#chalcedony meaning and uses

[mavenn23]

Chalcedony is a gemstone that belongs to the quartz family. It is known for its beautiful array of colors and smooth, waxy luster. Chalcedony is valued not only for its aesthetic appeal but also for its various metaphysical and healing properties. Let's explore the benefits of chalcedony in detail:

1. Emotional Healing: Chalcedony is often associated with emotional balance and stability. It promotes a sense of calmness and tranquility, helping to alleviate anxiety, stress, and depression. By soothing and calming the mind, chalcedony encourages emotional healing and inner peace.

2. Communication and Expression: Chalcedony is regarded as a stone of communication and is believed to enhance one's ability to express thoughts and feelings effectively. It helps individuals overcome communication barriers, promotes healthy dialogue, and fosters understanding in relationships.

3. Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem: Chalcedony is known to boost self-confidence and self-esteem. It assists in overcoming self-doubt, negative self-talk, and insecurities. By fostering a positive self-image, chalcedony encourages individuals to embrace their uniqueness and value their own worth.

4. Mental Clarity and Focus: Chalcedony is thought to enhance mental clarity and improve focus. It can help to clear mental fog, increase concentration, and enhance analytical skills. It is often used by students, professionals, and anyone seeking mental acuity.

5. Protection and Grounding: Chalcedony is believed to possess protective qualities, shielding its wearer from negative energies, psychic attacks, and harmful influences. It can help establish a sense of grounding and stability, allowing individuals to feel more connected to the present moment.

6. Physical Healing: Chalcedony is associated with various physical healing properties. It is believed to promote healthy digestion, improve sleep quality, and strengthen the immune system. Chalcedony is also said to alleviate symptoms of respiratory issues, such as coughing and throat irritations.

7. Harmony and Balance: Chalcedony is known to balance the mind, body, and spirit, promoting overall harmony and well-being. It helps align the energy centers in the body, facilitating a smooth flow of energy and restoring equilibrium.

8. Creativity and Inspiration: Chalcedony is considered a stone of creativity and inspiration. It is believed to stimulate artistic expression, enhance imagination, and encourage new ideas. Chalcedony can be particularly beneficial for artists, writers, and creative individuals seeking inspiration and innovative thinking.

9. Spiritual Growth: Chalcedony is often used in spiritual practices as it is believed to enhance intuition and psychic abilities. It can deepen meditation experiences, facilitate spiritual growth, and connect individuals to their higher self.

10. Balancing Yin and Yang Energies: Chalcedony is associated with both yin and yang energies, representing the balance of masculine and feminine energies within oneself. It promotes harmony between these energies, fostering a sense of wholeness and integration. It's important to note that while many people believe in the metaphysical properties of gemstones like chalcedony, these beliefs are not scientifically proven.

The benefits of chalcedony can vary from person to person, and it's always advisable to trust your own intuition and personal experiences when working with gemstones for healing or spiritual purposes.

[moon--meeks]

hello i have the geology flavor of autism an am so so normal about honkai star rail an have not stoped thinking about the myriad celestia trailer so im going to make a thread of fun facts about the gems/minerals each of the stone hearts are named after topaz: ❥ topaz is naturally colorless but gets its color from elemental impurites ❥ the word topaz comes from the greek word Τοπαζος (topazos) ❥topaz is most commonly used in jewelry ❥ its the state gemstone of Utah! Aventurine: ❥ Aventurine is a form of quartzite ❥ the word Aventurine comes from the italian word a ventura meaning by chance ❥ its a mineral! not a gem! ❥ green aventurine is the most common Jade: ❥ Jade is actually the common term two diffrent minerals, nephrite an jadeite. ❥ nephrite is usually darker than jadeite due to it haveing more amphibole an jadeite having more pyroxene ❥ the word jade comes from the french l'ejade meaning kidney area Sugilite: ❥ imma be honest i havent heard of this mineral before the trailer droped an thats probably because its very new as it was discovered in 1944! ❥ sugilite was discovered by Kenichi Sugi who it was named after ❥ most sugilite is purple or pink Agate: ❥ Agate is the common term for the banded variety of chalcedony ❥ the word comes from the ancient greek word for the dirllo river, Achates where it is said to first be discovered ❥ Agate is formed from lava an volcanic rocks Pearl: ❥Pearl is not a mineral as it comes from living creatures making it an organic material ❥ pearls are made of the same thing shells (an tums!), calcium carbonate ❥ natural pearls were most commonly found in the persian gulf Sapphire: ❥ Sapphire is the blue variety of corundum, the second hardest mineral on the mohs hardness scale ❥ the word comes from the greek word σάπφειρος (sappheiros) but back then was talking about lapis lazuli ❥ Sapphire is one of the minerals used on sand paper! Amber: ❥ not a mineral, it is fossilized tree resin so it is organic material ❥ 90% of the worlds Amber is located in Lithuania ❥ the word comes from the arabic word anbar Opal: ❥ Opal is a mineraloid because its naturally occuring but doesnt have the crystaline structure of other minerals ❥ the word opal comes from the sanskirt word upala meaning jewel ❥ Opal is the national gemstone of australia Obsidian: ❥ Obsidian is classified as a rock since it is formed rapidly cooling lava ❥ this baby is VERY sharp it was used in paleolithic times to make cutting an hunting blades and was used as surgical tools ❥ the word comes from the latin lapis obsidianus

[childrenofcain-if]

When I saw the snippet where Mc was being just plain mean, I came running to ask you how would it go if an argument breaks out between Mc and C because Mc is a little too condescending about C's broken knee which leads to them getting called out for being an arrogant jackass? My Mc means well but god they're such an asshole 😭

the only clearly audible sound in C’s suite was the low hum of the heater working overtime against the december chill.

but you could still hear C’s uneven steps, their limp heavier than usual as they crossed the room. you supposed that ever since they had told you about it, they’d gotten more comfortable about not hiding it from you anymore.

yeah, the limp wasn’t new, but it was worse tonight. C’s gait was uneven, jagged, every step catching slightly as if the bones in their knee were grinding against each other. you’d been watching it for weeks now, how they soldiered through it, jaw tight and posture straight, as though sheer willpower could replace cartilage.

tonight, though, after watching them wince when they thought you weren’t looking, you decided it was enough.

“C,” you began, and they stopped in their tracks. the way they turned, furrowed brows and jaw clenched, should have been enough warning to stop you from saying the next words. but you were you—brazen, brilliant, thoughtless. “i noticed you’re limping worse than usual. maybe it’s time to consider getting a cane.”

you saw their expression hardened immediately, but you kept going, your voice infuriatingly calm, like a teacher correcting a student.

“it would make things easier for you, don’t you think? i mean, i know it’s not ideal, but considering the structural integrity of your knee—”

“the structural integrity of my knee?” C repeated your words incredulously. “you’re really pulling out your SAT vocabulary for this, aren’t you?”

“what are you talking about?” you asked, your own voice rising now, confused about their reaction. “i’m just trying to help, C. god, i don’t know why you have to make everything so difficult.”

“are you this fucking dense?” C’s voice cracked on the word, and they took a step closer to you, their hands clenched at their sides. “you think i want to be like this? you think i don’t know how i look, how i walk? i don’t need your—” they broke off, shaking their head, their face a mask of barely-contained fury.

“i never said any of that,” you said, but it didn’t seem to matter.

“no,” C said, their voice cold. “you didn’t have to.”

you could feel the argument spiraling out of control, but you didn’t know how to stop it. instead, you reached for something—anything—to regain the upper hand.

“you’re being obstinate,” you said, and the word felt strange in your mouth, too big, too formal, but you didn’t care. “you’re acting like an overly sensitive child.”

C’s eyes narrowed, and they let out a harsh, humorless laugh.

“obstinate,” they repeated, rolling the word around like it was a sour taste in their mouth. “jesus christ, could you sound any more condescending? do you ever stop trying to sound like you swallowed a thesaurus? what, you think using words like that makes you better than me? smarter than me?”

“that’s just how i talk,” you snapped, your voice sharp and venomous, the words spilling out before you could think them through. “i’m sorry if it’s not simple enough for you to understand. i’m sorry you always jump to conclusions without hearing me out. i’m sorry that your father never bothered to teach you words like that—he was too busy bashing your head against the wall of your old house while you apologized for even existing.”

the room went silent.

C stared at you, their mouth slightly open, their chest rising and falling like they couldn’t quite catch their breath. their face was now pale, and their chalcedony green eyes blazed with something that wasn’t just anger—it was hurt. deep, raw, soul-deep hurt that made your heart squeeze uncomfortably.

