#spring anime 2016

[pixiedrake]

[anisongoftheday]

Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Season 1 Ending 1

STYX HELIX by MYTH & ROID

[ariellpb]

dear diary, today was so #fun!! i’ve started my day by waking up, duhhh xD

i called my best friend and we planned on playing #Animal Jam!! we made such a bop in the famous #Pillow Room :p look at thattt oh my gosh (^•^)

everyone, yes you are reading this right everyone was pink!! we started by just being three, and with a little bit of magic; here we are, living the pink dream <3 thank you everybody for joining the pink movement, meant so much <3 i love Animal Jam so much!! :’) so much nostalgia!

everybody here emoting for the picture x) so much fun! <3 love you everyone xoxo <3

-Ari💕

[beautifully-lumpy]

NEW CADDICARUS LOGO ALERT BABES!!!

[hardworkandguts]

Flying Witch

ふらいんぐうぃっち

(Anime + Manga)

Iyashikei by Chihiro Ishizuka

Era: 2010s, 2020s.

Rating: B

Plot: Turning 15, witches are considered adults and are expected to leave home and live independently to learn their craft. Makoto's parents, however, preferred she went to live with their family in Aomori, rural northern Japan, and that she finishes high school because being a witch doesn't earn a living the way it used to.

Length: 12 episodes, around 80 chapters (manga ongoing)

Thoughts: I'm not a historian, although for all that matters, I think Kiki's Delivery Service, which might be my favourite Ghibli movie, is a key point of the development of iyashikei, the "turn off your brain and just vibe in very low frequency mode" variant of slice of life, also probably my favourite genre. Flying Witch kinda feels like it's riffing on the same idea, and the results are pretty solid. You can expect the usual stories from this sort of show: Makoto learning about things like farming, gathering and cooking wild herbs, dealing with her Ryoga syndrome, learning to be a witch and meeting other witches, whose existence is apparently the worst kept secret in this world. The rest of the cast include her cat familiar Chito, her second cousins, Chinatsu and Kei, schoolmate Nao, uncle Keiji and aunt Nana, who is always very unfazed by the weird characters Makoto takes home, like her older sister Akane, a powerful witch who now travels around the world, Inukai, a witch living in the area who was transformed into a half-dog after eating one of Akane's chocolates, or the friendly but spooky Spring harbinger. There's also the Cafe Concrucio, a hangout for the local witches and other supernatural beings which could be a show by itself. It's a very relaxed show you can just sit back for 25 minutes and see where things go knowing there isn't much drama or anything.

Technically, it's an incredible looking anime. The backgrounds are filled with detail, and the additional texturing/shading on the characters make them look less out of place than in other shows who do this kind of background work. It's just subtle enough to make everything look in place, but not enough to get you distracted if they're 3D models or something like that.

Jumping into the manga, the adaptation stops around chapter 25, and is pretty faithful other than some additional padding to the stories to make them fit the runtime, and I feel a bit more focus on the iyashikei side of it. The manga remains mostly episodic, with characters also progressing in their abilities, and feature some world-building, such as the Witches Association assigning them jobs and their role in protecting their existence a secret. In general, going back to the start, I feel the more the story advances, the more it gets a kinds of Ghibli adventure feel, the adaptation covers the flying whale chapter, but it later adds others such as the Maneki-neko temple during Makoto's visit back to Yokohama, the mini Mandrakes also wouldn't be that far off as characters. It has a bit more stuff happening but generally it doesn't drag the suspense for more than it has to.

Recommended to: iyashikei fans.

Plus:

Oof, the adaptation is absolutely gorgeous.

Very relaxing, without being too much of a thing where nothing happens.

Minus:

As the manga gets more into magic, it loses a bit of that touch in common with the regular world.

[rabbitcruiser]

Howl at the Moon Day

The wolf has been a powerful symbol throughout all of mythology, whether we reference Fenris Wolf who was set to devour the world during Ragnarok, or Romulus and Remus who were raised by wolves to create the foundation of the Roman Empire, the most powerful empire of all time. They have been the subject of powerfully moving art, the once popular and now embarrassing three-wolf moon shirt, and more song themes than one can shake a proverbial stick at.

Part time monstrous, part time noble, no other animal has been quite as controversial as the Wolf, but one thing remains constant throughout. Wolves are regularly shown as howling at the moon, and Howl at the Moon day is your opportunity to join them in their celebration of the wild.

History of Howl at the Moon Day

In many parts of the world Wolves are seen as pest animals, harassing livestock and endangering pets, this has led to severe over-hunting and recovery efforts can get costly. Wolves are wonderful and majestic animals, and are a vital part of the world’s ecology. Howl at the Moon Day was organized to help educate people on them, and to help organizations like Wolf Haven generate funds and get the word out on Wolf Conservation.

