#ship: matlie

[ssozo]

i will not ask you where you came from / i will not ask you, neither should you / honey just put your sweet lips on my lips / we should just kiss like real people do

thank you everyone for attending volo and i's wedding! the rest of the day will be a slow queue of art of him, alongside any fics that ive written. feel free to mingle, eat a snack, and dance with us to our playlist!

[paincorpsrarefinds]

CANON F-1 35mm Film Camera Body with Removable viewfinder, Works!!

CAMERA DEALS: Seller: matli-25 (100.0% positive feedback) Location: US Condition: Used Price: 249.00 USD Shipping cost: Free Buy It Now https://www.ebay.com/itm/354484888371?hash=item5288f22333%3Ag%3AeyoAAOSwYfZjrcwn&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338779481&customid=&toolid=10049&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[prinxietyhell]

If you put two of those suggestions, you and Matt's ship name sounds like the title of a movie. Matlis: Hell Squared (I dunno why but I laughed really hard thinking about that)

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT OH MY GOD IT SOUNDS LIKE ONE OF THOSE REALLY CORNY MOVIES THAT TRIES TO BE rEAL sERIOUS(TM) BUT IS JUST. A  C L U S T E R F U C K  OF STUPID PUNS AND BAD ANIMATION, YOU KNOW??? WHAT I MEAN???

AND WORSE, IT SOUNDS LIKE A SEQUEL TO A REALLY CORNY STUPID MOVIE

AND I JUST

CAROLINA I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING THANK YOU I LOVE YOU,,,,,,,

[artsvark]

Exhibition: Death in foreign waters - SS Mendi's last voyage

MPS van der Merwe writes: The SS Mendi tragedy is remembered by Iziko Museums of South Africa at the Iziko Maritime Centre in the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

Death in foreign waters – the last voyage of the SS Mendi

An exhibition called “The last voyage of the SS Mendi: Death in foreign waters” is on permanent display.

In August 1914, war was declared between Britain and Germany. South Africa, as a British Dominion, had a constitutional obligation to support the war. During the First World War, Britain transported thousands of troops from its Dominions to the war fronts. The Royal Navy did not have enough ships to do this, necessitating the British government to charter, or purchase merchant vessels and convert them into troop carriers.

SS MENDI

Type: Steel screw steamer Official Number (ON): 120875 Code Letters: HDGP Year Launched: 1905 Shipbuilder: A Stephen & Sons, Glasgow Owners: British & African Steam Navigation Co. Ltd Managers: Elder Dempster & Co. Ltd Port of Registry: Liverpool Flag: British Engine Builder: A Stephen & Sons, Glasgow Gross Tonnage: 4 230 Net Tonnage: 2 639

Dimensions: Length: 370.2 feet (112.84 metres) Breadth: 46.2 feet (14.08 metres) Depth: 23.3 feet (7.1 metres)

The Elder Dempster Line Karina Class steel screw steamer Mendi was such a vessel (‘Mendi’ is a tribe and dialect of Sierra Leone). The SS Mendi was engaged exclusively in the important Liverpool-West Africa trade until 1916, when she was chartered by the Ministry of Transport. The ship was then fitted out as a troop transport at Lagos in Nigeria, using fittings brought from Liverpool. Holds 1, 2 and 4, were each fitted with ‘tween decks on which the troops would be quartered, while Hold 3 was reserved for cargo.

After a voyage from Lagos to Durban, the SS Mendi, under the command of Captain Henry Arthur Yardley, made for Cape Town, where the 5th Battalion of the South African Native Labour Contingent (SANLC) was embarked. It comprised five officers, 17 non-commissioned officers, and 802 enlisted labourers, together with about 1 500 tons of government cargo. The labourers were quartered in the normal passenger accommodation. The crew was berthed forward, under the quarterdeck. All of the passenger accommodation was cramped and uncomfortable, particularly for those on the ‘tween decks.

The reality of war at sea was brought home to South Africans and especially Capetonians during this time. The Seiner Majestät Schiff Wolf (IV) – probably the greatest raider of them all – left Hamburg on 30 November 1916. The disguised and armed merchant raider, or auxiliary cruiser, was in Cape Town waters on Tuesday, 16 January 1917, when her destructive visit was to start.

