#i once again strongly recommend this series

[anotherramblingfangirl]

I actually think this Dark Knights of Steel twist-reveal with Alfred as martian manhunter was a really fascinating one (I genuinely loved it).

An Elseworlds continuity which really took advantage of being able to take different interpretations of a character, by the writer of the Nightwing series where the presence of Alfred is felt throughout, despite his pre-series death

Here we have him as the last survivor of a genocide, who lost absolutely everything. Felt he failed in the worst possible way, as his fatally wounded child died in his arms - unable to even offer him any comfort, with both being telepaths.

He flees a dead world. Gets to try again. Martha and Thomas Wayne know what he is, but conceal the secret. Have him as one of their most trusted retainers, friends.

He gets to try again.

A smile on his face, he gets to see another boy grow.

Even as Martha and Thomas are murdered, he stays with their son, looking after him no matter what. Having faith in him. Loving him. To the point where a man who had his adored son brutally murdered in the dark, able to do nothing but watch him die, looks at this orphaned alien child and says -

-as he holds the lasso of truth.

It adds an additional, really interesting factor to the paternal relationship he has with Bruce in this particular setting. I wish we got to see more of it. Perhaps if they ever do more "Tales of the Kingdom", we may get to see it in a prologue manner.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

"She's flawless at getting it ALL wrong. She has the worst judgment of anyone in the world."*

Netflix With Love, Meghan Crisis Meetings

Her Netflix trailer bombed with the public & suddenly it's someone else's fault! Isn't it SHE who must be obeyed the person who continues to proudly promote that TRAILER via her own social media platform? Wasn't it SHE who must be obeyed the one who enlisted her "friends" to do the same? SHE who must be obeyed is afraid to promote projects via traditional media & press junkets and she's surprised her trailer received legendary backlash?

This woman has been repeatedly voted the most unliked celebrity and Netflix executives now pretend that they were ignorant of the MARKLED effect? Now she's taking up LA hotel rooms/resources in the (Pretty Woman) Presidential Suite at The Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel.

Make It Make Sense.

Show Up. Mess Up.

"The Duchess tried to stay under the radar in all black workout gear with an LA baseball hat" 🤡

Netflix Crisis Meeting Parody

Delusional Duchess of Sus Parody

"Meghan's Got a Trailer (grab your inhaler)" Parody Psychotherapy

"Stand By Me, While It's All About Me"

"She's a wicked wicked girl." -Queen Elizabeth

"I am informed that, contrary to the story being promulgated by the Duchess of Sussex that the delay of the launch of her lifestyle series @withlovemeghan from this Wednesday to the 4th March, was her idea, it was entirely @netflix's. They evidently strongly recommended that she use the intervening period to try to turn around the wave of unpopularity that has engulfed all of them, unbelievably to their surprise. "They thought they might have problems owing to how toxic she now is, but they've been taken aback by the depth of feeling the public have shown," someone who is Hollywood royalty told me. So what does she do? She goes and shows the public even more clearly what a ghoul she is by plugging in yet again to disaster the way she tastelesslyy did at Uvalde, once more tipping off @TMZ of her and Harry's intentions to do their version of ambulance chasing. She posed up a storm beside the perfectly groomed Mrs @GavinNewsom, then moves off to hug a member of her detail, all the while surrounded by the cameramen who had accompanied her. She's been rightly condemned for this deathly display of opportunistic limelighting, but at least she was canny enough to dress down, which is more than could be said for the perfectly-groomed First Lady of California, who looked as if she was preparing for one of Anna Wintour's left-of-centre @voguemagazine spreads. I gather the visit lasted all of 17 minutes - five minutes longer than the time spent with His Majesty The King when Harry crossed the Atlantic for that photo-op. Does this couple have no shame?" Lady Colin Campbell

"Let Them Eat Doughnuts"-Lady C

The Presidential Suite at Pretty Woman's Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel

[dreamingonfilm]

Hey babe! Love ur writing. Do you have any recs?

SO GLAD YOU ASKED! I HAVE SO MANY RECS BUT IM GONNA TRY AND KEEP IT SIMPLE

✧˖*°࿐

@fallingforfictionalcharacterss - literally one of my favorite writers on this app, I 100% recommend reading all her works but these are my favorites!

The Ferret : in which the reader takes care of a ferret, unaware that it's Draco Malfoy

Cookies : in which love potion meant for the reader gets misplaced, leading to a love struck Ron and confessions to Draco

I Got You : in which Draco takes care of a temporarily blind reader after a potion goes wrong

✧˖*°࿐

@dracowars - another amazing writer — once again recommending all of their works

notebook : in which Draco finds readers notebook and falls in love with the words written inside

one bed, two enemies : in which Draco and reader share a bed

unforgivable : in which reader gets poisoned thanks to Draco's behavior

✧˖*°࿐

@wondernimbus : strongly rec all her writing!

veritaserum : in which Draco takes the truth potion, leading to unwanted confessions

play pretend : in which two people are forced into marriage; reader falls in love. draco doesn’t. 

two sworn enemies : there is only one thing worse than being hated by draco malfoy; it’s being fancied by him

✧˖*°࿐

@littlemissnoname13 - another great writer!

my girl : in which Draco sticks up for his girl

forever hold your peace : in which the reader is set for an arranged marriage, but a mysterious guy from the church has other plans

✧˖*°࿐

DRACO M. FICS !

@dmslvt - Crossing constellations : in which Draco stumbles upon the reader while she star gazes

@dr3amlab - wicked games series : in which two sworn enemies play pranks on each other, leading to the reader pretending to be Draco's secret admirer

@enviedear - bewitched my mind : in which draco malfoy becomes entirely bewitched with a girl who’s never paid too much mind to him

@ladyvesuvia - nuggets with gravy : in which Draco takes the reader out for a drive-thru in a Muggle fast food, but they did not prepare the reader’s order properly

@prettygirlkay - A Worthy Opponent series : in which the reader and Draco are academic rivals

@holden-caulfield - The Girl : in which the reader has a secret pen pal

@holden-caulfield - Red Binds : in which the reader and her soulmate are bound together by a red string

✧˖*°࿐

NEVILLE L. FICS !

@lxngbottom - Amortentia - in which Neville smells Luna Lovehood instead of his girlfriend in his amortentia potion

@lxngbottom - Bookshelves : in which reader helps out in the library, and she catches the eye of Neville.

@refiwrites - The Accident - in which you collide into Neville, revealing that you two are soulmates.

✧˖*°࿐

FRED W. FICS !

@p-taryn-dactyl - Confervo : in which Fred wakes up after the war, and his first reaction is to flirt with the cute nurse

@destourtereaux - Put A Ring On It : in which reader and Fred run into her ex while out for errands

@destourtereaux - Secrets and Confessions : in which Fred confessed his feelings in the middle of the Great Hall

@httpbakugou - after all this time : in which Fred returns three years later, and secrets are unearthed

✧˖*°࿐

if anyone mentioned feels uncomfortable with me linking their work on here please lmk and i will remove it! <3

[na-na-namine]

Interview with director of Pretty Cure All Stars F (Yuta Tanaka) - Translated by Leontoi

I provided the link to the original translation above, but there were a few grammatical issues. I cleaned up and edited the translation below. It's a great interview and I recommend reading it after watching the movie!

-----

──The theme of the 20th anniversary movie is "What is Precure?" Why did you choose this as the theme of the movie?

I feel that because the Pretty Cure series has continued for so long, it has become extremely diverse.

Over the past 20 years, various Precures and Pretty Cure works have been created.

As a result, I think that the beginning of deciding the movie's theme was because I felt that it was no longer possible to say in one word, "What is Precure?"

For example, in terms of setting, when I started working 15 years ago, only ordinary girls could transform into Pretty Cure.

However, recently, more people with various origins, such as a mermaid and an android, are becoming Precures.

In addition to the main series for children, there is "Kibo no Chikara ~Adult PreCure '23~" which depicts the future of PreCure, and the stage play "Dancing☆Star PreCure", etc.

Derivative works aimed at adult fans who have loved the Pretty Cure series for a long time, as well as spin-off works from the main series, are now being created.

PreCure has continued to change with the times, so these may be part of that change.

However, the definition of a Pretty Cure has become vague, as to what makes someone a Pretty Cure and what doesn't.

In that case, asking this question once again might be an appropriate theme for the 20th anniversary.

Or so I thought.

──Tanaka-san, you have been involved in the production of the Pretty Cure series for over 15 years since "Yes! Pretty Cure 5" (2007).

