#haven't promoted this in a while

[sasslett]

We're back, baby!

With modding tools updated and released for DT, and enough time passed since the expansion's release, I'm thrilled to announce FFXIV Swap #5 sign ups are now live!

What is FFXIV Swap, you may ask? It's a quarterly event I run on Discord in which participants are randomly assigned a giftee to make a gift for featuring their FFXIV OCs! Gifts range from traditional art, writing and gpose to custom recipes, playlists and even text based games! The creativity of our community is staggering, and no gift is too big or too small.

It's a really fun way to both share your creative skills, learn about everyone else's characters and get something lovely in return!

In addition to hosting swaps, we also do in-game and out-of-game community events, have daily prompts and WoLqotds and have spaces for sharing your works and even developing them further, as well as general jappery, all focused on our love for our blorbos.

If you'd like to learn more or participate, feel free to join with the link below! We'd love to see you there!

[dramarants]

i only want love triangles if it's whatever fucked up polygon junmo kicheol and euijeong have going on

[fallloverfic]

@craftybookworm25 replied to your post "Censorship of panels in the Chinese print release of 再见, 我的国王/See You My King by Wen Yuan":

Thanks for compiling this! I found out about SYMK a couple days ago and binged it in 2-3 days. (Can’t believe I hadn’t heard of it before.) The art? Amazing, beautiful, the art is literally so proportional and amazingly colored. The plot? Interesting, political. Good mix of sweet and deep. The characters? Green flags except the villains. They’re all so intricate and 3 dimensional. Each character has a distinct voice and personality. The relationships? Amazing. They’re all literally power couples. I just wish the fandom was bigger because it’s literally amazing and I have no one to talk to about it. I also sincerely hope they're willing to send the uncensored pages to be translated to a non-Chinese publisher for an uncensored release. I would love to have a hard copy

This got long so I put it in a post of its own, sorry. I've drafted a number of posts over the past year or so that touches on stuff here, including a sort of half-assed one on Blue Sky. But I'll go into it a little here. If you don't care, obviously feel free to ignore it.

I'm glad you're enjoying SYMK! It's a fun series for what it is, and I love Mimi/Zhang Li and Veelaveesa/Evtiti. There's some pretty art and neat ideas in it, a lot of fun humor, and it explores trauma from sexual assault in interesting ways. Also it's just fun when Mimi is thirsty over Zhang Li. And I'm glad you appreciated my summary of the censorship problems!

I'm not particularly sure what "proportional" means in this context. Wen Yuan is generally a good artist, though their art does have some issues (mostly Akinatton's design, it's just... mmm... Imu is also kind of strangely drawn).

I'm also not sure what a flag system is meant to mean for fictional characters. Red flags are for real people and situations, not folks who don't exist (e.g., I got into the situation and there was a red flag, so I left). Like... I'm not interested in dating or hanging out with or working with the characters, I'm interested in reading about them, so what is the value of a flag system here? The goal is to see how the characters interact with each other. And antagonists are meant to be antagonists. Generally, the best characters are messy. They make for great stories. I know this flag system is popular on booktok, which is one reason I avoid booktok. If everyone was squeaky clean for that green flag, whatever that means, the story would be boring.

I am writing the following while full of love for the series, as someone who's written three fics for it, bought a lot of merch for it, including the first three volumes of it in Chinese, and buys episodes of it on Kuaikan and Tappytoon. I've promoted it on multiple platforms, and suggested it to a number of people I know. It's a good series. If you don't like criticism of it, I would stop reading this post now. Here's a panel from Episode 93 of The Bois looking prette for buffer.

There's a lot of reasons I think the fandom is unfortunately small, and I'm not quite sure how those issues will be surmounted before it's complete or just outside the passage of time for the fandom to grow more, though I think the fandom is bigger than it looks, at least in China and Thailand. I've been in the fandom since October 2022, and at least from my perception, it hasn't grown much in that time, though it helps that there's a lot more story and an official English translation now.

