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#if anyone has an idea about the technique used here please let me know
gothhabiba · 8 months
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Illustration of an okra plant, showing stem, leaves, flowers, and pod beginning to split. Labelled "Hibiscus Esculentus" and signed "P. Caesare Majoli; L. M. [Majoli] Sc." In Osservazioni fitologiche sopra alcune piante esotiche introdotte in Roma fatte nell'anno 1788, Da gli abati Filippo Luigi Gilii e Gaspare Xuarez. Rome: 1789.
Note the use of the long s (ſ) at the ends of words, but not in the middle of them!
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epickiya722 · 22 days
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You know what, let's talk about it. I have thoughts on 268, specifically the "end" between Yuji and Sukuna.
(Jumping off this post and this one.)
Maybe because I'm a fan of both (with Yuji being overall favorite), but I don't see how anyone can be a Sukuna fan and hate Yuji. Especially after 268.
After everything Sukuna has done to him, Yuji still has empathy for him. He connects with Sukuna while holding him as he (Sukuna) fades away (assumingly, I'll get to that).
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The scene does start off like Yuji's final confrontation with Mahito (chapter 132 for reference). Yuji looking down at his enemy in his defeated form, says his name and then "I am you", but in reverse.
To me when Yuji says that "You are me", he's telling Sukuna that they are one in the same, that Sukuna could have been Yuji had he had a different life. He's letting Sukuna to accept that, that he is human just as much as when Yuji told Mahito he is no different from the curse.
With Mahito, Yuji was trying to deny, deny, deny until he accepts that "Yeah, we are the same". That's what he wants Sukuna to do. He wants Sukuna to be the Yuji here.
However, it's to see that Sukuna is human and there's value in living. How you die doesn't matter, it's how you live that does. He wants Sukuna to have that second chance even if Sukuna doesn't deserve it.
Let's be real, out of all the characters it is Yuji who came to understand Sukuna the most, probably even more than Sukuna himself.
And I don't think Yuji just gets that him and Sukuna are one. He also gets that humans and curses are one and as such should the idea of humans and curses coexisting is what he accepts. Yuji is the embodiment of an enlightening.
Visually pleasing, I do like that when Yuji speaks here, he still has his facial injuries, his hair slicked back and even his eyes still have the rings. He looks like his own version of Sukuna here. To me, it brings more meaning to his "You are me" line because the last Sukuna sees isn't just Yuji, but also a different version of himself that he could have been.
And at first, it did seem odd (I'll use that word) that Yuji didn't keep the scars he had from that final fight, but it made sense to me because he does have RCT and most of the Cursed energy he was using did go into his techniques and Domain.
But also, a visual reminder that he is still Yuji.
I think about how some of the fandom sees Yuji as the next Sukuna, but I don't think is ever something the mangaka had planned.
Yes, Yuji Itadori is Ryomen Sukuna and Ryomen Sukuna is Yuji Itadori.
But also, they're not each other.
They're still two different beings, two different individuals. They're opposites just as much as they are alike.
Yuji without his scars that would have made him look like Sukuna is a visual reminder that at the end of the day, he is still him.
He was born with his life already planned for him and now he can live how he wants to because he has value in himself and in living.
Yuji Itadori will always be Yuji Itadori.
Not a cog, not a vessel. But Yuji Itadori.
Rereading the posts I linked above and thinking about how their souls are so intertwined that the other characters had to be careful about their plans around Yuji, I remembered a post I wrote way back when about how "it would be so funny if Yuji was Sukuna reincarnated".
Thinking about all that put together what if Yuji is?
Just hear me out.
Remember when Sukuna said he "doesn't feel anything"? Well, what if Yuji is that "anything"? He's the piece of Sukuna that Sukuna didn't feel, the "humanity and empathy". Sukuna doesn't have to feel, Yuji does it for him.
Yuji is that regret, despair, genuine happiness, concern and other forms of emotions that Sukuna can't bring himself to feel.
Now, I do want to bring up something else. A part of me has a feeling that Sukuna isn't really dead. Technically, with Yuji being him and vice versa, metaphorically he isn't. But also... we didn't actually see him completely disintegrate.
It cuts to Yuji's eyes.
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Here, it could be Yuji just watching Sukuna fade away completely in regret. Or could be him being anxious over a decision he may have been about to make and said decision he could have gone through with it.
Maybe he ate what remained of Sukuna just before he was completely gone? Maybe that small piece that was left in his hands?
I know, I know. There's this bit here when Uraume is shattering like an icicle hitting the ground.
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But what if that final piece of incarnated piece of Sukuna died when (hypothetically) Yuji ate it?
Just me now! I've said it before plenty of times, but I don't expect anyone to agree with me or even think I'm right about this.
Overall, 268 so far has reminded why Yuji easily is my favorite JJK character. He's compassionate, even when he doesn't have to be. He's a fighter, but not to indulge some enjoyment. It's to help. He will sacrifice physical parts of himself, even his humanity just so he can do his job as a jujutsu sorcerer. He's selfless, a strength and a weakness.
Yuji is just a perfect balance of flaws and strengths that define him that I admire.
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xxavengingangelxx · 5 months
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Behind Blue Eyes 1/1
Summary: What exactly happened to Val between days 6 and 10 after she was captured? Why did she suddenly become so compliant? From Graves’s POV. Because, well because Val doesn’t remember. For the simple reason that Graves doesn’t want her to. Maybe out of kindness (because those days were rough), but maybe because generally, a brainwasher doesn’t want their target to remember being brainwashed. 
Inspired by one of my fave YouTubers, Dark5.
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I thought about titling this Your beauty never really scared me, a line from one of my favorite songs, Mary on a Cross by Ghost. Just because reader is gorgeous (yes, all y'all are gorgeous!) and Graves wants her but while her beauty might have intimidated other men, of course it didn't intimidate Graves cuz he's a narcissistic used to getting what he wants ;)
Warnings: Torture (nothing graphic), brainwashing, threats of harm, general mindfuckery, etc. This is sadistic Las Almas Graves, a heartless mercenary, kk? ;)
Tags! @unicorngirly1, @c0d-lvr, @bellgraves. I had a taglist when I was posting more often but I lost it so please let me know if you'd like to be added :)
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This is connected to my fic Long Way from Home, link to the first part below. It's a fic where Graves captures 141's translator in Mexico thinking she has valuable information. She undergoes torture enhanced interrogation techniques thanks to Graves and Shadow Company. She holds her own much better than Graves thought she would.
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It took 6 days to finally break Val. She finally let go of information that wouldn’t have harmed anyone anyway. Those homing beacons we got from her were old, and she knew that. She refused to give them up for the simple fact that she was defiant. Shepherd’s happy she broke. But he said he’s still flying down. He said he wants her actively working for us.
He told me I have 4 days. 4 days to bring her to our side. I told him that’s impossible, that it took a lot longer than that to essentially brainwash someone. Yes, she’d broken but not willingly.
He told me I knew what to use to do just that. Brainwash her. I know what he was referring to. But no. I didn’t want to. It might kill her.
“Ten Minutes to Midnight,” Shepherd told me.
He told me to do it or he’d kill her. In front of me.
So I relented and went to a computer with some heavily encrypted files. The kind of computer that had a case designed to live through nuclear war and electromagnetic pulse attacks. I pulled up something I learned from the CIA in my dealings with them.
The file titled 10 Minutes to Midnight: The Brainwasher’s Handbook.
The below might sound brutal but just remember I did it to save her life.
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Val had no idea where she was. The last 24 hours had been a blur and her life had been turned upside down. Everything had changed…everything. Well, her life had changed since Las Almas, I’m certain. Pretty sure she’s never been held captive before.
She’d broken. And that’s what mattered. She was still sedated, somewhat. I couldn’t tell if she was passed out due to exhaustion or if she was still drugged. Maybe both.
But I only had 4 days so we had to fast track this.
She was dead weight when I picked her up. She was definitely lighter than the last time. She was clearly choosing not to interact with me (full on scowled at me before I picked her up and it was hard not to smack her) so when I got back to my barracks I sat her up on my bed, against the wall.
I told her, “We’re not done yet.” And the terrified look in her darker eyes told me that this just might work. Poor thing was still so tired and weak.
We had to be careful here because we didn’t exactly want to erase her entire identity. We needed Val to keep her identity. But she just had to want to work for us. She had to be more violent. Just not towards us like had been for the last 6 days. Seriously, it was getting annoying and exhausting having to be on edge in case she took a swing at me anytime I was within arm’s reach of her. She knew it would result in her getting her ass beat but she seemed to think it was worth it, saying she liked seeing me bleed (she scratched a lot, too).
I tried, really tried to do things the easy way.
I asked told her to come work with me.
And, well, she said fuck you. So disrespectful.
I walked away. Because I wanted to fucking hit her, push her into the wall. But there was a better way to start things. She wanted water and who was I to tell a lady no? I just added a benzo to it. She was out like a light. It was comforting, just watching her sleep, listening to her breathe.
I moved her to what we call one of our soft interrogation rooms. It wasn’t a cell, it wasn’t a concrete cube like she’d been locked in before, but it certainly wasn’t comforting. Just your basics, nothing else: somewhere somewhat comfortable to sleep and less harsh lighting than the rooms (yes, rooms as in multiple because we’ve been moving her to base after base every day) she’d been in before. With one main difference: have you heard of white torture? Everything in that room was white, everything she was allowed to wear was white. It was a form of sensory deprivation that made people easier to brainwash. I made it clear to my men: Val doesn’t leave this room. This is the only room we’d convince her to work for us in. And after she came around, she was never to see this room again.
Because it might trigger memories of how she used to be.
Anyway.
Brainwashing is easy. And it’s not like I have to spend 24/7 with the target. A few of my men were trained in CIA techniques so they knew where to pick up when I needed a break. Val would be worked on 24/7.
Step 1: Assault on identity          
Telling the target they’re not the person they think they are. I told Val she wasn’t who she thought she was. She thought she was an inseparable part of 141. She saw Price as a father figure and the other boys as older brothers. Well, except for Johnny for the simple fact that she used to fuck him. I’d make sure he stayed extra far away from her. He might be a potential trigger for her.
No, you’re not a part of 141. No, you hadn’t known them for years. No, you could not trust them with your life. They’ll kill you if the catch you. Or help lock you up in a military prison the rest of your life. No, they’re not going to forgive you for betraying them, even if you told them it was under torture.
She put up one hell of a fight against this and it was certainly admirable. She even attempted to escape two hours into the ordeal when one of my boys opened the door to that room. But if the first step doesn’t get accomplished, the nine other steps won’t either. So every time she would deny my statements, I would hurt her. Nothing too bad, of course. I couldn’t leave too many new injuries on her. Just stress positions, pressure points, and keeping her awake. I feel like she’d had enough physical abuse coercion.
