#even though i try to be as broadly informed as i can im still gonna be biased
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nyancrimew · 11 months ago
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also i ofc don't have the most informed opinion on the race part of the question (which is to say even less than on the general non western aspects of this) which is why i mostly did not talk about that in specifics, i am unfortunately not really aware of much writing on this topic even though it's incredibly interesting, and i'd absolutely read more from someone more qualified to speak on not just the hacktivism aspects of this if anyone knows of something or wants to take this upon themselves!
Do you think your race/nationality may influence on the consequences of hacking? Or like how far you can even get?
I'm asking because I very rarely see a "prominent" hackitvist that's not white European/USA
it is definitely a factor yes, especially with me, like the only reason im free rn is because switzerland doesn't extradite citizens. but another very big part of it is that to become a widely prominent hacktivist (and as with many other things) you either need to do things western media cares about or get in trouble with the law big time (in the west), which also usually implies being in a country that actively works together with primarily the US or other empires that actively and publicly work against hacking and hacktivists. there are lots of hacktivists in asia and latin america (specifically phineas fisher here also being a popular figure, who is believed to be in latam and has yet to be caught) as well especially (also elsewhere ofc but i dont know of as many), but they are either doing hacktivism within their communities which are usually not internationally that news worthy, or are out of reach enough for the US empire to never get unmasked.
in a lot of ways being a popular hacktivist as an individual is actually moreso a failing in staying safe from consequences by either you or people you work with (see in the history of lulzsec and most of the now well known anonymous figures in the US) or a conscious choice done out of the knowledge that you'll be relatively safe/recklessness. but i definitely feel like international (social) media bias towards western interests is also just a very big part of why you will mostly only ever hear of (assumed) white european/american hacktivists.
and also just as a quick closing note, i would not say that (even white) people in the US or the US sphere of influence are safe from consequences due to hacking in any way, the US is one of the strictest countries when it comes to persecuting hackers and goes to long ways to be as cruel as possible, and especially so with hacktivists. this goes so far that in the 2020 counterintel report the US government put hacktivists/leaktivists on the top 5 biggest threats to the US government, which is ofc both a honor (and shows it works and scares them) but is ofc also scary as fuck. it is this big spectacle they make out of persecuting hackers and making examples out of them that also leads to more of the very distorted prominence of western hackers.
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toxicsamruby · 4 years ago
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what are your thoughts on sam as a man of color?
OKAY so i do sort of go into this in my fic but im not gonna make u sift thru it for my opinions cuz i like to hear myself talk :) also disclaimer im gonna be exclusively talking abt the early seasons cuz i dont know or understand whats going on post s4. also also disclaimer all the posts im making abt this r about john as a white man and maryam as an arab woman . OK lets get into it
so one of the big differences btwn sam and dean is a question of assimilation. and dont get me wrong both of them do it in different ways but the first information we get about sam is that he’s trying VERY hard to assimilate not into the hunter cowboy culture that dean is but into the PROTECTED lifestyle of middle/upper class normalcy and ivy leagues and a pretty blonde wife and a respectable job in tax law or whatever. like a lot of sam’s characterization in the early seasons is about striving not necessarily towards “Normalcy” (although thats an essential part of it) but, more broadly, towards the moral ideal that’s been set forth by the white supremacist christian hegemony of american culture. and this manifests in the way that he runs away to stanford and tries so so hard to fit in, and also in his self destructive devotion to the christian god. it’s almost entirely based in a feeling of being unclean or unholy, and he believes in god not as a comfort but as a desperation for salvation, or a purification of what he believes is dirty blood.
so sam is TRYING to assimilate into this mainstream moral ideal, we see that, and there are times where he actually almost succeeds! he got into stanford with a full ride on his own merit! he did really well all four years, and he ended up with friends and a white woman he wanted to marry and entrance into a career that would have marked him as a respectable and fairly well off man for the rest of his life. he is a faithful christian, he prays every day and he reads the bible and he genuinely believes. surface level, he might have been comfortable forgetting about his roots and assimilating successfully for the rest of his life. but, crucially, he DOESNT succeed. why?
there is something marking him as “different” the entire time, something inherent, something he can’t shake off no matter how hard he tries to repress it. at stanford, of course, its his childhood, the monster hunting, the fucked up family, the extreme poverty. with christianity, its the demon blood. he can pretend all his life to be a good christian middle class lawyer with a nice white wife and a nice picket fence, but at the end of the day that life was not built for somebody like sam, and to succeed in it he will have to repress parts of himself that will never go away.
put this into the context of race. i said that i think dean’s relationship with gender white supremacy americana etc becomes more interesting when he’s a brown skinned man of color. dean is unable to assimilate into the kind of life that sam aims for. he has a markedly more antagonistic relationship with cops, he couldn’t get through school even though he’s demonstrably very intelligent, and he just doesn’t make the kind of first impression that sam does; people see sam as sweeter, kinder, more trustworthy, somebody who can be reasoned with. dean, by contrast, is usually treated with more wariness, more distrust. it’s dean who’s the primary target of the manhunt (before they fucking dropped that plotline lmao). all of this evidence taken together, sam, i think, is noticeably lighter than dean, maybe even conditionally white passing.