“fuck you,” they said finally, their voice low and trembling with barely-contained fury and tears. “fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.”

“C—” you started, but they flinched when you stepped closer, their body jerking like you were the one who struck them.

“don’t,” they said, their voice sharp and broken all at once. “don’t fucking touch me.”

and then they were gone, the door slamming behind them so hard it rattled the walls.

you stood there, the words still hot on your tongue, searing and damning. you could still see the look on their face, the way their eyes had gone wide and vulnerable, the way they’d looked at you like you’d taken something sacred and smashed it to pieces.

you sank onto the couch, your head in your hands, the weight of your regret pressing down on you like a boulder. you hadn’t meant it. you hadn’t meant any of it. but meaning didn’t matter now. the damage was done.

you’d known—instantly, the moment the words left your mouth—that you’d crossed a line. not just crossed it, obliterated it. and now, the consequences were as painful as the regret slicing through you.

and you were alone, left to drown in the bitter aftertaste of your own words.

[ectobabble]

Shiny's rock + how it fits into FNaF

I realized the research/prep I did for 'The Imposter' so now I wanna ramble about it bc i think i deserve it? [in defense of shiny] [The Imposter fic]

The first time Shiny brings up rocks it's when Sun freaks out about them leaving and possibly not coming back. Shiny pulls out their 'worry stone' and gives it to him saying that it's too important for them to not come back for it. They also mention it's to help find lost things, so Sun will find Shiny tomorrow at work.

A worry stone is something that a person keeps on them and rubs every time they are stressed, resulting in smoothing the stone over time. However, Shiny's is large and bumpy, meaning it's new and wasn't meant to be one.

It's Chalcopyrite which is a stone that can be used as a compass to find lost items/people and help increase psychic abilities and intuition. Shiny explains why they carry it around but there is a misunderstanding between them.

Shiny brings up another stone. "That's Hematite! Good for remembering things and getting rid of bad energy." Which, yeah, but it's also known as the bloodstone, used for grounding, stability, and focus(memory).

Quartz is an all-purpose stone that Shiny gives to the little girl who was hurt in Chapter 13. It enhances other crystals paired with, but it also is fantastic for memory.

Lapis Lazuli is another memory stone helping with communication and sharing information.

Blue Chalcedony is said to be used for memory enhancement, but mostly storing information.

Most of Shiny's stones are based on searching for things and remembering, which makes sense because they have DID and do not have ANY of their childhood memories, Imp does. Imp also refuses to talk with them, so it could be seen as an attempt to try and remember by themselves. A few of these double as 'clearing away evil spirits/negative energy', which hm... wonder what that would affect in the plex.

So that brings me to... what is a key part of the FNAF lore: Remanent that is used when making the animatronics to trap souls in them. Basically just 'soul energy' and something talked about in scriptures. So metaphysical energy already exists in the FNaF universe and the ImpAU is going to use that.

Also i swear to fuck they're gonna kiss, I didn't bait and switch. They gotta suffer for it. The main plot is about child abuse and psychological horrors.

Ironically Imposter pushes the relationship story but has to traverse the main plot. Shiny experiences the love story but pushes the main plot.

This doesn't get into Imposter's contributions, lemme know about that bc i talk WAY too much. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

It's also important to know that Imposter doesn't know jack about Shiny's rocks and neither do Moon/Sun

[talonabraxas]

Violet Ray - Archangel Zadkiel

Archangel Zadkiel is the Archangel of Freedom, Benevolence and Mercy; and is the Patron Angel of all who Forgive. In the Bible and Torah, he is mentioned as the Angel of God. This is because Zadkiel appears to the prophet Abraham when he proves his faith to God by getting ready to sacrifice his own son, Isaac. Zadkiel stepped forward to stop this occurring as God would not wish for faith to be proven this way, however some believe it was Archangel Michael or even God who stopped Abraham.

In the sacred texts of Kabbalah Archangel Zadkiel and Archangel Jophiel follow behind Archangel Micheal in fighting the evil forces in the spiritual world. Hence he is often seen with a dagger or blade in religious images.

His name means ‘Righteousness of God’ and he is also known as 'Grace of God’ under the Hebrew name Hesediel. Zadkiel can also be written as Sachiel, Zedekiel, Zadakiel, Tzadkiel, and Zedekul.

Symbols of Archangel Zadkiel…He is often depicted with a small dagger or weapon but is most commonly known for his connection to the Violet Flame. This is his Archeia, the Holy Amethyst, and they work together for freedom, alchemy, transmutation and to clear negative karma. Surrounded by violet and sometimes violet coloured flames, Zadkiel will clear any old karmic debts or negative energy that is holding you back from true inner freedom. Clearing fears and obstacles with the Holy Amethyst to bring you magical transformations.

Roles of Archangel Zadkiel…His roles are to

Provides Forgiveness for the Self and Others Rid us of judgemental behaviours Aid memory or recollection of facts including helping students to remember what they have learnt Heal painful memories and past life attachments The name Sachiel associates him with helping people to earn more money and teaching them to donate to charity. Zadkiel can help us find our spiritual origins and the karma attached to our past With the Holy Amethyst; they will clear blockages, fears and concerns that are holding you back

Skills of Archangel Zadkiel…Call on Zadkiel when you are ready to let go of judgement, guilt, fear and heal through forgiveness and compassion. He heals any emotional wound! Archangel Zadkiel knows how to fix unhappy relationships by teaching you to feel mercy and compassion to each other. Enabling you to grow and understand one an others emotions and well-being.

Colour Associated with Archangel Zadkiel…Shades of Purple and Violet are the most commonly associated colours. White or flame colours have also been used as a clearing method and to start the healing process.

Crystals Associated with Archangel Zadkiel…Amethyst! It has to be this gorgeous crystal with its mix from very pale lilac up to deep, rich purples.Amethyst is a master healer crystal known for it’s peaceful qualities, calm under pressure and deep emotional healing. Alternatives are ametrine, blue lace agate, blue chalcedony and charoite.

Use any of these crystals by holding them and saying a prayer or message to Archangel Zadkiel will assist in your connection. Pop them in your pocket, bra, car, office desk, by the front door and wherever you feel you need Zadkiel’s help

[geologyin-blog]

Carnelian is a semi-precious gemstone known for its warm, reddish-orange color. It gets its color from impurities of iron oxide. The color can vary quite a bit, ranging from a pale orange to an almost black shade.It's commonly used in jewelry making, such as rings, pendants, and earrings. Read more here: https://www.geologyin.com/2024/05/carnelian-gemstone-meaning-properties.html

[gamerbearmira]

Diamond au -

So, I caught up on some more scenes from the show (Mostly just the diamond scenes and wiki) and here's what I got.

(So, the diamonds in the show typically run their own colony on a certain planet. The Diamonds used their essence to create new Gems, who would become subordinates and dedicated their lives in the name of their Diamond. Gems were distinguished by the diamond emblem on their uniform, corresponding to the color of the Diamond they served.

In order to expand the Gem race, the Diamonds took control of celestial bodies for colonization purposes. This would allow Gems to be mass-produced by utilizing outside resources. Each Diamond owned specific colonies and was in charge of making sure they were successful. Gems produced on a specific Diamond's colony was under their control; for instance, Gems produced on Earth belonged to Pink.)

I decided to change some things around a bit-

Gems naturally burst out of any planet (Ones not known to man) and are basically like babies. They somehow naturally know how to talk and are fully grown but that's as far as intelligence goes and height goes.

What do the diamonds do when that happens?

They teach morals, do's & don't do's, right from wrong, etc. They also help their colonies in a certain area they lack. (The "kids" help as well.)

Which diamond "owns" a colony?

Magenta, Blue, Yellow, and green do. The grand-diamonds are in training (if they want to be) or just don't feel like having that sort of responsibility yet.

Yellow/Pepa helps with the weather because the planet her colony belongs to has horrendous weather conditions. If she isn't managing it, her colony suffers.

Blue and violet/Isabela help with flora and medicine. Isa creates the plants and flowers needed and Blue uses her natural ability to create medicine. She also teaches her colony how to do it as well.

The diamond adults do "own" a certain colony on a certain planet. But they aren't all that authoritarian at all. While the Diamonds continue to rule over Home world, they allow every Gem to live freely the way they want without judgment or punishment. Gems are free to fuse with whoever they please, and the caste system was dismantled so that no Gem is better than another. 

Home world has some kind of democracy, meaning the Diamonds, despite retaining a level of importance on Home world, allow Gems to take charge as leaders of their kind through elections.