How to Celebrate Howl at the Moon Day

You can keep things literal in your Howl at the Moon Day celebrations, and merely take a step outside and give the celestial orb in the sky a great big howling hello. You can get groups of friends together and head out to the forests and build a bonfire under a dark autumn night, and how to the crisp and clear skies overhead and the moon that hangs there like a giant eye watching over the world at large.

It’s life – a new kind of life. Open your eyes, Dean. See what I see. Feel what I feel. And let’s go take a howl at that moon.

For the more altruistically minded, you can gather up plans to put together a fund-raising event for your local wolf conservatory.

On a more metaphorical note, Howling the Moon can represent breaking free of the traditional and standard, to stare into the dark night and away from the sane light of convention and civilization. Howl at the Moon night can be your opportunity to just cut free, do something wild and unexpected, and just let the wild in you out for an evening.

Source

[evadingreallife]

@gigguk you just had to say tumblr was dead didnt you, the surprise omegaverse anime was just karma doing its job now ahsksbskshsksl

[bogleech]

my breaking point with the bugs polls is that I don’t think worms are bugs. Idk what they are but those aren’t bugs. And then it seems like if you exclude that you can’t have ocean bugs (crustaceans)

Soft is not bugs except spiders and centipedes I guess are still bugs. This is hard

Technically, all insects are crustaceans, but arachnids are not crustaceans :) "Worm" on the other hand isn't a scientific grouping at all, but a name we gave to a body shape. It used to apply to snakes, too, and even lizards I think, like I mean in old OLD english, but now we only use "worm" if the long noodly animal is boneless.

Major groups that consist almost entirely of "worms" are as follows!

ANNELIDA: earthworms, leeches and polychaetes! These have complex organ systems including multiple brains and hearts, and some species can have eyes, jaws and tentacles!

NEMATODA: their own thing, the nematodes, though there's evidence they may share a lot of ancestry with arthropods??? They aren't technically in segments, with their outer cuticle being one piece (though it can be ribbed and "look" segmented). Also includes famous parasites like pinworms and the guinea worm but most of them are tiny little things living everywhere in the world, even in desert sand, perpetual snow, boiling springs and the deep sea abyss.

NEMATOMORPHA: the horsehair worms, almost all parasites of arthropods for whatever reason, which used to be mistaken for long nematodes but turned out to be their own phylum. The adults, which don't feed, have to reproduce in water, so they either live in aquatic hosts, or they live in land insects and force them to drown :)

PLATYHELMINTHES: planarians and other flatworms, including the parasitic flukes and tapeworms. This animal group has no organs or blood! They are just sheets of living tissue that's almost all the same, except for some external adaptations like suckers or feelers or different color patterns, feeding through a simple digestive channel some species can also evert like a tube. If you cut them up, all the pieces are flatworms and just grow back!

HEMICHORDATA: "acorn worms," but the "chordata" in their name might clue you in that these are actually more related to us vertebrates than they are to other animal phyla, retaining a nerve cord like the one that became our backbones millions of years ago.

NEMERTEA: ribbon worms, also sometimes called proboscis worms because a lot of them have a proboscis. A little more complex than flatworms but not by much! Otherwise not related.

XENOCOELOMORPHA: we thought these were just part of the flatworms until 2011, and we only knew of one species until 2016, when we discovered another three or four. This photo is one of the new ones, which we named Xenoturbella churro.

These are all distinct phylums of life, no more or less related to arthropods than arthropods are to them or to us and vice versa, and there's also worm-type animals in the mollusks and cnidaria! So if any kind of "worm" is a bug, they would all have to be, and then "bug" really would just mean MOST animals that exist of just whatever groups! Which, personally I agree is completely allowed if you feel like using it that way!

[talesfromthecrypts]

What are some movies that you’d recommend that use a lot of good practical effects?

Ok knowing that practical effects is going to cover a wide range of things (makeup effects, in camera effects, puppets, gore):

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

Vampyr (1932)

King Kong (1933)

The Invisible Man (1933)

The Wolf Man (1941)

Godzilla (1954)

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

Viy (1967)

The Exorcist (1973)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Alien (1979) (of course)

The Beyond (1981)

The Howling (1981)

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

The Thing (1982)

Basketcase (1982)

The Dark Crystal (1982) (not horror but its my buddy)

Creepshow (1982)

Videodrome (1983)

The Company of Wolves (1984)

Gremlins (1984)

Day of the Dead (1985)

Fright Night (1985)

Re-Animator (1985)

Aliens (1986)

The Fly (1986)

