#russia is so big there's probably so many teams

[strwbrryeyes]

𓆩♡𓆪 yaku as a best friend

⟡ cw: fluff, friends to lovers, slight sadness???, idk what else im still bad at these

⟡ a/n: this was long kind of whoops

⟡ best friend series: lev, kenma, kuroo || masterlist

best friend yaku who you met one day while you were getting ready to to leave the classroom after doing your classroom duties when yaku came running into the classroom looking for kuroo because he wanted lev to do laps for making fun of his height.

best friend yaku who was surpirsed to hear you say that he wasn't that short and then asked you if you wanted to watch his team practice volleyball (he really just wanted you to tell the guys that he wasn't short)

best friend yaku who you got closer to when he walked you home after practice as a thanks for watching him practice and smiled brightly when you complimented his volleyball skills.

best friend yaku who came to see you at lunch everyday since you're just one classroom down. you also sat with him and the other volleyball third years from time to time because you didn't really have that many friends at nekoma.

best friend yaku who called you every afternoon during training camp because the other teams were calling him short and it was starting to get to him a bit.

best friend yaku who you planned a surprise for after the training camp to cheer him up. it was a picnic with all his favorite foods and snacks.

best friend yaku who developed his feelings early on but knew you that you only wanted to spend your final year of high school focusin on your studies so he didn't say anything.

best friend yaku who was happy for you when you got into your dream college which thankfully was not that far from the college he would attend.

best friend yaku who you saw three times a week in college since you were both focused on getting good grades and because you both had busy schedules.

best friend yaku who you moved in with your second year of college because you both thought itd be better than going back and forth.

best friend yaku who watched sappy romcoms with you every saturday night and actually cried more than you at the sad paarts.

best friend yaku who got news that he was offered the libero position for the russian volleyball super league for when he graduated college.

best friend yaku who didn't know how to tell you because you both have gotten so close over the years that he can't imagine being without you.

best friend yaku who asked lev for advice on what he should do (he didnt want to face kuroo this time).

best friend yaku who listened to lev's advice which was to tell you about his feelings for you and then tell you about him moving to russia to see where you guys wanted to go from there.

best friend yaku who was terrified when you stayed silent for what felt like forever when he told you he loved you.

best friend yaku who was surprised when you took his hand and told him you loved him.

best friend yaku who was happy but now had to tell you the big news.

best friend yaku who offered a long distance relationship but said he would understand if you said you didn't want to do that.

best friend yaku who was even more terrified than before when you were silent for what seemed like an even longer time.

best friend yaku whose heart probably stopped beating for a minute when you said that you wanted to move to russia with him because you can't stand to be away from you boyfriend for too long, not after you've waited all these years for him.

best friend yaku who is now boyfriend yaku who you now take russian classes with while he prepares to move onto a big new chapter of his life but knows everything is going to be okay as long as you're there by his side.

[everythingisround]

info dump about raggedy ann and andy, just recently watched the show and i am in love B))

hello!! ive been in the fandom for two and a half years (almost three lol), so i know a bit about raggedy ann and andy.

so raggedy ann and andy were created in the early 20th century, the former sibling coming first with her patent in september 1915. the most popular legend surrounding her creation is that she was based off an old rag doll that belonged to creator johnny gruelle's mother/sister (can't remember exactly), who he then drew a face on and gave to his beloved daughter, marcella, who sadly would pass away months after ann's patent. marcella's inclusion in the raggedy books has been seen by many raggedy historians as johnny working through his grief by immortalizing his daughter's likeness in his stories to remember her in a positive way. andy came around in august 1920 and is said to have been created with johnny's sons, worth and richard, in mind.

the 1977 film is probably where a lot of the younger fans first became interested in raggedy ann (well, that and tadc, and even then gooseworx is a pretty big fan of the film and even specifically based jax's voice on raggedy andy from the film), although the 1986 broadway musical has also been bringing a lot of people in through tumblr and tiktok. the film, despite ultimately flopping at the box office, had the esteemed richard williams at the helm of the animation, even animating the ever so popular "no girl's toy" sequence. of course, richard williams being richard williams, went way overbudget and way past the deadline and ended up being removed from the project just so it could get released. considering the composer of the film, joe raposo, theorized that the film flopping had something to do with the first star wars movie being released around the same time, it's interesting to think about how the raggedy film's fate could've been altered if it had released the year prior for america's bicentennial. the 1986 musical is a whole other can of worms, and im still learning a lot about it from being in the RARE server (which you should definitely check out, wink wink nudge nudge), but to summarize, a combination of a development team constantly at the brink of self-destruction, constant adherence to a family-friendly atmosphere spurred by parental concerns despite the dark themes playwright william gibson intended the story to have, and too much of the budget spent on expensive special effects that nearly killed the actors led to the musical notoriously flopping on broadway and ending its run prematurely never to be seen or heard from again. or so they thought.......

although the 1986 musical is considered a failure in the united states, over in russia, the story has a small cult following amongst childrens and community theatre productions. basically, in 1985, the musical was brought to the USSR as part of a cultural exchange between the two superpowers, and considering that russians had not been familiarized with raggedy ann or her cultural impact up until this point, this led to the rag doll and her friends not being seen as cheap americana, but rather somewhat of a childrens fable (ironic, considering raggedy ann as a character was born from johnny gruelle's stories...). because of this, russian productions of rag dolly (the 1986 musical) are plentiful, with even some very recent productions popping up every now and then. it should be noted that these productions rarely contain the original songs; sometimes the story will just be played straight with no music, while other productions will substitute the lack of musical songs with their own music. this can lead to some..... interesting results lol

i feel it is also important to bring up the various other adaptations of raggedy ann, too! there's the original books, of course, but if you're an animation nerd like me, there's the 1941 fleischer short (which takes some.... interesting creative liberties from the original source material), the two noveltoons shorts, the chuck jones holiday specials from 1978 and 79, the 1980s cartoon (watch at your own risk lol), and the two snowden specials from 1998; one is just a straightforward direct-to-vhs animated special, while the second is a full ice show with animated segments dispersed throughout. you get to see raggedy elvis! who doesnt want to see raggedy elvis?

in this last section ill just toss to you a bunch of links i recommend if you wanna learn more about raggedy ann beyond the movie!

(i should also probably mention now that some books and adaptations of raggedy ann feature racial stereotypes- i know suddenly its spring has a racial caricature in terms of adaptations specifically- likely due to the culture at the time. these depictions are obviously not right, but sadly when we're talking about a franchise that has been around for over a century, it's kind of unavoidable especially in the older books, so just be aware that those depictions will come up occasionally.)

my pal brooklyn is also working on a more extensive video on raggedy ann history, so be on the lookout for that when it comes out :)

[maggiemacabre]

SiIvaGunner SmashUp! Behind the scenes and post-mortem

Hello folks and welcome to my new Tumblr blog. I don't know how much I'm going to actually use this thing in the future but I figure if I need it, it's here. As you can probably tell by the title, today's subject will be none other than my most recent "work", the SiIvaGunner SmashUp!

The idea of a SiIvaGunner take on the concept of "Royal Rumble but full of stupid contestants" was in my head for a while, but the motivation to do it wasn't in place until I found Dead Meat's Horror Royal Rumble in August or September of 2023. The Jerma Rumbles and Vinewrestle were definitely also influences on the idea, but the Horror Royal Rumble was the impetus, and played a part in influencing some creative choices featured in the SmashUp (more on that later).

After running the idea by the team and the rest of backroom, I picked up WWE 2K23 (which fortuitously was on sale that weekend) and got to work. Going in, I had next to no idea of the ins and outs of pro wrestling, which meant that I had to do a lot of research into things like the wrestlers themselves, moves, terminology, different match types, general historical stuff, how shows are actually presented, etc. This put me in a very, very deep rabbit hole which I have still not crawled out of. I even went to two house shows!

Making the wrestlers was the first step and by far took the longest amount of time out of anything, since this was the first show of its kind on the channel and required the creation of 34 unique wrestlers. Some of them were easier than others (lookin' at you AMUNO), but others such as Ninomae Ina'nis took days to complete due to the amount of detail they required. This also isn't including wrestlers who were made that got cut; some of these exclusions include Bottom G, who was left out because Andrew Tate sucks, Elly from Touhou Project, who was replaced by Sumireko, and Wood Man, who was left out for lore reasons and replaced with 8-Bit Beast in a somewhat 11th hour decision. Maybe next year?

