#text errors

[voiceoutofstars]

Revising the HSR Data Bank for Readability: An Idle Side-Project

This is a masterlist post for a little side-project I've been thinking about--fan-edited versions of Star Rail lore text that have been (amateurishly) revised for (slightly better?) readability. See the lengthy note below for a full explanation of my intentions and complete lack of qualifications for this pet project.

(Edit: the important disclaimers below were originally included in my first post on this topic, which shared my revision of the "Band of Sizzling Thunder" relic sets. Because I enjoyed the exercise, I wanted to do at least a few more of these, but since they all really should have massive disclaimers attached to them I thought I'd just stick them together in a masterlist and link to/from here where needed. Sorry if you're seeing this pop up repetitively. I'm bad at Tumblr.)

Band of Sizzling Thunder

Champion of Streetwise Boxing

Eagle of the Twilight Line

Firesmith of Lava-Forging

Genius of Brilliant Stars

Guard of Wuthering Snow

Hunter of the Glacial Forest

Iron Cavalry Against the Scourge

Knight of Purity Palace

This is something quite different for this blog, and I feel like it needs some explanation, as well as a few important disclaimers.

Honkai Star Rail is, in my opinion, an extraordinarily well-written game. It is also comparatively–again, in my opinion–an impressively well-translated game. ‘Comparatively’ is the operative word here; so many game companies don’t take nearly the time and the care to secure immersive experiences for audiences playing in languages outside the company’s own primary one.

Despite miHoYo’s comparatively immersive translations, there’s still a lot of room for improvement–especially in the massive amount of text-only lore buried in the various codices Honkai Star Rail has. Some of this stuff–Data Bank entries, readable collectables, etc.–can be really hard to follow and enjoy in English. Vocabulary is often imprecise. Simple topics that (in my opinion, at least) are intended to be clearly understood are obfuscated by weird stilted grammar and phrasing. These issues really stand out to me while I’m dabbling with my Data Bank narrations. Sometimes it takes me quite a while to piece together what the heck a sentence is trying to say, much less what it means for the grander universe of Star Rail, and that's a pity.

So, what I’m doing in these posts is attempting to revise these entries--to reorganize them into smoother, clearer versions of themselves by fixing issues of vocabulary and mechanics. I am not re-translating. I cannot read any language but English, to my shame; I am only playing with a lovingly crafted fragment of a beautifully built world and trying to rub it a bit cleaner and brighter with my own meager, monolinguistic perspective.

My toyed-with versions don’t--cannot--solve the problems these entries have with imprecision and unclear intended meaning, because I'm not an authority on the original Chinese text and its intentions, or on Star Rail or Honkai series lore. What may seem to be clarifications in my revisions are truthfully just bluster–I’m arranging the words into shapes that make the most sense to me, but the conclusions I draw are my own, are not canon, and honestly are not always conscious on my part. It would not be wise to assume anything below is accurate to the cosmos of Star Rail. I will take care to link the authentic in-game text in any posts of this nature that I make.

And finally, boy oh boy am I not a professional anything about this. This is a thing for fun and for joy, because I just really like Star Rail–and if you’ve got tips, tricks, thoughts or feelings, advice or ideas or revisions of your own, I’d be delighted to learn from you.

[bruciemilf]

Hold the fuck up what do you mean Bruce wanted to kill the joker after he killed Jason but the Iran government and superman held him back

[toffeebrew]

I have this hc that when error gets emotional and glitches, sometimes it stretches like those stretch glitches you see in video games.

[junipers-insects]

I've been drawing them a lot and just by looking at these I can tell just how inconsistent my art style is

Anyway

Error belongs to: @/ LoverofPiggies

Ink belongs to: @/ Comyet

[nachobsns]

Hello - I was impressed and extremely relieved by what you wrote in the post about the cult mentality of the Left RE Israel and accusations of genocide. You mentioned that you bought into the mindset until recently. If it's all right for me to ask, what was it that helped you break out of it? (Please feel free to delete/ignore if you'd rather not answer!)