In other words, from your point of view as one of the creators, you feel that there has been a big change in Pretty Cure, right?

This is just my personal opinion, but I feel that the creators of the early Pretty Cure series were really stoic and created anime with only the children in mind.

There were adult fans who enjoyed Pretty Cure back then, but the creators basically didn't care about them that much.

UMEZAWA Atsutoshi-san, who was the producer of the Pretty Cure series from 2009 to 2013, said this at the time.

"If we are too conscious of the adult audience, children will see right through it and feel that it is not theirs, and those who are our original target audience will turn away from Pretty Cure. In that case, it will no longer be PreCure."

I strongly sympathize with his opinion, and have been involved in the production of Pretty Cure while valuing it.

However, as the title suggests, the main target audience for "Otona Pretty Cure," are adults who used to like PreCure, and I think this work was created with their feelings in mind.

("Otona" means "adults" in Japanese.)

Although there are parts that I sympathize with,

Now that a "Pretty Cure work whose main target audience is adults" has been born, it's finally become difficult to understand what Pretty Cure is.

Going forward, I think the most important thing about the Pretty Cure series is that it was created with the children who are currently watching it in mind, but as a business, we need to consider other directions as well. That may be the situation. I also wonder what will happen to Pretty Cure in the future.

-----

About All Stars F.

-----

──This movie is an All Stars movie that features all 78 Precures from the past.

Actually, at first I wasn't planning on making an All Stars movie.

I thought it would be impossible to have all 78 people appear in the 70-minute length film, so I had an idea to divide it by different generations.

There was also an idea that only characters from three generations (Hirogaru Sky, Delicious Party, and Tropical Rouge) would appear, or they and several other Precure characters from other generations.

But, the idea of all three generations of PreCure coming together has been done so many times that I didn't think it felt fresh.

PreCure All Stars movies were made every year from 2009 to 2016.

However, with the exception of this work (PreCure All Stars F), we have only produced it for the 15th anniversary (2018) since then.

I thought, "If that's the case, it would be great if we could make it consist of the latest 9 generations of Pretty Cure series, who haven't appeared in many All Stars movies."

Considering the characters' activities in a 70-minute movie, I think that's about as long as we can manage in terms of the number of people.

However, due to various circumstances, we ended up having all of the Pretty Cure All Stars appear in this movie (lol).

──So you went through a lot of hardships.

Hahaha (lol). Planning is a living thing, so it changes over time.

──Was it difficult to get all 78 people to appear in this movie?

Oh no... there are so many people that it's impossible to treat everyone equally...

The length of the movie is about 70 minutes, so it can't be made any longer. Also, whether it's possible just because the movie time has been increased is another question. After all, the numbers are big.

That's why we decided to narrow down the number of characters who appear frequently in this movie. I wanted to show the Precures from all the different series as equally as possible, but I think it was difficult in reality.

──However, this film has recorded the highest box office revenue ever, and I feel that it has been very well received by the audience.

The theme of this movie is "What is Precure?", and the character Cure Supreme/Prim appears as an original Precure exclusive to this movie.

Cure Supreme, she embodies the antithesis of the question, "What is Precure?"

Throughout the anime series, the Precures (Precure warriors) have basically been portrayed as ``strong, cute, and cool beings.''

And Prim is a character who is interested in PreCure, seeing only one aspect of them being "strong."

However, she lacked consideration for why Precure are strong and cool, and she didn't even try to find out why they were so strong and cool.

But I think what we've been making about over the last 20 years is the ``why'' part of why Precures are so strong.

The desire they have to become who they want to be.

They stand up hand-in-hand with someone.

Due to the aforementioned, they do not give up.

...That is why Precures are so strong.

I wanted to convey that basic idea in this work as well.

──At the end of this movie, Supreme realized "Why the Precures are so strong," and the Precures extended a helping hand to her.

Actually, in this movie, I wanted to focus on promoting good and punishing evil.

My first idea for the story of this movie was that I wanted it to end with the Precures completely defeating Supreme and making her disappear.

But in the end, the Precures extended a helping hand to her, even though they had fought against her many times before.

As a creator, I felt that I was a little naive in some ways, but I have no regrets. I think we've come back to the idea that "Precures are all about reaching out to even the enemy, right?"

──In the final scene, I felt that Puka and Supreme had become true Precures.

It's not explained at all in the movie, so I don't think it's wrong to say that they became Precures, and I hope people who watch it can come up with their own interpretations.

Speaking of characters, Supreme is a god-like being from another world.

She has powers that are far from human, such as the ability to reshape the world, and she can be described as a "superior being" or "transcendence", and it can be said that she alone is a complete being.

But that's not the case with Precure, and because each of them is, in a sense, an "imperfect being", I think there is a part of them that wants to join hands with everyone and stand up for themselves.

Supreme admires the appearance of such Precures.

And she created Puka from within herself. Originally, Supreme and Puka were completely the same entity (Supreme), but they separated into two entities.

This caused a rift and change in her being.

Depending on how you look at it, you could say that she went from being perfect to being imperfect, but personally, I find her imperfections more appealing than her perfect self.

Don't you think "imperfect" means "human"?

──Lastly, I felt that the design was reminiscent of the first generation (Futari wa Pretty Cure), with Supreme's color being black and Puka's color being white.

I think so.

It's not an homage to "Futari wa PreCure," but I thought it might be a beautiful ending to the 20th anniversary movie.

This is just a matter of how the movie looks.

──Why did both of them become Precures?

I think that's the "miracle of Pretty Cure".

WASHIO Takashi-san, the founder of the PreCure series, said to me while I was making this movie, "I want you to stop portraying admiration for Precures as evil," which was also a big inspiration.

Supreme has done a lot of incredibly annoying things, including destroying and re-creating our world.

However, when asked if she is an evil being, I have a slightly different image of her than an evil being.

More than anything, she wanted to become a Precure.

I wanted to save her that feeling.

I wanted the children to look up to Precures, so I felt like I shouldn't deny Supreme's feelings.

──What is the answer that the production team gave to the question “What is Precure?”

After much discussion, one of our answers was "Connect," which is also our catchphrase, because Precures have been connecting generations and feelings for 20 years.

However, when asked "What is Precure?", I ended up saying, "I don't really understand."

It's a series that has connected many people's feelings, so I think it's impossible to sum up the answer to the question of what Pretty Cure is in one word.

There are as many different types of PreCure as there are PreCure works, and we didn't want the production side to force us to say, ``This is what PreCure is!'' or to give a narrow answer.

The idea was to ask the movie audience a question within the movie, and leave it up to them to answer the question, ``What is PreCure?''

And I think it's important to connect this to the future. Be flexible when it comes to change, while preserving what needs to be protected. I think it's important to change with the times. If we do that, more new PreCures that we can't even imagine now may be created in the future.

[dis0rderly-cl0wn-nerd]

Quiet Nights

Ledger!Joker x Nolanverse!Harley

Summary: Joker comes back home to Harley after a long day of causing chaos. They share a quiet, cozy night in bed, enjoying each other's company.

Author's Note: I wrote this on paper over a year ago. Here I am finally posting it lol. I strongly recommend rereading the series! It can be found on my masterlist. I edited/redone chapters 1-3 of Fire Meet Gasoline, which is the first fic I did for these two, so the story is a little bit different now.

Tonight, Harley stayed home instead of assisting Joker with the heist. He didn’t want her coming along as it was really dangerous this time. Harley was happy not to be involved with the slaughter, but that didn’t stop her from worrying. 

Eventually, Joker came home exhausted and covered in blood. Harley greeted him with a kiss and helped him out of his purple coat.

“How’d it go?” She asked him.

“Beautifully. But the Bat didn’t show again. Must be losin’ his touch. Worked out great for me though.” 

Harley nodded. “I picked up some food earlier. Want some?” 

“Yeah. I’ll eat a little.”

“When was the last time you ate anything?”

“Uh, like two days ago.” Joker said casually.

“J! That’s not good. You need to eat something. God, you’re probably starving! How’d you pull off that heist on an empty stomach?” Harley scolded him.

He shrugged like it was nothing and found her concern amusing.

“Adrenaline is the only fuel I need, doll. I’ll be fine.” 

Harley sighed and stuck the takeout in the microwave. She took it out when it was heated and handed it to Joker. Inside was lo mein, rice, and half an egg roll.

“At least eat half of it.” Harley pleaded with him.

Joker sighed and sat down at their messy kitchen table. He cleared away some papers and other objects to make room for himself.