Part of the issue is tag hunting. The most popular tags are SYMK and See You My King and seeyoumyking, but people who only read in say, English or any non-Chinese language, are statistically less likely to know that, especially if they find it through Tappytoon or Tapas, where that is not its English name. It's the official English name on Chinese merch, but that's not the name that English licensors use for it. So a small fandom is dispersed across many different tags (e.g., the three English names, the Chinese name, the transliteration of the Chinese names, the initialism, an assortment of versions of the name with and without spaces, on top of tags grabbing anything with "king" in it). This hasn't been an issue for other danmei, but at least every tag gets decently popular in a lot of those danmei. There's one particular danmei that is so popular that the accidental misspelling of a tag is ridiculously populated. On Blue Sky Social, of all places. But SYMK can't even really populate one tag, let alone a misspelling.

It seems to have a decent audience on Weibo (from what little I've seen), but even then, that's a drop in an ocean (though I think the signed copies of the books sell pretty fast in China, which speaks to fandom power). What little fandom I find outside Weibo is mostly the same small handful of people sharing screencaps and a couple cosplayers. It has less than a dozen pieces of fanart floating around and it's not spoken of much on the danmei servers I'm in (though I did end up in one server for Europeans who seemed really into it). It's got something of an audience on Instagram, but Instagram is a pain in the ass to navigate, especially because it's even more full of people just spamming screengrabs. (But I mean if you're looking for people to talk to about it... maybe try Instagram? I guess?)

But I think the central issue is that there are (to my knowledge) only really two big boys love comics based on Egyptian stuff, SYMK and ENNEAD. There are other boys love comics based on Egyptian history, culture, and mythology, like Cairo and エジプト神の恋人, but ENNEAD and SYMK are the two big ones that I know of, and there's little else outside Cairo and エジプト神の恋人; and Cairo is the only other one with an official English translation. Most other Egyptian comics I'm aware of aren't BL and/or aren't romance at all. Dear Monster, which is the next best thing, only has one Egyptian god romance in it, the other characters are just non-Egyptian fantasy creatures, and it's a visual novel. Pantheon by Hamish Steele, Oh, Suddenly, Egyptian God! by Yuka, 災禍の神は願わない by 尾羊英, and Legends of the Nile by Dooyong Jang and Bohyun Kim aren't BL or romance.

Why this matters is that comparison is unavoidable. ENNEAD has an older fandom (SYMK started in like 2022, ENNEAD existed in some form in 2017 or slightly before), which is larger, and, much as I do really love SYMK (again, I have like two shelves of merch, I've written three fics for it, and would love to write more, and recommend it whenever I can), ENNEAD is just, on all fronts (writing, art, character development, plotting, dynamics, the various themes it discusses, drama, and focusing on Egyptian mythology), the better comic. And I think most people who find out about SYMK can tell, and thus SYMK looks worse by comparison, and so folks have no interest in what SYMK has to offer as a result. Which is unfortunate, because I think SYMK is enjoyable on its own merits and even if you also like ENNEAD. There have been a number of folks in ENNEAD fandom who've recommended SYMK (myself included), particularly for folks who want more at least vaguely similar things to ENNEAD (I originally found out about SYMK through an ENNEAD fan Discord), but it's led to very little, at least in my experience.

I am also notoriously bad at getting people into new fandoms. I have very few followers/subscribers whom I've gotten to try other fandoms I write for (though I'm grateful to every single one who gives other fandoms a chance!). But I'm decently popular or at least well-known in ENNEAD as a writer and I think I've seen... a couple of my followers at best give any of my SYMK fics a try. Folks will try my other Korean fandom stuff, or my other popular danmei fandom fics, or my Japanese fandom fics, and even stuff from outside Asia. But not SYMK.

SYMK and ENNEAD are also very different comics, not just because the former is Chinese and the latter is Korean, but also because SYMK is an isekai story focusing on cross-cultural clash and political corruption, while ENNEAD focuses more on the failures of justice systems, how families enable abuse, what it means to be human (or at least how you find your purpose in life), how we engage with mythology (of the supernatural and political kind), truth, and responsibility. There are similarities (e.g., both stories focus on power dynamics, trauma from assault, sibling drama, anxiety and self-hatred, and how people who have been hurt can find love). And there are some very odd direct similarities to the point that I kind of wonder if Wen Yuan has read and/or is a fan of ENNEAD...

