#its cool that the base forms are pretty androgynous

[warlordfelwinter]

i love also how you cant tell a dracthyr's gender by looking at them like. they didnt give the dragons tiddies. and there were lady npcs who were beefier than my little guy. i love it. unexpected from any mmo but especially this one

[good-morning-czernobog]

Necrozma, Light, and Divinity: A Very Weird Sun and Moon Theory.

I don't think the alchemical connections in Sun and Moon were ever really discussed in-depth enough for my satisfaction. There's no god damn way they'd just base the starter's first forms off the 3 primes and name one of the factions the Aether Foundation just not go anywhere else with that. Sun and Moon were pretty wild games, and I think maybe we got distracted with all the other bells and whistles, like Lusamine's bullshit, the UBs, and ya boy Guzma. Buckle up.

Before we get onto the main bit, I wanna talk a little about Mesopotamian deities. Observe this boundary stone from 12th century BC.

It's Wikimedia Commons details are as follows: Kudurru (stele) of King Melishipak I (1186–1172 BC): the king presents his daughter to the goddess Nannaya. The crescent moon represents the god Sin, the sun the Shamash and the star the goddess Ishtar. Kassite period, taken to Susa in the 12th century BC as war booty.

We've seen this 8-pointed star before, right on Necrozma's back

The star, as the description says, represents Inanna (called that by the Sumerians, and Ishtar by the Babylonians). She is a deity of love, war, fertility, and divine justice. She is associated with the planet Venus (we'll talk about Venus more in a bit). Inanna is referred to as the "Queen of Heaven", described as powerful but capricious.

She is also described as having some ambiguity to her gender, even having the power to alter people's gender, especially in relation to her cult. This ties into another figure Necrozma may be based on, as well as it's alchemical ties. But before I talk about that I wanna walk about the time Inanna died.

Gods die all the time in mythology. Inanna is one of the few who came back. For a time, she was trapped in the underworld by her sister Ereshkigal. Similarly, it's Sun dex entry reads "Reminiscent of the Ultra Beasts, this life-form, apparently asleep underground, is thought to have come from another world in ancient times." Whole it's entry in Sword for gen 8 is "It survives by absorbing light. After a long time spent slumbering underground, impurities accumulated within it, causing its body to darken.". Inanna is eventually saved when "sexless" or androgynous beings are sent to rescue her.

Bulbapedia's trivia section for Necrozma offers a different idea: Lucifer.

Ultra Necrozma, a being of light, four wings, draconic yet angelic, who's battle music begins with a fucking organ absolutely invokes imagery of Lucifer.

In this form, its head becomes the 8-pointed star.

Lucifer, who's name means "light bringer". Lucifer the morning star, associated with Venus. This figure is eventually absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil, a being who himself was once an angel. It's not uncommon for media to depict him with a mixture of secondary sexual characteristics, though most are male. It's entirely possible this is because of confusion between Satan and the figure Baphomet, though I had a harder time finding info on this one. If that were the case I wouldn't entirely fault Gamefreak for it. Even I have a hard time separating the two. Also probably worth noticing that dragons come up several times in the Bible, usually in relation to Satan. Ultra Necrozma does gain the dragon type after all.

Two figures, sometimes of ambiguous gender, both associated with the 3rd brightest object in the sky? Interesting. Very interesting.

If you're still reading, congrats, we're talking about alchemy now.

It was pretty hard to understand where they were going with this until we got USUM. USUM introduced Team Rainbow Rocket, Giovanni's attempt to gather past evil the leaders into a league of supervillains (who you demolish). Seemed simple enough. Haha, Necrozma is a light god. Z-Crystals are shards of its light because it's a prism. Cool.

But maybe not the whole story. I introduce to you: The Prima Materia.

In alchemy, Prima Materia is a substance that acts as the base form of all matter. It is similar to aether. a book called the Theatrum Chemicum contains the following passage about it.

"They have compared the "prima materia" to everything, to male and female, to the [redacted]*, to heaven and earth, to body and spirit, chaos, microcosm, and the confused mass; it contains in itself all colors and potentially all metals; there is nothing more wonderful in the world, for it begets itself, conceives itself, and gives birth to itself.

*the word used here is considered a slur against intersex people, so I excluded it

Furthermore, the Lexicon Alchemaie (which i would have checked more in depth but I don't speak Latin), lists names alchemists have used for the Prima Materia. Ones that stand out to me are: heaven, the dragon, heart of the sun, spittle of the moon, Venus, the rainbow. The Prima Materia is required in the creation of the Philosopher's Stone.

In USUM, instead of Nihilego, Lusamine beings forth Necrozma. The Aether Foundation's name comes full circle here. Aether as an alchemical element is frequently associated with light and gravity.

What I'm saying is, Necrozma isn't just light. it's alchemical light. it is the Prima Materia. The energy it emits becomes other things (in this case, the Pokemon types).

Now let's take this a step further, with Type: Null and Silvally. They don't directly relate to Necrozma, but I do believe they have an alchemical inspiration that ties them to Necrozma's mythological position in comparison to Arceus.

According to Bulbapedia, Type: Null was created using cells from all known pokemon types. It was supposed to be able to change types with RKS system, inspired by tales of Arceus. There were complications with them going berserk and the project was deemed a failure.

Type: Null is a failed Philosopher's Stone, until the power of love completed it.

With high friendship, Type: Null evolves into Silvally. It breaks free of the limiter attached to its head and regains use of the RKS system, this time without going berserk. Gladion, a kid, achieves what a bunch of detached adult scientists could not.

It seems love and light are very similar concepts, at least in the Pokemon world. The fairy types are heavily associated with light, super effective against dark types, and a certain pokemon repping them when they first got revealed evolves when it loves you (and has a fairy type move).

Now, it's still difficult to say where Necrozma stands in Pokemon's mythology. It's from another world entirely. The question is whether or not Arceus has influence in those worlds. It's God. It should, right? I think there's a few possibilities, but I don't have enough information to decide for sure

-Necrozma is equivalent to Arceus in its own world. Ultra Beasts may not be described as pokemon, but they have types and use moves like them, so they must be something similar but adapted to a different environment. This one's a bit of a stretch.

-Necrozma is a creation of Arceus like everything else and plays an important function, it just made a home in a different area of time and space, or much like Giratina (another Satan inspired pokemon who is dragon type) it was sent there for some reason.

-Less likely, Necrozma is above Arceus, not as a god but a primal energy gained beast-like sentience, the divine Chaos from which Arceus came

One potential hint at this relation may lie in Arceus' name. It's likely this is a coincidence, and they didn't intend this from the get-go, but it did just happen to fit the alchemy theme. There is another concept: Archeus. Archeus is, according to Wiktionary: "The vital principle or force believed by the Paracelsians to be responsible for alchemical reactions within living bodies, and hence for the growth and continuation of life." It is another name for Anima Mundi, the soul of the world. The divine spark. Archeus has four aspects: Life, Light, Chemical, and Reflective.

I haven't worked out yet what this means, unfortunately. I could be connecting a bunch of weird mythological coincidences. But it was very fun. I would like to discuss some less grand alchemical connections in Alola sometime. Those would require a bit more research and milling over however. I genuinely wish I could give you a more satisfying conclusion here.

Altogether, I hope this gives you food for thought.

UPDATE: more thoughts

there's something I wanted to talk about that I forgot when previously writing this, and I've had more time to mull over previous thoughts.

This next section will start with the elements of gender ambiguity with Inanna and Lucifer, and how that connects to alchemy. Rebis.

An end product of the Magnum Opus (creation of the Philosopher's Stone), the Rebis is a fusion of spirit and matter, imbued with male and female qualities. (Lot of the use of that word I omitted earlier here so be advised if you look into it more). While lacking in the two heads, that certainly lines up with the element of gender ambiguity. Ultra Necrozma is the being at its strongest, when it is full of the much needed light its body had been starving for.

Another interesting bit regarding the Rebis is it is considered the result of "reconciliation of opposites", and imagery around it is called a chemical wedding. This is symbolized by the coming together of a king and queen, the king in red and the queen in white, each symbolizing the sun and moon respectively.

While Solgaleo and Lunala do not fit so neatly into the references to mesopotamian myth (Shamash and Sin are both male, Shamash is Ishtar's brother and Sin their father), this might add some ideas for how Solgaleo and Lunala connect to Necrozma. They are all beings of light after all, and Necrozma is able to siphon it from them when fusing with them in USUM.

I believe Necrozma may be a possible evolution of Cosmog. Bear with me, please.

Obviously, this isn't reflected in gameplay. What Cosmog evolves into depends on your version of the game. But Solgaleo and Lunala are framed as mates. You can get a second Cosmog in both games, and when you do, the other game's legendary appears. They are also referred as appearing to be male and female respectively in their Pokedex entries despite having no gender in the actual game data.

But what is Cosmog and Cosmoem in this case then? Well besides being based on nebulas, I think it may be another concept called filius philosophorum, "Philosopher's Child". One of the Filius' ways of being represented is by the Rebis, as well as a direct child of the red king and white queen. Many sites mention an egg as a symbol but don't elaborate further (like baby name websites they often feed off each other indefinitely).

Now Cosmog's name is the same in all languages, but Cosmoem's is not. It's Japanese name is Cosmovum. Cosmos and ovum. Ovum as in egg. The -em in Cosmoem's name may also be for embryo. whoever wrote the trivia section for it's Bulbapedia stage thinks it has elements of both the sun and moon in its design, and I'm inclined to agree. It also mentions something called the world egg.

The world egg is a mythological concept that spans across multiple cosmologies, but because alchemy often takes from the Greek cosmology I'll stick to that. Within Greek myth we are given the Orphic Egg, from which the primordial deity Phanes is born. Phanes' name meaning "to light, or to shine". He is described bearing a helmet and golden wings, largely referred to as male but sometimes as androgynous. His parentage varies, with having no parents at all, to Chronos (time), to Chaos, to Nyx (night). He is described as creating all other gods, or creating the day depending on the telling.

Necrozma is also Phanes, a being of light, born from a divine egg. Necrozma is a more perfect path of evolution than it's parents, but this is likely triggered by something far beyond the control of the player.

(Addendum: If you think this also sounds similar to books about Arceus in the Canalave library, you'd be right. That myth was applied to Arceus first, which makes some interesting implications.)

Now you may be thinking "wow a lot of these concepts sound like ways to talk about the Philosopher's Stone", and you'd probably be right. The Magnum Opus had many names and many ways of representing it visually, mostly alchemists wanted to keep their trade secrets. But there is an interesting one.

The ouroboros. A symbol of unity, eternity, and endless cycles. The beginning and the end are intrinsically connected.

What is Necrozma doing when you meet it in USUM? it's desperately looking for light. It can't make it on its own anymore. It's base form dex entries describe it as craving light, going dormant when it can't find it.

Ultra Sun: It looks somehow pained as it rages around in search of light, which serves as its energy. It's apparently from another world.

Ultra Moon: Light is the source of its energy. If it isn't devouring light, impurities build up in it and on it, and Necrozma darkens and stops moving.

Necrozma is burning out like an old star. Necros, death.

The Philosopher's Stone is often visualized in modern media as a gem, much like it's body in this form. When the power is expended, Necrozma will be just another rock. It is a transient being. Much like the Great Work, perfection is not sustainable in practice.

But it's not all bad. Phanes, again, is also described as creating other gods. In time, it's body will break down and may become a new Cosmog. The end begets the beginning. The Prima Materia is after all, important in the Great Work's culmination.

There is another being described as creating all else though, in Pokemon. Once again it rolls back around to Arceus.

In Platinum and HGSS Pokedex entries, Arceus' goes as follows: It is said to have emerged from an egg in a place where there was nothing, then shaped the world.

These beings are connected somehow, but after more research from my first version of this I've come to the conclusion that while Necrozma and Arceus are similar (remember, Arceus can be any type, Necrozma's light becomes the differently typed Z-Crystals), Necrozma is inherently more flawed and impermanent.

It's important also to remember that the Philosopher's Stone is the work of humans. It's not divine but comes from a desire to come close to it. I can't say the same about Solgaleo and Lunala, but it's possible that Necrozma isn't natural. Necrozma was made. By whom? Who knows, but probably someone from the Ultra Recon Squad's dimension. This is merely a guess. It could just be a natural but rare occurrence. From what we've been given, this anyone's guess. Maybe were not even meant to know. Whatever the case, Necrozma is a transient being, Arceus-like but ultimately imperfect. The cycle continues eternally.

BONUS ROUND: tria prima

In the very introduction of this post I mentioned the 3 primes, and the starters's first forms having similarities to their symbols. I'm aware there are likely many alchemical connections in the story that I haven't noticed yet but I wanted to discuss something more with that.

Paracelsus described the primes (sulphur, mercury, and salt) as materials from which all things are made. This is not entirely literal. Alchemy wasn't just chemistry, it was spiritual. Each prime has a different quality.

Sulphur is combustibility, soul, the divine spark

Mercury is volatility, spirit (mind), consciousness

Salt is neither, it is the body that holds them

One of the biggest examples for this is that in say, burning a piece of wood. The fire was sulphur, the smoke was mercury, and the ash was salt.

The tria prima sound a lot like prima materia don't they? It's kind of poetic the way this is implemented in USUM. You begin your journey with a prime material and it's biggest climax is with another prime material. Just as the end begets the beginning, the beginning begets the end.

~

Note for potential future update: Two substances were added to this later on: phlegm and caput mortuum (Latin for "dead head"). Caput Mortuum was waste product in a reaction. Phlegm, in the alchemical sense is "A watery distillation, especially one obtained from plant matter; an aqueous solution.", to quote Wiktionary. Phlegm was also considered a waste product. CM was produced by sublimation, and Phlegm by distillation. Phlegm doesn't appear to have a symbol but CM does: a skull.

[seewetter]

calling every gnc cis person you see an "egg waiting to crack" even as a joke is not cool or funny at all actually it is extremely invasive and weird and you are just reinventing gender roles but making it "progressive"

It's also the sort of thing a lonely person would say to make themselves feel like the world around them contains more trans people.

last time i made a post abt this i got fucking eviscerated lmao but that’s prob bc i had the audacity to mention how this intersects with race and ethnicity, how y’all LOVE to forcibly feminize east asian and jewish men then ignore centuries of harmful stereotypes you’re playing into.

Let me try a best faith attempt to interpret what is being said here:

East Asian (and Jewish?) men have a reputation for effeminacy and spreading rumours that they might be trans could lead to transphobic violence being directed their way.

I just checked spacelazarwolf's post just to make sure nobody has retroactively edited it...nope. Spacelazarwolf really does claim that "y'all LOVE" to feminize East Asian and Jewish men...beneath a tweet that doesn't mention ethnicity at all.