On 16 January 1917, the SS Mendi left Cape Town at noon and formed up in convoy with five other merchant ships: the Union-Castle mailship RMS Kenilworth Castle (II) which was also carrying South African troops as well as gold bullion, the Orient Steam Navigation Co. Ltd passenger liner SS Orsova (l), the Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd (White Star Line) liner SS Medic, the Pacific & Orient Steam Navigation Co. passenger liner SS Berrima, and the Commonwealth & Dominion Line Ltd liner SS Port Lyttelton. All these were carrying Australian troops. The six ships were escorted by the HMS Cornwall, an old British County Class cruiser armed with fourteen six-inch guns, and a speed of 24 knots.

Late that afternoon, the lookout on the Wolf (IV) reported seven vessels approaching from the direction of Cape Town. Korvettenkapitän Karl-August Nerger stood on the bridge flying the British flag as the convoy approached. His strict order stipulated that he was to avoid raiding action until he had laid most of his mines, and even from a distance he could tell that an attack would be suicidal folly. The warship was none other than HMS Cornwall, a 9 800 ton armoured cruiser that had sunk the German light cruiser Leipzig during the Battle of the Falkland Islands, and carried more than twice the fire power of the raider. The flag on the Wolf (IV) was lowered and recognised by the cruiser. The SS Mendi was on her final and catastrophic voyage. If the SMS Wolf (IV) had laid her mines earlier, the outcome for the convoy could have been disastrous.

SS DARRO

Type: Steel twin screw steamer Official Number (ON): 132026 Code Letters: JBCW Year Launched: 1912 Shipbuilder: Harland & Wolff Ltd, Belfast Owners: Imperial Direct Line Ltd Managers: Elder Dempster & Co. Ltd Port of Registry: Belfast Flag: British Engine Builder: Harland & Wolff Ltd, Belfast Gross Tonnage: 11 484 Net Tonnage: 7 291

Dimensions: Length: 500.7 feet (152.61 metres) Breadth: 62.3 feet (18.99 metres) Depth: 40.2 feet (12.25 metres)

On the afternoon of 20 February 1917, SS Mendi left Plymouth in the company of the Acorn Class (H Class) destroyer HMS Brisk (sunk by a mine on 2 October 1917). It was overcast with threatening mist, light winds and a smooth sea. At 17:30, lookouts were posted, and at 19:30, navigation lights shown. At 03:45 the following morning, conditions worsened, and an hour later the destroyer was alongside SS Mendi requesting her to increase speed, a request Captain Yardley decided not to heed immediately. Minutes later, at 04:57, the much bigger passenger and cargo ship SS Darro (launched in 1912, the same year as the RMS Titanic disaster, and by the same shipbuilders) under command of Captain Henry Winchester Stump, struck the SS Mendi with a heavy right-angled blow between No 1 and No 2 holds. The depth of the cut was about 20 feet (6 metres) below the waterline.

The SS Darro backed out of the opening shortly after striking the SS Mendi. Captain Yardley stopped the engines of the SS Mendi and ordered the boats lowered. Two boats floated and two capsized because they were overloaded. One boat was stoved in, and some were not launched. The boats had a combined capacity for only 298 men, but there were 89 crew and 824 men on board. The rest of the life-saving equipment consisted of life rafts, life rings and life jackets.

It became a struggle for life and survival, as many men were thrown into the water and many jumped into the sea rather than into the life rafts. Many SANLC men were crushed to death as the bow smashed into them where they lay on their blankets on the deck of the hold, and subsequent inrush of water, as they could not fall in at their muster stations. Panic and confusion in the darkness also played a part.

Releasing secured life rafts by untying instead of cutting the ropes wasted precious time. SANLC trooper Jacob Koos Matli saw an abandoned life raft still tied to a railing. Sixteen-year-old William Bonifacius Mathumetse was among the last to jump in the water. He splashed around helplessly, repeating the Lord’s Prayer, before struggling away and coming across two dead soldiers wearing life belts. He pulled them together to make a float, resting upon them.