and this is an important part of how he’s trying to assimilate. he can feel that he’s ALMOST there, that he can ALMOST be the american moral christian ideal he’s been taught is more important than anything, if he can just contort himself into something that closely resembles a middle class christian white man. but that’s all he can ever do, is RESEMBLE that, no matter how hard he works. so he might be a token diversity point at his workplace or his school: of course he earned his place there, but he’s still aware that his position doesn’t come with the same ease of the middle class christian white man sitting next to him. so sam tries to make himself smaller, keeps himself clean shaved, his hair neat, doesn’t let himself tan too much, speaks softly and eloquently, represses his anger, doesn’t talk about his family, dates white girls, has unthreatening career aspirations, tries so so so so so hard to be a good christian because maybe, he thinks, someday he’ll wake up and he won’t feel like he’s wrapped in cellophane, separated by something clear but strong from the culture he’s trying to earn a place in. maybe he’ll feel one day that he’s earned his place, that he’s just the same as everybody around him, that he won’t have this unspoken but obvious difference to him that follows him everywhere. he thinks maybe he’ll be able to separate himself entirely from monstrousness, that one day he’ll pray and it won’t feel like begging to be somebody else.
but when dean comes for him. slowly but surely, he starts to realize that there never has been and never will be a place for him in this american white supremacist christian culture, and the cracks start to appear. he realizes that he’s never really felt at home anywhere, that the roots he’d tried so hard to put down were all wrapped in cellophane too, and after jess’s death, its the easiest thing in the world to pull those roots up because he never belonged there anyway. he starts getting angrier, stops caring who hears him yell. he stops repressing the powers that he’s been hiding from himself for as long as he can remember. very slowly, he looks this fact straight in the face: he is a monstrous Other, and he will never be anything else. he’s always been more self aware than dean, but it doesn’t help him now. he becomes angrier and more desperate all at once, pushing dean away and pulling him closer at the same time, praying more vehemently and still using his powers more often, letting himself become scarier looking and still sweet talking cops. he’s in this permanent state of conflict, because it’s virtually impossible for him to realize that the value system he’s had such faith in his entire life is false and cruel, so when he finds that he’s permanently locked outside of it, it doesn’t help him, it only convinces him that he’s a monster.
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whetstonefires · 4 years ago
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"the top three of its forty floors are filled with brass telescopes of every size, pointing in every possible direction, including several that do not exist within the normal three dimensions of space." thats SUCH a cool image / "If any harvest will come." ooh i wonder whats going on / "The roofs are of red tile, the stucco of the houses painted in shades of blue. It stands empty, but has not had time to fall into disrepair." the little bits of detail getting added to the picture im LOVE (1/?)
I’m gonna do these all as one post but broken up for ease of reference, I think.
Thank you! 🥰 Deciding the theme for the Tower and giving it that visual anchor really helped to pull things together. If you consider the whole setup, it seems unlikely the Tower was originally built as an observatory, since those tend to benefit from height (especially if you’re looking around you rather than up, but for the up ones also) and the builders could easily have put it on top of a mountain or at least some hills, but instead put it by the river. It’s above sea level, and it’s away from light pollution, but there were better locations. Nearby.
So either it wasn’t an observatory, and it’s been refitted as one, or they had so many observatories they didn’t care about locating them optimally, there was some other factor making having the tower there important even if it was suboptimal in terms of observation capacity. Or, potentially, it’s been moved since it was built!
:} Yay thank for being interested by the foreshadowing. I tried to put just enough in without actively overshadowing the actual place-setting-up and making the reader impatient with the description. 
"If you look through an enchanted telescope you may see trees without needles fail halfway up the nearest of the great peaks, and even these fail before the top, though there is a span of nearly barren stone past that line, before the snow begins." you: mentions different plants living in different climates me: :0 / there's so much good description!! its all so pretty!! (2/?)
sflka;l;jlk i mean yeah, that’s pretty straightforward isn’t it. But! It establishes How Much Mountain it is visually rather than by saying ‘it was a big fucking mountain’ or ‘it was tall enough for the thinness of atmosphere near the top to create a small tundra region.’
o(* ̄▽ ̄*)ブ
<3 Thank you! I kinda cut loose lmao.
"blocks veined with every color, pale blues and purples, reds and greens and golden-duns all mottling toward white and grey and black" god i want to live there so badly!! this tower is meeting all my standards!! cool pretty magic tower with rad telescopes!!! / "make a remark no one present understands about a Doctor named Seuss. His guide, the dousing tracker Amnaphi, will assume this person to be a famous astronomer from his homeland." im love!! misunderstandings about references!! (?/?)
💗💖✨ Yay! That’s an important feeling to create in fantasy, imo. The wanting. 
I really enjoyed playing with the standard forms for ‘thing made of marble’ here, because all these marbles really exist, but in spite of the existence of the word ‘marbled’ our narrative uses of it tend to be tied up with Neoclassical aesthetics. So very white and smooth, yeah?