Its absolutely a weird and invasive thing to say.

This is the second time in this thread people are using the words "weird" and "invasive".

Neither of those terms is taboo or anything, but in this context they are revealing:Trans women get called invasive a lot. And the only Tweet being used in this conversation to show how bad egg discourse has supposedly gotten is an innocuous tweet of a trans women who is:

a trans woman (how invasive)

going shopping (how invasive)

overhearing a conversation (truly the most invasive)

pretending in her mind that there's another trans woman in the store (utterly invasive)

sharing her thoughts online (soooo invasive)

This woman is so invasive she mentioned no names or ethnicities. She is so invasive she didn't include a location or identifying details. She is so invasive she didn't walk up to the person she' talking about and tell them her thoughts.

Now, to be fair:

This trans woman is using a form of gender expression (female deodorant) to prompt fantasies about gender identity (female identity). The two things are unconnected and it's important that all trans people know they are unconnected.

But let's move on, because there's some more statements I want to discuss:

Especially because non-binary people can choose to present in mixed ways instead of androgynously. Especially because everyone should be allowed to choose scents, colors, products, patterns, and clothing that they LIKE, without it having to be based on gender. Because masculine people should be allowed to smell like flowers or wear pretty things if they just fucking want to.

Is this a major problem you have encountered in trans circles? Closed-mindedness about gender? Are transgender people the first address you would go to when trying to discuss that problem?

Is the transgender community awash with femme trans women that reject gnc butches or gnc guys as partners or friends because they think "masculine people should NOT be allowed to smell like flowers or wear pretty things"?

And why would the go-to example be "non-binary" people that choose to present in mixed ways instead of androgynously? Is this the Hayes code era? Does it really have to be stated (IN TRANS CIRCLES?!!) that your presentation and identity are yours to define?

I don't want to be presumptuous and discard other people's experiences -- this just seems so fabricated to paint trans people as the enforces of gender norms. :(

As soon as a man is the LEAST bit feminine, or what white western society perceives as feminine, he will be called a trans girl. And I obviously don't have anything against trans girls or recognizing yourself in others and shit, but like

And as soon as a woman is at LEAST a bit masculine...

No? You didn't write that paragraph? "I obviously don't have anything against trans girls"? Are you sure? Are you sure.

You fucking can't destroy gender roles by rigorously enforcing them.

scentedluminarysoul, look at me. Look me in the eyes. (I am the captain now):

Your post provides zero examples of what you are talking about. Except you use the one tweet someone else posted. That tweet is a terrible example of what you want to talk about. That trans woman isn't rigorous about enforcing anything. She's just vibing in the shop. We don't know why she said what she said, but it's definitely not to "rigorously enforce" anything.

Stop calling every cis man who likes "girly" stuff a woman. Y'all know this is also homophobic as shit, right? Y'aal know that's also MISGENDERING, RIGHT??

Ok, I'll be fair:

Homophobes police male behaviour by calling the manhood of men who do girly things into question.

Calling people a gender they are not misgenders them.

Some marginalized groups of men are more likely to try out "female deodorant" or "girly stuff" and then pay the price for being gender-non-conforming and this IS bad.

However, there's plenty of trans people that playfully call cis people's gender into question in what is arguably neither dangerous nor irresponsible.

Now, I will concede that it's not a clean practice. Meaning that the lines between play and seriousness can sometimes be blurry and I don't support people who try to pressure others into being trans. And also with the groomer panic around, there is an ethical argument to be made against doing this.

However:

nobody here has mentioned the groomer panic

nobody here has thought about the loneliness that drives the most marginalized trans people to imagine that their community is secretly around them and that in "5 years" it'll grow and protect them

nobody has brought up the way that play and jokes are discouraged due to safety concerns and the consequences this has on our community

nobody has brought up how this kind of policing of "weird" and "invasive" people has a working class dimension: a lot of working class transgender people that I personally know do all kinds of inappropriate and potentially mildly harmful things AND TRYING TO POLICE AND EXCLUDE THEM IS WORSE than the alternative

You can't police the behaviour of lonely people with little access to resources who are clued out about "appropriate behaviour" without, in aggregate, separating these people from vital resources they need to make ends meet and to survive.

Trying to create the perfect, prejudice-free trans community has far worse outcomes than letting some people say some foolish stuff that maybe leads to bad outcomes sometimes.

Let people like what they like. A guy who likes skirts and nail polish? Cool. Unless HE HIMSELF says otherwise, he's a guy. Stop this shit.

I love how your negative examples are of trans women and your defense is of trans men. I know it's unintentional, but it comes across as though your social circle revolves around guys to the point where (trans) girls don't even seem like real human beings who also might struggle with stuff you guys struggle with. That's not nice.

Real people are not your blorbos to project your experiences onto.

Thanks for saying it: Real trans women are not your blorb...oh. Oh you meant real people. I'm sorry. Your point about not treating real people as blorbos in all honours, but the place and time you have chosen to make this point is a thread where trans people (and for some participants of the thread: trans women) are accused of (checks notes & summarizes thread) rigorously enforcing gender and almost casually bring up use has real harms on East Asian and Jewish men as ammo and isn't it tragic when trans men can't wear nail polish? They never wear nail polish, on account of those gossiping hags at the supermarket who hear them buying female deodorant and make up misgendering headcanons about them online to their invasive weird friends.

The invasive weird people are a real harm to our community. With (checks tweet) 62 retweets. Wow. And 1000 likes. Wow. Those 1000 likes on Twitter are anti-Asian and antisemitic and binarist and ...whatever the current word for 'trans men have it worse' is.

I'm so glad I know what invasive weird people look like after reading this thread. Invasive weird people get 62 retweets on Twitter after going to the supermarket and projecting onto strangers.

Thank god nobody in this 53,000 + notes thread would be invasive or project onto strangers.

calling every gnc cis person you see an "egg waiting to crack" even as a joke is not cool or funny at all actually it is extremely invasive and weird and you are just reinventing gender roles but making it "progressive"

[pop-goes-the-sneasel]

... So wada think of the classic Renamon?

I guess I just officially do Digimon reviews, huh.

Renamon!!!!!!

I LOVE Renamon. Much like Ninetales and Zorua, it’s inspired by the Japanese Kitsune, intelligent fox spirits possessing supernatural powers. For Renamon, these powers consist of summoning barrages of sharpened leaves and changing its appearance, particularly to copy the opponent’s, though I’m not sure how useful copying your opponent’s appearance actually is. It has an incredibly striking design, much taller than the typical Child-level Digimon, and is IMMENSELY popular.

In the Digimon Tamers anime, Renamon’s personality is cool and aloof, initially serving her partner, Rika, out of stoic loyalty and recognition of strength rather than any sort of emotional bond. Knowing the bond-oriented themes of Digimon, it should come as no surprise that this doesn’t last, and they gradually form an exceedingly powerful friendship, with recognition of their relationship sparked by Rika’s profound concern for Renamon’s wellbeing when injured. Renamon also had a notable bond with the oft-misunderstood Impmon, showing empathy and understanding toward him and his distrust toward humans and seeking to aid him when he’s in trouble.

Despite Renamon’s feminine pronouns in the anime, it’s worth noting that digimon as a species are officially genderless, merely manifesting gendered qualities in their data. This is explicitly stated by Renamon, and also acknowledged in her design notes regarding Renamon in particular, with Renamon being designed to appear androgynous and her genderlessness being intended to be reflected in her personality. Moreover, a Renamon using masculine pronouns appears in Digimon World Data Squad, reflecting the versatility of the design, and overall my point here is Renamon is a nonbinary icon and should be recognised as such. Even has the flag colours uwu

As a design, there’s a fair bit more going on with Renamon than is typical of Pokemon, but by Digimon standard’s it’s pretty simple and straightforward. Design highlights include the purple whirlwind-y designs on its thighs and the long purple armwarmers with a Taijitu on the back of each one. Beyond those details, you’ve just got an impeccably designed yellow anthropomorphic fox.

Renamon also has an X-Antibody form, said to be a dignified onmyoji well-versed in the dark arts, with its transformation abilities having been expanded to altering the environment itself as a powerful illusionist. Its Taijitu motif has been expanded further as well, able to summon them as slicing weapons, and overall it’s just a lot more extra than base Renamon in general. The design is kind of a mess, but X-Antibodies are kinda like that in general, and I do still like it overall. Now’s also a good time to note that X-Antibodies are usually designed by different artists, and this particular one was done by Kagemaru Himeno! She’s been regularly illustrating Pokemon cards since Jungle (the second TCG set), so some of you may recognise the name.

Anyways, Renamon’s fantastic, and it’s one of my absolute favourite digimon. Almost the Lucario of Digimon, it’s probably the most iconic post-Adventure digimon there is – a position I consider immensely justified – and there’s really no other digimon that has quite the same premium vibes.

Furbait tho/10.

[floatingcatacombs]

Top 10 Sexiest Mechas

12 Days of Aniblogging, Day 4

Mecha is one of the most intimidating genres for anime newcomers. The plots seem overly complex, the episode counts too long, and the giant robot war settings difficult to relate to. I think that all of these are valid concerns, but that mecha often gets a bad rap when most people don’t even want to try it. What both newcomers scared of the genre and hardcore mecha fans often fail to recognize, though, is that on top of the messages of the series, mechas always represent bodies. They are giant robotic representations of their pilots, the visions of their creators, collective psyches, and/or the work’s central themes. The degree of anthropomorphism, the level of abstraction with which the pilot controls the mecha, the colors and shape and size…all of these bodily elements directly tie back to the mecha’s role in the story. Of course, if mechas are bodies, then they are also vulnerable to sexualization. So let’s take all of that into consideration and chart the top 10 sexiest mechs! I’ll be keeping it capped at one entry per series, and will talk about all media, not just anime and manga.

 10. EQUUS from Concrete Revolutio

Starting off the list we’ve got a pretty weird pick, but I wanted to make sure that I shouted out this show. Concrete Revolutio is a kaiju and superhero-deconstructing delight, but when it comes to mechas it really plays things by ear and aims for the coolest setpieces possible. The protagonist’s mecha is essentially a Transformer that unfolds from a car into a centaur mecha. While the car body middle leaves a little to be desired, overall the design is a very good synthesis of Car and Horse. It’s certainly a better implementation of the centaur mecha design than say, Overwatch’s Orsia, who has a very visually muddled walking pattern because her legs are far too tiny and packed closely to each other. I’m especially a fan of the wheel joints on the knees and hooves on EQUUS, as well as the unicorn horn. Much as a centaur is an identity crisis between man and beast, Jiro is constantly in self-conflict over whether he can be a heroic protector of all superhumans or if he’s just a monster in disguise.

 9. Metal Gear Zeke from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Metal Gear Solid is one of the most iconic mecha series out there, so picking one specific Metal Gear over all the others proved challenging. The classic boxy REX, the smooth aquatic RAY, the upright Sahelanthropus, the arachnid EXCELSUS…there’s lots of good ones to pick from! It was a tough battle, but ultimately I had to go with ZEKE, the first named Metal Gear chronologically. Designwise, the railgun and Z-shaped legs are a nice touch, but it’s the story arc around ZEKE that interests me the most. A lesbian-sourced war crime machine, ZEKE was created by MSF, the nationless nation of soldiers run by Big Boss. It ended up being hijacked by terrorists from within and nearly caused a globally eradicating nuclear exchange, which is as good of a metaphor as they get for why deterrence is a fucked ideology. Accidents happen, stockpiles become more and more sunk costs, and sometimes anime girl triple agents infiltrate your military base and steal your cool robot.

8. Char’s Zaku II from Mobile Suit Gundam

Confession time: I haven’t actually seen any Gundam. I’m more of a Macross gal myself. But I felt like not having any Gundam on this list would be like ignoring Star Wars on a space opera list. Anyways, Char seems like one of the most awful bastard characters of any series ever, so I’m happy to use a spot on this listicle for his mecha. The Zaku II is infamous for being “three times as fast” as its generic counterparts despite its only difference being its red paint, but c’mon – that’s Char’s absolute moral purity buffing his ship. You deserve that stat buff if you’ve Never Betrayed Anyone In Your Entire Life, Ever.

7. Deus Ex Machina from Promare

--Promare spoilers ahead--

Promare ends, as all Trigger works should, with a whole lot of Act 3 Bullshit. Plot twist after plot twist until all of the themes dangled at in the first half no longer matter, with nonstop fighting getting more ridiculous by the second. At our protagonist’s darkest moment, their problems get handwaved away and they are handed a deus ex machina of a mecha literally known as….Deus Ex Machina. A fusion of Lio’s jet black triangle armor and Galo’s knightly firefighter mecha, the design of this mecha represents their connection and understanding of each other. Yes, of course they’re gay. Why else would it be glistening in rainbow colors?

6. Terminus typeR909 from Eureka Seven

Another mecha anime I’ve hardly seen.. but one that I definitely want to get around to! Eureka Seven just seems like a genuinely delightful time, and I’m a sucker for romance-based mecha shows as well. Anyways, the piloted mechas in Eureka Seven are named after Roland drum machines, with the typeR909 is named after the classic TR-909. They’re nicely proportioned and there’s something sweet about the cutesy magenta robot of the fleet being piloted by a 30-year old man. I guess I’m just a sucker for the gentle undoing of gendered associations and music gear.

5. Eva Unit-01 from Nylon Genesect Evangelical

All of the Eva units are quite tall and bestial and wonderful, but it’s Eva-01 in particular that really stands out due to its conspicuous tendency to disobey its pilot and go berserk, fully unhinging its jaw. NGE takes the “mechs as bodies” thing pretty damn seriously, but throws in the delightful wrench of “what if it’s not your body that’s being represented?”

4. VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross

Macross was the first popular mecha series to utilize transforming robots. What makes Valkyries so sexy is that they’re not just limited to Spaceship and Gundam forms – they have an intermediary form. In GERWALK mode, the cockpit remains exposed having not folded into the mecha headpiece yet, and the wings are still popped out. However, the Valkyire has sprouted its arms and legs already, making it capable of landing, walking on the ground, and wielding a gun pod as a rifle.  It’s kind of adorable! Stuffed to the brim with weapons and tech, Valkyries are the perfect blend of stylized and realistic robots. The Itano Circus will live on forever in our hearts as the go-to tactic when you have plenty of talent on your animation team and your mechas are armed with way too many missiles.

3. Jehuty from Zone of the Enders

While the VF-1 mecha is sexy because of its utility and folding form, the Orbital Frames of Zone of the Enders are sexy because…they’re designed with a sexual angle. They’re famous for their literal cock pits, but combined with their broad shoulders, slim hourglass waists, and pronounced thighs, they exude a strong androgynous energy. Jehuty is one of the most recognizable frames simply by virtue of being the playable mecha, but definitely one of the hornier ones too. Case in point: at the end of Zone of the Enders 2, it receives an upgrade after absorbing its sister frame to become Naked Jehuty, a stripped-down but ridiculously powerful mecha with gold sections emulating bare skin. Yoji Shinkawa’s brain is simply too big.

