reading the book and I’m just like, where did they find that info to put on the wiki?

Like one of my earlier posts when I started reading SVSSS at the beginning, I mentioned how I read that original Luo Binghe got killed by his harem eventually and I thought that made sense cuz ultimately no one in that original plotline made choices that made them genuinely happy. But when I read the book, I didn’t see any mention of that anywhere...? I think last time I went to go look at BC Novels they had one chapter left to translate. Is it in there?

Then at other times, I wonder if there’s an inconsistency because there’s a limitation between the translation I read and like something in the original Chinese text like there’s a typo, which obviously there’s a mistake then. But then other times, I’m wondering if people read a different thing, but most of the people with a different interpretation don’t seem to be able to read Chinese and are reading the same translation as me, but I’m confused where they got certain details from?

Like for instance, there’s another part on the wiki where it says Airplane originally planned for PIDW to be a BL from the beginning, but I’ve literally been trying to find where that was stated because I don’t remember that and I don’t see that anywhere and the chapter citation that is listed on the wiki goes to a chapter that doesn’t talk about that at all. Airplane/Qinghua does say that he made changes to Qingqiu’s character that were originally more complex to make him a trash human and he did that to make a living, but I can’t find where it says he originally wanted it to be a BL theme to begin with. In the chapter they cite it says that Qinghua had designed Binghe to have an appearance in a way that appealed more to a female audience and be more of a pretty boy. That doesn’t mean that he meant his entire book to be a BL it just means you make your main character look a certain way partly for internal logic because that look is really popular with women so the in-story women would probably find him attractive and in a meta sense any females who happen to also read a stallion novel like some women read shounen manga would find him hot in real life. A successful story does things like that to reach people outside of its target audience and that’s kind of a lot of the reason why a lot of Shounen Jump manga are really popular with women too even though a lot of the stories have the male perspective in mind. The chapter it cites only talks about the actual physical appearance design choice he made for Binghe vs Mobei-Jun. He just says that Mobei-Jun was made for the kind of male character he prefers to think about, but Binghe was just designed with the idea of what would make him more popular and also could kind of be like a self-insert-ish for his desire to beat on people for funsies. It doesn’t talk at all about what the genre he planned for the book to be and interpreting the text to that much is really stretching the context to wishful thinking levels. I don’t even actually care either way what kind of novel PIDW was because it’s not actually that important to enjoying the story of SVSSS, but I don’t know if it’s the Ravenclaw in me or what, but it just bugs me when there’s something that seems *wrong* printed on a thing that is supposed to inform other people. I’m literally reading chapters at the same time as trying to write this post to find where I think maybe it was said, but it sure as hell wasn’t the chapter the wiki cites.

The other day I re-read the chapter when Qinghua taunts SY with Qingqiu’s real memories, and he doesn’t even say it then. ATM, I’m trying to look through the last chapter because there’s that one part when Qinghua shows up right at the end and talks with SY at the celebration, but even at the start at the chapter, SY talks about how Qingqiu was super straight to him. SY is an unreliable narrator, but given the context of Qingqiu’s life events that makes sense. His personal trauma because of Qiu Jianluo also pushed him away from any amount of closeness he could have with other men other than ones he already trusted to some degree. He had a lot of problems forming new relationships of any kind with other men because of deep-seated trust issues. Not that he didn’t have any, but meaningful ones were pretty absent. One only because of a very sad misunderstanding and lack of communication and explanation, but the others just tough.

But like also there’s like that SJ slept in the Warm Red Pavilion and he went there just for comfort rather than more lascivious reasons. Yeah, it’s true that he didn’t go there for those intentions, but like it’s still in the environment so it’s not like he’s unaware of what happens there. I mentioned it in the previous post about his search for means to grow his cultivation, but only to say he’s probably not that innocent and there may be some truth to him wanting to do something to Ning Yingying out of desperation to make up for his low cultivation foundation. Like he’s aware of those kinds of things and he probably came across something that said that was a way he could grow his cultivation. Desperation and this motivation I think is probably the only reason why he would be so tempted to cross that line with Yingying because he otherwise treats women rather well. She is his favorite too, so if a person who usually treats females well for some reason wants to do something that would be hurtful to their favorite person, there has to be a much deeper motivation behind that. The only thing that is a canonically greater obsession I think would have to be his cultivation level. He has a number of self-esteem issues and such a well, but his greatest pride and greatest concern is his cultivation. He is proud of his abilities, but also he laments and regrets the version of him he couldn’t become so much I can foresee that if there was a suggestion that he could overcome his late start in some way by using someone female, I think he’d at least think about it and also consider who he knows could be a viable candidate should he want to act on it and that is how that part of PIDW happened. Pain and desperation make people do things that are uncharacteristic, so it has to be something that really bothers him more than in a moment of weakness that idea is there.