The ship appears to have gone down by the head, about 20 minutes after the collision. Large numbers of the SANLC labourers and crew members ended up in the water rather than in the boats and life rafts. Trooper Matli and a crew member, William Brownlee, recalled the whirlpool that sucked down many men. A substantial amount of men subsequently died from hypothermia as the water temperature was reported to be eight degrees Celsius. The delay in assistance reaching them, and their inability to find or climb into life rafts, were other factors.

The HMS Brisk sent boats to search for survivors, and landed 137 survivors at Portsmouth after escorting the SS Darro to St Helen’s Road on the east coast of the Isle of Wight. The coal and general cargo steamer Sandsend operated by Pyman SS Co. Ltd (G Pyman & Co.), of West Hartlepool, arrived and her boats picked up 23 survivors (SS Sandsend was sunk by the German submarine UC 48 on 16 September 1917). They were subsequently transferred to the minesweeper HMS Balfour before being landed at Newhaven in Sussex.

One raft apparently made it safely to the Dorset coast with a few survivors aboard. Ndebele-speaker, Alpheus Moliwa Zagubi, and two SANLC companions, appear to have been the last survivors rescued.

The SS Darro was indeed a ship of shame. The Board of Trade Inquiry found that although the master of the SS Darro, Captain Stump, acted appropriately towards his own vessel, he had failed to render assistance to the SS Mendi. No boat was even sent to investigate or assist – and they saw two boats and a raft with survivors coming alongside. They could also hear the shouts of men in the water until about 06:30. There was nothing physically preventing rescue operations. The Inquiry concluded that the collision was caused by the excessive speed of the SS Darro and the failure of Stump to use sound signals. It was also concluded that the loss of the SS Mendi and those on board had been caused by the master of the SS Darro. His master’s certificate was therefore suspended for 12 months.

A faction within the Board of Trade differed with the findings. They were of the opinion that Stump got off lightly. His master’s certificate should have been cancelled rather than suspended. In one memo, Stump was described as “a standing menace to seafarers”.

In the book, Macqueen’s Legacy Ships of the Royal Mail Line, Stuart Nicol, makes the following mention of the Darro: “Darro was involved in a catastrophic accident in February, 1917. Its failure to appear in the Company’s war history was perhaps because it was not an act of war but, for all that the wartime ban on lights probably contributed. She was in the English Channel in foggy conditions when she was in collision with Elder Dempster’s Mendi. The latter vessel carrying South Africans sank in a few minutes and over 650 lives were lost. I have not seen reports of Darro’s losses and damage, but she was back in service by May, 1917. ”

The wreck of the SS Mendi lies roughly 11 nautical miles south-west of St Catherine’s Point on the Isle of Wight in 35-40 metres of water. The site was found in 1945 by sonar, and in 1953 a new survey resulted in an improved position of the site. In 1974, Mr Martin Woodward dived on the site, and his subsequent investigations led him to conclude that it was the wreck of the SS Mendi.

The British-based company, Wessex Archaeology, recorded the site in more detail, as did GrownUPSAC, a branch of the University of Portsmouth Sub-Aqua Club in July 2005. The SS Mendi is remembered in various ways:

SM Bennet Ncwana instituted the Mendi Memorial Club after the First World War, and kept the memory of the SS Mendi alive by an annual commemoration, Mendi Day.

In 1936 the Mendi Memorial Bursary fund was established to sponsor promising black pupils.

Several memorials in South Africa and abroad were erected over the years to commemorate the Mendi tragedy:

Hollybrook Memorial, Hollybrook Cemetery, Southampton

Bokleni Memorial, Newtimber, West Sussex

Delville Wood Memorial, Delville Wood, Belgium

Mendi Memorial and Garden of Remembrance, Avalon Cemetery, Soweto

Mendi Memorial, Atteridgeville, Pretoria

Mendi Memorial, New Brighton, Port Elizabeth

Mendi Memorial, Mthatha, Eastern Cape

Mendi Memorial, Maseru, Lesotho

Mendi Memorial, Gaborone, Botswana

Mendi Memorial, University of Cape Town

Mendi Memorial, Nyandeni, near Port St Johns

The Mendi tragedy is also remembered by the SA Navy in the naming of two of their ships, the strike craft SAS Isaac Dyobha, and the SAS Mendi, one of the new corvettes.

