#ie: some of these guys learning ACTUAL balance

[nikibogwater]

Niki Blethers: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio LET’S FREAKIN’ GOOOOOOOOO--

In case it was not already obvious, this was my most anticipated movie of the year. Heck, it was my only anticipated movie of the year. Having learned the hard way just how deeply disappointment stings, I don’t usually get my hopes up this high. But darn it, everything I heard about this movie prior to its release just filled me with too much excitement to ignore, and now that it is finally available to the wider public, it is my great pleasure to say--

HOLY MOTHER OF MARMALADE, DID THIS MOVIE LIVE UP TO MY HYPE AND THEN SOME

(Mild spoilers below the cut, GO WATCH THIS MOVIE IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT IT’S A MASTERPIECE)

First up: stop motion animation. We love to see it. And this movie doesn’t cut any corners with the stop motion. Even the fire is stop motion. The backgrounds are paintings (gorgeous ones at that), not just CG landscapes. The sets are so incredibly detailed I could’ve spent several minutes just staring at any given wide shot. There were very few instances where I could clearly see any effects that were obviously done in a computer. The animators and set builders went hard on this movie, and they have 1000% of my respect for it. 

Despite being a whimsical fairy tale, there is a pretty heavy sense of realism with this movie. Like, one scene, you have an overeager Pinocchio singing a cute little song about how excited he is to be alive, and then in the next one, he and Geppetto are walking past buildings plastered with posters promoting Mussolini’s Fascist regime. The way the film balances these two tonal opposites is absolutely genius, and I can’t remember a single instance of a jarring shift in tone. The light and whimsical always eases into the dark and realistic in a way that makes me feel like the two sides couldn’t exist without each other. 

Also speaking of realism, CAN I GET A HALLELUJIA FOR SOME HONEST-TO-GOODNESS CATHOLIC REP IN A CURRENT-YEAR CHILDREN’S MOVIE?!

This is obviously a personal thing for me, but I pretty much never see any accurate, respectful portrayals of my religion outside of films that are specifically made for Catholics. And I’ma be real with you, more often than not, the films made specifically for us turn out to be unbearably preachy or saccharine (and they’re never animated--another major point against them). To see a character who simply IS a Catholic (because this is Italy during the 1910s, so it’d be a little out-of-the-ordinary for him not to be), doing his little Catholic things, without it being a huge focus of the story or directly influencing the plot--ie, Catholicism being portrayed as just another normal part of every-day life--GAH. IT WAS JUST REALLY SPECIAL TO ME, OKAY? 

Also Geppetto locking Pinocchio in a closet because he doesn’t have time to deal with this, it’s time to go to Mass is a big fat Catholic mood. 

Okay, I’ll shut up about the Catholic stuff. Back to the movie.

If I had a nickel for every time David Bradly made me cry with his performance as a struggling father-figure overcoming the estrangement between him and his adopted son, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t very many, but it’s great that it happened twice. 

Ewan McGregor practically carries this movie as Sebastian J. Cricket. I knew he was going to be good, but somehow I failed to foresee just how good he truly is in the role. This interpretation of Jiminy Cricket as a mildly self-absorbed novelist who sees Pinocchio as little more than his house for most of the film is just *chef’s kiss.*

Ron Perlman as the Podestà was incredible. I actually didn’t realize it was him until three-fourths of the way through the movie, he just vanishes into the role so smoothly. And gotdang, is that character scary. 

Christoph Waltz clearly went all out with Count Volpe and I bet recording sessions with him were very fun. 

Gregory Mann did so great for such a little guy! It’s hard to find child actors, and even harder to find child voice actors, but he was fantastic, and really sold the character. 

Speaking of characters, OH MY GOSH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH WHERE DO I BEGIN

Geppetto is a very sentimental old guy whose only joy in life was his son Carlo. After Carlo is killed in a bombing raid, Geppetto completely collapses under the weight of his grief. Carving Pinocchio isn’t something he does out of creativity or joy, but rather the result of drunken and despairing rage. The scene is played out as a grotesque and heartbreaking moment, and I LOVE it. 

Pinocchio himself is a Very Real Boy from the start--by which I mean, he never shuts up, he gets into everything, he’s kind of a brat, and he brings unbridled chaos to Geppetto’s life in the way that only a young child can. I like it when movies portray children as, y’know, actual children, not just tiny adults. Yeah, kids are loud, they break stuff, they annoy the heck out of you, and they are also so, so precious, they’re worth every second of it. 

I’ve already talked about Sebastian J. Cricket so all I’m gonna say here is I felt the line “Oh, the pain! Life is such hideous pain” right down to my core.

This movie covers a lot of heavy themes, such as the difficulties of fatherhood, abuse, war, death, and grief. But it does so in a way that left me with a sense of hope. It doesn’t shy away from the reality of these things, but it assures you that you can endure them, that you can find immense joy even in the midst of great suffering. 

To get a little personal for the second time, the way this movie goes about presenting the reality of death and the grief of those left behind resonated with me very deeply. I’m the youngest child in my immediate family, and deep down, there’s a part of me that dreads the day when they will pass on and leave me behind. Barring any unforeseen accidents, I will likely outlive most of my siblings, and I’m lowkey terrified of that inevitablilty. So there was something oddly comforting about a film that speaks directly to my fear like that. A film that doesn’t sugar coat or try to persuade me that it won’t be so bad. A film that tells me my time with my family is so much more precious because it is so fleeting. 

So yeah, tears were shed, I’m not ashamed to admit it. 

I could probably say a bajillion things more about this movie, but it’s getting late now and I’ve prattled long enough. In conclusion, 10/10, easily the best movie of my year, and I truly think I can forgive Del Toro for Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans now. 

[thelemoncoffee]

space fae au shit? what ho?

yeah i got bored and kinda played with Shuichi's species a bit for funsies. it's not much different than it was originally, but there are some changes to the guy. i also got kinda better-ish at drawing skeletons (not really- don't take that as anatomically correct it's so bad please)

anywho here's some stuff about his species' anatomy

they're from a Desert-Savannah-like planet, and thus they evolved to have snowshoe-like flat feet to better handle standing atop loose sand and stones 24/7. the flatness also helps with sensing small vibrations beneath the sand

their claws are designed primarily to dig, as their primary food source is bugs that burrow beneath the sands and stones. they aren't as hard as Terran animal claws are thought, rather they're flexible enough to curl almost like fingers (more restricted but sill flexible)

The species is primarily bipedal, but are fully capable of walking on all fours thanks to their actually smooth transition to bipedalisim (unlike humans). as pups they start out as quadrupedal instead of crawling around due to this, and learn to stand up later in life

they have two tails- kinda. their Primary tail does exactly what tails are suppose to do- assist with balance. their secondary tails or "false tails" are actually more like if an arm and a tail fused together.

false tails have all the flexibility of a normal tail, but have a hand like appendage at the end that acts like a claw machine claw. the false tail hand is relaxed when closed tight, and opening the claws on it tenses the muscles- much like a sloth. they use the False tail for two things: one- hanging upside down from trees, and two- crushing bugs with extra hard shells. mates also like to intertwine false tails as a form of love expression, and parents sometimes use them like leashes to make sure their pups don't run off like fools and get lost

their necks are very flexible and can twist in some pretty odd ways, they developed like this partially as a way to survey their surroundings (looking around in tight spaces, or while hanging from a tree), and partially to help with wiggling their way into bug nests without having to move their whole body.

whiskers are their weather predictors, they're super sensitive to changes in the atmosphere and temperatures. if it's too hot for the whiskers it's too hot to be outside, and if they feel weird there's probably a storm brewing.

their teeth are mostly flat except for four very sharp canines at the very front, the flat teeth are for grinding bugs and plants, and the canines are for both breaking into hard skinned fruit and self defense. they could defiantly take a chunk out of an attacker if need be with those vampire fangs

tongues are probably the simplest thing here; they have anteater-like tongues, they're super flexible and their spit is kinda sweet to help lure and grab up bugs

their ears are super duper sensitive particularly to feeling, while their hearing is very good, they're even better at picking up small differences in vibrations. it was initially developed to help with bug hunting, but they now use it to tell the difference between emotional tones in their trill language

because they often would dig tunnels both to hunt for bugs and as hidey-holes from predator attacks they evolved their horns to naturally** grow in a way that allows them to tell if a hole it too small. ie: if the horns don't fit, neither will the rest of them- so don't try it. they were also once used for dominance battles, but doing so in modern day is seen as childish and sometimes barbaric.

**while they naturally grow like this, once the species became sapient and started to become obsessed with their appearances, they quickly took to purposefully altering their horns with manipulative molds for purely aesthetic reasons. Shuichi's are so short because he's been conditioned to see them as an attention grabbing accessory and nothing more, and he doesn't want attention on himself so he files them down as far as he can.

yea that's alot more witting than i intended! whoops! there's more about this species, their culture, cities, and biology but this is all the diagram covers and this post does not need to be any longer

[anactualfuckingnerd]

you're just gonna say you made sonic oc's and not share them with us??? /lh /nm /np

YES SOMEONE TOOK THE BAIT

ok so this is rocky the rabbit. hes based on early concept art of sonic that depicted him as a bunny with a 90's cartoon art style. his pronouns are he/him and he is bisexual :)

he lives on the lost hex from sonic lost world and is the only anthropomorphic animal on it, with everything else either being genesis style critters, real life animals that have some sort of twist like the manta rays who spit fire, and the zeti. my interpretation of zeti can be a whole other post.

hes the most isolated out of my ocs, and lacks the most social skills. hes very blunt and swears a lot, something he learned from the zeti growing up. he very rarely takes things seriously, much to the chagrin of the other two.

his favorite food is apples and hes basically the sonic out of my ocs, ie hes the fastest. not as fast as sonic himself but god damn close. he can use the super peel out from sonic cd and he can homing attack and rail grind. the former has an arch to it like in lost world, as opposed to every other sonic game where his homing attack literally straightforward.

he basically treats the entire hex as his neighborhood, frequently visiting all the different environments and ecosystems just for fun. my friend @sappys-art-blog actually drew a couple sketches

onto the next one

so this is ruth the wolf, who was supposed to be a rival to rocky in the same vein as metal sonic. it was also supposed to be a play on the predator/prey dynamic wolfs and bunnies are often depicted with. her pronouns are she/her and shes panromantic asexual

she lives in "the city" from sonic forces (lets just say the actual name is sunset heights) and was part of the resistance against eggman empire. she grew up around other anthro animals, so shes a lot better with social stuff than rocky. however, she also never met another human until eggman took over most of the world.

she was drafted into the resistance in her mid teens and stayed even after eggman was defeated, as the resistance became part of sunset heights defenses, just in case something like that happens again. this makes her the most skilled fighter out of the three, and is actually able to harness the power of wisps/wispons such as drill and burst.

