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cheolism · 2 years ago

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good things from bad days

✧ wen junhui x f!reader ✧ summary: jun returns to the apartment after you've texted him that you've had a bad day. seeing you drunk, jun decides to take care of you like you've taken care of him. only you are much more honest with your feelings when you're not sober. ✧ wc is approx 5.6k ✧ tags: fluff and comedy; roommates-to-lovers, mutual pining. in a relationship but only you two don't know. domesticity, knowing someone intimately. drunken confessions. ✧ warnings: this is not edited. despite jun being sober while reader is drunk, he doesn't do anything that takes advantage of this. this is ultimately: we've loved each other for five years and you admitting you're in love with him while drunk gives jun the push he needs. drink responsibly, kiddos. ✧ drabble sequel here!!!!!

When you had texted Jun that you were having a bad day, Jun didn’t quite know what to expect. You had your fair share of bad days, unfortunately; Jun wished every day was filled with nothing but happiness and contentment for you, but he was just one man and couldn’t fight the whole world.

(Once, when you were having a bad day, a barista had nearly made you cry. She had given you a once-over, looking you up and down after you gave your order. Then she gave a little huff, irritated, before turning around and walking away.

Jun didn’t throw a punch at the barista because 1) she was, at the most, eighteen, and 2) it just wasn’t in his personality to do so. But he did leave a negative review and said he found a hair in his drink.)

Today had started out good, he had thought. But then around noon he got a message about your boss, and then twenty minutes later you were saying that you just wanted to be home, that you couldn't take another minute at work. His heart had broken, reading that.

But Jun did what he did whenever he noticed you were looking particularly sad. He went out and bought a bouquet of flowers, stopped at the little Chinese place that knew the both of you by name. Left a fiver at the little shrine in the back of the restaurant, placed his palms together, asked for your health and happiness, just as he always did whenever the two of you stopped.

“Say hi to your lover for me!” Auntie Meilan waved, grinning at him. “Bring them in next time!”

“I will!” Jun called back, saluting and neglecting to correct the Auntie that no, you weren’t his lover, you were just his longtime roommate that he had been in love with for far too long.

That was all.

Night had long fallen on the city, street lights dim and headlights bright. Jun hated getting off this late. He hated it because it meant he missed out on the normal mealtime for the both of you, and he knew that instead of you just making food for yourself or even making a meal and saving some of it in the fridge for him to have later, you would hold off on eating altogether until he got home so the two of you could share dinner and talk about your day.

Which was why he volunteered to grab food.

Jun’s stomach grumbled as he walked to the car, and if he was a lesser man he would’ve torn open the takeout box and ate his portion right then and there. But he wouldn’t. Couldn’t. No matter how hungry he was.

“You wouldn’t be so hungry if you actually ate a meal at lunch instead of just eating those shrimp chips you like so much.” You had said once, watching as Jun tore open a container of cherry tomatoes and began eating them whole as soon as he walked through the apartment door.

He had gasped dramatically, and still chewing the cherry tomatoes, scolding you. “How dare you talk about my precious chips as if they’re nothing more than a mere snack! They’re in a league of their own, they deserve an entire meal dedicated to them --”

“Okay, shrimp boy,” you had amended, your brow furrowing in adorable concern. You had rounded the island and went to the cupboard, withdrawing with a box of pasta. “Hold your horses and I’ll whip up some pasta. Don’t make yourself sick on those.”

The smell of takeout permeated the car, to the point where Jun couldn’t even smell it over the vanilla scentsy you had gotten him. It took far too long for Jun to get to the apartment, and every time the light switched to red Jun wanted to just slam his foot down on the pedal and speed through the intersection.

But he didn’t.

The man with the french bulldog was walking the dog around the parking lot when he pulled in, and gave Jun a short wave in greeting. Spotting the takeout bags in Jun’s hands, he called out, “Must be your night to make supper!”

Ignoring how misogynistic that seemed and how Jun was the one to primarily make your meals, Jun gave the man a tight-lipped smile. “Yeah, haha. Nothing like takeout on a Friday night!”

“Tell your sweetheart I said hi!”

Again neglecting to correct the man, Jun made his way into the building. He greeted the old woman who always sat in the foyer because you always greeted her, remembering how you once commented on how she must live alone or feel lonely, to spend her entire day in the front watching people come and go.

Jun took the elevator on the right, despite knowing that you didn’t trust that particular elevator and all the squeaking and moaning it did. He felt bad for the next person who would use the elevator, knowing they would smell nothing but delicious Chinese food.

As Jun shoved his key into the hole to unlock your apartment door, he got the distinct feeling that something was off. He didn’t know how he knew, but Jun knew without even stepping foot into the apartment that something was wrong.

This didn’t dissuade him; instead he hurried in, calling out for you as soon as the door was open.

“I’m home! Food is acquired and ready for consumption as soon as you are!”

He kicked off his shoes, ignoring the shoe rack you had insisted on buying, and made his way to the kitchen. He set the takeout on the island, peering around the apartment for you.

As it was Friday, the apartment was slightly a mess. Socks littered the floor, and Jun spotted your pants near the corner of the couch. He entered the space, noting the nearly-empty bottles of vodka and pineapple juice. There was an empty bag of chips -- his shrimp chips.

He called out your name again, rounding the couch. The living room blankets were in complete disarray, and your laptop was propped up on the coffee table. There were a few crumbs on the couch, and Jun spotted a muffin wrapper on the floor.

“Wen Junhui!”

Arms were suddenly around his middle, pulling him back and squeezing. Jun immediately knew it was you, and turned in your arms. You were already grinning up at him, slightly too-wide and with eyes that glittered brighter than usual.

“Junnie,” you whined, pitching forward and burrowing your face into his chest. Bewildered, but slowly coming to a realization, Jun wrapped his arms around your shoulders and held you to him. “I’m so glad you’re here!”

“I’m glad I’m here, too,” he agreed. You tightened your grip around his waist, leading him into a swaying motion. “Are you okay?”

You pouted, resting your chin on his chest in order to look up at him. “No. I had a bad day. And I’m drunk.”

You may be drunk, Jun acknowledged, but you were no less beautiful than when he left you. You were smiling at him like he was your favorite person on the planet, as if he was the person most dear to you, as if he was someone you treasured and loved, and Jun couldn’t help but giggle and bend down to press a swift kiss to your forehead.

“Yes,” he laughed a little. “You are drunk. I brought food home.”

You gasped, mouth gaping and eyes widening dramatically. “For me?”

“For you!”

Squealing, you burrowed your face into his chest. He hoped you couldn’t hear the way his heart was threatening to leap from it. “You’re amazing! You’re the bestest!”

Squeezing you one last time, Jun reluctantly pulled himself away. While he loved hugging and loving you, and would gladly do nothing but that for days on end, you were drunk and vulnerable. “No, you’re the bestest.”

You frowned at him as he untangled himself, whining. Jun couldn’t help but coo at you, reaching out and pressing your cheeks together. You were so fucking cute.

“Noooo,” you protested, hands reaching up to cover his. “Youuuuuu!”

“I greatly disagree,” Jun said. He pressed another kiss to your forehead and pulled away. He rounded you, hands going to your shoulders, and began guiding you towards the kitchen.

Jun was careful to make sure you didn’t hit a hand or foot on the couch leg, gentle and slow enough to ensure you weren’t going to stumble. All the while you were chattering to him, telling Jun about a show you had watched as a child.

“I don’t know that show,” he admitted, guiding you to sit down at the island. He left your side to return to the takeout, pulling the boxes out of the bag and setting them on the counter. He then went to the dishwasher and pulled out chopsticks. “I grew up in China, remember?”

“Ooh,” you said, eyes wide. It reminded him of Bambi, almost, how innocent and sweet you seemed like this. You were always sweet, he knew, but there was something especially child-like about you when you were like this. “I forgot.”

Jun set your chopsticks in front of you. He then went to the cupboard and withdrew two cups, quickly filling them with water and setting them down on the island. “It’s okay. We can always watch that show later.”

You nodded somberly, puffing out your cheeks. He couldn’t help but grin at how intently you were watching him open up the takeout boxes, your eyes taking in his every move. Jun picked up his chopsticks and clicked them at you once, watching your eyes focus, before reaching for the box of noodles.

“Hey!” You snapped, reaching out and smacking his hand. Jun startled, dropping a blob of noodles on the counter. “Where did you grow up! In a barn? We use plates when eating in this apartment, young man!”

“Yessir!” Jun returned, roughly saluting at you. He stood up and went to the dishwasher, and when he set down two plates you gave him a sharp nod of approval.

“Good.” You glanced down at the mess of noodles. Frowning, you hopped down from the barstool.

“Where are you going?”

“To clean up your mess, Mr. Junhui,” you slurred, rounding the island to grab paper towels. He couldn’t help but laugh at the serious look on your face, as if he had committed a serious wrong.

He was going to clean it, of course, after your meal. But he said nothing as you walked to his elbow and leaned against his arm, reaching and collecting the fallen noodles. “Dirty boy.”

Jun nodded, still smiling. “Yes, I’m a dirty boy, aren’t I?”

You returned his nod, still serious. “But you’re my dirty boy.”

Suddenly feeling his heart warm with affection and adoration, Jun inclined his head. “Yes. I’m your boy.”

Satisfied, you tossed the noodles and paper towel into the sink and returned to your seat. You brought the plate between yourself and the boxes, and Jun watched as you, very carefully, lifted your chopsticks and grabbed the box of sesame chicken.

Even as the two of you ate, you were speaking. Jun listened as you talked about this woman at work who did nothing but complain about her children and husband, but then also said she was trying for a fourth, and how you didn’t think she had ever said a single nice thing about her family since you’ve met her.

Then you were frowning seriously at Jun, pointing at him with your chopsticks. “We won’t end like that no matter what, right, Junnie?”

“Right, darling.”

You set your chopsticks down on the table, reaching out with your other hand. Your hand wrapped around Jun’s cup and brought it to your lips. “Wait -- that’s my cup, I’ve already drank from it, it has my cooties.”

Jun watched you pause for a few seconds, eyeing him over the rim of the cup. And then you raised it to your lips and gulped it.

“There,” you said, sighing in satisfaction. “Now I have your cooties.”

You then opened up the steamed vegetables, delight taking over your features. Jun continued eating as you shifted through the vegetables, picking out the broccoli and placing each piece on his plate. Jun ate them dutifully, shoving each piece into his mouth.

“Careful,” you scolded, “you’ll choke.”

Jun watched as you then set down your chopsticks on the counter, the metal clinking against the surface. You pointed at him, peering at him with an extremely serious look on your face that didn’t really suit the situation and had Jun fighting to keep his smile off of his face.

“Listen here, Wen Junhui,” you slowly began, brows furrowing. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you to not stuff your mouth. But I’m serious. Choking is not a joke. It’s not fun. Have you ever been choked before?”

You had begun gesturing with your hands during your little speech, and at the end of your statement you waved your hand and sent your cup tumbling.

Jun jumped up, rushing for the paper towels and rounding the island. You were blinking at the water even as it dripped into your lap, and Jun shoved away the cuteness of how you looked, confused and taken aback, and ushered you off the stoll.

“Oh,” you mumbled, moving.

“It’s okay,” he soothed, “we just have a small ocean in our kitchen. I’ll clean it up while you get changed out of your pants.”