But my point here is that even though I think SYMK is not as good as ENNEAD, it's still good for what it is, and people should be able to appreciate it (like it's just more kind of Egyptian BL, what's not to like?). But... that's where SYMK's other issues likely come into play. Centrally, despite the fact it does go to dark places, many of which are also in ENNEAD (e.g., sexual assault, cannibalism, slavery, brother-brother incest, how strong men struggle to be viewed as victims of assault and find help as a result), it's just... too fluffy. The dynamic between the leads has, generally, been too boring. Near the end of the last season, it got pretty decent (around when Narcissus was really screwing with both Mimi and Zhang Li). But before that it was just kind of back and forth going nowhere, and the characters were inconsistently written.

Like people promote SYMK because it's, according to them, "everything ENNEAD fails to be" or whatever because they hate the dark stuff in ENNEAD and just want fluff (or at least think complaining loudly that this is what they hate and what they want makes them a better person). Or it's so much "better", and yet, despite the fact there's a lot of comic for SYMK now, very few people actually read or care about it outside China (and parts of Europe, and Thailand). Like, a popular criticism of ENNEAD is that sexual assault in narratives is fine, but not as much as what's in ENNEAD. And okay, fine, I say: read SYMK. It's got less of that.

-cue cricket noises-

So it seems like people prefer all that awful, awful non-con overload in ENNEAD after all. -pretending to be shocked because actually ENNEAD is well-written, well-drawn, and fun, lots of people do like that stuff, and people are just shoving their personal shame onto others-

Don't get me wrong, I know SYMK appeals to a lot of people who aren't satisfied with ENNEAD or just don't want what's in ENNEAD. But SYMK had a faster English translation during its publication cycle than ENNEAD did. SYMK has 93 episodes. The leads are together, it's got merch out the wazoo. People complained that it took forever to get an English translation of ENNEAD, that it has no merch (which isn't true at least now), and there's not enough romance in it. ENNEAD even had a month hiatus in Korean recently. And that led to no jumps in SYMK's fandom that I noticed. Something is keeping people from getting into SYMK and I can only conclude... it's at least some of the stuff people insist SYMK does "better" on, because people (myself included) disagree SYMK does better at it.

Or at least the things SYMK allegedly does better at aren't enough to surmount its less great aspects.

And we're not getting into how, because SYMK is Chinese, it's way more censored than most things. Like in a way I haven't seen even on other danmei. I admit I haven't explored all that many danmei manhua, but it's really egregious (not surprising; people get arrested in China for this kind of stuff due to the government's homophobia). And I think that bores a lot of people. It's too fluffy, too safe, too censored. Will-they-won't-they tension with a bit of humor just isn't grabbing people. And while I love Veelaveesa and Evtiti and find them cute and funny and love every single panel we get of them the best (like I both hope for and fear more Evtiti merch, it is my kryptonite, save my wallet), there's just not enough tension in their relationship to appeal to most folks, either.

Like let's compare: ENNEAD had a kiss between Seth and Osiris in S1E11, the Horuseth kiss in S1E14, and a sex scene that started in S1E29. SYMK had some hand holding and cuddling between Zhang Li and Stone early on... a maybe almost kiss in Episode 4, and then... nothing really until Episode 19, when Veelaveesa and Evtiti kiss and lounge in bed together (which is wonderful, but it's not sex, nor is it the leads). The leads have some daydreaming, and more recently some kissing and cuddling, but they don't really get it on (outside a dream of Mimi's) until Episode 92 (and it's some light touching, chest squishing, a couple kisses, some good make-outs, and then one shadow sequence before they're just on a bed together, versus multiple longer sex scenes in ENNEAD). SYMK is a decently chaste manhua, seemingly due to censorship. ENNEAD delivers much earlier, and in larger quantities. And despite the fact that Zhang Li and Mimi get along faster and stay together (in some respect) earlier than Horuseth, that is clearly not enough to keep an audience of much size (outside China). People can go on about how much "healthier" Zhang Li and Mimi are. But that doesn't seem to be grabbing anyone. SYMK is not the alternate BL I see any of the many ENNEAD fans I follow talking about, or an alternative people who dislike ENNEAD suggest, even when including manhua. Heck, since I started more regularly browsing tags for it, I see it brought up even less than I used to, which is bizarre, because I assumed the sex scene would bring in more fans.

