#edited to include more links since i was in a rush before

[digirainebow]

so, its the end of the month again, and my favorite artist in the world's family is still in dire need of support. she has opened up huge commissions that are more than worth the money, i have commissioned it for a piece at this level before and it is quite literally my prized possession. tage puts more intricate design work into his creations than anyone i have ever seen. but if you can't afford to comm, there are many other ways to help the family stay afloat. i know its hard for everyone right now, but if you can donate even a dollar to his paypal, or use any of the options on his ko-fi, it will add up. we have two days as of posting this, but we were able to come together and make it happen last month, so if you pitch in even a little, i have faith we will make it happen this month too. we have to 🙏💛 if you don't have the ability to manage even that though, i understand, and all i ask of you is to repost this when and where you can, so it can reach someone who can donate. that does so much more to help than you even know. thank you rainedrops 🌈

[it-happened-one-fic]

Play the Fool - Dottore (Part 3)

Author's Notes: I've finally figured out how many fics it's going to take for me to finish this unplanned series. Just like the previous parts, I listened to "Black Sea" by Natasha Blume while writing this. Reader is gender-neutral. I hope you enjoy!

Type: Mer-Dottore/ Merman AU/ gender-neutral reader/ I'm not gonna label this as fluff since that doesn't feel quite right, but know that it's NOT angst, yandere, or anything like that

Word Count: 1468

Trigger Warning: Discussion of past crimes including murder (Dottore), Fatui are generally shady

{Part One} {Part Two} {Part Three: You're Here!} {Part Four} {Part Five}

EDIT: Entire series now available on AO3! (link deleted due to glitches)

My cover job of cleaning Dottore’s tank was slippery work, but I’d managed to get some of the Fatui employees to bring over yet another, curiously identical wheeled tank for me to dump the green gunk that the harbinger had concocted into.

I clambered out of the newly cleaned tank, glancing around and noting that there was no one left in the room save for myself. Which was exactly what I needed, but was also very suspicious.

I couldn’t help but feel that this was all going a little bit too smoothly. But I also didn’t really have a choice but to accept it, at least for now. So I went ahead and flipped a heavy black tarp over the tank’s open lid to help with both the scent and the  generally revolting appearance of the green algae.

If I were lucky or if someone really was behind the scenes, then the rest of the headquarters would be equally barren while I wheeled Dottore out under the guise of the trash that I now pushed in front of me.

I stopped next to Dottore’s tank, tapping it lightly to let him know it was just me before I reached over to shift the tarp. In response a webbed hand appeared on the glass. Dottore himself remained lying sluggishly on the bottom of the tank. The twitching of his blue fins was the only sign of life.

I frowned at the sight of him, pausing in my motions to look worriedly into the tank. He barely moved, but somehow I could feel his gaze shift to me. He made no motions to communicate or rush me. Instead he only pulled his hand back into a more relaxed position and remained laying, the gills in his side fluttering tiredly.

He reminded me of some of the less-than-healthy fish I’d seen in pet stores before when I’d looked into possible ways to care for him when I’d first been given my job. Then, I’d been more fascinated by him, though I’d still maintained a careful distance that made my current actions laughable.

But I’d always been less afraid of him than the scientists and I’d always viewed him as more than just a fish, unlike some of the other Fatui that came and went.

After all, no mere fish could incur quite so much horror in people nor could it kill quite so easily. There was always a cleverness to the merman that was decidedly human in the most malevolent way possible.

I was torn between offering words of reassurance and staying silent. A cold part of me argued that he was a horrible man who’d killed numerous scientists solely in the name of revenge and seemed to take a certain degree of delight in it. While they had betrayed him, two wrongs didn’t make a right, and who knew what all horrors this man had committed in his past scientific tests.

 The other, more sympathetic part of me argued that he was a captive, treated little better than a discarded pet or scientific oddity that was known to be dangerous but also viewed as less than human.

I pursed my lips, my hand remaining on the glass, and the words slipped from my mouth as the more sympathetic side of me won over, “ I know you’re uncomfortable, but hang on just a little bit longer. We’ll be out of here and back at my home soon, and then I’ll at least be able to get the lid off this thing. Maybe then you can recover from whatever that gunk you created has done to you.”

He shifted, almost like he was trying to roll over to better look at me when I spoke. But I didn’t linger to watch his reaction. He needed action more than kind words right now. So instead of continuing to comfort him awkwardly, I stood and hurriedly shifted the tarp over to where he was before moving the algae filled tank off to the side.

Now, at a mere glance, people would hopefully assume it was just his tank and not go near it for fear of his past behavior.

I grasped the handles that stuck off Dottore’s tank and inhaled deeply before taking off down the hallway. Moving at a brisk pace that made it look like I was busy, but not like I was rushing. I couldn’t afford to get stopped by any suspicious Fatui now. 

Something told me pushing a tank holding the former second of the harbingers would be frowned upon and lead to a not so pleasant end for me.

The halls were worryingly but also blessedly empty, making me frown even as I continued on the path of our escape. I was certain now, there was someone else involved in this little escape plan. 

By playing the fool with both Dottore and Pantalone I was no doubt playing exactly into someone’s hands. But I was far enough down this path that I certainly wasn’t going back.

Clever, Dottore had called me. More like stubborn.

And, unsurprisingly at this point, our escape was a success. No one even tried to stop me as I left the Fatui base and turned down the path that went to home. In fact, one of the final guards we’d passed, Makism I believed his name was, had even waved.

I hadn’t paused until I had reached my home which was provided and paid for by Fatui higher-ups and thereby incredibly, but uncomfortably close to their headquarters. Because if nothing else, the Fatui paid their employees well. Even if said employee just took care of the mysterious and revenge-driven merman who served as both a terror, curiosity, and maybe even a warning.

 It was almost distressing to be bringing this man, who could kill me the very second I opened his tank’s lid, into my home. But I did so. Grimly opening my door and pushing the tank into the building and then directly over to the secondary bathroom that I never used.

I yanked the tarp off, letting it flop down to the cold floor in a most condemning fashion as I looked at the locks on the tank’s lid. It was not the first time I’d realized exactly how risky of a plan this entire ordeal was and on what uneven ground me and Dottore were on.

He was far more dangerous than I and, if he so wished, he could easily get rid of me. I was relying on the idea that I was necessary to his survival, but how true that was I didn’t know.

After all, if he did kill me then Fatui would no doubt take one look at the fact that he’d gone missing on the very same day that would coincide with my death and draw one, not entirely wrong conclusion. 

That I’d stolen their merman.

After that it wouldn't be hard to manipulate those scientists, ever eager for some new, grandiose finding, that I’d stolen from him because he knew something. Dottore would ensure that they kept him alive for that much longer by simply killing me. An act that I knew he would have little to no difficulty with.

My hand rested on the first lock as I stared blankly down at the metal. A single shift of my wrist and the lid would open and I would be risking it all by doing exactly what had landed me in this mess in the first place.

But, despite all the risks, the locks clicked open and I pushed the lid off, letting it fall to the floor with thud as I looked down into the water.

Dottore’s tail slid along the bottom of the tank from where he looked up at me like he was ready to spring out at any moment. He still looked weak, but I had no doubt that he could do far more damage than he let on.

And that was exactly why I was surprised when he uncurled and stretched his way up to the top of the tank.

I stepped backwards, my eyes never leaving him as he easily cut through the water’s surface, his fins wrapping around him and before fanning back out as his long, webbed fingers curled over the glass edges of the tank.

“Clever and efficient,” The words slipped from his lips and I found myself going still. I wasn’t, as of yet, used to him talking yet and his sonorous voice still caught me off-guard. Calling to mind old folk stories of merpeople using only their voices to tempt their prey closer and thereby foolishly condemn themselves to a watery death.

“It seems I was right to choose you,” A smile spread across his face and I felt myself, foolishly and despite everything, relax.

[outofangband]

Morwen and Aerin scene from a longer fic (can be read without the rest though)

cw: implied/background abuse and captivity and the headspace that comes with that

Reposting with edits because im almost finished with the next part!

Follow up to this

Also thank you to @melestasflight for your kind words on my first draft

“You should keep these for yourself,” Aerin says quietly but she does not protest as Morwen finishes crushing the leaves and adds them to the steaming cup.

“I have no need of them now and these grow unrestrained in my garden,” Morwen says, “You are in pain. You do not hide it well.”

This is not strictly true. Aerin has been concealing this pain for days now and is well accustomed to hiding others. She has been using her arm normally, despite how it exacerbated the wrenching of the joint. But it seemed that when she crossed this threshold, her ability to hide her suffering left her. She pulls her shawl more tightly around her. She has not worn clothes that truly feel her own in well nigh a year. She has not felt her own for that time either.

The steam coaxes forward her tears with more urgency. The scent of it coated her nose and mouth. It was too hot to hold but she reached for the mug anyways, feeling the roughly formed clay of the Nen Lalaith beneath her burning fingers. Morwen watches her for a moment, then lays one hand atop of hers, just briefly, and she sets it back down again.

“I am sorry.”

“For what do you apologize?”

It is an exchange they have had more than once before. In her cruelest hours, Aerin could not say if the voice of Morwen held patience or indifference. Suddenly, she makes a movement between a shrug and a shoulder. Her shaking does not abate after and once more those words find her.

This will never end, not until I do.

She has thought this again and again since that day she was first brought before him but it is the closest she has yet come to saying them.

She does not, though the words are half formed. Nor does she think Morwen will have any answer. There is no answer that is both honest and kind. Aerin knows she has come closer to death lately than she has ever done before, close enough that she tries with an almost desperation not to consider that end, and which she dreads more.

She blinks away more tears. She cannot weep for this or she would not stop.

“I will stay up, if you want a few minutes. I could not sleep myself.”

Morwen looks exhausted truly but Aerin does not doubt her words. She does not want to accept but her own tiredness is weighing on her and she knows she will not have long before she has to return and when she does, she will have no sleep.

Aerin takes one of her hands and links her fingers through Morwen’s, looking at her for permission to remain like this. Morwen gives her a swift nod that almost makes her smile even if it does not.

Perhaps she does sleep. She does not dream but her world blurs in a way that lessens the sharpness of her pain and coats her sadness in something hazy, if only briefly.

