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yorkscoffee · 1 year ago

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played fae farm during the trial week on switch ... the npcs are made of cardboard and there r some weird bugs and quirks in the game but i had a good time. may or may not have gone a lil insane and completed the whole story and made it to almost the end of summer year 2

gonna write out some thoughts

one of the weird quirks is that u can't name ur character. they will just simply be named after like ur steam or switch or whatever profile. unless u make a phoenix labs account then u can change ur name that way, but if u go offline at all it switches back to the profile name until u log in again (pause > multiplayer > login button; u don't have to actually do multiplayer just log in). very annoying when i do not like to play as myself in these games & also just a strange decision in general imo

character creator is decent but i would recommend going to the voice selection and hitting "silent" before actually getting into it LOL the noises the character makes get so annoying after a bit... the pronoun selection is nice (he she or they) & u can go back into the character creator using a craftable mirror so u can switch all that stuff up whenever u want

the storyline was cute; not exactly deep but the artwork was neat. i liked all the rhymes and the storybook-y feel. the sprites have nice designs. wisp mother should be a romance candidate but she is not

gameplay felt nice; i liked the auto tool switching and the double jump a lot, & having spells and potions that helped with farming was cool. very light on tutorials but if ur experienced with the genre its not too hard to figure out (idk how it is w/o experience bc i cannot un-experience things). having year-round plants that u use magic fertilizer on to change them into seasonal varieties was funky

animals are pretty quirky and a lil buggy. sometimes i would try to water a plant or something and a chicken would teleport to me from across the farm and get pet. or they would just wander away from the Sign That Is Supposed To Keep Animals Near It and get in the way. fences cannot stop them they will simply walk thru it. also in my experience my cows and sheep would stop giving milk and wool if i didnt enter the barn the day before, even if they had food? weird lil quirk there but once i figured it out it was fine

u can pretty much ignore the animals and their affection will still go up & theyll still produce things as long as u feed them, and also the only punishment for not feeding them is they don't produce things. very forgiving. something i thought was really interesting tho that they dont actually point out in game is that petting ur animals gives u some regen on ur stamina and magic and probably hp, which is Super handy and a neat mechanic that got me to continue paying attention to my animals anyway

decorating ur house with specific furniture gives u a "cozy home" bonus; basically this is how u increase ur hp/mp/stamina, which i think is also a pretty neat lil mechanic

also flower breeding is a mechanic. 6 types of flowers, 6 different genes, 12 unique colors. works pretty much like acnh but also u can breed 2 different types of flowers (so like a rose and a tulip) and u'll have a 50/50 shot at getting one or the other. i got almost every color and i will be haunted by the white zinnia until i have an actual copy of the game. also the genes are actually displayed in a lil tooltip when the cursor is over the flower which is really really cool and good and i love that feature so so much it makes everything so much easier and less frustrating

the game doesnt tell u this iirc but crops and flowers can be moved if u go into the uhhhh build mode. like u can just pick up a whole plant and move it wherever. very handy for both flower breeding and just organizing things in general. u can just pick up and move almost anything, & if u can't u can tear it down and get all materials back. u cannot do either thing to a crafting station that has items in it though u have to get the items out first if u want to break it down or move it

flowers r very important if u like customization also. u unlock 2 color palettes (a grand total of 6 colors) automatically and u have to buy the rest. most of them cost like 30 of a particular flower + some other item + money. u can recolor furniture and outfits with ur unlocked color palettes which is nice

combat was fine, bonus points for the potion of i just want to mine please don't perceive me. also bonus points because there is actually a storyline reason for the monsters to be there; always hate it when a game is like "videogame... have combat. videogame Must have combat. i put monsters in cave. now this is a real video game :)" like nah tell me where those slimes came from. in this case the monsters are objects animated by wild magic and they have cute designs and goofy lil names like cannot (a cannon) and skello (a cello)

there are 3 dungeons in the game & the latter two have funky lil puzzle mechanics. if u aint like that then theres things u can make to skip most of em. i thought they were neat & being able to remove them pretty easily meant they didnt overstay their welcome. they also require specific potions so u don't like "die" (get teleported out of the dungeon, which is also what happens if u lose all ur hp) which would probably be cooler if pausing the game would pause the timers on the potions. i assume that sort of thing is because the game was made with multiplayer in mind; this is presumably also the reason why having anything pause time at all in singleplayer was added in an update after launch

(pausing also does not pause monsters. they will murderize u with the pause screen up. on switch u can just go to the home menu 4 a proper pause at least)

the npcs are as mentioned largely made of cardboard; most of the ones u can't befriend (most of the merchants) have the same pool of lines, and the ones u can have a few personal lines and a bunch of lines referencing things uve done in the game even if its been like 10 years since u did it (common in the genre). there are no events with the non-romance npcs or interactions between any npcs except for like some animations; every conversation witnessed is an npc talking to protagonist. the only events are the dates with the romance characters, which are just them and protagonist sitting around and talking with absolutely nothing happening. the dialogue is cute at least

romance npcs' statuses will sometimes get stuck for some reason (this happened to 2 of them when i played) but that i think should be fixable with the "reset relationship" button, which is a pretty cool feature (tho my understanding is it's also a bit buggy sometimes so ymmv)

festivals are just decorations in town and a shop in town hall (including the fae festival, which one would expect to happen in the fae realm). characters have a few unique lines referencing the festival. sometimes they reference... the Wrong festival. goofy lil oversight i think. birthdays are on the calendar but have no impact in-game

marriage is also very nothing; u get a cute wedding scene and then ur spouse just vibes around the farm sometimes. there is no dialogue about this. also other romance npcs' relationship status change to "past sweetheart" or something like that and u cant progress with them at all since ur not allowed to be friends with them

gift giving is also only for romance npcs and each one has a random item that is the only thing u can possibly give them that day. but like talking to them gives good enough points regardless

job quests (questlines related to each skill u have, given by npcs related to that skill) are neat lil "challenges" but u can only pick up one at a time for some reason. weird design choice imo. they give u a hat for doing all the quests and an outfit if u do all the quests And some 100% requirement (like getting every crop at least once for the farming quests, making one of each polished gem variety for mining, etc) which i think is pretty neat

overall i think i would compare it to story of seasons: pioneers of olive town (particularly in its initial state) in that the npcs are very nothing but the gameplay loop is very good and fun; between the two i would say fae farm has the better story tho lol

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madhyanas · 4 years ago

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tell me ur thoughts on twilek head coverings 👀

aw YES thank u so much my brain was going to burst

to avoid my brain melting out my ears and also to apply some Critical Thought and Depth to star wars for once: i will be ignoring the aspects of the gross sexualisation of female twi’leks that aren’t relevant to what i’m saying. as recommended by doctors

tw: discussions of canon-typical slavery, trafficking, hyper-sexualisation. brief explanation of blood as internally transported by the body (not graphic). compression aids/stockings for medical purposes.

only mentioning things people might want to avoid - it’s mostly okay!

0. ‘lekku’ - the tentacles growing from twi’lek heads. that’s uhhhh p important lmao

broadly speaking, i see 2 primary points of significance to twi’lek head coverings: cultural and anatomical.

1. cultural significance

to start with the obvious, we only see head coverings worn almost exclusively on women and children. children seemed to wear head coverings regardless of gender (see: suu lawquane’s kids). the only examples i could find of any coverings on adult men are either helmets or bands that wrap around the ends - with the exception of this dude who appears in the kanan comics and honestly? looks amazing

one interpretation could be a modesty-oriented culture. this is probably my favourite cultural explanation, and one i could 100% see emerging as a form of liberation amongst twi’lek women as a response to the over-sexualisation and trafficking of their species. especially since it’s such a well-known practice and stereotype. (for instance, it’s one that hera syndulla took advantage of multiple times to lower people’s guard.)

the over-sexualisation of twi’leks is, as far as canon is concerned, distinct to twi’lek women, while enslaved twi’lek men were typically trafficked for manual labour. so it would make sense that the women’s experiences and trauma, being different from that of their male counterparts, may have resulted in a unique custom of dress in retaliation to their suffering.

very messed up how twi’leks are characterised as individuals and as a species, but something i would like to explore from that is how their subjugation and hyper-sexualisation influenced their community identity, their ideologies (especially regarding independence) and the twi’lek population taking back autonomy over their bodies and appearance.

(in my opinion twi’lek women should have more identity-asserting narratives beyond just a few characters, but that’s by the by.)

however, there are a lot of flaws in the modesty-oriented interpretation idea. firstly, if originating as a social revolution against their enslavement, it only makes sense for as long as the enslavement and trafficking of twi’leks had been a practice. not so sure how it works out pre-Empire. secondly, it doesn’t really work in the case of enslaved twi’leks. think original trilogy - they wore ornate head coverings even when barely clothed otherwise. my guess is that these are more for ‘decoration’, for lack of a better word. since the head coverings themselves are apparently a staple of twi’lek culture, it could be that slavers let enslaved twi’leks wear head coverings for the. ‘exotic’ effect. or whatever. disgusting so let’s move on

it could very well be a religious custom, though i don’t think this is very convincing. simply because we don’t see much of twi’lek religion at all. wish we did :(

there’s a few more possible interpretations but last one for now: family lineage. from the kalikori episodes in rebels, it’s made very clear that family legacy is a defining aspect of a twi’lek’s individual identity. so i guess it wouldn’t be a stretch for women to ‘pass on’ a certain style of head covering through the family line. this explanation is really fun imo because it could possibly explain the different styles of head coverings a little more comprehensively than just regional variations/personal preferences. it also adds more more depth to what’s already been established as twi’lek tradition. could also be little things like medallions/ornaments added to head coverings.

then again - to once more rain on my own parade - this might not check out, since neither suu’s children share any similarities in head coverings to her own, nor does hera to her mother’s. but more on hera’s head coverings below

2. anatomical/physiological

yeah alright i started getting tired here so. bullet points

star wars plays fast and loose when it comes to twi’lek physiology, especially lekku

the presence of ‘braintails’ - lekku that apparently contain part of a twi’lek’s BRAIN (whack) could be a reason for head coverings

so first and foremost i guess a logical explanation would be it’s just safer to have your brain wrapped up lmao - if they’re contained in dangly bits like lekku with no BONE encasing them (???) then having something wrapped around tightly would be a pretty basic safety measure

why don’t men wear them then? well quite a lot of male twi’lek’s have bulbous, protruding foreheads. not too far-fetched to argue that men’s brains are located more forward, while the women’s are located more backward? definitely not an airtight explanation though.

i’ll be honest my number one favourite explanation behind head coverings is for circulation. like for varicose veins in the legs (a non-fictional condition), patients usually wear compression stockings. they improve blood flow by letting the arteries (high pressure blood vessels) relax for a bit and gives veins (low pressure) some help in sending blood back to the heart

i think that’s what head coverings could be for!! to help with blood circulation in lekku!! they’re essentially an extra pair of limbs to account for but with none of the motor skills/control of movement. and they’re constantly dangling - seeing how bouncy they are, gravity has to be taking a toll there. think like the worst case of pins and needles but you can barely move the limb that HAS the pins n needles. a compression sock/stocking/head covering might help with that.

reasonably speaking the compression sock would be at the bottom of the limb to account for gravity, and this doesn’t address the gender disparity, so it’s not a perfect explanation. but i like it a lot!!!!!

this could also be adapted for pilots, i feel. like hera’s head coverings have been mentioned to be a notable divergence from usual styles, which could be because they’re adapted for rapid changes in altitude, pressure and gravity?

anyways much to think about

#been thinking about this for a while so im proud of it actually being written out lmao #really got away from me huh #idk WHY the compression sock thing compels me so but i would love for it to be true #thanks for the ask man!!#tings #star wars #star wars meta #sw #sw meta #meta #my meta #twi'lek #ask #forcesensitivebantha

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aro-culture-is · 4 years ago

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I think I’m aro??? But I’m genuinely not sure. I like the idea of romance? But when applied to me all I feel is the fight or flight instinct kicking in. But if I’m honest, I’ve never seen much difference between romance and having a best friend. Besides like, life partners and (ew) making out. I love the idea of life partners, but every time I’ve been in a romantic relationship, all I feel is trapped and uncomfortable, and guilty, because I feel like every time I interact with them I’m lying, or their feelings are much stronger than mine. I have a difficult time distinguishing my feelings from platonic and romantic, because I can’t pick out that many differences. I think I’ve had crushes, where I was fantasizing about them, but when I look at those fantasies, there wasn’t a lot of difference from things I’d do with a friend. I’ve always thought my feelings for people would yo-yo, and I thought that was normal. I can remember when I thought of the feelings as romantic, and all that really differed was maybe more cuddling and life partnership. I don’t see a lot more to gain from a romantic relationship compared to a normal friendship, besides heightened commitment and intimacy. I’ve always thought I got crushes easily, but now I’m thinking I might have been confusing them with squishes. I don’t feel like I have the right to call myself aro when I can’t tell what my feelings were. Idk if this is asking for advice or just venting, but like. Ahhhhhh???