The leads just aren't as fun, or even on their own, that fun. I like them, I like writing about them, I want to see what happens to them. I wish them the best future. They both have interesting struggles, Mimi in particular. But they're also kind of generally boring, even without Seth and Horus to compare to. Zhang Li is whatever the story needs him to be. Mimi bounces back and forth (partially because of Zhang Li's nonsense). The miscommunication becomes frustrating.

The antagonists aren't very compelling, either. Sutter is fun, but he vanished for a good chunk of the recent plot (and also his character feels a bit inconsistent) and now he's permagone. The church members are just irritating. The faux Set/Osiris priest died before doing much. Sutter's zombie never got much development (his most interesting moment is right before he's presumably dismembered). Mimi and Sutter's brother has been dead the entire time. We still don't know why Zhang Li was transported back. Narcissus is... whatever the plot needs him to be, which is kind of boring. So you've got a kind of vague, wandering plot, a meandering lead romance (with a side canon pairing who don't show much, especially since they're apart for most of the story), and that's... it.

Another central issue is that it doesn't fully embrace the Egyptian stuff. It's more of a mix of pseudo Greek-Egyptian stuff, and that's going to frustrate people looking for more... not exactly accurate, but more actually focused on Greek and/or Egyptian stuff. Since it's fantasy, and fiction, the author can do whatever they want, but in SYMK's case, that often feels like the Egyptian stuff in particular is there for the aesthetic, not as actual world-building. It does bring in some neat Egyptian cultural and historical stuff (like the cone bread), but it's less important than a comparable Egyptian boys love comic like ENNEAD, which more heavily embraces the Egyptian inspiration.

I also think the idea of "modern Chinese medical student going back to the past to learn how to survive in Ancient Egypt" is neat as a premise but boring in execution. Zhang Li is an expert spy and fighter and really smart, and he has reasons for being the way he is, but it makes a lot of problems lack tension. And when he does face real obstacles... the problems seem stupid. Like they're just designed for him to get rescued (assuming he didn't set it up himself to fuck with either Mimi or their enemies). The existence of magic is wonky as well. The world-building is basically just a mess in general. And anyone who doesn't care about isekai is going to give it a pass right off the bat (I know a number of people who hate isekai, it's a hard sell). ENNEAD, meanwhile, is not isekai, and deals with a lot of neat mythology (also it has more magic; magic is cool).

The art in SYMK is generally nice and the characters generally look good. That being said, Mimi is basically one of a small handful of good-looking and/or interesting characters. Zhang Li is pretty enough, but he's also kind of bland. I love Evtiti (visually, he's my favorite after Mimi, and personality-wise, he's my favorite), but he's a bit too slinky and he doesn't show up much. Veelaveesa is fine but there's something weird about his face, particularly near his hairline. Narcissus is fine and generic. Kaba's pretty, and again, seldom shows up. Sutter is nice, but his white hair looks odd (also he vanished for a lot of the manhua and he's now dead(?) and been revived to be white Mimi). And his bodyguard, and Stone, are just Mimi again. No one else comes to mind. Meanwhile, ENNEAD has a large cast of interesting, attractive, and fun characters. And for all Mojito's faults with art (and she does have some), she didn't do anything remotely like what Wen Yuan does with Akinatton (like even Ra isn't that bad imo). And that's... not great. And you meet him early. And from what I've seen of people's comments, that's a turn-off. Growing off that, people criticize ENNEAD because it's "whitewashing" or whatever (because they can't comprehend pale-skinned Egyptians and don't know mythology). Those people probably look at SYMK and give it an even wider pass (I imagine most of them are too clueless to realize Zhang Li is Chinese, but that's not the only issue). Also we're not getting into how a recent arc had Mimi, the main darker-skinned character... lighten his skin... (temporarily, as a disguise, but... the story does itself no favors...).