From Beyond (1986)

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

The Gate (1987)

Hellraiser (1987)

Bad Taste (1987)

Robocop (1987)

The Blob (1988)

Pumpkinhead (1988)

Society (1989)

Nightbreed (1990)

Tremors (1990)

Arachnophobia (1990)

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Starship Troopers (1997) (not horror in the slightest but the bugs look so fucking good)

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Hatchet (2006)

Martyrs (2008)

Evil Dead (2013) (as far as I'm aware all effects except the first are practical)

Clown (2014)

Spring (2014)

Krampus (2015) (Krampus himself is all practical)

The Void (2016)

Rabid (2019)

The Sadness (2021)

Hatching (2022)

[thefoxholecast]

The Original Foxhole Court Extra Content (Archived from Nora Sakavic’s Tumblr)

We copied the following text directly from the pre-2024 version of the Foxhole Court Extra Content page on Nora Sakavic’s Tumblr blog (korakos.tumblr.com/fox). In March 2024, she did “some spring cleaning” by shortening the list of links and deleting/hiding old posts. The links in this copy lead to archived snapshots of the old posts on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Some of the links are broken. If you have copies of these posts, please let us know so we can fill in missing content!

Because Tumblr only allows up to 100 links per post, we're unable to replicate the full list here. View the full list of links on our blog here: thefoxholecast.tumblr.com/FoxArchive

The Foxhole Court

ETA 2023: most of the posts here are from 2013-2015. Some of them overlap with older drafts. Some answers have evolved over time, even if they haven’t been updated here. Most I haven’t changed my mind on, for better or worse. Take ‘em or leave ‘em, and good luck making sense of ‘em around all the drunk rambling and detours. One day if I have the energy I’ll just sort it into a coherent reference.

~~

Two sections here: the questions submitted by tumblr users, and a miscellaneous collection of stories & factoids pulled from the oft-neglected blog. The questions aren’t in any particular order, though I did try to organize them by subject matter. Ish. Once the dust is settled a bit I’ll try to find a better sorting system. Also, the tumblr tag I use for questions is http://korakos.tumblr.com/tagged/foxhole-court-questions-and-spoilers

Lots of spoilers for The Foxhole Court ahead!

Preface: Why are Asks disabled in 2016?

COURTING MADNESS

—Exy Rules & Regulations

—Exy: A History of the Sport

—Palmetto State University

—The original “What Happens After King’s Men” post

—SON NEFES, the cousins’ freshman year through Renee’s eyes

——One . Two . Three . Four . Five

—Nicky Hemmick

—Seth Gordon

—Aaron Minyard

—Matt Boyd

—Kevin & Andrew

—David Wymack & the Monsters

—Wymack & Andrew re: Neil

—Dan Wilds is recruited to the Foxes *

—Allison through Dan & Renee’s eyes *

——pulled from an abandoned, unfinished book about the Foxes’ women

TUMBLR

NEIL

—Neil’s life on the run

—Do they ever celebrate Neil’s birthday?

—What if Neil told the truth earlier?

—Neil through the Foxes’ eyes

—Neil through Ichirou’s eyes

—Neil’s looks post-book and relationship with his reflection

—Does Neil ever talk to Bee?

—Neil’s millions

—Neil’s fight training

—Who’s Neil closest to beside Andrew

—Neil’s fashion style

—Cellphone ringtone

—Christmas/birthday presents for Foxes

—Does Neil ever cry?

—Neil’s lonely fifth year

—When Neil’s overwhelmed

—Does Neil crush on his teammates?

—Neil & Ichirou’s intimidation

ANDREW

—Andrew’s sober look at his teammates & Neil

—How did Andrew react to Cass’s letter?

—Andrew’s medication and the follow-up

—Has Abby seen Andrew’s scars?

—Andrew & Mama Bee

—Andrew & Roland

—How far has Andrew willingly gone?

—What animal figurine did Andrew buy Betsy?

—Andrew’s eye color

—Andrew’s opinion of the cats

—What’d Andrew say to Nicky in TKM?

—Andrew’s honest opinion of Exy

—Andrew’s thoughts on Neil’s binder

—Andrew and his sexuality

—If Andrew had met Neil’s mother

—Andrew’s thoughts on Neil’s sexuality

—Andrew’s fondest memory of Neil

—Andrew’s aforementioned withdrawal

—Do you think Andrew is really really really awesome?

—Proust and Andrew

—What happens to Proust?

—Andrew’s reaction to Neil’s bday blood

—Andrew on Neil eventually changing out

—Does Andrew get grumpy?

—Does Andrew get less dead inside?

—Does Andrew call Neil by his name?

—Why give the Foxes crackers?