 2. Bohrok Pahrak

Look, I can’t just not include any Bionicle on this list. They’re some of the most formative lil’ robots to me. But which one is the sexiest? That’s not really something I’ve had to consider before. While some of the titan sets such as Roodaka and Axonn have a certain sexual angle to them, it feels contrived, carrying the same kind of creepiness as horny OC designs. The Great Spirit Robot might be the super robot of the series, but its design is rather barebones and reminds me too much of The Iron Giant. So I ultimately settled on the Bohrok, the hivemind villains from 2002’s story. While most Bionicle are a combination of biological and robotic, the Bohrok are strictly mechanical – and piloted by the masklike Krana, making them mechas! You really shouldn’t fuck the Bohrok, but there’s just something so perfect about their design. They’ve got it all – not only transformability and an orb design, but transformability into an orb design. Their hunched-over stature reminds me of GERWALK Valkyries – it’s cute and functional! As for why Pahrak in particular, well, the shields it wields are vibrators. Just ignore the fact that they’re powerful enough to seismically level mountains, and you’ll be set.

1. The Entirety of Heaven Will Be Mine

You can tell that Aevee Bee and Mia Schwartz did their homework for Heaven Will Be Mine. They understand better than anyone else that a mecha is a representation of the pilot’s psyche and body, and that damage to the mecha is indistinguishable from that to the pilot. This is reinforced by the mechas being referred to as Ship-Selves – they are literally an extension of oneself more than anything else. By looking at a ship-self, you can almost immediately infer what kind of person the pilot is, what her position in bed is, and what her fetishes are. The layer of abstraction between pilot and mecha ranges from wafer-thin to nonexistent depending on the character. The side effect of this is that since HWBM is about a bunch of gay girls in space having sloppy ideologically charged hookups, the mechas have to be designed just as sexually as everything else. And by god did they deliver on that front. Some of the ship-selves, such as Mare Crisium and String of Pearls, take clear direct inspiration from Zone of the Enders frames. The Krun Macula takes some inspiration from Char’s Zaku II in terms of color and shape, but its face chimes give it a uniquely divine and powerful feeling with no mecha parallel. This perfectly mirrors Pluto’s powerlevel advantage over all of the other pilots, and her humanoid-but-not-quite ship-self perfectly represents her faction’s goals. On the other hand, the assimilationist Memorial Foundation believes in ending the space program and grounding all ship-selves to prevent the splintering of humanity. Their mission manifests literally in that each member of the faction wears some form of bondage gear to represent their shackles to the Earth, and even their Ship-Self has a spreader bar. Heaven Will Be Mine is ridiculously horny, and it has the vision, design, storytelling, music, and everything else to back it up. Truly, the best of all worlds. And if anyone who worked on the game is reading this post.,.thanks.

[chiseler]

Glad Rags: Fashion and the Great Depression

Some years ago, in a breathtaking lapse of taste, The New Yorker published a fashion spread that aped iconic photographs of Dust Bowl migrants. I was as appalled as the next right-thinking person by the pouting models in $400 distressed cardigans pretending to thumb rides along desert highways. But if the charge is infatuation with the aesthetics of the Great Depression, I am guilty, guilty, guilty. Throw me in the clink—just so long as it resembles the hoosegow that Barbara Stanwyck saunters around in Ladies They Talk About (1932).

Why was everything, from automats to automobiles, from nightclubs to radios, from skyscrapers to bus stations, from cocktail shakers to the battered hats on homeless men, so elegant in the thirties? Why did bums back then look better than bankers today? Why are the movies and music, the clothes and every aspect of design from typefaces to elevator panels, so intoxicatingly stylish?

The easy answer is that art deco glamour was a form of escapism, a consolation to the down-and-out, and an expression of irrational optimism. Cruise ships, trains, office towers, mechanized restaurants: art deco was all about speed and modernity, the thrill of zooming into the future. (Then why does deco still look modern and alluring, while the space-age design of the sixties just looks dated and silly?) If cynicism was society’s ballast during the Depression, style was the kite-string tugging upward, the flag that kept flying.

It’s not the swells in their glad rags that I admire most, or even the bootleggers in silk shirts, but the wardrobes of working girls. Take the plain, slinky black dress that Stanwyck, as an ambitious office worker in Baby Face, accessorizes with a series of different detachable white collars and cuffs. Those starched cuffs and collars—chic, yet as humble as table-napkins—are perfect, almost poignant symbols of Stanwyck’s determination to better herself with the small means at her disposal. In Golddiggers of 1933, out-of-work chorus girls draw lots for the privilege of wearing a gorgeous, borrowed outfit to an audition. The little hats that hug one side of the head, the soft dresses molded to the hips, the scarf collars and pleated hems, create a look that collapses the two meanings of “smart.”  Neither frivolous nor utilitarian, it’s a neat, streamlined look that is still seductive; it signals quiet confidence and also wit, the sort of wisecracking verbal self-defense these girls mastered.

Movies like Baby Face tell their stories largely through their heroines’ clothes and belongings: they climb from cotton frocks to furs, from paper matchbooks to jeweled cigarette cases. (Clothing is no less crucial to the gangster’s rise; tailored shirts and luxurious overcoats are almost the point of his law-breaking.) Like Stanwyck in Baby Face, Joan Blondell in Blondie Johnson starts out in the drab, shapeless clothes of the down-trodden. Alight with anger after her mother dies, denied aid by a sanctimonious government official, she vows to get hold of dough, “and plenty of it.” Next we see her, she’s wearing a snazzy velvet suit that fits like a glove and conning suckers out of ten dollar bills by pretending to be a damsel in distress. She’s willing to bat her eyelashes and exploit her curves, but it’s really her brain she uses to get ahead, rising to become the head of a criminal “corporation,” and fiercely defending her virtue, even while clad in diaphanous pajamas. In Hold Your Man, Clark Gable calls attention to the warmth of the room, trying to talk Jean Harlow into doffing her coat. She complies, but when he suggests she remove her hat as well, she quips, “I’m pretty cool about the head.”

It’s this sense of wit and sass that’s often missing from latter-day reconstructions of the thirties, making people in period pieces appear overly formal. Current actors, looking embalmed in handsome clothes and make-up, fail to capture the way Cagney in his pin-striped suits was always poised on the balls of his feet, ready to crack into a tap dance; or the stunning bodily freedom with which women wore their thin, fluid, backless gowns, somehow never looking unduly exposed. Carole Lombard in shiny satin wide-legged lounging-pajamas and high heels furiously riding an exercise bicycle: there is the deco spirit in a nutshell. I sometimes wonder if it was the sheer delight of wearing such flattering clothes that gave women in thirties movies their unequaled zing.

Their sleek clothes don’t hide the female form the way dresses of the 1920’s did with their dropped waists and bosom-flattening bands. Neither do they exaggerate it with structured undergarments like those abandoned after the first world war and re-introduced after the second. It takes little insight to observe that the times when fashion has been most extreme in its devotion to the hourglass figure have been repressive eras for women, and periods when their clothes were more androgynous have been times when women made strides toward equality. In the early thirties, however, fashions were feminine without being cartoonishly so; they simply revealed the way women really look. The ideal of beauty was slender but not boyishly skinny, effortlessly athletic without gym-workout muscles.

Thirties dames look sexy on their own terms, not trussed up for male consumption like women of the fifties in their waist-cinching girdles, teetering stilettos and torpedo bras (often filled out with falsies on actresses of the fifties.) Many women in the early thirties wore very little under their clothes, as pre-Code movies prove with their obligatory lingerie shots. One almost feels sorry for pre-Code men faced with gals like Blondell, who in Blonde Crazy allows Cagney to inspect her flimsy underwear but repels his every advance with a slap that sends his head snapping back against his spine.

It is surely no coincidence that the interwar period was perhaps the only time when fashion was dominated, or at least heavily influenced, by women designers. Chanel borrowed from men’s tailoring to make women’s clothes simple, comfortable and sporty, without making them mannish. Madeleine Vionnet pioneered the bias cut, constructing garments so the grain of the fabric ran diagonally across the body, creating that smooth, clinging drape that defines feminine style of the thirties. Stanwyck’s lithe, bold stride wouldn’t be the same without the skirts that show off her beautiful hips and just enough of her killer gams. The jazzy, diagonally-striped ensemble that Claudette Colbert wears in It Happened One Night—something she has apparently purchased with the proceeds from pawning her wrist-watch—is the sartorial equivalent of her cocked eyebrow and throaty, sarcastic delivery.

These are Hollywood movies, of course, in which actresses often wore dresses so tight they couldn’t sit down between shots. But there’s plenty of documentary evidence that ordinary women, while they made have had less perfect figures, had just as much stylistic sass. Inept, small-time criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow might never have become folk heroes if police hadn’t found a roll of undeveloped film in their hideout in Joplin, Missouri in 1932, and if the pictures hadn’t shown Bonnie wearing a snug beret, a skirt and sweater as jazzy as Colbert’s, and standing with her high-heeled foot hiked saucily on the bumper of a Ford V-8.

Or consider the stout matron in Walker Evans’s 1935 photograph of a New Orleans barbershop, sporting a blouse with sizzling concentric stripes, a jaunty black tie and a black hat with a rakish white feather. Men were no slouches either. Evans’s 1936 pictures of street scenes in the “negro quarter” of Vicksburg, Mississippi feature men lounging idly in shirtsleeves, unbuttoned vests and felt hats, each one a fashion plate. Lined up in a row in the wood-frame buildings behind them are hand-painted signs for the Savoy Barber Shop, the New Deal Barber Shop, and the Brother In Law Barber Shop. These men may not have jobs, but at least they have well-trimmed hair.

One can always ask, was there really such an epidemic of elegance in the thirties, or did photographers just seek out images of dignity? In the same way, one can look at the photographs of Robert Frank or the documentary footage of Los Angeles in The Savage Eye (1960) and wonder if there was really an epidemic of ugliness and vulgarity in the late fifties and early sixties, or whether artists just emphasized it. But the question is moot: either way, the images reveal how Americans—or at least their professional observers—saw themselves. Struggling against deprivation and anxiety, they were proud, stoic and stripped to their lean, essential spirit. Prosperous and secure, they were hapless victims of an aesthetic crash. A movie like Murder by Contract (1958), about a hit man killing time in L.A., staying in suffocatingly tacky motel rooms, seems to be the portrait of a man sleepwalking through a society where taste has flatlined.

Fifties style was artlessly boastful; its ideals were plastic mannequins of happiness, innocence and surfeit. This is why when it failed it failed so hideously: the old, the poor, the ugly, the lonely look caught in a pitiless glare, all their shortcomings exposed. The beehive hair, bouffant skirts, school-girl necklines and cat’s-eye glasses made young women look stodgy and matronly, and older women look grotesquely girlish.  In the thirties, haute couture expressed sublime hauteur, but it was based on aesthetic principles so sound that even when they trickled down to the cheapest knock-offs and most threadbare hand-me-downs, they still looked good. And so we come to the paradox of men in breadlines, women in migrant camps, whose je-ne-sais-quoi can inspire fashion spreads.

I am haunted by a bit of archival footage from the superb documentary Riding the Rails (1997), which shows a group of teenage hobos gathered on an open flat-car. Their elegance is unforgettable. It’s partly that their ragged clothes are so well-cut—in those days before baggy, one-size-fits-nobody garments—and partly that they’re worn with such an air. One boy wears an overcoat that’s too big for him and a handkerchief knotted on his head; he looks like a Napoleonic soldier retreating from Moscow. Men today who affect newsboy caps tend to wear them as though they were balancing a plate on their heads, but these boys wear their soft caps pulled down low over one eye, making them look at once tough and shy. They also seem, like everyone Dorothea Lange photographed, to stand and move with uncommon, easy grace: idle, but charged with contained energy. Their faces are wary, reticent and disillusioned. In another archival clip, boys sitting around a fire in a hobo jungle respond to a reporter who asks them why they are on the road. “Out here for my health,” one deadpans. “Just riding,” another tersely shrugs.

These are the real-life versions of the characters played by Frankie Darro and the Warners juveniles in Wild Boys of the Road (1933). Several things about that film are startling. One is how the kids dress and act like grown-ups (at a school dance, they wear evening clothes and circle the floor to “The Shadow Waltz”), as opposed to today, when grown-ups dress and act like kids. Another is how quickly and completely two middle-class boys turn into outcasts, panhandlers, embittered scavengers living in a garbage dump. But most startling of all is the way stoicism and dignity are taken for granted, the universal determination not be a burden or feel sorry for oneself. The elderly interviewees in Riding the Rails are candid, matter-of-fact, wry and compassionate. There is more to elegance than dressing well, than being tasteful or—that overused and inelegant word—“classy.” There is an intangible quality, a kind of mental and moral grace. Elegance has spine, but it’s not rigid; it bends but doesn’t break. It is understated; it is reserved. It knows the virtue of holding something back—some strength, some anger, some sense of irony—because there is more than one rainy day.

by Imogen Sara Smith

[thewondersomethingorother]

One more Pony post and then I’m done for a while. Big ol’ long post under the cut

One of the things I wish the show did more, was explore the different magics outside of pony magic. Now I know this was a show for kiddos who aren’t here for deep fantasy lore, but the early seasons did a pretty good job building up the different ways tribes use their magic. It wasn’t any one major thing, but seeing how the pegasi industrialized the weather, how the Apple family seemed to use rituals to make Zap Apple Jam, and that not every unicorn knew magic like Twilight, but they at least were able to use their magic for what suited their lives. 

But, as the show went on, that sort of charm began to fall to the side in favor of filling the already large cast, and making way for plots that would reveal more toys. I can’t be too mad, since again, baby show for babies, but there was a lot of fun in realizing how the different tribes maintained equal footing with each other, all while each controlling different magic (before it became “UNICORNS AND ONLY UNICORNS GOT DA GOOD MAGIC”). Adding new creatures like Griffons, Minotaurs, Kirin, the Cats, and so on, really made me wish the show at least had some kind of guide that made it clear how these other creatures got along with or without their own magic, and didn’t have the ponies look like these singular blessed beings who would bless the lesser nations with their magical friendship wisdom (no I don’t like the Map). 