She stands again before she is truly awake, the blanket that is not hers falling to the ground. She cannot speak as she walks to the door. If she does not restrain herself before she returns she will pay for it dearly. She wants to think it would be worth it. She does not know.

(Morwen watches Aerin leave, pulling the frayed edges of her shawl more tightly around her. It had not been made for warmth but anything that she might use to cover herself was welcome.)

Note: the flow is definitely a bit rushed, this is party of chapter five of with slander for a blade and it’s a bit out of the style of the previous chapters, it’s almost an interlude. Anyways it definitely needs some work still. There are a few paragraphs at the beginning I didn’t end up including because they needed more work

Second Author’s note: I have a post here that goes a bit into Aerin’s first meeting Brodda and I’m writing it in fic form but it’s been taking awhile

Third:: I hope this is ok, I’ve been feeling so bad about my content lately and unfortunately it’s made me an even worse empirical judge of it

[fountainpenguin]

Minor Fanfic Updates

- I'm slowing Life of a Loser's posting schedule down to just Wednesdays and Saturdays [my time zone] instead of every other day. An update will go out Thursday so the end note can inform readers of its schedule change, and the next one will be Saturday.

-> Update schedule was so frequent because I didn't see the point in holding out too long when the whole 'fic is already up on FFN (and I'm not familiar with best schedule for chapters that average 3k words or less, and this 'fic is summer vibes so I didn't want to take forever), but I do think the every other day schedule is overwhelming. Slowing down is smart.

- I have several Hermitcraft-themed 'fics in the anonymous Guess the Authors collection that will have authors revealed on Monday. I spoke more about what that means for subscription emails and plans HERE.

- Updated my Pinned Post to include a What's Going On? section. I added the FOP 'Fics page link, the MCYT 'Fics page link is there but currently unlinked, and I updated my Currently Updating section.

-> You can check that any time you want to see the update schedules for my current projects.

- I've been making Frayed Knots progress, but it's still slow (I have a big, personal thing happening IRL that takes lots of my attention; everything I've been updating throughout the summer is stuff I'd prepped in advance).

-> I was hoping to post consistently in June or July, but I think sometime in August/September is more likely, as I would rather have multiple chapters on hand before I post. My big thing ends early August, so I'll be able to give more attention to writing new content then.

- I've been thinking of finishing Come What May before posting more Frayed Knots. It has 6 chapters left and then I can finally wipe my hands of it after starting it in 2018. I'd love to finish it before 2025. Thank you to everyone for being patient with it!

- I recently added new headers to Dog's Life, Origin of the Pixies, and Frayed Knots that include links to their chapter-by-chapter recap info, so that's there for anyone who wants a recap guide as they go. I've prepped a more detailed recap for the next Frayed Knots chapter that recounts what's happened thus far in Act 3 since it was on hiatus a long time.

- Drafted a series page for my MCYT 'fics (similar to my 130 Series Table of Contents page). It will be up on Monday after Guess the Author is revealed. The purpose of this page:

-> To be linked in my Pinned Post for easy access to people browsing my Tumblr (as previously my only AO3 link there was my multifandom Personal Faves list)

-> Help people see what I write and direct them to series so they can customize the content they receive AO3 emails for

-> I was linking to every other series on my individual MCYT series pages, and there are a lot of them. Every time I added a new series, I had to edit every series page and it got annoying. I'm planning to redirect people to the Tumblr page for series info, which mirrors my current set-up with the 130 series (as of my recent footer update).

-> After the author reveal on Monday, I'm going to update the footers for all my MCYT 'fics (as they are currently inconsistent) to link to this page. I'm working on some more detailed descriptions for series content as well, which will also be linked there to help people decide if they're interested in reading.

- Factor It In still on hiatus for now. I was hoping to update it again in August, but my IRL busy-ness has slowed my ability to get Frayed Knots up. Factor It In is not abandoned; just paused while I work on a 'fic that's older.

-> /cry smile as I think about how Frayed Knots is only one year older than Factor despite them being posted online 6 years apart

-> I promise I have not lost interest in Factor, lol... It's my baby, but it's also my middle grade-adjacent style experiment and it's important to me that it feels a certain way, so I don't want to rush it.

-> Might finish some little WordGirl one-shots I have sitting around, though. They've been sitting with me since 2018... I've just been nervous to post them because. idk. Feelings about them.

- I have been sitting on a far-future Inside Out draft since the movie came out, and now that Inside Out 2 is out (it was lovely! Seeing it a second time today with family), I'm tempted to finish it... You might see that or maybe you won't.

-> It's about the inherent awkwardness of trying to control a body and flirt with another's emotions you know exist but will never meet, especially if you yourself are an emotion and aren't getting the physical sensations that other parts of the body are :') Anxiety and Ennui also getting dropped in my lap, my beloved...

All righty! Thanks for reading my work!

[canonicallyobserving911]

9-1-1 Season 6 - Constructive Criticisms #1

Lack of and/or inconsistencies with interviews, promos, stills, trailers, etc.

IMO Season 6 ended like a wet firecracker with no sparks or anything exciting enough to make me want to return for season 7.  While the bridge collapse included in 6x18 “Pay it Forward” had potential, it fell completely flat because it felt rushed and the injuries the team received from it were glossed over once they made it to the hospital. There wasn’t any emotional depth and it seemed like another filler episode.  Also, since it was the “supposed” culmination of an entire season/series, it made everything seem more abysmal.  The first half of the season ended abysmally too on November 28, 2022 and over the hiatus, I hoped 6B would be better.  In February 2023, the promo was released for 6x10 “In a Flash” and I became excited again about the show since it seemed like 9-1-1 was back on track but much to my dismay, that wasn’t the case.

To say I was disappointed after watching 6x18 is a gross understatement because the narrative the show followed for THE ENTIRE SEASON was discarded and I stopped watching before the episode ended. It felt like the show I’d grown to appreciate as an actual form of entertainment in the current ‘wastelands’ of network TV had turned into something that was unrecognizable because characters’ storylines were completely obliterated, CANON facts from previous seasons were erased/rewritten and it seemed like the majority of season 2 never existed.  I was so frustrated with the ending that I needed to reassess and regroup in order to figure out if I wanted to continue CANONICALLY blogging about 9-1-1.

I mentioned in a previous post (linked here) that I wanted to provide constructive criticisms from an objective perspective for the season overall and in order to do that, I needed time to reassess. Instead of posting one long 100,000-word post (yes, it’s that many words or more), which would have included everything I felt from season 6 that should have been yeeted to the sun, I decided to make separate posts about them.

My first set of “constructive criticisms” regarding the way promos were handled are included below the cut. Please note criticizing a TV show is NOT a bad thing especially since TV critics have been doing it for decades. Constructive criticisms are designed to help make something better and they are VERY different from negativity.  A person can offer criticisms about a form of entertainment they spend their time watching and not be negative about it the same way two people can agree to disagree on a topic. Just because one person liked the season, they shouldn’t expect for others to feel the way they do because everyone has their own opinions.  Simply put, two people can have different opinions about 9-1-1 and those opinions can COEXIST since they are not mutually exclusive.

If reading criticisms about 9-1-1 upsets you, then don’t read below the cut.

                      Warning! ⚠️“Constructive Criticisms” Ahead!⚠️

TV promotions for season 6 were all over the place and they were very inconsistent.  They’re supposed to generate GA interest in the episode to increase the number of viewers who will watch (hopefully live) and so they’ll know what to expect but the lack of/and or the inconsistencies in promoting them made that almost impossible. Video promos, teasers, trailers, interviews, synopses, social media, stills and everything else were delayed or nonexistent which made it difficult to follow the direction the show was attempting to take. The end result for some episodes made it seem like they were still editing up until the last minute which is ridiculous especially for a veteran TV show like 9-1-1 that was in its sixth season.  There’s no excuse for promotions to have been as minimal as they were and it’s also unfathomable for them to have not been presented to the network in a timely manner.

Promos, Teasers and Trailers Season 6 video promos, teasers and trailers were lacking and it was unnecessary since that wasn’t the case for previous seasons.  Promos for the entire season were off and it all started before 6x1 “Let the Games Begin” even aired.  The season opener promo wasn’t released until a few days before the episode aired when in the past, those promos were released at least one month prior the same way it was done for 6B.  Also, the 6x1 promo was attached to another FOX show that wasn’t even in the same franchise (The Cleaning Lady) and the 9-1-1 portion of it included scenes from 6x4 (Buck on the bicycle) which wasn’t set to air for another four weeks.  The “Blackout” trailer for Season 5 was released at least one month prior to when 5x1 “Panic” was set to air and it played continuously on FOX (at least it did in my region) until the premiere.  Therefore, the lack of trailers for the entirety of the season made absolutely no sense.

It appears there may have been more last minute reshoots, episode name changes and other reasons for the delays that caused edits to be processed down to the wire.  So, the lack of trailers, teasers and episode promos shouldn’t have been a surprise after season 5 but it was because it costs between 9 million - 10 million to produce a single episode.  Since it seems like 9-1-1 wasn’t bothered enough to promote their own show, they shouldn’t have been surprised when the GA didn’t tune in.  Several social media comments about the start of season 6 included viewers stating they missed the premiere because they didn’t know the show had returned.

Promos for upcoming episodes that should have aired at the end of 6x16 and 6x17 weren’t included and the promo for 6x18 wasn’t even released until the Saturday before the episode aired.  It was only 10 seconds in duration and it included at least 4 seconds of LD (a former recurring character from season 5 who hadn’t been seen since 6x1) even though each member of the firefam got less than 0.5 milliseconds of airtime in it.  Six sneak peek scenes were released for 6x18 but it probably would have been much better if they didn’t release a promo at all, especially since it wasn’t long enough to understand what was going to happen.

Unpopular opinion - IMO, FOX took the blame for the lack of promos during the latter part of 6B when the blame should have been placed solely on 9-1-1.  Since the show is responsible for getting promos and trailers to the network, wasn’t it 9-1-1′s responsibility to provide FOX with stills, teasers, trailers, etc.?  If that’s the case, then FOX couldn’t adequately promote 9-1-1 because it seems like 9-1-1 didn’t give them anything to promote.  This wasn’t an issue for 9-1-1 LS because they started promoting their 4th season in October 2022 even though the first episode wasn’t set to air until January 2023.  Reminder, 9-1-1 OG was on FOX for 6 years and in the past, FOX had no problems promoting the season 3 Tsunami, the season 5 Blackout and others so it’s kind of unfair for them to take the blame for the lack of promos when the show dropped the whole trailer/teaser/promo ball all on its own.