The diamonds don't see any non-gem life form as inferior, but more interesting. Humans are mainly a curiosity to them, but they see how humans...are mainly hostile to anything different from them (especially to each other) and don't feel like interacting at all.

As far as interactions go when it comes to earth is just watching things called "movies", just to look at certain cultures and behaviors, fashion, and way of life.

Magenta/Alma doesn't like the word "own". It seems a bit rude to say she owns something when she had no control over when or how gems came to be.

So, she instead uses the word "care". Because that's technically what she and her "kids" do. They care for their colonies as long as they need to.

Young diamonds typically explore their "parents" gem worlds. Having fun, making friends & what not.

Certain gems/crystals found on their planets:

Pepa's planet - Golden Barites, Golden Beryl's, Golden south sea pearls, Heliodor's, Honey Calcites, Honey Topaz, Lemon Jades, Lemon quartz, and many more.

Bruno's planet - Jades, Tourmaline, Verdelite, October birthstone, Alexandrite, Malachite, Peridot, Sapphire, Apatite, Chrysoberyl, and many more.

Julieta's planet - Blue agate, Apatite, Azurite, Aquamarine, Benitiote, Blue Chalcedony, Chrysocolla, Dumortierite, Blue fluorite, and many more

Alma's planet - Padparadscha sapphire, Rubellite Tourmaline, Ruby, Spine, Watermelon Tourmaline, and Viva magenta.

The grand-diamonds don't have gems to look after yet but they do have planets to watch over. Each planet is similar to their colors/name. It's truly boring for them so they don't spend their time watching them much.

I searched up "planet that rains diamonds" and I found out that Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter are rumored to have natural diamonds. So, that's where Alma, the triplets, and the grandkids came from.

The triplets came from Saturn, Alma came from Neptune, and the grandkids are from Jupiter.

Also, Antonio's name in this au is Apricot. It's cute and it has 'A' in front of it, so it fits. I

SO COOOOOLLL ‼️‼️‼️

W Diamonds for at the very least being decent gems 😭 give them mfs some sense of self, so at least there’s that. Planets are super cool 🤭🤭 also the fact that the grandkids find watching their plants boring is. So funny. Like there’s basically nothing on them, so it!s understandable 😭

Using plants that rain diamonds honestly makes a lot of sense. ALSO APRICOT LETS GOOOO 🤠🤠🤠

While not a dictator or authoritarian, I think Alma just has a very misleading face 💀

[aikoiya]

LoZ - The Master Sword of the Goddess

Ya'll... I am so flippin' proud of how well this came out. Cause it's beautiful! ❤️

Now, my theory is that the Master Sword isn't truly complete. Not yet anyway.

Like, it isn't in its intended form. The one it was designed for.

And this is what I think it'd look like:

Like, dude! This is amazing!

Though, I feel like the wings of the guard are too big for a longsword. Would be better suited to a claymore.

I also loved both gems I made, but I think this version is the winner because it means that I can use this one for something special to help the wielder.

You may not have noticed, but the gem is actually 2 fused together.

Anyway, I've been thinkin' about the materials that this version of the sword might be made of & I think I have a decent list.

To start off:

2 Goddess Plumes (which appear to be crystalline) for the guard.

Timeshift Stones, which the original sword's guard was primarily made of, so it'll be melted down to make a new one. (The Timeshift Stone of the guard & the Ocarina of Time resonated, which is what sent Time's mind forward into the future.)

Star Fragments from New Hyrule.

The above items melted down & made into an alloy with iridium & other materials (possibly even Dusk Relics, which might just be Mexican Blue Amber) to create the wings.

The 3 Sacred Flames. Used to kindle a new flame. A white-gold one.

Green Chalcedony to inspire strength, courage, & insight. It also has connections to love. (Every type of love, not just romantic.) Then magically infused to draw out those traits.

Aqua Chalcedony symbolizes tranquility & harmony. Has a soothing, gentle energy, & promotes emotional balance, helping to alleviate stress, anxiety, & negativity. It encourages inner peace & provides protection, making it well-suited to being the companion to heroes who may need a bit of extra support in trying times. Then magically infused to draw out those traits.

This would allow Fi to better aid her wielders emotionally even as she sleeps.

As for the metal itself:

* will appear beside alloys that I made up.

Chromium from chromite ore.

Star Pieces for the gold & whetstone. (Something to keep in mind is that there are 3 different colors of Star Fragment: the ones from the Era of the Wild, Gold & Red, & the ones from New Hyrule, which are Purple.)

*Mourniron = Typically found deep underground where fierce battles had taken place. The best kind can be found in Bogs as they tend to have trace amounts of silicon in them, which ensures better flexibility.

- *Allaysteel = Mourniron made into steel. Was once used by the Sheikah to make weapons that would help them in dispatching with enemy Poes & laying their souls to rest. The practice of creating it has long since been forgotten by the time of Wild's Era. Which is partly why there were so many Poe Souls in the Depths. Wild was the first to begin ferrying them to the Bargainer's Statues in 15,000 years. It is effective against Poes, Undead, & other such enemies.

Light Dragon Horn to melt down & fold into the metal to make the blade.

1 claw from one blessed by twilight. (A claw from Twi's wolf form.)

4 Master Ore from Lorule.

Iridium = A metal in the platinum group. Alloying it with other metals imparts durability & heat resistance. It's also nearly gold-tier in non-reactivity. Can only be found from comets, meteorites, & asteroids. Essentially, it's a space metal & would be heavily associated with stars. And while Iridium is a silvery-white color with a slight yellow-ish cast, under certain magically induced circumstances, it's cast instead changes to something in the range of lavender, purple, a/o indigo. Also, above the melting point, ignition results in a violet flame.

Stellite = Cobalt-chromium alloys. A very tough, as well as wear, corrosion, & heat resistant material.

*Grieving Steellite = A cobalt-chromium-Allaysteel alloy.

*Remembrance Corundite = A grieving steellite & diamond alloy.

Ferrochromium = An iron-chromium alloy.

*Mourningstar Corundite = Corundite & iridium alloy with Light Dragon Horn & Twilight's Claw.

*Master Corundite = Master Ore & Mourningstar Corundite alloy.

---

Anyway, it'd likely need to be reforged in an actual forge as, in ancient times, the forge was considered a holy place. If nothing else, the blade might get blessed.

At the same time, I see it needing to be made in lava due to the high melting point of a few of the ingredients.

I think that I'd have it to where Clove (LU's Four) & Legend switch between using the FD mask. This would automatically elevate their own bladesmithing abilities by quite a decent degree. Though, I can definitely tell that Legend would still have things to learn.

Like, things that might necessitate a 3 Oracles game. One where Farore is the Oracle of Mysteries, her book being the gateway for Legend, gaining a more intimate understanding of Runic magic, which could lead to infusion magic.

---

As an aside, I get the feeling that in this state, it'd change forms depending on the Link. Like, it'd become most suited to their particular size & fighting style.

As in, for Time, it'd become a two-handed sword. Legend, it'd take on runes that could channel that magic into the blade, turning him into something of a spellsword.

Similarly, if there were a Link who were Sheikah & trained as such, it'd take on a more katana or ninjatō-like shape. And Gerudo? A scimitar.

Hell, for Wind, it might turn more into a cutlass.

For the most part, it will stick to the shape of a sword of some sort.

Ergo, Clove (LU Four) would have zero reasons to avoid using it.

LoZ Linked Universe Masterlist

[richea]

A dive into Hearts R's localization

I've talked a lot about Hearts R and the way it rips apart the original story and characters, but I haven't really talked much about its localization, which is truly its own can of worms. While I have stronger feelings about the Japanese version being poorly made in just about every regard than I do about its loc being a bit of a mess, I've gotten a lot more into translation and editing the past few years and I figure it's time to at least write something regarding this.

A lot goes into a localization, and that also means there's a lot more to unpack with Hearts R's loc than just the "Kor" rename and the fact that only a small portion of the dialogue matched up with the voice acting (these being the obvious things anyone can pick up on, even without knowing Japanese).

As a translator who has played through the localization numerous times, while also having gone through the game in Japanese and done a deep study on all the terms and their naming conventions, I want to go over some things, discussing characterization as well as what terms were good and which ones make me scratch my head.

There's a lot I won't discuss here simply due to the scale of the game, so don't expect nitty-gritty analyses and all the various examples of blatant mistranslations to be found in the game or anything. This is just to give an overview of some things I find interesting.