Anyway, here’s some examples of magic I wish we got:

Two of these are characters that have to do with m’girl @thebiscuiteternal, one being her OC and another being a past Pony character we’re using for our story. The unicorn, Silver Swirl, may seem like the kind of standard unicorn you’d see on the show, but she’s a bit of a special case. Silver never really had naturally strong magic, and would use her prodigious mind more than natural power to do her job. She would often wear a robe, because whole she does have a Cutie Mark, it’s usually pretty much invisible unless she’s pushing her magic. Then it manifests as purple magic swirls, usually indicative of a talent for magic in some way (and her eyes glow like they do when a pony really pushes their magic). 

The other Biscuit character is the cat on the left. That’s Divya, who she made for a story different than the one Silver is in, but still a part of the Pony lore. She’s an Abyssinian or the Cat People from the Movie, but she’s lived in a different country her whole life. Biscuit has this whole cool set up where Divya excels as a blanket maker, as is her family’s tradition, and summons magic through her claws to weave intricate patterns that always seem to match the personality of the customer. Also I think she has House Magic but I could be wrong, but if she does, then that’s so Biscuit. 

To the right is our Boy, Rockhoof. One of the Pillars and while seemingly the meathead of the group, is actually as skilled in Earth Pony magic as Star Swirl was in unicorn magic. I wish we could have explored more of what Earth Ponies were capable of beyond “yeah they’re strong and grow things I guess” because that makes them sound like natural laborers and that’s eeeehhhhhhh, not great. I did do a post a while back going into my own version of what Earth Ponies can do, and one of their talents is Enchanting, or making something (usually tools) work the way they want to. Earth Ponies usually are the tribe most likely to use tools, and their magic can make it so that said tool tends to work in some special way that’s different from the other tribes. This can go from simple farm tools, to even more subtle things like pens and ink, jewelry, glass, food, and so on. Earth Ponies are masters in more subtle magic out of the 3 tribes, so theirs usually has the least counters, simply because not everyone knows what they can do (and Earth Ponies prefer it that way). Rockhoof’s shovel never needed sharpening, and was at its strongest when being used by him. Rockhoof himself was one of the most prodigious users of Earth Magic, being able to blast through mountain sides, dig trenches in minuets, and seemed to be able to have a deep understanding of nature. Plus all that shoveling does wonders for the body, ladies.

And at the bottom right is a kirin, because I like them. The introduction of kirins was something I enjoyed, but I again wish they went in to them a little more outside of “they’re here in the jungle and don’t talk so that’s not helpful.” What makes them so pony-like but also not (and on that note, don’t get me started on the Saddle Arabians because ARE THEY -JUST- HORSES?)? How long have they been there? Why don’t they have their own nation and are just in this one town? Does the Equestrian government recognize the kirin leader as leader of her own people, or do they ultimately have to serve the Crown? All these things and more I think about, and I’ll probably go into that later on, but for now I do enjoy that they’re these weird, seemingly androgynous creatures that seem to have magic that is more emotion based than that of the pony. When their emotions are in harmony and at peace, a kirin can do things like jump great lengths, run over water, and control their weight so as to float like feathers or drop like stones. When in their pissed-off nirik form, their magic is more violent and dangerous, usually burning things around them until they tire themselves out. Kirin can usually control these magics in tandem if they need to, but usually favor their more positive magic. 

Also they’re fireproof. 

[shiftingpath]

To My Exalted Secret Santa

3 characters below the cut. well, two characters. Manus is just there twice.

1) Ledaal Manus, Twilight Caste Solar, Origin Manus is a beautiful, feminine, very privileged young Dynast-turned-mastermind. He acts as spy, diplomat, and advisor to his small Circle as they work to protect and establish themselves in the myriad dangers of Towersong and its neighbors in the North. Manus works hard to appear harmless, despite carrying a silver rapier; he cultivates a soft, pretty look and frames his face with loose strands of his white hair, pulling the rest back in a 4-foot long braid dyed to blue at the end. He dresses extravagantly and loves clothes, though most of them share a sort of fantasy Victorian look in Thorns' romantic duelling style, which he idolizes and imitates. Brocade vests, slim trousers, paired with high Realm collars and wide sleeves. He favours purple, silver, and always wears a token of his loyalty to his Air Aspect father- a cravat, handkerchief, or trim in that same pale icy blue.

Early on in his exalted life, he loses one of his eyes to a surprise Lunar, so his right is his family's pale icy blue, and the left is a darker, warmer blue (the closest a witch could find on short notice). He is slim, average height, and pale (though still recognizably Realm in ethnicity, closest to Chinese). He wears small oval spectacles and looks bookish and short-sighted. He doesn't wear much jewellery now that he's had a brass gear ring nailed through his middle finger, though he does still carry a silver pocket watch.

He is subtle and secretive. Few know he is exalted. He keeps this safe with a strong sense of paranoia and by using his first spell, a clockwork version of Corrupted Words, to seal others to secrecy on the matter. He is nervous and eager to please, and terrified of revealing himself as a person of power for fear of losing everything his father has worked to provide him for- most of all his father himself. He's chock full of anxiety and ill-placed loyalty to the Realm, and he's just really confused and trying to cling to the princely life he's always known while dealing with suddenly being Anathema. Despite this, he can't help applying his new power to ravenously learning, devouring books and practice in swordplay, scouting, society manners, manipulation, theft, art...

His anima banner is gold in the center and fluxes to reds and purples towards the edges. The image is a hand presented like the Vitruvian Man, fingers extended and closed simultaneously. An eye opens wide in the palm. Lines of proportion encircle the fingers and their joints and extend out into the rest of the world to display the symmetry of Creation.

References 1 2 

2) Ledaal Manus, Twilight Caste Solar, Legend Manus is now a powerful Solar in a potent Circle, personally seeing to the running of over half a dozen cities across the North, a diplomat and conciliator adept at making deals, and a prophet and sorcerer of strange and alien powers. 

Still pale and white-haired, his blue-dyed braid was shorn off and taken as a trophy by Ligier. It now adorns the starmetal-laced handle of Manus' moonsilver daiklave Silver Riddle like a long tassel. What is left is shoulder length and pure white, caught in a low ponytail at the base of his neck. He still loves purple, but now accents with charcoal and gold to compliment his Queen's colours, and dresses in more of a Karnese (Viking) style, like a Northern adventurer, though he continues to favour high Realm collars. He wears a simple gold circlet on his brow and many significant pieces of small jewellery- a garnet-and-gold necklace, a silver pin of the hand of his anima banner, as well as the gear ring still nailed into his finger. He has a brand around his bicep of a chain sealed with a crown, and a bioluminescent tattoo around one wrist that looks like a glowing blue string of beads.

His other artifacts are the blue jade chain shirt Clarity Shell he now wears openly, and one of a pair of orichalcum-and-blue jade assassin's blades, shared with his father, the Sun-and-Wind Talons, showing a brilliant gold sun in a bright blue sky. He also wears a black jade badge of the mons of House Ledaal, his Air Aspected spouse Niruz wearing a matching Tepet one.

He has sacrificed his eye permanently for occult power, so now has one icy blue eye and one glass, with a pupil of aquamarine like an hourglass severed in the middle. It does not quite look like an eye, though he mitigates the effect slightly by continuing to wear his oval spectacles. He is a very weird sorcerer, initiated into the Solar Circle and replete with odd effects to show it. He carries a brass bell with which to take people's memories; clocks and timepieces run strangely in his presence- sand flowing upward, clock hands functioning as compasses, etc. He can vanish while the world stays still, disappearing into a silent, teal-hued clock realm he moves through like a ghost. Prophecy, controlling the stars, terrible visions in his dreams, Autochthon-styled stigmata, are all par for the course. He is the heir to the Mask of Winters' exaltation, and though he has few memories of being Hidden Hand, still has a unique and personal understanding of the Mask's ways. The two of them are nearly parallel in their strange occult strivings, eye symbolism, and connection to Autochthon.

He is ruthless, resourceful, and cunning, a brilliant bureaucrat and problem-solver. Rivals and enemies begin to fear him most of his Circle, the single member ready to commit atrocities to keep his people safe. Manus can pull the stars from the sky and raise armies of the dead to assault his foes, but he'd really prefer it if his enemies would just chat politely with him over dinner and decide to make friends after all. It's much easier that way. Nonetheless he has lost much of his nervousness and anxiety in the gruelling process of surviving, and has an edge of cool threatening ruthlessness apparent in the sheer amount of power he does not need to lie about bringing to bear. 

Reference 1 2

3) Tabaq Twin-Faced, No Moon Golden Jackal Lunar

Tabaq is a young person from the Kingdom of the Elephant, a Lunar dominion to the far Southeast on the Dreaming Sea. She is lazy, conniving, sneaky, and often takes the easy way out of any problem. She adores shapeshifting and does it constantly, altering little details on her human form, whimsically making up a new body, or flipping into her animal or demi form.

She is easily bored and pays attention poorly, so her mentor has bedecked her with the Mark of Many Lessons, an addition to her moonsilver tattooing that inks silver stories across her skin for her to learn from and teach to others. Her caste tattoos include a straight silver line down the bridge of her nose, declaring her to be exploring her gender in a shorthand of her home, which she has rendered permanent.

Tabaq's skin is a medium warm brown, her hair black and straight, cropped around her shoulders with a bit in a top knot. Her eyes are brown-gold, the same colour as her spirit shape. She has a few symmetrical ear piercings of gold in each ear, and dresses casually and comfortably, her clothes often stained, dirty, or looking like she's slept in them. Nonetheless she is lovable and charming, championing the poor and lonely and truly enjoying punishing jerks in the most threatening and roundabout methods. Her ankles are thick and her hips are wide, and she appears relatively androgynous.

Her most noticeable feature is her Tell, her always-present smile, a sharp and happily vicious thing. Her canine teeth curve outward in sickles, and she takes great pleasure in her malicious joy. She often snorts when she laughs. Her anima banner is a blue-silver image of the moon held like a pearl in the cracked jawbone of a huge predator.

Tabaq's best friend and darling boy is another golden jackal, her familiar Dish-Eating Dog. Dog is less intelligent than Tabaq but really you can hardly tell. He loves leftovers, garbage, and nosing around into things. Tabaq loves taking jackal form and making the two of them look like a two-jackal team of horrible smug resourcefulness. She also carries him in her backpack with his front paws on her shoulders, where he can snap at passers-by and their food.

I have not played her for long so I haven't gotten all my dream charms for her, but I hope eventually to get a ton of the Stamina poison set and have her half-jackal form leaking neon green ooze from her mouth. (Depictions of this welcome.)

References 1

[ruinofhope]

Does the mun have any headcanons on how Fini was like in ancient Alola and if its role differs from Kanaloa's in ancient Hawaii? (And may this anon post questions about Fini in ancient Alola using haiwaiian terminology?)

((As far as questions go, you can send in whatever you want!!  /o/  I can.  Probably google my way to an understanding, and if I can’t, hey, you can teach me some cool stuff.  c:

One of the most difficult things about reconciling/combining aspects of Kanaloa and Tapu Fini is ultimately that pretty much every single source says

“Yeah, they didn’t talk as much about Kanaloa as the other three gods.  He was with Kane a lot though!!”

Obviously the more digging I do the more I learn, but it’s ultimately still way less than if I were playing one of the other Tapu.

Something I actually intend to look into is that Kanaloa was a similarly-named god in other Polynesian islands.  But Kanaloa there was often more important than Kanaloa in Hawaii–like, Kanaloa created the universe in some of these myths from what I’ve seen in passing while researching(I haven’t gone down that rabbit hole yet so don’t quote me on that lol).  So Tapu Fini is actually stronger in other Polynesian regions than in Alola–or at least a similar creature to Tapu Fini, perhaps ‘another’ Tapu Fini the way there are multiple regular Pokémon, exists in those regions. As a singular being, it spends most of its time in Alola(something something aliens from another universe keep invading these islands so I’m kinda invested in keeping shit together here)

BUT UH I digress!  I know that Kanaloa and Milu? were integrated into one deity by the western missionaries to provide a narrative closer to the biblical one of God(Kane) and Satan(Kanaloa), and Kanaloa wasn’t actually related to death in any way besides that he may have led the human spirits in an uprising against the gods???  Milu is the god of death and the underworld.  But for the sake of not having to think too hard, I’ve made them the same entity–Milu being “female” Tapu Fini and Kanaloa being “male” Tapu Fini–and their separate identities are based on that it presented itself a different sex in human form and used a different name, but ultimately both returned to being Tapu Fini, so Tapu Fini was the one reigning over both but as far as traditional storytelling goes the god of Death and the god of the Sea are referred to as two different beings.  In more modern times, this was simplified to simply refer to them as Tapu Fini.  Nonetheless, Fini, like Kanaloa, is not evil.  Death and the underworld don’t make it evil, although it’s a very feared god because it attacks and kills people who approach it with malice or carelessly.  People are scared of Tapu Fini because, while it can be very chill, much like the ocean it can also be horrifically dangerous and unkind.  A tempermental Pokémon lol.

Other things I’ve learned about Kanaloa include that he was the god of long-distance travel–and so invoked when sailing ships, and I imagine very traditional Alolans may invoke Fini when boarding or flying planes, or even surfing or flying on Pokémon.  Ride Pokémon are to be ‘blessed’ with Tapu Fini’s invocation before they can pass the Ride Pokémon tests and can actually go into the rotation. (Ride Pokémon who are eventually aged out and go to trainers or farms to live out the rest of their lives are sacrificed to Fini if they fall ill and can no longer recover or after dying, as thanks for allowing people to travel safely with them.)

The ocean is one of Kanaloa’s ‘kinolau’ which is like.  Earthly representations as far as I can tell.  And is thought to be Kanaloa’s body in general.  As a result, Fini is very aware of anything that happens in Alola’s oceans.  Things like the endangerment of Lapras can have physical effects on Fini.  Part of why Fini is so lethargic all the time is because of the state of the oceans in the world(especially Alola) and the beings in them.  It’s ill a lot.  The others represent other things that keep them healthy–war and politics and conflict, rain and fertility and crops and peace, life and the sun and procreation–but a large part of Fini’s being, the ocean, is polluted or endangered.  Ruling over death also makes Fini tired a lot.

…Ultimately because Kanaloa isn’t mentioned as much in myths(and supposedly may not have been mentioned at all until like.  1000AD????) it’s a little hard for me when I find researching time to actually figure out all the things that Kanaloa does.  However, I usually try and work out ways that Fini shares these concepts with Kanaloa(and I’ll probably see about doing the same with Milu as well, assuming Milu oversees more than death/the underworld and so on) so they aren’t too different as far as powers go.  Things that seem like they’d be in that same line of power–for example, the practice of that one’s relationships with the people around them and the world around them affected their health, so there was a practice of coming together, coming to an understanding, and forgiving one another to soothe the sickness in their souls, that’s a healing practice, and as such something Fini oversees.  If you get sick because you did something to someone or had a bad attitude and social standing with people, you probably upset Fini and you probably need to fix your shit.  Be kind to one another and you won’t get sick. Don’t keep secrets and you won’t get sick.  Don’t do bad shit or you won’t get sick.  If you do get sick, try and clear your life of impurities, and Fini may take your sickness away.  Sometimes your sickness isn’t even your fault–it’s the fault of someone close to you, and you’re just waiting on them getting their shit together to get better.  Of course, sicknesses are also just natural things that happen.  Don’t blame Fini for all of your problems.