He spun a few too many towels from the roll, focusing on turning the cup upright and wiping down the counter before moving onto the mess on the floor. You were still muttering to yourself, and it wasn’t until you made a small “oh” sound, followed by the sound of something hitting the wall, did Jun turn around.

You were standing in front of him, legs completely bare and leggings sitting sadly on the floor from where you had thrown them against the wall. For a moment Jun couldn’t help but look -- look at your thighs and take in the shape of them, the color; his eyes trailed down over your knee and to your legs, taking in the spots where you had attempting waxing and given up halfway through, leaving bald patches on your leg surrounded by hair.

But fuck, if he didn’t want to wrap his hand around your leg and guide it around his waist, pull you tight against him and feel your body pressed against his.

“Staring is rude,” you said, flapping your hand towards Jun.

“Mm,” he hummed, turning his back to you. Jun dropped to the floor, beginning on the small puddle that had formed. “I won’t mention all the staring you do at me when I get out of the shower, then.”

“That’s not fair, though,” you argued. Jun stood, knees cracking, and watched as you stomped your foot. The fat of your thighs jiggled at the movement, and he wanted to dig his fingers into your flesh and see how it molded around his digits. “You know what you look like.”

“I do?”

“Irresistible,” you said matter-of-factly.

He echoed you, the word and its implications not really registering with him until he said it himself. And then the little light in Jun’s head flicked on, and he squinted at you.

It wasn’t like you made it a habit to be drunk; you didn’t. In the years Jun’s known you, in the years he’s been your roommate, he’s only seen you properly drunk a handful of times. But he knows what you’re like when you’re drunk: you’re giggly, silly, and honest.

“Alcohol is like a truth serum for me,” you had told him after a few weeks of meeting. “Get me drunk and I’ll tell you anything. It’s why I can’t be President: I’d reveal all the State secrets.”

And sure enough, Jun found out that when you were drunk, you were incredibly honest. He could ask you any question he wanted and you would answer. He had once tested this by asking you if you had ever lied to your grandma before. Sober you had frowned at him and shook your head, saying you had nothing to really lie about; drunk you had bursted into tears, sobbing about how you had lied to her about your whereabouts on your 21st birthday by saying you had been safely drinking with your friends at their apartment instead of being out at clubs.

So: drunk you was as honest as you could get. You weren’t inherently dishonest, but all of the little things you were ashamed of or kept secret bubbled out.

Irresistible.

Truthfully, Jun wanted to poke at this some more. He wanted to ask you to elaborate, and he knew that if he was quiet for much longer you would elaborate yourself.

But he didn’t. He couldn’t.

It felt wrong doing that. You trusted him. You trusted him when you were sick, when you were drunk, when you were in tears; you trusted Jun when you were at your most vulnerable, and taking advantage of you in this state, even to just question you about your feelings towards him, was wrong.

Jun instead began talking, filling up the empty space with his own chatter in order to get your mind off of him in the shower. He narrated what he was doing as he did it, loudly, speaking everything as it appeared in his mind.

“I’m going to throw away these towels. I know you don’t mind it when I leave wrappers around, because you do it too, but I know you hate it when dirty things are left. Like I remember you scolding Seungcheol for leaving his sweaty undershirt in our bathroom.

“Gosh, I’m going to have to take the trash down next time I leave the apartment. I know you don’t mind doing it, but I also know you don’t like it particularly either. I’m okay with that. You do enough for me, I don’t mind doing this.”

Jun rounded the counter once more, reaching out for you. You went easily, hugging yourself close to him. Despite the alcohol you had drank, you still smelled like you: fresh linen, oranges and lemons, the sort of things that reminded Jun of home. His favorite smells in the world.

He swooped down and pressed a kiss to your forehead, smoothing your hair away from your face. You blinked up at him lazily at the gesture, eyes taking just a moment too long to open. “Ooh, are you my tired baby?”

You hummed, nodding sleepily. Then you opened your eyes, your arms going over Jun’s to wrap around him in return. “Yes. Your baby.”

Jun tapped his hands against your lower back, leading you into a sway. You complied easily, grinning and rocking back and forth. Your warmth was pressed against his front, your weight in his arms a comforting one.

Sometimes he felt selfish for having you like this. Like he was keeping you from someone, like he was wrong for keeping you a secret from the world, keeping you up here in your shared apartment.

Sometimes it felt wrong, leading you into a dance during the late evening, wrapping his arms around you, kissing your forehead. But the thing was, Jun wasn’t stupid.

You didn’t share an apartment with someone for nearly five years without there being something. You didn’t settle into a routine for five years, didn’t spend hundreds of nights pressed together on the couch watching television; didn’t wait up until late in the night for him to return, didn’t welcome his mother and little brother into the apartment with welcoming smiles and hugs.

He didn’t remember the last time you went on a date.

Or: Jun didn’t remember the last time you went on a date that wasn’t with him.

Yes: Jun wasn’t stupid.

He saw it. He saw how you took care of him, how you always made sure his favorite snacks were in the cupboard; how you went out and bought new soles for his shoes when he complained about his back hurting too much; how you looked at him when he wasn’t looking, how your voice always took this gentle tone with him, as if he was someone precious, someone you treasured.

He knew you were in love with him.

Just like he was in love with you.

But actually saying it, actually bridging the gap?

Jun sighed, pulling away. He looked down at you, his darling sweetheart with sparkling eyes. He brushed your hair back away from your forehead. “Let’s go find you some pants, baby.”

You blinked up at him, seemingly unable to process. Then you pouted, lips poking out and eyes furrowing.

Oh, how cute you were --

“‘m not cute,” you childishly protested. You blinked again, and Jun felt his heart plummet when your eyes took on a red hue and tears began to swell.

“Baby!” He gasped, hands moving to hold your cheeks. Jun brushed away the tears that began to drop with the tip of his fingers, feeling concern bubble up within him. “What’s wrong, darling?”

“You just --” A little sob left you, and you threw yourself forward and into his arms. Jun stumbled back at the sudden addition of your weight, his arms wrapping tightly around you. You nuzzled into him. “You just take such good care of me, Junnie.”

Jun chuckled, squeezing your shoulder. “I’m just returning --”

You shook your head against his chest. He reached up and brushed your hair back again, revealing a single red eye and tear tracks on your cheeks. “You don’t understand, Junnie! You -- you’re so good and handsome and sweet and silly, and I love you so much.”

His heart thudded against his ribcage; he was scared it was going to burst from his chest entirely.

Jun smiled down at you nonetheless, cupping your cheek in one of his hands. “And I love you.”

“No,” you shook your head again. “You don’t understand. I love you. Like. Like Captain Ri loves Seri.”

Jun’s heart flew out of his chest and left the building. It fucking flew away, soared through the sky and and rounded the earth. As a matter of fact, it took his brain with him, and the two decided to fly up to the moon and wave at the stars.

“You -- like. Like marry me levels of like?”

“Yes,” you sighed, as if he was dull. “We’re gonna move out of the apartment because we can’t have cats and then move into a little townhouse and adopt two of them so they don’t get lonely, and I’m gonna buy you a ring to match mine and we’ll share a bed and I love you so much.”

Jun’s heart returned to his chest and was fluttering and acting as if it were a butterfly trapped within his ribcage; his brain, however, was still up with the moon and sun.

Then you grinned up at him, tear tracks still visible against your cheeks. “Dude, we should adopt like, twelve cats.”

And he remembered the bottle of nearly-empty vodka, the spilled water, and his sensibilities. You were drunk, and while you were an honest drunk, it wasn’t fair of him to do this.

It wasn’t fair of Jun to pester you further, to make you unravel all your secrets; not when you were vulnerable like this. No matter how much he wanted to, how much he yearned to know about the sincerity of your words, he couldn’t.

Jun pressed a kiss to your forehead again, closing his eyes and exhaling. He felt you mirror him, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to his chest.

“Love it when you give me kissies,” you mumbled against him.

“Well, I love kissing you.”

You blinked owlishly up at him, mouth agape. “Really?”

He laughed, both hands going to cup your cheeks and hold your face so he could press another kiss to your forehead. “Really, darling.”

Your smile was brighter than any star or sun in the universe. If you were sober, Jun would swoop down and press a kiss to your lips, but alas.

Instead he began guiding you towards your room. “I think we should get some pants on, don’t you? Wouldn’t want you getting cold. I heard that if you get too cold you turn into a penguin, no joke.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Uh-huh,” Jun returned, reaching over to turn on the light of your room. Your room was messy, proof of how hard of a time you’ve been having lately. Clothes were strewn about, and your blankets were in a tangled mess. One of your pillows was on the foot of your bed, and your precious stuffed koala Jun had gotten you during one of his and Joshua’s dates to the fair was on the floor.

“People don’t turn into penguins, Junnie,” you said.

“They do if they’re cold,” Jun said. He left you standing in the doorway, moving to your dresser and pulling out a pair of sweats. “That’s how we got penguins. They’re just evolved from cold people.”

You were squinting at him when he returned. Jun held out your pants for a few moments, but you made no move to grab them from him. Finally you took your pants, holding out your hand; he offered his arm, and you held onto Jun as you slowly stepped into your pants one foot at a time.

“I want you to know that I know you’re making this up,” you told Jun.

Jun laughed, shoulders shaking. He ducked his head, blonde bangs obscuring his vision. Your grip on his arm eased, and your other hand was smoothing back his bangs and revealing his eyes once more.

“There you are,” you cooed at him, “my pretty boy.”

Then you yawned, wide enough to where Jun swore he saw down your throat. Despite seeing that, Jun still felt nothing but love for you as you blinked up at him sleepily, smiling like a dope.

“Okay, why don’t you lay down in your bed?” Jun pulled away, capturing your hand and pressing a kiss to your fingers. “I’m going to go get you some water, and then I’ll be back. All right?”

Jun returned to your room a few minutes later, cold cup of water in one hand and headache pills in the other for the morning. Despite the overhead light being on you were splayed out on your bed, face down and limbs going in every direction.

He paused for a second, worried. Then he saw your back slowly move up and down. Assured he hadn’t walked in on a crime scene, Jun continued his way into your room. He set the cup and pills on your bedside table before leaning down and yanking the blankets out from under you.

Grumbling, you rolled over on the bed and allowed Jun to gather the blankets. He took a few seconds to unravel them, and when he did he laid each one over your body.

You hummed in approval as he tucked the blankets around your body, patting your arm and legs as he did so. “All snug?”

“Snug,” you agreed.

Jun grabbed your koala off the ground. He hugged it to his chest, breathing in your scent that had rubbed off on the stuffie. Jun pressed a kiss to the koala’s forehead before setting it on the bed next to you.

Your breathing was completely evened out as he smoothed your hair away from your face. He traced his fingers alongside your temple, your cheek. He ran his pointer finger over your nose, feeling the decline of it. Your lips, feeling the plush flesh give beneath his finger, watching as you subconsciously licked your lips.

God, Jun was a fucking creep.

Jun pressed a kiss to your forehead, finally retreating. He made his way from your bedroom, only pausing when he got to the doorway. Jun hovered his hand over the light switch for a moment, hesitating. And then:

“I love you.”

And the light was switched off.

You were conscious for only a handful of seconds before you were fleeing from the warmth of your bed and sprinting to the bathroom, the pressure of your bladder too great to wait a moment longer.

Jun was laughing loudly through the bathroom door, and you opened it once you were finished washing your hands. Glaring at him, you flicked your still-damp hands at him, splashing him with droplets of water.