Another issue is that the English translation Kuaikan sends out is mostly garbage. Like atrociously bad. I've seen typos in some of Tappytoon's translations before, and I've never seen them as bad and frequent as what's in SYMK, to the point I really question if it's just gen-AI machine translation. Which discourages people from paying for it or paying attention to it. It's gotten better lately, but so far as I can tell, they've fixed nothing earlier.

I know, I rail against people comparing them and most of this is me comparing them, and that's not what you were doing, but well... that's where it ends up. At this point, given ENNEAD's prominence as the Egyptian boys love comic, I think its existence cannot be divorced from why SYMK's fandom is the way it is. That's not ENNEAD's fault or Mojito's fault or Wen Yuan's fault. It's just... the way it is. Maybe with time, the audience will grow. Maybe the CCP will reverse its homophobic policies and the comic will get to shine. We'll have to see!

Again, I like the series, for all its flaws. It does not surprise me, for many reasons, why it's not as popular as it could be.

That all being said, the only things I've actually seen people criticize are: the kind of racism, the slowness and will-they-won't they stuff, and that it's too fluffy. Most of the rest is very speculative and just based on observation on why something relatively similar is not appealing to a fanbase that should be all over it, and not just because I am bad at promoting things to other people. Far more popular people than I have recommended this series. It's done seemingly nothing. (Or people try it and then... never speak of it again)

Anyway, here's some cute shots of all the best bois in Episode 93 to make up for reading through all that.

From what I've seen at least of the preview for the Spanish physical release, the Spanish physical release is as uncensored as it can get, at least matching what's on Tappytoon (and I assume on Tapas). My hope is that another English publisher will get what's been put on Weibo, and they'll be allowed to do their own translation. I have the Chinese volumes, they're very pretty, I'm waiting for volume 3 to ship. But I'd love a physical version of this series that I can read and also isn't censored to heck. Like I was so mad they cut out the Veelaveesa/Evtiti stuff in the Chinese physical release and that was before I saw how much they butchered so much of Mimi and Zhang Li (and other characters, RIP borb). What gives me hope is that it does seem to have an audience: it gets a lot of merch, it's on its third volume, printing-wise, and it has two English licensors already. There are still a lot of English danmei translators, and manhua translations are slowly picking up, so my hope is maybe, at some point, we'll get an English physical release, too. I used to send in Seven Seas monthly surveys every month begging for ENNEAD before it came out, and after getting into SYMK, I added SYMK to the mix as well.

[fragmentedblade]

I called it, Ruan Mei is deranged and shady as hell

[sp1ed]

【  𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆  𝐖𝐇𝐎  𝐘𝐎𝐔  𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐃  𝐓𝐎  𝐁𝐄  𝐓𝐎  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄  𝐈𝐒  𝐒𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐘  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐖𝐀𝐘  𝐎𝐅  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒  𝐒𝐏𝐘 】  . . .   a  19+  ,  private  ,  highly  selective  &  mutual  only  roleplay  blog  for  𝘼𝘿𝘼  𝙒𝙊𝙉𝙂  ,  a  character  in  capcom's  𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓  𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐋  𝐅𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐄 .  my  characterization  for  her  will  be  canon  -  divergent  due  to  pulling  influences  from  the  original  games  ,  the  remakes  &  personal  headcanons  that  will  change  and  /  or  expand  on ��parts  of  ada  as  a  character .  𝙫𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨  𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙨  will  be  present  on  this  blog  ,  both  ones  based  in  canon  &  alternative  universes . 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥  /  𝐧𝐨𝐧  -  𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲  𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐬  𝐝𝐨  𝐧𝐨𝐭  𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭.