(Appearance-wise, Fini presents itself most often as an androgynous hermaphrodite/intersex individual, and tends to be disregarding of gender roles and other such things.  Originally, I was going to have my presentation of Fini be entirely male–because Kanaloa is male–however I wound up reconciling the whole ‘genderless Pokémon’ thing and getting to include reference to mahu as well and made it.  Mostly non-binary, masculine-favoring, but usually Fini doesn’t correct or care much about the pronouns used for it(because there’s only one third person pronoun in Hawaiian anyway, and it covers he, she, and it, so Fini doesn’t see much of a difference–it’s all the same word to Fini.)I read somewhere that Kanaloa is, in contrast to Kane’s dark skin, curly hair, and shorter stature, tall and fair-skinned with straighter hair.  They’re complimentary powers, so their presentations are often in opposition with one another.  Nonetheless, because I read that after I started altering the skin color on icons for its faceclaim, Fini’s human form is usually dark-skinned and keeps the Pokémon form’s blue hair and eyes. But, really, it doesn’t have a singular, stable-looking form(I’ll explain this away as things like variations in the ocean and the influence of souls it shepherds giving it an easier time changing its appearance compared to the other Tapu, I’m sure.) but it chooses its androgynous, curvy form by default and it may vary some because.  Why bother keeping it stable. The humans won’t remember it well anyway.

As for how Fini was in ancient Hawaii…I imagine it wasn’t much different from the presentation I’m using.  Obviously older and wiser and some developmental influences and all, but Poni Island is the least changed of the Alolan islands. So Tapu Fini hasn’t changed much, itself, compared to the other Tapu.))

[simonaott904-blog]

20 Resources That'll Make You Better at digimon world dawn

Digitize PSP Cheats And Methods ~ Cheathunter

Following a success of Disney's 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Japanese domestic anime market confronted severe pressure from international filmmakers. Nelson Chitty can be a Venezuelan expat residing in Argentina. He's a writer and translator passionate about background and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is definitely spent between leisurely games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon. Not only was it a switch of pace when it comes to the Digimon themselves, however the human heroes also get a lot more tale than most seasons. There are some actual heart-tugging occasions and hints throughout of impending tale beats that produce rewatching a lot of fun.

Honestly, there is little reason to play this title today. Regularity with the parameters established initially by the series redeems Digimon Globe to a certain extent, emboldened in the eye of fans who appreciate simulation type games; however, that is easily one of the worst titles to try and grab today. Online. A players shuffled deck is placed face down right here. Cards drawn into the player's hand are extracted from the Online pile. I love the Assassin's creed series along with both Dead Space games. In modern times, butterflies are extremely common in Japanese anime and manga. Most often, butterflies represent a character's fleeting thoughts or dreams.

Digimon Globe for the PS1 is a great game if you enjoy Tamagotchi style gameplay. You need to raise and train them carefully in fact it is better to follow a information so that you can train the correct stats to make sure your Digimon digivolves into the particular monster you want. Once you have them digivolved you possess a certain amount of gametime before they will die and then you have to retrain the hatched Digimon. The main storyline revolves around you exploring to find a specific Digimon and recruit it back again to the village.

The English dub cast is fantastic and they are the reason I blind bought this anime without seeing it on legal streaming in Japanese. In the movie, Digimon Adventure which was a prelude to the Digimon series, no one knew the way the gateway between the Digital World and real life was activated. All they saw was just a moment when Digimon could travel from one to the other. Pokémon fans will immediately recognise the gameplay method of Best Fiends and can enjoy what it has to offer. When you begin out, you'll have the option between three different starter creatures (audio familiar?), and from there, you will http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=digimon start your journey to be the best.

Digimon Globe: Data Squad exists predominately as a tie-in for the recent Digimon: Data Squad anime series, so it shouldn't be too astonishing that the overall game spends short amount of time on character introductions and cuts straight to the flimsy plot. There's a great evil in the digital globe that's causing Digimon to do something all crazy, threatening to break through to the real world, and it's really up to the spiky-haired, androgynous Data Squad to investigate. Making things personal, younger sister of one of the associates of the info Squad, along with a bunch of additional young girls, has gone missing, plus they believe there's a connection. Characters will occasionally pop-up to shout some awkward dialogue, but once all the parts are set, the rest of the game is mostly simply a long, tiresome dungeon crawl.

It's hard to just go through the game at start state and realize the scope of what it was doing, the way that it had been forcing the industry to rethink several long-held assumptions about grouping and leveling. Certainly it wasn't noticeable to the devs at Blizzard, who (if memory serves) implemented the solo-friendly leveling framework because they wished to allow players in to the raiding endgame quicker and more efficiently. It had been only later that they realized just how much people recommended a more accessible framework and what that actually meant for the game's development.

I've only performed the first Digimon Globe, so I have no idea how it prices alongside the others. But I could say it's lots of fun. You teach up your Digimon, travel the island discovering new Digimon to provide to the town which grows the more people join. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary Content material in this edit is normally translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at :ru:Digimon Adventure; see its history for attribution.

On the Android side, Google's fiercest competition originates from - who else? - Samsung. The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus had been released at the start of the year, and they utilize the same Snapdragon human brain as both of the PIxel 2s. Beyond that, their expansive Infinity Displays are almost beyond reproach and conveniently outshine the panels Google used this year. Both likewise have excellent cameras, even though I prefer what Google has achieved with the Pixels, the S8s have hook edge in low-light photography. Honestly, the decision boils down to software program: The S8s still run a version of Android 7.0 Nougat painted over with Samsung's custom interface. It's swimming in Samsung apps too, including the lackluster Bixby virtual assistant. Google's cleaner approach, coupled with the guarantee of software updates for three years, can make the Pixels more attractive to some.

I by no means claim this is a blacks versus whites issue. Multiculturalism could be applauded by blacks, since they get black background month, etc etc etc. Nonetheless it was created, promulgated, trained, and defended by whites who are ashamed of their own competition; ashamed by their very own country; and who would like everything America has stood for to become turned upside down-deconstructed. If you feel "popular 'old college' samurai anime," you imagine Rurouni Kenshin. The anime adaptation was manufactured in 1996, and was directed by Furuhashi Kazuhiro. Originally a manga (Japanese comic) series, Rurouni Kenshin follows the tale of Himura Kenshin, a wandering samurai through the Meiji period who utilized to be a skilled assassin working for the Bakumatsu government.

Digimon Globe Championship on the Nintendo DS is sort of like an upgraded type of the original Digimon games that were virtual-pets. You feed and care for your Digimon, and help them digivolve into more powerful forms. Championship is also very, very, VERY dull. There is very little gameplay in this game; your Digimon pals do all your work for you. All you have to to do is be sure that they are taken care of, which isn't exciting whatsoever. Championship looks wonderful for a game on the DS, and it does provide good nostalgia for individuals who grew up with the original Digimon virtual pet playthings. Notwithstanding that, Championship is certainly virtually Digimon for babies.

Stingmon is one of the more recognizable Digimon to anyone who was raised viewing the anime. Stingmon 1st showed up in the anime in Digimon Adventure 2 where he served as an antagonist for the 1st part of the time of year. Although Stingmon seems to be a Digimon with a cool head that's ready to battle at any time, his rookie type Wormmon is certainly a wimp and may never state what's on its mind. One of the major factors that produce Stingmon so cool is the drastic transformation in personality after digivolving. Stingmon's character is a key factor down the road when Stingmon becomes an excellent man and pairs up with his former rival Veemon creating an ideal balance between the two. Stingmon may not become the coolest Digimon on appearance alone, but he is certainly one of the coolest in the Digimon Universe all together.

What does inspire though, may be the video game that accompanies the cartoon. You play it in real life pretty much exactly as you see it performed by the individuals on the TV. Minus the huge battling monsters. The game includes magnetic transforming Bakugan monsters that start out as spheres, but when they encounter the magnetic Gate cards they unfold to reveal the creature inside. If you want to discover ways to play Bakugan, you can try the official website. There are all types of trick shots and in depth strategies you can devise when playing this video game. It's so popular Toys R Us provides been hosting tournaments around the US.

The anime is based on a Capcom video game group of the same name, and takes place during the digimon world 4 agumon digivolutions Sengoku, or the Warring States Period, in Japan. Two young warlords from rivaling regions form an alliance to bring down Oda Nobunaga, the Devil King. A Chinese manhua was written and drawn by Yuen Wong Yu (余 遠鍠 Yu Yuen-wong), who based its storyline on the television series. This adaptation addresses Digimon Experience in five volumes, Digimon Adventure 02 in two, Digimon Tamers in four, and Digimon Frontier in three. The original stories are seriously abridged, though on rare occasions events play out differently compared to the anime.

In Japan, nine Digimon anime movies have been released. Seven of these are related to their anime series. Of the nine all but two have been released worldwide. Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode and X-Evolution are the two that have not really been released internationally. Minato Sahashi is an intelligent son, but because of his inability to deal with pressure he's unemployed and failed university exams twice. One day he meets a girl named Musubi, who actually falls from the sky. Minato learns that she is a Sekirei who chose him as her Ashikabi: a human which allows a Sekirei to bring out her full powers and participate in life-threatening battles.

[rinnahtheskinchanger]

REALLY  LONG  CHARACTER  SURVEY.

RULES.  repost ,   don’t  reblog  !    tag  10  ! TAGGED BY: @celestialspitfire​ B|  TAGGING.   anyone who wants to torture themselves

BASICS.

FULL  NAME :   Rinnah  NICKNAME :   Rin, Rinrin, Puppy, Wolfy, Wolf, Pipsqueak, Half-pint, Furball, Fuzzball, Fluffy, etc. AGE :   19 BIRTHDAY :  August 31st ETHNIC  GROUP : Mixed blood (Dad has some of the Eastern blood in him, hence the lion), but she looks stereotypical white (Nordic, specifically) NATIONALITY :  Skin-changer (Nordic in modern/Earth) LANGUAGE / S :   Common Tongue/English, most animal languages SEXUAL  ORIENTATION :   Pansexual ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION :  Panromantic RELATIONSHIP  STATUS : Single and hoping to find someone that she can trust and love completely. Hasn’t had the best life, so having a stable, caring partner would do wonders to help her. CLASS : Skinchangers don’t really have classes, but she’s the granddaughter of the chief. Whether or not that’s recognized by the other denizens of Middle Earth really depends. I wouldn’t think that many hold her kind in high regard. Probably most think they’re savages, or something, really. HOME  TOWN / AREA : The Withered Heath, in the far North of Arda. CURRENT  HOME : She’s a wanderer, though whether its by nature or necessity is actually quite hazy. PROFESSION :   A hunter, guide, muscle for hire, etc. Rin does what needs to be done in order to survive, whether it’s selling wares, or letting people pay her to help them in some way.

PHYSICAL.

HAIR :   Bright white; a product of Leucism. It really depends on how she wants it cut. Grows relatively fast, so there are times when she lets it grow to her waist. Other times, it’s cut into a crest that becomes midback length locks. Either way, there are two side pieces, and it’s been likened to a lion’s mane, as her father’s was. Soft to the touch, but doesn’t lie flat and silken. EYES :   Heterochromatic. Her left eye is a golden brown/amber, while the other is a vibrant green (inherited from her mother) NOSE :   A medium length nose, with a slight bump in the middle. The bottom is not overly wide, and slightly upturned. FACE :    Her facial shape is not remarkably feminine, more androgynous, though her features definitely point towards her being female. Her brows are a bit heavier than most women, and with a semi-strong jaw. (Think Norn of Guild Wars 2) LIPS :   Nice, full lips, plush for sure.  COMPLEXION :  Not pale, but not too dark. She has the permanent tan of someone who is always outside. No freckles or acne. Skin is pretty clear for the most part, though in the cold there can be a need for something to give it moisture. BLEMISHES :   Only occasional things. Dry lips, sometimes, maybe dark circles if there hasn’t been much sleep. SCARS : General wear and tear, as to be expected. There is also a massive burn scar on her left side, from hip, to under the bust, but not crossing over her center or spine. Two rips on back and front each of her right side, from massive fangs. Three claw marks over her left eye from forehead to midcheek. TATTOOS :   ...there’s, uh, some tribal stuff on the top of her...dick HEIGHT :   137 cm / 4′6″ WEIGHT :    50 kg / 110 lbs BUILD :  Rinnah is toned, but not sculpted. She has an endomorphic body type (reference is Samantha Wright, mostly). There isn’t too much going on, bust-wise, and there’s a bit of broadness to her shoulders, but her hips are decidedly wider, giving a more pear shaped appearance, though her upper body is nothing to sneeze at. FEATURES : Thick thighs, thick ass. Got a bit of a happy trail going on (white peach fuzz) ALLERGIES :   Nope! USUAL  HAIR  STYLE :   Let it loose! Though she has been known to braid her crest, braid it when long, or just tie it up to keep it out of the way. USUAL  FACE  LOOK : Generally curious, interested. Not necessarily happy, but there’s no resting bitch face either. USUAL  CLOTHING :  Think vikings, with more bones and furs, and no shoes.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR / S :   Being alone, rejection, abuse ASPIRATION / S :   To find whatever it is that she’s looking for. ( Rin, herself, doesn’t know what it is, but it’s to find someone that cares for her (in any sense of the word) and/or a place that she can have purpose. POSITIVE  TRAITS :   Strong, loyal, gentle, caring, protective, brave ( for others ) NEGATIVE  TRAITS :   Pushover, nervous ( under the surface ), easily influenced, gullible ZODIAC :   Virgo TEMPEREMENT :    Easy-going, yet a bit on the shy side, until she gets to know/trust you. Then, she’s a fluffy whirlwind of fun, if you let her be. SOUL  TYPE / S :  Server. Click the link on the actual “soul type” thing to find out what that means! ANIMALS :   Wolf, Lion, Horse, Hawk ( Her and her immediate family’s forms )

VICE  HABIT / S :    Tendency to isolate herself, despite the fact that it makes her feel horrible,  Is very secretive, and tries to give out as little information as possible, until convinced that she can trust them completely,  Easy to corrupt with her eager-to-please nature and fear of rejection

FAITH :  Believes in the Valar, mostly because she has met two of them, so it is not possible for her not to believe at that point XD GHOSTS ? :   Eh AFTERLIFE ? :  Everyone is told the story of what happens, and being that she has met two of th Valar, proving their existence, Rinnah isn’t quite sure on the matter. REINCARNATION ? : I don’t think Rinnah wants this to exist, the possibility of coming back, and not having her family the way it was. She refuses to think about it. ALIENS ? :  Modern verse? Certainly POLITICAL  ALIGNMENT :   True neutral. Rinnah will making decisions based on who gets to her first ( and shows some form of affection/care, even if they’re faking.