“Fine. If it’ll make you happy, Harls.”

Harley sat down across from him and watched him eat. His eyes went crossed when he took the first few bites. “Damn. This is good. Maybe I am starving. How much did ya tip Liu this time?” 

Harley snickered. Joker always made sure to give big tips to the sweet little old lady who ran the Chinese restaurant they frequented.

“The usual.”

“She deserves every cent.”

After Joker finished eating, they moved into the bedroom to retire for the day. Harley unbraided her hair and crawled into bed as Joker began undressing himself. His body was surprisingly clear of wounds tonight, much to Harley’s relief. The heist must have gone extremely well.

Once Joker was down to his dark purple boxers, he crawled into bed with Harley and rested his head on her chest. Harley stroked his curly, greasy hair gently, her nails raking across his scalp. He moaned softly.

Harley laughed in surprise. “Did you just…?”

“Maybe.” Joker said with a sly smirk.

“That feel good?”

He hummed in response. She smiled and continued playing with his hair. It was fluffy and soft despite the greasy appearance. 

“J?” Harley spoke up after a moment.

“Yeah?”

“Why did you want to be with me?” 

Her curiosity got the best of her yet again. Her mind often wandered on quiet nights like this. 

Joker was silent for a moment. Harley started to worry she struck a nerve. Finally he spoke in a quiet, genuine tone. 

“You understand me. You weren’t, uh, disgusted by me. You listened to me when I talked to you in the alley. Nobody’s ever done that for me before. And then, I saw something in you. It kept me drawn to you. I don’t know. I’ve never felt like this before.”

That made Harley feel so much better. What he was experiencing was love. But he didn’t know that. Maybe he did, he just didn’t want to admit it. Emotions were hard for Joker. Harley knew that. Even though he never told her he loved her that often, she could tell he did by the way he treated her. She was content with that. The few times he expressed his feelings with words Harley’s heart soared.

“You okay?” Joker asked, interrupting her thoughts.

“Yeah. I’m just thinking.”

“Uh, can I ask you something?”

“Yeah?”

“When you first read my file when you were applying for that job at Arkham, what did you think of me?”

“Well, probably what everyone else thought about you. You were insane and evil. I couldn’t understand you but I was determined to try. Your case captivated me. But now that I’ve actually gotten to know you personally, you’re not like how people make you out to be at all. Minus the killing, you’re not that bad of a guy. You treat me with more respect than any other man I’ve known my whole life. You’ve helped me feel confident in my own skin again. I can’t thank you enough for that.”

She planted a kiss on his forehead. Joker smiled up at her but then turned more serious.

“It’s nothing, Harls. I’m nothing special. This should be the standard. A man that abuses a woman is not a man at all.”

“I know that, J. But a man who thinks like that is not always easy to find. Given my history, it’s a big deal to me.”

They went quiet for a while after that. Harley stroked his hair gently and Joker melted into her touch. The only sounds to be heard was their breathing and the light patter of rain outside.

Harley finally broke the silence and reached over to grab a book from the wooden chest beside the bed that acted as their nightstand. “I almost forgot. You want me to read tonight?”

Joker nodded sleepily. “Mhm. Which one of Poe’s we at now?” 

Harley turned to the bookmark sticking out the book. “Ooh, it’s The Raven. My favorite.”

“Heh. Didn’t we read this last time?”

“No, we read The Black Cat last time.”

“Oh. Go ahead then, doll.”

Harley smiled. “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…”

As she read, Joker closed his eyes and just listened to the sound of her soft voice. She spoke with eloquence and all the right inflections. When he did occasionally glance up at her, he saw the passion brewing in her brilliant blue eyes. He could tell she was internally dissecting each line and each stanza even though she’d read it all hundreds of times before. He grinned. His girl was so intelligent. Anyone who had ever put a dumb blonde stereotype on her was dead wrong.

“And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor. Shall be lifted–nevermore.” Harley concluded and shut the book. 

“Beautiful, darling.” Joker purred. 

Harley put the book back on top of the wooden chest. She settled back into Joker’s arms, burying her face into his chest.

“Will you be here tomorrow?”

“Should be. I’m not planning on going anywhere.” 

“Okay. Ready for bed?” 

Joker yawned. “Yeah. I’m tired.”

Harley turned the lamp beside the bed off and pulled the thick covers over both of them. 

“Goodnight, J.”

“G’night, Harley.”

Joker wrapped his arms tighter around Harley’s torso and nestled close to her. Harley loved it when he used her as a pillow. His embrace was warm and comforting. It felt like home. 

She’d kill for these rare quiet nights to happen more often.

[rstarsims3]

Hi! What tutorials helped you learn how to mesh clothes in Blender? Or what tutorials or tips would you recommend? Thank you

Hi,

I've watched a lot of character modelling videos on YouTube to get better acquainted with Blender. What I can recommend for you to watch is this 10-part tutorial by Darrin Lile. The creator even provides the images he's working with which makes his workflow easier to follow. The notions you'll learn here will help you create basically anything in Blender, from a bed to a crop top to a bridge.

Another good series you can watch -and specifically made for creating clothing in TS3 - is this one by Lyralei.

Once you're more comfortable with Blender, you can search all kinds of tutorials (like how to mesh flowers, coats, skirts, pillows, etc)., if you're interested and need further clarification.

What I strongly recommend is for you to export the EA game meshes and break them apart in Blender to see how the dev team has approached the category you're interested in. At the beginning, I wouldn't look too much at anyone's meshes except EAs because every creator has their own style and views over what a reasonable polycount is (you can have the same skirt at 2k or 4k- for instance, depending on how much detail you want to add to the mesh). But it is useful to look at other creator's meshes when you deal with transparency, for example.

You can also try to convert CAS stuff from TS4 if you have the possibility. This helped me a lot in getting used to meshing in general because, while being similar to TS3s, their meshes are a bit more detailed (a belt is often painted on the mesh in TS3, but in TS4 the belt will be meshed).

Another important process in Blender is UV mapping. Because it's TS3 and you can't get away with wonky and stretched textures -as long as you make your stuff recolorable, that is - you need to pay special attention to this part.

In general, for Blender I'd say:

keep your polycount in check; too detailed/high poly meshes will "explode" in the game;

close the openings on a mesh (where the sleeves, pants or skirts/dresses end); I also UV unwrap these and find them a spot on the UV layout to make the textures more cohesive.

avoid using the "subdivision surface" modifier as it increases the polycount too much;

try to delete as much of the body under the clothing mesh as possible (I'm also doing this part in Blender for a while now and it's a lot better, easier and more precise to crop it; it helps a lot with avoiding clipping too);

for baggy clothing you can use a plane or cylinder to start with; for skin-tight clothes you can use the EA body meshes ((like in the second link);

If you're really set on creating custom clothing -and sharing your stuff- I'd get used to some good practices from the beginning (because we humans tend to get used to do things one way and keep at that from there on):

create all the LODs required for your item (if it's clothing you'll need all these three: HLOD, MLOD and LLOD) and load them into TSRW. This way your carefully crafted blouse won't change into a t-shirt when zooming out in the game.

in TSRW leave only the maps/images you created for your item. Delete everything else.

for every LOD in TSRW, go to Mesh -> HLOD (MLOD, LLOD)-> Material and load your maps by using Browse. Don't import over the same map again.

textures are really important and the more time you spend working on them, the better your item will look. It's very useful to know how to create normal maps as they add depth to your mesh.

never export packages directly from TSRW as it doesn't compress your file the way it does for sims3pack files. Export as sims3pack, use S3RC to compress it further, then use the Sims 3 Pack Extractor to convert into packages.

Note: When I say TS3 and TS4 meshes, what I'm referring to is meshes from the games, not CC. Also what you're going to learn here is how to make Maxis-Match content for TS3, which I do 90% of the time. The only differences is that my textures are usually more "alpha" looking. I've got a similar ask a while ago if you want to check it out.

The most important thing is to keep at it and don't get discouraged. All this info might seem like a lot now but with practice you'll get used to it. Start with something easy like a tube top and see how it goes. If you have any more questions you can contact me again, either through ask or through DM if you feel comfortable.

Hope this helps!

[crimsonicarus]

A Fever You Learn To Live With part 3 of the Loving a God is Only a Tragedy if The God Does (Not) Love You Back

It's here! It took a while buts it's finally posted, @readingbythestreetlights happy belated birthfay bestie, this fic wouldn't even exist if it wasnt for you. I love you to pieces and I hope you get to experience noting but love this year.