Incorrect synopses There was an abundance of incorrect synopses included in season 6 and if the goal was to hide/deflect/deter the audience from potential spoilers then maybe it would have been a good idea to make sure the final edit of the episode was done before any synopses were released.  It seems like the lack of planning caused a lot of these errors especially when reshoots for certain scenes had to be completed (the scene of Marisol crying while standing over her brother in the ambulance in 6x5 was actually a reshoot.  Imagine that👀👀... they reshot the scene and it still looked like she was in love with her brother.  Therefore, that was a WASTE OF MONEY/BUDGETING DOLLARS).  The synopsis for 6x1 stated Maddie and Chimney would go to couples’ therapy but either it didn’t happen or it was cut from the episode.  The 6x5 “Home Invasion” synopsis stated Hen would talk to her professor when she did that in 6x4 “Animal Instincts”.  Guests and recurring characters listed for 6x17 and 6x18 was an inconsistent mess and it’s unclear if they did it that way to hide the fact that AK and MW were returning in 6x17.  But viewers who saw the BTS pics that were released in March, already knew AK would be in the finale and it was speculated that MW would be too after she was spotted at FOX studios.  Does anyone proofread these things because the synopses that included Buck and ND kept changing like they were trying to decide how to handle their nonexistent relationship only to shove Buck into one with her at the end of 6x18. SMH!

Stills Stills are a huge part of promos because they can be used on an array of social media platforms when compared to videos and GIFs; therefore the lack of them for the majority of season 6 was unacceptable.  A lot of the stills that were released came from the main cast (thanks to OS and AH) and the ones from the show were always released when it was close to the episode’s air date instead of at least one week in advance.

Social Media By the end of 6A, the official Tumblr 9-1-1 account hadn’t posted anything about OG since the BT breakup at the end of season 5, so I unfollowed it.  People who use Twitter and Instagram probably got more interactions from the dedicated FOX accounts than other platforms but hopefully when the show is on ABC, things will be better and the Tumblr 911 on ABC will get the attention it deserves.

Sneak Peeks 9-1-1 should STOP releasing five and six scenes from an episode the weekend before or on the day the episode airs because it’s a lazy way to promote it and they ruin the viewing experience.  The duration of each episode is between 42 to 45 minutes so if 5 scenes that are each one-minute long are released, the audience has the chance to see at least 11% to 12% of the episode before it airs. That spoils a lot of the excitement and it’s been happening since season 5.  Sneak Peeks should NOT be used to replace promo videos and teaser trailers.

Pre and post-mortem interviews Interviews have become an antiquated way of promoting TV shows because most of the GA DOESN’T READ THEM.  Also, some people don’t even know they exist but the main problem with 9-1-1′s post-mortems is information that should have been included in CANON WAS NOT but it was mentioned in interviews like the audience should have been able to anticipate what the showrunner wanted them to know (i.e., Chim and Buck making up off screen in season 5 and Chris being told about Eddie’s will)!  The showrunner(s) released all kinds of important information in them but if they didn’t read the post-mortem, viewers didn’t have any ideas about the things that supposedly happened.  For example, KR mentioned, right before the midseason hiatus, that Ravi was away at the academy but the GA had been asking about the character since the beginning of season 6.  Therefore, if the majority of the GA doesn’t read interviews, how were they supposed to know that?  Also, she always mentioned things happened off-screen during her interviews when clearly those things were important enough that they should have happened on-screen.  Since most viewers don’t read post-mortems, they had to do mental gymnastics during and after episodes to figure out what happened to the characters.

Another issue with 9-1-1′s post-mortems is lately there’s only been one main cast member doing the majority of them and that’s just not fair.  Viewers have their favorite characters and contrary to popular belief, BUCK IS NOT EVERYONE’S FAVORITE.  My favorite character is Eddie Diaz, so I would like to read some interviews with RG instead of OS.  If RG was allowed to do some interviews then maybe I’d read the articles instead of just scrolling to the comment sections.

Please note, I do not have a problem with OS because he’s a gifted actor and he knows and plays the character of Evan ‘Buck’ Buckley very well but he’s done like 90% of the post-mortem interviews for season 6 while the rest of the main cast has barely done one or NONE (RG) over the past two seasons.  It’s an ensemble cast so it would be fair if EVERYONE is given the chance to do at least one interview.  If they don’t want them to do one then maybe the showrunner(s) should do all the interviews instead of them spotlighting only one cast member. 

To make things fair, every main cast member (there are 9 of them) should be allowed to do a minimum of two post-mortem interviews per season or if that’s not an option, none of the main cast should do them.  That way audience members would have the opportunity to read interviews from some of their favorites too.  The comments on other social media platforms and post-mortem interviews for season 6 proves that viewers would much rather read interviews from someone other than OS in season 7. 

The viewers who like AB want to read interviews conducted with her while others would like to hear from AH, PK or KC.  IIRC, JLH hasn’t done an interview since season 5 after 5x12 “Boston” also both GM and CM haven’t done one since last season either.  AH did an interview after 6x6 and PK completed one before 6x7 but the information he mentioned was either incorrect or the character’s job was changed from her being a ‘famous singer’ to a ‘movie star’.  KC did one a few weeks ago after the proposal arc and it appears to have been a HUGE success since he was finally allowed to do an interview.  When is RG going to be let out of interview jail?  He did interviews in previous seasons, so what’s the problem with allowing him to do interviews?

Hopefully the transition to ABC will be better but if they have to wait for promotional materials the same way FOX did, it’s unlikely things will be any better than they were during season 6.  9-1-1 needs to work on their time management and organizational skills during the hiatus to be better for season 7 so they’ll be able to release promos, stills, etc. on time.

These are my criticisms regarding promos, trailers, stills, interviews, etc. and “Constructive Criticisms” #2 will be posted soon.

[elnierah]

Small Update

Hello, my lovely readers! It’s been quite some time since I last uploaded any of my writing. I apologise for how long it’s been since chapter 30 of YCTL, but I come bearing both some good news and ‘bad’. 

Firstly, the bad: I think this may be obvious due to the CWO, but there will be no chapter this month. My mental break lasted much longer than I anticipated, but I think it was very much overdue, and whilst I wish I could’ve been revitalized quicker, I believe it was for the best.

The second ‘bad’ point: is I plan to go on another short hiatus, but it’s for more... joyful reasons this time. A game I have eagerly anticipated since the development team behind it was announced is releasing very soon and I want to allow myself this one selfish wish to enjoy it to the fullest potential. Some of the people behind it are a huge reason I found my voice as a creator and I yearn for nothing more than to go on this new adventure with them without any regrets on my mind. So I’ll be on a hiatus and less active until I have completed it.

The GOOD news however!: 

is that I wrote a YCTL short story to release just before I depart! I originally was planning one based on P5S ( BEST GAME! ), but the scenario I came up with was too short and I couldn’t think of ways to expand it organically.

This YCTL short story is a scenario I wanted to include in the actual storyline, and whilst I still probably can with some alterations to it, I decided it wouldn’t hurt as a short story in case I’m unable to fit in it. In my mind, it takes place after the manor arc, but it's not contingent on anything beyond Yusuke and Akira’s dating status, so it can take place in multiple spots of the ‘timeline’. I also do want to apologise in advance if the end section seems a bit rushed, I, uh... ran out of time and really wanted to at least do something as an apology for my delays and further delays... I might edit it in the future when it’s not bordering on midnight and my hiatus start time.

This short story is also a bit of a love letter to a song ( and game ) very near and dear to my heart. I legitimately likely would not have returned to writing if it wasn’t for my experience with Endwalker, so I’ve linked a spoil-free video related to it. All of this will make more sense once you actually see what the scenario is about, so without further ado...

https://www.tumblr.com/elnierah/720743722523017216/sea-kissed-melody?source=share

PS: There is an official piano only variation of this song, but most videos are filled or turn into spoilery imagery, so I decided a cover would be best, not only because the player is magnificent but also because it only shows the piano being played. If you don’t mind risking spoilers, then I recommend you go listen to the original vocal version of the song - it’s literally god’s gift. (♥ ³♥)

[bryan360]

Here’s my note before I’ll get started….

(DON’T YOU EVER COPY FROM MINE OR MY FRIEND’S WORK, CHARACTERS, AND STUFF IF ONE OF YOU ARE IMPOSTERS WHO HAD HABITS OF PLAGIARISM! I WILL BLOCK YOU FROM MY BLOG IF I SEE YOUR POST WITH MINE OR MY FRIEND’S ORIGINAL WORK BEING EDITED ALL OVER! I’LL EVEN SHARE IT ONTO MY BLOG SO IF EVERYONE WILL SEE THAT YOU TRYING TO COPY MINE OR MY FRIEND’S THINGS FOR NO GOOD REASON WHATSOEVER! That will be all….I mean it.)

Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB 3.0 Drive (64 GB) (Unboxing) - Part 1 (Nov. 12th, 2022)

🇵🇷Me: Hola, everyone and friends! I’ve been waiting after saving this to have my latest review, but hoping it’ll work on my tablet devices when going through progress. I think It’ll be worth using it until I can get a new one with bigger gigabytes next time. Anyways, here’s what used to be my birthday gift giving by my mom: Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB 3.0. Drive ⬇️

🐰🖌Maxwell: A USB Drive for your tablet, huh? That’s pretty neat idea of getting.

🇵🇷Me: Yeah, Maxwell. Thought I’ll be having this if I can store my photos and artworks to save. After all, it’s my birthday gift I’ve picked to show ya from last month. Link Here

🐰🖌Maxwell: Sounds good. We know about using USB drive to store things whether videos or musics like some of my friends do. Wonder how can work well with working on your tablet still? Just saying.

🇵🇷Me: Glad that you asked, buddy. However, I’ll be saving for another part coming later. At least when going through the unboxing part first. I’ve started back in November. 12th during break time. For now until I can go back to other stuff this week. Also other items I'll be saving for future reviews.

