#like these are two very different warm garments we don't need to make them share a word

[shitty-check-please-aus]

I ordered three garments, from the same company, direct from their website, all in the same size

the jacket fit me like it was 1-2 sizes over my size

the overalls fit me like it was my correct size

the pinafore/jumper fit me like it was 1-2 sizes below my size

like 1) how the fuck am I supposed to shop in conditions like this 2) how the fuck am I supposed to be convinced that it’s my body that’s the problem and not the clothes when I’m dealing with this level of consistency

[shiranuieditorial]

Alrighty, a question! Don't exactly even need to know, but I'm curious. Which japanese names are used gender neutral? I have heard of a few, like Tsubaki, Akira, Minato and so on, but a list would be nice. On another note, Erika is a japanese name as well as german, right? Like Yuka is both an Inuit and japanese name x3 I do find it funny that complete different ends of the world could have such small things in common.

gender expressions & impressions of jp given names depend on: (1) the precise characters it comprises of, (2) the reading it uses, (3) societal trends and sentiments, and (4) each individual’s personal perception (and experience) of gender and the name. therefore, sooooo many names out there can be considered unisex and/or gender-neutral! there are hundreds of thousands of possible character combinations you can use to create given names, and what’s more to love is that unisex and gender-neutral names are pretty sought-after, especially in the modern day and the foreseeable future. we love our unisex names and we’re very proud of them!

if there’s any specific theme of names you’d like to see, you can send in an ask with your criterias and i’ll compile you a list. besides my gdoc of rare and unusual jp given names i shared in my previous post, i also have this gdoc of generic/basic/average jp given names you can sort through if you’d like.

indeed, erika and yuka are names that can exist in the jp language. maybe this tip will help with remembering and identification? you can make given names out of almost any set of syllables from the japanese syllabary, as long as it’s within reason (e.g. sounds good as a name, seems logical or plausible, 1–5 syllables in one name, etc.).

(apologies for the deep-fried quality haha—this is the only kana-to-romaji chart i have ever saved, because i prefer linguistic charts to be as plain-colored, plain-fonted, and plain-formatted as possible.)

for clan/family names however, the rules aren’t as lax because most of them follow kanji and the most standard readings for said kanji. a small % of family names have a mix of kanji + kana in them, which still follow the standard readings of the kanji + of course the unchangeable readings of the kana. only very few (native, non-transcribed) family names out there are entirely written in kana (a real-life example of this is つわぶき峻 Tsuwabuki Toshi, the stage actor who played sakusa in the haikyuu stageplay). oh, and, because we can never have too many exceptions, jp culture also has this very unique occurrence where sometimes, some certain family names get to be as lax as given names in terms of the grapheme-to-phoneme relation, and some people have decided use this opportunity to be very punny wordplayers. these are very few in number, however, and they have history behind them! so i wouldn’t recommend the average writer/artist/fictionist to come up with some on their own. examples of this last one:

一 Ninomae | 一 means “one” | “ninomae” sounds like you’re saying 二の前, “before two”

小鳥遊 Takanashi | 小鳥遊 means “small birds play” | “takanashi” sounds like you’re saying 鷹無し, “there are no hawks/eagles” | ergo, small birds play outside because there’s no hawk preying around.

四月朔日/四月一日/四月朔/四月朔月 Watanuki | 四月朔日/四月一日 means “first of april” | “watanuki” refers to this word 綿抜き, “cotton-stripping; to take out the cotton [padding]” | there’s an old tradition of changing winter-wear cotton-lined warming robes and kimono into lighter summer-wear garments in the 1st day of the 4th lunar month, which is said to prevent children from suffering diseases and potentially dying. i’m a bit confused at what the big deal is with this tradition, because it just seems like common sense to me? seasons change and so do your clothes. that’s normal.

月見里 Yamanashi | 月見里 means “moon-viewing village” | “yamanashi” sounds like you’re saying 山無し, “there are no mountains” | ergo, you can see the moon and do some stargazing if your view isn’t obstructed by mountains. although, i have to point out the fallacy in this logic, as someone who lives surrounded by 3 whole mountain ranges, i know fully well that mountains only obscure a very small % to none at all of your ground view of the night sky. “starless” nights are all the clouds and pollution’s fault! so really, this name should’ve been called Kumonashi (from 雲無し, “cloudless”) instead.

i could’ve sworn i knew more than 4 of these punny family names...

(edit: i found more!)

飛鳥 Asuka | 飛鳥 means “flying bird” | “asuka” refers to the place name 明日香 (“tomorrow fragrance”) | basically, what happened here is that the word 飛鳥 (hichou), coming from the phrase 飛ぶ鳥の (tobu tori no, “flying bird of...”), became a pillow word for the place known as Asuka. both spellings were historically interchangeable.