The fic also has a playlist and I strongly recommend checking part 2 of the series for context

His name didn't matter. He was Helios once until he was forgotten and renamed, they changed his identity. But it was okay. He was adored, he was Apollo. His lover chose to call him Nico in this life, and he was no longer worshipped, it was better. He was loved.

But Jenson smiled at him, and he was so beautiful, like the day they met, like the day Nico fell in love with him, beautiful as the day he died, beautiful as the day Nico found him again.

read it here!

[katkat030]

YOU HAVE A FANFIC????

GIMME GIMME GIMME

(a man after midnight--)

You are in for the ramble of all rambles >:D

Okay I am smiling from ear to ear right now prepare for me to talk (type?) your ears off

it’s. yeah it's Ethubs. (ding ding! you got it *finger guns*)

I'm writing a fic based on the DBHC au (Detroit Become Hermitcraft au) story/comics by Shepscapades here on Tumblr! If you're not familiar with it, I highly recommend you check it out! I have SUCH brainrot and the storyline and art are so compelling.

Here's the masterpost if you wanna check it out once I'm done rambling!

I also want to stress this isn't my au - only the explanation and snippets of my little story is my own work. :) All credit goes to Shepscapades for all that and the brainrot

- DBHC spans Hermitcraft (seasons 8 and onwards) and the Life Series (note that all androids were absent from Third Life due to not being created yet)

- It makes use of the android mechanics from the video game Detroit Become Human <- don't worry about that part just yet though :)

- Most major post-Season 7 events seem to still be canon here, and there's a lot of other things going on in each of the androids' - and hermits' - lives (and trauma. </3. yeah. Etho and so many others are Going Through It), often as a consequence of those events.

Anyone new to the au should probably have a look at this illustrated guide post You don't have to read all of it, but I strongly suggest at least checking out the "Guide to Androids", "Deviancy" and even the "Interfacing" sections for proper context!

rambles under the cut >:) I promise I'm keeping it to a minimum. and then some snippets!!

(edit: the cut isn’t cutting, I think)

BASICALLY At some point around Season 8, Xisuma designs androids (like Mumbo, Etho, Impulse and Doc) to assign to some of the hermits (Grian, Bdubs, Pearl and Ren to name a few) for help with everything from building to terraforming. Everything goes relatively smoothly, up until... the androids begin to deviate. <- hence why I linked this post earlier!

This isn't entirely necessary for anything other than understanding the characters and the overarching narrative a bit more, but if you do want further context + cool art + a small break from my rambles, here (1), here (2) and here (3) are really good comics that sorta explain how DBHC Ethubs' relationship starts, and here (4) is the first part of Etho's first deviancy! uh. So like things happened here. Don’t worry about that being labelled first. Or it not being at all normal for an android to deviate twice. Or what situation caused it. Uh. Yeah. :’)

Otherwise you're welcome to just read on!

I'm writing an incredibly fluffy (and there's angst now too hehe) oneshot on the two of them.

They've been planting saplings for Bdubs’ Season 10 forest (Etho was originally designed to help with terraforming and that, after all) and it's late afternoon, so, Bdubs being Bdubs, he's tired.

And tired people are clingy, they let their guard down a bit, they start giving in slightly to things they don't have enough energy to fight.

Like the urge to reach out and go hey, come back, I actually want you to play with my hair, I want you to lie with me in the sunshine, I want to listen to the sound of your android heart (thirium pump) because it's a reassurance that even though my eyes are closed you're still nearby, I want you here, and I'm going to hang on to you because I don't ever want you to leave again.

I half-wrote that little summary of my fic a little while back as a proof of concept but. Yeah.

This is Bdubs talking, if it isn’t clear:

>:) Not sure if you're familiar with how Bdubs' Last Life ended, and how it could have been avoided. Or how much I'm allowed to say on what happened afterwards until we cross over into spoilers territory. But uh. Yeah. Normal and fine and not at all insane over this. <- that's a blatant lie

Don't worry though!! I said fluff for a reason; I don't think this quite crosses over into "crack treated seriously" territory (only saying that because I'm sorta working on something Ethubs-related that 100% DOES hehe) but the second half is panning out to be incredibly silly. I just think they deserve it after everything they've been through (this post makes me all levels of insane.)

Aaaaaanyway, snippets :D

Something I want to add: he isn’t entirely human. Like as much as he acts and feels and functions like one… yeah.

Tired 👏people👏give👏into👏things👏they👏don’t👏have👏the👏energy👏to👏fight

Bonus: a friend tried grabbing my phone from my hand while typing a little while ago and… this happened

OH I nearly forgot! It has a title :)

“home, home again (i like to be here when i can)”

song lyrics from Time by Pink Floyd (beware loud bells until about 40 seconds in)

I’ll publish it on ao3 under katkit03 when it’s done! May cross post it to tumblr for convenience :)

please lmk what you think, this is my first time writing a fanfic!!!

[gurokichi]

I could never become bored of you, not that easily, at least! You are my Bon, you can't get rid of me that easily <3

Yeah, I got 2 kitties! Both of them are boys, and their names are Pickle and Bean! Maybe one day you'll get to see pictures of them! I also have a dog, snails, isopod, beetles, chickens, and hermit crabs! Got a bit of a zoo around here!

I'll definitely watch some of your suggestions, and I will be sure to tell you my thoughts! Just another excuse to talk to you!

I will hopefully be posting on my blog again soon, and I am so excited to now that I know you will be watching my blog (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)

I mainly read fiction, distopian, and horror/gore. But also, like when books have lgbt+ characters, and have read a few Manga! I just borrowed a book from a friend called "The Corpse Queen" by Heather M. Herrman, I strongly suggest it, I've also just started reading a GL Manga series called "Whisper Me a Love Song" and so far have been really enjoying it!!! I like plants in many ways, I learn about plants, I grow both indoor and outdoor plants, and I have a fascination with all living or once living things,,, and they happen to fit in that category too!!! I don't think I could pick just one flower as my favorite, but I do enjoy Asters a lot! Bleeding hearts? awe, it makes sense that a sweetie like you would love a poisonous flower!

What video games do you like to play? I'd love to hear all about your current favorite game! What part of history do you like so much? Oh and you collect things too! I would love to hear all about your little hoards 💕

-Dolly

I’M YOUR BON?? ASJHFSHBHKHGSGHFHJKSHLJS (＞＜)

Okay. Anyways. Sorry, got a lil excited there... I’m your Bon, and you’re my Doll!! All mine!!! I’m glad to hear that you wouldn’t get bored and leave. I’d do anything to make sure my precious doll stays with me!

AWH, they sound so darling. You have so many… how do you keep up with all of them??That’s really cool, though! You definitely have some uncommon pets.

I’m excited to hear your thoughts (๑>◡<๑)

I will definitely be watching my doll’s blog! How could I not? Anyone would find it hard to take their eyes off you. Besides, I’d love to see more of your posts when you decide to go back to it.

Ah, those are all good genres! Thank you for the recommendation, and I’ll check out the manga you mentioned later. Asters are gorgeous; my doll has great taste in flowers!!

I usually prefer games with long stories. I like RPGs and visual novels the most! I find pixel art really nice to look at, so a lot of my favorite games feature that. I’ve been playing through a farming sim called Fields of Mistria lately; it’s been really enjoyable so far! The best way I could describe it is as a mix of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. As for my current favorite games, they’re probably… Minecraft, Danganronpa, Persona 5 Royal, and Identity V. I’m not finished playing through P5R, but I like it so far. I’m currently replaying and trying to get all achievements in every Danganronpa game! I’ve finished Trigger Happy Havoc, and I’m now working on Goodbye Despair. Having a bit of trouble though, because I have a friend I’m sharing my Steam library with who is ALSO playing through the Danganronpa games. I can’t play the games until they get off, bleh. AH, I also started a playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2. I suck ass at it. I ended up punching my horse when trying to get on it. I also drew my gun on it multiple times. So sorry to my horse, it did not deserve that. It took me like 10 minutes and frantic googling to figure out how to get back on my horse after I accidentally got off (ᵕ—ᴗ—)

Do you play any videogames? If you do, I’d love to hear about what you like to play.

Ah, I just like history in general. I love to learn about things. Some things that caught my interest for awhile in the past though are torture/execution methods, the Chernobyl disaster, the Carrington event, WW2, old medical treatments, and Greek mythology. I haven’t been into history as much lately.. so I probably couldn’t explain anything here well.

