#extra long post

[phoenixkaptain]

A story like Thousand Autumns is very subtle in its romance.

Shen Qiao has only ever known his sect. He knows it very well, because of this fact. He knows the people, he knows the rules, he knows the daily doings and who is doing them. He knows every blade of grass and every stone. He’s like a lonely mountain flower, on the highest peak, unseen by any but a few birds and unknowing that there’s more it might never know.

When he finds himself away from his sect for the first time, he’s confused. At most, he’s gone to the base of the mountain, maybe the fields surrounding that, but no further. The flower was plucked and tossed aside.

For a man stumbling blindly in the world, literally and figuratively, there really isn’t a better guide than one that knows just about everything. And that’s, without a doubt, Yan Wushi.

Yan Wushi has lived longer than Shen Qiao, has been more places than Shen Qiao, and has fought more battles than Shen Qiao. Yan Wushi is the perfect example of something out of reach even for someone out of reach. He’s the only one who could answer any questions asked of him, but especially the questions that Shen Qiao would want to ask him.

And there’s no question in my mind that Yan Wushi doesn’t fall for Shen Qiao at first sight, but he’s certainly attracted to him. Not in an overtly sexual or emotional way, but Yan Wushi, the way his character is set up? It’s impossible for him not to be fascinated by Shen Qiao.

He knows Shen Qiao is the very picture of a peerless immortal. He’s well aware that Shen Qiao is considered untouchable by even the people closest to Shen Qiao. He’s most aware that Shen Qiao is Qi Fengge’s (coughhndisputedcough) favourite disciple, and honestly that’s enough for him to overwhemingly want to mess with Shen Qiao.

There are a lot of reasons for Yan Wushi to fall for Shen Qiao. Most of the people in the novel fall for Shen Qiao, after all, there is a precedent.

But the one I’ve seen questioned is Shen Qiao’s affection for Yan Wushi. Where does it come from? When did it start? Does Shen Qiao even fucking like that asshole?

The easy answer is: yes, he does. The novel tells us that. Shen Qiao, despite everything, does fall for Yan Wushi’s, um, “charms” in the end. This is made clear.

But why? A thousand voices cry out. Why the fuck would any reasonable person like Yan goddamn Wushi in any capacity?

Well, there’s your first mistake. Shen Qiao is not a reasonable person.

Shen Qiao as a character is absolutely terrifying. He could absolutely destroy the world given half the inclination, but he just doesn’t want to. He’s already considered unmatched before he’s pushed unceremoniously off of a mountain, and his journey only increases his strength. He isn’t quite equal to Yan Wushi, but he’s the only person Yan Wushi ever sees as equal to himself.

Shen Qiao’s best and worst trait is his patience. He’s unwavering. He really just embodies taoism, especially as it’s presented in the novels. He is the picture of a river that doesn’t stray from its path.

Which is why it’s hard for him to reconcile his own attraction to Yan Wushi, but let’s all be clear here. Yan Wushi absolutely starts seducing Shen Qiao on day fucking one. If he could’ve (if Qi Fengge hadn’t been there) he would’ve tried to eat that cabbage when it was just a little sprout. Shen Qiao is unpracticed in most social interactions, to be frank, but he’s especially unused to romance and Yan Wushi really is his first introduction to being hit on.

Yan Wushi is far from good, at really any point, to anybody but especially to Shen Qiao. But that doesn’t particularly matter because Shen Qiao chooses to forgive him, again and again. And I really think, after giving Shen Qiao to a confirmed terrible, awful person who has already promised to do terrible thing to Shen Qiao, that Shen Qiao himself wouldn’t forgive literally anyone else for doing that. And he shouldn’t, because it was really fucked up, but that still doesn’t matter because Shen Qiao ultimately DOES forgive Yan Wushi.

What am I saying? I’m saying that Shen Qiao fell for Yan Wushi first. It is the only way the story makes any sense. Shen Qiao is annoyed at him, he’s furious at him, he’s so fucking pissed he could kill that man, but he likes him. He likes Yan Wushi’s company. He likes that Yan Wushi gives him a challenge. He’s exasperated, but he likes it.

Shen Qiao forgives Yan Wushi SO MANY TIMES. Yan Wushi humiliates him and mocks him and is the absolute worst, but Shen Qiao forgives him and more than that, Shen Qiao always is waiting for Yan Wushi to come back to bother him more.

Is there more to Shen Qiao’s attraction? Probably. Is it a daddy kink? It could be. But I honestly can’t help but read it as Shen Qiao falling for the absolute pits of a man that is Yan Wushi. Shen Qiao likes that old bastard and decides to spend the rest of his life with the fucker and he is just too much of a block of ice to show it.

[promptsforyourwhumpfic]

The Grand A-Z List of Whump 1/3

This list contains ~290 items listed A to H

As always, I heavily encourage people to research topics thoroughly when writing as it is important to avoid stereotypes/misinformation. This list's intention is not to glorify/romanticise sensitive topics in any way.

This part one-of-three comprehensive lists of injuries, Illnesses and tropes - including those from the Whumptober 2023 trope vote!

All submissions are listed in italics, and those who wanted to be tagged will be included at the end. If you have any more submissions: please send them via DM/my ask box.

[I-Q] [R-Z] [NSFW List]

List below the cut:

#

"I don't need your help."

"I'm doing this to make you better"

"I'm fine, take care of them!"

“I’m Fine”

"Kill me instead"

"Let me in."

"Look at me."

"Should I know you?"

"Take me instead."

(No) Anaesthetic

A

A Good Ol' Sickfic

Abandoned

Abdominal Pain

Aching Wounds

Acne

Adrenaline Crash

Adrift (in space/at sea)

Agoraphobia

Airsickness

Alien abduction

Allergies

Alopecia

Ambulance Ride

Ambush

Amnesia/memory loss

Amputations

Anaemia

Anesthesia

Angina (Heart condition that causes pain)

Animal Attack/Bite

Ankle Sprain

Anthrax

Anxiety/Anxiety attack(s)

Aphasia

Appendicitis

Arrested

Arthritis

Asking for help

Asphyxiation

Assumed Dead

Asthma/Asthma Attack

Auctions

Autoimmune disease

Avalanches

B

Backache

Bad Caretakers

Bandaged Head

Banished

Barbed Wire

Bear trap

Beaten up by ex-friends

Beaten with blunt object (i.e, bat or pipe)

Beatings

Bedrest

Bedside Vigil/Hospital Vigil

Begging

Betrayed by close friend/team/family

Bites (Animal, Bug, Human….)

Biting

Black Eye

Blackmail

Bleeding Out

Bleeding Through

Bandages

Blindfolded

Blindness (this could be temporary or permanent)

Blisters

Blood Loss

Blood Poisoning

Bloodied Knuckles

Bloodstains/blood trail

Bloody handprints

Bloody nose

Blunt force trauma

Blurred vision

Body modification

Body Sharing

Body Switching

Bounty on their head

Brain Damage

Brainwashing

Breakdowns

Breathless

Bridal Carry

Broken Bones (Ribs, Arm, Leg)

Broken Nose

Broken Promises

Bronchitis

Bruises

Building Collapse

Bullet Removal

Bumpy roads jarring injuries

Buried Alive

Burning Building

Burns/Scalding

Busted kneecap

C

Cancer

Caning

Capgras syndrome/delusion (belief that someone close to/important to the person has been replaced by an imposter)

Capsulitis

Captivity

Captured

Car chases (and maybe a car crash)

Carbon monoxide poisoning

Cardiac Arrest

Caretaker has to “play nice” with whumper.

Caretaker has to hurt whumpee while undercover.

Caretaker sacrificing something dear to them to get something the whumpee needs.

Caretaker turned Whumpee

Caretaker-whumper who's a parental whumper. But their "love" is not real love. Or even right treatment.

Carsickness

Cataracts

Catatonia

Caught in a fire

Caught in an explosion

Cauterization

Cave In

Cavity

Celebrity whump (exploitation in the music/movie industries…)

Chaffing from ropes/handcuffs/shackles

Chained/Shackled

Checking for injuries

CHF - congestive heart failure

Chicken Pox

Chills

Chloroform

Choking

Chronic pain

Claustrophobia

Cleaning wounds alone

Cold/Flu,

Collapsed Lung

Collapsing (into someone’s arms is usually nice, bonus points for cradling their head as they lower the whumpee to the floor)

Collapsing after they win

Collapsing/Fainting/Passing Out

Collars

Coma

Comfort after a nightmare

Common cold

Completely betrayed by their own team

Complications

Concussion

Confusion

Constipation

Constricted Airways

COPD - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease makes breathing increasingly more difficult.

Corporal Punishment

Corset too tight and won’t unbutton

Coughing

Coughing Up Blood

CPR

Cramps

Crikes (intubation through neck)

Crush injury

Crying

Cuddle pile

Curses

Cuts/Grazes

Cutting off hair (more of an emotional hurt)

Cyanide poisoning

D

Damaged Larynx/Vocal Cords

De-aging

Deathbed Confessions (don’t have to actually die and stay dead, just the threat of dying)

Defeat

Defenestration (throwing out a window)

Dehydration

Deja Vu

Delirium (bonus points for this being drug/ fever induced)

Deluded whumper/thinking they’re helping the whumpee

Dengue Fever

Denial

Depression

Dermatitis

Diabetes (type 1 and 2)

Diarrhea

Diseases ('mystery' diseases are the best kind)

Dislocations

Disorientation

Disowned by Family

Displaced hip

Dissociation

Distress call

Dizziness

Dragged Away

Dream sequence

Driving to the hospital with a whumpee slumped barely-conscious in the seat of the car

Drowning

Drunkenness

E

Ear Infection

Edema (swelling from build up of fluid)

EKG

Electrical Burns

Electrical shock

Electrocution

Emergency field surgery

Emergency Surgery

Emotional angst

Emotional manipulation

Endometriosis

Enemy to Caretaker

Energy Drain

Environmental whump

ER

Execution

Exes reunited with one wanting a relationship and the other just wanting friendship.

Exhaustion

Experimentation

Exposure

Extreme Weather

Eye injury

F

Facing Phobias

Failed Escape

Failure to thrive

Fainting

Fainting (but also fainting aftermath) / Fainting due to lack of sleep, food, or overworking fainting from exhaustion

Falling

Falling for Caretaker/Whumpee/Whumper

Falling Through Ice

Fatigue/Exhaustion

Fever

Fibromyalgia (Chronic Pain)

Field medicine

Fighting (while injured)

Financial difficulty faced + how whumper might take advantage of that + how caretaker handles everything (well/badly)

Finding your loved one dead without explanation but thinking they’re still alive.

Fireman's carry

Flare ups

Flashbacks

Flinching away

Flu

Food Poisoning

Forced to... (Break out, Choose, Hurt, Kneel, Scream, Watch)

Forehead kisses

Forgotten by team

Foul-tasting medicine

Found family

Found unconscious

Fracture (Arm, Hyoid bone etc)

Freezing / cold whump

Friendly Fire

Frostbite

G

Gagged/Muzzled

Gangrene infection

Gaslighting

Gas (noxious, poisonous etc)

Gastritis

Glass (shards, debris etc)

Grief

Gunshot Wound

H

Hair Pulling/Cutting/Matting/Stroking

Hallucinations

Hanahaki

Handcuffs

Handgag

Hard ground

Haunted

Hay Fever

Head injuries/concussion

Head trauma

Headache/Migraine

Heart Palpitations

Heartburn

Heat Exhaustion

Heatstroke

Heavy metal poisoning

Held at gunpoint/knifepoint/weapon point

Hematohidrosis (Sweating blood)

Hemophilia/Hematophilia (Blood unable to clot)

Haemothorax

Hernia

Hidden Illness/Injury/Scar/Medical Issues

Hiding

High Blood Pressure

High Fever (like dangerously high)

High Pain Tolerence

Hit by a car

Home Sickness

Hospital Codes

Hostage Situation

House burnt down

Huddling for Warmth

Human Shield

Human Weapon

Hunger

Hungover

Hunted for Sport

Hurt no comfort

Hyperalgesia,

Hypermobility

Hyperventilating

Hypo/Hyperthermia

Hypo/Hyperthyroidism

Hypoglycemia

Hypotension/ Hypertension

Hypoxia

TAG LIST: Thank you very much to the following people for submitting ideas! (I apologise if some tags did not work, I'm not sure why tumblrs not letting me tag you!)