Hi! So uhhhh wow, that described pretty intimately how I experience being in a romantic relationship. Your identity is yours to decide, as always, but in all honesty, you’ve described in great detail a number of things that I consider part of my aromantic experience, and that I understand a number of aros also experience.

Additionally, you may find it useful to look into the label quioromantic, or wtfromantic. Both are used to describe an aro-spec orientation in which people cannot distinguish between romantic and platonic attraction.

I hope this helps.

- mod kee

disclaimer under readmore:

Hi, I'm an internet stranger. I am one person. I will speak from my personal perspective. I happen to be more visible in the aro community than some, and this puts me in a unique position where I am asked many types of questions. I will do my best, but I am not representative of all aromantic people, or even my specific identities of non-sam or loveless. Sometimes, I might say something and later disagree with that stance. Treat me as the unqualified stranger I am.

#not aro culture #aro #aromantic #actually aro #actually aromantic #ask #mod kee #am i aro #Anonymous

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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years ago

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Survey #479

“war sends our sons to slaughter / another failed attack; there is no turning back”

Have you ever boycotted something? Yes: Chick-fil-A. Homophobic, transphobic pieces of shit. Has anyone ever borrowed something from you, and not returned it? Yes, a video game when I was little. I was so mad, lol. Do you vent a lot on social media? No. I don't want people to get annoyed with me. What was your first bill you started paying on your own? I haven't been responsible for any bills yet. What is your favorite charitable cause to donate to or volunteer for? I can't/don't do either really, but if I could, I'd probably donate to uhhhh... suicide prevention organizations. As for volunteering, definitely something with animals. Have you ever dated someone who wasn’t at all your usual type? No. What is something you have no patience for? Waiting at the doctor's office. Have you ever received a misdiagnosis? Yes. What’s that you’re listening to? I'm watching Gab play The Evil Within 2. What kind of relationship do you have with the last person you kissed? We're a couple. What is your biggest accomplishment in life? Still being alive. What is one thing that you really wish you could understand, but don’t? Political stuff. Economics. Have you ever been tutored or tutored someone yourself? I had an Algebra tutor the last time I was in college, and I had to strangle an anxiety attack down because I wasn't understanding the material AT ALL and felt so dumb and annoying. I never did it again. What was the last thing you said out loud (singing doesn’t count)? "It's really embarrassing," to Mom. It really is fucking humiliating that my ankles are swollen from walking/standing more and pushing my desk chair back against the resistance of the carpet. That's pathetic. I'm trying to focus on the fact it's good my body is even reacting to moving more, though. Is everything you have on actually yours? Yep. Do you ever just randomly drive around when you’re upset about something? I don't drive, but if I did, that would NOT be my method of de-stressing. What was the last act of creativity you displayed? Writing an RP post. What’s your favorite department in Wal-Mart? Uh, I guess where you can go see the plants and flowers. Do you find kite flying boring? I LOVED it as a kid. I'd still probably find it kinda fun. Do you have any interest in visiting Japan? Yes, but it's not a massive interest. I've heard the humidity can kill a bitch, and I am NOT into that. Have you ever run a cash register? Yes. I sucked. Have you ever worked as a server? No. Have you ever done the Bratz challenge on YouTube? No, but I saw James Charles do it and it was v unnerving, holy shit. Would you rather paint or carve a pumpkin? Carve. What was your worst experience in high school? My depression as a whole. How much did your senior prom dress cost you? I don't remember. Have you ever been in a serious romantic relationship? Three, if you include my current one. Which part of your body is the most muscular? Uh, nothing? What is the first site you check when you get online, generally? KM. Are you good at creative writing assignments? That's my forte. In elementary school, I actually won a I think county-wide creative writing short story assignment. Not to brag, but I've always been very proud of that, ha ha. Or would you rather just do an informative essay? That's easy for me too, but I prefer writing creatively. Are you more attracted to the badasses, or the goody-goody types? Definitely the goody-goodies. The "bad guys" have never appealed to me romantically. Do you raise your hand or participate in class? I did if I really wanted to ask something or was confident in an answer. What is something BIG you want to do with your life? Make a difference, somehow. What do you think of people who own wild animals? Do NOT just casually take in animals from the wild. That's selfish and just generally disgusting. If you're going to keep an animal generally described as wild and undomesticated, you'd better have a license and deserve that license. Know what you're doing and be certain that keeping the animal in captivity is in the animal's best interest for its unique case. Are you good at explaining things, in general? NOOOOOOOOO, I suck at that. Do you like visiting the mall? Why or why not? Not our mall, no. Its stores suck/are extremely limited, and SO much crime has happened there. Do you like window shopping? Why or why not? YESSSSSSS, mostly on Morph Market, a mostly reptile selling hub online. You can browse TONS of breeders and literally thousands of reptiles, especially ball pythons. They even have a tarantula section I like to look at sometimes. If you lost your job/home/etc., who would likely help you? If I'm losing my home, I'm assuming my mom is gone, so my dad. Why did you first kiss the last person you kissed? We were a couple and I felt like I was supposed to. At that time I didn't see him romantically, but I desperately wanted to. Funny how we're back together and I've no reservations against kissing him now. Feelings change, for sure. Plans for tonight? Girt and I will probably play some WoW Classic together. We've started playing that together, and it's lots of fun with him. :') Has anyone seen you kiss the last person you kissed? Actually, no. Have you ever been kissed in a car? Yeah. Do you think anyone has feelings for you? I know Girt does. Is there anyone in your life that knows right away something’s wrong with you? My mom. Who last made you smile? Girt, 'cuz he's a sweetheart. Where is your mother? She's in bed in her room. She feels like shit. Like, you would think she WASN'T vaccinated, though her long-time doctor has said she'd probably be dead without it while having Covid. Would you rather look at clouds or stars? Stars. Think about your biggest mistake, would you go back and change it? I absolutely would. Are you dating the person you last kissed? Yeup. What is the most immature item you own and actually use? Um. Idk. Do you always take a shower after you have sex? I... didn't know people did this? Like I know women are advised to pee after sex, but full-on showering? No. Do you like chocolate popsicles? Oh hell yeah. Are your parents proud of you? They claim to be. I don't see how. Are you interested in the ocean? Yeah; it's inarguably so fascinating. Hot dogs or hamburgers? I prefer burgers. Have you ever been to a Chinatown in any of the cities you’ve been to? No. Have you ever been to couple’s counseling? No. Do you have any dietary restrictions? No. Have you ever turned down a job offer? No. What’s the largest animal you’ve ever had as a pet? A dog named Cali that was a boxer mix. Do you ever pray, even if you don't believe in God? What exactly is the point if you don't believe in God...? Anyway, I don't. Have you ever been to Mexico? No. Have you ever gotten stuck in quicksand before? No. What's the shortest or longest length you've ever had your hair grow? To around the small of my back. The last nest you saw - was it a bird nest or a hornet's nest? I think a bird's? Do you enjoy Jeff Dunham? I don't know if I'd like him as a person, but I do think he's a funny comedian. Who is your favorite character from Frozen? I was never into the movies. I do think Elsa is kinda cool (no pun intended, lol), though. I like that she has her flaws. Did you finish high school? If not, do you plan on doing so? I did. Have you been in a simulator that mimicked a submarine or rollercoaster? A rollercoaster, yes. How often do you go out to eat instead of cooking for yourself? Mom and I try to avoid fast food for our health. We do a pretty good job at it, but sometimes for convenience's sake, we do eat it. What is the largest family of siblings that you know of? This is probably gonna come across as very judgmental, but... it really bothers me. I don't know how many kids she has now, but one of the dance moms from the studio has SO many children; I've completely lost count. Now if you want that many kids and can provide for them, that's cool. But that's not the case. She uses the "if God wants me to have a baby, then it will happen" mentality, and I'm just like... um, no hunny. Poor choices are leading to kids you're not adequately providing for. She uses no methods of protection and literally has twins whose room is a fucking closet. Ugh it just really bothers me. What foreign languages were offered to you at school? A whole lot. Only Spanish and I believe French were offered as in-school courses, but there were lots of online classes. If you were required to take a course right now, what would you choose? Photography. Team Biden or Team Trump? Over my dead body would I have voted for Trump. My vote went with Biden. What is an animal native to your country that may not exist in others? Bison are factually exclusive to North America. Note that bison and buffalo are different. What are some of your favorite autumn activities? Taking pictures of fall scenery. <3 What are some of your favorite winter activities? Going out in the snow. :') Especially with a camera. Do you eat a shit-ton the week before your period? uuugggghhHHHHHH yes Wendy's, McDonalds, or Burger King? Wendy's. What's the weirdest question you've ever asked Alexa? I've never asked Alexa anything. Do you prefer your apple cider to be warm or cold? I've actually never had it. Do you prefer your coffee hot or iced? Y'all know the story of me and coffee. Can you sing the alphabet backwards? I can't. Have you ever sent flowers or chocolates to yourself before? Ha ha, no. Is there any meat that you won't eat? Yeah, fish and ANYTHING that comes from a wild animal. Does your cat use anything other than it's scratching post as a scratcher? When we got him a scratcher WITH CATNIP, the lil butthead ignored it. -_- He scratches the carpet instead. Did you go through a vampire craze before? Are you still going through it? Nah. Have you ever forged your parents' signature on a poor test paper, etc? No. Has a bird ever pooped on you before? Omg, no. I'd die. Have you ever been sprayed by a skunk before? No. Are black jellybeans delicious or disgusting? I HATE them. Have you ever rolled down a grassy hill before? I have! I miss that.

#survey #surveys #random questions #lyrics: ''black rain'' by ozzy osbourne

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diamondsandlemons · 4 years ago

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Just finished my very slow quarantine rewatch of K-On!. Wanted to write down some of my thoughts and feelings. Several paragraphs under the cut!

I’ll get this out of the way first; the recurring “joke” where Sawako tries to get the light music club to wear sexy outfits is uhhhh terrible, borderline sexual harassment. Luckily they mostly cut that out in the 2nd season, (which is great because otherwise her relationship with them is really nice) and other than that the show is perfect in pretty much every way.

