#otherwise names r used for them interchangeably

[writers-get-biters]

ARZON SAID THIS ^^^^^

SO I& DID THIS :] vvvvv

<22222 !!!!!

(the cutie on the left is arson btw and thats two on the right)

[erraticprocrastinator]

A Guide to AO3, Part 1: Relationships

In tandem with sharing my usual random writing tips, I thought it might be nice to finally put my five years of experience on AO3 to good use. I'm compiling a list of things that I commonly see misunderstood by people who are new to the site, or fandom culture in general, and will do my best make a post explaining each, so that others might have an easier time getting to know the lay of the land than I did.

What better place to start than the Relationships section?

Warning: This post contains brief discussions of non-consent and underage relationships in fanworks (in relation to the use of Archive Warnings).

On AO3, it's a common (and expected) practice for authors to provide basic information about the relationships within a work. This is done through four main means, all of which I will touch on here:

Archive Warnings

Relationship Categories

Relationship Tags (Otherwise known as "Ships")

Additional Tags

Archive Warnings

Whilst archive warnings are required for all works uploaded to AO3, there are two in particular that are explicitly relevant to the relationships within a story; "Rape/Non-Con", and "Underage".

Unless selecting "Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings", any story containing non-consensual or underage sexual behaviour should be equipped with the respective Archive Warnings. I am aware that there are many discussions around this topic, particularly in relation to dub-con and other subtypes of non-consent, and differing definitions of "underage" in certain fandoms, but I encourage that this be used as a general rule. If you are unsure of whether these warnings are relevant to your story, I recommend seeking the opinion of other AO3 users (my preferred platform for this is r/AO3 on Reddit), and, if a clear consensus can't be reached, using "Choose Not To Warn" to be on the safe side.

Relationship Categories

In a nutshell, this section boils down to the presence (or absence) of sexual or romantic relationships in your story, and the type of relationships that these may be. I think that the attached guide available on AO3 itself explains it well, so I won't dwell on this for too long, but one thing (that I discuss more in the next section) that I think should be noted is that, in this context, "/" refers to the existence of a romantic or sexual relationship between the genders in question, and not a platonic bond. For example, if your story focuses on a purely friendly relationship between two women, you do not need to select "F/F", and should instead choose "Gen".

Relationship ("Ship") Tags

These are the tags used to identify the specific main relationships within your story, both sexual/romantic and platonic. They use the characters' names, with either "/" or "&" between them to identify the nature of the relationship.

Now, that note I wanted to expand on:

I've recently seen a lot of confusion surrounding the correct way to tag romantic and platonic relationships, including a few people commenting on mine and others' works thinking that misleading tags have been used, so I'd like to take this opportunity to set things straight.

"/" is the symbol that should be used when tagging a relationship that is romantic or sexual in nature (this is actually where the term "slash" in smut originated from!). "X" can also be used for this purpose in general fandom spaces, but isn't used on AO3.

"&", on the other hand, should only be used for non-sexual, non-romantic relationships within a story. If your story contains a major platonic relationship, this is the symbol to use.

Example: The tags below indicate two different types of relationship and are not interchangeable.

It's completely fine to use both of these if the romantic relationship in your story also has a heavy emphasis on friendship, or if you're following a friends-to-lovers arc, but "&' alone should not be used to indicate a romantic relationship, and "/" should not be used for one that is purely platonic. This is something that's good to keep in mind for both authors and readers!

Additional Tags

Additional Tags, as well as being the place to tag anything not encompassed in previous sections, is also a great place to tag any other information you think is relevant about the relationships in your story. This can include anything from the story arc that takes place ("enemies to lovers" etc) to the nature and specific dynamics involved. Many people who post explicit works use this section to tag the acts and positions performed, as well as other details such as kinks. You can use this section to explain as much about the relationships as you like. I plan on doing a more in-depth guide to tagging in general in the future, which will expand on this, as well as explain more general expectations and courtesies that new authors should be aware of.

[saintehigh]

pre relationship 1, 4, 6 for V + love 1, 7, 12 for sam

HI MIKA:D!!! jumps allover the room.

01 — how did they first meet?

my silly younger brother ( <- nick :D ) is rlly into photography.. & i am the awesome supportive older brother that goes to all his events and galleries sooo... personal hc that V visits photo galleries sometimes ( mainly student ones 2 give advice or use his silly little connections in the industry 2 help them progress bcuz he is nice like that . ) && we just...cross paths one day :3 aghhh, he shows up at a few more of the galleries nick happens 2 be in and one day he just comes up 2 me and is like. Hey. Ur sibling is pretty talented actually:) and im like..wow thank u haha, I Know. and then out of nowhere he offers to help my brother get a scholarship 4 visual arts / photography when he's college age and im like girl what. im in love with u I MEAN?! we should kiss. I MEAN ?!? im normal ^_^ woww ure so kind. AND ..idk i turn into one of those guys that uses their younger siblings endearingness into a way 2 get the girl ( or in this case guy💔😭 ) srry thhis is so long, i am fighting the cringe .

04 — who felt romantic feelings first?

me...i am cringefail for pretty boys & V is the prettiest in the world 💔 type of guy to error404 in real life if V even looked at me once i realized 💔💔

06 — if you had told one of them that the other would be their soulmate, what would they think?

V would just be...confused, lol. mainly since we meet like a year b4 the whole rika thing goes down so he'd just be uncomfortable with the thought of his supposed soulmate being someone other then her.

⠀

i dont actually believe in soulmates...neither me / my self-insert do actually lol. but assuming its soulmate in the least legitimate way possible i probably would not believe it either..like woag .... THAT GUY? r u sure. be serious. out of my league im telling u.... hopeful though

01 — who said “I love you” first?

sam definitely lol... im normally very like... casual with saying i love you with friends and people that like, i Know my relationship with whether it be platonic or otherwise; but with sam it was T_T... it was kind of confusing? cuz for awhile it felt like we were everything all at once and i did not want to get something wrong and accidentally mess up...and then one day we are walking home from the arcade on a perfectly normal & fine autumn day, sam's walking ahead of me it's fine. it's a comfortable silence; and then he just drops the "i think i love you ^_^." out of nowhere and i fucking die on the spot and never breathe again!!!

07 — what are their favorite things to do together?

umm ...mainly just like, Existing? like that comfortable kind of silence u get with friends when ure both in the same room together doing seperate things but not in an awkward way? idk that kind of Existing is the favorite of all favorites T_T. video games r also fun though lol, after introducing samuel to the world of gaming it's like...all he wants to do. he's rlly into the fucking dancing games its awful anytime we hang out together he makes us play DDR or fuckin' just dance and good lorddd he gets a better score then me every time T_T. which is fine!!! it is very fun 2 do 2gether haha

12 — what kind of nicknames do they call each other?

hmm... sam prefers calling others just by their name or shortened versions of it — actually one of like the only people who regularly calls me jackson & varian instead of just 'jack' / 'var'... makes me thing im getting in trouble every time /hj T_T

⠀

i am kind of awkward abt nicknames & petnames n stuff...cuz i dont want to be cringe. but, interchange between calling him snowy as a reference 2 what i called him when we were kids, and 'angel' bcuz...he is an angel but even if he wasnt he looks & acts like one, AMEN 🙏🙏🙏!!

[aidendh]

BSD! OC! Atsushi Hinata | P2

-:Ability:-

The Moonlit Beast (月夜の獣,, Tsukiyo no kemono) gives Atsushi the ability to transform into a lifesize white tiger plush when hit by moonlight. This gives him tiger-like senses, he can also summon tiger-plush ears and a tail. It also gives him extreme restoration, he is even shown cutting of his own human limbs to restore them into tiger-plush limbs. Unlike Atsushi Nakajima, who has a similar ability, he retains control when transformed, however, he still doesn't retain memories from that state.

The Moonlit Beast (月夜の獣,, Tsukiyo no kemono)

Color: Blue

Manga Debut: Lost Souls, The Moonlit Sanctuary

Anime Debut: Bungou Stray Dogs: Lost Souls, The Moonlit Sanctuary

Light Novel Debut: The Hinata Family

Ability: Weretiger Plush Transformation

--

-:Etymology:-

• The name Atsushi (敦) is a Jinmeiyō kanji which are kanji that can be used as personal names.

• The surname Nakajima means 'inside' (中/naka) and 'island' (島/shima)

• The surname Dostoevsky (Достоевский) means from Dostoev, Belarus

• The name Hinata 日(hi) means sun, 向(mukai) means direction. 日向 (hinata) can be read as 'sunny day' or 'in the sun / facing the sun'

• The name Satoshi is written interchangeably between different Kanji, therefore it has many meanings

--

-:Trivia:-

[Karma Hinata - Karma,

Karma Akabane - Akabane or Nagisa's Karma]

He has a Japanese-Russian accent

He and his siblings were taught manners and formal talk by their Father

He despises baths, it got to the point where his sister Nagisa had to use her illusions to make it so he couldn't feel the water

After his Father's death, he kept trying to find a way to get his father back until he meets Adrik

During the cannon Persona Arc he replaces Maruki but works at the school from the start of the year

He would gift people he likes plushies

His Palace is a plushy wonderland esc sanctuary

He often play fights with his siblings, however he gets extremely rough, often ending up with an injured Karma

{Tower Detective Agency Arc}

Atsushi still joins the Tower Detective Agency as a spy

He doesn't get along with Yozo and often bullies them, otherwise he is quite polite

Phantom pretends to be a client for the Agency, using the Alias 'Suke Agura'

He is kidnapped by Phantom after befriending them and being lured alone

Atsushi wins the fight on the ship (like cannon BSD)

{Gifted War Arc}

Atsushi slowly earned Niihara's trust before he betrays the Agency, Niihara even reveals his identity to him

He pretends to be a member of The Resistance throughout most of the war

Atsushi Hinata is often referred to as 'The Recruiter', because of how often he befriends people to their cause

Taking after his Father, he often cooks for his friends and family

He met both of his Daughters while working as a school councilor before the war, though Juleka was a few years before Hua

His Family often does big get-togethers, often being housed at his Aunt Cho's place

After the war, it took over a year for Atsushi to be civil to Uncle Naoto after what his Uncle did

Out of all of his siblings, he is closest to Nagisa and Karma

He absolutely adores his little girls and is extremely protective over them

He heavily looks up to his Father and often unintentionally feeds Fyodor's god complex

Atsushi Tsushima (26/Adult) (Gelled hair)

-

--

Shujin Academy's school Councilor and a loving Father

Ability: The Moonlit Beast* Weretiger Transformation

Confidant: The Fool

--

Atsushi Hinata (26/Adult + Reveal) (Gelled hair)

-

-

--

Shujin Academy's school Councilor and a loving Father

Ability: The Moonlit Beast* Weretiger Transformation

Heir to the RHTD, 'The Recruiter'

--

Shadow! Atsushi (26)

-

--

A Plushy Weretiger and an overprotective Father

E: Ice /A: Ice /R: Curse

W: Fire, Nuclear

Treasure: Snowflake Hairpin

--

[indristian]

A (hopefully) comprehensive guide to german pet names

I've seen a lot of german being included in fanfic (mostly CoD, but I've also seen it in other fandoms before) lately and felt the need to air my grievances about the way I believe German pet names should be used.

There are similar posts by @itsagrimm that touch on how to include German in your fanfics. (sfw and nsfw)

When I say we aren't as big on pet names (or Kosenamen as they are called in German) as English is, I mean it. If you look up german pet names, you might find some pages that have a list of them, but if you were to use them unironically on a native German speaker, they would probably cringe. A lot of them just sound very cheesy to us. So I looked up some of those lists and tried to explain some pet names in this post.

This is mostly ordered from okay to use to "I'd cringe and close the fanfic if I saw them".

If you think you absolutely need to use a pet name, your go-to should be "Schatz/Schatzi" ("treasure"). It's the allrounder of pet names, whether it be platonic or romantic. If the person is dear to you, Schatzi is the word for you.

Similar but with a slightly different meaning (at least in my opinion) is "Schätzchen" ("little/small treasure"). More commonly used in Germany, as far as I’m aware. I think its best usage is when you use it on someone you pity, kinda like a slightly condescending "darling". (Example: "What's got you pouting like that Schätzchen? Was someone being mean to you?") It's also used for children a lot.

"Liebling" ("favorite") is also a good choice for tender moments or casually addressing your partner. As far as I know, it's used more often in Germany than here in Austria.

I've seen the word "Liebchen" ("little love") being used interchangeably with the word "Liebling" and while it may be used like that in some parts of the DACH region, I'd advise to proceed with caution! Firstly, because it's mostly used for women ,and secondly, because here in Austria (at least the part where I'm from), the word is used to describe a fling or a short-term girlfriend. So calling someone "Liebchen" to their face would be a borderline insult. (Imagine me having a "being called a cunt in Australia vs. being called a cunt in America" like moment the first time I read Liebchen being used in a fanfic.)

"Süßer(male)/Süße(female)" ("sweet one") and "Schnucki/Schnuckelchen" ("adorable one" i guess... literally translated it means "baby sheep") are also used more commonly used for women. They can also be used when someone has done something particularly sweet for you or behaves/looks particularly adorable. Although, "Süßer/Süße" has the weird side effect of also sounding like a come-on in most cases, like "Hey Süßer, could you help me out?". (Other examples: "You remembered how I take my coffee? Du bist schon ein Süßer, oder?/You are being a sweet one, aren't you?";[nsfw, because this one is one of the few ones I'd be okay with seeing in aftercare/cuddling scenes] "You were being such a Schnuckelchen crying and begging like that for me.")

Fun fact: a lot of my male friends jokingly call each other "Schnucki". To the point where they pick up the phone with a "What's up, Schnucki?" and the one guy with a girlfriend almost never calls her "Schnucki" so that everybody knows that when he talks about his "Schnuckis" it's about his male friends.

Now, we are descending into cringe territory with: "Liebster(male)/Liebste(female)" ("beloved") and "Herzblatt" ("loved/lovely person", literally "heart leaf"). If you wanna use them, make it dramatic! Otherwise, it sounds weird. They sound old-fashioned, so if your character is waxing poetic about/to their partner like some character on a stage play or being a drama queen, I'd say go ahead and use them. They're bad for casual conversations, though. Btw, "Liebste/r" sounds a bit like the beginning of a love-letter. (Examples: "It's in your hands alone, Liebste, and choosing me over the world is not worth it."; "How could you betray me like that, Herzblatt? You know I don't like chocolate pudding! So, why is it the only flavor you bought?")

We generally have a lot of animal related pet names in German: "Hase/Hasi/Häschen" ("rabbit"/"little rabbit"); "Spatz/Spätzchen" ("sparrow/little sparrow"; "Spatzl" being the Austrian version of it); "Maus/Mausi/Mäuschen" ("mouse"/"little mouse"); "Äffchen" ("little monkey", for when your partner is being a silly little monkey; "Affl" being the Austrian version); "Bärchen" ("little bear", the right choice for big and friend-shaped partners, generally for men). There are probably a lot more, but these are the most common ones, and they are great for casual conversations. These are also among the most common petnames for children, so for the love of God, leave them out of your smut.

Fun fact: There's an austrian millionaire who has the habit of calling his young, beautiful girlfriends animal names, "Katzi/kitten" and “Bambi” being among the most famous ones.

There are a lot of pet names that can be used when talking *about* someone's partner, but saying it to their face sounds weird. "Bessere Hälfte" ("better half") or "Angebeteter(male)/Angebetete(female)" ("beloved", literally it means someone you pray to) are among them. These can and probably will be tricky for non-german-speakers to work with. You'd have to keep the different case forms in mind, and they just sound better if you keep the whole sentence in german and then switch languages. (Examples: "Wo ist deine bessere Hälfte/Where's your better half? They not around today?"; "Schreib deiner Angebeteten lieber mal/Better shoot your girlfriend a text. She'll wonder where you are otherwise.").

And last but not least, here are some pet names you'd better avoid, for different reasons:

"mein Lieber(male)/meine Liebe(female)" ("my love/beloved") ugh... just no. This is the equivalent of your mother using your full name. Paired with a certain tone, this triggers my fight or flight. So do not use it unless your character is in trouble.

"Zimtschnecke" ("cinnamon roll"), "Schnecke" ("snail"; i also have no idea why we say that) or "Puppe/Püppchen" ("doll/little doll") are generally ways to adress someone beautiful. If you use them, however, you're gonna sound like a 60+ y/o man hitting on a girl in her mid 20s. Do not use unless used jokingly ,and the other person is in on the joke.

Personally, I'd say if you are unsure on what the character you're writing would use, just use the English ones or keep petnames out of their vocabulary entirely and make them show their love in other ways. Shortened versions of their partners name are also a very good alternative. Additionally, I'd advise you to pick one pet name and stick to it. Changing it up feels weird.

Feel free to add things or ask for clarifications

[forbidding-souda]

Deaf S/O with characters I headcanon knowing ASL

ASL specifically, though ASL and sign language go interchangeably with this headcanon, this post specifies things to ASL.

And this S/O is deaf AND signs ASL, doesn’t specify anything else otherwise I’d be specific about it :)

(gender neutral S/O ofc ofc)

-Mod Souda

Rantaro Amami

Something he noticed about you quickly is how loud you were.

You two moved in together, and it was never something he would have predicted.

You’ll go to get food at midnight and slam the cupboard close, scaring him awake.

You always eat at midnight too, it’s unusual to him.

He will wake up with you absent in the bed and be like oh no.

He’s a very calm, quiet person.

He will never tell you about your volume, though, in fear he’ll embarrass you.

When you first met, after learning you were deaf, he definitely watched a lot of videos on deaf culture.

He also developed a crush on Nyle DiMarco.

I mean what.

If you ask he doesn’t know who that is.

He’s very educated on the manor, and often corrects people when they refer to you incorrectly.

But the way he signs is very textbook-y.

He signs 16 like ten-six, which bothers you.

Does NOT keep up with sign language slang.

You signed see you later to him and it blew his mind.

You tried to show him the sign for emoji and he went ???

The sign name you give him is ‘beautiful’, and then it ends with an R.

Kirumi Toujou

You often have to ask her to repeat herself to get the message of her words across, since she hardly uses facial expressions.

She learned ASL for a job once and forget a lot of it.

You enjoy teaching her, definitely.

Because teaching her means she’ll sign like you.

One time she signed Sunday a different way than you and you went ???

“Where did you learn that.”

“... signing saavy.”

“Nice.”

The best part about her is that she is actually good at the grammar structure.

It’s actually quite surprising that you don’t have to simplify your sentences.

Going shopping is fun with her, too.

That’s where she specializes; in food.

She can name almost everything in the food aisle.

Can easily understand your excited rambling but can’t seem to sign fast herself.

Slow and delicate, it’s cute.

Worst part for her is how loud you have the TV.

She likes doing laundry in silence, but that’s hard when she can hear the conversations of characters all the way from the living room.

She asks you to turn it down.

“Sorry.”

You don’t.

She is always working hard as the SHSL Maid, so you hardly get to see her.

But whenever she returns she always brings you a small gift.

Sometimes foreign coins or keychains.

Her sign name is ‘business’ with a T, because you met her while she was working and she was very focused!

Peko Pekoyama

Hid the fact that she knew ASL from you.

It was because she’s bad at it.

You assure her that to the Deaf community, it’s the effort that matters.

She has met a lot of deaf people because of you and gets scared to sign to them.

She even blushes in embarrassment.

But if you ask for help in public than she’ll be happy to assist.

That’s rare, though, since you almost always find a way to communicate with hearing people who don’t sign.

Something she enjoys is the stillness of your house.

The Kuzuryuu household always has some type of noise going on.

Yours is almost always quiet.

She isn’t afraid to sign to you when you’re home alone.

You like teaching her signs like “wow.”

Seeing her sign them in a neutral face is funny to you.

“Facial expressions matter to my language, Peko!”

She gets flustered when you correct her.

Her sign name is a motion that signifies her braids, with a P handshape.

You always love playing with her hair.

She thinks it’s annoying.

“I want another name sign.”

“No.”

She’ll crawl into bed next to you and then feel you messing with her hair.

She huffs, “I thought you were sleeping.”

“I know.”

Sonia Nevermind

Different types of sign language was always her favorite thing to learn.

She loves Deaf culture and always tries to involve herself in it.

Meeting you made her even more excited once she learned you were deaf.

You thought it was really weird until she explained that she studied the culture.

You were impressed, especially since she had never talked to one in person before.

She even started signing slang and it blew your mind.

You gave her a sign name the first day you met her, and she almost passed out in joy.

Princess with an S, and she thought it was awesome, even though it was basic.

She told all of her classmates she got a sign name.

When a bunch of Ultimates came up to you asking for a sign name you went ???

Well now you have to bring her to a Deaf convention.

When she attends ballroom dances, she always brings you along so you can meet people of her culture as well.

She keeps you by her side, holding your hand the entire time and explaining what is happening and why.

She secretly wants to be an interpreter.

Dating her is really fun, of course, because she really wants to learn.

Makes a law that says interpreters are a necessity in her countries broadcasts.

Whenever she travels, she always sends you selfies with the ILY sign.

It’s her favorite.

She never stops thinking about you.

She works hard to make laws to the Deaf community in her country feels welcome.

Gundham Tanaka

Originally learned sign language to teach to his pets.

Never knew he would have to use it to talk to someone.

Until Sonia introduced you to him and he busted out in ASL

Sonia and you going ?? OH UH HI YEs

Signs as dramatic as you think he would.

Sign name is literally devil.

Asked specifically for that sign name.

When you both cuddle he’ll smother his face against you - often your chest or your neck - and mutter how much he loves you.

If you still have some of your hearing you’ll be like “I swear to god if you don’t stop using your voice.”

If you’re stone deaf you’ll just roll your eyes and enjoy the vibrations against your skin.

Gundham would also definitely hum against you.

His voice is deep and it rumbles so yes.

You can also talk to a lot of his animals, since they understand sign language.

It’s awesome being able to communicate with animals.

You like taking baths with him, too.

He likes talking a lot so it would be easier to talk to him.

If he ever needs help with the big cats, he’ll call you, because their scary roars don’t bother you.

The fact that they have claws does though.

Whenever he gets anxious he talks behind his scarf, which drives you crazy.

“Sign, damnit, or I will literally kill you!”

Mikan Tsumiki

Has helped a lot of deaf students.

But barely knows any words outside of the medical field.

Gets emberassed whenever you correct her on something she signs wrong.

Signs mostly PSE, but you help her switch into ASL.

She’s a big hugger, always holding you close and having you cradle her.

You gave her the sign name “shaky princess.”

“P-Princes???”

She takes awhile to get used to how blunt ASL is.

Stutters a lot still, even in ASL.

Whenever you sign to her while she has something in her hand she’ll start freaking out and crying about not being able to respond.

Until one day you sign to her with one hand and she’s like ??? you can do that?

Showers with you a lot.

Her brain doesn’t process signing in the shower, though.

So it’s mostly just the two of you standing together.

She definitely prefers sign language over talking.

Sometimes she finds herself signing while talking, too.

Shinguuji Korekiyo

100% you cannot convince me this man doesn’t know ASL.

He is obsessed with culture, so he’s definitely very knowledgable in Deaf culture and history as well.

Though understanding his signs is very hard because of his mask.

Sometimes he’ll take off his hat so you can easily see the upper half of his face.

(Okay but can we talk about if deaf S/O is a girl how he wouldn’t kill her because Miyadera doesn’t know sign language so they wouldn’t be friends)

An amazing signer, though, since he talks to a lot of Deaf people.

I mean you almost can’t tell he’s hearing.

It’s just the facial expressions and body movement.

Boy is stiff.

Makes you uncomfortable when he signs things like chubby face and skinny.

He just... stands there with his blank eyes.

He scares you all the time, too.

Like he’ll just walk up behind you and touch you.

Not even a shoulder nudge either he’ll just grab you and hug you.

You let out a noise of surprise each time.

If you’re nonverbal, that’s probably why he does it.

You really wanted his sign name to be something like mystery man.

Discussed it with your deaf friends.

Settled on anthropology just because of the hat he wears.

Really wanted it to be less obvious though.

You like to have tea with him.

Because everytime he changes into his eating mask, you are like-

“Why don’t you have a signing mask?”

“The point of the mask is to hide my mouth.”

Kiibo

Doesn’t remember learning ASL

Just??? Knew it.

When he saw you signing to your friend he knew what you were saying without realizing.

Hands move in language hello???

You had to explain to him that you are deaf and it’s how you communicate.

He thinks it’s incredible how you have your own language.

He’s also grateful that he knows it so he could learn more about what being Deaf is.

If you’re verbal than one day you’ll speak while signing and he’ll ???

YOU CAN TALK????

“Yes Kiibo I can talk.”

You show him stereotypical Deaf movies.

He’s happy you’re deaf because that means he can sing around you.

You clap every time he does.

Likes watching anime with you because the CC comes naturally.

Even though he obvi knows Japanese.

Definitely owns clothes from Deaf conventions.

Isn’t scared to sign to people at all, by the way.

And doesn’t mind living in a household with a deaf person, the slamming of cabinets and doors doesn’t bother him.

Very happy to be apart of Deaf culture.

He’s very prideful in being a robot so of course that’s his sign name.

Kaito Momota

Chaotic.

Knows ASL because he took classes one time.

When he learns you’re deaf he will force you to watch every movie he watched in his ASL class.

Will try to sneak up on you.

But he stomps when he walks so it doesn’t always work.

Though, just to bother you, when he walks by he’ll pull your hair.

Replaced shoulder nudges with pulling your hair.

When you sign a word he doesn’t know he’ll pretend to understand.

You can tell when he doesn’t.

He is very prideful in his signing abilities.

He’s just happy to be able to communicate you.

Shhh don’t tell S/O but he loves them very much and tries his best.

He literally started taking ASL classes again just to catch up on new signs.

Didn’t tell you, of course.

Begs you to make his sign name astronaut.

You thought about it.

Egotistical with K’s :)

He’s like akdkskfkekffk NO

He’s says something like “Oh yeah well your sign name is UGLY!!”

“Stay mad stay mad.”

He tries to white knight situations in like restaurants.

“You’re not my interpreter.”

“Yeah but they don’t know ASL.”

“Neither does the rest of the world but I’ve made it so far.”

He literally like gets nervous about you going places alone.

What if they can’t communicate???

“Kaito.”

“What.”

“Shut up.”

He always brags to you because he’s quadlingual though.

You learn curse words in Russian to sticky note to the bathroom mirror.

His signing is cute though.

For someone like Kaito.

[transmeds]

My apologies, another person in your replies said “Anon you realize that exact logic is and HAS been used to justify the deliberate misgendering of trans people, right” and I thought it was you. Anyhow, there is no reason to get so nasty, I’m just asking you to explain your thoughts on this since you frequently post in the tags with your opinions. Being a “boy” or a “girl” is a social role, not necessarily a gender. So, yeah, it’s possible to take on a different gender role than the one associated with your gender. Since roles are often conflated with gender, they tend to be used interchangeably. People who are PNC often use “wrong” pronouns to express their complicated relationship with gender identity. Aside from this, some people use certain pronouns for themselves because they simply enjoy them, which is their own prerogative. So, then, you’re against being PNC because 1) it’s too complicated for you personally to process and that is somehow deserving of your vitriol and 2) you feel that English grammar and syntax rules are more important than respecting people’s referential language? How is challenging language any different than challenging gender stereotypes, as one would do being GNC? Do you prioritize your comfort over the dignity of other transgender people, or do you seriously think that language is sacred? Words are created all the time and definitions change with their usage. It sounds that rather than even attempt to accommodate your brethren, you would prefer to latch on to the anti-PNC position so you have some excuse to not challenge your notions of “gendered” language. As a person with an auditory processing disorder myself that impacts my life greatly, that is not an excuse for you not to better yourself, even if it is difficult for you. Other people do not deserve your anger for simply existing with pronouns that challenging the status quo. If you *definitively and actively know* a person’s pronouns are contrary to their appearance or identity and you refuse to even try to refer to them properly, that is not an issue with processing, but with conflating pronouns with gender identity at the best and willfully choosing to disrespect them at the worst. That can’t be explained away by saying you have a processing disorder. Do not attempt to paint being PNC as ableist because you are unwilling to challenge your deep-seeded, actively obsolescent beliefs. Having a processing disorder makes people rely on context. If you are communicating with or about someone whose pronouns you know, PNC or otherwise, you have been provided the context. You are choosing to either ignore it for your own comfort and a lack of desire to improve yourself or because you think language is more important than people. If I’m wrong, prove it.

i didnt mean to get nasty i just dnt have a good concept of whats too mean n stuff.

i love that you consistently add more to what i am saying and look to deep into it to paint me as a bad person but i will get to that later. its hard to pay attention to one thing at a time but i will try 2 go in order.

being a boy or girl isnt a social role,, its just being a girl or boy?? like a kid female n kid male like. thats not a role thts a fucking.. way to describe someones gender when theyre a kid?? like i cannot even understand why i have to say that. wtf do u think being a girl/boy is?? its a way to describe someones gender, like pronouns. not a role or gender expression.

im not against it because its too complicated or that i want to disrespect ppls pronouns or something like that you want to put into my mouth. challenging a language is different than challenging gender rules because language was made with a purpose and one that still matters today. gender roles never served a solid purpose, them getting removed doesn't matter at all.

this is really pointless because youre going to keep refusing to recognize that language is important and that pronouns aren't something that you just use to make yourself happy, they are a tool in language that serve two singular purposes. to replace a name. and to describe the person in a gendered way. getting rid of gender should just mean getting rid of pronouns all together because they are pointless without any description of the person that they are being used for. because then you cant fucking tell who they're talking about at all. this is why robots struggle with pronouns :)

its funny to me that you add "appearance" to "identity" as if 1. they match. 2. that i at all ever said they have to watch appearance. if you didnt know im NOT PASSING. 3. as if appearance matters <3

this isnt about me wanting to be rude or not challenge gender roles or anything, im a very gnc man myself. this is about the fact that pronouns only real purpose is to tell you what gender someone is, not if they're masculine or feminine or just like the sound of them. this is why getting called "she/her" makes the majority trans men dysphoric, but why wearing dresses or having traditionally feminine roles won't make the majority of them dysphoric.

you clearly aren't listening to what im saying so i dont see why you insist on replying and putting things in my mouth from finding excuses like "someone else said it" to whatever youre going to make for trying to say i just dont like people who r pnc and am using processing an an excuse, instead of an example of why its important this time.

language isnt more important than people, but people can not exist as is without a way of communicating. trying to tear down communication because you dont like its rules just make what it is to be human harder to be. i cannot be myself to anyone else if there is no words to describe who i am in a strictly male or unrelated sense. there's a difference verison of you to every person you know, and you can't make it remotely accurate without the words to express it.

[astralprcjects]

first of all, if you saw me accidentally post this when it was half done, no you didn’t <3 but anyway, i’m following the trend and throwing out some ideas for connections !! i’d love some new plots, so if any of these catch your eye pls don’t hesitate to come yell at me :))) discord is the best place to reach me ( jojo she-ra#5493 ) or tumblr ims work just fine too !! 

i get very confused whether likes are just for support or if you’re interested in any plots so pls pls just dm me or drop a reply and i’ll come to you !! i’m not scary i promise just nervous like a shaky dog <3

a few important points:

mars is a lesbian, so romantic plots can only be taken up by female and non binary characters.

rosalie is bisexual and polyamorous – they have no interest in monogamy. she likes to form connections with people, and so much prefers casual flings and dating with no strings over one night stands.

both of my characters use she and they pronouns interchangeably. please don’t refer to them as women or misgender them in any way ( i’m always happy to answer any questions if you’re confused !! )

── 👻 M A R C E L I N E

extroverted friends – a lot of mars’ friends are introverts and she loves them dearly, but sometimes they just needs to be around people who match their energy !! so friends who will happily get excited with her and share their own passions in return ?? they’re extremely loyal and latch onto people quickly, so would be over the moon for that energy to be matched. ( open – all )

the non-believer – this muse doesn’t believe in ghosts or aliens or anything supernatural. so, naturally, mars has made it her life’s mission to change their mind. they have constant debates and light-hearted fights; they both enjoy trying to prove the other wrong. ( open – all )

horror movie besties – mars loves a good scary movie, but they always appreciates a familiar shoulder to hide behind. she and this character share a passion for horror movies and have regular movie nights. they always accompany each other to see the latest scary flicks in the cinema or re-runs of old classics. ( open – all )

unrequited crush – someone that mars is close friends with, who she is sure she feels more than friendship for. they respect their boundaries and will always be afraid to tell them, but can’t help but quietly pine from a far. ( open – f/enby )

requited crush – same as above, except the other person feels the same and now they’re dancing around each other ( open – f/enby )

friends who grew apart – they used to be close, mars used to tell them everything, but something pulled them apart. perhaps they both had feelings for the same person, or your character became irritated by mars’ constant pestering. mars can also get bored easily, maybe she became bored of this person too ?? or maybe mars had a crush on them and pulled away out of panic. ( open – all (f/enby only for ex-crush) )

amicable exes – they dated for a few months and it was great, but other circumstances caused them to break up. they didn’t see each other for a while, but later reunited and realised that, although they had both moved on, they still really cared for each other and struck up a strong friendship instead. now they are each other’s go-to for relationship/dating advice, since they know each other so well. ( open – f/enby )

co-workers and work connections – mostly fellow journalists, or people who work in the magazine/newspaper industry. marcie works freelance, so she works for various publications across the city and would have contacts in most places who she can call upon for favours. they would also have a string of contacts from previous articles they’ve written; perhaps she has interviewed your character or they are someone with a lot of connections themselves which she can utilise. usually at a price, of course. ( open – all )

no man is an island – mars is desperately trying to become an author, but they can’t do it alone. so anyone who works in the industry is a valuable asset – publishers, editors, fellow authors, you name it and mars probably wants their number. she can go to these people for help and advice when she faces a setback, or just wants to use their placement in the industry to try to launch her career. they are, of course, always well compensated with baked goods and cups of coffee. ( open – all )

rivals – mars can be incredibly irritating and she knows that, but she doesn’t appreciate when people are cruel or rude to her about it. this muse simply can’t stand marcie and so the feeling is mutual and they avoid each other at all costs, even if the universe sometimes has other ideas. ( open – all )

 ── 🌹 R O S A L I E

gossip sources – people always know people who know people and rosalie is insufferably nosey. she always wants to know everything that’s going on and can never keep her opinions to herself. as such, she is an excellent person to go for if you need to rant or want impartial advice, just as long as you remember to tell her not to spread the news beforehand. otherwise the entire borough of queens might know your business by lunchtime. ( open – all )

college friends – rosalie studied at nyu from 2012 to 2016, so could have crossed paths with all kinds of people during this time !! maybe they’ve stayed in touch ever since, maybe they lost track of each other once their lives divulged but now have an opportunity to reconnect ?? ( open – all )

makeover victims – rosalie loves all things beauty (makeup, hair, nails, fashion, the full works) and, even more than that, loves experimenting on other people. these characters are her canvas; whether they have an event they’re attending, or are off on a date, or even just fancy an afternoon of being pampered, rosalie will always be at their doorstep with a fully equipped makeup kit if they just say the word. ( open – all )

practically cousins – rosa’s family is huge and they are well known for inviting anyone and everyone over for dinner, especially if those people don’t have family of their own or are far away from home. rosalie’s friends are considered family and are welcome in their home. ( open – all )

friends of her family – the above courtesy is of course extended to their family member’s friends. perhaps this muse is close to one of rosalie’s siblings, but doesn’t get along with rosa at all. the two try to get along over the dinner table (mostly to avoid her abuela’s wrath), but outside of that they bicker relentlessly and can’t seem to ever see eye to eye. ( open – all )

rivals – rosalie is an insufferable gossip who can’t keep their mouth shut unless they were sworn to secrecy. maybe she spilled a secret of your muse’s by accident and they have never forgiven her for it ?? she’s not spiteful and is very openminded so it would be something she thought was harmless or common knowledge, which also means she doesn’t really accept that she did anything wrong. ( open – all )

heartbroken – their dating life is a mess and they tend to pull away if things get too serious, so she’s likely to have a string of people who have been hurt by her distancing herself from them. maybe there was a miscommunication and rosalie thought they were only hooking up but the other thought they were dating ?? or maybe they were something more serious, but rosalie broke it off when it got too real ?? there are lots of options to play with !! ( open – all )

casual hookups – because she doesn’t want to get attached, rosalie has multiple casual partners. neither party wants anything more serious, but it is fun to hook up with each other and go out on dates without any of the strings that usually comes with that. if we want the d r a m a, perhaps your muse actually does want more, but rosalie is scared to commit. ( open – all )

industry friends – actors, directors, screenplay writers etc. the entertainment industry is a tangled mess of egos, but when you make friends you keep them close. these are people rosalie can run lines with, they tell each other about auditions and support each other through the madness that is the career path they’ve both chosen. rosalie is never afraid to speak her mind, so she is always someone that can be relied upon for constructive, impartial advice. ( open – all )

[shirlleycoyle]

Found: Page 25 of the CIA’s Gateway Report on Astral Projection

Page 25 of the CIA’s “Analysis and Assessment of The Gateway Process” hitched a ride with an email one evening and landed in my inbox. A digital attachment felt like an unceremonious entrance for a document that was produced 38 years ago and has been missing and highly sought after since it was declassified in 2003. For years, people had been filing FOIA requests and speculating about what was on this missing page in the middle of a mind-bending report about military research into astral projection and other dimensions. And then, there it was, just downloaded on to my desktop quietly looking back at me. My immediate reaction was frenetic; I couldn’t chill out long enough to properly read the rogue text. I called a few friends to ensure my reality was synched properly—a telephonic pinch to verify I was awake. All signs pointed to mostly. I double clicked the file.

Let’s get into it.

Screengrab: CIA

A Whirlwind Backstory 

I published a breakdown of the CIA’s Gateway Report in February. The classified 1983 document was produced by US Army Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M. McDonnell, with a technical power-assist from mastermind Israeli-American biomedical engineer Itzhak Bentov. The report was declassified in 2003. It packs a tour-de-force investigation into the potential achievability of astral projection into 28 hyper-dense pages. A spectre has hung over the report since. The version released by the CIA was missing what seems to be an extremely crucial page. 

IMAGE: SPECTRAL-DESIGN VIA GETTY IMAGES]

For the uninitiated, astral projection is mostly interchangeable with the psycho-physical phenomena of out-of-body experiences and remote viewing. With the right guidance and technologies, astral projectors believe, we can train our consciousness to move beyond the confines of the space-time dimension. This super-ability frees our human minds to travel through the universe, exploring an endless array of normally imperceptible realities and dimensions. 

McDonnell states early in the report that his goal was to "construct a scientifically valid and reasonably lucid model of how consciousness functions" in order to put "out-of-body states into the language of physical science to remove the stigma of its occult connotations."

The Department of Defense's ambitions are made clear in the report's conclusion: McDonnell suggests that if the military were to experiment with astral projection, it could find "practical application," but also noted that it should "be intellectually prepared to react to possible encounters with intelligent, non-corporeal energy forms when time-space boundaries are exceeded." It kicked off years of attempts by the US Army to train psychic soldiers to conduct “remote viewing” missions to regions across the world. 

Image: CIA

A Cosmic Mystery

The report is a vicious mind labyrinth. For 24 pages, it winds its way through the spiritual and scientific underpinnings, techniques to achieve and potential applications of space-time transcendence. It introduces methodological frames of reference like hypnosis, transcendental meditation, spiritual belief systems, biofeedback, quantum physics, and universal holograms only so that its intended audience—CIA top brass—might merely begin to grasp its (and our) bigger reason for being. By the bottom of page 24, McDonnell reaches a full existential crescendo, broaching the very nature of reality itself. It’s a cliff-hanger:

Image: CIA

And then … the report skips to page 26. 

As if he hadn’t just side-stepped revealing the secrets of the heavens, McDonnell is on to a set of pragmatic “Motivational Aspects” for why the CIA might employ the Gateway as opposed to other methods of achieving astral projection.

Image: CIA

Expediency Wayne? Really?

Since the report's declassification, countless FOIA requests have been filed demanding page 25’s release. In every instance, the CIA has denied they ever had it in the first place. Page 25, then, has been the holy grail not just for would-be astral projectors, but also for conspiracy theorists, government transparency activists, and people who have simply read the report and found themselves maddened by this missing information.

Image: CIA Foia response

One fantastic internet theory maintains that McDonnell omitted the page intentionally. If someone could successfully astral project they’d be able to tell him what’s on it. 

Contact

The CIA did not invent the Gateway Report and the Gateway Experience on its own. It used teachings from a man named Robert Monroe, who later founded an organization called The Monroe Institute.  

Four days after we published the first article about the Gateway Report, I received a note from The Monroe Institute. They had some ideas for a follow-up piece. Drowning in responses to the article though, I failed to return their email. They reached out again. This time their message was more concrete: Sitting buried in the Monroe Institute archives in Faber, Virginia, was page 25 of The Gateway Report. But it didn't come to us easily.

Our first scheduled phone call included The Monroe Institute’s CEO, COO and marketing division. Motherboard Editor-in-Chief Jason Koebler and I got on a Google Hangout. 

In that call, the Institute said that they had Page 25. People had been trying to obtain the report from the CIA and had repeatedly failed. But no one had bothered to ask them for the report; they'd had it all along. At one point, they described the report as having been "in a barn," unexamined, for all of these years. Otherwise, the call was uninspired. The CEO didn’t show. After an hour run-around it became evident that The Institute wasn’t going to part with Page 25 without some carefully orchestrated marketing plan. The words of COO Lori Jacobwith made their purpose clear, “We’re attempting to capitalize on some of the enthusiasm by a market that isn’t our normal age group.” 

The institute was hoping to tap into the popularity of our first article, as well as some viral TikToks about the report.

The call ended with “You’ve touched on some things we are not talking about right now.” 

The Institute then went quiet. Time passed. 

One evening, the Monroe Institute’s Director of Marketing & Communications Jenny Whedbee emailed again. She'd been silent on our last call. The email contained the full Gateway Report including the missing page. She wrote that they’d just “went through a major org change.” The CEO and COO were no longer with the company. She was now down to talk, after we had read page 25.

The Missing Page

In the true spirit of discovery, I am pleased to present the full uninterrupted report in all its glory.  

The page opens with the word “Absolute.” It sits there authoritatively, as if guarding the gate to the rest of the text. In the broader context of the report the term is applied to both spiritual belief systems and quantum physics alike. It's an important word. 

Physicists define time as a measurement of energy in motion. In this way, time is really a measurement of change. In order for that motion to occur though, it must be limited inside a larger vibratory pattern. Inside this framework it is limited, contained at a specific location. That confinement then makes it distinguishable from other locations in space. Uncontained energy is force without limit. Imagine a formless entity speeding through the galaxy with no friction to hold it back from being everywhere. As McDonnell puts it “There is no 'here' to differentiate it from 'there.'” And this, my friends, is an absolute state or “The Absolute.” 

According to the report, the Absolute is essentially the governing energy of the Universe en masse. It powers the universal hologram that is all of entirety. The report makes multiple attempts to visualize this universal hologram or “cosmic egg” as one big constantly flowing spiral. 

Screengrab: CIA

Between the reality we know and The Absolute are countless intervening dimensions, McDonnell writes, which is pretty trippy stuff for a government report. Absolute is the ceiling (as far as we know it). End of the line, and a hell of a way to open a missing page.

McDonnell observes that a “stylized representation” of this spiral is present in every religious system in history. He cites the specific examples of Christianity’s Holy Spirit, the Hellenic world’s labyrinth, the Hebrew Tree of Life, its Hindu counterpart, and the Chinese Spiral Through the Four Powers. This thinking has found its way into each systems’ teachings. 

The crucial distinction between the breakthroughs in modern physics and the epiphanies of religious thinkers is the way they all found The Absolute. Whereas physics leans on quantitative research, religions relied on intuition. The Gateway then sort of showed up just in time—a holistic mainline for “interfacing” with the universal hologram, freeing us from the limitations of a left brain logic-based culture. 

The page’s third section takes a slant which should feel familiar to adherents of modern psychology. The universe, the Absolute, the cosmic egg. All of it is irrelevant, and certainly unreachable, until we possess knowledge of ourselves. My eyes, upon first glance of page 25, picked up “The Absolute” first, then darted swiftly to the aphorism McDonnell trots out here— “Know Thyself.” What hits even harder than achieving a psychological self-understanding, according to McDonnell, is the sense of self-perception achieved when one can manage to alter their state of consciousness to the point where the universal hologram itself can be perceived. 

And it’s The Gateway Experience, McDonnell says, that promises this possibility. 

Images: The Monroe Institute

Achieving Hemi-Sync

Key to the report and technique for achieving astral projection is an audio technology developed by Robert Monroe, a radio broadcasting executive who, in the 1970s, built an R&D division inside his company solely to study the effects of sound on human consciousness. 

In a series of self-experiments in which he exposed himself to carefully calibrated audio frequencies while sleeping, Monroe repeatedly achieved elevated mind-body states. His 1971 book Journeys Out of The Body documents those early investigations and officially coined the term “out-of-body experience.”

Books by Robert Monroe

Monroe’s corporate R&D division eventually became The Monroe Institute, which produces tapes containing audio techniques to stimulate brain functions and achieve “Hemi-Sync.” Hemi-Sync is short for hemispheric synchronization, and is instrumental in achieving a state of consciousness in which the electrical brain patterns of both left and right hemispheres are equal in amplitude and frequency. 

It does so by combining two techniques. The first is Frequency Following Response—a recognized external frequency is introduced by headphones, which causes the brain “to try to mimic the same frequency by adjusting its brainwave output.” For instance, a resting brain that hears a Theta level will shift out of its Beta level. The second technique is beat frequency. Contrasting frequencies are introduced to each ear. The brain then “chooses to “hear” the difference between them.” A brain receiving 100hz through the right ear and 104hz through the left, can then detect the delta, in this case a 4hz frequency. The technique then opens the brain to “a variety of frequencies which are played at a virtually subliminal, marginally audible level.”

With the left brain relaxed and the body in a virtual sleep state, according to the report, the conditions are ideal to promote brainwave outputs of higher and higher amplitude and frequency. When the wave pattern of a consciousness drops below an oscillation frequency of 10 to the power of -33 centimeters per second, for a brief instant it “clicks out” of space-time and joins infinity. Monroe’s theories maintain that if that “click-out” can achieve continuity you can begin dialoguing with other dimensions. 

Image: CIA

The Monroe Institutes’s chief engineer today is Bob Holbrook. A former events producer, Holbrook believes the Monroe Institute's audio offerings helped him rehab from head trauma sustained in a brutal car accident. The Hemi-Sync technology featured in The Gateway Report was sold to a company now called Hemi-Sync®. The audio technology stack The Institute now produces—collectively called Monroe Audio Support (MAS)—is a hugely evolved version of the original binaural beats-based technique. As Bob puts it, “Binaural beats was just one technology, now we have 50.” This widens and populates the spectrum of experience for participants. “MAS takes the idea of binaural beats and utilizes many other “colors” and technologies to create more intense experiences in different levels of consciousness.” A key MAS ingredient is gamma synchrony. “It allows us to connect much more easily to 'all that is,'” he said. Two additional innovations play a central role—Phase Modulation and Amplitude Modulation. Phase Modulation changes the direction from which a sound feels like it’s coming from. Bob shared an audio-visual animation illustrating sound source oscillation. 

Amplitude Modulation gives technicians the capability to drop into the soundscape live and manipulate specific aspects of the volume. 

The Institute shared a 30-minute sample of their newer programming for this article. Headphones are essential for full results. 

The Monroe Institute’s tapes combined these frequencies with subliminal suggestions from Monroe himself. An archive titled “The Explorer Series” contains recordings of the Monroe Institute Research Division’s experiments, in which subjects “report from these non-physical environments.”

Up until COVID, all meditators physically travelled to The Monroe Institute’s palatial headquarters in Faber, Virginia to work through a series of increasingly challenging levels. The 7-day course offers the possibility for one’s consciousness to navigate space, time, and beyond. That is, if you’ve got what it takes. 

It’s these tapes and their potential applications that caught the attention of the CIA and prompted the commission of the report. 

The Monroe Institute Today

After I read page 25, I called Jenny Whedbee back up.

She said Monroe is an organization that was trying to find its way in an ever-shifting world. “There’s a part of this organization that definitely needs to grow, but it needs to grow at a pace that keeps with the tenets of who we are,” she said. The importance of listening to where an organization comes from before deciding on a future was a theme. “If you don’t have the input from people who have been here a while, then you’re not really staying true to what the Institute is.”

Paramount to staying that course is the guiding light of its influential founder Robert Monroe. “We’ve had a lot of executives come and go. I know Robert Monroe is still here and still trying to run things,” she said. 

It’s this pioneering energy that powers her enthusiasm. In reference to their newer classes, she explained, “Gateway Voyage is primarily the same exact program that Robert Monroe developed. And so is Lifeline, Exploration 27, Guidelines. Those core programs, he actually worked on and developed.” 

“It puts you into direct experience with expanded states of consciousness where you can explore and ask questions and receive answers and visit past lives," she said. "You can astral travel.”

These programs are grueling. Participants go through five or six exercises a day for five straight days. “It’s like running a marathon,” she said. 

Jenny joined the company without much experience in consciousness elevation but swiftly got the feel for things. “It did exactly what the course said it was going to do," she said. "I experienced past lives. It gave me this 20,000-foot view of my life. Not just this one, but previous and future.” 

“If you want the rocket ship where your life is forever enlightened, you’re not going to get that any other way than coming here,” she said. 

The conversation with Jenny eventually turned to page 25. 

“I have my own interpretation," she said. "Whether it was accidentally or intentionally left out I don’t know. Like I said there are people that work in this place that are on another plane and not here in the physical.”

For Jenny, the page appeared at the right time and place. “I feel like 20 years ago the world wasn’t ready to hear. But this generation is ready.” She says the institute changed her life.

“You grow up, you go to school, you get married, you have kids, you go to church, you die," she said. "And your life lives on through your family. There is value there. But on a much deeper level it’s the relationships and the memories you create. Not all this stuff we’re collecting. So what if that page was released 20 years ago? Could it have backlashed? Cause it talks about religion and that all religions are equal. And what if people feel really powerfully that not all religions are equal. I feel like the generations nowadays, they’re not so wrapped up in that anymore."

Jenny said that young people today are pushing for social justice and are more open to different perceptions of consciousness and different ways of living. "There’s this whole thing going on where people are awakening," she said. "People become more conscious, people become more awakened—tearing down the monuments in Richmond. Enough’s enough. This has come about at a time when your generation has questions and they want to know and they’re ready to hear the answers without judgment.”

“TikTok happened, you happened, all this happened for a very important reason that’s not of this physical plane,” she said. 

Jenny concluded our hour-long conversation with a suggestion for how to handle page 25. “Do something with it. You know even if it’s you just saying what it means to you.”

[Hold my beer]

A Consciousness Feedback Loop 

The Gateway Report is so dense in parts, it compromises its own accessibility. The goal of my initial synthesis was to create a written and visual experience (including, ahem, some premium custom graphics) that might help folks without a PHD in quantum physics benefit from its huge thinking. 

It struck a nerve. 

Over the course of a 3-week period, millions of readers made their way through an admittedly arduous editorial obstacle course. Studios reached out. 

Two days after the article’s release, we inserted an invitation: 

“Have you had an experience with The Monroe Institute, Hemi-Sync or had an out-of-body experience? Get in touch: ex0gene5i5@substack.com” 

Thousands of emails came in from folks all over the world who described their out-of-body experiences. To me, it signaled the possibility that many of us are searching for something more than what seems currently available. To describe my experience in telling this story and the search in many senses, I produced a visual reinterpretation of page 25.

The Gateway. Image: Thobey Campion

'The Gateway' is a high-resolution digital image of a print of the missing page 25 of the CIA's Gateway Report. It contains 659 digital micro-inscriptions of out-of-body experience accounts, that only become visible at 300%+ magnification.

Just look closer.

Thobey Campion is the former Publisher of Motherboard. You can subscribe to his Substack here. 

The Gateway is an NFT. Part of the proceeds go to Mind Science, a foundation that explores the mystery of human consciousness by funding the work of early-career neuroscientists.

Found: Page 25 of the CIA’s Gateway Report on Astral Projection syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[uraharasandals]

How about a fluffy (or perhaps smutty) scenario where the reader comforts Akutagawa in regards to the shit Dazai put him through? I want my edge Lord to realize that he doesn't need Dazai's praise because he is amazing and beautiful on his own. Make our boy feel loved 💜

Uhhh, so this kinda got out of hand at the end, but I hope you like it! I have a terrible grasp of Akutagawa's personality AND how his fluff would manifest with a partner but somehow I appear to write fluff with him the best? Anyways enjoy! 

   Lazy July afternoons were the epitome of bliss. It was a brief window of time in which the world wandered by without a care, in which, as the sun sets and tendrils of sunlight trickled through the window, the summer heat gets into everyone's head and frankly, no one has the energy to do anything except take a nap. 

   And that was precisely what you ended up doing. Cocooned in a nest of blankets and nestled in a warm bed with the air conditioning on full blast, there was no other place you would like to be right now. Add to the fact that Akutagawa's body temperature was a default freezing, it was a nice past-time for a summer afternoon; it was as if you had no care in the world. 

    Shifting across the blankets to find a cooler spot, you were about to fall back into dreamland when you heard a wince from Akutagawa. Normally you would have ignored it and went back to sleep, but the moment there was a tight grip on your arm draped across his abdomen you knew something was wrong; Akutagawa may be hostile to touches from time to time, but he had never stopped you in the middle of something. 

   "Are you okay?" Alertness started coming to your brain, though it was still slow; there was still a hint of sleepiness coating your tone as you sat up, taking care not to brush against him, lest you trigger something else. You weren't sure what had happened, but you guessed it may have something to do with the scars blooming all over his body. He had willingly exposed himself to you once, when you dressed a flesh wound on his chest, and noticed the network of criss-cross scars, as well as what looked like small punctures on his skin (quick research made you realise that those were bullet marks, and you were shocked at that). Experience taught you that scars tend to leave ghost trails of pain even long after the wounds have closed, and judging from the extent of injuries Akutagawa suffered from, your accidental brushes might have forced a dizzying wave of pain back into his system. 

  "Fine." Despite his words, you could see the flash of pain that went across his face, and you sighed. "I'll go get some painkillers; wait here." As you prepared to - unwillingly - get out of bed, Akutagawa caught at your hand, managing to hold onto your little finger, giving a small tug; this was a clear sign he wanted you to stay, so you did, though kicking the blankets away to watch over him properly. 

   A quick glance at Akutagawa's face made you realise that it was no longer contorted in pain anymore, and he was just lying there, as if contemplating something. You raised your eyebrows at this, but said nothing, letting the silence be broken by occasional splutters of the air conditioner and the spilling of sunset into your bedroom; the sunlight fell short on his face, but illuminated his cheekbones and eyelashes, startling you with the seeming display of youth. 

  Had Akutagawa really been this young? His mannerisms and speech frequently persuaded you otherwise, but after you reasoned that there was no way you would've chosen someone notably more mature than you, you realised that he was. His time in the mafia had hardened him; his mentions of his superior, a man named 'Dazai', reflected to you a certain degree of hardship and torture he was subject to in the organization, which would likely have forced him to grow up as well.

  For that moment, you found yourself bearing hate for a man you haven't even met, much less having a grasp of his personality. 

  "What's wrong?" You were the first to break the silence, as always; the words escaped from your mouth quietly, as if you didn't want to break the sudden tranquility in the mood. The singular moment that took your eyes to meet his was enough to catch you off guard, and another insistent tug made you fall back onto the bedsheets with a small groan. Before you knew it, his eyes were inches away, the tip of his nose - cold - brushing against yours, in a distance close enough to kiss. Heat crept up your cheeks, but you forced yourself to maintain eye contact with the man in front of you. Then, he opened his mouth and a single statement tumbled out, "You're too fragile." 

  "Says you?" Eyebrows raised, you ran the pad of your thumb lightly down the hidden scar on the column of his neck. Immediately, he gave a small wince. "Since when did strong and tough mafiaso get triggered by scars, I wonder." You shouldn't tease him like this, cruel words with a sarcastic edge, especially not about his scars, but you couldn't help it; the more you thought about who inflicted those on him, and how he still suffers from them, the more you feel anger rising within you -- and somehow you had decided to take it out on him. 

   The effect told hold -- too well, you thought bitterly -- and his eyes narrowed at you, the fire kindled within them again. Just as you were bracing yourself for the onslaught of Rashomon, he suddenly deflated, and guilt crossed his face. "You were right." 

    "I - I am?"

    "Yes. If only I was as strong as Dazai-san - " 

     His words were immediately cut off. Akutagawa's lips were still freezing beneath yours, which sent a shiver down your spine, but it was worth the surprised - or what passed for surprised - look on his face as you pulled away. "What was that for, _________?" 

     "You're already strong enough, Ryunosuke." You probably shouldn't, after a narrow escape from the tiger's fangs, but you reached up and wrapped your arms around his neck, where another criss-cross patch of scars sat. Luckily, he only stiffened under your hold. "Remember? Otherwise I would've died." Untangling an arm, you pulled down a corner of your shirt to reveal the thin strip of white skin tissue running across your shoulder, shivering slightly from the sudden exposure.

      His face was hidden from view, but you could feel his icy fingers fluttering above the wound hesitantly. "The bullet...." One of Port Mafia's enemies had decided to take down Akutagawa - their so-called 'trump card' -- sometime ago by kidnapping you, his dearest person, holding you hostage, and intending to kill him as soon as he showed up. Little did they underestimate their power, and he had wiped them out in a matter of seconds, though one last brave attempt by the sole survivor had left you a souvenir dangerously near your neck; a true shot that missed thanks to Akutagawa. "Does it...still hurt?" 

      "A little." You admitted, and was about to pull away from him when you felt a pair of -- still freezing -- lips press onto the wound. An embarrassing gasp escaped from you as your hands tightened around his neck, which turned into a moan as he diligently worked his way up the column of your neck, ending with a sharp nip right behind your ear. "R-Ryunosuke!" 

      "And aren't you just like me, __________." You thought he was mad, but a look at his face revealed the beginnings of a smirk tugging at his mouth. "At least I wasn't the one attempting to be strong," You huffed, sitting up. "I, unlike a certain someone, know my boundaries." 

      "Do you?" 

      Akutagawa, magically, lost the staring contest. 

      "Anyways, I was serious about what I was saying earlier, Ryunosuke." You leaned back against the headboard, shifting a little to let him have some sitting room next to you. The fading sunset traced out a line of sunlight right across his shoulder, which ran across the scar on your still exposed shoulder. "You don't have to compare yourself against anyone else because you're already strong enough." Reaching over, you clasped his hand, feeling your warmth bleed into his. When he attempted to open his mouth -- no doubt the beginnings of an argument -- you immediately cut in. "Especially not against Dazai-san. I don't care how good he might be, he'll never be you, Ryunosuke." 

       "Me." There was a hint of bitterness underneath. "What about me?" 

       "You're amazing." You shifted closer to him, and began to pick your next words carefully. "You were able to survive his training. I don't think anyone else would've been able to do that so well. You also have proof to show for it, see?" Bringing his hand up, you started tracing his scars. "The fruits of your success." Turned over; the star-shaped paleness inside his wrist. "The proof of your hardship." One jagged line running up his arm and disappearing into his shirt. "The - " 

       "Was that the prelude to your testing my resolve?" Somehow, you found yourself pinned underneath him, his knees holding your legs firmly in place; his ankle dug sharply into yours, but the suddenness somehow made your brain register only the proximity of his face from yours, allowing for a tiny 'oh' escaping from your mouth. 

        "I didn't - " A small voice at the back of your mind was reminded vaguely that this scenario had played out only seconds ago, but they soon faded into nothing as his tongue worked roughly against yours, forcing its way into your mouth and effectively cutting off the stem of words you were about to say. "If that was a test of strength, I would say I passed it successfully, no?" Mind still spiralling into a whirlpool of confusion, you barely registered his words and the fact that his fingers tilted your head so that your eyes bore into his, which had turned dark. 

       "Or do you need more proof of my so-called power*?" 

         Brief note: Because the word for 'power' and 'strength' in Japanese can be used interchangeably, Aku could also have said 'strength', which may have another meaning ;) 

[lorei-writes]

Masamune x Polish!MC

Thanks a lot to @datenoriko​ for suggesting this and for @nad-zeta​ for writing hers (VERY INSPIRING, SERIOUSLY, GO CHECK THOSE OUT) headcanons :D Here’s my version. I wrote for Polish MC in particular, because I didn’t want to be disrespectful and there’s a lot of historical nuance that I could butcher otherwise.

[Note from future Lorei: This is honestly very stupid and I cannot believe I didn’t write it when I was 15, geez.]

Content Warnings: profanities, kidnapping, pain, injuries

Background information & notes:

Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth was partitioned by Habsburg Austria, Kingdom of Prussia and Russian Empire. As the result of annexations, the country disappeared from the world maps for 123 years. I will not go into detail about how the situation of Polish people was different in each of the parts, since that’s besides the point, but well - keep in mind that it did differ greatly. One can argue that the marks of it are still visible today, both in infrastructure, architecture and language. 

I was born in the South-Eastern region of Poland and as such, that’s where I’d like my MC to be brought up. 

MC is in no way representative of how each and every woman from Poland is. I tried to write her based on the women of my family, my friends, classmates, basically - the people I’ve seen and spent my time with. 

I will not include anything religion-related, although it is a thing that’s present in lives of everybody (even atheists) here (to be more precise, Catholicism). Why? Because it is a very controversial topic, one of huge complexity.

... There will be profanities, because I love my Polish swearwords - and CURSE YOU ENGLISH. WHEN I YELL THE CURSE I WANT TO SOUND LIKE A FREAKING FERAL ANIMAL

Broken English in italics = broken Japanese.

There will be a dictionary at the end, so don’t worry. 

Masamune

Upon meeting her, he did not understand anything she said - well, none of them did. However, she did rescue lord Nobunaga - a funnily dressed foreigner that seemingly didn’t speak Japanese couldn’t be that bad, could she?

Yet she still was thrown into the dungeon. In his mind, that was the perfect opportunity to investigate on his own. 

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Masamune sneaked into her cell. Soon, his blade was on her throat.  “ Who are...?” he started, but was instantly cut off by her yelling: “ Czy was tu wszystkich kurwa do reszty pojebało?!” He stood there, staring at her. Seeing his confusion, she pointed at him and then tapped on her temple a couple of times, an unimpressed look on her face. 

Was she suggesting that he was insane? Hah, that certainly was some lass. He laughed loudly and gestured for her to follow him.

Well, it certainly took some explaining, but in the end, she got a job as one of the maids. After all, you hardly need to understand language to sweep the floors and do the cleaning. 

However, she... Didn’t exactly fit in. Not just because of her weird mother tongue - she was taller than most women and not exactly petite. Appearance wise, she resembled the Portuguese missionaries, but that wasn’t exactly this either. 

Masamune came around to “bother” her at times. To his surprise, she started to picking up the basic words by herself. Sometimes, she’d point an object, say something (presumably the name of it in her language) and wait for him to do so as well.

 One day, she did just that while cleaning the floor of a veranda.  “ Chrząszcz.” It took a second to register. Was that really a word? “ Chrząszcz,” she repeated, staring at him. Right, he had to reply, otherwise she’d never stop. “ A beetle.” 

Later that day, he tried to pronounce the word. He couldn’t do it. Actually, he started thinking that she was making it all up. 

That, however, changed once he heard her sing. Unaware of his presence, she continued working, the song filling the air: “Gdy swe oczy otworzyłem Wielki żal ogarnął mnie Po policzkach łzy spłynęły Zrozumiałem wtedy, że Czarny chleb i czarna kawa Opętani samotnością Myślą swą szukają szczęścia Które zwie się wolnością”

To his delight, she started speaking broken Japanese within a couple of months of her stay at Azuchi. Finally, he could satiate his curiosity - or at least he planned to. 

She went out to do the shopping in the afternoon, but didn’t return after the dusk. Thinking something bad must have happened to her, Nobunaga issued a search. Masamune volunteered to lead it. 

She woke up with a start, her head throbbing. She looked around - where was she? It seemed to be a tiny hut of sorts. She got up, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was happening outside through the crack in the door. A man was guarding it. Did she hear a river? Whinny of horses? She had to escape - she search for cracks in the walls, until she found one. She recognized that armour. They were looking for her! She had to make some noise! 

She yanked at the door, but it didn’t want to give out. She banged at it with her fists, yelling: “ Tutaj! Ratunku!”

The kidnapper didn’t understand the weird language, so he didn’t react at first. However, once the heard the approaching horses, he decided he had to silence her. He got inside the hut and gripped her by the wrists, telling her to shut up.

To his surprise, she struggled against him, breaking free of his hold on her.

He pinned her arms to the wall of the hut, threatening to hurt her if she even squeaked.  “ A weźże ty mnie kurwa w nos pocałuj!” she yelled, before headbutting him. 

Surprised, the man didn’t react instantly. Taking advantage of the opportunity, she kicked him hard.

It didn’t exactly work, though. Infuriated, the man wanted to punch her - yet, he didn’t notice the rescue that had just arrived. Masamune stopped his fist in the air. 

Masamune didn’t see her in the couple of the following days, as they all worked to find out who was the person behind her kidnapping - and why was she even considered a target in the first place. 

When he finally met her, he was stunned. Her entire forearms were covered in bruises in the shade of deep purple, almost black. He lifted her hands up, saying: “ I’ll check you up for wounds. Wounds. Check. You.” To his surprise, she shook her head and smiled brightly. “ Boli, znaczy że żyje. Hurt mean alive.”

It dawned on him then - he never really saw her smile before. They were complete strangers, but he wanted to know more.

With the language barier in place, it wasn’t exactly an easy task. Granted, she could understand simple sentences - yet, it wasn’t enough. Masamune was up to the challenge and so, he asked her to teach him her language. 

Given the grammatical cases that influenced form of both nouns, adjectives and numerals, he soon started regretting his choice. The nouns had gender? Two future tenses? And what was up with all those ch-h, rz-ż, u-ó pairs that sounded exactly the same, but somehow weren’t interchangeable? Not to mention how some words seemed to consists exclusively of consonants. Rybołówstwo? -wstwo? 

“ Okay. Your turn.  Na wyścigach wyścigowych wyścigówek wyścigowych wyścigówka wyścigowa wyścignęła wyścigówkę wyścigową numer sześć.” Masamune blinked fast.  “ It was the same word over and over again, right?” “ Nope. Maybe  w Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie?”

It seemed she tried to torture him. Though, having her laugh, even if at him, made him feel warm. 

 One day, he was taking a stroll and heard her voice. This time, however, he understood the words she hummed to herself.  “ Raz i dwa, raz i dwa, Dziewczynka Wojenka na imię ma. Trzy i cztery, trzy i cztery, Dziwne ona ma maniery. Pięć i sześć, pięć i sześć, Wcale lodów nie chce jeść. Siedem, osiem, siedem, osiem, Wciąż o kości tylko prosi. “

“Where do you come from, if you sign about war like that?” he asked. “ Can’t tell you. You’ll think I’m mad.” “ Try it either way.” “ You see, future. But I can’t say wars aren’t a thing anymore. Sadly.”

After that, they spoke for a while. Apparently, her grandparents were both in partisan army. She grew up hearing their stories - or much rather, what little was said about the horrors of the war. What surprised him, though, was her request.

“ Will you teach me how to use a sword?” “ A sword? Why?” “ I can’t be helpless. I have to adapt.” “ That’s the spirit,” he laughed. 

She certainly was a curious creature, one with a will to survive. She was amusing... Although sometimes she did find a way to get on his nerves. 

“ I am NOT cute.” “ You are. You have lisp and can’t say “r” like little child that can’t speak good yet.”

Dictionary & Notes:

“ Czy was tu wszystkich kurwa do reszty pojebało?!” - “Are you all fucked in the damn head here?”, although not exactly. The Polish version doesn’t entail anything that could indicate any connection to psychological disorder or madness. Both “kurwa” and “pojebało”(pojebać) are swear words that would be translated to “fuck”. Recently those words lost a bit of their shocking effect, but if you ask me - you still don’t want your mother to hear you saying those. Under any circumstances. Direct translation would be “Are you all fucking fucked up here?”

“Chrząszcz” - a beetle. However, can we appreciate the nasal “ą” sound and the fact that it’s the only vowel in the entire word? Apparently, it’s hard to pronounce for foreigners :D 

“Gdy swe oczy otworzyłem /Wielki żal ogarnął mnie /Po policzkach łzy spłynęły /Zrozumiałem wtedy, że //Czarny chleb i czarna kawa /Opętani samotnością / Myślą swą szukają szczęścia /Które zwie się wolnością”  - lyrics from song, you can listen to it here. “ When I opened my eyes/ a grief overwhelmed me /Tears run down my cheeks/ Then I understood that // Black bread and black coffee / Possessed by loneliness / Keep searching with their thoughts for happiness/ name of which is freedom” (excuse the translation, I wrote it myself). I don’t listen much to Polish music, but this was somewhere around ever since I remember - I think many people would recognize it? Plus, the theme of freedom seems to be rather common one.

“ Tutaj! Ratunku!”  - “Here! Rescue me!”

“ A weźże ty mnie kurwa w nos pocałuj!” - “ Fuck, kiss my nose.”; There’s another version of with, “pocałuj mnie w dupę” (kiss my ass). This one is more polite? Less crude? Either way, it means “I’m fed up with your bullshit.” Note: weźże is an verb derived from “weź” (to take) by adding a particle “że” at the end. Said particle indicated irritation and frustration. Construction weź + do something (weź idź na spacer - go on a walk!) is basically an order/ a request said with some level of irritation. 

“ Boli, znaczy że żyje. “ - “If it hurts, it’s alive.”/ “If you’re hurting, you’re alive.” ; that one isn’t exactly universal, but it was a huge one for me. I always heard it from my grandparents and aunts. 

Rybołówstwo - ... Fishing. When pronounced, it’s “rybołóstwo” - we still have a cluster of consonants here, but it’s easier to deal with. 

“ Na wyścigach wyścigowych wyścigówek wyścigowych wyścigówka wyścigowa wyścignęła wyścigówkę wyścigową numer sześć. “ - “During the racing event the racing car got ahead of the racing car number six.”; tongue-twister If you were wondering,the adjectives are in bold. The crossed out word is the predicate of the sentence (the verb).

  w Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie  - in Szczebrzeszyn a beetle can be heard from the reed; tongue-twister. 

“ Raz i dwa, raz i dwa, /Dziewczynka Wojenka na imię ma. /Trzy i cztery, trzy i cztery, /Dziwne ona ma maniery. /Pięć i sześć, pięć i sześć, /Wcale lodów nie chce jeść. /Siedem, osiem, siedem, osiem, /Wciąż o kości tylko prosi. “ - song lyrics you can listen to here. Lao Che is a band that I think plenty of younger people interested in rock music will know. “One and two, one and two / The girls is named little war / Three and four, three and four / Strange are her manners / Five and six, five and six / She doesn’t want to eat ice-cream at all / Seven, eight, seven, eight/ She just keeps begging for bones.” ; All the songs from this particular album (Dzieciom - For Children; yes, it’s for adults that used to be children) are stylized to resemble a rhyme for children - at least in the lyrics and at first glance. 

A note: Japanese and Polish “r” are extremely different. Japanese “r” resembles Polish “l” sound a lot - and many children can’t pronounce “r” at first, exchanging it for the “l” sound. In other words, Masamune speaking Polish would have a really hard time due to his slight lisp... And he’d sound like a little child that tries, but fails. :) IT WOULD BE SO CUTE! 

When MC says her grandparents were in partisan army, she means they were part of AK - Armia Krajowa, during WWII. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing, I’ll let you decide for yourself. I don’t want to make this post any longer. 

“ Seeing his confusion, she pointed at him and then tapped on her temple a couple of times, an unimpressed look on her face. “ -  That’s basically how I’d show somebody another Polish saying “A puknij się w głowę” (Tap yourself on the head), which means “are you nuts”. 

O, yeah. I don’t know if you can find the translation of the entire lyrics online, but if you were curious... You know, hit me up. I can translate them.

... I got too excited.  Would you be mad if I wrote another one of those? I kinda want to... 

Tag list: @datenoriko , @nad-zeta , @tsubaki3192 , @choi-jiyu If you want to be tagged under my future works, let me know (any way works)!^^ Also, if you have some preferences (for example: you’d rather not be tagged under some series, etc.), please, tell me.

[visarcana]

Time measurement on Gaea

Don’t worry, this won’t be about the accursed birth dates of the Gaean characters, the length of months or anything. Maybe next time.

This is gonna be more about the daytime and how it’s measured on Gaea. I think we don’t really see watches, clocks, sundials or anything like that in the series, but as always, the Esca creators have dropped a few hints on us.

1. miet (mitto) - this is the one canon time unit of Gaea, used in episode 15 where Hitomi tries to save Van from the clutches of death and the black Escaflowne. Her heart stops and Millerna says it’s been “three miets”. The Newtype Filmbooks say a miet is about half a minute, making Hitomi out for one and half minute (thanks to the creators being medically plausible). Nobody is seen checking the watches or anything, they just say it’s been “three miets”.

So, miet is nice and canon, but what I would actually like to have is the Gaean equivalent for hour, because that would be useful for the fic and all that. And, another hint regarding that comes in episode 23.

2. the hour of ripla (ripura no koku)

This hint is dropped as the alliance armies begin to gather in Asturia... unlike the miet, I have not found any reference to it in the artbooks so far. Anyway, this is the conversation the Asturian soldiers have as an Egzardian ship arrives to Rampant airport:

Soldier A: What about the advance forces from Palas?

Soldier B: They’re expected to arrive at the hour of ripla tomorrow morning.

(taken from the English sub)

Hour of ripla, huh? Let’s take that apart.

In the very next scene, Allen, who is part of the advance forces apparently, says they are to leave with Van at the crack of dawn. So this places our ripla time a bit.

Now for the linguistics.

I believe this is the transcription of what the soldier says:

明朝リプラの刻

明朝 is simply tomorrow morning

リプラ is the transcription of ripla

刻 at least is what I believe to be what it says. He says koku, which is more usually a reading of a kanji that means country, or a kanji that means stone... however, this kanji (which is read koku as well) means:  archaic period of time (usu. a period of approx. two hours corresponding to one of the signs of the Chinese zodiac)

Please note they used this instead of the kanji/word for the normal hour.

Now, taking it to the wikipedia:

“In the old days, China and Japan used a 12-hour system to tell the time of day and night (unlike the 24 hour system used today). The 12 hour system divides the day of 24 hours into 12 hours, each of which has a sign of the zodiac:

11:00 PM to 1:00 AM is the hour of the Rat.

1:00 AM to 3:00 AM is the hour of the Ox.

3:00 AM to 5:00 AM is the hour of the Tiger.

5:00 AM to 7:00 AM is the hour of the Rabbit.

7:00 AM to 9:00 AM is the hour of the Dragon.

9:00 AM to 11:00 AM is the hour of the Snake.

11:00 AM to 1:00 PM is the hour of the Horse.

1:00 PM to 3:00 PM is the hour of the Goat.

3:00 PM to 5:00 PM is the hour of the Monkey.

5:00 PM to 7:00 PM is the hour of the Rooster.

7:00 PM to 9:00 PM is the hour of the Dog.

9:00 PM to 11:00 PM is the hour of the Pig.”

Sooo, this could be a similar timing system, where ripla has some meaning, animal or otherwise... or no meaning at all, just an hour of ripla, that’s it, that’s the name of it. Anyway, the time is given with this, so we can presume there are other hours of something, without the numeric specifications. Since Gaea is very similar to Earth, 24 hours day is quite possible and these two-hour periods are quite possible as well. Reminder though, that these were based on sunrise, sunset and such, so they weren’t all exactly two hours at any given time of the year!  

The time that would fit hour of ripla in the Zodiac calendar could either be rabbit or possibly tiger. Actually, if I heard ripla and was supposed to think of an animal, I would think of something like a rabbit. But I have no logical argument there as ripla doesn’t seem to be a word for an animal, in Portuguese or any other Earth language. I guess it is just another made-up word, then? The closest it is to an existing word in the same ballpark would be libra or something I guess (as you may know, L and R are quite interchangeable in Japanese). Also lipla is a word for lilac in Greek, but I don’t think that is what was intended.

Anyway. Since I don’t think we have not seen any devices used for measuring time, such as watches or clocks, we can look at how this Zodiac clock was actually used.

It seems that the old Japanese used to burn incense sticks to measure the lengths of the time periods. This was done at the temples who then struck the bell with the customary number of times for each zodiac “hour”. Later on, the first clock mechanisms were based on that zodiac system, too, before Japan adopted the Western calendar and time. So I guess this is something to consider, huh? They probably measure the time manually, assigning names rather than numbers to each period of time.

Speaking about the fic, I felt like I should have something as an equivalent of hour in a sense of duration, like “let’s meet in an hour”. I could just use hour and be like “God knows how long that is on Gaea” but of course I would go for the nerdy choice. So I was just thinking a new word to fit with the canon miet. My strongest current candidates are heura, aura, and aora. I think any of them would be nice to give it some fantasy flare hehe!

For the day itself, I don’t think a new word is needed, after all, day has a clear meaning from the movement of the sun and moon(s), and the change of day and night. No matter how many “Earth hours” a day would be on Gaea, the characters would know what a day meant, I think. With Gaean “hour”, it was not so certain so I had to research (and fabulate) a bit again.

Sometime in the future, when I feel like headache, I will try to take on the months, years and such, too.

[sashas4t]

Russian Names

Russian names are honestly so interesting, and Russian naming culture is very different from the rest of the world. So here we are today to break it down:

The Full Name

Russian names are styled similarly to American names, in the sense that they both have a first-middle-last structure. Russian names are styled as: Given Name – Patronymic – Family Name. Now, first let’s break down each of these names before getting into how to call one another.

 Given Name

Common Male Names - Mikhail, Dmitri, Daniil, Kiriil, Andrei, Egor, Nikita, Alexei, Ilya, Roman, Yaroslav, Vladimir, Sergei, Nikolai, Petyr, Ivan

Common Female Names - Alexandra, Alina, Alisa, Alyona, Anastasia, Anna, Vera, Veronika, Viktoria, Daria, Evgenia, Ekaterina, Elizaveta, Elena, Inna, Ksenia, Lidia, Lyubov, Maria, Maya, Olga, Polina, Sofia, Svetlana, Tatiana, Yulia

Given names are usually reduced to diminutives. Diminutives are shorter “nicknames” given affectionately. Common ones include: Anastasia --> Nastya, Maria --> Masha, Alexander/dra --> Sasha, Dmitri --> Dima. Can’t see much of a pattern? Well that’s because there kind of isn’t one. A loosely applied rule says to add -sha to the first syllable of a name (Ma[ria] --> Masha, Da[ria] --> Dasha, Mi[khail] --> Misha, Pa[vel] --> Pasha). Some add -a or -ya to a certain part of the name (Vic[toria] --> Vika, Pyot[r]--> Petya). Some names don’t even have diminutives (Vera, Nikita, Maxim). Usually there is a chain of names given to a certain given name, here is an example:

Alexander - Sasha - Sashura - Shura

Here is a list of common names and their diminutives:

- Alexander/Alexandra - Sasha

- Anastasia - Nastasia, Nastya

- Anna - Anya

- Veronika - Nika

- Viktoria - Vika

- Daria - Dasha

- Dmitri - Dima                    

- Evgenia/Evgeni - Zhenya

- Ekaterina - Katya

- Elizaveta - Liza

- Elena - Lena, Lenok

- Ksenia - Ksusha

- Maria - Masha

- Mikhail - Misha

- Petyr - Petya

- Polina - Polya

- Sofia - Sonya

There are even more affectionate names, given usually by friends or loved ones. For example, Maria could become Mashenka and Nikolai becomes Nikolushka or Nikolenka. These forms are generally derived by adding one of these varrious suffixes - -ochk-, -echk-, -onyk-, -enyk-, -ushk-, -yushk-, -yush-, -yash-, -ul-, -ush-, -un-, -us-, -k-, -ik (etc) - to the given name of diminutive.

Other Notes: Alena and Alyona can be the same name (see: Alena Kostornaia/Alyona Kostornaya), if Alena is spelled Alëna in the cryllic. Alena is the way of spelling in English, but the correct pronunciation is A-li-o-na. I and Y can sometimes be interchangeable. For example, Sonya can also be spelled as Sonia. 

Patronymic

Patronymics are sort of like the “middle names” used in America, however, they are derived from the father’s given name. For example in these names – Avdotia Romanovna, Rodion Romanovich - the second name (Romanovna, Romanovich) is the patronymic. Siblings would share a patronymic (with variations between male and female) as they have the same father. 

Females add -ovna, -evna or -ichna to their father’s given name and males add -ovich, -evich or -ich to their father’s given name. For the examples shown above, the father’s name is Roman, and the female (Avdotia) adds -ovna making Romanovna, and the male (Rodion) adds -ovich making Romanovich. For a name like Dmitri, the female would be Dmitrievna, and the male would be Dmitrievich. For masculine names ending in a vowel, such as Ilya or Foma, when they are used as a base for patronymic, the corresponding endings are -ich (for men) and -inichna (for women). Patronymics can be further shortened like Andreich instead of Andreevich or Kirilych instead of Kiriilovich. These are typically seen in informal speech. 

If the father’s name is not known, then the mother can create the patronymic she wishes to give. 

Family Name

Common suffixes for Russian names are -ov, -yev, -sky, and -ko, -uk, -ych, -in.

Family names can differ by gender. Females usually add -a to their family name (Karenin à Karenina, Pavlov à Pavlova) or -aya (Oblonsky à Oblonskaya, Shcherbatsky à Shcherbatskaya). Only family names with neutral grammatical gender stay the same (such as -ko, Elizaveta Shilenko). Once married, females usually adopt the family name of their husband. (Anna Oblonskaya becomes Anna Karenina once marrying Karenin). 

Common last names in Russia are: Ivanov, Smirnov, Kuznetsov, Popov, Vasiliev, Petrov, Dmitriev, Kuzmin, Alexandrov. As seen, commonly, last names in Russian end in -ov. 

Forms of Address

The three-name format is typically only used in legal documents. If the three-name is spoken aloud, typically the family name comes first (Raskolnikov Rodion Romanovich). 

The formal format is the Given Name - Patronymic format. This is used by students to teachers and is the official way to communicate. Using this form may convey the speaker’s respect for the recipient. Teachers may call their students by just their family name, though otherwise, it is used very rarely. 

In informal communication, typically only the first name, and/or diminutive is used. In rural areas, people may use just the patronymic amongst themselves.

Notes: In competition and when referring to them in other parts of the world, typically we only acknowledge the given name and family name. (Alina Zagitova, no care for the patronymic [Ilnazovna]).  

Citations - Wikipedia (Eastern Slavic naming customs, Russian given name), War and Peace (translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky) introduction of principal characters. Crime and Punishment (Signet Classics) Translator’s Note Goldenskate forums. (No this is not a joke, these are my actual citations)

[mechasaur]

HP server email alerts in Windows Server

One of the most important tools you have as a system administrator is the simple email alert. No matter what the problem is, it’s great to have a head start on fixing it before the phone starts ringing. In the case of HP servers you can get an email alert so you will have a head start on any problems that arise. It just needs to be set up first, which is not super simple if you haven’t done it before. Luckily for you I have this nice little tutorial to walk you through it.

Some Considerations Before We Start

The first thing I should mention is that there are little differences in the way certain generations of servers (and different versions of the software) handle this process. I have used the methods described below on Gen 6 through Gen 9 servers. For the most part they are pretty similar, but you may see something on your server that doesn’t look quite like what I have here. Keeping that in mind I have tried to point out any discrepancies I have seen and to give you as much information as I can so you can hopefully bridge any gaps you may come across.

Also, you may notice the names Hewlett-Packard, HP and HPE used interchangeably. In fact, HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) is now a separate company from HP (Hewlett-Packard). They split around 2016 and now HP sells computers and printers and HPE handles servers. Doesn’t really matter to us except that HPE is starting to change things and that’s okay because otherwise life would be boring, right? Anyway, let’s get into it.

HPE’s servers use “Insight Management Agents” to monitor the health of their hardware. These are drivers that you need to install on the server. With the agents installed you can set up email alerts to tell you when something goes wrong with the server. On Gen 9 and older servers these are all free downloads. On servers newer than Gen 9 this functionality has been moved into the iLO and requires a paid license. I will cover that in a separate tutorial.

Installing Drivers

The first thing we are going to install is the “iLO Management Controller Driver Package”. The version you want will depend on the server’s iLO version. For example, the download for iLO 3 and 4 for Windows Server 2016 and 2019 which I will be using in the examples below is here: https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_e20968c891b444c6b6de68a734

If you need a different one, you can probably find it here: https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/km/search#q=Management%20Controller%20Driver%20Package&t=All&sort=relevancy

Once the “iLO Management Controller Driver Package” downloads, right-click it and choose “Run as administrator”. You will see a setup wizard that looks like this:

Click the “Install” button and let the installer run its course.

Next, download and install the “Channel Interface Driver” for your operating system. You should get at least version 3.31.0.0. If you don’t there is a very real chance of random crashes. I have seen it myself. There is a bug in the older versions of the driver (https://downloads.hpe.com/pub/softlib2/software1/sc-windows/p2015029342/v154233/cp036919.exe). The download for the Windows Server 2016 version is here: https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX-c5e0ed82c4864327bc9b86442c#tab-history. For other versions, just google “iLO 3/4 Channel Interface Driver Server 2008 R2” for example.

You may have to reboot afterwards in order to finish the installation. Hopefully you are doing all of this on a new server so you won’t be interrupting anything important. Otherwise use a scheduled task to reboot the server at a time when no one will notice.

Next we will install the HPE System Management Homepage which will allow you to check the status of your server in the web browser at https://localhost:2381.

Use this link to download it and run the executable as an administrator: https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_b36fb879335a41d78ee5e99f7f

Installing the SNMP Service

In order for the HPE tools to communicate with each other (and us!) we need to install the SNMP service. Microsoft describes the SNMP services as follows: “The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is used to configure remote devices, monitor network performance, audit network usage, and detect network faults or inappropriate access.” Exactly what we want, right?

To install the SNMP service, go to Server Manager, then click “Manage”, then “Add Roles and Features”. Choose “Role-based”, Next, select the local server, Next, Next, on the “Select Features” screen check the box next to “SNMP Service” and the one inside it, “SNMP WMI Provider”. You may be prompted to install “SNMP Tools”, too, if you don’t have it installed already. Get it, you’ll need it.

Click Next, then click Install.

Once the installation of SNMP service is finished, click the Start menu and type services.msc (or Windows key and R key on the keyboard and enter services.msc) to open the Services interface.

Find the SNMP Service and make sure it’s running.

Installing the Agents

Next, we will download and install the HP Insight Management Agents. Here is the link for the newest version at the time of this writing: https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_1b0b099098874404adcb5d1d51#tab1

Run the executable as and admin and click Install.

When the install completes, the “Management Agents” window will open.

When the install is finished the “HPE Management Agents” settings will open automatically. You may notice there is a button on the “SNMP Settings” tab that says: “Send Test Trap”. We will come back to this later. It won’t work until we take care a few other things so you can click cancel for now.

Configuring SNMP

Now that we have the HPE agents installed we need to configure the SNMP service to collect information from the agents. Open Services.msc by searching in the Start menu or Windows key + R and entering Services.msc. Scroll down to “SNMP Services” and double-click on it. In the security tab, click Add button under “Accepted community names”. There are two Add buttons on this tab so click the top one. Select Community rights as “READ ONLY”. Type “Public” for the Community Name and click Add.

If you don’t have the Security tab close Services.msc and restart it.

Click the same Add button again and create another Community Name called “Private”, but this time make the Rights “READ WRITE”.

Now we will tell the SNMP service who to accept packets from. With the “Accept SNMP packets from these hosts” radio button selected, click on the lower Add button now and enter 127.0.0.1 as the IP address. This is the localhost so the SNMP service will only be listening to this server we are working on. Click Add and then Apply.

With this done, go to the Traps tab in SNMP Service properties. You will have to type directly into the drop-down list because it doesn’t populate itself. Type “public” and now the “Add to list” button will be clickable. Click it. The drop-down list now has an entry for ���public”. Click the “Add” button lower down the Traps tab and enter 127.0.0.1 and then click the Add button.

Click Apply and Ok.

Your New Services

You may notice that you have several new services in your Services.msc window. Their names differ depending on the version you install, but they will be similar to:

HP Insight Event Notifier

HP Insight Foundation Agents

HP Insight NIC Agents

HP Insight Server Agents

HP Insight Storage Agents

HP Smart Array SAS/SATA Event Notification Service

HP System Management Homepage

HP WMI Storage Providers

The names pretty much tell you what they do, but you can click on them in Services.msc to get a more detailed description.

They should all be started except for the HP Insight Event Notifier service. It needs to be configured before it will start. Let’s do that now. In the Start menu go to “HP Management Agents” and run the “Event Notifier Config” as administrator. The instructions are right there in the wizard for you.

You can also click on the Events button to choose which events trigger the notications. You can have different events selected for different recipients. All of them are selected by default. When you have all of your recipients in there, click finish.

Keep in mind any time you want to change these settings you must open “Event Notifier Config” as an administrator by right-clicking. Otherwise the settings will all be blank like it was never set up in the first place.

Back in the Services.msc window right-click on “HP Insight Event Notifier” and then click Restart. You can also double-click on it and then click the Start button.

If the “HP Insight Event Notifier” service doesn’t start, check your event viewer and you may see an error that will help you. For example, if you try to start that service without first running through the “Event Notifier Config” you will see two errors:

If that’s the case, set up the “Event Notifier Config” and it should work.

Back in the Services.msc window find the “HP System Management Homepage” service. Right-click it and click “Restart”.

The HP System Management Homepage

Now let’s open the HP System Management Homepage. There is probably a shortcut on your desktop, but if not, you will find it in the Start menu under “HPE Management Agents”. You can also type https://localhost:2381 into your browser. Log in to the homepage with an administrator account. If you are using a domain admin account enter it in the format of DOMAIN\username. If you’ve set everything up correctly you should see something like this:

To see some diagnostics, you can go to Logs > Integrated Management Log:

Explore this to see all of the nice stuff it tells you about your server. However, you can’t always be in here staring at it and waiting for problems to pop up, so we need to get the alert emails coming in. There are a couple of ways to send a test email. One is right here in the System Management Homepage.

The next part is different depending on the version of these programs you have.

To send a test email alert with the System Management Homepage, first click on Settings, then SNMP & Agent Settings.

In here you will find another view of the SNMP settings we saw in Services.msc. On the left side of the page you should find the “Send Test Trap” button. Click that and then click Ok when it asks you if you are sure. This next screenshot is from version 7.5.2.4 of the System Management Homepage. Other versions look a lot different and don’t give you as much control. Also, they are moving this functionality into the iLO starting with Gen 10 servers. More on that in another article.

Some versions of the Homepage have a different area where you can send a test indication, but it doesn’t send an email. It just sends a message to the event viewer. To try that out you can go to Settings, Test Indication, Send Test Indication. This is from version 6.2.0.13:

Here is an example of the “Test Indication” error that was sent to the event viewer:

Sending a Test Alert

The most reliable place to send a test email from is the Control Panel app they’ve given us as part of the HP Management Agent installation. This app seems to be present in all versions of these programs.

Open the Windows Control Panel and find “HP Management Agents”. Click on “View By” and choose “Large Icons” to find it easier. Right-click on it and run it as administrator.

In the first tab that opens you will see all of the types of agents that are working in the background. The important ones should already be set up for you. To send a test email alert click on the “SNMP Settings” tab.

You don’t need to change anything here either. Just click the “Send Test Trap” button. If the “Send Test Trap” button is greyed out, check to make sure the “HP Insight Foundation Agents” service is running in Services.msc and you are running “HP Management Agents” as administrator. If you see the following error after clicking “Send Test Trap”: “The Management Agents Remote Alerter agent has not finished initializing or is not enabled. The test trap was not sent.” then you are probably not running “HP Management Agents” as administrator.

If you’ve set everything up correctly you should get a message box like this: “The following trap has been sent” with the date and time.

And you should receive and email that says “The system has detected the following event:” with the date, time, server name, and the description of the error:

If you get that email, then congratulations! You’re all set to receive an email alert when something goes wrong.

If you don’t get an email you may have to add the server to your Exchange receive connectors or make some other change depending on how you are set up. Also, check the services in Services.msc to make sure they didn’t stop running for some reason.

Here is an example of a dead battery error:

You might want to try sending a test email once a month or so to make sure it’s all still working. Have fun!

[fspgrad]

This is my Fight Song

Take Back My Life Song...

I wrote the following essay for the course, U.S. & Missouri Governments and Constitution on April 28, 2019. The assignment required students to choose a protest song that resonated with them and explain why.

Uprising by Muse

        I was incarcerated for 16 years in the Florida Department of Corrections. During that time, I was housed at 17 different prisons and correctional institutions; I was at some places for as little as a week, while others 4 and 5 years. Music provided a means for marking time and keeping track of the years as they passed. For example, I will hear a certain song and immediately remember what prison I was at when the song was released. Otherwise, I would be hard pressed to tell someone which prison I was at in a given year. Prison is a place of constant suffering, humiliation, depravation, degradation and oppression. I’ve been bound, beaten, raped, starved, stripped naked and tossed into cells with unbearable temperatures ranging from 30° to 110°F depending on the season. Music and books helped me maintain my sanity by providing my mind with a means of escape. Seldom do you hear of riots in American prisons. That is because prison officials have developed and perfected a system that discourages rioting. Believe me, every prisoner thinks about it or wishes they possessed telekinetic abilities to make a guard’s heart stop or head explode. There is one song that always inspired me when I would hear it on my little AM/FM radio; it is titled Uprising by the band, Muse. This song rallied my spirits and filled me with hope; it gave me the courage and strength to keep pushing forward; and it made me so angry I wanted to walk up to a guard and spit in their face. Of course, had I done that I would still be rotting away in the bowels of Florida State Prison.

        Muse is a British rock band that came on the scene in 1994. The lead singer, Matthew Bellamy has been labeled a 21st century guitar hero and modern-day Mozart by some due to his song writing, vocal range and abilities on the piano and guitar. Uprising is from the band’s fifth studio album titled The Resistance. It mixes orchestral elements with rock and electronic music. Like some of their previous albums, the theme is about political oppression. In an interview with MTV News, Matt Bellamy said he was inspired to write Uprising after witnessing protests to the G20 summit that took place in London in 2009. In the days leading up to the summit, he watched from his residence as police deliberately tried to agitate peaceful protesters into committing acts of violence, so they could find reasons to detain them. There was much unrest in London at the time due to political scandals and abuses by banks and other institutions in the financial sector that had led the country into an economic crisis. Bellamy stated, “everyone felt like they were being ripped off by the powers that be [he] wanted to write a song that summed up that feeling like you’ve been done over by people you’re supposed to trust.”

        Uprising is a song that urges people to stop believing the lies and propaganda being fed to them by governments and powers that be. All the fake news and misinformation is carefully crafted and deliberately fed to the ignorant masses; its intention is to serve as a distraction and keep people from recognizing the true causes of their oppression. One of the song’s lyrics says:

Another promise, another scene, Another package lie to keep us trapped in greed With all the green belts wrapped around our minds And endless red tape to keep the truth confined

        Prison officials use the same diversionary tactics; they implement rules that serve no purpose, they mix individuals they know will not get along, and they constantly make threats that pit inmate against inmate. It works wonderfully. If the inmate population is divided and fighting each other, they are unable to unite and riot against their true oppressors. Most fail to realize that illegal drugs enter the prison system because officials allow it. It’s almost impossible to get Tylenol for a headache, but inmates can pretty much write their own scripts for psychotropic medications. Prison officials don’t feel threatened by someone who is virtually catatonic and rocking back and forth with drool running out the side of their mouth. Another lyric states:

The paranoia is in bloom, the P-R Transmissions will resume They'll try to push drugs That keep us all dumbed down and hope that We will never see the truth around

        Uprising is a song that urges people to stand up for themselves when those in government become self-serving rather than serving the people who have trusted them to govern. When our individual liberties are threatened, revolt is sometimes necessary because governments that go unchecked can become tyrannical. The lose of freedom needs to outweigh one’s fear of death because without freedom, there isn’t much else left to live for. The third and fourth verses of the song go:

Interchanging mind control Come let the revolution take its toll if you could Flick a switch and open your third eye, you'd see that We should never be afraid to die

Rise up and take the power back, it's time that The fat cats had a heart attack, you know that Their time is coming to an end We have to unify and watch our flag ascend

         I mentioned earlier that music provided a great source of comfort to me in prison since it allowed my mind to escape from the cage that confined my physical being. We didn’t have Internet access or CD players. Television and radio were our only sources for music. For many years, I did not know the name of this song nor the band who sang it. The word ‘uprising’ is nowhere in the song’s lyrics. Furthermore, radio deejays are often lousy about giving those details when they play a song. I often became frantic when Uprising played on the radio because I would ask guys who sang it, and no one ever knew. Uprising is considered alternative rock, and most guys in Florida prisons are either country or rap music fans. One guy told me he thought it was the band Muse, but he couldn’t say for sure. One of the first things I did after my release was search YouTube and listen to songs by Muse until I found Uprising. I still listen to it often. I refuse to look back on my years in prison with shame or regret. Prison toughened me up and put iron in my soul; it made me hate bullies and people who strive to oppress the weak; most of all, it taught me to stand up for myself and fight against the evil in this world. Uprising is my fight song; I love the chorus:

They will not force us They will stop degrading us They will not control us We will be victorious 

  Works Cited

Bellamy, Matthew James. "Uprising." The Resistance. Prod. Muse. Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, 2009.

News, MTV. Muse Uprising was Inspired by the G20 Protests. September 25 2009. 25 March 2019. <http://www.mtv.co.uk/muse/news/muse-uprising-was-inspired-by-g20-protests>.

Wilipedia. 2009 G20 London Summit Protests. 27 January 2019. Wikipedia Foundation Inc. 25 March 2019. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_G20_London_summit_protests>.

[shofie-ffxiv]

Shofie Mahowyn

B A S I C S Full Name: Shofie Mahowyn Pronunciation: Sho-fee Maow-in  Nicknames: Shof, Shoof, Sho Race: Seeker of the Moon (biracial Keeper/Seeker) Height: 4 fulms, 9 ilms Weight: 145 ponz Age: 23 Languages: Common (Though she can probably read and understand a few other languages, but not speak them.) P H Y S I C A L | C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S Hair Colour: Red Eye Colour:  Green, teal blue Skin Tone:  Dark Body Type:  Very muscular Accent: Doesn’t really have one (and most definitely does not trill her r’s very often) Dominant Hand: Left Posture: Slouches a lot when sitting, but pretty good otherwise, especially when she’s actually attempting to be intimidating for any reason. Scars: Nothing of any real note, save for a thin scar on her abdomen. Tattoos:  A large crescent moon on her left shoulder, dozens of stars of varying sizes that start at her neck, cover her entire arm, and trail down the left side of her body as low as her hips. Most Noticeable Features: Her red hair, her muscular physique, her tattoos, assuming she is uncovered enough for anyone to see them (which is actually fairly rare.) C H I L D H O O D Place of Birth:  The Black Shroud Hometown:  -- Birth Weight / Height: 9 ponz (a big baby) Manner of Birth: Natural First words: “Ba” (food, basically) Siblings: Unknown to her, but it is likely she has half-siblings on her father’s side. Has none on her mother’s side. Parents: As of yet unnamed Keeper of the Moon mother; as of yet unnamed Seeker of the Sun Tia. Parental Involvement: Raised solely by her mother. Her father has no idea she existed, and Shofie has not, and will not ever meet him. He was a former Nunh of a miqo’te tribe who left, and while he wandered, he met a lovely Keeper woman and a brief affair ensued. Shofie was the result. (Shofie looks very similar to her father.)

A D U L T | L I F E Occupation: She currently runs a tavern with her husband Rhen in Ul’dah. She has served in the military, and functioned as muscle for The Dusk Wolves, as well as the second-in-command. Current Residence: Predominantly in Ul’dah where she works, however, she owns residences in the Lavender Beds and in Shirogane, and uses these places as “away from home” base of operations. Relationship Status: She is married to Rhen Mahowyn, and has been for some time. Financial Status: Yes good. Vices: Eats a lot (which is only partially because she HAS to to maintain her physique.)

S E X & R O M A N C E Sexual Orientation:  Bisexual/Pansexual (I use these interchangeably) Romantic Orientation: Biromantic/Panromantic Preferred Emotional Role:  submissive | dominant | switch  |  unsure Preferred Sexual Role:  submissive  |  dominant  | switch |  sex repulsed Libido: High Turn On’s: Ohohohooooono. Turn Off’s: Pushiness. Love Language:  Primary: Acts of Service; Secondary: Physical touch Relationship Tendencies:  An extremely fiery, passionate and devoted partner who gets into more than her share of trouble. A handful, but surprisingly an easy one to manage for the right person. Does her best. M I S C E L L A N E O U S Hobbies to Pass the Time:  Reading. A lot of reading. Sparring with Rhen. Fiddling with mechanical things, like the airships she has access to. Clothing Preference: When she’s not covered head-to-toe in armor, she is fond of leather clothing, or surprisingly flouncy dresses/skirts paired with thigh-high socks. She has a preference for being covered rather than not. Obvious exceptions for beach episodes. Favorite food: Salted cod puffs. She likes these so much she can cook them herself, which is about the only thing she can cook herself. Mental Illnesses: Anxiety, maybe PTSD. Physical Illnesses:  She is extremely healthy, however, she is unable to conceive. (She will get downright furious or upset if you bring this last one up) Left or Right Brained:  Right (thoughtful, less logical) Fears: Losing Rhen/losing her family, being weak, losing control of herself Self Confidence Level:  Moderate to High most of the time. (She wins most of the fights she starts, it can go to a gal’s head) She can, however, be reduced to virtually nothing by a handful of people Vulnerabilities: Losing control, being reminded of her childhood failings Strengths: Losing control (Ah, see what I did there?), She is astonishingly strong for her size, this catches people off-guard. She has a lot of aether, describes it as being “too big for her body”. She can summon weapons made out of her aether. These lose cohesion if she loses focus, or they get too far away from her. She can dissolve and animate these at will; and is capable of making these for other people--but no one else can usually wield them, so she generally doesn’t bother. (There are other reasons, as well.) Random fun fact: Shofie can’t swim very well, despite being an actual fucking (retired) pirate who spent time on the sea. Tagged by: No One! Tagging: Anyone who reads this and would like to do it!