@I-eat-worlds | @greygullhaven | @letsgowhump | @cyberwhumper @firapolemos05 | @originaldeerhottub | @whumpilicious | @drawing-dinos82 | @carenrose | @stellarinuscronicles | @gottheseasonalblues | @marvelflame2010 | @sowhumpful | @avamcu | @courtneygacha | @lordofthewhumps | @autismmydearwatson | @kuddelmuddell | @the-most-handsome-ginger | @whirls-and-swirls | @painsandconfusion

[aealrizen]

It was hard for Whip to watch the teen girl run from them, eventually getting lost between the buildings at the edge of the rice fields. He could track her. It would be easy to do so. Just switch his vision to x-ray and heat sensitive, and modify his hearing. He could easily catch her and bring her back to ask her questions.

But he wouldn’t. Midas seemed to think it would just make things worse, and had opted to let her go. So Whip would follow that decision, even if he didn’t quite understand it. Midas had been so ready to abandon the retrieval of the tokomov reactor in favor of following a lead once before. Yet perhaps it was because the lead was a person this time that he chose to respect their free will to leave.

Or maybe it was just because Midas already had too much information flooding his mind to handle, and didn’t want any more until later. It took several minutes of him just resting his forehead against Ian’s chest, keeping his eyes closed as he tried to filter through the torrent of pseudo memories that had been pulled to the front of his mind. Getting them categorized again and tucked away in their proper places. By the time Midas pulled back, eyes blinking, Whip had given up on being a sentry and had taken to fishing Midas’ and Ian’s shoes out of the water, dumping a small carp back into the pond when he turned one over.

“...Are you alright?” Ian asked softly, keeping his hands on Midas’ shoulders as he started looking around slightly. The question prompted Midas to look up instead of at the water, and he still had a slight squint.

“Yeah,” Midas assured, giving a small nod and blinking a few times before relenting and putting his hand back to his temple. “Just a headache,” he explained as support to his claim. “...Sometimes… I guess it’s like a box gets tipped over in my head. I have all these memories, but they don’t really feel like memories to me. Not like Whip’s memories did to him. And they sometimes contradict each other. Like telling me that a person is my sister, but also my aunt or something. And this time it just… happened all at once.”

The explanation was somewhat confusing at first, but the more Midas described what happened the more Ian was able to make a connection. “...The migraines you used to get,” Ian noted after nodding slowly in sudden realization. “When we first picked you up. Those were caused by the same thing?”

It took Midas a second to realize what Ian was talking about, but he was quick to remember the first half a year he’d been with the Sector 1109 people. He’d been snappy, and reclusive, and sometimes found curled up in the darkest corner he could find with his eyes closed and head covered by his arms. “Yeah. It happened a lot more often after I first woke up. But eventually I was able to categorize things? Kind of lock them away as data in the background instead of active memories,” he confirmed with a nod, rubbing his temple slightly.

“So that girl… made some of the data resurface?” Whip asked, semi satiating his own curiosity by bringing Midas’ attention back to the girl they’d bumped into, and using similar vocabulary as him.

Midas went quiet for a stretch, turning to look where the girl had run. Was that someone else looking at them? He didn’t recognize them, but they had a similar wide hat. Maybe they were just another worker that was wondering what all the commotion was about. Maybe they should leave before they caused anymore trouble. “...Meri…. I think her name is Meri, but I’m not completely sure. She’s… older than I have in my head. But there’s a lot of images of a little girl that looks a lot like her. W-... She-... Something about a stuffed bear. She always had it with her. But now she doesn’t.”

He was raising his hands to his head again, eyes pressing closed as trying to think too much caused the headache to get worse. It wasn’t something that Ian thought would be an easy solution, and he didn’t want Midas to end up feeling sick if the headache did devolve into a migraine. So he rose his hand again to rest on Midas’ back to start directing him away from the rice fields. “C’mon. Let’s go find some shade to sit under and take a break. We need our shoes to dry off too,” he prompted, gently guiding them towards the nearest set of trees he could see. They were a short ways from the edge of the rice fields, amidst a field of wildflowers and grass. Midas seemed to be affected by the sunlight a little more than usual, so Ian figured the shade would help.

“...You dropped your shoes in the water?” Midas asked, a mild teasing snicker in his voice as he followed Ian’s direction and sluggishly made his way out of the water canals.

“It was either that or watch you face plant in the water,” Ian countered, expressing what his thoughts had been at the moment. He’d honestly been worried Midas would get dizzy enough to lose his balance, or possibly completely pass out with the way he’d suddenly reacted.

Midas gave a snort of amusement that suddenly went quiet as Ian’s words sank in. So he cared more about him than the shoes possibly getting ruined by fish water? That was… nice to know. It caused a faint smile to pull at Midas’ mouth.

With the size of the rice fields it took them more than twenty minutes to reach the edge of them. And the walk was slowed even more for a moment as Midas and Ian both gingerly hobbled across the pebble strewn dirt pathway that prevented the meadow from invading the crop fields. Once they were back in the grass it was easier though, and Midas let the grass brush against his fingertips as the wind created waves in the foliage and tugged his hair. It smelled different from the rice fields. A faintly sweet scent that was calming along with the breeze. The smell of plants never faded. But the scent of flowers was different from the water, and the peaceful scenery helped his mind start to settle again. A slight rustle of grass and tree leaves caused him to close his eyes, his steps slowing slightly as he simply enjoyed the environment. It felt familiar. A bittersweet peace that was broken by the faint call of someone in the distance.

“Midas?”

That was his name, but not Whip or Ian who said it. A voice in the semi distance that caused Midas’ heart to skip a beat even as his throat closed slightly. Whip and Ian definitely heard it as well, their forms quickly shifting to face the source of the questioning shout and Whip’s hand subconsciously resting on the hilt of his sword.

And yet, once again, Midas raised a hand to still them for reasons he couldn’t explain, his body feeling suddenly weighed down as he also turned to the source of the shout. There was a man running towards them. A white swallow tail lab coat denoting his profession in medicine and biology. A symbol of status that was starkly contrasted by the presence of house slippers on his feet. But what caught Whip and Ian’s attention the most was the man’s features.

“MIDAS!”

A red haired man, the same shade as Midas’ own hair, was sprinting towards them, feet stumbling on the uneven ground. He barely slowed when he reached the three, keeping from knocking Midas over completely as he threw his arm around the lad in a smothering embrace. Yet Ian noticed the hold held a sense of fragile tenderness to it, as though the man were afraid he might hurt Midas by something as simple as a hug that was too rough. And while Ian and Whip were raising brows in confusion, Midas had frozen stiff in barely comprehending shock. Seeing the man’s face briefly before he’d hugged him had been like looking in a mirror; one that showed a few decades in the future with added glasses. And yet Midas found it was increasingly more difficult to breathe at no fault of the man’s tender yet all encompassing hold. His foreign yet eerily familiar voice quieted into sobbed words Midas couldn’t remember being stored in his mind prior to now.

“T’thank heavens! You’re alive-...”

The man was both laughing and sobbing as he spoke, pulling back only to cup both hands on Midas cheeks and look at him through his tears. Midas could feel the man’s whole frame shaking, both from exertion from running and from emotion. Tears saturated his cheeks even as they were squished by an overjoyed smile.

“My little Midas…”

The simple phrase caused Midas to feel like he was choking on his own esophagus, his frame unconsciously leaning forward slightly. And yet his expression was only a blank stare in lack of understanding. The vague answers to the misty cloud of questions in his mind beating against a wall that prevented them from being known by his conscious memory. He felt petrified. Unable to think of how to respond to what was happening since no coherent thought was able to present itself. Just a blank haze of emptiness only filled by a question and a statement.

Who are you?

I know you.

He was unable to even attempt to trigger any potential memories though. An attempt to further study the man’s face was continually thwarted as the man leaned forward to kiss his forehead, then hug him again, then kiss his temple then cheek. He was very affectionate, and half of Midas found it very odd. But what was more odd was that even though Midas couldn’t place a single memory of this man, the gestures of care still felt like they belonged. Like they’d happened before.

Who was this person? 

Midas didn’t know. But he also couldn’t bring himself to ask because it felt so wrong to even consider doing so. As though the mere words would break this man’s spirit irreparably. Which only reinforced Midas’ thoughts that he should know this man, but didn’t.

His thoughts were inevitably distracted by realizing his own cheeks were damp. A shaking hand raising to his face as he was once again pulled into a tight hug made Midas realize it was because of his own tears. His body was crying despite having no prompting from his mind. Fresh, fat tears spilling from openly staring eyes and fingers shaking as the man’s frame shuddered with choked but elated sobs. It was a longer hug this time, and Midas’ nose was pressed against the man’s shoulder as the man’s hand moved to rest on the back of his head. The scent of the man’s figure inevitably became a smothering blanket to block out the rest of the ambience around Midas. A smell that made Midas’ chest ache from the comfort and heartache it brought. A familiarity that his heart knew but his mind didn’t. As though the words had been stolen from his memories but not the emotions.

Midas let out a confused, choked sob as he gave up on his mind and allowed himself to react completely on his emotions this time. Raising his shaking hands to return the hug and hesitantly gripping the white fabric of the coat, Midas hid his face into the man’s shoulder and let out a choked yet soft mixture between a laugh and a sob.

As Midas became lost in the whirlwind of complete lack of coherent thought smothered by overwhelming emotions, Whip ended up distracted by another approaching figure. One that was familiar to him. It was a shock to see her there, but after the initial surprise faded Whip gave her a wry smile. “So this is where you were hiding, Crystal,” Whip greeted, finding his anxiousness strangely calmed by the sight of one who had helped him so many times in the past.

“Yep. It’s ironically the last place people think to look,” Crystal responded, nodding her head in her own greeting while her hands remained loosely tucked in empty pockets. She decided against catching up with Whip though, putting that conversation aside for later and instead turning her gaze to Midas as he peeked his eyes over the shoulder he was buried in.

“Hey babe. It’s good to see you again,” Crystal greeted, her voice softening and expression growing slightly sorrowful as Midas’ own expression lacked recognition. “You can’t remember anything, can you?” she asked, gaining a slight smile when Midas looked faintly panicked at her pointing out what he’d subconsciously thought about trying to hide. “It’s okay. We had a hunch. I’m just surprised you ended up with these two,” Crystal consoled, turning her gaze back to Whip and Ian. “It’s funny, because I almost tried to contact you for a rescue mission a while ago. For the same kid.”

By now Whip was used to Crystal not starting from the beginning when talking about events, and he could only shake his head with a wry smile. “You gonna get around to telling us who this guy is? Or are we going to have to play guessing games instead of bodyguards like you initially wanted?” he asked, shifting his hand that had never left the hilt of his sword to let Crystal know he was uneasy with this stranger smothering his friend.

Luckily for both of them, the man realized the pieces of the situation he’d initially glossed over and gave a sheepish cough while reluctantly straightening slightly. “Sorry,” he apologized quickly, raising a hand to rub his eye under his glasses but still remaining reluctant to fully let Midas go. “I was… overwhelmed. Thank you, so much, for taking care of Midas and bringing him back.” For a moment he bowed his head low in gratitude, shifting Midas to the side before rising again and wrapping Midas close to his side this time. “I’m Hesopher Clandel. Midas’ father.”

____________________________

First

____________________________

Extra long post again because I wanted 2 pics for this one but I didn't want to spoil by having that 2nd pic on the top of a post X'D

I finally reached the scene that motivated me writing this entire story |D It feel so strange to reach that goal, but I can officially say that Midas' daddo is still alive and well, and full of hugs and kisses.

[penebui]

Party At the End Retrospective

Now, I had a lot of thoughts appearing when I was translating, and now I can coherently discuss them. Let’s talk about it and give it a rundown. The essay does not chronologically follow the events in Party At the End (mostly).