The decision to make Hot Cross Buns and Raft Ride into women also spawned from this period. Hot Cross Buns was made first and was originally meant to show up in the Grand Rumble, but after some time I ended up deciding to move her to her own match, which became a Women's World Champion match because lol. I had to use mods to make the men and women able to fight each other, so theoretically Raft Ride could have been a man, but women are awesome.

Being an egotistical maniac, I also included some references to things I'd worked on in the past. Totino's Stadium, the arena where the match takes place, was first mentioned in the FUMO JAM ad from the DJ Professor K Day stream, and Nu Grandiose City is the city where Woodyana is from in Woodyana Stones: Raider Made of Lost Bark. Also I guess this is why Elvira was included? LOL. Fun fact: The footage of "Totino's Stadium" is actually of Gazprom Arena in Russia.

Since I was involved with the channel's MAGFest panel in 2024, I was able to announce the show months in advance, although I'm not sure how many people actually paid attention at the time. Getting a logo ready between finishing CCC and MAG was a bit tight, but thankfully it was able to be done on time, and on top of that I was able to make the big card poster thing on my own. I actually designed it to be printed, and I proposed making it a sold item, although that idea was rejected. I also came up with the date during this period, choosing the day right before the WWE Hall of Fame show, and while things got a bit close to the wire, it was luckily able to make the date and time without a hitch in the end.

After all the wrestlers were made, it was time to record and edit. I was a bit worried about my laptop overheating while doing so, but I was able to get good quality 60 FPS 1080p footage recorded without any hitches other than some human error on my end. While the controversial ending of the Grand Rumble wasn't what I had in mind, I ended up leaving it as-is for time reasons and also because it felt like a funny troll ending. Which it was! Editing was not quite as smooth since I had to go through all the footage and edit it together into a cohesive product. WWE games don't allow you to cut to entrances during a Royal Rumble, which meant that I had to record and edit those in myself. The method I ended up using resembled the one from the Dead Meat rumble mentioned earlier with cuts to the audience as the buzzer rings, although I'd like to believe I did a better job than they did with their 2024 entrances where they awkwardly cut around shots of the ring. This is also where the fun facts come from, as they are actually covering up the nameplates that show up as an alternative to cutting to the entrances.

After editing was done I got some other team members to do commentary. Thankfully I was able to get someone with wrestling knowledge, which definitely added a dimension of realism and legitimacy to the project. I don't know if I can say who the announcers are because of leaks, but if you haven't figured it out, Randall Shields is a Smash Bros. reference. Also it was the first contribution to SiIvaGunner that had "Randall" made in about half a decade. What a return!

The premiere of the project was electric. Seeing over 1.3K people tune in and get hype over something I made was incredible and made my week, if not month. I did feel a little bad about the reaction when Dream came in (💀), but other than that it was awesome. And don't worry, he won't return.

In the end, I had a lot of fun with the project and it was awesome seeing everything pay off. I want to thank everyone who helped, including the artists who designed the logos and the people who did commentary. It couldn't have come together without help and assistance from everyone, and I hope that this becomes the first in a series of similar videos.

[crazykuroneko]

IWTV Figure Skating AU headcanons

Because I miss figure skating and IWTV is my current hyperfixation. Probably only fellow fs stans understand this, but whatever.

Louis de Pointe du Lac:

His most known program is definitely his The Swan. Choreo: Gubanova's The Swan. Costume: Hanyu's Notte Stellata. Strong skating skills as good as ice dancer, deep knee bent, flexible, so he can do layback ina bauer and difficult spins.

Tend to go to brighter music for short program (jazz, hip hop etc) while doing something heartfelt for free skating.

Pretty consistent as a skater. Keep getting high scores on Skating Skills and Presentation. Unfortunately he doesn't have big quads (only 4T to 4F, when he wants to risk it) and he's Black. so USFSA doesn't really support him and doesn't get that American over scoring. Even though he has saved USA's spots at Worlds etc many times with his consistency (just like Jason Brown)

Lestat de Lioncourt:

Typical European showman. Known for his character free skating programs. Reference: Javier Fernandez (second example). Pretty good skating skills, jump technique is decent. Actually pretty stable jumper, has all big quad jumps except 4A, but he can't focus sometimes so his axis is messed up.

Definitely always brings out the most chaotic programs for Exhibition and they always go viral and give you secondhand embarrassement.

Representing France ofc. Complete with French overscoring. at least 3 times European champion in a row. For drama, the president of French federation is still Didier and they have love/hate relationship. Running his mouth like Scott Moir at press conferences. Sometimes do backflips just to send fuck you to judges if he feels they're underscoring him (usually happen at Worlds, thanks to Russia and USA). He gotta continue that French tradition.

Armand:

For drama he is representing Russia. His coach is Marius. And Marius is basically Eteri, and he's his (current) number one girl.

Has all the quads and he'll backload the heck of them for score (that rule still exists here idc). Skating Skills aren't as good as Loustat but he has a huge TES and Russia fed backing. And almost always land his jumps.

Tend to use warhorses in his programs. Known for his long limbs and fast paced transition. Has been skating since novice and gets called the prodigy since the beginning. References: Yulia, Evgenia.

European champions are always between him and Lestat. They've been rivals since junior. But unfortunately since Marius is Eteri, sometimes he has to skip competitions for injury. He's way more relaxed during exhibition programs

Okay, now if they're a team:

De Pointe du Lac/de Lioncourt:

(Not to be biased but) chemistry on Virtue/Moir level. Definitely representing France, because USFSA is stupid and Lestat points a gun on Didier's head to take Louis. Coached by Zueva.

Combining Louis' elegance and Lestat's character by performing classic Hollywood pieces with storytelling. Debuting with this FD by Virtue/Moir. Ofc they go to the Olympics with this Moulin Rogue program as well, complete with the crotch kissing lift 😏

Definitely has a rumor they're secretly married going for them.

De Pointe du Lac/(insert Armand's last name here):

Unfortunately, no choice other than representing Russia. Coached by Tatiana Tarasova (but she likes Louis don't worry!).

Tend to use haunting classical music. Very synchronized, very classy. Reference: (a must watch!) Gordeeva/Grinkov's iconic Moonlight Sonata. Or Torville/Dean's Bolero.

Bonus: Claudia

Definitely best known for her teenage spirit and her Romeo & Juliet program.

Known for her big jumps, 3A, and musicality. That one girl who goes "I'll beat the men as well. Just watch" Reference: Kostornaia

[ceapa-mica]

Thrawn with a Foundling | Chapter 1

And at long last here is the first chapter of the fic I promised months ago! I wanted to get to know Thrawn's character well enough before actually writing fanfic. My headcanons were mere exercises. I hope my dialogue for Thrawn is on point with his "lawyer english" as my friend calls it haha

This fanfic will only have 5 chapters at max, I'm NOT planning on turning this into a big project or something so I remain ✨flexible✨

There are similarities to real life events in this one, you will probably know when you read it. I'm just trying to process a lot of bullshit happening in the world rn and I simply find comfort in writing.

PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER!

Warnings: death, so much death, death of child, blood, trauma, lots of angst

I will leave you a box of tissues here for good measure.

Word count: 2109

Taglist: @bingbongooo @dance-like-russia-isnt-watching @ele-millennial-weirdo @enaelyork @jesslove23 @thrawnalani @thrawnsboots @twincesskorisoka @davesrightshoe @shoe-bag @tearyeve @blackddarling @obbicrystaleo

Kasana was a hot mountainous desert planet in the Outer Rim. It looked dull on the surface, but it was the minerals beneath that caught the interests of more than one party. One of them being the terrifying Sharun pirates out to raid the mine which belonged to the local population. These pirates were the type who preferred negotiating with their fleet, dropping bombs on the towns to destroy and intimidate, and using their blasters and vibroblades instead of words. The other party interested in those resources was the Galactic Empire, with the Seventh Fleet receiving orders to eliminate the pirates and secure the resources.

One of those resources was a metal called doonium, which was highly valuable to the Empire as it was used to build military vessels and weapons.

Grand Admiral Thrawn, the Chiss warrior who was in charge of the entire Seventh fleet had studied the Sharun pirates’ tactics extensively and was capable of predicting their next moves. To Thrawn this battle was like many others. The enemies’ fire power was no use against the Grand Admiral’s strategies. At the end, the remains of the pirate fleet disbanded, most of their ships had turned into wrecks around the planet. Thrawn ordered a small team of specialists to search for any valuable resources on board of those wrecks while he took a shuttle to Kasarias surface to secure the doonium mine.

