#guess who has a 30 line translation to do

[inzuinzudesu]

Please zoom in to see small Kakashi! 😭 He kinda disappeared 😭😭😭

Text translation: "Infinite Tsukuyomi" (無限月読)

Drew these in mid-July - when I started doing digital again actually 🤔

Took inspo from the Balut - a street food in my country; I hear a lot of people are grossed out by it?? Don't know if this is controversial, but I personally love the dish. Essentially grew up with it after all!

Wanted to draw something that feels a bit creepy but still has a sense of mysticality to it???

Meh, don't know if the feeling got across or not

I thought since Halloween is coming up, might as well post this haha

About the process of drawing these!

These were very fun to draw! I messed around a lot with photoshop to achieve this glowy dusty effect?? From the brushes to the blending options, and maaan the filter gallery 😭😭 Such fun tools to play with.

The main brush I used to achieve the dusty effect is called "KYLE Bonus Chunky Charcoal", in the Kyle Dry Media brush set. If you can, I recommend checking it out! There are definitely other ways to achieve this sort of effect, though. You can probably just use some sort of scatter texture brush and it'd work just fine. Studying is all about trying things out, right? This is like my first experiment with this type of effect, and I was happy at the time. Now looking back, these could most definitely turn out better, no? I really went overboard with just the effect and forgot everything else. The blood and the plate looks horrible man. If you look closely, you can see the sketch lines haha! I got lazy!

Also, for Obito's pose, I relied heavily on a reference I found on pinterest 😭 I wish I'd changed the pose more tbh, it looks really boring.

And I gotta say, these just look underwhelming in this smaller size. Like reaaaaaally underwhelming. Would love to show you the big version, but oh well! 😭😭😭

Brain vomit time!

I love the prospect (??? is that the right word) of Obito being all god-like and powerful after Tsukuyomi, having control over everybody's dream worlds?? And like he jumps from dream to dream, but stops at Kakashi's and picks it apart???? Observing and tormenting Kakashi with his childhood form that has both sharingan???????

Kakashi would probably be confused with Obito's appearance at first, asking questions like "What are you up to this time, Obito?", but then wouldn't receive any answers??? Like little man would just stare at him creepily, and Kakashi would push this to the back of his mind for a while???

Umm below is the technical stuff, I guess??

My headcanon is that the time span in the dream world is the same as the real world. Meaning, 30 years in the dream world feel incredibly real, with no gap of memories. It's essentially a different timeline. Whether this makes sense or not, who knows haha!

Let's talk about the dream events and how they affect Kakashi! Due to Sakumo and team Minato still living, this Kakashi probably wouldn't be as lax nor sad as in canon?? The relationships and personalities would be different huh???? I'm having a headache thinking about this, so let's just say that: 1. Sakumo lived because the villagers weren't as harsh, but the animosity still remained. Kakashi still developed this obsession with rules, but he doesn't blame his dad as much. 2. Kannabi happened, Kakashi was given the sharingan, along with Obito's ninja way. Team Minato thought that Obito died for a while, but Obito is 'rescued' by Madara, same as canon. 3. Rin would still be targeted by Madara, but Obito came in time to help with the situation, blocking Kakashi's chidori from connecting with Rin's chest, but also knocking Kakashi away. Then, a Mist enemy took advantage of the situation to attack Kakashi, injuring him gravely, to the point where everybody thought he died. With this, Obito activated his Mangekyou and exploded on the Mist enemies, killing them all. Meanwhile, Rin tried to heal Kakashi, just barely saving him. As Obito had dealt with the enemies, there was no need to rush back to the village, and the Sanbi wouldn't be released till then. And so, they waited for Minato to come and help with Rin's seal. (About Obito's Mangekyou activating with Kakashi's death - would that be too far-fetched? My reasoning is that Obito would think that it was his fault Kakashi died, because it was Obito who knocked Kakashi away into the enemy, no?) 4. Because there's no one to become 'Madara' now that Obito came back to the village, Naruto is born, Minato and Kushina live.

5. The Uchiha massacre doesn't happen.

(Everything is incredibly convenient, because I don't have the brain power to make it otherwise, please help 😭😭) -> In conclusion, this Kakashi resembles the Kakashi of the real world, but less depressed and self-destructive??? He loves his living comrades. My man still has a massive obsession (more like crush lol) with Obito by the way, just like in canon. He just doesn't show it.

-> About Obito of the dream world (I'mma call him Dreambito), he is all sunshine and brightness, but he exhibits some dark thoughts and deep rage from time to time due to the residual effects of Madara's seal on his heart. The seal has been removed though. And he has this obsession with Kakashi's safety, as he almost pushed him to his death once, albeit accidentally.

-> I was debating whether to just start this dream world at the point where Obito got crushed, or to start it at the beginning of Kakashi's life. In the end, I went with the latter, cuz ya know, I like the idea of Kakashi living through a whole life all over again, just to finally come to the realization that it's all a dream. Does that make any sense at all??

Obito (child form - 13) first appears in front of Kakashi at the start of the Naruto series, when Kakashi has officially become the teacher of team 7. (Let's not change this okay, my brain would fry haha I'm not gonna deny that the idea of Obito and Kakashi becoming co-teachers of team 7 isn't incredibly fun though)

After the first encounter with this child Obito, Kakashi begins to have flashes of memories from the real world, and he hallucinates about people's deaths - mostly about the members of team Minato. This young Obito is always in the corner of his vision, most of the time silent, sometimes saying things like "You trash" to Kakashi whenever he encounters Rin, who is whole and grown up in this world.

Kakashi exhibits more destructive behaviors as this goes on, the line between the dream events and the real events slowly blurring. He takes more dangerous solo missions out of the village, and shows strong signs of PTSD, just like in canon.

The two Obitos would contrast each other?? Like Dreambito would be all concerned with Kakashi's decline in health (both mental and physical) and goes to confront and comfort him, many times over because that's how it is with them??? Dreambito might even move in with Kakashi, being the obsessive and protective Uchiha that he is. Meanwhile young Obito would be an absolute asshole, saying all these horrible things to poison Kakashi's mind haha

At this point, Dreambito'd be in the last stage on the journey of becoming Hokage, gaining the all the trust from the Uchiha clan, the village elders and the villagers as a whole. I don't know about Rin, though? Should she be romantically involved with Dreambito or no? Would Kakashi dream that??

I think Kakashi's dream would somewhat focus more on Dreambito being happy and satisfied, to be honest. I know there's Sakumo and team Minato as a whole, but as a degenerate shipper, I love the obsession between them🥺

I don't think Obito would directly interfere with what Kakashi is dreaming about, i.e. changing Dreambito's behavior, or like the political situation of the villages (?). But he would most definitely insert himself in Kakashi's psyche, no? Mess it up real good.

Kakashi would slowly realize that he is living a dream world, after all the flashes of memories that Obito generates in his mind. He would most definitely deny it at first though, I think? And then it would reach a point where Kakashi remembers everything from the real world, but he has also lived through 30 something years of the dream world, meaning he'd be in his 60s?? Does that make sense or no?

And so, while Kakashi now knows that everything is a dream, his feelings for everybody in the dream are real. If that's the case, is it really that important anymore that he escapes the Tsukuyomi? Can this dream world really be called fake at this point? Is there even anything in the real world for him to return to?

What's to say 'the real world' isn't a dream at this point?

-> Kakashi would completely close in on himself after this. He still does things that he would normally do, but it'd be all an act. He would feel completely isolated.

-> Dreambito would notice and confront him again, now that they live in the same house??? Kakashi would like say everything is fine and try to act more convincingly, but Dreambito would still know something's wrong????

-> Obito is observing from afar, who knows what his motivation is at this point.

Because this is Kakashi's dream world, I suppose he would have the power to change this world to his will, now that he's aware? This is like a lucid dream situation???

The people in the dream have their own will up until this point, but Kakashi can somewhat change their behavior if he really wants to, whether it's subconsciously or not??? Example: He can probably will Dreambito to kiss him or something lol

So on and so forth!

Man, I'm having waaay too much fun imagining the pain. There are probably like a thousand things that doesn't make sense haha! I do wonder how this sort of storyline should end though, does anybody have any ideas? Personally, I prefer slow burn with a (sort of) happy ending, but ya know, angst all the way is good too! I can't write, but I love thinking about all the things that could happen 😭😭 English isn't my first language, so this might have felt weird to read at some point haha

If anybody wants to develop this, please feel free to do so! And if you've read this far, thank you for reading this absolute brain vomit of mine! I love to yap, as you can tell haha Have a good day!

[petermorwood]

Flammkuchen / Tarte Flambeé / "German pizza"

This evening I found a slab of Speck (strong-smoked bacon) in the freezer that I didn't know we had, there was half an onion and a tub of Lithuanian sour cream in the fridge, so @dduane decided to try Flammkuchen.