Also idk if it’s obvious to the reader but this Tower is to some degree in dialogue with Orthanc, which made a great impression on my mind as a child as the iconic wizardly tower, and while I don’t disagree with any of Tolkien’s use of symbolism for the purposes he was deploying it, there’s so much potential in Isengard as a setting that LotR had no space to explore, even if Tolkien would have noticed those angles at all.
Like...the parkland around the Tower is shown being despoiled for the orcish war machine and then reconquered by the forest, but of course it wasn’t forest to begin with. What was it for before Saruman lost his shit? Ordered gardens, for peaceful contemplation? Who dedicated the space that way? Who maintained it? 
Did Saruman employ a gardener? Did he design his own gardens, or did they come with the keep, which we’re informed was built not by him but by the Numenoreans? 
(“I liked white better” is still one of the greatest lines in a fantasy novel, Tolkien does not get enough credit for his contextually hilarious one-liners that rely on pointed code-switching, but Saruman’s evil rainbow oil-slick robes also sounded really baller and it’s kind of a shame they were not attempted for the movie lol.)
The fact that this is a world designed around a kid getting portal-fantasied into it and staying for 30 years really gives me some options which are fun to deploy but also like. Risky lmao. Because it encourages the reader to surface from the setting-logic and apply their own perspective, which can really break up the magic.
Being able to zoom out on the Tower after all that detail and be like ‘it’s awesome but also it looks like something Doctor Seuss would draw’ was fun though.
"Within the even hexagon of its outer wall, the Tower encloses a great parkland, enough that if it was all put under cultivation it could easily feed as many people as could live in the Tower itself." the tower has PLANTS i love it so much / "Ten Years’ Winter" god PLEASE tell me this is going to get into the agriculture and society stuff game of thrones didn't about long winters that would be SO cool / "Watchers of the Stars" AND they have a cool name holy shit (?/?)
Plants are important! As is food supply. As everyone who’s been reading this blog for a while already knows I think lol.
I mean, it’s not about that, really? The Ten Years’ Winter is a historical event--the most recent meteor impact severe enough to have global climate fallout. The dust it kicked up took a while to settle, and the famines were pretty severe.
But the cultural consequences of something that happened a hundred and fifty years ago exist, and are important, including the relationship between governance and disaster preparedness, which varies a lot regionally as you may imagine. 
Astronomy has a long history as a wizardly sort of activity in the real world, both because it’s had continual overlap with astrology and just because the process has always been mystical and abstruse. In this setting, with a history of both devastating meteor impacts and being invaded from the Moon, but also actual magic, it’s got more obvious practical importance. Although since neither of these are remotely everyday occurrences, the average person on the street might not agree lol.
So it’s on the one hand a purely descriptive title, and on the other hand a serious boast, suggesting as it does that they are primarily responsible for Watching The Sky For Stuff. While also having broader philosophical implications and just sounding nice lol. 
You gotta have good marketing if you want to persist as a wizardly order, because if talented students aren’t motivated to come to you how will you gain new members? Natural replacement is not an ideal strategy to say the least. That’s how you turn into a cult instead of an intellectual powerhouse.
"The northern third of the Tower’s park contains neatly regimented orchards, apples, pears, plums, and a few rows of carefully tended peaches and apricots, all clipped flat against low brick walls angled south and slightly west." hhh t r e e s / "wizards, while enthusiastic about innovation in the abstract, hate change." me too, wizards. me too / "The Tower grounds are filled with refugees." ooh now we get to why everything was empty earlier (?/?)
Trees! Which are also food!
And technology lol. Greenhouses built against fruit walls with good insulation are so much more sensible than ones heated from inside. Obviously as a passive solar-powered technology these only work when the sun is available and not, for example, cut off by a giant dust cloud. 
These people are fairly acutely aware of their dependence on the sun and it figures prominently in a majority of their religions and their magical theory, even more than in ours.
There seems to be a mild consensus that the wizards are relatable. In truth: we are all wizards. :D
Yup! At long last lol.
"This division corresponds imperfectly to the usual split of the town by the course of the Meroda." because people!! take comfort!! in what normalcy they can find!! / "Makeshift pallets line the spaces between every fruit wall—the injured are being laid out here, now that the Tower is full, to get the benefit at night of the warmth meant to mature fruit." the awesome magic tower people trying to do everything they can for the injured who come to them for help in case i thought i couldn't be (?)
more in love / "Half of them are making ready to turn south along the Meroda." oh nooooo / "but the Moon People are the successors of the ancient magics, and just because they could not break the walls the last time they came, according to legend, does not mean they have not worked out a method now." im so worried for the people oh no (?)
Yeah! It really seemed natural. But of course they also aren’t recreating it obsessively; lots of people are grouping up with relatives who normally live across the river, or with people in the same line of work on the river, because people also adapt to circumstances.
No institution is ever perfect, of course, but I’m glad the Watchers have come across this way so far. They’re broadly well-intentioned and mostly well-organized.