  ❪  𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐤  ❫  💉  he / they , 25 , est. , beta editor only . ©        𝐄𝐒𝐓. 𝟏𝟐 / 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑

[emiliosandozsequence]

hey you guy should join my discord server for the sparrow <3

[agnesandhilda]

hello tumblr user agnesandhilda have you read the isagi light novel? if you have, what are your thoughts on how his full backstory contrasts kaiser's backstory?

I read it last month!! I didn't draw any parallels bc kaiser's backstory hadn't been released then lol 😅 I guess if I wrote something off the top of my head I'd talk about how big the difference in parental treatment/support as well as in overall class status is between them, especially wrt to how they relate to football (isagi whose passion for football was supported by his loving parents from an early age, vs. kaiser secretly buying a ball with his own money and going to great lengths to hide it from his father based on a correct assumption that he would forcibly take it from him).

I was also struck by just how... cartoonish the emphasis on how bad the collectivism of isagi's previous teams is was (the most sinister thing that isagi encounters pre-blue lock being that his friends peer pressure him into doing karaoke is hilarious), but I'm well-known as a blue lock libertarianism truther so I don't think that's very surprising for me to say.

that being said I am interested in how they developed such similar thought processes wrt to success and competition from such different backgrounds. like with kaiser you can argue that his hostility and desire to "crush" other players is a (deeply maladaptive) defense mechanism but by all accounts isagi is just..... like that? which I don't count as bad writing (honestly I like that his perspective is considered "important" enough to follow/to demand sympathy even though he lacks so many traditional signifiers of protagonistdom, one of which is having a sympathetic backstory. it's unusual and part of blue lock's commentary on the sports manga genre!) but is still fascinating nonetheless

[orcusnoir]

The Shadow Over Hyrule - Chapter 6

Just ahead of them over a small hill were the burnt out remains of a farmstead… With no obvious signs of life. Wild jogged up the hill, and unclipped the Sheikah Slate from his waist, using the camera function in the ancient piece of technology to get a closer view, but all he could see was a burnt home, a destroyed barn, and a field of crops scorched away.

“You see anything?” Time asked cautiously.

The Champion shook his head before clipping the Slate back onto his waist. “Nothing, not a monster nor man in sight,” he said.

“Fuck,” cursed Warriors. “Alright, fan out and look for survivors or Goddess forbid evidence.”

A small chorus of quiet confirmations echoed from the Chain as everyone began to split into groups. Wild stuck with Legend and Hyrule, as they made their way to the burned house. On the way, the Champion made notice of a distinct lack of stray arrows or thrown rocks. If this were a monster attack, surely there would be a handful of broken arrows littering the ground. Unless, of course, they were dealing with Bokoblins with accuracy that rivaled Wild himself.

The first major thing that the three made note of was the screen door of the house. As it was jammed shut… From the outside, a small piece of lumber was wedged between the railing of the front porch and the door itself. This detail, coupled with the burnt state of the house, sent shivers down the Champion’s spine.

“Guess we’re all on the same page?” Legend uttered quietly before kicking away the now mostly charred piece of wood.

There wasn’t really much to be found in the first room of the house, other than a sketchy set of stairs that the Traveler volunteered to climb. The living room had remains of a couch and a piano, which stung Wild’s heart slightly, and the dining room was much the same with a table set being reduced to nothing more than charcoal remains.

It was the kitchen area that proved to be the most useful to their investigation. Even though it was as burnt out as the rest of the house, in a small closet tucked into the wall were several charred barrels. Barrels full of salt pork. Barrels full of salt pork that hadn’t been opened at all.

“This was no monster attack,” declared Wild, turning to face Legend who was currently investigating the cupboards.

“What makes you say that?” asked the Veteran as he casually tossed a shattered glass bottle over his shoulder.

“This,” Wild tipped over one of the barrels onto the floor with a loud thud. Legend just stared at it wide eyed.

“That’s full of meat isn’t it,” he asked, his voice going quiet.

A short nod, “several barrels of it. Monsters don’t leave meat behind.”

Legend cursed softly under his breath before calling Hyrule over to the kitchen. It didn’t take long at all for the Traveler to show up, though neither Wild nor Legend were expecting him to show up clutching a burned book.