Originally, so the story goes, it was made by bakers as a pre-thermometer way to check the temperature of their wood-fired ovens (and provide a quick snack at the same time).

Tarte flambée is the French name, but "German Pizza" or indeed any sort of pizza it certainly isn't; there's neither tomato sauce nor cheese, and no yeast in the dough.

Whether it's German or French depends on who you ask, since it originates from the province of Alsace, an area which has changed hands a lot in the past couple of centuries and whose ownership has been A Source Of Friction Between Guess Who for almost as long.

To stay neutral, the recipe DD used is Swiss. ;->

Here's the translation:

*****

Alsatian tarte flambée

This delicious speciality from Alsace is also ideal for an aperitif. Thinly rolled bread dough with sour cream, onions and bacon cubes!

350g flour (12½ oz) 1.25 tsp salt 2 dl water (6.7 US fl oz / .42 US pt) 2 tbsp olive oil 200 g crème fraîche / sour cream (7 oz) 2 onions (we had less, so used less...) 120 g farmer's (thick, well-smoked) bacon in slices (4¼ oz) a small grind of pepper

And this is how it's done:

Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Pour in water and oil, mix and knead into a soft, smooth dough. Form the dough into a ball, cover and let it rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 240 degrees (464 F). Halve the dough and roll it out into an oval shape about 3 mm thick (1/10 inch) on a lightly floured surface. Place the dough on two baking sheets lined with baking paper.

Spread the crème fraîche / sour cream over the dough, leaving a border of approx. 1 cm (½ inch) free all around. Peel the onions, cut them into fine rings, cut the bacon into strips, spread both over the crème fraîche / sour cream and season.

Baking per tray: approx. 12 minutes each on the bottom shelf of the oven.

*****

Since this was our first time making Flammkuchen, we baked them one at a time to check for errors. There were none (Swiss recipe!) and 12 minutes was exactly right to produce this result both times:

DD needs to be careful because of IBS so they were made with mostly bacon on one side, mostly onion on the other, and with a glass of cool white wine they made an excellent Sunday supper.

Next time, now we know how well this recipe works, we'll be more generous with the toppings. :->

Incidentally, rather than baking-trays or the pizza stone we need to replace (ceramic utensils, tile floors and gravity Do Not Mix Well) we used the cast-iron griddle which in summer often goes on the BBQ...

... and gave the oven a thorough pre-heating, then transferred the Flammkuchen in and out with a peel, all of which worked splendidly.

That tip about using baking paper is excellent, BTW: no sticking, no spillage, no washing up. I bet it'll work with other things as well.

Like, for instance, more Flammkuchen... ;->

[marsspeedway]

COD HEADCANONS! (1?)

This is translated from Spanish so I'm really sorry if there is a translation error or a word that shouldn't be there!

SIMON RILEY GHOST

His casual outfit is really simple: jeans and a t-shirt or hoodie, his shoes of choice (usually his sneakers or boots) and a leather jacket if it's a more "formal" outing (a date?) or if he feels like dressing up.

Yes yes, balaclava on the base and cloth mask off the base.

Due to his past he has developed a defense mechanism of making jokes to "get over" or lighten his trauma.

After the betrayal of his team and his capture by Robas he basically got used to survive with very little. Therefore: he doesn't eat much, doesn't sleep much and is always in alert mode.

His chuckles are low, deep and feel mocking 99% of the time even though they are not. Instead his real laughter, his guffaws, are LOUD but very very strange to hear.

This man does NOT have a driver's license.

He has constant nightmares and/or night terrors so he tends to sleep very little.

Simon "Ghost" Riley is sleep deprived.

Ghost is the soldier, Simon is the human. So, Ghost is the armor that protects Simon, the tough exterior that protects the sensitive and too fragile interior. 

His room is simple, he doesn't have many belongings and the few he has are really valuable for him.

Ok yes, "Ghost collects knives" or "Ghost collects guns" but... Ghost collects lighters.

Bonus if you think he's a smoker.

Bonus X2 if you think he's an EX-Smoker!

Sleeping near Soap, or cuddling him, surprisingly calms him down (considering how much he dislikes and discomforts physical contact).

Soap is like his safe place, then Price follows, but he doesn't get that close to him physically (almost not at all really).

His closeness to Price has been very helpful to him, the man is a great listener and a great advisor and Simon can't thank him enough for always being there when he needs a shoulder to lean on or someone to give him good advice.

Ghost's "Fucking hell..." at the moment of meeting Soap in MW2 is mainly because he didn't expect to meet him again, he didn't expect to see him again after Makarov, let alone have to WORK with him again. It's not that he dislikes him, he just didn't expect the guy to be HIS sergeant instead of Price's.

During "Alone" Ghost tells jokes and talks to help Soap through the bad time, to calm him down and help him move forward but he also does it for himself because damn: just betrayed at the border of a country/city they don't know, with the colonel who received them captured, with a (his) wounded and messed up sergeant who is the only ally he has right now and who in turn is trying to get to him, with mercenaries nipping at their heels... I think the poor guy has a right to be a little bad. Well, Simon is bad because Ghost seems to be hiding it well.

Hairless?

He tends to eat fast, very fast.

JOHN "SOAP" MACTAVISH

He told Price that they should make varsity jackets with the Task Force logo on them...

Guess who has varsity jackets with the Task Force logo on them?

OG!Soap (2009) hates dogs (according to a line of dialogue) but personally I think Reboot!Soap (the current Soap, the one from 2022) likes them quite a bit.

He's a bit (too much) hyperactive.

He tends to gift and buy things for Ghost, little trinkets or things he knows Simon can use. It goes from clothes to some toy he thinks Ghost might like, they are usually toy soldiers, little action figures or legos (or anything that reminds him of Ghost).

Simon keeps them all. Every single one, even if it's a rock or a note that Soap left him or a doodle that Soap gave him.

He's a freaking master with butterfly knife tricks.

No, he doesn't use them to impress Ghost....

Maybe he does...

Ghost pretends the tricks don't impress him but they do.

He gives me Golden Retriever Boyfriend vibes that can send a bomb to your house.

Let's not forget he's a 30 year old man, military, explosives expert who basically operates in an elite task force... I mean, he could easily kill you. But, still, he's got a nice vibe, he's sociable and it's hard to dislike him.

Bookworm! He'll devour a book in a matter of hours and if he likes it enough he'll do an essay or summary.

He's a homebody with a big, big family. And he would love to have his own family with his own little house in the camp.

To pass the time he usually draws and occasionally writes in his journal. That thing is a little bit of everything: drawings, notes, stories, a personal diary, etc. Anything goes in there.

He cuts his mohawk himself and also usually takes care of rookies' hair, or really anyone who asks (nicely).

He can actually do more than cut mohawks or shave heads, his mother knows how to cut hair and he learned how to do it himself.

You want him to braid your hair? Of course, he's the one! He grew up with several sisters, so of course he knows how to braid. Ponytails? Go ahead. A bun? Sure. You ask and he'll know what to do and if he doesn't, he'll find it.

He can cook a little, just enough to get by and not live on instant noodles and take-out.

[sumerianlanguage]

Hi there! I’d like start with a thank you for taking the time and effort to help people who are interested in all things Sumerian learn! :D I’m not sure if this has been asked before, but what were the names given for the months of the year by the Sumerians? I’m curious as to how a lyric from a song like "Do you remember the 21st night of September" would translate into Sumerian

Hello, and thanks for the kind words!

The Sumerians used a system of twelve or thirteen lunisolar months, similar to other lunisolar calendars like the Hebrew calendar. (In fact, many Hebrew-calendar months derive their names from the Babylonian calendar, a later standardization of the Sumerian calendar months.) In most periods, the months started with the first visible crescent moon (right after the new moon) closest to the spring equinox; months could be anywhere from 28 to 30 days long, depending on when the next new crescent moon was sighted. The months would be:

Barazagngar 𒌚𒁈𒍠𒃻 (~March-April) Ezemgusisu 𒌚𒂡𒄞𒋛𒋢 (~April-May) Sigushubbangar 𒌚𒋞𒄷𒋛𒊒𒁀𒃻 (~May-June) Shunumun 𒌚𒋗𒆰 (~June-July) Neizingar 𒌚𒉈𒉈𒃻 (~July-August) KinInanna 𒌚𒆥𒀭𒈹 (~August-September) Duku 𒌚𒇯𒆬 (~September-October) Apindua 𒌚𒄑𒀳𒂃𒀀 (~October-November) Gan'gane 𒌚𒃶𒃶𒌓𒁺 (~November-December) Abe 𒌚𒀊𒌓𒁺 (~December-January) Ziza 𒌚𒍩𒀀 (~January-February) Shekinku 𒌚𒊺𒆥𒋻 (~February-March) Dirishekinku 𒌚𒋛𒀀𒊺𒆥𒋻 was the intercalary month, only included in some years, to keep the lunar months in line with the annual solar cycle

Note that each month had any of a wide variety of variant spellings, and the system above was pretty unstandardized until the later Babylonian era. The initial 𒌚 sign is the determiner for months and is unpronounced.

