#lond story

[malistaires]

learning that mellori betrays the wizard now makes a lot of (mostly reddit) opinions ive seen of her make sense lmfao. like ppl not liking her or saying that her character was “ruined”. idk im of the opinion that writing characters to make choices i dont necessarily like doesnt constitute "ruin." it just makes them a character.

[foolilazuli]

Wasnt a teen when i read this, i was about eleven and the book i read was the last unicorn(i dont remember if that was the title) but i remember that there was a girl who hunts unicorns due to a misunderstanding

What happened was she had a heart condition at a young age and her dad tried to get the unicorn to heal her cause she was about to die. What he didnt know was the unicorn used its horn to heal and since the girls heart was the problem it stabbed its horn into her. That caused the dad to panic and kill the unicorn causing the unicorn to fall and as it did a piece of its horn got lodged in the girls heart. Shes healthy, she can age, but she cant die. She outgrew all of her friends and family and is an old lady who hunts unicorns out of hatred

what's a book you read as a teenager that was so magical and personally profound to you it literally changed your life, doesnt matter if the book was actually well written or not. mine's probably the catcher in the rye

[powdermelonkeg]

On the ancient Hyrulean stone tablets

In Tears of the Kingdom, there's a sidequest you get relatively early called Messages from an Ancient Era, in which you are tasked with finding stone tablets hidden throughout Hyrule that contain Zonai-era first-hand accounts of the royal family. There are 13 in total to locate.

You yourself can't read them, and must take pictures of the tablets to take them to Wortsworth, a Zonai Survey Team historian who can read the ancient texts for you.

The problem with this is that he doesn't tell you what the tablets actually say; he reads their ancient Hyrulean as-is, then gives his own take. And it's a take which cuts out so much context from the original text.

Fortunately, I am a nerd.

Unnamed First Tablet

The ancient Hyrulean:

"Ones held y honore als hochmayde to kyng Rauru ond quen Sonia, thaerafter to his suster ond to princesse Zelda. "Her on thaes gret stan ond twelf mo withalle make y endite min time with the hyred roial. "So michte heore remembraunce preserven for the sake of him on whom oure hope raeste."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"It's short, but it's an introduction from a servant to Rauru and Sonia, the founding king and queen of Hyrule. "She also waited on the king's elder sister, Mineru, as well as someone named Zelda, and wrote of their daily lives in 13 tablets. "It couldn't be simpler! "I intend to more thoroughly research what this chamberlain hoped to convey in these ancient tablets."

The actual translation:

"Once held I honor as handmaid to king Rauru and queen Sonia, thereafter to his sister and to princess Zelda. "Here on this great stone and twelve more withall make I ending my time with the hired royal. "So might here remembrance preserve for the sake of him on whom our hope rests."

Account of a Celebration

The ancient Hyrulean:

"So swete the song of kyng Rauru, ond so grete the beaute of his susteres daunce, that wer min eies ond eres captif. "Ond so hende quen Sonias gasen on us alle, so felt y min herte als captif fallen. "Seruantes lyf, tho moche laboursum, han moche jolitee as welle. Longe be the lyf of the roial familie thaere y love so."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"This is an account of a party from those days. "It says King Rauru and his older sister sang and danced together while Queen Sonia looked on. "We think of royalty as austere and reserved, but these nobles amused themselves with song and dance. "But what a vivid recounting of a scene never before related in any history book… "The descriptions of their personalities and expressions make the ancient past feel alive again. "This stone tablet is a first-class find. Well done, dear chamberlain, in leaving behind this account for us. "I'm positively beside myself to think of how this story from the ancient past persevered so long to reach us today."

The actual translation:

"So sweet the song of king Rauru, and so great the beauty of his sister's dance, that were mine eyes and ears captive. "And so had queen Sonia's gaze on us all, so felt I mine heart also captive fallen. "Servant's life, though much laboursome, have much jollity as well. Long be the life of the royal family there I love so."

The Strong Queen and the Receptive King

The ancient Hyrulean:

"Sonia, quen to Hyrules kyng, bi birthe Hylian preesterresse, hirself yborn of londe, nat of skie aboven. "Speken she with open herte, eornest to alle, euen even to the Zonais kyng. "This kyng ythinke it gode aventure so to lerne of the londes folke. To sen his hed ybent to listenen is swich plesaunce."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"This one looks to be about Queen Sonia. It claims that Sonia was a priestess before marrying Rauru. "Despite his status as a Zonai, a people popularly thought to be gods, she would counsel him without any trepidation. "Moreover, Rauru heeded this counsel. "This account gives us firsthand knowledge of the nature of Queen Sonia and King Rauru's relationship. "Rauru found himself unexpectedly charmed by her strong will, and before long, they were married… "Er, that last bit isn't in the text. That's me speculating. "History rarely speaks of a person's character prior to being elevated to royalty. So I can't help but fantasize."

The actual translation:

"Sonia, queen to Hyrule's king, by birth Hylian priestess, herself born of land, not of sky above. "Speak she with open heart, earnest to all, even even[sic] to the Zonai's king. "This king thinks it a good adventure so to learn of the land's folk. To seen his head bent to listening is such pleasure."

The Harmonious Couple

The ancient Hyrulean:

"Oft wys Rauru, kyng of kene blade, weyve his werk real in faver of the hunte. "Ond oft queynt Sonia, quene of kene insight, seke out him and repaire this kyng to kyngly besynesse. "In hir sapience semes she divin, that she cunne him ever finde and for hes folly semes him the mor humain. "Ond the kyng? O, he laughe. Nat him hir equal for hir wit, he kunne. Ond the quen, she laughe to, als even she scolden."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"This is a tale of King Rauru. "Apparently, he would vacate his official business from time to time in order to go out hunting. "I had the impression he was a stricter, more serious king, but I guess he had a lighter side as well. "However, Queen Sonia was always a step ahead. She would put a stop to King Rauru's hunts and bring him back. "We rarely get a glimpse into the down-to-earth side of royalty in this way. It's an important find, to be sure."

The actual translation:

"Oft was Rauru, king of keen blade, leave his work real in favor of the hunt. "And oft quaint Sonia, queen of keen insight, seek out him and repair this king to kingly business. "In her sapience seems she divine, that she can him ever find and for his folly seems him the more human. "And the king? Oh, he laughs. Not him her equal for her wit, he knows. And the queen, she laughs too, as even she scolds."

A Pilgrimage of Light

The ancient Hyrulean:

"The kyng was late y-come this aven, so maked the quene to sharen tales of hir lond, of shirines al grene yglouen. "Of erli daies sinnes Hyrules funding have diverse monstres hir reaume biseged ond assaylled. "Uncesinge in striffe, thei broughte to despeir folkes lyfen. Kyng ond quen ysete thamselue to bringen scurge to ende. "With might of light ond pouere, driven abak ybeen, ond the roial couple made thes shirines to selen him awei. "Thes holi selen ben yclept Shirines of Light. "Gret kyng, grete quen, y thank ye. Ye foughte whan y wer maiden-child, that y kude pes toknouen."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"The subject here is the actions King Rauru and Queen Sonia undertook not long after Hyrule's founding. "With the kingdom established, they were worried for their people, so they set out to eradicate the monsters troubling them. "They created structures called Shrines of Light to seal the monsters away so that they could never be revived. "There's more here about light…and time too… The sense I get is that the two of them may have had supernatural powers. "Though it's part of ancient history, it's a feat those of us living today should still be grateful for. Truly an important discovery."