I do collect stuff! I have a collection of various plushies, figurines, keychains, and knickknacks stored in my room. I think my favorite things that I own are probably my jar of uranium glass and this stunning piece of bismuth I got just a couple weeks ago. I’d like to start a full on collection of uranium glass, but that’s expensive, and I have no idea where I’d put it. Uranium glass is absolutely gorgeous, though! I hope to at least get a couple more pieces in the future.

[vedavan]

💙 "And The World Was Gone"💙

One shot, rated M (for mature themes dealing with grief and loss)

Summary:

Several months after Exegol, Rey finds herself waiting once again. But this time, it's for Ben.

But she's not worried. He did make her a promise, after all.

***

This is an angsty companion piece to my reincarnation/soulmate TRoS fix-it fic, "I'll be the light and lead you home". I strongly recommend reading that story first (linked as Part 1 of this series) to understand why this is really a happily ever after, albeit a bittersweet one. However, it can be read as an angsty post-TRoS standalone, if you so choose.

Please mind tags.

Link to AO3 here

[booksandabeer]

Hi. First of all, you’re amazing and you’re doing God’s work for us. Second, could you please recommend me some time-travel fics? I think I already read a few well known ones, and was wondering if there’s more? Also, it’s usually both or Bucky who time-travels, is there fics where Steve goes alone instead?

Hello Stranger!

Thanks for the ask and your very kind words. I live to serve! 😉

Now. The first thing I need to do here, is to point you towards this excellent rec list by @voylitscope There are a lot of very good fics on it and I strongly recommend you check it out.

I also want to apologize again for the long wait. I had a busy week and when I finally sat down to put together this list, I realized fairly quickly that almost 90% of it was comprised of some sort of EG-Fix-It fics. Just the idea of writing up my thoughts on all of them felt exhausting and saddening to me, so I scrapped the whole thing and started over. So without further ado, here are 7 fics featuring timey-wimey stuff that I have read and very much enjoyed and 3 more that I've yet to read, but can't wait to get to because they look amazing:

sun peeking through the sky series by dontcallmebree | M, 16K (2 Parts)

Author's summary: Steve clears his throat, curling his hands into fists to hide them. “Alright, say I believe you. Hell, you’re here. So what?”

Scott pins him with an unshakable stare, alive and unyielding. He never realized Scott could be so intense. Sam was the one who knew Scott better, but then again, Sam was always the better one of the two of them. “Look, the place I was in—the quantum realm—it messes with time, it lets you go back.”

Steve wants to throw him out.

A post-IW, twice-over canon divergent series. In the first part, Scott and the Ant Fam (or what's left of it post-Snap) burst into a heavily depressed Steve's existence and slowly turn it into something resembling a life again, and together they hatch a plan to save the world. What that plan entails? I'm not going to spoil it here, but let's just say it's much more clever and original, not to mention more logical and emotionally satisfying than anything that happened in EG. It's a quietly humorous, suspenseful, heartbreaking, and at times brutally tender series about finding and accepting second chances when you least expect them.

To Live It Again Is Past All Endeavor by trinityofone | T, 21 K

Author's summary: Time travel bodyswap! Present-day Steve and Bucky wake up back in their old bodies in 1938, while past Steve and Bucky wake in a future where they're both built like comic book heroes and Bucky's got what he thinks is a swell future robot arm. Adventures are had, and the ethics of time travel are debated. Also, everyone trash talks Willem de Kooning.

A story that really drives home some hard emotional truths while never entirely losing its light touch. Accompany Steve and Bucky as they travel into the future AND the past, and discover their once and future selves. I call this fic "the clairvoyant one" because it features Steve and Bucky contemplating staying in the past and a subsequent discussion of the ethics and purpose of time travel that had me frantically scroll back up and check that, yes, this fic was indeed written all the way back in 2014. I then proceeded to lose my mind a little bit because it is such an eerily specific and accurate rebuttal to Steve's EG ending that I'm more than half convinced the author has clairvoyant abilities.

Where All Roads Lead by DrowningByDegrees | E, 46K

Author's summary: When Steve Rogers inadvertently touches a relic in the course of a mission gone sideways during WWII, he’s catapulted seventy years into the future. Before he's even sure where he's ended up, his search for help puts him in contact with Bucky Barnes, a historian and college professor who has built a career around studying Captain America. With Bucky's help, Steve means to find out how exactly he ended up in 2017, and solve the bigger mystery of how to get home. There's just one problem. The closer they get to their goal, the less certain Steve is that he wants to go home.

A Shrunkyclunks AU where Steve accidentally time travels straight from WW2 to the 21st Century. It's funny and heartbreaking, well-written and cleverly plotted. Also features beautiful art by alby_mangroves that not only beautifully augments the story, but actually is a part of it, too.

The Restoration Artist by superheroresin | E, 109K

Author's summary: As a conservator of rare oil paintings for The Met, Steve Rogers thinks of himself part scientist, part archaeologist, but hardly an artist in his own right. Only when he’s faced with the daunting task of restoring a frozen painting from a recently unearthed Nazi art hoard does he start to feel his passion for the craft return. Before he has a chance to understand what that means, Steve is transported to the 1940’s, where he meets both The Winter Soldier himself, and his own destiny.

A Shrinkyclinks AU in which art conservator Steve travels through time to save Bucky... who has been trapped in a painting...? Mystery! Romance! Art Talk! I practically inhaled this thing in one go, despite the length. This is a really lovely story, full of clever ideas and twist and turns that will keep you guessing. And on top of that you'll learn a whole lot about art restoration! What's not to love?

the world on fire by burlesquecomposer | M, 62K

Author’s summary: Steve loves old vinyl records, doodles on his files, and cannot remember a time that he didn't serve the TVA. And that suits him just fine—that is, until stray variant Bucky Barnes, fresh out of HYDRA's grasp, drops into his time theater and makes Steve question everything he believes in.

A really well written fic that has time travel and variants and alternate timelines and parallel universes and... you get it. A whole lot of timey wimey stuff, but the author keeps track of it all and ties up everything beautifully in the end. A super fun premise, clever plotting, wonderful characterizations, and a firm grasp on the SteveBucky dynamic in every incarnation/iteration/variation. It's a really lovely fic and I think it deserves a lot more love and attention.

On the Cover of Dawn by adeepeningdig | T, 6K

Author's summary: “Listen,” Bucky says again, and pads to Steve, book still in hand. “I’d sell my soul for that/fawn/of a boy night walker/to sound of the ‘ud & flute playing/who saw the glass in my hand said/“drink the wine from between my lips.” He kisses Steve then, insistent, tongue sweeping into his mouth, body to body. Steve buckles beneath it. Two stories. One poem.

I'm cheating a little with this one... maybe. To be perfectly honest, I don't really know what's going on here even after I read this several times. Is it time travel? An alternate universe? Reincarnation? None of it at all? The thing is, I'm not sure the reader is meant to definitively know or understand what exactly is happening, and ultimately, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is the poignancy, the beautiful, at times lyrical language, and the reassurance that Steve and Bucky will find and love each other in every possible universe and incarnation. Also features one of my favorite George Barnes scenes ever.

From Tralfamadore, With Love by newsbypostcard | E, 106K | Part 1 in From Tralfamadore series

Author's summary: In 2018, Steve, Sam, and Bucky embark on a mission to explore a Hydra-owned warehouse when a kid with mutant powers sends Steve 18 years into the future. Steve's just as in love with Bucky as he was when he left, but for Bucky it's been a long 18 years. As he gets used to life in 2036 and the flaws in Bucky's idyllic life expose themselves, Steve also has to manage a suspiciously ubiquitous security force, a Brotherhood of Mutants, and old competing loyalties among his aged friends. There's a Bucky in 2018 waiting for him to come home, but if he does that, it means leaving this Bucky behind for a third, unforgivable time. How can he choose?

Yes yes, I recced this not too long ago, I know. But there is simply no way in hell that I'm going to put together a time travel rec list and NOT include this fic. The summary is pretty self-explanatory, and I really don't want to reveal anymore than that. Much of the tension and emotional drama in this fic comes from not knowing what's going to happen, and from desperately guessing at how on earth the author is going to solve Steve's impossible dilemma. I loved the way the author explored the relationship of a Steve and a Bucky who have been separated for two seconds and 18 years, respectively. Also, possibly the best use of a Fleetwood Mac song in fanfic ever.