“Hey!” He laughed, reeling back a little. His eyes were sparkling, and his pretty pink lips were parted to reveal his grin. “Stop bullying me!”

“You’re the bully,” you mumbled, reaching up and shielding your eyes. Natural sunlight shined through the windows of your living room, reaching into the bathroom and offending your sensitive eyes. You shot Jun a glare as he laughed some more, flicking off the bathroom light and retreating to your room once more.

The sound of footsteps followed you. “I left some medicine by your bed for your headache.”

“Don’t have much of one,” you replied.

“Probably because you’ve slept until three in the afternoon,” Jun returned.

You spun around, eyes wide. Jun was leaning against your door frame, arms crossed over his chest. The sleeves of his grey t-shirt were rolled up to reveal his biceps, which were constantly gaining size as he increased his visits to the gym. His blonde bangs brushed against his eyes, and you couldn’t help but follow their movement as he flicked his head to get them out of his eyes.

“Three?”

“In the afternoon,” Jun finished. You sat down on the edge of your bed, crossing your legs. Jun sat down next to you, though he laid back and let his arms fall above his head. “Should’ve woken me up.”

“I tried, Grumpy,” Jun said. He reached out and tapped you, and you fell back to lay beside him. “Several times.”

“Evidently not hard enough.”

“Next time I’ll play the trumpet, if you want.”

“I guess that’ll work.” You stretched your arms over your head, and when you rested them your pinkie was brushing Jun’s. You tried not to think about it, but every time your fingers brushed it was as if every nerve in your body was concentrated on that one point. “I wasn’t horrible for you last night, was I?”

Jun shook his head. You turned your head slightly to see him already staring at you; when your eyes met, he smiled. “You’re never horrible for me when you’re drunk. Now when you’re sober --”

“Oh, hush,” you said, reaching out and slapping his arm. He let out a small noise of pain, but you ignored it. You shifted onto your side, leaning down and looking at him. “I really didn’t do anything bad?”

Humming, he tilted his head. He moved one hand to rest behind his head, and the other reached up for you. Your eyes fluttered as his hand brushed over your forehead, fingers gliding through your hair. “Nothing bad, but you said some interesting things.”

Fuck.

“Fuck,” you hissed. Your heart began to pick up speed, as if you were standing in front of a thousand people getting ready to perform a song you’d only heard once before. “Fuck.”

“Don’t worry!” Jun assured you, his fingers tracing over the shell of your ear. He pinched the lobe of your ear, causing you to wince. “You only confessed that you found me irresistible. And that you love me like Captain Ri and Yoo Seri love each other.”

You furrowed your brow, watching Jun. He stared up at you, eyes half-lidded, lips twisting into a little grin. He looked perfectly at ease, but at the same time, there wasn’t a single hint of true mischief on his face.

“Did I really?” You asked, voice small.

Jun nodded. His fingers dipped underneath your ear and traced your jaw. “Really. It was cute.”

“And?”

His fingers rested on your chin. He shifted his hand, and then his fingers were brushing against your lips. You let Jun trace your mouth, still leaning over him, heart beginning to calm. Jun’s touch was easing your nerves, and his apparent acceptance and serenity soothed you into following suit.

This was what often happened, you knew. Jun and you were both introverts; you didn’t like new situations. You hated crowds, hated the loudness of them and how close everyone stood together; you hated the unknown. But then when Jun was beside you, his features neutral and seemingly unbothered, it did something to you. It was as if his tranquility tricked your anxiousness, leaked into your soul and tamed the rough seas.

“And,” Jun murmured, “I love you.”

It was like when you found a blanket at the store and sunk your fingers into it, the feeling of smooth softness encompassing your digits completely. But instead of just your fingers it was your entire soul.

It wasn’t a big revelation, you thought; not a huge unknown that needed to be answered.

It was just another fact of life, you figured as you lowered your head to Jun’s. He shifted, elbows pressing into your mattress, raising himself to you. It was just another fact. The sun was yellow, the moon was white, the ocean is big and Wen Junhui loves you.

With your lips pressed to his, you had one last fleeting thought before his mouth consumed yours entirely: now you didn’t have to feel bad about not correcting the Aunties at the restaurant about him being your boyfriend.

#!!!!!!!!!#my fic #was going to publish this last night but my phone fucked it up #jun #moon junhui #wen junhui #jun x reader #svt jun x reader #moon junhui x reader #wen junhui x reader #svt #svt x reader #svt fic #seventeen #seventeen x reader #svt jun #my writing

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thisweekingundamwing · 4 months ago

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This Week in Gundam Wing 23-27 July 2024

Here’s the roundup for July 23 - 27, 2024!

Remember to give your content creators some love! Be sure to join in on the events at the bottom! And remember to send in any new works you see or make this next week!

~Mod Hel

Fanfiction/Ideas/Snippets:

@coreyndanian

A Promise Made is Promise Kept https://archiveofourown.org/works/27540730

F/M, Relena Peacecraft/Heero Yuy

Heero Yuy, Relena Peacecraft, Original Characters, Mentioned Duo Maxwell, Mentioned Trowa Barton, Mentioned Quatre Raberba Winner, Mentioned Chang Wufei, Mentioned Lady Une, Mentioned Catherine

General Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Endless Waltz, Not Frozen Teardrop Compliant (Maybe), Australia, Shameless Usage of OCs, Not Beta Read, Relena Darlian I don't like using Relena Peacecraft, Heero has a heart now, English

Vice Foreign Minister Relena Darlian attends a major conference in Australia, accompanied by her aide and two Preventer agents. She also has the added protection of one Heero Yuy, who is always off the grid for unknown reasons.

Gundanium and Preventers https://archiveofourown.org/works/27629063

F/M, M/M, Multi, Relena Peacecraft/Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell/Hilde Schbeiker, Trowa Barton/Quatre Raberba Winner, Treize Khushrenada/Lady Une

Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, Chang Wufei, Lady Une, Lucrezia Noin, Sally Po, Original Male Character(s), Treize Khushrenada, Mentioned Zechs Marquise, Mentioned Relena Darlian Don't like using Peacecraft

Teen And Up Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply, Alternate Universe - Federal Agents, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crimes & Criminals, Little Teenage Terrors, Getting Recruited to Save the World, Not Beta Read, My OC is an Australian, I do explain why I have him there, English

Out of all the crazy ideas Director Treize Kushrenada had come up with in his years, this certainly was at the near top. But after recruiting Milliardo Peacecraft, now going by Zechs Marquise, and Lucrezia Noin, not to mention appointing his aide to lead this new initiative, truth be told Treize only kept his job because the ideas worked. And that was the problem.

* - *

Lady Une is putting together a new initiative for the new United Nations Investigation and Intelligence Division and meets six young men hurt by the world they are attempting to rebuild.

Wufei Chang Is Not A Prude https://archiveofourown.org/works/43044165

F/M, M/M, Relena Peacecraft/Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell/Hilde Schbeiker, Trowa Barton/Quatre Raberba Winner, Chang Wufei/Long Meilan

Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, Chang Wufei, Relena Peacecraft, Hilde Schbeiker, Mentioned Sally Po, Mentioned Lady Une

Explicit, No Archive Warnings Apply, Canon Compliant, Not Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop Compliant, But Who Actually Likes It Anyway, Dom Hilde Schbeiker, Submissive Duo Maxwell, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, Oral Sex, Vaginal Sex, Wufei isn't a prude, No Underage Sex, Wufei and Meilan were too young, Wufei Isn't Too Bad, Not Beta Read, English

Despite being abhorrent and closed off on most things, Wufei Chang was not a prude.

Contrary to the opinion held by Duo Maxwell and Lucrezia Noin.

Wufei catches his fellow ex-pilots in compromising positions and isn't bothered by it.

Wufe Chang Is Not A Prude - Round Two https://archiveofourown.org/works/51580723

F/M, Other, Treize Khushrenada/Lady Une, Sally Po/Original Male Character(s), Zechs Merquise/Lucrezia Noin, Relena Peacecraft/Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell/Hilde Schbeiker, Trowa Barton/Quatre Raberba Winner, Chang Wufei/Long Meilan, Chang Wufei & Sally Po, Mentioned Heero/Relena, Mentioned Duo/Hilde, Mentioned Trowa/Quatre

Chang Wufei, Sally Po, Lady Une, Original Male Character(s), Zechs Merquise, Lucrezia Noin

Explicit, No Archive Warnings Apply, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Not Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop Compliant, Fanfiction Continuation, Part 2 of 1, I blame My Commenters, You Inspired Me, Wufei is a voyeur, Voyeurism, Masturbation, Closet Sex, Janitor Closet Sex, Bondage, Sub Zechs, Dom Noin, Dirty Talk, Not Beta Read, comments please, Past-Wufei/Meilan, Mentioned Meilan, English

If there was one thing Chang Wufei could be convinced about the existence of a life beyond death, it was how determined it was to be right about something that it was quite wrong about. That he was, for all intensive madness and non-reasoning, a prude. The times he caught his four fellow ex-Gundam pilots amidst sexual acts, however, instead led to several very relieving late-night tensions had managed to convince the young Preventer agent that someone from the beyond had it out for him.

The universe vs. Wufei, Part II.

@miyurinq

Golden pleasure https://archiveofourown.org/works/55623622

M/M, Trowa Barton/Quatre Raberba Winner/Heero Yuy

Not Rated, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Sex, just porn, Lemony Shenanigans 2024 (Gundam Wing), 3x4x1, English

In this night only one thing matters;

Lust.

And Quatre prepared something beautiful for his two lovers;

Himself.

He looked like a Greece god;

made of gold and white.

Sunflowers and white sweet peas https://archiveofourown.org/works/57318649

M/M, Trowa Barton/Quatre Raberba Winner

Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, Duo Maxwell, Heero Yuy, Rashid Kurama

Not Rated, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Fluff, mentioned sex, Love, sweet stuff, English

Trowa had to sit down for a moment, the thought was so big. Back then he hadn't even dared to imagine such a thing. Something like love, a home, marriage... a name. He had grown into a man who could call all of that his own. He had gone from being an emotionless, nameless boy to a man who had earned a name and would marry for love.

Arts/Crafts/Photo Manips:

@alphamecha-mkii

https://www.tumblr.com/alphamecha-mkii/756282116857315328/unitribe-season-02-xxxg-01d2-gundam-deathscythe

Deathscythe, official art

@captainharlock

https://www.tumblr.com/captainharlock/757058431748308992/the-boy-that-killed-adolescence

Heero Yuy, fanart by GIO

@desertrose7591

https://www.tumblr.com/desertrose7591/756990116322590720/a-new-lady-card-from-arsenal-based-summer-festival

Lady Une, card, official art

@gunpla-fumo-brainrot

https://www.tumblr.com/gunpla-fumo-brainrot/756672456551514112/quick-little-no-effort-post-of-my-newest-build

Epyon, gunpla

@keiko1183

https://www.tumblr.com/keiko1183/756526479684304896/july-doodles

Quatre Raberba Winner, Trowa Barton, fanart

@kendrawells

https://www.tumblr.com/kendrawells/757171124655243264/what-do-you-do-with-a-life-you-didnt-think-youd

Heero/Duo, fanart

@mciii

https://www.tumblr.com/mciii/756742012758376449/gundam-wing-fan-art

Heero Yuy, Wing, fanart

Fandom Discourse:

@findthatgwfic

https://www.tumblr.com/findthatgwfic/755786826238869504/i-am-looking-for-a-fic-that-was-post-war-the

Looking for a fic! I am looking for a fic that was post war. The pilots were gathering for a party with Relena and company. Duo was en route but was waylaid by (space) port authority. They were prejudiced because he was coming from L2 (I forget where the gathering was but it was somewhere “fancy”) Duo bides his time and asks for the guards to call Relena/et all to verify who he was and that he was shops to be there. Long story short Relena/Une? Comes to the holding facility and hints at who Duo is (Gundam pilot).