The actual translation:

"The king was late to come this evening, so made the queen to share tales of her land, of shrines all green glowing. "Of early days since Hyrule's founding have diverse monsters her realm besieged and assailed. "Unceasing in strife, they brought to despair folks' lives. King and queen set themselves to bringing scourge to end. "With might of light and power, driven aback they been, and the royal couple made these shrines to seal him away. "These holy seals been called Shrines of Light. "Great king, great queen, I thank you. You fought when you were maiden-child, that I could peace to know."

The Researcher Mineru

The ancient Hyrulean:

"Queynte Mineru, the kynges elder suster, falles so dep in hir bokes swich that she oft foryetes to eten. "In min wieried wei don y what much y con, but y fer haven that it ben litel avail. "Of late treteth she of 'constructes,' thinges did she make with her hondes as vessel for spirit whan bodi-lich failen. "So, seyde she, might she liven longe, in spiret yhused within this 'construct.' "Though Mineru ne semes to holden ani deceyte… Bi my feith, y kan nat als trouthe thes wordes bileven"

What Wortsworth tells you:

"Here, we learn a bit about Mineru. "It says that she neglected to eat or sleep while making something called a…construct? "It was part of her research into a means of returning to life as a spirit possessing a new body, should her original one die. "To you or I, this sounds less like history and more like some sort of ghost story. "But remember who we're dealing with. They may have had unfathomable powers that made such things possible. "The revelation that Mineru was a fellow researcher makes her feel like a kindred spirit to me, and yet… "The chamberlain who inscribed these tablets treats Mineru with such care and kindness that it warms my heart."

The actual translation:

"Quaint Mineru, the king's elder sister, falls so deep in her books such that she oft forgets to eat. "In my worried way do I what much I can, but I fear have that it be little avail. "Of late treats she of 'constructs,' things did she make with her hands as vessel for spirit when body lies fallen. "So, said she, might she live long, in spirit housed within this 'construct.' "Though Mineru nay seems to hold any deceit… By my faith, I can not also truth these words believe."

The Foreign Princess

The ancient Hyrulean:

"Ful fyn is the weder this morn, ond have y audience with theos princes seyd ben kin bi fer distaunt yeres to quene Sonia. "Bi gras has she been given a name most swete, of Zelda she ben yclept. "In certain folk stered suspecioun, for straunge wer hir garnementes ond sodein wer her aparaunce. "Yet wolde hir contenonce ond bering maked proof of hir right blod and bond to quene Sonia. "Als be Zelda to remainen for a wile with us, y wil mi-self als hochmayde offre ekein hir servis."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"This is another fascinating entry. "If my translation is correct, the Zelda described here is Sonia's distant relative. "According to this, she arrived in Hyrule unexpectedly from another kingdom. It seems she was a beautiful princess. "Her strange clothing perplexed the people of Hyrule, and many were suspicious of her at first. "But this Zelda had such an undeniable air of nobility that those who doubted she was of royal birth were soon silenced. "Note how clearly this conveys the writer's feelings regarding Zelda. "Once it was clear Zelda would be staying, she applied to be chamberlain to the princess. That suggests real admiration."

The actual translation:

"Full fine is the weather this morning, and have I audience with this princess said be kin by for distant years to queen Sonia. "By grace has she been given a name most sweet, of Zelda she been called. "In certain folk stirred suspicion, for strange were her garments and sudden were her appearance. "Yet would her countenance and bearing make proof of her right blood and bond to queen Sonia. "As be Zelda to remain for a while with us, I will myself as handmaid offer asking her service."

The Free-Spirited Zelda

The ancient Hyrulean:

"Princesse Zelda recent comes to sen Mineru, the kynges elder suster. I com eck, for hir to seruen. "Todai cam hit ipassen that Mineru sheued to Zelda construct althergrettest y hav ysen. "Zelda, she much desired on hit to riden, ond ne conne nat y seien coust hir stoppen. Though I dyde protesten. Loudli. "Neuer the lesse she made to sitten heighe upon the constructes sculdres ond to riden like an hors, al ful of grace. "Min lausion, so graunt alredy, dyde grouen al the mor."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"The subject here is Zelda and Mineru. "Zelda apparently visited Mineru often to assist with her research. "I have no idea what kind of thing this 'construct' that allowed people to ride on it was. "But Zelda rode it so well that our author the chamberlain was again impressed by her skill at everything she tried. "That's the long and short of it here. "But more than the narrative, what strikes me is the back and forth between the chamberlain and Zelda. "The chamberlain tried to warn Zelda of the danger, but Zelda pushed past her and rode the construct anyway. 'It's short but so evocative of both the level of technology found in this era and the character of their visitor Zelda. "The 'treasure' found in these stone tablets is the pearls of wisdom and nuggets of personality contained within."

The actual translation:

"Princess Zelda recent comes to see Mineru, the king's elder sister. I come with¹, for her to serve. "Today came it pass that Mineru showed to Zelda construct of the greatest I have seen. "Zelda, she much desired on it to ride, and nay could not I say cause her stop. Though I did protest. Loudly. "Never the less she made to sit high upon the construct's shoulders and to ride like a horse, all full of grace. "My laudation², so great already, did grow all the more."

The Latest Trend

The ancient Hyrulean:

"Facioun nou favereth garnementes adourned with muscheron patrons, ond fer ond wid beon thei wern. "This tast for mucheeron com of the casteles seamestre, who sogte to seuen clethes for princesse Zelda to plesen. "This facioun, Zelda telled to the seamestre, waere in hir treu hom wel loved. "In hir tim werd everichon patrons of bright hewes, in the shap of mucheron. "Anou our hende semestre set herte on thes patrons copien, which sele to mani happi persoune. "Y seche after som for min one but ne coude nat an on yfenden."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"Here we learn something about the fashion trends of that era. "The story's catalyst is their Zelda telling a tailor about the mushroom-patterned outfits becoming popular in her homeland. "Intrigued, the tailor fashioned some clothing in that vein, and it caught on in ancient Hyrule. "Do you know Cece from Hateno Village? Imagine the look on her face if she were to find out! "They say that trends go in cycles, but… I didn't expect mushroom patterns to have been in fashion so long ago! "One last thing about the chamberlain… "Her interest in fashion shows there was more to her than devoted service. She was just like anyone else in the kingdom."

The actual translation:

"Fashion now favors garments adorned with mushroom patterns, and far and wide be they worn. "This taste for mushroom come of the castle's seamstress, who sought to sew clothes for the princess Zelda to please. "This fashion, Zelda told to the seamstress, were in her true home well loved. "In her time were everywhere patterns of bright hues, in the shape of mushroom. "And now our head seamstress set heart on these patterns copied, which sell to many happy persons. "I seek after some for my own but nay could not a one find."

An Ancient Ghost Story

The ancient Hyrulean:

"Of late have y herd it told a straunge ladi walkes around the castel in derk of night. "She ond princesse Zelda semes als twinnes two, but this on nadda ne light in hir eien—mor als a ded thing than not. "When she is asked about thes walkes, princesse Zelda of that ben no-thing remembren. "What monstre, or spirit of derknesse, be this visioun? So afeard y am of min imagenninges that y con nat slepen."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"This one is an ancient ghost story. "My understanding of ancient Hyrulean isn't perfect, but I know a ghost story when I see one. "It's a firsthand account of a ghostly or maybe corpse-like woman who appeared each night looking just like their Zelda. "No matter the era, it seems, people can't resist sharing a good ghost story. "A bit like how there have been eyewitness accounts of our Princess Zelda in the newspaper, even though she's missing… "Could our Zelda be a ghost too? No…of course not."