春日 Haruma, Kasuga, Kasuka | 春日 means “spring sun; spring day” | the word 春日 (shunjitsu/haruhi) was used as a pillow word to introduce the place name Kasuga (which presumably had no kanji writing prior to this?). existing logical readings for 春日 include Haruhi and Haruka.

漢 Hata | 漢 means “han chinese”, the worldwide major ethnic group originating in china | “hata” sounds like you’re saying はた/端, “nearby; besides”

日向 Higa, Higano, Hina, Hinada, Hinata, Hiuga (Fiuga), Hyuga, Hyuuga | 日向 means “in the sun; [facing] towards the sun” | (1) for the Hinata reading; this name is composed of 日 (hi, “sun”) +‎ な (na, old japanese possessive particle, equivalent to modern の) +‎ た (ta, “direction; side”, archaic equivalent of 方). (2) for the Fiuga, Hiuga, and Hyuuga readings; dialectal differences shifted old japanese reading “Pimuka” into “Fimuka” → “Fiuga” → “Hiuga”. southern dialects and languages tend to have this fi- sound that’s nonexistent up in the north. (3) Hiruga may be explained as 「昼日」 (hiru + ka, “daytime sun”) with a rendaku 日 (turning the “-ka” into “-ga”, which is unnecessary, because rendaku doesn’t commonly happen to 日, but everything is full of exceptions today, so... 🤷). existing logical readings of 日向 include Hikou, Himuka, Himukai, Himuki, and Nikkou.

陽向 Hizashi | 陽向 means “in the sun; [facing] towards the sun” | “hizashi” sounds like you’re saying 日差し (may also be written 陽差し、日射し、陽射し、日ざし、陽ざし、日差、or 陽射), “sunlight; sunshine; sun rays”

五十嵐 Igarashi | 五十嵐 means “fifty storms/tempests” | “igarashi” sounds like you’re saying 伊賀嵐, “iga [city] storm” | i believe this may be a reference to the huge storm in 1612 which destroyed the famous iga-ueno castle.

五月雨 Samidare | 五月雨 means “fifth [lunar] month rain”, referring to the heavy rains that occur around early summer | “samidare” sounds like you’re saying 早水垂れ, “early rain fall” | this is a word (for the seasonal occurrence), a place name, and a destroyer name; not family name. i just thought it was cool enough to mention here!

時雨 Shigure | 時雨 means “timely rain; winter rainfall” (originally referred to rainshowers in late autumn to early winter, occasionally late summer and all of autumn too, but today, shigure only refers to a winter rainshower) | “shigure” sounds like you’re saying the classical/literary verb 時雨れる, “to rain a shower” | the history is a bit blurry on this one. 時雨, as a word, was an orthographic borrowing from chinese. it happened a hefty long time ago, and was incorporated into old japanese as the classical verb 時雨る (shiguru), which was later given the modern rendering 時雨れる (shigureru), which then presumably became the clan name Shigure.

日本 Yamatono | 日本 means “base/foundation/origin of the sun” and is the modern name for japan | “yamatono” sounds like you’re saying 大和の, “of the yamato people’s” | 大和 (yamato) was the ancient name for japan before it was changed to 日本 (nihon/nippon), and also the name of an ancient province, the name of the current dynasty (and consequently, the imperial family as well), the name of an old battleship, and is sometimes still used to refer to japanese people in a historic way. it’s worth noting that the reading of “yamato” itself isn’t grammatically logical for the kanji 大和. my best theories as to how 大和 became yamato are: (1) homophone of 山都 (“mountain metropolis”), (2) homophone of 山門 (“mountain gateway”), and (3) homophone of 山人 (“mountain people”); but i haven’t seen any proper, in-depth linguistic study done on this, so i can’t guarantee anything. the kanji 倭 [yamato, shitaga.u | wa, i] was likely based on 大和 after it got its “yamato” reading, so 倭 isn’t an important factor in this discussion (as of right now, at least).

hope this answers your curiosity!

[baronessblixen]

I NEED a fic about the drawing of the sleeping baby lying between a Mulder and Scully! Pretty please?