Isn’t it weird how the first season takes place across two years, but the second season (which is twice as long) takes place across only one year? No idea how they pulled that off without it feeling strange, but they totally did.

I love this show so much. It’s great as a “cute girls doing cute things” type of anime, but its also substantially different that others of that type (that I’ve seen). It feels much more real. For one thing there obviously aren't any brightly-colored anime protagonist haircuts, so I guess it is more realistic from a character design standpoint.

But also just, everything... I think the school is based on a real school building, which makes it REALLY stand out from the very generic appearance of most anime schools. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole town is based on a real place actually (if so I bet that's great for the people who live there- remembering my experience watching Steven Universe for the first time and seeing a real place I know quite well translated into animation)

But yeah, there’s just so much detail put into all the backgrounds and character animations. It’s incredibly,,, believable, I guess. It’s pretty timeless too, there’s hardly anything anchoring it a specific time period, so it can be relatable for all time (although, it is kinda funny on the rare occasion things do pop up, like when they literally use tapes to record music...)

And I was thinking about this recently, I think the opening and ending themes are somewhat unique as well. How many other animes have OPs and EDs that are rock songs actually performed by the characters? I mean, it’s catchy pop-rock, so I guess that’s probably not so uncommon (also I know nothing about music genres so this might just be entirely wrong). But I can’t think of many other examples of the characters literally performing the music. And the ending themes are like fully produced music videos! its great. Unfortunately its not diegetic; I don't think any of those songs actually exist in the lore. (and I haven't even mentioned the BGM scores... which are all perfect).

The third OP and ED are my favorite of each, btw (at least thats how I feel atm. I admit it could be because I like just finished watching the show so those are the ones I heard most recently). I love how the third opening is upbeat and energetic like the rest, but in the last 15 seconds it shifts into something slightly more melancholy. Reminding you that K-On! is approaching its end, but you should still feel happy and grateful for the time you spent with it. A nostalgic feeling.

I feel like nostalgia is an important part of the whole show’s tone, actually. (Though again I could be biased on this, I may very well just be nostalgic for when I first watched it (which was while I was in high school)).

So much time is spent in the episodes approaching the ending focused on what’s going to come next for the Light Music Club; both the characters, who have to figure out where to go to college, and what they want to study, and the club itself, which will (hopefully) live on without them. (Azusa and Sawako-sensei will make sure of that). I can’t help but feel like that’s the point. HTT goofing off in the music room after school was never something that could’ve lasted forever, but for the time it did, it was incredibly impactful. Both the big stuff (live on-stage performances, trip abroad to England, etc.) and the little stuff (tea and cake every day, animal costumes for no reason, etc).

What K-On! is most of all is “comfortable.” That’s what lead me to turn it on again at the beginning of the pandemic, I just wanted something light and cute and comfy. It’s definetly “real” but it’s also “nostolgic.” It’s like what you remember good times feeling like. And since it’s immortalized in animation, it’ll always be that good.

Bonus thoughts:

... ... ...Hey, what happens to Ton-chan after the end of the show??? Hm. I think my headcanon is that he stays in the club room for a year, but then Azusa can’t bear to part with him when she graduates, so she takes him home.

Also its sad to think about, but HTT probably wont keep in touch with Sawako in the long run. I mean, I had some very formative teachers who I liked a lot, but I don’t ever talk to them. or event think about them most of the time. She’ll be fine though, she’ll have the future of the club to worry about. New students constantly cycling in and out with the years. Hopefully.

Mugi is definetly a lesbian, and I greatly appreciate that. (the others are less cut and dry but I’m gonna throw out some guesses. Ritsu is bi preferring men. Mio is ace. Azusa’s also a lesbian. Sawako is bi but she needs to keep a lid on it around high schoolers, as I already mentioned. Yui, I have absolutely no fucking clue)

These girls spend a lot of time at McDonalds.

(I haven’t actually rewatched the movie yet. I plan to do that within the next few days, then after that I may or may not come back to this post and add something, if I have anything new to add! edit: seen the movie, it’s great, better than I remembered actually. but other than that I don’t have much to say. Please go watch k-on if you haven’t already!)

#K-On!#the cut is for length not for spoilers. please go ahead and read this even if you havent seen the show. maybe I'll convince you to watch it!#well I do talk about the ending. but not in much detail. judge the risk yourself I guess

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72stars · 5 years ago

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Golden Deer Food & Wine Festival (aka idle thoughts on characters' favorite foods and teas)

in which I try to organize information and my thoughts on a topic and then go ahead and post it because "eh, someone else might be interested". includes Fire Emblem: Three Houses spoilers, but mostly about Claude's heritage which is basically an open secret in this fandom in general by now anyway? (honestly if you're paying attention you can figure it out in part one pretty easily - he may have promised his parents not to say where he's from but he really pushes the boundaries on that promise.) anyway fair warning!

post includes: the Golden Deer and the (non-Wolf) students I've recruited in my current playthrough (Sylvain, Caspar, Linhardt, Dorothea, Ferdinand, Mercedes, + Cyril & Flayn) because, well, those are the characters on my mind atm and this is already going to be super long, so I'll leave it there (for now?)...

Byleth

no canonical information. a blank slate that eats a lot, for you to headcanon preferences onto as you wish. iirc there's one or two early game questions other characters ask re: whether Byleth likes sweet or spicy food (as if these are somehow mutually exclusive), but these effect nothing but affection points.

(headcanon: actually really likes both sweet and spicy foods, but main preference is just for convenient foods - sweet bun trio, sandwiches, skewers, etc. something they can shove in their face as they move on to whatever they're doing next. also likes sweet teas. likes putting more sugar in their sweet teas. sometimes has to be actively stopped from turning their tea into a lightly tea-flavored pile of wet sugar. why are you like this, Teach? (the answer: not used to sweets and now has regular access to them and cannot and will not be stopped))

Claude

favorite teas: Almyran Pine Needles, Chamomile

liked foods: Pheasant Roast with Berry Sauce, Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Pickled Rabbit Skewers, Daphnel Stew, Gronder Meat Skewers, Derdriu-Style Fried Pheasant, Onion Gratin Soup, Country-Style Red Turnip Plate, Vegetable Stir-Fry, Bourgeois Pike, Sauteed Jerky, Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Cheesy Verona Stew, Gautier Cheese Gratin, Cabbage and Herring Stew

disliked foods: Saghert and Cream, Sweet Bun Trio, Fried Crayfish

cooking ability: okay (mentions in different places that he can cook, but maybe it's just wrt to Almyran dishes. though given his cooking dialogue shows him being adventurous with ingredients/ingredient combinations, it might also just be that he cooks things that he really likes, but everyone else is just kind of "eh, it's okay" on because of how much he tailored it to his preferences...) (thinking about it, given his knowledge of poisons and the fact that he's survived multiple assassination attempts, I wonder if his cooking style (and also maybe his fondness for wild game) came about because he had to learn to cook for himself with whatever he could get his hands on to limit opportunities to kill him...)

thoughts:

fandom: haha Dimitri likes cheese :)

Claude: YEAH, look at that wacky guy Dimitri, liking all the cheese dishes. so silly, liking cheese so much, haha... ha... *quietly shoves more cheese in his mouth when no one's looking*

...yeah but no seriously it's just funny to me that you see a lot of fanart with Claude playing the straight man to Dimitri's cheese fixation and oh, would you look at that, guess who likes every cheese dish on the menu. Dimitri, yes, but also Claude. (doesn't like the Blue Cheese gift item, though. guess he prefers his cheese with less mold in it, idk) (and okay, with the cooking ability section in mind: how much cheese do you think he puts in his cooking. maybe Dimitri'd like his cooking...)

okay, call-out post about Claude's love of cheese aside, main things of note: doesn't like sweets (though apparently is neutral on it if it's ice cream, maybe because of the novelty? will also accept sweet sauce on pheasant), really likes cheese and pheasant and meat-heavy dishes in general. "eh" on fish, likes some vegetable dishes. likes a fair amount of convenient foods, like skewers, the meat pie, and the fried pheasant, which specifically mentions its sandwichability in its description. would probably love fast food, just burgers and 20 piece chicken nuggets everyday. likes almost every recipe in the "bitter" category, and everything in the "meat" category.

tea! likes the explicitly Almyran tea, because of course he does, and, interestingly, chamomile, which according to the description "calms nerves and heightens concentration", the latter of which fits with Claude, and the former of which fits with what chamomile's known for irl, and is interesting to me, in a "further justifies my headcanon of Claude having anxiety issues, he's just usually pretty adept at hiding it" kind of way. (being subjected to assassination attempts and harassment from an early age will do that to you, I'd imagine) oh, and apparently pine needle tea is actually a thing? and it's said to be good for eyesight, and high in vitamins A & C, so good for things like skin regeneration and your immune system...

Hilda

favorite teas: Albinean Berry Blend, Southern Fruit Blend, Rose Petal Blend, Mint Leaves

liked foods: Saghert and Cream, Sweet Bun Trio, Peach Sorbet, Derdriu-Style Fried Pheasant, Country-Style Red Turnip Plate, Fish and Bean Soup, Fisherman’s Bounty, Two-Fish Saute, Cheesy Verona Stew, Gautier Cheese Gratin

disliked foods: Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Pickled Seafood and Vegetables, Cabbage and Herring Stew

cooking ability: okay (and is very "haha it's probably going to be bad don't be upset if it is :) ( :( )" about it, oh no. does mention having fun, but also would rather not do it every day)

thoughts: a fan of sweets and cheese (though not as much of a fan as Claude on the latter, given she's missing a cheese dish). likes fish well enough, so long as it's not pickled or has fish guts in it (two of her liked fish dishes have white trout in them - favorite fish?). has a surprisingly wide variety of teas she likes. just kind of has a variety of likes in general, maybe cultivated by her social butterfly nature? just kind of picked up different dishes and teas she likes from trying foods her friends and people she's getting to know like. (thinking about it, the "oh, okay" varied aspect of her liked/disliked lists could also be due to her fear of disappointing people - she could possibly like or dislike more things but doesn't express that so as to avoid people being like "oh." at her. or maybe she just has varied tastes, eh. (either way though she still stares directly into Claude's eyes as she pushes two of his favorite dishes onto the floor like a disappointed and judgemental cat))

Lorenz

favorite teas: Bergamot, Rose Petal Blend, Seiros Tea

liked foods: Saghert and Cream, Daphnel Stew, Onion Gratin Soup, Fish and Bean Soup, Fruit and Herring Tart, Two-Fish Saute, Bourgeois Pike, Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Cabbage and Herring Stew

disliked foods: Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Pickled Rabbit Skewers, Gronder Meat Skewers, Fisherman’s Bounty, Spicy Fish and Turnip Stew, Sweet and Salty Whitefish Saute, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs, Small Fish Skewers

cooking ability: okay (starts out confident despite admitted lack of experience then quickly goes "uhhhh what am I doing ;;")

thoughts: likes three expensive teas (though neither of the two most expensive), because of course he does, and one of them has rose petals, because of course it does. (interestingly, the Seiros tea is specifically mentioned as Almyran - "Seiros tea" is just its name in Fodlan. kind of quietly hinting at his potential for a friendly rivalry and later just friendship with Claude via one of his main interests? hm. or maybe it's just "gotta look religious because I'm a noble so I guess I'll drink the religiously named tea". it's also said to be "fairly basic" in its flavors, maybe good for adding whatever you'd like into it, which would appeal to a tea nerd? also fun fact: bergamot is used in the real-world Early Grey Tea, which is probably what 3H's Bergamot tea is meant to be. a tea associated with being "posh" or upper-class and associated with a real-world noble...) also likes the dish that literally has "bourgeois" in the name, because of course he does. has a lot of dislikes, and apparently a specific fish dislike of Teutates Loach, which features in all of his disliked fish dishes except for the fish skewers, which is also the only recipe with the Airmid Goby. not a fan of wild game dishes - is it specifically the wild game, or does he just not like non-fish or -poultry meat in general? hm

Marianne

favorite teas: Dagda Fruit Blend, Cinnamon Blend, Lavender Blend

liked foods: Saghert and Cream, Sweet Bun Trio, Peach Sorbet, Vegetable Pasta Salad, Onion Gratin Soup, Vegetable Stir-Fry, Fish and Bean Soup, Fruit and Herring Tart, Fisherman’s Bounty, Two-Fish Saute, Bourgeois Pike, Super-Spicy Fish Dango, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs, Cheesy Verona Stew, Cabbage and Herring Stew

disliked foods: Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Pickled Rabbit Skewers, Gronder Meat Skewers, Gautier Cheese Gratin

cooking ability: okay (mother taught her when she was very young, but not good at complicated dishes. probably hasn't had the chance to cook much since her parents disappeared...)

thoughts: going through her liked foods I thought she was pescatarian, which makes sense, then all of a sudden pheasant dish. I guess she's mostly pescatarian but just really likes that one dish? a guilty pleasure sort of thing. (wait, actually, according to the description the vegetable stir-fry has eggs in it. maybe she likes eggs?) another fan of sweets, and likes two teas with "unique" flavors. also, lavender is said to be good for anxiety...