As the shuttle’s ramp lowered, the hot desert air hit him. He did not show any hints of the discomfort he felt. Coming from an icy planet he didn't like scorching hot temperatures, but he did what his job required him to. At least he wore a white safety helmet that protected his head from the intense sun as well. The next thing he noticed was the dust filling the air – dust mixed with smoke. The pirates had turned the entire mining village into a sea of rubble. No one uttered a word at the sight. It was dead calm. No shouts for help, no crying.

“One team searches for survivors, the other secures the mine. Look out for remaining pirates and traps. Report back to me in one hour.” Thrawn ordered in his ever calm voice. He watched the troopers disperse at his command. This was not the first destroyed village he saw, nor would it be the last. The smell of burnt flesh in the air indicated the kind of massacre that had taken place here earlier.

As Thrawn was overseeing the mission, talking to a few officers, he didn't notice he was being watched. All of a sudden, a trooper who approached him was hit by a rock. A dozen blasters aimed at the place where the rock had come from. Thrawn was capable of seeing infrared with his scarlet alien eyes, noticing a heat signature behind a pile of rubble which looked way too small to be a grown ass pirate. Perhaps it was an Ugnaught? Another rock flew in the direction of a few troopers. This time they fired exactly at the spot the rock had been thrown from. A high pitched scream filled the air that definitely did not come from an Ugnaught but a child. Thrawn raised his hand as a sign for the troopers to hold their fire.

“Sir?” one of his death troopers asked, but received no reply as Thrawn approached the pile of rubble. As he came closer he heard quiet sniffles, then, all of a sudden, a little girl ran straight toward him, hugging his leg tightly. Thrawn looked down, surprise showing on his face for a second.

“And who might you be?” he asked in a gentle yet commanding tone. The girl was crying. At closer inspection he saw that she was Pantoran. Her skin a similar shade of blue as his, with golden eyes and messy wine red hair, the color almost concealing the bleeding wound on the girl's temple which left bloodstains on his white pants.

“Why have you thrown rocks at my men?”

The girl looked up at him, sniffling and still not letting go of his leg.

“Do you understand Basic?” To that question she nodded and Thrawn was relieved. She then looked at the troopers and pointed at one of them. “They're evil.” she spoke in a voice hoarse from crying and the smoke in the air.

“My men are here to help, among other things. No harm will come to you through them.” Thrawn clarified. She let go of his leg and stood before him. By the looks of it she was malnourished and couldn't be older than five years.

“I thwew the rocks because I thought the white armored guys are evil and try to hurt you.” she explained.

“That was very brave of you, but unnecessary. See?” He patted the blaster in the holster he carried with his hand. “I can defend myself should the need arise.”

“My dad has a blaster too… Can you help me? There's something wrong with mom, dad and Rima.” She grabbed his hand to show him the way to her family, but Thrawn stopped. “I have to oversee this mission. I can send a few troopers to your aid though.”

“No no!” She was back to having a tight grip around his leg.

“Sir, shall we remove her?” an officer asked in a rough tone.

“That won't be necessary.” he declined. For a moment he thought and it made sense. The helmets the Sharun pirates wore resembled stormtrooper helmets a little bit. Of course she wouldn't trust any of his soldiers to see her family. And there was of course the similarity. Even if it was just the resemblance of the skin color, to the child it obviously was something familiar. The girl probably thought they were of the same species, as many unknowing people do. Thrawn was used to being mistaken for a Pantoran by new people he met, he never bothered to correct them. However, Thrawn understood this girl was just literally clinging to the only familiar thing to her in this wasteland and made a decision.

“How far is your family's location?”

“Not far! This way!” She grabbed his hand again, and he followed her, along with two of his death troopers. She didn't seem to mind their presence as long as Thrawn was by her side.

Thrawn assumed the place where they stopped used to be someone's home not long ago. Now all that was left of it was rubble with a few flames licking the debris here and there. The bomb that must have caused the destruction had left an actual crater where the house had stood. The girl climbed down and Thrawn carefully followed her down into the mess. She came to a halt at a hole, waving him over.

“They're down there. They don't wanna wake up!” She started crying again. Thrawn looked down into the hole, seeing a woman whose arm covered a girl a bit older than the one he found, and as he looked closer, saw half the body of a Pantoran man crushed under a thick duracrete wall. They were all covered in a thick layer of dust, the blue color of their skin was barely visible anymore.

“Mommy! Rima wake up!” the girl cried. “It's me, Huriya!” She shook her mothers lifeless body, then her sister's. As they didn't move she crawled over to her dad. “Wake up, Dad! Please wake up!”

“Huriya, come out of there. The debris is unstable, you could get buried alive under there.” Thrawn warned. “But my parents.. my sister!”

“They're gone. There's nothing you can do for them.” The scene in front of him pained Thrawn, but he didn't show it. He knew those were the harsh realities in war.

“No! I won't leave them!” She sat down next to her mother and tried to wake her up again. It dawned on Thrawn that Huriya didn't understand that death was final.

“Sir, shall we get her out of there?” one of his death troopers offered.

Thrawn regarded the scene of Huriya hugging her dead mother's body once more before he nodded. “Do it.”

As the elite troopers grabbed Huriya she screamed and squirmed in their grip, trying to get back to her family.

“Mom! Dad! No! Let me go! Help!” she screamed. As soon as they were back on the surface, Thrawn took the girl off their hands. She trembled in fear, hammering her little fists against his chest. “My family needs me! Let me down! No! You must help them!”

“I will.” Thrawn turned to his death troopers. “Cremate them, this is the least we can do.”

“Are they helping them?” Huriya asked. The tears and snot from crying mixed with the blood from her wound. The way she trembled from the trauma she just endured didn't escape Thrawn. She needed a medic immediately.

“They are helping them.” Thrawn assured her, not knowing what else to say to a five year old who went through enough trauma in one day. Comforting children was not part of his job and yet there he was, gently patting Huriya’s back on their way to the shuttle.

He noticed the officers’ looks as he returned to the shuttle with the little girl in his arms. There were no other survivors, nor captured pirates by the looks of it.

“Grand Admiral, the mine has been secured. No remaining pirates or survivors found.” the unit's Captain reported and confirmed Thrawn's assumptions.

“Well done. I will ask Moff Tarkin to send reinforcements to secure the mine and to put it back in service. Until then, one batch of troopers will remain stationed there. The ISD-Harbinger shall remain in orbit in case the remaining pirates return with… unforeseen reinforcements.”

Huriya clung tighter to Thrawn as they entered the shuttle. She watched the many new faces and helmed individuals with fear.

“What's your name?” she eventually asked as Thrawn stepped into the cockpit. The shuttle had lifted off, leaving Kasaria behind, returning to the ISD-Chimera that was waiting in the planet's orbit.

“My name is Thrawn. Grand Admiral of the Seventh Fleet, at your service.”

“Wrawn.” she tried to pronounce his name. “Where are we going? Are we getting doctors to help Mommy, Daddy and Rima wake up?” she asked with large pleading eyes.

“We will make sure you get medical treatment. That wound on your temple looks like it's getting infected. Your parents would want you to see a doctor when you're hurt, am I correct?”

Huriya thought for a moment. “Hm probably…”

The corners of Thrawn's lips twitched. “I’m sure they would. You are safe now, Huriya.”

The girl was trembling a little bit less at his comforting words and nuzzled into the soft fabric of his uniform’s collar.

As soon as they landed in the Chimera’s hangar, Huriya was put on a gurney, but she refused to let go of Thrawn's arm.

“Don't leave me with them!” Tears welled in her eyes again. “Everything is so big here, I’m scared, Wrawn!”

“The medics will take care of your wound and any other physical ailments you may have. I will leave them to their work and come to see you later.”

“Pinky promise?” She offered her pinky finger to him, a gesture he was not familiar with, but figured out anyway. “I promise.” A bit hesitant he hooked his pinky finger with hers and then watched her being brought away on the hovering gurney. He didn't like how much this little girl's fate got under his skin. He had a job to attend to, orders to give.

After changing into a fresh uniform, Thrawn was back on the bridge where he tasked one of his smartest men to find out more about Huriya’s family and if there were any relatives out there she could live with.

“Sir, I heard about the little survivor you've found. In fact the entire Seventh Fleet knows by now. Stories like that spread rapidly.” Commodore Karyn Faro, his second-in-command, told him.

“I did what any honorable warrior would have done. There is nothing else to say about it.” Thrawn said in a voice void of emotion as usual. Faro tried to hide a smile at the Grand Admiral’s attempt to downplay it.