Glossary:

Translating

Introduction

Time Frame

Who the Fuck is Ladra (and Blue Zoisite)

Cinnabar

Sensei & Antarcticite

The Temple & Museum

They’re Putting a Gem on Display? (and The Gems That Don’t Appear)

Ghost & Cairn (and Lapis)

Padparadscha

Sphene, Topaz, and Peridot

What? There’s Fog on The Moon?

The Foodmakers (and 84)

The Fantastical Anatomy of Obsidian (and The Planet They Mention)

Gem Reveal: The Beryls, Red Diamond & Fluorite

The Young Ones

Diamond, Bortz, and the Admirabilis

The Rose Garden (and Rutile)

Bonus Round: The Party

Essay is below. Long, long post ahead, be warned (It’s a really long post guys).

Let’s talk about my glorious journey translating this. To get to actual content of Party at the End go down to Introduction.

Translating

I don’t speak or read japanese at all. As you can tell, I DID get help for getting the raw text, but translating was mostly done by myself. This was done through the usage of deepl (main), google translate (secondary/checker), and every japanese dictionary/kanji site on planet earth. Now, deepl is not 100% accurate but its good. I ran them through both translators to get wording and learn the key ideas, and then typed up the translation to be as accurate as possible. And then there’s the way Haruko Ichikawa writes. Not necessarily writes, but spells. She uses kanjis, and the furigana are well... unique. If you look up the kanjis and see what characters they’re made out of, they don’t match the furiganas she has provided at all. They’re sometimes one character, or do in fact spell out the sound but switch the script she’s using (which frankly made my job harder). The furigana does not match what the kanji uses is what I’m saying.

Her way with words even confused my friend, who is a native japanese speaker. Some kanji she uses are “rare” or “uncommon”. I like to attribute this to her eloquence. AND ITS THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE.

My first struggles of kanji were with Jade’s interview.

My dear bestie, Lotus, suggested that it could’ve been the kanji for nymph, which is 精. Not exactly right.

The first thing to find out this mysterious kanji is look up the furigana right? WRONG.

The kanji I was having a problem with was 棲, this kanji means “water dwelling”. It is pronounced, “sei”. The kanji is made with セイ. The furigana Ichikawa provided was せい. These both spell “sei”. Do you see where I am getting at.

You see, I got the raw text from the scans through OCRs. The first three OCRs I used were not fully accurate and precise. This was a problem for me as the first few interviews had kanjis with furiganas. However as time went on, I DID find a 100% accurate OCR by the name of online.easyscreenocr.com that helped me a bunch. It knew all the kanji she was using so my insanity from Jade’s interview ended pretty quickly.

But then the “one word” direct translations confused me and I had to analyze from every angle what the sentences could possibly mean. For instance, in Bortz’ interview, they use a word which just meant “names”. Plural for name. In a sentence that had no name dropping and had nothing to do with names. With the luck of my brain continuing to crack down on it, I discovered that it actually was supposed to be “namely”. Which is used for “that is to say” or specificity.

And there is the “shellfish” part in the second part of Bortz’ interview. Oooohh, they could’ve said snails, nudibranchs, or straight up admirabilis!! They LOOK like snails. It would be reasonable to call them snails. But they used the word for shellfish. This was not a translation mistake. The word used was 貝. This means shellfish. Why the fuck did they cal them shellfish? I don’t KNOW!! They have shells, they are snails. “Shellfish” is what you would call shit like clams and oysters and crabs and prawns and *looks at papers*.... Shellfish.

There is also vagueness. This is intentional. Think about it. Ladra is familiar with the gems, he knows them and they know him. So of course they’ll be vague when speaking to each other, because they already know about these things. They aren’t going to spell it out for us, we have to deduct it. Which is why I’m writing this.

Another thing to add, Chrysoberyl calls Bluezo “Bluezi”, everyone else calls them Bluezo.

Every time I translated, my language skills with english slowly corroded as I forgot basic grammar and sentence structuring. But what do I know? I don’t speak and understand japanese.

Introduction

 The first page of text in “Party at the End”, is alike to the encyclopedia in Volume 11, appropriately named “Life and Culture of Y-3579203181277“.

What these two have in common, is that they’re from entities that are not the lunarians, gems, or admirabilis, or any life form we are aware of. Whether this is a creative narrative done by Haruko Ichikawa to give us a way to immerse ourselves into their world as the audience, or if this is relevant to the plot in some way has yet to be discovered.

The encyclopedia did in fact, prove to be tied to canon in other ways than lore-wise because of Sensei’s older brother, who distorted and encrypted the information of ice floes and the only words that were not distorted spelt out “Hello” (at least, from what I’ve heard). Sensei’s older brother’s one eye was seen in the background of this text too.

Although the encyclopedia was entirely from an unknown and different viewpoint, “Party at the End” is by proxy.

The premise of “Party at the End” is that it is a photo book, found and picked up by these (or another) unknown entities. They state that they have translated it with the goal of accuracy rather than understanding (this might have been the source of my perils if Ichikawa decided to actually take this extra mile).

They also state that the photos could have been corroded and are without color due to time, or perhaps, were just like that from the start. It is likely that these beings found this photo book on the moon as is.

After this, there is a little poem. This poem, is most likely done by Blue Zoisite, who is a poet. I will explain this later.

Time Frame

The time frame of when the photos and interview, and the party happened are... confusing. This is actually not a party at the actual end. I believe this is set in the exact year Phos started to gain Sensei’s memories and become a pseudo-human. It’s most likely a few months after the initial thing, as New & Old Morganite are helping construct a city for the gems that have yet to be turned into lunarians to reside. And it is NOT the same party as the one shown in Chapter 96.

The gems have a party for the end, every day at night, for 10,000 years. The party in Chapter 96 is most likely the first one, as Antarc is seen with Cairngorm, and groups of other gems are out doing tourist-y things. At the party, Cinnabar and Jade are also wearing different outfits than the ones depicted in Party at the End.

Who the Fuck is Ladra (and Blue Zoisite)

Ladra, is a lunarian. Ladra, is the one who is taking these photos and also doing the interviews himself. His face is never shown. He is familiar with all of the gems, and Sensei. Some gems are shocked at how he knows some things about them.

He has a message before actually starting the interviews. This is the first name drop. His message is about the past. This is related to how the photo book is for memories, for the past, for someone to hopefully pick up and look at. And as time goes on, the gems start to name drop him.

Ladra is also in cahoots with Blue Zoisite. Blue Zoisite, is the only other gem to be in an active relationship with a lunarian (this excludes Antarc, who is in a relationship with Sensei and he was not originally a lunarian and they’re technically in a relationship I’m sorry to say). This is most likely because they’re both artists in some way.

Ladra is a photographer. This is obvious. He is stated as a very talented one.

Bluezo is a poet. This was hinted at back in Love Freedom Hell, the mini art book from Volume 10. On the faux volume 10 cover that depicted the trio Chrysoberyl, Topaz, and Blue Zoisite.

This small fake summary tells how Topaz is the mediator in the little threesome and tried to get Chryso & Bluezo to get along through an exchange diary, which revealed Bluezo’s inner talent for writing and poetry in general.

Bluezo, from what we hear from in Chrysoberyl’s and Topaz’s interviews, is a very high maintenance partner. They were rebellious before, and although the rules that they faced in society that caused them to act out were removed, it’s most likely just part of their temperament.

Bluezo is also seen “eating” (or kissing??) a rose given to them by Ladra, who bought it from Shinsha.

Cinnabar

A segway into Cinnabar, they are a florist. They’re still somewhat shy. Oh yeah, and they’re also an entomologist. This is revealed when they try to avoid Ladra’s question about the party initially before he claps back at them.

Of course, Cinnabar would be an entomologist and a florist because of the Botanical Gardens. It’s also shown in one of their photos. Where they’re holding a caterpillar. This, has great implications. And can mean two things.

One, they have somehow made technological advancements to the point that even entities such as insects can be turned into the same spiritual essence as lunarians, or, that they are moving the entirety of life on earth onto the moon. The latter is most likely what is happening. Besides, even after they’re all prayed away, nature continues. The Core Three of the human descendants got prayed away, along with what only lived after the horrors of the world: Admirabilis, Lunarians, Gems, the inanimated objects that had souls, and the dog Cairn has (which a translation calls Snowball I think).

Although, it does look like nature had evolved sometime during Phos’s hibernation, as these insects have three sets of wings, and look akin to that of lepidopteras, even though their wing material is unusual for a lepidoptera. However, some butterflies do have this type of wing, like the Greta Oto, or the Blushing Phantom.

Sensei and Antarcticite

Antarc, has adapted well. Apparently sometime on the Moon they (the lunarians) added a new ocean, most likely for recreational purposes since that’s how Antarc uses it. An interesting thing is Antarc is just walking around, naked. We do not question this or look further into it, it’s just an interesting detail.

Sensei and Antarc are most definetely in some sort of relationship. Antarc was teased about liking Sensei by Phos, Antarc and Sensei are a foil to Cairn and Aechmea, and everything else. Ladra’s and Sensei’s conversation about Antarc also seems to point to this, as Ladra (who is in a relationship) tells Sensei to go meet with Antarc with some persistence.

There is still, something deeply wrong with Sensei.

In Chapter 98, this is the earliest form of Sensei speaking, in the timeline. He seems to talk normally here. Aside from being formal with his mother.

(Bonus Shiro in the panel btw)

Throughout the manga, we can see him speak in a... peculiar way. We might assume this is because he wants the gems to remain oblivious, so his speech remains vague, but it’s not just that.

This is peculiar speech pattern is more noticable in Chapter 95, when he explains what happened to Phos to Antarc (in the worst way possible).

He does not mean to indict Phos like that, or paint Phos as a villian who really hated Sensei’s guts (Phos did, but it was a love/hate relationship with him). This, is literally just how Sensei speaks.

We can see this in both of Sensei’s interviews.

So, Sensei just talks like that. Ladra also wanted to ask further about this with Zircon (mentioning his memories, which probably refer to his memories of before the gems and lunarians), but he ran out of time.

The Temple & Museum

The Temple is an identical replica of the school/temple on earth. This is where Sensei is mentioned to continuously pray (out of habit). The gems who work here are Euc and Jade.

Jade mentions that they had moved the plants from the earth temple into the new moon temple. And that a jellyfish was born. Evidence that the caterpillars seen are most likely living creatures and not ‘lunarian’.

In association with this, there is a Museum. There is also an archives place where original specimen reside. The three who work here are Ghost Quartz, Neptunite, and Zircon. They work in translating the gem’s written records into lunarian language.

Zircon is called Curator Zircon. They look like a victorian boy and I love that for them.

Ghost mentions that Neptunite is helping them with translating. Neptunite is nonverbal for the most part. They don’t usually talk much. The only thing they say here in the interview is “Aa.”

They’re Putting A Gem on Display? (and The Gems That Don’t Appear)

As you read Zircon’s interview, you might’ve paused and went-

“What? They’re putting a gem on display?”

The “or...” implies something more sinister. I’ll chalk this up to it being a gem body from someone who could not be properly revived.

Euc mentioned that not everyone could be ‘revived’. This is due to a threshold requirement of memories. Whether it be living long enough to have memories or not is debatable. I think this is the case though. You might think Euc was referring to solely Lapis Lazuli by this conversation, as they couldn’t be revived because their head (the core part of their memories) is on Phos. This, is only half true. You see, throughout Party at the End, there are four others who are never seen nor mentioned.

These four are Heliodor, Sphalerite, Apophyllite, Pink Fluorite.

To jog your memory, Heliodor is the first known gem to be taken to the moon, right before the manga starts. Oh, but what’s this? They aren’t actually “dead”, they are a lunarian now. As seen in Chapter 95, it’s most likely them. However its weird that they are never seen in Party at The End. Especially with the sudden surprise we get later on.

They MIGHT’VE appeared in Party At The End actually. This could be them right here, since it looks like it can’t be either Morganites, as their bangs are different in Party At The End.

From the photo party that contained Ruby, Fluorite, Red Diamond, Benito, and another gem.