After 12 hours of repeated verbalizations and some pain she became noticeably less cocky and sure of herself. Hour 14, she sounded confused for lack of a better term. Granted, she had been kept awake for more than 14 hours but she appeared really confused. I asked her to confirm her identity and she seemed even more confused. She whispered her name, but it sounded as if she was asking a question. But I could tell she was doing it only because she was scared. She wasn’t turned yet but this is only the first step so of course she wasn’t.
Her beliefs and her identity were weakened. Not broken yet but weakened. And so I moved onto the next step.
Step 2: Guilt
This step is generally more violent. It has to be. This is where you convince your target they’re the scum of the earth…a horrible person. I told her that 141 were war criminals and that she had helped them. I had to do this step in full uniform to add to the effect. She always showed more fear when I showed up in uniform. I was the only thing with color in that room so she was dead focused on me. She was desperate to look at anything that wasn’t snow white, even if it was her tormentor me.
Yes, Val, you’d helped war criminals. And you resisted my men and I, who were not anything close to war criminals. That we only killed when we had to. And that we certainly didn’t take advantage of females in our group like Soap had done her.
Predictably, she got violent.
So, unfortunately we had no choice but to respond in kind. Of course, no serious injuries. But she felt pain nonetheless. The more hours that ticked by, however, the more exhausted she became and the less she fought. She wasn’t even trying to cover her ears and scream over us to go the fuck away or to shut the fuck up anymore after about another 12 hours. She stopped just screaming into the dark void of her room. She just listened.
But one thing that she would not stop reacting violently to (as in swinging, scratching, kicking, biting, you name it) was the suggestion that the Scot of 141 had taken advantage of her. That was fine, we could drop one or two items off our list. So we left that one alone.
She still hadn’t slept by the way.
Step 3: Self-Betrayal
I told her to admit that she was bad. I told her over and over amid physical okay and sexual threats. Although she, as always, resisted, under the threat of breaking her arm, she agreed in a desperate tone of voice. Because I promised her she didn’t want to have a serious injury on-base, that it would lead to misery. She agreed that she was a bad person because of her job and the people she worked for.
I forced her to admit that her parents were bad people, clearly, and maybe that had been passed onto her. Genetics and all that shit, right? She admitted, on demand, that she was a bad person.
And after she did that, I let her sleep. Only for a few hours. Just long enough to where she slept deeply enough to where a simple ultrasonic wave caused a concussion without leaving marks or making her any the wiser. But weaking her to the next part.
Step 4: Breaking Point
Psychic driving: Strap a someone (preferably concussed) down, give them paralytic drugs and make them listen to a repeated statement hundreds if not thousands of times. Then, you just break them down with something called depatterning which uses drugs, electric shocks and sensory deprivation. The result? It destroys your target’s personality. Then you get to replace the personality with whatever you want.
The only issue we ran into is that we couldn’t quite erase her entire personality or identity. We still needed Val to be Val. Just anti-141 Val. Maybe a version of Val that was a little more trigger happy. A version of Val where maybe, just maybe, she’d kill for us. The CIA would do that shit to people for days, sometimes weeks, we just did it for 36 hours.
And after about 36 hours of that shit, she was almost totally different. After she had been unstrapped, she seemed numb. She gave me this look, this broken, shocked look and then she just broke down. She started screaming and crying about how she didn’t know where the hell she was, who she was, what she stood for. She actually begged me to tell her who she was. Later that night she was convinced she was back in Las Almas. She got psychotic. She wasn’t there. She had fallen off the brink and it was time to pull her back.
Step 5: Leniency
This is kind of like the Stockholm syndrome building stage. She heard me come into her room and she instantly backed up, retreating against the wall, eyes focused on the floor. So I soothed her, promised I wouldn’t hurt her. I mentioned that because she was making progress in trying to make up for all the bad she had done and that I wouldn’t hurt her. I asked her if she wanted something, anything to eat. She told me she wanted a burger and fries. Simple enough. So I got them for her. It was the first time she’d something other than white rice in days.
But I made sure she knew that the only reason I was doing this was because she was making an active effort to make up for all the bad she had done beforehand. I started showing up in civilian clothes. She agreed to make an effort to right the wrongs she had done in the past. Later that night, She got to sleep in a warm room, a normal room for the first time (i.e. not a white torture room). She got to sleep in a warm bed all because, I kept telling her, she was changing herself for the better.
While it may not seem like much, after days of torture and interrogation followed by now days of brainwashing techniques, these small acts of kindness make her think I saved her life and that she owes me. She even said she felt obliged to me and so clearly there was increased trauma bonding.
Step 6: Compulsion to Confession
Next I told her that she could do something for me after everything I had done for her. I told her she could help herself feel better, too. How? By confessing that her past life had been a mistake full of bad deeds. I told her she could confess to me. And while she resisted at first, a little prodding eventually convinced her.
She confessed that her whole life she had lived a lie, that she had been brainwashed by the military to believe she was doing good, but that in reality, she had done horrible things. Her job had turned her into a horrible person. She confessed all of this.
And the best part? She thanked me.
Step 7: Channeling of guilt
Val started this stage on her own.
“I feel bad,” when I asked her why, she gave me this perfect answer about how she had done bad things with her life. She didn’t know how to fix things, she told me. How could she fix things, she wondered, if she had been doing them for such a long time?
She couldn’t have said it in a better, more perfect way. When I asked for the specifics of what she had done wrong, she had no idea. It’s not uncommon for subjects to be confused as to the specifics of what they’ve done wrong. So I told her that her previous identity and belief system were the source of her agony. What she had believed in were the cause of her pain. And I told her that if she wanted to alleviate her guilt, that she would reverse her identity and her beliefs. She could still be saved, I promised her. I told her she wasn’t a bad person but that her beliefs were bad. Easily fixable, I promised her.
While I didn’t take into account how many hours each stage took, the stages lasted shorter and shorter.
Step 8: Releasing of Guilt
This step involved convincing Val that it wasn’t she that was bad but that her previous beliefs were. She smiled for the first time in days and asked if this meant that she could fix what her past beliefs had made her do. I promised her that’s exactly what it meant. All she needed to do was denounce the people she had worked for and denounce that belief system.
To test her, I handed her her dog tags (we’d taken them from her to prevent a third suicide attempt). She wanted to melt them down because she said it reminded her of her 141 days.
I told her not quite because we might have to work with them again in the future.
This was when she realized that she wasn’t a bad person but that her previous beliefs had made her bad. And that she could make up for it by working with us and for us.
Step 9: Progress and Harmony
The path to ‘good’ was helping my cause, I told her. If she really wanted to make up for the things her past beliefs and dedications had caused her to do, she would follow the instructions I gave her. She agreed and this is where generally, the abuse use of force stops. I don’t need to hurt her anymore because she’s agreeing. She’s so far gone that abuse is unnecessary and might work against me. I gave her the illusion of choice (when in reality I’m not giving her a choice) in that she can choose between going back to her bad, evil ways or that she could choose a better path. I reminded her that her old ways had burdened her with so much guilt that they had led to a mental breakdown.
Remember that breakdown you had a few days ago? I had asked her. She nodded. I told her that her guilt had been so overwhelming that she had broken down and I had saved her. In order to prevent another breakdown, she would choose my way. Needless to say, she made the right choice.
Step 10: Final confession and rebirth
Who are you? Still Val, just a better person (she’d actually forgotten her first name as a result of this and maybe the almost week of torture we dealt her before). She said she was more than willing to work with me.
To make sure, I told her I needed to try something.
Downers and Uppers is what the CIA called it back when they did it.
My medic 10-4 and I got ahold of amphetamines and benzodiazepines. He set up an IV of each on each arm.
I watched as he drugged her with the ‘downer’ until she was almost asleep. Then he injected her with the ‘upper’ which jolted her awake and sent her heart rate skyrocketing.
Round and around it went, up and down. And holy shit did she reveal more information about 141. Some theories of downers and uppers that suggestions made during this interrogation technique seem to…for lack of a better word…stick.
She couldn’t lie during this hellish cycle. Literally could not. When I asked her if she’d work with me, without hesitation, she said yes.
And that’s when I knew we were done.
Well, almost done. The only thing left was to use ultrasound to re-concuss her and erase or bury the memories of the past 4 days deep.
Then I carried her back to my room. 10-4 said she should be able to sleep it off.
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I told Shepherd it’s done. With a few hours to spare. I got her changed into more comfortable clothes I’d kept with me from one of prior nightly liaisons.
So then I picked her up again, led her back to that cold, sterile, cell. She’d wake up here and remember being tortured but she wouldn’t remember us coaxing her to our side.
She continued sleeping it off until I decided to really test the waters. I knew that because we did a shortened version of Ten Minutes to Midnight (its supposed to take weeks, ideally), there were going to be some kinks.
And that was confirmed when she watched me step into that cell.
“What do you want?” she whispered. At least she wasn’t charging at me or yelling at me.
“How long have you been here?” I asked her.
“I don’t know. You’re using all kinds of sensory deprivation.”
“10 days,”
And she snapped up at that. “No way,” she claimed.
So I pointed out how far along her injuries were healed. “Surprised you don’t remember screaming when we stitched ya up seeing as we didn’t use anesthesia.”
“Val, you were gone,” I paused before adding, “You don’t remember ripping that IV outta your arm and saying you wanted to die?”
She shook her head.
“You’re lying,” she said. She then pulled up her sleeves and saw the numerous IV track marks and the slices into her skin from her suicide attempts (One from a piece of glass, like seriously? And the other from ripping that IV out of her arm).
“You’re lying!” She yelled. And then she shoved me. For a second there I thought I was gonna have to drag her back to the drawing board. So I issued one warning: “Next time you put your hands on me I’m gonna break your arm,” and where before she would have dared me to, swung at me, scratched me, she complied.
I stepped closer towards her and she muttered I not get any closer. “When did you get here?” I asked again. I tossed her my watch. The look on her horrified face almost made me feel sorry for her.
“Havin’ a rough night?” I easily took my watch out of her trembling hands. “Tell you what. Come hang out with me tonight.”
She gave me this scared look. So I promised that as long as she wasn’t violent, I wouldn’t be either. She was also apparently terrified of my boys so I promised they wouldn’t lay a hand on her either.
She full on flinched when she heard me lock the door to my room. So I told her to relax, that we weren’t doing anything she wasn’t comfortable with. She was so confused. She had no idea she’d broken and she had no idea she’d been brainwashed.
So I wasn’t totally taken off guard when she walked up to me and kissed me. And I sure as hell found out that night that she was definitely on our side.
The clock just ticked one minute closer to midnight for you, 141.
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Learn more! This fic was also inspired by a video from one of my favorite YouTubers, Dark5.
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longlivefeedback · 2 years
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Commenting 101
Lesson 3: Quote. Or paraphrase
Sorry about going MIA last weekend, but I'm back with Lesson 3 💪 But before we get into it, how are we doing with describing the indescribable and commenting in general?
Alright. So let's talk about quoting bits of the fics and commenting on them in a comment. Personally, it's one of my favourite ways to comment because I find it easier to focus on a specific thing/sentence/paragraph/turn of phrase that I really like and gush about it to an author. By doing this, I can also focus on the bits of the story that I really really liked, and not worry about the parts that I didn't like so much. Win-win for everyone!