“Your actions today certainly improved your likability among the crew if I may say so.”

Thrawn raised his brow. He didn't think much of the gossip among those under his command. He ignored Faro’s comment and gave orders to return to Lothal where his remaining fleet was stationed. He would look after the young guest once his work day was over.

Let me know what you think in comments. I hope Thrawn's dialogue fits his character? I'm not fluent in "lawyer english" so I'm worried it's not written well enough 😬

Oh and for anyone curious about the girl's name – Huriya means 'freedom' in Arabic. 💙

Thank you for reading!

[valeriefauxnom]

Silly Hypothesis du Jour

There's something silly about the implicit cultural residue of Dragalia's world seeming to have the same English attitude regarding French. I know it's just a byproduct of writers injecting their own worldview, as we all do, but still is silly.

Now, Dragalia had quite a few cultural analogues already. Sventila? I'm probably spelling that wrong, seems to be 'Russia', Hinomoto is 'Japan' in feudal era, Taiwu is China...but we never really established a cultural land for France. Fair enough. There's too many countries to cover in any depth.

But the French lingers. Specifically, it seems to pop up with slightly more frequency in the royal family's dialogue, with words like rendezvous, atelier, and soirée in at least some members' vocabulary alongside other fairly common words of French origin like coup. They also seem to have drawn at least some noble titles from historically French ones that migrated to English like marquis and baron.

Combined with the other context it pops up in most frequently, which is to say, fine dining, I believe that whatever the origin of the French language in Dragalia, it carries much the same aura of fancy, high-class language.

(L'amandier is, surprise surprise, French, for an almond tree. His restaurant name is The Almond Tree. 'Pièce de résistance' is, meanwhile, a masterwork, though more literally it's 'piece of resistance', ie, something that has sticking power.)

(Forte is pretty well known- a strength, as is its French meaning, strong. Voilà needs no explanation but I will anyways: It's a contraction between vois and là, voir being the base verb to see, and là referring to a 'that' in this sense. It's essentially a 'see this!, a 'lo and behold'!)

Aside from those, there's also words like hors d'oeuvres, "allez cuisine!", sous chef (which, contrary to some people's thoughts I've heard, doesn't mean soup, it means 'under', they're subordinate to the big chef in the militaristic French cuisine world), and even in Valerio's skill names, amuse-bouche and bon appetit.

Honestly, I'm surprised at how often the Dragalia team took to actually adding in the accents, since people often forget.

Then again, another funnier if-still-relevant to my claim here is the array of very informal speakers butchering the spelling and saying of another French phrase. Ranzal's the most common offender, but anyone from Sarisse to Mym to Ilia (does that imply French as a fancy language is over 1k years old???) will say:

It's off of 'tout de suite', which means, essentially ASAP. Instantly. Given their relative care in ensuring pièce de résistance is accented properly, I'm guessing the writers just found this one funny and kept using it, Canadians as they probably were along with the voice cast.

So yeah, that's my case French, wherever it originated from in Dragalia lore, has all the same haute culture ideations that many in the English-speaking world do.

As a fun little fact: many of the words that do see usage in English that are directly derived from French, ex 'forte', 'naive', etc, are the feminine spellings. The masculine spelling of naive, or rather, naïve, is naïf. Most of the time you only need to slap 'e' on whatever word you're using but of course, there are exceptions. You also can see it in words ending in -ve, instead of -if, like positive.

I'll cut myself off here, but hopefully you've at least reaction to my silly insights:

[aphee-sheiz]

This is Masha Moskalyova. She is 11 years old.

On this photo, she shows a drawing she presented to her teacher. During that lesson, the teacher asked the class to draw something in support of Russia, specifically in support of the war it wages against Ukraine.

You can tell from the photo that Masha decided to draw something completely different. The opposite even. The caption on the photo says "I am against the war".

When her teacher saw it, she couldn't accept it. She informed the headmistress of the school, who decided that a child's drawing was a good reason to get the police involved.

Masha has been raised by her father. And for the state doesn't (so far) persecute children, it decided that the father would take the responsibility for what his daughter drew, and that Masha was to be punished differently.

When the police did get involved, they charged Alexey - Masha's father - with discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation, which is a criminal offence nowadays. They placed Alexey under house arrest.

Alexey Moskalyov in court

What about Masha? Masha was placed in an orphanage. Rather, confined in an orphanage. Not only placing her there was against any possible laws, but for many days, they wouldn't let her speak to her father on the phone, and activists couldn't reach her to hand her parcels or letters.

The head of the orphanage closes the door, forbidding an independent deputy and a lawyer to visit Masha

Earlier this week, Alexey was sentenced to 2 years in prison. For his daughter's drawing. Alexey tried to escape house arrest and almost succeeded, but unfortunately, he was detained in Minsk 💔 this will probably mean longer years in prison for him.

Masha is still in the orphanage.

Recently, Masha was fortunately allowed to send Alexey a letter. It was published by his lawyer with a permission, so I am translating it here for you.

Hello dad, I am asking you to not get sick and not to worry. Everything's fine with me, I love you very much and remember, nothing of this is your fault, I am always on your side and everything you do is right.

I love you very much, thank you for everything you do for me. When you feel bad or you worry, I don't feel right and I am unwell. I believe that everything is going to be alright and we will be together with you. I hope for the best and love you very much.

Daddy, you know, one woman wrote me*: one must have faith, hope and love, because one who has faith, hopes and loves, he wins.

Know that we will win, that victory will be ours. Whatever happens, we are together, we are a team. You are the best. You are my dad, the smartest, the most handsome, the best dad in the world. Know that there's no one better than you.

Just please, don't give up. Have faith, hope and love.

One day we will sit at the table and remember this all. I love you, I hope - no, I know - that you will not give up, you are strong, we are strong, we'll push through. I'll pray for you and us, dad.

I am proud. Yes, dad, I can say I am proud of my father. My proud, smart, handsome, stubborn father who loves her daughter so much.

When we meet at last, I want to give you some big awesome present. Dad, I don't want to write how my health is or how my mood is, I don't want to upset you, but I realized that better deny at once than promise long. But not to worry, we will meet and I will tell you everything.

This sign ☮️ is an anti-war sign, this pendant I will gift you for you are the bravest person in the world!

I love you, you are a hero.

My hero

The last page of Masha's letter

*Masha mentions a woman who "wrote her". That means, letters do reach her!

You can write Masha a letter in Russian or English

(in the latter case, I'll translate it) and I will make sure it will be sent (cannot guarantee the letter will reach her, but I will definitely send it). Reach me in personal messages here on Tumblr if you would want to do that.

[sunskate]

honestly, I saw Fear/Gibson live last year and I’d call them incompetent. Their skating is so small, the curves on the ice so much shallower than a team of that standing should be capable of. Guignard/Fabbri covered twice as much ice with half the effort. People pick on Lilah and act like Lewis is the second coming of Dean/Moir/Cizeron but he’s not *that* much better at the actual skating, he is visibly better but still not brilliant. But he moves like a floor dancer and that covers many sins. I don’t think it’s some grand conspiracy to elevate them - the Brits might have a rogue judge but they are not a powerhouse federation. They can’t compel whole panels to fall in line the way Russia, USA, France and Canada can. I think it’s a combination of a) Europe not wanting a North American monopoly while P/C are on hiatus and Russia remain banned and b) the ISU understanding they’re popular and they’re desperate for popularity. Casual audiences respond to them, I’ve seen it. They’re fun, they’re good looking, they’re easily digestible. I have a theory they’ll be dropped from serious contention once P/C return and Lajoie/Lagha are Canadian #1 once the older teams retire. Europe will then have their champions back. L/L can do the fun populist stuff but skate it well (their lyrical FD is beautiful but it’s programs like Thriller and Rio that should be their calling card going forward to set themselves apart - they’re aggressive, not pretty, don’t fall into the trap H/D did and try to contain the power). I wish Tessa was mentoring L/L instead.

i think we just disagree on that word incompetent - they're working hard and have improved. but it makes my heart sink when crowds go for the easy and gimmicky. they probably will get an ovation next week like Tessa said. but i still think that program is cheap, and if the judges go for it too, the system is garbage. because the skating and the program don't warrant top 5 in the world

i looked at F/G's IGs because i had to question whether they're popular. i don't really know of many current fans of theirs. Lilah has 15.6K followers. their team account 10.2K, Lewis 12.9K. compare that to Madi C 118K, Gabi P 173K, Isabella Flores 194K. team Koko has more than Lilah and Lewis. but it's true, i haven't found a European ice dance team who has more followers besides P/C. but idgi - it's nothing to stake the future of ice dance on your continent on. the crowds in the building like F/G, but is that translating outside, where most of the fans are? idk

for me, it's about how they're scoring consistently above teams who skate more beautifully, with power and artistry. skating with true quality is harder, or everyone would do it. hitting big accents or punching to the beat is easy. skating so that your line and entire body is expressive is hard. IAM is good at disguising weaknesses in their choreo - it's smart, but when it's this successful, i think it's bad for ice dance and feels fake

i love LaLa - they can do it all. i think it's how hard they can go at a Thriller program and be dazzlingly sharp and fast and also make you cry with an expressive program that makes them great. i'm so excited to see them again

[existence-is-overrated]

Dear England review !!🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿♥️

(spoiler warning!!)