And they were not ready for this.
A significant fraction of the reason for the order of the Watchers to exist at all, particularly in this observatory with its great eye fixed ever on the face of the green moon, is to be able to warn the world if this ever happens again. But the Moon People knew they were being watched, this time, and they kept all the build-up to mobilization that might have given them away on the far side of the moon until the last minute.
What the Magister is doing, as I hope was made clear or at least successfully indicated--I wish your commentary on the ending had come through!--is summoning what turns out to be an actual child from another world to do hero stuff.
Even if he’d gotten an adult that would be kidnapping someone to help with your problems, a routine element of the portal fantasy whose ethics have been addressed in a variety of ways, most famously ‘is Lion Jesus and always right.’ 
The reason they need a hero from another world is that the Moon People build a lot of their wards and their offensive and disabling magical attacks around a targeting system based on what planet people are from, because even though they’re originally from the same stock--they’re the descendants of ancient moon colonists who evacuated ahead of a major meteor impact somewhere approaching four thousand years ago--on a magical level having been born and raised on the planet or the moon makes a pretty huge difference. 
So no one can get into the place their magic space elevator is anchored and fuck it up so they can’t keep bringing troops and supply in and loot out. Their single supply line is their only strategic weakness, and they’ve taken appropriate precautions.
Getting someone in from a third location is the best idea anyone’s been able to come up with in the very limited time available. Since no one can figure out how to turn one of the Moon People against the cause they came here for, on short notice, when they aren’t even stopping to talk to anyone so far. Like, that’s clearly not going to happen.
Heron Yl Fanult isn’t unaware that it’s ethically questionable, but he’s doing it anyway.
So I’m glad the ominous imminent oncoming of the Moon People can really be felt, because that atmosphere is fairly essential context for the decisionmaking going on at the top of the Tower.
"Young wizards sit in their bunks, six each to rooms that were previously individual, and hold lighting cupped dancing in their palms." a quick break from being worried to point out that this is rad as hell / "some with their heads decorously covered..." cultural differences!! especially with regional purposes like the Hedro!! 
Thank you! 😆💖 I thought so too lol. 
It also establishes the parameters of the magic system a little more. Throwing lightning bolts is pretty iconicly high-powered, right? And here it’s what most of the student wizards are practicing in anticipation of a battle, because most of them aren’t specced into combat and this is actually one of the easier lethal spells to master, especially if you have an academic background.
‘Electrocute’ isn’t a very flexible spell and it’s easy to lose control of, but it’s actually easier than, say, ‘set on fire to a significant degree in a non-electrical manner’ because concentrating a lot of heat in a certain location takes a lot more brute force than encouraging ionization. 
You can pull most of the actual destructive force for the palm lightning spell out of the physical air and/or earth if you grasp the principles, which is much easier than channeling a comparable amount of magic directly because it doesn’t have to go through you. 
The limiting factors on magic in this setting are how much power you can tap into and how much of it you can actually use without hurting or killing yourself. It’s not usually a lot, though the amount can be increased by things like choosing your workspace, prepping your workspace, and a whole lot of practice and meditation and things like that.
Magical traditions that get bundled under the heading of wizardry tend to focus on force multiplication, obtaining enough contextual understanding of a subject to make whatever power is applied go further. This means a lot of studying theory and using magic to make observations (such as the existence of microorganisms and their connection to disease) and often results in making clever devices based on what you’ve learned that may not actually wind up being magical at all. 
Which is why the solar greenhouse proposal is considered ‘more wizardly’ than the fruit walls, which are wizardly in the first place even though the technology is pretty widespread at this point--it’s carried the principle of minimizing the energy you have to invest to get the result you want to the logical conclusion, where you don’t have to do any magic at all, you just set up the situation and get out of the way and the sun will do the work for you.
Other schools of magic, particularly religious ones, are more likely to emphasize just getting better at handling energy for yourself, which tends to yield a lot more in the way of immediate practical dividends and in a lot of quarters wizards who don’t do something obviously practical like physic or smithcraft with their theoretical background are considered crackpots or dilettantes 
An impression helped along by the fact that being taken on as a student of wizardry at a basic level tends to focus more on your reading comprehension than your ability to actually do any magic, so in places where religious and wizardly institutions coexist the most talented students have a tendency to gravitate toward the religious life. This is particularly marked in areas religiously dominated by the Compact of the Golden Circle, wherein full ordination is contingent on being able to pull off certain fairly hefty rituals, so if you aren’t physically or mentally up to that kind of magical heavy lifting your religious career will stall out in one of the lay fraternities. In some of the cities on Sutouchel, the landmass to the southeast where the Compact is based, a slang term for wizard is ‘sanctum washout.’
But of course force multiplication is something that can scale up pretty far, and studying theory doesn’t stop you from also putting work into your practical skills, and not having talent isn’t the only reason someone would choose not to seek out a clerical career, if it’s even an option. Religion along the Meroda is pretty localized; communities tend to have local deities who correspond to a natural feature like the nearest mountain or the river or something, and if that deity rates a fulltime shrine the keeper also tends to be the major local medical provider, and since the wizards got settled in at the Tower it’s become pretty popular for shrinekeeping families to send their kids there for a year or two to get some educational polish in addition to what their parent already emphasized.