—Andrew’s first choices in winning a fight

—Who liked knives?

—What got chopped from Drake’s arc?

—Does Andrew get off thinking about Neil?

—Post Andrew & Bee’s side story?

—When did Andrew start thinking Neil was interesting?

—Any other words he can’t stand?

—What does he think about nicknames?

—Explain Andrew’s fatal disease in the comic version

—Andrew’s canon mental state

—How did Andrew not know about Tilda’s abuse?

—Why punch Neil for “Sorry”, and when Andrew is sick

—What’s with Andrew and promises

—Andrew’s thoughts on Roland’s premature confession

—Andrew’s arrest

—Wanting nothing vs not wanting anything

—Why was Andrew laughing after Drake?

—If Neil had chosen Dan & Matt over Andrew

NEIL & ANDREW

—The other 10%

—Which teammate caught on first?

—Do Andrew & Neil go on dates?

—When did they first hold hands?

—When did Andrew clue in?

—Exites self-censure

—Betsy’s & Aaron’s reactions to the news

—Roland’s opinion of things

—The breaking point

—Who tops?

—On tying people up

—Their domestic life aka Sir Fat Cat

—I love you

—Andrew and the bed issue

—Nightmares

—Do they learn to talk to each other?

—Blaming Neil for Drake

—Andrew comforting Neil?

—Neil’s fondest memory of Andrew

—Neil getting Andrew off for the first time

—Neil seeing Andrew naked

—Neil & the sex how-to

—How was the first time

—Where’d it happen?

—When was their first hug?

—“I won’t let you let me be”

—Their roadtrips

—Neil waking Andrew up

—Andrew’s real smile

—How does Andrew show appreciation for Neil

—Their happiest moments

—Does Neil ever make Andrew laugh?

—Does Andrew take comfort in Neil

—Does Andrew get protective/possessive?

—Doesn’t Neil crave affection?

—Andrew re: Neil’s panic attacks

—Media reaction to Andrew/Neil

—Further reaction to Andrew/Neil

—On “accidentally” sitting in laps

—What if Andrew died?

—What if Neil died?

—Reaction to getting hit on by others

—Do they celebrate anniversaries?

—The first time Neil pushes Andrew down

FOXES

—How tall are the Foxes?

—Why is everyone so short?

—Where did their names come from?

—What were their majors?

—What do the Foxes look like?

—What are their Hogwarts houses?

—Reaction to the kidnapping

—Do Neil & Renee become friends?

—What did Allison do with Seth’s urn?

—Nicky’s evolution over the drafts

—Do the Foxes get their skiing trip?

—Does Andrew know Nicky kissed Neil?

—When did Aaron & Katelyn fall for each other?

—How did Andrew and Wymack end up handcuffed together?

—Kevin’s favorite things

—Kevin and Andrew’s on-court kerfuffle

—Dan’s haircut

—Dan & Matt’s relationship

—Dan & Matt’s first kiss

—Matt bouncing back from Columbia

—Matt rooming with the monsters

—The other what-if OT3 aka D/M/N and the dynamic

—Do Allison and Renee have the hots for each other?

—Matt forgiving his father

—Any mistletoe shenanigans?

—Thanksgiving and the Foxes

—Kevin’s best friend

—Janie Smalls

—How did Kevin and Thea meet?

—Foxes’ favorite ice cream flavors

—Kevin & Andrew’s on-court argument

—Foxes’ taste in music

—Kevin’s middle name & drink of choice

—Do Kevin & Neil want to kiss?

—Which Fox would Kevin kiss, then?

—Kevin’s best non-Exy memory

—Allison’s three bets

—Why is Allison’s middle name Jamaica

—Kevin, Andrew, and Neil staying friends

—“Joan of Exy”?

—Can the Foxes sing?

—Some of the Foxes’ previous bets

—Do Nicky & Allison become friends?

—Are Foxes based on RL people?

—Nicky when Neil asks about friendship

—Dan & the monsters in Columbia

—What if Kevin was killed?

—Renee and her near-death experiences

—More background available on Renee?

—Why doesn’t Aaron let the Foxes in?

—Team’s reaction to Drake, Andrew’s reaction to being outed

—Andrew & Aaron’s time with Tilda

—Does Aaron reconcile with Andrew over Tilda?

—Nicky & his parents after Drake

—Foxes thoughts in Baltimore

FOXES POST-TKM

—The Pro Teams

—The Weddings

—Neil as the Best Man?

—Kevin after TKM —Thea, Jean, Foxes, and Riko

—How does Kevin & Wymack’s relationship evolve?