This show was AMAZING as you can probably tell by the standing ovation given to the cast and especially Joseph Fiennes for his job as Gareth.

It had it all; the overall tone was light but became serious when needed and addressed the big problems (Euros 2020 aftermath etc.) and there were so many quick witted jokes that the audience was always laughing!! Kane and Pickford’s characters provided most of the laughs, their actors did such a good job portraying them and there was just the right amount of banter between all the lads to make it feel like the team hehe.

The overall message of the play is that England is about stories, and that stories have 3 acts. For England, Russia 2018 was act 1 - the beginning, the Euros 2020 was act 2 - the struggle, and Qatar 2022 was supposed to be act 3 - this amazing finale to a long journey, but by the end we come to realise that Qatar was never act 3. Act 3 is the Euros 2024, and the play ends on a hopeful note.

The play begins with Southgate’s penalty miss and ends with Kane’s in Qatar. It draws parallels between the two of them and through comforting Kane, Gareth is able to finally forgive his past self and move forward. He instils in his England the values he wishes he had back then to fall back on and it was such a lovely message to see portrayed.

Sweet Caroline played after the actors took their bow and the entire crowd was singing it back to them :,) then to top it all off Three Lions plays as you exit the theatre dwelling all too much on the tragic legacy of England and attempt not to get too emotional…

It was an amazing evening out!! If anyone’s thinking of going last minute I’d definitely urge you to - every seat in the theatre seemed a good one, the stage was very open and my view was perfect even from the cheapest and highest circle!

(I made notes halfway through and on the way home about my favourite parts lol but I think that’ll have to be another post now!!)

[vole-mon-amour]

7x20.

Iconic. She's had enough. Slay, queen. Derek definitely needs this kind of reality check with his hero complex.

Queens. They definitely should've dated canonically.

Fast forward to the ending: JUSTICE!

The writing and directing in this episode is pretty sick. After all, this is the second post for the same episode & I am loving it.

Just like I already said, parents with their daughters. I love it when they say no to their kids and it makes perfect sense. It's not a punishment, it's keeping a cool head & doing what's best. Dave knows it, too, and is good at making this kind of decisions.

A perfect example of my previous point. Dave saw what Malcolm did to Derek emotionally & said a gentle but very firm "No." Made Derek cool off & then Penelope got him this reality check & it worked. No matter how old and mature you are, there's probably always someone wiser. And if you have two family men on the team that Sees It All, they're gonna know best.

I have so much love for David and Aaron. My heart is full of warmth and respect for them and their partnership.

Derek: Trust me. Aaron: Trusts Derek. Also Aaron: Immediately regrets this decision.

Aaron, my love, you should know better. You should know when Derek is way too invested to keep calm.

When the gang is judging you. <3

"I'm listening, son. Tell me."

Canonical lore that I didn't expect but glad to have. <3 Same food for Jack, huh. <3 Again, I have so much love for him and Dave.

Of course it's always Russia. It's either Italians or us. :DDD

That was a good episode & Shanola nailed her role. Took me a moment to recognize her but yeah.

You know what? With these two, I can understand how best friends marry each other in a platonic way. 'Cause these two are definitely married. Whether they become romance is a different question. Maybe they already are, but we don't get to see that. 'Cause that first one... That's very physical and intimate. (Then I remember that I, as a reminder, ship Moreid. This show is a big sandbox. You can ship so many characters, just like in Harry Potter.)

[howl-at--the-sun]

oooo yes! I've heard a small bit on this but nothing too much ksjdj I'd love to learn more :shakey_eyes:

alright let's do this. under the cut for those who don't want to see this giant rant

so, some basic context

For most of the 1800s "Germany" as we know it wasn't really a thing. instead there was a kingdom called Prussia. Prussia was a militaristic, conservative country, run by a king and a parliament called the Landtag, but the Landtag was a fairly new body at the start of our story and they disagreed with the king A Lot.

Our story starts in 1862, with one of these Disagreements between the king and the Landtag. The details aren't important, all you need to know is that the king and the Landtag were locked in a stalemate, neither could do anything about the other, and it was seriously looking like the king was just going to resign b/c he was kinda weak and didn't know what to do. That was when the Prussian minister of war stepped in and said, "hey maybe don't resign, i know A Guy that could help"

this Guy was Otto Von Bismarck ( and there is a reason that he gets a whole line to his announcement )

An aristocratic member of the government, Bismarck had started out as a drunk college kid challenging way too many people to duels, and gotten an exile job as ambassador to France and Russia, but was probably best known in the government as the guy who had tried to raise an army of peasants to protect the government from some revolution in 1848.

Basically he was a genius conservative mastermind with an insane streak. And he got himself put in charge of the government by doing something insane and maybe illegal to bypass the Landtag entirely.

from then on, it was Unification Time. Bismarck's reasoning behind the unification is strange, he wasn't a German nationalist who wanted a united nation, he was a Prussian nationalist who saw Germany as an extension of Prussia's power. And if he wanted that extension of Prussia's power, then he was going to get it.

A Step By Step Guide On How To Unite A Country By Being A Terrible Person By Otto Von Bismarck

Step 1. team up with Austria to win a war against Denmark and get some territory

Step 2. turn on Austria and win a war against them to get even more territory (also i should mention that Bismarck explained this whole plan to an Austrian government official a decade before he was able to do it and the Austrian official didn't believe him)

Step 3. Use that war as an opportunity for Prussia to yoink all the small northern German states so that Prussia can be really big and a lot stronger

Step 3. use a dispute over the Spanish throne to manipulate the French into declaring war (this is one of my favorite parts of the story, he managed to take interaction that the Prussian king had with a French ambassador and spin it so that the French thought that the king had been disrespectful and the Prussians thought the ambassador had been out of line)

Step 4. Win the war with France easily, declare the German Empire a thing, make the French pay you a bunch of money and give you a bunch of land

Side note about that, the German Empire was declared in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. Now, you might be asking, why would Bismarck declare the German empire in a French palace? To that I say,

is there a bigger "fuck you" than baiting a guy into a fight, kicking his ass, and then holding the "look at how great i am for kicking his ass" ceremony in his own house?

And that's the story of German unification! There were plenty of side effects, and plenty of funny shit that happened during the German Empire, but this is already way too long and i've got hw to do, so I will leave it at that for now.

Hopefully this was somewhat interesting and informative!

[if-you-like-pina-colada-s]

Because I'm such a huge music nerd, I've contemplated some kind of indoor percussion au for the Hetalia characters several times, and even though I'll probably never go through with actually making something for it, I NEED to share my vision with yall.

I've been going in circles about who I'd assign to what instrument. Thankfully most of them seem pretty obvious, and if not then it's at least narrowed down to two options. But I know one for certain. One I CANNOT and WILL NOT negotiate. And that is America being snare one. He is center snare no matter what. I've considered other characters for sure, but no one else exudes center snare energy like he does. Some other considerations I've had:

Germany on drumset

Japan on either vibraphone or snare

Russia on marimba one

China on tenors

France on tenors

Italy on cymbals or glockenspiel/bells

Canada on marimba two

England on snare or a base guitar

I also think I'd have Austria as the director of the group. Just cause he's the canon music-nerd-guy. But really I'd like it to be a collaborative, team working kinda thing. But Austria can be the one with the final word, is what I wanna say. He can compose and arrange their music. (Oh and BTW, yes I'd like to include all characters in this, at the very least all canon characters, I mean I want the whole group but it can only be so big.)