ECONOMIC  PREFERENCE :   Skin changers are not known for being materialistic. They might have a home, but everything has its purpose, and is usually crafted by them, themselves. SOCIOPOLITICAL  POSITION : Granddaughter of a chief, but that really doesn’t mean much in her society. Everyone is inherently equal, in their eyes, though your behavior and prowess can sway it. EDUCATION  LEVEL :  Basic survival/self care. A bit of domestic knowledge, but no formal schooling. Can’t really read or write that well... (main verse only)

FAMILY.

FATHER :   Folkvar -Deceased- ( The White Lion ) 7′6″, broad and thick muscled. White hair, and blue eyes. A traveller by nature, until he met his match, Selehna, in the Withered Heath. He is jovial, and kind, though a big flirter as well. Has shared his bed with many people, of all races and genders when they’re interested. Doting father to his twin daughters, though Rinnah is his favorite, which everyone knows, but there is no problem with it. MOTHER :   Selehna -Deceased- ( The Knight Mare ) 6’4″, more slender and wiry, reminiscent of Elves. Dark red hair, and green eyes. Described by her husband ( and agreed upon by many ) as a Warrior Goddess. She has a temper, to be sure, and is not quite as cuddly as Folkvar. Though, her daughters are a different matter. Sinha is her favorite, and similar to her in many ways. Selehna is the beat down first, ask questions later type when it comes to intruders, or anyone threatening her family. Other times, she is cool and calculating. SIBLINGS :  Sinha -Deceased- 5′7″ ( At age 13 ) Fraternal twin to Rinnah. Lighter red hair than their mother ( not fiery ), and blind ( blue eyes ). Takes after their mother in build, and a bit in temperament. Sinha is not entirely fun-loving, but will do all sorts of playing and fun things with her sister, and their father should Rinnah be present. Calm, assertive.

EXTENDED  FAMILY :    Unknown on father’s side. Mother’s, however, which made up many of the tribe, were not fond of an outsider marrying their most sought after daughter. Were abusive to Rinnah when her parents took Sinha away to find a better healer. They are the source of all her scars, stunted growth, and psychological problems NAME  MEANING / S :    Folkvar: “guardian of the people”, Selehna: “Moon”, Rinnah: “Shouting for joy”, Sinha: made to match Rin’s HISTORICAL  CONNECTION ? :   N/A.

FAVORITES.

BOOK :   N/A MOVIE :   N/A 5 SONGS :  N/A

DEITY : Orome and Ulmo ( because she’s met both, and finds them to be quite pleasant )

HOLIDAY : N/A MONTH :  Probably September, when it’s not too cool, but Fall has begun. SEASON :  Summer/Fall PLACE :  She wanders too much to have a favorite. If she did, then there’s a good chance that there would be no more traveling for her. WEATHER :    Sunny days, warm, but not too warm for someone who...wears a fur coat -wink- SOUND :   The sound of fire crackling, the animals of the forest, rain on a roof, or on the leaves SCENT / S :   Baked treats and bread, roasting meat, freshly cut wood TASTE / S :    Savory, meaty flavors. Freshly baked bread, deserts of all sorts FEEL / S :    Leather, fur, crunching leaves, smooth river stones ANIMAL / S :    Dogs and horses, and bears NUMBER :  N/A. COLORS :  Golden yellow, warm browns

EXTRA.

TALENTS :    Good, scrappy fighter, ready to use whatever weapons she can find, and her body if she can’t. Cooking and singing. Very good listener. BAD  AT :  Reading, math, fitting in with more “cultured” people, especially the women TURN  ONS :   All sorts of things, really. Mostly anything that takes away her control, and even possibly belittles her. Teasing is good, verbal or otherwise, but nothing too cruel. Facesitting is pretty awesome (especially when someone else is doing the sitting). SIZE DIFFERENCE HELL FUCKIN YEAH. Experienced partners, and a reasonable amount of roughness. Put a hand around her throat, maybe pin her down completely, make her cum over and over until she’s begging you to stop, or the reverse is good too. TURN  OFFS :   MAKING ANY SORT OF NEGATIVE COMMENT TOWARDS HER GENITALS (The existence of, moreso than being like “oh gosh it’s so small, because that kind of comment makes her feel all hot and embarrassed and she loves it.)  HOBBIES :  Woodcarving, hunting, singing, traveling, sleeping in sun beams AESTHETIC  TAGS :   Animals of all sorts, gorgeous landscapes, carved wood, bone jewelry, all sorts of weapons (more along the primitive/medieval aspect), rustic dishes (bread and meats predominantly) GPOY  QUOTES :  N/A. Look at the musings tag on my blog

FC INFO.

MAIN  FC / S :   Emilia Clarke & Samantha Wright ALT  FC / S :  Isla from Plastic Memories (For any non-live action) OLDER  FC / S :   N/A YOUNGER  FC / S :  N/A VOICE  CLAIM / S :   Nora Patterson of Royal Teeth, I think, is probably the best I can find? GENDERBENT  FC / S :    N/A

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1 :   if  you  could  write  your  character  your  way  in  their  own  movie ,   what  would  it  be  called ,  what  style  would  it  be  filmed  in ,  and  what  would  it  be  about ?          A1 :   Oh geez, this is definitely a very tough question. Personally, I don’t think there’s really much of a way to do a movie about her. I mean, the beginning would be fun, probably, with the antics of her and Sinha, as well as just enjoying time with the parents. Then everything would just become depressing, more depressing, and then a bit indifferent as she went on her own. After all, She doesn’t have anything big that happens, she’s just another denizen of Middle-Earth.

Q2 :   what  would  their  soundtrack / score  sound  like ?          A2 :   Ooh boy, Instrumentals all the way for this one. It fits best with the world she lives in, and a lot of the Lord of the Rings stuff would fit for that reason. However, while it’s good on the epic/battle fronts, it doesn’t have quite as many happy and depressing songs that would fit for her. For that reason, I could actually see Ghibli type music working well. It has a whole range of emotional songs, from the most light-hearted, to the most heart-wrenching. Princess Mononoke would definitely have good instrumentals, as well as Spirited Away.

Q3 :   why  did  you  start  writing  this  character ?          A3 :  Well, I had her as a character in my mind since I first read The Hobbit in second grade. (I was really good at reading) There have been multiple revisions over the years (as children tend to make sort of mary-sue characters, but that’s not their fault), and I finally really settled about 2009. (other than the average hair changes because people don’t have to stick to one style)

Q4 :   what  first  attracted  you  to  this  character ?          A4 :   BEORN WAS MY FAVE IN THE HOBBIT AND I WANTED SO MUCH MORE!!! I would have loved a book about his life, and more of when the Company stayed at his home. Shape-shifting characters have always been a draw for me, but I wasn’t quite as fond of the one’s who had even more power than that. Trust me, being able to change into one animal is enough to make a character interesting, without overdosing on coolness and power.

Q5 :   describe  the  biggest  thing  you  dislike  about  your  muse.          A5 :   Being that Rinnah is naturally so friendly, and her culture pretty open, I have a lot of trouble when it comes to rp partners thinking that she’s trying to get into their pants. She also has a lot of fears and conflict when interacting with others, so I can’t always proceed the way I would like, in threads. Pleasing the character she’s interacting with is her top priority, so sometimes it can be pretty limiting.

Q6 :   what  do  you  have  in  common  with  your  muse ?          A6 :   We both stay quiet about our own problems, and will constantly try and help people while we, ourselves, are just treading emotional water. I personally, emotionally carried like half of my fellow Honor students in college through every midterm and finals week, while completely freaking out in my own head.

Q7 :   how  does  your  muse  feel  about  you ?          A7 : She’d probably be really excited to have someone like me as a friend. Interacting with me isn’t as emotionally taxing, because of my laid-back nature, so it would be very comfortable for her.

Q8 :   what  characters  does  your  muse  have  interesting  interactions  with ?        A8 :  Ya know, I can’t make this shit up. With, like, 90% of villain characters, she will become like someone they absolutely love to be around, some even ask to marry her, while others mostly go out with her, if she hasn’t been adopted by them. (And yes, I’m including the ones who really are not fond of other people, like; Gisborne, Smaug (in multiple cases), Bolg, Ganondorf, Hades, Gregor Clegane, Hyde (from BBC’s Jekyll), etc.

Q9 :   what  gives  you  inspiration  to  write  your  muse ?         A9 :  Music, mostly. If I’m listening to some good shit I will check tumblr so many times for notifications hoping that it’ll be time to write XD My other inspiration is all of the positive feedback I get from my partners, as well as my want/need to do the best that I can for them.

Q10 :   how  long  did  this  take  you  to  complete ?          A10 : Don’t....don’t even..please...

[morningrainmusic]

Untangling the Enigma that is Portugal. The Man’s Live Show

Photo courtesy of Joe Bertoni

6/16/17

It’s been a while since I’ve written a concert review, but I felt compelled to cover Portugal. The Man’s show Wednesday night at The Riviera. I went with my sister and brother-in-law. It was a warm, wet, overcast night in Chicago. We arrived in time for the last few songs of Electric Guest’s set, which I enjoyed. The show was 18+ so it was a relatively young crowd. Nothing unusual or outside the norm happened in the first hour upon arriving.

Before I go any further, I think I should break down where Portugal. The Man are at in their career and give some general background. The band is from Portland by way of Alaska and formed in 2004. They’ve put out seven albums since 2006. Their fourth, 2009’s The Satanic Satanist was their big breakthrough album and their last, 2013’s Evil Friends is their poppiest and arguably their best, though it has a couple duds on it. They had a big following before then, but the Danger Mouse-produced record really raised their profile. Their next album, Woodstock came out the other day. I haven’t listened to all of it yet, but if the four tracks they released before the full LP are any indication, P.TM is continuing down the road of shameless hip-hop-tinged pop-rock. Which isn’t surprising because the band has an excellent track record in that wheelhouse, and the album was produced by the Beastie Boys’ Mike D.

T-shirts at the merch table read in large capital letters “I liked Portugal. The Man before they sold out.” Another said something like, “Nothing can be counted on except love and the first twelve Portugal. The Man albums.” While P.TM’s new merch has some clear tongue-in-cheek connotations, I’ve always interpreted their lyrics as nothing but fully sincere and at times almost painfully obvious. Let’s put it this way: the band has a knack for making catchy, sometimes quite musically interesting tunes, but there’s not much digging to be done in terms of what they’re trying to communicate in the words. I doubt even diehard P.TM fans would refute that with much vigor.

But back to the Riviera. After Electric Guest finished up the three of us made our way to the back of the floor level, taking advantage of the post-opener shift that typically occurs, cautiously nudging past folks who’d already planted roots. Is it a bit of an a-hole move? Yes, I will acknowledge that. But it is also not at all uncommon at GA shows, plus there were only three of us and we were being mindful of the people around us so as to not blatantly block anyone’s view.

Whilst performing this delicate dance, the three of us settled (very temporarily as it would turn out) upon a spot near a group of girls that would best be described as “highly abrasive” and “having none of it.” One in particular, a young lady in her mid-twenties who was presumably paying rent on the spot she and her crew of urban pirates had claimed, got in my face spewing disapproval. She and her early bird cronies had been in that spot FOR HOURS and some 6-foot dickwad in a soccer jersey was not about to stand in front, next to, OR behind her. (For the record she didn’t call me a dickwad, she actually at one point said “you seem like a nice guy but…” in the way hostile/touchy people sometimes try to express that they don’t think you’re a total piece of shit despite their disgusted tone suggesting nothing but malice and contempt). On we moved down the line to a more accepting region of less territorial folk. A good spot was obtained, but it was also in the unfortunate position of within earshot of what must haven been the most annoying guy in the building. Way too vocally expressive of his effusive enthusiasm, chatty, yelling drum fills seconds before the actual drum fills, etc etc. “Let me know if I’m bothering you man” he kindly told me at one point. Looking back, I sort of wish I was the kind of person who wouldn’t think twice about telling him my honest thoughts.

Did these two instances taint my experience? Yes. Is it fair to judge a band based on your impression of some of its fans? That’s a tough question to answer, but in this particular instance, I’m going to say no. Nonetheless, it will very likely impact my impression of all P.TM fans going forward. These few folks probably aren’t representative of them all, but also, who’s to say for sure? I had zero negative interactions when I saw the band at the Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee in 2014, so I’m going to attribute this to Shitty Chicagoans, P.TM’s continued ascension in popularity, and all around bad luck on my part.

These unfortunate crowd encounters excluded, the show was equal parts entertaining and confounding. Portugal. The Man can be called many things, but slackers is certainly not one of them. They are performers. One might even call their set list “adventurous,” though I’d have to disagree. Opening with a Metallica song and playing a 15-plus minute opus of “All Your Light” with an Abbey Road track peppered in are certainly interesting choices, but I don’t really understand them. So many great tracks left out because they’ve made a habit of tossing in covers and closing with the Oasis anthem, “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” I get it, it’s a great song and a lot of fun to shout the chorus with 500 other people at a concert, but hit me with some prime Majestic Majesty tracks or one of your dozens of other good tunes. As for the drawn out “All Your Light” take, it was impressive, but also just exhausting, wasteful, and indulgent. Missed opportunity city.

Sometimes a band will have a track that’s so nice they can’t help but play it twice. For young bands one or two albums in with a huge standout crowd favorite, this makes sense. P.TM are definitely not one of those bands. And while “Feel It Still” is a really good song (their website describes it as a “global hit” which kinda makes me wonder who they’re trying to impress), there is absolutely no need to play it twice. Again, play more Portugal. I’m not being a hater…that is downright unacceptable.

I also don’t know that P.TM are quite qualified to have any business covering The Beatles. Here’s who should be allowed to cover The Beatles live: -Kids in high school bands who don’t know any better -tribute/cover bands -Superstar acts that have achieved or have been in consideration for “biggest band in the world” status -Rock’s living legends -Noel and Liam Gallagher in solo shows/side projects

P.TM fit none of these criteria.