Characterization

Let's start by discussing something that is crucial for characterizing the characters properly: character voice. Each character has their own "language" for how they're written. For instance, in Japanese Shing talks very casually, Kunzite talks very scientifically, Hisui talks like a punk, etc. Essentially the goal is that via reading written dialogue alone, more often than not you should be able to differentiate who is talking without even needing to see their name slapped next to it.

This is something that is not as easy to get across into English, however the skill still exists when localizing dialogue nonetheless. You'll still want to write Shing's dialogue in a laid back manner, and write Kunzite's to be scientific, and make Hisui's very rude.

Overall, I think the loc did a decent job establishing voices. There's definitely some hiccups, but at the end of the day, I'd say the vast majority of the text uses decent character voice for each character. It's far from perfect, but Chalcedony and Kunzite in particular I think were written very well.

However, where I think R fails is that the quips in the game come across very same-y. While the dialogue can be funny, the sass that Shing would say felt very similar to the sass Beryl might say. Beryl's sass is supposed to come more from finding things absurd while Shing's is supposed to be a bit more out of frustration, but the loc didn't differentiate this well. I'm not sure how to better articulate what I mean by this, but trust me that it was a thing.

Also, they would make the characters say quips in dialogue that they weren't really meant to, which sometimes completely changed the feel of a scene. Shing and Hisui got this the worst, and I also think they're the two characters who suffered the most in this loc.

Below I grabbed some examples of character dialogue for each main character so you can see their character voice and what went wrong or what went right. This isn't a full overview of each character but rather just a small selection of lines that stuck with me (Tumblr has an image limit unfortunately, and also there's just a lot of characters I would have to go over).

Shing

Shing definitely suffers from overusing quips when he wouldn't normally, as well as his overall character voice coming off a bit more bratty than he was originally intended to be. I think everyone's aware of "Kor Meteor doesn't try, Kor Meteor DOES," which has... quite a different feel from what gandoko was originally intended to mean (which was just a cute wordplay on saying "let's go all out"). I will admit this is partially due to his rewrites in R in general as this is also an issue with him in Japanese, but the loc did him no favors. That said I don't think all of his dialogue is horrible, as the third image is an example of a line I think they did just fine.

Kohaku

For the most part, I think Kohaku's character voice is fine. She definitely had some weirdness especially early on ("rapscallion" lives in my head rent free), but she definitely eased out and overall I think anyone who plays the loc gets a perfectly fine idea of the character that is Kohaku (at least her R portrayal).

Hisui

Hisui is, erm... well I'll just say the loc team had a lot of fun with him. Maybe too much fun. It feels like only a tiny amount of his lines were intended to be taken seriously, which is really disrespectful to his character when the whole point of his character is that it's hard for him to express himself in words. Why ruin his serious moments by throwing in random goofy quips and making him come off like a full time jerk? He's definitely not a polite character, but the loc just always tried to make everything that came out of his mouth sound back-handed, even when he was actually trying to be nice.

Another huge issue, which you can see in almost every pic here, is that he would say something from the Japanese (fine) and then the loc would add in another sentence below it that is completely original to the loc and also contributes nothing other than to make Hisui sound like a jerk. For instance in the first line, in Japanese he's (seriously and concernedly) saying "Innes is calling for us? Is she hurt and can't move?" so I'm not sure why they felt the need to make it Extra and Funny. There's an infinite amount of examples of this with his dialogue and every time it truly does paint him to be a much more meanspirited character than he really is.

They did some alright things with his character voice (see the last cap, which is fine), but overall, if you see Hisui say something unhinged and incredibly rude and out of pocket, it's probably the loc and not actually what he said.

Beryl

Beryl on the other hand is a character who DOES say sassy things a lot, so I think the overall writing for the loc played into her personality a lot better than it did with the above characters. It's all written very extra and over the top, which is exactly how Beryl needs to be written. I think my only gripe with her writing is that they did make her flub up words more than she originally did (especially simple ones...), but other than that I don't have a lot to complain about here.

Innes

Innes is mostly a "no notes to be had, for the most part fine" character as far as her loc portrayal goes. I will say in Japanese she called the party "kids" a lot and the loc changed it to "mules" which, at least to me, gives off a slightly different nuance, but it does fit her character so I may just be nitpicking.

Kunzite

Kunzite's character voice is very hard to mess up... so much so in fact that I think the loc actually did him justice (you can only hope they didn't mistranslate anything with all that kanji though).

Chalcedony

Like Kunzite, I find myself surprisingly content with how Chalcedony's dialogue was written. They got across his pretentiousness and formality just right with not a ton of hiccups.

Galando

Galando completely falls in the "can never be taken seriously ever" category, except unlike Hisui I think this actually benefits his character. In Japanese, his dialogue and frankly personality are really unremarkable, but in the loc he says a lot of incredibly bizarre and goofy phrases. The loc team had a lot of fun with making him sound ridiculous and it did him a lot of favors when his overall implementation in this story was an absolute trainwreck.

Richea

Richea's dialogue can be a bit hit or miss. Sometimes it's too stiffly worded, sometimes it's too casual. Overall I think her voice is fine though and it never really did her character too many disfavors.

Terms

For this section, here's a very useful reference which writes out most terms in the game, comparing the Japanese names (romanized very straightforwardly) to the loc. I will be using my own romanizations for terms below.

Let's talk about the elephant in the room: Kor. Why did they change his name? It's actually quite simple: Shing is based on kanji. It means 心具 (shingu; heart-tool). Yamamoto stated that among the characters in the game, he's the only one who's not supposed to have a mineral reference in his name. To get around this, they did Kor, which is based on cor which is the Latin word for heart.

I suppose in a vacuum, I get what they were going for. However, the decision fails to make sense for two very simple reasons: recognizability, and the fact that they left the names Hisui and Kohaku in which literally were translated into English in Graces' loc. It comes across as very ironic to me that they were so held up by Shing's name being Japanese wordplay, to the point of changing it entirely, yet ignoring the two party members with Japanese names. Why only Shing? Nobody would know (even Japanese players) that Shing was supposed to be wordplay on anything had Yamamoto not discussed it in an old blog post. Yet they left in the names Hisui and Kohaku, which are very obviously Japanese, and no English player would know what they're supposed to mean, or if they were even mineral references! Maybe their intent was that they're from Norqueen, and Kohaku has cherry blossom aesthetics to her, but this also doesn't make any sense when nobody else from Norqueen had a Japanese name. It's only them.

This isn't me advocating for them doing Jadeite and Amber from Graces' loc (as I think that was a similarly bizarre situation), but if you're going to change Shing, you could at least be consistent and commit to the idea of making everything Easily Understood References, instead of just changing one name to something completely unrecognizable (and frankly a bit dumb sounding) and not the ones that probably warrant it more.

Shing isn't the only character they did this with. For instance, the members of Chen's Corporation weren't intended to have mineral names. Their names are references to marine life in various languages. Chen's last name is Corallo, which is Italian for coral. Sango means coral in Japanese. Ecaille means scale/shell in French (with her real name being Mica, which is actually a mineral and the loc did keep). In the localization, they were translated to... Ultra Marine, Aqua Marine, and Coral respectively. While I don't think Chen and Sango's name changes were horrible, I still think they could have just kept them as is with no issue at all. "Coral" just feels disrespectful though. Why would you name her what Chen and Sango's names were SUPPOSED to be? Her real last name was changed too, from Zimmer to Zinnwald, which is really just pointless more than anything.

A lot of what the loc did can kind of just be boiled down to pointless. Here's some other pointless name changes for NPCs:

Isaac->Azide (is this even a mineral term?)

Pearl->Perl (?????????????? this one I genuinely don't get because pearl WAS a mineral to start)

Dona, Zektz->Kardia, Sydan (both were mineral names changed to heart terms to match with Shing, but really this is a pointless change. Iola's name wasn't turned to Japanese to match Kohaku and Hisui? Make it consistent if you're going to do these things?)

Sinhala->Benston (sinhalite is a mineral. I don't even know anymore)

Spin, Nel->Ward, Hope (spinel is a mineral...)

This isn't even all of them, but these are the most egregious. For a game really insistent on making everything a specific reference, it's almost hilarious how much the localization made things inconsistent with its own decisions, and how it broke things that would have worked perfectly fine had they just translated it literally. No Tales game has changed so many names arbitrarily and made them so unrecognizable with name alone if you compare to the Japanese names.

It's unfortunately not just the character names, as the location names suffered a bit from this too.

While character names are (mostly) based on minerals, the locations were based on fairy tale references. Most location names in Japanese were portmanteau of terms, whether it be author names, location names from fairy tales, titles, you name it. You can read all about this here, and these observations were made by Japanese fans as well. This stuff is about as common knowledge as the Shing naming convention among Hearts communities, so I would be willing to bet the localizers knew about it too.