So depending on where you live and what your personal experience has been you’re going to have very different ideas about what wizards are good for.
Hrm. I’ve gone on a tangent. But that wound up taking so long you came back! :D I love it when being turtle works out in my favor.
Or was this actually the meta I was supposed to be doing in the first place? Aaaaa who knows.
im fairly confident you said eight asks survived so this is number nine? anyways onwards! "The hale survivors of the First Battle of the Second Descent sit waiting in their leathers, jack-chains and helmets laughably inadequate armor against the coming danger, and yet the best hope now just as they were on Carun Tol once the wizard fell" i have a lot of emotions about how their best bet is also a terrible bet but its all they have (9/?)
Yes 8. 
Woo, thank you! ^^ & I love that you described it that way because that also describes the ‘summon alien’ spell Yl Fanult is casting and echoing the same emotional theme throughout the scene was very much the goal here.
"Threads have escaped from the braids pinned across the top of her skull: she has not had the chance to take them down for two days." god just the continuation of how desperate everything is / "He leans forward to peer through the narrow glass that has been turned on its articulated base to face the middle of the room, and relaxes very slightly. At least there has been no catastrophic alteration there, either." what does that one do id assume theres no approching army in the middle of the room -
:D Yeah, the fact that one of the chief medics available is already overworked to the point of neglecting nonessential personal hygiene and the enemy isn’t even here yet I hoped would resonate.
Well, remember how some of the telescopes at the beginning point in directions not included in the normal three dimensions of space? :}
- "trained as it long has been upon the face of the moon" also forgot to mention their enemies being from the moon is Rad As Hell / "He snaps his fingers for a spark that falls into the deep circular groove full of distilled spirits, and steps through that as well. He is not burned." ooooh whats he doing / "At his feet lie a glittering piece of gold ore, a moonstone, and a carefully sanded round of pumice." i see the connection to the moonstone bc moon army but i wonder about the others -
Thank you! It took a fair amount of poking before I decided it was a solid approach; it provides just enough physical alienation that there’s no direct cultural relationship and you can have that ‘everyone in the entire world Disliked That’ vibe, without needing to create any complicated magical and cultural explanation for such a long run of isolationism. They were out of contact because they were On The Moon.
Also I really get a kick out of putting space invaders in a fantasy setting in a way that stops just short of turning into sci-fi.
I’m glad the ritual lead-up is exciting! Even if the foreshadowing wasn’t as obvious as I thought it was lol. That’s fixable. 
Gold is for the sun, moonstone is yeah for the moon lol (although in other circumstances people also use jade, because it’s been a long time since the moon was uniformly silver on account of it having been terraformed a few thousand years ago) and pumice is for the world--it’s a stone full of air that floats on water, so it’s popular as an anchoring device for rituals that call on all three local celestial bodies.
"He cannot take much time. He has only until the ring of fire dies." whats he doingggggg / anyways i love this so much!! the descriptions are gorgeous and im so invested in all of everything!! i hope you write more im so curious about it all!! 
XD Ok I covered this already, I would have saved it for down here or Been Mysterious if tumblr hadn’t eaten the last few asks the first time lol. Thank you so much again! For encouragement! Before and now! I’ll try! To keep it going!
Here’s hoping this successfully posts, tumblr just kicked me onto New Dashboard again and disabled the turn-it-off button, so now my alternate posting strategy is borked up too. 🤞😅😘
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noblasse · 5 years ago
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This is a little rewrite of this post here.
I had more I wanted to add, and I wanted to try and change it up just a smidge.
Regis x Ik-Han with barely there Shinwoo X Seira. Set after Rai and Raskreia’s date. Also, is the PC place a cafe? Because I can’t remember,but it’s late and I don’t wanna go digging through the book to find out lol
@foggymagic
~
Regis waited outside the school. The others were finishing up some things inside, but after five -ten -twenty minutes, Redis was about fed up.
“What on earth is taking them so long?” He turned to head back into the school, but stopped short when he saw Ik-han walking out of the front doors.
“Where’s everyone else?” He asked as the other approached.
“They aren’t walking with us today.”
Well, that was news to Regis.
“Why not?” 
They were with the Noblesse, so he wasn’t too concerned- however it was still their job to protect the children- and even the Noblesse if he was being honest with himself.
“Yuna went with Suyi to a last minute modeling gig.” He was doing something on his phone, not actually looking at Regis.
“Rai was called by the Chairman-”
“And Seira?”
He didn’t miss the smirk the other gave.
“She’s on a date with Shinwoo.”
There was a very long pause, and Ik-han looked up after a few seconds too long.
“It’s the fifteenth?”
There was another lengthy pause, before Ik-han broke it.
“Huh?”
“Today is the fifteenth. That is the date.”
“No, no- like a date. Like, they went out together alone- You do know what a date is, right?”Ik-han could not believe- no, no wait, he actually could.