So, what about Apophyllite, Sphalerite, and Pink Fluorite? Well.

Pink Fluorite is seen used as a weapon (synthetic pink fluorite) against Antarc before they’re taken to the moon. They, along with Sphalerite were mentioned by Dia when the conversation of “gems with a hardness of 4 and below not being brought back” came up back in Chapter 67. Although it says Fluorite, we can guarantee its Pink Fluorite and not the Second Gem Fluorite, as there are countless of generations between the last generation of gems and Fluorite the Second. Sensei would also reveal the existence of Fluorite, after Dia left for the moon.

And also, we know what Sphalerite looked like. Sphalerites can come in orange. In Love Freedom Hell, on a page filled with miscellaneous gems, is an unknown orange gem. This is most likely Sphalerite.

So, Apophyllite? Well. They’re only mentioned once. When Phos is first taken to the moon. Apophyllite was similar in color to Phos. That is all we know.

All these gems, are under the hardness of 5. Only 5 and up can be revived.

Coincidence maybe, because the ice on the moon gathered the memories of all gems as a collective conscious. The actual gem contents that were in the morgues in the temple were also collected and brought to the moon. Meaning for them to not appear or be mentioned, and therefor most likely “dead”, they would have to have vital parts or most of the parts to bring them back because of their memories. Which is why Lapis can’t be revived.

This means gems who potentially were lost at sea could not be revived as a lunarian. Erosion could’ve played a part in slowly destroying gem bodies. Obsidian is obsidian. For all we know the opposite of them could’ve happened and one fell into lava. We just don’t know. Oh wait I just remembered about the time Aechmea mentioned that he tore apart some gems and mixed them with synthetics. That’s also probably another one.

Oh, but then I forgot. There’s Red Diamond.

Red Diamond was the first one, and the quickest, to be physically restored. Back when they first tried to bring back the gems in a physical manner based on shards. Happened in Chapter 72.

Red Diamond, most likely wouldn’t mind their body being showcased. Its the first, and strongest one. Red Dia is old, they act like they are an ancient piece of work still acting as if they’re living their golden years and is frankly, very open minded.

Lapis Lazuli is also a contender, as their entire body is on the moon. Their hardness is around 5 - 5.5. They could’ve been physically brought back during the first attempt. But the only thing missing would obviously be their head, and that... Is not a fun thing to look at in a museum.

There is a chance Lapis could have been planned as being used as the display. Lapis can’t come back, it could serve as a piece of legacy for Ghost. Everyone else is neutral on Lapis.

But Red Diamond is a full body, less negative connotations come with them and they were the first one who was born, and fell victim to this centuries long war.

Red Diamond’s old body could have been the one on display. Mostly. But I am not ruling out Lapis Lazuli either. It’s more practical to showcase Red Dia thinking about it.

Ghost & Cairn (and Lapis)

Everybody’s been wanting to know about how Ghost and Cairn resolved the things between them. We only get to see after the fact, but not how or during. Ghost does elaborate on this however.

They’re forgiven by Cairn, mostly for the time when they were together. Although they ARE seen as twins, they can be seen as a system too. Ghost DID control them, but that’s mostly when they were together, sharing the same body. Ghost was the one mainly in control. Ghost, did NOT control them once they were taken to the moon. This, is the fault of their microorganic inclusions. And also Cairn burdening themselves with the wish of their original host, restricting themselves. Because they feel obligated to. That is another issue for another day. Let’s talk about the inclusions.

Like Lapis, Ghost’s inclusions worked to cement what their original owners wanted to do. Lapis wanted to send a message to Phos, their inclusions did. But because Lapis is a completely different set of problems on their own, they were able to “transfer” their consciousness into Phos’s own dreamscape because the entirety of their memories went straight to their head for inclusions.

Ghost’s inclusions, work like that to a fault. Ghost wanted Cairn to protect Phos. Ghost did not mean “protect Phos at the cost of your own anatomy and sacrifice yourself for them”. Inclusions however, do not understand nor act beyond what is stated. There is no fine print. Inclusions hear “Protect Phos” and they make Cairn do it. Ghost had good intentions, their inclusions just didn’t enact that message and sentiment as such.

Ghost looks at Cairn with envy, as they’ve moved on. Cairn did “move on” in the more “I’m going to pretend that didn’t happen/exist because it’s not my problem” kind of way. Ghost yearns for Lapis Lazuli. They miss them. It could be unhealthy, it most certainly was back when they were just a gem and blamed themselves (and Cairn unintentionally) for their taking.

What’s interesting though, is that they’re not actively trying to revive Lapis anymore. Euc said they WERE trying to find a way to bring back gems that couldn’t be revived. So what gives?

Lapis, although with good intentions, was probably a threat to those around them. Euc stated that sometimes their intelligence was a bad thing and was used against others. Ghost was dependent on them and based their self worth on their usefulness to Lapis Lazuli. That thing with Cairn. The only positives we’ve seen with Lapis was when they spoke to Phos. Even then that could be written off as mischievous.

There’s also the head thing with Phos going on too.

Let’s also not forget the interesting detail of Lapis always being front-faced, staring at the “camera”/audience when shown.

Padparadscha

Speaking of weird little details when it comes to facing the “camera”, there is also Padparadscha and the way they’re shown in (almost) every photo they’re in (The Padparadscha bikini photos are exempt).

Padparadscha is the first gem to be interviewed, they have the same “job” as Rutile. Listening to people’s problems. They still seem to have some form of illness, as they’re in some form of a hospital as a patient. But they chalk it up to them being “lazy”, which is indeed part of their personality. Their holes did not translate into their lunarian body, as Ladra wanted to photograph them but there were none to photograph.

Padparadscha, throughout the most of the entirety of the booklet, does not directly show their face. It’s obscured. This is the opposite of Lapis Lazuli.

In these photo, Ladra is always looking up at them, and the sun is shining down on Padparadscha. Padparadscha keeps a distance from everyone, they’re on a ledge, etc.

Lets not forget the symbolism they have when it comes to buddhism. Associated with the lotus, both in name and meaning. This is PROBABLY showcased through how they’re viewed here on out.

Also, they were shown like this in Chapter 96 too.

Sphene, Topaz, and Peridot

These three, are made for each other. They all work together making figurines and other sculptures. It is mentioned that they use “inorganic material made from [them]”, so they’re probably using synthetic gem materials for their craftwork. They could also still be using wood, and perhaps even steel.

These three, just love creation. Peridot used to make paper. Sphene and Topaz used to be carpenters.

And yes, you are probably wondering why Peridot does not mention Blue Zoisite. Although their kidnapping DID affect Peridot, that was because it was their partner. Blue Zoisite was rebellious. They could have been close, albeit Topaz was definitely closer to Bluezo than them. Which is why Topaz asks Ladra about them, and not Peridot.

Peridot loves Sphene, Sphene loves Topaz, and Topaz loves Peridot. I like to think of this as a polyamorous relationship. They’re very cute together.

What? There’s Fog on The Moon?

The Morganites are working together! Both Old & New Morganite scour the open parts of the moon to work and build on expanding civilization to accompany the new entourage of gems. Old Morga is ecstatic to be working with a younger Morganite.

These two were hard to translate. Mostly because of the technobabble. I also just noticed one repeated line in Old Morga’s interview, so please forgive me for that.

The place that the Morganites are mapping is covered in fog.

This fog... Supposedly works on the vulnerable minds of people. Specifically lunarians who MIGHT remember their human lives, or the ones who remember when all five moons were occupied.

Lunarians remembering human life is, a double edged sword. On one hand, they explain how they’re the souls of the people who couldn’t move on. Cairn talks with one lunarian who remembers his days being a sailor. I, for the love of me, can’t find this, but I fucking remember this. Aechmea was able to accurately recall what Professor Ayumu looked like, and the shogi or go (I don’t know which one) pieces, and used shiro against him. He’s also mentioned as an old friend of Sensei.

 And then there’s the fact that the lunarians speak of humans as their ancestors, rather than being them. They talk about “marriage” as a foreign concept, to the gems and to themselves.

When trying to reconstruct a human, they tried to make human cells. They also tried to make a psuedo-human (Phos).

They also cannot synthesize the material Sensei is made out of, hexagonal diamond, also called lonsdaleite. Despite it being mostly synthetic and them specializing in synthesizing gems, they are apparently too out of their depth with it.

The fog, can be best described, as what Cairn experiences on the moon before transing their gender. It preys on a “sleeping” mind. A vulnerable mind. 

Another thing mentioned is the “Star of Salvation”. I have no clue what this meant when translating! It is in fact, what it says in the text though.

Throughout the text they mention stars. A lot. Whether it be “lava coming from stars” (a thing Obsidian says which: I dont really think so? Let’s not get into specifics), the Star of Salvation could refer to three things.

One, the Sun. No need to explain that one. Two, Phos. They’re the only savior for them all now. Three, Sensei. This is 99.9% Sensei because Morganite refers to the “Star of Salvation” as “him” and mentions “His son (Phos)”.

The Foodmakers

The candymakers(?) we know of are Alexandrite, Benitoite, and Thirty. They all work in the same candy(?) shop/resturaunt.

Alexandrite, is still in contact with Chrysoberyl. This is known since Chrysoberyl invites Ladra, Alexandrite, and Benitoite to... Alexandrite’s resturaunt.

Benitoite is seen as VERY DESIRABLE on the moon, despite being a cringefail husband. They originally went to the moon because they felt they weren’t too special. A lot of lunarians have the hots for them however.

Then there are Chrysoberyl and Old Goshenite. Old Goshe is a barista. They make coffee. Chrysoberyl is technically a flavourist. They’re trying to recreate flavours of the sun, which, I did not know about.

Gems absorb the sun, kind of like photosynthesis but without everything else, as they’re gems. It does however, seem like the taste of the sun changes. Whether it be do to the strongness of light, weather, location wise, etc.

Now, Benitoite is just a server/assistant for Alexandrite. Thirty, is kind of like an apprentice. They can handle the store entirely on their own sometimes, but still needs a bit of guidance when it comes to making food. They DO want to master their craft.

Thirty and Eighty both still talk to each other, they’re just at a healthy distance. Back then they both constantly worried about each other getting hurt or harmed in some way, which was the main reason why both of them wanted to go to the moon when Phos tried to convince them.

The Fantastical and Wonderful Anatomy of Obsidian (and The Planet They Mention)

While talking with Obsidian, it seems like they work in the same field as 84. Since they’re also in the same photo.

Obsidian, talks a lot about stars. But before we talk about that let’s talk about another thing: Obsidian’s anatomy.

Now, a long time ago, back when the first boom of Houseki no Kuni happened, (and thus fans from this era are called veterans: I’m one of them), a veteran fan made an essay and theory about how gems moved. This essay explained that the inside of the gems was probably liquid, or a melted form of the gem in question so that their joints and limbs could move. And when they break, the exposed part of the melted gem inside would instantly harden.

This theory, is half true. Mostly because it only applies to Obsidian.

The general consensus was that there was an abundance of obsidian, which led to all of the weapons being made out of obsidian. This is horrifyingly untrue.

All weapons, all things obsidian that the gems used, were directly pulled from Obsidian themself.

The inside of their body is liquid glass, they compared it to the likes of the mercury inside of Shinsha.

Of course, a lot of people would be wondering, “Why was this added in here? This is a sudden revelation about Obsidian” but surprise!!

This has been mentioned before.

Chapter 85, when they introduce the Cinnie Box. They say its lined with obsidian. And Obsidian, does this.

Obsidian, could melt themselves. This is another unexplored territory, like the one time Watermelon used electricity because they’re an electric conductor and then never used again because they don’t normally get “angry”.

Obsidian seems like they have an infinite source of liquid glass inside of them, much like how the mercury never stops coming out of Shinsha. Obsidian also can control the temperature of their own body at certain points so that they can melt and mold it into whatever they make.

This is why its easy for them to make weapons.

A horrifying, interesting fact that Obsidian uses their own body to create an abundance of weapons. Do you know how many swords have been lost to time? Do you know how big the blade of Ghost and Cairn’s scythe was? And when those get destroyed, Obsidian doesn’t even bat an eye to it!!! THAT WAS A PART OF YOU!!