shes definitely the straightman in the trio, usually to balance out whatever bullshit rocky pulls off. also, it took a little while before i realized that her design in this picrew is extremely similar to shadow, which was not intended but is still welcome.

finally, this is randall the horned lizard. he's based off the little guy from spelunky 2 (below) and takes the place of knuckles. his pronouns are he/him and he is pansexual

thanks to the picrew, he looks more like knuckles himself than id like. the design is supposed to look more like mighty the armadillo, hence the black skin. just imagine if he had a shell, like mighty, that had yellowish spikes.

his backstory is interesting because hes the only one who interacted with humans at a young age. he was adopted by a man named trevor (iykyk) who took randall with him to explore what mobius had to offer. they were like father and sun, until they came across angel island.

there, they meet a tribe of echidnas who believe that randall is prophecised to be the guardian of the master emerald. the tribe forcefully seperated the two, as randall was dragged deep into the island, where the massive emerald awaited. the last thing he ever heard from trevor was "ill come and get you, okay? i just need to explain the misunderstanding!"

randall doesnt know what happened to him after that. trevor never actually came back, and randall simply sat there, guarding the emerald and waiting to be found. and then eggman crashes onto the island or something.

unlike knuckles, randall isnt convinced by eggmans story that rocky and ruth are the evil ones who are looking to steal the emerald. but randall senses them entering the island, and pretty much runs off to deal with them.

randall almost kicks the shit out of the two before eggman sets a good chunk of the island on fire. from then on, randall's juggling between stopping eggman from fucking up angel island, and kicking the other two out entirely.

im actually running out of steam so im gonna go over his Powers and Abilities before going to bed.

he can somewhat control the position of his spikes like a porccupine, and can either flatten them or make them puff them out as defense. he can also camoflauge like some irl horned lizards.

after years of exposure to the master emerald, hes able to subconsciously make himself far stronger than he looks, basically using the power of belief or whatever. im getting tired.

finally, his last ability is based off of the werehog gimmick from sonic unleashed. its also based off of ths wereskunk episode of regular show. basically if hes panicking or just insanely pissed, he grows quite a bit bigger and becomes a lot more feral. his arms cant stretch like the werehog but his boosted speed and strength more than makes up fod that. hes about the same size as the death egg robot from sonic 2, but usually moves around on all fours like an actual lizard.

ill maybe reblog this tomorrow with more info but rn im pooped. gnight

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

y'know i scrolled past and commented on an article from the new york times last week or something, that was about the interest rate on american student loans skyrocketing to 6.5% this year. this wasn't a surprise to me, when my HECS etc debt for uni here in australia was indexed at 7.1% last year. and at 4.5% this year, because of cost of living pressures. so ,overall, my hecs went up 3k this year over my hecs/vet fee help from business college (2.5k) and my student start up loan (ie centrelink/social services study money for textbooks each sem which i half saved and half spent each sem) went up $450 basically. and last year they went up $645 (ssl) and nearly 4k (hecs etc) in 2023. overall i owe 67k now i think.

anyway. my real gripe with the comments on this article, when it was re-posted for more engagement, was the common complaint that "why doesn't everyone just do trades??? STOP wasting your time doing useless degrees in fairytale land like english and film/media and acting and even business/marketing etc..... and do the REAL work of trades!!!" and "why does everyone forget about TRADE SCHOOL???" stop being afraid of getting your hands dirty and GET IN THERE and do trades!!! who NEEDS a sociology or entrepreneurship major anyway???" etc etc. like yes. i understand there's a shortage of trained/skilled trade workers in the US (and also in australia). and i also understand that colleges/universities globally are graduating WAY TOO MANY grads to fill grad job openings in their desired fields. but that does not mean everyone should do trades.

well. the problem is, trades aren't a be all and end all solution, OR great for everyone. i personally KNOW i am NOT suited for trades and other heavy work. for example, the trades classes that i was forced to do in years 7 and 8 in 2008/2009, bc they were fucking compulsory (and shouldn't've been imo) for 2 years, i failed ON PURPOSE. bc i saw no point in constantly being berated for my work. i saw no point in learning to build my own money box in woodwork, my own chimes (that i turned into crowbars bc i didnt have the stamina to cut the metal by hand or whatever) in metal work. or the remote control car that i burnt my leg with a hot glue gun for, bc i REFUSED to listen to OHS/WHS (ie the safety rules) bc i thought that listening to and following safety rules in the tech rooms "wasn't PUNK and HARDCORE" or whatever dumb shit i said at the time, lmao.

when it came time to do year 11/12, i did pick a tafe (aussie technical college) class in entertainment industry, for the sake of getting rid of maths on my class schedule lmao. this had a trade component of miniature set building and prop-making. which, although ultimately the tafe either threw my project out, bc i kept joking that it belonged in the trash bc i sucked at building things...... or i took it home and threw it out.... or it was just lost.... i kind of enjoyed. mostly bc it was specifically geared to the arts industry. i had learnt from my mistakes with glue guns in plastics shop and not listening to safety rules.... when me being sued by *insert one of my fave for 5eva mid2000s emo band guys here* hung in the balance bc of some faulty light rigging falling down mid show or w/e, that they actually mattered lmao. (not real btw. just an example. although i swear something like this happened to justin beiber in 2013).... aside from the prop-making etc, it was also lighting and sound.

but still. if i'd followed this trade through.... and years after when the pandemic happened 4 score years ago..... where would have my skills gone??? where would my JOB go??? do y'all NOT remember that whole industries... and MOST esp the entertainment industry, was nearly entirely decimated for a year and a bit bc of covid??? i would have HAD to retrain in something, anyway. and that something would've been an arts or creative arts degree tbh.

it also doesn't help, that right now, one of my old colleagues from my shitty cadetship workplace, that i use as a referee on my job applications, keeps trying to get me to study fashion (like. ashwin. where the FUCK are the stable jobs in fashion???) all bc i like DRESSING WELL, which has nothing to do with making my own clothes, imo. i have never had an interest, really, in sewing (mostly destroyed by my year 6 teacher at catholic school in 2007 who told me "you'll never be a real christian woman if you CAN'T SEW!" during a class cross-stitching project of a penguin).... but i can very obvs APPRECIATE all the fibre arts for what they are. i can also appreciate and admire the work that goes into costuming on game of thrones, or bridgerton, or LOTR, or even shakespearen stage productions or WICKED, for example.

but the trade of making clothes has never been my interest or passion. just because i enjoy dressing well, that does NOT mean i want to make clothes for a living. or let alone, probs work in retail for the rest of my life. i have never truly enjoyed trades and exerting physical effort to make stuff. i do not have the strength or fine motor skills for many trades, like being an electrician or refrigeration/air conditioning installer (which funnily enough shared the building with my tafe class in entertainment in 2012/2013). i don't have the fine motor skills for sewing (which is what my shitty year 6 teacher was telling me off for earlier) or other needlepoint arts.

i HATE woodworking and metalworking myself, due to the negative experiences i had in school with them. audio and sound design and tech jobs i can appreciate, but i couldn't picture myself doing really at the end of high school... bc i learnt in my 2 week work placement at a local guitar shop..... that carrying 2 electric guitars at the same time tipped me forwards. i also couldn't lift them over my head to hang them on the walls after cleaning them. so, that then meant i couldnt work for idk, BMTH or ATL or paramore as a stagehand. i hated tying knots and learning types of knots bc my fine motor skills are shitty in that regard too (i took like 4 years to learn how to tie my shoes in primary school). i also struggle to lift things over like 5kgs. and many things in an entertainment workplace are like 10kgs plus.

hell. i dont even like cooking. i probs purposely got my part of the year NOT to do cooking in years 7 and 8 bc i kept making jokes about how incredibly terrible my cooking skills were. that i'd probs burn down the entire tech block, and the one PE demountable at catholic school, by merely trying to boil noodles or by making toast lmao. it's also why i never bothered doing hospitality/hospo in my hsc at public school, bc i would've burnt down the entire like D building lmao.... and i straight TOLD THAT to the careers counselor lol. even though i probs would've gone better with hospo in my schedule rather than biology bc they were on the same line. believe it or not. but i digress.

so where i am meant to go at trade school??? oh that's right. office jobs: so a certificate III in business. or a diploma in HR. or a diploma in legal admin. idek. but these sadly are the jobs that are overrun with uni grads in HR, business or law/legal studies students. so my cert 3 in *enter office field here* is also useless, unless it's part of a traineeship at a business. maybe digital media. hell, some of these fields were/are even done in tandem at my local uni WITH tafe (event management/tourism management, digital media) or at least they were back from 2013 to 2018. i havent looked since tbh.

just. trades arent for everyone. and it doesn't help that unis are actually taking many of the trade certificate sort of courses in artsy fields off of TAFE here in aus. like a cert III in legal admin would be equivalent to the first year of a legal studies degree (probs i have no idea tbh) in a uni arts department. unis took journalism certificates and diplomas away from tafe. instead you have to spend 40k on a communications and media degree majoring in journalism and professional writing and screen media. instead of like 10k on a diploma of journalism or diploma of digital media, that i looked at back in 2013.

there's special schools in sydney that specialise in entertainment industry courses. which if i'd HAD the money for that university (bc they were semi-private and REALLY WANTED people to pay up front) i would've done classes in costume design, audio design, entertainment business management (possibly majoring in the latter). which then cost far more than the tafe diploma of live theatre, production and events that i looked at continuing onto at the end of high school. (it's now called something different i think). besides the point i don't live in sydney. so, that's why i dropped any career aspirations in the entertainment industry tbh.

but yeah. trades arent a solver for the student debt crisis. many people aren't suited to them, like myself. and no. this is NOT me being a "lazy millennial" or whatever. i just personally know that trades have never been my interest or my talent. but i CAN appreciate them. much like people need to learn to appreciate the arts making their fave tv shows and movies.

[void-tiger]

Qui-Gon LIVES! AU/Fixit:

Obi-Wan saves his master with force-healing by accidentally tapping into the dark side of the Force. Obi-Wan never falls. But he is horrified and having an identity crisis once he realizes what he’s done, and nearly leaves the Order over it.