—Renee after TKM

—Nicky after TKM

—Aaron after TKM

—Allison after TKM

—Dan & Matt after TKM

—Dan and the US Court

—Any pro-period scandals?

—Andrew & Neil’s relationship with their team

—Would Neil hold Matt’s children?

—Neil & babysitting the Foxes’ kids

—Which Fox’s child would curse first

THE FUTURE FOXES

—Who is Robin Cross?

—Neil and Jack

—Andrew’s reaction to Neil punching Jack

—Foxes’ reaction to Neil punching

—Kevin and Jack

—Neil’s new recruit

—Andrew and Jack

RIVALS

—Who is Riko Moriyama?

—Riko & Kevin’s evolving relationship

—More about Riko & Kevin’s past

—How did Riko break Kevin’s hand

—Riko’s brutality toward Jean

—Any draft where Riko wasn’t killed?

—Were Riko, Kevin, and Jean involved sexually?

—Does the Fox-Trojan rematch happen? Also how do the Trojans & Jean get along?

—Do Alvarez & Laila (Trojans) have backstories?

—Thea’s number & thoughts on Raven brutality

THE “ADULTS”

—Kayleigh Day & David Wymack

—Abby Winfield & David Wymack

—Wymack’s parents

—Did Wymack cry during the trilogy?

—Did Kayleigh know about the Moriyamas?

.

.

.

.

Nora & the Foxes

—Fancast and Andrew

—Changing opinion of Foxes over the years

—Bits of the scrapped K/N/A threesome here and here

—The KxAxN AU where Kevin died

—Will there be a sequel?

—What inspired you to develop Exy?

—Fox fanfictions, collected by coldsaturn

—Why a pseudonym?

—What came first, characters or story?

—Were you the artist of the comic version?

—What did the comic-Foxes look like?

—What do you do when you’re not writing?

[narizaki]

spring's  in  your  blood  ―  h. shoyo

tags   4+1,   gn!reader,   very light angst i think?,   fluff

notes   the four seasons that pass in shoyo's absence and the one that doesn't,   wc 2.4k,   this has been rotting in my drafts for like 3 weeks

spring 2016

spring represents many things.

come the new season, spring marks the end of winter. it greets you with blooming flowers and budding trees and animals awakening from their slumber. it rewards you for surviving the desolate season just a month before; the one that was full of powdery snow and gray clouds and the seemingly bottomless pit in your gut. 

it signifies the beginning of many things. like the new school year, where you meet dozens of new people and get lost in the hallways and try to keep up with your work. or a new job, where you (once again) have to acclimatize to a new environment in addition to the endless list of demands. 

spring symbolizes hope — the birth of something new and shiny and ready for taking. 

what people forget, though, is that loss waits for no one. it comes when it wants to; all at once or one at a time, until you’re so full of it that you’re not sure what to do anymore. it forces you to curl into a ball at the end of your bed, your breath the only thing keeping you warm.

you lost many things during spring. 

your youth, for one. graduations are meant to be happy ceremonies — celebrating the student for their years of hard work, and wishing them good luck in their future endeavors. 

to you, graduation was only a bitter reminder that you and your friends were going separate ways. that you were growing up.

the loss of your relationships followed your youth. even if the majority of your friends weren’t moving far, if at all, there was a mutual understanding that your relationships would drift. it was only natural — balancing friendships with work and school became tiring after a while. when you had sulked over the change of pace, tsukishima had called you stupid and dramatic. 

but when you both stood next to each other in the chill of the airport, you knew he understood. 

hinata shoyo was someone important to both of you, even if the blonde would rather die than agree. that’s okay — you’d rather have shoyo to yourself.

spring is when you lost shoyo. when he flew across the world to pursue his dreams and to get better so he could continue doing something he loved. you understood; shoyo had been headstrong and put his all into everything he did, even the most mundane. he would go to the ends of the earth if it meant he could keep playing volleyball, and that’s exactly what he did.

it was why you fell in love with him, so you let him go.

summer 2016

you don’t think you’ll ever get used to the summer heat, in the same way you don’t think you’ll ever get used to shoyo being across the world. 

tsukishima might’ve been right when he called you dramatic — it’s only been a few months and you think you’ve already been depleted of shoyo, with his bright orange hair and his endless amount of stamina and the positive energy he radiated no matter the circumstances.

he’s kept steady contact with you since his departure, much to your surprise. you’d thought the boy would get too caught up in his head admiring the new scenery and people — so when the first phone call you get is at 3 in the morning the day after he leaves, you’re equally surprised as you are confused. 