Anyway, some of the loc ones I think were fine. For instance, a number of those terms just come across as awkward in English (such as シーブル, which I don't really have huge issues with them just going for Seaville). Yuraio needed to be changed anyway, as it's Japanese worldplay (though I can think of many better alternatives than just "Lion Park" if they wanted to keep the fairy tale reference).

However, I do take issue with some that completely change the reading for the name. "Dronning" and "Norqueen" (however you choose to romanize it) sound nothing alike. "Wonderidell" is a fairly straightforward romanization, and "Cind'rella" makes very little sense when in Japanese, Cinderella was the name reference for the Winged Whale ("Cendrillon" in Japanese, "Mysticete" in the loc). I also think Celland and Quartzia were absolutely fine and conveyed their meaning perfectly fine to English speakers, while I will admit it took me a while to figure out that Organica and Minera were supposed to be based on the words organic and mineral.

As for regular terminology, I don't have a ton of nitpicks. My biggest is that I don't really like the term "Spiria Nexus" as a translation for Spirmaze. The game already uses "Spiria Core" (for Spirune), and the words nexus and core are... very similar in meaning! I would probably opt for something like Spiria Labyrinth (and honestly, Spiria Maze works fine as is). Spirune is a bit of a hard one, because in the context of the story, it refers to both the whole and broken pieces of it, so I feel like they could have opted for "Spiria Shard/Fragment" for the broken pieces and "Spiria Core" and "Spiria Shard/Fragment" could have worked hand in hand. This might just be me nitpicking though.

For positives, I really like the terms "calcification," "Will Artes" and "synthetic Spiria". I'm also surprised "despir" (bungle of katakana) stayed intact given every other naming convention they went for (furuere got changed to Will Wisps, when the terms are similar in structure).

Artes

Artes are infamously something Tales is very inconsistent about, and how did Hearts R's loc fair?

To start, each character has their own "theme" to their artes. Shing's are light based and reference astronomy terms, Kohaku's are fire and cherry blossom based, Hisui's are all bird terms, Beryl's are artist babble, Innes' are French marine terminology, Kunzite's are dark based and a bit grim, Chalcedony's are aerial/holy based, and Galando's are... well all over the place. Shing, Kohaku, Kunzite, Chalcedony and Galando are all based on typical artes (and if not, their naming conventions, or are typical artes just a little to the left), while Hisui, Beryl and Innes have entirely unique kits.

Shing: My only complaint is the loc overused the word "meteoric," sadly including Crazy Comet (which I really wish they had left as is, since it's so iconic). So many celestial terms exist!

Kohaku: I just think Scarlet Halo is a bit messy, since it was already localized as Crimson Disc in Graces. Did they forget Graces loc ever happened?

Hisui: It's actually hilarious how bad his got mangled when his are some of the most straightforwardly translated artes in Tales. All of his arte names are just "[bird] [thing]" and if you translate them 1:1, you get a perfectly fine Tales arte name with no work needed. Yet somehow, they messed this up? An arte named wild-hawk got translated to Mosquito Hawk. What? Another one is kite-rain, which got translated to Rainbird. scatter-heron is Cuckoo's Egg. god-shot-chicken is Bird of Paradise. His artes are just very bizarre, because some are translated literally, and the other half just have completely random naming conventions. It makes for a really inconsistent kit of artes, not to mention each arte had a very specific bird associated with it, and the loc just mangled this. His artes really make me scratch my head at what they were thinking.

Beryl: Flying Colors (originally Slashing Colors) is the only arte of hers that's even remotely close what the Japanese had. This isn't really a complaint as I think changing the names is fine, more just an observation since the game didn't get dubbed and her arte names are actual spoken words and not strings of kanji.

Innes: The loc took hers which were two word structured and made them grammatically correct French. Don't really have any other notes here.

Kunzite: His artes are the most consistent to its own conventions, though I would probably change some to more clearly reference what the arte takes inspiration from.

Chalcedony and Galando I don't have any commentary on other than what I said for Kunzite. They're fine.

Closing thoughts

There's of course a lot I didn't cover in this post. For instance, I feel like skits were overall translated better than the story was, and there's a lot of nitty gritty things like titles and flavor text that I didn't touch upon. (Here's a very funny example of the loc team not picking up on a fairly obvious Abyss reference. Nobody knew this was supposed to be about Mieu)

But, I would say my main thoughts on the loc are that in some regards it was fine, and in some ways was highly disrespectful.

For the story dialogue, it feels like someone translated it roughly (and I will note that there are some lines that are just blatantly inaccurate to what was said, even removing the editing fluff, so I assume this was a rushed job), and then an editor came in and edited the lines without hearing any of the voice work attached to it. It's very rough around the edges, to say the least. I do think the game would have worked better if it was dubbed (like the script feels like it was intended for), even if the mischaracterization would still sadly persist.

To add a very personal comment here, Hisui is my favorite Tales character and it hurts that the only way the English fandom has to experience him is at the hands of his incredibly disrespectful localization writing. While I think his dialogue in it can be funny at times, it's not the kind of writing I want to see in very serious scenes. It's not good when a character can never be taken seriously, when that's not at all how they are intended to be viewed.

I will also add, as someone who plays games in Japanese and is heavily involved in fan translation, whenever I play Hearts R's localization, I just translate the dialogue in my head as I listen to the acting, then I read the translation on my screen and kind of laugh at how far it is from how I would have translated it. Not only is it a disservice to English speaking fans, but it is hilariously obvious to anyone who knows both languages how inaccurate it is, which is not how a localization is supposed to read.

(As a final disclaimer, the rants in this post are only intended to discuss Hearts R's localization. I support the localization practice in general, but I am allowed to nitpick when one was so obviously rushed out the door with poor communication. Please read this article to understand the ways in which I approached writing this post. I do not support the witchhunt on localizations that fandom is so currently obsessed with. All of my speaking points have come from someone who has studied Tales localization practices as well as Hearts specifically in depth, and who has aimed for putting out high-quality translation work myself.)

[votederpycausemufins]

I have been bitten by the Gemcyt bug caused by @chrisrin

I thus present to you Zedaph as Poudretteite as well as Worm Man as 'Pink Chalcedony' and a fusion of WM with @sweetest-honeybee 's Evil Xisuma design. (Mainly bc i had a better idea of a fusion btwn the two rather than with chrisrin's tango and impulse, but i might figure it out) Thanks for letting me use your design! It let me make Covelite!

And while there's some notes in the drawings, there shall be more below the cut!

Okay so I immediately jumped to Zed being a pink colored gem and stumbled upon a few options. I knew I wanted to pick 2, one to be Zed's gem and the other to be WM's supposed gem, and almost swapped their gem types before learning that there was a chalcedony on the show.

I think it is a fun thing to have Zed and WM insist they are totally not the same person (or gem in this case), and here we see that WM is shapeshifting the gem position around, and that could have worked... if it weren't blatantly obvious that he looks nothing like a chalcedony. I mean look at how close the different colored Pearls look, or Sapphire and Padparacha.

The base form I used for Zed is from a gem silhouette from 'The Answer', which was the only one to have those lil ball hands as the others had at least some semblance of regular hands. So I kept that detail and even made a joke about how Zed can still just pick stuff up, and that even carries over to the fusion

speaking of the fusion.

Other than a ZIT(S) fusion, the most obvious one is w/ Evil X. And I absolutely love Bee's design and brain went nyoom with it, expecially the fact that he's corrupted??? Hello???!??! We saw in the show w/ Jasper and one of the corrupted Jaspers fusing that it left remnants of the other's corruption on Jasper herself. I loved the idea that Zed could get lil sheep like horns post-first fusion with Evil X, so boom, it now exists.

(Also the lil spots carrying over makes it even more obvious Zed/WM are the same gem so haha lol)

As for the fusion itself, I saw that Evil X seemed to have dragon elements, and that fits perfectly w/ my personal headcanons of them being an ender dragon (hybrid), and then we have sheep hybrid zedaph, and what is a fluffy dragon? luck dragon!!!

The front legs are more dragon like, back legs more sheep like (claws and then hooves respectively) and then there is fluffy luck dragon tail! oh! and I had fun with making the mane of hair work as Evil X's fancy collar thing.

Their head is based a lot on Alexandrite's, with the two mouth thing going on. I thought it would go nicely with their concept and i think it works well.