🕰 +3 To Reads:

Savage God by PottersPink | M, 36K

Author's summary: Past, present, future, Steve knows Bucky Barnes. It’s why he recognized him when he found him in that alley in April of 1942, even though Bucky was older, stronger, wearier; he called himself The Asset, and had a metal fucking arm. The Asset was only with Steve in 1942 for a few days, but it’s enough to change the course of Steve’s life forever.

Seventy years later, Steve wakes up in the twenty-first century, and he doesn’t know whether to be heartbroken or hopeful when some of the things Bucky revealed to him in 1942 start falling into place.

Every You, Every Me by Starshot | E, 48K

Author's summary: Desperate to follow when Bucky ships out to war in 1943, Steve volunteers for Project Rebirth, an experimental program meant to turn him into the world’s first super-soldier. Instead it fails, leaving him with a condition dubbed “Chrono-Impairment” which sees him travelling uncontrollably through time, to random points in both his and Bucky’s lives.

But with Bucky brainwashed into working for HYDRA, and Steve living life on the run, torn between his own time and Bucky’s, will they ever find the happy ending they so desperately desire? (AKA the Stucky AU based on the book, "The Time Traveler’s Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger)

a day in the life by powerfulowl (StuckyFlangst) E, 20K

Author's summary: Steve wakes to the sound of someone moving about in the kitchen below him. He lies for a few moments, trying to recall—a dream?

He looks over at the nightstand and there is a piece of card propped up there. He reaches out to take it.

You are Captain America. You are Steve Rogers. It is 1956. You are married to Peggy Rogers, nee Carter. You live in New Jersey. Sometimes you have trouble remembering.

Steve Rogers wakes up on Tuesday October 30 1956, and doesn't seem to remember his life that well. Why does every day feel so familiar? And why does he keep getting visited by tall, dark, handsome men who remind him of Bucky?

____________

You can always send more asks for fic recs if you want. I love inflicting my taste on everybody else!

[bi-fiend]

Hey! I’ve never watched an anime series apart from Avatar stuff, if that counts. Do you have an anime series to recommend? I strongly prefer dubs over subs, and I like fantasy. Thanks !

Might I suggest delicious in dungeon? It's about a dnd party cooking and eating monsters in a dungeon, as they save their leader's sister from a red dragon's stomach before it digests her. it is on Netflix!

Below are some more anime recs with short summaries and where to watch them, keep in mind I'm shit at summaries ↓↓↓

Mob Psycho 100: middle school student, shigeo kageyama just wants to live a normal life, Despite his psychic powers. He is taken advantage of for said powers by a con man pretending to be a psychic, reigen arataka. He runs a business called Spirits and Such, where he (mostly mob) (that's shigeo's nickname) exorcises spirits bothering his clientele. Mob's powers are also a good metaphor for autism, I think it's canon that mob's autistic? Anyway, it's fuckin' fantastic. I love this. And I love mob?? Forever and platonically?? It's on Netflix, Hulu and Crunchyroll (season 1 is free but 2 & 3 need a premium subscription)

Sk8 The Infinity: high school student Reki introduces his new friend Langa to skateboarding, and. I can't recommend you watch this enoughm despite the simple premise I gave, it's fucking fantastic! I can't put these feelings into words!Please! It is free on Crunchyroll with ads, but the dubs after episode 3 require Crunchyroll premium.

Bocchi the Rock!: and here I thought mob was literally me! Hitori wants to be in a band, because in the words of the band that inspired her, a band is where an introvert can shine! She spent her days practicing and pouring her soul into the guitar, practicing to be ready to perform at her middle school's culture festival! But, well, in her own words,

"I practiced six hours every day, so I could learn how to play in front of people... The result? Middle school ended and I never played a single note for them! I never performed once... at the culture festival! I never put together... the members for a band! And I never made a single friend... In three whole years! Now, in high school... I gotta form a band or die trying! But, despite my vow, it's been a whole month since high school started, and yet my heart remains grounded in the guitar, little better than a shut in..."

Sasaki To Miyano:

Anyway, she joins a band and that's all I'm gonna say because thisssss is getting too long. She has social anxiety! Jus like me! And she has my exact fear for the future. it made me cry tears of deep unfocused fear and misery. It's free on Crunchyroll with ads, but there's no dub. But! But! I promise you it's worth a watch! The animation is great, the voice acting is great, the humor is great, the characters are great, the story inspires me to get my shit together (thus great), and the SONGS? OUGGGHHH DONT GET ME STARTED ON THE SONGS. THSI ANIME SINGLEHANDEDLY MADE ME REALIZE HOW MUCH I LOVED MUSIC. IVE CRIED AT SOME OF THE SONGS FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER. EVEn if you don't watch the anime, at least listen to the soundtrack! try Rock'n roll, Morning Light Falls On You! It's crack cocaine in song form! Thank you for coming to my ted talk!

oohhhhhhgodherewego

Alright first things first, this shits adorable. Understatement! High school student Miyano befriends this guy Sasaki, and he gets interested in the bl manga that miya reads, and he borrows one. Much to Miyano's surprise, he loved it! ohhhhhgod i can feel the hyperfixation taking hold once again over time, they start to fall in love. Yeah, it's BL!!!! Fuxk! I love yaoi! I love life! The world hath gained colour! Funny part is, uh.miya's straight. He contemplates things on front of his bookshelf of BL manga. Taking a line from a summary I saw on YouTube, reading bl manga everyday and having an entire bookshelf of bl manga, while saying "yeah I'm straight!" Is a special kind of in the closet. Anyway fuckkkkkkkkkkkki love thsi series soooooososososososoo much. I have RAMMED MY HEAD INTO A WALL BECAUSE OF THIS. I HAVE PACED THE LIVING ROOM LISTENING TO THE SOUNDTRACK LIKE RETIRED MIDDLE AGED DETECTIVE GOING THROUGH A DIVORCE HAUNTED BY A COLD CASE HE JUST CANT CRACK BECAUSE OF THIS. granted that was me going delirious with hungerSASAMIYA IS MY REASON TO LIVE. anyway it is unfortunately exclusively on Crunchyroll for a premium subscription, but you can READ it! Yeah its 10 volumes are online to read! for free! call your dentist, you will gain cavities! but I do hear the dub is phenomenal!

Sorry for yappin', and happy viewing if you decide to watch any of these! Can you tell sasamiya and bocchi are my faves?

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Netflix Markled by (unmitigated) Disaster Duchess 😂

For those of you who've for YEARS referred to her as the 'Disaster Duchess,' did you know it would become a Double Entendre! Congratulations---you were ahead of the curve! 🤭

Lady C: "I am informed that, contrary to the story being promulgated by the Duchess of Sussex that the delay of the launch of her lifestyle series withlovemeghan from this Wednesday to the 4th March, was her idea, it was entirely netflixs. They evidently strongly recommended that she use the intervening period to try to turn around the wave of unpopularity that has engulfed all of them, unbelievably to their surprise. "They thought they might have problems owing to how toxic she now is, but they've been taken aback by the depth of feeling the public have shown," someone who is Hollywood royalty told me. So what does she do? She goes and shows the public even more clearly what a ghoul she is by plugging in yet again to disaster the way she tastelesslyy did at Uvalde, once more tipping off TMZ of her and Harry's intentions to do their version of ambulance chasing. She posed up a storm beside the perfectly groomed Mrs GavinNewsom then moves off to hug a member of her detail, all the while surrounded by the cameramen who had accompanied her. She's been rightly condemned for this deathly display of opportunistic limelighting, but at least she was canny enough to dress down, which is more than could be said for the perfectly-groomed First Lady of California, who looked as if she was preparing for one of Anna Wintour's left-of-centre voguemagazine spreads. I gather the visit lasted all of 17 minutes - five minutes longer than the time spent with His Majesty The King when Harry crossed the Atlantic for that photo-op. Does this couple have no shame?"

Tragedy Vultures Strike Again

[saffronapplemanga]

Tenmaku no Jadoogar: A Witch’s Life in Mongol - 天幕のジャードゥーガル

HISTORICAL, DRAMA

Tenmaku no Jadoogar: A Witch’s Life in Mongol by Tomato Soup

(2 volumes, ongoing)

JP only. The first 5 chapters are up for free in JP here.

Links to my other manga posts here

Hi, Fatimah here to talk more about the story of Fatima >:)

Definitely check out my post for volume one because I worked really hard on that and there's lots of cool info there and I don't want to repeat myself here.

This post will be broken up into: Brief Volume Two Summary - My Thoughts - Let's Talk Religion (Again) - The "Middle East" Is Actually a Colonizer Term

Let's go!