The Order of Mendi for Bravery is awarded to South African citizens who have displayed extraordinary acts of bravery.

The Mendi tragedy is remembered by Iziko Museums of South Africa at the Iziko Maritime Centre in the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. An exhibition called “The last voyage of the SS Mendi: Death in foreign waters” is on permanent display.

The exhibition consists of panels with images and text discussing the war, the SANNC, the SS Mendi, the tragedy and struggle and survival. Other panels are devoted to remembrance of the ship and the wreck today. Three monitors relay audio-visual documentaries regarding the tragedy and remembrance of the tragedy. There are also a few objects on display coming from the wreck of the SS Mendi, as well as a objects related to the First World War.

It is heartening that this tragedy, since 1994, now forms part of main stream history in South Africa and that the war heroes of the SS Mendi are remembered and honoured. South Africa must never forget them.

Death in foreign waters – the last voyage of the SS Mendi By MPS van der Merwe, Curator: Iziko Social History Collections Department

Exhibition: Death in foreign waters – SS Mendi’s last voyage was originally published on Artsvark

[matsitle]

#ArtLivesHere

It all starts with an inquisitive child, eyes wide open, held tilted forward, right on the edge of the frame. The problem with children – or at least mine own biggest problem with them – is that they always ask the difficult questions. It is no surprise that in some of our cultures children are usually discouraged, sometimes violently, from asking too many questions. It is even worse, I found out on Wednesday evening at the Blend Restaurant and Bar, when the question is a silent one. A stare. That is, when one is tasked with interpreting a child’s silent stare. Which is exactly what Mo Matli’s lens burdened us with at her maiden exhibition “Intrinsic Melanin” for Bloem First Fridays. The photograph of the boy is one of many adorning the Blend’s meshed wall. The boy with the menacing poser is staring down at us as we ask Rashid Vries, the main model of this exhibition, if as a person living with albinism feels black, or black “enough”. What is blackness vele? And what are the degrees to blackness – how much of it is enough? Is it the melanin perhaps? I choose to go with the photographer on this last one; ‘Intrinsic melanin’. Blackness in not just – to correct Biko’s formulation – a question of pigmentation. It is intrinsic in the centuries of dispossession (of land, labour and sense of being) that mark us all. No amount of pigmentation variations – be it natural as in the case of albinism or cosmetic as in bleaching – can alleviate blackness. Try as you might! (And I secretly root for those who try; who wouldn’t wanna escape?). I hear the boy whisper Fanon’s sagacious words to my ears; “I am over-determined from without. I am a slave not of the “idea” that others have of me but of my own appearance.” Kids and their bloody questions! I panic; can we move past the albinism of Rashid? Is he not a beautiful man – of course he is! That is the reason Mo shot him. Did he not just say he’s an engineering student? How did he manage to make the transition to being a model? And would he be doing more of this modelling thing? Can. We. Just. Not. Make. Him. A. Slave. Of. His. Appearance? We all know what that is like – it is our collective pain. We enter and nervousness engulfs the room. We attract security escorts in shops. We don’t get served in restaurants. Then why do we do it to him! But we were enslaved by his appearance – do albinos make albino babies? The boy in the top right corner of the wire mesh quizzically, even whimsically, asks a question that would’ve saved us four centuries of msunery had we knew the power to pose the question when the three ships docked at the cape; ‘aninyi perhaps?’ A question Ayanda Mabulu asks of white patrons of the #Amandla![Re]form,Debate,[Re]dress? exhibition catalogue book launch at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum the very next evening. The exhibition has been running from December last year, and it is one of the few that is decidedly black – in both the artists and the subject matter. Also curated by a black woman – another “milestone” in the museum’s history. Laughable really, the whole thing, were it not so painful. And indeed the artwork was painful. On opening night in December I thanked my imposed masculinity for not breaking down in tears when I confronted Reatile Moalusi’s photograph – titled #FMF III – of protesting students holding a placard with the words “police we are your children”. I was, in the words of Ayanda, paining. And this pain permeated through most of the artwork on display. This was, after all, ‘resistance art’. On the Thursday however, as I walked up to