#found that one compilation of him speaking english and those were my three favorites

[smallphoenix13]

i love when käärijä represses finland with his two hour shits 🥰

[ericsonclan]

A Rather Slimy Present

Summary: Clementine isn't sure if she'll ever see that strange boy again when all of the sudden he reappears.

Word Count: 1000+

Read on AO3:

After the bizarre encounter Clementine and Prisha had experienced the other day, the pair went into their second day at Fenrell Cove not knowing exactly what to expect. Would the mysterious, strangely silent swimmers be back for another visit or were they gone for good? With no way to know, both girls set about continuing their research, Clementine with her trusty notebook and Prisha with her older backup camera since her favorite camera that had fallen into the water yesterday was disassembled and still drying on the boat in hopes that it could be saved.

Returning to the point where they had run into the strange pair of swimmers the day before, Clementine surveyed the water in hopes of seeing the same pale green leaf that had drawn her attention the first day. No, not a leaf, it must be attached to some sort of animal. Whatever animal that was, it and its camouflage had moved on to calmer waters since Clementine could not find the bit of faux foliage anywhere. Setting aside that endeavor for now, Clementine instead circled round the shoreline to another section of the cove to investigate further and perhaps to move out of earshot of Prisha’s constant grumbling over the shoddy quality of her current equipment and her threats should she ever come across those two nincompoops again.

Passing a small clump of bushes she had only fleetingly explored the other day, Clementine headed to an isolated section of the cove, one banked by a cave wall that joined with it to form a sort of cozy grotto directly by the shoreline. Taking a seat in the soft sand just inches from the water, Clementine began compiling notes about what she observed around her. Though crystal clear, the surface of the water kept hidden whatever species dwelt beneath its currents. It must be that there was a sudden drop off here instead of the usual shallows that would lead into further depths. Perhaps this would be a good entry point for her and Prisha in the scuba portion of their investigation.

Jotting this down, Clementine’s focus turned skyward. The portion of the cove she was currently in was also still within the cave. The setup somewhat reminded Clementine of how the inside of Skull Island looked in the old Peter Pan film: there was the enclosed intimacy of the cave walls but the amount of light let in through the immense entrance meant that nothing about this portion of the cove felt cold or dreary. It was a pleasant, secluded place. Perhaps that supported some of the theories she and Prisha had read about Fenrell Cove, that it at one time was the site of religious rituals for islanders from distant shores that were now long gone.

Or were they? Was it possible that the strange boy and girl they had encountered might in fact be familiar with the cove or even residents? Could that explain their total bewilderment with the English language? No, that was crazy. It was like Prisha had said (again and again in her impassioned rant last night) – they must have been tourists on an ocean cruise who had swum out and found the cove by happenstance, nothing more.

A disturbance in the water suddenly drew Clementine’s attention to its surface. Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw what had caused it. There before her was the same boy from yesterday, smiling brightly at her. His dreads dripped droplets onto the surface of the water as he drew nearer, his eyes locked with hers. Setting aside her notebook, Clementine moved closer to speak with him. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again,”

He had no reaction to her words, simply staring steadily at her, his eyes large and bright with interest.

“That was pretty shitty what happened to my friend because of you,” Clementine attempted again. “You pretty much wrecked her best camera. I think you owe her an apology,”

Still no response. The young man was as silent as ever, though his focus had shifted from her face to her legs which were tucked beside Clementine as she sat on the sand. Clementine glanced at her legs. There was nothing weird about what she was wearing unless cargo pants were considered an unforgivable fashion faux pax. Was he actually looking at her notebook behind her? Clementine moved to grab it but lifting it up in the air to share with him did nothing to draw his focus away. Her legs did look pretty scratched up. Perhaps that was it?

Clementine ran a finger along a particularly lengthy scratch. “They got sort of banged up yesterday. Some of it’s from when I lunged forward to save Prisha, but the rocks around here are pretty fucking slippery so I fell down a lot more after that. Some of these are permanent too, just left over from other expeditions. Like this one-” Clementine paused, looking over at the boy again. He was listening to every word she said with rapt attention, but it was clear none of it was getting through to him. “You don’t know English?”

A few small squeaks came out of his mouth. He looked at Clementine expectantly. Was that a… language? He did seem to be trying to communicate.

Unsure what else to do, Clementine squeaked back a couple times.

The young man’s nose wrinkled in confusion. Whatever that sound she had made was, it was apparently nonsense. Suddenly he dove down, disappearing deep below the water. Clementine leaned over to try to spot him but couldn’t see anything. Had she offended him somehow? She truly hoped not. Clementine continued to wait, watching the surface of the water for any sign of movement. Nothing. How long was he going to stay under there? It had already been about a minute, which Clementine was ashamed to admit was her limit.

She hadn’t been able to spot him or the girl emerging from the water either. Did that mean they’d stayed underwater till she and Prisha had walked away? Intrigued, Clementine started up the timer on her wristwatch. Either he’d emerge within the next few minutes somewhere within eyesight or there were secret tunnels within the cave’s waters that allowed him to disappear and surface elsewhere.

Three minutes passed. Then five. Then ten. Clementine had been watching the shoreline the entire time. Either he was the fastest swimmer ever and had crossed the length of the cave to reach the exterior of the cove without her seeing or Clementine’s underwater tunnel theory was correct. Either way, he seemed long gone for the day. Letting out a small sigh, Clementine picked up her notebook to return to her work. Then a bright chirp came from in front of her. Glancing back up, Clementine felt her jaw go slack in shock. “What the-”

The mystery boy was before her once more but this time instead of the slippery minnow that had fallen from his mouth the first time they met there was a full-sized fish wriggling within his toothy grasp. Letting out another short trill, the boy leaned forward and spat the fish out upon the shore, smiling at her proudly.

“What the fuck,” Clementine whispered in bewilderment. “Did-did you catch that? With your teeth?”

Seeming to pick up on her general gestures between him and the fish, the young man nodded, his chest swelling as he grinned with self-satisfaction. When he caught Clementine staring though, he suddenly grew self-conscious and looked away in embarrassment.

Clementine looked back over to the fish, still flopping on shore with desperate vigor. This wasn’t the sort of puny guppy you would catch on your first fishing trip and take photos with as you looked goofy in your bucket hat. This was the sort of fish you would brag about as the one that got away. And this strange young man had caught it… with his teeth.

The cruise ship passenger theory was completely out the window. But did that mean that Clementine’s native islander theory was their next best guess? This young man seemed completely unaware of the meaning of anything in English and was an incredibly proficient swimmer who seemed to know the ins and outs of this cove like the back of his hand. Would it be so crazy to think that the islanders that had been spoken of in ancient records hadn’t been wiped out but instead were merely forgotten by the rest of the world and continued with their lives as always?

Clementine gazed at the young man with intense curiosity. He met her eyes shyly, drifting closer to her. The freckles smattered across his chest and shoulders stood out upon his skin as it shone in the morning light. He was so close and just as curious of Clementine as she was of him. Trying to communicate, Clementine raised a hand and pressed it to her heart. “Thank you. I really appreciate the gift,”

The boy’s eyes brightened in joy as he recognized her thankfulness. Letting out a series of happy, short barks, he twirled round in the water again and again, enraptured by joy.

All of a sudden a rustling sound drew both of their attentions to the bush. The boy’s eyes widened in fright before he dove for cover under the water, disappearing once more into its deceptively clear depths.

“No, wait!” Clementine cried, but it was no use. He was already gone, and Clementine had a feeling that this time he wouldn’t return in just a matter of minutes.

Prisha emerged from the bushes, camera raised expectantly. Her expression fell when she saw Clementine’s face. “I scared it off, didn’t I? I was heading over this way and heard some sort of animal cry that sounded almost like a bottlenose dolphin. I tried to approach quietly enough to not arouse alarm, but it’s clear I was unsuccessful,”

Clementine shook her head. “It wasn’t an animal. It was him. The same boy we saw yesterday?”

“What?” Prisha’s brows knit together as she frowned. “I was sure he and that sour-faced companion of his would have been long gone by now. A cruise never stays in one place for long,”

“That’s the thing.  I don’t think they’re with a cruise. Look what he brought me today. He caught this in his mouth,” Clementine gestured to the large fish now dead at her feet.

“In his mouth?! Surely you can��t be serious,”

“Look!” Clementine pointed to a series of indentations upon the scales. “See that? Those are teeth marks!”

“My stars…” Prisha leaned over the fish, gaping at it in bemusement. “What sort of manner of man would do such a thing?”

“Prisha,” Clementine’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper as she locked eyes with her friend. “I don’t think this island is uninhabited after all,”

[kimchi-noodles]

[Interview] Meychan on his second solo album, “daimeywaku”

”A ‘Total Nuisance’ apearing once in a lifetime, Meychan

Original article from natalie.mu Translation by noodle

Meychan released his newest album entitled “daimeywaku (‘Total Nuisance’ in English),” composed of all original songs.

Meychan, who has performed in large scale events such as “XYZ TOUR,” “Hikikomori-tachi Demo Fes ga Shitai!,” and more, and is also a member of the Youtuber unit “Niku Chomoranma,” has already gained fame with this wide range of activities. This second solo album from him contains songs that showcases his hobbies and preferences, including songs written by Meychan himself, a collaboration song with BRADIO entitled “Horebo Revolution” that materialized from an offer, as well as original songs from vocalo-P’s that Meychan himself had handpicked. In this exclusive, we look into the new generation utaite Meychan’s charm, unravelling how he became a vocalist, his thoughts on his songs, and his stance about his content.

(Full interview under the cut!)

Started singing after failing entrance exams

──How did Meychan decide to start a career in music?

I started singing under the name “Meychan” as a hobby when I was a 3rd year in middle school, but I didn’t start because I was aiming for something big. I had failed my high school entrance exams then, and when I went home I recorded a cover for no reason. After that, my mother entered my room screaming. That was really intense (laughs). She was like, “My son is singing with a loud voice after failing his entrance exams!” (laughs).

──After that, you continued uploading “utattemita” videos during your high school and college days, right?