And then other details! I used the distance models style to show off the past reformations of Zed and WM. Also slight drawing mistake, in the lil comic of WM showing off his new corruption marks, he should be in his 'Early s5' design (I'll prolly go back and fix it in the morning fixed 'n added Covelite's colors). I picture the first fusion btwn the two being an adaption of when EX trapped WM in prison, then reappeared being good now to help him escape, but they needed to fuse to do so. (Oh i also used the distance models to do a lil size comparison)

[vampirememory]

PAC | Messages from the crystals

Hello friends! Today is a very simple pick a card, giving you messages from the crystals. Originally, this was meant to be a "what crystals should you buy?" PAC, but alas, I cannot help myself & the cards had other plans.

Messages are from my crystal playing cards (a visual crystal healing guide) purchased from five below! I'm glad to finally be able to use this deck haha.

NOTE! I am not an expert in crystal meanings. This means I'm mostly just reading the meanings off the cards and channeling off of the messages; if the meaning of the crystal is wrong...blame the manufacturer lol.

Pile one is the red & black butterfly, pile two is the my melody hairbrush, and pile three is the cherry emoji.

Pile One

Moon Stone ; Intuition, dreams, energy, & passion

Blue Lace Agate ; Stability, grounding, & support

Aventurine ; Good luck, manifestation, optimism

Antigorite ; Flow, intuition, & bloom

You might currently be struggling with something in your life (specifically heard love life). Whatever your intuition is telling you is correct, but make sure you discern between anxious thoughts and true intuition. Make sure you ground yourself, remain courageous, and flow with the current that life is flowing you through; it takes true strength to submit to the aggression of the waves, but once you do it'll be a much smoother ride.

Pile Two

Rhodonite ; Forgiveness, love, & emotional healing

Pryite ; Wealth, success, & protection

Tourmaline ; Calmness, stabilizing, & reaffirming

Alexandrite ; Energy, power, & passion

I was specifically drawn to the numbers on the cards, you got two fives and both the king of spades & queen of clubs. You might be dealing with a difficult period with your partner or someone you deem to be very important, your other half (a best friend? possibly a family member?). It may be very chaotic now, but give things time, once you both calm down, it'll be much easier to communicate and get your ideas across; you both still will work, you just need to take a breather & communicate. Forgive & understand.

Pile Three

Kyanite ; Sight, tranquility, & meditation

Rhodonite ; Forgiveness, love, & emotional healing

Yellow Jasper ; Wealth, success, & wisdom

Chalcedony ; Harmony, brotherhood, & good will

You may be coming to a point where you are forgiving someone that has hurt you. You aren't forgetting what they've done, but remember that forgiveness is for YOU. Once you forgive this person or this event, even if it's yourself, you'll find a lot of abundance and inner peace. What you need so badly is peace, and it will be coming to you. The number 7 might be significant.

Thank you so much for reading! As usual, feel free to check out my masterpost with more readings, or you can support me by purchasing a reading by clicking here. Thanks for the support, let me know which pile you picked and if it resonated or not :)!

[mavenn23]

Chalcedony is a type of quartz that comes in a variety of colors, including white, blue, gray, and pink. It is made up of tiny quartz crystals, and its name is derived from the Latin word for "chalcedonius" which means "of Chalcedon". It is a popular gemstone that is often used in jewelry and as an ornamental stone. It is believed to bring emotional balance and stability to its wearer. Shop from a wide range of stunning Chalcedony gemstones at Cabochonsforsale. Our collection includes high-quality and affordable Chalcedony stones that are perfect for jewelry making and other crafts. Order now.

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Meteor Shower (Part 24)

And so her two lives come to intersect here in a parking lot full of potholes and towering snowbanks. 

“You’re alive?” It is something between a remark and a question. 

Icy regards the girl with an anxious sort of curiosity. She has changed but not much. She has dyed her sandalwood brown hair a pastel shade of pink. Her eyes are still big and green in a pale hue. Her skin is a warm brown and she still parts her lips the same way. Her front teeth still have that gap in them that the record label had been trying to get her to fix and her cheeks still have that heavy spray of freckles. She is somewhat taller and somewhat rounder and she has pierced her nose. But she is unmistakably and undeniably Chalcedony. 

“More or less.” Icy replies. 

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you reach out?” 

Icy rolls her eyes. “What would the point have been?” 

Chalcedony gives her a very deep frown. It comes with a pinching of her brows. "I cried for you! I attended your funeral and I almost fainted---I was so overwhelmed and I didn't know what else to do. Riska had to carry me back to the car."

"Riska?" Bloom asks in a murmur.

"Ruby." Icy replies.

"I couldn't even get out of bed and then...and then we lost..." she hiccups. "It was too much, Icy. It was too much."

She finds herself going rigid. It is terribly strange to hear her chosen name on Chalcedony's lips.

Icy is quite thankful for Bloom's interruption. "Wait, so if Ruby's real name is Riska and Daimond's was (name), then what is your birth name?"

"Kyanite." She shrugs.

"Your real name." Bloom repeats.

"Was the same as my stage name. It worked out nicely enough."

"You let me mourn for you." Chalcedony cuts back in. "And you're just going to blow me off now!?"

Icy shrugs. "You never did much to intervene, did you? You let Valtor pick me apart and reshape me just as much as everyone else did." As much as she had let it happen to herself. "Sweet, shy Chalcedony. Could never hurt anyone but was perfectly content watching someone get hurt."

"I wasn't content!" Her voice grows shriller with each word until it is nearly a squeak. "What was I supposed to do!? I was the band crybaby, remember? Or are you the only one who's allowed to struggle?"

Icy flinches.

"What were you doing when the K-Us girls were giving me a hard time?" And that is how she finds out that Chalcedony has learned to snap and bite just as well as she. "Timid Kyanite was perfectly content  to let everyone bully me to keep them distracted from you...not that it even worked."

Next to her Bloom shivers and wraps her arms around herself. "Icy..." She regards the drifting snowflakes with unease.

"What did you come here for? Are you going to out me? I made Valtor disappear, I can..."

Bloom places a firm hand on her shoulder. Icy shrugs it off.

"What?" Her brows furrow. "Why would I do that? What do you mean about Valtor?"

Icy throws her head back and cackles. It is half mad, really. But there is just something about looking head on at her past that drives her to the brink. "Someone needed to stop him! He would have kept going. Star after star! A fucking meteor shower!"

Chalcedony flinches.

"He had his eye on you. You reminded him of me..."

"So you...?"

"I killed him, Daisy. I froze his small, shriveled heart. And I went out for drinks afterwards. I had myself a little party." She flashes her most wolfish grin and the snow around her flurries. "You're welcome." It has been a long time building. Thus hatred. This resentment for the people who were supposed to stick with her until the very end. For these foolish faeries that claim to put friendship at the forefront but have nothing on the bonds that witches form.

Hypocrisy.

It is all Hypocrisy.

And the biggest hypocrite stands in front of her with the audacity to ask why she had cut ties.

She had given everything for them and they had returned nothing. They let her die and then they complain that they had to mourn her!

"Icy!" Bloom shouts as the temperature plummets. She throws her arms around the witch and holds her closer and tighter than she ever has. She barely hears her over the sharp whistle of the wind. "Don't hurt her, she's your friend."

"Is she!? Is she!?" She doesn't realize how damp her cheeks are until Bloom.wipes the tears away.

"I want to be, Icy." Chalcedony whispers. "The band was really sad without you. You were always so...you knew how to make each show special." She pauses. "I looked up to you."

"Well thats terribly unfortunate, isn't it?" Icy laughs.

"I don't think so." Chalcedony replies quietly. "I wish that I was half as resilient as you are."

"Well I really fucking hope that you never have to be." Icy hisses.

Bloom holds her tightly. "Come on, why don't we get on the tour bus and get you a bowl of ice cream and light your favorite incense?"

It is her gentle way of telling her that she needs to calm down. And maybe she does. It surely isn't healthy to get this icily angry.

"I'm sorry I let you down, Kya,"

Icy swallows hard and the snow around her swirls to the floor.

Maybe she is the one who should be sorry.

Sorry for letting go and running away so quickly.

Sorry for giving up so soon.

Sorry for giving up on the people that she used to love.

Sorry for giving up on Kyanite.

On herself.

"It's okay. Icy." Bloom promises. "It was okay before and it's going to be okay again."

.oOo.

She is number 102.

102 of at least 337. 

Only twelve of them will be accepted into the Magix-Melody Music Academy. 

Dyamond is, apparently the last of the realms that the academy has held tryouts at on a long list of stops throughout the magical universe. Most of the spots have already been filed by residents of Magix and Melody. But there had been a few slots reserved for the rest of the realms. 