I'm having some trouble finding a consistent pattern for "on the #th day of [month name]", but the general way to say "on the #th day of the month" is ituda ud #(-kam), literally "in the month its #th day". Assuming we can slot in a month name, say Duku (the most likely month for late September to fall in), alongside ngi "night" and nishdish (my best guess for "21", whose pronunciation we don't know), then Dukua ngi nishdishakam would be "The 21st night of Duku".

Using one of the words for "remember", pad, you could say Zae Dukua ngi nishdishakam ibpaden? "Are you remembering [what happened] on the 21st night of Duku?" Though note that this would almost never correspond to our own September 21, for which you'd have to calculate the exact date for each year; I think for 2024 it'd be the 18th of Duku based on my quick counting, but it could fall anywhere from the end of KinInanna to the start of Apindua. I hope that's helpful!

[akookminsupporter]

Namjoon gave an interview to El Pais in Spain and I wanted to share the translation of the interview for those who may not understand Spanish.

Question. The track opens with the lines: "Fuck the trendsetter / I'm going back to the age of 9 / when I was more human". Does the stratospheric success of K-pop dehumanise the artist? Answer. You start your career very early and as part of a group. There's not a lot of time to be an individual, but that's what makes K-pop shine: very young people, trying very hard at the same time…. You generate energy that you only have in your twenties. You fight day and night to perfect the choreography, the videos, the music, and there's an explosion, a big bang. From 20 to 30, we put all the energy and time we had into BTS. You get success, love, influence, power, and after that? The root of it all remains: the music… What was the question?

Q. Does the system dehumanise? A. My company doesn't like the way I answer this question, because I partly admit it and then the journalists throw their hands on their heads, "it's a horrible system, it destroys the young people! But it's partly what makes this such a special industry. And things have improved a lot, in terms of contracts, money, education, there are now teachers, psychologists...

Q. Korean record companies train their artists for years, you lived with your peers from 16 to 19 before your debut as BTS in 2013. What did your parents say? A. My mother spent two years, "Go back to school, you were so good at it, go your way, go to university, make music a hobby!"…. But there was no going back.

Q. The biggest lesson from your time as an apprentice? A. Dancing. I was incapable.

Q. And what did you miss out on by being one? A. College life.

Q. The cult of youth, the cult of perfection, the cult of K-pop overexertion? Are these Korean cultural traits? A. In the West, people just don't get it. Korea is a country that has been invaded, razed to the ground, torn in two. Just seventy years ago there was nothing. We were getting aid from the IMF and the UN. But now, the whole world is looking at Korea. How is that possible, how did that happen? Because people are working fucking hard to improve themselves. You're in France or the UK, countries that have been colonising other countries for centuries, and you come to me and say "oh God, you put so much pressure on yourselves, life in Korea is so stressful". well, yes. That's how you get things done. And it's part of what makes K-pop so appealing. Of course, there are shadows, everything that happens too fast and too intensely has side effects.

Q. What is the biggest prejudice about K-pop? A. That it's prefabricated.

Q. What would your career have been like if you had developed it on the alternative circuit or in another country? A. I think about the multiverse a lot, and the lesson of Doctor Strange is always the same: your version of the universe is the best possible one, don't think of others. There is nothing better than being a member of BTS.

Q. Did you imagine this version? A. Not at all. My dream was not to be a K-pop idol. I wanted to be a rapper, and before that, a poet.

Q. Your influences include rappers like Nas and Eminem, groups like Radiohead and Portishead, but you never mention boy bands. A. The Beatles were also called boy band... I'm not comparing us, they were the creators of everything. But I guess you mean NSYNC or New Kids on the Block: bands whose pop music I actually liked, although I wasn't a super fan… What got me was rap: rhythm plus poetry.

Q. You say you get jealous of who you admire, for example? A. Kendrick Lamar, always. And Pharrell Williams. He's living history, I'd like to be one too, maybe in the future. That's why I don't paint, to be jealous of Picasso or Monet would be too much.

Q. You do collect, how do you choose the pieces? A. I've only been collecting for four years and I've been changing. My focus is 20th-century Korean art. But I'm not Getty or Rockefeller…

Q. You don't do it to invest. A. I guarantee it. If I wanted to invest, I would buy black artists, women artists, emerging Indonesian artists… My goal is to open a small exhibition space in about 10 years because I think Seoul needs a place with a young taste, but respectful of the Korean legacy, to which I would also like to bring artists like Roni Horn, Antony Gormley or Morandi.

Q. Have you always had the collector's bug? A. I've collected toys, little cars or Takashi Murakami figures, then vintage clothes, then furniture, I love Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret [both collaborators with Le Corbusier], but my favourite is George Nakashima.

Q. On your album there are songs from very different genres, some critics say it's inconsistency, others say versatility… A. I think the word genre will disappear in a few decades. R&B, Hyperpop, Jersey Club, UK Drill, Chicago Drill, K-pop! They don't mean anything. Music is an accumulation of frequencies that makes people get into a certain mood.

Q. Are you fed up with the "K-" label? A. You could get sick of Spotify calling us all K-pop, but it works. It's a premium label. The guarantee of quality that our grandparents fought for.

Q. Your album features Anderson Paak, Youjeen and the elusive Erykah Badu, how did he convince you? A. She knew BTS because her daughter is a fan, but that's not enough. I had to persuade her, I sent her a text with Yun's story explaining why I needed her wise queen voice for those verses.

Q. You mix English and Korean sometimes in the middle of a line, how do you decide? A. Words in different languages have different textures; the same message, with a different brushstroke. It comes naturally to me. I don't play instruments, I compose and create melodies with my voice, which is my instrument and most of my songs start with words.

Q. You have also gone through several identities, as a teenage rapper you were Runch Randa, then in BTS Rap Monster and then RM (for Real Me). Have you thought about using your real name? A. [laughs] We all have a past, a dark history, we say in Korea. Runch Randa was my nickname in a role-playing game, then I wanted to be, you know, "a rap monster!″, then I matured… I prefer my name to be known by as few people as possible, I'm not John Lennon, Paul McCartney, I can check into a hotel quietly and I like that.

Q. You've also changed a lot in the way you dress. A. I went through XXL T-shirts and baseball caps. Then I got into high-end brands… Like Rap Monster, I started wearing only black and white [rolls his eyes and shrugs]. Now I'm interested in timelessness, I don't go for trends, I look for vintage jeans, cotton t-shirts, natural things, that don't scream "hey, I'm here".

Q. Rumour has it that you are going to collaborate with Bottega Veneta, whose fashion show you have just been invited to in Milan. A. I would love to. Although I've lost interest in brands, in fashion weeks and that constant change of Pantone… Bottega is different, they don't use logos, they have a history with fabrics and leather, they don't even have Instagram, they are beyond fads and fashions.

Q. How heavy is it to have an army of fans? A. You can't walk around in the middle of nowhere without being recognised and the standards to which you are subject weigh heavily. But you have to grow up and deal with it, not be pitiful like "oh, I just want to be normal". Look, if you want to think fame is a rock, it's a fucking rock, but for me, it's given me what I was looking for: to get influence and financial freedom as quickly as possible to make the music I want to make without worrying about the charts… I'm not there 100%, but I try to focus on the noise inside, not the noise outside.

Q. And how are you facing your thirties? A. I've never experienced such a confusing time. For a decade I was the leader of BTS, and it was very stable and fun, always going up. In 2023 a lot of things have changed, professionally and personally, although I can't tell. As I'm about to turn 30, I like myself more than I did when I was 20. Now I will spend a year and a half in military service, which is very important in every Korean man's life. And after that, I am sure I will be a different human being, hopefully, a better and wiser one.

[jinruihokankeikaku]

2024.09.12/21:30 UTC

I realise there have been a lot of false alarms on this front in recent weeks, and so I'm titling this post with a timestamp to assure you that it's genuine. It is.

This blog will be inactive until further notice and will likely be deleted in the immediate future (within 1-3 days), unless extenuating circumstances arise.

I am not in any physical danger or legal trouble, nor do I present any sort of threat to myself or others; however, regrettably, and for entirely personal reasons, I've come to the decision that it is best for me to no longer use this account, and to cease engagement with any and all social media for the foreseeable future. I have yet to make a final decision regarding the preservation of this account, as it does represent an important part of my life history over the past decade, but at the moment it seems likely that I will be deactivating & taking measures to permanently close off this blog within a few days.

Thank you all for your kindness and support to me, and also to those of you critical of my views or emotional expressions, for your educational critique of my views. Those of you who know me personally and would like to remain in communication have until such time as this blog is deleted to contact me here, if you wish to stay in touch - or, you may already have the relevant contact information.