If this were an actual full-fledged au, I do have some background... lore? I guess? to consider. I'd like this to be a nationverse au (as in not a human au). For one, there's the comedic factor.... actually that's it. That's the only reason. Cause it's funny. Like imagine one day the nations just randomly decide "hey, what's a better way to kill time than participate in WGI competitions?" Where do they get all the instruments and equipment from? Who knows! Even better. Imagine being in another group, walking into world championships or whatever, and seeing that your competition is literally the personifications of the nations of the world. I'd be very intimidated, personally. And like, to me it makes sense they're at that level (as in, international level). Maybe they don't start there, but I feel like they'd be able to work their way up there, yknow? After all, it'd be stupid if they lived that long and didn't at least pick up on an instrument here and there. Hell, some of them were probably there when they invented the fucking church modes and shit. But I digress, I'm just saying the immortal being had time to practice and learn how to play, read, and understand music.

I think the Hetalia characters forming an indoor percussion group would be sick af. For a variety of reasons really. Though it really boils down to what I really love about music; that it's something everyone, no matter what culture you come from, has in common. Music is such an integral part of every culture, of everyone's lives. So imagine how cool and fun it would be to see the nations of the world playing music together and having fun. Oh and, I just wanna add, I mainly aimed for percussion specifically because yes I am a biased percussionist, and also I made a poll recently about what instrument family the nations remind yall of and the majority voted percussion (spontaneous, wild, the impactful, and most importantly, the heartbeat). And I have to say, I do agree. The nations really are, in a nutshell, the heartbeat, the culture itself, the core identity. What better way to show that than through music? The universal language.

Anyway, I've been talking for way too long. If you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about when I say "WGI" or "indoor percussion", look it up on Google or YouTube, there are some pretty cool videos or performances, I highly recommend looking more into it. And there's many different levels to look at too.

Okthatsitbye!

[freifraufischer]

A Gymnastics Mystery: Was the 1981 World Championship Stolen?  Part 3 - A Simmering Soup of Corruption

Previously, on Katherine decides to explain a 40 year old sports/political thriller... in part 1 I introduced Maxi Gnauck and the general atmosphere of corruption around the 1979 Worlds and 1980 Olympic Games and in part 2 I took you my reader through one of the most dominating performances at a major gymnastics meet ever.

Now we reach the point in this story where I get to introduce you to, without question or debate, the most rigged major international gymnastics meet ever:  The 1981 University Games held in Bucharest, Romania.  An increasingly irradic and prestige hungry Romanian dictatorship looked at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and craved the same experience.  Except they couldn’t afford to host an Olympics so instead they secured the right to host the 1981 University Games.  This is what the WAG results look like:

The gym history blog the Medal Count goes on to describe, “On the men’s side things were even worse. There are eight events in men’s gymnastics and Romania won medals on seven of them. Five of them were gold including the AA and team competitions. Unlike their counterparts in WAG, the Romanian men’s team was by no means a gymnastics power. These results were completely out of line for a program that failed to medal in every major gymnastics competition from 1980-1987.”

The display was comical, with Nadia Comăneci receiving 10s for very obviously faulty routines and many countries were angry over the blatant theft.  China began to protest results they didn’t like by simply not showing up to the medal ceremonies (something that would repeat at the 1981 World Championships and today would result in a forfeit).  The Soviet’s had watched this competition be stolen and the Romanian/Karolyi attempts to de-legitimatize the 1980 Olympics and it became very clear that there would be retaliation.  Especially with that year’s world championship in Moscow.  The Romanians decided to keep Nadia off the worlds team knowing that she would likely be humiliated.  The American media, forever obsessed with Nadia, made her and the Romanians the victims, never once mentioning the broader circumstances (the American network ABC even aired a fluff piece about Nadia’s performance at the 1981 University Games as if it was a return to perfection).

The title of this extended piece is of course, a bit ironic, was the 1981 World Championship Stolen?  Well, yes, because you have to begin with the 12-year-old in the room.  Moscow native Olga Bicherova’s age was falsified so that she could compete and on some level that already nullifies the results of this competition.  And there is the ... eyebrow raising statistic that Romanian won zero medals at 1981 Worlds.  I will say watching the competition you don’t necessarily see obvious rigging.  The Romanian team wasn’t at their best (after all they’d peeked for the University Games some months before) and by rights they probably should have been able to get a team bronze but performances on the day let that slip away.

That left the Soviet’s one big (or rather short) problem in reasserting their domination in front of a home crowd:  Maxi Gnauck.  And now we slip into broader geopolitical topics.  While Romania was, in name at least, a socialist country, it’s dictatorship very actively wanted to assert independence from the USSR.  The Romania-Soviet gymnastics rivalry was part of showing that it was not a puppet state.  East Germany was in a very different circumstance.  The relationship of the dystopian police state to their Soviet masters is complex but it can essentially be boiled down to two things:  they were essentially still an occupied territory and while the Soviet use of military force to put down reform movements in Hungary and Czechoslovakia is more well known they had first done so in 1950s East Germany.  The second thing to understand is that communism was not born in Russia, but arguably in Germany and so in many ways the East German state embraced socialism more fervently than any other Warsaw Pact country.  If their soviet masters asked them to do something, they would.  It’s one reason East German gymnastics victories were never hailed in the west the way Romanian ones were.  One was the enemy of our enemy and the other was our enemies pet.

And now we reach the conspiracy theory:  The Soviets asked the GDR to have Maxi pull out of the team optionals floor.  That would prevent her from qualifying for the AA final and from the floor final--an event she had an Olympic medal on and which the Soviets saw as the marque event in the sport.  In return they would not interfere in her other events.  I don’t think there is a suggestion that she was promised the gold in those events finals, for one thing Gnauck wasn’t the leader going into the beam final and she only won that because American Julianne McNamara went over time.

But let’s look at these events as they played out.

This is the ITV broadcast of the 1981 World Championships Team Optionals.  The East Germans start on beam with a relatively strong rotation.  Gnauck gets a 9.8 on beam and then they move to floor.  Go to timestamp 10.26 to see Gnauck’s floor, she appears to balk on her opening tumbling pass and then pulls out of the floor.  There are a few explanations:  The official version is that she had an ankle injury (and you know you would tumbling nearly unsprung floors and landing on hard thin mats).  I’ve heard one former gymnast look at that pass and advocate that she had a real injury because she doesn’t get much of a rise.  Another theory goes that Gnauck was a veteran competitor who knew as soon as she balked the pass that she was out of the AA and simply pulled off the floor to avoid an actual injury.  This seems... a bit out of character to me.  Gymnasts are culturally indoctrinated, especially four decades ago, to finish their routines.  The broadcast focuses on the East German coaches huddling around her before moving on to show the Chinese floor rotation.  But only minutes later (13.30 in the video) the commentators note in surprise that Maxi Gnauck is sprinting down the vault runway.  At 14.57 in the video you can see the slow motion of her full twisting tsuk (one of the hardest WAG vaults of that pre-Yurchenko era).  At 21.55 in the video you can see her bars set.  The East Germans rallied back from disaster to win a bronze medal behind the Chinese.

5 of the 6 Soviet gymnasts would win individual medals at that world championship, with a sweep of the all around podium.  Come the event finals I don’t think there is much controversy over the vault or the beam results.  Despite a little creative editing by the American television network ABC to express outrage over Julianne McNamara’s beam score (in fact they reordered the entire beam final in the edit), the results rather sorted themselves.  The only result I might debate is if the great Chinese bar worker Ma Yanhong should have shared the gold rather than getting the silver with Gnauck.  They had tied for the 1979 World Championship and Ma would tie for gold with McNamara for the 1984 Olympic bars final.  I tend to think that even if Gnauck had shown up to LA, Ma would have beaten her.  The Chinese were admonished for poor sportsmanship because the protested the bars result by refusing to go to the medal ceremony.

Next time:  The afterman, and why despite this mess of intrigue and corruption I tend to think the injury was real...