If the twelve of them do well then they will be sorted into one of several dozen girl bands. Their performance at the school determines which groups they go off to join. Several have already been established like Summer’s TrEs, Gl!ttr!ng, K-Us–pronounced ‘chaos’. These are the three bands that everyone hopes to get into, the girl groups who are already plenty famous but seeking new members for grander projects. 

But there are other groups. Groups that have yet to debut but show more promise than the rest and are seeking one or two more members before they make their debuts official.

And there are even more groups that who have only promising concepts but no members at all. 

The least talented of them will be tossed into experimental groups that likely won’t make it past an album. 

Kyanite tugs at the hem of her shirt just to give herself something to do while she waits for contestants 1 to 101 to finish their auditions. Each performance subtracts a fraction of hope from her heart. 37 contestants in and not a single one of them are less talented than her. They all know how to wink and blow kisses. They know how to wiggle and shimmy in ways that look cute and alluring. 

Spellbinding.

And what can she do? She can only sing. 

She averts her gaze from the stage.

She sees a familiar face. 

One of her classmates.

Astridella had never been kind to her with her pitying, judgmental stares. But she hadn’t ever been especially unkind, not like the others who always had something cutting to say to Kyanite.

And now she has to perform in front of her and endure that judgemental glower while she clumsily flounders her way through trying trying to make her dreams a reality.

Astridella is number 101 and even from a distance Kyanite can tell that she is proud to be number 1 even if that one is preceded by 100.

Even from a distance Kyanite can tell that she is happy to be ahead of her just chronologically. And that she will do her best to get ahead of Kyanite in every other way. Astradella can't let herself get bested by that homely, unremarkable dork that she looks down upon.

And just as she always has, Kyanite hates that she has to follow behind. Astradella puts on a remarkable show. A flawless show. She doesn't miss a note or a beat. Her pitch is perfectly pleasant and showcases that which vocalists from Dyamond are known for. Her voice bears likeness to a gentle flurry in a snowglobe and tinkling sleigh bells under moonlight. She dances like snowfall too---elegant, wistful, and light on her lithe feet.

Kyanite's heart hammers in her chest. Blood pounds so loudly in her ears that she almost doesn't hear them call, "contestant 102."

She takes a deep breath and tries not to meet Astridella’s eyes as she rises. But she can feel the girl's glare slicing into her back as she makes her way towards the stage.

"Whenever you're ready, 102."

Kyanite swallows again and nods. She draws a deep breath and the flutters in her stomach stir into a frenzy. "Hello, my name is Kyanite and I will be performing a variation of my favorite folk song, 'Fields of Dyamond.'"

She doesn’t bother trying to dance, she knows well that she is no good at it. That her footwork is always clumsy and she can never really find balance. Even if she could, her moves come out disjointed, fractured, and uncoordinated. And even if they weren’t she doesn’t think that anybody wants to see her jiggle. At least that’s what her classmates had told her during the dance unit in gym class. She had been having fun until that.

She hasn’t danced since and wouldn’t like to do it again.

She will have to get over that if she wants to do this. 

She won’t have to worry; they won’t select her anyways. Not with 336 better choices. 

She sings anyways. First ‘Fields of Dyamond’ and then the song of the frozen lake. She imitates its shrill notes and its high hums to the best of her ability. It only occurs to her that doing so might have been a weird choice…a horrible mistake when she accidently glimpses at Astridella and sees her rolling her eyes and shaking her head. 

Kyanite has always been a weirdo.

A freak. 

Her interests are bizarre. 

Her mannerisms are moreso.

And she doesn’t have a slim figure and a pretty face to make those mannerisms endearing. 

But she does have her voice and even when it shakes, it sounds pretty. 

In spite of the shakes it sounds pretty.

Because of the shakes it sounds pretty.

She is never able to exactly replicate the tones and sounds of her hums that day because she has never been as terrified as she was that day.

She falls silent.

She could suffocate under the weight of the crowd returning her silence. 

They had clapped for Astridella and for contestants 1 through 100. They had clapped for everyone but her. This is about the time when the first laugh usually rings out and then the room erupts with it. But this time Kyanite doesn’t hear so much as a snicker. 

The first judge clears his throat. “That was…unique.” Kyanite cringes, ‘unique’ is a kind way of saying uncannily unconventional. A friendly way of telling her that she had made the wrong choice. “Extraordinary!” The man adds.

“Indeed.” Says judge two. She scribbles something onto her pad of paper. “I’ve never heard anything like that before. Most contestants select a popular song and bring their own flavor to it.”

“I’ve done the same.” Kyanite replies. “Well, it isn’t a popular song but I have recreated a song that I like.”

“And what song is that?” Asks the third judge. 

“The song of the lake. Ice sings.” Kyanite informs them. 

“Mmhmm.” The first judge nods. “Fascinating, indeed.”

“It’s a shame that you didn’t dance.” Remarks judge two. And Kyanite’s stomach sinks.

“I didn’t feel as though it was a dancy sort of song.” She tries. Swallowing hard she continues, “I think that sometimes it is good to know when choreography will distract from the real art—the song.” 

Number two jots another something down.

“Preferably we would like to be able to see how our contestants dance before selecting them.” Three says. And with that Kyanite knows that her chance has been blown. That it is time to tuck her dream away, go back to school, and deal with all of the people who taunted her for saying that she was going to audition at all.

She thinks of leaving but she doesn’t want to be rude. She isn’t sure if it is more embarrassing to sit for a few hours more, among people who had seen her fail so miserably or if it would be more so to flee and leave them staring at and mocking an empty seat.

“Contestant 103.” 

“104.” 

“105.”

“106…”

She endures it all. 

Every single performance that had gone so much better than her own.

And when it is all through they call out the winners; “contestant number 16, contestant number 93, contestant number 300…” She zones out until she hears, “contestant number 101.” Of course. Of course Astridella has made the cute. There are more numbers, 225, 141, and 5. She begins to gather her belongings, ready to rush for the door. “And finally, contestant number 102.”

She doesn’t want to be stared at. 

It doesn’t matter what she wants. 

Over 300 pairs of eyes watch her rise and make her way towards the rest of the winners. 

One by one they are called to speak with the judges in private. They speak with her last. She has a while longer to endure the whispers and glances. The people who insist that there were, indeed, many better contestants that should have been chosen over her. 24 is the popular vote.

And then they call her back and they tell her that she is going to need some work. A lot of it. But her voice is too special to pass up over a few things that they can change with the right diets and cosmetics. With the right outfits, and hairstyles.

“But you should be aware that if we can’t fix…” Judge one gestures to her person, “then you will likely be placed in one of those experimental groups.”

“And you need to learn and be willing to dance.” Mentions the third judge. 

“We’ve worked with girls like yourself.” The second judge reassures her. “You are going to do just fine. And you are going to meet a whole new you. A better you.” She doesn’t say it but Kyanite understands the implications perfectly; she will meet a skinnier, prettier, more talented, more desirable her.

They don’t give her time to contemplate whether or not this will be a good thing. 

Certainly it isn’t great to see her current self as an obstacle, something to be altered beyond recognition. But maybe that is what she has wanted all along. 

The chance to be someone else. 

Someone better. 

An upgraded version of her that nobody laughs at and everybody admires. Everybody craves. 

She decides that she will do whatever it takes. 

She will make it. 

She will make it in the industry no matter what it costs her.

[whitegoldtower]

Sorry but I’m gonna smack u all with my ‘tism stick

Have my favourite spider, favourite crystals, favourite poisons and favourite mushrooms

African Black Velvet: eresidae gandanameno sp. “Pretoria” - I want to keep one as a pet, desperately. 10/10 perfect spider.

CHICKEN OF THE WOODS (laetiporus cincinnatus) - if I ever found one of these I would bash my head off a tree in excitement and glee

Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria) - I found a few of these while out walking with my uni group 2 years ago and accidentally held up the whole group with a TED Talk. Luckily they were all also mentally ill / autistic /nd art students so I didn’t bore anybody

Ghost Fungus!!!!! (Omphalotus Nidiformis) - if I had the money I would 100000% fly to australia and venture out into the blue mountains at night just to see these beauties bioluminesce.