Anon, I hope THIS is the pic you mean? At least that’s the one I used now. Probably best described as an alternate take on “The Truth”. Tagging @today-in-fic

Something kicks him,connects with his arm in a painful way, and Mulder startles awake. His visionis blurry, his breathing way too fast; the remains of a nightmare cling to himand hold him captive. Relax, a silent voice inside him whispers; it sounds likeScully. He rubs his eyes to get the sleep out and wake up, take in hissurroundings. She is here, as is William. Both are sleeping peacefully,unafraid of being vulnerable. Mulder lets out a long breath. He is home. Thesomething that kicked him was his son. What a mundane, wonderful thing. Hisbreathing is slower to catch up. Too often has he woken up on the floor, aspider or bug crawling over his skin, sand in his mouth. He licks his lips now,tastes nothing but toothpaste and the faint idea of Scully. Home, he repeats inhis mind. He's longed to be here with Scully and their son for so many months.As he watches them now, their breathing almost in sync, a cold shudder washesover him. Whether he is home in a warm bed, loved, or all alone hiding in thedesert, nightmares have a way of finding him without fault.

His hand reaches outtentatively. William is fast asleep and he's a heavy sleeper; Mulder haslearned that in the last two weeks, ever since he's been back. He is Scully'sson, through and through. The thought doesn't bother him. After all, he's notbeen here, has not been home. It's a wonder his son accepts him at all, grinsat him with outstretched arms, as if he, too, had only been waiting for him tocome home. Mulder's hand lands on the boy's pajama-clad arm. It's soft andwarm; most of all, it's solid, real. His fingers trace the small spaceships onthe garment, a smile on his lips. Scully blushed when he asked her about it.Mumbled how she thought it was cute and how she knew he'd love it. As always,she was right. He's dreamed about this, too, every once in a while when thenightmares gave him a time out. This time, tonight, it's not a dream. William andScully are here, are real.  

"Mulder?" Scullyhas been worried about him, has watched him like a hawk ever since he's comehome. Mulder understands. He refuses to talk about it, his time away. He wantsto be here, right now, and not in the past. There are so many things to lookforward to; there's a life to be lived. He wants to get to know his son, wantsto spend time with Scully and not think for once, not feel the weight of theworld on his shoulders.

"Go back tosleep, Scully." He almost adds an 'I'm fine', but catches it before it leaveshis lips.

"Nightmare?"She asks and scoots closer. William, wedged between them, sighs in his sleep.Mulder should have known that Scully knows him too well. He nods silently eventhough he doubts she can see it in the darkness. Her sigh, though, so muchdifferent than William's, tells him she understands anyway.

"Tell me aboutit." They used to do this, share their nightmares like dirty secrets at asleepover. Mulder doesn't want his dream out of his mind, here in the sanctityof his home. He wants it to fade away into oblivion, disappear from hisconsciousness. It's not real, it never was and never will be. His eyes findScully's face. It's so dark in their bedroom that he can't even be sure hereyes are open.

"I don't…"

"I know youremember it, Mulder," her voice is warm and as soft as the cotton underMulder's fingers, "Tell me. Please." He closes his eyes against hiswill. He doesn't want to see it, feel it again. The emptiness.

"It was uhm… wewere in a hotel room, I think. Just the two of us and I… I don't know what wewere doing there. It was raining. Pouring rain. It reminded me of our firstcase together. But everything else was wrong. There was mold behind thewallpaper. You couldn't see it, not really, just feel it somehow…," hetrails off. Mulder knows that his part of the dream is part of a memory. Onethat doesn't include Scully. Nights on the run were eerily similar, most of thetime. Every once in a while he had a comfortable place to stay, to sleep. Moreoften than not, he didn't. He wrinkles his nose, remembering.

"It was justus." Mulder repeats. "There was no-" His breath catches and helooks down at William. He's still there, their son. A perfect blend of theirphysical features. Mulder hopes that his personality, his very own, will have afew of Scully's traits, some of his, too. He can't wait to discover who his sonis in the following years. Mulder feels thankful that he gets the chance, now."William wasn't with us. We, in my dream, we – you – had given him up foradoption." He hears her gasp and nods; unthinkable, impossible.

"It was just adream." Scully says and it sounds as if she needs to remind not only him,but herself as well. She draws William closer to her, making sure he's herewith them, that he's still theirs. He is. The boy, fast asleep, stretches hislegs in an attempt to get more comfortable. His foot kicks against Mulder again;a repeat of what woke him up in the first place. This time Mulder just smiles.He presses a kiss against William's warm, rosy cheek. He just can't stophimself.

"Go back tosleep, Mulder." Scully throws his earlier words back at him. She's closerto him now, but not close enough. She never is these days. He puts his hand onher waist, needing to feel her, needing to know she is real, too. "We'llstill be here when you wake up." Scully is always right. So why should shebe wrong about his? Mulder closes his eyes and sleep takes him by the hand,leads him to a restful place where the nightmares, at least for tonight, can'tcatch him. In the morning, William and Scully are still there. The dream fadesuntil it's forgotten.