[mysilentnightshipping]

opportunities

words: 1295

a/n: so. uh. i started this when stranger things s4 volume 1 was out and liv @canongf started talking about eddie... i just really wanted to write a scene with our s/is having a little chat hehe >:) about a certain hellfire member, and also include some of my own s/i’s lore/personality into it. this took me a good while but i had so much fun writing this! i reeeeally hope i didn’t butcher you here liv! :PP

--

nobody told them the end of the world could include so much downtime.

the sky is dark, the air around them heavy from the tension, ominous. it’s something they’ve all gotten quite accustomed to, though, so it’s just background noise at the moment. all they have left now is the waiting until the rest of their little (or not so little, it’s really gotten quite big after the people returned from russia and other side of the states) team returns. sonja isn’t familiar with the others as well as she’s with the people with her right now. but they seem nice enough, and she doesn’t exactly have the luxury of not trusting them. 

everyone looks casual, or if they’re frightened, sonja can’t tell. she has learned that most of them have been through this more than once, so she wonders if you can actually get used to otherworldly threats and demons from what is basically the equivalent of hell on earth - or under it, actually. liv, steve, eddie and dustin are going through the plan. max and lucas are talking quietly together, in a world of their own. sonja heard they were together before high school, and from her perspective, it makes sense. it looks natural. it makes her wish they’ll all have more time. afterwards. 

idle, her hands wander to her purse where the familiar tin that holds her deck always is. it’s a comfort she’s been relying to a lot lately, even if she probably should feel haunted by it – in the end, it was the cards that got her into all this trouble, more or less starting the chainreaction that led to her learning about upside down. but… looking at these people, her new friends, as cliche as it sounds, it feels like worth the trouble. besides, she’d rather be painfully aware and obvious about the end of the world, instead of blindly staring into the unknown, not knowing what to be afraid of. 

she takes the tin and opens it. the cards have seen better days, but she likes the patina in them. they feel familiar in her hands as she shuffles them, not really expecting anything until the tower falls out, into her lap. 

“of course,” she sighs to herself, half-amused. not too unlike the present moment, the skies in the card are dark, thunder between the clouds. two people falling out of the crumbling tower, the destruction of what once was. that doesn’t mean there isn’t a chance for something new to begin; usually she would see this as a positive sign, that this tumultuous part of life will have closure and there’s an opportunity to move on. but… just like with the death card incident, sometimes things are exactly what they look like.

lost in the inevitable sense of doom, she doesn’t notice liv coming up and sitting next to her until she speaks.

”what are the cards telling you?” she asks, genuinely curious. 

it’s something she’s been getting used to, the honest, casual interest about something she doesn’t share with many people. but when you’ve got monsters and things from other dimensions you thought were just spirits playing tricks on you, a little divination doesn’t seem crazy anymore. 

”nothing new, honestly,” sonja replies. she holds the tower for liv to look at. ”but the general vibe isn’t too good, as you can see.”

“oh, yeah,” she says, wincing. “fun evening coming up for us.”

“that’s exactly what i was thinking.”

there’s silence, but not the awkward kind. she’s never felt too bothered by it, but when it feels as easy as it does with her, with all her new friends, it’s even more special. how much there is to be said, anyways? she’s never been the sentimental kind, not out loud at least, so just being with them is more than enough. after all the chaos of running around, escaping, hiding, it feels good to have a moment of quiet. even if it comes with the feeling of terror in the distance that seems to be only getting closer. 

“could you… see what’s coming up for me? besides the obvious.” 

“sure,” she says, already shuffling the cards, secretly happy she asked, even if it’s just out of boredom; doing readings just for herself has gotten really boring. seeing things from someone else’s perspective is always refreshing. “i’ll just wait for a while and see if anything particular pops up.”

liv nods, and for a moment sonja focuses solely on her, how she must be feeling, what they’ve been through lately. then she doesn’t really think about anything, just seeking out with her intuition. when she feels it, she stops, then takes the first two cards on top of the deck. a smile forms on her face.

“so. this one,” she starts, showing liv the two of cups, “is about connection, uniting with someone. usually in a romantic manner. the feelings are mutual, harmonious and balanced.”

she doesn’t miss the realization on liv’s face when she picks up the sun next, relishes in the bright, hopeful energy of it. “this one’s really positive, too. it’s basically just saying ‘you’ve got good things coming up, you just wait’. i like it a lot. i’d say you’d just got some of the best cards from the whole bunch, if i’m honest.”

liv’s still reeling about the information; sonja sees in on her face. hopeful in a way she knows people to be when love is on their mind, just a little bit bashful as she spares a glance to the object of her affection. eddie’s looking semi-charming as ever, flashing that smile of his when he notices liv watching him and yeah, sonja can see why she likes him. 

“so… what do you think it means?” liv asks, voice calm, hiding the things she doesn’t dare to say out loud yet.. 

“well, nothing’s ever set in stone, not even these things,” sonja starts. “i don’t really believe in fate, but rather in opportunities the universe gives us, you know? we can choose to take them or set our sights on something else. life always finds ways to work its way around the decisions we make.”

it feels a bit too casual to think like that right now. will she believe in her words tomorrow, a few hours from now? will they have any more opportunities to choose? what kind of decisions they’re going to have to make?

”and as for those opportunities…” she decides to continue, “eddie definitely isn’t the worst one to choose. and i’m sure he’d choose you, too. i don’t even need the cards to tell you that.”

her face lights up. “yeah?”

“yeah! the way he looks at you when you’re not looking? phew. i can guarantee you he’s just waiting for you to say something.” 

they share a look, and a moment of laughter. relief from liv and genuine, albeit mischievous, vicarious happiness from sonja. 

“it’s true!” she continues, voice excited but hushed just in case the others hear them. “he’s got it sooooo bad.”

“c’mon, don’t torture me!” liv whispers back, party joking, partly serious. she takes a deep breath, closes her eyes for a moment. “i do want to tell him. but i just haven’t found a good moment yet.”

“well, we have time now. maybe you need to make that moment yourself.”

first, liv hesitates, thinks it over, all the ways it could go south. then, determination flares up in her eyes, in her posture. she spares a look at the cards. maybe they don’t mean a thing, maybe they tell her the exact state of things. it doesn’t matter; sonja watches liv choose the opportunity with boldness she can only hope to have someday.

the world might be ending. but sometimes, good things can come out of that.

[dojae-huh]

‪https://x(.)com/kittypunch77/status/1793176620116938929?s=46‬

kjaedoist are so diligent. Where do they find the timeeee. I kinda wanna do edits as well but I’d definitely spend too much time on it

Link

It might be the difference in the way one experiences a fandom. Active/creative vs consuming/socialising. For example, Russian anime subfandom had roots in medieval/fantasy role-playing, as such there were plenty of people who made weapons out of metal, unfolding angel wings, created elaborated wigs, sewn costumes. Not only cosplaying, covering anime songs was also popular. I know that some fans even created an amateurish theatre troup. I think they did plays about samurai Edo times. Many people created MVs, fanzines, comics. Manga wasn't brought to Russia by Japanese or big publishing companies. It were the fans who grew up, bought publishing rights, made their magazines and created a market for big companies to tap into later. In k-pop subfandom as well, there are lots of cover dance-groups. There is no Target to go buy albums and merch, so instead we have lots of privately owned k-pop shops.

Eastern Asian fans are prone to be involved in subfandoms as well. It helps them to run away from the pressure of their real lives. Chinese create mni-movies with their ships, Koreans like to make themed cafes, fansites make photo exhibitions. Thais translate a lot, often do charities in the name of their idols.

I'm honestly surprised how few translating teams there are in NCT fandom (into English). What happened? Is it the fault of X, or this shift to consuming only?

It takes a long time to learn something (like an editing programme), but it can be a usefull skill to earn money later. I know a few people who started with fanmade videos and became pro movie trailer makers or did ad vids for the small companies they worked at.

The Korean and Chinese fans who do fanvids are probablys students in entertainment/film industry. Lots of fanartists are professional artists, they relax and have fun drawing what they like instead of their job.

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Small, well-built Chinese EV called the Seagull poses a big threat to the US auto industry (AP) A tiny, low-priced electric car called the Seagull has American automakers and politicians trembling. The car, launched last year by Chinese automaker BYD, sells for around $12,000 in China, but drives well and is put together with craftsmanship that rivals U.S.-made electric vehicles that cost three times as much. A shorter-range version costs under $10,000. Tariffs on imported Chinese vehicles probably will keep the Seagull away from America’s shores for now, and it likely would sell for more than 12 grand if imported. But the rapid emergence of low-priced EVs from China could shake up the global auto industry in ways not seen since Japanese makers exploded on the scene during the oil crises of the 1970s. BYD, which stands for “Build Your Dreams,” could be a nightmare for the U.S. auto industry.

Mexico Prepares for a Potential Trump Win (NYT) They’re studying his interviews, bracing for mass deportations and preparing policy proposals to bring to the negotiating table. As Mexico heads toward its presidential election next month, government officials and campaign aides are also girding for a different vote: one in the United States that could return Donald Trump to the presidency. The last time Mr. Trump took office, his win surprised many of America’s allies, and his threat-filled diplomacy forced them to adapt on the go. Now, they have time to anticipate how Mr. Trump’s victory would transform relations that President Biden has tried to normalize—and they’re furiously preparing for an upheaval. For some, the memory of negotiating with Mr. Trump the last time he was in office, when he used extreme threats against Mexico, looms large. What it took to reach a deal with Mr. Trump’s team back then? “Time, patience, cold blood,” the former Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said in an interview. “You can win, if you understand this. It’s not easy.”