thank you!! and no worries about asking— i think i put something in my pinned post about how people are welcome to send asks about this stuff, although my story isn’t super interesting. i fell down the typical online rabbithole, a couple weeks after october 7; i knew what had happened, at least vaguely, but the posts trickling onto my dash were all about the (undeniably tragic) loss of life in gaza, with little to no acknowledgment of the hamas atrocities that had started the war, so my narrative was pretty one-sided from the beginning. it just continued to snowball as the months went on and people became more radicalized, calling into question the reality of the 10/7 attacks and the humanity of all israelis. i never went all the way down the pipeline to full-on endorsing hamas or justifying their attacks, at least on a personal level, thank god, but i would reblog other people’s posts referring to hamas as a “resistance movement” and calls to boycott starbucks and mcdonald’s and condemnation of the “zionist media” etc etc etc. what pulled me out of it wasn’t any one thing— if someone had directly called me on my flawed logic and antisemitic biases while i was in this mindset, i doubt it would have done much, just reinforced my belief that i was on the “right side of history” and zionists were aggressors who couldn’t be reasoned with. it was mostly just passive observance and a slow exposure to other perspectives. i’m pretty sure the first post that led me to question my thinking was an ask on jewish-vents, which popped up on my dash in like, late july. this led me down another rabbithole, first scouring every single post on jewish-vents, then moving on to more popular jewish blogs that i had seen on “zionist blocklists” (applesauce42069, xclowniex, and spacelazarwolf were probably some of the blogs that influenced me the most, though i told myself i was just hate-scrolling at first, lol). i felt incredibly guilty seeing all the harm the movement i was a part of had caused to random jews and israelis just trying to live their lives and i realized how it went against everything i believed about how minority groups should be treated. from there, the aspect of actually undoing my thinking and changing my behavior for the better still took several weeks. denial of jewish indigenity to the levant in the face of tantamount archeological and cultural evidence was the first to go, as well as any ambiguity in my feelings about hamas. after that, it’s mostly been a slow process of redefining the idf’s actions from a “genocide” to a “war.” i still believe that what’s happening in gaza is unconscionable and horrific, and that too many innocent civilians have died, but i also understand how difficult it is to fight against a terrorist group that systematically embeds itself in civilian populations, and that the ratio of militant to civilian deaths is incredibly low compared to most urban warfare. i quietly deleted my old blog in early august— if i had directly engaged in harassment against jews, i likely would have kept it to make amends to the harmed parties and put a face to my actions, but as was, i had just contributed to the larger atmosphere of antisemitism on this site, and i felt uncomfortable knowing that i had a blog full of sentiments that no longer matched my values and beliefs. i decided i would be better if i took my endorsement out of the equation entirely, because when you’re looking through the notes of a post, it obviously doesn’t matter if someone who’s reblogged it no longer agrees with what was said— their notes still count as tacit approval, and i did not want approval of this “activism” attached to my online presence. i still have unwanted kneejerk reactions that crop up sometimes, particularly around the fundraiser posts from people “in gaza”; even though i know logically that they have all the markers of scams, there is still a part of me that really wants to believe i could help.

[shittyutmv]

A draft I've had for months. I've tried drawing this one over and over but I just can't get it right. Just wanted to post something filler cos I miss this blog.

[soupysundae]

🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

[emotinalsupportturtle]

..and he wrote them for David Tennant

[shrimpyjackal]

He had a very busy work day...

[start of the dimmachallenge]

[4th day] ⬅ [You are here] ➡[6th day]

[ducktollers]

bunny boything

[voiceoutofstars]

From the Revised Data Bank: “Iron Cavalry Against the Scourge”

Reminder that I’m not a professional editor or proofreader. I cannot read or speak Mandarin. This is a fan revision for readability, not a re-translation. For a lengthy explanation of this pet project and repeated disclaimers, check here.

Below is my attempt at revising the Data Bank entry for the relic set “Iron Cavalry Against the Scourge.” The real in-game text for that entry can be read here. (If you’d prefer an audio narration amateurishly recorded by yours truly, you can instead listen here).

Iron Cavalry's Homing Helm

An iron helm that significantly enhances sensory signals, fusing the consciousness of the Glamoth Iron Cavalry to their armor.

The Swarm that covers the sky turns to dust in a sea of fire. Silvery-white snowflakes drift in deep space, reflecting the pallid light of the star. In this brief moment, the endless sounds of battle—the buzzing of thousands of wings, the flood of commands barked over the communication channel—finally dial down to silence.

This silence means nothing. The enemy of the ‘empire’ has not been routed. This is only a brief pause, too brief even to savor. The next inescapable call to battle will ring out again, as it always does.

This soldier of the empire’s Iron Cavalry feels every external sensation of her armor through the signal receptors buried deep in her spinal cord. She remembers, separately, what the cosmos felt like when she was bared to it, the last time she was taken from the cockpit. Hot wind had gently tousled her hair, and humid air had soaked the back of her neck, leaving droplets of sweat stuck to her skin. She does not hate the memory. It feels like...living, tenfold times as much as these simulated signals ever could.

The armor’s sensory arrays synchronize completely with the pilot’s own biological senses. This worsens the pain of entropy loss—but the Iron Cavalry will pay any price to defeat the Swarm.

"Rule 43 of the Glamoth Military Regulations. Any surviving Iron Cavalry members must return to their regiment without delay or resistance..."

The fighter only realizes that the external sensory signals have tricked her when she sees the headless silver armor of her commander. Ah. The next command to battle will come, but never in that voice again. What a cruel brief reprieve.

Iron Cavalry's Crushing Gauntlet

A powerful iron gauntlet that can crush insectoids. It is sharp and light without compromising its sturdiness.

Glamoth's Iron Cavalry clench their fists tight to crack open the filthy carapaces of the Swarm. Corrosive fluids geyser from the crushed abdomens. When this spray of insectoid innards hits Cavalry armor, it vaporizes instantly, but stains of filth and blood remain.