“You Nobles are so sheltered. You’ve never been on a date before?”
“Considering I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about? No, I’d say not.”
Regis watched as the other seemed to think about something, his hands raising to his chin as he narrowed his eyes in thought.
“Alright then, let’s go on a date!” The other smiled broadly, as though Regis was supposed to understand. “Then, you can even brag to aaaall of your Noble friends that you’ve officially been on a date!”
Regis was above bragging (kinda) as it was undignified to do so, but he was curious as to what a date was.
He nodded.
“Great!” Ik-han stuffed his phone into his bag. “Why don’t we head to the park then! Since this is your first date, will make it a classic.”
“I shall follow your lead.”
The smile Regis was given made him look away.
As they walked towards the park, Ik-Han did most of the talking while Regis listened, acknowledging where necessary. Ik-Han was used to the silence though- it was just how the other was.
“Oh, ice cream!”
Regis was pulled out of the steady lull of conversation by the sudden exclamation.
“Ah-”
What the devil was-?
Ik-Han seemed to recognize his confusion.
“Have you never had ice cream before?” He asked, his expression scandalized.
“I have not.”
“Wow. You Nobles are so deprived.”
Ik-Han grabbed the others hand, and Regis nearly pulled back before relaxing and letting the other pull him toward the large red and green umbrella at the end of the park. A man was standing beneath at a food stand.
“Two vanilla waffle cones please.” Ik-han said as they approached the man.
Ik-han was bouncing on his heels, glancing over at Regis and grinning widely.
“I'm excited to see you try ice cream for the first time. There’s no doubt you’re gonna like it.”
The man turned back to them, and Regis took the food before holding out a cone to Regis, who simply stared at it.
“Just take it,” Ik-Han rolled his eyes.
Regis took it, jolting once again as his hand met the others very briefly.
"Come on! Quickly before they melt,” He grabbed Regis’ hand again, who was strangely beginning to get used to it, and pulled him over under a tree and into the shade.
“That is way better,” He sighed, leaning back on his free hand.
Regis hesitated, before finally taking a seat beside him.
Copying his friend, Regis licked the top of the cone, eyes widening in surprise.
It was sweet.
“It’s good isn’t it?” Ik-han asked.
“It is,” Regis seceded, “though hardly a dignified treat,” he remarked as a bit dripped onto his fingers, making them sticky.
“That’s why you hafta eat it fast, ” Ik-han nodded sagely.
“Well, not too fast or-”
Regis jolted and set a hand to his mouth, eyes narrowed.
“...You bit it didn’t you?”
He nodded, and Ik-Han couldn’t help but laugh.
“Sorry, I should have warned you. Most people’s teeth are too sensitive for that. Also, if you eat it too fast you might get a brain freeze. But, if that happens you juss ha’ta do dis!” He said, shoving his thumb in his mouth.
“If you press your thumb to the roof of your mouth it gets rid of the brain freeze!”
“Really?” Regis asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, but if you never have to try it out you’ll be lucky.”
Regis nodded, and went back to eating his ice cream, Ik-Han copying him and doing the same.
After a little while of silence, Ik-Han looked over at his friend. He took in his profile. He still very much had a regal air about him, but sitting in a park like this, eating ice cream and looking up at the trees, there was a serene feeling that came from the sight, and Ik-Han’s smile softened as he watched the other.
He wished he saw this side of him a little more often.
His free hand snaked to his pocket for his phone, but the movement didn’t go unnoticed by the other, who turned his gaze on Ik-Han.
Ik-Han held his breath for a beat.
Obviously, Regis was handsome. He, Seira, Rai, and Raskeria were all beautiful. But suddenly, Ik-Han became acutely aware of just how handsome the white haired boy sitting next to him was. Especially with his eyes trained on his own.
“What are you doing?” Regis asked.
“Uh, here,” Ik-Han pulled out his phone, and hid his face behind it, “Act candid while eating your ice cream.”
“Why?” The Nobel asked,even as he returned to his former position.
“So, I can get a picture to look back on. So, you can remember your first date!”
“Oh, alright.”
He licked his ice cream, looking through the sun lit trees, ignoring the phone a few inches from his face.
“There,” Ik-Han fiddled with the phone, “Damn, you don’t have a bad angle do you?”
Regis looked at him, head tilted slightly to the left as he licked his ice cream again.
Ik-han, blushed.
“N-nevermind.”He sat back down, and then leaned against the other, “Let’s get one together now!”
Ik-Han held up the phone, angled down at them and smiled, while Regis simply tilted his head to see the picture better and continued eating his ice cream.
“Perfect! I’ll send you the pictures!”
The two sat in silence, leaning back in the grass as they ate their ice cream, when Regis broke the silence.
“So this is what a date is?”
“Well, kind of, yeah. I guess it depends on the people involved. Sometimes people go shopping, sometimes they have dinner. You can go to the movies, an amusement park- you can do just about anything really. The point of the date is to have a good time.”
“So, it’s like when everyone goes to the PC Cafe?”