Other similar recommendations are welcome!

@the-hunted-office

https://www.tumblr.com/the-haunted-office/756990299135410176/i-was-just-thinking-how-long-its-been-since-i

We are definitely out here. ^_^

Calendar Events:

Gundam Wing AU Fest

https://www.tumblr.com/janaverse/755108738617245696/yay

All info about the event is in the post!

@gwcocktailfriday

Cocktail Fridays!

Post responses on Friday, during Happy Hour between 3 & 5 pm in your own timezone.

Here’s the prompts for Friday, August 2nd https://gwcocktailfriday.tumblr.com/post/757157571941498880/cocktail-friday-post-responses-on-friday-august

In need of prompts!

@thisweekingundamevents

Events Calendar https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/730188053636841472/updated-events-calendar

If you are hosting an event currently, or are planning on one, hit us up with links and dates! We’ll add them to the Calendar and reblog your notices to get the word out!

Needs to be updated...

#Gundam Wing #This Week in Gundam Wing #Weekly Roundup #23-27 July 2024

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thepastisalreadywritten · 27 days ago

Text

By Meilan Solly

24 October 2024

During an impromptu game of table tennis in September 1934, a player accidentally stepped on the ball.

The host’s father decided to look for a replacement in a cupboard at their English country house.

Instead of table tennis balls, the family patriarch stumbled onto an “entirely undisciplined clutter of smallish leather books,” including one whose cover “had been eaten away, presumably by a mouse,” as his son later recalled.

That unassuming manuscript turned out to be the only surviving copy of The Book of Margery Kempe, a medieval text chronicling the adventures of a female Christian mystic.

Previously known only through 16th-century excerpts that painted Kempe as an anchoress who walled herself up in a cell to devote her life to private prayer and reflection, the manuscript reframed its namesake as a colorful figure who’d traveled abroad on religious pilgrimages, claimed she’d experienced visions of herself participating in such biblical events as the birth and crucifixion of Jesus, and endured multiple arrests on charges of heresy.

“You lose all sense of her story and her personality when only reading the excerpts," says Eleanor Jackson, a curator at the British Library in London.

“She’s a very larger-than-life character … who was not an anchoress but [rather] incredibly mobile. She’s been to the Holy Land, she’s been to Rome, she’s been to Santiago de Compostela.”

The chance discovery of Kempe’s autobiography speaks to the rich trove of writing about medieval women that survives to this day, as well as the countless works that have been lost over the centuries, Jackson says.

“Women in the Middle Ages were seen as less important than men, and they were excluded from a lot of areas of power,” the curator adds.

“Their stories were less often recorded, and because women often weren’t given the same level of education as men, [many] couldn’t write themselves.

Women’s histories are much harder to find, but they are there when you look for them.”

A new exhibition at the British Library tells some of these long-overlooked tales through a selection of more than 140 documents and artifacts spanning roughly 1100 to 1500.

Co-curated by Jackson and Julian Harrison, “Medieval Women: In Their Own Words” spotlights queens, nuns, authors, warriors, physicians, and artisans alike.

As the name suggests, the show emphasizes women’s personal testimony, “telling their stories as much as possible through their own words, whether preserved in their writings or dictated to scribes, as was the case with Kempe," Jackson says.

The individuals featured in the exhibition run the gamut from famous figures like Joan of Arc and Italian French writer Christine de Pizan to the lesser known, including Estellina Conat, the first recorded female printer of Hebrew texts; Shajar al-Durr, the first female sultan of Egypt and Syria; and Alice Claver, a silkwoman who crafted ornate clothing for England’s Edward IV.

By highlighting such a diverse group, lead curator Jackson and co-curator Harrison hope to move past widely held conceptions of medieval women’s existences being centered around domesticity and oppression by men.

“Their lives were a lot more vibrant than people expect,” Jackson says, “and [visitors] will be surprised by the sheer variety of roles that they occupied in the fields of politics, religion and the arts."

—

“Medieval Women: In Their Own Words” is on view at the British Library in London from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025.

#“Medieval Women: In Their Own Words”#medieval women #medieval ages #middle ages #British Library #exhibition #The Book of Margery Kempe #Joan of Arc #Christine de Pizan #Estellina Conat #Shajar al-Durr #Alice Claver #Edward IV #rare artifacts #artifact #stories #own words

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xtruss · 5 months ago

Text

Twenty-Five Years Before The Wright Brothers Took To The Skies, This Flying Machine Captivated America

First Exhibited in 1878, Charles F. Ritchel’s Dirigible Was About As Wacky, Dangerous and Impractical as Any Airship Ever Launched

— June 11, 2024 | Erik Ofgang

“When I Was Making It, People Laughed at Me a Good Deal,” Charles F. Ritchel Later Said. “But Do They Did at Noah When He Built the Ark.” Illustration by Meilan Solly/Images via Wikimedia Commons under public domain, Newspapers.com

Charles F. Ritchel’s Flying Machine Made a Sound Like a Buzzsaw as its pilot turned a hand crank to spin its propeller. It was June 12, 1878, and a huge crowd, by some accounts measuring in the thousands, had gathered at a baseball field in Hartford, Connecticut. The spectators had each paid 15 cents for a chance to witness history.

The flying machine—if one could really call it that—was an unsightly jumble of mechanical parts. It consisted of a 25-foot-long, 12-foot-wide canvas cylinder filled with hydrogen and bound to a rod. From this contraption hung a framework of steel and brass rods that the Philadelphia Times likened to “the skeleton of a boat.” The aeronaut would sit on this framework as though it were a bicycle, controlling the craft with foot pedals and a hand crank that turned a four-bladed propeller.

The device did not inspire confidence.

“When I was making it, people laughed at me a good deal,” Ritchel later said. “But so they did at Noah when he built the ark.”

A self-described “professor,” Ritchel was the inventor of such wacky, weird and wild creations that a recounting of his career reads as though it were torn from the pages of a Jules Verne novel. Supposedly friends with both P.T. Barnum and Thomas Edison, Ritchel for a time made a living working for a mechanical toy company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he designed talking dolls, model trains and other playthings. But he was more than just a toymaker.

Left: Charles F. Ritchel filed more than 150 patents over his lifetime. Right: Ritchel's 1878 patent for his flying machine — Photographs: Public Domain Via Wikimedia Commons

Some years after the flying machine demonstration, the inventor proposed an ambitious attraction for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World’s Fair): a “telescope tower” that would rival France’s Eiffel Tower. The design consisted of a 500-foot-wide base topped by multiple nested structures that rose up over the course of several hours, eventually reaching a height of about 1,000 feet. After this proposal was rejected, Ritchel launched a campaign to raise funds to build a life-size automaton of Christopher Columbus, which the Chicago Tribune reported would speak more than 1,000 phrases in a human-like voice, rather than the “far-away, metallic sounds produced by a phonograph.”

By the mid-1880s, Ritchel claimed to have filed more than 150 patents. Not all of them were fun. He invented more efficient ways to kill mosquitos and cockroaches, a James Bond-esque belt that assassins could use to inject poison into their targets, and a gas bomb for use in land or naval warfare.

Yet never in his career was his quirk-forward blend of genius and foolishness more apparent than on that June day in Hartford. Because the balance of weight and equipment was so delicate, Ritchel was too heavy to fly the craft. Instead, he employed pilot Mark W. Quinlan, who tipped the scale at just 96 pounds. Quinlan was a 27-year-old machinist and native of Philadelphia, but little else is known about him. The record, however, is crystal clear on one count: Quinlan was very, very brave.

When preparations for the craft were complete, the crowd watched in eager anticipation as Quinlan boarded the so-called pilot’s seat. The airship rose 50 feet, then 100 feet, then 200 feet. Such a sight was uncommon but not unheard of at the time. The real question was: Once the craft was in the air, could it be controlled?

The first heavier-than-air flight (in which airflow over a surface like a plane wing creates aerodynamic lift) only took place in 1903, when the Wright Brothers conducted their famous flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. But by the late 19th century, flying via lighter-than-air gases was already close to 100 years old. (This method involves heating the air inside of a balloon to make it less dense, leading it to rise, or filling the balloon with a low-density gas such as helium or hydrogen.) On November 21, 1783, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes completed the first crewed, untethered hot-air balloon flight, passing over Paris on a craft built by the Montgolfier brothers. Later, balloons were used for reconnaissance during the French Revolutionary Wars and the American Civil War.

A drawing of the Montgolfier brothers' hot-air balloon Public Domain Via Wikimedia Commons

But free-floating balloons were, and still are, at the mercy of the winds. While balloon aeronauts can achieve limited control by changing altitude and attempting to catch different currents, they can’t easily return to the spot where they took off from, which is why even today, they have teams following them on the ground. Mid-1800s aviation enthusiasts dreamed of fixing this problem, which led to the development of dirigibles—powered, steerable airships that were inflated with lighter-than-air gases. (The word dirigible comes from the French word diriger, “to steer”; contrary to popular belief, the term, which is synonymous with airship, is not derived from the word “rigid.”) While some early aeronauts successfully steered dirigibles, none of these rudimentary airships could truly go against the wind or provide a controlled-enough flight to take off and land at the same point consistently.

In 1878, Ritchel was unaware of anyone who had successfully taken off in a dirigible and landed at the same spot. He hoped to change that with his baseball field demonstration. A month earlier, Ritchel had exhibited the airship’s capabilities during indoor flights at the Philadelphia Main Exhibition Hall, a massive structure built for that city’s 1876 Centennial Exposition. But there is no wind indoors, and the true test of his device would have to be performed outdoors.

After rising into the air, Quinlan managed to steer the craft out over the Connecticut River. To onlookers, it was clear that the aeronaut was in control. But as he flew, the wind picked up, and it began to look like a storm was gathering. To avoid getting caught in the poor weather and facing an almost-certain disaster, Quinlan steered the craft back toward the field, cutting through the “teeth of the wind until directly over the ball ground whence it had ascended, and then alighted within a few feet of the point from which it had started,” as the New York Sun reported.

Ritchel's dirigible, as seen on the July 13, 1878, cover of Harper's Weekly Public Domain Via Wikimedia Commons

The act was hailed far and wide as a milestone. An illustration of the impressive-looking flying machine was featured on the cover of Harper’s Weekly.

“The great problem which inventors of flying machines have always before them is the arrangement by which they shall be able to propel their frail vessels in the face of an adverse current,” the magazine noted. “Until this end shall have been achieved, there will be little practical value to any invention of the kind. In Professor Ritchel’s machine, however, the difficulty has been in a great measure overcome.”

Across the country, observers hailed Ritchel’s odd but impressive milestone in flight. In the years and decades that followed, this achievement was forgotten by almost all except a select group of aviation historians.