[am-artist]

still thinking abt the wilds s2 and my fav boys island plotline is def the way that after seth’s faux leader act falls apart it’s very clearly kirin who’s set up as the guy running the show but the whole time ivan is there as this conflicting force of sorts. if there’s any 2 “leaders” for the boys it’s them & that’s so interesting in the way it plays out bc they represent such obviously opposed ends of a spectrum.

like once kirin starts protecting josh he becomes genuinely concerned with looking out for the group & that’s of great value to them all but his own ideas of how to be strong are stereotypical toxic masculinity vibes so in the long term they’re not actually the best approach- josh 2.0 is learning all the wrong lessons & brute force is not a good survival strategy for the group. and ivan doesn’t challenge kirin for his top dog spot per se (in part bc of their history) but he certainly challenges his way of doing things where the others are just passive in its face- he knows that alpha posturing is not going to help them get through it all and so he tries for a more collectivist and sensitive approach. which is also not presented as flawless & is definitely not always successful (see josh’s reaction to ivan objecting to the nun jokes) but ivan will set his foot down regardless, even if he does it alone. though irl when he decides leaving seth and raf to die is not an option the others follow, because they also don’t actually want to be executing other islanders! & kirin refuses that approach then but they both have times of ceding to each other’s way of doing things & that’s extremely cool narratively.

i think a small example that exemplifies this energy is like- when kirin is choking seth out in the woods, ivan has up until now supported kirin’s way of doing things, ie taking direct physical action to assert dominance over seth. but when seth is struggling for air and everyone else runs away, ivan is the one who stays and says kirin and waits for him to drop seth because he’s the balancing force. and kirin does, mind you!

there are other things abt this dynamic i find interesting- like ivan later on using kirin’s toolbox (frisbee) to boost morale- and probably some symbolism to be explored via the whole “kirin kills the jag with ivan’s staff” thing but anyways. i just like how whereas the girls each push and pull at the group direction before reaching consensus, the boys have 2 very clear philosophies coexisting tenuously, and i hope they coalesce further in s3.

[dai-bendu-conlang]

Qui-Gon’s Last Words in Dai-Bendu — a Meta/Explanation

So very early into this project, loosingletters and I (ghostwriter) watched The Phantom Menace together, and when Qui-Gon died, we looked at each other and were like “We can make this way sadder in translation, can’t we?” 

And so off we went, with that goal in mind. 

Because we went into this thinking “can we improve this interaction via language/translation?”  we need to first first explain why we don’t love Qui-Gon’s last words in canon, to then explain why we made the changes that we did.

The reasons are as follows:

Qui-Gon’s last words have nothing to do with Obi-Wan, the person he is saying goodbye to.

His last words being an order about Anakin left a weird taste in our mouths

We wanted this to feel more intimate and more emotional

So, we started with ways we could change the connotation of the words being used. We came at it from a lens of assuming that the dialogue was a classic “bad translation” of what was actually said; as in, someone translated the literal meanings of the words into English, and lost a lot of the social meanings that the words might have in their original contexts. 

Here are Qui-Gon’s original last words, in canon:

Obi-Wan: Master! Master! Qui-Gon: It’s too late. It’s too… Obi-Wan: No! Qui-Gon: Obi-Wan, promise...promise me you'll train the boy Obi-Wan: Yes, Master Qui-Gon: He is the chosen one...he will...bring balance...train him!

(Sidenote: upon actually looking up the dialogue, we were honestly shocked by how, like. Bare bones it is. And how pretty much all the emotion of that scene comes only from Neeson and McGregor acting their hearts out. So, kudos.)

When looking at this dialogue, we singled out the following things as points we could build on: 

Jedi cultural values regarding teaching (which we all have a lot of Feelings about)

The word “promise”

The whole idea of balance

And then we proceeded to go to town. 

The Dai Bendu translation of this dialogue is as follows:

Obi-Wan: Jaieh! Jaieh! Qui-Gon: Im enoh...nev forpai paikazah Obi-Wan: Shet. Qui-Gon: Obi-Wan, ikio… ikio fehl paipadenji keel nev paqorak. Obi-Wan: Haj dai, Jaieh. Qui-Gon: Enoah kar... daisha. Pauji... kar aimato’ak. Paden... karak.

Firstly, the things we didn’t change, ie: pretty much all of Obi-Wan’s dialogue.

Obi-Wan says, in order, “Master, Master!” (though he uses the Jedi-specific word for it, which also translates to “teacher”), “No.” and “Yes, Master,” just like in the original script. The most significant thing here is that the Dai Bendu word for “Yes” directly translates to “Force-Wills,” which could be read as some unintentional, ouchy subtext that both implies that Obi-Wan is agreeing with Qui-Gon’s point about Anakin being the Chosen One as a final act of comfort (because he’s expressed doubt about the possibility before), as well as conceding to both himself, Qui-Gon, and the universe that the Force has willed his Master’s death. 

Next, the things that changed from the script mostly as a symptom of the ways that Dai Bendu is different from English/Basic. For instance, Qui-Gon refers to Anakin as “the child” rather than “the boy,” because Dai Bendu does not express gender in that way. Instead of saying “it’s too late,” a more word-for-word direct translation of “Im enoh nev forpai paikazah” would be “no time is left,” which both lines up with how we imagine time works in Dai Bendu (link here), and is more natural to the way Dai Bendu handles sentence structure (“it’s too late” is a very English sentence construction). 

And now we get to the meaning changes. Other than changing the structure, “im enoh nev forpai paikazah” also adds “pai,” our consequential prefix, to “kazah,” which is the present-tense of the verb “kaza” or “to leave.” That makes the sentence mean something like “no time is left, and because of that the future has changed.” This is essentially Qui-Gon admitting to both himself and to Obi-Wan that his death is going to change, at the very least, Obi-Wan’s future forever, and also the future of the entire universe (though whether or not Qui-Gon knows this last part, in a Force-saturated moment right before death, is unclear in both the original version and our version). 

Qui-Gon’s next line is “Obi-Wan, ikio… ikio fehl paipadenji keel nev paqorak.” Again, we have the consequential prefix, this time attached to “paden,” which means “to guide/to teach,” here in the future tense. The implication of that being something like “teach him and it will alter the future.” Adding the consequential prefix to something which is already in the future tense is considered repetitive — comparable to saying something like “it is so enormously big” in English. A native speaker making the choice to add it here illustrates a conscious emphasis. Qui-Gon is really trying to express how important he thinks teaching Anakin is. 

We also have a lot of Thoughts and Feelings about the Jedi as a people who are dedicated to teaching as a cultural value. On top of being archivists and having/keeping a vast collection of knowledge, Jedi do pretty much nothing but study/learn their entire lives. They are dedicated diplomats and so on, but outside of that they seem to want to foster understanding and that in-and-of itself is always a lesson. In TCW, for instance, everything is a teachable moment for someone. The fact that so much careful consideration is put into who you pick as your Padawan, and that you retain a deep connection to them even when the apprenticeship is over, shows that this connection and this act of teaching is immensely important. It is considered a standard part of each Jedi’s life to step into that teaching role at least once — nearly every Jedi takes on at least one apprentice. If you take Obi-Wan as an example, he spent half his time in the PT being a student, and then the other half being a teacher. So here, Qui-Gon is taking one of their culture’s most important values and handing it to Obi-Wan. 

Then we have the word for “promise” we used, “ikio.” While we have a standard word for promise, “aima,” the word that Qui-Gon uses here instead is one with more cultural meaning. “Ikio” refers to a very specific kind of promise, something like “promise me because you love me,” or “promise me because I trust you above all.”  The word dates back to the Jedi-Sith schism, where it was used as an oath to state that you trust this person to take your lightsaber and bring it back to your home temple, should you die in battle.

Which means that, holistically, the line “Obi-Wan, ikio… ikio fehl paipadenji keel nev paqorak” both places the highest amount of trust possible in Obi-Wan’s hands, while also stating that Qui-Gon believes him ready of preforming one of their most culturally important values, and trusts him implicitly to carry that out. 

Finally, the line “Enoah kar... daisha. Pauji... kar aimato’ak. Paden... karak.” Some of this is, again, just us having words in Dai Bendu which Basic doesn’t have. “Daisha” is the word for Chosen One, the one referred to as such specifically to that old prophecy Qui-Gon likes so much. It’s a word that all Jedi would be familiar with, but usually in the context of folk tales. It’s like calling someone “The Once and Future King.” (Which also makes Qui-Gon talking to the Council way funnier — “hey guys, I found King Arthur!” “what the fuck??”). Qui-Gon also uses the third person Jedi/in-community pronouns when referring to Anakin, showing that he already thinks of this kid as a Jedi. 

Then there is the concept of “aimato,” here in the accusative case as “aimato’ak.” Aimato is the word for “cosmic balance,” which is both a very important idea in Jedi philosophy, and also a very big and abstract concept. And like any other big and abstract concept which has a large impact on lives and culture, like Love or Brotherhood or Democracy or God, it’s something that individual people and individual Jedi have different conceptions of and ideas about. This is a culture of warrior-philosophers — pretty much everyone has a slightly different theory as to what aimato/”cosmic balance” is supposed to mean and what it will look like when it is achieved, or if it’s possible to achieve, from "it means that one day the Force shows itself to all people" to "it's about finding balance within only yourself" to "it means that evil will finally stand down" to "it means that all who strive for it will achieve peace" to "it's in tiny everyday moments." People sit around and debate this for hours. 

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan deeply disagree on it’s definition, given their specialties in the Living vs. Unifying Force, and have essentially had an ongoing debate about it for years. It’s an old, comfortable argument both of them know that neither is ever going to win. They could both probably recite the other’s points in their sleep. However, it’s something they end up going back to every time they have a spare moment with nothing else to do. 

Qui-Gon bringing it up here is not only referring to something very important in their culture, it’s almost like referencing an old, treasured inside joke between him and his student, which is something Obi-Wan would pick up on right away. 

So, to summarize; we attempted to modify this very... Anakin-focused last dialogue, and instead make it about Qui-Gon telling Obi-Wan he trusts him above all, specifically to teach (which, again, with Jedi and their teaching focused culture is a HUGE thing) and to continue their discussions and keep their traditions going with this child.

It’s also a fun thought experiment in translation studies — sometimes, things really can get lost in a one-for-one translation of something, when cultural and collaborative meaning aren’t considered and translated accordingly. 

Thank you for reading!

[pixiedoodlein]

10 days until school and I’m no more decided than I was a week ago. I flip flop ten times day about what might be best. A is sick of hearing me talk about it. He doesn’t disagree with my risk assessment but he is sick of talking about it.

It caused an issue with his friend, a friend who is his best friend and is unvaccinated and works in a jail. Months ago we told friend he could only visit (this place is their boyhood dream) once he’s vaccinated. Friend typically believes in science and is very health conscious but his gf is a moron Trump lover and her family the same and that’s who he’s been spending all his time with since this all started. When I asked friend why he’s not vaccinated he said he’s young & healthy, didn’t trust the vaccines, would do it when they got full fda approval. Plenty of young healthy people are dead of this. Anyway then I asked ok so what if you give it to someone who isn’t and dies, people incarcerated in the jail he works in and don’t have the luxury of social distancing, and he was like eh whatever. So yes friend is an asshole, but his best friend for decades, friend has always been kind of an asshole but has many redeeming qualities too. So we said no visit. But then in July when there was no covid here and no covid where he lives and we were blissfully living our covid free lives we loosened up and said he could visit with two negative tests. But then covid got bad again and when asshole friend contacted A the other day to say he took time off in late Sept to visit, A said sorry, it’s fully fda approved now you have no excuses not to vaccinate, we’re worried about our unvaccinated kids, and as of now you can’t visit but hey maybe if you get vaccinated and the numbers look better we can reassess in a month and you can come. Friend was a total dick about it, didn’t understand our point of view at all, stressed A about it, who was in a bad mood about it for days afterward.