Russian Forces Push Deeper Into Northern Ukraine (NYT) In the past three days, Russian troops, backed by fighter jets, artillery and lethal drones, have poured across Ukraine’s northeastern border and seized at least nine villages and settlements, ­and more square miles per day than at almost any other point in the war, save the very beginning. In some places, Ukrainian troops are retreating, and Ukrainian commanders are blaming each other for the defeats. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are fleeing to Kharkiv, the nearest big city. As anxiety spreads, some hard questions loom: How far will this go? Is it just a momentary setback for the underdog Ukrainians? Or a turning point? Ukrainian soldiers, by all accounts, are exhausted. More than two years of trying to fight off a country with three times the population to draw from has left Ukraine so depleted and desperate for fresh troops that its lawmakers have voted to mobilize convicts, a controversial practice that Ukraine had ridiculed Russia for using in the first half of the war.

Russia is ramping up sabotage across Europe (Economist) The fire that broke out in the Diehl Metall factory in the Lichterfelde suburb of Berlin on May 3rd was not in itself suspicious. The facility, a metals plant, stored sulphuric acid and copper cyanide, two chemicals that can combine dangerously when ignited. Accidents happen. What raised eyebrows was the fact that Diehl’s parent company makes the iris-t air-defence system which Ukraine is using to parry Russian missiles. There is no evidence that this fire was an act of sabotage. If the idea is plausible it is because there is ample evidence that Russia’s covert war in Europe is intensifying. In April alone a clutch of alleged pro-Russian saboteurs were detained across the continent. Germany arrested two German-Russian dual nationals on suspicion of plotting attacks on American military facilities and other targets on behalf of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency. Poland arrested a man who was preparing to pass the GRU information on Rzeszow airport, the most important hub for military aid to Ukraine. Britain charged several men over an earlier arson attack in March on a Ukrainian-owned logistics firm in London whose Spanish depot was also targeted. The men are accused of aiding the Wagner Group, a mercenary group that has been active in Ukraine and is now under the GRU’s control. On May 8th Britain announced that in response to “malign activity” it was, among other steps, expelling Russia’s defence attaché, an “undeclared” GRU officer.

Georgia: Agents of foreign influence (Foreign Policy) The Georgian Parliament’s legal committee on Monday approved the third and final reading of a controversial foreign agents bill that has brought tens of thousands of Georgians to the streets in recent months to protest what they see as a Russian-style effort to chill free speech. Lawmakers took only 67 seconds to review and greenlight the legislation. Parliament is expected to pass the bill on Tuesday, and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has promised to back it. Opposition members, who have recently been denied access to Tbilisi’s main government building, did not attend Monday’s vote. Under the proposed legislation, civil society organizations and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad must register as “agents of foreign influence.” In April, the ruling Georgian Dream party introduced the bill, which is modeled after a Russian foreign agents law that President Vladimir Putin enacted in 2012 and has since used to crush dissent. Mass demonstrations have erupted in the capital in response to the proposed law, marking some of the largest rallies in Georgia since it declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

India’s mammoth election is more than halfway done as millions begin voting in fourth round (AP) Millions of Indians across 96 constituencies began casting their ballots on Monday as the country’s gigantic, six-week-long election edges past its halfway mark. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third straight term with an eye on winning a supermajority in Parliament. Monday’s polling in the fourth round of multi-phase national elections across nine states and one union territory will be pivotal for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, as it includes some of its strongholds in states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The staggered election will run until June 1 and nearly 970 million voters, more than 10% of the world’s population, will elect 543 members to the lower house of Parliament for five years. The votes are scheduled to be counted on June 4.

Malaysia’s appetite for oil and gas puts it on collision course with China (Washington Post) In the open sea off the coast of Malaysian Borneo, industrial rigs extract massive amounts of oil and gas that fuel the economy of Malaysia. Slightly beyond that, in waters Malaysia also considers its own, Chinese coast guard vessels and maritime militia boats maintain a near-constant presence, say Malaysian officials. For 10 years, their country has done little to contest them. But Malaysia is running out of oil and gas close to shore. Increasingly, it has to venture farther out to sea, raising the likelihood of direct confrontation with Chinese forces in the South China Sea. As tensions rise throughout the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest and most contested bodies of water, energy demands are drawing Malaysia deeper into the fray and testing the country’s long-standing reluctance to antagonize China, according to interviews with more than two dozen government officials, diplomats, oil and gas executives and analysts in Malaysia.

More bodies found in Indonesia after flash floods killed dozens and submerged homes (AP) Rescuers recovered more bodies Monday after monsoon rains triggered flash floods on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, bringing down torrents of cold lava and mud, leaving 41 people dead and another 17 missing. The heavy rains, along with a landslide of mud and cold lava from Mount Marapi, caused a river to breach its banks. The deluge tore through mountainside villages along four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight Saturday. The floods swept away people and submerged nearly 200 houses and buildings.

Sleepy far-flung towns in the Philippines will host US forces returning to counter China threats (AP) The far-flung coastal town of Santa Ana in the northeastern tip of the Philippine mainland has long been known by tourists mostly for its beaches, waterfalls, fireflies and a few casinos. But that’s changing after the laid-back town of about 35,000 people, which still has no traffic light, became strategically important to America. The United States and the Philippines, which are longtime treaty allies, have identified Santa Ana in northern Cagayan province as one of nine mostly rural areas where rotating batches of American forces could encamp indefinitely and store their weapons and equipment on local military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. Thousands of U.S. forces withdrew from two huge Navy and Air Force bases in the Philippines in the early 1990s at the end of the Cold War, ending nearly a century of American military presence in the country. In recent years, Washington has been reinforcing an arc of military alliances in Asia to counter an increasingly assertive China, which it now regards as its greatest security challenge.

The flow of food and other aid into Gaza has almost entirely dried up over the past week, the U.N. says. (NYT) The flow of aid into Gaza has almost entirely dried up in the past week, according to the United Nations, at a time when humanitarian agencies say the enclave needs a drastic increase in the amount of food, medicine and other goods to tackle a looming famine. Since the start of the war, most aid for Gaza has entered through two border crossings in the southern end of the territory. Israel shut down one of those, Kerem Shalom, after a Hamas rocket attack nearby killed four Israeli soldiers on May 5. The next day, Israel’s military seized and closed the second, in Rafah, on the Egyptian border, as part of what it called a “limited operation” against Hamas, bringing the flow of aid to a near-total stop.

Christian presence quickly dwindling in Gaza after seven months of war (Baptist Press) At Easter, Gaza Baptist Church leader Shady Al-Najjar described those sheltered in the church’s remnants as “too tired to suffer,” living “very difficult” and “useless” days. Al-Najjar has since fled to Egypt, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have set up shop in what remains of the church compound damaged in the war, former church pastor Hanna Massad told Baptist Press May 8. Al-Najjar is among many Christians who are fleeing Gaza with a renewed vigilance, International Christian Concern (ICC) said as the Israel-Hamas War enters its eighth month, speculating whether any Christians would remain. ICC estimated 25 percent to half of the 900 to 1,000 Christians who lived in Gaza before the war have fled, and that an additional 25 percent are applying to leave.

Hospitals overflowing in besieged Sudanese city as final battle looms (Washington Post) Dozens of people were killed in fighting in the Sudanese town of El Fashir this weekend, a civil society group said Sunday, raising fears for more than 2.5 million civilians trapped there as paramilitary forces encircle the city—the last one in the region outside their control. “Today was one of toughest days we have ever witnessed … The attack was from three directions,” wrote a member of the city’s Emergency Response Room in a message to The Washington Post. “The fighting was inside the populated areas, all kinds of weapons were used.” At least 38 civilians were killed, 189 injured and “many houses” destroyed, he said. “The hospital is calling for blood donations, they say the numbers of wounded are over their capacity.” Abdo Musa Hassan, the medical director of El Fashir South Hospital, said on Sunday he was too busy to give a death toll. But he said the hospital was already overwhelmed and patients were being treated on the ground, in a tent or on balconies. Medical resupplies had been cut off two weeks ago after the RSF seized control of the Melit area, which links El Fashir to the rest of Sudan, he said.