(1st and 4th Images)

🇵🇷Me: Before I can do unboxing though, I took pics of the box itself showing the USB Drive item that made for iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices. Since now I had two iPad devices, I’m going for the 5th generation version that I mostly use. Because if you remember what happened to my iPad Mini 2 device is something I’ve upgraded. Though that doesn’t mean I won’t be tossing my old device away anytime soon. I’m still keeping it. Anyways, it can hold about 64 GB or gigabytes of storage to store any artworks I have. Though don’t which ones I can head start with, but hoping I’ll won’t losing it when transferring in progress. It’s a good thing when checking on the back there’s a list of iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices that will have support for my USB Drive; more or less.

🐰🖌Maxwell: Yeah. I can see the list of them if you look closely. It saids there that it can support iPad Mini and iPad 5th generation versions. Nice! 😉👍

(5th and 6th Images)

🇵🇷Me: That’s exactly what I’m hoping for. Or else it would a bit too difficult if it haven’t. Now after checking on the back is done, I can open up the box to see what’s inside. Although it only includes the USB Drive itself and the manual book, but at least not too much.

(7th, 8th, and 9th Images)

🇵🇷Me: And finally have a closer look of the USB Drive; with both Type-A and Lighting connectors. Also it includes both protective caps and a small hanger. So that’s nice some companies had those before. Hope that my P-pal @murumokirby360 is already appreciated. I’ll make sure to not lose both of them when sealing and unsealing.

🐰🖌Maxwell: Hope not, but good for having them sealed in protection. 👍

My thoughts:

🇵🇷Me: So far, I haven't touch to set up my USB Drive just yet, but I'm promised I'll get to that this month without rushing in. At least the unboxing part work out fine for starters. It had some of them I wanted, but nothing can hurt as I'll be reading through manual.

🐰🖌Maxwell: Mhm. We're getting there to set up his USB Drive to connect with his iPad device. So stay tuned for another part review to handle well.

🇵🇷Me: 👍🏼

My Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB 3.0 Drive (64 GB) - photos/pics made by myself; BryanVelasquez87 (Bryan360)

Tagged: @murumokirby360 @carmenramcat @alexander1301

[fancoloredglasses]

Letters From Home (They had to prove the two series are linked somehow)

[All images are owned by Toei Animation and World Events Productions. Please don’t sue me.]

(Thanks to Radwolf76 for the suggestion)

For all anime aired for an American audience (at least in the 20th century), the source material is cut, spliced, re-sequenced, re-dubbed, and in the end is only tangentially related to the source material (with one exception that I know of, and even that was heavily edited)

The two versions of Voltron are no exceptions, having been adapted from two anime series that have nothing to do with one another except the mecha are built from smaller vehicles (yes, in this case I'm calling the Lions "vehicles") and they defeat their adversaries with giant swords they conjure out of thin air.

They were given similar opening sequences (including the same narrator), the same name for their adversaries (robeasts), and of course the mecha have the same name. However, many fans believed these were different universes...until this Vehicle Team episode. If you would like to watch the episode, it's available on YouTube or behind your favorite paywall.

We open with Chip, the smallest member of the Vehicle Team and a member of the Air Team (don’t ask me which part of Voltron he winds up being; I’m not that invested) on a road trip with his brother Pidge (who pilots the Green Lion) Unfortunately they’re in two separate anime Pidge is asleep and doesn’t appear on screen. However, in the middle of his monologuing about the fun times they’re going to have, he looks back to find…

What? You were expecting to see Pidge? I just said the two characters come from different anime franchises!

Then Chip wakes up from his nightmare on board the Explorer.

At roll call the next morning, Captain Newley (Explorer’s Commanding Officer) announces that the ship they just rendezvoused with brought mail (this was made in the days before the internet, so email wasn’t A Thing yet) Chip is eager to hear from Pidge, but no luck. Just a boring letter from his parents.

Meanwhile at a nearby Drule Empire base, their patrols are gathering intel on the Galaxy Alliance fleet that are with the Explorer.

Speaking of the Explorer, they are assisting in the reinforcement of defenses at a nearby Galaxy Alliance base.

The base detects the Drule patrol and launches drones to deal with them as we go to commercial.

The drones make short work of the Drule patrol, but they know more are on the way.

(Jeff being the leader of Air Team; I’m not listing all 15 members since most are barely even mentioned in the series)

However, as Air Team prepares to launch…

So where’s Chip?

Feeling sorry for himself. Lisa (from the Sea Team) breaks him from his funk by asking why he’s not with the rest of Air Team. He immediately rushes out, dropping the letter he received.

However, Captain Newley can’t wait and sends Land Team out instead.

In the hangar, the rest of Air Team lays into Chip verbally (to be fair, he’s the reason they were grounded for this mission, though I’m not sure why Captain Newley didn’t just send out Air Team without Chip)

Chip doesn’t take that too well.

Meanwhile at the Drule base, the Commander goes over the intel gathered and comes up with a plan on how to defeat the Voltron Force.

Back on the Explorer, Sara read Chip’s letter from his parents. Turns out he didn’t get any mail at the beginning of the episode.

Lisa then goes into some exposition about Chip and Pidge and why they’re so close. Jeff then suggests that Lisa talk to Chip (since she’s the one who found out)

Meanwhile…

…a Drule fleet is on the way as we go to commercial!

Back at the Explorer, Lisa reaches out

Meanwhile, the Land Team has discovered a distress beacon on a nearby planet. Captain Newley scrambles Air and Sea Teams, but Chip refuses to go. Lisa decides to stay by his side (you don’t suppose being 2 ships short will matter?)

Chip admits to Lisa that he wrote the letter and lets loose the emotional floodgate.

Lisa assures Chip that something must’ve happened to the letter (suuuuuure it did)

On the planet, Land Team discovers the wreckage of a Drule ship.

You think it’s a trap? I think it may be a trap.

I KNEW IT!

The Drules realize the Voltron Force is two vehicles short, so they attack!

Yeah, no shit!

Then the Drules deploy their latest Robeast!

Crap, it’s got a sword! As any Voltran fan will tell you: once the sword is out, it’s all over!

However, despite being outgunned and two short, Air Team and Sea Team make short work of the Drule fleet. Unfortunately, Land Team still needs to deal with the Robeast!

On the Explorer, Captain Newley pleads with Lisa and Chip to join the fight.

This is enough for Chip to break out of his funk as he and Lisa rush to their vehicles and arrive in time, so…

Once Voltron is in play, the battle ends quickly…

…and what’s left of the Drule fleet quickly retreat.

Later on the Explorer, Captain Newley has something for Chip: a letter!

And wouldn’t ya know, it’s from Pidge! The producers then splice in scenes from Lion Force as Pidge’s voice narrates the letter.

Excuse me, I have some familial love in my eye.

[magpiejay1234]

https://twitter.com/YuGiOh_OCG_INFO/status/1638510849630388224

https://ygorganization.com/dune-mirror-formation-of-the-ten-sacred-treasures/

We don’t have a huge reveal for today, but we got possibly the most important card for the next three years. It is Mirror Formation of the Ten Sacred Treasures, a Kuji-Kuri Curse for Level 10 and lower monsters.

We were supposed to get this card back in Series 11 (Rise of the Duelist to Cyberstorm Access) due to massive influx of Level 10 Main Deck monsters, but for some reason it was never printed. Now, in the first set of Series 12, as the first daily reveal, it is shown.

This is an insanely pivotal card for many, many GX-era archetypes, and ARC-V archetypes, and antagonist Decks from various series including Dark Signers’ Earthbound Immortal (well, it is actually kinda the reverse), and Aporia’s Level 10 Meklord Astros, as well as Z-One’s Timelords (lol this got revealed the day prior to Z-One’s Duel Links unlock event’s start). 

What this card means for casual animé fans is, finally, the massive amount of unprinted, predominantly Season 1 ARC-V boss monsters are now open as options, but also your favourite GX-era characters who got recent Level 10 boss monsters will get pumped in lots of new support. And that is the merely the surface level of possibilities of this card can unlock. For example, because of The Legendary Exodia Incarnate statue we are getting, and the previous Three-Eyed Ghost reveal, we might even get main set Exodia support for next DM main set. Or rest of the Dark Signers in Duel Links. Or main set Slifer support for the next DM set.

****

Other deets:

*This card’s slot number is 64, which is below the new Evolution Pill card. This doesn’t tell us much, but it means Spells go at least to slot 64.

*The other Levels without Kuji-Kuri Curse/Trade-In analogue are:

**Level 12

**Level 11

**Level 5

**Level 4, 3, 2, 1 (Level 4 has a few draw cards, though. Soul Transition for Normal Summonable/Settable cards, and Gemini Spark for Level 4 Geminis).

Next target should logically be Level 11, but due to recent Level 12 support, I’m guessing we will be getting Level 12 before that. Once Level 12, and 11 draw cards are released, we will likely see the franchise’s first Level 13 monster, to match Numerounious Numeriona. I don’t what will happen after that though (maybe we will finally get LINK-7/8? Also Rush Duels don’t have the inherent Level limit OCG cards do caused by the layout, since the Level is shown inside the star ball as a number, not as x amount of star balls. They can go to Level Infinity if they want.)

Edit: (For a little bit of context, Sacred Sword of Seven Stars (for Level 7) was released in Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy (16th February 2013) as Elemental Lord support, and got reprinted as Yuya support in Structure Deck: Master of Pendulum (20th June 2015). Celestial Observatory (for Level 6) was printed in Cybernetic Horizon (14th April 2018), and Kuji-Kiri Curse (for Level 9) was printed in Ignition Assault (12th October, 2019).) 

*A bit aesthetic difference, but Duelist Nexus tweets use English (well Engrish) date stamp, likely meaning OCG Twitter is now trying to appeal to international audiences. In addition to this, the reveal’s background uses muted colours, similar to VRAINS era reveals, but also heavy shadows, similar to DM era sets. This might hint this Series’ cards are meant to appeal more to older audiences of YGO, as we get more classic themes being transferred to Rush Duels.

This might also imply more of a focus to original 3 shows, but more likely it means ARC-V is old to be considered nostalgic (which basically how they treated ZEXAL’s anniversary 2 years ago.)