the Museum, I was joyously singing Makeba’s version of ‘Bahlelibonke etironkweni’. I was dancing even. Not one iota of my being told me there was something intrinsically wrong about finding joy in a song – a lamentation really – about black people (someone’s parent, child, lover) languishing in jail for daring to be. Enter Ayanda! I got to the museum and like a dog wishing to mark territory headed straight to the loo. The song still ringing in my head. I went straight for Moalusi’s photograph afterwards – it elicited fokol in me. I moved right along. All the artworks were quite. Boring even. So I gave them all a cursory look just to maintain my lie as a cultured person (we are responsible for the upkeep of our lies). One oil painting did manage to insult me though; Martin Steyn’s ‘Die land is ons land.’ A white man laying languorously on a large expanse of land. But only enough for a ‘Nxa!’ I went and took a seat and waited for the show – for that’s what it was, pre-Ayanda, a show – to get started. Sooner it ends, sooner I can check-in and say something banal like “what a lit time we had at Oliewenhuis” and live another day known as the patron of the arts. But Ayanda wasn’t about that life. When asked to introduce himself, after the flurry of self-congratulatory speeches from those involved for doing something so “radical” and other artists had literally just stood at the podium and said “Hi my name is….” and left, Ayanda recited ithakazelo zakhe. At their tale end he excused the ‘unsophisticated juvenile tongues’ of our paler counterparts and gave them a pass to just call him Ayanda. It got uncomfortable; but the kind of discomfort that makes things ‘lit’, that will have us tweet ‘bars!’, but threatens very little. He too must have noticed he was playing into the masochism (we seem to enjoy performing our pain) of the zeitgeist; a candidate for a meme. He went further. “We are not entertainers…we are not going to dance for you.” Some uncomfortable laughter could be discerned. Loso logolo ditshego akere? But how long will we hide behind laughter? He goes deeper. “You are worthy to be protested.” He tells the 1652s. We are now lodged in Fanon’s black abyss. There is no way we could laugh our way out of this one. Someone attempts to clap him off the podium. “Wait I am not done!” He must have heard IceBound on how applause kills. “This is not art…this is our pain!” He stands in front of Asanda Kupa’s “Situation right now.” A painting that painfully reminds one of the haunting line “the children are flying, bullets are dying” in Makeba’s ‘Soweto Blues’. Indeed this is our pain, it is not something to pretty up some dining room in Woodlands. “Fuck that! And fuck you.” He leaves the mic and walks away. “Thank you,” the curator, Tshegofatso Seoka, walks calmly to the stage, smiling away all that just happened. Time for the formalities is over, we hear, now let’s go mingle. But clearly her smile and infectious charm are not enough, she comes back after leaving the podium to disclaim that “Ayanda’s views” (not our collective pain, our immutable truth; just one man’s views in the melee of our wonderful freedom of competing ‘views’) do not represent the museum nor anyone who cares to distance themselves from such ‘anti-nation building’ sentiments. So much for encouraging debate! On Friday though at Pacofs “Lipstick” was looking to entertain and dance for us. But the perennial party-pooper I am (what with my constant search for meaning), what was meant to excite my baser instincts, led me to some very uncomfortable questions regarding black sensuality and femininity – the later a topic any black man must avoid like a plague in these perilous times. (Hotep policing alert!). It would seem to me, from the show and elsewhere, that black South African sensuality and femininity (I point out femininity specifically as it has been assigned by patriarchal determinism as the bastion of sensuality) is couched in white femininity on one extreme and black American sensuality at the other. It was quite telling that the women on stage all wore blond silky weaves, and displayed the Monroesque damsel in distress and non-patriarchy threatening feme fatale type of femininity. One that is very white in character. In this instance they looked to the music that'd be churned at a Mystic Boer karaoke night. All not local – important point this. When they got sensual, seductive, they looked to the Trace playlist; of course your girl B! led the pack. Again – all American. Femininity – white . Black – hypersexuality. This dichotomy is worth annals of literature. But let us not digress, the question here is where is our organic femininity and sensuality – one rooted in the soil of you will. The music says it all as to how the writer and director imagine femininity and sensuality. It is here that we need the wisdom of king Hlaudi's 90%. Music (and culture in general) influences how people imagine themselves. Music in particular speaks specifically to how we imagine ourselves in the libidinal economy. It is worth noting that when Hlaudi took the logical decision to play 90% local music on public radio, the loudest critics where Metro FM’s Sunday’s ‘love movement’ listeners. They begged profusely that 90% not apply here; as there simply weren’t enough romantic songs locally. Dare not ask what is more romantic than Masekela’s ‘Marketplace’ or Mahlasela’s ‘Kuyobanjani’. It became apparent then that South Africans don’t deem ourselves capable loving – being romantic – on our own terms (not that we do much on our own terms, the colony we are). This is especially surprising from a people that (admittedly mostly when selling ourselves to tourists) describe ourselves as ‘musical’. We can compose a struggle song one time! – as Tatz Nkonzo ably demonstrated – but to express the love in our heart, we need to cross the sea and search for our dictionaries and twangs (the current Lesedi FM TV advert is a welcomed deviation from this abnormality). This is highly disturbing. It also explains why Babes Wodumo blew up so big; despite a largely mediocre album. She represented something that has been absent from South Africa’s popular imagination for a long time; authentic township black female sensuality. Lipstick though stuck to the colonial script; no “I love Hansa and fucking” Brendaesque ‘bad girl’ sensuality, or cheesegirl fragile femininity was invoked. Never mind a new kind of black femininity or sensuality outside the confines (be it submission or rejection) of patriarchy being imagined anew. But because God is a lesbian and o hana ka seatla, there was another happening not too far (listen to me lie!) from Pacofs where we could surely not suffer the dearth of local music. Protential Inc. was hosting ‘Love & Hip Hop’ at Club Zanadu. The people were beautiful; all seemed to be genuinely happy to see us. We were home. We were happy. The line-up was packed, the stage was never lonely – Mafia Code especially owned that space, their energy and fresh sound (christened Koriana-Trap) puts them miles apart of most upcoming and established artists. The bar too. Conversation centred around there – a few pleasantries were exchanged, not enough insults, and mild curves all fought for space on that counter. The pool tables too had plenty of company. It was a Dostoyevsky paradise – everyone had somewhere to turn to. Local music too aplenty – but the incorrigible amongst us insisted that the DJ must play local local music, from Bloemfontein, from the Free State. “Don’t all these rappers dotting the place have EPs? Play those!” But they were sad to learn that rappers were begged to submit music for the playlist but dololo. ‘So what to can must happen?’ the organisers asked. These people and their bloody questions! We thus failed dismally to Hlaudirise that set. CJ though – still very much part of Simple Stories! – heeded Hlaudi’s leadership somewhat on Saturday evening at the Blend. His set, an eclectic mix of original compositions and covers, had a healthy dose of South African covers. One novel thing he did was to cover a living and still active South African artist – Zahara. This was refreshing as our local artists, on the rare occasion that they do cover local songs (ironic this), stick with the dead – the “legends” (another word Rampolokeng warns us about). I guess this gives credence somewhat to Mosoeu’s gripe that all black people are good for is dying. CJ and his girlfriend also set the bar high, and simultaneously cut wings of unsupportive lovers, by Skyping throughout his performance – twas the romantic thing ever! So long as there is an IP address no lovers should be apart on such occasions. He dedicated a song to the three of us sitting in the front row, about women who bluetick us kanti they’re curving the greatest experience they could ever have. He was right, as least in my case (coz vele mna yhu ndiGreat, ndiWow, in this thing of loving), and for that I will give him a pass for (correctly, we must concede) assuming our sexuality and relationship status. We were all shocked when he confessed, on a Beyoncé classic, to having a big dick – aaram skepsel. But artist are known for revealing a bit too much of themselves. We just sang along; sans the confession. He led us through a medley of emotions and genres. We travelled from RSA to UK to USA and back home. All the time, like a good captain, he kept us in the loop. And landed us safely into the comfortable bosom of the night. A lovely cloudy cool night. We were free to do the things that made the pots disappear. When all was said and done, all that could be done the Sunday after the Saturday was braai meat, recount our failures and plan for more so that we can fail better next time, all because #ArtLivesHere.

