#northern answers

[northerngoshawk]

Happy FFWF! Do you have any FMAB fic ideas? If so what's one of them? If not, what's an idea youve seen that you think would be fun to write for any fandom?

happy ffwf peaches! and OOF that's a good question

unfortunately, i do not have an FMAB fic ideas because i haven't even finished watching the anime or reading the manga 🥲 altho weirdly enough, recently i was randomly feeling ed x winry for some reason. idk why. SO im gonna answer the second half of the question

i'll be honest... i've fallen off pretty hard from reading fanfic 😅 most of my time had been dedicated to playing my video games. lol. but one specific fun idea to write would be something @chocomd actually brought up in a recent ask game.

for the game, she sent me an ask wondering if i would write any of my favorite characters going insane. and i'll be honest, i don't really have any favorites so far HAHAHA. but there is one character from Wuthering Waves, one of my video games, that i think would actually be really, really easy to write as going insane. it has a lot to do with the setting (post-apocalyptic world), a lot with a certain... characteristic of said world (rain that flows upwards in reverse and causes hallucinations of past events; the stronger the emotional connection is to an area, the more intense the hallucinations), and a lot to do with the background of said character (a young general who was forced into the role after his predecessor passed during a battle and watched countless soldiers under his command die). also the toll of a bell. because of course.

i played through this character's story quest, and imma be honest... there were a lot of elements in there that could be horror. so knowing all this, it's very, very, very easy for me to imagine this character going insane had he not had the strong will we see in-game. or mayhaps he is on the brink of insanity, and we just can't see it.

who knows?

[ghost-bison]

I finished Derry Girls yesterday. I know the whole show's about a serious topic and all, but it's done in such a funny way that you don't expect it to go so dark at times. Which is why this show is genius. You see everything through the eyes of a bunch of naive teenagers who honestly have other things to worry about than the Troubles. They think about boys (and girls), and school and the fact that their mums are gonna kill them if they don't pass their final exams, and you get invested and forget what's happening out there. And every time an episode ends with a reminder it's brutal and random and it's so real. Because that's how it is in real life: you never expect to get a call telling you your granddad is dead. Or for your TV program to be interrupted to tell you terrorists crashed a plane into a bunch of towers and killed over 3000 people. Things like that always come unexpected and Derry Girls understood that. Beautiful show.

[stars4krios]

POV: your first gf turned into the moon and now your scared your first bf will turn into the sun

[mysterycitrus]

hiiiii it's olympic season so i was wondering what would would think each titan would do for the olympics. i mean there are a lot of fairly obvious ones but i'm curious either way :3c

my only thought is that team usa would beg on their hands and knees to get dick grayson on the pommel horse and that petty asshole would turn around and compete in ice curling instead

[isawken]

this is Total Time in Car. train trips don't count. do not count time spent in hotels. if you slept in your car you can put those hours towards your total tho. doesn't matter if you were the one driving or were just a passenger. and put in the tags where you went :)

[demaparbat-hp]

I didn't know Katara also had silver marks on the Kintsugi AU. How did you come up with that idea? Is it an in-universe cultural thing? If it is, is it exactly the same as Zuko's or does the Water Tribe have their own beliefs around it?

Sorry if I'm asking too many questions, I just really love how your mind works when it comes to these AUs 💖

Hello, and thanks for asking!

Initially, Kintsugi was a strictly Fire Nation tradition. Something to hold over the rest of the nations, and deepen their own belief of cultural superiority. Zuko hiding his scars played into that idea, since having gold inlaid in your body is a clear sign of Fire Nation blood—furthermore, High Fire Nation blood.

That being said, one lovely anon gave the suggestion that perhaps the other nations also have their own kinds of Kintsugi, and I fell in love with the idea. @ican-fixitbooks went even deeper into the particular philosophies of each nation regarding Kintsugi. I'll be using some quotes from them—watch for the italics.