Then there’s the neighbors. I had a chat with the kids and a chat with the mom. I framed it as we love them so much and I know they’re careful but I think we should all be more careful while the numbers are so rising (aka only outdoor hangouts) and we are careful but I’ve heard terrifying stories from doctor friends about kids and babies getting very sick, and they have a baby who I don’t want us to make sick, and she said she agreed. The kids have been pretty good about making the adjustment from constant sleepovers to playing outside but M keeps asking me “the kids need to pee are they allowed to use the bathroom, the kids are hungry are they allowed to come inside even for one minute for a snack,” and I feel like the villain (I’ve been saying yes to pee, snacks I’ll bring out). Everyone’s been understanding but nobody is getting what I mean when I say only outdoor socializing. All the kids keep asking me when I’ll take them to town again for ice cream, “but it’s outside” (um yeah but the car’s not), asking their mom to ask me for sleepovers even though they know what the answer will be. The other day they were playing in our yard then it started raining and they were like “we can’t walk home in the rain”- I don’t want them to walk home in the rain, but again the car is indoors!- so I drove them home (but made M stay at our house). They’re not my kids so I can’t make them wear masks and it feels like now I am in the position of being the mean parent who’s psycho about covid, which in a way I am, but it would help me to stick to my guns and feel okay about sticking to them if the government policies matched the severity of the situation, ie mask mandates in public places (instead of stores posting polite recommendations), vaccine mandates, virtual learning options, etc.

Which brings me to school. After selling M hard on real school, then I sold her hard on home school. She already “did” 3rd grade last year (as much as me teaching her in my pajamas counts as doing), but this district has an earlier cut off than the city, so she’s in 3rd grade again here. Which is fine by me- her birthday is the same day as the very late nyc cut off (12/31) and I hated that she was the absolute youngest. I used to beg the school to hold her back and they’d say “but why she’s doing so well!” not understanding that I was thinking ahead to the teen years. But anyway, despite her haphazard pj’d professor, she seemed to learn a lot last year so homeschool this year could basically be unschool. She’d traipse around the forest identifying birds and trees with A and her brother, reading for pleasure, and I’d spend an hour here and there reviewing some worksheets with her so she’d be on track when she starts real school after she gets vaccinated. She was into the idea, until she found out she and one of the neighbor kids are in the same class. Now she absolutely wants to go to real school, AND ride the school bus. The school bus part makes me very nervous. While there is now a school mask mandate (but will it be enforced? what are their lunch procedures, what % of teachers are vaccinated, what % of the older kids in the same building as the little kids are vaccinated, did they actually really update their ventilation system?) and a bus mask rule, it’s a long rural route (15 min drive or 45 min bus) and I have no faith that bus windows will be open and all riders will be masked the whole time.

So just tell her she can go to school but has to be driven by a parent, right? Not so simple. I was offered a job at a (somewhat, commuting distance) nearby nonprofit- an easy low stress job in a bastion of liberalism with very very nice smart coworkers, excellent work life balance, a writing job that sounds made for me, like the job description is exactly what I would put together if I were putting together my dream job (except the pay, which is half what I was making at a fancy DC nonprofit, but high for this area, and our housing cost is half so it should be fine if A can get away from little guy long enough to bring in some money too). It’s mostly remote but approx one day a week in the office and some days there will be things I need to attend out in the community (not necessarily our community, they serve the whole region). It won’t always be the same day in the office and the office is an hour away- so on those days A would have no car to get her to and from school, since I’d need to leave before school starts and get home after it’s done. So I guess we need to buy a new car? Aside from this issue we really don’t need a second car now, were planning to get one eventually, but not until A’s business has enough projects to justify the cost.

Despite its many demands/challenges/ stressors, home school is sounding easier to me at this point (especially because she already did this grade), except she WANTS to go to school. Someone talk me out of putting some lipstick and a pantsuit on her and taking her to get vaccinated. I know, I know: the 5-11 dosage is 1/3 of the 12-adult dosage. The doctors I’ve spoken to are split on this hypothetical kamikaze mission. The doctors I’ve spoken to are also split on me and A going to a pharmacy now for booster. It’s been almost 6 months since our 2nd dose. We do not have compromised immune systems. This county has way more doses than demand and I would feel better sending M to school (bus or not) if we had our boosters and she had a first dose- moral and scientific quandaries aside- because there is A LOT of covid here now, a lot of covid everywhere now, and I feel like we are returning to regular life at the time when we should be most hunkered down.

Which brings me to the data. Per capita there are as many known cases here as in nyc, except nyc has a 50% higher vax rate, much more mask usage, better medical system. People are not getting enough tests here, there is a higher positivity rate, and so I think the actual number of cases is much higher than the reported number of cases. It seems like, friends here and in the city and in the suburbs (I just broke up with a friend in the suburbs because she professes to be a good democrat but is hosting a bonafide super spreader event and vacationing in a place with 39% positivity and a collapsed health care system), are thinking of covid as something you catch from strangers- they wear masks in stores- but aren’t careful at all around close friends and family (so many extended family gatherings, so many, cousins and grandparents and half-siblings and aunts and uncles and whoever), when this is a disease that kills via the people you love most, the ones who’d never intentionally hurt you.

[obliviatestudies]

3rd YEAR of UNI

hey everyone! if you’re just stumbling upon this post and are new here, i’m going into my 3rd year of undergrad in bio for health sci a.k.a pre-med sorta deal! i did this post last year and u guys loved it, i also think its a great ways for us #studyblrs to share more . this is just an update into what courses i’ll be taking this year, life updates, tips i learnt from last year + more!

PICKING COURSES

my courses:

I'm a health sci bio major with a double minor in chem + business! so here is what my full-time year of studies looks like (5 courses per semester)

physiology of neurons & muscles

human development

structural biochem

metabolism & bioenergetics

neurosci

statistics

lab in cell & molecular bio

molecular bio

fundamentals of marketing

managing projects & business plans

for freshman, your courses are pretty set and you likely won't have much choice around what you actually want to take, so unless you're an upper-year, you likely won't see more interesting course titles like what i have above. not much for an update in this section, i planned most of my courses last year, but the most frustrating thing that happened was 9/10 courses i wanted to take were in my fall semester originally, so i have to do A LOT of rearranging, anywho.....

scheduling:

i'll link last years post here as i went into pretty deep detail of how i schedule my courses and how you can too!

other tips + updates:

it’s always okay to change your programs!! (ie. major, minor, specialist) don’t let the standard of “a 4-year degree” fool you into thinking you can’t take longer. its always a good idea to look ahead and try to plan, but this age of our lives is when we're changing the most and really finding who we are and what we want to do with the rest of our lives. it's definitely not something to rush.

if you have to do summer courses, or retake courses, or take an extra semester, don't beat yourself up. it happens to 99% of people!

take me for example!! i went into school thinking 100% i wanted to go down the med path, now here i am starting my 3rd year and I'm not so sure. I'm more so looking at doing my masters in physical therapy. you change, life changes, and you find what works BEST for you and the path you want for your life.

ALSO your path doesn't have to be linear, or the typical; if you want to go to med/law/other post grad school, but your grades or extra curricular didn't necessarily cut it, that's okay! maybe you'll work somewhere for a year or two and go back to school and get in. basically what I'm trying to say is if there is a career path that you love, don't give up, and don't think you have to get there the same way as someone else did.

currently, my fall courses are all completely online (minus 1 in-person tutorial) i hope most of you will be in-person, unlike me. but i'll continue to post both online and in-person study tips as the year progresses.!

LIFE BESIDES SCHOOL

this summer i was lucky enough to work as an online PT, and this will probably continue part time into the school year. besides my other social accounts kinda blowing up, working on Syrse Dawn, I've been crazy busy with everything. I'm a little worried about balancing everything come the school szn, but as usual, i always prioritize my school work

we love academic validation haha....no but seriously, i love learning and school, and doing well has always been important to me, so while my work is important, mental health and school come first.

right now some passion projects and summer bucket list things I've been working on are finishing a current novel I'm writing (haven't finished writing one since 2015), reading 1 more book, filling a sketchbook, going for a sunrise swim and honestly just spending as much time with my friends as fam as possible!

• • • • • •

like last year, i’d love to create a chain of studyblrs doing an update like this, sharing their courses for the year, how they organize them, updates + more! so if you get tagged, add to this chain + tag 5 more studyblr accounts!!

i’m tagging: @studyblr @felix-studies @studyingatsunrise @luminous-studiess @starrystvdy @studylustre

if you have any questions for me, my ask box is always open! i answer all the questions in my ask, so don’t be afraid to hit me up there

hope this helps you a little bit and you get to learn a bit about me xx

[puppyluver256]

[Image Description: Three fan-made Pokemon made to resemble plant-themed mammoths or mastodons.

The first Pokemon is a yellow baby mammoth with brown eyes, green feet, light green inner ears and trunk tip, and green hair on its head, back, and tip of its tail. It has its front feet in a position that appears like it’s going to start walking forward, with its head turned toward the viewer and a smile on its face. Green text outlined in darker green to its right reads “Haymuth”.

The second Pokemon is a lime green young mammoth with brown eyes, dull green inner ears, grass-covered feet and trunk, small beige tusks, and green hair that resembles soy plant leaves on its head. The tip of its tail resembles a soy bean pod. It is walking towards the left of the image and holding its trunk out. Green text outlined in darker green to its right reads "Soystodon".

The third Pokemon is a grassy green mammoth with dark green grass-like hair on its head, back, and feet, purple eyes, lavender inner ears, and long pale lavender tusks. It has small purple flowers growing from its grassy bits, and a large purple flower sprouts from the tip of its tail. It is walking toward the right of the image with its trunk held up and its head turned to look at the viewer. Green text outlined in pink to its right reads "Hedeomadon".

End ID.]

-----

Haymuth - Baby Mammoth Pokemon | grass Often frolicking in tall grass, the hay-like hair on their body makes for the perfect camouflage to ensure their safety even in the moments when their mothers don’t have their eye on them. / Haymuth are incredibly playful, running around with abandon in tall grass and picking up objects with their trunks to use as toys. Great care should be taken to keep inappropriate objects out of their reach.