“Well, not exactly...” Ik-Han rubbed the back of his head nervously. “It’s usually between two people who like each other.”
“I see...”
“So, are you? Having a good time?” Ik-Han asked, looking at his almost-gone ice cream, and definitely not avoiding the others stare.
“...Yes,” His eyes snapped to the other, “Though it is rather undignified for me to eat such a thing, I am enjoying this ice cream. And this park is well-maintained and nice. And I am enjoying my company. So, I would say I am having a good time on this date.”
He turned to the other, and a small smile crossed his lips.
Ik-Han, looked down and tucked his head down into his arms.
“‘m glad,” He said into his arm.
“Ik-han are you-”
“Ahhh, brain freeze!” Ik-Han sat bolt upright, his hand holding his head.
Regis jumped before registering the others words.
“Oh, quick! Put your thumb in your mouth! If your brain freezes you could die, you have to use your thumb!”
Regis did as told, not because of his non-existant brain freeze, but one- to distract the other from his blush, and two- to stop himself from laughing at the others serious expression.
After a few moments, he pulled his hand away and smiled sheepishly at the other.
“Im, uh, all right now. Nothing to worry about.”
Regis nodded and sat back, suddenly aware of how close he was in the others personal space.
“It’s a good thing you taught me that trick, or I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what to do.”
Regis bit the last of his cone, and Ik-Han once again had to stop himself from laughing.
“You’re right.”
Regis phone (something Frankenstein had insisted on him and Seira having) went off then, and he checked it to see a message from Frankenstein. No, scratch that, it was signed his grandfather.
‘Regis. I have been informed that you and Seira have not arrived at the Noblesse’s home for the evening. I have already been informed of Seira’s whereabouts, so if you could contact me with yours that would be well.’
“Who is that- Ooooh, is it your grandfather! What’s he saying?”
“He wants to know my whereabouts.” Regis said as he stared at the phone. His hands were still sticky, and were already going to leave small amounts of residue on the phone.
“Here, that’s the headmaster’s number right? I’ll just text them from my phone.”
Regis nodded and leaned over the others shoulder to see what he was typing.
It was the picture of the two of them from earlier, and a small block of text.
“We’re on a date!”
Regis could swear only a few moments later he felt a large familiar power surge coming from the direction of the school.
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notatypicaldimension · 7 years ago
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Tagged!
Thanks for tagging me @theragamuffininitiative ! 
I tag @hurtbyintensejourneys @thylovelylionheart @falconhawk9​ 
— what was your last…
1. drink: tea!
2. phone call: my mom.
3. text message: to a group chat with friends 
4. song you listened to: “Meltdown” by Lorde, Q-Tip, Push, HAIM, Stromae
5. time you cried: uuuhhh I think it was a couple of days ago, when I was just trying to get out of some pretty bad states and actually felt OK enough to cry so it was a good thing! 
— have you ever…
6. dated someone twice: No.
7. kissed someone and regretted it: No.
8. been cheated on: No.
9. lost someone special: Sorta....if the term is used quite broadly.
10. been depressed: Haha. Yes. Ofc. 
11. gotten drunk and thrown up: Niet. 
— fave colours
12. Purple, or gray/black scale probably. 
13. I actually quite like brown....so maybe that? 
14. Hm. Probably a deep navy? Like a sailor outfit blue? 
— in the last year have you…
15. made new friends: Yes. Absolutely. 
16. fallen out of love: No. 
17. laughed until you cried: lol yes (thank you to theinsanereader for your book wedding video)
18. found out someone was talking about you: Yes! 
19. met someone who changed you: Hahahahah...yeeeesss. Helped me a lot tbh. 
20. found out who your friends are: In a way. Like it’s not that I didn’t know before, it’s more like now I understand it better in terms of human leanings etc. 
21. kissed someone on your facebook friends list: Uuuhhhhh....no, not on the lips.
— general
22. how many of your facebook friends do you know irl: Nearly everyone, there are a few I only know via the internet somehow, but I still know them from everyday things, or I have already met them.
23. do you have any pets: Nope!
24. do you want to change your name: No. 
25. what did you do for your last birthday: Oh boy. It was a weird day but good. I spent time with a cute lil kiddo, went on a walk and saw lots of flowers, watched an episode of doctor who, went out for starbucks with a friend, and got to hold a baby amongst some other more ritualistic things. 
26. what time did you wake up today: like, 10:30 or so. 
27. what were you doing at midnight last night: Probably just listening to music and...um...maybe writing down in my diary or something?? idek.
28. what is something you can’t wait for: Hmm...this is gonna sound lame but fr I have very little social life so seeing a couple of friends once their schooltime frees up a bit more or whatever....oh! and also my little sister is competing this weekend o I can’t wait to go and watch her and her team :)
30. what are you listening to right now: Static, for the most part, and in the muffled background, my family just doing everyday things (lil screeches, telling offs, whAT?! etc.) lol. 
31. have you ever talked to a person named tom: For sure. 