That’s right. I was uploading songs during high school, but honestly I still wasn’t serious about it then. I guess I was only doing it for self-satisfaction. I started to change when I was in college, when I gained more people who listen to me. I was able to do more things ever since I became a college student, so I also tried to independently organize my own oneman live show. For the first time, I got the chance to earn money by singing, so I think I started becoming more serious about my own singing at the time.

──This is the second time you released a solo album with “daimeywaku” (‘Total Nuisance’ in English). Your first solo album (“Meychan no Atama no Naka wa Daitai Konna Kanji Desu,” ‘Meychan’s Thoughts Sound Roughly Like This’ in English) would be around 3 years ago, but has Meychan’s surroundings undergone huge changes within those 3 years?

Let’s see... I became a Youtuber, and my solo live shows have become more frequent…… It’s only obvious that so much has changed in 3 years, and the way I think about my activities have also changed. My thoughts on being an utaite have sprouted from something I did as an extension of my hobbies, to something that lets me face music as a job. Three years ago, my first album was still an extension of my hobbies, but a huge part of it was about me enjoying being an utaite, so because I enjoyed being an utaite, I was thankfully offered a chance to make a CD. I’ve never made a CD before that, so I only gathered songs that I liked, and eventually completed the album called “Meychan no Atama no Naka wa Daitai Konna Kanji Desu.” 

──Was there a trigger behind you changing your mind about your activities?

There were a lot of factors leading up to it, but one of the biggest factors was probably getting to join “XYZ TOUR.” I’ve been in a few compilation live shows before then, but the consciousness of the performers in XYZ TOUR are way different. The commitment to the lights and sound is also not a joke. I realized “Ah, so there are people who make up a single event while being fixated on such things,” so I’ve come to make up my mind that I also want to be able to reach that level.

An explosive power behind negative feelings

──The biggest difference between the this and the previous album is that you also recorded songs that you yourself wrote for this album, right? Have you already written your own songs before this?

I was interested in writing songs, and I originally had a guitar. But when I decided to actually write songs, I also started learning the piano to polish my musical sense, and started studying about chord progressions. At the same time I also thought about writing lyrics, so in three years, I scribbled down notes about my thoughts on a notepad. The first song I finished was “Victor.”

(Link: VICTOR)

──You uploaded the song “Victor” in April last year, right? How was the feedback upon uploading your own song?

I felt really uneasy before uploading it, you know. I only ever uploaded covers until then, so I only released songs that listeners already know about. But releasing my own song…… this is something trivial, but that means I’ll have everyone listen to something they haven’t even listened to before, right? I was uncertain whether they’ll be able to accept it properly, so I was really nervous upon its release. But if I was going to choose a profession to sing as an artist, I felt that it’s extremely important for me to have everyone understand what I think using songs. That’s why I didn’t have any reservations at all about releasing my own song.

──Were you already thinking about the album when you produced Victor?

I already decided that I would be making an album, but I haven’t drawn out a concrete plan for the contents of the album yet. I got a suggestion saying “All of the songs would be written by Meychan,” but I responded with “No, that’s definitely impossible.” But when I finished the song “Victor,” I felt like I started seeing that kind of album I wanted to make.

──What kind of vision did you have then?

First, when I tried writing one song, I already knew that making an album only with my own songs would be difficult (laughs). But I still wanted to express myself properly with the album, so I thought I should put in everything that I liked and wanted to work on. In its roots, it doesn’t differ much from my previous album, but the things that I can do and want to do have also changed in three years, so even with the same theme, I’m certain that the contents of this album are still different.

──Reading the lyrics of the songs you wrote, I felt that there was a gap between them and Meychan’s public image. Meychan has a strong image of brightness and cheerfulness, but it was as if there was something dark hiding in your lyrics.

Ah, I see. I guess there were several dark parts in the lyrics (laughs). I think I’m still that cheerful being that everyone thinks I am. Whenever I express myself, it’d be easy to produce an output from happy feelings. Like if when a friend gets drunk and enjoys himself, he’d be able to express himself without hiding his feelings. But negative emotions like hate or hidden ill feelings are things that I feel are still stored inside me. Rather than happy emotions, I think that those negative feelings stored inside have a stronger explosive power. In order to get to know me as a human being, I felt that I needed to express those powerful parts within me.

──That means that a different face from what Meychan uses in live shows or streams is in this song, doesn’t it.

Honestly speaking, showing these hidden emotions is embarrassing. There may be people who’d say that they didn’t understand what I’m saying even if they read the lyrics. But I think it still means something to at least read them to try to understand them, and since I chose to work on expressing myself through songs and words, getting others to know me as a human being is extremely important to me. I can’t just keep on saying that it’s embarrassing, I guess.

A “Total Nuisance” that exceeds all genres

──The 3 songs that Meychan wrote, which are “Victor,” “Unusual,” and “Yomaigoto” are all different, and are rich in variety. When I listened to “Victor,” I thought that maybe Meychan’s musical roots were founded in guitar rock, but I suppose it’s not just that.

While I do like guitar rock, I’m actually the type who listens to anything. For example, the song “10-9,” which was written by K.F.J., was released using Maroon 5 as a reference. Recently I’ve been into Ulfuls, and Caravan Palace if you’ll ask about Western music…… I also love funky music, just like BRADIO-san who has also taken care of me in this album.

I gave them a desperate attack, you know. I didn’t expect them to give me the OK.

──Why did you think of giving BRADIO-san a collaboration offer?

This is only my impression, but I think that songs with vague meanings that let listeners give their own interpretations have been popular lately. But BRADIO-san sings songs that are straightforward. That was something I couldn’t do, since it was so cool. I was very much attracted to it.

──What sort of order did you decide on for the collab?

I love the songs from BRADIO-san that have self-repeating riffs like “Koshi Furu Yoru wa Kimi no Sei” or “Golden Liar.” I put together my favorite songs in that pattern and sent them a message with them saying, “I would like to do a song that will help listeners enjoy themselves.”

──And you were also able to perform with BRADIO-san on stage.

I couldn’t make sense of it anymore. The people I used to listen to using earphones are suddenly standing next to me, and are even singing with me while we look at each other. It was so unreal, that I thought that it was all a dream until now. I really did not expect to be able to perform with them in a live show, and I think I might have been a “total nuisance” to BRADIO-san in a lot of ways (laughs).

Speechless about “Number Nine”

──Aside from your own songs and a collaborative song, the album also includes original songs provided by vocalo-P’s such as Tsumiki-san, buzzG-san, Hachiya Nanashi-san, Hayashikei-san, and more. Was it Meychan who chose all of them?

That’s right. I had the honor to choose my favorite composers, and give them offers.

──I mentioned earlier that the lyrics that Meychan writes are dark, but even if you read the lyrics of the songs written by these composers, there are still little songs that show a brighter side.

Now that you mention it, you may be right. Even if they sound cheerful, you can say that the lyrics also hide shadows behind them…...

──Do you usually interact with these composers?

Actually, not much. Of course, I’m acquainted with some of them, but it’s not as if I have connections with several producers, too. This time, the people I asked were people that I usually listen to because I like their music.

──So that you’re saying that these composers wrote these songs while properly looking at your nature as an artist from your songs.

Professionals really are amazing (laughs). When the names of the composers I asked came out, I already had an image of what all of the songs in the tracklist would be like, so I gave them the order expressing how I imagine the songs to be, but I didn’t say much about the lyrics so it must have been a surprise.

──Which of the songs (from the vocalo-Ps) left an impression on you?

Obviously I like all of them, but the one that I thought was amazing was Tsumiki-san’s “Number Nine.” When I first received the song I didn’t even say anything. I didn’t say something like “Please do something like this”; rather, I immediately told him “This will do, thank you!”

“XYZ” is home

──The DISC 2 of the XYZP Edition of the album includes a collaboration song with XYZ TOUR members. You’ve been performing with them several times in live shows, but this is the first time you’ve recorded a collaboration song with them, right?

That’s right. We’ve sung together lots of times in live shows, but recording a song with them felt pretty refreshing. It’s different from usual and here we get to face the song objectively, so I discovered various things. Things like vocal compatibility, or where to put aside someone’s voice, where to add them. I learned a lot, and I think that this will help out with live shows as well. 

──What do you think about your collaboration partners, which are Gero-san, luz-san, Senra-san, and Araki-san?

They’re all my senpais. Gero-san was someone I really admire. luz-san is a senpai who is also my benefactor, always calling me in for XYZ TOUR, while Senra-san and Araki-san are senpais who I often drink with in private. Rather than calling them senpais, they might be more like my drinking buddies (laughs).

──After joining XYZ TOUR for the first time in 2017, Meychan has been joining the tour every year, but how much has the tour affected your activities?

It’s become something I couldn’t wait for, like a kid who couldn’t wait for Christmas. Whenever an XYZ season approaches, I would get all giddy about it. I’ve been doing various activities, but for me, this is the only other place where I can feel like I’m “home.”

──“Hikikomori-tachi demo Fes ga Shitai! ~World Domination @ MetLife Dome,” which was held in June last year, also had Meychan as a secret guest performer, surprising the audience.

Various senpais got to hook me up for the event, so it was a huge honor. People have started paying attention to internet artists, but not everyone from the newer generation utaites get to be noticed. I hope I can be someone who could serve as a bridge between those two groups, in a good way.

──What do you think was the reason your senpais invited you to perform with your voice at such a large-scale event, out of all the new generation vocalists?

That’s a difficult question. I wouldn’t know the reason why they would take me in unless I ask them myself, but I feel like it’s because I’ve worked hard to continue being an utaite that I’ve also gained listeners. “Utaites” originally used to refer to people who upload “utattemita” videos. But recently, there aren’t a lot of people who upload “utattemita” videos anymore. That’s because of certain circumstances like the increase of people uploading original songs, but still I do what I have to do to keep being an “utaite.”

“Utaite Meychan,” now also “NikuChomo Meychan”

──I would also like to hear about the Youtuber unit you’re in, Niku Chomoranma. Your activities in Niku Chomoranma have also become part of your orbit, but there are also people who discover your music because of your activities as a Youtuber, right?