Soystodon - Young Pachyderm Pokemon | grass Soystodon trunks are quite nimble and can often get into things that one may not expect. This often leads those living with humans to overeat when food is improperly stored. / While they are more independent than Haymuth, it is not uncommon to see them holding onto their mothers’ tails with their trunks. They do like to distance themselves from adults a bit more, but they are still young and still feel a need for parental guidance.

Hedeomadon - Royal Mastodon Pokemon | grass/fairy The females travel in matriarchal groups with their young, while males either roam individually or in male-only groups. The groups reunite on occasion in order to breed at their discretion, usually when the pennyroyal plants are flowering. / Hedeomadon mothers are very protective of their young during early development, and separating Haymuth from their mothers for even a few minutes can be very distressing for all parties involved if done hastily. They are fine with letting trusted humans watch their young for them, however.

After a long amount of waiting to give that survey some time to garner responses before I got started working on the player illustrations, I'm finally back to posting Cantessy region content! So here's our grass starter Haymuth, now with their evolved forms Soystodon and Hedeomadon! I hope the one other person who picked Haymuth in that survey is still happy with their choice, there were two people who picked them and I only picked them because if this were gen 9 I'd be using a grass starter regardless XD

I wanted to go with the perceived theme of grass starters being based on extinct megafauna, so obviously I'm going to look at extinct animals that were around the Appalachian area in the past. and of course, the first prehistoric beast most think about when dinosaurs are taken out of the equation are mammoths. Fun fact, did you know that the first mastodon skeleton excavated and studied scientifically was found in Kentucky? It's true, and if you've heard of a place called Big Bone Lick, you know at least something about the place now because that's where they were specifically found. (it's called Big Bone Lick because there was a salt lick there that animals would get sodium from, as well as the obvious big bones found there). So with that in mind, I decided to combine mammoths and mastodons with agricultural stuff from around here. Was tempted to go with tobacco for one of them but ehhhh I don't think that'd be all that appropriate for a Pokemon, so I kinda just turned that into a name for a human character instead. (and yet the poison-type gym leader and her occupation exists...you'll find out later, hehe) Haymuth is, of course, utilizing hay in their design, while Soystodon obviously has soy. Hedeomadon is a bit more obscure. Their name comes from Hedeoma pulegioides, also known as the American pennyroyal, or "pennyrile" by local dialect. I literally didn't know it was a Thing that Existed until I started research for this project, let alone that it's a pretty big crop here. And the flowers kinda gave me a fairy vibe, so that's why Hedeomadon gains the fairy type.

In terms of gameplay if this were an actual game, the Haymuth family is gonna be more special-focused ant a bit bulky, with both special stats and HP being highest on baseline. They'll obviously learn a good amount of grass and fairy moves that take advantage of this along with some status moves, and when Hedeomadon has evolved they'll learn the move Royal Bloom, which acts similarly to Flying Press in that it works as both a grass and fairy type move in terms of super-effectiveness (and by that I mean it does double damage to the things that are weak to fairy as well as those that are weak to grass, but does normal grass damage on things that are neutral to or resist fairy). Is that broken? It might be broken, but at least the other starters get something like it so maybe that balances it out? I'unno, I'm a character designer, not a game balancer hehe. I mainly just get the visual for how it'd look, and I can imagine it being like a beam that gets fired out of Hedeomadon's tail blossom thing. That'd be cool o:

Also if anyone wants to suggest other moves for these guys to learn and some physical stats (ie. height and weight, I only have a height for the base form starters atm and no weights XD ), feel free to throw 'em at me :3 Links to their info pages will be provided in the replies!

💖🐶 Check out my pinned post for ways to support my artwork, among other things! 🐶💖

~If you like, please reblog to show your friends! Likes are appreciated, but reblogs let more people see my content! If you have something to say, feel free to give feedback in tags/comments/replies as well!~

Pokemon and related concepts © Nintendo/GameFreak Haymuth, Soystodon, Hedeomadon, the Cantessy region, and artwork © PuppyLuver Studios

[corvus--rex]

Semi-abandoned soulmate au. I actually started this one before The Sound of Color, although this is vastly different from that one. This particular au also doesn't have the requirement that soulmates are always romantic (ie Pidge and their soulmate). It jumps around a little, and those sections are marked with dividers. Soulmate strangers-to-lovers. . .

~*~*~*~

Soulmarks. Everyone had one. An indelible mark that bound two people together. Age 13 was when it would start. The mark “waking up” as some called it, and reaching out for its companion mark. Most soulmates were within a few years of each other, so the lingering tingle of a mark searching for its mate usually didn’t last long.

Lance was lucky that way. His mark sprang to life on his thirteenth birthday and quieted three months later. There was no way to know who or where his soulmate was at that point, but he knew they were three months younger than him. He had been getting ready for school that day when the constant tingle in his mark faded.

He’d always liked the quarter note-shaped mark on the inside of his left wrist. What confused him were the numbers that circled it. No two marks were the same, and Lance knew that his soulmate would have something different. But those numbers confused him. 1030211933. Trying to figure it out was a favorite pastime throughout middle and high school, but he never could get there. He hadn’t met his soulmate yet, but he hoped that it would make sense when he did.

Once two marks found each other, the secondary connection opened. The marks on the soul allowed for marks on the body. Words, doodles, full-blown artwork. Drawing or writing on skin would appear on a connected soulmate. Once Lance’s mark had connected, the first thing he did was ask his soulmate about the numbers. They didn’t know either. But he did find out that his soulmate’s mark sat on their right hip, it was a feather, and they didn’t have those numbers but they did have a series of roman numerals along the feather’s shaft that read:

X X X X X X I X I X X X X I I I

They continued to talk for years, learning about each other. They had decided not to share identifying information like names or location, but Lance knew that his soulmate had a twin and that their parents had adopted their cousin when their cousin’s parents died in an accident. They didn’t know anything about the accident because they’d been too young at the time and no one had explained it since. Lance told them that he had three siblings, that he was a twin, too, and that his older sister connected with her soulmate the same day he had.

He lay in his bed in the dorm he shared with his best friend Hunk, rereading the last message his soulmate had sent him about how college sucked and how they already had an in-class performance a month into the semester. He’d responded with a note about how trying to balance classes with rehearsals as the lead in his school’s fall musical was kicking his ass. Lance already knew that his soulmate was studying music at a college close to where they grew up. And they knew that he was majoring in theatre at a college a three-hour drive from home.

Hunk trudged into their dorm room and threw himself onto his bed. “Remind me again why I decided this was a good idea?” he groaned.

“Which part?” Lance asked in return.

“The part where I decided to be a pastry chef and subject myself to the hell that is the one professor I can’t get away from?”

“Because you love baking and always have and one asshole can’t make you hate doing what you love.”

“I swear she just likes to terrorize us. There’s that guy I told you about – Sal, the one I had a class with freshman year and he transferred to general culinary and now he’s back – she hates him. And I don’t know why. But then, she hates me, too. Pretty sure it’s that bun. It’s so tight she doesn’t need a face lift. But I’m also convinced that Chef Dayak is just evil.”

“Hey, at least you have Shay there with you. Not everyone gets to have their soulmate in class with them all day,” Lance pointed out.

“How’s it with yours?” Hunk asked.

“We’re working our way up to talking about meeting. I know I wanted to wait until after graduation, but I’m getting impatient, y’know? It’s been eight years and I don’t want to wait anymore. But I get that they do. So…yeah. Anyway,” he said, shaking himself out of that particular spiral, “You going to the Halloween party this year?”

“Dude! It’s a month away!”

Lance sat up, turning to his best friend, one eyebrow arched. “Seriously? You say this like there’s such a thing as too early. And no, it’s only three weeks. We need to start now.”

Hunk groaned again, this time in only partial exasperation, and sat up. “Fine. The fuck are you planning this year?”

Lance just laughed. Hunk threw a pillow at him, collapsing in his own fit of giggling when a startled Lance took the pillow directly to the face. Lance’s alarm sounded, loud and annoying. He groaned, throwing Hunk’s pillow back, and fumbled for his phone to turn the blaring sound off.

“Fuck me. I have to get to rehearsal.”

In an apartment just off campus, Keith stopped playing and pulled the pencil out of his hair, making yet another correction to his scribbled sheet music. He started over, again, ignoring the key in the door and his roommate coming back in. He ignored their slight form dropping their overpacked backpack on the floor and throwing themselves onto the other end of the couch with their laptop and notebook. Keith was too focused on his music to pay much attention to Pidge.

Except that Pidge wanted his attention right then. “Hey. Asshole,” they said, throwing a ball of notebook paper at him.

“Yes, hellspawn?” he asked casually, setting his guitar on its stand by the couch, “What the fuck do you want?”

“I’m on the committee for the party. You’re coming,” they said while typing away on their laptop.

“No. I’m not. I don’t go to parties, and you know it. Why the fuck are you so determined for me to go?”

Pidge looked up, fixing him with their stare. “Because I said so. And because Matt’s going to be there. His girlfriend’s going too. You actually like Neve. So you’re going.”

“Including you, that’s three people I’d be willing to talk to. Why should I bother?” he stopped, a dreaded thought sparking as to why they were so hellbent on his going to the party. “It’s because it’s a week after my birthday, isn’t it?”

“What? You mean that thing you ignore every year except for the proliferation of doodles from your soulmate? Why would that have anything to do with it?”

“I'm still not going,” Keith insisted.

“We’ll see about that,” Pidge answered cryptically. They went back to their laptop, typing furiously. They stayed that way, ignoring Keith’s death glare until he gave up and went back to his music.

Eventually, Keith decided that the music portion of his brain was fried and gave up for the night. Pidge was buried in their laptop, writing a paper for their robotics class at top speed. Ignoring them for the moment, Keith opened his own laptop, going back to the English assignment he still hadn’t finished. It was due by the next class, which was two days away, but he’d been putting it off for longer than that. He typed lazily at it for a while before a horrible thought hit him and he realized that his previous assessment had been wrong. He glared up at Pidge over his screen.

“She’s going, isn’t she?” he asked.

“Who?” Pidge asked back, pretending they didn’t know what he meant.

“You know who.”

“If you’re referring to your sister, then yes, she is.”

Keith sighed. “Just because she knows who her soulmate is now, that doesn’t mean that you’re right. Mine could be literally anyone.”

Pidge closed their laptop. “And you’re in denial. I can not believe that your twin sister happens to have a soulmate who has a younger brother who is also a twin and his soulmate has a twin. The odds of that happening are so small as to be inconceivable! Not to mention the part where Acxa’s soulmate and her brother both connected with theirs on the same day.”

“Ok, I’ll give you that it’s weird. But you don’t know anything about Acxa’s soulmate’s siblings, and neither does she. And not everyone’s met theirs yet. You haven’t! All you know is their handle on Steam!”