Minimal talking from any band members between songs except for Zachary Carother’s comments about Chicago being a city they love to play because they’ve had so many wild and crazy nights in this town. He added “let’s party” before busting into the encore. “Let’s party” feels like a very appropriate phrase coming from the lips of any member of P.TM. It encapsulates the band’s ethos pretty nicely. These guys make such a concerted effort in their songs to put forth their anti-establishment attitudes, “fight the power” mentality, and rebellious “just for kicks” nature, it becomes a bit redundant at times. At least in a live setting, the band is at their best when they’re playing the catchy sing-alongs with lyrics seemingly built to be shouted by audience members doing that emphatic extended arm waving thing more common at hip hop shows. I’m thinking specifically of songs like “Hip Hop Kids” and the slightly better “Head Is A Flame.” These are not “thinkers” in any way, shape, or form. Party on, indeed.

Lastly, I want to address one of the more distracting elements of P.TM’s live experience: their video backdrop. In what appears to be part of their overall effort to incite strong reactions, the band has elected to use a series of befuddling, bizarre, and vaguely off-putting images of androgynous humanoid figures, usually in some sort of sexual position. The least androgynous one came towards the end: it was a largely jet-black mannequin-type figure thrusting against a beach ball held between its thighs in slow motion. This wasn’t all their backdrops, but it was a lot of them. I don’t really have anything to offer in the way of decoding or explaining this. I didn’t like it. And to say it was overdone would be THE understatement of this entire post. Be better, Portugal.

I came out of the show feeling like my relationship with the band had changed. Perhaps they’re more of a headphones band and not the kind I’m into enough to pony up $40 to be harassed/annoyed by concertgoers and visually assaulted with “artistically bold” rotating, flesh-colored crash test dummies. I wish they’d played a set closer to the one I saw in Milwaukee years ago. That being said, I had a great time and so did my sister and brother-in-law. And hey, they got a reaction out of me. It’s been two days and I’m not done thinking (and writing) about the show. May be over now, but I feel it still.

Setlist

1. For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica cover)  2. Another Brick in the Wall (Pink Floyd cover) / Purple Yellow Red and Blue  3. Feel It Still 4. Head Is A Flame (Cool With It) 5. Got It All (This Can’t Be Living Now)  6. Once Was One 7. Waves 8. Modern Jesus 9. All Your Light (Times Like These) / A Kilo / The Home / I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (Beatles cover) 10. So American 11. Hip Hop Kids 12. Holy Roller (Hallelujah) 13. Feel It Still 14. Don’t Look Back In Anger (Oasis cover)

Encore 15. Atomic Man 

 *People Say was also mixed in there somewhere

[relievingthewardrobe]

Fashion Vocabuary

Accent Emphasis given to a distinctive characteristic of a garment Accessories In fashion accessories refers to items with a useful or decorative purpose used in conjunction with one’s outfit. They complement and enhance the clothes worn. Include Belts & Suspenders, Bridal Veils, Eyewear, Footwear, Gloves & Mittens, Handbags, Handkerchiefs, Headwear, Jewelry, Legwear, Neckwear, Shawls & Wraps, Umbrellas, Watches Acid wash Treatment done on fabric to fade the colour with bleach solution. Achromatic colours This refers to having no colour ; in fashion it means black or white colours. Androgynous style Androgyny in fashion refers to dressing in styles that makes it difficult for the viewer to determine the gender of the person.Gender neutral fashion. Also called Unisex fashion Anime Anime is short for animation and refers to a dressing style that follows the fashion on Japanese Anime cartoons. Mostly features punk style clothing. Anti Fashion Dressing in styles different from the fashion of the day; showing an indifference to fashion and its varying trends Antique style A style of the past Anti Pill Treatment done on fabric to increase the wear resistance, preventing uneven and worn look of fabric surface Army look A style that resembles an army uniform (military style) Art deco Style incorporating geometric patterns in typical colours of yellow green gold silver and black Art Nouveau Style that incorporates linear and curvilinear designs Academic costume Characteristic clothes worn by those studying or teaching in colleges/ universities Accent This is an emphasis given to something like a colour or trimming or accessory Accent shades Bright dark colours like fluorescent colours. These are used as an emphasis rather than as the whole colour of a design. Accessory Refers to things like shoes, hats, jewellery, neckwear, belts, scarfs, gloves, corsets, lingerie boutonnieres that is added to an outfit to make it more fashionable Accessorizing The process of adding accessory to clothing on display Active sportswear Clothes worn by the participants in sports events Adaptation Garment/design similar to another original design/model but having some characteristic changes Advanced colours Warm colours like shades of red a la mode French term for fashion Accouterments A popular or the latest style of clothing, hair, decoration, or behavior. American Style A sporty easy going casual style of clothing Androgynous style A style that is neither strongly feminine or masculine Apparel Another word for clothes, clothing and garments Apparel manufacturing Involves assembling, cutting, finishing, grading, labeling, marketing of garments in an industrial set up Asymmetrical One sided , not balanced Atelier Large dressmaking organization Attire Clothing Athletic clothing Clothing worn for athletic activities. Brands like Puma specialize in athletic clothing Au naturel This french origin word is used to indicate something in its natural state. Like a nude body Avant-Garde Refers to never seen before innovative designs by designers who are original thinkers bringing change to fashion Body clothes Underclothing Balance / symmetry Having two opposing sides of same dimension Bespoke This refers to a made-to-order garment made as per the customer’s characteristic measurements and specifications. Usually said about men’s formal clothes or wedding clothes Barfly apparel Clothing suitable for wearing at cocktail bars Baroque Exaggerated style ; over ornate clothing style Beachwear Clothing suitable for beach Beaumonde The fashionable world Black tie event A dress code for evening events and social functions ; involves a tuxedo, tie and formal shoes. For girls, this is a long gown. Bling The term used for flashy ostentatious accessories Body-con clothing Tight filling clothing eg. Bodycon dress Boutique A store or shop ( usually high end expensive store) selling unique items to a specific set of customers Boyfriend style Meaning borrowed from boyfriend; Clothing style belonging to males adapted to suit females; eg. Boyfriend jeans Bib and tucker Colloquial term for clothes ( wear one’s finest clothes) Border print A design that is seen along the border of a fabric Bohemian style of fashion (Boho) An unconventional style of dressing  that draws inspiration from bohemian and hippie influences. Boho chic is a stylish bohemian fashion with many celebrities and socialities following this trend. Check out Business Formal dress code Garments suitable for a formal event – suits for both men and women and tailored dresses for women. Business Casual dress code Clothes suitable for a semi-formal event – pants and shirts for men, pencil skirts and blouses for women ; not too casual like jeans or too formal like suits. Bulky clothing Loose fitting clothing Capsule wardrobe This is a term used for a collection of a few timeless and essential items of clothing . Cut of a garment Style and shape of a garment and how it hangs on the body Camouflage clothing Design with elements of camouflage in it like the print / khaki colour Care label A mandatory label found in all clothes that denotes atleast one method of caring for that garment/fabric in lieu of symbols. They usually have fabric details, its content, washing drying, bleaching and ironing instructions Casual wear Informal wear; everyday garments Catwalk A platform along which models walk to display clothes in fashion shows. Channel suit A prestigious coveted suit for women designed by the Famous french designer Coco Chanel Chic Stylish / sophisticated Chinois Chinese style Cine mode A fashion with origin in the movies City wear Street clothes with a sophisticated style Cocktail dress code This is a party event – a suit for men and party dress for women Collection Usually held twice a year in spring/summer and fall/ winter Colour coordination Design incorporating colour theory and colour harmony Classic A style which is deemed timeless Clique As per Wikipedia clique is a small close-knit group of people who do not readily allow others to join them.In fashion cliue refers to a group of very fashion conscious people who share a common sense of style. Collection A set of creations of a designer for a particular season. Colour blocking This is a technique in which large blocks of solid coloured fabric are joined  (usually sewn) to form the garment ; placing blocks of different colours side by side this way provides a visually striking effect Colour fast This refers  to a dyed fabric’s ability to resist fading or colour running when it is washed, exposure to sunlight etc. Colorway A fashion industry terminology for a product in a specific color. Cosplay A pastime of dressing up in costume (Oxford dictionary) Country look A rustic look ; wearing tweeds Cool colours These are colours in the blue family Contemporary style A current look Continental style This refers to the European style of clothing Contrast In fashion this refers to using colours which are in stark contrast to each other and hence both stand out. Conservative styles Traditional dressing style Cosmetic colours Colours that relates to makeup/cosmetics used Cosmopolitan Dress style that is universal rather than localized Costume Garments based a theme or a story Couturier This is a french term for male designers. The female designer is a couturiere Craze A fashion which becomes extremely popular for a short period Composite style A combination of distinct styles; simple and refined; cool and feminine; feminine and flirtatious ; funky and fun. Costume jewelry This is jewelry made to complement a particular fashionable garment/collection ;  usually inexpensive than real jewellery Dated fashion Style of clothing which is Out of fashion  (no longer fashionable) Décolletage Area from the neck to the chest. Diffusion Line A  modestly priced line of garments made by an haute couture designer Distressing Process in which fabric is artificially aged or worn Draping The way a fabric falls/hangs on a body Drop tail style This refers to clothing with the back having more length than the front. Dandy style This is a term related to men’s clothing – indicating a flamboyant self-absorbent style of dressing Deadstock Clothing that has never been worn, often from previous season. Design elements In fashion, this refers to Color, Shape, line, texture, balance, harmony, proportion, pattern etc which are very important in designing well-liked clothes Double Denim Trend This is a style of wearing more than one clothing in denim at a time Eg. Denim Jacket with denim jeans. Also referred as Canadian Tuxedo Earth colors Colours in the brown family Eclectic style of fashion This is a fashion style composed of elements drawn from various sources;A mix of various styles Electric colours Brilliant colours Elegant dressing style A sophisticated graceful style Ensemble An outfit ( totally) that is coordinated and harmonious Eponymous fashion brand When a designer decides to name a brand his own name ie creator gives his own name to his brand. eg LOUIS VUITTON Ethnic Native or traditional Exotic Style that is fascinating and evoking the look of a foriegn land Embellishing The addition of decorative details or features Ensemble A set of clothes that give out a look of unity and coordination Designer A person who thinks up ideas for making extremely characteristic garments Display A presentation of clothes Effortless dressing This refers to a style which is high end but looks effortless. Fabric swatches Small pieces of fabric used as a sample Fabric Finishes This refers to the application of certain resins/chemicals or making the fabric undergo some processes so that its functional or aethetic appeal is enhanced. Fad A short lived fashion ; the popularity fades pretty fast after a burst. Fashion 2.0 Fashion in the digital age with social media and websites leading the way for major upheavals in fashion. Fashion capitals Refers to high fashion cities like Paris, New York, Los Angels, London, Tokyo, Berlin, Barcelona Fashion Cycle This refers to the rise rule and decline of a style Fashion Faux Pas A misstep made in fashion like a wrong choice of clothing Fashion Forecast A prediction as to the fashions / styles/ trends that will be popular in the coming future Fashion forward A person who is ahead and knowledgeable of fashion trends Fashion icon Some one who is very popular for his/her fashion style that every one looks up to him/her. Fashion Line All of the clothing a fashion designer produces for a specific category Fashion press Those reporting the fashion events / shows / displays etc Fashion show Displaying Formal collection of fashion styles by designers to merchandisers/ customers Fashion house A company involved in fashion design Fashionista A devoted follower of fashion Fashion icon A term used to refer to someone or something that has become popular for being extremely fashionable Fashion sense Knowledge of how to dress fashionably. Fashion police An imaginary police force that ensures that people dress according to fashion. Fashion sketch An initial drawing made for the purpose of garment design. It will give a basic idea about the garment Fashion subcultures Subdivisions of society that influence fashion and have a heavy influence on the fashion elsewhere everywhere. The attitude and beliefs of he subculture is reflected in their clothing. Grunge, punk, goth, alternative, bohemian,rock,  rap,and hip-hop are such subcultures Fashion tribe A group of people who share a common sense of dressing style / fad/ fashion Fashion victim A person who slavishly follows current fashion. Fabric Prints These are many prominent patterns which are very popular like animal prints African prints . Face of the fabric The outer surface of the fabric Fashion Label A collection of  expensive clothes belonging to a particular upcoming designer Fatigues Military combat apparel. Flat sketches Technical sketch of a design as if it were laying flat- the details include stitching techniques etc. Also called flats.You can make this by hand or with software like illustrator. Florals Fabric printed with floral patterns Formal clothing ( evening clothes) An occasion dressing style ;Long evening gown for females and suits / tuxedos for men Foundation Undergarment worn to smooth a figure Garcon look Garconne; A boyish fashion worn by women ; also called flapper look Gradation Shades of the same colour Greek Chic Style associated with the thinking man/woman, technology workers/professionals.Tailored suits, over sized glasses Grunge A messy unco-ordinated style of dressy seen in people who follow or like grunge music. Ripped jeans, layered clothing, black boots Haberdashery Sewing notions like buttons zippers etc; also refers to a men’s clothing shop High stepper A colloquial term for a person who is very aware or conscious of fashion and how he/ she looks. Hand of a fabric The feel of the fabric Haute Couture Expensive, fashionable clothes produced by leading exclusive fashion houses. It means the finest dress making in French language; simply termed as couture. Heavy metal fashion Fashion adopted by fans of heavy metal music ( metal heads or headbangers); skinny fit jeans, jackets, clothes with patches and badges High Fashion The designing, making, and marketing of expensive, fashionable exclusive clothes ( as opposed to mass-market clothing); haute couture Hippie style An unusual ( to western style) bohemian fashion style characterized by long hair, jeans  bell bottom pants peasant blouses tie and dye fabric, long full skirts etc Hosiery Tight fitting knitted garments worn on the leg and feet. It is usually made of highly stretchable fabrics like spandex. Hourglass figure A female body shape with narrow waist and proportionately bigger hips ad bust ; considered to be the ideal shape for women eg Hourglass figure of Marilyn Monroe House In the fashion world, a fashion house is a name used for a company dealing in fashion. Hot number A style which  sells very fast at that time Imitation A fake or copy ; usually used for describing fur and jewellery Iridescent colours Imitating the colors of the rainbow Impact colours A color used in a fashion design for an impact Jewel tones Deep colours Kawaii Kawaii is a cute fashion trend that originated in Japan. It follows the definite meaning of Kawaii – Japanese artistic and cultural style that emphasizes the quality of cuteness, using bright colours and characters with a childlike appearance. Kitsch In fashion refers to low quality style; garish style Knock Off A design that is a copy of a more expensive clothing Lagenlook style ( Layered style) This is a style in which different garments are layered over each other, in different lengths Limited edition clothing Line A collection of styles shown to a producer in a given season Line sheet A reference guide used by people connected with fashion detailing garment styles price, colour, fabric details etc related to a line. Look Book A book with all the photographs of a model, photographer, style, stylist, or images representing the full clothing line of a designer. It is meant as a catalog for marketing to be presented to the buyers. Long line clothing Clothing meant for tall people Loungewear Garments worn around the house Made to measure garments This refers to the use of  preexisting template patterns and then making the garments out of them after adjusting to the measurements of the customer Marine style A style that looks like the clothing of sailors Mass produced / Fashion Styles/ fashion that is widely accepted and hence made in large quantities Masculine style This refers to women’s clothing made to look like men’s ( also called mannish) Melange A fashion which is mixture, combination of things, elements or trends Minimalist A simple understated look; a fashion consisting of simple styles and plain colours. Monotone clothing Clothes of a single colour Mood Board A physical or digital collage of design ideas used by fashion designers to consolidate their collections or get ideas. Will have details of an idea, drawings or photos, fabric swatches etc. Motif A design used in a pattern/ print / embroidery etc ; usually found recurring Muslin This is a trial garment made to test a pattern ; it is originally made in the fabric muslin cotton Neutral Colours Neutral means without colour. In fashion Classic colours like black, white, gray, brown and beige and sometimes blue are called neutral colours Off the rack Another name for ready to wear mass-produced clothing in standard sizes that is made in a large number and is readily available in retail stores. Ombre This refers to the style in which color graduates from light to dark Over size Garments which are of a much looser fit. Passe Refers to anything that is No longer fashionable; out of date fashion.(pronounced pasei) This is deemed an insult in fashionable circles Panache Style which represents flamboyance or confidence Pantone colours Pantone colours refers to a colour reference system developed by the company Pantone Inc that standardizes the colours in the CMYK process. The pantone colours correspond exactly to the inks and dyes used to colour the fabric by various industries , basically for printing purposes and manufacture of coloured fabric. Pattern A template used as a guide to make a garment. Pret-a- porter Refers to ready to wear clothes Peek-a-boo style Refers to adding cut out details or sheer elements in garments which reveals parts of the body Peasant style A style which is reminiscent of the country women folk with embroidered blouses and long skirts Placement prints This refers to fabric patterns with print that consists of a large motif or design which is a stand out design and which is strategically placed on the garment which makes it a highlight Post modern fashion In this trend decoration is given more importance than function. Jean Francois Lyotard first explained this phenomenon; Vivienne Westwood, Alexande Mcqueen etc were proponents of this style, which had a lot of theatrical style to it. Power dressing Refers to a  style of dressing that emphasizes one’s power. The word was coined in the 1970s and it meant a smart tailored dressing meant to impress.Now represents clothes that men and women wear to workplaces and meetings to make them look powerful. Preppy style A collegiate look; for boys polo shirts, chinos and navy blazers Prespring collection This refers to high-end collections of fashion designers marketed to upscale stores for customers expecting to spend the post-holiday season in warm-weather climates. Print on print Colorful and vibrant clothing with lots of different prints mixed in. Punk style This is style which epitomizes the punk subculture with its roots in music and emerged into prominence in the western world during the  mid 1970s. Distressed jeans, metal studs, chains, body piercing and leather jackets all are characteristics of this style. Resort  wear (Cruise wear) This is line of clothing meant as holiday or travel collection; it is meant for a  relaxed living for the affluent people ; clothes meant for the poolside life. Also refer Pre-spring collection Ready to wear or RTW This is the term for factory made clothing in standardized sizes Retro Style imitative of or derived from the trends of the recent past. Reversible clothing Garments that can be reversed and used from both sides. The seam allowances etc will be hidden with clever construction methods. Rockability fashion The fashion following the dressing style of music icon Elvis Presley; characteristics are tight jeans or black pants (drainpipe pants), brothel creeper shoes, motorcycle jackets