The wreckage of armor and insectoid limbs drift as deep-space debris, gathered slowly into a terrible ring by the planet’s gravity. Even after the war’s end, this "River of Death" flows around Glamoth in silence, a grim monument to bloody battle.

The leaders of the council discuss the new problems presented by a post-war era. This includes passing judgment on Titania, who was never supposed to wield any real power. Once a beacon of hope, she is now a looming threat to the Republic, because she alone controls the Iron Cavalry, a force whose destructive power rivals even that of the Swarm.

The council is committed to ringing the bells of peace. They are eager to declare to the populace that the Swarm has been dispersed, that the azure sky belongs once more to the Republic.

"If we do not take control of the Empress, who else might in our stead—and what might her weapons do, if no one steps forward to command them?"

Throughout their brief, bloody lives, the Iron Cavalry ceaselessly hone the strength of their iron fists. How unfathomable that it is not their armored fists, but the pale, frail hands of the council rising high that hold the power to shape Glamoth’s fate.

Iron Cavalry's Silvery Armor

The fiery propulsion provided by their armor gives Glamoth's Iron Cavalry a flame hot enough to ignite the entire battlefield.

Several arcs of brilliant fire streak across the night sky, crossing the dawn horizon as they depart for Glamoth’s various star sectors—this is a morning sight that the citizens of the Republic are intimately familiar with and always terrified by.

Glittering silver suits of armor soar through the skies, racing toward expanses of space that are already littered with corpses. Battle is all they know—war consumes their every thought. They do not even think to look down upon the vistas they so tirelessly defend every hour of their lives.

The will of the Empress is absolute. At her command, cloned warriors are birthed endlessly from the incubators, are sworn to her service, and then committed to the battle for Glamoth’s skies. These, her Iron Cavalry, traverse mountains of corpses of seas of insectoid blood. They burn to char the vermin in their shells. They shatter the Swarm’s colossal jaws and pulverize every last toothy remnant…

...And in return for their service, they endure the slow agony of entropy disintegration. For the whole of their lives, they are ablaze, ignited by the friction of their existence at the threshold between life and death.

Until the flames burn out completely, until the Swarm that blots out the sky has in its entirety been seared to ash, until no one among them remains alive—until such a moment comes, the war continues.

What does it mean to be alive? The force of their armors’ acceleration clamps down on their chests. Lungs strain against collapse. Hearts shudder, fighting for each beat. The piercing pain of entropy-induced numbness floods through their bodies. Now, perhaps, the Iron Cavalry get a brief taste of what it means to live.

Iron Cavalry's Skywalk Greaves

Mechanical greaves that combine destructive capabilities with speed. They allow the soldiers of Glamoth's Iron Cavalry to leap high for a kick that concentrates both strength and momentum into a single point for maximum damage.

The Iron Cavalry's fiery trails spread across every corner of Glamoth's ‘Empire’ like shining comets, yet they are kept confined and blinded by Titania’s woven ‘dream’.

The people of the Republic are uneasy with this legion born for war. They wonder how much overlap there really is between the territories in which they’ve built their lives and this ‘Empire’ that has never really existed, yet for which the Cavalry are sworn to fight and die...

To her knights the Empress bestows honor and trust, and to her the Iron Cavalry offer unwavering loyalty and commitment. New soldiers are born from the incubators and given numbers and missions, while old, feeble humans cower beneath steel defenses, anxiously awaiting some long-dreamed-of peace…That peace is a deception and a lie, and it must be exposed. This method of war—making people with planned obsolescence so that others might build happy lives from their corpses, this warping of what it means to be human—should never have been devised. And how will it end? When the conflict is done, people with fear in their hearts will want the distorted products of war eliminated, too.

The Iron Cavalry's flight breaks through the sky. If they could just see beyond Titania’s dream, they could reach any star.

But the ‘Empire’ will not be waiting for them there. There are only two paths forward for the Iron Cavalry now—one that leads to death, and the other to themselves.

[springypaws]

A kinda-chunky info comic(?) about asexuality and aromanticism, in celebration of International Asexuality Day today!!

Also, I’m not trying to erase asexual representation today by explaining aromanticism as well, I just thought it would be useful to explain both in this comic, as they’re so closely related, and I’m not sure the next opportunity I’ll get to make a whole other comic for aromantics. Not to mention I’m both, and don’t want to explain asexuality in a skewed or inaccurate way because of that fact

[littlebloomclan]

Moon 11 - Headbonks!

And new name!!! And with that her new ref

[untitled-tmnt-blog]

I absolutely HAD to draw something for @phoebepheebsphibs's DTIYS (based on this pose)! I decided to mix things up a bit by experimenting with a more limited color palette, which was a pretty fun challenge.

[zoomzooml]

Bumblebee overthinks late at night after a fight with one of his teammates

[noproveninterests]

second one is out of character because error could never be so self aware

ink belongs to @/comyet

error belongs to @/loverofpiggies