32. something that’s getting on your nerves: HA. The government, and some approaches that the American Evangelical Church seems to be oblivious to or non-sympathetic smh. 
33. most visited website: “Youtube and Tumblr are probably about equal.” (lol same)
34. hair colour: Brown. 
35. long or short hair: Long..
36. do you have a crush on someone: No... at least I don’t think so. Idek if I get crushes or whatever idek it’s confusing moving on
37. what do you like about yourself: Ooh. I like that the single most re-occuring obstacle in my life is that I’m so confusing to both myself (im still learning its ok to be me) and the entire world that it’s very, VERY conflicting in odd ways and that that is what makes everything mean things to me.....it’s like my essence etc. and I now know my main passion etc......tl;dr I like that I’ve figured out what the single epitome of most of what I am is and how its path has severely been distraught, and that though it’s going to take a lot of work to get back, it’s also just going to be the most incredible thing. 
38. want any piercings: nope.
39. blood type: sis, if y’all think I’m gonna put out vip information like that on this already crackhead-justice owned website by same-type  company like yahoo, y’all are w r o n g.  
40. nicknames: Uuuuhhhh. idk. @hurtbyintensejourneys​ , you should give me one. 
41. relationship status: Single. And probably most definitely not ready to mingle (but it’s ok! I’ll be someday, sometime soon...ish)
42. sign: Taurus. But I don’t follow horoscopes. 
43. pronouns: she/her
44. fave tv show: Idek anymore....I love Lie to me, and like rags said, Fringe (tho I am still on like s2 aahh), and maybe Doctor who? I actually love Granite flats and GMW/BMW as well tho. 
45. tattoos: Nope.
46. right or left handed: Right-handed. 
47. ever had surgery: Nope. 
48. piercings: No.
49. sport: Alrighty; look, I will watch just about anything even though I’m bad at it....I think it has something to do with an interest in developing my recognizing of stuff/talent???? also it’s v cool. 
50. vacation: uuuhhh????? Probably my last “”vacation”” was in California? idek. 
51. trainers: I think they’re Nike. 
— more general
52. eating: I just want some sushi right now. The good stuff tho. NOt the *shudders* doobly-tasting kind. I love Asian food that’s not spicy tho. That’s some real bod-foodspiration right there for me.
53. drinking: Water, tea, juice that’s actually juice...... fresh smoothies. 
54. I’m about to watch: probably just safe-feeling trailers for me, so like, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl or something. 
55. waiting for: My mental health/processing desire to buffen up a little so I can actually start doing things again maybe (that’d be nice). Perseverance, basically, I guess.
56. want: Soundproof area maybe, to record //things//? A small local group of friends. 
57. get married: At some point, maybe. I’d not be surprised if I end up single tho. BUt I feel like I won’t which is....honestly.....sorta scarier for me rn dfhbjdhsbjdf
58. career: lol. idk. God’s plan? 
— which is better
59. hugs or kisses: hugs
60. lips or eyes: eyes, I think.
61. shorter or taller: taller
62. older or younger: depends
63. nice arms or stomach: niCe ArmS oR SToMacH? (bruh idk)
64. hookup or relationships: relationships is the only way to go, and not only in romance my friends. 
65. troublemaker or hesitant: Uuuhhh....hesitant. but you know what...imma pretend I come off as, like, a fine brand so. Hésitante. 
— have you ever
66. kissed a stranger: No lol. 
67. drank hard liquor: No. Thank GOD. 
68. turned someone down: Only one (1) time. Sorta. 
69. sex on first date: N o. 
70: broken someone’s heart: I actually don’t know. I don’t think so. I hope not. 
71. had your heart broken: Not like that, but also yes. At least a little. It’s sorta like having to go back and unstitch a stitch of yourself that’s all messed up; you thought you’d be ok with moving on from it, except ways further along you realise that you can’t and then having to go undo everything and start back up but even then your thread is all folded up and a little extra rugged. 
72. been arrested: No. 
73. cried when someone died: I want to say yes. But I actually am not sure. For sure, in fictional chracters so....(dad from my big fat greek wedding voice) there you go
74. fallen for a friend: No....I don’t think so. 
— do you believe in
75. yourself: Sorta. But inherently? yes. 
76. miracles: !!!! yes! If y’all knew some of the stories I’ve known....I love God so much I can’t even. It’s so marvelous. I just....Ah!
77. love at first sight: Yes, but only because I think it’s like some weird intuitive thing that’s legitimate for some people. Or maybe even a spiritual thing sometimes? 
78. santa claus: “He exists in every way that counts.” 😂 looolll
79. angels: Yes. Again, if y’all knew...
— misc
80. eye colour: brown
81. best friend’s name: I don’t have a best friend rn. 
82. favourite movie: Idk. 
83. favourite actor: Idk!
84. favourite cartoon: *Idk intensifies*
85. favourite teacher’s name: Not gonna say any specific names, but probably my German teacher in middle school, or 5th grade teacher. Also, non-official teacher friend man who taught me abstract concepts way beyond my grade level. I love them so much and they continue to have a very important impact in my life voyage. 
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