Wikipedia incorrectly lists the flight of the French army dirigible La France as the first roundtrip dirigible flight. But this event took place six years after Ritchel’s Hartford demonstration, in August 1884. Why has a flight so seemingly monumental in its time been relegated to the dustbin of history?

Given his eccentric nature and creativity, it’s easy to root for Ritchel and think of him as a Nikola Tesla-like genius robbed of his rightful place in history. The reality of why his feat was forgotten is more complicated. As Tom Crouch, an emeritus curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, says, it’s possible Ritchel’s craft was the first to complete a round-trip dirigible flight. But other aircraft in existence at the time probably could have accomplished the same feat in favorable conditions. “La France made the first serious round-trip,” Crouch says.

Additionally, while Ritchel’s machine worked to a point, it wasn’t a pathway to more advanced dirigibles. Richard DeLuca, author of Paved Roads & Public Money: Connecticut Transportation in the Age of Internal Combustion, points out that the hand-cranked nature of Ritchel’s craft made it nearly impossible to operate with any kind of wind. “On the first day, he got away with it and directed the ship out and over the river and back to where he started, and that was quite an accomplishment,” DeLuca says. “But the conditions were just right for him to do that.”

Dan Grossman, an aviation historian at the University of Washington, has never come across evidence that any later pioneers of more advanced dirigible flights were influenced by Ritchel. “There are a lot of firsts in history that got forgotten because they never led to a second,” Grossman says.

An artist's depiction of the La France airship Public Domain Via Wikimedia Commons

The day after their first successful public outdoor flight in Hartford, Quinlan and Ritchel tried again at that same ballfield. This time, the weather was less cooperative, and the wind came in sharp gusts. Still, the pair persisted in their attempt. “Little Quinlan, even if he does only weigh 96 pounds, has confidence and nerve enough to go up in a gale,” the Sun reported. Up he went about 200 feet, but this time, the wind carried him away with more force. Quinlan was “seen throwing his vertical fan into gear, and by its aid, the aerial ship turned around, pointing its head in whatever direction he chose to give it.” Although he could move the ship about, “he could not make any headway against the strong wind.”

Quinlan descended about 100 feet, trying to catch a different current, but the wind still pushed him away from the ballfield. He raised the craft, this time going higher than 200 feet, but still couldn’t overcome the wind and was soon swept off toward New Haven, vanishing from sight like some real-world Wizard of Oz.

Eventually, Quinlan safely brought the airship down in Newington, about five miles away from Hartford. The inventor and his pilot were unfazed by this setback. They held more public exhibitions that year with a mix of success and failure—including an incident that nearly cost Quinlan his life. During a July 4 exhibition in Boston, the machine malfunctioned and continued to rise, soaring to what the Boston Globe estimated to be 2,000 feet. Quinlan couldn’t get the propeller to work, and the craft continued to rise, reaching as high as 3,000 feet.

youtube

Terrified but quick-thinking, Quinlan tied his wrist and ankle to the craft and swung out of his seat to fix the propeller, using a jack-knife he happened to have on him as a makeshift tool. The daring midair repairs worked, and the craft gradually descended. Quinlan landed in Massachusetts, 44 miles from his starting destination, after a 1-hour, 20-minute flight.

Per Grossman, the human-powered method Ritchel attempted to utilize was doomed from the start. “In the absence of an internal combustion engine, there really was no control of lighter-than-air flight,” he says.

Ritchel stubbornly refused to consider powering dirigibles with engines and did not foresee how powerful a better-designed aircraft truly could be.

“I have overcome the fatal objection of which has always been made to the practicability of aerial navigation—that is, I have made a machine that can be steered,” Ritchel told a reporter in July 1878. “I claim no more. I have never pretended that a balloon can be made to go against the wind, and I am sure it never could. It is as ridiculous as a perpetual motion machine, and the latter will be invented just as soon as the former.”

Left: A page from Ritchel's ballooning scrapbook National Air and Space Museum Archives. Right: The scrapbook covers the years 1878 to 1901. Photographs: National Air and Space Museum Archives

Even so, Ritchel was influential in his own way. “He was one of the first to really come up with the notion of a little one-man, bicycle-powered airship, and those things were around into the early 20th century,” says Crouch. After Ritchel, other daring inventors launched similar pedal-powered airships. Carl Myers, for example, held demonstrations of a device he called the “Sky-Cycle” in the 1890s.

Ritchel stands as one of the fascinating early aeronauts whose work blurred the line between science and the sideshow. “I refer to them as aerial showmen, these guys who came up with the notion of making money [by] thrilling people [with] their exploits in the air,” Crouch says.

According to Crouch’s 1983 book, The Eagle Aloft: Two Centuries of the Balloon in America, Ritchel and Quinlan took the airship on tour with a traveling circus in the late 1870s. Ritchel also operated his machine at Brighton Beach near Coney Island. He sold a few replicas of his device and later attempted to develop a larger, long-distance version of the craft powered by an 11-person hand-cranking crew. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this idea failed to gain momentum, and Ritchel faded from the headlines. Soon, the exploits of new aeronauts would upstage him, among them Alberto Santos-Dumont’s circumnavigation of the Eiffel Tower in 1901.

Left: Alberto Santos-Dumont's first balloon, 1898. Right: Santos-Dumont circles the Eiffel Tower in an airship on July 13, 1901. Photographs: Public Domain Via Wikimedia Commons

Despite many earlier dirigible flights, Crouch and Grossman agree that the technology only became practical when German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin built and flew the first rigid dirigible in the early 1900s. Over the first decade of the new century, Zeppelin perfected his namesake design, which featured a fabric-covered metal frame that enclosed numerous gasbags. “By 1913, just before [World War I] begins, Zeppelin is actually running sightseeing tours over German cities,” Crouch says, “so the Zeppelin at that point can safely carry passengers and take off and land from the same point.”

For a brief period, airships ruled the sky. (The spire of New York City’s Empire State Building, built in the 1930s, was famously intended as a docking station for passenger airships.) But the vehicles, which use gas to create buoyancy, were quickly eclipsed by airplanes, which achieve flight through propulsion that generates airflow over the craft’s wings.

While the 1937 Hindenburg disaster is often viewed as the end of the dirigible era, Grossman says that’s a misconception: The real death knell for passenger airships arrived when Pan American Airways’ China Clipper, a new breed of amphibious aircraft, flew from San Francisco to Manila in November 1935. “Partly because they flew faster, they could transport more weight, whether it’s people or cargo, mail, whatever, in the same amount of time,” Grossman explains. “They were less expensive to operate, they required much, much smaller crews, [and] they were less expensive to build.”

Airplanes were also safer. “Zeppelins have to fly low and slow,” Crouch says. “They operate in the weather; airplanes don’t. An airplane at 30,000 feet is flying above the weather. Weather, time after time, is what brought dirigibles down.”

Today, niche applications for passenger airships endure, including the Zeppelin company’s European tours, as well as ultra-luxury air yachts and air cruises. But “it’s always going to be a tiny, tiny slice of the transportation pie,” Grossman says.

Crouch agrees. “People still talk about bringing back big, rigid airships. That hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t think it will,” he says.

The USS Los Angeles, a United States Navy airship, in 1931. Photograph Public Domain Via Wikimedia Commons

In some ways, Ritchel’s flying machine was a microcosm of the larger history of dirigibles: fascinating, fun and the perfect fodder for fiction, but ultimately eclipsed by more efficient technology.

As for Ritchel, he died, penniless, of pneumonia in 1911 at age 66. “Although during his lifetime he had perfected inventions that, in the hands of others, had brought in great wealth, he died a poor man, as he lacked the business ability to turn the children of his brain to the best advantage to himself,” wrote the Bridgeport Post in his obituary.

Even so, the public had not forgotten the brief time three decades earlier when Ritchel and his airship ruled the skies. As the Boston Evening Transcript reported, his flights captured “the attention of the world. In every country and in every language, newspapers and magazines of the day printed long stories of the wonderful feats performed by the Bridgeport aviator and his marvelous machine, of which nothing short of a cruise to the North Pole was expected.”

— Erik Ofgang is the co-author of The Good Vices: From Beer to Sex, The Surprising Truth About What’s Actually Good For You and the author of Buzzed: A Guide to New England's Best Craft Beverages and Gillette Castle: A History. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Thrillist and the Associated Press, and he is the senior writer at Tech & Learning magazine.

#Youtube #Air & Space Museum #Air Transportation #Airplanes ✈️ ✈️ ✈️#American 🇺🇸 History #Invention #Newspapers 📰 🗞️#Smithsonian Institution #Toys #Transportation #Wright Brothers #Flying Machine #Charles F. Ritchel #Airship #Professor Charles F. Ritchel #Inventer of the Only Flying Machine on Earth 🌎#Lardner & Co | 1319 Chestnut Street | Philadelphia | Pennsylvania

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fallenwingzero · 2 years ago

Text

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing Timeline

I redid the timeline again but this time with pictures! This is my take on what order all the anime/manga/novels/radio dramas take place in the Gundam Wing universe. For a quick recap, this is the order and dates:

Episode Zero (sans Preventor epilogue) - AC 187 to AC 195

Anime (sans epilogue) - AC 195 April 06 to AC 195 December 24

Chronicle of the After Colony Era - AC 195

Odds and Evens - AC 195 December 24

Anime Epilogue - AC 196 April 06

Battlefield of Pacifists - AC 196

Blind Target - AC 196

Ground Zero (sans epilogue) - AC 196

Endless Waltz - AC 196 December 24 to AC 196 December 27, Epilogue - AC 197 January 01

Ground Zero Epilogue - AC 197

Frozen Teardrop Preventor 5 part 1 - AC 197 March to AC 197 April 07

Episode Zero Preventor 5 epilogue - AC 197 April 07

Frozen Teardrop Preventor 5 part 2 - AC 197 April 09

Frozen Teardrop - MC 22 Next Winter

Frozen Teardrop Epilogue - MC 23 Summer

The full explanations for the order of the timeline as well as pictures are under the read more:

Episode Zero: AC 187 to AC 195.

Obviously places first, being a prequel. For the specific dates mentioned we have -

Duo’s Backstory:

AC 187 - Duo is taken in by the Maxwell Church.

AC 188 - Father Maxwell and Sister Helen are killed in an attack.

AC 192 - Duo meets Professor G.

Heero’s Backstory:

AC 175- Odin assassinates Heero Yuy

AC 188- Heero travels as a hitman with Odin. Odin is killed by Dekim Barton. Heero meets Doctor J.

Trowa’s Backstory:

AC 190 - No Name (Trowa) meets Middie Une. Heads for outer space looking for a “home”

Relena’s Backstory:

AC 191 - Alpha Yuy enrolls at her school. Zechs saves Relena and realizes that she is his long-lost sister.

Quatre’s Backstory:

AC 193 - Quatre meets the Maganacs

Wufei’s Backstory:

AC 194 - Wufei marries Meilan

AC 194 - Meilan dies.

Episode Zero Operation Meteor: AC 195 April 06

2. Anime Series and Light Novel Series (sans epilogue): AC 195 April 06 to AC 195 December 24

Anime series begins on Relena’s Birthday, April 06 and ends Christmas Eve. The final battle later becomes known as “The Eve Wars”. The novelisation I believe is similar to the anime so for now I'm listing it as concurrent instead of an alternate interpretation.