Nothing in this post is to be construed as representative of an intention on my part to make contact with anyone who would prefer to avoid contact with me, nor as representative of hostility or aggression on my part towards any person (on Tumblr, in my personal life, or elsewhere online), group, or organisation. This is a decision I am making purely for the sake of my mental health and in the hopes of, eventually, carrying on my online presence and creative work in translation, art appreciation, and textual analysis elsewhere on the Internet one day, months or perhaps years down the line, God willing.

It's been a long ten years and change, but all roads have to end somewhere, right? Right. Take care, everyone; like I said, you've got some time to get in touch with me if you'd like to (but please don't feel obligated to.)

I am safe and content with this decision, and to be honest, the time I've spent on here has meant the world to me. Out of an abundance of caution I will refrain from making any personal statements of thanks, or appreciation, or affection, but there are a lot of you currently following me who have been great friends, and please don't think I don't appreciate that. All my love to those of you who want it & know you have it.

Guess that's all there is to say. Do take care, all. Peace, love, unity, and respect - above all else.

『目覚めると　瞬く間にか　春の果て』

―　サーシャ

[citrine-elephant]

thinkin about what woulda happened to leon if simmons did manage to capture him....

(lore ramble + whump idea ramble)

so... correct me if i'm wrong, but...

simmons wanted to pin everything on leon and helena, but probably leon specifically. because of benford wanting to expose raccoon, and because of leon both witnessing raccoon, and forced into servitude after his survival.

leon probably could have cleared his name with enough of a fight, i'd imagine. hunnigan would find something. ada would've dropped off intel that she could.

so wiping out tall oaks was the cherry on top -> to silence the "final" witness and potential whistleblower (assuming there's no one else who's as high of a threat to simmons)

... not to mention who leon's got a crush on...

was helena just a means to an end, then...? simmons was a sadistic fuck and would probably torture people for fun, but if she had any more significance to him, then, i missed it-

simmons was willing to kill a friend of 30 years to protect The Family and whatever the hell they had going on trying to control the world. clearly, peak mental stability.

but as sadistic as simmons was. he wouldn't have been satisfied pinning everything on leon (and helena) and having him rot in a cell, right? prison's too good.

who knows what he'd have done with helena. use her to continue torturing leon? probably.

simmons would've blacksited him probably. dead to the world. no one to save him.

shove it in real deep about how simmons won and leon lost. how everyone thinks leon's a (dead) terrorist. how everyone thinks he was the one to kill so many people. and maybe how simmons was a grand hero now... and how leon can't do a goddamn thing to fix that.

you think simmons would hunt down everyone? one by one. just to make leon miserable. what do you think he'd do with em? pin crimes on them? kill them? introduce them to his favourite torture doll?

i don't think simmons would even NEED to have a vendetta against leon. c-virus made him lose his mind, but... dude's a fuckin nutjob and probably pops a stiffy when someone marginally looks unhappy.

more lore rambling below! :3c... dear god,

came to me in mental illness (skin picking bcuz anxiety lol)

these ideas clicked far too late, but i haven't consumed ALL resident evil media. so ... gotta be nice to myself. some stuff gets lost in translation, some stuff has weird delivery, some things aren't obvious on a surface, or just below, level. be nice.... aough!

some of the ways the lore is delivered though. infinite darkness? i knew leon wasn't a bootlicker, but the scene with claire at the end felt off and i was so fuckin lost.... until someone else pointed out that he was protecting claire. (i'd like to know if leon saved chip thingie that for later, or anonymously whistleblowed that?)

i like that it's not so heavy-handed, but whew... i don't feel smart!

so leon was forced into his position, right? but it was because of what he witnessed, not that he was simply a survivor? or, well, what he witnessed and how he survived, i guess.

they could've easily shot him in the head, then and there. but, was he kept alive for sherry? or because he managed to survive all that?

was the threat against sherry a bluff?

with leon's nature being one to quite literally throw himself in front of a bullet for some stranger, that could've just been used against him, right?

would they have done anything to sherry? sure, they needed to conduct tests and whatnot, i know that's canon from re6. what would they have done, anyway?

was threatening sherry simply to fuck with leon's head and keep him in line? threatening leon's life would've done jack shit to coerce him. but an innocent kid...

and an innocent kid. was keeping leon alive to keep her in line, too? and to add, they hadn't seen each other for a long ass time, right? like. re6 leon recognized her (i sure as hell wouldn't) but they were kept apart? to... keep each other from rebellion or some shit? control and all that?

god, the amount of psychological torture he had to endure. brainwashing. to an extent, of course. how much of leon's survivors' guilt came from the government coercing him into working for them? how much he blamed himself. how much of that you think was put in his head for him?

[doonarose]

Tagged by the lovely @gaiaseyes451! Thanks for the tag, needed a distraction this morning!

How many works do you have on ao3?

24

What's your total ao3 word count?

320,239 minus about 118k which was the big collaborative fic, that's still over 200k which is bonkers considering I've only been posting to AO3 for about ten months!!!

What fandoms do you write for?

Good Omens! But in the past, and not on AO3, it was Glee, before that Doctor Who, and before that, high school days, it was Alias and Farscape...

Top five fics by kudos:

Esurient Designs: Crowley and Aziraphale go for a very long lunch. Crowley has a lot of fantasies. I cannot believe this is my top fic... it was meant to be a couple of throw away lines between parts of my 'figuring their shit out' series but then I wanted to write all the food and Crowley's mind...

Pulled: Follows directly from Esurient Designs and is the entire point I started writing at all. The idea being to work them through their communication issues and get them to some good old fashioned sex! 32k words detailing exactly how that sex goes. It goes well.

Precarious, But Worth It: My first oneshot, written while I was making my way through the main series, because I just really, really wanted to write them taking a shortcut to fucking. From memory it's just yelling their feelings and then handjobs and frotting against the desk, but it's mine and people clearly are still finding it and enjoying!

The First One That's Right: The one that started it all. The very first thing I wrote and it just poured out of me and set up a seven part series (that became a ten part series) detailing all their kisses. Love that this is in my top five because it's not smut, just kissing!

Suddenly, Eagerly: My second oneshot, also written while I was writing the kissing series because I, again, wanted a short cut to the sexy times. This one is a bit more stressed/relieved fucking. With a lot of miracles to speed things along.

Do you respond to comments?

Yes, I try really hard to but I usually feel like I'm just yelling THANK YOU incoherently at people. And sometimes it does take me ages, especially when it's a really lovely comment because I am just too overwhelmed to know what to say.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I really, really don't do angsty endings. Like, ever. I guess you could say Esurient Designs, just because Crowley's on a journey and not really 'there' yet. Or A Bathhouse Pretense just because they're not together at the end of it... and I almost always have them together. Everything else is pretty sweet.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All of them!! Honestly, they all seem equally happy and promising, that's a huge part of why I write at all! If I had to pick one, maybe Four Speed Manual Transmission because it's the beginning of the rest of their lives type vibes?

Do you get hate on fics?

Not in this fandom, not really! I've had a couple of interesting anons trying to lure me into top/bottom bullshit. And there are always a few comments on AO3 that are questionable, but nothing like I used to see during the Golden Years of Glee.

Do you write smut?

Almost exclusively. If I'm not writing smut, I'm writing something to lead to smut. But then I'm only writing the smut as a vehicle to pull apart their relationship and psychology (she tells herself).

Craziest crossover:

I struggle to fixate on one thing, I've never managed two!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not in this fandom! But I know some of my short glee fics were repurposed for some anime thing and popped up on ff.net for a while there.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, back in the Glee days again, this lovely woman translated several of my fics into Spanish!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I did a lot of the orchestrating of Coming Home which was like 30+ authors, about 40 days of writing, and ended up with over 100 chapters/115k words. So that was enormous. Not your traditional collaboration though. I wrote some of my very best Doctor Who stuff co-writing with a woman I ended up meeting up with in New York! Recently collabed for a few others on birthday fic for Gleafer. And then there might be a new collab fic in the pipeline as well...

All time favorite ship?

Yeah I have to say Aziraphale/Crowley. Impossible to go past them at this point. But Ten/Rose and Klaine will always hold a special place ni my heart.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oh I know I will never finish these two and that will haunt me forever. Both are for Alias, One called Escape got to 56k words and 27 chapters and hasn't been updated since May, 2004. The other is called True Lies, got to 98k words and 50 chapters and leaves off with the cliffhanger - "So, what exactly is the plan here?" in July of 2004. Sixteen year old me was a little shit.

What are your writing strengths?