Lysithea

favorite teas: Sweet-Apple Blend, Southern Fruit Blend, Crescent-Moon Tea, Honeyed-Fruit Blend

liked foods: Saghert and Cream, Sweet Bun Trio, Pheasant Roast with Berry Sauce, Peach Sorbet, Pickled Rabbit Skewers, Derdriu-Style Fried Pheasant, Two-Fish Saute

disliked foods: Vegetable Pasta Salad, Onion Gratin Soup, Country-Style Red Turnip Plate, Vegetable Stir-Fry, Grilled Herring, Fish and Bean Soup, Fruit and Herring Tart, Fish Sandwich, Bourgeois Pike, Sauteed Jerky, Spicy Fish and Turnip Stew, Sweet and Salty Whitefish Saute, Super-Spicy Fish Dango, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs, Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Cheesy Verona Stew, Pickled Seafood and Vegetables, Cabbage and Herring Stew, Small Fish Skewers, Fried Crayfish

cooking ability: okay (confident, steers away from using an unspecified vegetable because "it's not highly favored". not highly favored by who, hm? :V)

thoughts: oh. my. god, this fucking dislike list. I started laughing like halfway through it because it's ridiculous, she dislikes basically every vegetable dish and all but like two fish dishes (and the one fish dish she likes is the buttery one), but of course loves everything sweet. Lysithea. Lysithea. this is not how you get people to not view you as a child, Lysithea.

also it's kind of funny she specifically likes the wild game dish that involves rabbits, given she has roughly the coloration of an albino one, and even has lop ear-like chunks of hair. that's cannibalism, Lysithea.

Leonie

favorite teas: Four-Spice Blend, Angelica Tea

liked foods: Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Daphnel Stew, Gronder Meat Skewers, Derdriu-Style Fried Pheasant, Onion Gratin Soup, Vegetable Stir-Fry, Grilled Herring, Fish and Bean Soup, Fruit and Herring Tart, Fisherman’s Bounty, Fish Sandwich, Two-Fish Saute, Bourgeois Pike, Spicy Fish and Turnip Stew, Sweet and Salty Whitefish Saute, Super-Spicy Fish Dango, Cheesy Verona Stew, Pickled Seafood and Vegetables, Cabbage and Herring Stew

disliked foods: Saghert and Cream, Sweet Bun Trio, Peach Sorbet, Small Fish Skewers

cooking ability: okay (confident, "just do what feels right")

thoughts: in direct contrast to Lysithea, likes practically everything on the menu but the sweets, but particularly likes fish and vegetables. her favorite teas are a "cleansing herbal tea" and one "that requires a mature palate". she's the practical tomboy big sister of the group and she's not too fussy. also the only female character so far to not like sweets. oh, and did you know angelica is an actual plant? it has medicinal uses, but is also used in alcohol...

Ignatz

favorite teas: Dagda Fruit Blend, Seiros Tea, Lavender Blend

liked foods: Saghert and Cream, Sweet Bun Trio, Vegetable Pasta Salad, Vegetable Stir-Fry, Fish and Bean Soup, Fruit and Herring Tart, Fisherman’s Bounty, Two-Fish Saute, Bourgeois Pike, Super-Spicy Fish Dango, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs, Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Cabbage and Herring Stew

disliked foods: Spicy Fish and Turnip Stew, Pickled Seafood and Vegetables, Gautier Cheese Gratin

cooking ability: okay (humble, gonna do his best, interested in aesthetics as much as taste)

thoughts: another almost-pescatarian character with a poultry dish (or two, in his case - three if you include that sneaky egg-having stir-fry dish) in the mix! also the first of the dudes in this post to like more than one sweet dish (he's also implied by Raph to have low blood sugar, so the penchant for sweets makes sense even besides as a simple taste thing? though eating meat or some kind of protein in general generally helps me out more, personally). has a broad range of liked teas - one "unique", one "basic", one "refreshing". note the lavender tea, though, and remember its use for anxiety.

Raphael

favorite teas: Almond Blend, Ginger Tea

liked foods: Pheasant Roast with Berry Sauce, Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Pickled Rabbit Skewers, Daphnel Stew, Gronder Meat Skewers, Derdriu-Style Fried Pheasant, Country-Style Red Turnip Plate, Fish and Bean Soup, Fisherman’s Bounty, Fish Sandwich, Sauteed Jerky, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs, Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Cheesy Verona Stew, Pickled Seafood and Vegetables, Gautier Cheese Gratin

disliked foods: Vegetable Pasta Salad, Vegetable Stir-Fry, Fried Crayfish

cooking ability: a disaster (good at eating food, but not making it. "try throwing everything together and pouring in some salt. I'd eat that!" honey, no.)

thoughts: practically a carnivore - has exactly one dish he likes with no meat in it, and it's the "country-style" one. if it's not full of protein (or country-style) he's not interested. speaking of protein, one of his favorite teas literally has sliced nuts in it - a tea with protein and stuff you can chew on, sounds about right. the other one, meanwhile, is made with ginger, which is said to help with digestion, which I imagine would be handy for a big eater.

Sylvain

favorite teas: Bergamot, Seiros Tea

liked foods: Sweet Bun Trio, Pheasant Roast with Berry Sauce, Fish and Bean Soup, Fruit and Herring Tart, Fish Sandwich, Two-Fish Saute, Spicy Fish and Turnip Stew, Sweet and Salty Whitefish Saute, Super-Spicy Fish Dango, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs, Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Cheesy Verona Stew

disliked foods: Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Fisherman’s Bounty, Small Fish Skewers, Fried Crayfish

cooking ability: okay (but not confident about it all)

thoughts: big fan of spicy food and fish, this guy. neutral on his region's signature dish on the menu. the one pure sweet he likes is the one he can share, which fits? fancy tea and a basic tea. also he likes two of the same teas as Lorenz. Bergamot and Seiros tea: the teas for skirt-chasers.

Caspar

favorite tea: Ginger Tea

liked foods: Sweet Bun Trio, Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Pickled Rabbit Skewers, Daphnel Stew, Gronder Meat Skewers, Derdriu-Style Fried Pheasant, Vegetable Pasta Salad, Country-Style Red Turnip Plate, Vegetable Stir-Fry, Sauteed Jerky, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs, Garreg Mach Meat Pie

disliked foods: Onion Gratin Soup, Grilled Herring, Fish and Bean Soup, Fruit and Herring Tart, Fish Sandwich, Two-Fish Saute, Bourgeois Pike, Spicy Fish and Turnip Stew, Sweet and Salty Whitefish Saute, Super-Spicy Fish Dango, Cheesy Verona Stew, Pickled Seafood and Vegetables, Gautier Cheese Gratin, Cabbage and Herring Stew, Small Fish Skewers, Fried Crayfish

cooking ability: a disaster (very confident! has no right to be. (does mention "and try not to burn", at least.) ends up apologetically leaving everything to Byleth because he fucks up the ingredients "every time". Cas why)

thoughts: the one sweet thing he likes is the shareable one and it's a liked dish he shares with Linhardt and that's cute as hell. also boy howdy does this boy hate fish and cheese. he dislikes all but one fish dish, and dislikes every cheese dish. given you learn early on that he tends to just sort of inhale his food so he can move on and do something else, I wonder if he dislikes those because he tends to choke on them... (or maybe he has a fish allergy and is lactose intolerant, who knows? he even dislikes the one fishing-related gift, the fishing float...) does eat his veggies, though, so he's got that. like fellow big eater Raph, likes the ginger tea - it is, in fact, the only tea he likes (aside from the two most expensive ones, which are basically the Owl Feathers of the teas and don't count). though given he likes the two non-fish dishes in the "spicy" category and the ginger tea is described as spicy, it may just be a spice thing.

Linhardt

favorite teas: Almyran Pine Needles, Angelica Tea

liked foods: Saghert and Cream, Sweet Bun Trio, Pheasant Roast with Berry Sauce, Peach Sorbet, Daphnel Stew, Onion Gratin Soup, Fish and Bean Soup, Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Gautier Cheese Gratin

disliked foods: Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Pickled Rabbit Skewers, Gronder Meat Skewers, Vegetable Stir-Fry, Grilled Herring, Fisherman’s Bounty, Sauteed Jerky, Spicy Fish and Turnip Stew, Sweet and Salty Whitefish Saute, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs, Small Fish Skewers, Fried Crayfish

cooking ability: okay ("most useful as a taste tester ;)", the rest is up to you! (he's kidding) recipe-only, "easy")

thoughts: well someone's a picky eater. likes sweets and cheese (opposite of his bff Caspar), and for a guy who likes to fish, only likes two fish dishes, both of which involve white trout. (has one of the other white trout dishes in his disliked list, though, so it's probably not that he's a fan of white trout.) also dislikes wild game, and has mixed feelings on poultry, which given his dislike of blood makes sense. also has no liked vegetable dishes, and dislikes one of the ones Caspar likes. I'm becoming concerned with how well he and Caspar manage to eat in their ending together... tea-wise, likes an earthy tea and an herbal tea. pine needles for eyesight, angelica for... digestive problems, including loss of appetite? maybe he's not just picky, and it's a stomach thing... (I went and looked at his dining hall quotes and he calls himself picky, though, so eh?)

Dorothea

favorite teas: Sweet-Apple Blend, Albinean Berry Blend

liked foods: Saghert and Cream, Peach Sorbet, Vegetable Pasta Salad, Onion Gratin Soup, Country-Style Red Turnip Plate, Vegetable Stir-Fry, Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Gautier Cheese Gratin

disliked foods: Grilled Herring, Fish and Bean Soup, Fruit and Herring Tart, Fisherman’s Bounty, Spicy Fish and Turnip Stew, Sweet and Salty Whitefish Saute, Small Fish Skewers, Fried Crayfish

cooking ability: okay (can cook, but "meh" on it. "all the same once it's in your stomach")

thoughts: like sweets, vegetables, and cheese well enough, and not a fan of fish in most contexts (any context other than "smothered with cheese and onions", specifically). tends to express a "meh"/"idk" attitude toward food in her cooking and dining hall dialogue, and pretty much carries through, except for the pronounced dislike of seafood. both of her teas are specifically mentioned as popular. actually, thinking about it, the phrasing of her dining hall dialogue is kind of odd - "I think I like this, but it's been a while, so I'm not sure", "I'm pretty sure I don't like this, but I'll be OK as long as it's edible". can she taste things? is she hedging around what she likes/dislikes? or due to her childhood has she just simply reached new levels "well so long as I'm not starving and so long as it's not fish, fuck it who cares"? ??? ???????????