3. Chronicle of the After Colony Era: AC 195

Takes place during the anime series, after Heero wakes up from his coma and is travelling with Trowa. Duo is still travelling with Quatre, and Relena has just revived the Sanc Kingdom.

4. Odds and Evens: AC 195 December 24.

Takes place immediately after the final battle of the anime series.

5. Anime Epilogue: AC 196 April 06.

Takes place on Relena’s Birthday the following year with her being too busy as Vice Foreign Minister to attend her birthday party. She also receives the bear and card gifts from Heero.

6. Battlefield of Pacifists: AC 196

For the three midquels, I put this one first. My reasoning is that Quatre first comes up with the idea to send the Gundams into the sun, to the surprise of Duo. Wufei realizes that he still has to fight for justice despite the war ending.

7. Blind Target Manga and Radio Drama: AC 196

This is the second on the timeline for the three midquels. The need to destroy the Gundams becomes more apparent for the boys as the remnants of White Fang use the Gundams protecting peace as a point for why the UESN cannot be trusted with total disarmament. Wufei meets up with Mariamaia and Dekim Barton.

8. Ground Zero (sans epilogue): AC 196

The final of the three midquels. After agreeing to destroy the Gundams, Duo, Quatre and Trowa suspect that Heero is secretly planning to continue to use Wing Zero and devise a way to learn his intentions. Wufei is already wearing the Mariamaia Doll uniform showing it takes place after Blind Target.

9. Endless Waltz Movie and Novelization: AC 196 December 24 to December 27 /Epilogue: AC 197 January 01

The Mariamaia Incident starts on Christmas Eve, exactly one year after the Eve Wars, and ends on December 27. The Epilogue takes place on New Year’s Day.

The Endless Waltz novelisation is concurrent with the movie. I also listed it in the same timeline due to not contradicting canon. It follows the same story with added extra backstory for characters.

10. Ground Zero Epilogue: AC 197

The epilogue for Ground Zero states that it took place in AC 197 making it take place after Endless Waltz. Heero also promises to stay by Relena’s side.

11. Frozen Teardrop Preventor 5 part 1: AC 197 March to AC 197 April 07

March- Heero is staying at the Darlian Estate by this point with Relena tending to his wounds that had accumulated over the series. Relena is planning to run for president of the UESN.

April 07- Relena throws a campaign party on the day after her birthday. Sanc Kingdom is under attack by a terrorist organization. Wufei and Sally gather the Gundam Pilots to carry out a rescue mission.

12. Episode Zero Epilogue: AC 197 April 07

Concurrent with Frozen Teardrop Preventor 5 part 1. Relena throws a campaign party on the day after her birthday. Sanc Kingdom is under attack by a terrorist organization. Wufei and Sally gather the Gundam Pilots to carry out a rescue mission. Quatre devises a plan for them to rescue the hostages without anyone dying, enemies included.

13. Frozen Teardrop Preventor 5 part 2: AC 197 April 09

The new Preventor 5 team carry out the rescue mission. The mission doesn’t go as planned and fails. Relena sacrifices herself to save the Sanc Kingdom and is cryogenically frozen. Heero is also frozen sometime later.

14. Frozen Teardrop Light Novel series and Picture Drama: MC 22 Next Winter to MC 23 First Spring

25 years later Heero Yuy awakens to fight a new war on Mars along with the old and new Gundam Pilots.

There’s a full timeline for the events leading up to current day Frozen Teardrop that I will translate as a later edit for this post. It covers all the backstories as well as important historical events of the Mars Colony Era. I will also add the extra dates mentioned in Frozen Teardrop as I translate the series.

15. Frozen Teardrop Epilogue: MC 23 First Summer.

Heero and Relena have been married for 5 months and peace is slowly coming to Mars.

I looked over all my manga and light novels to check dates so hopefully this is all accurate. It all surprisingly fits in nicely too, so I guess the writers were careful not to contradict each other’s extra stories.

Content that doesn’t fit on the timeline or is contradictory to canon:

Glory of the Losers - This is a reboot, so it has its own timeline and canon with different versions of events from the GW series.

A Scythe in my Right Hand, You in my Left - This story is… odd, to put it nicely 😂. It’s a good story but it doesn’t make sense in canon at all, so it goes under the “Duo’s weird catholic fever dream” category of the timeline. It also didn’t have anyone from the show work on it, unlike the rest of the media, so it’s not considered canon in that regard and that’s also probably why it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the canon.

Operation Preventor Radio Drama Cassette - It’s a crack scenario revolving around the boys hosting a radio show that takes place sometime after Endless Waltz. Although the boys hosting a radio show is an unlikely scenario 😂, it does have good characterisations and hilarious interactions between the G-pilots.

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Manga by Koichi Tokita - This is a retelling of GW and contains vastly different scenarios so it’s its own canon. The writers of GW also didn’t work on it so it’s not part of the main canon in that way too.

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz Manga by Koichi Tokita - The sequel to the Mobile Suit Gundam Manga and the same deal as before where it didn’t have any of the original writers work on it. Although it really doesn't differ from the movie at all so it could also work as concurrent to Endless Waltz movie and novels.

#gundam wing #new mobile report gundam w #timeline #reference #my post #also helpful if you want to watch and read the series in chronological order for whatever reason

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snackerdoodle · 11 months ago

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books I read in 2023

I had a huge reading year this year because of my gruelingly long commute. The list below the cut is mostly for my own edification, but I’m a nosy person who supports other nosy people, so if you want to know what I’ve been up to, have at it. Almost everything I read this year was from the library.

1/12 A Charmed Life, Diana Wynne Jones

1/18 The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, Sonora Reyes

1/24 The Life-Changing Magic of

Tidying Up, Marie Kondo

1/25 Hotel Magnifique, Emily J. Taylor

1/30 Spark Joy, Marie Kondo

2/2 The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune

2/8 The Golden Enclaves, Naomi Novik

2/8 Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, Ashley Herring Blake

2/15 The Nile, Toby Wilkinson

2/23 The Painted Queen, Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess

2/28 Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine

3/5 Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters

3/12 Lord of the Silent, Elizabeth Peters

3/16 Marie Kondo’s Kurashi at Home, Marie Kondo

3/20 Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, Ruth Franklin

3/20 The Art of Simple Living, Shunmyo Masuno

3/26 The Bird’s Nest, Shirley Jackson

4/11 Life Among the Savages, Shirley Jackson

4/12 A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn

4/18 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman

4/21 Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, Tricia Hersey

5/1 Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo

5/3 Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail, Ashley Herring Blake

5/10 Fight Like Hell: The Untold Story of American Labor, Kim Kelly

5/11 Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, Joy Harjo

5/12 Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge

5/15 The Lottery and Other Stories, Shirley Jackson

5/18 The Lives of Christopher Chant, Diana Wynne Jones

5/29 A Little Devil in America, Hanif Abdurraqib

6/3 A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske

6/6 Ducks, Kate Beaton

6/8 Wild and Wicked Things, Francesca May (awful. Every character was an idiot. Why did I finish this)

6/10 Breathing Lessons: A Doctor’s Guide to Lung Health, Meilan K. Han, MD

6/19 The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu

6/19 A Fortune for Your Disaster, Hanif Abdurraqib (I liked this even more than the last one I read. Maybe because it was an audiobook read by the author.)

6/22 Disjointed, Diana Jovin (ed) (skipped parts that were totally unrelated to me and some things that were also too technical)

6/22 The Lavender Scare, David K. Johnson

6/26 Enquête au collège, Jean-Phillipe Arrou-Vignod

6/28 The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner

7/3 Last Call, Elon Green

7/12 Cache Cache Petit Fantôme

7/13 Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-

Exupéry

7/13 La fille qui navigua autour de féérie dans un bateau construit de ses propres mains, Catherynne M Valente

7/14 Lost in the Moment and Found, Seanan McGuire

7/14 Ich mag dich gesund sagte der Bär, Janosch

7/25 The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

7/31 The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, Shannon Chakraborty

8/10 A Restless Truth, Freya Marske

8/16 Camp Damascus, Chuck Tingle

9/6 The Body in the Garden, Katherine Schellman

9/11 Silence in the Library, Katherine Schellman

9/13 When Things Get Dark, various

9/19 Death at the Manor, Katherine Schellman

9/25 Sorcery and Cecelia, Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

10/3 The Grand Tour, Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

10/6 Murder at Midnight, Katharine Schellman

10/12 The Mislaid Magician, Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

10/18 Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies, Elizabeth Winkler

10/18 Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen, JK Rowling

10/25 Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA search for Mind Control, Stephen Kinzer

11/1 Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date, Ashley Herring Blake

11/3 Nothing But Blackened Teeth, Cassandra Shaw

11/9 Unfuck Your Habitat, Rachel Hoffman

11/11 Safe and Sound, Mercury Stardust

11/12 Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD (revised and updated), Susan C. Pinskey

11/18 Red Seas under Red Skies, Scott Lynch

11/20 In With the Old: Classic Decor A to Z, Jennifer Boles

11/23 Habitat: The Field Guide to Decorating, Lauren Liess

11/24 Vermeer: The Complete Paintings, Norbert Schneider

11/29 The Conscious Closet, Elizabeth L. Cline

12/4 Leech, Hiron Ennes

12/6 The Star that Always Stays, Anna Rose Johnson

P12/14 The Republic of Thieves, Scott Lynch

12/15 An American Sunrise, Joy Harjo

12/20 The Wife Upstairs, Rachel Hawkins

12/22 How to Keep House While Drowning, KC Davis

12/30 The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, Margareta Magnusson

Gave up on: The Woman Who Would Be King, Kara Cooney (too speculative/fictionalized)

A Scatter of Light, Malinda Lo (nothing really wrong, it just wasn’t holding my attention at all)

14 histoires pour avoir peur mais pas trop quand même (turned into full cast audio and the music between stories was really annoying)

Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin (not in the right headspace maybe, maybe just not for me)

American Cozy, Stephanie Pedersen (got annoyed at how much of the information hinged on living in a huge suburban home with 18 closets and a husband and multiple children you can make do your chores for you)

The Curated Closet, Anuschka Rees (not bad just not what I was looking for)

#Snackerdoodle actually makes a post #Books read 2023

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dresupi · 1 year ago

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9 lines, 9 people

tagged by @nurselaney tagging: @ibelieveinturtles, @treaddelicately @thestanceyg, @hollyspacey, @meilan-firaga, @idontgettechnology, @yespumpkindoodlesthings, @that-wimpy-cowboy-doll, @wheresarizona

You get the first nine-ish lines of my ST fic that I am still writing and planning on posting if I can ever get through this block/burnout/blockout w/e. <3 <3 <3 This is Eddie Munson/OFC, Sam Hartford being the OFC.

“So what… you can’t come pick me up from school? I made plans, Sam. You know how I am about plans.” “I know, I know… they’re for losers, and you became a loser for me, Robin. And believe me, I appreciate it, but Tony decided to work a half day, and I don’t want to talk to Dad without him here…” “You haven’t talked to them yet?” Robin squawked. There was the loud blare of a trombone in the background, and she stopped paying attention to Sam long enough to loudly scold whoever it was, before coming back to their conversation as if nothing had happened. “Sa-man-tha… you said you were going to talk to them before now!” “Do you know how hard it is to tell your well-intentioned parents who are paying for everything, mind you, that you’re failing out of the college you threw a fit to attend in the first place?” Sam asked. “No, Sam. No, I don’t. You know I don't.” “And don’t full-name me, it makes me feel like you’re trying to nag me or something.” “You need to be nagged, apparently. Because I made perfectly awful plans for today and now I don’t get to do any of them and I’m upset. That’s what you’ve reduced me to, Sam. I’m upset that my lame plans are falling through.”