I guess smut? The description bit, anyhow, and, I guess interweaving feelings and character development with the sex. I think I'm also pretty decent at voice, so long as I'm paying attention.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I worry a lot about how wordy I always end up being. Sometimes this is a good thing, but I know my writing isn't a lot of peoples cup of tea because it takes so long to read through the swamp to actually get to some sort of development. Because of this, my pacing can be pretty shit which has me panicking with a couple of multi-chapter things coming together, including one that really does need to have plot.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I only speak english so I doubt I'd ever write dialogue in another language aside from a word or two here and there. In general I don't mind reading it, but I get that it can become tedious.

First fandom you wrote in?

Farscape! When I was 12 or 13. As far as I can tell that atrocity has been wiped from the internet...

Favorite fic you've written?

Tricky question. If Deer Fic ends up happening (and there is a decent 30k written) it will hopefully be there, because it'll be a proper, multi-chapter, plot-driven beast! But for now it's probably still the very first little fic I wrote, just because it was the gateway to everything that has come since! Or! Messily Eager & Eagerly Messy because it was an absolute blast to write, I do love a challenge, and I know it gave a bunch of people confusing feelings!

No pressure tagging and I know most of you will have already been tagged/done this but: @harlotofupdog, @cheeseplants @paperclipninja @sixbynine-da @wingsofopal

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (June 25-July 8, 2023)

I picked a bad time to skip a week lol

Ultraman Blazar, the 35th entry in the Ultra Series, has made the scene. Episode 1 throws us right into a battle between humanity and a space monster. Blazar's the pushy type, all but forcing Gento to transform, but he doesn't speak Japanese—just yowls. For now, that makes him the show's central mystery. The show's defense team, SKaRD, won't actually form until the next episode, at which point we should have a better sense of it. But I'm intrigued so far.

Free streaming TV service Pluto TV has added a Godzilla channel. It boasts, or should soon boast, all of the Japanese Godzilla films minus King Kong vs. Godzilla and Shin Godzilla, plus Rodan, all the Mothra movies, The War of the Gargantuas, Godzilla (1998), and Godzilla: The Series. A Blu-ray.com user has composed a detailed rundown of the versions of the films used—short version, nothing we haven't seen before apart from a few small changes.

I got to see Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken before its official June 30 release date thanks to Regal's Monday Mystery Movie series. I guess I didn't retain much memory of the trailer, because it surprised me how early in the film the title character first grew into a kaiju. I can't give it an especially enthusiastic recommendation—comparisons to Luca and Turning Red are inevitable and don't flatter Ruby at all. But I get a kick out of seeing kaiju in such alien territory as a hyperactive animated kids' movie, and they continue to show off their flexibility as metaphors (Ruby is plainly neurodivergent). 7 outta 10.

Nimona dropped on Netflix the same day, and that's one anyone reading this column should sprint to watch. It saves its kaiju for the third act, and I've held off on posting much about that part of the story yet, but trust me, Ishiro Honda would be proud.

After years of lackluster Gorgo home video releases, Vinegar Syndrome seems poised to finally do it right in 4K Ultra HD. (If you're like me and don't have a way to watch such discs yet, don't worry, it comes with a Blu-ray.) New scan, new audio commentary, special features both new and old, and a killer cover. For those unfamiliar with the company, note that this release is "only available on [the Vinegar Syndrome] website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them."

Every episode of Chibi Godzilla Raids Again is now subtitled, a fine excuse to get acquainted with one of the Reiwa era's biggest surprises. No stakes, no budget, just a bunch of Toho's biggest stars acting like a bunch of fools.

There's always more Godzilla toy news than this column can hope to cover, but a few highlights:

Bandai's ever-expanding Movie Monster Series will release Gamera 1965, Gyaos 1967, and Battra larva later this month. The defunct Daiei Kaiju Series last offered a Showa Gamera in 2006, and never covered any of his foes from that era; here's hoping Gyaos is the first of many.

Hiya Toys now has the license to produce figures from the Toho Godzilla films, not just the Monsterverse.

Super7 will be selling ReAction figures of Godzilla chomping some helpless people on a subway train at San Diego Comic Con. They just get it (and hopefully the many of us who aren't going will have some way of getting it that doesn't involve scalpers).

The new unit in Godzilla Battle Line is Monster X/Keizer Ghidorah. The former evolves into the latter after his first death. Keizer is a heavy hitter with a twist: he regains 20% of his health with every defeated foe. Great against swarms, but you don't see too many of those these days.

Believe it or not (many are still in denial), but Pacific Rim turns 10 on Wednesday. Thankfully, per this Tweet from director Guillermo del Toro, the effective start of the Kaiju Renaissance (and one of my all-time favorite films) won't go unrecognized on its first big anniversary. I'm guessing a cast reunion?

More translations from Noah Oskow await on Toho Kingdom, these a collection of synopses of early versions of Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, and Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla from the Toho DVDs. Much of this has been translated in greater detail already, but the later drafts are interesting.

[dramavixen]

watch this! – there will be ample time

Happy 2024, everyone! 'Tis the season to set goals. One of my New Year's resolutions is to be less of a drama snob and enjoy entertainment for entertainment's sake. The good news for my pretentious tastes is that most New Year's resolutions are doomed to fail.

Regardless of your television preferences, I believe that the media you consume should improve your quality of life. For me, that usually means sitting down and reflecting on how life sucks and letting that realization break my heart. That way, it can be sewn back together upon the next realization that sometimes life doesn't suck. It's a little masochistic of me.

what is there will be ample time?

An urban life drama centered around four friends in their 20s and 30s who, due to shifts in their personal and professional lives, return to their roots in the bustling city of Chengdu.

Focuses on the varying struggles of women in modern society while soothing your soul with the warmth of friendship and family.

I'm convinced that half of the lines are ad-libbed. Some of the stuff that comes out of the actors' mouths is way too natural.

why watch?

for and about the masses

The deeper I'm clamped into this world's trap of being a working-class human being, the more I'm drawn to television that depicts the average person's life. I can only watch so many shows about heirs to billionaires and gods on Earth before I start dissociating.

As you can guess, There Will Be Ample Time is a female-centric drama, but I wouldn't exactly consider it to be a "feminist" one in the traditional sense. Industry standard for feminist dramas tend to lean toward the "woman kicks male trash to the curb to live her glorious single life" trope. Those can be fun, but you can never escape the anger that comes along with seeing all those women being wronged by countless men like they're being passed along on some patriarchal assembly line. We're getting older. It's time to start looking after our blood pressures.

So here we are. Complemented by a relatively laidback Chengdu setting, our four leading ladies' lives aren't free from love life problems, but they have other things to do too:

Zhang Pei, an insurance agent with a smart eye for what work is worth doing. She's maintained a healthy relationship with her overbearing parents by keeping a distance of 1500 kilometers between them and herself for the past 15 years, but an unexpected incident makes her realize that there's no time to visit home like the present.

Gou Dandan, a beauty influencer who strives to make her life perfect both on- and off-camera. Reality hits when she discovers her husband is having an affair.

Dong Jiaxi, a recent graduate whose dream lies in writing and theater. She's just about to jump-start her career with great promise when her mother is diagnosed with cancer.

Wu Yun, a civil servant who moves to Chengdu for work. Though she visited her cousin Dandan in the city as a child, she's the only one in the group who didn't grow up in the region and needs to get accustomed to a new environment.

With the way that everyone speaks and interacts, it feels like you're taking a gander at someone's everyday life. Each character is someone you could meet on the street, a friend of yours, or just you yourself. The overarching normalcy makes you laugh that much harder at their humor and cry that many more tears when they break down.

--

move over, beijing and shanghai. it's chengdu hours

The Chinese title of the show, 故乡，别来无恙, translates to "my old home, hope you've been well." Chengdu's urban landscape has proliferated in recent years, but it remains in the main characters' hearts as a place of cozy memories—it's about the giant pandas, flavorful cuisine, and hordes of people drinking tea in a park and playing mahjong during a work day while some dude marches around asking if you would like to have your ears cleaned.

People in Chengdu have their struggles, but locals seem to take everything in stride. Most of your troubles can be alleviated by walking home where your parents have dinner ready or hanging out with your friends at the neighborhood barbecue joint. Take a break, have some tea. As hard as life can be, you should always take time to live.

(Disclaimer here that I'm definitely not biased for the place just because it's also where my roots are buried. I can testify that whenever this conditioned capitalist slave goes back to visit family, she starts having an anxious reaction to the free time and relaxation she's exposed to.)

The Chengdu dialect the actors use is...it's alright. I'm one to talk, considering I can't even get half a sentence out without stumbling on my American accent. Hey, at least they tried. If I harp on them, then I also have to harp on all the other actors out there who've spent years in the circle and still can't deliver a line with proper pronunciation or emotion.

--

relive your generational trauma in 4k imax surround sound

I don't know the writers' ages, but this work exudes the energy of Millennials finally aging into producing media that addresses generations' worth of mommy issues. You love to see it.