“So? I also know that Beezer’s on the other side of the country. I know that we won’t get to meet in person until after graduation. All I'm saying is that this is a little too weird to be a coincidence.”

“And I’m not going to let you harass my sister’s soulmate about her siblings on the day they’re meeting face to face for the first time. Leave it alone, Pidge.”

“Fine,” they said, going back to their paper.

Keith knew full well that Pidge would not leave it alone, but there was only so much he could do to stop them.

A few days later, Lance dragged his twin sister, Hunk, and Shay to the nearest Halloween pop-up costume store. None of them had found anything they liked, and Lance was getting bored. Shay had wandered off to the decoration part of the store, and Hunk was making sure the twins didn’t get into trouble. But Hunk had gotten briefly distracted and lost them.

“Jules no.” Ah, there was Lance.

“Jules yes.” And his sister.

“Are you two still arguing?” Hunk asked as he approached the twins.

“Hunk,” Lance said, putting his hands on Hunk’s shoulders, “She wants us to be the Wonder Twins again. I absolutely refuse. We did that once when we were like nine.” He felt something hit his back and whipped around to find his sister holding a Wonder Twins costume. “Ana Julieta Alameda-McClain, get that fucking thing away from me.”

“Oh, fine. You’re no fun,” Jules pouted. She put it back, then turned around, spotting something else. “Ooh! Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch?”

“What the fuck – no! I’m never going Halloween shopping with you again. You’re on your own,” Lance said, wandering off and taking Hunk with him.

Hunk was laughing. “Why do you keep letting her do this, dude?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, I say we go over to The Costume Company. I think I’m done with mass-produced crap.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll go find Shay and meet up with you two at the car,” Hunk agreed, heading in the direction he’d last seen Shay.

Lance reluctantly went back to his sister. “We’re going to The Costume Company,” he said without getting her attention.

“Hm? Ok,” Jules answered, not paying attention to her twin.

“Bye, then.” He started to leave without her, getting halfway down the aisle of the Halloween pop-up before she realized what he’d said.

“Lance! Get back here, you ass!” she yelled after him.

He ignored her as payback for her insistence on twin costumes and kept going. She chased him all the way to his car, where Hunk and Shay were already waiting. Lance finally lost his composure, cracking up when he reached his waiting friends.

“Leandro. Alejandro. Alameda. McClain. I am going to kill you,” Jules growled while out of breath from chasing him.

“No you won’t,” he said, “Mamá would kill you in return.”

Shay saw her opportunity and took it. “Shotgun!” she announced, hopping into the passenger seat.

“Shay, I love you,” Hunk said, getting in behind Lance, effectively separating the twins.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Acxa, just promise me you won’t give in to Pidge. They’re being totally insufferable with this,” Keith said. He lay on his bed, earbuds connected to the call he was on with his twin.

“You know me better than that. Gremlin won’t get shit out of me. And she’s not getting anywhere near V at the party."

~*~*~*~

Links to the rest of the series:

1 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 5* | 6* | 7 | 8 | 9* | 10 | 11 | 12* | 13 | 14 | 15* | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19*

[vidalinav]

You know.... Now that I think about it, I think I would have preferred Nesta and Cassian accepting each other despite their flaws rather than glorifying each other in their pursuit of self-deprecation. This concept of Cassian being “too good” and Nesta deserving someone more than him- a prince, king, blah blah blah, is so weird to me, especially because those ideas aren’t really disputed. At the end, they think exactly the same way, because one of them is unrealistically glorified more than the other in their minds. I understand it, it’s just a narrative decision I don’t particularly like, because of how it’s framed. I HATE the idea that you have to deserve someone or work to have someone. Relationships are work, but... love is not deserved. That implies some level of acceptability, which is the whole problem with the book, because that’s Nesta’s entire narrative--how much does she deserve healing? How much does she deserve decency or agency? How much does she deserve free will, love, and acceptance? Is she acceptable for all of these things? When does she become acceptable enough to be accepted? 

I really didn’t think that their relationship was set up to be like that. I assumed (wrongly) based on what we got in ACOMAF and ACOWAR that they were the only two people who understood each other intrinsically and ALL of the ugly parts of each other-where it came from, how it made them feel, the actions that they took because of this. Cassian was pushy. Nesta was mean. But the pull was strong, and it was deeper than sexual. I read it that they both had very thick masks, Cassian being the funny, friendly, easy going guy and Nesta being this snarky, angry, arrogant woman, and they were the only two who saw what was beneath those masks and didn’t shy away. It made no difference to them, because they couldn’t stop this pull. But it did make them wary, because to be known is scary and so much would then change, because these masks are a lie or at least not all they are. No longer would Cassian be able to have this love “triangle” or... view himself with that persona only, it wasn’t going to fool Nesta, and Nesta wouldn’t be able to get away with just being on the defense and saying harsh words or giving harsh looks. It wasn’t going to push him away. It didn’t in ACOWAR, in Wings of Ember, in ACOMAF. 

I was very excited for them to discover their actual lives, their backgrounds and opinions, etc--for them to decide what they actually understood about each other, because they didn’t know each other at all. They just saw what they did, what actions they took in the present time, what information they already knew from observation or Feyre. It was just the surface of each other, and still they showed this deep level of caring, where Cassian kept coming back, and told her he’d fight for the humans and Nesta worrying about him and almost sacrificing her life. It really parallels her powers IMO, because we only knew the surface of them from the very beginning, but we knew they were great and all powerful, and unfortunately like her powers, it was not explored beyond the surface. A fact I find ironic because drowning and the sea is a theme around Nesta, and most of the ocean I guess is left unexplored and so is... everything regarding Nesta. 

But anyway, to empathize with someone is to understand the reasoning behind unacceptable circumstances, because you see it from their eyes, walk in their shoes. I don’t care how many people argue that knowing a character’s background (sob story) is excusing actions. There’s a difference between excuses and explanations, and that relies a lot on how the text is framed, the actions that the character takes, and the opinion of the author, really on how they’re going to make that differentiation. Accountability has a lot to do with it, but as we’ve all argued the balance of this series about accountability is way off. But, to be known is the beginning of being understood. And, I for sure think that this book, knowing that Nesta is the character “who feels so much” should then have had a narrative that is centered around empathy. That only makes sense to me for her as a character and as a concept, but also for the basis of their relationship, because from the beginning Cassian saw through her and she saw through him. 

That being said I think I would have preferred their narratives to be framed around the fact that they feel they suck as individuals and love each other anyway but without the glorification of the other. Because that’s probably correct, they’re suppose to be flawed and they’ve been characterized now as being self-depreciating, so that does have to come in to play, but they’re NOT perfect or above each other. I would have preferred this idea that they may suck, they may have done “unacceptable things” or been in “unacceptable” circumstances or feel “unacceptable”, but they accept this. They accept that they will never be good enough, and learn that “love is complicated” like Cassian says and it isn’t deserved. It’s maintained... and in that maintenance they can heal those wounds where they feel that they don’t like themselves or are undeserving. It’s basically the same thing, except it’s without this condition of “acceptability” and without the imbalance of glorification. They are equal then. Not because they both think that they now have a partner that is someone that they couldn’t imagine having and that they’re so happy and grateful for them and they’re working on themselves, because that’s an imbalance in itself, but because they don’t have to be anyone but themselves, the vulnerable versions, where Nesta is allowed to drop the angry defense and Cassian is allowed to stop portraying ease, where they can portray these versions safely and comfortably with each other. 

Which happens! Because to some degree they do become more vulnerable with each other. But because of these imbalances, these narrative choices (ie. Nesta being villainized, that is never refuted, not even a little, Cassian not having a strong development as a MC or being held accountable for what he says, there is little to no empathy, there really isn’t too much learning about each other--it’s still very surface level, books, training, dad, war, surface past, and that’s it, etc) the book frames love in acceptability terms--in an imbalanced way. It’s so weird to me. I can only describe it as to the left of healing/love and to the left of what she already wrote in previous books. Technically, it’s all understandable and I could see why she chose certain characterizations, but the framing and decisions for certain points are so off, that it doesn’t seem exactly right...

To me, It’s both in and out of character. So, so strange. 

[onewomancitadel]

Hey, it’s me! That guy who mentioned his fear about it being somebody else aside from Jaune that would redeem Cinder/bring her to the side of good. Your response to my last thing was pretty good, can’t really complain and can’t really expand on anything, so I’ll just mention another smaller fear that I have: that there’d be some new characters introduced in the Vacuo Arc, and one of them would be a last-minute love interest for Jaune basically out of nowhere. Not in the way that there’s just a few scenes involving playful flirting that don’t go anywhere, but an honest-to-God actual love interest with chemistry on its own.

It’s a stupid fear if we’re looking at things from a nuanced narrative standpoint, but it gives me brief spikes of worry at times. One of my Discord-friends mentioned how Jaune’s sword is named “Crocea Mors” (ie. Julius Caesar’s sword), so from that single piece of information he ended up creating a semi-crack AU/theory where Vacuo would be in the middle of a succession crisis when RWBYJNR arrive and they have to fix things before it get too bad; his concept hinged on the idea that there’d be a Cleopatra-inspired woman feuding with her brother over the throne (as a parallel to the situation Egypt was in when Julius Caesar arrived) who RWBYJNR end up having to assist, and that “Cleopatra” and Jaune would end up forming a bond that evolves into romance (like Caesar and Cleopatra IRL, I guess, I’m not a history buff). At the time {2018-2019 maybe} it seemed like just some harmless idea , but as we get closer to Vacuo I’m worried that something like it might end up happening which would completely invalidate Knightfall and other ships beside.

I don’t- I don’t know what I hoped to do with this aside from like, providing context on why I have this dumb fear; sorry if it’s like, weird and off-topic and out-of-nowhere to you, since this is supposed to be a Knightfall blog after all. Just thought it would seem weird to tell you my fear without explaining why.

Hi again! Glad you enjoyed my answer. I hope I provided some interesting food for thought.

I'm happy to assuage fears and I generally hold I'm pretty realistic about narrative, and idk, do I need to show off how many things I predicted would happen in the show? Because I can. I can totally do that. I feel like bragging

Right, it sounds like your friend is having fun. I'm not going to criticise his ideas. But I would like to remind you that Crocea Mors broke. The Yellow Death is broken. Whatever sword it is next, it's not the same sword. So I think the Caesar connection is severed.

If anything, I think the more pertinent fact is that the sword is named Death, and it's that Death which is destroyed (and then will be reforged/reborn as a new sword). Death which gives way to new life, balance, etc. It's very meaningful to me that it broke in conflict with Cinder.

Otherwise I don’t get any Caesar vibes from Jaune. I think they picked a cool sounding name which connected itself to Jaune (one of his colours, yellow) and also indicated death this way which comes. I'm not a Roman buff, I'm into early Greek archaeology, but I can't see much connection here.