The actual translation:

"Of late have I heard it told a strange lady walks around the castle in dark of night. "She and princess Zelda seem as twins two, but this one has no light in her eyes—more as a dead thing than not. "When she is asked about these walks, princess Zelda of that been nothing remembered. "What monster, or spirit of darkness, be this vision? So afraid I am of my imaginings that I cannot sleep."

For the Hero's Sake

The ancient Hyrulean:

"Sith hire founding has Hyrule swich hardshippe ysene, but that is onli smale moment of time. "Mineru, the kynges elder suster, seyes of this kyngdom that hit ne mot nat awaren aye be ycaccht, nat evenforth fer futur. "Princesse Zelda tells hire that this futur be wrat alredi, that a champioun bith from the skie comen. "Bitwene the two, thei imaked to finden a wei this champioun in that distaunt time to ohelpen. "Her min treuthe, sogte thei to up-reisen the Temple of Time, into the skie to warden hit onyenes ivil. "Al dyden so in fer distaunt dai, our kingdom mighte be safed. "In min herte y woot y helpen mot, ond y asked of Mineru, canst yow devyse the menes to upreisen in the skie thaes stane. "Min wordes iseie nat enow, but thei thaes memorie safen, of the roial familie, heigh in the skie for that future time."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"That one is all about the feats that Zelda performed for the sake of the hero. "The details are unclear, but essentially, the chamberlain trusted in Mineru and Zelda's predictions and wanted to help. "She put forth the suggestion to Mineru to build a mechanism that could make her stone tablets float in the sky. "Which I take it are the very tablets you found, Link? But it doesn't end there. "If my translation is correct, it suggests that their Zelda worked with Mineru to raise the Temple of Time into the sky! "The idea of the Temple of Time—a grand edifice built in that ancient era—being lifted to the skies to await a hero… "Although given the appearaance of the sky islands after the Upheaval, perhaps it's not so far-fetched as it seems. "What must it have been like for the chamberlain to live through such miraculous times?"

The actual translation:

"Since her founding has Hyrule such hardship seen, but that is only small moment of time. "Mineru, the king's elder sister, says of this kingdom that it nay may not aware it be caught, not even for the far future. "Princess Zelda tells her that this future be wrought already, that a champion be from the sky comes. "Between the two, they made to find a way this champion in that distant time to help. "Her my truth, sought they to up-risen the Temple of Time, into the sky to ward it against evil. "All done so in far distant day, our kingdom might be saved. "In my heart I want to help more, and I asked of Mineru, can you devise the means to uprisen in the sky these stones. "My words I see not now, but they these memories safe, of the royal family, high in the sky for that future time."

The Day the Land Rose

The ancient Hyrulean:

"Swich wondrous sight y hav bihelden that ne con hit nat justil be described. "The Temple of Time y sawe, ond al londe yheld it, reisen to the skie, both ferful ond majestatic. "As princesse Zelda itold mi, in fer distaunt future comes a champioun to that place, the hope that Hyrule safen. "For that champioun be hit that y thes grete stane inscriben. "The kynges elder suster, Mineru, sendes nou thes stane to the skie, that the champioun mought hem ireden."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"This is an eyewitness account of the day the Temple of Time floated into the sky. "It's a landmark discovery for the history of Hyrule. It may be one of the top 10 most important discoveries of all time! "Even among all the breathtaking displays of power we knew of from the era, to raise the land and its buildings into the sky… "That was a feat impressive even to those accustomed to wonders. You can tell as much from this account. "Zelda predicted that a hero would appear in the land they raised into the sky and that he would save Hyrule. "The chamberlain took this on faith and wanted to know how she could help. "So she inscribed these records on the stone tablets that Mineru sent into the sky. "Give me a moment. I need to view these accounts as a historian and not get so swept up in personal sentiments…"

The actual translation:

"Such wonderous sight I have beheld that nay can it not just be described. "The Temple of Time I saw, and all land held it, risen to the sky, both fearful and majestic. "As princess Zelda told me, in far distant future comes a champion to that place, the hope that Hyrule is safe. "For that champion be it that I these great stones inscribe. "The king's elder sister, Mineru, sends now these stones to the sky, that the champion might him read."

A Parting Resolve

The ancient Hyrulean:

"Rauru, Hyrules kyng. Sonia, hir quen. His elder suster, Mineru. Ond eek princesse Zelda. "Al whom y served, ond loved. Al whom thurghhon. Alon kerv y thes wordes upon this stan. "This stan, ond al thritene, serven als roial families recorde, min werk final, ful-wroht for al age. "Mani the mark made bi thes much biloved peples—som eth-sene, som unsene. "Whan y make remembraunce of hir markes, fele y flaume of hope, though ful small, within mi. "Hit be als though thes markes som graunt design describen. "I ne con nat met princesse Zelda hir lov for hir londe. What mor than, ask y, can y do for Hyrules peples. "Let min lyf lede mi fro hennes-forth an answere ful-worthi to this questioun."

What Wortsworth tells you:

"It seems this is the last of the records. "The royals whom the chamberlain served so faithfully were gone, one by one… "It's heartrending to read. Her pain comes across so clearly in her words. "What's less clear from these entries is the cause of all these partings… "Well, each new mystery is an opportunity to do more research. If I keep digging, someday I'll unravel it."

The actual translation:

"Rauru, Hyrule's king. Sonia, her queen. His elder sister, Mineru. And the princess Zelda. "All whom I served, and loved. All whom they're gone. Alone carve I these words upon this stone. "This stone, and all thirteen, serve as royal family's record, my work final, full-wrought for all ages. "Many the mark made by these much beloved peoples—some as seen, some unseen. "When I make remembrance of her marks, feel I a flame of hope, though full small, within me. "It be as though these mark some grand design described. "I nay can not meet princess Zelda her love for her land. What more than, ask I, can I do for Hyrule's peoples. "Let my life lead me for hence-forth an answer full-worthy to this question."

And that is all thirteen slabs translated.

¹ "Eck" has no apparent equivalent, but can be guessed to mean "with" from context.

² "Laudation" might not be correct; failing to translate "lausion" in English, I turned my switch to French mode, and the word that took its place was "admiration." "Laudation" was the closest related word with similar letters.

[purpleweredragon]

"At its inception, Black History Month was successful at opening discussions on racism and highlighting key Black British figures and stories from British History that have previously been hidden or gone untold. I am grateful that these stories are being retold and showcased, even if it is just for one month of the year.

However, every year that October creeps around, I don’t feel joy or excitement, I feel dread and grief. I grieve for the contribution of our communities which still haven’t made it into our history books, I grieve for the echoes of our ancestors who had their rights and humanity stripped away from them as enslaved people. I grieve for the pain that I and many people who look like me still feel every day as a Black person living in the UK and working in the environmental sector.

...It is a challenge being from an underrepresented background in a sector which has less than 10% identifying as being from an ethnically marginalised group. It is a struggle to watch environmental organisations celebrate Blackness and speak on how important it is to include our thoughts, our voices and our sweat in conservation work whilst perpetuating racist barriers which actively stop us from doing so. "

[radiant-vulpine]

Status Update 5: April 2023

We're here again with another update! Unfortunately, I ended up losing an initial write of this. So, we've had to redo it.

But, that being said, here's what we've been up to. ENGINE STUFF

We've been working on wrapping up our engine, which is the forefront of development! As soon as its done, we're gonna be easy sailing! ( Note that Susie's sprites will be replaced with the Chapter 2 ones soon! )

MUSIC UPDATES

We've worked on cleaning up older songs, which now have improved mixing and instrumentation.