Which is another point I have an issue with on the wiki because it says his low cultivation is “logically” because he started late and spent so much time with a fake master. It’s not logically. It’s factually. It’s mentioned several times especially in the extras chapters from Shen Jiu’s point of view where he talks about how he is specifically behind because of wasting time with Qiu Jianluo and Wu Yanzi and also that he was the last to form a golden core. If it was coming out of SY or someone else’s mouth as an explanation, maybe you can say “logically”, but if it’s coming from SJ’s point of view chapter it sure as hell is not. That *IS* his motivation. He states it himself.

Also, I think some people don’t understand what it means to have a low cultivation foundation. Cultivation from what I gather according to the rules of this world is like a lot of talents we have in our world where you need to start young to be good at it. There’s a few skills that you can learn that if you don’t start at a specific time you lose the optimal window to develop your talent for it because of the way the brain functions and basically purges off skillsets you’re not using in your environment. 

Learning a language is one such skill. When a baby is born, it has the capability to learn how to speak every language in the world, but as it gets older its brain purges out the sounds that it doesn’t hear from its environment and this keeps going into older childhood as well. The taxi driver I talked to the other day about this said you have to start before you’re 10, which sounds about right. The phoneme purging in your brain starts quite early though so that’s why my company has classes for Moms and their 1 or 2 year old so that they can speak to them in English to try to keep English sounds in their environment so that they can have perfect pronunciation when they grow up. If you try to learn a new language when you’re older that’s how you have accents. You don’t have the phonemes to speak the language perfectly so your brain is imitating the sounds with the ones you do have. Plus it’s a constant use skill. I used to be able to speak Cantonese with no accent up until my teens, but I haven’t spoken it in so long that slowly I started to have an accent and now I can’t say the words properly anymore. I don’t know that much Cantonese to begin with that aren’t baby words, but I used to be able to say them properly.

Music is another one and that one has an even more narrow window. Kids with parents hoping that they will be music prodigies usually start them on music VERY young like 3 or 4. It’s not that it’s impossible for someone to pick up an instrument later in life, but there’s a type of sense to music and hearing the scale and developing that skill that if you don’t start kids on it at that time, their musical ear will not be as good.

And it’s that “not as good” thing that Qingqiu is chasing. He is exceptionally powerful and talented which is why despite starting late he became favored. He is very capable and good at what he does, but he is not as good as what he could have been. Even though he is so good, he is only haunted by how much better he would have been if he had started on time and had proper instruction. A musician who maybe wants to be a concert violinist but took up the instrument late may struggle to get a good seat in an orchestra because despite any talent they have, their ear is not as developed as someone else. Such a musician would be vexed and lament that they hadn’t discovered their love for the instrument sooner just as Qingqiu is vexed and laments that he didn’t start proper cultivation development earlier.

And I’m griping about SVSSS more because I read that book so I have more points of reference to go on. But like the wikis for MDZS and TGCF aren’t much better. MDZS is maybe a little more coherent and easier to follow, but TGCF confused the hell out of me and it took me awhile to understand what was going on. I really needed it though cuz I was watching the donghua and like I think the way they present some of the scenes is like slightly out of order for like foreshadowing and other like film reasons, so I checked the wiki while watching to try to get more context cuz I don’t have much time right now to pick up another book at the moment. I was so confused though cuz like...it seems like the logic in the entries is so circular and I’m trying to keep track of all the characters and what’s happening. I hope it’s better now but at the time I was watching it I was so confused and struggling to make sense of what’s happening.

And like maybe you’re wondering why if I read the book, would I bother checking a wiki. Mostly out of laziness because I’m thinking of something and I don’t want to go find the exact chapter to help me flesh out my thought and reference point. I end up getting more frustrated sometimes depending on what I’m looking up because of the above things.