Ferdinand

favorite teas: Almyran Pine Needles, Southern Fruit Blend, Seiros Tea

liked foods: Saghert and Cream, Sweet Bun Trio, Pheasant Roast with Berry Sauce, Daphnel Stew, Vegetable Pasta Salad, Onion Gratin Soup, Vegetable Stir-Fry, Grilled Herring, Fruit and Herring Tart, Fisherman’s Bounty, Fish Sandwich, Bourgeois Pike, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs

disliked foods: Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Cheesy Verona Stew, Pickled Seafood and Vegetables, Gautier Cheese Gratin, Cabbage and Herring Stew

cooking ability: okay (knows how to cook, but inexperienced. ...immediately starts fucking up, but apparently not bad enough to be part of disaster squad)

thoughts: literally the only things he dislikes are all in the "bitter" category, and aside from being ambivalent toward the "meat" category he likes practically everything else from every other category. even his tea likes are a bit all over the place. honestly so long as it's not particularly bitter you can probably give him anything to eat and he'd just shove it in his mouth and probably enjoy it or at least be like "yeah, this is okay". (and even with this bitter category, in BE playthroughs where you build his supports with Hubie he learns to like coffee, and could potentially get to like other bitter things as well?) he'd be right at home in SoV, eating flour. :V Dorothea compares him to a bee, but he's a lot like a dog in some ways. a big, friendly dog that will eat almost anything...

Mercedes

favorite teas: Albinean Berry Blend, Southern Fruit Blend, Crescent-Moon Tea

liked foods: Saghert and Cream, Sweet Bun Trio, Pheasant Roast with Berry Sauce, Peach Sorbet, Vegetable Pasta Salad, Onion Gratin Soup, Grilled Herring, Fish and Bean Soup, Fruit and Herring Tart, Two-Fish Saute

disliked foods: Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Pickled Rabbit Skewers, Daphnel Stew, Gronder Meat Skewers, Fish Sandwich, Sauteed Jerky, Spicy Fish and Turnip Stew, Sweet and Salty Whitefish Saute, Super-Spicy Fish Dango, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs, Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Gautier Cheese Gratin

cooking ability: great! (enjoys baking sweets, "not sure about cooking other kinds of food". likes cooking more than studying or training)

thoughts: here for the sweets and some fish, dislikes all but one "meat" recipe, dislikes the entire "spicy" category, and both poultry options in the "bitter" category. I thought her not being sure about cooking non-baked goods was just her being humble, but maybe it's also because she dislikes so much stuff she's worried it'll affect her cooking...

Cyril

favorite teas: Almyran Pine Needles

liked foods: Pheasant Roast with Berry Sauce, Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Pickled Rabbit Skewers, Daphnel Stew, Gronder Meat Skewers, Derdriu-Style Fried Pheasant, Vegetable Pasta Salad, Vegetable Stir-Fry, Fish and Bean Soup, Two-Fish Saute, Sauteed Jerky, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs

disliked foods: Onion Gratin Soup, Cheesy Verona Stew, Pickled Seafood and Vegetables, Cabbage and Herring Stew, Small Fish Skewers, Fried Crayfish

cooking ability: okay (doesn't know how to cook, but willing to help. has done other work around the kitchen, but not cooked)

thoughts: likes meats, not a big fan of cheese or couple of items from the "bitter" category (and as you might've noticed, most characters are ambivalent at best toward the fish skewers and crayfish but I mean who fries their crawfish anyway, boil it in spices or put it in an etoufee or something), but otherwise? honestly probably just happy to be eating regular meals. his lone liked tea is the primary Almyran one, which again benefits eyesight, befitting an archer (and thinking about it, also handy for axe-wielders, given axes' lower hit rates)

Flayn

favorite teas: Sweet-Apple Blend, Crescent-Moon Tea, Almond Blend

liked foods: Saghert and Cream, Sweet Bun Trio, Pheasant Roast with Berry Sauce, Peach Sorbet, Onion Gratin Soup, Country-Style Red Turnip Plate, Grilled Herring, Fish and Bean Soup, Fruit and Herring Tart, Fisherman’s Bounty, Fish Sandwich, Two-Fish Saute, Bourgeois Pike, Cheesy Verona Stew, Pickled Seafood and Vegetables, Cabbage and Herring Stew

disliked foods: Vegetable Stir-Fry, Sauteed Jerky, Super-Spicy Fish Dango, Sauteed Pheasant and Eggs, Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Gautier Cheese Gratin

cooking ability: a disaster (mother was an excellent cook. her? not so much. "a bit of this, a bit of that! This will make it all the tastier", apparently not)

thoughts: tfw when you're so used to jokes exaggerating how much Flayn likes fish that when you compile a list of her liked dishes she feels like a parody of herself. also likes sweets, apparently only likes pheasant with a sweet sauce, and does not like eggs or spicy food, but only dislikes a fish dish if it's super-spicy. teas are all on the refined/subtle/elegant side of things. I wonder if she and Raph have tea together after their training sessions...

final thoughts

Cyril has never cooked and is better than Raph, Caspar, and Flayn. what are you even doing, guys...?

at some point this post became Cheesewatch 2020, carefully monitoring who does and does not like cheese amongst the Deer.

it's after 3 am and I think at one point I had a better idea of how to end this post, but...

#also posted on the main fire emblem subreddit (mentioned in the unlikely event someone sees both posts and is like wait what I guess)#not drawin'#go to bed rabbit #golden deer once a chapter personal art challenge

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basine · 4 years ago

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Chapter 3- Really, Him? (Melona)

I held his hand as we entered the dining hall. This was the man who tripped and fell on me three days ago and she was talking to him… again. All Melona was concerned about was getting the correct answers to the homework that Master Yolinda assigned her class. What was his name again? Oh right, Axan. Axan was such a unique name for someone. Of course there weren't many dragonborn in the world but Axan was so much more mortal than she would have ever imagined. He had a laugh that was actually pretty cute.

Wait… did I just think that? Did I just say a boy’s laugh was cute. Melona, you told yourself do not get attached to anyone here. Everyone you have thought was cute has hurt you so stop it, Melona thought to herself. Melona letting go of Axan’s hand took a seat on the opposite side of her black tabaxi friend Carrie. Of course Carrie’s name wasn’t that short. Her actual name was Carry the Flame due to her parents being forge workers but she had just settled on the name Carrie. Melona patted a seat next to her and Axan willingly took a seat next to her.

“Axan this is Carrie. Carrie this is Axan.” Melona said. “Nice to make your acquaintance tabaxi.” Axan said to Carrie. “Likewise. Master Y wouldn’t shut up about how good you are at defense. As someone who is training to be a monk like my older brother, how do you do it?” Carrie said excitingly to Axan. Axan glanced at Melona and then responded to Carrie. “I’m really not that great at it. I just really focus all of my energy on defending not myself but whoever I would be protecting. I’m a big beefy dragonborn so I can take a few punches before I start to look rough. It is all about protecting something. Nothing else really.” Axan said as he took a sip of water. This dragonborn knew how to speak. He spoke with a specific form of confidence but was never too cocky about anything. He understood a lot about combat training. As the conversation progressed Carrie did most of the talking while Melona just sat there and listened to him speak. He was funny and always made sure to include Melona into the conversation even when she was just listening. After the meals were finished they picked up their trays and headed over toward Eli and their cleaning crew.

“You know Carrie, if you wanted to I could show you some things up in the training room about defense. I know those training in the monk specialty never use shields but you could learn a thing or two from sparring.” Axan said to Carrie. “You would like to spar with me?” Carrie said excitedly. “Of course! It is always nice to spar against someone new. Who knows? You might actually catch me off guard.” “Okay! Let me go back to my room to get my gi and bo staff! I should be ready in like 10 minutes!” Carrie said as she hurriedly rushed off toward her room leaving Melona alone with Axan. “You know you can come too, right? If you would prefer not to that is-” Axan was saying as Melona cut him off. “Oh yes! I would love to watch you spar in your fancy silver armor. You seem like you know what you are doing.” Melona said hurriedly. “You wanna know a secret?” Axan said under his breath. “No one knows what they are doing until you are actually doing it.”

Axan then looked at Melona and winked. Melona then felt a rush of emotions run through her whole body. She felt her whole body warm including her face. She felt like her cheeks must have been as red as the tomato soup she just ate.

Melona, you are feeling this way about a boy? You’ve never liked a boy before why now? Melona thought to herself. “I forgot to ask, what are you training for?” Axan asked and then immediately continued, “No wait don’t tell me… druid? ARE YOU ONE OF THE DRUIDS!?” Axan asked, almost screaming in excitement. Melona’s face got even redder as just nodded her head in agreement.

What are you doing? He is just another person! There is nothing special about him! Melona thought to herself.

“A DRUID! I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO LEARN ABOUT DRUIDIC MAGIC! WOULD YOU TEACH ME SOMEDAY!?” Axan said excitedly.

“Uhhhh… yeah sure! I mean I’m not that special there is like… 7 more of us.” Melona said shyly.

“Yeah, but none of them want to share anything about themselves. They just change into little birds and fly away. I was hoping that the next druid to enter the monastery would be willing to talk about their experiences! Would you mind sitting down with me and talking about that?”

“Yeah! Sure it’s a date!”

Melona suddenly felt a rush of warmth running through her body as she realized what she just said. Did she just unintentionally ask this dragonborn on a date to talk about her druidic magic. Oh gods, she needed to fix this quickly.

“What I meant is that, like uhmmm, we can hang out like we did today and I can tell you all the cool things about being a druid. Like changing forms and all of that.” Melona said, embarrassed.

“Sure! Shall we get going to the training room? Carrie might be waiting for us.” Axan said as he started moving towards the steps up the mountain.

Melona followed in silence. She watched him as instead of taking every step as she did, Axan took two at once. After a few steps Melona realized she would have to pick up her pace to keep up with him. She started running up the steps as quickly as she could. She started to think about what would happen if she fell. Would he try and catch her? Would he help her up like he did a few days ago?

Melona looked up at the back of Axan and saw his tail swishing in the air as he walked up the steps. She knew that some dragonborns have tails but seeing it in person was very interesting. She wondered how it felt to have one all the time. She only ever experienced that when she changed into a cat and it felt super weird.

Axan turned around and said “Melona, you doing ok? I just realized that I take two steps when you only take one. Would you like me to slow down for you?” “No you go on ahead. I’ll be up there before you guys start.” Melona said between heavy breaths.

“No. I want to make sure you don’t slip or fall.” He held out his hand toward Melona to help steady herself and take a few breaths.

Melona gladly accepted Axan’s hand and took a few deep breaths before continuing up the steps. Axan slowed down just to make sure Melona wasn’t on the brink of passing out which she appreciated, but was still having trouble keeping up. About three minutes later they reached the dojo that sat atop the monastery. This is where all combat training was held to ensure that no one was carrying a weapon on sacred ground unless they were given strict permission. As Axan swung open the door Carrie was tightening her burgundy belt around her turquoise gi. Axan walked over to a locker and opened it. Inside was a shining set of silver armor. Axan quickly put on the armor and picked up his blue, silver and black shield and a wooden longsword. Both of the combatants stood on opposite sides of the dojo, one wearing armor that sparkled like moonlight and one wearing almost nothing.