Safari style The kind of clothing that resemble clothes worn during hunting Sample A garment made to be shown to the retailers/merchandisers Silhouette Outline or shape of a design or garment Seamstress A person who sews Selvedge The finished edge of the fabric ( on opposite sides of the lengthwise fabric) Sanforized clothing A shrink control process  used on fabric Sleek style The style which gives a slender slim streamlined look Slip on clothes The type of clothes which are worn without any fastenings / just slip on through the head Slim fit Clothing made to fit close to the body. Sloper This is a type of basic pattern that is used as the building block for all other pattern making without any ease or design elements ( craftsy.com) Slogan This refers to the wordings printed or worked across the bodice of a garment. Eg slogans on the chest of a tshirt Sportswear A casual style of clothing meant for a relaxed look but can be used in a casual business setting too. American style dressing Statement Jewelry Bold and Attention grabbing Jewelry meant to grab all eyeballs. Eg Statement necklace. Street wear This is basically clothes meant for the streets – skater friendly garments. It is a broad difficult to define fashion and may mean simply urban fashion. Stonewashed fabric A fabric faded through a specific process Stylist (Fashion) A person who dresses clients in styles that she /he curates. It could be for editorial purposes, for celebrities, for branding purposes in marketing. Surfer look A carefree dressing style sported by surfers on beaches Sartorial Anything related to Tailoring, clothes, fashion or style of dress.;Of or pertaining to tailors and their trade (www.dictionary.com); it is also used in relation to the quality of a dress Separates Clothes that are bought separately and cover only part of the body but can be mixed and matched to create combinations. Eg: pants and shirts Supportive clothing This refers to clothing that gives support ; eg. muscular support for sports, support for bust, support for legs with ailments like a varicose vein Style “Fashion is what you’re offered four times a year by designers. And style is What you choose.” Lauren Hutton Style Surfing This refers to shifting from clothing style of one subculture to other; sometimes combining and transforming styles Sweats Cotton jersey sports wear Tailoring Making of made to measure/custom made garments Throwback fashion Fashion belonging to the past Theme This refers to a concept behind a collection of clothes designed by fashion designers – usually they have a message or an attitude Theme board (mood board) A board with fashion drawings, sketches, swatches used to create a mood about a product. Toile This is a clothing made by a fashion designer or a seamstress for testing purposes – it can be made to test a pattern or a design, to see how the garment will look and drape and whether it needs any alterations or additions. It is usually made in a cheap fabric Tone on Tone General term for Colour combinations with shades of the same colour. Trend A general direction in which something is developing or changing ( oxford dictionary) Trendy An adjective used to describe someone who is very fashionable or stylish Trunk show Display of a designers collection in a store Twin prints Two prints that share the same colour combination in one garment Unisex style Clothing suitable for both female and male gender. Also called Androgynous style. Up cycled clothing This is creative reuse of old clothes by changing certain design elements. Utilitarian clothing Functional clothing rather than decorative ; Clothes that serve a practical purpose. Usually points to work clothes. They are practical and functional rather than decorative. eg: a Raincoat protecting from rain Vintage Clothing inspired from a previous era. Fashion/Things belonging to the time 20 years or older can be considered to be vintage. Wasp waist Exaggeratedly narrow waist making the hips and bust look bigger in comparison ; usually achieved by using corsets. This was the popular way of dressing in the 19th century England Warm colours Red, yellow and orange and in between colours in the colour wheel WWD Full name – Women’s Wear Daily a magazine considered to be the bible of fashion Weft In the fabric, fibers that run the width of the fabric. X-ray Fabric Sheer fabric used to make clothes. 70’s style Style of clothing characterized by Wide legged trousers, slouchy silhouettes, big prints. Abbreviations used in fashion LBD – Little Black Dress OOTD – Outfit of the Day

[beatiewolfe]

Highsnobiety Feature Beatie Wolfe in 10 Ways Music Will Change in 2017

Awesome to be featured in Highsnobiety's '10 Music Trends That Will Be Huge in 2017' ... Read the full article via the link or with out the images below...

10 Music Trends That Will Be Huge in 2017

Now that we’re firmly within the new year, Paul Hanford gazes into his crystal ball and predicts the biggest music trends that will dominate 2017.

2016 frequently felt more like an extortionately long and brutal episode of Game of Thrones than a year in the 21st century. Twelve months ago, would any of us have actually believed a Twitter troll could become President of the USA, or that we’d be mourning the loss of so many musical icons?

Yet, in times of hardship, art gets to work and does what it’s supposed to: confound expectations, innovates and inspires.With that in mind, and with creativity and tech fusing more and more, 2017 could very well emerge as a golden era for music.

Here are 10 music trends that will blow up or continue to rise in the next twelve months:

Music Will Be Released in More and More Unconventional Ways

From Rihanna’s Anti to Beyonce’s Lemonade and all the way back to T.I.’s Us Or Else: Letter To The System, 2016 was all about the unexpected album drop. As the influence of established record companies and their big pre-release marketing campaigns continues to disintegrate, over the next twelve months the unexpected album drop will pale in comparison to the kind of immersive approaches re-shaping the very concept of what an album can be.

Take, for example, London-based Beatie Wolfe, who balances the timeless romantic song-craft of her music with distribution methods that have attracted a salivating tech community and resulted in her getting a TED platform and Wired column inches.

Already, she’s released a single as a musical jacket and an album as a series of digitally interactive cards, and, in 2017, she’ll be taking experiential-as-an-art-form further, collaborating with award winning Designers I/O (of MOMA and Tate Modern fame) and inventors Bell Labs to release her next song cycle.

Grime Will Cement Its Greencard

There was a time when UK hip-hop felt to the rest of the world like one of those nodding bulldogs people put in the backs of their cars: charming, but ultimately pointless.

Now, although Grime has taken the better part of this century to spread its wings abroad, the visa has finally come through. Mercury Prize winner Skepta is on Kanye’s speed-dial; Drake handpicked South London’s piano-playing rapper Dave for his latest mixtape; The New York Times treated Stormzy’s stateside appearances with awe and AJ Tracey is way up high in many 2017 ones-to-watch lists. Grime arrived stateside over the last couple of years, and this trend is set to continue.

Get Used to Hearing the Word “Experiential”

Let’s talk about adverts. Can you remember the last time on YouTube you actually thought, “I won’t press skip in five seconds because I really, really want to watch this ad?” Me neither.

Companies know we’ll use ad-blockers, remove cookies and do pretty much anything else to avoid our streaming pleasures being interrupted, so they’re having to work far more insidiously to grab our attention. All of this has lead to “experiential” becoming as big a buzzword as its more culturally-aligned sister, “immersive”. Basically, experiential advertising places the would-be consumer in an immersive, branded experience.

In 2016, Heineken released plans for a new campaign called “Takeover,” allowing wearers of customized Heineken wrist-bands to control the DJ’s music at festivals. Experiential pioneers like Red Bull have been fusing the lines between creative output and branded content for years, and in 2017 this will be the main battleground on which advertisers will fight for music fans’ attention.

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Whether it’s PIL’s mantra, “anger is an energy!” or NWA rallying against the LAPD with “Fuck tha Police”, difficult political climates have always fueled rebellious creativity. Even prior to his election win, there was a surge of anti-Trump music in 2016, from YG’s “Fuck Donald Trump” to alt-lit god Dave Egger’s 30 Days, 30 Songs project.

With hairy has-beens Ted Nugent and Kid Rock the only musicians willing to play at Trump’s inauguration, his administration team are reportedly offering seven digit figures for more credible artists to play. As of now, nobody is up for it.

In 2017, be prepared for ubiquitous Trump slurs in your favorite artists’ releases.

Pop Stars Are Now Younger Than Windows 98

Pop has always been a youthful genre, but given that a member of The Lemon Twigs was younger than Windows 98 (just 14 years old!) when they started making their album, musical sophistication is arriving earlier and earlier. 18-year-old South London rapper Dave also attracted the attention of Drake last year, who remixed his “Wanna Know” track, and 17-year-old indie-electro musician Declan McKenna has been receiving accolades for his work, too.

In 2017, pop stars will make increasingly complex and interesting work at ever-younger ages.

The (Beginning of the) Death of Bro Culture

Could 2017 be the death knell of bro culture within EDM? In the traditionally male-dominated field, nine of Mixmag’s “Top Twenty Breakthrough DJs of 2016” were female, which signals a positive trend for 2017.

In the year that saw the passing of Bowie (the original androgynous rebel), we also witnessed the astronomic rise of Anohni; and with artists like Jana Hunter from LA’s atmospheric rock band Lower Dens describing themselves as “gender non-binary” and New York’s queer-core rockers PWR BTTM continuing to rise, we could be on the crest of a golden age of gender and sexual acceptance within music.

The Return of Bowie?

Picture the scene: you’re in the midst of Daft Punk’s set at, say, Coachella. Halfway through, like a resurrecting John Snow, David Bowie rises up on the stage. Before you can pinch yourself, he’s ripping into “Let’s Dance” with gallic robots grooving behind him.

Sounds crazy, right? Yet, ever since Tupac rose from the dead to duet with Snoop and Dre at Coachella in 2012, holograms have been hot, and as with VR, tech companies are channeling vast research into this area. Japan already has its own totally holographic pop-star, the “16-year-old” Hatsune Miku.

Bowie, always ahead of the times, appeared in hologram form at the AIR Gallery in West London over decade ago. We’re predicting he’ll be back in hologram form in 2017, along with – hopefully! – Prince, George Michael and Phife Dawg.

Drake Will Continue to Drake

One thing will not change in the coming year: Drake’s dominance. From his game-changing deal with Apple to his categorization of his forthcoming work, More Life, as a playlist rather than an album, Drake encompasses the streaming age like no other artist.

With over a billion plays of the Apple-financed “Hotline Bling” video, Drake could pretty much spend the next twelve months occasionally streaming the sound of himself breaking wind without doing any harm to his career whatsoever. 2017 will be another big year for the polarizing Canadian rapper.

Algorithms Will Be Everywhere

In November 2016, Google Play Music released a list of 10 acts “expected to be huge in 2017.” What made their poll different from the flurry of predictions from every tastemaker, style brand and music publication is the fact that it was constructed from a combination of streaming stats, YouTube subscribers, track performances and the instincts of some Google Play specialists.

Predictably for a list largely derived from algorithms, it took less risks than an Ed Sheeran chord change. However, in these uncertain political times, can we really blame Google Play Music for not venturing a bold, original opinion? In 2017, you can be sure the easy algorithm opt-out will prevail.

People Will buy Records and Listen to Cool Shit

In December 2016, for the first time, sales of vinyl in the UK outstripped download sales. This doesn’t mean that your average teen is walking around car boot sales foraging for Pink Floyd re-issues, though. Rather, it signals that vast numbers of people are streaming rather than buying.

Whatever crazy app war may kick off between Spotify and whoever else is vying for our streaming attention, boutique record labels such as Domino and Warp will continue to survive by running a tight ship and maintaining a carefully-crafted roster of artists. In 2017, the underground will continue to throw up fresh, out-of-nowhere sounds and new genres will rise and fall in the blink of a refresh button.

Words: Paul Hanford