Brief Volume Two Summary

***SPOILERS FOR VOLUME TWO***

*

*

*

8 years have passed since Fatima was taken by the Mongols. She has been unable to retrieve the book that was stolen even though she's had it in her hands over and over. Ögedei has been crowned the new Khan after the death of Ghengis Khan. Sorghaghtani has asked Fatima to go spy on Chagatai. While trying to get her to infiltrate, she ends up at Töregene's tent instead where Fatima is accused of stealing her "Jada Stone".

We learn about Töregene's back story and her forced integration into the Mongol Empire, losing those she loved, and her marriage to Ögedei. Töregene and Fatima bond over their shared trauma and hate towards their captures. They start working together on upending the empire.

And work together they are! Looks like they're gonna raise hell in the empire.

Töregene attends a meeting she normally skips, and there Ögedei Khan proposes that the nomadic Mongols build a city. Everyone is against the idea as they were expecting to discuss the invasion of the eastern country, Kin (also known as the Jin State). Ögedei says that he wants to use this new city for manufacturing, to gather craftsmen from around the world, and as a center for trade. They then discuss their war plans for the siege on the Jin State.

Töregene shares all the information she's learned at the meeting with Fatima, and they discuss potential weaknesses in the Mongol Empire that could cause its downfall.

*

*

*

***END OF SPOILERS FOR VOLUME TWO***

My Thoughts

I'm excited to see what Fatima and Töregene do and what their dynamic is going to be like.

Small nitpick, I do wish that some info was incorporated a little more subtly. Author Tomato Soup clearly has put a lot of care into researching for this series, so I just wish they took that extra step to weave the information in more naturally. But still a solid volume!

They put a lot of care into the visual language, such as the shape of text bubbles (right pic), so seeing charts like this (left pic) feels visually inconsistent.

Let's Talk Religion (Again)

Once again, I want to put the disclaimer that I am NOT a scholar, this is just what I know and my understanding so please don’t quote me. I probably have to gloss over and simplify a lot because there’s… too much.

At the beginning of the volume, there is mention of Islamic meat slaughtering practices (halal meat) compared to the customs of the Mongols.

I think halal is a word a lot of people have heard, especially in recent years, but what does it even mean?

Halal is anything that is permissible in Islam. Haram is anything NOT permissible in Islam, or sins. There are also things that are makrooh (strongly discouraged but not a sin) and mustahab (recommended but not obligatory) and so on.

How does that translate to food?

Halal foods are foods that are permissible for Muslims to consume. Most things are okay for consumption, so it's easier to list what isn't allowed/haram. You might be familiar with the fact that Muslims do not drink alcohol or eat pork. There's a reason for all this, but I'll get to that later. Some other things that are haram to consume are the following:

Carnivorous/predatory animals (Pigs are omnivores, so they technically fall into this category as well. Only herbivores are permissible to consume.)

Animals that died from disease.

Incests, reptiles, and "pests" (such as mice/rats).

These next points are debated depending on what scholar you follow:

Some Muslims only eat fish that have scales, while some believe pretty much any seafood that doesn't fall into the previous categories is fair game (I call this The Great Muslim Seafood Debate loll).

Some Muslims believe you should avoid eating "beasts of burden" such as horses/mules.

Exceptions to these rules are if you are in a situation where you are left with no other choice but a haram food option, then you will not be guilty of sin for consuming. God never wants to place unreasonable burden on his creation. One of the most important things in Islam is intention, and God can see what's in your heart.

Okay, so you have something that clears these rules. But! That doesn't automatically make it halal. When it comes to consuming animals, the slaughtering of the animal has to be done in a specific way. Let's break it down:

Land animals -

When slaughtering a land animal, it must be done in a specific way so that it becomes halal meat:

The animal must be well-fed and given water before slaughter.

They must be soothed and calm. You cannot slaughter if the animal is fearful and agitated.

Other animals must not witness the slaughter as it can frighten them.

The slaughter must be performed using a very sharp knife to cut the throat. Doing this will cause the animal to immediately lose consciousness and thus will not feel pain. It must be done as quickly, painlessly, and humanely as possible.

Do not allow the animal to see the knife as it can frighten them.

The slaughter must be performed by a Muslim. They must recite a prayer before cutting the throat and do so while facing Mecca.

The blood must be drained from the animal's body after the neck is cut as disease/toxins/etc. can live in the blood. This makes the meat cleaner and more sanitary.

You cannot stun an animal before slaughter (such as hitting it on the head or zapping it with electricity).

In cases where you are hunting, you can use arrows, guns, or hunting birds when hunting an animal that cannot easily be caught for traditional methods of slaughter.

Hunting is only allowed with the intention of hunting for food, not sport.

You must say a prayer when shooting.

If the animal does not die immediately during the hunt, you should slaughter them as quickly and painlessly as possible and not unnecessarily prolong any suffering.

"There's a reason for cutting the neck and slaughtering this way, you know..."

Animals of the sea -

The animal must die outside of the water (for example, using "blast fishing" or "fish bombing" is prohibited — it's horrible for the environment and does not discriminate on what fish are killed. Even animals like dolphins and turtles can get caught in the blast and die. Coral reefs and such can end up damaged as well. Also, according to Wikipedia "For every ten fish killed, only one or two float to the surface, due to damage caused to their otherwise buoyant internal air bladders. The rest sink to the bottom." This causes a lot of waste. Using this method, you also wouldn't know if a fish was dead from disease and was already floating around or if it was from the blast.)

They should not be descaled/skinned while still alive (this is the same for land animals).

I know this might seem like a long and tedious list, but there is a reason for these halal food guidelines. The purpose is to not cause any unnecessary pain to animals, be as humane as possible, and not consume anything that would be bad for your health. Health is of the utmost importance in Islam. I think we can all agree that alcohol is not great for you. There are studies being done about the effects of consuming carnivorous animal meat, pork, and so on not being the greatest for you either, etc. Again I want to reiterate, I'm not judging anyone. You do you, I literally don't care. I'm not saying you're wrong and terrible for consuming these things.

But yeah, I think that's everything for relevant religious stuff that came up in this volume.

I'd like to use the setting of the series as a springboard to discuss something I never see anyone talk about, and I think we should.

The "Middle East" Is Actually a Colonizer Term

Before you roll your eyes at me, just hear me out.

A while back, Drew Mackie, the guy behind Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games where I work as a translator/consultant, sent me an email with some questions for a post he was working on. Long story short, he wasn't sure how to refer to these Nintendo characters who looked stereotypically "Middle Eastern".

Big sigh... I am TIRED of seeing character designs like this... Check out Drew's post here! He writes lots of cool articles that are super interesting!

Luckily for him, this was VERY MUCH my lane. Please entertain my oncoming rant about the term "Middle East" guys. I swear I have a point to make.

When Drew sent me the picture of these Nintendo characters, I groaned. When I sent my brother the picture, he got real ticked off.

I don't know where it started exactly, but everyone just decided that this is what the "Middle-Eastern-look" is. To me, it just looks like Disney's Aladdin — in which what I mean is that this is what Westerners decided the whole region between the far East and far West looks like and everyone was like, "Yeah sure, okay." This look that is so prevalent looks like some bizarre mash-up of West Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, and North Africa to me. That's quite a range of regions to group together...

I always found it weird that this was the "Middle-Eastern-look" since it looked nothing like Kuwaiti traditional wear to me (or any other traditional clothing I'm familiar with tbh). And yet, it's like everyone was telling me, "Yes, this is what you wear. This is what you look like."

Some actual Kuwaiti traditional clothing. You can see a lot of influence from other regions due to trade. The headdresses remind me of the ones you see in Tenmaku no Jadoogar! Turkey has something similar as well! And idk about you guys, but it doesn't look like the aforementioned "Middle-Eastern-look". That is some unholy mishmash of "brown culture" from the perspective of those outside of said culture.

Bottom right pic is what ship builders and pearl divers wore. My grandpa was a pearl diver! The fabric tied around their waist that's different colors and patterns is called a wizar. Dishdasha (the men's robe) can come in various colors. White is worn in the summer and darker colors in the winter. The red qitra (the fabric on the head) is also for winter as it's thicker and warmer than the white one. You can mix and match, especially between seasons to suit you depending on the weather. The black and gold overcoat is a bisht and it's to dress up the dishdasha, usually for special occasions.