“Now Carrie, don’t hold back. First to three hits on the other wins.” Axan stated.

“I agree to the terms.” Carrie replied.

“May the music guide you.” Axan said as he entered a defensive stance, ready for Carrie to attack.

#xaria campaign #dungeons and drawings #oc story #original character

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lionettea · 6 years ago

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ok no one asked for this but here comes some moomin analysis!!

the last scene in Moominvalley episode 12 The Invisible Child with Too-Ticky and Moomin got me thinking about that ending song “Ready Now” and (of course not to distract from Ninny’s amazing story at all) but how the narrative seems to want us to ALSO consider this song in relation to Snufkin. keep reading for a rambly analysis of why I think so LOL. its long read at ur own discretion lol

(moominvalley spoilers if you’re not caught up!)

Alright alright alright so first off. When Too-Ticky tells Moomin to watch out for other lost souls, at first I thought it was going to be a touching but generalized message to the viewers to look for invisible children in their own life (very good) but THEN-- after Moomin thinks for a sec he seems to realize something, and then as the music starts the camera pans over to where Snufkin is walking away.

stuff like that in animation is rarely coincidence and usually super planned out, so it’s not a far leap to think the song also relates to Moomin and Snufkin!!!

Before I get into lyrics I wanna point out a few things about Moomin. Bless that guy. So I’m obviously not 100% on what Moominvalley canon is as far as how long he and Snufkin have known each other & what adventures they’ve already gone on before the first ep, but it’s clear that they’re already good enough friends that Moomin knows how to respect his space, even in Snufkin’s mind/memory.

And he is able to guide others in doing the same (like when he stops Sniff from continuing to bug Snufkin after Snufkin has reached his limit)

I think this experience helped him tremendously when it came to Ninny! Out of everyone there (besides Moominmama, where he must have learned his patience from) he is able to intuit her needs the best of everyone and is most effective in making her feel welcome! (probably from having dealt with Snufkin so much, or maybe its just in his nature) It works well until he gets ahead of himself and starts talking over her/thinks he knows what she needs without listening to her. This fails, and he quickly realizes what he did wrong and makes amends and is the first to realize how important it is to LISTEN! and then he explains that to the others.

Moomin’s ability to understand and be friends with uhhhh basically everyone he meets is nothing to sneeze at AND is pretty unique to his character when you think about it. More than anyone else (excluding Moominmama cuz she’s God Tier) he shows again and again --even when it may take some time-- that he has the patience to get to know someone and find value in them, no matter how different they are from him or how annoying they are to other characters. We see this in Sniff, the ghost, the ancestor, Little My, Ninny, (a hint of it with the groke), Snorkmaiden, Moominpapa, Too-Ticky, etc. etc. (and way more in the books but I’m just talking about Moominvalley for now) and of course our dear Nuuskamuikkunen.

Basically Moomin is really good at at least giving empathy a shot, something not every character can do (moominpappa, little my, and sniff can be kinda bad at it). That kind of caring can be life changing to someone who hasn’t really had much understanding before!

Which brings us back to Snufkin, who’s privacy/introversion isn’t often respected/understood.

To the point where (even though he DOES like people!!!) he often gets overwhelmed and can’t see any way out besides to just- leave. Like he left Moomin at the party, like he left moomin & sniff at his own campfire with an abrupt “sleep well”, & how he leaves every winter.

And why does Snufkin act like that? I really hope Moominvalley dives into it!! *rubs hands together* Besides it just being his Nature or whatever, in the books it says that he was found abandoned in a box (if memory serves) and basically grew up totally on his own as a wanderer and never had a home of his own and DEFINITELY never had anyone he could rely on besides himself. When you grow up that unstable, its no wonder you might want to take the stability into your own hands anyway you can. Why form strong attachments if they’re not going to last, or if it means you have to give up an integral part of yourself/your freedom/the only thing you’ve been able to control? This is just speculation though (I’m still reading the books too and I’m curious if the show will even address his past much at all!)

Anyway, considering how often he’s misunderstood even in super friendly Moominvalley who knows what he experienced elsewhere. It’s easier to retreat inward and fall back on to relying on yourself and no one else. The fact he views strong connections to people as something that can cage you/prevent you from being free, reveals a lot about the relationships/lack of relationships he’s probably known. however. we keep seeing hints that Snufkin isn’t always.. totally okay with this. we see that sometimes Snufkin needs company too.

(It’s also worth noting that when Snufkin realizes he feels lonely he assumes he must be sick or something because it feels so at odds with his identity. THE BABY DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO DEAL.)

He really has no idea how to grapple with the concept of Sometimes Needing People. He doesn’t know how to admit it to himself let alone others. In general despite spouting a lot of generic wise hot-topic-like phrases of advice (hehe i love them), when it comes to explaining himself to others (ESPECIALLY MOOMIN) he has NO idea what to do. which is seen in him stuttering and being evasive and hurrying away whenever questioned LOL.

Even when he does think he understands himself and is happy with his own solitude, he gets kinda knocked down a peg with both Titi-uu and Little My/the woodies. Both instances leave him realizing that, while being alone is great, company can also have some benefits!

Okay now we’re ready for the song “Ready Now” (hehe) and Moomin & Snufkin’s relationship. To Snufkin, someone as considerate and unendingly patient and loving as Moomintroll is probably still new, foreign, and full of constant surprises! (he was so shocked when Moomin wasn’t mad about the party thing...)

“You saw through me all this time I'd forgotten people are kind”

Even though Snufkin cares deeply for Moomintroll & does NOT hesitate to help him in a pinch and often goes against his solitude nature in order to comfort him (letting moomin&sniff eat by his fire, letting the dragon go), when it comes to verbalizing his OWN needs he struggles. And yet, Moomin somehow still seems to understand him and is gentle and forgiving (again with the hemulen’s jail, he never demanded an explanation or even an apology, he just wanted to help his best friend despite being stood up haha).

Point is Moomin seems to be able to understand how to connect with Snufkin in an effective way.

“I was hurting and you knew So you showed me what to do You said "I will listen, tell it all When you're finished we'll talk more" But I didn't know how so we took it in turns To my surprise we found my words”

If Snufkin will open up to anybody it’s Moomin. And we’re talking year after year slow burn.... You can even tell that Snufkin wants to open up as seen in his imaginary conversation with Snow-Moomin. That’s the best back and forth convo they had specifically about Snufkin’s needs and it was in his head.... orz... (just talk to him you KNOW he’d understand...)

But, as revealed in this conversation, a big thing he talked about was not being ready (specifically to come back to Moominvalley, but the way it’s framed hints it’s also about other things as well) and now these lyrics....

“Feet firm on the ground, We stood hand in hand The world seemed to tell me That I have a plan Together we sang

I'm ready now.”

Obviously a big part of Snufkin’s character is that he doesn’t do things the conventional/common way at all. He very much does his own thing and won’t let anyone else threaten that. But the thing about Moomin is that understands/tries to! Moom doesn’t want to force him into a lifestyle or role that Snuf doesn’t want to fulfill, he just wants to be with Snufkin in whatever way works, even if its unconventional.

“You said "I will listen, tell me it all You don't like the ending? Then we'll find one that's yours."

To have someone who’s willing to work with him like this, big or small-- This is probably new to Snufkin!!! Or at least, maybe Moomin has always tried to put that out there, but it’s taken a while for Snufkin to finally start to believe/understand/trust that? He used to think building a strong relationship would mean sacrificing a part of himself, but maybe learn to see that he wouldn’t have to? He’s growing! and its a good grow!

“Something new, something strange Ten feet taller, I had changed I believe you, I'm not wrong Oh, it suits me to feel strong“

There’s that little bit of euphoria where he realizes.. caring about someone deeply can be a really good and positive thing.

And finally... remember how all of Snufkin’s life and identity revolves around wanting to be free? And how at first he thought being free meant to have no strong attachments? But maybe... just maybe... after working in loving tandem with Moomin....

“Oh, how did you know? That's all we need? A promise of hope Is enough to feel free.”

:’) the end

the potential is all carefully set up and there, I’m so excited to see what Moominvalley does with it! Especially since Moomin’s storyline seems to be revolving around him becoming more independent and finding his own, while Snufkin’s is about learning it’s okay to need others. They meet in the middle.

But things are never quite that easy in Moominvalley, so who knows how lost we’ll see snufkin before he gets “found”...? or vise versa. I can’t wait to find out!!!!

#moomin #moominvalley #snufkin #muumilaasko #i don't know what possessed me to type all of this up but here we are

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bluerosesburnblue · 6 years ago

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Heyo! I'm the pro-shipper anon from before, I really enjoyed reading your response! And yeah, what happened to that anon was... Bad. Anyway, your response got me thinking about this post I read not too long ago about canon vs word of god and how things like the author saying things outside of canon and cast interviews and such should not be taken as canon because of a ton of reasons, including the escalation of bullying in fandom and how it leads to poor representation

Hey! Glad to hear it! I know I kind of went off on a tirade, but I felt it was warranted in this scenario. Really hope that anon’s doing alright now and that they get to see that there’s some people out there who support them

And you’re absolutely right! I saw a YouTube video once about how that ties into the Harry Potter fandom, specifically, too. I find literary analysis fascinating (and… took a lot of classes on it in college…) which is, probably, why I’m such a stickler for using the terms properly

The distinction between canon and Word of God is always important to keep in mind when looking at a work. After all, there’s benefit to examining things from different angles. What does the text say vs. what the author says after it’s released? Do the two match? Does the text read one way and the author’s thoughts on their own work read another way?

That’s not to discount authorial intent entirely. Of course authors are entitled to thoughts regarding their own work and those thoughts give new context to the piece at hand. But authors are also human, and therefore, biased. Not always in the negative sense of the word, but one person is only ever able to truly experience the world from their own perspective, no matter how much research they do. It’s a very neutral thing, but also one to consider

Frequently, authors may think that something they implied was obvious only to find that no one but them was able to figure out what they were saying. Or they may find that something had connotations that they hadn’t considered at all. Some just use Word of God as a way to state what they were thinking but intentionally leave it open to interpretation in the text. Sometimes they change their minds after the fact because, again, they’re human. Regardless, once something’s out there it’s now divorced from the author’s mind and left up to the thousands or millions of minds that see it afterwards, each of whom comes in with their own unique little life experiences that figuratively paint in the lines that the author laid down

There’s merit to separating the author from the text. There’s merit to comparing and contrasting the two. But I think it’s important to understand the difference between them. To know where the author’s thoughts on the subject end and where your own begin

That applies to any creative. Authors, actors, singers/songwriters/composers, artists, game writers and developers… once that work is in the public it’s out of their hands

Or at least, it used to be. Nowadays, declaring something as “canon” has sort of become a way for people to try and assert their own reading as “correct,” and they’ll use any “source” no matter how tangentially tied to the product it is to justify it. It’s kind of ruining the magic of art, to be honest

The video I mentioned made the argument that this trend might have even started with JK Rowling, who was one of the first popular authors to be accepting and supporting of fanworks. Previously, authors could be very controlling of their works post-publication, and this was widely ignored by fandom. The separation of authorial intent and canon was more clearly defined. But JK made herself approachable to the fanbase, and so they started asking her questions regarding her work and she was happy to answer. And they were happy to accept her answers, and to just be acknowledged by their favorite author. Once people realized that that was an effective way to build a fanbase for your work, they started getting in on it. The advent of social media only made it easier to get in contact with your favorite creatives and ask them what their opinion of the subject was