As well as that, we've finally put out STARDOME'S track!

NEW CHARACTERS?!

We're doing a proper reveal for designs of some of the characters in our take! Including one who you're all too familiar with...

ASRIEL DREEMURR

The dorky college kid Asriel Dreemurr is here, wearing his Blood Crushers T-Shirt... though it's shrunk a little. He's a lot larger than he was, looking a lot more like Asgore.

CUIRASSIER LONDE

The powerful and intimidating lead of the HOLY CAVALRY, Londe is a girl with a flaming attitude you don't wanna mess with. She's mean and tough, good at strategizing... but she's also friends with Dirk.

Her design was done by https://twitter.com/bep_celeste!

MANTLEKEEPER

Though I'm still on the edge about revealing any lore information, Mantlekeeper's design is done!

The sprite is done by @scratch-lunin (note I may end up trying to modify the palette a little bit xP)

OTHER STUFF

This stuff is all just a guesstimate of what we've got done. Note that this isn't going to be accurate, at all! Art - 45% give or take. Music - 82% Sound - 35% Story - 72% [On Paper] Writing - 25% [Currently, only Chapter 3 is being written fully.] Programming - N/A [Waiting for the engine to be done!] That's about all I've got, but we're still working real hard! So please look forward to it! ... Oh, and here's a little script preview.

[oatmealaddiction]

HI!! this is very random but! a lond time ago a friend of mine lended me her copy of Luck in the Shadows and she had this very cute bookmark of Alec that she printed and laminated, but she didn't remember where she found the picture; and just now, by pure chance, i've found the original drawing and it's yours!!

my friend has since moved away, so im holding on to her copy of the book til we can meet again, but she told me i should keep the bookmark!

i'm very happy to have finally found the artist, your cute little Alec has kept me good company while i read and reread Luck in the Shadows <33

This is the craziest thing anybody has ever sent me! I read Luck in the Shadows eight years ago and I did this little drawing for it because I enjoyed the story so much. I'm so amazed, if you are still in touch with your friend would you tell them I said thank you.

Thank you to you too! This has absolutely warmed my entire heart!

[fostersffff]

The Big Gundam Watch, Part 14: Mobile Suit Victory Gundam

What a mistake it would have been for me to skip this series.

I observed in my last post that opinions on Victory Gundam seem more volatile than ZZ, and now I understand why. Like F91 before it, Victory Gundam is an attempt at soft rebooting the Universal Century, but obviously unlike F91, it had the chance to be a full, ~50 episode TV series. I can say with confidence now that this is the format in which Yoshiyuki Tomino is at his most powerful.

For better and for worse, Victory Gundam takes the essence of nearly everything that came before and refines it into a more pure, undiluted version of itself. I'm of the opinion that this works brilliantly for the most part, although when it does fall flat, it really hits with an echoing thud. Even so, Victory Gundam has usurped ZZ when it comes to my opinion on "the true successor" to 0079. A lot of that is down to executing on a most of ZZ's plot beats and character archetypes better, but it also adds some new elements that improve upon it as well. With that said, I can think of no better element to start with than with the belle of the ball herself, Katejina Loos.

CATEGORY 5 WHITE WOMAN

I have been thoroughly enchanted by the story of Katejina Loos. I knew, via osmosis, that she was a Bad Woman who does Bad Things, but I wasn't exactly sure what that really meant. That descriptor applies to characters like Haman Karn- who I love- Reccoa Londe- who I hate (affectionate)- and Michele Luio- who I hate (derogatory). She has a little bit in common with all three, because she's all the most stereotypical "evil woman" traits wrapped into a single character, but what makes that so engaging is watching how those traits get worse and worse and fucking worse over time, in a way that is kind of disturbingly mundane.

Katejina starts out as what I can most succinctly describe as a Privileged White Liberal; she's from money, but because she hates most of the wealthy people around her- including her own dad- she considers herself wholly different from them. Because of how they shuffled the first few episodes, her introduction is literally "I'm glad all those rich assholes died", glazing over both the grotesque cruelty of the situation because she thought they were bad people who deserved to die anyway and also that she is, in fact, one of those rich assholes.

At first she goes along with the League Militaire, mainly because there's nowhere else to go anyway, but she often bristles against most of the other members. This is because they pretty willing to point out that she's a rich asshole, but also more importantly because she disagrees with them using Uso as a pilot for the Victory. It's entirely possible this may have been amicably resolved- especially considering her initial attitude towards the Zanscare Empire is "they're obviously bad guys"- if not for her abduction by Cronicle Asher (who, by the way, may have The Most Tomino Name).

At this point I need to take a detour to talk about him, and how one of the other smartest things Tomino did was make Victory's Char completely unlike Char. While he is scheming against the Zanscare Empire's military dictatorship, he's a genuine believer in Mariaism- a matriarchal doctrine advocating for peace in space- and wants to elevate his sister (the titular Maria from Mariaism and Queen of the Zanscare Empire) from merely being a figurehead to the actual ruler of the empire. However, instead of subterfuge and betrayals, he's trying to change the system from within, doing his duty as a soldier with the utmost diligence so he can rise through the ranks, which will allow him to achieve his goals while not inadvertently destabilizing the empire (and thus Maria's access to power). He's maybe the most Straight-Edge Good Boy I've seen in a Gundam series, but unfortunately, all of that Good Boy Energy is being used in service of the genocidal military dictatorship. He regularly expresses distaste for the methods Zanscare's military regularly employs, but he carries out those cruel tasks anyway, because ultimately, the end will justify the means.

With all that in mind, Cronicle being the one to abduct Katejina is legitimately the point of no return for her. That genuine Straight-Edge Good Boyness of his endears her to him immediately, which leads her to reconsider what she thought of the Zanscare Empire; after all, Cronicle treats her with such a great deal of kindness and respect, so surely they can't all be bad. That one commanding officer even shot the subordinate who tried to feel her up, even! Combine that with the fact that the members of the League Militaire were mean to her, and that they have to use an innocent little baby boy like Uso to fight for them... maybe she was wrong about who the bad guys were.

I'll speed it along here, but what is essentially a corruption arc is on full display from this point forward. Slowly, she starts to integrate herself more and more within the Zanscare Empire's military, halfheartedly trying to justify what she's doing as "spying" to Uso and company until she doesn't even care to bother with that anymore, more and more convinced that Cronicle is just, and his plan to elevate Maria as the true ruler is for the greater good. The last act of kindness she musters for Uso is letting him know Shahkti and the others are safe, but the next time we see her after that is in a Zanscare dress uniform, and then later in the same episode, in a Zanscare mobile suit.

And once that threshold has been crossed, she continues to sink lower, going from "maybe we can just... capture Uso, and bring him over to our side" to "he's gotta go". And then she starts employing increasingly depraved methods of "he's gotta go", sliding from simply killing him in combat, to ordering the all-female imperial guard to fight him on foot and naked (or as naked as early 90's Japanese TV would allow) to try to fuck with his head, to finally faking a surrender after she's already lost everything so she can stab him, because fuck him.

If the League Militaire (and Uso as its spearhead) had just fucked off and let Zanscare achieve their goals, Cronicle would have eventually usurped the military dictatorship, given Maria the freedom to enact her will, and everything would have been perfect. It would've been like a fairy tale: she's swept off her feet by a handsome prince who enlists her aid to rescue to queen, and in saving her, they save the whole kingdom, and then they live happily ever after. The only minor caveat was the mountains of innocent corpses it was all built upon.