Obsidian is the scariest motherfucker alive.

And now onto the stars.

The star, Obsidian talks about, is not an ordinary star. However unlike the “Star of Salvation” it is an actual type of planet.

Let’s talk about lava planets. Obsidian said that their huge... line thingy can detect star systems. Star systems include planets. This is the opposite of the ball thingy seen when Phos visited the moon for the first time, and I assumed they were used to synthesize gems, and they were.

Chapter 56

In comparison to the star system simulator.

Now, minerals and planets go hand in hand. There is plenty of diamond on many other planets, like peridot (or at least related forms of peridot).

Obsidian mentions that lava comes from a “star” which we know is a lava planet. Obsidian is... not right when it comes to the thing they’re talking about.

Obsidian wanted to know what exactly they came from, not location wise but material wise. Of course everyone knows Obsidian comes from cooled lava.

Which comes from volcanoes. Volcanoes, only exist under the sea in houseki no kuni. The island is the only thing on the surface.

In every shot they show the earth, the earth is just... water.

I can’t for the life of me find out the name of the type of island the gems lived on, but I do know another veteran fan talked about it during the early stages of the fandom.

The island, is most definitely an oceanic island. If there is a volcano underneath, it probably has a weird outlet on the wall that usually produces gems which led to Obsidian being born.

This way of creation for obsidian, is what should have been mentioned. That volcanoes on earth form obsidian. But Obsidian talks a lot about the “star” (planet) in their interview.

A lava planet can happen in a couple of ways.

1) A planet that collided with something, or something impacted it. 2) It’s too fucking close to a star 3) It’s a relatively new planet that is still developing This... Well you know which one I’m going to point out.

This planet, is a newly formed planet. Obsidian even confirms this too.

Now, whether or not this will be relevant, perhaps. This planet is still in its early years, and its not even CLOSE to being fully formed.

We, do not know how much time has passed between Phos praying away the entirety of all species, and Phos meeting their new best friend. We do know that probably millions of years has passed, as when Pebble/Rock yells out Phos is completely covered by nature.

It is long enough for an entire cave system (that is what I am assuming it is) to form huge crystal structures.

And it is long enough, to watch a dying star together. Phos mentions a white dwarf.

This planet, could be fully formed by now.

It could be whatever the fuck the outer entities that keep making these booklets are, however they could be from a completely different planet or star system in general.

The entities that made the encyclopedia, were present during the story. They probably traveled to this particular star system at some point and visited the moon, picking up and translating Party at the End.

Or, they could be another separate entity from the first ones that made the encyclopedia. Who the fuck knows! I don’t! I’m speculating! And we can only have this answered in future chapters, if Ichikawa chooses to address this (especially with another additional booklet which will most likely go in depth about the current ecosystem and changes that happened when Phos was dormant).

Gem Reveal: The Beryls, Red Diamond & Flourite

So, we were expecting to see some new faces. And we were right!!

We got to finally see what Aquamarine looks like, who was mentioned in Red Beryl’s dramatis personae, and Fluorite.

And a completely new gem!! Emerald!!

The gems picked in question when it comes to characters is a LOT.

Some of these gems, are well known in the gemstone industry. The gemstone industry is, obviously, about gemstones. The gemstone industry is also a huge part of the jewelry industry. The gemstone industry IS related to the mineral industry, but they’re not the same thing. Gemstones are about the way the light disperses, the colors, the inclusions, etc.

There are plenty of gems in the houseki no kuni cast that are a part of this industry. These gems are: Blue Zoisite (however it is more known as Tanzanite), Morganite, Goshenite, Diamonds, Sphene (also known as Titanite), Amethyst, Alexandrite, Lapis Lazuli, Topaz, the Corundums, the Beryls, Jade, Zircon, and Peridot.

Even if you’ve never heard of morganite and goshenite before, go to the newest shop with a gemstone section. Now look into the display. You will see plenty of goshenites, morganites, topaz, and tanzanite. I have seen a lot. They are also priced around $100-300. Mostly. I have seen a lot of london topaz. And a lot of tanzanite too, however those can go for a shit ton more, and sometimes are even more expensive than diamonds, because of their rarity and a lot of legal stuff surrounding it.

Then there are the gems well known in the mineral industry. If you like houseki no kuni, chances are: you collect minerals. Everyone probably has a piece of agate, rose quartz, amethyst, nacre/mother of pearl, and magnetite that you hit together and eventually break. If you’re more insane than that, you probably own shit like tungsten, calcite, copper, fool’s gold, and others.

Mineral enthusiasts and collectors, do not necessarily care if it is a crystal or not. That shit came from the ground you want it.

“Gems” from the cast that are well known in this mineral industry are: Rutile, Watermelon Tourmaline, Euclase, Benitoite, Neptunite, Fluorite, Cinnabar, Phantom Quartz (known as Ghost Quartz in hnk), Smokey Quartz (Cairngorm is this), Sphalerite, Apophyllite, Hemimorphite, Phosphophyllite, and Obsidian.

Granted, because of houseki no kuni, phosphophyllite has absolutely raised in price and on behalf of my fellow brethren I’d like to apologize to the mineral collectors who don’t know why phosphophyllite has risen in price by 500%: I am so, so sorry.

You might realize there are some who aren’t mentioned in either of these industries. Two to be exact. This is because they are special cases.

Antarcticite and Bortz.

Antarcticite is in the mineral industry, however it is so obscure and lesser known. And can only come from two places.

Antarctica and California. What’s up with the geology in California that produces rare minerals? Who the fuck knows.

Bortz, is a rare case. Bortz is a diamond, and yes you can get it in the mineral industry, but its mostly used for tools. Bortz, is an industrial grade diamond.

There is actually, a lot of industrial grade diamonds. There is a shit ton of different types of bortz, I researched them for my essay back in highschool and could namedrop them all, but I digress.

Haruko Ichikawa also likes to flex, and mary sue some gems, by making them the rarest type of gem. And also very obscure ones.

Imperial Topaz, Pink Topaz, Green Diamond, Red Diamond, Red Beryl, Padparadscha, you get the point. She wants you to know this island produces top notch, all rare gems. Obscure ones like Cairngorm and Antarcticite.

So, with all this in mind, its no surprise that she threw in Emerald. Emerald, is a popular beryl in the gemstone industry, like Aquamarine. I think it would be a sin for her to have forgotten about Emerald.

Emerald is best friends with Aquamarine and Red Beryl. These three were probably alive at the same time, because they know each other.

And there is Fluorite!! Fluorite is not green! Fluorite is explicitly stated to be purple.

(This is from the newest version of Red Diamond’s interview, the original raw text is still there, but the newly translated sentence has been added, if you dont have the second line then please redownload Red Diamond’s interview in the dropbox link!)

We only saw what Fluorite looked like before being shaped

Fluorite did, in fact, have long hair, so it is in fact, on par with how they look now.

(Emerald, Red Diamond, Aquamarine, Fluorite)

The Young Ones

Watermelon, Hemimorph, and New Goshenite are trendsetters. Well, mostly Watermelon and Hemimorph while New Goshe is ‘hip’. They speak in bro speak.

It’s interesting that New Goshe is never referred to as ‘Young Goshe’ but instead as “Master” (once I might add) but that’s probably just a friendly nickname everyone calls them. Can’t look too much into that.

Watermelon and Hemimorph, always were young souls. Despite Phos being younger than them actually. It’s jarring once you think about it. Everyone treated Phos as an elder because of the things they went through, mostly that they had “matured” because of trauma, and forget that Phos was the youngest of them, and then after New Goshe & Morga were born, the third youngest.

These two are an interesting case, because despite changing so much, they haven’t changed at all. This is the case with most gems. They change so much, still haven’t changed at all. Nothing changes despite changing so much.

These two never “grew up”. They just adapted.

Diamond, Bortz, and The Admirabilis

 Diamond and Bortz. They are brothers. Their relationship isn’t perfect, but its on par with one thing: being siblings. Siblings constantly annoy the fuck out of each other. Except Diamond is the older one, while Bortz is younger. Usually its the younger sibling annoying the older sibling.

Diamond, is still getting used to being a lunarian. Literally everything is fine, minus one thing: they don’t have their bright shining colors anymore.

So, they have a machine that’ll reflect the colors that Dia originally had beforehand!

Back then, Dia despised and hated Bortz for being the best at their craft: combat, and sword skills. Dia wanted to compete and be the best one, and was jealous of Bortz and took their criticism as a personal insult.

Now however, Dia has grown. Them destroying (confronting in a way) Bortz and them all being lunarians probably let Dia calm down a bit, they were right that they had to confront the issue dead on at first.

After becoming lunarians, Dia is trying to get Bortz to form an idol pair with them. Dia, wants Bortz to be a part of their job. That, is a form of growth in of itself. They don’t think of it as competition, and them wanting Bortz to work with them is a form of brotherly love. Of course Bortz doesn’t work like that and so they keep rejecting it, but seeing Dia grow in a way where instead of thinking about competition they want their brother to join in on the job they love, even if Dia has an ‘ego’ about being the best in the universe, it’s still great!

Bortz, is a jellyfish researcher. So obviously they don’t want a part of that. Along with being a jellyfish researcher, they were in charge of taking care of the admirabilis.

They reunited the admirabilis, and a new king was born sometime after. And credit to fellow admirabilis lover @/kordeliiius (I’m not @’ing you because i dont want to destroy ur notifs) who mentions that the new King of The Admirabilis at that point, was male because of the use of 彼.

Now, when I say “reuniting the admirabilis” I don’t believe they’re talking about the moon and the earth admirabilis. As Bortz is seen with a moon admirabilis (it has no shell since they evolved without shells from living in the city water on Phos’s decision). You can tell by the many legs and the little antennae ears most nudibranches have.

Who they actually reunited is all of the earth admirabilis. According to the rough translation of Life and Culture of Y-3579203181277 (imgur link of the entire thing) (@/bakemeats also has a cleaner, but partial translation of the booklet but it stops at the Chairs/Desks: 1, 2, 3, 4), there were 8 factions on earth. They were all in the southern hemisphere, which means that if the ‘original’ faction was “near” -and I say that in quotations because it took a few hours of Phos walking to even get to the trap Ventricosus and the Lunarians had set up- then the island is located... Somewhere in the southern hemisphere. Or right on the line.

Anyways, it seems that Bortz (and others most likely) manage to reunite all 8 factions and got them to communicate with each other.

I’m going to go on another tangent real fast. As you might’ve guessed, Gem Writing Systems and the Lunarian’s Writing Systems are completely different. That’s why Ghost and Neptunite were translating.

However, their languages are probably somewhat different too. Or the psychology behind it is unique in them understanding each other’s language.

When Phos started to suspect the lunarians, they heard a lunarian utter a few syllables, which would’ve sounded like “anxiety” in japanese (it’s intended language) as far as I know. Phos and Lapis could understand this. So did Ghost.

And, when the gems went to the moon, they understood the lunarians just fine.

Phos, could understand the ice floes, who’s now known to just be the voice of Sensei’s older brother, and the admirabilis. Two different ‘species’ that the other gems could not.

But the lunarians could understand the (earth) admirabilis.

However, the lunarians can’t seem to understand Sensei’s Older Brother’s voice?? Remember they thought it was both him and the humans but moreso the humans who tried to mimic the lunarian ships to get them [him] out of the water. If they understood him then they would’ve realized that he was hostile.

So the lunarians could not understand him.

Now it goes in a circle, the gems understand the lunarians, the lunarians understand the admirabilis, the gems can’t understand the admirabilis but Phos can, and Phos can also understand the woes of Sensei’s Older Brother.

Looking through the manga, it does not seem like there is a language barrier between the lunarians and the moon admirabilis either.

Phos, could only understand the admirabilis after being absorbed and melted by Ventricosus, so they probably inherited the knowledge of the language. Phos could understand Sensei’s Older Brother by ... some fuckery I’ll tell you that. We don’t actually know how Phos was able to understand him.