[ssozo]

the proposal

matli/volo, word count: 370. pure fluff :3

it's a quiet morning. both matli and volo had risen only an hour previously, but mornings came easily to the duo. volo sits cross legged in front of matli, who is weaving flowers into his devotee's hair.

matli hums an old song, one he had long forgotten the words for but could never forget the melody, as his fingers twist and plait through volo's long, silken locks.

volo is silent, eyes closed and deep in bliss at the sensation of nails scratching at his scalp, when his god stops humming to speak.

"my love," matli begins, "my disciple. we have lived in domestic comfort for so long. you have laid your darkest secrets at my altar, and i have come undone at your prayers. i know you, i see you, i honor you- and i must ask you a question."

volo twists around to look at matli's face. the grey haired god looks down, a light blush dusting his cheekbones. he raises a hand and caresses matli's cheek, the smaller man leaning into the touch.

"of course, matli. ask me anything."

"i… i know our bond is stronger than anyone can ever put words to. i know that our souls are intertwined. so… even if you say no, i am comforted by these truths."

volo simply tilts his head.

"volo… will you do me the honor of not only being my priest, of being my warrior of hisui, of being my sun and stars, but also… being my husband?"

both of them sit in silence, matli's eyes closed and eyebrows furrowed, as if bracing himself to hear a refusal. the silence stretches onwards, thicker than the stickiest combee honey, and in anxiety matli speaks again.

"i'm sorry. it was a stupid question- i shouldn't have even asked-"

matli is stopped mid-sentence by volo kissing him. the blond man peppers kisses all over his god's face, laughing with joy.

"yes, yes, yes! a thousand, a million times yes! nothing would make me happier!"

he kisses the tears that run down matli's cheeks, kisses the dimples in his smile, runs his hands through his grey hair and touches, touches, touches all over, as if to drink in every sensation of this moment.

[ssozo]

matli's voice cracks during a really important long sustained note while hes singing and while hes hiding his face embarssed volo slowly pulls his hands away from his scarlet cheeks and smiles. matli puts his hands down and volo tilts his chin up with his own hand to make eye contact.

he kisses matli, a chaste one on the lips that flusters the other man more, and says in his usual chipper voice: "it's okay, my love. you're okay. i thought your voice sounded lovely, and if you want to sing more, you can. dont let one mistake stop you."

and matli is hesitant. he knows volo won't pressure him to sing more if he doesn't want to, but he also recalls how volo's eyes squinted upwards, how he seemed to sway his head to the sound and fall into the rhythm. and matli breaks into song once again

[ssozo]

If you're still doing them: 🤪🙈🎞️ for Matli!!! -frankmillerturnonyourlocation

thank you emerson!!!! @frankmillerturnonyourlocation

🤪: What is your trait that fanon would exaggerate?

that's a good question! i think popular fanon would exaggerate his "i want to be dramatic but i'm actually a mess" and leave out why he's a mess- went cold turkey on his antipsychotics and forgot he took them at all.

🙈: Why would your ship be thought of as cute/fluffy? Why would your ship be considered problematic?

it's fluffy because these two genuinely care about each other and you can see it every time youre in a room with them. they radiate love with every sappy glance

its problematic because of the nature of their relationship: god and priest, worshiped and worshiper. volo encourages matli's delusions, because he wants it to be true too.