“ah, sorry!” he exclaimed, having heard you yawn into the phone. “i can call you back later. i forgot what time it was over there. i’m sorry!” 

you could only let out a small, tired laugh, telling him it was fine and that any contact was better than none.

neither of you get used to the time difference. shoyo still calls you at ungodly hours in the morning, profusely apologizing when you wake up bleary-eyed with a raspy voice because it’s the middle of the afternoon in brazil. you still call him at the start of each day, when it’s far too late for an athlete to be awake. 

he always picks up.

you don't mention it, nor do you allow yourself to think too deeply about it.

the two of you talk about everything and nothing at once. shoyo tells you of his introverted roommate and his new job as a delivery boy — you think the way he gushes over the bike he uses to commute is cute. you talk about your job, and how he should be glad he decided to not go to college because fuck does it suck. you’ve pulled more all-nighters than you have in your entire life within the few months that have passed. 

“did you ever find your wallet?” you ask. shoyo had texted you a week ago, sulking over how someone plucked his wallet from his back pocket when he got lost. you knew it was special to him — natsu had gotten him it, after all. 

“no, i didn’t,” he sighs, and you frown. “but! i did run into oikawa!” 

“ah, yeah,” you giggle, “saw the photo you sent. did you send it to kageyama?” 

“sure did! had to show off to him,” he bragged, “oikawa and i went to one of my favorite restaurants. think he helped me out of my slump from losing my wallet. hey, if you ever come to brazil, i’ll be sure to bring you there!” 

“i’ll be waiting. and, slump?” you question. you knew losing something valuable would suck for anyone, but you weren’t aware it’d pulled the spiker into a depressed state. it wasn't in shoyo’s nature to be depressed, you mused. typically, he was the one pulling people out of their slumps. 

“yeah, i got all homesick and stuff when i found out i lost it,” shoyo replies, much quieter. “it was like i lost a piece of home, y’know. i miss you guys.” his voice trails off at the end, an almost melancholy hint to it. 

you’re unsure what to say — in your few years of knowing him, you can count the number of times you've seen shoyo genuinely upset on one hand. you hope your hum of understanding comforts him. 

“well, if it makes you feel any better, everyone back here misses you too.” 

you resist the urge to say that you miss him.

“i’d hope so,” is his reply.

fall 2017

fall welcomes you kindly. you become better-accustomed with managing your time, and school no longer has as harsh of a hold on you as it did during the blazing months of summer in your first year of college. a soothing chill has settled along the city — not cold enough to make your nose twitch and turn red, but you’ve started wearing an extra layer and covering your neck with the scarf you bought with shoyo when you were second years. 

you and shoyo still talk rather often — although the phone calls have noticeably slowed, as he’s found himself a solid partner for beach volleyball. heitor, if you recall correctly. you suppose it’s your fault as much as it is his, even if you know you could never truly blame him. while you have gotten better at balancing schoolwork, it’s only diminished the small amount of free time you already had. 

you’re not mad. you don’t think you could even feel upset at shoyo for something you should’ve seen coming from the start. what were you expecting? you should’ve known that you would drift away from him, because you knew that was what happened to almost everyone after they graduate highschool. you knew this — it was the first thought you had when you had received the slip of paper that signified the end of your youth. 

you suppose you’d grown too used to shoyo’s presence to notice the change earlier.

you try to talk to shoyo as much as he talks to you, but he’d always been better at it. it was in his nature to be social more than it had been yours, if his endless number of friends were to tell you anything. you’re sure he’s made good relations in brazil, even as a foreigner.

sometimes, you’ll see his occasional posts online of his endeavors — photos of the beach when the sun has barely risen, the ocean sparkling in the light, or they’ll be of the food he’s made, usually a homely japanese dish. you’ve even seen a picture or two of him watching one piece on a dinky t.v., and you distantly remember shoyo telling you about how he was able to bond with his roommate over the show.

you hope he’s doing well — conquering his dreams, that is.

winter 2017

winter does, as expected, not treat you nicely. 

the chill it brings engulfs your entire figure, forcing you to wear layer upon layer and keep a few extra heat packets in the pockets of your backpack. even if fall gave you time to prepare, it will never be enough with the way winter comes at you with full force.

you suppose that’s why so many holidays occur during winter — christmas, new years, valentines day…the list goes on. people need a reason to distract themselves from the biting cold that forces a hole open in their hearts, only to close when the weather warms once again.

winter only widens the ever-present one in yours.

you can feel the pit in your stomach open more and more as the days pass. despite school not being in session, your time is filled to the brim with work and other priorities, leaving little to no space for your loved ones. you managed to find time to see your friends from high school — everyone but shoyo. even while karasuno’s old volleyball team is bundled together, complete with coach ukai and takeda, there’s still a space where you know he should be. 

and if you look upset staring at an empty space in the wall, no one mentions it.