It was during said brainstorming session that I thought of Katara having a silver Kintsugi scar, and how could it be used to enhance the themes of ATLA, Katara's arc, and this AU as a whole.

But a little background is necessary, I believe.

Kintsugi is a tradition practiced worldwide, with minor differences in philosophy/technique according to each nation.

The Earth Kingdom seal their scars with a substance that resembles bronze, as the mentality of breaking yourself down to build yourself back up better than you were is very central to their culture. It is used as a way to celebrate one's victories, made all the better if damage was taken to achieve it.

The elite have rather different views on this practice. They believe themselves to be above such things. That which is broken must be hidden away, which has interesting connotations when thinking about a certain blind earthbender.

The Air Nomad philosophy leans towards a naturalist approach. Anything natural doesn't need to be "improved" in their eyes. If a scar is there, it is there. Let it be there as a part of you, no different than any other, no need to be "made better", but in fact better to just "be".

Kintsugi is a cultural practice meant to celebrate making something beautiful out of something broken, arguably even making it better than it was. During Sozin's reign and forward, Kintsugi became a way to show the Fire Nation's superiority. Especially as that is essentially their philosophy for war: "Breaking the rest of the world so it can be reforged in fire, made a better, more perfect place."

As for the Water Tribes, there's the healing factor to take into account. The Northern Water Tribe isolated itself from the rest of the world once the war began, so they hold tight to their traditions and beliefs. If something is not broken, then why attempt to fix it? Kintsugi is scoffed at in the North—it is a foreign practice, one that is not necessary when all your wounds can be healed with bending.

However, the Southern Water Tribe has been exposed to the world. They have seen war. They have lived through it. They have suffered, but they are also free because of it, if only in spirit. The South is strong and proud and bold, so it comes as no surprise that silver Kintsugi becomes the mark of their warriors, their hunters, their people.

Katara was wounded during the last Southern Raid. After losing Kya in such a terrible way, Hakoda made sure to seal Katara's wound with the silver of their warriors, so that she would always remember that despite having been broken, she is still strong, beautiful, and proud.

The scar itself is long and thin, going from her right shoulder up to her jaw. It loosely resembles lightning.

And despite how she got it, despite all the things she lost on that day, despite it being a constant reminder of her mother's death—Katara loves her scar.

It grounds her. It pushes her forward. You are a warrior, it tells her. You are a survivor.

When Katara arrives at the North, her scar becomes yet another thing the Northerners hold against her. They use it to demean her, just as they do her gender and out-spoken personality.

The North believes a lot of things that Katara always considered natural to be a problem. What does it matter that she is a woman? What is wrong about being passionate? Why should having a scar mean she's broken?

This scar is something they cannot touch. The Northerners try to use it to demean her. To make her small. Self-conscious. Worthless.

They're scoffing at her mother's death.

Her strength.

Her beauty.

Her pride.

Her story.

And she will not allow it.

[simplydnp]

they're definitely gonna go see the northern lights that's so romantic

honestly i've seen them for the first Proper time this year, and... yeah 🥺 they absolutely are. especially given how they posted about seeing them in london a few months ago

[saintsenara]

What do the Irish mean when they say someone’s getting notions? Is this a good thing? A bad thing? Inherently neutral but meant to imply risk-taking behavior? To my understanding notion is just a synonym for idea but it feels so loaded when I hear it used in context?

it's an insult.

if someone says you're getting/you have notions, they mean you're full of yourself [that you have notions of grandeur]. it's intended to embarrass you - by pointing out that you're not as clever or attractive or successful or sophisticated as you think you are - in an effort to take you down a peg or two.

the essential context is that we like to think of ourselves as an egalitarian people. this plays a profound role in the irish national psyche, and its impact is detectable across all levels of irish politics and society.

but it has both positive and negative impacts on the national character. and one of the key negative impacts is that the irish [especially older generations and especially in the republic, where a foundational civilisational myth is that society isn't stratified on the basis of class] have a profound and instinctive dislike for tall poppies. anything which deviates from the average, which makes you stand out in any way, or which is evidence of you adopting an "i must have the best" rather than a "that'll do" mindset is an example of notions and is fair game for mockery.