This snowballed into what we have today. People stopped appreciating their own interpretations of a work because they could just ask someone who they felt had more authority on the subject what they had intended. The author’s word started gaining more and more importance until it was eventually seen as being equal to the text

And then people started realizing the problems with that. Because yeah, it definitely started leading to bullying and poor representation

Because why bother actually researching a controversial topic when you can say afterwards that a character was [X] minority and get just as much credit without having to worry about any of the backlash for potentially portraying it poorly? When people will just applaud you for being so inclusive while you sit there and spend zero effort on properly researching and interviewing the people you’re claiming to represent? And then that becomes a trend

Luckily, that one’s starting to get some flack if the reactions to JK’s Twitter are anything to go by. But the bullying problem is still unfortunately very prevalent. People take their media seriously. They put a whole part of themselves into the experience, and they make it unique. Well-written works make you feel like the character’s lived experiences are your own. There’s a good reason why the concept of fandom is as big as it is

But in the age of social media, it’s also very easy to find people who disagree with you, even accidentally. And in a way, given how deeply some people get invested in fiction, that can feel like a personal attack. And, ironically enough, it depersonalizes the opposition because you can’t see their face or hear their tone most of the time. And so people feel threatened, they get protective of “their canon,” and they look to an authority to defend them

And 9 times out of 10, that author or actor or whoever has no idea of the context they’re being asked this under, so they agree with the fan who asked because they’re legitimately trying to be supportive of the fanbase. And that answer gets used as a weapon. Or sometimes it backfires on the original asker and the other side now gets to use it as a weapon. And the vicious cycle repeats

I’d say “I could write a whole essay on the subject” but uhhhh… oops? Anyway, yes. Canon, fanon, Word of God, authorial intent, Death of the Author… all important things to know the proper definitions of when discussiong creative works. I think if people did there’d be less fighting in fandom, just in general. Then, hopefully, it could become a group of appreciation for shared things that make us happy and respect for the differences in each person’s life that they bring to the table instead of… the actual mess it’s become, you know?

#liz answers #anon asks #long post

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anyway-heres-enderal · 6 years ago

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i couldnt shut up about enderal right now if i wanted to so here’s that prophet ask meme with my prophetess fleur

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1. The basics – name, age, etc…

her name is fleur! i don’t know her last name but that’s okay because she’s kind of abandoned it. both of my vyn protags have line-of-sight, musically-inspired names so after that fuckin nightmare intro scene i had to name her as an homage to the song that was playing in my head the entire time it was happening (warning: disturbing imagery, abuse of some sort that is not shown but is strongly implied)

she’s 26 years old, half-kilean and bisexual.

2. Describe their appearance.

there’s a picture up there but a few other specifics: her hair is actually white, not just very light blonde, and she has blue eyes

3. How do they like to dress?

she jumps at the chance to wear nice clothes. she never got to back in ostian.

4. Do they have any markings (scars, tattoos, birthmarks)?

she has a few scars from a couple scuffles she got into back in nehrim. one of then is pretty gnarly-looking but it’s a diagonal from her lower chest to her left hip so once the events of enderal started rolling nobody who had seen it was still alive. word to the wise: don’t try to 1v1 a thunder lizard when you’re 14.

5. What are they like? Describe their personality (use whatever tools you like- MBTI, D&D alignment, astrological signs, Hogwarts house, words/phrases):

first of all, the only one of those tools that i have even a remotely decent grasp on is d&d alignment. she’s neutral-bordering-on-chaotic good. i don’t make characters with messages behind them (esp if they’re not for anyone’s consumption but mine) but hers would be “optimism with a dose of realism is probably the healthiest way to see the world”--she has the good sense to know when a situation or a person is beyond help but until that point she will try everything to help them. she desperately wanted to be wrong about adila and even as he was preparing his kamikaze attack she tried so hard to talk yuslan down.

to temper this, though, she takes things too seriously and she’s a bit of a crybaby (ok, not just a bit. alessia, my shadowgod, cried three times over the course of the entire main quest. fleur cried three times over the course of the very first quest that didn’t take place inside a trauma nightmare), although you could argue that she just has like. a normal human reaction to trauma, and everything that happens to her in enderal is EXTREMELY FUCKING TRAUMATIC.

since i have an easier time using tools like the ones described in the question to describe personalities, if she was a disney character she’d be rapunzel from tangled but less naive and with meaningful agency and if she was a social link/confidant in a persona game her card would be the star.

6. How would they describe themselves?

she has really low self-esteem but she doesn’t like. outright hate herself so she’s dismissive of any notion that she’s special or pretty. this probably sounds extremely sue-ish but a) i don’t give a fuck and b) every diy protagonist is at least kind of a mary sue simply because they’re the big special chosen one who all the romanceable companions have feelings for.

7. Education level?

uh. Not Any, Formally Speaking. School Of Hard Knocks. Worked For A Historian In Her Late Teens-Early Twenties And Learned Most Of What She Knows That Isn’t On The School Of Hard Knocks Curriculum That Way.

8. What are they proud of in themselves? What are they embarrassed about?

like the one notable talent that she’ll accept having is that she’s really smart and even before the Everything That Happened On The Ship Headed To Enderal she was a really quick learner.

she has ZERO prior experience with romance (she’s not in any way aromantic, she’s just never been in a romantic relationship) and she doesn’t like to tell people that, especially people she likes. she feels like they’ll think there’s something seriously wrong with her and that’s why she’s never been in a romantic relationship at age 26. 9. Do they know any languages other than Inal?

she knows like. kindergarten-level kilean.

10. What, if any, aspects of their mother’s culture influenced them growing up?

she didn’t really “grow up” with her parents, they died when she was six, but she has a strong belief in the importance of diplomacy and that’s pure Mom right there.

11. Name a song (or a few) that remind you of them.

i hope you like obscure musicals and vocaloid because that’s what you’re getting

In All My Dreams I Drown - The Devil’s Carnival Cast

Starchild - Ghost Quartet

Tears To Shed - Corpse Bride

Ever Lasting Night - Hitoshizuku-P (specifically the Miku character)

Lemonade - Sophie (sorry 4 mood whiplash)

12. Speaking of songs, can they sing? What is their voice like? How about instruments?

she’s hopeless with instruments but she’s not a bad singer by any means. sorry 4 relentless youtube links but she kind of sounds like Gelsey Bell

13. What was their life like before coming to Enderal?

it wasn’t good, i’m not going to lie. she and sirius spent a pretty decent amount of time roughing it because towns and cities kind of got progressively more dangerous as time went on, and Because Of Reasons I Won’t Go Into Here they both had pretty good reasons to avoid anyone affiliated with the temple of the creator

14. How did they decide to leave Nehrim?

it was too fuckin dangerous to try to make a life there anymore

15. Describe their relationship with Sirius.

they were siblings in all senses but blood. he got her out of a pretty bad situation when they were kids and she just stuck with him until they had been through so much together there was no other way for them to describe their relationship than “family”

16. Who do they blame for what happened to their family?

herself. survivor’s guilt is a hell of a drug and it doesn’t help that things only got worse afterward. she like. knows the temple did it, but since she doesn’t know why she’ll always wonder if there was something she could have done to stop it.

17. Apart from stowing away, have they ever broken the law?

she would be considered an accomplice to murder because she helped hide a body once (don’t worry, the victim without question deserved it)

18. How honest are they? Under what circumstances would they lie?

basically the only person she directly lies to is herself; if she’s dishonest, it’s usually by omission. the rare occasions she does outright lie it’s usually to protect someone or because there’s no way anyone would believe the truth.

19. Worst memory(s)? Best memory(s)?

Too Heavy For This Post and uhhhh. getting to spend time with her two BFFs/crushes on the Gertrude before everything started really going to shit was an extremely good memory for her.

20. Fight, or flight?

fight unless they’re like. demonstrably stronger. running away from an enemy she had a chance of defeating has always just come back to bite her. she wanted to fight the steel bird in the star city.

21. Describe their combat style.

Best Defense Is A Good Offense, Also Axes = Good. (original playthrough was greataxes and heavy armor but i’ll probably switch to war axes and light armor [or unarmored if i can swing it] when the steam release drops because apparently half-kileans are equivalent to bretons in normal skyrim terms and i can’t abide having played a heavy armor + two-handed breton twice)

22. Have they ever killed before? What is their reaction to combat?

she’s hunted animals but she’d never done more to a human than injure them enough to scare them off prior to enderal. she tries to only harm people in self-defense and may have cried a little bit (ok, quite a bit) after she had to kill firespark.

23. How do they react to having magical abilities? Do they use them?

magic makes her head feel “gross” somehow (read: she’s uniquely sensitive to arcane fever) so she doesn’t use it

24. What do they think of Enderal?

the scenery’s beautiful but the fact that it’s a theocracy and the notion of being stuck on a certain “path” depending on the circumstances of your birth freaks her out for reasons of “hey remember the oppressive religious regime that was responsible for all of your childhood trauma and continued to make your life hell before a mysterious trans power couple plus their direct superior group of outsiders instigated a rebellion that brought the whole thing down? now it controls the whole continent and everyone thinks it’s Good, Actually”

25. Did they do the Biggest Egg Hunt Ever quest?

she would have if my dumb ass hadn’t completely fuckin spaced it out and forgotten about it until it was too late. next playthrough, i swear.

26. How do they feel about joining the Order? What do they think of Arantheal?

she was not in favor of it (see: opinion of theocracies) and basically clung to the green shirts until she was inducted as a keeper. arantheal makes her uneasy but the threat of looming armageddon does a lot to help her shove that uneasiness to the side.

27. What is their opinion of the gods (or lack thereof)?

she’s not inherently against the gods but she doesn’t like organized religion

28. Wine, or pipe?

wine!

29. Do they spare or arrest Hallys, the farmer-turned-bandit in the quest, Deus Ex Machina? Why?

she arrested him after she found out where the money really came from. if it hadn’t been Stolen From A Fucking Food Bank she probably would have let him go.

30. What are their feelings and opinions about the Undercity?

uh...she hates that ark has a “slum district out of sight of the Good And Honorable Rich People” because having been poor and homeless basically until she came to enderal she can’t help but empathize with the residents of the undercity.

31. How do they react to the beggars of Ark?

if tumblr doesn’t stop refreshing the page and deleting my answers every time i switch tabs to look at the wiki or change the song i’m listening to i’m going to throw my laptop off the porch.

she usually reacts by sparing some change because she can relate

32. Where and how do they spend their time when in Ark?

she really likes the museum in the south quarter. she likes learning stuff and looking at relics of the past.

33. What would they do with three wishes?

just...stop the fuckin cycle

make the black stones inert so nobody else gets hurt because of them

this is basically deliberate repression so it’s 100% unhealthy but she would gladly wish to forget everything that happened before she was seven if it would put an end to the nightmares

34. How do they feel about death? Do they fear it?

uh. yes. she very bigly fears death. she kind of had a complete breakdown after the keeper exam until calia reassured her that just because she heard something during her harrowing doesn’t mean it’s true.

35. What (else) do they fear?

deep water (predates game events). also i dont know if it’s necessarily a fear but she hates being surprised.

36. Do they have any secrets?

uh. Yeah. her dad really was as bad as the dreams show. a few other things.