***

Tomorrow will be Z-One’s Duel Links quotes hopefully, but it will also be the next batch of April 2023 Tournament Pack. We will see if there is anything interesting in them.

[cladestine]

request: could i request angsty jennie x reader wherein reader feels insecure cos of jennie and v dating rumors? reader distances themselves from jennie cos of this!! endings purely up to you, thanks so much love ur works hehe

genre: a little bit of angst, fluff

note: requests? link in my bio

You are not the jealous type. You understand that her line of work unfortunately includes fans shipping her to any male idols. Besides, you don't have any problems with the shipping and rumored dating issues that are always coming her way—well, you shouldn't be, since you're not her girlfriend in the first place. She doesn't want to label anything that you have as of the moment—she wants the both of you to enjoy the now, and frankly, you are okay with it.

You're scrolling through your Twitter and you've seen that Jennie is trending once again. For the past couple of days, Jennie's name has been on the trending list—it may be because of a dress she wore, a leaked snippet of her solo song or another dating rumour, but right now, it is the latter. These V and Jennie dating rumours are getting out of hand. The rumours started when an edited photo of them was posted on Twitter, and since then, the rumours have never stopped.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the dating rumours are true," Lee Jung said. You are in YG's dance studio. You're there with the other dancers. Your friend, Lee Jung, is in charge of Blackpink's comeback, so here you are, wearing a big " Jisoo" name tag and practicing some dance moves before presenting it to YG and the girls. " Jennie and v would be a power couple, both are rich and good looking," another dancer continued. "She should be with someone like V. It's such a downgrade if Jennie were to date a normal guy. That's a bummer," Simeez gushed before urging everyone to practice.

Even after that little gossip escapade with the dancers, you cannot erase the fact that they do have a point. Good-looking people should stick together, right? You try not to be bothered by it because, one, you're not the girlfriend, and second, you are definitely not the girlfriend.

It would be a lie when you say that you were not affected by the conversation that took place four days ago. The conversation that took place in the studio is an eye-opener for you that a woman like Jennie is way out of your league. It all makes sense to you why Jennie doesn't want to label anything. She doesn't see any future with you—and thinking about that makes your heart sink a little.

"Y/N, can you help me? I'm kind of confused about the dance, " Jennie said. You're a little bit skeptical about her question since your choreography is focused more on Jisoo, but still, you approached her and asked which part is confusing.

"Are you okay? You haven't been answering my texts and you have rain checked on me four times in the past two weeks. Are you avoiding me or what?" Jennie said once you approached her. Her voice sounded so demanding and it irritated you a little bit—for a no-label relationship, she sure acted like one.

"Busy. A lot has been going on. Which part again did you find confusing? " you said. The tone of your voice sounded plain and robotic. You don't want to deal with this type of Jennie right now. You don't want to further the conversation, because if it did, it would be a burst of confession coming from you.

"Lee Jung, can I borrow Y/N? There's this part that I need help with. I can't focus here since there are a lot of people doing different dance moves. Do you mind? " Jennie pleaded. Lee Jung laughed and showed a thumbs up. Jennie then proceeded to drag your arm to the next practice room.

"I missed you," Jennie says as she kisses you. It was greedy, rushed, and passionate. You responded with the kiss, but your head is in a different place right now, and Jennie seems to notice it. 

"What the hell is your problem? You didn't look at me in the practice room, didn't answer my texts, and now you can't even fake how excited you are to meet me? " She said, angrily. If you are not in a sulky mood, you will find it scary, but your thoughts are only consumed by the fact that she is way out of your league.

"It's just that, I don't know. Whatever this is. We should stop" you said. Jennie looked at you dumbfounded. "Where did that come from?" Jennie stated irritably. "I don't know what happened, but you're becoming unreasonable right now. You're being selfish, Y/N. Your reason is "I don't know." Really? Are you fucking kidding me?" she continued.

Unreasonable and Selfish— You completely lost it when those words came out of her mouth.

"Jennie. Stop acting like we have something going on. You demand it as if we were girlfriends or something. You don't want to commit, remember? So you don't have the right to say that I'm unreasonable and selfish because it's you—you are the unreasonable and selfish one, " you spitefully said. "You deserve someone that you can proudly be with, Jennie. Clearly, there will never be an us. You deserve someone who is on the same level as you. Kai, V, G-dragon, and me? Your standards are falling, lady. Save yourself until you can." You jokingly said. Jennie is frozen at her spot, and you can't seem to read her mind. You decided to squeeze her arm and say goodbye. Just as before you leave—you heard the most unbelievable words from her mouth.

"I love you. " Jennie said. "I am afraid that I'll ruin something good. You're the first person whom I completely trust. I feel safe with you. You make me do things that I don't particularly enjoy doing in the first place. Y/N, I don't listen to Taylor Swift, but when you suggested that I should listen to her since you told me that her songs reminded you of us, she's the only artist I've been listening to for months now. I despise Captain America, but here I am, binge watching the fuck out of MCU so I can make small talk when you come back to my apartment. I'm sorry if I made you feel that way. It was never my intention. Give me a chance. Let's sort this out. I promise that I'll make it right this time" Jennie said with much sincerity.

You approached Jennie and kissed her. It was the most passionate and genuine kiss you had experienced in your whole life. Kissing her was the only thing that mattered right now. You hugged her and whispered to her ear, "I would love to start over. Let's make this journey worthwhile," you said.

[justsomeectoplasm]

Ok since my sky lore summary reblog is getting a kick in notes, I decided to redo it since I feel like I haven't been that clear in it.

So if you're still new, you read my reblog and you're still a bit confuse, here's a revamp version of it. It's pretty long, so I suggest you sit somewhere comfy, get a snack and put on some calm music.

Edit 7 August 2022: This is outdated. I have another summary but I will link it in this post when I find it.

Notes before reading

It has been officially stated by TGC that the lore is up to the player's intrepertation. The vagueness of the lore was made intentional by TGC and thus you can either agree with the theory or timeline, or you can just say to hell with it and create your own timeline. No one's stopping you!

However, this timeline will be made using the most popular theories and observations made by the fandom and skyblr. This will also contain my observations as I feel it might help adding in my understanding. I ask that those who were in the fandom longer than me (specifically players who were playing before season of dreams) to correct me if I had made any mistakes or misunderstandings.

I will also be covering the vanilla lore, so I will ignore the smaller details such as seasonal spirits, who are the winged lights, where is home located etc. Feel free to check out the @sky-lore blog, who reblogs and save pretty cool theories that were discussed.

That's about it! Without further ado

A summary of Sky: cotl lore

(Or what we have gathered as 'lore')

"With the stars united, our light was infinte"

A long time ago, there lived a growing civilization in the sky. The people lived in harmony, worshipping the Elders and, most importantly, Megabird.

Megabird is the giant bird we see when we get reborn after dying in Eden. It is believed that Megabird created all life in the kingdom. Everyone's souls eventually returns to Megabird after they've died.

The elders are keepers of the realms, most likely holy guardians who protect and rule the kingdom. Each realm has a guardian, with a shrine to pray and meditate for them.

One day, a star fell from the sky. Two stargazers, who were taking a walk and admiring the night sky, saw this and immediately rushed to investigate it. However, when they arrived they did not find a star but rather a small child.

This child was named Alef. Many theorist, including me, believed that he was the first child of light who descended upon the realm.

When Alef's existence became known Daleth, the isle of dawn elder, took him in and raised him as a prince. It seems that the prophets of the four elements had a vision that Alef was to be crowned king and rule over the kingdom.

Alef then set out to complete the four prophercy trials. After he completed them, he was crowned King Resh. (We don't know why he changed his name to Resh, but it was kind of confirmed that they are both the same person.)

Some time had passed and King Resh has discovered a very interesting energy source: Dark stones

A/n this where all the bs starts btw.

The Dark stones are a powerful energy source where, once it reacts with a specific amount of light, it creates a powerful energy that can open doors, build bridges, make boats fly and advance technology.

King Resh started to mass produce these stones and caused the civilization to grow exceptionally. (We don't know how far the civilization has grown. Early concepts showed skykids exploring and finding modern inventions, such as bus stops and modern cities, but nothing has been confirmed)

However, what King Resh did not anticipate is how much of light was starting to dwindle in the world. Darkness was slowly consuming the kingdom and causing the water to turn to waste and strange dark plants to grow. (One person looked at the early concepts and theorise that they might repesent trapped souls.)

Eventually, the civilization became desperate to harvest more light to substain their stones. It later lead to a war being waged to either protect the remaining light or to harvest the last of it. The civilization even went ahead to harm the light animals to get more light, causing the previous light dragons to turn into the ferocious Dark dragons that appear in wasteland. The Golden wasteland realm was also effected the most during this, as you can see the remnants of war littered throughtout the realm.

But the darkness continued to spread among the kingdom and things weren't looking good. King Resh was also eventually corrupted by darkness, morphing him into a terrifying monster that rests on top of eden. (Early concepts showed that he was the reason there are flying rocks in Eden, but again nothing was confirmed)

Then, an explosion of Darkness happened. Many of us don't know where this happened, but everything seems to be pointing at Eden, the last realm.

When the explosion occured, it killed everyone in it's path, causing the Kingdom to fall. King Resh became trapped in the storm at Eden and reverted back to his child like form. This is the same child we meet when we die at stormlock. The Elders also suffered some physical damages, for example Isle of dawn elder's mask is broken.

Saddened by the death of the kingdom, Megabird has decided to create a new being. A being who will bring forth hope. A being who will vanquish the darkness and restore light back into the kingdom.

That being will be named "A child of light"

And that's how we the player came to be and what our purpose is.