obviously, based on the context in which it's said and the relationship between the speakers, being told you've got notions can be a fond insult. and indeed it often is.

your friend who's been living in new york comes back and tells you about this magic, otherworldly thing they have there called a bodega? notions, it's a corner shop.

your friend insists on going on holidays to a cottage in the middle of nowhere because it will be "cosy" and "quaint" and then complains the whole time because there's no phone signal? notions, your mammy didn't need to be on her phone the whole time when she was young, ah now why don't you read a book.

your friend who's a snappy dresser?

notions.

it's also often just very funny as a generational divide, "irish boomers encounter modernity", "tis far from nduja you were reared" thing. i was at a wedding over the summer where the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom were jointly in disbelief at one of the bridesmaid's notions. the notions in question? she's vegan.

[other things i've heard described as indicating notions: drinking almond milk; visiting scandinavia; doing yoga; having a haircut; shopping at john lewis; buying an air fryer; having a ring doorbell; using a kindle; not taking milk in your tea; and taking a taxi.]

but while the concept of notions is generally fairly harmless, it can have a crueler "shut up and stop having ideas above your station" vibe, which ends up maintaining the forms of social stratification [things like class, race, gender, and of course religious background] we like to pretend we don't have...

i was at in the same year at school as a girl who was a traveller, an ethnic group which experiences massive discrimination in all parts of ireland.

there are two things to bear in mind here:

the first is that an offensive stereotype about travellers is that they're all stupid. the second is that two cultural practices travellers are often criticised for are rigid gender roles and a lack of interest in mainstream education.

these criticisms aren't always unreasonable and are often made by travellers themselves - many traveller girls are removed from school in their early teens, get married when they're still teenagers, and don't work outside the home - but there's nonetheless an entrenched commitment among settled communities to ignoring the other side of the coin - traveller pupils are excluded and expelled from school at disproportionate rates, funding for educational outreach among traveller communities is low, traveller communities are oppressed by the state and then criticised for not trusting it.

so you'd think - wouldn't you - that many settled people, including those who hold discriminatory views on travellers, would regard the fact that i had a classmate who was a traveller who loved school and eventually went to university and whose family was loving and supportive as a positive thing.

and you'd be incorrect. because apparently a young woman from a community an appalling number of irish are happy to think of as an underclass [just like the brits did to you, eh?] having the temerity to take exams and do well in them...

notions.

[ratrrriot]

Do you have any sonic ocs? (Or ocs in general, haha) (totally not asking so I can make fanart, nahhhh….)

The fact that you are considering drawing my OCS when you haven't even seen them yet is very flattering,thank you!!

these are from when i was in highschool lol

This is Spark, They are a Tetraplegic Chao Cream found and brought to Tails,who successfully managed to build a fully functional mechanical body for them to play with. This robot body is connected to their brain and can even fly.

Spark lives at Tail's workshop and they’re clearly very fond of Cream -who regularly visits them to play- and Tails.

Originally,Tails was going to design Spark’s robot body based on his own (for trademark reasons) but since Cream was Spark's “owner” (for lack of a better term referring to someone who takes care of a chao) ,she wanted to participate in the designing part and gave him a few crayon drawings of rabbits, which were so cute that Tails simply had to include them in the final design. This is why they look like a Fox/Rabbit hybrid. (it also makes sense since Spark sees them both as some sort of older siblings)

ofc Spark isn't always inside their robot body,Tails takes them in and out everyday.

Aaand these are some apprentices I designed for the Babylon Rogues! Tundra,Velvet and Ember. They love snowboarding and are developing their skills at Extreme Gear Racing. They kinda need some redesigning...