Uso- the innocent little baby boy no more- took all that away from her- the prince was dead, the queen was dead, and the kingdom had fallen apart- and rather than actually admit defeat or commit suicide, she instead continues to try to kill him, until her brain basically poisons itself as a self-preservation tactic- it's not the V2's Wings of Light that blind her, it's literally her own rage.

And, shockingly, that's where she ends up. Still alive, but unable to see the world around her anymore and with no memory of anything but where she lived. Karlmann's name evokes a memory she can't access anymore, which makes her cry for reasons she can't understand. Shahkti gives her a replacement compass so she can make her way back to Uwig and continue to live, and presumably just live... assuming Uwig has even been rebuilt, considering this series seems to take place within the span of a year (if Marbet's pregnancy is anything to go by). It's honestly a much crueler fate than I was expecting, but it's hard to argue it's not one she earned.

All of this is to say: it's possible I may change my opinion once recency bias wears off, but I think Katejina Loos is maybe my favorite single character in a Gundam show to date. A perfectly executed villainess, top to bottom.

And, you know, nice thick eyebrows, which is terrific.

Now that I've finished gushing, let's get to the normal segments:

THE STUFF I LIKED

This series is just ripe with Tomino names. Cronicle Asher, Maria Pure Armonia, Karlmann Dukatus, Junko Jenka, Duker Iq... and I would be remiss not to mention that while not explicitly said in the series, Marbet's last name is Fingerhat.

I adore the technology level of UC 0153. We've advanced forward from F91 and now goddamn near everything is beam-based; even things that aren't mobile suits use beams because the technology is so normalized. I'm also of the opinion that it's enhanced further by Tomino's obvious appreciation of the aesthetic of Pastoral European Landscapes and 20th Century European Cities; the visual clash of super futuristic robots and old-timey environments worked in F91, it worked better here, and I imagine it'll continue to be just as strong- if not stronger- in Turn A and Reconguista in G

I know on a meta level that Victory Gundam was pushed even harder than previous Gundams in the direction of MAKE TOY, which sounds like a nightmare creatively, but fuck if they didn't make it work. The in-universe justification for most of the wheel-based weapons is goofy, but damned if they don't make the Einerad (The Tire) one of the most devastatingly effective support units in the franchise. And, to be honest, if I had access to a toy as a kid that was just a cool robot inside of a wheel, it would've been, like, my favorite toy.

Plus, despite my noted dislike of the Zakrello from 0079 for being a Goofy Snake Ship, having most of the Zanscare's mobile suits have the dogu statue eyes that open into vertical slits is a great unifying aspect that is also super different from Zeon's monoeyes.

One of the coolest things about this series is how it flips the formula from 0079, Zeta, and ZZ with regards to setting. It starts on Earth, which frames space and the colonies as different and scary. Like, it was fascinating in 0079 to see the White Base crew react the way they did to a thunderstorm and other Earth phenomena we obviously take for granted, but here's it's like: hey man, space is fucking scary! I was genuinely anxious watching Shahkti and Suzy trying to get Karl and Flanders into normal suits.

This also extends to the finale taking place on Earth, which is a genuine first for the franchise. You'd think this would make things slightly less deadly overall, but man Cronicle goes out in a bad fuckin' way.

Following up on that: I love Angel Halo as the ultimate threat (with one caveat I'll mention that in the next section). "Total Human Regression as performed by Warhammer 40k's Golden Throne" is much more horrifying than what I was expecting (which was A Super Duper Space Laser), especially considering they showed what happens if everyone in an arbitrary area suddenly falls asleep, and that every time someone blew up a section of Angel Halo, civilian bodies would just FLOOD out.

I also really liked how the memories Angel Ring was evoking when Maria was trying to pacify Uso were just ever so slightly wrong, in terms of what the characters are saying. That's a very tiny detail to address in such a long series, where most people wouldn't even remember what was actually said as it was airing, but it's appreciated.

At this point I consider Tomino to be pretty masterful at a lot of things, but I think one of his strongest abilities is writing mascot characters who are good. Victory Gundam has a baby, a dog, and the most talkative Haro yet, and all three of them are great. Karl and Flanders are just a normal baby and dog who primarily either enhance hijinks or raise stakes, and Haro earns the extra lines it has by constantly being in MVP in bad situations.

THE STUFF I LIKED LESS:

It was dumb that they arbitrarily had Episode 4 as the first episode so they could show the completed Victory Gundam right away, and then spend the next three episodes framed with Shahkti going "well Karl, as you know...". I know this ties back to toys, but surely it could've just been written differently in the first place.

While I did like Zanscare's refusal to acknowledge the Victory, Hexa, and V2 as Gundams, I'm so mad they were mainly referred to as "the white ones" instead of "white devils". "The White Devil" is my favorite name for the RX-78-2 and I hate that it doesn't get used more referencing Gundams, especially in contexts like this.

So obviously from a series composition point of view it was never going to be the case, but I was bummed out that in-universe, Marbet was intended to be the League Militaire's ace and got sidelined due to her injury. This isn't such a big deal, because she contributes regularly and actually lives through to the end in what I would consider to be the best possible circumstances (Oliver is dead and instead she has Uso, Shahkti, Karl, and Flanders as a family), but it's was just like "aw no you're so much cooler than this dumb kid with a bowl cut!"

I straight-up don't like Oliver. He just shows up randomly but everyone knows who he is, he's revealed to be the commander of the Shrike Team (who actually are foreshadowed in an earlier episode!) but arrives without them for some reason, he has a strained romantic history with Marbet, and he gets a completely unearned Bright Slap shortly after showing up, which is already something I hate outside of its original context in 0079. Then despite denying it, it really seems like he shacks up with Marbet because Junko died and she wins by default, and then after nutting inside he just killed himself in spectacular fashion, achieving nothing. Fuckin'... bad vibes, all around.

Lupe Cineau, huh? My complaint here isn't that she's a weird pedophile, bur rather that she really shouldn't have been? Her introduction is that she's a Stone Cold Bitch, murdering the guys in the bar she just got information from when she first shows up. And her tactic to try to seduce Uso into joining up with Zanscare seemed less like "oh my, a cute little boy, I know exactly what to do..." and more of a dismissive "he's like 12, all I need to do is show hole and he'll be in our pockets forever". Like, 'she fails at seducing a 12 year old because she's too much of a Stone Cold Bitch' is the point of that entire scene! Statistically, not every antagonist could be a quality one, but it felt like they just scrambled to figure out how to reintroduce and get rid of her, and the bath scene was the most memorable thing about her, so: pedophile.

There sure is a lot of biology in this series! Most of it has to do with Karlmann, naturally, but I was taken aback at the scene of Shahkti washing the diapers in the river and you see his poop get washed away. Odelo pissing himself and it filling up the bottom of his normal suit was gross but like... kind of informative on how that works? But then the scene where Cronicle redirects Suzy to the bathroom when she sleepwalks to pee in the hallways was just... eugh.

I don't know why they felt compelled to allude to the threat of Angel Halo's psycommu physically degenerating people as well. "Everyone on Earth will mentally become an infant, and if they don't die in the initial collapse of infrastructure that causes, they'll eventually starve to death because they lack the capacity for self-preservation" is scary enough!

I can't really begrudge Tomino for reusing it, because it's a powerful scene, and Karl was much more important to this story, but the fact that Karl has the same origin story as the F91 baby was just like "you can't just do that again, man". It's not even as good a moment because the pilot intentionally shoots down Karl's mother, versus F91 baby's mom just accidentally getting brained by a spent shell. They're even wearing similar outfits!