Vivianite: anyone who brings up crystals around me has probably heard me go “DO YOU KNOW VIVIANITE GROWS OUT OF CORPSES” at some point. It’s a ferrous iron phosphate mineral that grows in a monoclinic crystal system and thrives in anaerobic boggy environments. It forms when the hydroxyapatite in your bones (major source of phosphate) reacts with water from a waterlogged tomb and the iron in any surrounding rocks, resulting in cool shit like blue skeletons and crystals growing out yer teef

Grape Agate: it’s not agate. It’s not chalcedony. It’s not amethyst. It’s a variety of quartz silica which are commonly termed as ‘amethystine’, and instead of taking on the macrocrystalline monoclinic formations typical of normal quartz, it’s made up of up micro crystals that grow radially in a botryoidal form. Also comes in green and white. It’s only found in the Manakarra Beach in Indonesia.

Strychnine: (Strychnos Loganiaceae, Nux Vomica) - the one that leaves you with a hideous grin. It causes violent muscle contractions, enough to make the body bend back to an unnatural degree before the victim finally dies of asphyxiation. Particularly horrid as the victim remains conscious throughout the ordeal and is very much aware of what is happening. In fact, the victim is hyperaware. Nasty stuff. It inhibits your postsynaptic glycine receptors in your spinal cord, which causes the intensely painful and involuntary contortions. Also it’s mentioned in the Herbal of Rufinus as ‘good for helping to balance the phlegmatic and choleric humours’ through purging (vomiting, hence why it’s called the ‘vomiting nut��), and was a medicine to be used with great caution.

Giant Hogweed (Heracleum Apiaceae, Mantegazzianum): all parts of this plant are toxic. man fuck this stuff, if you touch it you’re literally gonna be burning and blistering every time the sun touches your skin for months and possibly even years after coming into contact with this hellspawn plant. Its active constituents are furanocoumarins, which basically mutate your skin cells to become incredibly sensitive to light. It’s a mutagenic and possibly carcinogenic photoactive compound.

Mandrake (Mandragora Officinarum): it’s in the nightshade family (Solanaceae)! Revered in folklore for the way its roots look like a person, said to ‘scream and cause death’ upon being uprooted. It’s a powerful narcotic, hallucinogenic and emetic plant, meaning that you try and eat this shit and you’ll be absolutely off your tits and vomming your guts up before you kick it.

Other honourable mentions that make for interesting reading:

Orpiment, Gasteracantha Cancriformis, Gasteracantha Arcuata, Sugar Fluorite, Jelly Lichens, Monkshood (Aconitum), Bleeding Tooth Fungus, Amorphophallus Titanium

Stupid fact about me: I have, in fact, ingested wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium) to see what sort of effect it would have out of curiosity, but didn’t get very far as it tasted fucking awful (I made a tea). Tastes like nail polish remover, 0/10 do not recommend. Didn’t ingest enough to feel any sort of thujone effect and my little experiment was safely conducted. I did, however, burn some to see if that would do anything and it made me feel rank in the tummy. No hallucinogenic effect. Again. 0/10 do not recommend.

[kohakhearts]

Zelos 22, Kohaku 18&19!

thanks yume!!^^

22: if you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to ths character? something you don't like?

you know, i feel like zelos is one of those characters i’ve never actually seen an interpretation of in a fic that didn’t feel in-character. like he so would fucking say that! i think this is because of how deeply his Problems are tied into his annoying behaviours - you really can’t take away one without disrupting the other. so people who hate him because he’s an obnoxious womanizer still have to acknowledge his trauma and people who love him because he’s so Deep and Complex still have to acknowledge that he’s a problematic jerk.

that being said, i really like seeing people explore his womanizing behaviours in fics in more depth. i read this fic probably not long after its post date, so like…9 years ago? and it’s stuck with me all this time as like, peak zelos. i think the idea of him using women for non-sexual intimacy was something i hadn’t really thought of before but made so much sense when i read this fic and i love seeing that explored in other ways by other people too!

as for dislike, again i can’t think of much…i guess it’d be erasing his womanizing completely, but i really haven’t seen that very much (if at all?) lol.

18: how about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

i’m a sucker for sibling duos and kohaku and hisui have such a fun dynamic! the overprotective older brother archetype is often annoying for its inherent sexism lol and i can’t say that’s not happening here too (especially in hearts r, if memory serves), but i mean…of course hisui is overprotective, just look at everything they’ve been through! something i really like about hearts is how in the early parts of the game kohaku is a passive actor but still dominates the narrative - hisui’s concern for her creates such interesting dynamics between him and the other characters (namely shing lol) because it’s clear how unbalanced he feels by the position she’s in, and i think it also sets a strong tone for how those dynamics play out later on when she does regain her spirunes and she actively encourages him to be less grumpy lol. i just think it’s neat how much it shows how much he actually relies on her, even though his whole schtick is being the dependable older brother that SHE can rely on. idk if this makes sense but yeah. them <3

my runner-up here is her relationship with richea. it’s SO interesting, and also a little ??? because wow, what a weird situation. there’s so much potential there to explore imo and i think the game kind of drops the ball with it in favour of developing the dynamic between richea and hisui, which…fair enough, but also kohaku is so intertwined in richea’s whole. everything. i just would’ve loved to see that expanded on more than it was.

19: how about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

this is kind of a random pick but chalcedony tbh. i feel like in vanilla hearts the other characters often became kinda secondary to shing when chalcedony was around and i’m not sure hearts r really fixed that by adding him to the party? idk maybe this is selective memory on my part but i just would’ve liked to see a more fleshed out dynamic between him and any of the other characters but especially kohaku, who is obviously pretty implicated in the initial antagonism between him and the party/shing. like it was definitely touched on but clearly not in a way that stuck out for me because i can’t remember any interactions they actually had lol. to be fair i didn’t get to the point of him joining the party in hearts r so it’s possible there are interactions i never saw that would sway my opinion here but yeah. it’s been many years since i played hearts so my memory is pretty fuzzy…maybe i should continue the replay i started a couple years ago haha

character ask game

[talonabraxas]

Violet Ray - Archangel Zadkiel Archangel Zadkiel is the Archangel of Freedom, Benevolence and Mercy; and is the Patron Angel of all who Forgive. In the Bible and Torah, he is mentioned as the Angel of God. This is because Zadkiel appears to the prophet Abraham when he proves his faith to God by getting ready to sacrifice his own son, Isaac. Zadkiel stepped forward to stop this occurring as God would not wish for faith to be proven this way, however some believe it was Archangel Michael or even God who stopped Abraham. In the sacred texts of Kabbalah Archangel Zadkiel and Archangel Jophiel follow behind Archangel Micheal in fighting the evil forces in the spiritual world. Hence he is often seen with a dagger or blade in religious images. His name means 'Righteousness of God' and he is also known as 'Grace of God' under the Hebrew name Hesediel. Zadkiel can also be written as Sachiel, Zedekiel, Zadakiel, Tzadkiel, and Zedekul. Symbols of Archangel Zadkiel...He is often depicted with a small dagger or weapon but is most commonly known for his connection to the Violet Flame. This is his Archeia, the Holy Amethyst, and they work together for freedom, alchemy, transmutation and to clear negative karma. Surrounded by violet and sometimes violet coloured flames, Zadkiel will clear any old karmic debts or negative energy that is holding you back from true inner freedom. Clearing fears and obstacles with the Holy Amethyst to bring you magical transformations. Roles of Archangel Zadkiel...His roles are to Provides Forgiveness for the Self and Others Rid us of judgemental behaviours Aid memory or recollection of facts including helping students to remember what they have learnt Heal painful memories and past life attachments The name Sachiel associates him with helping people to earn more money and teaching them to donate to charity. Zadkiel can help us find our spiritual origins and the karma attached to our past With the Holy Amethyst; they will clear blockages, fears and concerns that are holding you back Skills of Archangel Zadkiel...Call on Zadkiel when you are ready to let go of judgement, guilt, fear and heal through forgiveness and compassion. He heals any emotional wound! Archangel Zadkiel knows how to fix unhappy relationships by teaching you to feel mercy and compassion to each other. Enabling you to grow and understand one an others emotions and well-being. Colour Associated with Archangel Zadkiel...Shades of Purple and Violet are the most commonly associated colours. White or flame colours have also been used as a clearing method and to start the healing process. Crystals Associated with Archangel Zadkiel...Amethyst! It has to be this gorgeous crystal with its mix from very pale lilac up to deep, rich purples.Amethyst is a master healer crystal known for it's peaceful qualities, calm under pressure and deep emotional healing. Alternatives are ametrine, blue lace agate, blue chalcedony and charoite. Use any of these crystals by holding them and saying a prayer or message to Archangel Zadkiel will assist in your connection. Pop them in your pocket, bra, car, office desk, by the front door and wherever you feel you need Zadkiel's help