These three are orphans. They used to live at an orphanage situated in a small town near Snow Valley. Unsatisfied with their lives there (and that nobody seemed to be interested in adopting them) they ran away around the age of 12 to try and start new lifes on their own,resorting to thievery and trickery to get by. Life was hard and unfair for three kids growing up in the snowy streets,but thanks to Velvet's determination,Ember's charisma and Tundra's intelligence they managed to survive. After a year of wandering,they stole 3 snowboards and started practicing the sport ,with the hopes that one day they would become famous professionals who didn't need to resort to stealing. However,by they age of 16, they hadn't just developed great skill and love for what they now consider "the art of thievery" - and a liking for equipment and luxuries most can't afford- but they also had lost all interest on the "safer" version of snowboarding and became addicted to the speed and the danger of racing.

They set on a journey to find their childhood idols: The babylon Rogues, a group of legendary thieves that they heard tales about back at the orphanage's storytime and who's Extreme Gear skills were what originally inspired them to try snowboarding. They traveled far and wide searching for them and once they managed to find Wave,Jet and Storm,they begged them to teach them their ways . After annoying them enough (and practically not letting them alone lol) the trio of professionals finally agreed to train them.

VELVET THE NORTHERN CARDINAL:

Energic,Peppy,Sassy,Optimistic,laid-back and confident. A speed junkie and a little bit of a clown. The fastest of the trio. Jet is his Idol and he'll do anything to impress him. Tries to annoy Sonic to imitate his teacher,but he actually thinks he is the coolest guy around after Jet. He has a big heart and doesn't seem to hate Sonic -or anyone -at all,but he does enjoy some friendly banter at the moment of competing. Jet likes him a lot and is kinda proud of him but he tries not to show it ,as he doesn't want the kid (or himself) to get attached or to think he'll actually pass to him his "Master of the wind" title someday.

The gem-shaped-computer on his neck was a gift he received from Wave after she updated her own and didn't know what to do with her old one. According to her,she handed it down to him cause "it matched his feathers". Now,feeling honored by one of his idols,he wears it with pride.

EMBER THE COCKATIEL:

Cheeky, Rebellious, Brave, Impulsive and Loyal. Doing tricks in the air like its nothing is her specialty. Cares a lot about her looks and is an expert at the art of deception. She is also can be a little bit of meanie. She and Wave share a sister-like kind of relationship. Since they both have strong personalities, they fight a lot and she tends to disobey her,espeally when it comes to the times she tries to teach her about mechanics and "the boring part" of Extreme Gear personalization. However, they always make up and end up gossiping at the end of the day.

TUNDRA THE CRESTED PENGUIN :

Silent, cold, shy, serious, a bit competitive and incredibly smart. Expert at strategizing and finding shortcuts while racing. Has high expectations of himself and doesn't handle failure very well. Being the oldest by a year,he is very protective of his adoptive siblings. Unlike Wave and Jet,Storm didn't have to be convinced to take him under his wing cause he liked the kid since the moment he showed up. tho he is trying to teach him to live a little and be a bit more impulsive at the moment of racing.

[northerngoshawk]

🌹🌹🌹

feed me pls

ask and ye shall receive o7

from the WIP of the second chapter of my wuthering waves fix-it fic!

Baizhi seems to agree. “Chixia, I do not believe this is a good time for sparring,” she chides sternly, earning her a pout. Baizhi turns towards her, posture shifting to wary curiosity. “And I do not believe we caught your name either. If it is alright, I would like to know who you are.” Her eyes narrow briefly. “As well as why you are with Yangyang.” She blinks at the suspicion that flashes through Baizhi’s eyes, at the accusation underlying her words. She opens her mouth—to either explain or defend herself, she isn’t sure—but before she has the chance to, Yangyang interjects. “No, Baizhi, you’ve got it all wrong,” she says emphatically, waving her hands to dispel the misunderstanding. “I was in the Gorges of Spirits trying to find a way out, when I found her just… laying there on the ground.” Her voice takes on a pleading tone, as if trying to will Baizhi to understand. “She was unconscious and in a dangerous place. As an Outrider, it was my duty to help her.” Baizhi hums again, folding her arms across her chest. “Be that as it may, you cannot deny that these anomalous disturbances coincide around the time we found her.” Baizhi’s eyes flick to her. “Given the current circumstances over at Desorock Highland, you have to admit the timing is rather… suspicious.”