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

I've read that this is, or was at the time, Hideaki Anno's favorite Gundam series, and lines up with when he would've been making Evangelion- and I definitely think he cribbed some things. As soon as I saw the episode title "Beneath the Ultra-High Altitude Attack" my eyes narrowed, and I can't be convinced that Arael wasn't inspired by the Zanneck and Fuala's mental instability. Also: Angel Ring and Human Instrumentality and the associated Christian imagery.

Speaking of Fuala Griffon, she is Victory Gundam's winner of the "fucking insane fit" award, wearing an oversized suit and porkpie hat while riding a dirtbike with the biggest case of resting bitchface I've seen since Monsly in Future Boy Conan.

I kind of regret learning about trigger discipline (keeping your trigger finger extended along the side of the barrel of a gun until you're actually going to fire) because now it's one of those things I look for everywhere, but in this case I do think it's the second most telling detail about Cronicle's character. The other being the fact that Flanders is cool with him.

Speaking of Cronicle and guns, for however out of character it may have been I was hootin' and hollerin' when Shahkti stole his gun and shot him.

Final note on Cronicle: My favorite thing about his mask that I only realized in writing this post is that it's the inverse of Char's, covering everything but his eyes and hair.

I really like the Eyecatch Flipbook they must have made to include as an extra for the laserdisc release of the series, but it does kinda... disrupt some things. Most notably in the last episode where you get the very violently abrupt shot Cronicle slamming into a piece of Angel Halo before cutting to HARO WORLDWIDE with the cute little jingle.

I legitimately thought Maria's demonstration where she healed the sick was staged. Like, it would be revealed that Maria was a low-level Newtype with some genuine power, but all the people who claimed to have been healed during that demonstration were crisis actors designed to make the public fall in line. In hindsight, I don't even know if "crisis actors" was a concept anyone had ever thought of before the turn of the century.

I alluded to it in another post, but due to the scant few memes that have circulated about this series, I was shocked to learn the Shrike Team were protagonist-aligned. I thought that they were the ones who did the Bikini Bazooka Attack, because a second faction made up entirely of beautiful women just seemed unlikely, and I kept trying to figure out at one point they were going to turn on Uso, especially considering most of them are dead before the halfway point.

I'm really proud of the image I used for the header, and was initially planning on doing a full video of the clip, but video editing is hard. Then I was going to photoshop in more characters' faces but I didn't want to hunt for images of the right angle for that many characters. But that was a really good Shahkti face, so I left it in.

IN CONCLUSION

Victory Gundam is without a doubt my favorite of the Tomino-directed TV shows thus far, and in the upper eschelon of favorite Gundam shows. For however much he hated doing the series and may still hate it in hindsight, it's not like he just phoned it in. It's got a good cast, good conflict, good mobile suit designs, and despite a massive kill count and some really fucked up parts, it doesn't strike me as being particularly edgy or even mean-spirited. It's absolutely not going to hit the same for everyone, but I think if Tomino's other Gundams clicked with you, it's more than worth a shot.

Next up: considering I've already watched the next two entries in chronological order, I'll be moving ahead to the third Gundam OVA series, The 08th MS Team, notable for being the first new entry in the Universal Century timeline following G Gundam and Gundam Wing and for often being recommended in the same breath as War in the Pocket. Considering how that turned out, I'm optimistic that this will also be good, and if nothing else, it's sure to have that 90's Anime OVA budget going for it, much like Stardust Memory.

[cycas]

Ancestry Makes the Man

For @tolkienocweek day 1: Family, here's a chapter of a long-neglected WIP about a Second Age Numenorean settler who lived in Lond Daer.

*******

I’m an old man now. If the Enemy returns again, as the Elves say he may, one day, I shall not be here to see it. 

I saw him once and did my part, when he came in flame and fury with his hosts even to the western coasts, and that was enough.  

Now I sit under the big oak tree and look out over the shining blue waters, and I am glad that I and the oak tree are still alive under the spring skies.  

But this account is not for me.  I am writing this, my last report, for my distant kinsman, Elrond.  

He writes in his letter, ‘that it would be well for these matters not to be forgotten’.  

How can I answer no?  I shall write my story, and then, he tells me, he will have copies made, and it will be remembered among the immortal Elves, and a copy sent Over Sea to Númenor, to the King’s own archive, and maybe even into the Uttermost West. Such fame, to send word out among those who have never heard of me! I know it’s an old man’s vanity, but I don’t care.  I’ll take my small immortality in words.  It’s better than being dead and forgotten, for I know Death is beginning to come close at my heels now, a hunt with only one ending..

So.  I should speak first of my family, of my ancestors.  Thus, you shall know who I am, and how I came to write this account. 

Ancestry makes the man, so the saying goes. 

My name is Berengar, and I am called a Númenorean, but I have never been to Númenor.  

It was my great-grandfather Derufin who came here to Eriador from Númenor.  

In those days, the word goes, the harbour of Lond Daer was the main settlement on the coast, and Tharbad, which is now a great trading town, was little more than a market-village for the growing timber-trade.  It was timber that first brought Númenor here: timber for buildings and ships, but as the forests fell, meadows spread out where they had been, feeding the great herds of Númenorean cattle and sheep, for Númenor needed more and more leather and wool.   

Nobody was too concerned that the woods already had people living in them.  There was a lot of woodland, in those days.  They used to say that a squirrel could go from Lond Daer all the way through the mountains to the Great River and beyond, without setting foot to the ground. 

To eyes from Númenor, one forest is much like another. My great-grandfather did not, I think, understand why the people who lived in the woodlands along the River Gwathló would not simply move away from the timber-works and the herds, or better still, buy cattle and build herds and timber-yards of their own. 

I am none too sure myself how to explain that choice, even though I have kin on both sides and have lived my life, to some extent, upon the cusp, neither Númenorean, nor a Woodsman. I find myself unable to speak for either side. 

The common way of thinking is that the Men of the Wood had no desire to sail beyond sight of land, or build tall towers, or change the ways of their fathers. 

I hesitate to say they felt no discontent, because can there be any Man of whom that is true? At any rate, their discontent did not lead them to fell trees, or make cities. 

But the Men of the Sea desired all those things and more. 

Further east, in Tharbad, it was different. Númenor brought trade, new knowledge and unknown luxuries, and in Tharbad, there were many who took to the new ways and made the best of them. I’ve kin in Tharbad, and the people there call themselves Númenorean, though there are those who are no more than five feet tall, bald as an egg on top and bearded beside.  In Tharbad, almost all the children learn Navigation, Architecture and Law as matter of course.

But not so in the coastlands around Lond Daer.  

Kinsmen I never knew were among those who raided the Númenorean settlements, stealing sheep, killing cattle.  Sometimes they went so far as to attack the trading ships passing up and down the Gwathló river, and that was a perilous enterprise, for if caught, the attackers risked death or transportation to Númenor or Pelargir or perhaps some still more distant colony. 

There were few who could hope to make their way home again to the western woods after many years of servitude to the Crown estates. Life is long for Numenoreans, and so are the sentences they hand down upon their enemies. And yet the attacks went on, and along the rivers, fort after fort was built, to ward off the men of the woods. 

So the world stood when my great-grandfather came here  from Númenor as a young man: a younger son eager to make his way in the world. He was not himself counted royal, as these things are reckoned in Númenor,  but he was a great-great-great-grandson of Elros Earendilion, via the great king’s youngest son’s youngest daughter. 

Or... so he said.  I believe there are a great many of our kin at home, by now, and it’s a long, long way from Númenor to the mouth of the shadowed river Gwathló. 