🎞️: What ‘canon’ scenes would the fandom point to as evidence for the validity of your ship?

there are a few- the first meeting, where matli re-injures his knee running from a wild pokemon and volo helps him catch the pokemon (a shiny eevee) and walks him back to jubilee village; the scene where matli confesses feeling like a god and volo believes him; and the confrontation at mount sinnoh after the player character defeats volo and giratina.

[ssozo]

and maybe 4 and 9 for volo

already done 9 for volo!

injury + volo/matli

content warnings: none

matli hears the cry of the wild pokémon before he has time to react, and he yeets himself ass over teakettle into the nearest bush in a panicked dodge roll. it is only after he finds himself falling through midair that he realizes that it was not a regular bush, but a boundary hiding a cliff ledge.

he's only been in hisui a week, and he's going to die by falling off a cliff. how typical.

well, perhaps the word "cliff" is misleading. it's certainly a high enough distance that one would want to find another path to the bottom, but the slope is gentle enough that it's more of a very aggressive hill.

'very aggressive' my finely sculpted ass, thinks matli as he tumbles downwards. he can feel the bruises and cuts mark themselves on his skin. it was going to be a miserable limp back home, assuming he even would make it back to jubilife village.

as he lands, he hears the tell-tale sound of soft footprints approaching him. sure enough, he sees the cheery yellow-and-blue design of the gingko guild uniform, and a blond man offers him a hand up.

"that was quite a tumble you took, my friend. my name is volo. and you are?"

"i remember seeing you before. you're beni's assistant, yes? you're outside the city gates rather late. do you need an escort home?"

matli swears under his breath, knee buckling over the newfound stress his injuries have given him. the stranger, volo, shifts his grip and holds matli up.

"matli," he mumbles. "my name is matli."

matli, still stunned from his fall, simply nods and accepts volo's assistance on the long, long trip home.

[ssozo]

Pre relationship 4 and 6!!!

u did not specify a ship so im gonna do it with matli and volo, hope u dont mind!

4. Who felt romantic feelings first?

definitely matli! he started sneaking out of jubilife village to follow volo around hisui bc hes a little freak who doesnt know how to process his feelings

6. If you had told one of them that the other would be their soulmate, what would they think?

depends on who you said it to! matli would say something like "oh thank fucking god" but volo would be like "...on god?"

[ssozo]

"do you ever wear anything besides that merchant uniform?" matli asks, pressing an ear against volo's chest to listen to the tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump of the blond man's heart.

they're laying on the couch, matli resting on top of volo. nobody will bother them in this moment. nobody knows where they are.

volo responds in kind by walking two fingers up matli's shoulders and across his chin before playfully tapping his nose.

"do you wear anything besides that turtle neck and fluffy white boa?"

matli harrumphs, which is admitting defeat.

"touché."

[ssozo]

matli sends an email to turo while he's in area zero "hey babe, wondering when you are heading home. arven got in a fight with another kid at school today and he is suspended for the week. his 10th birthday is next week, would love it if you made an appearance. xoxoxo matli"

[ssozo]

matli babysitting a little infant arven when turo is still doing a lot of his research and ends up taking baby out to the park and other people are like "wowww it must be so hard being a single father :(" meanwhile he and arven dont even necessarily look alike

[ssozo]

matli is not a particularly athletic person and honestly i would almost go as far as to call him disabled what with his knee injury but that does not stop him from sneaking out of jubilife village every night to spend hours poking around old ruins with volo

[ssozo]

1 4 5 and 11 from the asks u just rbd!

1. have you gained any new F/Os this year?

ALL OF THEM LOL i just started selfshipping in january! most recent are tony and turo tho

4 already answered here!

5. regardless of who you'd pick for the previous question, which F/O would you say you spent the most time with this year?

prooobably volo? his and matlis story is definitely the most thought out bc of it XD

11. has an F/O inspired you to pick up a new hobby/interest/habit this year?

not really! closest would be that they all got me to write a lot more

[ssozo]

need yall to understand that matli 100% believes he is a god in a human body and volo not only encourages this thought process but also helps plant the idea in his head

this is directly meant to parallel my own delusions as a psychotic person and helps me process my own feelings