Honestly, I almost never use the term "Middle East" myself for a few reasons (and now that I think about it, most of my family and friends don't really either. Maybe that's just me and the people around me idk. I know some people from the region do use it but I'm talking about the people I personally know). Like, what does the term even mean? I mean, it's not a continent, but everyone seems to act like it's the eighth continent. I get that continents are usually further broken up into regions to help be more specific about similar groups since continents are, well, huge and cover a lot.

The problem is, the "Middle East" is wayyyy too big and broad, and it covers areas that often don't have as much in common as many would believe, and it spans multiple continents (Are there similarities? Yeah of course, but like...). It feels like they said, "All you guys talk Arabic so we'll group you. Oh, and throw Iran and Turkey in there because same thing, right?" But then what about Libya or Morroco, which are North African Arab countries? By some definitions, they're not considered to be in the Middle East even though they "fit" but Egypt, another North African Arab country is? I could go on, but idk it all seems very arbitrary.

Yes, these regions did have a lot of trade going on with the Silk Road so you'll see common things shared across various countries along this trade route, but many people have just mashed them together and decided it's all the same.

Which Middle East is the Middle East-est Middle East?

Where did the term come from? -

The term "Middle East" may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office. However, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to "designate the area between Arabia and India".

Which reads to me like, because some colonizers said so.

There's also a term that's worse I learned about called the "Greater Middle East" which Wikipedia describes as:

The Greater Middle East is a political term, introduced in March 2004 in a paper by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as a part of the U.S. administration's preparatory work for the Group of Eight summit of June 2004, denoting a vaguely defined region called the "Arab world" together with Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Turkey, and several other neighboring countries that have cultural ties.

I recommend reading the rest of the paragraph on Wikipedia for yourself. It comes off as incredibly nope. It's gross.

But even this description says, "denoting a vaguely defined region" which is what I mean when I say it's arbitrary. I feel like it's too often used as a blanket term with negative connotations.

Personally, if I'm talking about Arab countries, I say "Arab" but it also depends on what I'm talking about. If it's a shared Arab thing, then Arab is fine, but if it's a cultural thing that's unique to Sham Arabs for example, I don't use it as broadly. Arab countries vary A LOT. Many assume they're all the same, but truth be told, Arabs get culture shock from each other and have a lot that's different — including neighboring nations. Sometimes we don't even understand each other because of how different dialects can be across different regions.

Obviously, I don't expect everyone to know all this, but I think the way we divide up the region and how we refer to it could get a makeover.

The world seems to be okay with dividing up, for example, Europe into smaller sub-regions that make some kind of sense — like Northern Europe, Western Europe, etc. But we don't commonly do that for the "Middle East" —  nothing that makes any kind of sense. "Middle East" because it's halfway to East Asia in relation to the West? Because the colonizers said so?

Personally, I generally refer to myself as West Asian and I always check "Asian" on forms, even when they try to convince me Arabs are apparently white as if that makes sense (meanwhile my dad is perceived as being mixed race/black in the U.S. and he's not even close to being the darkest on his side of the family. While I am pale, no one would perceive me as white). Like I mentioned in my volume one post, I'm not only Kuwaiti Arab, I'm also Irani which is Persian/Turkmen and NOT Arab, plus some Turkish ancestry (also NOT Arab). Allllll of those countries are in West Asia. West Asia is already a term! Why don't we use it?????? We should all know why by now if you've gotten this far in the post.

Map of West Asia, which is already a thing. An actual geographical term. Wow. Too many people don't realize these countries are indeed in Asia. Crazy how Asia isn't just Japan, China, and Korea, huh.

I'm sure there are "Middle Easterners" who don't care, and I'm not here to tell those people how they should identify. That's up to them. DO NOT tell people how they should identify because that is deeply personal, and who the hell are you to tell them who they are?

But for the rest of you, consider adopting less colonizer vocabulary maybe? A lot of my family and friends find the term to have racist connotations since it's almost always used in a not-so-great context and it's from the view of the West. We HAVE other terms that we can use! Time to brush up on our geography and unlearn some nonsense kids.

I'm done. Thanks for coming to my TED talk❤️

✨And once again✨

I await your email publishers, my resume is ready… fatimahhajiasiri@gmail.com

🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿

—————————–

If there’s any Japanese-only manga you want me to check out, let me know! No promises, I’ll only read what I’m interested in, but I’ll take suggestions into consideration. Preferably, shorter manga or newer manga with a few volumes out since I like to take breaks from longer series I’m reading :)

[finalfrontierpublishing]

For the bookbinding ask game: 1, 2, 5, 8 and 10!

sorry guys, i've been very very slow in answering these questions because i'm a massive procrastinator. thank you for all the questions!!! i've covered 8 here! :)

What are you excited about binding right now?

so i'm currently working on a tête-bêche author copy for a fic that i'm working on as part of a collaborative project between a few star wars fanbinders. i'm very obsessed with small(er) books like the legal quarto size, and i'm also going nuts over sanding and doing foiled edges. i'm hoping if i can get my QC consistent i can do foiled edges for the author, which will be very exciting. i'm also about to start working on a good omens fic that i really really really love, which will also be an author copy and a copy for myself.

i'm also super excited about a couple of event/ exchange books that are coming up, but also 13/10 in terms of PaNiK -

namely: i have a bookbinding course with other fanbinders in january where we are trading books, 2 different anonymous exchanges, 3 other trades with other fanbinders, 2 books for family i kind of promised at christmas, and my pace at bookbinding is usually 3 books a month so i am very very doomed, good luck to me.

2. What is your latest binding?

I just finished binding Remembrance by blue_sunshine, which is part of The Desert Storm series. The bind can be found here. i'm rather proud of it because i think did a lovely cover design, i love the cloth colour, and it matched the first book pretty well so i am being consistent. I've been using the series as a bookbinders' reward to myself every time i complete a couple of other author copies.

5. When did you get into bookbinding?

I started bookbinding in mid-2022 on my first day of COVID (funny story, because then having COVID was enforced home leave for a week, and once i had gotten over how miserable i felt i decided it was Time to Learn how to do The Cool Book Thing i kept seeing on tumblr and instagram.) Once i started, i never looked back and i've been very proud of the progress i've made so far. I'm largely self taught, though I did attend several short courses in Aug/September 2022, but my bookbinding teacher immigrated to Australia very soon after, so the rest I've learnt through videos online, was taught by friends and I did a fair amount of fucking around and finding out.

10. What's your favourite bookbinding tool?

When my spouse asked what I wanted for my birthday this year, I immediately said I wanted a finishing/lying press with backing boards. Would strongly recommend Affordable Bookbinding Equipment for anyone who is keen to purchase some intermediate tools that will make your life easier. This is much better suited for things like doing endbands and even gluing as compared to a wingnut press. I still haven't used the backing boards, but I'm waiting for the right typeset to come along for it.

Again, thank you so much for your questions!!! :)

[queensectonia]

i know it's a popular position to take in this fandom that robobot's english translation totally butchered the original japanese script, but i gotta say, i'm with kaialone on this one - i don't agree. the english translation wasn't FLAWLESS, no such translation exists but it's nowhere near the complete trainwreck people make it out to be.

the biggest problem robobot's english script had was the sheer difference in information density between japanese and english. japanese is a logographic language, so it can fit way more information per character than english can. this is a pretty common translation issue for this specific combination, actually! the vast majority of "errors" in robobot's english script were simply the localisation team being forced to cut content because they physically could not fit the same amount of text in the english game. luckily, 90% of this only applies to the pause text screens, and imo the team did the best they could keeping the essential information intact. most of what was lost was more capitalism-themed jokes, like how bosses mention how many haltmanns they cost and things like that.

the one big thing people usually point to to talk about how bad the english translation is susie's motivations re: stealing star dream. in english she says "I just wanted to teach the old man a lesson" and in Japanese she says "I just wanted to make him pay, make him come to his senses". these say the same thing! this is once again the english script needing to condense things. they both express a desire to force haltmann to acknowledge who susie is, or at the absolute least make him pay attention to her by stealing the thing most valuable to him and his company. of course, the tragedy here is that susie had no idea what happened to her father, and haltmann had no memories left of her.

either way, this is another one of those issues where i just have no idea where it started. seriously, robobot's localisation team did a great job. we have examples of objectively bad translation in this series, and robobot is not one of them. through both my own personal translations, and reading other fan translations like kaialone's, i have to say: star allies this is not! i strongly recommend checking that compilation out if you still have doubts about robobot's english script. you'll see what hard work the team put in and how they succeeded despite their limitations.