[lorgnettes]

tag listing / navigation ! requests are always open! so pop over and request ^^ it’s always apreciated! (rules and how to request under the cut)

RULES:

reading my blacklist and sources is much appreciated before making a request although it isn't a big deal if you don't!

please check out my tumblr page before ordering! it has extremely vital points and keys that you must respect!

if ever you are unsure if I can do a specific graphic, check with me. i can do a lot of graphics but I am only one person running this blog.

multiple request are allowed by only limited to two per ask. per person you have a maximum of ten asks (doesn't matter if there is two requests in or not) with at least 24 hours; once you pass those ten orders you become a vip and if ever you make an order you will immediately be passed first as a priority!

when making a request, I have very simple rules:

if you include a faceclaim please include the tv show / anime / videogame / movie etc... that they are part of.

if you just tell me to follow a certain aesthetic and do not include a faceclaim I will do just that, just tell me if you want an image of a person or not.

you must include a color / -core / aesthetic / a word that I will follow. you may, as well, tell me to tarot read your request and I will draw inspiration from the tarot card drawn.

you have to say please or thank you when ordering or it'll be ignored.

specify flags when ordering pride icons.

specify whether you want them to be filtered or not and if so what color.

manga edits are welcome but I will assume that you mean manga icons until you tell me that you want a comic strip to be edited.

when asking for icons with a title please specify a font. if you don't know what font you would prefer, give me a vague indication like: italic or bold or vintage or loopy.

specify what shape you want them to be. if you do not, they will be square.

when ordering wallpapers, I beg of you, please tell me the dimensions :sob:

anons are welcomed just as much as already made accounts, however if you are an anon please tell how you would like to be referred as.

i would be eternally grateful if you did not steal my icons and graphics. those take a long time to make and stealers are regarded unkindly upon. if you do appreciate them, a like and / or a reblog would be the best thing!

please don't rush me or pressure me into finishing your request. i have my own life and if you pressure me I won't do your request. as simple as that. however, if it has been more than 5 days since you sent your request you are allowed to check in and I will update you. but please be kind.

credits for fanart or any artists that i use to make my icons are link in my: ❝ reblog &&. credit if using ❞ in a google doc.

more rules to be added...

under the bottle of hearts is promo :)

requesting for promo time hehe. show these people loveeeeee (and hopefully they will support ? 🥺) :

@electro-kins @yoimiya-kins @fakexcute @miizukis @luvecupid @m1dn1nghtcat + anyone else who wants! if you wish to decline / ignore / ask for your tag to be removed just go ahead, no need to feel uncomfortable !

[clodovia]

Love At First Sight

Character: Oikawa x gn! reader

About: Soulmate AU

a/n: A part of a valentine’s day event I held on my old blog

Word Count: 614

AO3 Link

Network: @hanayanetwork​

For as long as Oikawa could remember, or rather since he was first able to see his red string that was neatly tied to his pinkie, he never met you. He so badly wanted to send you sweet messages like he has seen his friends do to their soulmates, but what if you found it weird that he was sending you flowers without even meeting you. Going through senior high still without meeting you was difficult, seeing so many others meet their soulmates in front of him. 

When the time came for Oikawa to move, his friends tried to get him to be more positive about how he might find his soulmate overseas and that’s why he hasn’t had a chance to meet you yet. He just pushed their comments to the back of his mind as he didn’t want to think about it anymore. Oikawa left for Argentina with nothing but his dream at the forefront of his mind. Within a month of being in Argentina, everything halted in his mind when he felt an unfamiliar tug on his pinkie. It was at the moment that his need to find you, his soulmate, had ignited again because-

They’re here.

As the months pass by, nothing came from those small tugs from his string. Oikawa never managed to run into you, even if he tried to follow wherever the tug pulled him. Those months quickly turned into years and the desire to find you kept shrinking slowly into a small little ember. That is, until one night after winning a big game, Oikawa and some of his team went out to celebrate. While at the bar, he was so caught up in his team’s celebration that he never felt the constant tugging of his string. That is until it was one constant pull that felt like his finger was going to get ripped off. Lifting his hand to inspect his finger, his ears perked up when he heard the MC announce the next person to the stage. His chestnut eyes lifted from his hand as he heard the strum of a guitar which sent a calming presence over him. Looking towards the stage he felt the world stop. Your voice was hypnotizing. Your appearance was captivating. In the middle of your song, your once empty wrist bore a beautiful pink flower. Cheers started to erupt before you even finished singing, confusing you, but you continued on. It wasn’t until the song was over that you noticed the gloxinia that you now adorned on your wrist. When the crowd noticed that you realized what had happened they began cheering again. Frantically, your eyes scanned the bar for him.

He was here.

Oikawa tugged on the string in hopes it would catch your attention. You felt a tug on your wrist coming from your left. Whipping your head to your left, your eyes catch his. His appearance was quite literally breathtaking. You knew who he was. The rising star volleyball player who had just come from Japan only a few years prior. Everyone in the bar, including Oikawa’s teammates, followed your gaze, and upon seeing a relaxed smile on his face everyone erupted in cheers once more. His teammates pushed him towards the stage so he could get to you. The crowd cleared a path for him, but you had a different idea. The excitement was rushing through you so you set your guitar down, hopped off the stage, and crashed into him. Oikawa practically engulfed you as he wrapped his arms around you. Through the cheers and hollers, he heard you say three words that made him tighten his arms around you.

“You found me.”

©2021 CLODOVIA | do not repost, copy, edit, or claim any of my works as your own. just don’t plagiarize it’s not that hard please.

[familyagrestefanblog]

Ml Meta analysis: Adriens current absents, season 4 structure and theory on whats to come

Here I am back again with my endless rambling.

I'm just as worried for our cat son as everyone else (maybe even more) which is why I tried figuring out for my own sanity why he is so absent currently.

Upfront I wanna warn yall that I wrote this post in one rush this night and therefore had no time to do alot of editing. So things can probably get a bit more messy than usual but I tried to write it clearly, while writing 2 other ml essays as well. This is the one drawback of having so many episodes in such a short time, I have no time to write my posts x3 I had another theory planned for before Optigami airs but I don't think I can manage before tomorrow.

But let's not waste any more time. Grab a snack and here we go:

It's 2am right now but I think I just realized why Adrien/Chat Noir is being sidelined so much recently.

Sure, yes, it'll come into play in the very obviously set up Ladynoir drama later on but what I wanna talk about now is more the structure of how s4 is most likely written in terms of both Marinettes and Adriens side of the story. And then deep dive a little on why I think so.

You see season 4 is now reaping what has been built up from s1-s3, but this also includes that you have to take the time now to properly recreate the new possibilities out of the loose pieces of the broken status quo.

Seriously, season 4 has to handle and reinvent ALOT. The show got now officially announced to have 7 seasons, which is exactly the amount of seasons Astruc said they have story for. I couldnt find the official tweet from Thomas himself but I one from another source:

And now look take a look at the possible shows structure:

- s1-s3 was the first status quo and built up everything so now they can pay off after pay off while...

-... S4 is now the transitional season where the old status quo gets left behind as we work towards the new one.

-I have nothing to proof this of course, but in the same sense it would now make sense that s5-s7 where/are planned to play out under the final status quo. If I'm not wrong at first the show was under contract for 5 seasons, which would mean that after the transitional season 4 there was only 1 season of the final status quo for sure. Still, done right it could have been worth the wait. But this isn't where Miraculous will end. The show actually got the 7 seasons the creator wanted and THIS is how I think the long term plan makes the most sense. Nothing all too complicated but still hella effective in its execution.

But now back to our two main characters, because Marinettes and Adriens development are the two aspects that will raise the show to the intense heights of the s5-s7 status quo.

From s1-s3 Marinette was the active player but she was hardly involved with the actual PLOT of the show, since most of the plot and backstory of the show lies directly with the Agreste family. She only started to get her own plot when she literally created a new one by getting involved with the miraculous lore, because the closest Marinette got to the Agreste plot was "The collector".

Adrien in the other hand was always literally right in the middle of the plot but he wasn't enough of an active player to bring us further either.

Season 4 is now going to add the missing parts for both of them and as the very beginning of the season showed us: there are going to do it SEPERATLY.

This is why "Truth" and "Lies" have been structured the way they are (One Marinette-centric the other Adrien-centric). Yes, Marinette and Adrien are meant to end their story victoriously together, but they are simply not the people they have to be to become such a powerful team. Certain aspects of their journey they have to do... basically disconnected from the other one. The "Miracle Queen" endcard shows it quite nicely as well where they are heading now: away from each other.

Obviously the season started with Marinette growing into her new guardian status including everything miraculous related, since she is the main lead and because the new ways the episodes can now utilize everything Miraculous need to be established first before we deep dive into the messed up Agreste mystery.

So while I totally agree that it is annoying to get so little Adrien/Chat Noir content currently I also understand the practicality behind it. As I said, before s4 Marinette was the active main character who mostly didn't really have her own plot. So now adding her plot aspect and have her ACTIVELY figure everything needed out means that right now Marinette/Ladybug is the active focus main character who is solving a huge part of her s4 character arc. That simply drowns out Adrien as the currently still mostly-inactive secondary main character who, yes, may be right in the middle of the shows emotional + villain plot/lore/backstory, but that side of the story simply isn't in focus at the moment.

And I gotta say, I'm kinda glad they're doing it this way. Because I'm gonna be honest, when the season starts giving us Adrien/family Agreste episodes like "Lies" and "The collector" (in this case "Gabriel Agreste" for example) again, I don't want the narrative to be forced to spend time with something guardian lore based just because they didn't took their time to do it earlier.

So, as we see on the s4 episode raster "Gabriel Agreste" is episode 9. Honestly, I expect most of it (especially the ones near the beginning, so ep. 5 included) til that episode to be Marinette based the way everything else til now did (besides Lies obviously and Guilt trip didn't hardcore focus on Marinette/Ladybug either and that's because it's after "Gabriel Agreste") in the spirit of "Truth". It's just the needed set up from Marinettes side of the story and I can live with that.

Because we actually saw the change after "Gabriel Agreste" already in "Guilt trip".

I don't know why some people pretend like Chat almost cataclysming himself after hearing how guilt-eaten Nino is for Adriens sake isn't a huge indicator that the episodes afterwards will not only acknowledge but also DEAL with Adriens/Chats situation and problems. Remember, we are talking about CHAT NOIR here not Adrien Agreste. The show has always portrayed and acknowledged ADRIENS issues very straight forward and with the proper seriousness (especially when it comes to his family), whereas Chat Noir was often mostly used for comedic purposes with some exceptions of his problems being properly delt with (since Marinette/Ladybug was mostly oblivious to them, since Adrien keeps them hidden so well). But now in "Guilt trip" LADYBUG was confronted head-on with just how much negativity Chat has inside and how quickly and extremely he drowns in it.