Do you see yourself in this picture? You're in high school. Call it hormones, call it rebelliousness, but you argue with your mom so frequently that it's become as routine and arduous as dragging yourself out of bed in the morning. Most often, one of these disputes ends with you shutting yourself in your room. Half an hour later, your mom bursts in without knocking to give you fruit on a plate. Ten years later, you feel like your frustrations were all so trivial in comparison to what your parents sacrificed for you. But does that make your feelings any less real?

There's something about Chinese families that makes us really good at hurting each other in the name of love and then never apologizing for it. Especially when compared to other family-centric shows, this one does an excellent job at portraying that exact issue. Each character deals with different forms of it, but they all struggle with being honest and respectful toward their family and face breaking points before they learn their lessons.

I saw myself in each of the children and my parents in their mothers and fathers. When you see a TV show reflect your family dynamics so accurately, it's hard not to cry when you see the aftermath of an argument on both sides. At the same time, you can't help but cackle when you witness some of the ridiculous things they fight over. In the end, why take things so far with your own family?

--

trying real hard over here to not spoil too much, but these. two. why am i like this? romance dramas give me romance and i'm disgusted because love is dumb. non-romance dramas give me romance and i'm on the floor searching for more crumbs. it's because i'm a snob, isn't it?

--

It's kind of difficult to summarize what this show does to your emotions. Somehow it manages to be an easy watch while squeezing a fist around your heart for all its worth. Most of all, it just makes you miss home, wherever that may be.

[thana-topsy]

Fic Writer Interview

Tagged by @mongoose-bite ! Thanks so much, crunchy. :)

I'm tagging whoever else wants to chime in! I lose track of who all on here I should be tagging lol. Or who might actually want to participate in such a thing.

----

How many works do you have on AO3?

38

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 643,096 words Mostly written within the last 5 years!

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Breathing Water - My flagship fic for the longest time. It still holds up 4 years later! And I'm still simping for Neloth.

Halfway to the Sky - Coming in with only about 30 kudos less than BW, I'm always tickled and humbled and just so honored that so many people like this story.

The Shadow Over Solstheim - This one had the most kudos for the longest time just because it's my oldest multi-chapter fic. Baby's first foray into something more than a smutty one-shot! My writing is unpolished and my lore knowledge is amateurish at best, but it's just so full of verve.

Hollow Men - A fic I honestly didn't expect many people to read due to the subject matter, but one that's near and dear to my heart.

Invictus - The bonkers, off-the-rails sequel to Shadow Over Solstheim in which Topsy discovers TES Lore in real time as they write. I don't think I could ever write something this free again even if I wanted to. I'm too burdened by knowledge (much like Teldryn).

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to respond to almost every comment, but sometimes I get stuck with Comment Paralysis and they just pile up in my inbox until I'm thoroughly overwhelmed. I read every single comment and blush and kick my feet excitedly, though.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm... I don't really do angsty endings. I like pleasant, contented endings, sometimes bittersweet, sometimes open-ended. But I guess Dreamers, my Hadvar/Ralof fic as it currently stands, has the angstiest ending. At least until I manage to finish the final chapter...

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Uhhhh... They're all pretty happy, from my perspective at least. Maybe Finding Mara takes home the gold for happiest ending. (Erandur takes home the gold, too -snerk-)

7. Do you write crossovers?

I have written exactly one crossover and it's the oldest fic on my AO3 (from 2014). Otherwise, they're fun to think about, but nah. Not really.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

If you count an entire series of callout posts, years of harassment, and people jumping to conclusions over a fic they never even read, then the answer is yes.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. All kinds, but generally smut with a purpose. "Porn with plot" as they say. I write smut that zooms into the characters' heads, prys open their wants and desires and fears and insecurities. I write smut that can get a little hyper-realistic, to the point of sometimes being kind of gross. I write smut as a form of raw expression, people at their most vulnerable, literally stripped bare. It's one of my favorite things to write because it is an endless exercise in character study, in boundaries, in what it means to consent, and how the lines between who we think we are and what others perceive us to be get so easily blurred.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

If I have, they've gotten away with it.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, once! Someone asked if they could translate the first chapter of Halfway to the Sky into Russian.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, back when I first joined the TES fandom. Two of my fandom bests at the time co-wrote a couple of stories with me. One is posted to AO3 (Ceasefire), and the other was a horny, whirlwind, feverdream of a fic that the other author and I mutually agreed we would probably never share with the greater world lol. We are still bests to this day and I often revisit that fic in awe and bafflement of our energy.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

It's so tough to choose, honestly, but I gotta go with Neloth/Teldryn, because it just took me by surprise and spun out into something so wild and wonderful.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I never say never with my WIPs. If I've learned anything over the past 5 years in this fandom, it's that I'll pick an old WIP up on a whim. I do wanna get back to my Arvel the Swift WIP at some point. I also started working on a Dark Brotherhood-centric fic last year, too. And so help me Talos I am going to finish Dreamers.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. People talk in my head and I just write it down. It usually ends up sounding pretty natural. And pacing. I feel like I manage pacing pretty well and can make good calls as to when a scene is dragging or we need to skip forward in time a bit.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Wordiness. Relying too much on "feeling" words. Telling instead of showing more than I need to. Repetitive sentence structure. My goal in 2024 is to become more direct and succinct with my writing style.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Eh... I've done it before. I threw in a lot of Dunmeris and Ta'agra back in the day when I was first writing TES fic, but I'd say just use italics and translate what's being said. Or, alternatively, if the POV character can't understand what's being said, don't even use dialogue, just mention that it's being spoken. It's all gobbledygook to them anyways.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Yu Yu Hakusho (in 2004)

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

I'm monogamous with my fandom currently, so I'd really love to write something with Cicero, because it's been a long time coming.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

That's really hard to choose. They're all my favorite when I'm writing them. Each fic is its own little relationship for me. I don't write things unless I'm absolutely in love with what I'm writing. So they're all my favorite, in that sense.

[kumoriyami-xiuzhen]

Hakuoki Drama CD - Hijikata Biyori Track 11

Well, guess who passed out early on Sunday when she intended to translate then just couldn't afford the time to translate until now? 😅 Anyway, I'm going to work on a number of the Biyoris since they're short so I can actually put out a few things on time or schedule... because I'm going to be pretty occupied until the May 2nd (presumably), though I did rush this a bit.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the Hijikata Biyori tracks that remain untranslated are tracks: 12, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36 and whatever the Sendai [?] thing was [if memory serves, it's a dialogue with only Harada and Shinpachi]. Please let me know if I'm missing something... or if I included a number of one that was already translated.

This post is to make up for last week! Will start working on the post for this week in a bit since I actually have some time today!

Hakuoki Drama - Hijikata Biyori Track 11: Letter [according to jisho, the JP 文 can alternatively be interpreted as 'texts', 'writing' or 'literary arts'. sorta leaning towards the last one because of Hakumyu LIVE]

Translation by KumoriYami

Harada: Ahh.... so sleepy.

Toudou: You drank too much yesterday, Sano-san.

Harda: Heisuke, aren't you the same?

Toudou: I don't drink until I get hungover.

Hijkata: It's already lively this early in the morning. [added in "already" for sentence flow]

Toudou: Uwah, Hijijkata-san.

Hijikata: Did you go to Shimabara last night?

Harada: Ah.... yeah. Do you have something to say about that [the word here I have translates to "idea / opinion / suggestion / objection / complaint" so I changed that to something more in line what I thought would be appropriate for the character]

Hijikata: No comment/No objections [same explanation as last line] . At this time, the organization is always changing, which has made things chaotic. It's fine to relax once in a while, but… ahh…

Harada: But... what.

Hijkata: It's fine to loosen up, but don't overdue it. In the future, you'll be shouldering the Shinsengumi's reputation, and be making achievements in Kyoto [reword later?]. You guys, you're in the position of being role models for the rest of the troop.

Harada: U-Uh... Toudou: I get it, Hijikata-san. Don't stare at us like that so early in the morning.

Hijikata: Ah, right. Hm? What is it?

Toudou: Um, These letters are are from the Shimabara nee-sans [check audio. the word I have is 'elder sisters' so I'm pretty sure that this fine…]. One, two, three, four. Here, for you.

Hijikata: Ah, yes. What a hassle/You've worked hard.

Harada: Hijikata-san, aren't you enjoying yourself to some extent?

Hijikata: But I don't go overboard. Well then.

Toudou: Ah, he escaped.

Harada: He really has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. He lectures people then runs away. That's right, Heisuke, let's storm into Hijikata-san's room together.

Toudou: Why? Harada: I'm sure he has a smile on his face as he reads those letters right now. Let's go and check it out.

Toudou: Ah, Sano-san, wait!

Harada:...How is it it?

Toudou: He seems to be writing something.

Harada: Oh? Has he already started writing his reply? How about it?