Now that the gems are lunarians, they can probably understand the admirabilis just fine. Whatever was acting as a barrier between them is now gone. If they reunited all 8 factions that meant they had to go to earth at some point, and talked to them about The End and everything else. 

As we know, the admirabilis did agree. We see them in Chapter 98. However the only visible ones are Variegatus, Ventricosus, and Aculeatus.

Now, an interesting thing: the Admirabilis are sexually dimorphic, we know that. What we also know is that the Kings are physically different than the rest of the admirabilis.

We can tell because the admirabilis shown in Chapter 76, do not have a crown on top of their heads.

This also applies to Aculeatus since he’s not king.

Variegatus, Ventricosus, and Convallarius share this “crown” shape trait.

And here, is the admirabilis in Chapter 98.

If you’ve figured it out, congrats! Those are all the other Kings that ruled the Admirabilis behind the three. That’s a lot.

The Rose Garden (and Rutile)

We know that in Chapter 96, Yellow, Green Dia, Pinkto, Ruby, and Sapphire manage the Rose Garden. The roses are used for multiple things.

Ruby and Sapphire were partners with each other before(?) pairing up with Yellow Dia at some point. Because they’re corundums, they also know Padparadscha and Rutile. They even messed with Rutile when they first started trying to fix Padparadscha, this is expanded on in a little comic in Love Freedom Hell.

Even if they hang out with Yellow, Green, and Pinkto more, they still visit Rutile.

These two can be appropriately called “party animals”, because they seem to have picked up the habit of drinking. And visit Rutile while drunk.

Rutile’s rebellious nature before becoming a doctor (and a therapist) comes out when they interact with these two. It seems that Rutile originally excused their behavior (and colors) because they were “born that way” as gems.

We also see Sapphire and Ruby in the Rose Garden.

During the time Phos was broken up into pieces and hid on earth, Yellow went through therapy for their trauma of partners being taken to the moon. Yellow, could not handle this (or as 84 says, can’t handle 220 years of introspection). At this time Yellow was already heavily depressed seeing the changes on the earth during the Moon Raid.

Because of this huge depression of trauma, they had a form of psychotic breakdown and lived in a delusion where they are actually a lunarian for some time. This meant that while they believed they were a lunarian, they forgot about their partners.

And then, they actually became a lunarian. Except now with their once shattered partners.

I’ve stated this in a post before, but because they are now a lunarian (what their delusion was about), and because of their partners now being with them, there was a cognitive dissonance. They are constantly reminded of their gem life, but now they’re a lunarian. This advanced their mental deterioration and resulted in: dementia.

They can still form new memories, to a fault. They know Ladra. In Chapter 96 they remembered to get roses for Thirty.

But, they also gradually forget, and so they form a circle of forgetting and remembering. We can see it in, once again, Chapter 96.

Time did not ‘cure’ their dementia, since dementia cannot be cured.

We can see them forget the interview with Ladra, and repeat.

Yellow, can still recall their gem life, even though its extremely painful to do so. This is why the delusion of being a lunarian happened in the first place. They seem at least aware to a degree that they have dementia.

The dementia seems to have affected their speech too, as its mostly filled with repetition. Unless this is just pertaining to one sentience and they don’t actually repeat their speech even if they’re currently in a state of clarity.

Although it’s really sad, I do think this character direction is interesting, and that Ichikawa intended it to happen in the first place.

You can’t fix everyone. Bringing back everything and what they wanted won’t fix or bring them back to their old self. Yellow was always the oldest. They were 3,597 years old in Chapter 12, and they only got older and older. Even in Chapter 12 they couldn’t remember why they were fighting.

Chrysoberyl also mentioned how at some point, they were an ‘old man’. But we do not know how old they were when they were taken. They lived in the same time frame as Peridot and Sphene, two gems who were younger than Yellow, but they seem to be around those two’s ages and a little bit older, rather than being older than Yellow.

Because of everyone being revived as lunarians, there were no ‘stakes’ like there used to be in the manga. The lunarians even got what they wished for, to turn into nothingness, in the end. A story has to have some form of collateral, especially one like this, or it’s message would be rendered useless, especially one of the core ideas, which is change. Change has to happen whether it be good or bad, it doesn’t matter. Changing for the better, also has to have some form of collatoral. A loss.

That’s why Cairn gets with Aechmea, who used them to make sure Phos was lonely, before he eventually fell in love with them himself (Disclaimer: Cairn transing their gender is not a bad change, it was forshadowed and Ghost’s inclusions and gem society/rules seemed to prevent them from embracing themselves, like Bortz in a way. I’m talking about their relationship with Aechmea), it’s not a high stake situation, collateral in some form itself.

Yellow, was more an extreme form of this. They got everything they wanted, but developed dementia. However their previous partners help them, act as their caretakers, and overall supports them. They’re just happy they’re with Yellow. I think this is really sweet.

Bonus Round: The Party

The party, starts after Cairn’s interview. Now, the party is really interesting.

Because you can recognize some gems, and then you can’t.

When the gems turned into lunarians, they gained more human features like their noses changing and their hair loosing stiffness and becoming more... hair-like. This means they can change their hairstyles more regularly, and since there is no color we can’t tell who is who sometimes.

We can recognize Euc, Watermelon, New Goshe, Hemimorph, and a few others obviously.

The party isn’t just comprised of gems, no. They also have lunarians attending too. This is mentioned in Cairn’s interview.

You can even see it here. The bunny ears indicate that it’s a native lunarian.

I also didn’t notice until recently, but there are two other lunarians in this photo. On the right. Two male lunarians. Gay lunarians? In MY party?

This is not Aechmea and Sensei. Although Aechmea is also seen wearing a jabot (the ruffle thingy on the collar), he has a different set of accessories on that jabot, and his suit has a lapel (the folds of the suit). Aechmea has a butterfly jabot pin with beads below it, Sensei also has this motif (and what seems to be a tucked in jabot). Yes this has to do with symbolism. Transformation, rebirth, I’m sure they have another meaning in buddhism but I can’t 100% tell you what they mean.

What is interesting is also Sensei’s many brooches. He has many brooches relating to flowers, a weighing scale (or scales of justice), and a brooch that has an eye on it.

The brooch that has an eye, can refer to Sensei’s eyes, or Ayumu’s eye, or Phos’s eye. Sensei’s Older Brother also has a singular eye.

Oh? But I see something familiar.

Hmm, where have I seen this flower before?

Chapter 100

I may be pulling this out of my ass, who knows. These could be pansies. Which symbolizes thoughtfulness, and remembrance.

There’s actually a lot of flower symbolism in Party At the End. Not the first time. There was a change in Chapter 93, which Yaku Translations on Twitter mentioned. Instead of Psuedo-Human Phos seeing Young Phos run to Sensei’s room, they see a dandelion seed, which represents innocence. There was a dandelion seed in the original manga-issued version compared to the volume-version however.

When Phos becomes enlightened, the dandelion is in full bloom.

Said dandelion can also be seen in the cover art.

Throughout The Party at the End, there’s a list of flowers mentioned.

Gypsophila (mentioned by Jade), Pink Mushrooms (Hemimorph, probably referring to Pleurotus djamor AKA The Pink Oyster Mushroom), Lotus Seeds (A lot of gems mention it), Lily (Cairn), Lavender (Padpa), and Roses (The Rose Garden, Padpa). Let’s also not forget the saturn-purple rose Bluezo just straight up eats (kisses????). Some of these are mentioned in forms of food, like Gypsophila tea (Jade) and Lavender cake (Padpa).

Gypsophila stands for Innocence & Purity, mushrooms are Transformation (mushroom symbolism in general, not “pink mushroom”, also pulling this one out of my ass), Lotus themselves mean enlightment in buddhism so the fact that they mention lotus seeds symbolize that the gems/lunarians are not yet there. Lilies can mean a lot of things, like affections for loved ones, purity and innocence (pink ones can also mean feminity, which would apply to Cairn here). Lavender is devotion & peace/serenity/calm.

Roses have different meaning based on their color. Red roses we know are for romantic/true love, yellow can mean two separate things which is friendship and jealousy/betrayal (here we’re going with the friendship part because of Yellow Diamond), red and yellow flowers together means joy and happiness, and in Bluezo’s & Ladra’s case, violet/lavender roses stands for love at first sight.

There’s also this

This is a photo of Shinsha, Antarc, and Cairn. They have plenty of different types of flowers on here.

And here

And the final page.

There’s a lot of symbolism with flowers.

There’s also a lot of cherries! Could just be the fact that they’re at a party, or it could be symbolism too! Who knows!

There’s also one thing we all know... The elephant in the room. The image that shocked us to the core when the previews/leaks first appeared.

THE KISS

Honestly, I don’t know how to approach this one guys.

It certainly has to be Diamond?? Red Diamond is chilling with (Purple) Fluorite and a couple others. And it makes the most sense that it’s Diamond, because Diamond always had a fascination with love and romance, even asking to watch Cairn and Aechmea cuddle and gushing over their relationship.

The other gem, has long hair, frills, and a thing behind their ear. This is angering me because I DON’T KNOW WHO IT’D BE.

It doesn’t make sense with most gems.

Let’s approach this from a different angle. What if it’s Obsidian?

It could be 84, as they have the same length hair as Thirty, who’s hair is pretty long.

But NO!! It’s almost definetely Diamond because they’re obsessed with love as a concept.

And not everyone who was interviewed appears in the party photos.

It could be Pink Fluorite or Apopyllite. If we’re stretching it out. There are long haired gems, but they don’t seem to have a close relationship with Diamond. It makes it so FRUSTRATING.

Anyways.

There is also this photo.

The known gems here are Red Diamond, Benito, Ruby, and Fluorite. The gem on the top right corner isn’t Watermelon, and inspecting both Morganites’ bangs means its not them, so I’m taking a leap of faith and claiming its Heliodor. Because Heliodor was turned into a lunarian.

So, whos the gem next to Benito? You could claim its Alexandrite, but they still have their ahoge, long hair, and the long side hairs. Its a differen’t gem. And their bangs seem to be a type of bangs that not a lot of gems have. And even if the gems had it their hairstyles would’ve been different.

Like I said, we already know what Sphalerite looks like. They have medium-length hair so it’s not them.

 So, here’s my speculation: you know how theres mostly gems of the same type but different colors? There’s a short haired, and a long haired version. Pinkto has long hair, Topaz has short hair. New & Old Morga have short and long hair. Loosely also applies to New & Old Goshe, where Old Goshe’s bangs are more exaggerated than New Goshe.

They could be Pink Fluorite.

The have the overal same ‘vibe’ as (Purple) Fluorite. But this time with extremely short hair.

Nice guess, right? Well it’s unconfirmed and we’ll probably never know. And that makes me ANGRY!!!!

The gem, with the lunarian heart ring, is most likely Bluezo. If it were Sensei or Aechmea the face wouldn’t be obscured. Ladra’s face is obscured in all photos.

Bluezo, is also probably the faceless and naked gem body at the end. It would make sense. Even if theres no ring on the left hand (that we see). And it’s after the group photo of most of the gems at the party.

And the pomegranate.

This is more... Confusing. The obvious ones are purity and fertility, especially looking at the placement. It also symbolizes immortality, but thats mostly in other cultures.

I can’t find a clear answer with buddhism on this one. On one hand, so many places say that pomegranates are part of the “three blessed fruits” in buddhism along with the citrus and peach, but I can’t a lot that goes into depth on them.

General consensus is that the peach means longevity, citrus means happiness, and pomegranate is fertility. Interesting choice, as the lunarians (this now includes gems) cannot have children. The population only grows because they’re bringing back souls of who used to be.

But the only other mention I see of a pomegranate in buddhism is Hariti/Kishimojin which would DEFINITELY not apply here I think.

So, I have no clue!!

Although this party is estimated to have happened recently after Phos became a pseudo-human and after the first party, and before the 10,000 years, the last page still looks like its the End. As if they’re all desintigrating. As mentioned before, Lunarian structures sometimes (not all structures) will remelt at the end of the day and build back up. This is probably what’s happening. It’s still a nice ending to the booklet.