The one downside of this particular commenting technique is that it does take a relatively high amount of effort and is not as easy as a keyboard smash or entering a bunch of smileys and a catchphrase into the comment box. But hey. Some fics are worth it :)
So, here are some tips on how to quote while commenting:
Keep 2 tabs open.
Use a third party browser script that gives you a floating review box.
Paraphrase.
1. Keep 2 tabs open
Easier on a computer, but I've done it on mobile before. This is literally having two tabs open to the same chapter/fic as I read. When I get to a sentence or phrase that I really like, I'll copy it from my reading tab and paste it into my second tab which has the comment box open.
Sometimes I'll notate what I am thinking in the moment for that quote, and sometimes I'll leave it for the end and experience all the bits I loved again 😍. My comment at the end usually looks something like this:
"Sentence I really like" ~~ I really love how you described this character!
Everything from "Start of a paragraph/section..." to "...end of paragraph/section" is giving me life!!
"Paragraph I really like" ~~ This was perfection and made me cry 😭
and so on and so forth.
It's nice when I notate as I go, because when I'm done reading, I've got quite the comment already written and I usually just round off the comment with a catchphrase like "This was all wonderful! Thank you for writing and sharing!" and hit post, easy-peasy.
2. Use a third party browser script that gives you a floating review box.
This is not something I personally use, but the people who do have really loved it and I love the concept of it so here it is for you to try and see if it works for you!
There are a couple of scripts:
AO3 Floating Comment Box by ScriptMouse. This is a script to create a floating comment box at the bottom of the page for works on AO3. Box will be closed by default, and can be open/closed using the button in the top left corner of the window. Thanks to @memorizingthedigitsofpi for the link!
AO3 Review + Last Chapter Shortcut + Kudos-sortable Bookmarks Tampermonkey script by @ravenel. Click on the link to take you to the original post describing the tool and here's a follow up tutorial post by @bourbon-ontherocks on how to install the script. Credits to @altschmerzes and @castillon02 for the links!
I think these are only for browser on computers (so no mobile?) but please feel free to correct me in the notes if anyone knows.
3. Paraphrase
Let's be real. While Tips 1 and 2 are really just giving you tools to make commenting easier, when it gets down to it, commenting really requires you to, well, comment on something.
So what to do if you forgot to take notes as you read, didn't feel like doing it as you were reading, or found it just too hard to wrangle on mobile?
Paraphrase.
Just refer back to that one thing that caught your attention ala:
"I really love how you described this character in that part!"
"That part where you wrote about that thing that happened to that character is giving me life!!"
"That part where you that happened was perfection and made me cry 😭"
Yes, this does require you to remember and be able to point out and talk about certain parts of the fic. It can be a lot to remember particularly if it's a long chapter. So, as I've stressed in previous lessons, don't let it paralyze you. Just pick one thing you can remember and have the ability to comment on.
Remember:
Just quoting and commenting on one thing is better than nothing.
When you cannot quote, paraphrase!
And as always, when in doubt, comment your catchphrase.
If you want more help constructing a comment or validation that you're writing good comments, please send in an ask or submit a screenshot!
Lessons masterpost.
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kxmikomrade · 2 years
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JJK Characters with a Venti!reader
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Characters: Itadori Yuji, Fushiguro Megumi, Kugisaki Nobara, Gojo Satoru Genre: FLuff, Crack, Can be read as romantic or platonic (completely platonic on Gojo's) Gn!reader Pronouns: Y/P [Your Pronouns] Type: Headcanon Warnings: I think just a bit of swearing Waiter's Notes: I wanted to try out a new twist, feel free to drop by and order if you like it! ^^ Author's Notes: Back to my jjk phase, and i noticed how there werent much 'character!reader's here and i really enjoy those so i just took it into my own hands. My reqs are always open!
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•Oh my Archons
•i cant with you two neither can Megumi tbh
•You're like two kids on a play date or smth
•He mostly doesnt understand your songs/poems so you're gonna have to dumb it down
•Tho he does like the sound of it
•He thinks your curse technique is the coolest thing ever like he has sparkles in his eyes every time you use it
•The way you control wind and make things fly is just so fascinating
•Please use ur anemo shit to make him fly. Bby has been dreaming of flying ever since he could eat weird solid food
•Sukuna would be so annoyed by you, and Yuji uses it to his advantage LMAO
•Though Sukuna prob knows who you are from a thousand years ago and just stays quiet about it because Yuji would definitely also use it against him
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•Man, give this guy a break, he already has to deal with Gojo and the one braincell duo
•He would describe you as loud or annoying but he actually tolerates you just because you can be calming sometimes
•He likes listening to your poems or songs, helps him sleep
•You go knocking on his window at 2am in the morning to sing him a song when he cant sleep 💀
•How you know about it? no idea. You just reply with ''The wind told me''
•Yeah he definitely needs sleep
•Same thing with Inumaki, Megumi doesnt sincerely respect you because of your antics. But he does admire you for your skill
•Esp the way you hold the bow and use attacks with no unnecessary movements
•He overall just likes your company if u just keep ur damn mouth shut unless ur gonna sing
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•To be quite honest with you, i think that she would think of you as a dumb potato aswell
•But she likes your beauty lets be real
•LIKE- YOU'RE SO GENDER
•SO?? WHY?? WOULDNT?? SHE?? TAKE YOU??? ON SHOPPING SPREES????
•I'd like to think that you both get along well
•ESPECIALLY IF U COMPLIMENT HER
•THEN HER FASHION SENSE
•THEN FOR THE CHERRY ON TOP, WRITE A POEM ABOUT HER
•Shes your aggressive best friend now
•Ready to kick your ass and to kick ass for you.
•Someone insults your hairstyle? No problem, theyre already hammered to the wall
•Gonna perform a song? your makeup is done, go slay it!!
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•Oh my Archons part 2
•He was very amused when he found out your cursed technique could manipulate wind
•Listen listen, you're probably his favorite student with how much u side along his pranks and goofiness
•NANAMI, MEGUMI AND IJICHI ARE SO DONE WITH YALL LMFAOO
•u basically took 20 years off their lifespan
•Like during winter, Gojo could dunk cold water on poor Megumi's head and u would send wind in his way 💀💀
•Is he considering murder? yes, definitely
•Gojo isnt even worried about you because you tend to use long ranged attacks and even if it comes down to short range, you're ready to beat your opponent up and summon your badass Black hole and start shooting them with your arrows that they end up being a porcupine
•IMAGINE HOW SICK IT WOULD BE IF YOU COMBINED THE BLACK HOLE WITH GOJO'S HALLOW PURPLE
•He occasionally brings candied apples for you when he comes back from missions
•smh favoritism
•He would get SO smug when u write a song/poem about him
•He brags to everyone and anyone about it 24/7, they first thought it was cute, now its getting so annoying
•IF you're like 1000+ years old like Venti then expect this man to go *insert surprised pikachu* when he finds out
•I honestly have no idea what his reaction would be if he finds out you're a literal god 💀
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(626 words)
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creative-kny-fics · 1 year
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ooo, requests!! could u do lee!tanjiro with ler!sanemi and giyuu? maybe tanjiro is feelin sad and giyuu makes sanemi cheer him up? really show him no mercy. thank u!!:))
Nice!
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Warning: This fanfic contains tickles. Also remind them that I don't speak English, so if they find any errors, let me know to correct it. I hope you like it!
Lee: Tanjiro Kamado
Ler: Giyuu Tomioka and Sanemi Shinazugawa
'Well, Giyuu brought you a little surprise' 'GIYUU - SAN!', Giyuu could barely react when Tanjiro and Nezuko ran and pounced on him.
'Oi, take care' 'It's alright Nemi, oh god, I missed you sooooo much' 'We too Giyuu-San! That's why we brought you your favorite dish and Sanemi - San's too'
That was how Tengen, the Kamado brothers and the Sanegiyuu ate.
'It seems like she's still in the habit of sleeping a lot' 'Ohh yes, she must be very tired. She has cooked for everyone hehehe'
'Well, I'll also apply the young Kamado's technique' 'And you, why?' 'Because being extravagant is exhausting, you know?', classic Tengen...
Giyuu and Tanjiro talked, despite the fact that they sent each other letters, they had a lot to talk about, but among those things, there were the lives of the people who died and what he hurt when he became a demon.
'Hey, like this again? Tanjiro, we have repeated it to you, you didn't hurt anyone... And about the others, well, we won't be able to change the past, but... We can choose what to do in the present, do you think they would like to see you sad? No, right? Come on, give me a hug'
They hugged in front of a jealous Sanemi's gaze, but then an idea occurred to him. He leaned closer to him and whispered to him, Giyuu agreed smiling as Sanemi sat down next to him to begin the plan.
'Huh?' 'Relax Tanjiro, relax,' Giyuu whispered, placing Tanjiro's head on his lap and his body on Sanemi's lap, caressing him gently.
'Thank you-! He-Hey!' 'What's up Kamado? weren't you sad? I just heard a giggle', do not have or do not approach Sanemi when he is in his ler mod, you will come out crying and sore from the tickles what will he do to you
'No! Wait!' 'Too late, calm down Tanjiro, you're in good hands', sure, "good hands"
Tanjiro knew that Giyuu might not be so cruel, but Sanemi? He had seen the tickling fights of both of them and he was not gentle, not even with Giyuu who was his couple, what was going to become of him? Also, not to mention that Sanemi knew his worst spots, he was fried.
'GYAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! NOHOHOHO!!! YOU ARE GOING TO WAKE UP-' 'Let them wake up, that won't stop us from tickling you', Sanemi smiled mischievously, watching Tanjiro kicking hard and squirming.
Sanemi was squeezing his thighs, while Giyuu was only gently brushing his neck, he didn't know how or why, but his body just at that moment became extremely sensitive.
'STOHOHOHOP!! NOHOHOT THE NEHEHECK!! GIHIHIYUU - SAHAHAHAN!!!' 'Hmm?', he mumbled, muttered as if he hasn't gone down to his armpits.
Sanemi applied his techniques, squeezing his thighs with one hand and scratching up his sides with the other, pressing his hips, gently sliding his fingers around his belly, poor Tanjiro
'IT'S TOO MUCH!!! WAHAHAHA!! UHUHUZUI - SAHAHAHAN!! NEHEHEHZUKOOOO!! HEHEHELP!!!!' 'They're asleep idiot, suffer' 'Sanemi, be nice', he rolled his eyes and that's when they changed positions, now Tanjiro was lying on his chest and Giyuu, well he was next to Sanemi
'Ready? Tanjiro Kamado...' 'N-no! Tomioka-san! Please help me!' 'I'm sorry Tanjiro, but is it you or is it me. And believe me, Sanemi is very good at tickling...', Tanjiro's eyes widened when he saw Sanemi's smile, who was approaching his armpits moving his fingers and making him laugh in anticipation
'*yawn* wow.. I fell asleep, onii-chan? Where-?', Nezuko got scared when she heard a scream not far from here, but she recognized who it was, Tanjiro!