Plus again I’m like a bit mystified as to why Qingqiu’s look seems to appeal to me. It’s not just him though and like other characters with a similar style in some of the games I play. I think there’s some imprint from some very old childhood memory that I only vaguely remember. Like it’s a look that seems familiar, but I can’t put my finger on where it’s from and I can’t figure it out, so I keep just going to check images to see if it will make me remember. I think it’s a movie I saw with my Dad as a young child, but I can’t remember it at all. I remember there was one Jet Li movie I watched with my Dad once and I ended up watching all the time cuz I thought Jet Li was really cute in that movie (I was also 3 so I don’t know why I’m thinking that way, but whatever), but like Jet Li was bald in that movie because it was about a Shaolin Temple. I think at the time my Dad showed me that movie I already showed an interest in movies from my own heritage, so that’s why he showed me that. But like I can’t remember anything else. I suppose it could have been something my grandpa watched because sometimes he’d watch a Chinese movie when I was playing in the living room and I’d stop to watch too and then he’d fast-forward through the intimacy scenes, but because I’d just look over at something he was already watching I have no idea what any of those were.

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Weekly Media Roundup

- Barbarities (Manga) - Hell Yeah! My favorite slow burn BL series (No, MXTX works do not count) is getting an official English release! I liked the dynamic of perpetually tired workaholic royal treasurer and his hedonistic, golden retriever personified, lovestruck personal guard so much that I actually bough the Japanese novels. It helps that the art and character designs are top tier, and the humor is surprisingly fun as well. Hoping that an English release will bring with it a larger fandom, at the moment it’s quite obscure.

- Teen Wolf (TV) - Saw a few retrospectives on this old fandom of mine and decided to do a rewatch with my sister on the grounds that if it’s not good, it will at least be entertaining. We’ve made pretty good progress so far, starting the 3rd season, which supposedly is the unironically good one. The first two have been fun in a corny way, but boy is my watching experience now that I’m an adult far different from it was when I originally watched it in high school. Like, wow Derek sure does spend a lot of time intimidating and stalking random teenagers huh. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very funny to watch him just appear in caveman pose in the corner of some random dark room, I’m just surprised that I was ever able to take him seriously. Anyway, I’ve been keeping a counter of whether there are any episodes where the camera DOES’NT ogle a pointlessly shirtless man. So far out of 24+ episodes, there’s only been one, and that only counts as a technicality as there was a shirtless man in it, the camera just didn’t focus on him long enough to count. I have faith that we will eventually get a true entry, maybe.

- My Dress Up Darling (Anime) - I’d like to think I have pretty good taste in media (Bold move considering I just admitted to watching Teen Wolf, I know), though to be honest I’m mostly watching this because I want to see a cute anime girl show off a lot of cute fashion. The behind the scenes cosplayer life is one I’ve briefly dipped my toes in as well, so it’s interesting to see the thought process in how to most accurately make a 3D version of 2D costumes.

-Ace Attorney (Video Game) - Still making my way through these. To be honest after playing the aptly named Great Ace Attorney, I’m finding the characters in this first game to be a little underwhelming. I don’t hate Nick and Maya but they’re pretty bland compared to Ryuu and Susato, and the supporting cast tend to be more annoying than charming. That being said, I’m only one game in, and from what I’ve seen I’ll likely like Appollo, Athena, and Klavier more, so I’lll be waiting patiently for them to show up.

-The Magnus Archives (Podcast) - I think the fact that this is one of the top media in terms of constantly taking up space in my brain really says something about it’s quality. Namely that it is very good.

-Pokemon Legends Arceus (Video Games) - Welp this has consumed all of my free time. For once I’m actually trying to complete the whole pokedex too, since God won’t talk to me anymore until I do. Kudos to Pokemon for actually pulling off a post game twist this time around. I’m sure plenty of people called it but I don’t usually expect Pokemon plots to be err. Good. So I was surprisingly pleased.

-Inscryption (Video Game) - Don’t want to say to much about this one here (this time at least) but it’s certainly an experience. Just watched a playthrough atm, but I might try to play it myself later, the Part 1 card game strategy portion looks pretty fun. 

-Ranking of Kings (Anime) - Boji won BEST BOY at the anime awards this yeaar and it’s what he deserves. Anyway, the backstories in this show keep getting more and more intriguing, every time they answer a question, 3 more are brought to the table.

-Danganronpa (Video Game) - And We Are Back.

Listening to: A Good Song Never Dies by Saint Motel, Edge of Seventeen by Steviee Nicks, Shivers by Ed Sheeran, Ready to Die by Andrew WK, I Think I Just Died by Guiano, Odds Are by Barenaked Ladies, Evil Eye by Franz Ferdinand, Ship In A Bottle by fin, ASHES by Hiroyuki Sawano.