I only remember him as an old man, stiff in the back, with a great craggy nose much like my own. But in our family, we say that in his youth he had the height and shining dark hair from the portraits of King Elros Earendilion himself.  He was beardless as one of the king’s line all his life, as I am myself.  

That would be an advantage for a young man even now, and more so then, when there were none too many sons of Númenor on the western shores of Eriador. With this advantage, and, I must admit, a certain lack of scruple, he rose to second-in-command one of the new river-forts, built to ward off the people of the woodlands. 

I remember, even as a very old man, he always dressed very much in the old Númenorean style, with the long wide belt double-wrapped, and he wore his grey hair long and loose, with just a head-band to keep it from tangling. He used to say it made the right impression.  Though, I don’t know if they even wore their hair like that in Armenelos. 

He said they did, but then, he said he was a great-great-great-grandson of Elros Earendilion, and I’ve had my doubts about that, too. 

I cut my hair short, and wear a good woollen hat on top. It’s warmer in the winter, and I can’t imagine anyone hearing my manner of speech and thinking I am from Armenelos, even if I wanted them to. 

Ancestry makes the man, so the saying goes, but thinking of my great-grandfather, I wondered if it was the man that made the ancestry. Or I always did, until I went out to war, and met Elrond...

No matter. I was writing of my great-grandfather, founder of our house.  

So: he had his navy pay and a little investment of some kind from Númenor.  He said it came from a childless kinsman at home in Númenor, who died before I was born.  But I don’t think he ever intended to go home to Númenor, where descendants of Elros are unremarkable, and land and houses expensive.

Wherever he got the money, he invested in shipping; part-shares ships sailing home with cargoes of wood and leather. Small cargo of gems from Eregion, and metal-work from the great and renowned smithies of Khazad-dûm.  

And people, too. It was his duty to deal with those who attacked Númenorean traders, stole Númenorean goods, and deal them justice, even if that justice was none too particular, and carried heavy chains. 

If it had not been him, it would have been another man. Númenorean thralls eat well. Some of them do come home afterwards. But I cannot feel easy in my mind about it. 

He was a hard man. My great-grandfather’s name is remembered among my kinsmen in the wood, and it is not remembered fondly. 

The usual tradition for those not destined for high office was to leave the navy at the age of sixty years. By that time he already had a house in the port of Lond Daer, and another in Tharbad.  In Tharbad, he married Abrainzil, a lady with no great ancestry to boast of for all her Númenorean name, but whose well-established brewery in Tharbad produced ales that were much in demand by the Dwarves, who in those days often paid in gold for goods that pleased them. A prosperous ancestry to be born to.  A thought comes to my mind, which I shall write down here, in this report that will be sent to Numenor.  And that is: A man can choose his path. He cannot choose his ancestors.

[meraki-sunset]

when do you think the epilogue is going to start releasing?

In a couple months, i still need to write a solid story and work on how lond it'll be. I only have drafts for now and i'll focus more on it when i'm back from vacation

[fruityyamenrunner]

I haven't tried pasting random passages into the bing robot and I haven't seen anyone try it yet so here are my findings

In the 1830s Newman had believed that Catholicism could become what Protestantism had failed to become - a religion for the masses. From that point of view his conversion implied the belief that the Papacy alone could cope with Democracy, and it was the tension he hinted at between the inferential theology of the Church and the simple religion of the masses that made A Grammar of Assent as political a book as The Arians of the Fourth Century.

I n the languages investigated so far, relative time reference has been restricted to subordinate verb forms (finite or non-finite), while main clause (and many subordinate clause) verb forms have received absolute time reference. I t should be noted, however, that these correlations are by no means absolute across the languages of the world.

The circumstellar medium of the B[e] supergiants must consist of at least two components: a high-velocity stellar wind and a dense cool region with low velocity, possibly a disk. In the latter, molecules and dust have formed and TiO emission at 6159 A has been observed (see Zickgraf 1993). Significant polarization has been detected in most of the objects (Magalhaes 1993), showing that the envelopes are non-spherically symmetric.

PROMPT BLOCKED

ETS Complexes I, III, IV, and V are all compromised in hybrid copepods, but there are no negative effects on Complex II (Ellison and Burton, 2006). As presented in detail above, Complexes I, III, IV, and V are all composed of interacting mt and N gene products. Complex II is the only complex that is composed entirely of N gene products

In October 1994 I was debating publicly with a conservative scholar in Moody Bible Church in Chicago. I had accepted the invitation in the hope that we could lessen somewhat the mutual contempt between opposing Christian groups. In the event, that did not work since he presented himself as a theological hit man opposing and refuting me as an “atheist” (see how these Christians hate one another).

PROMPT BLOCKED

From the standpoint of logical presentation in the real world, however, we have to carry out a kind of bootstrap operation with regard to the quantity φ; for how could it be known?

Intuitively, you may have no difficulty in seeing the procedure you would use to determine φ from measurements with the counter. But, logically, we need to have the calculation about to be given before we can justify that procedure.

It is not easy to take any of the Hellenistic utopias seriously: they positively invited the unkind attention of a satirist such as Lucian, being “escapist, uncommitted, and gelatinous.”⁹⁷ Behind most of them lurks the ideal of ataraxia, escape from stress: universal brotherhood expressed in terms of fugal myths glorifying the distant and exotic, the Noble Savage as Scyth, Indian, or Hyperborean

The house was new and on this ground floor smelled of concrete and paint. The rooms were not yet fully decorated; the furnishings were sparse. But there were fans everywhere; and the bathroom fittings, from Germany, were rare and expensive. ‘I am craze for foreign,’ Mrs Mahindra said. ‘Just craze for foreign.’

She marvelled at our suitcases and at what they contained. She fingered with reverence and delight.

‘Craze, just craze for foreign.’

From the outset of this meeting, Smiley had assumed for the main a Buddha-like inscrutability from which neither Tarr’s story nor the rare interjections of Lacon and Guillam could rouse him. He sat leaning back with his short legs bent, head forward, and plump hands linked across his generous stomach. His hooded eyes had closed behind the thick lenses. His only fidget was to polish his glasses on the silk lining of his tie.

Unsafe Image Content Detected

Arryved been° this Cristen folk to londe° In Surrye with a greet solempne route.° And hastifliche° this Sowdan sente his sonde,° First to his mooder and al the regne° aboute,

And seyde his wyf was comen° out of doute° And preyde hire° for to ride agayn° the queene,

The honour of his regne° to susteene.°

Perturbat me, C. Caesar, etiam illud interdum, quod tamen cum te penitus recognovi, timere desino: re enim iniquum est, sed tua sapientia fit aequissimum: nam dicere apud eum de facinore, contra cuius vitam consilium facinoris inisse arguare, cum per se ipsum consideres, grave est; nemo enim fere est qui sui periculi iudex non sibi se aequiorem quam reo praebeat: sed tua, C. Caesar, praestans singularisque natura hunc mihi metum minuit.

Le jeune homme dont l’œil est brillant, la peau brune,

Le beau corps de vingt ans qui devrait aller nu,

Et qu’eût, le front cerclé de cuivre, sous la lune Adoré, dans la Perse un Génie inconnu,

Content Warning

One week after the parinibbana of the Buddha at the salavana or the Mallas near Kusinara, on the full-moon day in the month of Vaisakha, a monk named Subhadda who took ordination in old age spoke thus, "Friend, you need not lament, you need not grieve. We are free from the Mahasamana who used to trouble us by asking us to perform this or that act."

Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it. Now it is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect; and again it is a mean because the vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while excellence both finds and chooses that which is intermediate.

[allofmytears]

lets construct an canon divergent au, shall we?