37. How is their behavior around people they like? People they dislike?

she’s about as friendly and affectionate as her shyness will allow with people she likes. it takes a LOT for her to be actively hostile but she’ll only attempt like. the barest superficial politeness to people she dislikes. 38. What is their relationship with the companions? Who, if anyone, did your prophet romance?

they’re her very good friends who she is also crushing on hard. yeah, both of em. she ended up with jespar kind of by default because i wasn’t making an effort to specifically target either of them but i kind of like the contrast between them so i’m gonna leave that in the Canon Playthrough Bin.

39. Was there any non-companion character that they were close to? That they particularly disliked?

does ryneus count? she would have taken him back to the sun temple and had the few green shirts left alive help her build some method of locomotion for him if she could have. also she had a crush on lishari. she didn’t have anyone she strongly disliked other than obvious shitbirds like taranor.

40. How do they feel about myrads?

she thinks they’re Big Cute Dog Monster Boys

41. What dreams or ambitions did they have before coming to Enderal? What about afterwards?

she wanted to be an archaeologist! she kind of got to do archaeologist stuff during her time in enderal but she wishes that she’d been able to do it without an apocalyptic sword of damocles hanging over her

42. Do they like cities? Or do they prefer the country? Is there a region of Enderal that they like or dislike more than the others?

she doesn’t necessarily dislike city life because she often gets lonely so living somewhere with a big population is always a tempting thought, but if she could take everyone she loves and go live somewhere peaceful where there’s no oppressive government or looming apocalypse she would.

her ideal Cottage Away From All The Bad Things would be in the goldenforst but she loves the crystal forest even though if she gets too close to the crystals it makes her feel like her brain is trying to vibrate out of her skull.

43. What do they do to lower their considerable stress?

go on walks in one of the numerous beautiful locations in enderal. take apart inactive mechanical constructs and try to understand their inner workings from their guts. press flowers.

44. Describe their perfect day off.

wake up from a nightmare-free sleep (you said “perfect”), go on a nice walk around the city (paying a visit to the museum of course!), meet up with her friends and find something fun to do that won’t put them in mortal danger, get drunk at the dancing nomad when it gets too dark for wandering around outside the city to be a good idea, and then watch the stars.

45. List three of their favorite things. Three things they hate?

likes:

sugar bread

the color gold

nice scenery

dislikes:

cooked cabbage

mead

bugs

46. What’s in their pockets?

emergency healing potion

herbs for making another emergency healing potion

at least one apple

random flowers that look cool

a ton of those vendor trash crystal coins you find in pyrean ruins. she just thinks they’re neat!

47. Pets? Mounts? Treasured possessions?

she’s never really had a lot she could hold on to and the thought of prizing a short-lived animal or an item that’s easy to lose is frightening.

48. How are their cooking skills?

NOT FUCKIN GOOD

(she can cook meat alright but anything more complex than that? no)

49. Do you consider any particular quest or side quest to be definitive for your prophet? Which one(s) and why?

i bulldozed through the main quest on my first playthrough; i’ll probably be able to answer this question better once the steam release drops and i can replay the game.

50. How forgiving are they? For example, if they were yelled at in a brothel after searching high and low for this little sh*t, how would they react?

first of all, everyone has a different reaction to traumatic experiences and sometimes that reaction isn’t “palatably sad and helpless” so jot that down. that being said, fleur was extremely upset about that because a) she’s also not an “uwu soft helpless cinnamon roll” kind of trauma survivor, b) some of what he said was generally hurtful, and c) that entire mission had already been one big long anxiety attack

but she’s too hyperempathetic to hold a grudge, especially when a) she knows where the person who hurt her was coming from, b) she gets a sincere apology, and c) she is more than a little in love with the person doing the apologizing.

51. What do they think of the Veiled Woman?

uh. mixed feelings. for what it’s worth, her feelings are mixed because they started out negative and then once she actually got to talk to the veiled woman her opinion strongly improved but like...sirius still died right in front of her because of this woman’s actions so they’ll never be fully positive.

52. If they had been a victim of one of the black stones, how would it have affected them? What would they have used its power to accomplish?

[slams huge portfolio of ideas i’ve had about this exact scenario on your desk] well y’see fleur as she is in canon is a brand of yandere that only technically qualifies as such: she won’t kidnap or murder people who reject her advances, but...uh...don’t harm her loved ones and expect mercy.

fleur under the influence of the black stones...well. it’d be very much like this except not Literally Directed Toward A Fucking Relative. esp the “well you found out now all i can hope for from you is to see your face one last time as you kill me” ending. not quite full yuno gasai love-me-or-i’ll-slaughter-you giggling while hacking someone up but. you know. Something Adjacent.

53. What was their reaction to the Black Guardian’s revelations? Do they accept or reject his offer?

she just kind of emotionally shut down. it was a lot to take in, esp for her. she took him up on his offer because by that point she was desperate for everything she’d gone through to mean something.

54. How does their story end?

credits rolled on her sitting on the edge of the star city with jespar. while the credits rolled i was staring into the void thinking about my life. not sure if that’s canon, next playthrough i’m gonna do a hard save before the final decision point and see if catharsis leaves me feeling less empty inside.

55. Do they change over the course of the story? In what ways?

she becomes a lot more confident and sure of herself and even though she never stops being an optimist she learns to stop setting herself on fire to keep others warm.

56. Anything else you’d like to share about them?

she’s so cautiously positive because she was written as a foil to my shadowgod alessia, a textbook nihilist who only got worse after the events of nehrim.

57. Bonus: For you- what are you most excited for in Forgotten Stories?

VEILED WOMAN BACKSTORY

#this took me literally nine hours to finish #tbf one of those hours i was in class #enderal #uh. canon-typical triggering content within.

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walkinsauce · 7 years ago

Text

Becoming Poly- Chapter 21: Mo Partners Mo Problems

The month of January is a real character. Every year, it convinces us to pull it together, work hard and change for the better. By February, we’re right back to being the same people we’ve always been. I actually bought the Wild Rose Cleanse, but I seem to be procrastinating starting it as much as I’ve been procrastinating writing this blog. I have a bad feeling it might stay in its box as long as my external hard drive.

You’d think I’d succumb to January’s motivation, and have a blog posted right out of the gate, but here I am… a little late to look like a hustler. My writing has become far more complicated than just requiring discipline. It requires caring about people’s feelings, and privacy. I don’t want to hurt anyone. But I do want to share my experience at being a neophyte with polyamory…

It’s just that things got so fucked up.

However, I did get this amazing message from a reader recently. It literally motivated me to start writing at 2:37am on a Thursday night. (Friday morning- whatever you want to call it.)

The message read,

“Hey I have a movie recommendation for you. Have you ever seen the movie Misery? It’s an interesting plot. It’s about a fan of a writer who’s pissed that he never finished the series of books she was a fan of. So she kidnapped him and tortured him until he finished. There probably isn’t any direct correlation to anything going on in your life right now, so I don’t want you to feel pressure or anything. Oh by the way there’s a really cool scene that I attached for you for motivation:)”

You can imagine what scene he attached.

Shit. I better start writing. Otherwise I’m going to be screaming,

“Hobbling New Year!”

(Anybody get that reference? Hope so. Kathy Bates is a fucking legend.)

It’s just hard for me to write right now…

Not because my fingernails are too long. I don’t paint my nails, nor do I get enough vitamin B7. Short, weak nails are just fine for a writer. And there’s NO shortage of story. There’s too much. I’m sitting on storyline gold right now. Can I share it with you? Uhhhh, doubt it. This is why I chickened out of my own reality show years ago. I would have been calling in sick every time something fucked up happened.

“Well, I can’t put THAT on TV… I’ll just call my producer and tell him I have another UTI.”

I like my privacy. But I also like writing honestly. Maybe Demi Lovato can write a new song called, “Private/Not Private.”

Plus, we know if I had taken that reality show, it wouldn’t be the same. They’ll never truly be like real life. I probably would have cleaned up my act so fast, cuz I was being watched. It would have been the most boring show in the world. At least having my life to myself, I can fuck up, then decide what I’m comfortable sharing with the Internet later.

Here’s a fun note though- do you know how fun it is to get drunk dialed by a girl, as a girl? Okay, not drunk dialed. Nobody phones anybody anymore. It was just drunk texting. But as I sat on my couch, close to midnight on a Saturday, and got the text, I couldn’t help but laugh. I loved it! A real dose of my own medicine. Now maybe I’ll have a little more confidence to shoot out those late night texts again. I wonder if poly people have a shit ton of group texts?

I mentioned before I’m struggling telling certain stories. The fact is, the more people enter the relationship, the more permission I have to ask for. Cuz one person I’m connecting with, may have a spouse or a partner, that they too need to protect. But I guess what really gets you in trouble is when someone approaches you, and hopes you can keep it a secret from your partner. What do you say? No, right? But why do these kinds of situations arise? Do the common cheaters of the world see some sort of availability in poly/open relationship peeps? Are we somehow a target?

I got a good message on my Tumblr last week. I’m actually a real tool on Tumblr, and don’t really understand how to write people back. (AREN’T YOU GLAD YOU’RE FOLLOWING ME? I’M SUCH A PRO.) There is a lot going on in this supposed poly life, that is in all actuality just hooking up with people. Not exactly what polyamory is meant to be.

Let’s recap the definition of polyamory, as per Wikipedia:

Polyamory (from Greek poly, “many, several” and Latin amor, “love”) is the practice of or desire for intimate relationships with more than one partner, with the knowledge of all partners. It has been described as “consensual, ethical, and responsible non-monogamy.” People who identify as polyamorous reject the view that sexual and relational exclusivity are necessary for deep and committed, long-term loving relationships.

Fuck, doesn’t it look GREAT on paper? I LOVE it. I agree that this is something we should all strive for- and can genuinely exist, if we truly understand and communicate with each other.

But the truth is...

It’s so much harder in practice.

I suppose it might be a good idea to remain within the poly community when searching for new partners. But am I smart enough to do that? What do you fucking think? (lololol) And just like regular love, you don’t just instantly fall, nor start a relationship with every person that comes along. It does take various hook ups to figure out who you might find feelings for. It’s always been a trial & error (and hopefully occasional orgasm) situation.

But let’s go back to the subject of January. These goals we make. The things we try to change about ourselves at the strike midnight, thinking, “hey if this world keeps moving forward, maybe I should too.” I have a tradition every New Year’s Day: I pull an old diary off the shelf, and re-read an older chapter of my life. Did I change? Am I evolving? Who the fuck did I bang that had a cat in heat? Wait- I date men with cats?

The one thing I always notice when I re-read old diaries, is how my confidence dips in life. It can get super high, then drop so fucking low- basically to a place where I’m more content not even trying. Everybody has insecurities, and everyone controls them in their own way. Like the 47 year old male comic who came up to my friend tonight and said,

“Well, you’re older than me, aren’t you?”

She’s not. Not even close. And you know it. But you also know that’s a sensitive topic for a woman.

As I re-read my old diary (I went with 2001- a tender year, and I probably shouldn’t have read it on a plane), I’m haunted by my own insecurities. Coincidentally during a year that lacked a tragic amount of security. I truly want to believe that I’m attracted to polyamory because I’ve lived a life where I’ve had such unique, special connections with multiple people. It’s why I’ve always loved being single. So I never have to stop discovering new connections. But I do have to admit, it’s also nice to have a partner. Someone to share life with.

But then there’s that super small, but sad part of inside of me that wonders…

“Or… am I in this because I’m scared no one would want to be with JUST me… so why make them?”

It’s not my proudest introspection.

But it’s the only one I can publicly confess right now…

#polyamory #polyamourous #polyamorous #poly love #becoming poly #Wild Rose Detox #dating blog #2001 #insecure #demi lovato #christina Walkinshaw #Misery #Kathy Bates #January #Hobbling

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