#my writing #it's still happening #little by little #tag game #<3 <3 <3

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cannoli-reader · 1 month ago

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I doubt it. First of all, RJ said that the Forsaken who were not sealed away were hunted down and eradicated PDQ, and he was rather contemptuous in his description of their end, so I don't think he'd have had them build anything that would carry on so long, no matter how chaotic and dysfunctional.

Second, it kind of goes against the idea running through the series that human beings are quite capable of being assholes on their own, thanks anyway, Mr. Dark One. There's no Forsaken at the root of the Ayyad, no Shadow manipulation in the abuse of the common folk of Tear, or the extremes to which the Cairhienin take Daes Dae'mar or the puritan tyranny of Far Madding. Couladin & Sevanna are not Darkfriends, nor is Eamon Valda or Meilan or Colavaere or Lain & Breyan or the "bad" faction of Andoran High Seats or even more venal types who would otherwise be considered "good" if not for their specific crimes, like Tylin or Rolan.

Third, we don't know what those people were actually like. All we have is the word of the Seanchan, whose perspective makes them rather unreliable narrators. Even if they don't seem the type to outright make up a story to propagandize the truth, it's very possible that the strict facts of the pre-Paendrag culture when relayed through the lens of the modern Seanchan worldview would be grossly distorted. For all we know, the Aes Sedai of pre-Conquest Seanchan were no different than normal feudal warlords or mandarins, that they were no more abusive, despotic or tyrannical than any other sort of ruler who holds power through personal strength. The chaos could very well have been that the rarity of channelers passing on the ability means that the most obvious means of succession, inheritance, was off the table. Not so much chaotic, as beyond the comprehension of people used to much more codified social rules and practices, in the same way that Aviendha thinks wetlander women are repressed victims of the patriarchy, because she doesn't understand the way subtler forms of influence and soft power work in a foreign culture.

I was contemplating this earlier today…the original Seanchan Aes Sedai.

We know from what little is discussed by the Seanchan how horrible these people were. That they were vastly different than the Aes Sedai of the Age of Legends, let alone the Aes Sedai of the White Tower. That they were true monsters, users of the One Power who used it to take advantage and destroy and rule. And you know who they sound like?

Like the Forsaken.

What I suspect the Seanchan Aes Sedai may have been, at least the very oldest ones, were probably the Aes Sedai who went to the Shadow. As we know through the books, it was only the thirteen strongest Forsaken who were trapped in Shayol Ghul. There must have been hundreds more who weren’t trapped. They may have ended up in the area that would eventually become Seanchan.

It would explain why they never managed to form an organization similar to the White Tower, or even similar to the Sharan Ayyad. Horrifying as things are in Shara, the Ayyad demonstrated a set organizational structure. They were unified. Seanchan Aes Sedai fought against each other as much as they did non-Aes Sedai. Obviously, by the time Luthor Pendraeg ended up in Seanchan, the original, likely predominately Forsaken Aes Sedai were dead, but not their descendants. Much like their ancestors, they may have been raised into serving the Dark One. They demonstrated the selfish, destructive tendencies we say out of numerous Darkfriends and most of the Big 13 Forsaken.

But the Seanchan Aes Sedai were also connected to what they called the ‘Armies of the Night’ which sounds more an organization that would serve the Shadow. It also could explain how things like ravens would end up as imperial signs. If the Pendraegs adopted symbols from the Seanchan side of things, it would make sense for Shadow-hinted aspects to be there.

Likely this entire idea is going to be discounted by the Companion, but we’ll see.

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mitchipedia · 2 years ago

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The Real History Behind ‘The Woman King’ | The Agojie Warriors of Dahomey. By Meilan Solly at Smithsonian Magazine

The movie’s depiction of the Agojie army of elite women warriors is true-to-life. But Dahomey in real life was a brutal, imperial autocracy and enthusiastic supporter of slavery and the slave trade.

We liked the movie—much better than “Black Panther,” which I thought had too much superhero folderol. “The Woman King” was about 30-45 minutes too long, but most movies today are.

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lemontrash · 3 years ago

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Illustration of a story not written! More artwork I did for the recent Rhythm Generation zine. :)

#gundam wing #chang wufei #long meilan

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lizhly-writes · 1 year ago

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#liz please share the other scenes

welp.

...

Chen Lihua was approaching the room she normally had breakfast with Prince Yulan when she heard an unfamiliar voice.

“You were picking a fight with the saintess?” it said, faintly amused. “Just who do you think you are?”

“It was a supervised sparring session,” the far more familiar voice of Knight Jovis said. Then, a little sullenly, “She started it.”

“Of course she did, because my Kaya would never start a fight on her own. That’s what you’re trying to tell me, right?”

Chen Lihua perked up. My Kaya, huh?

“She tried to set me on fire.”

“Yeah, I can tell. Just hold still.”

It was at this point Chen Lihua decided it would be hilarious to walk in.

“Am I interrupting something?” she said, delighted, as Knight Jovis froze. There was a boy leaning very close to her, cupping her face in his hands. “I can wait outside until you finish up.”

“You,” Knight Jovis growled.

“Lady Saintess,” the boy said. “Just a moment, please. Micaiah, move your head left – the other left – thank you.” He took a step back and bowed to Chen Lihua. “I am Haakon Yanis, and I’ll be your companion this week while Prince Yulan is away.”

Chen Lihua noticed with some disappointment that the glorious burn she had spent so long trying to place on Knight Jovis’s face this morning was no longer there. “You’re a healer?”

“Something like that,” Haakon demurred. He raised a hand, faintly glowing. “Does the Lady Saintess require healing as well?”

The correct answer would have been ‘no’, because Chen Lihua was perfectly capable of healing herself. That had in fact been one of the very first spells they’d taught her during her hero-mandated tutoring sessions. “Yes,” Chen Lihua said anyway, just to make Knight Jovis glare.

Chen Lihua had never seen as hostile an expression on Knight Jovis’s face as she wore when Haakon Yanis took Chen Lihua’s hands.

“Actually, I had something I wanted to ask you, Saintess Lihua Chen,” Haakon said, as he smoothed away the last burn on her wrist. “That name – are you from… 中国? 台湾? 也许你来自美国?”

Chen Lihua jerked backwards.

“Does it sound that bad?” Haakon said. “Sorry, I’m rusty. Mandarin isn’t my first language. Or my second language. Do you know English?”

It was awkward, halting, oddly accented… but still recognizably Chinese.

“Yes, I’m from China,” Chen Lihua said. “I wouldn’t say I’m fluent in English, but I can speak a bit… I didn’t think anyone knew about China?”

Haakon made a face. “I was. Hoping you were an American,” he said, one hand rubbing at his eyes. “Still – have you heard of Zhang Meilan? Li Shirong? They’re professors of astronomy and botany, and they have tenure in the University of Milne–”

“No, I’m sorry–”

“Then do you know anything about the west coast of the United States? I… don’t think they’d really teach anything about that in China, but if you know about any natural disasters within the past decade or–”

“That’s. California. Hollywood, right?”

“... Yes. Very good. Well done.”

“... You’re a transmigrator, too.”

Silence.

“I should reintroduce myself,” Haakon said. “Your native language is Mandarin. You might be more comfortable referring to me as Li Yichang.”

for villain fiance - a thousand words and/or fusion dance with classic fantasy setting isekai 👀

classic fantasy isekai… not otome isekai, hmm? actual isekai? okay! i have aged everyone down accordingly (everyone's like, 16 in these kinds of stories, right?)

...

In fantasy land, they called Chen Lihua Lady Saintess, or Lady Hero, or just Hero. Never her name, but then again, no one used her name back at home either. “Hero” was, frankly, a lot more flattering than “Ungrateful Waste of Space” or “Dead-faced Little Bitch” or “What, It’s Her Again?”

Truly an unimaginable improvement. Truthfully, everything was an improvement. Anythiing and everything she could eat, instead of her family’s leftovers; anything and everything she could wear, instead of bargain-bin rejects. No insults, no sneers, no whispers. Everyone treated her with more kindness and respect than she had had in the last five years combined.

This was the best kidnapping that Chen Lihua had ever been involved in.

The only person who hadn’t been 100% friendly towards to her was Knight Jovis, who was her designated guard by virtue of, as far as Chen Lihua could tell, being the most talented knight that happened to be around Chen Lihua’s age. This seemed to be more important than the fact that Knight Jovis hated Chen Lihua with every fiber of her body.

There really didn’t seem to be anything Chen Lihua could do without provoking her, which is the reason why Chen Lihua had decided to deliberately provoke her, just to see what would happen. The results were entirely uninspiring. Some gritted teeth, sure, but no violence. Maybe a comment, about how Chen Lihua could be making better use of her time, but no snide remarks at her appearance or parentage or anything.

People really were very nice to her here, even if Chen Lihua wasn’t particularly nice back.

“She’ll warm up to you!” Prince Yulan said, who had vastly higher standards for niceness than Chen Lihua did. “Eventually!”

“You really think so,” Chen Lihua said. Chen Lihua was not the kind of person that people warmed up to. Chen Lihua was not the kind of person that people liked, in general.

Prince Yulan nodded enthusiastically. “Of course! You have plenty of good qualities!” He even really seemed to mean it too. Chen Lihua wondered if he had something wrong with his eyes.

Prince Yulan, the third-born prince of House Zether, was quite possibly the most optimistic person Chen Lihua had ever met. This was most likely why he was her tour guide. He was sunshine-y and cheerful and perfectly willing to account anything and everything in the best light possible, which was probably a bonus, if people were trying to get her to like the place enough to truly protect it. He never got frustrated or annoyed; he didn’t seem capable of getting frustrated or annoyed.

It was disturbing. Chen Lihua almost preferred dealing with Knight Jovis, because at least Knight Jovis openly hated her.

“It’s not really you,” Prince Yulan said. “Truthfully, Micaiah doesn’t much like anyone, ahaha. She’s not really a people person. The only person she really does like is Haakon – aaah, don’t look at me like that, Micaiah! It’s the truth!”

“Haakon?” Chen Lihua said.

“My fiance,” Knight Jovis said, deigning to speak for the first time today. There was a warning growl to her voice. It reminded Chen Lihua of girls warning her to stay away from their boyfriends.

What fun memories.

“What, you have a fiance?” Chen Lihua said, more to irritate Knight Jovis than out of an actual disbelief. “You?”

Knight Jovis bared her teeth.

Prince Yulan blithely ignored their interaction. “Haakon’s nice! He’ll actually be accompanying you next week, by the way, instead of me. I’m going to be called away on business…”

“So Knight Jovis’s fiance will be around me all week?”

“....That’s an odd way to say it, but yes?”

Chen Lihua smiled brightly at Knight Jovis. Knight Jovis gave her a look that said she would like to set Chen Lihua on fire.

Chen Lihua would love to see her try.

unusual fic-specific asks for authors

#my writing #unusual fic-specific asks #transmigrated as the female lead's villain fiance: fantasy isekai au #fantasy isekai #as it happens you're correct! his name IS andrew!

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thisweekingundamwing · 11 months ago

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This Week in Gundam Wing 26 October 2023 - 13 January 2024

Here’s the roundup for October 26th, 2023 - January 13th, 2024!