Nezuko got up and ran until she saw how Sanemi had Tanjiro imprisoned, digging his fingers into her brother's armpits, who was writhing, kicking, screaming and crying from having laughed so much.
'HEHEHEHELP!!! I CAHAHAHAN'T *hip* NO MORE!!! *snort* I-I!!!', Tanjiro could no longer speak, his laughter remained silent until he felt Sanemi stop, he prayed that he had really stopped and was not pretending to attack him unawares
When Tanjiro looked up, he found Sanemi covering his mouth while Nezuko vigorously clenched his hips. 'Set my brother free!' 'Da-damn!'
'Hey Nezuko, do you need help? It looks like the torturer will become the victim', Giyuu smiled, walking with Tanjiro towards them. Well, it looks like Sanemi went from ler to lee.
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ekkurea · 1 year
Note
SERIOUSLY YOUR RENDERING IS TOP TIER!! SHARE TIPS PLEASE 😭😭😭🫶🫶🫶🫶
Hello! Thank you very much!
I'll take this opportunity to talk about AI.
I'll take this opportunity to talk about artificial intelligence. In fact, the topic of AI is very exciting for me. And if I have decided for myself that I will perceive it as a new tool for studying and creating art, then I want to know your opinion and tell you how it works for me. If you want a short, clear answer about rendering that works for me, then I'm learning a lot about artificial intelligence right now.
This is a new territory in the art world. Of course, it won't draw an order for me. It's not as simple as many people might imagine. It doesn't work in a way that it fulfills my requirements and draws for me. Ha-ha, no. At least now it's not possible or I just don't know it. I do everything: base, outline, colors, light and shadow, etc. I see how it processes the image and some part of the rendered result may be useful and I will use it for myself.
But! Without the necessary artistic knowledge, none of this will work. I know the basics of art, I work hard on each illustration and practice a lot and keep improving my knowledge without stopping. Artificial intelligence will not be able to realize a specific idea, let alone do it well. And if anyone knows how this is possible, please share this knowledge with me. And even then, I will move on and look for ways to use it to advantage.
Now the problem with artificial intelligence is that it uses the work of authors without their permission. Is it terrible? Yes. Is there a solution? Of course there is. That's why some developers are already buying permissions to use drawings. The world is taking a step forward and this cannot be changed. This does not devalue art. It does not destroy traditional drawing methods or original styles of authors. It covers a slightly different area.
What did this short "collaboration" with AI give me? I worked a lot with my weakness - color, I got more opportunities to analyze and improved my skills in drawing fabrics, shapes, soft contours... I'm no longer afraid to play with the contour. And I already have some ideas of how I would like to try to draw it differently. I feel freer. I am developing and trying to improve my drawings so that you can get better results.
Although I keep thinking that someday I will go back to a simpler drawing style. Manga/manhwa occupy a huge part of my heart and maybe someday I will decide to work in this direction too. And drawing with traditional materials, as well as teaching it to others, has been and will remain my own therapy. I will never give it up. And I am already interested to see how digital has influenced my technique even here.
Please share your opinion, it is very important to me! And I'm ready for conversations and discussions. Thank you for your question and sorry if you were expecting something else! But I'd be happy if you try it and see something new for yourself. Whether you like it or not, it's a new practice! I wish you success and good mood!
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ohanny · 1 year
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hidden agenda episode 2
"basil chicken without the basil, please"
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- i love how this episode starts off strong with zo on a date with joke, not that zo has any idea this is what's happening - "my tongue is always getting me in trouble" ¬‿¬ - you think in five episodes we will get zo thinking this "we can just stay as classmates" was his last chance to run and avoid a life of homosexual bliss? - i love zo's absolute tunnel vision when it comes to this idea of joke helping him get nita and joke is literally looking anywhere else, just asking zo out to eat, "my treat" like dumb dumb, that's a date! - why is it peak zo to be like "basil chicken but no basil, please" - but look at joke widening his horizons! he's totally like "first i will feed you spring rolls, next it will be my dick"
reasons to join the debate team: 1. [NEW]: so p'wave can step on me 2. [⬇] the dumpster fire that is joke-zo-nita 3. [=] actually developing valuable skills
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- but for real, i would also be down bad for nita, girl call me - i love the debate team debating about the pros and cons of letting joke join their crew and it basically being girl: well, he is really hot boy: but has anyone ever heard him talk, let alone debate? - zo is such a dedicated good boy, i can't with him, but he gets so shifty when joke is brought up :D honey, you are being sus as fuck
- HOW does zo not realize he is being flirted with by a man who is so gone on him, he thinks helping the dummy to woo his ex girlfriend is a great idea??? the agenda is not hidden at all
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- i do love a man motivated by a shiny cup - the way zo is like "one day i shall be the debate champion" and joke is basically putting together a mental pinterest board of their wedding. your honour, the man is a simp
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- the episode is not even halfway through and this is the second time joke has conned zo to have a date dinner - if it wasn't 2AM and i wasn't having espresso twitches, i could go on a rant about the significance of joke getting zo - a person clearly stuck in his ways and reluctant to branch out - to try new things
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- oh my dear lord he is practicing his debate stuff and being so cute about it, do not make fun of the poor baby - also what is this place? does he live in a mcmansion? - the random seniors in this show are all unfairly attractive - "look at this guy drinking a soda. in a bar" - someone who knows what's up
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- "is he wave's mentee? be careful of those guys." EXCUSE ME? what is going on here? what is with the ominous music? is the debate club some weird junior branch of the mafia? - i am getting vibes. i am officially shipping this bar owner with p'wave, it is done. new hyper fixation. the head canons are canoning. like i need to know who got their dick sucked and heart broken. - joke and his dedication to get zo to eat new things vol. 3942 - ksjkdfakjf JOONG. i see a shadow of stubble and i am on the floor. - zo: remember how i taught you the gazing technique? use it. joke, a man physically unable to tear his eyes off zo: ... - they are holding hands and joke is freaking out because oh god, he is just a shy bean, isn't he? like he masks his social awkwardness by being big and grumpy and now he is being coached by a man in a 2012 bieber haircut - "i don't think anyone realizes how fast my heart is racing right now" BITCH PLEASE I AM UNDER THE FLOOR OH GOD
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- how is zo and literally everyone else in the bar not in love with this man by now? - he is not singing "choose me, choose me, i'll take good care of you" adlaflkdjf fucking hell (ಥ﹏ಥ)
- yes, zo, go off responsible king! don't drink and drive! give this man a ride instead, he has earned it - joke went from mildly annoyed over being babied to absolutely smitten because zo was worried about him to oh fuck shit nita in a matter of seconds - "are you sulking?" YES HE IS! you broke his tender heart yet again you fucking piece of bieber - i don't know how necessary taking zo's glasses off was for placing the helmet on his head but it was very necessary for my well being - "why were you talking about having a crush?" BECAUSE HE HAS ONE ON YOU
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- zo is such a happy lil hamster driving the bike and joke is probably feeling like a roasted marshmallow at this point. like he 10/10 sniffed the back of zo's neck and downright confessed already but of course the dumb-dumb didn't hear it... the tropes are troping so hard MY HEART - what the fuck they mentioned finland?!?! TORILLA TAVATAAN! - joke is walking like a man on a mission and it is very sexy - the hair curl is swirled, the denim is hugging those thighs, the sleeves are rolled... - they made this so dramatic for no reason like how p'wave is all "he is two seconds late and literally no one else is here yet OFF WITH HIS HEAD!" (like seriously, is this a debate mafia?!) and joke definitely could have squeezed his way into that elevator, none of those girls would have minded one bit like pls - lmfao even nita is like "what's up with you? why are you here?" - oooh, p'wave is definitely up something like he is plotting and that just made him at least 45% hotter in my eyes. older man: ✓ face sculpted to the gods: ✓ possibly evil: 🚩🚩🚩 zo, a person who begged a girl's ex to help him woo her with inside knowledge: hidden agendas are wrong because there should be no secrets when you start a relationship joke, sweating: ... - also joke: spanks that button so hard damn
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joke: but what if i fart a lot zo: this hardly counts as a hidden agenda joke: then what is it? zo: your talk of flatulence has rendered me speechless everyone: all hail joke, our new debate king - nooo HE GOT BUDDY ZONED - oh, good job gay gravity, we had the swoon and we got a man down on his knees like that's a double whammy!
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WAIT WE ARE GETTING A HOT GIRL MAKEOVER MONTAGE NEXT EPISODE oh god those were my favorite bits of america's next top model although i think we all know who's gonna be on top here
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random-cryptid · 10 months
Note
ok so, i made a lil dolly of ms frizzle and now all i can think about is making lil dollies of winnie, mary, and sarah and i am going nuts over it
i think the three of them would love the fact that i wanna make lil dolls of them, especially winnie. like, theyve never had anyone do that to them, so the thought of me trying out something ive never done before just so i can always have them with me would make all three of them melt faster than honey in hot tea
i'd have to ask mary and winnie how the fuck they do their hair like that cuz idk how to draw it, let alone recreate it with yarn shhdhdj. oh! and i'd have to ask sarah if she has any tips for making the clothes cuz i dont really know how to make clothes in general, let alone doll clothes
ik the dolls are gonna look really skrunkly and messy, but i think they'd be super proud of me for trying something new, and over the moon that i chose the three of them to be my muses for it.
YEAH I SAW YOUR LIL MS FRIZZLE DOLL SHE'S SO CUTE 😭😭😭 ALSO PLEASE DO!!!
I think Mary would be climbing walls (metaphorically) too ngl. I believe she's an arts and crafts girly (not as much as Sarah though but definitely does some clothes and such too!) so she would find it especially cute.
I believe I can help with the hair and clothes!!!
Winifred's hair is pretty much the same as Queen Elizabeth I, and this tutorial is pretty easy to follow! Definitely not historically accurate in the techniques but it's the same shape lol. Basically her hair is just two big buns!
Mary's hair however... I can't by the life of myself figure out how her hair works (my hypothesis is that her hair is twisted into shape... Kind of.) apart from her having one tiny braid going along the whole hat shape of her hair.
All the tutorials I've seen for her hair have in common using wires and some sort of cilinder to shape her hair tho!!! This is one of the easiest ones I've seen. (Btw it's crazy to me how this lady has her exact vibe)
Now for the clothes you can check Salvador Perez's Instagram account! (He's the costume designer from the second movie) But if you don't want to scroll too much it's okay I gotcha! Here you have:
• Sarah's sleeves (they're sewn in on the corset!)