Sensing that the two of them wanted an explanation, Hyrule handed the book over to Legend for him to read.

“It’s a journal,” Hyrule stated, “belonging to the man who lived here.”

The Veteran gave a nod before he, carefully and delicately, started to flip through the pages. Wild tensely waited as he quietly explained to Hyrule that the attack wasn’t done by monsters.

“This is weird,” Legend said at last. “This journal mentions a shipment on a boat, a small-ish box, and whatever was in the box,” he paused, squinting his eyes. “It says: The shipment, which contained a strange red and blue object, somehow caught the eye of two sailors. Who then proceeded to beat each other to death at sea. ”

The three of them exchanged glances as the weight of the passage set in.

“So now there’s a box that contains an object that can drive men to murder?” Wild scoffed, “that’s the last thing we need.” Read more: :3

[oplishin]

man. watching anything from the early women's revolution era in wwe makes me super emotional lmfao!! it's the little smiles they keep sneaking each other. so many women worked so hard to try and keep the promise wwe made. they all believed in it so much.

[fakeoldmanfucker]

The blue line under "facebook" when Mark is blogging never fails to get me. It's just such a good detail to acknowledge how much he and his company changed the internet.

[icarusinterlude]

x

[ichabodcranemills]

Fobwatch Spydoc fic updated!!

Here’s the important story:

Once upon a time, there were two best friends. They loved each other terribly. They hated each other beautifully.

They saved one another but that, of course, never solved anything.

[yukikorogashi]

   When a new person follows me because one of you quietly recommended me to them.

[throughpatchesofviolet]

Are you guys ready for a "Sarah's Blind Reaction" to a new ID-- /lh

--because holy smokes we got a new Ishmael ID and I am SO happy about her!! She's a Zwei Fixer!! She and Zwei!Sherry can be friends!!

Also I have so many screenshots from her Uptie Story because I was so excited--straight up having a massive kinnie moment in my server.

^ This is how I was in school all the time--and how I still am when I'm going on tours and listening to lectures. I actually use this strategy when dealing with people at work (though with more courtesy), too.

Just ...! She's so relatable right here!! And I absolutely love that she ends up being right in the end since she has to cover for these colleagues when they--having not paid attention--get themselves killed during the mission they're on.

^ She literally showed up to protect this civilian after those two perished. And then--AND THEN--

--SHE TOOK CARE OF IT ALL BY HERSELF!! SHE'S SO COOL!!

Also, the fact Heathcliff's Section 3 Öufi ID was the last ID released in Season 3 (Ishmael's Season) and Ishmael's Section 3 Zwei ID is the last ID released in Season 4 (Heathcliff's Season) ... you can't tell me that isn't intentional. And the fact both are Tremor IDs that I somehow didn't have spoiled?? I'm grinning so wide you have no idea--

This also opens the doors for a potential Zwei!Heathcliff and if we get him I will explode-- /pos /hyperbole

(I've been thinking about Zwei!Sherry and Zwei!Heathcliff more, and since Heathcliff has a cameo in Rodya's Zwei ID ... he and Sherry would be a cute Zwei couple ...)

BACK TO ISHMAEL. Hellbat pointed out that Ishmael appears in Faust's Zwei South Section 4 ID, and since Ishmael is actually a higher ranked Zwei Fixer ... does that means she's supervising her?

^ She's even taking notes of how Faust behaves. Ishy is her superior ~

[hekcle]

Honestly with how tired I'm getting I might just cave and finally merge art and main blogs or just post here, schedule to reblog to art

[useless-catalanfacts]

Something very strange happened, and I think we need to have a talk about the way some people who don't know about Catalan culture misrepresent the Tió (our pre-Christian Christmas present-bringer, a log who poops presents 🪵🎁).