Remember to give your content creators some love! Be sure to join in on the events at the bottom! And remember to send in any new works you see or make this next week!

~Mod Hel

(Look, we’re just going to ignore the fact that I keep reminding myself to do this and then forgetting about it 10 minutes later.)

Fanfiction/Ideas/Snippets:

@lifeaftermeteor

The Pageant (a LAM sidefic) https://archiveofourown.org/works/52557262

M/M, Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy

General Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Kid Fic, Post-Canon, Christmas Fluff, Post-Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Author Is Not Religious, Christmas, Not Beta Read

Christmas was always a big deal—even in the colonies—perhaps all the more so following the Eve Wars. This year’s holiday was especially important for their little family, however: Sousuke was going to be an angel.

@noirangetrois

A Not So Tropical Vacation https://archiveofourown.org/works/51336205

M/M, Chang Wufei/Heero Yuy

Teen And Up Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply, Alcohol, Broken Bones, Major Character Injury, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Heero being sweeter than Wufei deserves, Post-Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz

When an injury prevents Heero and Wufei from going on their long-awaited vacation, Heero tries to bring the vacation to Wufei.

@vegalume

Vendredi https://archiveofourown.org/works/51237895

Gen, Duo Maxwell & Heero Yuy

Duo Maxwell, Heero Yuy, Sally Po, Zechs Merquise, Quatre Raberba Winner, Trowa Barton

Teen And Up Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply, Supernatural Elements, Possibly Pre-Slash, Angst, no happy ending, Ambiguous/Open Ending, mentions of other characters from the series, only tagged those who appear 'on screen', little OOC-ness, Horror-ish, multiple uses of the 'F' word

Duo's friends are vanishing, and no one else notices or even remembers. Only Heero believes him and together they try to discover what is happening.

@zaganthi @tzigane

How L2 Learned to Cope with Werewolves https://archiveofourown.org/works/52676311

F/M, M/M, Multi, Chang Wufei/Treize Khushrenada, Chang Wufei/Long Meilan, Chang Wufei/Treize Khushrenada/Long Meilan

Chang Wufei, Treize Khushrenada, Long Meilan, Lady Une, Chilias Catalonia, Vingt Khushrenada

Explicit, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Failed Arranged Marriages, Biological Weapons, Psychological Warfare, Werewolves in Space, Cameos

It was remarkable how many people assumed that being from L5 made him deaf. Possibly it was the security badge that gave them that impression, or maybe they just thought that allowing Treize to nail him meant he was on their side.

Overall, it was pretty stupid. No one paid attention to him lingering with a cup of coffee, they just went about their day and spoke where they normally would. He wondered if being able to fade into the background might be some form of magical camouflage. He supposed that was a realistic option, and there was no reason for them to expect otherwise. Not really. They didn't know him. So he was free to wander and listen and just exist for a while before he went up to the secured swipe card room to try to get a little rest and personal time.

Pleased to Meet You, Hope You Guess My Name https://archiveofourown.org/works/52675717

M/M, Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy

Explicit, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Meet-Cute, Assassination Attempt(s), The combination meet-cute and assassination attempt, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence

A third shot rang out, and then footsteps, and he wasn't trying to get away, no, not at all. He was coming closer.

Hell yes. It was a shame the guy was working for L1 or whoever had hired him because he would've been amazing back home. "Hey, hey! Don't fucking shoot! I wanna talk!"

That felt like a purely audible pause, followed by a nasal voice that was more a statement than a question. "About what." Like they had the time to have a discussion here. Somebody would have heard the shots by now.

Arts/Crafts/Photo Manips:

@artnijna

https://www.tumblr.com/artnijna/737927884519489536/rewatching-gundam-wing-and-thinking-about-the-2x5

WuFei/Duo, fanart

https://www.tumblr.com/artnijna/738980133321523200/baby-ive-been-to-spacebut-at-the-end-of-the-day

WuFei/Duo, fanart

https://www.tumblr.com/artnijna/738194483104153600/wufei-regrets-his-crush-some-what

Duo/WuFei, fanart

@duomaxwellandducks

https://www.tumblr.com/duomaxwellandducks/732635364086497280/both-gundam-wing-intros-are-iconic-and-anyone-who

Iconic intros, comic

@enelo

https://www.tumblr.com/enelo/739422142192631808

Relena Darlian-Peacecraft, fanart

@ghost-proof

https://www.tumblr.com/ghost-proof/730963271303233536/love-a-good-meme-thought-it-was-perfect-for-these

Heero/Duo, fanart

@idrawprettyboys

https://www.tumblr.com/idrawprettyboys/734925341882286080/i-drew-this-gorgeous-boy-on-a-cheap-supermarket

Duo Maxwell, fanart

@imperviousmelodrama

https://www.tumblr.com/imperviousmelodrama/736263532669190144/did-someone-say-pigtail-duo-pretty-certain-i

Duo/Heero, fanart

@incaseofart

https://www.tumblr.com/incaseofart/733362202305822720/treize-khushrenada-but-casual-clothes-perhaps

Treize Khushrenada, fanart

@lila-oh

https://www.tumblr.com/lila-oh/732714555363459072/happy-halloween-yes-my-participation-is

WuFei/Heero, kissing, comic

Mashiro Andy

https://www.tumblr.com/cruelangel94/733193774949384192/artist-by-mashiro-andy

Relena Darlian-Peacecraft, fanart

@nullphysics

https://www.tumblr.com/nullphysics/735275196278325248

Trowa/Heero, fanart

@sweet-rabbit

https://www.tumblr.com/sweet-rabbit/738637581503315968/i-came-up-with-this-randomly-today-like-15-minutes

Quatre/Heero, comic

Photosets/Gifsets/Screenshots/Manga Pages:

@tinyozlion

https://www.tumblr.com/tinyozlion/733873353488744448/i-love-when-people-put-together-frame-stitches

Clowns, frame stitching

@vegalume

https://www.tumblr.com/vegalume/735006366851334144/tis-the-season

Christmas tree decor

Fandom Discourse:

@lifeaftermeteor

https://www.tumblr.com/lifeaftermeteor/735089951081955328/i-would-swear-there-was-a-gundam-tumblr-floating

LAMs Lost and Found - find great info/world building here

https://www.tumblr.com/lifeaftermeteor/735699559547879424/with-the-power-of-friendship

@prettyboysdontlookatexplosions WuFei being ‘normal’.

https://www.tumblr.com/lifeaftermeteor/736341502701256704/lifeaftermeteors-holiday-card-exchange

Obviously late for this one, but know that LAM does this pretty much every year if they get people who want them. ^_^

@prettyboysdontlookatexplosions

https://www.tumblr.com/prettyboysdontlookatexplosions/734934388226326528/its-also-very-funny-that-we-get-an-episode-called

episode naming things

https://www.tumblr.com/prettyboysdontlookatexplosions/735022245112643584/watching-gundam-wing-as-an-adult-opens-you-up-to

how age affects how you view GW

https://www.tumblr.com/prettyboysdontlookatexplosions/735373187192422400/i-dont-like-ship-it-in-that-i-dont-care-about

Trieze & Zechs

@tinyozlion

https://www.tumblr.com/tinyozlion/736669800741421056/my-beloved-redsixwing-has-found-and-resurrected-a

A GW Archive should people need it.

gwpromptmeme

GW Prompt Meme event

Rules: https://gwpromptmeme.dreamwidth.org/408.html

Main Page: https://gwpromptmeme.dreamwidth.org/

Quotes:

@incorrectgundamwingquotes

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/733281547591024640/on-libra-howard-theres-a-spy-leaking-all-of

Howare, Quatre, & WuFei

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/734821642313793537/incorrectgundamwingquotes-heero-dont-even

Heero & Trowa

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/734912407622844416/cathy-are-you-busy-trowa-no-cathy-wanna-do

Cathy & Trowa

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/733372201867362304/trowa-the-power-came-back-on-when-i-was-asleep

Trowa

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/733734724284088320/wufei-maxwell-just-pissed-me-off-heero-why-what

WuFei & Heero

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/736089974256058368/at-preventers-hq-heero-were-doing-secret-santa

Heero, Trowa, & WuFei

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/735908793762922496/wufei-reading-book-duo-wufei-duo-wufei

WuFei & Duo

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/736271216205283328/wufei-visibly-annoyed-duo-whats-the

WuFei & Duo

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/736724242945671168/dorothy-recording-on-her-phone-so-im-building-a

Dorothy, Relena, & Sally

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/736633591231037440/in-the-groupchat-quatre-good-morning-we

Quatre, Heero, WuFei, Trowa, & Duo

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/737901948172402688/circus-owner-whats-this-gap-in-your-employment

Circus Owner & Trowa

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/736814824240152576/texting-heero-what-should-i-get-at-ihop-duo

Heero, Duo, Trowa, & WuFei

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/736905574207422464/relena-are-you-going-to-be-part-of-the-problem-or

Relena, Heero, & Duo

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/737358389752070144/incorrectgundamwingquotes-wufei-trowa-can

WuFei, Trowa, & Quatre

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/737539619983376384/incorrectgundamwingquotes-heero-duo-duo-yes

Heero, Duo, & Quatre

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/735818328096047104/duo-and-wufei-arguing-wufei-makes-an

Duo & WuFei

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/738083194163822592/incorrectgundamwingquotes-zechs-you-know-who-i

Zechs, Duo, & Trowa

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/737992573856169984/heero-some-days-all-i-care-about-is-the-mission

Heero & Duo

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/738173868991217664/on-a-mission-oz-soldiers-come-out-duo-im

OZ Soldiers, Duo, & Trowa

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/738445694732484609/sharing-a-safehouse-duo-whats-for

Duo & Trowa

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/739351620230512640/duo-maybe-hes-born-with-it-or-maybe-its

Duo, WuFei, & Trowa

Calendar Events:

@gwcocktailfriday

Cocktail Fridays!

Post responses on Friday, during Happy Hour between 3 & 5 pm in your own timezone.

Here’s the prompts for Friday, January 19th! https://gwcocktailfriday.tumblr.com/post/739456744765505536/cocktail-friday-post-responses-on-friday-january

In need of prompts!

@gwlemonyshenanigans

There’s nothing for it posted yet... but sign-ups are open. >_> Though the events calendar says they’ll be open next month... so I dunno. I just know I’m signed up already. *flails*

@thisweekingundamevents

Events Calendar https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/730188053636841472/updated-events-calendar

If you are hosting an event currently, or are planning on one, hit us up with links and dates! We’ll add them to the Calendar and reblog your notices to get the word out!

GW Holiday Gift Exchange 2023

Gift Roundup is here: https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/739404313112297472/alright-wingers-here-is-the-gw-holiday-gift

GW Valentine’s Event 2024 goes live the 18th! Be on the lookout for it!

???

GW Gift Exchange

There is another exchange being done now... I *think* it’s on dreamwidth, but I can’t find the convo with the person running it to save my life, but it’s on the events calendar with all the info I had...

Jan 15th - 21st is Nominations

Jan 16th - 28th is Sign-ups

Posting and whatnot will be in April.

Not sure if something will be posted anywhere on tumblr or not, but hoping I can get y’all the info for where and how when it goes.

#Gundam Wing #This Week in Gundam Wing #Weekly Roundup #26 October 2023 - 13 January 2024

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