• Sarah's corset (you don't have to embroider anything, I think it's better if you use markers instead)
• Winnie's top gown + accessories (basically her full gown is two pieces: the top one, which is the deeper green one, and the under one, which is the one with purple and a lighter green)
• Mary's full outfit + details (this one's just a general idea)
• Mary's corset + sparkles (once again, more of a general idea)
• The Sister's shoes + thighs + undergarments (looove love Winnie's boots ngl)
Making sewing patterns is basically like making puzzle pieces and putting them together, so getting the shapes shouldn't be too complicated! In any case, if you need help with that I can help you out! (Unfortunately I'm no taylor but I'll do my best). You can also look up tutorials for specific things like skirts! (They're actually one of the easiest things to make!)
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chaosdisorganized · 1 year
Note
Since you wanted asks, here's a Vent (tw: RAMCOA/TBMC)
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It feels like my brain is ripping in half trying to come to terms with the memories that say my abuser got paid to let his buddies rape me and participate in programming sessions.
I can't even say it out loud, and I have to beat around the bush typing it out to people I know in person. Feels weird to write it out like this, too frank. I feel insane not having any idea about this even being a part in the progged sidesystem. I can't imagine telling an ANP about any of this.
Any advice? I thought it was just my abuser and someone else once early in life that had raped me but another alter is showing me our "body count" (ha. Gotta laugh or you'll cry, right?) includes family friends, his hunting buddy, and several campus police from his job 🙃
I'm honestly at a loss. Tied between wanting to hurt myself or worse, throw up, and go on a bender. Fml.
(advice wanted! Anyone who's experienced similar even is welcome to reply)
First I want to say I'm so sorry you had to go through that and it wasn't your fault.
We are also struggling with coming to terms with some new trauma we've recently discovered and it's so hard, just know that I understand and you're not alone.
My suggestions, while these things are coming up, is to tread very carefully while exploring these new discoveries and take it very very slowly. Don't rush, don't dig, take these memories as they come and feel your feelings. I would be extra extra careful, considering programming is involved. Make sure to take care of yourself to the best of your ability, utilize healthy coping skills, use grounding techniques, and stay safe.
I wish I had more advice but we're struggling with similar things atm and were not coping in the best ways either. I'm struggling to answer this better because of some stuff I can't talk about either.
Please stay safe and br careful and take care of yourself. I know its really hard rn but you will get through this, I believe in you. You are so strong and brave and you survived everything you've ever been through, you'll survive this too. Sometimes you kinda just gotta ride it out and do your best.
If anyone has anything better they can add please feel free!
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bobbiestakes · 1 year
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MASSAGE THERAPY IS NOT A SEXUAL WORKER
A few days ago, my group received a post of an interview from Inside Edition stating a Massuer had his license revoked.
I have a few words to say about this report, I am furious on a multitude of levels but calling a therapist a masseuse or masseur is now considered a dirty word and calls this profession sex trafficking and prostitution or some nefarious goings-on behind closed doors.
I call a big-fat, and ladies and gents, forgive my boldness here, call it fat bullshit.
For one, they must not know enough about this profession to make that judgment. Massage has been around for over 5000 years. It has always been a noble profession. Those of us that have gone to school and learned the craft and finished with our certifications and then went on to become licensed Therapists, are medical professionals and are staunch defenders of this sister/brotherhood. We are not and it bears repeating NOT SEX WORKERS. PERIOD!!!! Get it - got it- Good.
These reporters and teh general public have no idea the work we put into and have to learn about the body. Well, let me enlighten you.
650 hours from a school.
At least 100 hours of Anatomy and Physiology with a breakdown of hours in :
Myology: 35 hours
Osteology: 15 hours
Circulatory system: 10 hours
Nervous system: 10 hours
Pathology at least 40 hours.
The massage therapy study is to comprise 250 hours. Included in this content area is a minimum of 50 hours of supervised practice. Contradistinctions, contraindications, and related touch modalities are to receive coverage.
An additional 50 hours should cover miscellaneous Board requirements. Among them are a business, professional ethics, CPR, first aid, and hydrotherapy.
Electives can account for 210 of the required hours.
And after passing, you take about a 3-hour Board test.
Note: Some states require more than 650 hours of schooling.
Listen up- there is a reason you do an intake form before you get a massage. All those questions about your health and the medicines you take. It's my/our job to know as some medications are contra-indicated and with a massage. If you have taken pain meds, and heart meds, have you had recent surgeries, or any rashes/skin irritations, are you being treated now or in the recent past for cancer. All of these are not sexual questions, these are needs to know for your health.
Relaxing massage such as the Swedish technique can lower your blood pressure. All the techniques we learn and perform on the body have a purpose, depending on the person's needs. If there is a lot of build-up of lactic acid in the muscles, deep tissue is usually needed. (For those of you that do not know- that is called a knot).
We work hard and it breaks us (physically) down more than you know. Our profession is about 10 to 15 years, if we are lucky. So, to suggest that anyone you see wants to lock you behind a door and grope you and try you on for sex, it is ridiculous for one and for another those that do - either do not have a license from that state to be a real therapist or they come in with a license under a name that should be looked into. it is the public's responsibility to know who you are going to.
If the therapist does not ask and tell you what is going to happen if this is your first visit. then you need to start questioning. However, if you feel comfortable, I will step out of the room for a moment, you undress and underNEATH the covers, please. You can leave undies on or off, again however you feel comfortable. Tell them how you start a massage and this is how you do it and if there is anything you need to ask or have me stop as in -We stop and ask the pressure level- if it is too hard or we need to go deeper. We ask certain questions of working on legs, stip buttocks if we feel it can help ease lower back pain(this is another subject to tackle) We always ask the clients/ patient for their comfort level and keep them draped within the boundaries of the rules and regulations or our state. This is not any level of sexual impropriety folks.
And for those in the peanut gallery that wants to make a big deal and report a therapist, for a specific touch or your feelings, take notice. There is also a taboo subject called arousal during a session. YEP, I said it, so sit down and learn something. IT IS HUMAN NATURE for some to experience arousal., men and women. We are trained to ignore it. It happens. Again, it's nothing sexual.
This profession has been attacked, demeaned, and put under scrutiny for far too long. It is time it ended. There is a need for a Massage Therapist, as we are medical professionals whether it's just relaxation from a stressful day/week or to move out the lactic acid causing our muscles to tighten and causing more issues. I am tired of hearing WE are the cause of this and that and the public needs protection against us- BULLPUCKEY. Where is our protection? We are subject to the whims of anyone behind those closed doors.
Sorry, for the rant
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cgcgs43046 · 4 months
Text
Co-writer(s) needed! Copied directly from a fic/a repost:
Hello to anyone who is reading this!
I am proud to announce that I finished Part 1 of my fic and I'm eager to get back to writing the next few parts of AU's and produce as many as I can. I used to have a co-writer, but they don't have much time or can be unresponsive at times.
I really want to improve my writing skills and avoid making my stories/the way I portray characters feel one-dimensional and not emotionally impactful for anyone reading them, then getting a thread of angry comments/harassment for writing something outlandish and "un-creative" 😅
By the way, the fandoms I write for can be found on my user page. Most of them are Hellaverse (Helluva and Hazbin), Owl House, Amphibia, Gravity Falls, SVTFOE (Star vs. the Forces of Evil), Amphibia, ALTLA (Avatar and the Last Airbender and Korra), Ducktales, and some lesser-known ones such as Disenchantment (2018) or Adventure Time and any of its spin-offs, Infinity Train, and so on. It will vary at times. If you can be a co-writer and are willing to put in time and effort to write with me.
I’m looking for someone who (please read, these are high expectations so if you don't want to meet those, then don't read):
Knows Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss or any other fandoms well enough so you understand the characters and their personalities/lore and little details and stuff and would want to make suggestions; also knows the character reaaaaally well to...
Is a chill person, and nice (Idk why I put this here, but this is a requirement)
Has good ideas and suggestions
Can write well (with good grammar/punctuation/dialog format, good formatting NO spacing, Textual Styles for Emphasis, advanced vocabulary/techniques. I know I'm asking a lot, but I believe in creating quality content)
Is not a hardcore shipper and chooses to annoy me with my ideas and hates what I do with the characters, and their stories (cough, cough Stoliz cough, cough)
Willing to write explicit sex/mature stuff, (mostly will be minor but can be referenced or shown in some chapters)
My ideas can be a bit outlandish, so bear with me, please! 
Has a light schedule and can keep up with my plans/ideas (trying to be as polite as I can be here...)
If you think that’s for you, then definitely send me a message, or comment down below! Then we can talk about it, but let me know what your favorite characters or story arcs are in the fandoms we share, how you approach storytelling or character development in your own writing... and some general stuff (not anything specific) and why you would want to be a co-writer, I'll try to let as many people comment as possible before I make the final choice. And please be specific on anything you want me to know (if you want.)
Best,
~Anonymus338 [AO3 Username] (I have Discord, and AO3 in case you want to chat, and how it will work is that we'll write the fic in Google Docs, then copy and paste it into AO3! Or if you have any other ways, please let me know 😊) I'm mainly focusing on Helluva and Hazbin fandoms mixed with some of the fandoms I listed for writing btw, with emphasis on Helluva Boss, so if you watched the show(s) 100 Billion times/know the characters super well, maybe this is for you! ;)
Here are the summaries/links for both of my works for it, if you guys need it:
Part 1 - The Omniversal Mix-Up! (https://archiveofourown.org/works/52360120/chapters/134117518): 
Heaven: An ethereal realm for redeemed souls, filled with angels and marked by divine judgment and virtue, yet harboring deep-seated secrets about its annual Exterminations, coming down each year to cull the population of demons. Earth: The realm of mortals, teeming with diverse life and cultures. Hell: A chaotic realm defined by rampant sin and freedom—created by the first act of sin, where a princess champions the possibility of redemption for all. In an alternate scenario, a group of mischievous imps runs a unique assassination business—thanks to a magical Grimoire from the Ars Goetia, navigating the complexities of Hell while maintaining their operation amidst adversity. It may all seem straightforward, but the story holds deeper secrets unknown. Think you've unraveled it all? Think again. Enter the "Eclipse Queen" who ties into many known stories we've all grown to love, yet her secrets are deeply entrenched within the Omniverse. Who IS this Eclipse Queen? What lies beyond the knowledge we possess? Who exactly kept those big secrets? And just what exactly is the Omniverse? The answer to these questions and more lies in the twists and turns of this story... read to find out!
Part 2 - Chaos Reborn (link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56033533/chapters/142316074)
Our tale continues as we now focus on the most recent adventures of the members of I.M.P. are thrust into a vortex of conflict, grappling with adversaries both familiar and unforeseen. At the heart of their struggles lies Blitzø, the eccentric and ever-dynamic leader, whose past actions have left a trail of unresolved tensions and emotional debts, that are coming back to haunt him. To make matters worse, or better, his ex from the past, not Verosika or any of the ones you might know. Has begun bleeding into his life begins bleeding into their life and Blitz is MORE than happy to re-start their relationship since it was the only relationship he had a MUTUAL break up with, but the problem is that he has to keep her a secret, because she's none other than the Eclipse Queen of Heaven, and a very powerful figure... and to top it off, he's the reincarnation of Chaos itself. Should he embrace the forbidden love that beckoned him, becoming the thing he was always meant to become and keeping secrets? Or should he forsake his own happiness for the sake of maintaining the fragile peace of those around him? Read to find out...