Toudou: Hey, wait, San-san...ah!

Hijikata: What are you two doing!

Harada: Ah, no, um...

Toudou: W-We wanted to see what Hijikata-san is doing. Lo-Look, you've been busy with a lot of work lately. We were wondering if there was something we could help you with…

Harada: Yes, that's right!

Hijikata: I see, you're just in time then. What I writing just now...

Harada: Eh? It's okay to look? Then...

Hijikata: I'd love to hear your opinions.

Toudou: Eh?

Hijikata: Hurry, read it.

Harada: First/One, it's forbidden to violate Bushido.

Toudou: First/One, leaving the Shinsengumi is strictly forbidden.

Harada: What is this!

Hijikata: The number of members of the Shinsengumi will increase in the future. In order to provide better leadership, I wanted to write down some rules that the Shinsengumi members must abide by. I was just working on a draft.

Toudou: Eh? What? Will you need to commit seppuku if you violate them?

Hijikata: Ah. As a samurai, you must pay with your life. Harada: That makes sense, though isn't that too harsh?

Hijikata: Well, both of you sit down. I'll explain what I haven't written down yet. If there are things that disrupt the troop affairs, I plan on having them banned. Additionally, meaningless fights are also unproductive…

Toudou: Where is the response.*

Harada: Don't say that.*

Hijikata: I will especially not tolerate fights within the Shinsengumi. I don't have time for that sort of thing. Also…*

[*I'm not entirely sure about these last bits since one of the tls I saved has this in an order where it looks like that some of the lines might overlap/have things spoken in the background. will fix them later after I hear the audio.]

-----end-----

also, ive been so busy that i havent even gotten around to organizing my latest merch haul... only got around to organizing the bromides.

[technicallywrite]

20 Questions for Writers

Thanks for the tag @envexenveritas, you're enabling me to procrastinate on writing a rather tricky scene.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Just two but one of them is sort of a song parody (about writing fanfiction, to the tune of Losing My Religion), not a fic. But the question says 'works' and... for better or worse, it's a work, I guess.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

393,520 across both works but the song is just 273 so, yeahhhh. That should tell you everything you need to know about my One Fic.

(42 chapters so far, in case you're wondering, including one that was a whopping 20k+ words)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Doctor Who, specifically the new UNIT gang, with heavy emphasis on the Big Finish audios in terms of sourcing story material. I'm basically rewriting the new UNIT storyline, centered on the developing relationship between Osgood and Kate Stewart.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I mean, if we're specifically talking fics, I have just the one. So it's my best fic and my worst fic at the same time, on any metric you choose to apply!

My Cosmos is Yours, aka Cosmos or sometimes Cosmosgate, has 297 kudos so far. Also, 30 bookmarks and 10,493 hits, in case that matters.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Do I reply to comments? Hah. Yes, yes I do. Religiously. Not always immediately, as sometimes I need a bit of time to digest them before replying; but I do read them all right away and I reply to everything eventually.

I welcome every kind of comment, from one-line "GAAHAHHHHHH" eructations to multi-paragraph analyses, rambles and vocal if not always coherent expressions of enthusiasm.

Funny thing, there's a bit of a culture of commenting that has grown around Cosmos. For reference, it has 1,194 comments (though half of that are replies from me).

Part of it, I suspect, is that word has got around that I'm pathetically needy for comments (I make no secret of it), so most of my regular readers have got into the habit of feeding me comments at every chapter, which is very lovely of them. And perhaps because there are so many comments on every chapter, some of the more occasional readers do also seem to find themselves motivated to leave comments, which is a wonderful effect, if true.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I haven't finished a fic yet so, no overall endings to speak of, but if I look across the 42 chapters I've written so far, Chapter 38: Endgame has got to be the most grim in terms of where it leaves Osgood and Kate.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hah well if we apply the same principle of looking across Cosmos chapters, Chapter 42: Life, the Universe and Everything has got to be the winner, with no fewer than three happy endings (one of them a double), if you'll pardon the phrase.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not so far, no. I occasionally get razzed by my British regulars for committing Americanisms (most famously, writing 'faucet' instead of 'tap') but it's all in good fun.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yep. Though I've been told it's not actually smut, it's erotica, which is the best compliment I can imagine. It's all character-driven, and it's very necessary to the story (I say to justify myself). I won't put any labels on it; I'll just say that by intent, it's loving, it's very mature, but it's never unnecessarily explicit. Though it does get people quite hot under the collar, reportedly, which is very gratifying!

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Well, I did pull in Malcolm Tucker from "The Thick of It" for one chapter, and he'll be showing up again because he's so fun to write. But it's not a zany kind of crossover.

I don't think I have any crazy crossovers in me, at least not at this moment in time; when I'm in the mood for that sort of thing I go to Lambrookmist.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, I'd be terrible as a fic co-author. I've co-authored a technical book in my professional life and it went well enough (the book got published and we're proud of it) but I suspect it was a frustrating experience for my co-author. I'm very critical and I change my mind about important stuff all the time.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Osgood/Kate Stewart obviously. With a side of Gabrielle/Xena and Janeway/Seven. There may be a pattern there.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I'm like a dog with a bone, I will finish everything, eventually. Although with Cosmos, I can't imagine running out of story to tell anytime soon. It could take years. Unless I find a good stopping point and just finish + start a sequel. That's an option.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Accurate characterization, I think? I'd like to think I do a pretty decent job with pacing and balancing action vs. talk. Also my real-life scientific/technical background helps me write credible plot details for our two favorite science geniuses.

From a stylistic standpoint, I've been told my writing has a cadence and musicality that's very enjoyable. That's something I care a lot about, so, yay.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm painfully aware that I overuse certain phrases. And I overthink things a lot, so it takes me ages to ship out new chapters. Especially now that I have a full time day job again, which I didn't when I started writing Cosmos— long story for another time.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

A few lines here and there can be very helpful when the setting calls for it (the characters are abroad, or working with people from different cultural backgrounds) but you don't want to overdo it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Well, I wrote a one-off Picard/Crusher ficlet in the late 90s, so I'm legally obligated to say Star Trek: TNG. But I never wrote anything else (fic-wise) until Cosmos.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Surprise, it's Cosmos!

In case anyone is curious, I'm about 1/3 of the way through writing Ch. 43, so hopefully it won't be nearly as long til the next update. (For reference, it took me three months to get Ch. 42 out.)

I think I'm supposed to tag some other writers now? Let's say @starfleetwitch, @kowarth, and gosh I need to look up some usernames. Will add those later. Got to go feed my family now.

EDIT: adding @colourmestoked04 to the taggees

[rikeijo]

Today's translation #526

Yuri!!! on Life official guidebook, Toshiharu Mizutani (Art Director) interview

Part 3.

-- For sure, there is a lot of small things in the designs.

M: When I look at just the line arts, I always think that they are drawn in a very loose way, and a lot of those small things are skillfully drawn in a simplified way/omitted. It's something that only somebody with a lot of practice can do. Even newcomers can draw precisely, if they look at a drawing and try to copy it, but the most important thing is not to draw something that is not necessary. If you have to later erase something that you drew, then you give yourself twice the amount of work, but only people with a lot of skill can simply not draw too much to begin with.

-- Then it must have been a good opportunity to learn for the younger staff members, I'd guess?

M: They were all very desperate [to get the job done] and working while on the brink of death.

-- The ice in the skating scenes is very realistic, too. Was it a request from the Director?

M: Yeah. Since the first PV. Even I have watched some figure skating on DVD, so it was something that was on my mind, too. In case of ice shows, the lights are very elaborate, and your eyes are really drawn to the ice, cut with blades of skaters' shoes. Because of how it sparkles. I was wondering if it would be possible to try to achieve this effect, but I thought that if I touched this subject, we all were going to suffer, so I kept quiet. But then I decided that I want to have those cuts in the ice, after all. All were drawn on the same layer, but then split into multiple layers. We put at least three such layers on the surface of the ice.

[Notes: Long time no rant, so...

((Just in case, newer readers may not be aware, that I'm a "fujo-hater" 😂 But fret not, I'm not against seeing relationship between Yuuri and Victor as romantic or against people reading BL, but I'm very much against fujos, who as it was in the case of YoI, try to "teach"/press the creators/other staff members to make the canon bend to their doujinshi tropes.))

The talk about staff members on the brink of death reminded me about that huge controversy about MAPPA that happened last year 💀 It's not a secret that Sayo was overworking animators during YoI and there are still screenshots of animators calling her names on twitter and say condolences to each other, bc of being involved with YoI. So, YoI fandom now hating MAPPA, bc "bad MAPPA, bad working conditions, poor animators...", while demanding that they should stop producing shonens, bc they should make YoI instead is well... an example of how spending time in an echo chamber and just following the crowd can make you a huge hypocrite.