Besides, if there's a Cleopatra then the sexually irresistible Rhodopis fits Cinder, if it fits anybody. Especially because the Cleopatra in question was Greek! Rhodopis is Greek!

I can't tell you what the storytellers decide to do with the show, but throwing in a random love interest wouldn't do very much for the story, not unless it's not an endgame one. Then it's some sort of learning experience. Clover was not a love interest for Qrow, but he did play a meaningful role in Qrow's character arc, so he served his purpose.

The real threat to my eyes is W/hiteknight (boo boring predictable patient nice guy gets girl), but it breaks nearly all of the ship patterning in the show I can discern, which seems to be a big deal for it to do so. The other option would be he never moves on from Pyrrha, and that's been a source of debate on my blog to what end Jaune's feelings for Pyrrha was more akin to true love than losing his partner and failing her. I don't read Jaune/Pyrrha as true love (it's the anime trope romance gone sour, Pyrrha's feelings don't make him magically love her but there's the expectation it should) and true love's kiss for them is not true love and it's the kiss of death.

I remain realistic and I expect the worst, because I had hoped for a transcendentally happy ending in another media I was into (according to every metric in the text, it would happen) but then a schlocky, shitty, different creator fucked it. I don't think this context is applicable to R/WBY, especially based on what I've seen so far in the theming, but my heart is hurt and I need to be convinced to love again. I can't hope like that

but I do think R/WBY is intelligble textually and it goes without saying I'm generally a big fan of the show and I love it. I just can't trust anymore, not when my favourite bad wizards are concerned.

<3 <3 I also just posted Chapter 11 of The Distance Which Fools the Skimming Eye, if you're a reader of that fic!

Thanks for hanging out on my blog. It was nice to hear from you again.

[wovenstarlight]

YWBK update: chapter 25 + liner notes

yesterday will be kinder has updated! you can read chapter 25 here, or start from the beginning here

okay, on to notes and commentary! first time i’m doing these, let’s hope this works out. commentary under the cut to save people’s dashes

Hamin laughs. “Given how bad you are at not being suspicious, that’s understandable.” “Oh, come on, I’m not that bad.” Hamin screws up his whole face in a squint. “Okay, so maybe I’m a little bad.”

this part was really funny to me when i wrote it because i was like “hmm reasons for DHM to understand why HHJ wouldn’t work in the guild” and then i was like Wait. Their Whole First Meeting, Dude. DHM was lowkey convinced for the longest time that HHJ was like, on the run from the KR version of the mafia, and got plastic surgery to look like his little brothers, and is possibly in some sort of witness protection program??? or something??? how else does he not have cops on his ass this man is so suspicious all the time

“I don’t think… They said the dungeons were, like, different worlds? Did they find people there?”

mafia theory second place. dungeon theory first place

“Like, humans? Um. No, no humans.” “So then you can’t be from there. Okay.”

dungeon theory shot down. mafia theory back in the running

“Hey,” he says cautiously. “I’m— I’m gonna go get us some water, okay? Why don’t you… take a minute.” “Okay.” “The bathroom is over there, if you need it.” “Okay. Thank you.”

after four years working alongside a guy you start to notice when he’s feeling a little out of it and needs a bit of a break... but as JHW mentions later you also learn to be a little subtle about giving him one

jung heewon What’s with your typing? It reads like Jihye’s [HYJ]’s fine. Very energetic Too energetic? He’s going to burn out. How do I make him calm down

Epic Burnout Man makes a reappearance! when translating sclass one of the things that makes me want to shake HYJ most is his habit of constantly adding things to his to-do list while he already has 1 billion things on his plate. and all the time he’s whining about “UGH there’s SO MUCH WORK to do” No One Asked You To Do It

Anyway. the point is. HYJ isn’t about to be beat by HHJ at Developing Issues 😔

jung heewon I haven’t spoken to him directly about this because if he’s anything like you he’ll take it as an insult You wtf whts tht supposed 2 mean quit typing jung heewon Better not say shit, mr “No, I can’t take days off and cater to my interests or go out with friends or on a date, I’m too busy taking care of the kids and making sure their needs are met, no I don’t care that there are thousands of people out there balancing personal enjoyment and romance and work AND kids at the same time, are you suggesting I be a BAD GUARDIAN to MY KIDS?”

see above re: not being too direct with pointing out when HHJ’s having Issues because he doesn’t react well

You wht but our eyes r fine jung heewon Even if having glasses doesn’t run in the family, you should still get him checked, just in case

top 10 funny time travel moments: referring to you and your past self as “us” (our = my eyes are fine), but other people think you mean “our family” (our eyes are fine = no family history of long/shortsightedness)

Also. Sooyoung-ie says hi [Attachment: 20XX1213_144516.jpg] 

ok no lie this was one of the parts that pissed me off the most, even though it’s Literally One Line, because. i love chat exchanges. i really do. when done right they’re a lot of fun to read. But Do You Know How Long It Took Me To Figure Out A Calendar For The Events In This Fic. now everything’s TIMED i have to count HOW MANY DAYS IT’S BEEN since XY event so i can CORRECTLY NUMBER the FILE ATTACHMENTS!!! this sucks!!! it took me fucking forever to pin down a timeline just so i could write this chapter plus the few before and after it!!!!

anyway i gave up when i reached year. i just put 20XX. fuck it. we are running on fairy tail time now. (actually i think that’s XXnumber number? XX76? or was it X796. something like that. Who cares i stopped watching fairy tail forever ago)

Fuck it! Hamin will understand!! “If you Awaken you should come work with me,” Han Hyunjae says all in a rush. 

“HAMIN WILL UNDERSTAND” => he literally was cool with me giving zero context for half a dozen absolute balls to the wall nonsense bullshit things i’ve done before. he’ll be fine with this too. dog_in_burning_house_this_is_fine.png

“You already know about the guilds, those are going to be for dungeon Hunters, but I was thinking of forming something like an independent group of contractors. Awakened people with skills that aren’t useful for combat, but that might… that will be generally useful. It’d be you and me, and maybe one other guy I met recently. Probably more in the future.”

given that HHJ has no idea currently that peace exists (i’m so sorry baby i’ll find a way to shoehorn you in soon i miss you so much) he’s got no intentions to start a kiseungsu business yet! he mostly wants to live quietly while just acting as a manager for other Awakening-related services, like YMW’s forge and DHM’s tracking service, along with the information exchange/lowkey spy ring that he’s planning on setting up with JHW and the bar. since HYH is fine associating with him in this timeline, HHJ’s thinking he can get a foot in the door that way, then eventually spread out into dealings with most major guild leaders

RIP to this plan. you were well-made but you will not last long.

“Please, I can’t tell you how I know that, I really can’t, it’d put me and my brothers in danger if it got out. But—” “No need.” Hamin looks slightly alarmed, and Han Hyunjae feels himself settle at the obvious concern in his eyes.

MAFIA THEORY RAPIDLY RISING TO PROMINENCE??? THIS IS NOT HOW DO HAMIN WANTED HIS GUESS CONFIRMED

“I spoke to the Task Force Head and she said that there’s been discussion about hosting a meeting for the nearby high-rankers, where they’ll announce the guild proposal and see who else is interested in trying it out.”

“they’ll announce” i’m sorry king 💔 you deserved a nap

(OH ALSO FUN FACT choi eunyoung is a canon character, not an OC of mine! she appears in uhhh i think late 140s? 150s? something like that)

“I think there’s… probably only one other S-rank who’s Awakened right now?”

Hehehehehehehehehehehehehhehe

Hamin beams. “No, they’re doing great! Spookie’s taken really well to the new housing situation, but I think Spots might miss the store…”

shoutout to @daemonic-dawn​ for letting me borrow a pet name, love u king. i had a much longer ramble about pet names here but i finished typing and realized it was all entirely off topic so i removed it for convenience

Hyunjae makes an annoyed noise in the back of his throat. “Don’t— I mean.” He huffs, visibly taking a deep breath, and Yoojin frowns reflexively. [...] “Is everything alright?” Yoojin kind of wants to be annoyed at his tone on principle, but he forces his shoulders to relax, matching Hyunjae’s posture. Though he can’t stop himself from being a little short when he answers.

things the brothers have learned in four years living together: getting confrontational often leads to arguments that just fizzle out anyway, so it’s way fucking easier to consciously tone down their combativeness in advance when talking to each other about things they have problems with, instead of screaming their heads off and then having to calm yoohyun down afterwards to boot

“I guess. Whatever.” Yoojin slumps. “Can I…” “Hm?” Hyunjae blinks at Yoojin as he gestures to the spot on the bed beside him, then jolts. “Oh! Yeah, sure, c’mere.” He opens his arms, and Yoojin goes over and flumps on the bed, head in Hyunjae’s lap. Almost immediately, Hyunjae starts stroking fingers through his hair, and Yoojin relaxes into the touch, listening as Hyunjae continues speaking.

cuddles 🥺🥺🥺 sorry i don’t have any other commentary here just. cuddles. extremely and overwhelmingly comforting for a man who spent the better part of 8 years(?) with no major positive relationships, and a kid who spent 12 years of early life basically abandoned by his parents. you had best bet they gave up on not hugging each other 1 year into this whole mess

Yoojin hums in acknowledgement. It’s not like he’d ever let himself get hurt; he has too many responsibilities to his family and friends. If he wants to be good enough to keep up, he can’t afford to fuck up like that. But… hyung will worry if he keeps working so hard. He can slow down a little for him. 

Problems disorder man when will you stop. the way he sees “getting hurt” as an inconvenience and an obstacle to his duties rather than a danger to himself. the way he doesn’t really care if he himself gets hurt, but if it’ll worry his family, then it’s a no-no. it’s just. wow. i know i wrote this but i hate him

“Not really. I talk to Myeongwoo about it sometimes.” “Ah, right, Myeongwoo.”

haha gays

“Don’t be weird about him,” Yoojin warns[...]. “I won’t, promise.”

if the “i won’t” line had a dialogue tag it’d be “Han Hyunjae lied”

“Is Eunwoo still in his relationship?” “Mhm, happy as ever. Apparently they’re trying long-distance, now that Eunwoo’s gone off to university abroad.”

three guesses for who eunwoo’s dating and you won’t need the first two

Hyunjae raises his hands like he’s going to deny the accusations levelled against him, so Yoojin seizes him by the collar and shakes him until he cries for mercy

oh my o/rv ass struggled so bad with not writing “shakes him like a man betrayed” here. it killed me not to. but in the end i prevailed (against, uh, myself. don’t think about it too hard.)