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rubywithin · 8 months
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Scrolls of Mudorius
(???) "HYAAAAAH" okay I will fake him out with a high strike then switch to a low! -Clang-.....-bump- no way he just pushed me back before I could even use the switch. (???) "Master Suyuri you could at least let me attempt to land a blow on you". (Suyuri) "Torami in battle an opponent won't let you just hit them, well ones who aren't arrogant fool's won't!". Ugh I guess he was right.....despite being the most skilled warrior in the village he never brags. Also he never goes overboard with his attacks, (Torami) "How about we fight again but this time I use Ernishu?" (Suyuri) "No, if I allow you to only rely on your family's blade you won't bother improving on basic technique!". Ugh what a pain, I inherit a legendary sword and I am not even allowed to use it. I spent a few more hours practicing but still wasn't able to impress Suyuri, I decided to go back home to relax after today's training.
On my way back I bumped into someone, (Torami) "Oh hey Umbrell, are you off on another mission?". (Umbrell) "Yeah unlike you I actually contribute to this village's legacy!". Ugh what a pain....I know I wasn't as skilled with the sword as my father but there is no need to rub it in. (Torami) "Yeah well when I start using Ernishu you won't stand a chance against me!". (Umbrell) -Humph- "A sword like that is wasted on you!" he then walked off....one day I will earn his respect. When I got home I sat down and looked over at my father's sword, I felt tempted to take it. I just want to become a well known warrior but I just lack the skill for some reason. -knock knock- Huh weird I don't get visitors that often!
(Suyuri) "Sorry to disturb you Torami but I have a personal request for you, please take this scroll". (Torami) "Um okay master, what do I do with it?" he had a very serious look on his face! (Suyuri) "Go to the neighboring village and pick up some supplies for us, I will pay you for this of course!". Hmm he never seemed to ask me to go buy food for us, (Tormai) "What do I do with the scroll?" (Suyuri) "Just hold on to it and don't look at it's contents. The only time you may see what's inside is if a man known as Rook gives permission!". Ugh this felt off to me but I agreed since master has always supported me and I want to repay him. But why would he tell me the only time I would be allowed to look at the scroll? There wasn't anyone in the village known as Rook....he wasn't sending me out on a mission to find this guy, forget it I will just focus on getting the supplies!
I made it to the nearby village after a few hours, luckily I had a decent idea of what we usually buy from here since master didn't give me a list! I decided to rent a room for the night as the walk here was exhausting, it felt weird not sleeping in my room. Guess this was a chance to experience travelling even though it was just a nearby village. The next day I made my way back to the village.....n....no way what happened? The place was in ruin, I rushed over to master's home but he didn't answer no matter how many times I knocked. I then wen't back to my place.....it was also messed up but why? I looked over at father's sword and picked it up out of instinct. Outside it looked like there were some tracks, I decided to follow them later but first I wanted to get some training in. I had a suspicion this was the work of bandits....yet they shouldn't of stood a chance...
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paleparearchive · 11 months
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Realist's Unrealistic Halloween
Courbet's Halloween 4★ story (3/3) ( 1 - 2 - 3 )
Location: Courbet & Millet's room ; Halloween parade | Characters: Courbet, Monet, Raffaello, Sisley, Watteau, Millet, Mucha
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Millet: Ah, welcome back, Courbet. I baked some pumpkin cookies, would you like one?
Courbet: Yeah… Pumpkin would be perfectly fine in cookies and pies. So why would anyone make something like Jack-O-Lantern, a monster that doesn't exist…
Millet: Hahaha… I've got some tea in the fridge, so drink some of it and relax.
Courbet: Ah, thanks.
But still... No, no way. No... But if Mucha says so…
Millet: Huh, what's wrong? Did something else happen?
Courbet: No… Don't mind me. Just a thought.
Millet: Tomorrow is rehearsal, so you must have a lot to think about. I'm looking forward to it, good luck.
Courbet: Yeah, right. … Hope you enjoy it.
Monet: Finally, tomorrow's the big day! This'll be our last rehearsal, so let's do it right!
Watteau: Aight, then let's get fired up!
Monet: Courbet, it's rehearsal time, so get into the groove!
Courbet: Y-Yeah…
(Are you sure about this, Mucha…!?)
~~~
Mucha: Then I have a good idea.
Courbet: A good idea…!? Really!?
Mucha: Yes. Please let me take care of it.
Courbet: Can I not have to wear this costume!?
Mucha: No, the opposite. It is a way for you to stop hating this costume.
Courbet: What are you talking about? That's impossible.
Mucha: Not really. I will work my magic on you.
Look me in the eyes. I will now count to three. And then… You can try your best to wear your werewolf costume from rehearsal to the end of the Halloween parade.
Courbet: What are you getting at... Maybe it's some kind of sleep technique or something, but I'm not falling for it.
Mucha: Then that is fine. Here we go. 3, 2, 1.
Courbet: … Hey. I'm not one of those kids who–
*magic sound effect* (tl note: I don't know what's going on anymore)
Mucha: Fufu, I'm done. The rest of us will naturally do our best in those costumes. Because this magic is "Halloween only".
~~~
Courbet: … That's strange. No way, it can't be…
Monet: Courbet, what's wrong? Don't tell me you're not feelin' well too!?
Courbet: No, it's not that… I'm starting to realize that tomorrow is the big day…
Hey, Monet. What do werewolves do?
Monet: Uuh…? Ya didn't wanna do this… Is there anythin' really wrong?
Courbet: I said it's nothing. We're running out of time, so tell me what it's all about, quickly.
Monet: O-Ok…! Glad you're motivated! Let's see, ya do this, and then ya can get your claws up… Like this!
Raffaello: Somehow, I feel that he is a little different from the usual Courbet-kun.
Sisley: Indeed. Does this mean that Courbet-san has also embraced the werewolf?
Mucha: … Fufu.
Raffaello: Oh. Mucha-kun… Did you do something to Courbet-kun?
Mucha: Oh, what are you thinking? I just gave him a nudge.
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Courbet: Got it. This is how werewolves gesture…
–Is this right? Should I raise my arm more...? Or should I step forward? I've been trying to get this far, and it's surprisingly quite deep…
Monet: Oh! Right, right! Lookin' good!!
Watteau: Great, great! The heck, even Courbet's finally gettin' serious!?
Courbet: It's not like that… I kind of feel like I'm going to enjoy this more than before.
Monet, I've asked you to teach me this pose. If there are other poses, let's do them.
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iamjalen-unhinged · 2 years
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Before you read: This is a long post about my ex. I promise you I am not posting this for you to read, however if you do, enjoy the ride. If not it's really just to vent and let it go. The following will have grammatical errors, and spelling errors. I don't care, I'm currently high and venting. I might delete this, I'm not really too sure. But here goes...
I got with my ex in 2019, --my last year in college-- and it has been one of the most rocky journeys of my life. I won't get into everything, but to add context to the situation I will talk about some of the bull shit that went down, but please keep in mind, parts of the stories are left out.
First, I was cheated on while I was in another country. Mind you, I was in another country because I was jump starting my marketing career post college. What was supposed to be a happy and glorious moment, and time for me was partly ruined by the fact that I got cheated on. Mind you, the nigga gave the bull shit excuse of "I need to be by myself" and brokeup with me before I even found out about the cheating. It wasn't until a month after that, his friend slipped and told me he cheated on me.
Fast forward end of 2019 going into 2020, my dumb ass starts talking to him again, I went to visit this man a whole hour away from where I live and did so a few times. One time in the mix of partying and drinking, this man calls me the other niggas name in front of all his friends. That shit was wild (I was hysterical that night)
Now you may be thinking, why are you still fucking with this man after all this? but check my technique... it's hard to let someone go bro. Especially because he was the exact opposite of what I had before (you don't even wanna know about that emotionally abusive ass story). On top of that, I was doing off the wall shit too. I just never got caught.
So fast forward again, we've both kinda matured and are in decent places in life (mentally). We decide to be cool, and spend time together and shit like that.
Though this time around, I never put my guard down. Knowing this man and the past shit he put me through, I would never let my guard down with him again. Plus in the back of my head I never thought that us being cool and spending time together would become anything more.At that time I didn't want anything more from him or from anyone, but he brung a good nut and good times. We had also both agreed (he brung up the idea) that we would not fuck other people in fear of STIs and giving it to one another. Fair, right?
WRONG
Everything was going well up until this past summer. In June, this man comes around and tells me he's going to be celibate (Bull shit). I found out in maybe September that in July (right before my birthday)... Let's just say, he broke the agreement, and exactly what we wanted to avoid, ended up happening.
So here we are in October and now this guy has a whole new situation and tbh it irritates the fuck out of me for several reasons. But I'll only list the main 2.
The first reason is... Why didn't that nigga like me? Like we had great times together and it was nothing I wouldn't have done for him, so why no matter how hard I tried this niggas just did not want me!!! and that alone is such a hard pill to swallow because I internalize it when I know I shouldn't. But I genuinely want to know, why wasn't I good enough?
Second reason, BITCH aint no way you about to prosper with this ugly ass nigga (who has the same name as me) after you did me THAT bold. Like fuck you, I hope you and that nigga rot!
...
Now granted I left A LOT of shit out, so this post may come off as the "bitter ex" but that's okay, I'm almost at the end process of letting it go.
I myself have a person that interests me, and I actually do like the person. I hope with time we can actually make something out of it. Because at this point, bitch, I deserve to be happy.
Also (you might be mad) I actually still talk to him to this day. I thought about cutting all ties with him and I still can, however, I don't think it's really necessary for me to do all that. I still value the friendship we did actually make, and I do like spending time with him. As long as no feelings are involved, I will be fine. I'm mature enough to do that, I think
....
If you actually sat and read all of this, I love you and if you want a gift (I don't have anything to offer but nudes) DM me or even like this. Thank you for taking the time. Now back to your regular scheduled programming.
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russenoire · 3 years
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a masterpost: this is how i study japanese・これが私の日本語の勉強法です。
as part of a dialogue with @chokopan, this is how i study japanese.
…i don’t know that anyone else would find my current process helpful or even realistic, though i will detail it in another post.