the holidays pass by with little notice. you join your family in celebrations, greet your high school and college friends alike when they arrive. 

you send shoyo the same greetings — albeit with the timing likely off due to the time difference. regardless, he greets you back with the same fervor he’s had since the moment you met him. you like his message, planning on continuing on with your day by staying in bed watching the same three cheesy holiday movies they play every winter. you have work tomorrow, so you hope to savor the small amount of free time you have left, even if it’s spent rotting in bed. 

your phone buzzes from next to you, and you’re half-expecting it to be a spam call. when you read the id, you’re surprised to see shoyo’s name — there’d been long enough gaps between calls that you had lost the habit of expecting them, and you recall the most recent one being maybe a month ago. 

(the calls have slowed even more. you try to not think about it — try not to let yourself be hurt by it.)

you press accept and bring the device to your ear. 

“happy holidays!” shoyo exclaims over the static. even if it’s been over a year since you've last seen him, his energy is still contagious as ever. the corners of your lips quirk up in a nostalgic smile. 

“happy holidays, shoyo,” you reply, much calmer than your companion. 

conversation comes easily from there — the once empty air around you is filled with the stories shoyo has and your amused giggles. you tell him about his old teammates, and he whines over his and kageyama’s childish scores. for reasons that don't surprise you, they’ve managed to keep track of scores regarding anything they could consider a competition despite shoyo being in another country.

there’s a moment of silence that beats on for a second too long — you’re about to say your goodbyes and hang up, but shoyo takes it as a chance to tell you why he called you.

“i’m coming back this spring,” he says, voice softer than what you’d grown accustomed to. your grip tightens against the pillow you're hugging against your frame, eyes widening. 

“really?” you gasp, shocked. 

“really.” he repeats, and you know he’s smiling, even if you can't see him. 

spring 2018

over the past two years shoyo has spent in brazil, patience is truly a virtue he has learned. mastered, dare he say. 

everything took time. cleaning his room. his roommate warming up to him. learning how to play beach volleyball. speaking a new language. maintaining a routine. learning how to fly again. 

sometimes, though, he wonders what his life would’ve been like had he stayed in japan. would he still be as strong as he is now, without having to leave his life behind? shoyo knew that his departure was sudden — nobody expects a high schooler to up and leave the country the second they graduate, after all. even kageyama stayed in japan, going to the olympics shortly after they had completed high school.

shoyo knows what he left back in japan when he stood in the airport two years ago. that day, he left everything he knew — his mom, his sister, his friends, volleyball as he knew it, and  you.

he’s waited for you for the past two years. 

brazil taught him how to be a better volleyball player — showed him the importance of routine and training your body. it taught him to not rush into things, and that everything would come to him in due time. 

so, in the same chill of the airport he left you in, shoyo meets you again. you’re staring at him, and it feels as if you are the only people in the building. he knows that his friends are waiting just by the two of you, but all he can focus on is you and the way your lips are slightly parted in awe and how much you’ve grown while he was gone and how much he wants to kiss you.

shoyo takes careful steps towards you, the same boyish grin you’d grown to love adorning his face. you’re frozen in place, but he figures that it’s okay because he’ll come to you. it’s the least he could do after leaving you in his wake just a few years back. 

when he’s finally face-to-face with you, you’re still star-struck.

“you’re back,” you breathe. 

“i’m back,” shoyo replies. he presses forward, cups your face in his hands, and kisses you, just how he wanted to all those years ago.

he can taste the salty flavor of your tears, and he nearly pulls back in concern, but you stop him. your arms wrap around his neck, pulling him impossibly closer to you. there’s an equal mix of cheers as there are sounds of disgust, but neither of you pay any mind.

the only thing that either of you are focused on is the fact that shoyo’s here, and he’s here to stay. 

[pixiedrake]

[anisongoftheday]

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress Opening

KABANERI OF THE IRON FORTRESS by EGOIST

[rjzimmerman]

Two of my photos of bighorn sheep. First photo in Whitewater Canyon, second in Tahquitz Canyon, both near or in Palm Springs. They were a little too close to me for the second photo, and they're both large (and older) males, and it was rutting season, so I was a bit nervous.

Excerpt from this story from The Revelator:

A long piece of grass hung loosely from his nose. He looked down at me from his mountain perch, about 500 feet away from where I stood. Staring at his amber eyes, I wondered how many lurking mountain lions this Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep had outwitted in his Colorado National Monument home. He’d also have battled male sheep: Hard-fought clashes to snag prized females have whittled down the edges of his imposing horns, which are etched with deep rings. Like trees, bighorn sheep generally develop one ring on their horns for each year of life.