That’s right. If anything there are now more people who’d call me out on the street with “NikuChomo Meychan” instead of “Utaite Meychan.”

──Excluding your Youtuber activities though, you’ve also revealed your face at an earlier stage of your career.

If I don’t show my face, everyone would try to imagine what I look like. They probably wouldn’t help but imagine “He’s definitely a hottie!” or something. That’s why I thought of lowering that hurdle and revealed my face at a fairly early stage of my career. I think it wasn’t awkward for people to see me become a Youtuber thanks to me showing my face, so I want to praise myself from that time for making that decision (laughs).

Being a nuisance more than he expected

──Since you’re releasing the album “daimeywaku” now that your career is on a roll, what kind of album did this become for Meychan?

I think it’s become an album that “I just did.” I freely wrote down my own thoughts, and asked composers for songs that I wanted them to write. I also had the honor to have people accept my collaboration offer when they probably wouldn’t do it in the past. There were a lot of people who got involved with me and I said a lot of stuff that I might have been a nuisance to them more than I expected (laughs). But of course, I’m happy that everyone worked with me, and I’m grateful.

──What was a moment when Meychan became a total nuisance during the production of the album?

Basically the fact that I woke up late and arrived at the recording pretty late. I deeply apologize for being a total nuisance during that time (bows down in apology to the staff).

[enkelimagnus]

Mary Magdalene’s Records

Magnus & Mary Magdalene / 1500 words / Rated G

Magnus Bane visits an old warlock friend of his who works in the Library of the Vatican.

Read on AO3. Written for Magnus Appreciation Month 2018

The burning edges of the portal closed back on themselves as Magnus stepped away from it. The library was plunged in darkness, wooden panels covering the walls, and somehow absorbing the sound of his boots on the floor.

The Vatican was a strange, solemn place. Every library was, really, solemn in a way. But the Vatican’s? It was even stranger a place. It was out of time. In recent years, computers had been added to the reading rooms, but the deepest parts of the library were still untouched by time. Magnus knew that if he was to spend too much time in between those rows of bookshelves, he would forget about time passing outside of it. He would come out surprised by the century he was in.

He wondered how she felt. Spending so long in the library, decades and centuries. He wondered how she was still working there. How she still existed. She was the oldest Downworlder he knew. Maybe she even was older than the Seelie Queen.

She was sitting at her usual seat, at her usual desk, in the middle of a pool of light. A relatively small, thin Middle-Eastern woman. Her dark hair was wrapped in a shawl, as always. She still looked as young as she had the last time he’d seen her. She never aged. Magnus should be used to her never-ending youth, because she was as much of a warlock as he was. Still, somehow, he expected that a two-thousand years old woman would look… somewhat older. Venerable. Wise-beyond-years.

“שלום, מרים הקדושה,” Magnus said softly when he reached the reading table, and looked at the woman sitting there.

“Hello, Magnus,” the woman replied, a wide smile appearing on her lips as she looked at him. “It has been long since anyone called me Holy Mary.”

Magnus took a seat across from her, crossing his legs. The woman looked at him. As Magnus unglamored his eyes, she did so as well. Cat eyes stared into snake eyes.

“Was I the last person to address you that way?”

“As always, dear. As always. Few know my real name. Or my real nature.” She hummed as she turned the page of a heavy volume she was reading.

Magnus didn’t know the language of it. He always felt a bit small and ignorant, next to her. The warlock in front of him knew more about many things than anyone else in the world. Especially religion, history, culture and languages.

“And you are the only one that speaks to me in Hebrew. I am glad I taught you this one.” She had a small smile. She traced a circle around a sentence on the book she was reading, and her fingers left behind a light golden trail. Magical bookmarks. Only people with the Sight could see it.

“I brought you cupcakes,” Magnus pointed out, snapping his fingers, and a box of cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery appeared in front of her. It had been the biggest fad, the last time he’d come to visit Mary Magdalene. She’d always loved cupcakes, but these were now her favorites.

Mary’s eyes immediately narrowed. “Dear, what do you want from me this time?”

Magnus watched as she reached for the box and took out one of the cupcakes. “Do I have to want anything from you? Can’t I just want to bring cupcakes to my favorite Catholic saint?”

“The last time you brought me cupcakes, I had to lie to Cardinal Jorge María Mejía about you taking out three very precious manuscripts,” she pointed out. “Manuscripts that you have yet to return.”

Magnus chuckled. “Do not worry, I am not here for books today.”

“Then why the bribe, Magnus?”

“It’s not a bribe. I just… wanted to come and catch up, and I thought you’d like these.” It was true. Magnus had just missed Mary Magdalene. She was the kind of person he loved being around. Brilliant, wise, knowledgeable. “You’re my Cupcake, after all.”

The woman chuckled, and bit into the vanilla cupcake she had in her hand. A part of Magnus was almost ecstatic at the sight. The oldest warlock in the world, Saint Mary Magdalene, eating a cupcake in the middle of the Vatican Library, in the middle of the night.

He’d told her he’d bring Ragnor to one of their reunions one of these days. Mary would have loved his dry wit. And the fact that he was aromantic and asexual, like her friend and mentor Jesus had been. It was impossible to do so now.

“Why the sour face, dear?” Mary reached to take his hand and squeezed it. Magnus felt the magic in her reach out to his. Her power was bigger, deeper than anything he could imagine. “Another lover breaking that fragile heart of yours? Who are they?”

“Actually… my love life is good. I'm just still mourning some dear friends that I lost.”

Mary sighed. “Warlocks? I will need you to tell me, my dear, so I can write it down in the book.”

“I know. It is why I came.”

Mary Magdalene was the main Warlock Archivist. She worked closely with the Spiral Labyrinth, compiling the lives and deaths of warlocks all around the globe. Most people would announce a warlock’s death with a fire message. Magnus always preferred coming to her.

The woman stood up. Her robes were large and floated around her. Sometimes, Magnus wondered if anything that touched her wasn’t immediately charged with magic. He himself could somehow feel the way her magic made his own grow.

She came back soon after with a heavy volume. “Tell me now, my child,” she whispered. “Tell me now, and tell me quick, and when they will be written, then the pain shall lessen.” A quill appeared in one of her hands.

“Ragnor Fell. Warlock mark, horns.” As he spoke, the pages of the book started turning on their own, until it found the record of Ragnor’s birth.

“Hmm. Regrettable.” Mary whispered. “Born 1345. A good year.”

“Died 2016. Shax demon attack.”

Mary nodded and wrote it down in the book. Magnus felt his heart stop beating for a moment. It was so final. The moment it was written in Mary Magdalene’s Records… it was the moment where it was really official. Ragnor Fell was dead.

“Next one, child,” she said softly.

Magnus took a deep breath. “Dorothea Rollins. Born 1608. Her warlock mark was serpent’s tongue. Died 2016. Unknown cause.”

“She must have been one of my step sisters,” Mary muttered when the book stopped again, and she wrote down the death. “Sad, sad fate.”

Magnus watched her write down the words in English. She had a beautiful, archaic script. He wondered how many of her step-siblings Mary had compiled in her books. He also wondered how many of his were written down.

“Anything else, dear?” Mary’s smile was soft.

“Elliot Nourse. Died 2016. Warlock mark, purple skin,” Magnus added again. Mary sighed deeply. Three warlocks in so little time. That was rare, and it was a testimony of very dangerous times.

“Some good news. Madzie Loss. Born 2010. Warlock mark, gills. She’s a wonderful healthy little girl being raised by my friend Catarina. We’re very happy,” Magnus said, and smiled. Amongst all the pain, there were some occasional moments of happiness.

Madzie had been one of those. Alec was another one.

Mary closed the records and pushed them aside, reaching for Magnus’ hand again. He let her take it.

“You’re smiling more than you have in many years, my friend, and yet you’ve been through so much pain. What is so good that makes you smile this way?”

“Love, Mary,” he replied softly, and let his thumb caress her skin. She smiled back.

“You and love. Always so ready to fall.”

“He’s a Shadowhunter,” Magnus muttered, and she stopped to look at him with a raised eyebrow. He pulled up his other hand, in a stopping motion, before she could speak. “He loves me too.”

“That’s good. Tell me everything.” She pulled away her hand and reached for cupcakes again.

She snapped her fingers and suddenly, there was a whole tea set in front of them. Magnus grinned and poured them some tea, starting to tell her everything about Alexander Lightwood.

Mary Magdalene nodded and smiled as he talked, watching her long-time friend speak so happily about his lover. There was something so incredibly young about Magnus Bane when he was in love. She’d seen him look and carry himself as if he were older than he was, older than she was. She’d never seen him this light, never, in all those years.

Warlocks needed this lightness. She found hers in her lovers, wonderful smart women and men that occasionally shared her life. She found hers in her books, and in age-old words. Words that were so ancient, too ancient for most people, but just right for her. She was too ancient for most people. She’d seen too much, and yet so little.

[chillihansol]

Unspoken Feelings ; W O O Z I

[ bestfriend!jihoon x reader ]

word count: 1429 genre: fluff a/n: alright, im leaving y’all with a long one bc i’ll be leaving tomorrow so im not sure when to post one of the reqs. and my exams are slowly approaching yikes  hehe im sorry in advance, especially for those who sent their reqs! but i promise to work on them so dont yall worry. i worked hard on this one so i hope y’all like it! oh and thank you anon for requesting!! shamelessly tagging @lunarjihoon haha let me hide under the rock after u read this ily

3: “I was wondering if you like me.” 10: “You’re my first, and hopefully my last.” 16: “I’ve never kissed anyone before.”

The cold air coming from the air conditioner touched my delicate skin, making me rest my nape on the edge of the soft chair. The very sweet and calming hum of the guy sitting across, added my sensation of being alive. His song was everything, even with the absence of its words. My eyelids started to feel heavy from the mix of different notes coming from his mouth. Then something came up to my mind. 

Recalling the day Jihoon and I first met, I didn’t really like him at all. 

