#degree for working professionals

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

I'm sorry but the irony of Nico calling Max unprofessional is sending me so bad like sir there's an entire garage full of people, who were literally in the trenches trying to survive the Brocedes fallout while just doing their jobs, who might have a few things to say about your (& Lewis') level of professionalism at that time 😭✋️

[puppyeared]

learning abt friendship decay and "not reaching out to your friends for months at a time unprompted is not neurotypical behaviour" has me feeling a certain way

[creepyscritches]

The biggest gift of therapy is going "I cannot control you" when someone decides to be a doodoo head at me

[rosenecklaces]

I think gwynriels victim complex phenomenon needs to be studied like it's probably where the projecting into Azriel white-savior and fuckboy made-up personas came from. it's all clearer now...

[binders-and-beanies]

Next person that reminds me social workers don’t make much money im going to kill them with my bare hands. I knowww I know I know I promise you i did not make it 6 years into social work education without ever hearing that it’s a low paying field. I’m scared of my future every day im scared of being homeless with a masters degree im scared of not even being able to afford having a job. I know. If you must remind me of that future that im so scared of can you at least like acknowledge the tireless work that’s gone into it and the much needed things I’ll bring to the social work field. Can I go about my day without someone richer than me laughing about how im going to be poor forever. Or am I the only one who’s not allowed to acknowledge that concern

[pollen]

i've been diving a lot deeper into adhd symptoms and comorbidities and misdiagnoses and whenever i tell my boyfriend something i learned that sounds like me he responds with something like

[isan0rt]

Actually, @lightandfellowship asking about other Dark Road historical fashion thoughts on this post did kind of get me thinking about it and you know what I think is really interesting? Is that there are only two students that are at any point wearing entirely Western-looking (non-Japanese) clothing without an obi and obijime, and that’s Xehanort (pre-arrival at Scala)...

And Baldr.

Even Master Odin is wearing an obi and obijime despite otherwise dressing like Gandalf, but we’ll leave him aside for the sake of this discussion.

For the most part the students are wearing fusion clothing, but that’s typical of the Taisho era. The Taisho period, which immediately followed the end of the Meiji Restoration, was a period of great change in Japan, and of Westernization. It was very common for people to wear a mix of Western clothing with traditional Japanese clothing. You can see a lot of this in the Dark Road students; 

(This got really long lol. Discussion of the secondary and tertiary Dark Road students’ design choices, culminating in discussion of Eraqus, Xehanort, and Baldr’s designs and what they might mean in the context of a Taisho-period-adjacent setting, under the cut).

- Most of the male students, plus Urd, are wearing very loose, bloused pants, probably tobi trousers or karusan-bakama. 

- Vidar, Vali, and Vala have some of the most traditionally Japanese silhouettes among the upperclassmen. Vidar is wearing a sleeveless lapped garment that isn’t strictly traditional, but has a very Japanese look to the way it’s assembled and to the color styling, while Vali is wearing pretty authentic-looking Japanese faulds, and is obviously supposed to make you think of the kabuki ideal of a ninja. Vala also looks EXTREMELY Taisho-period; the wearing of silk-painted or embroidered, brightly-colored hakama with an obi and furisode or kosode was extremely common for girls in the Taisho period. Vala has some sort of fantasy puff cuff-sleeve-thing instead of furisode, but her hakama and obi are lifted straight out of the 1910s. Interestingly, these upperclassmen, like Eraqus in the lower class, survive the longest.

- Heimdall, Sigrun, and Bragi are all wearing a mix of actual traditional Japanese clothing and Western elements. They are all wearing short kimono, with Sigrun having a very classic obi styling, Bragi is wearing traditional workman’s clothing (a hanten and sarubakama, with an obi without obijime, interestingly), and Heimdall appears to be wearing a kosode, with obi and obijime. However, Sigrun is wearing leggings and gaiters, Heimdall has some WILD thigh-high Three Musketeers boots and that very intensely high-collared, French-looking bolero jacket, and Bragi is, as previously discussed, wearing a bomber jacket (and also Chuck Taylor sneakers, Bragi you sneaky, deeply anachronistic guy).

- Helgi and Hoder, interestingly, appear to be blending Japanese and Chinese clothing styles; they’re both wearing obi and obiage, but Hoder appears to be wearing a cheongsam, and while Helgi is wearing a sleeveless kimono as a shirt, his fur ruffs very much evoke some traditional theatrical depictions of Son Goku (the Monkey King not the DBZ character); but I’m not that knowledgeable about Chinese clothing so I won’t make too many conjectures here.