[thecrowperson]

Kaidou manga panels I like: (pt 160)

Delusions of Grandeur: feat. imagination Saiki, delinquents and Hyakkimaru

From: vol 8 ch 84

[bigskycastle]

school project, some drawings for my pretend game about a housefly girl called musca and her adventures in some creepy&wet place

[kensatou]

gritty both capturing the zeitgeist as usual AND educating me on the availability of free flow butter at american cinemas

[redgranola]

Oh hey, this post exists for me again. It was just completely gone for a long time, not on my blog and not in search, and I got a note on it today for the first time in forever.

I love the comment that says BMI = Bullshit Made-up Index

I stand by what I said in 2018. Though today I will not use the term fatmisia, it's fatphobia. It's a hatred of fat people.

I want to add that the idea of health is also a scam, a forever moving goalpost you cannot possibly reach. Fat people exist in healthy and unhealthy bodies and it's fine - leave us alone about it. Health doesn't justify your body, and illness or disability doesn't justify your hate.

The BMI is bullshit because it exists to further hate and exclusion of fat people. Period. Not because it hurts some thin people too.

Calories and weights and formulas and tracking, all the numbers and ratios, it's all bullshit. You really don't have to think about this stuff. Free yourself. I hope some of you can use this and get help for your ED or disordered eating. But I am a fat activist, and these things hurt fat people the most. We are the intended targets. So I do this for us. Fat people must be centered in this conversation.

Oh, and the very word ob*se is a slur. Do not use.

Here's an updated link to the Riots Not Diets piece, right here on Tumblr

The ok2befat playlist is still recommended.

In addition, books:

Dr Sabrina Strings - Fearing the Black Body, the racial origins of fatphobia

Da'Shaun Harrison - Belly of the Beast

Shadow on a Tightrope (one of the earliest collections of fat activist writing, still in print, containing the fat liberation manifesto and other personal stories)

do you guys wanna see how bs ‘’’bmi’’’ is?

let’s start with a few pictures of my body shall we

(please ignore messy room i’m in the process of packing)

okay so that’s the body of someone that eats healthy, literally my fave food is broccoli, and i work out 5 days a week, you’d think i’m at ‘’’healthy weight’’’’ right?????

BITCH NOPE

that bitch telling me to eat 1500 - 1900 calories a day are you fucking joking??? that’s fucking starving myself and i’m not doing that. fuck you.

[gallusrostromegalus]

Move To A Darker Place

This is a story of Man Vs. Machine.

---

Last March, my father attempted to file his Taxes.

My beloved father is a Boomer. Unlike most Boomers, my father is rather handy with technology because he was one of the people that had a not-insignificant hand in Developing a hell of a lot of it. He was studying Computer Science at Cal Poly before the computer science degree existed. I have many fond childhood memories of skipping through the aisles of various electronic and computer part warehouses while Dad described something that either terrified the staff or made them worship him as a God.  He taught himself how to use his smartphone.  Internationally.

So when he saw the option to file digitally with the IRS through the “ID.me” program, he leapt at the chance to celebrate the Federal Government finally entering the Digital Age.

It was all going swimmingly for about six hours, until he was ready to file and the system told him that it needed to verify his identity. 

“Very Well.” said my father, a man unafraid of talking to himself and getting something out of the conversation. “It wouldn’t do for me to get someone else’s return.”

The System told him that it needed him to take a “Digital Image ID”.

a.k.a: A Selfie.

“A-ha!” Dad beams. Dad is very good at taking selfies. He immediately pulled out his phone, snapped one, and tried to upload it.

Please log into your Id.me Account and use the provided app to submit your Digital Image ID. The System clarified.

“Oh. You should have said so.”  Dad pouted, but used his phone to log onto the ID.me account, do the six security verification steps and double-checked that the filing looked the same as it did on the desktop, gave the IRS like nine permissions on his phone, and held up the camera to take his Federal Privacy Invasion Selfie.

Please align your face to the indicated grid. Said The System, pulling up a futuristic green-web-of-polygons approximation.

“Ooh, very Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry would HATE this!” Dad said cheerfully, aligning his face to the grid.  My father is a bit… cavalier, when it comes to matters of personal information and federal government, because he’s been on FBI watchlists since the late 60’s when he was protesting The Vietnam War and Ronald Regan before he’d broken containment. Alas.

Anyway, there is very little information the federal government does not have on him already, but he’s as good at stalking the FBI as they are at stalking him, and had worked out a solution:  He has something approaching a friendship with the local Federal Agent (Some guy named “Larry”. Allegedly), and got Larry hooked on Alternative Histories and Dad’s collection of carefully-researched “there is very likely buried treasure here” stories, and Larry is loath to bother his favorite Historical Fanfiction author too much.

But I digress.

After thinking for a minute, The System came back with an Error Message. Please remove glasses or other facial obstructions.

And here is where the real trouble began.

See, my father wears glasses that do substantially warp the appearance of his face, because he is so nearsighted that he is legally blind without them. His natural focal point is about 4 inches in front of his nose.  While Dad can still take a selfie because he (approximately) knows where his phone is if it’s in his hand, he cannot see the alignment grid.

He should ask someone to take it for him! I hear the audience say. Yes, that would be the sane and reasonable thing to do, but Dad was attempting to do taxes at his residence in Fort Collins, while his immediate family was respectively in Denver, Texas and Canada.  He tried calling our neighbors, who turned out to be in Uganda.

He looked down at the dog, Arwen, and her little criminal paws that can open doorknobs, but not operate cell phones.

She looked back at him, and farted.

“Well, I’ll give it a try, but if it gives me too much trouble, I’ll call Larry, and Larry can call the IRS about it.” Dad told her. 

She continued to watch him. Arwen is an Australian Kelpie (a type of cattle-herding dog), going on 14 years old, deaf as a post and suffering from canine dementia now, but she still retains her natural instinct to Micromanage. She was also trained as a therapy dog, and even if she can’t hear my dad, still recognizes the body language of a man setting himself up for catastrophe.

So, squinting in the late afternoon light next to the back door, Dad attempted to line his face up with a grid he could only sort-of see, and took A Federal Selfie.

The System thought about it for a few moments.

Image Capture Failed: Insufficient Contrast. The System replied. Please move to a darker place.

“...Huh.” Dad frowned. “Alright.”

He moved to the middle of his office, away from the back door, lit only by the house lighting and indirect sunlight, and tried again.

Image Capture Failed. Please move to a darker place.

“What?” Dad asked the universe in general.

“Whuff.” Arwen warned him against sunk costs.

Dad ignored her and went into the bathroom, the natural habitat of the selfie. Surely, only being lit by a light fixture that hadn’t been changed since Dad was attempting to warn everyone about Regan would be suitably insufficient lighting for The System.  It took some negotiating, because that bathroom is “Standing Room Only” not “Standing And Holding Your Arms Out In Front Of You Room”.  He ended up taking the selfie in the shower stall.

As The System mulled over the latest attempt, Arwen shuffled over and kicked open the door to watch.

Image Capture Failed. Please Move to a Darker Place.

“Do you mean Spiritually?” Dad demanded.

“Whuff.” Arwen cautioned him again.

Determined to succeed, or at least get a different error message that may give him more information, Dad entered The Downstairs Guest Room.  It is the darkest room in the house, as it is in the basement, and only has one legally-mandated-fire-escape window, which has blinds.  Dad drew those blinds, turned off the lights and tried AGAIN.

Image Capture Failed. Please Move To A Darker Place.

“DO YOU WANT ME TO PHOTOGRAPH MYSELF INSIDE OF A CAVE??” Dad howled. 

“WHUFF!” Arwen reprimanded him from under the pull-out bed in the room. It’s where she attempts to herd everyone when it’s thundering outside, so the space is called her ‘Safety Cave’.

Dad frowned at the large blurry shape that was The Safety Cave.

“Why not?” he asked, the prelude to many a Terrible Plan.  With no small amount of spiteful and manic glee, Dad got down onto the floor, and army-crawled under the bed with Arwen to try One Last Time. Now in near-total darkness, he rolled on his side to be able to stretch his arms out, Arwen slobber-panting in his ear, and waited for the vague green blob of the Facial grid to appear.

This time, when he tapped the button, the flash cctivated.

“GOD DAMN IT!” Dad shouted, dropping the phone and rubbing his eyes and cursing to alleviate the pain of accidentally flash-banging himself. Arwen shuffled away from him under the bed, huffing sarcastically at him.

Image Capture Failed. Please move to a darker place.

“MOTHERFU- hang on.” Dad squinted.  The System sounded strange. Distant and slightly muffled.

Dad squinted really hard, and saw the movement of Arwen crawling out from under the bed along the phone’s last known trajectory.

“ARWEN!” Dad shouted, awkwardly reverse-army crawling out from under the bed, using it to get to his feet and searching for his glasses, which had fallen out of his pocket under the bed, so by the time he was sighted again, Arwen had had ample time to remove The Offending Device.

He found her out in the middle of the back yard, the satisfied look of a Job Well Done on her face. She did not have the phone. 

“Arwen.” Dad glared. It’s a very good glare. Dad was a teacher for many years and used it to keep his class in order with sheer telepathically induced embarrassment, and his father once glared a peach tree into fecundity.  

Arwen regarded him with the casual interest a hurricane might regard a sailboat tumbling out of its wake. She is a force of nature unto herself and not about to be intimidated by a half-blind house ape.  She also has cataracts and might not be able to make out the glare.

“I GIVE UP!” Dad shouted, throwing his hands in the air and returning to the office to write to the IRS that their selfie software sucks ass. Pleased that she had gotten her desired result, Arwen followed him in.

To Dad’s immense surprise, the computer cheerfully informed him that his Federally Secure Selfie had been accepted, and that they had received and were now processing his return!

“What the FUCK?” Dad glared. “Oh well. If I’ve screwed it up, Larry can call me.”

---

I bring this up because recently, Dad received an interesting piece of mail.

It was a letter from the IRS, addressed to him, a nerve-wracking thing to recessive at the best of times.  Instead of a complaint about Dad’s Selfie Skills, it was a letter congratulating him on using the new ID.me System.  It thanked him for his help and expressed hopes he would use it again next year, and included the selfie that The System had finally decided to accept.

“You know, my dad used to complain about automation.” Dad sighed, staring at the image. “Incidentals my boy!  My secretary saves the state of California millions of dollars a year catching small errors before they become massive ones! He’d say. Fought the human resources board about her pay every year.  I used to think he was overestimating how bad machines were and underestimating human error, but you know? He was right.”

He handed me the image.

My father was, technically, in the image.  A significant amount of the bottom right corner is taken up by the top of his forehead and silver hair.  Most of the image, the part with the facial-recognition markers on it, was composed of Arwen’s Alarmed and Disgusted Doggy face.

“Oh no!” I cackled. “Crap, does this mean you have to call the IRS and tell them you’re not a dog?”

“Probably.” Dad sighed. “I know who I’m gonna bother first though.” he said, taking out his phone (Dad did find his phone a few hours after Arwen absconded with it when mom called and the early spinach started ringing). 

“Hey Larry!” Dad announced to the local federal agent. “You’re never gonna believe this. My dog filed my taxes!”

Larry considered this for a moment. “Is this the dog that stole my sandwich? Out of my locked  car?” he asked suspiciously.

“The very same.” Dad grinned.

“Hm. Clever Girl.” Federal Agent Larry sighed. “I figured it was only a matter of time before she got into tax fraud.”

---

I'm a disabled artist making my living writing these stories. If you enjoy my stories, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi or Pre-ordering my Family Lore Book on Patreon. Thank you!

[raynewolferune]

DC x DP Prompt: Bruce is bad at emoting but at least ghosts are empathic (too bad bat kids are not)

Was reading Twincognito on AO3 when I stumbled across this gem again:

~

" “Danny, Tim. I was just…checking in. Is everything alright?” Curse his inability to make meaningful conversation when it wasn’t a life or death situation.

They glanced at each other and shrugged.

Then Danny hauled himself out of the bed and walked over to Bruce.