It was our Senior Year in high school when I’d been elected as the president of English club. My position was of course very overwhelming, but the other members of the club had told me that I deserved it. So I believed them even when I doubted my abilities. Our club obviously didn’t happen to be the only club at school, there we have the Drama Club, Sports Club, Science Club, Math Club, and a lot more. But let’s not forget the club where Lee Jihoon belonged, the Music Club. Lee Jihoon, also known as the president of the said club, was assigned to participate for the upcoming Valentine’s Day. His members were very much worried by their assignment, for they knew that their dear president never had an experience with all the chocolates and flowers. Jihoon’s talent with producing music was very known and beyond the mind of every composer, but the task given to him was toughest stuff for him. Sure he’s fine with all the accompaniment, sounds, melodies, rhythms, everything but the lyrics. So, what did our dearest Music Club president do? He stole one of our poems, specifically my poem. 

I only found out what happened a week after he sneaked inside the Drama Club’s room. Everything was done. He already made a song using my poem. I didn’t let it slide so I barged inside their room to confront him. I was filled with anger that I could totally punch him in the face, but I didn’t. I didn’t, because he told me how much he loved my words. He told me that he felt the everything flowing on my speech. He told me that my works were nothing but a tangible masterpiece.

So that incident was unexpectedly what brought us together. And I’ve been liking him ever since that.

“Your poems are slowly turning into something else.” I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard him speak from the side.

I turned my head to look at him. He was holding a bunch of papers, staring at them as if it was a newly existed material.

‘What do you notice?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.

“It’s starting to get lame.“ He said, pursing his lips to prevent from laughing.

I playfully kicked his knees which were only a meter away from me.

“No, seriously. You can do better than this.” He removed his gaze from the paper then nodded at me.

“What’s changing?” My eyebrows knitted as I asked him.

He softly tossed the papers on my lap before intertwining his fingers together. “Your words. They’re very different.” He almost whispered. “I know you’ve written love poems before, but these are very new to me. They’re starting to get alive, as if you’re really writing them from your heart.”

I gulped, resting my right foot on top of his thigh. “I didn’t know that it’s very noticeable.” My lips pouted a little.

“Actually, I’ve been noticing your works for three months now. I didn’t tell you at first because I thought you were only trying something new. But as the months passed by, they were getting deeper.” He said. I looked down at the papers on my lap. “Are you dating someone?”

“WHAT? No, what are you talking about?” I exclaimed louder than expected. My hands flew over my mouth when Jihoon glared at me.

“You seem like you’re dating someone. Do you even read your works?”

“You know that I don’t put my emotions in my works.” It’s the truth. I write my poems from the things around me, never from what I feel. But when I told myself that I’m in love with the man sitting across me, I changed the tradition.

He looked at me sternly, observing the way I behaved. I caught a glimpse of his clenched jaw as I removed my foot from his thigh to put it back on the floor. “This one sucks.” He muttered, reaching for a paper that was resting on top of the keyboard and waved it in front of my face. “His lips?” He read the title. He reached for another paper from the stack of my poems, piled neatly at the corner. “His eyes? Goodness, I wonder what that guy looks like.” He sighed, shaking his head.

“He’s cute, very manly in my opinion.” I replied in retort, spinning my chair to avoid his gaze.

“Two seconds ago you said that you weren’t dating.”

“I’m not!" 

“Then who’s this guy?” 

His very unfamiliar tone made me turn my head to him. I flashed him a look of annoyance, and he raised an eyebrow at me. “That folder I gave you last week,” I said, pointing at the piece of cardboard resting beside his action figures. “It’s the compilation of my ‘lame’ works. If you read all of them and you’re smart enough, you’ll find out who.”

“I’ve read it.” He quickly replied. His simple response made me hitch a breath. “That’s why I was wondering if you like me.” 

I tried shaking off my nervousness and replied casually. “It’s too obvious that those are my confessions.” I turned my chair to face the other side of the room. 

The atmosphere filled with deafening silence, even our breaths were inaudible for we were both holding them in ourselves. My chair spun in one swift pull of Jihoon, making me face him. 

His eyes, full of the things that I love about him, locked with my empty ones as he leaned closer to my face. I took a glance on his lips, the part of his face that I wrote about. Then back to his eyes, my favorite of all. I wonder what the world looks like through his eyes.

“You could’ve told me sooner.” His was voice low, sending shivers down my spine. 

“You know I can’t. I’m not good with saying those things verbally.” I replied very timidly, which made him break into the smile that fulfills my day. 

“That’s why I stole your poem on that day.” He said. “Because you could tell everything through your written words. And I think that’s the most attractive thing someone can do.” 

I grabbed confidence from nowhere. “So you’re implying that you find me attractive?” I grinned at him.

“No.” He said. “You’re beyond attractive. You have no idea how many times I tried writing a song about you, and your face, and your words, and your lips, and everything about you. Just, you.”

“Why didn’t you finish one?” I asked softly.

“Because I’d like to write about your lips. You have no idea how much they're distracting me, even right now. I wanted to say how it feels like to have your lips against mine, but I couldn’t, because I’ve never kissed anyone before.” His expression changed into sadness and frustration, which broke my heart.

“Then do it.” I commanded him.

“What?” He flustered.

“Kiss me.” I said simply. “Then I could help you write the song.”

In a split second, his soft lips crashed onto mine. Everything that I wrote about his lips was not a lie. Everything, how it feels, its perfect shape, its fitness to my own lips, its taste, his taste, they’re all fulfilling my assumptions. 

Both of our shared kiss lingered right before we pulled away. I looked at him to see the same expression that I expected him to have, and it made my heart plunge into the sea of love. 

“Should we start the song?” I bit my lower lip, slightly savoring his taste.

“You’re not going to help me. Let my write my own experience.”

“That’s my first kiss.” I shrugged.

“You’re my first, and hopefully my last.” He stated seriously before turning away to grab a piece of paper and a pen.

[everyonethinksmynameiskayla]

Eggs & potatoes in a tropical paradise

Last week Brittany and I took a “ladies vacation” as my mom called it to Cabo Verde (until recently “Cape Verde” in English although it’s “Cap Vert” in French which is how I think of it since all the planning was done here). You could be forgiven for not knowing anything at all about Cabo Verde - it’s a tiny country made up of 9 also tiny islands off the coast of Senegal, just south of the Canary Islands. We visited three of the islands throughout the week, so I’ll divide this post up by island. I made a video compilation of all the little clips I took of the landscapes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVfdJw9M1Pw (set it to high resolution so you can see the images better). 

1. Santiago - Praia side

Santiago is the biggest island (it takes two hours to drive from top to bottom and about an hour to do the width) and we flew from Dakar to the capital, Praia, which is on the south side of the island. We took the Cabo Verde national airline, TACV, which I was expecting, given that the flight was about $100 round trip and was going to be an hour and TACV mostly does island hopping within Cabo Verde, a puddle jumper plane with a bring-your-own-folding-chair to sit on type deal but boy was I wrong. The plane was the size of a regional jet in the US and pretty new and they even served us all sandwiches, which blew me away. Granted, the sandwich was a hotdog bun with some cheese slices, but still, I was so impressed.

We arrived in Praia in the evening and quickly made friends with a French guy who was in our hostel and he explained that apparently Praia is dangerous at night because of gangs so we went the three of us to get some food at a restaurant near the hostel. I was blown away by how dead everything was. It was only 8 PM and there was almost no one outside and practically every shop was closed. It was the quietest city, even during the day, that I’ve ever been in. The next day as we were exploring the city, I was struck by how small it felt, especially coming from Dakar, and how orderly and calm it was. It almost felt European at times, and occassionaly even kind of reminded me of Goa in India (Portuguese colonization being what the two places have in common). We went and explored the ruins in the old city where the Portuguese had first arrived and walked up to the fort. We came across an old abandoned bar/restaurant, which was wild - it's state wasn’t so dissimilar from the ruins of the old cathedral which were several hundred years old, but it was probably only a couple of decades abandoned (I would imagine that has something to do with weather wear). You could see all the old spots where there used to be a bar and bar stools and the bathroom, but it was totally gutted.

^The abandoned bar/restaurant

We ate dinner at a jazz club/restaurant downtown which was great because Cabo Verdian music is lovely and we got to try homemade “punch” which was everywhere and was basically rum with honey and coconut and tamarind (there are other kinds too, every sort of flavor you could imagine) and it’s so good. However I was massively annoyed because we both ordered the “vegetarian” dish which I was expecting to be like a vegetable curry of some kind which sounded good and I asked if it came with rice (the waiter told us he spoke French and seemed to be telling the truth) and the waiter said yes but then it came out and it was a plate with like 10 slices of raw vegetables on it and nothing else and I was absolutely furious because it was like 8 dollars which is completely insane given that most dishes in restaurants were in the $3-5 range.

2. Sao Vicente

The next day we went back to the airport at 5 AM, which, armed with the unfortunate knowledge that Praia is not a good place to be hanging out in the dark, was not fun because we had to stand around on the empty street waiting for a cab with our phones and passports in our underwear like idiots because the hostel owner never showed up the previous evening so we couldn’t ask him to call us a cab for the next morning (not that this was a surprise, he had messaged me before we left Dakar asking if we wanted to be picked up at the airport, to which I said sure, and no one showed up to pick us up). We found another woman standing waiting for something and waited with her, luckily only for about ten minutes before a cab drove by. We felt bad leaving her on the street but with the language barrier (Cabo Verdians speak Creole and Portuguese) we couldn’t get across that she could come in our cab to wherever she was going also.

Just as in Praia, when we arrived in Mindelo, the cultural capital and the only big city on Sao Vicente, the cab that the hostel was allegedly sending us didn’t come. I was still stoked about the hostel because it’s also a cat shelter so there were cats everywhere.