@russenoire​
…Yes please, do share! I think all of us in the langblr community could find something useful to learn from you. The more we all talk about how we learn, the more ideas we’re exposed to - which can help us come up with new study methods we wouldn’t have thought of trying before. Like I said before, everyone learns differently; but sometimes, mixing it up with a new technique or note-taking method, for example, could help push us out of studying ruts or times of low motivation. To that end, I’d like to know what resources you use when you’re breaking down kanji and etymology. It seems like you’re learning kanji in a sort of… non-traditional way.
this is my response. it is a Very Long Post, but i hope others find it helpful. for the method i use to learn kanji specifically, go here.
table of contents under the cut.
table of contents
tools / apps.
online resources.
dictionaries.
grammar / cultural context / word nuance & usage notes.
japan-based japanese language schools.
youtube channels.
sundry goodness.
textbooks.
immersion content.
actual study.
daily.
weekly.
helpful tips.
for the morbidly curious only: what got me to start in the first place?
tools
a word processing program, for taking notes.
takoboto.jp (online and on android) - it’s a dictionary of words and kanji, with stroke order diagrams, kanji meanings, some notes on word usage, and a slew of additional info (like JLPT levels and school grades for individual characters). includes grammar search with renshuu.org.
anki (on mac/linux/windows) - the mack daddy of SRS apps. massive learning curve, but have you the time to surmount it, the serious flexibility it offers is yours; you can even add javascript to anki cards. i’ve used it for years for learning programming languages – it’s indispensable to me.
hinative (an app) - ask native speakers to correct your writing, pronunciation and word usage. do the same for other learners too. pretty eye-opening, especially for my native language.
a 原稿用紙 (genkouyoushi), for writing practice.
cool pens.
online resources
dictionaries
jisho - a dictionary with a search function that lets you input passages of text and look up each word separately. amazing for the vast majority of words, not always great at catching grammar patterns.
takoboto - much like jisho.org, with grammar patterns. the mobile app or a full subscription to the website unlocks easy grammar search through renshuu.org.
japanese language @ en.wiktionary.org - an embarrassment of riches. hella useful for etymology, verb conjugations from a japanese standpoint, historical word use and translingual information on individual kanji.
goo - a monolingual japanese dictionary. i’ve slowly started using its definitions for some of my cards — they’re also an additional vocabulary source.
grammar / cultural context / word nuance & usage notes
japanese with anime - another person learning japanese with manga and anime, but who has spent far more time poring over linguistics articles in peer-reviewed academic journals than i have. excellent for making sense of manga/anime visual storytelling conventions, tropes, slang!!! and grammar.
renshuu - kanji/word dictionary and grammar resource, with quizzes and games. lots of natural language sentence examples as well.
takoboto - like renshuu, but not gamified. i use this site more often, as it’s a little more user-friendly and i already use the mobile app.
japanese @ stackexchange - this is one of many offshoots of the venerable programming advice forum stack overflow. full of questions and answers from native speakers, academics and learners about japanese use in the wild. highly recommended.
self-taught japanese - a blog by a professional translator and long-time student of japanese culture.
imabi.net - an exhaustive grammar resource from an academic perspective. i like to point people here instead of tae kim, as imabi is less reductive, but people who need to ramp up complexity in their learning materials may find it overwhelming.
maggie sensei - i wish this site were easier to read and navigate, but the content is amazing. plenty of natural japanese examples for grammar points, some coverage of colloquial japanese and helpful explanations from a native speaker.
sci.lang.japan FAQ - Q&A from the usenet newsgroup. useful for cultural questions, some grammar.
japanese language @ en.wiktionary.org - see above.
the tv tropes wiki - given japan’s immense worldwide cultural influence relative to its population, this site has tons of useful info on japanese culture, from honorifics to the actual language.
japan-based japanese language schools
wasabi - indispensable. concise, exhaustive breakdown of grammar and an entire self-learners’ course for free. they also offer the instantaneous composition method, a technique for training up speech in japanese using common sentence patterns. i intend to try it this month.
genki academy - where i found validation for using literal translation to study. lots of articles on grammar and strategies for effective study.
youtube channels
onomappu - an adorable medical student explains his native language in very simple japanese. includes dual eng-jp subtitles.
cure dolly - the creator died last year, sadly, but she left behind some of the most illuminating explanations i’ve ever seen of japanese structure and grammar. polarizing presentation, but highly recommended.
cyberbunny (if only for the 30 min katakana song!)
sundry goodness
kanjialive - stroke order diagrams using real japanese handwriting, not typefaces.
youglish for japanese - just started using this and it’s fantastic. it crawls through youtube subtitles to help you find native pronunciations of japanese words in context.
massif - natural japanese sentence aggregator, meant to solve the problem of outdated and often inaccurate sentences in projects like the tanaka corpus and tatoeba.
dōgen on patreon and youtube - a linguist who pretty much made japanese phonetics his life’s work. his course is great if you are serious about near-native pronunciation. (i paid for it, but am not making it a focus until i have acquired more japanese myself. i also don’t feel this is strictly necessary for proficient command of the language – the author agrees.)
OJAD - university of tokyo’s online japanese accent dictionary. pitch accent contours for thousands of words and conjugations, with audio.
字幕プレーヤー (jimaku player) - a user script that allows you to add your own subtitles to crunchyroll or VNV videos. each line is sent to jisho.org as a text search. free / donation-ware.
kitsunekko - japanese subtitle files for hundreds of J-doramas, anime series, and movies.
awesomeTTS and japanese support, for anki users. fairly natural-sounding text-to-speech audio for flashcards.
textbooks
a dictionary of basic/intermediate/advanced japanese grammar, seiichi makino & michio tsutsui. possibly the beilstein of japanese grammar. exhaustive, organized in roumaji alphabetic order.
japanese: a comprehensive grammar, 2ed., by stefan kaiser, yasuko ichikawa, noriko kobayashi and hilofumi yamamoto. another excellent resource, focusing on modern and most frequent patterns.
essential japanese vocabulary, by akira miura. helpful for notes on nuance and words that learners confuse easily. it also helped me clarify the meanings of a number of words like 相手 (あいて, aìte == ‘someone one performs an activity with or against’).
the kodansha kanji learner’s course, by andrew conning and jack halpern. the ‘all japanese all the time’ and ‘matt vs japan’ learning communities – my introduction to study methods for japanese – love love LOVE heisig’s remembering the kanji 1.
i wasn’t sold:
it focuses on recognition and writing jouyou kanji as pictures only. readings and actual meanings are meant to be learned once part 1 is complete.
conning’s method was much more intuitive for me: it teaches you kanji with their original meanings and the most common readings, in increasing stroke complexity and by similar components. he provides some historical context as well. highly underrated. i use this as a reference and a backup, not a primary kanji learning strategy; i’m not in any hurry.
making sense of japanese, by acclaimed haruki murakami translator and yale professor jay rubin. if you can overlook his borderline racist dismissal of kanji (i couldn’t); the rest of the book wittily illuminates grammar points that trip up learners – like how the ‘passive’ actually works in japanese – in a cultural context.
immersion content
mob psycho 100, manga / anime.
MP100 is a character-driven, supernatural realist slice-of-life coming-of-age story, larded with hardcore action and darkly funny satire. it’s great. i love a well-executed slice-of-life story and they’re often perfect for language learning, but they’re typically not that popular among anime fans because ‘nothing happens’ in them. á chacun son gout.
it seems i got lucky when i chose this particular series for reading immersion:
the replay value is quite high. i notice something new almost each time i revisit.
it’s almost entirely free of weirdly specialized vocabulary that would be useless in the real world (though i did learn two entirely separate words for ‘exorcism’. LOL).
it contains a healthy mix of different registers of speech.
i got to tangle with slang (which is really only painful to work with because of the lack of resources for english speakers) and fairly polite japanese right away. the protagonist speaks very politely with most people he encounters in the anime, with some exceptions, and he code-switches as appropriate to the situation. he’s…less polite in the manga, but his character is otherwise unchanged.
the lack of furigana made me work a little harder for understanding. this and the mangaka’s not infrequent use of kanji for words typically written in kana are almost certainly meant as a satirical comment on 中二病 (chuunibyou), or 'second-year middle schooler syndrome’.
chuunibyou can include pretending to have magical abilities, behaving in real life as if you’re a character from a superhero manga, or wearing eyepatches for no good reason. apparently kanji overuse is one of its least embarrassing symptoms. self-satisfied teenagers often have a pathological need to show off the mess of kanji they’ve just learned in junior high…
a number of adult characters in MP100 clearly suffer from it.
a few other carefully curated anime series.
mostly watched without subtitles. this changes on a whim, and it can be difficult to find a story with a good mix of spoken japanese registers that is also watchable without subs. making a story so compelling that it can be understood and enjoyed purely on a visual level is a unique skill, it seems.
the ones listed below are ones i keep returning to:
uchuu kyoudai a story about two brothers who make a promise to each other to become astronauts as kids. it meets this and then some; i was pleasantly surprised. the animation is not great, but the realistic character designs, the story’s emotional depth and the careful details in the setting more than compensates for it.
shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu a real slow burner in the best of all possible ways. different characters’ personal attachments to rakugo – a form of traditional storytelling best described as ‘a one-man sitcom performed for a live audience’ – and to each other across different time periods make for some affecting viewing. mixed speech registers, but leans more towards the colloquial side.
other listening content
interviews with voice actors i like, with JP subs if they are available.
songs in japanese. self-appointed reddit gatekeepers look down heavily on using songs as immersion, but like, fuck those people. i’ve already written about how lovely they are. they can be a great source of vocabulary too, particularly if you love literary or poetic language and don’t care whether every word you learn shows up in a frequency list.
actual study
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i do not have kids. i have never needed much sleep. i work from home, and i actually asked my friends last year for space in order for me to 日本語を身を委ねる (nihóngo o mi o yudanèru, abandon myself to the japanese language)…they were all understanding. i’m grateful for this.
i’m also very aware that my circumstances won’t resemble anyone else’s, because my brain is…odd.
like, when i began, my kana and kanji knowledge was minimal at best. i could identify maybe a handful of kanji on sight, like the one gaara scarred his forehead with as a child in naruto (愛), or the one for wind (風). i dove head-first into immersion anyway with a manga series written for teenagers and adults precisely because i know myself and knew i hadn’t the patience to sit with literal children’s books.
the line by line, particle-by-particle, pattern-by-pattern interpretation i do is indeed slow, but there wouldn’t be enough stimulation to keep me engaged otherwise. the friend who introduced me to MP100 asked me for advice on learning strategies, as we’re both acquiring this language. he recoiled in horror when i showed him what i was doing.
i’ve always been like this. physics made no sense to me in high school until i studied single-variable calculus; musical acoustics in university might as well have been greek until i learned the underlying math. i taught myself to sew by making a sofa.
if this comes across as humble-bragging, i apologize; it’s a liability for me almost as often as it is an asset, and it really doesn’t make my life easier.
daily studies
1h, minimum, of anki flashcard study.
i set my timer for a block of 30 minutes and answer as quickly as i can, twice a day. if i’m not pressed for time, that’s maximum 90m in 30m blocks. in practice, this is the only thing i do daily at this point: everything else is as i have time.
anki power-users generally recommend making your own decks, and i second, third and fourth this. rolling your own does take far longer, however. i spent a fair amount of time bending anki to my will to design beautiful, useful cards, but the effort i invested in tailoring them to my way of thinking and learning made their content easier to retain. YMMV.
a little while ago i downloaded a deck made up of lines of audio dialogue timed to subtitles, ripped directly from MP100’s first season, for listening practice. it’s also been great for vocabulary acquisition.
a typical anki session presents me with a mix of everything: listening exercises, word recall, translation. many of my cards are audio cards i made where i listen to a line and type in what i heard, or work backwards from a translation to typing in a japanese equivalent.
i do this for the sake of exposure as well, as i don’t read quickly enough yet to regularly encounter most of the words i have learned.