As I scoured the ancient red cliff faces with binoculars, I noticed that he wasn’t alone. Two young rams, about 20 feet away from him, reclined on a ledge, their spindly legs tucked under lean bellies. One closed his eyes, twitching his erect ears, as if adjusting them to tune into his surroundings.

The sheep appeared at peace, as was I, listening to birds chirp and the wind rustle. No rumbling vehicles pierced the silence in this 20,500-acre monument that sits in the western corner of Colorado.

The monument is ideal for bighorn. Rock formations tower into geologic skyscrapers, as if a giant playing Legos has stacked round and square rocks on top of each other. Over billions of years, wind and water — nature’s artists — sculpted the cliffs and mountain ranges into their present-day shapes.

The Park Service mantra echoed in my mind — public lands belong to us.

But that begs the question, what about wildlife that make their homes in public lands?  A modicum of etiquette enforces the notion of acting with care and consideration when visiting another’s home.

Perhaps that same respect could extend to wild homes in national parks and other public lands. Modeling the success of the 2016 Park Service centennial, a new campaign could endorse a different mantra: a plea to the public to protect and respect wildlife and their homes. The Park Service could carve out natural preserves that are specially designated for wildlife where the public has no access — areas where animals could be truly free.

“Without human interference, wildlife can thrive,” Sloan emphasizes.

Bighorn and other species need this freedom more than ever. In the wake of the centennial campaign and after the pandemic, National Park attendance continues to soar. In 2023 it reached 325 million people. How can animals persist at that level of constant human presence?

I thought about that while watching the bighorn at Colorado National Monument. A tumbling rock whacked a cliff face, yanking me back to the present. The elder ram rested comfortably on a ledge next to a spiky cucumber-colored yucca, peering over the landscape like royalty.

This is his home, I reminded myself. Walking back to the car, I turned my head and took one last look at him, grateful for time in his presence. He watched me leave, perhaps with a sense of relief.

[mikyapixie]

🌸🌸🌸

The Pizza Hut franchise announced a delicious and magical collaboration with Cardcaptor Sakura. It is a special pizza to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the anime, and the future sequel to Clear Card. The special edition of Pizza Hut "Key of Dreams" will be available from June 4 for diners in Taiwan. In a promotional video, other delicious products are announced, such as a bun filled with matcha and red beans, but with the appearance of Kero-chan.

In addition, for the purchase, fans of the CLAMP series will be able to take a special edition pizza box, which is shown in the advertising video. There are also four collectible keychains as exclusive gifts for purchases. Pizza Hut revealed on its official blog that an activation will be organized on a Sakura bus. The 48 winners of this promotion will be able to travel on this bus decorated with the illustrations of the anime. Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card began on Nakayoshi's pages in July 2016 as a sequel to Cardcaptor Sakura. The series follows Sakura in new magical adventures during high school. The anime adaptation aired from January 7 to June 10, 2018, under the direction of the director of the original series Morio Asaka for MADHOUSE.

This is the synopsis of the anime that is available on Crunchyroll:

Guided by the Key to Dreams, Sakura embarks on a new adventure. Sakura managed to capture all the Clow Cards that could have caused a cataclysm in the world and turned them into her Sakura Cards. Now spring has arrived, the cherry trees are in bloom and Sakura is about to start a new stage in high school. His beloved Syaoran has returned from Hong Kong and Sakura is very excited to be able to go to class with him again. That's when one night something strange happens to your letters...

[queenoftheantz]

you mentioned you'd be at the dokomi this year? could you share what you're selling, i can't go myself but i wanted to ask my sister who IS going to get me something...

I will!

I'll have:

The big mob x moomin print

The big farcille print

Hopefully Dungeon meshi stickers with the theme "death"... They got delayed so I can only hope I can get them before Thursday!

wizard critter stickers

unicorn charms

like... one radish-fox charm... i dont have a lot left

The Envig Comic

Botw comic (I call it Stalling)

Mechtober, Knightober Beastober collabs with Ullbors!

Sexy radish soup print

Kelpie sushi print

Goblin kitchen print

a few tiefling hot springs prints

Goat Guy Print

Lots of tiny animal-couple prints!

I'll also have a bunch of REALLY old oofuri and haikyuu stickers, pins and charms that I found and will sell super cheap because they are from like... 2016 or something....

Generally I think the big prints will be 13 euro, smaller 6, stickers like 1.5 for critters, maybe 2 for dungeon meshi stickers (they are bigger), comics 9 euros, discount old stuff between 1 and 2 euro!

Here's a picture from a swedish con that has most of the things in it (not the dungeon meshi stuff obviously)(ignore me awkwardly sitting there I will surely look cooler at dokomi):