^ Some of the cats at the hostel; they had their own special area and every time I came in they would go nuts and start chatting away and meowing like crazy and trying to climb up me

Mindelo is much bigger and more alive than Praia and also absolutely gorgeous. The city is nestled in a half-moon cove with a lovely marina on the most perfectly blue water that looked more like the light blue Gatorade than the ocean. We spent most of the day sitting in the floating cafe we found in the marina enjoying the view and the perfect weather and tranquility and then Brittany went to nap in the hostel and I walked up to the old fort that looked like it would have a good 360 view. When I got to the top I discovered that it was private property but that sign was accompanied by only about 5 feet of fence so I just walked right by it to do a quick round and take some pictures, since there was absolutely no one around. Those pictures are on the photo blog. Then we went to the store and bought a bunch of chips and snacks and went and sat on the beach. We swam but neither of us had bathing suits so we wore our PJs, which was bizarre because that meant wearing shorts in public which I would never dream of doing in Senegal, but in Cabo Verde most of the women were wearing mini skirts and short shorts most of the time.

^ From the floating café. We stole the label off our Cabo Verdian beer 

We had been trying to taste the national dish, catchupa, which appeared to be some sort of beans and rice deal, but every time we ordered it they came back and said “no catchupa” (we were mostly getting by with Brittany mumbling in Spanish and hoping for the best, but sometimes when that didn’t work I would try French and then we would speak to each other in English and people would just stare at us in utter confusion and back away slowly). So for dinner we went into this little local looking restaurant and ordered some catchupa and Brittany was trying to explain that she was a vegetarian, but apparently the Spanish mumbling didn’t work because we thought we were getting catchupa with egg and potato instead of with meat - we were sitting there waiting and laughing about how funny it would be if we ended up with just eggs and potatoes when she came out with two plates of french fries and a fried egg. She looked really confused when we both broke down laughing. Every time we ordered in a restaurant after that we were half expecting to be served a plate of eggs and fries.

3. Santo Antão

The next morning we took the ferry from Sao Vicente (the island Mindelo is on) to Santo Antão, which was easily one of my favorite parts of the trip - I already love boats, plus the islands are so close together and both so mountainous that at any point throughout the hour long ride you can see both (those views are in the video I mentioned at the top of this post). Plus the early morning light on the water and the cool breeze, and there was a cafe/bar thing on the boat so Brittany and I were even able to get some coffee. 

^ Coffee on the ferry 

When we arrived we grabbed an aluguer, amid some confusion. The aluguers aren’t taxis but they aren’t buses either, they’re generally big Toyota 15-seater vans (in fabulous condition, we couldn’t believe it - and the taxis in Praia were late model Toyota Corollas which for some reason was hilarious to us…not quite as much character as my beloved dilapidated Renaults with weird furry seat covers) and you pay your spot like in a bus but unlike a bus they don’t all have a set route. Some do, some have names of towns and/or cities painted on the side and they just go back and forth between those places but others just go where they decide they’re going to go that day and pick up people along the way. Anyway, we were jostled around a bit by the competing aluguer drivers but eventually got one to Paul, the city on the coast at the foot of the valley that we were planning to hike. It was a striking drive, the edges of the mountains of Santo Antão are baren and dotted with dramatic cliffs and drops into the ocean below, which was raging and wavy like I’ve never seen. But in Paul, it starts to get really green, palm trees start to pop up and I’ll get to it in a minute but once on the interior of the island its lush and green everywhere you look. Paul, or Vila das Pombas, I never figured out why some people called it one thing and some the other, is a tiny but nice little town on the water that stretches the coast before shooting up into the hills directly behind it. 

^ Vila das Pombas 

Our hotel was a few minutes up the hill and owned by a really friendly Italian guy who spoke no English or French but enough Spanish to sort of communicate with Brittany. Despite the language barrier he tried really hard to be helpful and answer our questions about the hiking etc. and his little hotel, with just two rooms, was absolutely adorable. Plus I was excited because he had a cat, one of the cutest most beautiful cats I’ve ever seen, who was super duper pregnant - it looked like she had swallowed a football. She would come sit outside our room and purr so loudly the floorboards would shake until I opened the door and then she would dart into the room, much to Brittany’s dismay.

We got a different kind of aluguer, kind of like a bush taxi here in Senegal, just a pickup with some benches in the back, up the mountain(s) about an 45 minutes (it probably would have taken twenty if we didn’t keep having to stop and reverse for 100 meters down the tiny narrow mountain road to accommodate the occasional car coming the other way, once we had to do it three times before we rounded a single bend).

^ In the aluguer 

The hills just kept getting more and more massive - I suppose in some circles a “massive hill” is known as a “mountain” - and steep and green and there were little villages here and there but mostly just lots of banana and sugar cane and what I think was maybe corn and of course palm trees. We hiked the rest of the way up (about 2 hours of basically walking straight up on this absurd winding path) to Cova Crater, which is nothing special but the view from up next to it is extraordinary, especially since you can look down over the hills you just crossed through and see the ocean where you started and all while you’re above the clouds. Saying that walking back down was harder than going up would probably be overstating it, but it was not easy. In most places it was so steep that you couldn’t help but run down it failing your arms around like an idiot, and as we got closer to the bottom the dirt got looser and looser and there weren’t rocks and roots anymore and we were sliding around almost breaking our ankles every five seconds. But we made it down, exhausted and sunburnt (I put on so much sunscreen, religiously reapplied, and still got burnt to a crisp). We found a pizza place in town and basically dragged ourselves inside but it was totally empty and smelled like weed and then the Italian guy who owned it (I’m not sure why there are so many Italians living in Cabo Verde) came out from the back and told us that they didn’t start making pizza for another two hours because island time so we went back to the hotel and laid prostate on our beds half conscious until it was time and then we sprinted back to the restaurant and seriously contemplated getting two pizzas each. The pizza was great (Italians) and the owner, who spoke only Italian and Portuguese (it’s amazing how far one romance language gets you with the other, I understood almost everything that was said in Spanish and Italian throughout the week but since Portuguese has a totally different sound to it the same did not really apply) was so nice and served us some homemade “punch” and also gave us free shots of some sort of Italian lemon-y liquor.

The next day was quite relaxed because we were both basically zombies. We went to the edge of the island and did a short hike along the coast to a small village built into the cliffs called Fontainhas and then drank some coffee by the water before getting the aluguer back to the port city to get the ferry back to Sao Vicente. This time I stood all the way on top the whole time and it was so windy that I couldn’t wear my hat and I was half convinced that my face itself was going to be blown off. It was so windy I was terrified to take pictures and videos because I was worried about the genuine possibility of the wind blowing my phone out of my hands, so I white-knuckled it whenever I took any pictures.

4. Santiago again - Tarrafal side

We flew back to Santiago and stayed in Praia just for the night since we arrived late and couldn’t keep traveling until the next day. So early the next morning we got an aluguer to Tarrafal, the biggest city (which is not saying much at all) on the far north of the island. When I say we got an aluguer, I really mean we found one going to Tarrafal and sat in it falling asleep for two hours while we waited for other passengers and these two guys used some weird blue filmy material to tint the windows of the van. The drive was about two hours through rolling baren hills and dramatic peaks and then about halfway there the hills grew into mountains and we reached a certain point where you could see Tarrafal on the coast below but unfortunately it was quite overcast so none of my photos from the drive came out. We had been planning to hike in the nearby national park but we were so beat that we ended up just wandering around the tiny deserted city, or town really, sitting on the beach and going to bed at like 8:30 PM. We finally got to try catchupa, after a great deal of confusion and negotiations regarding Brittany’s vegetarianism, and while eating it it was good but it was perhaps the heaviest thing I have ever eaten in my life, I can’t understand how Cabo Verdians eat it for breakfast every day. It literally felt like someone had opened my stomach, placed all of the catchupa into it and then closed it again, and then it sat there like that for 24 hours. For dinner we had a plate of plain rice and some mild cheese cubes because we were incapable of eating real food with the catchupa still in us and I think our waitress thought we were insane.

The next day when we felt like real humans again we finally went to the national park, and even though it was a bit overcast (which did not prevent me from getting sunburnt again) the hike was beautiful - I love green mountains but I almost like bare ones more, because the closest ones look sort of brown but then they fade to purple and then to blue and the clouds cast crazy shadows over them that you can clearly see since there are so few trees. We were just congratulating ourselves on how easy the hike had been, since we started already high up and basically just walked straight along the top of the mountain ridge, when we got to a sharp turn downhill and a sign introducing the new trial which included the qualifiers « Difficulty: Hard » and « Path quality: bad ». Both of those things turned out to be true. Mostly because the path was in many places about as wide as one of my feet and it was basically three hours straight downhill. When we finally reached the town at the bottom where we could allegedly get an aluguer back to Tarrafal, we were disappointed to discover that our excessively vocalized fantasies about going to a little boutique in the town and getting some chips or a Kit Kat bar (which were strangely ubiquitous even in small stores) and some cold water were not going to be realized as the tiny town/village that we ended up waiting an hour in had no stores and also for some indistinguishable reason smelled so bad I thought I was going to pass out while we waited. But eventually and aluguer passed and we hopped on - when we got back to Tarrafal we bought chips and Kit Kat bars and then got another aluguer back to Praia and got cheeseburgers (and a veggie burger) and ate way too many french fries before packing up our stuff in preparation to fly back to Dakar the next day.

[entergamingxp]

Tetsuya Nomura Reveals New Details on Final Fantasy VII Remake

March 4, 2020 6:50 PM EST

Tetsuya Nomura revealed new details on Final Fantasy VII Remake including its story changes, theme song, character designs, and battle system.

As we’re getting closer to the launch of Final Fantasy VII Remake, Square Enix finally unleashed the game’s demo on the PlayStation Store. Japanese outlets Famitsu and 4Gamer each published interviews with Tetsuya Nomura as well, revealing an Avalanche of brand new details. We most notably heard more about Cloud’s crossdressing event, the lack of characters from Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, and how the game went gold. Here are all the other interesting tidbits from the latest Final Fantasy VII Remake interviews with Tetsuya Nomura, translated below.

First are details on Hollow, Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s theme song:

Tetsuya Nomura: “Hollow uses a male lyricist and is rock-themed in order to reflect Cloud’s feelings. The song is supposed to evoke rain, and I wanted to avoid changes in the song’s image depending on the language, so we only recorded an English version. The lyrics were written by Nobuo Uematsu and Kazushige Nojima, who was really into it. When Nojima wrote the lyrics in Japanese, he titled the song “Empty Sky”, and when translating the lyrics, the official title became Hollow.”