you probably dont know who any of these characters are 😂 but mayhaps if you read you'll find out~ 👀

[instarsandcrimeah]

I love Sif's design-

[ineffectualdemon]

Shang Qinghua is man who has a vagina and Mobei Jun is a demon with a penis and Shang Qinghua is the one who eventually knocks up Mobei

It's definitely his biological child and Mobei Jun definitely carries it himself

Shen Qingqiu spends the rest of eternity trying to figure out HOW but is too afraid to ask

[emile-hides]

I was watching a Youtube video of all the Cinematic from the new Overwatch Invasion update (cause heaven knows I ain't buying it) and I noticed at the end Ramattra has this like.. Burn? Mark?? On his chest that goes through his cape

So I downloaded Overwatch on my PC to get a look at the Wandering/Traveling Monk skins this scene is using and I noticed..

Traveling and Wandering have a lot of visual differences, most notably in the burn the originally got my attention.

Wandering has been used canonically to show Ramattra's monk days previously, in his origin story and in the Developer commentary, but interestingly the artwork in those videos is lacking that very burn

Overwatch character designers are very good at visual storytelling, especially with Omnics (I could write an essay on what they've done with Zenyatta), so I believe this burn may very well be what became the Last Straw for Ramattra, what pushed him to leave the Shambali, what caused his fall into violence and eventually Talon.

Was he attacked? Or was he attempting to protect someone else? Despite his best efforts to shield them, the shot fired right past him, scorching his metal, cutting through his cape, and taking their life...

I hope we learn more about it.

[blacklegsanjiii]

Since North Blue has it's own lenguage, wouldn't it be funny if in like, ASL+S, Sanji just gets nervous or angry and start to talk in North Blue without even noticing? The ASL would be confused as hell-

Each Blue technically has its own language, but in the East Blue and Grand Line mostly common is spoken so Sanji in any of the ASL+S bullshit I have just getting scared and babbling in Northern Blue and his brothers staring at him like 'what is this gibberish?' and then Sabo realizing Sanji's from another Blue and rolling with it until Sanji gets excited and goes off in his native tongue about something as they stare at him and then ask for an explanation in a language they understand.

Sanji teaching it to his brothers and everything and like Sabo knowing Northern Blue in the revolutionary army as a child and no one can figure out why he would know that. Luffy and Sanji talk in it while they reminisce about Dadan and Foosha, Ace talks to Thatch excitedly in North Blue. They used it to keep secrets and have conversations.

In the verse where Sanji loses his leg and they're all in the White Beard fleet and Shanks and Marco are looking at them as the kids are all half awake just mumbling incoherently to each other in northern and Shanks and Marco are just staring at them in they're drugged fucking state and if the Heart Pirates are there most the have to be trying not to laugh as Law looks at them with confusion and Shanks asking them to translate and Shachi, Penguin, and Ikkaku eagerly telling them what dumb shit they are saying which is basically like 'shrimp are too good for us' 'shrimp are delicious and they have it coming' 'i can't feel my toes' and other exceptionally dumb shit.

In Dressrosa Sabo and Ace are talking in it at the cabin and Law is once again looking at them in confusion as they catch up like old friends and when he asks it's like 'Sanji taught it to us' and then straight back to northern as Robin laughs.

[not-poignant]

Characters as soup? What soups are your characters? Whichever characters (and soups) you want.

So to answer this in a circuitous way:

I live in one of the hottest major cities in the world (not the hottest, but definitely nowhere near 'mild and nice' either).

The opportunities I have to eat soup are severely limited because most people don't make soups here and they're not a common thing to see on the menu, and if you do, it's always going to be the same soups.