Sure, correct, the episode also has his negativity "washed away" rather quickly by Ladybug opening up to him on how important he is to her

But this is in character for both of them as "Lies" very clearly showed us that the way BOTH OF THEM behave here is where the problem lies. There Ladybug was freaked out after Chat threw his life away once again but quickly accepted Chats very direct avoidance of the confrontation, since he seemed to be alright to her.

Something I also find noteworthy here is that Ladybugs dialog is "Seriously, you need to stop doing this to me!", which is.... a VERY Marinette-centric way of acknowledging the problem.

It completely shifts the issue away from Adriens extremely alarming self-harmful/suicidal tendencies and instead only calls out how it affects Marinette (whose feelings here are definitely valid, don't get me wrong!). It showcases perfectly how unaware Marinette still is of her partners inner tumult at that point and also parallels how Marinette called Adriens life "perfect" at the beginning of the episode (This is no shade towards Marinette, in general the entirety of "Lies" is about showing us just how harmful Adriens Chat Noir persona actually IS to him so these two moments of her being oblivious to Adriens and Chats immense problems very much fits into that episodes narrative and sets up what's about to come. I still have an entire essay in the making for "Lies" but, guys, it's just getting longer and longer. I suck xD).

So the fact that an episode after "Gabriel Agreste" brings this scenario back, just a little different but ALOT more revealing of Adriens immense problems to his partner, is VERY telling. Besides other things it tells us that this happens at the beginning of the arc that deals with (at least) Chats issues since Ladybug is still way too quickly too ready to accept her partner as "completely fine" again just because Chat makes it seem that way (while some negativity increasing guilt bubbles still to stick to him.).

And yet, others have already pointed it out that Ladybug IS noticing what Chat wanted to do and reacted accordingly...

she just didn't speak of it the way it is because it overwhelmed her, which calls back to Ladybugs "You have to stop doing this to me!" dialog.( For a great breakdown of her dialog HERE is a link to @flightfoot​ post)

In "Lies" Marinette was way too stressed by her new guardian role to even consider Chats side of it and therefore only spoke of her own, but in "Guilt trip" she's already past that stressful arc. So here she is immediately able to recognize Chats suicidal action for what it is, come to his (much needed) aid and lift her partners spirit the best she can by emotionally opening up to him (which is something we KNOW is incredibly hart for Marinette).

The difference between her reaction in "Lies" and in "Guilt trip" shows that Marinette has her guardian role already mostly handled and is now mentally able to be there for others again, so the extremely Marinette-centric "Truth"-like episodes are mostly passed. Now the episodes can bring Adrien/Chat Noir more into the game again and even shift to "Lies" - like episodes because MARINETTE can pay more attention to him again and isn't faced with something new, important and overwhelming Miraculous related every step she takes.

And THAT is extremely fair from a narrative standpoint.

---

I really need to stop elaborating so much on these posts because I'm only NOW actually getting to the point of where Adriens journey will disconnect for a while from Ladybugs. Sorry guys.

Okay, to understand where I'm going with this I will have to quickly explain how I always saw Chat Noirs place in the Ladybug+Chat Noir vs Hawkmoth war ever since s1.

Because here is the thing: Adrien wasn't able to truly leave the battle field ONCE since the origins. Marinette was completely out of Hawkmoths and Gabriels reach once she detransformed, which balances out her basically being the personification of the good sides force. And Gabriel literally decided whenever or not the battle is even ACTIVE right now! Besides that he is in complete control of his own actions and environment, which gives him all the necessary time, safety and downtime he needs to act as the personification of the evil sides force.

Marinette and Gabriel always knew when they were safe and off the battle field, but ADRIEN never had that and it left him LITERALLY right in the middle of both Ladybugs and Hawkmoths sides.

You see, because before Adrien became Chat Noir he basically was part of Hawkmoths side just by default. He was born into this family, that's his father and lost mother and everything he knows. Adrien didn't/doesn't even have to KNOW that he is part of Hawkmoths side, he's his son at some level he just IS! And I'm not saying this as anything negative, Adrien coming from Hawkmoths side is literally the reason why he became Chat Noir!

Because whereas Gabriel is having the time of his damn life as evil terrorist, created out of tragic and sinister circumstances, ADRIEN on the other hand couldn't handle his families environment and very same circumstances anymore and accepted the role as Paris' hero to escape his heritage for a while.

Keywords being: a WHILE.

Something unique about Adrien I always loved is the fact that he is the villains abused, isolated and overworked SON, who becomes a hero to escape his depressing life and YET it was never Adriens intention to LEAVE IT. Adrien merely wanted to use his time as Chat Noir to let of some steam and breath freely while doing some hero work so he can go back into his civilian life and try to one day successfully ment his broken family. He couldn't handle the current situation anymore but he still always saw worth in his family/father. I have SO MUCH respect for that!

But him not intending to leave his family and instead regaining strength as Chat Noir to continue to hold onto it came with the downside of him not being able to fully become part of the good sides people/force either. Hence why Adriens/Chats place always felt so lost in comparison to Ladybugs and Hawkmoths clear positions. He's caught in between their extremes trying to balance out BOTH at the same time. What an impossible task!

So he couldn't put in the same focus as Ladybug into being the good sides force because he is literally burned out from his civilian life on Hawkmoths evil side. But he also couldn't be involved as an ACTIVE member of his fathers evil force, because he chose to find refuge in his friends and as a hero on Ladybugs side.

Adrien unknowingly is part of BOTH the shows two extreme moral sides of good and evil and this season we will see Adrien/Chat Noir grow into his own within BOTH sides as well.

Because he simply couldn't have done so right away in s1. Now after 3 seasons Chat Noir is more than solidly established as one of Paris Heros and his time with Ladybug, the other heros and his normal friends helped him greatly to find his place on the good side. "Lies" set this up as Chat Noirs arcs starting point that now he has to stop connecting "being heroic" strictly with following Ladybug (as Marinette is the STAND IN personification for the good side, she's still a flawed human being like everyone else and not the ultimate force of perfect and good. Big difference.) just as he has to start looking past his fathers sympathetic moments/qualities to see that Hawkmoth isn't a 100%, inhumane monster just because he is the stand-in personification of evil in their fight, but the man he calls Father and still needs to be taken down. (I talked about this in more detail on THIS post)

Adrien has to seperat himself from Ladybugs path and focus on his family and I believe it'll start with the much dreaded (but expected) Ladynoir fight.

Funnily enough, what I'm talking about was actually already set up in "Frozer" I just didn't remember that for a bit. In "Frozer" we saw Ladynoir having a fight which caused Chat Noir to go his own way in the episodes battle.

I always found it interesting that the episode didn't had Chats decision, to not follow Ladybugs lead here, turn out to be a huge mistake. Almost every other show would have done so but now I think I understand. This episode and s2 in general SET UP the s4 conflict, s3 LEAD UP to it and now s4 DELIVERS it.

So what happened in "Frozer" is a direct parallel to what about to go down:

Ladynoirs fight will cause Chat Noir to not simply  follow Ladybugs side anymore the way he used to, but note, he DOESN'T leave the good side AND they make up again in the end after Chat saves Ladybug from the akuma. He just does things on his own because he isn't on great terms with her for a while. "Frozer" showed Chats decision to not only NOT be a mistake but also a necessary part of defeating the akuma, just the way it'll be in s4. Damn, Adrien breaking away from Ladybugs side, the way she (unintentionally tho) did at the beginning of the season, to focus more on himself and his family will be the game changing factor, when Adrien will have his completing arc where he goes from "not active character within the villain/backstory plot" to "ACTIVE character within the villain/backstory plot".

And we already saw with Marinette how many fast breakthroughs we get through these completing arcs. Which is also a reason for why Adriens/ Chats arc comes later in the season, because BUDDY. Once Adrien starts to actively uncover his families mystery and fathers secrets Gabriel is SCREWED! Adrien will gain the needed inside knowledge that complements Marinettes Miraculous power; and reunited they can take on whatever the hell kind of scale the Agrestes plan actually is.

So how to end this post? My biggest intention was to raise hope for everybody (myself included lol) who is right now very concerned and upset about how side-lined our boy is at the moment. But I prefer doing so in a way that actually works with canons context instead of sugarcoating what I don't like. And Adriens/Chats current position I definitely do NOT like but accepting it as realistic outcome from s1-s3 and set up for the escalation for both Ladynoir and his home situation gives it the proper purpose and pay off (narrative and character wise) that it SHOULD have.

Basically, the endcards of "Truth" and "Lies" show it perfectly.

It looks like ShadowMoth is turning a blind eye towards Adrien/Chat Noir because of Ladybugs new guardian status and "greater importance". But Gabriels tunnel vision on Ladybug will leave him vulnerable to his own sons secret actions against him and Gabriel won't see it coming until its already too late.

[meichenxi]

Hey, could I ask you how you do shadowing? Like the different ways you do it? You mentioned in your tag that shadowing is good and I'd love to hear how you do it! I do not attempt shadowing much so I don't really know what helps, etc. ToT (my studyblr is rigelmejo)

Hellooo! Thank you for the interesting question!

Tbh I think I do it fairly basically - I don’t use any particularly fancy software, but software like Language Learning with Netflix has certainly made it easier. There’s a whole video on how to get the most of it here: [on mobile, link didn't work - How to study Chinese with Netflix! by Chinese Zero To Hero] (I’d recommend checking out all of their videos actually, they’ve done a bunch of livestreams recently and they place a lot of emphasis on shadowing + the course they are trying to sell you is…actually phenomenally good)

(Also, I have to preface this by saying that I have been very lucky in terms of pronunciation: I learnt about 80% of my current vocabulary by ear without characters or pinyin. I have been in China for eight months in total, and while I didn’t speak Chinese for all of that, I was constantly soaking in info on natural sentence intonation. I still often don’t know officially what the tone of a vocabulary item is, especially if it changes tone like 教, 为 or 相, but I don’t get yelled at so I have definitely internalised a lot of those changes. I definitely would have more trouble with this if I hadn’t had that experience - my other areas are waaaay weaker because of this though- my reading SUCKS lmao and I can literally handwrite about ten characters)

Anyway. How I shadow:

1) Quite simply by playing the line, and repeating it with all the emotion it has!! I usually use Netflix or Viki for this. I try to do it as fast as possible, and if I can’t do the whole thing, I ‘chunk’ it: if I were doing the sentence 我们还不知道他会不会来, I would start from the end with 他会不会来, then 不知道他会不会来, and then the whole sentence. Notice that this isn’t breaking it down into words or even grammatical phrases, but intonational phrases: it would be perfectly sensible to just do 会不会来 without the 他 but realistically, since this is a question, it’s likely that a strong stress will be placed on the first 会, and you wouldn’t be able to replicate that without also included the more weakly stressed syllable before.