Next on the list is the character design. Back in June 2019 during the E3 period, Tetsuya Nomura lengthily spoke about Tifa and Aerith’s designs in another interview we translated. Nomura now mentioned how the very first character redesigned for the Remake was Barret.

Tetsuya Nomura: “The amount of realism added to Barret’s design compared to his original design served as a guideline on how much realism to add for remaking the other characters’ designs. As for Red XIII, his original design surprisingly already looked quite realistic, so we simply recreated it with more details, and he didn’t change much. In the past though, he equipped a hair ornament as a weapon, but this time, we changed it to being his collar so it’s more visible. The three Turks members were redesigned by Roberto Ferrari. Since they all wear simple suits, we added more details to better express their personalities.”

Coming up next are new comments regarding the Japanese cast. Nomura explained how Red XIII had very few lines in Advent Children, so he was voiced by Masachika Ichimura making a special appearance. Ichimura is more of an actor than a seiyuu, and the only major character he voices is Pokemon‘s Mewtwo. Since Red XIII has many lines in the Remake, the development team decided to recast the role. Red XIII is now voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi, a veteran seiyuu known for many anime and game roles including Ranma.

Tetsuya Nomura: “Red XIII is a character who needs a voice who can handle a wide variety of tones, and I thought Kappei Yamaguchi was perfect for that, so we picked him.”

Nomura also spoke about Cloud and Tifa’s voices during the flashbacks of their childhood:

Tetsuya Nomura: “We had a lot of trouble finding someone who fitted Young Cloud’s voice. In the end, we decided on a child living in a rural area. They came to Tokyo with their parents to record. I’m happy we were so meticulous and patient with the casting because their voice was perfect. It matches the delicateness, cuteness, the husky feeling, and the shadowy voice Cloud had at that age. Tifa, voiced by Ayumi Ito, has a cute but husky-like voice, but we managed to find someone who fitted that for Young Tifa right away.”

Nomura also highly praised Masahiro Kobayashi, the actor who voices Barret:

Tetsuya Nomura: “Barret is someone so badass he decided to replace his lost arm with a weapon. The extreme way of voicing him that Masahiro Kobayashi did fits perfectly. He really got into the character, without the need for directions, and most of the lines were one takes. Barret is really charismatic and interesting in the Remake. I tend to like old guys characters like him, and he’s my favorite”.

Lastly, we have Cloud:

Tetsuya Nomura: “Cloud in Final Fantasy VII Remake is weird. There are many times when he tries to act cool but fails or acts awkwardly. He gets nervous where most people wouldn’t. This might surprise you, as the Cloud in Advent Children was cool. But that’s because it was post-FFVII Cloud, plus we were limited, so we focused on emphasizing his cool side. However, in the original game, Cloud had many comical or lame moments, and this is what we went for with the Remake. I asked Takahiro Sakurai, who voices Cloud, to reflect that in his acting. I hope you’ll enjoy it.”

We recently translated an interview with Takahiro Sakurai chatting about voicing Cloud in FF7R.

Next, Tetsuya Nomura spoke about the new characters found in Final Fantasy VII Remake. One of the new characters, Soldier Third Class Roche, was designed by Roberto Ferrari.

Tetsuya Nomura: “I didn’t give any particular instructions for Roche’s design, and Ferrari had already done the first version, so we only changed it a bit before finalizing it. His first design was a bit too sharp and serious-looking compared to his easygoing personality. There are many other new characters besides Roche, but they mostly appear in sidestories rather than in the main story.”

Next, Tetsuya Nomura spoke about Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s graphic style:

Tetsuya Nomura: “It’s close to a photorealistic style, but it’s also different. Many iconic elements of the original were in the deformed style, so the Remake uses “realisticness in the range of the original’s deformed style”. ”

We also have comments on the battle system of FFVIIR:

Tetsuya Nomura: “I already mentioned this in the past, but since development began, we redid the battle system many times. Real-time and ATB are inherently opposed, so fusing both necessitated a lot of trial and error. I can’t thank enough the staff who persevered and shaped the battle system into what it is now, overcoming this challenge and managing to find the right balance.”

Nomura also mentioned how they included many different battle situations and enemy patterns, including flying enemies and a 3D element. This way, controlling Cloud at all times isn’t the most efficient way do handle things, and it’ll make players experiment with the other characters. He also mentioned the Remake has a lot of mini-bosses to let us fully enjoy the battle system. He also spoke about how the battles are incredibly vivid, be it the various effects when using magic or all the battle dialogue:

Tetsuya Nomura: “We heavily focused on the game’s atmosphere and immersion during battles. Maybe we overdid it when it comes to dialogue during battles (laughs). Recording everything was pretty difficult. At peak period we had up to 9 recording sessions a week, dividing them between two or three different studios. It might be the game with the most voiced lines I’ve worked on. Overall, in over 20 years of game development, Final Fantasy VII Remake was probably the most grueling project I worked on (laughs)”

Having the characters speak so much during battles was an idea from Motomu Toriyama, the co-director of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

The overall reception at events and from the debug team was very positive, and Nomura is confident in the game. He pointed out how the Remake‘s objective is to both satisfy the old fans and make players who never experience the original get why it’s so great.  Next, Tetsuya Nomura shared details regarding the scale of Final Fantasy VII Remake, story changes, and new events:

Tetsuya Nomura: “I know many are worried since the Remake project is in multiple games, and the first game only depicts Midgar. Don’t worry. It’s a highly dense game, and it doesn’t end after a few hours like the Midgar part in the original. There are many new events in the main story. Like a scene where you end up visiting Jessie’s parents, eating dinner. Each member of Avalanche is much more detailed compared to the original game, with new events to boot. By the time players leave Midgar, I’m sure they’ll be satisfied.”

Some content also didn’t make it into the final game, and yet it’s still on 2 Blu-ray discs. Nomura explained the development team prioritized quality over quantity:

Tetsuya Nomura: “We made the sidequest content to be as big as the main story. At the beginning, the development team readied even more content, but we wouldn’t have been able to do everything without cutting corners, so we prioritized quality. We wouldn’t have been able to finish the game otherwise. Despite that, the game is quite big, there are many places you can visit, and you can even move around using vehicles at some points.”

We also heard about another iconic scene, the Shinra HQ building infiltration scene, and how its stairs climbing part was recreated in the Remake:

Tetsuya Nomura: “Each character climbs the stairs at a different speed, and the dialogues changes depending on what you do as well, so you should try and experiment.”

Lastly, here is Tetsuya Nomura’s message for the fans and everyone looking forward to Final Fantasy VII Remake:

Tetsuya Nomura: “The Remake will be releasing soon, but it’s not like it’s overwriting the original FFVII. The original game is the source of everything, and thanks to it, we were able to make a new, unique experience. Fans of the original game will have a different, new experience compared to when they played the original. And I hope those who discover everything with the Remake will enjoy it too. This is the first part of the Remake, but it’s still a full-fledged game, and you’ll be satisfied after playing it. Once you try out the game, you’ll definitely have a hard time putting it down. Please look forward to it.”

That’s all regarding Tetsuya Nomura’s comments on Final Fantasy VII Remake. It’s highly likely such lengthy Japanese interviews with actual new details won’t be happening until the game’s launch. Famitsu will definitely have a huge feature on the game the week of its release, so look forward to our future coverage as well.

You can check out the latest Final Fantasy VII Remake trailer, the opening cutscene, and the latest screenshots. Be sure to take a look at our gameplay preview, our other preview, and the results of the Final Fantasy series fan poll organized by NHK.

Final Fantasy VII Remake launches on PS4 on April 10. It was born through the efforts of a cosmopolitan team and is one of the most anticipated games in years. The game will be a PS4 exclusive until April 2021. If you enjoy our coverage, translations, and wish to support DuaShockers, you can do so by preordering FF7R on Amazon.

This post contains affiliate links where DualShockers gets a small commission on sales. Any and all support helps keep DualShockers as a standalone, independent platform for less-mainstream opinions and news coverage.

March 4, 2020 6:50 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/03/tetsuya-nomura-reveals-new-details-on-final-fantasy-vii-remake/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tetsuya-nomura-reveals-new-details-on-final-fantasy-vii-remake

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Wargame Wednesday: The Nafziger Collection

During my war gaming career Nafziger was always on the outskirts of my awareness. I never read his books but his name constantly popped up when reading gaming magazines and he could always be found as a reference or in the footnotes.  As my involvement in the hobby deepened into scenario design I began to seek out his work.  When digging around for an obscure campaign I serendipitously found a repository of OOBs compiled by Nafziger over the course of his career in publishing military history.

The discovery of what has to be thousands of OOB files was worth a WW post in its own right but I was fortunate enough to make contact with George Nafziger and he was gracious enough to submit to an interview.

Both Nafziger’s career and the sheer amount of his published content is amazing.  Visit his web based bookstore to gain an idea of the diversity of his work. I own two of his organizational booklets and can favorably compare them with Osprey House offerings.  Osprey is your go to for illustrations, maps and historical narrative but the organizational booklets are the go to resources for OOBs, especially, for example, if you are looking for the Bulgarian Order of Battle during WW2. Other works include translations of French military histories and a multitude of other topics but I’ll keep the intro short as we’ll cover a lot in the interview on the next page.

If the interview isn’t enough and you have a question to ask George in person make sure you attend one of the following 2019 events:

Fall In, Lancaster, PA, 9-11 November 2018; Cincy Con, Cincinnati, OH, March 2019; Cold Wars, Lancaster, PA, date TBD; Little Wars, Chicago, IL,  25-28 April; Historicon, Lancaster, PA, in July; Nashcon,  Nashville, 24-25 August.

Scott Cole: You have served in the Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer, worked as an internal auditor (both finance and production), a property manager and a quality control engineer, amongst other jobs. Did any of that influence or lead you into your parallel career as an author and publisher of military history?