As a result, in my life, I've only eaten like 7 different kinds of soup, and most of those are broths that go with a meal (pho, laksa etc.).

I literally haven't eaten enough soups to match them to my characters and they can't all be carrot and ginger, or Chinese chicken and sweetcorn, or zupa koperkowa.

It's funny to think about this, but this question actually made me realise just how temperature dependent and regional the experience of soup is.

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Hiya! Would you be willing to explain why keeping captive right whales is completely nonviable, as you mentioned? I’m fascinated, but the adhd simply will not let me parse scientific papers.

That's a fantastic question! While it would be wonderful if captive breeding were a viable option for this critically endangered species, it just isn't possible under any realistic conditions.

For starters, their size. Orcas are the largest mammals successfully held in captivity, and we all know how difficult (and controversial) that is, with only a very small handful of facilities ever pulling it off with any semblance of success. Tilikum, the largest captive orca (although I believe that record has since been overtaken by a male in China), was 22.5 feet (6.9 meters) long and weighed 12,500 pounds (5,700 kg). Most other orcas in human care, particularly the females, are considerably smaller. Compare that to a northern right whale. Even the smallest adults are over 40 feet long—double Tilikum's length—and weigh 88,000 pounds (40,000 kg)—seven times his weight—while the biggest specimens on record reached up to 61 feet (18.5 m) and an incredible 234,000 pounds (106,000 kg).

A tank for an animal that size would be far beyond anything we have the ability to engineer and maintain. Think of how deep it would have to be for the whale to even turn around! The water pressure would be astronomical, wreaking havoc on the building materials even if it were possible to build the structure. And remember—someone has to dive to clean it! Our theoretical right whale habitat would have to be a sea pen, but even the 100-acre facilities proposed with orcas in mind are nowhere near deep enough. While right whales are considered to inhabit "coastal" waters, they do not live right up by the shoreline, like certain orca ecotypes and other small delphinids. They are a pelagic species, designed to live out in the open water column, as are all baleen whales. So, the pen would have to be a floating habitat miles out into the open water (think of an offshore oil rig), with netting sturdy enough to not be destroyed by a 50 ton whale and long enough to extend hundreds of feet to the ocean floor. We're talking probably thousands of square miles of netting, that would have to be routinely inspected for safety and upkeep. So, you would probably need a submersible, since no human can dive that deep. On top of that, it would be difficult to find such a larger stretch of ocean in their habitat without shipping lanes, underwater noise, or pollution. And let's just forget about the logistics of staffing that place—or worse, funding.

Additionally, we wouldn't be able to feed them by tossing fish into their mouth like with dolphins. Northern right whales feed on tiny crustaceans and zooplankton, cruising along and filtering the creatures from the water with their baleen. Assuming our right whale keepers were somehow able to acquire the insane amount of food the whale requires (potentially over 5000 pounds of zooplankton a day), it would need to be scattered throughout the massive habitat to facilitate feeding. I imagine this would probably look something like the way Georgia Aquarium feeds their whale sharks from a little boat, although on a much larger scale. And since the food obviously can't be kept alive, we would need to develop someway of delivering the daily vitamins that are lost in the freezing process—and to keep hundreds of tons of krill frozen on a floating kitchen in the middle of the ocean.

Of course, the ultimate goal of this project would be to breed northern right whales... that means we need to take everything we just talked about and double it, at a bare minimum. For the breeding program to be successful, it would need a whole lot more than just two whales. And unfortunately, even if we lived in world with magical floating thousand-acre sea pens, unlimited krill, and endless money... we still don't know if it would even work. Right whale breeding habits are poorly understood, with the whales mating in cold northern waters before migrating 1,000 miles south to calve. Despite our best theoretical efforts, these migratory patterns could very well be necessary for successful reproduction.

Thank you again for the ask! This was actually a lot of fun to think about! If you want to read about JJ, the only baleen whale ever successfully housed in (temporary) human care, you can find an article and pictures here.