Bruce tried not to let too much excitement show on his face. "

~

Now I really want to read a story where Bruce adopts Danny post Meta trafficking and is being his usual emotionally constipated self. His kids keep getting mad at him because he's treating their new meta brother who was trafficked poorly (generally being stilted in conversation with him, walking away hurriedly mid-conversation, avoiding Danny when he's feeling really awkward, etc). They think Bruce is discriminating against Danny for being a civilian, meta, dealer's pick, but really it's just Bruce being horribly socially awkward. Danny knows this because of ghost empathy and find the whole thing hilarious. The whole thing comes to a head with the Bat Kids staging an intervention in the Bat Cave.

[artkaninchenbau]

People keep on asking for more Baby Robin and Papadile so here is more Baby Robin and Papadile. Now never ask anything from me ever again

[promptsforyourwhumpfic]

The Grand A-Z List of Whump 2/3

This list contains ~174 items listed I to Q

As always, I heavily encourage people to research topics thoroughly when writing as it is important to avoid stereotypes/misinformation. This list's intention is not to glorify/romanticise sensitive topics in any way.

This is a comprehensive list of injuries, Illnesses and tropes - including those from the Whumptober 2023 trope vote!

All submissions are listed in italics, and those who wanted to be tagged will be included at the end. If you have any more submissions: please send them via DM/my ask box.

[A-H] [R-Z] [NSFW List]

List below the cut:

I

ICU

Identity reveal

Ignorance is Bliss

Ignoring an Injury

Immersion foot syndromes (Prolonged exposure to damp and cold)

Immobilization

Immortal healed wrong

Immunodeficiency

Impalement

Improvised medicine/treatment

Indigestion

Infected (Blood, Wound, Tattoo etc)

Infested

Injured caretaker carrying an even more injured whumpee.

Injured whumpee instructs caretaker how to treat them.

Injury Discovery

Injury Revelation

Insecurity

Insomnia

Insults

Internal Bleeding

Interrogation

Interventions

Intimate whumper

Intubation

Involuntary whumper

Isolation

Isolation/Quarantine

Itching

J

Jailed

Jamais vu (The experience of being unfamiliar with a person or situation that is actually very familiar.)

Jealousy

Jet Lag

Jumping (to safety, forced to jump)

Just dying in general.

K

Keeping quiet because the enemy is nearby

Keeping the whumpee awake

Ketosis (body burning fat for energy)

Kidnapped by the opposing team

Kidnapping

Kidney Stones

Killed! (Again and again and again for the lovely immortal whumpees<;3)

Kneeling

Knife through hand and into wall/floor

Knocked Out

L

Lab Rat

Laryngitis

Late realisation

Left for dead

Leprosy

Lichenberg scars/Lightning strike

Limited Medical Supplies

Live-Streamed/Broadcast torture

Lobotomy

Locked Up and Left Behind

Losing a Bet

Loss of appetite

Loss of reality

Lost (In the woods, city etc)

Lost voice

Low Blood Pressure

Lumbago (lower back pain)

Lupus

Lured into a trap

Lying

Lyme's disease

Lymphoma

M

Magical exhaustion

Magical healing

Magic whump (using spells to harm someone)

Manhandling

Major Character Death

Makeshift Splints

Malaria

Malnutrition

Manhandling

Mauled

Measles

Medical trauma

Medieval Torture

Memory Loss

Meningitis

Menstrual Cramps

Mental illness after being kidnapping (and addressing it)

Migraine

Military lovers

Military whump

Mind control/Manipulation

Miscommunication

Missing

Missing Person

Mistaken Identity

Misunderstanding

Mono

Mopping a sweaty brow with a cool cloth

Mudslides

Muffled Scream

Mugging

Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Whumpees

Multiple Whumpers

Mumps

Muscular Atrophy

Mute

Muzzled

N

Nailed to a wall or floor

Nails digging into palms

Nail marks left in the whumpees skin

Natural Disasters

Nausea

Near-Death Experience

Necrosis

Neglect

Nerve damage

Nerve pain

Nightmares

No anesthesia

No goodbyes

Non-responsiveness

Nonhuman whumpee

Not allowed to die

Not Realizing They’re Injured

Nowhere else to go

Noxious (gas/fumes)

Numb

Numbness/Paralysis

O

Obsession (with finishing the mission, the whumper obsessed with the whumpee etc)

Open Fracture

Orthostatic hypotension (low blood pressure when standing)

Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bone disease)

Outnumbered

Overdose

Overworked

Oxygen Deprivation

Oxygen Mask

P

Packing a wound

Panic attacks

Paralysis (this could be temporary or permanent)

Paranoia

Parent caring for sick child

Parkinson's

Passing out from pain

Passing out in arms

Permanent injuries that affect them long term

Phantom pain

Phobias (could lead to character stumbling and hurting themselves in an attempt to escape their fear)

Photographs/Polaroids ( Especially if they're of the kidnapped whumpee)

Physical Therapy

Piercing ripped out

Pinched nerve

Pinned Down/To The Wall

Plague

PMS

Pneumonia

Pneumothorax

Poisoning

Polio

Possession/possession recovery

Post-exertional malaise

Post-ictal confusion/any other symptoms (after a seizure)

POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome)

Power Fatigue

Praise (especially if it's from the whumper)

Pregnancy (morning sickness, self-conscious, hot flushes, tired and sleepy, general malaise, swollen feet, weird cravings...)

Presumed dead

Prisoner Exchange

Protecting friend from the whumpees own team (bonus points if doing it while injured)

Psychological Torture

Psychological Whump

Psychosis

PTSD

Pulled Muscles

Puncture Wounds

Q

Q-Fever

TAG LIST: Thank you very much to the following people for submitting ideas! (I apologise if some tags did not work, I'm not sure why tumblrs not letting me tag you!)

@I-eat-worlds | @greygullhaven | @letsgowhump | @cyberwhumper @firapolemos05 | @originaldeerhottub | @whumpilicious | @drawing-dinos82 | @carenrose | @stellarinuscronicles | @gottheseasonalblues | @marvelflame2010 | @sowhumpful | @avamcu | @courtneygacha | @lordofthewhumps | @autismmydearwatson | @kuddelmuddell | @the-most-handsome-ginger | @whirls-and-swirls | @painsandconfusion

[nipuni]

14 and not 14 😌

[cowardlykrow]

Stop light shenanigans

Extra:

[wigglebox]

Destiel Pride - Day 11; Truth

[dunmeshistash]

Okay I think I'm ready to write the second part of this post about Milsiril

To make it easier for me I'll just divide this into her relationship with Kabru, Mithrun and Helki (her ex-canary prisoner teammate)

First about Kabru

This is an extra from the daydream hour 5. The caption says "Something like this might as well have happened" so its probably not canon but could be. I honestly think his reaction to Milsiril visiting and being overbearing says a lot about the type of relantionship they have. This is the fakest bitch in the whole of dungeon meshi, he never says what he trully thinks unless there's an advantage to doing so, he's a people pleaser that does and says anything to make people like/trust him. And yet he immediatly converts into "Mooooooom you're embarassing meeeeee" when he sees it's Milsiril.

This translation used "Mom" but as I understand the original he uses the more formal version so I think it would be closer to "Mother" but still he acknowleges her as his Mother, and he acts like her kid in every interaction we see between them.

I really don't understand where the idea that he learned to be fake from being "forced" to be her adoptive son comes from.

(Continuing under a cut)

The other interaction we see between them is the Kabru extra from the Adventurer's Bible

Kabru comes to her with a deep fear he clearly has had even before she adopted him, he trusted her with this fear and she did not disappoint him, she comforted him and then gave him the information he needed to believe what she was saying

I'd also like to point out in no moment she discouraged him from calling his his bio-mom "Mom". He also says she taught her children everything they asked

I doubt this would only be true for him, it also mirrors something she said in the manga

"You can go ahead and learn all you want about something else." I believe it when Kabru says she made every effort to answer her children's questions. I think this is also the way she expresses the love she has for them. Plus I love the thought bubble with Kabru mirroring what he learned from her. I also love this daydream hour, she sacrifices her own comfort to do something for Kabru.

Milsiril isn't a perfect mother tho, besides the fact she is overprotective she comes from a very different culture from her children. I like to call her Kabru's white mom cause I think that would be the real world equivalent. This extra is the one I think the most about showing this context perfectly

Kabru wants to share Utaya sweets but looks at his mom looking gloomy/rejected so he talks about fruitcake instead. This very rude for Milsiril to do since she's kinda trying to overwrite his actual cultural background, but I think its done more as a "I want you to like the things I like" rather than something nefarious, and once again Kabru doesn't hide at all his distaste for it, he does the bare minimum to please his mom since she's being dramatic but he doesn't lie to her, he shows how displeased he is about fruitcake, something he refuses to do when eating the harpy omelette that is way worse, because he must make a good impression for Laios. Kabru is honest with his overbearing white mom once again.

Now a little about Rin, from Kabru's context, this is her extra in the Adventurer's Bible

(look at Helki he's such a gremlin i love him) anyway, Rin has a trauma about elves, they really mistreated her so she hates them, but when they notice she isn't thriving they go to Milsiril for help (Helki specifically I'll talk more about him next). I think this indicates she really has a better understanding of short lived kids, her kids are thriving differently from the ones the other elves try to care for. I'd also like to remember she lives secluded from other elves so while Kabru probably had lots of interactions with elves during his life, most of it was probably spent with Milsiril and her other adoptive kids. She also asks Kabru if he would do this to help Rin, he isn't being forced or anything, I also think it's good that Milsiril knows she cant take in any more kids, this to me shows she's worried about the quality of life her kids have. That is all to say, Rin is the one with elf trauma, not Kabru, because Kabru had Milsiril to shelter him from them.

Helki

This will be short and sweet since there's barely anything about Helki, he's her prisioner companion from her time in the canaries, but he was pardoned after Utaya, it says so in the Canarie's Structure page in the new adventurer's guide but I cant really find it translated again... so here's google's machine translation (I remember it saying "Retired and pardoned as a reward after Utaya", something like that)

so officially he isn't a prisoner anymore, but I think he still works as a canary, even so he and Milsiril seem quite close, he is the one to go talk to her about Rin, He is there when she's training Kabru (both laughing at Kabru and then participating). I saw people theorizing she stays close to him because he is also someone who she can feel superior to, but I don't believe it at all, he's STILL in contact with her even after they have nothing to with each other, I think they really have a friendship, and there's no point where it seems like she feels like she's better than him or that he's less than her, people seem to interpret Milsiril and her relationships in the worst possible ways every time and I don't understand why.

This segways into Mithrun

I've also seen people assuming she only got close to Mithrun because now he needs her and has no power over her, once again with the theory that Milsiril surrounds herself with people she can feel superior to. But once again, Milsiril had a change of perspective about Mithrun after seeing his Dungeon

Rather than she feeling superior to him I think rather she realized he was just like her. (And I think she's friends with Helki for a similar reason, it's probably easier to see him as an equal than other nobles)

I've also seen this part used as proof of that. "He said that you've got suspicious ulterior motives and that I shouldn't listen to you" as if that's true, but this is past Mithrun, the one that didn't trust anyone and thought ill of all his teammates, ofc he doesn't believe someone would help him without an ulterior motive. This doesn't prove much about her real motivations.

Also before she showed up, Mithrun was being cared for by servants hired by his brother, he isn't someone helpless she has power over, he is still a member of an important Noble family that has a caring brother providing for him, he can do without Milsiril, he had done without her for 20 years before Utaya happened and she quit the Canaries.

This is all to say I think Milsiril is just a white(elf) adoptive mom doing her best, I don't see much of anything nefarious about her or her motivations, she is flawed as all the dunmeshi characters are, she isn't a perfect mom, she isn't an evil mom, she's just a person.

Elves in general also see short lived species as "children" so I imagine this makes her "You'll always be my baby" attitude way worse, she really treats pre-teen/teen Kabru like he's a toddler sometimes. But she also respected him enough to go all out in training him. I think they're a family with everything that entails.

PS: I didn't get much into Interracial adoption since this is something that happens irl too and I don't know much about all the issues that entails, but in the end, in this case, it seems like a net positive for the kids she adopts considering all we see about how she raised Kabru.