1-3h translation.
from a random tankōbon of MP100, i pick 1-4 pages and translate however much i can make time for.
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i keep a word document and record each line, my translation, words to look up, and any questions (why this word? why say this like that? etc.) as i comb through the text. jisho.org and takoboto both have a search-by-radical function for identifying unfamiliar kanji.
original word order is preserved unless it’s confusing, in order to get me accustomed to typical japanese sentence layout, particle function and phrasing. it helps some, but i’m starting to need this less as i progress. i have encountered quite a few lines that i can understand without the need for this sort of parsing, which feels good.
when a line of text has got me stumped, i translate what i can around it and move on. i then return, consulting the grammar resources listed above to clear things up.
words to look up go straight into anki. anki management itself can be time-greedy, depending on how many words or sentences i need to enter or how many cards need retooling.
weekly studies
once a week, untimed, learning the lyrics to a song or mining a song i can already sing for vocabulary, using lyric sheets. i would like to be more systematic and consistent about everything this year.
1-5h of non-anki-related listening.
keeping track of words i can pick out and don’t know for entering into anki on the spot.
anime with and without japanese subtitles.
simple japanese listening.
japanese rock songs.
1-3h of focused grammar study.
cure dolly’s grammar videos can be really good at clearing up grammar misunderstandings. though i don’t love her pronunciation, her explanations are usually solid.
the aforementioned resources for grammar that i consult in translating.
helpful tips
a note on transliteration.
ボキャブラリー
look for ways to generalize whenever possible.
i stole my approach to learning words with multiple meanings directly from cure dolly. words with multiple meanings usually have a single core meaning that applies to most of the different senses in which you’ll find them.
here’s an example, using 適う (かなう):
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the core meaning here is ‘fit’; it neatly encompasses most of the definitions on this card. i have also included the kanji meanings applicable to this particular word.
relate new words to existing knowledge; use the kanji’s meaning/shape for further support.
here’s an example with 籠る (こもる).
the main kanji making up this word, 籠, can mean ‘basket’ or ‘cage’. it resembles one too.
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what can you do with a basket or cage? how are its contents affected? the answers to both questions encapsulate 籠る’s meanings.
it’s also related to 引き篭もる (ひきこもる, h’k’komòru), the root behind the word for the unfortunate japanese cultural phenomenon where kids give up on entering society and seclude themselves in their rooms for years…
keeping things like this in mind helps meanings stick for me.
with that in mind:
i don’t learn vocabulary out of context.
there are so many pre-made anki decks just for vocabulary: Core6000, Core10000, and so on. people seem to find them helpful, and i’m glad. i don’t, at least not for their intended purpose (i have a 6K deck with a ton of professionally recorded sentences spoken by voice actors! i use it for listening practice). i have no scaffolding to hang these words on.
i pick words up directly from immersion: from anime, from the manga i’m using, from songs, from podcasts i’m listening to. anything in japanese that i’m interested in understanding further can serve as a source for vocabulary, including recipes. the more existing information – emotional, visual, auditory – you feed your brain along with a single bit of new knowledge, the better for overall retention.
there’s a scene in MP100 where the protagonist’s mother is yelling at him to wake up so he can walk to school on time; i find it notable mostly for the overly-concerned soccer-mom sound of her voice. whenever i hear the word 遅刻・する (ちこく, ch'koku == lateness) now, it echoes in my head:
「 (しげ)! 起きなさい! 遅刻するわよ〜!」 shige! okinasai! ch'kok’ surú wa yo~! shige! wake up, please! you’re gonna be LAAATE!
even 'i heard that word in a scene where two characters were arguing about cheese’ is context.
i learn verbs in ergative pairs when i can.
not because knowing what ergativity is is particularly important, but because it’s a great chunking strategy: i can learn to associate multiple related words with a single kanji.
each kanji representing an action is often associated with at least two separate single-kanji verbs representing opposing aspects thereof:
自動詞 (じどうし, jidoushi == self-move-word). this concept roughly corresponds to intransitive verbs in english, which don’t take direct objects.
他動詞 (たどうし, tadoushi == other-move-word). transitive verbs, which need to act on something (a direct object) to make sense.
例えば (たとえば, tatoeba == for example):
落とす (おとす, otòsu): to allow to fall, to drop (something). other-move.
落ちる (おちる, ochìru): to fall or drop (on its own). self-move.
sometimes there are more. if introducing the additional verbs associated with a single kanji doesn’t sow confusion, i learn them all at the same time:
見る (みる) mìru to see, look, view… (みる has more definitions, but different kanji are used to indicate them. a kind native speaker on hinative pointed this out to me.)
見える mièru to seem, be visible
見せる misèru to show, display
two birds, one stone. 一石二鳥。 いっせきにちょう。 isseki nìchou.
漢字
my approach to kanji, however, is entirely my own.
i was exposed to ateji early with the word 真面目・な (まじめ・な, majíme na == grave, earnest, serious, not fucking around). the characters in this word were chosen entirely for sound and not meaning, which probably explains why it gets abbreviated to マジ so often. that i couldn’t trust kanji in nouns to consistently convey meaning was a harsh lesson to learn. :D
when i turned my eyes to verbs and adjectives instead, i found this:
the pronunciation of every verb or adjective comprised of a single kanji with an okurigana trail represents a single 訓読み (くんよみ, kun’yomi) or native japanese reading. that leaves me with just word, meaning and pronunciation to remember.
relating directly to ergative pairs, in each half of a pair the kanji occasionally has a different 訓読み.
例えば:
教わる (おそわる, osówaru): to receive teaching, to take lessons in, to learn.
教える (おしえる, oshíeru): to teach, preach or inform.
using 教 as an example again, i learned 教育 (きょういく, kyóuiku == education, training, schooling) a little later. きょう is the 音読み (おんよみ, on’yomi) or chinese reading for 教。
that gave me all possible readings for this kanji and a good sense of its meaning in other words — like 宗教 (しゅうきょう, shùukyou == religion, faith, creed) — without needing to drill the kanji independently. readings for other kanji can be acquired in similar fashion.
a rule of thumb: you can usually expect kanji in verbs and 形容詞 (けいようし, keiyoushi == so-called i-adjectives) to be read with 訓読み.
when i notice that i keep confusing one particular kanji for another, or i can’t get a reading to stick in my mind because i have nothing to anchor the character to…i add the troublesome character alone to my anki deck. it gets a list of compounds of itself with other kanji i already know, to help me better associate ideograph with meaning. i trust that in time it will stick too, with enough accumulated context.
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so why this manga?
short answer: this story means a lot to me.
here’s a longer answer.
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that was in april last year.
this same friend first recommended this series to me back in september 2020. i slept on it until the following may… then promptly asked him for forgiveness. i’d mainlined both seasons in japanese and english over a single weekend.
i had to have more.
the last time something like this happened…
i was a student at university, in my last year. my then-boyfriend — who’d escaped from chernobyl as a child on his father’s back with his mother’s grip tight on his arm, fallout flakes still clinging to his jacket — handed me a fanlation of the viktor pelevin short story ‘hermit and sixfingers’.
this one, actually. i’d recommend it heartily, especially if you’re into dystopias and bleak, absurd humor – i was at the time. though once i slowly awakened to life in the genuine article, fictional dystopias and their attendant laugh-to-keep-from-weeping ethos…lost their appeal some. (i still have a soft spot for nikolai gogol, though)
some time later, i read a professionally-translated version and compared them: what the rougher of the two lacked in polish, it made up for in quite a bit of culturally-specific nuance and awkward charm. i felt cheated enough to want to learn russian. like, this blog is called what it is for a reason. i’m still a fan of russian literature. my given name, анастасия, is russian.
sadly, it didn’t stick, probably for a number of (mental health-related) reasons outside the scope of this post.
a scarred veteran of the sub versus dub wars, old enough to remember a sailor moon scrubbed clean of lesbian 'subtext’, i’ve loved anime for a long time. i’ve been touched by so many sweet and deeply affecting stories over the years, but all the hard work put in by amateur translators to give every joke and obscure cultural reference its due…never motivated me to learn the language. not even as i became increasingly fascinated by japan’s culture and history.
what did it, finally? mob psycho 100. (a global pandemic and a sense of time evaporating didn’t hurt.)
MP100’s realistic depictions of reactions to trauma and the slow healing process…
skillfully-drawn main characters…
wry commentary on storytelling tropes and clichés shounen battle anime fans take for granted…
everything it has to say about the complexity of relationships that shape us as people, forgiveness, kindness, gratitude…
and the protagonist, a neurodivergent person finding self-acceptance as well as a place in the world…
settled into my bones and wouldn’t leave.
i won’t gush overmuch about it here; my deep adoration for ONE’s stupidly-overpowered, almost-certainly-autistic love child probably seeps out of this blog enough and i’ve already uncapped that geyser elsewhere.
after i’d inhaled all 16 volumes of the attendant scanlated manga, i tracked down the first two volumes of its official english translation to read. the translator made some puzzling changes.
one of the main characters, a phony psychic and habitual liar with a kind heart that he won’t even admit he possesses, honestly didn’t need extra help to come across as slimy. what the anime (and the slightly awkward scanlation i read) handled with some subtlety hit like a tornado of anvils in his work: the translator just dunked him in nickelodeon slime. this wasn’t the only character whose personality he changed.
he also pointedly avoided using the word psychic in his own take on the story (i think it appears once in the first volume). i was at a loss as to why:
the original text is full of two words (霊能力者 and 超能力者) that both refer to people with psychic powers.
霊能力者 (reinouryok'sha, 'person with spiritual powers’) is rendered as 'spirit medium’, which at least isn’t terribly far off. but 超能力者 (chounouryok'sha, 'person with supernatural powers/ESP’) becomes 'person with superpowers’.
superpowers don’t usually have paranormal connotations in the US.
every 超能力者 in mob psycho 100 has one or more abilities associated with ESP: astral projection; being able to see, commune with and exorcise the dead; laying curses on objects; or telekinesis.
superpowers would be a fairly literal translation of 超能力 (超 == super, 能力 == abilities, faculties), but it misses the spirit of the original word: 超能力 refers directly to ESP.
the protagonist is a psychic.
the story itself, as you can guess from above, trucks heavily in the supernatural.
i… wasn’t okay with that.
my frustration was just the impetus i needed to find this story in the original japanese – and use it to finally start learning this language. if the gap between an official translation and an amateur one was this wide, i had to know what was actually being said on the page.
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these arrived from japan in august last year, well in advance of my birthday – a gift to myself. i started this adventure in late august and this gift is still giving…
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