2) I locate (intentionally or subconsciously) the main locus of stress within the sentence, and I focus on that accordingly. Tones may become less extreme if they are not stressed, and may become more exaggerated if stressed. This is always a good exercise. I accompany this with physical actions - I throw my hands down, I sigh, I groan!

3) I put away the text, and don’t look at the tones or even my computer screen - more on this below.

4) Finally, when I think I’ve got it reasonably accurate, I’ll record them speaking the line into my phone with an appropriate pause for copying and play it back to myself at various points throughout the day.

5) I then go and find other words with the same tone contour to slot in, and copy it again. After that, I find words that are slightly different tonally and pop them in too.

6) I finally do fun things like hold a conversation with myself. This can be really simple phrases imbued with some kind of emotion - 这个女子到底是谁呀？为什么不认识我？应该是新手吧。You can do this either really informally, or very formally, or both - trying to speak in the latter way is very fun! So then it’d be idk something more like: 那位姑娘是何人，来自何处？This is fun because you can really slow down your speech and sound as elegant as you like!! (this will sound stilted if you do it for modern speech, but it’s a very fun exercise)

Choosing your media!!

1) Don’t use donghuas. Seriously. The voice actors usually speak at a ridiculous pace and not with the same range of ‘normal’ intonation

2) Your Chinese is definitely good enough to recognise when anyone is quoting poetry or speaking in a paricularly sexy literary way so, uh…don’t do that. That rules dramas like Nirvana in Fire OUT.

3) Modern dramas and reality TV shows CAN be great, but they can also be quite intimidatingly quick and almost too mushy at times. I’d recommend informal speech in guzhuang dramas more, because they have professional voice actors and extensive sound editing, meaning that although it might be fast and the vocabulary harder, it’s actually much more accessible and easier to copy. You don’t want to be stuck with the awfulness of 50% failed foreigner and 50% 12 year old boy who can’t enunciate properly!!

4) CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON WISELY. I try to find characters that speak in a dramatic, whiny or childish way. This is so important! There’s literally no use copying Lan Wangji unless you want to be able to have that particular cadence and tone of voice you get reciting poetry. Childish/whiny/dramatic characters on the other hand stress some words very strongly, and rush others together - this is great for hearing what actual real speech sounds like. Whininess wins. In The Untamed, characters like Wei Wuxian (not yllz!wwx but just…regular wwx), 一问三不知 Nie Huaisang, Jin Ling, and Jingyi are all great. Also Jiggy, who is just very extra constantly and speaks much slower as well, which really helps. In SHL characters like Gu Xiang are good.

5) CHOOSE YOUR VOICE WISELY! If you are really aiming to copy them 100% (which you should try at least sometimes), you want somebody with your pitch range to sound normal. I have a sort of party trick in Chinese that because I’ve spent so much time listening to women in guzhuang dramas I can change my voice and sound like a) a scheming concubine with honeyed words, or b) the voice of the Beijing metro. My teacher found it hysterically funny. But it’s not my natural voice, and if I speak like that for too long it hurts. The women usually are too high for me, and the big burly manly men too low - so I’d recommend finding a man with a higher voice, or an older woman (like some of the female characters in Nirvana in Fire). Again, sorry that this is mostly the Untamed (I’m just most familiar with it) but the voice actors for Wei Wuxian and some of the juniors (+jiggy) has a higher voice. Likewise Chengling in Word of Honour.

On intonation in general:

- The thing is that whilst shadowing is useful it requires prior ability in a whole bunch of other skills that you can train - it relies on your ability to accurately mimic pitch, emotion and other contrasts. Training this in ANY language, including your native one, will help your ability to do this in Chinese - so I’d recommend spending a fair amount of time practicing shadowing (or speaking just after somebody whilst listening to a string of text, like monolingual simultaneous interpreting) in your native language too. Any training copying accents or mimicking other people is going to similarly help, regardless of the language.

So, with that in mind, further tips:

1) Hum / try to copy the intonation without any words. What this does is force you to pay attention to what the intonation actually is, versus what you may think it should be.

2) Don’t look at the text! Do! Not! Look! At! The! Text! If you look at the characters or pinyin you’re telling yourself ‘ok this is a third tone here’ etc, but you want to override the part of your brain that has gotten into bad habits and is supremely self-confident in how you’re pronouncing the third tone, and actually just go straight back to mimicking.

3) Don’t be afraid to do it with vocabulary that is way beyond your level. Actually, I find this can sometimes be helpful, because you don’t have a prior idea about how a particular tone pair should be useful - and you don’t know which tone you should be producing.

4) Learn vocabulary by ear - listen to a vocab podcast or even make one yourself (I often do this; I record my daily Anki and listen back to it through headphones copying throughout the day - if you’re not confident in your pronunciation you can get Google Translate to do it). Similarly, pick unknown vocabulary out of a longer segment and remember it, trying to internalise the tones instead of figuring out which tone it is.

5) Find emotional sentences, and copy them with emotion. This is SO CRUCIAL!!! We remember things when we relate to them, and when we imbue them with emotion - and it also helps in hearing exactly how an angry second tone sounds, for instance.

6) When you’re copying, look up, and imagine you are having an actual conversation. Carry yourself with conviction and poise!! Really try to whine like wwx or slime like jgy. After a couple of turns copying them, try to turn off the audio and keep delivering it in the same manner.

7) Swap individual words out. Once you have a line properly figured out, swap a word or two that has a different tone pair, and focus on delivering it with the same pattern of stress.

8) Finally, practice doing this in your native language too!! It’s a skill that we don’t use often, and it can be trained. Some people are terrible at it at first go even in their native language, but you can work on it!

About intonation in general:

1) I think a lot of pronunciation problems with people sounding unnatural or stiff ultimately come down to a fundamental misunderstanding of what intonation looks like across different languages. In English we mark it by pitch: and we are so used to the rhetoric that Chinese has ‘tone’ and not ‘intonation’ that we try and focus on blindly copying every single word textbook perfect without listening to how it actually sounds.

2) Chinese does have intonation!!! Except that, unlike English, when you stress a word, the pitch doesn’t change, but the tone contour is exaggerated - basically the only time you will ever hear a full third tone is in isolated or very exaggerated speech. If you have a Chinese friend, get them to record a sentence like the English ‘I didn’t ask her to steal his rucksack’, and put stress on the different elements of it - I didn’t ask, I didn’t ask, I didn’t ask, and so on. Notice and copy how the tones change. When shadowing, you should always be paying attention to where the stress is in the sentence: when you speak by yourself, practicing saying a sentence neutrally, and then with stress on one component, the next, and so on. If it feels unnatural, it’s because you might not have practicised like this before - it’ll get better!

Hope that’s somewhat helpful / interesting!

- 梅晨曦

[bryan360]

Here’s my note before I’ll get started….

(DON’T YOU EVER COPY FROM MINE OR MY FRIEND’S WORK, CHARACTERS, AND STUFF IF ONE OF YOU ARE IMPOSTERS WHO HAD HABITS OF PLAGIARISM! I WILL BLOCK YOU FROM MY BLOG IF I SEE YOUR POST WITH MINE OR MY FRIEND’S ORIGINAL WORK BEING EDITED ALL OVER! I’LL EVEN SHARE IT ONTO MY BLOG SO IF EVERYONE WILL SEE THAT YOU TRYING TO COPY MINE OR MY FRIEND’S THINGS FOR NO GOOD REASON WHATSOEVER! That will be all….I mean it.)

🎃Inktober of 2022 - Day 23: 🔍 Mystery

🇵🇷Me: Hey everyone. Sorry again that I’m trying get this Inktober post done before midnight. Just so what happens is that I’m still doing my progress for my secret art trade to my P-Pal’s request. As of now, at least I’m in digital coloring stage to complete while doing some edits later when its done. Though at the same time is making some drafts for my Inktober stuff that I had few days to go before Halloween. If only I would’ve have time much more rather than doing this during a month of October. Regardless, it was still a lesson that I needed to learn for next year’s October. Just saying, but….

🇵🇷Me: Anyways, though I would leave any Scooby-Doo related to include, aren’t I? Since now during it was also the month of “Scoobtober”, it was a reasonable choose to have a cosplay with Joey and Katie as Mystery Kids. Even if Katie finally get to stick with Joey for some alone time, but that doesn’t mean when getting their mystery job any easier. Sorry if this Inktober post looks a bit rush with the background, though. 😮‍💨

Joey (as Fred) and Katie (as Velma) created by me; BryanVelasquez87 (Bryan360)

Previous Inktober Posts of 2022:

Day 1: ⚫️⚪️Cartoons - Link Here

Day 2: 🎃Pumpkins - Link Here

Day 3: 👨‍⚕️Doctor - Link Here

Day 4: 💀Death - Link Here

Day 5: 🐱Cat - Link Here

Day 6: 🦇Bats - Link Here

Day 7: 😈Devil - Link Here

Day 8: 🌳Forest - Link Here

Day 9: 🧙‍♀️Witch - Link Here

Day 10: 🔪Murder - Link Here

Day 11: 🔴🐻Red - Link Here

Day 12: 🧸🪆Playtime - Link Here

Day 13: 🥚Eggs - Link Here

Day 14: 👻 Ghosts - Link Here

Day 15: 🖼 Painting - Link Here

Day 16: 🛸 Invasion - Link Here

Day 17: 🍁Leaves - Link Here

Day 18: 👨‍💼Father - Link Here

Day 19: ⬛️Dark - Link Here

Day 20: 🧙‍♂️Wizard - Link Here

Day 21: 😵‍💫Possessed - Link Here

Day 22: 🌄Dawn - Link Here

Tagged: @murumokirby360 @carmenramcat @alexander1301