Jason fucking dies, same as canon, he goes the the underworld but waits for nico to come visit him before he passes on. Surprise motherfucker, nico and will are here to orpheus your ass. It actually works because while jason can't reassure them that he's following, will and nico reassure each other long enough to get them all out alive. celebrations galore, they all three save the world from whatever else horrible bullshit is happening, its great, the story ends.

not really. goodbye coming of age adventure story, we're now entering 18+ romantic dramedy territory.

So despite everyone telling Jason not to, he renews his vow to help the minor gods and build them temples. This becomes his full time job after he (apparently??i heard this was canon idk if its true) finishes (all boys???? hello???) high school. Nico, who is basically now fucking. soul bonded to him or something idk they are best fucking friends--decides to travel with him to help him not die again. Nico and will start a lond distance relationship bc will stays in chb and/or starts college/a career. a few years pass.

Jason and nico set up a home base somewhere that is basically just an apartment with a war room in the back. oh yes, i am indeed invoking "and they were roommates." oh my gods they were roommates

will and nico have a strained relationship. at one point they had an argument, and one of them pointed out that their relationship was more doctor and patient rather than romantic. somehow, after that they are still nominally together, but they hardly see each other, and jason is worried.

ok theres the set up. so if i were normal and not a degenerate, i would write a story about how these three work out the nuances of their relationships and their role as growing young adults in a world that is hostile to their very existence.

ah well!

[nyaqtn]

☆〜（ゝ。∂ 03/07/2024; [11:29 am]

my last few days of 11th grade.. FINAAALLLYYY!!!!!

were currently playing hide&seek .. i fpund a reaally good hiding spot hehe (im in an empty classroom hiding behind a big canvas) its been about 10 minutes and im getting bored...

anyways!! ive been doing ALOTTT better recently.. on one hand because school related stress is not driving me insane anymore and on the other hand because my summer internship that ive had lots of struggles with (will write more about that later) is posponed to next summer. ONE WEEK FROM NOW ILL BE IN LONDON !! I CANT WAIT.. ive been missing london ever since i left it last summer.. its been hard for me to really look forward to my summer break because of mentioned internship..

in order to graduate the school that im going to you have to complete a 4 week internship during summer break and since my classes are taught in english, they (basically pressured) us to find one in another, preferably english, country. this sounds a lot easier than it actually is, especially if you consider the fact that we have tons of exams and projects thus not a lot of time to send applications out.. ok well lond story short; i agreed to the first oppurtunity i got and ive been dreading actually going there ever since then. . i was supposed to go to berlin for four weeks.. but the woman i was in contact with wasnt nice and all the living opportunities were way too expensive .. so i decided to cancel everything and just take another year to find a fitting position that ill actually look forward to :3 this decision took a lot of weight off my shoulders ..

so ! now i can look forward to my holidays, my trip to london, trip to croatia and whatever else ill do now that i have the whole summer to myself.

update: they just found me ..</3 we will play activity now heh

[oriburst2024]

Bunny Shadow.

You will see the render ver as an stickers on my Shop pages.

I'm on spreadshirt and Society6 as same name OriBurst. Also plainin on sibbing this on my gamejolt as virtual sticker. Lond story short. Is a feature from the partnership program there.

But I need more followers here and there so help me sharing this and allways crediting me plis.

[velvet-cupcake-games]

Any facts you can reveal about Gui? He feels very mysterious to me tbh.

Gui la Londe: Chevalier, Kingsman, and hero of the Nibirian War.

You look into the handsome chevalier who is the center of discussion in Nottingham. Those three descriptors are what you hear the most.

He is a chevalier from Brittany, the southern portion of the continent that was conquered by King Arthur 500 years ago but remains culturally distinct. A social position that does not exist in Central Avalon where this story is set, chevaliers are part civil servant, part law enforcement. They have a nobleman's authority but work directly with the commonfolk, mediating disputes, providing assistance, and passing judgment when it comes to petty crimes. Chevaliers are often noble-born but do not have to be. Lords will sometimes promote exceptional commoners to the position.

There are many folk stories in northern Brittany about a particularly wise man known as the Gentian Chevalier, as he always wore cerulean blue, the color of the gentian flower.

During the Nibirian War, Gui la Londe distinguished himself with a most difficult task, leading an elite unit that protected Midnight Druids, who were sent on desperate missions behind enemy lines due to their abilities with stealth magic. Because of the abilities of Nibiru's sages, many Midnight Druids were lost, but Gui was credited with minimizing those losses as much as possible.

Due to his heroic actions, he was appointed as a Kingsman after the war. These elite royal representatives carry the authority of the king, and Gui is rumored to be in Nottingham to supervise the provisional leadership of Lord Geoffrey as the town is soon to become a major trading hub with the newly-opened Nibiru - as soon as that little pirate problem plaguing the nearby ocean is solved. Still, he appears to be taking a light hand with the situation, content to observe and occasionally step in if he happens to pass by some trouble in town.

Incredibly good-looking and graceful, he is much gossipped about. But something about him seems a bit unapproachable, and nobody has turned up any evidence that he has a paramour. He is either celibate or extraordinarily discreet.

He has notably fabulous hair.

Chevalier, Kingsman, hero of the Niberian War. Beautiful, wise, alternately convivial and unapproachable. Impeccable manners and unimpeachable martial skill. That is what you hear about the mysterious Kingsman. To learn more, you'll have to approach the man himself. But generally, one does not approach a Kingsman. He approaches you.

[une-sanz-pluis]

Than Kyng Herry [V] sent to Dame Kateryn Swynfor, Countesse of Herforde, whiche was tho a wel-gouerned woman, & kept þe most worshipful housolde, & þe best rewlyd þat was within þe londe ; and to her he sent for men þat were of good disposicyoun; & she sent hym xij Ientylmen of sad gouernaunce. and so this gracious Kyng forsoke al wyldnes, and toke hym to good gournaunce, and kept streytly his lawys with ryghtwisnes & Iustise

The Brut or The Chronicles of England, ed. F. W. D. Brie, 2 vols., EETS OS 131 and 136 (London, 1908)

n.b. Katherine Swynford died in 1403, 10 years before Henry V ascended the throne and was never Countess of Hereford but Duchess of Lancaster. Gwilym Dodd in "Henry V’s Establishment: Service, Loyalty and Reward in 1413" (Henry V: New Interpretations, York Medieval Press, 2013), states that the author of The Brut confused Katherine with Joan de Bohun (nee Fitzalan), Countess of Hereford, Henry V's last surviving grandparent. Dodd also argues that the story of Henry V dismissing most of his household is not likely to be true.

[versey21]

7th April

from the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

These are the opening lines to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, one of the first pieces of English literature to be published by the new printing presses, and also written in Middle English which is (just) decipherable by modern readers. Set in April, it tells the story of a miscellaneous troop of characters, going on pilgrimage together to Canterbury. Each character has a story to tell which is why the Tales bear a resemblance to modern series or soap operas.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica

from the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

Whan that Aprille with his shours soote,

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour

Of which vertu engendered is the flour;

Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,

And smale fowles maken melodye,

That slepen all the nyghte with open ye,

(So pricken hem Nature in hir corages),

Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,

To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;

And specially, from every shires ende

Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,

The hooly blisful martir for to seke,

That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

Chaucer used the pilgrimage as a device to gather many representative “types” (the Knight; the Miller; the Prioress etc) as travelling companions to tell each other a set of amusing stories describing the lives of English people in the fourteenth century. The spring pilgrimages were often a light hearted, even raucous, affairs as they combined religious purpose with the atmosphere of a holiday.