“Jeez, okay, he’s an F-rank!” “Eh?! Then why—” “He’s also got an SS-rank potential skill,” Hyunjae admits[...].

play-by-play of this scene because god if i draw any scene in this fic it would be this one just for the sheer hysterical nature of HYJ’s reaction:

YOOJIN: I HATE YOU WHAT THE FUCK WHY. TELL ME HIS RANK

HYUNJAE: HE’S AN F

YOOJIN: WHAT? WHAT THE FUCK?

HYUNJAE: he’s also got an SS-rank skill,

YOOJIN:

[coelakanths]

Yo can you go more into depth on your ideas for shadow knights and the magic system for mcd? I saw one of your posts and it’s hashtags and now I’m very curious

hell yea friend!!! 

so at the moment there are three different religions all with different magic systems tied into them. the religion most prevalent in ruan is the least tied into magic as a whole-- this is the one that worships the divine warriors, the magic system attached is currently being called six strings. 

the other two religions center around the sun and moon and nature respectively-- each for meifwa, werewolves, and elves in yggdrasil. this magic is much more old and is said to be gifted by the respective power (ie magic user meifwa would say that their magic comes from the sun). with elves its much more of a mutually beneficial relationship, trying to achieve balance between a sort of spirit world and the overworld. kinda like the avatar, how theyre the bridge between worlds? they treat the yggdrasil forest like a mentor, something to learn with and from. they focus much more on elemental magic, working with the world around them.

sun and moon magic has much more harsh elements? more of a god/worshipper situation. think the romans and their pantheon. meifwa and werewolves go hand in hand, each celebrating their celestial goddess. magic and prophecies are said to be gifted by these heavenly bodies.

now, six strings is much more complicated (mostly bc its actually expanded upon in series so i have more to work with lmao). it involves six different sects of magic- offensive, defensive, concealing/revealing, animation, blessings/curses, and healing. each of these strings is connected to a divine warrior and the magic type they were born with: kulzak with animation, menphia with offensive, esmund with defensive, enki w concealing/revealing, shad w blessings/curses, and irene with healing. now, irene is specifically stated to have mastered several types of magic so its easy to assume that the rest of the warriors could as well, i just assume this is the magic they were born with.

in the ruan region 900 yrs ago, magic was much less common as it is elsewhere and was seen more as a sickness than anything (ie malachi’s entire backstory). the divine warriors werent the first ppl with six strings magic, but they were the most famous, and seen as pioneers of magic discovery in that region. now they are worshipped as gods for their good deeds all across the globe.

shadow knights r so interesting to me!!! in my head they go mainly off of the six string magic system because theyre much more prevalent in the ruan region and are also ruled by shad, a divine warrior himself. these guys are different magic wise bc they have magic from another realm, much more powerful and alien magic.

my theory is that everyone used to have magic at some point but as the world moved on magic started to dissipate and become less common in the overworld. now that its mainly run by nonmagic users, its seen as a rarity esp in ruan. in other dimensions, however, magic is much more prevalent and powerful due to how much there is concentrated in one place. shadow knights pull almost all their magic from the nether, esp if they didnt have magic before they became a knight. 

when thinking of the process of becoming a shadow knight i took inspo from phoenixes- you die, find yourself in the nether, and are broken down to where youre barely anything at all... then, youre built back up to be better than ever, the magic of the nether now entertwined with your very being. nether magic is much more offensive, making it easily corruptible to the shadow knights, making them depend on it more. 

the process of becoming a jo9 member is similar in the sense that you are imbued with offensive magic, however its much less destructive and more like a blessing. 

hope this makes sense :]!

[hayjeon]

Tips on creating fun fanfic headers!

i had so much fun writing the fanfic writing tips yesterday and i got a few more questions about header-making, and so i decided to make one more of these! i hope these tips help somebody out there! hope you enjoy :) 

p.s. these tips won’t require any hard editing skills or photoshop skills, nor any expensive tablets/apps! 

typically i spend around ~5-10 min creating one header, and that’s either after i think of/finish a fic. i have so much fun doing it and sharing it with you that i figured i’d share how i do it! 

why headers? 

as I talked about in my fic tips, one of the most eye-catching things about fics are headers. when i’m scrolling through a rec page, my home page, a tag, or even someone’s masterlist, i’m immediately drawn to well-made headers. that’s what captures my attention, and then i’m more drawn in by the content. so, you can say that headers is your own version of an ad for your own fic, or an extension of it (like the cover of a novel!) 

if you were writing your own book, imagine how much time you’d spend figuring out what you wanted your cover to look like. i try to have as much fun and invest as much time making my own headers because it’s just the cherry on top to my finished product :) 

disclaimer: BUT HEADERS ARE NOT NECESSARY/DO OR DIE! if you don’t feel like you want to do this, then keep writing! its ok! this is just a suggestion. i’ve seen plenty of well-written fics without headers at all, so don’t beat yourself up over not having one/not wanting to do one. this is truly just a fun, extra kind of thing, and only keep reading if you want to learn how i do it! :) 

tips for people who don’t want to make headers: if you still want something to make your fic stand out, use gifs! i use them in my drabbles a lot! this will at least give ur fic a lil boost! 

how to find pictures

I typically use unsplash, which is a free website in which photographers upload their HQ pics for free use. the pics are really high quality, typically stock photos, and don’t have any logos on them like other ones on google. unfortunately, you won’t find any pics of the members or anything, but you’ll find beautiful stock photos of typical scenes like “ocean scene” or “desert scene.” I found the stock photo for cut me open (shown below) on that site by just looking up “medical” or “doctor”. 

i used to use google a lot and just use keywords like “desert scene HQ” and edit the search settings to deliver HQ pics, and a minimum # of pixels, but unplash is definitely better in terms of quality, more aesthetic photos, and no logos/watermarks. 

on some occasions, i will screenshot some scenes of youtube videos, turning up the quality to 1080p or 4k and zooming in so that the pixelation is as crisp as possible, and then editing it later to look good (which i’ll explain in a second!) 

the above photo was a scene from the specific characters from the drama, “100 Days My Prince” that I screenshotted from a youtube video that TvN uploaded, recapping the drama. I cropped it just right so that their faces were left out, which i’ll also mention soon! 

things to look for when picking pictures: 

you want the picture to reflect a specific motif/theme from your fic! if its a moody fic, then try to find a moody scene that you can edit with filters/lighting to look even moodier; or if the characters’ jobs are a big portion of the fic (like cut me open/doctor theme) try to look for stock photos with that shown very clearly!

make sure its high quality: tumblr really dumbs down the quality of the photo when uploading it, so try your best to find something with a lot of pixels in it so that when you start editing, you don’t sacrifice too much of the quality already

try to look for something simple/clean: a picture with too much subject (ie. people in the background, or too much detail) may end up taking away from the main point of your header, which is your title. so find pics without too much clutter! 

try to make sure its landscape: which will help during editing to save some of the quality better. 

editing your pictures

now that you have a specific photo you want to use, now its time to edit! I use VSCO CAM (free app) and my own apple photos cropping tool for faster crops. 

crop/adjust: if your picture is too large/wide, crop it to at least a 16:9 ratio. i’d say aim for skinnier if you can, so that you don’t take up too much space (especially if you’re planning to add headers to your masterlist). also crop out any faces, any clutter, any unnecessary details, so you have a nice, clean slate to work on when adding text. 

contrast/sharpen/clarity/white balance/etc.: i’m not gonna give you a lesson on photography, but i’ll tell you I learned like 80% of everything that i know just by fiddling with it on VSCO! So just try it out and play with the app, see what you can make of it. i’d say a rule of thumb to follow is that you want happier fics with a brighter tone, and moodier/angsty fics with a darker tone so that it can reflect the nature of the fic further, without saying anything! 

if you wanna be extra af like me, then go a step further and photoshop your pics. this one is a good example; when i screenshotted this scene from another youtube video for my fic One Year My Love part 2, i was specifically looking for a scene that would showcase the ornate/regal details of their clothing/environment in contrast to part 1′s modest clothing/scene (the first header in this post). 

i found this scene, but actually, this scene portrays the Crown Prince and the Princess, not y/n. So, the actors weren’t smiling at all! They were actually frowning at eachother in this scene, to portray the tension between the two characters and their marriage. 

So, I took the extra step, adjusting the pic with VSCO so that their shoulders/chins were at the same level, cropped off their faces up until their lips, and then used the adobe photoshop free app to photoshop their lips to be SMILING at eachother!!!! subtle, but important! 

call me crazy for taking that much time but i’m so proud of how it turned out and i loved every second of making this one. that way, this scene makes it portray the happy ending for Jungkook and y/n! 

adding text to your header

you can use any app out there, but i really like Font Candy! I actually ended up buying the 2$ version of this and never regretted it, but you can actually find a lot of their basic fonts on the free version; I tend to use the fonts: OSTRICH SANS, BEBAS, TREND, and INTRO the most! these are pretty clean-looking, block letters that look good whenever i put them as my titles. 

I love this app too cause you can easily control the spacing between letters to make them take up more space, add shadows, or even make them contrast their background using the overlay feature; like this one i made for wildest dreams (see how the text changes depending on what part of the photo its on? amazing! it’s literally with a click of a button!!)

And i’ll always add “written by HAYJEON” or “by HAYEJON”, space it out, and add it somewhere underneath as my own branding.

orrrrrr 

if you want to be more creative, you can even go a step further and use whatever you have on hand to enhance whatever you’re trying to portray. 

for this one, i ended up finding this amazing photo on unsplash and i thought it would do a create job of portraying the “movie-set” quality of what wildest dreams is going to be about. this stock photo had someone else’s names on it, so i used my ipad, and used instagram to just erase the existing writing with the color of the background, and then wrote in my own title and url with my own handwriting/apple pen!!! 

i thought this was pretty cool because it’s like wildest dreams is its own movie/has its own movie set, which, once it’s out, you guys will see that it’s supposed to be! 

saving/uploading

this is pretty easy/obvious, but i figured i’d mention it. all the apps i mentioned are available on the appstore, and they will save directly to your photos. after doing that, i’ll just upload them into a special folder i have on my google drive so that when i’m finished writing a fic on tumblr using my laptop, i can easily download the photos without sacrificing quality. easy! 

and that way, i can save them forever; even if i have to delete them from my computer, i can always redownload them! 

side note: making text separators

i just recently started doing this, but ever since tumblr took down their text separators, i’ve just been cropping the bottom like 5-10 pixels of the header to use as my text separators! (with my laptop)

i saw some other writer doing it and thought that it looked better than what i had used previously (a cropped photo of a random line i found on google); i found that doing this tied my fics together a little better and just looked better aesthetically; 

so there it is! hope you enjoyed! :) i would love to see what other tips you guys have been using, feel free to send me an ask or reply to this post; and if you end up using any of my tips, please let me know! I love to hear from you guys all the time <3 

lots of love, especially during these times, 

hay <3