George Nafziger: My interest in military history dates back to early childhood when my family moved to France for 2 years. That was a huge step toward my “career” as an author/publisher. Among other things, I learned to speak French. Anyway, while in Europe I visited numerous battlefields, castles, and other historical sites. For that matter, prior to that trip my father had taken us, while on vacation, to many Civil War battlefields, so perhaps my interest arose from his and his father’s interest in military history.

You need to realize that I was a child right after WWII and almost every adult male I met was a veteran of WWII or Korea. There were a lot of memoirs and other books being published at that time, there was little literature for young people, and TV was limited to 3 channels. So I read those military works.

That said, in 1974 I met Ray Johnson, and started playing “Frappe!” a set of Napoleonic miniatures rules, bought my own army, then armies, and started reading about Napoleon. I found the English literature very unsatisfactory, so I took a vacation to Europe and spent it visiting bookstores buying books on the Napoleonic Wars. By the time I also spoke German and Spanish to varying degrees.

The one-sided nature of English literature on those wars provoked me directly into writing my 1812 campaign study, and the rest is history.

  SC: David Hamilton-Williams’ Waterloo New Perspectives argues that one of the main influences for the modern understanding of the Battle of Waterloo is Captain William Siborne and his research conducted while building a topographical model of the battle field, all heavily influenced by interviews with British veterans while neglecting the role of minor Allies and, of course, the Prussians.

GN: When you get around to interviewing David remind him he owes me for the orders of battle he never paid for plus there are a few others I know still waiting for a check. Must have slipped his mind……as for his work on Waterloo, I never read it for several reasons, but beyond my personal issues with him, I believe there were also issues with his references in that book and, most importantly, I suffer from Waterloo ennui – utter boredom when it comes to that battle. You’ll notice that I stopped my writing of Napoleon’s campaigns with 1814.

One thing about published authors – Just because you find it in print doesn’t mean it’s correct. I found a book on Leipzig where the author gave an OB for Leipzig that had the 1st & 2nd Westphalian Hussars present at Leipzig, but both had deserted the French army in late August or early September 1813. This author simply assumed. He also listed Vandamme’s I Corps as still existing, but it was destroyed after the battle of Dresden at Teblitze

When I said that I found English literature on the Napoleonic wars unsatisfying, it was because English speakers are notoriously monoglots – reading only English and only repeat the mantra of “The English won the Napoleonic Wars because they were wonderful.” Let me ask you a rhetorical question: “How many English works go into any detail on Austrian, Russian, or Prussian actions on the battlefield?” I knew of very few.

Anyway, I’ve digressed. English reading authors cite only English sources and you get the same stuff over and over again. When I buy a book on the Napoleonic era I look at the bibliography. If 50% or more is English, I figure the non-English citations are purely filler to flesh out the bibliography and it is purely a rehash of the same old Anglo-myopic stuff.

As for Siborne, he was an Englishman whose natural pro-English biases were accentuated by his desire to get subscriptions for his model, so he amplified the actions of those rich nobles he was soliciting for money. That said, he provides valuable information concerning the British (which must be evaluated for overstatement) and scanty details on the French. As for the Allies, they weren’t making donations to his model project, so they got left out.

  SC: Do you have examples of common misconceptions amongst the English reading public?

GN: Yes, the idea that Wellington invented the two rank line. In fact, in the Dundas infantry regulation you will find it mandated WHEN the battalion did not have sufficient men to fill out the three rank formation. I did an analysis, which can be found in Imperial Bayonets, where the British Army in the peninsula was so under strength that it had no choice, but to be in two ranks as prescribed by the Dundas regulation.

  SC: Going back to your miniature gaming days, what was your favorite army to collect and paint?

GN: Oh my, I’ve painted most of the armies of the Napoleonic period, ancient Greeks, Macedonians, Romans, Persians, civil war ironclads, a thousand plus WWII tanks, vehicles, and artillery pieces, plus twice that in WWII infantry, all of which have been sold as I downsize or lost interest. I guess I liked WWII tanks and detailing them best.

  SC: Since you are a miniature enthusiast here’s a link I discovered from someone that has inherited Donald Featherstone’s (Peace Be Upon Him) miniature collection: https://ift.tt/2Qoh6qf

GN: I met Donald Featherstone a couple of times at HMGS East conventions. He was a wonderful guy. Apparently he was a tanker in the 8th Army, but I don’t remember much of a discussion about his wartime activities.

  SC: I have your Bulgarian and Romanian Order of Battle World War II booklets so I have a couple of questions on your OOBs. The Bulgarian and Romanian armies must have been difficult to research, especially for when searching for English language references. Roughly how long did it take to research then draft your OOB booklets?

GN: The US Archives has microfilm of the German documents captured at the end of WWII. One of them was intelligence on foreign armies. I bought that microfilm and set about translating. It really didn’t take very long, a few weeks at most after the microfilm arrived. I think I had a book or two on the Romanians.

You need to understand that I collected data that was interesting to me and when I got a critical mass I set to work on writing something up. It was very serendipitous finding things, so setting out to write a book and then starting to gather the information can prove a hopeless task without end. I broadly gathered data until I found I had enough on a subject and set to work. Now, however, with the internet and on-line libraries, I suppose one can simply decide to look for whatever is on-line and get that critical mass much more quickly.

  SC: I came across a stash of your OOB files at Alternatewars (I’ve given up trying to access them on the Army’s web page) and downloaded all the zip files. I can’t figure out your filing system. Take, for example, one of your 17th century OOB files: 625NXAA which is the file for The Royal Navy in the Reign of Charles I.

625 stands for the year 1625, easy enough.

Guessing N is for navy though X has me stumped and AA, unless one of the A’s stand for Anglo I can’t figure out.

Do you have a reference file for your filing system of OOBs?

GN: The three numbers were the year; the letters – “N” meant navy, “X” meant no date. If there were three letters and the first was A-L, A was January, L December, etc. The last two were simply random letters to allow different codes.

So, 625 – year; N – Navy; X – no date; fist digit A-L – January through December, and the last two digits are to establish a distinct filing number.

  SC: You were a professional wargamer playing OPFOR at the Battle Command Training Center in Fort Leavenworth. Could you describe the similarities and the differences between the war games employed in the Battle Command Training Program (BTCP) and any commercial wargames you have played?

GN: Dissimilarity – the Army actually knew something about war, where I have often found that wargamers frequently have no practical or personal experience in it. Though I was never in the Army, 25 years commissioned service in the Navy counts for something. In addition, I have experience in naval gunfire support off the coast of Vietnam. I also wear the combat action ribbon, for having been in combat, i.e. exchanging fire with the enemy. Similarities – The Generals frequently have ideas and facts can be an annoyance to those fixed ideas. By this I do not intend to sound like I’m a know it all and some of what I know is classified so I cannot discuss it, but let me relate one story. After the invasion of Iraq, I was writing scenarios for brigade level exercises. I wrote one where I had the terrorists seize a water works and release the chlorine gas. The “generals” threw my scenario out saying that the terrorists would never do that. Within a year the terrorists were putting cylinders of chlorine with their IEDs. I rest my case. There is one major difference between the BCTP games and any type of hobbyist wargame, and that is that the BCTP game had no “eye candy.” Visually it was very sterile. Commercial games have a necessity to make their games visually appealing.

  SC: For those unfamiliar with naval gunfire support (NGFS) please describe your two tours off of Vietnam.

GN:

We did purely NGFS as we had 3 5″/54s and 2 3″/50s. We were sent over in 1972 shortly after the NVA overran the DMZ. A month transit on both sides of the tour, and 5 months in the Far East. Mostly on I Corps just south of the DMZ. We fired 20,000 5″ rounds that tour. Also did operations in Freedom Train and Linebacker were we went north of the DMZ and operated off N. Vietnamese harbors doing more shore bombardment. NVA had no sense of humor and shot back. We also watched a mined-in CHICOM freighter off the mouth of the Red River for a few weeks. They would send small boats out the river mouth to the freighter and we would shoot ’em up as they ran loaded back to the river. The second tour, in 1973, was mostly steaming around and we didn’t see any action, as the war was winding down in peace negotiations. I never set foot ashore in Vietnam.

    SC: I know that many Marines and Army combat vets will scoff but life at sea was probably not a piece of cake, especially in wartime conditions. I remember during the march on Baghdad there was picture going around with grunts half buried in sand trying to catch some sleep in a foxhole while juxtaposed with it was a photoshop of Navy pilots relaxing with drinks in an inflatable pool on a carrier’s flight deck.

GN:

Of course, life was significantly more comfortable and safer at sea than somewhere in the jungle. I could write a book just on this subject but on station, we had a significant lack of sleep due to our regular watch rotation (3 watch sections, starting with the Midwatch at 0000. The messenger would wake you up about 2300 so you could get dressed and maybe eat some midrats (midnight rations). The watch lasted four hours, except for the 1600-1800 and the 1800-2000 watch sections, which broke the watch to allow you to eat dinner and to rotate the watches.

In a relaxed combat situation there were port and starboard watches, i.e. 2 sections, not 3. You were six on and six off, and still put in your 8 hour work day, so sleep was scarce and a long time on this cycle was very fatiguing. General Quarters had no watch sections, everyone was at their battle station as long as necessary, time and work be damned.

We had a series of radio nets and one of them was allocated to naval gunfire support (NGFS). A forward observer (FO), either on ground or in the air, would call a target in to us. As the JOOD my first task was to immediately begin determining our position using visual means. The CIC used its radar to do the same thing. (WE did not always agree where we were by a few hundred yards.) CIC and the JOOD then sent their estimation of our position to the Main Battery Plot, who punched the data into the fire control computer and the location of the target, as specified by the FO. Then they fired the guns when the OOD said it was OK.

Sometimes they’d give us a square mile and tell us to squeeze off 5-10 rounds of Harassment and Interdiction fire. We could get reports of secondary explosions, etc., but usually it was “Excellent area coverage” meaning we’d blown up some trees.

The mission done, we’d return to boring holes in the water as we steamed in circles to maintain ourselves on station. Combat is definitely hours of boredom, followed by seconds of frenetic activity.