I have a relative who is a teacher in an adult school, she teaches Catalan language (mostly to immigrants). Some days ago, they were doing an activity about Catalan holidays, and two of her students said that Tió should be banned and that it's the worst thing they have ever heard. My relative was very shocked and asked why they could say such a thing (imagine, it's like saying Santa Claus should be banned in the USA). Their reasoning was that they completely misunderstood everything about it. These people are native Spanish speakers and assumed that the Catalan word "tió" (meaning "log" 🪵) means the same as the Spanish word "tío" (meaning "uncle"), even though both words are pronounced differently. They believed that the Tió represents a man and that we tell children to beat people up, so much until they poop themselves, threatening them to give us things. They said it promotes violence to children and that it's disgusting. Nothing further from the truth.

This is not an isolated incident because a few days ago I saw a post on Tumblr repeating this same mistake. I texted the person who posted it saying that it's not called "Poop Uncle" but "Christmas Log" and they said that this was what they were taught by their teacher (this person is from a different continent), and haven't taken down the post. I have also seen comments on Instagram repeating the same and making fun of how gross and violent it is.

The real meaning of Tió

The Log is a way of symbolically passing down our relation with nature. This is how the tradition works:

In early December, we get a log and bring him home. We take care of him: we keep him in a warm place, with a blanket over him, and we feed him things like orange/clementine peels and walnut shells. On Christmas day, all the family comes together. Children get wooden sticks and go get ready in another room, meanwhile adults place presents under the Log's blanket. Children come back and hit the Log while singing a song. There are many local variants of the song but they all come down to asking the Log to poop us good food. When they have finished singing the song, the children remove the blanket and discover the presents that the Log has pooped. Years ago (now this is only done by some farmer families in rural areas, but back in the day this was generalized), the Log was burned in the house's fireplace and its ashes were spread on the fields, believed to act as a magical fertilizer.

Notice what this whole "ritual" has been about: we take care of nature, nature takes care of us, we are part of a whole and there's no real difference between "nature" and "us" because we all give life to each other.

We take a log from the forest and bring it home. We do this for the Winter Solstice because it's the time of the return of light and the rebirth of nature after the winter sleep, and wood symbolizes the most important things for human life: food, warmth and light. It's difficult for us to imagine nowadays because we are used to electricity, but for our ancestors who only had oil lamps, fire and candles, darkness was almost absolute for many hours in winter, and that's why the Winter Solstice was very important because it meant that light is coming back. We want something from the Log, his fire will allow us to cook, it will give us light, and keep us warm. So we offer him the same: we feed him (notice what we feed it, too: a kind of compost, which is complimentary to human food), we keep him warm, and we love him. Then, we hit him with sticks (mimicking the motion of cutting down a tree) and ask him to give us food, and he does. Then, our ancestors used to burn him for warmth and light, and then take him back to plants spreading his ashes so it will give life to the fields. Which in turn will give us food again, which we will poop and it will fertilize plants again. And it's a cycle that never ends, we're all part of a whole.

We give to the forests, the forests can grow with the remains that all living creatures leave on its ground: leafs, excrements, the remains of parts of our food like nuts and fruit peels. These things give life to the forest. And the forest gives life to us: gives us fruits and wood (=light and warmth). We take these things, and in return we give to forests once again.

Nowadays, the part about warmth and light is often lost to kids, but the part about food is still obvious, even if subconsciously. This is why the Log is not the horrible barbaric tradition that the "haha poop and violence" crowd would make you believe.

And don't get me wrong, it can still be funny! We're the first ones to make jokes about it. And you can, too! But don't spread false ideas: the Spanish word "uncle" appears nowhere near this tradition because it doesn't have anything to do with uncles nor with Spanish-speaking cultures. It's called the Christmas Log (Tió de Nadal, Soca de Nadal, Tronca de Nadal, Tizón de Nadal, etc depending on the area, all meaning "Christmas Log") and it's celebrated by the Catalan people and a part of the Occitan and Pyrenean Aragonese people. The word "poop" (as an imperative verb, as in "please poop for us") appears in the song, but not in the name.

I know that, now that misinformation has gone viral, a post won't stop it. But I hope at least people with a genuine interest can learn some more. By all means, keep laughing! Make all the memes you want! But knowing the whole story will give you understanding. And, please, don't argue in favour of banning our cultural practises, we've had enough of that for centuries.