- Urd and Hermod and Vor all have very fantasy-like designs, with the girls having fewer garments from either real Western or Japanese styles. Hermod and Urd as discussed have the bloused pants, Vor’s coat looks VERY much like a traditionally silk painted kimono that’s been altered to have a Western tab-collar, but has a traditional Japanese rope bow on the back, and all three are wearing obi and obiage. However, Urd’s robe/cape thing is VERY Western Fantasy Wizard, meanwhile Vor is wearing actual pumpkin pants. Hermod’s looks the most period, with his haori retaining the traditional lapels but altered to have Western bishop sleeves, and he’s wearing VERY WWI-style gaiters.

Now lets talk about the other three, who are actually our main characters; Xehanort, Baldr, and Eraqus.

Eraqus is absolutely wearing nothing but traditional Japanese clothing (aside from the obvious Kingdom Hearts elements of the turtleneck and crossed suspenders). He is wearing extremely traditional hakama, with the most traditional haori of any of the cast. His hair is partially loose but what is pulled back is pulled into something like a topknot; Eraqus is designed in every way to evoke the look of the samurai class. What I think is significant with that is that, as mentioned, the Taisho period followed the Meiji Restoration, when the samurai class in Japan were more or less disbanded in the face of modernization of Japan. I don’t think it’s unrelated that at this point, the Scalan society that considers Eraqus a ‘blueblood’ is also in decline, and is ultimately ended within Eraqus’s lifetime. He is the last of his kind, and he is dressed like it.

Then, there’s Xehanort. When he leaves Destiny Islands to go to Scala he’s dressed in an outfit that calls to mind Ephemer’s, and is extremely Western and modern-looking; which makes sense, since he was raised by Player, and the KHUX time period has very modern and Western fashion (remember Bragi’s Chucks?). But once he’s a student, he’s replaced his button-down shirt and collared sleeveless duster with a turtleneck (Kingdom Hearts, lol) and haori of his own, an exact photo negative of Eraqus’s haori except that Xehanort’s is sleeveless. But Eraqus is a blueblood, and as far as anyone in Scala knows, Xehanort is a nobody and a foreigner; he is still wearing Western pants in a Western style, held up by a Western belt and without any obi in sight. Xehanort was born in Scala, and he resents being seen as Just Some Guy, but he doesn’t belong there like Eraqus does; his haori on top is trying to make him part of that world, an equal to Eraqus, but what’s underneath reflects that Scala doesn’t consider him either of those things.

And then, there is Baldr. 

I’ve seen other posters point out that his clothing is all black, under a white jacket (I’m sorry I don’t remember who pointed this out!), but also, Baldr has the most Western and contemporary clothing of all of the characters in Dark Road. In contrast to Xehanort, with his loose, pre-WWI-era jeans, Baldr is wearing contemporary skinny jeans with a wallet chain and fashionable low-buckled boots. He’s also wearing a waistcoat, and a bolero jacket with what looks like knit cuffs. He doesn’t fit in with the others at all, even less than Xehanort does.

And pointedly, like Xehanort, he is not wearing an obi.

I feel like it’s not a coincidence that this game visually sets its characters in the Taisho era, the time period that transitioned Japan from the traditional Japan to the modern, Westernized Japan of the 20th century, and the character who puts a permanent end to Scalan society is the only character dressed entirely in Western and modern clothing. Obviously I can’t say for sure what the intent was, but at the end of the game, the three characters left standing are Eraqus, dressed in the most traditionally Japanese fashion, Baldr, dressed in the least, and Xehanort, the fusion, who is dressed like Eraqus on the surface, but underneath, is dressed like Baldr.

[metalcatholic]

[dickinfectionbez]

Okay does anyone else know of blogs like Repsol-ariel that we should archive?

[politemagic]

hey gang if you're in the market for some new ambient, "naturey" metal music, might i suggest checking out the band til fauna?

they're a small band & they've only got 3 songs out now but they're working on a full album! i'm really digging their music so far and i'm excited to see what else they release!! breathe is my fav right now, but honestly all of the songs are good. (also i followed them on instagram and they messaged me to thank me for listening and gang i went 🥺 i think they're really good please listen to them🖤)

[rabbitmotifs]

i look like such a dumb loser when im at work but its funny. who made the punk work IT

[kleyamarki]

and what if i said online group work in my grad cohort is cruel and unusual bullshitery.