It should also be said that it's not that those shonens are "just for boys" or anything like that if we talk about this topic, btw. GoYuu from JJK (Gojo x Yuuji) is so popular with fujos that it has now more views in total on pixiv than VicYuu, and gets more views in 10-30 min than VicYuu gets in 24 hours (a huge credit for that should ofc go to YoI's IP holders, as they've been trying to starve the fandom to death since 2018, basically...) It's really ironic that it's YoI fans who are so much against MAPPA making those popular shonens, bc so many Jp VicYuu fujos moved to GoYuu (it's basically the same trope "the most awesome, strong and cool man in the world the seme" x "fujoshi avatar the main character in the center of the universe the uke") - one of the reasons, why Jp fans don't attack MAPPA - they very much enjoy those shonens. (Another is that they can read and it's very easy to check who owns the IP.)

To sum up, as always, it's very unfair for YoI fans to call Otsuka CEO the greedy homophobic liar, while absolutely refusing to see the bigger picture.]

[alovelyburn]

Is griffguts popular? Does Miura knew about the shippers? Was he shocked? You always have sources

It's kind of hard to gage what is and is not popular, especially when you're talking about a community of people that mostly stay away from the main body of Berserk fandom, but here's my general experience and understanding of things.

-In the Western fandom, the vast majority of active fans have what I'd call the western standard perspective: Griffith is a sociopath who may or may not have cared about Guts but if so he still didn't care about anyone else, Guts and Casca are soulmates and he lives for her and hates Griffith, the end.

Now I say active fans because my personal experience with running into people who like Berserk in the wild has been that many of them were fans of Griffith/Guts but unwilling to engage with the fandom at all because, well, of what I just described up there. But of course this is going to vary depending on where you go. In media fandom circles, like artists and writers and such, it's more popular than with say random people on a general anime discussion board.

In more recent years, since the OVAs I guess, there has been more movement around the relationship vs. say when I was in the fandom the first time when there were active efforts to drive fans of the relationship (or even just of Griffith as a character) out of the fandom entirely.

-In the Japanese fandom, there's a much wider variety of views on Berserk in general, and I notice a lot of I guess casual acceptance of Griffith and Guts as potentially a romantic connection. Even just in random threads on 2chan or whatever or replies to news posts you'll see references to it. And if you say go to pixiv or something, or look at doujinshi or whatever, the G/G fans are by far the most active of any pairing fandom, in any case.

And when I talk about things like the casual acceptance even by people who aren't really like pairing fans as such, I'm including things like... how the OVA scriptwriter directly referred to them as having romantic feelings for each other (among other feelings). The writer probably wasn't there pumping his fist and rooting for them to get together, but it was just a thing he knew and understood about the characters. This is kind of unsurprising because Guts and Griffith do have a particular kind of relationship dynamic, and honestly particular kinds of visual design, that are often used in manga or anime to evoke homoerotic relationships. And manga and anime in general has a lot more like subtle or casual homoeroticism than say random western stories anyway.

All of that said, the main takeaway I get from Japanese fandom is that they don't talk about romance nearly as much as English fandom does, and that applies to Griffith and Guts or Guts and Casca or anyone else. Couldn't tell you why.

As for Miura, that's an interesting question. That one 30 page article from the shojo studies book that was the source of the quotes that recently hit the fandom had been partially pseudo-translated before by a fan who said Miura had said he didn't like that interpretation, but they also said they had a hard time with that line, so I've never been sure whether that's actually what he said. At the time that I was told this I was surprised (for reasons I'm about to get into), but also not surprised (for reasons I will also get into).

But the matter became more muddled when Kojion@twitter began posting translations of the same article because there was nothing in there about not liking them to be interpreted romantically... but there was one line that seemed to correlate to what the fan had said that Miura said about Griiffith and Guts (that he didn't like it and liked relationships like rivals), but like, he was talking about his taste in movies at the time? Because he said he liked movies about men's relationships, and then clarified that he meant rivalries and such. So I kind of wondered if they misunderstood the context since they were having a hard time with the line anyway. Can't be sure though, since I don't have the book itself yet.

And now, the reason I was surprised when I first heard that:

-there's literally a line in an interview about how Griffith was designed after people he knew who can't love women and focus on men (romantically or platonically) instead.

-there's also this line where he refers to Griffith as not being one to "fall in personal relationships" with Guts being the exception which like, I understand that he's not saying anything directly, but you've gotta understand the word he used for "fall" is 落っこちる, which is commonly used to mean "fall in love" (actually it is the second dictionary definition, and the first means physically fall off a roof or fail an exam, so you know).

-he spoke openly many times about his interest in gender and sexuality, stated that he felt like androgynous characters should have both male and female love interests, that most androgynous characters in manga fall in love with men, and that he felt like he had to be ready to commit to that if he was going to write an androgynous character (he was discussing the lead of Duranki to be clear. But it's interesting, if you... look at Griffith at all).

-he also listed many lgbtq stories as major influences in his creation of Berserk, including Devilman (one of his biggest influences which is extremely obvious), Guin Saga (which helped create the BL genre and which he has stated was his single biggest influence), Rose of Versailles and Kaze to Ki No Uta (which is literally a classic boylove manga).

-but mostly just because he... wrote the manga. Which I'm bringing up because there are moments that are very difficult to read nonromantically, including a panel where the BoD heavily implies that Guts is in love with Griffith.

The reason I wasn't surprised:

Because it was a 20+ year old interview and he seemed a lot less comfortable with the topic than he eventually became.

One thing I noticed during my time tracking this manga and also obsessing over Miura interviews is that the early interviews are more conservative with his influences and intentions whereas as time went on he started saying yes Berserk is a shojo and then yes, I was influenced by "Go Nagai's style" and then "yes, I was influenced by Devilman specifically."

Basically by 2019 he was out there talking about reading BL manga and such. So even if he had said it, which I'm not sure he did because of the movie thing, I would probably attribute it to not having become comfortable with the topic yet.

Anyway, did he know about it, I'm sure he did.

Was he shocked, probably not given all of the above. He's the one who chose of his own free will to modify the meaning of 渇望 (thirsting/craving) with furigana that says こがれ (crave because you're in love with) in that BoD scene.

No one told him to do it. He knew what the words meant.

[lost-technology]

Since I saw some supplemental materials posted on a reblog browsing a blog and it's from a name that's blocked me... I'm again wondering "Why has this person blocked me???" Okay, there is someone in this fandom (not putting a name up here because I don't want to put them on the spot) who seems to know an awful lot about what Studio Orange is doing, they post a lot of concept-art. I don't know where they get it from - if they go to cons and snap photos of panels or if they do deep-dive searches or if the show bible is available in their country (they appear to be Russian or Russian-speaking while also English-speaking?) and it's stuff we don't get in the U.S.A. wherever it is gotten from, or where they are getting it from, but I do see their stuff reblogged from time to time on other people's blogs. It's the only way I can see it. I can't see this stuff even going to the Trigun tag because they have me blocked - and not just my Trigun-related sideblogs, but my main blog as well. (I do not know if this is because I listed my main blog somewhere or if I've mentioned my Trigun blogs on my main blog and have put stuff in the Trigun tag there before). Anyway, the fact that they have my main blocked and both of my Trigun blogs (I've found out when I've tried to reblog from them in the past and gotten a red-code and I can easily see who has blocked me if I go to replies and go to the drop-down on replies if they have an open reply-box) makes me think "Wow, this person must really hate me." - I haven't the foggiest idea why, either. I don't know what I said on any of my blogs to offend. I have to wonder if they were an OG fan back in "the day" who remembers me before I got medication and therapy / whacked over the head by life and was an objectively much shittier person (at least I hope I'm a much less shitty person today). Maybe there was a misunderstanding? Maybe I annoyed one of their friends? Gheez, I wonder if there's a callout post about me somewhere... (if so, if anyone has seen such, I'd like a chance to clear things up. Maybe a lot of untruth has been said about me. Maybe some things that were true but aren't anymore. Maybe some things stand, but if so, I'd like to be able to know, acknowledge and address). Then again, maybe I'm just banhammered because I am openly an older fan and some people think everyone over 30 should not be in fandom of any kind. Who knows? (My hyper-paranoia makes me worry "Are they on the Orange production crew to bring out all this info that they do every now and again? Did I somehow offend someone who works on the project? Am I even ALLOWED to be a fan? But then I take another look at what posts on reblogs I do see that has them theorizing and guessing as much as everyone else does, which means that they probably aren't and are just...somehow getting some concept-art). Bottom line: I want to know where to access this concept-art and translations of story-theory independent of tumblr and the occasional coming across it on tumblr. I don't want to be kept in the dark until I'm curiosity-browsing someone's art-blog and I see a reblog from "Oh, person whose blog is a Ghost Blog to me for reasons unknown." (Anyway, um, fuck you, too, buddy?)