Life was pretty much the same when we went north of the DMZ on Linebacker and Freedom Train operations, but we only went into action at night. Three or four ships would steam at our target area in line abreast, then wheel right or left to form a line. We’d start firing the assigned number of rounds at the designated target areas, during the usual plotting and exchange of data with Main Battery Plot. However, we tended to not steam a straight line once we started shooting, because to do so would make us an easy target for the shore batteries. Yes, the NVA had no sense of humor and shot back. We were never hit, but the XO once said he saw a round fly about a foot over our gunfire director. There were frequently rounds crashing in our wake.

Well, one more story. Back on the gunline off I Corps (south of the DMZ), we frequently saw Arclight strikes coming in and blowing the crap out of the countryside. Three B-52s would fly in a wedge at 20,000 feet and drop 90,000 lbs of bombs. I timed it once. The bombs exploded for 60 seconds and a square mile was obliterated. Oh, and we would be 5 miles out to sea and the overpressure from the bombs would pop open the door between the bridge and CIC (not a water tight hatch, but a standard door).

Well, unlike the troops on shore, we slept in air conditioned quarters, had 3 hot meals a day, and a shower every day. I chose the Navy for my service because I figured this was better than crawling in the mud, swatting mosquitoes, and seeing the guy who was trying to kill me. I wasn’t disappointed.

Oh, and after 2-3 weeks on the gun line we’d steam off to some exotic port, Subic Bay, Philippines; Sasebo, Japan; Hong Kong, etc.

  SC: Your list of original publications and translated works is quite extensive. I note you have participated in training programs supporting many African armies. A two-part question: much of your work, especially your translated work covers campaigns and armies of the 19th Century and earlier. Has the knowledge you gained for studying past military history affected the way you provided training and for both your time in Africa and at the BTCP and are there lessons we are always doomed to relearn, over and over again?

GN: The answer here is short – No. In Africa I taught basic logistics and on occasion, intelligence. Oh, all of this was in French, which is why I got the gig teaching Army stuff to Africans. Anyway, the logistics was, in the words of my boss, “What is obvious to you is marvelous to them.” I once had a 40-year old Gabonese intelligence officer on the floor with me crawling over a map explaining to him that the blue lines were rivers. The level of education in Africa is overall, pathetic, but there were a few bright spots.

As for BCTP, I was stunned how often the US team would repeat the same action over and over again. In one exercise the Striker Brigade made it first appearance. It came down a river road twice where my tank battalion stopped it. It broke away and then came back, but the third time it came I was ready for it. My tank battalion hadn’t moved, but I’d moved up another tank battalion, an anti-tank company and a mech infantry bn. When the strikers appeared and engaged my stationary tank battalion, I pulled the second tank battalion and the AT company out of cover and engaged them, while the mech infantry bn swept on the far side of a ridge and struck them in the rear. Needless to say the Striker Brigade was destroyed. Two or 3 weeks later I called my employer and was talking about something else with a friend when she mentioned that the Army was furious that the Striker Brigade had been wiped out. I asked if they knew it was a Navy Reserve Captain that did it to them. She said, “Oh God no, don’t tell them that!” :-))))) I have many stories about how poorly the USA did in these games.

  SC: Any good stories from your time in Africa?

GN:

Stories in Africa….. I suppose, but I’ll go political here. 80% of Africans live on $2 or less a day. Anyone who thinks the US is a crappy place to live should live in Africa, outside of the major cities, then reconsider what is so bad about the US.

I was in Senegal, Mali, Burkino Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Gabon, and Benin. The people were good and decent. Only encountered one problem in Ethiopia, where a guy tried to pick my pocket. He failed. That said, when I asked for a shoe shine in Ethiopia from a street shoe shine boy he said $1. Two people suddenly said, “No, it’s only $0.25.” I still gave him a buck.

Well, ok, now that I think about it, another story. In Mali a friend had a US magazine and was talking with a Malian officer about life in the US. He showed the officer a photo in the magazine of a poor fat woman sitting in front of her house. The Malian officer said, “No, poor people aren’t fat.” In Mali a fat wife is a status symbol, because you are rich and can afford to overeat. In most of Africa poor people starve. I have the photos to prove it. Indeed, I have photos of dead bodies lying in the streets with people stepping over them.

Speaking of Mali, I was teaching the intelligence module there. One officer just sat there and did nothing. I always tried to get everyone involved, so I asked the Intel Officer why he wasn’t involved. He said this guy was a Tuareg and didn’t speak any French. Mali had had a revolt in the north, where the Tuaregs (Muslims) were trying to break away from Christian southern Mali at the instigation of Libya’s Ghadaffi. There had been a political reconciliation and the rebels were integrated into the Malian Army. Many, however, only spoke Arabic, while the Army worked in French. The Brigade CO was a Tuareg who spoke some French, but so poorly that we actually bought him a French-Arabic dictionary so he could speak with his troops.

  SC: For a Naval officer your interest in military history seems focused on the land campaigns. Is that a symptom of not wanting to think about work on your free time?

GN:

It probably comes from my interest in WWII panzer warfare, but surely comes from the eye candy of a fully painted miniature army of Napoleonic lead soldiers. I joined the Navy because when I graduated from college the Vietnam war was still going on and the Navy was a better option than the Army. That said, the only lottery I ever won was the draft lottery. I was going no matter what – #108. Oh, and I took 2nd prize – two all-expenses paid luxury cruises off of Vietnam!

  SC: I decided to order Islam at War: A History and hopefully there will be some good data in it for war gaming. I went by the Amazon listing and a couple of commentators seemed displeased that you and Mark Walton didn’t write a warning against jihad.

GN: Islam at War. There is a video by an Englishman, I think, on U-Tube, where he praises it. I’ve not seen snide remarks anywhere and as I told you, both pro- and anti-Muslim groups have pirated it and posted the PDF on-line. It is a broad, general history, and since most of it is about wars pre-dating Gutenberg, details are scarce, so it is not very useful for wargamers. It’s more a broad brush of how they acted when they fought than how they fought. Nothing about weapons or tactics. It was not aimed at the wargaming market, but the general public who, when Bush invaded Iraq, might want to understand something of their military history.

  SC: Is it fair to say that your published works concentrate on obscure facets of military history?

GN: Obscure stuff?? OMG, I’ve often called my business “Obscure R Us!” Oh, I hit all the big stuff, Seven Years War, 30 Years War, War of the Austrian and Spanish Successions, Korea, WWI and WWII, but I’ve several books on obscure Balkan wars; stuff on the Middle East — it gets hard to get more obscure than the war between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire in 1831 or the Egyptian invasion of Dongola and Sennaar (basically Sudan) in 1820 — then there is the English invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1866, the French conquest of Dahomey (Benin); the English conquest of Java in 1811; the Russo-Swedish War of 1808; or the ever popular Prussian Conquest of Holland in 1787 (when I found this book I actually thought it was a joke, because I’d never heard of it and it is such a (relatively speaking) recent war. That is only the “modern” stuff. If you go back into the 17th century it gets more obscure. I could go on for another 10 minutes listing obscure wars and battles. You really need to see my catalog or go to my website and explore. So, it is really hard to pick the most obscure war, but the Cossack war with Poland in 1648 would probably be the winner, followed closely by my translation of two Venetian wars against the Turks in 1645 and 1686.

  SC: What are you working on now?

GN: I am working on expanding the scope of the works that I publish and sell shamelessly on-line. I have found on-line libraries wonderful sources of material that is out of copyright, particularly the French Bibliotheque nationale’s website. I download PDFs of out of copyright works and translate them. So far I have translated works on subjects from the 945 AD Moorish invasion of Spain to the 1940 German invasion of Belgium.

Right now I’m working on the apparently “official” French account of their participation in the Boxer Rebellion. It’s a 500+ page book and will take about a month to translate. Others are short and the language is simple and I can knock them off in a short hurry. It also depends on how much of life interferes.

The most interesting and most difficult translation was the Histoire de la guerre des Cosaques contre la Pologne, which I retitled to The Cossack War Against Poland 1648-1651. This work was something special as it was published in 1667, quite before spelling, grammar, and meanings of French words were standardized. The translation was anything but easy. It is also probably one of the oldest published works on the history of the Ukraine, and, as a result, provoked considerable excitement in the Ukrainian diaspora in the US. It was a bit of their history that was unknown to them. If you’ve seen the movie Taras Bulba, with Yule Brenner, it’s basically that war.

Otherwise, I’m busily translating whatever looks interesting at the moment. This year I’ve done something between 15 and 20 translations.

  SC: When translating older French documents do you have to contend with different French dialects? Peter Turchin’s War & Peace & War mentions the Breton’s resisted assimilation by the French, so much so that the 19th Century French government mandated severe punishment for students speaking Breton in schools.

GN:

To answer this begs a linguistic essay, so I’ll be very brief. Anything published after about 1700 is not a particular problem. Oh, there are authors who try to impress with their literary skill and prowess, or odd grammatical issues where to emphasize something they say the opposite of what they mean, but those are trivial.

The problem comes with pre-1700 when spellings frequently vary and you have to sound out the word and listen to it with a “French” ear to understand it. I have encountered spellings that were so unusual that I never figured out exactly what they meant, but I understood the rest of the paragraph, so I could work around that little problem. And then there are occasional provincial idiomatic expressions that take some figuring out. I’ll spare you that discussion.

  SC: A game and scenario designer I know asks: “Will he revisit some of his older work (20th century) for revisions as more information has been released since his older works?

GN:

In general, I do not revisit works, but some revisions and more data were added to my work on the German panzer arm. I added details on the Tiger tank battalions. Otherwise, the various army studies were as complete as I could make them with the data at hand and 20th century works are hard to expand when the sources I used were original documents and I am no longer buying or bought all the microfilms that the US Archives had on the subject, nor am I going to travel to archives any more.

  SC: With all that work do you have time for other interests?

GN:

Yes, goose hunting in the fall and shooting in the summer when the outdoor range I belong to is warm enough to shoot.

  SC: It was great talking with you. I hope you don’t mind at one point we do this again.

GN:

Well, your interest in me and my work was most flattering, so I was happy to (figuratively) sit down with you.

    Wargame Wednesday: The Nafziger Collection published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames