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world-of-wales · 2 months ago

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─ •✧ WILLIAM'S YEAR IN REVIEW : 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 ✧• ─

𝟑 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : The Prince of Wales released a statement ahead of his trip to South Africa for the fourth annual Earthshot Awards. He departed from Heathrow Airport for South Africa. It was announced that Earthshot Awards had led to the creation of 650 jobs in Cape Town & contributed to their creative industries.

𝟒 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : William arrived at Cape Town International Airport and was received by the British High Commissioner to the Republic of South Africa (Antony Philipson). Afterwards, he joined Young Environmentalists participating in the inaugural Earthshot Prize Climate Leaders Youth Programme. He then visited the Atlas Foundation at Ocean View Secondary School.

𝟓 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : William met Rangers and Mayine e-Africa volunteers at Table Mountain National Park. He shot a Q&A video with Robert Irwin at Signal Hill. Later, he was received by the President of the Republic of South Africa (Cyril Ramaphosa) at his residence. The UK & Soth Africa delegation held a Bilateral Meeting. Afterwards, he attended Conservation Roundtable Meeting at Portside Tower. William attended the Earthshot+ Summit. Finally, William attended the United for Wildlife Global Summit, and announced the "Ranger Welfare and Standards Initiative" to provide rangers access to in-service & medical evacuation insurance cover, and training and leadership development opportunities.

𝟔 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : The Prince of Wales held a Meeting with Finalists of the 2024 Earthshot Prize Awards at Kirstenbosch Gardens. He held a Meeting with Prince Rahim Aga Khan. Afterwards, he attended a Founding Partners' Lunch at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. William then attended a final rehearsal and gave an Interview to the BBC. In the evening, William attended the Earthshot Prize Awards at the Earthshot Prize Dome. Finally, he attended an Earthshot Prize Thank You Reception.

𝟕 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : William visited the National Sea Rescue Institute in Cape Town. Afterwards, he visited Abalobi - a 2023 Earthshot Prize finalist and took part in a traditional fish braai lunch. He met will wishers during a walkabout. Subsequently he attended a Seaweed Innovation Showcase at the Portside Tower. Finally, William departed Cape Town International Airport for the United Kingdom.

𝟖 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : He arrived at Heathrow Airport in London from South Africa. William gave an Interview to the press on the conclusion of his trip to Cape Town. Kensington Palace marked Lady Louise's Birthday.

𝟗 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : The Prince and Princess of Wales attended the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall. Kensington Palace released a 2024 Earthshot Prize short film documenting William's visit to Cape Town.

𝟏𝟎 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : The Prince and Princess attended the Remembrance Day Service of Remembrance and laid a wreath at the Cenotaph. Afterwards, he took the salute at the March Past of Ex-Servicemen and Civilian Organisations on Horse Guards Parade. A new portion of William's Interview in South Africa was released.

𝟏𝟐 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : William held an Investiture.

𝟏𝟑 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : William held a Reception at Windsor Castle.

𝟏𝟒 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : William was received by the Lord-Lieutenant of Belfast (Dame Fionnuala Jay-O'Boyle) at Simon Community. He visited The Foyer. Afterwards, he met representatives of the Northern Ireland Creative Industries and young people learning screen industry skills at Ulster University where he was received by Deputy Lieutenant of Belfast (Mr. Shane Quinn). Kensington Palace marked The King's Birthday.

𝟏𝟗 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : The Prince of Wales attended the Diplomatic Corps Reception.

𝟐𝟎 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : William visited Cyfannol Women's Aid in Newport. Later, he was received by the Lord-Lieutenant of Gwent (Robert Aitken) at the Nelson Trust. Subsequently, the Homewards Newport Coalition published the "Newport Women’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment" Report. The Prince of Wales became Co-Patron of the 'Jewel of Arabia Expedition' along with Crown Prince HH Theyazin bin Haitham of Oman.

𝟐𝟐 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : The Prince of Wales was received by Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London (Stuart Shilson) at the launch of Jewel of Arabia Expedition at the Royal Geographical Society. He was joined by the Crown Prince of Oman. William appeared in a video message to mark the 5th Anniversary of National Emergencies Trust.

𝟐𝟔 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : William visited the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards at Salisbury Plain in his role as Colonel-in-Chief.

𝟐𝟕 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : He attended the Tusk Conservation Awards at the Savoy.

𝟐𝟖 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 : William and Catherine released a personal statement offering their condolences on the passing of Liz Hatton.

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gars-weaponeer · 4 months ago

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Today in: Clones that deserved better!

Issue #1

-SCORCH-

Scorch belonged to the clone commando Delta Squad from the beloved videogame "Republic Commando", which came before the Clone wars series aired.

Along with his companions: Sev, Fixer and Boss. Scorch was the demolition expert of the Squad and the one with the most heart and sense of humor, arguably the one with the most personality. You could easily compare him to Hardcase or Wrecker, having a similar archetype. He, along with Sev, became a fan favorite thanks to his charismatic writing.

If you have NOT played Republic commando, I totally recommend it. You can currently find it on steam or switch and it's a very fun game to play if you are a Clone wars fan.

Delta squad appears in the Clone wars series only for a short cameo and only Boss got a short speaking line. So it was more than obvious that RC fans would want to see more representation of the beloved characters.

Then we got the Bad Batch...

I don't know who this guy is... but this is not Scorch.

I do understand they needed a face for the commando leader of Tantiss and they did not want to miss the opportunity to gain some nostalgia points with a beloved Republic Commando character. (I could rant hours about how The Bad Batch did all commando clones dirty by reducing them to novelty storm troopers, but that's a rant for another day.) But did it HAVE to be Scorch? Considering the "personality" this TBB-Scorch has, I think Fixer or even Boss could have been an arguably better pick. But since Scorch was a fan favorite he was the one chosen, and he was also the one BUTCHERED for it.

TBB-Scorch has little to no personality and what little we manage to see it drastically different from the Scorch in the video game and that's very disheartening to see for a fan of the character.

Having a model with the painted armor is not enough to give fans the representation they deserve. Specially when it comes to a character with a recognizable personality.

It would be like having Fives suddenly be a cold and loyal trooper that will do anything Pon Krell did without questioning. Or have Wrecker suddenly be the background character that had no speaking lines and was only there to guard the door.

Or have Echo disappear for an amount of episodes when he could-- oh wait....

This "character" could easily be replaced by any other commando with a cool looking armor and it wouldn't change a thing other that fans pointing and saying "OMG I KNOW THAT GUY!"

(I'm not even sure his name is even mentioned... but take that with a grain of salt, I might be wrong. I need to re-watch the third season of The Bad Batch for the third time. )

Sure, we could argue that there is a reason to why Scorch is the way he is in TBB. Maybe he was brainwashed like the CX Clones or Maybe the trauma of loosing his companions, his brothers he was born and raised with since a pod and with whom he experienced a lot of things together, made him a cold, empty husk... but if that was the case, SHOW US THAT!

Scorch could have easily been a good counterpart to Crosshair. They are both Commandos (in a sense) and they both lost their brothers in traumatic ways (allegedly). But while Scorch gave up and became a mindless follower of the Empire, Cross woke up and refused to be brainwashed like the rest.

I know I'm being too harsh.

After all, it's somehow noticiable that TBB was left unfinished. My theory is that Disney decided to pull the plug and was "nice" enough to give the project one last season. But all the ideas and all the stories they clearly wanted to tell were not going to fit on one last season, so a lot of it was cut and rushed.

It is sad, and I would have loved to see what plans they originally had. Maybe they had more plans for the commandos, maybe Scorch had a bigger role or an explanation to his loyalty towards Hemlock and the empire.

Or Maybe he was just painted in to get Republic commando fans to watch The Bad Batch.

We might never know...

Overall...

It's kind of sad that was all the representation we got of these beloved characters.

I know their stories are in "Legends" and many Legends characters have been changed for the sake of canon.

But there is Changing, and then there is Butchering.

And I think Scorch, and the Delta Squad, deserved way better.

#my rants #clone wars #the bad batch #star wars the clone wars #sw the clone wars #tbb #clone commando scorch #tbb scorch #star wars #delta squad

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mariacallous · 3 months ago

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US appeals court upholds TikTok law forcing its sale

WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law requiring Chinese-based ByteDance to divest its popular short video app TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban.

The decision is a win for the Justice Department and opponents of the Chinese-owned app and a devastating blow to ByteDance. The ruling now increases the possibility of an unprecedented ban in just six weeks on a social media app used by 170 million Americans.

The ruling is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court.

Free speech advocates immediately criticized the decision. The American Civil Liberties Union said it sets a "flawed and dangerous precedent."

"Banning TikTok blatantly violates the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans who use this app to express themselves and communicate with people around the world,” said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the ACLU's National Security Project.

But the appeals court said the law “was the culmination of extensive, bipartisan action by the Congress and by successive presidents. It was carefully crafted to deal only with control by a foreign adversary, and it was part of a broader effort to counter a well-substantiated national security threat posed by the PRC (People's Republic of China)."

U.S. appeals court Judges Sri Srinivasan, Neomi Rao and Douglas Ginsburg considered the legal challenges brought by TikTok and users against the law that gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell or divest TikTok's U.S. assets or face a ban.

The decision -- unless the Supreme Court reverses it -- puts TikTok's fate in the hands of first President JoeBiden on whether to grant a 90-day extension of the Jan. 19 deadline to force a sale and then President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20. But it's not clear whether ByteDance could meet the heavy burden to show it had made significant progress toward a divestiture needed to trigger the extension.

Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, said before the November presidential election he would not allow the TikTok ban.

TikTok said it expected the Supreme Court would reverse the appeals court decision on First Amendment grounds.

"The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans' right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue," TikTok said in a statement, adding the law will result "in outright censorship of the American people."

The Justice Department did not have an immediate comment on the decision.

The decision upholds the law giving the U.S. government sweeping powers to ban other foreign-owned apps that could raise concerns about collection of Americans' data. In 2020, Trump also tried to ban Tencent-owned WeChat, but was blocked by the courts.

Shares of Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab, which competes against TikTok in online ads, hit an intraday record high following the ruling, last up over 3%. Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, whose YouTube video platform also competes with TikTok, was up over 1% following the ruling.

TIKTOK BAN LOOMS

The court acknowledged its decision would lead to TikTok's ban on Jan. 19 without an extension from Biden.

"Consequently, TikTok's millions of users will need to find alternative media of communication," the court said, which was because of China's "hybrid commercial threat to U.S. national security, not to the U.S. Government, which engaged with TikTok through a multi-year process in an effort to find an alternative solution."

The opinion was written by Ginsburg, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, and joined by Rao, who was named to the bench by Trump, and Srinivasan, an appointee of President Barack Obama.

The Justice Department says under Chinese ownership, TikTok poses a serious national security threat because of its access to vast personal data of Americans, asserting China can covertly manipulate information that Americans consume via TikTok.

U.S. officials have also warned TikTok's management is beholden to the Chinese government, which could compel the company to share the data of its American users.

TikTok has denied it has or ever would share U.S. user data, accusing American lawmakers in the lawsuit of advancing "speculative" concerns.

TikTok and ByteDance argue the law is unconstitutional and violates Americans' free speech rights. They call it "a radical departure from this country's tradition of championing an open Internet."

ByteDance, backed by Sequoia Capital, Susquehanna International Group, KKR & Co (KKR.N), opens new tab, and General Atlantic, among others, was valued at $268 billion in December 2023 when it offered to buy back around $5 billion worth of shares from investors, Reuters reported then.

The law prohibits app stores like Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google from offering TikTok and bars internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless ByteDance divests TikTok by the deadline.

Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a concurring opinion, Srinivasan acknowledged the decision will have major impacts, noting "170 million Americans use TikTok to create and view all sorts of free expression and engage with one another and the world. And yet, in part precisely because of the platform’s expansive reach, Congress and multiple Presidents determined that divesting it from (China's) control is essential to protect our national security."

He added that "Because the record reflects that Congress's decision was considered, consistent with longstanding regulatory practice, and devoid of an institutional aim to suppress particular messages or ideas, we are not in a position to set it aside."

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thefrogdalorian · 1 year ago

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Dincember Day 1: Snow

Din Djarin x GN!Reader

Word Count: 4825 Rating: General Content warnings: None! Summary: After a busy few months working for the New Republic, Din surprises you and Grogu with a well-earned retreat to a snowy paradise in the run up to Life Day. Snow-filled chaotic fluff and fun ensues! Author's note: This one sort of spiralled out of control in terms of word count and I did research into SW lore which I doubt I'll do every day, but I enjoyed it! I love browsing Wookieepedia like a big ol' nerd. The city visited is from a video game and the entry can be found here if anyone is interested in that kind of thing. Anyway, hope you enjoyed day one and thanks for reading :D

Link to read on AO3 | My Dincember Masterlist

When Din told you to pack warm clothes for a mystery destination, you were curious about what exactly laid in store on the upcoming trip he had been carefully planning for the two of you to take with Grogu. It had been a busy few months for Din, his frequent assignments with the New Republic, where he was tasked with eliminating Imperial remnants, had kept him away from you for considerable periods. Recently, whispers of Thrawn’s return had swirled and eventually reached fever pitch. The rumours terrified you, but you knew that with someone like Din working to keep the peace, the fate of the galaxy could not be in safer hands. Nor could your future, as it happened. With Din by your side, you felt a sense of security that was incredibly comforting. You knew regardless of what he had planned for you, a surprise trip like this after such a stressful period was an incredibly thoughtful gesture from a thoroughly kind man.

Life Day was rapidly approaching and Din had promised to whisk you away for a trip somewhere in the galaxy. Where exactly, you did not know. But if you had to hazard a guess, you would not be heading to the deserts of Tatooine, given his instructions to pack for chilly climes. You eagerly bounced around the small cabin the two of you shared on Nevarro, packing your warmest clothes. The warm climate of the lava-covered planet you now called home meant that you had to search the deepest depths of your drawers, but eventually you found hats, scarves and warm woolly mittens that would be perfect for cold weather.

Your entire body was buzzing with excitement as you packed your bag, eagerly anticipating the quality time you would get to spend with Din and Grogu. Din had made it clear when the two of you had met, that the very nature of his line of work would be unpredictable and keep him away from you for long periods at short notice. You knew he hated the fact that his work kept him away from you so frequently just as much as you did, so, you reasoned, there was no point in making him feel guilty. With this trip, you knew that he was more than going to make up for it. You felt slightly guilty about how much you were sure he would spoil you with some of the credits he had earned. But Din Djarin was not remotely materialistic man; the safety and happiness of his loved ones mattered far more to him than any wealth he could accumulate.

So, as you headed out of your cabin the following morning and departed in the ship Din had borrowed from Greef Karga to accomodate you too - his N-1 was too small - you were practically bursting from excitement. But that excitement soon faded once the realities of travelling through the monotiny that was a seemingly never-ending hyperspace dawned upon you. Once the thrill of seeing the rushing blue and white hues outside the window had worn off, you found yourself thoroughly bored. Grogu was sound asleep in the corner of the cockpit, so for entertainment, you decided to interrogate Din in an attempt to ascertain hints as to your destination.

"So… it's cold…?" You mused. Din sat in the seat next to you, his armour illuminated by the multicoloured buttons of the various control panels, "Outer-Rim?" You questioned, watching for any signs that your words were having an impact.

But he did not move an inch, his arms remained folded, his breathing even. This man was impossible to read. But you were not going to give up.

"Fine… Mid-Rim?" You asked.

"I told you. It's a surprise," Din huffed.

You chuckled at how annoyed he sounded. It wasn't as though narrowing down the vast regions to several thousand planets rather than several hundred thousand would make much of a difference. But Din was stubborn. And you loved him for it. You had intended to continue pestering him, but you listened in astonishment when, a few minutes later, you heard the even breaths that indicated your favourite Mandalorian had fallen asleep. You weren't far behind him. It passed the time, after all.

After a long day of travelling you finally arrived at your destination, a place Din informed you once he had landed that was, in fact, the capital of Corellia: the bustling Coronet City.

You had been slightly confused about Din’s instructions to pack for the cold when you exited the ship in Coronet City. You did not see snow or any indication of frigid temperatures. But you couldn't dawdle to muse on it because you had to keep up with Din in the crowd.

As the two of you made your way through the spaceport, you put your hand out as if to offer a hand to Din to help with the heavy bags he was carrying, containing the warm clothes you had packed for the trip. But rather than hand one of the bags to you, your stubborn Mandalorian grunted and shifted the weathered satchel to his other hand. You were momentarily confused; you opened your mouth, intending to offer him a hand. But then you felt the explanation. Your heart melted when you felt the pillowy leather of his well-worn gloves as he held your hand in his. The warm presence of his large hand caused a shiver to spread down your spine.

You looked down at the little green child who nestled happily in your arms; Grogu was taking in all the new sights and sounds with his wide brown eyes and long green ears. So, you decided to take a look around for yourself. You noticed how underdressed everyone appeared to be, compared to what you had been expecting. The planet did not seem to be nearly so chilly as to make the warm clothes you had packed necessary. As if he could sense your confusion, Din finally informed you of his plans.

“If you hadn't already gathered, Coronet City isn’t actually our final stop,” Din explained as the two of you walked through the busy terminus, weaving between locals and tourists alike who had travelled to Corellia for the holiday season. The planet seemed to be at capacity. You were glad you were holding hands with Din, so the two of you did not get separated. “We’re heading up to the mountains. I thought it would be nice for Grogu to experience some snow. Since Nevarro has such a warm climate, it seemed like the perfect place.”

“Oh, Din… that sounds perfect.” You smiled up at him, “Grogu will love it, won’t you, buddy?” You took Grogu’s purr as you leaned down to address him directly as an indication that the child agreed. Din squeezed your hand tightly, appreciative that you were seemingly so excited by his plans.

You had no idea where you were heading, following Din’s lead as you placed your trust in him entirely, just as you always did. Excitement was not the only emotion you felt, though. There was the smug part of you, too, enjoying the assured feeling you had that, no matter how many heads this Mandalorian in his gleaming, unpainted beskar’gam was turning in this spaceport… that he was all yours. And yours alone.

Eventually, you seemingly reached the platform from which you would board the shuttle as Din led you off the main hall of the spaceport, ascending steps to the landing platform. At the top of the stairs was a screen which gave you the name of your final destination: Doaba Guerfel. The name meant nothing to you, but you had no time to dwell on it as Din dropped your hand and struggled with the heavy bags through the shuttle's door.

“I would have helped you, you know,” You informed Din with a smirk. He finally took a seat after placing the luggage on a shelf above the seats. “Rather than you struggling along with those heavy bags because we were holding hands.”

“I know.” Din nodded, “But I’ll never not want to hold your hand.”

Your heart melted for the second time in quick succession. How could this man, known throughout the galaxy for the ruthlessness with which he had once apprehended bounties and now applied those same talents in his work for the New Republic, actually be this soft and caring underneath that hard, Beskar shell? You didn’t think there was anyone else in the galaxy quite like Din Djarin. You were certain of that, in fact.

You passed Grogu to Din and felt yourself smile at his happy coo. The child sat contentedly on his father's lap, peering out of the window as the shuttle departed and flew over the buildings of Coronet City and towards the mountains that loomed on the horizon. You were still some distance away, but you could see that they were covered in snow. You felt your stomach dancing with excitement; it looked like a secluded paradise. Which, as it transpired, was exactly what this town – nestled amongst mountains – was. Din was always so curious about the galaxy around him, respectful and eager to learn about other planets and their language and culture. So of course, it made sense that he had done research when selecting this destination.

“Our destination, as you probably gathered, is a quaint mountainous town called Doaba Guerfel… The mountains you can see are called the Nomad Mountains and the town itself used to be known as Nomad’s Retreat. It’s incredibly secluded, so I thought it would be a perfect retreat for our little family,” Din explained, gesturing out of the window to the mountains the shuttle was hurtling towards. “The town invests heavily in restoration and protection of the wilderness around here. Apparently, the flora and fauna found here in such an abundance that is rare anywhere else throughout the galaxy. I doubt we'll be able to see much given the time of year. But I thought it was nice that the residents here care about their surroundings.”

“It looks beautiful from here already. I can’t wait to explore it with you.” You said, smiling at Din and admiring the way the whiteness of the sky outside made his helmet so dazzlingly shiny.

“We’re renting a small cabin on the outskirts of the town.” Din said, as he turned to face you, adding honestly: “The locals here really tried to keep it as a safe haven from the rest of the galaxy, where others can come to rest and escape. I hope it’ll be the quiet, peaceful retreat that we both need.”

“I’m sure it will be, Din.” You nodded, “It sounds like you’ve put a great deal of thought into planning this for us. Thank you.”

“Anything for you, mesh’la. Apparently, it is the finest resort in all of Corellia,” Din said, reaching out to take your hand in his once again. He squeezed it, as he told you solemnly: “And you deserve only the finest things in the galaxy for putting up with me, with the stress and demands of being with someone like me.”

You were about to open your mouth to protest, that being with Din was not settling in any way. But you were prevented from doing so as the unmistakable robotic drone of a droid suddenly sounded through the cabin, informing passengers that you were approaching Doaba Guerfel. You looked over at Din, noticing the subtle way his fist had clenched around Grogu. Din’s disdain for droids was something that you had not understood when you had first met him, but now you were aware of his past… you had nothing but the deepest sympathy for him.

As you stepped off the shuttle and onto the frozen ground, your lips couldn’t help but curve into a slight smile. The crunch of the snow underneath your feet would never fail to bring back a childlike sense of wonderment inside you that seemed to have dwindled over the years. But that appreciation for the smallest things that you had thought lost as you grew older, was now being awakened once more, after having the privilege to see so much of the galaxy through Grogu’s eyes. It was like seeing everything for the first time, as you monitored the little boy’s wide brown eyes and expressions to check that he was enjoying himself. Fortunately, it seemed as though he was. Grogu seemed absolutely content as the three of you made your way down the main street of Doaba Guerfel.

The buildings were covered in lights and, combined with the dusting of snow that seemed present on every surface, it was the perfect winter scene. When Din informed you that you had arrived on Corellia, you had found yourself slightly disappointed. It was a name you were familiar with, most people had heard of the vast shipyards and subsequent fighter pilots that this planet located in the Core Worlds had produced over the years. You associated it with machinery, industrialisation… not natural beauty. But aside from those assumptions, you knew scant details of the planet.

Even if you had, nothing could have prepared you for the beauty of the picturesque mountain town that Din had chosen to bring you to.

You continued enjoying the sights until your earlier assumptions about Grogu’s contentment were shattered as an opporunity to beg for food arised. The three of you were walking towards a vendor situated at the side of the street. Whatever they were smelling had a sweet, enticing aroma and, right on cue, Grogu whined and reached his little arms out towards the stall. As you approached the throng of people waiting to get their hands on the sweet treat, you noticed they were hot Corellian Ryshcate. You had never had these particular delicacies before, but they appeared to be pastries of some kind.

You stopped at the side of the street so you and Grogu could enjoy the flaky pastries - Din would eat later, given that he was waiting for the privacy of the cabin you would be staying in to remove his helmet. As you took your first bite of the Ryshcate, your mouth was suddenly transported to a rich, indulgent heaven of sugary, buttery goodness. There were nuts and fruits baked into the flaky layers and you hummed contentedly as you savoured the sweet treat.

“Is it good?” Din asked, shifting his weight awkwardly from one leg to the other as he waited, excluded due to his Creed from this simple pleasure. You knew he would not have it any other way though. It didn't stop you, though, from wishing sometimes, for his own sake above all else, that he could join in and live more freely.

“Delicious, Din.” You said, bringing your hand to your mouth as you replied so you did not inadvertently cover him in a storm of pastry flakes. “We can come back and get some tomorrow, perhaps, take them back to the cabin?” You suggested, it would be a shame for him to miss out.

“Sure,” Din nodded, “I think Grogu would like that too.”

You giggled as you noticed that the Ryshcate that had been in Grogu’s hands seconds before was now nowhere to be seen. It was larger than his head, but that had not prevented the little boy with the voracious appetite from gulping down the pastry despite its warmth and size. Once you had also finished your Ryshcate, you continued making your way down the street, Din’s hand finding yours again despite the bags… you just shook your head affectionately at his stubbornness. As you took in the sights and sounds before you, you didn’t think that Din could have picked out a better place for you to visit. Everything from the scenery, to the festive, relaxing atmosphere was exactly what you had been hoping for. You were pleased that Din had told you a little about the history of this place on your journey here. Now that you were actually here, walking around Doaba Guerfel, you could appreciate it fully.

As you made your way further down the street, Din finally allowed you to carry your bag so he could hold Grogu. The extra weight of the bag and the exertion caused you to notice how your breath was hanging in front of you like a little cloud. The air was crisp and The Mandalorian next to you looked impossibly handsome in the environment. Given that he was still in his armour, it was quite a feat, but you loved him in his beskar’gam as much as you loved him out of it. The white snow that touched every corner of this secluded mountain paradise, caused the armour to dazzle. Din's presence was attracting more than a few eyes. But with one strong hand in yours and another arm holding Grogu protectively, it was clear that this particular Mandalorian already had a Clan of his own.

Towards the end of the main street, Din guided you down one of the side streets. There were various establishments of all kinds; from diners and cantinas and small family run businesses selling toys and antiques. Most of them had intricate window displays for Life Day and it seemed as though every corner of this town had been touched by festive cheer. It was infectious, you couldn’t stop smiling as you walked down the street at Din’s side.

At the end of the street, there was a footbridge which took you across the mountains to the next peak. Wherever Din was taking you seemed to be as far out of the town as one could get, but it made sense given Din’s need for privacy if he were to remove his helmet and relax on this trip. After walking across several similar smaller bridges – the place was somewhat of a maze and you wondered how Din was keeping track – you eventually reached the cabin that was to be your home for the next few days.

The cabin was made out of dark brown wood, with a dusting of white snow on the roof. It looked unbelievably cozy and welcoming, especially given the landscape that surrounded the cabin. The array of flora that Din had promised were here could be found in the trees dotted around the cabin. It was an idyllic escape, nestled between the Nomad Mountains on all sides. After entering your secluded cabin and unpacking a few items from bags - including your warmest coat, hat, scarf and gloves - you helped Grogu dress in a new coat that Din had purchased for this trip, before you took him outside. You had intended to help him to build a snow-wookiee while you waited for Din to change into something more suited for enjoying the snowy environment than his armour. The privacy afforded by this secluded cabin meant that Din could remove his helmet. You couldn’t wait to see him in his dressed down, relaxed form out here in this safe haven.

The sun was beginning to set, bathing the sky in a beautiful collection of oranges and reds. You willed Din to hurry up, you didn't want him to miss something as stunning. In the time you had spend appreciating the sunset, you found that your plans to help Grogu in building a snow-wookiee were to be unrealised. Before you could even begin gathering snow with the shovel that lay propped against the dark wooden exterior of the cabin for him to play with, the mischievous little boy had used the Force to build an enormous, fully formed snow-wookiee.

“Grogu, that’s cheating,” You said, crossing your arms and shaking your head at him, a wide smile on your face.

“Muh?” Grogu responded, almost offended that you weren’t impressed with his handiwork.

You heard the door of the cabin open behind you and turned around to finally lay eyes upon your favourite Mandalorian. Bathed in the fading golden light, he was mesmerising. Din was wearing a thick red coat, with a material that would protect him from all the elements in contrast to your more fashionable woollen one. He still had his gloves on, too. It was the only part of him familiar to the way he was dressed when you had arrived at the cabin. Din stood there, surveying the scene before him with the prowess of the trained hunter he was. He smiled softly when his eyes met yours. You knew your face had lit up when you had seen him, it was impossible for you not to react to his warm brown eyes, you saw your expression mirrored in his, especially when he looked around and appreciated Grogu’s snow-based creation.

“Great job, kid!” Din said proudly as he strode towards the two of you. He picked Grogu up and brought him close. Grogu cooed and reached out to place his hand on his father’s cheek, his way of giving his seal of approval that Din had removed his helmet.

It was a touching sight. But you had plans to disrupt the peace as you bent down and scooped fistfuls of snow, moulding them into a sphere. Without any warning, you lobbed the snowball in the direction of Din. You had truly only intended to hit him on the side of his head, but your aim was so poor that you inadvertently hit him square in the face. The warm brown eyes that you had enjoyed gazing into only moments before were the first feature of Din’s to be visible again, as he blinked away the snow that had coated his entire face.

“Oh, you’ll pay for that,” Din said, voice low as he set Grogu down.

You yelped and began to run away from him, but you didn’t make it far, before Din grabbed you by the wrist and brought his snow-covered glove to your face, coating your face in snow just as his had been covered moments earlier.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry!” You panted, breathless with laughter as you brought your hands to your face to wipe the snow away.

“Truce?” Din asked as he released his hand from your wrist and placed it on your waist, pulling you close to him. You looked down at his lips, so warm and inviting. It would be so easy to give in to what your heart wanted and kiss him. But he had played dirty, grabbing you and forcing his hand to your face like that.

“No way!” You exclaimed as you wriggled from his embrace and squatted down to sculpt another snow-based missile.

Din shook his head, laughing at you as you hurled another snowball at him. He retaliated in kind, catching you square in the jaw. You continued like that for a few more minutes, forgetting all about the actual child who was sitting quietly a few feet away in the snow, watching the pair of you fight like children. A snowball fight seemed like a good idea, but the two of you had apparently forgotten about the abilities of the child you adored.

It was the sound of a giggle a few feet away that reminded you that you and Din were not alone here. In all your horseplay, Grogu was being neglected. You were about to apologise, scoop him up and help him make some snowballs of his own. But the kid had other ideas. The sight of his little head, a tiny green dot against the white snow that was still as bright despite the fading light, was the last sight you saw before everything became a snowy white haze. Suddenly, every part of your body was being pummelled by snowballs.

“What the–” You started, wondering how it was possible for snowballs to be made and thrown with the speed they were right then.

“GROGU!” Din bellowed. His mind had been quicker to recall the abilities with the Force that his son possessed, abilities that were helping him thoroughly destroy two grown adults in this impromptu snowball fight. “STOP! THAT'S CHEATING!”

After a few more moments, Grogu finally relented, clapping his hands together in glee. As your vision returned, you noticed the way both you and Din were covered head to toe in snow… your faces barely visible amongst the carnage. Din’s thick coat certainly did a better job of protecting him from the elements than your own garment, which seemed woefully inadequate in comparison. There should have been something slightly humiliating about being beaten by a child, but all you could think about was the way Din’s cheeks were slightly rosy. How his smile dazzled against the brilliant white snow. His presence was magnetic… you could stare at him forever.

“I’ll make you pay for that, you little womp rat!” Din said playfully as he charged towards Grogu, who squealed in delight and tried to make a break for it from Din. Alas, his legs were too little and Din soon caught up to him, scooping him up with a motion that sent both of them tumbling to the ground.

You laughed at the sight and made your way over to them. Din placed Grogu on his knee and began passing him little bits of snow, whispering to him and instructing him how to make a snowball fairly, rather than with the Force. But rather than a sweet father and son bonding moment, it transpired that your boys were actually conspiring against you. Grogu pitched the little snowballs at you with stunning accuracy as each hit your cheeks. You stumbled dramatically, falling to the snow face down beside them and closing your eyes, as though mortally wounded.

“Wake up, cyare!” Din said playfully. “Oh no, Grogu… what did you do?”

Grogu whined in response.

“I think, perhaps, a kiss is needed?” Din said lightly.

The feeling of firstly Din’s warm breath washing over yours, and then his soft lips gently meeting yours meant, once he pulled away, the grin that was on your face shattered the illusion for Grogu, who was now staring at the two of you curiously. Even if you had wanted to continue the act, once Din kissed you, you couldn’t do anything except grin.

“All better.” You sighed, enjoying the way Din’s brown curls were sticking to his forehead, dampened by the snow. Warmth pooled in your chest as you looked at him, reflecting the depth of the affection you felt for this man.

Then, you flipped onto your back and began moving your arms and legs in unison to make a snow angel, watching the brilliant sky as you did so. Din placed Grogu on the snow between the two of you and began making the same motions. Grogu looked confused at first, but soon caught up, thrashing his little arms and legs about wildly. You caught Din’s eye as the two of you gazed at each other, soft smiles on your faces. You were trying to convey how grateful you were that he had brought you to this paradise. The look in his warm brown eyes, that shone like honey in the fading light, indicated that he understood. You slowed down, transfixed by him, before ceasing your motions. But then, the warmth in your chest that you felt whenever you looked at Din, was replaced with something much, much colder. Making snow angels with the two of them was such a joyful moment that you temporarily forgot how cold you were, your coat soaked through. But once the motions ceased, your teeth began chattering.

Din noticed instantly, looking at you with concern before he said, “Come on, let’s head inside and put Grogu to bed.” He raised an eyebrow, “Then,I have an idea for how to help you warm up.”

You couldn’t help but giggle breathlessly as Din pulled you to your feet. It turned out that the kiss had been a promise of things to come. As the pair of you walked hand in hand to the cabin, you took one last look back to the three figures in the snow in the fading light. The large, broad outline of Din’s snowangel, the shape that was unmistakably that of your own body and, between the two of you, the imprint Grogu had made, which seemed impossibly tiny next to the two of you. Especially considering the carnage he had just unleashed upon Din and you with the snowballs. So much power for one so small.

You thought with a smile that the snowy impressions of the three of you looked perfect together in the fluffy snow. They would be gone by the time you rose tomorrow, replaced by a fresh dusting of snow. But the love that the three of you felt for each other could not be replaced by any force in the galaxy.

For now, though, the unmistakable outlines of your little family remained as evidence of the fun afternoon you had spent in the snow.

#dincember #dincember 2023 #my fics #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin #the mandalorian #pedro pascal #this was so much longer than i expected ffs but you know what i had fun and i hope you did too!!#hope i can keep this up every day aah #the mandalorian fanfiction #din djarin fanfic #din djarin fluff #grogu #baby yoda #pedro pascal characters

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octuscle · 2 years ago

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Whenever George went on vacation to the Dominican Republic, he felt he had missed his youth. He saw the young people having fun, partying into the night. He had gone through school and university at high speed with great success, had made a career as a lawyer, and could now stop working in his early 50s without any problem. He could live a nice life here or anywhere on the planet. Every time he sat in a sidewalk café in Santo Domingo, he took it upon himself to do so. And then packed his bags again after two weeks and flew back to Chicago.

George walked through the street markets. He saw all the fake sports jerseys, the fake sneakers, the fake gold jewelry. What he wouldn't give right now to be sitting on the beach or at a bus stop with other chaps in those clothes, drinking a beer and whistling at girls. Sure, he actually was into lads, but that was another one of his big life lies. And so he had remained single and a virgin all his life. Oh, what the hell, he thought. I can take a necklace like that with me sometime. Might make jerking off in front of the mirror more fun.

He bought one of the swanky chains and picked up another cheap fake gold-colored Rolex. Actually silly, he could have bought everything in real. But to feel like a little Latino gangster, this watch was better. He didn't have to take it home, maybe the maid would be happy if he left everything in the room. George put on the chain and watch and walked around the city a bit more, enjoying the hustle and bustle of the streets. And then at some point made his way to the hotel to freshen up before dinner.

The watch and chain didn't go with his dark blue suit, of course. But he liked to be well dressed for dinner. Even though the hotel was mainly frequented by newly rich Russians and Arabs, he didn't want to make an exception. He had carefully hidden the chain and watch under his shirt; the feeling of the large pendant resting on his chest was enough for him. And after dinner, he stood naked, with only the watch and chain, in front of the bathroom mirror and jerked off.

He had even slept with the watch and chain on. When he got up, everything felt so heavy. He examined the watch more closely. Actually, it looked perfect. And weighed heavy, too. Was it perhaps not a fake at all. He was also unsure about the necklace. Had he perhaps bought stolen goods…? Anyway, he was well rested and rested. And he could see that when he looked in the mirror. He had not looked so refreshed for a long time. And he had gotten color. On his tanned skin, the gold chain looked even better.

George didn't even take off his new jewelry to shower. And the white shirt was unbuttoned so much today that you could see the chain flashing. He also left the cuffs of the shirt open. The white shirt, the beige shorts, the gold jewelry. There was almost something southern about him, he had to think with a grin. The fact that he ordered his banana pancakes in Spanish and wished the Russian Barbie doll a good morning in her native language didn't even occur to him. George slept away most of the day at the pool. Every now and then, when it got too hot for him, he jumped into the cool water and took a few laps. The admiring looks of the one or other lady at the edge of the pool, when he catapulted himself wet out of the pool, he did not notice at all. Instead, he exchanged more frequent and intense glances with the pool boy.

He signed off for dinner at the hotel. He wasn't in the mood for a five-course dinner today. He was more in the mood for some street food, a few beers and whatever else came along. He didn't even remember packing a black satin shirt. But with black suit pants and black loafers, he looked very handsome. George combed his hair back with lots of wet gel. And he threw himself into the nightlife.

It had been daylight by the time George had gotten back to the hotel. If he remembered correctly, he had gotten another beer from the concierge. Other than that, he couldn't remember much. It was much too late for breakfast when he was finally awake. So he pulled right on swim shorts and a bright red shirt, which he left open. He was proud to still have such an impressive six-pack in his early 40s. Everyone was allowed to see that. The pool boy had reserved him the daybed right next to the artificial waterfall. That was perfect for discreet conversations. George had also used the evening to stock up on enough drugs for his customers here at the hotel. The staff, of course, knew what would happen if a busty blonde, a hairy Russian, or an Arabian stud joined George on the bed and the curtains were drawn. There could be sex involved. But in any case, money was exchanged for drugs. And a good portion of the money went into the pockets of the hotel staff. So people smiled. And kept quiet.

George spent the evening on Santo Domingo's Malecón. Getting supplies. And supplying customers in the casinos. George himself never gambled. Nor did he take drugs. He needed a clear mind and a functioning body for his job.

Jorge woke up in his permanent suite at the very top of the Catalonia. The view of the sea was fantastic. His breakfast was set. His personal trainer was already waiting in the hotel's gym. Yesterday had been a successful evening, so before he moved into his poolside "office," he needed fresh stuff. He awaited his supplier on the bench at the back entrance of the hotel. They were usually undisturbed here at this time of day.

It had all been over a year now. The Catalonia was now only occasionally his workplace. Jorge had gotten himself a warehouse in the old town, where he officially sells cheap souvenirs for the street vendors. In fact, he managed his drug mules from here. Personally, he only served the particularly important customers. Or the particularly horny.

Realized at the request of @axeegliter. No idea why my chat is down, bro. But I'm working on it!

And a bow to

and

You are two of the most handsome fellas I know.

#inked man #male tf #muscle tf #tf challenge #race change #age reduction

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princesscolumbia · 10 months ago

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Code of Ethics - Chapter 4 - Scrambled Eggs

I'm not super happy with this one, it's short, and until part 5 rolls around (around 84k words away...presuming I don't have to add chapters, which I almost always do) this will seem like a pointless little diversion into the MC's life.

Preview below the cut:

Dylan had finally managed to get the hangover symptoms under control enough to stagger to the kitchen to make breakfast. Drinking nearly a gallon of water while making the greasiest possible omelet he had the ingredients for, he managed to dull the pain to a dull roar.

Finally turning on the news after his intentional 24 hour personal news blackout, he was somewhat relieved that, this year at least, they hadn’t hammered the patriotic drumbeat of the memorial to stretch it into a second day. The relief was short lived as the news cycle was instead dominated by a story that would fill nearly everyone watching with dread.

“We’ve received new video of the action occurring in Austria. A warning to viewers with sensitive stomachs, this footage can be quite brutal in places.” Dylan’s already nauseous stomach clenched, not from the visuals, but from the reminder that the world was a powder-keg and people all around the world were banging their steel hammers on the powder in hopes of finding the flint the hard way. As an analyst for the agency, he’d seen plenty of intel that some governments thought classified but the American intelligence community were still damn good at getting their hands on. As an agent he’d been privy to briefings that even the Joint Chiefs didn’t have knowledge of. The imagery was just another day in the life for him.

But the knowledge that some dumb outsiders were going to start World War 4 when America hadn’t even managed to knock down the walls from World War 3? And America being 50-100 years behind in tech? Low on manpower? The public face of the government didn’t like to let it slip, but the agency and all the TLAs and the officer corps of the military all knew that America was going to get flattened if they couldn’t get the country’s collective ass in gear and actually commit to the build-up needed to take the country’s place as the world’s only superpower back.

He shook his head as he took another bite and almost snorted it up his nose when he heard the reason for the fighting, “…talks over water rights broke down to the degree that a nuclear weapon…”

Water rights. Multiple thousands, maybe millions killed over water rights.

He turned the stream off. Nukes…America knew nukes. From being the first country to use them during wartime to being on the receiving end of the last wartime use…until Austria, that is.

---

Read the rest at Scribblehub

#original fiction #fiction writing #fiction #science fiction #sci fi #are we the baddies?#transgender #trans author #queer author #lgbtqia+#lgbtq+#lgbt #lgbtq #trans #trans woman #troubleverse #quietvalerie #trouble with horns #code of ethics

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adarkrainbow · 2 years ago

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The Yaga journal: The Polish Baba Yaga

I won’t follow the actual order of the articles in the journal, I’ll rather went by those that strike more my fancy. And today’s article is “Portrait of a Polish Baba Yaga”, by Katia Vandenborre.

It might seem surprising to describe “a Polish Baba Yaga”, when the hag is one of the most iconic characters of Russian culture - and even though similar characters have been noted in Ukraine, in Bielorussia, in Slovakia and in Czech Republic, her presence in Poland is not obvious. For Polish folklorist, Baba Yaga belongs to the Russian tradition, hence why she doesn’t appear in “Slownik folkloru polskiego”, The Dictionary of Polish folklore, from 1695... And yet she is one of the main characters of one of the most popular Polish fairytale collections of the second half of the 19th century: Bajarz polski, Zbior basni, powiesci i gawed ludowych, by Antoni Jozef Glinski (The Polish storyteller. Collection of fairytales, short stories and folktales). When the book was released, in 1853, Poland had lost its independance for a few decades now, and finding itself under the domination of Russia, Prussia and Austria, it used folklore as a way to preserve their national culture. In this context, the presence of Baba Yaga in three of the four volumes of Glinski’s work leads to several questions... And thus the article wants to paint a portrait of the “Polish Baba Yaga” by studying the seven fairytales she appears in, to understand how different and similar she is to her Russian counterpart.

Baba Yaga in the video game “Smite”

I) The two faces of Baba Yaga: angel and demon

Glinski depicts Baba Yaga under two opposite and yet fused aspect, benevolent and malevolent at the same time, a self-contradicting nature that makes it hard to simplify the character.

The first of these “faces” the reader meets in Glinski’s collection is Baba Yaga’s role as a precious auxiliary that helps the hero find back his beloved. It is “The Princess turned into a frog” (O krolewnie zakletej w zabe). The story begins with a prince finding a wife, but said wife has been cursed to turn into a frog. After a failed attempt at trying to break her curse, the princess flees away from her husband-to-be, now turned into a duck. After wandering for weeks searching for her, the hero discovers a house on chicken legs. He pronounces a rhyme that basically says “Little house, little house, moves your chicken islands, turn your back on the forest, and face me”. The house moves on its leg, and opens its door to the hero. He enters and find Baba Yaga, spinning a spindle while singing a little song. The hero tells her all of his misadventures, and trying to help she tells him to catch the duck that comes to her house every day. However the duck escapes the hero, and turns successively into a pigeon, a falcon, and a snake. Baba Yaga is angry at the prince, because now the duck will not come to her house ever again. She however gives him a ball of thread that will lead him to her sister, where he will try his chance again. The scene of the chicken-legged house is repeated, and the second Baba Yaga again tells the prince he needs to catch the duck visiting her house. This time, as the duck escapes, it turns into a turkey, a dog, a cat and finally an eel. It is only by visiting a third chicken-legged house, and meeting a third Baba Yaga (the older sister of the other two) that the hero will finally catch the duck, and break the spell of his beloved princess.

In the fairytale that follows “The princess turned into a frog”, Glinski again shows a Baba Yaga in a similar “helper” function. It is “The princess Virgin-Miracle, the prince Yunak, and the invisible mace”, where the Baba Yaga appears in the second part of the narrative to resolve the crisis. While without any sisters here, she gives precious advice that allows to free the titular princess from the hands of Koscej. It is actually the sun itself who tells the hero, the knight Yunak, to go seek Baba Yaga in order to deliver the princess Virgin-Miracle from the castle of the wizard Koscej. Yunak first fetches an invisible mace with the power to hit things on tis own, and then a horse that can lead him to Baba Yaga. The prince arrives in “the sleepy and virgin wood where Baba Yaga lives”. After admiring the enormous tallness of the oaks, pines and firs, he notices that the forest is entirely silent, “as if all the trees had fallen asleep, and no living creature was in sight”. They finally reach the chicken-legged house, and after pronouncing the same formula as in the previous tale, enter the building. Baba Yaga is surprised to see Yunak, wondering how he could come here when no other “living soul” ever managed to reach her house. Not answering her, Yunak rather asks for her hospitality - the Baba Yaga promptly gives him food, drinks and a bed to sleep on. It is only after two more days of hospitality that the hero agrees to tell the witch the reason he came here. Impressed by this “great and beautiful deed”, Baba Yaga tells him where he can find “the death of Koscej”, that he needs to obtain in order to vanquish the sorcerer: she tells him to go on an island in the middle of the ocean, to dig up a chest from under an oak, to get from it a hare, from inside the hare a duck, from inside the duck an egg - and inside is Koscej’s death. With this advise, Yunak kills the evil wizard, breaks all of his spells, and marries the princess. Another tale where Baba Yaga worked for a happy ending.

Even though these two tales do show Baba Yaga as doing poitive actions, she still has a negative aura to her. She is an old, grey-haired woman with an aspect as disquieting as the places she live in. She lives in a house that is initially closed to the hero, since it only opens up after a certain magical incantation - and it is located in a very dark, very old, very silent forest, a forest that evokes death. So even as a helper, Baba Yaga seems to be tied to death - and she seems to have a mysterious side to her as, when the heroes see her for the first time, the narration tends to mention that he finds her in the middle of “hatching plans inside her head” or “conceiving plots in her mind”. So the witch is constantly up to something, a something that is never revealed.

A third tale breaks what seemed to be some sort of generosity. In “The Princess Virgin-Miracle”, Baba Yaga acted out of admiration for the noble deeds of the hero ; in “The princess turned into a frog”, she purely helped without asking anything in exchange. But in “The prince with the mustache of gold, the princess with the hair of gold, the heating cap and the cooling flask”, she starts asking for things in exchange for her help, revealing her more ambiguous nature. In this tale, Baba Yaga agrees to help the titular “prince with a mustache of gold” only if he brings to her some “water of youth” that is said to run down the mountain where the hero’s quest is heading to. To recap briefly the story, a royal couple had two boys, young princes that tried to rescue an imprisoned princess (the titular princess with gold hair) at the top of a mountain, only to die trying to (though everybody merely believes them mysteriously gone). God took pity on the couple and gave them a third son, with supernatural power, here to remedy to the disappearance of his brothers. Growing rapidly into adulthood, the magical prince sets on his quest, and finally arrives in a dark forest, where he finds the chicken-legged house, in the middle of a field surrounded by blooming poppies. The closer he gets to the house, the sleepier the prince gets, so he has to destroy the poppies before being able to reach the house. After pronouncing yet again the same formula, he finds inside Baba Yaga, a decrepit and grey old thing covered in wrinkles and pimples. This awful demon is however surrounded by two young and pretty girls, all three sitting at a table. Upon seeing the prince, Baba Yaga asks what he is looking for, and after hearing his tale, she explains to them how and where her brothers died. The hero asks her how he can find the one who ravished the princess (who as it turns out is a living hurricane, a sentient malevolent wind), even though Baba Yaga warns him the wind might take him away too. However the prince is confident in his supernatural power, and so the Baba Yaga asks in exchange of her help for some of the water of youth located on the same mountain as the princess. She gives to the prince three gifts: a ball of thread to show him the way, a heating cap, and a cooling flash. These three objects will allow the young man to reach the mountain, and climb it without fearing the strong temperature changes. Once his quest is done, he returns to Baba Yaga and gives her some of the water of youth. She takes it, and immediately she becomes young and beautiful. Overjoyed, she gives as a reward her two daughters (the two maidens seen in the beginning) to the prince’s brothers for them to marry (the prince with the golden mustache marrying the princess with gold hair).

Now, it seems that Baba Yaga is a benevolent character here... But it is implied she had a role to play in the kidnapping of the princess, the one that caused all those misfortunes in the first place. Indeed, the palace where the princess is locked up by the malevolent wind is... standing on chicken legs. And the prince also has to sing a rhyme-incantation “Palace, palace, move on your chicken legs, turn your back to the void and face me” to enter it. Given the two building work identically, one can wonder if the violent hurricane that took away the princess isn’t just another shape of Baba Yaga... It brings to mind the fact that Baba Yaga was often associated in folklore with storm clouds. So in this tale, she would play both the villain AND the helper...

Such an ambiguity is also found in “The prince turned into a crayfish”. In this tale, Baba Yaga doesn’t actually exist as a character, but her absence is noted when the protagonist enters her empty chicken-legged house. Instead of the old hag, the prince sees in the house a beautiful maiden. The narrative voice insists that this maiden cannot be Baba Yaga, since Baba Yaga is old and ugly. And indeed, the maiden is revealed to be the daughter of a royal couple, who has been kidnaped by “the master of all wizards”, that is to say “a viper-flyng spirit” (a zmij-latawiec). Nothing implies that this reptile-wizard has anything to do with Baba Yaga, but maybe some secret link can be seen - again, in folklore Baba Yaga has strong snake connotations and serpentine roots. On top of that, “latawiec” is the male form of “latawica”, and while latawica usually designates a flying spirit, it is also a term to designate a witch in Polish. This mysterious evil wizard, who not only kidnapped the princess, but also turned the titular prince into a crayfish, might very well be Baba Yaga under another shape... And yet, it is in Baba Yaga’s house that the hero finds the answers he needs to complete his quests, and the means to destroy the evil wizard. So again, from Baba Yaga, good and bad seem to come.

Baba Yaga’s villainy is however growing when we look at “The flying carpet, the invisible cap, the ring that gives gold and the hitting staff”. While not part of the action, Baba Yaga casts a shadow over the tale. The antagonist of the tale is the rival of a king, who several times tries to invade his kingdom, only to be defeated by an humble fisherman with a magical ring. After being beaten two times, the antagonist seeks Koscej to ask him to kidnap the princess. And the narration points out that the idea of seeking Koscej has been suggested to the antagonist... By Baba Yaga herself!

Her antagonism is even clearer in the tale “The devil and the old woman”. This folktale is tied to an old peasant proverb: “When the devil can’t, it is the woman he sends.” The devil of this story will say this proverb at the end, admitting that sometimes women are much more talented than him to do evil. The story goes as such: the devil can’t stand seeing the happiness of a couple, and tries to break their relationship, to no avail. A “baba” comes by and sees the desperate devil - she agrees to help him, in exchange for new shoes. This woman is described as “dry, and wrinkled, and charred like a fire-poker”, and it is suddenly revealed that this woman is none other than “the famous Yaga” (or Jedza in Polish), “who had been called a witch, and who had been plunged in the pond several times without ever drowning”. Baba Yaga manages to create trouble between the lovers, and the devil pays her with new shoes.

However it is in another tale that Baba Yaga clearly appears as a malevolent being: The knight Niezginek, the sword that cuts on its own, and the gousli that play on their own”. A couple who has twelve sons advises them to go to Baba Yaga, to ask the hand of her twelve daughters in marriage. The parents tell them of “the famous witch Baba Yaga with a leg of bones, who moves in an oak-mortar, who uses an iron pestle, and who erases her tracks with a broom.” They also tell them of Baba Yaga’s twelve daughters, all beautiful and wealthy and ready to be married. The twelve brothers go to Baba Yaga’s house, but the horse of the twelfth son (the titular Niezginek) warns his mater of the witch, reminding him that “it is hard to reach her house, but it is even harder to leave it, because she devoured thousands like you”. Baba Yaga is described as a demon, a cruel old witch as old as the world, and even though she appears to be human, she actually eats human flesh. Baba Yaga welcomes the brothers, gives them wine, mead and plenty to eat, she prepares twelve beds in front of the ones of her aughters. At midnight, she gives the order to her gousli to play music, and tells her sword to cut the head of the boys. However Niezginek tricks them into cutting the head of the daughters instead. Discovering this in the morning, she screams, tear off hair from her head, and using her mortar and pestle hunts the brothers down. Thanks to magical helpers, Niezginek slows her down by making a river, than a lake, then a forest appear. Baba Yaga is forced to let them go and return home, but it is said that her blood-shot eyes still glow in the sky, leaving a red trail behind them. While the witch seems vanquished, the eleven brothers of Niezginek grow jealous of him, and force him into confronting the witch again. They inform the king of the existence of gousli playing on their own, and convince him to send Niezginek steal them. Thanks to his horse, who gives him a magical herb putting Baba Yaga to sleep, the hero returns with the gousli. The increasingly jealous brothers tell the king about the sword that cuts on its own, and Niezginek once again goes there - neutralizing the sword with holy water. The jealous brothers finally evoke the existence of the princess Virgin-Miracle, and the king asks Niezginek to bring her to him. The hero discovers that Virgin-Miracle is actually the youngest daughter of Baba Yaga - after losing her other twelve daughters, her gousli and her sword, she feared to be robbed of her last daughter. So she locked her in a boat of silver with a mast of gold, and sent it to wander across the sea, the key to its doors thrown into the depths of the ocean. And Baba Yaga guards the boat by swimming in her mortar, sending malevolent winds to push away any boat getting too close. (Another association with wind, which confirms the suggestion from “The prince with the gold mustache” that Baba Yaga might be the same evil hurricane that took away the princess).

Baba Yaga in “Thea: The Awakening”

II) A double nationality: Russian witch, Polish witch

The ambiguity and mystery of Baba Yaga doesn’t simply rely in her morality, but also in her nationality.

Despite her shape-shifting, the Baba Yaga from the tales of Glinski is extremely similar to the one of Russian folklore. Like her Russian counterpart, she keeps hoping from the role of a helper, to the role of a villain, to an ambiguous character. And the Polish Baba Yaga shares with the Russian one several traits: the appearance, the familial relationships, the house, the powers, the objects owned, the symbolisms... Baba Yaga lives alone, or with her daughters - sometimes she had sisters with the same appearance and same name. Very old, she has grey hair, is covered in wrinkles and pimples, and has a bony leg. She is a decrepit, dry, even “charred” person, except when the water of youth turns her into a beautiful maiden. She moves in a mortar of oak, with an iron pestle and a broom. She lives in a chicken-legged house in the depths of a dark and morbid wood. The hero must use a magical incantation to enter the house, and inside Baba Yaga is spinning some thread, singing, or thinking about various projects. Surprised by the hero, she questions him, and offers him hospitality, and afterward she either helps him or tries to devour him. She has numerous magical servants and helpers, and in exchange for her help she can ask something, be it new shoes or the water of youth. However when she hunts down the hero, she can only be stopped by other magical means. For the symbolism, the witch is tied with death, is linked to a violent wind that captures human, and also appears as some sort of flying spirit associated with snakes.

All these traits are found in or have equivalent in Russian fairytales. It seems thus very obvious that Baba Yaga was borrowed from the Russian fairytales to be placed into the Polish ones - which is very probable given the “Ivan Krylov” incident. Respected for a long time as a great collector of folk tales of Poland, Ivan Krylov caused a scandal when in one of his book about Polish folktales he merely rerote several tales of Aleksander Puskin, Vasilij Zukovskij and Piotr Ersov. This caused an outrage among Polish folklorists, and under this light, some of the stories talked about above seem to be tied to Russian folktales. The second part of “The Princess Virgin-Miracle” seems to be inspired by “Ivan Tsarevitch and the Grey wolf”, while the main plot of “Knight Niezginek” might have been taken from “The Small Hunchback-Horse”. The tale of “The Princess turned into a frog” seems to confirm this transfer from Russia to Poland, since this tale is very common and widespread in Russia. Its most famous version was collected by Aleksandr Afanassiev as “The Princess-Frog”. However, Glinski couldn’t have plagiarized Afanassiev’s collections of Russian folktales - simply because they were not published and still in the works when Glinski’s own collection of Polish folktales was released. Given how the tale of the princess-frog is very popular in the Slavic tradition, it is more probable that, instead of borriwing it from Russian folklore, Glinski might have rather ressurected a memory of it from the Bielorussian or Ukrainian folklores (which were very strong in the region Glinski came from). This would notably explain the different depictons of Baba Yaga in his tales.

Now... while there are attested roots of Russian literature, these roots only cover a quarter of Glinski’s collect. And even then, when we look in more details, other sources were clearly in the work. For example, “The Princess Virgin-Miracle” has ties to Ersov’ “The Small Hunchback Horse”, and yet this tale doesn’t have the Baba Yaga part the Polish one has - it seems to be mixed with a tale of the type “Baba Yaga and Small Piece”. What is unclear is if Glinski actually fused the two tales himself, or if the fusion had been done by the storyteller Glinski took his story from - probably a fusion born from a “local genealogy”. A similar “wedding of fairy motifs” is found in a Bielorrusian tale called “Ivan the idiot and the Small Hunchback Horse”, which seems to confirm that Glinski might have been more influenced by Bielorussia than Russia.

So... is Glinski’s Baba Yaga actually a character of the borderlands of Poland, rather than Poland itself? You see, Glinski came from the region of Nowogrodek (Navahrudak) who, while being part of the Republic of the Two Nations for a very long time, is now located in Bielorussia. Glinski claims that the tales of his book are coming from his childhood - so it is safe to assume that “The Polish storyteller” (Glinski’s book) is actually reflecting the fairy-traditions of the Nowogrodek region in the first half of the 19th century. Which means Baba Yaga could be part of a local folklore, mixing influences from Poland, Bielorussia, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Russia. Glinski himself, noticing this cultural mix, did not felt the need to make a difference between strictly Polish tales and “foreign” stories. For Glinski, this local folklore of the borderlands reflected the original Slavic unity that preceeded the divide of the various nations - it is a leftover of a distant, pagan past. Glinski was convinced that all the folktales of Poland, Lithuania and Russia where all once part of a same culture of the Slagic tribes, which then was split among different countries, and each “nationalized” until they couldn’t be recognized anymore. This idealized vision of a “primal Slavic culture” was notably an echo of the theories of Johann Gottfried von Herder, Zorian Dolega Chodakowksi and Kazimierz Brodzinski, when they insisted that intellectuels should re-create a national literature based exclusively on Slavic folktales. Glinski (who was a fan of Brodzinski) seemd to clearly have the goal to recreate a “Polish fairy literature” through the Slavic culture of the borderlands - and thus, his Baba Yaga is a manifestation of what is supposed to be the Slavic pre-Christian community.

This idea was denfed by Wojcicki in his essay “On witches”. This man, who was named “the Polish Grimm” for being the first to ever publish a compilation of fairytales in Poland, deemed that the witches of Russia and Poland have numerous common points, most notably in their physical appearence. He noted that, in both countries, they were old women with wrinled and dry faces, with deep and red eyes, an abominable and repulsive creature”. He concluded in a common origin of those two figures. The “Slagic genelogy” theory can also be reinforced by the study of Ryszard Berwinski, in his “Study of enchantments, spells, superstitions and folk-belief”: he pointed out that Baba Yaga seems to be born from the degradation of a Slavic deity who was probably the wife of Perkunas and the mother of the world. Christianity apparently reduced her to a mere “wicked witch”. This theory, still very popular today, seems coherent from a linguistic point of vie, as the word “baba”, which denotes the feminity of the character, is present in ALL Slavic languages. “Yaga” is more ambiguous, but some trace it to the proto-Slavic. Glinski, in his tales, rather uses “Jedza”, the Polish variant of “Yaga”, though he uses the Russian form “Jaga” in one tale, “Knight Niezginek”.

Despite this complicated and confusing genealogy, the heavy use of the Polish “Jedza” suggests that one of the main preoccupation here was the “Polization” of the figure. We could once again invoke the essay of Wojcicki who, despite theorizing a common Slavic source, pointed out the national differences that allowed the creation of a strictly Polish witch. For example, even though Baba Yaga’s role as a “witch” can be disputed, she clearly has parallels with the myth of the Polish witch. In Polish folklore, the witches are linked to the devil, and they gather some nights for a “sabbath” on the Bald Mountain (Lysa Gora). Even though there is a Bald Mountain among the mountains of the Holy-Cross (Gory Swietokrzyskie), the name was actually a general description for any high place outside of a city or a village. Already present in medieval literature, the character of the witch becomes more frequent in Polish texts starting in the 17th century, thanks to the numerous witch trials, which reached their peak in Poland between the 17th and 18th centuries.

In the “Komedia rybaltowska nowa”, the witch is called “baba”, even though the most common name of a witch is “czarownica”, or “wiedzma”. The witch has a lot of other names: lamia, latawica, poludnica, przepoludnica, nocnica, jedza, strzyga... And it is the last one that interested searchers such as Berwinski. The strige, the striga, the stryzga, with which witches were fused in Polish minds. This type of feminine vampire is not only tied to the Roman Lamia, but also to the “jedza” who was originally supposed to be a “female demon of the forest, appearing as a human and who dates back to the Middle-Ages ; she is the embodiment of the soul of a woman who died giving bith.” Due to an etymology tied to the verb of eating (jezenie), the jedza is also a flesh-eating, human-eating monster. The fusion of these pagan demons and the witch probably happened when the witch figure was brought from the West into the Polish culture, and while the witch took over the pre-Christian creatures, she still kept their names, even though they were emptied of their original meaning.

Glinski did use a few of the terms talked above to designate Baba Yaga - though he does so rarely. In “The devil and the old woman”, she is called “czarownica”, while in “The knight Niezginek” she is called “jedza”. But in all the other tales, Glinski doesn’t mention that Baba Yaga is a witch, he doesn’t even mention her occupation or position. So she is only called a witch when she plays a negative role in the story. It is very revealing of Glinski’s own Catholic culture - by associating the witch with evilness, he feeds into the demonization of Slavic traditions through Christianity. In fact, Glinski even mentions the punishments inflicted to witches - how they were thrown in the water to see if they were in a pact with the devil. However Glinski still tries to reach out for the old paganism. For example in “The devil and the old woman”, the “baba”, who is described as a “czarownica” is called Baba Yaga - however, in a story collected prior by Wojcicki, the character of the witch is simply called “baba”, without any mention of Baba Yaga. So Glinski seems to have tried to fuse the witch of the Catholic Polish folklore with Baba Yaga. Similarly, in “The Knight Niezginek”, the character called by the Russian name Baba Jaga, is also called “jedza” and “czarownica”, when in truth this Russian character shouldn’t have any link to the Polish witch. So, the author of the article here, thinks that Glinski actually tried to make the figure of Baba Yaga more “polish”, the same way he made other Russian fairytales “Polish” in nature.

The conclusion of the article is that the ambiguous Baba Yaga of Glinski’s tales is reflecting the contradictions of his project, and the mentality of his times. Glinski tried to make appear from Polish folktales the “pre-Christian, Slavic source” he had perceived in the multiculturalism of his native region, at the borderlands of the Russian Empire. So it makes sense to see this witch, supposed to be a cultural core of the Eastern Slavic, appear in Polish folktales, and it makes just as much sense to see her share common traits with her Russian counterpart. This way of resurrectng Polish culture through Slavic culture (and more precisely the Russian one) might be interpreted as slavophilia by Glinski, and a proof of him belonging to this wave of Polish men who, disappointed by the West and its values after the Spring of the People, turned towards Russia in hope of finding in it the salvation of Poland. In such a context, the presence of a Russian Baba Yaga in “The Polish Storyteller” is far from a trivia, and the huge success of Glinski’s tales in Poland even less trivial. It shows that readers recognized themselves in this “slavophile Polishness”, and it favored the integration of the character of Baba Yaga in Polish culture.

Baba Yaga in “Castlevania: Lords of Shadows”

#baba yaga #the yaga journal #polish folktales #polish fairytales #russian fairytales #russian folktales

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girlfriendsofthegalaxy · 2 years ago

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tuesday again 4/11/2023

more concise than usual. don't get used to it.

listening

the trombone is an underutilized instrument in indie rock. this is a delightful music video, the vocals bother me a lot less now that i know they're deliberately going for a robotic effect.

youtube

if you liked the Killing Eve soundtrack (largely brought to you by Unloved and Junoire), that sort of very smooth lightly psych-rock flavored thinking woman's music to smoke clove cigarettes to while slouching around used bookstores, you may like this song! reading this back it sounds kind of snotty but sometimes you need a french woman main character song to make doing errands feel like being on a secret mission

i found one of their previous albums, Psycho Tropical Berlin, sort of a one-hit wonder with Hypsoline (the credits song for As Above So Below) but it really is a fucking banger

i want the album art as a shirt So Bad but not enough to pay $25 shipping from france about it.

i think this was off the spotify weekly discover playlist? can't imagine where else i would have run across it

reading

remember the vampire-adjacent private detective novels i was reading? not the ones from last week, the earlier ones. the author alexis hall chucks you a free short story Sand and Ruin and Gold if u sign up for his mailing list.

i think the orca comparisons are a touch heavy-handed at times, but the imagery in this thing...i really am a sucker for the rot of a coastal tourist trap. i bear no fondness, but i do give them a weary nod of acknowledgement. this town is a construct for other people to enjoy. i typed out a very long thing about how the economics of tourism shaped the town and everything about the civic calendar down to the school year, but--it was not really meant to have real residents or be a real place. there was absolutely nothing to do and nowhere to hang out without paying for anything in the off season.

It was just after closing on Reunification Day, the last of the stragglers gathered up and banished back to their world. A spiral of faded, plastic bunting from the celebrations had blown into one of the pools. I went to get a pole to hook it out but heard a splash and turned in time to see Nerites leap from the water in a gleam of skin and scales. The wind whisked the ribbon from between his fingers, and he reached after it, his body twisting sinuously in the air before he crashed into the pool again.

I’d never seen him—or any of them—move like that before. The jumps and slides we taught them were supposed to mimic their natural behaviours, but they rarely performed them spontaneously. And this was something else again: a wild leap and an ungainly splash, more beautiful to me than the most perfect bow or spin because it seemed so absolutely heedless.

He surfaced again, almost vertical, spinning in the pale-grey spray, one hand catching for the bunting’s tail. A tug, and it tumbled from the sky, nothing but a lifeless piece of string.

i am beginning to remember that all the shit that really sticks in my brain is in short stories and novellas you (general, including me) have never heard of.

watching

star wars resistance. i am finding this far more enjoyable than the bad batch or the mandalorian bc it has something of a storyline that it sticks to, even though most of the runtime is a teen... he's not really a teen, he was a new republic pilot so he's probably like twenty but in my heart he's like fifteen. part of the appeal of ds9 for me was a very consolidated set of recurring background characters and getting to see that there are other things/factions/people all working for their own ends. baby's first practice spy mission.

the ship design is really killer: it asks and answers the question "what if a pirate spaceship was also a galleon?"

i find myself excited to watch the next episode, which is not a familiar feeling when i watch star wars stuff. i really hope s2 holds my interest as much as s1 did.

why am i doing this? i have seen all the star wars except for: most of the LEGO stuff, most of the addendum and errata for tcw (including the crystal crisis arc), the holiday special, and most of the droids and ewoks animated shows. like i am Really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, even though i'm not really sure why this show fell into such obscurity.

playing

a bit cranky with weird west, bc i think to get past this stealth level i will have to dismiss my companion (can't seem to knock out guards unless i'm standing up, the companion AI has a very loose definition of "staying close" and is only "invisible" if you're also crouching, and you can't direct your companion to stay put in one place OR to stay close/stay crouched permanently. i may have exhausted most of the appeal of the world on my first fifteen-hour run through the first story. i am more than a little disappointed bc i did have a fuckton of fun in those fifteen hours and was expecting the good times to continue.

making

still halfheartedly poking away at the baby blanket, less than half a repeat this week and i don't feel like getting up, digging the blanket out of the catproof bag, and putting enough lights on for a real photo. this is repeat 7/10 tho so we are slowly approaching the end

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem #Bandcamp

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theconstitutionisgayculture · 1 year ago

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What are some of your favorite games of all time?

This is a great question, more questions about video games, less questions where people make up things I never said and demand I defend those positions, XD

Anyway, here's a short list:

Pathfinder: Kingmaker. The best isometric RPG ever made, in my opinion.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. The best version of one of the best games ever made.

Mass Effect Trilogy. Yeah the third one shit the bed in a lot of ways, but I still enjoy the series as a whole. Playing a game series where your choices carried over from one game to the next was groundbreaking in the 2000s, and I always enjoyed my time with these games. Especially rereleased in the legendary edition.

Resident Evil 2, Original and Remake. My favorite Resident Evil game of all time. Great game, great story, great characters.

Resident Evil 4, original and remake. Second favorite Resident Evil game. Also, my husband's favorite game ever. I love seeing him get excited over it, XD

Suikoden 2. Great gameplay, great story, best game in the series.

Tales of Zesteria. Mikleo my beloved!

Jaws (NES). Yes, it's bad. Yes, it's short. No, I don't care. This was one of the first games I ever owned, and me and my dad used to play it together when I was very little. I have a lot of fond memories of trying to figure out how to beat the game with him. I still remember how excited we were when we started to figure out the gameplay loop for the very first time.

Mortal Kombat 2. The game that introduced me to the series, and still one of my old favorites. I still play and love MK to this day because of it.

Kingdom Hearts, whole series. I can't really pick one game, because they're all both really, really good and really, really bad, XD. But I love the story and the characters, and I've enjoyed each of them in different ways. But if I had to pick just one, I'd probably pick 2.

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. Still the best Star Wars game ever made. Still one of the best western RPGs ever made. The plot twist is still one of my favorite moments in video game history.

Max Payne 2. Ugh, so good. Great storytelling, fun gameplay. Took everything great about Max Payne 1 and did it better. RIP James McCaffrey.

MegaMan Battle Network, whole series. Probably the best reimagining of a classic IP I've ever seen, from the old days when "reimagined" didn't mean "vandalized". I was several years older than him when the first game came out, but in a lot of ways I grew up with Lan and his friends, and these games will always have a special place in my heart.

Jade Empire. Another great BioWare western RPG. Great setting, good story, unique characters, and really good and unique-for-the-time combat.

Soul Nomad and the World Eaters. I don't even know why I like this game so much, but I do, lol. They should have given the male PC a romance ending with Gig, though >_<

Pokemon Red and Blue. Pure nostalgia entry, but even though there are a lot of boring Gen 1 haters, to be a 10 year old kid when the original US Pokemon craze was at its peak was something special, and the games and the Pokemon will always be cherished in this house. Gen 1 supremacy, noobs!

Batman Arkham Asylum. You have no idea what it was like growing up a Batman fan and a video game fan in the years before Arkham Asylum. Every Batman game was terrible. It was a running joke how no one could do a good Batman game. Hell, half the word of mouth for AA was "did you hear someone's trying to make a good Batman game?" That they got many of the incredible voices from Batman the Animated Series back was even better. RIP Kevin Conroy and Arleen Sorkin. (And fuck Mark Hamill)

Legacy of Kain, whole series. Aside from Metal Gear Solid, this series is the definitive master class on video game storytelling and voice acting. I love the plot, I love the characters, I love everything. I hate how the ball was dropped so hard after Defiance, because that game set up an amazing follow up that just...never happened. It was such a sad fall from grace, because in the early 2000s this was the AAA game series. Everyone loved it. Everyone was desperate for the next game. And then it just kind of fizzled out after a few missteps and developer woes. And it died a quiet death in a proto-live service multiplayer game that no one wanted and even fewer people played. And while the tragedy is appropriate to the Gothic setting, I'm still hoping against hope for a faithful remake of the first games that spurs the original developers to finally finish the series the way it always deserved.

Honorable Mention: Final Fantasy 8. Gonna be honest here, 70% of my love for this game comes from fanfiction, lol. I played the game when I was a kid, and didn't really like it. It was weird and looked bad (I played it long after I'd gotten used to the "modern" graphics of the PS2 generation) and even with a Codebreaker and cheats the final boss was super frustrating. But there's some really great FF8 fanfic out there. Stuff I reread every few years. And it's given me a phantom nostalgia for the game.

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ingek73 · 1 year ago

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Royal Style

Meghan Markle Looked So Good at the Invictus Games She Crashed the J. Crew Website

Icon behavior.

By Kathleen Walsh

September 13, 2023

ODD ANDERSEN/Getty Images

She's at it again, folks. At the 2023 Invictus Games, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex and queen of my heart, looked so good in her white J.Crew blazer that would-be fashion imitators actually crashed the retailer's site.

The blazer in question was slightly baggy with generous pockets and a black trim, which Meghan wore with a pair of white linen shorts, a black t-shirt, and black-and-camel Chanel slingback flats. As usual, she accessorized with dainty gold jewels and wore her hair in loose waves. It's a fresh take on a classic outfit formula. Simple, but somehow not boring.

Jordan Pettitt - PA Images/Getty Images

The duchess and Prince Harry arrived at the event hand-in-hand, where they watched a wheelchair basketball game and interacted with small children, adorably.

Jordan Pettitt - PA Images/Getty Images

Videos from the game posted to social media show Meghan smiling and grasping a group of kids' hands for a photo. Because Meghan Markle isn't like a regular duchess. She's a cool duchess.

Meghan doesn't exactly shy away from luxury pieces (the shoes are Chanel, after all), but she's also known to favor more attainable fashion as well. In fact, she wore another highly attainable piece the day previously—a pleated black shirtdress from Banana Republic that's currently on sale for 50% off, per Harper's Bazaar, assuming it hasn't sold out yet.

That said, it's hard to seem super relatable when your ‘fits cause e-retailers to go into meltdown. Just sayin’.

#meghan markle #invictus games #prince harry #glamour #j. crew

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the-fandom-crossroads · 1 year ago

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All Creators in Genshin's 2024 Hoyofair!

I decided to make a post linking to everyone that participated in the Genshin half of HoyoFair this year. Feel free to check out all their channels below and please consider subscribing to them!

I'll do another post for the Honkai Star Rail half.

Also not all of these creators make only Genshin content. So it's up to you which of them you subscribe to. I just wanted to make one post linking to all of them.

Genshin Impact Behind the Scenes | Eclove

Ready for HoyoFair2024 | Inanami

Racing Voyage Through the Time - SeeksStudio

Couldn't find a Youtube

"Teyvat Turboflux" | Hernandez Dreamphography & ひがしの

https://www.youtube.com/@Dreamphography/videos

Dive into the Mystery - sowiti, satie & EUREKA REPUBLIC

Also Couldn't find a Youtube But the Illustrator has a Tumblr and the Singer EurekaRepublic has a Youtube. There just isn't a cover of the song or the main video on her channel.

Rouge on the Rocks | Kieru

The Knave MV: X | Nano

https://www.youtube.com/@nano_official/videos

The Last Bakery | DillonGoo

Secrets of the Harbingers | Narmak

Apparently makes a bunch of Spongebob as an Anime videos?

https://www.youtube.com/@Narmak/videos

Furina: All the World's off Stage - みや & こぴ

Doll Stop Motion: FURINA | Grinch Studio

Best funeral service for you | Channel

To know one's surprise these words in youtube search did not lead me to a genshin youtube channel. So yeah couldn't find this one

Furina vs Nahida; Trial of Archons | Subutai Productions

Genshin Magicka: Little Witches | indiana souf

Historical Drama: The nymph, the plume and the lost white ship - Hamelin

Endless Journey-3D Rendering Montage - Various 3D Rendering Artists & Daniel Sadowski

Sadly doesn't seem to be uploaded to one specific channel. And yeah it's a lot of different Artists for this awesome collab.

Travel to Your World - Various Artists

I'm pretty sure some of these guys are on here or Hoyolab. It's just a lot harder to round up individual images verses whole videos.

Ending Song: The Way Colored in Starlight - 花たん

https://www.youtube.com/@HaNaTaN_MUSiC/videos

And that's everyone I could find! If there's any I missed that can be found on Twitter or Instagram please leave a link in a reply and I'll add them to a reblog.

Like I said I'll do a second one for the Star Rail half as this was a lot of links. But again please consider Subscribing to all these awesome creators!

#genshin #genshin impact #hoyofair #hoyofair 2024 #genshin spoilers #fontaine #fan creations #genshin fanart #sorry some of them are just text links #apparently there's a limit of only 10 box links in a post #douglimemes

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clevermird · 2 years ago

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Title: Good Times and Good Drinks

Prompt: Confessions @shortfictionweeklychallenge

Rating: Teen

Characters: Jessasi Silver (female Smuggler), Corso Riggs

Pairing(s): femSmuggler/Corso

Now that she has her ship back, Jessasi decides that she and Corso deserve a night on the town - but they both might have a bit more than they're admitting on their minds.

This is also my attempt to mess around with the start of the Corso romance plotline to make it less awkward and weird.

Text under cut

For the first time in weeks, Jessasi was sitting right where she belonged: in the cockpit of The Fool’s Wager, feet up on the dash, music blaring from the stereo. It’s good to be home. Skavik hadn’t even sold any of her stuff!

She checked her wrist chrono. Still eighteen hours until they were supposed to take off. Hmm. . .

“Corso!” she called, swinging her feet to the floor. “Get ready, we’re going to town!”

Twenty minutes later, she was ready to go and she didn’t look half-bad if she did say so herself: striped shorts, a grey top that clung to her curves, short vest to draw the eyes to her chest, and comfortable sandals. Checking the mirror one more time, she added a bit more eyeshadow and a touch of lipstick, slid on a few bracelets, and headed for the airlock.

Corso was waiting for her. “Aren’t we going to bring Risha?”

“Nah.” Running across the galaxy on her say-so was one thing. Going to the bar with her was another.

They took a taxi to the Old Galactic Market Sector and found the cantina easily. Darmas Pollaran had moved on, but the place was still crawling with all sorts relaxing after hard days. Down on their luck spacer types nursed drinks and scowled at everyone else, swankier customers played sabbacc, and a few guys were already drunk enough to be trying to dance along with the holodancers.

Jessasi rolled her eyes and headed for the bar.

The droid manning the drink orders whirred over as she slid onto a stool. “What will it be today, gentlebeings?” he said in a voice that sounded ridiculously snooty on any bartender outside the Senate Tower.

“Uh. . . just a Corellian ale?” Corso said, looking awkward.

“Come on, Corso, where’s your sense of adventure? This is Coruscant!”

“I already know I like it, why bother changing?”

Jessasi shrugged.

The droid turned in her direction. “And for you, m’am?”

“How about a Nexu Tail?” It wasn’t a drink she could find everywhere, but when they do, she always got them.

While they waited, she looked around to see if anything exciting was happening. Someone must have just won a pazzak match. The guy was dancing around like something good had happened, at any rate. A cute, yellow-skinned twi’lek guy smiled bashfully at her and she smiled back. He brightened.

“Uh. . . Captain?” said Corso with just a bit of an edge to his voice.

“What?” I’ll talk to anyone I like, thank you very much. The guy looked at Corso, then back at her. Shaking her head, Jessasi waved him over.

As he got up, someone shouted from across the room and he turned. A moment later, he was bro-hugging a burly Cathar and Jessasi was back to waiting for the drinks to show up.

Probably for the best anyway. Her mom had always said “flirt all you want, kiss all you like, but don’t give your heart – or your holes – to anyone unless you’re sure he’s the one.” And so far, she’d followed that rule with only two exceptions. And she’d really thought that Mal was the one, so actually it was only one exception.

Thinking about Mal was on its way to ruining her good mood, but fortunately, the droid returned with their drinks before she’d stewed about it too much. They certainly served generous portions in this place. Corso’s beer mug was half the size of her head.

“What is that?” he said, looking at her drink.

“It’s a Nexu tail.”

“Looks like a couple of Zeltrons exploded in your glass.”

Scowling at him, Jessasi took a sip of the brightly colored drink. “It tastes good.” And they put way more Corillian rum in it than most places did.

Corso took a swig of his beer. “Really?”

“Yeah, try it.”

He sipped it, frowned, took another sip, then two more. “Wow, you’re right. Is that mujafruit juice?”

“I honestly have no idea.” She grinned and ordered another drink. Maybe something akdov-based this time. . .

Several glasses in, she could feel the liquor starting to work. A warm feeling stretched down toward her toes and she felt really relaxed for the first time in a while. Coming here was a great idea.

“I guess you should get to try one of mine,” Corso said, breaking a silence of several rounds.

He slid the mug over and Jessasi picked it up with both hands. The drink had a rich, gold taste that made her feel even warmer.

“You’ve got foam on your nose.”

She wiped it off and returned to her own drink. “You know?” she said, giggling a little. “I really hope Risha’s telling the truth.”

“So do I, Captain.”

“I mean, it would really suck if she wasn’t. And you can call me Jess, you know. Everyone else does.”

The droid reappeared, dripping with some unsatisfied customer’s drink. “May I refill your glasses, gentlebeings?”

They looked at each other and their eyes met. Corso grinned. Jessasi grinned. “Sure. Why not.”

Corso’s eyes were brown, she noticed as the droid trotted away to mix her another drink. A really nice brown. Why hadn’t she noticed that before? She looked away awkwardly. Someone was singing some kind of drinking song on the sunk-in section of the floor.

Their refills came back really fast this time and she started drinking again.

Setting down his already half-drained mug, Corso said, far too loudly, “Why do we never do anything fun like this on the ship?”

“We just got the ship back! And I can be kind of fun!” She shouldn’t turn her head so fast. It made the room spin.

Corso grunted and kept drinking. Jessasi followed suit. She was almost at the bottom of the glass before Corso spoke again. “We could get our blasters out and see who can take out the bartender droid the fastest.”

For some reason, this seemed hilarious and Jessasi started giggling. “I don’t think the cops would like that very much,” she managed to get out when she could breathe again.

He laughed too and scooted his stool closer. He smelled good, like a haystack, even though it had been weeks since he could have been near one. “Back on Ord Mantell, we used to run the rontos around in circles and see if they could charge us without falling over. We should do that.”

That set her off again and she felt tears coming to her eyes. “Got any suggestions that don’t involve farm animals, farmboy?”

“I know a few, but I might not be able to show you all of them here. . . “ He leaned in closer and Jessasi felt his lips brush against hers, his breath hot on her face. She smiled.

Then he pulled away. “Sorry, Captain,” he muttered. “I shouldn’t have done that. Propositioning you in a bar like a Hutt’s dancer. It’s not right.”

“’sokay,” Jessasi replied. Everything was starting to get fuzzy, but she felt sad nonetheless.

“Are you doing okay?”

She burped. “I thinks so.”

“We should get you back to the ship.” His words slurred together, but she wasn’t sure if that was him talking or her hearing. Maybe a little of both?

When she tried to walk, the floor kind of tilted like the Fool’s deck did when she pulled crazy stunts. Somehow, she ended up with her arm around Corso’s shoulder and they made it out to the curb. A taxi pulled up and the droid buzzed. “State your destination.”

Jessasi crawled into the seat and curled up on it. “Taris. That’s what Risha said, right? And we have to do what Risha says. She’s the only one who knows where it is.”

“Just take us back to the spaceport,” Corso said.

Oh. Right. The spaceport. The speeder started speeding along again – a speeder, speeding, how funny is that? – and Jessasi closed her eyes. It made her stomach hurt less. “I don’t feel very good.”

“Why don’t you go to sleep? You’ll feel better in the morning.”

“Okay. You know what? I like you.”

“I like you too, Captain.”

As the speeder hurried back to the spaceport and her ship, Jessasi fell asleep with her head on Corso’s shoulder.

#swtor #swtor fanfiction #swtor smuggler #corso riggs

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